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I

niCtiARD SDWAnDS, CIlAl/r. COtTUT, FLtET STIlEKT, tONDO!*.

CHAPTER V. PACK

Of the knowledge of God's eternity, and its due effects. A believer referring all things to eternity, honoureth his very horse, or dog, or smallest mercy, more than unbelievers honour their king, their lives, their souls, regarding them but for transitory ends. Unbelievers denying the end, destroy morally all souls, all mercies, all Divine revelations, all God's ordinances, all graces, and duties, and the whole creation 35

CHAPTER VI.

The knowledge of God as he is a spirit and incorporeal j and consequently, 1. As he is simple or uncompounded. 2. Invisible, &c. 3, Immortal, incorruptible, immutable : The uses of God's simplicity: The uses of his invisibility: The uses of his immortfdity and immutability 50

CHAPTER VII. Of the knowledge of God's almightiness, and of its due

eflfects 56

CHAPTER VIII.

Of the knowledge of God's omniscience or infinite wisdom j

with the due effects 63

CHAPTER IX. Of the knowledge of God's infinite goodness, and love j and

of the due impressidn df it on thte'soiil. • 71

CHAPTER X.

Of the knowledge of God as the first cause, creator and preserver of all things. All things are for God, as the ultimate end; manifested. How his will is still fulfilled. Whether he will de everitu that all obey him ? God wil-leth not sin. Differences ended about. Whether he decree not or will not ut evenit peccatum ? Whether he will de eventu that sin shall not come to pass, when it doth ? All God's works good : none to be dishonoured : no not ourselves, our reason and freewill, as natural and of God ; though as vitiated by us and ill-disposed, we must accuse it • • • 8]

CONTENTS. y

CHAPTER XI. PAGE

Of the knowledge of God as our redeemer. Infants not in a state of innoeency, but of original sin: fully proved : the great ends of redemption enumerated : the effects it must have upon the soul 19

CHAPTER XII.

The knowledge of God the Holy Ghost as our sanctifier and comforter : a further proof of original sin. Twenty considerations by way of queries, to convince them that deny or extenuate the sanctifying works of the Holy Ghost, ascribing them to nature and themselves 105

CHAPTER XIII.

Of the knowledge of God as the absolute owner, proprietary or Lord of all: of his Jus Dominii grounded on his crea.-tion and redemption j and the uses..' 114

CHAPTER XIV.

Of the knowledge of God as our sovereign governor or king: his Jus Imperii : the grounds : the exercise : the uses and effects l^Q,

CHAPTER XV.

Of the knowledge of God as our most bountiful benefactor, or most loving father. The benefits founding this relation : 1. Common: 2. Special to his chosen ones. The necessary effects 129

CHAPTER XVI. Of the freedom of God 135

CHAPTER XVII.

Of the justice of God: what it is : the effects 136

CHAPTER XVIII. Of the knowledge of God's holiness . what it is : the necessary effects . * 187

CHAPTER XIX.

Of God's veracity, or truth and faithfulness. The uses. The Dominicans' doctrine of physical, efficient, immediate predetermination, at once obliterateth all Divine faith, by denying the veracity of God, which is its formal object. Lying and peijury abominable 142

Yi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XX. PACK

Of the knowledge of God's mercifulness (including his patience and long-suffering), and the necessary uses and effects 148

CHAPTER XXI.

Of the knowledge of God's dreadfulness or terribleness : and

the necessary uses and effects 151

PART II. WALKING WITH GOD.

CHAPTER I.

The text explained: what it is to walk with God: what it

containeth both for matter and manner 155

CHAPTER 11.

The first use : a lamentation of the practical atheism of the world. Motives to change your inordinate creature-converse into converse with God. How much sinners have to do with God, more than with all the world besides, shewed in fourteen instances 180

CHAPTER III.

An answer to them that think God doth us good by necessity of nature, as the sun doth illuminate and warm us ; and therefore though he have much to do for us, yet much is not required from ua towards him. And to them that think he is above our converse, and unsuitable to us. Ten queries to evince the necessity of our own holy diligence in godliness : especially of exercising our thoughts upon God. Ten mischiefs that befal them who have not God in all their thoughts *••• 199

CHAPTER IV.

Practical atheism further detected. An answer to them that think it unfit for ignorant men, or poor men to think so much of God, and that it will make men melancholy and mad. Ten propositions shewing how far it is our duty to think of God j by way of explication • • • 214

CONTENTS. trii

CHAPTER V. PAGE

An answer to them that say, God regardeth not thoughts but deeds. Twelve evidences of the regardableness of our thoughts 223

CHAPTER VI.

The application to the Godly. The benefits of walking with God. 1. It is suitable to human nature. How it is natural. No middle life between the sensual and the holy. Of them that delight in knowledge and moral virtue. Nature in its first constitution was not only innocent but holy : proved. II. To walk with God is the highest and noblest life. III. It is the only course to prove and make men truly wise. Proved by ten evidences. IV. It maketh men good as well as wise, and ad-vanceth to the greatest holiness and rectitude. Proved by five evidences. V. It is the best preparation for sufferings and death, shewed by seven advantages, to that end 229

CHAPTER VII.

Five special obligations on true believers to walk with God,

and to avoid inordinate creature-converse 260

I

I

PART III.

THE CHRISTIAN'S CONVERSE WITH GOD.

The context opened 284

Why Christ was forsaken by his disciples 285

Use 1. Expect by the forsaking of your friends to be conformed unto Christ. Reasons for your expectation • • • • 288

The aggravations of their forsaking you 299

Some quieting considerations 300

The order of forms in the school of Christ 307

The disciples scattered every man to his own 809

Selfishness contrary to friendly fidelity 310

Considerations to quiet us in the death of faithful friends • • 311

Whether we shall know them in heaven 316

Whether creatures be any matter of our comfort in heaven.. 317 Quest. Shall I have any more comfort in present friends than

PAGE

Doct. 3. When all forsake us, and leave us (as to them) alone, we are far from being simply alone, because God

is with us 320

The advantages of having God with us ibid.

Quest. How he is with us 351

Use 1. Imitate Christ: live upon God alone3 though men forsake you, yet thrust not yourselves into solitude uncalled • f 326

In what cases solitude is lawful and good • • • • •.. 327

Reasons against unnecessary solitude • • • • ibid.

The comfort of converse with God in necessary solitude. The benefits of solitude. The reasons from God, improved largely in some meditations • • * • • • • • 335

Directions for conversing with God in solitude 353

Concluded in further meditation 358

A caution ^ , 361

THE DIVINE APPOINTMENT OF THE LORDS-DAY PROVED.

Preface ccclxiii

CHAPTER I.

The question stated 369

CHAPTER II.

Proposition 1. That Christ commissioned his apostles, or his principal church-ministers, to teach the churches all his doctrine, and deliver them all his commands and orders, and so to settle and guide the first churches 371

CHAPTER III.

Proposition 2. Christ promised his Spirit to his apostles, to enable them to do, what he had commissioned them to do, by leading them into all truth, and bringing his words and deeds to their remembrance, and by guiding them as his churches' guides 374

CHAPTER IV. PAGE

Proposition 3. Christ performed all these promises to his apostles, and gave them his Spirit to enable them for all their commissioned work 375

CHAPTER V.

Proposition 4. The apostles did actually separate and appoint the first day of the week for holy worship, especially in church-assemblies 376

CHAPTER VI.

Proposition 5. This act of the apostles' appointing the Lord's-day for Christian worship, was done by the special inspiration or guidance of the Holy Ghost 414

CHAPTER VII.

Quest. 2. Whether the Seventh-day-sabbath should be still

kept by Christians, as of Divine obligation? Neg. • • • • 415

CHAPTER VIII.

Of the beginning of the day 428

Quest. 1. When doth the Lord's-day begin? ibid.

CHAPTER IX. Quest. 2. How should the Lord's-day be kept or used ? .... 429

CHAPTER X. How the Lord's-day should not be spent: or what is unlawful on it 438

CHAPTER XI.

What things should not be scrupled as unlawful on the

Lord's-day 452

CHAPTER XII.

Of what importance the due observation of the Lord's-day is 458

CHAPTER XIII.

What other church-festivals or separated days are lawful ? . . 468

APPENDIX

FOR FURTHER CONFIRMATION OF THE LORDS-DAY.

CHAPTER I. PAGE

An answer^to certain objections against the Lord's-day • • • • 46T

CHAPTER II.

An answer to more arguments for the Seventh-day-sabbath 482

CHAPTER III.

Whether the Seventh-day-sabbath be part of the law of

nature, or only a positive law ? 496

CHAPTER IV.

Whether every word in the decalogue be of the law of nature, and of perpetual obligation ? And whether all that was of the law of nature, was in the decalogue }, . 504

CHAPTER V. Whether the truest antiquity be for the Seventh-day-sabbath,

as kept by the churches of Christ ? 508

Postscript 51^

REDEMPTION OF TIME.

Address to the sensual gentry 517

PREFACE TO MR. ALLEINES ALARM.

To all the ignorant, carnal, and ungodly, who are lovers of pleasure more than God, and seek this world more than the life everlasting, and live after the flesh, and not after the Spirit 535

THE

DIVINE LIFE

IN

THREE TREATISES.

THE FIRST. OF THE KNOWLEDGE Of GOD.

THE SECOND, OF WALKING WITH GOD.

THE THIRD, OF CONVERSING WITH GOD IN SOLITUDE.

VOL. xin.

i i ?i

TO THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE AND EXEMPLARY

LADY ANNE,

COUNTESS OF BALCARRES.

Madam, In hope of the fuller pardon of my delay, I now present you with two other Treatises besides the Sermon (enlarged), which at your desire I preached at your departure hence. I knew of many and great afflictions, which you had undergone in the removal of your dearest friends, which made this subject seem so suitable and seasonable to you at that time : but I knew not that God was about to make so great an addition to your trials in the same kind, by taking to himself the principal branch of your noble family (by a rar^ disease, the emblem of the mortal malady now reigning).* I hope this loss also shall promote your gain, by keeping you nearer to your heavenly Lord, who is so jealous of your affections, and resolved to have them entirely to himself: and then you will still find, that you are not alone, nor deprived of your dearest or most necessary friend, while the Father, the Son, the sanctifying and comforting Spirit is with you. And it should not be hard to reconcile us to the disposals of so sure a Friend. Nothing but good can come from God; however the blind may miscal it, who know no good or evil, but what is measured by the private standard of their selfish interest, and that as judged of by sense. Eternal Love engaged by covenant to make us happy, will do nothing but what we shall find at last, will terminate in that blessed end. He envied you not your son, as too good for you, or too great a mercy, who hath given you his own Son, and v/ith him the mercy of eternal life. Corporal sufferings with spiritual blessings are the ordinary lot of believers here on earth : as corporal prosperity with spiritual calamity is the lot of the ungodly. And I beseech you consider, that God knoweth better than you or I, what an ocean your

* Charles, Earl of Baluarres, who died of a stone hi hit heart, of a verjr great inugnitude.

or tending swine. To walk in holiness with the Most Holy God, is the improvement and advancement of the nature of man, towards its designed equality with angels. When earthiiness and sensuality degrade humanity into (a voluntary, and therefore sinful) brutishness: this is the life which afFordeth the soul a solid and durable pleasure and content: when carnal minds evaporate into air, and bubble into froth and vanity, wasted in a dream, and the violent, busy pursuit of a shadow; deceiving themselves with a mixture of some counterfeit religion ; playing with God, and working for the world; living in jest, and dying, and despairing, and suffering in earnest; with unwearied labour building on the sand, and sinking at death for want of a foundation; hating the serious practice of their own professed religion, because it is not the profession, but the serious practice which hath the greatest enmity to their sensual delights; yet wishing to be numbered with those hereafter, whom they hated here. This holy walking with the Most Holy God, is the only life which is best at last, and sweet in the review; which the godly live in, and most of the ungodly could wish to die in ; like him that wished to be Caesar in life, and Socrates at death : Yea, this is the life which hath no end; which we are here but learning, and beginning to practise, and which we must hereafter live (in another manner and degree) with God for ever. O wondrous mercy ! which thus ennobleth even the state of mortality ! and honoureth earth with so much participation of, and communion with Heaven ! That by God, and with God, we may walk in holy peace and safety unto God, and there be blessed in his perfect sight and love for ever! Madam, the greatest service I can do you for all your favours, is to pray that God will more acquaint you with himself, and lead you by this blessed way to that more blessed end; that when you see all worldly glory in the dust, you may bless him for ever, who taught you to make a wiser choice: Which are the prayers of

Madam,

Your very much obliged Servant,

ij

'^^^ RICHARD BAXTER.

.-fg^ec. 24, 1662.

TO THE READER.

Reader,

The embryo of this book was but one Sermon, preached a little before the ending of my public ministry, upon the text of the third Treatise, (upon the occasion intimated in the Epistle to that truly Honourable Lady). Being obliged to communicate the Notes, and unavoidably guilty of some delays, I made a compensation by enlargement; and (having reasons for the publication of them, with which I shall not trouble you,) to make them more suitable to the designed end, I prefixed the two former Treatises: The first I had preached to my ancient flock : of the second I had preached but one sermon. If many of the materials in the second be the same as in the first, you must understand that my design required that it should be so: they being the same attributes of God, which the first part endeavoureth to imprint upon the mind ; and which the second and third endeavour to improve into a constant course of holy affection and conversation. As it is the same food which the first concoction chylifieth, which the perfecting concoctions do work over again, and turn into blood, and spirits, and flesh : so far am I in such points from gratifying thy sickly desire of variety, and avoiding the displeasing of thee by the rehearsals of the same, that it is my very business with thee to persuade thee, to live continually upon these same attributes and relations of God, as upon thy daily air and bread; and to forsake that lean, consuming company, who feed on the shells of hard and barren controversies, or on the froth of compliments and affected shows, and run after novelty instead of substantial solid nutriment: And to tell thee, that the primitive, pure, simple Christianity, consisted in the daily serious use of the great materials of the Creed, Lord's Prat/er, and I'en Commandments, contracted in the

last will " give up the kingdom to the Father, that God may be all, and in all; and the Son himself shall be subject to this end." (1 Cor. xv. 24. 28.) The end of Christ's sacrifice and intercession is to reconcile God and man. The end of his doctrine is to teach us to know God. The end of his government is to reduce us to the perfect obedience of our Maker. It is therefore the greatest duty of a Christian to know God as revealed by his Son; and it is such a duty about our ultimate end as is also our greatest mercy and felicity. Therefore doth the Lord Jesus here in the text describe that life eternal which he was to give to those whom the Father had given him, to consist in " knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he had sent." My purpose is in this treatise to speak only of the first part of the text,' The knowledge of God.' And first I shall very briefly explain the text.

THIS—That is. This which I am describing.

LIFE—Life is taken sometimes for the soul's abode in the body, which is the natural life of man : or the soul's continuation in its separated state, which is the natural life of the soul: and sometimes for the perfections of natural life. And that either its natural perfection, that is, its health and vivacity; or its moral perfection or rectitude; and that is either in the cause, and so God is our life, Christ is our life, the Holy Spirit is our life ; or in itself; and so holiness is our life in the principle, seed or habit. Sometimes life is taken for the work, employment and exercise of life; and so a holy conversation, is our moral, spiritual or holy life. And sometimes it is taken for the felicity of the living : and bo it containeth all the former in their highest perfection, that is, both natural life, and moral spiritual life, and the holy exercise thereof, together with the full attainment and fruition of God in glory, the End of all.

ETERNAL—That is, simply eternal, objectively, as to God the principal object: and Eternal * ex parte post,* subjectively ; that is. Everlasting*

THIS IS LIFE ETERNAL—Not natural life in itself considered, as the devils and wicked men shall have it. But L It is the same moral spiritual life which shall have nO end, but endure to eternity. It is a living to God in loVe ; blit only initial, aiid very imperfect here, in comparison of what it Will be in heaven. 2» It is th^ eternal ffelicity, (L) S<e-

minally ; for grace is as it were the seed of glory. (2.) As it is the necessary way or means of attaining it; and that preparation which infallibly procureth it. The perfect holiness of the saints in heaven, will be one part of their perfect happiness : and this holiness imperfect they have here in this life. It is the same God that we know and love, here and there; and with a knowledge and love that is of the same nature seminally : as the egg is of the nature of the bird, (Whether it may be properly said to be formally and specifically the same ' quoad actum/ as well as ' quoad ob-jectum ;' yea, whether the ' objectum clare visum,' and the * objectum in speculo vel senigmate visum,' make not the act specifically differ, I shall not trouble you to dispute.) And this imperfect holiness hath the promise of perfect holiness and happiness in the full fruition of God hereafter. So it is the seed, and prognostic of life eternal.

TO KNOW—*Non semper et ubique eodem modo vel gradu ;* Not to know God here and hereafter in the same manner or degree. But to know him here as in a glass, and hereafter in his glory, as face to face. To know him by an affective, practical knowledge: there is no text of Scripture of which the rule is more clearly true and necessary than of this, that words of knowledge do imply affection. It is the closure of the whole soul with God, which is here called the knowing of God. And because it is not meet to name every particular act of the soul, whenever this duty is mentioned, it is all denominated from knowledge, as the first act, which inferreth all the rest. 1. Knowledge of God in the habit, is spiritual life, as a principle. 2. Knowledge of God in the exercise, is spiritual life, as an employment. 3. The knowledge of God in perfection, with its effects, is life eternal, as it signifieth full felicity. What it containeth, I shall further shew anon.

THEE—That is, the Father, called by some divines, ' Pons vel fundamentum Trinitatis :' The fountain, or foundation of the Trinity : and oft used in the same sense as the word God, to signify the pure Deity.

THE ONLY—He that believeth that there is more gods than one, believeth not in any. For though he may give many the name, yet the description of the true God can agree to none of them. He is not God indeed, if he be not one only.

This doth not at all exclude Jesus Christ, as the second person in Trinity; but only distinguisheth the pure Deity, or the only true God, as such, from Jesus Christ, as Mediator between God and man.

TRUE—There are many that falsely and metaphorically are called gods. If we think of God but as one of these, it is not to know him, but deny him.

GOD—The word God doth not only signify the Divine perfections in himself but also his relation to the creatures. To be a God to us, is to be one to whom we must ascribe all that we are or have; and one whom we must love, and obey, and honour, with all the powers of soul and body : and one on whom we totally depend, and from whom we expect our judgment and reward, in whom alone we can be perfectly blessed.

AND JESUS CHRIST—That is, as Mediator, in his natures (God and man), and in his office and grace.

WHOM THOU HAST SENT—That is, whom thy love and wisdom designed and commissioned to this undertaking and performance.

The knowledge of the Holy Ghost seemeth here left out, as if it were no part of life eternal. But 1. At that time the Holy Ghost in that eminent sort, as sent by the Father and Son on the apostles, after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, was not yet so manifested as afterwards, and therefore not so necessarily to be distinctly known and believed in as after. The having of the Spirit being of more necessity than the distinct knowledge of him. Certain it is that the disciples were at first very dark in this article of faith: and Scripture more fully revealeth the necessity to salvation of believing in the Father and Son, than in the Holy Ghost distinctly ; yet telling us, that " if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his." (Rom. viii. 9.) 2. But presently after, when the Spirit was to be sent, the necessity of believing in him is expressed ; especially in the apostle's commission to baptize all nations (that were made disciples) in " the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

Doct, * The knowledge of the only true God, and of Jesus Christ the Mediator, is the life of grace, and the necessary way to the life of glory.'

As James distinguisheth between such a dead faith as devils and wicked men had, and such a living and working faith as was proper to the justified ; so must we here of the knowledge of God. *' Many profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate."(Titus i. 16.) There is a form of knowledge which the unbelievers had, (Rom. ii. 22,) and a knowledge which pufFeth up, and is void of love, which hypocrites have. (1 Cor. viii. 1. 13.) But no man (spiritually) knoweth the things of God, but by the Spirit. And they that rightly ** know his name will put their trust in him." (Psal. ix. 10.) Thus he giveth the regenerate " a heart to know him;" (Jer. xxiv. 7;) and the new creature " is renewed in knowledge." (Col.iii. 10.) And " vengeance shall be poured out on them that know not God." (2 Thess. i. 8.)

This saving knowledge of God which is eternal life, containeth and implieth in it all these acts : 1. The understanding's apprehension of God according to the necessary articles of faith. 2. A belief of the truth of these articles : that God is, and is such as he is therein described. 3. An high estimation of God accordingly. 4. A volition, complacency, or love to him as God, the chiefest good. 5. A desiring after him. 6. A choosing him, with the rejection of all competitors. 7. A consent that he be our God, and a giving up ourselves to him as his people. 8. An intending him as our ultimate end in the use of means, in the course of our conversations. 9. A seeking him in the choice and use of means. 10. An obeying him as our Sovereign Governor. 11. An honouring, and praising him as God. 12. And an enjoying him and delighting in him (in some small foretaste here, as he is seen by faith; but perfectly hereafter, as beheld in glory). The effective practical knowing of God, which is life eternal, containeth or implieth all these parts.

And every Christian that hath any of this knowledge, desireth more ; it is his great desire to know more of God, and to know him with a more affecting powerful knowledge. He that groweth in grace, doth accordingly grow in this knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. The vigour and alacrity of our souls liveth in it: the rectitude of our actions, and the holiness of them, flowetli from it: God is the xcellency of our hearts and lives : our advan cement and

our joy is here only to be found. All other knowledge is so far desirable, as it conduceth to tha knowledge of God, or to the several duties which that knowledge doth require. All knowledge of words or things, of causes and effects, of any creatures, actions, customs, laws, or whatsoever may be known, is so far valuable as it is useful; and so far useful as it is holy, subserving the knowledge of God in Christ. What the sun is to all men's eyes, that God is to their souls, and more. It is to know him that we have understandings given us; and our understandings enjoy him but so far as they know him; as the eye enjoyeth the light of the sun, by seeing it. The ignorance of God, is the blindness and part of the atheism of the soul, and inferreth the rest. They that know him not, desire not heartily to know him; nor can they love him, trust him, fear him, serve him, or call upon him, whom they do not know. *' How shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?" Rom. x. 14. The heart of the ungodly saith to God, " Depart from us ; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways : What is the Almighty, that we should serve him ; and what profit shall we have if we pray unto him?" (Job xxi. 14, 15. xxii. 17.) All wickedness hath admission into that heart or land where the knowledge of God is not the watch to keep it out. Abraham inferred that the men of Gerar would kill him for his wife, when he saw that '* the fear of God was not in that place." (Gen. XX. 11.) It was " God's controversy with Israel, because there was no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land; but by swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, they brake out, and blood touched blood." (Hosea iv. 1, 2.) They are called by God, "a foolish people, sottish children, of no understanding, that knew not God; though they were wise to do evil/' (Jer. iv. 22.) He will " pour out his fury upon the heathen that know him not, and the families that call not on his name.'' (Jer. x. 25.) As the day diflfereth from the night, by the light of the sun, so the church differeth from the world, by the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ; " In Judah is God known; his name is great in Israel: in Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Sion." (Psal. Ixxvi. 1, 2.) The love, and unity, and peace, which shall succeed persecution and malice in the blessed times, shall be "because the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Isa. xi. 6—9.) Hypo-

crites shall know him superficially and uneffeclually : and his holy ones shall know him so as to love him, fear him, trust him and obey him; with a knowledge effectual upon heart and life : and he will "continue his loving kindness to them that know him." (Psal. xxxvi. 10.)

He is the best Christian that hath the fullest impression made upon his soul by the knowledge of God in all his attributes. Thus it is our life eternal to know God in Christ. It is to reveal the Father that the Son was sent; and it is to reveal the Father and the Son, that the Holy Spirit is sent; God is the light, and the life, and the felicity of the soul. The work of its salvation is but the restoring it to him, and putting it in possession of him. The beginning of this is regeneration and reconciliation ; the perfection of it is glorification, beatifical vision and fruition. The mind that hath least of God is the darkest and most deluded mind: and the mind that hath most of him is the most lucid, pure and serene. And how is God in the mind, but as the light and other visible objects are in the eye; and as pleasant melody is in the ear; and as delightful meats and drinks are in the taste ? but that God maketh a more deep and durable impress on the soul, and such as is suitable to its spiritual, immaterial nature.

As your seal is to make a full impression on the wax, of the whole figure that is upon itself, so hath God been pleased in divers seals to engrave his image, and these must make their impress upon us. 1. There is the seal of the Creation; for the world hath much of the image of God: It is engraven also on the seal of Providential Disposals (though there we are incapable of reading it yet, so fully as in the rest). 2. It is engraven on the seal of the Holy Scriptures. 3. And on the Person of Jesus Christ, who is the purest, clearest image of the Father, as also on the holy example of his life. 4. And by the means of all these applied to the soul, in our sober Consideration, by the working of the Holy Ghost, the image of God is made upon us.

Here note, 1. That all the revealed image of God must be made on the soul, and not a part only : and all is wrought where any is truly wrought. 2. That to the completeness of his image on us, it is necessary that each part of God s description be orderly made, and orderly make the impress on us, and that each part keep its proper place: for it is a

monster that hath feet where the head should be, or the backpart forward, or where there is any gross misplacing of the parts. 3. Note also, that all the three forementioned seals contain all God's image on them; but yet not all alike j but the first part is more clearly engraven upon the first of them, and the second part upon the second of them, and the third part most clearly on the third and last.

To open this more plainly to you ; unity in trinity, and trinity in unity, is the sum of our holy faith. In the Deity there is revealed to us, one God in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; the essence is but one; the subsistences are three. And as we must conceive and speak of the Divine Nature according to its image, while we see it but in a glass ; so we must say, that in this blessed Deity in the unity of essence, there is a trinity of essential properties and attributes ; that is, power, wisdom and goodness, life, light and love : the measure of which is to have no measure, but to he infinite. And therefore this Being is eternal, and not measured by time, being without beginning or end: He is immense, as being not measured by place, but containeth all places, and is contained in none : he is perfect, as not measured by parts or by degrees, but quite above degrees and parts. This infiniteness of his being doth communicate itself, or also consist in the infiniteness of his essential properties. His power is omnipotency, that is, infinite power; his knowledge or wisdom is omniscience, that is, infinite wisdom: his goodness is felicity itself, or infinite goodness.

The first seal (to our cognizance) on which he engraved this his image, was the Creation, that is, 1. The whole world in general. 2. The Intellectual Nature or Man in special.

In the Being of the Creation and every particular creature, his Infinite Being is revealed ; so wretched a fool is the atheist, that by denying God, he denieth all things! Could he prove that there is no God, I would quickly prove that there is no world, no man, no creature. If he know that he is himself or that the world or any creature is, he may know that God is : for God is the Original Being; and all being that is not eternal, must have some original: and that which hath no original is God, being eternal, infinite and without cause.

The Power of God is revealed in the being and powers of the creation. His wisdom is revealed in their nature.

order, offices, effects, &c. His goodness is revealed in the creature's goodness, its beauty, usefulness, accomplishments. But though all his image thus appear upon the creation, yet is it his omnipotency that principally there appears. The beholding and consideration of the wonderful greatness, activity and excellency of the sun, the moon, the stars, the fire, and other creatures, doth first and chiefly possess us with apprehensions of the infinite greatness or power of the Creator.

In the Holy Word or Laws of God, which is the second glass or seal (more clear and legible to us than the former), there appeareth also all his image ; his power in the narratives, predictions, &c.; liis wisdom in the prophecies, precepts, and in all; his goodness in the promises and institutions, in a special manner. But yet it is his second property, his wisdom, that most eminently appeareth on this second seal, and is seen in the glass of the holy law. The discovery of such mysteries ; the revelation of so many truths : the suitableness of all the instituted means; and the admirable fitness of all the holy contrivances of God, and all his precepts, promises and threatenings, for the government of mankind, and carrying him on for the attainment of his end, in a way agreeable to his nature; these shew that wisdom that is most eminently here revealed, though power and goodness be revealed with it; so in the face of Jesus Christ, who is the third and most perfect seal and glass; there is the image of the power, and wisdom, and goodness of the^Godhead : but yet it is the love or goodness of the Father that is most eminently revealed in the Son: his power appeared in the incarnation, the conquests over Satan and the world, the miracles, the resurrection and the ascension of Christ. His wisdom appeareth in the admirable mystery of redemption, and in all the parts of the office, works and laws of Christ, and in the means appointed in subordination to him; but love and goodness shineth most clearly and amiably through the whole; it being the very end of Christ in this blessed work, to reveal God to man in the riches of his love, as giving us the greatest mercies, by the most precious means, in the meetest season and manner for our good ; reconciling us to himself, and treating us as children, with fatherly compas-

VOL. XIII. c

sions, and bringing us nearer to him, and opening to us the everlasting treasure, having brought life and immortality to light in the Gospel.

God being thus revealed to man from without, in the three glasses or seals of the Creation, Law, and Son himself, he is also revealed to us in ourselves, man being, as it were, a little world.

In the nature of man is revealed, as in a seal or glass, the nature of the blessed God, in some measure. In unity of essence, we have a trinity of faculties of soul, even the vegetative, sensitive and rational, as our bodies have both parts and spirits, natural, vital and animal; the rational power in unity, hath also its trinity of faculties, even power for execution, understanding for direction, and will for command : the measure of power is naturally sufficient to its use and end; the understanding is a faculty to reason, discern, and discourse ; the will hath that freedom which be-^ seemeth an undetermined, self-determining creature here in the way.

Besides this physical image of God, that is inseparable from our nature, we have also his law written in our hearts, and are ourselves objectively part of the law of nature ; that is, the signifiers of the will of God. Had we not by sin obliterated somewhat of this image, it would have shewed itself more clearly, and we should have been more capable of understanding it.

And then when we are regenerate and renewed by the grace and Spirit of Christ, and planted into him, as living members of his body, we have then the third impression upon our souls, and are made like our Head in wisdom, holiness, and in effectual strength.

Considered as creatures endued with power, understanding and will, we have the impress of all the aforesaid attributes of God ; bat eminently of his power.

Considered as we were at first possessed with the light and law of works or nature, (of which we yet retain some part,) so we have the impress of all these attributes of God ; but most eminently of his wisdom.

Considered as regenerate by the Spirit, and planted into Christ, so we have the impress of all his said attributes; but most eminently of his love and goodness, shining in the moral accomplishments or graces of the soul.

I

Man being thus made at first the natural and sapiential image of God, (with much of the image of his love,) the Lord did presently, by necessary resultancy and voluntary consent, stand related to us in such variety of relations as answer the aforesaid properties and attributes. And these relations of God to us, are next to be known, as flowing from his attributes and works.

1. As we have our derived being from God, who is the primitive Eternal Being; so from our being given by creation, God is related to us as our Maker; from this relation of a Creator in unity, there ariseth a trinity of relations: this trinity is in that unity, and that unity in this trinity. First, God having made us of nothing, necessarily related to us as our Lord ; by a Lord we mean strictly a proprietary or owner, as you are the owner of your goods, or any thing that is your own.

Secondly, He is related to us as our Ruler, our Governor or King. This riseth from our nature, made to be ruled in order to our end; being rational, voluntary agents ; and also* from the dominion and blessed nature of God, who only hath right to the government of the world, and only is tit and capable of ruling it.

Thirdly, He is related also to us as our Benefactor or Father; freely and of his bounty giving us all the good that we do receive.

His first relation in this trinity, answereth his first property in the trinity : he is our Almighty Creator, and therefore is our Owner or our Lord.

The second of these relations answereth the second property of God. He is most wise, and made an impress of his wisdom on the rational creature, and therefore is our Governor.

The third relation answereth the third property of God. As he is most good, so is he our Benefactor; " Thou art good, and dost good." (Psal. cxix. 68.) Man's nature and disposition is known by his works, though he be a free agent; for " the tree is known by its fruit." (Matt. vii. 17.) And so God's nature is known by his works (as far as is fit for us here to know), though he be a free agent.

In each of these relations, God hath other special attributes, which are denominated from his relations, or his following works:

As he is our Lord or Owner, his proper attribute is to be Absolute, having so full a title to us that he may do with us what he list. (Matt.xx. 15 ; Rom. ix. 21.)

As he is our Ruler, his proper attribute is to be our Sovereign or Supreme ; there being none above him, nor co-ordinate with him, nor any power of government but what is derived from him.

As he is our Benefactor, it is his prerogative to be our Chief, or All; the Alpha and Omega; the Fountain, or first efficient cause of all that we receive or hope for ; and the End, or ultimate final cause that can make us happy by fruition, and that we must still intend.

As these are the attributes of God in these his great relations, so in respect to the works of these relations, he hath other subordinate attributes. As he is our Owner, it is his work to dispose of us; and his proper attribute to be most Free. As he is our Ruler, it is his work to govern us; which is, first, by making laws for us, and then by teaching and persuading us to keep them, and lastly by executing them ; which is by judging, rewarding, and punishing. In respect to all these, his principal attribute is to be Just or Righteous: in ^hich is comprehended his Truth or Faithfulness, his Holiness, his Mercy, and his terrible Dreadfulness. As his attributes appear in the assertions of his word, he is True (his veracity being nothing but his power, wisdom and goodness, expressing themselves in his Word or Revelations). For he tliat is able to do what he will, and so wise as to know all things, and so good as to will nothing but what is good, cannot possibly lie ; for every lie is either for want of power, or knowledge, or goodness ; he that is most able and knowing, need not deceive by lying; and he that is most good, will not do it without need. As his first properties appear in the word of promise, he is called Faithful, which is his truth in making good a word of grace. As he com-mandeth holy duties, and condemneth sin as the most detestable thing, by a pure, righteous law, so he is called Holy; and also as the fountain of this law, and the grace which sanctifieth his people. As he fulfiUeth his promises, and rewardeth, and defendeth men according to his word, so he is called Merciful and Gracious, as a governor (where his mercy is considered as limited or ordained by his laws.) As he fulfilleth his threatenings, he is called, angry, wrath-

[

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. ,21

ful, terrible, dreadful, holy, jealous, &c. But he is Just in all.

And as these are his attributes as our Sovereign Ruler; so as our Benefactor, his special attribute is to be Gracious, or Bountiful, or Benign ; or to be loving and inclined to do good. These are the attributes of God resulting from his nature as appearing in his image in the creation, laws, and the person of his Son ; and resulting from his relations and the works of those relations ; even as he is our Creator, in unity; and our Lord or Owner, our Ruler and Benefactor, in trinity.

Were it not my purpose to confine myself to this short discovery of the nature, attributes, and works of God, but to run deeper into the rest of the body of divinity, I should come down to the fall, and work of redemption, and shew you in the Gospel and all the ordinances, &c. the footsteps of this method of trinity in unity, which I have here begun ; but that were to digress.

Besides what is said, we might name you many attributes of God, that are commonly called negative, and do but distinguish him from the imperfect creature, by setting him above us infinitely in his perfections. Man hath a body; but ^God is not a body, but a spirit: man is mutable, but God is immutable: man is mortal, but God immortal, &c. And now as I have shewed you these properties, relations, and attributes of God, so I must next tell you that we also stand in answerable counter-relations to him; and must have the qualities, and do the works that answer those relations.

1. As God is our Almighty Creator, so we are his creatures, impotent and insufficient for ourselves. We owe him therefore all that a creature that hath but our receivings, can owe his Maker. 2. In this relation is contained a trinity of relations. 1. We are his own, as he is our Lord. 2. We are his subjects, as he is our Ruler. 3. We are his children, as he is our Father ; or his obliged beneficiaries, as he is our Benefactor. And now having opened to your observation the image of God, and the extrinsic seals, I have ripened the discourse so far, that I may more fitly shew you how the impression of this image of God is to be made upon the soul of the believer.

CHAP. II.

Of the Knowledge of God's Being.

1. " He that cometh to God, must believe that God is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Heb. xi. 6.) The first thing to be imprinted on the soul is, that there is a God ; that he is a real most transcendent Being. As sure as the sun that shineth hath a being, and the earth that beareth us hath a being, so sure hath God that made them a being infinitely more excellent than theirs. As sure as the streams come from the fountain, and as sure as earth, and stones, and beasts, and men did never make themselves, nor do uphold themselves, or continue the course of nature in themselves and others, nor govern the world, so sure is there an Infinite Eternal Being that doth this. Every atheist that is not mad, must confess that there is an Eternal Being, that had no beginning or cause ; the question is only. Which this is ? Which ever it is, it is this that is the true God. What now would the atheist have it to be ? Certainly it is that Being that hath being itself from none, that is the first cause of all other beings; and if it causeth them, it must necessarily be every way more excellent than they, and contain all the good that it hath caused; for none can give that which he hath not to give; nor make that which is better than itself; that Being that hath made so glorious a creature as the sun, must needs itself be much more glorious. It could not have put strength and power into the creatures, if it had not itself more strength and power. It could not have put wisdom and goodness into the creature, if it had not more wisdom and goodness than all they. Whatever it is therefore that hath more power, wisdom and goodness than all the world besides, that is it which we call God. That cause that hath communicated to all things else, the being, power, and all perfections which they have, is the God whom we acknowledge and adore; if Democritists will ascribe all this to atoms, and 4hink that the motes did make the sun ; or if others will think that the sun is God, because it participateth of so much of his excellency, let them be mad awhile, till judgment shall convince them. So clear beyond all question to my soul, is the Being of the Godhead, that the devil hath much lost the rest of his more subtle temptations, when he hath foolishly and maliciously

adjoined this, to draw me to question the Being of my God; which is more than to question, whether there be a sun in the firmament.

But what is the impress that the Being of God must make upon the soul?

I answer. From hence the holy soul discemeth that the beginning and the end of his religion, the substance of his hope, is the Being of Beings, and not a shadow; and that his faith is not a fancy. The object is as it were the matter of the act. If our faith, and hope, and love, and fear, be exercised in a delusory work ; God is to the atheist but an empty name; he feels no life or being in him ; and accordingly he offereth him a shadow of devotion, and a nominal service. But to the holy soul there is nothing that hath life and being but God, and that which doth receive a being from him, and leadeth to him. This real object putteth a reality into all the devotions of a holy soul. They look upon the vanities of the world as nothing; and therefore they look on worldly men as on idle dreamers that are doing nothing. This puts a seriousness and life into the faith and holy affections of the believer. He knows whom he trust-eth. (2 Tim. i. 12.) He knows whom he Joveth, and in whom he hopeth. Atheists, and all ungodly men, do practically judge of God, as the true believer judgeth of the world. The atheist takes the pleasures of the world to be the only substance ; and God to be but as a shadow, a notion, or a dream. The godly take the world to be as nothing, and know it is but a fancy and dream, and shadow of pleasures, and honour, and profit, and felicity, that men talk of and seek so eagerly below? but that God is the substantial object and portion of the soul. If you put into the mouth of a hungry man, a little froth, or breath, or air, and bid him eat it, and feed upon it, he will tell you, he finds no substance in it; so judgeth the graceless soul of God, and so judgeth the gracious soul of the creature, as separate from God.

Let this be the impression on thy soul, from the consideration of God's transcendent being! O look upon thyself and all things as nothing without him ! and as nothing in comparison of him ! and therefore let thy love to them be as nothing, and thy desires after them, and care for them, a« nothing! But let the being of thy love, desire, and en-

deavours, be let out upon the transcendent Being. The creature hath its kind of being; but if it would be to us instead of God, it will be as nothing. The air hath its being, but we cannot dwell in it, nor rest upon it to support us as the earth doth. The water hath its being, but it will not bear us if we would walk upon it. The name of the great Jehovah is " I am." (Exod. iii. 14.) Try any creature in thy need, and it will say, as Jacob to Rachel, " Am I in God's stead, that hath withheld thy desire from thee?'' (Gen. xxx. 2.) Send to it and it will say as John Baptist, that confessed, " I am not the Christ." (John i. 20.) Let none of all the affections of thy soul, have so much life and being in them, as those that are exercised upon God. Worms and motes are not regarded in comparison with mountains ; a drop is not regarded in comparison of the ocean. Let the Being of God take up thy soul, and draw off thy observation from deluding vanities, as if there were no such things before thee. When thou rememberest that there is a God, kings and nobles, riches and honours, and all the world, should be forgotten in comparison of him ; and thou shouldst live as if there were no such things, if God appear not to thee in them. See them as if thou didst not see them, as thou seest a candle before the sun; or a pile of grass, or single dust, in comparison with the earth. Hear them as if thou didst not hear them; as thou hearest the leaves of the shaken tree, at the same time with a clap of thunder. As greatest things obscure the least, so let the Being of the Infinite God so take up all the powers of thy soul, as if there were nothing else but he, when any thing would draw thee from him. O ! if the Being of this God were seen by thee, thy seducing friend would scarce be seen, thy tempting baits would scarce be seen, thy riches and honours would be forgotten ; all things would be as nothing to thee in comparison of him.

CHAP. in.

2. As the Being of God should make this impression on thee, so the attributes that speak the perfection of that Being, must each one have their work ; as his Unity or Indivisibility, his Immensity, and Eternity.

And first, the thought of God's unity should contract and unite thy straggling affections, and call them home from

I

multifarious vanity. It should possess thy mind with deep apprehensions of the excellency of holy unity in the soul, and in the church; and of the evil of division, and misery of distracting multiplicity. " The Lord our God is one God." (1 Cor. viii. 6.) Perfection hath unity and simplicity. We fell into divisions and miserable distraction when we departed from God unto the creatures, for the creatures are many, and of contrary qualities, dispositions and affections ; and the heart that is set on such an object, must needs be a divided heart; and the heart that is divided among so many and contrary or discordant objects, must needs be a distracted heart. The confusions of the world confound the heart that is set upon the world. He that maketh the world his God, hath so many Gods ; and so discordant, that he will never please them all; and all of them together will never fully content and please him. And who would have a God that can neither please us, nor be pleased ? He that maketh himself his God, hath a compounded God (and now corrupted) of multifarious, and now of contrary desires, as hard to please as any without us. There is no rest or happiness but in unity. And therefore none in ourselves or any other creature; but in God the only centre of the soul. The further from the centre, the further from unity. It is only in God that differing minds can well be united. Therefore is the world so divided, because it is departed so far from God. Therefore have we so many minds and ways, and such diversity of opinions, and contrariety of afiections, because men forsake the centre of unity. There is no uniting in any worldly,,carnal, self-devised principles or practices. When holiness brings these distracted, scattered souls to God, in him they will be one. While they bark at holiness, and cry up unity, they shew themselves distracted men. For holiness is the only way to unity, because it is the closure of the soul with God. All countries, and persons, cannot meet in any one interest or creature, but each hath a several interest of his own; but they might all meet in God. If the pope were God, and had his perfections, he would be fit for all the church to centre in; but being man, and yet pretending to this prerogative of God, he is the grand divider and distracter of the church. The proverb is too true, * So many men, so many minds;' because that every man will be a god to himself, having a self-mind, and self-will, and

all men will not yield to be one in God. God is the common interest of the saints; and thereof all that are truly saints, are truly united in him. And if all the visible church, and all the world, would heartily make him their common interest, we should quickly have a common unity and peace, and the temple of double-faced Janus would be shut up. They that sincerely have one God, have also one Lord (and Saviour), one faith, one spirit, one baptism (or holy covenant with God), even because they have " one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in them all." And therefore they must "keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." (Eph. iv. 3—6.) Though yet thev have different degrees of gifts, (ver. 7.) and therefore differences of opinion about abundance of inferior things. The further we go from the trunk or stock, the more numerous and small we shall find the branches. They are one in God, that are divided in many doubtful controversies. The weakest therefore in the faith must be received into this union and communion of the church; but not to doubtful disputations. (Rom. xiv. 1.) As the ancient baptism, contained no more but our engagement to God, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, so the ancient profession of saving faith, was of the same extent. God is sufficient for the church to unite in. An union in other articles of faith is so far necessary to the unity of the church, as it is necessary to prove our faith and unity in God, and the sincerity of this ancient, simple belief in God the Father, Son and Spirit.

The Unity of God is the attribute to be first handled, and imprinted on the mind, even next unto his essence ; " The Lord our God is one Lord ;" (Deut. vi. 4 ;) and the unity of the church is its excellency and attribute, that is first and most to be esteemed and preserved next unto its essence. If it be not a church, it cannot be one church; and if we be not saints, we cannot be imited saints. If we be not members, we cannot make one body. But when once we have the essence of saints and of a church, we must next be solicitous for its unity; nothing below an essential point of faith will allow us to depart from the catholic unity, love, and peace that is due to saints; and because such essentials are never wanting in the catholic church, or any true member of it, therefore we are never allowed to divide from the catholic church, or any true and visible member. It is first

I

necessary that the church be a church, that is, a people separated from the world to Christ; and that the Christian be a Christian in covenant with the Lord. But the next point of necessity is that the church be one, and Christians be one. And he that for the sake of lower points, how true soever, will break this holy bond of unity, shall find at last, to his shame and sorrow, that he understood not the excellency or necessity of unity. The prayer of Christ for the perfection of his saints is, " That they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me: and the glory which thou gavest me 1 have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." Here it appeareth that the unity of the church or saints is necessary, to convince the world of the truth of Christianity, and of the love of God to his people, and necessary to the glory and perfection of the saints. The nearer any churches, or members, are to the divine perfections, and the more strictly conformable to the mind of God, the more they are one, and replenished with catholic love to all saints, and desirous of unity and communion with them. It is a most lamentable delusion of some Christians that think their ascending to higher degrees of holiness doth partly consist in their withdrawing from the catholic church, or from the communion of most of the saints on earth, upon the account of some smaller differing opinions; and they think that they should become more loose and leave their strictness, if they should hold a catholic communion, and leave their state of separation and division ! Is there any strictness amiable or desirable, except a strict conformity to God? Surely a strict way of sin and wickedness is not desirable to a saint. And is not God one, and his church one, and hath he not commanded all his servants to be one, and is not love the new and great commandment, by which they must be known to all men to be his disciples. Which then is the stricter servant of the Lord; he that loveth much, or he that loveth little; he that loveth all Christians, or he that loveth but a few, with the special love; he that loveth a Christian as a Christian, or he that loveth him but as one of his party or opinion; he

that is one in the catholic body, or he that disowneth communion with the far greatest part of the body ? Will you say that Christ was loose, and Pharisees strict, because Christ eat and drank with publicans and sinners, and the Pharisees condemned him for it? It was Christ that was more strict in holiness than they ; for he abounded more in love and good works : but they were stricter than he in a proud, self-conceited morosity and separation. Certainly he that is highest in love, is highest in grace, and not he that confineth his love to few. Was it not in the weak Christian that was most strict in point of meats, and drinks, and days? (Rom. xiv. xv.) But the stronger that were censured by them, did more strictly keep the commandment of God.

Christian reader, let the unity of God have this effect upon thy soul: 1. To draw thee from the distracting multitude of creatures, and make thee long to be all in God; that thy soul may be still working toward him, till thou find nothing but God alone within thee. In the multitude of thy thoughts within thee, let his comforts delight thy soul. (^Psal. xciv. 19.) The multitude distracteth thee ; retire into unity, that thy soul may be composed, quieted and delighted.

2. And let it make thee long for the unity of saints, and endeavour it to the utmost of thy power, that the church in unity may be more like the Head.

3. And let it cause thee to admire the happiness of the saints, that are freed from the bondage of the distracting creature, and have but one to love, and fear, and trust, and serve, and seek, and know; one thing is needful, which should be chosen, but it is many that we are troubled about. (Luke xi. 42.)

CHAP. IV.

3, The Immensity of God (which is the next attribute to be considered) must have this effect upon thy soul: 1. The infinite God that is every where, comprehending all places and things, and comprehended by none, must raise admiring, reverent thoughts in the soul of the believer. We wonder at the magnitude of the sun, and the heavens, and the whole creation ; but when we begin to think what is beyond the heavens, and all created being, we are at a kind of loss. Why

it is God that is in all, and above all, and beyond all, and' beneath all; and where there is no place, because no creature, there is God : and if thy thoughts should imagine millions of millions of miles beyond all place and measure, all is but God; and go as far as thou canst in thy thoughts and thou canst not go beyond him. Reverently admire the immensity of God. The world and all the creatures in it, are not to God so much as a sand or atom is to all the world. The point of a needle is more to all the world, than the world to God. For between that which is finite, and that which is infinite, there is no comparison. " Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand; and me.|ed out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure; and weighed the mountains in scales, and the

hills in a balance? Behold the nations are as a drop of

a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance:

behold he taketh up the isles as a very little thing, All

nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity." (Isa. xl. 12. 15. 17.)

2. From this greatness and immensity of God also thy soul must reverently stay all its busy, bold inquiries, and know that God is to us, and to every creature, incomprehensible. If thou couldst fathom or measure him, and know his greatness by a comprehensive knowledge, he were not God. A creature can comprehend nothing but a creature. You may know God, but not comprehend him; as your foot treadeth on the earth, but doth not cover all the earth. The sea is not the sea, if you can hold it in a spoon. Thou canst not comprehend the sun which thou seest, and by which thou seest all things else, nor the sea, or earth, no nor a worm, or pile of grass: thy understanding knoweth not all that God hath put into any the least of these ; thou art a stranger to thyself, and to somewhat in every part of thyself, both body and soul. And thinkest thou-to comprehend God, that perfectly comprehendest nothing ! Stop then thy over bold inquiries, and remember that thou art a shallow, finite worm, and God is infinite. First reach to comprehend the heaven and earth and whole creation, before thou think of comprehending Him, to whom the world is nothing, or vanity ; or so small a dust, or drop, or point. Saith Elihu, " At this my heart trembleth, and is moved out of its place :

hear attentively the noise of his voice, God thundereth

marvellously with his voice; great things doth he which we

cannot comprehend." (Job xxxvii. 1.5.) How then should we comprehend himself! WhenGod pleadeth his cause with Job himself, what doth he but convince him of his infiniteness and absoluteness, even from the greatness of his works which are beyond our reach and yet are as nothing to himself! Should he take the busy inquirer in hand, but as he did begin with Job, (xxxviii. 1, 2, &c.,) " Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge ? Gird up thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me," &c. alas, how soon would he nonplus and confound us, and make us say with Job, (xl. 4,) ** Behold I am vile ; what shall I answer thee ? I will lay my hand upon my mouth : once have I spoken, but I will not answer; yea twice, but I will proceed no further." Indeed there is mentioned Ephes. iii. 11, the saints comprehending the dimensions of the love of Christ; but as the next verse saith, it passeth knowledge; so comprehending there, signifieth no more, but a knowing according to our measure ; an attainment of what we are capable to attain; nay, nor all that neither, but such a prevalent knowledge of the love of Christ as is common to all the saints; as there is nothinsr more visible than the sun, and yet no visible being less comprehended by the sight; so is there nothing more intelligible than God (for he is all in all things), and yet nothing so incomprehensible to the mind that knoweth him. It sa-tisfieth me not to be ignorant of God, nor to know so little as I know, nor to be short of the measure that I am capable of; but it satisfieth me to be incapable of comprehending him: or else I must be unsatisfied because I am not God. O the presumptuous arrogancy of those men, if I may call them men, that dare prate about the infinite God such things as never were revealed to them in his works or word ! and dare pretend to measure him by their shallow understandings, and question, if not deny and censure, that of God which they cannot reach! and sooner suspect the word that doth reveal him than their own muddy brains, that should better conceive of him! Saith Elihu, " Behold God is great, and we know him not; neither can the number of his years be searched out." (Job xxxvi. 26.) Though the knowledge of him be our life eternal, yet we know him not by any full and adequate conception. We know an infinite God, and therefore with an excellent knowledge objectively

considered ; but with a poor degree and kind of knowledeje next to none, as to the act; and it is a thousand thousandfold that we know not of him, than that we know : for indeed there is no comparison to be here made.

3. The immensity of God, as it proveth him incomprehensible, so it containeth his omnipresence, and therefore should continually affect us, as men that believe that God stands by them. As we would compose our thoughts, and minds, and passions, if we saw (were it possible) the Lord stand over us, so should we now labour to compose them As we would restrain and use our tongues, and order our behaviour, if we saw his Majesty, so should we do now, when we know that he is with us. An eye-servant will work hard in his master's presence, whatever he doth behind his back. Bestir thee then, Christian, for God stands by; " In him we live and move and have our being/* (Acts xvii. 28.) Loiter not till thou canst truly say that God is gone, or absent from thee ; sin not by wilfulness or negligence, till thou canst say, thou art behind his back. Alas, that we should have no more awakened, serious souls, and no more fervent, lively prayers, and no more serious, holy speech, and no more careful, heavenly lives, when we stand before the living God, and do all in his sight, and speak all in his hearing ! O why should sense so much affect us, and faith, and knowledge work no more ? We can be awed with the presence of a man, and would not do before a prince, what most men do before the Lord. Yea other things affect us when we see them not; and shall not God ? But of this more anon.

4. The immensity of God assureth us much of his all-sufficiency. He that is every where, is easily able to hear all prayers, to help us in all straits, to supply all wants, to punish all sins. A blasphemous conceit of God as finite, and as absent from us, is one of the causes of our distrust. He that doth distrust an absent friend, as thinking he may forget him, or neglect him, will trust him when he is with him ; cannot he hear thee, and pity thee, and help thee, that is still with thee ? O what an awe is this to the careless! what a support to faith ! what a quickener to duty! what a comfort to the afflicted, troubled soul! God is in thy poor cottage, Christian, and well acquainted with thy wants : God is at thy bedside when thou art sick, and nearer thee

than the nearest of thy friends. What wouldst thou do in want or pain if God stood by ! Wouldst thou not pray and trust him if thou sawest him! So do though thou see him not, for he is surely there.

5. The immensity and infinite greatness of God assureth us of this particular providence. Some blasphemous infidels imagine that he hath only a general providence, and hath left all to some inferior powers, and meddleth not with particular things himself. They think that as he hath left it to the sun to illuminate the world, so hath he left all other inferior things and events to nature or inferior causes; and that he doth not himself regard, observe, reward, or punish the thoughts, and words, and ways of men. And all this is, because they consider not the immensity or infinite greatness of the Lord. It is true, that God hath framed the nature of all things, and delighteth to maintain and use the frame of second causes which he hath made; and will not easily and ordinarily work against or without this order of causes: but it is as true and certain, both that sometimes he maketh use of miracles, and that in the very course of natural causes he is able to exercise a particular providence, as well as without them, by himself alone. The creature doth nothing but by him. All things move as he first moveth them, in their natural agency. His wisdom guideth, his will intendeth, and commandeth ; his power moveth and disposeth all. The sun would not shine, if he were not the light of it; and he is no less himself the light of the world, than if he did illuminate it without a sun. God is never the further off, because the creatures are near us; nor ever the less in the effect, because he useth a second cause, than if there were no second cause at all. What influence second causes have upon the souls of men, he hath for the most part kept unknown to us; but that himself disposeth of us and all things after the counsel of his own will, is beyond all question. Can he that is most nearly present with thy thoughts, be regardless of them ? Can he be regardless of thy words and ways that is with thee, and seeth and heareth all ? If thou believe not that he is verily with thee as thou art there thyself, thou art then an atheist. If thou believe him not to be infinite, thou believest him not to be God. It is not God that can be absent, limited, or finite. And if thou

be not such a senseless atheist, but knowest that God is every where, how is it possible thou shouldst doubt of his care or observance, or particular providence about every thing ? No child is scarce so foolish that will think his father cares not what he saith or doth, when he stands before him. Wouldst thou doubt of God's particular providence, whether he regard thy heart, and talk, and practice, if thou didst see him with thee ? Sure it is scarce possible. Why then dost thou question it when thou knowest that he is with thee ? If thou be an atheist and knowest not, look about thee on the world, and bethink thee whether stones, and trees, and earth ; whether beasts, or birds, or men do make themselves; if they do, thou wert best uphold thyself, and be not sick, and do not die. If thou madest thyself, thou canst sure preserve thyself; but if any thing else made thee and all these lower things, either it was somewhat greater or less than they; either something better or worse than they. If less, or worse, how could it make them greater or better than itself? Can any thing give that which it hath not? If it must needs be greater and better than tihe creatures, then as it must be wiser than they, and more holy, gracious, and just than they, so must it be more comprehensive than all they. Whoever made this earth, is certainly greater than the earth, or else he should give it more that he had to give. And if he be greater, he must be present. If thou shouldst be so vain as to account any other higher thing the maker of this world, that is not God, thou must ascribe also a sufficiency to that maker, to exercise a particular providence, and moreover be put to consider who did make that maker. Nothing therefore is more certain even to reason itself, than that the Maker of the world must be greater than the world, and therefore present with all the world; and therefore must observe and regard all the world. When thou canst find out a thought, or word, or deed that was not done in the presence of God, or any creature that is not in his presence, then believe and spare not that he seeth it not, or regardeth it not; yea, and that it hath no being. O blind atheists! you see the sun before your eyes, which enlighteneth all the upper part of the earth at once ; even millions of millions see all by his light; and yet do you doubt whether God beholds and regards

VOL. XIII. o

and provides for all at once! Tell me, if God had never a creature to look to in all the world but thee, wouldst thou believe that he v^^ould regard thy heart, and words, and ways, or not ? If he would, why not now as well as then! Is he not as sufficient for thee, and as really present with thee, as if he had no other creature else? If all men in the world were dead save one, would the sun any more illuminate that one than now it doth ? Mayst thou not see as well by the light of it now, as if it had never another to enlighten ? And dost thou see a creature do so much, and wilt thou not believe as much of the Creator? If thou think us worms too low for God so exactly to observe, thou mayst as well think that we are too low for him to create, or preserve; and then who made us and preserveth us ? Doth not the sun enlighten the smallest bird, and crawling vermin, as well as the greatest prince on earth ? Doth it withhold its light from any creature that can see, and say, I will not shine on things so base? And wilt thou more restrain the infinite God that is the Maker, Light, and Life of all ? It is he that " filleth all in all." (Eph. i. 23.) " The heaven of heavens cannot contain him;" (1 Kings viii. 27 ;) and is he absent from thee ? " He doth beset thee before and behind, and layeth his hand upon thee; whither wilt thou go from his Spirit, or whither wilt thou fly from his presence ? If thou ascend up into heaven, he is there; if thou make thy bed in hell, thou wilt feel him there ; if thou take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shalt thou find him to be to thee as thou art.'* (Psal. cxxxix. 5. 7—10.) Thou mayst think with sinful Adam and Eve, (Gen. iii. 8,) to hide thyself from the presence of the Lord: but thou wilt quickly find that he observeth thee ; and " be sure thy sin will find thee out." (Numb, xxxii. 23.) Thou mayst with Cain be turned out of the " gracious presence of God," (Gen. iv. 16,) and cast out of his church and mercy ; and with the damned thou mayst be turned out of the presence of his blessedness and glory : but thou ^halt never be out of his essential presence, nor so escape the presence of his justice. (Job i. 12 ; ii. 7.) It is the presence of his grace where the upright are promised here to dwell, (Psal. cxl. 13,) and out of which they fear lest they be cast. " Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me." (Psal. li.

11.) And it is the "presence where is fullness of joy," which they aspire after. (Psal. xvi. 11.) But there is also'a presence that the "earth shall tremble at," (Psal. cxiv. 7,) and that the " wicked shall perish at;" (Psal. Ixviii. 2 ;) so that a particular providence must be remembered by them that believe and remember the immensity of God.

M CHAP. V.

4. The Eternity of God is the next attribute to be known, which also must have its work upon the soul. And, 1. This also sheweth us that God is incomprehensible; for man cannot comprehend eternity. When we go about to think of that which hath no beginning nor end, it is to our mind, as a place a thousand miles off is to our eye ; even beyond our reach; we cannot say there is no such place, yea, we know there is; but we cannot see it: so we know there is an Eternal Being; but our knowledge of his eternity is not intuitive, or comprehensive. Eternity therefore is the object of our faith, and reverence, and admiration, but forbids our busy, bold inquiries. O the arrogancy of those igno-rantly-learned, and foolishly-wise disputing men, that have so long perplexed, if not torn in pieces the church, about the priority and posteriority of the knowledge and decrees of God, when they confess them all to be eternal! As if they knew not that terms of priority and presentiality, and posteriority, have not that significancy in or about eternity, as they have with us !

2. The eternity of God must draw the soul from transitory to eternal things. It is an everlasting blessedness, even the eternal God, that our souls are made for; the brutes are made for a mortal happiness; the immortal soul cannot be fully content with any thing that will have an end. As a capacity of this endless blessedness doth difference man from the beasts that perish ; so the disposition to it doth difference saints from the ungodly; and the fruition of it doth difference the glorified from the damned. Alas, what a silly thing were man, if he were capable of nothing but these transitory things! What were our lives worth, and what were our time worth, and what were all our mercies worth, or what were all the world worth to us, or what were we worth ourselves ? I would not undervalue he works of God; but truly if man had no other life to live

but this, I should esteem him a very contemptible creature. If you say there is some excellency in the brutes, I answer, true ; but their usefulness is their chiefest excellency ; and what is their use but to be a glass in which we may see the Lord, and to be serviceable to man in his passage to eternity? They are not capable of knowing, or loving, or enjoying God themselves : but they are useful to man that is capable of this ; and so they have an everlasting end, and this is their excellency. And therefore the atheist that de-nieth an everlasting life to man, doth bring himself into a far baser state than the brutes are in ; for the brutes have an everlasting end, in promoting the happiness of man : but if man have no everlasting end himself, there is no other whose everlasting happiness he can promote. The unbeliever therefore doth debase his own soul, and the whole creation: and faith and holiness advance the soul and all things with it, that are useful to our advancement. The true believer honoureth his horse, his dog, his food and raiment, and the earth he treadeth on, and every creature, incomparably more than the infidel doth honour his own or any other's soul, or than he honoureth the greatest prince on earth. For the believer useth all things, even the vilest, in reference to eternity ; but the infidel useth his life and soul but to a transitory end; and takes the greatest prince on earth to be but for a transitory use. And as eternity is invaluable in comparison of time, so the use and excellency that a believer doth ascribe to a bit of bread, or the basest creature, in the sanctified improvement of it, is ten thousand times, even unspeakably above the use and excellency that an unbeliever ascribeth to his soul or his prince. He that stampeth the image of a dog or a toad upon gold, instead of the image of the prince, and would have ten thousand pounds worth go but for a farthing, doth not by a thousand degrees so much debase the gold, as the infidel doth debase his soul and all things. Infidelity is guilty of the destruction of all souls, and the destruction of all mercies, and the destruction of all divine revelations, of all graces, of all ordinances, and means, and of the destruction of the whole creation that was made for man: for he that de-stroyeth the end, destroyeth all the means: but the infidel destroyeth and denieth the end of every one of these, and holiness only doth give them up, and use them to their ends.

1. He is guilty of the destruction of all souls : For as much as in him lies they are destroyed, while they are all made useless to the end for which they were created. If there be no other life and happiness everlasting, what are souls good for? What is the reasonable creature good for? Is it to be happy here? In what? Here is no happiness. Is it in eating, and drinking, and sleeping? Why these are to strengthen us for our service which tendeth to our end, and therefore cannot be themselves our end. Is it not better be without either meat, or drink, or sleep, in point of happiness, so be it we also were without the need of them, than to need them and have them for our need, especially with the care and trouble which they cost us ? I had an hundred times rather for my part, if it were lawful to desire it, never have meat, or drink, or sleep, and be without the need of them, as I had rather be without a sore, than to have a plaister that will ease it, and be every day at the pains to dress it. Brutes have some advantage in these above men, in that they have not the care, and fear, and sorrow of mind as we have, in the getting or keeping what they have or need. If you go downward, and say that men are made to govern brutes, then what are brutes made for^ unless to dung the earth? And so the basest shall be the end of the noblest, and God may be as wisely said to be for man, because he is to govern him. Truly if there were no everlasting life, but man were a mere terrestrial animal, I had rather never have been born, or should wish I had never been a man: I knew not what to do with myself, nor how to employ the faculties of my soul or body, but they would all seem to me as useless things. What should I do with my reason, if I had no higher an end than beasts ? What should I do with a mind that knoweth that there is a God, and another world, and that is capable of desiring him, seeking and enjoying him, if it must be frustrated of all ? What should 1 do with a heart that is capable of the love of God, and delighting in his love, if I have no God to love and delight in, when this life is ended ? Why have I a heart that so desireth him, in fuller vision and fruition, if I be capable of no such thing ? What then should I do with my time and life ? Verily I know not, if I were fully of this sad opinion, whether I should turn brute in my life agreeably to my judgment, or whether I should make an end of

my life to be eased of a useless burden ; but confident I am I should not know what to do with myself: I should be like a cashiered soldier, or like one turned out of his service, that knew not where to have work and wages : and if you found me standing " all day idle," I must give you the reason, ** because no man hath hired me." What do those wretches do with their lives, that think they have no God to serve and seek, or future happiness to attain ? As men use to say of naughty ministers, so may I say of all mankind according to the doctrine of the infidels : A sorry tailor may make a botcher, or a bad shoemaker may make a cobler, and a broken mercer may be a pedler ; but a naughty priest is good for nothing (and it is true of him as such). And as Christ himself saith, (Matt. v. 13, 14,) " Ye are the salt of the earth : but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted ? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. Men do not light a candle to put it under a bushel." So I say of the reasonable creature. The grass is useful for the beasts : the beasts are serviceable unto man : a swine that cannot serve you living, is useful being dead. But if there were no God to seek and serve, and no life but this for us to hope for, for aught I know man were good for nothing. What were light good for, if there were no eyes ? or eyes, if there were no light to see by ? What is a watch good for, but to tell the hour of the day ? All the curious parts and workmanship of it, is worth no more than the metal is worth, if it be not useful to its proper end. And what reason, and will, and affections in man are good for I know not, if not to seek, to please and to enjoy the Lord! Take off this poise, and all the wheels of my soul must stand still, or else do worse.

2. The infidel and ungodly man that looks not after an eternal end, destroyeth all the mercies of God, and makes them as no mercies at all. Creation and our being is a mercy ; but it is in order to our eternal end. Redemption by Christ is an unspeakable mercy ; but it is denied by the infidel, and rejected by the ungodly. What is Christ worth, and all his mediation, if there be no life for man but this ? Peace and liberty, health and life, friends and neighbours, food and raiment, are all mercies to us, as a ship and sails

I

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. H9

are to the mariner, or a fair way, or horse, or inn to a traveller ; but if by denying our eternal end, you make our voyage or our journey vain, these mercies then are little worth: no more than a ship on the land, or a plough in the sea, or a horse to him that hath uo use for him. And O ! what an ungrateful wretch is that, who will deny all the mercies of God to himself, and to all others! For, once deny the use and the eternal end, and you deny the mercy

3. He that believetli not, or seeks not after an eternal end, destroyeth all the doctrine, law and government of God: for all is but to lead us to this end. All the holy Scriptures, the precepts of Christ, and his holy example, the covenant of grace, the gifts and miracles of the Holy Ghost, the light and law of nature itself, are all to bring us to our eternal end : and therefore he that denieth that end, doth cancel them all, and cast them by as useless things.

4. And he denieth all the graces of the Spirit: For what use is there for faith, if the object of it be a falsehood ? What use for hope, if there be no life to be hoped for ? What use for holy desires and love, if God be not to be enjoyed? Grace is but the delusion and deformity of the soul, if the infidel and ungodly be in the right.

5. They destroy also all the means of our salvation, if they deny salvation, which is the end. To what purpose should men study, or read, or hear, or pray, or use either sacraments or any other means, for an end that is not to be had ? To what end should men obey or suffer, for any such end that is not attainable ?

6. Yea, they do let loose the soul to sin, and take off all effectual restraint. If there be no eternal end, and no reward or punishment but here, what can effectually hinder the men of this opinion from stealing, whoredom, or any villany, when it may be done with secrecy ? What should hinder the revengeful man from poisoning or secretly murdering his enemy, or setting his house on fire in the night? If I know a man or woman that believes no life to come, I take it for granted they are revengeful, thieves, deceivers, fornicators, or any thing that is bad, if they have but temptation, and secret opportunity. For what hath he to seek but the pleasing of his flesh, that thinks he hath no God to seek or please, or no future reward or punishment to expect ? He that confesseth himself an infidel, to me, doth

confess himself to be in all things else as bad as ever he can or dare. Honesty is renounced by that man or woman that profess themselves to be atheists or infidels : methinks in congruency with their profession they should take it for a wrong to be called or reputed honest! If you tell me that heathens had a kind of honesty ; I must tell you again, that most heathens believed the immortality of the soul, and that kind of seeming honesty which they had was only in those of them that thus expected a life to come. But those that believe not another life where man is to have his punishment and reward, have nothing like to honesty in them, but live like greedy, ravenous beasts, where they are from under the laws and government of them that look for another life. The cannibals that eat men's'flesh, and some such savages as they, are the nations that expect no life but this. It is believed so commonly by all the civil infidels and Turks, as shews it to be a principle that nature doth reveal.

7. Yea, the whole creation that is within the sight of man, is destroyed opinionatively by the infidels that look for no immortal life : for all things were made to further our salvation: the "heavens to declare the glory of God, and the firmament to shew his handy work," and all creatures to be our glass in which we must behold the Lord, and our book in which we must read and learn his nature and his will. The sun is to light us, and maintain our life, and the life of other lower creatures, while we prepare for immortality : the earth is to bear us, and to bear fruit for us ; and the trees and plants, and every creature, to accommodate and serve us, while we serve the Lord and pass on to eternity. And therefore the atheist that denieth us our eternity, denieth the usefulness of all the world. What were all the creatures here good for, if there were no men? The earth would be a wilderness, and the beasts would for the most part perish for want of sustenance, and all would be like a forsaken cottage that no man dwelleth in, and doth no good ; and if man be not the heir of immortality, they can do him no good. All creatures are but our provision in the way to this eternity : and therefore if there were no eternity, what should we do with them? What should we do with ways, and pavements, or with inns for travellers, or with horses or other provision for our journey, if there were

no travelling that way ? And who will travel to a place that is not, or a city that is no where but in his brains, besides a madman ? It is evident therefore that as all the tools in a workman's shop, are made useless to him if he be forbidden to use his trade, and all the books in my library are useless, if I may not read them to get knowledge; so all creatures under heaven are made useless and destroyed doctrinally by the atheist, that thinks there is no eternal life for which they should be used. I must seriously profess, if I believed this (being in other things of the mind I am), I knew not what to do with any thing. What should I do with my books, but to learn the way to this eternity? What should I do with my money, if there be no treasure to be laid up in heaven, nor friends to be made with the mammon abused commonly to unrighteousness? What should I do with my tongue, my hands, my time, my life, myself, or any thing, if there were no eternity? I think I should dig my grave, and lay me down in it and die, and perish, to escape the sorrows of a longer life that must be my companions.

Remember then. Christians, and still remember it, that Eternity is the matter of your faith and hope! Eternity is your portion and felicity ! Eternity is the end of all your desires, and labours, and distresses! Eternity is your religion, and the life of all your holy motions ; and as without the capacity of it, you would be but beasts, so without the love and desire of it, and title to it, you would be but wicked and miserable men. Set not your hearts on transitory things, while you stand near unto eternity. How can you have room for so many thoughts on fading things, when you have an eternity to think on? What light can you see in the candles or glow-worms of this world, in the sunshine of eternity ? Oh, remember when you are tempted to please your eyes, your taste, and sensual desires, that these are not eternal pleasures! Remember when you are tempted for wealth or honour to wrong your souls, that these are not the eternal riches ! Houses and lands are not eternal! Meats and drinks are not eternal! Sports and pastimes, and jocund sinful company are not eternal! Alas, how short! how soon do they vanish into nothing ! But it is God, and our dear Redeemer that are eternal! The flower of beauty withereth with age, oi by the nipping blast

of a short disease; the honours of the world are but a dream; your graves will bury all its glory. Down comes the prince, the lord, the gallant, and suddenly takes his lodgings in the dust. The corpse that was pampered and adorned yesterday, is a clod to-day. The body that was bowed to, attended and applauded but the other day, is now interred in the vault of darkness, with worms and moles. To-day it is corruption and a mOst loathsome thing, that lately was dreaming of an earthly happiness. One day he is striving for riches and pre-eminences, or glorying and rejoicing in them, that the next day may be snatched away to hell. O fix not your minds on fading things, that perish in the using, and by their vanishing mock you that set your hearts upon them. You will not fix your eye and mind upon every bird that flyeth by you, as you will on the houses that you must dwell in: nor will you mind every passenger, as you will do your friends that still live with you. And shall transitory vanity be minded by you above eternity ?

3. It is Eternity that must direct you in your estimate of all things. It is this that sheweth you the excellency of man above the beasts : it is this that tells you the worth of grace, and the weight of sin, the preciousness of holy ordinances and helps, and the evil of hindrances and temptations ; the wisdom of the choice and diligence of the saints, and the folly of the choice, and negligent, sinful lives of the ungodly; the worth of God's favour, and the vanity of man's; and the diiFerence between the godly and the un-sanctified world, in point of happiness.

Were not grace the egg, the seed, the earnest of an eternal glory, it were not so glorious a thing. But O how precious are all those thoughts, desires, delights and breathings of the soul, that bring us on to a sweet eternity! Even those sorrows, and groans, and tears are precious that lead to an eternal joy! Who would not willingly obey the holy motions of the Holy Spirit, that is but hatching and preparing us for eternity ! This is it that makes a Bible, a sermon, a holy book, to be of greater value than lands and lordships. It is eternity that makes the illuminated soul so fearful of sinning, so diligent in holy duties, so cheerful and resolved in suffering, because he believeth it is all for an eternity. A Christian in the holy assemblies, and in his

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. ^S

reading, learning, prayer, conference, is laying up for everlasting, when the worldling in the market, in the field or shop, is making provision for a few days or hours. Thou gloriest in thy riches and pre-eminence now, but how long wilt thou do so? To-day that house, that land is thine; but canst thou say, it shall be thine to-morrow? Thou canst not: but the believer can truly say. My God, my Christ, is mine to-day, and will be mine to all eternity! O death! thou canst take my friends from me, and my worldly riches from me, and my time, and strength, and life from me! but take my God, my Christ, my heaven, my portion from me, if thou canst! My sin is all thy sting and strength! But where is thy sting when sin is gone ? and where is thy strength when Christ hath conquered thee ? Is it a great matter that thou deprivest me of my sinful, weak, and troublesome friends, when against thy will thou bringest me to my perfect blessed friends with whom I must abide for ever! Thou dost indeed bereave me of these riches ; but it is that I may possess the invaluable eternal riches ! Thou endest my time, that I may have eternity ! Thou castest me down, that I may be exalted ! Thou takest away my strength of life, that 1 may enter into life eternal! And is this the worst that death can do ? And shall I be afraid of this ? I willingly lay by my clothes at night, that I may take my rest, and I am not loath to put off the old when I must put on new. The bird that is hatched is not grieved because he must leave the broken shell. Nor is it the grief of man or beast that he hath left the womb ! Death doth but open the womb of time and let us into eternity, and is the second birth-day of the soul. Regeneration brings us into the kingdom of grace; and death into the kingdom of glory. Blessed are they that have their part in the new birth of grace and the first resurrection from the death of sin; for to such the natural death will be gain ; and they shall have their part in the second resurrection, and on them the everlasting death shall have no power. O sirs, it is Eternity that telleth you what you should mind, and be, and do ! and that turneth the scales in all things where it is concerned. Can you sleep in sin so near eternity! Can you play and laugh before you are prepared for eternity! Can you think him wise that selleth his eternal joy, for the ease, the mirth, the pleasure of a moment! and trifleth away the

time in which he must win or lose eternity! If these men be wise, there are no fools ! nor any but wise men in bedlam ! Dare thy tongue report, or thy heart imagine, that any holy work is needless, or a heavenly life too much ado, or any suffering too dear, that is for an eternity ! O happy souls that win eternity with the loss of all the world! O bless that Christ, that Spirit, that Light, that Word, that Messenger of God, that drew thy heart to choose eternity before all transitory things! That was the day when thou began to be wise, and indeed to shew thyself a man ! Thy wealth, thy honour, thy pleasure will be thine when the sensual world hath nothing to shew, but sin and hell, of all they laboured for. Their pleasures, honours, and all die, when they die; but thine will then begin their perfection ! The hopes of the ungodly are like an addle egg that when it is broken sends forth nothing but an odious stink, when another sends forth the living bird. O all you worldlings, rich and poor, you dream, you play, you trifle, because you labour not for eternity ! Even worldly princes, and nobles of the earth, your glory is but a squib, a flash, a nothing, in comparison of the eternal glory which you lose; you are doing nothing when you are striving for the world ; you are trifling and befooling your immortal souls while you are grasping a shadow, the uncertain riches. It is the believer whom you despise, that seeks for something, that loseth not his labour, that shews himself a man of reason, who is caring, and studying, and labouring, and praying, and watching, and suffering for eternity. Why is a day in the courts of God, so much better than a thousand in the tents or palaces of wickedness, but because it is the exchange where we have news of heaven, and trade for an eternity ? And why is it better to be a door-keeper in the house of God, than to flourish in the prosperity of sinners, but because God's house is the porch or entrance of an eternity of delights, and the lowest room among the saints affords us a better prospect into heaven, than the highest state of worldly dignity! The ungodly are near to cutting down when they flourish in their greatest glory. (Psal.xxxvii.2.20.) Stay but a little, and he that flourisheth will be withered and cast into the fire, and the righteous shall see it when he is cut ofi^, and shall seek him, but he is not to be found, (verse 34—36. 38.) For the enemies of God, and all

that are far from him shall perish; (Psal. xcii. 9; xiii. 27 ;) their desire shall perish; (Psal. cxii. 10;) their hope shall perish; (Prov. xi. 7; Job viii. 13;) their way shall perish; (Psal. i. 6;) and themselves and all that they sought, and loved, and delighted in, shall perish. (Job xx. 7 ; 2 Pet. ii. 12; Rom. ii. 12; Heb. i. 11.) Even the visible heavens and earth, which they abused, shall be consumed with fire. " Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking towards and waiting for the coming and appearance of our Lord!" (2 Pet. iii. 11.) Shall any man be accounted wise, that is not wise for eternal happiness ? Shall any man be counted happy, that must be most miserable to eternity ? In the name of God, Christian, I charge thee to hold on, and look to thy soul, thy words, thy ways, for it is for eternity! O play not, loiter not, do nothing by the halves in the way to eternity ! Let the careless world do what they will; they despise, and know not what they do despise ; they neglect, and know not what they do neglect; but thou that seekest, and labourest, and waitest, knowest what thou seekest, and labourest, and waitest for. They sin and know not what they do. They know not what they are treasuring up for an eternity. But thou knowest why thou hatest and avoidest sin.

Sinners, be awakened by the call of God; do you know where you are, and what you do ? You are every man of you stepping into eternity! Will you sin away, will you loiter away, will you sell for nothing, an eternal glory ? Is thy sinful lust, and gain, and mirth, and gluttony, and excess of drink, a price to set upon eternity ? If heaven be no more worth to thee, art thou not as bad as Judas, that for thirty pieces of silver would sell his Lord ? O eternity, eternity! what hearts have they that can so forget thee, neglect thee, and disesteem thee, when they stand so near thee ! O sleepy souls ! do you never use to rub your eyes, and look before you towards eternity ? and doth it not amaze you to see whither it is that you are going? Merrily you run down the hill; but where is the bottom ! If you look but down from the top of a steeple, it may occasion an amazing fear; what then should it cause in you to look down into hell, which is your eternity? No good can possibly be small that is eternal; and no hurt or pain can be called lit-

tie, that is eternal: an eternal tooth-ache, or an eternal gout, or stone, or fever, were a misery unspeakable. But O ! what are these to an eternal loss of heaven, and to an eternal sense of the burning wrath of God Almighty ! To be out of heaven a day, and in hell that day, is a misery now unknown to sinners ; but if it were as many thousand years as the earth hath sands, it were a greater misery ; but to be there for ever, doth make the misery past all hope, and all conceiving. O methinks the very name of Eternity, should frighten the drunkard out of the alehouse, and the sleepy sinner out of his security, and the lustful, sportful, voluptuous sinner out of his sensual delights ! Methinks the very name of Eternity should call off the worldling to seek be-time a more enduring treasure, and should take down the gallant's pride, and bring men to look after other matters than the most do look after! Methinks to hear the name of Eternity should with men of any faith and reason, even blast all the beauty, and blur the glory, and sadden the delights, and weaken the temptations of the world, and make all its pleasure, pomp, and splendour, to be to our apprehensions as a smoke, a shadow, as the dirt that we tread upon ! Methinks to hear the name of Eternity should lay so odious a reproach on sin, and so nakedly open the folly, and shame, and misery of the ungodly, and so lively shew the need, and worth of faith and holiness, that men should be soon resolved in their choice, and soon be at the end of an ungodly course, and need no more words to make them the resolved servants of the Lord, before to-morrow ! O methinks, that a thought of eternity should, with a believer, answer all temptations, and put life into all his prayers and endeavours! If we were never so cold, or dull, or sleepy, one would think a serious thought of eternity should warm us, quicken us, and awake us ! O Christians, shall we hear carelessly, or speak carelessly of eternity ? Shall we pray coldly, or labour negligently for eternity! O what an ocean of joy will eternity be unto the sanctified! It hath neither banks nor bottom. O what a gulf of misery and woe, will eternity be to the ungodly! Wonderful! that on their dying-beds they quake not with the horror, and that they cry not out with greatest lamentation, to think what a bottomless gulf of misery their departing souls must be cast into I To be for ever, ever, ever, under the most heavy wrath of God !

This is the appointed wages of ungodliness ; this is the end of wicked ways; this is it that sinners chose, because they would not live to God! this they preferred, or ventured on, before a holy, heavenly life! and this is it that believers are labouring to escape in all their holy care and diligence ! It is an infinite value that is put upon the blood of Christ, the promises of God, the ordinances and means of grace, and grace itself, and the poorest duties of the poorest saints, because they are for an infinite, eternal glory. No mercy is small that tastes of heaven (as all doth or should do to the believer). No action is low that aims at heaven. And O how lively should the resolutions and courage of those men be, that are travelling, fighting, and watching for eternity! How full should be their comforts, that are fetched from the foresight of infinite eternal comforts ! As all things will presently be swallowed up in eternity, so me-thinks the present apprehension of eternity should now swallow up all things else in the soul.

Object. * But (saith the unbeliever) if God have made man for eternity, it is a wonder that there are no more lively impressions of so infinite a thing upon the souls of all! Our sense of it is so small, that it makes me doubt whether we are made for it.'

Answ, Consider, 1. That benumbedness, and sleep, and death, is the very state of an unholy soul! Hast thou cast thyself into a sleepy, senseless disease, and wilt thou argue thence against eternity? This is as if the blind should conclude that there is no sun, or that the eye of man was not made to see it, because he hath no sight himself! or as if you should think that man hath not any life or feeling, because your palsied limbs do not feel! or that the stomach was not made for meat, because the stomachs of the sick abhor it!

2. And for believers, 1. You may see by their lives that they have some apprehensions of eternity: why else do they differ from you, and deny themselves, and displease the world and the flesh itself? Why do they set their hearts above, if they have not lively thoughts of an eternity ?

2. But if you ask me. Why their apprehensions are not a thousand times more lively about so infinite a thing; I answer, 1. Their apprehensions must be suitable to their state. Our -state here is a state of imperfection; and so

will our apprehensions be ; but a perfect state will have perfect apprehensions. It is no proof that the infant in the womb is not made to come into this world, and see the sun, and converse with men, because he hath no apprehensions of it. Our state here is a conjunction of the soul to a frail distempered body ; and so near a conjunction that the actions of the soul must have great dependance on the body; and therefore our apprehensions are limited by its frailty ; and the soul can go no higher than the capacity of the body will allow: 2. And our apprehensions now are fitted to our use and benefit: we are now believers, and must live by faith; and therefore must be beholders, and live by sense. If eternity were open to men's natural sight, or we had here as clear and lively apprehensions of it, as those have that are there, then it were no thanks, no praise to us to be believers, or to obey, and live as saints! And then God should not govern man, as man, here in the way, by a law, but as a beast by sense, or as the glorified that have possession. Where there are perfect apprehensions of God and glory, there will be also perfect love, and joy, and praise, and consequently perfect happiness ; and this were to make earth and heaven, the way and the end, to be all one. Perfect apprehensions are kept for a perfect state of happiness. But here it is well if we have such apprehensions as are fitted to the use of travellers and soldiers, as will carry us on, and prevail against the difficulties of our course. If you had never been in London, you could not have any such clear apprehensions of the place, as those that see it have; and yet your imperfect apprehensions might be sufficient to make you take a journey thither, and you may come as safely and certainly to it, as if you had seen it. Moreover, the body, the brain, which the soul in apprehending now makes use of, cannot bear such apprehensions as are suitable to the thousandth part of the greatness of the object, without distraction. The smallest eye may see the sun; but the greatest cannot endure to gaze upon its glory ; much less if it were at the nearest approach. It is a mercy of mercies to give us such apprehensions of eternity, as are meet for passengers to bring us thither; and it is part of our mercy that those apprehensions are not so great as to distract and overwhelm us.

4, Lastly, The eternity of God must teach the soul con-

tentedness and patience under all labours, changes, sufferings and dangers that are here below. Believing soul, draw near; look seriously on eternity, and try whether it will not make such impressions as these upon thee. Art thou weary of labours, either of the mind or body ? Is not eternity long enough for thy rest ? Canst thou not afford to work out the daylight of this life, when thou must rest with Christ to all eternity ? Canst thoa not run with patience so short a race, when thou lookest to so long a rest ? Canst thou not watch one hour with Christ, that must reign with him to all eternity ? Dost thou begin to shrink at' sufferings for Christ, when thou must be in glory with him for ever? How short is the suffering ? how long is the reward ? Dost thou begin to think hardly of the dealing of the Lord, because his people are here afflicted, and made the scorn and byword of the world ? Why, is not eternity long enough for God to shew his love and bounty to his people in? Is not the day at hand, when Lazarus and the rich worldling both must hear, " But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented?" (Luke xvi. 25.) Did not that now come time enough which was the entrance of eternity? " Even Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God! Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." (Heb. xii. 2, 3.) Dost thou grudge at the prosperity of the wicked, and prevalency of the church's enemies ? Look then unto eternity, and bethink thee whether that be not long enough, for the saints to reign, and the wicked to be tormented. Wouldst thou have them in hell before their time ? Dost thou begin to doubt of the coming of Christ, or the truth of his promises, because he doth so long delay ? O what is a thousand years to eternity! Is there not yet time enough before thee, for Christ to make good all his promises in ? Were not those disciples sharply but justly rebuked as " fools and slow of heart to believe," that when their Lord had been but two days dead, were unbelievingly saying, ** We hoped this had been he that should have redeemed Israel?" O remember. Christian, in all thy darkness and ignorance of the difficult passages of Scrip-voL. xni. E

ture, or of Providence, that the things that are chained to eternity, cannot be perfectly understood by him that standeth in an inch * of time : but when eternity comes, thou shalt understand them. Remember when things seem crooked in this world, and the best are lowest, and the worst are highest, that eternity is long enough to set all straight. Remember when sinners crow and triumph, that eternity is long enough for their complaints. In thy poverty, and pain, and longest afflictions, remember that eternity is long enough for thy relief. If thy sorrow be long, and thy comforts short, remember that eternity is long-enough for thy joys. Cannot we be content to take up short in this life, when we believe eternity ? Dost thou stagger at the length or strength of thy temptations ? and art thou ready to draw back and venture upon sin? Why, what temptation can there be, that should not be lighter than a feather, if eternity be put against it in the scales ? In a word, if there be any man that escapeth the foolish seductions of this world, and useth it as not abusing it, and hath all his worldly accommodations as if he had none, it is he that fixeth his eye upon eternity, and seeth that the fashion of these lower things doth pass away. (1 Cor. vii. 29—31.) No man can be ignorant of the necessity and worth of a holy life, that discerneth that the eternal God is the end of it. The right apprehensions of God's eternity (supposing him our end, which is further to be manifested in its place), is a most powerful antidote against all sin, and a most powerful composer of a distempered mind, and a most powerful means to keep up all the powers of the soul in a resolute, vigorous, cheerful motion to the eternal God, for whom and by whom it was created.

CHAP. VI.

6. The next attribute of God, that is to make its impress on us, is, that he is a Spirit. In this one are these three especially comprehended : 1. That he is simple, and not material or compounded as bodies are : 2. That he is invisible, and not to be seen as bodies are : 3. That he is immortal and incorruptible, and not subject to death or change, as bodies are.

1. As Simplicity signifieth unity, in opposition to multiplicity, we have spoken of it before. As it is opposite to

i

all materiality, mixture or composition, we are now to speak of it: And the believing thoughts of God's immateriality and simplicity, should have these three effects upon the soul. 1. It should do much to win the heart to God, and cause it to close with him as its felicity ; because as he hath no matter or mixture, so he hath nothing but pure and perfect goodness, and therefore there is nothing in him to discourage the soul. The creatures have evil in them with their good, and by contrary qualities do hurt us when they help us, and displease us when they please us; but in God there is nothing but infinite goodness. And should not the soul adhere to him, where it is sure to find nothing but simple, pure, and unmixed good? The creatures are all liable to some exceptions : in one thing they help us, but in another they hinder us ; in one thing they are suitable to us, and in another thing unsuitable ! But God is liable to no exceptions. This will for ever confound the ungodly that give not up themselves unto him : they did even for a thing of naught forsake that God that was purely and simply good, and against whom they had no exceptions. Had there been any thing in God to discourage the soul, or which his most malicious enemy could blame, the ungodly soul had some excuse. But this will stop all the mouths of the condemned, that they had nothing to say against the Lord ; and yet they had no mind to him, no hearts for him, in comparison of the vain, vexatious creatures.

2. The Simplicity of God should make us know the imperfection and vanity of all the creatures that are compounded things ; and so should help to alienate us from them. Our friends have in them perhaps much holiness, but mixed with much sin. They may have much knowledge ; but mixed with much ignorance. Their humility is mixed with pride ; their meekness with some passions, their love with selfishness, and a small matter will cause them to distaste us: they may be much for God; but withal they may do much against him. They help the church ; but through their weakness they may lamentably detract or wrong it: they are able to help us but in part; and willing but in part; and they have usually interests of their own, that are inconsistent with ours. We have no commodity, but hath its discommodity: our houses, our families, our neighbours, our callings, our cattle, our land, our countries.

churches, ministers, magistrates, laws and judgments, yea, even health, and plenty, and peace itself, all have their mixture of bitterness or danger, and those the most dangerous commonly that have least bitterness. But in God there is none of all this mixture, but pure uncompounded good, " He is light, and with him is no darkness." (1 John i. 5.) Indeed there is somewhat in God that an ungodly man dis-tasteth, and that seemeth in the state that he is in to be against him, and hurtful to him: as is his justice, holiness, truth, &c. But justice is not evil, because it doth condemn a thief or murderer : meat is not bad, because the sick distaste it. It is the cross position of the sinful soul, or his enmity to the Lord that makes the Lord to use him as an enemy. Let him but become a subject fit for sweeter dealing from God, and he is sure to find it. Leave then the compounded, self-contradicting creature, and adhere to the pure, simple Deity.

3. God's Simplicity must draw the soul to a holy simplicity, that it may be like to God. We that serve a pure, simple God, must do it with simple, pure affections, and not with hypocrisy, or a double heart. His interest in us should be maintained with a holy jealousy, that no other interest mix itself therewith. The soul should attain to a holy simplicity by closing with the simple, infinite God, and suffering nothing to be a sharer with him in our superlative affections. All creatures must keep their places in our hearts, and that is only in a due subordination and subserviency to the Lord: but nothing should take up the least of that estimation, those affections, or endeavours that are his own peculiar. God will not accept of half a heart: A double-minded, double-hearted, double-faced, or double-tongued person, is contrary to the holy simplicity of a saint. As we would not bow the knee to any gods but one, so neither should we bow the heart or life to them. We should know what is God's prerogative, and that we should keep entirely for him. A subordinate esteem, and love, and desire the creature may have, as it revealeth God to us, or leadeth to him, or helpeth us in his work : but it should not have the least of his part in our esteem, or love, or desire. This is the chastity, the purity, the integrity of the soul. It is the mixture, impurity, corruption and confusion of our souls, when any thing is taken

ill with God. See therefore, Christian, that iii thy heart thou have no God but one, and that he have all thy heart, and soul, and strength, as far as thou canst attain it. And because there vt^ill be still in imperfect souls, some sinful mixture of the creature's interest with God's, let it be the work of thy life to be watching against it, and casting it out, and cleansing thy heart of it, as thou wouldst do thy food if it fall into the dirt. For whatever is added to God in thy affections, doth make no better an increase there, than the adding of earth unto thy gold, or of dung unto thy mieat, or of corrupted humours and sickness to thy body. Mixture will make no better work.

It may be thy rejoicing, if thou have " the testimony of a good conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, and not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, thou hast had thy conversation in the world." (2 Cor. i. 12.) It is the state of hypocrisy, when one God is openly professed and worshipped, and yet the creature lieth deepest and nearest to the heart.

2. The Invisibility of God also must have its due effects upon us. And, 1. It must warn us, that we picture not God to our eyesight, or in our fancies in any bodily shape. Saith the prophet, *' To whom will you liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him ?" (Isa. xl. 18. 25.) " No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of his Father, he hath declared him," (John i. 18,) and therefore we must conceive of him but as he is declared, " Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father." (John vi. 46.)

If you ask me, How then you should conceive of God, if not in any bodily shape ? I answer. Get all these attributes, and relations of God to make their proper impress upon thy soul, as now I am teaching you, and then you will have the true conceiving of God. This question therefore is to be answered at the end of this discourse, when you have seen all the attributes of God together, and heard what impression they must make upon you.

2. This must teach us, to think most highly of the things that are invisible, and more meanly of these visible things. Let it be the property of a beast, and not of a man, to know nothing but what he seeth or hath seen: Let it be

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the mark of the brutish infidels, and not of" Christians, to doubt of the invisible things, because they are invisible ; or to think that things visible are more excellent or sure. As the senses are more ignoble than the intellect, (a beast having as perfect senses as a man, and yet no reasonable understanding) so the objects of sense must proportionably be below the objects of the understanding, as such. The grossest and most palpable objects are the basest. It is the subtile part that is called the spirits; which being drawn out of plants or other vegetables, is most powerful and excellent, and valued, when the earthly dregs are cast away as little worth. It is that subtile part in our blood that is called the spirits, that hath more of the virtue of life, and doth more of the works than the feculent, gross and earthly part. The air and wind have as true a being as the earth, and a more excellent nature, though it be more gross and they invisible. The body is not so excellent as the invisible soul. Invisible things are as real as visible, and as suitable to our more noble, invisible part, as visible things to our fleshly, baser part.

3. The Invisibility of God must teach us to live a life of faith, and to get above a sensual life : and it must teach us to value the faith of the saints, as knowing its excellency and necessity. Invisible objects have the most perfect excellent reality; and therefore faith hath the pre-eminence above sense. Natural reason can live upon things not seen, if they have been seen, or can be known by natural evidence (subjects obey a prince that they see not: and fear a punishment which they see not: and the nature of man is afraid of the devils, though we see them not). But faith liveth upon such invisible things, as mortal eye did never see, nor natural ordinary evidence demonstrate, but are revealed only by the word of God : though about many of its invisible objects, faith hath the consent of reason for its encouragement. Value not sight and sense too much, think not all to be mere uncertainties and notions that are not the objects of sense. We should not have heard that God is a spirit, if corporal substances had not a baser kind of being than spirits : Intellection is a more noble operation than sense. If there be any thing properly called sense in heaven, it will be as far below the pure intellective intuition of the Lord, as the glorified body will be below the

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THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 55

glorified soul. But what that difference will be, we cannot now understand. Fix not your minds on sensible things. Remember that your God, your home, your portion, are unseen : and therefore live in hearty affections to them, and serious prosecution of them, as if you saw them. Pray, as if you saw God, and heaven, and hell. Hear, as if you saw him that sends his messenger to speak to you. Resist all the temptations to lust, and sensuality, and every sin, as you would do if you saw God stand by. Love him, and fear him, and trust him, and serve him, as you would do if you beheld him. *' Faith is the evidence of things not seen." (Heb. xi. 1.) Believing must be to you instead of seeing; and make you as serious about things unseen, as sensual men are about things sensible. In every thing that you see, remember it is he that is unseen that appeareth in them. He lighteth you by the sun ; he warmeth you by the fire ; he beareth you by the earth. See him in all these by the eye of faith.

3. The Immortality, Incorruptibility and Immutability of God, must, 1. Teach the soul to rise up from these mortal, corruptible, mutable things, and to fix upon that God who is the immortal, incorruptible portion of his saints.

2. It must comfort and encourage all believers in the consideration of their felicity; and support them under the failings of all mortal, corruptible things. Our parents, and children, and friends, are mortal: they are ours to-day, and dead to-morrow : they are our delight to-day, and our sorrow and horror to-morrow : but our God is immortal. Our houses may be burned; our goods may be consumed or stolen ; our clothes will be worn out; our treasure here may be corrupted. But our God is unchangeable, the same for ever. Our laws and customs may be changed; our governors and privileges changed ^ our company, and employments, and habitation changed j but our God is never changed. Our estates may change from riches to poverty; and our names that were honoured, may incur disgrace. Our health may quickly turn to sickness, and our ease to pain: but still our God is unchangeable for ever. Our friends are inconstant and may turn our enemies: our peace may be changed into war; and our liberty into slavery : but our God doth never change. Time, will change customs, families, and all things here ; but it chungeth not

our God. The creatures are all but earthen metal, and quickly dashed in pieces: Our comforts are changeable; ourselves are changeable and mortal : but so is not our God.

3. And it should teach us to draw as near to God as we are capable, by unchangeable, fixed resolutions, and constancy of endeavours; and to be still the same as we are at the best.

4. It should move us also to be more desirous of passing into the state of immortality, and to long for our unchangeable habitation, and our immortal, incorruptible bodies, and to possess the " kingdom that cannot be moved." (Heb. xii. 28.) And let not the mutability of things below much trouble us, while our Rock, our Portion, is unmove-able. God waxeth not old: heaven doth not decay by duration : the glory of the blessed shall not wither, nor their sun set upon them, nor their day have any night; nor any mutations or commotions disturb their quiet possessions. O love and long for immortality and incorrup-tion !

CHAP. VII.

6. Having spoken of the effects of the attributes of God's essence as such, we must next speak of the effects of his three great attributes which some call subsisterUial, that is, his omnipotency, understanding, and will; or his infinite power, wisdom, and goodness : by which it hath been the way of the schoolmen and other divines to denominate the three persons, not without some countenance from Scripture phrase. The Father they call the infinite power of the Godhead ; and the Son, the wisdom and word of God, and of the Father; and the Holy Ghost, the love and goodness of God, of the Father, and Son. But, that these attributes, of power, understanding, and will, or power, wisdom, and goodness, are of the same importance with the terms of personality. Father, Son and Holy Ghost, we presume not to affirm. It sufBceth us, J. That God hath assumed these attributes to himself in Scripture. 2. And that man who beareth the natural image of God, hath power, understanding and will; and as he beareth the holy moral image of God, he hath a power to execute that which is good, and wisdom to direct, and goodness of will to determine for the execution: and so while God is seen of us in this glass of

man, we must conceive of him after the image that in man appeareth to us, and speak of him in the language of man, as he doth of himself.

And first. The Almightiness of God must make these impressions on our souls. 1. It must possess the soul with very awful, reverent thoughts of God ; and fill us continually with his holy fear. Infinite Greatness and Power, must have no common, careless thoughts, lest we blaspheme him in our minds, and be guilty of contempt. The dread of the heavenly Majesty should be still upon us ; and we must *• be in his fear all the day long.'' (Prov. xxiii. 17.) Not under that slavish fear that is void of love, as men fear an enemy, or hurtful creature, or that which is evil: for we have not such a Spirit from the Lord, nor stand in a relation of enmity and bondage to him : but reverence is necessary ; and from thence a fear of sinning and displeasing so great a God. ** The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Prov. i. 7; ix. 10 ; PsaL cxi. 10.) " By it men depart from evil." (Prov. xvi. 6.) Sin is for want of the fear of God. (Luke xxiii. 40 ; Prov. iii. 7; Jer, v. 24; Lev. XXV. 36.) The fear of God is often put for the whole new man, or all the work of grace within us, even the principle of new life. (Jer. ii. 19; xxxii. 40.) And it is often put for the whole work of religion, or service of God. (Psal. xxxiv. 11 ; Prov. i. 29 ; Psal. cxxx. 4; xxxiv. 9.) And therefore the godly are usually denominated, such as fear God. (Psal. XV. 4; xxii. 23; cxv, 11. 13; cxxxv. 20; xxiv. 7. 9, &c.) The godly are " devoted to the fear of God." (Psal. cxix. 38.) It is our " sanctifying the Lord in our hearts, that he be our fear and dread." (Isa. viii. 13.) If we fear him not, we take him not for our master. (Mai. i. 6.) Evangelical grace excludeth not this fear. (Luke xii. 5.) Though we receive a kingdom that cannot be moved, yet must our acceptable service of God, be with reverence and godly fear. (Heb. xii. 28.) With fear and trembling we must work out our salvation. (Phil. ii. 12.) In fear we must pass the time of sojourning here. (1 Pet. i. 17.) In it we must converse together. (Eph. v. 4.) Yea, holiness is to be perfected in the fear of God; (2 Cor. vii. 1 \) and that because we have the promises. The most prosperous churches walk in this fear, (Acts ix. 31.) It is a necessary means of preventing destruction; (Heb. xi. 7;) and of attaining salva-

tioii when we have the promises. (Heb. i. 7.) God puts this fear in the hearts of those that shall not depart from him. (Jer. xxxii. 40.) See therefore that the greatness of the Almighty God possess thy soul continually with his fear.

2. God's Almightiness should also possess us with holy admiration of him, and cause us in heart and voice to magnify him. O what a power is that which made the world of nothing ! which upholdeth the earth without any foundation but his will! which placed and maintaineth all things in their order in heaven and earth! which causeth so great and glorious a creature as the sun, that is so much bigger than all the earth, to move so many thousand miles in a few moments, and constantly to keep its time and course! that giveth its instinct to every brute, and causeth every part of nature to do its office ! By his power it is that every motion of the creature is performed, and that order is kept in the kingdoms of the world. " He made the heaven and the earth by his great power and stretched out arm, and nothing is too hard for him : The great, the mighty God, the Lord of Hosts is his name ; great in counsel, and mighty in works." (Jer. xxxii. 17—19.) "The great, the mighty, the terrible God." (Neh. ix. 32.) To him therefore that alone doth great wonders we must give the greatest praise. (Psal. cxxxvi. 4.) " O how great are his works, and his thoughts are very deep." (Psal. xcii. 5.) '* Great is our Lord and of great power." (Psal. cxlvii. 5.) And therefore in Zion must he be great. (Psal. xcix. 2.) And his great and terrible name must be praised.

3. In the church where he is known, must his name be great. (Psal. Ixxvi. 1.) "For we know that the Lord is great, and our God is above all gods." (Psal. cxxxv. 5.) His saints delight to praise his greatness. " Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God thou art very great! Thou art clothed with honour and majesty, who coverest thyself with light as with a garment, who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain, who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters, who maketh the clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind, who maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flame of fire," &c. (Psal. civ. 1—4.) From Almightiness all things have their being, and therefore mu^t honour the Almighty " Alpha and Omega, the begin*

d

ning and the ending; saith the Lord ; which is and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." (Rev. i. 8.) They that magnify the Lord with the song of Moses and of the Lamb say, " Great and marvellous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints." (Rev. xv. 2.)

3. The Almightiness of God must imprint upon our souls a strong and steadfast confidence in him, according to the tenor of his covenant and promises. Nothing more certain than that impotency and insufficiency will never cause him to fail us, or to break his word. O what an encouragement is it to the saints, that they are built on such an impregnable rock, and that Omnipotency is engaged for them! and O, what a shame is this to our unbelief, that ever we should distrust Omnipotency!

If God be Almighty, 1. Remember in thy greatest wants, that there is no want but he can easily and abundantly supply.

2. Remember in thy greatest sufferings, pains, or dangers, that no pain is so great which he cannot mitigate and remove, and no danger so great from which he is not able to deliver thee. The servants of Christ dare venture on the flames, because they trust upon the Almighty. (Dan. iii, 16—18.) In confidence on Omnipotency they dare stand against the threatenings of the greatest upon earth. " We are not careful (said those three believers to the king) to answer thee in this matter: if it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us," &c. He that is afraid to stand upon a slender bow, or upon the unstable waters, is not afraid to stand upon the earth ; and he that is afraid of robbers when he is alone, is bolder in a conquering army ; what will man trust, if he distrust Omnipotency ? Where can we be safe, if not in the love, the covenant, the hands of the Almighty God? When storms and winds had frighted the disciples, lest they should be drowned when Christ was in the ship, their sin was aggravated by the presence of their powerful Lord, whose mighty works they had often seen ; " Why fear ye, (saith he) O ye of little faith !" (Matt. viii. 26.) Cannot he rebuke our winds and waves! and will not all obey the rebukes of the Almighty? When thou hast a want that God cannot supply, or a sickness that he cannot cure, or a

danger that he cannot prevent, then be thou fearful, and distrust him and spare not.

3. Remember also in thy lowest state, and in the church's greatest sufferings or dangers, that the Almighty is able to raise up his church or thee even in a moment.

If you say, that it is true God can do it, but we know not whether he will; I answer, 1. I shall shew you in due place, how far he hath revealed his will for such deliverances. In sum, we have his promise, *' that all things shall work together for our good," (Rom. viii. 28,) and what would we have more ! Would you have that which.is evil for you ?

2. At present, see that Omnipotency do establish thy confidence so far as it is concerned in the cause. As 1. Be sure that no work is too hard for the Almighty; do not so much as in the thoughts of thy heart, make question of his power, and say with those unbelievers, *' Can God furnish a table in the wilderness ? can he give bread also ? can he provide flesh ?" (Psal. Ixxviii. 19,20.) If really thou distrust not the power of God, believe then the most difficult or improbable things, as well as the easiest and most probable, if God reveal or promise them. The resurrection seemeth improbable to impotent man; but God hath promised it; and nothing is difficult to Omnipotency. The calling of the Jews ; the ruin of the Turk; the downfall of the Pope; the unity of Christians, do all seem to us unlikely things; but all things to God are not only possible but easy. He is at no more labour to make a world, than to make a straw, or make a fly. " Whatsoever pleased the Lord, that did he in heaven and earth, in the sea and in the depths." (Psal. cxxxv. 6.) Dost thou think it improbable that ever all thy sins should be conquered; and that ever thy soul should live with Christ among the holy saints and angels ; and that ever thy body, that must first be dust, should shine as the stars in the firmament of God? And why doth it seem to thee improbable ? Is it not as easy to God as to cause the earth to stand on nothing, and the sun to run its daily course ? If God had promised thee to live a day longer, or any small and common things, thou couldst then believe him ; and is it not as easy to him to advance thee to everlasting glory, as to cause thee to live another hour, or to keep a hair of thy head from perishing ? Sin is too

strong for thee to overcome, but not for God. Death is too strong for thee to conquer, but not for Christ. Heaven is too high for thee to reach by thy own strength; but he that is there, and prepared it for thee, can take thee thither. Trust God or trust nothing; he that cannot trust in him shall despair for ever; for all other confidence will deceive him. '* They that know his name, will put their trust in him; for the Lord hath not forsaken them that seek him." (Psal. ix. 10.) All those that trust in him shall rejoice, and ever shout for joy, because he defendeth them. (Psal. v. 11.) '* Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies." (Psal. xl. 4.) "Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." (Prov. xxix, 25.) O what hath Almightiness done in the world; and what for the church ; and what for thee; and yet wilt thou distrust him ? " O how great is the goodness that he hath laid up for them that fear him; which he hath wrought for them that trust in him before the sons of men !" (Psal. xxxi. 19.) " The Lord redeemeth the souls of his servants, and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate." (Psal. xxxiv. 22.) Are thy straits too great; thy work too hard ? " Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also to him and he shall bring it to pass." (Psal. xxxvii. 5.) In thy lowest state look up to the Almighty, and say, " What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee : In God have I put my trust; I will not fear, what man can do unto me." (Psal. Ivi. 3, 4.) " The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer: my God ; my strength; in whom I will put my trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." (Psal. xviii. 2.) He is a buckler to all that trust in him. " Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God." (Psal. xx. 7.) Trust not in the creature; that is, in vanity and infirmity. There is not almightiness in man, or any other creature : " It is better therefore to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man : it is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in princes." (Psal. cxviii. 7, 8.) What a working passage is that, Jer. xvii. 5—7, " Thus saith the Lord, cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord ! for he shall be like the heath in the deserts, and shall not see when good

cometh. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is; for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh ."

2. Trust also in God, as one that is assured that no enemy is too strong for the Almighty: Alas, what is an army of dust to Omnipotency! If the Lord do but arise, his enemies will be scattered, and they that hate him will flee before him; as smoke is driven away, and as wax melteth before the fire, the wicked shall perish at the presence of the Lord. (Psal. Ixviii. 1, 2.) While the Lord of Hosts is for us, we need not fear if hosts come against us ; at worst they can but kill our bodies; and " greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world." (1 John iv. 4.) O what a match have the miserable enemies of the church! what a work do they undertake? what a desperate attempt do they enterprise? to strive against Heaven, and overcome Omnipotency !

3. Trust in the Lord, as one that believeth that no means or instruments are too small or weak for Almightiness successfully to use. No matter who the instrument be, how mean, and weak, and despicable, if it be but an Almighty hand that uses it. A few poor fishermen and despised people, shall pull down Satan's kingdom in the world, and conquer the greatest, and bring in the nations to the faith, if Omnipotency be with them.

4. The Almightiness of God must fill our hearts with courage and resolution in his cause, and make us go on with the greatest alacrity in his work. Though we must be doves and lambs for innocency and meekness ; yet must we be soldiers for valour and stability. Shall we flag or shrink, that have Omnipotency on our side! Whoever scorneth thee, hateth thee, threateneth thee, imprisoneth thee, is not the Almighty enough to set against them all, for thy encouragement ?

5. The Almightiness of God must be the comfort of all that have interest in him. O, did the blind world but see Lim that his Omnipotent, or know the strength that is engaged for the weakest saint, they would soon see which is the strongest side, and which to cleave to for their security. O blessed people, that have the Almighty on their side, and

I

engaged with them against their enemies, and to do their works, and answer their desires ! How can any of them perish when the Almighty is engaged for their salvation ! " The Father is greater than all, and none shall take them out of his hands." (John x. 29.) How glad would men be in the beginning of a war, to know which side will prove the stronger, that they may join with that. Can the side that God is on be conquered ? If you are wise, observe what cause is his, and let that be yours. ** It is hard to kick against the pricks." Woe to those souls that the Almighty is against, and that dash themselves on the Rock that they should build on.

CHAP. VIII.

7. The next attribute that must work upon us, is the Infinite Wisdom or Omniscience of God. " His understanding is infinite." (Psal. cxlvii. 5.) And the impressions that this should make upon our souls, are these :

1. Delight in wisdom, that you may in your places be like to God. The new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." (Col. iii. 10.) If God be infinitely wise^ those then are the most excellent that are the wisest. Ignorance is the soul's blindness, and the privation of the image of God on the understanding. " Wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness." (Eccles. ii. 13.) To desire, as Adam did, any of that knowledge that God hath reserved to himself, or is unnecessary for us, is not indeed to be wise in our desires: unnecessary knowledge is but a trouble. But to know the Lord, and his revealed will, and the way of life, is the light and glory of our minds. He that hath lost his eyesight,, hath lost his principal natural delight, and is as one out of the world while he is in it. And the ignorant souls that are void of the heavenly illumination, must needs be void of the delights of grace ; and though they live in the visible church, where the beauty of holiness is the excellency of the saints, yet they do not see this beauty ; but are like the infidels that are out of the church, while they are in it. The blind are in continual danger; they know not where they set their feet; and they know not when to be confident, nor when to fear: sometimes they are afraid where there is no cause, because there may be cause for ought they know; and

sometimes they are fearless at the very brink of death, and little think of the evil that they are near. Why do our poor deluded people so boldly live in an unconverted state, but because they know not where they are? Why do they so carelessly lie down and rise in an unsanctified condition, unpardoned, unready for death and judgment, and under the condemnation of the law, but because they know not the misery or danger in which they stand ? Why do they go on so carelessly and wilfully in sin, and despise the counsel of their teachers, and of the Lord, and take a holy life as needless, but because they know not what they do? Men could not go so quietly or merrily to hell, with their eyes open, as they do when they are shut by ignorance. Whence is it, that such multitudes are still ungodly, under all the teachings and warnings of the Lord ; but because " they have their understandings darkened, being alienated from the life of God, by the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; and therefore many being past feeling, have given them over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." (Ephes. iv. 18,19.) Sin is the fruit of folly, and the greatest folly: they are " fools that make a jest of it." (Prov. xiv. 9.) And it is for " want of wisdom that they die." (Prov. x. 21; i.32.) The ignorant are prisoners to the prince of darkness. (Ephes. vi. 12; v. 8.) " Knowledge is despised by none but fools." (Prov. i. 7. 22.) The conquest of so many subtle enemies, the performance of so many spiritual duties, which we must go through, if we will be saved, are works too hard for fools to do. The saving of a man's soul, is a work that requireth the greatest wisdom, and therefore the illumination of the mind is God*s first work in the conversion of a sinner. (Acts xxvi. 18; Ephes. i. 18.) If Infinite Wisdom communicate to you but the smallest beam of heavenly light, it will change your minds, and make you other men than before, and set you on another course ; wisdom will be your guide, and keep you in safe paths; it will cause you to refuse the evil, and to choose the good: it will shew you true happiness, and the way to obtain it; it will cause you to foresee the evil, and escape it, when fools go on and are destroyed. (Prov. xxii. 3.) Wisdom will teach you to know the season, and redeem your time, and walk exactly, when folly will leave you to too late repentance. (Ephes. v. 15.) There is not a soul in hell but was

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.

65

brought thither by sinful folly ; nor is there a soul in heaven (of them at age) but by heavenly wisdom was conducted thither. In worldly matters the wicked may seem wisest; and many a saint may be very ignorant; but when you see the end, you will confess that those were the wise men that had wisdom to repel temptations, and to refuse the enticing baits of sin, and to make sure of everlasting joys.

O therefore apply your hearts to wisdom! Go to Christ for it, who is " the wisdom of God;" (1 Cor. i. 24 ;) and is appointed by him to be "our wisdom." (1 Cor. i. 30.) He will teach it you, who is the best Master in the world, so you will but keep in his school, that is, his church, and will humbly learn as little children, and apply yourselves submissively to his Spirit, word and ministers. " Ask wisdom of God, that giveth liberally and upbraideth not" with former ignorance. (James i. 5.) Think not any pains in holy means too much to get it. ** If thou wilt receive the words of God, and hide his commandments with thee, and incline thy heart to wisdom, and apply it to understanding; yea if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God ; for the Lord giveth wisdom; out of his mouth is knowledge and understanding." (Prov. ii. 1—5.) And fear not being a loser by thy cost or labour. For " Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding; for the merchandise of it is better than silver, and the gain thereof than of fine gold : she is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire, are not to be compared to her; her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." (Prov. iii. 13—18.)

2. The Infinite Wisdom of God, must resolve you to take him for your principal Teacher, Counsellor and Director, in all your undertakings. Who would go seek the advice of a fool, when he may have Infallible Wisdom to direct him! In a work of so great difficulty and concernment, a work that hell, and earth, and flesh, opposeth ; a work that our everlasting state dependeth on ; I think it behoveth us to take the best advice that we can get. And who knoweth the will of God, like God ! or who knoweth the

VOL. XIII. F

certain means of salvation, like him that is the Author and Giver of Salvation! Would you know whether it be best to live a mortified holy life; who shall be your counsellor ? If you advise with the flesh, you know that it would be pleased. If you advise with the world of wicked men, you know that they would be imitated, and judge as they are; and are not like to be wise for you, that are so foolish for themselves, as to part with heaven for a merry dream. If you advise with the devil, you know he would be obeyed, and have company in his misery. You can advise with none but God, but such as are your enemies : And will you ask an enemy, a deadly enemy, what course you should take to make you happy? Will you ask the devil how you may be saved? Or, will you ask the blind, ungodly world, what course you should take to please the Lord ? Or, will you ask the flesh, by what means you may subdue it and become spiritual ? If you take advice of Scripture, of the Spirit, of a holy, well-informed minister or Christian, or of a renewed well-informed conscience, I take this for your advising with the Lord ; but besides these that are his mouth, you can ask advice of none but enemies. But if they were never so much your friends, and wanted wisdom, they could but ignorantly seduce you. And do you think that any of them all, is as wise as God ? It is the constant course of a worldly man to advise with the world, and of carnal men to advise with the flesh; and therefore it is that they are hurried to perdition. The flesh is brutish, and will lead you to a brutish life; and " if you live after it," undoubtedly " you shall die j'^I^*^"^' viii* 13;) and " if you sow to it, you shall but reap corruption." (Gal. vi. 6, 7.) If you are tempted to lust, will you ask the flesh that tempteth you, whether you should yield ? If the cup of excess be offered to you, or flesh-pleasing feasts prepared for you, will you ask the flesh whether you should take them or refuse them? You may easily know what counsel it will give you. The counsel of God, and of your flesh, are contrary; and therefore the lives of the carnal and spiritual man are contrary. And will you venture on the advice of a brutish appetite, and refuse the counsel of the all-knowing God ! Such as is your guide and counsellor such will be your end. Never man miscarried by obeying God ; and never man sped well

by obeying the flesh ; God leadeth no man to perdition, and the flesh leadeth no man to his salvation. God's motions are all for our eternal good, though they seem to be for our temporal hurt: The motions of the flesh are for our eternal hurt, though at present they seem to be for our corporal benefit. If at any time you be at a loss ; and your carnal friends, or your commodity, or pleasure adviseth you one way, and the word of God, and his faithful ministers advise you another way ; use but your reason well, and consider whether God or those that contradict him be the wiser, and accordingly suit your practice. Alas, man, thy friend is itrnorant, and knows not what is good for himself. Thy flesh is ignorant, and knows not what is good for thy soul! But God knoweth all things. Your flesh and friends do feel what pleaseth them at present, and judge accordingly: but what will be hereafter they understand not, or consider not: But God knoweth as well what will be, as what is : he counselleth you as one that knoweth how your actions will appear at last, and what it is that will save you or undo you, to all eternity. If you be but sick, it is two to one but the counsel of your physician and of your appetite will differ. And if you obey your physician before your appetite, for your health or life, should you not obey God before it, for your salvation? Do you think in your consciences that any that persuade you to a careless, worldly, fleshly life, are as wise as God that persuadeth you to the contrary ? You dare not say so with your tongues! and yet the most dare say so with their lives. O how justly do the ungodly perish, that deliberately choose a brutish appetite, a malignant world, and a malicious devil, as a wiser or fitter conductor than the Lord ! But" blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, but his delight is in the law of the Lord ;" (Psal. i. 1,2;) and woe to the ungodly, that reject and set at nought the counsel of the Lord, (Prov. i. 25. 130 ; Luke vii. 30,) and will have none of it; that wait not for his counsel; (Psal.cvi. 13;) that " rebel against the words of God, and contemn the counsel of the Most High." (Psal. cvii. 11.) And woe to them "that take counsel against the Lord and his Christ, that they may break asunder his bonds, and cast away his obligations." (Psal. ii. 1—3.) And woe to them that are given up to the lusts of their own lie'irts, and to walk in their own counsels. (Psal. Ixxxi. 12.) For by their !

C8 THE DIVINE LIFE.

own counsels shall they fall. (Psal. v. 10.) But had they hearkened to the Lord, and walked in his way, with the fulness of his blessing would he have satisfied them. (Psal. Ixxxi. 13. 16.) Resolve therefore, whatever the flesh or the world say, that the testimonies of God shall be your counsellors; (Psal. cxix. 24;) and bless the Lord that giveth thee counsel; (Psal. xvi. 7;) for his counsel is infallible; having guided thee by his counsel, he will bring thee to his glory. (Psal. lxxiii.24.)

3. The Infinite Wisdom of God, must resolve the soul to rest in his determinations. We are most certain that God is not deceived. Though all men seem liars to you, let God be true: for it is impossible for him to lie. (Heb. vi. 18.) If our reason be to seek, so is not God. When we are saying with Nicodemus, ** How can these things be?" God knows how : and it is enough for us to know that they are so. If Infinite Wisdom say the word, believe it, though all the world contradict it. Though proud unbelievers say, that the words of God are improbable, let them know that God is not at a loss when men's dark understandings are at a loss. The sun is not taken out of the firmament, whenever a man closeth or loseth his eyes. What! will those cavillers puzzle the Almighty ! will they pose Omniscience ? Doth it follow that the course of the planets, and the heavens, and all the creatures are out of order, if these silly moles understand not the order of them ? No more will it follow that any word of God is false, or any rule of God is crooked, because they see not its truth and rectitude. Shall dust and ashes judge the Lord? "Who hath been his counsellor," and with whom hath he advised for the making, redeeming, or governing of the world ? There is no rest to an inquisitive soul, but in the infinite wisdom of the Lord. Find once that it is his word, and inquire no further. It is madness to demand a further proof. As all goodness is comprised in his will and love; so all truth is comprised in his wisdom and revelations. There are no arguments but what are lower and subordinate to this. And therefore if thy reason be at a loss, as to the cause or manner, yet hast thou the greatest reason to believe that all is just and true that proceedeth from the wisdom of the Lord. If flesh and blood, and all the world gainsay it, yet rest in the word of God.

