הוהיל בישא המ OR A Serious Enquiry For a SUITABLE RETURN FOR Continued LIFE in and after a Time of Great Mortality BY A WASTING PLAGUE ANNO 1665. Answered in XIII DIRECTIONS By THO. DOOLITEL Psal. 116.8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling 9 I will walk before the Lord in the Land of the living 14. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people Isaiah 38.18 For the Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy Truth 19 The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day etc. London Printed by R. I. for ● Johnson and are to be sold by A. Brew●er at the three Bibles at the west end of St. Paul's and R. Boul●er at the Turks-head in Cornhill 1666. To such whom the Lord hath kept alive in the time of so great Death by the Plague in the Land especially in the City of London THe design of these lines is neither to commend the Author nor the Book which in these few following sheets is presented to your view the former being as needless to them that know his Person as the later to them that read his Directions but I would commend the Subject being so seasonable to your perusal and the Duties being so necessary to your Practice It was the saying of a Learned Divine who had the honour of being made a Prisoner as well as Minister of the Lord That it was great pity there were no more Prisoners of Jesus Christ to write songs of his love I will not say I could wish that more of our Citizens had in this late Dreadful Plague remained in this than Doleful place which to the Countries seemed more formidable than a Prison but I believe that many of you whose Calling and Duty did tie your hands and feet and shut you up in the City have found such sweet experiences of the goodness and love of God that they will be recorded And 65. will be remembered by you with thankfulness so long as you live You have seen the Destroying Angel entering the City and Death riding upon the Pale Horse Triumphant in the streets Arrows flying the sword bathed Garments rolling in blood and this grim Conqueror breaking in upon Houses without resistance taking Captive Men Women and Children and clapping them up in the Prison of the Grave where they must remain fast bound in his chains of darkeness until the opening of the doors by him who hath the keys of the Grave who having Conquered Death himself will at his appearance loosen the Bonds of all Death's prisoners that they may stand before his Judgement Seat to receive their Final Dooms In the midst of which slaughter and Captivity the Captain of your Salvation hath stood by you held his shield over you set his mark upon you and given you singular experience of his Power and Goodness in your preservation You have been in a storm God hath shown you his wonders in the Deep and when so many Ships have been cast away before your eyes and so many Persons have been devoured by the cruel Waters and yourselves environed with waves on every side yet the Lord hath kept you alive like Jonah in the Belly of the Sea or made a way for you to pass through when so many not only Egyptians but Israelites have been drowned you have been in the water but the Lord hath been an Ark about you You have been in the fire like the three Children but the Son of God hath walked with you and suppressed the violence of the fire that it hath not prevailed over you you have been like the Bush which Moses saw burning but was not burnt because God was in it And when you look back upon those dark days and black Bills of Mortality where you have had account of so many thousands dying for so many weeks together Do you not wonder at your strange escape Do you not look upon yourselves as Brands plucked out of the fire And must you not acknowledge it is the Lords mercy you are not consumed You who have continued in the City in the time of the Plague when such throngs of people have been crowding out of this world daily into another have had singular advantages of looking into and preparing for Eternity which few think of with fixed seriousness till they be awakened by some dangerous sickness whereby withal they are usually so weakened in body and spirit that they are rendered unfit for such cogitations but to be in such danger whilst in so good health and in such Leisure from encumbring employments I doubt not but it hath effectually moved many of you to soar a loft in your thoughts and Meditations that you might take a view of the other Country which the Scripture doth set forth of the City which hath foundations whose builder and Maker is God I believe the wicked have had dreadful apprehensions of the burning lake of the Ocean of God's wrath which every day they were ready to launch forth into and that however some have been hardened and are as bad yea worse than before yet I hope others have been so awakened with this dreadful Providence that they have been effectually persuaded to Repentance and Faith in Christ who alone can deliver from the wrath which is to come I believe that others have had deeper impressions of Eternity upon them than ever they had in their lives which the borders thereof on which they have been walking have given them so near & frequent a prospect of and I doubt not but all of you have made vows and promises to the Lord of a Holy conversation of leaving those sins your conscience at that time upbraided you withal and dedicating your lives to the Lord if he would be pleased to spare your lives Take heed of dropping asleep again after you have been awakened of returning again unto sin after it hath been embittered of forgetting or abusing God's mercy after such a wonderful preservation retain the same thoughts of sins evil and the world's vanity of the worth of true Grace and Christ's beauty retain the impressions you had of Eternity when you were so near it in your apprehensions hath God laid obligations upon you by his preservations and deliverances And have you laid obligations upon yourselves by your purposes and resolutions Labour then to live up to your obligations and if you be at a loss what return to make to the Lord You have by his Providence this little Book put into your hands to give you directions receive them not as the bare counsel of man but so far as backed by the Scripture as the Prescriptions of God as if the Lord should speak to you from Heaven and say This is my will these are your duties and see that you perform them Hereby you will both please the Lord and rejoice the heart of the Author and him who is Your servant in the Lord Thomas Vincent The CONTENTS THe Preface or Introduction p. 1 2 3. DIRECTION I. Containing two parts viz. Since you live after this Plague Be not worse but Better p. 4. I. The first part of this Direction containeth seven Questions p. 5. Question I. Whether wicked men wax worse and worse p. 6. Six things premised for Explication p. 7 8 9 10 11. Proved by Scripture Instances p. 12 to 17. Proved by Arguments p. 18 to 24. Question II. What are the several steps or gradations whereby sin grows from a low ebb to its highest actings Or Ten Rounds in the sinner's Ladder to Hell p. 24 to 35. Where seven things about Gods hardening wicked men's hearts p. 32 33. Question III. Under what Dispensations wicked men wax worse and worse p. 35. Viz. 1. Under God's Providences in Prosperity p. 36 37 in Adversity 38. in Deliverances 39 40 41 42 to 46 2Vnder Ordinances Word Sacrament p. 47 48. Question IU. Why God is pleased to remove Judgements though many men are worse than they were before p. 48 to 52. Question V. What are the aggravations of this great Impiety to be worse after God's sorest Judgements than they were before Answered in Ten particulars p. 52 to 59 Question VI What are signs of a man waxing worse and worse Answered in 14 particulars p. 59 to 68 Where six restraints of sin which keeping from sin do not prove truth of Grace yet sin against do prove height of sin p. 63 64 65 Question VII What Considerations may be useful to stop the stream of such men's wickedness that are waxing worse and worse p. 68 69 70 Seven Questions to such sinners p. 71 72 73 74 Six Directions to such sinners p. 75 76 Eight Corollaries from this first part of this Direction p. 77 78 II. The second part of the first Direction Since you live be better after this Judgement than you were before directed especially to the godly p. 79 Where Ten Lessons to be learned by those in the City that by reason of the Plague hath been a great House of Mourning p. 80 to 89 Ten Aggravations of God's People's sin if they be worse in their spiritual condition after this Plague than they were before p. 90 91 92 Seven Positions p. 93 etc. Seventeen Arguments to God's People to be better p. 97 101 DIRECTION II. Since you live after this Plague pay your Vows and live up to your holy Purposes and Resolutions which you made in time of danger and fears of death p. 102 115 Where Seven Reasons for care to keep your Resolutions holy Purposes and Vows p. 108 Twenty Helps to perform your Resolutions holy Purposes and Vows 115 Fourteen Aggravations if you come short of your Resolutions holy Purposes and Vows p. 116 etc. Where Eleven signs of a Beloved sin p. ibid. DIRECTION III. Since you live and are free from or cured of your bodily sickness look after the cure of soul-sickness take heed that you lie not under spiritual Judgements when temporal Judgement is removed p. 142 1 Sin is the souls sickness in 6 particulars p. 143 144 2 Spiritual Judgements are worse than temporal in seven particulars p. 145 149 3 How a man may know whether he be healed of Soul-sickness in six particulars p. 149 152 4 How a soul-sick sinner should do for healing in 8 particulars p. 153 The excellency of Christ our Soul-Physician in 5 particulars p. 154 etc. 5 What those must do whom Christ hath healed of soul-sickness to improve this Cure to the glory of God in 4 particulars p. 158 etc. DIRECTION IU. Since you live after this Plague be eminently exemplary in the capacity God hath set you p. 161 An humble Exhortation to Magistrates whom God hath preserved p. 162 163 164 Subjects Duties to Magistrates in 6 particulars p. 165 166 Ministers Duties whom God hath spared in this Plague in 4 particulars p. 167 175 Peoples Duties whom God hath continued to their Ministers p. 176 Governors of Families Duties whom God hath spared in this Plague in respect of Family Worship p. 177 Where is showed 1 Why in 8 particulars p. 179 to 182 2 Wherein in 5 particulars p. 183 189 3 How in 4 particulars p. 190 191 Duties of Husbands and Wives whom God hath continued together after this Plague viz. Mutual Love p. 192 193 Where is showed What manner of Love it must be p. 194 195 Why they should thus love p. 196 197 Wherein they should manifest it p. 198 199 Duties of Parents whom God hath continued to Children in 5 particulars p. 200 206 Duties of Children whom God hath continued to Parents What in 7 particulars Why in 6 particulars p. 206 209 Duties of Masters and Servants In 5 particulars p. 210 In 11 particulars p. 211 216 DIRECTION V. Since you live by God's secret way of preservation Watch against secret sins p. 217 Perform secret Duties p. 217 Mind secret things in public Duties p. 217 Where Fourteen Arguments against secret sins p. 219 231 Nine masked sins detected p. 221 222 Ten Preservatives against secret sins p. 232 etc. Four secret Duties p. 235 236 Six secret good things in Public Duties p. 237 238 Six secret sins in Public Duties p. 239 240 DIRECTION VI Since you live after this Plague be dead to the World p. 241 Viz. To the Profits of the World p. 242 243 To the Honours of the World ibid. To the Pleasures of the World p. 245 To the Wisdom of the World p. 246 How a man may know whether he be dead to the World p. 247 248 249 DIRECTION VII Since you live be dead to sin and be buried with Christ p. 250 Believers are buried in 3 respects p. 251 Two differences in burial of our Friends and of our Sins p. 252 Five things included in the Burial of sin p. 253 254 Four things for Comfort to those who are buried with Christ p. 255. DIRECTION VIII Since you live after this Plague walk in newness of life p. 256 What newness of life doth not consist in in 6 particulars p. 257 What i● doth consist in in Ten particulars p. 258 The Excellencies of a New Life in 10 particulars p. 261 The Hindrances of walking in Newness of Life in six particulars p. 264 DIRECTION IX Since you live after this Plague keep upon your heart a constant sense of Gods distinguishing Providence in preserving of you p. 265 Six Helps so to do p. 267 DIRECTION X. Since you live and many of your Relations dead love God so much the more by how much you have fewer Objects of your Love than you had before p. 270 DIRECTION XI Since you live after this Plague remember what Conscience did condemn you for in time of fear of death and avoid it what it did commend you for and do it 271 DIRECTION XII Since you live after such danger of death trust God for the future 273 What this trust is 274 Eight Arguments to trust in God 275 276 277 Six special times for trusting in God 278 DIRECTION XIII Since you live after this Plague give thanks to God for your preservation 279 Three ways how we must praise God for continued Life 280 Twelve Motives to praise God for continued Life 282 etc. Six Helps to praise God for Continued Life 288 etc. DIRECTIONS how to live after a wasting PLAGUE QUESTION How should those that have been preserved by God from the Grave in this time of Plague live in some measure Answerably to so great a Mercy THis is a Case of general concernment to those many thousands whom God hath kept alive in a time of Plague which hath swept so many thousands into their Graves whose bodies are now rotting in the dust and whose souls are entered into an unchangeable condition of happiness or misery whose life is ended whose time is past and gone who are now receiving their wages or reward according to what their state was found to be when the Plague removed them from time into eternity from this World into that which now they must be in for ever without alteration or redemption What Family is there in this great City or what person is there in all those families that are not concerned to inquire what signal and more than ordinary return they should make to God for such signal and more than ordinary preservation from the gates of death who have walked upon the very borders of the Grave and are yet alive who have been nearer the brink of Eternity and in more danger of being cut down than at other times and yet are spared and are numbered amongst the living and not reckoned nor made free amongst the dead It is the unquestionable and standing duty of all living to live to God but there is a superadded Obligation upon all those whom God hath marked out for Life when the slaughtering Angel was going from Parish to Parish from house to house to cut down those whom God had commissioned him to remove from hence Oh! should you not consider with yourself what it is that God expecteth at mine hands How would he have me for to live and what would God have me to do What is the special work he hath reserved me for Hath God laid the Corpses of thousands in the Churchyards and yet given me a little respite to act for my precious soul and for his glory hath he reprieved me for a while and am I not a living walking Monument of his distinguishing Mercy and unwearied Patience towards me When others are dead I live when others must pray no more hear no more God giveth me time as yet to do both and all other duties in order to my eternal peace Thus should you reason yourself into your duty and to a diligent Inquiry What you should do to live in some measure answerably to so great a Mercy But Reader wilt thou first resolve in the fear and presence of that God that hath redeemed thy life from death to make a conscientious use of any helps and directions so to do wilt thou indeed engage thy heart before thou readest any further to use thy utmost diligence in practising and obeying what shall be from the Word of God discovered to thee to be thy duty yea in the Name of God I charge thee that thou do it as ever thou wouldst appear before the Bar of God with comfort and give a good account of this his patience and Providence towards thee and of these Lines which now thou readest that neither the one nor the other rise up in Judgement against thee as an aggravation of thy sin nor for the greater condemnation of thy soul What dost thou say wilt thou promise and accordingly obey or wilt thou not If not better thou hadst died in time of Plague and fallen with others into the same common grave than to outlive the Plague and not outlive thy sin to live longer to add unto thy sin and in the day of God's patience towards thee to be heaping up wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous Judgement of God but if thou wilt I shall by God's assistance proceed to resolve this Important Case in laying down these following Directions which will also be of use to answer another Query viz. How you may know whether God hath lengthened out your life in Mercy or in Judgement If you live according to these following Rules God hath spared you in mercy if you live contrary to them and die so at last I fear your escaping this Judgement will at last prove a Judgement to you The first of these Directions will be more general the rest shall be more particular DIRECTION I. HAth God spared you in time of Plague Then be better and not worse than you were before Those that before were bad have now greater engagement to be good and those that were good before are engaged by God's merciful Providence to them to be better not only better than those that are bad but better than themselves that before were good In time of Plague you did inquire for the best Antidote and for the best Cordial and Preservative and should you not now the Plague is thus ceased inquire what is your best Return you are to make to God especially when in time of Plague God's Protection was your best Preservative and the Spirits Comforts your chiefest Cordials This Direction consisteth of two branches and I will speak of them apart Before the Plague begun 1 Be not worse than you were 2 Be better than you were And indeed if you be not better you will be worse as afterwards will be made appear Now because it is to be feared that some men will be worse after this dreadful and devouring man-eating Judgement than they were before I shall more largely treat of this particular The first p●rt of the first Direction contains 7 Questions if peradventure God may by these Lines prevent in some so great an evil after so great a Plague Where I shall speak to these particular Questions Q. 1. Whether ungodly men do oftentimes wax worse and worse and why Q 2. What are the several steps that men do take in sinful ways in their waxing worse and worse Q. 3. Under what Dispensations wicked men wax worse and worse Q. 4. Why God is pleased to remove Judgements though many men are worse than they were before Q. 5. What are the Aggravations of this great Impiety to be worse after God's sorest Judgement than they were before Q. 6. What are the signs of a man that waxeth worse and worse under all the Means that God doth use to make him better Q. 7. What considerations may be useful to stop the stream of such men's wickedness that yet are waxing worse and worse SECTION I. Question First Whether ungodly men do often times wax worse and worse SOme wax richer and some wax better and all men wax older and many wax worse 2 Tim. 3.13 But evil men and seducers wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived To increase in Riches is not simply evil to increase in Grace is surely good This increase is commanded 2 Pet. 3.18 But grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ It is commended 1 Cor. 1.5 In every thing ye are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge It is to be prayed for Luk. 17.5 Lord increase our faith Col. 1.9 For this cause we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and to desire you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding Verse 10. That ye may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God But to increase in sin and to grow in wickedness especially after men have seen God's displeasure against sin in a wasting Plague is an evil to be lamented if we could with tears of blood When instead of adding grace to grace 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7. they add sin to sin to Drunkenness they add Adultery to Passion Malice to Malice Revenge Some men make such progress in sin by little and little till as all the little Channels meeting in one place become a common Sewer of all filthiness and impiety Sinks of sin and nasty dunghills of all uncleanness Let me premise these six particulars and I will pass to the proof of this first thing 1. Six things premised for explication That the Nature of man is wonderfully depraved and in all men except Christ equally sinful For First All men are equally under the guilt of Adam's first transgression Secondly All men are equally deprived of Original righteousness Thirdly All men have equally the seeds of all sin in their nature all naturally prone to all sin Gen. 6.5 though by reason of the temperament of the body some men might be more inclined to one sin than to another yet all sin is seminally and radically in every man's nature all men by nature are equally tinder the curse of the Law deserve the wrath of God and equally liable to the torments of hell Ephes. 2.3 2. That every sin that men commit is of a damning nature and though some sins in comparison of others might be called little sins yet in respect of the great God against whom they are committed no sin is small Though degrees of sin and inequality of sinning have greater degrees of torment and shall have inequality in sufferings yet eternal death is the wages of the smallest sin Therefore let no man think while I speak of the increase of sin that he is good because he is not so bad as others grow to be 3. That in the world there are several sizes and degrees of sinners as in the Church there are several sizes and degrees of believers * Pe●de● haec peccati differentia graduum 1 A respectu personae a qua admittitur 2 A g●nere & natura rei 3 Ah intensione & remissione actus 4 ratione et modo patrandi 5 A circumstantiis loci temporis etc. Ames ●ed p. 65. In the Church there are Fathers Young men Children 1 Joh. 2.13 And Babes 1 Pet. 2.1 So there are several sizes of sinners Some moral men some openly profane some are great swearers and great drunk●rds Ringleaders to sin the Devil's Lieutenant's provoking others to sin and encouraging them therein Some are chief among sinners Luk. 19.2 Some drink in Iniquity like water Job 15.16 Some are drawn to sin and some draw sin to them and that as with Cart ropes Isa. 5.18 some commit sin and tremble at it and some commit sin and rejoice at it Prov. 2.14 some commit sin and are terrified at it when they have done it some commit sin and make a mock and sport of sin when they have done it Pro. 10.23 & 14.9 some commit sin with great remorse and reluctance and others commit sin with as great and eager greediness Eph. 4.18.19 A dreadful text Having the understanding darkened being alienated from the Life of God through the Ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart vers. 19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness These are sinners of a great Magnitude if you weigh the things spoken of them 1 Having their understandings darkened * The word doth either signify the faculty itself or the ratiocination or reasoning of the understanding and it is true in both respects their understandings are dark and ignorant and their reasonings are dark and obscure 2 Being alienated from the Life of God i. e. * Vitam ● Dei appellat vitam illam qua deus vivit in suis quamque praecipit & approbat Beza in loc That Life that God commands and approveth they are too much acquainted with a sensual flesh-pleasing swinish life but they are utter strangers to an holy selfdenying sin-mortifying Life because of the ignorance that is in them as a bruit doth not know the life of reason so sinners are ignorant of the Life of God 3 Because of the blindness more properly the hardness of their heart This word is sometimes rendered blindness sometimes hardness because they are conjunct a blind heart is a hard heart and a hard heart is a blind heart it signifieth the thick skin that covereth the palms of the hands of hard labourers that they can handle nettles and in that part of their hand have no feeling of the stingings as others are sensible of There is a thick skin hath over grown the hearts of some sinners that they are 4 past * feeling unsensible as a stone who are said to have their consciences feared as with an hot Iron But though they feel not their sin here they shall feel the torments due for sin in the life to come The hideous howl and gnash of teeth amongst the damned speak plainly that they feel the punishment of sin 5 Have given themselves over to lasciviousness sometime sinners are said to sell themselves to work wickedness as Ahab 1 King 21 2● sometimes are said to give themselves to wickedness which denotes their constancy and complacency in working wickedness as when St. Paul commanded Timothy to give himself to reading he saith Give thyself wholly to them 1 Tim. 4.15 Be thou in these things a man's heart is in those things he is given to a Scholar that is given to his Book a drunkard that is given to drinking when his cup is in his hand his heart is in the cup. He is in drink is our proverb when the drink is in him God and Christ should dwell in their heart but their heart is in their sin and sin is in their heart 6 To * is opera quaestus work They work at sin as for gain when it is the loss of the soul that will be the issue Sin indeed is a hard labour and greatest drudgery sinners work and damnation will be their wages they should be working out their salvation but they are working out their damnation they are Labouring for hell and taking pains to undo themselves and what is it they are so much employed in 7 In uncleanness in the extent and latitude of it working all manner of uncleanness and that 8 with greediness or with * i e. quasi agatur de lu●●n ita ut ●liu● alium superare conte●d●t Beza in loc covetousness Wicked men are as eager after sin as a covetous man is after a good bargain they are covetous to commit sin But Beza renders it Certatim contending and striving who may sin most as if they could not get to damnation soon enough or sure enough 4. That the reason why sin doth not rise to its height in all men is not from themselves but from God It is God that sets bounds to the Ocean of men's lusts that they should no more overflow God in great measure by restraining grace dammeth up the fountain of sin that it sendeth not forth so many streams as in others it doth Gen. 20.6 for I also withheld thee from sinning against me therefore suffered I thee not to touch her But some God giveth up unto their lusts Rom. 1.24 26. 5. That men stand not at a stay in virtue or in vice in holiness or wickedness If a man doth not increase in grace likely he is decreasing so if a man be not mending he is growing worse like rotten things every day are worse and worse more seared if not softened more resolved to sin if not reclaimed Of good it is said Non progredi est regredi not to go forward is to go backward of wicked I say Non regredi est progredi not to go backward from sin is to go forward in sin 6. That wicked men might seem to mend in one thing and wax worse in another and so they do not leave their wickedness but only change it as one that was a prodigal and licentious turns to be niggardly and covetous SECT II. THese things premised I shall show that oftentimes wicked men grow worse and worse and therefore will appear that this advice is not unseasonable after such a thundering voice of judgement as this Plague hath been This will be manifest From Scripture By Arguments Scriptures showing many wax worse Nemo repent sit turpissimus sed sensim sine sensu First The Scriptures evidencing this that men oftentimes grow worse and are more wicked are such as these Psal. 1.1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful In which Scripture there are nine words that set forth the progress of men in sinning and their coming up to the height of wickedness gradatim Psal. 1. v. 1. opened Three respect Sinful Objects Counsel Way Seat Sinful Actions Walk Stand. Sit. Sinful Persons  Sinners Scornful And every third of these includes the second and the second includes the first non contra every scorner is a sinner and every sinner is ungodly but every ungodly person is not a sinner i. e. emphatically as the word is sometimes used Luk. 7.37 And behold a woman in the City that was a sinner i. e. a great and notorious sinner and every such sinner is not scornful Sitting includeth standeth and doth suppose it for a man must stand before he sits in a wicked way and standing supposeth a man first to come into that way or to that seat in which he sits but not contrary a wicked man may walk in that way in which he doth not stand and he might stand in that way in which he doth not sit and so of the rest Now here observe David's climax or gradation setting forth the progress of wicked men in sinning First they walk than they stand next they sit First they are ungodly than they are great sinners next they are scornful For the fuller opening of this Scripture to see men's growth in sin I will review them First The Objects about which wicked men are conversant which were noted to be three 1. Counsel a Tam id quod consulitur quam quod consilio efficitur by th' Wicked men consult how they may satisfy their lusts they deliberate how they may get an opportunity to sin Thus the malicious man studies revenge and the Adulterer contrives secrecy Psal. 36.4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed and the Devil is near his pillow to be his counsellor 2. Way b Mos consuetudo studium quae sunt quasi viae per quas incedunt versonturque by th' Manner of life is set out by way in Scripture men's practices are their way a man that hath a good trade and thrives therein we say he is in a good way and so the profession and serving of God in such a manner is called a way Act. 9.2 so that a wicked man maketh sin his profession and trade Thus the common drunkard by his daily wickedness professeth himself a drunkard that is his way 3. Seat By frequent commission they settle themselves on their lees then fix their abode in the house of sin They lie down and like swine wallow in their iniquity Psal. 36.4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed he setteth himself in a way that is not good They first consult than act then settle in their sin Secondly The Actions which were also three 1. They walk * Ambulavit metaphoricè usurpatur de vita moribus & actionibus they take delight in their sin as a man doth in a pleasant walk and as the Devil with whom they walk in walking to and fro to tempt and devour souls a godly man might possibly step into a sinful way but a wicked man walketh therein 2. They Stand Next they become obdurate and shameless in sin they are not ashamed of their oaths and drunkenness and open profanations of the Sabbath a godly man might fall into sin but he doth not stand in it he doth not persist in it but wicked men will stand and justify themselves in wickedness and plead for it 3. They Sat As men secure will persevere in evil a man that sits intends to stay it being a gesture more remote from motion than standing is Thirdly The Persons and these likewise are three 1. The  a man that sins and reputes not is an Ungodly man Septuagint 2. Then they are Sinners i. e. notoriously wicked as was before showed * Nomen plurale absque singulari ex conjugatione Pihel deductum idcoque significationem intendit ac Habitum denotat ●i●lmer in Psal. it signifieth habitual sinners 3. Then they are Scornful will be scorners of reproofs and scorners of the way of holiness and then are come to such height in sin that Solomon forbids to reprove them as men scarce reclaimed Prov. 9.7 8. which the Septuagint translate Pests Plagues Tertullus the Orator called the Apostle Paul a Pest a Plague pestilent fellow Act. 24.5 but by the Septuagint scornful sinners are the pests of a place Thus from this Scripture you have the progress men make in sin accurately described by the Psalmist Thus Cain waxed worse and worse and did grow in sin Gen. 4. 1. He dealt hypocritically with God vers. 4. He brought to God of the fruit of the ground but kept back his heart 2 He envied his brother Abel and the grace of God that appeared in him 1 Joh. 3.12 and he offered to God and persecuted his brother to death Gen. 4.8 3 He lieth before an all knowing God speaking falsely vers. 9 4 He flies in the face of God as if God had charged him with that which was not his duty Am I my brother's keeper 5 He despaireth of mercy vers. 13. My punishment is greater than I can bear or My sin is greater than that it may be forgiven 6 He flies from God vers. 16. 7 He takes up with the pleasures and profits of the world without God vers. 17. So Cain increased in wickedness So did Ahab 1 King 21. 1. He seeth Naboths Vineyard 2 He doth covet it and unlawfully desire that which was another man's vers. 2. and would have bought that which Naboth had not a power to sell because it was the Inheritance of his Fathers vers. 3. and Numb 36.7 3 He was discontent at Naboths answer though he gave him the Word of God as the reason of his denial ver 4. 4 He doth unfaithfully report the words of Naboth as is usual with wicked men to do vers. 6. He leaves out the reason of Naboths denial Because it was the Inheritance of his Fathers 5 He was guilty of Naboths death suffering Jezebel to use his Seal to effect it vers. 8. And Elijah the Prophet chargeth Ahab with his death as being guilty of his blood vers. 19 6 He takes possession of that which was none of his own and which he got with the shedding of innocent blood contrary to the command of God Ezek. 46.18 The like steps you might perceive in Jezebels sin and if you trace her you will find her step by step to come up to an height of sin 1. She approves of Ahabs unlawful desire vers. 7. 2 She resolves to get by violence what Ahab did sinfully desire vers. 7 8. 3 She makes her husband guilty of blood by gaining his consent to that which he would not act with his own hand vers. 8 19 compared 4 She draweth other men and makes them partakers of her sin the Elders and Nobles vers. 8 9 5 She causeth two wicked men to take a false Oath against Naboth 6 She suggesteth the Charge that should be brought against him which was high and false ver 10. Let them swear that Naboth did blaspheme God and the King when indeed Naboth did neither 7 She profanes God's Ordinance she proclaimed a Fast she coloureth her wickedness with Religious pretences 8 She obtains the murder of Naboth vers. 13. They stoned by Jezebels counsel an innocent man to death This was the growth and gradation of Jezebels wickedness till it became monstrous great So Judas increased in wickedness and grew worse and worse 1 He was an hypocrite 2 A Thief Joh. 12.4 5 6. 3 A traitor to his lord 4 He despaired of mercy 5 He murdered himself The groweth of sin is intimated in that expression of the holy-Ghost Gen. 15.16 The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full It was increasing but their measure was not full sin would increase In infinitum but there is a measure that a swearer or a drunkard and all wicked men shall fill up and then God will call them to an account Mat. 23.32 Fill ye up then the measure of your Fathers Thus from the word of God I have shown that wicked men do grow in sin and wax oftentimes worse and worse SECT III. Secondly ARguments drawn from Reason do evidence this that wicked men are apt to grow in sin I will take up with three only lest I be too large in this Direction And they are taken First A natura peccati From the Nature of sin Arguments proving wicked men wax worse Secondly Ab impulsu Diaboli From the Instigation of the Devil Thirdly Ab absentia contrarii From the absence of that which should keep them from sinning more and more Removetur prohibens I. From sin This appears from the Nature of sin that is predominant in ungodly men that sways and Byasseth them in all their actions and ruleth in them and exerciseth authority over them 1. Sin disposeth the heart to sin One sin doth incline and dispose the heart to sin again The first sin inclined all men to commit more where grace is predominant the heart is inclined to love God and to obey God the general scope of such a man's life and the bent and inclination of his heart is towards God and duty to grow in grace and become better and better Now Contrariorum contraria est ratio & natura Sin doth dispose the heart to sin and to depart from God more and more Heb. 3.12 It makes the bent of the heart to Backslide further and further from God Hos 11.7 It makes the heart set to do evil Eccles. 8.11 The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil As is the tide to the boat so is sin to man's heart 2. Sin begets sin Sin is of a multiplying nature as sin committed inclineth the heart to the iteration of the same sin so one sin begets another of another kind as drunkenness and gluttony begets lust and malice revenge as one circle in the water multiplies to twenty out of one root of a tree grow many arms out of one arm many branches out of every branch many twigs From the same fountain proceed many streams from the same body of the Sun many Beams So from one sin are many multiplied So Adam's first sin hath multiplied Innumerably 3. Sin is linked to sin In wicked men there is a complication and a connexion of sins Sins thus multiplied are linked one to another and are twisted together as there is a chain of graces in a godly man that if you draw one link you move the whole chain when you exercise Faith upon a promise suppose of eternal Life this sets all his graces on exercise as one wheel in a Watch moveth all the rest Faith applying this promise stirreth up love to God that made the promise and hath prepared the thing promised it inflames holy desires after it & desires put on to diligent endeavours to obtain it it begets a lively hope which earnestly yet patiently waiteth for the possession of it So there is a concatenation of sin therefore sin is compared to a body in which all the members by sinews and ligaments are knit together Rom. 6.6 that though all the members do not grow to an equal quantity but some are bigger some less yet all do proportionably grow so though all sins in a wicked man are not of the same magnitude but in some drunkenness is greatest in some pride in some covetousness yet all sin is growing in them and therefore must necessarily be worse and worse as unbelief makes a sinner fearless of God's threatenings and fearlesness makes him secure and security hardeneth his heart and when his heart is hard and his Conscience seared he will be very bad 4. Sin infects the sinner Sin is of an infectious nature an infectious disease doth not only spread unto others as one man sick of the Plague may infect a whole Parish but getteth nearer and nearer to his heart and seizeth upon his very vitals that he waxeth sicker and sicker and at last brings him to his grave So one sin doth not only infect others as one drunkard enticeth another to the same sin but sin encroacheth more into the sinner's heart and affections and brings him more and more into bondage to it and so makes him worse and worse as a man that was wont to take a cup too much at length is brought to frequent drunkenness till at last it brings him to Hell and to damnation irrecoverably where he is as bad as he can be 5. Sin is unsatiable Sin is of a craving and unsatiable nature therefore those that would satisfy their Lusts must needs in length of time be very bad There are four things which are never satisfied and never say It is enough Prov. 30.15 16. and sin may make a fifth For though a man drudge under sin all his days yet it thinks the Sinner hath not done enough for it The Horseleech hath two daughters crying Give give such a thing is sin that never leaves sucking the heartblood of the Sinner till it hath sucked him to death Sin cannot cease to ask and sinners know not how to deny and they must be wicked indeed that will be as wicked as sin can make them I might run through the several kinds of sin and show how they are never satisfied The Egyptians thought that the Israelites never made brick enough and sin thinks the sinner never is enslaved enough that he never doth obey enough but I will briefly instance but in three First Covetousness is unsatiable it never saith It is enough It is not satisfied with having nor in seeing what it hath Eccles. 4.8 and 5.10 and therefore puts the Worldling to go drudge again Crescit amor nummi etc. Secondly Revenge is unsatiable Malice never thinks it hath done enough and therefore puts on the malicious to consult to contrive and never to be at rest till he hath been more injurious to the person that is the object of his malice Thirdly Lust and uncleanness is unsatiable and therefore such as are addicted to it and would have it satisfied must be very wicked Oculi sunt in amore deuces for they never do it 2 Pet. 2.14 having eyes full of the Adulteress the very looks of their eye betrays the lust of their heart and it follows And cannot cease from sin therefore will proceed to great Impiety SECT IV. II. Satan THat wicked men will grow in sin appears from the instigation of the Devil who is unweariedly diligent to tempt unto sin and to add one iniquity unto another and that because he rules in their hearts and takes them captive at his pleasure 2 Tim. 2.26 A man will be very wicked that will sin as often as the Devil tempts A man is never so bad but the Devil would have him to be worse Judas was an hypocrite before but yet Satan put it into his heart to be more vile in betraying Christ Joh. 13.2 Satan tempting without and sin inclining within Satan never ceasing to tempt and Sinners not knowing how to resist will be growing like the Crocodile from an Egg to a stupendous magnitude SECT V. Absence of Grace III. THat wicked men will grow in sin appears from the absence of that which should restrain them If a man hath drunk in poison and hath no Alexipharmacum or Antidote his sickness will grow upon him Wicked men want that which should preserve them from sin as 1. The Fear of God This is that which causeth a man to shun evil Job 1.1 Job was a man fearing God and eschewing evil Prov. 8.13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil But where the fear of the Lord is not there the floodgates are pulled up If the Devil tempt a man that feareth not God to sport on the Lord's day he will do it to omit Prayer he will do it yea if there were no Devil to tempt him he would run on in sin This is brought in as the cause of crying sins Rom. 3.12 13 14 15 16 17 18. Many sins there are enumerated and at the close of all is There is no fear of God before their eyes Abraham dared not to trust himself with a people that did not fear God Gen. 20.11 Abraham said Because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place and they will slay me for my Wife's sake 2. Wicked men want serious Consideration that should keep them from being worse they do not seriously consider of Death and Judgement of the Wrath of God of the Torments of Hell nor of God's Omniscience that he always sees them Hos 7.2 They consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness now their own doings have beset them about they are before my face Nor of his Omnipresence that he is always with them and by them they consider not If I sin I shall lose my soul and it will cost me bitter tears or bitter torments They do not weigh in their serious thoughts the greatness of their danger the heaviness of God's wrath nor the eternity of the miseries of another world God complains of the want of Consideration as the great cause of the height of sin Isa. 1.2 3 4. 3. Wicked men want a firm assent to the verity of God's Word that they do not verily believe the truth of God's threatenings but they have a secret hope that it shall go well with them whatever they do and whatever God saith They hear of the evil of sin and of the torments of Hell but they feel nothing for the present and fear nothing for the future and therefore go on to add drunkenness to thirst Deut. 29.19 20 21. And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart to add drunkenness to thirst Verse 20. The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his Jealousy shall smoak against that man and all the Curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under Heaven 4. Wicked men want a lively tender Conscience which should warn them that they sin not and accuse them and threaten them with damnation if they do Many have cauterised Consciences 1 Tim. 4.2 Where Conscience is dead or sleepy or feared there iniquity will abound SECT VI What are the several steps and gradations whereby sin grows from a low ebb to its highest actings Question Second THere are ten steps to the highest actings of sin five of which are common to good and bad the other five proper to the wicked and ungodly Many Hypocrites may go half way with the godly in that which is good but never while such go quite thorough So too often a man that is godly goes half way with the wicked in sinning but never goes quite thorough with them in all the circumstances of sin 10 rounds in the sinner's Ladder to hell The rounds in the Sinners Ladder to hell are these ten 1. Original Concupiscence 2. Temptation 3. Inclination 4. Consent 5. Action 6. Custom 7. Habit. 8. Hardness contracted 9 Hardness Judicial 10. Consummation or final Impenitence Of these briefly in their order I. Natural Concupiscence Natural Concupiscence or the Viciousness of our Nature which is in Infants this is as the Tinder or the Gunpowder whereby our Natures are apt to take fire at the least spark This is a sin because it is the absence or privation of that rectitude which ought to be in our Nature it is a fruit and punishment of Adam's first sin and an immediate consequent of the loss of our Original Righteousness This is foams peccati like to that wherewith the fire is kindled or kept burning called the Old Man sinful Sin the body of Sin sin dwelling Law of Members II. Temptation Then there is some Temptation solicitation suited to this corrupt Principle either by the Devil or wicked men or some Object presented to a man that might stir up and excite this internal principle of Corruption in our hearts and though all men have the seeds of all sin yet Satan observing men's different constitutions hath different baits as men have several baits for several fish some he soliciteth to drunkenness others to uncleanness and others to covetousness Where note that Satan hath a wonderful advantage of us which he had not in our first Parents before the first sin for there was nothing in their hearts that was corrupt and yet how did the Devil's temptation together with the Object set before their eyes prevail over them What the warm Sun is to the stiff and frozen Serpent it doth enliven it and then it sendeth forth its venom and useth its sting that a Temptation or an Object proposed is to our corrupt Natures Some call this Abstraction a drawing the mind off from good to evil III. Inclination Then there ariseth some Inclination in the soul or an hankering of the heart after that sinful Object an entering into a patley with the Devil minding of the motion made by the Tempter thinking further of the committing of the sin ●am 1.14 is enticed the word signifies baiting as men do bait for fishes This is called Inescation as the Fish delighteth to play with the bait or Vitiosus motus joined with some titillation or delight of the heart therein The first motions of the heart that are primo primi though they be involuntary and before consent of will and the judgement against them yet are sins 1 Because they are motus disorderly motions of the heart Rom. 7.7.14 15 16 17. 2 Because they be forbidden by the Law of God and 3 Hinder our love to God IU. Consent Next is the Compliance and consent of the will yielding to the temptation and closing with the motion made concerning such an act upon such an Object The Will as queen and commander in the soul makes a decree to close with the temptation and to close with and consent unto the solicitation to sin upon the understandings mistake in its comparative judgement apprehending and dictating to the will that to be good which indeed is evil or the sensitive appetite moving the will by the mediation of the understanding allureth it unto consent and this is the conception of sin Jam. 1.14 15. