Meditation I. On the Vanity, Vexation and Contempt of the World.

THE World! How poor, and mean, and empty a thing! Those sure who understand it well, can never dote upon it; for how should they dote on a Scene of Folly and Vanity, of sickly perishing De­lights, which wither in the use, and dye away in the Enjoyment? Nay [Page 2] which soon turn into loathing and detestation; we growing weary of what we have long possest, and nau­seating a frequently repeated pleasure, tho' at first it was never so Relishing.

The World! A place of perpetual Snares and Temptations to sinful evil! A State of interchangeable Joys and Regrets of Mind! Of Felicity in shew and appearance only, and of Adversity in solid Substance and Reality!

The Vanity and unsatisfactoriness of this World, and of all the things which are in it, is evident from our shifting and changing our Enjoy­ments; one while addressing our selves to this object of Gratification, soon after to another: For had we found satisfaction in former pleasures, what need of our removal and appli­cation to New ones? Certainly this desultory change of pleasure, this fre­quent Range from one Earthly De­light to another, even in those who enjoy most of this World, shews that long enjoy'd pleasures tire, and cloy, [Page 3] and nauseate, that none are truly great and satisfying, that all are vain and empty; that this our making fresh ex­periments of sublunary Happiness, is like a sick Man's turning himself from one side of his Bed to the other, where­by indeed he demonstrates his great uneasiness, but finds little or no Relief or Remedy: Vanity is an inseparable ingredient in the composition of all Earthly Good things, to prevent the vanity of our Affections in inordi­nately coveting and doteing upon them.

Alass 'tis Fancy and high-rais'd Con­ceit, sets a value upon things Tempo­ral, more than any Intrinsick real ex­cellency which is in them: We are fain to make up in gay and pleasing Imagination, what is wanting of solid worth and beauty in Worldly Posses­sions; and this way to put a Deceit upon our selves, thereby to hide the Deceit and Vanity of the Creature.

Our desires are too wide and large for their present Gratifications; and [Page 4] though we frame to our selves glori­ous Conceptions of pleasure at a di­stance, could we arrive to such or such a wish'd for Condition, yet our actual Enjoyment of the same evidences our too great opinion of it in remote pro­spect, and our opinion of it decaying, we afterwards become as weary there­of, as before we were eager in its pur­suit.

Those men sure must have little narrow Souls, must have experienc'd and made proof of little, must have thought and consider'd less, who can make to themselves a Portion and Suf­ficiency out of what they possess here; who can find any full and lasting Contentment in the things of this World.

For what is our Life, but a tiresome Circulation of mean and trivial En­joyments? But the living in a Round of Vanity and Impertinency, of Sins and vicious Miscarriages? A Repeat­ing the same dull unsavoury enter­tainments; therefore unsavoury, be­cause [Page 5] the same, and often Repeat­ed.

Nay we do not only live a constant Return and Circle of Vanity, but of vexation of Spirit also; for disappoint­ment proceeds from the vanity and vexation, from the disappointment of the Creature.

What variety of Sports and Pastimes, of Pleasures and Recreations do men invent and make use of to cause a wearisome uneasie life to slide away the more smoothly and undisturbed­ly? Hereby deceiving time, and for­getting for the present their former misery and trouble by means of the short Intervals of forced and artificial Divertisements: We are fain to gild over the bitter pill of Life with delight­som forethoughts of future Temporal Felicity, to make it the easier swal­low'd down at present, and the less ungrateful unto our Palates.

Our Enjoyments here below are seldom pure and unmixt with Suffer­ings; the very best of them have an [Page 6] Allay, and to Enjoy with us is only not to be so much Afflicted: If we have one serene Sunshiny Day with respect to our Minds or our Bodies, a succeeding lowry and stormy Season comes next to dash our Mirth and in­terrupt our Rejoycing; nay, our Cup of Sweets is usually at the instant of drinking it mingled with Bitters, at least the Consideration of a Worm­wood draught soon following after is enough to diminish much of its present sweetness and good Relish.

The Pains and Diseases, the Trou­bles and Calamities of this Earthly Condition do in abundance of Men share the greatest part of their continu­ance here, do in most persons equal and come up unto, if not exceed and overballance their Enjoyments; so that with them, Being and Misery, Subsistence and Sorrow, are but seve­ral Names for one and the same thing: And considering the large intermix­tures of Affliction and Sorrow in this Valley of Tears, it would not be [Page 7] worth our while to lengthen out our Lives on Earth, were not this life principally in order to another, were it not a space of Time wherein to fit and prepare our selves for an endless Eternity.

O the Deceitfulness of Pomp, of Honour, of Riches, and worldly Plea­sures, those mis-named Felicities! Height and Grandeur of Station, what is it but a gilded burthen, but a splen­did encumbrance? A Condition of wakeful Cares, and threatning Dan­gers. The usual Object of Envy, co­vetous Desire, and malicious Censure while enjoy'd, and which leaves a man despised, reviled, and hated when fallen from its Elevation! A state 'tis of living in continual noise and stir, of being subject to the urgency of Business, and tediousness of Ceremo­ny; of having little time and leisure to our selves, little privacy and retire­ment from Company, but being slaves and bondsmen to continual Attendants, to supplicating crowds and throngs [Page 8] of Addressers, to base fawning Flatter­ers and Parasites; all the while we seem the most Free, the most Great, and Absolute over others!

Next, What is Fame and Honour, but popular sound and breath? A thing so Thin and Airy, that he must have a very Camelion-like Temper and Appetite, who can live upon such poor Diet with any great degree of Joy and Complacency; what is it but a puff of Wind and Vain-glorious Applause from the mouths of Mortals, as fickle and inconstant as the Wind it self? Honour and Praise, a gaudy Flower it is, often nipt by the Frosts and blights of Emulation, Hatred and Detraction; a thing whose Founda­tion lies rather in the Person Honour­ing, than in him who is Honoured; what no one ought to value himself upon as 'tis conferr'd on him by ano­ther, but as 'tis merited by himself; that which makes a man no better possest of it, nor no worse when with­out it.

Riches; What are they but an heap of bright and shining Clay? Which oppresseth with Troubles, while it should ease and recreate; and usually bends and weighs down the Soul with Covetousness to the Earth: Riches what are they but vanishing Treasures? Which if not taken out of our Hands by the Fraud, Violence, and Injustice of others, may in time make themselves Wings and fly away from us; which we certainly must leave at the day and hour of our Death. Riches attended with dis­quieting thoughts, and brain-cracking Projects in the procuring them, with anxious Cares and Solicitudes in the keeping them, with jealous fears and distrusts of loosing or being despoil'd of them: The immoderate Love of which is the Root of all evil. That which puts men upon the worst of wicked practices, which pierces their Hearts through with many Sorrows, and finally drowns them in the Gulph of Perdition.

Worldly Pleasures what be they? But the joyous sensations of a few mo­ments which Decease as soon almost as born; and which tasted straightway loose their flavour and Relish: Which if dishonest and sinful are likewise hurt­ful and prejudicial, and very severely paid for by succeeding shame, sorrow and repentance; if innocent and harmless, yet carrying vanity in their Nature; they add also Vexation of Spirit, through a deceit of our Ex­pectations: For how should what is Finite, as all Terrene Comforts are, afford any compleat and settled Satis­faction? Oh no; Absolute and Dura­ble Contentment is not contain'd with­in the narrow limits of the Creature. Nothing but what is Infinite is propor­tionate to an immortal Souls Capaci­ty, which are next to Infinite!

O our God, that such a thing of Nothing, or worse than Nothing, of pain, sorrow, and disappointment, as is this World, should take up so much of our Affections as it does; [Page 11] and that Heaven, a Region of the sublimest, sincerest, ever-durable, and most enravishing Delights, should share so little in our Love and Appro­bation! Thither, did we mount our Thoughts, our Desires, our Religi­ous Enterprizes, even to the Celestial Mansions above, oh with what Dis­dain should we look down on this vile inferiour Earth! How little would it appear in our sight! Nay, how would it in a manner disappear; our God, our Heaven, our spiritual and eternal Concerns having pre-ingaged the main of our Affections, and conse­quently having left little Room for meaner Objects and Entertainments!

We are Pilgrims here on Earth, and therefore ought to have the cold­ness and indifferency of Pilgrims to its most entertaining Gratifications; we are strangers here on Earth, and ought on that account to be shy of using too much Familiarity with the World, lest it should ruin and betray us with its wicked Seductions: For [Page 12] who would trust himself too far, who would live careless and unguarded in a Forreign, in an Enemies Country? We are Strangers here; 'tis so very Little a time we shall continue in this Alien Countrey, that 'tis not worth our while to set our hearts upon it, to learn its Language, or Conform our selves to its Customs and Manners.

We are Citizens of the New-Jeru­salem which is above, Heirs of an Heavenly Canaan; and shall we basely hanker after the Garlick and Onions of this viler Egypt? Can we think this howling Wilderness-Condition a Pa­radise of Delights? Or do we account Heaven the End of our Hopes, not worth making it the End of our Pious Labours? Not worth the looking af­ter, or earnest contending for it?

Does a life of Voluptuousness, of too free indulgence unto, or too much Affection for Worldly Pleasure, Hon­our, or Profit, suit with the Gospel-Duties of Mortification and Self-deni­al? With a being Crucified to the [Page 13] World, and the World to us in the immoderate Love thereof? With the End of our being sent into it, viz. to prepare for our happy going out of it, and for a Blessed Eternity? Does it suit to our profession of a Suffering Religion, suit to the Di­sciples of a Crucified Saviour? To his Mortified, Poor, and Lowly Example? Who was made perfect through Sufferings and Worldly Re­nunciations: Does it suit lastly to our Baptismal Vow and Covenant, wherein we solemnly engaged to Renounce the Devil and all his Works, the vain Pomp and Glory of the World, with all covetous desires of the same, and no longer to follow or be led by them? O what Perfidiousness, what Perjury is it after all this to be false to our Christian Profession, false to our Baptismal Vow and Covenant, by becoming Idolaters of Earthly Vani­ty, following and being led by it; and preferring the things Sublunary, [Page 14] before those of Heaven and Eternal Glory!

Meditation II. On the Redemption of Time.

THere is no Talent committed to our Trust more precious than Time, it being a season for the mak­ing provision for an Happy Eternity, and yet no Trust is there more abu­sed, more profusely squander'd away. We take Time by the Fore-lock in all our Temporal Concerns, laying hold on the first opportunity of well­managing them; but in Spirituals we defer and delay, and move so heavily about the good husbanding of Time, as if the wheels of our Chariots, of our Executive Powers, our Wills and Affections were taken off; and Time was rather to be shunn'd and avoided than diligently pursued.

But is This running the Race of Christian Obedience set before us? Is This giving all diligence to make [Page 18] our Calling and Election Sure? Is This Redeeming the Time, because the days are Evil? Time lies so dead a Commodity on many Peoples hands, that they are glad to get rid of it at any rate whatsoever. The next vain pleasure and divertisement, the next as vain and impertinent Idle-Compa­nion, the next fruitless, silly, or corrupting Spectacle, shall ease them of their spare hours as they call 'em, of their leisure and wearisome sea­sons: But ah that any time should be accounted spare and vacant, when so much as our Eternal Salvation de­pends upon it, and we know not whether we shall Live till the next Moment! Ah that what is the dying Man's Want, should be the well Per­son's Burthen!

While Living, Time is thought by us too Long and Tedious, we are hard put to it to spend many of its Hours, while Dying 'tis accounted too short and Transient; which now is likely to be the truest Judgment, that of the [Page 19] living or dying man? For certain that of the Latter: For at the near approaches of Death all false disguises which the Lusts of the Flesh, the Lusts of the Eye, or the Pride of Life had put on things, are pull'd off, and then all things appear in their proper Colours, and Genuine Native Dress.

When Death Stares us in the face, when Time is nigh at an End with us, then we shall know the true value of Time, then to our cost and trouble have far different Sentiments concerning it, than what we have Now; then, oh that Time could be Recall'd, that Time mis-spent could be lived over-again, and be better improved; how diligent and indu­strious would we be in its improve­ment! But alass these Good Wishes come then too late to be converted into Good Practices; Death will not be put off, Time will not be Recall'd, and the Man dies despairingly Dis­consolate, if not everlastingly Mise­rable; [Page 20] not for that he had no means of Grace, no opportunities of Salva­tion, but because he made not that Good Use of them as he both might and ought to have done.

Time passes away swiftly, though we idle and loiter; the Minutes, the precious Minutes fly, while we are speaking; we are Now a Moment nearer Eternity, than we were the former one: but are we in a nearer preparation for it? Is there a nearer Tendency in us to an Heavenly Tem­per, the nigher we come to the Heavenly State? Or rather grow we not more Earthly Affection'd, the nigher we draw to our bed of Earth the Grave?

Alass the Loss of Time is one of the Greatest Losses in the World, and yet how Light a matter do we make of it? This Life so short, so uncer­tain, every Moment of it so valua­ble, and yet that we should live as if it were never to have an End, or [Page 21] as if we had nothing of Concern to do in it; How Astonishing is this, what an Instance of Folly and Incon­siderateness!

Blessed God! That a Pearl of so Great price as an indulged space of Repentance, as an happy opportu­nity of Salvation, should be cast be­fore Swine, before brutish sensual Worldlings; should be put into the Custody of those who value it not, who know not how to use and im­prove it!

The Days, the Months, the years of our Lives are violently born away by the impetuous Torrent of Time; many, many Days of our Years are past and Gone as to our ever living them over again; but though past, yet are they not wholly lost and pe­rish'd: They are Registred in God's Faithful Book of Remembrance; they are there preserved, they are there charged upon us for a demand of their Good Use and Husbandry; an Account, an Account of them will [Page 22] one day be required at our Hands: And it will be but a lamentable Ac­count indeed, when all we have to offer for the expence of our Life past will be so much Time spent Idly, and in doing of nothing to any Good purpose; so much spent to a very Bad one, in Riot and Excess, in Chambering and Wantonness; so much in unnecessary Habitual Sports and Divertisements; so much spent in the Devil's Service, and so little in God Almighty's! Ah will such an Ac­count, think ye, pass our Great Au­ditor's Examination? Will such an Account procure our Discharge and Acquitment?

What a strange perverse folly is it in us to complain our Life is short, and yet to render it far shorter, by letting much of it lye Fallow and unimproved? To complain our day time here is quickly spent, and our Night of Death is near at hand, and yet to invent Arts to lavish this short Remainder of Life, and then to la­ment [Page 23] its being so soon past away and we are Gone? But if we would lengthen time, let us leave off com­plaints, and fall to the work of im­proving it; let us beside the ordina­ry Returns of Publick Religious Worship at set appointed Seasons, be frequent and fervent in our private Domestick Devotions; let us allow to Religion and the exercises of Vertue, some of those Great shares of Time which we call spare Hours; which we trifle away in vanities and impertinencies, in pleasures and re­creations, in fruitless Visits and Com­plements; which we spend viciously in Luxury, Riot, and Intemperance, or which we suffer to lye waste with­out any Employment at all: 'Tis a vast work a man may do, if he never permits himself to be Idle; 'tis a huge progress he may make in Vertue, if he never stops in the way through Carelesness, or never goes out of his way by wilful and presumptuous sin­ning: Strive to improve all your [Page 24] Time, strive to suffer none of it to pass unaccountable; and this will be to Redeem it, this will be to com­pensate for its shortness, for its un­certainty, and Irrevocableness.

We cannot begin too soon to live well, and yet do we demur about it? Had we set upon the work of Reli­gion much earlier, we should have had none to spare; all would have been little enough, whereby to have evidenced the sincerity of our Faith, and Hope, and Trust; of our Love to God and his Commandments; whereby to have secured an Interest in his Favour and Acceptance, and in his free Gift, Eternal Life: For Heaven cannot be over-purchased, we cannot do too much for such a far more exceeding and endless weight of Glory; and the more we do in Holy Services, the Greater in all Likelihood will be our future Re­compence of Reward.

By instantly beginning to live well we shall render the work the easier, shall be better disposed to it our selves, and shall have less to Repent of and Reform; but the longer we delay Redeeming our time, the Greater and more Difficult underta­king shall we find it when we set a­bout it: Every man has his Religious Task appointed him at his coming into this World, to discharge before his Going out of it; and each day has its peculiar Godly work and bu­siness assign'd it; wherefore if we imprudently omit the proper employ­ment of this day, we shall have so much the more to do to morrow; both this days Religious work, and to morrow's also: Since then suffici­ent unto its own day is the vertuous Task thereof, let us not through our present Omissions double and multi­ply our future pious Pains and La­bours; encrease by delays of Re­deeming Time, our work of Salva­tion, and diminish at the same instant [Page 26] our strength and ability to perform it with: So much Time as we have lost in the neglect of Piety and Ver­tue, so much have we lost of our increase of future Happiness, and of our weight of Eternal Glory; and can we be content to loose yet more of it? Can we be content through our mispence of Time to hazard the whole of Everlasting Blessedness?

Time present is our only state of Trial and Probation; the After-Life determines our Condition to either Everlasting Happiness or Misery; and therefore we ought to improve to the utmost instant Opportunities, and to work out our Salvation to Day, while 'tis call'd to Day: For our Religious Work is large and dif­ficult; the putting off a whole Body of Sin, the putting on the whole Armour of Righteousness; the sub­duing old evil habits, a contracting by the Grace of God in Conjunction with our Endeavours, new Vertuous [Page 27] habits; the improving them into a Second Nature, into a participation of the Divine Nature and Likeness: All this we have to do in the short space of our Mortality, in a Life but a Span long; and therefore ought to supply our Poverty of Time by its frugal Well-management, and by the Intenseness of our Affections and Ser­vices God-ward: Making up in In­dustry and Zeal, what we want in Time; and obeying God universally, chearfully, fervently and constantly unto the End.

But oh the quite contrary Practice of the Generality of the World! who are forward to improve every thing but Time, which most of all requires improvement; who pursue eagerly every Advantage, but the Highest one, their Eternal Salvation: Ah doubtless he is unworthy of Eternal Life, who seeks it not diligently, as for hid Treasure; who lives not to God and his own Soul: Certainly [Page 28] he is unworthy to win the Prize of Heavenly Glory, who runs so care­lesly, as if he matter'd not whether he obtain'd it or no! All that Time is but wasted, whereof no part is spent in the Concerns of Religi­on.

Meditation III. On the Folly and Danger of deferring Repentance.

TO delay present Repentance in hopes of future Conversion, is alike imprudent, as for a sick Man to neglect the present use of Medi­cines, in hopes of future Health and Recovery; whenas by his neglect of Remedies, he in all probability ren­ders his Distemper desperate and in­curable!

