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<DATE>2008-10-01</DATE>
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<NAME>John Pas</NAME>
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<P>THE WEARY TRAVELLER HIS <HI>Eternal Re&s;t,</HI> BEING A DISCOURSE of that Ble&s;&s;ed Re&s;t here, which leads to endle&s;s Re&s;t hereafter.</P>
<P>By <HI>H. H.</HI> D. D. Rector of <HI>Snaylwell,</HI> and Canon of <HI>Ely.</HI></P>
<Q><BIBL><HI>Matt. 11.29.</HI></BIBL>
<P>Take my Yoak upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye &s;hall find Re&s;t unto your Souls.</P></Q>
<Q><P>There remains there|fore a Re&s;t to the People of God,</P> 
<BIBL><HI>Heb. 4.9.</HI></BIBL></Q>
<P><HI>LONDON:</HI> Printed by <HI>A. G.</HI> and <HI>J. P.</HI> for <HI>R. Clavell,</HI> at the <HI>Peacock</HI> in St. <HI>Paul</HI>'s Church-yard. 1681.</P>
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<DIV1 TYPE="dedication">
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<HEAD>TO THE Right Reverend Father in God <HI>And my ever honoured Lord,</HI> PETER, Lord Bi&s;hop of <HI>Ely.</HI></HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>MY LORD,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>_MANY have labou|red, and weari|ed them&s;elves in a re&s;tle&s;s enquiry after a perpetual Motion, who&s;e
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thoughts might have been employed to better purpo&s;e in finding out perpetual Re&s;t: There is no Man living but would have Re&s;t, all our labours, all endeavours tend that way: Your Lord|&s;hips unwearied Active Mo|tion, in the high place and calling, in which Divine Providence hath &s;et Your Lord&s;hip, leads undoubtedly, in a direct line, to this de&s;ired Re&s;t; and as all
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natural Motions make more ha&s;t, as they come nearer their Center, &s;o Your Lord|&s;hips more vigorous, and cheerful moving in this holy Function, makes us jealous, le&s;t Your Lord&s;hip &s;hould make more ha&s;t to an Eter|nal Re&s;t in the Church Tri|umphant, than &s;tands with the intere&s;t of the pre&s;ent Church Militant, in which Your Lord&s;hips Care and Government, have been &s;o
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eminent, and are &s;till &s;o nece&s;&s;ary: To no other there|fore could I more advi&s;edly addre&s;s the&s;e Meditations of Re&s;t, than to the ble&s;&s;ed hand of a Patron, who&s;e indefatigable labours have &s;o fairly entituled him, to all the promi&s;es of this mo&s;t glorious and ble&s;&s;ed Re&s;t. Nor comes this under Your Lord&s;hips Protection with|out de&s;ign, for having once taken Sanctuary there, and
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pa&s;t the dread it hath of Your Lord&s;hips view, I &s;hall not need for ever af|ter be &s;ollicitous, what Eye it may be expo&s;ed unto for its cen&s;ure. But if it be asked why I (after &s;o many pious, devout, excelling di&s;cour&s;es of this nature) &s;hould ca&s;t my Mite at la&s;t into this Sacred Trea&s;ury; the poor Widow in the Go&s;|pel &s;hall an&s;wer for me, who at the &s;ame time when &s;he
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beheld the richer Offerings of the wealthy, thrown frankly in before her Eyes, yet held &s;he not her &s;elf thereby excu&s;ed: And that this (though the meane&s;t of all oblations that have gone before it) may yet contribute &s;omething, towards the &s;afe conducting &s;ome drooping Travellers, that are weary and heavy laden, to their long home, their la&s;t and happy Eternal Re&s;t, hath
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been &s;incerely in the de&s;ires, and &s;hall for ever be in the Prayers of,</P>
<CLOSER><SALUTE>MY LORD,</SALUTE>
<SIGNED>Your Lord&s;hips mo&s;t devoted obedient Son, and mo&s;t obliged humble Servant, HEN. HARRISON.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
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<DIV1 TYPE="errata">
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<HEAD>ERRATA.</HEAD>
<P>PAge 25. Line 26. <HI>for <GAP DESC="foreign"> read</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign"> p. 45. l. 22. <HI>f.</HI> &s;atisfied <HI>r.</HI> fal&s;ified. p. 77. l. 11. Comma <HI>at</HI> &s;ees, <HI>and</HI> l. 13. the &s;en&s;e to go on without any new Para|graph. p. 87. l. 15. <HI>f.</HI> watchful <HI>r.</HI> wrathful. p. 114. l. 20. <HI>f.</HI> mode&s;ty <HI>r.</HI> in mode&s;ty. p. 143. l. 7. <HI>f.</HI> up <HI>r.</HI> it up. p. 144. l. 5. <HI>f.</HI> dwell <HI>r.</HI> duel. p. 152. l. 24. <HI>f.</HI> de&s;cend. <HI>r.</HI> de&s;cended. p. 153. l. 20. <HI>f.</HI> cea&s;e <HI>r.</HI> to cea&s;e. p. 180. l. 13. <HI>f. <GAP DESC="foreign"> r.</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">. p 184. l. 25. <HI>f.</HI> ea&s;ily <HI>r.</HI> ea&s;y. p. 213. l. 17. <HI>f.</HI> natural <HI>r.</HI> mutual. p. 218. l. 17. <HI>f.</HI> Wifes <HI>r.</HI> Wives.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="publisher's advertisement">
<HEAD>ADVERTISEMENT.</HEAD>
<P>THE general Catalogue of Books, Printed in <HI>England</HI> &s;ince the Year 1666. And a Catalogue of School-books. As al&s;o, a Catalogue of Latin Books Printed in Foreign Parts and in <HI>England</HI> &s;ince the Year 1670.</P>
<P><HI>Brutum Fulmen:</HI> or the Bull of Pope <HI>Pius</HI> V. concerning the Damnation, Excom|munication, and Depo&s;ition of Q. <HI>Elizabeth,</HI> as al&s;o the Ab&s;olution of her Subjects from their <HI>Oath of Allegiance,</HI> with a Peremptory Injunction, upon pain of an <HI>Anathema,</HI> never to obey any of her Laws or Com|mands, <HI>&amp;c.</HI></P>
<P>Both Printed for <HI>R. Clavel,</HI> at the <HI>Peacock</HI> in St. <HI>Paul</HI>'s Church-yard.</P>
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<HEAD>THE WEARY TRAVELLER HIS ETERNAL REST.</HEAD>
<P><HI>MAN goeth forth to his Work, and to his Labour, until the Evening;</HI> &s;aith the Royal Prophet, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 104.23. The day of his Life is &s;pent in a pain|ful and weary Travel, 'till the Even|ing come, 'till his declining Sun be fully &s;et, and he fitted to lie down in Peace, and enjoy the happy Re&s;t of a long en&s;uing night. But that Man, in this his day, might not di&s;quiet him&s;elf in vain; that he might not bear the heat and burthen of the day, and yet mi&s;s of this Re&s;t at night; the holy Apo&s;tle St. <HI>Paul</HI> writing to the <HI>Hebrews</HI> (and in them to all Chri&s;ti|ans) begins his fourth Chapter, with
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an Exhortation to <HI>Fear, le&s;t a Promi&s;e being left them of entering into God's Re&s;t, any of them &s;hould &s;eem to come &s;hort of it.</HI> Wherein he layes down the Ground and Motive of Hope, plainly implied in the &s;ame words; <HI>A promi&s;e being left them of entring into his Re&s;t;</HI> concluding the whole Chapter, with a mo&s;t cogent en|dearing invitation, <HI>to come boldly to the Throne of Grace, to obtain Mercy, and to find Grace to help in time of need;</HI> That &s;o he that went on his way weeping, and bearing forth good &s;eed, might doubtle&s;s come again with joy, and bring his &s;heaves with him; That he that went &s;ighing and groaning, under the weight and bur|then of his heavy load, might have no cau&s;e to faint, or de&s;pond in the way, nor &s;tart a&s;ide through the &s;ad affrightments of hopele&s;s <HI>fear. Hope</HI> and <HI>Fear</HI> (well temper'd together) are the two pre&s;ervatives of our Safety or Spiritual Life; they are that, which keep our Faith and
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Love, from de&s;pair on the one &s;ide, and from pre&s;umption on the other; from &s;lothful &s;ecurity on this hand, and tormenting di&s;tru&s;tful anxiety on the other. <HI>Fear,</HI> as the Rudder of the Ship, diverts our Souls, in their &s;ailings to Heaven, the Haven of their eternal Re&s;t, from the Quick|&s;ands and Rocks that are in the way; while <HI>Hope,</HI> as the Sails, filled with the breathings of God's Spirit, his faithful promi&s;es, carries us forward, again&s;t the tide or &s;tream of the World, our earthly de&s;ires, and carnal inclinations: Wherefore the wi&s;e Apo&s;tle, here, as every where el&s;e, throughout this, and his other Epi|&s;tles, &s;eeks to temper and mix the&s;e two, in the Souls of Chri&s;tians: And having exemplified the po&s;&s;i|bility, both of attaining, and al&s;o of lo&s;ing God's Re&s;t, in the ancient <HI>I&s;raelites, ch.</HI> 3. <HI>v.</HI> 7. to the end; now repeats, and pre&s;&s;eth the motives of Fear and Hope, upon the <HI>Hebrews,</HI> and in them on all Chri&s;tians. <HI>Let
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us therefore fear, le&s;t a promi&s;e being left us of entering into his Re&s;t, any of you &s;hould &s;eem to come &s;hort of it.</HI> Were the promi&s;e of Re&s;t unconditional and ab&s;olute unto &s;ome, and not at all propounded to others, with any feaziblene&s;s of attaining it, by a true po&s;&s;ibility of performing its conditions; the former &s;hould have no rea&s;on to fear, nor the latter to hope: But the promi&s;e being condi|tional and general, excluding none from God's Re&s;t, that will prepare them&s;elves for it, by faith, hope, and love unfeigned; &s;incere impartial per&s;evering obedience and patience; giving them full a&s;&s;urance of it, upon the evidence of their integrity in the&s;e things; inclu&s;ive of none, but &s;uch as entirely, humbly, thank|fully, believe and accept it on the&s;e terms: They that as yet neglect the&s;e terms, or are in danger of fal|ling away from their former dili|gence in ob&s;erving them, had need to fear, le&s;t they mi&s;s of it; and in
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that fear, work out their own Salva|tion, give all diligence to make their calling and election &s;ure; which as it &s;eems by St. <HI>Peter,</HI> is not &s;o, unle&s;s by <HI>adding to Faith Courage, to Cou|rage Knowledge, Godline&s;s, Charity, Temperance, Patience, more and more.</HI> Having the&s;e promi&s;es, dearly be|loved, &s;aith St. <HI>Paul,</HI> 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 7.1. The promi&s;es of a mo&s;t gracious reception, all the mercies of Heaven hereafter; with &s;o much on Earth, as is for our good; <HI>I will receive you, and be your Father, and you &s;hall be my Sons and Daughters,</HI> &s;aith the Lord Almighty. <HI>Having the&s;e promi&s;es, let us clean&s;e our &s;elves from all pol|lution of Fle&s;h and Spirit, perfecting Holine&s;s in the fear of God</HI> It &s;eems then, that humble fear of offending God, and lo&s;ing his promi&s;es, by not performing of their conditions (not coming out from among the wicked, or coming out, not clean&s;ing our &s;elves more and more, from all pollutions of Fle&s;h and Spirit) is
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not only the beginning of Wi&s;dom, as you have it el&s;ewhere, but perfect|ive of Holine&s;s, which is our only true Wi&s;dom. Were all that profe&s;s the Name and Go&s;pel of <HI>Chri&s;t Je&s;us,</HI> &s;incere profe&s;&s;ors; or were all that begin to be &s;o, &s;ecured for ever from cea&s;ing to be &s;o, by turning back to di&s;obedience and unbelief; Saint <HI>Paul,</HI> and St. <HI>Peter,</HI> would not thus both of them exhort to fear, <HI>le&s;t a promi&s;e being left them of entering into God's Rest, any of them &s;hould &s;eem to mi&s;s or fall &s;hort of it.</HI> But &s;ince it is &s;o clear and manife&s;t, that many profe&s;&s;ors in all Ages have been faithle&s;s, and hypocritical in their profe&s;&s;ion; and &s;ince it is &s;o di&s;pu|table at lea&s;t, nay highly probable, both from Scripture, and from rea|&s;on and experience, that many pro|fe&s;&s;ors &s;incere at fir&s;t, may prove back&s;liders, and fall away from their former righteou&s;ne&s;s, faith, and obe|dience; 'tis both the Duty and Wi&s;dom of all to fear, le&s;t any mi&s;s
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of the promi&s;es, for want of perform|ing &s;incerely and con&s;tantly the nece&s;&s;ary conditions annexed to them. Scarce is there any part of Divinity more dangerou&s;ly mi&s;ta|ken, corrupted, debauched, by the prejudices or intere&s;ts, pa&s;&s;ions or lu&s;ts of &s;everal Men, made more in&s;trumental, to flatter and cheri&s;h that &s;loth in good, or &s;ecurity in evil, for de&s;truction of which they were made or propounded, than that of the promi&s;es of <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> and his Go&s;pel. Some give them the in|clo&s;ure, or monopoly, as I may &s;o &s;ay, of our faith, while the precepts and threats, which have as much right to be believed as they, his Kingly and Prophetic Office, to which he was as particularly anoin|ted, as to that of Prie&s;t, being too commonly &s;et a&s;ide as unnece&s;|&s;ary; nay, with &s;ome not only look'd upon as no part of the Go&s;pel, but as dangerous to be obtruded for the object of Faith or Duty. Some
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would per&s;wade them&s;elves and o|thers, that the promi&s;es of <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> are particular and ab&s;olute, confin'd to &s;ome few, and to tho&s;e how&s;oever they be qualified; when as the whole tenor and current of Chri&s;tian Doctrine proclaims directly the quite contrary, that they are general and conditional; a Picture that looks every Man in the face, that comes into the room, but cannot be imagined to eye any Man el&s;e; un|re&s;trained to all, provided they perform the condition, and an <GAP DESC="foreign">; tho&s;e diffu&s;ive rich Store-hou&s;es, &s;ealed up again&s;t all, who do not perform it. Shall we therefore have the patience, the ju&s;tice and piety, yea, the wi&s;dom and faithfulne&s;s to our &s;elves, to re&s;i&s;t a while the&s;e &s;trong prejudices, to re&s;cue the &s;acred object of faith from &s;uch mi&s;pri&s;ions, to &s;et up the promi&s;es of <HI>Chri&s;t</HI> henceforth in &s;uch a po&s;ture, as may have the &s;afe&s;t and kinde&s;t influence; the
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powerfulle&s;t and mo&s;t benign a&s;pect on our Hearts and Lives, not to &s;well and puff up our phan&s;ies any longer, with an opinion that we are the &s;pe|cial favourites of Heaven, to whom the promi&s;es of Re&s;t are con&s;ign'd unconditionally, or without po&s;&s;ibi|lity of being forfeited; but to en|gage and oblige our Souls to that univer&s;al con&s;tant righteou&s;ne&s;s, holine&s;s, obedience, as well as faith, which may really in&s;tate us in tho&s;e promi&s;es, that may, like the Angel to St. <HI>Peter</HI> in Pri&s;on, awake us out of our &s;leep and dream, and &s;hake off tho&s;e gyves and manacles, which keep our feet from walking in the ways which God hath pre&s;cribed, and thereby even confine and fetter God him&s;elf, if I may &s;o &s;peak, from making good his promi&s;es effectually, to &s;uch indi&s;po&s;ed unqualified per|&s;ons. If we look on the lives of mo&s;t Chri&s;tians profe&s;&s;ing the Go&s;|pel, with great pretence at lea&s;t of confidence, that they &s;hall be par|takers
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takers of God's Re&s;t, that the promi&s;e thereof belongs to them, though they live as tho&s;e that &s;et up their Re&s;t in the lu&s;ts of the fle&s;h, tho&s;e lu&s;ts of the Eye, that pride of life which is directly contrary to it, and the love of the Father; we have but too great rea&s;on to fear, that unle&s;s they repent and reform &s;peedily and effectually, they will prove &s;uch as no Re&s;t belongs to.</P>
<P>And if we look on the &s;lothful negligence in good works, yea the wilful back&s;liding to wicked works, to fal&s;e Doctrines, to lewd practi&s;es, which are to be found too vi&s;ibly and frequently even in tho&s;e, who once were &s;incere Believers, &s;uch as had for a time obeyed both in heart and life the Go&s;pel of Chri&s;t, received his precepts into their practice, as well as promi&s;es into their Creed; we &s;hall have too great rea&s;on to fear, that they al&s;o may fall away finally from tho&s;e condi|tions, without the renewed pre&s;eve|ring
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performance of which, there is no re&s;t of Gods to be had. Where|fore both in re&s;pect of the former faithle&s;s Profe&s;&s;ors, and of the latter back&s;liding Profe&s;&s;ors, let us fear, as the Apo&s;tle exhorts us, fear in wi&s;dom towards our &s;elves, and fear in charity towards others; fear and watch over our &s;elves and one ano|ther, watch and pray, labour and &s;trive, <HI>le&s;t a promi&s;e being left us of entering Gods re&s;t, any of us &s;eem to fall &s;hort of it,</HI> for want of attending to its conditions, which is not onely an outward profe&s;&s;ion but a lively faith working by love, and that not onely begun or continued for a while, but per&s;evering to the end. De&s;pi&s;e not then the motive of Fear, le&s;t you de&s;pi&s;e your own Souls. To fear any mortal vi&s;ible enemy, any earthly temporal danger, in an holy righteous cau&s;e, is cowardi&s;e and &s;ervile ba&s;ene&s;s: to fear the labour of &s;tudy and diligence, is &s;loth and idlene&s;s: but to fear God and his
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righteous threats, e&s;pecially that of lo&s;ing his re&s;t, of incurring his endle&s;s intolerable di&s;plea&s;ure, this is a wi&s;e and gracious fear; not only the beginning of Wi&s;dom and Grace, but its &s;afety and pre&s;ervation, its watchful Monitor, Exciter, and Furtherer all along; for it makes us examine and prove our &s;elves, whether we are as yet in the faith, well &s;ettled and grounded, &s;uch a faith as works by love and &s;incere obedience, not a groundle&s;s or fruitle&s;s credulity, per&s;wa&s;ion, con|fidence of all being well, on a bare profe&s;&s;ion; and when we have found that we are &s;incere in faith, repen|tance, love, obedience, it awakes our care to continue &s;o, by growing in grace, and per&s;evering again&s;t whatever allurements or terrors, le&s;t we fall from our own &s;tead|fa&s;tne&s;s, and hold not fa&s;t the ground of our confidence to the end. It works on our memory, and re|vives our humility for &s;ins pa&s;t; it
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works on our rea&s;on, and &s;tirs up our care again&s;t &s;in for the future. The fear of mi&s;&s;ing or falling &s;hort of Gods re&s;t, of incurring intolerable eternal trouble, angui&s;h, and pain, re&s;trains us from running on in the ways of de&s;truction. In the re&s;traint &s;ome hope of pardon &s;hews it &s;elf; in this hope we &s;ee the mercy and love of God, and then at la&s;t perceive the horrour and ugline&s;s of &s;in, not onely in its puni&s;hment, but in it &s;elf. This la&s;t hath more of love than fear in it, and the fear is now become filial; for a good Son will fear the anger of his Father &s;o much the more, becau&s;e he knows the greatne&s;s and &s;weetne&s;s of his love, and by that fear pre&s;erves and in|crea&s;es his filial obedience. Our Saviour commands his Apo&s;tles them&s;elves, who &s;ure were Sons, and had the Spirit of Adoption, to <HI>fear him that can de&s;troy both body and &s;oul in hell fire,</HI> that they might not fear, but choo&s;e to &s;uffer all that
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Man could inflict on their bodies, rather than hazard the lo&s;s of his favour; for what's the fire of per|&s;ecution to that of Gods wrath? or the pains of a Rack for an hour or two, to the torments of hell for evermore? The Fathers call this fear, <GAP DESC="foreign">, the bridle of lu&s;ts or di&s;orderly appetites, and not onely the entrance to Piety, but the Guar|dian of all Virtue.</P>
<P>S^t <HI>Jerom</HI> confe&s;&s;es he owed the &s;trictne&s;s of his life to this fear; and S^t <HI>Ambro&s;e</HI> &s;ays, Love it &s;elf is upheld by it. Some would confine fear to Mount <HI>Sinai,</HI> as if Mount <HI>Sion</HI> did exclude it; whereas the Apo&s;tle ha|ving compared the Law on the one, and the Go&s;pel on the other, <HI>Heb.</HI> 12.18, 22. adds pre&s;ently <HI>ver.</HI> 25. <HI>See ye refu&s;e not him that &s;peaketh; for if they e&s;caped not who refu&s;ed him that &s;pake on earth, much more &s;hall not we e&s;cape, if we turn away from him that &s;peaks from heaven.</HI> And then concludes
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the whole Chapter with the&s;e words, <HI>Wherefore let us have grace, whereby we may &s;erve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a con&s;uming fire.</HI> I know that of S^t <HI>Aug.</HI> is true, <HI>Brevis differentia legis &amp; Evangelij, Timor &amp; Amor.</HI> But 'tis the fear of temporal puni&s;h|ment which is proper to the Law, wherewith, as al&s;o with hope of temporal promi&s;es, they were in that Nonage allured or terrified, fir&s;t to outward, then to inward &s;piri|tual obedience. We &s;hould indeed for the great kindne&s;s and enamou|ring amiablene&s;s of our Redeemer and Redemption, be all on fire with thankful love; but we mu&s;t con|&s;ider not onely what's the height of our duty we owe to our Lord, but what's that which at fir&s;t entrance into his School we can perform, and what afterwards through the remainders of corruption we &s;till need, and what he will be plea&s;ed to accept. Thus to be frighted and
<PB N="16" REF="17">
cha&s;ed to happine&s;s is an Argument indeed of our imperfection; but &s;ince our &s;tate is as yet imperfect, 'tis our Wi&s;dom to u&s;e all &s;uch helps as our Lord allows of. And yet even in the &s;tate of innocency our fir&s;t Pa|rents needed this motive, and had not fell if they had u&s;ed it: they fell with this thought, that they &s;hould not fall. They who in this lap&s;ed im|perfect e&s;tate, require &s;uch Chri&s;tians onely as are made up of all love, do but <HI>Votum accomodare, non Hi&s;toriam, nec qualis e&s;t, &s;ed qualis e&s;&s;e deberet de&s;cribunt.</HI> They tell us what their wi&s;h is, and our duty; but con&s;i|der not the real Hi&s;tory of what is, and what is likely to be effected. Thus <HI>Tully</HI> &s;ays of <HI>Cato,</HI> that <HI>optimo animo &amp; &s;umm&acirc; fide utens, nocet, inter|dum Reipublicae,</HI> with an hone&s;t and good meaning he did &s;ometimes much hurt to the Commonwealth, by impo&s;ing that &s;trictne&s;s of Laws and Manners, which 'twas not able to reach or keep. <HI>Tanquam in Platonis
<PB N="17" REF="17">
Republic&acirc; non tanquam in faece Romuli;</HI> fitting his &s;entence rather to <HI>Plato</HI>'s phan&s;ied <HI>Utopian</HI> Commonwealth, than to the real &s;tate of <HI>Rome.</HI> So I may &s;ay of the&s;e Perfectioni&s;ts, they do not remember that they have to do with Men, in whom &s;ome remain|ders of the old Man will &s;till be lu&s;ting again&s;t the Spirit; and tho&s;e lu&s;tings mu&s;t be check'd, and chil'd and &s;uppre&s;t &s;ometimes, with this fear of falling &s;hort of God's Re&s;t, and falling into intolerable Trou|bles. And yet &s;uppo&s;e they were as St. <HI>Paul,</HI> and feared Sin more than Hell, yet the height of &s;ome Mens grace is no ground for a gene|ral Doctrine; nor becau&s;e Love is the be&s;t of all, therefore may Fear be made unlawful; as if that were a Sin, which God propounds to keep us from Sin. Hell I am &s;ure is a part of our Creed as well as Heaven, and God hath propounded both a Tribu|nal and a Mercy-&s;eat, and if we may &s;erve God as <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> did, with
<PB N="18" REF="18">
an eye of hope to the recompence of reward, why not with an eye of fear towards him, who though a Father, will-judge every man ac|cording to his works. Our Saviour indeed, <HI>Luke</HI> 12.32. bids his flock, how little &s;oever, <HI>not fear, becau&s;e it is their Fathers plea&s;ure to give them the kingdom;</HI> but the fear he forbids, is the fear of di&s;tru&s;tfulne&s;s in him, or his promi&s;es, or a&s;&s;i&s;tances; as if he would not or could not defend his obedient Children again&s;t the numerous Herd of the wicked; not the fear of incurring his holy and ju&s;t di&s;plea&s;ure, in ca&s;e they &s;hould do what mu&s;t di&s;plea&s;e him. We do not fear as the <HI>Jews</HI> did, pre&s;ent puni&s;hment to re&s;train us from that lu&s;t, which otherwi&s;e we love and would willingly follow. Our grea|te&s;t motives of obedience are not from that &s;pirit of bondage, which looks chiefly on temporal things, and thinks it &s;elf rejected for ever if cha&s;ti&s;ed here, or tried with afflicti|ons;
<PB N="19" REF="18">
for the Go&s;pel directs us to things invi&s;ible and eternal, much more clearly than the Law, and makes afflictions patiently endured, the &s;ign of Gods favour rather than hatred; nor is it contrary to the Spirit of Adoption, to fear offending him that adopted us, le&s;t thereby he di&s;inherit us. Though we are received into the family of Gods children, and mu&s;t love God above all as our Father, love our Redeemer &s;o much more than all Relations, than life it &s;elf and its deare&s;t con|tentments, as to for&s;ake and re|nounce them for ever, rather than him: Yet we are &s;till exhorted and enjoyned to pa&s;s the time of our &s;ojourning here in fear, not to fear what Man, but God can do unto us. To love him as a Father, and fear to lo&s;e his love by offending him; to love the Son, and ki&s;s him with reverence le&s;t he be angry; to love the Holy Spirit of God, and fear to grieve, re&s;i&s;t, and quench him,
<PB N="20" REF="19">
le&s;t we turn his grace into wan|tonne&s;s, and make him withdraw his gracious pre&s;ence, that would enable us in holine&s;s and righteou&s;|ne&s;s to &s;erve him, without fear of any evil that can befall us &s;o doing, or of any enemy that can hurt us; and yet to fear him whom we &s;erve as our Lord and King. A good Son may fear to incur his Father's wrath by cea&s;ing to be &s;o, and yet cry <HI>Abba</HI> Father.</P>
<P><HI>Tertullian</HI> interprets that of Saint <HI>John, Perfect love ca&s;ts out fear,</HI> of <HI>lazy fear,</HI> that will not go on in the way of grace, for fear of a Lion in the way, &s;ome hazard, and difficul|ties likely to meet him; not the fear of Gods wrath po&s;&s;ible to be incur|red by &s;in and back&s;liding, but of temporal dangers and per&s;ecutions. If our love be perfect, though with the perfection of &s;incerity, that is, habitually prevailing over all other loves, 'twill ca&s;t out &s;uch fear, and make us lay down our lives for the
<PB N="21" REF="19">
Brethren, to glorifie God, and en|courage others by the evidence of our faith, content to adventure any thing for Chri&s;ts &s;ake, even death it &s;elf; but &s;ure not the di&s;plea&s;ing of God, and the torments of Hell, that were too prodigal an alms, too wild a valour, directly contrary to the love as well as fear of God in Chri&s;t. Charity again ca&s;teth out all fear, but by degrees; as that increa&s;eth, &s;o fear abateth. If our Sanctification were as perfect for degrees, as univer&s;al for its parts; were our obedience like that of Angels, which cannot fail, we &s;hould need neither hope to encou|rage our love, nor fear to guard it; but while it is only in part, the be&s;t Chri&s;tians in this &s;tate of imper|fection, may have u&s;e of a Deaths Head, and make Gods threats as well as promi&s;es, &s;ubordinate means to concur with the principal; But|tre&s;&s;es to keep the Building from &s;werving, while the foundation of
<PB N="22" REF="20">
Faith and Love keeps it from &s;ink|ing: <HI>Fides &amp; &s;pes tuta &s;i cauta, &s;ecura &s;i &s;ollicita.</HI> Tert. Fear makes our love reverent, our hope wary, our faith di&s;creet. If the Sails be too full, they may endanger us as much as a Rock; for Fear as a Rudder guides and &s;teers our Faith and Hope, between the gulph or &s;ands of De&s;pair; and the rock of Pre|&s;umption or proud Security. Serve we the Lord then in love, but in fear too, and rejoyce unto him with trembling, as <HI>David</HI> &s;peaks; fear him as Lord; love and rejoyce in him as Je&s;us; yea, and fear him as Je&s;us too; fear to offend &s;o gracious a Saviour, to vilifie and hazard &s;uch precious Salvation, <HI>&s;it timor inno|centiae Cu&s;tos,</HI> &s;aith St. <HI>Cyp. ut Deus qui in mentes no&s;tras clementer in|fluxit, in animi ho&s;pitio ju&s;t&acirc; operatione teneatur.</HI></P>
<P>If God hath entered into our hearts through his Son by his Spirit, let us be glad and rejoyce in his
<PB N="23" REF="20">
pre&s;ence, for thankful joy is his entertainment; but let fear keep the door, that nothing enter that may di&s;plea&s;e &s;o holy a pre&s;ence. &mdash; <HI>Aiunt quidam,</HI> &s;aith <HI>Tert. &s;e &s;alvo metu (vel fide) peccare;</HI> &s;ome &s;ay, they can venture on &s;in with|out any prejudice to faith or fear; <HI>&s;ic ergo &amp; ip&s;i (&s;alv&acirc; veni&acirc;) detruden|tur in Gehennam, dum &s;alvo metu peccant;</HI> &s;o &s;hall &s;uch who &s;ay and do &s;o, be thru&s;t into Hell, without any prejudice to God's mercy, or Chri&s;t's merit and interce&s;&s;ion. Whether we con&s;ider the infinite eternal worth and weight of this Re&s;t, the intolerable endle&s;s troubles of mi&s;&s;ing it, or the ab&s;olute ne|ce&s;&s;ity of hating and &s;hunning all evil, of loving and following all duties and graces, in order to at|taining the one, and e&s;caping the other. Whether we look upon the weakne&s;s, incon&s;tancy, treachery of the fle&s;h within us; or upon the variety of temptations, alluring
<PB N="24" REF="21">
and terrifying us from the world without, &s;et on by the Devil with all the vigilance of &s;ubtil malice; or on the &s;hortne&s;s or uncertainty of the time wherein this Re&s;t mu&s;t be &s;ecured, or lo&s;t for ever. Whe|ther we look on the love and infi|nite mercy of God, in offering, purcha&s;ing, inviting, drawing us to this Re&s;t at &s;uch a price, by &s;uch powerful obliging variety of means or motives; or on the deceitfulne&s;s of mans heart, willing to think the conditions of it, fewer and ea&s;ier than they are; and to &s;atisfie it &s;elf in the hopes of it on an outward profe&s;&s;ion, a &s;peculative faith, or a partial obedience. Or la&s;tly, whether we con&s;ider the po&s;&s;ibility of falling away through &s;loth or impatience, from the &s;incere re|pentance and faith, love and obedi|ence, which was begun. All and every one of the&s;e call for an hum|ble watchful fear, and godly jea|lou&s;ie over our &s;elves, &s;olicitous
<PB N="25" REF="21">
cautions and diligence le&s;t we fall &s;hort of it. Take heed then, of thinking this fear of mi&s;&s;ing it, either unnece&s;&s;ary, or unbe&s;eeming Chri&s;tian Profe&s;&s;ors or true Belie|vers; &s;ince many Profe&s;&s;ors are no true Believers, and they that are may cea&s;e to be &s;o, unle&s;s they watch and pray a&s;&s;iduou&s;ly, and work out their own &s;alvation with fear and trembling. Look not upon it, as too &s;lavi&s;h for Per&s;ons re|generate, and Children of light; &s;ince &s;ure it is that the Spirit of God, and the holy Apo&s;tles made choice of no Arguments, but &s;uch as were fit to be made u&s;e of by Chri&s;tians; and the motives of fear, are more than once the Arguments they cho&s;e, even to tho&s;e who had been made partakers of Chri&s;t, and were of the Hou&s;e and Family of God; &s;uch as had received the Kingdom that could not be moved. <HI>Heb.</HI> 12.28. Who yet, are there exhorted <GAP DESC="foreign">, to have Grace,
