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f
.'-y- /wv.-. -^. .vji-.' ■
THE
MISCELLANEOUS WORKS
OF THK
REV. MATTHEW HENRY, V.D.M.
CUMTAlNINa
IN ADDITION TO THOSE HERETOFORE PUBLISHED,
NUMEROUS SERMONS,
MOW FIRST PRINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL MSB.
AN APPENDIX,
ox WHAT CHRIST IS MADE TO BELIEVERS. IN FORTY REAL BENEFITS,
■Jk
BY THE REV. PHILIP HENRY,
NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.
ALSO
A PREFACE AND LIFE OF THE REV. P. HENRY, A.M.
CORRECTED AND ENLAKGED
BY J. B. WILLIAMS, LL.D. F.S.A.
WITH
FUNERAL SERMONS FOR MR. AND MRS. HENRY,
BY THE REV. MATTHEW HENRY. V.D.M.
AND
FUNERAL SERMONS ON MR. MATTHEW HENRY,
BY W. TON6, JOHN REYNOLDS, AND DR. WILLIAMS.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON :
JOSEPH OGLE ROBINSON, 42, POULTRY.
MDCCCXXXin.
A)/
r
A
CONTENTS.
Preface ....
PAGE
•
1
Prefaces to Life of Mr. Philip Henry
. XV
Life of Mr. Philip Henry
9
Sermons, Tracts, &c.
On the death of Mrs. Katharine Henry
Appendix ....
The pleasantness of a religions life .
Concerning meekness and quietness
Christianity not a sect
Communicant's companion .
Directions for daily communion with God
Discourses aj^inst vice and profaneness : —
L Against Drunkenness. II. Uncleanness.
III. Sabbath-breaking. IV. Profane
swearing
Folly of despising oar own souls
Folly of despising our own ways
Sober-mindedness recommended to the young
Right management of friendly visits
A church in the house. Family religion
Reformation of manners
Popery a spiritual tyranny
Method for prayer . . . .
Essaf on psalmody, with family hymns
England's joys
Eagland's hopes
Work and success of the ministry
On the promises of God
Disputes reviewed . . . .
Faith in Christ inferred from faith in God
Forgiveness of sin . «
Hope and fear balanced
OnflM catechising of youth .
CwmemnratioB of the fire of London
Inquiry iol^ ihe mttan oftebism
164
176
225
268
314
331
428
466
519
538
554
673
685
600
616
629
704
736
745
756
769
774
784
798
813
826
839
I
PAOI
Layman's reasons for communing with dis-
senters ..... 857
Catechism for children . 861
Scripture catechism in the method of the As-
sembly's .... 864
Christ's favour to children . . 929
Memoirs of Mrs. Radford . . 942
Memoirsof Mrs. Hulton 945
Account of Dr. John Tylston . 959
Sermon at Mr. Atkinson's ordination . 967
Exhortation at Mr. Clark*s ordination . 979
Funeral sermon on Mr. Owen 991
Funeral sermon on Dr. Benion 1007
LiFEof Dr. Benion . . 1019
Funeral sermon on Mr. Tallents . 1032
LiFEofMr. Tallents . 1044
Funeral sermon on Mr. Lawrence . 1055
Life of Mr. Lawrence . 1065
Funeral sermon on Mr. Stretton .. 1072
LiFEofMr. Stretton .... 1086
Funeral sermon on Mr. Burgess 1090
Life of Mr. Burgess . . 1102
LiFEof Lieut. lUidge . . 1106
Separation without rebellion 1132
A Treatise on Baptism 1145
Preface to the Life of the Rev. Thomas Beard 1205
Preface to Murrey's Closet Devotions 1206
Six sermons on the worth of the soul . 1209
Sermons and charges . 1236
Funeral sermons .... 1248
Fast sermons .... 1255
Funeral sermon on Mr. Matthew Henry, by .
W. Tong .... 1271
Ditto— by John Reynolds . 1282
Ditto— by Dr. Williams . . , \«!i
860 Appendix
PREFACE.
" The lips of the righteous," said Solomon, " feed many;" and in our times especially is
the assertion verified by the published relics of persons so denominated. In the publications
referred to, as in ample storehouses, hath been laid up for the church most invigorating
food ; and the press, like the blessing upon the widow's stock, continues to multiply and
perpetuate the treasure.
Few individuals have been more distinguished for their endeavours to advance the divine
honour, by such means, than Matthew Henry. His name, because of his productions as an
author, is deservedly great in Israel ; and in tlie gates thereof do his works praise him. His
course on earth terminated long ago, but not until, in a far more exalted sense than
the racers in the Grecian games, he had delivered a torch to survivors — ^a torch, which
guides to heaven ; and which not oidy has remained unextinguished, but still flames with
increased and cheering brilliance.
The favourable reception given to the late edition of our author's Scripture Commentary, in
three octavo volumes,* has induced the enterprising and zealous proprietor of that unique
impression, to send forth, in a size exactly uniform, the ensuing collection of the same ines-
timable man^s Miscellaneous Compositions.
Various editions, some smaller, and some more extended, bearing a similar titie, have
heretofore appeared. But if the folio of 1726, and the quarto of X811, be excepted, not
one has made the least pretension to completeness. Neither of those editions, though
the most perfect of any, is fairly entided to the distinction. The quarto contained the
Sermon at the opening of the Meeting-house in Chester, which was omitted in the folio ;
and the folio preserved the collection of Family Hymns, while the quarto retained only the
Prefatory Essay to that collection. But neither embraced his Treatise on Baptism, nor yet
his Memoirs of Mrs. Radford, Mrs. Hulton, or Dr. Tylston.
All Mr. Henry's publications, (except only the tract on the schism bill,t which cannot be
discovered,) including the Prefaces he wrote to the Life of Thomas Beard, J and Mr. Murrey's
book on Closet Devotion, § will be found in the present undertaking. Many discourses from
original, and hitherto unpublished, manuscripts, are added ; as are also the admirable
aermons, delivered on occasion of his death, by the Rev. Dr. Daniel Wiliams, the Rev.
William Tong, and the Rev. John Reynolds of Shrewsbury. Tliey are all, as I am informed,
accurately corrected, as well as beautifully printed : and elegance is united with cheapness.
* Orifioall J printed ia 6 folioi. Bdr. Thoretby of Leeds, of antiquarian celebrity, and Mr. Henry's friend, (see the Life
pfefiied to the Exposition, in oct tit «tipra, vol i. p. 35.) posseswed *' the memorable pen, wherewith the far greatest part of
the volamet, in folio, was writ, the gift of the reverend author, 1712." See Thoresby's Docatus Leodensis, Dr. Whitsker's
edUioo, p. 70. in the CaUlofae of Nstarsl and Arti6cial Rarities, fol. 1816.
f See the USt, ut mpra, p. 108. t The Holy Seed, or the Life of Mr. Tho. Beud.bi 3oi,^OT\ftt»^^'5AAn\\.
i Ctoeet Devotioiia, by Robert Mairwy, duod, 1713,
ii PREFACE.
Had Mr. Henry's life been lengthened^ it was his intention to have published the manu-
script sermons now introduced, and many others. * The series, alas ! in present circumstances
broken, would then liave been perfect
As selections from his usual pulpit preparations, and amounting to scarcely more, in any
instance, than sermon skeletons, the manuscripts now published will, if compared with other
parts of the volume, suffer from the common disadvantages of incompleteness. But while
this circumstance has been felt as a reason against their introduction, the consideration of the
welcome they are sure to meet with, and the prospect, therefore, of their usefulness, has
outweighed that and several other objections. One of those objections — ^brevity — will be to
some persons, no doubt, a recommendation.
It will be observed, by careful readers, how well the manuscripts referred to accord with
Mr. Henry's more finished productions, which it will now be seen, more clearly than ever^
were only a faithful representation of their author. What he appeared to the world to be as
a preacher, he really was among his stated auditors, both at Chester and Hackney.
To the whole is appended a set of discourses by the venerable Philip Henry, his father, on
what Christ is made to believers in forty real benefits. The subjects of this part of the
volume are now first published from the hand- writing of the holy man who penned them ;
and being thus associated with his Life,t are not, it is thought, unsuitably preserved in the
present volume. They have been introduced, indeed, because of their intrinsic excellence ;
for the greater honour of the writer ; and for the sake of a wider circulation than would pro-
bably have been secured if published in a detached or separate form.
Independently of their interesting subjects, their author's special approbation of these
sermons may be noticed, Philip Henry selected them from his accumulated collection of
papers as a legacy to his excellent daugliter Mrs. Savage ; J a fact perpetuated by her-
self in the commencement of the original manuscript, which forms a thick duodecimo
volume.
" What Clirist is made of God to true believers in forty real benefits, preached at his
moeting-housc, at Broad Oak, in Flintshire, by my honoured father, Mr. Henry, thus written
with his o\\Ti dear hand, and left to me, S. S. by his last will, to the end I may learn
Christ, and live Christ, and be eternally happy with him. Amen." §
The treasure thus distinguished, is possessed by my respected fiiend, Mrs. Bunnell, Lower
Terrace, Islington, a descendant of Philip Henry ; and at my request she kindly communis
cated it for publication.
Notwithstanding similar regrets attach to the contents of the Appendix, as to the rest of
the fragments now, for the first time, made public, the same arguments for their admission
preponderated in the one case as in the other ; and they fully demonstrate, though unfinished,
oiu: author's accuracy, when he pronounced his father's preaching to be " very substanjtial,
and elaborate, and greatly to edification." ||
All the sermons included in the Appendix are, as their title imports, concerning Christ—
in various of those endearing relations which he bears towards his church. It is their indi-
vidual and combined object to exalt him ; to maintain his true and proper divinity ; to
illustrate the necessity and infinite nature of his atonement ; and thus to fix every eye upon
his cross. They exhibit likewise, in lively and familiar terms, those sources of satisfaction
to believers, which alone can minister joy as they travel to their everlasting rest
It is the exclusive design of one discourse, the eighth of the series, to prove — that Jesus
Christ is the Lord our Righteousness ; and that it is the duty of believers to call him so. No
• See the Life, nf tupra, p. 111. f See p. 9. % See her Life, duod. 1828. 4Ui. cd.
$ Mrs. Savise. The origiDal MS. | See fott, p. 106.
PR£FAC£. ill
resder, it is to be hoped, will slight the request which is prefixed to the discussion of that all-
interesting topic. ^
Nor should it escape notice, in reference to the same sermons, that irrespectively of the
uncommon importance of the subjects discussed, they are among the very choicest relics of
their author. The date of the first is July 26, 1691, and of the last June 5, 1692. Philip
Henry died June 24, 1696. So that, instead of containing any thing crude, they memorialize
the piety and wisdom of that eminent man, when both were most matured.
Such are some of the claims which the present volume has upon the public attention.
Besides which^ the responsible duties of an editor of all the manuscripts now first printed,
have been most judiciously and faithfully discharged by the Rev. Edward Hickman : a gen-
tleman who numbers no less than three of the ejected worthies in the line of his ancestry ;
and who is himself the fourth in his family of a regular succession of nonconformist divines.
His residence at Denton, in Norfolk, so near the press, rendered this service by him especially
convenient ; and his attainments in the knowledge pecuUar to his sacred profession ; his
ardent attachment to the writings of Mr. Henry ; and his deep admiration of their merits ;
attest his particular fitness for the task, which happily for the public, and the credit of our
author, he imdertook.
In contemplating Mr. Henry's Miscellaneous Works, in themselves a library of theology,
it naturally occurs, how much less known, and consequently less esteemed, they have hitherto
been than his Exposition. So far, indeed, as paramount attention to Holy Scripture is con-
cerned, this is just as it should be; and it is not wished by any effort, either of commendation
or criticism, to weaken the force of that prepossession. The Exposition is, and ever must
be, regarded as the magnum opus of its author. Nor can it be any presumption to predict of
it, as Ovid is reported to have done respecting the far-famed poem of Lucretius, that it will
Uve till the dissolution of all things.
Still it appears somewhat reproachful to the Christian pubUc, ih^jL the Miscellaneous
writings of our author should, in general, be, as a whole, in a comparative state of neglect :
for it will be found on examination, that the same commanding excellences which have
rendered Mr. Henry so celebrated as an expositor, distinguished him as a preacher; and
have imparted to his Sermons, and Treatises, and Tracts, a charm not less fascinating than
that which pervades the Commentary. There is, throughout, the same soundness of
doctrine, the same " strange readiness, and fertility of invention," t the same novelty, the
same felicity of Ulustration, the same pointedness of remark, the same ingenious contrivance
of proverbial sentences, | and the same unvarying attention to usefulness. His zeal for this
latter object, like the fire of the vestal virgins, was always burning.
Whatever prejudices may exist against theological compositions, in the form of Sermons^
that neither accounts satisfactorily for the neglect of Mr. Henry, nor does it annul the fact —
thit one of the most interesting and valuable sections of English divinity, consists entirely
of sermons. And the remark must not be withheld, that considering the age in which Mr.
Hairy lived, he is entitled, as a sermonizer, to special honour. There are few discourses,
ancient or modem, which possess more intrinsic excellences ; or which contain, without the
slightest pietensions to greatness, more various reading, more powerful appeals, more appro-
priate imagery, or a purer spirit of sacredness. Having explained his text, and so explained
it as to fix the attention, he commonly divides his main proposition into parts ; and generally
restricts his observations, sometimes avowedly, as at p. (83.), to the context His explication
of the doctrine deduced fix>m the text discovers occasionally, as do all his applicaUons, powers
of discriminatioii equally uncommon and striking. The subdivisions are so managed as to
* AppcDdiz, p. M. t Fooenl Sermon, by Mr. Reynoldi, p. 1291. t I>>tto, by Dr. Williami, p. 1301.
iv PREFACE.
assist the memory ; as when, for instance, he describes the nature of the sacramental supper
— as a commemorating ordinance ; as a confessing ordinance ; as a communicating ordinance ;
and as a covenanting ordinance.* And although these intended helps appear, frequently, too
jingling and fanciful for correct taste ; yet in Mr. Henry there is such an air of naturalness,
even about theniy as to prevent offence, if not to disarm criticism. When he comes to press
the usesy and urge the motives^ connected with his leading topic, he rises in instructiveness.
Nor does he lose sight of a single fact or circumstance with which the truths he nvishes to
enforce can be associated. He seemingly exhausts the subject without exhausting the
reader. Is there one, among all his discourses, which does not capitally illustrate those
three qualifications of Baxter's " Best Teacher," which are essential to a good sermon ? — a
clear explication of the gospel ; the most convincing and persuading reasonings ; and a
manner at once serious, affectionate, and lively .t If Addison's test be true, that the secret of
fine writing is, for the sentiments to be natural without being obnous, Mr. Henry, in whatever
department of authorship he is considered, is entitled to a far more exalted rank among illus-
trious MTiters than he has yet attained.
In funeral sermons he so excelled as to render it just occasion for regret that he published
so few. They all mingle liveliness with affection in a very remarkable degree. The^ are
grave \iithout being dull ; and seriousness is seen at the widest possible distance from gloom.
One of them expatiates vAih singular beauty upon the duty of Christians giving thanks when
in sorrow ; J the death of " good men and good ministers" is represented in the exquisite
imagery of the Scriptures ; eternal realities are even familiarized ; the instruction of the living
is most powerfully attempted ; and the ability and excitation of the biographical sketches,
which are perfectly free from panegyric, cannot be estimated too highly. His sermon on the
death of Mr. Tallents, is one of the finest specimens of preaching that can be instanced ; the
text selected by his revered friend was peculiarly appropriate, and, united with the occasion,
called forth all Mr. Henry's powers. There are many passages in it of great strength and
beauty ; but his representation of ^' the delights of sense, and all earthly amusements and
entertainments, as only despised crowds through which the soul of a Christian, big with
expectation, presses forward in pursuit of everlasting joys," § is too noble not to be specially
noticed. It is a kindred thought to that of the apostle, when he speaks of pursuing, or
pressing toward the mark for the prize of the believer's high calling, — or should its originality
be questioned, it must be allowed the merit of a happy paraphrase.
Another of those sermons is entitled, though in a different aspect, to more than incidental
attention. It was preached on the death of the Rev. Daniel Biurgess, || after, as the reader
will perceive by the date, Mr. Henry's removal to London, a circumstance here noticed, be-
causer of the supposed influence of that event upon several of its statements. The allusions,
coupled vnih the circumstances of the case, are, indeed, most significant ; and admirably
unfold our author's excellent spirit, his talentis, and masterly adaptation of passing occur-
rences to the purposes of general instruction.
The case is Uiis : Shortly before that discourse was delivered, Mr. Henry was attacked,
through the press, by the able and untiring pen of De Foe — ^not by name, but by inuendo ;
and so graphically as to appear as visible to the mind, as De Foe himself, a few years before,
had been made, by a state advertisement for publishing a political squib. The delineation
upon the face of it was highly honourable to Mr. Henry, but it was so completely neutralized
by sarcasm, and no small portion of scorn, as to be grossly insulting. It touched nvith an
unsparing hand the tenderest point in Mr. Henry's histor}' ; and being published so soon
* P. 206, kc. t Poor Man*i Family Book» p. 303. dood. 1091 . Worki, vol. 19. p. 510. «ct.
/ P. 806, 806. i P. 776. H P. 820.
PREFACE V
ifter his settlement at Hackney, respecting which his Life fully details his distress * was but
00 well adapted for his own annoyance, and the irritation of his beloved, but dissatisfied, flock
It Chester.f
To De Foe*8 uncalled-for representation Mr. Henry opposed no express reply ; still less did
tie again revUe ; he took occasion, however, firom the text of the sermon now under consider-
ition— " We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of
God, and not of us " — ^to expatiate upon the infirmities of Christ's ministers ; to acknowledge
that " they have their faults, their flaws, their blemishes, as earthen vessels have ;" X and to
notice also, how frequently they are " despised and trampled upon," § even " loaded with
reproach and calumny." || And then, applying the whole to himself and his brethren, he
added, and it must have stung such a man as De Foe to the quick — ^^ By keeping the grace
of humility in its strength and exercise," we shall have " this to say to those who think and
speak Ughtly of us, That they cannot have a meaner opinion of us than we have of ourselves,
DOT lay us lower before men, than we lay ourselves every day before God." %
The infusion of this spirit of Christianity through every part of Mr. Henry's works it is»
which constitutes one of their peculiar charms. And — because of it, it cannot be otherwise
than gratifying to those who admire him, either as a man or a writer, that increased attention
is still likely to be given to his remains. The Exposition, indeed, which has been so long a
&Tourite with studious dissenting ministers, and plain unlettered Christians, not to mention
some members of the established church, is now greatly extending its range in the latter
direction ; and that, notwithstanding the increasing circulation of the popular and invaluable
Commentary of the Bev. Ihomas Scott The demand for that excellent work was, at one
lime, such as to threaten our author's exclusion firom one large circle of the community ; but
the paroxysm being over, and reflection having succeeded excitement, Mr. Henry's unequalled
irork has been restored to its rightfiil pre-eminence ; and it has lately been afresh commended
by a zealous clergj-man of the establishment
To prevent, as much as may be, the possibility of disappointment in any reader, who now,
&r the first time, may resolve upon the study of all our author's writings — the Exposition
ami those which are Miscellaneous — it may not be amiss to observe, how important, as well
as just, it will be, to make proper allowance for the difierence of the ground-work in the two
classes of the publications as so distinguished ; and to keep especially in constant recollec-
tion, the aids to thought which are inseparable firom an exclusive consideration of the divine
testimony : otherwise a comparison to the disadvantage of the latter class of authorship may
easily, and even unintentionally, be formed. Witliout a caution so necessary, even in the
absence of any thing else, our author's Exposition, like the Contemplations of Bishop Hall
will be very apt to disparage his other productions ; a consequence the more to be deprecatea
because the Miscellaneous Writings, as is the case with tlic Sermons of the revered prelate
just mentioned, actually evince quite as extraordinary faculties, both of ingenuity and
instnictiveness, as the Commentary ; though less obviously, because the opportunity for pre-
senting uncommon remarks is less frequent, and because the range for observation is
necessarily extended. The style of Mr. Henry, however, on every subject, as is the style of
the good Bishop of Norwich, is enriched by Scriptural allusions; many of them surprising,
and even delighting the reader, not less than some of those incidents, drawn from tlie same
pure fountain, with which Milton adorned the sublimest of all poems.
The habit of sprightly and apt allusion to Scripture facts, and the use of Scripture language,
irhich Mr. Henry diligently cultivated, has not only enriched, but xmspeakably enlivened
* Uk, ui jwpr«, p. 46» Ice. t See De Foe's PieseDtSute of the Partiei id Great Briuio, p 307—309. oct. 1712.
tP.825. JP.826. II lb. ^Y«».
vi PREFACE.
the ensuing Miscellanies ; and frequently more instruction is conveyed by the manner in
which he has seized the hints scattered up and down in the sacred volume, than by the
lengthened and elaborated topical discussions of many celebrated writers. And — his applu
cation of such references b incomparable. In this poudt of view the exordiums to his sermons
deserve especial regard. They are fine instances of the advantageous illustration of one
scripture by another; while, as specimens of the beneficial observance of biblical phraseology,
they are unrivalled. An attempt at citation would involve considerable extracts firom most
of the sermons in the volume.
In the management of texts, as well as their illustration, every reader conversant with what
are called the old divines, will perceive in Mr. Henry a vast improvement upon the canons
of most preceding theologians. It is true his style, like that of the majority of the admirable
persons referred to, was oftentimes too quaint, and too antithetical; but even in those
respects, great advances are discoverable towards the happier modes of division and ex-
pression, which are now in use. Mr. Henry is both less strained and less excessive ; as
may be seen in the exordium to the ^' Pleasantness of a Religious Life,'* where, perhaps, he
has put forth his antithetical prowess to the uttermost.
From another fashion of his predecessors and contemDoraries — the firinging of the margm,
** with variety of choice reading" — Mr. Henry, except in the "Treatise on Meekness," and the
sermon entitled " Christianity no Sect," has still further departed. Not that he was unequal
to the task ; for his reading was extensive, and various, and well managed ; and in the com-
positions thus mentioned, he has shown the ease with which he could have vied with eveo
the most erudite of his brethren in citations firom antiquity. But ever after those two discourses
were published, wiser in this respect than many of the ancients, he deemed it sufficient to
state the results^ rather than the sources, of his thoughts. And so completely, firom that time,
were the ideas he collected firom others moulded and fashioned in his own mind, as to render
it almost as difficult to trace them as it would be to detect the fiowers and blossoms from
whence has been extracted a mass of honev.
Socrates has directed mankind to limit their studies to things of real utility. And Mr.
Henry, in his official capacity especially, diligently acted upon this counsel. Therefore it
was, that in drawing the portraiture of a good minister, he declared he should do it " by his
interest and fidelity, not by his learning, or the arts and languages" of which he was
master.* And therefore it was, that instead, on the one hand, of hunting after novelties in-
stead of the gospel ; or, on the other, of borrowing largely from celebrated philosophers, and
admired, but profane, classics, either to adorn his compositions, or display his learning ; he
bestowed all his energies to increase men's acquaintance with the Scriptures; to make, by
the use of the words of truth, the " countenance of truth," as Hooker expressed it, " more
orient." There is not in all his \vritings a single attempt to resolve any one of the absurd
inquiries which are so common on the lips of mere speculators and trificrs. Like the apostle
Paul, whom he admired more than all mere mortals, and whom he has signalized as " the
most active, zealous servant that ever our Master had," t he daily studied to know nothing
" save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." His preaching, as was the case with his beloved
friend Mr. Samuel Lawrence, tended " to bring people to Christ and heaven ; to heaven as
their end, and to Christ as their way." J This the reader may see beautifully illustrated at
the close of the sermon entitled, " Faith in Christ inferred firom Faith in God." ^
Far from contenting himself with mere illustrations in geography, or natural history, or the
" fine-spun cobwebs of school notions," or maxims of heathen ethics, Mr. Henry's whole
soul was absorbed in a mighty effort to unfold the meaning of God's word ; to convince
• P. 739. t P. 734. t P. 803. $ P. 796, 797.
PREFACE. vii
mankind of sin; to induce reflection; to exhibit the riches of salvation; and to guard
against neglecting it. Instead of glancing, now and then, at the essential parts of the
Christian system, as if at a spectre; instead of treating the doctrines of the cross >vith reserve
and hesitation, as if afraid they should do harm ; he evidently gloried in them, and delighted,
upon all occasions, to give to them the greatest prominence. This spirit leavens the whole
of his writings ; and such is his regard to the necessity of divine influence, and such the
earnestness of his solicitude that all might be savedy that we seem carried back to the minis-
trations of the apostles themselves ; the energies of the soul are called into continual
exercise ; and holy cheerfulness is promoted. Mr. Henry, indeed, was a happy Christian,
and aU his publications breathe the air of heaven. There is impressed upon them a calm-
ness, a vivacity, a heart,* so strongly indicative of "joy and peace in believing," as to form
a running commentary on his own memorable declaration, that — ^*^ a holy, heavenly life, spent
in the service of God, and communion with him, is the most pleasant and comfortable life
any man can live in the world ;"t or on that other striking assertion — " I would not
exchange the pleasure of converse with the Scriptures, and divine things, for all the delights
of the sons and daughters of men, and the peculiar treasures of kings and princes.'' X
It was this settled persuasion, combined with zeal that others might enjoy the same bless-
edness, which so urged him onward in his style of writing, as, oftentimes, to give an idea of
almost breathless haste ; an anxiety for the reader's good, which never seems to have allowed
him to stop till all his emotions had found utterance. The reader must be struck with this
m his Recommendation of Sdber-mindedness to the Young ; § in his Improvement of the
Death of Mr. Tallents ; || and, indeed, in all his published labours, treatises as well as
sermons.
As an author Mr. Henry is what Lord Bacon would pronounce a " full" writer. He takes
many things, after the manner of Holy Scripture, for granted. There are no digressions.
He never aims at making a single sermon a complete body of divinity ; and still less does
he waste one page after another in a dry repetition of truisms, which when pronounced. are,
because of their commonness, as ill calculated to move as to interest the mind. More is
<rfien implied by him than expressed ; and even the most important instructions are fre-
quently conveyed incidentally. ** Gospel ordinances," he remarks, " in which we deal much
im our way to heaven^ are very agreeable to all the children of God." IT And again — " we
must take up our cross, when it lies in our way^ and bear it after Christ" ** The Miscel-
laneous Writings, like the Exposition, are full of such examples. But the most perfect and
continuous of them, occurs in the 4th chai)ter of the Communicant's Companion, under the
title of Helps for Self-examination.
Whatever oinr author's defects may be, they are never important ; nor do his writings
sustain by them more injury than a fine face does by a mole. He never oflcnds by
Ugotxy, nor disgusts by mysticism, nor wearies by feebleness, nor puzzles by abstruseness.
Some persons, notwithstanding even efforts to be intelligible, and efforts to all appearance as
sbenuously put forth as was the strength of certain mariners when rowing towards Tarshish,
are still obscure, and full of oracle-like uncertainty. Mr. Henry, on the contrary, is perfectly
lacid, and clear.
His diction, always expressive, is often felicitous ; and though it makes no pretension
to elegance, is both nervous and forcible. His writings are not, it is true, " embossed,"
like Bishop Taylor's, " with graceful ornaments ;" but ordinary subjects are treated by him
m an extraordinary manner; — an attainment Horace thought so difficult Nothing can
• See p 1279. t P- 283. Life, ut lupra, p. 76. t P. 331.
f p. 554. I P. 1032. % P. 253. •• P. 258.
viii PREFACE.
be more appropriate or instructive than his description of his mother's wisdom — as con-
sisting in being " well versed in Solomon's proverbs." * And — when he delineated " the
plea8m*e of a proud man in his dignities, and the respects paid him, as Herod, in the
acclamations of the crowd," he represents it as but affecting ^^ the fancy;" as ^Wain gloiy;**
as " but the foUy of him that receives the honour, fed by the folly of them that give it :" t—
does he desen-e less regard, or is he less accurate, than Shakspeare himself, in the celel»'ated
catechism of Falstaff ?
In definitions, indeed, our author excelled greatly. His writings abound with them, and
they are uniformly distinguished by the best characteristics ; they are simple, original, and
uncommon. ^' What is heaven," he asks, ^^but holiness in honour? grace crowned with
glory ?":( ^' Meditation is thought engaged, and thought inflamed." § ^^ Our love to God in i
this world is love in motion, in heaven it will be love at rest." ||
His allusions and imagery, in like manner, always please, and always edify ; the former,
because they are generally Scriptural ; the latter, because, like the parables of our Lord, they
are derived firom the most common occurrences. It is their reflection of the images of every-
day life which gives to them such an inexpressible charm, and an impression, also, upon the
memory so difficult to efface. Let his reference to Jacob and Boaz H be well considered in
illustration of one of the classes now under consideration ; and such instances as the follow-
ing of the others ; — *^ Wisdom not only makes the face to shine for the present, but leaves a
good report to succeeding generations, like the after-beams of the sun when he is set, sur-
rounded with which he lies down in honour." ** " The yoke of Christ is more than easy,
it is sweet and gentle ; not only easy as a yoke is to the neck when it is so well fitted as not
to hurt it ; but easy as a pillow is to the head when the head is weary and sleepy." ft
Sometimes he produces a singular and powerful effect by a peculiar and impressive repe-
tition of a word. At first sight, indeed, the phrase may appear capricious ; fi^uently it
really is so ; but if considered, it will, nevertheless, be uniformly found to convey some truth
of special moment, if not to unite with some portion of Scripture worthy of supreme
attention. For instance — the concluding sentence of the exordium to the fimcral sermon
for his mother ; XX ^^ ^^^ paragraph of the same discourse ; §§ and the close of the
first branch of the application to the sermon entitled — Christ's Favour to Children.||||
It is remarkable, that when Mr. Henry is ever so awakening his address is always
attractive. Though filled with zeal, he never indulges in the awful style of some ardent and
talented writers, who, when writing against evil, have so expressed themselves as to make it
questionable whether they did not mistake pride, or maUgnity, or passion, for Christian
charity. Under a better influence Mr. Henry employed — ^plain and Scriptural statements ;
tender and kind expostulations ; the sweetness of condescension and respect ; and no small
portion of that " long suffering" M'hich,in reference to one of its brightest manifestations, was
proclaimed a pattern to subsequent believers — ^for guidance surely, as well as encourage-
ment 1[i[ So that when he makes the reader start, it is not so much by a voice of terror, as
of solemn importimity. If the individuals alluded to (and it seems to have been the case)
were provoked by human offences, like warring elephants by " the blood of grapes and mul-
berries," to Jighty Mr. Henry's heart was melted. The dishonour done to God, and the im-
minence of man's danger, affected Aiwi, as they did David when he grieved because of trans-
gression ; and David's Lord, who, beholding Jerusalem, wept. It is observable, that Mn
Henry advised others to a like course.*** The truth is, he regarded the present world in con-
nexion with a system of mediation ; a system which it is the design of the New Testament
• P. 168. t P. 232. t P- 16*. i P- 365. || P. 267. % P. «57. •• P. 167.
tt P. 231. « P. 167. i§ P. 174. Ill) P. 709. f 1 1 Tim. i. 16. ••• P. 324. 610.
PREFACE. Jx
to unfold ; and of individual ministers^ in proportion as they are actuated by a genuine desire
of usefulness, to exhibit and enforce. Hence, how poignant soever his reproofs, his very
tone and manner discover such love to mankind, as forbid the supposition of even an
inclination to angry violence. In his Discourses against Profaneness, where all his hostility
to sin is consolidated, there is actually nothing to inspire displeasure at his rebukes. Nay,
the very titles of those productions are enough, if prejudice previously existed, to disarm it.
One is a ** Friendly Admonition — ^to Drunkards and Tipplers ;" another a " Word of Ad-
rice — ^to the Wanton and Unclean ;" the next is a " Serious Address — to those who Profane
the Lord^s Day ;** and the last, a " Check — ^to an Ungovemed Tongue."
Mr. Henry knew the terrors of the Lord, but, in imitation of the great apostle of the Gen-
tiles, that knowledge was not used for purposes of intimidation. He persuaded men. He
aimed, by means of motives and arguments, at " alluring" sinners "into the ways of yns-
dom and holiness." * This was a method of treatment to which from childhood he had been
accustomed ; his honoured parents constantly used it towards their children : f and, suc-
eessfiilly pursuing the same course, his own writings display a power of insinuation precisely
similar to that which prophecy and poetry have attributed to the dews and the snow of
heaven. How singularly is this the tendency of the Treatise on the Pleasantness of Reli-
gion. That inestimable little work is introduced by an allusion to a principle of ratiocination
insisted upon by a great name in the Platonic school, Dr. Henry More ; and upon that prin-
ciple Mr. Henry proceeded in a train of holy argumentation, and with a persuasiveness
vhich has never yet been surpassed. Though the treatise in question was the last our author
wrote, it is a sample of all his other pubUcations, and may be fitly recommended to such as
tre unacquainted with his merits as the first to be read.
Let it not be inferred, however, firom any of the foregoing remarks, that, because Mr. Henry
never provoked hostility, he trimmed, either in his writing, or preaching. Instead of with-
holding any part of God's counsel to please men, he paid as Uttle regard to human prejudice,
or human passions, when opposed to the promulgation of truth, as an eagle does to flies. In
the discourse entitled " Christianity no Sect," % he has expressed himself fidly on this point,
as also in one of his ministerial exhortations ; § and the works now collected admirably illus-
trate and confirm those statements. He greatly disapproved of not giving to each ^^ principle
of religion its due weight, and each practice of it its due place and proportion.*' || He would
not have " one precept of the gospel, any more than one table of the law, dashed in pieces."ir
In spite, therefore, of cavillers he uniformly combines — ^privileges with duties; and doc-
trines with obligations. He equally recognises dinne power, and human agency. He
exhibits the grace that bringeth salvation ; but he also maintains, and upon the same un-
erring anthori^, that perdition is the firuit of sin.
He every where uses great plainness of speech ; an acquirement of singular importance,
but which, so fiail is human excellence, may easily degenerate into lowness, if not vulgarity.
Instances of that kind do, it must be confessed, occur occasionally in our author's writings ;
and lest the present remarks should be considered as savouring of inordinate partiality,
and lest, also, any person should follow even Mr. Henry, as an exemplar, injudiciously, one
instance shall be noticed. It occurs in the " Directions how to Spend the Day with God."
— ** We must wait upon God,** says our author, " as the holy angels do, who always be-
liold the face of their Father, as those who are at his beck, and ready to go upon the least
intimation of his will, though but by a wink of his eye, wherever he sends them.*' ** It
cannot, surety, admit of doubt, whether the words thus printed in Italics are a blemish to
the passage or not. They do detract firom its force and dignity. The idea is actually
• P. 2», t P. 171. t P. 321. $ P. 728, 729. B P. 230. % lb. •• P. 443.
X PREFACE.
debased bj the homeliness of the illustration ; and the familiarity of it reminds us of the
lightness, and taste for punning, so assiduously cultivated in the middle ages.
Connected with Mr. Henry's studied plainness of speech, must be noticed his boldness.
Frequently that quality is very striking. His exposure of transubstantiation in the Comma-
nicanf s Companion ; * the seventh direction at the close of his Advice to the Wanton and
Unclean ; f and the whole of the sermons entitled ^' Self Consideration necessary to Self-
Preservation,*' X are deserving of especial remark in this respect Astonishment, indigna-
tion, inquiry, antithesis, and grave announcements, are so mingled, as to press upon the
reader with a force absolutely overwhelming ; comparable only to the fervid eloquence of
Baxter ; and best accounted for upon the. principle Mr. Henry once stated as a reason lot
earnestness — a sight of death at the backs of his hearers. §
For the same reasons, when the exposure of error justified it, an observer will perceive
that Mr. Henry did not conceal even Uis natural facetiousness ; and occasionally it amounted
to direct satire. He is evidently so to be understood when he alludes to the '^ cannon** of the
angry ; || when he mentions dragoons as the ^^ booted apostles '* of the church of Rome ; %
when he adverts to children intended for tradesmen learning Latin and Greek, with a design
to forget it ; ** and when, as if determined, if possible, to cure an inclination to mysticism,
he observes in the Commentary, (to which in this edition of the whole works one allusion may
be allowed,) that none should be puffed up with a conceit of visions and revelations, since
*^ even an ass saw an angeL'^ff
A few remarks must be offered upon our author's compositions in the order in which, from
time to time, they were first published ; because a regard to this will discover, to great ad-
vantage, some of the excellences and characteristics of his spirit
The Tract on Schism, for example, his ^rst publication, instead of emitting controversial
sparks, displays, like all his other works, the most enviable moderation ; a moderation indica-
tive of the sobriety and seriousness of a mind deeply impressed, as his certainly was, with
the presence and the coming of Christ Nothing can be imagined better adapted than that
small pamphlet to draw men off firom the circumstantials to the essentials of religion ; to
destroy a party spirit ; to promote Christian unity and love ; to put bigots to shame ; and to
explode superstitious fancies, as absurdities fraught with inexpressible danger. And the
same excellent temper, it may be remarked in passing, breathes throughout his ^^ Layman^s
Reason for Dissent ;'*^XX ^^ Sermon delivered by him at the Opening of his New Meeting-
house ; §§ and, indeed, all his other works.