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed then when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin etc. V. Action When the Will hath consented it lays a despotical or flat Injunction on the Members of the body to execute and proceed to action and this is the actual commission of sin in the execution in Imperate acts Thus when Judas had consented to betray Christ he goes forth and covenants with Christ's crucifyers and betrays him Thus the eye moveth to behold and the hand to act that which the will consenteth to and commands Thus far it is the unhappiness of the people of God in their state of imperfection to yield David had a principle of corruption than an Object proposed then wicked suggestions arose or were injected into his mind than his will consented and then proceeded to the actual commission of his after-bitterly-lamented sin VI Iteration Then wicked men proceed to the frequent Iteration of the same sin till it becomes customary A wicked man is drunk till it is his custom to be so and to swear till it becomes his custom to do so This is a great progress made in sin it is great growth and such will be hardly reclaimed Jer. 13.23 Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may you who are accustomed to do evil learn to do well Aethiopem lavare is to labour in vain Ministers endeavour to reclaim men accustomed to swearing and lying and drunkenness and they preach in vain and study and pray in vain as to any success usually upon such men's hearts It is the commendation of a man to be accustomed to a thing if it be good for a Christian to say it is his custom to pray and a Minister it is his custom to preach though it is not good that the one pray out of custom nor the other preach customarily To have it customary to perform holy duties is good but to do them customarily is evil Thus it was Christ's custom or he was wont to preach and teach the people But it is an aggravation to be accustomed to a thing if it be evil and if it be gross it is a sign of a graceless person Though some carnal men when reproved for their often swearing say I thought no harm it is only a custom I have got and I cannot leave it A custom why that is the aggravation and growth of thy wickedness and thou dost as foolishly allege that to extenuate thy sin which indeed doth aggravate thy sin as a Thief accused before the Judge for stealing should plead it was his custom so to do Now sin is become the profession of the sinner and he goes to his sin as customarily as an Artificer to his Shop or Workhouse but it is not the custom of God's people to make a custom of committing gross sins David did to the wounding of his soul once commit Adultery but it was not his Custom so to do Peter at one time did deny his Lord but it was not his custom so to do It is not the custom of a gracious person often to commit the same gross sin but it is his custom often to lament a gross sin but once committed Therefore if it be thy custom to commit gross sins and thou art wont to do so thou art gone beyond the people of God in thy sinnings Thy state is deplorable VII Habit. Customary commission of sin begets an Habit in sinning whereby the love of sin is more deeply radicated in the heart Habits are got by frequent repeated acts and doth add a greater facility to act and such as are customary sinners will soon be habitual Sinners by frequent swearing they will have an habit of swearing by frequent drunkenness they will acquire an habit of that sin and what is habitual especially in evil things is not easily lost VIII Hardness contracted Then Habitual commission of sin begets contracted Hardness of heart and fearlesness of all God's Judgements and threatenings and contracted hardness added to natural hardness is a great progress in sinning * Peccata sive sint commissionis sive omissionis per multiplicationem diuturnam in consuctudinem ducta & inveterata pravum habitum gignunt ac quasi callum obducunt voluntati simu●●c menti Ames Med. p. 67. Thy Conscience is seared thy heart hard as the nether millstone past feeling When Pharaoh hardened his heart his sinning was great Exod. 8.15 Now thou stiffenest thy neck against all admonitions Act. 7.51 and hardenest thy heart against reproofs Prov. 29.1 Now thou actest as if thou wert above control and if thou couldst wouldst shake off the very Sovereignty of God Exod 5.2 And Pharaoh who was come up to the degree of hardness said Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go So hardened Sinners reply to God's Ministers exhorting them to let their sins and lusts go saying at least in their hearts Who is the Lord whose Name you use we know not the Lord neither will we let our sins go nor our pleasures and profits go Now thou sayest to the Lord Depart from me Job 21.14 My tongue is mine own who is Lord over me Psal. 12.4 Now thou gloriest in thy wickedness that is thy shame Philip. 3.19 Thou rejoicest to do evil Prov. 2.14 and makest a mock of Sin Prov. 14.9 and makest a sport in doing mischief Prov. 10.23 Oh if thou couldst vapour it thus at the day of judgement and make as light of torment as now thou dost of sin if thou couldst brave it out thus before Christ at his coming and Russian like bid defiance to an almighty God and angry judge thy case were not so miserable but thou canst not alas thou canst not do it Now thou art stout against the Lord Mal. 3.13 But then thou shalt sneak and crouch before him IX Hardness judicial Then Judicial Hardness is added to contracted Hardness thou hast hardened thine own heart and God will harden it also Now when Natural Contracted and Judicial all meet in one man's heart how hard must it needs be and how great a sinner is this man in the sight of God you read sometime Pharaoh hardened his heart ●●mself Exod. 8.15 and sometimes that God hardened Pharaohs heart also Exod. 10.20 So God giveth men up to their own hearts lusts which is a greater judgement unspeakably greater than all bodily Plagues Read Rom. 1.21 to the end Psal. 81.11 12. Rev. 22.11 Isa. 6.9.10 Hos 4.14 17. But here conceive of God aright when the Scripture saith God hardeneth men's heart it is not to be understood as if God were the author of their sin no more than the Sun can be the efficient cause of darkness for how shall the chiefest good be the author of the greatest evil 7 things about Gods hardening men's hea●ts For 1. God doth not infuse any wickedness into their hearts 2. Nor doth God tempt them to sin James 1.13 he may try them but not tempt them to sin 3. God commands no man to sin for Gods command would make it no sin as in the case of Abraham's Sacrificing his Son or the Israelites taking the Jewels and Earrings of the Egyptians except such things as are intrinsically evil as are hating of God and blaspheming of God and these things God cannot command as he is said that he cannot lie Tit. 1.2 4. God with greatest severity forbids men's sins he chargeth you upon pain of damnation upon peril of Hell torments that you sin not but commands men to repent and mourn for sin therefore doth forbid them to be hard and stupid under sin 5. Neither doth God cooperate or concur to the wickedness of their actions though without derogation to God's honour we may say he doth concur to their wicked actions For in him all live and move and have their beings Act. 17.28 Deus concurrit ad actum non ad malitiam actûs The action materially considered as it is an action or motion is good and so God is the cause of it but the action formally considered is evil and so God is not the author of it as when you spur a lame Horse you are the cause that the Horse doth move but you are not the cause of his halting 6. But God doth permit and suffer men to harden themselves he doth not give them preventing grace but denieth that which he is not bound to give which would keep off this Hardness from them So God is said to give men over to their own wicked hearts to let them alone and leave them to their lusts Rom. 1.24 26. and to give them over to a Reprobate mind 2 Thes. 2.10 11. 12. But if some should say bare Divine permission cannot be the reason why God should be said to harden men's hearts no more than he would be said to steal because he suffereth men so to do Some therefore add 7. That Hardness of heart may be considered either as a sin and so God is not the author of it or as a punishment and so it may be from * Excaecatio activa tribuitur Deo Satanae & homini scipsum excaecanti satanas & Homo in ista actione gravissimè peccant deus autem justissimè agit Strangius de volun Dei circa peccatum p 819. Modi notandi sunt quibus dicitur Deus indur●re 1 Quia Deus juste deserit eos a quibus desertus est suumque auxilium subtrabit aut denegat privatque eos donis suis quibus illi perverse abusi sunt idem p. 824. 2 viam eis aperit objecta & occasiones subministrans quibus illi flagitia exequantur ut in perniciem suam ruant 826. 3 Offered confert aut facit ea quae sua natura hominem ad bonum converterent atque ad illustrandum & emollieadum volerent sed abutentium vitio fit ut magis obdurentur p. 827. 4 flagella flagellorum remotio adversa impiorum indurationem promovent iisque pulsati inster ineudis sub malleo magis indurescunt p. 828. God as the same thing in divers respects might be a sin and a punishment of former sin and a cause of future sinning so the same thing in divers respects might be from God and from the creature as Absaloms' Rebellion against the King was an heinous sin as from him yet it was also a punishment of David's sins 2 Sam. 16.22 But the Scripture asserts two things however 1 That with God dwells no evil and he cannot be the cause of sin and yet 2 expressly saith that the Lord hardened Pharaohs heart Exod. 10.20 Though we know not the manner that doth not lessen the dreadfulness of the judgement but when God doth judicially harden than men are almost ripe in sin and for hell X. Final impenitence When God hath judicially hardened them they let lose the reigns of their lusts and now are fit for any wickedness and stop not at the most abominable and loathsome practices Now they can blaspheme and mock God and deride holiness and act like incarnate Devils when the people in Act. 14.8.11 saw the wonderful works wrought by the Apostles they said The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men but when we see the most abominable and sordid practices of wicked men might we not say the devils are come up to us in the likeness of men When men are judicially hardened they will commit sins against nature Rom. 1.24 26. etc. And could wish there were no God nay now they are when they have given themselves over to work wickedness and God hath given them over too when they say we will be filthy and God say you shall be filthy eager and greedy after sin they weary themselves in committing iniquity and yet are not weary of iniquity and do even scorn at threatenings and mock at judgements 2 Pet. 3.3 4. Men walking after their own lusts say where is the Promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation Is 5.19 That say let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsel of the holy one of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it Thus sinning with judicial hardness and dying in final impenitency are at the bottom round from whence they step into endless misery Thus you see how great a matter a little fire kindleth and from how small beginnings some have proceeded to the very pitch and height of sin that can scarce be worse save in the frequent iteration of the sins that they commit for they have got into all kinds of sin they are guilty of spiritual wickedness which the devil is malice enmity against God and goodness etc. and of corporal wickedness as Adultery Drunkenness Gluttony etc. Which the Devil is not capable of committing the Devil being only a spirit but men consist of body and spirit and so may commit more sins for kind than the Devil himself can do But God forbid that after such a judgement amongst us should be found such sinners this will be an evil requital to the Lord for his removing his sore judgement from us SECT VII Under what dispensations do wicked men grow worse and worse Question Third IN the general I answer wicked men are the worse in all conditions that God puts them into more particularly they are worse and worse Under God's Providences Gods Ordinances First Wicked men wax worse under all God's Providences whether Of Prosperity Adversity Deliverances Prosperity makes the wicked worse I. Ungodly men are worse under their prosperity when the world smiles upon them and when they have all that their carnal hearts can wish and desire If the Sun shine it hardens the clay and the more it makes the dunghill send forth unsavoury smells Rom. 2.4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance ver 5. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God A wicked man is more hardened by God's kindness to him Animus Iniquus beneficio fit pejor A wicked heart is made worse by every kindness As Christ fed Judas at his table and he runs presently to betray him The more God aboundeth to them in common goodness the more they abound against God in multiplied wickedness Neh. 9.16 ad 27. Psal. 78.12 17. Prov. 1.32 The prosperity of fools shall destroy them Isa. 26.10 Let favour be showed to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord They are worse by prosperity 1. Because they are thereby listed up with pride and carnal confidence many men the more rich the more proud and the prouder the worse the more their riches increase the more they set their hearts upon them and the more a man's heart is upon the creature the worse he is Prosperity is full of snares and we are apt then to forget God and to lift up the heel against him Deut. 32.15 But Jesurun waxed fat and kicked thou art waxen fat thou art grown thick thou art covered with fatness then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation Here is great prosperity and great impiety and God seeing how apt his own people are to be worse by prosperity doth caution them largely against it Deut. 8.7 11 12 13 14 17 18. 2. Wicked men are worse by prosperity because than they have more fuel to feed their lusts Sodomites had fullness of bread and that did feed their uncleanness They turn God's grace into wantonness and his mercies into fuel for their wickedness Those things which should be cords of love to draw them to God they turn to the nourishment of their sins against God and desire riches not that they may glorify God but gratify their lusts Jam. 4.3 The more abundance of outward things a drunkard hath the more he is able to please his palate with great abundance of the richest Wines the more the adulterer hath the more he bestows upon his harlot and so the greater plenty the more they lead a sensual brutish flesh-pleasing life and the more of that the worse they be 3. Wicked men in prosperity are the worse because they are apt to gather Gods special love to them from the common bounty he bestows upon them Because the world smiles upon them they think God doth so too Because God's hand is opened to them therefore they think they are engraven upon his heart and think Divine Toleration * Psal. 50.18 19 20 21. is Divine Approbation when indeed it is a sign of God's great displeasure to give prosperity to a man in a sinful course God was angry with the rich man in the Gospel when he gave him more abundance than he knew how to bestow Luk. 12.18 19 20. and 16.19 20. They are apt to think that is the best way which is the most prosperous way Jer. 44.17 But we will certainly do what soever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth to burn Incense to the Queen of heaven and to pour out drink-Offerings unto her as we have done we and our Fathers our Kings and our Princes in the Cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem for than had we plenty of Victuals and were well and saw no evil Verse 18. But since we left off to burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink Offerings unto her we have wanted all things and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine By prosperity they take encouragement to proceed in their Iniquity 4. Wicked men by prosperity are worse because they are apt to put far from them the evil day and the hour and thoughts of Death and Judgement and the Life to come In health they have not serious thoughts of sickness a wicked man is too apt to think that the Sun of Prosperity which shines upon him will never set nor be clouded Psal. 49.11 Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling places to all generations they call their Lands after their own Names In Prosperity they think little of death Luk. 12.19 And I will say to my soul Soul thou hast goods laid up for many years eat drink and be merry They promise themselves a continuance of their outward happiness and so sin more freely and abundantly Isa. 56.12 Come ye say they I will fetch Wine and we will fill ourselves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant This persuasion begets carnal security and the more secure still the worse SECT VIII II. Adversity makes wicked men worse WIcked men are often times worse under adversity judgements and afflictions that do befall them the more they are punished the more they are hardened there is nothing in adversity and judgements in sickness and plagues in poverty and distress to make an alteration or a change in the heart of a sinner from worse to better except God sanctify it The Plague upon the body is not a remedy in itself to cure the Plague of the heart for men love more the plague of their hearts than they loathe the plague of the body Possibly outward Judgements may put a stop to some men's sinnings for the present but they will return to them afterwards except God speak effectually to their hearts and consciences as well as lay his heavy strokes upon the body Judgement to a sinner may be as a Bar to a Thief it may stop him from the present act but doth not change his heart or as a storm to a Mariner may make him cast Anchor for the present but still he retains his purpose of sailing in his Voyage when the storm is over they are oftener salve for their eyes to show them their sin than physic for their hearts to purge them out sinners in Judgements might declaim against their sin but without a settled purpose in their hearts to decline their sin where there is Grace Afflictions work patience and submission but where there is nothing but corruption they often work passion and repining not Repentance the more God sent his Judgements and his Plagues upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians the more they hardened themselves against God and his people and by God's Judgements were not the better but the worse Exod. 7.19 to 23. Isa. 1.5 Why should ye be smitten any more ye will revolt more and more Psal. 78.30 They were not estranged from their Lusts but while their meat was in their mouths v. 31. the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them V. 32. For all this they sinned still and believed not for his wondrous works And as it was with the woman that had an Issue of blood twelve years in respect of her bodily distemper after great cost and charge and use of means she was nothing bettered but rather grew worse Mar. 5. 25 26. so under God's Judgements it is with most wicked men in respect of their spiritual state they are nothing bettered but rather grow worse And this appears First Because in time of Judgement they are not separated from their dross Ezek. 24.13 In thy filthiness is lewdness because I have purged thee i. e. God used purging Judgements and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee God hath been purging our houses but many have not been purging their hearts but retain their heart-filthiness still and their life-wickedness still If God in Judgement say to such You shall not be purged their case is irrecoverably miserable Secondly Because they are not more serious in Religion than they were before either they omit it wholly as before or are as dull and formal as they were before Thirdly Because they are not brought nearer unto God but are rather removed were it possible at a further distance from God than before And the Reasons of this are 1. Because When God's hand is lifted up they will not see Isa. 26.11 they look more to second Causes than to God 2. Because they search not after the sins that provoked God to so great indignation 3. Because if they do see their drunkenness and whoredoms and Sabbath-breaking yet they will not be humbled for them nor forsake them SECT IX III. Deliverances make wicked men worse WIcked men are oftentimes worse by Gods delivering them from Judgements and calamitous distresses Take a wicked man upon his sick bed when God is shaking him over the Grave and threatening him with death and affrighting him with the terrors of Hell you shall hear him acknowledge his sin confessing his drunkenness his neglect of his soul and you shall hear him it may be with tears in his eyes promising if God will raise him from his sickness and trust him with life and time a little longer he will forsake his wicked company and profane the Sabbath no more If God will but try me saith the sick dying man how will I live and what will I do and how obedient will I be to the Commands of God And when God answereth his desires in his restoration he performeth not his Promise in his reformation but is more wicked and more vile than before You might see this in Pharaoh when the Plagues were upon him Oh then send for Moses and let him entreat the Lord for me and then I will let Israel go then he confesseth I and my people have sinned but the Lord is righteous Though many wicked men will not acknowledge nor confess their sin in times of Judgement so much as an hardened Pharaoh did But yet when the Plagues were removed he hardened himself more against God still Read Exod. 8.8.15.24.28.32 and 9.23.27 So Nehem. 9.27 28 29 30. And the Reasons are 1. Because after Judgements removed they are more secure and think the bitterness of death is past 2. Because they break their promises made to God in time of Judgements and so their sin is greater and their guilt is greater and therefore they the worse of this more under another Direction 3. Because Judgement is removed from them before they are purged from their sin When the Plaster is taken off before the sore is healed it will be worse the course of physic is not continued till the vicious humours are dispersed and purged away but God's people desire the cure may be wrought before the Affliction be removed But Pharaoh was for the removing of the Plagues but not the hardness of his heart 4. Because they add Incorrigibleness unto all their former sins and must answer for all those Judgements that were lost upon them Wicked men shall not only answer for their Mercies but for the Judgements God sent upon them to reclaim them Sinner God sent the Plague into thy house and then he looked thou shouldest have hastened to have thrown sin out of thy heart but thou hast not done it God did cast thee upon a bed of sickness but thy bed of sickness was not to thee a bed of sorrow for thy sin thou howledst and cried'st our of thy loathsome running-sores but not of thy filthy heart and more loathsome sins thy body was pained but thy heart not broken thou hast been punished and delivered but art not reform but know the more thou hast sinned and the more thou hast been punished here and yet sin still the more shalt thou be tormented in hell For these thou shouldest look upon as means which God doth use to bring thee to himself and the more means thou hardenest thyself against the more is thy sin and the more shall be thy misery Thus wicked men are oftentimes the worse by God's Providences But if this be thy case that readest these Lines that wast a drunkard before and wilt be drunk more frequently now that wast a lukewarm Formalist before the Plague begun but now thou art quite cold in the matters of Religion I charge thee in the Name and fear of the Eternal God that thou presently bethink thyself what an aggravation this will be of thy continued and increased wickedness and that thou turn from it lest God turn thy body into the grave by some other distemper as an Ague or Fever or Consumption though he did not by the Plague Oh think with thyself God hath taken away some of thy sinful Companions that were wont to be drunk and swear with thee who if God should bring them back again from the dead would tell thee that they are damned for their Drunkenness and that they have been in Hell among Devils and have felt the wrath of God to be heavy and intolerable for those very sins they have committed in thy company and thou with them Would not they tell thee if they had thy time they would pray but swear profanely no more if God had suffered them to outlive the Plague or would after death and trial of the torments of Hell entrust them with life again they would be better Remember some of them that the other day were drinking unto drunkenness in the Alehouse dying in final impenitency are now damned with the Devils that some of them that the other day thou hadst by the hand and drunkest unto in the Tavern and did sing and roar together at your Cups are now howling and roaring amongst the damned and are scorched in those flames and rolling in that Lake of brimstone where there shall be no mercy no mitigation no cessation of their torments And know thou whoever thou art that if thou dost not speedily return to God if thou dost not mend thy life and that quickly too if thou dost not repent and reform and that quickly too thou shalt be a companion with them in torments with whom thou wast companion in sinning It was but a few days since that they were with thee upon the earth and if thou art not changed it will be but a few days hence and thou shalt be with them in Hell and when thou art there remember once thou readest such lines that told thee so Therefore if thou art not resolved for Hell be persuaded to be better after such an awakening Judgement if thou valuest thy soul if thou hast any fear of Hell and Wrath yet left in thee let it work to a speedy Reformation Tell me what if God had set thee in some place when five six seven thousand died in a Week of the dreadful Plague amongst whom no doubt but many went to Heaven and are now viewing the Son of God etc. that thou mightest have seen impenitent Drunkards and impenitent Worldlings and impenitent Swearers seized upon by Devils and carried into torments gone crowding in at the broad gate into pains eternal and unspeakable and couldst but have heard their words or perceive their apprehensions of their manner of life upon the earth how would this have affected thee after such a sight as this what wouldst thou do Be drunk still wouldst thou be a Sweater and a Worldling still a Formalist and Hypocrite still then if thou wilt be damned go on who can help it But rather return repent that thou mightest have everlasting cause to admire God that thou died'st not in this Plague till thou repentest of thy sin and waste prepared for another World SECT X. Wicked men are worse Secondly WIcked men will be worse under the dispensations of God's Ordinances But here I shall be the shorter because it hath been the Providence of God in the late Plague that hath moved me to this work to which I would have my words have more immediate reference Many wicked men are oftentimes the worse 1. By the Word For the Word of God and the preaching thereof Not that there is any thing in the Word to make men so but it is * Sciendum est Evangelium non perimere quenquam sed evangelii contemptum Bez. in 2 Cor. 2.16 accidental to the Word it may be occasioned by the Word but caused by their own corruptions Ministers might preach till they waste their strength and yet they will be Whoremongers and Adulterers still they will be envious and malicious still The same Sun that softens the Wax doth harden the Clay Obed-Edom was blessed for the Ark of God but the Philistines were cursed for it Ungodly men suck poison from the sweet Flowers of God's Word which yields nourishment to the souls of God's people Weak eyes are the sorer if they look upon the Sun Naturalists observe that the fragrancy of precious Ointments is wholesome for the Dove but it kills the Beetle and that Vultures are killed with the Oil of Roses And St. Paul that the Word is to some the savour of life unto life and to others the savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2.16 17. 2. By the Sacrament For the Sacrament of the Lords Supper That which is to Believers Calix Vitae a cup of Life is to Unbelievers Calix Mortis a cup of Death Wicked men call good evil Grande id nefas quando remedium non modo non proficit aegro sed in venenum vertitur Par. in 1 Cor. 11. so they turn that which is good in itself to be evil unto them Donum male utentibus nocet Good becomes evil to those that use it not aright St. Paul treating of the Sacrament says Ye come together not for the better but for the worse 1 Cor. 11.17 The red Sea saved the Israelites but drowned the Egyptians And the reason why the Devil maketh drunkards and profane swearers so eager after this Sacrament as our first Parents after the forbidden Fruit is because he knows it will do them harm not good as a bad stomach full of crudities turn the food received not into the nourishment of the body but for the feeding of their humours As a man's Sea-sickness is occasioned by the waves but the foulness of his stomach is the cause thereof They must needs be worse For 1 the Devil takes fuller possession of their hearts When Judas had eaten the sop the Devil entered into him that 's a fatal morsel when the Devil follows it Joh. 13.26 27. 2 Their presumption and false hopes of heaven are hereby strengthened they think if they do but receive their sins shall be pardoned and their souls saved 3 Their guilt is more increased because they are guilty of the body and blood of Christ This is dreadful guilt this is a fact 4 They profane God's Ordinance and abuse Christ's Institution 5 They are thereby riper for temporal Plagues 1 Cor. 11.30 6 They eat and hasten their own damnation 1 Cor. 11.29 But I dwell not upon this because I must pursue my design in reference to the late providence in the dreadful Plague SECT XI Question Fourth Why God is pleased to remove Judgements though many men are worse than they were before THat God should stay his hand and put up his Arrows into his Quiver and his Sword into his sheath and call in the destroying Angel is indeed matter and cause of great admiration that when men sin still God doth not slaughter still when men provoke him still that he doth not by the Plague punish them still The sins that were offensive unto God at first are amongst us still the sins continue the Judgement removed Oh stand and wonder at this that when Justice hath cut down so many that Mercy yet hath spared so many especially if you seriously consider God's holiness and purity God's justice and severity God's infinite hatred unto sin and that it is not the death of thousands that can satisfy God's Justice nor the death of those that are gone down into the grave that have pacified God's wrath for us that do yet remain alive What may be the Reasons 1. Reasons are 1. From God God hath done this for his own Names sake If you go to the Churchyards and Burial places in and about the City and see the heaps of dead bodies and ask Why hath God done this We must answer We all have sinned If you go into your houses and dwelling places and find so many living after so great a Mortality and ask why hath God done this We must answer It is for his own Name sake The Plague was inflicted because we had displeased him but it is removed because Mercy hath pleased him We had deserved the inflicting of it but could not merit the removing of it In this late Providence Justice and Mercy have been wonderfully magnified Justice in removing so many thousands and laying them in their graves Mercy in sparing so many thousands and maintaining them in life that have been so long walking in the Valley of the shadow of death This is because God in the midst of Judgement hath remembered Mercy Ezek. 36.21 But I had pity for mine holy Name ver 22. Therefore say unto the house of Israel thus saith the Lord God I do not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for mine holy Name sake So when God gives good things as well as when he removeth evil it is for his Name sake God hath taken away your sickness and plague-sores and given you health Verse 31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your Iniquities and for your Abominations V. 32. Not for your sakes do I this saith the Lord God be it known unto you be ashamed and confounded for your own ways O house of Israel Oh if you have been spared for his Names sake then let all the praise of your life be unto his holy Name But than you must not be worse but better than you were 2. 2. From the Elect converted God hath removed his Judgement in answer to the Prayers of his people Prayer hath been an ancient Antidote against the Plague and many have been preserved from the grave as a return to prayer and so it hath of old been prevalent for the removing of the Plague And therefore Magistrates commanding the people to fast and pray proceeded in Solomon's course to have it removed 1 King 8.37 If there be in the Land Famine if there be Pestilence whatsoever Plague whatsoever sickness there be What must they do then Verse 38. What prayer and supplication prayer you see is a Panpharmacum a remedy for every disease soever be made by any man or by all thy people Israel which shall know every man the plague of his own heart and spread forth his hands towards this house Verse 39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and forgive Prayer is the remedy prescribed by Solomon But what are the persons whose prayers shall prevail for the removing of so sore a judgement Not those that have Plague-wishes so often in their mouths but the prayer of any man that knoweth i e. seeth and is sensible of the Plague of his own heart 3. 3. From Elect unconverted God may remove judgements for the benefit of his Elect that yet may be unconverted and in mercy to them who may be yet in their sins God may stay this Plague it might be for some yet unborn that may proceed from the Loins of some that are now worse than they were before The patience and long-suffering of God is conducible to the conversion and salvation of God's Elect 2 Pet. 3.15 And doth lead men to repentance Rom. 2.4 Many peradventure have not yet repent whom God will bring to glory and he that hath designed them to the end will preserve them in life till the means have been effectual to fit them for that end 4. 4. From Reprobates God may spare some that are worse by removing judgements because as yet they are not ripe enough for slaughter The Ox is spared longer time because not yet fit for the Shambles Thus God spared Jerusalem till they had filled up the measure of their sins Mat. 23.32 And so God exercised patience towards the Amorites till their iniquity was full Gen 15.16 God may remove and keep off judgement from some and this may be in judgement to them as he may in mercy deny some mercies unto some SECT XII Question Fifth What are the aggravations of this great impiety to be worse after God's sorest judgements than they were before THat many wicked men are so we have showed before and given the proof and reasons of it But woe to you whose case this is Is this the return you make to God Is this the fruit of his patience and forbearance to you Do you thus requite the Lord Oh foolish people and unwise Deut. 32.6 Will you seriously consider this evil frame of heart and this ungodly practice in your lives in these following particulars I. Are you worse than you were before than you are more like unto the Devil than you were before and the more unlike to God that made you A man full of all sin and bend to every wickedness is called a child of the Devil Act. 13.10 The Devil sins as much as he can and thou dost as wickedly as thou canst Jer. 3.5 It is a folly in men to picture things immaterial and invisible and living by things without life Vnium quo qui laborat ad quodvis scelus paratus est Joh. 8.44 material and visible never send a man to view the picture of the Devil with a cloven foot drawn by Art the most exact and accurate lively picture of the Devil as a Devil that is as a sinner is the worst of wicked men and who are worse than thou that neither mercy can draw nor judgement drive to God and Christ II. The worse you grow and the further you proceed in sin the more impudent you will be in the commission of it The beginnings of sin are often done with blush of face but the progress in sin is void of all modesty than you will be drunk and glory in it than you will swear and not be ashamed of it Jer. 6.15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush Pro. 7.13 III. The further thou proceedest in making progress in thy sin the more it is to be feared thou wilt never return but if thou shouldest the more thou hast to sorrow for It is but very rare that God bringeth those back that are come up to an height of sin sometimes he doth that none might despair but very rarely that none might presume It is to be feared thou art forsaken of God and he hath left thee to thyself when word nor rod can reclaim thee from thy sin nor put a restraint upon thee from waxing worse IV. The worse thou art after such a judgement The sooner God will be provoked to hast on thy destruction by some other God hath not spent all his arrows in the late judgement he hath his Quiver full still and if thou go on when God giveth thee yet a space to repent after so great a warning by the Plague he will ere long cast thee into a bed of trouble Rev. 2.21 22. Thy increased wickedness is to God's wrath as the blast to the fire will quickly blow it up into a flame though thy conscience is asleep yet thy damnation slumbereth not 2 Pet. 2.1.3 while thou lingerest in thy sin God's judgements do not linger but are upon the wing and the worse thou art the sooner will they befall thee and be more heavy when they come Jer. 48.16 The calamity of Moab is near to come and his affliction hasteth fast V. The worse thou growest the more thou heapest up treasures of wrath and every sin is adding to the pile of that fire by which thou must eternally be burned temporal judgements might quickly befall thee but if they do not eternal damnation shall overtake thee and the higher thou goest in wickedness the lower thou shalt sink and lie in hell God will proportion thy degrees of torments to thy growth and progress in sin Now thou hast a treasure of sin Mat. 12.35 And God hath his treasures of wrath Deut. 32.34 And as thou layest in sin to the treasury of sin so God layeth in wrath to the treasury of wrath * In crastinum recondere quo significatur homines dum cupiditatibus suis quotidie indulgendo existimant se aliquod bonis suis adjicere tandem pro the sauro inventuros dei indignationem Bez in loc Rom. 2.5 Thy present preservation is but a reservation to greater indignation then is discovered in a Plague Tarditatem supplicii gravitate compensabit deus He will recompense the delay of thy misery and punishment with the weight and load of it Job 36.13 VI To be worse and more wicked after so great a judgement will be to slight and set at nought the justice of God when you have seen with your eyes the dreadful heaps of dead Corpse that it hath made in every Churchyard Have you not seen that God is displeased with sin and will you go on to do worse as if you would bid defiance to God even when he is angry and displeased Have you not seen that there is wrath in God and that justice will call sinners to his bar by dragging them out of this world And will you after all this go on to sin against a just God and as it were say let justice do its pleasure I will have mine this doth aggravate your sin VII To be worse after such a judgement will be to sin against the Patience and the mercy of God that hath spared thee and waiteth to see what thou wilt do after such a visitation The mercy of God is the attribute thou intendest to appeal to it is that which thou hopest in but by this thy wickedness thou wilt turn mercy itself against thee that which thou wilt make thy request unto must be the mercy of God but this will plead against thee and patience will plead against thee Lord will Mercy say when thousands died weekly in London I had pity upon this sinner and did spare him when the Angel went through the Streets and Lanes in London I Mercy marked out this man for longer life but he abused me and sinned the more And I shall Patience say waited some months or years after the Plague to see if the mercy showed him would any thing work upon him but I was abused too as well as Mercy The longer I Patience did lengthen out his life the more he added to his sins and therefore now we both Patience and Mercy deliver him up into the hands of Justice to deal with him according to his sins and according to the wrong he hath offered unto us Oh how will thy mouth be stopped when Mercy and Patience shall plead against thee sins against Mercy and protracted Patience are aggravated sins and the plead of Mercy and Patience against a man will be the most piercing cutting plead VIII The worse thou art the more thou wilt have to answer for and the greater accounts thou wilt have to make when ever thou shalt die The more thou sinnest the more sins shalt thou find in the book of God's remembrance and in the book of thine own Conscience when thou shalt be brought before the Bar of God So many sins committed before the Plague begun and so many while the Plague continued and so many when it was stayed and this sinner spared When it shall be set down in the book of God such a sinner was drunk so many times while the Plague was round about his habitation so many Oaths he swore when he saw multitudes buried every day so long the Plague was in the Parish where he dwelled and in the house in which he lived and he never made one hearty prayer unto God all that time And such notorious sins in and after a time of a sweeping Plague will multiply thy account and aggravate thy misery IX To be worse after such Judgements will be to add Incorrigibleness to thy former wickedness As before thou didst show that thou hadst an unteachable heart so now thou declarest thou hast an incorrigible heart Thou wouldst not be instructed by God's Word neither wilt thou be corrected by God's Rod thou didst stop thine ears against God's Word and thou hardenest thy heart against his Rod. But if thou wilt not be corrected by a Plague thou shalt be tormented in the Infernal Pit X. To be worse after such a Judgement will be high Ingratitude Thy life was the dearest thing thou hast in the world except the sin in thy heart for skin for skin and all that he hath he will give for his life except his sin and he will venture his life and lose it too before he will part with his sin and hath God kept thee and is this thy thanks to God to dishonour him more and to provoke him more As if he had spared thee for no other end but to sin against him Oh what is Ingratitude if this be not Oh now for God's sake and for thy precious souls sake that as thy body hath hitherto escaped the grave so thy soul may if possible escape the damnation of hell Be entreated Sinner to consider the evil of thy present practice after such a narrow escape of death and the grave Oh wilt thou that art but briers and thorns set thyself against God that is a consuming fire Dost thou slight the wrath of the Almighty or despise his power or contemn his Judgements Dost thou think that thou canst grapple with Omnipotency and make thy party good against Almighty strength Didst thou ever read of any one that hardened himself against God and prospered and dost thou think that thou shalt be the first who art thou or what is thy strength or what were thy Ancestors that thou dost thus in pride and stubbornness of thy heart dare the great eternal God who can look thee into hell and frown thee in a moment into another world Sure if thou hadst the knowledge of God of thyself of sin of the guilt of sin of Hell and the torments thereof thou wouldst not thus proceed to add these new sins to thy former old sins but wouldst fall down upon thy knees and cover thy face in the very dust before the Lord in deep humiliation for thy sins and wouldst own it as a Mercy so great that cannot be expressed that the Plague hath been so vehemently raging round about thy habitation and it may be hath been upon thy body and thou yet alive and thy body not rotting in a cold grave nor thy soul roaring in a hot Hell think on this this is Mercy and wilt thou so abuse it SECT XIII Question Sixth What are the signs of a man that waxeth worse and worse under all the Means that God useth to make him better MY purpose is not here to speak of the declinings of Grace in the hearts of God's people which never is so much because not total to denominate them absolutely bad though they make them worse because on the losing hand being compared with themselves when better in the lively actings and daily increase of grace but of the growth of wicked men in sin and Impiety which may be discerned by these symptoms I. The less a man is attending upon God in the use of holy Means the worse he is Thou wast wont to keep up a constancy or at least a frequency in holy duties though thou never didst perform them in a right manner nor from a right principle nor for a right end yet time was that thou couldst not omit them but thy natural Conscience would reproach thee and molest thy peace and though the performance of those duties in thy manner and way did never prove thee to be good yet the total omission of them now doth prove thee to be worse inasmuch as thou hast shaked off all form of Religion and dost not profess thyself to be at all Religious but hast stifled Natural Conscience and laid aside a sense of a Deity which before did stir thee up to do some Homage unto God Thou didst pray but now thou dost not thou didst hear but now thou dost not it is because thou art worse II. The less thou liest under the common workings of the Spirit of God the worse thou art Though thou hearest and prayest as before yet the Spirit of God doth not strive with thee as before Thou wast wont to find thy heart something affected and to have some common convictions and relent for sin and some purposes and resolutions to forsake thy sin and leave thy wicked ways and company and almost persuaded to come over unto Christ but now thou art no more affected than the seat thou fittest upon and the Pillar thou leanest against thou hast quenched the motions of the Spirit and he in wrath hath departed from thee and leaves thee to the hardness of thy heart and the blindness of thy mind and then thou must needs be waxing worse III. The more thou art found in the Iteration and Repetition of the acts of sin the worse thou art Thou wast wont to swear but seldom but now Oaths are frequent in thy mouth Thou wast wont to be drunk more seldom but now it is thy weekly or thy daily practice Iteration of sin is an aggravation of sin The number of thy sins and the greatness of thy guilt is hereby increased and thou made worse IV. The more kinds of sins thou dost usually fall into the worse thou art Thou wast wont to swear but not to be drunk but now both Thou wast wont to be drunk but wast not given to uncleanness but now thou art and to uncleanness thou addest scorning at godliness when sometimes thou seemedst to approve it and speak for it and to thy scorning of godliness thou proceedest to the persecution of godliness when before thou didst pretend to favour and to countenance it Thou art increased in thy wickedness V. The fewer self-Reflexions the worse thou art Thou wast use to reflect upon thy ways and sometimes consider of thy deviations from the Rule of holiness and thy Conscience did check and did reprove thee but now thou goest on and never lookest back so much as to consider wherein thou goest astray and though thou art more wicked and more vile yet thou hast more peace and quietness in thy ways It is because thy heart is more hard and thy Conscience more seared and thou worse VI The greater Light thou sinnest against and the more thou goest on against the Dictates of thy Conscience the worse thou art Conscience discovereth to thee the evil of thy ways the wickedness of thy life Conscience threateneth thee with damnation with the loss of God and Happiness and thundereth against thee and doth disturb thee in thy sin and yet thou goest on against thy knowledge and dost imprison the Truths of God thou art worse VII The more of thy heart and will is in thy sinnings than before the worse thou art now than before The more the will doth give consent and the more the will doth choose wickedness the greater progress thou hast made in thy sinful courses Though a Child of God doth commit a sin yet because his will and the bent of his heart is against it the lesser is the aggravation of his sin when he can say The thing that I do I would not I allow it not So when thou art wilful in thy sin thou frequentest wicked company and thou wilt do it thou profanest the Lord's day and thou wilt do it this maketh thee to be very bad The more of resolution and purpose of heart the more of the choice and consent of the will in sinning the greater is the sinner VIII The lesser force divine Arguments have upon thy heart to keep thee from sin than before thou art so much worse than thou wast before Time was that Arguments taken from the Wrath of God from the Torments of Hell from Judgement to come from the Curses written in the Law of God did awe thy heart and restrain thy hand from the open actings of thy grosser sins these were once the banks that dammed up thy wickedness but now thou sleightest all these that Hell doth not affright thee and the wrath of God doth not awe thy heart but the Spring and Fountain of sin within is risen higher and overflows these banks and like water spreads itself and diffuseth itself in the general course of thy life IX The lesser force humane Arguments have upon thy heart to keep thee from sin than before thou art so much worse than thou wast before Though abstaining from sin upon such accounts doth not prove the truth of grace yet the committing of sin notwithstanding these doth argue growth of sin Now these humane Arguments that did formerly restrain thee were such as these 1. Shame amongst men Thou hadst an Inclination to wicked company but thou wast ashamed to be seen amongst them and therefore didst not associate with them But now thou thinkest it no shame or if thou dost thou hast a face of brass and an heart of stone and blushest not Thou art worse 2. Care of Reputation Thou wast tender of thy Credit and good Name and though thou hadst a love unto some sins that would have disgraced thee amongst men yet now thou wilt blot thy Name and lose thy Credit and sacrifice thy Reputation to satisfy thy Lust 3. Costliness of sin Some sins are very chargeable and call for great expense and thy love to thy Money and natural affection to thy Wife and Children was a bar which did restrain thee from them Thou wouldst