<PB N="26" REF="22">
or to hold it fa&s;t, by making an humble diligent u&s;e of that pretious Talent. Or if you will <GAP DESC="foreign">, to be thankful to God, the muni|ficent donor of &s;uch a benefit, and this duty rai&s;ed to the height, to the &s;erving of God <GAP DESC="foreign">, whether that refer to the Per&s;ons, and &s;igni|fie &s;erving with cheerful alacrity; for fear and chearfulne&s;s are very con&s;i&s;tent, the former the Guardian, the Con&s;ervator of the latter; Or whether it refer to God as we ren|der it, &s;erving him acceptably, with reverence and godly fear, you have &s;till in this Apo&s;tle, the mo|tives of fear annexed to this duty; for our God is a con&s;uming fire. 'Twas wi&s;dom then and &s;ober piety in him that &s;aid, <HI>He would not leave his part in Hell</HI> (meaning the benefit he found in meditating on God's threats as well as promi&s;es) <HI>for all the Goods of this world;</HI> knowing how u&s;eful the fle&s;h of the Viper was to cure its poi&s;on; the torments
<PB N="27" REF="22">
attending upon &s;in, to check its temptations; the apprehen&s;ion of a Fever or other di&s;temper, an|nexed by con&s;equence, to re&s;train from tho&s;e plea&s;ant forbidden fruits, which courted his Sen&s;es, and &s;ol|licit his Phan&s;ie; the deadly hook, to keep from venturing on the bait; the Sea, from the <HI>Syren.</HI></P>
<P>Thus when the Apo&s;tle exhorts the <HI>Hebrews</HI> to fear, <HI>Le&s;t any of them &s;hould</HI> &s;eem <HI>to fall &s;hort of this Re&s;t:</HI> The word <HI>&s;eem,</HI> &s;ignifies not only an outward appearance of the things, without a reality of the danger or mi&s;ery forewarn'd of; but in <HI>Let us take heed,</HI> is al&s;o meant a real incurring the &s;ame, without taking heed to the coun&s;el given; or it may be, the Apo&s;tle cho&s;e to &s;peak &s;o, to mitigate the &s;harpne&s;s of that which he &s;pake of to the <HI>Hebrews,</HI> that he might not be thought to conclude them Apo|&s;tates, but only to fear they may be &s;o, unle&s;s they look'd in good time
<PB N="28" REF="23">
warily to it. Such charitable Rhe|toric we read him u&s;ing <HI>Heb.</HI> 6.9. <HI>But beloved, we are per&s;uaded better things of you, and things that</HI> (are near or) <HI>accompany Salvation, though we thus &s;peak.</HI> It may be al&s;o he &s;aith <HI>Seem,</HI> to &s;tir up their fear and caution the more, again&s;t &s;uch cold|ne&s;s, &s;loth, and incon&s;tancy of mind, as began to appear among the <HI>He|brews,</HI> which if not in time bewai|led and rectified, might hazard the prize &s;et before them, and fall to peremptory infidelity. Thus he is charitably &s;u&s;picious of them, <HI>and jealous over them with a godly jealou&s;ie,</HI> as he &s;peaks 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 11.2. and gives withall to under&s;tand, that 'tis not enough for a wi&s;e and thankful Chri&s;tian, to abhor and avoid utter Apo&s;tacies, and final mi&s;&s;ing of Gods Re&s;t; but 'tis their &s;afety, duty, and honour, to keep from the very approaches to it, and appea|rances of it; and not to give any occa&s;ions to others, to hear, or &s;ee,
<PB N="29" REF="23">
or think that we are fallen, or fal|ling away. <HI>Ab&s;tain from all appea|rance of evil,</HI> 1 <HI>The&s;.</HI> 5.22. le&s;t while you indulge your &s;elves to &s;loth, and give your &s;elves over as far as you may with any hopes of attaining Heaven, to the plea&s;ures and cares, or other concerns of this Life; you do not only &s;eem to fall &s;hort, but do &s;o indeed, and plainly appear to do &s;o. And this is the la&s;t &s;ence of the word <HI>le&s;t ye &s;eem,</HI> that is, appear and give too great undeniable evidence, that you are of tho&s;e that apo&s;tatize, and fall &s;hort of Gods Re&s;t.</P>
<P>So when it is &s;aid, <HI>v.</HI> 2. <HI>The Go&s;pel was preach'd as well to us as unto them,</HI> It does not imply that the Go&s;pel was preach'd as clearly and fully to them as unto us; but that it was preach'd &s;ufficiently to them, in &s;uch a manner, and mea&s;ure revealed, as was mo&s;t &s;uitable to tho&s;e times, by types and Prophe|&s;ies, &s;piritual and eternal things,
<PB N="30" REF="24">
under the vail of external and vi&s;i|ble temporal things; yet &s;o that the light &s;hone through the vail on all their hearts, who were attentive to the drift and true aim, the grounds and rea&s;ons of them, and to the Prophe&s;ies that went before and along with them, to make them the clearlier under&s;tood. The Apo&s;tle by &s;aying <HI>As well to us,</HI> &s;peaks by a <GAP DESC="foreign">, or intimation, of &s;o well at lea&s;t, and much better; for to us the Go&s;pel is preach'd, without intervention of Types and Prophe&s;ies, in its clear, full, actual exhibition, unveiling tho&s;e Types, fulfilling tho&s;e Prophe&s;ies, revealing the whole My&s;tery of Godline&s;s, and Coun&s;el of God much plainer, di&s;|pen&s;ing the Light and Grace of Gods Spirit more generally and plentifully: So that the Argument runs thus; If they that had Gods Re&s;t promi&s;ed to them more ob|&s;curely, and in a lower degree and mea&s;ure, yet fell &s;hort of it for
<PB N="31" REF="24">
want of being &s;ound, and con&s;tant in Faith and Obedience; how much more &s;hall they do &s;o, who having the Go&s;pel preach'd unto them in its cleare&s;t fulle&s;t degree of light and power, yet do not receive, believe, and obey it, with faithful &s;incerity and per&s;everance?</P>
<P>Now by faith, for want of which the Word preach'd did not profit them, is meant &s;uch a firm well-grounded per&s;ua&s;ion of Gods un|changeable all &s;ufficient Wi&s;dom and Truth, as to adhere and cleave thereto, again&s;t whatever appea|ring difficulties or temptations. For the ancient <HI>I&s;raelites,</HI> they had mo&s;t of them once believed <HI>God</HI> and <HI>Mo&s;es,</HI> when they &s;lew the Pa&s;&s;over, and &s;prinkled their Doors with the bloud thereof, went out of <HI>Egypt,</HI> though <HI>Pharaoh</HI> was ready to pur&s;ue them, and went through the Red Sea into the Wilderne&s;s towards <HI>Canaan,</HI> following the con|duct of the Cloud and Pillar of
<PB N="32" REF="25">
Fire; but when there aro&s;e any new difficulty or temptation, <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> his ab&s;ence for 40 days, want of Water, Bread for a while, nay want of Fle&s;h, the Allurements of Women, though Heatheni&s;h Idolaters, the news of Gyants and high Walls, they &s;trangely forget the former evidences of Gods Faithfulne&s;s, Power, Goodne&s;s, and Truth; que&s;tion and tempt him, repine and murmur, and turn back in their hearts to <HI>Egypt.</HI></P>
<P>Wherefore 'twas want of con|&s;ideration, and &s;erious attentive frequent minding what they had formerly known and believed, which continually expo&s;ed them to fall away to unbelief and di&s;|obedience: Such are the grounds and motives of Faith propounded in Scripture, that they who attend impartially and &s;eriou&s;ly, cannot with any true rea&s;on, deny their a&s;&s;ent and approbation of that Doctrine, which they prove and
<GAP DESC="missing" EXTENT="2 pages">
<PB N="35" REF="25">
and blind the heart, that final impe|nitency; and infidelity is the i&s;&s;ue in too too many. Let no man then deceive him&s;elf with pre&s;umptious Hopes, of entring Gods Re&s;t, on bare profe&s;&s;ion of his Go&s;pel (for that may be counterfeit; and void of any well grounded faith; &s;ure to fail in time of Trial.)</P>
<P>Thus we &s;ee the word and means of grace, though never &s;o wi&s;ely and powerfully di&s;penced, may prove very generally ineffectual, for want of being mixt with faith in the partakers: And that they who enjoy the means of grace, and yet are not wrought upon by them, to faith and obedience, &s;incere, and durable, their call and profe&s;&s;ion, of being the People of God, does them not onely no good; but ha&s;tens and aggravates their con|demnation; is it not time then for tho&s;e who live in the light of the Go&s;pel (as never I think any Na|tion did, for Hundreds of Years,
<PB N="36" REF="26">
if this hath not) to look to their hearts and lives impartially; and thence di&s;cover what grounds and &s;tability of faith; there is in the one, what fruits and good effects in the other; and if they find them&s;elves at a lo&s;s, to take the blame intirely and wholly to them&s;elves, not to the want of means and motives, Pa&s;tors or Teachers, skillful and faithful, but to the want of their own attention and con&s;ideration; their taking up their profe&s;&s;ion of Chri&s;tianity on no better or &s;urer grounds; than that which a Pagan, or Mahometan relies on, for their wicked errors. Or if they have taken it up on better, and know what, and why, they believe; then they are clearlier convinced, and condemned by their own con|&s;cience for not per&s;evering, and increa&s;ing that faith by living &s;in|cerely according to it, but con|tradicting their very faith, as well as profe&s;&s;ion, untill the cu&s;tom of
<PB N="37" REF="26">
&s;in hath darkned, if not extingui&s;ht their former evidences; is it not high time then for any that finde it thus with them, to ca&s;t away all longer delays of &s;elf abhorrence and repentance, to return to God and their own hearts with &s;hame and grief for their former back&s;li|dings, and for ever, from henceforth to be the more humble for what is pa&s;t, watchful and zealous for the future in reviewing their faith, and living by it in Holine&s;s and Righte|ou&s;ne&s;s, Purity and Peaceablene&s;s, Obedience and Patience, le&s;t that faith which hath been deadned, and contradicted &s;o long and often; turn to a total and final apo&s;tacy in the end.</P>
<P>There's nothing more clear in Holy Scripture than that they whom God vouch&s;afes to call by his loude&s;t voice; and powerfulle&s;t means, to Repentance and Faith, and Obedience; are rendred there|by &s;o much the more hainou&s;ly
<PB N="38" REF="27">
guilty of willful ingratitude, un|belief, and di&s;obedience, and there|fore liable to &s;o much the &s;orer Condemnation; unle&s;s they re|pent, believe, and obey according to that light and grace which was afforded them: <HI>You have I known of all Nations, therefore you will I puni&s;h the &s;ooner</HI> and more &s;everely.</P>
<P><HI>This is the condemnation, that light is come into the World, and ye have loved darkne&s;s rather than light. Woe unto thee</HI> Corazin, <HI>woe unto thee</HI> Beth&s;aida, <HI>for if the mighty works,</HI> &amp;c. <HI>they had repented long ago in &s;ackcloth and a&s;hes. How &s;hall we of all others e&s;cape, if we neglect &s;o great &s;alvation.</HI></P>
<P>It is indeed a great favour and mercy of God to &s;end us his Go&s;pel, to prevent us with all the means of grace, but favours and mercies abu&s;ed and perverted; increa&s;e the guilt of tho&s;e that receive them, but would not u&s;e them to God's glory and their own Salvation: And yet what more common and
<PB N="39" REF="27">
general for Men and Women of all &s;orts, to &s;uppo&s;e them&s;elves &s;afe enough, and entituled &s;ufficiently to God's Re&s;t, becau&s;e they are of the vi&s;ible Church, profe&s;&s;ing that Truth which &s;hould purify and &s;anctify them, but doth not, becau&s;e it is not aright con&s;idered and laid to heart, in its grounds and rea&s;ons, terms, and conditions, as well as its promi&s;es.</P>
<P>The greate&s;t part of the <HI>Jews</HI> you &s;ee, though brought out of <HI>Egypt</HI> with many Miracles, made the peculiar People of God, the lively Oracles committed to them, and what not that could be de&s;ired to make them holy or happy, yet for want of con&s;idering and believ|ing the word of God, forfeited and lo&s;t their Title to <HI>Canaan.</HI> And the greate&s;t part I fear of Chri&s;tians; yea of the pure&s;t profe&s;&s;ors of Chri&s;tianity, will forfeit and lo&s;e their Title to Heaven; unle&s;s they con&s;ider, believe, and obey the
<PB N="40" REF="28">
Go&s;pel of Chri&s;t more &s;incerely, impartially, con&s;tantly than hither|to they &s;eem to have done. And if they mi&s;s of Gods Re&s;t, for want of con&s;idering and performing its conditions, their angui&s;h and pain will be &s;o much the heavier to all eternity: They that have the Ora|cles of God, the word and Sacra|ments; Pa&s;tors and Teachers gran|ted to them, and yet are never the better, and holier, are &s;o much wor&s;e; becau&s;e they di&s;grace, and bring a reproach on the greate&s;t and weightie&s;t Truth in the World, as if it had no evidence or power in it. The <HI>I&s;raelites</HI> once were like <HI>Gideons</HI> Fleece, full of heavenly Dew in a drought; endued with tho&s;e high and happy priviledges, of which we read <HI>Rom.</HI> 2.3. and <HI>Rom.</HI> 9.4. But yet becau&s;e they lived not an&s;werably to their vocation, but made their privileges occa&s;ions of Pride, and vain pre&s;umption of Gods favour; till at la&s;t they re|jected
<PB N="41" REF="28">
their very <HI>Me&s;&s;ias,</HI> of whom they boa&s;ted as their peculiar, they are at this day like the Mountains of <HI>Gilboa</HI> barren and dry, while the Dew of Heaven hath fallen abun|dantly upon the Nations. The favours &s;hewn to the Chri&s;tian Church are greater than theirs, becau&s;e the Truth is clearlier revealed, the means of grace more powerfull and le&s;s burthen&s;om. But yet the&s;e favours, if tru&s;ted to, and yet neglected; will prove aggrava|tions of God's di&s;plea&s;ure. To be &s;urrounded with &s;uch helps of God from above, of Men below; ready to further us towards Heaven, of precepts to guide, promi&s;es to en|courage us, and yet to fall &s;hort of Gods Re&s;t, is a double and treble &s;hame and &s;orrow: Wherefore if not in gratitude to God, for all his mercies, yet for fear le&s;t the&s;e mercies prove by our own willful neglect and contempt of them, the aggravations of our mi&s;ery, let us
<PB N="42" REF="29">
while it is called to day; excite our &s;elves, and exhort one another to repentance and faith, holine&s;s, and righteou&s;ne&s;s, obedience and patience, again&s;t whatever tempta|tions ari&s;e. We have a promi&s;e infallibly &s;ure, incomparably pre|tious, of entring Gods Re&s;t, his word to quicken us; his Sacraments to confirm us; his Grace to prevent a&s;&s;i&s;t and follow us; If we hearken to his word, and re&s;i&s;t not his grace, neither Prophane nor Idolize his Sacraments, but receive them with faith and reverence; as they were in&s;tituted in love: If we hear the Church, and watch over our &s;elves and one another, Sin &s;hall have no dominion over us, we &s;hall be built up from one degree of faith and holine&s;s to another, until we enter Gods Re&s;t; without any fear or po&s;&s;ibility of falling from it: But if we neglect the conditions of it, and tru&s;t to the promi&s;e as if it were ab&s;olute; to the means of
<PB N="43" REF="29">
grace, as if they were even grace it &s;elf; our &s;loth and confidence will end in de&s;pair; and find for ever &s;o much the greater trouble and angui&s;h; for having mi&s;&s;ed of God's Re&s;t, offered unto us on &s;uch conditions. Let us awake then, and excite our &s;elves and one another; by all the arguments of hope and fear, love and gratitude, that &s;o God may have the honour of all his favours be&s;towed upon us, and we the everla&s;ting comfort, of being thankful, and hearing that beatifical voice: <HI>Well done good and faithful Servant; enter thy Ma&s;ters Joy and Re&s;t.</HI></P>
<P>Now this Re&s;t of Gods, is not the Re&s;t of the <HI>Sabboth</HI> or <HI>Canaan</HI> in this life, but that eternal Re&s;t with God in Heaven, implied in|deed and preparation made for it by the <HI>Sabboth;</HI> Typified by <HI>Canaan,</HI> begun here by believers to be injoy'd in its fir&s;t fruits, through faith and hope, but not to be had in its full
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harve&s;t; its perfect peace and joy in God, 'till we come to Heaven: We which have believed, &s;aith Saint <HI>Paul,</HI> do enter into Re&s;t, that is, &s;hall if we per&s;evere in faith and holine&s;s, enter into it perfectly; without po&s;&s;ibility of forfeiting or lo&s;ing it; do enter into it now by faith and hope in God's promi&s;es; by love and obedience of his pre|cepts, which gives us a real Title to it; yea a true, though initial imperfect defea&s;ible admi&s;&s;ion into it, by that Re&s;t from the guilt of Sin, which faith and the merits and interce&s;&s;ion of Chri&s;t <HI>Je&s;us,</HI> re|ceives and imbraces with peace and joy, by that Re&s;t from the power, di&s;order and tyranny of Sin, which faith procuring Gods Spirit, and looking upon the certainty and weight of his promi&s;es and threats, the beauty and excellency of his precepts, together with the great obligation of God's mercy in &s;en|ding his Son to die for our &s;ins,
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and ri&s;e again for our ju&s;tification, effects and enjoys. Thus believers, if &s;uch believers as rely on the promi&s;es of God's Re&s;t, with faithful re&s;o|lutions and endeavours to perform its conditions; do enter into it initially; and &s;hall enter into it eternally. But how proves the Apo&s;tle this? the proof of it is in the&s;e words. <HI>He &s;aid I have &s;worn in my wrath that they &s;hall not enter my Re&s;t, who &s;hew them&s;elves ob&s;ti|nately unbelieving and di&s;obedient:</HI> The Argument is taken <HI>&agrave; contrario,</HI> from the nature of contrary things; If infidelity and di&s;obedience, be that alone which excludes from the promi&s;e of God's Re&s;t; then faith and obedience, or &s;uch a faith as produceth obedience, is that which entitles us to enter into it, for God's promi&s;e cannot be &s;atisfied; nor wholly norutterly di&s;appointed, or made to become of none effect: And therefore though they who would not believe it; nor keep its
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conditions, fell &s;hort of it, yet they who believe and perform its con|conditions mu&s;t enter into it: Yea his very wrath and oath again&s;t the one for their unbelief and di&s;o|bedience, implies and inferrs his complacency, and love towards the other, his undefea&s;ible decree and oath, that they per&s;evering in faith and obedience &s;hall enter, and fully enjoy his Re&s;t; And this Re&s;t, was not the Re&s;t of <HI>Canaan:</HI> For if <HI>Jo&s;hua</HI> or <HI>Je&s;us,</HI> the Son of <HI>Nun,</HI> had given them Re&s;t, then would not <HI>David</HI> afterwards have &s;poken of another Re&s;t; from whence the Apo&s;tle inferrs, what he began with; <HI>there Remains there|fore a Re&s;t to the People of God;</HI> another manner of Re&s;t than that of <HI>Canaan;</HI> eternal and perfect with God in Heaven, to which the true <HI>Jo&s;hua</HI> or <HI>Je&s;us</HI> the Son of God; mu&s;t give us entrance by faith in him; of whom <HI>Jo&s;hua</HI> the Son of <HI>Nun,</HI> was but an imperfect
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tran&s;itory Type, as that Re&s;t of <HI>Canaan,</HI> and of the <HI>Sabboth,</HI> was of the perfect eternal Re&s;t; which &s;till remains for Gods People (the whole Church of true per&s;evering obedi|ent believers.) From what the A|po&s;tle hath &s;aid we may make this ob&s;ervation: That Man hath no true and perfect Re&s;t in ought but God: His Re&s;t is Mans Re&s;t, becau&s;e he is the Re&s;t and happine&s;s of Man; the ultimate compleate &s;atisfactory object of rea&s;onable creatures; To Re&s;t in any thing but in him, as our happine&s;s, without dependance on him as the Author, and reference to him as the end thereof, is &s;inful vanity and vexation, &s;ure to end in eternal trouble without repentance.</P>
<P><HI>Canaan</HI> it &s;elf was not to be the final Re&s;t and happine&s;s of the <HI>I&s;raelites,</HI> nor mu&s;t any thing in this World, any thing le&s;s than God be ours: What God hath &s;aid to the <HI>Jews</HI> of old &mdash; he much more clearly hath &s;aid and proved
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to us Chri&s;tians: <HI>Ari&s;e and depart, for this is not your Re&s;ting place.</HI> The Heavenly Re&s;t and eternal life of &s;eeing God, as he is, was but ob|&s;curely and imperfectly revealed to them; who lived before or under the law till Chri&s;t came, in whom the promi&s;e of it was made, when man had lo&s;t all hope of it. It was till then, wrapt up as it were in the &s;eed and bloome of Types and Pro|phe&s;ies, implied and intimated in the <HI>Sabboth,</HI> and <HI>Canaan,</HI> and Tempo|ral ble&s;&s;ings, attending Piety in this life rather than manife&s;ted, and brought to light in its cleare&s;t evi|dences and &s;tronge&s;t a&s;&s;urances, as now our Lord <HI>Je&s;us</HI> hath done, who hath brought life and immor|tality to light through the Go&s;pel, and therefore if they were obliged only in God through Chri&s;t <HI>Je&s;us,</HI> to place their happine&s;s in nothing below, but to look on him through the vaile of Types, and Temporal ble&s;&s;ings; how much more are we
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obliged, as well as enabled, to do &s;o, to whom Chri&s;t hath been ex|hibited with all the fulne&s;s of Truth and grace, revealing the whole coun&s;el of God, our Re&s;t in him, and the way to attain it, without ob&s;curity and beyond di&s;pute? If <HI>David</HI> fore&s;aw and foretold this Re&s;t to be remaining; when he not only enjoy'd <HI>Canaan,</HI> and its ble&s;&s;ings, as the other <HI>I&s;raelites</HI> did; but the very height thereof, as a pro&s;perous King; If he could &s;ay, <HI>Deliver me O Lord from the Men of this World, who&s;e portion is in this life; I am a &s;tranger and &s;ojourner here as all my Fathers were;</HI> How much more are we obliged to think and &s;ay &s;o, who have not &s;uch Types and Temporal ble&s;&s;ings to vaile the Object of our Re&s;t, and interrupt our &s;ight of it, to whom the Son and Lord of <HI>David,</HI> hath been ex|hibited, exemplifying and teaching us, our only Re&s;t to be in God the Father, through him the Son, by his
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holy Spirit, dying to purcha&s;e an entrance to it, ri&s;ing and a&s;cending and &s;itting down in a Glorious Re&s;t at Gods Right Hand to a&s;&s;ure us of it. It is no le&s;s than the &s;in of Idolatry to place our Re&s;t, con|fidence or happine&s;s, in plea&s;ures or honours, po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ions or riches, or any thing el&s;e that this World can gratifie us with; it is the bitter &s;pring or Root of all &s;ins; It con|tradicts the de&s;ign of God, in giving us any Temporal ble&s;&s;ings; he gave them to help us unto him, that reflecting upon him as their Author and end, we might be per&s;waded to love him incomparably above all; if we fall in love with them, in&s;tead of rai&s;ing our love to him, we quite pervert the intent of his favours, and turn them into hin|derances, to his di&s;honour and our own ruine. He gave them to com|fort us in our journy; and &s;hall we &s;o mi&s;take his meaning, as to &s;et up our dwelling in the Inn, and
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Travaile no farther towards our Country but forget the giver, be|cau&s;e of that gift which was &s;ent us on purpo&s;e, to mind us of him? This were to bring that cur&s;e on our &s;elves which the Prophet fore|told, rather than prayed, might fall on Gods enemies; Let their Table be made a &s;nare, and that which &s;hould have been for their wealth, be an occa&s;ion of falling to them. This were indeed to provoke God, either to withdraw tho&s;e favours, which thus he &s;ees re&s;ted in, in&s;tead of him, or el&s;e to embitter and cur&s;e them from yeilding any content; and if he &s;hould &s;uffer us &s;till to re&s;t in them to his di&s;honour, 'twould prove the greate&s;t, &s;ure&s;t cur&s;e of all others, to live and die in this fal&s;e deceitful tran&s;itory Re&s;t, which leads to, and ends in eter|nal trouble, and &s;orrow of body and &s;oul. That which is Mans true Re&s;t, mu&s;t be able to give him full and perpetual &s;atisfaction; But
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all things below do neither &s;atisfie us, while we have them, nor can continue with us longer, to yield us that Re&s;t or Plea&s;ure which we fancy. We &s;pend much time and care to get them, and when we have gotten them, as we think, they die in the mid'&s;t of our em|braces, and leave little or nothing behind them, but &s;hame and loath|ing: <HI>Taedet adeptos, quod adepturos tor&s;it,</HI> we pine for them as <HI>Ammon</HI> for <HI>Thamar,</HI> and then repine at our &s;elves and them, that we were &s;uch fools as to &s;eek our Re&s;t, where 'twas not: Therefore all carnal worldly Per&s;ons, whether the &s;en|&s;ual or voluptuous, the covetous, or ambitious, are fain to wander from one pur&s;tui and de&s;ign to ano|ther; till having run the whole circle, they are weary and giddy, perplext and tired, and cry out, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and vexation, no Re&s;t to be had below, and how &s;hall we hope for that above, who
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never &s;ought till 'twas too late: <HI>Ahabs</HI> Kingdom &s;eem'd as nothing, unle&s;s he might have <HI>Naboths</HI> Vineyard; and having obtained it by Perjury and Murther, it pre&s;&s;ed him to death and Hell. <HI>Alexander</HI> had no Re&s;t, till he Conquered, he thought, one World, and then had as little, or rather le&s;s, &s;u&s;pecting and killing his neare&s;t Friends, untill he drank him&s;elf to Death and found that Poi&s;on in Intemperance, which he feared to find from his Cup-bearer. Let's con&s;ult our own experience, and hearts, hath any of us who have run through &s;everal &s;tates of life, with Hopes of Re&s;t, when this or that were attained, found the Re&s;t which we hoped for, and not, either quite mi&s;s'd what we &s;ought, or mi&s;s'd of that Re&s;t, and &s;atisfaction which we &s;ought and hoped to have found? Or if any of us have been &s;o happy, and yet &s;o mi&s;erable, &s;o happy as to obtain our de&s;ires; and yet &s;o mi&s;erable as to de&s;ire no
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more, no Re&s;t in Heaven, no Peace and Joy of life eternal with God; can any of us without &s;tupifying our very Rea&s;on, common &s;en&s;e, as well as faith, take Re&s;t in that which we know we mu&s;t leave e're many years, and which for ought we know may leave us e're many days? Thus we &s;ee what an hainous &s;in; indeed the Spring of all &s;ins is, to &s;eek or de&s;ire to Re&s;t in ought but God, and withall, what a folly and madne&s;s it is again&s;t our &s;elves, as well as a &s;in again&s;t God: And yet how guilty of this ingrati|tude and this folly are mo&s;t Chri&s;ti|ans, if we reckon them &s;o, who carry the name and profe&s;&s;ion of Chri&s;tianity? If God &s;end Men health and wealth, peace and plenty, po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ions and honours; how ready are they to &s;et up their Re&s;t on this &s;ide <HI>Jordan?</HI> whereas all this was given them to rai&s;e their gratitude, towards its Donor, and make them thereby long after him, that they
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might at length Re&s;t in him: But if God &s;end them afflictions and troubles, to wean them and drive them from this their folly; they are troubled and grieved as if they had lo&s;t their God and Saviour in lo&s;ing that which they had not lo&s;t, if they would but have u&s;ed it mode|rately and thankfully, as coming from God, and leading to him. But woe, and re&s;tle&s;s trouble, and angui&s;h for ever more, mu&s;t, and will be their portion; whom nei|ther pro&s;perity can invite, nor ad|ver&s;ity drive to Re&s;t in God: Se|condly, They who believe with &s;uch a Faith in Chri&s;t <HI>Je&s;us</HI> as works by Love, the Love of God above all, as their perfect eternal Re&s;t and happine&s;s, their All-&s;uf|ficient &s;hield here, and exceeding great reward hereafter, they alone do enter God's Re&s;t; Here by Faith Hope and Love, hereafter by full immediate, in&s;eparable &s;ight and fruition: Here they enter God's
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Re&s;t <HI>inchoitiv&egrave;,</HI> by having a Title to it, as adopted Sons and Heirs of God through Chri&s;t <HI>Je&s;us,</HI> by hav|ing a true, though imperfect pro|&s;pect or fore&s;ight of it, through Faith in Gods word and the merits of Chri&s;t. Now this is a ble&s;&s;ed Re&s;t to the Soul, compared with that mi&s;erable toile and drudgery, fears and troubles, which all un|believing and di&s;obedient wicked Per&s;ons lie under, how pro&s;perous &s;oever their outward condition in this World &s;eems. The Re&s;t of a Traveller, is far &s;hort of one that is come to his Country and Home, and yet it is a true Re&s;t, compared with one that wanders through de|&s;arts, boggs and precipices into ruine.</P>
<P>He that now knows he is in the right way to his final Re&s;t, his Fathers Hou&s;e, where he &s;hall be &s;ure of a glorious inheritance, and &s;atisfactory eternal peace and joy, that through the way he goes al&s;o, he &s;hall be directed in all turnings, protected
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from all dangers, refre&s;hed and re|lieved at every Stage; with com|petent food and comfortable Re&s;t; this Mans heart is calm and quiet from tho&s;e anxieties, which the other &s;uffers; and though he mu&s;t look to his way as he goes, be thrifty and temperate in his Inn; and Travel forward with watchful dili|gence, and painful indu&s;try, yet his labours and cares have the Re&s;t of Hope, and chearful expectance; and as he draws nearer his Country and home, &s;o his Re&s;t and joy in|crea&s;eth.</P>
<P>This is the Re&s;t of holy Tra|vellers towards Heaven, their Country, their God and Father: To which Chri&s;t, <HI>Matt.</HI> 11.28. Invites the weary and heavy laden, and into which, when they come unto him, they enter by Faith; if &s;uch a Faith as takes up his Yoke, and wears his burthen with meek|ne&s;s, and lowline&s;s, as ea&s;y and gra|cious. Faith laies hold on the merits
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of Chri&s;t, and re&s;ts on him that takes away the &s;ins of the World; by the propitiation of his obedience, for Pardon and Peace, as knowing nothing el&s;e can procure it but that. That mo&s;t certainly and fully &s;hall procure it for all that come unto God by him, for mercy and grace. God was in Chri&s;t, &s;aith St. <HI>Paul,</HI> 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 5.19, 21. Reconciling the World unto him&s;elf, not imputing their Tre&s;pa&s;&s;es to them; for he hath made him to be &s;in for us, who knew no &s;in; that we might be made the Righteou&s;ne&s;s of God in him. He might have declared his mercy to us &s;ome other way, but this was the only be&s;t way to declare his Righteou&s;ne&s;s as well as Mercy, that he might be ju&s;t as well as gracious, in ju&s;tifying the &s;inner, and puni&s;hing the &s;in. There|fore being ju&s;tifyed by Faith, we enter into Gods Re&s;t, having Peace with God through Chri&s;t <HI>Je&s;us,</HI> &s;aith St. <HI>Paul.</HI> He that relies his