A Collection of Family Hymns followed the Tract on Schism. And these discover aa
impidse still more celestial. The avowed design of this labour of love was to '^ help for-
ward" the doing of God's will " on earth, somewhat like as it is done in heaven." ||||
To the Psalms and Hymns succeeded the Life of his venerable and celebrated Father.lflF
A volume in which he presented to the reader's eye a ^' living epistle of Christ ;" just such
an exemplification of the principles of piety as he longed to see imitated. Who that knows
that lovely specimen of biography will not admit, that the peaceaUeness of its subject ; his
patience ; his fireedom firom ambition ; his entire deadness to the world ; and habitual aspira-
tions after the heavenly glory, are, in fact, a picture of what imagination supposes the life of
an angel would be, if one of those supernal beings were permitted to tabernacle for a sea-
son among men!
Whether the reader concurs in these views or not, it will be worth his while to mark caie-
• P. 238. t P. 490. t P. 519. $ Life. p. 63. || P. 286. f P. 625.
•• P. 834. ft V. i. p. 393. Nnmb. 22. « P. 867. §§ P. 856. |||| P. 705, 706.
Wt See p I^S24, of tbe preient volume, where it it printed with the enlargemeDti and illustrations recently added.
PREFACE. XI
fiiDjy as he proceeds, all the remaining tractates, and discourses ; those, I mean, not already
specifically noticed.
The Essay on Meekness, for instance, is eminently characteristic of the author ; and it
shows, that ^ehile the endeavours of many writers seem to have been directed to the scorch-
ing up of every vestige of Christian love ik>m the earth, Mr. Henry sought diligently '^ to
promote, and to charm men" into another temper; a frame of mind "conducive to the com-
fort of human life, the honour of our holy religion, and the welfare and happiness of all
societies, civil and sacred." *
The Communicant's Companion has no rival. All who preceded our author in that
charming work; such as Dyke, (the title of whose "Worthy Communicant" Jeremy
Taylor seems to have adopted,) and Vines, and Doohttle, and Shower, to mention no others,
appear immeasurably below him. The productions of those good men, and they were all
men of renown, had, it is willingly admitted, their individual excellences. Some of them,
eqiecially Mr. Dyke's Manual, (a book much prized by Philip Henry,t) and the Treatise on
die Lord's Supper by Doolittle, (Mr. Henry's tutor,) were exceedingly popular. But the
"Instructions for the right receiving of the Lord's Supper"! evince to the most careless
examiner, such a striking superiority for all the purposes of Christian edification, as to
foibid comparison. When there has been conceded to Dyke and Shower all the judicious-
ness and good sense ; and to Vines all the learning and acuteness ; and to DooUttle all the
eamestness and simplicity; and to Bishop Taylor all the elaboration and splendour, — ^they can
fidily claim ; there will be found in Mr. Henry's Uttle book, such a combination of attractive
properties, in union with a native sweetness of disposition, pecuUarly elicited by his subject,
as fully* to justify the preference which so long, and so wisely, has been given to it by the
religions public.
The Catechisms, again, though in a state of comparative neglect, are treasures of divine
truth. That " in the method of the Assembly's" has been styled by an excellent friend of
mine, who ranks deservedly high as a preacher, and a scholar — ^^ the ablest summary of
divinity iq our language." §
Nor are the other pieces of Mr. Henry, his " Method for Prayer," and his Sermons, (chiefly
delivered, it will be observed, on special occasions,) entitled to less praise. Those of them,
not to repeat such as have been mentioned, which are designated — " Directions for Daily
Commmiion with God ;" the " Right Management of Friendly Visits ;" || on " Family
Religion ;** and " Disputes Reviewed" are deserving of peculiar attention ; and are
sufficient, had their author written nothing else, to have embalmed his name through all
succeeding generations. The admirable nature of the instructions he has there embodied ;
the way in which true religion is exhibited — as a matter of principle, as a continual disci-
]dine of the heart and the life ; and the skilful and impressive manner in which moral duties
lie connected with the Saviour, as their source, their incentive, and their medium, do the
utmost credit to his understanding, his ability, and his zeal.
In one word — ^the direct tendettcy of all his compositions, those which have been specifically
named, and those which have been included under a more general reference, is unmixedly
md uniformly good. It is to render Christianity attractive; to divest it of those exorbitances
and blemishes by which, during the lapse of ages, it has been dishonoured; it is to promote
idf-knowledge ; to draw men to the Redeemer; and to meeten believers for their inheritance.
Thither he was himself perpetually looking. He does not, indeed, any where attempt a
Dunnte descriptioii of what *^ the eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, nor the heart of man
• P. 26B. t P. 14. t P. 331. § MS. Uuet.
I See, ai to thii. Dr. Wilts's Humble Attempt. Works, y, 4. p. 616. oc\.
xii PR£FAC£.
conceived ;'* but he does discover such a familiarity with that better state, as to show ^^ with
what ease/* like his beloved friend James Owen, he could *^ take leave of the world as one well
pleased to think of being no more in it*'* The comforts of grace, which Christians often
experience, made Aim ^* long for heaven ;''t and the removal of other saints excited him,
by faith, hope, and holy devotion, to ^^ follow them to the things above ; on which as
Christians,'* said he, " we are to set our affections.'' J
It would be no irksome task to pursue these observations through all Air. Henry's
writings, individually ; so as not only to mark their chronology, but by suitable excerpts to
make the reader acquainted with their respective merits ; but after what has already ap-
peared, § it seems an indispensable duty to refrain.
The broader lines of our author's literary character and genius having, in the work just
alluded to, been attempted ; with observations, Ukewise, upon his defects and peculiarities ;
it will be well if many of the notices already submitted are not deemed needless ; or at all
events an improper detention of the reader from the volume. Since, however, this Preface
is perfectly gratuitous, originating in personal conviction, and contributed with a view to
the obtaining from the public, if possible, renewed attention to the valuable remains thus
introduced, the service, it is hoped, will be readily borne with. And if what is commend-
able and attractive in our author, should appear to have been principally dwelt upon, let it
be remembered how much more pleasant it is to dilate upon excellences than imperfections ;
upon that which is worthy of regard and imitation, than of censure and aversion. Nor must
the remark be withheld, that Mr. Henry's defects, as critically studied, will be found to be
not only, what Dryden has so well stated of some errors, ^^ like stains flowing upon the sur-
face," but so trivial^ as — ^in comparison of positive and numberless beauties — to be umworUiy
of notice. His constant endeavour aft;er perspicuity more than atones for some ^^ poornesses
of expression ;" and the " infusions of sentiment," and " felicities of fancy," which every
where abound, for inattention to critical exactness and laboured poUsh. Mr. Henry has fur-
nished other emplojrment than thinking upon words.
J. BicKERTON Williams.
The Creteenty Skrewthury
December 21, 1829.
• P. 746. t P. 412 t P. 757. § See the Life, vol. 1. p. 101, he.
THE LIFE
OF THE
REV. PHILIP HENRY, A. M
WITH
FUNERAL SERMONS FOR MR. AND MRS. HENRY.
BY THK
REV. MATTHEW HENRY, V. D. M.
Magnum et memorabile nomen. V i b o i l.
An exainp1e,-in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in &ith, in purity. St. Paui.
CORRECTED AND ENLARGED,
BY J. B. WILLIAMS. F. S. A,
PREFACE
TO THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY.
In pr^enting to the poblic a new edition of the
life of that *' wiacy goody and truly wonderful man,
Mr. Philip Henry/'* the editor cannot forbear to
state, that early and established prepossessions have
powerfully concurred in its production.
The published work has been long distinguished
by special approbation. Sir James Stonhouse
designated it his '* favourite piece of biography.''t
Dr. Doddridge *' often spoke of it as affording him
much instruction and encouragement.''| By another
writer it is represented, as " one of the most in-
stnictiTe and interesting pieces of religious bio-
graphy ever written."^ Mr. Chalmers pointedly
notices '* the piety. Christian moderation, and good
sense, which pervade the whole."|| And, by a late
revered friend. Dr. Edward Williams, it is ap-
propriately characterized, '* a beautiful delineation
of primitive Christianity, and the power of godli-
ness, where social religion and personal holiness are
<bawn to the life, and eminently manifested ; where,
in a word, the doctrine of the life of God in the soul
of man, derives a striking proof, and a venerable
«anction."f
Judicious friends have repeatedly suggested to
the writer, that existing manuscripts might be so
• Life of the R«T. T. RoMwdl, p. 30. oct 1718.
t Lefttan hmn Hie Rev. Job Oritoo, tnd Uw Rer. Sir Jtme* Stoa.
k«K, But. M. D. to tbe lUv. TboouM StcdoHUi, M. A. Vicar of St.
OadX Shwwbary, od. VtfA, ?oL S. p. 300 ; aod aee alto, rol. 1. p.
171,1
selected, and incorporated with the work, as still to
increase the estimation of this edifying volume, and
have urged him to undertake the service. The
materials in his possession, and within his reach,
frequently disposed him to comply. Of late, vari-
ous occurrences have served to engage his atten-
tion to it more fixedly, and the supply of numerous
relics afforded a stimulus to the undertaking.
The whole seemed to form a deposit so favourable
to the object, that, if attendant difficulties were not
insurmountable, the obligation to publish was ren-
dered imperative.
Indeed, had the task been declined, might not the
editor have incurred an imputation of selfishness,
for improperly hoarding treasure so calculated for
general usefulness? These and other considera-
tions determined him to commence the work, and
to proceed with it as quickly as constant profes-
sional engagements would allow.
In the ** Entire Collection of Mr. Matthew
Henry's Writings,"** the Life of his Father was
inserted.
With this exception, the editor is not aware of
any genuine edition, since the third, which was
published in 1712 ; improved by the author's final
t Uk, byOrtao, p- ^^ •^ ''"*'
h 2
I Eclectic lUview, N. S. vol. 7. p. 273.
I Gen. Biof. Diet. vol. 17. p. 361. by Alexander Chalmers, F. S. A.
IF Preftce to Morrice's Social Religion Exemplified, p. xv. ed.
1786.
•• In aeveo volame«, 4to, 1811. edited \x% tbft R«ii. G«w^V»x4tx^
and ^ Rev. Joaeph Hagbes, A. H.
XVI
RREFACE TO THE UFE OF PHILIP HENRY.
corrections,* and the addition of a sermon, preach-
ed by himself, on the death of his honoured mother.
A new and valuable, but abridged, republication
appeared in 1765, under the superintendence of the
Rev. Job Orion. The copy which he used on that
occasion,t with the alterations in his own hand,
being in the possession of Mr. Stedman, through his
kindness an opportunity was afforded to the present
editor, of noticing the great extent of the variations.
It was dedicated, — " To the Descendants and other
Relations of Mr. Philip Henry ;" and in the opinion
there expressed roost readers will concur. '' I
esteem it," says Mr. Orton, " one of the chief ex-
cellences of this book, that it is, as the author hints
in his Preface, the history of a person who roani-
fested such an eminence of piety, prudence, humili-
ty, zeal, and moderation, as would have adorned
the highest station, and is scarcely to be equalled.
He is, therefore, a suitable and bright example to
persons of every rank, as well as an admirable
model for the ministers of the gospel." t
Of the second edition, § of the original work, a
re-impression has lately been given by a dignitary
of the established church, || Dr. Wordsworth ; who,
in his Preface, has observed, that '* if he could any
where have found nonconformity united with more
Christian graces than in Philip Henry," the ex-
ample should have obtained its station in the work.
Various other editions, both Scotch and English,
more or less inaccurate, might be enumerated, but
the supply can furnish no reason for withholding
one more correct and enlarged.
• 1711.13, January 23. I began to read orer my fiither'i Lifcp, to
correct it for the preaa. Rev. Matthew Henry'a Diary, Orig. MS.
t The firat edition, 1696.
t Dedication, pp. iv. v. See Mr. Griffin'a Sermon on " The Decline
of Religion,** oct 1813. p. 68. Mr. Henry*a Life ia there urgently
recommended to roiniatera.
\ Printed in 1699.
R See Eccleaiaatical Biography ; or Lirea of Eminent Men connected
with the Uiatory of Religion in England, by Chriatopher Wordaworth,
M. A. Dean and Rector of Booking, (now D. D. and Maater of Trinity
College, Cambridge,) in 6 Tola. oct. 1810.
IT Id the poawaaion of Mr. Witton.
The following notice of the undertaking, in a letter to the Re?. F.
Tallenta, ahowa the author'a anxioua deaire of accuracy : —
** Clieater, Norember 81, 1696.
*' If thia find you, aa I truat it will, aomewliat rerived, let it alao
acquaint you that 1 am orer-persuaded royaelf to put together what
nMteriala we have of my dear &ther*a life, wherein I ahall, aa well aa I
can, puraue the directiona you gave me ; when it ia done, (and it ia not
yet begun,) I afaall aubroit it to your cenaure, and deaire you to put a
abort prefoce liefore it. I purpoae, in a chapter by itaelf, to give aome
very abort accounta of hia frienda and brethren in the miniatry, that
went to heaven before him, having materiala for it out of hia own
A minute detail of the sources whence the new
materials have been derived has been deemed un-
necessary. Nor has it been thought expedient to
distinguish, in every instance, the particular nature
of the manuscript resorted to.
The diary, in compliance with well-established
custom, is uniformly pointed out. A few but im-
material alterations have been made ; such as occa-
sional abridgments and transpositions, and the
completion of here and there 'a sentence. Some-
times obsolete words or phrases have been changed
or expunged.
In general, — " to prevent any repellent effect, it
was thought advisable to adopt the modem ortho-
graphy." In two instances, the one a letter from
Lady Puleston, the other from Mrs. Henry, the
original spelling has been retained.
Being favoured with nearly the whole of the Life,
in Mr. Matthew Henry's hand-writing, IF the editor
has, by collating, been enabled to make such com-
parisons and additions as to insure uniform accu-
racy.
As to the general plan, much difficulty was felt ;
but to have made alterations, or to have done other-
wise than reprint, would have been to destroy the
charm which will ever attend the volume, as a me-
morial of strict fidelity and filial affection ; as dis-
tinguished also by an enviable simplicity, and a
ndivSte ** of expression, in perfect unison with the
subject.
Objections may arise to such large additions to
the original volume, and it may be feared that the
diary ; only I do not remember that I met with any thing there <
cerniog Mr. Hilderaham of Felton, who yet I know waa hia great friend.
When you are at leisure, 1 rtult be glad to have from you two or three
linea concerning him, particularly hu age, and the time of hia death;
and whether he ordered this to be hia epitaph, (aa 1 think I have heard,)
— ' Here lyes S. H. Minister of Welsh Felton,* till Auguat 34, 1668.*'
Matthew Henry. Orig. MS. BriUsh Muaeum, fol. No. 4375. Pint. 111.
E. Bibl. Birch.
•« It was not till after tlie above paragraph waa written, that tha
(ditor noticed, in the History of Disaentera, by Meaara. Bogue and
Bennett, vol. 3. p. 395. a like atatement The Rev. Maater of Trinity
College has adopted a different phraseology. Ne aaya of the work ia
question,—" It abounda aomewhat too largely in certain quaintoeana
of expresaion introduced into religioua aul^ecta, and affiKted by tha
puritanical divines.*' Eccl. Biog v. 6. p. 109, ul aupro. If it ba bare
intended to insinuate, that quaintncaa of expression waa peeuiiar to the
puritana, a query at once preaents itaelf aa to Biabopa Latimer, and
Andrews, and Fell, the poet Herbert, and other eminent epiacopaliana.
See potf, p. 314.
Were lAey puritanical divines? And waa Sir Edward Coke of the
same fraternity ? Mr. Justice Blackstone saya, " The great oracle waa
fiol a lUtU infected vUh quaimtnese.'^ Comment v. 1. Introd. 1 3. p.
71. l^h ed. The truth is, that, in thoae timea, to ad<^t a remark
PREFACE TO THE LIFE OF PHILIP UENKY.
xvu
editor, tfaroagh impartiality, or for other reasons,
has been led to introdace passages too unimport-
ant for publicity. He hopes, howerer, to stand
acquitted, at all events, by those who regard his
end; and that, on perusal, the book will display
somewhat of watchful caution for the avoidance of
such an error. He does not expect, indeed, that
mil will approve either the plan adopted or the
selections furnished. It would be difficult, perhaps
impossible, to arrange, or extract from, a mass of
theological effusions, like Mr. Henry's, so as to
give universal satisfaction. Nothing is made pub-
lic, it is hoped, which can justly be deemed offen-
sive to a discriminating judgment, inconsistent
with a due regard * to the venerated writer, or pre-
judicial to the interests of that charity for which he
was so deservedly famed.
To suppress what appeared fitted more fully to
develop Mr. Henry's character, was deemed im-
proper. And more especially so, as it was con-
sidered, that to give prominence to his sentiments
on a variety of topics, would render more exemplary
and more instructive his moderation and candour;
virtues which, drawn into exercise by difference of
judgment, impart gpracefulness to the determin-
ations of a well-regulated mind, give weight to
argnnacnt, and attraction to Christianity.
Excerpts of a nature so devout and so practical
as those ordinarily introduced, appear, it is thought,
with advantage in connexion with the events of
their writer^s life. They illustrate and enforce each
other. Letters, particularly when fraught with
evangelic sentiment, and adapted for ^ew^a/ utility,
are usually much esteemed, and for biographical
purposes are invaluable.
Epi«lol« vitun ipMiD horoinb repneaentant. — ERASMUS.
Letters, tlierefore, constitute a large proportion
of the additions. For the sake of more convenient
arrangement, these, vrith some other enlargements,
have been interwoven with the original text, but, for
easier distinction, are separated by brackets.
Many of the papers, thus exhibited, being scat-
tered when the Life was originally written, were
probably unknown to Mr. Henry's biographer.
Various causes,t too, which might at that time
have rendered omissions prudent, have now ceased
to exist. We are happily removed to a distance
from the irritations peculiar to that afflicted era ; —
a kindly feeling of brotherly love, between Chris-
tians of different parties, has gradually been dif-
fused ; — the rights of conscience are more widely
recognised, and better understood, and an agree-
ment to differ is acknowledged practically, as well
as in theory, to suit human affairs better than the
prejudices of ignorance, the penalties of legis-
lative enactments, or the dogmas of assumed infal-
libility.
The work, abounding with allusions, required
references to other compositions, and, frequently,
extracts from them. The reader will perceive, that
an effort has been made to supply illustrations,
wherever practicable, from manuscripts hitherto
unpublished ; and that brevity has been studied
throughout.
A Scriptural phraseology characterizes the papers
of Mr. Henry, and the Life now reprinted. In
some instances only, has it been thought advis-
able distinctly to solicit the reader's attention to
such borrowed passages. To have done so in all
cases was unnecessary, and would have been
tedious.
There being only one note to the original work,
(see p. 18.) it was thought needless to apply any
mark of distinction to the annotations now intro-
duced.
The references, occurring in the first edition of
the Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Henry, were placed
in the margin. The same course, for distinctness
sake, is followed on the present occasion.
If a desire of accuracy have occasionally led to
an exactness apparently trivial, the error may be
classed among the few which are harmless, if not
beneficial.
Most of the authors quoted were contemporary
with Mr. Henry, or immediately precedent. Some
are of a date still more ancient. This arose partly
from necessity, and in part from choice. The editor.
■irie bf Mr. Niefaols in bw prefiKe to the improred edition of Fuller'*
WortlMiorEaglaod,— " QoAiBtiieawas tlie characteriatic of almost
evcrj vriter of Mnincncc.**
• See Mr. Scotl*» CoroiiienUry, Deut xxx\7. Practical ObservatioiM.
i 8e« pott, p. SS3.
XYlll
PREFACE TO THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY.
while he admires modern elegaDcy, believes, with
an antiquated poet, that, —
" Out of the olde feldet, as men nietb,
Cometh all tliii oewe corn, fro yere to yere ;
And oot of olde bookes, in good fiiieth,
Oonieth all thu newe science that men lere.***
He is convinced also, that many of the writings
thus noticed, notwithstanding their style, and in-
dependently of the clue they furnish to Mr. Henry's
studies, are of peculiar value. f This, he acknow-
ledges, has sometimes influenced him in these
citations, — ^that the reader may be induced to study
such compositions more at large. They commonly
receive, it is admitted, a quaint designation, —
"Old Dyuynes,"t — as if, by inculcating a cere-
monious reverence, to obstruct intimacy ; — but
familiarity, instead of producing its ordinar}' elTects,
will excite attachment, and perpetuate esteem.^
Inquire of the former age, and prepare thyself to the
search of their fathers. For we are but of yesterday,
and hnow nothing, because our days upon earth are a
shadow.
It is not, however, intended that the passages
so given, or referred to, should be regarded as a
selection, either complete, or preclusive. Quota-
tions from the Fathers, not to mention almost
innumerable later theologians, and others, unno-
ticed in the following pages, would have furnished
notes, perhaps, equally apt and useful. But the
design was to avoid diffusiveness, and, by a refer-
ence to publications of comparatively easy access,
to meet general convenience. The diligent admirer
of antiquity || will easily trace, in the more remote
'' lights of the church," not a few of the sentiments
and phrases here used, together with many illus-
trative parallels, which, for the reasons before
mentioned, have been omitted.
Nor do the opinions, thus expressed, result from
* Learn. Chancer*s Parliament of Birds, rerie 33.
■f See a Practical View of the Prevaihng Religious Syntem of Pro-
fessed Christians, by William Wilberfbrce, Ettq. M. P. chap. vi. pp.
379. 383. Oct. 1707.
% The I>ore of Holy Scripture, 1 540. oct. Ames and Herbert^s
Typographical Antiquities, by the Rev. T. F. Dibdin, vol. 3 p. 410.
I When a young man, a little too forward, had, in presence of many,
said, that he could conceive no reason, in the reading of the old au.
thors, why men should so greatly admire Uiero ;— " No marvel, in-
deed, (quoth Master Fox,) for, if you could conceive the reason, you
would then admire them yourself.** Life of Fox, prefixed to the Mar.
tjrrologjr, vol I. to), XOM,
such love to the olden time as is implied in the
perverse doting^ of indiscriminate veneration ; f
nor yet in '' a critical desire," as Dr. Johnson
expresses it, ''to find the faults of the modems,
and the beauties of the ancients." Non vetera
extollimus recentium incuriosi. Such opinions can-
not, therefore, be justly considered as disparaging
to later compositions, particularly those, and they
are various, whose prominent features display
'' profound scholarship, disciplined and vigorous
reason, masculine eloquence, and genius-breathing
enchantment"** Productions so exquisitely or-
nate render comparisons invidious, and would
aggravate detraction. The editor, because of their
illustrious eminency, and without seeking to lessen
their deserved influence, aims only to dissuade
those who ** seek and intermeddle with wisdom,"
from such a regard, as, from its exclusiveness,
might prove injurious. Not only will the neglect
of much ** fruitful erudition " be thus effectually
prevented, but, in the assiduous use of means so
excellent, a kindly impulse will be given to the
whole process of edification ; —
" For, though old wrytynges apere to be rude ;
Yet, notwithstandynge, they do include
The py the of a matter most fructuously." tf
It furnishes an opportunity for congratulation,
too congenial to be omitted, that, at a time when
the capabilities of the English tongue, for elegant
combination, have been so signally manifested, and
so many invaluable productions have raised our
national literature to an unprecedented elevation,
sufficient encouragement should have been afforded
to the enterprising spirit of typography, not only to
reprint the remains of many early Reformers, and
other Protestant Divines, but to give to the volumi-
nous labours of Archbishop Leighton ; Bishops Hall,
Hopkins, Taylor, and Beveridge ; Doctors Light-
!! Blessed be God, for the monuments of antiquity, and the primitive
church. Matthew Henry. Orig. MS.
*T See Caryl on Job, v. i. p. 705. fol. 1676. And, Baxter*s Practical
Workx, vol. V. p. 566. oct ed.
** Eany on Popular Ignorance, by John Foster, p. 8D. 2d edit See
Dr. Parr's Spital Sermon, pp. 63, 64. 4to, 1801. Sonoe curious remarks
upon •• bokes," and their *' stile,** occur in " Nicholas Udall*s Prefcoe
to the Translation of the Paraphrase of Erasmus upon Luke," the three
last pages, fol. 1548.
H Ames*s Typographical Antiquities, by Herbert, voL 3. p. 1756.
PREFACE TO THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY.
XIX
oot, Barrow, Owen, Watts, and Doddridge ; John
ilowe, Chamock, Baxter, Matthew Henry, and
President Edwards, permanent external respecta-
bility. The omen is fayoarable ; and the impulse,
it }B hoped, will not become extinct, nor even
feeble.
Bat while so mach in the sig^s of the times is
calculated to cheer, by a conviction of increasing
intelligence and liberality, there sdll remains
enough to render too apposite, in a spirit of mild
seooomiodation, the caustic remark of Milton ; —
*' Things of highest praise and imitation, under a
right name, are mis-called, to make them infamous
tnd hateful." * To those who follow the things
ftkiek mmke for peaety it cannot be otherwise than
grievous that such an attestation is not exclusively
applicable to those times of perilous disquietude
wbich prompted the complaint. And still more so,
tbt of late especially, and among the literati too,
tke originating cause of that complaint should have
fomished new evidence of undecaying vigour.
I^re needs, but a slight acquaintance with the re-
>oblic of letters, and particularly the history and
(iography of the last thirty years, both original and
dited, to notice many confirmatory instances ; in-
tances which would have warranted, in the follow-
ng annotations, a system widely different from that
mrsued. How much might be adduced, — to hold
M) inquest upon moti^res, — which is adapted to pro-
ince party-prejudice, and antichristian temper!
Has not the power of truth, by zeal for preferences,
iBcrely secular or ritual, been lamentably obstructed,
and the censures of deists thus disgracefully coun-
tenanced ? Has not godliness itself been so misre-
presented and caricatured, iby attacks upon puri-
tans, nonconformists, and Calvinists, and so identi-
fied with alleged imbecility or extravagance, as to
inspire, in not a few caries, contempt and aversion ?
How irrational, to say the least, is such a course !
As if the exhortations to love and good-will, which
abound in the sacred oracles, and which are en-
forced by tremendous sanctions, were to be mea-
lured by human fancy ; as if they respected only
tbose whose thoughts run harmoniously about
* Tbc AMwer to Eikoo Builike. Miltoo*s Prose Works, toI. 3. p.
%.oct
f Mr. Doracj^e Acroont of the Her. Joarph Caryl. DWiDe Cod.
iH&phtkRM, p. M4, dnod. lOM.
X la Middlcton** Bioc. Em. toI. hr. p. ?& oct. 1786.
trifles, who congregate as one party, or rally under
one visible standard ! Not more incongruous would
be the assertion, — that the cause of truth is best
promoted by ignorance and error ; or, that the en-
mity against God, (including his image, as impress-
ed upon the saints,) which constitutes a carnal
mind, would be most effectually counteracted by
the infusions of hatred, the " moroseness of bigotry,"
and the workings of bitter disaffection.
For the better avoidance of evils, like these re-
ferred to, the original design of the Life, the ele-
vated spirit of Catholicism which it breathes, and
the sweet fragrancy f which is uniformly associated
with Mr. Henry's name, have been kept habitually
in view.
The animadversions on some of Dr. Words-
worth's statements will appear to the reader, it is
believed, in nowise inconsistent with this pro-
fession. Siqcerely regretting the existence of
those statements, the writer would have passed
them by, had it been warranted by a conviction
of their accaracyi or been consistent with official
fidelity.
It is hoped that the introduction of the fac-timiles
and portraits will be deemed an improvement. Mrs.
Henry's picture has not before been engraved. The
print conveys the exact expression.
The engraving of Mr. Henry, by White, prefixed
to the early editions of the Life, is a performance
but ill evincing the justness of the character usually
given of that once popular artist. Nor can any
thing better be said of a subsequent attempt by
Trotter. t A comparison of the three engravings,
which are from the same painting,^ will demon-
strate the superiority of the one now published.
The late Mrs. Brett, of West Bromwich, informed
the editor, that Mrs. Savage, her near relation, and
the eldest daughter of Mr. Henry, pronounced the
representation in the painting good, but rather too
sorrowful.
" Hit eye was raeek and gentle ; and a imile
Play'd on lii« lipii ; and in his apeech wan heard
Paternal sweetnen, dii^iityi aud Iove."R
To Nicholas Ashton, of Woolton Hall, in the
) Thus dated, ** Ann. et. SO, Aug 34, 1691." The portrait illontrat.
ing Mr. Ortoo s Abridgment of the Life, fU nqtra, is a memorial of
younger daya.
I Cowper's Task, btwk ii.
PREFACE TO THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY.
coanty of Lancaster, Esq., acknowledgments are
due, and are thus publicly offered, for the contribu-
tion of the picture from which Mr. Henry's por-
trait, introduced into this volume, was taken, and
of which it is a faithful resemblance.
For permission to copy the painting of Mrs.
Henry, and also for the communication of the bap-
tismal covenant, from which the/ae-«tmt^ has most
accurately been made, as well as for various useful
manuscripts, thanks are respectfully tendered to
P. H. Witton, Esq., of the Ravenhurst, near Bir-
mingham, a lineal descendant of Mr. Henry, whose
name he bears.
The manuscript diaries used on this occasion, in
addition to that which is possessed by the editor,
were kindly furnished by his much respected
friend, Joseph Lee, Esq., Redbrook, near Broad
Oak ; also, by Miss Bunnell, (now Mrs. Lewis,)
London ; Mrs. Osbom, Worcester ; and, through
the friendly application of the Rev. J. Robertson,
of Stretton-under-Fosse, by Mrs. Bunting, Sprat-
ton. To all of whom the editor begs to express his
grateful sense of their politeness and liberality.
The editor's excellent friend, the Rev. Dr. Raffles,
of Liverpool, is entitled to particular remembrance,
not only for the loan of manuscripts, but also for
much personal trouble.
To the Rev. Thomas Stedman, and Thomas
Weaver, Shrewsbury ; J. Grundy, Leicester ; James
Payne, Ipswich ; J. £. Good, Salisbury ; and John
Pearce, Wrexham ; — also, to Mr. and Mrs. Bunnell,
Islington, London; Mrs. Kenrick, Wynne Hall,
near Wrexham ; Miss Hunt, Exeter ; Joshua Wil-
son, Esq., Highbury Place, Islington, London ;
Joseph Lee, junior, Esq. Redbrook Farm, near
Broad Oak ; Mr. Lewin, Shrewsbury ; Mr. Lewis,
Wrexham ; and Mr. W. Cook, Liverpool ; the
editor is likewise much indebted for the liberal
communication of manuscripts.
Mr. Matthew Henry's sermon on the death of
his father is now first published from an authentic
transcript, obligingly communicated by Mr. Sted-
man.
To the learned and Rev. S. Butler, D. D. Arch-
deacon of Derby ; and also to the Rev. Mr.
• See ante, p. xr.
i See Dr. Doddridge*! Wofk% toL 4. p. 901, Ice. oct. 1802.
Archdeacon Owen, and the Rev. J. B. Blakeway,
the elegant historians of Shrewsbury, the editor's
obligations have been increased, in connexion
with the present undertaking, by frequent in-
formation, as well as by friendly communications,
at all times, from their curious and valuable librap
ries.
Nor, in this reference to the editor's obligations,
can he content himself to omit his esteemed friend,
Mr. Chalmers.* He is entitled to special acknow-
ledgments for repeated attentions, which, bestowed
in the midst of laborious avocations, became
doubly obliging.
Should the engagement result in the con^ction
of but one fatal error, — ^should it promote the
establishment of only one sincere Christian, —
should it assist in estimating the importance, reality,
and necessary effects of primitive piety, — should
it aid in a correct judgment of the principles of the
nonconformists,t and evince that there is no '^ con-
nexion between dissent and fanaticism^' any more
than between Christianity and imposture, — should
it, therefore, tend to bury unjust censures, and dis-
play, with additional clearness, that friendship te
monarchy, loyalty to the king, and attachment to
the English constitution, are perfectly compatible
with separation from an ecclesiastical establish-
ment,— should it, especially, be the means of pro-
moting '' living, powerful religion," which ever
disdains the limits of a party, — the editor will re-
gard apology as misplaced, his object will be hap-
pily attained, and his toil delightfully rewarded;
nor will he regret having devoted to the under-
taking, hours which were redeemed from morning
slumbers, or stolen from the vacancies of leisure.^
The writer cannot dismiss these prefatory re-
marks, without trespassing upon the reader's pa-
tience, by a few hints in refSrence,more particularly,
to the due improvement of biographical composi-
tions. Mr. Henry's character will, thereby, be
somewhat illustrated, his predilection for such
writings § explained, and similar attachments, it
may be, excited. It is in the use of means that
divine influence, so essential to the vigour and very
existence of spiritual life, is to be expected ; and
t See Lord Bacon, oo the Adyuiceinent of LearniDg, p. 10. 4to,
lOOft.
) See the Ltfe» pott, p. 197.
PREFACE TO THE UFE OF PHILIP HENRY.
xxi
M increasing recognition of that inflaence, with
mest desires for its possession, stands in near
ifaity to the proper observation of its effects.
So great and so obvious are the attractions of
liography, when brought efficiently to bear upon
iciional history and individual excellence ; and so
decidedly is the meed of public approbation be-
itoved upon it, that to explain at large, why the
fires of wise and good men ought to be perused
■d esteemed ; or to inquire haw it is that they are,
k fact, daily read with profit and delight, would
h a soperfluous discussion. It will suffice to re-
Mrk, of Christian memoirs generally, with an
appeal for confirmation to the present volume, —
ftttk, by illuminating the judgment, by enriching
te sKmory, by elevating the affections, by demon-
inting that eminent religious acquirements are
Munable, such memorials conduce, in a very
kigh degree, to the best interests of man.* Reg^-
kting the love of incident, and stimulating to
Indable emulation, they are adapted to give to
ftoeghtf al habits a correct tendency, and inquiries,
II the narrative proceeds, instead of being insti-
tiled for the gratification of curiosity, are asso-
cialed with self-observance and self-improvement.f
Wheaee, asks the awakened intellect, this compa-
latiTe indifference (as in the case of Mr. Henry) to
al things earthly, in the midst of their diligent use
•■d happiest enjoyment? Wherefore an ardour in
tbt service of Jehovah so vigorous and unabating ?
By what process has subjection to his appointments,
enlightened, and uniform, and acquiescent,
attained ? Whence can be derived peace so
hsiy, oprightness so inflexible ? Whence springs,
what nourishes, compassion towards transgres-
and affection even for enemies, so tender, and
IS sincere!
To soch queries Christianity alone can furnish a
sttisfactoiy reply. In accordance with the inspired
Intimooy , a life of faith may thus luminously be
• It 40ih ■■ good to md Mid hnr Mch troe, holy, tod mpproTed
talanMk wmmamtutM, oratioiM, epUtlct, and letter*, m do aet forth uoto
■I Ike Uk»d belMTioar of God's dear ■erraota. Biihop Coverdale's
liiiiB, prciaed to bia Letten of the Martyrs ; reprinted in '* The
hlfam of the Eofliih Chorch." vol. 4. p. ix. oct 1800.
♦ See Ifr. Ortoa't PrrfiMW to his Memoirs of Dr. Doddridge, p. riL
tf mi^rm. ** One page of Philip Henry's Life," obeenres an eminent
PMneber of Ow present day, ** makes me Uoah more than all the folios
tf IMS SM liittheVs retrkm ExpoaUioB." The Re?. J. A. Jameiri
demonstrated to be the path of the just, the prin-
ciple of spiritual animation, and all real virtue.
By that sublime grace, — significantly designated the
evidence of things not seen, — it was, that the admir-
ed subject of the ensuing portraiture, beholding
Aim who is invisible, connected all his actions, and
all his thoughts, with eternity and with God.t
The subject thus exhibited, is both directive § and
animating. Mr. Henry's biographer, indeed, has
more than once given to the idea due prominence.
Nor is it too much to affirm, that the volume, un-
folding, with enviable attractiveness, the one thing
needful, and the fruits of early instruction, so dis-
covers the happy consequences of fervent piety
and enlightened decision, as to instruct the inquir-
ing, to cheer the timid, to invigorate the feeble,
and to fill vrith joy the cup of the desponding.