To delay Amendment and con­tinue in Sin, with intent of quitting it hereafter, is to wound our Con­sciences with the stings and remorses of Guilt, on purpose of healing them [Page 33] again some time hence: 'Tis to refuse to do what is in our power, and to defer the doing it till it may be out of our power; 'tis to make our fu­ture work of Repentance much grea­ter, more grievous and difficult than it would be at present, and yet to hope to set about it more Advantagi­ously in time to come: 'Tis to in­crease our Task, to lessen both our Will and Ability to perform it with, and yet to think to perform it better under these Disadvantages!

To defer Conversion, is to persist becoming vain in our Imaginations, erroneous in our Elections, corrupt in our Performances, that afterwards we may become Wise, and retract with Bitterness of Self-condemning thoughts, our former vain Judgments, wrong Choices, evil Practices; that we may upon change of Mind, Will, and Affections, call our selves fools a thousand times for our former wic­ked goings astray; and may be a­shamed of, may abhor and grieve [Page 34] for our past Impieties, as much as ever heretofore we loved and de­lighted in them; all these Absurdi­ties and Foilies Delay of Repentance implies! 'Tis a refusing to become well, and safe, and happy at present, and a referring our spiritual Welfare, our everlasting safety and happiness to the hazardous uncertainties of Fu­turity!

But do we act thus imprudently in other Affairs of far lesser moment? No certainly; when Sick, we delay not the use of means for our Recove­ry; when Maim'd or Wounded, we apply our selves immediately to a Cure; but when sick with Sin nigh unto death Eternal, when wounded in Mind by the Rebukes of Guilt contracted, and maimed in all the Faculties of our Souls by the disorders of Impiety, so that from the Crown of the head to the sole of the feet there is no whole part in us; yet here we hug our Distemper, seem unwilling to be cured at present, and [Page 35] defer the healing remedy Repen­tance, till some further season: but ah that we should be so wise and pro­vident in Temporals, and so careless and inconsiderate in Spirituals! Ah that we should be so much concern'd for the Body, and so little for the Soul!

Oh that men should judge it too early to become instantly secure of endless Salvation; when they are not secure of living till to mor­row, till the next moment! Vain inadvertent Wretches! That they should be daily a dying, hourly subject to Death, and yet promise themselves some years hence the mak­ing sure of Eternal Life! Certainly they know not what it means, of what value and importance it is, that they thus stupidly neglect it!

Ah can they think God will leng­then out that Life which is a design'd Course of Audacious Defiance and [Page 36] wicked Rebellion against him? Ah can they think he will so unwearied­ly wait to be Gracious unto them? Alas they consider not what Bonds and Fetters an Evil Custom puts up­on the Soul; how frequent Acts of doing wickedly improve into a con­firm'd habit, and an habit of Impiety becomes a second Nature, almost unrelinquishable; and yet do they imagine they shall be freer to break loose from Sin after a long-continued Bondage thereunto? That their Chains of Iniquity will be the easier shaken off, after they are Rivited by Custom and Inveteracy of wicked Practice?

Can we make too much haste to be Saved? To get out of a state lia­ble to Eternal Death and Condem­nation, into a state of Divine Grace and Favour? Are our Minds, Wills, and Affections likely to be softer, more melting and impressible with the sorrows of Repentance, after [Page 37] they are Harden'd through the De­ceitfulness of continued sinning? Will God's Grace the more abound towards us, the more we abound in Transgressing against him? What Surety hast thou, impenitent De­layer, but thy day of Grace may be ended before the day of thy Life? But that not Believing and Repenting at present, hereafter may be too Late? He that Believeth and Re­penteth not (says our Saviour) is condemned Already. The Irrever­sible Sentence may be Pronounc'd on thee here, though Executed in ano­ther World.

Repent Hereafter? Why, dost thou consider what Hereafter means? It imports the utmost Hazard and Uncertainty: In reckoning on Fu­turity, thou reckonest on a thing out of thine own Power, and only in God Almighty's Disposal; for the Grace of Repentance (as all other Graces) is the Divine Gift; and He [Page 38] who has promised pardon to the Pe­nitent, has no where told us we can be penitent when we Please: On the contrary God has inform'd us, that 'tis his Spirit which works in us both to Will and to do of his Own Good pleasure; and canst thou think he will work it, though never so long Resisted in the endeavour? That his Divine Patience will never be tired, the Treasures of his Long-suffering be never exhausted?

The Holy Scripture indeed tells us God waits to be Gracious, but how Long he waits we are not acquaint­ed; on the contrary it is written, My Spirit shall not Always strive with man [...] To Day if you will hear his voice, har­den not your hearts. Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon hi [...] while he is near. What can be th [...] meaning of these places of Sacre [...] Writ, but that if we neglect thi [...] present Accepted time, hereafte [...] may be an unacceptable one? bu [...] [Page 39] that if we hear not Now God's Voice calling us to Repentance, he may hereafter refuse to hear our Voice calling to him for Grace, Mer­cy, and Acceptance? But that if we neglect the instant Season of seeking the Lord while he may be found, and calling upon him while he is near; there may and will come a time when he will not be found, a season when he will be afar off with his Divine help and Assistance; and when (as holy David says) in the great water­floods, in the time of our bitterest Distress and Calamity we shall not come nigh him. Read Proverbs the First, the 28 and 29 verses.

God despises that Death bed Re­pentance, when men leave sin meer­ly because sin must leave them; be­cause they can keep that and the World no longer; when being by constraint a going hence, they desire to go unto God, rather than into the [Page 40] place of Torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels: But no impo­sing upon Omnisciency: The sear­cher of Hearts sees that such a for­saking of sin is forced, imperfect, flowing from no right Principle, and therefore he values it not.

Ah there is a time when God leaves sinners to themselves, when they will not by any means be perswaded to leave their sins; There is a certain measure of God's Grace and of man's Impieties, after which the Holy Spirit withdraws himself, and will not any longer be entreated: And how know­est thou, persevering Impenitent, but that if thou neglectest Grace and the season thereof Now, the measure of thy sins may hereafter be compleated, and both thy allowance of Grace, and the opportunity of making use of it, may be over with thee? Which God grant that it may not be. Amen, Amen.

Meditation IV. On the Malignity and Evil Nature of Sin.

O Sin how common art thou, and yet how little understood! How Common, and therefore how little Dreaded and Abhorr'd! Did men consider and understand thee more, they would sure Love and Practice thee Less.

Alass they consider not thy direct opposition to God's Soveraign Au­thority, Rectitude of Will, and pu­rity of Divine Essence; thy contra­riety to the Laws of Nature, of Rea­son, and of Grace: How thou art a Violation of God's Revealed Will and Pleasure in the Sacred Scrip­tures; [Page 46] Writings which contain no­thing but precepts Holy, Just and Good; and which consequently 'tis our greatest Interest and Advantage, as well as Bounden-Duty to observe; and our greatest Disadvantage as well as Disobedience to break and vio­late.

They consider not, Sin, how op­posite thou art to their own Personal Welfare and Happiness, Temporal, Spiritual and Eternal; how Degrad­ing and Defiling to their Souls and Consciences; what an Ignominy and Reproach to our Understandings, what a Violence and Affront to our Reasons, what a perversion and wrong-byass of our Wills and Affec­tions, what a cause of Regret and Disquietude of Mind to those who voluntarily Commit thee; how of­fensive to God, how injurious to Man, how prejudicial to the Com­mon Order, Peace, and Prosperity of the Universe.

What an ungrateful Return thou art to the Divine Goodness, Patience, and Forbearance; how thou art an offering despite to the Spirit of Holi­ness, a Grieving, a Quenching, a total Driving it away from us; a Crucifying afresh the blessed Son of God, a Treading him under foot, and accounting the Blood of the New-Covenant an unholy thing; a Rejection of all the Merciful Terms and offers of Gospel-Reconciliation, a rendering the means and instru­ments of begetting Grace in us, in­effectual; a choosing Death, Eternal Death, rather than Life, Eternal Life; a wilful Treasuring up of Wrath against the day of Wrath and Revelation of the Righteous Judg­ment of a provok'd offended Deity!

All this, and much more, the Com­mission of known voluntary Sin im­plies; and can we be so irrational, so Vile, and Dis-ingenuous, so even like Beasts before God, as to continue [Page 48] practicing vicious Impurity with Greediness, after having thus weigh'd and consider'd, how Evil, how bitter, and Lothsom a thing it is? Oh is there no knowledge, no understanding in the Workers of Impiety, is there no Shame, no Fear, no Regard in them to their Everlasting Salvation, that they drink down Iniquity like Water, and Rush into the occasions of their own Ruin, into the perfor­mance of all Wickedness, as the War-Horse rusheth into the Battle, fear­lessly and inconsiderately?

Ah Vice, how stupifying a thing art thou! What a polluter first of our Souls and Consciences, and after long Custom of sinning what a layer of them Asleep? what an hardener of our hearts through thy continued and dayly advancing deceitfulness!

Thou Wickedness art pleasurable indeed in the Act, but alass how transient the Act, how vain and in­considerable the pleasure! whereas the after-Memory of thee is torment­ing, [Page 49] and much more exquisite, much more Durable a Pain, than thy vi­cious Enjoyment was a Delight! Alas! How art thou all over Disorder and Irregularity, Madness and Unreasonableness, Shame and Disgrace, Depravity and Corrup­tion! How dost thou render the practicers of thee the Objects of God's curse and hatred, who is otherwise the most kind and benign being; for God who is Love it self, Love in the very Abstract, does however infi­nitely hate the Sinner, hates him even unto Death Eternal!

O the Guilt, the inexpiable Guilt of sin unrepented of, that nothing less than an Eternity of punishment is its Recompence; that it shall ever be Attoning for, and yet never be Attoned; that the precious blood of Jesus, as infinitely satisfactory as it is, can yet never quench the infernal flames to which sin unforsaken ex­poses us!

Ah did men but thoroughly un­derstand the Evil Nature of Sin, the baseness, the turpitude, the Disinge­nuity and Ingratitude thereof, the Greatness of that Everlasting Ven­geance, to which it renders Sinners obnoxious, the full import of Damna­tion, Damnation occasioned through Neglect of so great Salvation as that the Gospel offers us, no Temptation sure would be big or prevalent enough to entice them to the wilful commission of Impiety, but they would reject it with the same holy scorn and abhorrence, as Joseph did the impure sollicitations of his Egyp­tian Mistress, crying out, How can we do this Great wickedness, and sin against God, our Heavenly Father? How can we do this great wicked­ness, and sin against his Son our Sa­viour's most plenteous and merciful Redemption? against the Holy Ghost our Sanctifier's most kind, and ear­nest, and often repeated Strivings with us to bring us to repentance? [Page 51] who (wou'd we suffer him to do it, did we not resist him by sinning) would seal, would Confirm and Esta­blish us in Grace unto the Day of Redemption!

'Tis observable that St. Paul de­scribing the odious and heinous Na­ture of sin, knew not better what to call it than by its own filthy im­pure Name, sinful sin; that Sin, says he, might appear sin; and sin by the Commandment appeared exceeding sinful: Any other Name than its own had been too Good for it, any other than its own would have seemed to have Lessen'd its evil Quality.

There is nothing in the Creation Irregular and Deformed, but as Sin has defaced and brought a Curse up­on it; Sin the Reverse to all that's Great and Good, Praise-worthy and Honourable; the bane and Disorder of Universal Nature: That which turned Angels of Light and Glory into Angels of Darkness and Confu­sion; changed their once happy and [Page 52] pure Beings into the unhappyness and impurity of Devils; which ex­pelled Mankind out of Paradise, ex­pelled them at once out of a state of Innocence and felicity: Sin, that which exposed us to Sickness, Misery, and Death Temporal of the Body, to Depravity of mind, Disorderlyness of Appetites, perturbation of passions, and the Spiritual Eternal Death of the Soul!

'Twas fatal impiety and transgres­sion which turned a fruitful Eden into a barren Wilderness, turned the Gar­den of God into a Seed-plot of Temp­tation for the Devil; Subjects the Creature unwillingly to bondage and Corruption, makes it Groan earnest­ly for a Deliverance, for the Reno­vation and Restitution of all things, when there shall be no more pain, Sorrow, Sickness, or Death; because no more sin the occasion of them; no more Bodily Evil, because no more mental and moral evil.

Sin, 'tis the great Malady and Di­stemper of the Soul; the destruction of its health, beauty, vigour, and Safety; that which puts it into a pre­ternatural temper, puts all its powers and faculties out of order, renders it enflamed with violent passions, Sick with inordinate appetites, tortured with various and contrary desires; and is it not madness to be in Love with such our Disease? To hug and Retain so much Spiritual Sickness and infirmity?

Sin is also the Death of the Soul; the Death of it to the Life of Grace and Vertue; the Death of it to the Quickning influences and Renewing Efficacy of Gods Spi­rit; the Death of it to any plea­sing sense, and Grateful Relish of Di­vine and Heavenly Good things; and is it not the highest imprudence to be Jocund and Merry amidst a Dying condition? Nay to be Dead, actually Dead stupid, and benummed in Sins and trespasses, and yet Alive, deligh­ted [Page 54] in, and well-pleased with such our calamitous estate?

Sin is likewise the most abject Sla­very of the Soul, that which renders us the Servants of Corruption; a Slavery of it to impure lusts and vi­ces, to Tyrannous evil customs and habits, to the over-ruling Tempta­tions of the Devil, who leads wilful sinners Captive at his pleasure: And is it not folly to be Gratified and Contented with such a Servile state, with such a base and loathsome Drudgery?

Sin 'tis opposite to all God's glo­rious Attributes and Perfections; for if we consider his Soveraignty of Do­minion, Sin is Disobedience and Re­bellion; if his Wisdom, 'tis Folly and Madness in contradicting it; if his Power, 'tis Impotency in vainly de­fying it; if God's Justice is respected, Sin is Iniquity; if his Goodness and Forbearance, 'tis Disingenuity and Unthankfulness; if his Holyness and [Page 55] Purity, 'tis the Greatest Pollution and Degeneracy; if his Truth and Ve­racity, Sin is Falsehood and Error! So that Sin being contrary to the pure and holy Nature of God, which is the Original Pattern and Standard of all good; Sin consequently must needs be the Top, the Abstract and Epitome of all Evil: And ought such a thing to be the Object of our Choice, of our Love and Approba­tion, of our practice and prosecu­tion?

Sin contains in it the very formal Nature of Hell and future punish­ment; for what makes Hell? What but the Hellish, that is, the wicked impure tempers and dispositions of the wretches inhabiting it? which evil tempers of mind would prove their unhappy owners internal Tor­ment and Disquietude, were there no External Lake of fire and brimstone, of avenging flames and utter Dark­ness.

Nay Sin is not only the principal and constituent part of Hell, but al­so a much worse and far Greater E­vil than Hell it self; for Hell is Good for something, to take vengeance on the finally impenitent and disobedi­ent, and thereby to vindicate God's Justice and Holiness, but sin serves only to abuse his Grace and Good­ness; Hell was of Gods making, Sin of the Devils: Nay Hell was made in pitty to Mankind, to deter them from coming into that place of Tor­ments, but Sin offers violence to Hell, as if it were the seat of Happiness; forces open the Gates of that Infer­nal fiery Furnace, dragging men into it much against the Will and Rescu­ing Endeavours of their Creator, Pre­server, Sanctifier and Redeemer!

O Sin, where is thy profit? when as thy Loss is that of our immortal Souls! that of Heaven, of peace of Mind, and Joys in the Holy-Ghost [Page 57] unspeakable and full of Glory! Where thy pleasure? when-as thy Torment is that of a guilty disquiet­ed Conscience, that of continual dread of Divine Punishment, that of short empty Delights, and after vexatious Reflections on them; that of an Afflictive sense of having no Lot or Portion in the Love and Enjoy­ment of God, an infinite Good!

Sin must needs be the greatest E­vil, the worst of any thing which is Enemy to either God or Man; be­cause 'tis God's usual method to pu­nish sin with sin, when all his other Reclaiming Essays of Providence have through the obstinacy of the sinner proved ineffectual; I will chuse their delusions, says God, and give them over to their Iniquities; he that is unjust let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still: As if to be a Sinner was misery sufficient; and no vengeance [Page 58] for Impiety like that of being permit­ted a continuance therein.

The exceeding Great Malignity of Sin is in nothing more seen than in this, that it cost God more to Re­deem the World than at first to Cre­ate it; cost him but the fiat of his Will, but a Word's speaking to make it out of Nothing, but stood him at the invaluable Expence of his Son's Blood to Ransom it out of worse than Nothing, a polluted, sinful, self­undone Condition: At God's Crea­tion of the World there was only want and absence of previous matter whereout to make it, no repugnant inaptitude, no contrariety in the sub­ject whereby in the least to obstruct or retard the Divine Efficacy; where­as in the Redemption of the lost World, there was the deep rooted Corruption of our Nature, invetera­cy of Evil Custom and Habit, depra­vity of Affection, and perverseness of Man's Will to be conflicted with [Page 59] and overcome by God's Spirit, by his holy Word and Sacraments, be­fore the Ransome purchased could be applyed, and made Savingly Effe­ctual: So much more is there in Sin of inconquerableness and Difficulty of subjection than in the most diffi­cult and miraculous material product of an Almighty power!

O let but our thoughts carry us to the places of our Saviours bitter Ago­nies and Sufferings, and there let us behold him greatly Amazed and sore troubled, Sweating great drops of blood, bowing beneath the weight of his Fathers Displeasure, crying out, Father if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; and at last suffe­ring on a painful and Ignominious Cross those extream torments both of body and mind; which the sins of all Mankind had deserved, which none but the Manhood in Conjun­ction with the Godhead could have undergone, and which were abun­dantly Sufficient to Expiate the Guilt [Page 60] of the whole world, and of multi­tudes of worlds, were multi­tudes really existing: Let us consi­der our Blessed Lord suffering all this, though without Sin in himself, only because he had taken it on him by Imputation, and by becoming our Surety, bore the iniquities of us all▪ and then let us, if we can, continue to think so Lightly, so harmlesly o [...] Sin as we do: Here's a sight, our Redeemers Crucifixion, which at once shews his inestimable Love to us, and the mighty Malignity of Sin; in that nothing Less than his precious Bloodshed, that Seal of the New-Covenant, could A [...]one Divine Ju­stice, and do away the Guilt, the Condemnation of our impieties!

Meditation V. On Watchfulness against Sin and Temptations.