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weary Soul on this Rock and &s;ure foundation, &s;hall never be a&s;hamed of his Hope, if he rely with &s;uch a Faith and Hope on it, as accepts of the Yoke, as well as the Re&s;t; but &s;hall by degrees, as he grows in Holine&s;s and Righteou&s;ne&s;s, find the Re&s;t of his Soul increa&s;ed and a&s;&s;ured unto him more and more, till he attain that <GAP DESC="foreign">, that fulne&s;s of Peace and Joy in believing, which St. <HI>Paul</HI> expre&s;&s;eth, <HI>Rom.</HI> 8.38. Who &s;hall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect, 'tis God that ju&s;tifieth, who is he that condemneth? 'Tis Chri&s;t that died, or rather is ri&s;en again to God's right hand, and there makes in|terce&s;&s;ion for us. As for afflictions that often may and do follow this Re&s;t of Faith for ju&s;tification; St. <HI>Paul</HI> &s;hews in the next words that they rather confirm and ratifie the pardon, than que&s;tion or le&s;&s;en it; through that experience of Gods wi&s;e and faithful love, in
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making all things work together for good, to tho&s;e that love him above all: Who &s;hall &s;eperate us from the love of God in Chri&s;t? &s;hall Tribulation or Di&s;tre&s;s, Per|&s;ecution or Nakedne&s;s; Famin or Sword? in all the&s;e we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us. If weak Chri&s;tians com|ing to Chri&s;t with faithful de&s;ires; and re&s;olutions to weare his Yoke, and bear his Burthen, meekly and humbly, find not this Re&s;t of ju&s;tifi|cation, with &s;uch a degree of Peace and Joy, as St. <HI>Paul</HI> expre&s;&s;eth, 'tis not becau&s;e Chri&s;t giveth them not what he promi&s;eth; but becau&s;e he giveth it them gradually, accor|ding as they are able and fit, by their Faith to receive it; for he &s;aith to every Soul now, as to them in St. <HI>Matt.</HI> 9.24. Be it unto you, according to your Faith, if your Faith be &s;trong, and lively; both in believing my promi&s;e and merit, and in undertaking that Yoke of
<GAP DESC="missing" EXTENT="4 pages">
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his Yoke; though they find not as yet that Re&s;t and Peace which their Souls de&s;ire, pray and &s;tay for.</P>
<P>Ble&s;&s;ed is he that &s;tayeth and waiteth with humble Prayer Gods lei&s;ure; &s;ince he hath promi&s;ed who cannot fail, that he will not break the brui&s;ed Reed, but give in time the Garment of joy, for the Spirit of heavine&s;s: and <HI>I&s;ai.</HI> 57.15, 16. <HI>I will dwell with the contrite humble Spirit to revive it, for I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wrath, le&s;t the Spirit &s;hould fail before me, and the Souls which I have made.</HI> Thus you have &s;een the fir&s;t Re&s;t which true believers enter into even here in this life, the Re&s;t of Pardon, and Ju&s;tifica|tion upon their Repentance and Faith in Chri&s;t. The &s;econd, is a Re&s;t from the Tyrannous reign of &s;in, by tho&s;e Motives of Hope and Fear, Love and Gratitude; which faith propoundeth from Chri&s;ts
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Go&s;pel and the Spirit of grace; holine&s;s and comfort, which faith procureth by earne&s;t Prayer. Now this is &s;o nece&s;&s;arily joyned with the other, the Re&s;t of Pardon, that 'tis its ordinary &s;tanding evidence, and the means to obtain it more and more. For we may not come to Chri&s;t for Pardon, to give us the Re&s;t of ju&s;tification from &s;ins guilt, and condemning power, by his Blood, unle&s;s we &s;o value that pardon and its price, as &s;incerely to hate, and be heartily willing to for&s;ake that &s;in, which the wi&s;|dom and holy ju&s;tice of God could not, or would not remit or for|give, but at &s;uch a price as his own eternal infinite Sons humili|ation to, and in that humane na|ture which had offended. We mu&s;t feel as well the burthen of &s;ins loath&s;om filth and hateful di&s;|order, as well as that of its guilt and puni&s;hment, before we are tho&s;e weary and laden, tho&s;e poor and
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humble ones in Spirit, who have a Title to rely on Chri&s;t for Re&s;t from both; but to tho&s;e who &s;o come unto him, our gracous Lord never denies what he invites to, Re&s;t from the &s;lavi&s;h &s;ervice of &s;in, as well as from its intolerable guilt and condemnation: His blood and &s;pirit are never &s;ever'd; where-ever the one is actually imputed to ju&s;tification, the other is always imparted al&s;o to &s;anctification, and therefore St. <HI>Paul</HI> joyns them to|gether, 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 6.11. <HI>Such were &s;ome of you, but ye are wa&s;ht, but ye are &s;anctified, but ye are ju&s;tified, in the name of the Lord Je&s;us, and by the Spirit of our God:</HI> And <HI>Rom.</HI> 8.2.9. <HI>The Law of the Spirit of life in Chri&s;t Je&s;us, hath &s;et me free from the Law of &s;in and death. But if any Man have not the Spirit of Chri&s;t, he is as yet none of his,</HI> though he may be his by repentance and faith.</P>
<P><PB N="68" REF="40">And indeed this Re&s;t from &s;ins dominion, you will ea&s;ily &s;ee to be a nece&s;&s;ary, and great part of the Souls happine&s;s in this life, if you will but con&s;ider the burthen|&s;ome drudgery, that wicked Men lie under until they obtain it, and enter into it by &s;uch a faith in Chri&s;t Je&s;us, as works by obedience. For every per&s;on living in any cour&s;e of impiety, unrighteou&s;ne&s;s, intem|perance, is a &s;elf-accu&s;ing, &s;elf-condemning, divided creature, a terror and &s;hame unto him&s;elf.</P>
<P>He cannot choo&s;e but wi&s;h and de&s;ire eternal Re&s;t, yet is cu&s;to|marily drawn by his lu&s;ts and pa&s;&s;ions, to do that which certain|ly leads to eternal anxiety and tri|bulation. His rea&s;on invites him to that good which is Spiritual, im|mortal, infinite, and therefore a &s;atisfactory Re&s;t to his Soul; to the only God who made him at fir&s;t, and who alone can make him happy. But his lu&s;t and pa&s;&s;ions
<PB N="69" REF="40">
draw him away to that which is earthly, &s;en&s;ual, devili&s;h. Not only finite and fading, and &s;o di&s;|appointing him, but filthy and ba&s;e, and &s;o di&s;tracting and vexing his Soul with foul di&s;order and guilty &s;hame. His Spirits and con&s;cience often tells him, that he ought to maintain an humble holy communion with God, by Faith and Hope and Love, Prayers and Prai&s;es; that &s;o he may be prepa|red to &s;ee him in that immediate clear revelation of his glory; but his lu&s;ts and pa&s;&s;ions, &s;o burthen and oppre&s;s him, that he cannot lift up his heart to God, nor draw near his holy pre&s;ence with any delight, but &s;tudies to &s;hun him, and live without the remembrance of his goodne&s;s and mercies; that he may forget his power and ju&s;tice. To behold the Creator in the Crea|ture, and love the giver in his gifts, to contemplate his power wi&s;dom and goodne&s;s, &s;hining in
<PB N="70" REF="41">
his word and works; to be thank|full for his pa&s;t benefits, rejoy|cing in his pre&s;ent favour, and panting after his ble&s;&s;ed pre&s;ence to all eternity; to fit him&s;elf for that pre&s;ence, by purifying him&s;elf, as he is pure; by being righteous holy and merciful, as he is; to govern him&s;elf and tho&s;e that are under him, in &s;uch order as God pre&s;cribes; this is the Re&s;t as well as the Labour of rational Souls in this life, a plea&s;ure and honour as well as a taske. But &s;in is &s;uch a burthenous Tyrant and oppre&s;&s;or, that it makes the &s;inner imploy his rea&s;on, made to &s;erve, know, love and enjoy God: It makes him im|ploy this rea&s;on in the drudgery of covetou&s;ne&s;s, in the bruti&s;hne&s;s of lu&s;ts, and &s;en&s;uality, in the devilli&s;h|ne&s;s of malice, envy, revenge, pride and ambition. His rea&s;on was given to &s;tudy God and his Will, to plea&s;e and delight in him here, that he may for ever &s;ee and enjoy him,
<PB N="71" REF="41">
with mutual complacency; to help others to do &s;o by word and deed, and who is there that hath not quite unchri&s;tian'd and unman'd him&s;elf, but in &s;ober retirement, thinks this a work that hath plea|&s;ure in it, and Re&s;t as well as La|bour? But &s;in is &s;uch a weari&s;om Tyrant and oppre&s;&s;or, that it makes the rea&s;onable immortal Soul, that heavenly breath, that Image of God, a &s;neaking Pandor to his lu&s;ts; a drudging purveyor to his belly and appetite; a fawning di&s;&s;embling fal&s;e hearted flatterer, to his pride and ambition; a &s;landerous &s;yco|phant, detractor and whi&s;perer to his envy; a brawling railing reviler to his wrath or anger; a bloody a&s;&s;a&s;&s;inate to his revenge; a griping extortioner, or theevi&s;h cheater to his covetou&s;ne&s;s; a &s;educer and tempter, that is an a&s;&s;i&s;tant to Satan in ruining his own and other Mens Souls: And when all this is done, &s;ee what weari&s;om, re&s;tle&s;s toyle
<PB N="72" REF="42">
remains for the &s;inner. He would live for ever in this World, but &s;ees he mu&s;t die and be call'd to account; and &s;eeing that, he would die for ever, and turn to nothing, but that he &s;ees he cannot neither. He would have Gods favour, but dares not come near him. He would live in peace and approba|tion with him&s;elf, but a civil War and contrary de&s;ires, lu&s;ts and pa&s;|&s;ions, contrary each to one another, and all to rea&s;on, tear and divide him from him&s;elf. He would live at Re&s;t and Peace with other Men, but his covetou&s;ne&s;s and pride makes him injurious, his wrath and revenge, his malice and envy makes him impatient, and quite be|reave him of this Peace: He would be rich, but either his &s;loth will not gather, or his lu&s;ts and vain glory &s;catters as fa&s;t as his indu&s;try gets. He would live in &s;afety and ea&s;e, but his haughty ambition, makes him endure labour and dan|ger
<PB N="73" REF="42">
day and night. He would be in honour and high repute, but his &s;ordid lu&s;ts and cowardly fears, griping covetou&s;ne&s;s or wrathfull revenge, makes him hateful and contemptible. His pride and am|bition would command all Men, but it makes him fir&s;t fawn and flatter, bow and cringe to tho&s;e whom he &s;ecretly hates and &s;corns. He would be true to his own prin|ciples and religion, not give him|&s;elf the lie, by profe&s;&s;ing what he doth not believe; but his love of the World, and fear of poverty or of death, doth &s;o di&s;turb the Re&s;t of his Soul, that he coucheth un|der every load, complies and con|forms to any profe&s;&s;ion of faith or wor&s;hip, which tho&s;e who prevail would have him &s;ub&s;cribe to, till he lay down his faith, hope, and con&s;cience, at the feet of a Man, <HI>who&s;e breath is in his no&s;trils,</HI> who threatens and &s;trikes, and is no more. Thus he that &s;erves is re&s;t|le&s;s
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indeed, oppre&s;t and tired with contrary Tyrants, cro&s;&s;ing and thwarting one another, till they wrack and tear the Man in pieces, and drag him to everla&s;ting trouble, angui&s;h and &s;orrow. How &s;weet then and highly pretious is that Re&s;t, which faith in God through Je&s;us Chri&s;t enters into, when under the light and worth of that truth, which it hath received, it guides and &s;ubdues all its appetites, affections and pa&s;&s;ions from a right principle by a right rule, to a right end; which is nothing but God and his word; God as its author governour and happine&s;s, or perfect Re&s;t? For though the Re&s;t be yet imperfect, becau&s;e the World the Fle&s;h and the Devil do yet oppo&s;e it; yet Chri&s;t hath promi|&s;ed that no oppo&s;ition &s;hall over|throw it, unle&s;s we willfully and ob&s;tinately <HI>grieve</HI> that Spirit of truth, holine&s;s and comfort, which was given us as the Seal of our faith
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and peace with God, the pre&s;erver and fini&s;her of this Re&s;t, the a&s;|&s;urance of our pre&s;ent adoption, and future inheritance, if we will but wi&s;ely and thankfully value that Re&s;t, into which we are enter'd, humbly and watchfully pray unto Chri&s;t to confirm and increa&s;e it; all oppo&s;itions &s;hall prove advan|tages, all dangers, travails and la|bours, &s;o many evidences of Gods faithfulne&s;s to us, and ours to him; of his being our all &s;ufficient &s;hield and &s;upporter here, our exceeding reward and &s;atisfactory Re&s;t for evermore. Now &s;ee what a ble&s;&s;ed Re&s;t there is in faith and holine&s;s, and all tho&s;e graces which wait on them. Faith in God gives the mind a <HI>Sabboth</HI> of Re&s;t, from all tho&s;e anxious perplexing enquiries, and &s;elf contradicting re&s;olutions, which humane rea&s;on left to it &s;elf is vexed with; and &s;ettles the heart on that divine Wi&s;dom and truth, which can neither deceive nor be
<PB N="76" REF="44">
deceived, humbling at once the under&s;tanding and advancing it, becau&s;e it is its greate&s;t advance|ment to be humbled under God, who never fails to honour tho&s;e who honour him; and makes the con&s;cience ari&s;e and rejoyce, to &s;ee that it hath &s;ubmitted it &s;elf to &s;uch a guide. Take faith in its meane&s;t Offices, of tru&s;ting God in our temporal affairs, re&s;igning our &s;elves to his wi&s;dom, power and goodne&s;s, as one that can and will chu&s;e better for us, than we our &s;elves; what peace and re&s;t is this to our Souls, from all tho&s;e &s;ervile fears and cares, tho&s;e ba&s;e &s;ubmi&s;&s;ions, and ba&s;er oppre&s;&s;ions, which the covetous worldling, or cowardly trembling unbeliever undergoes? Though the Waters <HI>rage</HI> and the Earth <HI>&s;hake,</HI> yet he who&s;e heart tru&s;ts in the Lord, that <HI>all things &s;hall work together for good,</HI> he is the only <GAP DESC="foreign">, or a &s;quar'd Man, whom no change can make a
<PB N="77" REF="44">
changeling, becau&s;e his heart &s;tands fa&s;t, and believes in the faithful God; he is gotten above this region of meteors, clouds and winds; be|cau&s;e the Lord is his &s;un and &s;hield, which no cloud can intercept, no wind &s;hake. But then in the higher Offices of faith, whereby it con&s;iders and embraces the glo|rious truth of God, our Redeemer and Saviour, and &s;ees that they are as certainly true as gloriou&s;ly great.</P>
<P>That former &s;ins confe&s;&s;ed and for&s;aken, are blotted out for the merits of Chri&s;t, the Law &s;atisfied by &s;uch a &s;urety; Satans accu&s;a|tions &s;ilenced by &s;uch an Advocat; That afflictions and death have lo&s;t their &s;ting, and are turned into benefits. That he who hath begun a good work will al&s;o fini&s;h it, and never leave us in life and death, untill he hath brought us to perfect Re&s;t, and full happine&s;s both of &s;oul and body; what fruit can this
<PB N="78" REF="45">
produce but peace and joy in the holy Gho&s;t, cheerful con&s;tancy and per&s;everance in doing and &s;uf|fering the will of God? It re&s;cues us from all tho&s;e trembling fears, and &s;orrowful agonies, which el&s;e mu&s;t &s;eize upon our hearts, from the weakne&s;s of the fle&s;h and the &s;trength of our enemies, from the cur&s;e of the Law, and the hor|rors of con&s;cience, from the ma|lice and &s;ubtilty of the World and the Devil. How well then might St. <HI>Paul</HI> &s;ay <HI>we that believe enter Gods Re&s;t;</HI> do already, in good de|gree; &s;hall compleatly and un|changeably, if we per&s;evere. <HI>Hope,</HI> the &s;econd Chri&s;tian grace, is &s;o near of kin to <HI>Faith,</HI> that 'tis lineally derived from it, and born of it; nor can that heart but find a com|fortable ble&s;&s;ed Re&s;t, which hopes in the fountain of all ble&s;&s;edne&s;s, hopes to &s;ee and enjoy him for ever; and in that hope purifies him&s;elf: All other hopes are dead or dying,
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&s;ure to leave him void of Re&s;t, full of anxiety that builds on them. This is the only <HI>lively hope</HI> as Saint <HI>Peter</HI> calls it; becau&s;e placed in the fountain of life and joy it &s;elf: This is that grace which applies to our &s;elves the general promi&s;es, the Souls Anchor, which makes it ride &s;afe and triumphant in the mid&s;t of tempe&s;ts here below, be|cau&s;e it enters within the vail of Heaven it &s;elf, and takes po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion before hand of all its trea&s;ures, and by its joyful expectations be|comes that <HI>helmet</HI> in St. <HI>Paul,</HI> which guards the head again&s;t all blows of the World or Devil; wherefore he bids us <HI>rejoyce in hope, be patient and cheerful in tribulation, in&s;tant in Prayer,</HI> and tells us, <HI>Coll.</HI> 1.11. That this is that <HI>which &s;trengthens the heart with all might, to all patience, and long &s;uffering with joyfulne&s;s.</HI> It is indeed the anticipation of Heaven on Earth, and makes the Re&s;t of that World, our portion in this. As
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for <HI>Charity</HI> the third grace, the Image and tran&s;cript of God him|&s;elf who is goodne&s;s and love; grea|ter than either, or <HI>faith</HI> or <HI>hope,</HI> is holy <HI>charity;</HI> greater than they for Re&s;t and joy as well as u&s;e, becau&s;e the very fruit and end, the evi|dence and perfection of both. Can there be any more ble&s;&s;ed Re&s;t, or &s;atisfaction in this life, than the love of him, who is infinitely a|miable, who&s;e glorious perfections ravi&s;h the Angels, into an exta&s;y and admiration of endle&s;s felicity? what ever we do or can love el&s;e, we can neither be &s;ure to enjoy it long, nor if we could, would it &s;a|tisfie, but cloy or tire, and leave us empty and di&s;contented: But to love God, is to Re&s;t in him: Nor can any thing tire or fini&s;h, inter|cept or di&s;appoint the Re&s;t and peace, and joy of that love which is fixed on him, who is the eternal boundle&s;s good: This is Godline&s;s, this is Holine&s;s, to love God in all,
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and above all what we love be&s;ides, and 'tis our happine&s;s as well as holine&s;s, that which gives rea&s;on its throne, and proper dignity, above all tho&s;e blind, violent lu&s;ts and pa&s;&s;ions within, or temptations without, which keep a Man from po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ing him&s;elf with any freedom or &s;olid peace; nor can a Man be firmly united to him&s;elf, but by being united unto God: When once the Soul loves God &s;incerely, and con&s;tantly above all; and hath re&s;ign'd its will to his, it hath its Re&s;t; whether the world &s;mile or frown, nothing can come ami&s;s to it, come what will it cannot de&s;troy its Re&s;t in God. As is the Object or main end on which the Soul of Man fixes as its happine&s;s; &s;o is the Soul for its condition, quiet or re&s;tle&s;s, con&s;tant or wave|ring, di&s;contented or &s;atisfied: He that par&s;ues earthly things as his main end, becomes vain, un&s;table, un&s;atisfied and perplexed, led up
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and down by the fooli&s;h fire of &s;ence or phancy, changing as they and the World change, di&s;quieted with that vexation, and vanity which they find abroad, and that &s;edition they find at home, 'twixt rea&s;on and unrea&s;onable lu&s;ts, af|fections and pa&s;&s;ions. But he that re&s;ts and centers him&s;elf on God through Chri&s;t, on that one end, and &s;overeign good, in that way which he hath appointed, which is indeed but him&s;elf, become a &s;uitable way to that end he hath cho&s;en; that which will unite and reconcile him, not only to him&s;elf in all his faculties, de&s;ires, and actions or preten&s;ions; but to all the various, providential di&s;pen|&s;ations in this World, which &s;eem &s;o intricate, perplext, and perplex|ing to fle&s;h and blood; wherefore they that by faith have entred into the love of God above all, mu&s;t nece&s;&s;arily have entred into Re&s;t, in the &s;ame degree in which
<PB N="83" REF="47">
it is evident to them&s;elves, that they have done &s;o: And then the Charity which flows from the love of God above all, on his Image or Proxy or Neighbour, our Brother, our fellow Chri&s;tian; is their any thing be&s;ides that principle, from which it flows more full of Re&s;t, Peace and Joy, than to love and promote his virtue and happine&s;s, to love that nature which Chri&s;t a&s;&s;umed and died for; to love the Image of God in Man, which is to love God him&s;elf by reflection and con&s;equence, and &s;o indeed to love our &s;elves, increa&s;e and &s;ecure our own happine&s;s? It is the voice of all Mankind not quite degenerated to bea&s;t; That Friend&s;hip and Charity is the &s;weete&s;t delight of this life, next to that in God him|&s;elf.</P>
<P>That <HI>malice</HI> and <HI>envy,</HI> to be hate|full, and hating one another, is one of the greate&s;t, odiou&s;e&s;t mi|&s;eries, the very Image of Hell it
<PB N="84" REF="48">
&s;elf, where there is nothing but hatred and cur&s;ing; whereas of Heaven we under&s;tand little more, than that the ble&s;&s;ed inhabitants of it love God above all, and one an|other as them&s;elves; nor can their happine&s;s fail or abate, becau&s;e their Charity or Love cannot. <HI>Bounty</HI> and <HI>Mercy,</HI> the fruits of this Charity, makes a Man Gods Vice|gerent, in doing good to tho&s;e that are, or may be his; in re&s;cu|ing them from the Devils malice and wicked Men, by &s;ea&s;onable relief of their Soul and Body, and is &s;o plea&s;ant, &s;o joyfull a duty, that it renders the giver more re&s;t and delight, than the needy receiver, and returns with u&s;ury at the pre&s;ent into his bo&s;om, by the comfortable evidence of his own &s;incerity, and &s;o of his intere&s;t in many promi&s;es; both of &s;ecuring his temporal welfare, and increa&s;ing his eternal. Love towards Men, e&s;pecially Chri&s;tians, for Chri&s;t
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&s;ake, melting our hearts, and opening our hands, with cheerful joy to relieve their wants, free's our Souls from the chilling cold of unmerciful covetou&s;ne&s;s, which gripes it &s;elf as well as others; gives us re&s;t from the Canker of envy, and fretful malice, which makes us take delight and content in another Mans graces, welfare and happine&s;s, as part of our own; gives us Re&s;t from the rack and fire of rage and revenge, gives us the peace and honour, of conquering evil with good, and then makes us rejoyce again, that this is our plea for Gods mercy towards our &s;elves: And who then would re|fu&s;e or neglect the Re&s;t of Charity? <HI>Humility</HI> is another grace, which be&s;ides the Calm and Re&s;t of Soul, which Chri&s;t hath peculiarly pro|mi&s;ed to it, hath &s;uch an attractive, controlling loveline&s;s, that 'tis the rival of Heaven and Earth. God him&s;elf that inhabits eternity,
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<HI>dwells with the humble;</HI> (as the God of Peace brings Re&s;t and Peace wherever he dwells) and what wi&s;e or good Man, loves not to dwell with &s;uch al&s;o? So true is that of <HI>Prov.</HI> 16.19. <HI>'Tis better to be of an humble Spirit, than to divide the &s;poil with the proud.</HI> How re&s;tle&s;s is pride in all its de&s;igns, and haughty pur|&s;uits? How di&s;contented with God and Man if it mi&s;s of them? And if it attain them, how full of in|gratitude and &s;cornful di&s;dain, of fears and jealou&s;ies on the one &s;ide, of tumors and &s;wellings, of endle&s;s ambition on the other? But the humble per&s;on enjoys the Re&s;t of thankful contentment in all condi|tions, thinks him&s;elf <HI>le&s;s than the lea&s;t of Gods mercies,</HI> had rather by farr obey than rule; and if he receive contempt or injuries, is not di&s;turbed with wrath or re|venge, but &s;its down in humble &s;ilence, as fearing he may have &s;ome ways de&s;erved it. Great is
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the Re&s;t which <HI>meekne&s;s</HI> and <HI>patience</HI> brings to the Soul of Man: <HI>Meekne&s;s</HI> is the ornament of a quiet Spirit, very pretious in Gods &s;ight, and therefore ought to be &s;o in ours. I appeal to the rea&s;on and experi|ence of any Man, whether it be not re&s;t and ea&s;e, to forgive an in|jury rather than be provoked to revenge; and to lay a&s;ide the con|&s;ideration of other Mens malice, envy and peevi&s;hne&s;s, rather than imitate it, and &s;uffer the vexing remembrance of it, to boil and ferment in our watchful minds, until it hath conquered, and tran&s;|form'd us into the &s;ame trouble&s;om evil? Is it not Peace, and a ble&s;|&s;ed Re&s;t to &s;it &s;till, and lift up no hands, but tho&s;e of Charity, and Charitable prayer, rather than labour in fighting and wounding one another? To hold ones peace, than to rail and revile? Which hath more Re&s;t in it, to &s;tudy to be quiet, and do ones own bu&s;ine&s;s,
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or to be prying and intermedling with other Mens office, faults or &s;ecrets? To &s;peak evil of no Man, or to be always finding fault, and &s;peaking the wor&s;t we can of any, who differ from us in any re&s;pect? Which is the greate&s;t trouble and burthen, meekly to obey our Law|full Governours, in Church and State, where God hath not com|manded the contrary; or be all|ways di&s;puting again&s;t a few harm|le&s;s indifferent ceremonies, untill we have quarre'ld our &s;elves, and others into a cau&s;ele&s;s &s;candalous, pernitious &s;eparation? Then for humble contented <HI>patience,</HI> that precept of the <HI>Old Te&s;tament,</HI> but wi&s;dom and my&s;tery of the <HI>New: Thou &s;halt not covet,</HI> but be content <HI>patiently</HI> with thy own portion; what is it but a Re&s;t rather than burthen, a purcha&s;e or priviledge, rather than duty when once learnt? Let the Carnal or Worldly Man, with his bored tub of in&s;atiable de|&s;ires,
<PB N="89" REF="50">
cry as the Hor&s;eleach; <HI>give, give</HI> and &s;eek after wealth as he &s;hould after God, without bounds: Yet the Heathen Philo&s;opher could re&s;olve it the only way to true Re&s;t, not to &s;eek to <HI>rai&s;e</HI> our fortunes to our de&s;ires, but to <HI>bring down</HI> our de&s;ires to our fortunes and pre&s;ent condition: The one is not onely uncertain, becau&s;e not in any Mans power, but impo&s;&s;ible, be|cau&s;e his de&s;ires increa&s;e with his purcha&s;es, as fire with fewel; whereas the other is po&s;&s;ible, and certain. Contentment and pati|ence glorifies God, by placing its wealth in his favours, who having promi&s;ed him nece&s;&s;aries here, and a Kingdom hereafter, hath taught and obliged him to be contented, with any fare upon the way; be|cau&s;e he &s;ees his being &s;o, confirms and increa&s;eth his future happine&s;s. <HI>Nullo egere Dei e&s;t, qu&agrave;m pauci&s;&s;imis Deo proximum.</HI> As for <HI>&s;obriety, temperance, cha&s;tity,</HI> rea&s;on &s;econd|ded
<PB N="90" REF="51">
by experience, a&s;&s;ures any Man, that to drink to the quench|ing of ones thir&s;t, or at mo&s;t to the moderate cheering one Spirits; to eat to the &s;atisfying ones hun|ger, or at mo&s;t to the gratifying of fe&s;tival joy, ho&s;pitality, friend|&s;hip and thankful delight, in what God hath bountifully given, is all the good that is to be had from Meat and Drink; that 'tis a trouble as well as a &s;in, to &s;will as if one were in a Feaver, or till one brings him&s;elf to a Feaver, or Drop&s;y; to Eat and Drink till rea&s;on is drowned, &s;mothered and buried under the load, and till the Phanta&s;tick, forced plea&s;ure of two or three mi&s;pent hours, end in the pain of head and &s;tomach for whole days after, if not in &s;ome villainous lu&s;t or pa&s;&s;ion, and bloudy quarrel, in &s;ickne&s;s and death both of Soul and Body. The con&s;cience finds all trouble in it, and the Body it &s;elf (for gratifying of which, God and Con&s;cience was
<PB N="91" REF="51">
de&s;pi&s;ed) find no Re&s;t within &s;ome hours: And what compari&s;on be|tween the re&s;t, &s;afety, health and honour, of either virginal or con|jugal cha&s;tity, which keeps the de&s;ires of the fle&s;h, under the power of rea&s;on and faith, lives in the hope of &s;eeing God, pre|&s;erves the bond of love in Families inviolated, and the unclean &s;hame|ful exce&s;&s;es of wandring lu&s;t, which are conceived with fear and an|xiety, brought forth and fini&s;ht with &s;hame and &s;orrow; begin in di&s;order of Soul and Body, end in loathing; begin in trouble, end in wor&s;e; burn at fir&s;t and con&s;ume at la&s;t the peace of the mind, if not the health of the Body al&s;o; be|&s;ides the confu&s;ions, tumults, quar|rels it breeds in Families, and all for the &s;neaking bruti&s;h delight of a few minutes?</P>
<P>There is indeed one grace, which &s;eems to have little Re&s;t in it: The <HI>&s;uffering per&s;ecutions to death,</HI>
<PB N="92" REF="52">
rather than di&s;own the Truth, or violate duty: But God hath made &s;o many promi&s;es to mitigate, and temper all temptations to the &s;trength, which we either now have, or &s;hall receive upon our prayers, of his turning to good, what&s;oever &s;eems mo&s;t evil: And of his rewarding our courage and patience with &s;o much the greater weight of glory, that the&s;e promi&s;es being believed, we are enabled as well as obliged not only to be contented but joyful al&s;o in tribulations for truth and righteou&s;ne&s;s &s;ake; and therefore no wonder, if &s;uffering mi&s;eries for the honour of God, and our Lord <HI>Je&s;us,</HI> for the furtherance of our own &s;alvation and other Mens, hath more re&s;t than trouble in it; without this Re&s;t, a flow of all other good things, which this world can give, will leave a Man but a mi&s;erable wearied Traveller, un|der a heavy load and burthen of
<PB N="93" REF="52">
di&s;contents and &s;orrows; and with this Re&s;t, all labour and &s;orrow is incon&s;i&s;tent, and though we may not expect to have this promi&s;ed eternal Re&s;t, endle&s;s felicity as our de&s;erved wages, yet we may and ought to hope for it, as our pro|mi&s;ed reward. Angels &mdash; and Saints departed this life, they have it allready, the Devils and damned are pa&s;t all Hope. Great pains and labour do the Men of this World take, but not in order to this Re&s;t, and therefore a Multitude of mi&s;|taken &s;inners, lay out the chief of their days and time, in pur&s;uance of plea&s;ures, and honours, and profits of this World, as if Heaven and Salvation were ea&s;y atchiev|ments, as if they might with a wi&s;h only at the la&s;t, come to die the <HI>death of the righteous,</HI> who had &s;o notoriou&s;ly lived the <HI>life of the wicked.</HI> 'Tis not only the doing of evil, but the not doing of good, which &s;hall be puni&s;hed at the la&s;t
<PB N="94" REF="53">