not feed and satisfy thy filthy Lusts because it would be chargeable to thee thou refrainedst from riotous Prodigals because company with them would waste thine Estate But now thou thinkest no cost too great no charge too much that thou mayest have thy fill of sin but tradest and labourest and workest to get something to maintain thy Lust and wilt rather that thy Wife and Children should want bread at home than thou shouldest not have enough to spend upon thy sins abroad Thou art now grown to an exceeding magnitude in sin that thou art monstrous to beholders 4. Health of body Such sins that tend to the impairing of thy health thou wouldst not commit Thou didst refrain not so much because they would damn thy soul as destroy thy body Thou thoughtest excessive drinking would shorten thy life and hasten thy death and bring thee sooner to thy grave that acts of uncleanness would fill thee full of loathsome diseases and leave some mark upon thy body whereby thou wouldst be noted for an unclean adulterer But now thou wilt venture health and life and all that thou mayest more freely sin and the very food thou earest is now not only to nourish thy body but to provoke thee to lust Verily thou art much worse than thou wast 5. Fear of death When the fear of God would not prevail to keep thee from sin yet fear of death sometimes hath done it and according to the strength of the fears of death have been thy restraints from sin but now thou canst think of death and speak of thy death and yet act thy sin 6. Displeasure of men Thou hast had dependence upon some that hate such sins that thou lovest in thy heart but because thou wouldst not lose their favour thou hast bridled thy sin but now thou layest the reigns loose upon the neck of thy lusts and wilt proceed to obey them let who will be displeased thereby When thou wilt displease thy best friend and them upon whom thou dost depend for livelihood and maintenance that thou mayst please thy lust it is a sign that sin is very high in thy heart any one of these formerly were a sufficient bolt to keep thee from grosser sins but now all put together are too weak a sign that sin is so much the stronger X. The more thou hast had experience of the dreadful effects of sin and the more God hath punished thee for thy sin and yet wilt proceed the greater sinner thou art God hath punished thee with poverty as the fruit of thy sin with diseases in thy body with horrors in thy conscience with the death of thy relations when thou hast tasted the bitterness of sin to set against the pleasures of sin when God hath put wormwood and gall into thy sin yet thou art bend upon it thou art very bad XI The more thou justifiest and defendest thyself after the commission of sin than formerly so much the worse thou art than formerly When thou wast reproved thou wast use to acknowledge thy sin and to confess thy wickedness but now thou dost plead for thy lust and pleadest for thy evil ways and takest the quarrel of sin upon thyself it is a sign thy heart is more wedded to thy lusts by how much the more thou espousest its cause XII When thou art more presumptuous in thy sinnings and addest more contempt of God and pride and contumacy than formerly the worse thou art Sins of presumption are scarlet sins of a crimson die when a man sinneth against God and blesseth himself in his wickedness and presumeth of God's mercy and presumeth upon the patience of God a man that sins presumptuously makes a bold adventure against express threatenings of the Law of God and is mingled with great contempt of God it is no less than reproaching and despising of God himself Num. 15.30 But the soul that doth aught presumptuously reproacheth the Lord and that soul shall be cut off from among his people vers. 31. Because he hath despised the word of the Lord and hath broken his commandment that soul shall be utterly cut off his iniquity shall be upon him XIII The more mercies thou sinnest against than formerly the worse thou art than before God hath given thee more mercies and multiplied many good things upon thee and yet thou committest more sins than when thou hadst fewer mercies to make God's mercy to be fuel for thy lusts is an aggravation of sinning for as much as it is contrary to the end of mercy which is to draw men off from sin every mercy thou receivest hath a voice and its language is repent of sin return to God Rom. 2.4 God loadeth thee with mercy and the more thou pressest him down with thy sin the more good and the more merciful God is to thee the more vile and rebellious thou art against God this is to be highly wicked XIV The more thou drawest others into sin by thy enticements or example than before so much the worse thou art When thou art not content to sin alone not to dishonour God thyself but drawest and incouragest others to do so also and so damnest thy own soul and others too and makest thyself guilty of the blood of those thou allurest with thee into sin The more sins thou committest thyself the worse thou art and the more persons thou dost influence by thy sin to partake with thee the worse thou art Thus if thou wilt compare thyself what thou art now with what thou hast been formerly thou mightest discern how much more thou sinnest now than thou didst before SECT XIV Question Seventh What considerations may be useful to stop the stream of such men's wickedness that yet are waxing worse and worse BEcause I am loath to leave thee with a bare conviction that thou art worse than thou wast wont to be I shall add a few considerations to press thee to put a stop unto thy sinnings hoping that though thou hast gone far yet thou mayst return while thou art out of Hell thou art within our call and within the reach of Exhortation and reproof God hath called often to thee to return and yet thou hast not returned but art going on unto destruction The Son of God hath called to thee and said How long wilt thou go on in thy Rebellion against him that would redeem and save thy soul he hath told thee if thou dost proceed thou must be damned and said the Mercy of God will not save thee and my Merits they will not they shall not save thee but if thou wilt return to God and come to me here is mercy for thee here is pardon for thee and I will give eternal life unto thee The Spirit of God hath often moved upon thy heart he hath been often knocking at thy door that thou wouldst open thy heart and let him in and he would apply the blood of Christ unto thee and he would fill thee with better joys and better pleasures and better comforts than thou ever foundest in the way of sin But hitherto thou hast stopped thine ears and stiffened thy neck and hardened thy heart and wouldst not hearken nor obey The Ministers of God have often wooed thee and beseeched thee with tears in their eyes and sorrow in their hearts as if their happiness had been wrapped up in thine and as if they could not have gone to Heaven and been saved without thee while patience waited upon thee they have been earnest with thee and now at last one unworthy to preach the Gospel is a suitor to thy soul that thou wouldst be divorced from thy sin and be married unto Christ as yet thou art out of hell and art not yet reckoned among the dead nor numbered amongst the damned as yet thou art not irrecoverably lost this day Christ is once more tendered to thee in the name of God I once more offer thee pardon and eternal life upon thy repenting of thy sin and turning unto God Oh that I could persuade thee or if I cannot as indeed I cannot oh that God would yet persuade thee If I might be serviceable to thy soul oh how should I rejoice if I did but know where thou dost dwell that hast been wicked all thy days and now art reading of these lines having a purpose in thy heart to come to Christ I would come to thee as opportunity was offered and beg upon my knees that thou wouldst cherish those purposes and be persuaded to what conduceth to thy eternal happiness if tears and prayers would do it I would endeavour though my heart is hard to shed them for thee if putting my hands under thy feet and stooping to the meanest office of love unto thy soul would excite thee to let Christ into thy heart how readily by the grace of God would I be willing to it I beseech thee by the mercies of God by the death of Christ by the coming of our Lord by the love thou bearest to thyself as ever thou wouldst see the face of Christ with comfort as ever thou wouldst escape the damnation of Hell return at last and though it be late yet return at last But if thou wilt not let God be my witness let as many as read these lines be my witnesses let thy own Conscience be my witness that thou hast been asked entreated yea earnestly entreated to reform and mend and turn to God But in hopes that I may prevail I beseech thee in the fear of God give in a sober and deliberate answer unto these following Questions First Whether art thou going while thou art waxing worse and worse Dost thou know that Hell is at the end of the way in which thou art daily walking Dost thou know that if thou dost proceed a little further a little longer in this course thou wilt be among the Devils those cursed Fiends of Hell Or dost thou know it and yet wilt venture to dance about the brink of a bottomless pit who hath bewitched thee or what hath made thee mad that thou seest thou art going unto Hell and yet wilt venture on Secondly Dost thou believe the Scripture to be the Word of God or dost thou not And are the threatenings contained therein true thinkest thou or are they not Wilt thou say they be false or that they were found out by some Precisians or are the workings of some melancholy brain or that they were found out by some Politician to keep the world in awe I would have thee know that to thy eternal sorrow thou shalt find them all true even to a tittle and to thy everlasting woe shalt know the truth of God's Word When thou art shrieking in the flames of Hell and roaring hideously among the damned because of God's eternal wrath thou shalt be convinced that the wicked shall be turned into Hell that the Unbeliever shall be damned and that it was true which thou wast told that without repentance there was no deliverance from eternal condemnation But if thou dost believe this Word to be true what aileth thee then to live as thou dost that thou actest quite contrary to what is contained in the Word of God Doth not the Word of God in a thousand places cry down sin and press to holiness doth it not tell thee the drunkard the covetous the unbelieving the liar shall be damned If thou never didst observe such places take thy Bible and turn unto them 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Rev. 21.8 Heb. 12.14 Gal. 5.20 to 25. Col. 3.5 6. Eph. 5.5 6. Mar. 16.16 Mat. 18.3 Luk. 13.3 5. Canst thou read and believe these Scriptures to be true and yet go on in the practice of those things that the eternal holy God doth forbid upon pain of eternal torments Wilt thou be worse than thy very beast which thou canst not force into the fire when he seeth it before him Shall I call out thy Neighbours to behold a dreadful sight viz. A man that knows he is in the way to Hell and yet will go on Thirdly With what face or heart canst thou hope as thou dost that God will pardon thy sin or save thy soul while thou persistest in thy wickedness and increasest therein Show me an instance of any one man in all the Word of God that was pardoned and saved who repented not and I will be thy slave for ever I know great sinners have been saved and I know those that have gone far have obtained mercy Manasseh did 2 Chron. 33.12 13. Marry Magdalene did Luk. 7. But then they turned unto God Canst thou say there is any one now in Heaven that did not repent and believe before he died or dost thou think that thou shalt be the only man Fourthly Whom dost thou set thyself against Or who is it that thou dost provoke whose anger and indignation art thou daily kindling against thyself What art thou that thus dost sin or what is God against whom thou sinnest dost thou know thyself and thine own weakness And dost thou know God and his Almighty power art thou any better than chaff before the wind of God's wrath art thou any better than stubble before a consuming Fire canst thou make thy party good against God Then why dost thou take thy bed when he layeth his finger light upon thee or why dost thou complain and art so restless under the pain of the toothache why dost thou roar so much under the pain in thy bowels and why dost thou groan when he makes thee sick why art thou sick and why wilt thou die if thou canst contend with God But if thou canst not poor Worm thou canst not why then wilt thou proceed and increase thy wickedness more and more to provoke him more and more Fifthly How canst thou call thyself a Christian while thou daily increasest in thy sin against God and Christ Christians have their denomination from Christ because they follow his steps and own him for their Lord and Master Christ was holy and so is every true Christian Christ hated sin and so doth every true Christian Christ did the will of his Father and thou art doing the will of the Flesh and of the Devil That which consisteth of a head of one kind and members of another is monstrous If any creature had the head of a man and the members were the members of a beast it would be monstrous Christ is an holy head and all his members united unto him are holy members therefore thou art none of them Take it as thou wilt thou art not a Christian that should not be thy Appellation thou art more rightly called a sinner a Child of the Devil Sixthly How canst thou go unto thy Prayers and yet go on in thy sin and come to the Word preached and hear drunkenness reproved and go away and be drunk How canst thou sit in thy Pew and hear the Minister from God tell thee the drunkard shall be damned and all thy Neighbours know thee for a drunkard and yet hold up thy head Where is thy shame art thou become impudent where is thy fear of God and his Word art thou utterly hardened where is thy Conscience is it quite seared Seventhly Dost thou think that God will never call thee to an account Dost thou think that time will always last dost thou think thy soul shall live for ever and yet do that which will bring thee to an eternity of misery and expose thyself for a little momentany pleasure unto eternal torments Thus I have set before thee these Considerations whereby thou mayst be brought to bethink thyself and at last inquire What would you have me to do I answer thee 1. Make a stand and pause a little with thyself whether it be not so with thee or no and labour to convince thyself of the heinousness of thy sins in making such an increase and growth in sin 2. When thou art convinced thus urge it upon thy heart till thou feelest it begin to melt and to be dissolved in thy breast Use thy Reason for thy souls good after this manner Oh God hath been good to me and I have been wicked against God God was always good to me and I have been always evil against God God multiplied his mercy upon me and I multiplied my sins against God if he had not given me bread to eat I had died with hunger and if he had not given me drink I had perished with thirst but what he gave me for my nourishment I have abused to gluttony and drunkenness I have fought against God with his own mercy and made his goodness an encouragement to me in my wickedness He lengthened out his mercy and I did lengthen out mine iniquity Oh what rich grace and patience is this that I am not in Hell Oh this was long-suffering indeed to bear so long with such a Swearer and Drunkard as I have been and when the dreadful Plague hath taken away my Companions in sin yet I am left behind Oh that it may be that I may repent and turn to God Woe is me I have been damning of my precious soul and have spent my days hitherto in dishonouring of a good and patient God 3. Then resolve with thyself that by the grace of God thou wilt forsake and leave those practices and wilt no longer continue in thy wickedness say Now I see this is not my Way to happiness swearing and lying and drunkenness is not my way to the Kingdom of God The Devil hath deceived me and my Companions have deceived me and my own wicked heart hath beguiled me I will by the grace of God I will do so no more I am resolved I will do so no more And write down thy Resolution that thou mayest have it under thine own hand that such a day thou didst resolve to do so no more 4. Beg of God that thou mayst be deeply humbled for what thou hast already done and labour that thy sorrow may be proportionable to what thy sins have been 5. Make haste to Christ and take him and receive him for thy Lord and Saviour and submit to him upon his Gospel-terms as willing he should rule thee as ever thou wast for sin to rule thee 6. Then endeavour to be as good as thou hast been bad as holy as thou hast been wicked as eminent for piety as thou hast been exemplary for iniquity speak for Holiness as much as ever thou didst speak against it and love the ways of God as much as thou wast wont to hate them and by persevering so to do thou shalt find great mercy will be shown to thee who hast been so great a sinner SECT XV. Corollaries from the first part of this Direction NOw I will draw some Corollaries from this first branch of this Direction and so pass on unto the second Is it the Nature of sin to make men worse and worse and do wicked men usually wax worse and worse Then learn 1. The evil that there is in sin There is a depth in the evil of sin that cannot be fathomed and a length in the evil of sin that cannot be measured that is very bad that makes men so in every condition as grace is very good that turneth every thing for the best to them to whom it is infused 2. Learn that wicked men are never from under a curse Let their condition be what it will prosperity is a curse unto them adversity is a curse and deliverances are in wrath When they do increase in riches they do increase in sin envy not the prosperity of the wicked 3. Learn the bottomless depth of iniquity in a wicked man's heart He was bad twenty years ago he was a grief to all the godly in the Town and Parish where he lived but yet he is many times worse than before 4. Learn what abundance of guilt an old sinner goes with to his grave when he comes to die He was bad when he was born and worse while he lived and worst of all when he is to die 5. Learn the equity of God's Justice in punishing a wicked man with eternal torments for sins committed in time For he sinned more and more as long as he lived and if he had lived longer he would have sinned longer and if he had lived for ever he would have sinned for ever 6. Learn the overruling providence of God that setteth bounds to wicked men's sins if he did not restrain them they would be worse and do worse than they do 7. Learn that natural men by the improvement of common grace or the means of grace cannot work themselves into a state of grace nor of themselves that are bad make themselves to be good for we have showed that without the special and irresistible operations of the Spirit of God wicked men grow worse under the Administrations of the Gospel 8. The folly of delays and procrastinations of repentance and turning unto God Wicked men think they can repent when they will and though they have no heart to turn to God for the present yet they will hereafter but he that is not disposed to turn to God and repent to day will find his heart more indisposed to morrow and the longer they put it off the more unwilling and unable they will be to do it hereafter We have heard we must not be worse now let us see we must be better and that is the second part of this first Direction SECT XVI The second part of the first Direction HAth the Plague been raging and you yet alive then be better than you were before And here I especially direct my speech to those that had the grace of God infused into their hearts before this Judgement came upon us that you would improve this providence by being better than you were before if Drunkards and Swearers will not be better yet be you if sensualists and flesh-pleasers will not be better yet be you It may be the wicked will be worse but will you be so too If God's people are not mended by his Judgements who will and hath God swept away so many thousands into another world and shall there be no good effect or fruit upon neither bad nor good God forbid London hath been a place of great prosperity a City of Feasting and a place of plenty of outward enjoyments but in this last Sickness God hath filled it with dolorous complaints by the many breaches made by death in so many families and relations God hath filled it with pale faces and sick persons and running sores God hath turned it into a place an house of mourning And Solomon saith Eccl. 7.2 It is better to go into the house of mourning than to the house of feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Have not your houses been houses of mourning some dead out of most houses and you are yet living will you then lay it to your heart What should you lay to heart Lay to heart the great Judgement that hath been amongst you Lay to heart the sins that did provoke the Lord to lay his hand so heavy upon you Lay to heart the goodness of God in preserving you The City hath been an house of mourning but have you learned the lessons that are to be learned in an house of mourning Have you met so many dead Corpse carried in the streets have you seen the living labouring to carry forth their dead and yet not learned the lessons that are to be learned in such a place of mourning Where one is dead in a family that before was an house of mirth and gladness it will turn it into an house of mourning and sadness much more when many dead in one family and this is the case of many families God hath been teaching you many things at such a time but is your lesson taken out Oh what dull Scholars are we in the School of Christ that must thus be scourged to learn our lessons and yet have not done it Consider when God hath turned London by reason of their dead into an house of mourning he hath been teaching you such things as these Ten Lessons to be learned in this City that hath been a great house of mourning I. Verity of divine threatenings God hath been teaching you the Infallible verity of divine threatenings God threatened our first Parents Gen. 2.17 That if they sinned they should certainly die they and their posterity This threatening was made some thousands of years since and it hath been made good in all generations Length of time makes not void the threatenings of God men read Gods threatenings but do not believe them nor fear them nor tremble at them Many will not practically believe that they shall die though they sin and will not at all believe they shall be damned though they sin but we see that men that have sinned must die and wicked men shall feel that they shall be damned according to God's threatenings but you have learned the truth of God's threatenings in this and they are as true in all other respects therefore do you that are God's people learn the truth of God's threatenings when he saith the Drunkard shall not inherit the Kingdom of God and let this move your heart to pity them that are such that have a threatening of God which is of undoubted verity as a flaming sword standing in their way to keep them out of the Paradise of God and be thankful unto God that you are none of these Do you learn the truth of Gods threatening when he saith the hypocrite and unbelieved shall be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone Rev. 21.8 and pity and pray for them that are such and bless God that you are none of them and so are taken from under the curse of that threatening II. Desert of sin In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you what are the Wages of sin You have often heard that death is the Wages of sin Rom. 6.23 The Greek word there used is a military term signifying the wages that is due to soldiers intimating that death is as due to a sinner for his service to the Devil as pay is to a Soldier for his service to his General it comes from the word which signifieth properly all kind of pleasant meats that may be prepared or made ready by fire so that all the delicates and dainty dishes that sin prepares for sinners hath a death's head in them Do you learn this and by this learn to hate sin more than you did before and watch against it more than you did before III. Man's mortality In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the certainty of men's mortality You have seen that this is the way of all flesh Josh 23.14 1 King 2.2 and therefore learn to live as mortal dying men should live you have seen that thousands have been carried from their houses to their graves And Oh what manner of persons ought you to be in all manner of holy conversation after such a sight as this IV. The world's vanity In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the world's vanity You have seen what miserable comforters riches are to men in time of Plague and at an hour of death you have seen death haling men from that which they had set their hearts upon you have seen death dragging men from their riches and from their pleasures and hath forced them to come away to the Bar of God and leave their riches behind them and their pleasures behind them You have seen that riches could not go with them into another world but left them in a time of need You have seen that those that loved riches could find no comfort in them when they stood in greatest need of comfort You have seen that what men have been labouring for and scraping together all the time of their health and life death hath come and scattered in a moment Oh how weaned should you be from the world and the riches and the pleasures thereof after such a sight as this Oh how much less should you afford the world of your heart and affections of your love desire and delights that is so unkind to dying men even unto those that served it most and loved it most Oh do you learn to deal so with the world as you have seen the world to deal with others i. e. turn it out of your heart with as little love and pity to it as you have seen the world turn its followers out of it and shake them off notwithstanding all their entreaties to abide and stay therein The world may now entreat you that it might stay in your heart and live in your love but harken you no more to its entreaties than it hath harkened unto others and you must expect the world ere long will deal with you as it hath dealt with others therefore part with the world before you leave the world V. The uncertainty of all relations In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the short continuance of all relations you have seen death taking Husbands from their Wives Parents from their Children Ministers from their people and so Wives from their Husbands Children from their Parents People from their Ministers Those that had but one only Son Plague and Death hath stripped them of him and teared one relation out of the others bosom fain they would have kept them but death would not suffer them they wept and cried but death would not have pity on them nor hear their cries nor regard their tears but said this is your child but I must have him this is your husband but I must seize upon him God hath given me a Commission and I always use to do according to the Commission I receive from God if God will not spare you in vain you look for pity at mine hands I saith death am blind and cannot see the beauty of your child that hath drawn out your heart so much towards him I am deaf and cannot hear your plead for the continuance of your child or husband or friend if God doth not hear you I cannot and if God doth not spare and pity you I will not therefore I will smite him and stick my arrow in his heart and dip it in his life-blood and take him from you Oh how many have thus experienced the dealings of death and you have seen it and will not you learn to sit loser in your affections towards your nearest and dearest relations You have seen death hath seized upon them that were most beloved by their friends and perhaps did therefore do it because they were over loved and took up too much of that love and that delight which should have been more and would have been better placed upon God Your lesson then is set down by the Apostle for I would not teach you by rot nor without the book of God's word 1 Cor. 7.29 But this I say Brethren When they set forth to Sea V●la da●t when they have done their voyage vela contra hunt the time is short or rolled up or contracted a metaphor taken from a piece of cloth that is rolled up only a little left at the end so some As Mariners near the Haven wind up their sails or make them less When the sails of time are thus contracted it is a sign we are near the Harbour of eternity It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none Verse 30. And they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away VI Humility In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the lesson of humility How many humbling sights have you seen every Corpse that you have seen hath been an humbling sight It may be you have been proud of your beauty but have not you seen that beauty vanisheth away when death comes that beautiful bodies by the Plague and Death have been turned into loathsome bodies and those that you have loved and been delighted to look upon you have been glad to have them buried out of your sight when once dead How many open Graves have you seen and those that have been nice and curious of their comely bodies have been interred and given to be meat for worms and to be a prey to rottenness and putrefaction Have you seen any difference betwixt the poor and the rich betwixt that body that was fed with courser fare and that which was nourished with more delicate dishes Have you not seen bodies that were made out of dust been turned to the dust to be turned into dust and will you be proud after God hath taken such an effectual course to teach you to be humble VII Parity in ●●t ●●d afflictions In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you that all things fall alike to all that the wise must die as well as the fool and the good must die as well as the bad And though God hath promised conditionally preservation from the Plague unto his people which hath been literally fulfilled to some of his yet some of his have fallen in this general mortality God hath been teaching of you that though grace doth deliver from eternal death yet not from temporal though from the sting yet not from the stroke of death that you though godly should be preparing for your own departure out of this world VIII Difference ●n the ●anner In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the difference between the death of the wicked and the death of the righteous that though good and bad alike have died yet they have not died alike But as there was a difference in their life so God did make a difference in their death Have not you seen some wicked die without any sense of sin or fear of God or Hell and some with terrors in their consciences and have you not seen some godly die with peace and comfort and giving good evidences of their hope of a better life that God hath filled them with joys that they were going to their Father's house and that the plague and death had not so much in them to terrify and affright as the hopes of heaven had to comfort and support their hearts It hath been ground of great rejoicing to hear how many of God's people in this plague did die with joy and comfort And should not y●u by such a sight as this be quickened in your service unto God and ever while you live look upon Religion as a real thing that letteth in such real comforts into their hearts who had real grace in such time of real discouragements after such a sight as this never think it a vain thing to serve God though you must die who comforts his people's souls in the very gates of death IX Folly of delays In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the folly of delaying in the great concernments of another world you have seen many Drunkards did delay to repent and turn to God but when death once came to Arrest them it would not stay till they had done their work Have not you seen many have been surprised by death that those that thought they would repent hereafter and talked how they would mend hereafter are gone down into the grave before that time was come and will not you after such a sight as this be quickened to make more haste in doing of the work that God expecteth at your hands Have not you seen some that have talked what they would do the next year laid in the dust before this year is past and gone God hereby would have you learn not to boast of to morrow because you know not what may be in the womb of another day nor what to morrow may bring forth Prov. 27.1 God would have you learn so to number your days that you may apply your hearts to wisdom Psal. 90.12 God would have you learn to do your duty quickly and to do it with all your might because it will be too late when you are rotting in your Grave Eccles. 9.10 X. Mortification In this great house of so great mourning God hath been teaching you the great lesson of Mortification you have seen how many died by sin and should not you be now dead unto sin you should now in good earnest labour for the death of sin O be the death of your passion and be the death of your lusts and be the death of your worldliness especially be the death of your beloved sin God forbid that sin should be found alive in your heart after such a time of death to so many thousand persons Are so many dead and rotting in their Graves and shall not sin be dead and mouldering in your hearts These be some of the lessons God in his late providence hath been instructing you in and if you can now do these duties better than before it is some sign that you are better than you were before But yet because so great a providence should not be slightly passed over with but a little Improvement I shall take occasion to press you to be much better than you were before before God saw a great deal of sin in his own people and amongst Professors much censoriousness and rash and uncharitable judging one of another want of love and affection a great deal of pride in Apparel pride in Diet pride in Furniture of houses pride of Beauty pride of Parts and Gifts and God hath been staining the pride of all Families therein God saw a great deal of neglect of Family Duties in Professors houses and customary cold and dead performance of them in others and doth it not concern all to see where they have failed and do so no more SECT XVII I Know the wicked World thinks that professing people are too exact already and that they make more ado than is needful But their Charge is 1. False for there is no man is so exact in his life as he ought 2. Blasphemous for what do such but blame God himself in giving such strict rules unto his people 3. Malicious Cain envied Abel because his works were evil and his brothers good 4. Diabolical what could a Devil say more or what is this but to play the Devil's part in discouraging discountenancing speaking against the pressing after the highest degrees of goodness But let it be your great care whom God hath spared from the grave in this time of Plague that are such as truly fear God and are truly good On take heed that after such a preservation none of you might be found worse than you were for though those that once were truly good shall never so decline as to be absolutely bad yet they may so far fail that they may comparatively be said to be worse Here consider Ten Aggravations of God's People's sin if they be worse 1. To lose any degrees of Goodness and Grace is a grievous and a sinful loss If you had lost your life in this Plague it might not have been your sin but you cannot be in the least degree worse than you were after such a providence but it is a great sin Because it is our duty to love God as much as we can therefore to lose any degrees of our love to God is to come short of our Duty and therefore a sin 2. To be worse in your spiritual condition will be great unthankfulness to God for his watchful Providence over you If a man do a kindness for you will you be worse towards him than you were before And will you deal worse with God than with a fellow Creature 3. To be worse in your spiritual condition after such preservation and deliverance will be displeasing unto God and a grief unto him If God see his Children love him less and fear him less and delight in him less will it not grieve him and displease him And had it not been better you had died than to live to be a grief to God Had not you rather follow your Children to their graves than to see them live to be worse and dishonour God and will you yet do so yourselves Is it not a grief to you the more kindness you show unto your Children to see them the more undutiful to you and will it not be so in you to God 4. If you be worse than you were in your spiritual condition you shall have less communion with God than you had before and had not you better die than lose your communion with God for what is your life without fellowship with God 5. If you be worse you will have less Comfort from God than you had before If you deny Duty to him which you performed to him before he will deny that comfort to you which he gave you before and what will your life be without the comforts of God let down into your soul is not his loving kindness better than life Psal. 63.3 and what is life if you have no comfort in it and where will you have solid lasting suitable satisfying comfort if not from God 6. If you are worse in your spiritual condition than you were before and love God less and desire after him less and delight in him less you will have less Evidences for Heaven than you had before you will not so clearly see your Interest in Christ your title to his Kingdom as you did before and do you live to blot your Evidences Oh what an aggravation will it be to you to say before the Plague I knew that God did love me but now I doubt of it Before I knew if I had died I should have been saved but now if I should die I cannot tell 7. If you are worse than you were you will have less experience of the workings of God upon your heart than you had before You will not have such experience of his quickening presence nor of the powerful Operations of the Spirit upon your heart and what is it if you feel the motions and acting of life if you do not feel the motions of the Spirit so much upon your heart 8. If you are worse you will dishonour God more than you did before and that you need not do you did that too much before And hath God spared you to live to his dishonour I tell you you had better died with others in the Plague than live after it to dishonour God 9 If you have less of goodness than you had before you will have more of sin than you had before If you love God less than you did you will love something else more than you did if you have less faith you will have more unbelief if you be less heavenly you will be more worldly if you be less spiritual you will be more carnal And hath God been using physic to purge out your sin and shall it be found more in you than it was before Hath God put you in the Furnace and doth your dross continue and increase It is the nature of contraries the less there is of the one the more there is of the other If the Sun be setting darkness is approaching if heat be expelled out of the water more cold is introduced and so it is with your heart in respect of sin and grace 10. If you be worse it will cost you much pains and prayers and tears before you will recover to be as good as you were before You may lose that with a little neglect which you will not regain without great diligence Thus I have laid before you these Considerations to prevent your being worse But that will not be a sufficient Improvement of this Providence that you be not worse in your spiritual condition but you must be better Not enough that you do not decline but you must increase and thrive in grace and goodness And before I come to press you to be better let me lay down these following Positions and the last shall bring me to my intended Work SECT XVIII Posit 1. THere are many that are really bad and not so much as seemingly good There are many that do not profess any goodness such are your open debauched sinners that give themselves up unto all Licentiousness and sin Posit 2. That there are many that are seemingly good that are not really good Many make a great show in Religion that have no Religion in them Many pray much and hear much and talk of good things much but are not good themselves and the misery of these is 1. That they lose all their labour for if they themselves be not good their praying is not good and their talking of good things is not good For the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord Prov. 15.8 2. They have no real Communion with God who are but seemingly good For what communion hath light with darkness 2 Cor. 6.13 etc. 3. They shall have no real reward in the Kingdom of Heaven Their goodness is but seeming goodness and their happiness is but seeming happiness 4. They are seemingly like to God but are really like the Devil 5. They associate with God's Children but are none of God's Children for all God's Children are good 6. They have no true peace Isa. 57.21 But God hath really preserved you from death and really kept you alive therefore be not satisfied to be seemingly good but be really so Posit 3. That there be many that are really good that are not gradually good that have grace in truth that have not grace in growth Those that are seemingly good are not so many as those that are openly bad and those that are really good are not so many as those that are seemingly good and those that are gradually good are not so many as those that are really good Ever the better the fewer both for kind and degree It is so in Naturals not so many Whales as lesser Fish not so many Eagles as little Birds not so many Suns as Stars And so it is in Spirituals not so many strong men in Christ as babes not so many tall Cedars as there are Shrubs in Gods Lebanon Now my purpose is to exhort you especially after such a Providence to be not only really good but to be gradually good Posit 4. That those that are gradually good are yet imperfectly good as appears by the remainders of sin in the best and would be evident by a particular enumeration of their Graces which is the best thing in the best men they know but in part and they love but in part and delight in God but imperfectly Philip. 3.9 10 11 12. Posit 5. Those that are really good though imperfectly good are truly acceptable unto God God will not break the bruised Reed nor quench the smoking Flax Mat. 12.20 There may be a great deal of smoke where there is but little fire a great deal of sin where there is but little grace but yet it is pleasing unto God if it be true a little grace is of great value a Pearl of small quantity might be of great worth and better than a great deal of riches or of gifts better than a strong Memory pregnant phantacy solid Judgement quick Apprehension voluble Tongue or any such things because the least Grace is a pledge of Heaven and so are none of all the rest Posit 6. That when a good man doth increase in goodness he increaseth more or less in all saving goodness When any one sin is more mortified every sin is in some measure more mortified and yet every sin is not equally strong because some sins are more deeply radicated have been more strengthened by frequent acts and are more rooted in the constitution so though addition be made in every Grace when a Christian grows better yet every grace might not be equally strong in the same Christian because some grace may be more opposed by the contrary sin and some grace is drawn forth more into act and exercise than the rest yet as a Child grows in all parts truly though not equally so it is in a good Christian And this I add that you may endeavour to be universally good and universally better better in Faith and better in Love and Humility etc. Posit 7. That those that are good should labour to be better and those that are better should strive to be best You should not rest in goodness positive but labour to have comparative goodness and when you have it in the comparative degree you should aspire after superlative goodness You see it is so in other things amongst Scholars men strive who should be the best Scholar and amongst Artificers men strive who shall be the best Artificer and now after the Plague you will perceive men to be more earnest in their Trading I pray God they may not exceed to regain what they lost for want of Trading And so amongst Christians every one should strive who should be the best and to quicken and provoke you hereunto lay these things to your heart Consider SECT XIX Seventeen Arguments to God's People to be better 1. YOu are not so good as once you were I mean in your Primitive condition and first creation we had more goodness as we came out of the hands of God then we had good and no evil And when God hath restored us we should labour to come up as near to what we were in Adam though not by the same Covenant as we can 2. You are not so good as you shall be You were good in Adam but you shall be better in Heaven In Adam we were perfectly good in Heaven we shall be perpetually good and should you not labour to get as much of Heaven into your heart as you can 3. You are not so good as you ought to be no not by many degrees you come far short of what you should be in grace and goodness 4. You are not so good as you may be Though you cannot be so good as you were in Adam as you shall be in Heaven as you ought to be upon earth yet you may be better than you are You have not so many degrees of love to God but you may have more nor such strong desires after Christ but you may have more How weak is thy love how cold are thy desires how stupid is thy heart not only in comparison of what it ought to be but of what it may be Thou wantest many degrees Oh Christian put on there is much more that is yet attainable 5. You are not so good but you need to be better If thou be no better and shouldst come into some conditions thou wouldst be found not good enough to go through the same as becomes the Gospel Thou mightest be brought into those straits and assaulted by those temptations that except thou hast more Patience more Love to God more Faith in Christ thou wilt not be able to bear them nor resist them as becomes a Child of God to do Thy burdens might yet be greater and thy Duties greater and thy Temptations greater therefore thou shouldest hasten to be better 6. You are not so good as others are that have had but the same time and the same means and Helps as you have had nay some that have not had so much preaching as you have had nor such Examples as you have had nor so much time that did set out for Heaven after you that were bad while you were good yet have overtaken you and gone beyond you Oh Christian thou art lagging behind put on lest thou shouldest be last of all 7. You are not so good but you are as bad You have not so much grace but you have as much sin nay is not your sin more than your grace is not your unbelief more than your faith and your wand'ring thoughts in duty more than your fixed thoughts in duty and your dulness more than your liveliness If thou canst say truly it is not do thou go and bless God that it is not so with thee while I must go and be humbled before God because it is so with me 8. The better you are the more excellent you will be Riches is not your excellency and Learning is not your excellency and Grace is not your utmost and your highest excellency but the highest degrees of Grace is Reason makes a man differ from a beast and the more rational a man is by the improvement of Reason than others the more excellent as a man for a Fool might excel a Wise man in riches he is above other men So Grace makes a Christian differ from a man as such and the better Christian he is than others the more excellent he is than other Christians are 9 The better you are the more like to God who is the greatest the chiefest and the best good When we lost our goodness we lost our likeness unto God and when God makes us good he makes us like himself and the better God doth make us the more he makes us like himself And should not this provoke thee to be better especially considering to be most like to God is Thy greatest Duty The end of all the rest Desires Oh that I were more like to God Dignity And therefore our dignity will be greatest in Heaven because there we shall be likest unto God 10. The better you are the more you shall have God's approbation And what will it be to be approved of God You may by seeming goodness have the approbation of men but you must be really good if you will have the approbation of God and the better you are the more he will approve you God observeth the worst of men but approveth only of good men and only the good actions of good men not their sinful actions 1 King 15.5 11. The better you are the more clearly you will see that you are good Many question they are not good and the reason of their doubt is because they are no better That time you spend in complaining you fear you are not good improve in endeavouring to be better and your doubts will be sooner answered and your fear expelled 12. The better you are the more profitable you will be to all about you The better you are in yourself the better it will be for yourself and the better for all about you the better you are the more you will lay out yourself for God and for the good of souls Others shall be the better For your Counsels You will be directing them how to do good For your Reproofs You will be telling them when they do evil For your Example You will lead them in the good Way For your Experiences You will communicate to them how good God hath been unto you and what God hath done for you 13. The better you are the more inward joy and the more established peace you shall find The great trouble of a Christian is because he is no better be you better and you will have the lesser trouble within though the better you are the more trouble you might have from men but that 's not so great matter 14. The better you are the more glory you will bring to God Herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit Joh. 15.8 And what is your design in the world but to glorify God and to do that and be that which tendeth most thereunto 15. The better you are the more you will credit Religion and realize the ways of God it will appear that Religion is a real thing when it hath made bad men good and good men better If there were nothing else to disgrace the ways of sin this would be abundantly sufficient to behold the great wickedness of those men how bad they be that walk most therein 16. The better you are while you live the more undaunted you shall be when you come to die The reason why we are so troubled in our sickness is because we were no better in our health conscience then remembers at such a time I sinned and at such a place I fell and in such company I defiled my soul be better in Health you will be the better in sickness and death 17. The better you are upon earth the weightier your crown shall be in heaven Those that be truly good shall have sure glory but those that are better shall have more There shall be no want of any thing to any one in heaven but yet some shall shine more eminently in glory than others Thus I have dispatched this particular also that you be better after such a signal providence as this for if you be not this very thing will be a greater Plague than the Plague upon the body and if you ask me wherein you should be better you must gather up that in the following Directions which shall be more particular and such as may be useful to prevent men from growing worse which was the first thing and helpful to promote this duty of being better which was the second thing I have spoken to DIRECTION II. Perform your purpose pay your vows HAth God spared you in time of Plague that you live in some measure answerably to so great a mercy carefully endeavour to live up to the purposes and resolutions and vows which you made to God in time of danger and distress Good purposes and holy resolutions when observed and put in practice are great helps to an answerable return to God for his mercies conferred upon us but holy Religious vows being something more than single purposes and resolutions being a promise made to God with due deliberation of something lawful in itself and in our power to perform as a testimony of our thankfulness unto God for some extraordinary mercy received or expected or deliverance from some great evil in extraordinary danger and distress do much promote a holy life whereby we may the better be enabled to walk in some measure worthy of what the Lord in mercy hath done for us or given to us In time of extraordinary danger or when we are in expectation of some extraordinary Mercy we have the example of the holy men of God in Scripture to bind ourselves to endeavour to walk more close with God So Jacob Gen. 28.20 And Jacob vowed a vow saying if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on Verse 21. So that I come again to my father's house in peace then shall the Lord be my God And this he was careful to perform Gen. 35.2 Then Jacob said unto his household and to all that were with him put away the strange gods and be clean and change your garments Verse 3. And let us arise and go up to Bethel and I will make there an altar unto God who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went Thus David made a vow to God when he was in danger of his life Psal. 56.12 Thy vows are upon me O God I will render praises unto thee Verse 13. For thou hast delivered my soul from death And in the like danger Psal. 116.3 The sorrows of death compassed me and the pains of hell gate hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow Verse 4. Then called I upon the name of the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul Verse 6. The Lord preserveth the simple I was brought low and he helped me Verse 8. Thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling Verse 12. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me Verse 14. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people And hath not this been thy case Christian Reader did not the sorrows of death compass thee about Didst thou not find trouble and sorrow Wast thou not brought very low and received the sentence of death within thyself Didst thou not then call upon the name of the Lord and resolve thou wouldst walk before the Lord if he would restore thee and hath not God delivered thy soul from death and thy feet from falling Then pay thy vows to God and perform to him thy promise and live up unto thy resolutions Tell me what were thy purposes when thou heardest the Plague had entered into thy Neighbour's house when it came unto the family nearest unto thine What were thy resolutions when the Plague did enter into thy house and took one away and then another What were thy holy deliberate lawful vows when it seized upon thy body When thou betookest thyself unto thy bed to sweat out thy distemper When thou foundest Risings on thy Body Swellings and Carbuncles in several parts when the apprehensions of death did fill thy mind and the terrors of the Lord did fill thy heart when thou thoughtest thou hadst not many days to live and that thou wert near to death and another world and shouldest certainly die if God did not preserve thee What didst thou think then And what didst thou purpose then and resolve upon then Didst thou not determine with thyself if God would spare thy life if God would give thee health again and try thee a little longer in the world that thou wouldst walk more holily and act for God more zealously That thou wouldst pray more frequently and more fervently That thou would mind the world less and heaven more That thou wouldst make Religion thy business as long as thou shouldest live Didst thou not resolve that God and Christ and things above should have more of thy heart and hearty love That thou wouldst then forsake loose and carnal company and associate thyself with those in whom thou couldst discern most of God and walked most conscientiously before him That thou wouldst no more take a cup too much nor club in the Alehouse and Tavern to the neglect of duties of thy family at home Did it not then trouble thee that thou being a Professor hadst been at nights drinking in the Tavern when thou shouldst have been praying in thy family that thy Wife and Children though they have not gone Supperless to bed yet have almost every night gone prayerless to bed except they went apart to pray in secret But did not then thy conscience tell thee that their performance of their duty would be no excuse to thee when thou shouldst stand at the Bar of God for thy neglecting of what thou oughtest to have done Didst thou not then resolve if thou shouldst live it should be so no more That thou wouldst read thy Bible more as well as look over thy Shop-books daily That thou wouldst spend some time in secret before God whereas before thou wast use to waste it in thy pleasures and taking of thy worldly delights Deal plainly man with thyself and do not flatter thy soul and daub with thy conscience Was there not some such thoughts and purposes and resolutions as these in thy heart at such a time And didst thou promise and resolve in jest and not in earnest God did afflict thee by the plague in good earnest and thou waste then afraid of death and the grave and judgement in good earnest And didst thou only purpose in jest and resolve in jest and play with holy things when thou wast near another world and dally with God when thou didst not know but within an hour thou mightest have appeared at his Bar and been set before the terrible tribunal of the great heart-searching God But if thou wast in earnest with God when God was in earnest with thee if thou wast in earnest in promising be earnest in earnest to perform if thou didst indeed resolve to reform when thou shouldst be well then reform indeed according to thy resolution since God hath made thee well and saved thee from the Grave to which thou wast so near so very near Or if God hath been so good to thee to preserve thee from the infection of the Plague amongst the many thousands that have been visited that thou hast not been heartsick yet thou hast often felt shootings and pains and prickings up and down in several parts of thy body and sometimes hast had such things as thou hast thought to be symptoms of the distemper and hast apprehended it to be approaching to thee that hath made thee hasten to thy bed and make use of thy preservatives and thy cordials that thou thoughtest thyself in real danger and waste possessed with real fears What were thy purposes at such a time as this And what didst thou resolve to do And how to live if God would prevent the thing thou fearedst Or hadst thou no such purpose in thy heart No such resolution in thy breast that if thou livedst thou wouldst be better Was thy heart indeed so backward unto good that at such a time of fears and dangers thou hadst not so much as a purpose to be better but if thou hadst and let thy conscience be thy witness and the God of heaven that did fully know the purpose of thy heart then now perform what then thy heart did purpose to perform I am persuaded if the people in London and in Country too would live up according to the purpose of their heart in time of danger of the Plague would reform and mend as they did resolve to do we should be much better than we were before Oh what a difference would there be in the frame of our hearts and in the course of our lives What a change would there be in all our practices Those that were forward Professors of Religion and were not much more than Professors would be zealous practisers of Religious duties and in order hereunto I shall to follow this direction do three things 1. Lay down some considerations why you should be careful to keep your purposes resolutions and vows 2. Prescribe some helps how you may perform your purposes resolutions and vows 3. Set down the aggravations of your sin if you break your purposes resolutions and vows SECT I. Seven Arguments for care to keep o●r resolutions made in time of fear and sickness 1. GReat and constant diligent care should be taken in time of health to keep our purposes to perform our resolutions and to pay our vows to God which we made in time of sickness and danger and distress if you consider these particulars 1. The heart is deceitful That one great deceit of the heart of man doth appear in this in being forward to purpose in ourselves and promise unto God but are backward to perform In time of sickness what resolutions do men make what purposes have they in themselves to mend and turn to God and seem to promise this with tears in their eyes and sorrow in their hearts for the evil that is past and done and seem to others and think verily themselves that they promise in good earnest and mean to do as they do speak and when they think the danger is past and their fears removed do nothing less than what they promised I have known some upon sick beds so to promise that they would be drunk no more etc. and yet when health hath been restored have returned to their wickedness So did Pharaoh promise fair when the Plagues of God were upon the Land that he would let the children of Israel go but when the Plagues have been removed he hath hardened his heart against them more than before and this he often did Exod. 8.8 15. & 9.27 28 34 & 10.16 17 20. Now this deceitfulness of the heart is yet in part remaining in the best of men and therefore you must be careful else though you have promised you will never perform 2. Sin is encroaching That sin is of a bewitching encroaching and alluring nature if it can prevail it will keep you from resolving against it if you do resolve it will entreat you that you would not send it far from you that your Resolution might not be peremptory and universal that if you resolve to banish it from your heart it might be only some of its members that are not so dear unto you and reserve the rest or if it be peremptory and universal that you will part with all sin it will contend that your Resolution may not be perpetual that you send it not away for ever but only till your danger of death is over and your fears thereof are ceased that then it may be received into your heart be your Favourite again or if you do resolve to part with sin peremptorily universally and perpetually yet after a while it will solicit you to change your resolution or if you will not change it it will solicit you to abate the strength and vehemency thereof and will come and offer you so much delight and so much pleasure and so much profit if you will not be so severe against it If you are not careful it will encroach upon your heart and insinuate and wind itself into your love and delight and allure your will into a consent first not to be so severe next to indulge it then to countenance it and then to renew its acquaintance till it again become familiar to you 3. Satan will assault That Satan will assault you and set in with sin for its readmission If he cannot keep you from resolving yet he will lay hard at your heart to break your resolution He will lay his snares and baits and use his stratagems in sins behalf and come to you as he did to our first Parents Gen. 3.1 He i. e. Satan said unto the woman Yea hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden So Satan cometh unto thee and saith Yea hast thou said thou wilt not be kind unto thy sin any more hast thou said thou wilt be so severe against thine Iniquity If thou reply I have said I will not keep my sin lest God be angry with me and send some soret Judgement upon me he will return to thee and say God will not surely be angry with thee to plague thee it may be thou mayst escape or if thou yield now thou mightest repent and renew thy resolution against it again do it but this once take but the other Cup play but the other game If you be not careful to look to your Resolutions when sin Satan and your own heart do set against you you will certainly break them 4. The world will interrupt The World will interrupt you that you may not live up to your Resolutions made to God in time of danger This is another powerful Assaultant for your heart and affections and will plead If thou didst resolve against sin that was unlawful but the things that I have saith the World are good my Riches are good and my Pleasures are not absolutely evil and my Profits are not unlawful if thou wouldst turn off thy drunkenness why should I be resolved against and if thou wilt shake off thy wicked company yet what have I done that I must not be loved Company-keeping saith the World did impoverish thee but I will enrich thee that did consume what was necessary for thy Family but I come with supplies for them I will clothe their backs and I will furnish their Table and I will bring in Portions for thy Children I will make thee honourable and esteemed and I will lay up in store for thee against thy old age when thy labour will be past Thus will the World come in for entertainment in your heart again that though you resolved to spend so much time in secret Prayer every day if God would suffer you to live yet this worldly business cometh to divert you and another cometh to take you off from your resolved practice If you consider what earnest suitors Satan sin and the World will be for your heart and how your heart is as ready to yield as these are to solicit your heart is as willing to have them as these are to have your heart then without diligent care it is impossible to live up unto good and holy Resolutions made in time of danger 5. The difficulty of the things you have purposed and resolved to do calls for your greatest diligence if you would live up unto them The more excellent and difficult the work is we resolve to do the more apt we are to flag and faint and come short in performance Now it will appear that these things are difficult because They are Praeter Super Contra Naturam First The things you have purposed and resolved to do are preternatural These things are that you will love God more and that you will delight and joy in God more Now those things are preternatural which are added to another thing as an adjunct to its subject so that it doth not constitute the nature of it nor destroy it but perfect it Such a thing is Grace that you have resolved to get greater degrees of Grace and Holiness doth not constitute the Nature of man for a man without grace is a man neither doth grace and holiness destroy but perfect Nature Grace doth not destroy the affection of Love but doth correct it and place it upon its proper Object nor destroy our Joy but turns the stream of our Joy to empty itself in God or rather to fetch our Joys from God Secondly The things you have resolved to do are supernatural above Nature it is not in the power of Nature to enable you to do what you have resolved upon You resolved in your time of fears and danger to pray to God more fervently but Nature cannot help you to do this To believe more steadfastly to love God more ardently to walk with God more holily but all these are above the power of Nature and must be wrought in you by the supernatural and almighty power of God and yet you did well to resolve to endeavour to do all these if you did remember to make your resolution in the strength of Christ to do this by whose strength we can do all things Philip. 4.13 Thirdly The things you have resolved to do are contra-natural against Nature i. e. against corrupt nature For our love to God doth not destroy the faculty or affection of Love but perfect it and Ennoble it but it doth destroy our love to sin and our love to the World and the things of the World Now to do that which is against corrupt Nature is very hard you will find it exceeding difficult it is swimming against the stream and rowing against the tide that if you do not ply your Oar you will be carried back 6. You will meet with opposition The opposition you may meet withal from your nearest Friends will make it evident that there is need of your greatest diligence to make good your good resolutions You have purposed in your heart to spend more time for God and your soul and for the life to come if you do so as you have resolved it may be thy father the Wife of thy bosom thy fellow-servants will scorn thee and deride thee and set themselves against thee Thou hast purposed in thy heart to reprove sinners for their Oaths and Drunkenness and Profaneness and if thou do so they will envy thee for thy pity and hate thee for thy love it may cost thee dear it may expose thee to trouble from men and from those that by bonds of Nature are nearest to thee if thou wilt indeed come up in thy practice in time of health and safety to thy Resolutions which thou didst believe was thy duty to make in time of sickness and danger 7. Concurrence of many duties re-qui-red The necessary concurrence of many difficult duties that you may perform the purposes of your heart in living in some measure answerable to the mercy of divine protection in time of plague calls for your utmost diligence and care else you will undoubtedly fail and come short of what you did resolve upon Where many Duties are to meet and to be done as necessary Requisites to another duty that makes this duty so much the more difficult There are many things to be done if you will perform your Vows and Resolutions to be better without which it will be impossible and these are such as Watchfulness Self-denial Fervent Prayer Frequent Examination etc. But these I reserve for their proper place as Helps hereunto But first I would have you to believe the necessity of your utmost care and diligence to perform your Purposes of an holy life That man that thinks it easy to live up to such Resolutions will undoubtedly come short in putting them in practice SECT II. II. Twenty Helps for keeping our Resolutions I Come to the Helps to be prescribed for the better performance of your Purposes and Resolutions of a holy heavenly Gospel-conversation made in time of your danger by reason of the Plague If you would live up to your Resolution of an holy life than 1. Watch against your Darling sin Evermore take heed of your Beloved sin take heed of that which is to you Peccatum in delitiis your darling Lust which by way of special propriety you may call your own Keep a very strict hand over it for if any sin undo you it is likely to be this and if there be any sin that will weaken your endeavours to live according to your purpose it will be this Beware of all but especially of this maintain your holy warfare against the whole host of sin but especially fight against this as the General and Commander of all the rest Whether it be pride or worldliness or the pleasing of your sensitive Appetite or the Lusts of the Flesh etc. That you may know what is your Darling sin take these signs Signs of a beloved sin First That sin you have been more accustomed to and hath usually broken out to the wounding of your soul and disturbing of your peace above any other sin is your beloved sin Secondly That sin that all other sins do wait upon and veil to and bring in their aid and assistance to maintain is your beloved sin Thirdly That sin of which you are most impatient of reproof you can hear of other sins and be reproved for other sins but if you are plainly dealt with about this you cannot so easily bear it but you will find your corrupt heart to bestir itself to find out excuses to extenuate it and plead for it that is likely your beloved sin Fourthly That sin is likely your Darling when disappointments of the fulfilling and pleasing of it is more grievous to your soul than the frustrations of any other sin Fifthly That sin is your Darling which you have often found your heart wishing it were no sin when you wish that it had not been forbidden by God which you find your heart most unwilling to resolve against Sixthly That sin is your Darling which you are willing to be at any cost and charges to maintain or satisfy Seventhly That is your Darling sin which you are most delighted in the committing of and had rather part with all the rest than with this it is a sign your heart is indeed married to that sin when you will leave all to cleave to this Eighthly That sin is your Darling sin which doth most disturb you at the Throne of Grace and fill your mind most usually with distracting thoughts The Devil will divert your heart from God in holy Duties and there is no sin he can better make use of for this purpose than what your heart is most apt naturally to close withal Ninthly That sin is your Darling sin which doth most interrupt you in your chosen Solitudes and Retirements for your souls concernment It is not every man but some special friend that will join himself unto you when he knows you are retired for some special business Tenthly That is your Darling sin which Conscience doth most reproach you for in time of danger and fears of death Eleventhly That sin is your Darling sin which usually lies down in your thoughts at night which your mind most thinks upon in the night when you wake and first endeavours to salute you in the morning Whatever sin this be you must resolve to deal severely with it if ever you would keep your holy Resolutions While you cocker this sin and be too kind towards it you will not walk so close with God in time of health as you purposed to do in time of sickness And next to this beloved sin be careful to mortify that sin that is next unto it in your love There is some other sin besides the Darling which is chief that the corrupt heart hath some peculiar favour for and if you ask what sin that is I answer it is that sin which your heart is most apt to change your beloved sin for when you press your heart to forsake your Darling sin And that which was the second chief sin in your Soul would be first if the former be taken down and suppressed 2. And against Temptation Take heed of dallying with temptations or playing with the baits of sin and be careful to abstain from the very appearance of evil rather deny yourself of what is lawful then play upon the borders of that which is unlawful If you always go as far as you may you will sometimes go further than you should If you venture to the utmost you will be in danger of transgressing and going beyond your bounds You will find the Devil and your own heart sometimes to reason thus so far thou mayest go and yet keep thy resolution so far thou mightest venture and maintain thy holy purpose thou mayst go with such a one into the Tavern and yet keep thy purpose to be sober thou mayst take another Glass of Wine and then another and then another and yet not break thy resolution Thus the Devil will play upon thee and ply thee step after step till he makes a prey of the peace of thy conscience and hath brought thee to a violation of thy purpose Principiis obsta resist the first risings of the sin thou hast resolved against thou hast resolved to keep a constant course of secret prayer every morning but when thou risest there is this business offers itself to be done first and then another till thou dost omit it and neglect it or there is this business which stays for thee and that will make thee first be slight and hasty and over-short in the performance of it till at last it brings thee to neglect it Beware then of the appearances of sin 3. Sin is as odious to God when you are well as when you were sick Often press upon your heart that sin is as odious unto God and displeasing unto him at one time as another in time of health as well as in times of sickness and great mortality when the plague is over as when it was slaughtering thousands in a week Though God doth sometimes manifest more of his displeasure against sin yet he always equally because he always infinitely hateth sin If the thoughts of God's displeasure and the sight thereof in the effects of it did move thee to resolve and purpose against sin the believing thoughts of this when the Plague is over will have some special influence upon thee to make thee endeavour to do according to the purpose of thy heart in dying times 4. Holiness in ac● pleasing to God more than in purpose Consider Holiness is as pleasing unto God at one time as another and if God was pleased with thy purpose it will be more pleasing if thou proceed unto performance The moving reason of your purpose in the time of your distress was that you judged it pleasing unto God and would you please God at one time by purposing and displease him at another by non-performance Would you please God at one time by resolving to reform and displease him at another by nonreformation Sin and holiness is the same in the eyes of God at all times but it seems it is not so in thine if sometime thou dost purpose to forsake sin and at another dost willingly commit it if sometime thou approvest holiness and parlousest to follow after it but at another time thou art remiss in thy pursuit 5. Sin is prejudicial ●h●n you are well as when you were sick Work this upon thy heart that sin is as destructive to thy soul and prejudicial to thy peace and comfort at one time as another Though sometime the circumstance of time might aggravate a man's sin and make it more heinous as a man to be drunk upon the Lord's day yet sin committed at any time is damnable and sin loved at any time is damnable though sometime we feel the effects of sin in sickness on our bodies and terrors and fears upon our consciences and then have greater and more affecting apprehensions of the evil of it yet you can at no time when you have your perfect health lay sin in your bosom but it may sting you unto death In your sickness you thought that sin would undo you that your evil actions would certainly damn you therefore you did resolve against it think so still and let those thoughts abide upon your heart and they will carry you in the strength of Christ to live as you did purpose 6. Holiness in act will be sweeter to you than only in purpose Work this upon your heart that holiness in act and a godly life in act will be more sweet unto your soul than it was only in your purpose And that a holy life should be esteemed by you at one time as well as another because it will be as sweet and profitable to you at one time as another if you thought it would be for your good to purpose holiness and to resolve to live to God and this did something quiet your heart if you had died that God had given you a real and unfeigned resolution and fixed purpose of heart to lead as you could with utmost diligence a Gospel conversation how much more will it be a comfort to your heart to see your purposes end in performances and your resolutions come unto a real thorough continued Reformation Get the same thoughts of holiness in time of safety as you had in time of danger and this will help you to live holily as well as to purpose so to do 7 When you are well you are still mortal Keep upon your heart a constant daily sense of your own mortality and of your nearness to another world What is the reason that men under sickness are more apt to purpose to forsake sin and to promise to mend and to reform than in time of health but because they have greater apprehensions of death in its nearer approaches unto them and things as near do more affect than things apprehended as further off and was it not the thoughts of the nearness of death and your daily danger of it that did quicken you to resolve against sin and for God and to wind up your resolutions something higher than at other times Why you have reason still to walk in daily expectation of your dissolution though the plague be stayed If the plague be removed out of your habitation yet sin is not removed out of your heart there is the meritorious cause of death still in you and there are natural causes of death still in you and you must as surely die as if the Plague were raging and you may assoon die we die a thousand ways death might be as near to you by some other disease and you may fall by some other disease as so many have done by the Pestilence though you were not one of those that died eight thousand in a week yet you may be one of those that die eight or five hundred in a week Do not say the bitterness of death is past that now there is no danger do not put far from thee the evil day What if so many do not die every week as when thou resolvedst to be better yet thou mightest die every week An Apoplexy or a Fever or Dropsy might fetched thee to thy grave who hast through Mercy and Patience escaped death by the Plague think with thyself when thy heart is negligent of thy former purpose When and why was it that I resolved to give myself more to a holy heavenly life When the Plague did come nigh unto my dwelling and because I thought every day I might have died Why it is my daily danger if not by the Plague yet by some other disease that will as certainly be the cause of my dissolution as if it were the Plague Thou didst purpose because thou thoughtest death was near then perform because death is still as near yea it is nearer to thee now then when thou madest this resolution for the more days thou hast lived since the fewer now thou hast to live it was near then but to thee it is nearer now 8. Believe judgement to come Frequently possess thy heart with serious believing thoughts of judgement to come When men and when thou amongst the rest shall give an account to God of all thoughts purposes promises vows that thou hast made to God to walk before him in an holy life But what account canst thou give to God when thou hast not performed what thou purposedst If it was not good to purpose and to promise to forsake thy sin and live to God Why didst thou purpose If it were Why dost thou not perform If thou fail now thou wilt be self-condemned at the bar of God thy purposes and promises will be brought forth against thee and God will charge thee before all the world with breach of promise unto him 9 God's eye is upon you Work this upon thy heart that thou walkest daily in the sight and presence of that God that exactly doth observe whether thou art the same in thy practice when thou art well as thou wast in thy purpose when thou wast sick God did see thy purpose and he did hear thy promise made in thy distress and time of fears and his eye is upon thee to observe how thou livest and what thou dost and do men keep their promises made to men as some do from no other principle then because the eyes of men are upon them to observe them and they would not lose their reputation by falsifying of their promise and wilt not thou much more perform thy promise unto God when thou canst never break it but when God is looking on 10. Keep conscience tender Keep a lively and a tender conscience and diligently hearken to its admonitions that thou keep thy purpose cominations while thou art purposing to come short of thy purpose and accusations afterwards if thy conscience is not faithful unto thee thou wilt be false unto thy promise and fail of thy purpose but if it be do not choke the voice of conscience for it is thy monitor and remembrancer to put thee in mind of the bond ●nd obligation that lies upon thee to a holy life by virtue of thy own resolutions and vows in time of great mortality 11. Choose a choice friend Make a prudent choice of some wise and holy Christian for thy most intimate associate One that knows thy ways and practise most that is most acquainted with the manner of thy life and hath most occasion to be most in thy company supposing him to be faithful prudent pious tell him what hath been the purpose of thy heart when the terrors of the Lord were upon thee not only against sin in general or in respect of holiness in general but what was the purpose of thy soul and the resolution of thy heart against this sin if it be convenient in particular which thou hast been most prone unto and the particular duty thou hast resolved to be constant and diligent in which thou hast found thy heart most backward to and engage him as he loves thy soul and the promoting of the work of God in thy heart that he will carefully observe thee and if he discern thee to be backward to thy duty that he would admonish thee if forward to thy sin that he would reprove thee and in all deal faithfully with thee this would be an exceeding help to perform our promises and purposes of holy living and such a friend as this is to be prized above his weight in gold and such a friend as this is better than a brother if you find him let him not go 12. God's purpose always the same to you Seriously consider and work upon your heart till you feel your soul affected with it that God's purposes concerning you and your good and eternal peace is the same at one time as at another and he performs all his promises which he maketh unto you God doth not one time purpose for to save you and another time purpose to condemn you and why should you then be unconstant in your purposes towards God one time to purpose that you will serve him more and glorify him more and at another time be careless to order your life according to the intention of your heart When you find your hearts begin to slink and go from the purpose and promise that you have made press yourself with affecting thoughts of the Immutability of God's purposes to you and this might help you to constancy in your purposes towards God 13. Holy courage Steel your heart with an holy courage against all oppositions in your way of performance Take heed of slavish fears which enfeeble your resolutions and put a stop in the way of an holy life you have resolved upon fear of danger and of death made you to resolve to keep close to God and yet your fear of death and fear of danger for holiness sake will hinder your living up to those Purposes and Resolutions Fear of death natural and from God was the occasion of your resolving to practise an holy life but fears of death violent and from men will be the cause of your breach of promise so to do Therefore resolve to live up to your Resolutions though loss of Estate Liberty or Life should attend you for so doing 14. Zeal Fill your heart with an holy Zeal for God's glory and if you be zealous for the glory of God you will be courageous against all Impediments and Obstructions of an holy conversation Courage is opposed to slavish Fears and Zeal is opposed to Lukewarmness And Lukewarmness is inconsistent with the practice you have resolved upon You have purposed to pray more fervently than you were wont to do but if your heart be as lukewarm in Religion you cannot do it you have purposed to lay out yourself more for the good of souls to endeavour to help others in their way to heaven but if you be as lukewarm as before you cannot do more than you did before But if your heart be inflamed with zeal for God more than before you will perform all your Religious undertake with more life than before you will pray with more life and preach with more life and speak to men about the things of God and another world than you did before and this is the performance of your Purpose 15. Frequent Self-reflexions Be much in daily Reflections whether you live up to your Resolutions or no. Review your life every night reflect upon your Duties and the manner of performance of them Survey at night before you sleep the actions of the day whether they have been according to the Rule of God's Word what temptations did assault you and how you did resist them what corruptions did rise in your heart and how you did subdue them what Ordinances of God you have sat under and how you did improve them what Talents God hath entrusted you with and how you have employed them what company you have been in and how you did behave yourself If you do not call yourself frequently to account you will live below your Purposes and not perceive it 16. Renew your Purpose Be often renewing your Purposes and Resolutions for an holy life Frequent acts do beget and strengthen habits Actually renew your Purpose to pray to God to walk circumspectly to discourse of the things of God and it will at length be habitual to you so to do If you find upon reflection and self-examination that your Purposes are weakened and your heart draws back from that pitch of holiness you did intend to labour after bind your heart thereto by the renewal of your Purposes If you find you have broken your Resolutions do not resolve to continue so to do but repair them If the Mariner be driven back by winds and storms yet he keeps and renews his purpose of sailing unto his intended Harbour If a Traveller fall in his Journey he gets up and resolves to hold on his way 17. It will bring great benefits Press your heart with the evils of coming short and with the benefits of living up unto your Resolutions The evils of this I shall speak to in the third general Head that follows next in order The Benefits of keeping the purpose of your heart are many and great Your sins will not be so many your sins will not be so strong for Resolutions against sin that are firmly made and carefully kept do exceedingly weaken sin and if you should sometime sin your sin will not be so great when God doth see you keep the firm purpose of your heart against it though sometimes you are overborne and bowed down yea and fall against the inclination of your will and purpose of your heart 18. Pray for strength Pray much to God for strength and power to perform your Purpose You resolved to pray more importunately unto God for mercy but than you must pray to God to enable you to pray as you have resolved Resolution is our duty but strength to perform them is not in ourselves but must be fetched from God and that must be by fervent frequent Prayer Pray that God would not leave thee to thyself that he would not forsake thee Psal. 119.8 I will keep thy statutes there is David's Purpose Oh forsake me not utterly there is David's Prayer As you must not purpose in your own strength but in the strength of Christ so you cannot perform in your own strength but in the strength of Christ If your resolution be strong against sin and you rest in the strength of your Resolution and think you shall not sin because you have strong Resolutions against it you will fail 19 Mortify self-love and use self-denial Mortify Carnal self-love and be very much in the exercise of self denial If you cannot deny yourself of what is pleasing to the flesh you will deny a holy life You must often deny your own wills and your own desires and delights your own judgements and reasonings your sensitive appetite and your profits in the world and hate all these in comparison of better things and when they stand in competition with God and Christ If you love your pleasures inordinately and love your Liberty and your Life inordinately your resolutions for strictness of holy walking with God will not abide nor be accomplished The love of self as well as of sin is a great enemy to holy resolutions 20. Examples Often urge your heart with the Examples of the holy men of God recorded in the Scriptures They purposed and were careful to perform Jacob vowed unto God and paid it David vowed unto God and paid it Job made a Covenant with his eyes that he would not look upon Objects that should irritate his sinful nature and said why then should I do it Job 31.1 So do you say When I thought myself to be near the grave I purposed to honour God more than I did before if he should spare me why then should I not do it I purposed to watch against my sin why then should I be careless Thus I have given you the Considerations to press you to be careful of your Purposes and Helps to the performance of them next I come to the Aggravations of neglecting to live according to your engagements in the time of sickness and danger SECT III. III. Fourteen Aggravations of neglect to live up to our holy Resolutions THe Aggravations of the breach of your Vows and Resolutions made against sin and for holiness when fears of death were upon you do exceedingly heighten and increase your sin and because sickbed Promises are so seldom made good and sickbed Resolutions usually prove so ineffectual I shall desire you who have the Vows of God upon you and who have resolved if God would continue to you l●fe as God and Conscience and it may be others are witnesses of that you would weigh seriously as in the presence of God the evil of breaking your Vows and being careless of your Resolutions 1. It is great hypocrisy This is great hypocrisy to purpose and not perform You seemed in your affliction to be affected with your condition and to be afflicted for your transgression and to approve of an holy conversation than you could weep for sin and now you work it you could then lament it and now commit it than you seemed to be changed from what you really were before when you lived in some known sin but now it appears that you have really lost that good which you did seem to have and made profession of in time of your sickness It is usual with Hypocrites to be best when they are ill and to be worst when they are well Hypocrites have their good moods are good by fits sometimes pray but not always Job 27.8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite V. 10. Will he delight himself in the Lord will he always call upon God i. e. He will not at all times and in all conditions pray to God when he is sick he may but when his sickness is removed his Prayers are abated It is a sign thy goodness was as a morning cloud and as the early dew it 's gone away Hos 6.4 2. Double Iniquity This is double Iniquity it is twisted wickedness It is one sin woven with another it is not only double dealing but it brings double guilt if thou hadst not made thy vow and resolution to pray frequently it had been but a single sin if thou hadst been seldom in it but now it is a double sin and hath double guilt that thou dost omit to pray this is one sin that thou dost omit it after thou hast promised and resolved and vowed to do it this is the other sin and indeed is this thy mending in thy sickness and dangers to be doubling thine iniquity 3. Crea●●olly This is great folly Eccles. 5.4 When thou vowest a vow unto God defer not to pay t●●o● he hath no pleasure in fools pay that which thou hast vowed It is folly to do that which is better be undone than done Verse 5. Better it is that thou shouldest not vow then vow and not pay In thy affliction thou shouldest have learned wisdom and not committed folly 4. It is to lie to God This is to lie to God to men A vow is a promise made to God Deut. 23. ●3 That wh●ch is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform even a free will offering according as thou hast vowed unto the Lord thy God which thou hast promised with thy mouth What is first called a vow is after called a promise & if thou madest this promise with thy mouth and didst not really intend the fulfilling of it but didst it either to deceive thyself or others or had it been possible God himself what is this but a lie If the words of thy mouth were not conformable to the thoughts of thy mind that thou spakest one thing in thy sickness and didst intend another thou spakest not as thou thoughtest thou art guilty of a lie * Oratio quando non est conformis menti dicentis dicitur falsa ethice quando non est conformis rebus est salsa logice ethical But forasmuch as thy words do not agree to the things thou spakest of thou art guilty of a falsehood logical both are bad though the first is worst And is not this an aggravation of thy wickedness to lie to God when thou art under his rod Do not parents deal more severely with their children if they find them lying when they are under the rod Are we not like to children when they are scourged will promise any thing to be spared but presently be found in the violation of their promise But take heed how thou liest unto God Remember the fearful instance of Ananias and Sapphira Act. 5.3 Peter said Ananias why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land Verse 4. Whiles it remained was it not thine own and after it was sold was it not in thine own power Why hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart that thou hast not lied unto men but unto God Verse 5. And Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the ghost The like I might say of thy vow before thou hadst made it it was in thy power Deut. 23.22 But if thou forbear to vow it shall be no sin in thee but if thou hast vowed God will surely require it of thee and to slack to pay would be sin in thee Verse 21. Why then hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost in making a vow and not paying thou liest not to men but unto God Oh fear and tremble least death should seize thee presently and thou fall down and give up the ghost In thy vow thou liest unto God if thou dost not pay because we must vow only to God for sacred vows are a part of Religious worship which must be given only unto God Deut. 23.21 Eccles. 