4. And that is the next effect that God's Omniscience should have upon our minds. Take all the sayings of men as folly, that are against the Lord. Let them be high or low, learned or unlearned, if they contradict the God of infinite wisdom, take it but as the words of a distracted man. Did you ever meet with any man of them, that durst say he was wiser than God himself? Herod, that was eaten to death by vermin, was applauded by the flattering crowd, but with this acclamation, ** It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.'' (Acts xii. 22.) And will you say of any man that he is wiser than God ? If you dare not say so, how dare you hear them and believe them against the word of God ', how dare you be drawn from a holy life, or from a self-denying duty, or from the truth of God, by the words of a man, yea, perhaps, of a very sot, that speaks against the word of God! " To the law, and to the testimony ; if they speak not according to these, it is because there is no light in them." (Isa. viii. 20.)

5. The Infinite Wisdom of God, should establish our confidence concerning the fulfilling of all his word. He will not fail for want of knowledge : When he spoke that prophecy, that promise, or that threatening, he perfectly knew all things that would come to pass, to all eternity. He knew therefore what he said when he gave out his word, and therefore will fulfil it. Heaven and earth may pass away, but one iota or tittle of his word shall not pass away till all be accomplished. (Matt. v. 18.)

6. And from the Infinite Wisdom of God, the church must be encouraged in its greatest straits, and against all the cunning and subtlety of their enemies. Are we ever in such straits that God knows not how to bring us out? When we see no way for our deliverance, doth it follow that he sees none? If cunning serpents are too subtle for us,

B do we think that they can overwit the Lord? What had become of us long ago, if God had not known whatever is plotted at Rome, or Spain, or hell, against us; if lie know-eth not of all the consultations of the conclave, and of all the contrivances of Jesuits and Friars; and of all the jug-glings of the masked emissaries ; if God had not known of Faux and his powder mine, it might have blown up all our hopes. But while we know that God is in their councils, and heareth every word they say, and knoweth every secret

of their hearts, and every mischief which they enterprise, let us do our duty, and rest in the wisdom of our great Protector, who will prove all his adversaries to have played the fool. For as sure as his omnipotency shall be glorified by overtopping all opposing powers, so sure shall his infinite wisdom be glorified, by conquering and befooling the wisdom that is against him.

7. Lastly, if God be infinite in knowledge, it must resolve us all to live accordingly. O remember whatever thou thinkest, that God is acquainted with all thy thoughts. And wilt thou feed on lustful, or covetous, or malicious, or unbelieving thoughts, in the eye of God? Remember in thy prayers and every duty, that he knows the very frame of all thy affections, and the manner as well as the matter of thy services. And wilt thou be cold and careless in the sight of God? O remember in thy most secret sins, and thy works of darkness, that nothing is unknown to God ; and that before him thou art in the open light: and fearest thou not the face of the Almighty ? Wilt thou do that when he knoweth it, that thou wouldst not do if man did know ? He knows whether thou deceive thy neighbour, or deal uprightly! Defraud not therefore, for the Lord is the avenger. (1 Thess. iv. 6.) Do nothing that thou wouldst not have God to know; for certainly he knoweth all things. Shall he not see, that made and illu-minateth the eye; and shall he not hear that made both tongue and ears ; and shall he not know that giveth us understanding, and by whom we know? (Psal. xciv. 8—10.)

And let this be thy comfort in thy secret duties. He that knoweth thy heart, will not overlook the desires of thy heart, though thou hadst not words as thou desirest to express them. And he that knoweth thy uprightness, will justify thee, if all the world condemn thee. He that seeth thee in thy secret alms, or prayers, or tears, will openly reward thee. (Matt. vi. 4. 6.) Let this also comfort thee under all the slanders of malicious or misinformed men: He that must be thy judge and theirs, is acquainted with the truth ; who will certainly " bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon-day." (Psal. xxxvii. C.) O how many souls are justified with the Omniscient God, that are condemned by the malignant world. And how many blots will be wiped off before the world at the

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day of judgment, that here did lie upon the names of faithful, upright men ! O how many hypocrites shall be then disclosed ! And what a cutting thought should it be to the dissembler, that his secret falsehood is known to God; and when he hath the reputation that he sought with men, " he hath his reward !" (Matt. vi. 2.) For it is a sadder reward that God will give him.

CHAP. IX.

8. The next of God's attributes that must make its impress on the soul, is his Infinite Goodness. The denomination of goodness (as all other his attributes) is fetched from, and suited to the capacity or affections of the soul of man. That which is truly amiable is called good. Not as if there were no goodness but what is a means to man's felicity, as some most sottishly have affirmed ; for our end and felicity itself, and God as he is perfect and excellent in himself, is more amiable than all means.

In three respects therefore it is that God is called good or amiable to man. 1. In that he is infinitely excellent and perfect in himself. For the love of friendship is a higher love than that of desire; and the most perfect sort of love is that which wholly carrieth the lover from himself to the perfect object of his love. The soul delighteth to contemplate excellency, when the excellency itself and not the delight, is the ultimate end of that desire and contemplation.

2. God is called good, as he is the pattern and fountain of all moral good; as he maketh us righteous, holy laws, commanding moral good, and forbidding and condemning evil. And thus his goodness is his holiness and righteousness, his faithfulness and truth.

3. God is called good, as he is the fountain of all the creature's happiness, and as he is bountiful and gracious, and ready to do good, and as he is the felicitating end and object of the soul.

And this Infinite Goodness must have these effects upon us. 1. It must possess us with a superlative love to God. This blessed attribute it is that makes us saints indeed, and maketh that impression on us, which is as the heart of the new creature. It is goodness that produceth love. And love is that grace that closeth with God as our happiness and end, and is the felicitating enjoying grace. Without it we

are but " as sounding brass, or tinkling cymbals," whatever our gifts and parts may be. (1 Cor. xiii.) Love is the very excellency of the soul, as it closeth with the infinite excellency of God. It is the very felicity of the soul, as it^ en-joyeth him that is our felicity. Most certainly the prevailing love of God, is the surest evidence of true sanctification. He that hath most love hath most grace, and is the best and strongest Christian; and he that hath least love, is the worst or weakest. Knowledge and faith are but to work our hearts to love; and when love is perfect, they have done their work. (1 Cor. xii. 31 ; xiii. 8—10. 13.) Teaching and distant revelations will not be for ever; and therefore such knowledge and faith as we have now, will not be for ever. But God will be for ever amiable to us, and therefore love will endure for ever. The goodness of God is called love, and as God is love, so " he that dwelleth in love doth dwell in God, and God in him." (1 John iv. 16.) The knowledge of divine goodness makes us good, because it maketh us love him that is good. It is love that acteth most purely for God. Fear is selfish, and hath somewhat of aversation. Though there be no evil in God for us to fear, yet is there such good in him that will bring the evil of punishment upon the evil; and this they fear. But love doth resign the soul to God, and that in the most congruous, acceptable manner. Make it therefore your daily work to possess your souls with the love of God. Love him once, and all that he saith and doth will be more acceptable to you; and all that you say or do in love will be more acceptable unto him. Love him and you will be loath to offend him; you will be desirous to please him; you will be satisfied in his love. Love him and you may be sure that he loveth you. " Love is the fulfilling of his law." (Rom. xiii. 10.) And that you may love him, this must be your work, to believe and contemplate his goodness. Consider daily of the infinite goodness or amiableness of his nature, and of his excellency appearing in his works, and of the perfect holiness of his laws. But especially see him in the face of Christ, and behold his love in the design of our redemption, in the person of the Redeemer, and in the promises of grace, and in all the benefits of redemption. Yea look by faith to heaven itself, and think how you must for ever live in the perfect, blessed love of infinite enjoyed Goodness. As it is the knowledge and

sight of gold, or beauty, or any other earthly vanity, that kindleth the love of them in the minds of men ; so is it the knowledge and serious contemplation of the goodness of God that must make us love him, if ever we will love him.

The Goodness of God must also encourage the soul to trust him. For Infinite Good will not deceive us. Nor can we fear any hurt from him, but what we wilfully bring upon ourselves. If I knew but which were the best and most loving man in the world, I could trust him above all men ; and I should not fear any injury from him. How many friends have I that I dare trust with my estate and life, because I know that they have love and goodness in their low degree! And shall I not trust the blessed God, that is love itself, and infinitely good? whatever he will be in justice to the ungodly, I am sure he " delighteth not in the death of sinners, but rather that they turn and live;" and that he will not cast off the soul that loveth him, and would fain be fully conformed to his will. It cannot be that he should spurn at them that are humbled at his feet, and long, and pray, and seek, and mourn after nothing more than his grace and love! Think not of God as if he had less of love and goodness, than the creature has: If you have high and confident thoughts of the goodness and fidelity of any man on earth, and dare quietly trust him with your life and all; see that you have much higher thoughts of God, and trust him with greater confidence, lest you set him below the silly creature in the attributes of his goodness, which his glory and your happiness require you to know.

3. The Infinite Goodness of God, must call off our hearts from the inordinate love of all created good whatever. Who would stoop so low as earth, that may converse with God ? And who would feed on such poor delights, that hath tasted the graciousness of the Lord? Nothing more sure than that the love of God doth not reign in that soul, where the love of the world, or of fleshly lust, or pleasure reigneth. (1 John ii. 15.) Had worldlings, or sensual, or ambitious men, but truly known the goodness of the Lord, they could never have so fallen in love with those deceitful vanities. If we could but open their eyes to see the loveliness of their Redeemer, they would soon be weaned from other loves. Would you conquer the love of riches, or honour, or any thing else that corrupteth your affections; O try this sure

and powerful way ! Draw nigh to God, and take the fullest view thou canst, in thy most serious meditation of his infinite goodness, and all things else will be vile in thy esteem,. and thy heart will soon contemn them and forget them, and thou wilt never dote upon them more.

4. The Infinite Goodness of God, should increase repentance, and win the soul to a more resolute, cheerful service of the Lord. O what a heart is that which can offend, and wilfully offend, so good a God! This is the odiousness of sin, that it is an abuse of an Infinite Good. This is the most heinous, damning aggravation of it, that Infinite Goodness could not prevail with wretched souls against the empty, flattering world ! but that they suffered a dream and shadow, to weigh down Infinite Goodness in their esteem. And is it possible for worse than this to be found in man ? He that had rather the sun were out of the firmament, than a hair were taken off his head, were unworthy to see the light of the sun. And surely he that will turn away from God himself, to enjoy the pleasures of his flesh, is unworthy to enjoy the Lord. It is bad enough that Augustine in one of his Epistles saith of sottish worldly men, that ' they had rather there were two stars fewer in the firmament, than one cow fewer in their pastures, or one tree fewer in their woods or grounds;' but it is ten thousand times a greater evil that every wicked man is guilty of, that will rather forsake the living God, and lose his part in Infinite Goodness, than he will let go his filthy and unprofitable sins. O sinners, as you love your souls, *'despise not the riches of the goodness, and forbearance, and longsufiering of the Lord ; but know that his goodness should lead you to repentance." (Rom. li. 4.) Would you spit at the sun ? Would you revile the stars ? Would you curse the holy angels ? If not, O do not ten thousandfold worse, by your wilful sinning against the Infinite Goodness itself.

But for you Christians, that have seen the amiableness of the Lord, and tasted of his perfect goodness, let this be enough to melt your hearts, that ever you have wilfully sinned against him: O what a good did you contemn in the days of your unregeneracy, and in the hour of your sin! Be not so ungrateful and disingenuous as to do so again. Remember whenever a temptation comes, that it would entice you from the Infinite Good. Ask the tempter, man or

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 'H

devil, whether he hath more than an Infinite Good to ofter you; and whether he can outbid the Lord for your affection ?

And now for the time that is before you, how cheerfully should you address yourselves unto his service ! and how delightfully should you follow it on from day to day! What manner of persons should the servants of this God be, that are called to nothing but what is good ! How good a Master! how good a work ! and how good company, encouragements and helps ! and how good an end ! All is good, because it is the Infinite Good, that we serve and seek. And shall we be loitering, unprofitable servants!

5. Moreover, this Infinite Goodness should be the matter of our daily praises. He that cannot cheerfully magnify this attribute of God, so suitable to the nature of the will, is surely a stranger to the praises of the Lord. The goodness of God should be a daily feast to a gracious soul, and should continually feed our cheerful praises, as the spring or cistern fills the pipes. I know no sweeter work on earth, nay, I am sure there is no sweeter, than for faithful sanctified souls, rejoicingly to magnify the goodness of the Lord, and join together in his cheerful praises. O Christians, if you would taste the joys of saints, and live like the redeemed of the Lord indeed, be much in the exercise of this heavenly work, and with holy David, make it your employment, and say " O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee !" (Psal. xxxi. 19.) " The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord!" (Psal. xxxiii. 5.) What then are the heavens? " Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: thou O Lord hast prepared thy goodness for the poor." " O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men ! for he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." (Psal. cvii. 8, 9.) " The goodness of God endureth continually." (Psal. lii. 1.) '* Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart." (Psal. Ixxiii. 1.) " O taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man that trusteth in him." (PsaL xxxiv. 8.) " the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, his truth endureth from generation to generation." (Psal. c. 5.) " The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works." (Psal. cxlv. 9.) " O praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing

praises to his name, for it is pleasant." (Psal. cxxxv. 3.) Call him as David, " My Goodness, and my Fortress, my High Tower, and my Deliverer, and my Shield, and he in whom I trust." (Psal. cxliv. 2.) " Let men therefore speak of the glorious honour of his Majesty and of his wondrous works: let them abundantly utter the memory of his great goodness, and sing of his righteousness."(Psal. cxlv. 5.7.) If there be a thought that is truly sweet to the soul, it is the thought of the Infinite Goodness of the Lord. If there be a pleasant word for man to speak, it is the mention of the Infinite Goodness of the Lord. And if there be a pleasant hour for man on earth to spend, and a delightful work for man to do, it is to meditate on, and with the saints to praise the Infinite Goodness of the Lord. What was the glory that God shewed unto Moses, and the taste of heaven that he gave him upon earth, but this, " I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy?" (Exod. xxxiii. 19.) And his proclaimed name was, " The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsufFering, and abundant in goodness and truth." (Exod. xxxiv. 6.) These were the holy praises that Solomon did consecrate the temple with, ** Arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy strength : let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in Goodness." (2 Chron. vi. 41; see Isa. Ixiii.) O Christians, if you would have joy indeed, let this be your employment! Draw near to God, and have no low undervaluing thoughts of his Infinite Goodness; for, " How great is his goodness and how great is his beauty?" (Zech. ix. 17.) Why is it that Divine consolations are so strange to us, but because Divine Goodness is so lightly thought upon ! As those that think little of God at all, have little of God upon their hearts; so they that think but little of his goodness in particular, have little love, or joy, or praise."

6. Moreover, the Goodness of God, must possess us with desire to be conformed to iiis goodness in our measure. The holy perfection of his will, must make us desire to have our wills conformed to the will of God ; we are not called to imitate him in his works of power, nor so much in the pathg of his omniscience, as we are in his goodness, which, as

manifested in his work and word, is the pattern and standard of moral goodness in the sons of men. The impress of his goodness within us, is the chief part of his image on us; and the fruits of it in our lives is their holiness and virtue. As he " is good and doth good;" (Psal. cxix. 68;) so it must be our greatest care to be as good, and do as much good as possibly we can. Any thing within us that is sinful and contrary to the goodness of God, should be to our souls as griping poison to our bodies, which nature is excited to strive against with all its strength, and can have no safety or rest till it be cast out. And for doing good, it must be the very study and trade of our lives. As worldlings study and labour for the world, and the pleasing of their flesh ; so must the Christian study and labour to improve his Master's talents to his use, and to do as much good as he is able, and to please the Lord. '* The desire of the righteous (as such) is only good." (Prov. xi. 23.) " To depart from evil and do good," is the careof the just. (Psal. xxxiv. 14.) We must" please our neighbours for good to their edification." (Rom. xv. 2.) " While we have time we must do good to all men (as we are able) but especially to them of the household of faith." (Gal. vi. 10.) Not only to them that " do good to us," but to " our enemies." (Luke vi. 33—34; Matt. v. 44.) This is it we must" not forget;" (Heb. xiii. 16 ;) and which by ministers we must be "put in mind of;" (1 Tim. vi. 18;) which all that "love life and would inherit the blessing" must devote themselves to. (1 Peter iii. 10—12.) In this we must be " like our heavenly Father," and approve ourselves his children. (Matt. v. 45, 46.)

7. From the perfect Infinite Goodness of God, we must learn to judge of good and evil, in all the creatures. To this must all be reduced as the standard, and by this must they be tried. It is a most wretched absurdity of sensual men, to try the will, or word, or ways of God, by themselves, and by their own interests or wills ; and to judge all to be evil in God that is against them. And yet, alas, how common is this case ! Every man is naturally loath to be miserable : suffering he abhors : and therefore that which causeth his suffering he calleth evil. And so when he hath deserved it himself by his sin, he thinks that the law is evil for threatening it, and that God himself is evil for inflicting it, so that Infinite Goodness must be tried and judged by the vicious

creature, and tlie rule and standard must be reduced to the crooked line of human actions or dispositionsi and if God will please the worldling, the sensualist, the proud, the negligent, who should please him, then he shall be good, and he shall be God ; if not, say these judges, he shall be evil, and unmerciful, and no God. They will not believe that he is good that punisheth them. And thus if the thief or murderer had the choice of kings and judges, you may know what persons he would choose ; no one should be a judge, or accounted a good man, that would condemn and hang him.

But I beseech you consider, what is fit to be the rule and standard, if not perfection of Goodness itself. Do you think that the will of ignorant, fleshly, sinful man, is fitter to be the rule of goodness, than the will of God ? We are sure that God is not deceived, and sure that there is no iniquity with him; but we know that all men are liable to deceit, and have private interests, and corrupted minds, and wills that have some vicious inclinations. O what blasphemy is in the heart of that man, that will sooner condemn the holy will and law of God, than his own will, or the wills of any men, be they never so seemingly wise or great! The will of God is revealed in his laws, concerning the necessity of a holy life ; and the will of foolish wicked men is by their scornful speeches and sinful lives revealed to be against it. And which of these do you follow; which is it that pre-scribeth you the better course ; the will of God that is infinitely good, or the will of man that is miserably evil ? If thou know any better than God, follow him before God. But if none be greater and more powerful than he, if none be wiser or of more knowledge, it is as sure that none is better. Much less are those ignorant wicked men, that despise the Scripture and a holy life, and would persuade you that they can tell you of a better way. Let me speak it to the terror of the ungodly soul, that by the deceits or scorns of any sort of men, is drawn away from Christ and holiness; it shall stand on record against thee until judgment, and it shall stick everlastingly as a dagger in thy heart, that thou didst prefer the reason and the will of man, yea perhaps of a sottish drunkard or a worldling, before the word or will of God. And though thy tongue durst not speak it, thy life did speak it, that thou thoughtest the word and

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will of man to be better than the word and will of God: Yea more, that thou tookest the way of the devil to be better than God's ways, who is infinitely good : for surely thou choosest that which thou takest to best for thee. And therefore if that man deserve damnation that sets up a man, or a horse, or an image, and saith, * This is greater and wiser than God, and therefore this shall be my God,' then dost thou deserve the same damnation, that settest up the words and will of man, even of wicked men, and sayest by thy practice, ' These are better than God, and his word, or will, and therefore I will choose or follow them/ For God is full as jealous of the honour of his goodness, as of his power or wisdom.

Well, Christians, let flesh and blood say what it will, and let the world say what they will, judge that best that is most agreeable to the will of God ; for good and evil must be measured by this will. That event is best which he deter-mineth of, and that action is best which he commandeth. And all is naught, and will prove so in the end, that is against this will of God, what policy or good soever may be pretended for it.

8. And if the will of God be infinitely good, we must all labour both to understand it, and perform it. Many say, " Who will shew us any good V' (Psal. iv. 6.) Would you not know what is best, that you may choose and seek it ? As the inordinate desire of knowing natural good and evil did cause our misery, so the holy rectified desires of knowing spiritual good, must recover us : Search the Scriptures then, and study and inquire; for it more concerns you to know the will of God, than to know the will of your princes or benefactors, or know of any treasures of the world. The riches of grace are given to us, by God's making known the mystei-y of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself. (Ephes. i. 7. 9.) And our desire to know the good will of God, must be that we may do it; for this must we pray, " That we may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that we may walk worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work;" (Col. i. 9, 10;) that we may " be made perfect in every good work to do his will, and have that wrought in us which is pleasing in his sight;" (Heb. xiii. 21;) that we may not only know his will

and approve the things that are excellent, (Rom, ii. 18,) but may prepare ourselves to do accordingj to his will, lest we be punished the more. (Luke xii. 47.) See that the will of no man be preferred before God's will; seek not your own wills, nor set them up against the Lord's. If Christ, whose will was pure and holy, profess that he sought not his own will, but his Father's; (John v. 30 ;) and that he came not to do his own will, but his that sent him; (John vi. 38;) should it not be our resolution, whose wills are so misguided and corrupt?

9. If God's will be infinitely good, we must rest in his will; when his ways are dark, or grievous to our flesh; when his word seems difficult; when we know not what he is doing with us; remember it is the Will that is infinitely good that is disposing of us. Only let us see that we stand not cross to the greater good of his church and honour; and then we may be sure that he will not be against our good. We that can rest in the will of a dear and faithful friend, should much more rest in the will of God. Do your duty, and be "not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" for you to do, (Ephes. v. 17,) and then distract not your minds with distrustful fears about his will that is infinitely good, but say," The will of the Lord be done/' (Acts xxi. 14.)

10. The Infinite Goodness of God, should draw out our hearts to desire communion with him, and to long after the blessed fruition of him in the life to come. O how glad should we be to tread his courts! to draw near him in his holy worship, to meditate on him, and secretly open our hearts before him, and to converse with those gracious souls that love to be speaking honourably of his name! What will draw the heart of man, if goodness and Infinite Goodness will not? When the drunkard saith, in the alehouse, * It is good to be here;' and the covetous man among his gains_,and the sensual man among his recreations and merry companions, * It is good to be here;' the Christian that can get nigh to God, or have any prospect of his love in his ordinances, concludeth that of all places upon earth, " It is good to be here," and that " a day in his courts is better than a thousand." (Psal. Ixxxiv. 10.) But O, " to depart and be with Christ, is far better." (Phil. i. 23.) With Infinite Goodness we shall find no evil, no emptiness, or defect; when we perfectly enjoy the Perfect Good, what more can be added, but for ever to enjoy it! O, therefore think on this, Chris

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tians, when death is dreadful to you, and you would fain stay here, as being afraid to come before the Lord, or loath to leave the things which you here possess, shall Goodness itself be distrusted by you, or seem no more desirable to you? Are you afraid of Goodness; even of your Father; of your happiness itself? Are you better here than you shall be with God? Are your houses, or lands, or friends, or pleasures, or any thing better than Infinite Goodness? O meditate on this blessed attribute of God, till you distaste the world, till you are angry with your withdrawing murmuring flesh, till you are ashamed of your unwillingness to be with God, and till you can calmly look in the face of death, and contentedly hear the message that is posting towards you, that you must presently come away to God. Your natural birthday brought you into a better place than the womb ; and your gracious birthday brought you into a far better state than your former sinful miserable captivity; and will not your glorious birthday put you into a better habitation than this world? O know, and choose, and seek, and live to the Infinite Good, and then it may be your greatest joy when you are called to him.

chAp. X.

9. Having spoken of these three great Attributes of God, I must needs speak of those three great Relations of God to man, and of those three works in which they are founded, which have flowed from these attributes.

This one God in three persons, hath created man and all things, which before were not; hath redeemed man when he was lost by sin; and sanctifieth those that shall be saved by redemption. Though the external works of the Trinity are undivided, yet not indistinct, as to the order of working, and a special interest that each person hath in each of these works. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost did create the world; and they also did redeem us, and do sanctify us. But so as that creation is in a special sort ascribed to the Father, redemption to the Son, and sanctification to the Holy Spirit; not only because of the order of operation, agreeable to the order of subsisting; for then the Father would be as properly said to be incarnate, or to die for us, or mediate, as the Son to create us ; (which is not tp be

VOL. XIII. G

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said;) for he created the world by his Word, or Son and Spirit; (John i. 3 ; Psal. xxxiii. 6;) and he redeemed it by his Son; and sanctifieth it by his Spirit. But Scripture assureth us that the Son alone was incarnate for us, and died and rose again, and not the Father, or the Spirit; and so that the human nature is peculiarly united to the second person in glory ; and so that each person hath a peculiar interest in these several wprks, the reason of which is much above our reach.

The first of these Relations of God to man, which we are to consider of, is, that he is our Creator: it is he that giveth being to us and all things; and that giveth us all our faculties or powers. Under this, for brevity, we shall speak of him also as he is our Preserver; because preservation is but a kind of continued creation, or a continuance of the beings which God hath caused. God then is the first efficient cause of all the creatures, from the greatest to the least; (Gen. i;) and easily did he make thera, for he spake but the word and they were created : They are the products of his power, wisdom and goodness. (Psal. xxxiii. 6; John i. 3.) " He commanded and they were created.'* (Psal. cxlviii. 5.) He still produceth all things that in the course of nature are brought forth. '* Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created: thou renewest the face of the earth." (Psal. civ. 30.) And from hence these following impressions must be made upon the considering soul.

1. If all things be from God as the Creator and Preserver, then we must be deeply possessed with this truth, that all things are for God as their ultimate end ; for he that is the beginning and first cause of all things, must needs be the end of all. His will produced them, and the pleasure of his will is the end for which he did produce them. " I have created him for my glory." (Isa. xliii. 7.) " The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea even the wicked for the day of evil." (Prov. xvi. 4.) I think the Chaldee paraphrase, the Syriac and Arabic give us the true meaning of this, who concordantly translate it,/ The wicked is kept for the day of evil,' as Job hath it, (xxi. 30,) ** The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath ;" and 2 Peter ii. 9, " To reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished." God

made not the wicked as wicked, or to he wicked ; but he that ^ave them their being and continueth it, will not be a loser by his creation or ppeservation, but will have the glory of his justice by them in the day of wrath or evil, for which he keeps them, and till which he beareth with them, because they would not obediently give him the glory of his holiness and mercy. So it is said of Christ, Col. i. 16, 17, " For by him are all things created that are in heaven and that are in

earth, visible and invisible all things were created by

him and for him." If they are by him, they must needs be for him. So Rev. iv. 11, " Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." This pleasure of God's will is the end of all things: and therefore it is certain that he will see that all things shall accomplish that end, and his will shall be pleased. Romans xi, 26, we have all in few words, " For of him, and through him, and to him are all things, and to whom be glory for ever, Amen." Of him, as the first efficient that giveth them their beings: and through him, as the preserver, disposer and conductor of them to their end : and to him^ as the ultimate end.

If you say, ' But how is the pleasure of God's will attained from the wicked that break his laws, and displease his will?'

I answer : Understand but how his will is crossed or accomplished, pleased or displeased, and you will see, that his will is always done and pleased, even by them that displease him in violating his will. For God's will hath two sorts of objects or products, which must be still distinguished : 1. He willeth what shall be due from us to him, and from him to us. 2. He willeth entities and events, or what shall actually be, or come to pass. Strictly both these acts of God's will, perform the things willed, and so are not without their proper effect. God, as the cause and disposer of all things, attaineth his will concerning events : all things shall come to pass which he absolutely willeth shall come to pass. He is not frustrated of his will herein, being neither unwise, nor impotent, nor unhappy. " Whatsoever pleased the Lord, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the sea, and in the depths." (Psal. cxxxv. 6.) " Our God is in heaven, he hath done whatsoever he pleased.*'

i

(Psal. cxv. 3.) And as God, as our Governor, doth by his laws oblige man to his duty, his will hath its effect: A command doth but make the thing commanded to be our duty ; and our duty it is : and so this act of the will of God is not in vain. Thus far he hath his will. By his promises he maketh the reward to be due to all, on condition they perform the duty, on which he hath suspended it, and to be actually due to those only that perform the condition: and all this is accomplished. Heaven is conditionally given to all, and actually to the faithful only. So that what God willeth to be due as a Lawgiver, is accordingly due ; and what he actually willeth shall come to pass, shall come to pass according to his will.

But perhaps you will say, * He doth not will that all men shall eventually obey his laws, but only that it shall be their duty.'

I answer, Our speeches of God being borrowed from man, (who is one of the glasses in which he is here seen by us; especially the manhood of Jesus Christ,) we must accordingly conceive and say (acknowledging still the improprieties and imperfections of our conceptions and expressions), that as man doth simply and most properly will the event of some things, which he absolutely desireth should come to pass, and doth not simply will some other things, but only * in tantum ;' he so far willeth them, that he willeth and resolveth to do such and such things as have a tendency thereto, and to go no farther, and do no more for the attaining of them, though he could; so God doth simply and properly will some things, that is, the things which he decreeth shall come to pass: but we must after our manner conceive and say, that there are other things which he willeth but' in tantum,' so far as to make it man's duty to perform it, and persuade him to the doing of that duty, and give him such a measure of help, as leaveth him without any just excuse, if he do it not; and so far he willeth the salvation of such, as to promise or offer it them on such terms : and no further doth he will the obedience or salvation which never comes to pass, but leaveth it here to the will of man. For if he simply willed that every duty should be eventually done, it would be done: and if he simply willed that all men should be actually saved, they would be saved. And that he simply willeth their duty or

obligation, and * in tantum/ so far, doth will the event of their obedience and salvation, as this comes to, as aforesaid, is certain, and in this we are all agreed ; and I am not so well skilled in dividing, as to understand where the real difference lieth between the parties that here most contend ; But about the bare name I know they differ, some thinking that this last is not to be named an act of God's will, or a willing of man's obedience or salvation, and some thinking that it is so to be named : who doubtless are in the right; nor is there room for controversies, while we confess the impropriety of this and all our speeches of God, as speaking after the manner of men ; and while Scripture, that must teach us how to speak of God, doth frequently so speak before us.

2. God being the maker and first cause of all things, that is of all substantial beings, commonly called creatures, we must conclude that sin is no such being, because it is most certain that he is not the creator or cause of it. Scripture assureth us, and all Christians are agreed, that God is not the cause or author of sin. How odious then should that be to us, that is so bad as not to come from God ? If God disclaim it, let us disclaim it. Let us abhor that it should come from us, seeing God abhorreth that it should come from him. Own not that which hath nothing of God upon it.

If you say, * That it is an accident though not a substance, and therefore it must needs come from God ; because even accidents have their being/

I answer. That among the most subtle disputers it is granted, that It hath no created being, or no being that is caused by God ; of this they are agreed. It is granted by all Christians that sin hath no other kind of being, but what the will of man can cause. And if that be so, the philoso-►hical trifling controversy, whether it be only a privation, or a relation, or * modus entis,' which the will thus causeth, must be handled as philosophical, and valued but as it de-serveth: for this is all the controversy that here remains. If the form be relative, and the foundation be but a mere privation, (the disconformity being founded in a defect) then the case is soon resolved, as to the rest. He that erreth, understandcth amiss: that he understandeth, is of God : that he erreth, that is, is defective, and so false in his

understanding, is of himself: That he willeth when he chooseth sin, is of God the universal cause : but that he willeth a forbidden object, rather than the contrary, and faileth in his understanding and his will, this is not of God, but of himself. If others say, that the very ' funda-mentum' of that disconformity which is the form of sin, is sometimes an act, they must also say that it is not an act as such, but this act comparatively considered, or as circumstantiated, or as exercised on the forbidden object rather than another, or a volition instead of a nolition, and choosing that which should be refused, or a refusing that which should be chosen : and whether this comparative specifying foundation, be a privation, or a mode, is a philosophical controversy ; and in philosophy, and not in theology, is the difficulty ; divines being agreed as aforesaid, that whatever you name it, being, or privation, or mode, it is but such as must be resolved ultimately into the will of man as its original or first cause, supposing God to be the creator and conserver, of that free power that is able to choose or to refuse, and as an universal cause to concur with the agent to the act as such. But philosophers indeed are at a loss, and are fain to tell us of privations, modes, relations, denominations, * entia rationis,' and I know not what, that they say are neither beings nor nothing, but between both they know not what! The nature of things, in the utmost extremities of the branches, being so capillar, and spun with so fine a thread, that the understanding is not subtle enough to discern them. And shall this disturb us in divinity, or be imputed to it ?

If you say, ' That the will of God is the cause of all things, and therefore of sin.'

I answer. If you call sin nothing, as a shadow, darkness, death, &c. are nothing (for all that we abhor them), then you answer yourselves. If you call it something, we are all agreed, that it is but such a something as man can cause without God's first causing it. It sufficeth that God do the part of a Creator in giving man the free power of choosing or refusing; and the part of a Preserver, in maintaining that power, and as an universal cause concurring to all acts ' in genere,' as the sun doth shine on the dunghill and the flowers : and that he also do the part of a just Governor in prohibiting, and dissuading, and threatening sinners.

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Object, ' But how can sin eventually be, if God decree it not, seeing all events are from his will?'

I answer, 1. We are agreed that he causeth it not. 2. And that he doth not so much as will the event of sin as sin. 3. And that he willingly permitteth what is by him permitted. 4. And that sin is such a thing as may * evenire,' be brought forth by a bare permission, if there be no positive decree for the event. As a negative in the effects, re-quireth not a positive cause, so neither a positive will for its production. There are millions of millions of worlds, and individual creatures, and species possible, that shall never be : and it is audaciousness to assert, that there must be millions of millions of positive decrees, that such worlds or creatures shall not be. 5. Nor is it any dishonour to God, if he have not a positive decree or will about every negation (as that all the men in the world shall not be called by a thousand possible names rather than their own, &c.).

These things being all certain, I add, 1. Let them dispute that dare, that yet' de facto' God doth positively will the events of all privations, or negations of acts. 2. But when men are once habitually wicked, and bent to evil, it is 'just with him, if he permit them to follow their own lusts, and if he leave before them such mercies as he foreknoweth they will wilfully make occasions of their sin; and if he resolve to make use of the sin which he knoweth they will commit, for his church's good, and for his glory.

Object. * But doth not God will that sin eventually shall not be?'

Answ. Even as I before said, he willeth that obedience eventually shall be. If sin come to pass, it is certain that God did not «imply will that it should not come to pass : for then he must be conquered and unhappy by every sin : But he willeth simply that it shall be the duty of man to avoid it; and it may be said to * nill' the event * in tantum,' so far as that he will forbid it, and threaten and dissuade the sinner, and give him the helps, that shall leave him inexcusable if he sin, and so leave it to his will. Thus far he may be said to will that sin eventually shall not be ; but not simply.

Though these things are not obvious to vulgar capacities, yet they are such, as the subject in hand, viz. God's irst causation and creation, together with the weight of

them, and the contentions of the world about them, have made needful.

3. If God be the creator and cause of all, then we must remember that all his works are good: and therefore nothing must be hated by us that he hath made, considered in its native goodness. God haieth sin, and so must we : for that he made it not. (Rev. ii. 6; Psal. xlv. 7; Isa. i. 14.) And he hateth all the workers of iniquity as such, (Psal. v. 5,) and so must we; but we must love all of God that is in them, and love them for it. There is somewhat good and amiable in every creature ; yea, all of it, that is of God. Though toads and serpents are odious to us, because they are hurtful, and seem deformed in themselves, yet are they good in themselves, and not deformed as parts of the universe, but good unto the common end. The wants in the wheels of your watch are as useful to the motion as the nucks or solid parts. The night is part ol' the useful order of the creation, as well as the day. The vacant interspace in your writing, is needful as well as the words : every letter should not be a vowel, nor every character a capital; every member should not be a heart, or head, or eye : nor should every one in a commonwealth be a king, or lord : So in the creation the parts that seem base, are useful in their places, and good unto their ends. Let us not therefore vilify or detest the works of God, but study the excellencies of them, and see, and admire, and love them as they are of God. It is one of the hardest practical points before us, to know how to esteem of all the creatures, and to use them without running into one extreme. At the same time to love the world, and not to love it; to honour it, and despise it: to exalt it, and to tread it under our feet; to mind it, and use it with delight, and yet to be weaned from it as those that mind it not. And yet a great part of our Christian duty lieth in the doing of this difficult work. As the world is the devil's bait, and the flesh's idol, set up against God, and would tice us from him, or hinder us in his service, and either be our carnal end and happiness, or a means thereto, so we must make it the care of our hearts to hate it, despise it, neglect it, and tread it under foot; and the labour of our lives to conquer it. But the same creatures must be admired, studied, loved, honoured, delighted in, and daily used, as they are the excellent work of the Almighty God,

and reveal to us his attributes or will, being the glass in which we must see him while we are in the flesh ; and as they lead us to God, and strengthen, furnish or help us in his service. But to love them for God, and not for themselves, O how hard is it! To keep pure affections towards them, and a spiritual delight in themr, that shall not degenerate into a carnal delight, is a task for the holiest saint on earth, to labour in with all his care and power, as long as he here liveth. Yet this must be done ; and the soul that hath obtained true self-denial, and is dead to the world, and devoted and alive to God, is able in some good measure to perform it. To love the world for itself, and make the creature our chief delight, and to live to it as to our end, and idol, this is the common damning course. To cast away our possessions, and put our talents into our fellow-servants* hands, and to withdraw ourselves as it were out of the world into solitude, as monks or hermits do, this is too like the hiding of our talents, and a dangerous course of unfaithfulness and unprofitableness, unless in some extraordinary case; and is at best the too easy way of weaklings, that will be soldiers only out of the army, or where there is but little danger of the enemy: But to keep our stations, and take honours, and riches, as our Master's talents, as a burden that we must honour him by bearing, and the instruments by which we must laboriously do him service; and to see and love him in every creature, and study him in it, and sanctify it to his use ; and to see that our lust get no advantage by it, and feed not on it; but that we tame our bodies, and have all that we have for God, and not for our flesh ; this is the hard, but the excellent, most acceptable course of living in this world.

And it is not only other creatures, but ourselves also, that we must thus admire, and love, and use for God, while we abase ourselves, as to ourselves, and deny ourselves, and use not ourselves for ourselves, but as we stand in due subordination to him. Abase yourselves as sinful, and abhor that which is your own, and not the Lord's; but vilify not your nature in itself, nor any thing in you that is the work of God. Pretend not humility for the dishonouring of your Maker. Reason and natural freedom of the will, are God's work, and not yours, and therefore must be honoured, and not scorned and reviled ; but the blindness and

error of your reason, and the bad inclinations and actions of your free-wills, these are your own, and therefore vilify them, and hate them, and spare not. And when you lament the smallness of your graces, deny them not; and slight not, but magnify the preciousness of that little that you have, while you mourn for the imperfection. And when men offend you, or prove your enemies, forget not to value and love that of God that yet is in them. All is good that is of God.

4. If all things be of God, as the Creator and Conserver, we must hence remember on whom it is that ourselves and all things else depend. *' In him we live, and move, and have our being." (Acts xvii. 28.) ** lie upholdeth all things by the word of his power." (Heb. i. 3.) The earth standeth upon his will and word. The nations are in his hands, so are the lives of our friends and enemies, and so are ourselves. And therefore our eye must be upon him; and our care must be to please him; and our trust and quietness must be in him; and blessed is he that maketh sure of an interest in his special love.

5. Hence also we must observe the vanity of all creature-confidence, and our hearts must be withdrawn from resting in any means or instruments. They are nothing to us, and can do nothing for us, but what they have or do from him that made and preserveth us.

6. And lastly. Hence also we may see the patience and goodness of the Lord, that as he refused not to make those men that he foreknew would live ungodlily, so he deuieth not to uphold their being, even while they sin against him. All the while that they are abusing his creatures, they are sustained by him, and have those creatures from him. From him the drunkard hath his drink, and the glutton his meat, and the voluptuous youth their abused health and strength ; and all men have from him the powers or faculties of the soul and body by which they sin. And shall any be so ungrateful as to say therefore that God doth cause their sin? It is true he can easily stop thy breath while thou art swearing, and lying, and speaking against the service of God that made thee: And wouldst thou have him do so ? He can easily take away the meat, and drink, and riches, and health, and life which thou abusest: And wouldst thou have him do it? He can easily keep thee

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. SI

from sinning any more on earth, by cutting off thy life, and sending thee to pay for what thou hast done : And art thou content with this ? Must he be taken to be a partaker in thy sin, because he doth not strike thee dead, or lame, or speechless, or disable thee from sinning ? Provoke him not by thy blasphemies, lest he clear himself in a way that thou desirest not. But O! wonder at his patience, that holds thee in his hand, and keepeth thee from falling into the grave and hell, while thou art sinning against him! While a curse or oath is in thy mouth, he could let thee fall into utter misery. How oft hast thou provoked him to take thee in thy lust, in thy rage, or in thy neglect of God, and give thee thy desert! Would any of you support your enemy, as God doth you?

CHAP. XL

10. As we must know God as our Creator, so also as our Redeemer; of which I shall say but little now, because I have mentioned it more fully in the *' Directions for Sound Conversion." It is life eternal to know the Father, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. (John xvii. 3.) The Father redeemeth us by the Son, whom he sent, and whose sacrifice he accepted, and in whom he is well pleased. And this must have these effects upon our souls.

1. We must be hence convinced, that we are not now in a state of innocency, nor to be saved as innocents, or on the terms of the law of our creation: But salvation is now by a Redeemer: and therefore consisteth in our recovery and restoration. The objects of it are only lapsed, sinful, miserable men. Name the creature if you can, since Adam, that stood before God here in the flesh, in a state of personal perfect innocency, except the immaculate Lamb of God. If God, as a Creator, should now save any, without respect to a redemption, it must be on the terms of the law of creation: upon which it is certain that no man hath or shall be saved; that is, upon perfect personal persevering obedience. You cannot exempt infants themselves from sin and misery, without exempting them from Christ the Redeemer, and the remedy: " There is none righteous (in

himself without a Redeemer), no not one They are all

gone out of the way That every mouth may be stopped,

and all the world may become guilty before God ; (and if

all the world be guilty, none are innocent;) therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ." (Rom. iii. 10. 19. 20. 22, 23.) " All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isa. liii. 6.) " Through the offence of one, many are dead; and the judgment was by one to condemnation; by the offence of one, death reigned by one ; by the offence of one, judgment came on all men to condemnation: By one man's disobedience many were made sinners." (Rom. v. 15—19.) ** We were shapen in iniquity, and in sin did our mothers conceive us." (Psal. li. 6.) " We were by nature the children of wrath, and dead in trespasses and sins." (Eph. ii. 1.3.) "In Adam all die.' (1 Cor. XV. 22.) " We thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead." (2 Cor. v. 14.) " Christ is the Saviour of the body : Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water, by the word, that he might present it to himself a

glorious church ." (Eph. v. 23. 25—27.) If infants have

no sin and misery, then they are none of the body, the church, which Christ loved and gave himself for, that he might cleanse it. But what need we further proof when we have the common experience of all the world? Would every man that is born of a woman, without exception, so early manifest sin in the life, if there were no corrupt disposition at the heart ? And should all mankind, without exemption, taste of the punishment of sin, if they had no participation of the guilt? " Death is the wages of sin ; and by sin death entered into the world, and it passeth upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Rom. v. 12.) Infants have sickness, and torments, and death, which are the fruits of sin. And were they not presented to Christ as a Saviour, when he took them in his arms and blessed them, and said, " Of such is the kingdom of God ?" Certainly, none that never were guilty, or miserable, are capable of a place in the kingdom of the Mediator. For to what end should he mediate for them ? or how can he redeem them that need not a redemption? or how should he reconcile them to God, that never were at enmity with him ? or how can he wash

them that were never unclean ? or how can he be a physician to them that never were sick ? when " the whole have no need of the physician." (Matt. ix. 12.) He ** came to seek and to save that which was lost," (Luke xix. 10,) and to save " his people from their sins." (Matt, i, 21.) They are none of his saved people therefore, that had no sin. He came to "redeem those that were under the law." (Gal.Jv. 5.) But it is most certain, that infants were under the law, as well as the adult: and they were a part of " his people Israel, whom he visited and redeemed." (Luke i. 68.) If ever they be admitted into glory, they must " praise him that redeemed them by his blood." (Rev. v. 9.) God doth first justify those whom he glorifieth. (Rom. viii. 30.) And they must be *' born again" that will " enter into his kingdom." (John iii. 3. 5.) And there is no regeneration or renovation but from sin : (Col. iii. 10; Eph. iv. 22 :) nor any justification but from sin, and " from what we could not be justified from by the law of Moses ;" (Acts xiii. 39 ;) nor any justification but what containeth a " remission of sin." (Rom. iii. 25.) And where there is no sin, there is none to be remitted ; nor is there any justification but what is *' through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and his propitiation." (Rom. iii. 24, 25.) " He is made of God redemption to us;" (1 Cor. i. 30 ;) and the redemption that we have by him, " is remission of sins by his blood." (Col. i. 14; Eph. i. 7.) " By his own blood entered he once into, the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us :" The eternal inheritance is received by means of death for the redemption of transgressions. (Heb. ix. 12. 15.) So that all Scripture speaks this truth aloud to us, that there is now no salvation promised but to the church, the justified, the regenerate, the redeemed ; and that none can be capable of these but sinners, and such as are lost and miserable in themselves. And till our necessity be understood, redemption cannot be well understood. They that believe that Christ died not only for this or that man in particular, but for the world, methinks should believe that the world are sinners, and need his death. He is called ** the Saviour of the world," (John iv. 42,) and the " Saviour of all men, especially of believers." (1 Tim. iv. 10.) ** We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savi-viour of the world." (1 John iv. 14.) And from what doth he

save them? "From their sins," (Matt. i. 21,) and "from the wrath to come." (1 Thess. i. 10.) '*For this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Infants then are sinners, or none of those that he came to save. Christ hath made no man righteous by his obedience, but such as Adam made sinners by his disobedience; *' For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, many shall be made righteous." (Rom. V. 19.) Infants are not made righteous by Christ, if they were not sinners : and sinners they cannot be by any but original sin : " God commended his love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us : Much more being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him : When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son ;" (Rom. v. 8—10 ;) so that it is sinners that ** Christ died for," and sinners that " are juiti-fied by his blood," and sinners that are " reconciled to God." Infants therefore are sinners, or they are none of the redeemed, justified, or reconciled. And when Jesus Christ " by the grace of God did taste death for every man," (Heb. ii. 9,) infants are sure included. " There is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all;" (1 Tim. ii. 5, 6;) therefore all had sin and misery, and needed that ransom. " He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." And is it not plain that the whole world are sinners ?

I speak all this for the evincing of original sin only, because that only is denied by such as yet pretend to Christianity ; for actual sin is commonly confessed, and shews itself. And truly so doth original sin, in our proneness to actual; and in the earliness and commonness of such evil inclinations ; and in the remnants of it, which the sanctified feel, though they are such as were sanctified never so early, before actual sin had time to breed those evil habits, which therefore certainly were born with us.

And if the image of God, consisting in true holiness, be not natural, or born in every infant in the world, then original sin must needs be born with them: for that sin is either only or chiefly the privation of that image or holiness. He that will say that this image is not requisite to infants, and

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SO that the absence of it is a mere negation, doth make them brutes, and not of the race of man, whom God created after his image, and leaves them incapable of heaven or hell, or any other life than beasts have. And he that thinks so of infants to-day may think so of himself to-morrov<^. And he that will affirm that this image or holiness is born with every infant into the world, so wilfully contradicteth common evidence which appeareth in the contrary effects, that he is not worthy to be further talked with.

One thing more I will propound yet to the contrary-minded : Can they say that any infants are saved or not? If not, either they perish as brutes (which is a brutish opinion), or they live in misery; and then they had sin that did deserve it; yea, if they think that any of them perish in the wrath to come, it must be for sin. If they think that any of them are saved, it is either by covenant, or without; there is some promise for it, or there is none. If none, then no man can say that any of them are saved. For who hath known the mind of the Lord without his revelation? It is arrogancy to tell the world of the saving of any that God did no way reveal that he will save. But if they plead a revelation or promise, it is either the covenant of nature or of grace ; a promise contained in nature, law or Gospel. The former cannot be affirmed, (not only because the dissenters themselves deny any such covenant to haivi been in nature, or any way made to Adam, but) because tnere is no such covenant or promise in nature to be found, for the salvation of all infants (and if not for all then for none): and because it is contrary to abundance of plain passages in the Scriptures, that assure us there is but one covenant of salvation now in force : and that all the " world shall become guilty before God, and every mouth be stopped, (Rom. iii. 19,) and that by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in his sight.*' (ver.20; Gal. ii. 16.) And if ** righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Gal. ii. 21.) " For as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse. And that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, is evident; for The just shall live by faith; and the law is not of faith ; but. The man that doeth them shall live in them." (Gal. iii. 10—12.) And certainly the law of nature requireth not less than Moses' law, to a man's justification, if not more. And " if there had been a law

given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ,might be given to them that believe." (Gal.iii.21,22.) By the fulness of this evidence, it is easy to see, that infants and all mankind are sinners, aijd therefore have need of the Redeemer.

2. To know God as our Redeemer, containeth the knowledge of the great ends of our redemption, and of the manifestation of God to man thereby. Having treated of these in the book forecited, I shall now say but this in brief. It is beyond dispute, that God could have made man capable of glory, and kept him from falling by confirming grace, and without a redeemer settled him in felicity, as he did the angels. He that foresaw man's fall, and necessity of a saviour, could easily have prevented that sin and necessity: but he would not; he did not: but chose rather to permit it, and save man by the way of a redeemer. In which his infinite wisdom is exceedingly manifested. And in Christ, who is the '* power and wisdom of God," (1 Cor. i. 24,) among others these excellent effects are declared to us, which the way of redemption attaineth, above what the saving us on the terms of nature would have attained.

1. God is now wonderfully admired and magnified in the person o^^the Redeemer. Angels themselves desire to pry into this mystery. (1 Peter i. 12.) As the frame of nature is set us to see God in, where we daily as in a glass behold him and admire him ; so the person of the Redeemer, and work of incarnation and redemption, is set the angels for their contemplation and admiration, as well as us : *' To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." (Ephes. iii. 10.) And in the glorious perfection and dignity of the Redeemer, will God be everlastingly glorified; for his greatest works do most greatly honour him: and as the sun doth now to us more honour him than a star; so the glorified person of the Redeemer, doth more honour God than man or angels. '* 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. iii. 23.) " Being raised from the dead, God hath set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principalities, and

1

powers, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the Head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." (Ephes. i. 20—22.) " Who being the brightness of his glory, and the ■express image of his person, and upholding all things by. the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." F.(Heb. i.3.)

And here a very great truth appeareth, which very many overlook, that the exaltation of the person of the Redeemer, and the glory that God will have in him, is a higher and more principal part of God's intent in the sending of him to be incarnate and redeem us, than the glorifying of man, and of God by us. Christ will be more glorious than men or angels, and therefore will more glorify God ; and God will eternally take more complacency in him than in men or , angels ; and therefore (though in several respects) he is for us, and the means of our felicity and we are for him, and the means of his glory (as the head is for the body, and the body for the head), yet we are more for Christ as a means to his glory, than he for us : I mean he is the more excellent principal end. " For to this end Christ both died, rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living;" (Rom. xiv. 9;) " who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross : wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name, which is above every name ; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, both of things in heaven and things in earth and under the earth ; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil, ii. 6—12.) " And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the ^filders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten

■|_ VOL. XIII. ~ H

I

thousand, and thousands of thousands: saying with a loud voice. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing: And every creature which is in heaven, and on eaj'th, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying. Blessing, honour, glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." (Rev. v. 8—12 ; so XV. 3, 4, and xx. 6.) *' The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." (Rev. xxi. 23.) " The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him ; and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads." (Rev. xxii. 3, 4.) These and many other Scriptures shew us, that God will be for ever glorified in the person of the Redeemer, more than in either men or angels; and consequently that it was the principal part of his intention in the design of man's redemption.

2. (I will be more brief in the rest) In the way of redemption man will be saved with greater humiliation and self-denial than he should have been in the way of creation. If we had been saved in a way of innocency, we should have had more to ascribe to ourselves. And it is meet that all creatures be humbled and abased, and nothing in themselves, before the Lord.

3. By the way of redemption, sin will be the more dishonoured, and holiness more advanced, than if sin had never been known in the world. Contraries illustrate one another. Health would not be so much valued, if there were no sickness; nor life, if there were no death ; nor day, if there were no night; nor knowledge, if there were no ignorance ; nor good, if man had not known evil. The holiness of God would never have appeared in execution of vindictive justice against sin, if there had never been any sin; and therefore he hath permitted it, and will recover us from it, when he could have prevented our falling into it.

4. By this way also, holiness and recovering grace shall be'more triumphant against the devil and all its enemies: By the many conquests that Christ will make over Satan, the world, and the flesh, and death, there will be very much

of God to be seen to us, that innocency would not thus have manifested.

5. Redemption brings God nearer unto man. The mystery of incarnation giveth us wonderful advantages to have more familiar thoughts of God, and to see him in a clearer glass, than ever we should else have seen him in on earth, and to have access with boldness to the throne of grace. The pure Deity is at so vast a distance from us, while we are here in flesh, that if it had not appeared in the flesh unto us, we should have been at a greater loss. But now ** without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory." (1 Tim. iii. 16.)

6. In the way of redemption, man is brought to more earnest and frequent addresses unto God, and dependance on him ; necessity driveth him ; and he hath use for more of God, or for God in more of the ways of his mercy, than else he would have had.

7. Principally in this way of saving miserable man by a Redeemer, there is opportunity for the more abundant exercise of God's mercy, and consequently for the more glorious discovery of his love and goodness to the sons of men, than if they had fallen into no such necessities. Misery pre-pareth men for the sense of mercy. In the Redeemer there is so wonderful a discovery of love and mercy, as is the astonishment of men and angels. " Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God !" (1 John iii. 1.) " God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved,) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus ; that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us by Christ Jesus ; for by grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God : not of works, lest any

tman should boast.*' (Ephes. ii. 4—9.) " For we ourselves ^ere sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diners lusts and pleasures, &c. But after that the kindness md love of God our Saviour toward man appeared; not by

works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." (Titus iii. 3—5.) Never was there such a discovery of God as he is Love, in a way of mercy to man on earth, as in the Redeemer, and his benefits. 8. In the way of redemption the soul of man is formed to the most sweet and excellent temper, and his obedience cast into the happiest mould. The glorious demonstration of love, doth animate us with love to God; and the shedding abroad of his love in our hearts by the Spirit of the Redeemer, doth draw out our hearts in love to him again : And the sense of his wonderful love and mercy filleth us with thankfulness: so that love is hereby made the nature of the new man; and thankfulness is the life of all our obedience: for all floweth from these principles, and expresseth them: so that Love is the compendium of all holiness in one word; and Thankfulness of all evangelical obedience. And it is a more sweet and excellent state of life, to be the spouse of Christ, and his members, and serve God as friends and children, with love and thankfulness, than to serve him merely as the most loyal subjects, or with an obedience that hath less of love.

9. In the way of redemption,holiness is more admirably exemplified in Christ, than it was, or would have been in Adam. Adam would never have declared it in that eminency of charity to others, submission to God, contempt of the world, self-denial, and conquest of Satan, as Christ hath done.

10. And in the way of redemption, there is a double obligation laid upon man for every duty. To the obligations of creation, all the obligations of redemption and the new creation are superadded : and this threefold cord should not so easily be broken. Here are moral means more powerfully to hold the soul to God.

11. And in this way there is a clearer discovery of the everlasting state of man, and life and immortality are more fully brought to light by the Gospel, (2 Tim. i. 10,) than for ought we find in Scripture, they were to innocent man himself. *' No man hath seen God at any time : the only begotten Son that is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." (John i. 18.) " For no man hath ascended

into heavea, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven." (John iii. 13.)

12. Man will be advanced to the judging of the ungodly and of the conquered angels : even by the goodwill of the Father, and a participation in the honour of Christ our head, and by a participation in his victories, and by our own victories in his strength, by the right of conquest, we shall judge with Christ, both devils and men, that were enemies to him, and our salvation; as you may see 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3. And there is more in that promise than we yet well understand, " He that overcometh, and keepeth my words unto the end, to him will 1 give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as 1 received of my Father." (Rev. ii. 26, 27.)

13. And that which Augustine so much insisteth on, I think is also plain in Scripture, that the salvation of the elect is better secured in the hands of Christ, than his own or any of his posterities was in the hands of Adam. We know that Adam lost that which was committed to him : But " we know whom we have believed, and are persuaded, that he is able to keep that which we commit to him, against that day." (1 Tim. ii. 12.) Force not these Scriptures against our own consolation, and the glory of our Redeemer, and then judge. " As thou hast given him power, over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." (John xvii. 2.) " All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." (John vi. 37.) " And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." (ver. 39.) " But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and none shall take them out of my hands: My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hands." (John x. 26—-29.) " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath Jblessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places ^n Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before

ILhe foundation of the world, that we should be holy and

without blame before him in love: having predestinated ua to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved." (Ephes. i. 3, 4.) ** Being predestinated according to the purpose of him that worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." (ver. 11.)

And if faith, and repentance, and the right disposition of the will itself, be his resolved gift to his elect, and not things left merely to our uncertain wills, then the case is past all question. " In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.'* (2 Tim. ii. 25, 26.) ** By grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." (Ephes.

ii, 8.) " The fruit of the Spirit is love, faith ." (Gal.

V. 22.) "To you it is given on the behalf of Christ, not

only to believe on him ." (Phil. i. 29.) " As many as were

ordained to eternal life believed." (Actsxiii.28.) ** And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return unto me with their whole heart."(Jer. xxiv. 7.) " And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you : and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God." (Ezek. xi. 19, 20.) " A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and give you an heart of flesh, and I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes." (Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27.) See also Heb. viii. 6—10, where this is called the " new" and better " covenant." " I will put my laws in their minds, and write them in their

hearts ." (Jer. xxxi. 33.) And Jer. xxxii. 39, 40, " And

I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me." *' Who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive ?" (1 Cor.iv. 7.) Much

more may be produced, from which it is evident that " Christ is the author and finisher of our faith ;" and that the certainty of the salvation of his elect, doth lie more on his undertaking and resolution infallibly to accomplish their salvation, than upon our wisdom, or the stability of our mutable free-wills ; and that thus we are better in the hands of the second Adam, than we were in the hands of the first.

14. To conclude: Vindictive justice will be doubly honoured upon them that are final rejecters of this grace. Though conscience would have had matter enough to work upon for the torment of the sinner, and the justifying of God, upon the mere violation of the law of nature or works, yet nothing to what it now will have on them that are the de-spisers of this great salvation. For of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, that hath trodden under foot the Son of God ? when it is wilful impenitency, against most excellent means and mercies, that is to be charged upon sinners, and when they perish because they would not be saved, justice will be most fully glorified before all, and in the conscience of the sinner himself. All this considered, you may see that (besides what reasons of the counsel of God are unknown to us) there is abundant reason open to our sight, from the great advantages of this way, why God would rather save us by a Redeemer, than in a way of innocency, as our mere Creator.

But, for the answering of all objections against this, I must desire you to observe these two things following : 1. That we here suppose man a terrestrial inhabitant clothed with flesh: otherwise it is confessed that if he were perfect in heaven, where he had the beatifical vision to confirm him, many of these forementioned advantages to him would be none.

And it is supposed that God will work on man by moral means; and where he never so infallibly produceth the good of man, he doth it in a way agreeable to his nature and present state ; and his work of Grace is Sapiential, magnifying the contrivance and conduct of his wisdom, as well as his power: otherwise indeed God might have done all without these or any other means.

3. The knowledge of God in Christ as our Redeemer, must imprint upon the soul those holy afi'ections which the Resign and nature of our redemption do bespeak, and an-

swer theese forementioned ends. As, 1. It must keep the soul in a sense of the odiousness of sin, that must have such a ramedy to pardon and destroy it.

2. It must raise us to most high and honourable thought* of our Redeemer, the Captain of our Salvation, that bring-eth back lost sinners unto God; and we must study to advance the glory of our Lord, whom the Father hath advanced and set over all.

3. It must drive us out of ourselves, and bring us to be nothing in our own eyes, and cause us to have humble, penitent, self-condemning thoughts, as men that have been our own undoers, and deserved so ill of God and man.

4. It must drive us to a full and constant dependance on Christ our Redeemer, and on the Father by him: As our life is now in the Son as its Root and Fountain, so in him must be our faith and confidence, and to him we must daily have recourse^ and seek to him, and to the Father in his name, for all that we need for daily pardon, strength, protection, provision and consolation.

5. It must cause us the more to admire the holiness of God, which is so admirably declared in our redemption; and still be sensible how he hateth sin and loveth purity.

6. It must invite and encourage us to draw near to God, who hath condescended to come so near to us; and as sons we must cry, "Abba, Father," and though with reverence, yet with holy confidence must set ourselves continually before him.

7. It must cause us to make it our daily employment to study the riches of the love of God, and his abundant mercy manifested in Christ; so that above all books in the world, we should most diligently and delightfully peruse the Son of God incarnate, and in him behold the power, and wisdom, and goodness of the Father: and with Paul we should desire " to know nothing but Christ crucified ;" and all things should be counted " but loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord." (Phil. iii. 8.) " That we may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fulness of God."

8. Above all, if we know God as our Redeemer, we must live in the power of holy love and gratitude. His manifested

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.

105

love must prevail with us so far, that unfeigned love to hikn may be the predominant affection of our souls. And being free from the spirit of bondage and slavish fear, we must make love and thankfulness the sum of our religion; and think not any thing will prove us Christians, without prevailing love to Christ, nor that any duty is accepted that proceedethnot from it.

9. Redemption must teach us to apply ourselves to the holy laws and example of our Redeemer for the forming and ordering of our hearts and lives.

10. And it must quicken us to love the Lord with a redoubled vigour, and to obey with double resolution and diligence, because we are under a double obligation. What should a people so redeemed esteem too much or too dear for God?

11. Redemption must make us a moire heavenly people, as being redeemed to the incorruptible inheritance in hea-

'*The blessed God and Father of our Lord Jesus

ven.

Christ, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." (lPet.i.3.)

12. Lastly, Redemption must cause us to walk the more carefully, and with a greater care to avoid all sin, and to avoid the threatened wrath of God, because sin against such unspeakable mercy, is unspeakably great; and condemnation by a Redeemer for despising his grace, will be a double condemnation. (John iii. 19. 36.)

CHAP. xn.

11. The third Relation in which God is to be known by us, is as he is our Sanctifier and Comforter, which is specially ascribed to the Holy Ghost. And doubtless as the dispensation of the Holy Ghost is the perfecting dispensation, without which creation and redemption would not attain their ends ; and as the sin against the Holy Ghost, is the great and dangerous sin; so our belief in the Holy Ghost, and knowledge of Ggd as our Sanctifier by the Spirit, is not the least or lowest act of our faith or knowledge. And it implieth or containeth these things following.

1. We must hence take notice of the certainty of our common original sin. The necessity of sanctificationproveth the corruption, as the necessity of a Redeemer proveth the guilt: It is not one but all that are baptized, that must be ** baptized into the name of the Son and Holy Ghost," as well as of the Father: which is an entering into covenant with the Son as our Redeemer, and with the Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier. So that infants themselves must be sanctified, or be none of the church of Christ, which consisteth of baptized sanctified persons : '* Except a man be born again (even of the Spirit, as well as water) he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. For that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," (John iii.3.5,6,) and therefore the fleshly birth producing not a spiritual creature, will not serve without the spiritual birth : The words are most plain; not only against them that deny original sin, but against them that misunderstanding the nature of redemption, do think that all infants are merely by the price paid, put into a state of salvation, and have the pardon of their original sin in common, attending their natural birth. But these men should consider, 1. That this text and constant experience tell us that the new birth doth not thus commonly to all accompany the natural birth : and yet without the new birth none can be saved, nor without holiness any see God. 2. That pardon of sin is no man's, upon the bare suflfering of Jesus Christ; but must be theirs by some covenant or promise conveying to them a right to the benefits of his suffering. And therefore no man can be said to be pardoned or saved (without great arrogancy in the af-firmer) that hath not from God a promise of such mercy. But no man can shew any promise that giveth remission of original sin to all infants. Produce it, or presume not to affirm it, lest you fall under the heavy doom of those that add to his holy word. The promise is to the faithful and their seed. The rest are not the children of the promise, but are under the commination of the violated law; which indeed is dispensable; and therefore we cannot say that God will pardon none of them; but withal, we cannot say that he will, unless he had told us so. All the world stand in need of a Sanctifier : and therefore most certainly (even since Christ's death) they are naturally corrupted.

2. And as our belief in the Holy Ghost, as Sanctifier,

engageth us to acknowledge our original sin and misery, so doth it engage us to magnify his renewing work of grace, and be convinced of the necessity of it, and to confess the insufficiency of corrupted nature to its own renovation. As no man must dishonour the work of our Creator; and therefore our faculties of reason and natural freewill are not to be denied or reproached : so must we be as careful that we dishonour not the works of our Redeemer or Sanc-tifier ; and therefore the viciousness and ill-disposedness of these faculties, and the thraldom of our wills to their own misinclinations, and to concupisence, must be confessed; and the need of grace to work the cure. It is not ingenuous for us, when God made it so admirable a part of his work in the world, to redeem us, and save us from our sin and misery, that we should hide or deny our diseases, and make ourselves believe that we have but little need of the physician, and so that the cure is no great matter, and consequently deserveth no great praise. I know the church is troubled by men of dark, yet self-conceited minds, that in these points are running all into extremes. One side denying the Sapiential method, and the other the Omnipotential way of God in our recovery. One plainly casting our sin and misery principally on God ; and the other as plainly robbing the Redeemer and Holy Spirit of the honour of our recovery. But it is the latter that my subject leadeth me now to speak to. I beseech you take heed of any conceit that would draw you to extenuate the honour of our Sanc-tifier. Dare you contend against the Holy Ghost for the integrity of your natures, or the honour of your cure? Surely he that hath felt the power of this renewing grace, and found how little of it was from himself, nay, how much he was an enemy to it, will be less inclined to extenuate the praise of grace than unexperienced men will be. Because the case is very weighty, give me leave by way of question to propound these considerations to you.

Quest, 1. Why is it, think you, that all must be baptized into the name of the Son and Holy Ghost, as well as of the Father ? Doth it not imply that all have need of a Sanctifier, and must be engaged to that end in covenant with the Sanctifier ? I suppose you know that it is not to a bare profession of our belief of the trinity of persona that we are baptized. It is the covenant entrance into

our happy relation to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that is then celebrated. And therefore as infants and all must be thus engaged to the Sanctifier, so all must acknowledge their necessity of this mercy, and the excellency of it. It is essential to our Christianity, that we value it, desire it, and receive it. And therefore an error inconsistent with it proveth us indeed no Christians. (Matt, xxviii. 19.)

Quest, 2. Why is it, think you, that the Holy Ghost and this renewing work, are so much magnified in the Scripture ? Is not the glory of it answerable to those high expressions ? undoubtedly it is. I have already told you elsewhere of the elogies of this work. It is that by which " Christ dwelleth in them, and they are made a habitation of God by the Spirit." (Ephes. iii. 17; ii. 22.) They are made by it "the temples of the Holy Ghost." (1 Cor. vi. 19.) It is the Divine Power (which is no other than Omnipo-tency) that " giveth us all things pertaining unto life and godliness." (2 Pet. i. 3.) Think not, I beseech you, any lower of this work than is consistent with these expressions. It is the " opening of the blind eyes of our understanding, and turning us from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God," and bringing us *' into his marvellous light." (Acts xxvi. 18 ; Ephes. i. 18 ; 1 Pet. ii. 9.) It is an inward " teaching of us by God," (John vi. 45 ; 1 Thess. iv. 9,) and effectual "teaching and anointing,'* (1 John ii. 27,) and a " writing the law in our hearts, and putting them in our inward parts." (Heb. viii. 10, 11.) I purposely forbear any exposition of these texts, lest I seem to distort them; and because 1 would only lay the naked word of God before your own impartial considerations. It is God's work by the Spirit, and not our own, as ours, that is here so much magnified. - And can all this signify no more but a common bare proposal of truth and good to the intellect and will? even such as ignorant and wicked men have? Doth God do as much to illuminate, teach, and sanctify them, that never are illuminated, or taught, and sanctified, as them that are ? This work of the Holy Ghost is called a quickening, or making men that were dead, alive. (Ephes. ii. 1,2; Rom. vi. 11. 13.) It is called a new begetting or new birth, without which none can enter into heaven. (John iii. 3.5, 6.) A renewing us, and making us new men, and new creatures,

80 far as that " old things are passed away, and all become new." (Ephes. iv. 23, 24 ; Col. iii. 10 ; 2 Cor. v. 17.) It is a " new creating us after the image of God." (Ephes. iv. 24.) It maketh '? us holy as God is holy;" (1 Pet. i. 15, 16;) yea, it maketh us " partakers of the Divine Nature." (2 Pet. i, 4.) It " giveth us repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, that we may recover ourselves out of the snare of the devil, who were taken captive by him at his will." (2 Tim. ii. 25, 26.) It giveth us that " love by which God dwelleth in us, and we in God." (1 John iv. 16.) We are redeemed by Christ " from all iniquity," and therefore it is that **he gave himself for us, to purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus ii. 14.) It is an *' abundant shedding of the Holy Ghost" on us for our renovation, (Titus iii. 5, 6,) and by it a " shedding the love of God abroad in our hearts.'' (Rom. v. 5.) It is this Holy Spirit given to believers by which they pray, and by which they " mortify the flesh." (Jude 20; Rom. viii. 13. 26.) By this Spirit we live, and walk, and rejoice." (Rom. viii. 1; xiv. 17.) Our joy, and peace, and hope, is through the power of the Holy Ghost. (Rom. xv. 13.) It giveth us a spiritual mind, and taketh away the ** carnal mind that is enmity against God, and neither is nor can be subject to his law." (Rom. viii. 7.) By this Spirit that is given to us, we must " know that we are God's children." (1 John iii. 24 ; iv. 13.) " For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his." (Rom. viii. 9.) All holy graces are the " fruits of the Spirit." (Gal. v. 22. 23.) It would be too long to number the several excellent effects of the sanctifying work of the Spirit upon the soul, and to recite the elogies of it in Scripture. Surely it is no low or needless thing which all these expressions do intend.

Quest. 3. If you think it a most heinous sin to vilify the Creator and his work, and the Redeemer and his work, why should you not think so of the vilifying of the Sanctifier and his work, when God hath so magnified it, and will be glorified in it? and when it is the applying perfecting work, that maketh the purchased benefits of redemption to be ours, and formeth our Father's image on us.

Quest, 4. Do we not doctrinally commit too much of that sin (if we undervalue the Spirit's sanctifying work, as a common thing) which the ungodly world do manifest in

practice, when they speak and live in a contempt or low esteem of grace ? And which is more injurious to God ? for ^ profane person to jest at the Spirit's work, or for a Christian, or minister, deliberately to extenuate it; especially when the preaching of grace is a minister's chief work, sure we should much fear partaking in so great a sin.

Quest. 5. Why is it that the Scripture speaks so much to take men off from boasting or ascribing any thing to themselves ? " That every mouth may be stopped ;" (Rom. iii. 19 ;) and why doth not the law of works exclude boasting but only the *'law of faith?" (Rom. iii. 27.) Surely the actions of nature (except so far as it is corrupt) are as truly of God, as the acts of grace. And yet God will not take it well to deny him the glory of redemption, or sancti-fication, and tell him that we paid it him in another kind, and ascribed all to him as the author of our freewill by natural production. For as nature shall honour the Creator, so grace shall also honour the Redeemer and Sanctifier. And God designeth the humbling of the sinner, and teaching him to deny himself; and to honour God in such a way as may stand with self-abasement, leaving it to God to honour those by way of reward, that honour him in way of duty, and deny their own honour.

Quest. 6. Why is the blaspheming, and sinning against the Holy Ghost made so heinous and dangerous a sin, if the works of the Holy Ghost were not most excellent, and such as God will be most honoured by ?

Quest. 7. Is it not exceeding ingratitude for the soul that hath been illuminated, converted, renewed, quickened, and saved by the Holy Ghost, to extenuate the mercy, and ascribe it most to his natural will ? O what a change was it that sanctification made ! what a blessed birthday was that to our souls, when we entered here upon Life Eternal 1 (Johnxvii. 3.) And is this the thanks we give the Lord for so great a mercy i

Quest. 8. What mean those texts, if they confute not this unthankful opinion? " It is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Phil. ii. 13.) " God hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus: For by grace

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ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God ; Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created to good works in Christ Jesus." (Ephes. ii. 7—10.) The like is in Titus iii. 6—7 ; John xv. 16: " Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain." " Herein is

love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us ."

(1 John iv. 10.) "For who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" (1 Cor. iv. 7.), " No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." (John vi. 44.) " The natural man re-ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. ii. 14.) " That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit;" (John iii. 6 ;) that is, plainly, the fleshly birth produceth but flesh and not spirit; if any man will have the Spirit (and so be saved) it must be by a spiritual begetting and birth by the Holy Ghost: *• The Lord opened Lydia's heart that she attended to the things that were spoken of Paul," &c. (Acts xvi. 14.) Was the conversion of Paul, a murdering persecutor, his own work rather than the Lord's, when the means and manner were such as we read of? ** The God of our fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldst know his will, and see that Just One, and hear the voice of his mouth," &c. (Acts xxii. 14.) He was chosen to the means and to faith, and not only " in faith unto salvation." When Christ called his disciples to come and follow him, was there no prevailing inward power that made them leave all and follow him ? And was it not the power of the Holy Ghost that converted three thousand Jews at a sermon, of them that by wicked hands had crucified and slain the Lord Jesus ? (Acts ii. 23. 41.) When the preaching and miracles of Christ converted so few; his brethren, and they that " saw his miracles believed not on him," (John xii. 37 ; v. 38; vi. 36 ; vii. 5,) but when the Holy Ghost was given after his ascension, in that plenty which answered the Gospel and promise, his words were fulfilled: " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." (John xii. 32.) I pass by abundance more such evidence.

Quest, 9. Doth it not tend to bring sin into credit, which holiness is contrary to, and to bring the love of God into discredit, and to hinder men's conversion, and keep them from a holy life, when holiness is taken for so low and natural or common a thing ?

Quest. 10. And consequently doth it not tend to the vilifying of the attribute of holiness in God, when the image and effect of it is so extenuated ?

Quest, 11. And doth it not tend to the contempt of heaven itself, whose state of felicity consisteth much in perfect holiness? And if sanctitication be but some common motion, which Cain and Judas had, as well as Paul, sure it is less divine and more inconsiderable than we thought.

Quest. 12. Doth it not speak a very dangerous suspicion of a soul that never felt the special work of grace, that can make light of it, and ascribe it most to his own will ? And would not sound humiliation do more than arguments to cure this great mistake? I never yet came near a thoroughly humbled soul, but I found them too low and vile in their own eyes, to have such undervaluing thoughts of grace, or to think it best for them to leave all the efficacy of grace to their own wills ! A broken heart abhors such thoughts.

Quest. 13. Dare any wise and sober man desire such a thing of God, or dare you say that you will expect no other grace, but what shall leave it to yourselves to make it effectual or frustrate it? I think he is no friend to his soul that would take up with this.

Quest. 14. Do not the constant prayers of all that have but a show of godliness contradict the doctrine which I am contradicting? Do you not beg of God to melt and soften and bow your hearts, and to make them more holy, and fill them with light, and faith, and love, and hold you close to God and duty ! In a word, do you not daily pray for effectual grace, that shall infallibly procure your desired ends ? I scarce ever heard a prayer from a sober man but was orthodox in such points, though their speeches would be heterodox.

Quest. 15. Do you not know that there is an enmity in every unrenewed heart against sanctification, till God remove it ? Are we not greater enemies to ourselves, and greater resisters of the Holy Ghost, and of our own conversion, and sanctification, and salvation, than all the world

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besides is ? Woe to him that feeleth not this by himself. And is it likely, that we that are enemies to holiness, should do more to our own sanctification, than the Holy Ghost? Woe to us if he conquer not our enmity.

Quest, 16. Is it probable that so great a work as the destroying of our dearest sins, the setting of our hearts and all our hopes on an invisible glory, and delighting in the Lord, and forsaking all for him, &c. should come rather from the choice of a will that loveth those sins, and hateth that holy, heavenly life, than from the Spirit of Christ? sure this is much above us.

Quest, 17. Whence is it that so often one man that hath been a notorious sinner is converted by a sermon, when a civiler man, of better nature and life, is never changed, though he have that and ten times more persuasions ?

Quest. 18. Doth not experience tell impartial observers, that the high esteemers of the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost, are ordinarily of more holy, heavenly lives, than they that use to ascribe the differencing work to their freewills ? In my observation it is so.

Quest, 19. Should not every gracious, humble soul, be more inclined to magnify God, than himself? and to give him the glory, than to give it to ourselves, especially in a case where Scripture and experience telleth us that we are more unlikely than God to deserve the praise? Our destruction is of ourselves, but in him is our help. (Hos. xiii. 9.) When we see the effect and know it, and the causes that are in question, it is easy to conjecture from the quality, which is the true cause. If I see a serpent brought forth, I will sooner think that it was generated by a serpent than a dove. If I see sin in the world, I shall easily believe it is the spawn of this corrupted will, that is so prone to it. But if I find a divine nature in me, or see a holy, heavenly life in any, I must needs think that this is liker to be the work of the blessed God, than of such a naughty heart as man's, that hath already been a self-destroyer.

Quest, 20. What motive hath any man to exalt himself, and sin against the Holy Ghost by such an extenuation of his saving grace ? It is a causeless, fruitless sin. The only reason that ever I could hear for it, was lest the doctrine of differencing grace should make God a respecter of persons,

or the author of sin, of which there is no reason of a suspicion. We all agree that no man perisheth, or is denied grace, but such as deserve it: And when all deserve it, it is no more respect of persons in God to sanctify some only of those ill deservers, than it is that he makes not all men kings, nor every dog, or toad a man, nor every star a sun, or every man an angel. To clear all objections concerning this, would be but to digress.

3. Lastly, Our knowledge of the Holy Ghost must raise us to an high estimation of his works, and a ready reception of his graces, and cheerful obedience to his motions. He sanctified our Head, that had no sin, by preventing sin in his conception, and he anointed him to his office, and came upon him at his baptism. He sanctified and anointed the prophets and the apostles to their offices, and by them en-dited the Holy Scripture. He illuminateth, converteth, sanc-tifieth and guideth all that are to be heirs of life. This is his work. Honour that part of it that is done on Christ, on the prophets, apostles, and the Scriptures; and value and seek after that which belongeth to yourselves. Think not to be holy without the Sanctifier, nor to do any thing well without the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who is Christ's internal, invisible agent here on earth (as Tertullian in the church's creed speaks, * misit vicariam vim Spiritus sancti qui cre-dentes agat). O that men knew how much of their welfare dependeth on a faithful obeying of the Holy Ghost!

CHAP. XIII.

12. The next part of our knowledge of God is to know him in those great consequent Relations, to which he is entitled by creation and redemption; viz. as he is our absolute Lord or Owner, our most righteous Governor, and our paost bountiful or gracious Father or Benefactor.

1. God both as our creator and redeemer hath 'jus do-minii,' an absolute dominion of the world ; that is, he is our Owner or Proprietary, and we are his own ; for we take not the term, lordship or dominion, here in the looser sense as it signifieth a ruler, but in the stricter sense, as it signifieth an owner. Of this relation I have already spoken in a sermon of " Christ's Dominion:" and therefore shall say the less in this place.

The knowledge of God*s dominion or propriety must comprehend, 1. The certain truth of this his right; 2. The fulness of it; 3. The effects that it must have on us.

I. And the truth of it is beyond dispute, even among infidels that know there is a God. He that made us of his own materials, or of nothing, must needs be the owner of us; and so must he that bought us from destruction; " Behold, all souls are mine!" (Ezek. xviii. 4.) " To this end Christ both died, rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living," (Rom. xiv. 9.) ** All things that the Father hath are mine." (John xvi. 14,15.) The Father then hath this propriety by creation, and the Son by redemption: and the Father also by communication with the Son in redemption ; and the Son by communication with the Father in creation.

II. And it must be the most absolute plenary dominion, because the very being of all the creatures is from God, and therefore no one can be co-ordinate with him, or his co-rival, nor any thing limit his interest in us.

III. And the effects that this must have upon us, are these following.

1. Hence we must conclude, and reverently and willingly confess, that further than he voluntarily doth oblige himself to us, it is impossible that God should be our debtor; and consequently that upon terms of commutative justice we should merit any thing of God. For what can we render to him but his own? And how should he (properly and antecedently) be indebted to and for his own?

2. And we must conclude, that (antecedently to his laws and promise) it is impossible that God can do us any wrong, or any thing that he can do, can be guilty of injustice : For justice giveth to all their own; and therefore it giveth nothing to us from God, but what he voluntarily giveth us himself, which therefore is first a gift of bounty, and but secondarily a due in justice.

3. And therefore we must hence learn, that God may do with his own as he list. And therefore we must take heed that we repine not at any of his decrees or providences, or any passages concerning them in his word. Much may be above us, because our blindness cannot reach the reasons of his ways; but nothing is unreasonable or evil; for all pro-ceedeth from Infinite Wisdom and Goodness, as well as from

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Omnipotency: As no man must feign any thing of God, and say, ' This is his decree, or word, or providence; and therefore it is good,' when there is no such thing revealed to us; so when we find that it is indeed revealed, our reason must presently submit, and undoubtedly conclude it reasonable and good. Yet is there no cause from hence to fear, lest God should condemn the innocent, or break his promises, and deny us the reward; nor is there any hope to wicked men that he should violate his peremptory threatenings, or (as they call it in their selfish language) be better than his word : Because though God have an absolute propriety, and therefore in regard of his interest or power, may do what he will, yet he is essentially also most wise and good, and accordingly hath fitted all things to their use, and taken upon him the relation of our Governor, and as it were obliged himself by his laws and covenants, and declared himself to be most just; and shewed us hereby that he will do nothing contrary to these. As there is no contradiction but most perfect unity in God's omnipotency, wisdom, and goodness; his dominion or propriety, his kingdom, and paternity; so shall there be no contradiction but a perfect concord of all these in the exercise. He therefore that as our King and Governor, hath undertaken to advance the godly, and destroy the wicked, will not by the exercise of his absolute dominion, deny himself, nor be unfaithful to his people, or to his rules of government.

If you ask me, in what cases then this dominion is exercised? I answer, 1. Inlaying the foundations of laws, and right. 2. In the disposal of the unreasonable creatures. 3. In abundance of things about his rational creatures, wherein as Rector he is not engaged, nor hath in his laws declared his will: As about the various constitutions and complexions of men, their ranks and dignities in the world, their riches or poverty, their health or sickness, their gifts and parts both natural and acquired ; the first giving of the Gospel, and of special grace, to such as had forfeited them, and had no promise of them: the degrees of outward means and mercies; the degrees of inward grace, more than what is promised, &c.

From hence also we must learn, not to repine at the providences of God about his church, which are strange to us, and past our reach, and seem to make against its welfare.

Remember that as he may do with his own as he list, so we have no reason to think that he will be lavish or disregardful of his own. The church is not ours, but God's : and therefore he is fitter than we to be trusted with it.

And so in our own distresses by affliction ; when flesh repineth, let us remember, that we are his own, and he may do with us as he pleases. If we be poor, despised, sick and miserable in the world, let us remember, that as it is no injury to the beasts that they are not men, or to the worms that they are not beasts, or to the plants that they have not sense, or to the stars that they are not suns; so it is no wrong to the subjects that they are not princes, or to the poor that they are not rich, or to the sick that they are not healthful. May not God do with his own, as he list? shall a beggar grudge that you give not all that he desireth, when you are not bound to give him any thing?

4. Yea, hence we must learn to be the more thankful for all our mercies, because they proceed from the absolute Lord, that was not obliged to us. He might have made us idiots, or madmen; he might have made us beasts or toads, without any injury to us ; and the mercies which are consequently from his promise, are antecedently from his propriety and dominion; for he might have put us into other capacities, and have chosen not to have made those promises. And his promises bind us not to be less thankful but more. As his mercies are not the less mercies but the greater, for being promised ; because we have now the comfort and use of them in the promise, before we have them.

5. Hence also we must learn, that there can be no simple absolute propriety in any creature. No creature gave all the being and wellbeing to another that it hath, arid this originally as of its own. We being not our own but GoiJ's, cannot have any thing that is absolutely our own. Human propriety is but derived,limited, and respective. Our goods, and lands, and lives are ours ; that is, they are ours to use for God, as the instruments of a workman to do his work; but not ours to use as we think meet. They are so ours, as that men may not take them from us, but God may take them from us at his pleasure. And therefore think not you may misspend a penny if you were never so rich, because it is your own ; but know that you must misspend nothing, because it is not your own but God's.

6. Principally, we must hence learn to deny ourselves, as being not our own, and having nothing in the world that is our own, in respect to God, the absolute owner. And therefore above all the sins of your souls, still watch against this selfishness ; lest you should grow to look at your time, your strength, your wealth, your interests, as your own, and forget that you are mere stewards; and say as the ungodly, " Our lips are our own: who is lord over us ?" (Psal. xii. 4.) O take heed that you use not your strength, or interest, or any thing for yourselves: no not so much as your food and raiment; (1 Cor. x. 31;) that is, for yourselves ultimately, or not in subordination to the Lord. For self as subject unto God, or as closed with him in the bond of love, is no longer self in enmity and opposition, nor that which we are forbidden to seek or serve.

7. And this knowledge of the dominion of God, must prevail with us effectually to resign ourselves absolutely to him. Our consent doth give him no title to us, but it is necessary to our welfare that we confess his title. All men, even the wicked, are his own, but that is against their wills : but the godly are willingly his own, and disclaim all interest in themselves but what is duly subordinate to his : The name of God is put upon them, as you put your names on your goods or sheep. " I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord, and thou becamest mine." (Ezek. xvi. 8.) '* And they shall be mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels." (Mal.iii. 17.) To be entirely his by covenant, is proper to a saint: for sanctification hath these parts; one is the habitual devotion of the soul to God, and the other is the actual dedication, and a third is the relation of the person as thus dedicated, and the fourth is the actual using of ourselves for God. These four are the parts of sanctification; so that all is but our giving up ourselves to God. But to be his in right, is common to the devils, and most ungodly. The hearts of the sanctified do resolvedly and delightfully say, " My beloved is mine, and I am his ;" (Cant. ii. 16;) and " I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine." (vi. 3.) See then that you keep not any thing back, but resign up yourselves entirely to God, as those that know they are wholly his.

8. And with ourselves we must resign up all to God that

we have. For if we are not our own but his, then our children, our wealth, our wits, our time, our abilities, and all that we have are his. All is not fe® be used one way for God : not all to the poor, nor all to the commonwealth, nor all to the direct promoting of his worship ; but all must be his, and used for him, in one way or other, and in those ways which he requireth. Possess not any thing merely for yourselves.

9. And especially see to it in the use and improvement, that you use yourselves, and all that you have, for God. Let this be your intention, trade, and study. See that you be always at his work; that if a man come in upon you any hour of the day, and ask you what you are doing, and whose work it is that you are upon, you may truly be able to say, the Lord's. If you be asked, who you are now speaking for, or spending your time for, or for whom do you expend your wealth? You may truly say of every hour, and every penny, and every word. It is for the Lord. Even that which you give your children or friends, and that which you receive for your support or comfort, may all be principally and ultimately for God : " Ye are not your own ; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Cor. vi. 19,20.) " Christ died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but to him that died for them, and rose again." (2 Cor. V. 15.)

10. Lastly, This must be a stay to the souls of true believers, and cause them with comfort to trust themselves and all their affairs in the hands of God. When we have first made it our care to " give to God the things that are God's;" (Matt. xxii. 21;) and heartily consecrated ourselves and all that we have to him as his own; we have no reason to doubt of his acceptance, nor of his care, and protection, and merciful disposal of us. This is a wonderful comfort to poor Christians, to think that they have such an owner. Whoever is against you, Christians, be sure of it, God will look to you, as his own! And if you do but promise another that you will be as careful of his child, his horse, his goods, as if they were your own, he will think you say as much as can be expected. If you be poor, or sick, or desolate, you may be sure that yet God will look to you as his own. And why should you think that he will be careless of his own ?

Ground your prayers and confidence on this, as David doth, " I am thine, save me." (Psal. cxix. 94.) And in all our labours, and the affairs of our lives, when our consciences can say that we live to God, and study to do all we do for him, and to improve all our time and parts, and other talents, to his use, it may very much quiet us in all his disposals of us. If he keep us in the lowest case, if we be his, we must rest in his wisdom, that knows best how to use his cwn. If he take our friends from us, he taketh but his own. If he deny his saving grace to our ungodly children (a heavy judgment of which we must be sensible); yet when we have devoted them to God, and done our own part, we must be silent, as Aaron was when his sons were destroyed; (Lev. x. 3 ;) and confess that the " potter hath power over his own clay, to make of the same lump a vessel to honour, and another to dishonour." (Rom. ix. 21.) All his disposals shall work to that end which is the most universal perfect good, and most denominateth all the means. But those that are his own by consent and covenant, may be sure that all shall work to their own good. Let us die with Christ, and be buried to the world, and know no lord or ov/ner but our great Creator and Redeemer (except in a limited subservient sense), and then we may boldly argue with him to the quiet of our souls from this relation, " I am thine, help me." " Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, even to my cause, my Lord and my God;" when faith and love have first said as Thomas, " My Lord and my God." (John xx. 28.)

CHAP. XIV.

13. The next Relation to be spoken of, is God*s Sovereignty : Both by creation and redemption he has the right of governing us as our Sovereign King, and we are obliged to be his willing subjects, and as such to obey his holy laws. He is the Lord or Owner of all the world; even of brutes as properly as of man : But he is the Sovereign King or Governor only of the reasonable creature; because no other are capable of that proper moral government which now we speak of. Vulgarly indeed his physical motions and dispositions are called his rule or government; and so God is said to govern brutes and inanimate creatures; but that is but a metaphorical expression : as an artificer metaphorically go-verneth his clock or engine, or a shepherd his sheep. But

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we now speak of proper moral government. God having made man a rational and free agent, having an immortal soul, and capable of everlasting happiness, his very nature and the end of his creation required, that he should be conducted to that end and happiness by means agreeable to his nature; that is, by the revelation of the reward before he seeth it, that he may seek it and be fitted for it: and by prescribed duties that are necessary to obtain it, and to his living here according to his nature : and by threatened penalties to quicken him to his duty : &o that he is naturally a creature to be governed, both as sociable, and as one to be conducted to his end. He therefore that created him having alone both sufficiency and right, doth by this very creation become his Governor. His government hath two parts (the world being thus constituted the kingdom of God). The first is by legislation, or making laws and officers for execution. The second is by the procuring the execution of these laws : to which end he doth exhort and persuade the subjects to obedience, and judge them according to their works, and execute his judgment. His first law was to Adam, the law of nature, obliging him to adhere to his Creator, and to love him, trust him, fear him, honour him, and obey him with all his might, in order to the pleasing of his Creator, and the attainment of everlasting life: to which was added a positive law, against the eating of the tree of knowledge; and death was the penalty due to the sinner. This law was quickly broken by man; and God delayed not his judgment, but sentenced the tempter, the woman and the man; but not according to their merits: but graciously providing a redeemer, he presently stopt the execution of the far greatest part of the penalty, the Son of God undertaking as our surety to become a sacrifice and ransom for us. Hereupon the covenant of grace was made, and the law of grace enacted with mankind; but more obscurely in the beginning; being cleared up by degrees in the several promises to the fathers, the types of the law, and the prophecies of the prophets of several ages, and the law being interposed because of transgression: In the fulness of time the Messiah was incarnate, and the first promises concerning him fulfilled, and after his holy life, and preachings, and conquests of the tempter and the world, he gave himself a ransom for us, and conquering death he rose again, ascended into heaven, being

possessed in his manhood of the fulness of his power, and all things being delivered into his hands; so that he was made the General Administrator and Lord of all. And thus he more clearly revealing his covenant of grace, and bringing life and immortality to light, commissioned his ministers to preach this Gospel to all the world. And thus the primitive Sovereign is God, and the Sovereign by derivation is Jesus the Mediator, in his manhood united to the second person in the Godhead ; and the laws that we are governed by, are the laws of nature with the superadded covenant of grace; the subordinate officers are angels, magistrates and pastors of the church (having works distinct); the society itself is called the church and kingdom of God; the reward is everlasting glory, with the mercies of this life in order to it: and the punishment is everlasting misery, v^ith the preparatory j udgments, especially on the soul, which are here inflicted. Subjection is due upon our first being; and is consented to, or vowed in baptism, and is to be manifested in holy obedience to the death. This is the Sovereignty and Government of God. And now let us see how God, as our Sovereign, must be known.

J. The princes, and all the rulers of the world, must understand their place and duty : They are first God's subjects, and then his officers, and can have " no power but from God," (Rom. xiii. 3, 4,) nor hold any but in depen-dance on him, and subordination to him. Their power ex-tendeth no further than the Heavenly Sovereign hath signified his pleasure, and by commission to them, or command to us, conferred it on them. As they have no strength (or natural power) but from the Omnipotent God, so can they have no authority (or governing power or right) but from the absolute King of all the world. They can less pretend to aright of governing not derived from God, than a justice or constable may to such power, not derived from the earthly sovereigns.

Princes and states also must hence understand their end and work. God who is the beginning, must be the end also of their government: Their laws must be but by-laws subservient to his laws, to further men's obedience to them. The common good, which is their lower nearer end, must be measured by his interest in the nations, and men's relations unto him. The common possession of his favour.

blessing and protection, Is the greatest common good. His interest in us, and ours in him, must therefore be principally maintained.

2. The knowledge of God as our sovereign King, must bring the whole man in subjection to him. Our understandings must be subject to his doctrine, and resigned to him, as teachable and tractable : when we know what is his law and will, we must rest in it, though we know not the reasons of it. We take not on us to be competent judges of all the reasons of the laws of men, but must obey them without disputing the reasons (with the limitations after to be mentioned). How much more must we submit to the wisdom of the infallible Lawgiver, that cannot deceive, or be deceived! Our wills also must be f«lly subject to his will, revealed by his precepts. We must desire no more to move us, or to stop us, but to know what God would have us do. As the first wheels in a watch or other engine mov-eth all the rest, so the will of God must move all our wills, and rule our lives. We must take heed above all things in the world, lest our wills (which are the lower wheels) should have any such defects, distempers, reserves, any carnal bias, interest, or inclination, that makes them unfit to receive the law of God, or be ruled by his will. We must imitate our Lord, (Heb. x. 7,) and learn of the prophet, " I delight to do thy will, O God." (Psal. xl. 8.) With cheerful readiness to obey, we must stand waiting for the word of his command ; and say as Psal. cxliii. 10. " Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God :" And as Samuel, (1 Sam. iii. 9,) ** Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." When a man's selfish carnal will is mortified, and his will lies flat before the Lord, and wholly applieth itself to his will, and it is enough to a man to move him in the greatest matters, to know that it is the will of God, this is a state of true subjection. Thus must we be "in subjection to the Father of Spirits," submitting even to his sharpest dispensations. (Heb. xii. 9.) And all the church is subject unto Christ. (Ephes. V. 24.) And this is essential to our holy covenant and Christianity itself. When God is taken to be our God, and we give up ourselves to be his people ; when Christ is taken to be our Saviour, and we give up ourselves to him as his members, and redeemed ones, it essentially con-taineth our taking him for our chief Governor, and giving

up ourselves to him as his subjects. Take heed of that wisdom that would overtop the wisdom of God, and be your guide itself, without depending on his wisdom. This is the foolish damning wisdom of the world. Take heed of that concupiscence or will that would be your ruler, and overtop the will of God. For this is the grand rebel, and greatest enemy of God and us.

3. And subjection must produce obedience ; subjection is the consent of the will to be subjects, and to obey : obedience is the actual performance of commanded duties. Subjection is the root of obedience, and virtually containeth it: Obedience is the fruit of subjection, and supposeth it. If God be your master, shew it by his fear, or service. (Mai. i. 6.) It is not calling Christ our King, but obeying him before all, that will prove us subjects, " Not every one that saith unto me. Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Matt. vii. 21.) " I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, your reasonable service: And be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed (or turned into other men) by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, that acceptable and perfect will of God." (Rom. xii. 1, 2.) " And this is the will of God, even your sanctifica-tion.'* (1 Thess. iv. 3.) " Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: For he that hath suffered in the flesh, hath ceased from sin: that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh, to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." (1 Pet. iv. 1, 2.) Yea, we should " stand perfect and complete in^all the will of God." (Col. iv. 12.) And by the power of the word of God, " every thought should be brought in obedience unto Christ." (2 Cor. x. 5.) Our obedience should be public and exemplary. (Rom. xvi. 19.) ** For so is the will of God, that with well doing we put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." (1 Pet. ii. 15.) " Obedience is better than sacrifice." (1 Sam. xv. 22.) Whatever you do therefore, keep close to the law of God.

4. To this end we must labour to know the law, and be acquainted with God's will. The book of nature must be studied: The holy Scripture must be searched, (John v. 39,)

" and meditated in both day and night." (Psal. i. 2.) Princes must have this book continually in their hands. (Deut. xvii. 18—20; Josh. i. 8. 9.) Rich and poor must learn it, that they may obey it. (Deut. vi. 6, 7.)

5. And our subjection to God obligeth us to a subjection to the officers which he sets over us. If any man say to judges, justices, and constables, ' I will obey the king, but you are no kings, therefore I will not obey you,' he shall suffer as disobeying the king in his officers. Contempt of magistrates and ministers, reflects on God.

6. Yea, hence we must practically understand, in what respect to obey our governors : Not merely as the officers of men: not only as chosen by the people ; but as the officers of God, that from him have their authority. The atheistical politicians that derive authority no higher than the sword, or the people's choice, or natural strength, do teach men to obey their governors, but as a little dog submits unto a mastiff, or so far as their commodity persuadeth them, but not for conscience in obedience to God. And they teach men to look to no higher end than common preservation and liberties, and not to expect protection or reward from the Absolute Sovereign. In a word, they entice all princes and people into damning rebellion against the Lord; as much as if they should entice all constables and justices to hold their places without dependence on the prince. But God teacheth us that " there is no power but of God : the powers that be, are ordained of God ; Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, shall receive to themselves damnation : For he is the minister of God to us for good; even the minister of God, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil. Wherefore we must needs be subject not only

for wrath, but also for conscience sake For they are

God's ministers continually attending upon this very thing: and for this cause we must pay them tribute." (Rom. xiii. 1, 2. 4—6.) " Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man

for the Lord's sake, For so is the will of God ."

(1 Pet. ii. 13. 15.) " Judge righteously between every man and his brother ye shall not respect persons in judgment, but shall hear the small as well as the great, you shall not be afraid of the face of man : For the judgment is God's." (Deut, i. 16, 17.) "And he said to the judges. Take heed what ye do; for you judge not for man, but for

the Lord, who is with you in the judgment; wherefore let the fear of the Lord be upon you." (2 Chron. xix. 5—7.) But our atheistical politicians would teach rulers that they are none of the ministers of God, and that they judge for man only, and not for him. The nature of all true obedience is such as Paul describeth in children and servants, Ephes. vi. 1. 6—8, that fetcheth its rise and motives from the Lord ; " Children obey your parents in the Lord, for

this is right Servants be obedient to them that are your

masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ: not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with goodwill, doing service as to the Lord, and not to men." So Colos. iii. 22, 23. 7. Hence also you must learn, that God's authority is the highest authority, and there is indeed no such thing in the world as true authority that is against him, or not subordinate unto him: And therefore if men command us to disobey God, by neglecting that which is ' hie et nunc' a duty, or by sinning against him, their commands are from a disobedient will of their own, but from no authority: and it is better in such cases to obey God than man; (Acts v. 29 ;) so many prophets, apostles, and other martyrs, would not have been sacrificed by the fury of persecutors, if they had thought it just to obey them before God. God never gave any man authority against him. Nor to nullify his laws. The acts of a justice or constable against the king, or beyond their power, are private or rebellious acts, and not authoritative. And so are the laws of men that are against God. Yet note well, that though we must rather disobey men, than God, yet we may not forcibly resist, when we may not obey them. And in some cases (as if a king would ravish a woman, or the like) when it is lawful to resist his fact, it is not lawful to resist his state, and disturb the government of the commonwealth : Obey men cheerfully when God forbids it not: but see that God be your absolute Sovereign, whose laws can be dispensed with by none.

If parents or masters command you to break the laws of God, obey them not. Despise them not, but humbly deprecate their displeasure, and obey them in all other things; but in the unlawful thing obey them not: no not if they were the greatest princes upon earth. But say as the three

witnesses of God, " We are not careful to answer thee in this matter: If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hands, O king : But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." (Dan. iii. 16, 17.)

What I have said of magistrates, in the two last cases, I mean also of pastors of the church. They must be obeyed in and for the Lord ; but not against the Lord. Saith Paul of the churches of Macedonia, *' They gave their ownselves to the Lord, and unto us, by the will of God." (2 Cor. viii. 5.) See Acts xx. 28; 1 Thess. v. 12. " He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me." (Luke X. 16.) And yet the leaven of the Pharisees must be avoided : And " an angel from heaven be held as accursed, if he should preach another Gospel." (Gal. i. 8.) And I would not have flatterers to set either princes or pastors above the angels of heaven. Though yet in other respects, we may be still obliged, as I said before, to hear and obey them.

8. And the knowledge of God*s Sovereignty must teach us to fear his righteous threatenings, and reverence his justice, and prepare ourselves to be judged by him. He ruleth by his laws, and so by threatenings and promises, which he will make good. It is not a painted fire that he threateneth. Judgment is a part of government. Laws are but shadows if there be no execution. " O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; fear before him all the earth. Say

among the heathen, that the Lord reigneth ." (Psal.

xcvi. 9, 10.) As his promises, so his peremptory threatenings shall be fulfilled. He will not revoke his established laws for fear of hurting wilful sinners, that will not fear his judgments till they feel them. " Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him: for he spake, and it wasd one ; he commanded, and it stood fast." (Psal. xxxiii. 8.) Mark also the present judgments of the Lord, and rush not on his indignation. For " the Lord is known by the judgments which he exe-cuteth: the wicked is (oft) snared in the work of his own hands." (Psal. ix. 16.) Though " the wicked contemn God, and say in his heart, Thou wilt not require it;" (Psal. x. 13 ;) yet they shall find that " he beholdeth mischief to requite

it with his hand, and that he is the helper of the fatherless and poor that commit themselves unto him." (ver. 14.) " The Lord's throne is in heaven : his eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men : the Lord trieth the righteous ; but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth." (Psal. xi. 4, 5.)

9. The Sovereignty of God is a comfort to his loyal subjects. They may be sure that he will protect them, and make good his word. " Behold he cometh, and his reward is with him." (Rev. xxii. 12.) '* The righteous Judge at his appearingv^ill give the crown of righteousness to all them that love his appearing." (2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. 18.) " O let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth." (Psal. Ixvii. 4.) " Let the heavens rejoice, and the earth

be glad before the Lord ; for he cometh, for he cometh

to judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth." (Psal. Ixix. 11. 13.)

10. Lastly, The Knowledge of God as our Sovereign King, must cause us to desire and pray for and promote the glory of his kingdom, and the obedience of his subjects in the world; that his name may be hallowed, by the coming of his kingdom, and the doing of his will on earth as it is in heaven, must be the matter of our daily requests to God. It must be the grief of every subject of the Lord, to think of the heathen and infidel parts of the world; and to see the rebellion of the profane among us ; and that the laws of God are unknown or despised by the most of men. Alas ! what abundance are ruled by their lusts, and self-conceited-ness, and corrupted wills, and the customs of the world, or the wills of men ! but how few are ruled by the laws of God! O how should it grieve an honest heart, to see God's kingdom hindered by infidelity, and weakened, divided, and disturbed by popery, and heresy, and dishonoured by scandal and impiety, as it is! And to see the multitude, and the violence and industry of corrupters, dividers, and destroyers : and the fewness, the coldness, and the remissness of the builders, the healers and restorers! All you that are loyal subjects to your Lord, lament these ways of rebellion and disobedience, and the diminutions and distempers of the subjects of his kingdom, and the unfaithfulness and negligence of hi« ministers : and bend your cares, desires.

and prayers, to the promoting of God's kingdom in you, and in the world, and befriend not any thing that hindereth its prosperity.

CHAP. XV.

14. The third of these Relations, and the next point in the Knowledge of God, to be spoken of, is. That he is our Most Loving Father, 'or Bountiful Benefactor. As he is Good, so he doth Good. (Psal. cxix. 68.) And as he is the chiefest Good, so he bestoweth the greatest benefits: and therefore is thence by a necessary resultancy, our Most Bountiful Benefactor. The term Father comprehendeth in it all his three great relations to us. 1. A father gives being to his children, and therefore hath some propriety in them; and God is the first cause of our whole being, and therefore we are his own. 2. A father is the governor of his children: and God is our chief governor. 3. A father tenderly loveth his children that are childlike, loving, and obedient to him; and seeketh their felicity : and so doth God love, and will make happy, his loving and obedient children, who have not only their being from him as their maker, but their new being, or holy nature, from him as their sanctifier. And this last being the end and perfection of the rest, doth communicate its nature to the rest, as the means. And so, 1. The new nature that God thus giveth us in our regeneration, is not from his common love, but is an act of special grace, proceeding from his special Fatherly love. 2. The government that he ex-erciseth over them, as his regenerate children, is not a common government, such as is that of the mere law of nature, or of works; but it is a special government by a law of grace, a justifying, remedying, saving law, or covenant; together with an internal illuminating, quickening, guiding Spirit, with church-state, and officers and ordinances, all suited to this way of grace: Even as his dominion or propriety by redemption, and our sanctification and resignation, is not a common propriety, but a gracious relation to us as our own Father, who hath the endeared relation to him of being his own children. All is from love, and in a y/ay of love, and for the exercise and demonstration of love : So that when I call God our Benefactor, I precisely dis^

VOL. XIII. K

tinguish this last part of his relation to us, from the rest: But when I call hini a Father, I mean the same thing, or relation which a benefactor signifieth; but with fuller aspect on the foregoing relations, and connotation of them as they are perfected all in this.

And here, I. I shall briefly name the benefits on which this relation of God is founded. And, 1. Even in creating us, he acted as a benefactor, giving us the fundamental good of being, and the excellency of manhood. 2. By setting us in a well-furnished world, and putting all things under our feet, and giving us the use of creatures. 3. By entering into the relation of a governor to us, and consequently engaging himself to terms of justice in his dealing with us, and to protect us, and reward us, if we did obey; and making us capable of an everlasting happiness as our end, and appointing us sufficient means thereto. These benefits denominated God the Great Benefactor or Father unto man, in the state of his creation.

But then moreover he is a common benefactor also. 4. By so loving the world, as to give his only begotten Son, to be their Redeemer; a sufficient sacrifice for sin. 5. By giving out his promise or covenant of grace, and making a common deed of gift of pardon, reconciliation, and eternal life, to all that will accept it in and with Christ, to Gospel ends. 6. By sending forth the messengers of this grace, commanding them to preach to every creature the Gospel, or word of reconciliation committed to them, and to beseech men in Christ's stead, as his ambassadors; as if God himself did entreat by them, to be reconciled to God." (Matt, xxviii. 18,19; Mark xvi. 16; 2 Cor. v. 19, 20.) 7. By affording some common mercies without, and motions of his Spirit within, to second these invitations. But though by this much God hath a title to their dearest love, yet they have no title to his highest benefits, nor are in the nearest relation of children or beneficiaries to him.

But, 8. When he begetteth us again to a lively hope, by his incorruptible Seed, and giveth us both to will and to do, and when the Father effectually draweth us to the Son, and reneweth us according to his image, and taketh away our old and stony hearts, and giveth us new and tender hearts, and giveth us to know him, and love him as a Father; then is he our Father in the dearest and most comfortable sense.

and we are his children, that have interest in his dearest love. 9. And therefore we have his Spirit, and pardon, justification, and reconciliation with him. 10. And also we have special communion with him in prayers, praises, sacraments, and all holy ordinances and conversation. 11. And we and our services are pleasing to him, and so we are in the light of his countenance, and under a special promise of his protection and provision, and that ** all things shall work together for our good." 12. And we have the promise of perfection in everlasting glory.

II. And now as you see how God is our benefactor, or most gracious and loving Father, let us next see what this must work on us.

And, 1. Goodness and bounty should shame men from their sin, and lead them to repentance. (Rom. ii. 4, 5.) Love is not to be abused and requited with unkindness and provocation. He that can turn grace into wantonness, and do evil becausa grace hath abounded, or that it may abound, shall be forced to confess that his damnation is just. He that will not hate his sin, when he seeth such exceeding benefits stand by, and heareth mercy, and wonderful mercy plead against it, and upbraid the sinner with ingratitude, is like to die a double death, and shall have no more sacrifice for sin.

2. The fatherly love and benefits of God, do call for our best returns of love. The benefits of creation, oblige all to love him with all their heart, and soul, and might: much more the benefits of redemption, and especially (as applied by sanctifying grace to them that shall be heirs of life, it obligeth them by multiplied strongest obligations: The worst are obliged to as much love of God, as the best (for none can be obliged to more than to love him with all their heart, &c.); but they are not as much obliged to that love. We have new and special obligations; and therefore must return a hearty love, or we are doubly guilty. Mercies are love's messengers, sent from heaven to win up our hearts to love again, and entice us thither. All mercies therefore should be used to this end. That mercy that doth not increase, or excite and help our love, is abused and lost, as seed that is buiyed when it is sowed, and never more ap-peareth. Earthly mercies point to heaven, and tell ua whence they come, and for what. Like the flowers of the

spring, they tell us of the reviving approaches of the sun: But like foolish children, because they are near us, we love the flowers better than the sun ; forgetting that the winter is drawing on. But spiritual mercies are as the sunshine that more immediately dependeth on, and floweth from the sun itself. And he that will not see (and value) the sun by its light, will never see it! These beams come down to invite our minds and hearts to God ; and if we shut the windows, or play till night, and they return without us, we shall be left to utter darkness.

The mercies of God must imprint upon our minds the fullest and deepest conceptions of him, as the most perfect, suitable, lovely object to the soul of man; when all our good is originally in him, and all flows from him, that hath the goodness of a means, and finally himself is all; not to love God then, is not to love goodness itself; and there is nothing but good that is suited to our love. Night and day therefore should the believer be drawing and deriving from God, by the views and tastes of his precious mercies, a sweetness of nature, and increase of holy love to God, as the bee sucks honey from the flowers. We should not now and then for a recreation light upon a flower, and meditate on some mercy of the Lord, but make this our work from day to day, and keep continually upon our souls, the lively tastes and deep impressions of the infinite goodness and amiableness of God. When we love God most, we are at the best, most pleasing to God ; and our lives are sweetest to ourselves: And when we steep our minds in the believing thoughts of the abundant fatherly mercies of the Lord, we shall most abundantly love him. ^Every mercy is a suitor to us from God! The contents of them all is this, * My Son, give me thy heart. Love him that thus loveth thee.' Love him, or you reject him. O wonderful love! that God will regard the love of man ! that he will enter into a covenant of love! that he will be related to us in a relation of love! and that he will deal with us on terms of love! that he will give us leave to love him, that are so base, and have so loved earth and sin! yea, and that he will be so earnest a suitor for our love, as if he needed it, when it is only we that need! But the paths of lovli are mysterious and incomprehensible.

3. As God is in special a Benefactor and a Father to us.

We must be the readiest and most diligent in obedience to him. Childlike duty is the most willing and unwearied kind of duty. Where love is the principle, we shall not be eye-servants, but delight to do the will of God, and wish, O that I could please him more! It is a singular delight to a gracious soul to be upon any acceptable duty; and the more he can do good, and please the Lord, that more he is pleased. As fatherly love and benefits are the fullest and the surest, so will filial duty be. The heart is no fit soil for mercies, if they grow not up to holy fruits. The more you love, the more cheerfully will you obey.

4. From hence we must well learn, both how God is man's end, and what are the chief means that lead us to him. 1. God is not the end of reason, nakedly considered, but he is ' finis amantis,' the end which love inclineth us to, and which by love is attained, and by love enjoyed : The understanding of which would resolve many great perplexing difficulties that' a natura finis' do step into our way in theological studies. I will name no more now, but only that it teacheth us, How both God and our own felicity in the fruition of him, may be said to be our ultimate end, without any contradiction, ^et so that it be eminently and chiefly God. For it is a union (such as our natures are capable of) that is desired, in which the soul doth long to be swallowed up in God ; Understand but what a filial or friendly love is, and you may understand what a regular intention is, and how God must be the Christian's end.

2. And withal it shews us, that the most direct and excellent means of our felicity, and to our end, are those that are most suited to the work of love. Others are means more remotely, and necessary in their places; but these directly. And therefore the promises and narratives of the love and mercy of the Lord, are the most direct and powerful part of the Gospel, conducing to our end: and the threatenings the remoter means. And therefore as grace was advanced in the world, the promissory part of God's covenant or law, grew more illustrious, and the Gospel consisted so much of promises, that it is called " Glad tidings of great joy." And therefore the most full demonstration of God's goodness and loveliness to our hearers, is the most excellent part of all our preaching, though it is not all. And

therefore the meditation of redemption, is more powerful than the bare meditation of creation, because it is redemption that most eminently revealeth love. And therefore Christ is the principal means of life, because he is the principal messenger and demonstration of the Father's love, and by the wonders of love which he revealeth, and exhibit-eth in his wondrous grace, he wins the soul to the love of God. For God will have external objective means, and internal effective means concur, because he will work on man agreeably to the nature of man. Though there was never given out such prevalent invincible measures of the Spirit, as Christ hath given for the renewing of those that he will save, yet shall not that Spirit do it without as excellent objective means. And though Christ, and the riches of his grace revealed in the Gospel, be the most wonderful objective means, yet shall not these do it without the internal effective means. But when love doth shine to us so re-splendently without us, in the face of the glorious Sun of Love, and is also set into us by the Spirit's illumination, that sheds abroad this love in our hearts, then will the holy fire burn, which comes from heaven, and leads to heaven, and will never rest till it have reached its centre, and brought us to the face and arms of God.

5. And from the fatherly relation and love of God, we must learn to trust him, and rest our souls in his securing love. Shall we distrust a Father ? an Omnipotent Father ! Therefore is this relation prefixed to the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, and we begin with *' Our Father which art in heaven," that when we remember his love, and our interest in him, and his allsufficiency, wemay be encouraged to trust him, and make our addresses to him. If a Father, and such a Father, smite me, I will submit, and kiss the rod : for I know it is the healing fruit of love. If a Father, and such a Father, afflict me, wound me, deal strangely with me, and grieve my flesh, let me not murmur or distrust him ; for he well understandeth what he doth; and nothing that shall hurt me finally can come from Omnipotent paternal love. If a Father, and such a Father, kill me, yet let me trust in him, and let not my soul repine at his proceedings, nor tremble at the separating stroke of death. A beast knows not when we strive with him, what we intend, whether to

cure, or to kill him: But a child need not fear a killing blow, nor a loving soul a damning death, from such a Father. If he be a Father, where is his love and trust?

6. If God be our Father, and so wonderful a benefactor to us, then thanks and praise must be our most constant work, and must be studied above all the rest of duty, and most diligently performed. If the tongue of man, which is called his glory, be made for any thing, and good for any thing, it is to give the Lord his glory, in the thankful acknowledgment of his love and mercies, and the daily cheerful praises of his name. Let this then be the Christian's work.

7. The children of such a Father, should live a contented, cheerful life. Diligence becometh them, but not contrivances for worldly greatness, nor carking cares for that which their Father hath promised them to care for. Humility and reverence beseemeth them, but not dejection and despondency of mind, and a still complaining, fearful, troubled, disconsolate soul. If the children of such a Father shall not be bold, and confident, and cheerful, let joy and confidence then be banished from the earth, and be renounced by all the sons of men.

CHAP. XVI.

15. There are yet divers subordinate attributes of God, that being comprised in the forementioned, may be passed over with the briefer touch. And the next that I shall speak of is, his Freedom. And God is free in more senses than one j but for brevity, I shall speak of all together.

1. And first, God hath a natural Freedom of Will, being determined to will by nothing without him, nor liable to any necessity, but what is consistent with perfect blessedness and liberty. His own being, and blessedness, and perfections, are not the objects of his election; and therefore not of that which we call freewill: But all his works without, as creation, providence, redemption, &c. are the effects of his freewill: Not but that his will concerning all these, hath a necessity of existence: for God did from eternity will the creation, and all that is done in time; and therefore from eternity that will existing, had a necessity of existence: but yet it was free, because it proceedeth not necessarily from the very nature of God: God was God before he made the

world, or redeemed it, or did the things that are daily done* And therefore one part of the schoolmen maintain, not only that there is contingency from God, but that there could be no contingency in the creature, if it had not its original in God : The liberty of God being the fountain of contingency. 2. There is also an eminency both of dominion and sovereignty in God, according to which he may be called Free. His absoluteness of propriety freeth him from the restraint of any obligation, but what floweth from his own freewill, from disposing of his own as he pleases. And his absolute Sovereignty freeth him from the obligation of his own laws, as laws, though he will still be true to his promises and predictions. Let man therefore take heed how he questionetb his Maker, or censureth his laws, or works, or ways.

CHAP. XVII.

16. Another attribute of God is his Justice. With submission, I conceive that this is not to be said to be from eternity, any otherwise than all God's relations are (as Creator, Redeemer, &c.); because there is no time with God. For though the blessed nature denominated Just is from eternity, yet not the formality or denomination of justice. For justice is an attribute of God as he is Governor only; and he was not Governor, till he had creatures to govern; and he could not be a Just Governor when he was no Governor. The denomination did not arise till the creation had laid the foundation. Many questions may be resolved hence, which I will not trouble you to recite.

Justice in God is the perfection of his nature, as it giveth every one his due, or governeth the world in the most perfect orders for the ends of government. Because he is Just, he will reward the righteous, and difference between the godly and the wicked : for that governor that useth all alike is not just. The " crown of righteousness" is given by him as a " Righteous Judge." (2 Tim. iv. 8.)

1. The Justice of God is substantially (in men we call it an inclination) in his nature, and so it is eternal.

2. It is founded formally in his relation of Governor.

3. It is expressively first in his laws: For as a Just Governor he made them suited to the subjects, objects and ends.

4. It is expressively secondarily in his judgments and

executions; which is when they are according to his law; or in the cases of penalty where he may dispense at least according to the state of the subject, and fitted to the end» of government.

1. The Justice of God is the consolation of the just: He will justify them whom his Gospel justifieth, because he is Just. The Justice of God in many places of Scripture, is taken for his fidelity in vindicating his people, and his judging for them, and procuring them the happy fruits of his government, and so is taken in a consolatory sense. " Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before thy face.'' (Psal. Ixxxix. 14.) " It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble us, and rest to the troubled." (2 Thess. i. 5, 6.)

2. The Justice of God is the terror of the ungodly. As he would not make unrighteous laws, for the pleasure of unrighteous men, so neither will he pass unrighteous judgment. But look what a man soweth, that shall he also reap. All his peremptory threatenings shall be made good, and his wrath poured out for ever upon impenitent souls, because he is the Righteous God.

CHAP. XVIII.

17. Another of God's attributes is his Holiness. He is called Holy. 1. As he is transcendently above and separated from all the creatures, in comparison of whom the heavens are not clean; and from whom all things stand at an infinite distance. 2. As the perfection of his nature is the fountain of all moral good. 1. In the holiness of his law, the rule of holiness. 2. In the holiness of the soul; and 3. In his holy judgments. And consequently as this perfect nature is contrary to all the moral pollution of the creature, loathing iniquity, forbidding and condemning it. That perfect goodness of the will of God, from whence floweth holy laws, and motions, and the holiness of the soul of man, is it that Scripture meaneth usually by God's Holiness; rather than the aforesaid distance from the creatures. And therefore his Holiness is usually given as the reason of his laws and judgments, and of his enmity to sin: And our holiness is called his image (who imitate not his transcendency), and we are commanded to be " Holy as he is Holy." (1 Peter i.

16.) The nature of the image will best tell us what Holiness is in God. Holiness in us is called " the Divine Nature," (2 Peter i. 4,) and therefore is radically a right inclination and disposition of the soul; which hath its rise from transcendent Holiness in God, even as our wisdom from his transcendent wisdom, and our being from his being. Holiness therefore being indeed the same with the transcendently moral goodness of God, which I have spoken of before, I shall say but little of it now. Thus must the Holiness of God be known.