day, the judge &s;hall then condemn for not feedings, for not clothing. <HI>Go ye cur&s;ed into everla&s;ting fire, for I was hungry and ye fed me not, for I was naked and ye clothed me not.</HI> Not doing of good is none of the lea&s;t evils; He that &s;its &s;till and moves not one &s;tep towards this Re&s;t, by wearing Chri&s;ts Yoak; and bearing his burthen, &s;hall lo&s;e Heaven as infallibly, as he that runs from it; who &s;o hides his Ta|lent, &s;hall receive no other wages &s;ave that of the &s;lothful Servant. The way to Heaven is narrow, the Gate &s;traight, it mu&s;t be &s;triving that gives us entrance; not only the hopes of Heaven but the e&s;ca|ping of Hell, makes it our duty to be doing of good, and by &s;o doing, we expre&s;s our fear, <HI>le&s;t a promi&s;e of Re&s;t being left, any of us &s;hould &s;eem to fall &s;hort of it. So run that ye may obtain,</HI> is the command; and all precepts of Scripture are back'd with threats for ill (or not)
<PB N="95" REF="53">
doing, as well as promi&s;es for do|ing well, and are intended by God, as &s;o many arguments, and &s;trong motives to hold us to our duty; do we our part and God will cer|tainly do his, and we cannot lo&s;e the reward of <HI>Well done good and faithful Servant, enter into thy Ma&s;ter</HI>'s <HI>joy:</HI> The la&s;t judicial &s;entence of Chri&s;t of which we read, <HI>Matt.</HI> 25. <HI>Come ye ble&s;&s;ed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the World;</HI> is an invi|tation of &s;o much mercy and love|ing kindne&s;s, that none can give, nor can any expect or require more? What can the eloquence of Man add to it, or what better a&s;&s;urance can be de&s;ired, than the gratious promi&s;e of &s;o powerful, &s;o faithful a Lord? Or what greater reward can any hope to receive, than that which the Author and di&s;pen&s;er of all good a&s;&s;ures us, by letting us know what ever we do to the poor and needy, he will interpret it as
<PB N="96" REF="54">
done to him&s;elf and &s;o reward our labour of love as to Crown it with eternal Re&s;t; an inheritance of that Kingdom, and all its joys, as well as honours which fade not away? But we mu&s;t not under&s;tand this award of eternal life, this glo|rious inheritance, to be the reward of the righteous, for the merit of their good works, as everla&s;ting fire is to the wicked for their demerits; what ever the <HI>Romi&s;h</HI> Church pre|tends to, from tho&s;e words of our Saviour in the forenamed 25th of St. <HI>Matt.</HI> <Q>The particle <HI>for</HI> (&s;ay they) is as truly cau&s;al by way of merit and efficiency in the one as in the other; the form of Speech in both &s;entences the &s;ame: <HI>Depart ye cur&s;ed into ever|la&s;ting fire. For I was hungry and ye gave me no meat. Come ye ble&s;|&s;ed inherit the Kingdom, for I was hungry and ye fed me.</HI></Q></P>
<P><PB N="97" REF="54">In an&s;wer to this, 'tis clear e|nough, that though the particle, <HI>for,</HI> be granted to &s;ignifie cau&s;a|lity in both &s;entences, yet need it not &s;ignifie the &s;ame kind, or de|gree of cau&s;ality in both; and if it need not, then it mu&s;t not, unle&s;s they re&s;olve to contradict many other plain Scriptures, ra|ther than depart from their own vain, and proud conceit of merit|ing Heaven in &s;trict ju&s;tice: For fir&s;t, The word or particle <HI>for,</HI> may &s;ignifie only the cau&s;e of our, or others knowledge, that the King|dom of Heaven is their inheritance by true title of gracious promi&s;e, or the Covenant of grace and mer|cy in Chri&s;t Je&s;us, which accepts and rewards repentance, and faith, working by love, whereof the&s;e works of Charity, are the fruits and &s;igns. For every Authentick Declaration, or Revelation of any truth, before unknown, is the true cau&s;e of our knowledge of it, though
<PB N="98" REF="55">
not of the real truth which is &s;o known: Now among &s;uch as pro|fe&s;s Chri&s;t and call him <HI>Lord,</HI> 'tis hidden to us, who are the true heirs of the Heavenly Kingdom, and who not, untill at the day of final judgment, when all Men &s;hall be judged by their works. The fir&s;t infallible certain knowledge which &s;hall be had of this difference, is from the declarative &s;entence of that infallible righteous Judge, who hath declared he will proceed, with one, and the other, according to their &s;everal works, when all mu&s;t appear before the Judgment &s;eat of Chri&s;t, that <HI>every one may receive the things done in the Body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.</HI> 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 5.10. The ones performance of good works, declared and te&s;tified by the Judge, &s;hall be the true cau&s;e by which Men and Angels &s;hall know them to be the heirs of that Heavenly Kingdom, which here they &s;ought
<PB N="99" REF="55">
and longed after, with faithful de&s;ires, and endeavours, &s;uch as prepared and fitted them&s;elves for it. The others omi&s;&s;ion of good works, te&s;tified by the &s;ame Judge, &s;hall be the true cau&s;e by which we &s;hall know them to be utterly unworthy of Gods everla&s;ting fa|vour and mercy, mo&s;t worthy of death eternal. We &s;hall then truly know, that the one are Crowned (as &s;aith St. <HI>Cyprian</HI>) according to Gods <HI>grace,</HI> which graciou&s;ly ac|cepts of faithful &s;incerity in &s;tead of &s;trict legal perfection; and that the other are condemned according to <HI>ju&s;tice,</HI> becau&s;e they neither ful|filled the law, nor embraced the Go&s;pel, upon its gracious terms and conditions. That the ones omi&s;&s;ion of good works, and com|mi&s;&s;ion of evil ones, is the true meritorious cau&s;e of their condem|nation: And that the others per|formance of good works, at lea&s;t in faithful re&s;olution, and that
<PB N="100" REF="56">
hearty inward faith, hope, and love, which would have produced them, if time and &s;pace had been granted, is the te&s;timony or decla|ration, that they are the Sons of God, heirs of everla&s;ting life, though not the meritorious cau&s;e of their Salvation and life eternal.</P>
<P>We commonly come to know the cau&s;e by the effect: and there|fore this word, <HI>for,</HI> may, and doth often point out, not the cau&s;e of the thing it &s;elf, but the effect, and our knowledge of the cau&s;e by it. <HI>That's the Major,</HI> 'tis commonly &s;aid, <HI>for the Mace is borne before him:</HI> Let no Man think, that the bearing of the Mace before him, is the <HI>cau&s;e</HI> of his being <HI>Major</HI> (his <HI>lawful Election</HI> was the cau&s;e of his <HI>Ma|joralty,</HI> and his Majoralty the cau&s;e of the Mace being carried, or borne before him) but the bearing the Mace before him, is the true cau&s;e of many Mens knowing him to be the Major. And this an&s;wer to
<PB N="101" REF="56">
the que&s;tion, may &s;erve with grea|ter probability, than ought our adver&s;aries bring for them&s;elves. But with more clearne&s;s and evi|dence of rea&s;on, agreeing with the Analogy of Faith, and the cur|rent of Scripture, I an&s;wer, That the particle <HI>for</HI> implys a cau&s;ality in both the &s;entences, but in one, that of the wicked, the &s;trict meritorious &s;ole cau&s;e of their condemnation; whereas in the Godly, and Chari|table Per&s;ons, the heirs of Heaven, the <HI>for</HI> implys &s;uch a cau&s;al in|fluence as that which they call <HI>conditio</HI> or <HI>cau&s;a &s;ine qu&acirc; non,</HI> good works, or that faith working by love of God and Man, whence they &s;pring, and the nece&s;&s;ary con|ditions, without which no Man &s;hall inherit the Kingdom; yea the nece&s;&s;ary qualifications, without which he hath not only no worthi|ne&s;s, but no capacity, no fitne&s;s to prepare him&s;elf for that King|dom, who&s;e happine&s;s is to &s;ee
<PB N="102" REF="57">
God, with mutual complacency. And no Man can &s;o &s;ee the holy, merciful, gracious God, the God of Love, and Father of Mercies, the faithful, righteous, unchange|able fountain, of all that is pure loving or lovely, unle&s;s he be like him, and bear the Image of tho&s;e his perfections, though imperfectly as to degrees, yet impartially and &s;incerely as the tran&s;cript and re&s;emblance of that Wi&s;dom which comes from above, fir&s;t pure, then peaceable. Unle&s;s his religion be that <HI>undefiled one before God,</HI> which <HI>vi&s;its the Fatherle&s;s and the Widow in affliction,</HI> and keeps him&s;elf <HI>vn&s;pot|ted from the World.</HI> The&s;e and the like graces, with their fruits (if time be granted to bring them forth) are not only de&s;cribed and required, clearly and frequently in holy Scripture, as the nece&s;&s;ary con|ditions, without which no Man &s;hall, but as the nece&s;&s;ary qualifications, without which no Man can &s;ee the
<PB N="103" REF="57">
Lord, with holy eternal love and joy. And therefore no doubt the <HI>for</HI> hath a rational inference in it, as to the acceptance, and reward of the godly, and righteous per&s;on. <HI>Come ye ble&s;&s;ed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you: for I was hungry, and ye fed me,</HI> &amp;c. For ye have perform'd the conditions, which I in my Go&s;pel (or gracious covenant) required of you, with promi&s;e to accept and reward them; for ye are qualified with tho&s;e gra|ces, and holy di&s;po&s;itions, which are my own Image and likene&s;s, the impre&s;s of my holy Spirit, which renders you capable of enjoying me and my Father with endle&s;s delight; which makes you (though not in &s;trict ju&s;tice worthy of my Heavenly Kingdom) yet in my gracious mercy and bounty, and through my merits, not utterly unworthy, that is, not wholly un|meet to inherit it; for the&s;e all have confe&s;t, and for&s;aken their
<PB N="104" REF="58">
evil ways, fled with penitent be|lieving hearts, to that propitiation which God had &s;et forth in his only Son through faith in his blood: By doing &s;o they have received that holy Spirit, by who&s;e direction and a&s;&s;i&s;tance, they have <HI>mortified the fle&s;h, with its lu&s;ts and affections, conquered the World with its tempta|tations, re&s;i&s;ted the Devil, and quenched the fiery darts of the wicked, fought the good fight of faith, till they fini&s;hed their cour&s;e;</HI> and though the re|mainders of &s;in and the fle&s;h, abide lu&s;ting and &s;trugling again&s;t the Spirit, yet no &s;in hath reigned over them, and the very remainders of &s;in, they have bewailed, watcht over, and re&s;i&s;ted, betaking them|&s;elves to Chri&s;ts interce&s;&s;ion for their pardon; therefore they are heirs of the Kingdom through the merits of Chri&s;t imparted to them, whereby they are entituled to it, as the meritorious cau&s;e on his part, whereby they have an actual plea,
<PB N="105" REF="58">
title and intere&s;t in Chri&s;ts merit, as the condition and qualification on their part. And thus the King|dom and eternal Re&s;t is theirs, though not by right of ju&s;tice or merit, but by right of gracious promi&s;e. And may not all this be thought &s;ufficient to ju&s;tifie the truth of the <HI>for,</HI> or cau&s;al particle, unle&s;s it be granted that it &s;ignifie meritoriou&s;ly in &s;trict ju&s;tice on their part, as &s;trictly and fully as in the other, <HI>Depart ye cur&s;ed; for</HI> ye did no good works, but many ill ones, without repentance and reformation, without faith and love to me? The goodne&s;s, and ju&s;tice of Gods Maje&s;ty will not &s;uffer him to &s;entence any Man to any puni&s;hment, much le&s;s to e|ternal intolerable &s;orrow and pain, unle&s;s it hath been &s;trictly and fully de&s;erved, or demerited. But the goodne&s;s and bounty and mercy of God, may without wrong to any perfection, or attribute of his,
<PB N="106" REF="59">
accept and reward any Man, that is not utterly incapable of it, but in &s;ome &s;incere degree qualified for it, with &s;uch an abundant mea&s;ure of happine&s;s as he thinks fit, al|though no ways merited by him. The Lord Je&s;us hath &s;atisfied his Fathers ju&s;tice and honour, in his Government, and holy Laws, and made it a righteous thing with him, to &s;ave the penitent &s;inner, upon condition of reformation and holy obedience: They that are &s;aved have performed the&s;e conditions; and therefore they are admitted with a <HI>for. Come ye ble&s;&s;ed,</HI> &amp;c. For <HI>I was hungry.</HI> If a gracious Prince, of his own free goodne&s;s, proclaim a general merciful pardon, to all Rebels, Traytors, and Theeves, provided they will by &s;uch a day acknowledge their fault, and pro|fe&s;s and re&s;olve to do &s;o no more, and make their peace with their Neighbours, whom they have wronged: Suppo&s;e, all accept the
<PB N="107" REF="59">
pardon in outward &s;hew, but &s;ome of them &s;ecretly practice the &s;ame wickedne&s;s again&s;t their Sovereign, and their Neighbours, when as the others perform faithfully the conditions of their pardon: If at the General A&s;&s;izes, the Judge upon notice of their demeanours, &s;hould &s;ay to the one, <HI>I re&s;tore you to your former condition, &s;tate and dignity; for</HI> (or becau&s;e) <HI>&s;ince your pardon proclaimed, ye have &s;o demeaned your &s;elves, as penitent, loyal, faithful Sub|jects:</HI> And to the other, <HI>You I con|demn to death and torments; for</HI> (or becau&s;e) <HI>ye have abu&s;ed your Sove|reigns clemency:</HI> No Man of &s;ober rea&s;on, or common &s;ence (I think) can deny, that either the condem|nation of the one, were entirely to be a&s;cribed to their own willful choi&s;e, and vile mi&s;demeanours, as due in ju&s;tice to their demerits; or that the re&s;toring or &s;aving the other, were to be attributed, not to the merit of their demeanour,
<PB N="108" REF="60">
but to the Kings gracious mercy, and bountiful favour. Their good demeanour, could be at mo&s;t but the nece&s;&s;ary condition or qualifi|cation of their pardon or re&s;tora|tion, without which, it could not con&s;i&s;t with the wi&s;dom or honour of the Prince, his Laws, or Govern|ment, &s;o to u&s;e them; with which, it might well con&s;i&s;t with his wi&s;|dom and honour &s;o to do, and that with advantage to the glory of his mercy, without di&s;paragement to his Ju&s;tice, e&s;pecially in ca&s;e his Ju&s;tice and honour, had been &s;atisfied for their former mi&s;de|meanours, by the merits and inter|ce&s;&s;ion of the Prince, his Royal Son: Now ju&s;t &s;o it is in this ca&s;e of which we now &s;peak. They whom our Lord calls here to eternal life, and that with a <HI>for: For ye have fed, clothed, lodged me;</HI> are &s;o far from this proud conceit of <HI>Romi&s;h</HI> merit by their works, that they are ready to di&s;claim them, as nothing wor|thy
<PB N="109" REF="60">
of &s;uch acceptance, ready to blame their &s;luggi&s;h backwardne&s;s. <HI>Lord,</HI> &s;ay they, <HI>when &s;aw we thee hungry, thir&s;ty, naked, or a &s;tranger, or pri&s;oner, and relieved thee?</HI></P>
<P>Nor is it ami&s;s what is ob&s;erved and acknowledg'd by <HI>Jan&s;enius,</HI> (though a <HI>Romani&s;t,</HI> and too far engaged in this error) what Saint <HI>Chri&s;o&s;tom</HI> had long &s;ince ob&s;erved before him; that our Saviour &s;aith to tho&s;e on his right hand, <HI>Come ye ble&s;&s;ed of my Father,</HI> but to tho&s;e on his left hand, he &s;aith only, <HI>depart ye cur&s;ed,</HI> but adds not, Of my Father; implying that God the Father is the Author and gracious donor of life everla&s;ting, but every Man that doth wickedly, and dies in his wickedne&s;s without repen|tance, is the only Author and cau&s;e of his own accur&s;ed e&s;tate: The one are ble&s;&s;ed freely, and mercifully by God the Father, for his Son Chri&s;ts &s;ake, in whom alone he is well plea&s;ed with all
<PB N="110" REF="61">
that come by him, with &s;uch a faith as works by love: But the other are accur&s;ed mo&s;t ju&s;tly, be|cau&s;e they &s;ought not, or refu&s;ed when it was offer'd them, that grace and mercy which would have ble&s;&s;ed them, fir&s;t with grace to do good works, then with glory, a &s;uperabundant weight of glory for doing them: And this is con|&s;onant to that of St. <HI>Paul, Rom.</HI> 6. <HI>v.</HI> the la&s;t: <HI>For the wages of &s;in is death, but the</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign"> or <HI>gift of God, is eternal life.</HI> Again the &s;ame <HI>Janfenius</HI> al&s;o ob&s;erves, That our Saviour in the &s;entence of condem|nation, doth not &s;ay, <HI>depart ye cur&s;ed into everla&s;ting fire prepared for you,</HI> but <HI>for the Devil and his Angels:</HI> Where|as in the &s;entence of the righteous, it runs thus: <HI>Come ye ble&s;&s;ed inherit the Kingdom prepared for you.</HI> By this, &s;aith he, it is implied, That the Salvation of the righteous, mu&s;t be a&s;cribed to the mercy of God, who hath prepared the Kingdom,
<PB N="111" REF="61">
and the damnation of the unrighte|ous, not to God, but to their own iniquity. How this will con&s;i&s;t with his, and his Mother <HI>Romes</HI> proud Tenent of meriting Heaven, I can|not &s;ee; nor is it much material to &s;ee, &s;ave only that this may be &s;een thereby, That Wi&s;dom and Truth is often ju&s;tified, not only by her Chil|dren, but by her enemies; forced by that light &s;ometimes to own, what by their prejudices they &s;tudy and labour to deny. Such was al&s;o that final extorted confe&s;&s;ion of <HI>Bellar|mine</HI> him&s;elf, after all his di&s;putes again&s;t the truth. <HI>Tuti&s;&s;imum e&s;t in &s;ol&acirc;, Dei mi&s;ericordi&acirc; totam fiduciam reponere,</HI> but that more common, and owned &s;aying of all their Schools and Divines, <HI>Fundamentum meriti non cadit &s;ub merito, The Foun|dation of merits, (or the fir&s;t grace by which Man is fir&s;t ju&s;tified) cannot be merited;</HI> and although granting this, yet they earne&s;tly contend, that by the good u&s;e of this fir&s;t
<PB N="112" REF="62">
grace, life eternal is properly meri|ted; but they &s;ay it, without, and again&s;t Scripture and rea&s;on.</P>
<P>For rea&s;on tells us, what&s;oever any Man hath intere&s;t in, by mercy and grace, and gracious promi&s;e, it mu&s;t be expected, &s;ued for, and hum|bly accepted, on the &s;ame terms that it is granted, or el&s;e it is forfeited. But not only the fir&s;t grace, but all in|crea&s;e of grace what&s;oever, mu&s;t be grace, and freely be&s;towed not meri|ted. The preparations of this heaven|ly Kingdom for us, and us for it, are the fruits of mercy. No Man can do well, unle&s;s he be fir&s;t enabled by God to do &s;o, and the more he is enabled by Gods gifts and graces be|&s;towed upon him, the more obliged he is to God. The lea&s;t increa&s;e of grace, given after the fir&s;t u&s;e of grace, exceeds the mea&s;ure of our &s;ervice and thankfulne&s;s, and that which creates new title of debt un|to God, cannot po&s;&s;ibly be any ground or title of merit from God, to
<PB N="113" REF="62">
be adopted in Chri&s;t Je&s;us, or made the Sons of God by grace, who were by nature the Children of wrath, &s;trangers and enemies, is a ble&s;&s;ing, for which we become &s;o deeply indebted, Servants to God our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier; that &s;hould we do abun|dantly more, and better than we do, we could not make the lea&s;t recom|pence, for that he hath done for us; and yet we cannot continue, to will or do well, but by the free unde&s;erved continuance, and in|crea&s;e of that grace, and holy Spirit which fir&s;t prevented us: Yet who is there, that doth all that good &s;o well and con&s;tantly, as that Spirit did or would have enabled him?</P>
<P>The manner of the Apo&s;tles que&s;tion <HI>Rom.</HI> 11.35. <HI>Who hath fir&s;t given to him?</HI> includes an uni|ver&s;al denial; no Man hath, no Man can give any thing to him, and therefore none can receive any thing from him; none to be &s;ure,
<PB N="114" REF="63">
that are not only his meer creatures, but &s;inful creatures, can receive any thing from him, by way of merit, but of free mercy and bounty. If we view and &s;can the Tenor of all Gods promi&s;es made in Scrip|ture, from the fir&s;t grace, to the increa&s;e and per&s;everance, and final accompli&s;hment of them in glory, we &s;hall find that he promi&s;eth only this, to be merciful and boun|tiful unto us, and if mercy and bounty be the compleat object of all his promi&s;es, then may we not expect their accompli&s;hment, as the merit of our &s;ervice, but as the fruit of his mercy and loving kind|ne&s;s. If a loving earthly Father, &s;hould give his Son a liberal pen&s;ion, before he could mode&s;ty ask, or di&s;|cretion expect it, and promi&s;e him al&s;o, that if he employed this pre|&s;ent years allowance well, he would allow him more liberally the next year; in this ca&s;e, how well &s;oever the Son u&s;ed his pre&s;ent pen&s;ion,
<PB N="115" REF="63">
yet &s;eeing the profit is wholly his own, not his Fathers, the more bountifully his Father u&s;eth him the next year, the more &s;till he is obliged and bound unto him: Al|though this good u&s;e of his Fathers bountiful allowance, were the con|dition and &s;ome kind of motive or rea&s;on, why, and on which, he was treated: A gracious and ingenious Son, would not challenge the &s;e|cond or third years pen&s;ion, as due to him, by right of merit, more than the fir&s;t, although he had his Fathers promi&s;e, for the&s;e two years, which he had not for the fir&s;t: For his Fathers promi&s;e was only to be good and bountiful unto him, &s;o he would be dutifully thankful for his bounty: Now to expect and challenge that by right of merit, which was promi&s;ed out of favour and loving kindne&s;s; al|though a condition of dutiful de|meanour, and faithful diligence, e&s;pecially if that demeanour, or
<PB N="116" REF="64">
diligence came after former mi&s;de|meanours, and be not &s;uch in all re&s;pects, as it &s;hould be neither, is an high degree of unthankful, undutiful pride, e&s;pecially from a Son to a Father, a Son that was once a rebel and enemy. On our Heavenly Fathers part, no debt of doing us good can be laid; It was his meer free goodne&s;s, to give our fir&s;t Parents &s;uch being as once they had; having lo&s;t that goodne&s;s wherein we were made, 'twas more than meer goodne&s;s, 'twas abun|dance of mercy, to make us any promi&s;e at all of re&s;tauration, to our lo&s;t inheritance, the eternal life of his favour; and after this promi&s;e made, it is the continuance and increa&s;e of the &s;ame mercy, to adopt us, and to increa&s;e his grace upon us daily, and la&s;tly to Crown all this with an exceeding great reward, which is him&s;elf, the endle&s;s vi&s;ion of him, from whom we have all we enjoy here,
<PB N="117" REF="64">
or hereafter. <HI>Non fui&s;ti &amp; factus es, Malus fui&s;ti, &amp; liberatus es, quid Deo dedi&s;ti?</HI> We may de&s;erve the diminution or withdrawing of Gods mercy, favours, and ble&s;&s;ings, but we cannot merit, or de&s;erve their increa&s;e. Merit &s;uppo&s;eth &s;uch an inducement as may not only pre|vail, but &s;uch as mu&s;t oblige, and tie in &s;trict Ju&s;tice; whereas no &s;uch tie, or obligation, can be laid upon the fontal, original goodne&s;s, much le&s;s upon free mercy; which yet multiplies it &s;elf to all that pro|voke not its withdrawing or abate|ment. Methinks Men &s;hould be afraid, of this proud opinion of their own merit; becau&s;e 'tis &s;o like that of the <HI>Phari&s;ee</HI>'s, when even that <HI>Publican,</HI> whom he condemned, will ri&s;e up in judgment again&s;t them, <HI>for he went away ju&s;tified, ra|ther than the other. Luke</HI> 18.4. The <HI>Phari&s;ee</HI> ab&s;teined from many gro&s;s &s;ins, and wanted not many good works, to alledge for him&s;elf. He gave
<PB N="118" REF="65">
Tythes of all he had, fa&s;ted and prayed, and &s;eemed al&s;o more hum|ble than the <HI>Romani&s;t,</HI> for ought appears, for though he thought him&s;elf better than the <HI>Publican,</HI> yet he acknowledged both his ab|&s;tinence from &s;inful works, and his per&s;everance in good ones, to be from God. <HI>God I thank thee, for this,</HI> and <HI>for that;</HI> he &s;aith not as they, <HI>God I thank thee, thou ha&s;t given me the fir&s;t grace, only to re|&s;train me from &s;uch &s;ins, as the Publi|can walks in, whereas my proficiency, in doing of good? is from my own me|ritorious choice,</HI> but <HI>I thank thee for one and the other.</HI> Yet becau&s;e he &s;o glories in Gods graces, as if they had not been received from free mercy, becau&s;e he is not truly humbled by that grace, which in words he confe&s;&s;eth to have re|ceived from God alone, therefore is he le&s;s ju&s;tified than the <HI>Publican,</HI> for the u&s;e of all the graces, which God be&s;tows in this life, is to teach
<PB N="119" REF="65">
us true humility, not to glory in our &s;elves, but in him, to whom all grace and glory belongs: And if we make not this u&s;e of it, if we &s;ay not with <HI>Jacob, Lord, I am le&s;s than the lea&s;t of thy mercies towards me:</HI> If when we have <HI>done ju&s;tice,</HI> and <HI>loved mercy,</HI> we <HI>walk not humbly with our God,</HI> and &s;ay not as our Lord hath taught us, <HI>forgive us our tre&s;|pa&s;&s;es,</HI> we have been but <HI>unprofi|table &s;ervants</HI> in re&s;pect of what we might, and &s;hould have been; we turn his grace into pride, and vain glory, and are worthy to lo&s;e the acceptance and reward, which was promi&s;ed for Chri&s;ts merits, not ours, though not without &s;incere performance of tho&s;e conditions, to which his mercy, and grace ena|bleth us. Our good works are ac|ceptable to God, a &s;weet Sacrifice, but &s;till it is through Je&s;us Chri&s;t. Better is it for us, to hear one Saint from Heaven, one of tho&s;e Spirits made perfect, than thou&s;ands of
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daring, &s;inful Di&s;putants here below. For what are all the Chairs, and Schools of Men on Earth, to the &s;uffrage of Heaven, where not only one, but all the Saints, and perfected Spirits, <HI>ca&s;t down their Crowns before him, that &s;its on the Throne at the feet of the Lamb. Rev.</HI> 7.5. Saying aloud, <HI>To him that hath loved us, and wa&s;ht us from our &s;ins in his blood, and made us Kings, and Prie&s;ts to God, and his Father, be glory, and power, for evermore?</HI> Thus have we &s;een, that 'tis not merit that will bring us to this promi&s;ed eternal Re&s;t, and yet they that will attain to it, mu&s;t imploy their Ta|lent well, they mu&s;t come unto Chri&s;t, as Chri&s;t came unto us, by charity and by humility. To obtain this Re&s;t, will co&s;t &s;ome care and pains, and therefore we mu&s;t expect it, but this care and pains will be highly rewarded, and therefore 'twill be our wi&s;dom to undergo it: The Men of this world
<PB N="121" REF="66">
are apt to think Chri&s;tianity, and coming to Chri&s;t a joyle&s;s thing, becau&s;e it &s;peaks &s;o much of holy living, of pre&s;enting our bodies a living Sacrifice, of mortifying and Sacrificing its lu&s;ts and affections, as if they were no longer to enjoy them&s;elves, who voluntarily deny them&s;elves in all the&s;e; but they are but fal&s;e hearted Spies, that would bring this bad report upon a good land, for the <HI>mortifying the lu&s;ts of the fle&s;h,</HI> the <HI>pre&s;enting our bodies a living Sacrifice,</HI> is not the de&s;truction of our joys, but the increa&s;e of them, and gives a&s;&s;u|rances of this eternal Re&s;t: For let the body be never &s;o backward to be pre&s;ented unto God, and offer'd up in Sacrifice to him, though it &s;hrinke at the &s;ight of the Altar, and tremble to &s;ee the Sacrificing Knife, yet are we not to hearken to its fooli&s;h tenderne&s;s; no cruelty like &s;uch indulgence; the life and &s;afety, and Re&s;t of the Soul, de|pends
<PB N="122" REF="67">
upon this di&s;ciplining, this mortifying the body: For he that mortifies and kills, and &s;layes his lu&s;ts, doth but Sacrifice that which would hurt, de&s;troy, and ruine him&s;elf, 'tis but a carnal, worldly Man that is killed at mo&s;t, nay 'tis but a bea&s;t, 'tis but the un|rea&s;onable appetite that is &s;lain; rea&s;onable Man is &s;aved alive, and made more rea&s;onable by &s;o doing, and exalted thereby to a Spiritual life. He that leaves this bea&s;t alive, and is led by his unruly pa&s;&s;ions, is hurried even in this life, to more &s;orrows, cares, and vexations, than any Saint or Martyr endures in his pa&s;&s;age to Heaven, when he offers him&s;elf up unto God, by an holy life, and patient death: Therefore who &s;o de&s;ires in good earne&s;t, not to fail of this promi&s;ed eternal Re&s;t, mu&s;t crucify the <HI>whole body of &s;in,</HI> mu&s;t &s;ubdue and bring into &s;ubje|cton every <HI>vnruly member</HI> thereof. The lu&s;tful, covetous, di&s;dainful
<PB N="123" REF="67">
evil Eye which hath made thee blind, or ill &s;ighted to all that is good, mu&s;t be clo&s;ed up and put out, and the charitable, peaceable, contented good Eye &s;et open; and then God will one day ravi&s;h that Eye, with Objects of eternal joy and Re&s;t and delight in Heaven. Our Ears mu&s;t be clo&s;ed up and deaf to all ungodly prophane di&s;|cour&s;es, and un&s;avoury communi|cation, but open to all that is harm|le&s;s and good, &s;ober and wi&s;e, ra|tional or Chri&s;tian: If the ungod|ly wanton cruel Ear, that itches after fal&s;e&s;hood and wrong be cut off, and the religious believing cha&s;t merciful Ear remain; then thou ha&s;t made thine Ears, the gates of Heaven and Life and Re&s;t, for the Spirit of truth to enter in; being thus opened thou &s;halt hear the joys of Heaven &s;ounding in thy Ears, &s;uch joys as God hath <HI>prepared for them that love him.</HI></P>
<P><PB N="124" REF="68">The Lips al&s;o mu&s;t be clo&s;ed, and the Tongue tied up from Oaths and Cur&s;es, prophane allu&s;ions to holy Scripture, bitter revilings, &s;trife and clamour, open &s;landers and &s;ecret detractions, but they mu&s;t be opened, and the Tongue loo&s;ed to all holy duties, of Prayers and Pray&s;es towards God, whol&s;om coun&s;el, admonition and in&s;truction, towards Men. If the prophane &s;educing, contentious, provo|king, bitter Tongue be tied up and &s;ilenced, and the wi&s;e, pure, and peaceable and faithful Tongue, be loo&s;ened and &s;et on work, thou art no lo&s;er by this change, becau&s;e thou ha&s;t exchanged folly for wi&s;|dom, &s;hame for honour, &s;trife for peace, the di&s;cord of infernal Spirits, for the mu&s;ick of Angels; thou ha&s;t exchanged the Tongue of an A|thei&s;t, for the Tongue of a Prophet, or a Saint. Next, the hand mu&s;t be withheld from violence and op|pre&s;&s;ion, from theft and &s;acriledge,
<PB N="125" REF="68">
fraud and deceit, but open to all the works of Piety and Charity. If the injurious griping, bloody hand be cut off, and the innocent holy pure hand be lifted up to God in Prayer, and &s;tretcht out to Man in Charity; what ha&s;t thou lo&s;t, but the hand of a Murtherer, a Thief, an U&s;urer, or Adulterer, and ha&s;t for it, the holy hand of a Prie&s;t, the Royal hand of a Benefactor: Holy and acceptable unto God, plea&s;ing and beneficial unto Men? The feet al&s;o mu&s;t be re&s;trained from wandering into the ways of wickedne&s;s, where we meet with temptations and vanity, &s;nares and dangers; they are to carry us from the &s;educing a&s;&s;emblies of Schi&s;ma|ticks, the bloody Con&s;piraces of Rebels, the riotous a&s;&s;emblies of gluttons and drunkards; they mu&s;t be ready and forward, to go to the place, where <HI>Gods honour dwelleth,</HI> where his word and Sacraments are di&s;pen&s;ed, to the hou&s;e where
<PB N="126" REF="69">