5.4 But in thy promises thou hast made to men thou hast lied unto men and all this doth aggravate thy neglect of coming up to thy vows and promises in time of sickness and fears 5. To sin against conscience To Neglect the keeping of thy resolutions and purposes against sin and for an holy life is it not a sinning against conscience and against knowledge It seems thy conscience hath told thee when thou resolvedst to pray more fervently that lukewarmeness in prayer was a sin and yet now thou dost not strive against it thy conscience told thee that the ways of God were the best ways and best for thee to walk therein and yet now thou dost not do it thy conscience hath been so far enlightened to dictate this unto thee and yet thou goest against the dictates of thy conscience thou dost not only sin with knowledge but against it and sins against knowledge and conscience are aggravated sins and such a sinner is an inexcusable and self-condemned sinner Rom. 2.1 didst thou not condemn thyself in time of Plague that thou hadst taken no more pains for heaven and for thy soul that thou hadst prayed no more and lived no better And what need we any further witness when thine own conscience will come in against thee 6. It will make death terrible This will make death terrible indeed unto thee when it comes in good earnest to seize upon thee and then thou shalt find that the same purposes and resolutions will not quiet thee when in former sickness thou hast had them and in after recovery thou hast neglected to perform them Thy last sickness will come and death at last will come and then thou wilt remember what vows thou hast made and how thou didst not pay them unto God how thou hast resolved against sin and a wicked life but hast made no conscience of living answerable unto them and this will make thee much afraid to die 7. It is great unthankfulness for your life This will be great unthankefulness unto God for his preservation from or restoration out of sickness To God belong the issues from death but you deny it to him When Hezekiah was restored from his sickness its thought the plague he was thankful unto God for his restoration Isa. 28.19 The living the living he shall praise thee as I d● this day the father to the children shall make known thy truth Verse 20. The Lord was ready to save me therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord And is this to give thanks to God for preservation for restoration from sickness Hath God given you your life from the very borders of the grave and is this the fruit you return to God not only not to be so good as you ought to be but not so careful as you purposed to be Or do you give thanks to God with your mouth that God hath kept you from the grave and contradict it in your life Your oral thanksgiving is nothing without practical thanks doing Or do you praise God in words and dishonour him in your works and do your lips acknowledge you are engaged to God for his protecting providence and do you so live as if you had received no such mercy from him and that your dependence were not now upon him Is this your thanks to God to break your word with him 8. It will make you lose the benefit of affliction This will make you lose the spiritual benefit of your sickness and affliction to be worse by the mercies of God is to have mercies in judgement to be better by judgement is to have judgements in mercy But when you live no better and are no better nor endeavour to walk according to your resolutions in time of sickness it is a sign your affliction hath not been sanctified to you that as to spirituals you are not benefited by it God hath put you into the furnace but you are not purified your dross remaineth God hath corrected you but you are not amended If affliction had worked for your good if you had been bad if would have made you good if you had been good it would have made you better David could say Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have learned to keep thy commandment Psal. 119.67 But you might say in my affliction I purposed to walk close with God but after I have been afflicted I go astray Surely your heart is very bad when afflictions made you not better and when mercies makes you worse 9 It is to approve of sin after dislike What is this but to like of sin and disapprove of stricktness of holiness after you have professed your dislike of sin and approved of closest walking with God In your affliction you seemed to be sorry for your sin but now the affliction is over you seem to be sorry that you were sorry for your sin in your affliction you seemed to repent that you had sinned else why did you resolve against it When your affliction is removed you seem to repent of your resolutions against sin else why do not you live and do as you did resolve what is this but to smile upon sin after your deliverance which you seemed to frown upon in time of danger of death and the grave What is this but to find sweetness in sin after you have tasted something of the bitterness of it To reimbrace that which you seemed to have cast from you and this is an aggravation of the evil frame of your heart 10. If thou hadst died in thy sickness thou hadst been damned What if thou hadst died in thy affliction thou hadst gone to hell upon a mistake and perished for ever when yet thou hadst some hope though upon false grounds that thy condition was good and that thou shouldest have obtained mercy When thou wast sick or in danger thou thoughtest thy condition was good because thou foundest thy heart to resolve to forsake thy sin and purpose to close with the closest ways of holiness but if thou hadst then died thou wouldst without doubt have been eternally damned because thy resolutions were not penitential resolutions as appears by the fruit of them in my returning to thy sin again and that thou didst not indeed love God and his holy ways for if thou hadst thou wouldst nor so soon no never after turned from them in the general course of thy conversation 11. It encourageth the devil to tempt This will encourage the devil to more frequent tempting of thee For if by temptation he can prevail with thee to do that which is contrary to thy resolution what hopes will he have to draw thee into sin against which thou hast made no such particular resolution If he overcome thee where thou art strongest what spoil will he make upon thee where thou art weakest It is a great advantage we give unto the devil when we sin against our resolutions 12. It provoketh God This will be a great provocation unto God when thou dost sin not only against his Precepts but against thy own purpose not only against the obligations he layeth upon thy soul by Mercy and Afflictions but against the Obligations thou layst upon thyself by thy Purposes and Resolutions And in thy Affliction and fears didst thou not apprehend God to be exceedingly provoked but thou must after he hath preserved recovered thee go on to provoke him more 13. Hinders Prayer If this neglect be found in thee who hast the truth of grace yet it will much hinder thy confidence at the throne of grace and stop the Influences of the Spirit of God and obstruct the illapses of the Spirit from descending upon thy heart When thou keepest thy resolutions and keepest out of the ways of sin thou canst go to God with an humble holy boldness and pour out thy heart with much enlargedness before God and there is sweet intercourse betwixt God and thee thou feelest thy heart to burn in love to God and thou perceivest God to bear a love to thee and oh how sweet is this unto thy soul But when thou neglectest to watch against sin and to walk with God when thou hadst resolved to do both when thou goest to thy duty thou wilt find Conscience reproach thee and thy heart straitened and thy mouth stopped and thy confidence abated thy heart much estranged from God and God carrying himself as a stranger unto thee when thou art upon thy knees And this is the bitter fruit of a careless heart after heightened Resolutions 14. Begets doubtings If this neglect be found in thee that hast the truth of grace it will much occasion the doubting of the sincerity of thy heart A Child of God may fail and be remiss in prosecuting of his purposes sometimes but if he be it will make him jealous of his own heart and suspicious that it is not well betwixt God and him and is not that a sore evil and much to be opposed and lamented which doth blot thine Evidences for heaven and will make thee question whether thou hast one dram of grace in truth conferred upon thee infused into thee Thus I have finished this Direction also showing how you may live in some measure answerable to the great goodness of God in sparing you in time of Plague when so many thousands fell round about you By being careful to be as good when the Sickness is over as you purposed and resolved to be when you were in expectation of death and waiting for your change and dissolution when the Arrows of God were flying amongst you in the time of this sore Judgement of the Plague DIRECTION III. Since you live look after the cure of soul-sickness HAth God spared you in time of so great Contagion that you live when others are dead or were you sick and are recovered then Endeavour that the Cure may be a thorough Cure that your Soul be healed as well as your body that there be not spiritual Judgements upon your Soul when temporal Plagues are removed from your Body You may observe that such that came to Christ with diseased bodies Christ healed their bodies and their souls too he took away their corporal sickness blindness distempers and the guilt of their sins too Mat. 9.1 2. Many are delivered from a Corporal Plague that yet are infected and in danger of eternal death by the Plague upon their hearts That remain under spiritual Judgements and Soul-sickness when temporal Judgements and corporal sicknesses are cured and removed When St. John wrote to Gaius he desired that it might be as well with him as to his bodily health as it was in respect of his soul and spiritual health 3 Ep. John v. 2. Beloved I wish above all things that thou mayst prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth But it may be matter of our desire concerning those that remain alive and are well after this Visitation that their souls may prosper and be in health even as their body prospereth It is a greater mercy to have an healed soul in a sickly body than to have spiritual sickness remain in an healthful body It is not so great a Judgement to have the body full of Plague-sores as to have the soul full of reigning sins If your body be cured and not your soul the cure is but half done Therefore in speaking to this Direction I shall show these things 1. Wherein it appears that sin is the sickness of the soul 2. Wherein it appears that sin and spiritual Judgements upon the soul are worse than sickness and temporal Judgements upon the body 3. How we may know whether our souls are healed of spiritual sicknesses 4. What they must do that lie under soul-sickness that they may be healed 5. What such should do that are healed of their soul distempers to improve the Cure to the glory of God SECT I. I. Wherein doth it appear that sin is the souls disease and the sickness thereof In these particulars 1. Sin is the souls sickness SIcknesses and diseases do abate and take away the Appetite Sick men have not the Appetite to their food as men in health have So sin takes away the spiritual appetite of the Soul that it doth not hunger after Christ nor thirst after righteousness and hinders its feeding upon Christ and the Word of God which is the spiritual food for the souls nourishment and growth 2. Sickness and diseases do abate the strength and activity of the body So sin doth weaken the soul and all the faculties thereof and doth disable it in all its actings to and for God 3. Sickness and diseases often fill the body full of pain aches and sores making men to cry out Oh my head and oh my heart and oh my bowels I am pained I am pained So sin doth fill the soul full of racking fears and perplexing torments and doubts and sometimes make some sinners cry out I am undone I am undone I am damned I am damned 4. Some diseases do stupefy and make men insensible and those are the worst So sin sometimes makes some sinners stupid and unsensible of their misery and danger 5. Sickness and diseases do take away men's delight in those things which men in perfect health do take pleasure in Sick men have no delight in the pleasures of the world and in the riches of the world which other men find So sin takes away that delight in God and spiritual duties and in heavenly things which those whose souls are cured do experience 6. Sickness and diseases do spoil the beauty of the body They spoil the fairest complexion and make the ruddy cheeks to become pale and many diseases bring deformity in the room of beauty So sin doth spoil the soul of that spiritual beauty wherewith it was adorned in its first Creation which did consist in likeness unto God so that now instead of the likeness of God there is nothing but blackness and deformity that the soul that was comely and amiable in the sight of God is now become loathsome and abominable SECT II. II. Wherein doth it appear that Soul sickness and spiritual Judgements upon men's hearts are worse th●n sickness and temporal Judgements upon men's bodies Sickness of the Soul more dreadful than of the Body THough most men in the World look upon bodily sickness and corporal Judgements to be more dreadful than sin upon their souls yet if we take a right estimate and make a true judgement of both spiritual Judgements are the greater evils In respect of the 1. Cause or manner of conveyance 2. Signs of greater wrath 3. Subject in which they do reside 4. Number being many 5. Effect that they do produce 6. Difficulty of cure 7. Want of sense 1. Spiritual Judgements and soul-sicknesses are greater evils than temporal Judgements and sickness upon the body in respect of the cause or manner of Conveyance which is by natural propagation and so unavoidable Sin is born with us it is derived from Parents to Children from one generation to another There are some diseases that are conveyed from Parents to Children but this is not general nor perpetual to all generations But the propagation of spiritual diseases is universal and general it is constant and perpetual The seed of all sin is derived from Adam to all his Posterity 2. Soul-sicknesses and spiritual Judgements upon men's hearts are Signs of greater wrath than bodily sicknesses are You may be sick of the Plague and yet God may love you you may have bodily afflictions and God may be at peace with you and because he loves you he may afflict you But spiritual Judgements as judicial hardness blindness are signs of God's anger yea his sorest displeasure yea which is more they are signs of God's Hatred to such a man that lieth under them Now that which doth always argue Hatred in God to a sinner is worse than those things that might proceed barely from his Anger and sometimes from his Love God loathes and abhors that man the plague of whose heart is not at all cured 3. Spiritual Judgements and soul-sicknesses are greater evils than temporal and corporal sicknesses are because they be spiritual and have the heart and soul for their seat and subject As mercies are better that are spiritual and that are soul mercies so Judgements and sicknesses spiritual are the greater evils because they are the disease of the better and more noble part of man that which doth corrupt the soul must be worse than that which doth corrupt the body by how much the soul is more excellent than the body 4. They are worse because they are more numerous there is more diseases in the soul than in the body If the body be diseased in one part it may be well in all the rest if in more yet not in all if in all yet your case is not so bad But there is no sinner but is diseased in every part there are spiritual distempers in all the faculties and powers of the soul in the Understanding Will Affections Conscience Memory Phantasie In the members of the body no part free Nay there are many spiritual diseases in every faculty in the Understanding there are many ignorance error etc. in the Will many stubbornness choosing the Creature and sin before God etc. In every affection of the soul there are swarms of sin In the heart there are innumerable distempers evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts blasphemies false witness Ma● 15.19 Spiritual diseases naturally be all in every man and be in every part of every man 5. They are worse in regard of the Effects The effects of bodily sickness at the utmost and the greatest is but the death of the body it brings the body to the dust and the grave it doth but separate from friends and betwixt the body and the soul But the effects of spiritual soul-sicknesses except they be healed are dreadful and inconceivably great great and dreadful in this world but greater and more dreadful in the world to come they cause God's anger they deprive the sinner of communion with God they will separate betwixt God and him for ever they will bring the soul to the place of Devils and the torments of the damned 6. They are worse in regard of difficulty of Cure Bodily distempers may be cured by the skill of man in the use of natural means but the sickness of the soul with nothing but the blood of Christ Of which more afterwards 7. They are worse in regard of the want of sense Where one man cries out of the hardness of his heart and complains of the unbelief and earthliness of his heart there are many cry out of the sickness of their bodies If their finger doth but ache they are sensible of it but though the whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint and exceedingly distempered yet they are not sensible of it Therefore though God hath cured the Plague of thy body and not the Plague of thy heart if thy bodily disease is removed but the sickness of thy soul remain without cure thy case is deplorable And while thou art rejoicing that thou hast escaped the Plague thou hast more cause to go unto thy Chamber and be deeply humbled and mourn before God for the Plagues and Judgements that remain upon thy Soul SECT III. III. How may a man know whether he be healed of Soul-sickness THe cure of these distempers are but partial yet so far are they healed that they shall not be the death of the soul The cure will not be perfect till we die Death we say cures all distempers and so it doth those of the soul There is a double wound that sin doth make there is the wound that doth certainly destroy the soul by hindering it from salvation and eternal life and there is the wound that destroys the peace and comfort of the soul So there is a double Cure which Christ doth work the one for the safety and happiness of the Soul the other for the peace and comfort of the Soul The first of these we inquire after 1. Signs of the cure of soul-sickness Every man that is healed of Soul-sickness hath been sensible of it Sin hath been thy sorrow and thy grief and the burden of thy heart thou hast groaned under it as the greatest load as the greatest evil in the world Every man that is bodily sick and is sensible of it and is unfeignedly willing to be freed from his sickness and desireth nothing more is not cured but it is so in spirituals He that is sensible of sin and is heartily and unfeignedly willing to part with his sin as ever sick man was of sickness is certainly healed by Jesus Christ But such as never found so much sorrow for sin nor sense thereof as to make them willing to part with every sin were never yet cured How can a man that is wounded have his sore dressed and lanced in order to a Cure and not be sensible of the smart and pain thereof Or how can he be healed while the sword that made the wound abideth in it It is as impossible that man should be healed of his spiritual sickness and wounds that is not willing to part with sin as for a man to be healed of his bodily wound while he will not have the sword pulled out that did make it Sin caused the wound and the sickness of thy soul and if thou art not willing to part with every sin thou art not healed thy soul is sick and if thou dost not feel it that is the worse 2. Where the soul is healed the sin is killed the life of sin is the death of the soul and that which is the life of the soul is the death of sin if Christ heal the soul he wounds sin he never heals both if sin be wounded to death the soul is healed unto life as in the body the more health is repaired the more the disease is weakened so the more the soul is cured the more sin is mortified 3. Where the soul is healed there grace is infused sickness being removed health is restored When Christ heals a sinner's soul he doth not only mortify the sin but sanctify the sinner when a man is restored from sickness to health that which made him sick is not only removed but that is introduced which maketh him well so when Christ cures the soul he doth not only take down the power of sin which did make him bad but he infuseth that which doth make him good 4. Where the soul is cured of the disease of sin it is sick of love to Jesus Christ it is not only weary of sin but exceedingly longeth after the presence of Christ and communion with God Cant. 5.8 I charge you O daughters of Jerusalem if ye find my beloved that ye tell him I am sick of love 5. Where the soul is cured of the disease of sin it doth receive Christ by faith when the Israelites were stung with the fiery Serpents and looked up to the brazen Serpent they were certainly cured Num. 21.8 Faith is an healing grace because it eyeth Christ the soul-Physician and fetches virtue of healing from him Mat. 15.28 And Jesus answered and said unto her O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt And her daughter was made whole from that very hour Mat. 9.2 And they brought unto him a man sick of the Palsy lying on a head and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the Palsy Son be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee The blood of Christ is the healing plaster and faith is the hand that takes it and applieth it unto the sore 6. Where the soul is cured of the disease of sin it is getting strength for spiritual work and employment more and more it is growing stronger and stronger in grace and goodness as a man whose distemper is broke and going away he is recovering strength more and more to go about his calling and employment he is stronger to walk and work he can endure cold and bear burdens more than before A man that is spiritually cured is waxing in the fruits of the spirit and growing in all the graces of the spirit of God is more and more able to resist temptations to perform duties to bear afflictions and endure hardships for the sake of Christ By these signs you may discern whether your soul is cured so far of the diseases it lay under that they shall not be its death and damnation SECT IV. IU. What should such do that are under soul-sicknesses that they may be healed 1. How to be cured of soul-sickness YOU must be sensible that you are sick he that doth not feel himself sick will take no care about the means of health it is those that are sensible of sickness that will value the skill of the Physician and send to him and desire his direction Mat. 9.12 But when Jesus heard that he said unto them they that be whole need not the Physician but they that are sick 2. When you are sensible of your soul-sickness you must apply yourself to Christ the great Physician of souls It is Christ that cometh to those that feel themselves diseased with healing under his wings Mal. 4.2 It is he that healeth the  Luk. 4.18 Christ healeth us by his wounds and cureth us by his stripes Isa. 53.5 It is matter of admiration and to many past belief that applying of Medicines to a sword should heal the wound made thereby but this is above all reason and beyond all dispute that the bleeding wounds of Christ will be healing to the bleeding wounds of the sinner Christ's Golgotha is our Gilead and that you may be the more encouraged to come to Christ when you feel yourself sick consider 1. Christ the soul-●hysician Christ can heal every disease and cure every wound he hath a salve for every sore There are some Physicians that can cure some diseases but not all but Christ when he was upon earth did heal all manner of diseases Mat. 4.23 whether thy eyes be blind or thy heart hard or thy mind earthly he can open thy eyes and soften thy heart and make thee spiritual yea though thy sickness hath been Chronical of long duration yet he can heal thee yea though thou art sick of a relapse which is most dangerous yet Christ can cure thee 2. Christ will heal your souls without putting you to any charge though you be poor and mean and have nothing to bring to Christ yet you may come for healing he will give you his advice and counsel freely he will give you your Physic his own blood freely you have nothing and he expecteth nothing The woman that had been diseased twelve years and suffered many things of many Physicians and spent all and grew worse came to Christ and was presently and freely healed Mar. 5.25 3. Christ will proceed in this cure with all compassion and tenderness he will not deal more roughly with you than is needful he exerciseth bowels of compassions while he is dressing his patient or if he give you bitter po●ions or sometimes useth corrosives he will be exceeding tender over you all this while Mat. 14.14 And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them and he healed their sick 4. Christ is a Physician that is always present with his Patients to observe what operation his Medicines have upon their hearts if you are ready to faint under the terror of a threatening he is by you presently to administer a cordial from the promise to uphold your swooning souls Other Physicians cannot be always present with all their Patients but Christ is Psal. 34.18 He is nigh to them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit If your heart be broken he is nigh to bind it up 5. Christ can heal your soul-diseases throughly and effectually and he only can do it others will but skin over your wound but Christ will heal to the bottom Jer. 6.14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saying peace peace when there is no peace Thus if you consider what a Physician Christ is you may be encouraged to come to him for healing 3. If you say you are so sick you cannot go to Christ Send for him by fervent prayer and he will come to you Cry to him O thou Physician of souls I am sick so sick that I cannot come unto thee and except thou heal me I am a dead man a damned soul I beseech thee use thy skill for that will save my soul alive put forth thy power for the curing of my diseases Oh staunch this bloody issue else my soul will bleed to death Christ never refused to come to any sick soul that was importunate with him to come with healing under his wings 4. If you would be healed you must come to Christs-Hospital i. e. unto Christ's Ordinances and this you may do if you cannot come to Christ yet you may come unto his Ordinances you may come and hear you may attend at the pools side and at length he might come and put you into the healing waters Mat. 21.14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them Psal. 107.20 He sent his word and healed them 5. If you would be healed of your soul-sickness you must follow the directions and prescriptions of Christ your spiritual Physician If you be sick and the Physician tell you what you must do and prescribe you means and you set them in your window or let them stand upon your table and do not do as he prescribes you may die of your disease you must observe his advice for the time when and for the quantity how much you must take or else your distemper will abide yea and increase Christ will tell you what you must do and if you follow his directions your soul shall recover and be saved 6. If you would be healed of your soul-sickness you must not let slip the time of healing There is a time a nick of time for healing if you let that pass you will die of your disease The Impotent people that lay at the Pool of Bethesda were to observe the season when the Angel moved upon the water and he that stepped in at the very nick of time was healed Joh. 5.4 There is a time to heal Eccles. 3.3 I pray God this healing-time might not be past and over to thee that readest these lines Close then with the present motions of the spirit if yet thou feel him working upon thy heart 7. If you would be healed of your soul-sickness you must take heed of those things that will continue your disease If a man will eat those meats that feed his distemper and is contrary to his health he cannot rationally expect a cure You must take heed of those sins that if you do indulge will not only hinder your recovery but will increase your misery 8. If you would be healed of your soul-sickness do not undertake to be a Physician to yourself nor go about to heal your souls with any of your own Medicines you may heal your own body but not your soul we are too apt to be Physicians to ourselves and to think to cure our soul-distempers by our duties and by our own performances But this will never be SECT V. V. What must those do whom Christ hath cured of their soul-sickness to improve this cure to the glory of God 1. Directions to give to God the glory of our souls cure A Scribe the cure unto Christ and not unto any means or instruments if you are cured of any bodily disease you are not to ascribe it to your Physic nor Physician but to the goodness of your God so if you are cured of your soul-diseases you must not attribute this to praying or to the Preacher but to Jesus Christ Hos 11.3 I taught Ephraim also to go taking them by their arms but they knew not that I healed them Thus David blessed the Lord who healed all his diseases Psal. 103.2 3. 2. Increase your love to Christ who hath healed the distempers of your heart will you not love that man that saved your life and will you not love that Lord that saved your souls especially when you consider the manner and means of your cure That he did it freely and that with a Medicine of his own blood other Physicians make you Medicines of other things but Christ of his own heart blood he died that you might live and he was pierced that you may be spared 3. If you are healed take heed of falling into a relapse take heed of wounding your soul after healing if you are healed go away and sin no more lest a worse thing come unto you Joh. 8.11 4. If you are healed direct others to the same Physician you do so to your acquaintance that are sick of the same disease that you have been you tell them such a man is able and skilful and he hath cured the same disease in you and counsel and persuade them to go to him do so in this case you have a friend a neighbour a relation in a sinful state Oh speak to them to go to Christ Dost thou hear any soul complaining alas my wound it is incurable and my sorrow it is intolerable my heart is sick my soul is full of running sores and I pray but have no help and I hear but have no cure now direct such a distressed sinner unto Christ and from your own experience encourage him to hasten unto Christ from whom you have found such healing virtue And if God hath healed thy body of the loathsome disease in which thou mightest have said with David Psal 38.2 Thine arrows stick fast in me probable David was sick of the Plague which is called the Arrow of God Psal. 91.5 and thy hand presseth me sore 3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger 5. My wounds stink and are corrupt 7. My loins are filled with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh 11. My lovers and my friends stand a loof off from my sore and my kinsmen stand afar off This it may be hath been thy condition who readest these lines thy body was full of loathsome sores and God hath cured thee and which was worse thy soul was full of loathsome reigning sins and God hath healed thee what now doth God expect at thy hand but that since he hath given health unto thy body and grace into thy soul thou shouldest use both unto his glory which if thou conscientiously and sincerely endeavour and practise ere long thou shalt be received into the Arms of thy Lord where there shall be no more sickness in thy body nor sin in thy soul for ever The Reader is desired to make the following Direction the Fourth DIRECTION III. HAth God spared you in time of Pestilence then if you would Live in some measure answerable to so great a Mercy Be Eminent in your place and Relation Be eminenth exemplary in the Place Capacity Calling Station or Relation wherein God hath set you Every Rela●ion hath some Duties peculiar to that Relation and every Calling and Capacity wherein Divine Providence hath placed you hath something wherein you may be peculiarly eminent and who knows but God hath preserved you for this end that you may excel in the Capacity and Condition God hath called you unto if your Condition be a Condition of Prosperity be eminent in Humility Self-denial and Charity if of Adversity be eminent in Submission and Patience in undergoing the Will of God But that I may speak more Comprehensively and Distinctly I shall consider that every one that is left alive after this sore Judgement stands in one or more of these following Capacities or Conditions in every one of which every Man whom God hath spared should now labour to be eminently exemplary This Capcity is either Political Magistrates or Subjects Ecclesiastical Pastors Flock Oeconomical Conjugal Husband Wife Parental or Filial Parents Children Despotical or Servile Masters Servants One of these every Person is that is preserved from the Grave and if every one would now endeavour in good earnest to do something singular but singularly good for God in his particular Relation to do the Duty which God peculiarly calls for and excel therein that you failed in and came short of before this would be a good Improvement of the Mercy and this would be in some measure to walk up unto it SECTION I. LEt us consider the Persons whom God hath in mercy spared from the Grave in their Political c●ci●y and such are either 1. Magistrates and Governors for over us by God Le●e with humility and reverence mind you of your duty and tell you That God expecteth and requireth that since he hath entrusted you with Authority from himself and given you Life and preserved you from the Grave in the day of his sore Visitation in the City that though your Place and Office did oblige you to a less retired Life then many others yet God hath kept you from Death by Infectious Diseases Now should you not inquire what you should do for God and how you may improve your time and Talon for his Honour should not you punish Sin that is so indeed and Countenance Holiness and Religion that is so indeed should not you be zealous for God in punishing of open-Prophaneness and the horrid Oaths that have cried aloud in the ears of God Men profanely Swearing by the Sacred Name of God and Sabbath-bre●king and violation of the Holy Day of God did not Nehemiah do so Nehem. 13.15 In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine-presses on the Sabbath and bringing in sheaves and lading Asses as also wine grapes and figs and all manner of burdens which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold Victuals Verse 1 6. There dwelled Men of Tire also therein which brought fish and all manner of Ware and sold on the Sabbath as many did Fruit openly in some places of the Streets and in Fields about London unto the children of Judah and in Jerusalem Verse 17. Then I contended with the Nobles of Judah and said unto them what evil thing is this that ye do and profane the Sabbath day Ver. 18. Did not your fathers thus and did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon this City yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath Verse 19 And it came to pass when the Gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath I commanded the Gates should be shut and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath and some of my servants set I at the Gates that there should be no Burden brought in upon the Sabbath day Verse 20. So the Merchants and sellers of all kind of Ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice Verse 21. Then I testified against them and said unto them Why lodge ye about the Wall if ye do so again I will lay hands on you from that time ●orth came they no more on the Sabbath This Example is worthy your Imition and oh how much good may you do and how much Sin and Dishonour to God thereby might you preven● if you do indeed obey the Laws of God and Execute the good Laws of this Kingdom in that Case made and provided Should not you discourage Drunkeness and Houses notorious for uncleanness That Taverns and Ale be not so much frequented should you not be a Terror unto the Evil why Drunkenness and profane Swear and Brothel-houses are Evil indeed for which a Land is made to Mourn and should not you be a praise to them tha● do well Rom. 13.3 Are not you Gods Ministers for good to them that are good and revengers to execute wrath upon him that doth evil and can you w●●k worthy of so great preservation from the Plague if you do not cut down Sin and encourage Godliness SECTION II. 2. Subject's Duties to Magistrates SUbjects and People Governed Many and strict are the Precepts and Injunctions of God upon People to their Magistrates and no less than damnation is threatened by God himself to such as oppose themselves against their Magistrates Rom. 13.1 Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers for there is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Verse 2. Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Verse 5. Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake True Religion we see from this Scripture doth oblige People and Subject in Duty and Obedience to their Magistrates and none will more Conscientiously obey than those that are most Religious Obedience to Magistrates from this place is required because 1. They are Ordained of God 2. They that resist them resist an Ordinance of God 3. Such as do so receive to themselves damnation 4. They are appointed of God to be a terror to the evil not to the good 5. Conscience is bound so to do 6. There is necessity we should obey We must obey not only for Wrath but Conscience sake Some might obey for favour and some for fear but true Religion teacheth Men to be obedient to Magistrates from Principles of Conscience Strictness of Holiness is reproached when it is asserted to make Men disobedient Once more 1 Pet. 2.13 Submit yourselves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreme Verse 14. Or unto Governors that are sent by Him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well Verse 15. For so is the will of God you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish Men. Verse 17. Honour all Men. Religion doth not teach us to deny civil Respects to men Love the Brotherhood fear God honour the King Religion presses and obliges Subjects in duty to their Magistrate in these particulars 1. Obedience to their Laws and Commandments Tit. 3.1 for their Laws and Commands are to be according to the Laws and Commands of God 2. Honour to their Persons Rom. 13.7 for they are God's Vice oys therefore called Gods Psal. 82.6 For I have said ye are Gods but ye shall die like men 3. Loyalty whereby we are bound to the uttermost of our power to maintain their Prerogatives and preserve their Persons 4. Prayer on their behalf if God be angry with them we must intercede for them if they want any Blessings we must make supplication for them if they lie under evil we must deprecate those evils if they find mercy from God we must give thanks for them all this is in 1 Tim. 2.1 2. 5. Tribute Rom. 13.7 For for this cause pay you tribute also for they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing 6. Subjection to their Penalties Rom. 13.4 5. This is to live in this capacity to be peaceable and rather take a thousand wrongs than offer one and to live in that obedience as becomes the Professors of the Gospel that all may see that those that are obedient unto God dare not be disobedient unto those to whom and wherein God commands them to yield obedience SECT III. SUch as are spared from death by the Plague may be considered in their relation as Pastors and People and the Protection of God over such should engage them to discharge their mutual duties as those that would testify their thankfulness to God for continuing them in that Relation God hath removed by the Plague some minister's that the People shall never hear Preach more and God hath taken some from every Congregation of the People to whom the surviving Ministers shall never offer Christ and Peace unto any more who are now out of the reach of their reproofs and exhortations therefore such Ministers as yet have time to preach unto the People should improve that little time that God hath given them in so doing and the People that yet have time to hear their Ministers should diligently do it and improve their Ministry for the saving of their souls But more particularly First Ministers that have escaped the Plague should be eminently exemplary in a diligent performance of every work that God expecteth at their hands I. Ministers should be more in Studying As in improving time in giving themselves more unto serious closer studying that they may be more and more able for their Master's work and more and more eminent in converting and building up the Elect of God to be more in their Studies than in the Streets more at their Books than at their pleasures at this they should be early and l●te according to Saint Paul's charge to Timothy 1 Tim. 4.13 Till I come give attendance to reading Ver. 14. Meditate upon these things give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all Such as are to work for God and the saving of souls should be given to Study and Medi●ation that they may be more skilful and successful in their work they should be as much in their Studies as any Worldling in his Shop Especially now such should study more 1. the Word of God which is to be the matter of their Preaching Such are more apt to study the Writings of Men more than the Word of God 2. Their own hearts and the dealings of God with their own souls that they may first experience the sweetness and power and efficacy of those truths they are to commend unto the People 3. The stare of their Flock and the condition of their People who of them need to be reproved who of them need to be comforts and who of them be in doubts and how they may by their Preaching be resolved They should study their People more that they may preach on such subjects not that are easiest unto themselves to speak un●o but that are most suitable to their people and so most likely to be most profitable to them SECT IV. Praying SUch should be more in improving time in frequent fervent Prayer They should pray 1. That God would direct their thoughts to the choice of that subject which might be most useful to and is most necessary for their people's souls 2. That God would assist them in their Meditations upon that subject that they may speak from thence those things that may be most convincing piercing that they may meet with the Sins and Doubts of those they are to Preach unto 3. That God would give them success in their Labours 4. That God would give them a Door of Utterance and assist them in the delivering of their Message which they have from God unto the People St. Paul was much in Praying for the Churches Ephes. 3.14 15 16 17 18 19 Phil. 1.4 Col. 1.3.9 10 11. 1 Thes. 1 2. 2 Thes. 1.11 12. And in blessing God for the Truth and growth of Grace in the hearts of the People as matter of his joy to see them holy and eminent in holiness to see them embrace the Gospel and walk according to it 1 Cor. 1.4 5 7. Phil. 1.3 4 5. Col. 1.3 4 5. 1 Thes. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. And looked upon such as his Crown and Joy 1 Thes. 2.19 20. SECTION V. Preaching SUch should improve the time that God hath given them from the Grave in right Preaching of the Word and Administration of the Sacraments unto the People God hath not spared them to Eat and Drink and Sleep and live at Ease but to be painful in their Work God hath laid in this time some of his Ministers in the Dust and they are silent in the Grave whilst others have opportunity to speak for God in Preaching to the People and God doth expressly charge them so to do 2 Tim. 4.1 I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom Verse 2. Preach the Word be instant in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine and there is a woe unto them if they do not Preach the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 and are described to be such as are apt as well as able to Teach 1 Tim. 3.2 And if they do forbear to warn Men of their sins those Men shall die but God will require their blood at their hands Ezek. 3.18 And though God in Judgement to a People may make his Ministers dumb and cause their Tongues to cleave to the roof of their mouths that they should not be Reprovers to them because of their sin Ezek. 3.26 Yet such as are dumb through Ignorance that they cannot or through Negligence that they will not speak to Men to save their Souls is a great charge of God against them Isa. 56.10 His Watchmen are blind they are all ignorant they are all dumb Dogs they cannot bark sleeping lying down loving to slumber Verse 11. Yea they are greedy Dogs which can never have enough and they are Shepherds that cannot understand they all look to their own way every one for his gain from his quarter Verse 12. Come ye say they I will fetch Wine and we will fill ourselves with strong Drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant And God sharply reproveth such for this neglect Ezek. 34.2 Son of Man Prophecy against the Shepherds of Israel Prophecy and say unto them Thus saith the Lord God unto the Shepherds Woe be to the Shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves should not the Shepherds feed the Flock Verse 3. Ye eat the Fat and ye  you with the Wool ye kill them that are fed but ye feed not the Flock Verse 4. The Diseased have ye not strengthened neither have ye healed that which was sick neither have ye bound up that which was broken neither have ye brought again that which was driven away neither have you sought that which was l●st but with force and cruelty have ye ruled them Verse 18. Seemeth it a small thing to you to have eaten up the good pasture but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures and to have drunk of the deep waters but ye must foul the residue with your feet Verse 19 And as for my flock they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet Minister's diligence in Preaching the Word which such should be awakened to much more by God's late Providence is pointed at by God in those several Names and Appellations with which they and their Work is Metaphorically set forth as they are 10 Appellations showing the work of Ministers 1. Labourers Mat. 9.38 Therefore must not loiter but should work as day-labourers 2. Builders 1 Cor. 3.10 Must repair God's Buildings 3. Husbandmen 1 Cor. 3.9 Must Blow up the fallow ground that they sow not among thorns they are Gods harvest-Men and that is hard work 4. Watchmen Ezek. 33.7 Must see the danger and endure the cold and give warning 5. Stewards 1 Cor. 4.1 2. Must deal to every one their portion 6. Fathers 1 Cor. 4.15 1 Thes. 2.11 In begeting and bringing up Spiritual Children for God 7. Guides Rom. 2.19 Must direct lost Men into their way 8. Nurses 1 Thes. 2.7 Must seed the Babes in Christ 9 Physicians Jer. 13.12 13. Must heal the Spiritual Sickness of men's Souls 10. Ambassadors 2 Cor. 5.20 Must Parley with Sinners to make Peace betwixt God and them After such a Providence as this those in this Office should labour to be more in the most effectual manner of Preaching as 1. In Preaching with more self-denial not seeking themselves nor their own Applause but more the Glory of God and the good of Souls 2 Cor. 12.14 For I seek not yours but you 1 Tim. 3.3 Not greedy of filthy lucre 1 Thes. 2.5 For neither at any time used we flattering words as ye know nor a cloak of covetousness God is witness 2. With more plainness to the capacity of the People Not with enticing words of Man's Wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2.4 Lest such seem to Preach themselves and not Christ and to speak one word to show the excellency of Christ and ten to show the excellency of their own Parts 3. With more experience of the things they Preach upon their own hearts 4. More particularly coming down to the particular cases of the People's Souls Dolus latet in universalibus 5. More compassionately if possible showing the greatest desire after the Souls of them they Preach unto When you stand in your Pulpit remember many of them you Preached to the other day are now in their graves and are entered into Eternity and those that are before you must shortly follow after you have not long to Preach unto them those that are now alive before you must shortly die and be damned or saved be received to Glory or thrust down to Misery such actual believing thoughts as these woul● move great compassion in Ministers hearts unto their People 6. More Livelily as those that believe the things themselves which they Preach unto others remember you are Preaching to Men that must sho●●ly die and yet eternally Live and for aught you know if you do not prevail with them by this Sermon they may perish for ever and will you be lukewarm in such a case of so great importance 7. What is most necessary to the salvation of their Souls Press more the misery of Man by Nature the necessity of seeing the evil and be sensible of the burden of their Sin the necessity of Christ of Regeneration of Holiness of heart and Life of Justification by Faith in the blood of Christ of Judgement to come of the happiness of Heaven of the torments of Hell SECTION VI. Living exemplarily Minister's whom God hath spared from the Grave in th● time of great Morrality should improve this Mercy in the manner of their holy Conversation i● men's Lives should be the Application of their Doctrine should press to Holiness and live shortly press the People to Mortification of Sin and Self-denial and be Examples to the People in this else the People will not believe that they think what they say if they do not in some measure Live as they say Drunkards will not believe that that Minister is in good earnest in telling them that Drunkards shall be damned if he be one himself Look therefore to your Life and copy out that pressed upon you 1 Tim. 4.12 Let no Man despise thy youth but be thou an example of believers in Word in Conversation in Charity in Spirit in Faith in Purity 1 Tim. 3.2 For a Bishop must be blameless the Husband of one Wife sober vigilant of good behaviour a lover of Hospitality apt to Teach Verse 3. Not given to wine not a striker not greedy of filthy lucre SECTION VII The People's Duty in hearing the word THe People whom God hath kept alive should improve their Life in attending upon their Ministers in enquiring the Law of God at their Lips in mingling the Word with Faith in Conforming to the Truths of God that are Taught by them and being obedient to them as those that watch for their souls Heb. 13.17 But more Particularly 1. Come to Hear the Word of God with more Preparation than you were wont to do knowing it is the Word of God and not the word of Men 1 Thes. 2.13 as that which doth concern your Immortal Souls and your eternal state in another World 2. Come with a more teachable heart than you were wont to do submitting your Reason to the Word that is Taught you resolving to forsake every thing which shall be proved to you to be a Sin and to do every thing which shall be made appear to be your Duty Hear that you may obey and Practise what you Hear Be not Hearers only but Doers of the Word 3. Suffer not your M●ndes to be filled with so many distractions in time of Hearing as they were wont to be when you sit under the Preaching of the Word let not your Hearts go after your Covetousness Ezek. 33.31 4. Make particular Application of what doth most concern your Souls more than you were wont to do Hear for yourselves 5. Treasure up the Word that you Hear in your Hearts and suffer not the Devil to steal the good Seed of the Word out of your Hearts nor the Cares of the World to choke the Word of God 6. Meditate more upon the Word of God after you have heard it work it upon your heart Preparation before diligent Attention in and Meditation after Hearing will make you thrive more and be more fruitful by the Word Preached than you were for nerly when you wholly omitted or were more sl●ght in all these SECTION VIII Governo●s of families must set up God's Worship in their houses SUch whom God hath spared alive in this time of great Morrality may be considered in an Oeconomical capacity as Persons