1. It must cause us to have a most high and honourable esteem of holiness in the creature, because it is the image of the Holiness of God. Three sorts of creatures have a derivative holiness : The first is the law; which is the mere signification of the wise and Holy Will of God concerning man's duty, with rewards and penalties, for the holy governing of the world! This is the nearest image of God, engraven upon that seal which must be the instrument of imprinting it in our souls. Now the holiness of the word is not the mere product of the will of God, considered as a will; but of the will of God considered as Holy, that is, as the infinite transcendent moral goodness in the Architype or Original. For all events that proceed from God, are the products of his will which is Holy, but not as holy as the creating, preserving, disposing of every fly, or fish in the sea, or worm in the earth, &c. There is somewhat therefore in the nature of God, which is the perfection of his will, and is called Holiness, which the holiness of the law doth flow from and express.

This Holy Word is the immortal seed that begetteth holiness in the soul, which is the second subject of derived holiness : And this our holiness is a conformity of the soul to the law, as the product of the Holy Will of God, and not a mere conformity to his predictions, and decreeing will as such. It is a separation to God, but not every separation: Pharaoh was set apart to be the passive monument of the honour of God's name: and Cyrus was his servant to restore his people, and yet not thus holy. But it is a separation from common and unclean uses; and a purgation from polluting vice, and a renovation by reception of the image of God's Holiness, whose nature is to incline the soul to God, and devote it wholly to him; both in justice, because we

are his own, and in love, because he is most Holy and perfectly good.

The third subject of Holiness is those creatures that are but separated to holy uses, and these have but a relative holiness, and * secundum quid:' As the temple, the holy utensils, the Bible as to the materials, the minister as an officer, the people as visible members, &c.

All these must be reverenced and honoured by us according to the proportion of their holiness. 1. Our principal reverence must be to the Holy Word of God ; for holiness is more perfect there than in our souls. The Holiness of the Word, which is it that the ungodly hate or quarrel at, is the glory of it in the eyes of holy men. We may much discern a holy and an unholy soul, by their loving or not loving a holy law ; especially as it is a rule to themselves. A distaste of the holiness of Scripture, and of the holiness of the writings of divines, and of the holiness of their preaching or conference, discovereth an unholy soul. A love to holy doctrine sheweth that there is somewhat suitable to it in the soul that loveth it. It is the elogy of the Scriptures, the promises, the covenant, the prophets and apostles, that they are all holy. (Rom. i. 2; Psal. cv. 42 ; Luke i. 70. 72; Rev. xviii. 20; 2 Tim. iii. 15; Rom. vii. 12.) The holiness of the Scripture doth make it as suitable and savoury to a holy soul, as light is suitable to the eyesight, and sweetness to the taste : and therefore it is to them as the honeycomb. But to the unholy it is a mystery, and as foolishness, and that which is contrary to their disposition, and they have an enmity to it: which makes a wonderful difference in their judging of the evidences of Scripture verity, and much fa-cilitateth the work of faith in one sort, and strengtheneth unbelief in the other. Holy doctrine is the glass that sheweth us the holy face of God himself, and therefore must needs be most excellent to the saints.

2. And we must honour and love also the holiness of the saints; for they also bear the image of the Lord. Their holy affections, prayers, discourses, and conversations must be beautiful in our eyes: and we must take heed of those temptations, that either from personal injuries received from any, or from their blots or imperfections, or from their meanness in the world, or from the contempt, and reproach, and slandcirs of the ungodly, would draw us to think dishonour-

ably of their holiness. He that honoureth the Holy God will honour his image in his holy people. " In his eyes a vile person will be contemned, but he will honour them that fear the Lord." (Psal. xv. 4.) " The saints on earth are the excellent" in his eyes, and his " delight" in them. (Psal. xvi. 2, 3.) The breathings of divine love in the holy prayers, praises and speeches of the saints, and their reverent and holy mention of his name, are things that a holy soul doth sweetly relish, and take pleasure in, as we would do to hear an angel speak of the holy things of the invisible glory.

3. And relative holiness itself, though the lowest, must be honoured by us. Holy offices and persons in them must be reverenced for their relative holiness. Holy ordinances (which also participate of the law, as significative) must be reverently used. Due reverence must be given even to that which is lawfully by men devoted to a holy use, as are temples and utensils of worship, and the maintenance dedicated to the service of God. That which is holy, must not be devoured, (Prov. XX. 25,) nor used as we do things common and unclean.

2. God's Holiness must make us holy : we must fall in love with it, and wholly conform ourselves unto it. Every part of sanctifying grace must be entertained, and cherished, and excited, and used by us. Sin must be loathsome to us, because it is contrary to the Holiness of God. No toad or snake should seem to us so ugly. A dead carcase is an unpleasant sight, because it sheweth us a privation of natural life : But an unholy soul is incomparably a more loathsome, ghastly sight, because it sheweth us the privation of the life of holiness. No man can well know the odiousness of sin, and the misery and loathsomeness of the unholy soul, that knoweth not the Holiness of God. " Speak unto all the congregation of Israel, and say unto them, ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy." (Lev. xix. 2.) " Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy, for I am the Lord your God." (Lev. xx. 7, 8.) " As he that hath called us is Holy, so must we be holy in all manner of conversation." (1 Peter i. 25.) It is " an holy calling wherewith we are called." (2 Tim. i. 9.) We are " sanctified to be a peculiar people to Christ." (Titus ii. 14.) " That denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." (ver. 12.) We are made

" an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice, acceptable to God, by Jesus Christ." (1 Peter ii. 5.) We must therefore " present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, our reasonable service.'* (Rom. xii. !_, 2.) For we are " chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame," (Ephes. i. 4,) and are redeemed and sanctified by Christ, " that we may be presented glorious, holy, and without blemish." (Ephes. V. 26, 27.) See therefore that you " follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." (Heb. xii. 14.) For " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see him." (Matt. V. 8.)

3. The Holiness of God, must be to us a standing unanswerable argument to shun all temptations that would draw us to be unholy, and to confound all the words of wicked men that are spoken against holiness. Remember but that God is Holy, and if thou like that which is spoken against God, thou art his enemy. Think on the prophecies of Enoch, " Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodlily committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." (Jude 14,15.) " God will not hold him guiltless that taketh his holy name in vain ;" much less that blasphemeth Holiness, which is the perfection of his blessed nature.

4. The Holiness of God must possess us with a sense of our uncleanness, and further our humiliation. When Isaiah heard the seraphims cry, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory," (Isa. vi. 3,) he said, " Woe is me, for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." (verse 5.)

5. The Holiness of God must cause us to walk continually in his fear, and to take heed to all the affections of our souls, and even to the manner of our behaviour, when we come near to him in his holy worship. What suffered the Bethshemites for irreverent looking into the holy ark,(l Sam. vi. 19,) and Uzzah but for touching it? And what a dreadful example is that of the two sons of Aaron, that were slain by a devouring fire from the Lord, for offering strange fire

which he commanded not. (Lev. x. 1, 2.) And Aaron was awed into silence by this account from God. *' I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified." (ver. 3.) Take heed lest irreverence, or deadness, or customary, heartless, wordy services, should be brought before a Holy God. Take heed of hypocritical, carnal worship. The Holy God will not be mocked with compliments and shows.

CHAP. XIX.

18. The next attribute of God to be spoken of is, his Veracity, Truth, and Faithfulness. This is the result of his perfect wisdom, goodness and omnipotency: For because he is most wise and powerful, he cannot be necessitated to lie : And because he is most good, he will not lie. Though God speaketh by none but a created voice, and signifieth his will to us by men, that in themselves considered are defectible, yet what he maketh his voice shall speak truth; and what he chooseth to signify his will, shall truly signify it. He therefore condemneth lying in man, because it is contrary to his own veracity. For if any should say that God is under no law, and therefore is not bound to speak truth, or not deceive a prophet or apostle by his inspirations; I answer, that he hateth lying as contrary to his perfect nature, and is himself against it, and cannot possibly be guilty of it, because of his own perfection ; and not because he is under a law. Lying comes from some imperfection, either of knowledge, power, or goodness, which can none of them befall the Lord. The goodness of the creature is a goodness of conformity to an obliging law; and the goodness of the law is a goodness of conformity to, and expressive of the good will of God. But the Goodness of God is a perfection of essence, the primitive goodness, which is the fountain, and standard, and end of all other good; and not a goodness of conformity to another.

And this attribute of God is of very great use to his servants. 1. From hence we must be resolved for duty, and for a holy, heavenly life : because the commands of God are serious, and his promises and threatenings true. If God were not true, who tells us of these great eternal things, then might we excuse ourselves from godliness, and justify the worldling in his sensual way: There is nothing of common

sense and reason that can be said against a holy life, by a man that denieth not the Truth of God or of his word. And to deny God's Truth, is most unreasonable of all. O sirs, when you read and hear of the wonderful weighty matters of the Scripture, of an endless life, and the way thereto; bethink you, if these things be true, *' what manner of persons you should be, in all holy conversation and godliness !" (2 Peter iii. 11.) If the word be true, that telleth us of death and judgment, and heaven and hell, is it time for us to sin, to trifle, and live unready !

2. The Truth of God is the terror of his enemies. O happy men, if their unbelief could make void the threaten-ings of God, and doubting of them would make them false ! and if their misery were as easily remedied as denied ; and ended as easily as now forgotten! or forgotten hereafter as easily as now! But true and righteous is the Lord, and " from the beginning his word is true." (Psal. cxix. 16.) Not a word shall fall to the ground, nor a jot or tittle pass unfulfilled.

3. The Truth of God is the ground of faith, and the stay of our souls and the rock of all our confidence and comfort: A Christian did not differ from another man (unless in being somewhat more deluded) if God were not true. But this is the foundation of all our hopes, and the life of our religion, and all that we are as Christians, proceeds from this. Faith is animated by God's Veracity, and from thence all other graces flow, or are excited in us. O Christians, what a treasure is before your eyes, when you open the blessed Book of God! What life should it put into your confidence and comforts, to think that all these words are true! All those descriptions of the everlasting kingdom, and all those exceeding precious promises of this life, and that which is to come, and all the expressions of that exceeding love of God unto his servants, all these are the true sayings of God. " A faithful witness will not lie/' (Prov. xiv. 5,) much less will the faithful God. " Eternal life is promised by God that cannot lie." (Titus i. 2.) " Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath ; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set be-

fore us." (Heb. vi. 17, 18.) Let faith therefore live upon the truth of God, and let us be strengthened, and rejoice therein.

4. Abhor all doctrines which deny the truth and faithfulness of God, for they destroy the ground of Christian faith, of all divine faith, and all religion. The Veracity of God is the formal object of all divine faith : We believe God, because he cannot lie : If he can lie, and do lie, he is not credible. But you will say, Is there any that hold such odious doctrines ? Answ, I like not the charging of persons with the consequences of their opinions which they discern not, but disclaim: God will not charge them with such consequences, who do their best to know the truth, and why should we ? All men have some errors, whose consequences contradict some articles of faith. It is not the persons that I persuade you to dislike, but the doctrine. And the doctrine is never the less to be abhorred, because a wise or good man may hold that which doth infer it.

I shall now instance only in the Dominicans' predetermination. They that hold that it is necessary to the being of every circumstantiated act, natural and free, that God be the principal immediate physical efficient predetermining cause of it, do hold that he so causeth all the false speeches and writings, (as well as other sins) that ever were spoken or written in the world: not only as they are acts * in genere,' but as these words in particular; as that he so predetermined the tongues of Ananias andSapphirato say those very words which they said, rather than others : Now seeing it is apparent, 1. That God hath not a voice, but speaketh to us by a created voice, even by prophets and apostles, and that the Scripture was written by men. 2. And that God's Veracity, which is the formal object of our faith, consisteth in his not using lying instruments, nor sending a lying messenger to us; (it is * Veracitas revelantis per alium.') 3. And that no way of inspiration can make God to be any more the cause of the words or writings of an apostle, than his immediate physical efficient specifying predetermination doth (for it can do no more than irresistibly as the first cause, physically to premove the agent to his thought, will, word, or deed, considered with all its circumstances). It foUoweth that we have no certainty when God premoveth an apostle or prophet to speak true, and when to speak falsely ; and that no words or writings are of certain truth upon any ac-

count of God's inspiration or premotion, because God not only can, but doth cause all the untruths that are spoken or written in the world : therefore no faith in God's revelations hath any sure foundation, nor any formal object at all: And so all religion is dashed out at a stroke. To say that God causeth not the falsity of the word, nor the word as false, but the word which is false, might well be the justification of them that affirm God to be but the universal cause of the word or act * in genere,' as a word or act; and that the specification is only from the sinner. But in them that say he is the particular cause of this word comparatively, rather than another, it is but a contradiction : 1. For there is no other cause of the falsity, which is a mere relation, but that which causeth the rule and the word or writing which is false, and so layeth the foundation. 2. It overthroweth all certainty of faith, if God speak to us by his instruments, those words that are false : The * quod falsum,' as well as the * qua fal-sum,' leaveth us no ground of certainty. The Dominicans therefore have but one task in which their hope is placed, to excuse their opinion from plain obliterating all divine belief and religion, and that is, to prove that there is so great a difference between inspiration and their physical predetermination, that God cannot by inspiration premove to an untruth, though by physical predetermination he may: Thia is their task, which I see not the least possibility that ever they should perform. If God premove, and predeterminate every will, and tongue, and pen, to every lie that is spoken or written, more potently and irresistibly than I move my pen in writing, it is past my power to understand what more he can do by inspiration, to interest him in the creature's act: or at least how the difference can be so great as that one of the ways he can predetermine all men to their falsities, and none the other way. But of this I have written a large disputation ; yet think it not needless, even in a practical treatise to say thus much here.

5. The Truth of God much teach us to hate every motion to unbelief in ourselves and others: It is a heinous sin to give God the lie, though he speak to us but by his messengers. Every honest man, so far as he is honest, is to be believed; and is God less true ? A graceless gallant will challenge you to the field for the dishonour, if you give bim

VOL. XITI. L

THE DIVINE LIFE.

the lie. If you deny God's veracity, you do not only equal him with the worst of men, but with the devil, who was a liar from the beginning. Yea, you may make him incapable of being the Governor of the World, or suppose him to govern it by deceits and lies. Abhor therefore the first motions of unbelief; it makes men somewhat worse than devils ; for the devils know that God cannot lie, and therefore they believe and tremble. Unbelief of the truth of the word of God, is the curse of the soul; the enemy and bane of all grace and religion, so far as it prevaileth: Let it be the principal care and labour of your souls, to settle the foundation of your faith aright, and to discern the evidence of Divine authority in the holy Scriptures, and to extirpate the remnants of infidelity in your hearts.

6. Let the Truth and Faithfulness of God engage you to be true and faithful to him, and to each other. You have promised him to be his servants; be faithful in your promises : You are in covenant with him; break not your covenant. Many a particular promise of reformation you have made to God : Prove not false to him that is true to you.

Be as good as your word to all men that you have to do with. Abhor a lie, as the offspring of the devil, who is the father of it: Remember you serve a God of Truth: and that it is the rectitude and glory of his servants to be conformable to him. They say the Turks are offended at Christianity, because of the lies and falsehood of Christians. But sure they were but nominal Christians, and no true Christians that ever they found such : And it is pity that Christianity should be judged of through the world, by the lives of them that never were Christians but from the teeth outward, and the skin that was washed in baptism. They that will lie to God, and covenant to be his holy servants, when they hate his holy service, will lie to man, when their commodity requireth it. When they seem to repent, and honour him with their tongues; " They flatter him with their mouth, and lie to him with their tongues; for their heart is not right with him, neither are they steadfast in his covenant." (Psal. Ixxviii. 34—37.) God saith, ** Ye shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie one to another." (Lev. xix. 11.) " A righteous man hateth lying." (Prov. xiii. 5.) *' The lying tongue is but for a moment, (Prov. xii. 19,)

I

*• for God hateth it, and it is an abomination to him." (Prov. xvi. 16, 17.) '* The lovers and makers of lies are shut out of the kingdom of Christ." (Rev. xxii. 15.)

But above all, false teachers that preach and prophesy lies, and deceive the rulers and people of the earth, are abominable to God : see Jer. xxvii. 10. 14—16 ; xiv. 14. 23. 25, 26. 32 ; Ezek. xiii. 9. 12 ; Isa. liv. 13. When Ahab was to be destroyed, a lying spirit in the mouth of his prophets deceived him. And " if a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are v^^icked." (Prov. xxix. 2.)

7. Above all, false witness and perjury should be most odious to the servants of the God of Truth. '* A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish." (Prov. xix. 9.) " When thou vowest a vow to God, defer not to pay it." (Eccles. v. 4, 5.) Saith David, " Thy vows are upon me, O God." (Psal. Ivi. 12.) And *'unto thee shall the vow be performed." (Psal. Ixv. 1.) Perjury is a sin that seldom escapeth vengeance, even in this life. The instances of Saul the first, and Zedekiah the last pf the kings of Judah, before the desolation, are both very terrible. Saul's posterity must be hanged, to stay the famine that came upon the people for his breaking a vow that was made by Joshua, and not by him, though he did it in zeal for Israel. (2 Sam. xxi.) Zedekiah's case you may see, 2 Chron. xxvi; Ezek. xvii. He that sweareth, appealeth to God as the Searcher of Hearts and Avenger of Perjury. The perjured person chooseth the vengeance of God. He is unfit (till he repent) to be a member of any civil society. For he dissolveth the bond of all societies. He cannot well be supposed to make conscience of any sin or villany in the world, against God, his country, his king, his friend or neighbour, that makes no conscience of an oath. It is not easy to name a greater wickedness out of hell, than to approve of perjury by laws or doctrine. And whether the church of Rome do so or not, I only desire them to consider that have read the third canon of the Council at Late-ran under pope Innocent the third, where an approved General Council decreeth, 'That the pope discharge vassals from their allegiance or fidelity to those temporal lords that ex*-terminate not heretics (as they call them) out of their domir nions.* What shall restrain men from killing kings, or any villany, if once the bond of oaths be nullified ? But Scrip-

ture saith, " Keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God/' (Eccles. viii. 2.) No man defend-eth perjury by name: But to say that men that swear to do that which God commandeth, or forbids not, are not bound to keep that oath ; or that the pope may absolve men, or disoblige them that swore fidelity to temporal lords, when once the pope hath.excommunicated them, doth seem to me of the same importance.

CHAP. XX.

19. The next attribute to be spoken of is, his Mercifulness, and his LongsufFering Patience, which we may set together. This is implied in his Goodness, and the relation of a Father before expressed. Mercy is God's goodness inclining him to prevent or remove his creature's misery. It is not only the miserable that are the objects of it, but also those that may be miserable ; it being as truly mercy to keep us out of it foreseen, as to deliver us out of it when we were in it. Hence it is that he " taketh not pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that he may turn and live." And hence it is that he " afflicts not willingly, nor grieves the children of men." (Lam. iii. 33.) Not that his mercy engageth him to do all that he can do for the salvation of every sinner, or absolutely to prevent or heal his misery; but it is his attribute chiefly considered as Governor of the rational creature; and so his mercy is so great to all, that he will destroy none but for their wilful sin, and shut none among us out of heaven, but those that were guilty of contemning it. God doth not prevent the sinner with his judgment, but with his grace he often doth. He never punisheth before we are sinners, nor never decreed so to do, as all will grant. He punisheth none, where his foregoing commands and warnings have had their due effect for the prevention: and therefore because the precept is the first part of his law, and the threatening is but subservient to that, and the first intent of a governor is to procure obedience, and punishing is but upon supposition that he misseth of the first, therefore is God not to afilict willingly; because he doth it not ' ex voluntate antece-dente,' but' ex voluntate consequente,' that is (for so the distinction is sound) not as a lawgiver, and ruler by those laws considered before the violation ; but only as a judge of the lawbreakers. But yet God's mercy is no security to the

abusers of his mercy. But rather will sink them into deeper misery, as the aggravation of their sin : As God afflicts not willingly, and yet we feel that he afflicteth : so if he do not condemn you willingly, you shall find if you are impenitent, that he will condemn you.

If you say, God can be forced to do nothing against his will: I answer you, that it is not simply against his will; for then it should never come to pass: but it is against the principal act of his will, which floweth from him as a lawgiver, or ruler by laws, in which respect it may be said, that he had " rather that the wicked turn and live :" but yet if they will not turn, they shall not live. A merciful judge had rather the thief had saved his life by forbearing to steal; but yet he had not rather that thieves go unpunished than he should condemn them.

1. The mercy of God should lead sinners to repentance, and shame them from their sin, and lead them up to God in love.

2. Mercy should encourage sinners to repent, as well as engage them to it: for we have to do with a merciful God, that hath not shut up any among us in despair, nor forbid them to come in, but continueth to invite when we have oft refused, and will undoubtedly pardon and welcome all that do return.

3. Mercy being specially the portion of the saints, must keep them in thankfulness, love and comfort: and all mercies must be improved for their proper ends. When a merciful God is pleased to fill up his servants' lives with such great and various mercies as he doth, it should breed a continual sweetness upon their hearts, and cause them to study the most grateful retribution. He should breathe forth nothing but thankfulness, obedience and praise, who breathes nothing but mercies from God. As the food that men live upon, will be seen in their temperature, health and strength; so they that live continually upon mercies, should be wholly turned into love and thankfulness: it should become as it were their nature, temperature and constitution. O how unspeakable is the love of God, that provideth so sweet a life for his servants, even in their warfare and pilgrimage in this world! that mercy must be as it were the air that they breathe in, the food which they must live upon; and the remembrance, improvement and thankful mention of it, must be the business and employment of their lives! O with

what sweet affections, meditations and expressions should we live, if we lived but according to the rate of those mercies upon which we live ! Love, and joy, and thanks, and praise, would be our very lives. What sweet thoughts would mercy breed and feed in our minds when we are alone! What sweet apprehensions of the love of God, and life eternal, should we have in prayer, reading, sacraments, and other holy ordinances! Sickness and health, poverty and wealth, death as well as life would be comfortable to us : for all is full of mercy to the vessels of mercy. O Christians, what a shame is it that God is so much wronged, and ourselves so much defrauded of our peace and joy, by passing over such abundance of great invaluable mercies, without tasting their sweetness, or well considering what we do receive! Had we David's heart, what songs of praise would Mercy teach us to indite! How affectionately should we recount the mercies of our youth and riper age ; of every place and state that we have lived in to the honour of our gracious Lord, and the encouragement of those that know not how good and merciful he is.

But withal, see that you contemn not, or abuse not mercy : use it well; for it is mercy that you must trust to in the hour of your distresses. O do not trample upon mercy now, lest you should be confounded when you should cry for mercy in your extremity!

4. The Mercifulness of God, must cause his servants to imitate him in love and mercy; " Be merciful, for your heavenly Father is merciful. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." (Matt. v. 7.) Be merciful in your censures : Be merciful in your retributions : You are none of God's children, if you " love not your enemies, and pray not for them that curse you, and do not good to them that hate and persecute you" (according to your power). (Matt. V. 44, 45.) " If you forgive not men their trespasses," but take your brother by the throat, " neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses." (Matt. vi. 14, 15.) Mark, that even while he is called " your heavenly Father," yet he will not forgive, if you forgive not. Unmerciful men are too unlike to God, to claim any interest in his saving mercy, in the hour of their extremest misery. Men of cruelty, blood, and violence, he abhorreth : and usually they do not " live out half their days :" but they that *' bite and

devour one another, are devoured one of another." (Gal. v. 15.) The last judgment will pass much according to men's works of mercy, to the members of Christ. (Matt, xxv.) " He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy: and mercy rejoiceth against judgment." (James ii. 13.) " Pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father, is this. To visit the fatherless and widows in their afflictions, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James i. 27.) " He that having this world's goods, seeth his brother in need, and shutteth up the bowels of his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him V But above all cruelty, there is none more devilish than cruelty to souls. And in those that undertake the place of pastors, cruelty to men's souls is a far greater sin than in any others. To starve those that they undertake to feed; and to seduce those whom they undertake to guide, and be wolves to those whose shepherds they pretend to be, and to prefer their worldly honours, and commodity, and ease, before the souls of marty thousands, to be so cruel to souls, when Christ hath been so merciful to them, as to come down on earth to seek and save them, and to give his life a ransom for them; this will one day be so heavy a charge, that the man that must stand as guilty under it, will a thousand times wish, that a " milstone had been hanged about his neck, and he had been cast into the bottom of the sea," before he had betrayed or murdered souls, or offended one of the little ones of Christ. Be merciful to men's souls and bodies, as ever you would find mercy with a merciful God in the hour of your necessity and distress.

CHAP. XXI.

20. The last of God's attributes which I shall now mention, is, his Dreadfulness or Terribleness, to those that are the objects of his wrath. This is the result of his other attributes, especially of his Holiness, and governing Justice, and Truth in his comminations. He is a ** great and dreadful God." (Dan. ix. 4.) " A mighty God and terrible." (Deut. vii. 21.) " A great and terrible God," (Nah. i. 5.) " With God is terrible Majesty." (Job xxxvii. 22.) " The Lord most high is terrible." (Psal. xlvii. 22.)

1. His children therefore must be kept in a holy awe; God is never to be approached or mentioned, but with the

greatest reverence. We must " sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and he must be our fear and dread." (Isa. viii. 13.) Even they that " receive the unmoveable kingdom, must have grace in their hearts to serve him acceptably, with reverence and godly fear, because our God is a consuming fire." (Heb. xii. 28, 29.) When we come to worship in the holy assemblies, we should think, as Jacob, " How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." (Gen. xxviii. 17.) Especially when God seemeth to frown upon the soul, his servants must humble themselves before him, and deprecate his wrath, as Jeremiah did, " Be not a terror to me." (Jer. xvii. 17.) It ill becometh the best of men, to make light of the frowns and threatenings of God. Also when he dealeth with us in judgment, and we feel the smart of his chastisements, though we must remember that he is a Father, yet withal we must consider that he sheweth himself an offended Father: And therefore true and deep humiliation hath ever been the course of afflicted saints, to turn away the wrath of a terrible God.

2. But above all, what cause have the ungodly to tremble at the dreadfulness of that God, who is engaged injustice, (except they be converted) to use them everlastingly as his unpardoned enemies. As there is no felicity like the favour of God; and no joy comparable to his children's joys; so there is no misery like the sense of his displeasure, nor any terrors to be compared to those, which his wrath inflicteth everlastingly on the ungodly. O wretched sinner ! what hast thou done to make God thine enemy ? what could hire thee to offend him by thy wilful sin ? and to do that which thou kuewest he forbid and condemned in his word? What madness caused thee to make a mock at sin and hell, and to play with the vengeance of the Almighty ? What gain did hire thee to cast thy soul into the danger of damnation ? Canst thou save by the match, if thou win the world and lose thy soul ? Didst thou not know who it was thou hadst to do with? It had been better for thee that all the world had been offended with thee, even men and angels, great and small, than the most dreadful God ! Didst thou not believe him, when he told thee how he was resolved to judge and punish the ungodly? Read it, 2Thess. ii. 7—10 ; ii. 10, 11 ; Matt. xxv|; Jude 15 ; Psalm i. &c. What caused

thee to venture upon the consuming fire? Didst thou not know that he is merciful, so he is jealous, holy, just, and terrible ? In the name of God, [ require and entreat thee, fly to his mercy in Jesus Christ; and hearken speedily to his grace, and turn at his reproof and warning ; to-day, while it is called to-day, harden not thy heart, but hear his voice, lest he resolve in his wrath, that thou shalt never enter into his rest; there is no enduring, there is no overcoming, there is no contending with an angry, dreadful, holy God: Repent therefore and turn to him, and obey the voice of mercy that thy soul may live.

3. The dreadfulness of God, doth tell both good and bad, the great necessity of a Mediator. What an unspeakable mercy is it that God hath given us his Son ! and that by Jesus Christ we may come with boldness and confidence into the presence of the dreadful God, that else would have been to us a greater terror than all the world, yea than Satan himself. The more we are apprehensive of our distance from God, and of his terrible Majesty, and his more terrible justice against such sinners as we have been, the more we shall understand the mystery of redemption, and highly value the mediation of Christ.

4. Lastly, Let the dreadfulness of God prevail with every believing soul, to pity the ungodly that pity not themselves. O pray for them, O warn them, exhort them, entreat them, as men that know the terrors of the Lord. (2 Cor. v. 11.) If they knew, as well as you do, what sin is, and what it is to be children of wrath, and what it is to be unpardoned, unjustified, and unsanctified, they would pity themselves, and cry for mercy, mercy, mercy, from day to day, till they were recovered into a state of life, and turned from the power of Satan unto God. Alas ! they know not what it is to die, and to see the world to come, and to appear before a dreadful God : They know not what it is to be in hell fire; nor what it is to be glorified in heaven: They never saw or tried these things, and they want the faith by which they must be foreseen by those that are yet short of nearer knowledge : You therefore that have faith to foreknow these things, and are enlightened by the Spirit of God, O pity, and warn, and help the miserable! Tell them how much easier it is to escape hell, than to endure it: and how much easier a holy life on earth is, than the endless wrath of the most

dreadful God. Tell them that unbelief, presumption, and security, are the certain means to bring their misery, but will do nothing to keep it off; though they may keep off the present knowledge and sense of it, which would have driven them to seek a cure. Tell them that death and judgment are at hand, and that when they laugh, or sport, or scorn, and jest at the displeasure of the dreadful God, it is posting toward them, and will be upon them before they are aware ; and when they slumber, their damnation slumbereth not; but while unbelieving sinners say, peace, peace, sudden destruction will come upon them, as unexpected travail on a woman with child, and they shall not escape. O tell them how dreadful a thing it is, for a soul that is unregene-rate and unsanctified, to go from that body which it pampered and sold its salvation to please, and to appear at the tribunal of God; and how dreadful it is for such a soul to fall into the hands of the living God. At least save your own souls, by the faithful discharge of so great a duty ; and if they will take no warning, let them at last remember, when it is jtoo late, that they were told in time, what they should see and feel at last, and what their latter end would prove; and that God and man did warn them in compassion, though they perish because they would have no compassion or mercy upon themselves. Thus let the terrible-ness of God provoke you, to do your duty with speed and zeal, for the converting and saving of miserable souls.

And thus I have briefly set before you the glass in which you may see the Lord, and told you how he must be known: and how he must be conceived of in our apprehensions; and how the knowledge of God must be improved, and what impressions it must make upon the heart, and what effect it must have upon our lives. Blessed, and for ever blessed, are those souls, that have the true and lively image of this God, and all these his attributes imprinted on them, (as to the creature they are communicable). And O that the " veil were taken from our hearts, and that we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, may be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord," (2 Cor. iii. 18,) and may increase and live in the knowledge of the true and only God, and of Jesus Christ, which is eternal life. Amen.

PART II.

THE DESCRIPTION, REASONS AND REWARD

OF THE

BELIEVERS WALKING WITH GOD.

GENESIS V. 24.

And Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him.

CHAPTER I.

Being to speak of our Converse with God in Solitude, I think it will not be unsuitable, nor unserviceable to the ends of that discourse, if I here premise a short description of the General Duty of Practical Godliness, as it is called in Scripture ' a Walking with God.' It is here commended to us in the example of holy Enoch, whose excellency is recorded in this signal character, that " he walked with God;" and his special reward expressed in the words following, " and he was not, for God took him." I shall speak most of his character, and then somewhat of his reward.

The Samaritan and vulgar Latin versions do strictly translate the Hebrew as we read it: but the interpretation of the Septuagint, the Syriac, the Chaldee, and the Arabic, are rather good expositions (all set together) of the meaning of the word, tiian strict translations. The Septuagint and Syriac read it, * Enoch pleased God.' The Chaldee hath, ' Enoch walked in the fear of God.' And the Arabic, ' he walked in obedience to God.' And indeed to walk in the fear and obedience of God, and thereby to please him, is the principal thing in our *• walking with God." The same character is given of Noah, in Gen. vi. 19. and the extraordinary reward annexed ; he and his family were saved in the deluge. And the holy life which God commanded

Abraham, is called ' a walking before God.' " Walk before me, and be thou perfect." (Gen. xvii. 1.) And in the New Testament the Christian conversation is ordinarily called by the name of Walking. Sometimes a 'walking in Christ;' as Col. ii. 6. Sometimes a * walking in the Spirit, in which we live.' (Gal. v. 25.) And a ' walking after the Spirit.' (Rom. viii. 1.) Sometimes a * walking in the light, as God is in the light.' (1 John i. 7.) Those that * abide in Christ must so walk even as he hath walked.' (1 John ii. 6.) These phrases set together tell us, what it is to walk with God. But I think it not unprofitable somewhat more particularly to shew you what this walking with God doth contain.

As atheism is the sum of wickedness, so all true religiousness is called by the name of Godliness or Holiness, which is nothing else but our devotedness to God, and living to him, and our relation to him as thus devoted in heart and life. Practical atheism is a " living as without God in the world." (Ephes. ii. 12.) Godliness is contrary to practical atheism, and is a living as with and to God in the world and in the church, and is here called a walking with God. And it containeth in it these particulars.

1. To walk with God includeth the practical acknowledgment (that is made by the will as well as the understanding) of the grand attributes of God, and his relations to man; that he is Infinite in his Being, that is. Immense and Eternal; as also in his Power, Wisdom and Goodness: That he is the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier : That he is our absolute Lord (or Owner), our most righteous Governor, and most bountiful Benefactor (or Father) : That " of him, and through him, and to him, are all things :" That "in him we live, and move, and have our being:" That he is the fountain, or first cause, from which all (proper) being, truth and goodness in the creature is but a derived stream. To have the soul unfeignedly resign itself to him, as his own; and subject itself to him as our Governor, walking in the awe of his sovereign power; sensible of the strong obligation of his laws, which reason, justice and necessity do all command us to obey. To live as in full dependence on him: to have the first and greatest respect unto him: a more observant respect to him than to our rulers: a more obedient respect to him than to our masters : a more dependent, tender, and honourable respect to him than to pa-

rents, or our nearest friends. Thus "he that cometh to God" (as God, and so as to be accepted of him), ** must believe that he is," (his essential attributes) and (what he is in his relations to man; especially that as our Governor and Benefactor) ** he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Heb. xi. 6.) The impress of a Deity in his essential and relative attributes must be upon the heart of him that vi^alks with God. Yea, the being of God must be much more remarkable to him, than the being of all creatures, and his presence more regarded, than the presence of the creature; and all things must be to us in comparison of God, as a candle is in comparison of the sun : His greatness and transcendent excellencies must so overpower them all, as to make them less observed and regarded, by his taking up our chief observation and regard.

2. Our walking with God includeth our reconciliation to him, and that we are not in our natural state of enmity, but made his children and friends in Christ. " Can two walk together unless they be agreed?" (Amos iii. 3.) Enmity is against unity; disaffection causeth aversion, and flying from each other: yea, the fears of a guilty child may make him fly from his father's presence, till there be a particular reconciliation, besides the general state of reconciliation. A provoking, faulty child doth dwell with God his Father, though under the continual terror of his frowns ; but to walk with him (in the full sense) is more than to be related to him, and to dwell with him. In a large sense indeed all God's children may be said to walk with him, as it signifieth only a conversation ordered in godliness, sincerity and simplicity. But in this more sublime sense, as it signifieth a lively exercise of faith and love, and heavenly-mindedness, and a course of complacential contemplation, and holy converse with God, so it is proper only to some of the sounder and more vigilant industrious believers. And hereto it is necessary, not only that we be justified and reconciled to God from our state of enmity, but also that we be pardoned, justified and reconciled from our particular wounding falls, which are more than the ordinary infirmities of believers. And also it is necessary that we have grateful, friendly thoughts of God: that we have so much sense of his excellency, goodness and kindness to ourselves, as may give us a complacency in conversing with him, and may

make the thoughts and mention of him to be desirable ^ind pleasing to us. Walking with God doth import, though not the full assurance of his special love and grace to us, yet such an apprehension of his love and goodness, as may draw the heart to think of him with desire, if not with delight. A loathness to draw near him, to think of him, or to mention him, a weariness of his special service, are contrary to this special walking with God.

3. Our walking with God, doth include our esteeming and intending Him as the ultimate end and felicity of our souls. He is not to be sought, or loved, or conversed with, as a means to any greater good (for there is no greater), nor as inferior, or merely equal unto any. His goodness must be the most powerful attractive of our love : his favour must be valued as our happiness; and the pleasing of him must be our most industrious employment. To walk with him, is to live in the warming, reviving sunshine of his goodness, and to feel a delighling, satisfying virtue in his love and gracious presence. To live as those that are not their own, and that have their lives, and faculties, and provisions, and helps for their master's service : as a horse or dog is of so much worth, as he is of use to him that owneth him; and that is the best that is the most serviceable to his master : yet with this very great difference, that man being a more noble and capacious creature, is admitted not only into a state of service, but of sonship, and friendship, and communion with God; and is allowed and appointed to share more in the pleasure and fruits of his services, and to put in his own felicity and delight into his end; not only because self-love is natural and necessary to the creature, but also because he is under the promise of a reward ; and (more than either) because he is a lover, and not only a servant, ajid his work is principally a work of love, and therefore his end is ' finis amantis,' the end of a lover, which is mutual complacency in the exercises of love.

He that seeketh not first the kingdom and righteousness of God, and referreth not other things to him, but seeks first the creature, and God only for it, doth but deny God in his iieart, and basely subject him to the works of his own hands, and doth not walk with God, but vilify and reject him. If you live not to God, even to obey, and please, and honour him, you do not walk with him; but walk contrary to him

(by living to his enemies, the flesh, the world, and the devil), and therefore God will ** walk contrary to you." (Levit. xxvi. 21. 23, 24. 27, 28. You were both created and redeemed, though for your own felicity, yet principally for the glory and pleasure of your Creator and Redeemer; and for no felicity of your own, but what consisteth in pleasing him, glorifying him, and enjoying him : "Whether therefore we eat, or drink, or whatever we do, it should all be done to the glory of God." (1 Cor. x. 31.) He that regardeth a day, or regardeth it not; he that eateth, or that eateth not, must do it to the Lord. (And though a good intention will not sanctify a forbidden action, yet sins of ignorance and mere frailty are forborne and pardoned of God, when it is his glory and service that is sincerely intended, though there be a mistake in the choice of means.) " None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself: for whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.*' (Rom. xiv. 6—9.) Our walking with God, is a serious ** labouring, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him." (2 Cor. v. 9.) To this the love of our Redeemer must constrain us : " For he died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them, and rose again." (Ver. 14, 15.) Religion therefore is called the seeking of God, because the soul doth press after him, and labour to enjoy him, as the runner seeks to reach the prize; or as a suitor seeketh the love and fruition of the person beloved. And all the particular acts of religion are oft denominated from this intention of the end, and following after it, and are all called 'a seeking the Lord.' Conversion is called * a seeking the Lord.* "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.'' (Isa. Iv. 6.) "The children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God." (Hos. iii. 6.) " They do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him." (Hos. vii. 10.) Men that are called to conversion, are called to seek God. " Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you." (Hos. x. 12.) The converted children of " Israel and Judah shall go weeping together to seek the Lord their God." (Jer. 1. 4.) The wicked are des-

cribed to be men that "do not seek the Lord.'' (Isa. ix. 13. xxxi. 1.) The holy covenant was '* to seek the Lord." (2 Chron. XV. 12, 13.) If therefore you would walk with God, let him be the mark, the prize, the treasure, the happiness, the heaven itself which you aim at, and sincerely seek. " Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God." (1 Chron. xxii. 19.) *' Glory ye in his holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face for evermore." (Psal. cv. 3, 4.) As the life of a covetous man is a seeking of riches, and the life of an ambitious man is a seeking of worldly honour and applause, so the life of a man that liveth to God, is a seeking him; to please him, honour him, and enjoy him: and so much of this as he attaineth, so much doth he attain of satisfaction and content. If you live to God, and seek him as your end and all, the want of any thing will be tolerable to you, which is but consistent with the fruition of his love. If he be pleased, man's displeasure may be borne. The loss of all things if Christ be won, will not undo us. Man*s condemnation of us signifieth but little, if God the absolute Judge do justify us. He walketh not with God, that liveth not to him as his only happiness and end.

4. Moreover our walking with God includeth our subjection to his authority, and our taking his wisdom and will to be our guide, and his laws in nature and Scripture for our rule : You must not walk with him as his equals, but as his subjects : nor give him the honour of an ordinary superior, but of the universal King. In our doubts he must resolve us; and in our straits we must ask counsel of the Lord. " Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do," is one of the first words of a penitent soul, (Acts ix. 6.) When sensual worldlings do first ask the flesh, or those that can do it hurt or good, what they would have them be or do. None of Christ's true subjects, do call any man father or master on earth, but in subordination to their highest Lord. (Matt, xxiii.) The authority of God doth awe them, and govern them more than the fear of the greatest upon earth. Indeed they know no power but God's, and that which he committeth unto man. And therefore they can obey no man against God, whatever it cost them : but under God they are most readily and faithfully subject to their governors, not merely as to men that have power to hurt them if they disobey ; but as to the ofli-

I

cers of the Lord, whose authority they discern and reverence in them. But when they have to do with the enemies of Christ, who usurp a power which he never gave them against his kingdom and the souls of men, they think it easy to resolve the question, " Whether it be better to obey God or men ?" As the commands of a rebellious constable, or other fellow-subject, are of no authority against the king's commands ; so the commands of all the men on earth are of so small authority with them against the laws of God, that they fully approve of the ready and resolute answer of those witnesses, " We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us, &c. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." (Dan. iii. 16—18.) Worldlings are ruled by their fleshly interest, and wisdom, and self-will, and by the will of man so far as it doth comport with these. By these you may handle them and lead them up and down the world : by these doth Satan hold them in captivity. But believers feel themselves in subjection to a higher Lord, and better law, which they faithfully, though imperfectly observe. Therefore our walking with God is called a ' walking in his law;' (Exod. xvi. 4 ;) a ' walking in his statutes, and keeping and doing his commands;' (Lev. xxvi. 3;) * walking in his paths.' (Mic. iv, 2.) It is our ' following the Lamb, which way soever he goeth :' To be given up to our own heart's lusts, and to w^alk in our counsels, is contrary to this holy walk with God, (Psal. Ixxxi. 12,) and is the course of those that are departed from him : and they that are far from him shall perish : he destroyeth those that go a whoring from him. But it is good for us to draw near to God. (Psal. Ixxiii. 27, 28.)

5. Our walking with God doth imply that as we are ruled by his will, so we fear no punishment like his threatened displeasure : and that the threats of death from mortal men, will not prevail with us so much as his threats of hell. (Lukexii. 4.) If God say, ' I will condemn thee to everlasting punishment if thou wilt not keep my laws;' and if men say, * We will condemn thee to imprisonment or death if thou keep them,' the believer more feareth God than man. The law of the king doth condemn Daniel to the lion's den,

VOL. XIII. M

if he forbear not to pray for a certain time. But he more feareth God, that will deny those that deny him, and forsake those that forsake him. Therefore the forementioned witnesses ventured on the fiery furnace, because God threatened a more dreadful fire. Therefore a true believer dare not live, when an unbeliever dare not die: he dare not save his life from God, lest he lose it; but loseth it that he may save it. But unbelievers that walk not with God, but after the flesh, do most fear them that they observe most powerful in the world, and will more be moved with the penalty of some worldly loss or suffering, than with God's most dreadful threats of hell: for that which they see not, is to them as nothing, while they want that faith by which it is foreknown, and must be escaped.

6. Moreover he that walks with God, doth from God expect his full reward. He ceaseth not his holy course, though no man observe him, or none commend him or approve him; though all about him hate him and condemn him ; though he be so far from gaining by it with men, that it cost him all that he hath or hoped for in the world : for he knoweth that godliness is of itself great gain, and that it "hath the pro-^mise of this life and that to come," and none can make God*s promise void. He knoweth that his " Father which seeth in secret will reward him openly;" (Matt, vi;) and that he " shall have a treasure in heaven" that parteth with all on earth for Christ. (Luke xviii. 22.) And he hath such respect to this promised "recompence of reward," that for it he can " suffer with the people of God, and account the very reproach of Christ a greater treasure" than court or country can afford him in a way of sin. (Heb. xi. 26.) He accounteth them " blessed that are persecuted for righteousness sake, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs." He judgeth it a cause of exceeding joy, to be reviled and persecuted, and to have all manner of evil falsely spoken of us for the sake of Christ, because our reward in heaven is great. (Matt. v. 10—12.) For he verily believeth, that as sure as these transitory pleasures will have an end, and everlastingly forsake those miserable souls that were deluded by them, so certainly is there a life of endless joys, to be possessed in heaven with God and all the holy ones; and this he will trust to, as that which will fully repair his losses, and repay

his cost, and not deceive him. Let others trust to what they will, it is this that he is resolved to trust to, and venture all to make it sure (when he is sure that all is nothing which he ventureth, and that by the adventure he can never be a loser, nor ever save by choosing that which itself must perish). Thus he that truly walks with God expecteth his reward from God, and with God, and thence is encourao;ed in all his duty, and thence is emboldened in all his conflicts, and thence is upheld and comforted in his sufferings. When man is the rewarder (as well as the chief ruler) of the hypocrite, and earthly things are the poise and motives to his earthly mind.

7. Our walking with God importeth that as we expect our reward from him, so also that we take his promise for our security for that reward. Believing his word and trusting his fidelity to the quieting and emboldening of the soul, is part of our holy walking with him. A promise of God is greater satisfaction and encouragement to a true believer, than all the visible things on earth. A promise of God can do more, and prevail further with an upright soul, than all the sensible objects in the world. He will do more, and go further upon such a promise, than he will for all that man can give him. Peruse the life of Christ's apostles, and see what a promise of Christ can do : How it made them forsake all earthly pleasures, possessions and hopes, and part with friends, and houses, and country, and travel up and down the world, in dangers and sufferings, and unwearied labours, despised and abused by great and small: and all this to preach the Gospel of the kingdom, which they had never seen, and to attain that everlasting happiness, and help others to attain it, for which they had nothing but the promise of their Lord. See what a promise well believed will make a Christian do and suffer. Believers did those noble acts, and the martyrs underwent those torments, which are mentioned Heb. xi. because " they judged him faithful that had promised." (Heb. xi. 11.) They considered not difficulties, and defect of means, and improbabilities as to second causes, nor " staggered at the promise of God through unbelief; but being strong in faith, gave glory to God; being fully persuaded, that what he had promised he was also able to perform." As it is said of Abraham, Rom. iv. 19—21. 8. To walk with God, is to live as in his presence, and

that with desire and delight. When we believe and apprehend that wherever we are, we are before the Lord, who seeth our hearts and all our ways; who knoweth every thought we think, and every word we speak, and every secret thing which we do: as verily to believe that God is here present and observeth all, as we do that we ourselves are here. To compose our minds, our thoughts, our affections to that holy reverence and seriousness as beseemeth man before his Maker. To order our words with that care and gravity as beseems those that speak in the hearing of the Lord. That no man's presence do seem more considerable to us than his presence : as we are not moved at the presence of a fly, or worm, or dog, when persons of honour and reverence are present, so should we not comparatively be moved at the presence of man, how great, or rich, or terrible soever, when we know that God himself is present, to whom the greatest of the sons of men, are more inconsiderable than a fly or worm is unto them. As the presence of the king makes ordinary standers by to be unobserved, and the discourses of the learned make us disregard the babblings of children ; so the presence of God should make the greatest to be scarce observed or regarded in comparison of him. God, who is still with us, should so much take up our regard, that all others in his presence should be but as a candle in the presence of the sun. Therefore it is that a believer composeth himself to that behaviour which he knoweth God doth most expect, and beseemeth those that stand before him. When others accommodate themselves to the persons that are present, observing them, pleasing them, and shewing them respect, while they take no notice of God at all, as if they believed not that he is there. Hence it is that the men of God were wont to speak (though reverently, yet) familiarly of God, as children of their father with whom they dwell, as being indeed fellow-citizens with the saints, who are his household. Abraham calleth him, ** The Lord before whom 1 walk." (Gen. xxiv. 40.) And Jacob, *' God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked.'' (Gen. xlviii. 15.) And David resolveth, *' I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living." (Psal. cxvi. 9.) Yea God himself is pleased to use the terms of gracious, condescending familiarity with them. " Christ dwelleth in them by faith." (Ephes. iii. 17.) His Spirit dwelleth in

i

them as his house and temple. (Rom. viii. 9.) Yea the Father himself is said to dwell in them, and they in him, ** He that keepeth his commandments dvvelleth in him, and he in him." (1 John iii. 24.) " If we love one another, God dwelleth in us. Hereby we know that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 John iv. 12, 13. 15,16.) Yea, God is said to walk in them, as they are said to walk with him ; " For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (2 Cor. vi. 16.)

Our walking with God then is not only a sense of that common presence which he must needs afford to all; but it is also a believing apprehension of his gracious presence, as ouF God and reconciled Father, with whom we dwell, being brought near unto him by Christ; and who dwelleth in us by his Spirit.

9. To walk with God (as here we are in flesh) includeth not only our believing his presence, but also that we see him (as the chief cause in the effects) in his creatures, and his daily providence, that we look not on creatures as independent or separated from God; but see them as the glass, and God as the represented face; and see them as the letters and words, and God as the sense of all the creatures that are the first book which he appointed man to read. We must behold his glory declared by the heavens, (Psal. xix. 1,) and see him shining in the sun; and see his power in the fabric of the world, and his wisdom in the admirable order of the whole : We must taste the sweetness of his love in the sweetness of our food, and in the comforts of our friends, and all our accommodations ; we must see, and love his image in his holy ones ; and we must hear his voice in the ministry of his messengers. Thus every creature must become a preacher to us, and we must see the name of God upon it: And thus all things will be sanctified to us, while *' Holiness to the Lord" is written upon all. Though we must not therefore make idols of the creatures, because God appeareth to us in them, yet must we hear the message which they bring us, and reverence in them the name of the Creator which they

bear. By this way of conversing with them, they will not ensnare us, or deceive, or poison us, as they do the carnal, unbelieving world : But as the fish brought money to Peter to pay his tribute, so every creature would bring us a greater, even a spiritual gain. When we behold it, we should say with pleasant admiration, " This is the work of God, and it is wonderful in our eyes." This is the true divine philosophy, which seeketh, and findeth, and contemplateth, and admireth the great Creator in his works: When that which sticketh in the creature itself (whatever discovery it seem to make) is but a childish, unprofitable trifling : like learning to shape all the letters aright, without learning to know their signification and sense. It is God appearing in the creatures, this is the life, and beauty, and use, and excellency of all the creatures; without him they are but carcases, deformed, useless, vain, insignificant and very nothings.

10. Our walking with God, doth contain our willing and sincere attendance on him in the use of those holy duties in which he hath appointed us to expect his grace. He is every where in his essential presence, but he is not every where alike to be found in the communications of grace. The assemblies of his saints that worship him in holy communion, are places where he is more likely to be found than in an alehouse or a playhouse. You are more likely to have holy converse with him among the holy, that will speak of holy things to your edification, than among the senseless, ignorant sensualists, and the scornful enemies of holiness, that are the servants of the devil, whom he useth in his daily work for the deceiving and perdition of the world. Therefore the conversation of the wicked doth grieve and vex the righteous soul, (as it is said the Sodomites did by Lot, 2 Peter ii. 7, 8,) because all their conversation is ungodly, far from God, not savouring of any true knowledge of him, or love to him, but is against him by enmity and provocation. If God himself do dwell and walk in all his holy ones, then they that dwell and walk with them, have the best opportunity to dwell and walk with God. To converse with those in whom God dwelleth, is to converse with him in his image, and to attend him at his dwelling: And wilfully to run among the wicked, is to run far away from God. '* In his temple doth every man speak of his glory ;" (Psal. xxix. 9 ;) when among his brutish enemies every man speaketh to

the diahoiiour of him in his word and ways. He is otherwise present with those that are congregated in his name and for his worship, than he is with those that are assembled for wickedness or vanity, or live as brutes without God in the world. And we must draw as near him as we can, if we would be such as walk with God.

We must not be strange to him in our thoughts, but make him the object of our most serious meditations: It is said of the wicked that " they are far from God ;" and that " God is not in all their thoughts." (Psal. Ixxiii. 27; X. 4.) The thoughts are the mind's employment. It dwells on that which it frequently thinks of. It is a walk of the mind, and not of the body which we are treating of. To mind the world, and fleshly things, is contrary to this walk with God : we are far from him, when our thoughts are (ordinarily) far from him. I know that it is lawful and meet to think of the business of our callings, so far as is necessary to the prudent successful management of them: and that it is not requisite that our thoughts be always actually upon God : but he that doth manage his calling in holiness, doth all in obedience to God's commands, and sees that his work be the work of God, and he intendeth all to the glory of God, or the pleasing of his blessed will: And he oft re-neweth these actual intentions; and oft interposeth thoughts of the presence, or power, or love, or interest of him whom he is serving : he often lifteth up his soul in some holy desire or ejaculatory request to God : he oft taketh occasion from what he seeth, or heareth, or is doing, for some more spiritual meditation or discourse : so that still it is God that his mind is principally employed on or for, even in his ordinary work (while he liveth as a Christian).

And it is not enough to think of God; but we must think of him as God; with such respect, and reverence, and love, and trust, and submission (in our measure) as is due from the creature to his Creator. For as some kind of speaking of him is but a taking his name in vain; so some kind of thinking of him is but a dishonouring of him, by contemptuous, or false, unworthy thoughts. Most of our walking with God consisteth in such affectionate apprehensions of him as are suitable to his blessed attributes and relations. All the day long our thoughts should be working either on God, or for God: either upon some work of obedience which he

hath imposed on us, and in which we desire to please and honour him, or else directly upon himself. Our hearts must be taken up in contemplating and admiring him, in magnifying his name, his word and works ; and in pleasant contentful thoughts of his benignity, and of his glory, and the glory which he conferreth on his saints. He that is unskilful or unable to manage his own thoughts with some activity, seriousness and order, will be a stranger to much of the holy converse which believer's have with God. They that have given up the government of their thoughts, and turned them loose to go which way fantasy pleaseth, and present sensitive objects do invite them, and to run up and down the world as masterless, unruly vagrants, can hardly expect to keep them in any constant attendance upon God, or readiness for any sacred work. And the sudden thoughts which they have of God, will be rude and stupid, savouring more of profane contempt, than of holiness, when they should be reverent, serious, affectionate and practical, and such as conduce to a holy composure of their hearts and lives.

And as we must walk with God, 1. In our communion with his servants ; 2. And in our affectionate meditations ; so also, 3. In all the ordinances which he hath appointed for our edification and his worship.

1. The reading of the word of God, and the explication and application of it in good books, is a means to possess the mind with sound, and orderly, and working apprehensions of God, and of his holy truths : so that in such reading our understandings are oft illustrated with a heavenly light, and our hearts are touched with a special delightful relish of that truth, and they are secretly attracted and engaged unto God, and all the powers of our souls are excited and animated to a holy, obedient life.

2. The same word preached with a lively voice, with clearness and affection, hath a greater advantage for the same illumination and excitation of the soul. When a minister of Christ that is truly a divine, being filled with the knowledge and love of God, shall copiously and affectionately open to his hearers, the excellencies which he hath seen, and the happiness which he hath foreseen and tasted of himself, it frequently (through the cO-operation of the Spirit of Christ) doth wrap up the hearers' hearts to God,and

bring them into a more lively knowledge of him, actuating their graces, and inflaming their hearts with a heavenly love, and such desires as God hath promised to satisfy. Christ doth not only send his ministers furnished with authority from him, but also furnished with his Spirit, to speak of spiritual things in a spiritual manner ; so that in both respects he might say, ** He that heareth you, heareth me:" and also by the same Spirit doth open and excite the hearts of the hearers : So that it is God himself that a serious Christian is principally employed with, in the hearing of his heavenly, transforming word : and therefore he is affected with reverence and holy fear, with some taste of heavenly delight, with obediential subjection and resignation of himself to God. The word of God is powerful, not only in pulling down all high exalting thoughts, that rise up against God, but also in lifting up depressed souls, that are unable to rise unto heavenly knowledge, or communion with God. If some Christians could but always find as much of God upon their hearts at other times, as they find sometimes under a spiritual, powerful ministry, they would not so complain that they seem forsaken, and strangers to all communion with God, as many of them do. While God (by his messengers and Spirit) is speaking, and man is hearing him ; while God is treating with man about his reconciliation and everlasting happiness, and man is seriously attending to the treaty and motions of his Lord, surely this is a very considerable part of our walking and converse with God.

3. Also in the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, we are called to a familiar converse with God : He there appeareth to us by a wonderful condescension in the representing, communicating signs of the flesh and blood of his Son, in which he hath most conspicuously revealed his love and goodness to believers : there Christ himself with his covenant-gifts are all delivered to us by these investing signs of his own institution; even as knighthood is given by a sword, and as a house is delivered by a key, or land by a twig and turf. No where is God so near to man as in Jesus Christ: and no where is Christ so familiarly represented to us, as in this holy sacrament. Here we are called to sit with him at his table, as his invited welcome guests; to commemorate his sacrifice, to feed upon his very flesh and blood; that is, with our mouths upon his representative flesh and

blood, and with our applying faith upon his real flesh and blood, by such a feeding as belongs to faith. The marriage-covenant betwixt God incarnate, and his espoused ones, is there publicly sealed, celebrated and solemnized. There we are entertained by God as friends, and not as servants only, and that at the most precious costly feast. If ever a believer may on earth expect his kindest entertainment, and near access, and a humble intimacy with his Lord, it is in the participation of his sacrifice-feast, which is called ' The Communion,' because it is appointed as well for our special communion with Christ as with one another. It is here that we have the fullest intimation, expression and communication of the wondrous love of God; and therefore it is here that we have the loudest call, and best assistance, to make a large return of love : and where there is most of this love between God and man, there is most communion, and most of heaven, that can be had on earth.

But it much concerneth the members of Christ, that they deprive not themselves of this communion with God in this holy sacrament through their miscarriage ; which is too frequently done by one of these extremes. Either by rushing upon holy things with a presumptuous, careless, common frame of heart, as if they knew not that they go to feast with Christ, and discerned not his body : or else by an excess of fear, drawing back and questioning the goodwill of God, and thinking diminutively of his love and mercy : By this means Satan depriveth many of the comfortable part of their communion with God, both in this sacrament, and in other ways of grace: and maketh them avoid him as an enemy, and be loath to come into his special presence ; and even to be afraid to think of him, to pray to him, or to have any holy converse with him : when the just belief and observation of his love would establish them, and revive their souls with joy, and give them experience of the sweet delights which are opened to them in the Gospel, and which believers find in the love of God, and the foretaste of the everlasting pleasures.

4. In holy, faithful, fervent prayer, a Christian hath very much of his converse with God. For prayer is our approach to God, and calling to mind his presence and his attributes, and exercising all his graces in a holy motion towards him, and an exciting all the powers of our souls to seek him.

attend him and reverently to worship him: It is our treating with him about the most important businesses in all the world : a begging of the greatest mercies, and a deprecating his most grievous judgments; and all this with the nearest familiarity that man in flesh can have with God. In prayer, the Spirit of God is working up our hearts unto him, with desires expressed in sighs and groans : it is a work of God as well as of man : he bloweth the fire, though it be our hearts that burn and boil. In prayer we lay hold on Jesus Christ, and plead his merits and intercession with the Father: he taketh us as it were by the hand, and leadeth us unto God, and hideth our sins, and procureth our acceptance, and pre-senteth us amiable to his Fatlier, having justified and sanctified us, and cleansed us from those pollutions, which rendered us loathsome and abominable. To speak to God in serious prayer, is a work so high, and of so great moment, that it calleth off our minds from all things else, and giveth no creature room or leave to look into the soul, or once to be observed : The mind is so taken up with God, and employed with him, that creatures are forgotten, and we take no notice of them (unless when through the diversions of the flesh, our prayers are interrupted and corrupted, and so far degenerate, and are no prayer; so far I say as we thus turn away from God). So that the soul that is most and best at prayer, is most and best at walking with God, and hath most communion with him in the Spirit: And to withdraw from prayer, is to withdraw from God : And to be unwilling to pray, is to be unwilling to draw near to God. Meditation or contemplation is a duty in which God is much enjoyed : But prayer hath meditation in it, and much more. All that is upon the mind in meditation, is upon the mind in prayer, and that with great advantage, as being presented before God, and pleaded with him, and so animated by the apprehensions of his observing presence, and actuated by the desires and pleadings of the soul. When we are commanded to pray, it iacludeth a command to repent, and believe, and fear the Lord, and desire his grace. For faith and repentance, and fear and desire, are altogether in action in a serious prayer; and, as it were, naturally each one takes his place, and there is a holy order in the acting of these graces in a Christian's prayers, and a harmony which he doth seldom himself observe. He that in meditation kuoweth not how to be regular

and methodical, when he is studiously contriving and ert-deavouring it, yet in prayer before he is aware, hath repentance, and faith, and fear, and desire, and every grace fall in its proper place and order, and contribute its part to the performance of the work. The new nature of a Christian is more immediately and vigorously operative in prayer, than in many other duties : and therefore every infant in the family of God can pray (with groaning desires, and ordered graces, if not with well-ordered words): When Paul began to live to Christ, he began (aright) to pray : " Behold he prayeth," saith God to Ananias. (Acts ix. 11.) And " because they are sons, God sends the Spirit of his Son into the hearts of his elect, even the Spirit of Adoption, by which they cry Abba, Father," (Gal. iv. 6,) as children naturally cry to their parents for relief. And nature is more regular in its works than art or human contrivance is. Necessity reacheth many a beggar to pray better for relief to men, than many learned men (that feel not their necessities) can pray to God. The Spirit of God is a better methodist than we are. And though I know that we are bound to use our utmost care and skill for the orderly actuating of each holy affection in our prayers, and not pretend the sufficiency of the Spirit for the patronage of our negligence or sloth (for the Spirit makes use of our understandings for the actuating of our v^rills and affections); yet withal it cannot be denied, but that it was upon a special reason that the Spirit that is promised to believers is called a " spirit of grace and supplication."(Zech.xii. 10.) And that it is given us to "help our infirmities," even the infirmities of our understanding, when *' we know not what to pray for as we ought." (Rom. viii. 26.) And that the Spirit itself is said to " make intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered." It is not the Spirit without, that is here meant: such intercession is no where ascribed to that. How then is the prayer of the Spirit within us distingushed from our prayer? Not as different effects of different causes: as different prayers by these different parties. But as the same prayer proceeding from different causes, having a special force (for quality and degree) as from one cause (the Spirit), which it hath not from the other cause (from ourselves), except as received from the Spirit. The Spirit is a new nature or fixed inclination in the saints : for their very self-love and will to good, is sane-

tified in them, which works so readily (though voluntarily) as that it is in a sort by the way of nature, though not excluding reason and will; and not as the motion of the brutish appetite. And that God is their felicity, and the only help and comfort of their souls, and so the principal good to be desired by them, is become to them a truth so certain, and beyond all doubt, that their understandings are convinced that' velle bonum,' and * velle Deum,' to love good, and to love God, are words that have almost the same signification; and therefore here is no room for deliberation and choice, where there is * omnimoda ratio boni,' nothing but unquestionable good. A Christian (so far as he is such) cannot choose but desire the favour and fruition of God in immortality, even as he cannot choose (because he is a man) but desire his own felicity in general: And as he cannot (as a man) but be unwilling of destruction, and cannot but fear apparent misery, and that which bringeth it; so as a Christian he cannot choose but be unwilling of damnation, and of the,wrath of God, and of sin as sin, and fear the apparent danger of his soul, so that his new nature will presently cast his fear, and repentance, and desires into their proper course and order, and set them on work on their several objects (about the main unquestionable things, however they may err, or need more deliberation about things doubtful) : The new creature is not as a lifeless engine (as a clock, or watch, or ship), where every part must be set in order by the art and hand of man, and so kept and used : But it is more like the frame of our own nature, even like man who is a living engine, when every part is set in its place and order by the Creator, and hath in itself a living and harmonical principle, which disposeth it to action, and to regular action, and is so to be kept in order and daily exercise by ourselves, as yet to be principally ordered and actuated, by the Spirit which is the principal cause.

By all which you may understand how the Holy Ghost is in us a Spirit of supplication, and helpeth our infirmities, and teacheth us to pray, and intercedeth in us; and also that prayer is to the new man so natural a motion of the soul towards God, that much of our walking with God is exercised in this holy duty : and that it is to the new life as breathing to our natural life; and therefore no wonder that we are commanded to " pray continually," (1 Thess. v.

17,) as we must breathe continually, or as nature which need-eth a daily supply of food for nourishment, hath a daily appetite to the food which it needeth, so hath the spiritual nature to its necessary food, and nothing but sickness doth take it off.

And thus I have shewed how our walking with God, containeth a holy use of his appointed means.

11. To walk with God includeth our dependance on him for our receivings, and taking our mercies as from his hand. To live as upon his love and bounty ; as children with their father, that can look for nothing but from him. As the eye of a servant, yea, of a craving dog, is upon his master's face and hand, so must our eye be on the Lord, for the gracious supply of all our wants. If men give us any thing, we take them but as the messengers of God, by whom he sendeth it us : We will not be unthankful to men ; but we thank them but for bringing us our Father's gifts. Indeed man is so much more than a mere messenger, as that his own charity also is exercised in the gift. A mere messenger is to do no more but obediently to deliver what is sent us, and he need not exercise any charity of his own; and we owe him thanks only for his fidelity and labour, but only to his master for the gift: But God will so far honour man, as that he shall be called also to use his charity, and distribute his master's gifts with some self-denial; and we owe him thanks, as under God, he partaketh in the charity of the gift; and as one child oweth thanks to another, who both in obedience to the father, and love to his brother, doth give some part of that which his father had given him before. But still it is from our Father's bounty, as the principal cause that all proceeds. Thus Jacob speaketh of God, " God, before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads," &c. (Gen. xlviii. 15, 16.) When he had mentioned his father Abraham and Isaac's walking with God, he describeth his own by his dependance upon God, and receiving from him, acknowledging him the God that had fed him, and delivered him all his life. Carnal men that live by sense, do depend upon inferior sensible causes ; and though they are taught to pray to God, and thank him with their tongues, it is indeed their own contrivances and industry, or their

visible benefactors, which their hearts depend upon and thank. It were a shame to them to be so plain as Pharaoh, and to say, '* Who is the Lord ?" or to speak as openly as Nebuchadnezzar, and say, " Is not this great Babylon that I have built, by the might of my power," &c. (Dan. iv. 30.) Yet the same atheism and self-idolizing is in their hearts, though it be more modestly and cunningly expressed. Hence it is that they that walk with God, have all their receivings sanctified to them, and have in all a divine and spiritual sweetness, which those that take them but as from creatures, do never feel or understand.

12. Lastly, It is contained in our walking with God, that the greatest business of our lives be with him, and for him. It is not a walk for compliment or recreation only, that is here meant; but it is a life of nearness, converse, and employment, as a servant or child that dwelleth with his master or father in the house. God should be always so regarded, that man should stand by as nothing, and be scarce observed in comparison of him. We should begin the day with God, and entertain him in the first and sweetest of our thoughts : We should walk abroad and do our works as in his sight: We must resolve to do no work but his, no not in our trades and ordinary callings : We must be able to say. It is the work which my Master set me to do, and I do it to obey and please his will. At night we must take an account of ourselves, and spread open that account before him, desiring his acceptance of what was well, and his pardon for what we did amiss, that we may thus be ready for our last account. In a word, though men be our fellow-labourers and companions, yet the principal business of our care and diligence, must be our Master's service in the world. And therefore we must look about us, and discern the opportunities of serving him, and of the best improvement of his talents; and must make it our daily study and business, to do him the greatest service we are able, whatever it may cost us through the malice of the enemies, being sure our labour shall not be in vain, and that we cannot serve him at too dear a rate. It is not as idle companions, but as servants, as soldiers, as those that put forth all their strength, to do his work and reach the crown, that wc are called to walk with God. And all this is done.

though not in the same degree by all, yet according to the measure of their holiness by every one that lives by faith.

Having told you what it is to walk with God, as to the matter of it, I shall more briefly tell you as to the manner: The nature of God, of man, and of the work, will tell it you. 1. That our walk with God must be with the greatest reverence: were we ever so much assured of his special love to us, and never so full of faith and joy, our reverence must be never the less for this. Though love cast out that guilty fear which discourageth the sinner from hoping and seeking for the mepcy which would save him, and which disposeth him to hate and fly from God, yet doth it not cast out that reverence of God, which we owe him as his creatures, so infinitely below him as we are. It cannot be that God should be known and remembered as God, without some admiring and awful apprehensions of him. Infi-niteness, omnipotency, and inaccessible majesty and glory, must needs affect the soul that knoweth them, with reverence and self-abasement. Though " we receive a kingdom that cannot be moved," yet if we will " serve God acceptably," we must ** serve him with reverence and godly fear," as knowing he ** is our God," so he is also a " consuming fire." (Heb. xii. 28, 29.) We must so worship him as those that remember that we are worms and guilty sinners, and that he is most high and holy, and will be " sanctified in them that come nigh him, and before all the people he will be glorified." (Lev. x. 3.) Unreverence sheweth a kind of atheistical contempt of God, or else a sleepiness and incon-siderateness of the soul. The sense of the goodness and love of God, must consist with the sense of his holiness and omnipotency. It is presumption, pride, or blockish stupidity, which excludeth reverence; which faith doth cause, and not oppose.

2. Our walking with God must be a work of humble boldness and familiarity. The reverence of his holiness and greatness, must not overcome or exclude the sense of his goodness and compassion, nor the full assurance of faith and hope: Though by sin we are enemies and strangers to God, and stand afar off, yet in Christ we are reconciled to him, and brought near. (Ephes. ii. 13.) " For he is our peace, who liath taken down the partition, and abolished

the enmity, and reconciled Jew and Gentile unto God." (ver. 14—16.) " And through him we have all an access to the Father by one Spirit: We are now no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God.'* (ver. 18, 19.) ** In him we have boldness and access with confidence by the belief of him." (Ephes. iii. 12.) Though of ourselves we are unworthy to be called his children, and may well stand afar off with the publican, and not dare to lift up our faces towards heaven, but smite our breasts, and say, " O Lord be merciful to me a sinner." Yet " have we boldness to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated fur us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh : And having an High Priest over the house of God, we may draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.'* (Heb. x. 19—22. Therefore whensoever we are afraid at the sight of sin and justice, let us remember that ** we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, even Jesus the Son of God: And therefore let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb. iv. 14—16.) He that alloweth us to walk with him, doth allow us such humble familiarity as beseemeth those that walk together with him.

3. Our walking with God must be a work of some holy pleasure and delight. We may willingly be dragged into the presence of an enemy, and serve as drudges upon mere necessity or fear. But walking together is the loving and delightful converse of friends. When we take sweet counsel of the Lord, and set him always at our right hand, and are glad to hear from him, and glad to speak to him, and glad to withdraw our thoughts from all the things and persons in the world, that we may solace ourselves in the contemplations of his excellency, and the admirations of his love and glory, this is indeed to walk with God. You converse with him as with a stranger, an enemy, or your destroyer, and not as with God, while you had rather be far from him, and only tremble in his presence, and are glad when you have done and are got away, but have no delight or pleasure in him. If we can take delight in our walking with a friend, a friend that is truly loving and constant, a

YOL. XIII. N

friend that is learned, wise and holy! if their wise and heavenly discourse be better to us, than our recreations, meat, or drink, or clothes ! What delight then should we find in our secret converse with the most high, most wise and gracious God ! How glad should we be to find him willing and ready to entertain us! How glad should we be that we may employ our thoughts on so high and excellent an object! What cause have we to say, *' My meditation of him shall be sweet, and I will be glad in the Lord." (Psal. civ. 34.) " In the multitude of my thoughts within me (my sorrowful, troublesome, weary thoughts) thy comforts do delight my soul." (Psal. xciv. 19.) Let others take pleasure in childish vanity or sensuality, but say thou as David, *' I have rejoiced in the ways of thy commandments, as much as in all riches: 1 will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways: I will delight myself in thy statutes, and will not forget thy word. 1 will delight myself in thy commandments which 1 have loved." (Psal. cxix. 14—16. 47.) Let " scorners delight in scorning, and fools hate knowledge," (Prov. i. 22,) but ** make me to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I delight." (Psal. cxix. 35.) If thou wouldst experimentally know the safety and glory of a holy life, " delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desire of thy heart." (Psal. xxxvii. 4.) Especially when we draw near him in his solemn worship, and when we separate ourselves on his holy days from all our common worldly thoughts, to be conversant, as in heaven, with the blessed God ; then may we with the holy apostle be •* in the Spirit on the Lord's day," (Rev. i. 10,) " and if we turn away our foot from the Sabbath, from doing our pleasure on that holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shall honour him, not doing our own ways, nor finding our own pleasure, nor speaking our own words, then shall we delight ourselves in the Lord," (Isa. Iviii. 13, 14,) and understand how great a privilege it is, to have the liberty of those holy days and duties for our sweet and heavenly converse with God.

4. Our walking with God must be a matter of industry and diligence : It is not an occasional idle converse, but a life of observance, obedience, and employment, that this phrase importeth. The sluggish, idle wishes of the hypo-

i

crite, whose hands refuse to labour, are not this walking with God: nor " the sacrifice of fools," who are hasty to utter the overflowings of their fantasy before the Lord, while they " keep not their foot, nor hearken to the law, nor consider that they do evil." (Eccles. v. 1—3.) ** He that cometh to God (and will walk with him") must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him : God is with you, while you are with him; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you." (2 Chron. xv. 2.) " Up and be doing, and the Lord will be with you." (1 Chron. xxii. 16.) If you would meet with God in the way of mercy *' take diligent heed to do the commandment and law, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart, and with all your soul." (Josh. xxii. 5.)

5. Ourwalking with God is a matter of some constancy: It signifieth our course and trade of life, and not some accidental action on the by: A man may walk with a stranger for a visit, or in compliment, or upon some unusual occasion : But this walk with God, is the act of those that dwell with him in his family, and do his work*. It is not only to step and speak with him, or cry to him for mercy in some great extremity, or to go to church for company or custom, or think or talk of him sometimes heartlessly on the by, as a man will talk of news, or matters that are done in a foreign land, or of persons that we have little to do with: But it is to "be always with him." (Luke x v. 31.) " To seek first his kingdom and righteousness." (Matt. vi. 33.) "Not to labour (comparatively) for the food that perish-eth, but for that which endureth to everlasting life." (John vi. 27.) " To delight in the law of the Lord, and meditate in it day and night." (Psal. i. 2.) That his " words be in our hearts, and that we teach them diligently to our children, and talk of them sitting in the house, and walking by the way, lying down, and rising up," &c. (Deut. vi. 6 8.) That " we pray continually." (1 Thess. v. 17.) " And in all things give thanks." But will the hypocrite delight himself in the Almighty, or will he always call upon God ?" (Job xxvii. 10.) •• His goodness is as the morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away." (Hos. vi. 4.)

So much of the description of this * walking with God,'

CHAP. II.

Use. We are next to consider how far this doctrine doth concern ourselves, and what use we have to make of it upon our hearts and lives.

And First, It acquainteth us with the abundance of atheism that is in the world, even among those that profess the knowledge of God. It is atheism not only to say, *' There is no God :*' but to say so ** in the heart." (Psal. xiv. 1.) While the heart is no more affected towards him, observant of him, or confident in him, or submissive to him, than if indeed there were no God : When there is nothing of God upon the heart, no love, no fear, no trust, no subjection, this is heart atheism. When men that have some kind of knowledge of God, yet glorify him not " as God, nor are thankful to him, but become vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts are darkened; these men are heart-atheists ; and professing themselves wise, they become fools, and are given up to vile affections: And as they do not like to retain God in their knowledge (however they may discourse of him, so) God oft giveth them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things that are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity," &c. (Rom. i. 21,22.26. 28—30.) Swarms of such atheists go up and down under the self-deceiving name of Christians: Being indeed unbelieving and defiled, so void of purity, that they deride it, and " nothing is pure to them; but even their mind and conscience is defiled : They profess that they know God, but they deny him in their works, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate." (Titus i. 15, 16,) What are they but atheists, when " God is not in all their thoughts," (Psal. X. 4,) unless it be in their impious or blaspheming thoughts, or in their slight contemptuous thoughts ! To take God for God indeed, and for our God, essentially in-cludeth the taking him to be the most powerful, wise and good, the most just and holy, the Creator, Preserver and Governor of the world, whom we and all men are obliged absolutely to obey and fear, to love and desire, whose will is our beginning, rule and end: He that taketh not God for such as here described, taketh him not for God, and there-

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fore is indeed an atheist: What name soever he assumeth to himself, this is the name that God will call him by; even a " fool that hath said in his heart there is no God: while they are corrupt and do abominably, they understand not, and seek not after God; they are all gone aside, and are altogether become filthy, there is none of them that doth good ; they are workers of iniquity, they have no knowledge, and eat up the people of God as bread, and call not upon the Lord." (Psal. xiv. I—4.) Ungodliness is but the English for atheism. The atheist or ungodly in opinion, is he that thinks that there is no God, or that he is one that we need not love and serve (and that is but the same, viz. to be no God). The atheist or ungodly in heart, or will, is he that consenteth not that God shall be his God, to be loved, feared, and obeyed before all. The atheist in life, or outward practice, is he that liveth as without God in the world ; that seeketh him not as his chiefest good, and obey-eth him not as his highest absolute Lord; so that indeed atheism is the sum of all iniquity, as godliness is the sum of all religion and moral good. If you see by the description which I have given you, what it is to be godly, and to walk with God, and what it is to be an atheist or ungodly, you may easily see that godliness is more rare, and atheism more common, than many that themselves are atheists will believe. It is not that which a man calls his God, that is taken by him for his God indeed. It is not the tongue, but the heart that is the man. Pilate called Christ the King of the Jews, when he crucified him. The Jews called God their Father, when Christ telleth them, they were of their father the devil, and proveth it because (whatever they said) they would do their lusts. (John viii. 44.) The same Jews pretended to honour the name of the Messiah, and expect him, while they killed him. The question is not what men call themselves, but what they are: Not whether you say you take God for your God, but whether you do so indeed: Not whether you profess yourselves to be atheists, but whether you are atheists indeed or not. If you are not, look over what I have here said, and ask your consciences. Do you walk with God ? who is it you submit yourselves willingly to be disposed of by? to whom are you most subject? and whose commands have the most effectual authority with you ? who is the chief Governor of your hearts

and lives? whom is it that you principally desire to please? whom do you most fear? and whose displeasure do you principally avoid ? from whom is it that you expect your greatest reward ? and in whom, and with whom do you place and expect your happiness? whose work is it that you do, as the greatest business of your lives ? Is it the goodness of God in himself, and unto you, that draweth up your hearts to him in love ? Is he the ultimate end of the main intentions, design, and industry of your lives ? Do you trust upon his word as your security for your everlasting hopes and happiness ? Do you study and observe him in his works ? Do you really live as in his presence ? Do you delight in his word, and meditate on it ? Do you love the communion of saints ? and to be most frequent and familiar with them that are most frequent and familiar with Christ? Do you favour more the particular affectionate discourse about his nature, will and kingdom, than the frothy talk of empty wits, or the common discourse of carnal worldlings? Do you love to be employed in thanking him for his mercies, and in praising him, and declaring the glory of his attributes and works? Is your dependance on him as your great Benefactor, and do you receive your mercies as his gifts? If thus your principal observation be of God, and your chief desire after God, and your chiefest confidence in God, and your chiefest business in the world be with God, and for God, and your chiefest joy be in the favour of God, (when you can apprehend it) and in the prosperity of his church, and your hopes of glory ; and your chiefest grief and trouble be your sinful distance from him, and your backwardness and disability in his love and service, and the fear of his displeasure, and the injuries done to his Gospel and honour in the world ; then I must needs say, you are savingly delivered from your atheism and ungodliness ; you do not only talk of God, but walk with God; you are then acquainted with that spiritual life and work, which the sensual world is unacquainted with, and with those invisible, everlasting excellencies, which if worldlings knew, they would change their minds, and choice, and pleasures : You are then acquainted with that rational, manly, saintlike life, which ungodly men are strangers to; and you are in the way of that well-grounded hope and peace to which all the pleasures and crowns on earth, if compared, are bu(

cheats and misery. But if you were never yet brought to walk with God, do not think you have a sound belief in God, nor that you acknowledge him sincerely, nor that you are saved from heart-atheism: nor is it piety in the opinion and the tongue, that will save him that is an atheist, or ungodly in heart and life. Divinity is an affective-practical science: Knowing is not the ultimate or perfective act of man: but a means to holy love, and joy, and service. Nor is it clear and solid knowledge, if it do not somewhat affect the heart, and engage and actuate the life, according to the nature and use of the thing known. The soundness of knowledge and belief, is not best discerned in the intellectual acts themselves, but in their powerful, free and pleasant efficacy, upon our choice and practice. By these therefore you must judge, whether you are godly or atheistical. The question is not what your tongues say of God, nor what complimental ceremonious observances you allow him, but what your hearts and your endeavours say of him, and whether you glorify him as God, when you say you know him : otherwise you will find that the " wrath of God is revealed from heaven, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." (Rom. i. 18.21.) And now, alas! what matter of lamentation is here before us! To see how seriously men converse with one another ; and how God is overlooked or neglected by the most! How men live together, as if there were more that is considerable and regardable in these particles of animated dust, than in the Lord Almighty, and in all his graces, service and rewards ! To see how God is cast aside, and his interest made to give place to the interest of the flesh, and his services must stay till men have done their service to their lusts, or to worldly men, that can do them hurt, or shew them favour ! And his will must not be done, when it crosseth the will of sinful man! How little do all the commands, and promises, and threatenings of God signify, with these atheistical men, in comparison of their lusts, or the laws of men, or any thing that concerneth their temporal prosperity! O how is the world revolted from their Maker ! How have they lost the knowledge of themselves, and forgotten their natures, capacities and obligations, and what it is to be indeed a man ! O hearken, sinners, to the call of your Redeemer! Return, O seduced, wandering souls, und

know at last your resting place! Why is not God in all your thoughts ? or why is he thought on with so much remissness, unwillingness, and contempt! and with so little pleasure, seriousness, or regard ? Do you understand yourselves in this ? Do you deal worthily with God ? or wisely for yourselves ? Do you take more pleasure, with the prodigal, to feed swine, and to feed with swine, than to dwell at home with your heavenly Father ? and to walk before him, and serve him in the world ? Did you but know how dangerous a way you have been in, and how unreasonably you have dealt, to forsake God in your hearts, and follow that which cannot profit you, what haste would you make to leave the crowd, and come home to God, and try a more noble and gainful conversation? If reasons may have room and leave to work upon you, I will set a few before you more distinctly, to call you off from your barren, inordinate creature-converse, to a believing, serious converse with God.

1. The higher and more excellent the object is (especially when it is also of most concernment to ourselves), the more excellent is the converse. Therefore as nothing dare compare itself with God, so no employment may be compared with this of holy walking with him. How vile a contempt is it of the Almighty, and of our celestial joys, for the heart to neglect them, and turn away, and dwell upon vanity and trouble, and let these highest pleasures go ! Is not God and glory worthy of thy thoughts, and all thy service ?

2. What are those things that take thee up ? Are they better than God? or fitter to supply thy wants ? If thou think, and trust in them accordingly, ere long thou shalt know better what they are, and have enough of thy cursed choice and confidence. Tell those that stand by thee at the parting hour, whether thou didst choose aright and make a gaining or a saving match. O poor sinners ! have you not yet warning enough to satisfy you that all things below are vanity and vexation, and that all your hope of happiness is above ? Will not the testimony of God satisfy you? Will not the experience of the world for so many thousand years together satisfy you ? Will not the ill success of the damned satisfy you ? Will nothing but your own experience convince you? If so, consider well the experience you have already made, and seasonably retire, and try no further, and trust not so dangerous a deceiver to the

last, lest you buy your knowledge at a dearer rate than you will now believe.

3. You have daily more to do with God, than with all the world, whether you will or no: And therefore seeing you cannot avoid him if you would, prefer that voluntary obediential converse, which hath a reward, before that necessitated converse which hath none. You are always in his hands : he made you for his service; and he will dispose of you and all that you have, according to his will. It shall not go with you as yourselves would have it, nor as your friends would have it, nor as princes and great ones of the world would have it; (unless as their wills comply with God's) but as God would have it, who will infallibly accomplish all his will. If a sparrow fall not to the ground without him, and all the hairs of our heads are numbered, then certainly he overruleth all your interests and affairs, and they are absolutely at his disposal. To whom then in reason should you so much apply yourselves as unto him? If you will not take notice of him, he will take notice of you: he will remember you, whether you remember him or not; but it may be with so strict and severe a remembrance, as may make you wish he did quite forget you. You are always in his presence ; and can you then forget him, and hold no voluntary converse with him, when you stand before him ? If it be but mean, inferior persons that we dwell with, and are still in company with, we mind them more, and speak more to them, than we do to greater persons that we seldom see. But in God there is both greatness and nearness to invite you. Should not all the worms on earth stand by, while the glorious God doth call you to him, and offer you the honour and happiness of his converse? Shall the Lord of heaven and earth stand by, and be shut out, while you are chatting or trifling with his creatures? Nay, shall he be neglected that is always with you? You cannot remove yourselves a moment from his sight; and therefore you should not shut your eyes, and turn away your face, and refuse to observe him who is still observing you.

Moreover, your dependence, both for soul and body, is all on him: You can have nothing desirable but by his gift, lie feeds you, he clotheth you, he maintaineth you, he gives you life, and breath, and all things; and yet can you

overlook him, or forget him? Do not all his mercies require your acknowledgment? A dog will follow him that feedeth him: his eye will be upon his master: And shall we live upon God, and yet forget and disregard him? We are taught a better use of his mercies by the holy prophet; ** O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard: which holdeth our soul in life, and suf-fereth not our feet to be moved !" (Psal. Ixvi. 8, 9.)

Nay, it is not yourselves alone, but all the world that depends on God. It is his power that supporteth them, and his will that disposeth of them, and his bounty that pro-videth for them: and therefore he must be the observation and admiration of the world: It is less unreasonable to take no notice of the earth that beareth us and yieldeth us fruit, and of the sun that yieldeth us heat and light, than to disregard the Lord that is more to us than sun, and earth, and all things. "The eyes of all things wait on him; and he giveth them their meat in season: He openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing." (Psal. cxlv. 15, 16.) " The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works: All his works therefore shall praise him, and his saints shall bless him : They shall speak of the glory of his kingdom, and talk of his power." (ver. 10, 11.)

Moreover God is so abundantly and wonderfully represented to us in all his works, as will leave us under the guilt of most unexcusable contempt, if we overlook him, and live as without him in the world. " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy work : Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge." (Psal. xix. 1, 2.) Thus " that which may be known of God is manifest; for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that the ungodly are without excuse." (Rom. i. 19, 20.) Carmot you see that which all the world revealeth ; nor hear that which all the world proclaimeth ? " O sing ye forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious! Say to the Lord, How terrible art thou in thy works! Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee : All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee: they shall sing unto thy name: come and see the works of

God : he is terrible in his doings towards the children of men." (Psal. Ixvi. 2—5.) Can we pass him by, that is every where present, and by every creature represented to us ? Can we forget him, when all the world are our remembrancers? Can we stop our ears against the voice of heaven and earth ? Can we be ignorant of him, when the whole creation is our teacher? Can we overlook that holy, glorious name, which is written so legibly upon all things that ever our eyes beheld, that nothing but blindness, sleepiness, or distraction, could possibly keep us from discerning it! I have many a time wondered, that (as the eye is dazzled so with the beholding of the greatest light, that it can scarce perceive the shining of a lesser, so) the glorious transcendent majesty of the Lord, doth not even overwhelm our understandings, and so transport and take us up, as that we scarce observe or remember any thing else. For naturally the greatest objects of our sense, are apt to make us at that time insensible of the smaller: And our exceeding great business, is apt to make us utterly neglect and forget those that are exceeding small: And O what nothings are the best and greatest of the creatures, in comparison of God! And what toys and trifles are all our other businesses in the world, in comparison of the business which we have with him ! But I have been stopped in these admirations by considering that the wise Creator hath fitted and ordered all his creatures according to the use which he designeth them to: And therefore as the eye must be receptive only of so much light as is proportioned to its use and pleasure, and must be so distant from the sun, that its light may rather guide, than blind us, and its heat may rather quicken, than consume us; so God hath made our understandings capable of no other knowledge of him here, than what is suited to the work of holiness: And while we have flesh, and fleshly works to do, and lawful and necessary business in the world, which God's own commands employ us, our souls in this lanthorn of the body, must see him through so thick a glass, as shall so far allay our apprehension, as not to distract us,'and take us off the works which he enjoineth us. And God and our souls shall be at such a distance, as that the proportionable light of his countenance may conduct us, and not overwhelm us ; and his love may be so revealed, as to quicken our desires, and draw us on to a better state.

but not so as to make us utterly impatient of this world and utterly weary of our lives, or to swallow us up, or possess us of our most desired happiness, before we arrive at the state of happiness. While the soul is in the body, it maketh so much use of the body (the brains and spirits) in all its operations ; that our wise and merciful Creator and Governor, doth respect the body as well as the soul, in his ordering, disposing, and representing of the objects of those operations : So that when I consider that certainly all men would be distracted, if their apprehensions of God were any whit answerable to the greatness of his majesty and glory, (the brain being not able to bear such high operations of the soul, nor the greatness of the passions which would necessarily follow,) it much reconcileth my wondering mind, to the wise and gracious providence of God, even in setting innocent nature itself at such a distance from his glory (allowing us the presence of such grace, as is necessary to bring us up to glory). Though it reconcile me not to that doleful distance which is introduced by sin, and which is furthered by Satan, the world, and the flesh, and which our Redeemer by his Spirit and intercession must heal.

And it further reconcileth me to this disposure and will of the blessed God, and this necessary natural distance and darkness of our mind, when I consider, that if God, and heaven, and hell, were as near and open to our apprehensions, as the things are which we see and feel, this life would not be what God intended it to be, a life of trial and preparation to another, a work, a race, a pilgrimage, a warfare; what trial would there be of any man's faith, or love, or obedience, or constancy, or self-denial ? If we saw God stand by, or apprehended him as if we saw him (in degree) it would be no more praiseworthy or rewardable for a man to abhor all temptations to worldliness, ambition, gluttony, drunkenness, lust, cruelty, &c. than it is for a man to be kept from sleeping that is pierced with thorns, or for a man to forbear to drink a cup of melted gold which he knoweth will burn out his bowels, or to forbear to burn his flesh in fire. It were no great commendation to his chastity, that would forbear his filthiness, if he saw or had the fullest apprehensions of God ; when he will forbear it in the presence of a mortal man: It were no great commendation to the intemperate and voluptuous, to have no mind of sensual de-

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lights, if they had but such a knowledge of God as were equal to sight. It were no thanks to the persecutor to forbear his cruelty against the servants of the Lord, if he ** saw Christ coming with his glorious angels, to take vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel, and to be admired in his saints, and glorified in them that now believe." (2 Thess. i. 7—10.) I deny not but this happily necessitated holiness is best in itself, and therefore will be our state in heaven; but what is there of trial in it? or how can it be suitable to the state of man, that must have good and evil set before him, and life and death left to his choice ; and that must conquer if he will be crowned, and approve his fidelity to his Creator against competitors, and must live a rewardable life before he have the reward?

But though in this life we may neither hope for, nor desire, such overwhelming, sensible apprehensions of God, as the rest of our faculties cannot answer, nor our bodies bear; yet that our apprehensions of him should be so base, and small, and dull, and unconstant, as to be borne down by the noise of worldly business, or by the presence of any creature, or by the tempting baits of sensuality, this is the more odious, by how much God is more great and glorious than the creature, and even because the use of the creature itself is but to reveal the glory of the Lord. To have such slight and stupid thoughts of him, as will not carry us on in uprightness of obedience, nor keep us in his fear, nor draw out our hearts in sincere desires to please him, and enjoy him, and as will not raise us to a contempt of the pleasures, and profits, and honours of this world, this is to be despisers of the Lord, and to live as in a sleep, and to be dead to God, and alive only to the world and flesh. It is no unjust dishonour or injury to the creature, to be accounted as nothing in comparison of G od, that it may be able to do nothing against him and his interest: But to make such a nothing of the most glorious God, by our contemptuous forgetfulness or neglect, as that our apprehensions of him cannot prevail against the sordid pleasures of the flesh, and against the richest baits of «in, and all the wrath or allurements of man, this is but to make a god of dust, and dung, and nothing, and (in heart and practice) to make God worse than dust and dung. And it is a wonder that man's understanding can become so sottish, as thus to wink the sun itself into a constant darkness.

and to take God as nothing, or as no God, who is so abundantly revealed to them in astonishing transcendent greatness and excellency, by all the creatures in the world, and with whom we have continually so much to do. O sinful man! into how great a depth of ignorance, stupidity and misery art thou fallen!

But because we may see by the lives of the ungodly, that they little think that they have so much to do with God, though I have spoke of this to the godly in the other part of this treatise, I shall somewhat more particularly acquaint those that have most need to be informed of it, what business it is that they hav€ with God.

1. It is not a business that may be done, or left undone like your business with men: but it is such as must be done, or you are undone for ever. Nothing is absolutely necessary but this: nothing in all the world doth so much concern you. You may at far cheaper rates forbear to eat, or drink, or clothe yourselves, or live, than forbear the dispatch of this necessary work.

2. Your business with God, and for God in the world, is that which you have all your powers and endowments for; it is that which you were born into the world for, and that which you have understanding and freewill for, and that which you have your thoughts, and memories, and affections for, and that which you have eyes, and ears, and tongues, and your corporal parts and abilities for; and that which you have your time for; and your preservation, protection and provisions : It is that which you have all your teaching for; which Christ himself came into the world for; which the Scriptures are written for; which ministers are sent for; which all order and government in church and state is principally appointed for: In a word, it is that for which you have your lives, and all things, and without which all were as nothing, and will be to you worse than nothing, if they do not further your work with God : You will wish you had never seen them if they befriend you not in this.

3. Your business with God, and for him, is such as you must be continually doing : as is incumbent on you every hour, for you have every hour given you for this end. You may dispatch this man to day, and another to-morrow, and have no more to do with them again of a long time : But you have always incessantly important works to do with God.

For your common work should be all his work; and all should be done with principal respect to him.

But I shall yet more particularly tell the ungodly what business it is that they have with God, which it seems, by their careless negligent lives, they are not aware of.

1. You must be either saved or damned by him ; either glorified with him, or punished by him to everlasting : and it is now that the matter must be determined, which of the two cmiditions you must be in: You must now obtain your title to heaven, if ever you will come thither : You must now procure deliverance from hell-fire, if ever you will escape it. Now it is that all must be done, upon which the scales must turn for your salvation or damnation : and you know this work is principally to be done between you and God, who alone can save you or destroy you ; and yet do you forget him, and live as if you had no business with him, when you have your salvation to obtain from him, and your damnation to prevent! Have you such business as this with any other?

2. You have a strict and righteous judgment to undergo, in order to this salvation or damnation. You must stand before the Holy Majesty, and be judged by the Governor of the world: you must be there accused, and found guilty or not guilty; and judged as fulfillers, or as breakers of the holy covenant of grace : You must be set on the right hand or on the left: You must answer for all the time that you here spent, and for all the means and mercies which you here received, and for that you have done, whether it were good or evil. And it is now in this life that all your preparation must be made, and all that must be done, upon which your justification or condemnation will then depend. And it is between God and you that all this business must be done: and yet can you live as negligently towards him, as if you had no business with him?

3. You have a death to die, a change to make, which must be made but once ; which will be the entrance upon endless joy or pain: and do you think this needeth not your most timely and diligent preparation? You must struggle with pains, and faint with weakness, and feel death taking down your earthen tabernacle: You must then have a life that is ending to review, and all that you have done laid open to your more impartial judgment; you must then see time as at an end, and the last sand running, and your can-

die ready to go out, and leave the snufF; you must then look back upon all that you had from the world, as ending; and upon all that you have done as that which cannot be undone again, that you may do it better; and you must have a more serious look into eternity, when you are stepping thither, than you can now conceive of: And doth all this need no preparation? It is with God that all that business must be now transacted, that must make your death to be comfortable or safe. If now you will only converse with men, and know no business that you have with God, you shall find at last to your exceeding terror, that you are in his hands, and passing to his bar, and that it is God that then you have to do with, when your business with all the world is at an end : He will then have something to do with you, if you will now find nothing to do with him.

4. In order to all this, you have now your peace to be made with God, and the pardon of all your sins to be obtained. For woe to you if then you are found under the guilt of any sin. Look back upon your lives, and remember how you have lived in the world, and what you have been doing : how you have spent your time in youth, and in your riper age ; and how many sinful thoughts, and words, and deeds you have been guilty of; how oft you have sinfully pleased your appetites, and gratified your flesh, and yielded to temptations, and abused mercy, and lost your time: How oft you have neglected your duty, and betrayed your souls: how long you have lived in forgetfulness of God and your salvation ; minding only the things of the flesh and of the world: How oft you have sinned ignorantly and against knowledge, through carelessness, and through rashness, through negligence and through presumption, in passion, and upon deliberation ; against convictions, purposes and promises : How oft you have sinned against the precepts of piety to God, and of justice and charity to men. Think how your sins are multiplied and aggravated, more in number than the hours of your lives : aggravated by a world of mercies, by the clearest teachings and the loudest calls, and sharpest reproofs, and seasonable warnings, and by the long and urgent importunities of grace. Think of all these, and then consider whether you have nothing now to do with God, whether it be not a business to be followed with all possible speed and diligence, to procure the pardon of all

these sins : You have no such businesses as these to transact with men: You may have business with them which your estates depend upon, or which touch your credit, commodity or lives; but you have no business with men (unless in subordination to God) which your salvation doth depend upon : Your eternal happiness is not in their hands : they may kill your bodies (if God permit them), but not your souls. You need not solicit them to pardon your sins against God : It is a small matter how you are judged of by man : You have one that judgeth you, even the Lord. (1 Cor. iv, 3, 4.) No man can forgive sin, but God only. O then how early, how earnestly should you cry to him for mercy! Pardon must be obtained now or never. There is no justification for that man at the day of judgment, that is not forgiven and justified now. Blessed then is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, whose sin is covered, and to whom it is not imputed by the Lord. (Rom. iv. 7, 8.) And woe to that man that ever he was born, that is then found without the pardon of his sins I Think of this as the case deserves, and then think if you can, that your daily business with God is small.

5. Moreover, you have peace of conscience to obtain: and that dependeth upon your peace with God. Conscience will be your accuser, condemner and tormentor, if you make it not your friend, by making God your friend. Consider what conscience hath to say against you, and how certainly it will speak home, when you would be loath to hear it: And bethink you how to answer all its accusations, and what will be necessary to make it a messenger of peace; and then think your business with God to be but small, if you are able. It is no easy matter to get assurance that God is reconciled to you, and that he hath forgiven all your sins.

6. In order to all this, you must be united to Jesus Christ, and be made his members, that you may have part in him, and that he may wash you by his blood, and that he may answer for you to his Father! woe to you if he be not your righte-teousness, and if you have not him to plead your cause, and take upon him your final justification ! None else can save you from the wrath of God : And he is the Saviour only of his body. (Ephes. v. 23.) He hath died for you without your own consent, and he hath made a universal conditional

VOL. XIII. o

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grant of pardon and salvation, before you consented to it: but he will not be united to you, nor actually forgive, and justify, and save you, v^^ithout your own consent: and therefore that the Father may draw you to the Son, and may give you Christ, and life in him, (1 John v.9—11,) when all your hope dependeth on it, you may see that you have more to do with God,than your senseless hearts have hitherto understood.

7. And that you may have a saving interest in Jesus Christ, you must have sound repentance for all your former life of wickedness, and a lively, effectual faith in Christ: neither sin nor Christ must be made light of. Repentance must tell you to the very heart, that you have done foolishly in sinning, and that it is an evil and a bitter thing that you forsook the Lord, and that his fear was not in you: and thus your wickedness shall correct you and reprove you. (Jer. ii. 19.) And faith must tell you that Christ is more necessary to you than food or life, and that there is no other name given under heaven by which you can be saved. (Acts iv. 12.) And it is not so easy, nor so common a thing to repent and believe, as ignorant presumptuous sinners do imagine. It is a greater matter to have a truly humbled, contrite heart, and to loathe yourselves for all your sins, and to loathe those sins, and resolvedly give up yourselves to Christ and to his Spirit for a holy life, than heartlessly and hypocritically to say, I am sorry, or, I repent, without any true contrition or renovation. And it is a greater matter to betake yourselves to Jesus Christ as your only hope, to save you both from sin and from damnation, than barely through custom, and the benefit of education, to say, I do believe in Christ. I tell you it is so great a work to bring you to sound repentance and faith, that it must be done by the power of God himself. (Acts v. 31; 2 Tim. ii. 25.) They are the " gift of God ;" (Ephes. ii. 8;) you must have his Spirit to illuminate you, (Ephes. i. 18,) and shew you the odiousness of sin, the intolerableness of the wrath of God, the necessity and sufficiency, the power and willingness of Christ; and to overcome all your prejudice, and save you from false opinions and deceits; and to repulse the temptations of Satan, the world and the flesh, which will all rise up against you. All this must be done to bring you home to Jesus Christ, or

i

else you will have no part in him, his righteousness and grace: And can you think that you have not most important business with God, who must do all this upon you, or else you are undone for ever!

8. Moreover you must have all the corruptions of your natures healed, and your sins subdued, and your hearts made new by sanctifying grace, and the image of God implanted in you, and your lives made holy and sincerely conformable to the will of God. All this must be done, or you cannot be acceptable to God, nor ever will be saved: though your carnal interest rise against it; though your old corrupted natures be against it; though your custom, and pleasure, and worldly gain and honour be against it; though all your carnal friends and superiors be against it; though the devil will do all that he can against it, yet all this must be done, or you are lost for ever: and all this must be done by the Spirit of God; for it is his work to make you new and holy: And can you think then that the business is not great which you have with God? When you have tried how hard every part of this work is, to be begun and carried on, you will find you have more to do with God, than with all the world.

9. Moreover in order to this it is necessary that you read, and hear, and understand the Gospel, which must be the means of bringing you to God by Christ: This must be the instrument of God, by which he will bring you to repent and believe, and by which he will renew your natures, and imprint his image on you, and bring you to love him, and obey his will. The word of God must be your counsellor, and your delight, and you must set your heart to it, and meditate in it day and night. Knowledge must be the means to reclaim your perverse, misguided wills, and to reform your careless, crooked lives, and to bring you out of the kingdom of darkness, into the state of light and life. And such knowledge cannot be expected without a diligent attending unto Christ the teacher of your souls, and a due consideration of the truth. By that time you have learnt what is needful to be learnt for a true conversion, a sound repentance, a saving faith, and a holy life, you will find that you have far greater business with God than with all the world.

10. Moreover for the attaining of all this mercy, you have many a prayer to put up to God: You must daily pray

for the forgiveness of your sins, and deliverance from temptations, and even for your daily bread, or necessary provisions for the work which you have to do : you must daily pray for the supplies of grace which you want, and for the gradual mortification of the flesh, and for help in all the duties which you must perform; and for strength against all spiritual enemies which will assault you ; and preservation from the manifest evils which attend you: and these prayers must be put up with unwearied constancy, fervency and faith. Keep up this course of fervent prayer, and beg for Christ, and grace, and pardon, and salvation in any measure as they deserve, and according to thy own necessity, and then tell me whether thy business with God be small, and to be put off" as lightly as it is by the ungodly.

IL Moreover, you are made for the glory of your Creator, and must apply yourselves wholly to glorify him in the world : you must make his service the trade and business of your lives, and not put him off with something on the by : You are good for nothing else but to serve him; as a knife is made to cut, and as your clothes are made to cover you, and your meat to feed you, and your horse to labour for you; so you are made, and redeemed, and maintained for this, to love and please your great Creator. And can you think that it is but little business that you have with him, when he is the End and Master of your lives, and all you are or have is for him ?

12. And for the due performance of his service, you have all his talents to employ. To this end it is that he hath intrusted you with reason, and health, and strength; with time, and parts, and interest, and wealth, and all his mercies, and all his ordinances and means of grace; and to this end must you use them, or you lose them: and you must give him an account of all at last, whether you have improved them all to your Master's use. And can you look within you, without you, about you, and see how much you are trusted with, and must be accountable to him for, and yet not see how great your business is with.God?

13. Moreover, you have all the graces which you shall receive to exercise; and every grace doth carry you to God, and is exercised upon him, or for him: It is God that you must study, and k now, and love, and desire, and trust, and hope in, and obey: It is God that you must seek after, and

delight in, so far as you enjoy him: It is his absence or displeasure that must be your fear and sorrow : therefore the soul is said to be sanctified when it is renewed, because it is both disposed and devoted unto God. And therefore grace is called holiness, because it all disposeth, and carrieth the soul to God, and useth it upon and for him. And can you think your business with God is small, when you must live upon him, and all the powers of your soul must be addicted to him, and be in serious motion towards him ? And when he must be much more to you than the air which you breathe in, or the earth you live upon, or than the sun that gives you light and heat; yea, than the soul is to your bodies?

14. Lastly, You have abundance of temptations and impediments to watch and strive against, which would hinder you in the doing of all this work, and a corrupt and treacherous heart to watch and keep in order, which will be looking back, and shrinking from the service. Lay all this together, and then consider whether you have not more and greater business with God, than with all the creatures in the world.

And if this be so (as undeniably it is so), is there any cloak for that man's sin, who is all day taken up with creatures, and thinks of God as seldom and as carelessly as if he had no business with him? And yet, alas, if you take a survey of high and low, of court, and city, and country, you shall find that this is the case of no small number, yea of many that observe it not to be their case; it is the case of the profane that pray in jest, and swear, and curse, and rail in earnest. It is the case of the malignant enemies of Holiness, that hate them at the heart that are most acquainted with this converse with God, and count it but hypocrisy, pride or fancy, and would not suffer them to live upon the earth, who are most sincerely conversant in heaven. It is the case of Pharisees and hypocrites, who take up with ceremonious observances, as, * touch not, taste not, handle not,' and such like traditions of their forefathers, instead of a spiritual, rational service, and a holy, serious walking with the Lord. It is the case of all ambitious men, and covetous worldlings, who make more ado to climb up a little higher than their brethren, and to hold the reins, and have their wills, and be admired and adored in the world, or to get a large estate for themselves and their posterity, than to please

their Maker, or to save their souls. It is the case of every sensual epicure, whose belly is his god, and serveth his fancy, lust and appetite before the Lord. It is the case of every unsanctified man, that seeketh first the prosperity of his flesh, before the kingdom and righteousness of God, and is most careful and laborious to lay up a treasure on earth, and laboureth more (with greater estimation, resolution, and delight,) for the meat that perisheth, than for that which en-dureth to everlasting life. All these (who are too great a part of the world, and too great a part of professed Christians) are taken up with creature converse; and yet think to escape the deluge of God's displeasure, because the Enochs and Noahs are so few who walk with God; and they think God will not destroy so many: and thus they think to be saved by their multitude, and to hide themselves in the crowd from God: They will go the wide and common path, and be of the mind that most are of: They will not be convinced till most men are convinced; that is, till wisdom come too late, and cost them dearer than its worth. When all men are convinced that God should have been preferred before the world, and served before their fleshly lusts (as they will certainly and sadly be), then they will be convinced with the rest. When all men understand that life was given them to have done the work which eternal life dependeth on, then they will understand it with the rest. When all men shall discern between the righteous and the wicked; between those that serve God, and that serve him not, then they will discern it with the rest: They will know what their business was in the world, and how much they had to do with God, when all men know it. But O how much better for them had it been to have known it in time, while knowledge might have done them better service, than to make them feel the greatness of their sin and folly, and the hopes which once they had of happiness, and to help the sting of desperation continually to prick them at the heart: They would not be of so " little a flock" as that to which it was the " good pleasure" of God to *' give the kingdom." (Luke xii. 32.) If you demand a reason of all this, their reason was in their throats and bellies : they had fleshly appetites and lusts, and thereby could relish fleshly pleasures; but spiritual life and appetite they had none, and therefore relished not spiritual things: Had Christ, and holiness, and

heaven, been as suitable to their appetites as the sweetness of their meat, and drink, and lusts, and as suitable to their fantasies as their worldly dignities and greatness were, they would then have made a better choice. They would have walked with God, if drunkenness, and gluttony, and pride, and wantonness, and covetousness, and idleness, had been the way in which they might have walked with him. If these had been godliness, how godly would they have been! How certainly would they have come to heaven if this had been the way ! To be idle, and proud, and fleshly, and worldly, is it that they love ; and to be humble, and holy, and heavenly, and mortified, is that which they hate, and cannot away with: And their love and hatred proceed from their corrupt natures; and these are instead of reason to them. Their strong apprehensions of a present suitableness in fleshly pleasures to their appetites, and of a present unsuit-ableness of a holy life, do keep out all effectual apprehensions of the excellencies of God, and of spiritual, heavenly delights, which cross them in the pleasures which they most desire.

But yet (their appetites corrupting their understandings as well as their wills) they will not be mad without some reason, nor reject their Maker and their happiness without some reason, nor neglect that holy work which they were made for without some reason: Let us hear then what it is.

CHAP. III.

Object, 1. They say, * It is true that God hath much to do with us, and for us: But it foUoweth not that we have so much to do with him, or for him, as you would have us to believe: for he is necessarily good, and necessarily doth good ; and therefore will do so, whether we think of him or not: The sun will not give over shining on me, though I never think on it, or never pray to it, or give it thanks. Nor doth God need any service, that we can do him, no more than the sun doth ; nor is he pleased any more in the praise of men, or in their works.*

Answ, 1. It is most certain that God is good as necessarily as he is God : But it is not true, that he must necessarily do good to you, or other individual persons; nor that he necessarily doth the good he doth them. As he is not ne-

cessitated to make toads and serpents as happy as men, of men as angels; so he is not necessitated to save the devils or damned souls (for he will not save them). And he was under no greater a necessity to save you, than them. He was not necessitated to give you a being; he could have passed you by, and caused others to have possessed your room. As it was God's freewill, and not any necessity, that millions more are never born, that were in possibility of it: (for all that is possible doth not come to pass.) So that you and millions more were born was not of necessity but of the same freewill. And as God did not make you of necessity but of freewill; so he doth not necessarily but freely justify, or sanctify, or save. If he did it by necessity of nature, he would do it to all as well as some ; seeing all have a natural capacity of grace as well as those that receive it: God is able to sanctify and save more, yea all, if it were his will: and it is not for want of power or goodness that he doth not. Millions of beings are possible which are not future. God doth not all the good which he is able, but communicateth so much to his several creatures as to his wisdom seemeth meet. If the damned would be so presumptuous as to argue, that because God is able yet to sanctify and save them, therefore he must do it of necessity of nature, it would not be long before they should thus dispute themselves out of their torments. God will not ask leave of sinners to be God; their denying him to be good (that is to be God), because he complieth not with their conceits and wills, doth but prove them to be fools and bad themselves.

Indeed some sciolists, pretending to learning, while they are ignorant of most obvious principles of natural knowledge, have taught poor sinners to cheat their souls with such dreams as these. They have made themselves believe that goodness in God is nothing else but his benignity, or disposition to do good. As if the creature were the ultimate end, and all God's goodness but a means thereto: And so God were the Alpha or first efficient, and yet the creature the Omega or ' finis ultimus:' and all the goodness in God were to be estimated and denominated by its respect to the felicity of man: and so the creature hath the best part of the Deity. Such notions evidently shew us, that lapsed man i& predominantly selfish, and is become his own idol, and is lost

in himself, while he hath lost himself by his loss of God. When we see how powerful his self-interest is, both with his intellect and will; even men of great ingenuity, till sanc-tification hath restored them to God, and taught them better to know him and themselves, are ready to measure all good or evil by their own interests; when yet common reason would have told them, if they had not perverted it by pride and partial studies, that short of God, even among the creatures, there are many things to be preferred before themselves and their own felicity. He is irrationally enslaved by self-love, that cannot see that the happiness of the world, or of his country, or of multitudes, is more to be desired than his happiness alone : and that he ought rather to choose to be annihilated, or to be miserable (if it were made a matter of his deliberation and choice), than to have the sun taken out of the firmament, or the world, or his country to be annihilated or miserable. And God is infinitely above the creature.

Object. But they say,' He needeth nothing to make him happy, having no defect of happiness.'

Answ. And what of that? Must it needs therefore follow, that he made not all things for himself, but for the creature finally? He is perfectly happy in himself, and his will is himself: this will was fulfilled when the world was not made (for it was his will that it should not be made till it was made), and it is fulfilled when it is made, and fulfilled by all that comes to pass. And as the absolute simple goodness and perfection of God's essence is the greatest good, the eternal immutable good; so the fulfilling of his will is the ultimate end of all obedience : He hath expressed himself to take pleasure in his works, and in the holiness, obedience and happiness of his chosen: and though pleasure be not the same thing in God as it is in a man (no more than will or understanding is), yet it is not nothing which God expresseth by such terms, but something which we have no fitter expression for: this pleasing of the will of God being the end of all, even of our felicity, is better than our felicity itself.

They that will maintain that God, who is naturally and necessarily good, hath no other goodness but his benignity, or aptness to do good to his creatures, must needs also maintain that (God being, for the creature, and not the creature

for God) the creature is better than God, as being the ultimate end of God himself, and the highest use of all his goodness being but for the felicity of the creature: As also that God doth all the good that he is able : (for natural necessary agents work * ad ultimum posse/) And that all men shall be saved, and all devils, and every worm and toad be equal to the highest angel, or else that God is not able to do it. And that he did thus make 'happy all his creatures from eternity (for natural, necessary agents work always if they be not forcibly hindered); and that there never was such a thing as pain or misery, in man or brute, or else that God was not able to prevent it. But abundance of such odious consequences must needs follow from the denying of the highest Good, which is God himself, and confessing none but his efficient goodness. But some will be offended with me for being so serious in confuting such an irrational, atheistical conceit, who know not how far it prevaileth with an atheistical generation.

Be it known to you, careless sinners, that though the sun will shine on you whether you think on it or not, or love it, or thank it or not; and the fire will warm you whether you think on it or not, or love it or not; yet God will not justify or save you, whether you love him or think on him or not: God doth not operate brutishly in your salvation; but governeth you wisely, as rational creatures are to be governed ; and therefore will give you happiness- as a reward; and therefore will not deal alike with those that love him, and that love him not; that seek him and that seek him not; with the labourers and the loiterers, the faithful and slothful servant. Would you have us believe that you know better than God himself what pleaseth himself, or on what terms he will give his benefits, and save men's souls ? or do you know his nature better than he knoweth it, that you dare presume to say, because he need-eth not our love or duty, therefore they are not pleasing to him! Then what hath God to do in governing the world, if he be pleased and displeased with nothing that men do, or with good and evil actions equally ? Though you cannot hurt him, you shall find that he will hurt you, if you disobey him: And though you cannot make him happy by your holiness, you shall find that he will not make you happy without it.

And if he did work as necessarily as the sun doth shine, according to your similitude; yet, 1. Even the shining of the sun doth not illuminate the blind, nor doth it make the seeds of thorns and nettles to bring forth vines or roses, nor the gendering of frogs to bring forth men; but it actuateth all things according to the several natures of their powers. And therefore how can you expect that an unbelieving and unholy soul, should enjoy felicity in God, when in that state they are incapable of it? 2. And if the sun do necessarily illuminate any one, he must necessarily be illuminated ; and if it necessarily warm or quicken any thing, it must necessarily be warmed and quickened; else you would assert contradictions. So if God did necessarily save you, and make you happy, you would necessarily be saved and made happy. And that containeth essentially your holiness, your loving, desiring and seeking after God; to be saved or happy without enjoying God by love, or to love him and not desire him, seek him or obey him, are as great contradictions as to be illuminated without light, or quickened without life. What way soever it be that God convey-eth his sanctifying Spirit, 1 am sure that " if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his," (Rom. viii. 9,) and that without " holiness none shall see God," (Heb. xii. 14,) and that if you will have the kingdom of God, you must seek it first, preferring it before all earthly things. (Matt. vi. 33 ; John vi. 27 ; Col. iv. 1—3.) And then if all the question that remaineth undecided be, whether God do you wrong or not in damning you, or whether God be good because he will not save you when he can, I shall leave you to him to receive satisfaction, who will easily silence and confound your impudence, and justify his works and laws. Prepare your accusations against him, if you will needs insist upon them, and try whether he or you shall prevail: but remember that thou art a worm, and he is God, and that he will be the only Judge when all is done; and ignorance and impiety, that prate against him to their own confusion, in the day of his patience, shall not then usurp the throne.

Object, 2. ' But how can God be fit for mortals to converse with, when they see him not, and are infinitely below him?'

Answ. I hope you will not say that you have nothing to do at home, with your own souls: and yet you never saw

your souls. And it is the souls, the reason and the will of men that you daily converse with here in the world, more than their bodies, and yet you never saw their souls, their reason or their wills. If you have no higher light to discern by than your eyesight, you are not men but beasts. If you are men, you have reason; and if you are Christians, you have faith, by which you know things that you never saw. You have more dependance on the things that are unseen, than on those which you see, and have much more to do with them.

And though God be infinitely above us ; yet he conde-scendeth to communicate to us according to our capacities : As the sun is far from us, and yet doth not disdain to enlighten, and warm, and quicken a worm or fly here below. If any be yet so much an atheist as to think that religious converse with God is but a fancy, let him well answer me these few questions.

Quest, 1. Doth not the continued being and well-being of the creatures, tell us that there is a God on whom (for being and well-being) they depend, and from whom they are and have whatsoever they are, and whatsoever they have ? And therefore that passively all the creatures have more respect to him by far, than to one another ?

Quest. 2. Seeing God communicateth to every creature according to their several capacities; is it not meet then that he deal with man as man, even as a creature rational, capable to know, and love, and obey his great Creator, and to be happy in the knowledge, love and fruition of him ? That man hath such natural faculties, and capacities, is not to be denied by a man that knoweth what it is to be a man: And that God hath not given him these in vain, will be easily believed by any that indeed believe that he is God.

Quest, 3. Is there any thing else that is finally worthy of the highest actions of our souls ? or that is fully adequate to them, and fit to be our happiness ? If not, then we are left either to certain infelicity, contrary to the tendency of our natures, or else we must seek our felicity in God.

Quest. 4. Is there any thing more certain than that by the title of creation, our Maker hath a full and absolute right to all that he hath made ; and consequently to all our love and obedience, our time and powers? For whom should they all be used but for him from whom we have them ?

Quest, 5. Can any thing be more sure, than that God is the righteous Governor of the world ? And that he governeth man as a rational creature, by laws and j udgment ? And can we live under his absolute sovereignty, and under his many righteous laws, and under his promises of salvation to the justified, and under his threatenings of damnation to the unjustified, and yet not have more to do with God than with all the world? If indeed you think that God doth not love and reward the holy and obedient, and punish the ungodly and disobedient, then either you take him not to be the Governor of the world, or (which is worse) you take him to be an unrighteous Governor : And then you must by the same reason say, that magistrates and parents should do so too, and love and reward the obedient and disobedient alike: But if any man's, disobedience were exercised to your hurt, by slandering, or beating, or robbing you, I dare say you would not then commend so indifferent and unjust a Governor.

Quest, 6. If it be not needless for man to labour for food and raiment, and necessary provision for his body, how can it be needless for him to labour for the happiness of his soul? If God will not give us our daily bread while we never think of it, or seek it, why should we expect that he will give us heaven though we never think on it, value it, or seek it?

Quest, 7. Is it not a contradiction to be happ;y in the fruition of God, and yet not to mind him, desire him, or seek him? How is it that the soul can reach its object, but by estimation, desire and seeking after it: And how should it enjoy it but by loving it, and taking pleasure in it?

Quest. 8. While you seem but to wrangle against the

duty of believers, do you not plead against the comfort and

happiness of believers ? For surely the employment of the

soul on God (and for him) is the health and pleasure of the

soul; and to call away the soul from such employment, is

to imprison it in the dungeon of this world, and to forbid

WLi us to smell to the sweetest flowers, and confine us to a sink

B or dunghill, and to forbid us to taste of the food of angels,

M: or of men, and to offer us vinegar and gall, or turn us over

^R to feed with swine. He that pleadeth that there is no such

^B thing as real holiness and communion with God, doth plead

^B in effect that there is no true felicity or delight for any of

L

the sons of men : And how welcome should ungodly atheists be unto mankind, that would for ever exclude them all from happiness, and make them believe they are all made to be remedilessly miserable ?

And here take notice of the madness of the unthankful world, that hateth and persecuteth the preachers of the Gospel,' that bring them the glad tidings of pardon, and hope, and life eternal, of solid happiness, and durable delight ; and yet they are not offended at these atheists and ungodly cavillers, that would take them off from all that is truly good and pleasant, and make them believe that nature hath made them capable of no higher things than beasts, and hath enthralled them in remediless infelicity.

Quest, 9. Do you not see by experience that there are a people in the world whose hearts are upon God, and the life to come, and that make it their chiefest care and business to seek him and to serve him? How then can you say that there is no such thing, or that we are not capable of it, when it is the case of so many before your eyes ? If you say that it is but their fancy or self-deceit: I answer. That really their hearts are set upon God, and the everlasting world, and that it is their chiefest care and business to attain it; this is a thing that they feel, and you may see in the bent and labour of their lives ; and therefore you cannot call that a fancy, of which you have so full experience : But whether the motives that have invited them, and engaged them to such a choice and course, be fancies and deceits or not, let God be judge, and let the awakened consciences of worldlings themselves be judge, when they have seen the end, and tried whether it be earth or heaven that is the shadow, and whether it be God or their unbelieving hearts that was deceived.