the Widow and Fatherle&s;s inhabit. If the wicked perver&s;e &s;inful foot be cut off, and the holy charitable foot be left thee, to carry thee to thy duty towards God and Man, what ha&s;t thou lo&s;t, but the di&s;|con&s;olate walk of a wilderne&s;s, among&s;t briers and thorns, and &s;er|pents the path of di&s;mal darkne&s;s, and death and error, where no Re&s;t is to be found: For that of truth, light, and life, and eternal happi|ne&s;s? La&s;t of all, we mu&s;t be &s;ure to keep the heart for God; that of all the re&s;t he chiefly expects, without which, the putting out of the Eye, the cutting off the hand, and &s;etting a watch over our Tongue, and offering up our deare&s;t and only <HI>I&s;aac,</HI> in obedience to Chri&s;ts Command, will be thought but an Hypocritical mockery of God, who <HI>knows the heart</HI> and can|not be mocked.</P>
<P><HI>My Son give me thy heart, Prov.</HI> 20.26. That he asks, and that he will
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have, and &s;urely no Son will with|hold that from his Father. The heart is the Throne of the great King, where he &s;its and rules the whole Man; this is the mo&s;t holy place of the Temple, where the Spirit of truth and holine&s;s inhabits, and therefore he that gives him not this, gives him nothing that he will accept, or that will make for our everla&s;ting Re&s;t. If the heart be fir&s;t pre&s;ented, the re&s;t will and mu&s;t follow, a wi&s;e and holy Tongue, a diligent and liberal hand, a watchful and attentive Ear, a wary foot, obedient &s;ober cha&s;t fle&s;h, will not &s;tay behind, but will all conduce to the carrying us on in peace to this de&s;ired Re&s;t. Every part and member of the body looks to be at Re&s;t and in perfect hap|pine&s;s in Heaven, and therefore every part mu&s;t look to prai&s;e and glorify him on Earth; 'tis not e|nough that the Tongue be holy and cha&s;t, if the hand be covetous, nor
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that the Ear be diligent and atten|tive at holy duties, if the Tongue &s;peak not, and the hand act not according to what the Ear heard. Every member mu&s;t do its office, the head was made to know God, the heart to love him, the Tongue to prai&s;e him, the feet to follow him, wherefore withhold no part from him; remember he made the whole Man, and redeemed the whole, if any thing be withheld, no Re&s;t, no happine&s;s to be ex|pected; 'tis in our choice whil&s;t we are here, what we will do, and which we will chu&s;e; whether to take part with Satan, who&s;e work it is to de&s;troy us, or come when Chri&s;t calls us to him, who will a&s;&s;uredly &s;ave us; one of the&s;e we mu&s;t do, there's no neutrality be|tween both; either we mu&s;t be the <HI>Members of Chri&s;t the Children of God,</HI> and <HI>Heirs of Heaven,</HI> or el&s;e we mu&s;t be the <HI>Children of Satan,</HI> and <HI>Heirs of intolerable endle&s;s con|demnation.</HI>
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Remember the dreadful mi&s;ery of their choice, who take hell for their portion, and remem|ber that a &s;hort delight here unre|pented, will co&s;t a la&s;ting &s;orrow hereafter. Shall the Son of God, become the Son of Man, to pre|&s;ent us unto God his Father, to give us eternal Re&s;t, and &s;hall we refu&s;e, and flee from our own happine&s;s, and become profoundly mi&s;erable in de&s;pight of all his mercy, and tender care over us? If Chri&s;t &s;ay, <HI>Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you Re&s;t:</HI> Shall we &s;top our Ears at this gracious call of Chri&s;t, and continue in wilful &s;ins? What do we el&s;e then, but know|ingly prefer the whi&s;pers of Satan, before the loud cries, and calls of Chri&s;t? We chu&s;e hell and death, and the company of infernal Spirits, before Heaven and life, and the Society of Saints and Angels. If we refu&s;e to come now when Chri&s;t
<PB N="130" REF="71">
calls us, at the la&s;t day he will refu&s;e to receive us. If we appear with <HI>hearts filled with iniquity,</HI> and <HI>hands full of blood,</HI> with <HI>feet that walked in the coun&s;el of the ungodly, and &s;tood in the way of &s;inners,</HI> he will not know us for his Children, having lo&s;t his Image, in which we were made, he will &s;ay unto us, <HI>Depart from me ye cur&s;ed, I know ye not.</HI> But if we carry with us the re&s;emblance of our Maker, that Image and likene&s;s of him which he once &s;tamped upon us; if we can pre&s;ent him with a wi&s;e and pure heart, if we can lift up unto him holy hands, if we can &s;ee him with cha&s;te Eyes, and if our feet have <HI>walked in his Commandements and trod his Courts,</HI> if our feet have <HI>&s;tood in thy Gates O Jeru&s;alem,</HI> then &s;hall the Gates of Heaven open un|to us, then our Heavenly Father will take us for his obedient Sons; &s;uch as heard his voice, and &s;uch as &s;hall hear it again, when he will
<PB N="131" REF="71" MS="y">
&s;ay, <HI>Come ye ble&s;&s;ed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the begining of the World, for I was hungry and ye fed me, in Pri&s;on and ye vi&s;ited me,</HI> &amp;c.</P>
<P>All the Sons of God from the fir&s;t born, to the la&s;t, are all heirs to a Kingdom, all his invitations are to a Crown, his Sons are inheritors of tho&s;e joys which <HI>fade not away</HI> and of that Re&s;t which never &s;hall have end. Whereas the &s;inful Per&s;on's immoderate de&s;ires of the things of this World, are but his torment, till he be &s;atisfied, and then his &s;atisfaction is his torment, becau&s;e there's no Re&s;t, nor quiet in it, and proves &s;o much le&s;s than his ex|pectation. Thus is the re&s;tle&s;s &s;in|ner always &s;ick, one while of too much, another while of too little, now of loving, then of loathing, now of want, then of &s;atiety, for he never cea&s;eth to want, till he cea&s;e to de&s;ire; and Man is always de&s;iring either the pre&s;ence of &s;om|thing
<PB N="132" REF="72" MS="y">
he cannot have, or the ab|&s;ence of &s;omthing he cannot re|move, or el&s;e the continuance of &s;omthing he cannot keep. Hence the &s;inner appears to be as the Pro|phet <HI>E&s;aiah</HI> &s;peaks, <HI>I&s;a.</HI> 57.20. <HI>Like the troubled Sea when it cannot Re&s;t, who&s;e waters ca&s;t up mire and durt,</HI> The Winds within him, and the Waves and Tide without him, give him no Re&s;t, and when his delights are at the highe&s;t floud, they do bring him the &s;ad news of an approaching ebb. Ask but the unclean Adulterer, and let him tell you, what Re&s;t and Peace he finds in his vice; compare but his &s;hort plea&s;ure, with the tormenting fire of his lu&s;ts, joyn'd with the <HI>worm</HI> of his guilty <HI>con&s;cience:</HI> Have but patience to look upon him in his na&s;ty di&s;ea&s;es and rotten bones, his wa&s;ted fle&s;h, as well as e&s;tate; (for that is often the event, always the hazard) and he will have little to boa&s;t of, but will find him&s;elf
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really to endure more mi&s;ery in the way to eternal death, than many a holy cha&s;t Chri&s;tian finds to eter|nal life. Ask the Glutton or the Drunkard, who&s;e highe&s;t thoughts are for the cloying, not &s;atisfying their di&s;ordered appetites; Ask if they find not them&s;elves unea&s;y, when they con&s;ider how &s;hort and low their plea&s;ure is, compared with the irk&s;om di&s;ea&s;ed &s;hameful|ne&s;s of their &s;in. See how heavily the Ambitious proud per&s;on walks, between his eager de&s;ires and doubt|ful expectations, under his fal&s;e hopes, and true fears, and then judge whether his weari&s;om days, and re&s;tle&s;s nights, can bring him any true content. Should I in&s;tance in the idle Gallant, who&s;e time like a burthen lies upon his hands, or in the contentious wrangler, or un|peaceable brawler, the &s;ecret whi&s;|perer, or the open detractor, I &s;hould tire your patience &s;ooner than want a proof, that &s;in is a weari&s;om
<PB N="134" REF="73" MS="y">
unea&s;y heavy re&s;tle&s;s burthen, and that it is nece&s;&s;ary by the way of virtue to come unto Chri&s;t for ea&s;e and Re&s;t. The Angel in <HI>Tobit,</HI> bids <HI>Tobias take out the gall of the fi&s;h, to cure his blindne&s;s;</HI> if we rip the bowels of worldly, &s;inful lu&s;ts, and plea&s;ures, and take out the gall of them, that is to &s;ay, &s;eriou&s;ly look upon the bitterne&s;s they bring with them, and the gall and wormwood they leave behind them, it may prove a remedy of our Spiritual blindne&s;s; yet &s;uch is our &s;hort|&s;ightedne&s;s, that we think we are at ea&s;e under our load, and at Re&s;t in our &s;ore Travel. Sin turns all things up &s;ide down, it &s;ets Earth above, and Heaven below: Rea&s;on at the foot&s;tool, and bruti&s;h appe|tite on the Throne, and having thus lookt downward for our Re&s;t and happine&s;s, we are a&s;hamed to look Heaven in the face, and having lo&s;t Heaven for Earth by &s;in, we look downward &s;till, as fearing
<PB N="135" REF="73" MS="y">
that Hell, which we have &s;o well de&s;erved; and this is it which makes Men &s;uffer all &s;orts of di|&s;ea&s;es, the Gout, the Stone, Tooth|aches, and all kind of Tortures, rather than die, becau&s;e ill led lives leave Men under anxious fears and &s;ad doubtings, what &s;hall be their future &s;tate. When <HI>Tamberlin</HI> com|manded all Leprous per&s;ons to be put to death, le&s;t they &s;hould lead a mi&s;erable life, the poor Lepers thought his mercy cruel, and would have endured more willingly two Lepro&s;ies than one death; not be|cau&s;e of any great comfort they took in their lives, but becau&s;e they knew not what might follow after death. To lo&s;e this life with|out a&s;&s;urance or hopeful probabi|lity of a better, is doleful and bitter, but to lo&s;e it with a&s;&s;urance from Gods own Mouth of a far wor&s;e, of incurring an eternal death, an|gui&s;h and pain without mitigation, this makes death deadly indeed,
<PB N="136" REF="74">
when the &s;inner mu&s;t die again, for the &s;in he dies in, when the fir&s;t death leads to a &s;econd; and when all the terrors, and &s;orrows, and pains, of the fir&s;t death, are but the evidences of more, or wor&s;e to follow; when the fire that's now begun to be kindled, <HI>will burn down to the lowe&s;t hell, Deut.</HI> 32.22. If we believe this in good earne&s;t, why do we not hate &s;in, wor&s;e than death? Becau&s;e &s;in is the cau&s;e of all this; the cau&s;e of death and all that is deadly: It makes us liable to a dreadful account at the day of Judgment, and makes our whole life re&s;tle&s;s and unea&s;y. This being &s;o, how dare we trifle away one day or hour more of that term, or time of Trial, upon which, though &s;o &s;hort, and &s;o uncertain, depends &s;uch a life and &s;uch a death, &s;uch joys and &s;uch &s;orrows, &s;uch re&s;t and &s;uch di&s;quiet, to all eter|nity? Methinks if Heaven cannot allure us, with all the joys and
<PB N="137" REF="74">
ble&s;&s;ed eternal Re&s;t there to be had; Hell might affright us, with its dreadful &s;ufferings, into our duty, and compel us to make God at lea&s;t, our la&s;t refuge, if not our fir&s;t choice. No lo&s;s &s;o great as the lo&s;s of God, and the Kingdom of Heaven, and that Re&s;t we are there invited to. No Pri&s;on &s;o loath&s;om, as the bottomle&s;s pit of horror and darkne&s;s: No &s;ight &s;o gha&s;tly as that of frightful fiends: No &s;hriek|ings &s;o terrible as tho&s;e of damned Gho&s;ts: No &s;tench &s;o noi&s;om as that of the lake of fire and brim&s;ton: No fire &s;o hot as of the wrath of God, which puts the &s;inner into chains never to be loo&s;ed, into dark|ne&s;s never to be enlightened, and gives him <HI>gna&s;hing of teeth</HI> never to be remedied, gnawing vipers never to be pulled off; and this makes up &s;uch a ma&s;s of woes, &s;uch a deadly death, as exceeds all hu|mane eloquence to expre&s;s, much more all patience to endure. Now
<PB N="138" REF="75">
to avoid all this St. <HI>Paul</HI> tells us, <HI>Heb.</HI> 12.1. what we mu&s;t do, we mu&s;t lay a&s;ide every weight, and the &s;in that doth &s;o ea&s;ily be&s;et us, and <HI>run with patience the race that is &s;et before us;</HI> running the way of Gods Commandements, which St. <HI>Paul</HI> calls here a <HI>race,</HI> is the way to this everla&s;ting Re&s;t; there|fore <HI>let us &s;o run that we may obtain it,</HI> and then our recompence is, a <HI>Crown of life;</HI> if we &s;lothfully neglect it, our puni&s;hment is, <HI>Tribulation and angui&s;h, endle&s;s and intolerable,</HI> the <HI>worm of con&s;cience that never dies,</HI> the <HI>fire of hell that never goes out.</HI> Were we left to the glimmering &s;u&s;picious light of natural rea&s;on, as mo&s;t Nations were of old, and many are &s;till, to gue&s;s at the way that leads to this everla&s;ting Re&s;t, or to find it out by a painful en|quiry, through many difficulties, and impediments of a contrary erroneous Education, we were by far the more excu&s;able, but when
<PB N="139" REF="75">
by the mercy of God, we have the Go&s;pel &s;ounding in our Ears, and the way to this Re&s;t chalkt out before our Eyes in holy Scripture, and lively Oracles, with all the powerful per&s;wa&s;ive motives of hope and love, inviting us to it on the one hand, and all the cogent con&s;training motives of threats and fear, to drive us to it; hearten'd on with promi&s;es, a&s;&s;i&s;tances, and in&s;tructions on the other hand; what pretence of excu&s;e can we have, that we &s;hould fall &s;hort of this Re&s;t? But &s;ome are often en|quiring, what is the lowe&s;t degree of holine&s;s, faith, and obedience, that is con&s;i&s;tent with the e&s;caping of hell, or hope of Heaven? They would know, what is the lowe&s;t rate that Heaven and eternal Re&s;t will come at? The greate&s;t part of tho&s;e that would be re&s;olved in this enquiry, are of a mo&s;t di&s;in|genuous unworthy di&s;po&s;ition; for when God hath obliged us, by
<PB N="140" REF="76">
&s;o many mercies, a&s;&s;i&s;tances, en|couragements, and rewards, thus to beat down as low as they can, the price of all his kindne&s;s and bounty; 'tis a dangerous &s;ign that he that &s;eeks heaven and happine&s;s &s;o faintly, will not &s;eek it long; for we Sail again&s;t Tide, in our Voyage to Heaven, and earne&s;t diligence is required in the pa&s;&s;age thither, but if we begin to lay a&s;ide our Sails and Oares, we &s;hall by the very &s;tream of our nature, (the world and the fle&s;h) be carried backward to perdition. The way to Heaven is upward, but the ground is falling that we tread on, and the heavine&s;s of our nature, doth per|petually expo&s;e us to relap&s;es. 'Tis very probable, that he that is &s;o jealous and wary, of doing ought more than is nece&s;&s;ary to this eter|nal Re&s;t, will never attain to do &s;o much: He is likely to &s;hoot &s;hort of his Mark, who is &s;o affraid of over-&s;hooting it. He that &s;aid:
<PB N="141" REF="76">
<HI>So run that you may obtain,</HI> meant, &s;o diligently, &s;o earne&s;tly, as if you were never &s;ure enough of obtain|ing it, but by running as fa&s;t as your Spirits can hold out, till you come to the Gaol, the <HI>high price of your calling in Chri&s;t.</HI> The &s;lothful Servant that &s;aid his Ma&s;ter was an <HI>Au&s;tere Man,</HI> did but &s;lander his Ma&s;ter, to hide his own negligence, thinking all too much that he did, and that eternal Salvation, which co&s;t no le&s;s than the death of the Lord of life, the Son of God, was &s;et at too high a price.</P>
<P>Such as are thus niggardly of their pains, will find at la&s;t, that by not improving their Talent, they will lo&s;e at once both Heaven and it. <HI>Take from him the Talent,</HI> &s;aith Chri&s;t in the Parable, <HI>Matt.</HI> 25.28. <HI>and ca&s;t the unprofitable Servant into outer darkne&s;s.</HI> That this may not happen unto any one of us, let us follow the advice of the Apo&s;tle, <HI>Heb.</HI> 12.14.
<PB N="142" REF="77">
which &s;aith, <HI>follow peace with all men, and holine&s;s, without which no Man &s;hall &s;ee the God of peace.</HI> God is not di&s;quieted or troubled, or angry, though for our &s;akes he &s;eems to be &s;o, when his wronged ju&s;tice mu&s;t puni&s;h us, unle&s;s we repent: 'Tis our &s;in not his wrath, which whets the Sword of the de&s;troying Angel, and &s;hall not we de&s;ire to be like the Angels, yea like our Heavenly Father, in being at Re&s;t and quiet, and keeping the peace of our Spirits, in the mid&s;t of a froward generation? To be &s;edate and quiet in the mid&s;t of as many humours as Men? To be the &s;ame when others run &s;everal ways to break our Re&s;t? To be humble when one &s;corns us? Meek when another provokes and rages? Si|lent when this Man reviles? Chari|table when the other hates and per&s;ecutes us? Not to be tran|&s;ported with pa&s;&s;ion at others violence? To &s;tay at home, and
<PB N="143" REF="77">
keep our &s;elves in calmne&s;s, and peaceable Re&s;t, when the World is gone out of order, not to pull it more in pieces, by &s;eek|ing to &s;ettle it as we plea&s;e? Not to enrage the fire that threatens us, by blowing up with violent words, but to quench it with &s;oft an&s;wers, and to overcome evil with good, <HI>following peace with all Men,</HI> and fighting only again&s;t our lu&s;ts and pa&s;&s;ions, which War again&s;t the Soul, and di&s;turb and hinder its re&s;t and peace? <HI>From whence come Wars, and fightings among&s;t you, are they not from re&s;tle&s;s lu&s;ts and de&s;ires</HI> of all &s;izes, that <HI>War and rage with in you?</HI> The&s;e lu&s;ts are the &s;pawn of the two great &s;en&s;ual principles, <HI>De&s;ire</HI> and <HI>Anger.</HI> Sometimes pride, &s;ometimes coveting that which God hath not made ones lot, and then di&s;turbing and confounding properties, in hope of attaining it: All the unpeaceablene&s;s in the World, is forged, and managed
<PB N="144" REF="78">
by the&s;e lu&s;ts: And the graces which Chri&s;t pre&s;cribes, <HI>Matt.</HI> 5. as <HI>Humility, Meekne&s;s, Contented|ne&s;s,</HI> are &s;ent to root them out, and to dwell with that impatience, and in&s;atiable re&s;tle&s;s ravening, which troubles the World: But too many there are among&s;t us, who have not thus learnt Chri&s;t. The wrathful Malecontent, who di&s;turbs both Church and State, &s;ails through a &s;tormy tempe&s;tuous Sea and Rocks and Sands ready to ruine him, that by the ruine of many others, in &s;oul and body, e&s;tate and good name, he may arrive at his wi&s;ht-for haven of riches and power: But what doth he find at the end thereof, but a mi&s;erable Shipwrack of him|&s;elf, as well as others, horror of con&s;cience, hatred from Men of all parties, perpetual jealou&s;ies of his being bereaved of his dearly bought, unju&s;t acqui&s;itions, and at la&s;t, 'tis likely, <HI>Hamans</HI> Gallows, <HI>Ab&s;alons</HI>
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Tree, or <HI>Joabs</HI> Sword? However an infamous name and memory, after an anxious perplext life, and that which is incomparably wor&s;e, eternal intolerable &s;orrow and pain both of Soul and Body. The like may be &s;aid of the Heretick or Schi&s;matick, who, when he hath prided him&s;elf a while, by leading a numerous party or &s;ect, of un&s;table Souls, from the <HI>faith that was once for all delivered to the Saints,</HI> from the <HI>unity of peace,</HI> and order of obedience to lawful Governours, into de&s;tructive Error and Schi&s;me, finds him&s;elf wilder'd, and tho&s;e that followed him crumbled into &s;ubdivi&s;ions, 'till one and the other end in &s;hame and &s;elf confu&s;ion, bringing them either to repentance, or intolerable endle&s;s mi&s;ery. But on the other &s;ide, the peaceable, meek, obedient follower of Chri&s;t enjoys his Re&s;t, and the benefit of good Government, with cheerful thankfulne&s;s to God and Man;
<PB N="146" REF="79">
bears the trouble&s;om oppre&s;&s;ions, and di&s;orders, of an evil one pa|tiently; and if the violence of &s;e|duced Governours, call him to the fire and fagot, impri&s;onment, ba|ni&s;hment, &s;eque&s;tration and what not, he chu&s;eth rather, poverty and death, with torments for an hour or two, than the farr wor&s;e rack of an evil con&s;cience, the <HI>Worm that dieth not,</HI> and the <HI>fire that is not quenched.</HI> They that go about to build a Tower up to Heaven, if they be once confounded and divided in their Language, 'twill prove but a <HI>Babel,</HI> or &s;hameful <HI>Chaos</HI> at be&s;t: <HI>When one builds and another pulls down, what profit have they then but labour? Eccl.</HI> 34.23. <HI>A hou&s;e divided again&s;t it &s;elf,</HI> be it a Family, a Kingdom, or Church, it <HI>cannot &s;tand</HI> to Gods glory; And it were to be wi&s;ht, that they who have the glory of God in their Mouths, when they &s;eparate from the Church (which Baptized, and
<PB N="147" REF="79">
taught them their Chri&s;tianity) for matters of an indifferent na|ture, no where forbidden, would take heed of di&s;honouring God, and his glory, by pretending to make them the end of their groundle&s;s quarrels and jealou&s;ies. The com|mon enemies to true Religion are Athei&s;m, and Super&s;ttion. Where|to then &s;erves all this ado, about ge&s;tures, and ve&s;tures, and other external rites and formalities? That for &s;uch things as the&s;e (never impo&s;ed but for decency and order) Men &s;hould clamour again&s;t the times, de&s;ert their mini&s;terial office, fly from their Country as out of <HI>Babylon,</HI> &s;tand at open defiance again&s;t lawful authority, in Church and State, draw their Pens and Swords again&s;t them; whereto &s;erves all this, but to give &s;candal to <HI>Athei&s;t</HI> and <HI>Romani&s;t?</HI> The <HI>Athei&s;t,</HI> to think there is no cer|tainty in Religion, and &s;coff at all; the <HI>Romani&s;t,</HI> to think that theirs
<PB N="148" REF="80">
is the true, when their adver&s;aries have &s;o little unity and peace with each other? <HI>Unity</HI> and <HI>Peace,</HI> are the order and harmony, the beauty and &s;trength, and comfort of our own Spirits, as al&s;o of Families and Neighbourhoods, Cities and King|doms, Church and State. <HI>Peace</HI> gives a &s;ea&s;onable opportunity of gathering wealth, and of employ|ing and enjoying it, with thank|fulne&s;s to God, and charity to Man; it gives an advantageous lei&s;ure for learning, and knowledge of all &s;orts; e&s;pecially that which mo&s;t concerns us, the <HI>Knowledge of God and Chri&s;t Je&s;us.</HI> But <HI>divi&s;ion</HI> and <HI>&s;trife,</HI> are the ruine and mi&s;ery of &s;ingle Per&s;ons, the bane of private Families, publick Societies, Church and State, and all that is profitable, or comfortable to Man. When the World is out of frame, peace e&s;tabli&s;heth the pillars of it, brings every part to its own place, the &s;en&s;ual under the rational, the fle&s;h
<PB N="149" REF="80">
under the beck of the Spirit. It draws the Servant under the Ma&s;ter, the Subject under the Magi&s;trate. The peace of Families and King|doms, makes every part to dwell together in unity, it keeps every Man in his right place, the Ma&s;ter on Hor&s;eback, the Servant on the ground; the King on the Throne, the Subject in his private &s;tation; the pa&s;tors in their place of teach|ing, and the people in theirs of attention and devotion: Like an intelligence, it moves the le&s;&s;er Sphere of a Family, and the greater Orb of a Commonwealth or King|dom, compo&s;edly and orderly in its happine&s;s. Peace is &s;o nece&s;&s;ary in all conditions to re&s;t and happi|ne&s;s, that without it, ones Family is a pri&s;on, or &s;ad confinement to trouble and mole&s;tation: Neigh|bourhood, gives but the opportuni|ty of vexing and injuring one ano|ther: Towns and Cities, are but &s;o many wilderne&s;&s;es of wild bea&s;ts:
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The Church no Church, more like <HI>Babel,</HI> than <HI>Jeru&s;alem:</HI> A King|dom or State, a di&s;orderly <HI>Chaos;</HI> yea an <HI>Aceldama,</HI> or <HI>field of blood.</HI></P>
<P>By peace at home, good Laws and Orders are made and kept; Magi&s;trates re&s;pected, Subjects re|lieved according to their nece&s;&s;ities: By peace and agreement in the Church, Gods ordinances are duly ob&s;erved, good di&s;cipline executed; Pa&s;tors and Teachers maintained and encouraged, the People edi|fied, Gods hou&s;es pre&s;erved and beautified: Who is there then that would not &s;eek his eternal Re&s;t hereafter, by &s;eeking peace and en&s;uing it here?</P>
<P>Chri&s;tian Religion, that leads and conducts us to this eternal Re&s;t, is al&s;o the wi&s;e&s;t and mo&s;t power|ful pre&s;erver of peace in order to it; It commands us to &s;tudy and pray for it, to follow it, with all diligence till we overtake it; we are com|manded to lo&s;e our right for the
<PB N="151" REF="81">
&s;ake of peace, to part with Coat, or Cloak, or any thing tolerable, rather than it.</P>
<P>Peace levels the hills, and rai&s;es the vallies, and ca&s;ts an healthful peaceable influence, on all con|ditions and qualities of Men: That as it was prophe&s;ied, <HI>I&s;a.</HI> 11.6. The <HI>Wolf may dwell with the Lamb, and the Leopard lie down with the Kid.</HI> And if it be not &s;o with Chri&s;tians, it is becau&s;e they are &s;o in word, but not in heart; have received the Go&s;pel of peace in their Ears, and heads perhaps, but not in the love thereof: For were they indeed the Sons of peace, in who&s;e hearts the peace of God takes place, were they Members of that body of which Chri&s;t is the head, then every Member of &s;uch a Kingdom or Church, would keep its place, with &s;ubordinate dependance; the rich by &s;upplying the poor, the poor by ble&s;&s;ing the rich, the wi&s;e by teaching the ignorant, the igno|rant
<PB N="152" REF="82">
by hearkening to the wi&s;e; every Man being as an Angel, or mini&s;tring Spirit, to another. But the re&s;tle&s;s, unpeaceable per&s;on, counts it his honour, to &s;peak and do what he li&s;t:</P>
<P>To pur&s;ue his enemies till he take them, and beat them as &s;mall as the du&s;t before the wind; to &s;tand in the vally, and touch the Mountains till they &s;moak; reach at that which is above, and pull it down; divide that which is united; &s;hake that which is e&s;ta|bli&s;ht, violate that which &s;hould not be toucht; and are ever moving and heaving upward, to gain a name, though it be by firing a Temple, or &s;etting a Kingdom or Church in combu&s;tion. Thus are honours valued and &s;ought among Men, the Sons of <HI>Belial,</HI> that would be yokele&s;s. Honourable Schi&s;ma|ticks de&s;cend from <HI>Jeroboam, who made I&s;rael to &s;in;</HI> from <HI>Corah, Da|than</HI> and <HI>Abiram, who ro&s;e up again&s;t
<PB N="153" REF="82">
Mo&s;es and Aaron,</HI> till they peri&s;hed in their contradiction: Honourable Hypocrites, Phari&s;ees, and the Sons of Phari&s;ees, who&s;e name, and pro|fe&s;&s;ion was, to &s;eparate as more holy; though the Bapti&s;t and Chri&s;t him&s;elf, condemned them as more wicked.</P>
<P>Honourable Murtherers, of their Father the Devil, who was &s;o from the beginning of &s;ins entrance into the World; ambitious, covetous, di&s;contented, revengful, humorous, unpeaceable per&s;ons, and the&s;e would be accounted the Honourable grandees of the World; but in the Court, and Heraldry of Heaven, we find no &s;uch Titles of Honour. An Honour it is to be at peace and re&s;t; <HI>cea&s;e from &s;trife, Prov.</HI> 20.3. The <HI>peaceable</HI> Man, he is the <HI>Honourable</HI> Man in Scripture, and in Gods account: By peaceablene&s;s, and following peace, Men procure to them&s;elves a &s;ure Title to ever|la&s;ting peace and re&s;t; knowing
<PB N="154" REF="83">
that the <HI>merciful &s;hall obtain mercy,</HI> the <HI>peaceable, peace,</HI> and Re&s;t at the la&s;t. But there are among&s;t us, unquiet re&s;tle&s;s per&s;ons who pre|tend to in&s;pirations, and boa&s;t them&s;elves of the Spirit; but we are exhorted by St. <HI>John,</HI> 1 <HI>Ephe&s;.</HI> 4.1. <HI>Not to believe every Spirit,</HI> but <HI>to try the Spirits, whether they are of God or no,</HI> becau&s;e <HI>many fal&s;e Pro|phets are gone out into the World:</HI> And our Saviour's direction for the di&s;covery of them we have, <HI>Matt.</HI> 7.16. <HI>Ye &s;hall know them by their fruits.</HI> Our Saviours meaning could not be only, nor chiefly, the fruits of their lives in their outward con|ver&s;ation, for fal&s;ehood is often &s;et off by Hypocri&s;y; and a &s;hew of &s;anctity, goes for great purity; and pretences of Religion and Re|formation, &s;erve to delude, and mi&s;lead un&s;table Souls. This is the Wool which the Wolf wraps about him, when he means to do mo&s;t mi&s;chief, with lea&s;t &s;u&s;pition. The
<PB N="155" REF="83">
old Serpent is not &s;o &s;illy as to think, that his Mini&s;ters (whil&s;t they are working the works of darkne&s;s) &s;hould be able to draw a con&s;iderable party into their com|munion, &s;hould they appear in their di&s;mal colours; therefore he puts them into a new dre&s;s, before he &s;end them abroad in the World; transforming them, as if they were the Mini&s;ters of light; there|fore our Saviour could not mean the fruits of their lives &s;o much, as the fruits of their Doctrine, that is to &s;ay, the nece&s;&s;ary con&s;equences of their Doctrines. If what is &s;po|ken and Taught by them, upon examination do plainly appear in|con&s;i&s;tent with any one branch or duty of a Chri&s;tian life, the words we may be &s;ure are not whol&s;om words. It can be no Heavenly Doctrine, that teacheth Men to be <HI>earthly, &s;en&s;ual,</HI> and <HI>devi|li&s;h,</HI> that tends to make Men <HI>unju&s;t</HI> in their dealings, <HI>uncharitable</HI> in
<PB N="156" REF="84">
their cen&s;ures, <HI>undutiful</HI> to their &s;uperiours. It was not the purpo&s;e of God, in publi&s;hing the Go&s;pel, and thereby freeing us from the rigor and cur&s;e of the Law, &s;o to turn us loo&s;e and lawle&s;s, to do (as when there was no King in <HI>I&s;rael</HI>) what <HI>&s;eemed good in our own Eyes;</HI> follow our own crooked will, gra|tify any corrupt lu&s;t; but to oblige us the fa&s;ter, by the&s;e new benefits, and heavenly promi&s;es, and to bind us to our good behaviour the more &s;trictly, allowing no liberty to the fle&s;h, to <HI>fulfil the lu&s;ts thereof,</HI> but to exact of us &s;incere &s;anctity and purity, both of inward affection, and outward conver&s;ation; other|wi&s;e no true Re&s;t to be expected.</P>
<P>But our pretenders to the Spirit, who call the Scriptures a <HI>dead letter,</HI> boa&s;t of new in&s;pirations, and en|danger greatly the bringing in con|fu&s;ion among&s;t Men, and di&s;tur|bances into States and Kingdoms; the Governours whereof, having
<PB N="157" REF="84">
no other authority, than what is either founded or agreeable to the word, or will of God, it will &s;till be in the power of each pretender, to deliver Oracles out of his own brea&s;t, as the immediate dictates of Gods Spirit, quite contrary to the &s;afety, and intere&s;t of that Govern|ment, which any where is, or may be e&s;tabli&s;hed: And &s;o the peace of Kingdoms, mu&s;t be as uncertain and changeable, as the phan&s;ies of Men, and the Laws as alterable as Te&s;taments are while the Te&s;tator lives; every illuminate brea&s;t pre|tending to come like <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> from God in <HI>Sinai,</HI> with new Tables of divine Commandements, which mu&s;t aboli&s;h and exclude the old; but it is our great comfort, ble&s;&s;ed be God, that the publick Doctrine e&s;tabli&s;hed in the Church of <HI>Eng|land,</HI> is at this day &s;uch, that it is not chargeable, with any one thing, contrary to any part of that duty, which a Chri&s;tian owes, either to God or Man.</P>