THat this is a Duty, our Saviour teaches us; Watch and Pray, says he, that ye enter not into Tempta­tion; that ye come not within the reach or first Enticements there­of: And St. Peter exhorts, Be ye sober, be vigilant, because your Ad­versary the Devil goes about as a roar­ing Lion, seeking whom he may devour. He watches for our Ruin and Se­duction, and therefore we ought to watch for our own preservation; he is diligent to betray us, and there­fore it imports us to be very careful that we avoid his treacherous Snares: He walketh about, is never at Rest from attempting our Corruption, seeks occasions, lies in wait to offer [Page 66] us Temptations; then when he finds us most unguarded, then when he finds our hearts most light and vain, and consequently most liable to entertain his Suggestions: He watches what sinful Allurement is likeliest to take Effect with us, by means of his ob­serving what our General Temper of body most inclines us to, or what our occasional disposition of Mind renders us the most subject to com­ply with; and he baits his hook with such a Temptation as is most agreeable to our sinful Inclination, which he hath aforehand discover'd, or at least shrewdly Ghest at; and therefore it nearly concerns us to Guard our selves against him with Watchfulness; to keep us from those sins we are most inclinable to, that they gain not the Dominion over us; to keep us from Constitutional Sins, to which our Tempers byass us; from those of frequent occurrence, from sins of Infirmity, which being Lesser ones, are on that account less [Page 67] Observable and Dreaded, and conse­quently the more Dangerous; to be very careful to avoid the Occasions of sinning, the pre-dispositions, means and opportunities leading thereun­to; to shun the very shews and Ap­pearances of Evil: In short, to watch against all Sin and Temptation in General.

There is no Condition of life free from its Enticements to sinning; they are apt to intermingle themselves with whatever we Think, Speak or Act: Wealth and Prosperity is a dangerous Temptation to the sinful Abuse of Divine Blessings into Ex­cess and Wantonness, into Pride and Carelesness, into Forgetfulness of God and our Duty owing to him; and Want and Adversity is a strong (tho' undue) Provocative to Distrust and Diffidence of God's Goodness & pre­siding Care over us, is an Incitement to Murmuring, Impatience and Dis­content with his Providential Dis­pensations: So that in every state we [Page 68] are Unsafe and Insecure in every thing Sin lies at the door to surprize and Assault us; its Snares are spread for us every where, though we are insensible of them, though perhaps for the present they have not in any Gross instance Caught and Entangled us: and when we live thus among vicious Baits and Dangers, always Near, always Expos'd to 'em, ought we not to be extream wary and vigi­lant?

Alass, the Partition Line between Lawful and Unlawful is so small and narrow, that the passage from one to the other is but a Step, or rather (if we advert not) a sudden and easie Slip; The utmost Freedom in things Allowable, is a Bordering on the confines of Disallowable; nay, not only a Bordering upon what's prohi­bited, but also an hazardous Temp­tation thereunto: We must not come Nigh a Pest-house, if we would not be infected with its Contagion.

Temptation is indeed the Subject-Matter and Exercise of Vertue; so far from Moral Evil in it self, that 'tis the Tryal and Improvement of our Graces; the Tryal of an honest up­right Heart, of our sincere Love to God and Goodness, of our resolved Constancy in the ways of Holy Obe­dience: But however 'tis a perilous proof of our Vertue; and better be without the Proof, than without our Innocency; better be out of the reach of Temptation, than by coming in its way, endanger our being over­power'd therewith. Yet since we can never be wholely out of the Reach of Temptation, at least out of a Liableness thereunto, good Reason have we to be continually watchful and circumspect over our Hearts and our Behaviour, that sin through its Deceitfulness Gain not upon us.

For Satan's wicked Allurements, his vicious suggestions could never take hold on us, would never find [Page 70] Admittance into our souls, were not the way prepared for their Entrance by our evil Lusts and corrupt Appe­tites, those Foes of our own House­hold; who like Treacherous false friends in a Besieged Cittadel, set open the Gates thereof in time of Rest and Security, for the Besiegers to enter in at: Let us chiefly therefore have an observant eye over our own Hearts, endeavour our utmost to free them of all impurities, and beg of God that he would cleanse the Thoughts, the Desires of our Hearts, by the Inspiration of his most Holy Spirit; and then we might bid safe Defiance to all the Devils wicked solicitations, to all the Worlds entice­ing Flatteries.

We are apt to say of Smaller sins, of sins of humane Frailty and Infirmi­ty, of some Bosom Lust, as Lot did of Zoar; is it not a Little one, and my Soul shall live? But ah how do we deceive our selves with such vain [Page 71] words! For can any Sin be Small, which is an offence against an infi­nitely Great and Glorious Divine Majesty? which is a violation of an Holy, Just, and Good Law? can any sin be Small, the wages whereof is Death Eternal? The Price of whose Expiation was the precious Bloodshed of the Son of God?

The Distinction of sins into Grea­ter and Lesser ones, is made not in regard that Lesser sins for their mat­ter, are not Great ones in their Evil Quality; are not great Repugnan­cies to the Divine Purity, highly dis­pleasing unto God, equally exposing of us with Greater Vices to the Sen­tence of Condemnation, and to a suffering the vengeance of Eternal fire; but for that they are Lesser breaches of the Established Order and Harmony of things in this World, Offer Less violence to the checks of our Consciences, are Less offences against the well-fare of our brethren, or smaller injuries to our own Tem­poral [Page 72] Interests, whether of Mind or Body, of Goods, or Good-Name: However in strictness of speaking Small Sins are of a great Guilt, be­cause more easily Resistible, because the Temptation to them is Lighter, and therefore a complyance with it, is an Evidence of great Degeneracy of Spirit, of an evil Heart within, which chooses sin with Little Bait in great measure for Sinnings sake: The Weakness of Assaults from Lesser Temptations, adds to the inexcusa­bleness of our Cowardice, if we suffer them to vanquish us; and therefore they ought the more unyieldingly to be withstood.

This then being my Duty, watch­fulness against all iniquity, against all Temptations, all Occasions tending thereunto, I will by the Grace of God, be very diligent in the Exer­cise of it: And dothou, O God, streng­then my Purposes, confirm my Reso­lutions, Assist my sincere Endeavours of Striving against sin, of Resisting all [Page 73] its Allurements, of being brought un­der the Dominion of none of them: O Lord lead me not, permit me not to be led into Temptation, but De­liver me from all evil, both Moral and Natural, Corporal and Spiritual; for thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Meditation VI. Against the Sin of Pride.

PRide! How incongruous a thing to a poor Indigent, Dependant Creature! To a compound of Vile­ness and Corruption, of Misery, and Folly! whose foundation being in the Dust, ought to humble him thither from whence he was taken.

Pride was not made for Man, says Solomon, it Becomes better any other part of the Creation; for they still Retain that beautiful Good­ness at first impress'd upon them by their Divine Maker; the Stormy wind and Tempest, the Sea and rag­ing Floods, as boisterous and unru­ly as they be, are yet Elements ful­filling God's Word; The Moon ob­serves her certain seasons, and the Sun knoweth his going down: All Nature keeps its Regular Course at first ordain'd it; only Man, Irregular [Page 78] Man has Deviated from his primitiv [...] state of Order and Innocence, an [...] thereby has Degraded himself belov [...] the very Beasts which perish; so tha [...] 'tis much more a matter of profoun [...] humbling to Man that immortal Cor­ruption was his Off-spring, than th [...] Mother Earth, Natural Corruption was the Parent-principle of his for­mation.

To be proud, and yet to be a Beg­gar, to live upon Alms; what a Sol [...] ­cism, what an inconsistency is it And yet thus it is with us; we a [...] Beggars of our dayly Bread fro [...] God, or at least should be such, al [...] we possess, all we Are, was Origi­nally from him; we are his Pensi [...] ­ners and Alms-People: And how in sufferable a thing then is Pride [...] Man, how indecorous! What hast tho [...] says the Apostle St. Paul, which tho [...] didst not Receive, and yet boastest th [...] as if thou hadst not Received it? Surely all boasting is excluded, where what­ever we have is of Grace, and not [...] [Page 79] Debt, is ours in Trust only, not in Propriety!

Ah 'twas this sin of Pride, which first brought sin into the world; which first came into it, and which will Last go out of it: Ambition was as early as Nature, and Adam was little sooner a Man, than he Aspired to be as God, knowing Good and Evil: But alass, 'twas this his undue Aiming at so Great a height, which was the occasion of his fall; and he knows now Evil, only by the Loss and Privation of Good!

Pride, 'Twas this turned the Apo­state Angels out of Heaven, which made even that infinitely Blissful place uneasie to them, while proudly reaching at the incommunicable Pre­rogatives of the Deity, that Aspiring sin changed their Angelick Nature into that of Devils: And 'tis this Vice of pride which is more or less an ingredient in all the wickedness com­mitted [Page 80] by degenerate Mankind; fo [...] every wilful iniquity is a rejecting the Divine Authority and Soveraign­ty of God, and a Vertual saying within our selves, Who is Lord ove [...] us?

'Tis this sin of excessive Self-Love [...] and too good an opinion of our own Endowments, which includes in it [...] mixture of the greatest folly; for [...] implies mis­apprehension and Error Ignorance and Inconsideration; Ig­norance of those Imperfections and Deformities, Sins and Seeds of Misery within us, which were they discove­red must needs humble and abase us.

An how troublesome a Guest [...] Pride in a Man's bosome! it create both uneasieness to himself and al [...] others about him; while it makes him Envy Superiours, take to Heart the slights of Equals, and even to rage with passion at the Disrespect of Infe­riours. O 'tis this vice of over-ra­ting our selves keeps us Strangers [Page 81] at home, makes us unjust Censurers abroad; Causes us to think too high­ly of our own worth, too meanly of that of others; 'tis this hinders our growing Wiser and Better, our ima­gining we are wise and good enough already: But alass did we see all we lack, we should soon fall in our own Conceit, and wish for much more Wisdom and Goodness than we have.

Pride! nothing more looses a man Friends, and Gains him Enemies; nothing more renders him an object of universal Scorn and Contempt: so that the proud person by Pride defeats his own Aims; he challenges Honour as his due, but by unduly challenging it, he reaps Dis-respect and Derision.

But above all, nothing more than Pride renders us the Scorn and Ha­tred of God; the Lord beholdeth the lowly with an Eye of Love and [Page 82] Approbation, but the proud he [...] knoweth afar off, Psalm 138. vers [...] the 6th. Nothing also more obstructs the holy Influences of the Divine Spirit upon our Hearts; God resist­eth the proud, but giveth grace to th [...] humble, 1 Pet. 5. 5. He has but two Habitations wherein he more especi­ally delights to dwell, Heaven, and the Soul of him who is of a contri [...] and humble spirit, Isa. 57. 15. On the contrary, nothing is more opposit [...] to the Nature of the Deity, or to the Humiliation of his blessed Son Christ Jesus, than Pride and Haughtiness And therefore our Saviour thoug [...] the Brightness of his Father's Glory and the Express Image of his Person who thought it no Robbery to be equal with God, yet took on hi [...] the form of a Servant; came not to be minister'd unto, but to Minister: appeared in a mean and low condi­tion, that he might teach us Meek­ness and Lowliness of Heart; the first Good disposition for the Receipt of [Page 83] his Self-denying Gospel, and of all Evangelical Graces.

And indeed, What have we poor silly Worms and no Men, to be proud of? What should hinder our Humi­lity? Alass how do Angels so much Rais'd above us in Excellency, An­gels who see our Vileness by reason of sinning, how do they both pity and wonder at our Pride! At our Folly of being exalted in our own Conceits above Measure!

They though they much transcend us in Knowledge, in Beauty, in Strength, and all other Endowments both Natural and Moral, yet are they Humble and Modest; they cover their faces before God, and cast down their Crowns at the feet of the Lamb Christ Jesus acknowledging him a­lone worthy to be prais'd: The sense they have that their Angelick Excellencies however Great and Glo­rious, are yet Finite, and derived [Page 84] from their Creator; their sense of hi [...] Divine Perfections infinitely su [...] mounting theirs keeps them meek an [...] lowly; and the Abundance of thei [...] Celestial Revelations by this mea [...] no way puffs them up, but render them the more Thankful, the mor [...] sensible of God's Goodness unto the [...] Let Them therefore be our Patter [...] of Humility; nay rather let the eve [...] blessed Jesus be our Example herein who has directed us to learn of him for he was meek and lowly, thoug [...] the most High God!

Ah 'tis but comparing our selve [...] with the Deity, and then 'twill ap­pear how there is no comparison be­tween us; what vile Creatures an miserable Sinners we are, and wha [...] an infinitely Glorious Being, and im [...] ­maculate Purity is God! and the [...] the sense of his Greatness and Glor [...] will lessen and humble us in cur ow [...] Conceits. Amen, blessed Saviour Amen.

Meditation VII. Against the Sin of Ʋnchastity.

UNchastity! Ah how small is its Temptation, when placed in Equal View with the deterring evil consequents thereof! For who can be allured with Poverty and Begge­ry, with Shame and Ignominy, with Rottenness and Corruption, which are the usual Attendants of impure Embraces? Ah to burn in Lust is to Anticipate Hell-flames, and to burn in uneasie Torments of Mind even in this life; for the eager appetite of Lust is full of Anxiety and disquieting impatience till such time as 'tis Grati­fied: Hence the usual terms of ex­pressing a violent Amour, are Flames and Darts, are Feavours and Exsta­tick Raptures: And besides the Fears, and Dangers, and Dis-Grace of a [Page 90] Discovery in the Unchaste Action, when the beastly desire is Satisfied then Succeed Dis­satisfaction, Shame and Regret of Mind in a bashful No­vice Sinner of this Nature, and worse than Shame and Regret, an hardned Impudence and confirm'd Searedness of Conscience in an old habituated fornicator.

But alas alass, that Men should buy Repentance of unlawful Satisfaction of fleshly Appetites, at the Dear rat [...] of Disease, Torment, and Unsound­ness of Body, in Conjunction with Disquietude of Spirit! Alas that they should purchase so high Eternal Mi­series, as to incur them for the Dyeing sensual pleasures of a few moments Ah where is, I say not Religion, but where is even Reason and Under­standing, in such Unclean Persons It shews impure Sense, that the Animal and Brutish part is upper­most in them.

Ah shall we be Ashamed to Com­mit Acts of Uncleanness in the sight of Men, in the sight of but a Child; and yet shall we without blushing Commit them in the sight of an Om­niscient God? Shall not His Excel­lency make us afraid of any filthy­ness of flesh or Spirit? And His dread fall upon us, that we become not Guilty of the same?

If any Man defile the Temple of God, says St. Paul, him will God de­stroy, 1 Cor. 3. 17. and he must have little sense either of the Majesty and Purity of God, who will dare to Desecrate his Temple; or of the Di­vine Justice and Power, who will hazard his own Salvation thereby!

Alas Unclean Wretch, one would think thou shouldst have more Reve­rence for the Dignity of Humane Na­ture, for the Awful and Stupendi­ously beautiful Structure of thy Bo­dy, than to make it the foul instru­ment [Page 92] of Lust and Uncleanness; that to take thus the Members of Christ and make them Members of an Har­lot; God forbid Thou shouldst do it: Ah dost thou know what a [...] 'tis to Grieve, to Resist, to Quench to Drive from thee in this manner the Good Spirit of Grace? What? Sin did I say? Nay dost thou know what a Loss, what a Prejudice it is un­to thee both Corporal and Spiritual?

While the Holy Ghost inhabits the Temple of a Sober, Pure, and Chaste Body, Angels are its Guardians, the Holy Spirit its Guide, its Defende [...] against all Assaults of Temptations; but when Unchastity has forced him from that Abode, and sent both Him and our Tutelar Angels Sad­den'd away, then Enters the Unclean Spirit, the Devil; takes possession of an Impure Body as of his own proper Right and House of Inheritance, and the Man lyes exposed to as many other Sins a [...]d Temptations as will [Page 93] please to Assail him: For the Fence of Vertue, Modesty being broken down; Modesty, that Greatest Re­straint on Degenerate Human Nature, next to the checks of Conscience, and of God's Spirit, being lost, what shjould hinder Unchast Persons who have yielded their Members instru­ments of Uncleanness already, from proceeding to yield them further Servants of iniquity unto iniquity, without any stop or forbearance?

Oh Unchastity it is a very Stupisy­ing sin! It Seals a Man up in impe­nitence, and renders him usually be­yond the force of a Reclaimment; any otherwise than as Disease and Disability of Body prove his Refor­mers: The Debauch'd Mind within for all that remaining Unreclaimed, but as lasciviously inclined as ever!

Ah for Remedy of Unclean Cogi­tations and Desires which lead to Corporal Pollutions, and which defile [Page 94] the Soul, as much as Unclean Acts do the Body, nay which arrived to a plenary unchaste Consent of the Will, become the Adultery of the Heart, Matth. 5. 28. Let us consi­der how unfitting it is that the Soul and Body which are both the dea [...] purchase of Christ's most precious Blood, should be Debased and Vili­fied by any Lustful indulged Desires or Actual uncleannesses, rather let the Remembrance of the blessed Jesus Crucified, Crucifie in us all sensua [...] appetites of the flesh; let the Re­membrance of Everlasting burnings Quench and Extinguish in us the fire of Concupiscence! Let the fear of God make thy flesh Tremble, and so Awe it into Subjection, that thy fleshly lusts may not at any time war against thy Soul, and gain the Vi­ctory.

Think, Think each hour on the mortifying Considerations of Death, Hell, and the Grave; on Rottenness [Page 95] and Putrefaction therein; and on thy Appearance at the General Resurre­ction before the Tremendous Majesty of thy Judge, who is of purer Eyes than to behold impurity with Ap­probation; and this will suppress in thee lustful thoughts and wishes even in their Infancy and first motions: Be alwayes busied in some lawful Employment, and then Satan when he comes will find no Share in thee, no Room for his unchaste Tempta­tions to Enter; no impure matter within for their setting fire thereto, and Exciting it into a flame of Desire, Consent, or Unclean Action. Observe but Sobriety and Moderation of Dyet, joyned with Prayer and occa­sional Fasting, and thou shalt soon observe how all Carnal Appertites will dye and become vanquish'd within thee.

Yes, I will endeavour, do Thou O my God, Assist me thereunto; I will endeavour by the strength of thy [Page 96] Grace, to Conquer all Temptations, all the least Tendencies to this vice of Unchastity; I will suppress the first unclean Fancy with loathing and indignation; I will stifle the first im­pure Desire after Satisfying my undue Sensual Appetites; I will Fly and not Fight; I will keep out of the way of Unchaste Allurements, rather than Try and hazard my Chastity by Re­sisting them; I will Escape out of the filthy Sodom of impure Cogitations, without looking back, or so much as Revolving them in my mind: My Mortifications, my habitual Mortifi­catious and Temperance shall shew, how much I abhor to Gratifie the flesh into Rebellion against the Spi­rit; I will Quel Concupiscence in its Primeval Origine; for the very En­tertaining of foul Thoughts, though they proceed no further, is an Abo­mination before God, a Repugnancy to his Unspotted Purity, and a dan­gerous Temptation or praedisposition to go on to more Advanced degrees [Page 97] of Unchastity: I will therefore by the help of my God abstain from all manner of Impurity, External and Internal, Corporal and Spiritual: Amen, Blessed Jesus, Thou Author and Pattern of all Purity and Holy­ness, Amen, Amen.