While it illustrates the Christian warfare, and
shows, that high attainments in holiness furnish no
exemption from the ordinary calamities of life, it
inculcates the pleasantness of religion, and teaches
all who tread her paths, instead of encouraging
doubts, or yielding to despondency, to look con-
stantly to the Saviour, as the centre and medium of
revealed mercy, and as nuide of God, to all believers,
wisdom and righteousness, sanctijication and redemp-
tion. Not only vrill the plants of righteousness, un-
der such influence, bud and blossom, as did the rod
of Aaron, but they will bear, in gladdening abun-
dance, those fruits of peace, which, like the leaves
of the tree of life, are intended for the healing of
nations.
The editor feels it unnecessary to indulge in
eulogy upon the illustrious character delineated in
the following pages ; or to point out the light which
they cast over the history of Britain, civil and eccle-
siastical ; nor has he a desire to animadvert upon
the persecuting spirit of the times, — a spirit, which,
notwithstanding its hostile and provoking tenden-
cies, seemed, in the case of Mr. Henry, and of
Addrea at his Brother's Ordination, appended to the Church Member's
Guide, p. 831.
t There is a God. There is a judgment to come. Were these
two firmly believed, what a change would it make ! Philip Henry,
Orig. MS.
) See Mr. Baxter's Remarks, prefixed to the Life of the Rev. Joseph
Alleine, duod. 1678. Introd. p. 4. And, also, Mr. Wilberforce's Prac.
tical View, di. vU. 1 11. pp. 465, 467, «l ntpra.
xxu
PREFACE TO THE LIFE OF PHIUP HENRT.
many others, to elicit and nerve the sublimest vir-
tues. Yet he cannot forbear to reiterate the remark
of Mr. Jay, — " Who, without sentiments of love
and veneration, can think of Philip Henry V** If
Ennius was justly commended by Cicero, for having
bestowed lofty epithets upon poets, because of their
peculiar gifts, a like course, in the present instance,
would, for similar and more powerful reasons, have
been defensible ; for, undoubtedly, Mr, Henry was
** one of the most pious and excellent men of the
age in which he lived, or any other/' f At the
same time, let it not be inferred, that he constituted
an anomaly in the records of the new creation.
Although he is even *' believed by many, to have
come as near the pattern of the apostles, and the
first ministers of the Christian church, as any that,
to this day, have succeeded them ;" | and although
it deserves acknowledgment, to the glory of God,
that no public blot defaces the accurate delineation
here exhibited, enough of the ** stain of human
frailtie" is visible, to show that he was AtiiiMn, and,
therefore, to prevent '' esteem above that which
behoveth/'§
Connected with, and perhaps in proportion to,
such impressions, the work of praise to God, a duty
always incumbent, will not be overlooked. The
eye of the mind, instead of resting upon the picture,
how beauteous soever, will ascend to the Eternal
Benefactor, II in devout adoration of his mercy, and
the triumphs of his grace. Love to the brethren is
an affection, neither sordid nor imbecile : while
ministering, with obedient assiduity, to the house-
hold of faithf it rises, instinctively, to the ever-
blessed Jehovah ; by whose power the new nature
• is, in every instance, produced, and into whose
image the indispensable transformation is invari-
ably effected. When, therefore, that sacred reno-
vation, which forms the attractive cause of Christian
love, has been perfected^ though by the violence of
death, the expectants of similar dignity, instead of
occasioning, by inferior considerations, a suspen-
sion of the principle, should indtdge in lively gra-
* Mcmoirf of Mra. Savage, Mr. Henry*! eldest daughter. Pre&ce,
p. 1.
f Dr. Rktiarda** Welsh Noncoaformitts* Mem. p. 360.
% The New Spiritual Magazine, 1783, vol. I. p. 63.
) Hooker** Eccl. Pol. Pref. 1 4. fbl. 166S.
titude, and the anticipation of a more endeariii|
friendship. Shall the entrance of the heirs of GW
upon their unfading kingdom, occasion only heavaii§ ^
acclamations ? Shall it excite on earth no delight; ;
inspire no *< hymn of laud, no solemn canticle!'' |
Shall not hope restrain sorrow, and faith exilt i
over the vanquished grave? When Mrs. Heuy
was bereaved of her venerated husband, she ex-
pressed her thankfulness that she had him so long;
and that she had the prospect of being eteiiiany
with him in glory .11
It cannot escape remark, that those associafioot
with eternity, which, by a moral necessity, attend
written lives, gain, in a case like the presotit,
special ascendency: they seize the mind with a
firm grasp, and, if duly cherished, disentangle it
from the world. Having traced the earthly ao-
joumings of the heaven-bound traveller, and wit-
nessed the increasing development of principlef»
as unvarying as they are immortal, every advance
towards the '* final hour'' occasions new and refined
excitements. At length placed, in imagination,
upon the brink of that river which '' has no bridge,"
we gaze upon the pilgrim as he draws nigh to th6
water, and listen to his parting salutation ; ai the
billows rise and swell around him, every thing irre-
levant and unhallowed is absorbed in personal
interest ; the '* reign of stillness'' commences, and
other cares, and other thoughts, save those of future
and interminable existence, are silenced and sup-
pressed.
How singularly, how deeply, interesting** the
communications of an expiring believer ! The at-
tention is arrested, nay, awed, by reflecting, that
the chief result of vigilant observation is then im-
parted,— ^in the immediate prospect of eternity.
Mr. Henry, consciously unable to recapitulate his
history, or to detail his enjoyments, or to dispense,
minutely, his counsels, and in haste to enter upon
the " blessedness of the righteous," gave utterance,
with a rapidity peculiarly striking, to the one main
sentiment of his soul. Follow peace and holiness.
I See ReeTea*t Apologies of Juttin Martyr, fcc. toL S. p. 35. oct
1709 : alao, pott, p. 173.
IT See po9t, p. 120.
•• Sonoe remarks on this subject, with more paKicalar refereoce to
the latest revelations of Jesus, introduce Bishop Heber's Lectures on
the Personality and Office of the Christian Comforter, pp. 1—4.
PREFACE TO THE LIFE OF PHIUP HENRY.
XXIU
was the instmctiTe exhortation. The acceDts, now
that the spirit has long fled to celestial occupations,
seem to linger apon the fancy ; the last flashings of
the fire ethereal are yet seen through the lengthened
distance, and each word, at all times valaahle,
becomes, hy no violent metamorphosis, a pearl
iBdeed,^-deriying an additional lastre from the
deepened shadowings of the " vale of death,'' the
use of sacceeding generations, and the hope of that
utold felicity, which will consist in their fullest
exemplification, and ever-brightening splendour.
The disregard, or non-improvement, of an event
» momentous as the soul's transition to unknown
regions, involves deplorable indifference, if not
itapidity, comparable only to that of the Egyptian
Bonarcb, or the very auditors of Zechariah : con-
eeining the latter of whom, it is affirmed, to their
perpetual reproach, that they made their hearts as
a ademumt stone. It should always be remembered,
that death, in the case of every human being, is so
inevitably certain, as to render, when the appointed
season shall arrive, every plea, whether for exemp-
tion or postponement, fruitless. No man hath power
in the day of death: there is no discharge in that
war. And an apostle, as if to force onward the
thoughts with an impetuous ardour, urges the
solemn warning, — We must all appear before the
J9ufyment-seat of Christ.
When man's probationary existence, its termi-
nation, and the altered, but endless mode of being
which then commences, are thus contemplated, not
only is biography suitably improved, but the pro-
cfaunation, that — time shall he no longer— once to be
heard from the apocalyptic angel, — will fill the
mind, and chase to a distance, with irresistible
aothority, all terrestrial attractions. Visions of
eternity, succeeding in awful progression, and un-
4efinable grandeur, obliterate those '' characters of
divinity which men set upon absurdities, and
errors;''* sweep away, as with hail, every refuge
•f liesf and exalt the reUgion of the Bible to her
rightful pre-eminence. The glorified Saviour, as a
prevailing intercessor, — as the vanquisher of un-
* See Locke** Eamj eoocerning Human UodenUoding, ch. ill. | 2Al
t Sec the Life, po&t. p- 1S7. The oamet of the aocieot father* should
be feiy preciona with a*» so^ ^^ remains of their live* and labours ;
the frit Rcfimner* in our own land, in otlier lands; the good old
pQritans; tbom bubMm* and Christians who have been eminent in
seen foes, — as still effiecting the work of '' redeem-
ing mediation," is beheld in the bright effulgence of
uncreated divinity, and is invested, as the Lamb
that was slain, with loveliness inexpressibly cap-
tivating. Employed in such meditations, the
Christian participates in the grateful admiration
and vehement aspirings of Stephen, when, full of
the Holy Ghost J he saw Jesus standing on the right
hand of God; and, mingling astonishment with
triumph, uttered the memorable invocation, — Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit !
These views of the subject, while they prevent
our wonder at the multiplicity of Scripture narra-
tives, and account satisfactorily for the interest
Mr. Henry took '' in the lives, actions, and sayings
of eminent men,"t discover also to the reflective
and pious mind their legitimate effect. Nor can it
escape notice, that the chief est of the apostles, when
closing the early records of faith, has consolidated,
in one unexampled address, and as a deduction
from the whole, sentiments the most noble and
sublime : — Seeing we also are compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight, and tlie sin which doth so easily beset us ; and
let us run with patience the race that is set before
ust loohing unto Jesus, the author and finisher of
our faith ; who, for the joy that was set before
him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and
is set down at the right hand of the throne of
God,
Let it never be forgotten, that admiration, how-
ever glowing, bestowed upon the affecting structure
of a passage, like that just cited, can avail, for
practical purposes, cither personal, or in reference
to the community, only as the metaphorical allu-
sions, which it embodies, are duly regarded. But
let that regard be once prevalent ; let the eye be
intently fixed upon high examples, and not upon
those who rank, at best, only as inferiors in the
school of Christ; let the attention be, especially,
directed to the Great Exemplar himself; and effects,
fruitful and all-pervading, will invariably follow.
Then will be given to base companionship the hap-
our own country. We sliould not despise the way of our fathers, but
be ashamed to think how short we come of them. We munt regard
their testimony ; and, as far as it afi^rees with the word of God, put a
great value upon it We must follow them as far as tliey followed
Christ. Matthew Henry. Orig. MS. And see pott. p. 188.
XXIV
PREFACE TO THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY.
piest overthrow; then will calumniated piety be
upheld by unanswerable vindications; religious
attainments will be advanced to an enviable matu-
rity; and, while individual happiness, and the
prosperity of the '^ holy church " universal, are
efficiently promoted, jflory in the hiyheit, ever justly
due, will be secured to the only living and true
God.
John Bickerton Williams.
Swan Hill, Shrewsbury,
February 12, 1825.
TO HIS MUCH HONOURED FRIEND
SIR HENRY ASHURST,
BARONET.
Sir,
The ministers of the gospel are; in the Scripture language, stars in the right hand of Christ,
to signify their diffusive Ught and beneficial influences. As in the futiu'c state of the resur-
rection, some stars shall differ from others in glory, so in the present state of the regeneration,
tome ministers are distinguished fix)m others by a brighter eminence in their endowments,
and a more powerful emanation of Kght in their preaching. Of this select number was Mr.
Philip Henry, in whom there was a union of those real excellences of parts, learning,* and
dirine graces, that signalized him among his brethren. This does evidently appear in the
narrative of his life, drawn by one very fit to do it ; — as having had entire knowledge of him,
br long and intimate conversation ; and having, by his holy instructions, and the impression
<rf his example, been made partaker of the same sanctifying Spirit. The describing the ex-
ternal actions of saints, without observing the holy principles and ajSections fi:om whence they
derived their life and purity, is a defective and irregular representation of them. It is as if an
account were given ol the riches and fecundity of the earth, firom the flowers and fnuts that
grow upon it, without considering the mines of precious metals contained in its bosom. Now,
only an inward Christian, that has felt tlie power of religion in his heart, can, fix)m the reflec-
tion upon himself, and his uncounterfeit experience, discover the operations of grace in the
breasts of others.
Mr. Henry was dedicated to the service of Christ by his mother in his tender age. His
first love and desires, when he was capable to make a judicious choice, were set upon God.
He entered early into the ministry, and consecrated all tiie powers of his soul, understanding,
memory, will, and aflections, with his time and strength, to the service of Christ And such
was the grace and favour of God to him, that he lost no days in his flourishing age, by satis-
fying the voluptuous appetites ; nor in his declining age by diseases and infirmities, but in-
cessantly applied himself to his spiritual work. He was called to a private place in Wales,
but his shining worth could not be shaded in a comer. A confluence of people fi-om other
parts attended on his ministry. Indeed, the word of truth that dies in the mouths of the cold
and careless, (for they are not all saints that serve in the sanctuary,) had life and spirit in his
preaching ; for it proceeded firom a heart burning with zeal for the hbnour of Christ and sal-
vation of souls. Accordingly he siuted his discourses to the wise and the weak ; and imitated
the prophet who contracted his stature to the dead body of the widow's son, applying his
mouth to the mouth of the child, to inspire the breath of life into him. The poor and de-
mised were instructed by him with the same compassionate love and diligence as the rich,
notwithstanding the civU distinction of persons which will shortly vanish for ever ; for he
considered their souls were of the same precious and immortal value. In the administration
of the Lord's Supper, he expressed the just temperament of sweetness and severity. With
melting compassion he invited all relenting and returning sinners to come to Christ, and re-
ceive their pardon sealed with his blood. But he was so jealous of the honour of Christ, that
he deterred, by the most fearful consequences, the rebcUious that indulged their lusts, firom
* Every one knows Mr. Philip Henry was an excellent scholar ; he was certainly possessed of a rich
treainre of all polite and useful learning, both in languages and in the sciences. LUe oi Wie'^N •'^'o^^t!^
Henry, by W. ToDg, oot. 1716. p. 24.
B 2
4 DEDICATION TO THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY.
coming to partake of the feast of the unspotted Lamb. He was not allured by temporal
advantage, which is the mark of a mercenary, to leave the first place where, by the divine
disposal, he was seated.
When the fatal Bartholomew-day came, though he had fair hopes of preferment, by his
attendance upon the King and Duke of York in their early age, — of which the remembrance
might have been revived, — yet he was guided by a superior spirit, and imitated the self-denial
of Moses, (a duty little understood, and less practised by the earthly-minded,) rather choosing
to suffer affliction mith the people of God, than to enjoy the good things of this world. As the
light of heaven, when the air is stormy and disturbed, does not lose the rectitude of its rays ;
so his enlightened conscience did not bend in compliance with the terms of conformity, but
he obeyed its sincere judgment.
After his being expelled firom the place of his public ministr}', his deportment was becom-
ing a son of peace. He refused not communion with the Church of England in the ordinances
of the gospel, so far as his conscience permitted. Yet he could not desert the duty of his
office, to which he was, with sacred solemnity, set apart. He was faithful to improve oppor-
timities for serving the interest of souls, notwithstanding the severities inflicted on him. And
after the restoring our freedom of preaching, he continued in tlie performance of his delightfid
work till death put a period to his labours.
After this account of him as a minister of Christ, I will glance upon his character as a
Christian. His conversation was so holy and regular, so free from taint, that he was imac-
cusable by his enemies. They could only object his nonconformity as a crime ; — ^but his
vigilant and tender conscience discovered the spots of sin in himself, which so affected his
soul, that he desired repentance might accompany him to the gate of heaven. An excellent
testimony of humility, the inseparable character of a saint. His love to God was supreme,
which was declared by his chosen horn's of communion with him every day. The union of
affections is naturally productive of union in conversation. Accordingly, our Saviour pro-
mises ; — He that loveth me shall he loved of my Father ; and I will love him, and will manifest
fnyself to him. And he repeats the promise ; — If a man love me he will keep my words : and
my tather will love him, and we wilt come to him, and make our abode with him. To his spe-
cial and singular love to God, was joined an universal love to men. He did good to all
according to his ability. His forgiving of injuries, that rare and difficult duty, was eminently
conspicuous in the sharpest provocations. When he could not excuse the offence, he would
pardon the offender, and strive to imitate 'the perfect model of charity exprest in our suffering
Saviour ; who in the extremity of his sufferings, when resentments are most quick and sensi-
ble, prayed for his cruel persecutors. His filial tnist in God was correspondent to God's
fatherly providence to him. This was his support in times of trial, and maintained an
equal temper in his mind, and tenor in his conversation. In short, he led a life of evangelical
perfection, most worthy to be honourably preserved in the memory of future times. The fol-
lowing narrative of it, if read with an observing eye, how instructive and affecting will it be
to ministers, and apt to transform them into his likeness !
Thus, Sir, I have given a short view of the life of that man for whom you had such a high
veneration and dear love. It argues a clearer spirit, and a diviner temper, than is usual in
persons of conspicuoui^ quality, when holiness is so despicably mean in the esteem of carnal
men, to value it above adl tities and treasures, and the perishing pride of this world. I am
persuaded it will be very pleasing to you, that your name, and excellent Mr. Henry's, are
joined in the same papers.
I am.
Sir,
Your very humble and faithful servant,
William Bates. *
TAe Rev. W. Bates, D. D. died July 14, 1699, act. 74. See the Biog. Brit. v. l..p. 687.
A PREFACE
TO THE READER.
That which we aim at in this undertaking, and which we would set before us at our
Dtnince upon it, is, not so much to embalm the memory of this good man, though that also
blessed, as to exhibit to the world a pattern of that primitive Christianity, which all that
new him well observed to be exemplified in him while he lived ; and when they saw the end
^ kit conversation^ as it were with one consent, desired a public and lasting account of, or
Iher demanded it, as a just debt owing to the world, by those into whose hands his papers
ime, as judging such an account likely to conduce much to the glory of God's grace, and to
le edification of many, especially of those that were acquainted with him. He was one
horn the Divine Providence did not call out, as neither did his own inclinaticm lead him, to
ly very pubUc scene of action. He was none of the for\i'ard men of the age, that made
iCTiselves talked of. The world scarce knew that there was such a man in it. But in his
iwand narrow sphere he was a burning and shining light: and therefore we think his pious
uuDQple is the more adapted to general use, especially, consisting not in the ecstasies and
iptnres of zeal and devotion, — which are looked upon rather as admirable than imitable ; —
Dt in the long series of an even, regular, prudent, and well ordered conversation, which he
ad in the world, and in the ordinary business of it, with simplicity and godly sincerity ; not
iStifltshltf wisdom J but by the grace of God, It hath been said, that quiet and peaceable
9gns, though they are the best to live in, yet they are the worst to write of, as j4elding least
uiety of matter for the historian's pen to work upon ; — ^but a quiet and peaceable life, in all
odliness and honesty y being tlie sum and substance of practical Christianity, the recommend-
ig of the example of such a life, in the common and familiar instances of it, together with
16 kind and gracious providences of God attending it, may be, if not as diverting to the
irious, yet every whit as usefiil and instructive to the pious, readers. If any suggest that
ic design of this attempt is to credit and advance a party, let them know that Mr. Henry
18 a man of no party, but true catholic Christianity, not debauched by bigotry, nor leavened
r any private opinions or interests, was his very temper and genius. According to the excellent
id royal laws of this holy religion, his Ufe was led with a strict and conscientious adherence
tmth and equity ; a great tenderness and inoffensivencss to all mankind ; and a mighty
Qcture of sincere piety and devot^dness to God. And according to those sacred rules, we
lall endeavour, in justice to him, as well as to our reader, to represent him in the following
rcoont ; and if any thing should drop from our pen, which might justly give offence to any,
hich we promise industriously to avoid, we desire it may be looked upon as a false stroke ;
id, so far, not truly representing him, who was so blameless^ and harmless, and without rebuke.
[uch of our materials for this structure we have out of his own papers, especially his diary,
T by them his picture may be drawn nearest to the life, and firom thence we may take the
nest idea of him, and of the spirit he was of Those notes being intended for his own pri-
ile UM in the review, and never communicated to any person whatsoever ; and appearing
6 PREFACE TO THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY.
here as they ought to do, in their own native dress,* the candid reader will excuse it, if some-
times the expressions should seem abrupt ; they are the genuine, unforced, and unstudied
breathings of a gracious soul, and we hope will be rather the more acceptable to those who,
through grace, are conscious to themselves of the same devout and pious motions. For, as
in water face answers to face, so doth one sanctified and renewed soul to another ; and as Mr.
Baxter observes, in his Preface to Mr. Clark's Lives,t — ^^ God's graces are much the same in
all his holy ones ; and therefore we must not think that such instances as these are extraor-
dinary rarities ; but God hath in wonderful mercy raised up many, by whose graces even this
earth is perfumed and enlightened." But, if one star be allowed to differ from another star in
glory, perhaps our reader will say, when he hath gone through the following account, that
Mr. Henry may be ranked among those of the first magnitude.
* Tone's Life of the Rev. Matthew Henry, p. 3. ui supra,
t The Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons in this latter Age ; in Two Parts ; Part I. of Divines ; Part 11.
Of Nobility and Gentry of both Sexes. By Samuel Clark. Fol. 1683.
POSTSCRIPT.
This Account of the Life and Death of my honoured father, was first published the year
after he died ; and in a little time, there was a second impression of it, in which many con-
aderable errors of the first were amended. It having now been long out of print, and often
mquired for, this third edition comes abroad at the request of many who have found this por-
traiture of a Nathaniel, an Israelite indeed^ — a genuine son of faithful Jacob, — ihoi plain man
dtDelling in tents^ — very serviceable to themselves and others, both for direction, quickening,
and encouragement in the ways of God and godliness ; for even this way, as well as in conver-
sation,— as iron sharpens irony so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
Frequent mention being made in the book of the comfort he had in all the branches of his
family, whom, with satisfaction, he saw planted in families of their own, it may not be amiss
here to mention the changes which the Divine Providence made among them, soon after the
Lord had taken away our master fix)m our head, who was a daily intercessor for us.
In the year 1697, the year after my father died, two of his four daughters died, in Chester,
of a malignant fever, within three weeks one of another : two excellent Christians ; and one
of them, by some papers of her writing found after her death, appearing to have had such an
experimental acquaintance with the principles, powers, and pleasures, of the spiritual apd
divine life, as few Christians, that have more than doubled her years, attain to.
In the year 1699, two of his four sons-in-law* died, likewise, in Chester, within four or five
months one of another ; both of them useful good men in their places, and blessings to their
faunilies. One of them was Dr. John Tylston, a physician, — ^like St Luke, — a beloved physi-
cian ; some time of Trinity College, in Oxford. Though he died at thirly-five years of age,
he was for several years very eminent, and of great repute, in his profession. He was a imi-
versal scholar, had abimdance of knowledge, and used it aright ; and was a very devout,
serious, conscientious Christian, and one that made it his business to do good. Many excel-
lent papers he also left behind him, full fi*aught with proofs both of his learning and piety.
He was greatly and generally lamented ; and his memory is, and will be, very precious in
this city. Having this occasion, I cannot forbear, even at this distance of time, dropping
some tears afresh over his dust, thus publicly ; for he was to me as my own soul ; and upon
every remembrance of him, I must still say, as I did then, what David said of Jonathan, — 1
am distressed for thee, my brother ; very pleasant hast thou been unto me,
• The one. Dr. John Tylston, died April 8, 1699. See his life in the Investigator, v. 2. p. 254, Su;.
The other, Mr. Samuel Radford, died August 20, 1699. See an interesting record of this event by Mrs.
Savage, in the Memoirs of her Life and Character, p. 22, &c. Also Tong's Life of the Rev. Matthew
Hemy, p. 149. nt Mupra.
8 POSTSCRIPT.
It pleased God graciously to prolong the life of my dear and honoured mother^ almost
eleven years after my father, very much to the comfort of all her relations : she continued, to
the last, at her house at Broad Oak, where she was bom, a great example of wisdom, piety,
and usefulness, and abounding in good works. I think I may say, in her sphere and capacity
she was not inferior to what my father was in his. She was very happy in a constant calm-
ness and serenity of mind, not easily disturbed ; which, as it was a singular gift of the divine
grace, and an instance of her wisdom, so it contributed very much to her close and comfort-
able walking with God, and her doing good. She lived and died rejoicing in Christ Jesus,
and in a pleasing expectation of the glory to be revealed. Dr. Benyonf preached her fune-
ral sermon in the meeting-place at Broad Oak, not a year before I preached his at Shrewsbuiy,
on Hebrews vi. 12. — Be ye followers of them, who, through faith and patience, inherit the
promises. The first sermon I preached at Broad Oak after that sad occasion, I wrote over at
large afterwards, designing it for the benefit, not only of her children, but of her grand-chil-
dren, of whom she had twenty-three following her to the grave. They have hawl it in manu-
script among them, and now, in compliance with the desire of many of my friends, I have
here added it to this edition of my father's Life ; and it is all I have thought fit to add to it
I confess, I am not solicitous, as some perhaps may think I should be, to make an excuse,
and to ask pardon for troubling the world with the little affairs of my poor family, and with
the indulgences of my natural affection to it. I design nothing in it but, if it may be, by the
grace of God, to do good to plain people like myself.
Matthew Henry.
Chester,
February 27, 1711-12.
♦ Appendix, No. I.
t Tator of an Academy at Whixall, in Shropshire, afterwards at Shrewsbury. He was bort June 14,
1073 ; and died March 4, 1707-8. set. 36.
AN
ACCOUNT
OF
THE LIFE AND DEATH
OF
MR. PHILIP HENRY.
CHAPTER I.
MS. PHILIP HVNRirS BIRTB, PAESKTAOB, BARIT FIETT, AND BDUCATIOK AT SCHOOL.
He was bom at Whitehall, in Westminster, on
Wednesday, August 24, 1631, being Bartholomew
Day. I find, usually, in his Diary, some pious re-
mark or other upon the annual return of his birth-
day. As in one year he notes, that the Scripture
mentions bat two who observed their birth-day with
feasting and joy, and they were neither of them
copies to be written after: viz. Pharaoh, Gen. xl.
20. and Herod, Matt. xiv. G.—But, saith he, I rather
obsenrc it as a day of mourning and humiliation,
because skapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin.
And when he had completed the thirtieth year of his
age, he noted this,— *So old, and no older, Alexan-
der* was, when he had conquered the great world,
but, saith he, I have not yet subdued the little world,
myself. At his thirty-third year he hath this hum-
ble reflection, — A long time lived to small purpose.
What shall I do to redeem it? And, at another, —
I may mourn, as Csesar** did, when he reflected
upon Alexander's early achievements, that others,
younger than I am, have done much more than I
have done for God, the God of my life. And, to
mention no more, when he had lived forty-two years,
he thus writes, — I would be loth to live it over again,
lest, instead of making it better, I should make it
vorse ; and besides, every year and day spent on
earth is lost in heaven. This last note minds me
a Plntarcb's Uvea, v. 4. p. SO. ed. 1793, oct
b Jaliiis Ccnr. Plut. v. 4. pp. 337, wt mipra. Also, Paradise Re.
litiied. Book iii. 30. Jec. Miltoirs Poetical Works by the Rev. H.
J.Todd,lf.A.F S.A« v. 5. p. U3, note.
c AppnwWy, Na II-
dWbcn llMt eadnent martyr, "Master George Wischard,"
of a passage I have heard him tell of a friend of his,
who, being g^wn into years, was asked how old he
was, and answered,-^On the wrong side of fifty ; —
which, said Mr. Henry, he should not have said ;
for, if he was going to heaven, it was the right side
of fifty.
He always kept a will by him ready made ; and
it was his custom, yearly, upon the return of his
birth-day, to review, and, if occasion were, to renew
and alter it. For it is good to do that at a set time,
which it is very good to do at some time. The last
will ' be made bears date, — ^This 24ih day of August,
1605, being the day of the year on which I was bom,
1631, and also the day of the year on which, by law,
I died,** as did also near two thousand faithful
ministers of Jesus Christ, 10G2 : alluding to that
clause in the Act of Uniformity, which disposeth of
the places and benefices of ministers not conform-
ing, as if they were naturally dead.
His father^s name was John Henry, the son of
Henry Williams, of Britton-Ferry, betwixt Neath
and Swansey, in Glamorganshire. According to the
old Welsh custom, (some say conformable to that of
the ancient Hebrews, but now almost in all places
laid aside,) the father's Christian name was the son's
surname.* He had left his native country, and his
father's house, very young, unprovided for by his
was prohibited preaching, ** he grew pensive i and being asked
the reason, said,— 'What do I differ IVom a dead man, but
that I eat and drink !' ** Clark's Gen. Martyr, p. 283. fol.
1677.
e See Verstcgan's Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, p 311.
1628. 4to.
10
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
relations ; ' but it pleased God to bless his ingenaity
and indastry with a considerable income afterwards,
which enabled him to live comfortably himself, to
bring up his children well, and to be kind to many of
his relations; but public events making against
him at his latter end, when he died he left little be-
hind him for his children, but God gpraciously took
care of them. Providence brought this Mr. John
Henry, when he was young, to be the Earl of Pem-
broke's ' gentleman, whom he served many years.
The Earl coming to be Lord Chamberlain, preferred
him to be the King's servant. He was first made
Keeper of the Orchard at Whitehall ; [For which he
had, besides a dwelling-house at the garden-stairs,
with the perquisites of the water-gate, and lodgings
of considerable yearly value,** and the profits of the
orchard, ten gpxiats per diem ' standing wages, with
livery out of the wardrobe,
* per annum, in-
somuch that he lived plentifully, and in good repute,
but laid by nothing.^
He was] afterwards Page of the Back Stairs to
the King's second son, James,'" Duke of York, which
place obliged him to a personal attendance upon the
Duke in his chamber. He lived and died a courtier,
a hearty mourner for his royal master King Charles
the First, whom he did not long survive." He
continued, during all the war-time, in his house at
Whitehall, though the profits of his places ceased.
The King, passing by his door, under a guard, to
take water, when ho was going to Westminster, to
that which they called his trial, inquired for his old
servant, Mr. John Henry, who was ready to pay hb
due respects to him, and prayed God to — Bless his
Majesty, and to deliver him out of the hands of his
enemies ; for which the g^ard had like to have been
rough upon him.®
His mother was Mrs. Magdalen Rochdale, of the
parish of St Martin's-in-the-Fields, in Westminster.
jShe was a virtuous, pious gentlewoman, and one
that feared God above many. She was altogether
dead to the vanities and pleasures of the court,
though she lived in the midst of them. She looked
well to the ways of her household ; prayed with them
daily, catechized her children, and taught them the
f He had from his flilher, as I have heard, but one groat. P.
Henry. Orig. BIS.
g Ob. 23rd Jan. 1640-50. Collins's Peerage, v. 3. p. 127, kc. ed.
181*2.
h £50 or £60 per annum. Orig. MS. of the Life of P. Henry, by
Matt Henry.
i Above £60 per annum. lb.
k £27 per annum. lb.
1 P. Hen. Orig. MS.
m Afterwards King James II.
n 1652, Feb. 28tlL My dear &ther, Mr. John Henry, died at his
house in Whitehall. A very great affliction both to myself and
sisters, especially the two little ones. The Lord provide for us!
He was bom July 20. 1590. P. Henry. Diary. Orig. MS.
o See a Mem. of the reign of K. Ch. I. by Sir P. Warwick, p. 379,
and Sir Tho. Herbert*s Memoir, p. 163.
p The Rev. W. Perkins died A. D. 1602, aged 44. Clarke*s
good knowledge of the Lord hetimes. I have heard
him speak of his learning Mr. Perkins's p Six Princi-
ples,** when he was very young ; and he often men-
tioned, with thankfulness to God, his great happi-
ness in having such a mother, who was to him as
Lois and Eunice were to Timothy, acquainting him
with the Scriptures from his childhood ; and, there
appearing in him early inclinations both to learning
and piety, she devoted him in his tender years to
the service of God, in the work of the ministry. She
died of a consumption, March 6, 1645, leaving be-
hind her only this son and five daughters. A little
before she died, she had this saying, '* My head is
in heaven, and my heart is in heaven ; it is but one
step more, and I shall be there too.''
His susceptors in baptism were, Philip ^ Earl of
Pembroke, (who gave him his name, and was kind
to him as long as he lived, as was also his son
Philip after him,) James" Earl of Carlisle, and the
Countess of Salisbury.^
Prince Charles°and the Duke of York being
somewhat near of an age to him, he was in his child-
hood very much an attendant on them in their play,
and they were often with him at his father's house,
and they were wont to tell him what preferment he
should have at court, as soon as he was fit for it
He kept a book to his dying day, which the Duke
of York gave him ; and I have heard him bewail the
loss of two curious pictures, which he gave him like-
wise. Archbishop Laud^ took a particular kind-
ness to him when he was a child, because he would
be very officious to attend at the water-g^te, (which
was part of his father's charge in Whitehall,) to let
the Archbishop through when he came late from
Council, to cro.ss the water to Lambeth.
[And when the Archbishop was a prisoner in the
Tower, his father took him with him to see him, and
he would remember that the Archbishop gave him
some new money.*]
These circumstances of his childhood he would
sometimes speak of among his friends, not as glory-
ing in them, but taking occasion from thence to bless
God for his deliverance from the snares of the court,
in the midst of which it is so very hard to maintain
Bfarrow of Eccl. Hist p. 850. 4to. 1654. It was the motto of the
learned and godly divine. Mr. Perkins, F!t!ei vita vera et7a;-the
true life is the life of fiaiith ; a word which that worthy servant of
God did both write and live. Bishop Hall. Works, vol. viii. p. 30.
oct ed.
q See Mr. Perkins's Works, vol. i. p. 1. fol. 1608.
r See Dunton's Life and Errors, v. i. p. 344. ed. 1818. He died
Dec. II, 1660. Collins's Peerage, v. 3. p. 140, &c. >/ suftra.
s Died without issue in 1660, on which his titles became ex-
tinct. Collins's Peerage, v. 7. p. 205. ut npra.
t Lady Catharine HowanI, youngest daughter of Thomas, Earl
of Suflblk. She was married to William, the second Earl of Salis-
bury, Dec. 1. 1608. Collins's Peerage, v. 2. p. 490. utsmpra,
u Afterwards King Charles II.
V He was bom A. D. 1.573, and beheaded Jan. 10. 1644-5. Hist
of his Troubles, Trial, Diary. &c. 2 vols. fol. 1695.
w Life. Orig. HAS. v/ tvpra.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
11
t good conscience and the power of religion, that it
hath been said, thongh, blessed be God, it is not a
role without exception. Exeat ex auU qui velit esse
fius, * The breaking ap and scattering of the court,
by the calamities of 1641, as it dashed the expecta-
tUMis of hia court preferments, so it prcTcnted the
danger of court entanglements. And, though it was
not, like Moses's, a choice of his own, when come
to years, to quit the court ; yet when he was come
to years, he always expressed a great satisfaction
in his remoral from it, and blessed God, who chose
his inheritance 30 much better for him.
Yet it may not be improper to observe here, what
vas obTious, as well as amiable, to all who convers-
ed with him ; yiz. that he had the most sweet and
obliging air of courtesy and civility that could be ;
which some attributed in part to his early education at
court. His mien and carriage were always so very
decent and respectful, that it could not but win the
hearts of all be had to do with. Never was any man
fartiier from that rudeness and moroscness which
some scholars, and too many that profess religion,
either wilfully affect, or carelessly allow themselves
in, sometimes to the reproach of their profession. It
is one of the laws of our holy religion, exemplified
in the couTersation of this goo8 man, to konour all
mem. Sanctified civility is a great ornament to
Christianity. It was a saying he often used, — Reli-
gion doth not destroy good manners ; [it destroys
not civility but sanctifies it ; '] and yet he was very
far from any thing of vanity in apparel, or formality
of compliment in addross ; but his conversation was
all natural and easy to himself and others, and no-
thing appeared in him, which even a severe critic
could justly call affected. This temper of his tended
very much to the adorning of the doctrine of God
oar Saviour ; and the general transcript of such an
excellent copy, would do much towards the healing
of those wounds which religion hath roceived, in the
house of her friends, by the contrary. But to return
to his story. —
The first Latin school he went to was at St.
Martin's church, under the teaching of one Mr.
Bonner.' Afterwards he was removed to Batter-
aey, * where one Mr. Wells was his schoolmaster.
The grateful mention which in some of his papers
he makes of these that were the guides and instruc-
tors of his childhood and youth, brings to mind that
French proverb to this purpose, '' To father, teacher,
and Grod all-sufficient, none can render equivalent.''
X Lncretiiis.
7 P. Henry. Orig. MB.
I Who was very loving to me, and took pains with me. P. Henry.
Orig. MS.
a Where I tabled at one Mr. Heybom's by the water-side, and
went to Bcbool to one Mr. Wells. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
b Died April 6, 1605. 0t 80. See Chalmers's Biog. Diet. v. 7. p.