<P><PB N="158" REF="85">Let the&s;e pretenders con&s;ider what the Apo&s;tle &s;aith, 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 12.7. <HI>The manife&s;tation of the Spirit is given to every Man to profit withal:</HI> As if he &s;hould have &s;aid, let no Man pretend to the Spirit, for any other end or purpo&s;e, &s;ave for what it was given, and that was not to procure him&s;elf glory, not to &s;eparate from his Brethren, not to pride and puff up him&s;elf by de|&s;pi&s;ing and &s;corning others, but to advance the glory of God, and pro|mote his own and others &s;alvation.</P>
<P>If what thou ha&s;t or pretends to have, be given, the honour is the givers, and the receiver mu&s;t give an account how he hath u&s;ed, what he hath received. Now in order to the procuring this eternal Re&s;t, there are indeed in the Church &s;everal gifts, in &s;everal men; different Offices, and divers ope|rations, which look at fir&s;t as if they proceeded from &s;everal princi|ples, and tended to divi&s;ion; but
<PB N="159" REF="85">
as all this variety tends to unity, &s;o all indeed proceeds from unity, Unity in Trinity, one and the &s;ame God truly di&s;tingui&s;ht into three Per&s;ons, but always united into the &s;ame God-head.</P>
<P>But what Re&s;t may tho&s;e Men expect, who dig at the foundation of our Religion, and &s;tick not to deny that ble&s;&s;ed Trinity, into who&s;e wor&s;hip, and in who&s;e name we are Baptized: The name of the <HI>Father,</HI> the <HI>Son</HI> and <HI>Holy Gho&s;t?</HI> To which three Sacred Per&s;ons we &s;o often &s;ay, <HI>Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Gho&s;t.</HI> The&s;e are the Three which &s;aid to each other, when they made Man, <HI>Gen.</HI> 1. <HI>Let us make Man after our Image, in our likene&s;&s;.</HI> The&s;e are they which manife&s;ted them&s;elves at our Lords Bapti&s;me; joyning again to renue that Image, in which we were made. The Father in the voice, the Son owned by that voice, the Spirit in the Dove abiding on
<PB N="160" REF="86">
him: The&s;e are that <HI>Holy, Holy, Holy,</HI> to whom the Seraphims in <HI>I&s;aiah,</HI> under the old Te&s;tament, gave all glory. The&s;e are they to whom the Angels and Saints in Heaven, &s;ing that Anthem of prai&s;e in the <HI>Revelations.</HI> This is the &s;um of Chri&s;tian Religion, and that which brings Re&s;t and peace eter|nal to all that well under&s;tand and receive it.</P>
<P>And therefore the Council of <HI>Nice</HI> ordained that the <HI>Literae for|matae,</HI> or <HI>Commendatory Letters,</HI> which were the &s;olemn warrants of entertainment, and ho&s;pitality, between Chri&s;tians, &s;hould be &s;ub&s;crib'd by the&s;e Letters <GAP DESC="foreign">, denoting the Trinity, and their faith who carried tho&s;e Letters. <HI>There are three</HI> (&s;aith St. <HI>John</HI>) <HI>that bear record in Heaven, the Fa|ther, the Word, and the Spirit, and the&s;e three are one</HI> and the &s;ame God ble&s;&s;ed for ever: One E&s;&s;ence, ac|cording to what our Lord hath &s;aid,
<PB N="161" REF="86">
<HI>I and the Father are one.</HI> Thus to believe, highly concerns us all, be|cau&s;e of all errors, none &s;o per|nicious, none &s;o intolerable, as tho&s;e which concern the fir&s;t foun|tain, whence all things flow; and the la&s;t end to which all things tend. Derive all from the ble&s;&s;ed Trinity, a&s;cribe and refer the glory of all to the ble&s;&s;ed Trinity, and then we &s;hall come to enjoy him in ble&s;&s;ed re&s;t and happine&s;s, whom we thus believe, adore and honour.</P>
<P>St. <HI>Paul</HI> tells us, 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 12.8. That <HI>there are diver&s;ities of gifts, but the &s;ame Spirit; differencies of admini&s;trations, but the &s;ame Lord; diver&s;ities of operations, but it is the &s;ame God, that worketh all in all.</HI></P>
<P>This &s;hould &s;tand as a great ar|gument of Unity, and Charity a|mong&s;t our &s;elves, Humility and Thankfulne&s;s to God, who hath made us partakers in &s;everal mea|&s;ures, and degrees of the&s;e gifts, the&s;e admini&s;trations, the&s;e opera|tions;
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that though our gifts, and places, and works are very different and unequal, yet they come all from the &s;ame Spirit, Lord, and God; who wi&s;ely governs and or|ders all things by his Council here below: The Apo&s;tle tells us, <HI>v.</HI> 8. <HI>To one is given the word of wi&s;dom,</HI> [a &s;pecial ability of under&s;tanding] <HI>To another the word of knowledge,</HI> [to interpret the my&s;tical &s;en&s;es and veiled meanings of holy Scripture] <HI>To another Faith,</HI> [or a firm belief to work all miracles] <HI>To another the gift of healing,</HI> [a peculiar power to cure di&s;ea&s;es without the help of Phy&s;ick] <HI>To another the working of Miracles,</HI> [&s;uch as was the delivering <HI>Hymineus</HI> and <HI>Philetus,</HI> to be afflict|ed by Satan; the &s;triking <HI>Elymas</HI> blind, and <HI>Ananias</HI> and <HI>Saphira</HI> dead] <HI>To another diver&s;e kinds of Tongues,</HI> [the gift of &s;peaking &s;everal and &s;trange Languages, which he was never taught;] And <HI>all this work|eth that one and the &s;ame Spirit, who
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divides his &s;everal gifts, to &s;everal Men, according to his good plea&s;ure.</HI></P>
<P>Other Scriptures tell us the &s;ame, as that of St. <HI>Matt.</HI> 25.15. <HI>The Ma&s;ter of the hou&s;e gave to one Ser|vant five Talents, to another two, to another one, to every one according to his &s;everal ability:</HI> He gives &s;uch, and &s;o much as he &s;ees every Man is fit to make u&s;e of, to Gods glory and the Common good. Thus God will &s;hew him&s;elf both a free donor, and a wi&s;e di&s;po&s;er of all things. For if one Man &s;hould have all abili|ties, and others few or none of any worth, the World might &s;eem to be guided, either by blind fortune, or fatal nece&s;&s;ity; but now that Men have their &s;everal Offices, and their &s;everal abilities, by which they are each fitted for anothers &s;ervice, and all for the beauty and benefit of the whole frame; the hand of divine providence, appears in the di&s;po&s;ing of them. God would have Men take notice of
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their gifts, and of their defects, that by the one they may learn humility, and by the other thank|fulne&s;s. For if any one had all parts, he would be too proud of his per|fections, and begin to think he needed not the &s;upply of Gods far|ther favours, who had &s;o much of his own already. Again, if any Man were de&s;titute of all Gods gifts, and mercies, he would want matter to ble&s;s God for. But now that God hath given to Men a mea&s;ure of good things, and hath temper'd their gifts, with many defects, they may ea&s;ily &s;ee, they are both indebted to God for all they have, and depending on God for all they want. And &s;o this dividing Gods gifts, &s;hould teach us to think humbly of our Selves, and thank|fully of God, and to &s;et up our Re&s;t in tho&s;e gifts and graces, which his bounty hath &s;o freely conferred upon us. Not inwardly to repine and envy, nor outwardly to di&s;turb
<PB N="165" REF="88">
and pervert, that order which God hath made, but to let God alone with his wi&s;e and gracious dealing with us, and to re&s;t &s;atisfied with our own portion, and to prize and e&s;teem the gifts of others, ac|knowledging their due worth and value where ever we find them; for if the holy Spirit of God, divide his gifts as he will, and his will is always gracious and wi&s;e, then either to deny, or envy, or deba&s;e them, is no better than to thwart God, in one e&s;pecial work of his wi&s;dom and goodne&s;s.</P>
<P>Some Men indeed would have greater gifts, and mo&s;t Men would have greater callings and places in the Church and State; all &s;ecretly grudging again&s;t God, and envying one another; and if it were not the mercy of God, to over rule &s;uch &s;ecret &s;wellings, they would bur&s;t out to the overthrow of peace and order, and would prove no le&s;s de&s;tructive, to our temporal quiet
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and Re&s;t here, than to our eternal Re&s;t hereafter. 'Twas good Coun&s;el which <HI>Jo&s;eph</HI> gave to his Brethren, when they were returning with their Sacks of Corn to their Father in <HI>Canaan, See ye fall not out by the way.</HI> We are all Travellers re|turning to our Fathers hou&s;e, the Heavenly <HI>Canaan,</HI> in which are <HI>many man&s;ions,</HI> enough certainly for all the Sons of <HI>Adam,</HI> and God hath given to every Man, &s;uch gifts and graces, &s;uch guides and a&s;&s;i&s;tances, for their conduct, that were they not wanting to them&s;elves, they need not doubt their &s;afe arrival. But &s;uch are our fallings out by the way, &s;uch our jarrings and di&s;&s;en|tions, our lingrings, delays and back&s;lidings, that we may have cau&s;e to fear, the greater part of the&s;e Travellers will fall &s;hort of the&s;e man&s;ions, and never take up their Re&s;t in their Fathers hou&s;e.</P>
<P>It is an ancient and true &s;aying, <HI>Unum quodque e&s;t propter operationem
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&s;uam. God hath made all that he made;</HI> ordered all things that he ordained (and there is nothing but what he made and &s;et in order) for that work and operation, to which its nature, place and faculties, are fitted. The work and operation therefore, is the fir&s;t in order of intention or de&s;ign, though the la&s;t in order of execution and accompli&s;hment. But nothing can operate or work aright, except it be gifted, or en|dued with &s;ome faculty, or hability to that work. And that this fa|culty or hability may produce its work in due order, it mu&s;t have its due place and office, appointed by him who orders all things.</P>
<P>Now as this is true and certain in the univer&s;al body of the World, and in the particular natural body of all Men; &s;o it is chiefly to be ob&s;erved, in the Spiritual body of Chri&s;t's Church. Fir&s;t there are gifts to enable Men to perform the work for which God hath appointed
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them. Then there are Offices <GAP DESC="foreign"> or admini&s;trations, to authorize them, and give them Commi&s;&s;ion, in their &s;everal places to exerci&s;e tho&s;e gifts, with which they are endued, and perform tho&s;e works, for which they are gifted and authorized. Then there are works, which mu&s;t be performed by Men endued with tho&s;e gifts and tho&s;e Commi&s;&s;ions.</P>
<P>This is the wi&s;e method and order which he that hath made all things in number, mea&s;ure and weight, hath pre&s;cribed, and ob&s;er|ved him&s;elf in all his works, and pre&s;cribed us in his word to ob&s;erve. Gifts are fir&s;t mentioned, becau&s;e they are fir&s;t nece&s;&s;ary, for the qua|lifying of the Per&s;on both for his office and his work. What ever we have, what ever we are, by nature or grace, in our worldly condition, or in our &s;piritual, is a gift: For what are, or what have we, in any re&s;pect, if good it be;
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that we have not received, from that God, who is the only &s;elf-&s;ub|&s;i&s;ting, all-&s;ufficient fountain, and fulne&s;s of all being and life? For in him we live, and move, and have our being: From him, and through him, and to him are all things. He &s;pake the word, <HI>Let it be thus, and thus,</HI> (by that eternal word his only Son) <HI>and it was &s;o.</HI></P>
<P><HI>His Spirit moved upon the Waters,</HI> and <HI>all things</HI> that he plea&s;ed to have done, through this word, by this Spirit <HI>were produced;</HI> for <HI>by the word of the Lord were the Heavens made,</HI> and <HI>all the ho&s;t of them by this Spirit,</HI> or <HI>word of his mouth.</HI> All then is his gift: <HI>Ab uni&s;&s;imo Deo manant multiformia, ab aeterno tem|poralia; All diver&s;ity comes from Unity, all times and temporal things, from the eternity, of this Trinity.</HI> It is God alone that hath made and or|der'd the <HI>dull</HI> Earth and the <HI>active</HI> Sun, di&s;tingui&s;hed the World into &s;uch diver&s;ity of Creatures, in
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order to &s;erve one another, the Elements for the mixt bodies, herbs and gra&s;s for the living unrea&s;onable Creatures; tho&s;e for Man, and Man for his own &s;ervice and glory.</P>
<P>If God had made but one Crea|ture, that one had proved him an infinite God, as to his power, for nothing but an Almighty power, can bring forth any thing, though but an Atom, or du&s;t or &s;and out of nothing. But now that he hath made and appointed &s;o many Crea|tures, in &s;uch a ju&s;t and excellent order, this makes the riches of his wi&s;dom and bounty, clearly appear to the Eye of rea&s;on, and then he demands of Man, who hath this rea&s;on, in all humility and thank|fulne&s;s that he adore and revere that God, who hath made &s;o many divers Creatures to &s;erve him, that he may learn thereby to &s;erve and love his Creator, and gracious benefactor; and &s;o at la&s;t come to enjoy him, whom he hath thus
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&s;erved and loved, in eternal joy and re&s;t.</P>
<P>If any one &s;hould ask, why was I made a <HI>livele&s;s</HI> Element, a <HI>&s;en&s;ele&s;s</HI> Plant, an <HI>unrea&s;onable</HI> though a <HI>living</HI> Creature, but a <HI>rea&s;onable</HI> Man, above all the&s;e, able to &s;ee, and con&s;ider what I &s;ee and know; to the honour of God? There can no account or rea&s;on be given, but the free bounty of his gift, who thus di&s;tingui&s;ht and ordered all things. And &s;o al&s;o among&s;t Men; why one is noble, another ob&s;cure; one rich, another poor; one beauti|ful, witty, and &s;trong, another weak, dull, or le&s;s comely, what account can any one give, but that <HI>there are diver&s;ities of gifts, but the &s;ame Spirit,</HI> Lord, God, who thus or|ders them? And this mu&s;t teach us contentedne&s;s, without envying Superiors; and Charity, without de&s;pi&s;ing or neglecting inferiors.</P>
<P>But be&s;ides the&s;e gifts, the&s;e Offices and admini&s;trations, which
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God hath placed in the World, for its Temporal Government; there are gifts &s;upernatural and &s;piritual, which God hath ordain'd and placed in the Church, for the &s;piritual Government of Mens Souls, in order to Gods &s;ervice here, and Mans eternal Re&s;t and Salvation hereafter. And the&s;e gifts, Saint <HI>Paul</HI> in the fir&s;t to the <HI>Corinthians,</HI> 12.28. reckons up to be eight in number. <HI>Fir&s;t Apo&s;tles, Secondarily Prophets, Thirdly Teachers. After Miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, Governments, diver&s;ities of Tongues:</HI> Whereof five were needful only at fir&s;t, and &s;o to continue but for a time: But tho&s;e that were to abide for ever, are reduced to Three, <HI>Teachers, Helps, Governments.</HI> Prie&s;ts or Presbyters to <HI>teach,</HI> Dea|cons to <HI>help,</HI> Bi&s;hops both to <HI>teach, help,</HI> and <HI>govern.</HI> The&s;e all, the Church had from the beginning, and our Church ble&s;&s;ed be God, &s;till hath them. The&s;e the Synod
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of <HI>Carthage</HI> calls the <HI>Three degrees of the Clergy;</HI> and we find frequent mention of them, in all the Monu|ments and Records of the Church, whether Provincial Synods, or general Councels, Publick Litur|gies, or private Writers, Hi&s;torians or Fathers; <HI>Canons</HI> made for their &s;everal Offices and Admini&s;trations, bounding and limiting each from other, in their proper works and operations.</P>
<P>That of <HI>Presbyters</HI> and <HI>Deacons,</HI> hath been le&s;s que&s;tioned; but that of <HI>Bi&s;hops</HI> more di&s;puted in late times: yet who can que&s;tion, or doubt of their being placed in the Church, by the Apo&s;tles them&s;elves, that hath with any impartial Eye, read and con&s;idered, either the Scripture, or the ancient expo&s;iters of Scrip|ture. <HI>Timothy</HI> at <HI>Ephe&s;us,</HI> and <HI>Titus</HI> at <HI>Creet,</HI> have their Epi&s;copal Office and duty plainly de&s;cribed, and or|der'd in Scripture by <HI>St. Paul.</HI> The <HI>Seven Stars</HI> in Chri&s;ts hand, <HI>Rev.</HI>
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1.20. are the <HI>Seven Angels</HI> of the <HI>Seven Churches,</HI> &s;aith Chri&s;t him|&s;elf. And he that con&s;iders what the&s;e Churches were, of how nu|merous Chri&s;tians, of what large circuit, containing &s;everal Cities and Countries, can hardly doubt of what the Ancients have &s;aid: <HI>That the Angels of the&s;e Churches were not only Bi&s;hops, but Metropolitan Arch-Bi&s;hops.</HI> Sure we are, that Church Writers and Hi&s;torians, &s;et down the very particular names of the&s;e Seven Angels or Bi&s;hops, and not only &s;o, but their Succe&s;|&s;ors for &s;everal Ages.</P>
<P>The fir&s;t general Coun&s;el of <HI>Nice,</HI> from which the <HI>Nicene Creed</HI> hath its name, con&s;i&s;ted of Three Hundred and Eighteen Bi&s;hops, as many as <HI>Abraham</HI> had in his Army again&s;t the Kings, in the &s;tory of <HI>Gene&s;is,</HI> as St. <HI>Ambro&s;e</HI> wittily alludes. And the fir&s;t general Synod, calls the Government by Bi&s;hops, Arch-Bi&s;hops or Metropolitans <GAP DESC="foreign">
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the <HI>antient gui&s;e:</HI> So ancient it was, that the ancient writers we have (and &s;ome we have of the next Age after the Apo&s;tles) mention it as univer&s;ally &s;pread over the Church, and from no other at fir&s;t derived, than from the Apo&s;tles.</P>
<P>Nor could it indeed have been &s;o early, or &s;o generally diffu&s;ed, from any le&s;s authority than theirs. The&s;e are they whom St. <HI>Paul</HI> calls <GAP DESC="foreign">, giving them power of ordination and of Govern|ment, <HI>Rulers</HI> and <HI>Pre&s;idents. Ig|natius</HI> every where di&s;tingui&s;heth them from Presbyters, and Deacons, as being above them, and calls them <GAP DESC="foreign">, <HI>Governours.</HI> So doth St. <HI>Cyprian, Origen, Eu&s;ebius, Epiphanius,</HI> and who not? attributing to them not only the chief place, but the highe&s;t authority and power of Government. <HI>Hierom</HI> him&s;elf, though but a Presbyter, and a zea|lous defender of Presbyters dignity, derives the difference of degrees
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no lower, than from the times of the Apo&s;tles, for &s;o are his words; <HI>When they began to &s;ay,</HI> I am of <HI>Paul,</HI> I of <HI>Appollo,</HI> I of <HI>Cephas, then were Bi&s;hops every where placed to prevent Schi&s;m.</HI> And that we may know, that the&s;e Apo&s;tolical tra|ditions are taken from the Old Te&s;tament; what <HI>Aaron</HI> and his Sons, and the <HI>Levites,</HI> were in the <HI>Jewi&s;h</HI> Temple, that <HI>Bi&s;hops, Pre&s;|byters</HI> and <HI>Deacons,</HI> were in the <HI>Chri&s;tian</HI> Church. And therefore if we will not make &s;o learned, and &s;o religious a Per&s;on, plainly con|trary to him&s;elf, he mu&s;t be &s;o un|der&s;tood in his other &s;ayings, as not to deny what he plainly affirms, <HI>That Epi&s;copal Government came from the Apo&s;tles.</HI></P>
<P>But this hath been &s;o fully di&s;cu&s;&s;ed of late years in this Nation,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Dr. <HI>Templer,</HI> 1676.</NOTE> and particu|larly by a Per&s;on of great worth and learning, at a <HI>Vi&s;itation</HI> in <HI>Cambridge,</HI> (to which I refer you)
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that I &s;hall no longer in&s;i&s;t upon it, only remind you, that differences there are of Admini&s;trations, that is, of Offices in the Church, as well as diver&s;ities of gifts; and all the&s;e different Admini&s;trations, high and low, as well Bi&s;hops, as Prie&s;ts and Deacons, are called <GAP DESC="foreign">, the proper term of the lowe&s;t of the three, the <HI>Deacons;</HI> which we tran&s;late <HI>Admini&s;trations,</HI> but might as well be rendred <HI>Mi|ni&s;teries,</HI> or <HI>Services:</HI> But why are they &s;o called? Surely to teach the highe&s;t of them, both diligence and humility in their Office. Every honour, hath its burthen an&s;werable to it; and the higher the Office of Government, if it be truly and con|&s;cienciou&s;ly di&s;charged, the pain-fuller is its work and &s;ervice. 'Tis an old &s;aying <GAP DESC="foreign">. <HI>The Ma&s;ter in a great hou&s;e, is the greate&s;t Servant;</HI> while all they &s;erve him, in their &s;everal places, he is fain to &s;erve them all,
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&s;tudy and watch to provide for all, to govern all. In no hou&s;e is this &s;o true, as that of the Church: For who&s;e cares, &s;tudies, dangers, watchfulne&s;s are &s;o great, &s;o various, &s;o perpetual, as theirs, if they do their duty? And who&s;e Con|demnation is &s;o great, if they do it not? Bi&s;hops are Generals in this Spiritual Army, and yet faith St. <HI>Paul, fellow Souldiers;</HI> ac|countable to our <HI>Common Lord Chri&s;t Je&s;us,</HI> not only for their <HI>own</HI> Souls, but for others too; nor is the mea|ne&s;t Common Souldier, by the hundreth part, obliged to &s;o many cares and pains, expo&s;ed to &s;o many dangers and troubles, as the&s;e Ge|nerals. Rulers they are in Gods Hou&s;e, but their ruling is for Gods &s;ervice, and Mans Salvation: And what a load of cares and pains, doth this ruling lay upon them? Fathers they are in place and dig|nity, but Brethren in love and humility they mu&s;t be. <HI>Stars</HI> and
<PB N="179" REF="95">
<HI>Angels</HI> they are called, but how do the Stars run their cour&s;e, day and night for the &s;ervice of this inferior World? How do the Angels con|de&s;cend to be mini&s;tring Spirits to the poore&s;t of Gods Family?</P>
<P>Read but what our Saviour &s;aith, <HI>Matt.</HI> 20.27. <HI>Who&s;oever will be chief among&s;t you, mu&s;t be your Servant, even as the Son of Man came to Mini&s;ter, and to give his life a ran&s;om for many.</HI> Read what Saint <HI>Paul</HI> &s;aith, 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 11.23. to the 30. and you will &s;urely confe&s;s, that the highe&s;t Offices in Gods Church, are the mo&s;t painful dangerous &s;ervices: Mini&s;teries truly &s;o called, &s;o truly, that the Ancient Bi&s;hops entering that Office, might truly &s;ay, <HI>nolo Epi&s;copari.</HI> But the more painful their &s;ervice is, the greater ought to be their honour, both of inward re&s;pect, and outward maintenance. All that are under the&s;e Mini&s;teries, or Admini&s;trations, ought to take heed of de&s;pi&s;ing them for this
<PB N="180" REF="96">
rea&s;on, becau&s;e they are <HI>Mini&s;teries;</HI> but rather honour them becau&s;e they are <HI>over you in the Lord.</HI></P>
<P>The higher powers, Kings them|&s;elves, are twice called by this very word <GAP DESC="foreign">, the <HI>Mini&s;ters of God, Rom.</HI> 13. The Angels are called <HI>Mini&s;tring Spirits,</HI> yet are &s;till <HI>Principalities</HI> and <HI>Powers, Thrones</HI> and <HI>Dominions.</HI> Nay, our Lord him|&s;elf, whil&s;t he was yet on Earth in the form of a Servant, is called by this word <GAP DESC="foreign">, the <HI>Mini&s;ter of the Circumci&s;ion for the truth of God.</HI> This mu&s;t teach tho&s;e in this high place, humility and diligence, but others it mu&s;t teach obedience and thankfulne&s;s, to e&s;teem them highly, for their works &s;ake; to <HI>obey them that have the rule over you, and &s;ubmit your &s;elves,</HI> becau&s;e <HI>they watch for your Souls, as they that mu&s;t give an account.</HI></P>
<P><HI>He that de&s;ires the Office of a Bi&s;hop, de&s;ires a good work,</HI> &s;aith St. <HI>Paul:</HI> Good indeed, and a work indeed. To govern and guide &s;o many flocks
<PB N="181" REF="96">
and their Pa&s;tors, with zeal to God, and Charity to Man; with un|wearied patience and humility; without corruption or partiality, through favour or fear, of high or low, &s;mall or great, poor or rich; to govern and teach wi&s;ely and di|ligently; to look &s;o carefully to or|dination, that all the truth, and none but the truth, be con&s;tantly preached, and the &s;ervice of God be con&s;tantly performed, with all reverence, free from prophane&s;s, with all purity, free from &s;uper|&s;tition. That the Sacraments and di&s;cipline of the Church, be ad|mini&s;tred in their power and beau|ty; all this is a work indeed, as full of labour and care, as of honour: Even the lower Admini&s;trations, tho&s;e of Presbyters and Deacons, have not they their work too? They have &s;ure in their &s;everal places enough to &s;pend their time, and Spirits wholly in, if they do their duty. The Presbyter hath a
<PB N="182" REF="97">
great &s;hare of all. The Bi&s;hops work is in a great part committed to him, and would the People make that u&s;e of Gods Mini&s;ters, which their Eternal Re&s;t and Salvation re|quires, it would quickly be found, that preaching were not half of the Mini&s;ters work and care: And yet Preaching is no &s;mall work. To in&s;truct clearly in all the My&s;teries of Faith, to exhort earne&s;tly, and affectionately, to all the duties of life and practice; to convince &s;o many numerous errors, as daily ari&s;e; to rebuke and reprove &s;o many &s;ins, and &s;inful Per&s;ons; without fear of the <HI>great,</HI> or the <HI>many;</HI> to comfort the feeble minded; to humble the haughty; to &s;tir up the &s;lothful, and temper the furious; to uphold the falling, and relieve the wavering, and reduce the wander|ing; to <HI>&s;top the mouths of</HI> &s;o many, and &s;ubtil <HI>gain&s;ayers,</HI> from the Athei&s;t to the Schi&s;matick; from the Prophane to the Super&s;titious;
<PB N="183" REF="97">
to clear tho&s;e Ob&s;curities, to an|&s;wer tho&s;e difficulties, remove tho&s;e &s;candals, which &s;o many Men in weakne&s;s, or wilfulne&s;s are &s;ub|ject to, and to &s;econd all this with a life unblameable; this certain|ly, is a work of great variety, &s;tudy, and pains: and yet a work &s;o nece&s;&s;ary it is, that better for us, we had no gifts nor Mini&s;try at all, than not to perform it: and the more it behoves the re&s;t of the World, not to hinder, not to di&s;|courage, not &s;acrilegiou&s;ly to rob, not to perplex us in this our work; but to &s;trive to make it as comfor|table to us, and as fruitful to your &s;elves as you can, &s;eeing the end of the&s;e Mini&s;teries, the&s;e &s;ervices, the&s;e works, the end of all our labour, is to bring you to <HI>endle&s;s Re&s;t.</HI></P>
<P>All our abilities, all our gifts are from the <HI>&s;ame Spirit,</HI> all our works are wrought by the <HI>&s;ame Lord, who worketh all in all,</HI> that is well wrought; both in him that writes,
<PB N="184" REF="98">
and him that reads, both in him that &s;peaks, and him that hears, in him that is governed, and in him that governs. if this be &s;o, let us bani&s;h all <HI>pride,</HI> If our gifts, and places, and works be never &s;o high, never &s;o many; <HI>Envy,</HI> if our gifts and places &s;eem never &s;o few and low; for what are the highe&s;t among&s;t us, but the in&s;truments and &s;ervants, of this &s;upreme do|nor, and mover; receiving all from him, accountable for all to him? And how can the lowe&s;t and mea|ne&s;t murmur, or object any thing again&s;t it, &s;ince they that have the lowe&s;t and meane&s;t, have it a gift, and could not challenge it as due, but have it by the wi&s;e di&s;po&s;al of that Lord, who&s;e wi&s;dom knoweth what is fitte&s;t for each; and who&s;e goodne&s;s be&s;tows that which is mo&s;t fit, and the meaner, or le&s;s gifts and places any one hath, the more ea&s;ily is both his work, and his account?</P>
<P><PB N="185" REF="98">Away then with <HI>haughty</HI> Pride, or <HI>mutinous</HI> Envy. Let not one &s;ay with repining regret, <HI>I am &s;low in apprehen&s;ion, weak in memory, &s;hallow in judgment, whil&s;t others are quick, tenacious and &s;olid: I have neither wealth to buy voluminous Authors; nor arts, nor parts, as others have, to dive into tho&s;e difficulties, and ob&s;cu|rities, and gain a clear &s;olution of them, as others have.</HI></P>
<P>Nor let others &s;ay in haughty contempt of their inferiors, or meaner Brethren; <HI>how mean are &s;uch and &s;uch compared with me, in graces, and places? I can lead my a|mazed Auditors, whither I will, with my eloquent Tongue; whil&s;t others freez in their Pulpits, and tire their Auditors into weari&s;omne&s;s and drow|&s;ine&s;s.</HI> But let the one and the other &s;ay, <HI>The&s;e are gifts freely be&s;towed, where it plea&s;eth the giver, and who &s;hall &s;ay unto him, what doe&s;t thou with thy own? He owes nothing to any, who can demand any thing of him as
<PB N="186" REF="99">
his due? He is the &s;upreme Wi&s;dom, who &s;hall direct him in his Coun&s;el; where and how to di&s;po&s;e and be&s;tow his gifts? The &s;upreme Lord, who &s;hall command him, where and how to di&s;|po&s;e and order his Admini&s;trations? He is the only Almighty God, who &s;hall accu&s;e his work of weakne&s;s or defect?</HI></P>
<P>Let the lowe&s;t and meane&s;t re|member to &s;ay, <HI>Though God hath denied me this or that which others have, yet hath he given me &s;omething which others want. He hath not given me an high place, but he hath given me that retirement and &s;afety, of which tho&s;e that are in high places, are be|reaved. He hath denied me promotion, but given me that health, which they that are preferred before me, would willingly purcha&s;e.</HI></P>
<P>On the other &s;ide, let tho&s;e that have highe&s;t gifts and places, &s;ay to them&s;elves, <HI>Why &s;hould we boa&s;t of our Lords bounty, and not rather tremble to think, of a&s;cribing that to
<PB N="187" REF="99">
our &s;elves, which is his free gift and di&s;pen&s;ation; lea&s;t he take it away, when he &s;ees it abu&s;ed; or if he con|tinue it, condemn us the heavier for being unthankful?</HI></P>
<P>Since it is thus ordered, by the wi&s;e di&s;po&s;er of all things, let one, and the other remember, that all are the Spirits <HI>Alm&s;men</HI> in their <HI>gifts.</HI> The Lord's <HI>Mini&s;ters</HI> in their <HI>Offices,</HI> Gods <HI>Workmen</HI> in their <HI>works,</HI> and thus when every one &s;hall be contented with his Talent, each one &s;hall find peace and quiet, and Re&s;t within him here, and be qualified for eternal Re&s;t here|after.</P>
<P>The World hath many pretenders to this Re&s;t, and tho&s;e &s;o contrary one to another, that their very pretences to it, &s;hew this eternal Re&s;t to be very de&s;irable; but the contrariety &s;hews, that this Re&s;t hath &s;o much of difficulty in it, that all that lay claim to it, cannot ju&s;tifie their claim: And though
<PB N="188" REF="100">