Quest. 10. Have you any hopes of living with God for ever, or not? If you have not, no wonder if you live as beasts, when you have no higher expectations than beasts : When we are so blind as to give up all our hopes, we will also give up all our care and holy diligence, and think we have nothing to do with heaven. But if you have any such hopes, can you think that any thing is fitter for the chiefest of your thoughts and cares, than the God and kingdom, which you hope for ever to enjoy? Or is there any thing that €aTi be more suitable, or should be more delightful to

your thoughts, than to employ them about your highest hopes, upon your endless happiness and joy? and should not that be now the most noble and pleasant employment for your minds, which is nearest to that which you hope to be exercised in for ever? Undoubtedly he that hath true and serious thoughts of heaven, will most highly value that life on earth which is most like to the life in heaven : And he that hateth, or is most averse to that which is nearest to the work of heaven, does boast in vain of his hopes of heaven.

By this time you may see (if you love not to be blind) that man's chiefest business in the world is with his God, and that our thoughts, and all our powers, are made to be employed upon him, or for him; and that this is no such needless work as atheists make themselves believe.

Remember that it is the description of the desperately wicked, (Psal. x.iv,) that *' God is not in all their thoughts." And if yet you understand it not, I will a little further shew you the evil of such atheistical, unhallowed thoughts. 1. There is nothing but darkness in all thy thoughts, if God be not in them. Thou knowest nothing, if thou knowest not him; and thou usest not thy knowledge, if thou use it not on him. To know the creature as without God, is to know nothing: no more than to know all the letters in the book, and not to know their signification or sense. All things in the world are but insignificant ciphers, and of no other sense or use, if you separate them from God, who is their sense and end. If you leave out God in all your studies, you do but dream and doat,and not understand what you seem to understand. Though you were taken for the most learned men in the world, and were able to discourse of all the sciences, and your thoughts had no lower employment daily than the most sublime speculations which the nature of all the creatures doth afford, it is all but folly and impertinent dotage, if it reach not unto God. 2. Yea, your thoughts are erroneous and false, which is more than barely ignorant, if God be not in them. You have false thoughts of the world, of your houses and lands, and friends and pleasures, and whatsoever is the daily employment of your minds. You take them to be something, when they are nothing; you are covetous of the empty purse, and know not that you cast away the treasure; You

are thirsty after the empty cup, when you wilfully cast away the drink. You hungrily seek to feed upon a painted feast: You murder the creature by separating it from God who is its life, and then you are enamoured on the carcase; and spend your days and thoughts in its cold embracements. Your thoughts are but vagabonds, straggling abroad the world, and following impertinencies, if God be not in them. You are like men that walk up and down in their sleep, or like those that have lost themselves in the dark, who weary themselves in going they know not whither, and have no end nor certain way.

3. If God be not in all your thoughts, they are all in vain. They are like the drone that gathereth no honey: They fly abroad and return home empty : They bring home no matter of honour to God, or profit or comfort to yourselves : They are employed to no more purpose than in your dreams: only they are more capable of sin: like the distracted thoughts of one that doteth in a fever, they are all but nonsense, whatever you employ them on, while you leave out God, who is the sense of all.

4. If God be not in all your thoughts, they are nothing but confusion: There can be no just unity in them, because they forsake him who is the only centre, and are scattered abroad upon incoherent creatures. There can be no true unity but in God : The further we go from him, the further we run into divisions and confusions. There can be no just method in them, because he is left out that is the beginning and the end. They are not like a well-ordered army, where every one is moved by the will of one commander, and all know their colours and their ranks, and unanimously agree to do their work: But like a swarm of flies, that buzz about they know not whither, nor why, nor for what. There is no true government in your thoughts, if God be not in them; they are masterless and vagrants, and have no true order, if they be not ordered by him and to him ; if he be not their first and last.

5. If God be not in all your thoughts, there is no life in them : they are but like the motion of a bubble, or a feather in the air: they are impotent as to the resisting of any evil, and as to the doing of any saving good: they have no strength in them, because they are laid out upon objects that have no strength: they have no quickening, renewing,

reforming, encouraging, resolving, confirming power in them, because there is no such power in the things on which they are employed: whereas the thoughts of God and everlasting life, can do wonders upon the soul: they can raise up men above this world, and teach them to despise the worldling's idol, and look upon all the pleasures of the flesh as upon a swine's delight in wallowing in the mire. They can renew the soul, and cast out the most powerful beloved sin, and bring all our powers into the obedience of God, and that with pleasure and delight: they can employ us with the angels, in a heavenly conversation, and shew us the glory of the world above, and advance us above the life of the greatest princes upon earth: but the thoughts of earthly, fleshly things have power indeed to delude men, and mislead them, and hurry them about in a vertiginous motion; but no power to support us, or subdue concupiscence, or heal our folly, or save us from temptations, or reduce us from our errors, or help us to be useful in the world, or to attain felicity at last. There is no life, nor power, nor efficacy in our thoughts, if God be not in them.

6. There is no stability or fixedness in our thoughts if God be not in them. They are like a boat upon the ocean, tossed up and down with winds and waves: the mutable uncertain creatures can yield no rest or settlement to your minds. You are troubled about many things ; and the more you think on them, and have to do with them, the more are you troubled : but you forget the one thing necessary, and fly from the eternal rock, on which you must build, if ever you will be established. While the creature is in your thought instead of God, you will be one day deluded with its unwholesome pleasure, and the next day feel it gripe you at the heart: one day it will seem your happiness, and the next you will wish you had never known it: that which seemeth the only comfort of your lives this year, may the next year make you weary of your lives. One day you are impatiently desiring and seeking it, as if you could not live without it: and the next day, or ere long you are impatiently desiring to be rid of it. You are now taking in your pleasant morsels, and drinking down your delicious draughts, and jovially sporting it with your incon-

VOL. XJII. p

"210 THE DIVINE LIFE.

, siderate companions; but how quickly will you be repenting of all this, and complaining of your folly, and vexing yourselves, that you took not warning, and made not a wiser choice in time? The creature was never made to be our end, or rest, or happiness: and therefore you are but like a man in a wilderness or maze, that may go and go, but knoweth not whither, and findeth no end, till you come home to God, who only is your proper end, and make him the Lord, and life, and pleasure of your thoughts.

7. As there is no present fixedness in your thoughts, so the business and pleasure of them will be of very short continuance, if God be not the chief in all. And who would choose to employ his thoughts on such things as he is sure they must soon forget, and never more have any business with to all eternity ? You shall think of those houses, and lands, and friends, and pleasures, but a little while, unless it be with repenting, tormenting thoughts, in the place of misery: you will have no delight to think of any thing, which is now most precious to your flesh, when once the flesh itself decays, and is no more capable of delight. " His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth ; in that very day his thoughts perish." (Psal. cxlvi. 4.)

Call in your thoughts then from these transitory things, that have no consistency or continuance, and turn them unto him with whom they may find everlasting employment and delight: Remember not the enticing baits of sensuality and pride, but " Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them."

8. Thy thoughts are but sordid, dishonourable and low, if God be not the chiefest in them. They reach no higher than the habitation of beasts ; nor do they attain to any sweeter employment than to meditate on the felicity of a brute. Thou choosest with the fly to feed on dung and filthy ulcers, and as maggots to live on stinking carrion, when thou mightest have free access to God himself, and mightest be entertained in the court of heaven, and welcomed thither by the holy angels. Thou wallowest in the mire with the swine, or diggest thyself a house in the earth, as worms and moles do, w^hen thy thoughts might be soaring up to God, and might be taken up with high and holy, and everlasting things. What if your thoughts were em'

ployed for preferment, wealth, and honour in the world ? Alas ! what silly things are these, in comparison of what your souls are capable of! You will say so yourselves when you see how they will end, and fail your expectations. Imprison not your minds in this infernal cell, when the superior regions are open to their access : confine them not to this narrow vessel of the body, whose tossings and dangers on these boisterous seas will make them restless, and disquiet them with tumultuous passions, when they may safely land in Paradise, and there converse with Christ. God made you men, and if you reject not his grace, will make your saints: make not yourselves like beasts or vermin, God gave you souls that can step in a moment from earth to heaven, and there foretaste the endless joys : do not you stick then fast in clay, and fetter them with worldly cares, or intoxicate them with fleshly pleasures, nor employ them in the worse than childish toys of ambitious, sensual, worldly men. Your thoughts have manna, angels' food, provided them by God: if you will loathe this and refuse it, and choose with the serpent to feed on the dust, or upon the filth of sin, God shall be judge, and your consciences one day shall be more faithful witnesses, whether you have dealt like wise men or like fools ; like friends or enemies to yourselves ; and whether you have not chosen baseness, and denied yourselves the advancement which was offered you. 9. If God be not the chiefest in your thoughts, they are no better than dishonest and unjust. You are guilty of denying him his own. He made not your minds for lust and pleasure, but for himself: You expect that your cattle, your goods, your servants, be employed for yourselves, because they are your own. But God may call your minds his own by a much fuller title : for you hold all but derivatively and dependently from him. What will you call it but injustice and dishonesty, if your wife, or children, or servants, or goods, be more at the use and service of others, than of you ? If any can shew a better title to your thoughts than God doth, let him have them; but if not, deny him not his own. O straggle not so much from home ; for you will be no where else so well as there. Desire not to follow strangers, you know not whither, nor for what; you have a Master of your own, that will be better to you than all the strangers in the world. Bow not down to creatures, that

are but images of the true and solid good : commit not idolatry or adultery with them in your thoughts : remember still that God stands by: bethink you how he will take it at your hands; and how it will be judged of at last, when he pleads his right, his kindness, and solicitations of you ; and you have so little to say for any pretence of right or merit in the creature. Why are not men ashamed of the greatest dishonesty against God, when all that have any humility left them, do take adultery, theft, and other dishonesty against creatures, for a shame? The time will come when God and his interest shall be better understood, when this dishonesty against him, will be the matter of the most confounding shame, that ever did or could befal men. Prevent this by the juster exercise of your thoughts, and keeping them pure and chaste to God.

10. If God be not in your thoughts (and the chiefest in them) there will be no matter in them of solid comfort or content. Trouble and deceit will be all their work: when they have fled about the earth, and taken a taste of every flower, they will come loaden home with nothing better than vanity and vexation. Such thoughts may excite the laughter of a fool, and cause that mirth that is called madness ; (Eccles. vii. 4. 6 ; ii. 2;) but they will never conduce to settled peace, and durable content: and therefore they are always repented of themselves, and are troublesome to our review, as being the shame of the sinner, which he would fain be cleared of, or disown. Though you may approach the creature with passionate fondness and the most delightful promises and hopes, be sure of it, you will come ofl* at last with grief and disappointment, if not with the loathing of that which you chose for your delight. Your thoughts are in a wilderness among thorns and briars, when God is not in them as their guide and end: they are lost and torn among the creatures; but rest and satisfaction they will find none. It may be at the present it is pleasanter to you to think of recreation, or business, or worldly wealth, than to think of God; but the pleasure of these thoughts is as delusory, and short-lived, as are the things themselves on which you think. How long will you think with pleasure on such fading transitory things ? And the pleasure cannot be greater at the present, which reacheth but the flesh and fantasy, and which the possessed knoweth will be but short.

Nay, you will shortly find by sad experience, that of all the creatures under heaven, there will none be so bitter to your thoughts, as those which you now find greatest carnal sweetness in. O how bitter will the thought of idolized honour, and abused wealth and greatness be, to a dying or a damned Dives! The thoughts of that alehouse or playhouse where thou hadst thy greatest pleasure, will trouble thee more than the thoughts of all the houses in the town besides ! The thoughts of that one woman with whom thou didst commit thy pleasant sin, will wound and vex thee more than the thoughts of all the women in the town besides ! The thoughts of that beloved sport which thou couldst not be weaned from, will be more troublesome to thee th-^n the thouo-hts of a thousand other thing's in which thou hadst no inordinate delight! For the end of sinful mirth is sorrow. When Solomon had tried to please himself to the full, in mirth, in buildings, vineyards, woods, waters, in servants, and possessions, silver, and gold, and cattle, and singers, and instruments of music of all sorts, in greatness, and all that the eye or appetite or heart desired; he findeth when he awaked from this pleasant dream, that he had all this while been taken up with vanity and vexation, in so much that he saith on the review, ** Therefore I hated life, because the work that is wrought under the sun, is grievous to me, for all is vanity and vexation of spirit: Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun." (Eccles. ii. 1—3, &c.; xvii. 18.) You may toil out and tire yourselves among these briars, in this barren wilderness; but if ever you would feel any solid ground of quietness and rest, it must be by coming off from vanity, and seeking your felicity in God, and living sincerely for him and upon him, as the worldling doth upon the world. His pardoning mercy must begin your peace, forgiving you your former thoughts ; and his healing, quickening mercy must increase it, by teaching you better to employ your thoughts, and drawing up your hearts unto himself; and his glorifying mercy must perfect it, by giving you the full intuition and fruition of himself in heaven, and employing you in his perfect love and praise, not leaving any room for creatures, nor suffering a thought to be employed on vanity for ever.

CHAP. IV.

By this time I hope you may see reason to call yourselves to a strict account, what converse you have been taken up with in the world, and upon what you have exercised your thoughts. Surely you must needs be conscious, that the thoughts which have been denied God, have brought you home but little satisfaction, and have not answered the ends of your creation, redemption or preservation ! and that they are now much fitter matter for your penitential tears, than your comfort, in the review! I do not think you dare own, and stand to those thoughts which have been spent for fleshly pleasures, or in unnecessary worldly cares, or that were wasted in impertinent vagaries upon any thing, or nothing, when you should have been seeking God ! I do not think you have now any great pleasure, in the review of those thoughts, which once were taken up with pleasure, when your most pleasant thoughts should have been of God. Dare you approve of your rejecting your Creator, and the great concernments of your soul, out of your thoughts, and wasting them upon things unprofitable and vain ? Did not God and heaven deserve more of your serious thoughts than any thing else that ever they were employed on ? Have you laid them out on any thing that more concerned you? Or on any thing more excellent, more honourable, more durable, or that could claim precedency upon any just account? Did you not shut heaven itself out of your thoughts, when you shut out God ? And is it not just that God and heaven should shut out you? If heaven be not the principal matter of your thoughts, it is plain that you do not principally love it: and if so, judge you whether those that love it not are fit to be made possessors of it.

O poor distracted senseless world! Is not God great enough to command and take up your chiefest thoughts ? Is not heaven enough to find them work, and afford them satisfaction and delight? And yet is the dung and dotage of the world enough ? Is your honour, and wealth, and fleshly delights, and sports enough ? God will shortly make you know, whether this were wise and equal dealing! Is God so low, so little, so undeserving, to be so oft and easily forgotten, and so hardly, and so slightly remembered ? I tell you, ere long he will make you think oli

him to your sorrow, whether you will or no, if grace do not now set open your hearts, and procure him better entertainment.

But perhaps you will think that you walk with God, because you think of him sometimes ineffectually, and as on , the by. But is he esteemed as your God, if he have not the command, and if he have not the precedency of his creatures? Can you dream that indeed you walk with God, when your hearts were never grieved for offending him, nor never much solicitous how to be reconciled to him; nor much inquisitive whether your state or way be pleasing or displeasing to him? When all the business of an unspeakable importance, which you have to do with God, before you pass to judgment, is forgotten and undone, as if you knew not of any such work that you had to do ! When you make no serious preparation for death, when you call not upon God in secret, or in your families, unless with a little heartless lip labour ; and when you love not the spirituality of his worship, but only delude your souls with the mockage of hypocritical outside compliment. Do you walk with God while you are plotting for preferment, and gaping after worldly greatness; while you are gratifying all the desires of your flesh, and making provision for the future satisfaction of its lusts ? (Rom. xiii. 13.) Are you walking with God when you are hating him in his holiness, his justice, his word and ways, and hating all that seriously love and seek him ; when you are doing your worst to dispatch the work of your damnation, and put your salvation past all hope, and draw as many to hell with you as you can ? If this be a walking with God, you may take further comfort that you shall also dwell with God, according to the sense of such a walk : you shall dwell with him as a devouring fire, and as just, whom you thus walked with in the contempt of his mercies, and the provocation of his justice.

I tell you, if you walked with God indeed, his authority would rule you, his greatness would much take up your minds, and leave less room for little things ; you would trust his promises, and fear his threatenings, and be awed by his presence, and the idols of your hearts would fall before him : he would overpower your lusts, and call you off from your ambitious and covetous designs, and obscure all the creature's glory. Believing, serious, effectual thoughts

of God, are very much different from the common, doubtful, dreaming, ineffectual thoughts of the ungodly world.

Object. But (perhaps some will say), * This seemeth to be the work of preachers, and not of every Christian to be always meditating of God : poor people must think of other matters: they have their business to do, and their families to provide for: and ignorant people are weak-headed, and are not able either to manage or endure a contemplative life : So much thinking of God will make them melancholy and mad, as experience tells us it hath done by many: and therefore this is no exercise for them.'

To this I answer, 1. Every Christian hath a God to serve, and a soul to save, and a Christ to believe in and obey, and an endless happiness to secure and enjoy, as well as preachers. Pastors must study to instruct their flock, and to save themselves, and those that hear them. The people must study to understand and receive the mercy offered them, and to make their calling and election sure. It is not said of pastors only, but of every blessed man, that "his delight is in the law of the Lord, and therein doth he meditate day and night." (Psal. i. 2.) 2. And the due meditation of the soul upon God, is so far from taking you off from your ne-- cessary business in the world, that it is the only way to your orderly and successful management of it. 3. And it is not a distracting thoughtfulness that I persuade you to, or which is included in a Christian's walk with God ; but it is a directing, quickening, exalting, comforting course of meditation. Many a hundred have grown melancholy and mad with careful, discontented thoughts of the world ; it doth not follow therefore that no man must think of the world at all, for fear of being mad or melancholy ; but only that they should think of it more regularly, and correct the error of their thoughts and passions. So is it about God and heavenly things. Our thoughts are to be well ordered, and the error of them cured, and not the use of them forborne. Atheism and impiety, and forgetting God, are unhappy means to prevent melancholy. There are wiser means for avoiding madness, than by renouncing all our reason, and living by sense, like the beasts that perish, and forgetting that we have an everlasting life to live.

But yet because I am sensible that some do here mistake on the other hand, and I would not lead you into any ex-

treme, I shall fully remove the scruple contained in this objection, by shewing you in the following propositions, in what sense, and how far your thoughts must be taken up with God (supposing what was said in the beginning, where I described to you the duty of walking with God).

Prop. 1. When we tell you that your thoughts must be on God, it is not a course of idle musing, or mere thinking, that we call you to, but it is a necessary practical thinking of that which you have to do, and of him that you must love, obey and enjoy. You will not forget your parents, or husband, or wife, or friend ; and yet you will not spend your time in sitting still and thinking of them, with a musing unprofitable thoughtfulness : But you will have such thoughts of them, and so many as are necessary to the ends, even to the love and service which you owe them, and to the delight that your hearts should have in the fruition of them. You cannot love, or obey, or take pleasure in those that you will not think of: You will follow your trades, or your master's service but unhappily, if you will not think on them. Thinking is not the work that we must take up with : it is but a subservient, instrumental duty, to promote some greater, higher duty: therefore we must think of God, that we may love him, and do his service, and trust him, and fear, and hope in him, and make him our delight. And all this is it that we call you to, when we are persuading you to think on God.

2. An hypocrite, or a wicked enemy of God, may think of him speculatively, and perhaps be more frequent in such ^ thoughts than many practical believers. A learned man may study about God, as he doth about other matters, and names, and notions ; and propositions and decisions concerning God, may be a principal part of his learning. A preacher may study about God, and the matters of God, as a physician or a lawyer does about matters of their own profession, either for the pleasure which knowledge, as knowledge, brings to human nature, or for the credit of being esteemed wise and learned, or because their gain and maintenance comes in this way. They that fill many volumes with controversies concerning God, and fill the church with contentions and troubles by them, and their own heart with malice and uncharitableness against those that are not of their opinions, have many and many a thought of God, which

yet will do nothing to the saving of their souls, no more than they do to the sanctifying of them. And such learned men may think more orthodoxly and methodically concerning God, than many an honest, serious Christian, who yet thinks of him more effectually and savingly : even as they can discourse more orderly and copiously of God, when yet they have no saving knowledge of him.

3. All men must not bestow so much time in meditation as some must do: [t is the calling of ministers to study so as to furnish their minds with all those truths concerning God, which are needful to the edification of the church; and so to meditate on these things as to give themselves wholly to them. (1 Tim. iv. 15, 16.) It is both the work of their common and their special calling. The study necessary to Christians as such, belongeth as well to others as to them: but other men have another special or particular calling, which also they must think of, so far as the nature and ends of their daily labours do require. It is a hurtful error to imagine that men must either lay by their callings to meditate on God, or that they must do them negligently, or to be taken up in the midst of their employments with such studies of God as ministers are, that are separated to that work.

4. No man is bound to be continually taken up with actual, distinct thoughts of God: for in duty we have many other things to think on, which must have their time : and as we have callings to follow, and must eat our bread in the sweat of our brows, so we must manage them with prudence : " A good man will guide his affairs with discretion." (Psal. cxii. 5.) It is both necessary as a duty, and necessary as a means to the preservation of our very faculties, that both body and mind have their times of employment about our lawful business in the world: The understandings of many cannot bear it, to be always employed on the greatest and most serious things: Like lutestrings they will break, if they be raised too high, and be not let down and relaxed, when the lesson is played. To think of nothing else but God, is to break the law of God, and to confound the mind, and to disable it to think aright of God, or any thing. As he that bid us pray continually, did not mean that we should do nothing else, or that actual prayer should have no interruptions, but that habitual desires should on all meet occa-

sions be actuated and expressed ; so he that would be chief in all their thoughts, did never mean that we should have no thoughts of any thing else, or that our serious meditation on him should be continual without interruption ; but that the final intending of God, and our dependence on him, should be so constant as to be the spring or mover of the rest of the thoughts and actions of our lives.

5. An habitual, intending God as our end, and depending on his support, and subjection to his government, will carry on the soul in a sincere and constant course of godliness, though the actual most observed thoughts of the soul, be fewer in number about God, than about the means that lead unto him, and the occurrences in our way. The soul of man is very active and comprehensive, and can think of several things at once ; and when it is once clear and resolved in any case, it can act according to that knowledge and resolution, without any present sensible thought; nay while its actual, most observed thoughts, are upon something else. A musician that hath an habitual skill, can keep time and tune while he is thinking of some other matter. A weaver can cast his shuttle right, and work truly, while he is thinking or talking of other things. A man can eat and drink with discretion, while he talks of other things. Some men can dictate to two or three scribes at once, upon divers subjects. A traveller can keep on his way, though he seldom think distinctly of his journey's end, but be thinking or discoursing most of the way, upon other matters: for before he undertook his journey he thought both of the end and way, and resolved then which way to go, and that he would go through all both fair and foul, and not turn back till he saw the place. And this habitual understanding and resolution, may be secretly and unobservedly active, so as to keep a man from erring, and from turning back, though at the same time the traveller's most sensible thoughts and his discourse may be upon something else. When a man is once resolved of his end, and hath laid his design, he is past deliberating of that, and therefore hath less use of his thoughts about it; but is readier to lay them out upon the means, which may be still uncertain, or may require his frequent deliberation. We have usually more thoughts and speeches by the, way, about our compt^ny, or our horses, or

THE DIVINE LIFE.

inns, or other accommodations, or the fairness, or foulness of the way, or other such occurrences, than we have about the place we are going to : and yet this secret intention of our end, will bring us thither. So when a soul hath cast up his accounts, and hath renounced a worldly, sensual felicity, and hath fixed his hopes and resolution upon heaven, and is resolved to cast himself upon Christ, and take God for his only portion, this secret, habitual resolution will do much to keep him constant in the way, though, his thoughts and talk be frequently on other things : yea, when we are thinking of the creature, and feel no actual thoughts of God, it is yet God more than the creature that we think of: for we did beforehand look on the creature as God*s work, representing him unto the world, and as his talents, which we must employ for him, and as every creature is related to him: And this estimation of the creature is still habitually (and in some secret less-perceived act) most prevalent in the soul. Though I am not always sensibly thinking of the king, when I use his coin, or obey his laws, &c. yet it is only as his coin still that I use it, and as his laws that I obey them. Weak habits cannot do their work without great carefulness of thoughts; but perfect habits will act a man with little thoughtfulness, as coming near the natural way of operation. And indeed the imperfection of our habitual godliness doth make our serious thoughts, and vigilancy, and industry to be the more necessary to us.

6. There are some thoughts of God that are necessary to the very being of a holy state; as that God be so much in our thoughts, as to be preferred before all things else, and principally beloved and obeyed ; and to the end of our lives, and the bias of our wills. And there are some thoughts of God that are necessary only to the acting and increase of grace.

7. So great is the weakness of our habits, so many and great are the temptations to be overcome, so many difficulties are in our way, and the occasions so various for the exercise of each grace, that it behoveth a Christian to exercise as much thoughtfulness about his end and work, as hath any tendency to promote his work, and to attain his end; but such a thoughtfulness as hindereth us in our work, by stopping, or distracting, or diverting us, is no way pleasing unto

God. So excellent is our end, that we can never encourage and delight the mind too much in the forethoughts of it. So^ sluggish are our hearts, and so loose and unconstant are our apprehensions and resolutions, that we have need to be most frequently quickening them, and lifting at them, and renewing our desires, and suppressing the contrary desires, by the serious thoughts of God and immortality. Our thoughts are the bellows that must kindle the flames of love, desire, hope and zeal. Our thoughts are the spur that must put on a slugglish, tired heart. And so far as they conduce to any such works and ends as these, they are desirable and good. But what master loveth to see his servant sit down and think when he should be at work? Or to use his thoughts only to grieve and vex himself for his faults, but not to mend them. To sit down lamenting that he is so bad and unprofitable a servant, when he should be up and doing his master's business as well as he is able? Such thoughts as hinder us from duty, or discourage, or unfit us for it, are real sins, however they may go under a better name-

8. The godly themselves are very much wanting in the holiness of their thoughts, and the liveliness of their affections. Sense leadeth away the thoughts too easily after these present sensible things ; while faith being infirm, the thoughts of God and heaven are much disadvantaged by their invisibility. Many a gracious soul cryeth out, O that I could think as easily, and as affectionately, and as un-weariedly about the Lord, and the life to come, as I can do about my friends, my health,'my habitation, my business, and other concernments of this life! But, alas, such thoughts of God and heaven, have far more enemies and resistance, than the thoughts of earthly matters have.

9. It is not distracting, vexatious thoughts of God, that the Holy Scriptures call us to; but it is to such thoughts as tend to the healing, and peace, and felicity of the soul; and therefore it is not a melancholy, but a joyful life. If God be better than the world, it must needs be better to think of him. If he be more beloved than any friend, the thoughts of him should be sweeter to us. If he be the everlasting hope and happiness of the soul, it should be a foretaste of happiness to find him nearest to our hearts. The nature and use of holy thoughts, and of all religion, is but to exalt and

sanctify and delight the soul, and bring it up to everlasting rest: And is this the way to melancholy or madness? Or is it not more likely to make men melancholy, to think of nothing but a vain, deceitful and vexatious world, that hath much to disquiet us, but nothing to satisfy us, and can give the soul no hopes of any durable delight?

10. Yet as God is not equally related unto all, so is he not the same to all men's thoughts. If a wicked enemy of God and godliness, be forced and frightened into some thoughts of God, you cannot expect that they should be as sweet and comfortable thoughts, as those of his most obedient children are. While a man is under the guilt and power of his reigning sin, and under the wrath and curse of God, unpardoned, unjustified, a child of the devil, it is not this man's duty to think of God, as if he were fully reconciled to him, and took pleasure in him as in his own. Nor is it any wonder if such a man think of God with fear, and think of his sin with grief and shame. Nor is it any wonder the justified themselves do think of God with fear and grief, when they have provoked him by some sinful and unkind behaviour, or are cast into doubts of their sincerity and interest in Christ, and when he hides his face or assaulteth them with his terrors. To doubt whether a man shall live for ever in heaven or hell, may rationally trouble the thoughts of the wisest man in the world; and it were but sottishness not to be troubled at it: David himself could say, " In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted: I remembered God and was troubled : I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed : thou boldest mine eyes waking: I

am so troubled that I cannot speak. Will the Lord cast

off for ever? " (Psal. Ixxvii. 2—5. 7.)

Yet all the sorrowful thoughts of God, which are the duty either of the godly or the wicked, are but necessary preparatives of their joy. It is not to melancholy, distraction or despair, that God calleth anj^ even the worst: but it is that the wicked would " Seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near; that he would forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, and he will abundantly pardon.'* (Isa. Iv. 6, 7.)

WALKING WITH GOD. '223

Despair is sin; and the thoughts that tend to it are sinful thoughts, even in the wicked. If worldly crosses, or the sense of danger to the soul had cast any into melancholy, or overwhelmed them with fears, you can name nothing in the world that in reason should be so powerful a remedy to recover them, as the thoughts of God, his goodness, and mercy, and readiness to receive and pardon those that turn unto him, his covenant, and promises, and grace, through Christ, and the everlasting happiness which all may have that will accept and seek it in the time of grace, and prefer it before the deceitful transitory pleasures of the world. If the thoughts of God, and of the heavenly, everlasting joys will not comfort the soul, and cure a sad, despairing mind, I know not what can rationally do it. Though yet it is true, that a presumptuous sinner must needs be in a trembling state, till he find himself at peace with God : and mistaken Christians, that are cast into causeless doubts and fears, by the malice of Satan, are unlikely to walk comfortably with God, till they are resolved and recovered from their mistakes and fears.

CHAP. V.

Object, But it may be the objector will be ready to think, that ' If it be indeed our duty to walk with God, yet thoughts are no considerable part of it. What more uncertain or mutable than our thoughts ? It is deeds and not thoughts that God regardeth. To do no harm to any, but to do good to all, this is indeed to walk with God. You set a man upon a troublesome and impossible work, while you set him upon so strict a guard, and so much exercise of his thoughts. What cares the Almighty for my thoughts?'

Answ, 1. If God knows better than you, and be to be believed, then thoughts are not so inconsiderable as you suppose. Doth he not say, that " the thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord V (Prov. xv. 26.) It is the work of the Gospel by its power, to *' pull down strong holds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalt-eth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity*every thought to the obedience of Christ." (2 Cor. X. 4, 5.) The unrighteous man's forsaking his thoughts, is part of his necessary conversion. (Isa. Iv. 7.) It was the description of the deplorate state of the old world, " God

saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart, was only evil continually ; and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." (Gen. vi. 5.) Judge by this, whether thoughts be so little regarded by God, as you imagine. David saith of himself, " I hate vain thoughts." (Psal. cxix. 113.) Solomon saith, •' The thoughts of the righteous are right." (Prov. xii. 5.) Paul saith that, ** Charity thinketh not evil." (1 Cor. xiii. 5.)

2. Thoughts are the issue of a rational soul. And if its operations be contemptible, its essence is contemptible : If its essence be noble, its operations are considerable. If the soul be more excellent than the body, its operations must be more excellent. To neglect our thoughts and not employ them upon God, and for God, is to vilifie our noblest faculties, and deny God, who is a Spirit, that spiritual service which he requireth.

3. Our thoughts are commonly our most cordial, voluntary acts, and shew the temper and inclination of the heart: and therefore are regardable to God that searcheth the heart, and calleth first for the service of the heart.

4. Our thoughts are radical and instrumental acts : such as they are, such are the actions of our lives. Christ telleth us that " out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, which defile the man." (Matt. xv. 19, 20.)

5. Our thoughts are under a law, as well as words and deeds. " The thought of foolishness is sin." (Prov. xxiv. 9.) And Matt. v. 28, &c. Christ extendeth the law even to the thoughts and desires of the heart. And under the law it is said, '* Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart," &c., (Deut. xv. 9,) viz. of unmercifulness towards thy brother.

6. Thoughts can reach higher much than sense, and may be employed upon the most excellent and invisible objects; and therefore are fit instruments to elevate the soul that would converse with God. Though God be infinitely above us, our thoughts may be excercised on him: Our persons never were in heaven, and yet our conversation must be in heaven. (Phil. iii. 20.) And how is that but by our thoughts ? Though we see not Christ, yet by the the exercise of believing thoughts on him, we love him, and rejoice with joy unspeak-

I

WALKING WITH GOD. '22S

able and full of glory. Though God be invisible, yet our •* meditations of him may be sweet, and we may delight in the Lord." (Psal. civ. 34.) Say not that all this is but fantastical and delusory, as long as thoughts of things unseen are fitter to actuate and elevate the love, desires and delights of the soul, and to move and guide us in a regular and holy life, than the sense of lesser present good. The thoughts are not vain or delusory, unless the object of them be false and vain,and delusory. Where the object is great, and sure, and excellent, the thoughts of such things are excellent operations of the soul. If the thoughts of vain-glory, wealth and pleasure, can delight the ambitious, covetous and sensual ; no wonder if the thoughts of God and life eternal, afford us solid, high delights.

7. The thoughts are not so liable to be counterfeit and hypocritical as are the words and outward deeds : and therefore they shew more what the man is, and what is in his heart. For as Solomon saith, " As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." (Prov. xxiii. 7.)

8. Our thoughts may exercise the highest graces of God in man; and also shew those graces, as being their effects. How is our faith, and love, and desire, and trust, and joy, and hope to be exercised but by our thoughts ? If grace were not necessary and excellent, it would not be wrought by the Spirit of God, and called the Divine Nature, and the Image of God. And if grace be excellent, the use and exercise of it is excellent: and therefore our thoughts by which it is exercised must needs have their excellency too.

9. Our thoughts must be the instruments of our improving all holy truth in Scripture, and all the mercies which we receive, and all the afflictions which we undergo. What good will reading a chapter in the Bible do to any one that never thinketh on it? *' Our delight in the law of God," must engage us to " meditate in it day and night." (Psal. i. 2.) What good shall he get by hearing a sermon that exer-<iiseth not his thoughts for the receiving and digesting it? Our considering what is said, is the way in which we may expect that God should give us " understanding in all things." (2 Tim. ii. 7.) What the better will he be for any of the merciful providences of God, who never bethinks him whence they come, or what is the use and end that they are

VOL. XIII. Q

S26 THE DIVINE LIFE. ^

given for ? What good will he get by any afflictions, that never bethinks him, who it is that chastiseth him, and for what, and how he must get them removed, and sanctified to his good. A man is but like one of the pillars in the church, or like the corpse which he treadeth on, or at best but like the dog that foUoweth him thither for company, if he use not his thoughts about the work which he hath in hand, and cannot say, as Psal. xlviii. 9, ** We have thought of thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple." He that biddeth you hear, doth also bid you " Take heed how you hear." (Luke viii. 18.) And you are commanded to " lay up the word in your heart and soul." (Deut. xi. 18,19.) And to set your hearts to all the words which are testified among you: for it is not a vain thing for you, because it is your life.

10. Our thoughts are so considerable a part of God's service, that they are oft put for the whole. " A book of remembrance was written for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name." (Mai. iii. 16.) Our believing and loving God, and trusting in him, and desiring him and his grace, are the principal parts of his service, which are exercised immediately by our thoughts : and in praise and prayer it is this inward part that is the soul and life of all. He is a foolish hypocrite that thinks '* to be heard for his much speaking." <Matt. vi. 7.)

And on the contrary, the thoughts are named as the sum of all iniquity. " Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity." (Isa. Ixix. 7.) "I have spread out my hands all the day long unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts." (Isa. Ixv. 2.) *' O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved : how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee ! (Jer. iv. 14.) " The fool hath said in his heart there is no God." (Psal. xiv. 1.)

11. A man's thoughts are the appointed orderly way for the conversion of a sinner, and the preventing of his sin and misery. David saith, " I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies." (Psal. cxix. 59.) The prodigal " came to himself," and returned to his father, by the success of his own consideration. (Luke xv. 17,18.) "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider your ways," (Hag, i. 5,)

is a voice that every sinner should hear. ** It is he that considereth and doth not according to his father's sins, that shall not die." (Ezek. xviii. 14.) Therefore it is God's desire, " O that they were wise and understood this, and that they would consider their latter end." (Deut. xxxii. 29.) It is either men's inconsiderateness, or the error of their thoughts, that is the cause of all their wickedness. " My people doth not consider." (Isa. i. 3.) Paul " verily thought that he ought to do many things against the name of Jesus." (Acts xxvi. 9.) Many *' deceive themselves by thinking themselves something when they are nothing." (Gal. vi. 3.) ** They think it strange that we run not with them to excess of riot:" and therefore ** they speak evil of us." (1 Pet. iv. 4.) Disobedient formalists "consider not that they do evil," when they think that they are offering acceptable sacrifices to God. (Eccles. v. 1, 2.) The very murder of God's holy ones hath proceeded from these erroneous thoughts; " They that kill you shall think they do God service." (John xvi. 2.) All the ambition, and covetousness, and injustice and cruelty following thereupon, which trou-bleth the world, and ruineth men's souls, is from their erroneous thoughts, overvaluing these deceitful things. " Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations." (Psal. xlix. 11.) The presumptuous and impenitent are surprised by destruction, for want of thinking of it to prevent it: "In such an hour as you think not, the Son of man cometh."

12. Lastly, The thoughts are the most constant actions of a man, and therefore most of the man is in them. We are not always reading, or hearing, or praying, or working: but we are always thinking. And therefore it doth especially concern us to see that this constant breath of the soul be sweet, and that this constant stream be pure and run in the right channel. Well therefore did David make this his request; ** Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psal. cxxxix. 23, 24.) I say therefore to those that insist on this irrational objection, that these very thoughts of theirs, concerning the inconsiderableness of thoughts, are so foolish and ungodly, that when they understand the evil even of these, they will know that thoughts were more to

I

be regarded. " If therefore thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thy hand upon thy mouth."

And though after all this, I still confess that it is so exceeding hard a matter to keep the thoughts in holy exercise and order, that even the best do daily and hourly sin, in the omissions, the disorder or vanity of their thoughts; yet for all that, we must needs conclude that the inclination and design of our thoughts must be principally for God, and that the thoughts are principal instruments of the soul, in acting it in his service, and moving it tow^ards him, and in all this holy work of our walking with God : and therefore to imagine that thoughts are inconsiderable and of little use, is to unman us, and unchristen us. The labour of the mind is necessary for the attaining the felicity of the mind ; as the labour of the body is necessary for the things that belong unto the body. As bodily idleness bringeth unto beggary, when the diligent hand makes rich; so the idleness of the soul doth impoverish the soul, when the laborious Christian liveth plentifully and comfortably through the blessing of God upon his industry and labour. You cannot expect that God should appear to you in a bodily shape, that you may have immediate converse with him in the body. The corporal eating of him in transubstantiated bread, supposed common to men, and mice, or dogs, we leave to Papists, who have made themselves a singular new religion, in despite of the common sense and reason of mankind, as well as of the Scriptures and the judgment of the church. It is in the Spirit that thou must converse with God who is a Spirit. The mind seeth him by faith, who is invisible to the bodily eyes. Nay, if you will have a true and saving knowledge of God, you must not liken him to any thing that is visible, nor have any corporal conceivings of him. Earthly things may be the glass in which we may behold him, while we are here in the flesh ; but our conceivings of him must be spiritual, and minds that are immersed in flesh and earth, are unmeet to hold communion with him. The natural man knoweth him not, and the " carnal mind is enmity to him, and they that are in the flesh cannot please him." (Rom. viii.) It is the pure, abstracted, elevated soul, that understandeth by experience what it is to walk with God.

CHAP. VI.

§ 1. Having in the foregoing uses, reproved the atheism and contempt of God, which ungodly men are continually guilty of, and endeavoured to convince them of the necessity and desirableness of walking with God, and in particular of improving our thoughts for holy converse with him, and answered the objections of the impious and atheists; I shall next endeavour to cure the remnants of this disease in those that are sincerely holy, who live too strangely to God their Father in the world. In the performance of this, I shall first shew you what are the benefits of this holy life, which should make it appear desirable and delightful. 2. I shall shew you why believers should addict themselves to it as doubly obliged, and that their neglect of it is a sin attended with special aggravations. This is the remainder of my task.

§ 2. I. To walk with God in a holy and heavenly coa-versation, is the employment most suitable to human nature, not to its corrupt disposition, nor to the carnal interest and appetite; but to nature as nature, to man as man. It is the very work that he was made for: the faculties and frame of the soul and body were composed for it by the wise Creator : they are restored for it by the gracious Redeemer. Though in corrupted nature, where sensuality is predominant, there is an estrangedness from God, and an enmity and hatred of him, so that the wicked are more averse to all serious, holy converse with him (in prayer, contemplation, and a heavenly life) than they are to a worldly sinful life ; yet all this is but the disease of nature, corrupting its appetite, and turning it against that proper food, which is most suitable to its sound desires, and necessary to its health and happiness. Though sinful habits are become as it were a second nature to the ungodly, so depraving their judgments and desires, that they verily think the business and pleasures of the flesh are most suitable to them; yet these are as contrary to nature as nature, that is, to the primitive tendencies of all our faculties, and the proper use to which they were fitted by our Creator, and to that true felicity which is the end of all our parts and powers, even as madness is contrary to the rational nature, though it were hereditary.

1. What can be more agreeable to the nature of man.

than to be rational and wise, and to live in the purest exercise of reason ? And certainly there is nothing more rational than that we should live to God, and gladly accept of all that communion with him which our natures on earth are capable of. Nothing can be more reasonable than for the reasonable soul to be entirely addicted to him that did create it, that doth preserve it, and by whom it doth subsist and act. Nothing is more reasonable than that the absolute Lord of nature be honoured and served wholly by his own. Nothing is more reasonable than that the reasonable creature do live in the truest dependance upon, and subordination to the highest reason ; and that derived, imperfect, defectible wisdom, be subservient to, and guided by the primitive, perfect, indefectible wisdom. It is most reasonable that the children depend upon the Father, and the foolish be ruled by the most wise, and that the subjects be governed by the universal King; and that they honour him and obey him, and that the indigent apply themselves to him that is allsufficient, and is most able and ready to supply their wants; and that the impotent rest upon him that is Omnipotent.

2. Nothing can be more reasonable, than that the reasonable nature should intend its end, and seek after its true and chief felicity: and that it should love good as good, and therefore prefer the chiefest good before that which is transitory and insufficient. Reason commandeth the reasonable creature to avoid its own delusion and destruction, and to rest upon him that can everlastingly support us, and not upon the creature that will deceive us and undo us : and to prefer the highest and noblest converse before that which is inferior, unprofitable, and base, and that we rejoice more in the highest, purest, and most durable delights, than in those that are sordid, and of short continuance. And who knoweth not that God is the chiefest good, and true felicity of man, the everlasting rock, the durable delight, and to be preferred before his creatures ? And who might not find, that would use his reason, that all things below are vanity and vexation ?

3. Nothing can be more rational and agreeable to man's nature, than that the superior faculties should govern the inferior, that the brutish part be subject to the rational; and that the ends Tind objects of this higher faculty be pre-

ferred before the objects of the lower; that the objects of sense be made subservient to the objects of reason. If this be not natural and rational, then it is natural to man to be no man, but a beast, and reasonable to be unreasonable. Now it is evident that a holy living unto God, is but the improvement of true reason, and its employment for and upon its noblest object, and its ultimate end: and that a sensualJife is the exercise of the inferior, brutish facultieS| in predominancy above and before the rational: and therefore to question whether God or the creature should be first sought, and loved, and principally desired, and delighted in, and served, is b«t to question whether we should live like men or like beasts, and whether dogs or wise men be the fitter companions for us ? And whether the rider or the horse should have the rule ? Whether the rational or sensitive powers be superior and proper to the nature of a man ?

Object. * But there is a middle state of life betwixt the sensual and the divine or holy life, which sober philosophers did live, and this is the most natural life, and most properly so called/

Answ. I deny this: There is no middle state of life, if you ^denominate the several states of life, from the several ends, or the several powers. I grant that the very sensitive powers in man, especially the imagination, is much advanced by the conjunction of reason, above that of a brute : and I grant that the delights of the phantasy may be preferred before the immediate pleasure of the senses: and I grant that some little distant knowledge of God, and things divine, and hopes of attaining them, may affect an unsanctified man with an answerable pleasure. But all this is nothing to prove that there is a third sort of end, or of powers, and so a third or middle state of life, specifically distinct firom the sensitive and the holy life. Besides, the vegetative man hath no other life or faculties, than the sensitive and the rational: and therefore one of these must be in predominancy or rule. And therefore he can have no middle sort or end; and therefore no middle state of life, that can be said to be agreeable to his nature. Those that seek and take up their chief felicity in riches and plenty, and provisions for the flesh, though not in present pleasing of the sense, do live but the life of sensuality. A fox or dog

takes pleasure when he hath eaten his belly full, to hide and lay up the rest; and so doth the bee to fill the hive, and make provision for the winter. The proud that delight in honour and applause, and making others subject to their lusts, do live but the life of sensuality : a dog, a horse, and other brutes, have something of the same. They that are grave through melancholy, or because they can reach no great matter in the world, and because their old or duller spirits are not much pleased with juvenile delights, and so live retiredly, and seek no higher pleasure or felicity, but only sit down with the weeping or the laughing philosopher, lamenting or deriding the vanity of the world, do yet live no other than a sensual life : as an old dog that hath no pleasure in hunting or playfulness, as he had when he was a whelp. Only he is less deluded, and less vain, than other sensualists that find more pleasure in their course.

All the doubt is concerning those that place their felicity in knowledge, and those that delight in moral virtues, or that delight in studying of God, though they are no Christians.

Answ. The point is weighty, and hath oft unhappily fallen into injudicious hands. 1 shall endeavour to resolve it as truly, clearly, and impartially as I can. 1. It is a great error against the nature of man, to say, that knowledge as such, is fit to be any man's chief and ultimate end. It may be that act which is next the enjoying act of the will, which is it that indeed is next the end, objectively considered : but it is not that act which we call * ultimate ultimus.' And this is plain, 1. Because the object of the understanding, which is truth, is not formally the nearest object or matter of full felicity or delight: it is goodness that is the nearest object. 2. And therefore the ofiioe of the intellect is but introductive and subservient to the office of the will, to apprehend the verity of good, and present it to the will to be prosecuted or embraced, or delighted in. There are many truths that are ungrateful and vexatious, and which men would wish to be no truths. And there is a knowledge which is troublesome, useless, undesirable and tormenting, which even a wise man would fain avoid, if he knew how. Morality is but preparatively in the intellect: and therefore intellectual acts, as such, are not morally good, or evil, but only participatively, as sub-

ject to the will. And therefore knowledge, as such, being not a moral good, can be no other than such a natural good as is * bonum alicui,* only so far as it tendeth to some welfare or happiness, or pleasure of the possessor or some other: and this welfare or pleasure is either that which is suited to the sensitive powers, or to the rational (which is to be found in the love of God alone).

2. I add therefore, that even those men that seem to take up their felicity in common knowledge, indeed do but make their knowledge subservient to something else which they take for their felicity. For knowledge of evil may torment them. It is only to know something which they take to be good, that is their delight. And it is the complacency or love of that good at the heart, which sets them on work, and causeth the delight of knowing. If you will say that common knowledge, as knowledge, doth immediately delight, yet will it be found but such a pleasing of the phantasy, as an ape hath in spying marvels, which if it have no end that is higher, is still but a sensitive delight; but if it be referred to a higher delight (in God) it doth participate of the nature of it. Delight in general is the common end of men and brutes : but in specie they are distinguished as sensual or rational.

3. If you suppose a philosopher to be delighted in studying mathematics, or any of the works of God, either he hath herein an end, or no end beyond the knowledge of the creature: either he terminateth his desires and delights in the creature, or else useth it as a means to raise him to the Creator. If he study and delight in the creature ultimately, this is indeed the act of a rational creature, and an act of reason, as to the faculty it proceeds from (and so is a rational contrivance for sensual ends and pleasures) : but it is but the error of reason, and is no more agreeable to the rational nature, than the deceit, of the senses is to the sensitive. Nor is it finally to be numbered with the operations felicitating human nature, any more than an erroneous dream of pleasure, or than that man is to be numbered with the lovers of learning, who taketh pleasure in the binding, leaves, or letters of the book, while he understandeth nothing of the sense. But if this philosopher seek to know the Creator in and by the creatures, and take delight in the Maker's power, wisdom and goodness, which appeareth in

them, then this is truly a rational delight, in itself considered, and beseeming a man. And if he reach so far in it, as to make God his highest desire and delight, overpowering the desires and delights of sensuality, he shall be happy, as being led by the Son unto the Father: but if he make but some little approaches towards it, and drown all such desires in the sensual desires and delights, he is then but an unhappy sensualist, and liveth brutishly in the tenor of his life, though in some acts in part he operate rationally as a man.

The like I may say of them that are said to place their delight in moral virtues. Indeed, nothing is properly a moral good (or virtue) but that which is exercised upon God as our end, or upon the creature as a means to this end. To study and know mere notions of God, or what is to be held and said of him in discourse, is not to study to know God, no more than to love the language and phrase of holy writing, is to love God. To study God, as one that is less regardable and desirable than our sensual delights, is but to blaspheme him. To study, seek and serve him as one that can promote or hinder our sensual felicity, is but to abuse him as a means to your sensuality. And for the virtues of temperance, justice, or charity, they are but analogically and * secundum quid' to be found in any ungodly person. Materially they may have them in an eminent degree; but not as they are informed by the end which moralizeth them. Jezebel's fast was not formally a virtue, but an odious way of hypocrisy to oppress the innocent. He that doth works of justice and mercy, to evil ends only (as for applause, or to deceive, &.c.) and not from the true principles of justice and mercy, doth not thereby exercise moral virtue, but hypocrisy, and other vice. He that doth works of justice and mercy, out of mere natural compassion to others, and desire of their good, without respect to God, as obliging, or rewarding, or desiring it, doth perform such a natural good work, as a lamb or a gentle beast doth to his fellows, which hath not the true form of moral virtue, but the matter only. He that in such works hath some little by-respect to God, but more to his carnal interest among men, doth that which on the by, participateth of moral good, or is such ' secundum quid,' but not' simpliciter,' being to be denominated from the part predominant. He that doth works of justice

or charity principally to please God, and in true obedience to his will, and a desire to be conformed thereto, doth that which is formally a moral good, and holy, though there may be abhorred mixtures of worse respects.

So that there are but two states of life here : one of those that walk after the flesh, and the other of those that walk after the Spirit. However the flesh hath several materials and ways of pleasure : and even the rational actings that have a carnal end, are carnal finally and morally, though they are acts of reason ; for they are but the errors of reason, and defectiveness of true rationality ; and being but the acts of erroneous reason as captivated by the flesh, and subservient to the carnal interest, they are themselves to be denominated carnal: and so even the reasonable soul as biassed by sensuality, and captivated thereto, is included in the name of ' flesh' in the Scripture.

How much moral good is in that course of piety or obedience to God, which proceedeth only from the fear of God's judgments, without any love to him ; I shall not now discuss, because I have too far digressed already.

All that I have last said, is to shew you the reasonableness of living unto God, as being indeed the proper and just employment of the superior faculties of the soul, and the government of the lower faculties. For if any other, called moralists, do seem to subject the sensual life to the rational, either they do but seem to do so ; the sensual interest being indeed predominant, and their rational operations subjected thereto: or at the best, it is but some poor and erroneous employment of the rational faculties which they exercise, or some weak approaches towards that high and holy life, which is indeed the life which the rational nature was created for, and which is the right improvement of it.

4. Moreover, nothing is more beseeming the nature of man, than to aspire after the highest and noblest improvement of itself; and to live the most excellent life that it is capable of. For every nature tendeth to its own perfection. But it is most evident, that to walk with God in holiness, is a thing that human nature is capable of; and that is the highest life that we are capable of on earth : and therefore it is the life most suitable to our natures.

5. And what can be more rational and beseeming a created nature, than to live to those ends, which our Creator

intended in the very forming of our natures ? It is his ends that are principally to be served. But the very composure of our faculties plainly prove, that his end was that we should be tilted for his service: he gave us no powers or capacity in vain: and therefore to serve him and walk with him, is most suitable to our natures.

Object. ' That is natural which is first, and born with us : but our enmity to holiness is first, and not our holiness.'

Answ. It may be called natural indeed, because it is first, and born with us : and in that respect we confess that sin, and not holiness, is natural to us. But holiness is called natural to us, in a higher respect, because it was the primitive, natural constitution of man, and was before sin, and is the perfection or health of nature, and the right employment and improvement of it, and tends to its happiness. An hereditary leprosy may be called natural, as it is first, and before health in that person : but health and soundness is natural, as being the well-being of nature, when the leprosy is unnatural, as being but its disease, and tending to its destruction.

Object, ' But nature in its first constitution was not holy, but innocent only, and it was by a superadded gift of grace that it became holy, as some schoolmen think, and as others think, Adam had no holiness till his restoration."

Answ. These are Popish improved fancies, and contrary to nature and the word of God. 1. They are no where written, nor have any evidence in nature, and therefore are the groundless dreams of men.

2. The work of our recovery to God is called in Scripture a redemption, renovation, restoration, which imply that nature was once in that holy estate before the fall. And it is expressly said, that the " new man" which we *' put on, is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." (Col. iii. 10.) And after God's image Adam was created.

3. If it belong to the soundness and integrity of nature to be holy, (^that is, disposed and addicted to live to God) then it is rash and foolish for men out of their own imagination, to feign that God first made nature defective, and then mended it by superadded grace. But if it belong not to the soundness and integrity of human nature to be holy, then why did God give him grace to make him so ? Nay, then it would

follow, that when God sanctified Adam, or any since, he made him specifically another thing, another creature, of another nature, and did not only cure the diseases of his nature.

4. It is yet apparent in the very nature of man's faculties, that their very usefulness and tendency, is to live to God, and to enjoy him : and that God should make a nature apt for such a use, and give it no disposedness to its proper use, is an unnatural conceit. We see to this day that it is but an unreasonable abuse of reason, when it is not used holily for God ; and it is a very disease of nature to be otherwise disposed. Therefore primitive nature had such a holy inclination.

5. The contrary opinion tendeth to infidelity, and to brutify human nature. For if no man can believe that he must be holy, and live to God, and enjoy him hereafter in heaven, but he that also believeth that primitive nature was never disposed or qualified for such a life; and that God must first make a man another creature in specie, of another nature (and consequently not a man) this is not only improbable, but so contrary to Scripture and reason, that few considerate persons would believe it. As if we must believe that God would turn brutes into men. God healeth, elevat-eth, and perfecteth nature, but doth not specifically change it, at least in this life.

Object, ' But let it be granted that he giveth no man specifically another nature, yet he may give him such higher gifts, as may be like another nature to him so far.'

Answ, No doubt he may and doth give him such gifts as actuate and perfect nature: but some disposition to our ultimate end is essential to our nature; and therefore to assign man another ultimate end, and to give a disposition to it, of which he had no seed, or part, or principle before, is to make him another creature. I confess that in lapsed man, the holy disposition is so far dead, as that the change maketh a man a new creature in a moral sense (as he is a new man that changeth his mind and manners): but still nature hath its aptitude, as rational, to be employed for its Maker; so that he is not a new creature in a natural sense.

An actual or habitual willingness to his holy employment, a promptitude to it, and a due understanding of it, is the new creature, morally sq called, which is given in our

sanctification : but the natural aptitude that is in our faculties as rational, to this holy life, is essential to us as men, or as rational; even to have the * potentiam naturalem' which must yet have further help or moral life to actuate it. And Adam had both these : the one he retained, or else he had not continued a man; the other he lost, or else he had not had need of renovation.

6. If Adam's nature had not been disposed to God, as to his end and sovereign, then the law of nature (to adhere to God, and obey and serve him) was not written in his heart: and then it would not have been his duty to adhere to God, and to obey and serve him; which is so false, that even in lapsed, unrenewed nature, there is left so much aptitude hereto, as will prove him to be still under the obligations of this law of nature, even actually to adhere to God, and to obey him, which a dead man, a mad man, or an infant, is not (immediately).

By all this you see, that though the blindness and disease of reason, is contrary to faith and holiness, yet reason itself is so much for it, as that faith itself is but the act of elevated well informed reason ; and supernatural revelation is but the means to inform our reason, about things which have not a natural evidence,^ discernable by us. And sanctification (actively taken) is but the healing of our reason and rational appetite : and holiness is but the health or soundness of them. The error of reason must be renounced by believers ; but not the use of reason : the sufficiency of rea son and natural light, without supernatural light and help, we must all deny : but to set reason, as reason, in opposition to faith or holiness, or divine revelation, is as gross a piece of foolery, as to set the visive faculty in opposition to the light of the sun, or to its objects. It is the unreasonableness of sinners that is to be cured by illuminating grace. *• They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge." Their reason is wounded, depraved and corrupted about the matters of God: they have reason to serve the flesh, but not to master it. God doth renew men by giving them wisdom, and bringing them to a sound mind : as logic helpeth reason in discourse and arguing, so theology in-formeth reason about the matters of God and our salvation: and the Spirit of God doth make his doctrine and revelation effectual. Make nature sound, and reason clear, and then

we will donsent that all men be persuaded to live according to their nature and their reason. But if a bedlam will rave and tear himself and others, and say. This is according to my nature or my reason; it is fitter that chains and whips do cure that nature and reason, than that he be allowed to live according to his madness. If a drunkard or whoremonger will say. My nature and reason incline me to please my appetite and lust, it is fit that the swinish nature be corrected, and the beast which rideth and ruleth the man, be taken down; and when indeed his nature is the nature of man, and fitted to the use and ends it was made for, then let him live according to it and spare not. If a malicious man will abuse or kill his neighbour, and say, This is according to my nature, let that nature be used as the nature of wolves and foxes, and other noxious creatures are. But let human nature be cured of its blindness, carnality, and corruption, and then it will need no external testimony to convince it, that no employment is so natural and suitable to man, as to walk with God, in love and confidence, and reverent worship, and cheerful obedience to his will. A worldly, fleshly, sensual life, will then appear to be below the rational nature of a man, as it is below us to go to grass with horses, or to live as mere companions of brutes. It will then appear to be as natural for us to love and live to our Creator and Redeemer, and to walk with God, as for a child to love his parents, and to live with them and serve them. When I say that this is natural, I mean not that it is necessary by natural necessity, or that grace doth operate * per modum naturae,' as their rational motion is so called. There is a brutish or inanimate nature, and there is a rational, voluntary nature. Grace worketh not according to the way of inanimate nature, in free agents. I may well say, that whatever is rational, is natural to a rational creature as such, so far as he discerneth it. Yea, and habits, though they effect not necessarily, but freely in a rational nature, yet they incline necessarily, ' et per modum naturse.' They contain in their being a natural aptitude and propensity to action.

Object. * But thus you confound nature and grace, natural and supernatural operations, while you make grace natural.'

Jmw. No such matter: Though walking with God be

called natural, as it is most agreeable to nature sd far as it is sound, and is the felicity and meetest employment of the rational nature as such: yet, 1. Diseased nature doth abhor it, as a diseased stomach the pleasantest and most wholesome food, (as I said before). 2. And this disease of nature cannot be cured without divine, supernatural grace. So that as to the efficient cause, our holiness is supernatural. But it is unsound doctrine of those that affirm that Adam in his pure, natural state of innocence, had no natural holiness, or aptitude and promptitude to walk with God in order to everlasting happiness; but say that all this was either wanting to him, and was a state specifically distinct, which he fell short of by his sin, or that it was given him by superadded grace, and was not in his entire nature.

And yet we deny not but as to degrees, Adam's nature was to grow up to more perfection: and that his natural holiness contained not a sufficient immediate aptitude and promptitude to every duty which might afterward be required of him ; but this was to be obtained in the exercise of that holiness which he had : even as a vine or other fruit-tree, though it be natural to it to bear its proper fruit, yet hath it not an immediate sufficient aptitude hereto, whilst it is but appearing out of the seed, before it be grown up to just maturity. Or as it is natural to a man to discourse and reason ; but yet his nature in infancy, or untaught and unexercised, hath not a sufficient immediate aptitude and promptitude hereunto. Or as grace inclineth a renewed soul to every holy truth and duty; and yet such a soul in its infancy of grace, hath not a sufficient, immediate aptitude or promptitude to the receiving of every holy truth, or the doing of every holy duty ; but must grow up to it by degrees. But the addition of these degrees, is no specifical alteration of the nature of man, or of that grace which was before received.

Having been so long upon this first consideration (that walking with God is most agreeable to human nature) I shall be more brief in the rest that follow.

II. To walk with God, and live to him, is incomparably the highest and noblest life. To converse with men only, is to converse with worms : whether they be princes or poor men, they differ but as the bigger vermin from the lesser.

If they be wise and good, their converse may be profitable and delightful, because they have a beam of excellency from the face of God : (And O how unspeakable is the distance between his wisdom and goodness, and theirs!) But if they be foolish, ungodly and dishonest, how loathsome is their conversation! What stinking breath is in their profane and filthy language ! in their lives and slanders of the just! in their sottish jears and scorns of those that walk with God! which expose at once their folly and misery to the pity of all that are truly understanding. When they are gravely speaking evil of the things which they understand not, or with a fleering confidence deriding merrily the holy commands and ways of God, they are much more lamentably expressing their infatuation, than any that are kept in chains in bedlam: though indeed, with the most, they escape the reputation which they deserve, because they are attended with persons of their own proportion of wisdom, that always reverence a silken coat, and judge them wise that wear gold lace, and have the greatest satisfaction of their wills and lusts, and are able to do most mischief in the world : and because good man have learned to honour the worst of their superiors, and not to call them as they are. But God is bold to call them as they are, and give them in his word, such names and characters by which they might come to know themselves. And is it not a higher, nobler life to walk with God, than to converse in bedlam, or with intoxicated sensualists, that live in a constant deliration.

Yea, worse than so : ungodly men are " children of the devil," so called by Jesus Christ himself, (John viii. 44,) because they have much of the nature of the devil, and the lusts of their father they will do ; yea, they " are taken captive by him at his will." (2 Tim. ii. 26.) They are " the servants of sin," and do the drudgery that so vile a master sets them on. (John viii. 34.) Certainly as the spirits of the just are so like to angels, that Christ saith, we shall be as they, and equal to them ; so the wicked are nearer kin to devils, than they themselves will easily believe. They are as like him as children to their father. He is a liar, and so are they. He is a hater of God, and godliness, and godly men, and so are they. He is a murderer, and would fain de-

VOL. XIII. K

vour the holy seed; and such are they. He envieth the progress of the Gospel, and the prosperity of the church, and the increase of holiness, and so do they. He hath a special malice against the most powerful and successful preachers of the word of God, and against the most zealous and eminent saints j and so have they. He cares not by what lies and fictions he disgraceth them, nor how cruelly he useth them; no more do they, (or some of them at least). He cherisheth licentiousness, sensuality and impiety; and so do they. If they do seem better in their adversity and restraint, yet try them but with prosperity, and power, and you shall see quickly how like they are to devils. And shall we delight more to converse with brutes and incarnate devils, than with God ? Is it not a more high and excellent conversation to walk with God, and live to him, than to be companions of such degenerate men, that have almost forfeited the reputation of humanity ? Alas ! they are companions so deluded and ignorant, and yet so wilful; so miserable, and yet so confident and secure, that they are, to a believing eye, the most lamentable sight that the whole world can shew us out of hell. And how sad a life must it then needs be, to converse with such, were it not for the hope that we have of furthering their recovery and salvation!

But to walk with God is a word so high, that I should have feared the guilt of arrogance in using it, if I had not found it in the holy Scriptures. It is a word that importeth so high and holy a frame of soul, and expresseth such high and holy actions, that the naming of it striketh my heart with reverence, as if I had heard the voice to Moses, " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standeth is holy ground." (Exod. iii. 5.) Methinks he that shall say to me. Come see a man that walks with God, doth call me to see one that is next unto an angel, or glorified soul! It is a far more reverend object in mine eye, than ten thousand lords or princes, considered only in their fleshly glory. It is a wiser action for people to run and crowd together, to see a man that walks with God, than to see the pompous train of princes, their entertainments, or their triumph. O happy man, that walks with God, though neglected and contemned by all about him! What blessed

sights doth he daily see! What ravishing tidings, what pleasant melody doth he daily hear, unless it be in his swoons or sickness! What delectable food doth he daily taste! He seeth by faith the God, the glory, which the blessed spirits see at hand by nearest intuition ! He seeth that in a glass and darkly, which they behold with open face! He seeth the glorious Majesty of his Creator, the eternal King, the Cause of causes, the Composer, Upholder, Preserver, and Governor of all the worlds! He beholdeth the wonderful methods of his providence: and what he cannot reach to see, he admireth, and waiteth for the time when that also shall be open to his view! He seeth by faith the world of spirits, the hosts that attend the throne of God; their perfect righteousness, their full devotedness to God; their ardent love, their flaming zeal, their ready and cheerful obedience, their dignity and shining glory, in which the lowest of them exceedeth that which the disciples saw on Moses and Elias when they appeared on the holy mount, and talked with Christ! They hear by faith the heavenly concert, the high and harmonious songs of praise, the joyful triumphs of crowned saints, the sweet commemorations of the things that were done and suffered on earth, with the praises of him that redeemed them by his blood, and made them kings and priests to God : herein he hath sometimes a sweet foretaste of the everlasting pleasures, which though it be but little, as Jonathan's honey on the end of his rod, or as the clusters of grapes which were brought from Canaan into the wilderness, yet are they more excellent than all the delights of sinners^ And in the beholding of this celestial glory, some beams do penetrate his breast, and so irradiate his longing soul, that he is changed thereby into the same image, from glory to glory; the Spirit of Glory and of God doth rest upon him. And O what an excellent holy frame doth this converse with God possess his soul of! How reverently doth he think of him! What life is there in every name and attribute of God which he heareth or thinketh on! The mention of his power, his wisdom, his goodness, his love, his holiness, his truth, how powerful and how pleasant are they to him! when to those that know him but by the hearing of the ear, all these are but like common names and notions; and even to the weaker sort of Christians, whose walking with God is more uneven, and low, interrupted by

their sins, and doubts, and fears, this life and glory of a Christian course, is less perceived.

And the sweet appropriating and applying works of faith, by which the soul can own his God, and finds himself owned by him, are exercised most easily and happily in these near approaches unto God. Our doubts are cherished by our darkness, and that is much caused by our distance : the nearer the soul doth approach to God, the more distinctly it heareth the voice of mercy, the sweet reconciling invitations of love; and the more clearly it discerneth that goodness and amiableness in God, which maketh it easier to us to believe that he loveth us, or is ready to embrace us ; and banisheth all those false and horrid apprehensions of him, which before were our discouragement, and made him seem to us more terrible than amiable. As the ministers and faithful servants of Christ, are ordinarily so misrepresented by the malignant devil, to those that know them not, that they are ready to think them some silly fools, or false-hearted hypocrites, and to shun them as strange undesirable persons ; but when they come to thorough acquaintance with them by a nearer and familiar converse, they see how much they were mistaken, and wronged by their prejudice and belief of slanderers' misreports : even so a weak believer, that is under troubles, in the apprehension of his sin and danger, is apt to hearken to the enemy of God, that would shew him nothing but his wrath, and represent God as an enemy to him: and in this case it is exceeding hard for a poor sinner to believe that God is reconciled to him, or loveth him, or intends him good, but he is ready to dread and shun him as an enemy, or as he would fly from a wild beast or murderer, or from fire or water, that would destroy him: and all these injurious thoughts of God are cherished by strangeness and disacquaintance. But as the soul doth fall into an understanding and serious converse with God, and having been often with him, doth find him more merciful than he was by Satan represented to him, his experience reconcileth his mind to God, and maketh it much easier to him to believe that God is reconciled unto him, when he hath found much better entertainment with God than he expected, and hath observed his benignity, and the treasures of his bounty laid up in Christ, and by him distributed to believers, and hath found him ready to hear and

help, and found him the only full and suitable felicitating good, this banisheth his former horrid thoughts, and maketh him ashamed that ever he should think so suspiciously, injuriously, and dishonourably of his dearest God and Father.

Yet I must confess that there are many upright, troubled souls, that are much in reading, prayer, and meditation, that still find it hard to be persuaded of the love of God, and that have much more disquietment and fear since they set themselves to think of God, than they had before. But yet for all this, we may well conclude, that to walk with God, is the way to consolation, and tendeth to acquaint us with his love. As for those troubled souls, whose experience is objected against this, some of them are such as are yet but in their return to God, from a life of former sin and misery, and are yet but like the needle in the compass that is shaken, in a trembling motion towards their rest, and not in any settled apprehensions of it. Some of them by the straying of their imaginations too high, and putting themselves upon more than their heads can bear, and by the violence of fears, or other passions, do make themselves incapable of those sweet consolations which else they might find in their converse with God ; as a lute, when the strings are broken with straining, is incapable of making any melody. All of them have false apprehensions of God, and therefore trouble themselves by their own mistakes. And if some perplex themselves by their error, doth it follow that therefore the truth is not comfortable ? Is not a father's presence consolatory, because some children are afraid of their fathers, that know them not because of some disguise ? And some of God's children walk so unevenly and carelessly before him, that their sins provoke him to hide his face, and to seem to reject them and disown them, and so to trouble them that he may bring them home : but shall the comforts of our Father's love and family be judged of by the fears or smart of those whom he is scourging for their disobedience, or their trial? Seek God with understanding, as knowing his essential properties, and what he will be to them that sincerely and diligently seek him; and then you will quickly have experience, that nothing so much tendeth to quiet and settle a doubting, troubled, unstable soul, as faithfully to walk with God.

But the soul that estrangeth itself from God, may indeed

for a time have the quietness of security; but (so far) it will be strange to the assurance of his love, and to true consolation. Expect not that God should follow you with his comforts in your sinfulness and negligence, and cast them into your hearts whilst you neither seek nor mind them ; or that he will give you the fruit of his ways in your own ways. Will he be your joy when you forget him? Will he delight your souls with his goodness and amiableness, while you are taken up with other matters, and think not of him? Can you expect to find the comforts of his family, among his enemies, out of doors ? The experience of all the world can tell you, that prodigals, while they are straggling from their Father's house, do never taste the comforts of his embraces ; the strangers meddle not with his children's joys: they grow not in the way of ambition, covetousness, vainglory, or sensuality ; but in the way of holy obedience, and of believing contemplations of the divine, everlasting objects of delight. *' For, lo, they that are far from him shall perish : He destroyeth them that go a whoring from him: But it is good for us to draw nigh to God." (Psal. Ixxiii. 27, 28.)

III. Walking with God is the only course that can prove and make men truly wise. It proves them wise that make so wise and good a choice, and are disposed and skilled in any measure for so high a work. Practical wisdom is the solid, useful, profitable wisdom: and practical wisdom is seen in our choice of good, and refusal of evil, as its most immediate and excellent effect. And no choosing or refusing doth show the wisdom or folly of man so much as that which is about the greatest matters, and which everlasting life or death depend on. He is not thought so wise among men that can write a volume about the orthography or etymology of a word, or can guess what wood the Trojan horse was made of, or that can make a chain to tie a flea in, as he that can bring home gold and pearls, or he that can obtain and manage governments, or he that can cure mortal maladies. For as in lading we difference bulk and value, and take not that for the best commodity which is of greatest quantity or weight, but that which is most precious and of greatest use; so there is a bulky knowledge, extended far, to a multitude of words and things, which are all of no great use or

WALKING WITH GOD. * 247

value; aiid therefore the knowledge of them is such as they: and there is a precious sort of knowledge, which fixeth upon the most precious things; which being of greatest use and value, do accordingly prove the knowledge such. Nothing will prove a man simply and properly wise, but that which will prove or make him happy. He is wise indeed, that is wise to his own and others' good; and that is indeed his good, which saveth his soul, and maketh him for ever blessed. Though we may admire the cunning of those that can make the most curious engines, or by deceiving others advance themselves, or that can subtilly dispute the most curious niceties, or criticise upon the words of several languages ; yet 1 will never call them wise, that are all that while the devil's slaves, the enemies of God, the refusers of grace, and are making haste to endless misery. And I think there is not one of those in hell who were once the subtile men on earth, that now take themselves to have been truly wise, or glory much in the remembrance of such wisdom.

And as the choice doth prove men wise, so the practice of this holy walking with God, doth make them much wiser than they were. As there must be some work of the Spirit to draw men to believe in Christ, and yet the Spirit is promised and given (in a special sort or measure) to them that do believe; so must there be some special wisdom to make men choose to walk with God; but much more is given to them in this holy course. As Solomon was wiser than most of the world, before he asked wisdom of God, or else he would not have made so wise a choice, and preferred wisdom before the riches and honours of the world; and yet it was a more notable degree of wisdom that was afterwards given him in answer to his prayers : so it is in this case.

There are many undeniable evidences to prove, that walking with God doth do more to make men truly wise, than all other learning or policy in the world.

1. He that walketh with God, doth begin aright, and settles upon a sure foundation; (and we use to say, that a work is half finished that is well begun;) he hath engaged himself to the best and wisest teacher; he is a disciple to him that knoweth all things. He hatJi taken in infallible principles, and taken them in their proper place and order; he hath learned those truths which will every one become a

a teacher to him, and help him to that which is yet unlearned. Whereas many that thought they were doctors in Israel, if ever they will be wise and happy, must " become fools (that is, such as they have esteemed fools) if ever they will be wise;" (1 Cor. iii. 18;) and must be called back with Nicodemus to learn Christ's cross, and to be taught that, " that which is born of the flesh is but flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit;" and that therefore they " must be born again" (not only of water, but also of the Spirit) if ever they " will enter into the kingdom of heaven." (John iii. 3. 5, 6.) O miserable beginning ! and miserable progress ! when men that never soundly learned the mysteries of regeneration, and faith, and love, and self-denial, and mortification, do proceed to study names and words, and to turn over a multitude of books, to fill their brains with airy notions, and their common-places with such sayings as may be provision and furniture for their pride and ostentation, and ornament to their style and language ; and know not yet what they must do to be saved, and indeed know nothing as they ought to know! (1 Cor. viii. 2.) As every science hath its principles, which are supposed in all the consequential verities; so hath religion as doctrinal and practical, those truths which must be first received, before any other can be received as it ought; and those things which must be first done, before any other can be done, so as to attain their ends. And these truths and duties are principally about God himself, and are known and done effectually by those, and only those, that walk with God, or are devoted to him. It is a lamentable thing to see men immersed in serious studies, even till they grow aged, and to hear them seriously disputing and discoursing about the controversies or difl&culties in theology, or inferior sciences, before ever they had any saving knowledge of God, or of the work of the Holy Ghost in the converting and sanctifying of the soul, or how to escape everlasting misery !

2. He that walketh with God hath fixed upon a right end, and is renewing his estimation and intention of it, and daily prosecuting it: and this is the first and greatest part of practical wisdom. When a man once knoweth his end aright, he may better judge of the aptitude and seasonable-ness of all the means. When we know once that heaven

eontaineth the only felicity of man, it will direct us to heavenly thoughts, and to such spiritual means as are fitted to that end: if we have the right mark in our eye, we are more like to level at it, than if we mistake our mark. He is the wise man, and only he, that hath steadily fixed his eye upon that blessedness which he was created and redeemed for, and maketh straight towards it, and bends the powers of soul and body, by faithful, constant diligence to obtain it-He that hath rightly and resolvedly determined of his end, hath virtually resolved a thousand controversies that others are unsatisfied and erroneous in. He that is resolved, that his end is to please and glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever, is easily resolved whether a holy life, or a sensual and worldly, be the way ; whether the way be to be godly, or to make a mock at godliness : whether covetousness and riches, ambition and preferment, voluptuousness and fleshly pleasures, be the means to attain his end: whether it will be attained rather by the studying of the word of God, and meditating on it day and night, and by holy conference, and fervent prayer, and an obedient life; or by negligence, or worldliness, or drunkenness, or gluttony, or cards and dice, or beastly filthiness, or injustice and deceit. Know once but whither it is that we are going, and it is easy to know whether the saint, or the swine, or the swaggerer, be in the way. But a man that doth mistake his end, is out of his way at the first step; and the further he goes, the further he is from true felicity; and the more he erreth, and the further he hath to go back again, if ever he return. Every thing that a man doth in the world, which is not for the right end (the heavenly felicity) is an act of foolishness and error, how splendid soever the matter or the name, may make it appear to ignorant men. Every word that an ungodly person speaketh, being not for a right end, is in him but sin and folly, however materially it may be an excellent and useful truth. While a miserable soul hath his back upon God, and his face upon the world, every step be goeth is an act of folly, and tending unto his further misery. It can be no act of wisdom, which tendeth to a man's damnation. When such a wretch begins to inquire and bethink him where he is, and whither he is going, and whither he should go, and to think of turning back to God, then, and never till then, he is beginning to come to himself, and to

be wise. (Luke xv. 17.) Till;God and glory be the end that he aimeth at, and seriously bends his study, heart and life to seek, though a man were searching into the mysteries of nature ; though he were studying or discussing the notions of theology; though he were admired for his learning and wisdom by the world, and cried up as the oracle of the earth, he is all the while but playing the fool, and going a more 'cleanly way to hell than the grosser sinners of the world ! For is he wise, that knoweth not whether heaven or earth be better? Whether God or his flesh should be obeyed? Whether everlasting joys, or the transitory pleasures of sin should be preferred ? Or that seemeth to be convinced of the truth in these and such like cases, and yet hath not the wit to make his choice, and bend his life according to his conviction ? He cannot be wise who practically mistakes his end.

3. He that walketh with God doth know those things with a deep, effectual, heart-changing knowledge, which other men know but superficially, by the halves, and as in a dream. And true wisdom consisteth in the intensiveness of the knowledge subjectively, as much as in the extensive-ness of it objectively. To see a few things in a narrow room perspicuously and clearly, doth shew a better eyesight, than in the open air to see many things obscurely, so as scarce to discern any of them aright; (like him that saw men walk like trees). The clearness and depth of knowledge, which makes it effectual to its proper use, is the greatness and excellency of it: therefore it is, that unlearned men that love and fear the Lord, may well be said to be incomparably more wise and knowing men than the most learned that are ungodly. As he hath more riches that hath a little gold or jewels, than he that hath many load of stones ; so he that hath a deep, effectual knowledge of God the Father, and the Redeemer, and of the life to come, is wiser and more knowing than he that hath only a notional knowledge of the same things, and of a thousand more. A wicked man hath so much knowledge, as teacheth him to speak the same words of God, and Christ, and heaven, which a true believer speaks ; but not so much as to work in him the same affections and choice, nor so much as fco cause him to do the same work. As it is a far more excellent kind of knowledge which a man hath of any country by travel and habitation

there, than that which cometh but by reading or report; or which a man hath of meat, of fruits, of wines, by eating and drinking, than that which another hath by hearsay: so is the inward heart-affecting knowledge of a true believer, more excellent than the flashy notions of the ungodly. Truth, simply as truth, is not the highest and most excellent object of the mind : but good, as good, must be apprehended by the understanding, and commended to the will, which enter-taineth it with complacency, adhereth to it with choice and resolution, prosecuteth it with desire and endeavour, and en-joyeth it with delight. And though it be the understanding which apprehendeth it, yet it is the heart or will that relish-eth it, and tasteth the greatest sweetness in it, working upon it with some mixture of internal sense, (which hath made some ascribe a knowledge of good, as such, unto the will). And it is the will's intention that causeth the understanding to be denominated practical: and therefore I may well say, that it is wisdom indeed when it reacheth to the heart. No man knoweth the truth of God so well as he that most firmly believeth him: and no man knoweth the goodness of God so well as he that loveth him most. No man knoweth his power and mercy so well as he that doth most confidently trust him : and no man knoweth his justice and dreadful-ness so well as he that feareth him. No man knoweth or believeth the glory of heaven so well as he that most es-teemeth, desireth and seeketh it, and hath the most heavenly heart and conversation. No man believeth in Jesus Christ so well, as he that giveth up himself unto him, with the greatest love, and thankfulness, and trust, and obedience. As James saith, " Shew me thy faith by thy works," so say I, let me know the measure and value of my knowledge by my heart and life. That is wisdom indeed, which conform-eth a man to God, and saveth his soul: this only will be owned as wisdom to eternity, when dreaming notions will prove but folly.

4. He that walketh with God hath an infallible rule, and taketh the right course to have the best acquaintance with it, and skill to use it. The doctrine that informeth him is divine : it is from heaven, and not of men: and therefore if God be wiser than man, he is able to make his disciples wisest; and teaching will more certainly and powerfully illuminate. Many among men have pretended to infallibility.

that never could justify their pretensions, but have confuted them by their own mistakes and crimes ; but none can deny the infallibility of God. He never yet was deceived, or did deceive : he erreth not, nor teacheth error. Nicodemus knew Christ was to be believed, when he knew that he was ** a teacher come from God." (John iii. 2.) Christ knew that the Jews themselves durst not deny the truths of John's doctrine, if he could but convince them that it was " from heaven, and not of men." It is impossible for God to lie : it is the devil that " was a liar from the beginning,*' and is yet the Father of lies. No wonder if they believe lies that follow such a teacher: and those that follow the flesh and the world, do follow the devil. They that will believe what their fleshly interests and lusts persuade them to believe, do believe what the devil persuadeth them to believe; for he persuadeth them by these, and for these. What marvel then, if there be found men in the world, that can believe that holiness is hypocrisy, or a needless thing ? That those are the worst men that are most careful to please God! that the world is more worthy of their care and labour, than their salvation is ! that the pleasures of sin for a season are more desirable, than the everlasting happiness of the saints ! that cards and dice, and mirth and lust, and wealth and honour, are matters more delectable than prayer, and meditating on the word of God, and loving him, and obeying him, and waiting in the hopes of life eternal! that gluttons and drunkards, and whoremongers, and covetous persons, may enter into the kingdom of God, &c. What wonder, if a thousand such damnable lies, are believed by the disciples of the father of lies ? What wonder, if there are so many saint-haters and God-haters in the world, as to fill the earth with persecutions and cruelties, or make a scorn of that which God most highly valueth, and all this under pretences of order, or unity, or justice, or something that is good, and therefore fit to palliate their sin! Is there any thing so false, or foul, or wicked, that Satan will not teach his followers ? Is he grown modest, or moderate, or holy, or just? Is he reconciled to Christ, to Scripture, to godliness, or to the godly ? Or is his kingdom of darkness at an end ? And hath he lost the earth ? Or are men therefore none of the servants of the devil, because they were baptized (as Simon Magus was; and call and think themselves the servants of

Christ ? As if still it were not the aft by which he gets and keeps disciples, to suffer them to wear the livery of Christ, and to use his name, that he may thus keep possession of them in peace, who else would be frighted from him, and fly to Christ! He will give them leave to study arts and sciences, and to understand things excellent of inferior use, so be it they will be deceived by him in the matters of God and their salvation. He can allow them to be learned lawyers, excellent physicians, philosophers, politicians, to be skilful artists, so be it they will follow him in sin to their damnation, and will overlook the " truth that should set them free." (John viii. 32.) Yea he will permit them (when there is no remedy) to study the holy Scriptures, if he may but be the expounder and applier of it. Yea he will permit them notionally to understand it, if they will not learn by it to be converted, to be holy, and to be saved. He can suffer them to be eminent divines, so they will not be serious Christians. Thus is the world by the grand deceiver buried in darkness to perdition, being '* taken captive by him at his will." (2 Tim. ii. 26.) But the sanctified are all illuminated by th€ Holy Ghost, by whom their eyes are so effectually opened, that they " are turned from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God." (Acts xxvi. 18.) '* The Father of glory hath given them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of Christ, that the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, they may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." (Ephes. i. 17,18.) Certainly that illumination of the Holy Ghost, which is so often mentioned in Scripture as given to all true believers, is not a fancy, nor an insignificant name : and if it signify any thing, it signifieth somewhat that is much above the teaching of man. All that walk with God are taught of God ! And can man teach like God? God hath access unto the heart, and there he doth transcribe his laws, and put them into our inward parts. And they that walk with him have not only his word to read, but his Spirit to help them to understand it: and being with him, in his family (yea, he dwelleth in them, and they in him) he is ready at hand to resolve their doubts : when he gave them his fear, he gave them the " beginning of wisdom." (Psal. cxi. 10.) He causeth them to " incline their ear to wisdom ;" (Prov. ii. 2.6;) and to *' apply their

hearts unto it;" (Psal. xc. 12 ;) " and maketh them to know it in the hidden parts." (Psal. 11. 6.)

It is his law that they have determined to make their rule: they live as under his authority : they are more observant of his will and government, than of any laws or government of man. And as they obey man in and for the Lord, so they do it in subordination to him, and therefore not against him and his laws, which being the standard of justice, and the rule of rulers, and of subjects both, they are in the safest way of unerring wisdom, who walk with God according to that rule ; and refuse to turn aside, though commanded by man, or enticed by Satan, the world, or flesh.

5. He that walketh with God is the most considerate person, and therefore hath great advantage to be wise. The frequent and serious thoughts of God, do awaken all the powers of the soul, so that drowsiness doth not hinder the understanding, and so occasion its deceit. There is scarce a more common and powerful cause of men's folly and delusion and perdition, in all the world, than that sleepiness snd stupidity which hindereth reason from the vigorous perfor-liiance of its office. In this senseless case, though a man both know and consider of the same truths, which in their nature are most powerful to cleanse and govern and save his soul, yet sluggishness doth enervate them: he knoweth them as if he knew them not, and considereth them as if he never thought of them. They work little more upon him, than if he believed them not, or had never heard of them. Even as a dream of the greatest matters, moveth not the sleeper from his pillow. In this senseless state, the devil can do almost any thing with a sinner. He can make him sin against his knowledge: and when conscience hath frighted him into some kind of penitence, and made him cry out, * I have sinned and done foolishly,* and caused him to promise to do so no more; yet doth the devil prevail with him to go on, and to break his promises, as if he had never been convinced of his sins, or confessed them, or seen any reason or necessity to amend : he doth but imprison the truth in unrighteousness, and bury it in a senseless heart: whereas if you could but awaken all the powers of his soul, to give this same truth its due entertainment, and take it deeper into his heart, it would make him even scorn the baits of sin, and see that the ungodly are beside themselves, and make him presently re-

solve and set upon a holy life. And hence it m, that sickness which causeth men to receive the sentence of death, doth usually make men bewail their former sinful lives, and marvel that they could be before so sottish as to resist such known and weighty truths : and it makes them purpose and promise reformation, and wish themselves in the case of those that they were wont before to deride and scorn: because now the truth is more deeply received and digested, by their awakened souls, and appeareth in its proper evidence and strength. There is no man but must acknowledge that the same truth doth at one time command his soul, which at another time seems of little force. It is a wonder to observe how differently the same consideration worketh with a man when he is awakened, and when he is in a secure, stupid state.

Now this is his advantage that walks with God. He is much more frequently than others awakened to a serious apprehension of the things which he understandeth. The thoughts of the presence of the most holy God, will not suffer him to be secure and senseless as others are, or as he is himself, when he turneth aside from this heavenly conversation. He hath in God such exceeding transcendent excellencies, such greatness, such goodness continually to behold, that it keepeth his soul in a much more serious, lively frame than any other means could keep it in: so that whenever any truth or duty is presented to him, all his faculties are awake and ready to observe and improve it. A sermon, or a good book, or godly conference, or a mercy, when a man hath been with God in prayer and contemplation, will relish better with him, and sink much deeper, than at another time. Nay one serious thought of God himself, will do more to make a man truly and solidly wise, than all the reading and learning in the world, which shuts him out.

6. Walking with God doth fix the mind, and keep it from diversions and vagaries, and consequently much help-eth to make men wise. A straggling mind is empty and unfurnished. He that hath no dwelling, for the most part hath no wealth. Wandering is the beggar's life. Men do but bewilder and lose themselves, and not grow wise, whose thoughts are ranging in the corners of the earth, and are like masterless dogs, that run up and down according to their fancy, and may go any whither, but have business no where.

The creature will not fix the soul; but God is the centre of all our thoughts : in him only they may unite, and fix, and rest. He is the only loadstone that can effectually attract and hold it stedfast to himself. Therefore he that walks with God is the most constant and unmoveable of men. Let prosperity or adversity come ; let the world be turned upside down, and the mountains be hurled into the sea, yet he changreth not: let men allure or threat, let them scorn or rage, let laws, and customs, and governments, and interest change, he is still the same. For he knoweth that God is still the same, and that his word changeth not. Let that be death one year, which was the way to reputation another, and let the giddy world turn about as the seasons of the year, this changeth not his mind and life (though in things lawful he is of a yielding temper): for he knoweth that the interest of his soul doth not change with the humours or interests of men: he still feareth sinning, for he knoweth that judgment is still drawing on, in all changes and seasons whatsoever: he is still set upon the pleasing of the most holy God, whoever be uppermost among men ; as knowing that the God whom he serveth is able to deliver him from man, but man is not able to deliver him from God. He still goeth on in the holy path, as knowing that heaven is as sure and as desirable as ever it was. " Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings : his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord: his heart is established, he shall not be afraid." (PsaL cxii. 6, 7.)

7. He that walketh with God, hath the great master-truths upon his heart, which are the standard of the rest, and the stock, as it were, out of which they spring. The great truths about God, and grace, and glory, have a greater power than many hundred truths of an inferior nature. And moreover, such a one is sure that he shall be wise in the greatest and most necessary points. He is guilty of no ignorance or error that shall keep him out of heaven, or hinder his acceptance with his God. And if he be wise enough to please God and to be saved, he is wise indeed (as before was hinted).

8. Walking with God doth take off" the vizor of deluding things, and keepeth us out of the reach and power of those objects and arguments which are the instruments of deceit.

When a man hath been believingly and seriously with God, how easily can he see through the sophistry of the tempting world ! How easily can he practically confute the reasonings of the flesh, and discern the dotage of the seeming subtilties of wicked men, that will needs think they have reason for that which is displeasing to their Maker, and tends to the damning of their souls ! So far as a man is conversant with God, so far he is sensible, that all things are nothing, which can be offered as a price to hire him to sin: and that the name of preferment, and honour, and wealth, or of disgrace, and imprisonment, and death, are words almost of no signification, as to the tempter's ends, to draw the soul from God and duty. It is men that know not God, and know not what it is to walk with him, that think these words so big and powerful, to whom wealth and honour do signify more than God and heaven; and poverty, disgrace and death, do signify more than God's displeasure and everlasting punishment in hell. As it is easy to cheat a man that is far from the light, so is it easy to deceive the most learned man that is far from God.

9. Walking with God, doth greatly help us against the deceitful and erroneous disposition of our own hearts. The will hath a very great power upon the understanding : and therefore ungodly, fleshly men will very hardly receive any truth which crosseth the carnal interest or disposition : and will hardly let go any error that feedeth them; because their corrupted wills are a bias to their understandings, and make them desperately partial in all their reading and hearing, and hypocritical in their prayers and inquiries after truth. Interest and corruption locketh up their hearts from their own observation. Whereas a man that walketh with God, that is jealous, and holy, and just, and a searcher of the heart, is driven from hypocrisy, and forced to behave himself as in the open light, and to do all as in the sight of all the world, as knowing that the sight of God is of far greater concernment and regard. The partiality, corruption !and bias of the heart, is detected and shamed by the presence of God. Therefore to walk with God is to walk in |the light, and as children of the light, and not in darkness. And he that doth truth " cometh to the light, that his deeds [might be manifest, that they are wrought in God: when VOL. xiii. s

every one that doth evil hateth the light; neithei* coraeth to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. And this is their condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil." (Johniii. 19—21.) Jt tendeth therefore exceedingly to make men wise, to walk with God, because it is a walking in the light, and in such a presence as most powerfully prevaileth against that hypocrisy, deceitfulness and partiality of the heart, which is the common cause of damning error.

10. Lastly, they that walk with God are entitled by many promises, to the guidance and direction of his Spirit. And blessed are those that have such a guide : at once a light in the world without them, and a light immediately from God within them. For so far as he is received and worketh in them, he will lead them into truth, and save them from deceit and folly, and having " guided them by his counsel, will afterwards take them unto glory." (Psal. lxxiii«24.) Whereas the ungodly are led by the flesh, and often " given up to their own heart's lusts, to walk in their own counsels;" (Rom. viii. 1. 13; Psal. Ixxxi. 12;) till at last" the fools do say in their hearts, there is no God;" (Psal. xiv. 1 ;) " and they become corrupt and abominable, eating up the people of the Lord as bread, and call not on his name:" (ver. 2. &c.;) " Deceiving and being deceived: sensual, having not the Spirit;'* (Jude 19;) "who shall receive the reward of their unrighteousness, as accounting it pleasure to riot in the day time.*' (2 Pet. ii. 13.)

IV. Another benefit of walking with God is, that it maketh men good, as well as wise. It is the most excellent means for the advancement of man's soul to the highest degree of holiness attainable in this life. If conversing with good men doth powerfully tend to make men good ; conversing with God must needs be more effectual; which may appear in these particulars.

1. The apprehensions of the presence and attributes of God, do most effectually check the stirrings of corruption, and rebuke all the vicious inclinations and motions of the soul: even the most secret sin of the heart, is rebuked by his presence, as well as the most open transgression of the

life : for the thoughts of the heart are open to his view. All that is done before God, is done as in the open light: nothing of it can be hid : no sin can have the encouragement of secresy to embolden it. It is all committed in the presence of the universal King and Lawgiver of the world, who hath forbidden it. It is done before him that most abhorreth it, and will never be reconciled to it. It is done before him that is the Judge of the world, and will shortly pass the sentence on us according to what we have done in the body. It standeth up in his presence who is of infinite majesty and perfection, and therefore most to be reverenced and honoured : and therefore if the presence of a wise, and grave, and venerable person will restrain men from sin, the presence of God apprehended seriously, will do it much more. It is committed before him who is our dearest friend, and tender Father, and chiefest Benefactor: and therefore ingenuity, gratitude and love will all rise up against it in those that walk with God. There is that in God, before the eyes of those that walk with him, which is most contrary to sin, and most powerful against it of any thing in the world. Every one will confess, that if men's eyes were opened to see the Lord in glory standing over them, it would be the most powerful means to restrain them from transgressing. The drunkard would not then venture upon his cups : the fornicator would have a cooling for his lusts: the swearer would be afraid to take his Maker's name in vain: the profane would scarce presume to scorn or persecute a holy life. And he that walketh with God, though he see him not corporally, yet seeth him by faith, and liveth as in his presence ; and therefore must needs be restrained from sin, as having the means which is next to the sight of God. If pride should begin to stir in one that walks with God, O what a powerful remedy is at hand ! How effectually would the presence of the great and holy God rebuke it! and constrain us to say as Job xlii. 5, 6, ** I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." If worldly love, or carnal lust, should stir in such a one, how powerfully would the terrors of the Lord repress it; and his majesty rebuke it; and his love and goodness overcome it! If worldly cares or murmuring discontents begin to trouble such a one ; how effectually will the goodness, the all-suffi-

ciency and the faithfulness of God allay them, and quiet and satisfy the soul, and cause it to be offended at its own offence, and to chide itself for its repinings and distrust! If passion arise and begin to discompose us, how powerfully will the presence of God rebuke it! and the reverence of his majesty, and the sense of his authority and pardoning grace will assuage it, and shame us into silent quietness! Who dare let out his passions upon man, in the presence of his Maker, that apprehendeth his presence ? The same I might say of all other sins.

2. The presence and attributes of God apprehended by those that walk with him, is the potent remedy against temptations. Who will once turn an eye to the gold and glory of the world, that is offered him to allure to sin, if he see God stand by ? Who would be tempted to lust or any sinful pleasure, if he observe the presence of the Lord ? Satan can never come in so ill a time with his temptations, and have so little hope to speed, as when the soul is contemplating the attributes of God, or taken up in prayer with him, or any way apprehensive of his presence. The soul that faithfully walks with God, hath enough at hand in him to answer all temptations. And the further any man is from God, and the less he knoweth him, the more temptations can do upon him.

3. The presence of God affordeth the most powerful motives unto good, to those that walk with him. There is no grace in man, but is from God, and may find in God its proper object or incentive. As God is God, above the creature transcendently and infinitely in all perfections, so all the motives to goodness which are fetched from him, are transcendently above all that may be fetched from any creature. He that liveth always by the fire, or in the sunshine, is most like to be warm. He that is most with God, will be most like to God in holiness. Frequent and serious converse with him, doth most deeply imprint his communicable attributes on the heart, and make there the clearest impression of his image. Believers have learned by their own experience, that one hour's serious prayer, or meditation, in which they can get nigh to God in the Spirit, doth more advance their grace, than any help that the creature can afford them.

4. Moreover those that walk with God, have not only a powerful, but an universal incentive for the actuating and

increasing of every grace. Knowledge, and faith, and fear, and love, and trust, and hope, and obedience, and zeal, and all have in God their proper objects and incentives. One creature may be useful to us in one thing, and another in another thing ; but God is the most effectual mover of all his graces : and that in a holy harmony and order. Indeed he hath no greater motive to draw us to love him, and fear him, and trust him, and obey him, than himself. " It is life eternal to know him in his Son :" (John xvii. 3 :) and that is, not only because it entitleth to life eternal, but also because it is the beginning and incentive of that life of holiness which will be eternal.

5. Moreover, those that walk with God, have a constant as well as a powerful and universal incentive to exercise and increase their graces. Other helps may be out of the way : their preachers may be silenced or removed : their friends may be scattered or taken from them : their books may be forbidden, or not at hand : but God is always ready and willing; they have leave at all times to come to him, and be welcome. Whenever they are willing they may go to him by prayer or contemplation, and find all in him which they can desire. If they want not hearts, they shall find no want of any thing in God. At what time soever fear would torment them, they may draw near and put their trust in him. (Psal. lvi.2—4; xi. 1 ; xviii. 2. 30; xxxi. 1. 6.) He will be a sure and speedy refuge for them, a very present help in trouble. (Psal. xlvi. 1 ; Ixii. 7, 8; xci. 2. 9 ; xciv. 22.) Whenever coldness or lukewarmness would extinguish the work of grace, they may go to him, and find those streams of flaming love flow from him, those strong attractives, those wonderful mercies, those terrible judgments, of which, while they are musing, the fire may again wax hot within them, Psal. xxxix. 3.

6. Lastly, by way of encouraging reward, God useth to give abundantly of his grace, to those that walk most faithfully with him. He will shew most love to those that most love him. He will be nearest to them that most desirously draw nigh to him; while he forsaketh those that forsake him, and turneth away from those that turn away from him. " The hand of our God is for good upon all them that seek him ; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him." (2 Chron. xv. 2 ; Prov. i. 32; Ezra viii. 22.)

Thus it is apparent in all these evidences, that walking with God, is not only a discovery of the goodness that men have, but the only way to increase their grace, and make them better. O what a sweet humility, and seriousness, and spirituality appeareth in the conference, or conversation, or both, of those that newly come from a believing, close converse with God! When they that come from men and books, may have but a common mind or life. And those that come from the business and pleasure of the world and flesh, and from the company of foolish, riotous gallants, may come defiled, as the swine out of the mire!

V. Lastly to walk with God, is the best preparation for times of suffering, and for the day of death. As we must be judged according to what we have done in the body ; so the nearer we find ourselves to judgment, the more we shall be constrained to judge ourselves according to what we have done, and shall the more perceive the effect upon our souls.

That this is so excellent a preparative for sufferings and death, will appear by the consideration of these particulars.

1. They that walk with God are most safe from all destructive sufferings ; and shall have none but what are sanctified to their good. (Rom. viii. 28.) They are near to God, where destruction cometh not; as the chicken under the wings of the hen. They walk with him that will not lead them to perdition : that will not neglect them, nor sell them for nought, nor expose them to the will of men and devils, though he may suffer them to be tried for their good. No one can take them out of his hands. Be near to him, and you are safe: the destroyer cannot fetch you thence. He can fetch you (when the time is come) from the side of your merriest companions, and dearest friends; from the presence of the greatest princes ; from the strongest tower, or most sumptuous palace, or from your heaps of riches, in your securest health: but he cannot take you from the arms of Christ, nor from under the wings of your Creator's love. " For there is no god like him, in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, who keepeth covenant and mercy with his servants, that walk before him with all their heart." (1 Kings viii. 23 ; xi. 38.) However we are used in our Father's pre-

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sence, we are sure it shall be for good in the latter end : for he wanteth neither power nor love to deliver us, if he saw deliverance to be best.

2. Walking with God is the surest way to obtain a certainty of his special love, and of our salvation. And what an excellent preparative for sufferings or death such assurance is, I need not tell any considerate believer. How easy may it be to us to suffer poverty, disgrace or wrongs, or the pains of sickness or death, when once we are certain that we shall not suffer the pains of hell! How cheerfully may we go out of this troublesome world, and leave the greatest prosperity behind us, when we are sure to live in heaven for ever ! Even an infidel will say, that he could suffer or die, if he could but be certain to be glorified in heaven when he is dead !

3. Walking with God doth mortify the flesh, and all the affections and lusts thereof. The soul that is taken up with higher matters, and daily seeth things more excellent, be-cometh as dead to the things below: and thus it weaneth us from all that in the world which seemeth most desirable to carnal men. And when the flesh is mortified, and the world is nothing to us, or but as a dead or loathsome carcass, what is there left to be very troublesome in any suffering from the world? Or to make us loath by death to leave it? It is men that know not God, that overvalue the profits and honours of the world ; and men that never felt the comforts of communion with God, that set too much by the pleasures of the flesh : and it is men that set too much by these, that make so great a matter of suffering. It is he that basely overvalueth wealth, that whineth and repineth when he comes to poverty. It is he that sets too much by his honour, and being befooled by his pride, doth greatly esteem the thoughts or applauding words of men, that swelleth against those that disesteem him, and breaketh his heart when he falleth into disgrace. He that is cheated out of his wits by the pomp and splendor of a high and prosperous estate, doth think he is undone when he is brought low. But it is not so with him that walks with God : for being taken up with far higher things, he knoweth the vanity of these. As he seeth not in them any thing that is worthy of his strong desires, so neither any thing that is worthy of much lamentation when they are gone. He never thought

that a shadow, or feather, or a blast of wind could make him happy : and he cannot think that the loss of these can make him miserable. He that is taken up with God, hath a higher interest and business, and findeth not himself so much concerned in the storms or calms that are here below, as others are, who know no better, and never minded higher things.

4. Walking with God doth much overcome the fear of man. The fear of him who can destroy both soul and body in hell fire, will extinguish the fear of them that can but kill the body. (Luke xii. 4.) The threats or frowns of a worm are inconsiderable to him that daily walketh with the great and dreadful God, and hath his power and word for his security. As Moses ** esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, because he had respect to the recompence of reward ; so he feared not the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him that is invisible.** Heb. xi. 27.

5. Walking with God doth much prepare for sufferings and death, in that it breedeth quietness in the conscience. So that when all is at peace within, it will be easy to suffer any thing from without. Though there is no proper merit in our works to comfort us, yet it is an unspeakable consolation to a slandered, persecuted man to be able to say, * These evil sayings are spoken falsely of me, for the sake of Christ: and I suffer not as an evil doer, but as a Christian.' And it is matter of very great peace to a man that is hasting unto death, to be able to say as Hezekiah, " Remember now, O Lord, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight." (2 Kings xx. 3.) And as Paul, 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness," &c. And as 2 Cor. i. 12. " For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world." Such a testimony of conscience is a precious cordial to a suffering or a dying man. The time we have spent in a holy and heavenly conversation, will be exceedingly sweet in the last review, when time spent in sinful vanity, and idleness, and in worldly and fleshly designs, will be grievous and tormenting. The day is coming, and is even

at hand, when those that are now the most hardened infidels, or obstinate, presumptuous sinners, or scornful, malicious enemies of holiness, would wish and wish a thousand times, that they had spent that life in a serious, obedient walking with God, which they spent in seeking worldly wealth, and laying up a treasure on earth, and feeding the inordinate desires of their flesh. I tell you, it is walking with God, that is the only way to have a sound and quiet conscience : and he that is healing and settling his conscience upon the love of God and the grace of Christ, in the time of prosperity, is making the wisest preparation for adversity : and the preparation thus made so long before (perhaps twenty, or forty, or threescore years or more) is as truly useful and comfortable at a dying hour, as that part which is made immediately before. 1 know that besides this general preparation, there should be also a particular, special preparation for sufferings and death : but yet this general part is the chief-est and most necessary part. A man that hath walked in his life time with God, shall certainly be saved, though death surprise him unexpectedly, without any more particular preparation. But a particular preparation without either such a life, or such a heart as would cause it if he had recovered, is no sufficient preparation at all, and will not serve to any man's salvation. Alas! what a pitiful provision doth that man make for death and for salvation, who neglecteth his soul, despiseth the commands of God, and disregardeth the promises of eternal life, till he is ready to die, and then cryeth out, ' 1 repent, I am sorry for my sin, I would I had lived better:' and this only from the constraint of fear, without any such love to God and holiness which would make him walk with God if he should recover. What if the priest absolve this man from all his sins ? Doth God therefore absolve him? Or shall he thus be saved? No, it is certain that all the sacraments and absolutions in the world will never serve to save such a soul, without that grace which must make it new and truly holy. The absolution of a minister of Christ, which is pronounced in his name, is a very great comfort to the truly penitent: for such God hath first pardoned by his general act of oblivion in the Gospel, and it is God that sendeth his messenger to them (in sacraments and ministerial absolution) with that pardon particularised and applied by themselves. But where the

heart is not truly penitent and converted, that person is not pardoned by the Gospel, as being not in the covenant, or a child of promise; and therefore the pardon of a minister, being upon mistake, or to an unqualified person, can reach no further than to admit him into the esteem of men, and to the communion and outward privileges of the church (which is a poor comfort to a soul that must lie in hell): but it can never admit him into the kingdom of heaven. God indeed may approve the act of his ministers, if they go according to his rule, and deal in church administrations with those that make A CREDIBLE PROFESSION of FAITH and HOLINESS, as if they had true faith and holiness : but yet he will not therefore make such ministerial acts effectual to the saving of unbelieving or unholy souls. Nay (because I have found many sensual, ungodly people inclining to turn Papists, because with them they can have a quick and easy pardon of their sins, by the pope, or by the absolution of the priest) let me tell such, that if they understand what they do, even this cheat is too thin to quiet their defiled consciences: for even the Papist's school doctors do conclude, that when the priest absolveth an impenitent sinner, or one that is not qualified for pardon, such a one is not loosed or pardoned in heaven. (Leg. Martini de Ripalda Exposit. Liber. Magist. lib. 4. dist. 18. p. 664, 655, and p. 663, 664, dist. 20. Aquin. dist. 20. q. 1. a. 5. Suar. Tom. 4. in 3. p. disp. 62. Greg. Va-lent. Tom. 4. disp. 7. q. 20. p. 6. Tolet. lib. 6. cap. 27. Na-var. Notab. 17. and 18. Cordub. de indulg. lib. 6. q. 23.) They deny not the truth of those words of Origen. Hom. 14. ad cap, 24. Levit. 'Exit quis a fide, perexit de castris Ec-clesi^r etiamsi, Episcopi voce non abjiciatur: sicut contra interdum fit, ut aliquis non recto judicio eorum qui prsesunt Ecclesiae, foras mittatur: sed si non egit ut mereretur exire, nihil laeditur: interdum enim quod foras mittitur,intus est; et qui foris est, intus videtur retineri.' And what he saith of excommunication, is true of absolution : an erring key doth neither lock out of heaven, nor let into heaven. A godly believer shall be saved though the priest condemn him : and an unbeliever or ungodly person shall be condemned by God, though he be absolved by the priest.

Nay, if you have not walked with God in the Spirit, but walked after the flesh, though your repentance should be sound and true at the last, it will yet very hardly serve to

comfort you, though it may serve to your Balvation: because you will very hardly get any assurance that it is sincere. It is dangerous lest it should prove but the effect of fear (which will not save) when it cometh not till death do fright you to it. As Augustine saith, ' NuUus expectet, quando peccare non potest: arbitrii enim libertatem quserit Deus, ut deleri possint commissa; non necessitatem, sed charitatem, non tantum timorem: quia non in solo timore vivit homo.' Therefore the same Augustine saith, ' Siquis positus in ultima necessitate voluerit accipere poenitentiam, et accipit; fateor vobis, non illi negamus quod petit; sed non praesumimus quod bene hinc exit: si securus hinc exierit, ego nescio : Poenitentiam dare possumus, securitatem non possumus.* You see then how much it is needful to the peace of conscience at the hour of death, that you walk with God in the time of life.

6. Moreover, to walk with God is an excellent preparation for sufferings and death, because it tendeth to acquaint the soul with God, and to embolden it both to go to him in prayer, and to trust on him, and expect salvation from him. He that walketh with God is so much used to holy prayer, that he is a man of prayer, and is skilled in it, and hath tried what prayer can do with God : so that in the hour of his extremity, he is not to seek either for a God to pray to, or a Mediator to intercede for him, or a Spirit of adoption to enable him as a child to fly for help to his reconciled Father. And having not only been frequently with God, but frequently entertained and accepted by him, and had his prayers heard and granted, it is a great encouragement to an afflicted soul in the hour of distress, to go to such a God for help. And it is a dreadful thing when a soul is ready to go out of the world, to have no comfortable knowledge of God, or skill to pray to him, or encouragement to expect acceptance with him : to think that he must presently appear before a God whom he never knew, nor heartily loved, being never acquainted with that communion with him in the way of grace, which is the way to communion in glory ; O what a terrible thought is this ! But how comfortable is it when the soul can say, ' I know whom I have believed. The God that afflicteth me is he that loveth me, and hath manifested his love to me by his daily attractive, assisting and accepting grace. [ am going by death to see him intuitively, whom

I have often see by the eye of faith, and to live with him in heaven, with whom I lived here on earth: from whom, and through whom, and to whom was my life ! I go not to an enemy, nor an utter stranger, but to that God who was the spring, the ruler, the guide, the strength and the comfort of my life ! He hath heard me so oft, that I cannot think he will now reject me. He hath so often comforted my soul, that I will not believe he will now thrust me into hell. He hath mercifully received me so oft, that I cannot believe he will now refuse me. Those that come to him in the way of grace, I have found he will in no wise cast out.* As strangeness to God doth fill the soul with distrustful fears, so walking with him doth breed that humble confidence, which is a wonderful comfort in the hour of distress, and a happy preparation to sufferings and death.

7, Lastly, to walk with God, doth increase the love of God in the soul, which is the heavenly tincture, and inclin-eth it to look upward, and being weary of a sinful flesh and world, to desire to be perfected with God. How happy a preparation for death is this, when it is but the passage to that God with whom we desire to be, and to that place where we fain would dwell for ever! To love the state and place • that we are going to, being made connatural and suitable thereto, will much overcome the fears of death. But for a soul that is acquainted with nothing but this life, and sa-voureth nothing but earth and flesh, and hath no connatu-rality with the things above, for such a soul to be surprised with the tidings of death, alas ! how dreadful must it be.

And thus I have shewed you the benefits that come by walking with God, which if you love yourselves with a rational love, methinks should resolve every impartial, considerate reader, to give up himself without delay, to so desirable a course of life. Or, if he have begun it, to follow it more cheerfully and faithfully than he had done.

CHAP. VII.

I am next to shew you that believers have special obligations to this holy course of life, and therefore are doubly faulty if they neglect it; though indeed, to neglect it totally, or in the main drift of their lives, is a thing inconsistent with a living faith.

Consider, 1. If you are true Christians, your relations

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engage you to walk with God. Is he not your reconciled Father, and you his children in a special sense 7 And whom should children dwell with, but with their Father ? You were glad when he received you into his covenant that he would enter into so near a relation to you, as he expresseth, (2 Cor. vi. 17, 18.) " I will receive you, and will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." And do you draw back, as if you repented of your covenant; and were not only weary of the duty, but of the privileges and benefits of your relation ? You may have access to God when others are shut out: your prayers may be heard, when the prayers of the wicked are abominable: you may be welcome, when the worldlings, and ambitious, and carnal are despised. He that dwelleth in the highest heaven, is willing to look to you with respect, and " dwell with you, when he beholdeth the proud afar off." (Isa. Ixvi. 1, 2; Ivii. 15, 16.) And yet will you not come that may be welcome? Doth he put such a difference between you and others, as to feed you as children at his table, while others are called dogs, and are without the doors, and have but your crumbs and leavings ? And yet will you be so foolish and unthankful, as to run out of your Father's presence, and choose to be without among the dogs ? How came your Fathers presence to be so grievous to you ? and the privileges of his family to seem so vile ? Is it not some unchildlike carriage ? the guilt of some disobedience or contempt that hath first caused this ? Or have you fallen again in love with fleshly pleasures, and some vanity of the world ? Or have you liad enough of God and godliness, till you begin to grow aweajy of him? If so, you never truly knew him. However it be, if you grow as indifferent to God, do not wonder if shortly you find him set as light by you. And believe it, the day is not far off, in which the Fatherly relation of God, and the privileges of children, will be more esteemed by you : when all things else forsake you in your last distress, you will be loath that God should then forsake you, or seem as a stranger to hide his face. Then you will cry out, as the afflicted church, '* Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory. Where is thy zeal and thy strength? the sounding of thy bowels, and of thy mercies towards me ? are they restrained? Doubtless thou art our Father: though Abra-

ham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not, thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer, thy name is from everlasting." (Isa. Ixiii. 15, 16.) Nothing but God, and his Fatherly relation will then support you. Attend him therefore, and with reverent, obedient cheerfulness and delight, converse with him as with your dearest Father. For since the beginning of the world, men have not known by sensible evidence, either of the ear or the eye, ** besides God himself, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him." Isa. Ixiv. 4. Though he be " wroth with us because we have sinned, yet doth he meet him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, that remembereth him in his ways." (Ver. 5.) Say not, I have played abroad so long that I dare not now go home : I have sinned so greatly, that I dare not speak to him, or look him in the face. Come yet but with a penitent, returning heart, and thou mayest be accepted through the Prince of Peace. Prodigals find better entertainment than they did expect, when once they do but resolve for home. If he allow us to begin with " Our Father which art in heaven," we may boldly proceed to ask forgiveness of our trespasses, and whatever else is truly good for us. But, alas, as our iniquities seduce us away from God, so the guilt of them afFright-€th some from returning to him, and the love of them cor-rupteth the hearts of others, and makes them fcoo indifferent as to their communion with him; so that too many of his children live as if they did not know their Father, or had forgotten him. We may say as Isa. Ixiv. 6—9. " But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away: and there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee ; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities : but now, O Lord, thou art our Father ; we are the clay, and thou our potter, and we are all the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever. Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people." O do not provoke your Father to disown you, or to withdraw his help, or hide his face, or to send the rod to call you home ! for if you do, you will wish you had known the privileges of his presence, and had kept nearer to him! Be not so unnatural, so unthankful.

SO unkind, as to be weary of your Father's presence, (and such a Father's too) and to take more delight in any others.

Moreover you are related to God in Christ, as a wife unto a husband, as to covenant union, and nearness and dearness of affection, and as to his tender care of you for your good : and is it seemly, is it wisely or gratefully done of you, to desire rather the company of others, and delight in creatures more than him ? (Isa. liv. 5, 6.) How affectionately doth thy Maker call himself the Husband of his people! And can thy heart commit adultery, and forsake him? "My covenant they brake, though I was an Husband to them, saith the Lord.'' (Jer. xxxi. 32.) O put not God to exercise his jealousy. It is one of his terrible attributes, to be " a jealous God." And can he be otherwise to thee, when thou lovest not his converse or company, and carest not how long thou art from him in the world ? Woe to thee if he once say as Hos. ii. 2. " She is not my wife, neither am I her husband."

Nay, more than this, if you are Christians, you are members of the body of Christ; and therefore how can you withdraw yourselves from him, and not feel the pain and torment of so sore a wound or dislocation ? You cannot live without a constant dependance on him, and communication from him: **I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman : abide in me, and I in you. 1 am the Vine, ye

are the branches; he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me, ye can do

nothing. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you,

ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you/* (John XV. 1. 4, 5.)

So near are you to Christ, that he delighteth to acquaint you with his secrets: O how many mysteries doth he reveal to those that walk with him, which carnal strangers never know! mysteries of wisdom ! mysteries of love and saving grace ! mysteries of Scripture, and mysteries of Providence ! mysteries felt by inward experience, and mysteries revealed, foreseen by faith! Not only the strangers that pass by the doors, but even the common servants of the family, are unacquainted with the secret operations of the Spirit, and entertainments of grace, and joy in believing, which those that walk with God either do or may possess. Therefore Christ calleth you friends, as being more than ser-

vants. *' Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you: henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth : but I call you friends ; for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you." (John xv. 14, 15.) It is true, for all this, that every true Christian hath reason (and is apt) to complain of his darkness and distance from God. Alas! they know so little of him, and of the mysteries of his love and kingdom, that sometimes they are apt to think that they are indeed but utter strangers to him ; but this is, because there is infinitely more still unknown to them than they know! What! can the silly shallow creature comprehend his infinite Creator? or shall we know all that is to be known in heaven, before we enjoy all that is to be enjoyed in heaven? It is no more wonder to hear a believer pant and mourn after a fuller knowledge of God, and nearer access to him, than to seek after heaven, where this will be his happiness. But yet, though his knowledge of God be small, compared with his ignorance, that little knowledge of God which he hath attained, is more mysterious, sublime and excellent, than all the learning of the greatest unsanctified scholars in the world. Walk with him according to the nearness of your relations to him, and you shall have this excellent knowledge of his mysteries, which no books or teachers alone can give. You shall be effectually touched at the heart with the truths which others do uneffectually hear: you shall be powerfully moved, when they are but uneffectually exhorted. When they only hear the voice without them, you shall hear the voice within you, and as it were behind you, saying. This is the way, walk in it. O that you could duly value such a friend, to watch over you, and for you, and dwell in you, and tell you faithfully of every danger, and of every duty, and teach you to know good and evil, and what to choose, and what to refuse! how closely and delightfully would you converse with such a blessed friend, if you rightly valued him!

2. Moreover, you that are the servants of God, have by your covenant and profession, renounced and forsaken all things else (as they stand in any opposition to him, or competition with him) and have resigned yourselves wholly unto him alone; and therefore with him must you converse, and be employed, unless you will forsake your covenant.

\

You knew first that it was your interest to forsake the world and to turn to God; you knew the world would not serve your turn, nor be instead of God to you, either in life, or at death; and upon this knowledge it was that you changed your master, and changed your minds, and changed your way, your work, your hopes. And do you dream now that you were mistaken? Do you begin to think that the world is fitter to be your God or happiness ? if not, you must still confess that both your interest and your covenant do oblige you to turn your hearts and minds from the things which you havfe renounced, and to walk with him that you have taken for your God, and to obey him whom you have taken for your King and Judge, and to keep close to him with purest love, whom you have taken for your everlasting portion. Mark what you are minding all the day, while you are neglecting God ; is it not something that you have renounced? and did not you renounce it upon sufficient cause ? was it not a work of your most serious deliberation? and of as great wisdom, as any that ever you performed ? if it were, turn not back in your hearts again from God unto the renounced creature. You have had many a lightning from heaven into your understandings, to bring you to see the difference between them; you have had many a teaching, and many a warning, and many a striving of the Spirit, before you were prevailed with to renounce the world, the flesh and the devil, and to give up yourself entirely and absolutely to God. Nay, did it not cost you the smart of some afflictions, before you would be made so wise ? and did it not cost you many a gripe of conscience, and many a terrible thought of hell, and of the wrath of God, before you would be heartily engaged to him, in his covenant ? And will you now live as strangely and neglectfully towards him, as if those days were quite forgotten ? and as if you had never felt such things ? and as if you had never been so convinced, or resolved ? O Christians, take heed of forgetting your former case ! your former thoughts ! your former convictions, and complaints, and covenants! God did not work all that upon your hearts to be forgotten ; he intended not only your present change, but your after remembrance of it, for your close adhering to him while you live ; and for your quickening and constant perseverance to the end. The

VOL. XIII. * T '

forgetting of their former miseries, aird the workings of God upon their hearts in their conversion,, is a great cause of mutability and revolting, and of unspeakable hurt to many a soul.

Nay, may you not remember also what sorrow you had in the day of your repentance, for your forsaking and neglecting God so long ? And will you grow again neglective of him? Was it then so heinous a sin in your eyes? and is it now grown less ? Could you then aggravate it so many ways (and justly), and now do you justify or extenuate it? Were you then ready to sink under the burden of it? and were so hardly persuaded that it would be forgiven you? and now do you make so small a matter of it? Did you then so much wonder at your folly, that could so long let out your thoughts and affections upon the creature, while you neglected God and heaven ? and do you begin to look that way again ? Do you now grow familiar with a life so like to that which was once your state of death ? and bear that easily that once was the breaking of your heart? O Christians, turn not away from that God again, who once fetched you home, with so much smart and so much grace! with such a twist of love and fatherly severity ! Methinks when you remember how you were once awakened, you should not easily fall asleep again. And when you remember the thoughts which then were in your hearts, and the tears that were in your eyes, and the earnest prayers \Vhich you then put up, that God would receive, and take you for his own, you should not now forget him, and live as if you could live without him. Remember that so far as you withdraw your hearts from God, and let them follow inferior things, so far you contradict his works upon your hearts ? so far you violate your covenant with him, or sin against it; so far you are revolters, and go against the principal part of your professed religion ; yea, so far you are ungodly as you thus withdraw your hearts from God. Cleave to him, and prosecute your covenant, if you will have the saving benefits of his love and covenant.