438, Ice. And Mattaire's Ep. at the end of the Prefiuse in Vit Job.
Birwick, S. S. P. ed. 173L In the same volume is preserved an
But in the year 1643, when he was about twelve
years old, he was admitted into Westminster School,
in the fourth fonn, under Mr. Thomas Vincent, then
usher, whom he would often speak of as a most
able, diligent schoolmaster; and one who grieved
so much at the dulncss and non-proficiency of any
of his scholars, that falling into a consumption, I
have heard Mr. Henry say of him,— That he even
killed himself with false Latin.
A while after he was taken into the upper school,
under Mr. Richard Busby, afterwards Dr. Busby ; ^
and in October, 1G45, he was admitted King's scholar,
and was first of the election, partly by his own merit,
and partly by the interest of the Earl of Pembroke.
Here he profited greatly in school-learning, and
all his days retained his improvements therein to
admiration. [Nor was there any part of his life
which he did more frequently speak of with pleasure
than the years he spent at Westminster School. ']
When he was in years, he would readily in discourse
quote passages out of the classic authors that were
not common, and had them ad unguemy and yet
rarely used any such things in his preaching, though
sometimes, if very apposite, he inserted them in his
notes. He was very ready and exact in the Greek
accents, the quantities of words, and all the several
kinds of Latin verse; and often pressed it upon
young scholars, in the midst of their university-
learning, not to forget their school-authors.
Here, and before, his usual recreation at vacant
times was, either reading the printed accounts of
public occurrences, or attending the courts at West-
minster Hall, to hear the trials and arguments there,
which I have heard him say, he hath often done to
the loss of his dinner, and oftener of his play.
But paulo tnajora ranamti^.— Soon after those un-
happy Hurs begun, there was a daily morning lecture
set up at the abbey-church, between six and eight
of the clock, and preached by seven worthy members
of the assembly of divines in course, viz. Mr. Mar-
shal, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Heri, Dr. Staunton, Mr. Nye,
Mr. Whitakcr, and Mr. Hill. It was the request of
his pious mother to Mr. Busby, that he would give
her son leave to attend that lecture daily, which he
did, not abating any thing of his school-exercise, in
which he kept pace with the rest ; but only dispens-
ing with his absence for that hour. And the Lord
was pleased to make good impressions on his soul,
by the sermons he heard there. His mother also
took him with her every Thursday, to Mr. Case's*
anecdote at once descriptive or the Doctor's exemplary temper-
ance and the sad efl^ets of prejudice, p. 333.
c Life. Orig. MS. m/ npra.
d Thoma.H Case. P. Henry. Orig. MS. Thomas Case, M. A.
died May 30. 168-2, aet 84. See the Noncon. Mem. t. I. p. 153.
ed. 1802.
He preached a lecture at St. Martin's.! n-the-Pields every
Thursday, which be kept up above twenty years. Fun. Serm. by
Thomas Jacomb. D. D. p. 41. 4to. 1683.
1-2
THE UFE OF MR PHILIP HENRY.
lecture at St Martin's. On the Lord's day he sat
under the powerful ministry of Mr. Stephen Mar-
shal ; in the morning at Ncw-chapel, in the after-
noon at St. Margaret's Westminster, which was tlicir
parish church. In the former place Mr. Marshal
preached long from Phil. ii. 5, 6, &c. ; in the latter
from John viii. 36. of our freedom by Christ. This
minister, and this ministry, he would, to his last,
speak of with great respect, and thankfulness to
God, as that by which he was, through grace, in the
beginning of his days, heyotten again to a lively hope,
I have heard him speak of it, as the saying of some
wise men ' at that time, — That if all the Presbyte-
rians had been like Mr. Stephen Marshal, and all
the Independents like Mr. Jeremiah Burroughs,^
and all the Episcopal men like Archbishop Usher, s
the breaches of the church would soon have been
healed. He also attended constantly upon the
monthly fasts at St Margaret's, where the best and
ablest ministers of England preached before the then
House of Commons ; and the service of the day was
carried on with great strictness and solemnity, from
eight in the morning till four in the evening. [He
likewise frequented extraordinary fasts and thanks-
givings, i* Here he used to sit always upon the
pulpit stairs,' and] it was his constant practice,
from eleven or twelve years old, to write, as he could,
all the sermons he heard, which he kept very care-
fully, transcribed many of them fair over after, and,
notwithstanding his many removes, they are yet
forthcoming.
At these monthly fasts, he himself hath recorded
it, he had often sweet meltings of soul in pj^ayer,
and confession of sin, (particularly once with special
remark, when Mr. William Bridge,"^ of Yarmouth,
prayed,) and many warm and lively truths came
home to his heart, and he daily increased in that
wisdom and knowledge which is to salvation. Read
his reflections upon this, which he wrote many years
after. '' If ever any child," saith he, *' such as I
then was, between the tenth and fifteenth years of
my age, enjoyed line vpon line^ precept upon precept^
I did. And was it in vain ? I trust, not altogether
in vain. My soul rejoiccth, and is glad at the re-
membrance of it ; the word distilled as the dew, and
dropt as the rain, 1 loved it, and loved the messen-
gers of it; their very feet were beautiful to me.
And, Lord, what a mercy was it, that, at a time
when the poor countries were laid waste ; when the
. noise of drums and trumpets, and the clattering of
arms, was heard there, and the ways to Sion mourned,
that then my lot should be where there was peace
e Mr. Baxter used to ny so. Neal's History of the Puritans, v.
3. p. 349. ed. 1795.
f Nat. A. D. IM9. Ob. Nov. 14. I64fi. Lives of the Puritans, v.
3. p. i&
g Nat. Jan. 4. 1.580. ob. Mar. 21, 18W. Life and Utters, by his
Chaplain. Dr. Parr, fol. 1686.
h P. Henry. Orig. MS.
and quietness, where the voice of the turtle was heard^
and there was great plenty of gospel opportunities !
Bless the Lord, O my soul! As long as I live I will
bless the Lord. I will praise my God while I have
my being. Had it been only the restraint that it
laid upon me, whereby I was kept from the common
sins of other children and youths, such as cursing,
swearing, sabbath-breaking, and the like, I were
bound to be very thankful. But tliat it prevailed,
through grace, effectually to bring me to God, how
much am I indebted ! And what shall I render f"
Thus you see how the dews of heaven softened his
heart by degrees. — From these early experiences of
his own,
1. He would blame those who laid so much stress
on people knowing the exact time of their conver-
sion, which he thought was, with many, not possible
to do. Who can so soon be aware of the day-break,
or of the springing up of the seed sown ? The work
of grace is better known in its effects than in its
causes.
He would sometimes illustrate this by that saying
of the blind man to the Pharisees, who were so cri-
tical in examining the recovery of his sight. This,
and the other, I know not concerning it, but,— TAit
one thing I hnow, that, whereas I was blind, now I see,
John ix. 25.
2. He would bear his testimony to the comfort
and benefit of early piety, and recommend it to all
young people, as a good thing to bear the yoke of
the Lord Jesus in youth. He would often witness
against that wicked proverb, " A young saint, an
old devil ;" and would have it said rather, — A young
saint, an old angel.' He observed it concerning
Obadiah, and he was a courtier, that he feared the
Lord from his youth; 1 Kings xviii. 12. and it is
said of him, verse 3. that he " feared the Lord
greatly." Those that would come to fear God
greatly, must learn to fear him from their youth.
No man did his duty so naturally as Timothy did,
Phil. ii. 20. who, from a child, knew the Holy Scrip-
tures. He would sometimes apply to this that com-
mon saying, — He that would thrive, must rise at five.
And, in dealing with young people, how earnestly
would he press this upon them, — I tell you, you
cannot begin too soon to be religious, but you may
put it off too long. Manna must be gathered early,
and he that is the first, must have the first. He often
inculcated, Eccles. xii. I, Remember thy Creator in
the days of thy youth ; or, as in the original, ** the
days of thy choice," — thy choice days, and thy
choosing days.
I Life. Orig. MS. W npra.
k See the Noncon. Mem. v. a p. 19. He died Mar. 12, 1670.
mtlO.
1 Remember the olde proverbe, yomig saints, old devils; which
proverbe, in very deed, is naught and deeeitfull ; therefore ^e
may say thus,— Young devill, old devill ; Young saints, old saints.
Sermons by Bishop Latimer, p. 171. 4to. 1007.
THE LIFE OF MR, PHIUP HENRT.
13
[He would say sometimes,— The life of a Christian
is a life of labour ; San, Go, work ;— it is necessary
work, and excellent work, and pleasant work, and
profitable work ; and it is good to be at it when
young.-]
I remember a passage of his in a Lecture Sermon,
io the year 1674, which mach affected many. He
was preaching on that text. Matt. xi. 30. My yoke is
easy; and, after many things insisted upon, to prove
the yoke of Christ an easy yoke, he at last appealed
to the experience of all that had drawn in that yoke.
— C(f//, now, if there be any that will answer you ; and
to which of the saints will you turn ? Turn to which
Tou will, and they will all agree, that they have
foond wisdom's ways pleasantness ; and Christ's com-
mandments not grievous ; — and, saith he, I will here
witness for one, who, through grace, has, in some
poor measure, been drawing in this yoke, now above
thirty years, and I have found it an easy yoke, and
like my choice too well to change.
3. He would also recommend it to the care of
parents, to bring their children betimes to public
ordinances. He would say, that they are capable,
sooner than we are aware, of receiving good by them.
The Scripture takes notice, more than once, of the
Uttle ones in the solemn assemblies of the faithful ;
Deat. xxix. 11. Ezra x. 1. Acts xxi. 5. If we
lay our children by the pool-side, who knows but
the Blessed Spirit may help them in, and heal them. "
He used to apply that scripture to this. Cant. i. 8.
Those that would have communion with Christ,
must not only go forth by ihe footsteps of the flock,
themselves, hnX feed their kids too, — ^their children,
or other young ones that are under their charge,
beside the Shepherd's tents.
4. He would also recommend to young people the
practice of writing sermons. He himself did it, not
only when he was young, but continued it constantly
till within a few years before he died, when the decay
of his sight, obliging him to the use of spectacles,
made writing not so ready to him as it had been.
He never wrote short-hand, but had an excellent art
of taking the snbstsmcc of a sermon in a very plain
and legible hand, ** and with a great deal of ease.
And the sermons he wrote, he kept by him, in such
method and order, that, by the help of indexes.
m P. Henry. Orig. MS.
n See John v. 2 — 8.
o It hath been observed of many eminent men, that they have
wntten bat bad hands, and some think that is the meaning of
Paul's rnXicocf 'tpa4iiLa*rt9, Gal. vi. II. ** Ye see with what sort or
letters (how ill made) I have written to you with my own hand."
Rut if that be a rule, B(r. Henry was an exception from it. Life.
Ori^ MS. 9t tmfrm. The aame could not be said of the excellent
cofmneotator. Avrare of it, in a letter to his friend, the Rev. S.
Clark, be tbos writes ; — ** I oft blame myself for writing carelessly,
etpeeiany when my mind is intent" Chester. Dec. 4, 1700.
Orig MS.
p Mr. John Ireland, the editor of Hogarth's works, numbered
Mr. Henry among hia aneeators. His mother, the daughter of the
which he made to them, he could readily turn almost
to any sermon that ever he heard, where he noted
the preacher, place, and time ; and this he called, —
Hearing for the time to come. He recommended
this practice to others, as a means to engage their
attention in hearing, and to prevent drowsiness, and
to help their memories after hearing, when they come
cither to meditate t^pon what they have heard them-
selves, or to communicate it to others ; and many
have had reason to bless God for his advice and
instruction herein. He would advise people some-
times to look over the sermon-notes that they had
written, as a ready way to revive the good impres-
sions of the truths they had heard, and would blame
those who made waste-paper of them ; — for, saith
he, the day is coming, when you will either thank
God for them, or heartily wish you had never written
them.
But it is time we return to Westminster School,
Vhere, having begun to learn Christ, we left him in
the successful pursuitof other learning, under the eye
and care of that great Master, Dr. Busby ; who, on the
account of his pregnancy and diligence, took a par-
ticular kindness to him, called him his child, and
would sometimes tell him he should be his heir ; and
there was no love lost betwixt them. ' Dr. Busby
was noted for a very severe schoolmaster, especially
in the beginning of his time. But Mr. Henry would
say sometimes, that, as in so great a school there was
need of a strict discipline, so, for his own part, of
the four years he was in the school, he never felt the
weight of his hand but once, and then, saith he, in
some of the remarks of his youth, which he wrote
long after, I deserved it. For, being monitor of the
chamber, and, according to the duty of his place,
being sent out to seek one that played truant, ^ he
found him out where he had hid himself, and, at his
earnest request, promised to make an excuse for him,
and to say he could not find him ; which, saith he,
in a penitential reflection upon it afterwards, I
wickedly did. Next morning, the truant coming
under examination, and being asked whether he saw
the monitor, said. Yes, he did ; at which Dr. Busby
was much surprised, and turned his eye upon the
monitor, with this word, Kal ffv rUvov ; What thou, my
son!' and gave him correction, and appointed him
Rev. Thomas Holland, of Wem, in Shropshire, was Mr. Henry*i
greaUgrand.daughter.
The first time Mr. Ireland was introduced to Dr. Johnson, he
was stated to be a descendant of Mr. Philip Henry, on which that
great man remarked, in his emphatic manner,—" Sir, you are
descended from a man, whose genuine simplicity, and unalDscted
piety, would have done honour to any sect of Christians-, and,
as a scholar, he must have had uncommon acquirements, when
Busby boasted of having been his tutor." Public Characters of
iaoO-1801. p. 339.
q One Nath. Bull, afterwards a Master of Paul's School Life.
Orig. MS. «/ npra.
r The historian, narrating the murder of Julius Cesar,
records, that,—" with 3 and 20 wounds he was stabbed : dur-
u
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
to make a penitential copy of Latin verses, which,
when he brought, he gave him sixpence, and received
him into his favour again.
Among the mercies of Grod to him in his youth,
(and he would say, it were well if parents would
keep an account of those for their children, till they
came to be capable of doing it for themselves, and
then to set them upon the doing of it,) he hath
recorded a remarkable deliverance he had here at
Westminster School, which was this : It was cus-
tomary thei J, among the studious boys, for one, or
two, or more, to sit up the former part of the night at
study ; and when they went to bed, about midnight,
to call others ; and they others, at two or three o'clock,
as they desired. His request was to be called at
twelve ; being awaked, he desired his candle might
be lighted, which stuck to the bed's head ; but he
dropt asleep again, and the candle fell, and burnt
part of the bed and bolster, ere he awaked ; but,
through God's good providence, seasonable help came
in, the fire was soon quenched, and he received no
harm. This g^ve him occasion, long after, to say, —
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed.
When he was at Westminster school he was em-
ployed by Dr. Busby, as some others of the most
ingenious and industrious of his scholars were, in
their reading of the Greek Authors, to collect, by
his direction, some materials for that excellent Greek
Grammar, which the Doctor afterwards published.
But, be the school never so ag^eable, youth is
desirous to commence man by a removal from it.
This step he took in the sixteenth year of his age.
It was the ancient custom of Westminster School,
that all the King's Scholars, who stood candidates
for an election to the University, were to receive the
Lord's Supper the Easter before, which he did with
the rest, in St. Margaret's Church, at Easter, 1647 ;
and he would often speak of the great pains which
Dr. Busby took witli his scholars, that were to
approach to that solemn ordinance, for several weeks
before, at stated times ; with what skill and serious-
ness of application, and manifest concern for their
souls, he opened to them the nature of the ordinance,
and of the work they had to do in it ; and instructed
them what was to be done in preparation for it ; and
this he made a business of, appointing them their
religious exercises instead of their school exercises.
What success this had, through the g^nce of God,
upon young Mr. Henry, to whom the doctor had a
iog which time he gave but one frronn, without any worde
uttered, and that was at the first thrust ; although some
have written, that, as M. Brutus came running upon him, he
said, Kai ffv TCKvov ; j1»d lk<m^ my tonnt /" Suetonius, p. 33. fol.
1006.
s Upon hearing of the death of Dr Busby, in April, 1695, after
he had been near flfty-eight years Schoolmaster of Westminster
School, Mr. Henry thus writes.^! believe 1 have as much reason
to l^less God for him, as any scholar that ever he had —he having
particular regard, read from his own hand. '* There
had been treaties," saith he, '* before, between my
soul and Jesus Christ, with some weak overtures
towards him ; but then, then, I think, it was, that
the match was made, the knot tied : then I set my-
self, in the strength of divine grace, about the great
work of self-examination, in order to repentance ;
and then I repented ; that is, solemnly and seriously,
with some poor meltings of soul. I confessed my
sins before God, original and actual, judging and
condemning myself for them, and casting away from
me all my transgressions, receiving Christ Jesus the
Lord, as the Lord my Righteousness, and devoting
and dedicating, my whole self, absolutely and unre-
servedly, to his fear and service. After which,
coming to the ordinance, there, there I received him
indeed ; and He became mine ; — I say. Mine, Bless
the Lord, O my soul /"
Dr. Busby's agency, under God, in this blessed
work, he makes a very g^^teful mention of, in divers
of his papers,— The Lord recompense it, saith he, a
thousand-fold into his bosom. *
I have heard him tell how much he surprised the
Doctor, the first time he waited upon him after he
was turned out by the act of uniformity : for when
the Doctor asked him, '' Pr'ythee, child, what made
thee a nonconformist ?— Truly, Sir, saith Mr. Henry,
you made me one ; for you taught me those things
that hindered me from conforming."
" Encouraged by this experience, I have myself,"
saith he, in one of his papers, '* taken like pains
with divers others at their first admission to the Lord's
table, and have, through grace, seen the comfortable
fruits of it, both in mine own children and others.
To God be glory."
Mr. Jeremy Dyke's* book of the sacrament, I
have heard him say^ was of great use to him at that
time, in his preparation for that ordinance.
Thus was this great concern happily settled before
his launching out into the world, which, through
grace, he had all his days more or less the comfort
of, in an even serenity of mind, and a peaceful ex-
pectation of the glory to be revealed.
May 17, 1647, he was chosen from Westminster
School to Christ-church in Oxford, jure loci, with
four others, of which he had the second place. At
his election he was very much countenanced and
smiled upon by his godfather, the Earl of Pembroke,
who was one of the electors.
been so instrumental in beginning the good work in him. Lire.
Orig. MS. tit twpra.
t He was " or a cheerful spirit ; and know, reader* that an ounce
of mirth, with the same degree of grace, will serve God farther
than a pound of sadiiease." Fuller's Worthies. Hartfordshire, p.
38 fol. 1602. He died A. D. 16*20.
The book referred to is entitled, *• A Worthy Communicant;
or, a Treatise, showing the due order of Receiving the Sacrament
of the Lord's Supper." Duod. 1615.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
15
CHAPTER n.
HIS TEARS SPENT AT OXFOED.
Though be was chosen to the Uniyersity in May,
yet, being then yonng, under sixteen, and in loye
with his achool-lcaming, he made no g^at haste
thither. It was in December* following, 1647, that
he removed to Oxford. Some merciful providences,
in his joamcy, he being a young traveller, affected
him much, and he used to speak of them, with a
sense of God's goodness to him in them, according
to the impressions then made by them ; and he hath
recorded them with this thankful note, — That there
may be a great mercy in a small matter ; as the care
that was taken of hipi by strangers, when ho fainted
tnd was sick in his inn the first night; and his
casual meeting with Mr. Anncsly, son to the Vis-
count Yalentia, (who was chosen from Westminster
•
School at the same time that he was,) when his other
company, going another way, had left him alone,
and utterly at a loss what to do. Thus the sensible
remembrance of old mercies may answer the inten-
tion of new ones, which is to engage our obedience
to God, and to encourage our dependence on him.
Being come to Oxford, he was immediately en-
tocd commoner of Christ-church, where Dr. Samuel
FelP was then Dean ; the tutor assigned to him and
the rest of that election was Mr. Underwood/ a very
learned, ingenious gentleman.
His godfather, the Earl of Pembroke, had given
him ten pounds to buy him a gown, to pay his fees,
and to set out with. This in his papers he puts a re-
mark upon, as a seasonable mercy in regard of some
straits, which Providence, by the calamity of the
times, had brought his father to. God had taught
him from his youth that excellent principle, which
he adhered to all his days, that every creature is that
to us, and no more, that God makes it to be ;** and,
therefore, while many seek the ruler's favour, and so
expect to make their fortunes, as they call it, seeing
every man's judgement procccdeth from the Lord, it
is our wisdom to seek his favour, who is the Ruler of
rolers, and that is an effectual w^y to make sure our
happiness.
To the proper studies of this place he now vigor-
ously addressed himself; but still retaining a great
kindness for the classic authors, and the more polite
exercises he loved so well at Westminster School.
t Dec 15 Orig. BIS.
b Bora, 1584 ; Ob. Feb. IS48-9. Wood's Ath. Oxon. By Dr.
mm, T. a p.* 343. 4to. ISIT
c See Walker* s Sofkrings of tbe aeiig7, Part 11. p. 110. fol.
mi.
d Dr. Harris ** would oHen say, God made It appear to all be-
kolden, that the beat nan ia no more than God makes him hourly."
Ufe. by W. D.Cuzham.3 p. 4S. duod. lew. See Wood's Ath. ▼. 4.
pi 146L witaprm.
He was admitted student of Christ-church, March
24, 1647-8, by Dr. Henry Hammond, ** that g^eat man,
then Sub-Dean, who called him his god-brother, the
Earl of Pembroke being his god-father also, and
Prince Henry the other, who gave him his name.
The visitation of the University by the Parliament
happened to be in the very next month after. Ox-
ford had been for a good while in the hands of the
Parliament, and no change made-; but now the Earl
of Pembroke, and several others thereunto appoint-
ed, came hither to settle things upon a new bottom.
The account Mr. Henry in his papers gives of this
affair, is to this purpose : The sole question which
the visitors proposed to each person, high and low,
in every college, that had any place of profit, was
this, ** Will you submit to the power of the Parlia-
ment in this present visitation V* To which all were
to give in their answer in writing, and accordingly
were either displaced or continued. Some cheerfully
complied, others absolutely refused ; (among whom
he would sometimes tell of one that was but of his
standing, who gave in this bold answer, " I neither
can nor will submit to the power of the Parliament
in this present visitation ; I say I cannot, I say I
mil not.'' J. C.^ Others answered doubtfully,
pleading youth and ignorance* in such matters.
Mr. Henry's answer was, — I submit to the power of
the Parliament in the present visitation, as far as I
may with a safe conscience, and without perjury.
His reason for the last salvo was, because he had
taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy a little
before, at his admission ; which he was, according
to the character of the good man, that he fears an
oath, very jealous of doing any thing to contradict
or infringe ; which hath made him sometimes signify
some dislike of that practice of administering oaths
to such as were scarce past children, who could
hardly be supposed to take them with judgment, as
oaths should be taken. However, this answer of his
satisfied ; and, by the favour of the Earl of Pembroke,
he was continued in his student's place. But g^eat
alterations were made in that, as well as in other
colleges, very much, no question, to the hinderance
and discouragement of young scholars, who came
thither to get learning, not to judge of the rights of
government. Dr. Samuel Fell, the Dean, was re-
moved, and Dr. Edward Reynolds, afterwards Bishop
of Norwich, was put in his room. Dr. Hammond
and all the Canons, " except Dr. Wall, were dis-
placed, and Mr. Wilkinson, Mr. Pococke, and
e See bis life by Dr. Fell. p. 3. duod. i661. Dr. H. was born 18
Aug. 1605. Ob. 25 Ap. 1600.
f John Carrick. P. Henry. Orig. MS. See Wallcer, »/ wpra.
Part 11. p. 110. His answer provoked, and be was soon after
turned out. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
g See tbe Lives o( Jobn Leland, Tbomas Haame, and Anthony
i Wood, ▼. 2. p. 52. OCt 1772.
h Dr. George Morley. Dr. Rich. Gardiner, Dr. Morris. Dr. San-
derson, and Dr. Payn, and one more. P. Henry, Orig. MS.
16
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
others,' of the Parliament's friends, were preferred
to their places. His thoughts of this in the reflection
long after, was, that milder methods might have done
better, and would have been a firmer establishment
to the new interest ; but, considering that many of
those who were put out (being in expectation of a
sudden change, which came not of many years after)
were exasperating in their carriage towards the
visitors ; and that the Parliament, who at this time
rode masters, had many of their own friends ready
for University-preferments, (which, Oxford having
been from the beginning a garrison for the King;
they had been long kept out of,) and these they were
concerned to oblige, it was not strange if they took
such strict methods. And yet nothing being required
but a bare submission, which might be interpreted
but as crying quarter, he thought withal, that it
could not be said the terms were hard, especially,
saith he, if compared with those of another nature
imposed since.
Among other student-masters removed, his tutor,
Mr. Underwood, was one, which he often bewailed
as ill for him, for he was a good scholar, and one
that made it his business to look after his pupils,
who were very likely, by the blessing of God, to
have profited under his conduct. But, upon the re-
moval of Mr. Underwood, he, with some others, was
turned over to Mr. Finmore, who was then in with
that interest which was uppermost, and was after-
wards Prebendary of Chester ; a person, as he notes,
able enough, but not willing to employ his abilities
for the good of those that were committed to his
charge ; towards whom he had little more than the
name of a tutor. This he lamented as his infelicity
at his first setting out. But it pleased God to give
him an interest in the affections of a young man, an
under-graduatc then, but two or three years his senior
fix>m Westminster, one Mr. Richard Bryan, " who
took him to be his chamber-fellow, while he con-
tinued at Oxford, read to him, overlooked his studies,
and directed him in them. Of this gentleman he
makes a very honourable mention, as one who was,
through God's blessing, an instrument of much good
to him. Mr. John Fell, also, the Dean's son, (after-
wards himself Dean of Christ-church, ahd Bishop
of Oxford,) taking pity on him, and some others
that were neglected, voluntarily read to them for
some time ; a kindness which he retained a very
grateful sense of, and for which he much honoured
that learned and worthy person.
Here he duly performed the college-exercises, dis-
i Mr. Cornish, Mr. Langley, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Button, and Dr.
Mills. Also great alterations among the students, and the like, in
other colleges. P. Henry. Orig MS.
k See Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, Part II. p. 110.
1 Life. Orig. MS. «/ $wpra.
m What must needes bee done in colledge-exercise, for dispu-
tations every day, in Tcrm>time, for theames and verses once a
week, and for declamations, when it came to my turn, I did as
putations every day, in Term-time; thenies and
verses once a week, and declamations when it came
to his turn ; in which performances he frequently
came off with very great applause. And many of
his manuscripts which remain, show how well he
improved his time there, [though most of his philo-
sophy collections were casually lost together in a
trunk in some remove, which he oft lamented. ']
And yet, in some reflections I find under his band,
written long after, wherein he looks back upon his
early days, he chargeth it upon himself, that for a
good while after he came to the University, though
he was known not to be inferior to any of his stand-
ing in public exercises,'" yet he was too much a
stranger to that hard study which afterwards he
became acquainted with, and that he lost a deal of
time which might have been better improved. Thus
he is pleased to accuse himself of that, which, for
ought I ever heard, no one else did, or could, accuse
him of. But the truth is, in all the secret accounts
he kept of himself, he appears to have had a very
quick and deep sense of his own failings and infir-
mities, in the most minute instances ; the loss of time,
weakness and distractions in holy duties, not im-
proving opportunities of doing good to others, and
the like ; lamentably bewailing these imperfections,
and charging them upon himself, with as great ex-
pressions of shame, and sorrow, and self-abhorrence,
and crying out as earnestly for pardon and forgive-
ness in the blood of Jesus, as if he had been the
greatest of sinners. [" I was," he writes, " too
much in love with recreation ; a bowling-green, I
remember, out of town, and a methcglin-house, which
I often went to in winter for my morning draught,
and it was such a draught as disfitted me for study
after, though I cannot say I was ever drunk. These
things are now bitter to me, and have been formerly,
many a time, in the reflection, and here I record
them against myself.'' *] For, though he was a man
that walked very closely, yet withal he walked very
humbly, with God, and lived a life of repentance and
self-denial. This minds me of a sermon of his,
which one might discern came from the heart, on
that scripture, Rom. vii. 24. O wretched man that I
am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death !
A strange complaint, saith he, to come from the
mouth of one who had learned in every state to be
content. Had I been to have g^ven my thoughts,
said he, concerning Paul, I should have said, O
blessed man that thou art, that hast been in the third
heaven, a great apostle, a spiritual father to thon-
others of my standing, and sometimes had prayse for it But as
for that which wee call hard study, giving myself to reading, late
and early, and digesting what I read by daily serious review, I was
too much a stranger to it P. Henry. Orig. MS. See some Re-
markable Passages in the Lire of the Rev. Mr. Edmund Trendi, p.
!iO. duod. 1693.
n P. Henry. Orig. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
17
giDds, &c. and yet a wretched man all this while,
in his own accoant and esteem. He never complains
thus of the bonds and afflictions that did abide him,
the prisons that were frequent, the stripes above
measure ; but the body of death ; that is, the body
of sin, that was it he groaned under. How feelingly
did he observe from thence, — That the remainders
of indwelling corroption are a very grievous burthen
to a gracious soul.®
But to return. It may not be amiss to set down
the causes to which he ascribes his loss of time when
he came first to the University. One was, that he
was younf^, too young, and understood not the day of
lib opportunities, which made him afterwards ad-
vise his friends not to thrust their children forth too
90on from school to the university, though they may
seem ripe, in respect of learning, till they have dis-
cretion to manage themselves. While they are chil-
dren, what can be expected but that they should
mind childish things? Another was, that, coming
from Westminster School, his attainments in school-
learning were beyond what generally others had that
came from other schools ; so that he was tempted to
think there was no need for him to study much, be-
cause it was so easy to him to keep pace with others ;
which, be said, was the thing Dr. Caldecott, Chap-
lain to the Earl of Pembroke, and his great friend,
warned him of at his coming to Oxford. Another
was, that there were two sorts of persons, his con-
temporaries ; some of the new stamp, that came in
by tiie visitation, and were divers of them serious,
pious young men, but of small ability, comparatively,
for learning, and those for that reason he desired
not to have much fellowship with. But there were
others that were of the old spirit and way, enemies
to the Parliament, and the reformation they made ;
and these were the better scholars, but generally not
the better men. With them, for a while, he struck
in because of their learning, and conversed most
with them ; but he soon found it a snare to him, and
that it took him off from the life of religion and
communion with God. Elanguescere mox eepit,
saith he, in a Latin narrative of his younger years,
fristuuB pietutu order, 9fc, But, *' for ever praised
be the riches of God's free grace," saith he, in an-
other account, ** that he was pleased still to keep
his hold of me ; and not to let me alone when I was
running from him, but set his hand again the second
o See the Works of Bishop Reynolds, fol. 1056. p. 6S4. and Dr.
John Owen's Treatise on In-dwelling Sin, 1608. oct
p A sfanilar phrase occurs in the writings of Mr. Paul Rayne ;—
" He Vbmi stamhles, and comes not down, gets ground : the trip-
piop of God*s children, in which they recover themselves, bring
them on with greater advantage." Christian Letters, p. na daod.
1631. Jfir. Bayne died in 1AI7. See Chuk's Lives, annexed to the
KMyrologie, p. «. foL 1077. Mr. Baxter thought him '* one of
the hoUcst eboiecst men, that ever England bred." Saints'
Everlasting Rest, p. 4IS. -Ito. IMZ.
q FstaMrsNoDCon. Mem. ▼. 3. p. 480; said to be printed fhmi
Mr.HeBirsI>ianr.
c
time, as the expression is, Isa. xi. 11. to snatch me
at a brand out of the fire," His recovery from this
snare he would call a kind of second conversion ;
so much was he affected with the preventing grace
of God in it, and sensible of a double bond to be for
ever thankful, as well as of an engagement to be
watchful and humble. It was a saying of his,—
He that stumbleth and doth not fall, gets ground by
his stumble.P
[Hence he writes, " Forasmuch as I have by
often experience found the treachery and deceitful-
ness of my own heart, and being taught that it is
my duty to engage my heart to approach unto God,
and that one way of doing it is by subscribing with
my hand unto the Lord ; therefore let this paper be
witness, that I do deliberately, of choice, and unre-
servedly, take God in Christ to be mine ; and give
myself to him, to be his, to love him, to fear him, to
serve and obey him ; and, renouncing all my sins
with hearty sorrow and detestation, I do cast myself
only upon free grace, through the merits of Christ,
for pardon and forgiveness ; and do propose, God
enabling me, from this day forward, more than
ever, to exercise myself unto godliness, and to walk
in all the ways of religion as much as ever I can
with delight and cheerfulness, as knowing that my
labour shall not be in vain in the Lord/* i]
At the latter end of the year 1648, he had leave
given' him to make a visit to his father at White-
hall, with whom he staid some time ; there he was,
January 30, when the King was beheaded,, and with
a very sad heart saw that tragical blow given. Two
things he used to speak of, that he took notice of
himself that day, which I know not whether any of
the historians mention. One was, tliat at the instant
when the blow was given, there was such a dismal
universal groan among the thousands of people that
were within sight of it, as it were with one consent,
as he never heard before, and desired he might never
hear the like again, nor see such a cause for it. *The
other was, that inmiediately after the stroke was
struck, there was, according to order, one troop
marching from Charing-cross towards King-street,
and another from King-street towards Cha ring-cross,
purposely to disperse and scatter the people, and to
divert the dismal thoughts which they could not but
be filled with, by driving them to shift every one for
his own safety. He did upon all occasions testify
r At the latter end of the year I64S I had leave given me to goe
to London to see my rather; and during my stay there, at that
time, at Whitehall, it was. that I saw the beheading of King
Charles the ^rst Hee went by water to Westminster, for bee
took bai^e at Garden-stayres, where wee lived, and once he spake
to my father, andsayd,— Art thou alive yetl
On the day of his execution, which was Tuesday, Jan. 30, I
stood amongst the crowd in the street, before Whitehall gate,
where the scaObld was erected, and saw what was done, but was
not so near as to hear any thing. The blow I saw given, and can
tndy say, with a sad heart. P. Henry. Orig. BIS.
18
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
hia abhorrence of this unparalleled action, which he
always said was a thing that could not be justified,
and yet he said he saw not how it could be called a
national sin ; for, as the King urged upon hL« trial, it
was certain that not one man of ten in the kingdom
• Sf^e the Bishop ^'^ ^^^^^^^^^ *^ ^^ ' * "«' <^°"'^ ^* ^^
of Chichester's Ser. called the sin of the long Parlia-
moD before the King, ^^rr^L xT-^*
Jan. 30th. I6OT, page ment, for far the greatest part of
could be called a na- thing was in agitation, imprisoned
and kept under a force, and scarce
twenty-seven of the forty that were left to carry the
name of a Parliament, did give their vote for it ;
which the Commissioners for the trying of the King's
Judges, in the year 1660, (some of whom had been
themselves members of the Long Parliament,) urged
again and again, in answer to that plea which the
prisoners stood so much upon, that what they did
was by authority of the Parliament. But it is mani-
fest it was done by a prevailing party in the army,
who, as he used to express it, having beaten their
plowshares into swords, could not so easily beat their
swords into plowshares again, as having fought more
for victory and dominion than for peace and truth ;
but how far these men were acted and influenced by
another sort of people behind the curtain, the world
is not altogether ignorant. * For some years after
King Charles II. came in, he observed the yearly
day of humiliation^ for this sin, desiring that God
would not lay the guilt of blood to the charge of the
nation. 9ut, afterwards, finding to what purposes it
was generally observed, and improved even to the
reproach and condemning not only the innocent, but
of some of the excellent ones of the land, and noting
that there is no precedent in Scripture of keeping
annual days of humiliation for particular sins; espe-
cially after the immediate judgment is at an end,
Zech. viii. 19. Heb. x. 2, 3. he took no further
notice of it. But in his diary he adds this tender
remark, according to the spirit he was of, '< Yet
good men, no doubt, may observe it to the Lord."
Rom. xiv. 6. Thus he judged not, and why then
should he be judged ?
In the year 1650-1 he took his Bachelor of Arts
degree, and he hath recorded the goodness of God
in raising him up friends, who helped him out in
the expenses. Such kindnesses have a peculiar
sweetness in them to a good man, who sees and
receives them as the kindness of God, and the tokens
of his love.
He would often mention it with thankfulness to
s See Dr. Pair's Life of Archbishop Usher, nt $upra. Letters at
the end, No. 293; and the Alnr. of Baxter's Life and Times, ▼. I.
p. 57, &c. oct 1713.
1 1671. Jan. 30. Brings to remembrance the horrid murder of
the late King. Deliver the nation from ))lood.guiltinea8, 0 God !