they cry with the Mathematician <GAP DESC="foreign">, <HI>I have found,</HI> and <HI>I have found it;</HI> yet they are &s;o much to &s;eek, that their confidence, with|out evidence, hath brought many to put it to the que&s;tion, Whe|ther there be any &s;uch Re&s;t to be found? We mu&s;t not be &s;o fooli&s;h, or &s;o &s;lothful, as tho&s;e Scepticks, who que&s;tion, or deride the po&s;&s;i|bility of &s;earching, and finding out this eternal Re&s;t; but with hu|mility and diligence, humbly ap|ply our &s;elves to tho&s;e Rules, which are given us for its di&s;covery. Some there are that lay claim to no other, nor higher felicity, than that which either natural Philo&s;ophy, or civil Policy can help them to: And the&s;e, though they have gone far, di&s;covered and publi&s;ht many truths, plea&s;ant and profitable for the World; yet their aims are too low, to give the &s;oul of Man &s;atis|faction, or acquie&s;cen&s;e here: The light and rules they walk by, too
<PB N="189" REF="100">
weak, and too uncertain, to reach tho&s;e very aims, which them&s;elves own; much more mu&s;t they needs fall &s;hort of Mans great eternal end, this endle&s;s Re&s;t: The pur&s;uit whereof, is our wi&s;dom here; the attaining whereof, is our happine&s;s hereafter.</P>
<P>There are in the World Men (and tho&s;e not a few) who &s;eek after wealth and honour, and great power; and weary them&s;elves day and night, to attain their ambitious de&s;ires, and think them&s;elves &s;till in the way towards this eternal Re&s;t: But our Saviour's appearing in the World, as he did, in much humility, demon&s;trates unto us the contrary. The innocency, righ|teou&s;ne&s;s, charity and holine&s;s of his life, were &s;o con&s;picuous, that the Scribes and Phari&s;ees, nay, the Devil him&s;elf, could not find any true accu&s;ation again&s;t him; and he that betrayed him, went and hanged him&s;elf, becau&s;e he had
<PB N="190" REF="101">
betrayed &s;o <HI>innocent,</HI> &s;o <HI>good,</HI> and <HI>holy</HI> a Per&s;on: Becau&s;e he came not to <HI>gratifie,</HI> the wordly and carnal expectations of the <HI>Jews,</HI> with any outward pomp or &s;plen|dor, &s;uitable to their de&s;ires, they <HI>vilify</HI> his Per&s;on, <HI>revile</HI> his doctrine, <HI>per&s;ecute</HI> his followers, <HI>contrive</HI> his ruine: Yet what was a temporal advancement, or deliverance to an eternal redemption, from &s;in, death, and hell; to an eternal advance|ment, above all enemies, to tho&s;e <HI>honours</HI> and <HI>joys</HI> at <HI>Gods right hand?</HI> And how contrary had it been to the de&s;ign of his incarnation, which was to &s;atisfie for Mankind's for|mer Pride and Ambition, intempe|rate voluptuou&s;ne&s;s, in&s;atiable co|vetou&s;ne&s;s? To exemplify, as well as teach them, the grace of piety, and contentedne&s;s, with the mea|ne&s;t condition here below, by &s;et|ting their hearts on things above? How contrary had it been to &s;uch a purpo&s;e, for our Lord to have
<PB N="191" REF="101">
appeared in the plenty of wealth, or the &s;plendor or pomp of worldly honour, in the power of Armies, to conquer Nations, by Sword or Force, all which would have but enraged the &s;inful di&s;tempers of Mans Soul, which he came to cure? He had given the <HI>Jews</HI> abundant evidence, both at his birth, and throughout his life; yea, at his very death, that 'twas not weakne&s;s, or any nece&s;&s;ity that made him ap|pear in &s;uch mean condition; but his voluntary choice, and love to Mankind; to draw them off from the love of this World, to that of God and a better life: For &s;urely he that could command a <HI>Star,</HI> to attend him at his birth, and an <HI>Heavenly Ho&s;t</HI> to &s;ing an Anthem of <HI>Glory to God,</HI> at his Nativity; might more ea&s;ily, had it plea&s;ed him, been born in another place than a Stable, with other manner of attendants, than a poor Virgin, and a Carpenter. He that could
<PB N="192" REF="102">
<HI>feed</HI> five Thou&s;and, with a few Loaves and Fi&s;hes, might have <HI>maintained</HI> as numerous an Army, as he plea&s;ed: He that could <HI>cure</HI> the Blind, and Lame, and Deaf at a word; <HI>heal</HI> all manner of Di|&s;ea&s;es, <HI>command</HI> the Waters, and the Wind, <HI>rai&s;e</HI> the Dead, <HI>ca&s;t out</HI> Devils, might quickly have had an invincible force, of Men and Angels, to quell the <HI>Romans</HI> and other Nations. He that could <HI>&s;trike</HI> his apprehender to the ground, at the <HI>beck</HI> of his will; make the Sun withdraw his <HI>light,</HI> at Noon day, and full Moon; the Earth <HI>tremble,</HI> the Rocks <HI>rend,</HI> the Graves <HI>open</HI> at his death; could ea&s;ily have &s;aved him&s;elf from death; but then he &s;hould have by his Example, <HI>renowned</HI> that love of worldly riches, plea&s;ures and ho|nours, which by his Doctrine of <HI>humility, &s;elf denial,</HI> and <HI>contempt of the World,</HI> he &s;ought to <HI>mortify</HI> and <HI>di&s;grace.</HI></P>
<P><PB N="193" REF="102">High and lofty thoughts, do much hinder our progre&s;s towards our eternal Re&s;t, and hide from us the true knowledge of our &s;elves; who&s;e fir&s;t Element is but du&s;t; <HI>Du&s;t thou art,</HI> and <HI>to du&s;t &s;halt thou return:</HI> Du&s;t is our native &s;oyl, and la&s;t home; to which we mu&s;t by a firm decree, repair ere long. By &s;oring aloft after worldly honours, we do but make our weari&s;om way, the longer, and more crooked; our fall more grievous (e&s;pecially if &s;uddain) and our final account after death more heavy. A&s;piring <HI>ambition</HI> overthrew the Tempter, <HI>Lucifer</HI> him&s;elf. What Spirit is it then think we, which moves &s;uch young and tender Plants, as &s;carce thrive under the walls of Gods hou&s;e; &s;uch Vines as hardly bear fruits, in the warm and well fenced vale; (I mean the retirements and vacations of a low and private con|dition;) to affect the cold and open Mountains, expo&s;ed to bla&s;ts of
<PB N="194" REF="103">
noy&s;om winds? Is it their glory to be above others of their own rank, and education? This might be pur|cha&s;ed, with le&s;s danger to them|&s;elves, and more good to Church and State; if they &s;ought to over|top them, more by their own pro|per height, or true growth, in all graces and good works, than by meer advantage of ground: For <HI>when every Valley &s;hall be exalted,</HI> and <HI>every Mountain made low;</HI> that is, when all worldly differences of States, &s;hall be laid a&s;ide, (as at the la&s;t day they will be) the fruit which hath grown in the vale of humility and contentedne&s;s, will appear both higher, and better far, than the ordinary off-&s;pring of the Mountains or highe&s;t places of pre|ferment. Were Men &s;o wi&s;e in heart as to con&s;ider, that the lower their place or condition is (&s;o it be not expo&s;ed to flouds of violence) the apter it is to &s;uck in the dew of Heaven, and bring forth fruit in its &s;ea&s;on.</P>
<P><PB N="195" REF="103">There are in the way to this eternal Re&s;t, great variety of Tra|vellers, furni&s;ht with various and different abilities; who&s;e faces dif|fer not more than their minds and manners, and the&s;e though they run contrary ways, yet all pretend they are in pur&s;uit of the &s;ame end, and are upon their march to this eternal Re&s;t, even then, when their backs are turned upon it.</P>
<P>The bloudy re&s;tle&s;s Traytor would be thought to be in &s;earch after this eternal Re&s;t, and Life, though he &s;eek for it in the paths of death, and works like the Mole under ground, and thinks that no Man &s;hall &s;ee him, 'till his abomi|nable wickedne&s;s be found out, and 'till, in the <HI>&s;ame Net that he laid for others, is his foot taken,</HI> and 'till his own demerits, and the ju&s;tice of the laws, halter him into a &s;hame|full death, and &s;wing him into another World, there to have <HI>his portion, with</HI> (the fir&s;t and greate&s;t of
<PB N="196" REF="104">
rebels) <HI>the Devil, and his Angels,</HI> and (unle&s;s prevented by a timely repentance) to remain in flames that burn to all eternity. Another &s;ort of Rebels there are more noble, though not le&s;s bloudy than the former, of an higher and more honourable extraction; yet &s;uch as move in the &s;ame Sphere, who hide their heads aloft in the Clouds, who al&s;o think that none &s;hall &s;ee them; but he that is higher than the highe&s;t, laughs them to &s;corn, and lets them drop into the &s;ame pit, which they made for others; 'till the Sanction of the Laws, &s;trikes the Coronet from off their Heads, their Heads from their Bodies, and lays the Ax to the root of that Tree, which brought not forth good fruit, and is therefore hewn down, rieven out, as it were, and cleaved for the fire. Were Religion as much in the&s;e Mens hearts, as it hath been in their pretences; that Religion I mean, which is, fir&s;t <HI>pure,</HI> then
<PB N="197" REF="104">
<HI>peaceable,</HI> they might have been gathered to their Fathers in peace, and not have pulled upon them|&s;elves, a &s;peedier, and a &s;adder mor|tality, than that which God and Na|ture had fir&s;t appointed for them.</P>
<P>Next, The Zealous Schi&s;matick thinks he is making &s;ure of this eternal Re&s;t, for him&s;elf and al&s;o for his followers, who runs, before he is called, and intrudes him&s;elf into that holy function, of which we read, <HI>Heb.</HI> 5.4. <HI>No Man taketh that honour unto him&s;elf but he that is called of God, as was</HI> Aaron. That is, no good, or holy Man, mu&s;t or ought, or doth take this honour upon him&s;elf, but he that is truly called of God. Such as <HI>Corah,</HI> have too often, and too pre&s;um|ptuou&s;ly taken it upon them, with|out being called, appointed, or or|dained, by lawful authority; But how hainous a &s;in it is &s;o to do, may appear by the dreadful puni&s;hment thereof; the Earth opened and
<PB N="198" REF="105">
&s;wallowed him, and his, up in a moment, <HI>Uzza</HI> may not <HI>touch</HI> the Ark, the <HI>Beth&s;hemites</HI> may not &s;o much as <HI>gaze</HI> into it. And though now, no &s;uch puni&s;hment be in|flicted any more; nor &s;uch a death as St. <HI>Peter</HI> inflicted on <HI>Ananias,</HI> befall Sacrilege, (for Miracles are cea&s;ed) and &s;uch Examples at the fir&s;t were inflicted on purpo&s;e, to &s;ignify the guilt of that &s;in, and &s;o to terrify from it for ever; yet God and his law is the &s;ame for ever, and they who prophane his holy orders, and in&s;titutions, by bold obtruding them&s;elves upon them, will find a puni&s;hment meet for their &s;in, here or hereafter.</P>
<P>What more prophanes holy things, than that which makes them common to all, who have but the forehead to claim and take them? But &s;ince the acceptance of the office, and its work on Gods part is all in all, as that which can bring a ble&s;&s;ing on Prie&s;t or People;
<PB N="199" REF="105">
it highly concerns us, both in wi&s;|dom to our &s;elves, and in duty to God, and in Charity to others, neither to take that honourable office to our &s;elves, nor give ad|mittance, or countenance to tho&s;e that do &s;o, &s;ince it is indeed no honour, nor office, unle&s;s as it is derived from him, and is more likely, if not more certain, to bring a cur&s;e and not a ble&s;&s;ing, on &s;uch invaders of the Prie&s;thood, and their followers.</P>
<P>If God will be Sanctified by them that draw near unto him, then &s;urely mo&s;t, by them that draw neare&s;t; by having the office of being <HI>his mouth</HI> unto the People, and <HI>theirs</HI> unto him. And &s;ure it were a great di&s;honour unto Reli|gion, that all great and publick things, nay every profitable Science and Art, &s;hould in all &s;ocieties be di&s;tingui&s;ht, by their proper pro|fe&s;&s;ors, Mini&s;ters or Arti&s;ts, and only Religion &s;hould be in common,
<PB N="200" REF="106">
expo&s;ed to be brui&s;ed by the hard hands of any Mechanicks, and &s;ullied by the rude touch of un|di&s;cerning, undi&s;tingui&s;ht, uncon|&s;ecrated Per&s;ons. In rea&s;on the means &s;hould hold &s;ome proportion with their end; and therefore the end of this holy office, being divine and &s;upernatural, 'tis rea&s;onable Per&s;ons which enter into it, &s;hould be able to &s;hew their vocation, mi&s;&s;ion and ordination; for that the very de&s;ign of Religion, forces us to a di&s;tinction of Per&s;ons, and &s;olemn call and ordination, in or|der to the office and work. And becau&s;e every one is not fit to ap|proach to God in the publick ad|dre&s;&s;es of his Church; there mu&s;t in rea&s;on be a &s;olemn &s;eparation, and ordination, made of tho&s;e Per&s;ons, who&s;e calling peculiarly is holy, and they thereby taught, and obliged to be &s;o. That &s;uch Per&s;ons being made higher than the People, by their calling (though our Bre|thren
<PB N="201" REF="106">
in nature) may be the in|&s;truments of conveying the Peoples Prayers unto God, and Gods ble&s;&s;ings unto the People.</P>
<P>Thus it was throughout the World, <HI>Jew</HI> and <HI>Gentile,</HI> before <HI>Chri&s;t</HI>'s time, either pretendedly or really, and if Chri&s;tian Religion allow otherwi&s;e, we mu&s;t in effect confe&s;s, that we have the wor&s;t Religion (which is bla&s;phemous di&s;honour to Chri&s;tianity) and as fal&s;e as its greate&s;t infernal enemy: Or that we are the wor&s;t of Men, which is intolerable &s;hame to our &s;elves, and therefore to be di&s;owned and dete&s;ted, in heart and deed.</P>
<P>Let any favourer of the&s;e intru|ders, name if they can, but one true and &s;ound Doctrine, which any one party, di&s;&s;enting from the Church of <HI>England,</HI> hath re|commended to the World, which was not before, &s;ufficiently and &s;olidly, taught and proved, by
<PB N="202" REF="107">
lawful Pa&s;tors: But who can num|ber the dangerous errors, which have been multiplied and &s;pread abroad by the&s;e di&s;&s;enters? <HI>Here&s;ies</HI> and <HI>Schi&s;mes,</HI> abroad and at home, have invaded the <HI>vnity, peace</HI> and <HI>pro&s;perity,</HI> of almo&s;t all the reformed Churches, to the extream hazard of the Chri&s;tian Faith, to the intro|ducing Sedition in State, Schi&s;me in Church, darkne&s;s and confu&s;ion in both. While many pretend to &s;trive for the Truth, how do they darken their own under&s;tandings, as well as others, with tumult and clamor, wrath and bitterne&s;s, among&s;t which truth is lo&s;t on both &s;ides, as well as Charity? They write, and fight, as they &s;ay, for the Truth; but Truth and Love are &s;lain in the quarrel, and pre&s;t to death, is it were in a throng, whil&s;t they that &s;tand by as neuters, laugh at both.</P>
<P>What good Chri&s;tian can re|member without &s;orrow and de|te&s;tation,
<PB N="203" REF="107">
the horrid confu&s;ions, and di&s;mal effects, in Church and Kingdom, which they have intro|duced and maintained? The like whereof, if not greater, threatens us daily; if God in his mercy, over|come not our evil with his goodne&s;s.</P>
<P>As to their &s;everal pretences to piety and holine&s;s; what hinder'd, or yet hinders them, from living as godlily, and as holily, with thank|fulne&s;s and honour, within the Church, to its pre&s;ervation; as without it, and again&s;t it, they pretend to do, to its di&s;turbance, and de&s;truction? A <HI>Surplice</HI> and <HI>Hood,</HI> a <HI>&s;igning</HI> the Child with the <HI>Cro&s;s</HI> at Bapti&s;me, a <HI>bowing</HI> to our Lord <HI>Je&s;us,</HI> when he is named, we have been often told, is what they bring, as their greate&s;t proof, of <HI>&s;uper&s;tition</HI> and <HI>will-wor&s;hip;</HI> whereas the la&s;t, is manife&s;tly no more, than to glorify with the body, or knee at &s;ometime, that which is lawful to do at any time;
<PB N="204" REF="108">
to whom God hath commanded us to <HI>bow our &s;ouls and bodies,</HI> and that <HI>to the glory of the Father.</HI></P>
<P>And to think that a <HI>Surplice</HI> is more &s;uper&s;titious, than a <HI>Gown</HI> or other garment, which God hath neither Commanded, nor forbid|den, is it &s;elf a great <HI>&s;uper&s;tition:</HI> Nor can <HI>that,</HI> or the <HI>&s;igning</HI> with the Cro&s;s, be with any colour of truth or rea&s;on, called <HI>will-wor&s;hip;</HI> which the Church profe&s;&s;eth, &s;he u&s;eth not, as any part of Gods Wor&s;hip, but as an <HI>indifferent,</HI> yet <HI>decent</HI> ceremony; to <HI>&s;ignify</HI> and <HI>teach</HI> Man with, not to <HI>Wor&s;hip</HI> God with; and what is not owned as any <HI>Wor&s;hip,</HI> cannot &s;urely be called <HI>Will-wor&s;hip.</HI></P>
<P>But when all is done, is this all, that mu&s;t keep us at everla&s;ting difference and &s;eparation? Can they &s;trein at &s;uch Gnats, or ra|ther &s;tartle at &s;uch &s;hadows of Dreams in their own phan&s;ies, yet &s;wallow &s;uch Camels, as <HI>di&s;obedi|ence</HI>
<PB N="205" REF="108">
to lawful &s;uperiors in Church and State? The hanious breach of Unity and Charity, peace and order in one and the other, expo&s;ing both to the common enemy, fir&s;t to deride, reproach and de&s;pi&s;e us, then to undermine and ruine us?</P>
<P>How many <HI>Papi&s;ts,</HI> how many <HI>Hereticks</HI> of &s;everal &s;orts, yea how many <HI>Athei&s;ts,</HI> and &s;cornful <HI>deri|ders</HI> of all Religion, have the&s;e our cau&s;ele&s;s, ob&s;tinate divi&s;ions, bred among&s;t us? And &s;hall not the&s;e <HI>dreadful effects</HI> of Schi&s;m at length affright us into Unity? <HI>Wo be to them by whom the&s;e offences come;</HI> and <HI>wo</HI> be to them by <HI>who&s;e default</HI> they &s;till continue. Wo to them that have &s;o torn the Church in pieces, that now the great things of the Go&s;pel of Chri&s;t, which God hath written, with the Pen of a Diamond, or Sun beam, are either neglected, or called in que&s;tion, while they contend with|out bowels of pity, mercy or piety;
<PB N="206" REF="109">
write in gall, and fight in blood, for &s;uch things as are at the be&s;t, but Hay and Stubble; compared with the precious foundation of our Religion. God grant both us and them, while it is time (if yet it be &s;o) wi&s;dom and grace, to know and follow the <HI>things belonging to our peace,</HI> here and hereafter; and to take Chri&s;t's Yoak upon us, and <HI>learn of him,</HI> who was <HI>meek</HI> and <HI>lowly</HI> in heart, that &s;o we may find <HI>Re&s;t</HI> unto our <HI>Souls.</HI></P>
<P>And let us do this the rather be|cau&s;e what <HI>health</HI> is to the body, or <HI>calmne&s;s</HI> to the Sea; &s;uch is <HI>peace</HI> and <HI>concord</HI> to a Church and State. But &s;hould it be asked of us, as <HI>Joram</HI> did of <HI>Jehu, is it peace Jehu;</HI> we mu&s;t an&s;wer now, as he did then; <HI>what peace &s;o long as our rents and divi&s;ions, our &s;eparati&s;ts and di&s;|&s;enters, are &s;o many?</HI></P>
<P>Our Saviour fore&s;aw and prophe|&s;ied of the&s;e very days in which we live, <HI>inimici dome&s;tici,</HI> ones foes
<PB N="207" REF="109">
&s;hall be they of ones own hou&s;hold: <HI>perditio tua ex te,</HI> Jeru&s;alems &s;or|rows are from her own Sons. What contentions &s;o &s;harpe and la&s;ting, as tho&s;e which ari&s;e among&s;t Bre|thren? The <HI>nearer</HI> the Relation, the <HI>greater</HI> the feude; and the far|ther off u&s;ually from reconciliation: Witne&s;s the &s;ad breaches, which too often happen, between per&s;ons &s;olemnly conjoyned by the &s;tricte&s;t ties, and bonds of amity, above, and before any other. I mean the Married Couple, who might come in, and claim their portion of this eternal Re&s;t; who are pre&s;umed to a&s;&s;i&s;t each other, in all the great affairs of life; who&s;e joys are or might be doubled, and their &s;orrows abated, by a mutual bearing of each others good, or adver&s;e for|tune; in&s;omuch that when their &s;cene of life is come to an end, and the Curtain drawn, they may lay them down in peace, and change the labour of a weary life, for the
<PB N="208" REF="110">
joys of a ble&s;&s;ed eternal Re&s;t: But how much otherwi&s;e falls it often out, even between the&s;e deare&s;t friends? What bitter complain|ings are frequently heard in our &s;treets, from Per&s;ons joyned in holy Wedlock, when but once di&s;affected to one another? The unruly torrent of di&s;&s;entions, oft times runs &s;o high, that the Man hates his own fle&s;h, and the Wo|man man makes head again&s;t her Hu&s;|band, and the&s;e though &s;acredly conjoyn'd and made one, become two again, &s;o bitterly divided, that no whol&s;om words, nor &s;age coun&s;el, can ever &s;weeten, or recon|cile them.</P>
<P>For prevention of this great un|kind mi&s;chief, which &s;o often hap|pens among&s;t us, and &s;o much hinders that Re&s;t and quiet here, that much conduceth to a ble&s;&s;ed, endle&s;s Re&s;t hereafter; Men &s;hould do well wi&s;ely to con&s;ider, that who&s;o enters the State of Marriage,
<PB N="209" REF="110">
ca&s;ts a Dye of the greate&s;t contin|gency, and yet of the greate&s;t con|cern in the World (next to that of Eternity it &s;elf.) <HI>Deliberandum diu, quod &s;tatuendum &s;emel.</HI> Men had need con&s;ider well of that, which mu&s;t be re&s;olved on once for all, and mu&s;t either bring a great and la&s;ting content and happine&s;s, or trouble and mi&s;ery, as la&s;ting as life it &s;elf. A Woman indeed ventures mo&s;t; for &s;he hath no Sanctuary to retire to, from the &s;ad misfortune of an ill choice; &s;he mu&s;t dwell upon her &s;orrow, and hath no appeal from his un|kindne&s;s, but that of Subjects from Tyrant Princes, Prayers and Tears, and though the Man hath more diver&s;ions, (yet when it comes to his turn, to lie under this unre|mediable &s;adne&s;s) he mu&s;t return to it again, and whil&s;t he is &s;itting among&s;t his Neighbours, he re|members the objection in his bo&s;om, and &s;ighs deeply.</P>
<P><PB N="210" REF="111">It hath been the unhappy chance of many, who enter the honourable &s;tate of Marriage, upon &s;ome di&s;|honourable aims or other, to be bound to &s;orrow and vexation for many years, by the Cords of their Con&s;orts peevi&s;h di&s;order; and the wor&s;t of the evil is, they are to thank their own follies, for ma|king no better choice: For God and goodne&s;s were le&s;s in their thoughts, and had le&s;s intere&s;t in their choice, than mony, to gratify their worldly covetou&s;ne&s;s; or beauty, their inordinate lu&s;t.</P>
<P>Men and Women change their liberty of &s;ingle life, for a rich for|tune, prefer Gold before virtue, and &s;hew them&s;elves to be <HI>le&s;s</HI> than money, by valuing it <HI>more</HI> than the wi&s;e content, and la&s;ting felicity of their lives: and when they have counted their money and &s;orrows well over, how willingly would they buy with the lo&s;s of all that money, mode&s;ty, &s;weetne&s;s of
<PB N="211" REF="111">
conver&s;ation, temperance and faith|fulne&s;s in their Con&s;ort.</P>
<P>But they are chained with the fetters they cho&s;e, and they are no whit the le&s;s chains, nor the ea&s;ier, for being made of Gold or Silver, but &s;ometimes the wor&s;e.</P>
<P>Nor doth he honour Marriage aright, who choo&s;eth it only, or principally for beauty; <HI>Cui &s;unt eruditi oculi, &s;ed &s;tulta mens, Who&s;e Eyes are judicious, but his &s;oul and thoughts &s;en&s;ually fooli&s;h.</HI> A little thread of red and white, is an ill band of Conjugal affections, to tie hearts together, in all conditions till death, &s;ince their love is, nor can it be any better, or more dura|ble, than its cau&s;e: and they are fond of each other, as long as phan&s;ie and health la&s;ts: But &s;ick|ne&s;s, child-bearing, care, time, and any thing almo&s;t that de&s;troys a flower, may de&s;troy that love, which at the be&s;t is but earthly and &s;en&s;ual.</P>
<P><PB N="212" REF="112">He that will find Re&s;t and quiet in his Conjugal State here, mu&s;t begin it with God and goodne&s;s, with wi&s;e and virtuous de&s;igns. Then is Marriage honourable in|deed, when good and fair intentions conduct and manage it. The <HI>pre|&s;ervation</HI> of a Family, the <HI>production</HI> of Children, the <HI>avoyding</HI> of forni|cation, the <HI>refre&s;hment</HI> of a wi&s;e and virtuous &s;ociety, all the&s;e are <HI>honourable ends.</HI> Society was the fir&s;t de&s;igned, <HI>it is not good for Man to be alone.</HI> Children the next, <HI>increa&s;e and multiply.</HI> The avoiding Fornication the la&s;t; and that will be hardly avoide by Marriage, unle&s;s you chu&s;e &s;uch a Con&s;ort, whom you can love in all condi|tions, and outward changes. The fir&s;t, makes Marriage <HI>delightful;</HI> the &s;econd, <HI>nece&s;&s;ary</HI> to the publick; the third, to this or that particular Per&s;on. The fir&s;t makes the Mans heart <HI>glad;</HI> the &s;econd is a <HI>friend</HI> to Families, Cities and Kingdoms;
<PB N="213" REF="112">
Churches and Heaven; the third is an <HI>enemy</HI> to Hell, and an <HI>Antidote</HI> to the chiefe&s;t inlet to damnation.</P>
<P>To have a la&s;ting quiet, and &s;ure content in the Conjugal life, it is prudent and u&s;eful, that all offences of each other be warily avoided, at the fir&s;t beginnings e&s;pecially of their conver&s;ation: An infant blo&s;&s;om is quickly bla&s;ted, and the love of lately Married Per&s;ons is bu&s;ie and tender, inqui&s;itive and jealous, and apt to take a fright, or alarm, at every unkind word, or carriage: But after the hearts of Man and Wife are endeared to each other, by natural confidence, and experience, trifling accidents cannot di&s;turb their united affecti|ons, but will vani&s;h at the &s;ight, and remembrance of weightier obligements; and &s;o after their having lived in peace, and love, and joy, for a while on Earth, they may meet and rejoyce together in Heaven to all eternity.</P>
<P><PB N="214" REF="108">That the Married life may prove happy, <HI>Let every one love his Wife as him&s;elf,</HI> &s;aith St. <HI>Paul.</HI> The Husbands power over his Wife, is Fatherly and Friendly, not Magi|&s;terial: She that is bound to leave <HI>Father</HI> and <HI>Mother,</HI> and <HI>Brother,</HI> for thee, is mi&s;erably abu&s;ed, if &s;he find it otherwi&s;e. A Mans domi|nion over his Wife, is like that of his Soul over his body, for which it takes a wi&s;e care, and u&s;eth it tenderly; and it is often led by its tolerable inclinations and de&s;ires, &s;ave when they are evil, or dange|rou&s;ly tending to that which is &s;o.</P>
<P>The Government is, and ought to be divided, &s;ince the Woman al&s;o hath Gods Image &s;tampt upon her, and may &s;ometimes a&s;&s;i&s;t, and &s;up|ply her Husbands wi&s;dom. And as to the Family, <HI>&s;i tu Cajus, ego Caja,</HI> was publickly proclaimed upon the thre&s;hold of the Husband, when his Bride fir&s;t enter'd under his roof; and although there is a ju&s;t mea&s;ure
<PB N="215" REF="108">
of obedience, due from the Wife, yet that's &s;carcely at all expre&s;&s;ed, in the Husbands directions in holy Scripture; but all his duty is &s;ig|nified by love, by nouri&s;hing and cheri&s;hing, by honouring her as the weaker Ve&s;&s;el, by not being <HI>bitter</HI> to her, by dwelling with her according to knowledge. <GAP DESC="foreign">, be not <HI>bitter</HI> again&s;t her, that's the fir&s;t and lowe&s;t &s;ignifica|tion of love. A civil Per&s;on is never bitter again&s;t a &s;tranger, much le&s;s a friend that enters his roof, and is &s;ecured there by the laws of Ho&s;pitality; and he &s;urely is &s;trangely rude, who u&s;eth her rudely, that quits all her intere&s;t for him: and is be&s;ides, as much the &s;ame Per&s;on, as another can be the &s;ame, having the &s;ame Religion, Children, and Family, and is fled for protection, as to a Sanctuary, not only to his hou&s;e, but to his bo&s;om and heart.</P>
<P><PB N="216" REF="114"><HI>Marcus Aurelius</HI> &s;aid well, that a wi&s;e Man will <HI>often admoni&s;h</HI> his Wife, <HI>reprove</HI> her <HI>&s;eldom,</HI> but <HI>never</HI> lay his hands upon her. St. <HI>Chri|&s;o&s;tom</HI> tells us, that an Husband <HI>reviling</HI> or <HI>&s;triking</HI> his Wife is, as if a King &s;hould <HI>u&s;e</HI> his Viceroy <HI>&s;o,</HI> from whom mo&s;t of that reverence and Maje&s;ty mu&s;t needs depart, which at fir&s;t he put upon him, and the Subjects will pay him the le&s;s duty, by how much the rudelier the Prince hath treated him; the lo&s;s redounds to the King him&s;elf, and the Government will be there|by di&s;ordered and ruin'd. He that loves not his Wife and Children, feeds a Lyone&s;s, and breeds nothing but fears and &s;orrows to him&s;elf, nor can ble&s;&s;ing it &s;elf make him happy: All the Commandements of God, injoyning a Man to <HI>love</HI> his Wife, are but &s;o many invi|tations to him to be <HI>happy</HI> him&s;elf, and make her, and his Children &s;o. If <HI>mutual love</HI> be once &s;ecured, there
<PB N="217" REF="114">
can be no great danger from any thing el&s;e, becau&s;e &s;uch love as makes the Man cha&s;t, keeps the Woman al&s;o within the &s;ober bounds of mode&s;t cha&s;tity.</P>
<P><HI>Obedience</HI> is the Womans duty, which though no where expre&s;ly enjoyned the Man to exact, yet is often commanded the Woman to pay, and the le&s;s it is exacted, the better and more kindly is it, when duly paid, both in the &s;ight of God and Man: And this proclaims her humility, and reverend e&s;teem of his Wi&s;dom, and is an acknow|ledgment of the injunction impo&s;ed by God; and though <HI>in &s;orrow &s;he bring forth Children,</HI> yet with love and joy &s;he may bring them up.</P>
<P>The Womans obedience though largely extended by St. <HI>Paul, <GAP DESC="foreign">, Ephe.</HI> 5.24. <HI>In every thing,</HI> yet 'tis limited, by <GAP DESC="foreign">, <HI>as 'tis fit in the Lord, Collo&s;.</HI> 3.18. The Womans duty obliges her to put on the Ornament of a meek and
<PB N="218" REF="115">
quiet Spirit, which is in the &s;ight of God of great price: Sweetne&s;s of manners, humble comportment, fair interpretation of all things, that are capable of it, an indu&s;trious hand, a &s;ilent tongue, a faithful heart, to his Per&s;on and Bed, his Pur&s;e and E&s;tate.</P>
<P>And that this may be done with chearfulne&s;s, it is one excellent height of Chri&s;tian Religion, above not only the <HI>Heathens</HI> and <HI>Mahome|tans,</HI> but the <HI>Mo&s;aical</HI> allowances; that it hath provided for Union be|tween Man and Wife, by forbidding &s;trictly Poligamy, or the having many Wifes; and al&s;o hath for|bidden divorce, except in ca&s;e of Adultery. By forbidding Poligamy, our Religion hath prevented all tho&s;e Dome&s;tick emulations, which would nece&s;&s;arily almo&s;t ari&s;e, be|tween a <HI>Leah</HI> and a <HI>Rachel,</HI> though in <HI>Jacobs</HI> Family; a <HI>Sarah</HI> and a <HI>Hagar,</HI> though in <HI>Abrahams</HI> hou&s;e: The Mans love runs in a fuller
<PB N="219" REF="115">
&s;tream, becau&s;e not divided into many rivolets; and the Womans love and faithfulne&s;s is demanded more ju&s;tly, becau&s;e it hath an equal proportionable an&s;wer, with|out the provocation of any Corrival. And then by forbidding divorce upon any pretence, but that of Adultery, it makes peace more nece&s;&s;ary, and contention more terrible, &s;eeing if they will not become a mutual comfort, they mu&s;t always endure that mutual torment, from which they are allowed no refuge. If all this be not enough to &s;ettle Dome&s;tick peace, turn but your Eyes upon the wilde&s;t Creatures, let the Bea&s;ts of the field, and the Fowls of the Air, &s;hame us into it: For even the mo&s;t un&s;ociable hurtful Creatures, keep peace at home, in their own ne&s;ts and dens. What bloudy Tygar is there, that doth not &s;oftly and tenderly demean him&s;elf over his Female Mate, and young I&s;&s;ue?