3. Moreover, the servants of God are doubly obliged to walk with him, because they have had that experience of goodness, the safety and sweetness of it, which strangers have not. Do you not remember how glad you were, when

i..t

you first believed that he pardoned and accepted you? and how much you rejoiced in his love and entertainment? and how much better you found your Fatheji-s house, than ever you had found your sinful state? and how much sweeter his service was, than you did before believe? It is like you can remember something like that which is described in Luke xv. 20. 22—24, " And he arose and came to his father; but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him: and the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants. Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again, he was lost, and is found." What would you bave thought or said of this prodigal, if after all this, he should have been weary of his father's house and company, and have taken more pleasure in his former company? Would you not have said. He was a forgetful and unthankful wretch, and worthy never more to be received ? I do not speak to you now as to apostates, that are turned ungodly, and have quite forsaken God and holiness; but I beseech you consider what it is, after such experiences and obligations as these, so much as to abate your love, and grow remiss, and mindless, and indifferent, as if you were weary of God, and were inclined to neglect him, and look again to the >yorld for your hope, and satisfaction, and delight ! As you love your souls, and as you would avoid the sorrows which are greater than any that ever you felt, take heed of slighting the love that hath done such wonders for you, and of dealing so unthankfuUy with the everlasting God, and of turning thus away from him that hath received you ! Remember, whilst you live, the love of your espousals. Was God so good to you at first, and holiness so desirable? and is it not so still ?

And I am sure that your own experience will bear witness, that since that time, in all your lives, it never was so well with you as when you walked most faithfully with God. If you have received any falls and hurts, it hath been when you have straggled from him; if ever you had safety, peace or joy, it hath been when you have been nearest to

him ; your wounds, and grief, and death, hath been the fruit of your own ways, and of your forsaking him: your recovery, and health, and life, have been the fruit of his ways, and of your adhering to him: many and many a time you have confessed this, and have said, It is good for me to draw near to God. He hath helped you when none else could help you ; and comforted you when none else could comfort you. How far are you above the worldling's happiness, when you are nigh to God ! One lively thought of his greatness, and excellency, and of his love to you in Jesus Christ, will make the name of wealth, and honour, and favour, and preferment, and sensual pleasures, to seem to you as words of no signification. How indifferent will you be, as to your prosperity in the world, when you feel what it is to walk with God! If you are lively, experimental Christians, you have found this to be true: have you not found that it is the very health and ease, and proper employment of your souls to walk with God, and keep close to him ? and that all goes well with you while you can do thus, however the world doth esteem or use you? and that when you grow strange or disobedient to God, and mindless of his goodness, his presence and his authority, you are like the stomach that is sick, and like a bone that is out of joint, that can have no ease till it be healed, and restored to its proper place ? No meats or drinks, no company nor recreation, no wealth or greatness will serve to make a sick man well, or ease the dislocated bones. Nothing will serve a faithful, holy soul but God ; this is the cause of the dolour of his heart, and of the secret groans and complainings of his life, because in this life of distance and imperfection, he finds himself so far from God j and when he hath done all that he can, he is still so dark, and strange, and cold in his affections ! When persecution driveth him from the ordinances and public worship, or when sin hath set him at a greater distance from his God, he bemoaneth his soul, as David in his banishment from the tabernacle : " As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God ; when shall I come and appear before God ? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me. Where is thy God?" (Psal. xlii. 1, 2, &c.) And it is no wonder, if with his greatest joy, he be yet

clouded with these sorrows, because he yet wanteth more of God than he enjoyeth; and his enjoying graces (love and joy) are yet imperfect. But when he hath attained his nearest approach to God, he will have fulness of delight in fulness of fruition.

O Christians! do I need to tell you, that after all the trials you have made in the world, you have never found any state of life that was worthy your desires, nor that gave you any true content, but only this living upon God? If you have not found such comfort here as others have done, yet at least you have seen it afar off, within your reach; as men that in the Indies, in the discovery of plantations, expect gold mines, when they find those golden sands that promise it. You have found a life which is certainly desirable, and leadeth to joy in the midst of sorrow ; and it is no small joy to have a certain promise and prospect of everlasting joy. It is therefore more excusable in those that never tasted any better than the pleasures of the flesh, to neglect this sweeter heavenly life, than it is in you, that have been convinced by your own experience, that there is no life to be compared with it.

4. Your walking with God is the necessary prosecution of your choice and hopes of life eternal. It is your necessary preparation to your enjoying him in heaven. And have you fixed on those hopes with so great reason and deliberation, and will you now draw back and be slack in the prosecution of them? Have you gone so far in the way to heaven, and do you now begin to look behind you, as if you were about to change your mind ? Paul setteth you a better example: " Yea doubtless, I account all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord ; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead ; not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that 1 may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus : brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but thia one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 1 press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil. iii. 8—13.)

He compareth himself to a runner in a race, that till he apprehend the prize or mark, doth still make forward with all his might, and will not so much as mind or look at any thing behind him, that would turn him back, or stop him in his course. The world and the flesh are the things behind us: we turned our backs upon them at our conversion, when we turned to God: it is these that would now call back our thoughts, and corrupt our affections, when we should run on, and reach forward to the heavenly prize : it is God and heaven, and the remaining duties of a holy life, that are the things before us ! And shall we now look back? what we, that are running and striving for a crown of endless glory! we, that if we lose it, do lose our souls and hopes for ever! we, that have loitered in the morning of our lives, and lost so much precious time as we have done! we, that have gone so far in our way, and held out through so many difficulties and assaults! shall we now grow weary of walking with God, and begin to look to the things behind us ? Did he not tell ns at the first, that father and mother, and house and land, and life, and all things must be forsaken for Christ, if we will be his disciples ? These are the things behind us, which we turned our back on when we consented to the covenant; and are they now grown better? or is God grown worse, that we turn our hearts from him to them ? When we first begun our Christian race, it was upon supposition that it was for that immortal crown, which all the world is not to be compared to: and have we not still the same consideration before us, to move us to hold on till we attain it? Hold on Christians, it is for heaven ; is there not enough in that word to drive back all the cares and pleasures, that importune your minds to forget your God? is there not enough in that word to quicken you up in your greatest dullness? and to call you home, when you are wandering from God ; and to make you again fall out with all that would reduce you, or divert you, and call it vanity and vexation of spirit ? Methinks the forethought of that life and work which you hope to have with God for ever, should make you earnestly desire to have as much of the like on earth, as is here to be attained! If it will be your heaven and happiness then, it must needs be desirable now. It is not beseeming a man that saith he is seeking for perfect communion with God in heaven, and that above all

things, (as every Christian doth) to live in a daily neglect or forgetfulness of God on earth. Delightfully to draw near him, and exercise all our faculties upon him, or for him, sometimes in prayer and contemplation on himself, and always in works of obedience to him ; this is the life that be-seemeth those that profess to seek eternal life. O therefore let us make it our daily work, to keep our God and glory in our eye, and to spur on our dull affections, and in the diligent attendance and following the Captain of our salvation, to prosecute our expected end. .» 5. Lastly consider, that God doth purposely provide you hard entertainment in the world, and cause every creature to deny you the pleasure and satisfaction which you desire, that so you may have none to walk with but himself, with any heart-settling comfort and content. If you see not enough in him to allure you to himself, you shall feel enough in the world to drive you to him : if his love and goodness will not serve you alone to make him your pleasure, and hold you to him in the best, and most excellent way (of love), at least the storms and troubles that are abroad shall show you a necessity of keeping close to God; and the love of yourselves shall help you to do that, which was not done by the attraction of his love alone. If you will put him to it, to send out his command to every creature, to cross and vex you, and disappoint all expectations from it, that so he may force you to remember your Father and your home, deny not then but it is Ibng of yourselves that you were not saved in an easy way- Would you wish God to make that condition pleasant to you, which he seeth you take too much pleasure in already (or seek and desire it, at least) ? when as it is the pleasantness of the creature that is your danger, and which detaineth your thoughts and affections from himself? If you could but learn to walk with him, and to take up your pleasure in his love appearing to you in his creatures, and to make their sweetness a means to your apprehension of the sweetness of his favour, and of the everlasting joys, then you might say the creature doth you good; and then it is like you might be permitted to possess and use it for such pleasure. The jealous God will watch your hearts, though you watch them not; and he will make you know that he seeth which way they run out from him, and what creature it is that is minded and

delighted in, while he is neglected, as if he were unsuitable, and scarce desirable. And you must never look that he should long permit you those prohibited delights, or let you alone in those idolatrous inclinations. If he love you, he will cure that carnal love, and recover your love to himself that hath deserved it. If he intended not your salvation, he may let you go, and try again whether the creature will prove better to you than himself; but you cannot think that he will thus let go his children that must live with him for ever. Have you not perceived that this is the design and meaning of his afflicting and disappointing providences ? even to leave you no comfortable entertainment or converse but with himself, and with his servants, and with those means that lead you to himself? If you begin to desire to lodge abroad in strange habitations, he will uncover those houses, and will not leave you a room that is dry to put your head in; or he will throw open the doors, and leave all open to the lust of ravenous beasts and robbers. He will have thy heart, and he will have thy company, because thou art his child, and because he loveth thee. He will allow thee neither thy carnal delights nor hopes. If he perceive thee either taking that pleasure in thy prosperity, which thou shouldest take in him alone, or hoping at least that the world may hereafter prove more amiable and delightful to thee; the more he loveth thee, the more his providence shall conspire with his grace, to change thy mind, by depriving thee of thy unwholesome, dangerous delights, and of all thy hopes of such hereafter. Use the world as a traveller, for the ends to which it was ordained, to the service of God, and the furtherance of thy salvation, and then thou shalt find that God will furnish thee with all that is necessary to these necessary ends : but if the world must have your love and care, and must be your chiefest business and delight, and your excuse for not attending upon God, murmur not, nor marvel not, if he dispose of it and you accordingly. If you are yet too healthful to think with seriousness on your eternal state; if you are too rich to part with all for Christ, or openly to own his cause; if you are too much esteemed in the world to own a scorned, slandered religion; if you are so busy for earth, that you cannot have time to think of heaven; if you have so much delight in house or land, or in your employment, or recreations, or friends, that

God and godliness can have little or none of your delight: marvel not then if God do shake your health, or waste your riches, or turn your honour into contempt, and suffer men to slander and reproach you, and spit in your face, and make you of no reputation: marvel not if he turn you out of all, or turn all to your grief and trouble, and make the world a desert to you, and the inhabitants as wolves and bears. The great lesson that Christ hath undertaken to teach you, is the difference betwixt the Creator and the creature, and the difference betwixt heaven and earth. The great work that Christ hath undertaken to do upon you, is to recover your hearts from the world to God : and this lesson he will teach you, and this work he will do upon you, whatever it cost you : for it must be done. Yet is not the world unjust enough, or cruel, or vexatious enough to you, to teach you to come home, and take up your content and rest in God ? It may then prove more cruel, and more vexatious to you, till you have better learned this necessary lesson. Yet is not your condition empty enough of carnal delusory pleasures, to wean you from the world, and make you look to surer things? Yet are you keeping up your worldly hopes, that the world will again prove better to you, and that you shall have happy days hereafter? It seems you are not yet brought low enough : you must yet take another purge, and perhaps a sharper than you took before: you must have more bloodletting, till your deliration cease, and your feverish thirst after creature comforts do abate. It is sad that we should be so foolish and unkind, as to stay from God, as long as any preferments, or pleasures, or profits in the world, will entertain us: but seeing it is so, let us be thankful both to that grace and that Providence which cureth us. If you perceive it not better to dwell with God, than with a flattering, prospering world, he will try whether you can think it better to dwell with God, than with a malicious, cruel, persecuting world : and whether it be better to have your hearts in heaven, than in poverty, prison, banishment or reproach. If you find it not better to converse with God, than with those that honour you, j)lease you, or prefer you ; he will try whether you can think it better to converse with him, than with those that hate, revile, belie, and persecute you. And are these the wise and wholesome methods of our great Physician ? And shall we

not rather be ruled by him, than by our brutish appetites ? and think better of his counsels, than of the blind concupiscence of the flesh ? Let this be the issue of all our sufferings, and all the cruelties and injuries of the world, to drive us home to converse with God, and to turn our desires, and labours, and expectations, to the true felicity that never will forsake us ; and then, the will of the Lord be done! Let him choose his means, if this may be the end: let us kiss the rod, and not revile it, if this may be the fruit of his corrections. Who will not pray that God would deny us those contents, which keep ua from seeking our content in him? And that he would deny us all those hurtful pleasures which hinder us from pleasing him, or from making him and his ways our chiefest pleasure ? and that he would permit us no such creature-converse, as hindereth our converse with him ? It is best living there (be it in prison or at liberty) where we may live best to God* Come home, O suffering Christian, to thy God ! take up thy content and rest in him; be satisfied with him as thy portion; and remember where it is that he is to be fully and perpetually enjoyed; and then it is good for thee that thou wast afflicted; for all thy sufferings have their end.

This last consideration will be further prosecuted in the following part; and the Directions for Walking with God, which I shall here give you, I have reserved for a peculiar Treatise, entitled, " A Christian Directory."

PART III.

THE

CHRISTIAN'S CONVERSE WITH GOD :

THE INSUFFICIENCY AND UNCERTAINTY OF HUMAN FRIENDSHIP; -

AND THE IMPROVEMENT OF SOLITUDE IN CONVERSE

WITH GOD: WITH SOME OF THE AUTHOR'S

BREATHINGS AFTER HIM.

JOHN xvi. 32.

Behold the hour cometh, yea, is come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

Having treated of our conformity to Christ in sufferings, in general, I since came distinctly to treat of his particular sufferings in which we must be conformed to him: and having gone over many of those particulars, I am this day to handle the instance of * Christ's being forsaken by his friends and followers/

He thought meet to foretell them how they should mani-r fest their infirmity and untrustiness in this temporary forsaking of him, that so he might more fully convince them, that he knew what was in man, and that he knew future contingencies, (or things to come, which seem most dependant on the will of man) and that he voluntarily submitted to his deserted state, and expected no support from creatures, but that man should then do least for Christ, when Christ was doing most for man : that man by an unthankful forsaking Christ, should then manifest his forsaken, deplorate state, when Christ was to make atonement for his reconciliation to God, and was preparing the most costly remedy for his recovery. He foretold them of the fruit which their infirmity would produce, to humble them that were apt to think

too highly of themselves for the late free confession they had made of Christ, when they had newly said, " Now we are sure that thou knowest all things: by this we are sure that thou comest forth from God." (John xvi. 30.)

He answereth them. " Do ye now believe ? Behold the hour Cometh," &c. Not that Christ would not have his servants know his graces in them, but he would also have them know the corruption that is latent, and the infirmity consistent with their grace. We are very apt to judge of all that is in us, and of all that we shall do hereafter, by what we feel at the present upon our hearts. As when we feel the stirring of some corruption, we are apt to think that there is nothing else, and hardly perceive the contrary grace, and are apt to think it will never be better with us ; so when we feel the exercise of faith, desire or love, we are apt to overlook the contrary corruptions, and to think that we shall never feel more. But Christ would keep us both humble and vigilant, by acquainting us with the mutability and inconstancy of our minds. When it goes well with us, we forget that the time is coming when it may go worse. As Christ said to his disciples here in the case of believing, we may say to ourselves in that and other cases, 'Do we now believe?* It is well: but the time may be coming in which we may be brought to shake with the stirrings of our remaining unbelief, and shrewdly tempted to question the truth of Christianity itself, and of the holy Scriptures, and of the life to come. Do we now rejoice in the persuasions of the love of God ? The time may be coming when we may think ourselves forsaken and undone, and think he will esteem and use us as his enemies. Do we now pray with fervour, and pour out our souls enlargedly to God ? It is well; but the time may be coming when we shall seem to be as dumb and prayerless, and say, we cannot pray, or else we find no audience and acceptance of our prayers. Christ knoweth that in us which we little know by ourselves; and therefore may foreknow that we will commit such sins, or fall into such dangers, as we little fear.

What Christ here prophesieth to them, did afterwards all come to pass. As soon as ever danger and trouble did appear, they began to flag, and to shew how ill they could adhere unto him, or suffer with him, without his special corroborating grace. In the garden when he was sweating

blood in prayer, they were sleeping: ** Though the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak:" they could not " watch with him one hour." (Matt. xxvi. 40, 41.) When he was apprehended, they shifted each man for himself, "Then all the disciples forsook him and fled:" (ver. 56:) and as this is said to be " that the Scriptures might be fulfilled," (ver. 54. 56,) so it might be said to be, that this prediction of Christ himself might be fulfilled. Not that Scripture prophecies did cause the sin by which they were fulfilled ; nor that God caused the sin, to fulfil his own predictions, but that God cannot be deceived who foretold in Scriptures long before that thus it would come to pass. When it is said that " thus it must be that the Scripture might be fulfilled," the meaning is not, that' thus God will make it be,' or * thus he causeth men to do,' that he may fulfil the Scriptures. It is not * necessitas consequentis vel causata/ that is inferred from predictions ; but only ' necessitas consequentisB 5' a logical necessity * in ordine cognoscendi et dicendi;' not a natural necessity ' in ordine essendi:' not a necessity of the thing itself, as caused by the prediction or decree; but a necessity of the truth of this conclusion in arguing; 'such a thing will be, because God hath decreed, foreknown or foretold it:' or, * whatever God foretelleth, must necessarily come to pass;' that is, will certainly come to pass : * but this God hath foretold: therefore this will come to pass.* Here are three observable points in the text, that are worthy our distinct consideration, though for brevity sake I shall handle them together.

1. That Christ was forsaken by his own disciples and left alone.

2. When the disciples left Christ, they were scattered every one to his own. They returned to their old habitations, and old acquaintance, and old employment, as if their hopes and hearts had been almost broken, and they had lost all their labour in following Christ so long. Yet the root of faith and love that still remained, caused them to inquire further of the end, and to come together in secret to confer about these matters.

3. When Christ was forsaken of his disciples and left alone, yet was he not forsaken of his Father, nor left so alone as to be separated from him or his love.

We are now to consider of this not only as a part of

Christ's humiliation, but also as a point in which we must expect to be conformed to him. It may possibly seem strange to us that Christ would suffer all his disciples to forsake him in his extremity ; and I doubt it will seem strange to us, when in our extremity, and our suffering for Christ (and perhaps for them) we shall find ourselves forsaken by those that we most highly valued, and had the greatest familiarity with. But there are many reasons of this permissive providence open to our observation.

1. No wonder, if when Christ was suffering for sin, he would even then permit the power and odiousness of sin to break forth, that it might be known he suffered not in vain. No wonder, if he permitted his followers to desert him, and shew the latent unbelief, and selfishness, and unthankful-ness that remained in them, that so they might know that the death of Christ was as necessary for them as for others ; and the universality of the disease might shew the need that the remedy should be universal. And it is none of Christ's intent to make his servants to seem better than they are, to themselves, or others, or to honour himself by the hiding of their faults, but to magnify his pardoning and healing grace, by the means or occasion of their sins which he pardoneth and healeth.

2. Hereby he will bring his followers to the fuller knowledge of themselves, and shew them that which all their days should keep them humble, and watchful, and save them from presumption and trusting in themselves. When we have made any full confession of Christ, or done him any considerable service, we are apt to say with the disciples, " Behold we have forsaken all and followed thee : what shall we have V (Matt. xix. 27.) As if they had rather beeii givers to Christ than receivers from him; and had highly merited at his hands. But when Peter forsweareth him, and the rest shift for themselves, and when they come to themselves, after such cowardly and ungrateful dealings ; then they will better understand their weakness, and know on whom they must depend.

3. Hereby also they shall better understand what they would have been if God had left them to themselves, that so they may be thankful for grace received, and may not boast themselves against the miserable world, as if they had made themselves to differ, and had not received all that

pjrace by which they excel the common sort. When our falls have hurt us and shamed us, we shall know to whom we must be beholden to support us.

4. Christ would permit his disciples thus far to forsake him, because he would have no support from man, in his sufferings for man. This was part of his voluntary humiliation, to be deprived of all earthly comforts, and to bear affliction even from those few, that but lately were his faithful servants. That men, dealing like men, and sinners, while he was doing like God, and as a Saviour, no man might challenge to himself the honour of contributing to the redemption of the world, so much as by encouraging the Redeemer.

5. Christ did permit the faith and courage of his disciples thus far to fail, that their witness to him might be of the greater credit and authority, when his actual resurrection, and the communication of the Spirit, should compel them to believe. When all their doubts were dissipated, they that had doubted themselves, and yet were constrained to believe, would be received as the most impartial witnesses by the doubting world.

6. Lastly, by the desertion and dissipation of his disciples, Christ would teach us whenever we are called to follow him in suffering, what to expect from the best of men: even to know that of themselves they are untrusty, and may fail us : and therefore not to look for too much assistance or encouragement from them. Paul lived in a time when Christians were more self-denying and steadfast than they are now. And Paul was one that might better expect to be faithfully accompanied in his sufferings for Christ, than any of us : and yet he saith, " At my first answer no one stood with me, but all men forsook me:" (2 Tim. iv. 16:) and prayeth, that it be not laid to their charge. Thus you have seen some reasons why Christ consented to be left gf all, and permitted his disciples to desert him in his sufferings.

Yet, note here, that it is but a partial, temporary forsaking that Christ permitteth; and not a total or final forsaking or apostacy. Though he will let them see that they are yet men, he will not leave them to be but as other men : nor will he quite cast them off, or suffer them to perish.

Nor is it all alike that thus forsake him. Peter doth not

do as Judas. The sincere may manifest their infirmity ; but the hypocrites will manifest their hypocrisy.

And accordingly in our sufferings, our familiars that were false-hearted (as being worldlings and carnal at the heart) may perhaps betray us, and set against us, or forsake the cause of Christ, and follow the way of gain and honour. When our tempted, shrinking friends, that yet may have some sincerity, may perhaps look strange at us, and seem not to know us, and may hide their heads and shew their fears ; and perhaps also begin to study some self-deceiving arguments and distinctions, and to stretch their consciences, and venture on some sin, because they are afraid to venture on affliction; till Christ shall cast a gracious, rebuking, quickening aspect on them, and shame them for their sinful shame, and fear them from their sinful fears, and inflame their love to him by the motions of his love to them, and destroy the love that turned them from him : and then the same . men that dishonourably failed Christ and us, and began to shrink, will turn back and reassume their arms, and by patient suffering overcome, and win the crown, as we have done before.

Use, Christians expect to be conformed to our Lord in this part of his humiliation also. Are your friends yet fast and friendly to you ? For all that expect that many of them, at least, should prove less friendly: and promise not yourselves an unchanged constancy in them. Are they yet useful to you ? Expect the time when they cannot help you. Are they your comforters and delight, and is their company much of your solace upon earth? Be ready for the time when they may become your sharpest scourges, and most heart-piercing griefs, or at least when you shall say, " We have no pleasure in them." Have any of them, or all, already failed you ? What wonder ? Are they not men, and sinners? To whom were they ever so constant as not to fail them ? Rebuke yourselves for your unwarrantable expectations from them: and learn hereafter to know what man is, and expect that friends should use you as followeth.

1. Some of them that you thought sincere, shall prove perhaps unfaithful and dissemblers, and upon fallings out, or matters of self-interest, may seek your ruin. Are you better than David, that had an Achitophel? Or than Paul,

that had a Demas ? Or than Christ, that had a Judas? Some will forsake God : what wonder then if they forsake you ? '* Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." (Matt. xxiv. 12.) Where pride and vain-glory, and sensuality and worldliness are unmortified at the heart, there is no trustiness in such persons: for their wealth, or honour, or fleshly interest, they will part with God and their salvation ; muoh more with their best deserving friends. Why may not you, as well as Job, have occasion to complain, *' He hath put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintance are verily estranged from me. My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. They that dwell in my house, and my maidens, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight, I called my servant, and he gave me no answer: I entreated him with my mouth: my breath is strange to my wife; though 1 entreated for the childrens* sake of my own body: yea, young children despised me : I arose, and they spake against me : all my inward friends abhorred me; and they whom I loved are turned against me." {Job xix. 13—19.) Why may not you as well as David be put to say, " Yea mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lift up his heel against me." (Psal. xli. 9.) Those that have been most acquainted with the secrets of your soul, and privy to your very thoughts, may be the persons that shall betray you, or grow strange to you. Those that you have most obliged by benefits, may prove your greatest enemies. You may find some of your friends like birds of prey, that hover about you for what they can get, and when they have caught it fly away. If you have given them all that you have, they will forsake you, and perhaps reproach you, because you have no more to give them. They are your friends more for what they yet expect from you, than for what they have already received. If you cannot still be helpful to them, or feed their covetous desires, or supply their wants, you are to them but as one that they had never known. Many a faithful minister of Christ hath studied, and preached, and prayed, and wept for their people's souls, and after all have been taken for their enemies, and used as such; yea even because they have done so much for them. Like the patient, that being cured of a mortal sickness, sued his physician at law for making him sick with

VOL. XIII. u

the physic. (But it is, indeed, our uncured patients only that are offended with us.) Paul was accounted an enemy to the Galatians, because he told them the truth. Ungrateful truth maketh the faithfuUest preachers most ungrateful. It must seem no wonder to a preacher of the Gospel, when he hath entreated, prayed and wept night and day for miserable souls, and laid his hands as it were under their feet, in hopes of their conversion and salvation, to find them after all his bitterest enemies, and seeking his destruction, that could have laid down his life for their salvation. Jeremy seemed too impatient under this affliction, when he said, " Give heed to me, O Lord, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. Shall evil be recompensed for good ? Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them. Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword,'* &c. (Jer. xviii. 19, 20.)

Thus may ingratitude afflict you, and kindness be requited with unkindness, and the greatest benefits be forgotten, and requited with the greatest wrongs. Your old familiars may be your foes; and you may be put to say as Je-temy, " For I heard the defaming of many : fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him." (Jer. xx. 10.) Thus must the servants of Christ be used, in conformity to their suffering Head.

2. And some that are sincere, and whose hearts are with you, may yet be drawn by temptation to disown you. When malice is slandering you, timorous friendship may perhaps be silent, and afraid to justify you or take your part. When a Peter in such imbecility and fear can disown and deny his suffering Lord, what wonder if faint-hearted friends disown you, or me, that may give them too much occasion or pretence ? Why may not you and I be put to say as David did, ** My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stand afar off. They that seek after my life lay snares for me : and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long." (Psal. xxxviii. 11,12.) They that in fearfulness will fail their

Maker and Redeemer, and hazard their salvation, may by a smaller temptation be drawn to fail such friends as we.

3. Moreover a hundred things may occasion fallings out even amongst unfeigned friends. Passions may cause inconvenient actions or expressions, and these may cause passions in their friends; and these may grow so high till friends do seem to one another to be like enemies. Paul and Barnabas may grow so hot, as to fall out to a parting. How easily can Satan set fire on the tinder which he findeth in the best and gentlest natures, if God permit him ? No friends so near and dear, that passionate weaknesses may not either alienate or make a grief to one another. How apt are we to take unkindnesses at one another, and to be suspicious of our friends, or offended with them! And how apt to give occasion of such offence ! How apt are we to censure one another, and to misinterpret the words and actions of our friends ! And how apt to give occasion of such mistakes and cutting censures! And the more kindness we have found in, or expected from our friends, the more their real or supposed injuries will affect us. We are apt to say, ' Had it been a stranger, 1 could have borne it: but to be used thus by my bosom or familiar friend, goes^ near my heart.' And indeed, the unkindnesses of friends is no small affliction; the suffering going usually as near the heart, as the person that caused it was near it. Especially when our own weakness causeth us to forget the frailty and infirmities of man, and with what allowances and expectations we must choose and use our friends ; and when we forget the love that re-maineth in the midst of passions.

4. Also cross interests and unsuitableness may exceedingly interrupt the fastest friendship. Friendship is very much founded in suitableness, and maintained by it: and among mortals, there is no perfect suitableness to be found; but much unsuitableness still remaineth. That which pleas-eth one, is displeasing to another. One liketh this place, and the other that: one liketh this habit, and the other that: one is for mirth, and the other for sadness : one for talk, and the other for silence : one for a public, and the other for a private life. And their personality or individuation having self-love as inseparable, will unavoidably cause a contrariety of interests. The creature is insufficient for us : if one have it, perhaps the other must want it: like a covering too nar-

row for the bed. Sometimes our reputations seem to stand cross, so that one man's is diminished by another's. And how apt is envy to create a grudge, and raise unfriendly jealousies and distastes ! Sometimes the commodity of one is the discommodity of the other: and then mine and thine (which are contrary to the community of friendship) may divide, and alienate, and make two of those that seemed one. The instances of Abraham and Lot (upon the difference among their servants), and of Isaac and Ishmael, and of Jacob and Esau, and of Laban and Jacob, and of Leah and Rachael, and of Joseph and his brethren, and of Saul and David, and of Ziba, Mephibosheth and David, with many others, tell us this. It is rare to meet with a Jonathan, that will endearedly love that man to the death, who is appointed to deprive him of a kingdom. If one can but say, I suffer by him, or I am a loser by him, it seemeth enough to excuse unfriendly thoughts and actions. When you can gratify the desires of all covetous, ambitious, self-seeking persons in the world, or else cure their diseases, and possess their minds with perfect charity, then all the world will be your friends.

5. Cross opinions also are like to alienate many of your friends. This age hath over and over again given the world as full and sad demonstrations of the power of cross opinions to alienate friends, and make divisions, as most ages of the world have ever had. If your friend be proud, it is wonderful how he will slight you, and withdraw his love, if you be not of his mind. If he be zealous, he is easily tempted to think it a part of his duty to God, to disown you if you differ from him, as taking you for one that disowneth the truth of God, and therefore one that God himself disowneth; or at least to grow cold in his affection toward you, and to decline from you, as he that thinks you do from God. As agreement in opinions doth strangely reconcile affections; so disagreement doth secretly and strangely alienate them: even before you are well aware, your friend hath lost possession of your hearts, because of an unavoidable diversity of apprehensions. When all your friends have the same intellectual complexion and temperature, and measure of understanding with yourselves, then you may have hope to escape the ruptures which unlikeness and differences of apprehensions might else cause.

CONVERSING WITH GOD IN SOLITUDE. 293

6. Moreover, some of your friends may so far overgrow you in wisdom, or wealth, or honour, or worth in their own conceits, that they may begin to take you to be unsuitable for them, and unmeet for their further special friendship. Alas ! poor man, they will pity thee that thou art no wiser, and that thou hast no greater light to change thy mind as fast as they, or that thou art so weak and ignorant as not to see what seems to them so clear a truth ; or that thou art so simple to cast away thyself by crossing them that might prefer thee, or to fall under the displeasure of those that have power to raise or ruin thee: but if thou be so simple, thou mayest be the object of their lamentation, but art no familiar friend for them. They think it fittest to close and converse with those of their own rank and stature, and not with such shrubs and children, that may prove their trouble and dishonour.

7. And some of your friends will think that by a more thorough acquaintance with you, they have found out more of your infirmities or faults; and therefore have found that you are less amiable and valuable than at first they judged you. They will think that by distance, unacquaintedness, and an overhasty love and judgment, they were mistaken in you; and that now they see reason to repent of the love which they think was guilty of some errors and excess: when they come nearer you, and have had more trial of you, they will think they are fitter to j udge of you than before: and indeed our defects are so many, and all our infirmities so great, that the more men know us, the more they may see in us that deserveth pity or reproof; and as pictures, we appear less beautiful at the nearest view : though this will not warrant the withdrawing of that love which is due to friends, and to virtue, even in the imperfect; nor will excuse that alienation, and decay of friendship that is caused by the pride of such as overlook perhaps much greater failings and weaknesses in themselves, which need forgiveness.

8. And perhaps some of your friends will grow weary of their friendship, having that infirmity of human nature, not to be much pleased with one thing long. Their love is a flower that quickly withereth; it is a short lived thing that soon groweth old. It must be novelty that must feed their love and their delight.

in their apprehensions, they may have so much interest as to take them up, and leave no room for ancient friends. It may be, thay have met with those that are more suitable, or can be more useful to them: that have more learning, or wit, or wealth, or power, than you have, and therefore seem more worthy of their friendship.

10. And some of them may think when you are in a low and suffering state, and in danger of worse, that it is part of their duty of self-preservation to be strange to you (though in heart they wish you well). They will think they are not bound to hazard themselves upon the displeasure of superiors, to own or befriend you, or any other: though they must not desert Christ, they think they may desert a man for their own preservation.

To avoid both extremes, in such a case, men must both study to understand which way is most serviceable to Christ, and to his church, and withal, to be able to deny themselves, and also must study to understand what Christ meaneth in his final sentence, " In as much as you did it (or did it not) to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it (or did it not) to me." As, if it were to visit the contagious ; we must neither cast away our lives to do no good, or for that which in value holdeth no proportion with them; nor yet must we deny to run any hazard when it is indeed our duty: so is it in our visiting those that suffer for the cause of Christ: (only here the owning them being the confessing of him, we need more seldom to fear being too forward).

11. And some of your friends may cover their unfaithfulness with the pretence of some fault that you have been guilty of, some error that you hold, or some unhandsome or culpable act that you have done, or some duty that you have left undone or failed in. For they think there is not a better shelter for their unfaithfulness, than to pretend for it the name and cause of God, and so to make a duty of their sin. Who would not justify them, if they can but prove, that God requireth them, and religion obligeth them, to forsake you for your faults ? There are few crimes in the world that by some are not fathered on God (that most hateth them), as thinking no name can so much honour them. False friends therefore use this means as well as other hypocrites: and though Gpd is love, and condemneth no-

thing more than uncharitableness and malice, yet these are commonly by false-hearted hypocrites, called by some pious, virtuous names, and God himself is entitled to them: so that few worldlings, ambitious persons or time-servers, but will confidently pretend religion for all their falsehood to their friends, or bloody cruelty to the servants of Christ, that comply not with their carnal interest.

12. Perhaps some of your friends may really mistake your case, and think that you suffer as evil doers, and instead of comforting you, may be your sharpest censurers. This is one of the most notable things set out to our observation in the book of Job : it was not the smallest part of his affliction, that when the hand of God was heavy upon him, and then if ever was the time for his friends to have been his comforters, and friends indeed, on the contrary they became his scourge, and by unjust accusations, and misinterpretations of the providence of God, did greatly add to his affliction! When God had taken away his children, wealth and health, his friends would take away the reputation and comfort of his integrity; and under pretence of bringing him to repentance, did charge him with that which he was never guilty of: they wounded his good name, and would have wounded his conscience, and deprived him of his inward peace: censorious, false accusing friends, do cut deeper than malicious, slandering enemies. It is no wonder, if strangers or enemies do misjudge and misreport our actions: but when your bosom friends, that should most intimately know you, and be the chief witnesses of your in-nocency against all others, shall in their jealousy, or envy, or peevishness, or falling out, be your chief reproaches and unjust accusers, as it makes it seem more credible to others, so it will come nearer to yourselves. And yet this is a thing that must be expected ; yea, even your most self-denying acts of obedience to God, may be so misunderstood by godly men, and real friends, as by them to be taken for your great miscarriage, and turned to your rebuke: as David's dancing before the ark was by his wife ; which yet did but make him resolve to be yet more vile. If you be cast into poverty, or disgrace, or prison, or banishment, for your necessary obedience to Christ, perhaps your friend or wife may become your accuser for this your greatest service, and say, This is your own doing: your rashness, or indis-

cretion, or self-conceitedness, or wilfulness hath brought it upon you. What need had you to say such words, or J;o do this or that ? Why could not you have yielded in so small a matter? Perhaps your most costly and excellent obedience shall, by your nearest friends, be called the fruits of pride, or humour, or passion, or some corrupt affection, or at least of folly or inconsiderateness. When flesh and blood hath long been striving in you against your duty, and saying. Do not cast away thyself: O serve not God at so dear a rate! God doth not require thee to undo thyself; why shouldest thou not avoid so great inconveniences ? When with much ado you have conquered all your carnal reasonings, and denied yourselves and your carnal interests, you must expect, even from some religious friends, to be accused for these very actions, and perhaps their accusations may fasten such a blot upon your names, as shall never be washed out till the day of judgment. By difference of interests, or apprehensions, and by unacquaintedness with your hearts, and actions, the righteousness of the righteous may be thus taken from him, and friends may do the work of enemies, yea, of Satan himself, the accuser of the brethren ; and may prove as thorns in your bed, and gravel in your shoes, yea, in your eyes, and wrong you much more than open adversaries could have done. How it is like to go with that man's reputation, you may easily judge, whose friends are like Job's, and his enemies like David's, that lay snares before him, and diligently watch for matter of reproach ; yet this may befall the best of men.

13. You may be permitted by God to fall into some real crime, and then your friends may possibly think it is their duty to disown you, so far as you have wronged God: when you provoke God to frown upon you, he may cause your friends to frown upon you : if you will fall out with him, and grow strange to him, no marvel if your truest friends fall out with you, and grow strange to you. They love you for your godliness, and for the sake of Christ; and therefore must abate their love, if you abate your godliness ; and must, for the sake of Christ, be displeased with you for your sins. And if in such a case of real guilt, you should be displeased at their displeasure, and should expect that your friend should befriend your sin, or carry himself towards you in your guilt, as if you were innocent, you will but show

that you understand not the nature of true friendship, nor the use of a true friend ; and are yet yourselves too friendly to your sins.

14. Moreover, those few friends that are truest to you, may be utterly unable to relieve you in your distress, or to give you ease, or to do you any good. The case may be such that they can but pity you, and lament your sorrows, and weep over you: you may see in them that man is not as God, whose friendship can accomplish all the good that he desireth to his friends. The wisest, and greatest, and best of men, are silly comforters, and uneffectual helps. You may be sick, and pained, and grieved, and distressed, notwithstanding any thing that they can do for you; nay, perhaps in their ignorance, they may increase your misery, while they desire your relief; and by striving indirectly to help and ease you, may tie the knot faster and make you worse. They may provoke those more against you that oppress you, while they think they speak that which should tend to set you free : they may think to ease your troubled minds by such words as shall increase the troubled; or to deliver you as Peter would have delivered Christ, and saved his Saviour, first by carnal counsel; " Be it far from thee. Lord ; this shall not be unto thee :" (Matt. xvi. 22 :) And then by carnal unjust force, (by drawing his sword against the officers). Love and good meaning will not prevent the mischiefs of ignorance and mistake. If your friend cut your throat, while he thought to cut but a vein to cure your disease, it is not his friendly meaning that will save your lives. Many a thousand sick people are killed by their friends, that attend them, with an earnest desire of their life; while they ignorantly give them that which is contrary to their disease, and will not be the less pernicious for the good meaning of the giver. Who have more tender affections than mothers to their children? And yet a great part of the calamity of the world of sickness, and the misery of man's life, proceedeth from the ignorant and erroneous indulgence of mothers to their children, who to please them, let them eat and drink what they will, and use them to excess and gluttony in their childhood, till nature be abused and mastered, and clogged with those superfluities and crudities, which are the dunghill matter of most of the following diseases of their lives.

I might here also remember you how your friends may themselves be overcome with a temptation, and then become the more dangerous tempters of you, by how much the greater their interest is in your affections. If they be infected with error, they are the likest persons to ensnare you: if they be tainted with covetousness or pride, there is none so likely to draw you to the same sin: and so your friends may be in effect your most deadly enemies, deceivers and destroyers.

15. And if you have friends that are never so firm and constant, they may prove (not only unable to relieve you, but) very additions to your grief. If they are afflicted in the participation of your sufferings, as your troubles are become theirs (without your ease), so their trouble for you will become yours, and so the stock of your sorrow will be increased. And they are mortals, and liable to distress as well as you. And therefore they are like to bear their share in several sorts of sufferings: and so friendship will make their sufferings to be yours: their sicknesses and pains, their fears and griefs, their wants and dangers, will all be yours. And the more they are your hearty friends, the more they will be yours. And so you will have as many additions to the proper burden of your griefs, as you have suffering friends : when you do but hear that they are dead, you say as Thomas, *' Let us also go that we may die with him." (John xi. 16.) And having many such friends you will almost always have one or other of them in distress ; and so be seldom free from sorrow ; besides all that which is properly your own.

16. Lastly, If you have a friend that is both true and useful, yet you may be sure he must stay with you but a little while. ** The godly men will cease, and the faithful fail from among the children of men ; while men of lying, flattering lips, and double hearts survive, and the wicked walk on every side, while the vilest men are exalted." (Psal. xii, 1, 2. 8.) While swarms of false, malicious men are left round about you, perhaps God will take away your dearest friends. If among a multitude of unfaithful ones, you have but one that is your friend indeed, perhaps God will take away that one. He may be separated from you into another country; or taken away to God by death. Not that God doth grudge you the mercy of a faithful friend; but

that he would be your All, and would not have you hurt yourselves with too much affection to any creature, and for other reasons to be named anon.

And to be forsaken of your friends is not all your affliction : but to be forsaken is a great aggravation of it. 1. For they used to forsake us in our greatest sufferings and straits, when we have the greatest need of them.

2. They fail us most at a dying hour, when all other worldly comfort faileth: as we must leave our houses, lands and wealth, so must we for the present leave our friends : and as all the rest are silly comforters, when we have once received our citation to appear before the Lord, so also are our friends but silly comforters : they can weep over us, but they cannot, with all their care, delay the separating stroke of death, one day or hour.

Only by their prayers, and holy advice, remembering us of everlasting things, and provoking us in the work of preparation, they may prove to us friends indeed. And therefore we must value a holy, heavenly, faithful friend, as one of the greatest treasures upon earth. And while we take notice how, as men, they may forsake us, we must not deny but that, as saints, they are precious, and of singular use to us; and Christ useth by them to communicate his mercies; and if any creatures in the world may be blessings to us, it is holy persons, that have most of God in their hearts and lives.

3. And it is an aggravation of the cross, that they often fail us, when we are most faithful in our duty, and stumble most upon the most excellent acts of our obedience.

4. And those are the persons that oftentimes fail us, of whom we have deserved best, and from whom we might have expected most.

Review the experiences of the choicest servants that Christ hath had in the world, and you shall find enough to confirm you of the vanity of man, and the instability of the dearest friends. How highly was Athanasius esteemed; and yet at last deserted and banished by.the famous Constantine himself! How excellent a man was Gregory Nazianzen, and highly valued in the church; and yet by reproach and discouragements driven away from his church at Constantinople whither hfi was chosen, and envied by the bishops round about him. How worthy a man was the eloquent

Chrysostom, and highly valued in the church ; and yet how bitterly was he prosecuted by Hierom and Epiphanius; and banished, and died in a second banishment, by the provocation of factious, contentious bishops, and an empress impatient of his plain reproofs! What person more generally esteemed and honoured for learning, piety, and peaceable-ness, than Melancthon; and yet by the contentions of Illy-ricus and his party, he was made aweary of his life. As highly as Calvin was (deservedly) valued at Geneva, yet once in a popular lunacy and displeasure, they drove him out of their city, and in contempt of him some called their dogs by the name of Calvin; (though after they were glad to entreat him to return.) How much our Grindal and Abbot were esteemed, it appeareth by their advancement to the archbishopric of Canterbury ; and yet who knoweth not that their eminent piety sufficed not to keep them from dejecting frowns ! And if you say, that it is no wonder if with princes through interest, and with people through levity, it be thus; I might heap up instances of the like untrustiness of particular friends ; but all history, and the experiences of the most, do so much abound with them, that I think it needless. Which of us must not say with David, that "All men are liars;" (Psal. cxvi;) that is, deceitful and untrusty; either through unfaithfulness, weakness or insufficiency; that either will forsake us, or cannot help us in time of need. Was Christ forsaken in his extremity by his own disciples, to teach us what to expect, or bear? Think it not strange then to be conformed to your Lord, in this, as well as in other parts of his humiliation. Expect that men should prove deceitful: Not that you should entertain censorious suspicions of your particular friends : but remember in general that man is frail, and the best too selfish and uncertain ; and that it is no wonder if those should prove your greatest grief, from whom you had the highest expectations. Are you better than Job, or David, or Christ? and are your friends more firm and unchangeable than theirs ?

Consider, 1. That creatures must be set at a sufficient distance from their Creator. Allsufficiency, immutability and indefectible fidelity, are proper to Jehovah. As it is no wonder for the sun to set, or be eclipsed, as glorious a body as it is, so it is no wonder for a friend, a pious friend, to fail us, for a time, in the hour of our distress. There are some

that will not: but there is none but may, if God should leave them to their weakness. Man is not your rock: he hath no stability but what is derived, dependant, and uncertain, and defectible. Learn therefore to rest on God alone, and lean not too hard or confidently upon any mortal wight.

2. And God will have the common infirmity of man to Joe known, that so the weakest may not be utterly discouraged, nor take their weakness to be gracelessness, whilst they see that the strongest also have their infirmities, though not so great as theirs. If any of God's servants live in constant holiness and fidelity, without any shakings or stumbling in their way, it would tempt some self-accusing, troubled souls, to think that they vi^ere altogether graceless, because they are so far short of others. But when we read of a Peter's denying his master in so horrid a manner, with swearing and cursing, that he. knew not the man, (Matt. xxvi. 74,) and of his dissimulation and not walking uprightly; (Gal. ii;) and of a David's unfriendly and unrighteous dealing with Mephibosheth, the seed of Jonathan; and of his most vile and treacherous dealing with Uriah, a faithful and deserving subject; it may both abate our wonder and offence at the unfaithfulness of our friends, and teach us to compassionate their frailty, when they desert us; and also somewhat abate our immoderate dejectedness and trouble, when we have failed God or man ourselves.

3. Moreover, consider, how the odiousness of that sin, which is the root and cause of such unfaithfulness, is greatly manifested by the failing of our friends. God will have the odiousness of the remnants of our self-love and carnal-mindedness, and cowardice appear: we should not discern it in the seed and root, if we did not see, and taste it in the fruits. Seeing without tasting will not sufficiently convince us. A crab looks as beautiful as an apple ; but when you taste it, you better know the difference. When you must yourselves be unkindly used by your friends, and forsaken by them in your distress, and you have tasted the fruits of the remnants of their worldliness, selfishness and carnal fears, you will better know the odiousness of these vices, which thus break forth against all obligations to God and you, and notwithstanding the light, the conscience, and perhaps the grace, that doth resist them.

4. Are you not prone to overvalue and overlove your friends? If so, is not this the meetest remedy for your disease ? In the loving of God, vi^e are in no danger of excess ; and therefore have no need of anything to quench it. And in the loving of the godly, purely upon account of Christ, and in loving saints as saints, we are not apt to go too far. But yet our understandings may mistake, and we may think that saints have more of sanctity than indeed they have; and we are exceeding apt to mix a selfish common love, with that which is- spiritual and holy; and at the same time, when we love a Christian as a Christian, we are apt not only to love him (as we ought) but to overlove him because he is our friend, and loveth us. Those Christians that have no special love to us, we are apt to undervalue and neglect, and love them below their holiness and worth : but those that we think entirely love us, we love above their proper worth, as they stand in the esteem of God: not but that we may love those that love us, and add this love to that which is purely for the sake of Christ; but we should not let our own interest prevail and overtop the interest of Christ, nor love any so much for loving us, as for loving Christ: and if we do so, no wonder if God shall use such remedies as he seeth meet, to abate our excess of selfish love.

O how highly are we apt to think of all that good which is found in those who are the highest esteemers of us, and most dearly love us; when perhaps in itself it is but some ordinary good, or ordinary degree of goodness which is in them! Their love to us irresistibly procureth our love to them: and when we love them, it is wonderful to observe, how easily we are brought to think well of almost all they do, and highly to value their judgments, graces, parts and works: when greater excellencies in another, perhaps, are scarce observed, or regarded but as a common thing. And therefore the destruction or want of love, is apparent in the vilifying thoughts and speeches, that most men have of one another; and in the low esteem of the judgments, and performances and lives of other men : (much more in their contempt, reproaches and cruel persecutions.) Now though God will have us increase in our love of Christ in his members, and in our pure love of Christians, as such, and in our common charity to all, yea, and in our just fidelity to our friend; yet would he have us suspect and

moderate our selfish and excessive love, and inordinate partial esteem of one above another, when it is but for ourselves and on our own account. And therefore as he will make us know, that we ourselves are no such excellent persons, as that it should make another so laudable, or advance his worth, because he loveth us; so he will make us know, that our friends, whom we overvalue, are but like other men: if we exalt them too highly in our esteem, it is a sign that God must cast them down. And as their love to us, was it that made us so exalt them; so their unkindness or unfaithfulness to us is the fittest means to bring them lower in our estimation and affection. God is very jealous of our hearts, as to our overvaluing and overloving any of his creatures: What we give inordinately and excessively to them, is some way or other taken from him, and given them to his injury, and therefore to his offence. Though I know that to be void of natural, friendly or social affections, is an odious extreme on the other side; yet God will rebuke us if we are guilty of excess. And it is the greater and more inexcusable fault to overlove the creature, because our love to God is so cold, and so hardly kindled and kept alive! He cannot take it well to see us dote upon dust and frailty like ourselves, at the same time when all his wondrous kindness, and attractive goodness, do cause but such a faint and languid love to him, which we ourselves can scarcely feel. If therefore he cure us by permitting our friends to shew us truly what they are, and how little they deserve such excessive love (when God hath so little) it is no more wonder, than it is that he is tender of his glory, and merciful to his servants' souls.

5. By the failing and unfaithfulness of our friends, the wonderful patience of God will be observed and honoured, as it is shewed both to them and us. When they forsake us in our distress (especially when we suffer for the cause of Christ) it is God that they injure more than us: and therefore if he bear with them, and forgive their weakness upon repentance, why should not we do so, that are much less injured? The world's perfidiousness should make us think, how great and wonderful is the patience of God, that beareth with, and beareth up so vile, ungrateful, treacherous men that abuse him to whom they are infinitely obliged! And it should make us consider, when men deal treacherously with us, how great is that mercy that hath borne with.

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and pardoned greater wrongs, which I myself have done to God, than these can be which men have done to me ! It was the remembrance of David's sin, that had provoked God to raise up his own son against him (of whom he had been too fond), which made him so easily bear the curses and reproach of Shimei. It will make us bear abuse from others, to remember how ill we have dealt with God, and how ill we have deserved at his hands ourselves.

6. And I have observed another reason of God's permitting the failing of our friends. It is, that the love of our friends may not hinder us when we are called to suffer or die. When we overlove them, it teareth our very hearts to leave them: and therefore it is a strong temptation to draw us from our duty, and to be unfaithful to the cause of Christ, lest we should be taken from our too dear friends, or lest our suffering cause their too much grief. It is so hard a thing to die with willingness and peace, that it must needs be a mercy to be saved from the impediments which make us backward : And the excessive love of friends and relations, is not the least of these impediments: O how loath is many a one to die, when they think of parting with wife, or husband, or children, or dear and faithful friends ! Now I have oft observed, that a little before their death or sickness, it is ordinary with God to permit some unkindness between such too dear friends to arise, by which, he moderated and abated their affections, and made them a great deal the more willing to die. Then we are ready to say, It is time for me to leave the world, when not only the rest of the world but my dearest friends have first forsaken me! This helpeth us to remember our dearest everlasting Friend, and to be grieved at the heart that we have been no truer ourselves to him, who would not have forsaken us in our extremity. And sometimes it maketh us even aweary of the world, and to say as Elias, " Lord take away my life," &c., (1 Kings xix. 4. 10. 14,) when we must say, ' I thought I had one friend left, and behold even he forsaketh me in my distress.' As the love of friends entangleth our affections to this world, so to be weaned, by their unkindnesses, from our friends, is a great help to loosen us from the world, and proveth oft a very great mercy to a soul that is ready to depart.

And as the friends that love us most, and have most interest in our esteem and love, may do more than others, in

tempting us to be unfaithful to our Lord, to entertain any error, to commit any sin, or to flinch in suffering; so when God hath permitted them to forsake us, and to lose their too great interest in us, we are fortified against all such temptations from them. I have known where a former intimate friend hath grown strange, and broken former friendship, and quickly after turned to such dangerous ways and errors, as convinced the other of the mercifulness of God, in weakening his temptation by his friend's desertion ; who might else have drawn him along with him into sin. And I have often observed, that when the husbands have turned from religion to infidelity, familism, or some dangerous heresy, that God hath permitted them to hate and abuse their wives so inhumanly, as that it preserved the poor women from the temptation of following them in their apostacy or sin : when as some other women with whom their husbands have dealt more kindly, have been drawn away with them into pernicious paths.

Therefore still I must say, we were undone if we had the disposing of our own conditions. It would be long before we should have been willing ourselves to be thus unkindly dealt with by our friends; and yet God hath made it to many a soul, a notable means of preserving them from being undone for ever. Yea, the unfaithfulness of all our friends, and the malice and cruelty of all our enemies, doth us not usually so much harm, as the love and temptation of some one deluded erring friend, whom we are ready to follow into the gulf.

7. Lastly, consider that it is not desirable or suitable to our state, to have too much of our comfort by any creature: not only because it is most pure and sweet, which is most immediately from God; but because also we are very prone to over-love the creature; and if it should but seem to be very commodious to us, by serving our necessities or desires, it would seem the more amiable, and therefore be the stronger snare. The work of mortification doth much consist in the annihilation or deadness of all the creatures, as to any power to draw away our hearts from God, or to entangle us and detain us from our duty. And the more excellent and lovely the creature appeareth to us, the less it is dead to us, or we to it; and the more will it be able to hinder or ensnare us.

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When you have well considered all these things, I suppose you will admire the wisdom of God in leaving you under this kind of trial, and weaning you from every creature, and teaching you by his providence, as well as by his word, to cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of? And you will see that it is no great wonder that corrupted souls, thiat live in other sins, should be guilty of this unfaithfulness to their friends : and that he that dare unthankfully trample upon the unspeakable kindness of the Lord, should deal unkindly with the best of men. You make no great wonder at other kind of sins, when you see the world continually commit them ; why then should you make a greater or stranger matter of this, than of the rest? Are you better than God? Must unfaithfulness to you be made more heinous, than that unfaithfulness to him, which yet you daily see and slight? The least wrong to God is a thousandfold more than the greatest that can be done to you, as such. Have you done that for your nearest friend, which God hath done for him, and you, and all men ? Their obligations to you are nothing in comparison of their great and manifold obligations to God.

And you know that you have more wronged God yourselves, than any man ever wronged you; and if yet for all that, he bear with you,, have you not great reason to bear with others ?.

Yea, you have not been innocent towards men yourselves. Did you never wrong or fail another? Or rather, are you not more apt to see and aggravate the wrong that others do to you, than that which you have done to others ? May you not call to mind your own neglects, and say as Adoni-bezek, " Threescore and ten kings having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: As I have done so God hath requited me." (Judges i. 7.) Many a one have 1 failed or wronged, and no wonder if others fail and wrong me.

Nay, you have been much more unfaithful and injurious to yourselves, than ever any other hath been to you. No friend was so near you, as yourselves ; none had such a charge of you ; none had such helps and advantages to do you good or hurt; and yet all the enemies you have in the world, even in earth or hell, have not wronged and hurt you

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half SO much as you have done yourselves! O, methinks the man or woman that knoweth themselves, and knoweth what it is to repent; that ever saw the greatness of their own sin and folly, should have no great mind or leisure to aggravate the failing of their friends, or the injuries of their enemies, considering what they have proved to themselves! Have I forfeited my own salvation, and deserved everlasting wrath, and sold my Saviour and my soul for so base a thing as sinful pleasure, and shall I ever make a wonder of it, that another man doth me some temporal hurt? Was any friend so near to me as myself; or more obliged to me? O sinful soul, let thy own, rather than thy friend's deceit and treachery, and neglects, be the matter of thy displeasure, wonder and complaints!

And let thy conformity herein to Jesus Christ, be thy holy ambition and delight: not as it is thy sutFering, nor as it is caused by men's sin; but as it is thy conformity and fellowship in the sufferings of thy Lord, and caused by his love.

1 have already shewed you that sufferers for Christ, are in the highest form among his disciples. The order of his followers usually is this: 1. At our entrance, and in the lowest form, we are exercised with the fears of hell, and God's displeasure, and in the works of repentance for the sin that we have done. 2. In the second form, we come to think more seriously of the remedy, and to inquire what we shall do to be saved, and to understand better what Christ hath done and suffered, and what he is and will be to us; and to value him, and his love and grace. And here we are much inquiring how we may know our own sincerity, and our interest in Christ, and are labouring for some assurance, and looking after signs of grace. 3. In the next form or order we are searching after further knowledge, and labouring better to understand the mysteries of religion, and to get above the rudiments and first principles: and here if we escape turning bare opinionists or heretics, by the snare of controversy or curiosity, it is well. 4. In the next form we set ourselves to the fuller improvement of all our further degrees of knowledge ; and to digest it all, and turn it into stronger faith, and love, and hope, and greater humility, patience, self-denial, mortification, and contempt of earthly vanities, and hatred of sin; and to walk more watchfully

and holily, and to be more in holy duty, form we grow to be more public-spirited: to set our hearts on the church's welfare, and long more for the progress of the Gospel, and for the good of others; and to do all the good in the world that we are able, for men's souls or bodies, but especially to long and lay out ourselves for the conversion and salvation of ignorant, secure, unconverted souls. The counterfeit of this, is, an eager desire to proselyte others to our opinions, or that religion which we have chosen, by the direction of flesh and blood, or which is not of God, nor according unto godliness, but doth subserve our carnal ends. 6. In the next form we grow to study more the pure and wonderful love of God in Christ, and to relish and admire that love, and to be taken up with the goodness and tender mercies of the Lord, and to be kindling the flames of holy love to him that hath thus loved us; and to keep our souls in the exercise of that love : and withal to live in joy, and thanks, and praise to him that hath redeemed us and loved us; and also by faith to converse in heaven, and. to live in holy contemplation, beholding the glory of the Father and the Redeemer in the glass which is fitted to our present use, till we come to see him face to face. Those that are the highest in this form, do so walk with God, and burn in love, and are so much above inferior vanities, and are so conversant by faith in heaven, that their hearts even dwell there, and there they long to be for ever. 7. And in the highest form of the school of Christ, we are exercising this confirmed faith and love, in suflerings, especially for Christ; in following him with our cross', and being conformed to him, and glorifying God in the fullest exercise and discovery of his graces in us, and in an actual trampling upon all that standeth up against him, for our hearts: and in bearing the fullest witness to his truth and cause, by constant enduring, though to the death. Not but that the weakest that are sincere, must suffer for Christ if he call them to it: naartyrdom itself is not proper to the strong believers. Whoever forsaketh not all that he hath for Christ, cannot be his disciple. (Luke xiv. 33.) But to suffer with that faith and love forementioned, and in that manner, is proper to the strong : and usually God doth not try and exercise his young and weak ones with the trials of the strong; nor set his infants on so hard a service, nor put them in the

front or hottest of the battle, as he doth the ripe confirmed Christians. The sufferings of their inward doubts and fears doth take up such ; it is the strong that ordinarily are called to sufferings for Christ, at least in any high degree. I have digressed thus far to make it plain to you, that our conformity to Christ, and fellowship with him in his sufferings, in any notable degree, is the lot of his best, confirmed servants, and the highest form in 1 is school among his disciples; and therefore not to be inordinately feared or abhorred, nor to be the matter of impatience, but of holy joy ; and in such infirmities we may glory. And if it be so of sufferings in the general (for Christ), then is it so of this particular sort of sufferings, even to be forsaken of all our best and nearest, dearest friends, when we come to be most abused by the enemies.

For my own part, I must confess that as I am much wanting in other parts of my conformity to Christ, so I take myself to be yet much short of what I expect he should advance me to, as long as my friends no more forsake me. It is not long since I found myself in a low (if not a doubting) case, because I had so few enemies, and so little sufferings for the cause of Christ (though I had much of other sorts): and now that doubt is removed by the multitude of furies which God hath let loose against me. But yet, methinks, while my friends themselves are so friendly to me, I am much short of what I think I must at last attain to.

But let us look further into the text, and see what is the cause of the failing and forsaking Christ in the disciples ; and what it is that they betake themselves to, when they leave him.

" Ye shall be scattered every man to his own."

Self-denial was not perfect in them, selfishness therefore in this hour of temptation did prevail. They had before forsaken all to follow Christ; they had left their parents, their families, their estates, their trades, to be his disciples : but though they believed him to be the Christ, yet they dreamt of a visible kingdom, and did all this with too carnal expectations of being great men on earth, when Christ should begin his reign ; and therefore when they saw his apprehension and ignominious suffering, and thought now they were frustrate of their hopes, they seem to repent that they had followed him (though not by apostacy and an habitual or

plenary change of mind, yet) by a sudden passionate frightful apprehension, which vanished when grace performed its part. They now began to think that they had lives of their own to save, and families of their own to mind, and business of their own to do. They had before forsaken their private interests and affairs, and gathered themselves to Jesus Christ, and lived in communion with him, and one another: but now they return to their trades and callings, and are scattered every man to his own.

Selfishness is the great enemy of all societies, of all fidelity and friendship: there is no trusting that person in whom it is predominant: and the remnants of it, where it doth not reign, do make men walk unevenly and unsteadfastly towards God and men. They will certainly deny both God and their friends, in a time of trial, who are not able to deny themselves : or rather he never was a real friend to any, that is predominantly selfish. They have always some interest of their own, which their friend must needs contradict, or is insufficient to satisfy. Their houses, their lands, their monies, their children, their honour, or something which they call their own, will be frequently the matter of contention; and are so near them, that they can for the sake of these, cast off the nearest friend. Contract no special friendship with a selfish man; nor put any confidence in him, whatever friendship he may profess. He is so confined to himself, that he hath no true love to spare for others: if he seem to love a friend it is not as a friend, but as a servant, or at best as a benefactor. He loveth you for himself, as he loveth his money, or horse, or house, because you may be serviceable to him: or as a horse or dog doth love his keeper, for feeding him : and therefore when your provender is gone, his love is gone; when you have done feeding him, he hath done loving you ; when you have no more for him, he hath no more for you.

Object. * But (some will say) it is not the falseness of my friend that I lament, but the separation, or the loss of one that was most faithful: I have found the deceitfulness of ordinary friends ; and therefore the more highly prize those few that are sincere. I had but one true friend among abundance of self-seekers ; and that one is dead, or taken from me, and I am left as in a v^^ilderness, having no mortal man that I can trust, or take much comfort in.'

Anuo. Is this your case? I pray you answer these few

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questions, and suffer the truth to have its proper work upon your mind.

Quest. 1. Who was it that deprived you of your friend? Was it not God ? Did not he that gave him you, take him from you ? Was it not his Lord and Owner that called him home? And can God do any thing injuriously or amiss? Will you not give him leave to do as he list with his own ? Dare you think that there was wanting either wisdom, or goodness, justice or mercy, in God's disposal of your friend? Or will you ever have rest, if you cannot have rest in the will of God?

2, How know you what sin your friend might have fallen into, if he had lived as long as you would have him? You will say, that God could have preserved him from sin. It is true; but God preserveth sapientially, by means, as well as omnipotentially: and sometimes he seeth that the temptations to that person are like to be so strong, and his corruption like to get such advantage, that no means is so fit as death itself, for his preservation. And if God had permitted your friend by temptation to have fallen into some scandalous sin, or course of evil, or into errors or false ways, would it not have been much worse than death to him and you ? God might have suffered your friend, that was so faithful, to have been sifted and shaken, as Peter was, and to have denied his Lord ; and to have seemed in your own eyes as odious as he before seemed amiable.

3. How know you what unkindness to yourself your dearest friend might have been ^ilty of? Alas! there is greater frailty and inconstancy in man, than you are aware of. And there are sadder roots of corruption unmortified, that may spring up into bitter fruits, than most of us ever discover in ourselves. Many a mother hath her heart broken by the unnaturalness of such a child, or the unkindness of such a husband, as if they had died before, would have been lamented by her, with great impatience and excess. How confident soever you*may be of the future fidelity of your friend, you little know what trials might have discovered. Many a one hath failed God and man, that once were as confident of themselves, as ever you were of your friend. And which of us see not reason to be distrustful of ourselves? And can we know another better than ourselves ? or pi'o-mise more concerning him?

4. How know you what great calamity might have befallen your friend, if he had lived as long as you desired? When the righteous seem to men to perish, and " merciful men are taken away," it is ** from the evil to come" that they are taken. (Isa, Ivii. 1.) How many of my friends have I lamented as if they had died unseasonably, concerning whom some following providence quickly shewed me, that it would have been a grievous misery to them to have lived longer! Little know you what calamities were imminent on his person, his family, kindred, neighbours, country, that would have broke his heart. What if a friend of yours had died immediately before some calamitous subversion of a kingdom, some ruins of the church, &c. and if, ignorantly, he had done that which brought these things to pass, can you imagine how lamentably sad his life would have been to him, to have seen the church, the Gospel, and his country, in so sad a case ? especially if it had been long of him ? Many that have unawares done that which hath ruined a particular friend, have lived in so much grief and trouble, as made them consent that death should both revenge the injured on them, and conclude their misery. What then would it have been to have seen the public good subverted, and the faithful overwhelmed in misery, and the Gospel hindered, and holy worship changed for deceit and vanity ; and for conscience to have been daily saying, * I had a hand in all this misery ; I kindled the fire that hath burned up all I'

What comfort can you think such friends, if they had survived, would have found on earth ? unless it were a comfort to hear the complaints of the afflicted, to see and hear such odious sins as sometimes vexed righteous Lot to see and hear; or to hear of the scandals of one friend, and the apostacy of another, and the sinful compliances and de-clinings of a third; and to be under temptations, reproaches and afflictions themselves ? Is it a matter to be so much lamented, that God hath prevented their greater miseries and woe ?

5. What was the world to yoiir friends while they did enjoy it? or what is it now, or like to be hereafter to yourselves ? Was it so good and kind to them, as that you should lament their separation from it? Was it not to them a place of toil and trouble, of envy and vexation, of enmity and poison ? of successive cares, and fears, and griefs ? and

worst of all, a place of sin? Did they groan under the burden of a sinful nature, a distempered, tempted, troubled heart, of languishings and weakness of every grace; of the rebukes of God, the wounds of conscience, and the malice of a wicked world ? And would you have them under these again? or is their deliverance become your grief? Did you not often join in prayer with them, for deliverance from malice, calamities, troubles, imperfections, temptations and sin ? and now those prayers are answered in their deliverance; and do you now grieve at that which then you prayed for?

Doth the world use yourselves so well and kindly, as that you should be sorry that your friends partake not of the feast? Are you not groaning from day to day yourselves ? and are you grieved that your friends are taken from your griefs ? You are not well pleased with your own condition : when you look into your hearts, you are displeased and complain: when you look into your lives, you are displeased and complain j when you look into your families, into your neighbourhoods, unto your friends, unto the church, unto the kingdom, unto the world, you are displeased and complain. And are you also displeased that your friends are not under the same displeasure and complaints as you? Is the world a place of rest or trouble to you? And would you have your friends to be as far from rest as you?

And if you have some ease and peace at present, you little know what storms are near! you may see the days, you may hear the tidings, you may feel the griping griefs and pains, which may make you call for death yourselves, and make you say, That a life on earth is no felicity, and make you confess that they are " Blessed that are dead in the Lord, as resting from their labours," and being past these troubles, griefs and fears. Many a poor troubled soul is in so great distress, as that they take away their own lives to have some taste of hell; and yet, at the same time, are grieving because their friends are taken from them, who would have been grieved for their griefs, and for ought they know might have fallen into as sad a state as they themselves are now lamenting.

6. Do you think it is for the hurt or the good of your friend that he is removed hence ? It cannot be for his hurt, unless he be in hell. (At least, it is uncertain whether to

live would have been for his good, by an increase of grace, and so for greater glory.) And if he be in hell, he was no fit person for you to take much pleasure in upon earth: he might be indeed a fit object for your compassion, but not for your complacency. Sure you are not undone for want of such company as God will not endure in his sight, and you must be separated from for ever. But if they be in heaven, you are scarce their friend if you would wish them thence. Friendship hath as great respect to the good of our friends as of ourselves. And do you pretend to friendship, and yet lament the removal of your friend to his greatest happiness ! Do you set more by your own enjoying his company, than by his enjoying God in perfect blessedness ? This sheweth a very culpable defect either in faith or friendship ; and therefore beseemeth not Christians and friends. If love teacheth us to mourn with them that mourn, and to rejoice with them that rejoice; can it be an act of rational love to mourn for them that are possessed of the highest everlasting joys ?

7. God will not honour himself by one only, but by many : he knoweth best when his work is done : when our friends have finished all God intended them for, when he put them into the world, is it not time for them to be gone, and for others to take their places, and finish their work also in their time ? God will have a succession of his servants in the world. Would you not come down, and give place to him that is to follow you, when your part is played, and his is to begin ? If David had not died, there had been no Solomon, no Jehoshaphat, no Hezekiah, no Josiah, to succeed him and honour God in the same throne. You may as wisely grudge that one day only takes not up all the week, and that the clock striketh not the same hour still, but pro-ceedeth from one to two, from two to three, &c. as to murmur that one man only continueth not, to do the work of his place, excluding his successors.

8. You must not have all your mercies by one messenger or hand: God will not have you confine your love to one only of his servants ; and therefore he will not make one only useful to you; but when one hath delivered hi^ message and done his part, perhaps God will send you other mercies by another hand; and it belongeth to him to choose the messenger, who gives the gift. And if you will

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childishly dote upon the tlrst messenger, and say you will hare all the rest of your mercies by his hand, or you will have no more, your frowardness more deserveth correction than compassion: and if you be kept fasting till you can thankfully take your food, from any hand that your Father sends it by, it is a correction very suitable to your sin.

9. Do you so highly value your friends for God, or for them, or for yourselves, in the final consideration ? If it was for God, what reason of trouble have you, that God hath disposed of them, according to his wisdom and unerring will? Should you not then be more pleased that God hath them, and employeth them in his highest service, than displeased that you want them ?

But if'you value them and love them for themselves, they are now more lovely when they are more perfect; and they are now fitter for your content and joy, than they could be in their sin and sorrows.

But if you valued and loved them but for yourselves only, it is just with God to take them from you, to teach you to value men to righter ends, and upon better considerations ; and both to prefer God before yourselves, and better to understand the nature of true friendship, and better to know that your own felicity is not in the hands of any creature, but of God alone.

10. Did you improve your friends while you had them ? or did you only love them, while you made but little use of them for your souls? If you used them not, it was just with God, for all your love, to take them from you. They were given you as your candle, not only to love it, but to work by the light of it; and as your garments, not only to love them, but to wear them; and as your meat, not only to love it, but to feed upon it. Did you receive their counsel, and harken to their reproofs, and pray with them, and confer with them upon those holy truths that tended to elevate your minds to God, and to inflame your breasts with sacred love ? If not, be it now known to you, that God gave you not such helps and mercies only to talk of, or to look upon and love, but also to improve for the benefit of your souls.

11. Do you not seem to forget where you are yourselves, and where you must shortly and for ever live ? Where would you have your friends, but where you must be yourselves? Do you mourn that they are taken hence ? Why, if they

had staid here a thousand years, how little of that time should you have had their company? When you are almost leaving the world yourselves, would you not send your treasure before you to the place where you must abide? How quickly will you pass from hence to God, where you shall find your friends that you lamented as if they had been lost, and there shall dwell with them for ever ! O foolish mourners ! would you not have your friends at home ? at their home and your home, with their Father and your Father, their God and your God? Shall you not there enjoy them long enough? Can you so much miss them for one day, that must live with them to all eternity? and is not eternity long enough to enjoy your friends in?

Object, * But I do not know whether ever I shall there have any distinct knowledge of them, or love to them, and whether God shall not there be so far All in All, as that we shall need or fetch no comfort from the creature.'

Answ. There is no reason for either of these doubts : For,

1. You cannot justly think that the knowledge of the glorified shall be more confused or imperfect than the knowledge of natural men on earth. We shall know much more, but not so much less. Heaven exceedeth the earth in knowledge, as much as it doth in joy.

2. The angels in heaven have now a distinct, particular knowledge of the least believers, rejoicing particularly in their conversion, and being called by Christ himself " Their Angels." Therefore when we shall be equal to the angels, we shall certainly know our nearest friends that there dwell with us, and are employed in the same attendance.

3. Abraham knew the rich man in hell, and the rich man knew Abraham and Lazarus : therefore we shall have as distinct a knowledge.

4. The two disciples knew Moses and Elias in the mount, whom they had never seen before ; though it is possible Christ told them who they were, yet there is no such thing expressed; and therefore it is as probable that they knew them by the communication of their irradiating glory : much more shall we be then illuminated to a clearer knowledge.

5. It is said expressly, 1 Cor. xiii. 10—12, that our present knowledge shall be done away only in regard of its imperfection; and not of itself, which shall be perfected :

" when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away :" as we put away childish thoughts and speeches, when we become men : the change will be from " seeing in a glass" to '* seeing face to face," and from ** knowing in part" to ** knowing even as we are known."

2. And that we shall both know, and love, and rejoice in creatures, even in heaven, notwithstanding that God is all in all, appeareth further thus:

1. Christ, in his glorified humanity, is a creature ; and yet there is no doubt but all his members will there know and love him in his glorified humanity, without any derogation from the glory of his Deity.

2. The body of Christ will continue its union, and every member will be so nearly related, even in heaven, that they cannot choose but know and love each other. Shall we be ignorant of the members of our body ? and not be concerned in their felicity with whom we are so nearly one?

3. The state and felicity of the church hereafter, is frequently described in Scripture, as consisting in society. It is a kingdom, the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem ; and it is mentioned as part of our happiness to be of that society. <Heb. xii. 22—24, he.)

4. The saints are called kings themselves ; and it is said that they shall judge the world, and the angels (and judging in Scripture is frequently put for governing) ; therefore (whether there will be another world of mortals which they shall govern, as angels now govern men; or whether the misery of damned men and angels will partly consist in as base a subjection to the glorified saints, as dogs now have to men, or wicked reprobates on earth to angels ; or whether in respect of both these together, the saints shall then be kings, and rule and judge; or whether it be only the participation of the glory of Christ, that is called a kingdom, I will not here determine; but) it is most clear that they will have a distinct, particular knowledge of the world, which they themselves must judge; and some concernment in that work.

5. It is put into the description of the happiness of the saints, that they shall come from the east, and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of God. Therefore they shall know them, and take some comfort in their presence.

6. Love (even to the saints, as well as unto God) is one of the graces which shall endure for ever. (1 Cor. xiii.) It is exercised upon an immortal object (the image and children of the Most High), and therefore must be one of the immortal graces. For grace in the nature of it dieth not; and therefore if the object cease not, how should the grace cease, unless you will call its perfecting a ceasing?

It is a state too high for such as we, and I think for any mere creature to live so immediately and only upon God, as to have no use for any fellow creature, nor no comfort in them. God can make use of glorified creatures, in such subserviency and subordination to himself, as shall be no diminution to his allsufficiency and honour, nor to our glory and felicity. We must take heed of fancying such a heaven itself, as is above the capacity of a creature; as some very wise divines think they have done, that tell us we shall immediately see God's essence (his glory being that which is provided for our intuition and felicity, and is distinct from his essence ; being not every where, as his essence is). And as those do, that tell us, because that God will be All in All, therefore we shall there have none of our comfort by any creature. Though flesh and blood shall not enter into that kingdom, but our bodies will then be spiritual bodies ; yet will they be really the same as now, and distinct from our souls ; and therefore must have a felicity suitable to a body glorified. And if the soul did immediately see God's essence, yet as no reason can conclude that it can see nothing else, or that it can see even created good, and not love it, so the body however must have objects and felicity fit for a body.

Object. * But it is said. If we knew Christ after the flesh, henceforth know we him no more.'

Answ. No doubt but all the carnality in principles, matter, manner and ends of our knowledge, will then cease, as its imperfections; but that a carnal knowledge be turned into a spiritual, is no more a diminution to it, than it is to the glory of our bodies, to be made like the stars in the firmament of our Father.

Object. ' But then I shall have no more cornfort in my present friends than in any other.'

Answ. 1. If you had none in them, it is no diminution to our happiness, if indeed we should have all in God, im-

mediately and alone. 2. But if you have as much in others that you never knew before, that will not diminish any of your comfort in your ancient friends. 3. But it is most probable to us, that as there is a twofold object for our love in the glorified saints; one is their holiness, and the other is the relation which they stood in between God and us, being made his instruments for our conversion and salvation, so that we shall love saints in heaven in both respects : and in the first respect (which is the chiefest) we shall love those most that have most of God, and the greatest glory (though such as we never knew on earth). And in the second respect we shall love those most, that were employed by God for our greatest good.

And that we shall not there lay by so much respect to ourselves, as to forget or disregard our benefactors, is manifest, 1. In that we shall for ever remember Christ, and love him, and praise him, as one that formerly redeemed us, and washed us in his blood, and hath made us kings and priests to God : and therefore we may also, in just subordination to Christ, remember them with love and thankfulness, that were his instruments for the collation of these benefits.

2. And this kind of self-love (to be sensible of good and evil to ourselves) is none of the sinful or imperfect selfishness to be renounced or laid by, but part of our very natures, and as inseparable from us as we are from ourselves.

Much more, were it not digressive, might be said on this subject; but I shall only add. That as God doth draw us to every holy duty by shewing us the excellency of that duty ; and as perpetuity is not the smallest excellency ; so he hath purposely mentioned that love endureth for ever (when he had described the love of one another), as a principal motive to kindle and increase this love. And therefore those that think they shall have no personal knowledge of one another, nor personal love to one another (for we cannot love personally, if we know not personally), do take a most effectual course to destroy in their souls all holy special love to saints, by casting away that principal or very great motive given them by the Holy Ghost. I am not able to love much where I foreknow that 1 shall not love long. I cannot love d comely inn, so well as a meaner dwelling of my own, because I must be gone to-morrow. Therefore

must I love my Bible better than my law-books, or physic-books, &c. because it leadeth to eternity. And therefore I must love holiness in myself and others, better than meat and drink, and wealth and honour, and beauty and pleasure; because it must be loved for ever, when the love of these must needs be transitory, as they are transitory. I must profess from the very experience of my soul, that it is the belief that I shall love my friends in heaven, that principally kindleth my love to them on earth; and if I thought I should never know them after death, and consequently never love them more, when this life is ended, I should in -reason number them with temporal things, and love them comparatively but a little ; even as I love other transitory things (allowing for the excellency in the nature of grace). But now I converse with some delight with my godly friends, as believing I shall converse with them for ever, and take comfort in the very dead and absent, as believing we shall shortly meet in heaven: and I love them, I hope, with a love that is of a heavenly nature, while I love them as the heirs of heaven, with a love which I expect shall there be perfected, and more fully and for ever exercised.

12. The last reason that I give you, to move you to bear the loss or absence of your friends, is, that it gives you the loudest call to retire from all the world, and to converse with God himself, and to long for heaven, where you shall be separated from your friends no more. And your forsaken state will somewhat assist you to that solitary converse with God, which it calls you to: but this brings us up to the third part of the text.

" And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me."

. Doct. * When all forsake us, and leave us (as to them) alone, we are far fi^om being simply alone; because God is with us.'

He is not without company, that is with the king, though twenty others have turned him off. He is not without light that hath the shining sun, though all his candles be put out. If God be our God, he is our All, and is enough for us ; and if he be our All, we shall not much find the want of creatures while he is with us.

For, 1. He is with us, who is every where, and therefore

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is never from us; and knoweth all the ways and projects of our enemies ; being with them in wrath, as he is with us in mercy.

2. He is with us who is Almighty, sufficient to preserve us, conquerable by none ; and therefore while he is with us, we need not fear what man can do unto us ; for they can do nothing but what he will. No danger, no sickness, no trouble or want can be so great as to make it any difficulty to God to deliver^us, when and how he pleases.

3. He is with us who is infinitely wise, and therefore we need not fear the subtilty of enemies; nor shall any of his undertaken works for his church or us miscarry for want of foresight, or through any oversight. We shall be preserved even from our own folly, as well as from our enemies subtilty; for it is not our own wisdom that our greatest concernments do principally rest upon, nor that our safety and peace are chiefly secured by; but it is the wisdom of our great Preserver. He knoweth what to do with us, and what paths to lead us in, and what is best for us in all conditions. And he hath promised to teach us, and will be our sure, infallible guide.

3. He is with us who is infinitely good, and therefore is only fit to be a continual delight and satisfaction to our souls ; that hath nothing in him to disafFect us, or discourage us : whom we may love without fear of overloving; and need not set any bounds to our love, the object of it being infinite.

4. He is with us, who is most nearly related to us, and most dearly loveth us ; and therefore will never be wanting to us in any thing that is fit for us to have. This is he that is with us, when all have left us, and as to man we are alone; and therefore we may well say that we are not alone. Of this I shall say more anon in the application.

Quest. ' But how is he with us?' Aiisw. 1. He is with us not only in his essential presence, as he is every where, but by his gracious fatherly presence : we are in his family attending on him; even as the eye of a servant is to the hand of his master: we are always with him, and (as he phraseth it himself in the parable, Luke xv,) " all that he hath is ours;" that is, all that is fit to be communicated to us, and all the provisions of his bounty for his children. VOL. XIII. y

When we awake, we should be still with him; when we go abroad, we should be always as before him; our life and works should be a walking with God.

2. He is always with us sufficiently to do us good. Though we have none else that careth for us, yet will he never cast us out of his care, but biddeth us cast our care on him, as promising that he will care for us. Though we have none else to provide for us, he is always with us, and our Father knoweth what we want, and will make the best provision for us. (Matt. vi. 32, 33.) Though we have none else to defend us against the power of our enemies, he is always with us to be our sure defence. He is the rock to which we fly, and upon which we are surely built. He gathereth us to himself, as the " hen gathereth her chickens under her wings." (Matt, xxiii. 37.) And sure while love is thus protecting us, we may well say that the Father himself is with us. Though in all our wants we have no other to supply us, yet he is still with us to perform his promise, that no good thing shall be wanting to them that fear him. Though we may have none else to strengthen and help us, and support us in our weakness, yet he is always with us, whose grace is sufficient for us, to manifest his strength in weakness. Though we have no other to teach us, and to resolve our doubts, yet he is with us that is our chiefest Master, and hath taken us to be his disciples, and will be our light and guide, and will lead us into the truth. Though we have none else to be our comforter in our agony, darkness or distress; but all forsake us, or are taken from us, and we are exposed as Hagar with Ishmael in a wilderness, yet still the Father of all consolations is with us ; his Spirit who is the Comforter is in us: and he that so often speaketh the words of comfort to us in his Gospel, and saith, " Be of good cheer; let not your hearts be troubled, neither be afraid," &c., will speak them (in the season and measure which is fittest for us) unto our hearts. Though all friends turn enemies, and would destroy us, or turn false accusers, as Job's friends in their ignorance or passion; though all of them should add affliction to our affliction, yet is our Redeemer and Justifier still with us, and will stay his restraining hand upon our enemies, and say to their proudest fury, *' Hitherto and no further shalt thou go." He is angry with Job's accusing friends, notwithstanding their

friendship and good meaning, and though they seemed to plead for God and godliness against Job's sin. And who shall be against us while God is for us? or, who shall condemn us when it is he that justifieth us? Though we be put to say as David, '* I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul;" (Psal. cxlii. 4;) yet we may say with him, " I cried unto thee, O Lord; I said, thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living : bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name : the righteous shall compass me about: for thou shalt deal bountifully with me." (ver. 5—7.) " I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble: when my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path: in the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me.'' (ver. 2, 3.) Thus, " God is our refuge and strength ; a very present help in trouble ; therefore should we not fear though the earth were removed, and though the mountains were carried into the midst of the sea ; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled," &c. (Psal. xlvi. i—3.) Though, as David saith, *' Mine enemies speak evil of me : when shall he die, and his name perish ? And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad he telleth it: All that hate me whisper together against me : against me do they devise my hurt: An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him; and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more: Yea, my own familiar friend in vi^hom [ trusted, that did eat

of my bread, hath lift up his heel against me ." (Psal.

xli.5—7.) Yetwemay addas he, ver. 12, "And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face forever." Though, as Psal. xxxv. 7.11.15,16.20. *'Without cause they have hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul: and false witnesses did rise up, they laid to my charge things that I knew not; they rewarded me evil for good. In my adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together; the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear and ceased not; with hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. For they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land." Yet, ** My soul shall be joyful in the Lord; it shall re-

joice in his salvation. All my bones shall say. Lord, who is like unto thee, who deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him.'' (ver. 9, 10.) Though friends be far off, " The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit; Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants ; and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.*' (Psal. xxxiv. 18, 19. 22.) Therefore, " I will be glad and rejoice in his mercy, for he hath considered my trouble, and hath known (and owned) my soul in adversity ; and hath not shut me in the hand of the enemy.—When my life was spent with grief, and my years with sighing ; my strength failed because of mine iniquity, and my bones were consumed; I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance; they that did see me without, fled from me: I was forgotten, and as a dead man out of mind : I was like a broken vessel: I heard the slander of many : Fear was on every side, while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life ; but I trusted in thee, O Lord : I said, thou art my God ; my times are in thy hand ; deliver me from the hands of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me : Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: Save me for thy mercies'

sake. O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid

up for them that fear thee, which thou hast .wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man; thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues." (Psal. xxxi.) Thus Ood is with us when men are far from us, or against us. His people find by happy experience that they are not alone. Because he is nigh them, evil shall not come nigh them unless as it worketh for their good. " He is their hiding-place to preserve them from trouble; the great waterfloods shall not come nigh them ; he will compass them about with songs of deliverance." (Psal. xxxii. 6, 7.)

3. And as God is with us thus relatively and efficiently, so also objectively, for our holy converse. Wherever our friends are, God is still at hand to be the most profitable, honourable and delightful object of our thoughts. There is

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enough in him to take up all the faculties of my soul. He that is but in a well-furnished library, may find great and excellent employment for his thoughts many years together; and so may he that liveth in the open world, and hath all the visible works of God to meditate upon: but all this were nothing if God were not the sense of books and creatures, and the matter of all these noble studies. He that is alone, and hath only God himself to study, hath the matter and sense of all the books and creatures in the world, to employ his thoughts upon. He never need to want matter for his meditation, that hath God to meditate on. He need not want matter of discourse (whether mental or vocal) that hath God to talk of, though he have not the name of any other friend to mention. All our affections may have in him the highest and most pleasant work. The soul of man cannot have a more sweet and excellent work than to love him: He wanteth neither work nor pleasure, that in his solitude is taken up in the believing contemplations of Eternal Love, and of all his blessed attributes and works. O then what happy and delightful converse may a believer have with God alone! He is always present, and always at leisure to be spoken with; and always willing of our access and audience. He hath no interest cross to our felicity, which should move him to reject us (as worldly great ones often have). He never misunderstandeth us, nor chargeth that upon us which we were never guilty of. If we converse with men, their mistakes, and interests, and passions, and insufficiencies, do make the trouble so great, and the benefit so small, that many have become thereby aweary of the world, or of human society, and have spent the rest of their days alone in desert places. Indeed so much of God^as appears in men, so much is their converse excellent and delightful; and their's is the best that have most of God. But there is so much of vanity, and self, and flesh, and sin in the most, or all of us, as very much darkeneth our light, and dumpeth the pleasure, and blasteth the fruit of our societies and converse. O how oft have I been solaced in God, when I found nothing but deceit and darkness in the world ! How oft hath he comforted me, when it was past the power of man! How oft bath he relieved and delivered me, when all the help of man 'was in vain! It hath been my stay and rest, to look to him, ivhen the creature hath been a broken staff, and deceit!ul

friends have been but as a broken tooth, or a foot that is out of joint (as Solomon speaketh of confidence in an unfaithful man in the time of trouble, Prov. xxv. 29.) Verily, as the world were but a horrid dungeon without the sun, so it were a howling wilderness, a place of no considerable employment or delight, were it not that in it we may live to God and do him service, and sometimes be refreshed with the light of his countenance, and the communications of his love. But of this more anon.

Use 1. We see our example, and our encouragements. Let us now, as followers of Christ, endeavour to imitate him in this, and to live upon God, when men forsake us, and to know that while God is with us, we are not alone, nor indeed forsaken while he forsakes us not.

I shall, 1. Shew you here negatively, what you must not do. 2. Affirmatively, what you must do ; for the performance of your duty in this imitation of Christ.

1. You must not make this your pretence for the undervaluing your useful friends, nor for your unthankfulness for so great a benefit as a godly friend; nor for the neglect of your duty in improving the company and help of your friends. Two is better than one. The communion of saints and help of those that are wise and faithful, is a mercy highly to be esteemed. And the undervaluing of it, is at least a sign of a declining soul.

2. You must not hence fetch any pretence to slight your friends, and disoblige them, or neglect any duty that you owe them, or any means therein necessary to the continuation of their friendship.

3. You must not causelessly withdraw from human society into solitudie. A weariness of converse with men, is oft conjunct with a weariness of our duty ; and a retiring voluntarily into solitude, when God doth not call or drive us thither, is oft but a retiring from the place and work which God hath appointed us ; and consequently a retiring rather from God than to God. Like some idle servants that think they should not work so hard, because it is but worldly business, and think their masters deal not religiously by them, unless they let them neglect their labour, that they may spend more time in serving God; as if it were not serving God to be faithful in their master's service.

I deny not but very holy persons have lived in a state of

retirement from human converse. In such cases as these, it may become a duty : 1. In case of such persecution as at present leaveth us no opportunity of serving or honouring God so much in any other place or state.

2. In case that natural infirmity, or disability, or any other accident shall make one less serviceable to God and his church in society than he is in solitude.

3. In case he hath committed a sin so heinous, and of indelible scandal and reproach, as that it is not fit for the servants of Christ any more to receive him into their local communion, though he repent: (for as to local communion, I think, such a case may be.)

4. In case a man through custom and ill company be so captivated to some fleshly lust, as that he is not able to bear the temptations that are found in human converse; but falleth by them into frequent heinous sinning ; in this case the right hand or eye is rather to be parted with, than their salvation. And though a mere restraint by distance of temptations and opportunities of sinning, will not prove a man sanctified, nor save the soul that? loveth the sin, and fain would live in it; yet, 1. Grace may sometimes appear in the strength and self-denial which is exercised in the very avoiding of temptations, when yet perhaps the person hath not strength enough to have stood against the temptations if it had not been avoided. And, 2. The distance of temptations, and opportunity of serious and frequent consideration, maybe a means to help them to sincerity that want it.

5. In case a man by age or sickness find himself so near to death, as that he hath now a more special call to look after his present actual preparation, than to endeavour any more the good of others ; and find withal, that solitude will help him in his preparations, his society being such as would but hinder him. In these five cases, I suppose it lawful to retire from human converse into solitude.

But when there is no such necessity or call, it usually proceedeth from one of these vicious distempers: 1. From cowardice and fear of suffering, when the soldiers of Christ do hide their heads, instead of confessing him before men.

2. From a laziness of mind and weariness of duty; when slothful and unprofitable servants hide their talents, pretending their fear of the austerity of their Lord. It is easier to run away from our work than do it; and to go out of the

reach of ignorance, malice, contradiction and ungodliness, than to encounter them, and conquer them by truth and holy lives. So many persons as we converse with, so many are there to whom we owe some duty: and this is not so easy as it is to over-run our work, and to hide ourselves in some wilderness or cell, whilst others are fighting the battles of the Lord. 3. Or it may proceed from mere impatience. When men cannot bear the frown, and scorns, and violence of the ungodly, they fly from sufferings, which by patience they should overcome. 4. Or it may come from humour and mutability of mind, and discontent with ones condition. Many retire from human converse to please a discontented, passionate mind ; or expecting to find that in privacy, which in public they could not find, nor is any where to be found on earth. 5. And some do it in melancholy, merely to please a sick imagination, which is vexed in company, and a little easeth itself in living as the possessed man among the tombs. 6. And sometimes it proceedeth from self-ignorance, and an unhumbled state of soul. When men think much better of themselves than others, they think they can more comfortably converse with themselves than with others: whereas if they well understood that they are the worst or greatest enemies, or troubles to themselves, they would more fear their own company than other men's. They would then consider what proud, and fleshly, and worldly, and selfish, and disordered hearts they are likely to carry with them into their solitude, and there to be annoyed with from day to day : and that the nearest enemy is the worst, and the nearest trouble is the greatest.

These vices or infirmities carry many into solitude; and if they live where Popish vanity may seduce them, they will perhaps imagine that they are serving God, and entering into perfection, when they are but sinfully obeying their corruptions : and that they are advanced above others in degrees of grace, while they are pleasing a diseased fancy, and entering into a dangerous course of sin. No doubt but the duties of a public life are more in number, and greater in weight, and of more excellent consequence and tendency (even to the most public good, and greatest honour of God) than the duties of privacy or retirement. * Vir bonus e^ commune bonum :' A good man is a common good. And saith Seneca) * Nulla essent communia nisi pars illorum

pertineret ad singulos.' If every one have not some share or interest in them, how are they common ? Let me add these few considerations, to shew you the evil of voluntary, unnecessary solitude.

1. You less contribute to the honour of your Redeemer, and less promote his kingdom in the world, and less subserve his death and office, while you do good but to few, and live but almost to yourselves.

2. You live in the poorest exercise of the grace of charity ; and therefore in a low, undesirable condition.

3. You will want the communion of saints, and benefit of public ordinances (for I account not a college life a solitary life). And you will want the help of the charity, graces and gifts of others, by which you might be benefitted.

4. ft will be a life of smaller comfort, as it is a life of smaller benefit to others. They that do but little good (according to their ability) must expect but little comfort. They have usually most peace and comfort to themselves that are the most profitable to others. ' Non potest quis-quam bene degere qui se tantum intuetur: alteri vivas opor-tet, si tibi vis vivere.' Sen. ' No man can live well, that looketh but to himself: thou must live to another, if thou wilt live to thyself.'

O the delight that there is in doing good to many! None knoweth it that hath not tried it: not upon any account of merit; but as it pleaseth God, and as goodness itself is amiable and sweet; and as we receive by communicating; and as we are under promise; and as charity makes all the good that is done to another to be to us as our own.

5. We are dark and partial, and heedless of ourselves, and hardly brought or kept in acquaintance with our hearts ; and therefore have the more need of the eye of others. And even an enemy's eye may be useful, though malicious; and may do us good, while he intends us evil, saith Bernard, * Malum quod nemo videt, nemo arguit: Ubi autem non ti-metur reprehensor, securus accedit tentator; licentius per-petratur iniquitas.' * The evil that none seeth, none reprov-eth: and where the reprover is not feared, the tempter cometh more boldly, and the sin is committed the more licentiously.' It is hard to know the spots in our own faces, when we have no glass or beholder to acquaint us with them. Saith Chrysostom, Solitude is ' velamen omnium

vitierum ;* the cover of all vices. In company this cover is laid aside, and vice being more naked, is more ashamed. It is beholders that cause shame; which solitude is not acquainted with: and it is a piece of impenitency not to be ashamed of sin.

6. And we are for the most part so weak and sickly, that we are unable to subsist without the help of others. ' Nemo est ex imprudentibus qui relinqui sibi debet.' Sen. ' Unwise men (or infants, or sick-like men) must not be left to themselves.* And God hath left some impotency, insufficiency and necessity upon all that should keep men sociable and make them acknowledge their need of others, and be thankful for assistance from them, and be ready to do good to others, as we would have others do to us. He that feel-eth not the need of others, is so unhumbled as to have the greater need of them.

7. Pride will have great advantage in private, and repentance great disadvantage, while our sins seem to be all dead, because there is not a temptation to draw them out, or an observer to reprove them. * Tam diu patiens quisque sibi videtur et humilis, donee nullius hominum consortio com-miscetur; ad naturam pristinam reversurus quum interpel-laverit cujuslibet occasionis commotio,' inquit Cassiamus.

* Many a man seems to himself patient and humble, while he keeps out of company ; who would return to his own nature, if the commotion of any occasion did but provoke him/ It is hard to know what sin or grace is in us, if we have not such trials as are not to be found in solitude.

8. Flying from the observation and judgment of others, is a kind of self-accusation ; as if we confessed ourselves so bad as that we cannot stand the trial of the light. ' Bona conscientia turbam advocat. Mala in solitudine anxia est et soUicita: si honesta sunt quae facis, omnes sciant: si turpia, quid refert neminem scire, cum tu scias! O te mi-serum si contemnis hunc testem :* inquit Seneca. That is,

* A good conscience will call in the crowd (or witnesses, not caring who seeth): A bad conscience is anxious and solicitous even in solitude. If they be things honest which thou dost, let all men know : if they be dishonest, what good doth it thee that no man else knoweth it, when thou knowest it thyself ? O miserable man, if thou despise this witness !' Something is suspected to be amiss with those that are

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always in their chambers, and are never seen. Tell not men that you cannot bear the light: it is he that doth evil that hateth the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

9. Solitude is too like death to be desirable. He livetb that doth good; and he is dead that is useless. * Vivit is qui multis usui est: vivit is qui sentitur; qui vero latitant et torpent, mortem suam antecesserint,' inquit Sen. ' He liveth that is profitable to many : he liveth that is observed or perceived ; but they that lie hid and drowsy, do anticipate their death.' And it is the most culpable death, and therefore the worst, to have life and not to use it.

10. And a life of holy communion is most like unto heaven, where none shall be solitary, but all as members of the heavenly Jerusalem, shall in harmony love and praise their Maker.

These reasons seem sufficient to me to satisfy you that no man should choose solitude without a special necessity or call: nor yet should it be taken for a life of greater perfection, than a faithful serving of God in public, and doing good to more.

I shall now come to the affirmative, and tell you for all this, that * If God call us into solitude, or men forsake us, we may rejoice in this, that we are not alone, but the Father is with us.' Fear not such solitude, but be ready to improve it if you be cast upon it. If God be your God, reconciled to you in Christ, and his Spirit be in you, you are provided for solitude, and need not fear if all the world should cast you off. If you be banished, imprisoned or left alone, it is but a relaxation from your greatest labours; which though you may not cast off yourselves, you may lawfully be sensible of your ease, if God take off your burden. It is but a cessation from your sharpest conflicts, and removal from a multitude of great temptations. And though you may not cowardly retreat or shift yourselves from the fight and danger, yet if God will dispense with you, and let you live in greater peace and safety, you have no cause to murmur at his dealing. A fruit tree that groweth by the highway side, doth seldom keep its fruit to ripeness, while so many passengers have each his stone or cudgel to cast at it. Seneca could say, ' Nunquama turba mores quos extuli refero. Ali-quid ex eo quod composui turbatur; aliquid ex his quie fu-gavi redit: inimica est multorum conversatio,' 'I never

bring home well from a crowd the manners which I took out with me: something is disordered of that which I had set in order; something of that which I had banished doth return ; the conversation of many I find an enemy to me.' O how many vain and foolish words corrupt the minds of those that converse with an ungodly world, when your ears and minds who live in solitude are free from such temptations ! You live not in so corrupt an air as they. You hear not the * filthy, ribald speeches, which fight against modesty and chastity, and are the bellows of lust. You hear not the discontented, complaining words of the impatient; nor the passionate, provoking words of the offended; nor the wrangling, quarrelsome words of the contentious ; nor the censorious, or slanderous, or reproachful words of the malicious, who think it their interest to have their brethren taken to be bad, and to have others hate them, because they themselves hate them ; and who are as zealous to quench the charity of others, when it is destroyed in themselves, as holy persons are zealous to provoke others to love, which dwelleth and ruleth in themselves. In your solitude with God, you shall not hear the lies and malicious revilings of the ungodly against the generation of the just: nor the subtle, cheating words of heretics, who being themselves deceived, would deceive others of their faith, and corrupt their lives. You shall not there be distracted with the noise and clamours of contending, uncharitable professors of religion, endeavouring to make odious first the opinions, and then the persons of one another : one saying. Here is the church, and another. There is the church: one saying, This is the true church-government, and another saying. Nay, but that is it: one saying, God will be worshipped thus, another. Not so, but thus, or thus. You shall not there be drawn to side with one against another, nor to join with any faction, or be guilty of divisions. You shall not be troubled with the oaths and blasphemies of the wicked, nor with the imprudent miscarriages of the weak; with the persecutions of enemies, or the falling out of friends. You shall not see the cruelty of proud oppressors, that set up lies by armed violence, and care not what they say or do, nor how much other men are injured and suffer, so that themselves may tyrannize, and their wills and words may rule the world, when they do so unhappily rule themselves. In your solitude with God, you

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shall not see the prosperity of the wicked, to move you to envy ; nor the adversity of the just, to be your grief. You shall see no worldly pomp and splendor to befool you, nor adorned beauty to entice you, nor wasting calamities to afflict you. You shall not hear the laughter of fools, nor the sick man's groans, nor the wronged man's complaints, nor the poor man's murmurings, nor the proud man's boastings, or the angry man's abusive ragings. As you lose the help of your gracious friends, so you are freed from the fruits of their peevishness and passions; of their differing opinions, and ways, and tempers ; of their inequality, un-suitableness, and contrariety of minds or interests ; of their levity and inconstancy, and the powerful temptations of their friendship, to draw you to the errors or other sins which they are tainted with themselves. In a word, you are there half delivered from the VANITY and VEXATION of the world ; and were it not that you are yet undelivered from yourselves, and that you take distempered, corrupted hearts with you. Oh what a felicity would your solitude be! But, alas ! we cannot overrun our own diseases, we must carry with us the remnants of our corrupted nature; our deadness and dulness, our selfishness and earthly minds, our impatience and discontents; and worst of all, our lamentable weakness of faith, and love, and heavenly-mindedness, and our strangeness to God, and backwardness to the matters of eternal life. O that I could escape th^se, though I were in the hands of the most cruel enemies! O that such a heart could be left behind! how gladly would I overrun both house and land, and honour, and all sensual delights, that I might but overrun it! O where is the place where there is none of this darkness, nor disaffection, nor distance, nor estrangedness from God ! O that I knew it! O that I could find it! O that I might there dwell! though I should never more see the face of mortals; nor ever hear a human voice, nor ever taste of the delights of flesh! Alas ! foolish soul! such a place there is, that hath all this, and more than this ; but it is not in a wilderness, but in a Paradise, not here on earth, but above with Christ! and yet am I so loath to die ? yet am I no more desirous of the blessed day, when I shall be unclothed of flesh and sin ? O death, what an enemy art thou even to my soul! by affrighting me from the presence of my Lord, and hindering my desires and willingness to be

gone, thou wrongest me much more, than by laying my flesh to rot in darkness. Fain I would know God, and fain I would more love him and enjoy him; but O this hurtful love of life ! O this unreasonable fear of dying, detaineth my desires from pressing on to the happy place where all this may be had ! " O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death!" this carnal believing heart, that sometimes can think more delightfully of a wilderness than of heaven ; that can go seek after God in desert solitude, among the birds, and beasts, and trees, and yet so backward to be loosed from flesh that I may find him and enjoy him in the world of glory ! Can I expect that heaven should come down to earth! and that the Lord of glory should remove his court, and either leave the retinue of his celestial courtiers, or bring them all down into this drossy world of flesh and sin, and this to satisfy my fleshly, foolish mind! or can I expect the translation of Enoch, or the chariot of Elias ? Is it not enough that my Lord hath conquered death, and sanctified the passage, and prepared the place of my perpetual abode ?

Well! for all this, though a wilderness is not heaven, it shall be sweet and welcome, for the sake of heaven, if thence I may have a clearer prospect of it; and if by retiring from the crowd and noise of folly, I may but be more composed and better disposed to converse above, and to use my faith (alas! my too weak, languid faith) until the beautiful vision and fruition come. If there may be but more of God, or readier access to him, or more heart-quickening flames of love, or more heart-comforting intimations of his favour, in a wilderness than in a city, in a prison than in a palace, let that wilderness be my city, and let that prison be my palace, while I must abide on earth. If in solitude I may have Enoch's walk with God, I shall in due season have such a translation as shall bring me to the same felicity which he enjoyeth; and in the mean time, as well as after, it is no disadvantage, if by mortal eyes I be seen no more. If the chariot of contemplation will in solitude raise me to more believing, affectionate converse with heaven, than I could expect in tumults and temptations, it shall reconcile me unto solitude, and make it my Paradise on earth, till angels, instead of the chariot of Elias, shall convey me to the presence of my glorified Head, in the celestial Paradise.

Object. ' But it is grievous to one that hath been used to much company, to be alone/

Answ, Company may so use you, that it may be more grievous to you not to be alone. The society of wasps and serpents may be spared; and bees themselves have such stings as make some that have felt them think they bought the honey dear.

But can you say you are alone while you are with God ? Is his presence nothing to you ? doth it not signify more than the company of all men in the world ? Saith Hierom, • Sapiens nunquam solus esse potest; habet enim secum

omnes qui sunt, et qui fuerunt boni et si hominum sit

inopia, liquitur cum Deo:' viz. ' A wise man cannot be alone ; for he hath with him the good men that are or have

been and if there be a want of men, he speaketh with

God.' He should rather have said. There can be no want of man, when we may speak with God ; and were it not that God is here revealed to us as in a glass, and that we do converse with God in man, we should think human converse little worth.

Object, * O but solitude is disconsolate to a sociable mind.'

Answ. But the most desirable society is no solitude. Saith Hierom, ' Infinita erimi vastitas te terret? sed tu Pa-radisum mente deambula; quotiescunque cogitatione ac mente illuc conscenderis, toties in erema non eris :' that is, * Doth the infinite vastness of the wilderness terrify thee? but do thou (ascend) in mind and walk in Paradise ; as oft as thou ascendest thither in thought and mind, so oft thou shalt not be in the wilderness.' If God be nothing to thee, thou art not a Christian but an atheist. If God be God to thee, he is all in all to thee ; and then should not his presence be instead of all ? O that I might get one step nearer unto God, though I receded many from all the world 1 O that I could find that place on earth, where a soul may have nearest access unto him, and fullest knowledge and enjoyment of him, though I never more saw the face of friends! I should cheerfully say with my blessed Saviour, '* I am not alone, for the Father is with me." And should say so for these reasons following.

1. If God be with me, the Maker, and Ruler, and Disposer of all is with me ; so that all things are virtually with

me in him. I have that in gold and jewels which I seem to want in silver, lead and dross. I can want no friend, if God vouchsafe to be my friend ; and I can enjoy no benefit by all my friends, if God be my enemy : I need not fear the greatest enemies, if God be reconciled to me. I shall not miss the light of the candle, if I have this blessed sun.^ The creature is nothing but what it is from God, and in God; and it is worth nothing, or good for nothing, but what it is worth in order unto God, as it declareth him, and helps the soul to know him, serve him, or draw nearer to him. As it is idolatry in the unhappy worldling to thirst after the creature with the neglect of God, and so to make the world his God ; so doth it savour of the same heinous sin to lament our loss of creatures more than the displeasure of God. If God be my enemy, or I am fallen under his indignatian, I have then so much greater matters to lament than the loss, or absence, or frowns of man, as should almost make me forget that there is such a thing as man to be regarded ; but if God be my Father, and my Friend in Christ, I have then so much to think of with delight, and to recreate and con-content my soul, as will proclaim it most incongruous and absurd to lament inordinately the absence of a worm, while I have his love and presence who is all in all. If God cannot content me, and be not enough for me, how is he then my God ? or how shall he be my heaven and everlasting happiness ?

2. If God be with me, he is with me to whom I am absolutely devoted. I am wholly his, and have acknowledged his interest in me, and long ago disclaimed all usurpers, and repented of alienations, and unreservedly resigned myself to him ; and where should I dwell but with him that is my Owner, and with whom I have made the most solemn covenant that ever I made ? I never gave myself to any other, but in subordination to him, and with a * salvo' for his highest, inviolable right. Where should my goods be but in my own house ? With whom should a servant dwell but with his master ? and a wife, but with her husband ? and children, but with their father ? I am more nearly related to my God, and to my Saviour, than I am to my relations in this world. I owe more to him than to all the world; I have renounced all the world, as they stand in competition or comparison with him ; and can I want their company then.

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while I am with him ? How shall I hate father and mother, and wife and children, and brother and sister for his sake, if I cannot spare them, or be without them to enjoy him? To hate them is but to use them as men do hated things, that is, to cast them away with contempt, as they would alienate me from Christ, and to cleave to him, and be satisfied in him alone. I am now married to Christ, and therefore must cheerfully leave father and mother, and my native place, and all, to cleave to him; and with whom should I now delight to dwell, but with him who hath taken me into so near relation, to be, as it were, one flesh with him! O my dear Lord, hide not thou thy face from an unkind, an unworthy sinner! let me but dwell with thee and see thy face, and feel the gracious embracements of thy love, and then let me be cast off by all the world, if thou seest it meetest for me; or let all other friends be where they will, so that my soul may be with thee ; I have agreed for thy sake to forsake all, even the dearest that shall stand against thee ; and I resolve by thy grace to stand to this agreement.

3. If God be with me, I am not alone, for he is with me that loveth me best. The love of all the friends on earth is nothing to his love. O how plainly hath he declared that he loveth me, in the strange condescension, the sufferings, death, and intercession of his Son! What love hath he declared in the communications of his Spirit, and the operations of his grace, and the near relations into which he brought me ! What love hath he declared in the course of his providences! in many and wonderful preservations and deliverances ! in the conduct of his wisdom, and in a life of mercies I What love appeareth in his precious promises, and the glorious provisions he hath made for me with himself to all eternity! O my Lord, I am ashamed that thy love is so much lost; that it hath no better return from an unkind, unthankful heart; that I am no more delighted in thee, and swallowed up in the contemplation of thy love; I can contentedly let go the society and converse of all others, for the converse of some one bosom friend, that is dearer to me than they all, as Jt)nathan to David. And can I not much more be satisfied in thee alone, and let go all, if I may continue with thee ? My very dog will gladly forsake all the town, and all persons in the world, to follow me

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alone! And have I not yet found so much love and goodness in thee, my dear and blessed God, as to be willing to converse alone with thee ? All men delight most in the company of those that love them best; they choose not to converse with the multitude when they look for solace and content, but with their dearest friends. And should any be so near to me as God ? O were not thy love unworthily neglected by an unthankful heart, I should never be so unsatisfied in thee, but should take up, or seek my comforts in thee ; I should then say," Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee!" Though not only my friends, but my flesh and heart themselves should fail me, it is thou that wilt still be the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever ; it is good therefore for me to draw near to thee, how far soever I am from man, O let me there dwell where thou wilt not be strange, for thy loving-kindness is better than life ; instead of the multitude of my tur-moiling thoughts, let me be taken up in the believing views of thy reconciled face, and in the glad attendance of thy grace; or at least in the multitude of my thoughts within me, let thy celestial comforts delight my soul. Let me dwell as in thy family ; and when I awake, let me be still with thee ! Let me go no where but where I am still following thee; let me do nothing but thy work, nor serve any other, but when I may truly call it a serving thee; let me hear nothing but thy voice, and let me know thy voice by whatever instrument thou shalt speak ; let me never see any thing but thyself, and the glass that representeth thee, and the books in which I may read thy name; and let me never play with the outside, and gaze on words and letters as insignificant, and not observe thy name which is the sense. Whether it be in company or in solitude, let me be continually with thee, and do thou vouchsafe to hold me by my right hand ; and guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me unto thy glory. (Psal. Ixxiii. 23—26; Ixiii. 3.)

4, If God be with me I am not alone ; for I shall be with him whose love is of greater use and benefit to me, than the love of all my friends in the world. Their love may perhaps be some little comfort, as it floweth from his ; but it is his love by which, and upon which T live. It is his love that gives me life and time, and health and food, and preserva-

1

tion ; that gives rae books, and giveth rae understanding: that giveth me provision, and saveth me from turning it to pernicious fleshliness and excess; that giveth me even my friends themselves, and saveth me from that abuse which might make them to me worse than enemies. The sun, the earth, the air, is not so useful or needful to me as his love. The love of all my friends cannot make me well when I am sick : it cannot forgive the smallest of my sins ; nor yet assure me of God's forgiveness: it cannot heal the maladies of my soul, nor give a solid, lasting peace to the conscience which is troubled : if all my friends stand about me when I am dying, they cannot take away the fears of death, nor secure my passage to everlasting life; death will be death still, and danger will be danger, when all my friends have done their best. But my Almighty Friend is allsufficient; he can prevent my sicknesss, or rebuke and cure it, or make it so good to me, that I shall thank him for it: he can blot out my transgressions, and forgive all my sin; and justify me when the world and my conscience do condemn me: he can teach me to believe, to repent, to pray, to hope, to suffer, and to overcome : he can quiet my soul in the midst of trouble, and give me a well-grounded, everlasting peace, and a joy that no man can take from me. He can deliver me from all the corruptions and distempers of my froward heart; and ease me and secure me in the troublesome war which is daily managed in my breast. He can make it as easy a thing to die, as to lie down and take my rest when I am weary, or to undress me at night and go to bed. He can teach death to lay by its terrible aspect, and speak with a mild and comfortable voice, and to me the most joyful tidings that ever came unto my ears ; and to preach to me the last and sweetest sermon, even the same that our Saviour preached on the cross; *' Verily I say unto thee. To-day shalt thou be with Christ in Paradise.'* (Luke xxiii. 43.)

And is this the difference between the love of man and of God ? And yet do I lament the loss of man! And yet am I so backward to converse with God, and to be satisfied in his love alone! Ah, my God, how justly mayest thou withhold that love which I thus undervalue; and refuse that converse which I have first refused! and turn me over to man, to silly man, to sinful man, whose converse I so much desire, till I have learnt by dear experience the difference be-

tween man and God, and between an earthly and an heavenly friend! Alas! have I not tried it oft enough, to have known it better before this day! Have I not oft enough found what man is in a time of trial! Have I not been told it over and over, and told it to the quick, by deceitful friends, by self-seeking friends, by mutable, erroneous, deceived, scandalous, backsliding friends, by proud and self-conceited friends ; by passionate, quarrelsome, vexatious friends, by self-grieving, troubled friends, that have but brought me all their calamities and griefs to be additions to my own ; by tempting friends, that have drawn me to sin more effectually than enemies; by tender, faithful, but unable friends, that have but fetched fire from my calamities and sorrows, to kindle their own, not equally sharing, but each one taking all my trouble entirely to himself; that have been willing, but insufficient to relieve me; and therefore the greater was their love, the greater was their own, and consequently mine affliction: that would have been with me, but could not; that would fain have eased my pain, and strengthened my languishing body, but could not; that would fain have removed all my troubles,and comforted my cast-down mind, but could not.

0 how often have I found that human friendship is a sweet, desired addition to our woe ; a beloved calamity, and an affliction which nature will not be without, not because it loveth evil, nor because it is wholly deceived in its choice (for there is good in friendship, and delight in holy love); but because the good which is here accompanied with so much evil, is the beginning of a more high and durable friendship, and pointeth us up to the blessed, delightful society and converse which in the heavenly Jerusalem we shall have with Christ.

But O how much better have I found the friendship of the allsufficient God! His love hath not only pitied me, but relieved me; he hath not only been as it were afflicted with me in my afflictions, but he hath delivered me seasonably, and powerfully, and sweetly hath he delivered me: and when he had once told me that my afflictions were his own,

1 had no reason to doubt of a deliverance. My burdened mind hath been eased by his love, which was but more burdened by the fruitless love of all my friends. Oft have I come to man for help, and ease, and comfort, and gone away as from an empty cistern, that had no water to cool

my thirst; but God hath been a present help : could I but get near him, I was sure of light, how great soever was my former darkness: could I but get near him, I was sure of warming, quickening life, how dead soever I had been before : but all my misery was, that I could not get near him! my darkened, estranged, guilty soul, could not get quieting and satisfying acquaintance : my lumpish heart lay dead on earth, and would not stir, or quickly fell down again, if by any celestial force it began to be drawn up, and move a little towards him : my carnal mind was entangled in diverting vanities : and thus I have been kept from communion with my God. Kept! not by force of human tyranny; not by bars or bolts, or distance of place, or by the lowness of my condition; nor by any misrepresentations or reproach of man; but, alas! by myself, by the darkness and deadness, and sluggishness, and earthliness, and fleshliness, and passions of a naughty heart! These have been my bars, and bolts, and gaolers ; these are they that have kept me from my God : had it not been for these, 1 might have got nearer to him; I might have walked with him, and dwelt with him; yea, "dwelt in him, and he in me ;" and then I should not have missed any friends, nor felt mine enemies: and is it my sinful distance from my God that hath been my loss, my wilderness, my woe ? And is it a nearer admittance to the presence of his love that must be my recovery and my joy, if ever I attain to joy? O then, my soul, lay hold on Christ the Reconciler, and in him and by him draw near to God ; and cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils: love ^ God in his saints, and delightfully converse with Christ in m them, while thou hast opportunity. But remember thou m livest not upon them, or on their love, but upon God ; and K therefore desire their company but for his ; and if thou have ML his, be content if thou have not theirs. He wants not man Hkthat enjoyeth God. Gather up all the love, and thoughts, ^'and desires which have been scattered and lost upon the creatures, and set them all on God himself, and press into his presence, and converse with him, and thou shalt find the mistake of thy present discontents, and sweet experience shall tell thee thou hast made a happy change.

5. If God be with me, I am not alone, because he is with me with whom my greatest business lieth. And what company should 1 desire, but theirs with whom I have my daily

necessary work to do? I have more to do with God than with all the world ; yea, more and greater business with him in one day, than with all the world in all my life. I have business with man about house, or lands, or food, or raiment, or labour, or journeying, or recreations, about society and public peace ; but what are these to my business with God! Indeed with holy men I have holy business; but that is but as they are messengers from God, and come to me on his business, and so they must be dearly welcome : but even then my business is much more with God than with them ; with him that sent them, than with the messengers. Indeed ray business with God is so great, that if 1 had not a mediator to encourage and assist me, to do my work and procure me acceptance, the thoughts of it would overwhelm my soul. O therefore, my soul, let man stand by; it is the eternal God that I have to do with : and with whom I am to transact in this Ifttle time the business of my endless life. I have to deal with God through Christ, for the pardon of my sins; of all my great and grievous sins ; and woe to me, if I speed not, that ever I was born ; I have some hopes of pardon, but intermixed with many perplexing fears; I have evidences much blotted, and not easily understood : I want assurance that he is indeed my Father and reconciled to me, and will receive me to himself when the world forsaketh me: I have many languishing graces to be strengthened ; and, alas, what radicated, obstinate, vexatious corruptions to be cured! Can I look into my heart, into such an unbelieving, dead, and earthly heart, into such a proud, and peevish, and disordered heart, into such a trembling, perplexed, self-accusing heart, and yet not understand how great my business is with God ? Can I peruse my sins, or feel my wants, and sink under my weaknesses, and yet not discern how great my business is with God? Can I look back upon all the time that I have lost, and all the grace that I unthankfully resisted, and all the mercies that I trod under foot or fooled away ; or can I look before me and see how near my time is to an end, and yet not understand how great my business is with God? Can I think of the malice and diligence of Satan, the number, power and subtilty of mine enemies, the many snares and dangers that are still before me, the strength and number of temptations, and my ignorance, unwatchfulness and weakness to

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resist, and yet not know that my greatest business is with God ? Can I feel my afflictions and lament them, and think my burden greater than I can bear, and find that man cannot relieve me; can I go mourning in the heaviness of my soul, and water my bed with tears, and fill the air with my groans and lamentations, or feel my soul overwhelmed within me, so that my words are intercepted, and I am readier to break than speak, and yet not perceive that my greatest business is with God? Can I think of dying; can I draw near to judgment; can I think of everlasting joys in heaven, and of everlasting pains in hell, and yet not feel that my greatest business is with God ? O then, my soul, the case is easily resolved, with whom it is that thou must most desirously and seriously converse. Where shouldst thou be but where thy business is, and so great business ? Alas, what have I to do with man! What can it do but make my head ache, to hear a deal of senseless chat, about preferments, lands, and dignities; about the words and thoughts of men, and a thousand toys that are utterly impertinent to my great employments, and signify nothing but that the dreaming world is not awake! What pleasure is it to see the bustles of a bedlam-world ? What a stir they make to prove or make themselves unhappy ! How long and of how little weight, are the learned discourses about syllables and words, and names and notions, and mood and figure, yea or about the highest planets, when all are not referred unto God! Were it not that some converse with men, doth further my converse with God ; and that God did transact much of his business by his messengers and servants, it were no matter whether ever I more saw the face of man : were it not that my master hath placed me in society, and appointed me much of my work for others, and with others, and much of his mercy is conveyed by others, man might stand by, and solitude were better than the best society, and God alone should take me up. O nothing is so much ray misery and shame, as that I am no more willing, nor better skilled in the management of my great important business ! That my work is with God, and my heart is no more with him ! O what might I do in holy meditation or prayer one hour, if I were as ready for prayer, and as good at prayer, as one that has had so long opportunity and so great necessity to converse with God, should be ! A prayerless heart, a heart that

flieth away from God, is most inexcusable in such a one as I, that have so much important business with him: it is work thai must be done ; and if well done will never be repented of. I use not to return from the presence of God (when indeed I have drawn near him) as I do from the company of empty men, repenting that I have lost my time, and trembled that my mind is discomposed or depressed by the vanity and earthly savour of their discourse. I oft repent that I have prayed to him so coldly, and conversed with him so negligently, and served him so remissly; but I never repent of the time, the care, the affections or the diligence employed in his holy work. Many a time I have repented that ever I spent so much time with man, and wished I had never seen the faces of some that are eminent in the world, whose favour and converse others are ambitious of; but it is my grief and shame that so small a part of all my life hath been spent with God, and that fervent prayer and heavenly contemplations, have been so seldom and so short. O that I had lived more with God, though I had been less with the dearest of my friends! How much more sweet then would my life have been! How much more blameless, regular and pure! How much more fruitful and answerable to my obligations and professions! How much more comfortable to my review! How many falls, and hurts, and wounds, and griefs, and groans might I have escaped! O how much more pleasing is it now to my remembrance, to think of the hours in which I have lain at the feet of God, though it were in tears and groans, than to think of the time which I have spent in any common converse with the greatest, or the most learned, or the dearest of my acquaintance.