Meditation VIII. Against the Sin of immoderate Anger.

AH did but a furious Angry Per­son behold himself in the midst of his unrulely Passion, and see his own Blood-shot Eyes, his Distorted Face, his wild Disorders of Coun­tenance, Speech, and Gesture, he would I perswade my self be so out of Love with the unseemly Picture his Anger drew of him, as to fly and abhor it ever after: for 'tis a Passion which for the time is Raging Mad­ness; which puts a man Besides him­self, out of his own power and keep­ing, perverts the Order of God and Nature in our Primitive Constituti­on; causing Reason that Spark of the Divinity, that at first design'd [Page 102] Ruling Faculty of our Souls, to Crouch and become Obeysant, and headstrong Lust and Passion to be Uppermost and Domineer!

Ah how doth impotent Wrath and Fury debase and vilifie Humane Na­ture; transforming a man into: Wolf or Bear, into a Lion or Tyger so that with some shew of Reason did the Pythagoreans Fancy a Trans­migration of such wild and savage Souls into the Bodies of as wild and savage Beasts; for how should they be suitable inhabitants of more cal [...] and peaceable Receptacles?

And upon account of this Tumult and Disorder of Soul, which the Vice of inordinate Anger and other Passions put us in, the Stolck-Philo­sopher advises his Wise Man to a Total suppression and Eradication of all Passion; that hereby he may live undisturb'd and at Peace in his own Bosom: But the Good Christian [Page 103] abstains from undue Anger upon higher Considerations; viz. for that 'tis contrary to his known Duty, and to the Divine Precepts enjoyning Meekness of Spirit; for that 'tis Dis­pleasing unto God, rendering of us unlike Him who is Patient and Long­suffering; contrary to our Saviour's Calm and Gentle Temper and Beha­viour: for that also Anger indisposes a man for Communion with God in Prayer and other holy Exercises, and makes his Soul an unquallifed Tem­ple for the Dove-like Spirit of Grace to keep his Residence therein.

For if the Divine Spirit of Pro­phesie under the Law, (a Law for the Hardness of Jewish hearts, less strictly restraining Anger and a desire of Re­venge) rested not however on the head of a furious passionate person, at least not till his Anger was over and dislodged; much less can we think that under the state of the Gospel, a more meek and Loving Dispensation, [Page 104] the Celestial Spirit of Meekness and Gentleness will inhabit a passionate malicious, or Revengeful persons Soul: No, 'tis Meekness and Humi­lity, 'tis Good Nature and Slowness to Anger which consecrate ou [...] Souls Sanctuaries to that God, whose Sovereign Attribute is Clemency and Goodness; and our being in a lower Measure endued with this, is that which makes us partakers of the Di­vine Nature, for God is Love, says St. John:

And furthermore, that a viole [...] passion of Anger, or any other inor­dinate perturbation of Mind, are ut­terly inconsistent with the Quiet and peaceable Spirit of God (which [...] it descended formerly on our Saviour in the Shape of a Dove, descends now only on Meek, Dovelike, Dis­passionate persons) the sacred Scrip­tures do plainly and abundantly testi­fie; for when the Prophet Elijah was upon the Mountain Horeb, there [Page 105] came a Great Strong Wind, but the Lord was not in the Wind; and after the Wind an Earthquake, but the Lord was not in the Earthquake; and after the Earthquake a Fire, but the Lord was not in the Fire: Last of all came a Still Small Voice, an Emblem of Meekness, a Cessation of all for­mer boisterous Commotions, and then was it that the God of Peace, Unity, and Concord was more im­mediately present, 1 Kings 19. 11, 12.

A Calm, Joyous, Unmolested tem­per of mind is a lively Representa­tion of the Celestial state of Blessed­ness, a fit Preparatory for it, and which makes an Heaven upon Earth to the man who possesses it; but a furious Angry Disposition is all its Contraries.

'Tis an Argument of a weak pusil­lanimous Spirit which can bear no­thing to be in a passion upon every provocation; a sign that the mind is [Page 106] Galled and fretted within; that the Owner thereof has no Command or Governance over himself, but is ra­ther at the Disposal of others, who can discompose him when they please: But a truely Great and No­ble Spirit is Superiour to many Lesser Affronts, and not immoderately pro­voakt by any Greater ones; he is like the Sublimer Regions of the Air, all Calm and Serene, Quiet and Se­date, while the Lower Orbs, Angry passionate Persons, are full of Storms and Tempests of Rage and Resent­ment in their bosoms.

Intemperate Anger 'tis the high Feavour of the Soul, the foul Defor­mity of the Mind, a Shame and Re­proach to our Understandings; That which unfits us for Humane Society, makes us suitable companions only for Wild BeasTs, unfits us both for the business of our Civil Employments and also for the Several Duties of Religion: That which Roils and [Page 107] fires our blood, corrodes and preyes upon our Hearts, puts into a violent tumult and irregular hurry our Animal Spirits; and hereby im­pairs our Health, wastes our Strength, and breaks the firmness of our Con­stitution.

Passion, 'tis a Disorder of Soul which Ruffles the Smoothness, and disturbs the calm Tranquillity of our Lives; renders us pityed by Friends, laughed at by Strangers, hated and Reviled by Enemies; the Condole­ment of the former, the Merriment and Scorn of the latter.

Impetuous Anger, Oh how ill-Na­tur'd a thing it is! How Envyous (as it were) of Mankinds Happyness! For how unquiet does it render a Person to himself, how uneasie and unacceptable to others! What Mis­chiefs does it hurry Men into the Commission of, which afterwards oc­casion their Sorrowful Repentance? [Page 108] What foolish Speeches, and unseemly Ridiculous Actions does it draw from those possest by it? And no wonder, for 'tis the Drunkenness, the Intem­perance of the Mind; and as we say of a Drunkard, when the Wine is it with him, the Wit is out; so may [...] be said of one Drunk with Passion when That is predominant, then [...] his Understanding supprest in [...] operations.

How severely was undue passion Reproved by our Lord in his Disci­ples, who were for calling down [...] from Heaven on the inhospitable Sa­maritans! The Son of Man (says he) is not come to destroy mens lives, [...] to Save them: That is, the Gospe [...] Occonomie which you are under, [...] a Gospel of Peace and Reconcilia­tion, not a Law allowing Revenge and Retaliation.

Impatient Rage and fierceness! How contrary is it to that God who [Page 109] is Slow to Anger, who waits to be Gracious; who terms in holy Writ Judgment or Vengeance his Strange work: As if through Desuetude and unfrequency of Executing it, he was grown unacquainted therewith! How opposite also, is ungovernable fury to the Meek and Lowly, the Calm and Dispassionate Example of the Ever-blessed Jesus! who was oppress'd, who was afflicted, yet he open'd not his Mouth, Isa. 53. 7. who when he was Reviled, Reviled not again; when he suffer'd, he threatned not, but committed himself to him that Judgeth Righteously, 1 Pet. 2. 23. Where was Anger, where was the least Tendency towards it in all our Saviours Carriage from the time of his Apprehension to that of his cruel Death and Crucifixtion, though Mocked and Scourged, and in the highest Degree Tempted to a Dis­composure? And shall not we who profess our selves his Disciples, Copy after his Pattern? Transcribe it in as [Page 110] large a measure as may be into our Hearts and Lives?

Let us not in Cowardice and La­zyness cry out 'tis impracticable to suppress passion, whenas many Old Testament Worthies have done it and Gain'd themselves Immortal Re­nown thereby; whenas we have above all others such an eminent In­stance of suppressing it in our blessed Redeemer; when we have such migh­ty Aids and Assistances of Gods Spi­rit under the Gospel, whereby to suppress it; when many Heathe [...] who have had no such Illustrious Pattern, no such powerful Assistance as we, have however been famous for this Command over themselves it subduing their passions; of all Vi­ctories the Greatest and most Noble And shall not what was praise-wor­thy and commendable in them, be come a Vertue in us Christians of much higher Nature? We practicing it according to more perfect Rules [Page 111] agreeably to a more Transcendent Example, and in an higher measure than either Jew or Gentile; even to the suppression of the first motions toward undue Resentment.

Ah what a foolish vice is Excessive Anger, which creates a man trouble in his mind to no purpose; for what is past and Gone, and therefore can­not be Recall'd or Remedyed; which makes him loose the Enjoy­ment of what he yet possesses; out of fretful Discontent concerning what he has Lost: Which turns also ano­ther Man's Sin, his unjust provoca­tion of me, into my own most severe and smarting punishment; while I fret and fum [...], and thereby Gratifie my Adversary, in making his reproach or injury done me, work beyond his Agency, and in mine own hands and keeping: This (let me consider) was what he Design'd it for, to Disturb my Quiet and Repose, and there­fore fool that I am to suffer my pro­voker [Page 112] to have his Intent herein; fool that I am, to Set such an high value on my self or any thing I enjoy, as to violate the Enjoyment of my own peace and Satisfaction, through Re­sentments at my Reviler, or through Loss and prejudice of whatever I had: No, rather let me possess my Soul in patience, Silencing my Discontents with this Consideration, that an All­wise and Infinitely Good Providence order'd or permitted things to be thus towards me; and that 'tis for the Tryal, for the Improvement of my Graces of Meekness, Humility, Chri­stian Patience, and Charity, that I am in this manner exercised with pro­vocations.

But alass, alass, how utterly inex­cusable is indulged fomented passion, though a Complectional Vice, though our lyableness unto it is owing to Temper and Constitution of Body; for though 'tis more Difficultly tame­able upon this account, yet sure not [Page 113] impossible to be tamed by the Aids of Reason, of Religion, and of Grace: So that I fear those Persons do not Strive against it as for the Mastery, who habitually fall into Anger, and on whom it Returns frequently with as much violence as ever: They use not I am apt to suspect the Means of Conquering, and therefore is it they attain not the End, a Conquest; They use not Prayer, Meditation, and Fasting, powerful instruments by which this kind of Evil Spirit, the Angry Devil, Goeth out of a Man; but without Rending and Tearing of him as a violent passion doth: Or if they use the means of Ejection mention'd, they neglect others great­ly Assistant; such as fixt purposes and Resolutions against this furious Vice for the future, flight of all Occasions and provoking Excitements thereof, a Stifling of the first Springing Mo­tions of it within our Breasts: Thus would easily-provok't Persons fight Thus would they Contend, they [Page 114] should be assured of a Victory over their passions, and become more than Conquerors through Christ who would Strengthen them.

Meditation IX. Against the Sin of Murmuring and Impatience amidst Divine Chastise­ments.

IMpatience under Affliction is our punishment as well as Sin; it frets and corrodes the Mind, and thereby doubles upon us our sufferings; ad­ding to that of the Body, that of the Spirit also: and most Just and Agree­able is it, that those who refuse sub­mission to God's Government, should be punish'd by their own perverse­ness.

Ah how foolish a Vice is Discon­tent with God's Dispensations of Providence toward us; it can in no wise make our Condition better, but will certainly render it much worse, both on a Natural account, and like­wise [Page 120] by Divine most just Ordination: For wriggling our Necks under the Yoke of Distress, is the ready way to make it sit more heavy and Gal­ling; and Repining Discontent at the Chastisements of Heaven, is so far from Relieving us of them, that they provoke God both to continue and Aggravate them upon us.

Alass Man, how knowest Thou but thy Affliction is Design'd to thee in Mercy? but that 'tis the Greatest Blessing can be bestow'd upon thee? by keeping off the Greatest Plague, Spiritual Sickness, Death, and De­struction! And canst thou think it Reasonable to Repine at thy Soul's Cure or preservative in health? Canst thou think it suitable to mur­mur at what may be thy highest in­stance of Happiness, thy Greatest Matter of Rejoycing?

God sees thou canst not be happy Eternally, and free from Temporal [Page 121] Affliction; and hadst thou rather (imprudent Creature!) enjoy thy Good things here with Dives, than Rest with Lazarus in Abraham's Bo­som? God foresees that his Blessings of Earthly prosperity would be Real Curses unto thee, by proving Dis-ad­vantages to thy Soul; and therefore is it, he in Compassion with-holds them.

Thus he denies thee Temporal Riches, that thou may'st be Rich to­wards God; Rich in Faith and Good Works: He with-holds from thee plenty of provision and fulness of Bread, lest giving it thee, he might send Leanness withall into thy Soul; lest being full thou might'st Deny him, and say who is the Lord? He finds poverty of Spirit, most consi­stent with thy poverty of Fortune; he finds thy Dependance upon him the more firmly Establish't, by dis­pensing to thee Day by Day his Fa­therly Allowance. Does he deny [Page 122] thee Health of Body and soundness of Constitution? Why he does it 'tis likely to a very Good purpose; that thy Soul may be the more healthy and Thriving in the Graces of his Spirit: in Humility, in Patience, in Contempt of the World, in Resigna­tion to the Disposals of his All-wise and Just, and Gracious Provi­dence.

A person who does not consider 'tis in order to his future ease and wel­fare, will be apt to account his Chi­rurgeons painful Launcing and laying open the Ill-affected part in his Body, a cruel unkindness unto him; but he who is mindful that all the Smart and Anguish he is put to is only in order to his subsuent Ease, and for Re­covery of the unsound part to its ac­customed Constitution; This Man will be ready to Kiss the hand that probes and cuts him, and will Thank his healer for dealing faithfully with him, though never so severely.

Yet ah the perverseness which is in most of us! who wound our selves by sinning, and then complain of the sharp Instruments made use of for our Cure; who make our Souls Distem­per'd with Iniquity, and then cry out against the bitter potion prescribed us by God for our Recovery! Who provoke him by Dis-obedience, and yet murmur under his Corrections for the same! But is this equal Car­riage, and Just dealing? Is it not the most unreasonable? Ought it not on the contrary to be said unto God, I have born Chastisement, I will not offend any more; that which I see not, teach thou me; and lead me into the way Everlasting, though through Briars and Thorns, though through many Tribulations.

Alass that which heightens our Discontent with our present Circum­stances, is our too intent poring on [Page 124] the worst side of our Condition; a pondering chiefly our Wants, our Sufferings, and Distresses; whereas did we but compare our Wants with our Possessions, our Calamities with our Enjoyments, we should soon find the former if not out weighed with the latter, yet certainly much Alleviated by them: No man in my opinion is so miserable, but he may meet with some cause or other of Comfort, and consequently of Thank­fulness that 'tis not worse with him; Thus, did we but look Downward as well as Upwards amidst our Affli­ctions, I mean, did we but contem­plate what those in a worse condition than we, want and suffer; as well as what those in a better, possess and enjoy; we should if not Extreamly afflicted, find occasion to turn our murmurings into Rejoycings, our Discontents into most peaceful Satis­factions.

Fot what though Thou art in Need of several things which others en­joy? Do but consider how many persons, perhaps better than thy self, are in Need of much more, of abso­lute Necessaries; and then silence thy Repineings. What though thou sufferest under great pain and affli­ction? Ah do but meditate what more acute dolours and Distresses others feel, which Thou art freed from; and then see if thou hast not more reason to praise God for his Goodness, than to fret against him for his Disciplining Providence?

Impatience is a most provoking sin, and therefore a very unlikely Reme­dy of our Sufferings; it imports a Quarrelling with God for his Allot­ments towards us; and consequently a Rebellious Disowning his Sove­reignty and Right of Dominion over us: and is this sort of behaviour un­der Calamities a likely way to Re­move [Page 126] or render them Loss burthen some? Is it not rather an Addi [...] sin to sin, Divine wrath to wrath, an [...] punishment to punishment?

Ah why should we be impatien [...] why Discontented under God's Cha­stisements, whenas the Deity is th [...] Author of the Good we enjoy, [...] well as of the evil we suffer; an [...] shall we receive Good at the hand God, and shall we not also receiv [...] Evil? especially considering that o [...] Mercies far surpass our Miseries, [...] Receipts our Deprivations; nay our severest Distresses may be, and usu­ally are sent in greatest kindness un­to us: And let them be never [...] Grievous and distressive, yet [...] they far Less than our Deservings who have merited Death Tempor [...] and Eternal: And therefore if Go [...] commutes Everlasting Punishment the due Wages of Sin, for Tempo­rary Afflictions, we have no reason to murmur at such his kind and mo­derated [Page 127] Corrections, but to be Grate­ful under them, that they are not Larger and more Grievous ones, viz. Remedyless and never-Ceasing Torments!

And then Reckoning with our selves, That the Sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be Revealed in us, and which these our sufferings if Sanctified, make us Meet-partakers of; How can we Repine? How shall we not rather Rejoyce and Glory under Tribulation? as knowing that Tri­bulation worketh Patience, and Pa­tience Experience, and Experience Hope towards God, and Hope to­wards him well-Grounded, maketh not Ashamed. And can we look up to yonder Heaven, and Shrink un­der Calamities? Can we behold by an Eye of Faith the Glories Above, and think much of Afflictions which Prepare us for them?

An infinitely Knowing God assured­ly knows what's best for us; inf­nitely Good God assuredly Consul [...] most our Good and Interest; and [...] infinitely Just God cannot do us [...] Harme, never acts Unrighteously to­wards us; and therefore why should we not intrust our selves and [...] whole affairs in his hands, and [...] wayes reckon that Best which he O [...] ­dains us? Not only quietly Submi­ting unto, but also making God Choice for us our Own; chear­fully Accompanying his Divine Gui­dance, rather than being forcibly Led by it.

Meekness and Submission to Pro­vidence ought to be our practice whenas whether we will or no it must be so; and therefore when we must bear what God lays on us, why should we not make a Vertue of Ne­cessity, and bear Affliction Conten­tedly? Especially considering that Divine Chastisements are God's Pur­gatory-flames [Page 129] (and none other are to be expected;) whereby he melts down our Pride and Haughtiness, our Trust and Confidence in Creature-Comforts; whereby he Brightens and Illustrates our Graces, and cau­ses us to come out of the fiery fur­nace of Distress more Purified and Refined from our sinful Dross and Corruption.

Meditation X. On Love to God.

'TIS our Duty, and 'tis our In­terest and Priviledge; our Duty, we being commanded to Love him with all our hearts, souls, and strengths; and our Interest, for what greater Love to our selves than to Love the fountain of all Loveliness? than to Love him, in whom are com­priz'd all those Excellencies in infinite Degrees, which Scatteringly and im­perfectly reside in the Creatures, and yet render them Amiable and Ad­mired!