constituting of Families and these may be considered as Governors or those that are Governed and surely all our Families are concerned to inquire what Improvement those that are left in Families should make of God's Signal preservation of them Hath God swept away some Families wholly not a person left and spared yours doth not this call for some return you should make to God Hath not God visited your Family and taken away some of your Children or some Servant or some Friend out of your house and hath spared you hath given life to so many whom he hath so eminently preserved When God hath sent the Plague into your house he gave it Commission to fetch such a one in your house to his or her eternal state but gave it a Charge it should not seize upon you or if it did it should not kill you and doth not this call aloud to you in all your Families for speedy through Reformation Consider the dismal devastations made in some Families the total subvertion of others and yet that God should keep any Families in the midst of his burning wrath should not this make every person inquire What would the Lord have me to do Now the Governors should bethink themselves What is our Duty and the Children whom God hath continued to their Parents What would God have us to do etc. There is not a Member in a Family but is greatly concerned to study what is the Duty which he should excel in according to the capacity and relation he standeth in in that Family And that after such Family-Visitation there may be Family-Reformation I shall consider 1. The Duties of the Family in general in reference to their joynt-Worshipping of God 2. Their Duties in particular in the relation in which they are considered For when the Family in general and every Member in particular Live up to the following Duties they will live in some measure answerably to so great Preservation First After your Families have been in such danger and yet so many of them and so many in them are preserved it must be your care to set up the Worship of God in your Families else you cannot as a Family walk answerably to so great Preservation What hath God not turned you out of your House by Death and will you turn the Worship of God out of your House hath God spared you think you for this end that there should be eating and drinking in your Houses and not Praying and Reading in your Families That there should be Working and Labouring early and late and no calling upon God Is this to make a Family-return to God is this to give to him the Praise of his safe-keeping of you in time of danger and distress And this is chiefly incumbent upon you that are the Governors of Families to call your Children and Servants together every Morning and every Night to Worship the God of your Salvation the God that hath wrought so great Deliverance for you I beseech you in the fear of God nay in the Name of the eternal God I charge you that you carefully constantly keep up the Worship of God in your Families And that I may follow this I shall show you Why Wherein and How you must Worship God in your Families SECT IX Why FIrst The Reasons why you should set up the Worship of God in your Families are such as these 1. From the example of the holy Men of God in Scripture Josh 24.15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord choose you this day whom you will serve whether the Gods whom your Fathers served that were on the other side of the Flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord Some will serve the God of this World that is the Devil 2 Cor. 4.4 some will serve their Bellies which they make their God Phil. 3.19 and some will serve their unrighteous Mammon which they make their God but do you take up Joshua's Resolution That you and your house will serve the Lord 2. From the Benefit that will come to you and your house if you carefully and constantly Worship God therein God will take care of you and your family if you take care of his Worship therein Gen. 18.17 And the Lord said shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do Ver. 19 For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do Justice and Judgement that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him 3. From the great evil that hangs over your family if you should neglect the Worship of God therein God will curse your family and his wrath shall be the portion of you and your Children if the worship of God be excluded from your House though God hath spared you and your family in this late Contagion yet his Wrath is still hover over your house if you call not upon him Jer. 10.25 Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not and upon the Families that call not upon thy Name Fury is the utmost of God's wrath and this shall not be dropped only but poured out upon your family God will pour down showers of wrath and fury upon those houses that neglect his Worship 4. From equity You would have all in your family discharge their duties which they owe to you you would have your children be obedient to you and your servants be dutiful to you and do your work and serve you and is it not then reasonable that you and they should discharge your duties unto God and that you and they should serve the Lord when you and they have more dependence upon God than they have upon you 5. If you neglect your duty herein you will be guilty of the blood of the Souls of those that die in your family and are damned for ever you will be bloody Butchers to the souls of your Children and Servants God hath committed the care of their souls in great measure unto you and can you discharge your trust that God hath reposed in you in the total neglect of your duty herein hath not God charged you in the fourth Commandment that neither you yourself should profane his day and that you should see that neither your sons nor daughters neither your man-servants nor maidservants should profane it and if they do will not God require this at your hand 6. The total neglect of Family-Worship will be ● flat denying God to be the God of your family that you take not God to be the Master of your family would not you say That your Servants deny you to be their Master if they deny their Service to you and can you say That God is the God of your house if you in your house do not Worship him Mal. 1.6 A son honoureth his Father and a servant his Master if then I be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Master where is my Fear if your Family disown God God will disown your Family and if God disown and cast you off will not your family be a miserable family 7. If you neglect the worship of God in your Family this will be a bad example to those that go out of your family to constitute other families when your Children shall have families of their own and your Servants shall have families of their own will not they be too apt to neglect them as they have seen you neglect yours and so your sin will have an influence upon them and you will be in some respect guilty of the neglect of God's Worship in your Children and Servants families but if you be conscientious in your family you will be exemplary to them to do likewise 8. God will punish your neglect of his Service to him with Family-Judgments if you do not make your house a house of Prayer God will make your house an house of Contention and Strife an house of Rail and Quarrelling and will punish you with undutiful Children and disobedient servants for how can you expect that they should be good toward you when you endeavour not to make them good towards God if you would press your Children and Servants to love God and obey and serve God they would then obey you from a principle of Conscience and serve you out of fear to God they would be more faithful to you if you would call upon them to serve God Might not God justly suffer your Servants to purloin and steal from you when you and they do steal from God that time for the World which is due to God SECTION X. Wherein SEcondly The Duties wherein you should worship God in your Families are such as these In praying In Praying unto God and that 1. ordinarily And your ordinary Praying unto God in your family should be daily and that at least twice every day every Morning when you rise and every Night before you dismiss your Family to their rest and sleep Exod. 29.38 Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the Altar Two Lambs of the first year day by day continually Verse 39 The one Lamb thou shalt offer in the morning and the other Lamb thou shalt offer at even Though the Ceremonial part of this be abolished yet the Moral abideth and is perpetual and the reasons for daily Prayer in your families are perpetual as 1. Four Reasons for daily prayer in families You have daily family sins and therefore in your family you should daily confess them and beg the Pardon of them that you and your family might not go about your necessary occasions all the day nor to your necessary rest at night with the guilt of sin upon your Souls 2. You have every day daily wants therefore you should daily beg supplies for your family and Christ bids you pray Give us this day our daily bread 3. You have family business every day and you should pray to God daily for his blessing upon your endeavours for the good of your family 4. You have every day family mercies and should daily bless God for them when you wake in the morning and find your house not fired in the night is not this a family mercy and should not your family be called together to bless God for this mercy in the morning you find your family all in health none of them dead in their beds and should not you since you all live all come together and bless God that sleep was not turned into death nor the darkness of the right into the darkness of Hell to any of you And have you not many mercies every day you went out well about your employment and you returned well and God hath blessed your endeavours with success and should not you give to God the praise of his Mercy before you sleep or if you have sustained some Losses should not you pray to God to sanctify them to you and enable you patiently to bear them and submit to the will of God therein 2. Or family-Prayer is sometimes extraordinary when your family lies under some extraordinary affliction or wants some extraordinary mercy or have had some extraordinary deliverance from evil and danger then should you in your family send up extraordinary Prayer and Praises unto God so did Esther and her Maidens fast and pray Esther 4.16 And I could wish that families apart were more acquainted with and more frequent in this du●y R●adi●g the Word of God In Reading the Word of God This would be bet●er than Cards and Dice But in many Fam●l●es the Bible lies upon the shelf all the week long and scarce h●ve it in their hands but when they take it to go to Church and many scarce then neither God hath commanded you to acquaint your family with ●he wo●d of God and how will you do it if you never Read it to them nor Discourse of it with them Deut. 11.18 Therefore shall you lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul and bind them for a sign upon your hand that they may be as frontless between your eyes Ver. 19 And ye shall teach them your Children speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way when thou liest down and when thou risest up View this Scripture well ye Masters of Families and be ashamed of your neglect of reading the Scripture in your houses you should talk of it at home and abroad morning and night when your Family should be with you You should read the Scripture to your Family for these Reasons 1. 4 Reasons for reading Scripture in Families Because the Word of God is the spiritual food of the souls in your Family It is the bread of Life It is milk for the nourishing of their souls 1 Pet. 2.2 It is to be preferred above their necessary food Job 23.12 Now will you give them bread for their bodies and deny them bread for their souls Their souls can no more live without spiritual food than their bodies can without corporal Take heed you deny not bread to your children and servants souls 2. Because the Word of God is the spiritual Armour for the preserving your Family from being robbed by your spiritual Enemies the Devil Sin and the World You will have some weapon in your house to defend yourself f●om thiefs Why the Devil will play the thief in your house and will steal away the souls of your Children and will steal away the souls of your Servants and will you not put so much as a Weapon into their hands to defend themselves Your Children and Servants will be stolen away by the Spirits if you arm them not with the Word of God which is the Sword of the Spirit Eph. 6.17 3. Because the more you read the Word of God to them the better they will be to you and the better perform the duties of their Relation You complain of disobedient Children why do not you read the Scripture to them more to teach them that God requires them to be obedient to you You complain of bad Servants why do not you then read the Word of God to them more that they may know their duty better by reading the Scripture to them Make them but good Christians and then they dare not but be good Children and good Servants 4. Because the Word of God is able to make them wise unto Salvation You would have your Children wise to live in the World you would have them wise to get Riches and a great Estate You would have your Servants wise to do your work and to go about your business And would you not have them wise for their souls Would you not have them wise for heaven and the Life to come If you would then acquaint them with the Word of God 2 Tim. 3.15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus And he is wise indeed that is wise enough to save his soul Repeating things delivered in public In repeating what you hear in the public Congregation in discoursing to your Family what sin was reproved and what duty was enforced and what were the Arguments and Motives thereunto What Christ preached more publicly he repeated to his Disciples which were as his Family more privately Mar. 4.10 and 7.17 Mat. 13.36 37. and the Apostle commanded Wives to ask their Husbands when they came home the things that were delivered in the Congregation 1 Cor. 14.34 35. This would keep your Children and Servants better employed on the Lord's day than to be standing Idle at your doors or walking sinfully in the fields This would make them profit more by the Word preached if you would repeat it to them and use them to give account of what they hear In Catechising In Catechising of your Family and teaching them the Principles and Fundamentals of Religion Man's Innocency by Creation Man's misery by the Fall Man's Recovery by Christ and the terms of the Covenant of Grace the meaning of the ten Commandments what sin in them is forbidden what duties are required this is God's plain Injunction that you should do so Deut. 6.6 7 8 9 and the meaning of the Sacraments Exod. 12.25 26 27. 1. 4 Reasons for Catechising in Families To Teach them while they are young is a good means to make them good when they are old Prov. 32.6 Train up a child in the way he should go when he is young and he will not depart from it when he is old but if you let them alone till they be accustomed to do evil it will be hard to reclaim them Jer. 13.23 Quo semel est Imbuta recens etc. 2. This will be an effectual mean● to keep them from being seduced and led away with Errors and false Doctrine 3. It will be great cruelty to the souls of your Children and Servants to neglect it Will you carry yourself towards your little ones as the Ostrich doth towards her young ones Job 39.14 Which speaking of the Ostrich leaveth her eggs in the earth and warmeth them in the dust Ver. 15. And forgetteth that the foot may crush them or that the wild beast may break them Ver. 16. She is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers 4. It would be to break your Vow which you made when you brought your Children unto Baptism Did you not promise they should forsake the Pomps and Vanities of this World and that you would bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and will you dedicate them to God in Baptism and leave them to the devil all their life after Consider I beseech you it may be God in mercy and pity to your children's and Servants souls hath spared you in this Late-great Mortality and consider whether your conscience doth not accuse you of great neglect towards some of your Children and Servants which are now lying in their Graves it may be there hath died a poor servant out of your house which you never spoke to in good earnest about the matters of his soul or doth not your heart wish that he were with you again that you may instruct and teach him and will you do so to those that do remain it may be some of them that have died out of your house are gone to hell through your neglect and will you have no more pi●y upon those that yet are with you The other now are out of the reach of your Counsels and Instructions but these are not what was wanting in you towards those that are dead and gone make up to those that live and do remain In singing Psalms In singing forth God's praises in Psalms and spiritual Songs this is an Ordinance of God Eph. 6.19 Jam. 5.13 You must sing with grace Col. 3.16 Exercise your grace of joy in God in commemoration of God's benefits of holy desires of Godly sorrow as the occasion and the matter of the Psalm require this is the sweetest Harmony in the ears of God You must sing with understanding with sense and feeling and to the Lord to his glory as in his presence this would be more suitable for your Family than Ballads profane and lascivious filthy Rhymes which you should not suffer under your Roof SECT XI How THirdly The manner how you should Worship God in your Family is chiefly to be minded for it is not any service that God will accept you may keep up a course of praying in your Family and yet live very unworthy of the great mercy of God in your wonderful preservation Therefore 1. Really In your Family worship God really and indeed with your heart and mind and all your strength do not seem to pray but pray indeed in your Family For five Reasons For this end consider 1. The God whom you serve in your Families is God indeed he is a real God therefore worship him indeed and in a real manner 2. The sins of your Families are real sins your own sins are real sins and your children's sins are real sins and have real guilt therefore confess them really and mourn and sorrow for them really 3. The wants of your Family are real wants you do not seem to want outward mercies but except God supply you you will want them indeed 4. The supplies which God doth give you are real supplies God giveth you real health and real food and re●l clothing for your Family therefore be real in your Family Worship 5. You and your Family are real in following of the World you work in good earnest and you buy and sell in good earnest And will you be real in the things of the World that concern your Family and will you not be real in your Family Worship 2. Livelily In your Family worship God Livelily not only with a true and sincere heart but with a lively heart take heed of dulness and formality take heed of sleeping at your prayers And here I would advise that Masters of Families would not put off their duties too long in the Morning till half the day be past nor too late in the Evening when the Family will be more disposed and inclined to sleep than to pray 3. Cheerfully In your Family worship God cheerfully go not to Family Prayer as a task and burden but as a great favour and privilege that you and your Children might call upon God 4. Constantly In your Family worship God constantly Some will pray on a Sabbath night but it may be not all the Week after Thus if you serve God in your Family it will be a great step to your walking in some measure answerably for so great preservation and then it will be a good discovery that God hath spared you in mercy to do him service in the Education of your Children and not in judgement to the increasing of your sins only Thus far concerning the Duties of Families whom God hath spared in this time of Pestilence in general Of the several Relations in a Family next SECT XII SEcondly If you will live in some measure answerably to so great a mercy as Preservation from death in a time of great Mortality is then fill up the duties of your particular Relation wherein you stand Relative sins are very offensive unto God and a great scandal to Religion The fi●st of these Relations in a Family is Duties of husbands & wives whom God hath spared in this Plague First Conjugal betwixt Husband and Wife and the great duty incumbent upon them is mutu●l love in which many are deficient and many are excessive it being hard for such to let out their affections one to another so much as God commands and no more than God allows and both these extremes will terrify conscience when such come to die And this sin is more usually seen when death hath broken this Relation than while God continueth them together the Survivor than seeth he did not love his Wife and the Wife her Husband with that degree of love as that Relation called for or with a greater degree than was pleasing unto God when the love of this Relation did diminish the love they should have to God And how many breaches hath God made in this Relation to punish the sin of both extremes It may be thy love was Immoderate and therefore God hath taken thy Relation from thee Or it may be thy love was deficient and therefore God hath taken thy Relation from thee When thou w●st sick and thou thoughtest thou shouldest have died did not thy Conscience then accuse thee for one of these in thy Relation And yet hath God spared thee and thy Wife or thee and thy Husb●nd then what conscience did reproach thee for in this particular if thou wouldst answer God's mercy in sparing of thee let this be reform There are many this day may be lamenting not so much the loss of this Relation as that they did not walk sutablie in this Relation while they were in it this being the sting of their affliction Oh! methinks such as God hath continued in a Conjugal Relation in this time of great Mortality should look upon themselves now more engaged to perform their mutual duties with more care and conscience than before Such a one hath buried his Wife and such a one hath buried her Husband but God hath preserved you in your Relation you cannot live answerably for this mercy but in a better discharge of your mutual duties How would you wish you had loved your Relation Wife or Husband if God had taken either away by death so do now when God continueth you both in life Because this conduceth so much to an answerable return for so great a mercy I will a little insist upon it And in the general if you would improve this mercy the direction is that your love and affection be such one to another as is the love betwixt Christ and the Church Eph. 2.25 Husbands love your Wives even as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it And this love of the Husband must be requited with the love of the Wife for it is reciprocal Tit. 2.4 Teach the young women to be sober to love their Husbands SECT XIII BUT more particularly I shall speak to three things What manner of love is this Why they should have this Wherein they should manifest this love one to another If you will improve this mercy God hath vouchsafed you your love must have these properties 1. The properties of their love Superlative It must be a Superlative love that is in respect of all sublunary things though your love to God and Christ must be more than your love one to another else it doth sinfully exceed for if any loveth Father or Mother Husband or Wife more than Christ he is not worthy of him yet in respect of all other persons and things in this world it must be more else it is sinfully deficient A man must love his Wife above all other persons above his Estate or whatsoever is dear unto him in this world and so the Wife Thus Christ loveth his Church and a believing soul above all other persons and the Church reciprocally loves Christ above all other things in the world 2. Constant It must be a Constant love it must last as long as life in both do●n last The longer you live in this Relation the more you should love Length of time must not wear off the commanded and allowed strength of your mutual Affection Thus Christ always love● his Church and the Church always loves Jesus Christ 3. Holy It must be Holy love from an holy Principle obedience to God's command in an holy manner according to the Word of God for holy ends the glory of God etc. Carnal love for carnal ends is not the love that God requireth in this Relation Thus Christ loves the Church and the Church loves Christ with an holy love 4. Tender It must be a tender compassionate and sympathising love if God lay his afflicting hand upon either in sickness of body in terrors of mind the other is to be tender and to sympathise in those afflictions If God lay his hand upon both in Poverty and want they should not fret one against the other which is too usual but should both with tenderness of compassion endeavour to bear the same burden and make up that which is wanting in outward enjoyments in the degree of their love And this would lighten many burdens and sweeten the bitter Cup of affliction which God may put into both their hands as the want of Conjugal affection in many doth make that heavy which is light and that bitter which is sweet Thus Christ loveth his Church and sympathizeth with her in all her afflictions Isa. 63.9 Acts 9.4 5. Forgiving love It must be Forgiving love that shall hide and cover the infirmities of each from the world every miscarriage in this Relation should not abate the affection of one to the other Sinful Infirmities must not be allowed of in one another because they must be faithful to each others souls and yet they should not be blazed unto others because of the love to each others person Thus Christ loveth his Church notwithstanding her sinful Infirmities and because he loveth her he is ready and willing to forgive her But there is no such retaliation of this Property of love in the Church to Christ because he hath no such sinful infirmities but there is no such husband in the world besides Christ and therefore in our case it is reciprocal SECT XIV The Reasons of their love THe Reasons why there should be such love and mutual Affection betwixt those in a Conjugal Relation are such as these 1. Because God commands it and with gracious persons a command of God is instead of a thousand Reasons Before this Relation be entered into persons may lawfully look after attractives and motives of love but when once they are so related this is sufficient reason though there are others why they should love Eph. 5.25 Tit. 2.4 2. Because they are one flesh He that loveth his Wife loveth himself and she that loves her Husband loveth herself Eph 5.28 29. It is unnatural in any to h●te their own flesh 3. Because the comfort of their life and the sweetness of this Relation much depends upon their mutual affection 4. Because the Gospel will be much hindered by the want of this love in those that make profession of it The Gospel much suffers when wicked persons observe that Professors fill not up their relative duties Tit. 2.4 Teach the young women to be sober to love their Husbands to love their Children Ver. 5. To be discreet chaste keepers at home good obedient to their own Husbands that the Word of God be not blasphemed 5. Because else they will be more unfit for spiritual duties either together or apart When there are differences betwixt Husband and Wife it is an hindrance to them in their praying one with another in their praying one for another want of this Conjugal affection and breaches in this relation hath often straitened the heart of the party offending at the throne of grace and this professing Husbands and Wives should be careful of 1 Pet. 3.5 6 7. The Apostle had exhorted persons in a Conjugal relation to discharge their mutual duties after the Example of Abraham and Sarah and the reason he allegeth is That your Prayers be not hindered 6. Because else they cannot comfortably die Breaches in the duties of this Relation will make great breaches in our peace of conscience when we come to die When you are to part at death conscience will be lashing of you God hath set thee saith Conscience in such a relation but thou hast not had the love of that Relation God gave thee such a yokefellow but thou di●st not live with that affection as he did require and now thy relation must be broken Oh the● saith the offendor if God would continue me a little longer in this relation how would I walk more suitably in performing the duties thereof better than hitherto I have done but do it now before death doth part you SECT XV. Wherein they should manifest this love THe duties wherein those in a Conjugal Relation should manifest this mutual affection and they are such as are either Proper to each Common to both The Husband manifests his love in Direction in cases dubious Protection in cases dangerous 1 Sam. 30.18 Provision of things needful 1 Tim. 5.8 The Wife manifests her love in Inward Reverence Eph. 5.33 Outward subjection 1 Pet. 3.1 The duties that are common to both do either concern The body or things temporal The soul or things Spiritual 1. In the affairs of this life they should manifest their mutual love one to another In Procreation of Children Education of Children Administration of household affairs Times of affliction and sickness 2. In the concernments of each others souls or things spiritual their love should be especially manifested Love to the soul is the Noblest love because the soul is the nobler part to love the body and hate the soul as too many do is but cruel love Their love is highest love that love each others souls and this love is manifested 1. In Reproving one another for sin this is greatest love not to reprove is to hate Leu. 19.17 So Job his Wife Job 1.9 10. So Abigail her Husband 1 Sam. 25.36 37. where you may observe both Abigails Piety she reproved Nabal And her Prudence when the wine was out of his head 2. In comforting one another under inward terrors So Manoahs' Wife comforted him Jud. 13.22 23. 3. In Provoking one another to good works of Piety and Charity This is the only allowed contention betwixt Husband and Wife who shall be best and love God most and do most good but not to provoke to wrath and wicked works as Jezabel did Ahab 1 Kings 21.7 8 9 Wicked Husbands are usually very wicked ☜ when wicked Wives stir them up to do wickedly ver 25. 4. In Praying one with another and praying one for another It is great love in such to improve their interest at the throne of grace one for another Thus if you whom God hath spared and continued life unto after thi● Contagion would resolve to live together you would so far as concerns you in this respect live in force measure answerably to so great a mercy else you cannot Hath God spared you to be more unkind one to another To be bitter one against another To grieve one another Or do you think this is the Improvement you should make of this mercy God forbid SECT XVI SEcondly The next Relation I consider in a Family is between Parents and Children whom God hath continued after this great Mortality God hath taken away Parents from others and they are lest Orphans but God hath continued thy Parents Both or one to thee What doth God require from thee in answer to a suitable return for this mercy God hath taken away Children from others and bereft them of those that were dear to them but God hath continued thine all or some to thee what doth God require at thy hands in answer to a suitable return for so great a mercy It is that Parents and Children should fill up the duties of this relation else you can never walk worthy of this mercy But more particularly Duties of Parents whom God hath continued to children viz. Instruction First Parents if they would live answerable to his mercy of Children continued to them must be careful First In instructing of them in the things of God and training them up in the ways of God this is the duty of both Parents Pro. 1.8 My son hear the instruction of thy Father and forsake not the Law of thy mother Prov. 31.1 The words of King Lemuel the Prophesy that his mother taught him This mothers might do when they are dressing of their Children Do not think you do enough if you make provision for your children and get a portion for them Let me tell you that is the le●st part of your duty as hard as you think it is but you must give them instructions and that 1. Timelily before they are accustomed to evil they are born in natural hardness and by frequent acts of wickedness they will contract habitual hardness and then if God clap upon their hearts judicial hardness your Children are undone for ever Children before they can go can run from God and before they can speak plainly can speak wickedly Teach them not to be proud of their fine Clothes teach them not Revenge by giving you a stroke to beat others these be the buddings of Pride and Revenge in little Infants 2. Instruct them frequently They are apt to learn evil but backward to learn any thing that is good There must be Line upon Line Deut. 6. 6 7. You must whet the things you speak unto them that they may pierce their hearts frequently inculcate the same things upon them and instil the knowledge of God into them by little and little 3. Instruct them affectionately Let them perceive when more grown up that they are matters of Weight and Moment that you speak to them about When you speak of Heaven and Hell of God and Sin let them see that your hearts are affected with what you say Correction Secondly In Correcting of them for the evil of Sin He that spares the Rod spoils the Child better you correct them here than God damn them hereafter The Rod is as needful for your Children as their Food Prov. 22.15 Folly is bound in the heart of a Child the Rod of Correction shall drive it far from him Do this 1. Timelily a young Twigg is flexible and easy to be bend break them of wicked Words and Wries betimes or else they may break your heart when they are bigger Adonijah was David's D●●ling an ●he was wanting in correcting of him and he Rebelled before he died and usurped the Kingdom before his Father's death 1 King 1.5 Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself saying I will be King and he prepared his Horsemen and Chariots and fifty Men to run before him Verse 6. And his Father had not displeased him at any time in saying Why hast thou done so Too much indulgence will make undutiful and disobedient Children 2. Proportionably to their fault Do not Correct a small offence over sharply nor an heinous sin too slightly if you are too severe for a small offence they will hate you if you are too indulgent in a great offence they will despise you This was Elyes' sin that he did not correct the heinous sin and reprove the abominable practice of his Sons with greater severity 1 Sam. 2.23 And he said unto them Why do ye such things for I hear of your evil dealings by all this People Verse 24. Nay my Sons for it is no good report that I hear ye make the Lords People to transgress It is no good report that was too good a word for so heinous wicked Works it was an abominable thing that was reported by others and committed by his Sons But see what God saith to Ely Verse 29. Thou honour'st thy Sons above me and God severely punished his Children for their vile offence and the Father for his so cold reproof as you may read in the following Verses 3. Compassionately do not Correct your Children in the heat of Passion but with bowels of compassion when the Rod is in your hand let there be tender love in your heart 4. Discreetly Observing the temper and disposition of your Child which you correct if you Scourge and frown upon one as much as is needful for another you will discourage him if you scourge not another more than this that is more tender spirited you will not break him Correction is like a Medicine in which the Physician hath respect to the constitution of the Patient Children are like Herbs some if you cut and tread will grow again but if you do as much to other Herbs you kill them 5. Seasonably There is much wisdom in Parents in timeing their Correcting of their Children if you correct them for some faults before others you will discourage them take the fittest season 6. Penitently When you correct your Children judge yourself first and repent for your own sin or else you do but beat yourself 7. Believingly When you exercise your child with the Rod do you exercise faith upon the Promise Prayer Thirdly In Praying much for them many pray for Children before they have them but neglect to pray for them when God hath given them as though their being were a greater blessing than their well-being you must add Prayer to Instruction and Correction for it is not only your Instruction nor Correction but God's blessing given in to servant Prayer that will make your Children good When you look upon your little Infants as they are sucking at your breasts or laughing in your faces or playing in your arms oh consider the seed of sin that they have in their hearts that they by Nature are the children of wrath and when you go to pray for them use such considerations that might make your heart to mourn over them and for them When you consider they are enemies to God can you not mourn for them upon your knees when you consider they are lost children except mercy find them that they are damned children except free grace save them Can you not mourn abundantly and pray servently for them Can you consider they are by Nature without the Image and Likeness of God and not be grieved at the heart that your child is a little Traitor against the King of Heaven a little Rebel against the glorious God and will you not pray that his heart may be changed Could you weep and grieve if your Child were a Monster if it had a body of one kind and an head of another if it had an Arm too much or a Leg too much or little why its misery is more by Nature then all this and yet can you not mourn in your Prayers for him Choosing them a Calling Fourthly In Choosing for them some lawful Calling and putting them forth unto some Religious family Choose not a Calling that hath more snares and temptations attending it then usually others have and place them in such families where they may learn the way to Heaven as well as the way to be rich in the World If you put them forth to an ungodly family you may lose all your former labour in Instruction Correction and Prayer for will you give your Child an Antidote and then care not if he run into a Pest-house among persons that have running Plague Sores or would you not judge it presumption in any so to do without a special call but the former is greater and higher and more dangerous presumption than the latter in as much as the death of the Body of your Child is endangered by the one but the damnation of his Soul is endangered by the other Disposing them in Marriage Fifthly In careful disposing of them in Marriage That you Match them to godly Persons and if you can into a godly family or to one that hath Religious Relations Take heed of Marrying them to the children of the Devil though their outward advantage be never so much Thus Abraham took care that his son Isaac should not take a Wife of the Daughters of the Canaanites amongst whom he dwelled Gen. 24.3 If you thus take care for your children whom God hath continued to you in this great Mortality you act in this respect in some measure answerably to so great a Mercy SECTION XVII Duties of Children whom God hath continued to their Parents Secondly Children if they would live answerably in their Relation to so great a Mercy as is Gods sparing their Parents and continuing them unto them must be careful of filling up the Duties of their Relation and the Duty of Children is set down in Col. 3.20 Children obey your Parents in all things for this is wellpleasing unto the Lord In which observe 1. The Charge Obedience 2. The Persons charged Children younger elder poor or rich 3. The Persons to whom this obedience is to be given Parents Father Mother whether Poor or Rich. 4. The extent of this obedience In all things 5. The limiting and enforcing Reason for this is wellpleasing to the Lord therefore the all things are to be limited to things lawful else it would not please the Lord but they must in those things because it pleaseth God Now if you that are Children would walk worthy of God's Mercy in sparing your Parents to you in this contagious times you must obey them in these Particulars 1. In receiving Instructions from them in harkening to their wholesome Counsel and Advice Prov. 3.1 My son forget not my Law but let thine heart keep my Commandments Prov. 4.1 2 3 4. and 5.1 2 7. and 6.20 etc. and 7.1 2 3. 2. In submitting to their Correction without murmuring and repining 3. In being content with your Diet and Apparel that your Parents provide for you 4. In yielding them sustenance and Maintenance if they come to Poverty if you be able to supply them they gave you maintenance when you could not provide for yourselves do you so for them if they need though you work hard to help them 1 Tim. 5.4 But if any Widow have Children or Nephews let them first learn to show piety at home and to requite their Parents for that is good and acceptable before God Though Children can never fully requite their Parents for they had their being by them and what if they have help by you in outward things you had your being by them and that is more Take heed of being ashamed of your Parents if they be poor and you are raised to an higher degree in the World than ever they were but to disown them would be impious 5. In submitting to their choice of a Calling for you 6. In disposing of you in Marriage Change not your Condition without their Consent as Isaac Gen. 24. and Samson Judg. 14.1 2. Nay Ishmael obeyed his Mother in his Marriage Gen. 21.21 and will you be worse than Ishmael 7. In all things though they be cross to your humour though it might not please you yet if it please your Parents you must do it But that I may not lay a snare for children's Consciences and put a Staff into ungodly Parent's hands to drive their Children to Hell you must take this distinction of things viz. Things are either Simply good and necessary and these must be done though your Parents forbid you as Praying Reading Scripture etc. Simply evil and unlawful and these must not be done though your Parents command you as to play or work upon the Lord's day to lie and defraud in dealing Neither good nor evil in their own nature though every thing is good or evil considered in all circumstances and in all these you must obey your Parents And the reasons of this obedience to your Parents are such as these 1. Reasons for these Duties God's command Ephes. 6.1 Children obey your Parents in the Lord V. 2. Honour thy Father and Mother which is the first Commandment with Promise That is the first Command with Promise in the second Table for there is a Promise in the second Command of the First Table of showing Mercy unto thousands etc. 2. This is right or justice Ephes. 6.1 Thou hadst thy being and thy education by thy Parents therefore it is justice thou shouldest obey them 3. Christ's Example He was obedient to his Parents Luke 2.51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them 4. God's Judgements upon disobedient Children Absalon Rebelled against his Father and God cut him off in the very act of his Rebellion 5. It is pleasing to God If it were in any thing that would displease God you must not do it for you must please your Heavenly Father rather than your Earthly but if it be pleasing unto God you must not deny it you please God when you please your Parents in things lawful 6. God might punish you with disobedient Children hereafter if you are disobedient to your Parents now Thus Children also will walk so far answerably to so great a Mercy as Gods sparing their Parents to them if they thus obey them SECTION XVIII THirdly The next Relation I consider in a Family is the Relation of Masters and Servants whom God hath spared in this great Mortality and if you would live in some measure answerably to this Mercy as it is a Mercy to some to have Servants and it is a Mercy to others to have Masters than you must fill up the duties of your Relation Duties of Masters whom God hath continued to Servants First Master's Duties are set down Col. 4.1 Masters give unto your Servants that which is just and equal knowing that ye also have a Master in Heaven where you have 1. The Charge that is given to do that which is just and equal 2. The Persons to whom this Charge is given Masters 3. The Persons unto whom this justice and equity must be shown Servants 4. The Reason to enforce it knowing that ye have a Master in heaven There is no Man that is a Master but he hath a Master and that is God 1. Master's must not impose upon their Servants any thing simply unlawful that is not just to Work or carry Burdens upon the Lord's day without necessity etc. 2. Master's must not impose upon their Servants things above their strength though they be lawful this is not just 3. Master's must not deny their Servants convenient Food nor their due Wages this is not just 4. Master's must not turn away their Servants when they are sick who served them when they were in health and strength without their consent this is not just 5. Master's must not deny them necessary time for the performance of their necessary duties unto God this is neither just nor equal It is but equity if Servants spend their time in your service that you should allow them some time for the Service of God and the saving of their souls for to wear out their Bodies in serving you now and for want of time to Read and Pray to have their Souls damned hereafter would be a very unequal unjust and unreasonable thing SECT XIX Duties of Servants whom God hath continued to Masters Secondly Servants if you would live answerably for the Mercy of God in sparing you then perform the Duties God requireth at your hands towards your Masters The Duty of Servants is set down Eph. 6.5 Servants be obedient to them that are your Masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of heart as unto Christ Verse 6. Not with eye-service as Men-pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart Verse 7. With good will doing service as to the Lord and not to Men. Verse 8. Knowing that whatsoever good thing any Man doth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free To this the Apostle addeth Servants obey in all things your Masters knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ Col. 3.22 23 24 25. in both which places the Apostle meets with the usual defects of Servants in their Relation which are 1. Half Service 2. Eye Service 3. Hypocritical Service 4. Profaneness in Service 5. Irreverence in Service 6. Grudging in Service 7. Baseness of mind in Service To these are opposed Service 1. In all things 2. Not eye-service 3. In singleness of heart 4. In the fear of God 5. Trembling 6. From the heart and with good will 7. A glorious reward 1. Servants must do all the service they owe unto their Masters not to do one thing and leave another undone but you must obey in all things i. e. lawful 2. Servants must not give eye service That is only in their Master's sight and presence but must be as careful of their Master's business in his absence as if he were looking on them they must not do their work as those that are serving Men who cannot always see them but as the servants of Christ serve him who believe that he always sees them and let Servants remember that though Masters do not always see them yet God doth 3. Servants must perform the Works of their Master's service in singleness of heart with uprightness and without dissimulation they must not be hypocrites in men's service as they must not in the Service of God Servants must do all from obedience to God's Commands and yield therefore obedience to wicked Masters in lawful things 1 Pet. 2.18 Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward So to poor Masters though they can give them but mean wages 4. They must do it in the fear of God As the servants of God must pray in the fear of God and hear in the fear of God so they that are servants to Men must do their work in the fear of God then they must not Curse and Swear at their work nor talk sinfully nor speak or sing obscenely 5. Wi●h reverence to their Masters 1 Tim. 6.1 Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own Masters worthy of all Honour that the Name of God and his Doctrine be not blasphemed If thou serve a poor Master yet being thy Master thou art bound to honour him else thou will be a reproach to the Name of God and his Doctrine 6. They must not grudge the Service they do but do it from the heart and with good will Servants hearts must not be set upon their Master's business they cannot give away their heart from God but they must do their Work from the heart i. e. willingly cheerfully 7. They must not only aim at the wages they have from their Masters that is poor and low and sordid to work and labour for such a reward but as those that know if they do their service be it never so mean and servile in obedience to God's command and for his glory they shall have a reward in Heaven God will reward the mean service of a poor servant with an eternal Crown 8. They must be faithful in their Master's business they must not purloin steal and secretly convey away any thing of their Master's Estate Money or Goods or sell it at underrate to his Master's real prejudice and damage by private contract between himself and the buyer to consider him for his cheap Bargain Tit. 2.9 Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own Masters and to please them well in all things not answering again Verse 10. Not purloining but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things When thy hand is in thy Master's Box and thou art pilfering away his Money to Game to keep Company or spend any way without his knowledge this is Theft and God seeth thee though he do not and if thou hast purloined or stole any thing thou art bound to restore it if thou canst and to confess thy fault and be humbled and do so no more 9 They must be frugal for their Masters that though they steal nothing from them yet they may sin by suffering their Master's Goods to be wasted as Food to be cast away and many things to be spent and consumed when there is no need this is not to show all fidelity to your Masters So Jacob Gen. 31.36 37.38 39 40. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee I bore the loss of it of my hands didst thou require it whether stolen by day or stolen by night 10. They must not answer again out of a murmuring spirit nor give word for word that if their Master rebukes them for their sin they must not speak as fast as he nay though a Master should speak Wrathfully and in unjust Anger yet they must not Answer Perversely to them again but with meekness and silence except they require or give leave go about their Employment committing their cause to God who will right them if their Masters wrong them Col. 3.25 But he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done and there is no respect of Persons God regards not men's outward conditions he regards not the Mistress more than the Maid nor the Master more than the Man but judgeth righteously betwixt the greatest and the meanest 11. They must remember when they are obedient in their Master's Service they are serving the Lord Christ What a poor servant doth in servile Labour in the meanest lowest employment he is serving of God and this might sweeten to him more difficult and unpleasing Work Thus I have done with this direction in which all Men in one capacity or other herein considered are concerned to make improvement of Gods Preserving of them in time of so great Contagion by being eminently exemplary in the Conditions Capacity Relations wherein they stand which if they do caeteris paribus they live in some measure answerable to so great a Mercy DIRECTION V. Watch against secret sins HAth God spared you in a time of Pestilence then if you would live answerable diligently watch against secret sins and let your special care be about the hidden and secret things in Religious Duties God hath kept you in his Chambers Isa. 26.20 Come my people enter thou into thy Chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast God hath hid you from Judgement in the secret Chambers of his Protection and will you hide your sins in the secret corners of your hearts Or will you allow yourself to sin because you are in your secret Chambers Or will this be to live worthy of Gods secret Protection of you to commit secret sins against God That you are preserved this is visible all that see you walking in the streets know this But God's way of preserving you was not only by visible means as Antidotes and Cordials but by the invisible Guard of holy Angels Psal. 91.10 There shall no evil befall thee neither shall any Plague come nigh thy dwelling Ver. 11. For he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways Ver. 12. They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone The reason why you have been preserved is because God hath caused you to dwell in the secret place of the most high and hath made you to abide under the shadow of the Almighty Psal. 91.1 When the Pestilence was walking in darkness and the Arrows of the Almighty were secretly shot and flying abroad He kept you in the secret of his Pavilion Psal. 37.5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his Pavilion in the secret of his Tabernacle he shall hide me he shall set me upon a rock As all visible means would not have been effectual for your preservation without God's secret and invisible watching over you So abstaining only from visible sins and performing only that of duty which is visible will not be a suitable nor answerable return for this great mercy Therefore my advice unto you is that as God's goodness to you hath been in a secret way of preservation so your care should especially be about secret things and that in two respects In abstaining from secret sins In maintaining secret duties Abstain from secret sins First Be careful to abstain from secret sins Do not cherish sins in your hearts and thoughts though they should never proceed to outward act For a man whom God hath kept in time of Plague might be no open Swearer no visible Drunkard nor live in open wickedness and yet might walk unworthy of God's mercy to him And here I shall answer these two Questions 1. What are those Considerations whereby a man should urge his heart to abstain from heart and secret sins 2. What are the helps and means for enabling of a man to abstain from heart and secret sins Quest 1. What are those Considerations whereby a Christian should urge his heart to abstain from heart sins and secret sins not to let into the secrets of his heart what he can by watchfulness prevent and not to allow that which notwithstanding all his diligence he cannot prevent For there is great difference betwixt having sin in the heart and regarding or allowing sin in the heart Psal. 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me A Christian may have yea cannot in this life but have sin in his heart but this not allowed but groaned under and lamented for shall not hinder the audience of his prayers nor the salvation of his soul But the regarding and allowing of it will prevent both Considerations to watch against secret sins God setteth secret sins in the light of his countenance SECT I. Considerations to keep you from secret sins GOD sets your secret sins in the light of his countenance Psal. 90.8 You can never sin so secretly as to hide your sins from God Study well these Scriptures Psal. 139.1 to 17 verse Jer. 23.24 Heb. 4.13 Prov. 5.21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings Whether your ways are good or evil open or secret they are before the eyes of the Lord rectà è regione right over God's eyes He pondereth He weigheth them in scales and many of our actions he findeth to be too light There are some sins so secret that other men might not know them and some are so secret that a man might not know them himself as sins of Ignorance Psal. 19.12 Who can understand his errors Cleanse thou me from secret faults But no sin can be said to be secret in respect of God Others see some sin in you you may see more in yourself But God seeth all because he is omniscient But there ●re many sins which are so secret that we ourselves see them not The causes of this are 1. Imperfection of self-knowledge 2. Excess of self-love 3. Deceitfulness of sin 4. Closeness of sin 5. Want of watchfulness But there is no sin can be hid from God for God seeth the Nature Number and Aggravations of secret sins Many indeed have veils for their sins that they may not be discerned by men but God looks through them Let me instance in these following sins that appear to men in the shape of grace but in the sight of God are manifest sins Or sins veil and masked with plausible pretences of good yet are naked to the sight of God 1. Masked sins detected Pride covered with humility A proud person often appears in the shape of an humble man In abasing of himself discommending himself that another may commend him crying down himself that another may cry him up by dispraising himself he would force and wrest a commendation from other men But if he discommend himself do you discommend him too if he say such a thing was meanly done if you say you think so too a proud man cannot bear it he cannot hear another say of him what he saith of himself But this secret pride God seeth 2. Hypocrisy masked with Zeal Many seem to be forward in good ways and zealous in good works but Self is the end 2 Kings 10.16 Come see my Zeal etc. 3. Secret love of the World covered with pretence of care for their Family Many have a cloak for the hiding of their covetousness of which you read 1 Thes. 2.5 For neither at any time used we flattering words nor a cloak of covetousness God is witness this is seen by God 4. Secret hatred against men's persons covered with pretended zeal against men's sins or covered with plausible expressions of love and amity Judas had murdered Christ in his heart and yet calls him Master with his mouth and kisseth him Mat. 26.49 Many have words smother than oil yet have hatred sharper than swords Psal. 55.21 5. Vainglory hidden from men by pretended charity Many will do good relieve the poor help those that be in distress but they aim at esteem amongst men Matth. 6.1 2 3 4. 6. Self-interest hidden from men by pretence of the good of men's souls and the glory of God so a preaching hypocrite may pretend to lay out himself for the good of men's souls and yet may use his Ministry only as a trade to get a living by it 7. Blasphemous hard thoughts of God might be hid from men by speaking good words of God 8. Inward murmurings repine against God's Providences may be hid from men by words of great submission to the will of God 9 Inward fleshy lustings of heart and contemplative uncleanness may be kept secret from men by chaste discourse He may love the presence of a person that is occasion of such secret uncleanness and commit adultery in his heart and the person not know of it and the offender speaking chastely all this while But I warn you in the name of God to strive against these sins for though they are secret to men yet God sets them in the light of his countenance There are three eyes upon you when you are in secret viz. 1. The eyes of Angels good and bad and they may see much of your secret wickedness 2. The eye of Conscience and this may see more secret sin than the Angels see in you the very thoughts of your heart 3. The eye of God and his eye seeth more than the Conscience 1 Joh. 3.20 And this view that God hath of thy secret sins when he sets them in the light of his countenance hath these four properties 4 Properties of God's view of secret sins First It is a clear and distinct view God seeth all the evil there is in thy secret sin We have a confused sight of sin and a dim sight of sin we see not so much evil in the greatest sin as there is in the least We see not so much evil in open Profaneness as indeed there is in a vain thought But God seeth all distinctly What a man hath before his eyes that is a suitable object at an equal distance and having a necessary medium he seeth distinctly Secondly It is a full view As God seeth all the evil in any one secret sin so he seeth all thy secret sins Man may know none of them thou knowest some of them but God knoweth all When thou turnest thy back to go into secret to commit sin Remember then thou art before God's face Thirdly It is a constant view What we have seen with our eyes might be quite razed out of our memories but not out of God's knowledge and when God is said to remember our iniquities no more it is not to be understood of real Oblivion but gracious remission Fourthly It is a judicial view If we speak of the secret sins of an hypocrite or a wicked man than God sets them in his sight as a Judge sets before him the crimes of a Malefactor that they may be read he accused convicted and executed If we speak of the secret sins of God's people God sets them before him as a Father doth the miscarriages of his child not to disinherit him for it but to correct him and chastise him These are the properties of Gods viewing our secret sins and shall not this move thee to watch against them and abstain from them Or hast thou not done that in secret in the sight of God which thou wouldst have been ashamed to do openly in the sight of men There are six comfortable expressions among others which the Scripture useth to set forth God's free pardon of our sins viz. That he Casts them behind his back Isa. 38.17 Blots them out Isa. 43.25 Casts them into the depths of the Sea Mic. 7.19 Remembers them no more Heb. 8.12 Will be merciful to our unrighteousness Heb. 8.12 Hides his face from our sins Psal. 51.9 There are also six terrible expressions among others which the Scripture useth to set forth God's displeasure against men for sin viz. That he Writes them in a book Rev. 20.12 Seals them in a bag Job 14.17 Remembers them Hos 7.2 Marks them Psal. 130.3 Will visit them Jer. 14.10 and 5.9 Sets them in the light of his countenance Psal. 90.8 If therefore there be any thing in the believing thoughts of Gods viewing your secret sins as doubtless there is very much be careful that you abstain from them and not allow yourself in them SECT II. Secrecy is no security TO keep you from secret sins consider That secrecy in sinning is no security to the sinner This is a consequent of the former because God seeth you in secret therefore you are not safe though your sin be secret You may secure your credit and reputation awhile by keeping your sin secret from men but not your happiness and salvation While your sin is secret you may not be reproached for it by men but you shall be damned for it by God if it be allowed and not sincerely repent of Many shall be openly damned for secret sins Read Psal. 64. throughout It is a sign of sincerity This will be a notable discovery of the sincerity of thy heart if thou darest not allow thyself in secret sins An Hypocrites greatest care is conversant about things visible and manifest viz. His Conversation Profession or Open transgressions these are visible But the things that are secret and hid from the eyes of men in those he is careless and negligent But a true child of God though he is not careless of his conversation yet he is especially mindful of his affections and of the secret frame of his heart and of the sins that lie lurking within him God judgeth not by outward appearances Consider God doth not esteem of men by what they seem to be to others but by what they really are God doth not judge as man judgeth Men judge of the heart by the actions of the life but God judgeth of the actions by the heart Men judge of that which is secret and invisible by that which is open and visible but God judgeth of that which is open and visible by that which is secret and invisible Mat. 23.27 Woe unto you Scribes Pharisees Hypocrites for ye are like unto whited Sepulchers which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness Ver. 28. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men but within are full of Hypocrisy and Iniquity Luk. 16 15. And he said unto them ye are they which justify yourselves before men but God knoweth your hearts For that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God A man might be applauded for that by men for which he shall be condemned by God That which might set a m●n high in the estimations of men might be an abomination unto God To allow secret sin is great ●mp●iety It is heinous Impiety for a man to encourage himself to sin because he is in secret 2 Kings 17.9 And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God There are many great sins wrapped up in this As 1. Damnable Infidelity They believe not God seeth them Psal. 94.7 8 9 2. Desperate Security They hide God from their eyes and then think they are safe 3. Deep Stupidity A degree further than the former 4. Daring Insolency It is bold presumption to sin before God's face Secret sins provoke God Secret sins do provoke God as well as open sins God is not like the sinner that hath better thoughts of sin because it is secret The openness of sin might add something to the eclipsing of God's glory and to God's dishonour but it addeth nothing to God's hatred of sin because God's hatred to sin as sin is infinite And grieve the Spirit Secret sins will grieve the Spirit of God And causeth him to withhold his influences from thy heart and to withdraw his presence from thy soul As 1. Secret sins will cause the Spirit of God to withdraw his witnessing presence and to suspend his testimony 2. They will cause him to withdraw his comforting presence that thou shalt not have those joys that thou wast use to find when thou wast more careful to watch against secret sins 3. They will cause him to withdraw his quickening presence that thy heart will be left more dead and more dull and thy affections will be more flat and cold 4. They will cause him to withdraw his Assisting presence that thou shalt not be so able to perform duty to resist temptation to bear affliction Thus secret sins will make you great losers by grieving and quenching the Spirit of God And destroy your peace Secret sins will exceedingly disturb the peace of thy Conscience They will make great gashes in thy soul they will wound surely they will wound s●ely and deeply They may make thee go with a sorrowful heart unto thy grave They may cost thee many a groan and sigh and tear many a prayer and strong cry to God before thy peace may be restored and thy Conscience healed and thy heart bound up They may be the breaking of thy bones and thy heart too that thou mayst think God is thine enemy H●nder grace Secret sins will hinder the growth of thy grace A constant coarse of allowed secret sinning argues the Nullity of grace and secret sins through carelessness by God's people will hinder much the increase of grace They will be like a frost to the blossom Like a Worm and Caterpillar to the fruits of the Earth Secret sins by experience you will find will much hinder your 1. Faith That you shall not believe so steadfastly 2. Desire You shall not thirst after God and Christ so strongly 3. Love You will not love God and Christ so Ardently 4. Delight You will not delight in God so frequently 5. Hope You will not hope for Heaven so livelily 6. Evidences You will not lay claim to heaven so confidently And fervent prayer and prevent audience Secret sins will hinder your fervent praying and will stop the Audience of your prayers They will exceedingly damp your affections at the throne of grace and make you sneak in the presence of God that you cannot have that liberty and confidence in prayer because Conscience will be interlining thy prayers and say Thou prayest against this sin and yet thou didst not watch against it but didst knowingly commit it They will stop thy mouth that thou canst not speak and they will stop God's ears that he will not hear Psal. 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me Do harden Secret sins will harden thy heart and make thee more prone to commit open sins They will strengthen the evil habit of sin and make thee more incline to visible transgressions and increase the propensity of thy heart to greater evils Thus Judas giving way to secret covetousness did ripen the Inclination of his heart more and more to betray his Master Stop communications of God's secrets Secret sins will stop the Communications of God's secrets to thee There are some secrets of God which he doth not communicate to any man in this life Deut. 29.29 Secret things belong to the Lord our God but things revealed belong to us and to our children for ever that we may do all the words of this Law But there are some secrets of God that he doth reveal unto his people and to those that make conscience of secret sins Prov. 3.32 But his secret is with the righteous Psal. 25.14 The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will show them his Covenant The Revealed things of the Gospel are secret things to wicked men the Gospel is hid to them 2 Cor. 4.4 Regeneration is a secret to them Faith in Christ is ● secret to them The joys of the Spirit and the comforts of the Holy Ghost are things hidden from them But if you dare not allow yourself in secret sinning you shall have many secret Intimations of the love of God unto your soul many secret illapses of his Spirit into your heart If you make conscience of secret sin you shall have an open reward If you make conscience of secret sins you shall have an open reward What Christ saith concerning secret duties Mat. 6.6 But thou when thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly This is true also of abstaining from secret sinnings God will reward you openly In these you have least help from others Be most careful against secret sins because in these thou hast least help and least assistance from others If thy sin be visible thy friend may reprove thee and he may help to recover thee If thy sin be visible thy enemy may reproach thee for it and that may occasion thy repentance But if thy sin be secret thou wilt not have these helps nor occasions of repentance and therefore where thou art least capable of advantages and helps from others therein be the greatest friend unto thyself Thus if you would walk answerably for Gods hiding of you in the secret of his Tabernacle in time of danger live not in a course of secret sins and for your help herein I shall next proceed to the second Question viz. SECT III. WHat are the helps and means for the enabling of a Christian to abstain from heart-sins and secret sins Que. 2. Helps against secret sins God his eye 1. Fill your mind with actual believing thoughts of God's allseeing eye When you are tempted to sin in secret consider God seeth you All the thoughts of your heart and all the motions of your affections are known to him 2 Cor. 4.2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God Psal. 139.11 If I say the darkness shall cover me even the night shall be light about me Ver. 12. Yea the darkness hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to thee It is the Atheism and Infidelity of men's hearts that encourageth them to sin because it is secret 2. E●e judgement to come Firmly believe and often think of the judgement to come Then will God make manifest every secret thing The thoughts of the heart shall then be revealed If thou wouldst not have thy secret sin produced at the last day and published before all the world do not commit i● 12.14 For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Rom. 2.16 In the day w● God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Ch●ist according to my Gospel 1 Cor. 4.5 Therefore ●udge working before the time until the Lord come who both shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the cou●sels of the hearts and then shall every man have praise of God 3. Deep hatred Get a deep ro●ted hatred in thy heart to sin He that hateth sin truly will not indulge himself in committing sin secretly For true hatred of sin will set the soul with strongest opposition against it at all times and all places Hatred to sin as sin will be to all sin whether open or secret He that hates a Toad will hate it in his Chamber or Closet as well as in the Field yea the nearer it is to him if in his Bed his hatred is raised so much the more and the nearer sin is to your heart the more you should hate it He that can sin secretly when he will not openly it is not because he hates the sin but because he hates the disgrace which that sin would expose him to before Men. 4. True fear Possess thy heart with the true fear of God Fear of shame and lessening our esteem among Men might keep from open sins but the fear of God doth steel and Antidote the heart against all sins When our restraint from sin is terminated in God it will be a general preservative against all sorts of sin 5. Uprightness of heart Get and increase in uprightness of heart the more of sincerity the less in secret sinning Hypocrisy is consistent with a constant course of secret sin but sincerity of heart doth diminish the acts and habits of sin 6. Design God's approbation Make it your great design to have the approbation of God He that doth hunt after the commendation of Men will be good when Men do see him but he that seeks for the approbation of God endeavours to be good at all times and in all places Rom. 2.29 But he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of Men but of God 2 Tim. 2.15 Study to show thyself approved unto God 7. Be watchful Be very watchful over your heart when you are alone and over your outward Senses when you are in Company He that doth not diligently watch will frequently sin there will be many secret stir of Unbelief in your heart and of Pride and of Vain-Thoughts either injected by the Devil or arising from the Corruption in your own heart A secret enemy must be watched more narrowly and so must secret sins 8. Suppress first motions of sin Suppress the first motions of sin crush this Cockatrice in the Egg do not dally with secret Temptations unto Sin abstain from every appearance of secret sins If you are too much given to contemplative Uncleanness avoid such things as may occasion it as beholding of Objects etc. 9 Sense of God's love Get a deep Impression of God's kindness and mercy into thy soul Many of God's Mercies to thee are secret Mercies which none can infallibly see in thee but thyself as Grace and the love of God shed abroad in thy heart and let the sense of God's secret love to thee keep thee from secret sinnings against God then wilt thou say with Joseph when he was tempted to secret uncleanness Gen. 39.7 9 10. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God 10. Secret duties If you would be kept from secret sins be much in secret duties He that hath all his duties abroad will have a nest of secret sins at home And this brings me to the second general Head about secret Good SECTION IU. Secret duties SEcondly Maintain secret Duties and especially mind the secret things of Public Duties this part consisteth of two Branches Maintain secret Duties Mind Secret things in Public Duties I. Keep up a constant course of secret Duties Be much with God when you are alone Let not all your Religion lie without doors especially be much in the Practice of these four Duties in secret 1. Be much in secret Prayer This hath been the practice of the holy Men of God so Jacob Gen. 32.24 And Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a Man with him while the breaking of the day In this you have the Example of Christ himself who was much in secret Prayer Ma● 14.23 And when he had sent the Multitudes away he went up into a Mountain apart to Pray and when the evening w●s come he was there alone You have some secret burdens upon your heart you have some secret and hidden workings of sin in your soul which is not convenient for you to express in the hearing of others take time then to do this when you are alone in secret You have the command of Christ also for this secret duty as well as his practice and example Mat. 6.6 2. Be freqent in self-examination in secret When you are alone be much in conversing with yourself and often in looking down into your own heart enquiring after the truth of grace and your growth therein after the Mortification of sin and your growth therein Psal. 4.4 Stand in awe and sin not commune with your own hearts upon your bed and be still Commune with yourself whether you set a due valuation upon the means of Grace whether you thrive in holiness according to the time and means that you have had Commune with yourself whether your Conversation be suitable to your Profession and as becomes the Gospel whether you are fit to die and prepared for another World in your secret Chamber commune with your own hearts about such things as these 3. Be much in secret Reading of the Word of God A Worldling when he is alone will spend much time in Reading over his Writings his Bonds and Bills his Leases and Acquittances and will not you take as much pains in secret reading of the Word of God which are the Writings upon which you must both build your Evidences for Heaven and try them by 4. Be much in secret meditation When you are alone let your thoughts be dwelling upon the Life to come in thinking of your future happiness Oh what Inward warmth may you have when you are alone if you would but fill your mind with some believing fore-thoughts of the Life to come SECTION V. II. Secret things in Public duties Mind secret things in Public Duties As your preservation is visible but as I have noted before the most effectual means of your preservation were secret and invisible you have not seen the way that God hath taken in keeping you he hath secretly kept you by his Power he hath given a secret Charge to his Angels over you So let your Duties that God requires should be Public and Visible be so But then let your principal care be about the secret and invisible things of public and visible duties The secret and invisible things in public duties which we are to mind are Good Bad. I will instance in six of each of them Six things in a gracious heart in public Duties are secret and invisible 1. The communion that a gracious heart hath with God in public duties is secret and invisible You may hear a Man's Expressions and you may see his Tea●es and he●r his Groans but whether he have true communion with God is such a secret that none can know but himself 2. The joys that a Christian hath in public duties are secret and invisible joys expressions of joy and praise may be heard and outward discoveries of joy there may be but this joy itself is a secret thing Whether you have indeed true spiritual joy in public duties none can know but yourself 3. The principle that puts a Man upon public duties is a secret and invisible thing Whether you Pray or Preach or do any public duty out of a Principle of love and fear of God is such a secret that none can tell but yourself 4. The manner in which public duties are performed is a secret and invisible thing Whether there be the exercise of Faith and Repentance for Sin and love to God and desire after Spiritual things is such a secret that bystanders cannot know 5. The end a Man propounds unto himself in public duties is secret and invisible Whether a Duty be done for the glory of God for the good of others for the enjoying more communion with God for more strength against sin or whether it be for self-interest and carnal ends is only known to a Man 's own Conscience Your duties Men may see but your end they cannot see 6. The peculiar aim and design of a gracious soul in public duties against some peculiar sin and secret corruption is a secret and invisible thing a Man may be heard to pray against a bosom darling lust but whether his design is to get down the power of this sin is only known unto himself These be the six things in public duties that are secret which you must especially labour after in all such duties SECTION VI. Secret evils in public duties to be avoided Fix things in public duties that are evil but yet secret and invisible as there hath been some secret danger which you have been in when you have not discerned it and some secret infection God hath kept you from so in public duties the same may be in secret duties also there are some secret evil you are to watch against 1. There may be secret unbelief lurking in the heart when a Man in Prayer is pleading particular Promises with his mouth you may hear a man urge the Promises of God for removal of evil for obtaining of good but whether he act faith upon these Promises or whether there be not in the mean while secret unbelief doubting of the truth of this Promise or especially of the application of it to himself is known only to himself it is a secret to those that join with him 2. Hypocrisy in public duties is a secret thing Whether your heart be upright and sincere with God or false and hypocritical is a secret unto others yea sometimes it is such a secret that might not be known by a Man himself 3. Inward-heart-Pride in public duties is a secret thing A Man may be full of self-loathing-expressions and of humble gestures and yet his heart might be lifted up with spiritual pride and self admirations and towering thoughts of his own worth and excellency and suitableness and freedom of expression and a by-stander cannot perceive it 4. Dulness and deadness of heart in duty is a secret thing A Man might h●ve lively expressions in public Prayers and seeming warmth of affection and such things that might affect and warm the hearts of others and yet his own heart be dull and lukewarm yea qui●e cold in that duty 5. Wand'ring thoughts in public duties are secret things A man may use the Name of God and the Attributes of God and yet his thoughts may be upon something else others may see you engaged in the duty and see your outward gestures but are strangers to the secret wander of your mind 6. The inclination of the heart to sin in public duties is a secret thing A Man may confess sin and bewail it with Tears and beg for power against it and yet he may have a secret inclination of heart to this very sin and secret purposes of heart to keep it and a secret fear lest God should hear his Prayers which he makes against this sin Whether you hate that sin in your heart which you bewail with your Tongue is known only to yourself and if indeed you know it yourself it is a good degree of self-knowledge Thus as God hath kept you in an invisible manner and most by invisible and secret means and preserved you from secret and invisible danger that you have been in If you would live in some measure answerably to so great a Mercy you must have a special care of minding the secret and invisible things in Christianity and abstain from secret and invisible sins DIRECTION VI. Since you live after the Plague be dead to the World HAth God spared you in time of Pestilence Then be dead unto the World and to things below Take heed that you do not return with too great an eagerness after the Affairs of this world as if you had not seen such sights as you have seen of Death and the vanity of the World You are not dead in your Grave let this Mercy move you to be dead to the World and sinful Affections You are living in the World but you must be dead to the World It is to be feared that there are many will be as eagerly bend after the things of this World as they were before notwithstanding the Course that God hath taken by smarting Judgements to wean them from the World That will be like unto a Stream stopped and dammed up when it gets over the Banks and the obstruction is removed runneth down with greater force God hath put many by their way of Trade for some Months Now take heed that through overmuch eagerness to regain what loss you have sustained by the forbearance of your Calling you do not let out too much of your heart and affections upon these things nor give them more of your time than you can well allow from the necessary Duties of Gods immediate Worship and the things that do concern the state of your Souls in the life to come Be dead to the Profits Honours Pleasures Wisdom of this World SECTION I. 1. To the Profits of the world SHould not you be dead to and take heed of returning in your love back again unto the Riches of the World after such a Judgement as this hath been To prevent an over-eager pursuit of the Riches and Profits of this World when by the removal of this Judgement you have opportunity of returning to your Callings consider 1. Are corrupt●ble Hurtful The Riches of this world are corruptible riches they are perishing treasures Silver and Gold are things corrupting others and are corruptible in themselves 1 Pet. 1.18 19 But you have an incorruptible Kingdom and Crown before you to strive after reserved in Heaven for believers and for those that are so vehemently set for Heaven that they will take it by force 2. Unprofitable The riches of this world are unprofitable riches therefore be not too eager in your pursuit of unprofitable profits They cannot profit you in tim● of greatest need Have not you had the experience of the unprofitableness of riches that they are unprofitable 1. For diverting of Judgements or removing evils that come upon you whether temporal as Sickness Plague Death or spiritual as Hardness of Heart Blindness of Mind Terrors of Conscience none of all these can be removed by worldly riches 2. For the procuring of good whether temporal for the Body as Health in time of Sickness or Ease in time of Pain or spiritual for the Soul either Grace or Comfort or Glory if Conscience be wounded they cannot heal your Consciences nor comfort your Hearts 3. Hurtful The riches of this world are oftentimes hurtful to the owner and possessor of them Eccles. 5.13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the Sun namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt Grace and Christ can never hurt you but your riches may by being clogs to your affections in holy duties by being snares and temptations to you in your converse in the world by increasing your account when you have not well improved them 4. Uncertain The riches of this world are uncertain riches 1 Tim. 6.17 after you have got them you may presently lose them The loss of outward riches may arise 1. By Men by Force and Power by fraud and deceit 2. By Casualty your Houses may be consumed with flames of Fire 3. By God's secret Curse Hag. 1.6 He that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes 5. Easily valued The riches that Men get in this world are easily valued A Man's Estate is easily computed But there are riches in Christ which are unsearchable seek and search after more of them Ephes. 3.8 6. Unsatisfying When you have got them they will not satisfy your desires Eccles. 5.10 II. To the Honours of the World Should not you be dead to the honours of this World which will be a bait to many after such a Judgement Should not you who are yet alive to behold the Graves of some Honourable Persons now in the dust call off your heart from seeking after them Have you not seen that Death respects not the Honourable more than the Ignoble the Reverend and Esteemed no more than the Mean and Contemptible Those that have Honourable Names and Titles Honourable Friends and Relations Honourable Callings and Employments Honourable Preferments and Enjoyments are equalised in the Grave with others And have not you seen some fall and heard of others in this Judgement and yet after all this set your heart upon the Honours of this world III. To the pleasures of the World Should not you be dead to the pleasures of this World which will be snares for others Should you after such a Judgement as this give yourself to live a sensual flesh-pleasing life and spend your time in needless delights and recreations when you have heard so many dying Men complain of the loss of time when they were well and the want of time when they came to die Consider what these Pleasures be that you are so much addicted to that such sadning sorrowful sights that you have seen will not we●n you from them Nay when God's smarting Rod upon your own body by the Plague will not embitter your worldly pleasures and delights but you will go out of such a dreadful Judgement of God to your game 's and Sports to the pleasing of the flesh in satisfying the lusts and desires thereof in acts of uncleanness Consider these 1. are short pleasures they are but for a little while they are passing away while you are at them But these short pleasures may bring you to eternal torments and endless woe Heb. 11.25 Choosing rather to suffer afflictions with the People of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season 2. By giving up yourselves unto these Pleasures you deprive yourselves of the Pleasures of God's House in his Ordinances which others drink of Psal. 36.8 3. You deprive yourself of the Pleasures of God's House above in Heaven of the Rivers of Pleasures which are at God's right hand for evermore Psal. 16.11 4. These pleasures are more brutish pleasures and do but delight the more brutish i. e. sensitive part in Man The rational Soul as such is not delighted in the pleasures of the Flesh in eating and drinking a Horse doth find pleasure in this as much as you and some unreasonable Creatures herein do excel you 5. They are empty and unsatisfying pleasures they do not fill content nor satiate them that give themselves most to follow after them IV. To the wisdom of the World Should not you be dead to and take heed of resting in the wisdom of the World in the attainment only of Humane Learning after you have seen the Learned die as the Ignorant and the Wise Man as the Fool Humane Learning is more desirable than Riches and Honours and the Pleasures of this World but yet it is not to be acquiesced in without the knowledge of God in Christ Notions in Learning will never deliver from the Torments of Hell many learned sinners have gone to eternal Misery and their torments there are greater than the torments of the Ignorant and unlearned the vanity of the wisdom of this World compared with the knowledge of Christ appears in that 1. It cannot redress the sinfulness of the thoughts nor help against the vanity of the mind The wise and learned Heathens became vain in their imaginations Rom. 1.21 2. It doth not prevent sinful elections and choice of the will Men of great knowledge choose the World and Honours and Ease and Preferments before Christ 3. It doth not remedy a sinful Conversation M●ny know things to be evil and yet do them and so is an aggravation of their sin and will be of their misery 4. It doth not season men's communications nor prevent corrupt Discourses but makes them more witty and able to scorn Godliness jest with Scripture and deride the Professors of the Gosspel But the knowledge of Christ i● is 1. the sweetest knowledge 2. It is the surest knowledge being by the Revelation of the Spirit of God 3. It is saving knowledge Thus take a true account of all the things the best the most excellent the most desirable things in this world and you will see no reason why you should wholly spend the residue of that time which God hath ●ent you from the Grave in such an eager pursuit of any thing of this life SECTION II. BUt that you may know whether you yet living are dead to the things of this world I shall give you this general Character viz. ☜ If you carry yourself towards the world as those that are dead to God do carry themselves towards God then are you dead unto the world and this general is resolved into these particulars 1. Signs of a Man that is dead to the world Those that are dead to God they see no real excellency in God and Christ but they see something more in the things of the world they see more excellency in their Gold and Silver in their Profits and Preferments in their Pleasures and Delights so if you are dead to the world you do not admire the Choicest and the Chiefest things that are therein but do see more real worth in God and Christ and one dram of Grace then in all the Mines of the most precious things in Nature and in your practical judgement do account them but dung and dross in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord 2. Those that are dead to God do make choice of the World and the things thereof before God The will following the ultimate comparative practical dictate of the understanding in wicked Men doth choose Earthly things before God and Christ For though their absolute judgement might be for God yet the comparat judgement all circumstances considered is for the world and their will doth make choice of it accordingly So if you are dead to the world you make choice of God for your chiefest good and greatest happiness For though you may in your absolute judgement look upon the Things of the world used with moderation and kept in their proper place as good yet in your comparative judgement all circumstances considered you do ultimately conclude That God is better in himself and for you yea in both respects and your will doth choose him accordingly 3. Those that are dead to God though they may Pray to God and talk of God yet they do this as though they did it not and Pray as if they Prayed not God hath their Tongues but the world hath their Hearts So if you are dead to the world though you may talk of the world and Trade in the world yet you do all this as if you did it not You buy as if you possessed not and you use this world as if you used it not and though the world may have your hands yet God hath your heart 4. Those that are dead to God they are not troubled at the loss of God nor rejoice at the tidings how they may have the enjoyment of him So if you are dead to the World you are not chiefly troubled at the loss of these things nor count it so great matter of joy if you have them and enjoy them A man that is dead to God desireth the world and let who will look after God So a man dead to the world desireth God and let who will look after the World as his portion and his chiefest happiness he will not 5. A man that is dead towards God is not restrained from sin by Gods most terrible threatenings though God threaten him with eternal death and everlasting damnation with the loss of heaven and eternal happiness if he persist in his wickedness and continue in sin yet fear of the punishment of loss nor of the punishment of sense will not awaken him to Conversion and through Reformation So a man that is dead towards the World all the threatenings of men that he shall have inflicted upon him divers penalties loss of goods liberty life yet all this is not cogent to bring him in to a course of sin and to do wickedly 6. A man that is dead towards God is not drawn nor alured with the precious and most glorious promises of God to do that which is good Though God promise him heaven and eternal happiness the pardon of sin and his favour yet all this moves him not to come to Christ nor forsake his sins So a man that is dead to the world all the offers preferments enticements of the world to allure him into sin will not prevail he is dead to these things and offers and over●ures of the greatest things move not a dead man Thus you may try whether you are dead to the world or no. You live in the world even after such a devouring Pestilence you cannot live answerably to this great mercy except you be dead to the World DIRECTION VII Since you live after this Plague be dead to sin and be buried with Christ HAth God spared you in time of Pestilence than now be dead to sin kill your sin and solemnize the funeral of your lusts because you live after such a judgement such a mercy doth oblige to the death and burial of sin You are not buried with others in their graves but you should be buried with Christ Rom. 6.4 Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Ver. 6. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin In which Scripture are set down these things viz 1. The parts of Sanctification Mortification Vivification 2. The cause of our Sanctification viz. communion with Christ in his Death Burial and Resurrection 3. The Testimony and Pledge of it our Baptism 4. The growth and progress of Mortification we should aim at the total destruction of the body of sin by the Crucifying Destroying and Burial of sin You have seen the death of thousands and you have seen the Burial of thousands to all these add one more Funeral and that is the Funeral of your sins Do you outlive this Judgement and shall your sins do so too God forbid This would be to live altogether unanswerably to so great a mercy You live but your sins should be dead in you and you unto your sins Rom. 6.11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Though you live yet must you be buried Now Believers are buried in three respects Believers are buried in 3. respects 1. In respect of their good names as they are reproached by the wicked The throats of the wicked are the Sepulchers or burial places of the good names of God's people this is part of a Believers sufferings 2. In respect of Self-denial Believers must be no more taken with the things of this World so far as to draw them from God than a person dead and buried and lying in his grave 3. In respect of the Mortification of sin and these two last are our duty and of this last I would speak a little following the Metaphor in which there is some difference and some agreement in the burial of our sin and in common burial 2 Differences between the burial of our friends and our sins The difference in these Respects First We bury our friends weeping for their death desirous of their life wishing o● that this my Friend had not died oh that I could have kept him in life But we must bury our sin rejoicing as those that are glad of its death Not weeping because sin is dead but that it once did live Secondly We bury our Friends with hopes that they shall rise again and live again But we must bury our sins with hopes they shall never live more never return to them more The resemblance holds in these particulars 1. 