And as my greatest business is with God, so my daily business is also with him. He purposely leaveth me under wants, and suffers necessities daily to return, and enemies to assault me, and affliction to surprise me, that I may be daily driven to him. He loveth to hear from me. He would have me be no stranger with him. I have business with him every hour, I need not want employment for all the faculties of my soul, if I know what it is to converse in heaven. Even prayer, and every holy thought of God, hath an object so great and excellent, as should wholly take me up. Nothing must be thought or spoken lightly about the Lord. His name must not be taken in vain. Nothing that is com-

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mon beseemeth his worshippers. He will be sanctified of all that draw shall near him. He must be loved with all the heart and might. His servants need not be wearied for want of employment, nor through the lightness or unprofitableness of their employment. If I had cities to build, or kingdoms to govern, I might better complain for want of employment, for the faculties of my soul, than I can when I am to converse in heaven. In other studies the delight abateth when I have reached my desire, and know all that I can know; but in God there is infinitely more to be known, when I know the most. I am never satiated with the easiness of knowing, nor are my desires abated by any uneasiness or unworthiness in the object; but I am drawn to it by its highest excellencies, and drawn on to desire more and more by the infiniteness of the light which I have not yet beheld, and the infiniteness of the good which yet I have not enjoyed. If I be idle, or seem to want employment, when I am to contemplate all the attributes, relations, mercies, works, and revealed perfections of the Lord, it is sure for want of eyes to see, or a heart inclined to my business. If God be not enough to employ my soul, then all the persons, and things on earth are not enough.

And when I have Infinite Goodness to delight in, where my soul may freely let out itself, and never need to fear excess of love, how sweet should this employment be. As knowledge, so love is never stinted here, by the narrowness of the object. We can never love him in any proportion either to his goodness and amiableness in himself, or to his love to us. What need have I then of any other company or business, when I have Infinite Goodness to delight in and to love (further than they subserve this greatest work).

Come home then, O my soul, to God; converse in heaven: turn away thine eyes from beholding vanity; let not thy affections kindle upon straw or briars, that go out when they have made a flash or noise, and leave thee to thy cold and darkness ; but come and dwell upon celestial beauties, and make it thy daily and most diligent work, to kindle thy affections on the infinite, everlasting Good; and then they will never be extinguished or decay for want of fuel; but the further they go, and the longer they burn, the greater will be the flame. Though thou find it hard while love is but a spark to make it burn, and complain that thy

cold and backward heart is hardly warmed with the love of God, yet when the whole pile hath taken fire, and the flame ascendeth, fire will breed fire, love will cause love ; and all the malice of hell itself shall never be able to suppress or quench it unto all eternity.

6. And it is a great encouragement to my converse with God, that no misunderstanding, no malice of enemies, no former sin or present frailty, no nor the infinite distance of the most holy, glorious God, can hinder my access to him, or turn away his ear or love, or interrupt my leave and liberty of converse. If I converse with the poor, their wants afflict me, being greater than I can supply ; their complaints and expectations, which I cannot satisfy, are my trouble. If I would converse with great-ones, it is not easy to get access; and less easy to have their favour, unless I would purchase it at too dear a rate. How strangely and contemptuously do they look at their inferiors ! Great friends must be made for a word or smile j and if you be not quickly gone, they are aweary of you : and if you seek any thing of them, or would put them to any cost or trouble, you are as welcome to them as so many vermin or noisome creatures : they please them best that drive you away. With how much labour and difficulty must you climb, if you will see the top of one of these mountains ; and when you are there, you are but in a place of barrenness, and have nothing to satisfy yoii for your pains, but a larger prospect and vertiginous despect of the lower grounds which are not your own. It is seldom that these great-ones are to be spoken with ; and perhaps their speech is but a denial to your request, if not some snappish and contemptuous rejection, that makes you glad when you are got far enough from them, and makes you better like and love the accessible, calm, and fruitful plains.

But O how much greater encouragements hath ray soul to converse with God! Company never hindereth him from hearkening to my suit; he is infinite and omnipotent, and is sufficient for every individual soul, as if he had no other to look after in the world : when he is taken up with the attendance and praises of his heavenly host, he is as free and ready to attend and answer the groans and prayers of a contrite soul, as if he had no nobler creatures, nor no higher service to regard. I am oft unready*

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but God is never unready ; I am unready to pray, but he is not unready to hear j I am unready to come to God, to walk with him, and to solace my soul with him, but he is never unready to entertain me. Many a time my conscience would have driven me away, when he hath called me to him, and rebuked my accusing, fearful conscience. Many a time I have called myself a prodigal, a companion of swine, a miserable hard hearted sinner, unworthy to be called his son, when he hath called me child, and chid me for my questioning his love. He hath readily forgiven the sins which I thought would have made my soul the fuel of hell. He hath entertained me with joy, with music and a feast, when I had better deserved to have been among the dogs without his doors. He hath embraced me in his sustaining consolatory arms, when he might have spurned my guilty soul to hell, and said, " Depart from me thou worker of iniquity, I know thee not." O little did I think that he could ever have forgotten the vanity and villainy of my youth ; yea so easily have forgotten my most aggravated sins. When I had sinned against light; when 1 had resisted conscience; when I had frequently and wilfully injured love, I thought he would never have forgotten it; but the greatness of his love and mercy, and the blood and intercession of his Son, hath cancelled all. O how many mercies have I tasted since I thought I had sinned away all mercies ! How patiently hath he borne with me, since I thought he would never have put up more! And yet besides my sins and the withdrawings of my own heart, there hath been nothing to interrupt our converse. Though he be God, and I a worm, yet that would not have kept me out: though he be in heaven, yet he is near to succour me on earth, in all that I call upon him for: though he have the praise of angels, he disdaineth not my tears and groans: though he have the perfect love of perfect souls, he knoweth the little spark in my breast, and despiseth not my weak and languid love: though I injure and dishonour him by loving him no more ; though I oft forget him, and have been out of the way when he hath come or called me, though I have disobediently turned away mine ears, and unkindly refused the entertainments of his love, and unfaithfully played with those whose company he forbad me, he hath not divorced me, nor turned me out of doors. O wonderful! that heaven will be familiar with

esirth ! and God with man! the Highest with a worm ! and the Most Holy with an inconstant sinner! Man refuseth me, when God will entertain me ; man that is no wiser and better than myself. Those that I never wronged, or deserved ill of, reject me with reproach ; and God, whom I have unspeakably injured, doth invite me, and entreat me, and con-descendeth to me, as if he were beholden to me to be saved. Men, that I have deserved well of, do abhor me; and God, that I have deserved hell of, doth accept me. The best of them are briars, and a thorny hedge, and he is love, and rest, and joy. And yet I can be more welcome to him, though I have offended him, than I can to them whom I have obliged: I have freer leave to cast myself into my Father's arms, than to tumble into those briars, or wallow in the dirt. I upbraid myself with my sins, but he doth not upbraid me with them. I condemn myself for them, but he condemns me not; he forgiveth me sooner than I can forgive myself: I have peace with him, before I can have peace of conscience.

O, therefore, my soul, draw near to him that is so willing of thy company ; that frowneth thee not away, unless it be when thou hast fallen into the dirt, that thou may est wash thee from thy filthiness, and be fitter for his converse. Draw near to him that will not wrong thee, by believing misre-ports of enemies, or laying to thy charge the things thou knewest not; but will forgive the wrongs thou hast done to him, and justify thee from the sins that conscience layeth to thy charge. Come to him that by his word and spirit, his ministers and mercies calleth thee to come ; and hath promised that those that come to him, he will in no wise shut out. O walk with him that will bear thee up, and lead thee as by the right hand, (Psal. Ixxiii. 23.) and carry his infants when they cannot go ! O speak to him that teacheth thee to speak, and understandeth and accepts thy stammering j and helpeth thine infirmities, when thou knowest not what to pray for as thou oughtest; and giveth thee groans when thou hast not words, and knoweth the meaning of his spirit in thy groans; that cannot be contained in the heaven of heavens, and yet hath respect to the contrite soul, that trembleth at his word, and feareth his displeasure; that pitieth the tears, and despiseth not the sighing of a broken heart, nor the desires of the sorrowful. O walk with him that is never weary of the converse of the upright soul!

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that is never angry with thee but for flying from him, or for drawing back, or being too strange, and refusing the kindness and felicity of his presence. The day is coming when the proudest of the sons of men would be glad of a good look from him that thou hast leave to walk with; even they that would not look on thee, and they that injured and abused thee, and they that inferiors could have no access to! O how glad would they be then of a smile, or a word of hope and mercy from their Father! Draw near then to him, on whom the whole creation doth depend; whose favor at last the proudest and the worst would purchase with the loudest cries, when all their pomp and pleasure is gone, and can purchase nothing. O walk with him that is love itself, and think him not unwilling or unlovely ; and let not the deceiver by hideous misrepresentations drive thee from him: when thou hast felt a while the storms abroad, methinks thou shouldst say. How good, how safe, how sweet is it to draw near unto God !

7. With whom should I so desirously converse, as with him whom I must live with for ever? If I take pleasure in my house, or land, or country, my walks, my books, or friends themselves as cloathed with flesh, I must possess this pleasure but a little \vhile: henceforth know we no man after the flesh: had we known Christ after the flesh, we must know him so no more for ever. (Though his glorified, spiritual body we shall know.) Do you converse with father or mother, with wives or children, with pastors and teachers; though you may converse with these as glorified saints when you come to Christ, yet in these relations that they stand in to you now, you shall converse with them but a little while; for " the time is short: it remaineth that both they that have wives, be as though they had none ; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and those that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it (or as though they used it not): for the fashion of this world passeth away." 1 Cor. vii. 29—31.

Why then should I so much regard a converse of so short continuance ? Why should I be so familiar in my inn, and so much in love with that familiarity, as to grieve when I must but think of leaving it, or talk of going home, and look forward to the place where I must dwell for ever ?

Shall I be fond of the company of a passenger that 1 travel with (yea, perhaps one that doth but meet me in the way, and goeth to a contrary place), and shall I not take more pleasure to remember home ? 1 will not be so uncivil as to deny those I meet a short salute, or to be friendly with my fellow-travellers : but remember, O my soul, that thou dost not dwell, but travel here, and that it is thy Father's house where thou must abide for ever ; yea, and he is nearer thee than man (though invisible), even in thy way. O see him then that is invisible; barken to him when he speaketh ; obey his voice; observe his way; speak to him boldly, though humbly and reverently, as his child, about the great concernments of thy state: tell him what it is that aileth thee; and seeing all thy smart is the fruit of thy own sin, confess thy folly and unkindness, crave his forgiveness, and remember him what his Son hath suffered, and for what; treat with him about thy future course; desire his grace, and give up thyself to his conduct and his care; weep over in his ears the history of thy misdoings and unthankful course ; tell it him with penitential tears and groans; but tell him also the advantage that he hath for the honouring of his grace, if it may now abound where sin aboundeth: tell him that thou art most offended with thyself, for that which he is most offended with; that thou art angry with thy disobedient, unthankful heart; that thou art even aweary of that heart that loveth him no more; and that it shall never please thee, till it love him better, and be more desirous to please him: tell him of thy enemies, and crave the protection of his love : tell him of thy frailties, infirmities and passions, and crave not only his tender forbearance, but his help; tell him that without him thou canst do nothing ; and crave the grace that is sufficient for thee, that through him that strengtheneth thee thou mayst do all things: when thou fallest, despair not, but crave his helping hand to raise thee. Speak to him especially of the everlasting things, and thank him for his promises, and for thy hopes; for what thou shalt be, and have, and do among his holy ones for ever. Express thy joys in the promise of those joys ; that thou must see his glory, and love him, and praise him better than thou canst now desire ! begin those praises, and as thou walkest with him, take pleasure in the mention of his perfections ; be thankful to him, and speak

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good of his name : solace thyself in remembering what a God, what a defence and portion all believers have ; and in considering whither he is now conducting thee, and what he will do with thee, and what use he will make of thee for ever: speak with rejoicing of the glory of his works, and the righteousness of his judgments, and the holiness and evenness of his ways : sing forth his praises with a joyful heart, and pleasant and triumphing voice ; and frown away all slavish fears, all importune, malicious suggestions and doubts, all peevish, hurtful, nipping griefs, that would mar or interrupt the melody; and would untune or unstring a raised well-composed soul. Thy Father loveth thy very moans and tears; but how much more doth he love thy thanks and praise! Or if indeed it be a winter-time, a stormy day with thee, and he seem to chide or hide his face because thou hast offended him, let the cloud that is gathered by thy folly come down in tears, and tell him, '* Thou hast sinned against heaven, and before him, and art no more worthy to be called his son;" but yet fly not from him, but beg his pardon and the privilege of a servant; and thou wilt find embracements, when thou fearest condemnation ; and find that he is merciful and ready to forgive : only return, and keep closer for the time to come. If the breach through thy neglect be gone so far, as that thou seemest to have lost thy God, and to be cast off, and left forsaken; despair not yet; for he doth but hide his face till thou repent: he doth not forsake thee, but only tell thee what it is to walk so carelessly as if thou wouldst forsake him: thou art faster and surer in his love and covenant than thou canst believe or apprehend. Thy Lord was as dear as ever to his Father, when he cried out, " My God, why hast thou forsaken me?'' But yet neglect him not, and be not regardless of his with-drawings, and of thy loss : lift up thy voice and cry but Father; in despite of unbelief, cry out. My Father, my Saviour, my God, and thou shalt hear him answer thee at last. My child; cry out, O why dost thou hide thy face? and why hast thou forsaken me ! O what shall I do here without thee! O leave me not, lose me not in this howling wilderness ! Let me not be a prey to any ravening beast! to my sin, to Satan, to my foes and thine ! Lift up thy voice and weep, and tell him, they are the tears and lamentations of

his child : O beg of him, that thy wanderings and childish folly, may not be taken as acts of enmity, or at least that they may be pardoned ; and though he correct thee, that he will return and not forsake thee, but still take thee and use thee as his child, or if thou hast not words to pour out before him, at least smite upon thy breast, and though thou be ashamed or afraid to look up towards heaven, look down and say, *' O Lord, be merciful to me a sinner," and he will take it for an acceptable suit, that tendeth to thy pardon and justification, and will number such a sentence with the prayers which he cannot deny. Or if thou cry and canst not hear of him, and hast long called out upon thy Father's name, and hearest not his voice and hast no return; inquire after him of those thou meetest: ask for him of them that know him, and are acquainted with his way; make thy moan unto the watchmen; and ask them, where thou mayst find thy Lord. And at last he will appear to thee, and find thee first, that thou mayst find him, and shew thee where it was that thou didst lose him, by losing thyself and turning from him! seek him and thou shalt find him; wait and he will appear in kindness; for he never faileth or forsaketh those that wait upon him.

This kind of converse, O my soul, thou hast to prosecute with thy God. Thou hast also the concernments of all his servants; his afilicted ones, to tell him of; tell him also of the concernments of his kingdom, the fury of his enemies, the dishonour they cast upon his name, the matters of his Gospel, cause, and interest in the world; but still let his righteous judgment be remembered, and all be terminated in the glorious, everlasting kingdom.

Is it not much better thus to converse with him that 1 must be with for ever, about the place, and the company, and work, and concernments of my perpetual abode, than to be taken up with strangers in my way, and detained by their impertinencies ?

I have found myself so long in these meditations that I will but name the rest, and tell you what I had farther to have treated on, and leave the enlargement to your own meditations.

8. I have no reason to be weary of converse with God, seeing it is that for which all human converse is regardable

Converse with man, is only so far desirable as it tendeth to our converse with God; and therefore the end must be preferred before the means.

9. It is the office of Christ, and the work of the Holy Ghost, and the use of all the means of grace, and of all creatures, mercies, and afflictions, to reduce our straying souls to God, that we may converse with him, and enjoy him.

10. Converse with God is most suitable to those that are so near death ; it best prepareth for it; it is likest to the work that we are next to do. We had rather, when death comes, be found conversing with God, than with man ; it is God that a dying man hath principally to do with; it is his judgment that he is going to, and his mercy that he hath to trust upon; and therefore it concerneth us to draw near him now, and be no strangers to him, lest strangeness then should be our terror.

11. How wonderful a condescension is it that God should be willing to converse with me! with such a worm and sinful wretch; and therefore how inexcusable is my crime, if I refuse his company, and so great a mercy!

12. Lastly, Heaven itself is but our converse with God and his glorified ones (though in a more perfect manner than we can here perceive). And therefore our holy converse with him here is the state that is likest heaven, and that prepareth for it, and all the heaven that is on earth.

It remaineth now that I briefly tell you what you should do to attain and manage this converse with God, in the improvement of your solitude. (For directions in general for walking with God, I reserve for another place.) At present let these few suffice.

Direct. 1. ' If you would comfortably converse with God, make sure that you are reconciled to him in Christ, and that he is indeed your Friend and Father.' " Can two walk together except they be agreed V* Can you take pleasure in dwelling with the consuming fire ? or conversing with the most dreadful enemy ? Yet this I must add, that every doubting or self-accusing soul may not find a pretence to fly from God. 1. That God ceaseth not to be a Father whenever a fearful soul is drawn to question or deny it. 2. That in the universal love and grace of God to mis-

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erable sinners, and in the universal act of conditional pardon and oblivion, and in the oflPers of grace, and the readiness of God to receive the penitent, there is glad tidings that should exceedingly rejoice a sinner; and there is sufficient encouragement to draw the most guilty, miserable sinner to seek to God, and sue for mercy. But yet the sweetest converse is for children, and for those that have some assurance that they are children.

But perhaps you will say, that this is not easily attained. How shall we know that he is our Friend ?

In brief, I answer. If you are unfeignedly friends to God, it is because he first loved you. Prefer him before all other friends, and all the wealth and vanity of the world ; provoke him not by wilfulness or neglect; use him as your best Friend, and abuse him not by disobedience or ingratitude; own him before all, at the dearest rates, whenever you are called to it: Desire his presence; lament his absence: love him from the bottom of your hearts; think not hardly of him; suspect him not ^ misunderstand him not; hearken not to his enemies ; receive not any false reports against him; take him to be really better for you, than all the world : Do these, and doubt not but you are friends with God, and God with you. In a word. Be but heartily willing to be friends to God, and that God should be your chiefest Friend, and you may be sure that it is so indeed, and that you are and have what you desire. And then how delightfully may you converse with God.

Direct. 2. * Wholly depend on the mediation of Christ, the great Reconciler.' Without him there is no coming near to God; but in his Beloved you shall be accepted. Whatever fear of his displeasure shall surprise you, fly presently for safety unto Christ; whatever guilt shall look you in the face, commit yourself and cause to Christ, and desire him to answer you : when the doors of mercy seem to be shut against you, fly to him that bears the keys, and can at any time open to you and let you in : desire him to answer for you to God, to your own consciences, and against all accusers; by him alone you may boldly and comfortably converse with God ; but God will not know you out of him.

Direct. 3. 'Take heed of bringing a particular guilt into the presence of God, if you would have sweet communion

with him/ Christ himself never reconciled God to sin; and the sinner and sin are so nearly related, that notwithstanding the death of Christ, you shall feel that iniquity dwelleth not with God, but he hateth the workers of it, and the foolish shall not stand in his sight; and that if you will presume to sin because you are his children, " be sure your sin will find you out." O what fears, what shame, what self-abhorrence, and self-revenge will guilt raise in a penitent soul, when it comes into the light of the presence of the Lord! It will unavoidably abate your boldness and your comforts ; when you should be sweetly delighting in his pleased face, and promised glory, you will be befooling yourselves for your former sin, and ready even to tear your flesh, to think that ever you should do as you have done, and use him as you would not have used a common friend, and cast yourselves upon his wrath. But an innocent soul, or pacified conscience, doth walk with God in quietness and delight, without those frowns and fears which are a taste of hell to others.

Direct. 4. * If you would comfortably converse with God, be sure that you bring not idols in your hearts.' Take heed of inordinate affection to any creature. Let all things else be nothing to you, that you may have none to take up your thoughts but God. Let your minds be further separate from them than your bodies ; bring not into solitude or contemplation, a proud, or lustful, or covetous mind : it much more concerneth thee, what heart thou bringest, than what place thou art in, or what work thou art upon. A mind that is drowned in ambition, sensuality, or passion, will scarce find God any sooner in a wilderness than in a crowd (unless Tie be there returning from those sins to God), wherever he seeth him, God will not own and be familiar with so foul a soul. Seneca could say, * Quid prodest toti-us regionis silentium, si afFectus fremunt?' What good doth the silence of all the country do thee, if thou have the noise of raging affections withia? And Gregory saith, * Qui corpore remotus vivit, &c.' He that in body is far enough from the tumult of human conversation, is not in solitude, if he busy himself with earthly cogitations and desires : and he is not in the city, that is not troubled with the tumult of the worldly cares and fears, though he be pressed with the popular crowds. Bring not thy house, or land, or

credit, or carnal friend along with thee in thine heart, if thou desire and expect to walk in heaven, and to converse with God.

Direct. 5. ' Live still by faith; let faith lay heaven and earth as it were together.' Look not at God as if he were far off; set him always as before you, even as at your right hand. (Psal. xvi. 8.) Be still with him when you awake. (Psal. cxxxix. 18.) In the morning thank him for your rest; and deliver up yourself to his conduct and service for that day. Go forth as with him, and to do his work ; do every action, with the command of God, and the promise of heaven before your eyes, and upon your hearts : live as those that have incomparably more to do with God and heaven, than with all this world ; that you may say with David, (as afore cited), " Whom have I in heaven but thee! and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee.*' (Psal. xxxvii. 25, 26.) And with Paul, *' To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Phil. i. 21.) You must shut up the eye of sense (save as subordinate to faith), and live by faith upon a God, a Christ, and a world that is unseen, if you would know by experience what it is to be above the brutish life of sensualists, and to converse with God. O Christian, if thou hast rightly learned this blessed life, what a high and noble soul-conversation wouldst thou have! How easily wouldst thou spare, and how little wouldst thou miss the favour of the greatest, the presence of any worldly comfort! City or solitude would be much alike to thee, saving that the place and state would be best to thee, where thou hast the greatest help and freedom to converse with God. Thou wouldst say of human society as Seneca, * Unus pro populo mihi est, et populus pro uno; mihi satis est unus, satis est nullus.' One is instead of all the people to me, and the people as one; one is enough for me, and none is enough. Thus being taken up with God, thou mightest live in prison as at liberty, and in a wilderness as in a city, and in a place of banishment as in thy native land; ** for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;" and every where thou mayst find him, and converse with him, and lift up pure hands unto him: in every place thou art within the sight of home ; and heaven is in thine eye, and thou art conversing with that God, in whose converse the highest angels do place their highest felicity and delight.

How little cause then have all the church's enemies to triumph, that can never shut up a true believer from the presence of his God ; nor banish him into such a place where he cannot have his conversation in heaven! The stones that were cast at holy Stephen, could not hinder him from seeing the heavens opened, and Christ sitting at the right hand of God. A Patmos allowed holy John communion with Christ, being there in the Spirit on the Lord*s-day. (Rev. i. 9, 10.) Christ never so speedily and comfortably owneth his servants, as when the world disowneth them, and abuseth them for his sake, and hurls them up and down as the scorn and ofFscouring of all. He quickly found the blind man that he had cured, when once the Jews had cast him out. (John ix. 35.) Persecutors do but promote the blessedness and exceeding joy of sufferers for Christ. (Matt. v. 11, 12.)

And how little reason then have Christians, to shun such sufferings, by unlawful means, which turn to their so great advantage ! and to give so dear as the hazard of their souls by wilful sin, to escape the honour, and safety, and commodity of martyrdom!

And indeed we judge not, we love not, we live not, as sanctified ones must do, if we judge not that the truest liberty and love is not as the best condition, in which we may best converse with God. And O how much harder is it to walk with God in a court, in the midst of sensual delights, than in a prison or wilderness where we have none to interrupt us, and nothing else to take us up ! It is our prepossessed minds, our earthly hearts, our carnal affections and concupiscence, and the pleasures of a prosperous state that are the prison and the jailors of our souls. Were it not for these, how free should we be, though our bodies were confined to the straitest room ! He is at liberty that can walk in heaven, and have access to God, and make use of all the creatures in the world, to the promoting of this his heavenly conversation. And he is the prisoner whose soul is chained to flesh and earth, and confined to his lands and houses, and feedeth on the dust of worldly riches, or walloweth in the dung and filth of gluttony, drunkenness and lust; that are far from God, and desire not to be near him; but say to him. Depart from us, we would not have the knowledge of thy ways: that love their prison and chains so well, that they would not be set free, but hate those with the most cruel

hatred that endeavour their deliverance. Those are the poor prisoners of Satan that have not liberty to believe, nor love God, nor converse in heaven, nor seriously to mind or seek the things that are high and honourable; that have not liberty to meditate or pray, or seriously to speak of holy things, nor to love and converse with those that do so: that are tied so hard to the drudgery of sin, that they have not liberty one month, or week, or day, to leave it, and walk with God so much as for a recreation ! But he that liveth in the family of God, and is employed in attending him, and doth converse with Christ, and the host of holy ones above, in reason should not much complain of his want of friends, or company, or accommodations, nor yet be too impatient of any corporal confinement.

Lastly, be sure then most narrowly to watch your hearts, that nothing have entertainment there, which is against your liberty of converse with God. Fill not those hearts with worldly trash, which are made and new-made to be the dwelling-place of God. Desire not the company which v^ould diminish your heavenly acquaintance and correspondence. Be not unfriendly, nor conceited of a self-sufficiency; but yet beware lest under the honest ingenuous title of a friend, a special, prudent, faithful friend, you should entertain an idol, or an enemy to your love of God, or a corrival and competitor with your highest friend ; for if you do, it is not the specious title of a friend that will save you from the thorns and briars of disquietment, and from greater troubles than ever you found from open enemies.

O blessed be that high and everlasting Friend, who is every way suited to the upright souls ; to their minds, their memories, their delight, their love, &c. by surest truth, by fullest goodness, by clearest light, by dearest love, by firmest constancy, &c. O why hath my drowsy and dark-sighted soul been so seldom with him? Why hath it so often, so strangely, and so unthankfuUy passed by, and not observed him, nor hearkened to his kindest calls ? O what is all this trash and trouble that hath filled my memory, and employed my mind, and cheated and corrupted my affections, while my dearest Lord hath been days and nights so unworthily forgotten, so contemptuou,sly neglected and disregarded, and loved as if I loved him not! O that these drowsy and those waking nights, those loitered, lost, and

empty hours had been spent in the humblest converse with

him, which have been dreamed and doted away upon

now I know not what! O my God, how much wiser and happier had I been had I rather chosen to mourn with thee, than to rejoice and sport with any other! O that I had rather wept with thee, than laughed with the creature! For the time to come let that be my friend, that most befriendeth my dark, and dull, and backward soul, in its undertaken progress, and heavenly conversation! or if there be none such upon earth, let me here take no one for my friend ! O blot out every name from my corrupted heart, which hin-dereth the deeper engraving of thy name! Ah, Lord, what a stone, what a blind, ungrateful thing, is a heart not touched with celestial love ! yet shall I not run to thee, when I have none else that will know me ! shall I not draw near thee, when all fly from me ! when daily experience crieth out so loud, * NONE BUT CHRIST; GOD OR NOTHING/ Ah foolish heart, that hast not thought of it. ' Where is that place, that cave or desert, where I might soonest find thee, and fallest enjoy thee? is it in the wilderness that thou walkest, or in the crowd ; in the closet, or in the church ? where is it that I might soonest meet with God?' But, alas ! I now perceive, that I have a heart to find, before I am like to find my Lord ! O loveless, lifeless, stony heart! that is dead to him that gave it life! and to none but him! Could I not love, or think, or feel at all, methinks I were less dead than now! less dead, if dead, than now I am alive ! I had almost said, ' Lord, let me never love more till I can love thee ! nor think more on any thing till I can more willingly think of thee!' But I must suppress that wish; for life will act: and the mercies and motions of nature are necessary to those of grace. And therefore in the life of nature, and in the glimmerings of thy light, I will wait for more of the celestial life ! My God, thou hast my consent! it is here attested under my hand: ' Separate me from what and whom thou wilt, so I may but be nearer thee !* Let me love thee more, and feel more of thy love, and then let me love or be beloved of the world, as little as thou wilt.

I thought self-love had been a more predominant thing; but now I find that repentance hath its anger, its hatred and its revenge! I am truly angry with the heart that hath so oft and foolishly offended thee! Methinks I hate that heart

that is so cold and^backward in thy love, and almost grudge it a dwelling in my breast! Alas ! when love should be the life of prayer, the life of holy meditation, the life of sermons and of holy conference, and my soul in these should long to meet thee, and delight to mention thee, I straggle. Lord, I know not whither! or sit still and wish, but do not rise and run and follow thee, yea, I do not what I seem to do. All is dead, all is dead, for want of love! I often cry, O where is that place, where the quickening beams of heaven are warmest, that my frozen soul might seek it out! but whither can I go, to city or to solitude, alas, I find it is not place that makes the difference. 1 know that Christ is perfectly replenished with life, and light, and love divine; and I hear him as our Head and Treasure proclaimed and offered to us in the Gospel!" This is thy record, that '* he that hath the Son, hath life ! " O why then is my barren soul so empty! I thought I had long ago consented to thy offer; and then, according to thy covenant, both head and life in him are mine! and yet must I still be dark and dead!

Ah, dearest Lord, I say not that I have too long waited ! but if I continue thus to wait, wilt thou never find the time of love ? and come and own thy gasping worm ? wilt thou never dissipate these clouds, and shine upon this dead and darkened soul ? Hath my night no day ? Thrust me not from thee, O my God! for that is hell, to be thrust from God. But sure the cause is all at home, could I find it out, or rather could I cure it! It is sure my face that is turned from God, when I say. His face is turned from me. But if my life must here be out of sight, and hidden in the root (with Christ in God), and if all the rest be reserved for that better world, and I must here have but these small beginnings, O make me more to love and long for the blessed day of thine appearing, and not to fear the time of my deliverance, nor unbelievingly to linger in this Sodom, as one that had rather stay with sin, than come to thee! Though sin hath made me backward to the fight, let it not make me backward to receive the crown ; though it hath made me a loiterer in thy work, let it not make me backward to receive that wages, which thy love will give to our pardoned, poor, accepted services. Though I have too oft drawn back, when I should have come unto thee, and walked with thee in thy ways of grace, yet heal that unbelief, and disaffection, which would

make me to draw back, when thou callest me to possess thy glory ! Though the sickness and lameness of my soul have hindered me in my journey, yet let their painfulness help me to desire to be delivered from them and to be at home, where (without the interposing nights of thy displeasure) 1 shall fully feel thy fullest love, and walk with thy glorified ones in the light of thy glory, triumphing in thy praise for evermore. Amen.

But now I have given you these few directions for the improvement of your solitude for converse with God, lest I should occasion the hurt of those that are unfit for the lesson I have given, I must conclude with this caution (which I have formerly also published). That it is not melancholy or weak-headed persons, who are not able to bear such exercises, for whom I have written these directions. Those that are not able to be much in serious, solitary thought-fulness, without confusions and distracting suggestions, and hurrying, vexatious thoughts, must set themselves for the most part to those duties which are to be done in company by the help of others; and must be very little in solitary duties: for to them whose natural faculties are so diseased or weak, it is no duty, as being no means to do them the desired good; but while they strive to do that which they are naturally unable to endure, they will but confound and distract themselves, and make themselves unable for those other duties which yet they are not utterly unfit for. To such persons, instead of ordered, well-digested meditations, and much time spent in secret thoughtfulness, it must suffice that they be brief in secret prayer, and take up with such occasional abrupter meditations as they are capable of, and that they be the more in reading, hearing, conference, and praying and praising God with others ; until their melancholy distempers are so far overcome, as that (by the direction of their spiritual guides) they may judge themselves fit for this improvement of their solitude.

END OF THE DIVINE LIFE.

I

raE

DIVINE APPOINTMENT

LORD'S DAY,

PROVED;

AS A SEPARATED DAY FOR HOLY WORSHIP, ESPECIALLY IN

THE CHURCH-ASSEMBLIES: AND CONSEQUENTLY THE

CESSATION OF THE SEVENTH-DAY SABBATH.

PREFACE.

Reader,

If thou think this Treatise both superfluous and defective, when so many larger have better done the work already, 1 shall not at all gainsay the latter, nor much the former. The reason of my writing it, was the necessity and request of some very upright, godly persons, who are lately fallen into doubt or error, in point of the Sabbath-day, conceiving, that because the fourth commandment was written in stone, it is wholly unchangeable, and consequently the Seventh-day Sabbath in force, and that the Lord's-day is not a day separated by God to holy worship. I knew that there was enough written on this subject long ago ; But, 1. Much of it is in Latin. 2. Some writings which prove the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath, do withal treat so loosely of the Lord's-day, as that they require a confutation in the latter, as well as a commendation for the former. 3. Some are so large, that the persons that I write for, will hardly be brought to read them. 4. Most go upon those grounds, which I take to be less clear; and build so much more than I can do on the fourth commandment and on many passages of the Old Testament, and plead so much for the old sabbatical notion and rest, that I fear this is the chief occasion of many people's errors; who when they find themselves in a wood of difficulties, and nothing plain and convincing that is pleaded with them, do therefore think it safest to stick to the old Jewish Sabbath. The friends and acquaintance of some of these persons importuning me, to take the plainest and nearest way to satisfy such honest doubters, I have here done it according to my judgment: not contending against any that go another way to work, but thinking myself that this is very clear and satisfactory; viz. to prove, 1. That Christ did commission his apostles to teach us all things which he commanded, and to settle orders in his church. 2.

CCClXTl PREFACE.

And that he gave them his Spirit to enable them to do all this infallibly, by bringing all his words to their remembrance, and by leading them into all truth. 3. And that his apostles by this Spirit did * de facto ' separate the Lord's-day for holy worship, especially in church-assemblies, and declared the cessation of the Jewish Sabbaths. 4. And that as this change had the very same author as the holy Scriptures (the Holy Ghost in the apostles), so that fact hath the same kind of proof, that we have of the canon and the integrity and uncorruptness of the particular Scripture-books and texts : and that, if so much Scripture as mentioneth the keeping of the Lord's-day, expounded by the consent and practice of the universal church from the days of the apostles, (all keeping this day as holy, without the dissent of any one sect, or single person, that I remember to have read of,) I say, if history will not fully prove the point of fact, that this day was kept in the apostle's times, and consequently by their appointment, then the same proof will not serve to evince that any text of Scripture is canonical, and uncor-rupted ; nor can we think that any thing in the world, that is past, can have historical proof.

I have been put to say something particularly out of antiquity for this evidence of the fact, because it is that which I lay the greatest stress upon. But I have not done it so largely as might be done. 1. Because I would not lose the unlearned reader in a wood of history, nor overwhelm him instead of edifying him. 2. Because it is done already in Latin by Dr. Young in his " Dies Dominica" (under the name of Theophilus Loncardiensis) ; which I take to be the most moderate, sound, and strong Treatise on this subject that I have seen: though Mr. Cawdry and Palmer (jointly) have done well, and at greater length ; and Mr. Eaton, Mr. Shephard, Dr. Bound, Wallseus, Rivet, and my dear friend Mr. George Abbot, against Broad, have said very much: and in their way. Dr. White, Dr. Heylin, Bishop Ironside, Mr. Brierwood, &c. 3. I chose most of the same citations which Dr. Heylin himself produceth, because he being the man that I am most put to defend myself against, his concessions are my advantage. 4. And if I had been willing, I could not have been so full in this as the subject will bespeak, because I have almost eleven years been separated from my l^br^iry, and long fropa the neighbourhood of any one's else.

I

PREFACE. CCClxvii

I much pity and wonder at those godly men, who are so much for stretching the words of Scripture, to a sense that other men cannot find in them, as that in the word Graven Images in the second commandment, they can find all set forms of prayer, all composed studied sermons, and all things about worship of man's invention to be images or idolatry ; and yet they cannot find the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath in the express words of Col. ii. 16. nor the other texts which I have cited; nor can they find the institution of the Lord's-day in all the texts and evidences produced for it. But though Satan may somewhat disturb our concord, and tempt some men's charity to remissness, by these differences, he shall never keep them out of heaven, who worship God through Christ, by the Spirit, even in spirit and truth. Nor shall he, I hope, ever draw me to think such holy persons as herein differ from me, to be worse than myself, though I think them in this to be unhappily mistaken : much less to approve of their own separation from others, or of other men's condemning them as heretics, and inflicting severities upon them, for these their opinion's-sake.

THE

DIVINE APPOINTMENT

OF

THE LORD'S-DAY.

CHAPTER I.

Though the principal thing desired by the inquirers is, That 1 would prove to them the cessation of the Seventh-day Sabbath, yet because they cast off the Lord's-day, which I take to be a far greater error and sin than the observation of both days; and because that when I have proved the institution of the Lord's-day, I shall the more easily take them off the other, by proving that there are not two weekly days set apart by God for holy worship; therefore I will begin with the first question. Whether the Lord's-day, or first day of the week, be separated by God's institution for holy worship, especially in public church-conventions'? Aff.

And here, for the right stating of the question, let it be noted, I, That it is not the name of a Sabbath that we now meddle with, or stand upon. Let us agree in the thing, and we shall easily bear a difference about the name. Grant that it is' a day separated by God's institution for holy assemblies and worship,' and then call it a Sabbath, or the Lord's-day, as you please; though for myself I add, that the ' Lord's-day' is the name that the Holy Ghost hath set upon it, and the name which the first churches principally used; and that they call it also sometimes by the name of the Christian Sabbath; but that is only analogically, as it is resembled to the Jewish Sabbath; and as they used the names Sacrifice and Altar, (I speak only * de facto' how the ancients used these words,)

VOL. XIII. B B

at the same time for the Christian's commemoration of Christ's sacrifice in the Sacrament of the Lord's-supper, and for the Table; or, as Dr. Young saith, page 23, ' As in Scripture, Baptism is called Circumcision. And that very rarely too.'

2. That the question of the manner of observing the Lord's-day, and what exercises of worship it must be spent in, and what diversions are lawful or unlawful, as also when the day beginneth, are not to be here meddled with in the beginning, but afterwards, when the Divine institution of the day itself is first sufficiently proved. Which is done as followeth :

Arg. * That day which was separated to holy worship by the Holy Ghost, was separated to holy worship by God the Father and the Son. But the first day of the week was separated to holy worship by the Holy Ghost: therefore the first day of the week was separated to holy worship, by God the Father and the Son.'

The minor only needeth proof among Christians.

* That day which was separated to holy worship by the apostles, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, was separated to holy worship by the Holy Ghost. But the first day of the week was separated to holy worship by the apostles, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Therefore the first day of the week was separated to holy worship by the Holy Ghost.^

The minor which only needeth proof, is thus proved.

' That day which was separated to holy worship by the apostles who had the Holy Ghost promised them by Christ, and given them, to lead them into all truth, and to bring all its doctrines to their remembrance, and to teach the churches to do all his commands, and to feed, and guide, and order them, as his principal commissioned church-ministers, was separated to holy worship by the apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. ' ' But such is the first day of the week :

* Therefore the first day of the week is separated to holy worship by the apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.'

I have five propositions now distinctly to be proved: four for the proof of the major, and one for the proof of the minor.

I

J

The first proposition is : ' That Christ commissioned his apostles as his principal church-ministers, to teach the churches all his doctrine, and deliver them all his commands and orders, and so to settle and guide the first churches/

The second proposition is, * That Christ promised them his Spirit, to enable them to do what he had commissioned them to do, by leading them into all truth, and bringing his words and deeds to their remembrance, and by guiding them as his churches' guides.*

The third proposition is, * That Christ performed this promise, and gave his Spirit accordingly to his apostles, to enable them to all their commissioned work/

The fourth proposition is, * That the apostles did actually separate or appoint the first day of the week, for holy worship, especially in church-assemblies.'

The fifth proposition is, * That this act of theirs was done by the guidance or inspiration of the Holy Ghost, which was given them.'

And when I have distinctly proved these five things, no sober understanding Christian can expect that I should prove any more, towards the proof of the question in hand. Whether the first day of the week be separated by God's institution for holy worship, especially in church-assemblies.

CHAPTER II.

»

Prop. 1. That Christ commissioned his Apostles, or his principal Church-Ministers, to teach the Churches all his Doctrine, and deliver them all his Commands and Orders, and so to settle and guide the Jirst Churches,

This I prove, 1. By their commission itself: 2. By their performance with its proper seal: 3. By the consent of all the Christian world.

1. *' He called to him his disciples, and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles. (Luke vi. 13.) Their first commission is recited Matt. x. at large.

*' All authority is given me both in heaven and in earth: Go ye therefore and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the

Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world; Amen." (Matt. xxviii. 18—20.)

" Then said Jesus to them again. Peace be unto you ; as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you: and when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." (John xx. 21.)

Even of the seventy it is said, '* He that heareth you, heareth me ; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me ; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me." (Luke X. 16.) And to the twelve, " He that receiveth you, re-ceiveth me," &c. (Matt. x. 40.)

" Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom now I send thee, to open their eyes." (Acts xxvi. 17.)

" For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received,*' &c. (1 Cor. XV. 3.)

" For I received of the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you."(l Cor. xi. 23.)

" Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God." (1 Cor. iv. 1, 2.)

" But I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me, is not after man; for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ." (GaL i. 11, 12.)

" Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me Feed my

Lambs." (John xxi. 15—17.)

" I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." (Matt. xvi. 19.)

" As thou hast sent me into the world." (John xvii. 18; see John xiii. 16. 20.)

" Shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell." (Acts i. 24,25.)

" Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father." (Gal. i. 1.)

" After he through the Holy Ghost, had given command-

ment to the apostles whom he had chosen ; to whom also he presented himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." (Acts ii, 2.)

" They continued stedfast in the apostles* doctrine and fellowship," &c. (Acts ii. 42.)

" He gave some apostles, some prophets,*' &c. (Eph. iv. 11—16.)

** First apostles, secondarily prophets," &c. " are all apostles?'* &c. (1 Cor. xii. 28, 29.)

" Being built upon the foundation of the apostles," &c. (Ephes. ii. 20.)

" That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour." (2 Peter iii. 2.)

" Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, &c. and he shall tell thee," &c. (Acts x. 5.)

They that will not take all this plain evidence of Scripture for a proof of this first proposition, I suppose would not be ever the more moved by it, if I should be so needlessly tedious, as to stay to fetch arguments from each text.

2. The apostles exercised such power as the proposition mentions, and God set to it the seal of miracles. Therefore such a power or office was given them by Christ.

The consequence is undeniable. The antecedent of this enthymeme is so plainly expressed in Scripture, that I am loath to take up much of my own or the reader's time, in proving so known a thing.

They founded the churches; they delivered them the doctrine and commands of Christ; they settled the churches, as to officers, orders, and discipline, according to Christ's commands and the Spirit's determinations: Thus they ordained the new office of deacons, and deaconesses or widows; and they ordained them elders in every church, or city, and they determined of church-controversies: and gave the church decrees, and delivered the will of Chri&t about the sacrament, church-assemblies, prophecyings, &c. (Acts ii.; xiv. 23; vi. 3, 4, &c.; 1 Tim. iii.; Titus i.; Acts xv.; 1 Cor. xi.; xiv., &c.)

3. That all Christians (save heretics) did acknowledge their power, and acquiesce in their decrees and conduct, being a matter of fact needs no other proof, than the

common history of former ages, and practice of this. Which are so well known, that I will not injure the reader by proving it.

CHAPTER III,

Prop. 2. Christ promised his Spirit to his Apostles, to enable them to do, what he had commissioned them to do, by leading them into all truth, and bringing his words and deeds to their remembrance, and^by guiding them as his Church's Guides.

In the Old Testament it is prophesied and promised, " And i will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." (Jer. iii. 15.)

See all the texts that promise the pouring out of the Spirit, Isa. xliv. 3 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 27; xxxvii. 14 ; xxxix. 29; Joel ii. 28, 29; which were principally fulfilled on the apostles.

'* And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." (Luke xxiv. 49.)

" But when the Advocate is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, he shall testify of me : and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning." (John xv. 26,27.)

" It is expedient for you, that I go away ; for if I go not away ; the Advocate will not come unto you : but if F depart,

I will send him unto you . I have yet many things to

say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he shall shew you things to come. He shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of mine. Therefore said I that he shall take of mine, and shew it unto you." (John xvi. 7. 12—15.)

" I have given to them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them——. Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, so have I sent them also into the world ; and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." (John xvii. 8. 17, 18.)

i

" Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 1 have commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway even unto the end of the world." (Matt, xxviii. 20.)

" And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." (Acts i. 4. 8.)

By these texts it is most evident, that Christ promiseth the apostles an extraordinary Spirit, or measure of the Spirit, so to enable them to deliver his commands, and execute their commission, as that he will own what they do by the guidance thereof; and the churches may rest upon it as the infallible Revelation of the Will of God.

CHAPTER IV.

Prop. 3. Christ performed all these Promises to his Apostles^ and gave them his Spirit to enable them for all their Commis-missioned Work.

This is proved both from the fidelity of Christ, and from the express assertions of the Scripture. " He is faithful that hath promised." (Heb. x. 23.) " God that cannot lie, hath

promised." (Titus i. 2.) " As God is true " (2 Cor.i. 18.)

'* How long, O Lord, holy and true " (Rev. vi. 10.) " He

was called Faithful and True " (Rev. xix. 11.) "Let

God be true, and every man a liar " (Rom. iii. 4.) ' He

that believeth not God, hath made him a liar." (1 John v. 10.)

*' He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." (John xx. 22.)

Acts ii. containeth the narrative of the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon them, at large.

" It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us.—" (Acts XV. 28.)

" God also bearing them witness, both with signs and

wonders, and with divers mighty works, and distributions of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will." (Heb. ii. 4.)

" The things which are now reported unto you, by them that have preached the Gospel unto you, by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven " (1 Peter i. 12.)

" Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ." (Rom. XV. 19.)

Read all the texts in Acts and elsewhere, that speak of all the apostles' miracles, and their giving of the Holy Ghost, &c; and 1 Cor. vii. 40; Acts iv. 8.31; v. 3 ; vi. 3; vii. 51. 55 ; viii. 15.17—19 ; ix. 17 ; x. 44, 45. 47 ; xi. 15, 16. 24; xiii. 2. 4. 9. 52; xvi. 6 ; Rom* v. 5 ; ix. 1; 1 Cor. ii. 13 ; 2 Tim. i. 1. 14; 1 Cor. xii; Ephes. iv. 7, 8, &c.; and iii. 5. But this proposition is confessed by all ChristiaiTS.

CHAPTER V.

Prop. 4. The Apostles did actually separate and appoint the First Day of the Week for Holy Worship, especially in Church-Assemblies,

Here the reader must remember, that it is mere matter of fact, that is to be proved in the proof of this proposition ; and that all till this, is clearly and undeniably proved; so that the whole controversy resteth upon the proof of the fact. That indeed the apostles did set apart this day for ordinary (public) worship.

And in order to the fuller proof of this, I have these subordinate propositions to prove.

Prop, 1. * Matter of past fact is to be known to us by history,' (written, verbal or practical.)

This is evident in the nature of the thing. History is the narration of facts that are past. We speak not of the fact of mere natural agents, but of moral human facts. It may be known without history what eclipses there have been of the sun ; what changes of the moon, &c ; but not what in particular morals have been done by man.

The necessity of other distinct ways of knowledge, are easily disproved. 1. It need not be known by Divine supernatural revelation. Otherwise no men could know what

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is past, but prophets or inspired persons : Nor prophets, but in few things; for it cannot be proved, that God ever revealed to prophets or inspired persons, the general knowledge of things past; but only some particulars of special use (the creation to Moses, &c.); so that if revelation by inspiration, voice or visions, were necessary. Scripture itself could be understood by none but inspired persons, or that had such revelation.

2. It is not known by natural causes, and by arguing from the natural cause to the effects. It is no more possible to know all things past this way (by knowing the causes), than all things future. Therefore it must be ordinarily known by human report, which we call history or tradition.

Prop, 2. ' Scripture history is not the only certan history ; much less the only credible.*

Without Scripture-history we may be certain that there was in 1666 a great fire in London, and a great plague in 1665, and that there were wars in England in 1642, 1643, &c., and that there have been parliaments in England which have made the statutes now in force; and that there have been such kings of England for many ages, as our records and histories mention, &c.

Prop. 3. ' Scripture-history is not the only certain history of the things of the ages in which it was written, or of former ages; much less the only credible history of them.'

We may know by other history certainly, that there were such persons as Cyrus, Alexander, &c. That the Macedonians had a large extended empire; that the Romans after by many victories obtained a spacious empire; that there were such persons as Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, &c.

Prop, 4. ' Scripture-history is not the only means appointed by God, to help us to the knowledge of ecclesiastical matters of fact, transacted in Scripture-times.'

1. For if human history be certain or credible in other cases, it is certain or credible in these. There being no reason why these things or much of them, should not be as capable of a certain delivery to us by human history, as other matters. As that there were Christians in those times, may be known by what Tacitus, Suetonius, &c. say. And the ancient writers often appeal in many cases to the heathen's own history. And no man pretendeth, as to the

civil matters mentioned in the Scriptures, that no other history of the same is credible or certain. As of the government of Augustus, Tiberius, Herod, Pilate, Felix, Festus, &c.

2. There are other certain means known to us ; of which I must refer the reader to what I have written in my ** Reasons of the Christian Religion," part 2. chap. vii.

3. No man can doubt but that the Christians of that same age, (as till the year one hundred) might easily and certainly know such a matter of public fact, as whether the Lord's-day was constantly set apart and observed by all the Christian churches for holy worship. For 1. It is certain that they did know it by sight and sense, and therefore had no need of history. 2. It is certain that they knew it before the Scriptures were written, which we now speak of; for it js not possible that for all those years time before any of the New Testament was written, the Christians who assembled to worship God, should not know on what day they used to assemble.

And if they knew it in the year 100, they must needs know it as well in the year 101, and 102, and 103, and so on. For those that were young Christians fifty years after Christ, would be aged at an hundred : and those that were young at an hundred, would be aged at an hundred and fifty, and so on. So that an age of people, not ending at the age of a single person, congregations and societies are like rivers, that keep the same channel, and name, while one part of water foUoweth another. Nay, some of the same men are there anno 100, who were there anno 50, some anno 150, who were there anno 100, and so on. Ten thousand thousand men, women and children, can tell on what day the congregations of England use to assemble; whereas if the apostle were among us, and should write on what day we assemble, fewer would know it by that means ; and they that knew it but by his writing, would know it less confidently, than they who knew it by sense and experience.

Yet forget not, that I am far from ascribing a certainty or a credibility to all human history; much more from equalling any with the credit of Divine history ; but only I say, 1. That sense is more assuring, as to the subject, than any history whatever. 2. And that this instance of the day on which all churches in the world assembled for holy worship.

is one of the most palpable for certainty that possibly could be imagined.

4. And I add, that if some human history or tradition be not certain, there can be no certainty of much of the Divine history, to any but the persons who were themselves inspired, or that saw the visions, or miracles that confirmed them. For as internal sense or intuition must assure the inspired persons themselves, and external sense must assure those that saw the matters of fact; so the rest have no way to know them, but either still by a succession of new revelations from heaven (which God doth not give), or else by report. And I can no otherwise know what was revealed to an apostle, nor what was done in those times. (Of which more anon.)

Prop, 5. ' The first institution of church-offices, and orders, and so of the Lord's-day, was not by Scripture.'

The proof is undeniable ; because the Old Testament did not contain the institution, (e. g.) of particular churches, sacraments, presbyters, deacons, deaconesses, and the Lord's-day, &c.; and the New Testament was none of it written till anno 40, at soonest, when some (as Bucholtzer, Bellarmine, &c.) think Matthew's Gospel was written (though others say many years after), and it was not all written till anno 99. Now it is certain that the church was not all these days without the orders now in question, nor without a day to meet on for public worship. Even as baptism and the Lord's-supper were instituted by Christ himself, long before the writing of any part of the New Testament, and the church was in long possession of them, upon the bare verbal declaration of the apostles.

Prop. 6. * Therefore it is certain that no part of the New Testament was written to any such end as to institute sacraments, or church-offices, or standing orders ; but to instruct men about those that were already instituted (as to the use of those times).'

For it could not be written to institute that which was instituted before, so many years.

Prop. 7. * No part of the New Testament was written to make known to the churches of those times the said sacraments, offices, stated orders and time of worship.* (Still observe that by a part, I mean any book; and I except the decree, written in a letter of the apostles, elders and brethren, (Acts XV.) concerning circumcision, not to be imposed on

the Gentiles; which yet made no new institution, nor declared any, but only determined of the continued forbearance of some things forbidden before of God, in the precepts called Noah's, and Paul's epistles, which reduce the churches to orders before settled, and urge them to duty, and decide some doubts about particular cases of conscience.)

The proof is visible; 1. In the writings themselves. 2. In that all the churches were in the possession and use of all the things in question, long before: (for mutual orders and circumstances are none of the things in question.) It would be vain to write a history now to tell the Englishmen of this present age, that the Lord's-day is used in England, as a day set apart for public worship ; or that persons are baptized, or receive the Lord's-supper in England, For seeing it is the common usage of all the Christians almost of the land, it is needless to tell men among us by writing that it is so (unless it be to infer somewhat else from it).

Prop, 8. ' Yet these holy Scriptures which were written to men of those times, were also intended for the instruction of all succeeding ages; and so the four evangelists wrote the history of Christ, and Luke wrote the history of Paul till his coming to Rome, and longer, and of some more of the apostles; and on the by, in the epistles extant, the church's customs of those times are much intimated; and all this together with the subordinate history and the universal tenour and practice of the churches, is that history by which we must know the matter of fact of those times; nor is there any room left for a rational pretence of Rome, or any other church, to produce Divine institutions, which were committed only to them, or entrusted to their particular keeping only, and were not delivered in Scripture, nor in common to the whole church.'

Prop, 9. ' Thus according to the use of the writings of the New Testament, the matter of fact in question (of the Lord's-day's separation) is historically touched on, and proved; though but briefly and on the by, as a thing as well known to the church before, as what day goeth over their head.'

The historical hints of the New Testament must be taken together, and not apart only ; that they may prove a usage. And 1. That Christ rose on that day, is past doubt among Christians. (John xx. 1 j Luke xxiv. 1; Mark xvi. 2; Matt, xxviii. 1.)

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2. On that same day he taught the two disciples, (Luke xxiv. 13,) and the same day he appeared to the disciples and instructed them, and did eat with them. (Luke xxiv. 33. 36.) Then the disciples were assembled, and then he blessed them, gave them their commission and the Holy Ghost. (John xix. 20—22.)

3. The next first day of the week Christ chose to appear to them again, when Thomas was with them, and convinced him. (John xx. 26.)

In Acts XX. 7. it is mentioned as the day of their assembling to break bread (which though they did oft on other days, yet no day else was particularly appointed for it). As for the dissenters' cavil about the translation of 'Ev rrj fiia TU)v gaf5j3dr(i)v, Beza hath given them reason enough against it; and Grotius and almost all expositors are against them: and most that translate it literally ' una sabbatorum,' take ' una' and * prima here to be all one. And Calvin with others noteth, that the same phrase being used of the day of the resurrection, (Matt. xxvi. 1; Luke xxiv. 1; John xx. 1,) will direct us to expound this ; unless you mean also to deny the resurrection to have been on the first day.

And Kara fx'iav (1 Cor. xvi. 1. 2.) must needs have the same signification; and Mark xxvi. 9. compared with the other two evangelists so expounds them as Beza noteth ; who also telleth us that in one old copy he found added " the Lord's-day," and citeth Jerome adv. Vigilant, saying " Per unam sabbati; hoc est in die Dominico," &c. And Dr. Hammond well noteth that it plainly relateth to the Christian assemblies, to which they were not to come empty, but to deposit what they brought into the treasury of the church; or if it were in their private repositories, it doth not much difference the case. Calvin's exception against Chrysostom here is groundless, as the reasons before evince. So that by this text the custom of holding church-meetings on the Lord's-day, as a peculiar day, is intimated, though but on the by, as most expositors agree.

And the denomination of the Lord's-day, John i. 10, being the same which the Christian churches ever used of the first day, puts it yet further out of doubt. As for his conjecture, who doubteth whether it may be meant of the anniversary day of Christ's resurrection, when as the constant use of the name by all the churches, sheweth that it

was taken ever since for the weekly day, it deserveth no refutation.

Now though all this set together shew that Scripture is not silent of the matter of fact; yet it is the full and unquestionable expository evidence of the practice of all churches in the world, since the very days of the apostles, which beyond all doubt assureth us that * de facto' the Lord's-day was by the apostles separated for holy worship, especially in public church-assemblies. But these several intimations being seconded with so full an exposition, tell us that the Scripture is not silent in the case, nor doth pass it by. I was loath to name the day of the sending down of the Holy Ghost as a proof; because that some do controvert it; but it seemeth to me a very considerable thing: 1. That the day (that year) of Penteqost on which the Holy Ghost was given, was indeed the first day of the week, even Dr. Heylin granteth, without any question or stop. And the church's observation of Whitsunday as the day, and that so very early, as Epiphanius and many others say, from the apostles, doth seem a very credible history or tradition of it. 2. It is agreed on that the Passover that year fell on the Sabbath-day, and that Pentecost was fifty days after the Passover: which falleth out on the Lord's-day. And Grotius noteth from Exod. xix. 1, that it was the day the law was given on, and so on which the Spirit was given for a new law. 3. And considering that this great gift of the Holy Ghost, which was to make the apostles infallible, and to enable them for their commission work, and bring all Christ's doctrines and commands to their remembrance, was so memorable a thing, that it was as it were the beginning of the full Gospel-state of the church and kingdom of Christ, (which through all Christ's abode on earth, was as the infant, existent indeed, but in the womb, and on this day was as it were born before the world, and brought into the open light;) the Lord's-day also seemeth to me to be as it were conceived on the day of Christ's resurrection, but born on this day of the Holy Gho8t*s« descent.

But Dr. Heylin hath one poor reason against it, viz. ' Because it was an accidental thing that the day fell out that year on the first day.'

Answ. 1. Was it not according to the course of nature ?

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How then can that be called accidental? 2. But however it was no contingent thing (in his sense) that the Holy Ghost was sent down on that day rather than on another. If a sparrow fall not unto the ground without God's providence, did God choose that day he knew not why? or did it fall out haphazard, or by chance?

I need not insist on the confutation of his cavils about the other texts forecited. Note only, 1. That as to his exception about Christ's travel on his resurrection-day, I have after answered it. 2, That he freely granted that jmia Twv <Taj3j3aTtuv, signifieth * the first day' of the week, both in Acts XX. 7, and 1 Cor. xvi. 2, 3. That he himself citeth afterward many testimonies that oblations and contributions were in the churches an usual Lord's-day's work. 4. That he confesseth that Rev. i. 10, is meant of the Lord's-day, as by that time grown into reputation. 5. That he thinketh it was in small reputation before, because Paul chose the Sabbath so often to preach on, to the Jews and Hellenists, or Greeks ; whereas he himself is forced to confess that it was not for the day's sake, but the assemblies, to do them good. 6. That he vainly conceiteth (that because the Lord's-day was kept on the account of Christ's resurrection,) it im-plieth that it was not kept by God's command, which needeth no confutation. 7. That his labour to prove that Paul meant the Jewish Sabbath as abrogated, is vain; for we deny it not. That he cannot deny that Christians had all that time of the apostles a stated day (as Pliny himself wit-nesseth) for solemn worship, above other days. 9. That he vainly snatcheth a little countenance from Calvin and Beza, &c. when as no man, since Cochlaeus, writeth more detestably of them. 10. That after he confesseth that '■ it is no doubt but the religious observation of the day began in the apostles' age, with their approbation and authority, and hath since continued in the same respect.' And what needs he more for confutation ?

As to his allegations of the judgment of the Reformed, Lutheran, and Roman church, 1. We take none of them for our rule, (so impartial are we), But, 2. He himself citeth Beza, Mercer, Paraeus, Cuchlinus, Simler, Hospinian, Zan-chius, &c. as holding that it was an apostolical and truty divine tradition, that the apostles turned the Sabbath into

the Lord's-day, that it was an apostolical custom, or a custom received in the apostles* times, &c.

And whereas afterward he would persuade us that they spent but a little of the day in holy worship, he himself cited Mr. George Sandys's Travels, saying of the Coptics, that * On Saturday, presently after midnight, they repair unto their churches, where they remain well nigh till Sunday at noon (of the evening he speaketh not, but of their first meeting), during which time they neither sit nor kneel, but support themselves on crutches ; and they sing over the most part of David's psalms at every meeting, with divers parcels of the New Testament.' (This is the old way; and such a liturgy we do not contradict or scruple.)

Sandys also informeth us of the Armenian Christians, that * coming into the place of the assembly on Sunday, in the afternoon (no doubt they had been there in the morning), he found one sitting in the midst of the congregation, in habit not diftering from the rest, reading in a Bible in the Chaldaean tongue; that anon after, came the bishop in a hood or vestment of black, with a staff in his hand; that first he prayed, and then sung certain psalms assisted by two or three. After all of them singing jointly, at interims praying to themselves, the bishop all this while with hands erected, and his face towards the altar; that service being ended, they all kissed his hand, and bestowed their alms, he laying his other hand on their heads, and blessing them,' &c.

And of the Abassines he reciteth out of Brierwood (and he from Damianus a Goes), that they honour the Lord's-day as the Christian Sabbath, and the Saturday as the Jews* Sabbath, because they receive the canons called the Apostles, which speak for both.

And king Edgar in England ordained that the Sabbath should begin on Saturday, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and continue till break of day on Monday. These laws for the Sabbath jof Alfred, Edgar, &c. were confirmed by Ethelred, and more fully by Canutus.

But of these things I shall say more anon under the proposition following: in the meantime only remembering you, 1. That it is well that we are required after the fourth commandment to pray, * Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.' And we accept his con-

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session, that this includeth all of that commandment which is the law of nature (though I have told you that it reacheth somewhat further). 2. That we approve of the plain doctrine of the English homilies on this point, and stand to the exposition of sober impartiality.

Prop, 10. * It hath been the constant practice of all Christ's churches in the whole world, ever since the days of the apostles to this day, to assemble for public worship on the Lord's-day, as a day set apart thereunto by the apostles. Yea, so universal was this judgment and practice, that there is no one church, no one writer, or one heretic (that I remember to have read of), that can be proved ever to have dissented or gainsaid it, till of late times.'

The proof of this is needless to any one that is versed in the writings of the ancients ; and others cannot try what we shall produce. I have been these ten years separated from my library, and am therefore less furnished for this task than is requisite; but I will desire no man to receive more, that the testimonies produced by Dr. Peter Heylin himself, which with pitiful weakness he would pervert. And he being the grand adversary with whom 1 do now contend, I shall only premise these few observations, as sufficient to confute all his cavils and evasions.

1. When his great work is to prove that the Lord's-day was not called the Sabbath (unless by allusion), we grant it him (as to a Jewish Sabbath), as nothing to the purpose.

2. Whereas he strenuously proveth that the Lord's-day was not taken for a Sabbath, * de re,' we grant it him also, taking the word in the primitive Jewish sense.

3. When he laboureth to prove that Christians met on other days of the week besides the Lord's-day (though not for the Lord's-supper), we grant it him, as nothing to the purpose. So Calvin preached or lectured daily at Geneva, and yet kept not every day as a holy day separated to God*s worship, as they did the Lord's-day, though too remissly. So we do still keep week-day lectures, and the church of England requireth the reading of common-prayer on Wednesdays and Fridays, and holy-day evens ; do they therefore keep them holy as the Lord's-day?

4. When he tells us that Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen, plead against them that would hear and pray on

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that day only, we grant it him ; and we are ready to say as they do, that we should not confine God's service to one day only, as if we might be profane and worldly on all other days; but should take all fit opportunities for religious helps, and should all the week keep our minds as near as we can in a holy frame and temper. Of the rest of his objections I shall say more in due place.

5. But I must note in the beginning, that he granteth the main cause which I plead for, acknowledging, (Hist.Sab. 1. 2. pag. 30.) it thus; ' So that the religious observation of this day, beginning in the age of the apostles, no doubt but with their approbation and authority, and since continuing in the same respect for so many ages, may be very well accounted among those apostolical traditions, which have been universally received in the church of God.' And what need we more than the religious observation, in the apostles' time, by the apostles' approbation and authority, and this delivered to us by the universal church, as an apostolical tradition.

But yet he saith that the apostles made it not a Sabbath. Arisw. Give us the religious observation, and call it by what name you please. We are not fond of the name of the Sabbath.

6. And therefore we grant all that he laboriously proveth of the abolition of the Jewish Sabbath, and that the ancients commonly consent, that by the abolished Sabbath, (Col. ii. 16.)is meant inclusively the weekly Jewish SabbathiiEpiphan. 1.1. Haeres.33. n. 11; Ambros. in loc. Hieron. Epist. ad Algus. qu. 10; Chrysost. Horn. 13. in Hebr. 7; August, cont. Jud. cap. 2. and cont. Faust. Manich. 1. 16. c. 28. I recite the places for them that doubt of it.

Now let us peruse the particular testimonies.

1. I begin with Ignatius, (though DallsBus hath said so much to prove the best copy of him of later date and spurious ; because others think otherwise, and that copy is by him thought to be written cent. 3.) who saith, ' Let us not keep the Sabbath in a Jewish manner, in sloth and idleness, but after a spiritual manner; not in bodily ease, but in the study of the law; not eating meat dressed yesterday, or drinking warm drinks, and walking out a limited space, but in the contemplation of the works of God And after the

Sabbath, let every one that loveth Christ keep the Lord's-day Festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and empress of all days, in which our life was raised again, and death was overcome by our Lord and Saviour.'

Either these epistles of Ignatius (ad Philip. &c.) are genuine or spurious. If genuine, then note how clearly it is asserted that the Lord's-day was to be observed as the queen of all days, by all that were lovers of Christ. And that the Seventh-day Sabbath was kept with it then and there (in Asia so near the apostles' days) no wonder; when it was but the honourable, gradual receding from the Mosai-cal ceremonies, with an avoiding the scandalous hindrance of the Jews' conversion. And Doctor Heylin well noteth, that it was only the Eastern churches next the Jews that for a time kept both days, but not the Western, who rather turned the Sabbath to a fast.

But if Ignatius's epistle be spurious, written cent. 3, then as Dallaeus would prove, that they were written by some heretical or heterodox person; and so it will be no wonder that holy days are pleaded for, when (as Doctor Heylin observeth) Cerinthus and his followers in the apostles' times, stood up for the Jewish Sabbath and ceremonies, and so were for both days : but it will be our confirmation that even the heretics held with the universal church for the Lord's-day.

2. The great controversy about the day of Easter, which spread so early through all the churches, is a full confirmation of our matter of fact. For when the Western churches were for the Passover-day (the better to content the Jews, saith Heylin), the Eastern thought it intolerable that it should not be kept on a Lord's-day, because that was the weekly day observed on the same account of the resurrection. The Eastern churches never questioned their supposition of the Lord's-day ; and the Western (after Victor's rash excommunicating the Asian bishops) never rested till they brought them to keep it on the Lord's-day : Pius, Anicetus, Victor, &c. prosecuting the cause.

3. The book (though perished) which Melito wrote of the Lord's-day, (Euseb. 1. 4. c. 25.) by the title may be well supposed to confirm at least the matter of fact of usage.

4. All those little councils, mentioned by Heylin, p. 48, held at Osroena, Corinth, in Gaul, in Pontus, in Rome,

prove this, ' The canons of them all/ saith Heylin, ' being extant in Eusebius's time, and in all which it was concluded for the Sunday/

But saith Heylin by this, ' You see that the Sunday and the Sabbath were long in striving for the victory.' p. 49. Answ, I see that some men can outface the clearest light. Here was no striving at all which day should be the weekly day set apart for holy worship, but only whether Easter should follow the time of Passover, or be confined to the Lord's-day.

5. Justin Martyr's testimony is so express, and so commonly cited, that I need not recite the words at large, ' Upon the Sunday all of us assemble in the congregation

Upon the day called Sunday all within the cities, or in the country, do meet together in some place, where,' &c. He proceedeth to shew the worship there performed.

Now, 1. Here being mention of no other day, no man can question but that this day was set apart for these holy assemblies in a peculiar manner, as the other week days were not. 2. This being the writing of one of the most learned and ancient of all the Christian writers. 3. And being purposely written to one of the wisest of all the emperors, as an apology for all the Christians. 4. And being written in Rome, where the matter of fact was easily known, and deserveth as much credit as any Christian history or writing since the apostles can deserve. Nor hath Heylin any thing to say against it.

6. The next remembered by Heylin is Dionysius Corinth, who lived 175, cited out of Eusebius Hist. 1. 4. c. 22. 'To day we keep the holy Lord's-day, wherein we read the epistle you wrote to us,' &c. Against this Heylin saith not a word.

7. The next is Clemens Alexandrinus, who expressly as-serteth the matter of fact, that the Lord's-day was then kept by Christians. Yea, Heylin derideth him for fetching it as far as Plato, Strom. 1. 7, But Heylin thinks he was against keeping any days: but he that will examine his words shall find, that he speaketh only against them that would be ceremonious observers of the day, more than of the work of the day, and would be religious on that day alone. And therefore he saith, ' He that leadeth his life according to the ordinances of the Gospel, doth keep the Lord's-day,

1

when he casteth away every evil thought; and doing things with knowledge and understanding, doth glorify the Lord in his resurrection/ This is not to speak against the day, but to shew how it ought to be sincerely kept. But if he had been against it, it is all one to my cause, who only prove that' de facto* all Christian churches kept it.

8. The next witness is Tertullian, who oft usserteth this to be the holy day of the Christians' church-assemblies, and holy worship : his testimony in Apolog. cap. 16, is so commonly known, that I need not recite it. It is the same in sense with Justin Martyr's, and written in an apology for the Christians, purposely describing their custom of meeting and worshipping on the Sunday (as he calls it there), as Justin did. And that it was not an hour's work, he shews in saying, that * The day was kept as a day of rejoicing,' and then describeth the work. And de Idolol. c. 14. he saith, that every eighth day was the Christians' festival. And de Coron. Mil. c. 3. and oft he calleth it the Lord's-day, and saith it was a crime to fast upon it. And the work of the day described by Justin, and by him, Apolog. c. 39. is just the same that we desire now the day to be spent in : we plead for no other.

But most grossly saith Heylin, page 55, ' But sure it is that their assemblies held no longer than our morning service ; that they met only before noon ; for Justin saith, that . when they met, they used to receive the sacrament, and that the service being done, every man went again to his daily labours.* Answ. Is this a proof to conclude a certainty from? Most certainly abundance of testimonies might be produced to prove that they came together early in the morning, and stayed till evening, if not till within night. The former, Pliny and many others witness: and the latter many accusations of the heathens, that censured them for night-crimes at their meetings: and all that report it almost tell us of the sacrament administered, and Tertullian and others, of their feasting together (their love-feasts), as a supper before they parted. Now let the time be measured by the work: by that time the Scriptures of the Old Testament and New were read, and all the prayers then made, and all the preaching and exhortations, and then all the prayers and praises at the celebration of the Lord's-supper (especially if they were half as long as the Liturgies ascribed

to Basil, ChrysoBtom, dux^ the rest of the Biblioth. Patrum), and by that time the sacrament itself was administered, with all the action and singing of psalms, and all the oblations and collections made ; and besides this, all the church discipline on particular persons exercised, where questions and answers and proofs must take up a great deal of time, sure one day must be at an end, or very near it. And after when the love-feasts were left off, and the church met twice, and made an intermission, they did as we do now. And the very custom of preaching all the morning to the au-dientes and catechumens, till almost noon, when they were dismissed with a *missa est,' and spending the rest of the day in teaching the church, and celebrating the sacrament with all the larger eucharistical acts, do fully shew how the day was spent; which I would quickly shew by particular testimonies, but that I am separated from my library; and Dr. Young hath fully done it to my hand. The very context of these testimonies, with what Albaspinseus hath of their catechizing and church order, will soon satisfy the impartial searcher.

As for what he saith out of Justin, of ' returning to their labours,* I can find no such word in him; nor do I believe there is any such to be found, unless of returning to their six days weekly labour,, when the religious work was ended with the day: and I imagine that the reader will find no more, if so much.

9. The next proof is universal, even the consent of all the Christian churches, without one contradicting vote that ever I read of, that the Lord's-day worship was to be performed standing, and that it was not allowed them to pray or worship kneeling, upon any Lord*s-day in the year (or any week-day between Easter and Whitsuntide): and the difficulty of these stations is expressed (see Albaspinajus of it), which sheweth that it was for a long time. Whatever they did in hearing (it is like they sat, for Justin saith. We rise to pray), but it is certain they stood in worshipping acts, as prayer and praise. This Justin Martyr hath before mentioned : Tertullian hath it expressly, and Heylin himself citeth him, de Coron. Mil. et Basil 1. de Spir. S. c. 27, and Hieron. advers. Luciferian. August. Epist. 118 ; Hilar. Praf. in Psal. Ambros. Serm. 62. To which he may add Epipha-nius, and divers councils, especially Nic. 1, and Triil. of

which after. (I oace pleaded this ancient custom with them that would have all excluded from the sacrament that kneel not, to prove that kneeling at the sacrament on the Lord*s-days could not be in the church of so many hundred years after the apostles, when the universal church condemned kneeling on all Lord's-day worship.) And Dr. Heylin himself saith, ' What time this custom was laid by, I can hardly say; but sure I am, it was not laid aside in long time after; not till the time of Pope Alexander the third, who lived about the year 1160,* &c. Now from all this it is most evident, that the Lord*8-day was then observed.

10. In this place, though by anticipation, I add the two general councils now named : The first general council at Nice, (Can. 20.) which reneweth and confirmeth this ancient custom of not kneeling in prayer on the Lord's-days, that there might be an uniformity kept in the churches. And the Canon. Concil. Trul. have the same again; which proveth what we seek, the matter of fact of the day's general observation.

11. The next is Origen, who is not denied to witness to the matter of fact; but Heylin thinks he was against the right of it: but his mistake is the same, as about Clemens Alexandrinus ; Origen did but desire that other days might be kept also as profitably as they could; as our lecture-days are.

12. Cyprian is the next, whose testimonies for matter of fact are full, and Heylin hath nothing to say against him, but that it is his private opinion, that the Lord's-day was prefigured in the eighth day destined to circumcision. Which is nothing at all to our business in hand.

13. And he himself cites Pope Fabian's Decretal, anno 237 (a testimony therefore that he is not to refuse), * for every man and woman on the Lord's-days to bring a quantity of bread and wine to be first onered on the altar, and then distributed in the sacrament.'

The Canon of Clement before mentioned 1 now pretermit.

But saith Dr. Heylin, ' 1. All days between Easter and Whitsunday had adoration by genuflection also prohibited on them. 2. And the church had other festivals also.'

Answ. 1. The reason of station was to signify Christ's resurrection and ours ; therefore it continued for these days:

but that was for the short occasional meetings of those days, which he himself will not say were separated to worship. 2. And the other festivals of the church make nothing against us. For, 1. Some of them (as Easter and Whitsunday) were but the same Lord's-day. 2. And some of them were but anniversary, and not weekly holidays; as the Nativity, &c. 3. And he confesseth even these were brought in long after the apostles' days, and therefore can lay no claim to apostolical institution. Page 62, he himself saith that * The feast of Christ's Nativity was ordained or instituted in the second century, and that of his Incarnation in the third.' And besides Easter and Whitsunday (which are the Lord's-day), Christmas is all that he named out of Beda (so long after) as the 'MajoraSolennia.* The eves were but hours for preparation.

14. To these (though in the fourth century) I may add Epiphanius, who recorded the station (and adoration to the East) on the Lord's-days, as traditions received by the universal church.

And here I would have it specially noted, that when Tertullian, Epiphanius, and others, note standing on the Lord's days to be an unwritten tradition received by the whole church, they do not say the same of the Lord's-day itself, (though the ancients oft say, that we received it from the apostles): Now by this it is plain, that they took the Lord's-day to be of apostolical institution past all question, and the unwritten, universal traditions to be somewhat lower (which there was no Scripture for at all). (Among which the white garment, and the milk and honey to the baptized, and the adoration toward the East, are numbered.) For he that is appointed to worship on the Lord's-days standing, or towards the East, is supposed to know that on that day he is to worship. If the mode on that day be of universal tradition as a ceremony, the day is supposed to be somewhat more than of unwritten tradition.

15. I add here also (though in the fourth century, because it looks back to the institution) the words of Athana-sius, cited by Heylin himself, Homil. de Semente, (though Nannius question it,) ' That our Lord transferred the Sabbath to the Lord's-day.' But saith Dr. Heylin, ' This must be understood, not as if done by his commandment, but on this occasion : the resurrection of our Lord on that day, be-

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ing the principal motive which did influence his church to

make choice thereof for the assemblies For otherwise it

would cross what formerly had been said by Athanasius in his TTfidjiusv, &c.' Answ. It expresseth the common judgment of the church, that Christ himself made the change by these degrees: 1. Fundamentally, and as an exemplar, by his own resurrection on that day; giving the first cause of it, as the creation-rest did of the seventh day: 2, Secretly commanding it to his apostles. 3. Commissioning them to promulgate all his commands. 4. Sending down the Spirit on that very day. 5. And by that Spirit determining them by promulgation to determine publicly of the day, and s€t~ tie all the churches in long possession of it before their death. That which is thus done, may well be said to be done by Christ. 6. And what show of contradiction hath his TtjueJ/xev, to this? 'It was commanded first that the Sabbath day should be observed in memory of the accomplishment of the world : so do we celebrate the Lord's-day,> as a memorial of the beginning of a new creation.' Had not he a creating head here, that out of these words could gather, that we celebrate the Lord's-day without a command voluntarily ? One would think * so' should signify the contrary.

But ib. page 8, he citeth Socrates for the same, saying that' The design of the apostles was not to busy themselves in prescribing festival-days, but to instruct the people in the ways of godliness.'

Artsw. Socrates plainly rebuketh the busy ceremonious arrogancy of after-ages for making new holidays ; and doth not at all mean the Lord's-day ; but saith that to make festivals, that is, other and more, as since they did, was none of the apostles' business. Nor is this any thing at all to the matter of fact, which none denied.

16. I will add that as another testimony which (p. 9.) he citeth against it. The council at Paris, anno 829. c. 50. which, as he speaketh, ascribeth the keeping of the Lord's-day to apostolical tradition, confirmed by the authority of the church. The words are, ' ut creditur apostolorum tra-ditione, immo ecclesiaj authoritate descendit, &c.' Now I have proved that if the apostles did it, they did it by the Holy Ghost, and by authority from Christ,

But he citeth (p. 7, 8.) the words of Athanasius, Maxi-mus, Taurinensis and Augustine, saying that * We honour the Lord's-day for the resurrection, and because Christ rose,* and (Aug.) * The Lord's-day was declared to Christians by the resurrection of our Lord, and from that (or from him rather) began to have its festivity.* From whence he ga-thereth that it was only done by the authority of the church, and not by any precept of our Saviour.

Ajisw. As if Christ's resurrection could not be the fundamental occasion, and yet Christ's law the obliging cause ? Would any else have thus argued, ' The Jews observed the Seventh-day-Sabbath, because the Creator rested the seventh day: therefore they had no command from God for it?' Wo to the churches that have such expositors of God's commands! or, as if Christ who both commissioned and inspired the apostles by the Holy Ghost, to teach all his commands, and settle church orders, were not thus the chief Author of what they did by his commission and Spirit. What church can shew the same commission, or the like miraculous and infallible Spirit as they had ?

See further August de Civitat. Dei. 1. 22. c. 30. and Serm. 16. de Verb. Apostol.

But saith he, ' Christ and two of his disciples travelled on the day of his resurrection from Jerusalem to Emmaus, seven miles, and back again, which they would not have done, if it had been a Sabbath.'

Answ, 1. They would not have done it if it had been a Jewish Sabbath of ceremonial rest; but those which you call too precise, will go as far now in case of need to hear a sermon; and remember that they spent the time in Christ's preaching and their hearing and conferring after of it. 2. But we grant that though the foundation was laid by Christ's resurrection, yet it was not a law fully promulgate to, and understood by the apostles, till the coming down of the Holy Ghost (nor many greater matters neither), who was promised and given to teach them all things, &c.

And it is worth the noting, how Heylin beginneth his Chap. iii. 1. 2. ' The Lord's-day taken up by the common consent of the church, not instituted or established by any text of Scripture, or edict of emperor, or decree of council^ save that some few councils did xeflect upon it. In that

which follows we shall find both emperors and councils very frequent in ordering things about this day and the-service of it/

Answ, Note reader. What could possibly, besides Christ and the Holy Ghost in the apostles, be the instituter of a day, which neither emperor nor council instituted, and yet was received by the common consent x)f all churches in the world, even from, and in the apostles* days? Yea, as this man confesseth, * by their approbation and authority V

But henceforward in the fourth century I am prevented from bringing in my most numerous witnesses, by Heylin's confession, that now emperors, councils, and all, were for it. But yet let the reader remember, 1. How few and small records be left of the second century, and not many of the third. 2. And that historical copious testimonies of the fourth century, that is, emperors, councils, and the most pious and learned fathers, attesting that the universal church received it from the apostles, is not vain, or a small evidence ; when as the fourth century began but two hundred years after St. John's death, or within less than a year.

And that the first Christian emperor finding all Christians unanimous in the possession of the day, should make a law (as our kings do) for the due observing of it; and that the first General Council should establish uniformity in the very gesture of worship on that day, are strong confirmations of the matter of fact, that the churches unanimously agreed in the holy use of it, as a separated day, even from and in the apostles' days.

Object. * But the Emperor Constantine's edict alloweth husbandmen to labour.*

Answ. Only in case of apparent hazard, lest the fruits of the earth be lost; as we allow seamen to work at sea, in case of necessity. And so though by his second edict manumission was allowed to the judge, as an act of charity^ yet they were forbidden judging in all other ordinary causes, lest the day be profaned by wrangling.

Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, by their edict forbad public spectacles or shows on the Lord's-day. And afterward Valentinian and Valens made an edict that no • Christian should on that day be convented by the Exactors or Receivers.*

Object* * But (saith Heylin) for three hundred years there was no law to bind men to that day.*

Ansv), The apostles* institution was a law of Christ by his Spirit, (Matt, xxviii. 20.) And how should there be a human law, before there was a Christian magistracy ?

Object, (Saith Heylin, p. 95.) ' The powers which raised it up, may take it lower if they please, yea, take it quite away,' &c.

Answ. True; that is, Christ may ; and when he dpth it by himself, or by new apostles, who confirm their commission by miracles, we will obey; but we expect his presence with the apostolical constitution to iho end of the world. (Matt, xxviii. 20.)

Theodosius also enacted that on the Lord's-day, and in the Christmas, and on Easter, and to Whitsuntide, the public cirques and theatres should be shut up. (For we grant that when Christian magistrates took the matter in hand, other holy days were brought in by degrees; whereas before the Christians indeed met (yea, and communicated) as oft as they could, even most of the days in the week; but did not separate the days as holy to God's service, as they did the Lord's-day : only Christmas-day, and the memorials of those martyrs that were near them (to encourage the people to constancy) they honoured somewhat early ; but those were anniversary, and not weekly. And the Wednesdays and Fridays, were kept by them but as we keep them now, or as a lecture-day.

I grant also that when Christian magistracy arose, as the holy days multiplied, the manner of the day's observation altered. For whereas from the beginning, the Christians used to stay together from morning till night, (partly through devotion, and partly for fear of persecution, if they were noted to go in and out;) afterward being free, they met twice a day, with intermission, as we do now. Not that their whole day's service was but an hour or two, as Heylin would prove from a perverted word of Chrysostom's, and another of Origen's (or Ruffinus), and from the length of their published homilies ; for he perverteth what was spoken of the sermon, as spoken of the length of the service of the whole day; whereas there was much more time spent in the eucharistical and liturgic offices, of prayer, praise, sacra-

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OF THE lord's-day. 397

ments, and exhortations proper to the church, than was in the sermon. When I was suffered to exercise my ministry myself, having four hundred, or five hundred, if not six hundred, to administer the sacrament to (though twice the number kept themselves away), it took up the time of two sermons usually to administer it, besides all the ordinary readings, prayers and praises, morning and evening.

Heylin noteth by the way, 1. That now officiating in a white garment begun. 2. And kneeling at the sacrament; which last he proveth from two or three words where adoration only is named. But, 1, A late Treatise hath fully proved that the white garment was not a religious ceremony then at all, but the ordinary splendid apparel of honourable persons in those times, which were thought meet for the honour of the ministry when Christian princes did advance them. 2. And he quite forgot that adoration on the Lord's-day was ever used standing, and that he had said before, that it was above a thousand years before the custom was altered.

The inclinations to overmuch strictness on the Lord's-day. The destruction of the army of the Goths by the Romans in Africa, because they would not tight on that day, &c. See in Heylin, pp. 112, 113, &c. His translation of the words of the Synod or Council at Mascon, 588, I think worthy the transcribing.

** It is observed that Christian people do very rashly slight and neglect the Lord's-day ; giving themselves thereon, as other days, to continual labours, &c. Therefore let every Christian, in case he carry not that name in vain, give ear to our instruction ; knowing that we have care that you should do well, as well as the power to bridle you, that you do not ill. It followeth, * Custodite diem Dominicum qui nos denuo peperit, &c.' Keep the Lord's-day, the day of our new birth, whereupon we were delivered from the snares of sin. Let no man meddle in litigious controversies, or deal in actions or lawsuits; or put himself at all on such an exigent, that needs he must prepare his oxen for their daily work, but exercise yourselves in hymns, and singing praises unto God; being intent thereon both in mind and body. If any have a church at hand, let him go unto it, and there pour forth his soul in tears and prayers; his eyes and hands being all that day lifted up to God. It is the everlasting

.398 THE DIVINE APPOINTMENT

day of rest, insinuated to us under the shadow of the Seventh-day or Sabbath^ in the law and prophets; And therefore it is very meet that we should celebrate this day with one accord, whereon we have been made what at first we were not. Let us then offer to God our free and voluntary service, by whose great goodness we are freed from the gaol of error: not that the Lord exacts it of us, that we should celebrate this day in a corporeal abstinence or rest from labour, who only looks that we do yield obedience to hie holy will, by which contemning earthly things, he may conduct us to the heavens of hia infinite mercy. However if any man shall set at nought this our exhortation, be he assured, that God shall punish him as he hath deserved; and that he shall be also subject unto the censures of the church. In case he be a lawyer, he shall lose his cause; if that he be an husbandman, or servant, he shall be corporally punished for it; but if a clergyman or monk, he shall be six months separated from the congregation.'*

His reproof of Gregorius Tauronensis for his strictness for the Lord*s-day, sheweth but his own dissent from him, and from the churches of that age.

King Alfred's laws for the observation of the Lord's-day, and against dicing, drinking, &c. on it, are visible in our constitutions, in Spelman and others. And many more edicts and laws are recited by Heylin himself of other countries.

Two are worthy of observation for the reasons of them. 1. A law of Clotharius king of France, forbidding servile labours on the Lord's-day, ' Because the law forbids it, and the holy Scripture wholly contradicteth it.' 2. A constitution of the emperor Leo Philosophus, to the same purpose, ' Secundum quod Spiritui sancto ab ipsoque institutis apostolis placuit; as it pleased the Holy Ghost and the apostles instructed by him/ You see that then Christian princes judged the Lord's-day to be of Divine institution. Yea, to these he addeth two more princes of the same mind, confessing that Leo was himself a scholar, and Charles the Great had as learned men about him as the times then bred, and yet were thus persuaded of the day; yea, and that many miracles were pretended in confirmation of it; yet he afiirmeth, that the * Church and the most learned men in it were of another mind.' Let us hear his proofs.

1. Saith he, 'Isidore a bishop of Sevil makes it an apostolical sanction only, no Divine commandment: a day designed by the apostles, for religious exercises in honour of our Saviour's resurrection; and it was called the Lord's-day therefore : to this end and purpose, that resting in the same from all earthly acts, and the temptations of the world, we might intend God's holy worship, giving this day due honour for the hope of the resurrection which we have therein.' The same verbatim is repeated by Beda. 1. de Offic. and by Rabban. Maurus 1. de instit. Chr. 1. c. 2. 24, and by Alcuinus de Div. Offic. c. 24, which plainly shews, that all these took it only for an apostolical usage, &c.

A/isw, Reader, is not here a strange kind of proof? This is but just the same that we assert, and I am proving ; save that he most grossly puts an apostolical usage, and sanction (' sanxerunt') as distinct from, and exclusive of a command, which I have fully proved to be Christ's own act and law to us, by virtue of, 1. Their commission: 2. And the infallible Spirit given them.

And having brought the history to so fair an account by our chief adversary's own citations and confessions, I will not tire myself and the reader any more; but only wish every Christian to consider, whether they that thus distinguish between apostolical sanctions, and Divine institutions as this man doth, do not teach men to deny all the holy Scriptures of the New Testament, 'ds being but apostolical writings ; and go far to deny or subvert Christianity itself; by denying the Divine authority of these commissioned inspired men, who are foundations of the church, and sealed their doctrine by miracles, and from whom it is that our Christian faith, and laws, and church-constitutions, which are universal and Divine, are received.

I only remember you of Pliny, a heathen's testimony of the Christian's practice * stato die.' No man can question Pliny on the account of partiality; and therefore though a heathen, his historical testimony, as joined with all the Christian church-history, hath its credibility. He telleth Trajan, that it was the use of Christians, ' on a stated day, before it was light to meet together, to sing a hymn to Christ as to God ' secum invicem,' among themselves by turns; and to bind themselves by a sacrament, not to do any wickedness, but that they commit not thefts, robberies,

adulteries ) that they break not their word (or trust); that they deny not the pledge (or pawn); which being ended, they used to depart, and to come again together to take meat, but promiscuous and harmless/ Epist. 79. p. 306,307.

Where note, 1. That by a stated day, he can mean no other than the Lord's^day, as the consent of all other history will prove. 2. That this is much like the testimonies of Justin and Tertullian (and supposing what they say of the use of reading the Scripture, and instructing the church) it sheweth that their chief work on that day, was the praising of God for our redemption by Christ, and tbe celebration of the Lord's-supper ; and the disciplinary exercises of covenanters thereto belonging. 3. That they had at that time, where Pliny was, two meetings that day, that is, they went home, and came again to their feast of love, in the evening. (Which, no doubt, was varied, as several times, and places, and occasions required; sometimes departing and coming again, and sometimes staying together all day.) 4. That this epistle of Pliny was written in Trajan's days, and it is supposed in his second year: and Trajan was emperor in the year that St. John the apostle died, if not a year before; so that it is the church's <yustom in the end of the apostles* days, which Pliny here writeth of. 5. That he had the fullest testimony of what he wrote, it being the consent of the Christians whom he, as judge, examined ; €ven of the timorous that denied their religion, as well as of the rest. And many of them upon his prohibition forbore these meetings. 6. And the number of them he telleth Trajan in city and country was great, of persons of all degrees and ranks.

So that when, 1. Christian History, 2. And Heathen, acquaint us with the matter of fact, that the day was kept in the apostle's time; 3. Yea, when no heretics or sects of Christians are found contradicting it, but the churches then and after universally practised it without any controversy ; what fuller historical evidence can there be ? And to say, that, 1. The apostles would not have reproved this, if it had not been their own doing : 2. Or that it could be done, and they not know it: 3. And that all Christians who acknowledged their authority, would have consented in such a practice superstitiously before their faces, and against their wills, and no testimony be left us of one faithful church

or Christian that contradicted it, and stuck to the apostolical authority, even where the churches received their writings, and publicly read them; all this is such, as is not by sober Christians to be believed.

But the great objection will be, * That other things were then taken for apostolical traditions, and were customs of the universal church, as well as this; which things we now renounce as superstitious.*

Answ. Though I answered this briefly before, I now give you this fuller answer: 1. It is but few things that come under this charge, viz. the unction, white garment, with the taste of milk and honey at baptism, adoration towards the East, and that standing; and not kneeling on the Lord's-days, and the anniversary observation of Easter and Whitsuntide : and the last is but the keeping of one or two Lord's-days in the year with some note of distinction from the rest, so far as there was any agreement in it. 2. That these are not usually by the ancients called apostolical traditions, but customs of the universal church: 3. That when they are called traditions from the apostles, it is not with an assertion that the apostles instituted them, but that they are supposed to be from their times, because their original is not known. 4. That the ancients join not the Lord's-day with these, but take the Lord's-day for an apostolical institution written in Scripture, though the universal practice of all churches more fully deliver the certain history of it: but the rest they take for unwritten customs, as distinct from Scripture ordinances. (As Epiphanius justly sheweth.) 5. That most Christians are agreed, that if these latter could be proved apostolical institutions for the church universal, it would be our duty to use them, though they were not in Scripture. So that we reject them only for want of such proof; but the proof of the Lord's-day's separation being far better (by concurrence of Scripture and all ancient history), it followeth not that we must doubt of that which hath full and certain proof, because we must doubt of that which wants it. 6. And if it were necessary that they stood or fell together (as it is not), it were necessary that we did receive those three or four ceremonies, for the sake of the Lord's-day, which hath so great evidence, rather than that we cast off the Lord's-day, because of these ceremonies.

VOL. XIII. D D

Not only because there is more good in the Lord's-day than there is evil to be any way suspected by a doubter in these ceremonies; but especially because the evidence for the day is so great, that if the said ceremonies had but the same, they were undoubtedly of Divine authority or institution. In a word, I have shewed you somewhat of the evidence for the Lord's-day ; do you shew me the like for them, and then I will prove that both must be received; but if you cannot, do not pretend a parity. 7. And the same churches laying by the customs aforesaid, or most of them, did shew that they took them not indeed for apostolical institutions, as they did the Lord's-day, which they continued to observe; not as a ceremony, but as a necessary thing. 8^. And the ancient churches did believe, that even in the apostles' days some things were used as indifferent, which were mutable, and not laws, but temporary customs. And some things were necessary, settled by law for perpetuity. Of the former kind they thought were, the greeting one another with an holy kiss, the women's praying covered with a veil, (of which the apostle saith, that it was then and there so decent, that the contrary would have been unseemly, and the churches of God had no such custom, by which he answereth the contentions), yet in other countries, where custom altereth the signification, it may be otherwise : also that a man wear not long hair; and that they have a love-feast on the Lord's-day, (which yet Paul seemeth to begin to alter in his rebuke of the abusers of it. 1 Cor. 11). And if these ancient churches thought the milk and honey, and the white garment, and the station and adoration Eastwards, to be also such like indifferent mutable customs, as it is apparent they did, this is nothing at all to invalidate our proof, that the Lord's-day was used (and consequently appointed) in the days of the apostles.

Object. * At least it will prove it mutable as they were.' Answ. No such matter ; because the very nature of such circumstances, having no stated necessity or uneasiness, sheweth them to be mutable. But the reason of the Lord's-day's use is perpetual; and it is founded partly in the law of nature, which telleth us that some stated days should be set apart for holy things; and partly in the positive part of the fourth commandment; which telleth us, that ' once

God determined of one day in seven/ yea, and this upon the ground of his own cessation of his creation-work, that man on that day might observe a holy rest in the worshipping of the great Creator, which is a reason not belonging to the Jews only, but to the whole world. Yea, and that reason (whatever Dr. Heylin says to the contrary, from the mere silence of the former history in Genesis) doth seem plainly to intimate that this is but the repetition of that law of the Sabbath which was given to Adam; for why should God begin two thousand years after to give men a Sabbath upon the reason of his rest from the creation of it, if he had never called man to that commemoration before.

And it is certain that the Sabbath was observed at the falling of manna before the giving of the law ; and let any considering Christian judge between Dr. Heylin and us in this : 1. Whether the not falling of manna, on the rest of God after the creation, was like to be the original reason of the Sabbath. 2. And whether, if it had been the first, it would not have been said, "Remember to keep holy the Sabbath-day;" for on six days manna fell, and not on the seventh, rather than " for in six days God created heaven and earth, &c. and rested the seventh day." And it is causally added, " Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it." Nay, consider whether this annexed reason intimate not, that the day on this ground being hallowed before, therefore it was that God sent not down the manna on that day, and that he prohibited the people from seeking it.

And he that considereth the brevity of the history in Genesis, will think he is very bold, that obtrudeth on the world his negative argument: * The Sabbath is not there mentioned ; therefore it was not then kept.'

And if it was a positive law given to Adam on the reason of the creation-rest, it was then such a positive, as must be next to a law of nature, and was given to all mankind in Adam, and Adam must needs be obliged to deliver it down to the world.

So that though the Mosaical law (even as given in stone) be ceased, yea, and Adam's positives too, formally as such ; yet this is sure, that once God himself determined by a law, that one stated day in seven, was the fittest proportion of time to be separated to holy worship. And if it was so

once, yea, to all the world from the creation, it is so still: because there is still the same reason for it; and we are bound to judge God's determination o»f the proportion, to be wiser than any that we can make. And so by parity of reason consequentially even those abrogated laws do thus far bind us still; not so far as abrogated; but because the record and reason of them, is still a signification of the due proportion of time, and consequently of our duty.

Now the Lord's-day, supposing one weekly day to be due, and being but that day determined of, and this upon the reason of the resurrection, and for the commemoration of our redemption, and that by such inspired and authorised persons, it foUoweth clearly, that this is no such mutable ceremony, as a love-feast, or the kiss of love, or the veil, or the washing of feet, or the anointing of the sick, which were mostly occasional actions and customs taken up upon reasons proper to those times and places.

Object. * But by the reason aforesaid, you will prove the continuance of the Seventh-day Sabbath ; as grounded on the creation-rest.'

Afisw. This is anon to be answered in another place. I only prove that it continued, till a successive dispensation, and God's own change did put an end to it; but no longer.

Object, * But to commemorate the creation, and praise the Creator, is a moral work, and therefore ceaseth not.'

Answ, True, but that it be done on the seventh day, is that which ceaseth. For the same work is transferred to the Lord's-day; and the Creator and Redeemer to be honoured together in our commemoration. For the Son is the only way to the Father; who hath restored us to peace with our Creator; and as no man cometh to the Father but by the Son, and as we must not now worship God, as a Creator and Father never offended, but as a Creator and Father reconciled by Christ, so is it the appointment of Christ by the Holy Ghost, that we commemorate the work of creation now, as repaired and restored by the work of redemption, on the Lord's-day, which is now separated to these works.

That the Sabbath was appointed to Adam, Wallseus on the Fourth Commandment, cap. 3.; andRivetdissert.de sab. c. 1. have most copiously proved. And Clem. Alexandr. Strom. 1. 5. out of Homer, Hesiod, Callimachus and others, proveth that the heathens knew of it.

We may therefore sum up the prerogatives of the Lord's-day, as Leo did, (Ep. 81. cap. 1.) * On this day the world began; on this day by Christ's resurrection, death did receive death, and life its beginning; on this day the apostles take the trumpet of the Gospel to be preached to all nations; on this day the Holy Ghost came from the Lord to the apostles, &c.' See more in Athanas. de Sab. et Circ. and August. Serm. 154. de Tempore. Therefore saith Isychius in Levit. L 2. c. 9. * The church setteth apart the Lord's-day for holy assemblies.' And in the times of heathenish persecution, when men were asked, whether they were Christians, and kept the Lord's-days; they answered that they were, and kept the Lord's-day ; which Christians must not omit: as you may see Act. Martyr, apud. Baron, an. 303. n. 37—39. They would die rather than not keep the holy assemblies on the Lord's-days : For, saith Ignatius, * After the Sabbath, every lover of Christ celebrateth the Lord's-day, consecrated to (or by) the Lord's resurrection, the queen and chief of all days' (as is aforecited). For saith Austin, * The Lord's resurrection hath promised us an eterjial day, and consecrated to us the Lord's-day, which is called the Lord's-day, and properly belongeth to the Lord,' Serm. 15. de Verb. Apost. And saith Hilary, Proleg. in Psalm, * Though the name and observance of a Sabbath was placed to the seventh day, yet is it the eighth day, which is also the first, on which we rejoice with the perfect festivity of the Sabbath.*

Of the full keeping of the whole day, and of the several exercises in which it was spent, and of the more numerous testimonies of antiquity hereupon. Dr. Young in his ** Dies Dominica" hath said so much, with so much evidence and judgment, that 1 purposely omit abundance of such testimonies, because I will not do that which he hath already done; the learned reader may there find unanswerable proof of the matter of fact, that the Lord's-day was kept in the apostles' days, and ever since, as by their appointment; and for the unlearned reader, I fear lest I have too much interrupted him with citations already. I only tell him the conclusion, that, if Scripture-history interpreted and seconded by fullest practice and history of all the churches of Christ, and by the consent of heathens and heretics, and not contradicted by any sect in the world, be to be believed, then

we must say, that the Lord's-day was commonly kept by the Christians in and from the apostjes' times.

Prop, 11. ' This evidence of the church's universal constant usage, is a full and sufficient proof of the matter of fact, that it was a day set apart by the apostles for holy worship, especially in the public church-assemblies/

1. It is a full proof, that such assemblies were held on that day above others, as a separated day. For if it was the usage in anao 100, (ir> which the apostle John died,) it must needs be the usage in the year 99, in which he wrote his Revelations, where he calleth it the Lord's-day : For all the churches could not silently agree on a sudden to take up a new day, without debate and public notice, which could not be concealed. And if it was the universal usage in the days of Ignatius or Justin Martyr, it was so also in the days of St. John (and so before). For the churches were then so far dispersed over the world, that it would have taken up much time to have had councils and meetings or any other means for agreement on such things.

And it is utterly improbable that there would have been no dissenters; for, 1. Did no Christians in the world so near to the apostles* days make any scruple of superstition, or of such an addition to Divine institutions ? 2. Was there no country, nor no persons whose interest would not better suit with another day, or an uncertain day, or at least their opinions ? when we find it now so hard a matter to bring men in one country, to be all of one opinion. 3. And there was then no magistrates to force them to such an union; and therefore it must be voluntary. 4. And they had in the second age such pastors as the apostles themselves had ordained, and as had conversed with them, and been trained up by them, and knew their mind, and cannot soberly be thought likely to consent all on a sudden to such a new institution, without and contrary to the apostles' sense and practice. 5. Yea, they had yet ministers that had that extraordinary spirit which was given by the laying on of the apostles' hands: For if the aged apostles ordained young men, it is to be supposed that most of those young men (such as Timothy), overlived them. 6. Yea, and the ordinary Christians in those times had those extraordinary gifts by the laying on of the apostles' hands, as appeareth evi-

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dently in the case of Samaria, (Acts viii,) and of the Corinthians, (1 Cor. xii. and xiv,) and of the Galatians. (Gal. iii. 1—3.) And it is not to be suspected that all these inspired ministers and people would consent to a superstitious innovation, without and against the apostles' minds.

2. Therefore this history is a full proof, that these things were done by the consent and appointment of the apostles. For, 1. As is said, the inspired persons and churches could not so suddenly be brought to forsake them universally in such a case. 2. The churches had all so high an esteem of the apostles, that they took their authority for the highest, and their judgment for infallible,and therefore received their writings as canonical and Divine. 3. The churches professed to observe the Lord's-day as an apostolical ordinance, and they cannot be all supposed to have conspired in a lie, yea, to have belied the Holy Ghost. 4. The apostles themselves would have controlled this course, if it had not been by their own appointment. For I have proved that the usage was in their own days. And they were not so careless of the preservation of Christ's ordinances and churches, as to let such things be done, without contradiction; when it is known how Paul strove to resist and retrench all the corruptions of church-order in the churches to which he wrote. If the apostles silently connived at such corruptions, how could we rest on their authority ? Especially the apostle John in an. 99, would rather have written against it as the superstition of usurpers (as he checked Diotrephes for contempt of him), than have said that he was in the Spirit on the Lord*s-day when he saw Christ, and received his revelation and message to the churches. 5. And if the churches had taken up this practice universally without the apostles, it is utterly improbable that no church writer would have committed to memory either that one church that begun the custom, or the council or means used for a sudden confederacy therein. If it had begun with some one church, it would have been long before the rest would have been brought to an agreeing consent. It was many hundred years before they all agreed of the time of Easter ; and it was not till the middle of Chrysostom's time (^for he saith it was but ten years ago, when he wrote it) that they agreed of the time of Christ's nativity.

But if it had been done by confederacy at once, the motion.

the council called about it, the debates, and the dissenters, and resistances would all have been matter of fact, so notable, as would have found a place in some author or church-history ; whereas there is not a syllable of any such thing; either of council, letter, messenger, debate, resistance, &c. Therefore it is evident, that the thing was done by the apostles.

Prop, 12. * They that will deny the validity of this historical evidence, do by consequence betray the Christian faith, or give away or deny the necessary means of proving the truth of it, and of many great particulars of religion/

I suppose that in my book, called, " The Reasons of the Christian Religion," 1 have proved that Christianity is proved true, by the SPIRIT, as the great witness of Christ, and of the Christian verity ; but I have proved withal, the necessity and certainty of historical means, to bring the matters of fact to our notice, as sense itself did bring them to the notice of the first receivers. For instance :

L Without such historical evidence and certainty, we cannot be certain what books of Scripture are truly canonical and of Divine authority, and what not. This Protestants grant to Papists in the controversy of tradition. Though the canon be itself complete, and tradition is no supplement to make up the Scriptures, as if they were, ' in suo genere,* imperfect; yet it is commonly granted that our fathers' and teachers' tradition is the hand to deliver us this perfect rule, and to tell us what parts make up the canon.

If any say that the books do prove themselves to be canonical or Divine, I answer, 1. Whatman alive could tell without historical proof that the Canticles, or Esther, are canonical? yea, or Ecclesiastes, or the Proverbs, and not the books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus ?

2. How can any man know that the Scripture-histories are canonical ? The suitableness of them to a holy soul, will do much to confirm one that is already holy, of the truth of the doctrines. But if the Spirit within us assure us immediately of the truth of the history, it must be by inspiration and revelation, which no Christians have, that ever 1 was yet acquainted with. For instance, that the books of Chronicles are canonical, or the book of Esther, or the books of the Kings, or Samuel, or Judges. And how much doth the doctrine of Christianity depend on the history ? As of the

creation, of the Israelites' bondage and deliverance, and the giving of the lav^, and Moses' miracles, and of chronology, and Christ's genealogy ; and of the history of Christ's own nativity, miracles and life ; and the history of the apostles afterwards ? To say, that the very history so far proveth its own truth, as that without subsequent history we can be sure of it, and must be, is to reduce all Christ's church of right believers into a narrow room; when I never knew the man (as far as I could perceive) did know the history to be Divine by its proper evidence, without tradition, and subsequent history.

3. And how can any man know the ceremoniallaw to be Divine, by its proper evidence alone ? Who is he that read-eth over Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, that will say that without knowing by history that this is a Divine record, he could have certainly perceived by the book itself, that all these were indeed Divine institutions or laws ?

4. And how can any mere positive institutions of the New Testament be known * proprio lumine,' by their own evidence to be Divine ? As the institution of sacraments, officers, orders, &c. What is there in them that can infallibly prove it to us ?

5. And how can any prophecies be known by their own evidence to be Divine (till they are fulfilled, and that shall prove it)?

I know that the whole frame together of the Christian religion hath its sufficient evidence, but we must not be guilty of a peevish rejecting it. The moral part hath its witness within us, in that state of holiness which it imprinteth on the soul; and the rest are witnessed to, or proved partly by that and partly by miracles, and those and the records by historical evidence. But when God hath made many things necessary to the full evidence, and wranglers through partiality and contention against each other, will some throw away one part, and some another, they will all prove destroyers of the faith (as all dividers be). If the Papist will say, it is tradition, and not inherent evidence; or if others will say, that it is inherent evidence alone, and not history or tradition, where God hath made both needful hereunto, both will be found injurious to the faith.

II. Without this historical evidence, we cannot prove

that any of the books of Scripture are not maimed or depraved. That they come to our hands as the apostles and evangelists wrote them, uncorrupted. It is certain by history, that many heretics did deprave and corrupt them, and would have obtruded those copies or corruptions on the churches. And how we shall certainly prove that they did not prevail, or that their copies are false, and ours are true, 1 know not without the help of history. Mahomet and his followers (more numerous than the Christians) pretend that Mahomet's name was in the Gospel of John as the Paraclete or Comforter promised by Christ, and that the Christians have blotted it out, and altered the writings of the Gospel. And how shall we disprove them but by historical evidence? As the Arians and Socinians pretend that we have added, 1 John V. 7, for the Trinity, so others say of other texts ; and how shall we confute them without historical evidence ? III. Therefore we cannot make good the authority of any one single verse or text of Scripture which we shall allege, without historical evidence. Because we are not certain of that particular text, (or words,) whether it have been altered, or added, or corrupted, by the fraud of heretics, or the partiality of some Christians, or the oversight of scribes; for if a custom of setting apart one day weekly, even the first, for public worship, might creep into all the churches in the world, and no man know how, nor when ; much more might one, or a few corrupt copies, become the exemplar of those that follow. For, what day all the churches meet, men, women, and children know ; learned and unlearned know; the orthodox and heretics know; and they so know, as that they cannot choose but know. But the alterations of a text, may be unknown to all save the learned, and the observing, diligent part of the learned only, and those that they tell it to. And besides Origen (called a heretic) and Jerome, alas! how few of the fathers were able and diligent examiners of such things ? Therefore in the case of various readings (such as Ludovicus Capellus treats of in his " Critica Sacra,'' contradicted in many things by bishop Usher and others,) who are those divines that have hitherto appealed either to the Spirit, or to the proper light of the words, for a decision? Who is it that doth not presently fly to historical evidence ? And what that cannot determine, we all confess to be uncer-

tain. And if copies and history had delivered to us as various readings of every text, as they have done of some, every text would have remained uncertain to us.

Let none say, that this leaveth the Christian religion or the Scriptures uncertain : 1. Christian religion, that is, the material parts of the Scripture, on which our salvation lieth, hath much fuller evidence, than each particular text or canonical book hath; and we need not regard the perverse zeal for the Scriptures of those men that would make all our Christianity as uncertain, as the authority of a particular text or book is. And therefore God in mercy hath so ordered it, that a thousand texts may be uncertain to us, or not understood (no not by any or many divines,) and yet the Christian faith be not at all shaken, or ever the more uncertain for this: When as he that understandeth not, or believeth not every essential article of the faith, is no Christian. 2. And those books and texts of Scripture, are fully certain by the subservient help of history and usage, which would be uncertain without them. Therefore it is the act of an enemy of the Scriptures, to cast away and dispute against that history which is necessary to our knowledge of its certainty, and afterwards to plead, that they who take in those necessary helps, do make it uncertain : even as if they should go about to prove that all writings are uncertain, and therefore that they make Christ's doctrine uncertain, who rest upon the credit of writings, that is, the Sacred Scriptures.

IV. Without historical notice, how should we know that these books were written by any of the same men that bear their names; as Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, &c. Especially when the heretics did put forth the Gospel of Thomas, Nicodemus, the Itinerary of Peter, and many books under venerable names ? Or, when the name of the author is not notified to all Christians certainly, either by the Spirit within us, or by the matter? And though our salvation depend not on the notice of the penman, yet it is of great moment in the matter of faith.

V. And how should we be certain that no other sacred books are lost, the knowledge of which would tell us of that which these contain not, and would help us to the better understanding of these ? I know that a * priori* we may argue from God's goodness, that he will not so forsake his

churchy as a Jew might have done before Christ's incarnation, that the Gospel should be written, because it is best for the world or church. But when we consider how much of the world and church, God hath forsaken, since the creation, and how dark we are in such prognostics, and how little we know what the church's sins may provoke God to, we should be less confident of such reasonings, than we are of historical evidence, which tells us ' de facto/ what God hath done. So much of the use of the history, as to the cause of the Scriptures themselves.

Next you may observe that the denial of the certainty of human history, and usage, doth disadvantage Christianity in many great particular concernments. As, I. Without it we should not fully know whether * de facto' the church and ministry died, or almost died with the apostles ? And whether there have been any true churches since then, till our own days ? Christ's promise indeed tells us much ; but if we had no history of the performance of it we should be ready to doubt that it might be yet unperformed; as far as the promise to Adam, (Gen. iii. 15,) and to Abraham, (" In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,") were till the coming of Christ. Nor could we easily confute the Roman or any heretical usurpation, which would pretend possession since the apostles' days, and that all that are since gone to heaven, have gone thither by their way, and not by ours.

II. Nor could we much better tell * de facto,' whether baptism have been administered in the form appointed by Christ, " In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost?" Indeed we may well and truly argue a * priori,' Christ commanded it, ergo the apostles obeyed him; But, 1. That argument would hold good as to none or few but the apostles: And, 2. It would as to them be, though true, yet much more dark than now it is; because, 1. We read that Peter disobeyed his command, in Gal. ii. And, 2. That after he had commanded them to preach the Gospel to every creature, and all the world, Peter scrupled still going to the Gentiles. (Acts x.) And, 3. That when he said to them, " Pray thus. Our Father," &c. yet we never read that they after used that form of words; so when he said to them, " Baptize in the name of the Father," &c. yet the Scrip-

ture never mentioneth that they or any other person, ever used that form of words. But yet usage and history assureth us that they did.

III. Nor have we any fuller Scripture-proof, that the apostles used to require of those that were to be baptized any more than a general profession of the substance of the Christian faith, in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; or of the ancient use of the Christian creed, either in the words now used, or any of the same importance. From whence many would infer, that any one is to be baptized, who will but say that, ** I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God," with the eunuch, (Acts viii. 37,) or that Christ is come in the flesh. (1 John iv. 2, 3.)

But historical evidence assureth us, that it was usual in those times, to require of men a more explicit understanding profession of the Christian faith before they were admitted to baptism ; and that they had a summary or symbol, fitted to that use, commonly called the Apostles' Creed ; at least as to the constant tenor of the matter, though some words might be left to the speaker's will, and some little subordinate articles may be since added. And that it was long after usual to keep men in the state of catechised per-. sons, till they understood that creed. And it is in itself exceeding probable, that though among the intelligent Jews, who had long expected the Messiah, the apostles did baptize thousands in a day ; (Acts ii;) yet where the miraculous communication of the Spirit did not antecede (as it did Acts X,) they would make poor heathens who had been bred in ignorance, to understand what they did first, and would require of them an understanding profession of their belief in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; which could not possibly contain much less than the ' Symbolum fidei,' the apostles' creed.

IV. Nor have we any Scripture-proof, (except by inferring obedience from the precept) that ever the Lord's-prayer was used in words, after Christ commanded or delivered it: whence some infer, that it should not be so used. But church history putteth that past doubt. Other such instances I pretermit.

I think now that I have fully proved to sober, considerate Christians, that the matter of fact (that the Lord's-day was

appointed by the apostles peculiarly for church worship) is certain to us by historical evidence, added to the historical intimations in Scripture, as a full exposition and confirmation of it: and that this is a proof, that no Christian can deny without insufferable injury to the Scriptures and the Christian cause.

CHAPTER VI.

Prop. 5. I'his Act of the Apostles' appointing the Lorc^s-day for Christian Worship, was done by the special Inspiration or Guidance of the Holy Ghost,

This is proved, 1. Because it is one of those acts or works of their office, for which the Holy Ghost was promised them.

2. Because that such-like or smaller things are by them ascribed to the Holy Ghost, (Acts xv. 28,) " It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us," when they did but declare an antecedent duty, and decide a controversy thereabout. See also. Acts iv, 8 ; v. 3 ; vi. 3 ; vii. 55; xiii. 2. 4; xvi. 6, 7 ; XX. 23. 28; xxi. 11; 2Tim. i. 14; Jud.xx; Acts xi. 12. 28 : xix. 21; XX. 22; 1 Cor. v. 3, 4; xiv. 2. 15, 16; and vii. 40. When Paul doth but counsel to a single life, he ascribeth it to the Spirit of God.

3. And if any will presume to say, that men properly endued with the Spirit, for the works of their commission, did notwithstanding do such great things as this, without the conduct of that Spirit, they may by the same way of proceeding pretend it to be as uncertain, of every particular book and chapter in the New Testament, whether or no they wrote it by the Spirit: For if it be a sound inference * They had the promise and gift of the Spirit, that they might infallibly leave in writing to the churches, the doctrines and precepts of Christ: ergo, whatever they have left in writing to the churches, as the doctrine and precepts of Christ, is infallibly done by the guidance of that Spirit.' Then it will be as good an inference * They had the promise and gift of the Spirit, that they might infallibly settle church-orders for all the churches universally : ergo. What-

ever church-orders they settled for all the churches universally, they settled them by the infallible guidance of that Spirit/

But this few Christians will deny, except some Papists, who would bring down apostolical constitutions to a lower rank and rate, that the Pope and General Council may be capable of laying claim to the like themselves; and so may make as many more laws for the church as they please, and pretend such an authority for it as the apostles did for theirs. By which pretence many would make too little distinction between God's laws given by his Spirit, and the laws of a pope and popish council, and call thcJi all but 'The laws of the church.' Whereas there is no universal head of the church but Christ, who hath reserved universal legislation to himself alone, to be performed by himself personally, and by his advocate, the Holy Ghost, in his authorised and infallibly inspired apostles, who were the promulgators and recorders of them; all following pastors, being but (as the Jewish priests were to Moses and the prophets) the preservers, the expositors, and the appliers of the law.

CHAPTER VIL

Quest. 2. Whether the Seventh-day-Sabbath should be still kept by Christians, as of Divine Obligation? Neg.

I SHALL here premise. That as some superstition is less dangerous than profaneness (though it be troublesome, and have ill consequents), so the error of them who keep both days, as of Divine appointment, is much less dangerous than theirs that keep none: yea, and less dangerous, I think, than theirs who reject the Lord's-day, and keep the seventh day only. Because these latter are guilty of two sins, the rejecting of the right day, and the keeping of the wrong ; but the other are guilty but of one, the keeping of the wrong day. Besides, that if it were not done, with a superstitious conceit (that it is God's law) in some cases a day may be voluntarily set apart for holy duties, as days of thanksgiving and humiliation now are.

But yet, though the rejecting of the Lord's-day be the

greater fault (and I have no uncharitable censures of them that through weakness keep both days), I must conclude it as the truth, that We are not obliged to the observation of the Saturday, or Seventh-day as a Sabbath, or separated day of holy worship.

Arg. I. That day's observations which we are not obliged to, either by the law of nature, the positive law given to Adam, the positive law given to Noah, the law of Moses, or the law of Christ incarnate, we are not obliged to by any law of God (as distinct from human laws) ; but such is the observation of the Seventh-day-Sabbath; therefore we are not obliged to the observation of it by any law of God.

The minor I must prove by parts (for I think none will deny the sufficient enumeration in the minor).

And, 1. That the law of nature bindeth us not to the Seventh day, or any one day of the seven more than other, appeareth, 1. In the nature and reason of the thing; there is nothing in nature to evidence it to us to be God's will. 2. By every Christian's experience : no man findeth himself convinced of any such thing by mere nature. 3. By all the world's experience: no man can say that a man of that opinion can bring any cogent evidence or argument from nature alone to convince another, that the Seventh day must be the Sabbath. Nor is it any where received as a law of nature, but only as a tradition among some few heathens, and as a law positive by the Jews, and some few Christians. I am not solicitous to prosecute this argument any further; because I can consent that all they take the Seventh day for the Sabbath, who can prove it to be so by mere natural evidence, which will not be done.

II. That the positive law made to Adam (before or after the fall), or to Noah, bindeth not us to keep the Seventh day as a Sabbath, is proved.

1. Because we are under a more perfect subsequent law ; which being in force, the former more imperfect ceaseth. As the force of the promise of the incarnation of Christ is ceased by his incarnation, and so is the precept which bound men to believe that he should * de futuro' be incarnate ; and the law of sacrificing (which Abel doubtless received from Adam, though one of late would make it to be but will worship) ; so also is the Sabbath-day, as giving place to the day in which our redemption is primarily com-

memorated, as the imperfect is done away when that which is more perfect cometh.