P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
1073. Jan. 30. We remembered this day the death of Charles L
God, what great helps and advantages he had then
in the University, not only for learning, but for
religion and piety. Serious godliness was in repu-
tation, and besides the public opportunities they had,
there were many of the scholars that used to meet
together for prayer, and Christian conference, to the-
great confirming of one another's hearts in the fear
and love of God, and the preparing of them for the
service of the church in their generation. I have
heard him speak of the prudent method they took
then about the University sermons on the Lord's day
in the afternoon ; which used to be preached by the
fellows of colleges in their course ; but, that being
found not so much for edification. Dr. Owen " and
Dr. Goodwin* performed that service alternately, and
the young masters that were wont to preach it, had a
lecture on Tuesday appointed them. The sermons he
heard at Oxford he commonly wrote, not in the time
of hearing, but afterwards, when he came home, in
his reflection upon them, which he found a good help
to his memory.
In December, 1002, he proceeded Master of Arts,
and in January following preached his first sermon
at South Hinksey in Oxfordshire, on John viii. 34.
Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. On
this occasion he writes in his diary what was the
breathing of his heart towards God, — The Lord make
use of me as an instrument of his glory, and his
church's good, in this high and holy calling.
His great parts and improvement, notwithstanding
his extraordinary modesty and humility, had made
him so well known in the University, that in the
following act, in July, 1653, he was chosen out of all
the masters of that year, to be junior of the act, that
is, to answer the philosophy questions in Vesperiis,
which he did with very g^eat applause ; especially
for the very witty and ingenious orations which he
made to the University upon that occasion. His
questions were, — 1. An licitum sit eamibiu vesdt
Aff. 2. An institutio academiarum sit Htilis in repub'
licA? Aff. 3, An inpenium pendeat ab kumoribus
corporis ? Aff. At the act in 1654, he was chosen
Magiiter Replicans, and answered the philosophy
questions tit comitiis, with a like applause. His
questions then were, — 1. An melius sit sperare quam
fruif Neg. 2. An maxima animi delectatio sit a sen-
sibus? Neg. S. An utile sit per egrinari? Aff.
Dr. Owen, who was then Vice-Chancellor, hath
spoken with g^eat commendation of these perform-
ances of Mr. Henry's to some in the University
afterwards, who never knew him otherwise than by
with grief, and prayer,~that God would please to foigive it,—
Exod. XX. &.— vwtViii^ the iniquity. P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
See the life of the Rev. Thomas Cawton, p. 25. duod. 16G3; and
Clark'a Lives of Eminent Persons, p. 19. foL 1683.
« Nat iei6. Ob. Aug. 34, 1683. .See his Life by Mr. Onne, ntnpn.
r Nat Oct. 5. 1600. Ob. Feb. 23, 1679. Life prefixed to his woiks,
vol. V. fol. 1704.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
19
repent ; and I have heard a worthy divine who was
MMCiwliat hill junior in the University, and there a
perfect stranger to him, say, how much he admired
diese exercises of his, and loved him for them ; and
yet how mach more he admired, when he afterwards
became acquainted with him in the country, that so
curious and polite an orator should hccome so profit-
able and powerful a preacher, and so readily lay
aside the enticing words of man's wisdom, which
were so easy to him.
There is a copy of Latin verses of his in print,
among the poems which the University of Oxford
published upon the peace concluded with Holland,"
ia the year 1654, which show him to be no less a
poef than an orator.
He hath noted it of some pious young men, that
before they removed from the University into the
eoontry, they kept a day of fasting and humiliation
for the sins they had been guilty of in that place and
state. And in the visits he made afterwards to the
Univernty, he inserts into his book, as no doubt
God did into His, — a tear dropt over my Univcrsity-
un%.* [He would sometimes say, *' When we mourn
for sin becaosc God is oflended by it, and abstain
from sin becanseof his honour, that we may not wrong
him, or grieve him, this is more pleasing to him than
bnmt-oQcrings and sacrifices. ']
CHAPTER III.
m IXMOVAL TO WOKTHENBURT, IN FUNTBHIRB, HIS ORDINA-
noV TO THS MUffUTST, AND HIS KXIBCME OF TV THIRB.
Worth EMBURY * is a little town by Dee side, in that
Hundred of Flintshire which is separated some
■lies from the rest of the county, and known by the
name of English Mailors,^ because though it is re-
puted in Wales, as pertaining to Flintshire, yet in
language and customs it is wholly English, and lies
mostly between Cheshire and Shropshire. Worth-
cnbory was of old a parochial chapel, belonging to
the rectory of Bangor,' but was separated from it in
the year 1666, by the trustees for uniting and dividing
of parishes, and was made a parish of itself. But
what was then done being vacated by the King's
coming in, it then came to be in statu quo, and con-
tinued an appurtenant to Bangor, till, in the second
w Appendix, So. UL
s Umj not Sterne tiave htd in view this sentence when he pen.
Md die well-known pMssge,— '* The accusing spirit which flew
op to heaven's chancery with the oath, blushed as he gave it in ;
—and the Rceording Angel, as he wrote it down, drcfped a ttar
apoa the wont, and blotted it out for erer." Works, vol. vi. p.
Oidood. ma
7 P. Bcary. Orig. MS.
• Beacth Bangor, stil on the sonth side of Dee ryver, is a pa-
roebe eaallid Wortbembre: in Walch, Ouothambre; having a
fiure diicii, tat at a membre to Bangor. Leland's Itinerary^ vol.
▼. p. m oct 1744.
V Sec Leiaad, wtmprM, v. 5. p. SO.
c 2
year of the reign of King William and Queen Mary,
it was again by act of Parliament separated, and
made independent upon Bangor. That was the only
act that passed the royal assent with the act of re-
cognition, at the beginning of the second parliament
of this reign.* The principal family in Worthen-
bury parish, is that of the Pulestons of Emeral. The
head of the family was tfien John Pulcston, Serjeant
at Law, one of the Judges of the Common Pleas.
This was the family to which Mr. Henry came
from Christ-church, presently after he had completed
his Master's degree, in 1653. Ordered into that
remote, and unto him unknown, comer of the coun-
try, by that overruling Providence which deter-
mincth the times before appointed, and the bounds
of our habitation.
The Judge's lady was a person of more than ordi-
nary parts and wisdom, in piety inferior to few, but
in learning superior to most of her sex, which I could
give instances of from what I find among Mr. Henry's
papers, « particularly an elegy she made upon the
death of the famous Mr. John Selden,' who was her
great friend.
This was the lady whose agency first brought Mr.
Henry into this country. She wrote to a friend of
hers, Mr. Francis Palmer, « student of Christ-church,
to desire him to recommend to her a young man to
be in her family, and to take the oversight of her
sons, some of whom were now ready for the Univer-
sity, and to preach at Worthenbury on the Lord's
days, for which a very honourable encouragement •*
was promised. Mr. Palmer proposed it to his friend
Mr. Henry, who was willing for one half-year to
undertake it, provided it might be required of him
to preach but once on the Lord's day, and that some
other supply might be got for the other part of the
day, he being now but twenty-two years of age, and
newly entered upon that great work. Provided also,
that he should be engaged but for half a year, as
little intending to break off so soon from an acade-
mical life, which he delighted in so much. But
preferring usefulness before his own private satis-
faction, he was willing to make trial for a while in
the country, as one that sought not his own things,
but the things of Jesus Christ, to whose service in
the work of the ministry he had entirely devoted
himself, bending his studies wholly that way. [One
e See Leiand, «/ nprot v. 5. p. 30.
d Sir John Trevor, the Speaker, being Tather-in-law to Sir Roger
PulestoD, the Patron. Life. Orig. MS. wttwpra.
• See Mr. Orme's Life or Dr. Owen. App. p. 511.
t John Selden, Esq. was bom Dec. 16. 1584. He died Nbv. 30,
1654. Mr. Chalmer's Biog. Diet. v. 27, p. 317.
ff Probably the same person who contributed a copy of veraet
when the poems of William Cartwright, " the most. noted poet,
orator, and philosopher, of his time," were " uxher'd into the
world," A- D. Ifl5i. oct. See Wood's Ath. Oxon. ▼. a p. 70. «/
ntpra.
h My diet, and sixty pounds per annum salary. P. Henry.
Orig. MS.
20
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
of the letters which passed on the occasion just re-
ferred to, has been prescr^'ed. It is introduced from
the hand-writing of Lady Puleston, and the ortho-
g^phy correctly transcribed. It illustrates in some
measure the nature of Mr. Henry's inquiries, and
furnishes a pleasing corroboration of the character
already given of its excellent writer.
19th Sept. 1663.
Cosin Palmer,
Y* Messeng' w*^*" brought mee a
lett' fro y" brought y* judg one also fro his Nephew,
Mr. Hamlet Puleston. But no motio of a Schoolm\
However I rely so much on y' choice of y* gent'"
pposed, y* thers' no need to trouble Mr. H. Puleston.
I am content to abate one of y* sermons, hoping hee
will pray in y* family, insteed thereof, w^** is so easy
to a Christia y* bee's rather lead then drawn therto,
and if y* expositions of chapters or Psalmes bee
easyer to him then preaching, I shal like it (as ever
I have done) bett' then y* other. Im* confident wee
shall not differ heerin ffor I shall eyther wait ffor y*
guifts and calling of God in him (w^** are w'^out re-
pentance) or wholly indulg him ffro y* fformalities
of preaching, praying, &c as some use y" please
to send him away ffor y* half yeer ffro y« time hee
comes till 26 weekes be complcat : his allowance
shall be half y* revenue pposd, and other accomo-
dations mentiond formerly. This time of probatio
will conclude us eyther on a ffarther time, or repayr-
ing to Oxford at Spring.
Please to keeep y* letter
as an evidence of our bargain. I have delivered y*
Bearer 6/. ffor y* Gentleman in part of y* first quar-
teridg. what y« charge of y* journey takes out of it
I will supply at y« quarters end when I pay y* rest
to make out 15/. I have sent a horse and a ffootman
to wait on him hither. Mr. Roberts is grown a
worthy Christian and I greatly value him. if y"
have a mind to see what works God hath done in
him, y" shall finde him at one Mr. Courtneys Lodg-
ing in Milbanck neer Tuttle-Ficlds. God can doo
as much ffor Mr. Henry y" know< I pray y" hasten
him hyther.
If pleas God to give success to y** endeavours I
shal bee glad. I wish y* Gentlem" to take his jour-
ney on Fryday, and rest at my sister Grayes on
Lord's day so hee nmy bee at Emral on Munday
night. I desire a good-journey, ffrancis Palmer
(Juni.) & Tremcli.*) notes upon y* Bible I desire y"
to seA'd mee. & y« Bible in Greek, w*^** y*" learned
ffriends, Septuagint,, translated ffor Ptolomy.
1 Intending, by this playful compliment, the version of Francis
JunitM and Immanuel Tremcllius, flrat published in 1575.
'^Orfg'.MS. ^
^ On Jemrtng Brougbton I took the road towards Bingor. On I v. \. p. 297. Sec Lelaud, tt/nrp'w, v. 5. pp. 32, 83.
I thank y** ffor y' respect and shal ever rest
Y' welwishing Cosin
Elizabeth Puleston.
If y" will come see how wee thrive y" shal bee
welcome. My Roger Puleston love to y" & so y«
rest
To my much-respected
Kinsman Mr. Francis Palmer
a Master of Arts
at Christ's Church in Oxford,
or in his absence to one Mr. Henry
Master of Art & of y« same
House. ']
In the latter part of his time at Oxford, as one
grown weary of that which he used to say he found
little to his purpose ; he employed his time mostly
in searching the Scriptures, and collecting useful
Scripture observations, which he made very fa-
miliar to him, and with which he was thoroughly
furnished for this good work. He got a Bible inter-
leaved, in which he wrote short notes upon texts of
Scripture as they occurred. He would often say, — I
read other books, that I may be the better able to un-
derstand the Scripture.
It was a stock of Scripture knowledge that he set
up with, and with that he traded to good advantage.
Though he was so great a master in the eloquence of
Cicero, yet he preferred far before it that of Apollos,
who was an eloquent man^ and mighty in the Scrips
tures. Acts xviii. 24.
He bid very fair at that time for University-pre-
ferment, such was the reputation he had got at the
late act, and such his interest in Dr. Owen ; but the
salvation of souls was that which his heart was upon,
to whiph he postponed all his other interests.
In September, 1653, ho came down to Emeral,'
from whence a messenger was sent on purpose to
Oxford to conduct him thither. Long after, when it
had pleased God to settle him in that country, and
to build him up into a family, he would often reflect
upon his coming into it first ; what a stranger he then
was, and how far it was from his thoughts ever to
have made his home in those parts ; and, passing
over the brook that parts between Flintshire and
Shropshire, would sometimes very affectionately use
that word of Jacob's — With my staff I passed over
this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.
At Emeral he prayed in the family, was tutor to
the young gentlemen, and preached once a day at
Worthenbury, other help being procured for the
other part of the day, according to his request, out
of a fear, being so young, to take the whole work
the right lies Emral Hall, the seat of the Pulestons ; a family set-
tled here in the time of Edward L but which took its name from
Pulesdon, a township in Shropshire. Pennant's Tours in Wales,
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
21
ipon him. Bat it soon happened, that one Lord's
dty the supply that was expected failed ; and so he
was necessitated, rather than there should be a
facancy, to preach twice, in which he found the pro-
mise so well fulfilled, A$ thy day is, so shall thy
strength he ; and. To him that hath (i. e. that hath,
and uscth what he hath) shall be yiven, and he shall
have ahund&nee ; that, to tlic great satisfaction of his
friends there, from thenceforward he waved looking
out for other help than what came from above, and
would sometimes speak of this as an instance, that
we do not know what we can do, till we have tried.
Here he applied himself to a plain *" and practical
way of preaching, as one truly concerned for the
iCNils of those he spoke to. He would say sometimes,
—We study how to speak that you may understand
■• ; and, I never think I can speak plain enough
when I am speaking about souls and their salvation.
I hare heard him say, he thought it did him good,
that for the first half year of his being at Worthen-
buiy, he had few or no books with him, which en-
figed him in studying sermons to a closer search of
tke Scripture and his own heart. What success his
labours had in that parish, which, before he came to
h, I have been told, was accounted one of the most
hMMe and profane places in all the country, may be
gathered from a letter of the lady Puleston's to him,
at the end of the first half year after his coming to
Emeral, when he was uncertain of his continuance
there, and inclinable to return to settle at Christ-
church. Take the letter at large.
Dear Mr. Henry ;
The indisposition that my sadness hath
brrd, and the stay of Mrs. V . here yesterday, hinder-
ed my answering your last expressions. As to order-
ing the conversation, and persevering to the practice
of those good intents, taken up while one is in pur-
nit of a mercy, you and I will confer, as God g^vcs
opportunity, who also must g^ve the will and the
deed, by his Spirit, and by the rule of his word.
As to begging ^at one thing for you, God forbid,
as Samuel said, that / should cease to pray^ &c.
Tliis I am sure, that having wanted hitherto a good
■Jnister of the word among us, I have oft by prayer,
and some tears, above five years besought God for
such a one as yourself ; which, having obtained, I
cannot yet despair, seeing he hath given us the good
SMans, but he may also give us the good end. And
this I find, that your audience is increased three for
• Let yovr pmctiing l»e plain. Painted glnss is most curious ;
pfaioglasMiiKMtpenpicuoiiSL Be a good crucifix to your people.
Preftck a cracifled Saviour In a crucified style. Paul taught so
plainly, ttait the Coriothians fbougtit him a dunce. Let your
mstter be sobolaotia] ; whoksome food ; God and Christ, and the
tPNpel. fuMk, repentance, regeneration. Aim purely at God's
glory and tbe sahntioa of souls. Study, as if there were no Christ ;
pleach, as ittken had been no study. Preach phiinly, yet with
Mwelty t preacb pMnerfoUy, as Wcah^—at Pisnf. In iatenshn of /
one in the parish, though in winter more than for-
merly in summer ; and five for one out of other
places. And I have neither heard of tlieir being in
the ale-house on our Lord's day, nor ball-playing
that day, which, before you came, was frequent, ex-
cept that day that young Ch. preached. I think I
can name four or five in the parish, that of formal
Christians are becoming or become real. But you
know all are not wrought on at first, by tlic word.
Some come in no misfortune like other men, and
this is the cause they be so holdcn with pride, &c.
Hypocrites also have converted conversion itself.
Yet God may have reserved those that have not
bowed the hnee to Baal, &c. and may call them at
the latter part of the day, though not in this half
year. It is a good sign, most arc loth to part with
you ; and you have done more good in this half
year, than I have discerned these eighteen years.
But, however, whether they will hear, or whether
they will forbear, you have delivered your own soul.
I have prayed, and do pray, seeing God hath sent
you, that you may be for his glory, and not for our
condemnation.
It is easy to imagine what an encouragement this
was to him, thus at his first setting out to see of the
travail of his soul, and what an inducement it was
to him not to leave those among whom God had thus
owned him. However, that spring he returned to
Oxford. The Lady Puleston soon after came to
him thither, with her five sous, of whom she placed
the two eldest under his charge in the college. In
the following vacation he went to London to visit
his relations there ; and there, in October he received
a letter from Judge Puleston, with a very solemn
and afiectionate request, subscribed by the parish-
ioners of Worthenbury, earnestly desiring his settle-
ment among them, as their minister, which he was
persuaded to comply with, having fixed to himself
that good rule,-~In the turns of his life, to follow
Providence, and not to force it. So, in the winter
following he came down again, and settled with
them. He continued in his student's place in Christ-
church for two or three years, attending the service
of it once a year ; but disposing of most of the profit
of it for the use of poor scholars there.
The tithe of Worthenbury belonged to [the] Emeral
family, paying some rent to the Rector of Bangor.
This tithe Judge Puleston was willing to give, clear
of that charge, to the minister of Worthenbury for
spirit, not extension of voice. To this end get your sermon into*
your own souls. It is best, from the heart, to the heart Preadi
prudentially,— as stewards, to give each their portion. Get your
sermons memoriter. How can you expect your people should
remember, and repeat, if you read! Yet use caution. Our me.
mories are not of brass,— they are cracked, in all, by the ftdl. Be-
ware of giving occasion to say,— I tna^ a\«y %,X.\vou\it\Ti>2R!t %k^«-
Jioon ; I shall hear only the same song. ^t. Vox\eT ax v&Qit^'Oi&-
tlon. Prom a MS. in the hand-wnUnti o«?. Htws.
23
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY-
ever. But such was the peculiar and extraordinary
kindness he had for Mr. Henry, upon the experience
of his inerits, that he chose rather by deed of inden-
ture, bearing date October 6, 1655, between himself
and Mr. Henry, — ''In consideration of his being
pleased to undertake the cure of souls, and to preach
and teach, and perform other duties of divine service
in the parish church of Worthenbury, (so the deed
runs,) to give, grant, and confirm for himself and his
heirs, unto the said Philip Henry, the yearly rent of
one hundred pounds, charged upon all his mes-
suages, lands, and tenements in the several counties
of Flint, Denbigh, and Chester, to be paid quarterly,
until such times as the said Philip Henry shall be
promoted or preferred to some other spiritual or ec-
clesiastical living or preferment, with power of dis-
tress in case of non-payment.'' A hundred a year
was more than Worthenbury tithes were worth at
that time ; and the manner of the gift freed the
maintenance from much of that loss and incum-
brance which commonly attends the gathering of tithe.
[About this period, judging from the hand-writing
of the following letter, addressed to a friend at Ox-
ford, (no doubt Dr. Owen, who was then Dean of
Christ-church, and Vice-Chancellor,") he received a
summons to that city, which led him to add the post-
script. But as the letter furnishes an illustration of
Mr. Henry's character as a young minister, the whole
may be here fitly introduced.
Most honoured Sir ;
Being importuned to improve my interest
for the supply of a vacant curacy in these parts, I
make bold to acquaint you with the state of it, that,
if you know of any, either in your own college or
elsewhere, that is willing to accept of it, you would
please to be instrumental in sending him hither.
The place is called Holt ; it is in Denbighshire,
but I think a man may throw a stone out of it into
Cheshire ; it is distant from Wrexham about three
miles, and from Chester five ; the situation of it
for convenience is beyond exception ; there are but
few such hereabouts, only the salary, I fear, may
appear somewhat too small to come so far for. It is
as yet, upon certainty, but £45 per annum, but it is
probable may be made, ere long, £65, paid in
money, and no deductions out of it for taxes; for
the place of his abode, if he be a single man, the
Major of the town, a very godly person, hath pro-
mised it in his own house, till such time care be taken
to provide for him otherwise. For his qualifications.
Sir, he must, in a judgment of charity, be one that
fears God, in regard he comes, not to a place that
never heard of Christ, (as many such there be in
B Le Neve, pp. 231, 4ri6. fol. 1716.
*» P. Henry. Orig. MS.
P Use catechising. Heretofore, catechising justled out preach-
/i7^/ a0§r, preaching juMtJea out catecbiaing. Let the ship be
Wales,) but to a knot of eminent, discerning Chris*
tians, scarce the like anywhere hereabouts, among
whom there are divers able, indeed, to be themselves
teachers of others ; so that if he himself be one that
hath no savour of the things of God, he will be no
way acceptable or useful there. He must, moreover,
be either fitted already for the administration of the
ordinances, or in a capacity of being suddenly fitted ;
if he make haste hither, he may have an opportunity
shortly of being ordained here in Shropshire.
Sir, if God, the Lord of the harvest, shall make
use of you in his providence, as an instrument of
thrusting forth a faithful labourer into this comer of
his vineyard, I no way doubt but you will be often
mentioned by some of them with rejoicing at the
throne of grace, and that you, yourself, when you
shall have reaped the fruit of their prayers, will
bless God for putting such a prize into your hands.
Sir, craving your pardon for my boldness in
troubling you, I leave the matter with your care»
and yourself, and all your relations and concern-
ments, with our ever good God.
Your Servant very much obliged,
P. H.
Sir, since my purpose of writing to you about the
business above mentioned, I have received infor-
mation from Christ-church of a summons to appear
personally there, before Michaelmas Term : where-
upon my request to you is, that by a line or two you
would please to acquaint me, whether I may not ob-
tain to be dispensed with. 1. In regard I was so
lately there. 2. In regard of the great distance I
am now at from thence ; above fourscore miles. 3.
Of the unusual unseasonableness of the ways and
weather ; and 4. Which is most of all, my very great
indisposedness in point of health. If I may be ex-
cused, I would entreat you. Sir, to endeavour it for
me ; if not, that you would please to send me word,
—1. Whether it will not ser\'e if I come sooner : and
2. How long it will be required that I make my stay
there. Sir, I have more reason to beg your pardon
for this latter trouble than the former.**]
He still continued for some years in the Emeral
family, where he laid out himself very much for the
spiritual good of the family, even of the meanest of
the servants, by catechising, p repeating the sermons,
and personal instruction, and he had very much
comfort in the countenance and conversation of the
judge and his lady. Yet he complains sometimes
in his diary of the snares and temptations that he
found in his way there, especially because some of
the branches of the family, who did not patrizare,
ballasted with Tundamental truths. Hearers win then not be so
easily whirled about with every wind. Luther was caJled— ^w-
eipuliu eattekitmi. Mr. Porter, 1659. From a MS. in -P. Henry's
hand-writing.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
03
were uneasy at his being there, which made him
willing to remove to a house of his own ; which,
when Jndge Pnleston perceived, in the year 1657,
out of his abundant and continued kindness to him,
lie did, at bis own proper cost and charges, build
kim a very handsome house in Worthenbury, and
settled it upon him by a lease, bearing date March
6, 1657, for threescore years, if he should so long
continue minister at Worthenbury, and not accept
of better preferment
He hath noted in his diary, that the very day that
tlie workmen began the building of that house, Mr.
Mainwaring, of Malpas, i preached the lecture at
Bangor, from Psalm cxxvii. 1. Except the Lord
hdld ike k4nue/ they labour in vain that build it. —
There never was truth, saith he, more seasonable to
any than this was to me. It was a word upon the
wheels.* He hath recorded it as his great care,
that his affections might be kept loose from it, and
that it might not encroach upon God's interest in his
heaaU When it was finished, he thus writes :— I do
from my heart bless God, that no hurt or harm befell
any of the workmen in the building of it.
Thus was his maintenance settled at Worthenbury.
In the year 1659, he was, by a writing of Judge
Poleston's, collated, nominated, and presented, to
the church of Worthenbury ; and, the powers that
then were having so appointed, he had an appro-
bation thereof from the commissioners for approba-
tion of public preachers.
Some little opposition was made to his settlement
St Worthenbury by Mr. Fogg, * then Rector of Ban-
gor, because he conceived it an intrenchmcnt upon
bis right to Worthenbury, and thought it might pre-
judice his recovering of it by course of law. I only
mention this for the sake of the note he hath upon it
in his diary, which is this :— I do earnestly desire
that the Judge may give Mr. Fogg all reasonable
satisfaction, that there may be no appearance of
wrong to him, or any other, in this thing. And when
Mr. Fogg insisted upon it, that he would have Mr.
Henry g^ve it under his hand, that he desired the
consent of the said Mr. Fogg to be minister of Wor-
thenbury, he yielded to do it for peace sake ; and
horn thenceforward there was an intimate and entire
friend^up between Mr. Fogg and him.
Being thus settled at Worthenburj', his next care
^ See Dr. Towu»on*8 Works, v. 1. p. xis. tit njn-at and Ormerod's
HiiL orCbcahire, v. ii. p. 328, kc.
w Mr. Henry bas the roUowing DOtes on this passage :—
The imut : that ia» the fiunily. BrnUd ; that is, constitute, main.
tstii, presenre, aogment. ir we would have God to build our
hottsea, we nrast be carefal to build Ood*s house by caring for his
wontaip. ofdtnaoces, ioteresta Hag. i. 9. ii. 18. 2 Sam. vii.— ; to
ahn at hit glory in oar buildings, not at self, as Nebuchadnezzar,
Dao. !▼. 30 :— ^ boild In faith, relying upon the promises, Heb.
sis, lOr-iB the fear of God, Exod. i. 21; in righteousness and
koocMy. Prov. x. SS. Hab. ii. IS.— We tnust fetch in God by prayer,
aadkeepfaiaithcrehyfimilydaties, Josh.xxiy. 15. Ps.ci. Grig.
was touching ordination to the work of the ministry,
to which he would see his call very clear, before he
solemnly devoted himself to it. And though after-
wards in the reflection, especially when he was
silenced, it was some trouble to him, that he had so
long deferred to be ordained, (and he would often,
from the consideration of that, press those who in-
tended the ministry, not to put it off,) yet, as the
times then were, there was something of a reason
for it.
The nearest acting class of presbytery, was in the
Hundred of Bradford North, in Shropshire, wherein
Mr. Porter, of Whitchurch, was the leading man, of
whom Mr. Baxter " gives so high a character in his
Life, part 3, page 94, and who was one of those whom
he recommended to the Lord Chancellor, as fit to be
made a Bishop, part 2, page 283. This class was
constituted by ordinance of parliament, in April,
1647 ; the members of it then, were the aforesaid
Mr. Porter, Mr. Boughy, of Hodnet, Mr. Houghton,
of Prees, Mr. Parsons, ' of Wcm, and Mr. John
Bisby ;» and afterwards Mr. Maiden, « of Newport,
Mr. Binney, of Ightfield, and Mr. Steel, of Hanmery
though in Flintshire, were taken in to them, and
acted with them. This class in twelve years' time
publicly ordained sixty-three ministers. Mr. Henry
was very desirous to have been ordained at Wor-
thenbury, plebe prasente^ which he thought most
agreeable to the intention, but the ministers were
not willing to set such a precedent. However, that
was one thing which occasioned the delay, so that
he was not ordained till September 16, 1G57.
The way and manner of his ordination was ac-
cording to the known directory of the Assembly of
Divines, and the common usage of the Presbyterians ;
and yet, he having left among his papers a pr.rticular
account of that solemnity, and some of the workings
of his soul towards God in it ; I hope it may be of
some use both for instruction and quickening to
ministers, and for the information of such as are
perhaps wholly strangers to such a thing, to give
some account of the whole transaction.
He made addresses to the presbyter>', in order to
his ordination, July 6, tit Precs, when he submitted
to trial, and inquiry was made, in the first place,
concerning hLs experience of the work of grace in
his heart ; in answer tp which he gave a reason of
• " A word, fitly spoken, is lilce apples of gold in pictures of sil-
ver i" Prov. XXV. IL or. as the Hebrew hath it,—" A word spoken
upon Mt whteU : " that is, rightly ordered, placed, and circumstanced.
Brooks's Arke for all God's Noahs, £p. Ded. p. 1. duod. 1662. See,
also, Jer. xviii. 3.
c See the Noncon. Mero. v. iii. p. 480, &c.
v See Reliquia Baxterians, or, Mr. R. Baxter's Narrative of the
most Memorable Passages of his Life and Times. Fol. 1696.
V See the Noncon. Mem. v. iii. p. 163.
V Minister of Edstaston, in Shropshire. Wood's Ath. Oxon. v.
4. p. 640. «/ npra. Walker mentions him as a Prebend. oC ?\^
Minor, aliai Prees. Suff. of the C\eT%Y,PMl W v- ^'^•
X See the Noncon. Mem. v. \U. p. \4&;
d4
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
the hope that was in him, with meehness and fear ;
that the Spirit of grace had been dealing with him
when he was young; and, he hoped, had discovered
to him his need of Christ, and had bowed his will in
some measure to close with him upon his own terms,
&c. His skill in the original languages of the Scrip-
ture was then tried ; and he read and construed two
verses in the Hebrew Bible, and two in the Greek
Testament. He was then examined in Log^c and
Natural Philosophy ; next in Divinity, what authors
he had read, and what knowledge he had, touching
the mediation of Christ, &c. And his skill in the
Scripture was tried, by propounding to him a diffi-
cult text to give his sense of; a case of conscience
was also put to him to be resolved, an inquiry made
into his acquaintance with church-history. Lastly,
a question was given him to provide a thesis upon
against next meeting, which was this ; Anproviden-
tia Divina extendat se ad omnia ? Aff, On this ques-
tion he exhibited his thesis, August 3, and defended
it. Sevcraf of the ministers opposed, and Mr. Por-
ter moderated. He then produced two certificates,
which he left with the register of the class, one from
Oxford, subscribed by Dr. Wilkinson,^' Dr. Langley,'
&c. the other from the neighbouring ministers, Mr.
Steel, Mr. Fogg, &c. both testifying of his conversa-
tion, &c. *' The Lord forgive me,'' saith he, in his diary,
upon this, '' that it hath not been more exemplary,
as it ought, for piety and industry. Amen, Lord in
Christ." The day for ordination was appointed to
be September 16, at Prees,* of which notice was
given at Worthenbury by a paper, read in the church,
and afterwards affixed to the church door the Lord's
day before, signifying also, " That, if any one could
produce any just exceptions against the doctrine or
life of the said Mr. Henry, or any sufficient reason
why he might not be ordained, they should certify
the same to the classis, or the scribe, and it should
be heard and considered." ^
On the day of ordination there was a very g^at
assembly gadiered together. Mr. Porter began the
public work of the day with prayer, then Mr. Par-
sons preached on 1 Timothy i. 12. / thanh Christ
Jesus f who hath enabled me, for that he counted me
faithful, putting me into the ministry. Putting men
into the ministry is the work of Jesus Christ. After
sermon, Mr. Parsons, according to the usual method,
required of him a confession of his faith, which he
made as follows :
The ground and rule of my faith
s Pet i. 21. towards God, is the Scriptures of the
Old and New Testament I believe
they were written by holy men, inune-
diately inspired by the Holy Ghost;
7 Nat 1602 ; Ob. June, 1675. Wood's Ath. Oxon. W tupra, ▼. 3.
p. 1038.
■ Ob. Sept. 1679. Wood's Fasti, nl mtfra, ▼. 4. pp. 113. 147.
2 Tim. iii. 1&
Heb. XL 6.
1 John V. 7.
John i. I&
John iv. %
John Y. 26.
John i. 3.
having found the efficacy of them, in
some measure, upon my own heart, I
believe they are further able to make
me wise to salvation.
Concerning God, I believe that he is,
and that he is the Rewarder of those
that diligently seek him.
The Trinity of Persons in the Unity
of the Godhead, I receive and own as
a truth, I admire and adore as a
mystery; though no man hath seen
God at any time, yet the only-begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Fa-
ther, he hath declared him ; and what
he hath declared concerning him, that
I believe. I believe that God is a Spirit,
for the Son hath said, '' God is a Spirit"
I believe that he hath life in himself,
and that he hath given to the Son to
have life in himself. I believe all
things were made by him, and without
him was not any thing made that was
made. I believe by his providence he
preserves, guides, and governs, all the
creatures, according to the purpose of
his own will, to his own glory ; for the
Father worketh hitherto, and the Son
also worketh.
I believe he made man upright, after
his own image and likeness,which image
consisted in knowledge, righteousness,
and true holiness; but man, by sin,
lost it.
I believe we were all in the loins of
our first parents, and that they stood
and fell as public persons, and upon
that account justly, without any colour
of wrong, we bear our share, both in
the guilt of their disobedience, and
also the corruption of nature following
thereupon ; so that we came into the
world children of wrath, and heirs of
the curse, one, as well as another;
enemies to God, hating him, and hated
of him : averse to what is good, and
prone to all manner of evil. Though
all arc bom in this condition, yet there
are some that do not die in it.
I believe there is a Mediator, and
there is but one Mediator between God
and men, the Man Christ Jesus. Those
whom the Father hath from everlasting
pitched his love upon, and g^ven to
Christ, not because of works or faith
foreseen, but mereljir of his free g^ce ;
• A small village in the Hundred of North Bradford, Salop,
five miles from Whitchurch, and about four from Wem.
b Appendix, No. IV.
John V. 17.
Eccles. vii 29.
Gen. i. 26.
Ck>los5. iii. 10.
Ephet. iv. 24
Psalm n. 5.
Ephes. ii a
Zech. xi. a
Rom. vii. U).
Gen. vi. 5.
1 Tim. il. 5.
Ephea. i. 4, 5.
THE LIFE OF MK. PHILIP HENRY.
26
}
▼. IL for those I believe Christ was sent forth
QU. It. 4. into the world, made of a woman, made
JoboxviLW. under the law; for their sakes he sane-
ndi. it 8. tified himself, and became obedient to
death, even the death of the cross;
wherefore God also highly exalted
EpiL L 90» 2L him ; and having raised him from the
dead on the third day, set him at his
Btb. vii. *s. own right hand, where he ever lives to
Mm rviL 9. make intercession for those for whom
he shed his blood. All these elect re-
BoBLTiiLao. deemed ones, I believe, are, in due
1 Cor. vL iL time, sooner or later, in their lives,
effectnally called, washed, sanctified,
justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus,
and by the Spirit of our God.
Bon. V. L I believe the righteousness of Christ
alone, apprehended by faith, is the
matter of our justification before God ;
Pi cxliiL 9. and that no flesh can stand in his sight
Jcr. zziiLe. upon any other terms, for he is the
ihtt. iiL n. Lord our Righteousness, and in him
only the Father is well pleased.
Root XV. 1& I believe the work of sanctification,
managed by the Spirit, who dwellcth
in us, though, in respect of parts, it be
Colo*. hL II. complete, for the whole man is renew-
ed ; yet, in respect of degrees, it is not
1 Cor xilL 9. 10. fully perfected till we come to glory ;
and I believe all that are justified shall
be glorified ; for we are kept by the
1 Pet i. &. power of God, through faith, unto sal-
vation.
Ep^M- >^- iL I believe the gathering in, and build-
ing up, of saints, is the special end
why pastors and teachers are appointed
Halt xxviii. 90. in the church ; and that Jesus Christ,
according to his promise, will be with
them, in that work, to the end of the
world.
Saa.iv.lL The two Sacraments of the New
Testament, Baptism and the Lord's
Supper, I receive and own as signs
ibtL xxviii 19. and seals of the covenant of g^ace ; the
toa. Tt 7. former instituted by our Lord Jesus,
Acts u. m as a sign and seal of our ingrafting
Um. xxvi. 10. into him, due of right, to all the in-
fants of believing parents, and but
once to be administered ; the other in-
stituted by our Lord Jesus in the night
c Tkit coo^emon Mr. Orion recommends as a " good model.'*
liis Lettcn to Dissenting Ministers, v. 2. p. 37. •
Tlie History of Mr. Henry*s Ordination can scarcely be dismissed
vitlwat adv«tiiif to an edition of his Life, of recent date, and,
proieasedly, ''corrected and improved," by Samuel Taylor:
printed by T. Cordcux, 1818 ; in which performance a considerable
psrt of Ms confcssioii of flutb is omitted, or misstated. The fbllow-
ing fipJaiMtion of the liboty thus taken is indeed given ; *' It is
Joitiec to acknowledge that Mr. Heory wbs.
wherein he was betrayed, to show forth * Cof **• 26.
his death, and to seal the benefits
purchased thereby to his church and
people, and to be often repeated.