Nothing is more Reasonable also than to Love God, a being so tran­scendently Good in himself, so Gra­cious and Loving unto us; for to Him we owe all the powers of our [Page 136] Bodies, all the noble faculties of our Souls; all that we Are, all that we have comes Entirely from him; we should be very ungrateful persons should we Love any thing so well as him, much more, should we Love any thing Above him; for he hath not only created us, doth not only preserve, and provide for us Com­forts as well as Necessaries; but he hath also dearly Redeem'd us from everlasting Destruction, not with cor­ruptible things, such as Silver and Gold, but with no Less a Ransom than the precious Bloodshed of his Dear Son, God Co-equal with the Father: He hath likewise Sanctified us with the Regeneration of his blessed Spirit.

Thus hath God not only provided us all the Coveniences of this life, but also all things appertaining to a Better; has given us Spiritual Bles­sings as well as Corporal; means of [Page 137] Grace, and hopes of Glory: So that He hath layd on us the Strongest ob­ligations to Love him, and if any thing else in the whole Creation is Lovely, much more Eminently so is the Divine Majesty, who is owner of all his Creatures Lovelyness, and of Infinite more!

If Beauty is an object of Love, be­hold God the most beautiful Being, in whom dwells perfection of Come­lyness! If Riches are attractives of Esteem and Valuation, behold the Deity the Treasury of all Wealth, and of whatever is valuable! If plea­sure is a thing Lovely and desirable, behold in God's presence Fullness of Joy, and at his Right hand pleasures for Evermore!

Sure I must hate my self, if I Love not God; for therein consists my Wellfare and Happyness! Shall I love other things, and not Him from [Page 138] whom they Borrowed their Lovely­ness? Shall I Love the Stream, and not the Fountain of blessedness? What Joy do I deprive my self of, if I Love not God? If I hate not all other things in comparison of him? He that Loveth Father or Mother, sayes our Blessed Saviour, more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that Loveth Son or Daughter, the most Near and Dear things, more than me; is not worthy of me. O who know the Enravishing Delights but those who have experienced them, of Loving the Deity, and be­ing beloved by him! of holding such Sweet Communion with the God of all Consolation! It is a very Great Favour and Condescension that the Majesty of Heaven and Earth will Admit of our imperfect Love, will Graciously Accept it; for 'tis imper­fect, though never so Sincere; 'tis finite Love, though never so Sera­phical.

What an inconceivable Honour is it to be vouchsafed the Loving our Creator! 'Tis certain we can have no better Object; no one so Good; the benefit of Loving God redounds wholly to our selves, not at all to him: However I will Love the Lord, not so much for my own Ends, as be­cause he hath Commanded my Love; as because he is a supereminently Amiable Being, infinitely Deserving my Love; as because 'tis a Debt due from me a Dependant Creature, to my Maker and the Author of all my Enjoyments. I will Delight in Loving and Obeying him as long as I live, and I by his Grace will Evidence the Truth of my Love, by paying an Universal Respect unto all his Com­mandments. Amen, Amen.

Meditation XI. On Zeal in the Service of God.

HOW natural a Consequent is this of the Love of God? Zeal to please him, Zeal to Resemble him, Zeal to promote his Honour and Glory! Where, if not here, is Zeal Becoming? Where else can it be so Suitably placed? Nay, our Divine Services how can they well be Ac­ceptable without it? For where there is Sincerity of Intention in do­ing our Duty, (without which no Duty can be pleasing to Heaven) we can scarce conceive Fervency of Spi­rit to be wanting; unless through weakness and indisposition of Body: And for the Service of God, (the most Glorious and Excellent of Be­ings) to be a cold and Languid Wor­ship, [Page 146] how Great an Absurdity, how Great an Inconsistency is this? Cer­tainly the Service of the Temple, the Sacrifice of the Altar, requires the flame and Fire of the Altar to render it of a sweet-smelling Savour. To perform Duty to God with formality and indifferency of Spirit, is neither to consider the Nature of the Work we are about, the Greatness and Ex­cellency of the Divine Majesty, nor yet what Earnestness and Zeal the Care of our own Salvation exacts from us.

The Love of God demands our whole heart, Soul and Strength; and consequently the keeping his Com­mandments, the Genuine Evidence of our Love, demands the utmost Exercise of our Powers and Facul­ties both bodily and Spiritual: That is not a Service of God which is care­lesly discharged, but rather an Affront, rather a Contempt of him; 'Tis a [Page 147] doing somewhat in Religion to Still and Quiet the uneasie Reproofs of our own Consciences, but not doing any thing with a design of pleasing God, out of Obedience and Love to his Commandments, or from a de­sire of becoming Like unto him in Holiness: which Regards alone can consecrate and render acceptable our Services.

Zeal where is it due, if not in the Divine Worship? Than which no­thing is of greater Importance, no­thing of greater Worth, nothing more for our Interest and Advantage! Where the safety of our Immortal Souls, our Heaven and Eternal Hap­piness are concern'd, there certainly no warmth of Heart, no Diligence of endeavour can be too much.

Ah did we but consider God's Zeal, the sounding of his Bowels, and tenderness of his Compassion [Page 148] toward us; we could not sure want Zeal and Ardency of Affection to­wards him!

The holy Angels above who best understand the Value of God's Ser­vice, who know best how Exalted a pitch of Love and Duty an infinitely Good and Gracious Divine Majesty merits at our hands, what a Pattern do They set us of Industry, Zeal, and joyful Alacrity in Religious wor­ship! And how does their intense and flaming Affection in God's Ser­vice, Shame and Reprove our do­ing the work of the Lord negli­gently? Can we serve either a Grea­ter Master, or a Better? One who Deserves better our Services, or who is more willing and Able to Reward them plenteously?

Do we pray thy Will be done on Earth as 'tis in Heaven, with a like Universality, Constancy, Fervour [Page 149] and Chearfulness of holy Duty, and yet do we contradict this our Peti­tion, by a partial, formal, and un­delightful Obedience? Have we that pious Reverence amidst our De­votions, which is answerable to the Great and Glorious Presence of God, with whom in Prayer we have to do? Have we that importunity and Earnestness of Supplication, that warmth and Zeal of Devout Address, which is any way suitable to those pressing Indigencies we have to be supply'd? To those burthensome miseries we have to be delivered from? Or does not coldness and in­differency of affection, wandering and distraction of thoughts, Dulness and weariness of mind mix with and deprave our Divine Worship? Ah how Little fervour of Spirit have we in serving the Lord! how Little of the true Spirit of Prayer, in our pray­ing unto him!

Do not Gods Sabbaths, his Reli­gious Ordinances seem Tiresome un­to us? A very Toil and Burthen does not his Easie Yoak of precept sit Heavy on our Necks? And [...] Commandments appear Grievous by reason of our want of Approba­tion, Love and Affection toward [...] them? which would breed pleasure and Delight in their performance Ah 'tis for that we are Ignoran [...] how God's Service is perfect freedom and hat a Slavery there is in serving diverse Lusts and Passions, which makes us so Dead and Listless in his service; when otherwise we should be all Spirit and Life whilst Employed in pious Exercises!

Ah had we more Love for God, it would render us more Active, more Warm and spirightly in his Worship: it would put us upon doing our ut­most to please him; and we should not Endure coldness and flagging of [Page 151] affection in our religious Addresses: But Lukewarmness of Devotion would appear to us [...]igh as distasteful as perfect Deadness in Duty; and we should never think that flat Lifeless Service Acceptable to God, which we could not Approve of to our selves.

Meditation XII. On Trust in God.

TRust and Relyance on God is our Duty and our Priviledge; 'tis our Duty as we were created frail, impotent, Necessitous Beings, and for that reason Confiding Dependant ones; as also God our Sustainer is a Self-sufficient and All sufficient Store of Happyness, whose infinite Perfe­ctions render him an object of our Hope and Trust proportionable to our greatest Wants, of Ability to Re­move or Relieve our most extream acutest Distresses. And what more Natural and Reasonable than that we should there place our Confidence and Relyance, where we have our Support and Dependance? But that we should there found our Trust, [Page 156] where we cannot be Disappointed▪ But that a poor, helpless, distress'd Creature should seek abroad for Suc­cour and Relief? And where should he Seek it so Suitably and Effectually as in God-Almighty? the fountain o [...] all Strength, the inexhaustible Ma­gazine of Relief, the protecting San­ctuary of the distress'd who fly unto him for Refuge: A God as Willing and Ready, as Sufficient and Power­ful to Relieve us!

And that this flying to God for Help and Succour, and reposing all his Trust and Confidence in the Deity, is the Confiding person's Pri­viledge and Advantage as well as bounden-Duty is evident; for what can give that Man inward Quiet and Tranquillity even in his best Condi­tion, who is subject every moment to the uncertainties and vicissitudes of Human Affairs, to all the Dangers, all the Hazards, all the Actual Evils and [Page 157] Misfortunes of this mortal life, but a Relying Assurance that nothing can befall him beside the wise Counsel, gracious Will and Ordination of that God in whom he puts his Trust? Whose power is of that extent as to furnish all our Needs, and Satisfie all our desires, as to secure to us his fa­vours and blessings, and to keep off from us, or else Sanctifie our trou­bles and afflictions: whose Omnipo­tence is directed by infinite Wisdome to Know that's best for us, his Wis­dom exercised in Contriving and Or­dering what's best for us, and both his Power and Wisdom vigorously moved in their operations by infinite Love and Goodness to Do what's best for us: An humble confidence in God makes us de [...]e the worst of the Creature's Threatenings, frees us from Carking troubles within our selves, preserves a firm peaceful tem­per in the midst of Storms and Ad­versities; giving us an unbroken [Page 158] Magnanimity of Spirit, a true Domi­nion of Mind over all outward things and occurrences.

All our inordinate Care taken without Gods immediately Ordain­ing, or at least permissive Provi­dence, will be to no purpose; we cannot, as of our selves, add on [...] Cubit to either our Bodily or Spiri­tual Stature; we shall be Dwarfs i [...] Grace as well as in Natural Growth without the Aids of God's Spirit: [...] we cast all our Care upon the Deity, this will be an Engagement on him to take Care of us; if we Trust in God, we need not fear any thing else, He will mightily Defend or Support us.

All other Objects of Trust are De­ceitful, because Vanishing, Empty, Unsatisfying; either they are willing to help and want Ability; or they have Ability and want willingness; [Page 159] or else they are Destitute of both, and so deserve not any Trust to be reposed in them: Thus 'tis with all Foundations of Reliance on the Creature; but now God is such an Adequate Object of our hope and comfortable Expectation, that we may be sure in him to meet with no Disappointment; for he is willing and Able, and earnestly desirous to supply all our Wants, to Relieve all our Distresses; to pardon all our Sins, heal all our Infirmities, Sancti­fie our depraved Nature: He never yet fail'd any one who put his Confi­dence in him; his Truth, his Good­ness, his Justice will not suffer him to do it.

We shall ease our selves of much Anxiety and Tormenting Solicitude, if we remove all immoderate Care from our own Breasts, and refer our Affairs more to God's providential Management: We must Trust our [Page 160] selves with the Deity, and into his hands commit our Spirits when we are Dying, why not Resign our selves and our Concernments into his keeping now in our Life-time? Whe [...] 'twill be more Acceptable to do so [...] because more voluntary; but the [...] 'twill be at the best in some measure constrain'd.

If we do not now in time of health and prosperity, as well as at the hour of Death and Day of Judgment com­mend our Souls and ways to God's Custody as into the hands of a faith­ful Creator and most Merciful Re­deemer, we Ruin and undo our selves; for if God keeps us not, the most vigilant Watchman waketh but in vain; if left alone to our selves the Evil one the Devil will presently bear us Company: and this one would think should be enough to make us fear being out of the Divine Charge and Protection.

The Deity has the tender Affecti­on of a Father toward us, and con­sequently the Carefulness of a Father concerning us; 'Tis He alone can de­liver us from all Dangers, and cause that we dwell in perfect peace and safety: why then Stay we not our Minds on him? Why deliver we not up our persons to his Tuition? Which is as the munition of Rocks for strength and preservation!

O Lord I commit my self to Thee, I Trust thee with all I have and am; the Trust is no more than what thou Gavest me, be Thou the more care­ful of it, because it came originally from Thee: Though Thou should'st Kill me, yet would I Trust in Thee; as knowing that thou canst bring Life out of Death, Light out of Darkness. In the Lord have I put my Trust, O let me never be confounded. Amen.

Meditation XIII. On the Fear of God.

'TIS our Duty, and 'tis our Ad­vantage and happyness; fear the Lord all ye his Saints, there's the Duty; for there is no want to them that fear him, there is the Happyness, Psalm 30. 9.

We naturally fear any one we know will do us harm, or who has it in his power to do it; and sure then we have just reason to fear God's Judgments for our sins, who is able to do us more harme than all the world besides; for he hath power af­ter [Page 167] he hath kill'd to cast into Hell, to pursue us with his Vengeance into another state; and he ever lives, as to Reward the Godly, so to punish Everlastingly the impenitent Sinner: And therefore our Saviour at the same time that he reproves our folly of fearing man, forewarnes us whom we should fear, God Almighty; and he Reinforceth this his Exhortation, with a yea I say unto you, fear him.

And who would not fear thee O Lord God of hosts, and Reverence thy Name? For thou only art Holy; Thou only art to be feared: With Thee is power and Strength, with thee therefore ought to be Domi­nion and fear.

O who is so much an object of our fear as God? A mighty God, and Terrible! infinite in Justice, Almigh­ty in Power, Awful in Omniscience [Page 168] and Omnipresence! And who if we will nor fear him at present, so as to avoid Sin, will one day force us to fear him, when it shall be too Late to avoid Punishment.

Now this fear of God to which we are obliged, is not so much a fear of him upon the account of his Exact Justice and Almighty power, as an Aweful Regard to him mixt with Love, and a wariness of forfeiting his favour; 'Tis a fearing him for his very Goodness; that is, not only lest we loose our Share in it, but 'tis a letting his Essential Goodness in him­self, and his Communicated Goodness unto us, out of a principle of Inge­nuity and Gratitude, be our Chief Motive and Obligation to a Reli­gious Caution, more than any re­gard had to the Divine Punishments and Severities: 'Tis a fear of Loosing God's Love, more than of feeling the fore Effects of his Displeasure.

And hath this fear of the Lord possession of our Souls? Do we fear him with a filial Reverential fear? More lest we loose our Interest in his Love and fatherly Affection, than for dread of incurring the severities of his Justice, as our Judge and Punisher? Does our Consideration of his mani­fold benefits conferr'd upon us, write in our hearts such an ingenuous Law of Thankfulness, as that we fear him more out of a sense of Gratitude for what we have Received of his Divine blessings, than for sear of forfeiting those which are yet in Reversion?

Ah 'tis this fear of Reverence, this fear of Displeasing the Deity, this Holy Caution and Waryness, lest we err from his Commandments, which is the true Godly-fear, the most Accep­table in our Heavenly Fathers sight with a fear of vengeance to be exe­cuted upon them, the very Devils fear and tremble; but 'tis only a Son [Page 170] of God, and Heir of Salvation, who fears God for his Goodness; fear of Divine Justice and Almighty Power is but the Beginning of Godly Wis­dom, the first step in a profligate Sinners Conversion; but 'tis a fear of God made perfect by Love of him, a fear to offend him and loose his friendship, which crowns the work of Regeneration, and shews our Ad­vance in a state of Grace and Salva­tion.

O our God, Thou art Terrible as well as Lovely, but Thou art also Lovely in thy very Terrour; for therefore stand we in Awe of thee, lest we should forfeit thy good will and favour: O how will Love as well as Abhorrence create a Dread it us! a Dread of offending our Belo­ved: How will Gods Mercy as well as his Justice cause us to fear him! Oh that we may fear and Love him more; and so much the more fear [Page 171] him, by how much we increased and abound in Love of him!

And certainly 'tis our wisest way on all accounts thus to fear God; for thy that fear the Lord, need fear nothing besides! they having such an Almighty Protector and Deliverer their Guardian: They need fear no­thing but sin, and such a fear as keeps them innocent from wilful offences, keeps them also calm and at peace in their own bosoms; preserves them the Favourites of Heaven, and then they may defie all the Power and Po­licy of Hell.

The fear of any worldly thing will Lessen mens fear of God, but their true fear of God will take from them all slavish fear of the World; the Lord is on our side, will they say, what need we fear what man can do unto us? The fierceness of man's anger against us God can turn both to His [Page 172] and our Praise, in causing us patient­ly to bear it; and the Residue of Wrath will be Restrain. Men can do us no more harme than God wil permit; but who can stop his Ar [...] when he stretcheth it forth to take vengeance? He can suddenly change our Adversaries evil minds toward us into thoughts of Love and Benefi­cence, of Peace and Good will; or at least, I should have said at most for 'tis the Greatest Blessing God can bestow upon us; he can amply Reward our light afflictions which are but for a season, with a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory!

The fear of the Lord is our grea­test Wealth and Riches as well as Safety and Protection; they that fear the Lord, both Corporal and Spiri­tual blessings are theirs; pardon of sin, healing of infirmities, the Sup­plies of God's Grace; whether things [Page 173] present or things to come, all are Theirs; and they are Christ's, and Christ is God's: God is the Por­tion, the Lot of inheritance to all those that stand in Awe of him, and sin not; and in him being hid­den all the Treasures of Goodness, He being the never-failing fountain of Happyness, those consequently who truely fear and have an Inte­rest in Him, can never lack.

If God is our Father, where is our Son-like Honour of him? If he is our Master, where is our Obedien­tial Fear?

Ah who knows the power of Gods Wrath, who knows how Great an Object of Terrour he is, like the poor Disconsolate and Despairing Sinner? in whom the Arrows of the Almighty stick fast, and his hand presseth him sore; against whom God writeth bitter things, and makes him to pos­sess [Page 174] the iniquities of his Youth! Alase to such a one God is fearful and Ter­rible indeed; he believes God's Ju­stice and Judgments, and believing that is, viewing them with a Sensible and more Lively prospect he fear: and Trembles: For thereafter as a Man Fears, so is God's Displeasure in his account; nay thereafter as a man Loves as well as Fears, God propor­tionably Great is his Dread of loosing his favour; proportionably Grievous is his Sorrow upon Having lost it: Hence we find Holy David crying out with bitterest Complaints, Thou didst hide thy face from me, O Lord, and I was sore troubled; O turn thee unto me again, and have mercy upon me; cast me not away from thy presence, neither shut up thy Loving-kindness in Everlasting Dis­pleasure. Such a Cutting Grief doth the loss of the Light of God's Coun­tenance produce in those who sin­cerely Love him. This Love indeed [Page 175] casteth out all Servile Despondent fear, which hath Torment, and ge­nerateth to Bondage; but it Quickens and improves a filial fear, such as restraineth from offending: O may we fear God more lest we forfeit his Love, than lest we incur the severe penalties of his Displeasure; may we fear him with a Reverential Obe­dient fear as Sons, that we may ne­ver fear him with a burthensome Dis­maying fear, as Slaves.