5 Resemblances The Burial of sin supposeth the death of sin Never any man yet buried his sins alive For while sin doth live it is in the heart as in a Throne and not as in a Grave 2. The Burial of sin supposeth the ceasing of the love of sin that we see not that beauty and comeliness in sin as we did when it was alive A man that loves his Relation while he lived put him in his bosom yet will not do so when he is dead a man while he loves his sin will never bury it 3. The Burial of sin includeth the removal of it out of our sight and as much as may be out of our thoughts We love not to look upon dead friends nor many times to think or talk of them who while they lived were pleasing objects to our eyes and the delightful matter of our discourse While Sarah lived she was beautiful in Abraham's eyes but when dead he desired to have her removed out of his sight Gen. 23.4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you give me possession of a burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight The presence of sin is a trouble to you when it is dead and you would have it out of your sight and this removal of sin when dead and buried hath these three properties First It is a total removal the whole body of sin and all the members of it are buried Death might arise from the disease of some particular part but burial covers all He that makes a show of the burial of sin and yet keeps any in his heart as his love and delight hath indeed buried no sin For who doth so bury his friend as to keep any of his members in his house Secondly It is a voluntary removal when one is dead we make it matter of our choice to have him buried Yea we look upon it as a sore evil and great annoyance to have burial denied to our dead friends So it is your choice to bury your sins and the thoughts of not having them buried is a great trouble to you Thirdly It is a perpetual removal we bury our friends so that we would not have them taken up again and brought into our house So you bury sin never to have it brought back to live again in your heart One that hath buried his sin doth earnestly desire it might be removed out of the sight of God by free pardon out of the sight of his own eyes by the evidence of the pardon and out of the sight of others by leading a contrary Conversation 4. The Burial of sin includes the rotting of the old man in its grave the mouldering of it and the daily wasting of it as dead Corpse buried in the earth do consume and waste daily Though a body buried doth not presently totally consume Many years after the burial if the grave be opened you may find the bones and the skull the relics of sin in the heart of a Child of God are but as the bones and the skull but the body of sin is destroyed 5. The Burial of sin includes the loss of the power and authority that sin had in the heart while it was alive Though a man were never so potent while he lived yet when he is dead and buried he hath no more power nor jurisdiction Though thy sin did sit as a Lord and rule in thy soul while it lived yet being dead and buried its dominion ceaseth Now if you are buried with Christ these things will be a comfort to you viz 1. Those that are buried with Christ are most comely in the sight of God Comfort to those that are buried with Christ A man that is naturally dead and buried is not so with us but he that is spiritually dead to sin is beautiful in the eyes of God 2. Those that are buried with Christ have converse and Communion with God those that are naturally dead have no more converse with us but a man hath no Communion with God till he is buried with Christ 3. Those that are buried with Christ are past the hurt of death As those that are naturally dead have passed through all that death can do unto them if you are buried with Christ though you must come under the stroke of death yet the sting of death is taken out 4. Those that are buried with Christ shall be raised at the last day and shall for ever live with God and Christ and with holy Angels and Saints in the Kingdom of God Rom. 6.8 Now if we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him Thus if you would live in some measure answerably to God's mercy in preserving of you from death and the grave that you are not buried yet with others you must die to sin and be buried with Christ DIRECTION VIII Since you live after this Plague walk in newness of life HAth God spared you in the time of Plague that you yet remain among the Living If you would improve this mercy then Live to God and walk in newness of Life God hath not spared you that you should live to yourself or to the flesh or that you should walk in your old courses But your duty is now to live to God and to lead a new Conversation God hath brought you to the borders of the grave and to the very confines of another world and shaked you over the grave and hath recovered and restored you and hath as it were given you a new life by reprieving you from the gates of death when you were so near unto it Rom. 6.4 That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we should walk in newness of life and the equipollent phrases of this new life are To walk with before and after God To walk after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 To serve God in newness of spirit Rom. 7.6 To walk as children of light Eph. 5.8 To walk in the ways of God Psal. 119.3 To walk circumspectly Eph. 5.16 That you may being spared from the grave lead a new life I shall show you The signs or nature of it The excellencies or dignities of it The Impediments and hindrances of it SECT I. THe nature of or that which is included in newness of life doth not consist in these things 1. What newness of life doth not consist in It doth not consist in some new notions or new speculations which you had not before a new light might be made in an old house New speculations may consist with an old Conversation 2. It doth not consist in a newness of a bare resolution to lead a new life this is but in order to it though if it be real it is a good step towards this walking 3. It doth not consist in a bare performance of some new duties which you did not before an old course of sin may consist with the external performance of some New Duties as Praying Reading etc. 4. Nor in a bare keeping of some new Company though this is to be desired that many would forsake their old wicked Company or if God hath taken thy wicked Companions away by death thou wouldst not make choice of those that be as bad 5. Nor in New discoursing of spiritual things A man that was wont to swear and reproach and blaspheme the name of God might now talk of God with others and yet not lead a new life 6. Nor in forbearing of many old sins which before you lived in you were drunkards before but not now I would more were so changed but yet this comes short of this newness of life which doth include these things following In what consisteth newness of life To walk in newness of life supposeth a new saving knowledge a new sight and a new judgement of things No man can lead this new life with his old judgement which was corrupt judging that good which was evil and that evil which was good 1 Pet. 1.14 As obedient children not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your Ignorance There must be a new sight and new discovery of these things 1. Of God and his Excellency 2. Of Christ and his Sufficiency 3. Of ●in and it● Deformity 4. Of the World and its Vanity 5. Of Grace and its Necessity 6. Of Heaven and its Felicity 7. Of Hell and its extremity of Woe Till a man hath new eyes and hath his understanding opened to see the nature of all these things otherwise than he did before he will not walk contrary to what he did before if he see no more of Christ nor in the Attributes of God nor in Grace he will still flight all these and undervalue them if he have the same admiring apprehensions of the World and seeth as much beauty in deformed sin he will love it still and delight in it still There must be new light and new saving knowledge before there can be a new life To walk in newness of life includes newness of Principle a man with his old Principle can never lead a new life A man in old courses may live according to the Dictates of a natural conscience according to old customs but he that leads a new life must have a new Principle of love to God a new Principle of true fear of God he must have new strength from Christ a new heart and new affections To walk in newness of life includes the vigorous actings of this new Principle and living in the exercise of these new graces infused into the heart in the exercise of new love to God of new desires after Christ of new sorrow for his sin of new hatred to his sin To walk is to exert a principle of motion into act To walk in newness of life is to have a Conversation filled with new works and to have all things done according to the Rule of new obedience His old work was to please the flesh but his new work is to please God His old work was chiefly to get riches and increase therein his new work is to get grace and more of it His old work was to obey the commands of sin his new work is to obey the commands of God To walk in newness of life is to walk according to the new Rule not according to the practices and examples of wicked men but according to the rule of God's Word according to the example of Christ To walk in newness of life is to live for new ends his end is not now self-interest in the world not his own estimation amongst men not his preferment in this world old ends are inconsistent with a new life But this man's end is the glory of God all the actions of his life are ultimately resolved into this and all is in subordination unto this He trades for this end that God may be glorified he prays and preacheth he reads and studies that God may be glorified To walk in newness of life includes a newness of objects about which he is conversant such as keep their old course of life look no higher than worldly objects the honours and the pleasures and the profits of this world But such as are risen with Christ to walk in newness of life have proposed to themselves new objects things that are above God and Grace and Heaven things that are invisible to the eyes of carnal men To w●lk in newness of life it is to walk as Christ did after he was risen from the dead i. e. in our measure Christ did not encumber himself with the things of this world after his resurrection he did not converse with the men of this world neither must we use their company out of choice Christ aft●r his Resurrection waited for his Ascension into glory So if we will walk in newness of life we must have our conversation in heaven and be continually expecting our dissolution and our translation into glory To walk in newness of life it is to do all the actions of out life in a new manner to do al● religious duties to pray and to hear in a new manner Before he prayed lukewarmly and with a dull and hard and unbelieving heart but now more fervently more livelily Though the matter of his duties might be the same yet the manner is new To walk in newness of life is to be making progress in all these walking is a progressive motion it is to continue and to persevere in the ways of holiness Not to decline nor to go backwards not to return or walk back again to old wickedness SECT II. The excellencies of a new life THe excellency and dignity of a new life is very great and for your greater encouragement to walk therein I shall instance in some of them 1. A new life is a life according to the New Covenant which God hath made with fallen man Men that walk in old sinful courses continue the Covenant they have made with sin and Satan But a man that walketh in newness of life is a man that hath entered into a New Covenant with God Ezek. 36.26 A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put into you I will take away the stony heart of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh Ve● 27 And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them And to walk thus in God's Statutes is to walk in newness of life 2. A new life it is the most rational life When the Prodigal left his old ways and took up a new course he is said to come to himself Luk. 15.17 Men act most unreasonably when they act wickedly 3. A new life is the sweetest and most comfortable life There are sensual carnal brutish delights in the ways of sin but there is much terror and bitterness in a wicked course always at the end of it Such as lead a new life they have experience of the comforts of the Spirit of the joys of the Holy Ghost All these new ways so called as opposed to his former ways else the best way is the oldest way are ways of pleasantness and all these paths are p●●ce 4. A new life it is the noblest life we then live according to the highest elevation that we are capable of in this life Nay it is a life nearest to the life of glory 5. A new life is an evidencing life it is an evidence of the great and glorious things that are brought to light by the Gospel all full of delighting comfort A new l●fe taking in all the particulars before set down showing the things included in it is an evidence First Of our Election his new life is a fruit of God's ancient love Eph. 1.4 Secondly Of a new robe of righteousness put upon us for our justification Thirdly Of P●r●on of old sins Fourthly Of our Union with Christ we could not le●d a new life were we not engrafted into a new stock Fifthly Of the sincerity of our hearts and the truth of grace Sixthly Of our sure title to heaven to the new Jerusalem that is above 6. A new life is ●n encouraging life it will be an encouragement to a man to go ●o God in his greatest straits it will encourage a man with boldness to look death in the face when it comes 7. It is the most profitable life to ourselves and to others we shall be giving to others a good example if we lead new lives whereby they may be drawn to an holy Imitation A new heart you may have and that may profit yourself but a new life will be profitable to others as well as to yourself 8. A new life is the only life that honours God and that doth credit the Gospel and the Profession that we make To live in an old course of swearing and lying and Sabbath-breaking is to dishonour God but if you walk in newness of life you will promote the great end for which you live i. e. the glory of God and the excellency of any thing is according to its sutableness and tendency to the attaining of a man's ultimate end it is a new life that only glorifieth God therefore a new life is the only excellent life 9 He that leads a new life hath a new guide to direct him in his holy walk the Spirit of God will be your guide to show you the way that you ought to go Though to you it may be a new way yet you shall not lose your way because the Spirit is your guide 10. He that leads a new life is taken into new relations God is now his Father and the Son of God is now his Lord Head Redeemer Brother and all the people of God are now related to him in the bonds of grace These things and many more may be said in commendation of the excellency of a new life which appears to be so in the eyes of carnal men who have walked after their old hearts when they come to die that they then resolve if God would spare them they would lead a new life SECT III. Hindrances of walking in newness of life THe hindrances of walking in newness of life are many and very great that it is not an easy thing for any man to lead this life 1. The Old Serpent is a great enemy to this New li●e he hath old stratagems and old devices and snares to divert them out of this way 2. The Old Principle of corruption remaining in our hearts is a great Impediment to this new life It is working still in us to walk in the old ways of pleasures and delights the Old man within will still strive hard to hinder this New life without 3. Old sinful Company will hinder you in your new manner of life they will be tempting and enticing and persuading you to come to your old games and your old delights It will be hard to live a new life amongst old sinful Companions 4. Slavish fear of men is a great impediment of walking in newness of life it may be thou mightest displease thy Father thy Master the Friend upon whom thou dost much depend if thou shouldest forsake thy old wicked life and become a new Creature and lead a new life thou wouldst meet with new troubles but fear God and his Vengeance more if thou walk in thy old course of sin and keep thy old heart then be filled with slavish fear of men if they should deny their old favour and friendship to thee because thou walkest in newness of life 5. Flesh-pleasing and being too much overpowered by the sensitive appetite 6. Spiritual sloth For a New Life hath many new difficult duties Thus if you would improve this Mercy that God hath spared you you must live to God and walk in newness of life DIRECTION IX Since you live after this Plague keep upon your heart a sense of this Mercy HAth God spared you in time of so great Contagion Then keep upon your heart a constant sense of Gods distinguishing Providence in his preservation of you Let not length of time if God give it you wear off the greatness of this his Mercy towards you if you forget God's goodness you will not walk worthy of it This was the sin of the People of Israel for whom God did such great things Psal. 78.10 They kept not the Covenant of God and refused to walk in his Law Verse 11. And forgot his Works and his Wonders that he had showed them Psal. 106.21 They forgot God their Saviour which had done great things in Egypt God hath done great wonders for you in preserving of you in the valley of the shadow of death God hath not given you over unto death God hath not laid you in the Grave where you would soon have been forgotten do not you lay God's Mercy towards you in the grave of oblivion nor bury his mercy of saving you alive in forgetfulness David laid a charge upon his Soul that he should not forget the benefits of the Lord towards him Psal. 103.2 Set down therefore and Record your danger what it was Such a Month in such a Year the Plague was nigh my dwelling it came into my house it took away so many of my Children and Servants but God spared me he took away the Wife the Husband of my bosom but God spared me yea it was upon my Body so many Plague-Sores were running at once and God delivered me from the Grave and from the very jaws of death and will you forget this while you live That you may have and keep a sense of God's mercy to you in preserving of you consider these few particulars 1. Helps to be sensible of the Mercy of life Consider you had deserved the Plague and death by the Plague as well as those that have fallen into their Graves thereby and it may be more too do not think that those that have died were greater sinners than you Luke 13.2 And Jesus answered and said unto them suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things Verse 3. I tell you nay but except you repent ye shall all likewise perish Verse 4. Or those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell and slew them think ye that they were sinners above all Men that dwelled in Jerusalem Verse 5. I tell you nay but extept ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Do you think that those whom the Plague hath slaughtered that they were greater sinners than all that dwelled in London Take heed of such conceptions Or if many have fallen in this judgement that were of worse Lives than you yet none have f●llen that had worse Hearts than you naturally h●ve Nay have not your sins been capable of greater ●ggravations than the sins of many Drunkard's and Swearers and profane Pe●sons that did never sin against a God that pardoned their sins that did never sin against such love nor after such experiences of the working of God's Spirit upon their hear●s as you have had Nay consider that you are not likely ●o do God that service nor bring to God that Glory that some of them might have done that are now in their Gr●ves if God had spared them and yet God hath lengthened out your life Oh what an Obligation should this be to you to remember God's Mercy that you had Plague-deserving-sins but yet you had not the Plague that you have death-deserving-sins and yet you are not dead 2. Consider you had a Body as liable to Infection as many others had There were such natural causes in your Body that might have laid you in your Grave if God had not prevented it and did not you suck in the same Air as others did yea as others breathed out and yet God hath kept you 3. Consider you had no better Preservatives nor Cordials than many others had that yet by the Plague are laid silent in the Grave and are now resting in the dust and others that now are dead used the same means as you did and it may be more and better too and yet God denied his blessing to the use of those means that were more probable to prevent Infection than yours were by this you may be convinced that it was the hand of God that hath preserved you and therefore by this you should be obliged to remember and keep upon your heart a sense of God's mercy towards you 4. Consider you have been in more visible danger and when you were called did venture further than many others did some were more reserved and kept from Company more than you have done being called to Duty where Visited Persons have been as to help them that were sick of this Distemper etc. and yet some that lived more retiredly and kept themselves more close were Visited and are dead and yet you have escaped this is the finger of Divine Providence and will you let the sense of this wear off from your heart 5. Consider that you have been more weakly and more infirm of Body than many of them that the Plague hath removed Many that were more likely to outlive you are cut down before you Many that were strong and of healthful constitutions are laid in the Dust while you that have been waiting for your dissolution many Months or Years because of the infirmity of your Body and the frequent distempers that have been upon you are preserved 6. Consider how great a Mercy your praservation is not only to yourself but to those to whom you are related You have many little Children that are not able to help themselves nor to provide for themselves that in all likelihood would have been exposed to hardships and to want if God had taken you from them They are sharers in this Mercy of your Preservation and the more are concerned in it the greater the Mercy is and the deeper and more lasting sense it should make upon your heart The thoughts of your Children did increase your fears and trouble when you were in danger and should not the consideration of this advance the greatness of the Mercy of being continued to them DIRECTION X. If you have fewer objects of love left you love God so much the more HAth God spared you in time of Pestilence when he hath taken away many of your own Relations then the fewer objects you have for your love now the stronger let your love be towards God than it was before In ste●d of murmuring against God that you have lost those whom you did love the greater let your love be to God since you h●ve not so many for to love Love l●id out upon many objects is the weaker bu● love united and spent upon one object is t●e stronger As those that have but one only Son love that more than those that have more do love any because their love is divided amongst them all It may be God had too little of your love and it was ●n offence and grief unto your God that the Creature should have that love which w●s due unto himself and therefore he hath cut off the S●re●es that you may get nearer to the Fountain Thy Relation had more of thy affection then came unto his share and therefore in stead of Murmuring be more in loving of thy God and this will be to live answerably to Gods Correcting and Afflicting of thee in the loss of thy Relation and to his Mercy in sparing of thyself And look what Relation it is that is taken from thee while thou survivest and get clearer evidences that God will be in stead of that Relation to thee and be better to thee than that was Hast thou thy Husband removed by this Contagious Disease now make out more to God that he would be an Husband to thee Hast thou lost thy Children or thy only Son see more diligently that God hath bestowed his only Son upon thee and this will much satisfy and quiet thy heart Hath God done thee any wrong if he hath taken thy only Son from thee and hath given his only Son to thee Thus since you did survive others that are taken from you improve your Affliction and your Mercy in being advantaged in Spirituals and this will be to live in some measure answerably to Gods dealing with you DIRECTION XI Since you live remember what were the actings of conscience in time of danger and live accordingly HAth God spared thee in time of Plague then see what it was that thy Conscience did most accuse thee or commend thee for when the Plague was nigh thy dwelling or thou wast in fear and danger and order thy life accordingly What sin was it that thy Conscience did reproach thee for in a time of danger and in fears of death whether of omission or commission public or secret of what nature soever it was and let it be the design of thy heart in the course of thy life to mortify that sin and keep it under that thou carefully avoid the occasions thereof that when death shall certainly come and conscience shall have no more occasion or just ground to reproach thee thou mayest see that God in mercy did prolong thy days till thou hadst got the victory over and the pardon and the evidence of the pardon of that sin What was it in thy fears and when thou wast in expectation of death that Conscience did approve in thee it did then approve thy diligence in thy Family go on in this still it did approve of thy strict and holy walking with God go on in that which was good and thy rightly enlightened Conscience did commend in thee and this will be to live in some measure answerably to so great a mercy as is Gods preserving of you in a time of such a wasting Plague DIRECTION XII Since you live after you have been in such danger trust God for the future HAth God spared you in such a time of so great Mortality and Contagion then learn to trust yourself and all your Affairs with God for the time to come You have lived in time of danger and have been in hazard of your life and yet God hath preserved and kept you God hath called some to abide in the City because they could not remove their habitation without neglect of duty for where our duty lies and where our work is that God calleth us unto there we may trust God though our danger be never so great because while we are in our duty we are in our way and God hath promised to keep us in all our ways in time of Plague Psal. 91.11 Many had opportunity of retiring into the Country without neglect of duty without running away from duty those that went from their duty and work which God expected they should there have done have cause to be humbled for their slavish fears of death and great distrust in God and the use of means for preservation is not inconsistent with trusting in God but is supposed and included in it else it is not trusting in God but presumption but many were obliged to abide upon the place and God hath preserved you amongst them Oh what an obligation and encouragement is this for you for the time to come to put your trust in God in the use of means in a way of duty and the more you are able to commit yourself to God in future dangers the more you do improve this Providence of God in preserving of you But because we need all helps and supports for putting our trust in God I shall lay down some considerations to help you more and more to trust in God premising first the nature of it that you may perceive what it is that you are exhorted to when persuaded to trust in God Description of trust Trusting in God is a special fruit of faith and hope whereby the soul looking upon God in Christ through a Promise is in some good measure freed from fretting fears and cutting cares about the removing or preventing of some evil or the enjoying or procuring of that which is good 1. It is a fruit of faith for therefore a Man trusteth in God because he believeth and is persuaded of the truth of what God saith and believeth the performance of his promise and so it is called fiducia fidei 2. It is a fruit of hope for therefore I trust in God because I hope it shall be with me according to his Word If I had no hope of this I could not trust in God and so it is called fiducia spei 3. This trust hath God in Christ through a Promise for its object We trust in God through Christ eyeing the Promise For the Promise of God is the foundation of our trust in God and the Promise of God draws forth the hearts of his People to trust in him Psal. 119.42 I trust in thy Word 4. The effect of this trusting in God is the quietation of the heart and a freeing of the Soul proportionably to the degree of his trust from fretting fears and cutting cares about good and evil to be avoided or procured Psal. 56.3 What time I am afraid I will trust in thee Verse 4. In God will I praise his Word in God I have put my trust I will not fear what Flesh can do unto me The Arguments for the moving you to trust in God for the future are such as these 1. 8 Arguments to trust in God Will not you trust in God after such rich and full experience that you have had of Gods taking care for you Hath God cared for your life and will not you trust him for Food and Raiment experience is a great support for confidence in God 2 Cor. 1.10 Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us When David had had experience of Gods delivering him from the Lion and the Bear he trusted in God to deliver him from the hands of the uncircumcised Philistine 1 Sam. 17.37 When thou hast been in danger God hath kept thee and when thou hast been in sickness God hath restored thee and if it be good for thee he will do so again 2. Will not you trust in God that is All sufficient and Almighty able to deliver you from any evil able to bestow upon you any thing that is good He can remove your fears and he can fill your desires According to your persuasions of a Man's ability to help you caeteris paribus will your trust be in him 2 Cor. 1.9 For we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in God which raiseth the dead That God that can raise the dead may be trusted in any case or condition You have found him able 3. Will not you trust in God that is so willing to do you good you may acknowledge God's all-sufficiency to be a support for your trusting in him but the doubts that you find in your Soul whether God be willing to do you good is a cause of your too frequent distrust in him You must believe that God is a God of mercy and ready to do for his People whatsoever he seeth conduceth to his glory and their good and you may know his willingness by his promises which are various according to the condition that you are or may be in You have found him willing and yet will you not trust him 4. Will not you trust in a God that is faithful in all he saith He declares his willingness to do you good to supply your wants to preserve you in dangers by his promise for a Promise of God is a declaration of his will for the bestowing of some good thing upon his People through Christ and his will and purpose he will never change and his Promise he will not suffer to fail Will you trust a Man that is faithful to his word and not God especially after you have found him faithful in performing promise unto you 5. Will not you trust in God that is infinite in Wisdom and knows how to order all your affairs when your condition is altogether intricate and you know not how to wind yourself out of difficulties than your wise God can do it 2 Pet. 2.9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation And will you not trust a God that is able and willing and faithful and wise especially after you have experienced all these in God in the late dangers and fears of death that you have been in or shall these qualifications of power willingness faithfulness and wisdom in Men in their measure be a ground of your putting civil trust in them and shall not all these that be in God without measure be a ground of your putting Religious trust in him 6. Will not you put your trust in God since it is his due it belongs to him of right it is a part of your Spiritual Homage which you owe to God Religious trust doth so belong to God that it will be Idolatry to place it in any thing besides Psal. 115.7 8 9 10 11. It doth so properly and solely belong to God that it is a Periphrasis of God to be the confidence of all the ends of the earth Psal. 65.5 Give to God the things of God and give to the Creatures no more than belongs unto them You have nothing else to trust to you must not place Religious trust in men not in great Men and Nobles Psal. 118.8 9 nor in Riches 1 Tim. 6.17 not in Horses and Chariots Psal. 207. not in your own Righteousness and Religious duties Ezek. 33.13 7. Will not you trust in God who is so nearly related to you Men are apt to trust too much in th●ir earthly Friends and Relations We put civil trust and confidence in our near Relations because of the affection that they bear unto us Thus Children trust to their Parents and Wives in their Husbands and one Friend in another God is your Father your Husband and your Friend and yet will you not put your trust in him 8. Will not you put your trust in God for smaller things since you trust him for the greatest you trust in God to deliver you from the torments of Hell and will not you trust him to deliver you from far lesser evils you trust in him for Pardon and for eternal life and will you not trust in him for smaller matters Will you trust him wi●h your Soul and not with your Body for Eternal Life and not for Temporal would you trust a Man for thousands and not for Pence especially when the Providence of God extends to the smallest concernments of his children even to an hair of their heads Mat. 10.30 When must we put our trust in Go● In general I answer At all times Psal. 62.8 Trust in him at all times ye People pour out your hearts before him God is a refuge for us In Particular trust in God 1. Six special times to trust in God In time of Sickness and Affliction upon your Body Job 13.15 Though he slay me yet will I trust in him 2. In time of outward Wants in the loss of all things 1 Sam. 30.3 to 7. Hag. 3.17 3. In time of Desertion when you have not the smiles of his Face Isa. 50.10 4. At the hour of death commit your Souls to him trust him with your Soul Psal. 31.5 6. 5. In times of greatest inconstancy Psal 46.1 2 3. 6. In times of Evil Tidings Psal. 112.7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord Thus if you trust God more because of the experience you have had in Gods keeping of you you do in this improve this Mercy DIRECTION XIII Since you live after this Plague give thanks to God HAth God spared you in time of so great Mortality Then give thanks to God and the Praises that are due unto him for so great Preservation Every Person should be very thankful unto God that hath kept him alive and every Family should sound forth his Praises You spent time extraordinary in seeking God by Prayer in your Closet in your Family that he would preserve you and hath God done so in answer to your Prayers and will you not spend some time extraordinary in and with your own Family in thankful acknowledgements of God's love unto you and his care over you Oh set some time apart every Family whom God hath preserved or so many that are left in every Family in solemn praisings of God for his signal preservation vouchsafed unto you In the time of your trouble you called upon God he hath delivered you and now you should glorify him Psal. 50.15 and God is glorified by you when you offer praises to him Ver. 23. In the pressing you to the practice of this Direction I shall do three things 1. How or with what must those that are preserved from death in time of Plague give thanks to God or glorify God for this mercy 2. With what Arguments should the people of God that are spared press themselves to give praises to God 3. What course must such take to get a thankful heart for so great a mercy SECT I. 3 Ways you must Pra●se God with your Tongue HOw or with what must those that are preserved give thanks to God This must be done three ways 1. You must praise God with your tongues Your lips must show forth his praises Psal. 51.15 Your tongue must sing aloud of God's righteousness and mercy For this end God hath preserved you Psal. 30.11 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness Ver. 12. To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent O Lord my God I will give thanks unto thee for ever By glory David means his tongue The Tongue is the glory of a man it being his privilege above all Creatures with the tongue to form articulate words having distinction of sound for the communicating of the conceptions of his mind unto others Thus we should praise God by speaking of his excellencies and perfections of his nature of his works and ways of his dealings with us of the danger he hath delivered us from of the good he hath given to us of the salvation he hath wrought for us 2. Heart You must praise God with your heart as well as with your tongue for as prayer for mercy with the tongue without the heart will not be profitable to us so praises with the tongue for mercy received without the heart will not be acceptable unto God To praise God with the heart is the very heart of our praises Thus David that before called upon his tongue to bless God doth also elsewhere call upon his soul to do it Psal. 103.1 Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name God blesseth us by giving good things unto us Eph. 1.3 We bless God when we do thankfully acknowledge the good things we receive from God You must then stir up your soul and all that is within you unto this great work of praise for so great Preservation 3. Life You must praise God in your lives and by your works and conversations You must not only speak God's praises but you must live to his praise you must do it with life and in and by your life Life is the mercy I call upon you to praise God for and you must do it by your life You may praise God with your lips and not with your hearts but if you do indeed praise God with your heart you will also do it by your life If you will give thanks indeed you must live thanks The best  is thanks-doing Thus if you would be thankful for the life of your children show it by your religious care in their holy Education That God might not say of you I spared such a man's Children in time of Plague and afterwards he brought them up to dishonour me and to sin against me if you would be thankful for your own life then lay it out in holy walking with God SECT II. 12 Arguments to thankfulness for life WIth what Arguments should the people of God urge their own hearts thus in tongue in heart and life to praise and glorify God for his preserving of them Work your heart hereunto with these following Arguments Consider 1. Should not you thus praise God for your preservation from danger by the Plague Who did make this one of your Arguments to prevail with God by prayer in time of danger to preserve you Did not you reason thus with God in time of sickness Lord lengthen out the life of thy servant Psal. 6.4 5. O Lord deliver my soul O save me for thy mercy's sake for in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks What profit is there in my blood when I go down into the pit Psal. 30.9 Shall the dust praise thee Shall it declare thy truth The grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee Isa. 3● 18 19 They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth The living the living he shall praise thee Were not these your plead at the throne of grace And did not you promise to God and purpose in your heart that if God would spare you you would celebrate his praises And shall not there be a correspondence betwixt your actions when you were in fears and your actions when your great danger by the Plague is over 2. Should not you thus praise God for your preservation Who have such examples for your practice recorded in the Scripture When Hezekiah had been sick and was recovered he sang forth the praises of the Lord Isa. 38.19 20. When David had been in danger of death and was delivered he deliberates with himself what he should return and render to the Lord Psal. 116.12 13 etc. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me I will take the cup of Salvation and will call upon the name of the Lord Ver. 17. I will offer unto thee the sacrifice of  For your imitation consider David's practice 1. He propounds a case of conscience Since I was brought low and the Lord hath helped me since the sorrows of death have compassed me about and God hath delivered me what shall I render What must I do What return must I make And he presseth himself to this by four forcible Arguments in these words for all his benefits towards me He considered First Benefits received Kindnesses call for acknowledgements favours are obliging We must give thanks in and for afflictions much more when we are delivered I deserved judgements but benefits have been my receipt Secondly The Author of them His benefits The kindnesses of men should not be forgotten much less the benefits of God Your life is a benefit and God is the Author of it Thirdly The Number of them All his benefits they were many not a few Three things are innumerable Gods mercies to us Our sins against God The evils that good men suffer Psal. 40.5 12. Fourthly The Person to whom they were given For all his benefits too me Hath God indeed given such mercy to me Hath God continued life to me so vile so unworthy Oh what shall I render 2. He resolves this case propounded I will take the Cup of salvation I will offer the sacrifice of praise God hath taken from you for the present the Cup of death which was to so many a Cup of trembling Mat. 20.22 23. Jer. 16.7 he hath removed your Cup of affliction and instead thereof hath given you a Cup of Consolation and a cup running over with variety of mercies and will not you take the Cup of Salvation Psal. 16.5 and offer the Sacrifice of praise Do you see David in the like case so diligent and inquisitive what to render and so peremptory and resolute to offer praise to God and will not you go and do likewise 3. Is not this the noblest work you can engage in to praise God and to celebrate with thankfulness the greatness of his mercy and goodness It is the work of Angels to be praising God and when you take your flight into heaven and are perfectly removed from sin sorrow suffering temptation wants you shall do nothing else but love and praise and admire God And will you not in the mean while accustom yourself to that work on earth which shall be your employment in heaven And will you not take occasion hereunto by so great a mercy as God at such a time as this hath vouchsafed you 4. Is not God most worthy of your highest and your heartiest praises You were not worthy of God's mercies you were not worthy of life but God is worthy of the best of your praises were they as perfect as the Hallelujahs of the Saints in heaven God indeed is above all praise Neh. 9.5 But yet he is pleased with his people's praising of him 5. Will you praise the efficacy of your Antidotes and the skill of your able Physician by whose help you have been under God preserved And will you not be much more in praising of God for your safety when without his blessing all had been ineffectual Will you praise the Instrument and means and say I had an able Doctor and not the principal cause of your preservation and say I had a good God 6. Will not you praise God for his mercy towards you no not for your life when this is all that God requireth at your hands that you should be th●nkful for your life and thankfully improve it for his glory You cannot make a requital but God expecteth some return you cannot make a retaltation but God looketh for some retribution And will not you think an alms ill bestowed upon that beggar that will not give you thanks And will not life be continued to the aggravation of your sin if you are not thankful for it 7. Is not this a duty that will well become you A Christian doth then act most like a Christian when he is praising God in tongue in heart and life Psal. 33.1 2. and 147.1 Praise is comely for the upright Three things are very comely To weep as a Sinner to walk as a Saint to rejoice as a Son 8. Will not you give to God the glory of his preserving providence when if you do not that are God's people none else will The wicked that are spared they will not they cannot praise God they will dishonour him they will speak to God's dishonour and act to God's dishonour so that if you do not praise God for his sparing so many alive none else will And shall God be without all thankful acknowledgements of his remembering mercy in the midst of judgement God forbid That amongst all the thousands that are spared there should be none found making some thankful return to God This number will be but small amongst the Ten Lepers that were cleansed there was but one found thankful If you would not have God to lose the glory of his providence than you must be the men that must honour him for it Many wicked men were not found praying to be preserved much less will they be found praising when they are preserved 9 Have you more cause to bless God for life than others have and yet will not you do it Your life is more sweet and comfortable to you than the lives of wicked men are or can be forasmuch as you have those comforts with life and that Communion with God in life that wicked men have not They live only a natural life and have only the sweetness of natural life but you with this life have also the comforts of an higher life and yet will not you bless God for it They are delivered from the Grave for a while but not from the wrath of God too from the Grave but not from the danger of hell too but so are you And have you so much cause to bless God for life and will you want an heart to bless him 10. Is this the most effectual way to have life continued to you and yet will not you do it To have life continued will be to be thankful for it else God finding you unthankful when the Plague is over might commission death by some other distemper to take that from you which you would not be thankful for 11. Is not life the sweetest of all earthly mercies and more to be prized and yet will not you be thankful to God for it that hath so signally continued it unto you Skin for skin and all that a man hath he will give for his life And yet will not you give thanks to God for life What earthly thing will you be thankful for ●nd what mercy upon earth will you make returns to God for if not for life 12. Do you find unthankful Men placed amongst the greatest rank of sinners and yet will you be unthankful Unthankful Persons are numbered among Blasphemers Covetous Disobedient to Parents such as are without Natural affection false Accusers Despisers of those that are good etc. 2 Tim. 3.2 3 4. and will you yet be unthankful and that for your Life Thus by these considerations you should press your heart to give Praises to God for this so great Preservation SECTION III. III. 6 Helps to thankfulness for life WHat is the course that those that remain after this Judgement should take to be thankful to God and to render Praises to him for the Preservation of themselves and those of their Relations continued to them Take these Rules 1. If you would render Thanks to God in Tongue in Heart and L●fe for this Mercy then get a right judgement of the worth and greatness of the Mercy that you and some of yours are continued after this Visitation Those that do not prise a Mercy will never be thankful for it What a Mercy is life to you that are not yet assured of the love of God What a Mercy is life to you that are not yet certain of the Salvation of your Souls or if you are sure of Heaven yet is life to you a great Mercy that you have time to do the Works that God hath appointed you to do Consider also what a Mercy it is to have your Children continued that you may yet Instruct them and Pray for them that you may see Christ form in them before you or they do die 2. If you would be thankful for life and have an heart to render Praises to the Lord for your own and your Relations consider how uncomfortable your Life had been had God continued you and taken away your nearest Relations and how uncomfortable your Life would have been had God continued them only and taken you away from them You may consider while you live the Discomforts of your Relations and the sorrow of their hearts if God had removed you by death What an uncomfortable Widow would your Wife now have been what uncomfortable Orphans would your Children now have been You have enough before you and amongst you that are sad Instances of this Oh consider this and it will be a means to make you thankful and to give to God the Glory of your Preservation 3. Retain in your memory the greatness of this Mercy when you have apprehended how great it is a forgetful person will be an unthankful person When David would have his Soul to bless God for his Mercy he lays a charge upon himself not to forget the Benefits he had received Psal. 103.2 Bless the Lord oh my Soul and forget not all his benefits Record God's Mercy to you herein and get it imprinted on the Table of your heart forgetfulness is a great hindrance to every duty as some Men forget their sins and they will not be humbled for them Some Men forget Gods Mercies and they will not be thankful for them some forget both and are neither penitent nor thankful So to remember some things and forget others is very injurious to men's Souls as Some remember God's Mercy and forget their sins and these presume Some remember their sins and forget God's Mercy and these despair But it is best to remember both our sins and God's Mercy the one will make us humble and the other thankful 4. Let the Relations that God hath continued unto you have a room in your heart and affection according to the measure that God commands He that hath Children spared and hath not suitable affections for them will not cannot be thankful unto God for the continuance of their lives and so Husbands and Wives but than you must love them and your own life but according to the measure that God allows For to love any of these your Relations or your Life immoderately will not be to be thankful for them but to abuse them and make Idols of them Let your own Life and your Relations have their allowance of your love but no ●re 5. Pray to God for a Praising Thankful heart for this Mercy God gives us all our Mercies and God must give us a Thankful heart for these Mercies else we cannot give to God the glory of them When you were in your danger you were afraid lest God should deny you life when you Prayed unto him for it but are you as afraid lest you should not have an heart thankfully to improve it when he hath granted it unto you You Prayed for life now Pray to God to make you thankful and thankfully to improve it 6. Labour to keep your Grace's lively and vigorous To Praise God is a lively Work and a dull heart cannot do it You must love God for his Mercy if you would Praise him for his Mercy You must delight in God if you would Praise him the more lively your graces are the more sweet and comfortable your Life will be and the more comfort you have in life the more your heart will be engaged to give God the glory of it and so shall you be found amongst those few that do endeavour to live in some measure answerably to so great a Mercy as Preservation from the grave in a time of Plague FINIS