<PB N="220" REF="116">
What ravenous Kite, doth not joyn with his &s;he partner, in Building his ne&s;t, &s;itting upon the Eggs, feeding his young ones? The Lyon doth not roar at home, nor tear his Lione&s;s, nor devour his Whelps, but maintains peace at home, by his very enmity abroad: The prey of his foreign cruelty, is the com|mon food of his private den. Thus God from Heaven, Men on Earth, the Bea&s;ts of the field, and Fowls of the Air, do all teach and in&s;truct Man and Woman how to be happy, and to go by Couples to the Ark of their eternal Re&s;t.</P>
<P>Now this eternal Re&s;t, mu&s;t not be &s;ought, (becau&s;e it cannot be found) by a partial obedience, by leaving one &s;in, and cleaving to another; every Man is not alike inclined to every &s;in, nor can the pur&s;uit of &s;ome pollutions, con&s;i&s;t with the pro&s;ecution of others; for &s;ins are contrary one to the other, as well as to grace: Nor is there any
<PB N="221" REF="116">
thing more u&s;ual, than for the violent unruly nature of ra&s;h Man, to run out of hatred to one extream, into another oppo&s;ite to it. Super|&s;tition dotes, prophane&s;s is mad: And how many hating Super&s;tition, turn prophane? Whil&s;t others hating to be prophane, turn Super|&s;titious? Covetou&s;ne&s;s gathers all, prodigality &s;catters all; Men u&s;ually fall into one extream, whil&s;t they run from another; either they de|&s;pi&s;e prophe&s;ying, or think it all in all. To <HI>abhor Idols,</HI> and yet to <HI>commit Sacrilege;</HI> to wor&s;hip the walls, or el&s;e to beat them down; is to drive out one Devil with another. The nece&s;&s;ity of clean&s;ing our &s;elves from the&s;e enormities, is plainly &s;een, by tho&s;e very re|proofs, which one &s;inner gives another contrary to him. How doth the lukewarm or prophane dete&s;t the Schi&s;matick and Super|&s;titious? Or how doth the furious Super&s;titious, or blind Zealot, de|te&s;t
<PB N="222" REF="117">
the lukewarm or prophane?</P>
<P>How doth the &s;quanderer hate the niggard? And how doth the niggard hate the prodigal? <HI>Let me take my fill of lu&s;t,</HI> &s;aith the wanton, <HI>and I will trample upon wealth: Let me hug my Mammon,</HI> &s;aith the Mi&s;er, <HI>and I will bid defiance to lu&s;t: Let me wa&s;h my hands in the blood of mine enemy,</HI> &s;aith the revengeful, <HI>and I will be content to give freely to them that have not pro|voked, or injured me:</HI> Thus as the Na|tions in times of darkne&s;s, had each of them their &s;everal Idols, which they Wor&s;hipped, and neg|lected others, but all agreed in di&s;honouring the only true God; &s;o every partial fal&s;e hearted refor|mer, hath his bo&s;om darling pollu|tion, which if he may cheri&s;h, he can be content to leave the re&s;t; yea be forward and zealous again&s;t them, that he may either hide, or &s;atisfie, or get an indulgence in what he affects. But all the virtue in the World, cannot &s;atisfie for
<PB N="223" REF="117">
one willful, habitual pollution, indulgently cheri&s;h'd: Yea, that one indulged pollution, proves all the other &s;eeming clean&s;ings to be but counterfeit.</P>
<P><HI>Saul</HI> &s;lew many <HI>Amalekites,</HI> but &s;paring <HI>&s;ome,</HI> when God had com|manded <HI>all</HI> to the Sword, he forfei|ted his Kingdom by his hypocri&s;y; and one of that Nation whom he &s;pared, became afterwards his Ex|ecutioner: Though it be but one known &s;in you live in, the &s;paring of that, &s;hews your hatred again&s;t the re&s;t to be fal&s;ehearted and hypocritical: For though it be but one, it is contrary to that &s;incere holine&s;s, which God indi&s;pen&s;ably requires as his due; though it be but one, it is a reigning one; de|filing the purity, defacing the beauty, de&s;troying the peace of an upright con&s;cience; yea though it be but one in actual appearance, yet in &s;eminal virtue it includes many, and may in time be fruitful
<PB N="224" REF="118">
of many: thus one &s;in weakens grace, grieves Gods Spirit, prepares matter and fuel for others. Cove|tou&s;ne&s;s and pride beget envy and &s;trife, that, anger; that, murther. Ambition led <HI>Ab&s;alon</HI> to trea&s;onable con&s;piracy again&s;t his Father, that, to open bloudy rebellion; that, to ince&s;t; any one pollution indulged unto, may introduce a whole Le|gion: And though it be but one, it is a vilifying, and di&s;honouring of God in all his perfections, for &s;ome un&s;atisfactory, tran&s;itory phan&s;y; and if it be habitually, unrelentingly continued in, will be puni&s;hed eternally with &s;epara|tion from Gods pre&s;ence, to endle&s;s mi&s;eries: And what folly is it, to lo&s;e Gods favour, and incur his intolerable, eternal di&s;plea&s;ure, for one defiling tran&s;itory vanity? Thus you &s;ee he that will enjoy eternal Re&s;t, mu&s;t clean&s;e him&s;elf from <HI>all pollution,</HI> without deliberate habitual indulgence to any <HI>one.</HI></P>
<P><PB N="225" REF="118">And that we might not mi&s;s of this eternal Re&s;t; the Apo&s;tles, the Emba&s;&s;adors of Chri&s;t, they woe and intreat us by the kinde&s;t com|pellations, as you may &s;ee, 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 7.1. <HI>Dearly beloved: Having the&s;e promi&s;es, Dearly beloved, let us clean&s;e our &s;elves from all pollution;</HI> 'Tis a Style you &s;hall hardly find in the Old Te&s;tament, unle&s;s in the <HI>Canticles,</HI> where Chri&s;t woes his Spou&s;e the Church, with all the endearments of kindne&s;s and love, although there are &s;omtimes &s;uch expre&s;&s;ions as contain the &s;ame in real effect. But the ordinary &s;tile runs there, with more &s;everity, agree|able to that admini&s;tration, where the Spirit of <HI>bondage,</HI> was more ordinary, than that of <HI>adoption:</HI> But here in the Go&s;pel, though threats are &s;ometimes intermixed, yet kind intreaties, and conde&s;cend|ing invitations, are oftner found; for God mo&s;t ju&s;tly expects now, when his Son hath appeared, and
<PB N="226" REF="119">
given his life for us, to <HI>redeem us from all inquity,</HI> to <HI>purify us and make us zealous of holine&s;&s;,</HI> that we &s;hould not need &s;o many threats to drive us to him, as if he were only our la&s;t refuge; but that in the &s;en&s;e of his admirable mercies, we &s;hould be drawn with the Cords of a Man, the Bands of Love, and make him our fir&s;t mo&s;t acceptable choice. Wherefore we &s;ee his fir&s;t Emba&s;&s;a|dours that he &s;ent, tran&s;cribed the pattern of that humility, and hea|venly charity, which he had &s;et them; and make it their humble&s;t, earne&s;t intreaty, that we would be reconciled unto God; that he would be ble&s;&s;ed, in &s;uffering them, to turn us from our iniquity; that we would be holy and pure fir&s;t, and then hap|py; as if it were rather their happi|ne&s;s, and his that &s;ent them, than theirs to whom they &s;pake &s;o pa&s;&s;io|nately, &s;o humbly, &s;o charitably: <HI>Dearly beloved,</HI> becau&s;e &s;o dearly be|loved of God, that he &s;ent his only
<PB N="227" REF="119">
begotten Son, to buy and reclaim us to purity &amp; holine&s;s, to learn of him, to learn of his me&s;&s;engers, to value our &s;elves at that rate, which he hath valued us at, who thought it an ac|ceptable bargain to him, to lay down his life, with agonies of Soul, and torments of body, rather than &s;uffer us to wallow here in filthy pollutions, which lead to eternal in|tolerable mi&s;ery, and not to that eternal Re&s;t, in the Kingdom pre|pared for the ble&s;&s;ed of his Father.</P>
<P>De&s;pi&s;e not then the goodne&s;s of God, who made you at fir&s;t, after <HI>his own</HI> Image: De&s;pi&s;e not the mercies of Chri&s;t the Son of God, who came to take your nature, and die for you: De&s;pi&s;e not the Spirit of God, who waits, and longs, for your Sanctification: De&s;pi&s;e not tho&s;e precious promi&s;es, which yet are offer'd to all that clean&s;e and purify them&s;elves; nor tho&s;e endle&s;s intolerable woes, and mi&s;eries, which are threatned to all de&s;pi&s;ers.</P>
<P><PB N="228" REF="120">He that &s;eeks not this Re&s;t, but walks in the ways of his own heart, 'till he can walk no longer, and thinks to delay from time to time, his faithful conver&s;ion, and refor|mation, 'till he mu&s;t take Sanctuary at la&s;t, in the &s;ighs and groans, &s;orrows and purpo&s;es, of &s;ickne&s;s and his death-bed; he that 'till then retained his &s;ins, and now when he knows, or fears at lea&s;t, that he mu&s;t die, is &s;orrowful for have|ing walked contrary to God, and a good con&s;cience, he is in all proba|bility &s;orrowful only for his danger, which may po&s;&s;ibly con&s;i&s;t with as great an affection to &s;inful ways, as in perfect health; for even then, in &s;ome circum&s;tances, he would have with&s;tood the greate&s;t tem|ptation; the bolde&s;t lu&s;t would re|fu&s;e to be &s;atisfied in the Market, &s;uch re&s;traint is no abatement of the affection: He that grieved not, 'till death and hell pre&s;&s;ed him hard, and doom was ready to &s;eize upon
<PB N="229" REF="120">
him, grieved for the <HI>&s;ad con&s;equen|ces</HI> of &s;in, not for its <HI>ba&s;ene&s;s</HI> and <HI>di&s;order.</HI> For a remedy herein, all &s;uch Per&s;ons, had need to cure them&s;elves of the&s;e tormenting fears of death and hell, by a timely, and early repentance; becau&s;e a late repentance is <HI>&s;eldom</HI> &s;ound, and <HI>never</HI> &s;ave: And this repentance, which nece&s;&s;arily foregoes remi&s;&s;ion of &s;ins, can no ways better be ob|tained, than by con&s;tant and fer|vent prayer: <HI>Ask and ye &s;hall have,</HI> &s;aid our Saviour; <HI>The prayer of Faith availeth much,</HI> &s;aid St. <HI>James. God is nigh unto all them that call upon him faithfully:</HI> Seek, and ask, and beg, and &s;ue for what you will, by fervent and faithful prayer, by prayer that goes not out of <HI>feigned</HI> lips, and it &s;hall be <HI>given</HI> you. <HI>Prayer</HI> is the very breath of Gods Spirit, whereby our Soul draws in, and &s;ends forth Gods grace; and its own gracious de&s;ires: Prayer, it is our very &s;caling Ladder, and
<PB N="230" REF="121">
Engin of battery, whereby heaven is be&s;eiged, and &s;uffers violence: 'Tis our <HI>arrow</HI> by which we pierce the Clouds, and having gotten au|dience above, 'tis our <HI>weapon</HI> by which we <HI>wound</HI> our enemies below: 'Tis the <HI>Rudder,</HI> and <HI>Anchor</HI> which keeps our Souls <HI>&s;teddy</HI> in many waters, when many winds and billows beat upon us: 'Tis the <HI>Compa&s;s</HI> by which we <HI>Sail</HI> when all is clouded: 'Tis our <HI>Key,</HI> by which we <HI>open</HI> Heaven, and <HI>wre&s;tle</HI> with God; re&s;olving with <HI>Jacob,</HI> not to part without a <HI>ble&s;&s;ing.</HI></P>
<P>But 'tis not every lazy Prayer, born in the lips, or at mo&s;t in the phan&s;y, uttered only for fa&s;hion &s;ake, or to quiet for a while a galled con&s;cience: No, it is the Prayer of a righteous Man (though a Man of infirmities with others) when fervent, <HI>that availeth much;</HI> &s;o much, that it hath <HI>&s;hut,</HI> and <HI>opened</HI> Heaven, made the Sun <HI>&s;tand &s;till,</HI> and <HI>go back.</HI> Though the
<PB N="231" REF="121">
Per&s;on be righteous, if the Prayer be not fervent, God hath no re|gard to it; no rea&s;on to hear and con&s;ider that Prayer, which he him&s;elf (that makes it) &s;carce hears and con&s;iders.</P>
<P>Great rea&s;on then have all to watch and to pray, to <HI>make our calling and election &s;ure,</HI> and wi&s;ely in time to provide, whil&s;t the day of Salvation la&s;ts, that our labours here, may terminate, and end in eternal Re&s;t; becau&s;e we know not how &s;hort our time is. <HI>All fle&s;h is gra&s;&s;,</HI> &s;aid the Prophet <HI>I&s;aiah,</HI> 40.6. <HI>And all the goodline&s;s thereof is as the flowers of the field: The gra&s;s withereth, the flowers fadeth away,</HI> becau&s;e <HI>the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it, &s;urely the people is as gra&s;s;</HI> for as the gra&s;s, how green and flouri&s;hing &s;oever it &s;eems, yet it &s;prang from the Earth, and &s;hortly after bea&s;ts devour it, or winds bla&s;t it, and if it come to la&s;t out its full time, even then the Sythe comes to
<PB N="232" REF="122">
cut it down: So is Mans life, with all its fre&s;h &s;eeming contentments, at the mercy even of every Creature; Fire and Water, Air and Sickne&s;s, Famin and the Sword, and what not almo&s;t? And though he e&s;cape all &s;ad accidents, and ca&s;ualties, to the utmo&s;t length of Mans Age, yet there is a natural Syth of Gods decree, and Mans inward corrup|tion, that will not fail to cut him down: No Age, no condition, can be exempted by any art, by any means from the &s;troak of death. Every Age hath proper to it &s;elf &s;ome po&s;terns, &s;ome out-lets of death, be&s;ides tho&s;e numberle&s;s open gates through which thou&s;ands yearly pa&s;s.</P>
<P>The bud is bla&s;ted as &s;oon as the blown Ro&s;e; the Lamb comes to the &s;hambles, as well as the grown Sheep; Death looks not at Mens E&s;tates, or Degree, or Age; it comes not to the Church book to &s;ummon them by that; the Womb,
<PB N="233" REF="122">
the Cradle, protects not many, Infants die in both we know: And the <HI>Jews</HI> Proverb is daily fulfilled, in <HI>Golgotha are &s;kulls of all &s;izes:</HI> Childhood is &s;o tender, and yet &s;o unwary of running into harms-way, that Parents Eyes, and Nur&s;es Arms, are &s;carce &s;ufficient to keep one Child, from &s;trange and early calamities, and death it &s;elf; unle&s;s a guardian Angel be granted it, to watch its very playings and &s;leep|ings, eatings and drinkings.</P>
<P>The more uncertainty, and in|&s;tability we find here in things below, the le&s;s ought we to rely and tru&s;t in any Creature, and &s;o much the more ought we to put our tru&s;t in God. The very un|faithfulne&s;s of all things el&s;e, &s;hould renue and confirm our faithfulne&s;s and to God, who makes &s;ickne&s;s and death, become life and health, by removing the vail of fle&s;h, which intercepts the light, and &s;ight of the fountain of life, and gives an
<PB N="234" REF="123">
immediate acce&s;s to him; in whom alone this eternal Re&s;t is to be found.</P>
<P>It is the honour and triumph of true Religion, that having cho&s;en God for its Re&s;t, it cannot be be|reaved, or defeated of its choi&s;e, by any calamities what&s;oever of this life. It lifts up the Soul, above all the winds and &s;torms of this uncertain, tran&s;itory world; and fixes the heart upon that eternal fountain of joy, and re&s;t and hap|pine&s;s, where there is no variable|ne&s;s, nor &s;hadow of turning.</P>
<P>Wi&s;h, and de&s;ire, and love, what|&s;oever you plea&s;e be&s;ides God: Put your tru&s;t in any thing le&s;s, or lower than him; and you are not only &s;ure, that your love will be turned into hatred, your liking into loathing, your tru&s;t into de|&s;pair, when death comes; but even while life, and health la&s;ts, you are at uncertainties, to&s;&s;ed perpetu|ally betwixt the ebbs and flows of
<PB N="235" REF="123">
chance, 'twixt hopes and fears, like an un&s;table wave of the Sea, or hanging like a doubtful Meteor in the Air; whil&s;t the humble, patient Chri&s;tian, that tru&s;ts in God, and takes him for his Re&s;t, and <HI>excee|ding great reward,</HI> waiting on him, as his all-&s;ufficient &s;hield (with re|&s;ignation) for life or death; Con|tented to <HI>live,</HI> but willing to <HI>die,</HI> and to <HI>be with Chri&s;t;</HI> he is the only fixt Star in this lower firmament: His feet &s;tand fa&s;t, be the pavement never &s;o &s;lippery.</P>
<P>In the term of Mans life, there is a vici&s;&s;itude of <HI>good</HI> and <HI>evil,</HI> a mixture of labour and re&s;t, joy and &s;orrow; there is a <HI>&s;eed-time,</HI> and an <HI>harve&s;t;</HI> a <HI>&s;owing in tears,</HI> and <HI>reaping in joy;</HI> He that now goeth on his way <HI>weeping,</HI> and beareth forth <HI>good &s;eed,</HI> &s;hall double&s;s <HI>come again with joy, and bring his &s;heaves with him:</HI> But we may not expect Summer in the Winter &s;ea&s;on, an harbour in the main Ocean; our
<PB N="236" REF="124">
portion before we are of Age, a <HI>reaping in joy</HI> 'till we have <HI>&s;own in tears:</HI> The Traveller cannot think to find home in his Inn, nor Heaven upon Earth. The Children of <HI>I&s;rael</HI> had the <HI>Wilderne&s;s,</HI> and the <HI>Red-Sea</HI> to pa&s;s through, before they could arrive at the Land of <HI>Canaan,</HI> the place of their Re&s;t. They were all labourers that were &s;ent into the Vineyard, and could not expect their Peny, 'till the day, and their work was done; let us therefore pray the Lord of the Harve&s;t, that our Labour and Travel, may hap|pily be turned at la&s;t into ea&s;e and Re&s;t; that when the &s;ix days of our life are at an end, we may cea&s;e from our works, as God did from his; and enjoy with him an ever|la&s;ting <HI>Sabboth</HI> of eternal Re&s;t.</P>
<P>And the rather is this Re&s;t here|after, to be laboured for now; be|cau&s;e whil&s;t we are here upon Earth, we have nothing pure and unmixt; our very joys are mingled with
<PB N="237" REF="124">
&s;orrow; and <HI>Solomon</HI> tells us, even in <HI>laughter,</HI> the heart is <HI>&s;ad:</HI> Ex|pences here wait upon honour; care of Education goes along with the ble&s;&s;ing of Children; and our mo&s;t comfortable hopes, are mixt with perplexing fears: But when we come to Re&s;t in the holy City, that City which is above; we &s;hall have a perpetual day without night, light without the Sun: Our hunger &s;hall be &s;atisfied without food; No need of Clothing there to cover our &s;hame (for &s;hame and &s;in &s;hall cea&s;e together) then all &s;ad doubtings, what &s;hall be our condition and &s;tate hereafter, &s;hall vani&s;h away, and we &s;hall agree together with one heart and mind, to &s;ing <HI>Hale|lujahs,</HI> and perpetual Prayers to God in the highe&s;t. There will be no di&s;&s;enters there, no &s;eperati&s;ts, to break or interrupt that harmonious everla&s;ting concord.</P>
<P>What wi&s;e Man then, will &s;et his heart upon the World, when
<PB N="238" REF="125">
all things in it are but for &s;o &s;hort an abode, &s;o un&s;table and &s;o un|&s;atisfactory, and not rather on that abiding City above, where the joys and plea&s;ures are durable and eternal? Chri&s;tians of all others ought to remember what St. <HI>Paul</HI> &s;aith, <HI>Heb.</HI> 13.14. <HI>Here we have no abiding City, but we &s;eek one to come:</HI> Our very profe&s;&s;ion expo&s;eth us to all affliction, and obliges us to live as &s;trangers and pilgrims upon Earth: What is <HI>Canaan</HI> or <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> below, to that above, whereof the other was but a Type? Things that are &s;een and perceptible by any bodily Eye are temporal, tran|&s;itory, &s;ubject to changes every day, and &s;ure to be aboli&s;ht at length, they will be taken from us, or we from them, when death comes (which may come every day) and therefore not worthy to be looked upon by &s;uch an immortal Soul or Spirit, as con&s;titutes Man; which being made for eternity,
<PB N="239" REF="125">
cannot be &s;atisfied with ought that is temporal, how long &s;oever it may abide, much le&s;s when 'tis &s;ure to continue no longer as to us, than this uncertain &s;hort life; and therefore in re&s;pect of our own, and the Worlds end, we may be truly &s;aid to have no <HI>abiding City here,</HI> and are therefore the more carefully to &s;eek and expect our eternal Re&s;t and habitation from above.</P>
<P>While the World continues, and we in it, we have no continuing City here, becau&s;e neither habita|tion nor goods, health nor wealth, honours nor plea&s;ures, or any con|tentment is, or can he a&s;&s;ured us for our lives: How many Villages, Towns and Cities, have Fires and Earthquakes and Wars de&s;troyed? How many Kingdoms and Common|wealths, have civil di&s;orders, and foreign inva&s;ions overthrown? Or rather what one in any Nation have they not? The Hi&s;tories or Records
<PB N="240" REF="126">
of all Ages, all places (be&s;ides the infallible Oracles of God which we have in our hands) will give us a full induction and proof of this truth. This I&s;land wherein we live, hath given us not only many Hi&s;to|rical, but experimental &s;en&s;ible proofs, that from the King to the meane&s;t Subject, we have no con|tinuing City here, nor &s;etled Re&s;t and true happine&s;s.</P>
<P>But be&s;ides the&s;e publick revolu|tions, vici&s;&s;itudes and changes, every Family, every private Per&s;on lies continually expo&s;ed to ca&s;ua|lities, to variety of &s;ickne&s;s inva|ding their health, variety of mo|le&s;tations from tho&s;e above them, from tho&s;e below them, from tho&s;e about them, and al&s;o from their own follies, lu&s;ts and pa&s;&s;ions, from within them; in &s;o much that what&s;oever Men fix their hearts upon in this World, to take their greate&s;t contentment in, they cannot be &s;ure on rea&s;onable
<PB N="241" REF="126">
grounds, that it &s;hall continue with them one year longer.</P>
<P>The felicity and &s;atisfactory hap|pine&s;s of this City above, in which this eternal Re&s;t is to be found, ought to be valued &s;o much the more, becau&s;e St. <HI>Paul</HI> tells us, 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 2.9. <HI>That Eye hath not &s;een, nor Ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of Man to conceive, the ful|ne&s;s of tho&s;e good things which God hath prepared for tho&s;e that love him.</HI> A grateful and plea&s;ant ta&s;te of the&s;e good things, God affords the Souls of the faithful here in this life; how tran&s;cendently then, unutterable and unconceivable will be the full fruition of all that, which the Go&s;pel reveals to us but as in a gla&s;s, when enjoy'd to the height in the highe&s;t Heavens, through all eternity, when we &s;hall &s;ee God as he is with everla&s;ting, overflow|ing &s;atisfaction to all the faculties of the Soul? The Eye of Mart hath &s;een here admirable things in Art
<PB N="242" REF="127">
and Nature; the Ear hath heard, and the Tongue hath ta&s;ted delicious things; and Mans heart can con|ceive much more than Art or Na|ture could ever pre&s;ent our &s;en&s;es with. The very plea&s;ure of natu|ral knowledge in the judgment of Per&s;ons exerci&s;ed therein, exceeds what&s;oever &s;en&s;uality, vain glory or covetou&s;ne&s;s pur&s;ues or enjoys; and yet the <HI>knowledge and love of God in Chri&s;t,</HI> incomparably &s;urpa&s;s, St. <HI>Paul</HI> tells us, what&s;oever the heart of the natural Man (advanced to the height) can conceive as plea|&s;ant or delightful to it. How much more doth this City to come, and its endle&s;s unconceivable plea&s;ures, where this everla&s;ting Re&s;t is to be had, exceed even our expre&s;&s;ions and conceptions when they are at the highe&s;t?</P>
<P>If God hath provided &s;uch good things for Mankind here below, in this World, which was not made for the place of our happine&s;s, but
<PB N="243" REF="127">
only to give us a tran&s;itory glimp&s;e, of his infinit wi&s;dom, power and goodne&s;s, and to draw our hearts after the Author of what we &s;ee; if he hath built this inferior World or City, which hath no foundations in compari&s;on of tho&s;e to come, with &s;o much wi&s;dom, power and bounty, and made &s;uch glorious Heavens as &s;hine it forth to our ad|miration, and enamel'd it with &s;uch variety of plea&s;ures, as even the be&s;t find it a matter of difficulty to part therewith; and yet God never intended when he built it, that it &s;hould continue long: If there hath been &s;o much co&s;t of accurate contrivance, and mighty bounty, laid out on that which was to la&s;t but for a time, what think we, mu&s;t be the riches, beauty and glory of that City, which he intended &s;hould endure to all eternity? Surely this World where we now live, is but as &s;ome out-hou&s;es, to that Heavenly Palace, an <GAP DESC="foreign">,
<PB N="244" REF="128">
as St. <HI>Paul</HI> &s;aith, a <HI>work-hou&s;e,</HI> a place for Labour and Travel, before we come to our re&s;ting place, that <GAP DESC="foreign">, or <HI>place of rewards,</HI> as he calls Heaven. This is but a place to fit our &s;elves in for the City above; a place it is wherein the greate&s;t part of its inhabitants, have di&s;honour'd their maker, and him that made the World, by preferring its tran&s;itory plea&s;ures before him; di&s;order'd them&s;elves, injured their brethren, and thereby fitted them&s;elves for that <GAP DESC="foreign">, that Hell, or place of everla&s;ting puni&s;hment. And if the mo&s;t wi&s;e and holy God, who made this World, and knew when he made it, that it might, and would be &s;o abu&s;ed, yet &s;o be&s;pangled its roof with Stars, Sun and Planets, and laid its flowery foundation &s;o plea|&s;antly, fragrantly, fruitfully and u&s;efully; certainly that City which he hath erected for none but his beloved Servants to live in to all
<PB N="245" REF="128">
eternity, mu&s;t va&s;tly &s;urpa&s;s this in glory: And becau&s;e we can hardly conceive of invi&s;ible future good things, but by &s;ome re&s;em|blance to pre&s;ent and vi&s;ible, and Men are of &s;everal tempers, appre|hen&s;ions and de&s;ires; the Scriptures conde&s;cend thereto, and &s;trive to expre&s;s the next lifes happine&s;s, in all the variety of &s;everal notions which either &s;en&s;e, phan&s;y or rea&s;on can de&s;ire.</P>
<P>The voluptuous &s;eek for plea&s;ure and mirth; if they will have it, let them &s;et their hearts and affecti|ons on him that made them and redeemed them, that he might &s;anctify them and bring them to the&s;e delights they &s;eek in him, they &s;hall find when enter'd the City above, a fea&s;t of new refined Wines, a fea&s;t of Marrow and all delicacies, the joy of Harve&s;t, and of tho&s;e that divide the &s;poil of their enemies. They &s;hall find a cele&s;tial Paradice or <HI>Eden</HI> of God,
<PB N="246" REF="129">
whereof that which was made for <HI>Adam</HI> and his po&s;terity, continuing innocent, was but a tran&s;itory imperfect Map. There is the hidden Manna, hidden here but revealed there; a new Song always Sung, a Garden of Lillies and Ro&s;es which never die, and who&s;e fragrant &s;cent never decays.</P>
<P>The ambitious Mans heart is &s;et on honour and glory, but if he will &s;et his heart on God, and that honour which comes from him, in him he &s;hall not fail to find a Kingdom of glory and immortality, a Crown of righteou&s;ne&s;s, who&s;e weight is exceeding and eternal, for his having preferred the God that made him, before the empty fal&s;e hearted honours, which come to tempt him from his duty of hu|mility, goodne&s;s and holine&s;s.</P>
<P>The covetous Mans heart is &s;et on riches; but if he will &s;et his heart on God, in him he &s;hall find everla&s;ting Trea&s;ure; Man&s;ions
<PB N="247" REF="129">
that fail not, able to &s;atisfie the utmo&s;t de&s;ires of him that po&s;&s;e&s;&s;es them, either for duration or abun|dance: A City who&s;e Walls and Gates are full of all manner of pre|cious &s;tones, an <HI>Inheritance,</HI> as St. <HI>Peter</HI> de&s;cribes it, <HI>incorruptible and undefiled, that fades not away,</HI> 1 <HI>Pet.</HI> 1.4. What ever we can in|herit here is Subject to &s;ome, nay all of the&s;e; Corruption, defilement, and fading away, both we and it. The &s;ub&s;tance is emba&s;ed and &s;oi|led, by &s;ome bad thing coming to it from without. All things in their be&s;t E&s;tate, lo&s;e their lu&s;ter, and fade away: One Mans inheri|tance corrupts, by another Mans unthriftine&s;s, and is purcha&s;ed by another, another's e&s;cheated or con|fi&s;cated.</P>
<P>We are weary here and then we Re&s;t, and are quickly as weary of our Re&s;t as of our wearine&s;s. The Creatures fail and tire, and di&s;appoint us, that we &s;hould not
<PB N="248" REF="130">
&s;et up our Re&s;t in them, or in any inheritance here below, but be cha&s;ed, and forced to &s;eek our Re&s;t in God; with whom there is an inheritance laid up for us, in danger of none of all the&s;e; uncorrupt, that &s;hall hold its being, and none can di&s;&s;eize us of it; undefiled, never emba&s;ed by any mixture, and we our &s;elves become undefiled, uncor|rupt and unfading too, and what can the covetous in his large&s;t thoughts de&s;ire more.</P>
<P>We have, or may have a natural certainty, by light of rea&s;on, that there is another future State, a life of Re&s;t and joy, after labour and &s;orrow here. The Soul of Man which is a Spirit, who&s;e operations are not only far above, what any body or matter is capable of, but can overrule and contradict, what ever the body mo&s;t vehemently inclines to, embrace poverty, re|proach, and death, with peace and joy.</P>
<P><PB N="249" REF="130">Since for certain, by light of rea|&s;on, there is a God that made the World, and governs the World, and hath obliged Mankind by no|tions imprinted in his Soul, to piety and righteou&s;ne&s;s, charity and tem|perance, and yet hath left him a liberty to chu&s;e or refu&s;e; that he maybe rewarded for chu&s;ing good, and puni&s;hed for the contrary: And &s;ince many chu&s;e the ways of &s;in, who are not puni&s;hed in this World; and many chu&s;e the ways of virtue, who are not rewarded in this life; it follows by nece&s;&s;ary con&s;equence of rea&s;on, from the ju&s;tne&s;s and holine&s;s and goodne&s;s of God, that there mu&s;t be another future life, wherein the pro&s;perous wickedne&s;s of &s;inners &s;hall be puni&s;hed; the labours and &s;ufferings of godly, righteous, temperate, charitable per|&s;ons, abundantly rewarded.</P>
<P>All this the very Heathens many of them, have expre&s;ly owned, and fairly proved, by their general
<PB N="250" REF="131">
acknowledgemt, that 'twere bet|ter to &s;uffer the lo&s;s of life, and all its comforts, than to live in the practice of hainous vice, which could not be true, if there were no other life after this: And &s;urely the notions of good and evil, being &s;o deeply interwoven with Mens Souls, that the con&s;ciences of tho&s;e who chu&s;e, and act that which is evil, though never &s;o &s;ecretly, and &s;o &s;uccesfully, reproach them with the guilt of it, and terrify them with the apprehen&s;ions of future puni&s;hment: And the con|&s;ciences of tho&s;e who chu&s;e and act that which is good, though never &s;o much reproached and afflicted for &s;o doing, cheers and comforts them with joyful hopes, and ex|pectations of &s;ome future reward. The Souls and Con&s;ciences of Men being &s;o deeply &s;tamped with this, by him that made them, that no eva&s;ions, or arts of hypocri&s;y, or &s;ubtile wickedne&s;s, can blot it out;
<PB N="251" REF="131">
it nece&s;&s;arily follows, as nece&s;&s;arily, and as &s;urely, as that the rea&s;on and con&s;cience of Man was not made in vain, nor given him to make him the mo&s;t abu&s;ed, deluded, mi&s;erable Creature in the World; even in that, which is the very dignity, and excellency of his nature; that there mu&s;t be a life, wherein the&s;e notions and apprehen&s;ions, &s;o natu|ral and &s;o general, mu&s;t be verified. Thus far Rea&s;on by natural light may enable, and hath in effect em|powred many to believe, that there is a re&s;ting place for the virtuous, not to be found here but hereafter; <HI>Commorandi locum natura nobis, non habitandi domicillium dedit:</HI> No abi|ding City here, but one to come: Heaven is the proper Country for Mans Soul, which came from thence in&s;pir'd by God, <HI>Divina quaedam particula aurae;</HI> and thither tends.</P>
<P>But becau&s;e this light is ob&s;cure and imperfect, compared with that of Revelation; therefore the main
<PB N="252" REF="132">
irrefragable evidence, both that there is another &s;tate to come, and of its tran&s;cendent happine&s;s, ble&s;&s;ed Re&s;t and tranquility, as to Soul and body, is to be fetcht from the <HI>holy Oracles,</HI> and there we have it indeed, as fully and as cleerly revealed, as this our Mortality is capable of; proved by all the demon&s;trations of the Spirit, which attentive rea&s;on can de&s;ire.</P>
<P>For, there we have the Son of God <HI>de&s;cending</HI> from Heaven, to take our <HI>Nature,</HI> and in that nature to teach and exemplify, the only way that leads thither, and purcha&s;e our admi&s;&s;ion to it, (to this Crown of life, to this re&s;ting place, to this City to come) by his <HI>death;</HI> thereby procuring for us an <HI>inheritance</HI> in|comparably more worthy, than all our <HI>labours</HI> and <HI>&s;ufferings</HI> here can come to. This Re&s;t is not allotted for &s;luggards, drow&s;y, &s;lothful Per|&s;ons, who &s;quander away their precious hours in earthly trifles, and
<PB N="253" REF="132">
think not this glorious eternal City, and Re&s;t there, which Chri&s;t hath bought with his own blood, worth their &s;eeking, untill they have nothing el&s;e to &s;eek: Yea, when this eternal Re&s;t is offered them, by Gods preventing grace, have no heart to give him his price, when the price is only to part with that which is vain and temporal, for that which is &s;atisfactory and eternal.</P>
<P>The way to this Re&s;t, &s;aith our Lord, is <HI>&s;treight</HI> and <HI>narrow,</HI> through temptations without, and corrup|tions within, and therefore cannot be found but by tho&s;e that &s;eek it, with attentive heed. God indeed &s;eeks us fir&s;t, &s;hews us this City where this happine&s;s and Re&s;t is to be found, and the way to it, invites and enables us to obtain it, by walk|ing in <HI>holine&s;s,</HI> and <HI>righteou&s;ne&s;s,</HI> which qualify us for it. Even the things of this tran&s;itory life here below, its riches and honours (&s;uch
<PB N="254" REF="133">
as they are) are &s;eldom attained but by diligent &s;eeking; and can we think this heavenly inheritance, with all its joys, and riches, and honours, &s;hould be attained with|out a con&s;tant &s;tudious diligence? And the more we labour and &s;uffer here, the more &s;weet and plea&s;ant will be our Re&s;t when it comes. <HI>Grata quies fe&s;&s;is,</HI> Re&s;t we know is welcome to the weary Traveller: And now, Courteous Reader, I have by this time po&s;&s;ibly wearied, and tired thee out, in a long and tedious walk; but it was, only the better to fit and prepare thee for an happy, &s;ea&s;onable and la&s;ting Re&s;t, that I have thus carried thee through a rough unbeaten path (the path of <HI>Faith, Hope,</HI> and <HI>Charity, Meekne&s;s, Patience, Temperance, Humility, Cha&s;tity</HI> and <HI>Obedience;</HI>) all which come, but as &s;o many faithful guides, &s;afely to conduct thee to the gates of Heaven; and give thee even in this life, by anticipa|tion,
<PB N="255" REF="133">
a ta&s;t of the joys of that other, even of that place, where Saints and Angels &s;hall be thy Companions, and where thou &s;halt <HI>&s;ee God Face to Face,</HI> who is <HI>Wi&s;dom, Purity, Holine&s;s,</HI> and <HI>all perfections.</HI> I cannot leave thee better, than where thou ha&s;t &s;o near an approach to this glorious pro&s;pect of eternal Re&s;t: Only one thing I have, at parting, to remind thee of, viz. <HI>Go ye cur&s;ed into everla&s;ting fire,</HI> or <HI>Come ye ble&s;&s;ed inherit the King|dom;</HI> one of the&s;e two mu&s;t be thy doom, and the final &s;entence of all fle&s;h: Let it therefore be thy Wi&s;dom as well as Duty, to chu&s;e that better part, which can never be taken from thee, to chu&s;e God and eternal life, before riches and honours and plea&s;ures, and all that this World can give: And to prefer an eter|nal boundle&s;s good, before un|certain tran&s;itory vanities, &s;ure
<PB N="256" REF="134" MS="y">
to end in eternal &s;orrow; that &s;o thy toil&s;om weary Travel here, may have its accompli&s;hment in eternal Re&s;t hereafter. <HI>Amen, Amen, Amen.</HI></P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
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</DIV1>
</BODY>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