Meditation XIV. On Love and Charity to our Neigh­bour.

MUtual Love and Kindness is what the condition of our Nature dictates unto us; for man being born a Sociable conver­seable Creature, is for that very reason born an Amicable Loving one; for to what End and pur­pose should mankind Associate and Live together, Converse and hold Correspondence, but to perform perform offices of Aid and Assistanc, of kindness and beneficence to each­other? the very Notion and com­mon [Page 180] Acceptation of Humanity im­ports Courtesie and Good-will, Lov­ing-kindness and compassion.

We are born also calamitous, in­firm, necessitous Beings, and there­fore mutually Dependant Creatures: and Dependance on each other ne­cessarily infers a reciprocal help and beneficience: For what more Reason­able, than that those who by Nature are liable to stand in Need of other [...] help, should Afford help to other [...] when in want and Adversity?

'Tis the Prerogative of God alone to be Self-sufficient and Independant and therefore God who saw every thing which he had made, and be­hold 'twas very Good, yet saw it not Good for man to be Alone, but resolved on making an Help Meet for him; that they might be mutu­ally comforting and Assistant to each other: Though in Paradise man [Page 181] was much nearer Self-sufficiency, and further Removed from helplessness than at present: So that both Na­ture, Reason, and the Ordination of God dictate, that we ought to be mutual helps and common Bles­sings to those of our kind; as being our selves in the body, Subject to its wants and infirmities as well as other persons.

A further obligation to mutual Love and Beneficence arises from our being all very nearly Related, as Kinsfolks and brethren; as all cast in the same mould, fashion'd ac­cording to the same General Like­ness, partakers of the same blood, of the same common Humanity, nay of one very Substance, differenced only in some few Accidental Cir­cumstances unessential to our Nature: And ought not now this nearest Re­lation of Consanguinity to make us Loving and Beneficent to all Man­kind [Page 182] without exception? Ought not the Cement of one blood, to unite us in one hearty Good will and Friendship? Should not Similitude and Likeness beget Love? Should not one common Nature produce in us one common Natural Affection? Causing us to love our selves in loving another, to do Good to our selves in doing Good to another; he being a part and member of our very Substance; flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone: And no man, says the Apostle St. Paul, Eph. 5. 29. ever yet hated his own flesh, but Loveth and Cherisheth it, even as Christ the Church; and as we in conformity ought to Love and cherish one another.

'Tis Natural even among Savage Beasts for those of the same kind to live at a Loving Agreement, and not to prey upon each other; and shall [Page 183] Mankind whose very frame has Ten­derness interwoven in it, be less A­micable and Loving than Brute-Crea­tures?

Reason and Scripture, the Law of Equity, and that of Moses, the Prophets, and Christ, all urge acts of Kindness and Charity from this very Argument, Whatever you would that men should do unto you, even so do unto them; Matth. 7. 12. You no doubt, were your Circumstances such as to be in Want and Distress, would that others should Relieve you, have you therefore a ready will and Inclination to Relieve others, whose Wants and Necessities Chal­lenge your Relief: And since you know not, through the vicissitude of Humane Affairs, and some sud­den turn of Providence, but that the Now miserable Condition of o­thers, may become your own some time hence; let the hazard of your [Page 184] falling into want of Charity your seles, excite your Love and Bene­ficence towards those who are actu­ally labouring under Penury and Affliction.

Giving Relief to others is an ease­ing the troublesome Relentings [...] our own hearts, which must needs be touch'd and sorrowfully affected at the sight of a part of our own flesh, of our common Nature being in Misery and Distress; so that Love to others is the truest Love to our seles, it relieving us of that Grief and mental Disquietude which a view of others wants and sufferings excited in us.

Nay the very Reflection on an act of Charity fills one with Joy and Delight, Refreshes the Giver's mind, as much as the Almsdeed did the Receier's body; so that we the Benefactors are in some sort behol­den [Page 185] even to the Relieved, for their yielding us an occasion of so great pleasure and Contentment: For to Recollect how we have been the Almoners of Divine Providence in distributing to the Necessitous, how we have rescued a poor miserable man from Extremity of want, have Triumph'd over his misery and mis­fortune; and caus'd his refresh'd Bowels in the very act of Relieving him to bless us, and his whole person to offer up Prayers and Good wishes on our behalfs; and how moreover we have made God hereby our Friend and Debtor, and have imi­tated and Gratified in doing Good the Supream Majesty of Heaven and Earth: To Review all this after an Almsgiving, cannot but raise great complacency within us, and cause us to applaud our selves for having per­formed so Generous, so Godlike, and withall so pleasing and Delight­some an action.

Nothing will administer to us so much Joy and Consolation when Dying, nothing so much strengthen us on a bed of Languishing, and make our bed in all our Sickness, as the Reflection how we have in our Life past through acts of Charity and Munificence made to our selves Friends of the Mammon of Un­righteousness, laid up to our selves Treasures in Heaven, a place of the best Security, of the largest Interest and Improvement: How we have been Eyes to the blind, and Feet to the Lame, through our supporting Alms-deeds; how we have eviden­ced our Love to God, by Love to our Neighbour; loving him for God's sake, and at his Injunction: How we have, like wise Merchants in a Foreign Country, Transmitted our Goods and Effects before us into that our Native Region, whither we [Page 187] intend and expect shortly to Return our selves.

Indeed I must Confess that Love to our very Enemies which Chri­stianity enjoyns, has at first little of this pleasure and Delight, which ac­companies doing Good to those who never Dis-obliged us; nay that 'tis an exceeding Irksom and Difficult Duty, and that we are apt to cry out 'tis an hard Commandment, who can bear it? But besides that Returning Good for Evil, Blessings for Cursings, Kindnesses for Injuries, is the ready way to overcome our Adversary's Enmity, and to convert it into a reciprocal Love and beneficence to­wards us; whereas a Retaliation of dis-kindnesses serves only to multiply, heighten, and perpetuate Quarrels, and oftentimes ends in the utter Ruine and destruction of both the contending Parties: Besides this, if we would be Children of our Hea­vently [Page 188] Father, perfect as he is per­fect, we must be Merciful even as he is Merciful, who is kind unto the un­thankful and to the evil: Who as to his common favours makes no Diffe­rence in their distribution, but cau­seth his Sun to shine, his Rain to descend on the Good and Bad, on the Just and Unjust person, Matth. 5. 45.

And oh how well does it Become us by heaping Coals of Love on our Adversary's heads, to endeavour to melt them down into Peace and Re­conciliation! How well does it Be­come us the offended not only to forgive, but to be the first in suing for a mutual good Agreement with our offenders, whenas God himself by his Ministers beseeches Sinners to be Reconciled unto him! Whenas his holy Spirit strives with our ob­stinacy, woes and importunes us by his Gospel-Profers, and by his inward [Page 189] Solicitations to give over our Rebel­lion, and accept of the terms of Di­vine Grace and Pardon!

Ah where is our Love to God, if we have little or none to our Brother, who bears his Image? Where is our Love to the Deity, if we obey not his Commandments? And this is one of his Commandments, that he who loves God, should Love his brother also, 1 John 4. 21.

How dwelleth he in Christ, and Christ, in him, in whom the Spirit of Christ, a Spirit of Love and Charity dwelleth not? How doth such a Person do what in him lyes to defeat the Prayer of our Saviour, that we might be one as he and his Father are one, we one in Unity of Affection, as they are one in Unity of Divine Essence; who hates his Brother, or is at variance with him?

He is not a Christian who hath no true Faith in Christ, and he hath no true Saving Faith, whose Faith wor­keth not by Love, both towards God, and towards Man.

Hath Christ thought thy Brother worth his Dying for, and dost Thou Ungrateful Wretch think him not worth thy Living for, in all Offices of Love and Kindness towards him? Dost thou consider that thou art no further a Christian than thou art Charitable; and yet professest thou Christianity and continuest Uncha­ritable? For Shame Man either Quit thy dissembled profession, or else Realize it by acts of Mercy and bene­ficence.

O what a pattern was Jesus unto us of Love and Good-will, of Real Substantial Acts of Kindness! who went about doing Good, made it his chief business and Employment; healing all that were diseas'd both in [Page 191] Soul and body: And who herein Recommended his Love, most mag­nificently Displayed and Illustrated it, in that while we were Enemies he Dyed for us; and shall not this move us to Live unto him in Obe­dience to all his Commandments, and particularly to That which he hath Dignified with a more peculiar Re­commendation, Calling it His, by way of Eminency above the rest? This is My Commandment, says He, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also Love one another, John 15. 12. And oh how can we well do otherwise, who have our Saviours so expresly plain, so frequently inculca­ted, so pressing and urgent Injunctions of this Duty; who have his so Illu­strious and Transcendent Example for it; who have the so potent Aids and Assistances of his Spirit of Love unto the performance! Ah can we deny any thing to the Lord who hath so Dearly bought and Redeemed us? [Page 192] Had it been some Hard thing that so Great a Benefactor had enjoyn'd us, would we not have done it? How much more when he bids us Love and be kind to one another? The most Easie, the most Delightsom of all Duties, would we but Try the Ex­periment!

Ah shall we not do it? Shall not we Christians who have one Faith, one Hope, one Baptisme, one God and Father of us all, one Gracious Mediator and Redeemer; have also one Heart and Good-will to each other? Shall we who are Brethren, Heirs of the same hopes, of the same blessed promises, fall out and Quarrel by the way in our journying to our Home and Father's House, upon the account of things indifferent and meer Trifles, if compar'd with the Substan­tials of Religion? Shall we violate Charity that most weighty Vital part of Christianity, for meer Circum­stances [Page 193] and Externals of Divine Wor­ship? of no worth in themselves, but only as made Assistant to Piety and Devotion?

What though we are not all of the same mind in matters un-essential to Religion, as indeed how should we be, unless of the same size of Un­derstanding? Does however our Difference of Judgment lay on us any fatal Necessity to Differ also in Love and Affection? Though we are not all of one Mouth speaking the same things, yet cannot we be all of one Heart? We shall never be of one mind, till in Heaven we behold things in one and the same Light, or at least each of us in a Sufficient one; but we both may and ought to be of one Good-will on Earth. Ah that our Little Differences in opinion concerning Rites and Ceremonies, should contribute more to our Divi­sions, than our General Agreement [Page 194] in fundamental Doctrines (which we all acknowledge able to make us wise unto Salvation) does conduce to our Union and Coalition! While our Minds Agree in Christ in the Es­sentials of his Religion, let our Wills also be conjoyn'd; for what an Ab­surdity is it, that we who are to live together in Heaven, if our Unchari­tableness hinder not, should live at variance here below?

O Heavenly Samaritan, Thou ho­ly Jesu, Prince of peace, Look down, Look down; behold here a misera­bly torn and Divided Church; torn with Schisme and Faction, fallen among Robbers and Spoilers, who most inhumanely have Entreated her; behold with a succouring com­passion her bleeding wounds, which are as so many Mouths importunate­ly begging it: Pour thy suppling Oyl and Wine of Union into her Sores, bind up with the bond of Love [Page 195] and Concord her broken and Dis­joynted Members; Pass not by on the other side of the way, as did the Relentless Levite, but let the Distress'd sight of our misery move thee to compassion, and thy Com­passion produce a Speedy Relieving us.

Suppress in us, blessed Saviour, Entirely banish from us that Stingy Selfishness of Spirit, that narrow Confinement of Love to a Sect or Party which so much abounds in the Nation, and make us of a more publick Generous Temper, more Consultive of the Good of the Com­munity both in Church and State: And then the Spirit of God, the Spi­rit of Love and Unity shall dwell amongst us; Love shall be our Guide, and Love shall be our Guard and De­fence; Love shall fit us for Heaven, and Love shall Conduct us thither: Nay Love shall bring down Heaven [Page 196] upon Earth unto us; shall make us live in Peace, in Amity, in a Joyous Complacency at each others Happy­ness. Amen, Amen.

Meditation XV. On Improvement in Grace.

THe Life of Grace is best evi­denc'd by Growth therein; Spiritual Life no more than the Na­tural one can subsist without Activity and progressive Motion; where-ever the seed of God is sown in Truth and Reality, it will fructifie and become prolifick: In the School of Grace, as well as in that of Humane Learn­ing, not to Go forward and make improvement is to Go backward; and Vertue, like a tender young Plant, if it does not Thrive and [Page 203] Flourish, is in a Tendency to Decay and Wither.

The slothful unprofitable Servant who did not improve his Talent, is in the Scripture-reckoning, in our Lord and Saviour's account nigh as bad, and as severely punish'd, as the unjust Steward, who wickedly em­bezzled it; and not to make use of Grace, is here reputed the same thing as not to have had it; To have it by Exercise and Improvement is judg'd by God the only true Posses­sion; and he who has not the Gifts and Graces of the Spirit in this man­ner, is said in Holy Writ only to seem to have them: And instead of encreasing their Store, 'tis denoun­ced there that he shall loose even those measures of Divine Vertues which were once afforded him.

Genuine Grace cannot stand at a stay; if it does not Ascend and im­prove, [Page 204] it infallibly Declines: And when God gives us this Talent to Trade withal and encrease it, shall we frustrate his End of Giving it by letting it lye Dead and unexercised? Did Christ purchase us the Graces of the holy Spirit, at the Dear and in­estimable Rate of his own Blood­shed, and shall we Neglect them when so purchased? Did He by his precious Death, and All-prevalent Intercession procure the Effusion and sending down of those Graces, and shall we slight them when so sent and bestow'd on us?

Ah what will not obstinate Ingra­titude of Sinning do! It will make us turn the blessed means of Grace into occasions of Damnation; make what was intended towards us a Savour of Life unto Life, to become the Savour of Death unto Death; through our mad folly, and supine Negligence!

If we would but cooperate with Divine Grace, would but duely Exercise those proportions of it we Already have, we should soon find larger ones flowing in upon us from Above, and we should have more Abundantly of God's Spirit; If we would but water and cultivate upon his implanting Gracious Dispositions in our Souls, he would give Encrease to them, and perfect them into holy Habits; for former measures of Grace well comply'd with, fit and Qualifie us for further Succeeding ones; and the Sanctifying Light of the Holy-Ghost, like that of the Sun, shines in upon every Eye of the hu­mane Understanding which will o­pen to Receive it.

And therefore whenever we find a Good Motion in our Hearts, let us remember 'tis afforded us to improve that Good Disposition into a vertuous [Page 206] Act, and to Grow thereby in Grace; when-ever we find a check of Con­science against Sin, a Restraining suggestion of God's Spirit, let us carry it on till we arrive to an Ha­tred of that Vice; let us proceed from an hatred of it to a Resolution of Amendment, and from that to an actual Endeavour against the parti­cular iniquity.

We are accountable to God not only for that measure of Grace we have Receiv'd but also for further Degrees thereof, which had we well­managed the present ones, we should have been made partakers of; and therefore not only the mis-using Di­vine Gifts we were possessors of, but likewise the hindrance by that mis­usage of God's bestowing on us fu­ture ones, will be charged upon us to our Condemnation, if we set not to the work and improve present Gracious intrustments, And what [Page 207] should hinder us from doing it? The Difficulty of such an undertak­ing? Alass this is Lessen'd by the Divine Aids proffer'd and which will certainly Assist us in the perfor­mance. And what, I pray, can seem Grievous, when an Almighty power lends an helping hand to alleviate the Burthen?

Ah it argues a weak and Low Measure of Grace to Covet after so much of Holiness only, as will barely exempt us from Hell, and carry us to Heaven! Such a mean Spirited person in Religion, shews that Grace is not his desire upon its own ac­count, upon its pure intrinsick worth, but meerly as it frees him from Di­vine punishment; 'Tis not for Love of the former, so much as for fear of the Latter, that he would be parta­ker of Holiness at all: but ah how Little do they deserve Eternal Glory, who are not desirous of the most [Page 208] Essential part thereof, Divine Grace, in an encreasing Measure! Ah be there Different Degrees of Celestial Blessedness attainable, by different Degrees of Piety, and shall not this raise in us an holy Emulation, a Godly to Aim at Heroick Extraordinary Measures of Good­ness? At the very Highest procure­able?

Let us consider that the Longer the credited Loan of Grace remains in our Custody unimproved, the Greater daily will Grow its Debt, and the more ample and enflamed the Reckoning which we shall at the End of all things be call'd to give in; and then to whom much was Given, of him shall much be Re­quired; and whether we have put out our Talents of Grace to Usury or no, yet Interest and Encrease of them will be demanded at our hands: It being that we should have been [Page 209] busied about the procuring, how­ever we have left it unprocur­ed.

Then at the Day of final Ac­compts it will not be Enough to say, Lord, here is what is Thine, what thou committedst to my Trust; but where is the Improvement of it, where is the multiplying of it will be Enquired? O then rest not Satis­fied with present Attainments, with weak unprogressive Measures of San­ctity, but forgetting the things in Religion which are behind, which are already arrived unto, let us press forward to the mark for the Prize of our high Calling in Christ; en­deavouring after the perfecting of Holiness in God's Fear: And then He who is an overflowing Fountain of Grace and Goodness, and who communicates of it where ever he finds Subjects Capable of his Com­munications, will cause us to pro­ceed [Page 210] from Strength to Strength in Holyness, from one Degree of Grace unto another, till he has compleated our Renew'd Nature, and fitted us for Eternal Glory. Amen, Amen.

Meditation XVI. On DEATH.

DEath! the very Thoughts, the very Name thereof, strikes us with Horror and Affrightment! but alas the first Temporal Death, what is it if compared with the se­cond Eternal one? which is to be the sad Portion of all finally impe­nitent Sinners!

Were the Temporal Death the End of all things with us, did it Determine and Annihilate our Be­ings, it would be so far from be­coming affrightful to the Wicked and [Page 216] Impenitent, that they would rather gladly Welcome it, as the Rescuer of them from what they most seared, a Penal Retribution for all their hein­ous Provocations in this Life; but the Consideration that the first Death is only an Inlet unto, a Beginning of the Second, which is never to have an End; Oh how must this prove doubly affrighting to the Person un­prepared for the Temporal, and therefore obnoxious to the Eternal Death! both reluctant Nature and Guilt causing him to Dread it.