2. Because that the law of Christ containeth an express revocation of the Seventh-day Sabbath, as shall be shewn anon.

3. Because God never required two days in the seven to be kept as holy; therefore the first day being proved to be of Divine institution, the cessation of the seventh is thereby proved : for to keep two days is contrary to the command which they themselves do build upon, which obligeth us to sanctify a Sabbath, and labour six days.

4. And when it is not probable that most or many infidels are bound to Adam's day, for want of notice (at least); for no law can bind without promulgation (though I now pass by the question, how far a promulgation of a positive law to our first parents may be said to bind their posterity, that have no intermediate notice). It seemeth less probable that Christians should be bound by it, who have a more perfect law promulgated to them.

5. Nor is it probable that Christ and his apostles, and all the following pastors of the churches, would have passed by this positive law to Adam without any mention of it, if our universal obligation had been thence to be collected. Nay, I never yet heard a Sabbatarian plead this law, any otherwise than as supposed to be implied or exemplified in the fourth commandment.

III. And that the fouth commandment of Moses's law bindeth us not to the Seventh-day Sabbath is proved.

1. Because that Moses's law never bound any to it but the Jews, and those proselytes that made themselves inhabitants of their land, or voluntarily subjected themselves to their policy. For Moses was ruler of none but the Jews, nor a legislator or deputed officer from God to any other nation. The decalogue was but part of the Jewish law, if you consider it not as it is written in nature, but in tables of stone : and the Jewish law was given as a law to no other people but to them. It was a national law, as they were a peculiar people and holy nation. So that even in Moses's days it bound no other nations of the world. Therefore it needed not any abrogation to the Gentiles, but a declaration that it did not bind them.

VOL. XlIK JL E

2. The whole law of Moses, formally as such, is ceased or abrogated by Christ. I say. As such; because, materially, the same things that are in that law, may be the matter of the law of nature, and of the law of Christ: of which more anon. That the whole law of Moses as such^s abrogated, is most clearly proved, 1. By the frequent arguings of Paul, who ever speaketh of that law as ceased, without excepting any part; and Christ saith, Luke xvi. 16: The law and the prophets were until John, that is, were the chief doctrine of the church till then. " The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth cometh by Jesus Christ.'* (John i. 17.) No Jew would have understood this, if the word law had not contained the decalogue. So John vii. 19. 23; Acts XV. 5. 24. It was the whole law of Moses, as such, which by circumcision they would have bound men to. (Gal. V. 3.) The Gentiles are said to " sin without law," even when they broke the law of nature, meaning, without the law of Moses. (Rom. ii. 12, 14—16.) In all these following places it is not part but the whole law of Moses, which Paul excludeth (which I ever acknowledged to the Antinomians, though they take me for their too great adversary). Rom. iii. 19—21. 27, 28. 31 ; iv. 13—16; v. 13, 20; vii. 4—8. iQ ; ix. 4. 31, 32 ; x. 5 : Gal. ii. 16. 19. 21; iii. 2. 10—13. 19. 21. 24; iv. 21; v. 3, 4. 14. 23; vi. 13 : Eph. ii. 15: Phil. iii. 6. 9: Heb. vii. 11, 12. 19; ix. 19; x. 28: ICor.ix. 21.

2. More particularly there are some texts which express the cessation of the decalogue as it was in Moses's law.

** Not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart

But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, wliich was to be done away (or is done away)." (2 Cor. iii. 7.) They that say the glory, and not the law, is here said to be done away, speak against the plain scope of the text; for the glory of Moses's face, and the glorious manner of deliverance ceased in a few days, which is not the cessation here intended, but as Dr. Hammond speaketh it, * That glory and that law so gloriously delivered, is done away.' And this the eleventh verse more fully express-eth, "For if that which is done away was glorious (or, by glory), much more that which remaineth is glorious (or, in

glory)," so that as it is not only the glory, but the glorious Law, Gospel, or Testament which is said to remain, so it is not only the glory, but the law which was delivered by glory, which is expressly said to be done away: and this is

the law which was written in stone. Nothing but partial

violence can evade the force of this text.

" Under it (the Levitical priesthood) the people received

the law And the priesthood being changed, there is made

of necessity a change also of the law. For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before, for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made

nothing perfect; but the bringing in of a better hope .

But so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament." (Heb. vii. 11, 12. 18. 22.) In all this it is plain that it is the whole frame of the Mosaical law that is changed, and the New Testament set up in its stead.

" Neither was the first dedicated without blood; for when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law," &c. (Heb. ix. 18, 19.) Here the law, which is before said to be changed, is said to contain every precept.

And Eph. ii. 15. ** It is the law of commandments contained in ordinances," which Christ abolished in his flesh; which cannot be exclusive of the chief part of that law.

Object. * This is the doctrine of the Antinomians, that the law is abrogated, even the moral law.'

Answ, It is the doctrine of the true Antinomians that we are under no Divine law, neither of nature nor of Christ; but it is the doctrine of Paul and all Christians, that the Jewish Mosaical law, as such, is abolished.

Object. * But do not all divines say that the moral law is of perpetual obligation?'

Answ. Yes; because it is God's law of nature, and also the law of Christ.

Object, * But do not most say that the decalogue written in stone, is the moral law, and of perpetual obligation?'

Answ. Yes; for by the word moral they mean natural, and so take mora/, not in the large sense as it signifieth a law ' de moribus,' as all laws are whatsoever, but in a narrower sense, as signifying, that which by nature is of universal and perpetual obligation. So that they mean not that it is perpetual as it is Moses's law, and written in stone formally.

but as it is moral, that is natural; and they mean that materially the decalogue containeth the same law which is the law of nature, and therefore is materially still in force : but they still except certain points and circumstances in it, as the prefatory reason, " I am the Lord that brought thee out of the land of Egypt," &c. And especially this of the Seventh-day Sabbath.

Quest. 1. * How far then are we bound by the decalogue V

Answ, 1. As it is the law of nature: 2. As it is owned by Christ, and made part of his law. Therefore no more of it bindeth directly, than we can prove to be either the law of nature, or the law of Christ. 3. As it was once a law of God to the Jews, and was given them upon a reason common to them with us, or all mankind, we must still judge that it was once a Divine determination of what is most meet, and an exposition of a law of nature, and therefore consequentially, and as that which intimateth by what God once commanded, what we should take for his will, and is most meet, it obligeth still. And so when the law of nature forbiddeth incest, or too near marriages, and God once told the Jews what degrees were to be accounted too near, this being once a law to them directly, is a doctrine and ' exposition of the law of nature still to us ; and so is consequently a law, by parity of reason. And so we shall shew anon that it is by the fourth commandment.

IV. The law of Christ bindeth us not to the observation of the Seventh-day Sabbath. Proved.

1. Because it is proved that Christ abrogated Moses's law, as such, and it is no where proved that he reassumed this, as a part of his own law. For it is no part of the law of nature (as is proved) which we confess now to be part of his law.

Object, ' Christ saith, that he came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them, and that a jot or tittle shall not pass till all be fulfilled.'

Answ. " He is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." (Rom. x. 4.) " The law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." (Gal. iii. 24.) He hath therefore fulfilled the law according to his word, by his incarnation, life, death, and resurrection. It is passed away, but not unfulfilled : and fulfilling it, is not destroying it.

The ends of it are all attained by him : 2. And though having attained its end, it ceaseth formally, as Moses's law; yet materially, all that is of natural obligation con-tinueth under another form; that is, as part of his perfect law. Therefore as our childish knowledge is said, as knowledge, to be increased, and not done away, when we come to maturity; but as childish, to be done away; so the Mosaical Jewish law, as God's law in general, is perfected by the cessation of the parts which were fitted to the state of bondage, and by addition of more perfect parts (the natural part of it is made a part of a better covenant or frame): but yet as Mosaical and imperfect, it is abolished.

Briefly this much sufficeth for the answer of all the allegations, by which any would prove the continuation of Moses's law, or any part of it formally as such. I only add. That all Moses's law, even in the decalogue was political, even God's law for the government of that particular theo-cratical policy, as a political body. Therefore when the kingdom or policy ceased, the law as political could not continue.

2. It is proved that Christ by his Spirit in his apostles did institute another day. And seeing the Spirit was given them to bring his words to remembrance, and to enable them to teach the churches all things whatsoever he commanded them, it is most probable that this was at first one of Christ's own personal precepts.

3. And to put all out of doubt, that neither the law of nature, nor any positive law, to Adam, Noah, or Moses, or by Christ, doth oblige us to the Seventh-day Sabbath, it is expressly repealed by the Holy Ghost, " Let no man therefore judge you in meats or in drink, or in respect of an holy-day (or feast), or of the new moon, or of the Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things-to come; but the body is of Christ." (Col. ii. 16.) I know many of late say, that by Sabbath here, is not meant the weekly Sabbath, but only other holy days, as monthly or jubilee rests: But, 1. This is to limit without any proof from the word of God. When God speaks of Sabbaths in general, without exception, what is man that he should put in exceptions without any proof of authority from God ? By such boldness we may pervert all his laws. Read Dr. Young upon this text. 2.

Yea, when it was the weekly Sabbath, which then was principally known by the name of a Sabbath, above all other festivals whatsoever, it is yet greater boldness without proof to exclude the principal part, from whence the rest did receive the name. 3. Besides the feasts and new moons being here named as distinct from the Sabbath, are like to include so much of the other separated days, as will leave it still more unmeet to exclude the weekly Sabbath in the explication of that word Sabbaths when so many feasts arfe first distinguished: kop ral ' inquit Grotius, hie sunt Azyma, dies omer, scenopegia, dies IXadjus.

Object. * But the Sabbath mentioned in the decalogue could not be included.'

Answ. This is spoken without proof, and the contrary is before proved.

Object. * By this you will make the Christian Sabbath also to be excluded. Is not the Lord's-day a Sabbath V

Answ, I am here to speak but of the name; of which I say, that the common sense of the word Sabbath was, a day so appointed to rest, as that the bodily rest of it, was a primary part of its observation, to be kept for itself; and such the Jewish Sabbaths were. Though spiritual worship was then also commanded, yet the corporal rest was more expressly or frequently urged in the law, and this not only subordinately as an advantage to the spiritual worship, but for itself, as an immediate and most visible and notable part of sabbatizing. Even as other ceremonies under the law were commanded, not only as doctrinal types of things spiritual, but as external acts of ceremonious operous obedience suited to the Jews' minority, which is after called the *' yoke which they and their fathers were unable to bear." (Acts 15.) Whereas the Lord's-day is appointed but as a seasonable time subservient to the spiritual work of the day ; and the bodily rest, not required as primary obedience for itself, but only for the spiritual work sake: and therefore no bodily labour is now unlawful, but such as is a hindrance to the spiritual work of the day (or accidentally a scandal and temptation to others), whereas the breach of the outward rest of the Jews' Sabbath, was a sin directly of itself, without hindrance of, or respect to the spiritual worship. So that the first notion and sense of a Sabbath

in those days being (in common use) a day of such ceremonial corporal rest, as the Jewish Sabbath was, the Lord's-day is never in Scripture called by that name; but the proper name is. The Lord's-dai/. And the ancient churches called it constantly by that name, and never called it the Sabbath, but when they spake analogically by allusion to the Jews' Sabbath; even as they called the holy table, the altar, and the bread and wine, the sacrifice. Therefore it is plain, that Paul is to be understood of all proper Sabbaths, and not of the Lord's-day, which was then, and long after, distinguished from the Sabbaths.

And this ceremonial sabbatizing of the Jews, was so strict, that the ceremoniousness made them the scorn of the heathens, as appeareth by the derisions of Horat. lib. i. sat. 9; Persius, sat. 5 ; Juvenal, sat. 6; Martial, lib. iv., and others : whereas they derided not the Christians for the ceremonious rest, but for their worship on that day. The Lord's-day being not called a Sabbath in the old sense, then only in use, but distinguished from the Sabbath, cannot be meant by the apostle in his exclusion of the Sabbath.

Object. * But the apostles then met in the synagogue with the Jews on the Sabbaths; therefore it is not those days that he meaneth here.' (Col. ii. 16.)

Answ. 1. You might as well say. That therefore he is not for the cessation of the Jewish manner of worship, or communion with them in it, because he met with them.

2. And you may as well say, that he was for the continuance of circumcision and purification, because he purified himself and circumcised Timothy.

3. Or that he was for the continuance of their other feasts, in which also he refused not to join with them.

4. But Paul did not keep their Sabbaths formally as Sabbaths, but only took the advantage of their assemblies, to teach them and convince them; and to keep an interest in them: and not scandalize them by an unseasonable violation and contradiction.

5. And you must note also, that the text saith not, * Observe not Sabbath-days,' but " Let no man judge you;" that is, let none take it for your sin, that you observe them not; nor do you receive any such doctrine of the necessity of keeping the law of Moses. The case seemeth like that of ** things strangled and blood," which were to be forborne

among the Jews while they were offensive, and the use of them hindered their conversion.

Object. 'But the ancient Christians did observe both days/ Answ. 1. In the first ages they did as the apostles did; that is, 1. They observed no day strictly as a Sabbath in the notion then in use. 2. They observed the Lord's-day, as a day set apart by the Holy Ghost for Christian worship. 3. They so far observed the Jews' Sabbath materially, as to avoid their scandal, and to take opportunity to win them.

2. But those that lived far from all Jews, and those that lived after the law, was sufficiently taken down, did keep but one day, even the Lord's-day as separated to holy uses: except some Christians, who differed from the rest, as the followers of Papias did in the Millenary point.

3. And note that even these dissenters, did still make no question of keeping the Lord's-day, which sheweth that it was on foot from the times of the apostles. So Ignatius (whoever it was, and whenever he wrote) saith that * After the Sabbath we keep the Lord's-day.' And Pseudo Clemens, Can. 33, saith, * Servants work five days, but on the Sabbath and Lord's-day, they keep holy day in the church, for the doctrine (or learning) of godliness.'

The text of Gal. iv. 10. is of the same sense with Col. ii. 16. against the Jews'Sabbath, and therefore needeth no other defence.

And I would have you consider, whether as Christ's resurrection was the foundation of the Lord's-day, so Christ's lying dead and buried in a grave on the Seventh-day Sabbath, was not a fundamental abrogation of it: I say, not the actual and plenary abrogation; for it was the command of Christ by his word. Spirit, or both, to the apostles before proved, which fully made the change : But as the resurrection was the ground of the new day, so his burial seemeth to intimate, that the day with all the Jewish law, which it was the symbolical profession of, lay dead and buried with him. Sure I am that he saith,' when the Bridegroom is taken from them, then shall they fast and mourn; but he was most notably taken from them, when he lay dead in thegrave : and if they must fast and mourn that day, they could not keep it as a Sabbath, which was a day of joy. Therefore as by death he overcame him that had the power of death, (Heb. ii. 14,) and as he nailed the hand-writing of

ordinances to his cross ; so he buried the Sabbath in his grave, by lying buried on that day.

And therefore the Western churches, who had fewer Jews among them, did fast on the Sabbath-day, to shew the change that Christ's burial intimated: though the Eastern churches did not, lest they should offend the Jews. And that the ancient Christians were not for sabbatiz-ing on the Seventh day, is visible in the writings of most, save the Eastern ones before mentioned. Tertull. Cont. Marcion. lib. i. cap. 20, and Chrysost. Theodoret, Primasius, &c. on Gal. iv. expound that text, as that by days is meant the Jewish Sabbath, and by months, the new moons, &c.

Cyprian 59. Epist. ad Hidum saith, that the Eighth d^-y is to Christians, what the Sabbath was to the Jews, and called the Sabbath, the Image of the Lord's-day. Athana-sius de Sab. et Circumcis. is full and plain on it. See Ter-tuUian Advers. Judae. cap. 4; Ambros. in Eph, 2; August. Ep. 118 ; Chrysost. in Gal. 1; andHom. 12. ad pop. Hilary, before cited ; Prolog, in Psalm ; Origen Hom. 23, in Num; Item Tertull. de Idol. cap. 14; Epiphan. lib. i. Num. 30; noting the Nazarsei and Ebionaei heretics, that they kept the Jews* Sabbath. In a word, the Council of Loadicaea doth anathematize them that did Judaize by forbearing their labours on the Sabbath or Seventh day. And as Sozo-men tells us. That at Alexandria and Rome they used no assemblies on the Sabbath, so where they did, in most churches they communicated not in the sacrament.

Yea, that Ignatius himself (true or false), who saith as aforecited, ' After the Sabbath let every lover of Christ celebrate the Lord's-day,' doth yet in the same epistle (ad Magnes.) before say, ' Old things are passed away, behold all things are made new: for if we live after the Jewish law, and the circumcision of the flesh, we deny that we have received grace Let us not therefore keep the Sabbath (or

sabbatize) Jewishly, as delighting in idleness (or rest from labour). For he that will not labour, let him not eat. In the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat thy bread.' I confess I take the cited texts to have been added since the body of the epistle was written ; but though the writer savour of the Eastern custom, yet he sheweth they did not sabbatize on the account of the fourth commandment, or supposed continuation of the Jewish Sabbath, as a Sabbath; for

bodily labour was strictly forbidden in the fourth commandment.

Dionysius Alexandr. hath an epistle to Basilides, a bishop, on the question. When the Sabbath-fast must end, and the observation of the Lord's-day begin. (Biblioth Patr. Graec. Lat. vol. i. p. 306.) In which he is against them that end their fast too soon. And plainly intimateth that the Seventh day was to be kept, but as a preparatory fast (being the day that Christ lay in the grave), and not as a Sabbath, or as the Lord's-day.

I cite not any of these, as a human authority to be set against the authority of the fourth commandment; but as thj^ certain history of the change of the da}' which the apostles made.

Quest, * How far then is the fourth commandment moral ? You seem to subvert the old foundation, which most others build the Lord's-day upon.

Answ. Let us not entangle ourselves with the ambiguities of the word moral, which most properly signifieth ethical, as distinct from physical, &c. By moral here is meant that which is (on what ground soever) of perpetual or continual obligation: and so it is all one as to ask how far it is still obligatory or in force ; to which I answer,

1. It is a part of the law of nature, that God be solemnly worshipped, in families and in holy assemblies.

2. It is a part of the law of nature, that where greater things do not forbid it, a stated time be appointed for his service, and that it be not left at randum to every man's will.

3. It is of the law of nature, that where greater matters do not hinder it, this day be one and the same in the same countries; yea, if it may be, through the world.

4. It is of the law of nature, that this day be not so rarely as to hinder the ends of the day, nor yet so frequently as to deprive us of opportunity for our necessary corporal labour.

5. It is of the law of nature, that the holy duties of this day be not hindered by any corporal work, or fleshly pleasure, or any unnecessary thing which contradicteth the holy ends of the day.

6. It is of the law of nature, that rulers, and in special masters of families, do take care that their inferiors thus observe it.

In all these points the fourth commandment being but a

transcript of the law of nature, which we can yet prove from the nature or the reason of the thing, the matter of it continueth (not as Jewish, but) as natural.

7. Resides all this, when no man of himself could tell, whether one day in six, or seven, or eight, were his duty to observe, God hath come in, and, 1. By doctrine or history told us, that he " made the world in six days, and rested the seventh." 2. By law; and hath commanded one day in seven to the Jews ; by which he hath made known consequently to all men, that one day in seven is the fittest proportion of time. And the case being thus determined by God, by a law to others, doth consequently become a law to us, because it is the determination of Divine Wisdom ; unless it were done upon some reasons in which their condition differeth from ours. And thus the doctrine and reasons of an abrogated law, continuing, may induce on us an obligation to duty. And in this sense the fourth commandment may be said still to bind us to one day in seven.

But in two points the obligation (even as to the matter) ceaseth : 1. We are not bound to the Seventh day, because God our Redeemer, who is the Lord of the Sabbath, hath made a change. 2. We are not bound to a Sabbath in the old notion, that is, to a day of ceremonial rest for itself required ; but to a day to be spent in evangelical worship.

And though I am not of their mind who say, that the Seventh day is not commanded in the fourth commandment, but a Sabbath-day only ; yet, I think that it is evident in the words, that the * Ratio Sabbati,' and the * Ratio diei septimi' are distinguishable: and that the Sabbath, as a Sabbath, is first in the precept, and the particular day is there but secondarily, and so mutably; as if God had said, ' I will have a particular day set apart for a holy rest, and for my worship; and that day shall be one in seven, and the seventh also on which I rested from my works.*

And thus I have said as much as I think needful to satisfy the considerate about the day: Again professing, 1. That I believe that he is in the right that maketh conscience of the Lord's-day only. 2. But yet I will not break charity with any brother, that shall in tenderness of conscience keep both days; especially in times of profaneness, when few will be brought to the true observation of one. 3. But I think him that keepeth the Seventh day only, and neg-

lecteth the Lord's-day, to sin against very evident light, with many aggravations. 4. But I think him that keepeth no day (whether professedly, or practising contrary to his profession ; whether on pretence of avoiding superstition, or on pretence of keeping every day as a Sabbath) to be far the worst of all. I shall now add somewhat to some appendant questions.

CHAPTER VIII.

Of the Beginning of the Day,

Quest. 1. 'When doth the Lord's-day begin?'

Answ, 1. If we can tell when any day beginneth, we may know when that beginneth. If we cannot, the necessity of our ignorance, will shorten the trouble of our scruples by excusing us.

2. Because the Lord's-day is not to be kept as a Jewish Sabbath ceremoniously, but the time and the rest are here commanded subserviently for the work sake, therefore we have not so much reason to be scrupulous about the hours of beginning and ending, as the Jews had about their Sabbath.

3. I think he that judgeth of the beginning and ending of the day according to the common estimation of the country where he liveth, will best answer the ends of the institution. For he will keep still the same proportion of time; and so much as is ordinarily allowed on other days for work, he will spend this day in holy works; and so much in rest as is used to be spent in rest on other days ; (which may ordinarily satisfy a well informed conscience.) And if any extraordinary occasions (as journeying or the like,) require him to doubt of any hours of the night, whether they be part of the Lord's-day or not; 1. It will be but his sleeping time, and not his worshipping-time, which he will be in doubt of: And, 2. He will avoid all scandal and tempting others to break the day, if he measure the day by the common estimate: Whereas, if the country where he liveth do esteem the day to begin at sunsetting, and he suppose it to begin at midnight, he may be scandalous by doing that which in the common opinion is a violation of the day. If I thought

that this short kind of solution, were not the fittest to afford just quietness to the minds of sober Christians in this point, I would take the pains to scan the controversy about the true beginning of days : but lest it more puzzle and perplex, than edify or resolve and quiet the conscience, I save myself and the reader that trouble.

CHAPTER IX.

Quest, 2. ' How should the Lord's-day be kept or used V

Armv. The practical directions I have given in another treatise. I shall now give you but these generals.

I. The day being separated, or set apart for holy worship, must accordingly be spent therein. To sanctify it, is to spend it in holy exercises : how else should it be used as a holy day ? " I was in the Spirit on the Lord's-day," saith St. John, Rev. i. 10.

n. The principal work of the day is, the communion of Christians in the public exercise of God's worship. It is principally to be spent in holy assemblies. And this is the use that the Scripture expressly mentioneth. Acts xx. 7, and intimateth, 1 Cor. xvi. 1,2; and as most expositors think, John xxi, when the disciples were gathered together with the door shut, for fear of the Jews. And all church-history assureth us, that in these holy assemblies principally, the day was spent by the ancient Christians. They spent almost all the day together.

III. It is not only to be spent in holy exercises, but also in such special holy exercises as are suitable to the purposes of the day. That is, it is a day of commemorating the whole work of our redemption; but especially the resurrection of Christ. Therefore it is a day of thanksgiving and praise ; and the special services of it must be laudatory and joyful exercises.

IV. But yet because it is sinners that are called to this work, who are not yet fully delivered from their sin and misery, these praises must be mixed with penitent confessions, and with earnest petitions, and with diligent learning the will of God.

More particularly, the public exercises of the day are, 1. Humble and penitent confessions of sin. 2. The faiths

ful and fervent prayers of the church. 3. The reading, preaching and hearing of the word of God. 4. The communion of the church in the Lord's-supper. 5. The laudatory exhortations which attend it; and the singing and speaking of the praises of our Creator, and Redeemer, and Sanctifier; with joyful thanksgiving for his wonderful benefits. 6. The seasonable exercise of holy discipline on particular persons, for comforting the weak, reforming the scandalous, casting out the obstinately impenitent, and absolving and receiving the penitent. 7. The pastor's blessing the people in the name of the Lord. 8. And as an appurtenance in due season, oblations or contributions for holy and charitable uses, even for the church and poor, which yet may be put off to other days, when it is more convenient so to do.

Quest, ' But who is it that must be present in all these exercises V

Answ. Where there is no church yet called, the whole day may be spent in preaching to, and teaching the unconverted infidels : but where there is a church, and no other persons mixed, the whole exercise of the day must be such as are fitted to the state of the church. But where there is a church and other persons (infidels and impenitent ones) with them, the day must be spent proportionably in exercises suitable to the good of both; yet so that church-exercises should be the principal work of the day. And the ancient laudable practice of the churches was, to preach to the infidel auditors and catechumens in the morning, on such subjects as were most suitable to them, and then to dismiss them, and retain the faithful (or baptized) only; and to teach them all the commands of Christ; to stir them up to the joyful commemoration of Christ and his resurrection, and to sing God*s praises, and celebrate the Lord's-supper with the eucharistical acknowledgments and joy. And they never kept a Lord's-day in the church, without the Lord's-supper ; in which the bare administration of the signs was not their whole work; but all their thanksgiving and praising exercises, were principally then used, and con-nexed to the Lord's-supper: which the liturgies yet extant do at large express.

And I know no reason but thus it should be still; or at least but that this course should be the ordinary celebration of the day.

Quest, ' But seeing the Sabbath was instituted in the beginning to commemorate the work of the creation, must that be laid by now, because of our commemoration of the work of our redemption?*

Answ, No: Our Redeemer's work is to restore us to the acknowledgment and love of our Creator. And the commemoration of our redemption fitteth us to a holy acknowledgment of the Almighty Creator in his works : these therefore are still to go together; according to their several proper places; even as the Son is the way to the Father, and we must never separate them in the exercise of our faith, obedience, or love. A Christian is a sanctified philosopher : and no man knoweth or acknowledgeth God's works of creation or providence aright, in their true sense, but he that seeth God the Creator and Redeemer, the Beginning, the Governor and the End of all. Other philosophers are'' but as those children, that play with the book and the letters, but understand not the matter contained in it; or like one that teacheth boys ' nitide literas pingere,' to write a curious hand, while he understands not what he writeth.

Object* * But to spend so much of the day in public as you speak of, will tire out the minister by speaking so long: few men are able to endure it.'

Answ. How did the Christians in the primitive churches? They met in the morning, and often (as far as I can gather) parted not till night, and when they did go home between the morning and evening service, it was but for a little time. Object. * Then they made it a fast and not a festival.* Answ. It was not the use then to eat dinners in those hot countries; much less three meals a-day, as we do now. And they accounted it a sufiicient feasting, to eat once, at supper; which they did at the first altogether at their church-meeting, with the sacrament; but afterward finding the inconvenience of that, they feasted at home, and used only the sacrament in the church: which change was not made without the allowance of the apostles; Paul saying, " Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God?" (1 Cor. xi. 22.)

I further answer, that the work of the day being done according to the primitive use, it will be no excessive labour to the ministers, because, in the celebration of the Lord's-supper, he is not still in one continued speech, but hath the

intermission of actiqn, and useth shorter speeches, which do not so much spend him. And the people bear a considerable part, to wit, in God's praises, which were spoken then in their laudatory tone, and are now uttered by their singing of psalms (which should not be the least part of the work). And though their manner of singing was not like ours, in rhymes and tunes melodiously, (as neither were the Hebrew, Greek, or Latin poems so sung ;) but as most think, more like to our cathedral singing, or saying; yet it fol-loweth not that this is the best way for us, seeing use hath made our tunes and metre, and way of singing, more meet for the ends to which we use them, that is, for the cheerful consent of all the church ; neither should any think that it is a human, unlawful invention, and a sinful change, to turn the old way of singing (used in Scripture-times and long after) into ours ; for the old way of singing was not a Divine institution, but a use ; and several countries had their several uses herein : and God commandeth us but to praise him, and sing psalms, but doth not tell us what metre or tunes we shall use, or manner of singing, but leaveth this to the use and convenience of every country: and if our way and tunes be to us by custom more convenient than those of other nations in Scripture-times, we have no reason to forsake them, and return to the old (though yet the old way is not to be judged a thing forbidden). And we see that custom hath so far prevailed with us, that many thousand religious people, do cheerfully sing psalms in the church in our tunes and way, who cannot endure to sing in the cathedral, or the ancient Scripture or primitive way, nor to use so much as the laudatory responses.

3. And I further answer. That every church should have more ministers than one, as the ancient churches had, besides their readers; and then one may in speaking ease another.

4. But lastly I answer. That these circumstances being alterable according to the state of countries and conveniences, I do not discommend the custom of our country, and of most Christian churches in our times, in making an intermission, and going home to dinner, as being fittest to our condition. And then there remaineth the less force in the objection, as to the weakness of the ministers or the people.

1

I forbear to say more of the public church-performances, having described them all in a small book called " Universal Concord," and having exemplified all except preaching, in our " Reformed Liturgy" given in to the bishops at the Savoy.

Only here I will answer them who object much that' the ancient churches spent not the whole day in exercises of religion, nor forbad other exercises out of the time of public worship, because we read of little other observation of it by them, but what was done by them in the public assemblies.'

Arisw. 1. We find that they took it to be a sanctified or separated day; and they never distinguish, and say, that part of the day only was separated and sanctified to such uses. If they did, which part is the sanctified part of the day? What hours were they which they thought thus separated ? But there is no such distinction or limitation in the writings of the ancient doctors. 2. What need you find much mention what they did out of the time of public worship, when they spent all the day frequently at first, and almost all the day in after-times (with small intermission) in public worship ? Do you stay but as long at church as they did, even almost from morning till night, and then you will find but little time to dance or play in. But yet 3. There want not testimonies, that they thought it unlawful to spend any part of the day in unnecessary diversions from holy things, as Dr. Young hath shewed.

III. So much of the day as can be spared from public church-worship (and diversions of necessity) should be next spentmost in holy family-exercises. And in those unhappy places where the public worship is slenderly and negligently performed (on some small part only of the day), or not at all, or not so as it is lawful to join in it, (as in idolatrous worship, &c.) there family worship must take up the most of the day ; and in better places, it must take up so much as the public worship spareth.

And here the sum of holy exercises in families is this, (which having elsewhere directed you in, I must but briefly name :)

1. To see that the family rise as early on this day as on others, and make it not a day of sleep and idleness. And not to suffer them to violate, profane or neglect the day by any of the sins hereafter named.

VOL. XIII. F F

2. To call them together before they go to the solemn assembly, and to pray with them and praise God, and if there be time, to read the Scripture, and tell them what they have to do in public.

3. To see that dinner, and other common employments, make no longer an intermission than is needful; and to advise them that at their meat and necessary business, they shew by their holy speeches, that their minds do not forget the day, and the employments of it.

4. To sing God's praises with them, if there be time, and bring them again together to the church-assembly.

5. When they return, either to take some account of them what they have learned, or call them together to pray for a blessing on what they have heard, and to sing praises to God, and to urge the things which they have heard, upon them.

6. At supper to behave themselves soberly and piously : and after supper to shut up the day in prayer and praise; and either then or before, either to examine or exhort inferiors, according as the case of the persons and families shall require (for in some families it will be best on the same day to take an account of their profitting, and to catechise them: and in other families that have leisure, other days may be more convenient for catechising and examinations), that the greater works of the Lord's-day may not be shortened.

IV. So much of the day as can be spared from public and family worship, must be spent in secret, holy duties: such as are, 1. Secret prayer. 2. Reading of the Scriptures and good books. 3. Holy meditation. 4. And the secret conference of bosom friends. Of which 1 further add,

1. That where public or family-worship cannot be had (as in impious places), there secret duties must be the chief, and make up the defect of others. And it is a great happiness of good Christians who have willing minds, that they have such secret substitutes and supplies; that they have bibles, and so many good books to read; that they have a friend to talk with, of holy things ; but much more that they have a God to go to, and a heaven to meditate on, besides so many sacred verities.

2. That my judgment is, that in those places where the public worship taketh up almost all the day, it is no sin to attend upon it to the utmost, and to omit all family and se-

cret exercises, as cannot be done without omission of the public. And that where the public exercises allow but a little time at home, the family-duty should take up all that little time, except what some shorter, secret prayers or meditations may have, which will not hinder family-duties. And that it is a sinful disorder to do otherwise : because the Lord's-day is principally set apart for public worship ; and the more private or secret, is as it were included in the public. Your families are at church with you ; the same prayers which you would put up in secret, you may (usually) put up in public, and in families: and it is a turning God's worship into ceremony and superstition, to think that you must necessarily put up the same prayers in a closet, which you put up in the family or church, when you have not time for both. (Though when you have time, secret prayer hath its proper advantages, which are not to be neglected.) And also, what secret or family duty you have not time for on that day, you may do on another day, when you cannot come to church-assemblies. And therefore it is an error to think that the day must be divided in equal proportions, between public, family, and secret duties : though yet I think it not amiss that some convenient time for family and secret duties be left on that day ; but not so much as is spent in public, nor nothing near it.

If any shall now object, * I do not believe that we are bound to all this ado, nor so to tire out ourselves in religious exercises. Where is all this ado commanded us V

I answer, 1. I have proved to you that in nature and scriptuie set together, as great a proportion of time as this for holy exercises is required.

2. But O ! what a carnal heart doth this objection signify ! What, do you count your love to God, and the commemoration of his love in Christ, a toil ? What if God had only given you leave to lay by your worldly business, and idle talk and childish play, for one day's time, and to learn how to be like Christ and angels, and how to make sure of a heavenly glory, should you not gladly have accepted it as an unspeakable benefit ? O ! whut hearts have these wretched men, that must be constrained by fear to all that is good, and holy, and spiritual; and will have none of God's greatest mercies, unless it be for fear of hell: (and they shall never have them indeed till they love them!)

What hearts have those men, that had rather be in an alehouse, or a playhouse, or asleep, than to be in heart with God ? That can find so much pleasure in jesting, and idle talking, and foolery, that they can better endure it, than to peruse a map of heaven, and to read and hear the sacred oracles! Who think it a toil to praise their Maker and Redeemer, and a pleasure to game, and dance, and drink ! Who turn the glass upon the preacher, and grudge if he exceed his hour ; and can sit in a tavern or alehouse, or hold on in any thing that is vain, many hours, and never complain of weariness ! Do they not tell the world what enemies they are to God, who love a pair of cards, or dice, or wanton dalliance, better than his word and worship ? Who think six days together little enough for their worldly work and profit, and one day in seven too much to spend in the thoughts of God and life eternal ? Who love the dung of this present world, so much better than all the joys above, as that they are weary to hear of heaven above an hour at a time, and long to be wallowing in the dirt again ? Is it not made by the Holy Ghost, a mark not only of wicked men, but of men notoriously wicked, to be " lovers of pleasures more than of God V* 2 Tim. iii. 4.

O sinner, that in these workings of the wickedness and malignity of your hearts, you would at last but know yourselves ! Is it not the " carnal mind that is thus at enmity with God, and neither is nor can be subject to his law ?'* (Rom. viii. 6—8.) Which will you take to be your friend, him that loveth your company, or him that is weary of it, and is glad when he hath done with you, and is got away ? What would you think of wife, or child, or friend, if they should reason as you do, and say. What law doth bind me to so many hours in the house, or company, or service of my husband, my father, or my friend ? You do not use, if you have a feast, or a cup of wine before you, to ask, Where doth God command me to eat or drink it? You can do this without a command. If you hear but of a gainful market ; you ask not, Where doth God make it my duty to go to it? If one would give you money or land, you would scarcely ask, How prove you that I am bound to take it? You would be glad of leave, without commands. If the king should say to you. Ask what you will, and I will give it you, you would not say. Where am I bound of God to ask ? And

when God saith. Ask and it shall be given you, you say. How prove you that I am bound to ask ? You can sing ribald songs, and dance without a command ; you can feast, and play, and prate, and sleep, and loiter in idleness without a command ; but you cannot learn how to be saved, nor praise your Redeemer without a command. A thief can steal, a fornicator can play the brute, a drunkard can be drunk, an oppressor can make himself hateful to the oppressed, not only without law, but against it! But you cannot rejoice in God, nor live one day together in his love and service, without a law, no nor with it neither. For because you had rather not love him, it is certain that you do not love him: and because you had rather play than pray, and serve the flesh than serve your Maker; it is a certain sign that you do not serve him, with any thing which he will accept as service. For while he hath not your hearts, he hath nothing which he accepteth. Your knee and tongue only is forced against your will, to that which you call serving him : but your hearts or wills cannot be forced. When you had rather be elsewhere, and say. When will the sermon and prayer be done, that I may be at my work or play ! God taketh it as if you were there where you had rather be.

1 pray you deal openly, and tell me, you that think a day too long for God, and are weary of all holy work, what would you be doing that while, if you had your choice ? Is it any thing which you dare say is better? Dare you say, that playing is better than praying, or a piper or dancing better than praising God with psalms ? Or that your sleep, or games, or chat, or worldly business is better than the contemplation of God and glory! And will those deceivers of the people also say this, who teach them that it is a tedious, uncommanded thing to serve God so long? I think they dare not speak it out. If they dare, let them not grudge that they must for ever be shut out of heaven, where there will be nothing else but holiness. But if you dare not say so, why will you be weary of well-doing, that you may do ill? Why are you not more weary of every thing than of holiness, unless you think every thing better than holiness ?

Especially those men, 1, Whose judgment is for will-worship, should not ask. Where is there a command, for any good which they are willing of. But doth not this shew that you had rather there were no command for it? Be

judges yourselves. 2. And they that are for making the churches a great deal more work than God hath made them, (O what abundance hath Popery made, and what a multitude of new religious particles !) methinks should not for shame say that God hath tired them out, and made them too much work already ? Do you cry out. What a weariness is this one day, when you would add of your own such a multitude of more days and more work ?

Yet though I talk of doing it willingly, if you had no forcing law of God, but bare leave to receive such benefits, my meaning is not that God hath left any such thing indifferent, or made them only the matter of counsels and not commands ; for he hath made it our duty to receive our own benefits, and to do that which tendeth to our own good and salvation. But if it had been so, that we had only leave to receive so great mercies without any other penalty for refusing, than the loss of them, it should be enough to men that love themselves, and know what is for their good. Much more when commands concur.

CHAPTER X.

How the hord^S'day should not he spent: or what is milawful

on it.

As to the resolving this question also, I would wish for no greater advantage on him that I dispute with, but that he be a man that loveth God and holiness, andknoweth somewhat of the difference between things temporal and things eternal ; and knoweth what is for the good of his soul, and pre-ferreth it before his body ; and hath an appetite to relish the delights of wisdom, and of things most excellent and divine. And that he be one that knoweth his own necessities, and repenteth of his former loss of time ; and liveth in a daily preparation for death; that is, that he be a real Christian; and then by all this it will appear, how the Lord's-day must not be spent; or what things are unlawful to be done thereon.

1, Undoubtedly it must not be spent in wickedness; in gluttony or drunkenness, chambering or wantonness, strife or envying, or any of those works of the flesh, which are at

all times sinful. An evil work is most unsuitable to a holy day : and yet, alas, what day hath more rioting and excess of meat, and drink, and wantonness, and sloth, and lust, than it?

II. It ought not to be spent in our worldly businesses, which are the labours allowed us on the six days; unless necessity or mercy make them at any time become such duties of the law of nature, as positives must for that time give place to. For how is it a day separated to holy employments, if we spend it in the common business of the world ? It is the great advantage that we have by such a separated day, that we may wholly cast off our minds from this world, and set them on the world to come, and exercise them in holy communion with God and his church, without the interruptions and distractions of any earthly cogitations. A divided mind doth never perform any holy work with that integrity and life, as the nature of it requireth. Heavenly contemplations are never well managed with the intermixture of diverting, worldly thoughts : so great a work as to converse in heaven, to be wrapped up in the admirations of the Divine perfections, to kindle a fervent love to God, by the contemplation of his love and goodness, to triumph over sin and Satan with our triumphing, glorified Head, to commemorate his resurrection, and the whole work of our redemption with a lively, working faith, doth require the whole heart, and will not consist with alien thoughts, and the diversion of fleshly employments or delights. Nay, had we no higher work to do than to search our hearts, and lament our sins, and beg for mercy, and learn God's word, and treat with our Redeemer about the saving of our souls, and to prepare for death and judgment, surely it should challenge all our faculties, and tell us that voluntary diversions do too much savour of impiety and contempt. It is the great mercy of God that we have leave to lay by these clogs and impediments of the soul, and to seek his face with greater freedom than the incumbrances of our week-day labours will allow us. No slave can be so glad of a Sabbath's ease from his sorest toil and basest drudgery, as a believer should be to be released from his earthly thoughts and business, that he may freely, entirely, and delightfully converse with God.

III. The Lord's-day must not be spent in tempting, diverting, unnecessary recreations, or pleasures of the flesh.

1. For these are as great an impediment to the holy employment of the soul, as worldly labours, if not much more. It is easier for a man to be exercised in heavenly meditations at the plough or cart, or other such labours of his place and calling, than at bowls, or hunting, or cards, or dice, or stage-plays, or races, or dancing, or bear-baitings, or cock-fights, or any such sensual sports. I need no proof of this to any man that hath himself any experience of the holy employments of a believing soul, or that ever knew what it was to spend one day of the Lord aright; and no proof will suffice them that have no experience, because they know not effectually what it is that they talk of.

2. We find that even on other days, the worst men are most addicted to these sports, and are the greatest pleaders for them, and that the more they use them, the worse they grow; yea, that the times of using them are frequently the times of the eruption of many heinous sins. I have lived in my youth in many places where sometimes shows or uncouth spectacles have been their sports at certain seasons of the year, and sometimes morrice-dancings, and sometimes stage-plays, and sometimes wakes and revels ; and all men observed that these were the times of the most flagitious crimes ; and that there was then more drunkenness, more fighting, more horrid oaths and curses uttered, than in many weeks at other times. Then it was that the enraged sensualists did act the part of furious devils, in scorning and reviling all that were more sober and better than themselves, and railing at those that minded God and their everlasting state, as precisians, puritans, and hypocrites ; then it was that they were ready in their fury, if they durst, to assault the very persons and houses of them that would not do as they did. Whatever is done in sucU crowds and tumults, is done with the impetuosity of rage and passion, and with the greatest audacity, and the violation of all laws and regulating restraints. As many waters make a furious stream, and great fires where much fuel is conjunct do disdain restraint and quickly devour all before them, so is it with the raging folly of youth, when voluptuous persons once get together, and their lusts take fire, and they fall into a torrent of profuse sensuality. Yea, those that at other times are sober, and when they come home do seem of another mind, yet do as the rest when they are among them, and seem as

bad and furious as they. As we see among the London apprentices on the day called Good-tides Tuesday, or May-day, when they once get out together and are in motion, they seem all alike, and those that are most sober and timorous alone, in the rout are heightened to the audacity of the rest; and as in an army the sight of the multitude, and the noise of drums and guns, put valour into the fearful, and they will go on with others, that else would run away from a proportionable single combat and danger; and as boys at school that fear to offend singly, yet fear not to bar out their master in a combination when all concur; bo all seem wicked in a crowd and rout of wicked persons ; and sensuality and licentiousness is not the smallest part of the wickedness.

O how unfit is youth in such a crowd to think of God, or eternity, or death; or to hear the sober warnings of the preacher, in comparison of what the same persons be, when they are at church, and congregated purposely to hear God's word ! Go among them and try them then, with any grave and wholesome counsel: ask them whether they are penitent converts, and whether they are prepared for another world. Try what answer they will give you, and whether they will not deride you more than at another time. I would those that write and plead for this, under the name of harmless recreations, would go amongst them sometimes with sober counsel, and learn to be wise by their own experience, that their errors might not be of such pernicious consequence to men's souls as they have been. Reason itself hath no place or audience in the noise of youthful, furious lusts. They will laugh at reason as well as at Scripture ; and scorn sobriety as well (though not so much) as holiness. If even in the meetings of grave persons it have ever been observed that individual persons are apt to be carried by the stream, and otherwise than their talk importeth at other times when they are single, what wonder if it be so in evil with unbridled youth ?

If you say that* the law forbiddeth routs and riots, and it is no such unruly places that we defend :*

Answ. Disclaim not the name only while you defend the thing. Be not like them that say. We persuade men to voluntary untruths, but not to lying ; to break their vows and oaths in lawful matters, but not to perjury ; to kill those that anger them, but not to murder; to take other men's goods by force, but not to robbery, &c. Arc not wakes.

and revels, and morrice-dances, and dancing-assemblies, and spectacles, stage-plays, and the like, such a concourse as I am speaking of? Do you limit dancers and players to any numbers ? I speak not of the laws ; I am too much unacquainted with them. If they say, that above four meeting to dance or drink on the Lord's-day shall be accounted a conventicle or unlawful assembly, it is more than I ever heard of. But I am speaking of the common practice of the country, and of those that ordinarily defend it, and labour to bring both godly ministers and sober people under the scorn of foolish preciseness and superstition, because they would hinder the sin and ruin of the people. If you will allow them to assemble for their dancings, shows, and sports> you will encourage them to break the laws both of God and man, though you pretend never so much care that they be observed. You may as well allow them to be drunk, and when you have done, forbid them to break God's laws and the king's in their drunkenness. There are few in such sportful assemblies that are not drunk with concupiscence, and whose reason is not drowned in voluptuous and vain imaginations. Let those divines (if I may so call the advocates of sensuality and sin) which are otherwise minded, give us leave to oppose against all their cavils, and the false names of harmless recreations, but, 1. Our own experience, who in our youth have always found such sports and revelling assemblies to be corrupters of our minds, and temptations to evils, and quenchers of holy motions, and enemies of i.ll that is good. 2. The experience of the visibly corrupted, undone sensual youth that are round about us, in all countries where we have lived. 3. And the judgment of Solomon, (who saith as much for pleasure as any sacred writer;) ** It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting ; for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart: Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth;" (I pray you do not say I rail at you by the reciting of these words, nor that I diminish the honour of the reverend advocates for wakes and Lord's-day sports and dancings.) " It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the

song of fools ; for as the sound of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools." (Eccles. vii. 2—6.)

3. Moreover, these sports, and pleasures, and riotings, are worse than ploughing and labouring on the Lord*s-day, because (as they are more adverse to spiritual and heavenly joys, so) they do less good to recompeivbc^urt. A carpenter, a mason, a ploughman, &c. may do some good by his unlawful, unseasonable labour, some one may be the better for it: but dancing, and sports, and gaming, do no good, but hurt. They corrupt the fancy ; they imprint upon the thinking faculty, so strong an inclination to run out after such things ; and upon the appetite so strong a list and longing for them, that carnality is much increased by them; mortification hindered; concupiscence gratified ; the flesh prevaileth; the Spirit is quenched; and the soul made as unfit for heavenly things, as. a schoolboy is for his book, whose hesfrt is set upon his play ; yea, abundance more; as nature by corruption is more averse to spiritual things, than to the things of art or nature.

4. These dancings, and plays, and wakes, and other sports, are a strong temptation also to them that are not of the riotous societies, but have convictions on their hearts that they should have greater and better things in their mind. Without accusing others, I may say that I know this by sad experience. I cannot forget, when my conscience was against their courses, and called me to better things, how hardly when I was young, I passed by the dancing, and the playing congregations, and especially when in the passage I must bear their scorn. And I was one year a schoolmaster, and found how hard it was for the poor children to avoid such snares, even when they were sure to be whipped the next day for their pleasures.

5. And those riots and plays are injurious to the pious and sober persons who dislike them. For it is they that shall be made the rabble's scorn, and the drunkard's song; besides that the noise ofttimes annoyeth them when they should be calmly serving God. And they are hindered from governing and instructing their families, while their children and servants are thus tempted to be gone, and their hearts are all the while in the playing-place. Never did a hungry dog more grudge at his restraint from meat, than

children and young servants usually grudge to be catechised or kept to holy exercises, when they hear the pipe, or the noise of the licentious multitude in the streets. I cannot forget that in my youth in those late times, when we lost the labours of some of our conformable godly teachers for not reading publici^ ^ the Book of Sports and Dancing on the Lord's-days, one of my father's own tenants was the town-piper, hired by the year (for many years together), and the place of the dancing-assembly was not an hundred yards from our door, and we could not on the Lord's-day either read a chapter, or pray, or sing a psalm, or catechise, or instruct a servant, but with the noise of the pipe and tabor, and the shoutings in the street, continually in our ears; and even among a tractable people, we were the common scorn of all the rabble in the streets, and called Puritans, Precisians, and Hypocrites, because we rather chose to read the Scriptures than to do as they did ; (though there was no savour of Nonconformity in our family.) And when the people by the book were allowed to play and dance out of public service-time, they could so hardly break off their sports, that many a time the reader was fain to stay till the piper and players would give over ; and sometimes the mor-rice-dancers would come into the church in all the linen and scarfs, and antic-dresses, with morrice-bells jingling at their legs. And as soon as common-prayer was read, did haste out presently to their play again. Was this a heavenly conversation ? Was this a help to holiness and devotion; or to the mortification of fleshly lusts ? Was this the way to train up youth in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? And were such assemblies like to the primitive churches ; or such families governed christianly and in the fear of God? O Lord, set wise and holy pastors over thy poor flocks, that have learned themselves the doctrine which they preach, and who love, (or at least abhor not) the service and imitation of a crucified Christ, and the practice of that religion which they themselves profess.

Object, * But poor labouring people must have some recreation, and they cannot through their poverty have leisure any other day/

Answ. 1. A sad argument to be used by them that by racking of rents do keep them in poverty. They that can-

not live without all those superfluities, which requireth many hundred pounds a year to maintain them, must for this gratifying pride and fleshly lusts, set such bargains to their poor tenants, as that they confess they cannot live, without taking the Lord's-day to recreate them from the toil and weariness of their excessive labours: and will not God judge such self-condemning oppressions as these are?

2. But is this an argument fit for the mount of a minister or any Christian, who knoweth how much the soul is more worth than the body ? and eternity more valuable than the pleasures of this little time? If poverty deny the people liberty to play on the week-days, doth it not as much deny them liberty to pray, and to read the Scriptures, and to learn their catechisms, and the word of God ? Surely it better beseemeth any man that believeth another life, a heaven and a hell, to say, poor labourers have so little time to learn, to meditate, to read, to pray, on the week-days, that if they do not follow it close upon the Lord's-day, they are like to perish in their ignorance ; (" For if the Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost," 2 Cor. iv. 3.) which do you think it better to leave undone, if one of them must be left undone ? Whether the learning of God's word, or the pleasures and recreations of the flesh ?

3. Is it their bodies or their minds that need recreation? When the body is tired with toilsome labour, it is ease, rather than toilsome dancings or plays, that are fit to recreate it. Or else God will be charged with mistake in the reasons of the ancient Sabbath. But if it be the mind that needeth recreation, why should not the learning of heavenly truth, and the joyful commemoration of our redemption, and the foresight of heaven, and the praises of God, be more delightful than the noise of thorns under a pot; even than the laughter and sport of fools, or than the dancings and games that now you plead for ? But the truth is, it is not the minds of poor labouring men, that are overworked and tired on the week-days, but it is their bodies; and therefore there is no recreation so suitable to them as the ease of the body, and the holy and joyful exercise of the mind, upon their Creator, their Redeemer, and their everlasting rest.

4. But if you will needs have days of temptation and sinful sports and pleasures for them, let landlords abate

their tenants as much rent, as one day's vacancy from labour in a month or a fortnight will amount to, or let the common Saints'-days, which of the two are more at man's disposal, be made their sporting-days, and rob not their souls of that one weekly-day, which God had separated for his worship.

Object. * But there are students, and lawyers, and ministers, and gentlemen, whose labour is most that of the brain, and not the ploughman's bodily toil; and these have need of bodily recreation.'

Answ. And there are few of these so poor but they can take their bodily recreation on the week-days: and many of them need as much the whole Lord's-day for their soul's edification as any others ; and no one that knoweth himself will say that he needs it not. If any men need remission of studies, and bodily exercise, it is ministers themselves ; And is it themselves that they plead for sports and dancing for? Would they be companions for the vain in such like vanities ?

Object. * But the mind of man is not able to endure a constant intention and elevation of devotion all the day long without recreation and intermission ; and putting men upon more than they can do, will but hinder them; when a little recreation will make them more fresh and fervent when they return to God/

Answ. O what an advantage is it to know by experience what one talketh of! and what an inconvenience to talk of holiness and heavenliness by hearsay only! 1. To poor people that have but one day in seven, that one day should not seem too long. 2. If it be from a carnal enmity to God and spiritual things, shortness and seldomness will be no cure. But they have need rather to be provoked to diligence till they are cured, than to be indulged in that averse-ness and sloth, which till it is cured will prevail, when you have done your best against it. 3. But if it be a weariness of the flesh, as the disciples, when they slept while Christ was praying, or a weariness through such imperfection of grace and remnant of carnality, which the sincere are liable to, then giving way to it will increase it, and resisting it is the way to overcome it. 4. How many necessary intermissions are there, which confute this pretence of weakness ? Some time is taken up in dressing; and some with poor ser-

vants in waiting on their masters and mistresses, and preparing meat and drink ; some in going to church and coming home; some in eating, usually more than once; some in preparing again for sleep; besides what cattle and by-occasions will require. And is the remainder of one day in a week, yet too much for the business which we are created, preserved, and redeemed for, and on which our endless life dependeth ? O that we knew what the love of God is ! and what it is to regard our souls according to their worth! Would not a soul that loveth God rather say, Alas! how short is the Lord's-day! How quickly is it gone ! How many interruptions hinder my delight!' Shall I think a week short enough for my worldly labour, and one day (thus parcelled) too long to seek the face of God ? I see blind worldlings and sensualists can be longer unwearied at market, in their shops and fields, especially when their gain comes in; and at cards and dice, and bowling, and idle prating, &c. And shall I be weary so soon of the most noble and necessary work, and of the sweetest pleasures upon earth ?

A hypocrite that draweth near to God but with the lips, while his heart is far from him, as he never truly seeketh God, so he never truly findeth him, and hath none of the true spiritual delights of holiness, nor ever feeleth the delights of exercising his love to God by the help of faith, in the hopes of heaven: and therefore no wonder if he be^ weary of such unprofitable, sapless and unpleasant work, as his dead formalities and affections are. But it is not so with the sincere experienced Christian, who serving God in spirit and in truth, hath true and spiritual recreation, pleasure and benefit in and by his service. And therefore we see that the holy experienced believers are still averse to these sensual diversions, and do not think the LordVday or his service too long. And, O Christian ! what a happy advantage in such controversies have you, in your holy sincerity and sweet experience!

5. But yet I am not such a strangei* to a man, to myself or others, as to deny that our naughty hearts are inclined to be weary of well-doing; but mark what a cure God in wisdom and mercy hath provided for us ; as it is but one day in seven which is thus to be wholly employed with God, and as much'of this day is taken up with the bodily necessities

aforesaid; so for the rest, God appointeth us vaiiety of exercises, that when we are weary of one, another may be our recreation. When we have heard, we must pray ; and when we have prayed, we must hear again: we must read, we must sing and speak God's praises; we must celebrate the memorial of Christ's death in the sacrament; we must meditate ; we must confer, we must instruct our families: and we have variety of subjects for each of these. As a student that is weary hath a variety of books and studies to recreate his mind ; so hath every Christian variety of holy employment on the Lord*s-day. And all of it excellent, profitable, and delightful!

Christian, believe not that minister or man whatever he be, that telleth thee that Christ's yoke is heavy, or that his commandments are grievous. Hath he done so much to deliver us from the straight yoke, the heavy burden, and the grievous commandments ? And now shall we accuse him of bringing us under a toilsome task ? Is it a toil to love or count your money? to love and look upon your corn and cattle ? to love and converse with your friend ? to feast your body on the pleasantest food ? If not, why should it be a toil to any but a wicked heart, to spend a day in loving God, and hearing the messages of his love to us, and in the foresight and foretastes of everlasting love ?

Caviller, come but unto Christ, and cast off the wearisome, toilsome burden of thy sin, and Satan's drudgery, and take Christ's yoke and burden on thee, and learn of him, and try then whether his ways and woxk be grievous. Come and spend but a day in loving God, as thou dost in talking of him, and try whether love, and the holiest love, be a wearisome work. But if thou wilt make a religion of all shell and no kernel, all carcase and no life, like that which the Jansenists charge the Jesuits with, that say, ' We are bound to love God but once in four or five years, or once in all our lives,' no wonder if thou be weary of such a religion.

But I will tell them that are the teachers of the people, an honester way to cure the people's weariness, than to send them to a piper or to a play to cure it. Preach with such life and awakening seriousness, preach with such grateful, holy eloquence, and with such easy method, and with such variety of wholesome matter, that the people may never be weary of you. Pour out the rehearsal of the love

and benefits of God ; open so to them the privileges of faith, and the joys of hope, that they may never be angry. How oft have I heard the people say of such as these, ' I could hear him all day and never be weary !' They are troubled at the shortness of such sermons, and wish they had been longer. Pray with that heavenly life and fervour as may wrap up the souls of those that join with you, and try then whether they will be weary. Praise God with that joyful alacrity which beseemeth one that is ready to pass into glory, and try whether this will not cure the people's weariness.

Misunderstand me not. I am now speaking to none but guilty hypocrites, and not to any faithful, holy ministers. And to such I say, when you have done nothing but coldly read over the public prayers, or as coldly and crudely added your own, and tired the hearers, with a dry, a sapless, lifeless, unexperienced discourse, and then send them as a wearied people, to dancing and sports for a needless recreation; is this like the work of a pastor of souls ? When you have cried down other men's praying and preaching, and tell the people that the praying and preaching which you recommend to them as better, will not digest well, without a dance or recreation after it, to expel the people's weariness ; is not this to disgrace your own prayers and preaching which you before commended to them ? And when you have done, if after this you speak against others for their long praying, and for so much preaching and hearing, as if they never, had enough, is not this to commend what you discommend ? and to tell the people that those men's praying and preaching whom you revile, is such as doth not weary their auditors ; when yours is such as will tire men, if it be long, or if they be not recreated after it with a piper, a fidler, or a dance ? O that the Ithacian bishops of the world, and all the clergy of their mind, would at least hear Hooker in the preface to his ** Ecclesiastical Polity," how little their cause is beholden to such patrons, and how well it might spare them!

For my own part, as my flesh is weak, so my heart is too bad, too backward to these divine and heavenly works! and yet I never have time to spare. God knoweth that it is my daily groans, * How great is the work, yea, and how

VOL. XIII. G G

sweet! and how short is the day, the week, the year! How quickly is it night! How fast do weeks and years roll away !' And shall any man that is called a minister of Christ, persuade poor labourers and servants who have but one day for retirement from the world, to converse with God without distraction, that this one day is too long, and that their work must be eased by carnal sports? Nay, shall a man that would be called a minister or a Christian, persuade men against all the experience of the world, that the diversions and interruptions of a dance or May-game, or a race, or a comedy, will dispose their minds to return to God with more heavenly alacrity and purity than before, or than variety of holy exercises will do? Or lather, are we constrained to say (though it displease) that hypocrites are all for imaginary and hypocritical religion; and that whether he be at church or at home, in praying, or in drinking, and sensuality, and voluptuousness ; a worldling is every where a worldling still, and an hypocrite is an hypocrite still; and it is not his book or pulpit that maketh him another man. And that as the man is, such will be his work. * Operari sequitur esse.* And that the Jesuits are not the only men in the world that would make a religion to suit men's lusts, and would serve Satan and the flesh, in the livery of Christ. But I fear I have been too long on this objection.

IV. The Lord's-day must not be spent in idleness ; not in unnecessary sleep, or in vain walking, or long dressings, or too long feastings, or any thing unnecessary which di-verteth our souls from their sacred seasonable work. It is not a Jewish ceremonious Sabbath of bodily rest which we are to keep; but it is a day of holy and spiritual works ; of the needfuUest work in all the world ; to do that which is ten thousand times more necessary and excellent, than all our labours and provisions for the flesh. And if no man hath time to spare on the week-day, but he that knoweth not aright what it is to be a Christian, or a man, or why God maintaineth and upholdeth him in the world; what shall we think of them that can find time to spare on the Lord's-day, and can walk and idle away the most precious of all their time? if it be folly to cast away your silver, it is not wisdom to cast away your gold. O that God would but open men's eyes, to see what is before them, and how

near to eternity they stand, and awaken men's sleepy, sensual souls, to live as men that do not dream of another world, but unfeignedly believe it; and then a little reasoning would serve turn to convince them, that the Lord*s-day should be spent in the duties of serious holiness, and not in idleness, or unnecessary works, or sports.

Object. • But by all this you seem to cast a great reproach on Calvin, Beza, and most of the great divines of the foreign churches, who have not been so strict for the observation of the Lord*s-day.*

Amw. Let these things be observed by the impartial reader: 1. It cannot be proved to be most of them, that were so faulty herein as the objection intimateth. 2. Many of them have written much for the holy spending of the day in spiritual exercises. 3. And you must remember that they came newly out of popery, and had seen the Lord's-day, and a superabundance of other human holy days imposed on the churches to be ceremoniously observed, and they did not all of them, so clearly as they ought, discern the difference between the Lord*s-day and those holy days, or church-festivals, and so did too promiscuously conjoin them in their reproofs of the burdens imposed on the church. And it being the Papists' ceremoniousness, and their multitude of festivals that stood altogether in their eye, it tempted them to too undistinguishing and inaccurate a reformation. 4. And for Calvin you must know that he spent every day so like to a Lord's-day, in hard study, and prayer, and numerous writings, and public preaching, or lecturing and disputings, either every day in the week, or very near it, scarce allowing himself time for his one only spare meal a day, that he might the more easier be tempted, to make the less difference in his judgment between the Lord's-day and the other days, than he should have done, and to plead fbr more recreation on that day for others, than he took on any day himself. 5. And then his followers having also many of the same temptations, were apt to tread in his steps, through the deserved estimation of his worth and judgment, and lest they should seem to be of different minds. But as England hath been the happiest in this piece of reformation, so all men are inexcusable that encourage idleness, sensuality, or neglect of the important duties of the day.

CHAPTER XI.

What Things should not be scrupled as unlawful on the hordes-day.

As I have told you the Lord's-day is not a Sabbath in the Jewish sense, or a day of ceremonial rest, but a day of worshipping our Creator and Redeemer with thankful commemorations and with holy joy, &c. And a day of vacancy from such earthly things as may be any hindrance to this holy work; so now I must resolve the question first in the general, that nothing lawful at another time, is unlawful on this day, which hath not the nature of an impediment to the holy duties of the day ; unless it be accidentally on the account of scandal or ill example unto others, or disobeying the laws of magistrates, or crossing the concord of the churches, or such like. Therefore hence I deduce these particular resolutions following.

I. It is not unlawful to be at such bodily or mental labours as is needful to the spiritual duties of the day. If the "priests in the temple (saith Christ) did break the Sabbath and were blameless," (that is, not the command of God to them for keeping the Sabbath, but the external rest of the Sabbath, which was commanded to others, with an exception to their case,) we may well say that it is no sin for a minister now to spend his strength in laborious preaching and praying; or for the people to travel as far as is needful, to the church-assemblies : Nor do we need to tie ourselves to a Sabbath-day's journey, (that is, according to the scribes, 2000 cubits, which is 3000 feet, and * quinque stadia) :' It is lawful to go many miles when it is necessary to the work of the day.

II. It is not unlawful to be at the labour of dressing ourselves somewhat more ornately or comely than on another day. Because it is suitable to the rejoicing of a festival. But to waste time needlessly in curiosity, and proud attiring, to the hindijance of greater things, is detestable.

III. It is not unlawful to dress meat, even in some fuller and better manner than on other days ; because it is a festival, or day of thanksgiving. And it is a vain self-contradiction of some men, who think that another day of thanks-

giving.is not well kept, if there be not two feasting meals at least, and yet think it unlawful to dress one on the Lord's-day : but yet to make it a day of gluttony, or to waste more of the day in eating or dressing meat than is agreeable to the spiritual work of the day, which is our end; or to make ourselves sleepy by fulness; or to use our servants like beasts, to provide for our bellies, with the neglect of their own souls; or to pamper the flesh to the satisfaction and irritation of its lusts ; all this is to be detested.

IV. It is not unlawful to do the necessary works of mercy to ourselves or others, to man or beast; those which must be done, and cannot be delayed without more hurt than the doing of them will procure (for that is the description of a necessary work). As to eat and drink and clothe ourselves, and our children; to carry meat to the poor that are in present necessity ; to give or take physic ; and to go for advice to the physician or surgeon: to travel upon a business of importance and necessity; to quench a fire; or prop a house that is about to fall; to march or fight in a necessary case of war; to sail or labour at sea in cases of necessity ; to boat men over a river, that go to church; to pursue a robber, or defend him that is assaulted; to pull a man out of fire or water; to dress a man's sores, or give physic to the sick ; to pull an ox or horse or other cattle out of a pit or water; to drive or lead them to water, and to give them meat; to save cattle, corn or hay, from the sudden inundations of the sea, or of rivers, or from floods ; to drive cattle or swine out of the grounds where they break in to spoil; such necessary actions are not unlawful, but a duty; it being a moral or natural precept, which Christ twice bid the ceremonious Pharisees learn, *' I will have mercy and not sacrifice."

And it is not only works of necessity to a man's life, that are here meant by necessary works ; but such also as are necessary to a smaller and lower end or use.

And yet it is not all such necessity neither, that will allow us to do the thing. Otherwise a tradesman or ploughman might say that his labour is necessary to the getting or saving of this or that small commodity ; I shall be a loser if I do not work. And on the other side, if it were only a necessity for life, limbs, or livelihood that would allow us labour, then it would be unlawful to dress meat, and to drive

cattle out of the corn, and many such things before-mentioned ; and then it would be lawful to give meat only to oxen or horses of great price, and not to hens, ducks, geese, dogs and other animals of little value.

Therefore there is a great deal of prudent discretion necessary to the avoiding of extremes. God hath not enumerated all the particulars which are allowed or forbidden in their generals. What then shall we do? Shall we violate the outward rest of the day for the worth of a groat or two-pence, (as the feeding of hens or such-like may be?) Or shall we suffer the loss of many pounds rather than stir to save them ? As for instance, is it lawful to open, or turn, or carry in corn or hay, which in all probability (though not certainly) is like to be lost or very much spoiled, if it be let alone till the next day ? The corn or hay may be of many pounds value, when the feeding of swine, or hens, may be little : the corn or hay is like to be lost; when the swine, or hens, or horses, or oxen, may easily recover the hunger or abstinence of a day ? What must be done in such cases as these ?

I answer, 1. It is necessary to know that where God hath not made particular determinations, yet general laws do still oblige us.

2. And that Christian prudence is necessary to the right discerning how far our actions fall under those general laws of God.

3. That he that will discern these things must be a man that truly understandeth, valueth and loveth the true ends and work of the Lord*s-day, and not a man that hateth it, or careth not for it; and a man that hath a right estimation also of those outward things, which stand in question to be meddled with. And he must be one that hath no superstitious Jewish conceits of the external rest of the day: and he must be one that looketh, not only to one thing or a few, but to all things, how numerous soever, which the determination of his case dependeth on.

4. And because very few are such, it is needful that those few that are such, be casuists and advisers to the rest, and that the more ignorant consult with them (especially if they be their proper pastors) as they do with physicians and lawyers for their health and their estates.

^5. It must be known that ofttimes the laws of the land do

interpose in such cases; and if they do determine so strictly, as to forbid that which else would to some be lawful, they must be obeyed; because bad men cannot be kept from doing ill by excesses, unless some good men be hindered by the same laws from some things that are to them indifferent, nay, possibly, eligible, if there were no such law.

6. And accordingly the case of scandal or temptation to others, that will turn our example to their sin, must be considered in our practice. Yea, it is not only things merely indifferent that we must deny our liberty in, to prevent another's fall, but ofttimes that which would else be a duty may become a sin, when it will scandalize another, or tempt him to a far greater and more dangerous sin. As it may be my duty to speak some word, or do some action, as most useful and beneficial, when there is nothing against it; and yet if I may foresee that another will turn that speech or action to his ruin, to the hatred of piety, or to take occasion from it to exercise cruelty upon other Christians, &c. it may become my heinous sin. So it must here be considered, who will know of the action which you do ; and what use they are like to make of it?

7. And a little public hurt must be more regarded, than more private benefit; and the hurt of man's soul cannot be countervailed by your corporal commodities.

8. These things being premised, I suppose that the great rule to guide you in such undetermined circumstances is the interest of the end ; all things must be done to the glory of God, and to edification. A truly impartial, prudent man can discern by comparing all the circumstances, whether his action (as if it were carrying endangered corn) were likely to do more good or harm. On one side you must put in the balance the value of the thing to be saved ; your own necessity of it; the poor's necessity of it; and Christ's command, " Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost:" On the other side, you must consider, how far it will hinder your spiritual benefit and duty ; and how far the example may be like to encourage such as will do such things without just cause; and so try which is the way of God's honour and your own and your neighbour's good; and that is the way which you must take (as in the disciple's rubbing the ears of corn, Sec); for the rule is, that your labour is then lawful and a duty, when in the judgment of a truly ju-

dicious person, it is like to do more good than hurt; and it is then sinful, when it is like to do more hurt than good. Though all cannot discern this, yet (as far as I know) this is the true rule, to judge such actions. As for them that suppose our Lord's-day to be under the laws of rest with the Jewish Sabbath, and so think that they have a readier way to decide these doubts, I will not contend with them, but I have told you why I am not of their mind.

V. From hence I further conclude, that whereas there are such actions which bring some little benefit, but yet are no apparent hindrances of any of the work of the day, it seemeth to me too much ceremoniousness, and too ungospel-like, to trouble our own or other men's consciences, by concluding such things to be unlawful. If one have a word to speak of some considerable worldly business, which may be forgotten if it be not presently spoken ; or if I meet one with whom 1 must speak the next day about some worldly business, and if I then wish him to come speak with me, I must send a great way to him afterwards, I will not say that it is a sin to speak such a word. I will first look at a man's positive duties on the Lord's-day, how he heareth, and readeth, and prayeth, and spendeth his time, and how he instructeth and helpeth his family ; and if he be diligent in seeking God, (Heb. xi. 6,) and ply his heavenly business, I shall be very backward to judge him for a word or action about worldly things that falls in on the by, without any hindrance to his spiritual work. And if another speak not a word of any common thing, and yet do little in spiritual things, for his own or other's edification, I shall think him a great abuser or neglecter of the Lord's-day. A few words about a common thing that falleth in the way, may be spoken without any hindrance of any holy duty : but still we must see that it be not a scandalous temptation to others. If I see a man that unexpectedly findeth some uncomely hole or rent in his clothes, either pin it up or sew it up, before he goeth abroad, I will not blame him: but if he do it so as to embolden another who useth needlessly to mend his clothes on the Lord's-day, it will be a sin of scandal. If I see one cut some indecent straggling hairs before he go forth, I will not blame him; but if he do it before one who will be encouraged by it to be barbered needlessly on that day, he will oflend. And so in other cases.

VI. By these same rules also we may judge of recreations on the Lord's-day. The recreations of the mind must be the various holy employments of the day. No bodily recreations are lawful which needlessly waste time, or hinder our duty, or divert our minds from holy things, or are a snare to others. Unless it be some weak persons whose health requireth bodily motion, few persons need any other than holy recreations on that day. I know no one man that so much needeth it as myself, who these twenty years cannot digest one day's meat, unless I walk, or run, or exercise my body before it, till I am hot, or sweat; and therefore necessity requireth me to walk or fast; but I do it privately on that day, lest I tempt others to sin. But I will not censure one whom I see walking at fit hours, when for ought I know he may be taken up in some fruitful meditation. But if persons will walk in the streets or fields in idleness, or for vain delight, or discourse, as if the day were too long for them, and they had no business to do for their souls, this is not only a sin, but a very ill sign of one that is senseless of his soul's necessity and his duty.

VII. To read history, philosophy, or common things, unnecessarily on the Lord's-day, is a sinful diversion from the more spiritual work of it; and unsuitable to the appointed uses of the day (much more romances, play-books, or idle stories): yea, or those parts of divinity itself, which are less practical and useful to the raising of thankful and heavenly affections. But yet sometimes such other matter may fall in, at a sermon, or conference, or in meditation, which will require a present satisfaction in some point of history, philosophy, or controversial divinity, which may be subserviently used to edification, without sin. Here therefore we must judge prudently.

VIII. A thing that may be lawful singly in itself, unless it be of great necessity is unlawful when he that serveth us in it is drawn or encouraged to make a trade of it. As to use a barber to cut your hair; or a tailor to mend your clothes, or a cobler to mend your shoes. Because if you may use him, so may others as well as you, and so he will follow his calling on the Lord's- day. And yet I dare not say, if when you are to travel to church, you find your slices or boots by breaking something, to make you incapable of going out, but you may get them mended privately, where

it may be done without this inconvenience. And though cooks and barbers should not be unnecessarily used in their trade, yet it is not always unlawful, but sometimes very well. Because as one servant in the kitchen may be used to dress meat for all the family, so one baker or cook may serve many families, and save ten times as many persons the labour which else they must be at; and perhaps with easier and quicker dispatch than others. The trade of the apothecary, surgeon, and physician, is ordinarily used, but for necessity.

IX. There is no sufficient avoidance of such abuses, but by careful foresight, and prevention, and preparation the week before; which therefore must be conscionably done.

CHAPTER XII.

Of what Importance the due Ohsertmtion of the Lorcfs-day is.

Thb singular benefits of keeping the Lord's-day aright, should make all that love God, or holiness, or the church, or their own or other men's souls, take heed how they grow into a neglect of it: much more that they plead not for such negligence or abuse.

I. The due observation of the Lord's-day is needful to keep up the solemn worship of God, and public owning and honouring him in the world: If all men were left to themselves, what time they should bestow in the worshipping of God, the greatest part would cast off all, and grow into atheism or utter profaneness ; and the rest would grow into confusion. And if all princes and rulers, or churches in the world were left to their own wills, to appoint the people on what days to meet, some kingdoms and churches would have one day in eight, or nine, or ten, or twenty, and some only now and then ati hour, and some one day, and some another, and some next to none at all. For there is no one universal monarch on earth to make laws for them all (whatever the pope or his nominal general councils may pretend to): and they would never all come to any reasonable agreement voluntarily among themselves. Therefore the light of nature telleth us, that as a day is meet and needful to be stated ; so it is meet that God himself, the true Universal Monarch, should determine of it; which accordingly he hath done.

And this is the very hedge and defensative of God*s public worship. When he hath made a law that one whole day in seven shall be spent in it, men are engaged to attend it.

O what a happy acknowledgment of God and our Creator and Redeemer is it, and an honouring of his blessed name, when all the churches throughout all the world are at once praising the same God, with the same praises, and hearing and learning the same Gospel, and professing the same faith, and thankfully commemorating the same benefits: the church is then indeed, like an army with banners. And were it not for this day's observation, alas! how different would the case be ! And what greater ihing can man be bound to, than thus to keep up the solemn aclcnowledgment and worship of God and our Redeemer in the world ?

II. The due sanctification of the Lord's-day, doth tend to make religion universal, as to countries and individual persons, which else would be of narrower extent. When all the world are under a divine obligation, to spend one day every week in the exercises of religion, (and superiors see to the performance of their subject's obedience to this law,) it will make men to be in some sort religious whether they will or not: though they cannot be truly religious against their will, it will make them visibly religious. Yea, God's own law, if man's did nothing, would lay an awe on the consciences of most, who believe that there is a God that made that law. And the weekly assemblies keep up the knowledge and profession of the Christian faith, and keep God and heaven in the people's remembrance, and keep sin under constant rebukes and disgrace. And were it not for this, heathenism, infidelty and profaneness would (Quickly overspread the world. The Lord's-day keepeth up the Christian religion in the world.

III. The lamentable ignorance of the generality in the world, doth require the strict and diligent observation of the whole Lord's-day. Children and servants, and ordinary country people, yea and too many of higher quality, are so exceeding ignorant of the things of God and their salvation, that all the constant diligence that can be used with them, in preaching, exhorting, catechising, &c. will not overcome it with the most. The most diligent masters of families lament it, how ignorant their families are when they have done the best they can. Let those that plead for dancing and

sporting away much of the day, but do like men that do not secretly scorn Christianity, nor despise their servants' souls, and let them but try what measure of knowledge the bare hearing of common prayer; yea, and a sermon or two with it, will beget in their servants, if the rest of the day be spent in sports; and let them judge according to experience. If ever knowledge be propagated to such, and families made fit to live like Christians, it is likest to be by the holy improvement of this day, in the diligent teaching and learning the substance of religion, and in the sacred exercises thereof.

IV. The great carnality, worldliness and carelessness of the most, and their great averseness to the things of God, doth require that they be called and kept to a close and diligent improvement of the Lord's-day. Whatever unexperienced or carnal persons may pretend, that such constant duty so long together will make them worse and more averse, reason, experience and Scripture all are against them. If there be some backwardness at the first, it is not sports and idleness that will cure it; but resisting of the slothful humour, and keeping to the work. For there is that in religion that tendeth to overcome men's averseness to religion; and it must be overcome by religion, and not by playing or idleness, if ever it be overcome. It is want of knowledge and experience of it, which maketh them loathe it, or be weary of it: when they have tried it more, and know it better, they will (if ever) be reconciled to it. Six days in a week are a sufficient diversion. Apprentices, and pupils, and schoolboys will hold on.in learning, though they be averse ; and you think not all the six days too much to hold them to it. A schoolboy must learn daily eight hours in a day ; and yet some wretched men (yea, teachers) would persuade poor souls that must learn how to be saved or perish for ever, that less than eight hours one day in seven, is too much to be spent in the needfullest, excellentest and plea-santest matters in all the world.

If you say that the sublimity or difficulty maketh it wearisome; I answer, that philosophers do much longer hold on in harder speculations.

If you say divinity being unsuitable to carnal minds, their sick stomachs must take no more than they can digest. I answer, 1. Cannot a carnal preacher for his gain, and honour, and fancy, hold on all the year in the study even of

divinity, perhaps eight or ten hours every day in the week? And may not ignorant people be brought one day to endure to be taught as long? 2. That which you call digesting, is but understanding, and believing, and receiving it: and one truth tendeth to introduce another; and he that cannot learn with an hour's labour, may learn more in two. 3. And it is hearing and exercise that must cure their want of appetite. Experience telleth us, that when people take the liberty of plays, and sports, and idleness for a recreation, they come back with much more want of love to holy exercises, than they that continue longer at them. Gratifying sloth and sensuality increaseth it, and increaseth an averseness to all that is gobd; for who are more averse than they that are most voluptuous ? If ever people be made seriously holy, it is a due observation of the whole Lord's-day, that is like to bring them to it (I mean, observing it in such learning and seeking duties as they are capable of, till they can do better). For when the mind long dwelleth on the truth, it will sink in and work ; and many strokes will drive the nail to the head.

Let the adversaries of this day and diligence but observe, and if true experience tell not the world that more souls are converted on the Lord's-days than all the other days besides, and that religion best prospereth both as to the number and the knowledge and serious holiness of the professors of it, where the Lord's-day is carefully sanctified, rather than where idleness and playing do make intermission, then I will confess that I am incapable of knowing any thing of this nature by experience. But if it be so, fight not against the common light.

' V. The poverty, servitude, and worldly necessity of the most, do require a strict observation of the whole Lord's-day. Tenants and labourers, carters and carriers, and abundance of tradesmen are so poor, that they can hardly spare any proportion of time : much less all their chihhen and servants, whose subjection, with their parents and master's poverty, restraineth them. Alas ! they are fain to rise early and hasten to their work and scarce have leisure to eat and sleep as nature requireth : and they are so toiled and wearied with hard labour, that if they have at night a quarter of an hour to read a chapter and pray, they can scarce hold open their eyes from sleeping. What time hath the minis-

ter then to come and teach them ? (if we had such ministers again as would be at the pains to do it.) And what time have they to hear or learn ? You must teach them on the Lord's-day, or scarcely at all. Almost all that they must learn must be then learned.

I deny not but in those former years, when the law forbad me not to preach the Gospel, the people came to me on the week-day, house by house; and also that they learned much in their shops while they were working. But, 1. It came to one family's turn but one hour, or little more, in a whole year (for about fourteen families a week so catechised and instructed, did no sooner bring their course about). 2. And our people were mostly weavers, whose labour was not like ploughmen's, masons', carpenters', carriers', &c. to take up their thoughts ; but they would lay a book before them, and read, or meditate, or discourse to edification whilst they were working. But it is not the case of the multitude.

And let any sober man but consider, whether with people so ignorant and averse as the most are, should he be never so diligent on the Lord's-day, the six days intermission be not a great cooling of their affection; and a great delayer of their growth in knowledge ; when they are like by the week's-end to forget all that they had learned on the Lord's-day. What then would these poor people come to, if the Lord's-day itself must be also loitered or played away?

VL The tyranny of many masters maketh the Lord's-day a great mercy to the world: for if God had not made a law for their rest and liberty, abundance of worldly, impious persons, would have allowed them little rest for their bodies, and less opportunity for the good of their souls. Therefore they have cause with great thankfulness to improve the holy liberty which God hath given them, and not cast it away on play or idleness.

Vn. The full improvement of the Lord's-days doth tend to breed and keep up an able, faithful ministry in the churches (on which the preservation and glory of religion much dependeth). When there is a necessity of full ecclesiastical performances imposed on ministers, they are also necessitated to prepare themselves with answerable abilities and fitness But when no more is required of them, but to read the liturgy, or to say a short and dry discourse,

they that know no more is necessary (to their ends) are so strongly tempted to get ability and preparations for no more, that few will overcome the temptation. And therefore the world knoweth that in Moscovy, Abassia, and for the most part of the Greek and Armenian churches, as nothing or Little more than reading is required, so little more ability than to read is laboured after, and the ministers are ordinarily so ignorant and weak, as is the scorn and decay of the Christian religion.

VIII. Yea, it will strongly incline masters of families to labour more for abilities, to instruct and catechise their families, and pray with them, and guide them in the fear of God, when they know that the whole day must be improved to the spiritual good of their families. And so knowledge, abilities, and family-holiness will increase: whereas those that think themselves under no such obligations, what ignorant, profane, and ungodly families have they? Because, for the most part, they are such themselves.

IX. A multitude of gross sins will be prevented by the due observance of the Lord's-day. Nothing more usual than for the sports, riots, idleness, and sensuality of that day, to be nurseries of oaths, curses, ribaldry, fornication, gluttony, drunkenness, frays and bloodshed. And is not God's service better work than these ?

X. Lastly, This holy order and prosperity of the churches, and this knowledge and piety in individual subjects, will become the safety, beauty, order, and felicity of kingdoms, and all civil societies of men. For when the people are fit but duly to use and sanctify the Lord's-day, they are fit to use all things in a sanctified manner, and to be an honour to their country, and an ease and comfort to their governors, and a common blessing to all about them.

CHAPTER XIII.

What other Church-Festivals or separated Days are Lawful?

I SHALL conclude this discourse with a brief answer of this question.

I. No sober Christian doubteth, but that some part of every day is to be spent in religious exercise; and that

even our earthly business must be done with a spiritual intent and mind. And that every day must be kept as like to the Lord's-day, as our vi^eakness, and our other duties, which God hath laid upon us, will allow.

II. Few make any question but that whole days of humiliation and thanksgiving may and must be kept upon great and extraordinary occasions, of judgments or mercies. And that many churches may agree in these. And I know no just reason why the magistrate may not (with charity and moderation to the weak) impose them, and command such an agreement among his subjects.

III. Few doubt but the commemoration of great mercies or judgments may be made anniversary, and of long continuance. As the Powder-plot-day (November 5.) is now made among us, to preserve the memorial of that deliverance. And why may it not be continued, whilst the great sense of the benefit should be continued? And so the Second of September is set apart for the anniversary humbling remembrance of the firing of London. And so in divers other cases.

IV. The great blessing of an apostolic ministry, and of the stability of the martyrs in their sufferings for Christ, being so rare and notable a mercy to the church, I confess I know no reason why the churches of all succeeding ages may not keep an | anniversary-day of thanksgiving to God for Peter or Paul, or Stephen, as well as for the Powder-plot deliverance. I know not where God hath forbidden it, directly or indirectly. If his instituting the Lord's-day were a virtual prohibition for man to separate any more, or if the prohibition of adding to God's word were against it, they would be against other days of humiliation and thanksgiving, especially anniversary ; which we confess they are not. If the reason be scandal, lest the men should have the honour instead of God, I answer, 1. An honour is due to apostles and martyrs in their places, in meet subordination to God. 2. Where the case of scandal is notorious, it may become by that accident unlawful, and yet not be so in other times and places.

V. The devil hath here been a great undoer by overdoing : When he knew not how else to cast out the holy observation of the Lord's-day, with zealous people, he found out the trick of devising so many days called holy-days to

set up by it, that the people might perceive that the observation of them all as holy, was never to be expected. And so tlie Lord's-day was jumbled in the heap of holy-days, and all turned into ceremony, by the Papists, and too many other churches in the world. Which became Calvin's temptation (as his own words make plain), to think too meanly of the Lord's-day with the rest.

VI. In the lawful observation of days, it is most orderly to do as the churches do which we live among and are joined to.

VII. But if church-tyranny would overwhelm any place with over-numerous days (or ceremonies) which are (singly considered) lawful, we should do nothing needlessly to countenance and encourage such usurpation.

VIII. Yet it is lawful to hear a sermon, which shall be preached on a human holy-day, which is imposed by usurpation. Seeing such a moral duty may be done, and so great a benefit received, without any approbation of the inconvenient season.

IX. And when we think it unlawful to join in the positive celebration of unlawful days (as the Mahometan Sabbath), yet it may become a duty for the civil peace and our own safety, to obey the magistrate in forbearing open opposition or contempt, or working upon that day ? And so Paul justifieth himself against the Jews' accusations, that they " found him not in the temple disputing with any man, nor raising up the people, nor in the synagogues, nor in the city," (Acts xxiv. 12,) unless it be when we have a special call, to reprove the error which we forbear complying with.

X. It is long ago decided by the Holy Ghost, (Rom. xiv; XV.) that we must not be contentious, contemptuous, nor censorious against one another, about things of no greater moment, than the Jewish days were, though some observed them without just cause : because the kingdom of God consisteth not in meats and drinks, and days, but in '* righteousness, and peaceableness, and joy in the Holy Ghost. And he that in these things serveth Christ, is acceptable to God (and received by him) and approved of (wise) men, and should be received to communion with them." (Rom. xiv. 17, 18; xv. 7.) We must therefore *' follow after the things that make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.'* (Rom. xiv. 19.)

VOL. XIII. H H

XL The controversy, Whether it be lawful to separate an anniversary-day. for the commemoration of Christ's nativity, circumcision, and such like things which were equally existent in the apostles' days, and the reason for observing them equal with following times, (and so the apostles had the same reason to have appointed such days had they thought it best, as we have) I acknowledge too hard for me to determine: not being able to prove it lawful, I cannot own and justify it; and not seeing a plain prohibition, I will not condemn it, nor be guilty of unpeaceable opposing church-customs or authority in it, but behave myself as a peaceable doubter.

XII. But that earthly power may appoint a weekly-day, in commemoration of any part of our redemption, besides the Lord's-day, and so make another separated weekly stated holy-day, I think plainly unlawful, because it is a doing the same thing for one day, which God hath done already by another; and so seemeth to me, 1. An usurpation of a power not given. And, 2. An accusation of Christ and the Holy Ghost, as if he had not done his work sufficiently, but man must come after and do it better.

But especially if such (or any day or ceremony) be by an universal law imposed on the universal church, it is arrogant usurpation of the Divine authority; there being no vicarious head or monarch under Christ of all the world, or all the church, nor any universal governor, who may use such legislation, whether personal or collective.

The same I may say of any that would presume to abrogate the Lord's-day.

And so much shall suffice, in great haste, of this subject.

And to Thee, O most glorious and gracious Creator and Redeemer, I humbly' return my unfeigned thanks, for the unspeakable mercies which I have received on thy day ; and much more for so great a mercy to all thy churches and the world : and craving the pardon (among the rest) of the sins which I have committed on thy day, I beseech thee to continue this exceeding mercy to thy churches and to me; and restore me and other of thy servants, to the privileges, and comforts of this day, which we have forfeited and lost; and let me serve thee in the life, and light, and love of thy Spirit, in these thy holy days on earth, till I be prepared for, and received to, the everlasting rest in heavenly glory. Amen.

AN APPENDIX

FURTHER CONFIRMATION OF GOD'S OWN SEPARATION OF THE

LORD'S-DAY,

DISPROVING THE CONTINUATION OF THE JEWISH SEVENTH DAY-SABBATH.

CHAPTER I.

An Answer to certain Objections against the Lord^s-daj/.

Though they are answered before, the reader must pardon me, if upon the particular urgencies of some objectors, I again make answer to these that follow.

Object. ' Acts XX. 7. " The first day of the week ;*' (Gr. one of the Sabbaths.) That the breaking of bread there was common eating, compare the like Greek phrase, Acts xxvii. 35 ; ii. 42. See Isa. Iviii. However, it was but an example of preaching, and breaking bread, upon a special occasion.'

Afisio. 1. That'Ev rjf/xta ra>v (Taj3/3artjv signifieth on the first day of the week, the generality of the ancients, both Greek and Latin, agree, whose testimony about the sense of a word, is the best dictionary and evidence that we can expect. And the same phrase used of the day of Christ's resurrection by the evangelists, proves it. Though I am sorry to hear of one that denieth that also, and asserteth that Christ rose on the second day morning, because else he could not, as Jonah, be three days and nights buried. But I am not so proud as to think myself capable of convincing that man in such a matter of fact, who will not believe the historical witness of the whole church of Christ, and ex-pecteth to be believed against them all, at such a distance in the end of the world.

2. There is no doubt but that KXamg rov aprox), breaking

of bread, was both a common and a sacred action: and the phrase is to be interpreted by the context, to know when it signifieth the common, and when the sacred. In Acts xxvii. 35, the context teacheth us to interpret it of common eating : but that it doth not so. Acts ii. 42. 46 ; or Acts xx. 7. is plain to him that considereth, 1. That it was then usual to communicate sacramentally in all their church-assemblies. 2. That these mentioned were church-assemblies; the church being met purposely for sacred works. Yet it is to be remembered, that the love-feasts did usually concur in the beginning with the sacrament, and the name might be used with respect to both.

3. That it was not a mere occasional meeting, is apparent to the unprejudiced, 1. Because they stayed at Troas seven days, (ver. 6.) and in all the seven make no mention of this exercise, but on the one only, which was the first, 2. Because as is said, it was not a family, or by-meeting, but a church-meeting; "The disciples came, or assembled together." 3. Because it is said that they assembled for this very end," to break bread"(Tuv»?yjU£vwy tiov fia6r}TU)v t8 icXci-aai. 4. The great length of time which was spent in the holy exercises: Besides the rest of the worship, and breaking of bread, Paul preaching till midnight; which intimateth that such work took up the day. 5. Because it is mentioned as a matter of custom: they did not assemble because Paul called them to hear him only, as being to depart to-morrow; but Paul assembled with them at the time of their assembling to break bread; and it seemeth that he deferred his journey for that opportunity. 6. Because other texts, as joined with this, and infallible church-history following, do prove, past all doubt, that it was the constant custom of all the churches so to do.

Object, ' 1 Cor. xvi. 1,2." The first day of the week, &c." (Gr. one of the Sabbaths.) It is an ordinance to lay aside for charitable uses ; but not one word about changing the Sabbath.'

A?isw. The abolition of the Sabbath we prove not by this text, but by others : all that we bring this for, is but to shew in conjunction with others, as part of the sacred history, that the first day was the church's separated day. And I pray mark the strength of the proof, that the apostle did * give order that all the churches of Galatia, as well as

the Corinthians, should deposit* their alms on one and the same day, viz. on the first day. Was it not enough to tie them to the contribution, but he must tie them all to one set day to lay it by, or deposit it; if it had not been because the churches used to assemble on this day, and not to appear before God empty (as Dr. Hammond noteth on the text) ? Whoever heard else that God or man tied several countries to one set day, for the private depositing of their own monies afterward to be distributed? " With such sacrifices God is well pleased ;" and therefore it was ever accounted by Christians a fit work for the sanctified day; but no other day was ever appointed peculiarly for the set time of laying by men's gifts of charity.

Object. * Rev. i. 10. " John was in the Spirit on the Lord's-day.'* Compare Exod. xx. 10, &c.; Isa. Iviii. 13, &c.; Luke vi. 5; Mark ii. 28 ; Matt. xii. 8, &c. And if the Scripture be the rule to judge, resolve whether that day be not the Lord's-day, and of which only, (as distinguished from the other days of the week,) the Son of man is Lord.' Amw. We are not upon a controversy of title or property, whether God be Lord of other days : for so no doubt he is Lord of all, and therefore no more of one than another, because his propriety in each one is absolute ; and it can be no more in any. Thus also he is absolute Lord of all things, all places, all persons, &c. Apd yet some things, some places, some persons have been separated to his service by a peculiar dedication and relation ; and thence have been particularly called the Lord's, And the texts cited by you out of the Old Testament prove that such was the Seventh-day Sabbath then: but not that it is so now; or was to be so for perpetuity.

And the words of the New Testament cited, " The Son of Man is Lord also, or even of the Sabbath-day," shews no more than that it was in his power: he giveth it as a reason for his doing that which the Pharisees counted Sabbath-breaking (by which he oftentimes offended them), and not as a reason of his establishing it. And it seemeth plainly to mean, that being but a positive law, and a law of Moses, he had power to change it, and dispense with it, as well as with other positives and Mosaical laws. As it is said, Ephes. i. 22, 23. '* he hath made him head over all things to the church ;" not head to all things; so he is Lord over.

or of all days; but all are not separated to his worship. As it is said, John xvii. 2. " As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him :" so it may be said he hath power over all days, that he may sanctify one to his peculiar service, and use the rest in more common works.

But that which we bring this text for, is but to know what day is notified to the world by this title of the Lord^s-day, and consequently was then accounted his separated peculiar day. Now the signification of words is known but by use : they are not natural signs, but arbitrary: you know not the sense of one word of Hebrew, Greek or Latin, but by the history of their use, by dictionaries, authors or other tradition. Now it is unquestionable to any man versed in antiquity, that all the churches and authors, Greek and Latin, Syriac, ^thiopic, Persian, Arabic, that have been known among us, and speak of such things, do unanimously call the first day of the week by the name of the Lord's-dai/, as being so called from the beginning, even from the apostles y and all old expositors so interpret this text. And you may as well question what day the word Sabbath signified in the Old Testament almost, as what day the name of the Lord's-day signified in the New; or what sort of people they were, that were called Christians first at Antioch, when only one sort hath ever since been notified by that name ; even the disciples of Christ. The Greek, with the Syriac translation, the Arabic, the vulgar Latin, have all the Lord's-day; and the Ethiopic as equipollent, hath the Jirst day. And Dr. Heylin (who would find something against it, if any thing were to be found,) speaking of some of late that otherwise expound it, is so ingenuous as to say, (part 2. cap. i. p. 37.) * Touching this we will not meddle; let them that own it look to it: the rather since St. John hath generally been expounded in the other sense, by Aretas, and Andr. Caesa-riensis on the place, and by Beda, de rat. temp. c. 6. and by the sufirage of the church, the best expositor of the word of God; wherein this day hath constantly, since the time of the apostles, been honoured with that name above other days.' And I know no one man (nor many) that at sixteen hundred years distance almost, is so worthy to be believed for the bare sense of a word, as the constant use and universal testimony of all ages from that time till now.

As Christ is the Lord of all our suppers, yet all are not called the Lord's-supper; so it is in this case.

I must needs conclude therefore, that if I should cast off the evidence of this text, upon no greater reason than you offer me, I think, I should resist the Holy Ghost, and use violence against God's word, which I should obey.

Object. * There is no law in the Scripture to observe the first day, no promise made to the observers of it, no threatening against the breakers of it, &c. shew it. And if no law, no transgression, " Sin is a transgression of the law." (Rom. iv. 15.)

Answ. I have shewed you full proof of a law for it before. Though it was not Christ's way to enact his laws in that majestic commanding form as God did to Moses on the Mount. But as he condescended to come in flesh, to be a Teacher and Saviour, in the form of a servant, under the law himself, to redeem those that were under it, so he maketh his laws in a merciful, teaching-style. All that is revealed by him as his will, appointing our duty, is his law. But that we observe the Lord's-day, is revealed by him as his will, making it our duty.

These are his laws requiring us to hear and obey his Spirit in his apostles, " As the Father hath sent me, so send I you: and when he had said this he breathed on them, and said. Receive ye the Holy Ghost," &c. (John xx. 21, 22.) " He that heareth you, heareth me." (Luke x. 16.)

And this is his law requiring his apostles by that Spirit to promulgate his laws, and make known his will. Go, disciple me all nations, baptizing them, &c. " teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (or age); (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20;) with the other texts fore-cited. And that the Spirit in the apostles hath settled the Lord's-day, as the separated day for holy assemblies and worship, I have proved to you, both by the texts which you now sought in vain to make void, and the unquestionable practice and history of the universal church, from that age until this. And withal by other texts which you omit: which (not alone, but) all set together make up the proof, because it is historical evidence of a matter of fact, which we have to seek after.

1. Christ's resurrection laid the foundation, or gave the

cause; as God's ceasing from his works did the Sabbath. 2. Christ's appearing to them assembled on that day, began the actual separation. 3. The Holy Ghost coming down on them, on that day, did more notably sanctify it. 4. The Holy Ghost as an infallible Spirit in them, did cause them to make a public settlement of that day in all the churches, which was the full and actual establishment. 5. This settlement is fully proved ' de facto' in Scripture and infallible history. 6. And that there are promises and threatenings, to the obeyers and rejecters of Christ's commands, (whom the Father commanded us to hear, and who is the great Prophet of the church,) I hope you believe. " Happy are they who do his commandments that they may have a right to the tree of life," &c. (Rev. xx. 14.) " See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more," &c. (Heb. xii. 25.) " It shall come to pass that every soul that will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." (Acts iii. 23.) " We are of God: He that heareth God, heareth us: He that is not of God, heareth not us : Hereby know we the Spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

If besides this, you must have particular precepts, promises, threatenings, in the form which you imagine to be fittest, you may, for want of those, deny many other Gospel-laws, as well as this. Have you not much more for the separation of the Lord's-day, than you have for infants' baptism, for a Christian magistrate, for Christian's waging war, for prohibited degrees as to marriage, &c.

I am persuaded the sober study of these points would do much to convince the contrary minded, 1. How much of Christ's work, as to the settlement of church-orders, was committed to the apostles to be done; and how little he publicly settled himself in person, before his resurrection.

2. How much the Gospel-administration excelleth that of the law. And what eminent glory God designeth to himself by the work of man's redemption, and how much more now he calleth man to read, and study, and know him in the face of Jesus Christ, than in the creation; and how largely the change of the Covenant is proved in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

3. What a change is made herein as to man's duty, since the fall of man under the wrath of the Creator, who is not

now his rest, but his terror, and a consuming fire, till reconciled and adopting us in Christ; and since the earth is cursed to us as a punishment for our sins.

4. How much of the certainty, and glory of the Christian faith, and of all our rest and consolation in it, is laid in the Gospel on the RESURRECTION of our Lord, as beginning a new world, or creation, as it were, and as conquering and triumphing over death and Satan, and sealing the promise, and bringing life and immortality to light, and opening the kingdom of heaven to believers.

5. How much of Christ's legislation and administration of his church-settlement and government was to be done by the Holy Ghost! and how glorious this office of the Holy Ghost is, and of what grand importance to be understood : As he was the promised paraclete, or advocate, or agent of our glorified Lord, to do his work on earth in his bodily absence ; to whom the infallibility of the Scriptures, the sealing operation of miracles, the sanctification of believers, and forming them for glory in the image of God, is to be ascribed : whom to blaspheme, is the unpardonable sin.

6. How dangerous a thing it is made by the Holy Ghost to seek to set up Moses's law, (as the whole epistle to the Galatians, besides most of the other epistles, testify,) as intimating a denial of Christ, and a falling away from grace, and a perverse setting up of that which Christ came to take down, as part of our own redemption. And how large and plain Paul is upon this subject j and how the Spirit in all the apostles did determine it. Acts ]i.v. And how the Corinthians, Nicolaitans, Ebionites, Nazaraeans, and many more of the condemned heresies of that age, which troubled the churches, and whom the apostles wrote against, went all that way of mingling the Jewish law with the Gospel.

7. How plainly and expressly Paul numbereth Sabbaths with the shadows that cease. Col. ii. 16, (to pass by other texts,) and what violence men's own wits must use, in denying the evidence of so plain a text. Their reason, that he saith not Sabbath but Sabbaths, is against themselves; the plural number being most comprehensive, and other Sabbaths receiving their name from this ; and the word Sabbath always used in Scripture, for a rest which was j)artly ceremonial. See what Dr. Younyr in his excellent " Dies Domin."

saith of this text (though I know some say otherwise, to the injury of their own cause).

8. Hpw many years together the churches had been in possession, and consequently in the undoubted knowledge, of the true established day of holy worship, before a word of the New Testament was written. And therefore that it was not written to be the first enacting of this day or change ; but for other uses.

9. And yet how much evidence of the fact there is in Scripture itself, that really such a day was used for the ordinary church-assemblies, as a peculiar, separated day; even by the common order of the apostles in the churches, as 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2, speaks.

10. And how impossible it is that all the churches in the world should from their beginning keep this as the separated day, even by the apostles and from their times, if it had not been so ordered by them indeed. And whether it be possible that in no age near the original hereof, no pastor, no Christian, no heretic, no enemy would have detected the fraud or common error, or once have written, that this day was not separated or used by the apostles, or apostolical churches; no, nor any one (that 1 know of, that denied not the resurrection) ever to have scrupled or opposed the day.

11. Whether they that can reject such historical evidence as this is, do not unwittingly cast away the Holy Scriptures, what zeal soever they pretend to have for their honour and perfection.

12. Whether they that can reject all this evidence, and yet can find in the second commandment, the prohibition of all forms of prayer, sermons, catechisms, and all modal inventions of men, as images, if not idols, are without partiality, or do not walk as men, by very different measures, and partial conceptions.

I would on my knees entreat some dear and worthy friends, on their knees to ponder these twelve particulars.

But because by their passing by the text. Acts ii. 1, 2. I perceive they observe not that the Holy Ghost came down on the Lord's-day ; let them consider that the passover was on the Sabbath-day that year, and therefore it must needs be just fifty days to that Lord's-day, and it must be the day of Pentecost.

And it is not a trifle, that the first sermon to the people was preached by Peter on that day, and three thousand converted by it, and baptized.

Dr. Heylin's own words are these, (part 2. p. 13,) * The first particular passage which did occur in Holy Scripture touching the first day of the week, is that upon that day the Holy Ghost did first come down on the apostles, and that on the same day St. Peter preached his first sermon to the Jews, and baptized such as believed, there being added to the church that day three thousand souls.' And to prove the day,he saith, p. 14, ' The rule being this, that on what day soever the second of the Passover did fall, on that also fell the great feast of Pentecost (as Scaliger de Emend. Temp. 1. 2.). So that as often as the Passover did fall on the Sabbath, as this year it did, then Pentecost fell on the Sunday.'

The last part of our objections are from history ; and it is said.

Object. * Quest. Whether the observation of the first day was not brought into this island by Antichrist, about 408 or 409 years ago ? Roger Hoveden about 1202 (above 1200 years after Christ), mentioneth a council held in Scotland for the initiation of first bringing in that which he calls the Dominical-day : See this testimony mentioned by Binius in his councils, and somewhat enlarged by Matthew Paris, the old impression fol, 192,193, and the last edition fol. 200,201 ; and how the king of England and nobility would not then receive this alteration 1 conceive that in the first centuries^

the great controversy relating to this was about translating the keeping the Passover, which they now call Easter, from the fourteenth day of the first moon, &c. (under the colour of honouring Christ,) to the first day of the week, as the Dominical-day; which the popes first set themselves with

great vehemency to introduce And as the pope obtained

his purpose for one day in the year, so by degrees in some places, came one day in a week ; the first day to be observed* and the seventh day, by one of the popes, turned from a festival to a fast; whilst many of the Eastern, and some of the Western churches did still retain with all the observation of the Seventh-day Sabbath together with the first-day,, and others of the churches in the East and West kept only to the Seventh day as the Christian's Sabbath, Sec'

Answ, How much more desirable an adversary is Heylin

.jr^^R^.

by his acquaintance with history! 1. Were any of the authors I before cited either antichristian, or 1200 years after Christ?

Ignatius, if genuine was about anno 102; if not, as Da-Iseus thinks, then he was about 300.

The canons called the apostles,* and the constitutions called the apostles,* very ancient.

Justin Martyr wrote his Apol. anno 150, about fifty years after St. John*s death; where his testimony is as plain as can be spoken. To which Pliny's, who wrote about 107, some seven years after St. John's death, may be joined, that he may be understood of the day.

Clemens Alexand. about ninety-four years after St. John, anno 194.

Tertullian who is most express, and full, and frequent, about 198, that is, ninety-eighty years after St. John.

Origen about 206 began his teaching.

Cyprian about anno 250.

Athanasius, who wrote largely of it, about anno 330.

To what purpose should I mention again Eusebius, Gregory Nazianzen, Nyssen, and all the rest. It was but about anno 309 that Constantine began his reign, who made laws for the Lord's-day ; which other Christian emperors enlarged. But how much earlier were all those synods which Eusebius mentioned, which in the determination of Easter owned the Lord's-day! And that of Nice was but about anno 327. The council of Laodicea, but about anno 314, or 320.

The council of Eliberis about anno 307, Can. 21, saith, * If any that live in the cities shall stay from the church three Lord*s-days, let him be so long suspended from the sacrament, till he be sensible of his punishment.*

After this, how many councils and how many imperial laws take care of the Lord's-days? It is tedious to cite them.

To these may be added, 1. The common agreement that is founded in the resurrection, and was from that time. 2. The early contest for keeping Easter only on that day, which you note, as being a day by all Christians received. 3. The common detestation of fasting on that day. 4. And the universal custom of not kneeling in adoration on that day : which all shew that the day was specially observed.

Athanasius saith, de Sab. et Circ. * Even as at the first it was commanded that the Sabbath should be observed in memory of the finishing of the world, so do we celebrate the Lord's-day, as the commemoration of the beginning of anew creation.' And Hom. de Sem. * The Lord transferred the Sabbath to the Lord's-day.* Though Nannius question the Hom. de semente, so do few others, and none that I know of, question that de Sab. et Circ.

Greg. Nyss. Orat. in s. Pasc. saith, * As God rested on the Sabbath from all his works which he had done in the creation, so did the only begotten Son of God rest in truth from all his works, &c.'

August. Epist. 119. * The Lord's-day was declared to Christians by the Lord's resurrection. From that time (or thence) it began to have its festivity.'

Maximus Taurinensis, saith, Hom. 3. de Pentec. 'The Lord's-day is therefore set apart, because on it our Saviour, as the rising sun, discussing the infernal darkness, did shine forth in his resurrection.'

And for fasting, Tertul. de Cor. Mil. c. 3. saith, ' We account it unlawful to fast on the Lord*s-day.' And tjiough the Montanists fasted excessively, they excepted the Lord's-day, Tertul. adv. Psych, c. 15.

Ignatius and the Apost. Const, et Can. are forecited of this.

Austin saith, Ep. 86. ' It is a great scandal to fast on the Lord's-day.' (Which the Manichees were accused of.)

The Concil. Gangr. Can. 18. saith, * If any on pretence of abstinence fast on the Lord's-day, let him be Anathema.'

The Concil. Caesar August, c. 2. is against fasting on the Lord's-day, either for the sake of any time (as Lent) or persuasion, or superstition whatsoever. So the Concil. Agath. c. 12. Concil. Aurel. 4. c. 2. And the Concil. Carth. anno 398. Can. 64. ' Let him be taken for no Catholic who purposely fasteth on the Lord's-day.'

And the prohibition of kneeling in adoration, I have opened before, ex ConciL Nic. c. 20. Concil. Trul. Epiphan. &c. To which I add Collect. Can. Johan Antioch. sub ti-tulo L. Tertul. de Cor. Mil. c. 3. (now cited) Hieronym. adv. Lucifer, cap. 4. * Per omnem Pentecosten nee de geniculis adorare, et jej unium solveres, multaque alia quR5 non Scripta sunt, rationabilis sibi observatio vindicavit.' (Yet Paul

kneeled, (Acts XX.) in that time, vide Justell. ad Can. 20. Cone. Nic.) Question, ad Orthod. inter Justin, opera qu. 115. p. 283. ' Die Dominico genua non flectere sybolum est resurrectionis, &c.' Germanus Constantinop. in Theoria Eccles. p. 149. Our not kneeling on the Lord's-day, signi-fieth our erection from our fall, by Christ's resurrection, &c. See also Basil de Spir. Sane. c. 27. Tom. 2. p. 112, 113. et Balsamon thereon, p. 1032. et Zonar. in c. 20. Cone. Nic. p. 66. See Casp. Suicerus de hisce sacr. observ. e. 6.

2. Your historical observations are utterly mistaken. The observation of the Lord's-day was in all the churches past all controvery from the beginning, while the time of Easter was in controversy, as I have proved. Why would you not name those churches in East and West, (which I never read or heard of,) yea, or that person, that was for the Seventh day alone? I am confident because you could not do it. Indeed all churches called the Seventh day alone by the old name Sabbath, while they maintained the Sabbath to be ceased; but under the name of the Lord's-day, the first was solemnly obseiTed.

3. In Hoveden and Mat. Paris, there is not a word of what you say; so much do you miscite history. There is indeed, anno 1201, (which as I remember is Hoveden's last,) the story that many authors talk of and Heylin mentioneth, of one that found a letter, pretended from heaven, upon the altar, reproving the crying sins of the times, and especially the profanation of the Lord's-day, and requiring them to keep it strictly for the time to come ; which was so far from being the imitation of the Lord's-day, that it was about 1167 years after it. And how could men pretend such a divine reproof for such a sin, if the day had not been received before ? I pray read Heylin's history against us, which will set you more right in the matter of fact. And there is no mention of any such council as you talk of, for initiation of the Lord's-day, nor any resistance of the kings, or Scots. There is nothing of all this in Hoveden or Matth. Paris.

4. But what if England had been ignorant of the Lord's-day till then (which is utterly untrue), it followeth not that they kept the Sabbath on the Seventh day; Nor would a barbarous, remote corner of the world, prejudice the testimony of all Christ's churches in every age.

5. But that you may see how greatly you mistake the case of England; read but our eldest English historian, Beda Hist. Eccles. as 1. 1. 26. he mentioneth an old church named St. Martin's, built in the Romans' time ; and, cap. 33, a church built by the ancient, faithful Romans (and by the way, I think it most probable that the Roman soldiers first brought Christianity into Britain); so he oft describeth the worship as agreeable to other churches : And 1. 2. c. 2. he begins his reproof of the Britains for not keeping Easter on the due Lord's-day, but never reproveth them for not keeping the Lord's-day itself. And though Britains and Scots had so little regard of the English bishops sent from Rome, that they awhile refused so much as to eat with them, yea, or to eat in the same inn, (cap. 4.1.2.) yet about the Lord's-day there was no controversy. Lib. 3. cap. 4. he tells you that the Scots* difference about Easter-day continued till anno 716, for want of intelligence from other churches, though Columbanus and his followers were very holy persons. And (that you may see your error) he there tells you that they did not keep Easter-day with the Jews on the fourteenth day still, as some thought, but on the Lord's-day ; but not in the right week: ' For, (saith he) they knew (as being Christians) that the Lord's resurrection which was on the first day of the week, was always to be celelDrated on the first day of the week ; but being barbarous and rustic, they had not yet learned when that same first day of the week, which is now called the Lord's-day, did come.'

Here you see that it was past controversy with them that the Lord's-day must be celebrated in memorial of Christ's resurrection ; and the Scots keep not Easter on any other week-day ; and they had not been like Christians, if they had not owned and kept the Lord's-day : only they had not skill enough in calculating the times, so as to know when the true anniversary Lord's-day came about, but kept Easter on a wrong Lord's-day.

The same he saith again in the praise of Finan, lib. 3. cap. 17. that though he kept not Easter at the due time, ' yet he did not, as some falsely think, keep it on any weekday in the fourteenth moon with the Jews; but he always kept it on the Lord's-day, from the fourteenth moon to the twentieth, because of the belief of the Lord's resurrection, which the church truly believed was on the first day of the

week fof the hope of our resurrection, and which (they believed) will fall out on the same first day of the week, which is now called the Lord's-day.'

So, cap. 25. the king and queen kept Easter on several Lord's-days, and the difference made the stir : And Wilfrid in his speech there saith the same, and the Scots kept Easter only on the Lord's-day ; (by whom the king at that time was changed.)

And, lib. 3. cap. 26. Beda saith thatTuda, (another holy follower of the Scots,) being made bishop,

' On the Lord's-days the people flocked by crowds together, either to the church, or to the monasteries, not to refresh their bodies, but to learn the word of God; and if any priest happened to come into a village, presently the inhabitants, * congregati in unum,* gathered together, took care from him to seek the word of life.'

Cap. 2. lib. 4. Theodorus's consecration on the Lord's-day is mentioned.

Lib. 4. cap. 5. In the Synod at Herudford, the first canon-is, that all keep Easter on the Lord's-day next after the fourteenth moon of the first month.

Lib. 5. cap. 22. Ceolfridus sendeth an Epistle to the king of the Picts, in which are these words, * Postquam vero Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus, Diemque nobis Dominicam, quae apud antiques una vel prima Sabbati sive Sabbatorum vocatur, gaudio suse resurrectionis fecit esse so-lennem; ita banc nunc apostolica traditio festis Paschalibus inseruit.' That is, * But when Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, and by the joy of his resurrection made the Lord's-day, which by the ancients was called one or the first of the Sabbath or Sabbaths, to be a solemn day to us; so now apostolical tradition.hath ingrafFed it into the Paschal festivals:' Where you see that the Lord's-day settled as solemn by the resurrection, he taketh for uncontroverted, but the grafting it into the Easter festivals, he ascribeth to apostolical tradition, meaning St. Peter's.

And after in the same epistle, * Qui tertia post immola-tionem suse passionis die resurgens a mortuis, banc dominicam vocari, et in ea nos annuatim Paschalia ejusdem resurrectionis voluit festa celebrare ;' that is, * Christ rising from the dead, the third day after the sacrifice of his passion, would have this called the Lord's-day, and would have us

on it to celebrate the Paschal feast of his resurrection.* The like is after again in that epistle, with this addition, that,

* We hold that our resurrection will be on the Lord's-day.' By this epistle the king of the Picts was brought to con-formity in that day, and made laws for it: And cap. 23. the Scots of Hy, who stood out so long, were brought to it by the persuasion of Egbertus. Judge now of your historical note of England.

But that you may see more of this, you may read Beda's mind that lived in England, in other of his works. On Acts XX. * In una Sabbathi cum convenissemus ad frangen-dum panem; id est, Die Dominico qui est primus a Sabbato, cum ad mysteria celebranda congregati essemus ;* that is,

* On the Lord's-day, which is the first from the Sabbath,

when we were congregated to celebrate the mysteries.'

And he thinks it called the Lord's-day, because it is the remembrance of the Lord's resurrection, or ours.

And on Luke vi. fol. 78. he saith, * The observation of the legal Sabbath, ought of itself to cease, and the natural liberty of the Sabbath to be restored, which till Moses's time was like other days. That as it is not circumcision, or the ceremonies of the law that save the church, but the faith of Abraham working by love, by which being uncircumcised he was justified ; so he calleth the second sabbath after the first, no other but the spiritual Sabbath, in which, as on other days, it is lawful to do any profitable work, for distinction from the Jewish Sabbath, in which it was not lawful to travel, to gather wood, nor to do other needful things,' Pardon his error about that word; I only cite it for the historical use.

And on Luke xxiv. 1. fol. 143. ' One of the Sabbaths, or the first of the Sabbaths, is the first day after the Sabbath, which the Christian custom hath called the Lord's-day, because of the Lord's resurrection.'

And ibid. fol. 143. ' Whence ecclesiastical custom hath obtained, that either in memory of Christ's resurrection, or for hope of ours, we pray not with bended knees, but only with faces declined towards the earth, on every Lord's-day, and all the quadragesimae.'

And in Acts ii. 1. " The Holy Ghost sent the exam

VOL. XIII. I I

pie of the ancient sign returning, did himself by his own coming most manifestly consecrate the Lord's-day.'

And on Col. ii. fol. 308. He sheweth that the Sabbath was a shadow, and Christ that made it was Lord of it, and ended it; and that to abstain from sin is now our Sabbath. See him also on Rev. i. 10 ; Heb. iv. fol. 308 ; 2 Cor. ii. fol. 176. D.

And because he was a Scot, I will add Sedulius, who lived 430. In Col. ii. fol. 91. * The Sabbath being a shadow, ceased when the body came, because the truth being present, the image is needless/ And on Heb. iv. 9. * There remaineth a rest, that is, the eternal rest which the Jewish Sabbath signified.'

See Philastrius Hseres. 8. Abundance more of this kind I might cite, but for making the book tedious to those that need it not. And so much for the history, to satisfy your objections and mistakes.

CHAPTER II.

An Answer to more Arguments for the Seventh-day-Sahhath.

Reasons. Answers.

1. * That the Lord Jesus 1. This is no controversy a-

Christ is Jehovah, Zech. xi. mong us, meaning of Christ's

13; xii.4—10: Gen. xix. 24; divine nature; and his per-

Acts ii. 25 ; compared with son in respect thereof. Psal.xvi.8,&c. The Lord our Righteousness.' (Jer.xxiii.6.)

2. * That the world was 2. Nor is this any contro-

made by Jehovah Christ, John versy, if meant of the second

i. 3. 10 ; Heb. i. 2, 3. 10; Col. person in the eternal trinity,

i. 14—17 ; Eph. iii. 9 ; Psal. nor yet incarnate, nor in the

cii. 22. 24, 25; Heb. iii. 4; flesh anointed (Christ). Rom. xi. 36; 1 Cor. viii. 6; Gen. ii. 4, &c.'

3.*TheSeventh.day-Sab 3. Though this have long

bath was instituted by Jeho been doubted in the church,

vah Christ, and kept by him, some thinking it mentioned

(Gen. ii. 2—4.) whilst man but by anticipation, yet I de-

OF THE LORD S-DAY.

483

was in innocency, before the ny it not, but believe that it fall, (Gen. iii. 6.) and before was sanctified and kept from any types.' the beginning, because the

reason of the consecration was from the beginning. But, 1. The second person is not called Christ before the fall, nor without respect to his human nature. 2. It is uncertain whether it was before the fall; because we know not whether man fell on the same day in which he was created, which is the commonest opinion, (though unproved). Whereupon Mr. G. Walker in his Treatise of the Sabbath maintaineth, that the fall and promise went before the Sabbath, and so that God's rest had respect to Christ promised, as the perfection of his works, and that the Sabbath was first founded on Christ and the promise. But because all this is unproved opinion, I incline to the objectors, and the common sense.

4.'TheSeventh-day-Sab- 4. I am of the same opi-

bath was kept by Abraham, (Gen. xxvi. 5.) by the Israelites, (Exod. V. 5.) The law for the seventh day was repeated.' (Exod. xvi.22,23.)

nion, but it is uncertain whether it was instituted actually at first. But the rest, (Exod. V. 5,) seemeth plainly to refer to no Sabbath, but to the people's neglect of their tasks, while Moses kept them in hopes of deliverance, and treated for them. And their tasks, with their desire to go into the wilderness to sacrifice, maketh it probable that Pharaoh never allowed them the Sabbath's rest.

5. ' The decalogue was 5. All true, and uncontro-spoken by Jehovah Christ, verted, with these supposi-

(Exod. XX. 1. See the Assemblies' lesser catechism on the preamble to the commands :) Because the Lord is our God, &c. Redeemer, &c. therefore we are bound to keep, &c. (Exod. xix. 3, compared with Acts vii. 38 ; Isa. Ixiii. 9; Exod. xix. 17.) The decalogue written by his finger, (Exod. xxxi. 18.) On tables of stone, (Exod. xxxii.

tions : 1. That the Father, as well as the Son, gave the decalogue : 2. That the second person was not yet incarnate, (Christ). 3. That the law was given by the ministration of angels, who it is like, are called the voice and finger of God. 4. That God our Redeemer did variously govern his kingdom, by his law and covenant in various edi-

15, 16. 19; xxxiv. 2. 28.) tions: Of which more anon, and kept by all the prophets.*

6. * The decalogue was 6. Here begineth our fun-confirmed by Jehovah,Christ, damental difference: I shall (Matt. V. 17—19; Luke xvi. first tell you what we take 17 ; Matt, xxviii. 20; John for the truth, and then con-xiv. 25 ; XV. 14 ; Rom.iii. 31; sider of what you allege a-vii. 12 ; James ii. 8.12.) New gainst it. covenant. (Heb. viii. 10 ; 1 1. We hold that every law John iii. 22. 24 ; 1 John v. 3; is the law of some one ; some 2 John v. 6; Rev. xii. 17; xiv. law-maker or sovereign pow-12; xxii. 14. 18; compared er: and therefore Christ be-with Mai. iv. 4.)' ing now the head over all

. things to the church, (Eph. i. 22, 23,) whatever law is now in being to the church, must needs be the law of Christ.