When the body returns to the dust, Eccles. xii. 7.
I believe the soul returns to God that
gave it ; and that immediately it re- Matt. xxy. 34,
ceives from him the sentence, accord- 41.
ing to what hath been done in the
flesh, either, " Come, inherit the king-
dom ; " or, " Depart, accursed, into
everlasting fire."
I believe, besides this, a day of AcUxvii. 3L
general judgment in the end of the
world, wherein we must all appear be-
fore the tribunal of Jesus Christ ; and
that our bodies being raised, by an * Cor. v. lo.
almighty power, from the dust, shall
be united to the same souls again,
and shall partake with them, in the
same condition, either of happiness i Cor. xv. 42.
or misery, to all eternity. Those that
have done good, shall come forth unto
the resurrection of life, and those that Jobn v. 90.
have done evil to the resurrection of
damnation.
This is the sum and substance of my
faith, into which I was baptized,
and in which, by the grace of God,
I will live and die.'
Mr. Parsons then proposed certain questions to
him, according to the instructions in the Directory,
to which he returned answer, as followeth :
Question 1. What are your ends in vndei'takxng
the work and calling of a minister f
Answer. As far as upon search and inquiry I can
hitherto find, though there be that within mc that
would seek great things for myself, (if indeed they
were to be found in this calling,) yet with my mind
I seek them not. But the improvement of the talent
which I have received in the service of the gospel,
for the glory of God, and the salvation of souls, I
hope, is in my eye ; if there be any thing else, I own
it not, I allow it not. While so many seek their own,
it is my desire, and shall be my endeavour, to seek
the things of Jesus Christ.
Question 2. What are your purposes, as to cft'/t-
yence and industry, in this calling y
Answer. I do purpose and resolve, by the help of
in theory, a Calvinist. and that he subscribed the doctrine of
election, &c. in the Calvinistic sense. The editor, however, has
left out that part of the confession, believing the omission will
prove no injury to the cause of vital Christianity." p. 3B.
How the concluding sentence of the confession could still ob-
tain a place, is submitted to the reader's judgment — ThU it thttwm
and tubttanet of ny faitk.
In attempts of this de8cripl\oti, Wvtie \^ Vo «s.:) v\k« \«u9L,^TciaKc\-
fesC want of candour, %nd edUom\tl^t\\l^.
26
THE UFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
God, to g^YO myself '* wholly" to these things ; to
prayer, reading, meditation, instant preaching, in
season and out of season, wherein I shall very gladly
spend and be spent, if by any means I may both save
myself and them that hear me. And when at any
time I fail herein, I desire God, by his Spirit, and
my Christian friends, neighbours, and brethren, by
seasonable reproof and admonition, to put me in
mind of this engagement now made, in the presence
of this great congregation.
Question 3. Do you mean to be zealous and faith-
ful in the defence of truth and unity, againtt error
and schism ?
Answer. I believe what the Spirit hath foretold,
that, in the last days, perilous times shall come,
wherein men will not endure sound doctrine, but
after their own lusts shall heap unto themselves
teachers. It is my resolution, by the grace of Christ,
to watch in all things ; to contend earnestly for the
faith, to hold fast the form of sound and wholesome
words, even '' the words of our Lord Jesus, and the
doctrine which is according to godliness ;" in meek-
ness, as I am able, instructing those that oppose
themselves. And for peace and unity, if my heart
deceive me not, I shall rather choose to hazard the
loss of any thing that is most dear to me, than be any
way knowingly accessary to the disturbance of these
in the churches of Christ.
Question 4. What is your persuasion of the truth
of the Reformed Religion ?
Answer. My persuasion is, that the Bishop of
Rome is that man of sin, and son of perdition, whom
the Lord Jesus will consume with the spirit of his
mouth, and whom he will destroy by the brightness
of his coming.*^ And the separation which our first
Reformers made, I do heartily rejoice in, and bless
God for ; for had we still continued to partake with
him in his sins, we should, in the end, have partaken
with him also in his plagues.
Question 6. What do you intend to do when the
Lord shall alter your condition, and bring a family
under your charge ?
Answer. When the Lord shall please, in his Pro-
vidence, to bring me into new relations, I hope he
will give me grace to fill them up with duty ; it is
my purpose to wait upon him, and to keep his way,
to endeavour, in the use of means, that all that are
mine, may be the Lord's.
Question 6. Will you, in humility and meehness,
submit to admonition and discipline ?
Answer. I believe it to be a duty incumbent upon
all that profess the name of Christ, to watch over
one another, and that when any is '' overtaken in a
d 1686. Nov. 28. I was indisposed, yet refiresbed with the ex.
position or Rev. xi. concerning the slaying and reviving of the
two witnesses ; nay, more than that, my father told us in dis-
course, at dinner, he believed some of us young ones might live
to see the antichrist fJEai ; for he thinks it is not far off If I may
fault," those IHat are spiritual are to set him in joint*
again ** with the spirit of meekness.'^ It shall be
my endeavour, in the strength of Jesus Christ, to
walk without rebuke, and when, at any time, I step
aside, (for who is there that lives and sins not,) I
shall account the smitings of my brethren kindness,
and their wounds faithful.
Question 7. What, if troubles, persecutions, and
discouragements, arise, will you hold out to the end
notwithstanding ?
Answer. Concerning this I am very jealous over
my own heart ; and there is cause ; I find a great
want of that zeal and courage for God, which I know
is required in a minister of the gospel ; nevertheless,
I persuade myself, that '* no temptation shall befall
me, but such as is common to man ; and that God,
who is faithful, will not suffer me to be tempted
above that which I am able, but that with the temp-
tation he will also make a way to escape, that I may
be able to bear it." I promise faithfulness to the
death, but I rest not at all in my promise to God,
but in his to me ; *^ When thou goest through the
fire, and through the water, I will be with thee."
Wlien this was done, Mr. Parsons prayed ; and in
prayer he and the rest of the Presbyters, Mr. Porter,
Mr. Houghton, Mr. Maiden, and Mr. Steel, laid
their hands upon him, with words to this purpose,
" Whom we do thus in thy name set apart to the
work and office of the ministry." After him, there
were five more,' after the like previous examina-
tions and trials, professions and promises, at the
same time, in like manner, set apart to the ministry.
Then Mr. Maiden, of Newport, closed with an
exhortation, directed to the newly ordained minis-
ters, in which, saith Mr. Henry in his diary, this
word went near my heart — As the nurse puts the
meat first into her own mouth, and chews it, and
then feeds the child with it, so should ministers do
by the word, preach it over beforehand to their own
hearts ; it loses none of the viHue thereby, but rather,
probably, gains. As that milk nourishcth most
which comes warm from the breast, so that sermon
which comes warm from a warm heart. Lord,
quicken me to do thy will in this thing.
The classis gave him, and the rest, instruments in
parchment, certifying this, which it may satisfy the
curiosity of some to read the form of.
" Whereas, Mr. Philip Henry of Worthenbury,
in the Co^pty of Flint, Master of Arts, hath address-
ed himself unto us, authorized by an ordinance of
both Houses of Parliament, of the 29th of August,
not see that happy day, however, X believe it shall be. Mrs.
Savage. Diary. Orig. MS.
• Gal. vi. 1. Vid. Pol. Synop. in loe.
t Mr. Jones, of Llanarmon ; Mr. Dickins, of Morton Say ; Mr.
Bradley, of Ness ; Mr. Hall, of Newcastle ; Mr. Hanmer, of White-
THE UFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
27
1648, for the ordination of ministers, tlesiring to be
ordained a Presbyter, for that he is chosen and ap-
potntod for the work of the ministry at Worthenbury,
in the county of Flinty as by a certificate now remain-
ing with US, touching that his election and appoint-
ment, appeareth. And he having likewise exhibited
a sufficient testimonial of his diligence and profici-
ency in his studies, and unblamableness of his life
ind conversation, he hath been examined according
to the rales for examination in the said ordinance
expressed ; and thereupon approved, there being no
just exception made, nor put in, against his ordina-
tion and admission. These may therefore testify to all
[ whom it may concern, that upon the 16th day of Sep-
' tember, 1657, we have proceeded solemnly to set him
apart for the office of a Presbyter, and work of the
ministry of the gospel, by laying on of our hands with
fasting and prayer. By virtue whereof we do declare
kim to be a lawful and sufficiently authorized minister
of Jesos Christ And having good evidence of his
lawful and fair calling, not only to the work of the
ministry, but to the exercise thereof at the chapel of
Worthenbury, in the county of Flint, we do hereby
lend him thither, and actually admit him to the said
charge to perform all the offices and duties of a
faithfai pastor there ; exhorting the people, in the
name of Jesus Christ, willingly to receive and ac-
knowledge him as the minister of Christ, and to
maintain and encourage him in the execution of his
I office, that he may be able to give up such an ac-
count to Christ of their obedience to his ministry,
j as may be to his joy, and their everlasting comfort
In witness whereof, we the Presbyters of the Fourth
Class, in the County of Salop, commonly called
Bradford-North Class, have hereunto set our hands,
I this 16th day of September, in the year of our Lord
' God, 1667.
Thomas Porter, Moderator for the time,
Andrew Parsons, Minister of Wem.
Aylmar Haughton, Minister of Frees,
John Maiden, Minister of Newport,
Richard Steel, Minister of Hanmer,*' '
I hare heard it said, by those who were present at
this solemnity, that Mr. Henry did in his counte-
nance, carriage, and expression, discover such an
extraordinary seriousness and gravity, and such
deep impressions made upon his spirit, as greatly
aiected the auditory, and even struck an awe upon
them.
well QapeL P. Henry. Diary. Orig. MS. At to Mr. Hall, see the
Ncneoo. Mem. v. 1 p. 32a
ff Mr. Orton,in hit edition ofthe Life, p. 5L has here introduced
the foUowtof note.
It la icflBBilcaMe. that Mr. Steel should be likewise engaged in
the ordiaadon of hia son. Mr. Matthew Henry, almost thirty years
sftcr Ifais; vis. May 9, 1697. It was the honour of his younger I
daya to be a|>potat<d by the elaaris of MiDisteis^ one oftboee who '
Read his reflection upon it in his diary.—" Me-
thoughts I saw much of God in carrying on of the
work of this day. Oh, how good is the Lord ! he is
good, and doth good ; the remembrance of it I shall
never lose; to him be glory. I made many pro-
mises of diligence, faithfulness, &c. but I lay no
stress at all on them, but on God's promise to me,
that he will be with his ministers always to the end
of the world. Amen, Lord, so be it. Make good thy
word unto thy servant, wherein thou hast caused me
to put my trust" And in another place, — " I did this
day receive as much honour and work, as ever I shall
be able to know what to do with ; Lord Jesus, pro-
portion supplies according." Two Scriptures he de-
sired might be written in his heart, 2 Corinthians
vi. 4, 5, &c. and 2 Chronicles xxix. 11.
Two years after, upon occasion of his being present
at an ordination at Whitchurch, he thus writes : —
" This day my ordination covenants were in a special
manner renewed, as to diligence in reading, prayer,
meditation, faithfulness in preaching, admonition,
catechizing, sacraments, zeal against error and pro-
faneness, care to preserve and promote the unity and
purity of the church, notwithstanding opposition and
persecution, though to death. Lord, thou hast filled
my hands with work, fill my heart with wisdom and
grace, that I may discharge my duty to thy glory,
and my own salvation, and the salvation of those
that hear me." Amen.
Let us now see how he applied himself to his work
at Worthenbury. The sphere was narrow, too nar-
row for such a burning and shining light. There
were but forty-one communicants in that parish,
when he first set up the ordinance of the Lord's
Supper ; and they were never doubled. Yet he had
such low thoughts of himself, that he not only never
sought for a larger sphere, but would never hearken
to any overtures of that kind made to him. And
withal, he had such high thoughts of his work, and
the worth of souls, that he laid out himself with as
much diligence and vigour here, as if he had the
oversight of the greatest and most considerable parish
in the country.
The greatest part of the parish were poor tenants
and labouring husbandmen ; but the souls of such,
he used to say, are as precious as the souls of the
rich, and to be looked after accordingly. His prayer
for them was, — " Lord, despise not the day of small
things in this place, where there is some willingness,
but much weakness.'' And thus he writes upon the
Judge's settling a handsome maintenance upon him,
should lay hands on Mr. Philip Henry ; and it must be the comfort
of his advanced years, that he had the opportunity of doing the
same office for the son. This circumstance must be very pleasing
both to father and son ; and it could not be less pleasing to Mr.
Steel, that he should be employed, under Christ, in sending out
two such ministers into the ehurch ; sucha (a.V.\itT,«xi<&«a^%.v»^.
See Jong's Life of Matlb. Henry, p. «. at n^xa.
28
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
Lord, thou knowest I seek not theirs but them.''
Give me the souls."'
[An edifying instance is preserved in the following
letter. It has no date.
My dear Friend ;
I am glad to hear by your father, that God hath
been, of late, at work with your soul ; and, I hope,
it will prove the good work, which, where he once
begins, he will be sure to perform, until the day of
Jesus Christ Now I send these few lines to you
from my affectionate love, and from the true desire
which I have of your spiritual and everlasting wel-
fare, to be your remembrancer, that you be sure, by
all means, to lay a good foundation, for want of
which multitudes miscarry and come to nothing.
Now that foundation must be laid in sound convic-
tions of, and hearty contrition for, sin ; ^ you must
bethink yourself of the error of your way, in how
many things you have offended ; and who can tell,
in how many ? You must lay before you the pure,
and holy, and spiritual law of God ; and if the
conunandment came to you by the Spirit of God
working with it, as it came to Paul, Romans vii. 9.
it will make sin to revive ; and the reviving of sin,
in that manner, will be the death of all your vain
hopes and carnal confidences ; you will then change
your note, and from the Pharisee's, God, I thank
thee, I am not as other men are ; you will cry out
with the poor Publican, God, be merciful to me a
nnner ! Oh, the numberless numbers of vain thoughts,
idle words, unprofitable communications, that have
past you in any one day, the best of your days ! the
multitudes of omissions of duty to God, to man in
general, in particular relations! the multitudes of
conmiissions, whereby from time to time you have
transgressed and turned aside, in the several ages
and stages of your life, through which you have
passed ! Though you are but young, and, therefore,
free from much of that guilt which others lie under,
yet conclude, I say conclude, you have enough and
enough again, if God should enter into judgment
with you, to sink you into the bottomless pit of hell ;
and, therefore, you must enter into judgment with
yourself, and condemn yourself, and if you do it
aright, you shall not be judged of the Lord, nor
condemned with the world. Be free and full in your
confessions, and after all you must close with David's,
&c. Psalm xix. 12. '* Who can understand his
errors ? Cleanse thou me from secret faults." Let
the streams lead you to the Fountain ; see a root, a
root of bitterness in your nature, bearing gall and
wormwood in your life and actions ; and be sure lay
h See2Cor.xii. 14.
The welfore or his people was very dear to him, and lay near his
heart ; h$ nmght not thtirs, but them ; nor was his care so much to
gather in tithes as soules. The Life of Dr. Thomas Taylor, who
died A. D. 1632, prefixed to bis Works, foL UU3.
the axe to th^ and bewail that, and see an absolute
necessity of a change ; for except you be bom again
and become a new creature, that is, except a contrary
principle of grace be wrought in you to work out that
naughty principle of corruption by degrees, you
cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And here
all the creatures in heaven and earth cannot help
you ; they must each of them say, it is not hi me, it
is not in me ; they have neither a righteousness for
you wherein to stand before God for justification,
nor the power to give you for the mortifying of one
vicious habit, or for the performing of any one act
of acceptable obedience ; but, blessed be God, help
is laid for us upon one that is mighty, able to save
to the uttermost those that come unto God by him,
the only Mediator between God and Man, the Man
Christ Jesus ; ' and, therefore, by him you must go
to God. I say must, or you are undone, for there
is no other name given under heaven by which we
can be saved ; you must in the sight and sense of
your own lost and undone condition in yourself, by
reason of the guilt which lies upon you, resolve to
cast yourself upon the free grace of the gospel;
making this your only plea at the bar of his offended
justice, I have sinned, but Christ Jesus hath died,
yea, rather is risen again, and in him mercy is pro-
mised to the penitent, and therefore to me. Do not
suffer the tempter, nor your own belief, to beat you
from this plea. These will tell you, you are a great
sinner, it may be a backslider after convictions, and
that often, and, therefore, it is to no purpose ; bat
do not hearken to them ; say, faithful is he that hath
promised, and hold fast there ; say, the worse I am,
the more need I have of a Saviour, the more his
mercy will be magnified in saving me; remember
David's argument. Psalm xxv. 11. And when you
have in this manner by faith applied Christ crucified
to your soul, you are bound to believe that God doth
accept of you, that your sins are pardoned, and that
you shall not come into condemnation. And then
your next work must be to study what you shall
render, to love him that hath loved you first, and out
of love to him to forsake all sin, and to buckle to all
duty ; to read, hear, and meditate, in the word of
God, that you may know what the will of God is
concerning you, and what you ought to do ; and when
you know it, resolve to do it. You will say, I can-
not. I know you cannot, but in this also help is laid
up for you in Jesus Christ ; if you come to him
daily, as you have occasion, in the sense of your own
impotency, he will strengthen you with all might by
his Spirit in the inner man ; he will plant g^ce,
and water his own planting, and make it to grow
i See Gen. xiv.2i.
k See P. Henry's Eighteen Sermons, ut npra^ p. 200. where sin
is considered as an abomination ; and also, it. 277. where the poor
in spirit are proved to be blessed.
1 Appendix, No. V.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
29
and bring forth fruit I can do all tilings, saith Paul,
tkrough Christ strengthening me, and without him
we can do nothing. The terms of that blessed
coTenant that we are under, are, that we endeavour
to do as well as we can, aimiug at perfection ; and
wherein we come short, that we may be humbled
for it, but not discouraged, as if there were no hope
for we are m^t under the law, but under grace. "*
I am glad to hear you have those servants of the
Lord with yon, who are better able than I to be the
directors of your way in this main matter, and that
God hath given you acquaintance with them, and
an iaterest in their love and prayers, which I hope
yon do prize at a very high rate, and be sure you.do
apoo all occasions make use of them, and be guided
by them. If you have not joined in the fellowship
of the holy supper, I would you should not by any
neuis delay to do it. It is not privilege only, but
duty, commanded duty, and if you love the Lord
Jesus, how can you answer for your neglect so long
of such a gracious appointment of his, when you have
opportunity for it ? Behold, he calls you. It is one
tUng to he unworthy to come, and another thing to
eome unworthily. He that is not fit to-day, will be
less fit to-morrow. I know those that can witness,
tboogh there were treaties before between their souls
and the Ijord Jesus, in order to that blessed match,
yet the matter was never consummated, nor the knot
fally tied, " till they came to that ordinance : it is a
sealing ordinance ; God is there sealing to us, and
we sealing to him in a precious Mediator. You
cannot imagine the benefits of it, and, therefore, put
not off. So, conmiending you to God, and to the
word of his ipuce, which is able to build you up,
and to give you an inheritance amongst them that
are sanctified in Christ Jesus, I rest,
Tour truly affectionate and well-wishing friend,
Philip Henry.**]
■ Sam. vi. 4. My loul bath oft been refreshed with that sweet
word,— ^ We are not under the law, but under grace ;**— and, I
■ay mj concerning it,— It is *' all my salvation, and all my desire,
•hliougli be tboold not make my house to grow.** P. Henry.
Grig. MS.
A believer, nys Mr. Mead, is under the law for conduct, but
not for judgment ; it is the guide of his path, but not the judge
or hb state The good oT early obedience, p. 907. duod. 1683.
■ Sec ante, p. 14.
• Grig. MS.
F Appendix:, Na VI.
^ For a fall account of the conduct of such intenriews, and a
smiMry of their advantages, see Clark's lives of Eminent Di-
vines, ■/ sMprm. PreC pp. 4, 5.
t On one occasion the question being proposed. What means
sre we to one that we may get knowledge, particularly that which
is divine! Mr. Henry gave the following answer, which runiishes
a corroboiation of many statements in the volume, and will be a
directory to others who are seeking instruction :
Be eooviaced tiMU knowledge is not a matter of indlOlfrence.
See Jdm avit 3; % Tbess. i. 7, & Hos. iv. o. Isa. xxvi. 11. With,
oat knowledge there is no fhith; ignorant believing is but pre-
tvmptioo, Isa. liii. li- Labour to see thy want of knowledge,
hov. xxvi. It, 1 Car. rHi. S. Isa. xxviii. o. It is certain you can
He was in laboars more abundant to win souls ;
besides preaching he expounded the Scriptures in
order ;P catechised, and explained the catechism.
At first he took into the number of his catechumens
some that were adult, who, he found, wanted instruc-
tion ; and when he had taken what pains he thought
needful with them, he dismissed them from further
attendance, with commendation of their proficiency,
and counsel, '* to hold fast the form of sound words ;"
to be watchful against the sins of their age, and to
apply themselves to the ordinance of the Lord's
Supper, and make ready for it ; afterwards he cate-
chised none above seventeen or eighteen years of age.
He set up a monthly lecture there of two sermons,
one he himself preached, and the other his friend
Mr. Ambrose Lewis, of Wrexham, for some years.
He also kept up a monthly conference,** in private,
from house to house, in which he met with the more
knowing and judicious of the parish ; and they dis-
coursed familiarly together of the things of God, to
their mutual edification, according to the example
of the apostles, who, though they had the liberty of
public places, yet taught also from house to honse^
Acts v. 42; xx. 20. That which induced him to set
and keep up this exercise as long as he durst, which
was till August, 1600, was, that by this means he
came better to understand the state of his flock, and
so knew the better how to preach to them, and pray
for them, and they to pray one for another. If they
were in doubt about any thing relating to their souls,
that was an opportunity of getting satisfaction. It
was likewise a means of increasing knowledge,' and
love, and other graces ; and thus it abounded to a
good account.*
He was very industrious in visiting the sick, in-
structing them, and praying with them ; and in this
he would say, he aimed at the good, not only of
those that were sick, but also of their friends and
relations that were about them.
never know too much.— Be diligent and constant in the use of
ordinances. Public;— Hcbt the word preached. In hearing, be
sure observe the doctrine, which, for the most part, is very short ;
and. for the help of such whose memories are weak, given usually
in the very words of Scripture, which is taken for the text. If you
can carry away nothing else, fail not to carry away that. But
should I be speaking to you an hour about any worldly business,
you would remember a great deal more than one sentence.
Turn to proof afterwarda /^-iva/*;— Read the scriptures, or get
others to read them to you, in your Tamiliea Read those that are
most for edification. Regard not so much how many chapters you
read, as how many truths you can make up to yourselves firom
what you read. Unless where continuance of story requires, let,
ordinarily, one or two chapters at a time suffice ; and let them
be read once and again. Also, get some good books, catechisms,
kc. that contain the principles of religion. If thou canst not buy,
borrow.— Keepknowing company ; and, when you are with such,
be inquiring,— What means thisf-^not out of curiosity, but for
edification. You, who have knowlcflge, be willing to communi-
cate. You will lose nothing by it. Pray much ; especially before
hearing, reading, kc. See James i. 5. Prov. li. 3, &c. Use some
short ejaculation. Psalm cxix. is full of such. P. Henry. Orig.
MS.
• Appendix, Na VIL
30
THE UFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
He preached funeral sermons for all that were
buried there, rich and poor, old or young, or little
children ; for he looked upon it as an opportunity of
doing good. He called it,--setting in the plow of
the word, when the Providence had softened and
prepared the ground. He never took any money for
that or any other ministerial performance, besides
his stated salary, for which he thought himself
obliged to do his whole duty to them as a minister.
When he first set up the ordinance of the Lord's
Supper there, he did it with very great solemnity.
After he had endeavoured to instruct them in his
public preaching, touching the nature of that ordi-
nance, he discoursed personally with all that gave
up their names to the Lord in it, touching their
knowledge, experience, and conversation, obliged
them to observe the law of Christ, touching bro-
therly admonition in case of scandal; and gave
notice to the congregation who they were that were
admitted; adding this: ''Concerning these, and
myself, I have two things to say. 1. As to what is
past, wc have sinned. If we should say, we have
not, we should deceive ourselves, and the truth were
not in us ; and yet this withal we can say, and have
said it, some of us with tears, — ^We are grieved that
we have sinned. 2. For time to come we are
sesolved by God's grace to walk in new obedience ;
and yet seeing we are not angels, but men and wo-
men, compassed about with infirmities and tempta-
tions, it is possible we may fall ; but if we do, it is
our declared resolution to submit to admonition and
censure, according to the rule of the gospel." And
all along he took care so to manage his admissions
to that ordinance, as that the weak might not be
discouraged, and yet the ordinance might not be
profaned.^ He would tell those whom he was ne-
cessitated to debar from the ordinance for ignorance,
that he would undertake, if they were but truly
willing, they might in a week's time, by the blessing
of God upon their diligent use of means, reading,
prayer, and conference, get such a competent mea-
sure of knowledge, as to be able to discern the Lord's
body. And those that had been scandalous, if they
would but come in and declare their repentance, and
resolutions of new obedience, they should no longer
be excluded.
To give a specimen of his lively administrations
of that ordinance, let me transcribe the notes of his
exhortation at the first sacrament that ever he ad-
ministered, November 27, ISSO.*" I suppose they
are but the hints of what he enlarged more upon,
for he had always a great fluency upon such occa-
sions.
** Dearly beloved in our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, we are met together this day about the most
« Some important observations on this subject, in connexion
rr}th tht Test Act, occur in the Hist, of Dissenters, v. 4. p. 181—
/Sff.
solemn, weighty service under heaven ; we are come
to a feast, where the feast-maker is God the Father,
the provision, God the' Son, whose flesh is meat
indeed, and whose blood is drink indeed ; the guests,
a company of poor sinners, unworthy such an
honour ; the crumbs under the table were too good
for us, and yet we are admitted to taste of the pro-
vision upon the table ; and that which makes the
feast is hearty welcome. God the Father bids you
welcome ; and ten tliousand welcomes this day, to
the flesh and blood of his Son. Think you hear him
saying it to you, O believing souls. Cant. v. 1.—
JKotf, O friendM, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O ie-
loved. The end of this feast is to keep in remem-
brance the death of Christ, and our deliverance by
it, and thereby to convey spiritual nourishment and
refreshment to our souls. But withal, give mc leave
to ask you one question,— What appetite have yon
to this feast? Are you come hungering and thirsting ?
Such as have the promise, they shall be filled. He
filleth the hungry with good things, hut the rich are
sent empty away ; a honey-comb to a full soul is no
honey-comb. Canst thou say as Christ said, — With
desire I have desired to eat this ? In this ordinance
here is Christ and all his benefits exhibited to thee.
Art thou weak ? here is bread to strengthen thee.
Art thou sad ? here is wine to comfort thee. What
is it thou standest in need of ? a pardon? here it is,
sealed in blood, take it by faith, as I offer it to you
in the name of the Lord Jesus ; though thy sins have
been as scarlet, they shall be as wool, if thou be willing
and obedient. It may be, here are some that have
been drunkards, swearers, scoffers at godliness,
sabbath-breakers, and what not ; — and God hath put
it into your hearts to humble yourselves, to mourn
for and turn from all your abominations. Oh, come
hither, here is forgiveness for thee. What else is it
thou wantest? Oh, saith the poor soul, I would
have more of the spirit of grace, more power against
sin, especially my own iniquity. Why, here it is for
thee : ' from the fulness that is in Jesus Christ,
we receive, and grace for grace.* John i. 16. We
may say as David did. Psalm cviii. 7, 8. Ood hath
spoken in his holiness, and then Gilead is mine, and
Manasseh is mine. So God hath spoken in his word
sealed in his sacrament, and then Christ is mine,
pardon is mine, grace is mine, comfort mine, glory
mine ; here I have his bond to show for it. This is
to those among you, that have engaged their hearts
to approach unto God this day.
<< But if there be any come hither with a false,
unbelieving, filthy, hard heart, I do warn you seri-
ously, and with authority, in the name of Jesus
Christ, presume not to come any nearer to this sacred
ordinance.* You that live in tlie practice of any sin,
« b it not probable, this was 1657! Mr. Henry's ordination was
September IS, in that year.
T The one gnreat cause of the great flourishing of religion in the
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
31
or the omisjiion of any daty against your knowledge
and conscience ; yon that haye any malice or grudge
to any of your neighbours, leave your gift and go
yoor ways ; be reconciled to God, be reconciled to
yoor brother, and then come ! Better shame
thyself for coming so near, than damn thyself by
coming nearer. I testify to those, who say they shall
IttTC peace, thongh they go on still in their tres-
ptsses, that there is poison in the bread ; take it and
eat it at your own peril ; there is poison in the cup
too, you drink your own damnation. I wash my
kinds from the guilt of your blood. Look you to it,
on the other hand, you poor penitent souls that are
lost in yourseWes, here is a Christ to save you.
Come, O cotne, ye that are weary and heavy laden/^Sac,
It may not be amiss to transcribe also some hints
of preparation for the administering of the ordinance
of baptism,* which I find under his hand, at his first
letting out in the ministry, as follows :
"^ It is a real manifestation of the goodness and
lone of God to belieyers, that he hath not only taken
them into corenant with himself, but their seed also;
njing, / will be thy God, and the God of thy seed.
Though to be bom of such, does not necessarily
entitle infants to the spiritual mercies of the cove-
Bant, for grace doth not run in the blood. We see
the oontrary many times, even godly parents have
wicked children ; Abraham had his Ishmael, and
Isaac his Esau ; yet, questionless, it doth entitle them
to the external privileges of the covenant. The lihe
fywre muto Noah's arh, even baptism doth also now
MM MM. Noah, and all that were his, entered into
the arfc« thongh we have cause to doubt whether they
all entered into heaven. While our Lord Jesus was
here upon the earth, they brought little children to
him, and he laid his hands on them^ and blessed them ;
and said, moreover, Suffer little children to come
umio tma, and forbid them not, (there are many at this
day, that forbid little children to come to Christ,) he
adds the reason,*-for of such is the hingdom of hea-
ven. Whether it be meant of the visible church,
often so called in the gospel, or of the state of glory
IB another world ; either way it affords an argument
ior proof of infant baptism. When either parent is
ia eovenant with God, their children also are in co-
venant vrith him ; and being in covenant, they have
an nndoabted right and title to this ordinance of
fcaptSfi^ which is the seal of the covenant. So that
in the administration of this ordinance, this day, ac-
coiding to the institution of Jesus Christ, we look
wfoa yon who are the father of this child, as a per-
in eorenantwith God. How far you have dealt
.certainly, thestrictnefls used by them in their
of memben into church societies, which is fully de-
seribcd by Origen, against Celsos; who tells us, they did inquire
isto their lives and carriages, to discern their seriousness in the
of Ctsrifltiaafty duriog their being catechumens ; who
tfter tellB aa, tbay didieqnlre true repentance and reformation of
life, thai we admit them to the pertieipatioo of our mysteries
•7
unfaithfully in the covenant, is known to God and
your own conscience ; but this we know, the vows
of God are upon you ; and let every one that nameth
the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But before
we baptize your child, I am to acquaint you, in a
few words^ what we expect from you.
'' Q. (1.) Do you avouch God in Jesus Christ this
day to be your God ? See to it that this be
done in truth, and with a perfect heart. You may
tell us you do so, and you may deceive us, but God
is not mocked. Q. (2.) And is it your desire, that
your children also may be received into covenant
with the Lord, and that the Lord's broad-seal of bap-
tism may be set to it ? Q. (3.) And do you promise
in the presence of God, and of this congregation, that
you will do your endeavour towards the training of
it up in the way of godliness, that as it is by you,
through mercy, that it lives the life of nature, so it
may by you also, through the same mercy, live the
life of grace ? Else I must tell you, if you be wanting
herein, there will be a sad appearance one day, when
you shall meet together before the judgment-seat of
Christ, and this solemn engagement of yours will
be brought in to witness against you."
These were but the first instances of his skil ful-
ness in dispensing the mysteries of the kingdom of
God. He declined the private administration of the
Lord's Supper to sick persons, as judging it not
consonant to the rule and intention of the ordinance.
He very rarely, if ever, baptized in private; but
would have children brought to the solemn assembly
upon the Lord's day, that the parent*s engagement
might have the more witnesses to it, and the child
the more prayers put up for it, and that the congre-
gation might be edified. And yet he would say,
there was some inconvenience in it too, unless peo-
ple would agree to put off the feasting part of the
Solemnity to some other time, which he very much
persuaded his friends to ; and observed, that Abra-
ham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was
weaned, (Genesis xxi. 8.) not the same day that he
was circumcised.
His carriage towards the people of his parish was
very exemplary ; condescending to the meanest, and
conversing familiarly with them : bearing with the
infirmities of the weak, and becoming all things to
all men.
[Weak Christians, he remarks, have infirmities :
but infirmity supposes life, and all who are alive to
God have an inward sense of sin, and their own lost
condition, by reason of it,— they heartily close with
Christ upon gospel terms for pardon and peace, —
Irenlcum, by Edward Stillingflect, afterwards Bishop of Worcester.
4to. 1661. pp. 134, 135.
w Mr. Matthew Henry left in manuscript a Treatise on Baptism.
It was abridged and published by the Rev. Thomas Robins in 1783.
The reader will ftnd many extracts from \1 \tv " kTvWv»AsJ^V^^«^
Examined," by the late Dt. EdwaTd N^WWania. ^o\. V\. t^- ^. *^
1789. See also Orton'i Letters lo D\aaftTvlVi!k%»xvNA«v^ • >i!v.^. «i
32
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
and have unfeigned desires and endeavours to walk
in the way of God's commandments. But such are,
oftentimes, very dull of apprehension in spiritual
things, Matthew xv. 16. Hebrews v. 11, 12. They
are often peevish and froward, inexpert, unskilful in
duty, and apt to envy, and judge, and censure, being
unacquainted with the extent of Christian liberty in
indifferent things. They arc often fainting in adver-
sity, much taken with earthly things, easily disquieted
and cast down, and frequently questioning the love
of God. We must not, however, despise them,
Romans xiv. 3. Zechariah iv. 10.— not in heart,
word, or carriage. We must rather deny ourselves
than offend them. Romans xiv. 21. Romans xv.
1, 2. 1 Corinthians viii. 9, 13. We must support
them,— bear them as pillars,— bear the house as the
shoulders a burthen, as the wall the vine, as parents
their children, as the oak the ivy. And this, because
they are brethren. Are they not of tlie same body ?
Shall the hand cut off the little finger because it is
not as large as the thumb ? Do men throw away
their com, because it comes into the bam with chaff?
They are weak. Bear with them out of pity. In a
family, if one of the little ones be sick, all the larger
children are ready to attend it, which they need not
do if it were well. It should be done, likewise, be-
cause Jesus Christ does so. Bear ye one another's
burthens, and so fulfil the law of Christ, the law of his
conmiand, and the law of his example. He takes
special care of his Iambs, will not quench the smoking
flax, and is touched with the feeling of our infirmi-
ties, Hebrews iv. 16. *
To retum,] he was exceeding tender of giving
offence, or occasion of grief, to any body, minding
himself in his diary upon such occasions; that the
wisdom that is from above, is pure, and peaceable,
and gentle, &c. Yet be plainly and faitlifully
reproved what he saw amiss in any, and would not
suffer sin upon them ; mourning also for that which
he could not mend. There were some untractable
people in the parish, who sometimes caused grief to
him, and exercised his boldness and zeal in reprov-
ing. Once hearing of a merry meeting at an ale-
house, on a Saturday night, he went himself and
broke it up, and scattered them. At another time,
he publicly witnessed against a frolic of some vain
people, that on a Saturday night came to the church
with a fiddler before them, and dressed it up with
flowers and garlands, making it, as he told them,
« P. Henry. Orig. MS.
y This statement is now inapplicable to congregational assem.
blies. Considering the aspect of the times, educational predilec-
tions, and oflBcial custom, it cannot be surprising that such a man
as Mr. Henry should have felt sensibly on the subject The sen.
tJment was, indeed, common, and for similar reasons, to the
body of Presbyterian Ministers. The experience, however,
which resulted from the Act of Uniformity in 1062, and other
subsequent statutes, evidently lessened their objections, and
showed that the difficulties were rather ima^nary than real.
more like a play-house ; and was this their prepara-
tion for the Lord's day, and the duties of it? &c.
He minded them of Ecclesiastes xi. 9. Rejoice, 0
young man, in thy youth, but know thou .