The acute Dolours of an expiring Sinner's Body, make him Wish to Dye, but then the more torturing Terrors of his awaken'd Conscience, urge him to retract those Wishes, and to fear nothing more than a Dissolu­tion, which will bring him to Judg­ment and Eternal Condemnation; and thus the Dyeing Impenitent is rackt and tortured between contra­ry [Page 217] Desires and Choices, the Guilty Agonies of his Mind pain him more than all the Convulsive Severities of his Disease; so that they Anticipate his Hell on Earth, and give him to feel some of its Torments, before he goes hence to Experience them in in the Gross!

But with the Righteous Godly Person it is not so; Death indeed to him may look at first somewhat affrightful, it being an abhorrence to Nature, a forcible Separation of Soul and Body, those Dear Compa­nions; but then being prepared for Death, he living in a continual pi­ous Expectation of it, Faith, Anima­ting and Confirming Faith, strips in his sight that King of Terrors of all his D [...]smaying Gastliness, shews him with his Sting the Guilt of Sin, to­tally pull'd out by the satisfactory Sufferings of our Saviour, bids the Good Man walk through the Val­ley [Page 218] of the Shadow of Death, and fear no Evil; Gives him a Delight­some Prospect beyond the Grave, Admonishes him to look forward to that Immortal Life, and Joy, and Glory set before him; and in fine, Represents to him a blessed Reunion of Soul and Body at the General Re­surrection, never to part, never to be separated again.

Death to such a one is as a Wel­come Night of Repose after the hard Labour and Toil of the Day: They Rest from their Labours, says the Scripture: 'Tis as the Enjoyment of the Promised Land, after a forty Years wearysome Wandring in the Wilderness; nay, 'tis infinitely more; 'tis the Introduction into an Heaven­ly Canaan; and Oh how Transport­ing must it be to have Shot the pe­ri [...]lous Gulph of Death, and to be safely Landed on the Eternal Shoar! To look back with Pleasure on the [Page 219] Wrecks and Dangers we have happily escaped, and to find our selves all on a suddain surrounded with New unex­perienc'd, unheard of, and before un­conceivable Enravishments! Oh who would not Gladly Dye, to become Possessor of such an Inheritance? who would not gladly Live in per­petual Mortification here, to be made Partaker of such Infinite Delights in a Future State? Oh Our Life which we falsly so call, deserves not so Good a Name; Our Life on Earth, is but a Death compared with the Eternal Life and Blessedness Above! They only Live, who being freed from the Fetters of the Body, from the cor­ruptible Principles of Mortality, are out of a Capacity of Dying any more, and enjoy the utmost Delights, with a full Assurance of ever enjoy­ing them!

But here in the midst of Life we are in Death; not only [...]ble there­unto, [Page 220] but in an Actual Tendency to­wards it; We draw in Vital Aire, only to breath it out again; and sleep, the liveliest Image of Death, is the best Repairer of our Life; by reason of which frequent Repairs, our Life seems no other than a successive Living and Dying: Nay, our very Health, the height thereof what is it, but the next step to a Declinati­on into Sickness? many times an im­mediate Cause and Occasion there­of; for when the Blood runs high­est, thence often proceeds a Feavour; and too Great a Quantity of Spirits may prove fatal, as well as the want of them: Just as an House may fall opprest with too much bulk and weight, as well as through Weakness and Slightness of Building.

Ah then that Men who live in continual Hazard of Dying, should yet demean themselves with such careless Security, as if they were e­ver [Page 221] to Live! Ah that upon this mo­ment, for ought we know may De­pend our happy Eternity, and yet we squander away whole Days, and Years in Vanity! O when shall we become wise, and consider profita­bly our Latter End? When shall we so number our perishing days, as to apply our hearts unto Godly Wis­dom? Time passes on, though we mind it not, improve not its passing; Time passes on, and brings us every instant the nearer to Eternity: O how ought we to take care that it bring us to an Eternity of Blessedness: That the end of our Days prove to us the end of our Hopes, even the Salvation of our Souls!

Alass what Vanity of Vanities, what meer Nothings at the hour of Death, will all things here below appear unto us, which Now look so charming, and take off our minds and endeavours from providing for [Page 222] our happy Departures! How then will all our pursuits, all our posses­sions of Honour, of Riches, and Pleasure, appear as a Dream, as a vanishing Shadow; so that we shall at that time account the wisdom of this world folly and madness; shall wish, wish Earnestly that with all our other Gettings we had Gotten more Religious Understanding; had layd up larger Comfortable Treasures of a good Conscience, had been as in­dustrious for the Concerns of another Immortal Life, as for those of this vain Transitory one!

Let us therefore take Advice of Death in time of health; Death is a faithful Counsellor, and will not Deceive, will not flatter us; and see­ing 'tis necessary for us to Dye one time or other, and as necessary unto Dying well, that we often meditate upon Death, let us make it the fre­quent [Page 223] Subject of our thoughts, and in such manner view things Now, as they will certainly appear to us at our near approach towards Death.

O may we not live in such a state wherein we would be unwilling to be Surpriz'd by Death, unwilling to be call'd to Dye, before we have li­ved to any good purpose; but may we through the Spirit mortifie the Deeds of the Body, that we may be made Alive unto God; What we would wish were done when Dying, let us do that Good and vertuous work at present; and what wish were undone then, let us shun that wicked performance now; or if performed, undoe it by Repen­tance before our latter End over­takes us: So shall we be Ready for Dying, so shall the Day of our Deaths appear better to us than the day of our births; we coming into the [Page 224] world crying, as born to Labour and Sorrow; but going out of it Rejoy­cing, as assured to find Rest, and Ease, and Enravishment of Soul. Amen blessed Saviour, Thou Resurrection and the Life, Amen, Amen.

Meditation XVII. On the Last Judgment.

MEthinks I view the Judge of the whole Earth, Terrible and yet Gracious, coming in the Clouds of Heaven with all his Glori­ous Retinue of holy Angels; me­thinks I hear the Arowzing Call of the last Trumpet; see the innumera­ble Dead take the Alarm, Awake, Move, and Rise at its all-powerful Summons.

I behold methinks the Righteous Rising first with Smiles and Exulta­tion in their Faces; as knowing that [Page 230] their Redemption, that the Reward of all their Pious Labours draweth near: I behold also the ungodly Ri­sing Last, and yet even then most un­willingly; shaking and trembling for fear of their approaching Tryal and Condemnation; Heaven above Threatning them, Hell beneath Ga­ping wide for their Reception. I b [...]hold too the Court-Book of an Universal Registry open'd, each Mans Indictment and Accusation publickly Read, his own Conscience, the while bearing Witness, and either Accusing or Excusing him in that fearful Judg­ment!

I hear methinks the Decisive Sen­tence [...] ronourced of either Eternal Happyness or Misery, of either come ye Blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepar'd for you before the foundations of the World; or else of Depart from me ye Accursed into [Page 231] Everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels!

Oh the different Effects these different Sentences have on the Per­sons they are directed unto! The Righteous receive their Sentence with Joy and Acclamations, with transporting Thanks and Hallelujahs, with an humble Admiration that the Recompence of their finite Defective Services, should be a far more Excee­ding and Eternal weight of Glory! The ungodly Reprobates entertain their Doom with hideous Howlings and Lamentations, with heart-pior­cing Sorrows and Affrightments, with fruitless desires to return again into their Graves, or to be perfectly de­stroyed and Annihilated.

Come ye blessed; O Delightsome sound, O wellcome hearing! well­come especially from the mo [...] of our Judge! Come? There is no need [Page 232] sure of a pressing Invitation to ac­cept of so much Bliss and Happyness; behold they Run, they draw near upon the first Intimation of it; they fly with haste into the possession of their Eternal Inheritance!

They now please themselves in the Remembrance of their former Godly Sorrows, Mortifications, and Self-de­nyals, which through the Mercy's of God, and Merits of their Saviour, have procured them such an excee­ding Great Rejoycing! All their for­mer Tears dry up at the sight of their Glorious Redemption, and they would not for a World but they had Denyed themselves in the Life past, that now in the Resurrection of the Just, they may be own'd and Appro­ved of by their Advocate and Ac­quitter.

Depart ye Cursed; blessed Lord whither should they depart? Can they [Page 233] Goe any where where thou art not present, who sillest all things? tho' they descend into the Deep, and re­main in the uttermost parts of the Sea, yet Thou art there; though they make the Darkness of Hell their hiding-place, yet thou art there also; thine Omniscient Eye shall even there find them out, and thine Almighty Arm shall punish them!

Depart from Me; A D [...]parture from thy Beatifick presence, O God, must needs render the Departed Ac­cursed; for Thou art all that's Good, the Loss therefore of Thee is an U­niversal Loss: Thou art the Center and Rest of the Soul; and therefore to be separated from Thee must be the most unquiet and miserable Con­dition imaginable. A Departure from the Joyous Light of thy Coun­tenance, O blessed Jesu, who only hast the words of Eternal Life, can certainly be no other than Eternal [Page 234] Death. One would have thought indeed that to be Deprived of Thy Sight, might have been punishment enough, without the Damneds En­trance in Hell-flames and tortures; but that besides the mental Anguish for their Loss of the Enjoyment of God, for their Loss of Heavenly Joys unspeakable, and full of Glory, they should be tormented with the positive sufferings of infernal Re­gions; should be banish'd into fire, into fire Everlasting, into fire Ever­lasting prepared for the Devil and his Angels, the worst of Company, the most Dismal Society; Oh, how Doubly afflictive and vexatious must this prove unto them!

We believe, O Lord, all this most solemne process of a final Judgment, we believe and tremble thereat; O make it an ingenuous fear conver­ting our Souls: We behold with an Eye of faith this thy Judiciary Tryal [Page 235] and Enquiry as clearly, as if it was the Object of our bodyly vision; O Grant it may have such an Effectual influence upon our hearts, as to make us live in continual Expectation of it; as if the last Trump were already sounding in our Ears, and we saw the Graves open'd, the Dead coming forth, and the Divine Judge Seated on his Dreadful Tribunal!

May our habitual mindfulness of this Day of future Reckoning, cause us to place a watch over our most Se­cret Thoughts, a Guard over our most Innocently pleasant words, over our most conceal'd Retired actions; always remembring that God is about our path and our bed, and will bring every Secret thought and purpose of the heart into Judgment, with every Idle word, and most clandestine per­formance.

O the brightness of the Discoveries of that time of Tryal! How Sear­ching, how penetrating! No De­fence, no Palliation, no Denyal, will that Day serve either to counte­nance or to cover our unrepented sins; in vain will it be to offer at ei­ther Excuse or Concealment; the Darkness of hidden wickedness shall appear no Darkness at all, but shall be unto God as clear as the Noon-day.

Then shall not a well-dissembled Hypocrisie in Religion, any longer pass for Sincerity, and the power of Godliness; then shall not habitually indulged vicious appetites and pas­sions any longer pass for pardonable humane Infirmities; a bare Negative holyness, the not having done any Enormous evil, shall not then Satisfie for the want of Real Positive piety, for the want of having done all the [Page 237] Good we could; neither shall bare Desires after Grace, without the effe­ctual Endeavours, be reputed Grace it self: But all false Disguises shall be taken off from both our selves and others, and a Man shall be ac­cepted only for that he Really hath of Vertue and Goodness, not for that which he seem'd to have of it in this World, but truely had not.

The Just shall then be Hardly found Just; the Righteous shall Scarcely be Saved; O where then shall the Sinner and Ungodly ap­pear? How shall they Stand, as Ju­stified, when Judged?

O may we in serious thoughtful­ness thereon, fancy our selves before the Judgment-Seat of Christ; may we Examine our selves whether we are Ready prepared for the giving up our Accounts? Whether our Lives are able to bear a strict Scrutiny at [Page 238] the Day of our Judges Appearance? What holy work we would then more especially desire to be found Eminent in? And that let us Now more peculiarly be busied about; what it is we would then be most Ashamed of, and wish it had never been acted, or sincerely Repented of? And that let us Repent of Imme­diately, in this our season of Grace and Salvation: May we think no Re­ligious pains too Great, no Self-de­nyals too severe, no Addresses to Heaven too frequent or too fer­vent, to render us provided for our future Tryals; but may we enter at present into Judgment with our selves, Accusing and Condemning our own ways, that when we shall appear before the Great Judge, he may find that before-hand we are ac­cused and Judged.

Let us often meditate, Lord who can Stand before Thee when Thou [Page 239] art Angry? Who can be cleared when judged, shouldst not thou in the midst of Judgment remember Mercy? Woe were it to the most in­nocent unblameable Life, if Thou O God, laying aside thy Clemency, shouldst sift and Judge it Rigo­rously.!

Meditation XVIII. On Heaven.

HEaven! A place where God's Honour dwells, where his Ho­nour and Glory dwell in the most Supereminent Degree! Where is the blessed Jesus in all the pompous Re­splendencies of his Exaltation, Sur­rounded with infinite Honours of his perfect Obedience, and most meritori­ous Sufferings: Where the Reflected Rays of the Divine Majesty add New lustre to the brightest Cherubims; and the innumerable Host of Heaven, the Glorified Company of Saints and Angels, drink plentifully of those [Page 245] Rivers of pleasure which are at God's Right hand for Evermore! Plea­sures Refin'd and Spiritual, Sincere and unallay'd with any mixture of Sorrow; pleasures fixt and Durable as God the Unchangeable Author of them; so compleat as to Satisfie, and yet so Recreatively Satisfying, as not to become Dull and Cloying: For in Heaven a Continual fresh Addition of Happyness flowing in upon the Soul, both Gratifies its appetites, and also Quickens and New-Excites them.

There the blessed Inhabitants be­holding constantly the Beatifick Pre­sence, are changed thereby from Joy to Joy, from Glory to Glory; Re­ceive incessant Communications of the Divine inherent Fulness, and have their Desires hereby the more Enflamed, their Capacities the more Enlarged to receive still further par­ticipations of God's inexhaustible [Page 246] bounty: And thus they spend a Rap­turous Eternity; ever-Loving, ever-Praising, ever-Adoring and Deligh­ting in God their Saviour: And the more they Love, and Praise, and Delight in Him, still they find more Cause, more Reason, more Desire and Longing of Soul to do so!

Here 'tis the happy Residentiaries Understandings are wide open'd to all the amazing Lights and Discove­ries of Truth, to the Mysteries of Creation and Providence, of Re­demption and Sanctification; to the now puzling Difficulties of Nature and of Grace, of God's Prescience and Man's Free-will: Here 'tis the Wills also of the Glorified are render'd conformable unto, are Swallowed up in, and made one with God's Holy Will and Pleasure; that their Affe­ctions become Seraphickly pure, Spi­ritual, and servent; that both the Spirits of Just Men made perfect, and [Page 247] their brethren Angels burn with Di­vine Love, are enflamed with holy Ardours of Devout Gratitude and Thanksgiving to God the Author of their Beings, and kind bestower and preserver of all their Enjoyments!

Heaven! The bright Aboad of all bright, and pure and clarified Souls! Of all those who have had Heavenly Tempers and Dispositions implanted in them here; who have Contemned the World, Triumph'd over its de­praving pomps and Vanities; who have Crucified the flesh, with the Corrupt Lusts and Affections thereof; who have vanquish'd Hell, overcome the Temptations of the Devil, offer'd a Grateful violence to Heaven, by the importunities of servent Effectu­al Prayer, by the Severities of Re­pentance, Mortification, and Self­denyal!

There in the happy Regions A­bove, they reap the fruit of their pious labours, with a plentiful Inte­rest and Encrease of Glory! There all the Good, all the truely Wise, all the Just, and Chaste, and Chari­table Souls, of whom this World was not Worthy, who were burning and shining Lights amidst a crooked and perverse Generation, by their Sin­gularly holy Examples, shine as Scars of the first Magnitude in the Kingdom of Heaven; they Love God with the Intensest, most Dutiful Affection, and they Love one another as them­selves, without any Envying or Repi­ning at their Neighbours happyness, who enjoy a Greater Degree there­of than they; but each Beatified Spi­rit enjoying as much of God and Heaven as he is capable of Receiving, is fully Satisfied with his own mea­sure of blessedness, and derives also pleasure and Contentment from the [Page 249] possessions of his brethren though more highly Glorifyed!

There in Heaven they Love, there they Adore, and there they Enjoy for an Endless Duration; there their United Employ of Loving, Praising, and Worshipping God, of Returning him Thanksgivings for all the Miracles of his Stupendious Love, Unite them the more inti­mately unto God, and Unite them also more closely in Affections to one another; a Glorified Saint not repi­ning at the more Advanced Glory of an Angel, an Angel of an inferiour Order, not Grudging at the Happy­ness of a Superiour; nor any of those Morning Stars of the Creation, En­vying the Saints their most Illustri­ous Honour, in having the Humani­ly Dignified with a Personal Union to the Godhead!

O Heaven! The Glorious Recep­tacle of Heaven-born Souls, of the Favourites and Sons of God, when shall I come and Appear before him? When shall I be made more exactly Like unto him, seeing him as he Is? When shall I be joyn'd to the Devout Adoring Quire of Angels? O Cele­stial Temple, how my Soul Longs to Enter Thee the Holy of Holies! One Day in thy Courts is better than a Thousand elsewhere! Gracious God deny me what Thou wilt of this Earth, so thou givest me at last an inheritance in Heaven; That will make ample Amends for all my wants here below; That will fully Recompence all the Sufferings of this Mortal Life!

O my Soul, is such a Glorious prize, as that of thy high Calling in Christ set before thee, and shall not [Page 251] this incite thee to press forward to that Mark? To Run the Race of holy Obedience with patience, chearfulness, and a pious Conten­tion? Is such an Heaven, such an Exceeding Great and Eternal weight of Glory, the Object of thy Hopes, and hast thou the Stupidity not to let it be the Object of thine En­deavours also? Hast thou the heart to neglect so Great Salvation? Shall it not encourage and stir thee up to give all Diligence to make thy Calling and Election Sure? Oh how unworthy are they of Eternal Life, who will not Exert their utmost power and industry to obtain it! Blessed Lord, Bring down much of an Heavenly Frame and Temper into our Souls, which may Qua­lifie us for an Enjoyment of Hea­ven hereafter; let there be Divine God-like habits of mind wrought and implanted in us at present, that [Page 252] Awaking up at the Resurrection af­ter thy Likeness, we may he Satis­fied therewith. Amen, Amen, holy Saviour.

Meditation XIX. On Hell, and the Eternity of its Tor­ments.

WHAT can the Wrath of God do more than punish with an Eternity of Misery? O the maligni­ty of Sin, whose Short pleasures and Empty profits, whose false Honours and Transient acts of wickedness have an Infinity of punishment their Recompence! O who would buy the pleasures of sin which are but for a moment, at the Dear rate of never­ceasing Sufferings? Who would re­fuse the initial troubles of a Religious Course, since in the End it srees us [Page 259] from the Torments of Hell, and in­states us in all the Joys and Glories of Heaven!