2. We hold that Christ's redeemed kingdom hath been governed by him, with variety of administrations, by various editions of his law or covenant: That, 1. Universally to mankind, viz. 1. Before his incarnation: which was ; First, to Adam, and secondly, to Noah, and to mankind in them both: 2. After his incarnation. II. Particularly to the seed of Abraham, even the Jews as a particular political society ; chosen out of the world (not as the only people or church of God on earth, but) for peculiar extraordinary mercies, as a peculiar people.

3. We believe that each of these administrations was fittest for its proper time and subject, according to the manifold wisdom of God: but yet the alterations were many and great, and all tendeth towards perfection: so that the last edition of the covenant by Christ incarnate and his Holy Spirit, much excelled all that went before, in the kingdom of the Mediator. And all these changes were made by God-Redeemer himself.

4. As it was the work of the Redeemer to be the repairer of nature, and the recoverer of man to God ; so in all the several administrations, the great laws of nature containing man's duty to God, resulting from, and manifested in our nature as related to God, and the * natura rerum* or the works of God, was still made the chief part of the Redeemer's law : so that this law of nature, whose sum is the

love of God, and of his image, is ever the primitive, un-' changeable law; and the rest are secondary, subservient laws, either positive or remedying, or both ; and no tittle of this shall ever cease, if nature cease not.

5. But yet there are temporary laws of nature, which are above temporary things; or where the nature of the thing itself is mutable, from whence the natural duty doth result. As it was a duty by the then law of nature itself; for Adam's sons and daughters to marry, increase and multiply, being made a natural benediction, and the means a natural duty. And yet now, it is incest against the law of nature, for brother and sister to marry. So it was a natural duty for Adam and Eve before the fall to love each other as innocent; but not so when they ceased to be innocent : For * cessante materia, cessat obligation

6. So also some positive commands made to Adam in innocence ceased on the fall, and sentence; (as to dress that garden.) And some positives of the first administrations of grace, did cease by the supervening of a more perfect administration. As the two symbolical or sacramental trees in the garden, were no longer such to man, when he was turned out; so no positive ordinance of grace was any longer in force, when God himself repealed it, by the introduction of a more perfect administration.

7. Accordingly we hold, that a change is now made of the sanctified day. Where note, 1. That we take not the Seventh day (no, nor one day in seven, though that be nothing to our controversy,) to be a duty by the proper law of nature, but by a positive law : 2. That the Seventh day is never called a Sabbath till Moses's time, but only a sanctified and blessed day; the word Sabbath being ever taken in Scripture for a day of ceremonial rest, as well as of spiritual rest and worship. 3. That Christ himself hath continued a Seventh day, but changed the Seventh day to the First; not as a Sabbath, that is, a day of ceremonial rest, for he hath ended all Sabbaths, as shadows of things that were to come, even of rest which remained for the people of God. (Heb. iv. 9; Col. ii. 16.) And this is it which is incumbent upon us to prove, and I think I have fully proved already. 4. That having proved the thing done (the positive law of the Seventh day changed by the Holy Ghost to

the First day), it concerneth us not much to give the reasons of God's doings: But yet this reason may secondarily be observed; That God having made the whole frame of nature very good, did thereby make it the glass in which he was to be seen by man, and the book which he would have man chiefly study, for the knowledge of his Maker and his will. But sin having introduced disorder, confusion, and a curse upon part of the creation for man's sake, God purposed at once, both to notify to man, what he had done by sin, in bringing disorder and a curse upon the creature, and blotting the book of nature which he should have chiefly used, and also that it was his good pleasure to set up a clearer glass, even Christ incarnate, in which man might see his Maker's face, in representation suitable to our need; not now as smiling upon an innocent man, nor as frowning on a guilty man, but as reconciled to redeemed man; and to write a book in which his will should be more plainly read, than in the blotted book of nature: yea, in which he that in the creature appeared most eminently in power, might now appear most eminently in love, even redeeming, reconciling, adopting, justifying, saving love. So that, though God did not change the day, till the person of the incarnate Mediator, with his perfect last edition of the covenant, was exhibited and set up as this clearer glass and book, yet then as the seasonable time of reformation (Heb. ix. 10, 11.) he did it. To teach man that though still he must honour God as the Creator, and know him in the glass and book of the creature, yet that must be now but his secondary study; for he must primarily study God in Christ; where he is revealed in love, even most conspicuous, wondrous love.

And how suitable this is to man after sin, and curse, and wrath, may thus evidently appear.

1. We were so dead in sin, and utterly deprived of the spiritual life, that the book of the creatures was not a sufficient means of our reviving: but as we must have the QUICKENING SPIRIT of Jesus the Mediator, so we must have a suitable means for that Spirit to work by; which that the cursed, mortified creature is not, appeareth in the experience of the case of heathens.

2. We were so dark, in sin, that the creature was not a

sufficient means of our illumination: but as we must have the ILLUMINATING SPIRIT of Jesus, so we must have a glass and a book that was suited to that illuminating work.

3. We are so alienated from God, by enmity and malignity, and loss of LOVE, that as it must be the Spirit of Jesus which must regenerate us unto LOVE, so it must be a clearer demonstration of LOVE than the creature maketh in its cursed state, which must be the fit means for the Spirit to work by in the restitution of our LOVE.

Where further note, 1. That LOVE is holiness and-happiness itself; and the operations of Divine love are his perfective operations, and so fit for the last perfective act. 2. That man had many ways fallen from LOVE: as he had actually and habitually turned away his own heart from God; and as he had fallen under God*s wrath, and so lost those fullest emanations of God's love, which should cherish his own love to God ; and as he had forfeited the assistance of the Spirit which should repair it; and as he was fallen in love with the accursed creature, and lastly, as he was under the curse or threatening himself, and the penalties begun; it being impossible to human nature, to love a God who we think will damn us, and feel doth punish us in order thereunto. So that nothing could be more to lapsed man, or more perfective of the appearance and operations of God, than this demonstration of reconciling saving love, in our incarnate, crucified, raised, glorified, interceding Redeemer. All which sheweth that God's removal of the sanctified day from the seventh to the first day of the week, and his preferring the commemoration of redemption, and our use of the glass and book of an incarnate Saviour before that of the now accursed creature, is a work of the admirable wisdom of God, and exceeding suitable to the nature of the things.

II. Now I come to consider of what you say against all this. You cite the numbers of many chapters and verses (contrary to your grand principles, these divisions being human inventions); in all which there is nothing about the controversy in hand. The texts speak not of the decalogue only, but of the law, and of God's commandments, and of Christ's commandments. Now I must tell you beforehand, that I will take no man's word for the word of God, nor believe any thing that you say, God speaketh, without

proof. Prove it, or it goeth for nothing with me. For as I know that adding to God's word is cursed, (Rev. xxii. 18.) as well as taking away ; so if I must once come to believe that God saith this or that without proof, I shall never know whom to believe ; for twenty men may tell me twenty several tales, and say that God saith them all.

I expect your proof then of one of these two assertions, (for which it is that you hold, no man can gather by your own words, or citations). 1. That all the law which was in being at Christ's incarnation, was confirmed or continued by him (which yet I do not imagine you to hold, because all Paul's epistles, and especially the epistle to the Hebrews, do so fully plead against it). 2. Or else that by the law in all those texts is meant all the decalogue, and the decalogue alone.

The texts cited by you prove no more than what we hold as confidently as you: viz. 1. That all the law of nature, (where the matter or nature of the things continue) is continued by Christ, and is his principal law. 2. That the decalogue, as to the matter of it, is continued as it is the law of nature (which is almost all that is in it), but not as the Jewish law given by Moses's hands to that political body. 3. That the natural part of all the rest of Moses's law is continued as well as the decalogue. 4. That all Moses's law, as well as the decalogue, shall be fulfilled, and heaven and earth shall sooner pass away, than one jot or tittle of it shall pass till it be fulfilled. 5. That the elements, shadows, predictions, preparations, &c. are all fulfilled by the coming of Christ, and by a more perfect administration. For Christ fulfilled all righteousness; (Matt. iii. 15;) ^iKaio(n>vrjv is sometimes but materially for SiAcawJ/iara. 6. That a change may be two ways made, 1. By destroying a thing. 2. By perfecting it. And that by the law in Matt, v. 17, &c. Christ meaneth, the whole body of God's law then in force to the Jews, considered as one frame, consisting of natutal and positive parts. Of which he saith, that he came not Kara-\v<jai Tov vojuov, to dissolve, pull in pieces or destroy the law, as a licentious teacher, that would take off God's obligations, and leave the wills and lusts of men to a lawless liberty (which was it that the Pharisees imputed to such as were against the law) : but that he came to bring in a greater strictness, a righteousness not only exceeding that of his

accusers, (ver. 20,) but instead of destroying it, to perfect the law itself, that is, to bring in a perfecter administration and edition of the law. So that as generation turneth * semen in suppositum,' and so doth do away the seed, not by destroying it, but by changing it into a perfecter being; and as Paul saith, (1 Cor. xiii. 16—18,) "When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away : When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood (or was affected) as a child, I thought (or reasoned) as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things, &c." not that the child or his knowledge is destroyed, but perfected and changed into better; and yet many acts of his childish reasonings may cease; and as he that would repair the temple to a greater glory, may take away the brass, and put gold instead of it, and so not change one pin of the temple by a destructive change, but by a perfective change, which (to the frame) is to edify and not destroy ; even so Christ professeth that he came not to gratify the lusts of men, nor to destroy the law in the smallest point. But, 1. Himself to fulfil it in the very letter. And, 2. To accomplish the shadows, predictions, and types, by coming himself as the truth and end, which when they had attained, they were fulfilled; And, 3. By a more perfect edition and spiritual administration, advancing the law to a higher degree of excellency; by which not the law is said to be put away, or destroyed, but the imperfections or weaknesses of it to be done away. Not but that all God's laws are perfect as to the time and subject which they are fitted to; but not in comparison of the future time, and degrees to be added. It is a better Testament that Christ bringeth in; (Heb. vii. 22 ; viii. 6 ;) established on better promises, and procured by better sacrifice, and bringing a better hope, (Heb. viii. 6 ; vii. 19,) and " better things that are provided for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.'*^ (Heb. xi. 40.) So that when Moses's law is considered as such, in that imperfect state, it is essentially or formally all done away ; but not materially, for it is done away but by changing it into a better Testament and more perfect administration, which retaineth all that is natural in it, and addeth better positives suited to riper times.

So that the law as denominated from the nobler natural part, as signifying the whole law or system of precepts, then

in force, is not destroyed, but perfected : but the law, as called Jewish, delivered by Moses, to that republic, as such, though part of the said system, yet is the imperfect part, and is taken down, and is now no law, though it be not destroyed, but fulfilled, and turned into a more perfect testament and administration.

Now that by the law and commandments I am not to understand the decalogue only, in any of your cited texts, I thus prove.

1. From the notation of the name. The word law in its usual proper sense, doth signify the whole, or other parts as well as that; and not that one part only. Therefore I must so take it, till you prove that in any text it hath a limited sense. Else I shall turn God's universal or indefinite terms into particular, and pervert his word, by limiting by my own invention where God hath not limited.

2. Because the common sense in which the Jews (against whom Christ spake,) did take the word laxo, was not for the decalogue only, but for the pentateuch, or all Moses's law. And if Christ speak to them, he is to be supposed to speak intelligibly, and therefore in their sense.

3. Because Christ in this very chapter. Matt. v. extend-eth the sense further than the decalogue: as, verse 17, he adjoins the prophets equally with the law, which he came not to destroy. And thus he speaketh as the Jews, who distributed the Old Testament into the law and prophets, when by the law they meant the pentateuch. Now it is certain that all the prophecies that say. The Messiah is not yet come, but shall come, and be incarnate, and that shew the time and manner, &c. are not now true, * de futuro,' as they then spake ; and yet they are not destroyed but fulfilled, and so cease as prophecies of things yet future. And so it is with the positives of Moses's law. 2. Verse 18, he saith tiniversally, ' Till all be fulfilled,' and not the decalogue only. 3. Verse 19, he extendeth it to the least command. 4. Verse 20, he extendeth it to all the Pharisees' righteousness, which was righteousness indeed. 5. Verse 21, ' Whosoever shall 'kill, shall be in danger of the judgment,* hath the political penalty in it, above the bare sixth commandment. 6. Verse 31, ' Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement,' is not the bare seventh commandment, but fetched from Deut. xxiv. 1. And this instance it-

self expoundeth, ver. 17,18. For when Christ had protested against destroying an iota or tittle of the law, yet he changeth this very law now cited by himself, so far as it indulgeth putting away; so that it is hence evident that he meaneth not that he came not to make a perfective change, but that he came not to indulge licentiousness and lust, by a destructive change. (Luke xvi. 18 ; 1 Cor. vii. 10 ; Matt. xix. 9.) So, 7. Verse 33, " Thou shalt not forswear thyself," &c. 8. Verse 38, " An eye for an eye,'^* &c. is fetched from Exod. xxi. 24; Lev. xxiv. 20 ; Deut. xix. 21 ; and not from the decalogue alone. 9. So, verse 43, is from Lev. xix. 18. and other places.

4. Because in all Paul's epistles, and commonly in all the New Testament, the word law is ordinarily, if not always taken more extensively than the decalogue: therefore to expound it for the decalogue only, is to contradict the constant use of the Scripture, under pretence of expounding the Scripture.

If then by the law, be meant either the whole system of God's laws, natural and positive, or all Moses's law, or the pentateuch, then I may thus argue. It is most certain that much of this law of Moses is ceased or abrogated. Therefore it is certain, that it was none of Christ's meaning that he would abrogate none of that law which he speaketh of, nor change it for a better.

That all and every word of the decalogue is not of the durable law of nature, I shall prove anon.

1. That by the word law the Scripture meaneth more than the mere decalogue, these texts among others prove, Exod. xiii.9; xxiv. 12; Deut. i. 5; iv. 8; xvii. 18, 19; xxviii. 61 ; xxix. 29; xxxi. 9 5 2 Kings xvii. 37 ; xxiii. 24, 25 ; 2 Chron. xxxi. 21; xxxiii. 18 ; xxxiv. 10; Ezra vii. 6; xiv. 26; X. 3; Neh. viii. 2. 7,8. 13,14; x. 29; xiii.3; MaL ii. 1—9; iv. 4; Matt.xi. 13; xii. 5; xxvi.36. 40; xxiii. 23; Luke ii. 22. 27; Johni. 17. 45; vii. 19. 23.51 ; viii. 5; x. 34 ; xii. 34 ; xv. 25; Acts vi. 13 ; xiii. 15. 39 ; xv. 5. 24 ; xxi. 20. 28; xxii. 3. 12; xxiii. 3. 29 ; xxviii. 23 ; Rom. ii. 12—14. 17, 18.20.23; iii. 19—21.28.31; iv. 13-^16; v. 13; vii. 1—6, &c. and so to the end of the New Testament, which I need not further number.

7. • That the Seventh-day 7. 1. So Christ was cir-

Sabbath. was kept by the cumcised, and joined in the Lord Jehovah Christ during synagogue-worship, and held

his life, Mark i. 21; vi. 2; communion with the Jewish Luke iv. 31; vi. 6; i. 5; xiii. church, and priesthood, and 10; Matt. xii. 1.9; xiii. 1,2; observed all the law of Mo-and constantly, Luke iv. 16, ses, never violating any part; 17. See Christ's counsel, for he was " made under the which was to come to pass law to redeem them that were above forty years after his underthelaw."(Gal. iv. 4,5.) death. Matt. xxiv. 20. Do you think that all this is

established for us ? 2. And his counsel (Matt. xxiv. 20.) had respect to the Jews* misery and not to their duty. He therefore foretelleth their destruction because they would reject him and his law, in a perverse zeal for Moses's law; and therefore intimateth that even Moses should condemn them, and their misery should be increased by their zeal for their law ; for their city was taken on the Sabbath-day, which increased their calamity, who scrupled on that day to fight or fly. And can you think Christ approved of that opinion, who had so oft before condemned the like, about their over rigid sabbatizing ? Or as Dr. Hammond thinks, it is more like to be spoken of a Sabbath-year, when the war and famine would come together. However it be, it only supposeth their adherence to their law and Sabbath, but justifieth it not at all: though yet the total and full abrogation of the Jewish law, was not fully declared, till, at that time of the destruction of their city and temple, their policy more fully ceased.

8. That after Jehovah had 8. You again add to the

finished the work of redemp- word of God : It is not said tion, (John xix. 30,) his body that, he had finished the rested in the grave, (Matt, work of redemption, but only xxvii. 66,) and himself in " It is finished," which seem-heaven, (Luke iii. 42, 43,) as eth to mean but that, 1. This he rested when he ended the was the last act of his life, in work of creation. (Gen. ii. which he was actively to ful-2, 4.) fil the law, and offer himself

a sacrifice for man: 2. And in which all the law and prophets were fulfilled, which foretold this sacrifice. For that it is not meant of the whole work of redemption as finished, when he spoke those words, is evident, 1. Because after those words he was to die; 2. Because his state in death, and his burial, were part of his humiliation, as' is implied, 1 Cor. xv. 4; John xii. 7;

Rom. vi. 4 ; Col. ii. 12 ; Isa. liii. 9 ; 1 Cor. xv. 15 ; Acts ii. 24; 1 Cor. XV. 26; Phil.iii.lO; 2 Tim. i. 10; Heb. ii. 14,15. 3. Because his resurrection was his victorious act, and a part of the work of man's redemption; 4. And so is his intercession. For redemption is larger than humiliation or sacrifice for sin. As, Exod. vi. 6; Luke xxiv. 21; Rom. iii. 24; viii. 23 ; 1 Cor. i. 30; Eph. i. 14; Luke xxi. 28. It is the resurrection by which we are made righteous, and receive our hope of life, and victory over death and Satan. {Rom. i. 4; Phil. iii. 10, 11; 1 Peter i. 3 ; iii. 21; Rom. iv. 25.)

2. The clean contrary therefore to your collection is true: viz. That God did indeed end the work of his creation on the sixth day, and rested in it, as finished on the seventh. But Christ was so far from ending his on the sixth, and resting in it on the seventh, that on that day, above all other, he seemed conquered by men, and by him that had the power of death, (Heb. ii. 14.) and was held as captive by the grave, so that his disciples' hopes did seem dead with him, (Luke xxiv. 21.) This state of death being not the least, if not the lowest part of his humiliation: Whence came the church's article that he descended into Hades. 3. I did more probably before prove from Christ's own words, compared with his burial, a casting down of the Seventh-day Sabbath, thus : That day on which the disciples are to fast, is not to be kept as a Sabbath, (for that is a day of thanksgiving.) But on the day of Christ's burial, the disciples were to fast (that is, to walk heavily): which appeareth from Mark ii. 20. When the Bridegroom is taken from them, then they shall fast. Now though this meant not to command any one day for fasting, much less the whole time of his bodily absence, yet both the sense of the words themselves, and the interpretation of the event, tells us, that as there was no day in which he was so sadly taken from them as that Sabbath-day, which almost broke their hearts and hopes (for the next day he was restored to them). So there was no day in which they were so dejected, and unlike to the celebraters of a Gospel-day of joy, or Sabbath. Do you call the day of Satan's power and triumph, and of the disciples' greatest fear and grief that ever befell them, the celebration of a Sabbath rest? It had indeed somewhat like an outward rest, but so as seemed plainly to bury in his grave

the seventh-day ceremonial Sabbath. And from the reasons now pleaded it was, that the Western churches kept the seventh-day as a fast.

9. ' Whilst the Lord Jeho 9. They did indeed keep

vah Christ rested, private the Jewish Sabbath, till believers rested according to Christ's resurrection, and the the commandment.' (Luke coming down of the Holy xxiii. 55, 56 ; Mark xv. 42; Ghost: And so they did the xvi. 1, compared.) rest of the Jewish law. For

they yet knew not that it was abrogated ; but must we do so too ? You may as well argue from their keeping the Sabbath before Christ's death, as on that day when he was dead. The change of the day was made by degrees, by three several acts or means. 1. The resurrection of Christ, was the founding act, which gave^the cause of changing it; like God's finishing his works of creation at first. 2. The inspiration of the Holy Ghost in the apostles doth teach them, and bring all things to their remembrance which Christ commanded, and was the authorising means of the change; and the apostles' actual settlement thereupon was the promulgation. 3. The gradual notification by the preachers to the churches, and finally the destruction of the Jewish polity, and temple, and priesthood, were the fuller proclamation of it, and the way of bringing the change that was made by command into fuller execution. 10. ' The Seventh-day 10. But withal, in this

Sabbath was observed by the time they established the apostles after the resurrec- Lord's-day,assoonas(onthat tion and ascension. Acts xiii. day) the Holy Ghost came 14—-16. 42.44 ; xvi. 13, 14, down upon them, and constantly. Acts xvii.2; 2. So all that while they

(the same Greek phrase with kept other parts of the Jewish that, Luke xiv. 16, for Christ's law: They scrupled, yea re-constantkeeping the Seventh- fused awhile, communion day-Sabbath as before,) Acts with the Gentiles, as Acts x. xviii. 1. 4, &c. shews. They so carried it to

the Jews, that Paul made it his defence, that he ** had not offended any thing at all, either against the laws of the Jews, or against the temple." (Acts XXV. 8.) And when he circumcised Timothy, purified himself, shaved his head, for his vow, &c. Do you think that all these are duties to believers ?

3. None of the texts cited by you do prove, that the apostles kept the Sabbath at all as a Sabbath, that is, a day on which it was their duty to rest; but only that they preached on that day in the synagogues, and to the people; for when should they preach, but when they were congregated, and capable of hearing ? They took it for no sin to preach on the Sabbath, no more than I would do to preach Christ on Friday, which is their Sabbath, to the Turks, if they would hear me. But sabbatizing according to the law, was something else than preaching.

4. And it is most evident that for a long time the Christian Jews did still keep the law of Moses ; and that all that the apostles did against it then, was, but 1. To declare that Christ was the end of the law, and so to declare the keeping of it to be unnecessary to salvation, but not unlawful, laying by the opinion of necessity. 2. That the Gentile Christians should not be brought to use it, because it was unnecessary; for the apostles, (Acts xv,) do not forbid it to the Jews, but only to the Gentiles (who were never under it). Therefore the apostles who lived among the Jews no doubt did so far comply with them to win them, as to keep the law externally, though not as a necessary thing, that is, not as a law in force obliging them, but as a thing yet lawful, to further the Gospel. And therefore no wonder if Peter went so far as to withdraw from the Gentiles, when the Jews were present ; when even Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, who speaketh so much more than all the rest against the law, doth yet as aforesaid circumcise Timothy, shave his head, purify himself, &c. and as he became all things to all men, so to the Jews he became a Jew. But when the Jews' policy and temple ceased, the change was executively yet further made, and the Jewish Christians themselves were weaned from their law. Tn the meantime Paul and John (Rev. ii. iii.) do openly rebuke the Judaizing heretics, the Ebionites, and Cerinthians, and Nicolaitans, and shew the perniciousness of their conceits.

11. * The Holy Spirit 11. Though it be not true

calls the seventh-day (and that the seventh is called the

no other day) the Sabbath, Sabbath ; (Gen. ii ;) and

throughout the Scriptures, though others deny the suffi-

before and after the death, ciency of your enumeration,

resurrection and ascension yet I grant your assertion as

of the Lord Jehovah Christ; true. And therefore am sa-Gen. ii. 2—4; Exod. xx. 10, tisfied that it is the seventh &c.; Acts xiii. 14—16. 42. day which is put down, when 44; xvi.13,14; xvii.2; xviii. Sabbatizing was put down; 1. 4.* and that it could be none but

the seventh-day which Paul meant; " Let no man judge you in meats, &c. and Sabbaths, which were shadows of things to come;" Col. ii. 16. For the first-day is never called a Sabbath, as you truly say; therefore it was not put down with the Sabbath. See Dr. Young's Dies Dom. on Col. ii. 16.

12. 'The Seventh-day 12. This is all granted.

Sabbath was profaned by the Sacrificing also was then pro-church heretofore and re- faned and reformed, and pol-formed; Neh. x. 28,29.31. luted and destroyed by An-xiii.15.17,18.22. See Belg. tiochus ; and yet we are not Annot. on Dan. vii. 25, &c.; still under the obligation of as prophesied who would sacrificing. We are not un-change it.' der the law, but under grace.

CHAPTER IIL

Whether the Seventh-day-Sabbath be part of the Law of Na^ ture, or only a Positive Law ?

It is but few that I have any controversy with on this point: but yet one there is, who objecteth and argueth as foUoweth. God hath put this into nature: (Exod. xx. 10 :) Thy stranger. (Deut. v. 14.) The three first chapters of Romans; particularly chap. ii. 14, 15. 26, 27. iii. 9. 21. 1 Cor. xi. 14. Nature hath its teachings. The human nature in the first Adam was made and framed to the perfection of the ten words; some notions whereof are still retained, even in the corrupt state of fallen man. (Gen. i. 26, 27. Eccles. vii. 29 ; Ephes. iv. 20 ; Col. iii. 10.) The law of the Seventh-day-Sabbath was given before the ten words were proclaimed at Sinai; (Exod. xvi. 23 ;) even from the creation : (Gen. ii. 2, 3 :) given to Adam in respect of his human nature, and in him to all the world of human creatures. (Gen. i. 14; Psal. civ. 19 ; Lev. x. 23; Numb, xxviii. 2. 9, 10.) It is the same word in the original. Set times of Divine appointment for

solemn assembling, and for God's instituted service, are directed to, and pointed at, by those great lights which the Creator hath set up in the heavens. (Psal. xix. with Rom. X. 4—8. 18—20 ; Deut. xxx. 10.15; John i. 9.) Every man hath a light and law of nature which he carrieth about him, and is born and bred together with him. These seeds of truth and light, though they will not justify in the sight of God, and bring a soul throughly and safely home to glory ; (Rom. i. 20;) yet there are even since Adam's fall, these relics and dark letters of this holy law of the ten words, to preserve the memory of our first created dignity, and for some other ends, though those seeds are utterly corrupted now. (Titus i. 15.) Natural reason will tell men, that seeing all men in all nations do measure their time by weeks, and their weeks by seven days, they should (besides what of their timej they offer up as due to God every day) give one whole day of every week to their Maker, who hath allowed them so liberal a portion of time, wherein to provide for themselves and their families. There being no other portion of time that can so well provide for the necessities of families, as six days of every week, and that is so well fitted to all functions, callings and employments. And the light of nature (when cleared up) will tell men, that all labour and motion being in order to rest, and rest being the perfection and end of labour, into which labour, work and motion doth pass, that therefore the seventh day, which is the last day in every week, is the most fit and proper day for a religious rest unto the Creator, for his worship. (Gen. ii. 1, &c.; Exod. XX. 9; Deut. v. 13, 14; Heb. iv. 1. 11; Exod. xxxi. 17; Rom. xiv. 13; Exod. xxiii. 12 ; xxxiv. 21.)

Answ, How far a day is of natural due, I have shewed before. In all the words of this reason (which I set down as I received them) there is much which is no matter of controversy between us ; as that there is a light, and law of nature (which few men doubt of, who are worthy to be called men); and that by this law of nature God should be solemnly worshipped, and that at a set or separated time. I hope the reader will not expect that I weary him with examining the texts which prove this, before it is denied. But the thing denied by us is, that the Seventh-day-Sabbath, as the seventh, is of natural obligation. The proofs which are brought for

VOL. Xlll. K K

this I must examine : for indeed this is the very hinge of all our controversies ; for if this be once proved, we shall easily confess that it is not abrogated; for Christ came not to abrogate any of the law of nature, though as 1 have said, such particles of it may cease, whose matter ceaseth, by a change in nature itself.

The first proof is Exod. xx. 10. The stranger. To which I answer. Our question is not, whether the Sabbath was to be rested on by strangers that are among the Jews, but, whether it was part of the law of nature ? If it be intended that ' whatever such strangers were bound to, was of the law of nature: but strangers were bound to keep the Sabbath. Ergo.' I deny the major, which they offer not to prove. And I do more than deny it: I disprove it by the instances of Exod. xii. 19. Was eating leavened bread, forbidden by the law of nature ? " One law shall be to him that is home-born, and to the stranger that sojourneth among you.' (ver. 48, 49.) Circumcision was not of the law of nature. (Lev. xvi. 29.) Resting from all work on the tenth day of the seventh month, was not of the law of nature, though made also the stranger's duty. So eating blood, and that which dieth, or was torn.. (Lev. xvii. 12. 15. So Lev. xxv. 6; Numb. XV. 14—16. 26. 29 ; xix. 10 ; xxxv. 15 ; Deut. xxxi. 12 ; Josh. viii. 33-^25 ; xx. 9, &c.)

The next pretended proof is Rom. ii. 11, &c.; where there is not one syllable mentioning the decalogue as such, but only in general, the law, so far as it was written in the Gentiles' hearts. But where is it proved that the law or the decalogue, are words of the same signification or extent; any more than the whole and a part are ? Or where is it proved that none of the rest of the law is written in nature, but the decalogue only ? Or else that every word in the decalogue itself is part of the law of nature, (which is the question). I shall prove the contrary anon: in the meantime the bare numbering of chapters and verses is no proof.

3. It is next said, ' that Adam was made and framed to the perfection of the ten words.* Amw, Adam was made in the image of God, before the ten words were given in stone : but so much of them as is the law of nature, and had matter existent in Adam's days, no doubt, was a law to him as well as it is to us. But that is nothing to the question, Whether all things in the ten words are of natural obligation ?

4. It is said, 'That the law of the Seventh-day-Sabbath was given before the ten words were proclaimed in Sinai/

Answ. So was circumcision; and so was sacrificing; yea, so was the law about the dressing of the garden of Eden, and about the eating or not eating of the fruit thereof, even in innocency; which yet were no parts of nature's law, but positives, which now cease.

5. It is said, ' That it was given to Adam in respect of his human nature, and in him to all the world of human creatures/

Answ. So was the covenant of works, or innocency, which yet is at an end. But what respect is it (to his human nature) that you mean ? If you suppose this position, * Whatever law is given with respect to human nature, and to all men, is of natural and perpetual obligation,' I deny it. The law of sacrifices and oblations was given with respect to human nature, that is, in order to its reparation, and it was given to mankind, and yet not of natural, perpetual obligation. The law of distinguishing clean beasts from unclean, and the law against eating blood, were given to Noah, and to all mankind, with respect to human nature, (Gen. viii. 20 ; ix. 4,) and yet not wholly of nature or perpetual obligation. All common laws have some respect to human nature. But if your meaning be, that this law was given in and with the nature of man himself, or that it is founded in, and probably by the very essentials of man's nature, or any thing permanent, either in the nature of man, or the nature of the world, I still deny it, and call for your proof. Positives may have respect to human nature as obliged by them ; and yet not be written in human nature, nor provable by any mere natural evidence.

6. It is said, * Set times of Divine appointment for solemn assemblies, &c. are directed by the great lights, &c.' (Psal. xix ; Rom. x, &c.) Answ, But the question is not of set times in general (that some there be), but of this set time, the Seventh day in particular. It will be long before you can fetch any cogent evidence from the lights of heaven for it. Nor do any of the texts cited mention any such thing, or any thing that can tempt a man into such an opinion. It must be the Divine appointment and institution (which you mention) that must prove our obligation to a particular day, and not any nature within us or without us.

7. The only appearance of a proof is at the end, that * time being measured by weeks, and the end of the weeks being fitted for rest, therefore nature points us to the last day.'

Answ. But, 1. You do not at all prove, that nature teaeheth all men to measure their time by weeks. 2. Nor is your philosophy true, that all motion is in order to rest. Indeed all labour is, that is, all the motion of any creature which is out of its proper place, and moveth towards it. But if you will call the actioa of active natures, such as our souls are, by the name of spiritual motion, or metaphysical motion, as many do, then no doubt but cessation is as contrary to their nature, as corporal motion is to the nature of a stone: and the rest, that is, the perfection, pleasure, and felicity of spirits, consisteth in their greatest activity in good; " They rest not saying, Holy, Holy, &c." 3. You transfer the case from a day of worship to a day of rest. And so make your cause worse: because nature saith much for one stated day of worship ; but not for one stated day of rest from labour, further than the worship itself must have a vacancy from other things. For reason can prove no necessity to human nature of resting a whole day, any more than for a due proportion of rest unto labour every day. The rest of one hour in seven, is as much as the rest of one day in seven. Or if some more additional conveniences may be found for days than hours, there being no convenience without its inconvenience, this will but shew us, that the law is well made when it is made, but not prove a ' priori' that there is or must be such an universal law. As you can never prove, that nature teaches men the distribution of time by weeks, (1.) It being a thing of tradition, custom and consent. (2.) And no man naturally knoweth it, till others tell him of it. (3.) And many nations do not so measure their time. (4.) And no man can bring a natural reason to prove that it must be so, which they might do if it were a law of natural reason ;) so also that every family, or country at least, should not have leave to vary their days of rest, according to diversity of riches and poverty, health and sickness, youth and age, peace and war, and other such cases, you cannot prove necessary by nature alone, though you may prove it well done when it is done. 4. You cannot prove the last day more necessary for rest, than the first, or any other. For there are few countries, where wars, or

some other necessities, have not constrained them sometimes to violate the Sabbath's rest; which, when they have done, it is as many days from the third day to the third, as from the seventh to the seventh. 5. If time were naturally measured by weeks, yet itfolloweth not, that rest must be so : some countries are strong and can labour longer, and others tender and weak, and can labour less. 6. And seeing that the reason of a day for worshipping-assemblies is greater and more noble than the reason of a day for bodily rest, nature will rather tell us, that God should have the first day, than the last; * a Jove principium :* a God was to have the first-born, the first-fruits, &c. 7. If we might frame laws for Divine worship by such conceits of convenience, as this is of the last day in seven as fittest for rest, and call them all the laws of nature, what a multitude of additions would be made, and of how great diversity ? whilst every man's conceit went for reason, and reason for nature, and so we should have as many laws of nature, as there are diversities of conceits. And yet that there is such a thing as a law of nature in which all reason should agree, we doubt not. But having in vain expected your proof, that the Seventh-day Sabbath is the law of nature, or of universal obligation, I shall briefly prove the negative (that it is not).

1. That which is of natural obligation may be proved by natural reason (that is, by reason arguing from the nature of the thing) to be a duty. But that the Seventh day must be kept holy as a Sabbath, cannot be proved from the nature of the thing. Therefore it is not of natural obligation. He that will deny the minor, let him instance in his natural proof.

2. That is not an universal law of nature, which learned, godly men, and the greatest number of these, yea, almost all the world, know no such thing by, and confess they cannot prove by nature. But such is the Seventh-day-Sab-bath,—&c. It is not I alone that know nothing of any such law, nor am able by any natural evidence to prove it, but also all the divines and other Christians that I am or ever was acquainted with: nay, I never knew one man that could say, that he either had such a law in his own nature, (unless some one did take his conceit for a law,) nor that he could shew such a law * in natura rerum.* And it is a strange law of nature, which is to be found in no one's nature, but per-

haps twenty men's, or very few in a whole age; nor is discerned by all the rest of the world. If you say, that few understand nature, or improve their reason: I answer, 1, If it be such a law of nature as is obliterated in almost all mankind, it is a very great argument that nature being changed, the law is changed. How can that oblige which cannot be known ? 2. Are not we men as well as you ? Have not several ages had as great improvers of nature as you ? If grace must be the improver, are there, or have there been none as gracious ? If learning must be the improver, have there been none as learned? If diligence or impartiality must be the improvers of nature, have there not been many as diligent, studious and impartial as yourselves? Let all rational men judge which of these is the better argument, * I and twenty men more in the world do discern in nature an universal obligation on mankind to keep the Seventh-day-Sabbath : therefore it is the law of nature.' Or, ^ The world of mankind, godly and ungodly, learned and unlearned, discern no such natural obligation, except you, and the few of your mind: therefore it is no law of nature.'

3. That is not like to be an universal law of nature, which no man since the creation can be proved to have known and received, as such, by mere natural reason, without tradition. But no man since the creation can be proved to have known and received the Seventh-day-Sabbath by mere natural reason, without tradition ; therefore it is not like to be an universal law of nature. If you know any man, name him and prove it; for I never read or heard of such a man.

4. If the text mention it only as a positive institution, then it is not to be accounted a law of nature. But the

text mentioneth it only as a positive institution As is

plain. Gen ii. 3. " God blessed the Seventh-day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work, &c." If it had been a law of nature, it had been made in nature, and the making of nature would have been the making of the law. But here are two reasons against that in the text.

1. Blessing and sanctifying are positive acts of supernatural institution, superadded to the works of nature : they are not Divine creating acts, but Divine instituting 2icts,

2. That which is blessed and sanctified, " Because God rested in it from all his works," is not blessed and sanctified merely by those works or that rest; and if neither the works of nature, nor the rest of God from those works did sanctify it, then it is not of natural sanctification, and so not of natural obligation.

5. If the very reason of the day be not of natural, but of supernatural revelation, then the sanctification of the day is not of natural but supernatural revelation and obligation. But the former is certain. For no man breathing ever did or can prove by nature, without supernatural revelation, that God made and finished his works in six days, and rested the seventh. Aristotle had been like to have escaped his opinion of the world's Eternity, if he could have found out this by nature.

6. The distinction of weeks is not known by nature, to be any necessary measure of our time; therefore, much less that the seventh day of the week must be a Sabbath. The antecedent is sufficiently proved, in that no man can give a cogent reason for the necessity of such measure. And because it hath been unknown to a great part of the world. The Peruvians:, Mexicans, and many such others knew not the measure of weeks. And Heylin noteth out of Jos. Sca-liger de Emend. Temp. lib. 3, and 4, and Rossinus Antiq. and Dion, that neither the Chaldees, the Persians, Greeks, nor Romans, did of old observe weeks ; and that the Romans measured their time by eights, as the Jews did by sevens ; Hist. Sab. part 1. chap. iv. p. 83, 84 ; and p. 78, he citeth Dr. Bound's own words, p. 65. ed. 2. confessing the like, citing Beroaldus for it, as to the Roman custom. Yea, he asserteth, that till near the time of Dionys. Exig. anno 500, they divided not their time into weeks as now. In which he must needs except the Christians, and consequently, the ruling powers since Constantine. And if they were so unsettled through the world in their measure by months, as bishop Usher at large openeth in his Dissert, de Macedonum et Asianorum anno solari, (see especially his Ephemeris in the end, where all the days of each month are named without weeks,) the other will be no wonder.

I conclude therefore, 1. That one day in seven, rather than in six or eight, may by reason be discerned to be con-

venient when God hath so instituted it: But cannot by nature be known to be of natural universal obligation.

2. That this one day should be the seventh, no light of nature doth discover: Therefore Dr. Bound, Dr. Ames, and the generality of the defenders of one day in seven against the Anti-sabbatarians, do unanimously assert it to be of supernatural institution, and not any part ef the law of nature : though stated days at a convenient distance is of the law of nature.

CHAPTER IV.

Whether every Word in the Decalogue be of the Law of Nature, and of perpetual Obligation ? And whether all that was of ^ the Law of Nature, was in the Decalogue ?

But the great argument to prove it the law of nature is, because it was part of the ten words written in stone. To which I say, that the decalogue is an excellent summary of the generals of the law of nature, as to the ends for which it was given ; but that,

I. It hath more in it than the law of nature.

II. It hath less in it than the law of nature: And therefore was never intended for a mere or perfect transcript of the law of nature : But for a perfect general summary of so much of that law as God thought meet to give the Jews bv supernatural revelation, containing the chief heads of nature's law (lest the}^ should not be clear enough in nature itself) with the addition of something more.

1. That the decalogue written in stone hath more than the law of nature, is proved i. By these instances ; 1. That " God brought them out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of servants," and that he is to be worshipped in that relation, is none of the law of nature, universally so called.

2. That God is merciful (and therefore reconciled) to a thousand generations of them them that love him notwithstanding man's natural state of sin and misery, and all men's actual sin, this is of supernatural grace, and not the law of mere nature.

3. The great difference between the ways of justice and mercy, expressed by the third and fourth generation, compared to thousands, is more than the mere law of nature.

4. Those divines who take all God's positive institutions of worship, to be contained in the affirmative part of the second commandment, must needs think that it containeth more than the law of nature. (Though I say not as they ; but only that as a general law, it obligeth us to perform them, when another law hath instituted them.)

5. To rest one day in seven, is more than the law of nature.

6. To rest the seventh day rather thar^the sixth, or first, is more than the law of nature.

7. The strictness of the rest, to do no manner of work, is more than a law of nature.

8. That there be man-servants, and maid-servants, besides natural inferiors, is not of the primitive or universal law of nature.

9. The distinction of the Israelites from strangers within their gates, was not by the law of nature.

10. That cattle should do no manner of work (as for a dog to turn the spit in a wheel, or such like), is more than a law of nature.

11. That God made heaven and earth in six days and rested the seventh, is not of natural revelation.

12. That this was the reason wherefore God blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it, is not of natural revelation.

13. Some will say that more relations than natural being meant in the fifth commandment, maketh it more than a law of nature.

14. That the land of Canaan is made their reward, is a positive respecting the Israelites only.

15. That length of days in that land should be given by promise, is an act of grace, and not of nature only.

16. That this promise of length of days in that land, is made more to the honouring of superiors, than to the other commanded duties, is more than natural.

II. I prove it also by the abrogation of the law written in stone, which I proved before; if the decalogue had been the only and perfect law of nature, it would not have been so far done away, as the apostle saith it is (of which before).

II. All the law of nature was not in the tables of stone. Here I premise these suppositions.

1. That a general law alone, obligeth not to all particulars, without a particular law; e. g. If the second command say, that, Thou shalt perform all God's instituted worship; or. Thou shalt worship me, as I appoint thee ; this bindeth no man to baptism, the Lord's-supper, &c. till another law appoint them. Therefore there is not so much in the general law alone, as in that and the particular also.

2. All that is presupposed in a particular law, is not part of that law.

3. It is not so much to infer a duty indirectly and by farfetched consequences, as to command it directly.

Now I prove the assertion by instances. All these following are Natural duties, and commanded also in other parts of Scripture, and yet are not in the law of Moses as written in stone.

1. To believe that the soul is immortal. 2. To believe that there is a heaven, where we shall be perfectly blessed in the knowledge, love, and fruition of God. 3. To believe that there is a hell, or life of future punishment for all the impenitent. 4. To love ourselves, with a just and necessary love, as such. 5. To take the greatest care to save our souls, above our bodies. 6. To tame and mortify all our fleshly lusts, in order to our own salvation. 8. To forbear all outward acts of gluttony, drunkenness, sloth, &c. as they tend to our damnation. 9. To rejoice in persecution, because of our great reward in heaven. 10. To pray constantly, and fervently for heaven, as the means of our obtaining it.

Let none say that many of these same things are commanded in order to God, and our neighbour. For I grant that the same material acts be so; as they are expressions of love to God and man. But to do them in love to ourselves, and for our own salvation, is another "principle and end, not contrary to, but necessarily conjunct with the former two ; and indeed all the duties of self-love, as such, are passed by (as supposed) in Moses's decalogue ; because they are deeply written in man's nature, and because the law was written as political, for another use.

Object. 'But these are all supposed in the first command of loving God, and in the second table. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.'

Amw. 1. These last were not the words of the decalogue; but a part of the summary of all the law. 2. Both tables indeed suppose the love of ourselves, but that which is supposed, is not a part of them.

Object, * But it is the Socinians that say, the Old Testament speaketh of no reward or punishment but in this life.'

Answ, True; but Camero (* de tiipl. faed.') and others that rightly understood the matter, affirm, that, 1. The law of nature containeth future rewards and punishments in another life. 2. And so doth the covenant of grace made with Adam, and all mankind in him, and renewed to Noah, Abraham, and the Israelites, which by Paul is called the promise, as distinct from the law. 3. But the law of Moses, in its own proper nature, as such, was only political, and spake but of temporal rewards and punishments. 4, Though yet all the faithful were bound to take the law and promise together, and so to have respect both to temporal and eternal things. For the law itself connoted and supposed things eternal, as our great concernment.

III. There is more of the law of nature in other parts of Moses's law, conjunct with the decalogue, than is in the decalogue alone.

I will stay no longer in the proof of this, than to cite the places as you do, Exod. xxiii. 13. 32 j xxii. 18. 20: Lev. XX. 1.4. 6; Deut. xiii; xvii: Exod. xxiii. 24 j Deut. xii; xxiii: Lev. xxiv; xxiii. 3 : Exod. xii. 16 j Deut. xxiii. xxiii. 20; xxi. 15. 17: Lev. xix. 32; vi; xi: Exod. xxi. 12, 13. 18. 20. 22, . xiii. 14 ; xvii: Deut. xxi; Exod. xxii, , 29; XX; Deut. xxii; Exod. xxi. 16. [, to 17 ; Lev. xix. 30. 35 ; Deut. xxiv; xxix. 14; xxi; xxv ; Exod. xxiii. 1—9; Deut. xxiii; xxiv; Lev. xix. 11. 15 ; Exod. xxii. 21, 22 ; xxv ; xxvi; xxiii. 4; Lev. xix. 14. 16. 18, &c.

By all this I shew you why, 1. I allow not of your making the word law in the New Testament to signify the decalogue only, or taking them for equipollent terms. 2. Why I take not the decalogue and the law of nature for equipollent terms, or their matter to be of the same extent; and consequently why I take it for no proof that all things in the decalogue are perpetual, because all things in the law of nature are so.

CHAPTER V.

Whether the truest Antiquity he for the Seventh-day-Sabbath, as kept by the Churches of Christ ?

* It is here further objected that the Seventh-day-Sabbath hath the truest testimonies of antiquity; that it is controvertible when and how the Lord's-day came in; but the antiquity of the Seventh-day-Sabbath is past controversy : that the Eastern Christians long observed it, and Antichrist in the West did turn it into a fast: that the empire of Abassia keepeth it to this day/

Ansio, There is enough said of this before, were it not that some objectors causelessly look for more. I answer therefore, 1. That it is true that the Sabbath is more ancient than the Lord's-day; and so is Moses more ancient than Christ incarnate, and his law than the Gospel as delivered by Christ and his apostles, and circumcision than baptism, and the passover than the Lord's-supper; and so every man's conception, nativity, infancy, and ignorance, was before his maturity and knowledge. And what can you gather from all this ? Thus the Papists say that their way of religion was in England before ours, and that the relics of it in our monuments, (* Orate pro animabus,* &c.) is their standing witness, which we cannot totally deface : and it is true, if by our way they mean the reformation of theirs, as such ; for the cure is ever after the disease: though it is false, if they speak of our religion itself; which was here before their errors, as health is before sickness. But they should consider, that by this prerogative the heathens excel us both: and that they may say, you have yet many more monuments of our more ancient religion, which you have not been able to obliterate. You stiU call your week-days by our ancient names, Sunday, Monday, &c. Your adoration towards the East was fetched fro^^ us, and so were abundance of your customs ; which w^hope may recover the reputation of our religion. •--

2. I have shewed you already how, and why the Eastern Christians kept the Sabbath: 1. They kept it not as a Sabbath, but only met on that day as they did on the fourth and sixth days, (Wednesdays and Fridays,) as it is used in

England to this day. And for the most part they celebrated not the Lord's-supper on that day. And they abhorred the keeping it as a day of rest.

2. They met on that day for all these reasons. 1. Because having been used in the beginning to meet every day in the week (when they had all things common, and were to shew the power of the evangelical doctrine to the height. Acts ii. 44—46; iv. 33—35.) as they found cause to retrieve their community, so did they meet seldomer, and yet not so seldom as once a week ; and therefore as we now keep other meetings for lectures and prayers, besides the Lord's-day, so did they then on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. 2. Because the conversion of the Jews was a great part of their work and hope; and therefore to win them, they would with Paul become Jews ; that is, not affect an unnecessary distance, but come as near them as lawfully they could. 3. Because converted Jews were no small part of the Eastern churches ; who could not easily be brought off from Jewish customs; and the rest were unwilling to offend them: being taught not to despise the weak that observed meats and days. (Rom. xiv ; xv; Gal. ii. 4.) Because the assemblies on the Seventh day were taken as fit preparatories to the sanctifying of the LordVday, on which account the church of England now appointed them. These things one that is acquainted with church-history needeth no proof of.

And they are sufficiently proved before. Ignatius's words before-cited are full. And those of the Council of Laodicea, Can. 29. are more full, who do at once appoint meetings on the Seventh day, and yet anathematize them that Judaize thereon, by bodily rest; and would have men labour on it, and prefer the Lord*s-day before it.

Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho, doth largely shew that circumcision and the Sabbath are ceased by the coming of Christ, and his institutions, and are not now to be used by Christians. And what writer have we of full reputation and credibility more ancient than Justin, from whom any testimony in this case might be sought?

TertuUian (one of the next) Ii. 2. against Marcion> saith, that the Sabbath was for that time, and present occasion, or use, and not for perpetuity.

Athanasius was one that was for meeting on the Sab

bath; and yet writeth his book " de Sab. et Circum.*' purposely to prove that the Sabbath is ceased with circumcision, as a shadow, and that now the LordVday is the sanctified day. And the like he hath most expressly in Homil. de Semente, as is cited before, saying, that, * The master being come, the usher was out of use; and the sun being risen, the lamps are darkened.*

Basil Epist. 74. writeth against Apollinaris for holding that after the resurrection, we should keep Sabbaths, and Judaize; as if that were the perfection to which Christ would restore men.

See Greg. Nazianz. Orat. 43. and Chrysost. Horn. 19. in Matt. xii. against the use of the Sabbath. Cyril. Hieros. cat. 4. and Epiphan. against the Nazaraei, condemn them for keeping the Sabbath and circumcision, though withal they kept the Lord's-day. The same doth Epiphanius, lib. 1. Hser. 30. n. 2. and before him, Euseb. Hist. lib. 3. say of the Ebionites. Augustine oft telleth us, that the observation or keeping of the Seventh-day-Sabbath is ceased, and not to be done by Christians. (Qu. ex. N. Test. 69; Ad Bonif. 1. 3 ; Contr. Faust. Manich. 1. 6. c. 4 ; De Genes, ad lit. 1. 4. c. 13; de spir. et lit. c. 14 ; de util. Cred. c. 3.)

3. And as for the Abassians keeping the Sabbath : it is true, they keep that day in some sort; but it is as true, that they use circumcision, and many other Jewish ceremonies ; besides oft baptizings; and that they profess not to use these as the Jews do, but only as ancient customs, and as Paul did while he complied with them, using the outward action for other ends than Judaizers do. And the rather because they think their emperors descended from Solomon. But the Lord's-day they keep on the same account as other Christians. And if this instance make any thing for sabbatizing, it will make as much for circumcising, and other Jewish rites, but nothing against the sanctifying of the Lord's-day.

4. And as for the matter of fasting on the Sabbath, the churches greatly varied their customs. The Eastern churches and Millan in the West, were against fasting on the Sabbath on two accounts: 1. Because, as is said, they would not offend the Jews. Even as many peaceable nonconformists, who are against many holy days now established, do yet forbear labouring and opening their shops on those

days, because they will not give offence; yea, and go to hear the sermons on those days, though they keep them not holy, as such days. 2. Because there were many sorts of heretics in those times, who held that the world was made by an evil God, and thence came evil and so they fasted on the Seventh day on that reason ; which made the Christians avoid it, lest they should symbolize with those heretics. And therefore (the real or pretended) Ignatius speaketh so severely against fasting on the Sabbath, as well as on the Lord's-day. And so do the constitutions called the apostles ; yea, and the canons called theirs. (Can. 65,)

But in the Western churches (as is aforesaid), both Jews and heretics were more distant, or less considerable for numbers ; and therefore they fasted on the Seventh day, and that the rather, lest they should seem by sabbatizing to Judaize. Which was before Antichrist's appearing, unless you think all the holy doctors before cited, and all the Western churches, to be Antichristian.

Having gone thus far, I here add two more Scripture-arguments to prove the abolition of the Jewish Sabbath. The first is, because it is frequently made (as circumcision is) a sign of the particular covenant between God and that nation, as they were a political body, and peculiar people. Therefore if their policy cease, and God's relation to them as a political body, and peculiar people, and so that political covenant with them, then also the sign of the covenant and relation ceaseth. And though the word * for ever' is sometimes added, it is no other than is oft added also to the Jewish law and ceremonies.

2. From Acts xv: where the case is determined by a council of apostles, elders and brethren, yea, by the Holy Ghost, (ver. 28.) It appeareth by ver. 24, that the thing asserted by the false teachers was * that the Gentiles must be circumcised and keep the law ; that is, of Moses, (ver. 1.) Now the Seventh-day-Sabbath was part of that law (as sacrificing was, though it was a law before). But the Holy Ghost determineth the case, '* to lay on them no greater burden than these necessary things," after named; where the Sabbath is none of them, and therefore hereby shut out. The precepts given to Noah are named (of which the Sabbath was not one.)

Object, * By this exposition you may say that the rest of

the decalogue is excluded: for idolatry, murder, &c. are not here forbidden by name.' Answ. I have fully proved that the decalogue as written in stone, and part of the law or covenant of Moses, is not at all in force, especially to the Gentiles ; nor yet a* part of the covenant (or promise) of works made with Adam in innocency : for the form of the promissory covenant of works ceased upon man'a sin, and the promise of a Saviour; and the form of the Mosaical law or covenant never reached to the Gentile nations, and is ceased to the Jews: therefore the matter must cease as it constituted the same covenant, when the form ceased. And Paul saith expressly that this law written in stone is done away. But, 1. The law of nature, as a mere law, never ceased. 2. And Christ hath taken it into his covenant, as part of the matter of it. So that it is wholly in force, though not as part of the covenant of works, either Adamical or Mosaical. But the Sabbath, as to the seventh day, was no part of the law of nature, as is proved. And Paul expressly saith, that it was a " shadow of things to come," and is therefore vanished away. (Col. ii. 16.) Had it been part of the law of nature, it had bound us as such, and as Christ's law: or had it been one of the enumerated particulars. Acts xv, it had bound the neighbour Gentiles, ' pro tempore ' at least. But being neither, that council dischargeth Christians from the observation of it, as far as I can understand the text.

POSTSCRIPT.

It is long since the foregoing Treatise was promised to a person of honourable rank who was inclined to the Jewish Sabbath ; but before it was finished or well begun, I had a sight of a treatise on the same subject, by the late reverend worthy servant of Christ, Mr. Hughes of Plymouth, which inclined me to take my promised work as unnecessary. But yet some reasons moved me to re-assume it. Near two months after it went from me to the press, the said treatise of Mr. Hughes first, and after another on the same subject by Dr. J. Owen came abroad. Yet do I not reverse mine, because many witnesses in an age of enmity and neglect, can

be no injury to a truth so serviceable to the cause of Christianity, and the prosperity of the church, and the good of souls. Though if I were one that took the church's prosperity to consist in riches, grandeur, ease and domination, or empire of papal pastors, rather than in the humble, holy, heavenly, self-denying imitation of a crucified Christ,! would have forborne a subject which is all for our preparation for a heavenly Sabbatism, and carrieth men above the sensual rest of fleshly men, and therefore is so much disrelished by them. (Rom. viii. 6—8.) But supposing it to be my duty to do what I have done, I think meet to advise the reader; that when several men treat of the same subject, though they speak the same things in the main, yet usually each of them bringeth some considerable light, which is omitted by the rest. And as the same Spirit sets them all on work, so all together give fuller evidence to the truth, than any one of them alone. And I hope the concourse of these three tractates doth prognosticate, that (though the devil hath so contrived the business for the profane, that like Papists, they will hear and read none, but those that are not like to change them; yet) God will awaken the sober and serious believers of this age, to a more holy and fruitful improvement of his day; which will greatly tend to the increase of real godliness, and consequently to the recovery of the dying hopes of this apostatizing and divided age.

But that which moveth me to write this Postscript, is to acquaint thee, for the prevention of scandal by any seeming differences in our writing?, 1. That it cannot be expected, that all who plead the same cause, should say just the same thing for it, for matter and manner of argumentation.

2. That if I own the name of Sabbath less than some others, and adhere more to the name of the Lord's-day, I do not hereby oppose the use of the name of Sabbath absolutely ; nor is that in itself a controversy about the matter, but the name, which though not contemptible, yet is of far less moment than the thing.

3. That if I make not use of so many Old Testament texts as some others, I do not thereby deny the usefulness of them, nor call you off from the consideration of any argumentation or evidence thence offered you.

VOL. XIII. L L

4. That if I seem to be more for the cessation of Moses's law, than some others, even of that part which was written in stone, yet no part of the law of nature is thereby denied by me, any more than by any of them ; and they that are angry with me, for writing so much against the Antinomians, should not also be angry with me for going no further from them, than the force of truth constraineth me.

5. That you must pardon me for my purposely avoiding the name of the * moral law j' Mr. Cawdry and Mr. Palmer, who have written most largely of the Sabbath, have told you the reason. I love not such names, as are not fitted to the nature of things, but are fitted to signify almost what the speaker pleaseth.

I know no law which is not formally moral, as being * Regula actionum Moralium.' And men may if they will, as well confine the signification of the word * law ' itself, as of a * moral law.' Nor doth use itself sufficiently notify the distinguishing signification of it. For one meaneth by that name, all the law of nature as such. Another meaneth only so much of the law of nature as is common to all mankind. Another meaneth all positive laws of supernatural revelation, which are perpetual and universal, as well as the law of nature. Therefore without finding fault with others, it sufficeth me to distinguish laws by such names as plainly signify the intended difference. And though by the law of nature, I mean not formally the same thing that some others do, I have sufficiently opened my sense and the reasons of it, in my ** Reasons of the Christian Religion."

6. That they who say, that the Old Covenant, or the covenant of works made by Moses with the Jews, is abrogated or ceased, and the decalogue as a part of, or belonging to that covenant, do say the same thing that I do, when I maintain that the decalogue and whole law, as Mosaical, is ceased, but that all the natural part is by Christ assumed into his law, or covenant of grace. For it is the same thing which is denominated the law (of Moses, or of Christ) from the preceptive part, and a covenant from the terms, or sanction, especially the promissory part. Nor is there any part of the law of Moses, which was not a part of the Mosaical covenant. And if the form cease which denominateth, the being and denomination ceaseth, and all the parts, as parts of that which ceaseth. So that if the covenant of works

/

made with the Jews cease, (which Camero calleth a third or middle covenant, and several men do variously denominate, but the Scripture calleth the old or former covenant, or testament or disposition,) then all the law, as part of that covenant ceasetlj. And that is as much as to say also that it ceaseth as merely Mosaical, or political to the Jews. And then the argument is vain, ' This or that word was written in the tables of stone; therefore it is of perpetual obligation.' For as it was written in stone, it was Mosaical, and is done away; and under the new covenant all that is natural and continued, shall by the Spirit be written upon the heart; whence sin at first did obliterate it.

7. That as the rest of God in the creation is described by a cessation from his work, with a complacency in the goodness of it: But Christ's rest is described more by vital activity and operation, than by cessation from work, even his triumphant resurrection, as the conquest of death, and beginning of a new life. So I think the old Sabbath is more described by such corporeal rest, or cessation from work, which was partly ceremonial, or a signifying shadow, and that the word Sabbath is never used in Scripture, but for such a day of ceremonial rest (though including holy worship). But that the Lord's-day, and its due observation, is more described by spiritual activity and operation, in the spiritual resurrection of the soul, and its new life to God; and that the bodily rest is no longer ceremonial and shadowy, but fitted to the promoting and subserving of the spiritual activity and complacency in God, and holy exercises of the mind, as the body itself is to the service of the soul.

8. That I am not ignorant that many of the English divines long ago expounded Matt. xxiv. 20, of the Christian Sabbath, and Col. ii. 16, as exclusive of the Jewish weekly Sabbath : but so do not most expositors, for which I think they give very good reasons, which I will not stand here to repeat.

9. That I intend not a full and elaborate treatise of the Lord's-day, but a brief explication of that method of proof which I conceive most easy and convincing, and most fit for the use of doubting Christians ; who are many of them lost in doubts in the multitude and obscurity of arguments from the Old Testament: When I think that the speedy and satisfactory dispatch of the controversy is best made by a plain

proof of the institution of Christ by the Holy Ghost in the apostles; which I thought to have shewed in two or three sheets, but that the necessity of producing some evidence of the fact, and answering other men's objections, drew it out to greater length. And my method required me to say more of the practice of antiquity, than some other men's. But again, I must give notice that Dr. T. Young's *' Dies Dominica" is the book which I agree with in the method and middle way of determining this controversy, and which I take to be the strongest written of it. And that I omit most which he hath, as taking mine but as an appendix to his, and desire him that will write against mine, to answer both together, or else I shall suppose his work to be undone.

END OF THE DIVINE APPOINTMENT OF THE LORD'S-DAY.

REDEMPTION OF TIME.

* The usual vice of human nature, to be weary of good things, when they grow old and common, and to call for novelties, is especially discernible in men's esteem and use of books. Abundance of old ones are left neglected to the worms and dust, whilst new ones of a far less worth are most of the booksellers' trade and gain. It is not easy to give a reason of it, but it is not to be denied, that this age hath few such writers as the last, either controversial or practical. Even among the Papists, there are now few such as Suarez, Vasquez, Valentia, Victoria, Penottus, Ruiz, Alvarez, Bellarmine, &c. And among us, too few such as Jewel, Whittaker, Reignolds, Field, Usher, White, Challoner, Chillingworth, &c. which the Papists understanding, would fain have the monuments of these worthies forgotten; and are calling for new answers to the schisms that have been so long ago confuted ; to keep those old unanswerable writings, from the people's hands. And thus doth the envious enemy of holiness, by the practical writings of those holy men who are now with God. The solid, grave and pious labours of Richard Rogers, Perkins, Greenham, Deering, Dent, Smith, Dod, Hildersham, Dow-name, Samuel Ward, Hall, Bolton, Dike, Stocke, Elton, Taylor, Harris, Preston Sibbs, Ball, and many more such, are by the most neglected, as if we were quite above their parts; but it were well if more injudicious or undigested writings possessed not their room. Though I may hereby censure myself as much as others, I must needs say, that the reprinting of many of our fathers' writings, might have saved the labour of writing many later books, to the greater commodity of the church.

* Among the rest, I well remember that even in my youth (and since much more) the writings of Mr. Whately were very savoury to me; especially his " Sermon of Redeeming Time."

' I must so far venture on the displeasure of the guilty, as to say, that the doleful condition of two sorts of persons, the SENSUAL GENTRY, and the idle beggars, is it that hath compelled me to this service ; but especially of the former sort, who though slothful, may possibly be drawn to read so small a book. What man that believeth a life hereafter, and considereth the importance of our business upon earth, t^nd observeth how most persons, but especially our sensual gentry, live, can choose but wonder that ever reason can be so far lost, and even self-love and the care of their own fever-lasting state, so laid asleep, as men*s great contempt of time declareth! Ladies and Gentlewomen, it is you whom I most deeply pity and lament: think nM that I am too bold with you, God, who employeth us on such service, will be bolder with you than this comes to. And Christ was bold with such as you, when he spake the histories or parables of the two rich men in Luke xii. and xvi. And when he told men how hardly the rich should enter into the kingdom of heaven. And James was bold with such when he wrote, chap. v. *' Go to now, ye rich men, weep and how! for your miseries that shall come upon you : your riches are corrupted, and your garments motheaten: your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire, 8cc. Ye have lived in pleasure on earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter."—And he was neither ignoble nor unlearned, but of honourable birth, and the orator of an university who was so bold with the English gentry (when they say, they were much wiser and better than they are now) as to bespeak them thus : (Herbert's *' Church-porch.")

" Fly idleness ! which yet thou canst not fly

By dressing, mistressing and compliment;

If those take up the day, the sun will cry

Against thee; for his light was only lent:

God gave thy soul brave wings ; put not those feathers

Into a bed to sleep out all ill weathers.

O England! full of sin, but most of sloth !

Spit out thy phlegm, and fill thy breast with glory.

Thy gentry bleats as if thy native cloth

Transfused a sleepiness into thy story.

Not that they all are so, but that the most

Are gone to grass, and in the pasture lost.

This loss springs chiefly from our education.

Some till their ground, but let weeds choke their son :

Some mark a partridge ; never their child's fashion:

Some ship them over, and the thing is done.

Study this art: make it thy great design:

And if God's image move thee not, let thine.

Some great estates provide; but do not breed

A mast'ring mind ; so both are lost thereby.

Or else they breed them tender; make them need

All that they leave: this is flat poverty.

For he that needs five hundred pounds to live,

Is full as poor as that needs but five."

* When I peruse the map of Sodom, in Ezek. xvi. 49,50, methinks I am in an infected city, where instead of ' LORD HAVE MERCY ON US,' it is written on the GENTRY'S doors * PRIDE, FULNESS OF BREAD, ABUNDANCE OF IDLENESS, UNMERCIFULNESS AND ABOMINATION.' " Behold this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, .and abundance of idleness was in her, and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy: and they were haughty, and committed abomination before me." The title over the leaves of these verses might be * the character of the

SENSUAL GENTRY.'

' Mistake me not, I am so far fi'om accusing all the rich and honourable, that I must say it is as a testimony against the rest, that I know many such who spend their time as fruitfully and diligently as the poor (though in another sort of service) : And such might the rest have been if their bodies had not got the mastery of their souls. It is not your PRIDE or FULNESS of BREAD that I am now to speak of, but your IDLENESS. Many of the old philosophers thought that when sickness or age had made one unserviceable to the commonwealth, it was a shame to live, and a duty to make away themselves; as being but unprofitable

burdens to the world. Christians are not of their mtind, because it is a mercy even under pain to have time of preparation for another vi^orld, and because we may serve God in patience, and heavenly desires, and hope, when we cannot serve him by an active life : But Christians and heathens will proclaim those persons to be the shame of nature, who wilfully make themselves unprofitable, and live in their health, as if they were disabled by sickness ; and are condemned by their sensuality to a prison or a grave : So that their epitaph may be written on their doors,' heee lieth SUCH A ONE,' rather than it can be said * Here he liveth.' O what a rock is a hardened heart! How can you choose but tremble when you think how you spend your days ? And how all this time must be accounted for f That those that have a death and judgment to prepare for, a heaven to get, a hell to escape, and souls to save, can waste the day in careless idleness, as if they had no business in the world, and yet their consciences never tell them what they do, and how all this must be reviewed!

' Compare together the life of a Christian and of a fleshly brute, and you will see the difference. Suppose then both Ladies or Gentlewomen of the same rank: The one riseth as is consistent with her health ; with thoughts of thankfulness and love, her heart also awaketh, and riseth up to Him that night and day preserveth her: She quickly dispatcheth the dressing of the body, as intending no more but serviceable warmth, and modest decency: and then she betaketh herself to her closet, where she poureth out her soul in confession, supplication, thanksgiving and praise to God, her Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier: And as one that delighteth in the law of the Lord, she reverently openeth the sacred Scripture, and readethover some part of it with some approved commentary at hand, in which she may see the sense of that, which of her self she could not understand: What is plain she taketh in,digesteth andlayeth up for practice; and that which is too hard for her, as a humble learner she waiteth in patience, till by her teacher's help in time she can come to understand it. As she hath leisure, she readeth such holy books as interpret and apply the Scriptures, to enlighten her mind, and resolve her will, and quicken her affections, and direct her practice. And as she liveth in an outward calling or course of labour, in which her body as well as her mind, may have

employment, she next addresseth herself to that; she look-eth with prudence and carefulness to her family ! She taketh care of her servants' labours, and their manners; neither suffering any to live in idleness, nor yet so overlabouring them, as to deny them some time to read the Scriptures, and call upon God, and mind their souls : She endureth no profane despisers of piety, or vicious persons in her house : She taketh fit seasons to speak to her servants such sober words of holy counsel, as tend to instruct and save their souls. She causeth them to learn the principles of religion in some catechism, and to read such good books as are most suitable to their capacity. In her affairs, she avoideth both sordid parsimony, and wasteful prodigality; and is thrifty and sparing, not in covetousness, but that she may do the more good to them that want. She indulgeth no excess or riotousness in her house, though the vices of the times should make it seem needful to her honour. If she want recreation, or have leisure for more work, she steps out to her poor tenants' and neighbours' houses, and seeth how they live, and what they want, and speaketh to them some sober words of counsel about the state of their immortal souls, and stirreth them up to a holy life : She causeth the souls of the poor to bless her, and is an example of piety to all about her. But her special care and labour is in the education of her children (if she have any :) she watcheth over them, lest the company, and example, and language of ungodly persons should infect them: she causeth them to read the Scriptures, and other holy books, and to learn the principles of religion, and teacheth them how to call upon God, and give him thanks for all his mercies; she acquaint-eth them with the sins of their depraved natures, and labour-eth to humble them in the sense thereof: she openeth to them the doctrine of man's salvation by Christ, and the necessity of a new birth, and of a heavenly nature : she dis-graceth all sin to them, especially the radical and master-sins ; even ignorance, unbelief, selfishness, pride, sensuality and voluptuousness, the love of this world, and unholiness of heart and life. She sweetly and seriously insinuateth inta them the love and liking of faith and holiness; and frequently enlargeth her speech to them of the greatness, wisdom and goodness of God, and what he is to man, and how absolutely we owe him all the service, obedience and love

that our faculties can possibly perform: she sweeteneth their thoughts of God and godliness, by telling them what God hath done for man, and what he will be to his own for ever: and by acquainting them with the reasons of a holy life, and the folly of ungodly men, and what a beastly thing it is to be sensual, and to pamper and please this flesh, which must shortly turn to dust, and to neglect a soul which must live for ever. She remembereth them oft that they must die, and telleth them how great a change death makes, and how the change of regeneration must prepare us for it: she openeth to them the blessedness of holy souls, that shall be for ever with the Lord, and the misery of the damned, who cast away themselves, by the wilful neglect of the time of their visitation. In a word, it is her daily care and calling, to prepare her children for the service of God, and to be blessings to the world in their generation, and to be happy themselves for evermore : and to destroy and prevent that sin and wickedness, which would make them a plague and curse in their generation. Her meals are not luxurious nor long, nor her feastings unnecessary, to the wasting of estate or precious time; but seasonable, frugal, charitable and pious, intended to promote some greater good. She keepeth up the constant performance of religious duties in her family ; not mocking God with formal compliment; but worshipping him in reverence and serious devotion, reading the holy Scriptures, and seriously calling upon God, and singing to him psalms of praise. If her mind need recreation, she hath some profitable history, or other fruitful books to read, and variety of good works, and a seasonable diversion to the affairs of her family, instead of cards and dice, and the abused fooleries of the sensual world : When she is alone, her thoughts are fruitful to herself; either examining her heart and life, or looking seriously into eternity, or rejoicing her soul in the remembrance of God*s mercies, or in the foresight of endless blessedness with him, or in stirring up some of his graces in her soul. When she is with others, her words are savoury, sober, seasonable ; as the oracles of God for piety and truth, tending to edification, and to administer instruction and grace to the hearers, and rebuking the idle talk, or filthy scurrility, or backbiting of any that would corrupt the company and discourse. At evening she again returneth to the more solemn worshipping of God, and

goeth to rest, as one that still waiteth when she is called to rest with Christ, and is never totally unready for that call. Thus doth she spend her days, and accordingly doth she end them, being conveyed by angels into the presence of her Lord, and leaving a precious memorial to the living; the poor lamenting the loss of her charity, and all about lamenting the removal of a pattern of piety and righteousness, and loving holiness the better, for the perfume of such a heavenly and amiable an example.

* On the other side, how different is the life of the sensual ladies and gentlewomen to whom I am now writing. When they have indulged their sloth in unnecessary sleep, till the precious morning hours are past, they arise with thoughts as fruitless as their dreams: their talk and time, till almost half the day is gone, is taken up only about their childish trifling ornaments; so long are they dressing themselves, that by that time they can but say over, or join in a few formal words, which go for prayer, it is dinner-time (for an image of religion some of them must have, lest conscience should torment them before the time). And when they have sat out an hour or two at dinner, in gratifying their appetites, and in idle talk, they must spend the next hour in talk, which is as idle. A savoury word of the life to come, must not trouble them, nor interrupt their fleshly converse : perhaps they must next go to cards or dice, and it may be to a playhouse, or at least, on some unprofitable visitation, or some worthless visitors that come to them, must take up the rest of the afternoon in frothy talk, which all set together comes to nothing, but vani&heth as smoke : and they choose such company, and such a course of life, as shall make all this seem unavoidable and unnecessary, and that it would i*un them into contempt and great inconveniences if they did otherwise. If they look after their a-flairs, it is merely through covetousness: but more usually they leave that care to others, that they may do nothing that is good for soul or body. They use their servants as they do their beasts, for their service only; and converse with them as if they had no souls to save or lose: they teach them by their example to speak vainly, and live sensually, and to forget the life to come. Their children they love but as the brutes do their young; they teach them how to bow and dance, and carry themselves decently in the sight of men; but never labour to

heal their souls of ignorance, unbelief and pride; nor open to them the matters of everlasting consequence : but rather persuade them that serious holiness is but hypocrisy, and the obedience of God's laws is a needless thing. They teach them by their example to curse, and swear, and lie, and rail, and to deride religion, or at least to neglect God, and life eternal, and mind only the transitory vanities of this life: they leave them to Satan, to wicked company and counsel, and to their fleshly lusts and pride, and when they have done, take care only to get them sufficient maintenance, to feed this sensual fire while they live. They train them up for the service of sin and Satan, that at age they may have ignorance and vice sufficient to make them the plagues and misery of their country, and to engage them in enmity against that Gospel and ministry which is against their lusts; that rebelling against Christ, they may have at last the reward of rebels, instead of salvation. In a word, they do more against their poor children's souls, than all their enemies in the world; if more than the devil himself could do, at least, they most effectually serve him, for their children's damnation. Thus do they spend their days, and at night conclude them as carelessly as they begun them : and at death (without a true conversion) shall end them as miserably as they spent them sinfully: And while they are pampering their flesh and saying, * [ have enough, I will eat, drink, and be merry,' they suddenly hear, " Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required, and then whose shall all this be which thou posses-est V (Luke xii. 19, 20.) And when they have a while been clothed in purple and silks, and " fared sumptuously every day," they must hear at last, " Remember that thou in thy life time rec^ivedst thy good things, and Lazarus evil things : but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." And when the time which they now despise is gone, O what would they give for one other year or hour of such time, to do the work which they now neglected !.(Luke xvi. 24—26 ; Matt. XXV. 8—12.)

* Is there not a great difference now between these two sorts of persons, in the expense of time ? And is it any wonder if there be a difference in their rewards ? In Matt. xxv. 30, it is not.only * cast the whoremonger, the drunkard, the perjured, the persecutor;' but, "cast the unprofitable ser-

vant into outer darkness ; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

'Compare, I beseech you, the time which you spend, 1. In idleness. 2. In excessive sleep. 3. In adorning you. 4. In feasting and long meals. 5. In curiosity and pomp, employing most of your servants* time in impertinencies, as well as your own. 6. In excessive worldly cares. 7. In vain company and idle talk. 8. In vain thoughts. 9. In sensual recreations, in cards, dice, huntings, hawkings, plays, romances, fruitless books, &c. I say, compare this time, with the time which you spend in examining your hearts and lives, and trying your title to eternal life, in bewailing sin, and begging mercy of God, and returning thanks and praise to your great Benefactor, in instructing your children and servants, in visiting the sick, relieving the poor, exhorting one another, in meditating on eternity, and the way thereto, in learning the word and will of God, and in the sanctified labours of your outward calling. And let your consciences tell you, which of these hath the larger share ? And whether those things which should have none, and those which should have little, have not almost all ? And whether God hath not only the leavings of your flesh ?

' Gentlemen and Ladies, I envy not your pleasures : I have myself a body with its proper appetites, which would be gratified, as well as .you ? And I have not wanted opportunity to gratify it. If I thought that this were the most manly life, and agreeable to reason, and that we had no greater things to mind, I could thus play away my time as you do. But it amazeth me to see the world's stupidity, that people who are posting away into eternity, and have so much to do in a little time, and of such inconceivable importance, can yet waste their days in sleeping, and dressing, and feasting, and complimenting; in pastime and plays, and idle talk, as if they were all but a dream, and their wits were not so far awakened as to know what it is to be a man. And to increase our pity, when they have done, they ask,' What harm is there in cards and dice, in stage-plays and romances ? Is it not lawful to use such and such recreations V Suppose they were all unquestionably lawful, have you no greater matter that while to do ? Have you no more useful recreations, that will exercise your bodies and minds more profi-

tably, or at least with less expense of time ? To a sedentary person, recreation must be such as stirs the body : to a labouring person, variety of good books and pious exercises are fitter recreations than cards or dice. Is your recreation but as the mower's whetting of his scythe ? no oftener, nor longer than is necessary to fit you for those labours and duties, which must be the great and daily business of your lives ? If this be so, I am not reprehending you : but I beseech you consider, have you not souls to regard, as well as others? Have you not a God to serve ? and his word and will to learn and do ? Have you not servants and children to instruct and educate ? (And O what a deal of labour doth their ignorance and obstinacy require!) Have you not death and judgment to prepare for? Have you not an outward calling to follow ? (Though I say not that you must do the same labours as the poor, I say that you must labour and be profitable to the commonwealth.) Have you not many good works of charity to do ? And will you leave the most of this undone, and waste your time in plays, and cards, and feasts, and idleness, and then say,' What harm is in all this, and are they not lawful?' O that the Lord would open your eyes, and shew you where you must be ere long, and tell you what work you have here to do, that must be done, or you are lost for ever ! And then you would easily tell yourselves whether playing and fooling away precious time be lawful for one in your condition ! If your servants leave most of their work undone, and sp^nd the day in cards and stage-plays, and feasting, and in merry chat, and then say, ' Madam, are not cards, and plays, and jesting lawful V Will you take it for a satisfactory answer ? And is it not worse that you deal with God ?

* It is a most irrational and ungrateful error, to think that you may spend one hour's time the more in idleness, because that you are rich. The reason were good, if labour were for nothing but to supply your own bodily necessities. But do you not believe that God is your Lord and Master ? and that he giveth you not an hour's time in vain, butappointeth you work for every hour ? (except your necessary rest;) And that your time and wealth are but his talents ? And bethink yourselves whether a servant may say, I will do less work than my fellow-servants, because I have more wages ? And

whether you may do less for God, because he giveth you more than others ? But of this I have said so much in my preface to my book called " The Crucifying of the World," that I shall now dismiss it.

* And what I have said especially to the rich, (who think their loss of time no sin,) I must say also to all others, O value time before it is gone ! Use it before it is taken from you! Dispatch the work that you were made for. Repent and turn to God unfeignedly. Prepare for death without de-* lay. Time will not stay; nor will it ever be recovered. Were it not lest I should write a treatise instead of a preface, I would especially press this on all these following sorts of people. 1. Those that are young, who have yet the flower of their time to use, that they cast it not away on childish vanity or lusts. 2. Those that have lost much time already, that they shew the sincerity of their repentance, by redeeming the rest, and lose no more. 3. Those that are yet ignorant, ungodly and unprepared for death, and the world to come, O what need have these to make haste, and quickly get into a safer state, before their time be at an end. 4. Those that in sickness resolved and promised, if God would recover them, to redeem their time. 5. The weak and aged, whom nature and sickness do call upon to make haste. 6. The poor and servants, whose opportunities for spiritual means are scant, and therefore have need to take them when they may; especially on the Lord's-day. 1. Those that live under excellent helps, and advantages for their souls ; which if they neglect, they may never have again. 8. And those that by office or power have especial opportunity to do good. All these have a double obligation to value and redeem their time.

* But because in my book called " Now or Never," I have already urged these to ^diligence, I shall only add this one request, to sportful youfti, to sensual brutes, to the idle sort of the gentry, to impenitent loiterers, to gamesters, and to all that have time to spare, that they will soberly use their reason in the answer of these following questions, before they proceed to waste the little time that is remaining, as vainly as they have done the rest. And I earnestly beseech them, and require them, as in the sight and hearing of their Judge, that they deny me not so friendly and reasonable a suit.

Quest, 1. Do you consider well the shortness and uncertainty of your time ? You came but lately into the world, and it is but a very little while till you must leave it. The glass is turned upon you ; and it is incessantly running. A certain number of motions your pulse must beat, and beyond that number it shall not be permitted to strike another stroke. Whatever you are thinking, or saying, or doing, you are posting on to your final state. And O how quickly will yuu be there I Suppose you had seventy years to live, how soon will they be gone ! But you are not sure of another hour. Look back on all your time that is past, and tell me whether it made not haste ? And that which is to come will be as hasty. Will not the tolling of the bell instruct you ? Will not graves, and bones, and dust instruct you ? While many are hourly crowding into another world, will conscience permit you to be idle? Doth it not tell you what you have to do, and call upon you to dispatch it ? Can you play away your time, and idle it away, whilst the bell is tolling, whilst the sick are groaning, whilst every pulse and breath is telling you, that you are hasting to your end? Do you consider what a wonder of providence it is, that all your humours, parts and organs, that so many arteries, nerves and veins, should be kept in order one year to an end ? If you have no pains of sickness to admonish you, do you not know what a fragile thing is flesh ? which as the flower fadeth, doth hasten to corruption and to dust? How short is your abode in your present dwelling like to be, in comparison of your abode in dust and darkness? And can you have while now to waste so many hours in the adorning, the easing and the pampering of such a lump of rottenness, and forget the part that lives for ever? Must you stay on earth so short a time, and have you any of this little time to spare ? Yea, so much of it as you daily waste in idleness, play, and vain curiosity ? Quest. 2. Do you soberly consider, what work you have for all your time ? And on how important a business you come into the world ? Believe it, O man and woman, it is to do all that ever must be done, to prepare for an everlasting life ! Endless joy or misery is the certain reward, and consequent of the spending of your present time ! And O that God would open your eyes, to see how much you have to do, in order to this eternal end ! You have ignorant minds which must be instructed, and knowledge isjjot easily and

quickly got. Poor ministers of Christ can tell you that, who with many years' labour can scarce bring one half a parish to understand the very principles of the Christian religion. You have souls depraved by original sin, and turned from God, and enslaved to the world and flesh; and these must be renewed and regenerated. You must have anew and holy nature, that you may have a new and holy life. How many false opinions have you to be untaught! How many weighty lessons to learn ! How many pernicious customs to be changed ! How many powerful corruptions to be mortified ! How many temptations to be overcome ! How many graces to be obtained ; and then to be exercised, and strengthened, and preserved ! Is it easy to get a solid faith ; a tender heart; a faithful conscience; a fervent desire and love to God; a quieting confidence and trust; a well-guided zeal, and preserving fear; an absolute resignation, self-denial and obedience ; a hatred of all sin, a love to holiness ; a fitness and ability for every duty ; a love to our neighbour as ourselves ; a true love to our enemies ; a contentedness with our condition; a readiness and joyful willingness to die ; a certainty of the pardon of all our sins, and of our title to eternal happiness ; a longing after the coming of Christ; a public spirit, wholly devoted to the common good ? Is it nothing to do all that which you have to do in meditation, in self-examination, in prayer, in educating children, in teaching and governing your families ; in all duties of your other relations ; to superiors, to inferiors, to equals, to neighbours, to enemies, to all ? Is it nothing to order and govern your hearts, your thoughts, your passions, your tongues? Alas ! sirs, have you all this to do ; and yet can you have while to slug, and game, and play, and fool away your time ? If a poor man had but sixpence in iiis purse to buy bread for himself and for his family, and would give a groat of it to see a puppet-play, and then dispute that puppet-plays are lawful, how would you judge of his understanding and his practice? O how much worse is it in you (as the case is more weighty), when you have but a little uncertain time, to do so much, so great, so necessary work in, to leave it almost all undone and throw away that time, on cards, and plays, and sensuality, and idleness? I tell you time is a most precious thing: more precious than gold, or

VOL. XIII. M M

jewels, or fine clothes : and he is incomparably more foolish that throws away his time, than he that throws away his gold, or trampleth his clothes or ornaments in the dirt. This^ this is the foolish, pernicious prodigality.

* Quest, 3. Have you deeply considered, that everlasting condition which all your time is given you to prepare for? Doth it not awaken and amaze thy soul, to think what it is to be for ever ; I say, for ever, in joy or misery? in heaven or hell ? One of these will certainly and shortly be thy portion, whatever unbelief may say against it? O what a heart hath that stupified sinner, that can idle away that little time, which is allotted him to prepare for his everlasting state! That knoweth he shall have but this hasty life to win or lose eternal glory in, and can play it away as if he had nothing to do with it; and heaven or hell were indifferent to him, or were but insignificant words I

* Quest, 4. What maketh you so loath to die, if time be no more worth than to cast away unprofitably ? The worth of time is for the work that is to be done in time. To a man in a palsy, an apoplexy, a madness, that cannot make use of it, it is little worth; if you were sick and like to die this night, would you not pray that you might live a little longer? I beseech you cheat not your souls by wilful self-deceit. Tell me, or tell your consciences. How would you form such a prayer to God for your recovery if you were now sick ? Would you say. Lord, give me a little more time to play at cards and dice in ? Let me see a few more masks and plays ? Let me have a little time more to please my flesh, in idleness, feastings, and the pleasures of worldliness and pride? Did you ever find such a prayer in any prayer-book? Would you not rather say. Lord, vouchsafe me a little more time to repent of all my loss of time, and to redeem it in preparation for eternal life, and to make n^y calling and election sure ? And will you yet live so contrary to your prayers, to your conscience, and to reason itself?

* Quest. 5. Is the work that you were made for, hitherto well done ? Are you regenerated and renewed to the heavenly nature? Are you strong and established in grace? Have you made sure of pardon and salvation? Are your hearts in heaven? and is your daily conversation there? And are you ready with well-grounded hope and peace, to welcome death, and appear in judgment? If all this were

done, you had yet no excuse for idling away one day or hour, because there is still more work to do, as long as you have time to do it. (And if this were done, you would have that within you, which would not suffer you to cast away your time.) But for these men or women to be passing away time in sloth or vanity, who are utterly behindhand, and have lost the most of their lives already, and are yet unregenerated, and strangers to a new and heavenly life, and are unpardoned, and in the power and guilt of sin, and unready to die, and shall certainly be for ever lost, if they die before that grace renew them. I say again, for such as these to be sporting away their time, is a practice which fully justifieth the holy Scriptures, when they call such persons fools, and such as have no understanding, unless it be to do evil, and successfully destroy themselves.

* Quest. 6. Do you think if you neglect and lose your time, that ever you shall come again into this world, to spend it better ? If you idle away this life, will God ever give you another here? If you do not your work well, shall you ever come again to mend it ? O no, sirs, there is no hope of this. ' Act this part well, for as you do it, you must speed for ever; there is no coming back to correct your errors. I have elsewhere told you, that it must be Jiow or never. And yet have you time to spare on vanity ?

* Quest. 7. Do you mark what dying men say of time, and how they value it ? (unless they be blocks that are past feeling.) How ordinarily, do good and bad then wish, that they had spent time better, and cry out, O that it were to spend again! Then they are promising, O if it were to do again, we would spend that time in heavenly lives, and fruit-fjil obedience, which we spent in curiosity, idleness, and superfluous sensual delights ! Then they cry, O that God would renew our time, and once more try us how we will spend it! Alas! sirs, why should wise men so much differ in health and sickness? Why should that time be vilified now, which will seem so precious then ?

* Quest. 8. How think you the miserable souls in hell would value time, if they were again sent hither, and tried with it again on the terms as we are ? Would they feast ii away, and play it away, as you do now; and then say. Are not plays, and cards, and feastings lawful ? Every fool will be wise too late. (Matt. xxv. 3. 8. 11.) Bethink you what

their experience teacheth them, and let warning make you wise more seasonably, and at a cheaper rate.

* Quest, 9. Do you believe that you must give an account of your time ? and that you must look back from eternity on the time which you now spend? If you do, what account will then be most comfortable to you ? Had you not rather then find upon your accounts that all your hours have been spent to the best advantage of your souls, than that abundance of them have been cast away on fruitless toys ? Will you have more comfort than in the hours which you spent in heart-searching, and heart-reforming, and learning and practising the word of God, or in those which you spent upon needless sports, curiosity, or idleness ? Do now as you would desire you had done.

* Quest, 10. How do you now wish that you had spent the time which is already past? Had you not rather that it had been spent in fruitful holiness, and good works, than in idleness, and fleshly pleasures ? If not, you have not so much as a shadow of repentance ; and therefore can have no just conceit that you are forgiven ? If yea, then why will you do that for the time to come, which you wish for the time past that you had never done ? And hereby shew that your repentance is hypocritical, and will not prove the pardon of your sin ? For so far as any man truly repenteth, he is resolved not to do the like, if it were to do again, under the like temptations

* Quest. 11. Do you know who attendeth you while you are loitering away your time ? 1 have elsewhere told you, that the patience and mercy of God is waiting on you; that Christ is offering you his grace, and the Holy Spirit moving you to a wiser and a better course : that sun and moon, and all the creatures here on earth, are offering you their service ; besides ministers and all other helpers of your salvation; and must all these wait upon you while you serve the flesh, and vilify your time, and live as for nothing ?

* Quest, 12. Do you consider what you lose in the loss of time? That time which you are gaming or idling away, you might have spent in entertaining grace, in heavenly converse, in holy pleasures, in making your salvation sure. And all this you lose in your loss of time; which all your sports will never compensate.

* Quest, 13. Is the devil idle while you are idle ? Night

and day he is seeking to devour you ; and will you, like the silly bird, sit chirping and singing in your wanton pleasures, when the devil's gun is ready to give fire at you ? If you saw but how busy he is about you, and for what, you would be busier yourselves for your own preservation, and less busy in doing nothing than you are.

* Quest, 14. Do you really take Christ, and his apostles and saints, to be the fittest pattern for the spending of your time? If you do not, why do you usurp the name of Christians ? Is he a Christian who would not live like a Christian ? or that taketh not Christ for his master and example? But if you say, Yea ; I pray you then tell us how much time Christ or any of his apostles did spend at cards, or dice, or stage plays ? how mu<ih in curiosity about dressing and superfluous ornaments; about unnecessary pomp and courtship ? how much in sluggishness, idleness, and vain discourse? or how much in furnishing their bodies, their attendants, their habitations with matter of splendour and vainglory ? Did they waste so much of the day in nothings and need-nots, as our slothful, sensual gentry do? or did they not rather spend their time in holy living, and fervent praying, and in doing all the good they could to the souls and bodies of all about them? and in the labours of a lawful bodily employment? Write after this copy, rather than after that which is set by the sensual fools of the world, if you make any account of God's acceptance ! Do as ihe saints did, if you will speed as they: or else for shame never honour their names and memorials to your own condemnation! If you will spend your time as the flesh and the world teach you, rather than as Christ hath taught you, you must look for your payment from the flesh and the world. And why then in baptism did you renounce them and vow to follow Christ? "Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap; for he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." (Gal. vi. 7, 8.) Bethink you what the reason was that the ancient fathers and churches, so much condemned the going to the spectacles of theatres; and why the canons made it such a crime for a minister to play at dice. (Read Dr. Jo. Reignolds, his Cloud of Witnesses of all sorts against Stage-plays.)

* Reader, if thou think this counsel or reprehension too precise or strict, grant me but this reasonable request, and I have my end. Live in the world but with k soul that is awake, that soberly considereth what haste time maketh ; and how quickly thy glass will be run out; how fast death is coming, and how soon it will be with thee! What a work is it to get a carnal, unprepared soul to be renewed and made holy, and fitted for another world ! What a terrible thing it will be to lie on a deathbed with a guilty conscience, unready to die, and utterly uncertain whither thou must next go, and where thou must abide for ever ! Foresee but what use of thy present time will be most pleasing or displeasing to thy thoughts at last, and spend it now but as thou wilt wish thou hadst spent it; and value it, but as it is valued by all when it is gone ; use it but as true reason telleth thee will make most to thy endless happiness, and as is most agreeable to the ends of thy creation and redemption; and as beseemeth that man who soberly and often thinketh what it is to be either in heaven or hell for ever, and to have no more but this present short, uncertain life, to decide that question, 'which must be thy lot?* and to make all the preparation that ever must be made for an endless life. I say, do but thus lay out thy time as reason should command a reasonable creature, and I desire no more. I have warned thee in the words of truth and faithfulness ; the Lord give thee a heart to take this warning!

Thy compassionate Monitor,

R. BAXTER.

September 23, 1667.

THE END OP REDEMPTION OF TIME.

MR. BAXTER'S PREFACE

TO

MR. ALLEINE'S ARLAM.

TO ALL THE IGNORANT, CARNAL, AND UNGODLY, WHO ARE

LOVERS OF PLEASURE MORE THAN GOD, AND SEEK THIS

WORLD MORE THAN THE LIFE EVERLASTING, AND

LIVE AFIER THE FLESH, AND NOT AFTER

THE SPIRIT.

He that hath an Ear to hear, let him hear.

MISERABLE SOUL !

There is that life, and light, and love, in every true be-liver, but especially in every faithful minister of Christ, which engageth them to long and labour for your salvation. Life is communicative and active ; itmaketh us sensible that faith is not a fantasy, nor true religion a stage-play, nor our hopes of our eternal happiness a dream. And as we desire nothing more for ourselves, than to have more of the holy life which we have, alas! in so small a measure; so what is it that we should more desire for others? With the eye of an infallible (though too weak) faith we see the heaven which you neglect, and the blessed souls in glory with Christ, whose companions you might be for ever: we see the multitude of souls in hell, who came thither by the same way that you are going in ; who are shut out of the glorious presence of God, and are now among these devils that deceived them, remembering that they had their good things here ; (Luke xvi. 25 ;) and how they spent the day of their visitation, and how light they once set by God, by Christ, by heaven, by mercy, whilst mercy was an earnest solicitor for their hearts. And with our bodily eyes we see at the same time abundance of poor sinners living about us, as if

there were no God, no Christ, no heaven, no hell, no judgment, no, nor death, to be expected ; as if a man were but a master-beast, to rule the rest, and feed upon them, and perish with them. And if it were your own case, to see what souls do in heaven and hell, and at once see how unbelievingly, carelessly, and senselessly, most men live on earth, as if there were no such difference in another world, would it not seem a pitiful sight to you? If you had once seen the five brethren of Dives on earth, eating, drinking, laughing, and merry; clothed, and faring daily with the best, and at the same time seen their brother's soul in hell, begging in vain for a little ease, and wishing in vain that one from the dead might go warn his brethren, that they come not to the place of torment, would it not seem to you a pitiful sight ? Would not pity have made you think, * Is there no way to open these gentlemen's eyes ? No way to acquaint them what is become of their brother, and where Lazarus is, and whither they themselves are going; no one driveth or forceth them to hell, and will they go thither of themselves ? And is there no way to stop them, or keep them back V Did you but see yourselves what we see by faith, (believing God) and at once behold the saints in heaven, the lost despairing souls in hell, and the senseless, sensual sinners on earth, that yet will lay none of this to heart, sure it would make you wonder at the stupidity of mankind. Would you not say, O what a deceiver is the devil, that can thus lead on souls to their own damnation ! O what a cheater is this transitory world, that can make men so forget the world where they must live for ever! O what an enemy is this flesh, that thus draweth down men's souls from God ! O what a besotting thing is sin, that turneth a reasonable soul into worse than a beast! What a bedlam is this wicked world, when thousands are so busily labouring to undo themselves and others, and gratifying the devil, against the God and Saviour who would give them everlasting blessed life!

And as we have such a sight as this by faith to make us pity you, so have we so much taste of the goodness of God, the sweetness of his ways, and the happiness of believers, as must needs make us wish that you had but once tried the same delights, which would turn the pleasures of sin into detestation. God knoweth that we desire nothing

PREFACE TO ALLEINE's ALARM. 537

more for ourselves than the perfection and eternity of this holiness and happiness which we believe and taste. And should we not desire the same for you?

And being thus moved with necessary pity, we ask of God what he would have us to do for your salvation. And he hath told us in Scripture, that the preaching of his Gospel, to acquaint you plainly with the truth, and earnestly and frequently entreat you to turn from the flesh and world, to God by Jesus Christ, is the means with which his grace is ready to concur for your salvation, when obstinate resistance causeth the Holy Spirit to forsake the sinner, and leave him to himself, to follow his own counsels, lusts, and wills.

In this hope we undertook the sacred ministry, and gave up ourselves to this great and most important work. In the great sense of our unworthiness, but yet in the sense of your souls* necessity, we were not such fools at our first setting out, as not to know it must be a life of labour, self-denial, and patience, and the devil would do his worst to hinder us, and t'.iat all sorts of his instruments would be ready to serve him against our labours, and against your souls. Christ our Captain saved by patient conquest, and so must we save ourselves and you : and so must you save yourselves under Christ, if ever you be saved. It was no strange thing to Paul that bonds and afflictions did every where abide him; nor did he account his life dear that he might finish his course with joy, and the ministry committed to him by the Lord. (Acts xx. 23, 24.) It was no strange thing to him to be forbidden to preach to the Gentiles, that they might be saved, by such as were filling up the measure of their sins, and were under God's utmost wrath on earth. (1 Thess. ii. 15, 16.) Devils and Pharisees, and most where they came, both high and low, were against the apostles' preaching of the Gospel, and yet they would not sacrilegiously and cruelly break their covenant with Christ, and perfidiously desert the souls of men, even as their Lord for the love of souls did call Peter Satan, that would have tempted him to save his life and flesh, instead of making it a sacrifice for our sins. (Matt. xvi. 33.)

What think you should move us to undertake a calling so contrary to our fleshly ease and interest? Do we not

know the way of ease and honour, of wealth and pleasure, as well as others ? And have not we flesh as well as others ? Could we not be content that the cup of reproach, and scorn, and slander, and poverty, and labours, might pass from us, if it were not for the will of God and your salvation? Why should we love to be the lowest, and trodden down by malignant pride, and counted as the filth of the world, and the ofFscouring of all things, and represented to rulers whom we honour, as schismatics, disobedient, turbulent, unruly, by every church usurper whom we refuse to make a God of? Why give we not over this preaching of the Gospel at the will of Satan, that is for the everlasting suffering of your souls, under the pretence of making us suffer? Is not all this that you may be converted and saved ? If we be herein besides ourselves, it is for you. Could the words of the ignorant or proud have persuaded us that either your wants and dangers are so inconsiderable, or your other supplies and helps sufficient, that our labours had been unnecessary to you, God knoweth we should have readily obeyed the silencing sort of pastors, and have betaken us to some other land, where our service had been more necessary. Let shame be the hypocrite's reward, who taketh not the saving of souls, and the pleasing of God, for a sufficient reward, without ecclesiastical dignities, preferments, or worldly wealth.

I have told you our motives ; I have told you our business, and the terms of our undertaking. It is God and you, sinners, that next must tell us what our entertainment and success shall be. Shall it still be neglect, and unthankful contempt, and turning away your ears and heart, and saying, we have somewhat else to mind ? Will you still be cheated by this deceiving world ? and spend all your days in pampering your appetites, and providing for your flesh, that must lie rotting very shortly in a grave ? Were you made for no better work than this ? May not we bring you to some sober thoughts of your condition, not one hour seriously to think whither you are going ? What! not one awakened look into the world where you must be for ever ? Nor one heart-raising thought of everlasting glory ? Not one heart-piercing thought of all your Saviour's love, nor one tear for all your sinful lives ! O God forbid ! Let not our labours be so de-

spised. Let not your God, your Saviour, and your souls, be set so light by. O let there be no profane person among you like Esau, who for one morsel sold his birthright.

Poor sinners! we talk not to you as on a stage in customary words, and because that talking thus was our trade. We are in as good earnest with you as if we saw you all murdering yourselves, and we are persuading you to save yourselves. Can any man be in jest with you who believeth God ? Who by faith foreseeth whither you are going, and what you lose, and where the game of sin will end ? It is little better to jest with you now in a pulpit or in private, than to stand jesting over your departing souls when at death you are breathing out your last.

Alas ! with shame and grief we do confess, that we never speak to you of these things as their truth and weight deserve : not with the skill and wisdom, the affection and fervency, which beseemeth men engaged in the saving of poor souls. But yet you may perceive that we are in good sadness with you. (For God is so.) What else do we study for, labour for, suffer for, live for? Why else do we so much trouble ourselves, and trouble you with all this ado, and anger them that would have made us silent ? For my own part, I will make my free confession to you to my shame. That I never grew cold, and dull, and pitiless to the souls of others, till 1 first grew too cold and careless of my own (unless when weakness or speculative studies cool me, which I must confess they often do). We never cease pitying you till we are growing too like you, and so have need of pity ourselves.

When, through the mercy of my Lord, the prospect of the world of souls, which I am going to, hath any powerful operation on myself, O then I could spend and be spent for others. No words are too earnest, no labour too great, no cost too dear ; the frowns and wrath of malignant opposers of the preaching of Christ's Gospel are nothing to me. But when the world of spirits disappear, or my soul is clouded, and receiveth not the vital, illuminating influences of heaven, I grow cold, first to myself, then to others.

Come then, poor sinners, and help us, who are willing at any rate to be your helpers. As we first crave God's help, so we next crave yours. Help us, for we cannot save you against your wills, nor save you without your consent and

540 PREFACE TO ALLEINE's ALARM.

help ; God himself will not save you without you, and how shall we know that the devil is against us, and will do his worst to hinder us ; and so will all his ministers, by what names or titles soever dignified or distinguished ? But all this is nothing, if you will but take our parts yourselves ; I mean, if you will take Christ's part, and your own, and will not be against yourselves. Men and devils cannot either help or hinder us in saving you as you may do yourselves. If God and you be for us, who should be against us ?

And will you help us ? Give over striving against God and conscience ; give over fighting against Christ and his Spirit. Take part no more with the world and the flesh, which in your baptism you renounced. Set your hearts to the message which we bring you. Allow it your manlike, sober thoughts ; search the Scriptures, and see whether the things we speak be so or no. We offer you nothing but what we have resolvedly chosen ourselves, and that after the most serious deliberation that we can make. We have many a time looked round about us, to know what is the happiness of man; and had we found better for ourselves, we had offered better to you. If the world would have served our turns, it should have served yours also, and we would not have troubled you with the talk of another world ; but it will not, I am sure it will not serve your turns to make you happy; nor shall you long make that sorry, self-deceiving shift with it as now you do.

But if you will not think of these things, if you will not use the reason of men, alas, what can we do to save your souls? O pity them. Lord, that they may pity themselves. Have mercy on them, that they may have some more mercy on themselves. Help them, that they may help themselves and us. If you still refuse, will not your loss be more than ours ? If we lose our labour (which to ourselves we shall not), if we lose our hopes of your salvation, what is this to your everlasting loss of salvation itself? And what is our sufferings for your sakes, in comparison of your endless sufferings ?

But O, this is it that breaketh our hearts, that we leave you under more guilt than we found you ; and when we have laid out life and labour to save you, the impenitent souls must have their pains increased for their refusing of these rails. And that it will be part of your hell to think

PREFACE TO ALLEINe's ALARM. 541

for ever how madly you refused our counsel, and what pains, and cost, and patience, were used to have saved you, and all in vain. It will be so. It must needs be so. Christ saith, " It shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for the rejecters of his Gospel-calls. The nature of the thing, and the nature of justice, certainly tell you that it must be so.

O turn not our complaints to God against you! Turn us not from beseeching you to be reconciled to God, to tell him you will not be reconciled. Force us not to say, that we earnestly invited you to the heavenly feast, and you would not come. Force us not to hear this witness against you. Lord, we could have borne all our labour and sufferings for them much more easy, if they would but have yielded to thy grace. But it was they themselves that broke our hearts, that lost our labour, that made us preach and entreat in vain: it was easier to preach without maintenance than without success. It was they that were worse to us than all the persecutors in the world. How oft would we have gathered them, but they would not, but are un-gathered still? How many holy, faithful ministers have I known these eleven years last past who have lived in pining poverty and want, and hardly by charity got bread and clothing, and yet if they could but have truly said, * Lord, the sermons which I preach privately, and in danger, have won many souls to thee,' it would have made all their burden easy. But I tell thee, senseless and impenitent sinner, thou that deniest God in t*hy heart, and thou that deniest them thy conversion, which was the end of all their labours, hast , dealt much more cruelly with them than they that denied the Levites bread.

Poor sinners! 1 know that I am speaking all this to those that are dead in sin, but it is a death consisting with a natural life; which hath a capacity of spiritual life; or else I would no more speak to you than to a stone. And I know that you are blind in sin ; but it is a blindness consisting with a reasonable faculty, which is capable of spiritual illumination : or else I would no more persuade you than I do a beast. And I know that you are in the fetters of your own lusts ; your wills, your love, your hearts, are turned away from God, and strongly bewitched with the dreams and dalliances with the flesh and the world.

But your wills are not forced to this captivity. Surely those wills may be changed by God's grace, when you clearly see sufficient reason for to change them ; else I would as soon preach (were I capable) to devils and damned souls. Your case is not yet desperate, O make it not desperate ! There is just the same hope of your salvation as there is of your conversion and perseverance, and no more. Without it there is no hope. And with it you are safe, and have no cause to doubt and fear. Heaven may be yet yours, if you will. Nothing but your own wills, refusing Christ and a holy life, can keep you out. And shalt thou do it? Shall hell be your own choice ? And will you, I say, will you not be saved ?

O think better what you do! God's terms are reasonable : his word and ways are good and equal; Christ's yoke is easy, and his burden light, and his commandments are not grievous to any, but so far as blindness and a bad and backward heart doth make them so. You have no true reason to be unwilling ; God and conscience shall one day tell you and all the world, that you have no reason for it. You may as wisely pretend reason to cut your throats, to torment yourselves, as plead reason against a true conversion unto God. Were 1 persuading you not to kill yourselves, I would make no question but you would be persuaded. And yet must I be hopeless when I persuade you from everlasting misery, and not to prefer the world and flesh before your Saviour and your God, and before a sure everlasting joy ? God forbid.

Reader, I take it for a great mercy of God, that before my head lieth down in the dust, and I go to give up my account unto my Judge, I have this opportunity once more earnestly to bespeak thee for thy own salvation. I beg it of thee as one that must shortly be called away, and speak to thee no more till we come unto our endless state, that thou wouldst but sometimes retire into thyself, and use the reason of a man, and look before thee whither thou art going, and look behind thee how thou hast lived, and what thou hast been doing in the world till now; and look within thee, what a case thy soul is in, and whether it be ready to enter upon eternity ; and look above thee, what a heaven of glory thou dost neglect, and what God |.hou hast to be thine everlasting friend or enemy, as thou choosest, and as thou livest; and

that thou art always in his sight Yea, and look below thee, and think where they are that died unconverted. And when thou hast soberly thought of all these things, then do as God and true reason shall direct thee. And is this an unreasonable request? I appeal to God, and to all wise men, and to thine own conscience, when it shall be awakened. If I speak against thee, or if all this be not for thy good, or if it be not true and sure, then regard not what I say. If I speak not that message which God hath commanded his ministers to speak, then let it be refused as contemptuously as thou wilt. But if I do but in Christ's name and stead beseech thee to be reconciled to God, (2 Cor. v. 19, 20,) refuse it at thy peril. And if God's beseeching thee shall not prevail against thy sloth, lust, thy appetite, against the desires of the flesh, against the dust and shadows of the world, remember it when with fruitless cries and horror thou art beseeching him too late.

I know, poor sinner, that flesh is brutish, and lust and appetite have no reason. But I know that thou hast reason thyself, which was given tliee to overrule them ; and that he that will not be a man, cannot be a saint, nor a happy man. I know that thou livest in a tempting and a wicked world, where things or persons will be daily hindering thee. . But 1 know that this is no more to a man that by faith seeth heaven and hell before him, than a grain of sand is to a kingdom, or a blast of wind to one that is fighting or flying for his life. (Luke xii. 4.) O man! that thou didst but know the difference between that which the devil and sin will give thee, if thou wilt sell thy soul and heaven, and that which God hath promised and sworn to give thee, if thou wilt heartily give up thyself to him. I know thou mayest possibly fall into company (at least among some sots and drunkards) that will tell thee, all this is but troublesome preciseness, and making more ado than needs. But I know withal what that man deserveth who will believe a fool before his Maker. (For he can be no better than a miserable fool that will contradict and revile the word of God, even the word of grace, that would save men's souls.)

And, alas, it is possible thou mayest hear some of the tribe of Levi (or rather of Cain,) deriding this serious godliness as mere hypocrisy, and fanaticism, and self-conceited-ness: as if you must be no better than the devil's slaves.

lest you be proud in thinking that you are better than they ; that is, you must go with them to hell, lest in heaven ye be proud hypocrites for thinking yourselves happier than they.

It maybe they will tell you, that this talk of conversion is fitter for pagans and infidels to hear, than Christians and Protestants ; because such men's big looks or coat may make the poison the more easily taken down. I will entreat thee but as before God to answer these following questions, or to get them answered, and then judge whether it be they or we that would deceive thee: and whether as men use to talk against learning that have none themselves, so such men prate not against conversion, and the Spirit of God, because they have no such thing themselves.

Quest. 1. I pray ask them whether it be a puritan or fanatic opinion that men must die ? And what all the pomp, and wealth, and pleasure of the world will signify to a departing soul ? Ask them, whether they will live on earth for ever,and their merry hours, and lordly looks, will have no end ? And whether it be but the conceit of hypocrites and schismatics that their carcase must be rotting in a darksome grave.

Quest. 2. Ask them whether a man have not an immortal soul, and a longer life to live when this is ended ? (Luke xii.41.)

Quest. 3. Ask them whether reason require not every man to think more seriously of the place or state where he must be for ever, than of that where he must be for a little while, and from whence he is posting day and night ? And whether it be not wiser to lay up our treasure where we must stay, than where we must not stay, but daily look to be called away, and never more to be seen on earth ? (Matt. vi. 19,20; 2 Cor. iv. 16—18; v. 1—3. 6—8.)

Quest. 4. Ask them whether God should not be loved with all our heart, and soul, and might? (Matt. xxii. 27.) And whether it be not the mark of an ungodly miscreant to be a lover of pleasure more than God. (2 Tim. iii, 4.) And a lover of this world above him? (1 John ii. 15, 16.) And whether we must not seek first God*s kingdom, and his righteousness, (Matt. vi. 33,) and labour most for the meat that never perisheth. (John vi. 27.) And strive to enter in at the straight gate. (Luke xiii. 24.) And give all diligence to make our calling and election sure? (2 Peter i. 10.)

Quest. 5. Ask them whether without holiness any shall see God? (Heb. xii. 14; Matt. v. 8; Titus ii. 14.) And

whether the carnal mind is not enmity to God, and to be carnally minded is not death, and to be spiritually minded is life and peace ? And whether if you live after the flesh you shall not die, and be condemned? And they shall live and be saved that walk after the Spirit ? And whether any man be Christ's that hath not his Spirit? (Rom. viii. 1.5—10.

Quest. 6. Ask them whether any man have a treasure in heaven, whose heart is not there? (Matt. vi. 21.) And whether this be not the difference between the wicked and the godly, that the first do make their bellies their Gods, and mind earthly thingjs, and are enemies to the cross of Christ, (though perhaps not his name:) and the latter have their conversation in heaven, and being risen with Christ, do seek and set their affections on things above, and not on things that are on earth, to which they are as dead, and their life is hid (or out of sight) with Christ in God, till Christ appear, and then they shall appear, (even openly to all the world,) with him in glory? (Phil. iii. 18—20 ; Col.iv. 1—5.)

Quest, 7. Ask them whether it be credible or suitable to God's word or working, that he that will not give them the fruits of the earth without their labour, nor feed and clothe them without themselves, will yet bring them to heaven without any care, desire or labour of their own ? When he hath bid him care not for the one, and called for their greatest diligence for the other. (Matt. vi. 23.25.33; John vi. 27.) Yea, ask them whether these be not the two first articles of all faith and religion: 1. That God is : 2. That he is the re-warder of them that diligently seek him? (Heb. xi. 6.)

Quest, 8. Ask them, yea, ask your eyes, your ears, your daily experience in the world, whether all or most that call themselves Christians, do in good sadness thus live to God in the Spirit, and mortify the flesh with its affections and lusts, and seek first God's kingdom and righteousness, love him above all, and lay up treasure and heart in heaven; or rather, whether most be not lovers of the world, and lovers of pleasures more than God, and live not after the flesh, and mind not most the things of the flesh? I mention not now the drunkards, the fleshpleasing gentlemen, that live in pride, fulness, and idleness, and sport, and play away their precious time, nor the filthy fornicator, nor the merci-

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less oppressors, nor the malignant haters of a godly life, nor the perjured and perfidious betrayers of men's souls and of the Gospel, or of their country's good, nor such other men of seared conscience whose misery none questioneth, but such as are blind and miserable. It is not those only I am speaking of, but the common, worldly, fleshly, and ungodly ones.

Quest. 9. Ask them whether the name of a Christian will save any of these ungodly persons ? And whether God will like men the better for lying, and calling themselves Christians, when they are none indeed ? And whether they dare preach to the people that a Christian drunkard, or a Christian fornicator, or oppressor, or a Christian worldling need-eth no conversion.

Quest. 10. Ask them whether they say not themselves that hypocrisy is a great aggravation of all other sins^ And whether God hath not made the hypocrites and unbelievers to be the standards in hell? (Luke xxv. 51.) And whether seeking to abuse God by a mock religion, do make such false Christians better than poor heathens and infidels, or much worse ? And whether he be not an hypocrite that professeth to be a Christian, and a servant of God, when he is none, nor will be? And whether he that knoweth his master's will, and doth it not, shall not have the sorest stripes or punishment? (Luke x. 47.)

Quest. 11. Ask them whether in their baptism (which is their christenings as a covenant,) they did not renounce the flesh, the world and the devil, and vow and deliver up themselves to God their Father, their Saviour, and their Sanctifier? And whether all or most men perform this vow? And whether a pegured covenant-breaker against God, is fitter for salvation than one that never was baptized ?

Quest. 12. Ask them whether the holy nature of God, be not so contrary to sin, as that it is blasphemy to say that he will bring to heaven, and into the bosom of his eternal delights, any unholy, unrenewed soul? (1 Pet. i. 15, 16.)

Quest. 13. Ask them why it was that Christ came into the world ? Whether it was not to save his people from their sins; (Matt. i. 21 ;) and to destroy the works of the devil; (1 John iii. 8;) and to purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works j (Titus ii. 11;) and to bring

him home straying souls to God; (Luke xv;) and to be the way to the Father ? (John xiii. 6.) And whether Christ will save that soul that is not converted by him, and saved from his sins ? Or whether it be the dead image only of a crucified Jesus that is all their Saviour while they will have no more of him?

Quest. 14. Ask them why they believe, and were baptized into the Holy Ghost ? And whether a man can enter into the kingdom of heaven that is not born of the Spirit as well as of water ; (John iii. 3. 5, 6;) and that is not converted, and begins not the world as it were anew, in a teachable, tractable newness of life, like a little child ? (Matt, xviii. 3.) And whether it be not a certain truth, that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his. (Rom. viii. 9.)

Quest. 15. Ask them why Christ gave the world so many warnings of the damnableness of the Pharisees' hypocrisy, if hypocritical Christians may be saved ? And what were these Pharisees ? They were the masters of the Jewish church : the rabbies that must have high places, high titles, and ceremonies, formal garments, and must be reverenced of all. That gave God lip-service without the heart, and made void his commands, and worshipped him in vain, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, and strictly titheth the mint and cummin, while lovely mercy and justice were past by? Who worshipped God with an abundance of ceremonies, and build the tombs, and garnish the sepulchres of the saints, while they killed and persecuted those that did imitate them, and hated the living saints, and honoured the dead. They were the bitterest enemies and murderers of Christ on pretence that he was a blasphemer, and a seditious enemy to Caesar and the common peace, and one that spake against the temple. They were the greatest enemies of the apostles, and silencers of those that preached Christ's Gospel, and persecuted them that called upon his name. And had these no no need of conversion because they could say, God is our Father, (when the devil was their father, John viii. 44,) and they were Abraham's seed. And are not hypocritical Christians, drunken Christians, fornicating Christians, carnal, worldly, infidel Christians, (the contradiction is your own) persecuting Christians, false-named.

548 PREFACE TO ALLEINE's ALARM.

hypocritical Christians ; as bad, yea, worse, as they abuse a more excellent profession? (Matt. xv. 7, 8 ; xxiii; xxii. 18; vi. 2, &c.; Luke xii. 1.)

Quest. 16. Doth not the holy state of heaven require holiness in all that shall possess it? Can an unholy soul there see, and love, and praise, and delight, in God for ever, and in the holy society and employment of the saints ? (Rev. xxi. 27.) Is he not more like a Mahometan than a Christian, that looketh for a sensual and unholy heaven?

Quest, 17. What is the difference between the church and the world ? Is not the church a holy society of regenerate souls ? Yea, the church visible is only those that in baptism vow holiness, and profess it. Look those hypocrites in the face, and see whether they do not blush when they repeat in the creed, * I believe in the Holy Ghost. I believe in the holy catholic church, and the communion of saints,' who shall have the ' forgiveness sins, and life everlasting.' Ask them whether they mean holy adulterers, holy worldlings, holy perjured persons? Ask them whether they mean a communion of saints in a tavern, in a playhouse, in a gaminghouse, in a whorehouse, or a jesting, canting, stageplay communion ? If the church be holy, be holy if you will be of the church: if it be a communion of saints, make it not a communion of swine, and make not saints and their communion seem odious either for their infirmities, or their crossness to your carnal interests or conceits.

Quest, 18. Ask them whether there be a heaven and a hell or not? If not, why are they pretended Christians? If there be, will God send one man to heaven, and another to hell, to so vast, so amazing a difference of states, if there be no great difference between them here ? If holiness no more differenced Christians from others, than hearing a sermon, or saying over a prayer doth difference one from an infidel, where were the justice of God in saving some, and damning others ? And what were Christianity better than the religion of Antonine, Plato, Socrates, Seneca, Cicero, Plutarch, if not much worse ? Go into London streets, and when you have talked with living, prudent men; then go to the painter's-shop and see a comely picture; and to the looking-glass, and see the appearance of each passenger in a glass; and to the perriwig-shops and set a wooden-head

PREFACE TO ALLEINE's ALARM. 549

with a perriwig upon the bulk, and you have seen something like the difference of a holy soul, and of a dead and dressed formal hypocrite. (Psal. xxiii. 27.)

Quest. 19. Ask them whether kings, and all men, make not a great difference between man and man ; the loyal and perfidious, the obedient and disobedient? And whether they difference not themselves between a friend and foe;- one that loveth them, and one that robbeth, beateth, or would kill them? And shall not the most holy God make more difference between the righteous and the wicked ? (Mal.iii. 17,18.)

Quest. 20. But if they are dead in every point, save carnal interests, ask them why they are preachers or priests ? And if conversion and holiness be a needless thing, what life they themselves are of? And why the country must be troubled with them, and pay them tithes, and give them reverence ? When these twenty questions are well answered, conclude that you may be saved without conversion.

But if, poor soul, thou art fully convinced, and askest what should I do to be converted ? The Lord make thee willing, and save thee from hypocrisy, and I will quickly tell thee in a few words.

1. Give not over sober thinking of these things till thy heart be changed. (Psal. cxix. 69.)

2. Come to Christ, and take him for thy Saviour, thy Teacher, thy King, and he will pardon all that is past, and save thee. (John i. 12 i iii. 16; v. 40 ; IJohn v. 11, 12.)

3. Believe God's love, and the pardon of sin, and the everlasting joys of heaven, that thou mayest feel that all the pleasure of the world and flesh are dung in comparison of the heavenly delight of faith, and hope, and holy love, and peace of conscience, and sincere obedience.

4. Sin no more wilfully, but forbear that which thou mayest forbear. (Isa. Iv. 7.)

5. Away from temptations, occasion of sin and evil company, and be a companion of the humble, holy, heavenly and sincere. (Psal. cxix. 115. 63.)

6. Wait on God's Spirit in the diligent, constant use of his own means. Read, hear, meditate, pray ; pray hard for that grace that must convert thee. Wait thus, and thou shalt not wait in vain. (Psal. xxv; xxxvii. 34; Ixix. 6.)

Pity, O Lord, and persuade the souls ; let not Christ's

550 PREFACE TO ALLEINE's ALARM.

blood, his doctrine, his example, his Spirit be lost unto them, and they lost for ever. Let not heaven be as no heaven to them, while they dream and dote on the shadows in this world. And O save this land from the greater destruction than all our late plagues, and flames, and divisions, which our sins and thy threatenings makes us fear. O Lord, in thee have we trusted, let us never be confounded.

R. BAXTER.

END OF THE THIRTEENTH VOLUME.

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