Many out of the neighbouring parishes attended
upon his ministry, and some came from far, though
sometimes he signified his dislike of their so doing,
so far was he from glorying in it. But they who
had spiritual senses exercised to discern things that
differ, would attend upon that ministry which they
found to be most edifying.
He was about eight years, from first to last, labour-
ing in the word and doctrine at Worthenbury, and
his labour was not altogether in vain. He saw in
many of the travail of his own soul to the rejoicing
of his heart, but with this particular dispensation,
which I have heard him sometimes speak of, that
most or all of those in that parish, whom he was,
through grace, instrumental of good to, died be-
fore he left the parish, or quickly after ; so that
within a few years after his removal thence, thero
were very few of the visible fruits of his ministry
there; and a new generation sprang up there,
who knew not Joseph. Yet the opportunity he
found there was of doing the more good, by hav-
ing those that were his charge near about him, made
him all his days bear his testimony to parish order,
where it may be had upon good terms, as much more
eligible, and more likely to answer the end, than
the congregational way of gathering churches from
places far distant, which could not ordinarily meet
to worship God together.^ From this experience
here, though he would say, we must do what we can,
when we cannot do what we would,' he often wished
and prayed for the opening of a door, by which to
retum to that order again.
He had not been long at Worthenbury, but he
began to be taken notice of by the neighbouring
ministers, as likely to be a considerable man.
Though his extraordinary modesty and humility,
which even in his youth he was remarkable for,
made him to sit down with silence in the lowest
room, and to say, as Elihu, Days shall speah ; yet his
eminent gifts and graces could not long be hid; the
ointment of the right hand will betray itself, and a
person of his merits could not but meet with those
quickly, who said. Friend, go up higher ; and so
that Scripture was fulfilled, Luke xiv. 10. He was
often called upon to preach the week-day lectures,
I Ut qnimus, aiunt-; quando, tit volumus. non licet Terence.
Audria, Act. IV. Sc. VI.
In a valuable little Treatise, *' Of the Power of Godlinesse,** by
Thomas White, duod. 1658. The author states, that one great im-
pediment " whereby wee are hindered in the wayes of God,*'—
" not to do what wee can. because we cannot do what wee would,
or should." ib. p. 139.
So. Mr. Bereman,— " If you cannot do the good you would,
then do the good you can." Farewell Sermons, p. 3M. 4to.
1663.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
33
f
which were set up plentifully, and diligently attend-
ed apon in those parts, and his labours were gene-
rally Teiy acceptable and successful. , The vox
popMli fastened upon him the epithet of Heavenly
Henry,* by which title he was commonly known all
the country over ; and his advice was sought for by
many neighbouring ministers and Christians, for he
was one of those that found favour and good under-
standing in the sight of God and man. He was
noted at his first setting out, (as I have been told by
one who was then intimately acquainted with him,
and with his character and conversation,) for three
thlogs : 1. Great piety and devotion, and a mighty
siTour of gCMlliness in all his converse. 2. Great
indastry in the pursuit of useful knowledge; he
was particularly observed to be very inquisitive
when he was among the aged and intelligent, hear-
ing them, and asking them questions ; a good exam-
ple to young men, especially youHg ministers. 3.
Great self-denial, self-diffidence, and sclf-abase-
iient ; this eminent humility put a lustre upon all
his other graces. This character of him reminds
me of a passagpe I have sometimes heard him tell,
as a check to the forwardness and confidence of
young men, that once at a meeting of ministers, a
question of moment was started, to be debated
among thepi ; upon the first proposal of it, a confi-
dent young man shoots his bolf* presently, '^ Truly,"
nith he, '' I hold it so ;" *' You hold. Sir," saith a
grave minister, '* it becomes you to hold your peace/*
Besides his frequent preaching of the lectures
about him, he was a constant and diligent attendant
wpon those within his reach, as a bearer ; and not
only wrote the sermons he heard, but afterwards re-
corded in his diary, what, in each sermon, reached
his heart, affected him, and did him good ; adding
tome proper, pious ejaculations, which were the
breathings of his heart, when he meditated upon
and prayed over the sermons.
[lie following instances will illustrate the fore-
going statement, and preserve, at the same time, some
pleasing specimens of the pulpit excellences of va-
rious of Mr. Henry's friends and fellow-labourers.
1657, January 7. I heard two sermons at Bangor ;
the one from Acts xvii. 31. He hath appointed a day
wherein he will judge the world. My heart was very
dead in hearing ; the Lord in mercy forgive it ; but
the truth made up to myself is this, — I would fain be
certified, — Am I ready for that day ? It will be ter-
rible to sinners ; it will be comfortable to the godly ;
it is not long to it. Where shall I then appear ? O
Lord, let me be found in Christ ! — At his right, not
at his left, hand ; — among the sheep, not among the
• The SQtIion of the Biographie Univenelle Ancienne et Mo-
<lcnie. Took Vingtieme, oct ISI7. tit. Henry Bifathieu, say,— that
ItepnblabcdaLife "de M. Philippe Henry, (pire de Tauteur,) I'un
<te pveinicn nonoonfonniites. en I60C, et appelft par ses admire-
D
goats ! I have been a wandering sheep, if yet a
sheep. Oh, save me for thy mercies' sake !
The other from Acts xxiv. 25. Felix trembled.
Much was spoken that reached my heart and present
condition, as if the Lord had sent the minister to
preach purposely to me. Blessed be God ! It is a
dreadful thing to sin against conviction ; and that
I have done many a time. Father, forgive me ! A
convinced person finds a great deal less pleasure in
sin than others do. I can set my seal to that truth,
and acknowledge myself, therefore, so much the
more a fool to transgress without a cause. Sure, ray
sin is the greater. Sins against conviction border
upon the sin against the Holy Ghost. Oh, how near
then have I been to ruin ! There hath been but a
step between me and death; but God hath had
mercy.
Saving convictions melt the heart, set the soul a
pra3ring, subdue the will to live according to them.
Mine, this day, produced the two former efiects, with
hearty unfeigned resolutions touching the latter.
Lord, undertake for rac !
I was told that I must not stay till some remark-
able time from which to date my conversion to God,
as many do, but I must make this day remarkable
by doing it now. After dangerous backsliding, lo,
I come to Thee, for thou art the Lord my God ! — My
God in Christ!
April 1. I heard two sermons at Bangor. The
one from Psalm cxix. 37. Quicken thou me in thy
way. In the prayer before sermon, this confession
was put up, which my heart closed with ; Lord^ we
want wisdom to carry ourselves as we ought in the
worlds by reason whereof the work of the gospel in our
hands is much hindered ! Oh, my God, bestow upon
me a wise and an understanding heart. The doc-
trine was, — that God's people often want quickening
in God's way. I am sure I do. Oh, when had I
cause to complain, my heart is dead to the world,
creatures, pleasures, sin? But to duty, praying,
preaching, when, almost, is it otherwise? Lord, tliou
gavest life at first ; give more life !
May 6. At Thistleworth. From Matt. vi. 10. Thy
will be done. In this petition we pray that the secret
will of God, which is always wise, may be done
upon us, and that the revealed will of God, which
is always righteous, may be done by us ; the will of
his purpose, and the will of his command. In earth
as in heaven — A true Christian hath perfection in his
eye, though he cannot reach it; (Phil, iii.) that, if
possible, he might attain the resurrection of the dead.
O Lord, when shall I be perfect ; when shall that
that is in part be done away ?
b An allusion, probably, to the old proverb, A rath man'$ boll h
toon sAot. "The hypocrite will rashly and suddenly thoot the Mt
of his censure against any that comes in his way." Divine Cha.
racters, by Samuel Crook, B. D. p. 120. fol. 1658. See Clark's Lives
annexed to the Martyrologie, p. 214. «/ tvpra.
34
THE UFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
May 10. At Thistleworth. From Matt xii. 96.
The doctrine was, — Idle words must be accounted
for. Words that are unprofitable bring no glory to
God, no real good to ourselves or others, are very
sinful, — because they are an abuse of our best mem-
ber, our tongue, which is our gloiy. We are guilty
of very many, every day, in every company. From
hence was inferred what need there is for us to
reckon with ourselves every night for the idle words
and other failings of the day before. It is no wis-
dom to defer. If we reflect not quickly, we shall
forget My heart accuses me of much guilt in this
respect. I have formerly been very talkative, and
in multitude of words there wants not sin. Lord,
cleanse my soul in the blood of Christ, and mortify
that corruption for me, by thy Spirit, every day,
more and more !
From 1 Pet. iv. 18. it was urged that it is no easy
matter to be saved. It was difficult work to Jesus
Christ to work redemption for us. It is difficult
work to the Spirit to work grace in us, and to carry
it on against corruptions, temptations, distractions.
I was exhorted to inquire, 1. Can I choose to under-
go the greatest suffering rather than commit the least
sin ? 2. Can I embrace Christ with his cross ? 3.
Can I work for God though there were no wages ?
4. Can I swim against the stream ; be good in bad
times, and places ? . 5. Can I pull out right eyes for
Christ, and cut off right hands, &c. ? I can do all
this, and much more, through Christ's strengthen-
ing me.
June 3. At Bangor, from Phil. i. 27. The doc-
trine was,— It is the great duty of Christians to have
their conversation as becomes the gospel ; that is,
clothed with the graces of the gospel, faith, love»
humility, meekness, self-denial, patience; and in
these to abound, and grow. It is an uncomely sight
to see an old professor a young saint. We discre-
dit our keeping. ' Lord, water me every moment ;
keep me night and day, that I may tluive to thy
praise, having my conversation, not only as becomes
the gospel, but, which is more, as becomes a minis-
ter of the gospel.
June 10. At Ellesmere. * From Matt. v. 6. The
doctrine was, — Hungry, thirsty souls shall be filled,
partly here, perfectly hereafter, with grace, comfort,
glory. Such put a great value upon Christ Men
will part with any thing for food ; they will go far
for it ; take pains to get it. Lord, evermore fill my
soul with thyself! Creatures will not satisfy.
July 1. At Bangor. From Matt xiii. 44. The ob-
servation was, — Those who have found Christ ought
to hide him ;— not from others, but within themselves
in the safest, inmost room of their hearts. This is done
by faith, love, humility, obedience, entertainment.
e Ml. Pomfiret '* would exhort people Arom the pulpit, that, next
to the blood of Christ, they would prize Um and thoughts.'* Life,
by Thomas Reynolds, p. 79i oct 17S2.
There is all the reason in the world for it ; he is
treasure worth hiding ; there are great endeavours to
rob us of him ; if once lost, he is not easily found
again ; till he can be found again, there can be no
true peace. Some lodge Christ, as they do beggars,
in their out-houses, by making a visible profession,
but sin dwells in the heart The Lord grant that I
be not one of those !
From Eccles. i. 2. it was stated, — ^That there is no-
thing under the sun but what is full of the vainest
vanity ..—unsatisfying, unprofitable, unsuitable, un-
certain, not worthy our affections when we have
them, nor our afflicting ourselves when we want
them. The saints have always thought so ; dying
men will not fail to tell us so. Oh, what cause have
we to bless God, who hath revealed this unto us, to
take us from things here below, which otherwise we
might have ventured our souls for, and so have
perished for ev^r! I bless God, it is as if a friend
had stopt me from giving all I have for a counterfeit
pearl, — Oh, do. not venture ; it is but counterfeit !
From James v. 9. the solemn truth was enforced.
Behold, the Judge standeth before the door ; that is,
very near. There is but a hair's breadth of time
between us and our account This we ought to be-
hold with an eye of faith, thereby to bring it near to
us, and make it as present. We must not think, in
the mean time, that forbearance is payment Pa-
tience doth not take away sin ; only the pardoning
grace of God doth that. The time to come will be
as swift as that which hath been, and concerning
which we usually say. It was but the other day, &c.
though it may be it was thirty or forty years ago.
This should quicken us to ply time.^ The Lord
write this truth in my heart, and help me to see the
Judge, — not sitting, but standing, before the door, in
a moving posture, that I may study, and preach,
and pray, and live, accordingly. Amen, for Christ's
sake!
Oct. 5. At Welsh-Hampton,** from Col. iii. 8.
The doctrine was, — It is the great duty of all Chris-
tians to put off anger. It unfits for duty. A little
jogging puts a clock or watch out of frame, so a
little passion the heart. A man cannot wrestle with
God and virangle with his neighbour at the same
time. Short sins often cost us long and sad sorrows.
An angry man is like one in a crowd who hath a sore
boil, every one thrusts him, and troubles him. With
the froward thou wilt show thyself froward ; — a dread-
ful Scripture to a peevish, froward man. Those who
arc too merry when pleased, are commonly too angry
when crossed. Blessed Lord, subdue this lust in my
heart ! I am very weak there. Turn the stream of
my anger against self, and sin ! *]
What a wonderful degree of piety and humility
A A parish in Salop, about three miles firom Ellesmere.
• P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
THE UFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
36
doth it eridence, for one of so great acquaintance
with tfac things of God to write, — ^Tbis I learnt out
of fuch a sermon, and This was the truth I made up
to mjself oat of such a sermon ! And, indeed, some-
thing oat of eyery sermon. His diligent improve-
ment of the word preached contributed, more than
any one thing, as a means to his great attainments
in knowledge and gprace. He would say sometimes,
that one great use of week-day lectures was, that it
gate ministers an opportunity of hearing one an-
other preach, by which they are likely to profit, when
they hear not as masters, but as scholars ; not as
censors, bat as learners.
His great friend and companion, and fellow-
labourer in the work of the Lord, was the worthy Mr.
Richard Steel,' Minister of Hanmer,' one of the next
parishes to Worthenbury, whose praise is in the
churches of Christ, for his excellent and useful trea-
tises, "The Husbandman's Calling,'"* "An Antidote
aipdnst Distractions,'^ ' and several others. Ho was
Mr. Henry's alter idem^ the man of his counsel ; with
him he joined frequently at Hanmer and elsewhere
in Christian conference, and in days of humiliation
and prayer: besides their meetings with other minis-
ters at public lectures ; after which it was usual for
them to spend some time among themselves in set
disputations in Latin. This was the work that in
those days was carried on among ministers, who
made it ^eir business, as iron sharpens iron, to pro-
voke one another to love and good works. What
was done of this kind in Worcestershire, Mr. Baxter
tells us in his Life.^
In the beginning of his days he often laboured
under bodily distempers ; it was feared that he was
io a consumption ; and some blamed him for taking
so much pains in his ministerial work, suggesting to
him. Master, spare thyself. One of his friends told
idm, he lighted up all his pound of candles together ; *
and that he could not hold out long at that rate ;
and wished him to be a better husband of his
strength. But he often reflected upon it with com-
fort afterwards, that he was not influenced by such
suggestions.— The more we do, the more we may do,
so he would sometimes say, in the service of God.
When his work was sometimes more than ordinary,
and bore hard upon him, he thus appealed to God ; —
Thoa knowest. Lord, how well contented I am to
spoid and to be spent in thy service ; and if the out-
ward man decay, O let the inward man be renew-
r Nat MXh Miy, ie39 : Ob. I6tb Nov. 1003. See Wilson's Hist, of
Dtaentinf Cborcbes^ v. 2. p. 448.
g See Leiand, wt tmptm, r. 5. pp. 30, 31.
kSmlSSBL
i Svo. 1073.
k Beliq. Baxter. Ub. L Part L p. 90. «/ M}»ra.
I fai Sderfki's Beports, the phrase is thas used; " Et si terme
KM devteal mn par vie nemaioderal aater par trie remainder al
tune par vie, te. Bt iaiot al 90 Tun apres Tauter que ces est
btme devise al ceuz touts nicnt obstant les otgections de possibi-
o 2
ed ! Upon the returns of his indisposition he ex-
presseth a great concern how to get spiritual good
by it,— to come out of the furnace, and leave
some dross behind ; for it is a great loss to lose an
affliction. He mentions it as that which he hoped
did him good, that he was ready to look upon every
return of distemper as a summons to the grave ;
thus he learned to die daily. — I find, saith he, my
earthly tabernacle tottering, and when it is taken
down I shall have a building in heaven, that shall
never fail. Blessed be God the Father, and my Lord
Jesus Christ, and the good Spirit of grace. Even so,
Amen. This was both his strength and his song,
under his bodily infirmities.
While he was at Worthenbury he constantly laid
by the tenth of his income for the poor, which he
carefully and faithfully disposed of, in the liberal
things which he devised, especially the teaching of
poor children. And he would recommend it as a
good rule to lay by for charity in some proportion,
according as the circumstances are, and then it will
be the easier to lay out in charity. We shall be the
more apt to seek for opportunities of doing good,
when we have money lying by us, of which we have
said, — This is not our own, but the poor's. To en-
courage himself and others to works of charity, he
would say, — He is no fool who parts with that which
be cannot keep, when be is sure to be recompensed
with that which he cannot lose. And yet to prove
alms to be righteousness, and to exclude all boasting
of them, he often expressed himself in those words
of David, — Of thine ovmy Lord, have we given thee,"^
In the year 1658, the ministers of that neighbour-
hood began to enlarge their correspondence with the
ministers of North Wales ; and several meetings
they had at Ruthin and other places that year, for
the settling of a correspondence, and the promoting
of unity and love, and good understanding among
themselves, by entering into an Association, like
those some years before of Worcestershire" and
Cumberland,** to which, as their pattern, those two
having been published, they did refer themselves.
They appointed particular Associations ; and, not-
withstanding the diflerences of apprehension that
were among them, (some being in their judgments
episcopal, others congregational, and others classi-
cal,) they agreed to lay aside the thoughts of matters
in variance, and to give to each other the right hand
of fellowship ; that with one shoulder, and with one
llties sur possibilities si touts les psons fuer m esse al temps del
devise quia touts le» eandfU art HghUd atone*:" p. 451. fol. 1683.
m 1 Chron. xxix. 14. Mr. Falrclough would often say,— that we
read not or any good man in all the history of Scripture, or of the
primitive tiroes, that was covetous. Clark's Lives or Eminent
Persons, p. 18*2. «/ tuftra.
B See Christian Concord ; or, The Agreement of the Associated
Pastors and Churches of Worcestershire, with its Explication and
Defence, by R. Baxter, 4to. 1663
Q See the Agreement of the Associated BAinisters and Churches
36
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
consent, they might study, each in their places, to
promote the common interests of Christ's kingdom,
and common salvation of precioos souls. He ob-
served that this year, after the death of Oliver
Cromwelljp there was generally, throughout the
nation, a great change^ in the temper of God's peo-
ple, and a mighty tendency towards peace and unity,
as if they were, by consent, weary of their long
clashings ; which, in his diary, he expresseth his
great rejoicing in, and his hopes that the time was
at hand, when Judah should no longer vex Ephraim,
nor Ephraim envy Judah, neither should they learn
war any more,' And though these hopes were soon
disappointed by the change of the scene, yet he
would often speak of the experience of that and the
following year in those parts, as a specimen of what
may yet be expected, and, therefore, in faith prayed
for, when the Spirit shall be poured out upon us from
on high. But, alas ! Who shall live when God doth
this? From this experience he likewise gathered
this observation, — that it is not so much our differ-
ence of opinion that doth us the mischief; (for we
may as soon expect all the clocks in the town to
strike together, as to see all good people of a mind
in every thing on this side heaven ;) but the mis-
management of that difference.
In the Association of the Ministers it was referred
to Mr. Henry to draw up that part of their agreement
which concerned the worship of God, which task he
performed to their satisfaction. His preface to what
he drew up begins thus :— " Though the main of our
desires and endeavours be after unity in the greater
things of God ; yet we judge uniformity in the cir-
cumstances of worship, a thing not to be altogether
neglected by us, not only in regard of that influence,
which external visible order hath upon the beauty
and comeliness of the churches of Christ ; but also
as it hath a direct tendency to the strengthening of
our hands in ministerial services, and withal to the
removing of those prejudices which many people
have conceived, even against religion and worship
itself. We bless God, from our very souls, for that
whereunto we have already attained ; and yet we
hope some further thing may be done, in reference
to our closer walking by the same rule, and mind-
ing the same things. The word of God is the rule
which we desire and resolve to walk by in the admi-
nistration of ordinances; and for those things
wherein the word is silent, we think we may, and
ought to, have recourse to Christian prudence, and
the practice of the reformed churches, agreeing with
the general rules of the word : and, therefore, we
oT the Counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland, with some-
thing Tor Explication and Exhortation annexed, 4to. I65A.
P Sept 3. 1658.
^ Rellq. Baxter. Lib. Part I. p. 100, kc. «/ npra.
r Isa. xi. 13. transposed ; and Isa. ii. 4.
• One of the doctors who visited Huss, nid to him,^'* U the
have had, as we think we ought, in our present
agreement, a special eye to the Directory," &c.
These agreements of theirs were the more likely
to be for good, for that here, as in Worcestershire,
when they were in agitation, the ministers set apart
a day of fasting and prayer among themselves, to
bewail ministerial neglects, and to seek to God for
direction and success in their ministerial work.
They met sometimes for this purpose at Mr. Henry's
house at Worthenbury.
One passage may not improperly be inserted here,
that once at a meeting of the ministers, being
desired to subscribe a certificate concerning one
whom he had not sufficient acquaintance with ; he
refused, giving this reason, — that he preferred the
peace of his conscience before the friendship of all
the men in the world. *
Sept. 29, 1668, the Lady Pulcston died.— She was,
saith he, the best friend I had on earth, but my
Friend in heaven is still where he was, and he will
never leave me nor forsake me. He preached her
funeral sermon from Isaiah iii. last verse; Cease
from man, whose breath is in his nostrils. He hath
noted this expression of hers not long before she
died : *' My soul leans to Jesus Christ ; lean to
me, sweet Saviour." About this time he writes, — A
dark cloud is over my concernments in this family,
but my desire is, that, whatever becomes of me and
my interest, the interest of Christ may still be kept
on foot in this place. Amen, so be it. But he adds
soon after, that saying of Athanasius, which he was
used often to quote and take comfort from ; Nnbecnla
est et cito pertransibit. It is a little cloud, and will
soon blow over.
About a year after, Sept. 5, 1650, Judge Puleston
died, and all Mr. Henry's interest in the Emeral family
was buried in his grave. He preached the Judge's
funeral sermon, from Nehemiah xiii. 14. Wipe not
out my good deeds that I have done for the house of
my God, and for the offices thereof The design of
which sermon was not to applaud his deceased friend.
I find not a word in the sermon to that purpose.
But he took occasion from the instance of so great
a benefactor to the ministry as the Judge was, to
show that deeds done for the house of God, and the
offices thereof, are good deeds : and to press people,
according as their ability and opportunity was, to
do such deeds.
[Thus he enlarged,— They arc acts of piety.
Such acts as have immediate relation to God. That
which is g^ven to the poor members of Jesus Christ
to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, is charity.—
Council (of Constance, A. D. 1414) should tell you, that you have
but one eye, though you have really two, you would be obliged
to agree with the Council." " While God keeps me in my senses,
replied Hitss, ** I would not say such a thing against my consci.
ence, on the entreaty or command or the whole world." BSilner's
Church Hist. v. 4. p. S44.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
37
That which is given to, or done for, the house of oar
God, is piety.
They are acts of justice. Alms in Hebrew are
called justice. When bestowed upon the house of
God, they are as a rent-penny for what we enjoy.
They have a tendency to the good of souls. The
minister's success will further the patron's account.
To be an instrument to bring and keep the means
of grace among a people, is indeed a good deed.
They tend very much to the credit of religion. It
is often cast in our teeth by the Papists, What good
deeds are done among you for the house of the Lord
since the Reformation ? Pater nosier built churches,
and our Father pulls them down ; whereas, probably,
most of their good deeds were mulcts improved for
penance.
Wipe them not ont. This implies that God notes
them as in a table-book ; as every sin, so every good
deed. Allusion to Esther vi. 1. And it is in order
to a requital, Malachi i. 10.
Indeed the work itself is its own wages. Church-
work is honourable work : it is an honour to be per-
mitted to do any good deed for the house of God.
Let US be ashamed of our barrenness in good
deeds for the house of our God. Especially those
tiiat have wherewithal; estates, opportunities. How
much of oar rent are we behind with God ! Wc can
be liberal and bountiful upon other occasions, in
housekeeping, but what is done for the Lord's house?
Are we not as an almanack, on one side full of red
and black letters and figures, on the other side
blank? God takes it very unkindly, Hagg^i i. 4.
Let the subject stir us up to do what good we can
for the house of our God : where much is given,
moch will be required. It is not building of churches
that I am persuading you to, but to do something to
pfomote religion. Sit down and consider, — Can I
do nothing for the house of my God ?
And what you do, do quickly, Eccles. ix. 10. Do
self-denyingly, 1 Chron. xxix. 14. Do belicvingly,
Heb. xi. 6. Sprinkle it with faith. '
Another] passage I find in that sermon which
ought to be recorded ; that it had been for several
years the practice of a worthy gentleman in the
neighbouring county, in renewing his leases, in-
stead of making it a condition that his tenants should
keep a hawk or a dog for him, to oblige them that
they should keep a Bible in their houses for them-
selves, and should bring up their children to learn
to read, and to be catechized. This, saith he, would
be no charge to you, and it might oblige them to
that which otherwise they would neglect. — Some
vided, saith he, in his diary, that I had chosen
t P. Henry. Orig. MS.
> See « Tim. it 15. Gal. i. 10.
* In Uie gift of the Bishop of St. Aaapb. Ecton's Thesaur. by
Dr. WiDii. p, 49L That See was then vacant. Le Neve, p. 22.
• See ProT. ntv. St. Gal i. lo. Jer. ilv. 5.
some other subject for that sermon, but I approved
myself to God, and if I please men, I am not the
servant of Christ. "
What personal affronts he received from some of
the branches of that family at that time, need not
be mentioned, but with what exemplary patience
he bore them, ought not to be forgotten.
In March, 1658-9, he was very much solicited to
leave Worthenbury, and to accept of the Vicarage of
Wrexham,* which was a place that he had both a
great interest in, and a great kindness for, but he
could not see his call clear from Worthenbury, so
he declined it. The same year he had an offer made
him of a considerable living near London ; but he
was not of them that are given to change, nor did
he consult with flesh and blood, nor seek great
things to himself.*
That year he had some disturbance from the
Quakers,' who were set on by some others who
wished ill to his ministry. They challenged him to
dispute with them ; and that which he was to prove
against them, was, that the God he worshipped was
not an idol ; that John Baddely (a blacksmith in
Malpas, and the ringleader of the Quakers in that
country) was not infallible, nor without sin ; that
baptism with water and the Lord's supper are gos-
pel-ordinances ; that the Scriptures are the word of
God ; and that Jesus Christ will come to judge the
world at the last day. But he never had any public
disputes with them, nor so much disturbance from
them in public worship, as some other ministers had
elsewhere about that time. He had some appre-
hensions at that time, that God would make the
Quakers a scourge to this nation ; but had comfort
in this assurance, that God would in due time vin-
dicate his own honour, and the honour of his ordi-
nances, and those of them who will not repent to
give him glory, will be cast into the fire.
One passage I cannot omit, because it discovers
what kind of spirit the Quakers were of. A de-
bauched gentleman being in his revels at Malpas,
drinking and swearing, was, after a sort, reproved
for it by Baddely the Quaker, who was in his ccm-
pany. " Why," saith the gentleman, " I'll ask Ihec
one question, Whether is it better for me to follow
drinking and swearing, or to go and hear Henry?"
He answered, " Of the two, rather follow thy drink-
ing and swearing."
The Cheshire rising this year, in opposition to
the irregular powers that then were uppermost,
under Sir George Booth, afterwards Lord Delamere,
and that of North Wales under Sir Thomas Mid-
dleton,^ could not affect Worthenbury, and tho
X See Reliq. Baxter. Lib. I. Part I. p. 77. nt tvpra, and Mather's
Hist, of New England, Book VII. p. 21, &c. fol. I70i. It would be
manirestly unjust to class with their Torerathers the socieUes now
so designated.
r See the Declaration of Sir Thomas Middleton, Seijeant-M^iur-
38
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
country tliereabouts. Mr Henrjr's prayer for them
in his Diary, the day of their first appearing, is, —
Lord, own them, if they truly own thee ! He notes,
that Lambert's' forces which came down to sup-
press them, did in that neighbourhood espouse the
Quakers' cause, and offer injury to some ministers ;
and, therefore, saith he, unless God intend the ruin
of the nation by them, they cannot prosper. Nor did
they long, though in that expedition they had suc-
cess. In their return, some of Lambert's soldiers
were at Worthenbuiy Church, hearing Mr. Henry,
upon a Lord's day ; and one of them sat with his
hat on, while they were singing psalms, for which
he publicly admonished him : and there being many
Anabaptists among them, he hath recorded it as a
good providence, that those questions in the cate-
chism, which are concerning baptism, came in course
to be expounded that day. The first rising of the
Cheshire forces was August 1, 1659, and the 19th
following they were worsted and scattered by Lam-
bert's forces, near Northwich; a strange spirit of
fear being upon them, which quite took ofi* their
chariot-wheels.* The country called it not the
Cheshire Rising, but the Cheshire Race. Some
blamed him that he did not give God thanks pub-
licly for the defeat of Sir George Booth ; to whom
he answered, with his usual mildness, that his ap-
prehensions concerning that aflfair were not the
same with theirs. We are now, saith he, much in
the dark, never more. He preached the lecture at
Chester soon after, just at the time when Mr. Cook,
an eminent minister in Chester, and several others,
were carried prisoners to London, for their agency
in the late attempt ; and the city was threatened to
have their charter taken away, &c. The text in
course that day, (for they preached over the latter
part of that epistle, if not the whole, at that lecture,)
happened to be Hebrews xiii. 14. We have here
no continuing city, which he thought a word upon the
wheels at that time. He notes in his Diary, that
when, after that, the army ruled, disturbed the Par-
liament, and carried all before them with a high
band, there were great grounds to fear sad times
approaching; and his prayer is,— Lord, fit thy
people for the fiery trial.
He was a hearty well-wisher** to the return of the
King, the spring following, April, 1660, and was
much affected with the mercy of it. — While others
rejoice carnally, saith he. Lord, help thy people to
rejoice spiritually, in our public national mercies.
General and Vice- Admiral for the Six Counties of North Wales,
1645. 4to.
I John Lambert, one of the Parliamentarian Generals. See
Aikin's General Biography, v. 6. p. 100. There are several curious
lettera concerning him in Lord Clarendon's State Papera, ▼. a pp.
329. &c.
• See Exod. xiv. 25.
b " The King himself told the Ministera of London, on the day
of his happy return, when the Rev. Mr. A. Jackson presented him
It was upon that occasion that Mr. Baxter preached
his sermon of right rejoicing,' on Luke x. 20. B<it
be and others soon saw cause to rejoice with trem-
bling, and to sing both of mercy and judgment ; for
about that time he hath this melancholy remark,-*
Religion loses ground exceedingly, and profaneness
gets it. Help, Lord ! However, he was very indus-
trious to quiet the minds of some who were uneasy
at that great revolution ; and that scripture yielded
him much satisfaction, John iii. 35. The Father
loveth the Son, and hath given all things into hi*
hands. If Christ be not only the Head of the church,
but Head over all things to the church, we may be
assured, that all things shall be made to work toge-
ther for good to it.' The text also which the Lord
put into his heart to preach upon on the day of pub-
lic thanksgiving for the King's restoration, was very
comfortable to him, Proverbs xxi. 1. The King's
heart is in the hand of the Lord.^ His sense of that
great mercy of God to the nation, in the unbloody,
peaceable, and legal settlement of King Charles II.
upon the throne, was the same with that of multi-
tudes besides, both ministers and others, that were
of the quiet in the land, who yet, not long after,
suffered very hard things under him. Soon after the
return of the King, he notes how industrious some
were to remove him from Worthenbury,on which he
writes this as the breathing of his soul towards
God ; Lord, if it please thee, fasten me here as a
nail in a sure place ; if otherwise, I will take nothing
ill which thou dost with me. And when pressed by
his friends more earnestly than before, to accept of
some other place, — Lord, saith he, mine eye is up
unto thee ; I am wholly at thy disposal ; make my
way plain before my face, because of mine ene-
mies ; my resolution is, to deny myself if thou
callest me. Here, or any where, it is no great
matter where, I am. Many years after the King's
return, he dated a letter, May 29. T^ 4/«W ^^ ^
yXvKvmKpgi.
There are two things further which I think it may
be of use to give some account of in the close of
this chapter. 1. Of the course of his ministry at
Worthenbury ; and, 2. of the state of his soul, and
the communion he had with God, in those years.
As to the subjects he preached upon, he did not
use to dwell long upon a text. — Better one sermon,
upon many texts, viz. many scriptures opened and
applied, than many sermons upon one text. To that
purpose he would sometimes speak.'
with a Bible in their behalf, as he passed through St Paul's
Church'yard, to this effect;— 7Xa/ Ae must aitribuU Am restawratwi,
mnder God, to their praytrs and endtawmrg.'* The Coufonnists'
Fourth Plea for the Nonconformists, 4to. 1683. p. 69.
e Quarto, 1660.
d See Eph. v. 23. Col. i. 18. Ephes. i. 22. Rom. viii. 28.
• See the plan of the Sermon in the Evan. Mag. v. xxvii. p. 399.
f The Synod of St Poy.in France, A. D. 1578, witnesseth against
ministers dwelling long upon a text, and wouldJiave them expound
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
30
He used to preach in a fixed method, and linked
iussabjeclB in a sort of chain. « He adapted his
mediod and style to the capacity of his hearers,
fetching his similitudes for illustration from those
things whicb were familiar to them. He did not
shoot the arrow of the word over their heads in high
notions, or the flourishes of affected rhetoric, nor
under their feet, by blunt and homely expressions,
as many do*^ under pretence of plainness, but to
their hearts, in close and lively applications. His
delivery was very graceful and agreeable, far from
being either noisy and precipitate on the one hand, or
doll and slow on the other. His doctrine did drop
as the dew, and distil as the soaking rain, and came
with a charming, pleasing power, such as many will
bear witness to, that have wondered at the gracious
words which proceeded out of his mouth.*
He wrote the notes of his sermons pretty large for
the most part, and always very legible. But even
when he had put his last hand to them, he conmionly
left many imperfect hints, which gave room for en-
laigement in preaching, wherein he had a great
felicity. And he would often advise ministers not
to tie themselves too strictly to their notes, but,
having well digested the matter before, to allow
themselTes a liberty of expression, such as a man's
affections, if they be well raised, will be apt to fur-
nish him with. But for this no certain rule can be
^ven, tiiero are diversities of gifts, and each to
profit withal.
He kept his sermon-notes in very neat and exact
order ; sermons in course, according to the order of
the subject ; and occasional sermons according to the
scripture-order of the texts ; so that he could readily
torn to any of them. And yet, though afterwards he
was removed to a place far enough distant from
any of that auditory, yet, though some have desired
it. he seldom preached any of those hundreds of
sermons which he had preached at Worthenbury ; no
not when he preached never so privately, but to the
hut he studied new sermons, and wrote them as
elaborately as ever ; for he thought a sermon best
preached when it was newly meditated. Nay, if
sometimes he had occasion to preach upon the same
text, yet he would make and write the sermon anew ;
and he never offered that to God which cost him
nothing.*^
and treat of as many in their ministry as tliey can, fleeing all
OHtentation and long digressions. Quick's Synodic. ▼. 1. p. 117.
Life of P. Henry by Ifotthew Henry. Orlg. MS.
r Appendix, No. VIIL
% A like testimony is borne of another contemporary.—'* He
did not soar aloft In high expressions, shooting over his hearers,
but did condescend to the capacities of the meanest, which is an
excellence in any." Works of Mr. John Murcot, 4to. 1657. Ep.
Ded. by Dr. Samuel Winter, p. 3. See also Clark's Lives annexed
to the Martyrologie, p. 176. «/ nrpro.
1 See Dent xzziL 3. Luke iv.32.
k Seethe Lives of Dr. Stannton.p. 3& daod. 1073. and Dr. Rob.
Hsnis, pu 86L «/ mprm. Also the Life of Demosthenes, Plutarch,
V. &. p. imaf Mfpm.
When he went to Oxford, and preached there
before the University in Christ-church, as he did
several times, his labours were not only very accept-
able, but successful too ; particularly one sermon
which he preached there, on Proverbs xiv. 9.
FooU make a mock at nn ; for which sermon a young
Master of Arts came to his chamber afterwards to
return him thanks, and to acknowledge the good
impressions which divine grace, by that sermon,
had made upon his soul, which he hoped ho should
never forget.
In his Diary he frequently records the frame of
his spirit in studying and preaching. Sometimes
blessing God for signal help vouchsafed, and owning
him the Lord God of all his enlargements ; at other
times, complaining of great deadncss and straitncss.