Hell! the punishment of the Dis­obedient, and Rebellious; of the haters of God, Despisers of Goodness, and wilful Rejecters of their own Everlasting Mercies!

Hell! A place where is Variety of torments, Extremity of torments, and Eternity of torments; not one way, but a Thousand ways to make a poor Soul miserable, Everlastingly mise­rable: And who can be ar Variety? Who can bear Extremity? Who can bear Eternity of torments? And yet all this we must bear, if ever it be the sad lot of any of us to be cast in­to Hell.

Here a mixture and interchange of Mercies, allays our Afflictions and Occasions of sorrow; but in Hell [Page 260] there's nothing but pure unmigled misery; nothing to be seen, but Ob­jects of Terrour and Affrightment; nothing to be heard, but hideous howlings and Self-Execrations; no­thing to be felt, but utmost pain and torment: Not one merry Day, and one sad; not one hour of Grief, and another of Ease; not one Cross and another Comfort, as it fares with us on Earth; but all Crosses and all Curses without any the least mitiga­tion do concur in Hell, like lines mee­ting in their proper Center!

And no wonder they do so; for tis the doleful Residence of the mi­serably Depraved, and sinfully De­generate; of the fearful and unbelie­ving, of the abominable and Mur­therers; of the proud, Angry, ma­licious and Revengeful: Qualities of mind which are their own torment and Damnation; which render the unhappy possessors of them Suitable [Page 261] Associates only for Devils and Repro­bate Spirits; Lost to Goodness, Sunk into the very Dregs of sin and impiety.

O Hell, where nothing Good in­habits; where Darkness fills both the place and minds of those banished from God's Presence; blackness of Darkness for ever fills the place, black­ness of Guilt, horrour, and Despair their Spirits!

Oh the Sense of their Loss afflicts more those wretched Souls, than does the sense of their pain and An­guish! The sense of what the Righ­teous enjoy, and of what themselves might have done, had it not been their own fault, afflicts more the Damn'd than do all their Hellish Sufferings; for that there should be an Heaven which they shall never Enter into, that there should be a God whose blissful sight they shall [Page 262] ever be excluded from: O this is the bitterest ingredient in Hell! A Con­sideration which pains more the Ob­jects of Divine wrath, than all their flames, and fire, and brimstone!

O Eternity, Eternity! A thing which is a Rack to our minds but to Think of it, even Abstracted from the Notion of annext misery; how much more Amazing then and Dread­ful must be the joynt Consideration of Torment accompanying Eter­nity!

Ah is it not enough that the Mise­ries of the Damned are the most In­tense and Exquisite, but must they be Endless also? As Intense, they are intolerable; as Endless, how much more so?

Alass, Alass, what are the Grea­test Temporal Punishments, when compared with those which are Eter­nal? [Page 263] No more than painted fires and tortures compared with the Real Sen­sible ones, whereof they are Repre­sentatives!

To be miserable as Long as God shall continue to be who is Everlast­ing; what an insupportable, what an Inconceivable misery is that! And O the Just Judgment of an Incons'd Deity provoakt by Irreclaimable wickedness! Imp [...]nitent Sinners Seek Death Eternal in the wilful Error of their ways, they chusing Sin the pro­curing Meritorious Cause of Everlast­ing punishment; and therefore what Injustice or want of Goodness can it be in God, to give them their Choice, and torment them with the Damna­tion of their own Seeking? Since 'tis a Received Maxime, that to him who Wills his own injury, no injury in that respect can be done.

Besides, the finally Obstinate and Disobedient carry the Foundation. matter of punishment in their own Bosoms, Viz. their Sinful Unregene­rate Nature; and what a wonder is it that the infernal flames should Everlastingly prey upon Never-cea­sing Suitable fewel? Or what unequal Dealing in God, that Endless punish­ment should be the dismal portion of Endless Guilt and Demerit? So long as there is Sin to be punish'd in the Damned, so long of Necessity must Continue their punishment: Nay: should God cease inflicting any Po­sitive Sufferings, should Hell cease its External Torments, yet would an Habitually impure and finally wicked person become an Hell within Him­self; his corrupt Lusts and Passions for want of their Suitable vicious Gra­tifications, would continually Tor­ture and Disquiet him; So that it is not so much God that Condemns the persevering Impenitent to Eternal [Page 265] Misery, as his own Evil Unrenewed Nature; which continuing for ever Unchanged in the other life, must needs render its unhappy Owner for ever wretched and miserable: Now is it not Righteous, that Incorrigible Obstinacy should be Endlesly puni­shed? That those who had they Li­ved for Ever, would have sin'd for Ever, (as it may Reasonably be Sup­posed all finally impenitent persons would have done) should be Tor­mented also Everlastingly?

God proposes to our free and Ra­tional Choice either an Eternity of Misery or Blessedness; now if End­less Glory be Despised and Rejected, what Remains but Endless Misery to be the Sinners just Lot of Inheri­tance? Eternal Misery sure is not more Disproportionable to a Vicious Life, than Eternal Happyness to a Vertuous; and therefore since the Reward promised to our Obedience, [Page 266] is Equal to the Punishment threatned to our Disobedience, and the Sinner has his unconstrain'd Choice of either of these, he acts herein upon the Square or Level; and if he chuses Endless Misery before Everla­sting blessedness, 'tis his own most Sottish fault; and he hath no one but himself to complain of for it.

Ah in Hell there will be no ca­villing Objections against the Justice of God's inflicting Eternal Punish­ment for Temporary acts of Disobedience; but the Sinner standing Self­condemned, will find such Considera­tions as these some of the bitterest In­gredients in his Torments; viz. the Reflections that he might have been Everlastingly Happy if he would; That Damnation in its Necessary Causes was his own Choice; that the Commandments of God were both Reasonable and Possible have been kept; That the Heavenly Assistence [Page 267] offer'd him, would have made them Easie; and an inward Principle of Divine Love, Delightsome; that he had once a Day of Grace and Salva­tion had he pleased to make Use of it, but that Now the Saving Bene­fits thereof are lost, through his Care­lessness; that the Main Constituent of his torments is the wicked, impure, unconverted Temper of his Mind, and that unless he were Holy, 'tis Impossible for him to be Happy. That he sees the way of Heaven Accessible, by the innumerable Hast of Saints, Martyrs, and Confessors which are There; and that he finds Hell was avoidable by feeling his own, and hearing the hideous Self-Exprobra­tions of all about him: And thus will God be Justified, and the Suffering Impenitent Condemned from his own Mind and Conseience!

Tell me no more then of Gaining the whole World, and Loosing there­by my own Soul; That is of more worth, cost more to be Redeem'd, than that it should be batter'd away upon so Slight a Consideration; Tell me no more of indulging my flesh into Eternal Ruine to my Spirit; I had rather live a Life of uninterrup­ted Self-denyals and Mortifications, than be Damn'd; than be Exposed to the Death Endless and insufferable!

Oh 'tis this suffering without any prospect, without any hopes of a Release, nay, with a certain Assu­rance that their torments shall have no period, which is the Hell of Hell to those Despairing Wretches who inhabit it; who are not only to suffer during all Eternity, but what's more, they suffer the Evils of a Re­probated [Page 269] Eternity, in every moment thereof; by considering each instant that what they now fell of most acute torments, must continue to be their sad portion for Ever; without Allay, without the least Ease or In­termission!

Blessed God, is this the Death which is the Wages of Sin? Is this Endless misery the Conclusion of Short momentary vicious pleasure? O come Pain and Anguish, come bodily Distress and Affliction, so that my Soul may be Saved in the Day of our Lord! Let me but escape Hell hereafter, and Give me my Hell upon Earth. O the heinous Nature, the mischievousness of sin, which leads to this place of Suffe­rings! May we by the fear of Hell be driven to Heaven; by fear of God's Justice be induced to lay hold [Page 270] on his Mercy. That considering the end of wicked actions, its being Death Eternal; we may break them off by Repentance, which leads to Life Everlasting.

Meditation XX. On Prayer, and the Powerful Efficacy thereof.

PRAYER, 'tis a Duty of Natural Religion and Worship; the Ob­ligation thereunto being founded in the Eternal and immutable Reason of things: In God's Supereminent Ex­cellencies and perfections, and in our own Dependent Indigent Condition as Creatures.

We are born infirm and weak, poor and Necessitous Beings, in Condition Alms-People and Beggars; and there­fore to pray alwayes is a Duty in­cumbent [Page 277] on us from the state of our Nature, as well as by the Command and Enjunction of God-Allmighty.

Prayer, 'tis an Acknowledgemant of God's Awful Transcendent Maje­sty, and of our own despicable meanness and imperfection; of his Sovereignty, and our Subjection; of his Self-sufficiency and over-flowing plenitude of Happyness, and of our own penury, straightness of fortune and impotency; of his immaculate Purity and Holyness, and of our Vileness and Corruption by Reason of sinning: And upon these Accounts our Addresses to Heaven ought to be accompanyed with all Lowlyness and Humality, with all holy Dread and Reverence.

Prayer being also a Duty of the greatest Importance to us, an instru­ment of bringing down all manner of Blessings, Temporal, Spiritual, and [Page 278] Eternal, ought to be offer'd up with the most fixt Attention of mind, with the most zealous Intention and fer­vour of Spirit; with the most hear­ty Sorrow in Confession, the most Earnest Desires in Petition, the most urgent and yet Lowly importunity in Deprecation, with the most Rais'd Joy and affectionate Gratitude in Thanksgiving.

We ought also in Prayer to Exer­cise an unshaken Faith, Hope, Trust, and Confidence; but however to wait with Patience and Dependance, with an humble Submission and Re­signation to God's will, whether or no he shall be pleas'd to Gratifie the Desires of our hearts, to Answer the requests of our lips.

And to induce us with the greater Willingness and Alacrity to set about this Duty of Prayer, let us consider the mighty Honour and high Dignity [Page 279] accuring to us therefrom; for is it not an Honour for us Creatures to be permitted to talk and freely converse with our Creator? Is it not an Ho­nour for us vile worms, for us sinful Dust and Ashes, to be allow'd the priviledge of having ready Access at any time to the Supream Majesty of Heaven and Earth, thereby to make known to him our sins, our infirmi­ties, our wants, our calamities and distresses, and hereupon to obtain the pardon of our sins, the healing of our infirmities, the Supply of our pressing wants, the mitigation, or entire Removal of our Distresses?

Consider also the inestimable Bene­fit of Prayer; 'tis the Channel through which are convey'd all our Mercyes, the best Desensative against impen­dent Dangers and mischiefs, against Divine Judgments and corrections for sinning: The great Repeller of Temptations, the powerful Subduer [Page 280] of our vices and evil inclinations, the fruitful improver of our Graces and vertuous Dispositions.

Lastly, Consider together with the Honour and Benefit the great Delight and pleasure resulting from a due dis­charge of Prayer; for what can be more pleasurable than to maintain a constant Intercourse with the Highest and most Excellent of Beings? Than to hold Communion by Addresses to the Throne of Grace, with our Crea­tor, Preserver, Redeemer, Sanctifier, and Continual Benefactor; and here­by to have the frequent Effects and Emanations of his Goodness and Be­nignity derived down upon us, and the Devotional Testimonies of our Love and Gratitude Ascending up again unto him? What can be a greater Ease and Refreshing to our minds, than to Disburthen them of the oppressive weight of Guilt con­tracted, by a free and ingenuous Ac­knowledgment [Page 281] thereof, by humble petitioning for forgiveness of the same, by Deprecation of punishment, and resolutely promising by the Assi­stance of God's Grace, never to Re­act the like, or any other wilful wickedness for the future? In sine, what more Delightful than to vent our Griefs, our fears, our wants, our Anxieties, and Distresses into the Ears of our Heavenly Father, one so Ten­der and Affectionate, so True to his word, so mindful of his promises, so Large in Bounty and beneficence; so thoroughly Able, so exceedingly Willing to supply all our wants, to Dry up all our Tears, to Remove all our Affrightments, to Satisfie our Anxieties, and Relieve our sorest Di­stresses?

Prayer rightly circumstantiated what is't it cannot do? It has subdued Kingdoms, obtain'd promises, wrought Miracles, Stopt the Mouths of Lions, [Page 282] Quench'd the violence of fire, out of weakness made Men Strong, Rais'd the Dead to Life again: It makes at present through the meritorious Me­diation of our Saviour, peace both in Heaven and Earth; unlocks the Gates of Divine Mercy, rifles the Celestial Treasury, brings down much of its rich Stores unto us; has power both with God and Man, and mightily prevails; Rendring both yielding, entreatable, compassionate!

Prayer, 'tis another Jacobs Ladder, which maintains a mutual Commerce and Correspondency between Hea­ven and Earth; 'tis a Burning-Glass of Divine Love, wherein all the heats and warmths of a servently pious Soul are concenter'd; wherein it exerciseth all its Grace with the greatest vigour and Activity: Exer­ciseth its profoundest Humility to­wards God, its firmest Dependance on him for Supplies and Belief, its [Page 283] heartyest Sorrow for Sin, its strongest Faith in Divine Mercy, it's most assured Hope in a Saviour, its most earnest pantings and breathings after Heavenly Communications, its most ardent Love, entire Re [...]ignation, and Expectant p [...]ever [...]ce in well­doing!

And of all the parts of Prayer, none more Noble and Generous, none more endearing and Accepta­ble unto God, because none more Disinterested and unmercenary, than Praise and Thanksgiving: Pe­tition respects Good things to come which we stand in Need of; Depre­cation Regards the keeping off, or Removal of those Evils which we ap­prehend our Sins have righteously deserved; and therefore Self-Interest as well as Religious Inclination put us upon the frequent use of these parts of Prayer; but Praise respecting [Page 284] purely an Admiration and awful Ex­tolling of the Divine perfections, and Thanksgiving being the making a Grateful Return to God for his ma­nifold favours and Loving kind­nesses past and Gone, Praise and Thanksgiving are hereupon the more undesigning, the more free and unselfish acts of Devotion; and consequently the more valuable and worthy in themselves, the more Ap­proved of, and well-pleasing to Hea­ven.

And indeed what more Just and Reasonable, what more becoming and Suitable, as well as Joyous and Delightsome a thing, than to be Thankful for Divine blessings recei­ved? Ah since the whole World is but one large Store-house, one Ma­gazine and Treasury of Heavenly Love and beneficence, how ought the World hereupon to be one large Temple, one Universal Quire of De­vout [Page 285] Praises and Hallelujahs! Of Thanksgivings as Zealous, Fervent, and Affectionate, as the Divine bene­factions which we enjoy, are Great, Prizable, and Important! How ought our fire of Devotion to be like that of the Vestal Virgins, perpetual and unexpiring! How ought the Glow­ing Embers of an habitually Grateful Temper and disposition to be con­stantly kept alive upon our hearts, though they are not ever actually breaking forth into a flame!

And indeed Prayer let it have never so much LIght, never so much Quickness of thought, and Lustre of Expression, yet if it have not also warmth and Zeal of Affection, 'tis but as the Glimmerings of a Glow­worme, or like those Shining Exha­lations which make Men believe they are Safe Conducted, when they are leading all the while into Bogs and Rivers, into peril and Destruction.

Devotion if it has not the fire of the Altar, will never prove the Sa­crifice of the Altar, such a Sacrifice wherewith God is well-pleased; for 'tis the fervent Prayer alone which is Effectual, and unless Effectual, 'tis of no Value and Advantage: But the fervent Prayer of a Righteous Man Availeth much; it pierceth the very Clouds, Enters into God's Presence, besieges his Throne and Mercy-Seat, and will not turn away, will not give over its Solliciting, till such time as the Almighty hears and gives an Answer, either by a Grant of its Re­quests, or by as kind and obliging a Denyal!

Importunity at the Throne of Grace, in the Court of Heaven, is not there accounted Troublesomness and Impertinency, Clamour and Ill­manners, as 'tis in Earthly Courts; but Heaven willingly suffers violence, the force and power of Devotion is [Page 287] Delightsome unto it, and the violent importunate Supplicants are those only who take it by force.

When Jacob wrestled all night in Prayer with God, the Angel of the Covenant, the Lord Christ Jesus, Such was his Prayers prevalency, Such its holy and Spiritual Charms, that Almighty God could not or would not free himself from them, till such time as Jacob ceasing his Prayer, let him Go and Dismist him! Gen 32. from 24, to 29. ver.

Since all our Temporal, all our Spi­ritual Blessings, all our Vertuous A­bilities, all our Vertuous Inclinations, the very Beginnings, the after-pro­gress, the Entire Completion of our Life of Grace depends so mightily upon the Aids and Communications of Heaven, and these are only to be derived thence by Prayer and a Good-Life; how Assiduous, how [Page 288] Diligent, how fervent and importu­nate ought we to be in the Duty!

Prayer 'tis which Lifts us up Above this Earth, lets us into Heaven, Gives us a Delightsome prospect of the Glo­ries therein, makes us talk and utter things as if we had been there; Prayer 'tis which Spiritualizes our Minds, purifies our Affections, Ex­alts us above this World's cares, or fears, and Sordid Concernments; Prayer, which giving us a fore-taste of the Joys to come, thereby conforms our Relish unto them; makes us Scorn and Despise this world's mean Emp­ty Entertainments, hunger and Thirst after the Noble Satisfying Delights of another Life; which renders us also fit Associates for the pure Intellectual Beings Above, who burn with De­votional Love, Gratitude, and Obe­dience, and whose Continual Employ it is to Adore, to praise and offer up Thanksgivings to the Divine Pa­rent of their Beings, and Author of all their Enjoyments!

By Prayer 'tis we hold the most Intimate Communion with God, and lye open to all the propitious influ­ences of his Spirit; then 'tis when at our Devotions, that the Sun of Righ­teousness Christ Jesus ariseth by his Grace with more especial Spiritual healing under his Wings; Dissipates our Darkness of Understanding, mol­lifies our obduracy of Will, imprints his own most Glorious Divine Image on our Souls!

Then 'tis when engaged in Prayer, that holy Men feel their hearts Glow within them, as if toucht with a coal of Devotion from God's Sacred Al­tar; now 'tis that they Disdain sin and every Degenerate action; Dis­dain even the Appearances of Evil; nay even Innocent Earthly Delights: And being Enravish'd with the Di­vine Love, being transported with Celestial Contemplation, every Ver­tue in them becomes the more Sprightly and Vigorous, and every Devout passion arises the nearer to [Page 290] Rapturous and Seraphical: So that in Devotion, if ever, doth the Soul make its most powerful Sallys Hea­venward, and become whilst in the body as if out of it, having its Affe­ctions, its Conversation Above with God!