— It is a wonder, saith he, that I can speak of
eternal things with so little sense of the reality of
them. Lord, strengthen that which remains, which
is ready to die ! And he once writes thus, upon a
studying day, — I forgot explicitly, and expressly,
when I began, to crave help from God,' and the
chariot-wheels drove"* accordingly. Lord, forgive
my omissions, and keep me in the way of duty.
[In June, 1657, he writeSf^-This month I had the
remembrance of much f;\x\\X set home upon my con-
science in reference to the sabbath day. vl used to
lie longer in bed than I ought, which hath been
occasioned by sitting up over late the night before,
and that by neglecting to make preparations for
preaching sooner in the week." I am often put to
it to hurry over truths. So that two sermons were
provided, I have not cared how poorly. Lord, I
confess it to thee with shame, and beg thy grace
that it may be so no more. °]
As to the state of his soul in these years, it should
seem by his Diary, that he was exercised with some
doubts and fears respecting it. — I think, saith he,
never did any poor creature pass through such a
mixture of hope and fear, joy and sadness, assur-
ance and doubting, down and up, as I have done
these years past — . The notice of this may be of
use to poor drooping Christians, that they may know
their case is not singular ; and that, if God for a
small moment hide his face from them, he deals
with them no otherwise than as he uscth sometimes
to deal with the dearest of his servants. It would
1 He that prays most will preach best Spiritual beggars are
special preachers. Mr. Porter ; from a BfS. in P. Henry's hand,
writing.
m See Exod. xiv. 25.
B Mr. Shephard, of New England, usually had his sermons
finished upon Friday iiigbt. '* He hath sometimes exprest himself
thus in pubhcke : -Ood will curse that man's labours that lumbers
up and down in the world all the week, and then upon Saturday,
in the altemoon, goes to bis study, when, as God knows, that time
were little enough to pray and weep in, and to get his heart in
frame." Address to the Reader, signed William Greenhill and
Samuel Mather, and prefixed to Mr. Shephard's Subjection to
Christ in all his Ordinances and Appointments, duod. 1652.
o P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
40
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
affect one, to hear one that lived a life of commu-
nion with God, complaining of great straitness in
prayer. — No life at all in the duty, many wander-
ings ; if my prayers were written down, and my Tain
thoughts interlined, what incoherent nonsense would
there be ! I am ashamed, Lord, I am ashamed ! Oh,
pity, and pardon !
[I find in nothing more of the deceitfulness of my
heart than in secret worship. Oh, how hardly am I
brought to it, and how little sweetness and delight
do I for the most part find in it ! I blush, and am
ashamed. Lord, pity, and pardon, and help ; for,
with my mindf I serve the law of God, though, with
my flesh, the law of sin.
I have a froward peevish spirit unto this day, im-
patient of contradiction. Oh, that it were mortified,
that the grace of meekness might abound in me
more and more.p]
To hear him suspecting the workings of pride of
heart, when he gave an account to a friend, who in-
quired of him, touching the success of his ministry,
and that he should record this concerning himself,
with this ejaculation annexed,— The Lord pardon
and subdue! It was a sign that he kept a very
watchful eye upon the motions of his own heart.
[At another time he writes ; — ^Thcse following sins
were set home with power upon my conscience :
1. Omissions innumerable. I fall short of duty
in every relation.
2. Much frowardness upon every occasion, which
fills my way with thorns and snares.
3. Pride ; a vein of it runs through all my con-
versation.
4. Self-seeking. Corrupt ends in all I do. Ap-
plause of men oftentimes regarded more than the
glory of God.
5. My own iniquity. Many bubblings up of heart-
corruption, and breakings forth too. O Lord, shame
l^ath covered my face. Pardon, and purge for Jesu's
sake ! <)]
To hear him charging it upon himself, that he was
present at such a duty in the midst of many distrac-
tions, not tasting sweetness in it, &c. When a fire
is first kindled, saith he, there is a deal of smoke
and smother, that afterwards wear away; so, in
young converts, much peevishness, frowardness,
darkness ; so it hath been with my soul, and so it is
yet in a great measure. Lord, pity, and do not
quench the smoking flax ; though as yet it doth but
smoke, let these sparks be blown up into a flame !
Great mercies, but poor returns ; signal opportu-
nities, but small improvements ; such are his com-
plaints frequently concerning himself. And though
few or none excelled him in profitable discourse.
P P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
q Palmer's Noncon. Mem. v. 3.
Henry'8 Diary,
r P. Henry. Diary, Ori j MS.
p. 480. itated to be from Mr.
yet in that he often bewails his barrenness and un-
profitableness.—Little good done or gotten such a
day, for want of a heart ; it is my sin and shame. O
that I had wings lihe a dove! [Lord, cleanse me
from my omissions. The world Uiinks better of me
than I do of myself, God knows. At another time
he writes, — Nothing troubles me so much as that I
am so unprofitable in my generation. Lord, give me
wisdom, that I may preach in all my discourses ! ^]
Yet when he wanted a faith of assurance, he liv^
by a faith of adherence.— Such a day, saith he, a
full resignation was made of all my concernments
into the hands of my Heavenly Father ; let him deal
with me as seemeth good in his eyes. I am learning
and labouring to live by faith. Lord, help my un-
belief !• Another time he notes that many per-
plexing fears being upon his spirit, they were all
silenced with that sweet word, which was seasonably
brought to his remembrance,— JVar none of those
things which thou shalt suffer,
[There is no living by a dead faith, he observes ;
no, nor by a living faith, unless lively. Help, Lord,
thy poor servant, that my faith fail not! I do not
know that I ever saw my way clearer. Then, Why
art thou cast down, O my soul? *■
At the commencement of a new year he thus
writes, and it is only a specimen of his usual devo-
tion at such seasons : —
1671. January 1. Covenants of new obedience
solemnly renewed with God, and sealed, this new
year's day, in the blood of Jesus Christ Amen!
Lord, be Surety for thy servant for good ! I yield
myself, and all my concerns, to be at thy disposal ;
and I am heartily glad that my times are in thy hand,
and not my own. Do with me, and mine, this year,
as seemeth good in thine eyes ! So be it ! "
Again, he says, — I met with a friendly, season-
able admonition. Blessed be God ! My heart was
then somewhat in a better frame than ordinary for
the receiving of it, and I hope it hath done me good.
The Lord is very gracious, in that he follows me
thus from time to time.
The eyes of many are upon me ; some for one end,
some for another ; some for good, some for evil. I
had need to be watchful. Lord, hold up my goings
in thy path, that my footsteps slip not ! Thou tellest
all my wanderings. For Jesu's sake, let them be
forgotten ! ']
He very frequently kept days of fasting and
humiliation in secret, which he calls his days of
atonement. Sometimes he observed these monthly,
and sometimes only upon special occasions ; but the
memorandums in his Diary, not only while he was
at Worthenbury, but often after, show what sweet
• Appendix, No. IX.
t P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS
« Ibid.
V Ibid.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
41
union he had with God in those solemn duties,
no eye was witness to, but his who seeth in
and will reward openly. Remember, O my
mch a day, as a day of more than ordinary
;ments entered into, and strong resolutions
up of closer walking, and more watchfulness !
Gody undertake for me ! And upon another
;e days of secret prayer and humiliation, he
—If sowing in tears be so sweet, what then
e harvest be, when I shall reap in joy. Bless
rd, O my soul, who forgiveth all thine iniqui-
ad will, in due time, heal all thy diseases.
s good for me to draw near to God. The
r and the nearer the better. How sweet is
I indeed, if heaven upon earth has so much
less in it ! *]
CHAPTER IV.
RIAGB. FA BflLT, FAMILY RELIGION, AND THB EDUCATION
OF BIS CHILDREN.
moved from Emeral, to the house in Worthen-
vhich the Judge had built for him, in Febru-
S58-9 ; and then had one of his sisters with him
;p his house. No sooner had he a tent, but
lad an altar in it, and that a smoking altar.
he set up repetition on sabbath evenings, and
med his neighbours to it.
Christian friends often, and sometimes his
len in the ministry, kept days of fasting and
r at his house. He used to tell people when
ad boilt new houses, they must dedicate them,
ring to Deuteronomy xx. 5. and Psalm xxx.
that is, they must invite God to their houses,
evote them to his service,
nridence having thus brought him into a house
own, soon after provided him a help-meet for
After long agitation, and some discouragement
pposition from the father, he married Kathe-
iie only daughter and heir of Mr. Daniel Mat-
, of Broad Oak, in the township of Iscoyd,*
ntshire, but in the parish of Malpas, which is
eshire, and about two miles distant from Whit-
h, a considerable market-town in Shropshire,
[atthews ^ was a gentleman of a very competent
; such an one as King James the First used
'was the happiest lot of all others, which set a
lelow the office of a Justice of Peace, and above
f a petty Constable. This was his only child :
fair and honourable overtures had been made
R- disposal; but it pleased God so to order
s, and to overrule the spirits of those concerned,
lie was reserved to be a blessing to this good
Henry. Otary. Orig. MS.
s Oimefod'! HiBt. of Cheshire, v. 2. p. 347.
Kended, at iattae tradition of the family, from Matthew
, (froD whOD came the name of Matthew ir5,; a noted Com-
man, in things pertaining both to life and godli-
ness.
[The following anecdote is traditionary. After
Mr. Philip Henry, who came to Worthenbury a
stranger, had been in the country for some time, his
attachment to Miss Matthews, afterwards his wife,
became manifest ; and it was mutual. Among the
other objections urged by her friends against the
connexion was this,— that, although Mr. Henry was
a gentleman, and a scholar, and an excellent
preacher, he was quite a stranger, and they did not
even know where he came from. " True," replied
Miss Matthews, '' but I know where he is going,
and I should like to go with him."
The opposition of Mr. Matthews to the marriage,
and the imposition of inequitable terms, with a view
to breaking off the acquaintance, was, for a consider-
able time, a severe trial, to the faith and patience
of Mr. Henry. In this affair the influence of the
holy religion he professed was exceedingly conspi-
cuous. Nor will the reader disapprove of a mo-
mentary interruption of the narrative by the intro-
duction of the following letters.
To Mr. Matthews.
Sir,
I have received, by my friend, your answer to
what I proposed in my last, concerning your lands
at Brunnington, with which I am satisfied. I under-
stand from him, also, that for your other lands,
which are at Broad-Oke, your demand is £800.
which sum being, as I am informed, according to
the present rate of lands, near their full value, makes
it, in effect, no portion, but a purchase. I do there-
fore hope. Sir, it is but your demand, and that room
is left for some abatement, so far, at least, that there
may be equality, and, withal, that provision may be
made for my just security in case your daughter
should die without issue. Concerning both which
I shall desire the interposure of no other arbitrator
than your own self, to whom I would refer it. I
have had many occasions for laying out of monies
this last year in furnishing my house and other
ways; nevertheless I have £200, or thereabouts,
which I am willing to disburse to you for the present,
and shall give you sufficient bond for more to be paid
within reasonable time, on the considerations before
mentioned. Or, if you please to give your consent
that I may match with your daughter, I shall be as
willing to dispose of those monies elsewhere to her
use, and you may do with your own as you think
good. I assure you, Sir, though you will not believe
me, the Lord knows, I eye it not, having learned,
mander in the wars of Prance, under Henry V. and killed upon
London bridge, in Henry the Sixth's time, iu lV\e %MVVi^«»a:^<^ ^V>
Wat Tyler's RebeUion. Lite ot P. Httirj \>^ ^^»>veaftv^ >\t?osi
Orig. MS.
42
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
in that estate whereiii I am, to be content. Sir, I
beseech you, have some respect in this matter to
honest, innocent affections ; thoug^h not to mine, who
am but a stranger; yet, however, to hers who is
your own flesh ; and be pleased to consider, the same
God, who bids your child obey you, bids you also,
in the same breath, not to provoke her, lest she be
discouraged. I should much rejoice if I might hear
that you are inclined, yet, at last, to entertain more
charitable, favourable thoughts concerning me, who
do really desire to approve myself.
Sir,
Your servant in the Lord,
Worthenbury, 16, 1659. Philip Henry. ^
To Mr. Matthews.
Sir,
It hath been all along my desire and care, as far
as I have known myself, to walk in the highway in
this affair concerning your daughter. I can truly
say your dislike of it, hitherto, hath been one of
the greatest afflictions that hath befallen me; as,
on the other hand, your approbation would be one
of my greatest outward mercies. And I do bless
the Lord, who hath been pleased thus far to incline
your heart towards me, hoping he will finish what
he hath begun. It falls out. Sir, that I am engaged
upon the service of my calling to-morrow in the
work of the Lord ; but, upon Wednesday morning,
at nine o'clock, God willing, I shall not fail to be
at your tenant's house, if your occasions will permit
your presence there, at that time, or when else you
shall appoint. This, with my service to yourself,
and love unfeigned to your daughter, is all at pre-
sent from him who is, and desires to be thought to be.
Sir,
Worthenbury, Yours, to serve you,
Feb. 27, 1660. Philip Henry.*
The Articles* preliminary to the marriage bear
date March 20, 1650, and stipulate for the solem-
nization '* at or before the first day of May next
ensuing.'^ Circumstances, however, arose which
seemed to render procrastination expedient,' and a
fresh difficulty having presented itself to the mind
of Mr. Matthews, it is, in a letter dated Worthen-
bury, June 13, 1650, thus amiably referred to. '^ Far
be it from me to blame your due paternal care ; but
truly, Sir, my condition being such as, blessed be
God, it is, and my desires and expectations being
proportioned accordingly, and no way exceeding, I
e Orig. MS.
d Ibid.
0 Original, in Mr. Henry's hand.wiiting. Penes me.
f P. Henry. Orig. MS.
R Orig. MS.
h See Gibson's Codex, v. 1. p. 424. fol. 1761.
am apt to think it might be an easy matter to remove
that obstruction. For my own part I am willing tt
refer it to yourself. You may deal in it as you see
cause, and I shall acquiesce in your pleasure, — only
favour me in her towards whom my affections are,
which is the g^eat request and sole ambition, in
this present address, of. Sir, your friend and servant
in the Lord, Philip Henry.''']
His purpose of marriage was published ** in the
church three Lord's days before ; a laudable prac-
tice, which he greatly approved, and persuaded
others to.
The day before his marriage, [which took place
April 26, 1660,] he kept as a day of secret prayer
and fasting.'
He used to say, those who would have comfort in
that change of their condition, must see to it, that
they bring none of the guilt of the sins of their
single state with them into the married state. And,
—the presence of Christ at a wedding will turn
the water into wine; and he will come if he be
invited by prayer.
[The first letter I find addressed to Mrs. Henry
after their marriage, is dated London. It well exhi-
bits the affection, the happiness, and the piety of the
writer.
London, Oct 9, 1660.
Dear heart ;
I bless God, I am safe and well at London. I
came from Oxford yesterday morning alone, but the
Lord was with me ; it was a long journey, but I
was stirring betimes. I was nine miles on my way
before eight o'clock, and came an hour or .two
before sun-set to Thistleworth. Towards the end of
my journey, for three or four miles, where was most
danger, it pleased God I had company, which was
a g^eat mercy. I met many soldiers upon the way,
going homewards upon their disbanding, towards
their several countries, and I was sometimes afraid
of them. They were by two and three in a company,
but the Lord preserved me. This morning I came
to Chelsea, where I saw my sisters, in health, blessed
be God, and overjoyed to see me ; from thence, this
afternoon, to London. I have been with cousin
Thomas Hotchkis, from whom I received a letter to
Sir Orlando Bridgman'' from Mr. Eddow ; and, to*
morrow I purpose, God willing, to wait upon his
lordship, expecting a charge from him, in the first
place, about conformity, wherein yet I shall do as I
sec cause, in case I should be continued at Wor-
thenbury. The ministers here are generally unan-
i Appendix, No. X.
k Sir O. Bridgman, made Lord Keeper in 1667. See Granger's
Biog. Hist, or England, v. 3. p. 361. ed. 1779 ; and Bfr. Chalroen'i
Biog. Diet V. 6. p. 609. Mr. Henry styles him, « His lordship,**
he being then Chief Baron of the Exchequer.
THE UFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
43
imooSy and resolved. Dr. Sheldon was installed
BUhop of London to-day. The King is gone into
the country for a fortnight, daring the trial of his
father^s jndges, to prevent petitions. I sleep to-
night at Mrs. Kingston's, who desires to be remem-
bered to you, and to Mr. Puleston, and his wife.
I wrote to yon, by the last post, from Oxford.
Commend me to sister Mary, and all that ask of
me. Dear heart, make mnch of thyself, and love
me; and the Lord everlasting be thy Snn and
Shield ! So prayetfa.
Thine, in all affection,
Philip Henry.*]
He took all occasions while he lived, to express
his thankfulness to God for the greRt comfort he
had in this relation. A day of mercy, so he writes
OD his marriage day, never to be forgotten. God
kad given him one, as he writes afterwards, every
ray his helper, in whom he had much comfort, and
for whom he thanked God with all his heart He
vrites in his Diary, April 26, 1680, This day we
haTC been married twenty years, in which time we
have received of the Lord more than twenty thousand
mercies ; to God be glory. Sometimes he writes, —
We have been so long married, and never reconciled;
that is, there never was any occasion for if His
usaal prayer for his friends in the married state,
was according to his own practice in that state ;—
that they might be mutually serviceable to each
other's faith and holiness, and jointly serviceable to
God's honour and glory.
Her father, though he put some hardships upon
him in the terms, and had been somewhat averse to
the match, yet, by Mr. Henry's great prudence, and
God's good providence, was influenced to give a
free consent to it ; and he himself, with his own
hand, gave her in marriage. From this, as from
other experiences, Mr. Henry had learned to say
vith assurance,— It is not in vain to wait upon God,
and to keep his way. Mr. Matthews settled part of
his estate before marriage upon them and theirs ;
he lived about seven years after; and when he died,
the remainder of it came to them. This competent
ettate, which the divine Providence brought into
lis hand, was not only a comfortable support to him
vhen he was turned oat of his living, and when
Bttny faithful ministers of Christ were reduced to
great poverty and straits ; but it enabled him like-
vise, as he had opportunity, to preach the gospel
freely, which he did to his dying day ; and not only
lOrigMS.
• Pomponios Atticus, making the funeral oration at ttie deatli
of his mother, did protest, that, liring with her threescore and
KTeo yttra, he wsa never reconciled unto her. Sc nunquam cum
natie in gntiam ivdiiaae ; because there never happened between
than the leaat^ wbich needed reconciliation. Cited in Fuller's
Holy State, ^ IS. fbl. 1683.
■ Eialt godUncfli In thy fiunily. That thou art really, which
so, but to give for the relief of others that were in
want, in which he sowed plentifully to a veiy large
proportion of his income: and often blessed God
that he had wherewithal, remembering the words of
the Lord, how he said, — It is more blessed to give
than to receive.
Such was his house, and such the vine which
God g^raciously planted by the side of his house.
By her God gave him six children, all born within
less than eight years ; the two eldest, — sons, John
and Matthew; the other four,— daughters, Sarah,
Katharine, Eleanor, and Ann. His eldest son John
died of the measles in the sixth year of hb age ; and
the rest were in mercy continued to him.
The Lord having built him up into a family, he
was careful and faithful in making good his solemn
vow at his ordination, that he and his house would
serve the Lord, He would often say,— That we are
really, which we are relatively. ** It is not so much
what we are at church, as what we are in our fami-
lies. Religion in the power of it will be family re-
ligion. In this his practice was very exemplary ; he
was one that walked before his house in a perfect
way, with a perfect heart, and therein behaved him-
self wisely. His constant care and prudent endea-
vour, was not only to put away iniquity far from his
tabernacle, but that where he dwelt the word of
Christ might dwell richly. If he might have no
other church, yet he had a church in his house,'*
He made conscience of closet worship, and did
abound in it, not making his family worship to ex-
cose for that. He hath this affecting note in his
Diary, upon the removing of his closet but from one
room in the house to another ;— This day, saith he,
my new closet was consecrated, if I may so say, with
this prayer, — ^That all the prayers that ever should be
made in it according to the will of God, morning,
evening, and at noon-day, ordinary or extraordinary,
might be accepted of God, and obtain a gracious
answer. Amen and Amen, It was the caution and
advice which he frequently gave to his children and
friends, — be sure you look to your secret duty ; keep
that up whatever you do. The soul cannot prosper
in the neglect of it. He observed, that apostasy ge-
nerally begins at the closet door. Secret prayer is
first neglected, and carelessly performed, then fre-
quently omitted, and after a while wholly cast off ;
and then farewell God, and Christ, and all religion.^
[In reference to this duty, the following important
observations occur.
Besides the deadness, and coldness, the distrac-
— — . ■
thou art relatively. Swinnock's Heaven and Hell Epitomised,
&c. 4to. 1663. £p. to the Reader.
o 1 Cor. xvi. 19.
p Be much in secret fellowship with God in duty. It is secret
trading that enriches a Chnstian. P. Henry. Orig. MS. See the
Life of Mr. Tapper Noncon. Mem. v. 1. p. 359. ■/ supra.
Judge yourselves by secret acu ; follow yourselves into your
closets and retiring places^d observe your diligence, endevour,
¥
THE LIFE OF MR PHILIP HENRY.
tions, and wanderings, which the people of God
often find cause to complain of, there is, also, a kind
of weariness which many times seizes their spirits.
Something from within calls upon them to have
done, — 'enough for this time, — you may conclude
now,'— before a quarter, or, perhaps, half a quarter,
of an hour be fully spent. Against this we have
great need to watch. If the devil cannot keep us
from God, he will try to work a lothness to tarry
with him. We are to look upon it as a cursed mem-
ber of that body of death which we carry about with
us ; one of the Canaanites left behind, to be a thorn
in our eyes, and a goad in our sides. We are to be
really and deeply sensible of it, and affected with it,
and to mourn under it as our burthen. A few for-
mal, customary complaints to one another, that so it
is with us, will not serve. We should be humbled in
secret before the Lord, and take shame to ourselves.
It is a sign we are very unfit for heaven. We should
consider that prayer is not only our duty but our
privilege. We should get our hearts filled with love
to God, and look up to the Spirit, and put that sweet
promise in suit, Isa. xl. 29, &c. He giveth power to
thefainty ^c. We should go on against the tempta-
tion. When we think we shall be heard the sooner
for long praying, we are like the heathen, Matthew
vi. 7. When we use long praying for a pretence,
we are like the Pharisees, Matthew xxiii. 14. Yet
neither instance condemns a long prayer as in itself
a sin ; see Luke vi. 12. One being oppressed with
this corruption, and drooping under it, a godly
friend, who was acquainted with his condition,
meeting him suddenly, said, * I will tell you good
news, the best that ever you heard. As soon as you
are in heaven, you shall serve the Lord Jesus, with-
out being weary,' which much revived him.**
In continuation of the same subject, Mr. Henry
thus writes ;— The spirit deals not with us as stocks
and stones, but as rational creatures, Hosea xi. 4.
He expects, and requires, that we should put forth
ourselves to the utmost towards the working our
hearts into a fervent frame, and where we are weak,
and wanting, he comes with help. Thus much seems
to be implied in that expression, — the Spirit helpeth
oHr infirmitiesy — particula oip ad nos lahorantes re-
fertur, Beza, It is an allusion to a man who has
a g^eat burthen, suppose a heavy log of wood, to
carry, and he cannot manage it unless some one will
come, and lay a shoulder under one end.' But if
that help be offered, he is not altogether excused.
He must lay his shoulder under the other end. If
we find our hearts dead, and dull, and indisposed
to prayer, we are ready, presently, to cast the blame
and spirit, in your hidden waye», and secret duties; Tor wliat
you are in them, that you are indeed. The Case and Cure of a
Deserted Soule, by Jos. Symonds, p. 65. duod. 1641.
q p. Henry. Orig. MS.
r See Biabop WjJkin'8 Disc, concerning the Gill of Prayer, p. 8.
^t/od, jam ^
upon the Spirit, — All our life is from him. That is
true ; but he conveys life in the use of the means.
And, commonly, the fault, that we do not receive
more life and quickening from him, is in ourselves.
We are wanting in stirring up our affections, in la-
bouring with our hearts, by meditation, which is a
special means. The Spirit meettth him that rejoic-
eth and worketh righteousness. Sometimes, how-
ever, a cause of deadness may be overmuch confi-
dence in ourselves ; when we set about duties in our
own strength, and have no eye to the Spirit, but rely
altogether upon self, Philippians iii. 3. This is as
bad as the other. The true mean between both is
this ; — so to labour with our hearts as if we were to
expect no assistance from the Spirit, and yet so to
rely upon his aid, as if with our own hearts we had
laboured nothing.*
Again : In reply to the inquiry, When we are
called to duty, may we be sure it is always from the
Spirit? Is it not possible that Satan may have a
hand in the stirring of us up to prayer ?^ Mr. Henry
writes as follows : —
It is possible he may. The devil transforms him-
self into an angel of light. This is one of his extra-
ordinary devices. Where he moves us once to
prayer, he moves ten thousand times to sin ; where
he moves once to perform duty, he moves ten thou-
sand times to neglect it. When he doth so, it is
always with a design. You may be sure it is neither
out of love to us, nor out of love to prayer, for there
is no duty he is so much an enemy to. His object is
ever some advantage against us ; and usually this ;
^•he observes a time when the soul is most dead, and
heavy, and unfit for prayer, and then he spurs on to
it with as much eagerness as if it were the very spirit
of grace. Now when deadness and distraction mark
our performance, he takes occasion to trouble and
disquiet us. Thus he often tires out young converts.
This is one of the depths of Satany which believers
ought to know and study, that they may be armed
against it. Besides, in general, when the Spirit
calls, he helps and enlarges ; so doth not Satan."
Further, he remarks ; — If we find ourselves at any
time indisposed and unfit for prayer, is it not best
to let it quite alone ? "^ We are not to choose rather
to omit a duty than not to perform it in a right man-
ner. It is incumbent on Christians, ordinarily, to
set apart that time for prayer, both by themselves
and in their families, wherein they are most likely
to be at liberty from diversions and distractions.
And, when duty is required of us, and we find our-
selves unfit for it, we are to take pains beforehand,
with our own hearts, to see if it may not he possible,
• P. Henry. Orig. BIS.
t Ibid.
tt Ibid.
V When thou feelest thyself most indisposed to prayer, >ield not
to it, but strive and endeavour to pray, even when thou thinkest
thou canst not pray. Hilderaam's Lect on Ps. li. p. 64. foL 16^
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
in the use of means, to shake it off. So that if, after
all oor pains taken with ourselves, we yet continue
onfit, we are, notwithstanding, to perform the doty,
though with grief of heart at oor onpreparedness
for it.-
To return.] He advised, — ^That secret duty be per-
fomed secretly ; which was the admonition he gave
sometimes to those who caused their voice to be heard
on high in that duty.
[There are two doors, be would say, to be shut
when we go to prayer; the door of our closet, that
we may be secret ; the door of our hearts, that we
may be serious. *]
Besides this, he and his wife constantly prayed
t<^ether morning and evening ; and never, if they
were together, at home or abroad, was it intermitted :
and from his own experience of the benefit of this
fnactice, he would take all opportunities to recom-
mend it to those in that relation, as conducing very
reuch to the comfort of it, and to their furtherance
in that which, he would often say, is the great duty
of yoke- fellows ; and that is, to do all they can to
belp one another to heaven. He would say, that
lliis duty of hnsbands and wives prajring together,
is intimated in that of the apostle, 1 Peter iii. 7.
there they are exhorted to live as heirs together of
the grmee of life, that their prayers, especially their
prayers together, be not hindered: that nothing may
be done to hinder them from praying together, nor
to hinder them in it, nor to spoil the success of those
prayers. This sancti6es the relation, and fetcheth
in a blessing npon it, makes the comforts of it the
more sweet, and the cares and crosses of it the more
easy, and is an excellent means of preserving and
increasing love in the relation. Many to whom he
hath recommended the practice of this duty, have
blessed God for him, and for his advice concerning
it. When he was abroad, and lay mth any of his
friends, he would mind them of his rule,— That they
who lie together, must pray together. In the per-
formance of this part of his daily worship he was
usually short, bnt often much affected.
[He reconmiended it to others, that the wife should
be sometimes called npon to pray with the husband,
that she might learn to perform duty in the family in
the husband's absence, or in case he be removed by
death, which he hath sometimes pressed upon his
w P Heniy. Orig MS.
» P. Henry. Orig. BiS. •• Pray alone. Let prayer be the key of
the morning, and the lK>it of the night." P. Henry. See Memoira
of lira Savage, 3d ed. p. 8. Bishop Taylor says, that, " w ith them
that are not stark irreligious, prayer u the key to open the day,
uid the bolt to shut in the night " Works, y. I. p. 145. oct. ed. tu
n^B. And of Bishop Ridley it is afflnned, that ** he used to make
his religioos addreaaes unto God, both as a key to open the door
in the mflnnng to bis daily employments, and as a bolt, to shut
uid close them up all at evening again.'* Puller's Abel Rediyivus,
[». 195i 4ta 1S9SL
7 Life. Orig. MS, minora
* I^ A. O 1G30. Ob. Nor. 38, ldD4. Ufe by Dr. Birch, oct 1753.
friends, who have had much comfort in taking his
counsel. It is comfortable if the moon rises when
the sun sets. '
Besides these, he made conscience, and made a
business, of family worship, in all the parts of it ;
and in it he was uniform, steady, and constant, from
the time that he was first called to the charge of a
family to his dying day ; and, according to his own
practice, he took all occasions to press it upon others.
His doctrine once, from Joshua xxiv. 15. was, — That
family worship is family duty. He would say,
sometimes^ if the worship of God be not in the
house, write, — Lord, have mercy upon us, on the
door; for there is a plague, a curse, in it. It is the
judgment of Archbishop Tillotson,' in that excellent
book,* which he published a little before his death,
upon this subject, — That constant family worship is
so necessary to keep alive a sense of God and re-
ligion in the minds of men, that he sees not how any
family that neglects it can in reason be esteemed a
family of Christians, or indeed to have any religion
at all. How earnestly would Mr. Henry reason with
people sometimes about this matter, and tell them
what a blessing it would bring upon them and their
houses, and all that they had ! He that makes his
house a little church, shall find that God will make
it a little sanctuary. It may be of use to give a par-
ticular account of his practice in this matter, because
it was very exemplary. As to the time of it, his rule
was, commonly, the earlier the better, both morning
and evening ; in the morning, before worldly busi-
ness crowded in, — Early will I seeh thee. He that
is the first, should have the first. Nor is it fit that
the worship of God should stand by and wait while
the world's turn is served. And early in the even-
ing, before the children and servants began to be
sleepy ; and therefore, if it might be, he would have
prayer at night before supper, that the body might
be the more fit to serve the soul in that service of God.
And indeed he did industriously contrive all the
circumstances of his family worship, so as to make
it most solemn, and most likely to answer the end.
He always made it the business of every day, and
not, as too many make it, a bye-business. This being
his fixed principle, all other affairs must be sure to
give way to this."* And he would tell those who ob-
jected against family-worship, that they could not
An interesting occurrence between the Archbishop, when Dean
of St. Paul's, and his father, is recorded by Dr. Fa wcett, in the Life
of Oliver Hey wood. p. 139. A similar anecdote is also related of
Sir Thomas More, when Lord Chancellor. Sec his Life by Cayley,
V. 1. p. 112.
■ ArchbishopTiUotson's Works, v. 3. p. 42-2. oct. 1742.
t It was the observation of an excellent man. that, when he did
hasten over holy duties, out of an over eager desire to follow his
worldly business, he did many times meet with a crosR in his
business ; but, when he did take his ordinary time. God did make
his other business to succeed the better, or else his mind was
brought to submit to the will of God. The Life of Blr. John Rowe,
duod. 1673. p 41
46
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
get time for it ; that, if they would but put on Chris-
tian resolution at first, they would not find the diffi-
culty so great as they imagined ; but, after a while,
their other aflfairs would fall in easily and naturally
with this, especially where there is that wisdom
which is profitable to direct. Nay, they would find
it to be a g^eat preserver of order and decency in a
family, and it would be like a hem to all their other
business, to keep it from ravelling. He was ever
careful to have all his family present at family-
worship ; though sometimes, living in the country,
he had a great household ; yet he would have not
only his children and sojourners, if he had any, and
domestic servants, but his worknien and day-la-
bourers, and all that were employed for him, if they
were within call, to be present, to join with him in
this service ; and, as it was an act of his charity
many times to set them to work for him, so to that
he added this act of piety, to set them to work for
God. And usually, when he paid his workmen their
wages, he gave them some good counsel about their
souls. Yet, if any that should come to family wor-
ship, were at a distance, and must be stayed for
long, he would rather want them, than put the duty
much out of time ; and would sometimes say, at
night, — Better one away, than all sleepy.
The performances of his family worship ' were the
same morning and evening. He observed that,
under the law, the morning and the evening lamb
had the same meat-ofiering and drink-offering,
Exodus xxix. 38—41. He always began with a
short, but very solemn, prayer, imploring the divine
presence and grace, assistance and acceptance;
particularly begging a blessing upon the word to be
read, in reference to which he often put up this pe-
tition,— That the same Spirit that indited the Scrip-
ture, would enable us to understand the Scripture,
and to make up something to ourselves out of it that
may do us good. And, esteeming the word of God
as his necessary food, he would sometimes pray in
a morning, that our souls might have a good meal
out of it. He commonly concluded even this short
prayer, as he did also his blessings before and after
meat,*^ with a doxology, as Paul, upon all occasions,
— ^To him be glory, &c. which is properly adoration,
and is an essential part of prayer.
He next sung a psalm, and commonly he sung
David's Psalms in order, throughout; sometimes
using the old translation, but generally Mr. Bar-
e See Tong's Lite of Matt Henry, nttvpra, p. 124. &c. Mr. Wesley,
recommending P Henry's Life, pointed out his mode of perform-
ing family worship as a pattern. Minutes of Conference, v. I. p. 76.
d Bishop Butler, after pressing the habitual exercise of secret
prayer, observes, that " A duty of the like kind, and serving to the
same purpose, is the particular acknowledgment of God when we
are partaking of his bounty at our meals. The neglect of this is said
to have been scandalous to a proverb in the heathen world ; but
it is without shame laid aside at the tables of the highest and the
lowest rank among us." Chaige to the Clergy of Durham, 1751.
Works, V. 2. p. 48. See the Spectator, No 456.
ton's :* and his usual way was to sing a whole psalm
throughout, though perhaps a long one, and to sing
quick, yet with a good variety of proper and pleasant
tunes ; and, that he might do so, usually the psalm
was sung without reading the line betwixt, every
one in the family having a book, which he preferred
much before the common way of singing, where it
might conveniently be done, as more agreeable to
the practice of the primitive church, and the re-
formed churches abroad; and by this means he
thought the duty more likely to be performed in the
spirit, and with the understanding ; the sense being
not so broken, nor the affections interrupted, as in
reading the line betwixt. He would say, that a
scripture ground for singing psalms in families,
might be taken from Psalm cxviii. 15 ; — The voice of
rejoicing and of salvation is in the tabernacles of the
righteous ; and that it is a way to hold forth godli-
ness, like Rahab's scarlet thread, Joshua ii. 17. to
such as pass by our windows.
He next read a portion of Scripture, taking the
Bible in order ; he would sometimes blame those who
only pray in their families, and do not read the
Scripture. In prayer, we speak to God; by the
word, he speaks to us ; — and is there any reason,
saith he, that we should speak all? In the taber-
nacle the priests were every day to bum incense,
and to light the lamps ; the former, figuring the
duty of prayer, the latter the duty of reading the
word. Sometimes he would say, — ^Those do well
that pray morning and evening in their families ;
those do better that pray and read the Scriptures ;
but those do best of all that pray, and read, and
sing psalms ; and Christians should covet earnestly
the best gifts.
He advised the reading of the Scripture in order;
for, though one star in the firmament of the Scrip-
ture differ from another star in glory, yet, wherever
God hath a mouth to speak, we should have an ear
to hear ; and the diligent searcher ' may find much
excellent matter in those parts of Scripture, which
we are sometimes tempted to think might have been
spared. How affectionately would he sometimes
bless God for every book, and chapter, and verse,
and line, in the Bible !
[Every word of God, he would say, is good, but
especially God, the Word, How sweet is it to a lost,
undone sinner, to be acquainted with a Saviour! >]
What he read in his family, he always expounded ;
e See Wood's Ath. Oxon. «/ titpra, vol. 3. p. 303. The Psalms
and Hymns were first printed by act of Parliament, Oct 1645.
Ibid.
f Beloved, if you doe but take any piece of this word, and stay
upon it, as the bee doth upon the flower, and will not oflTtill you
have got somewhat out of it ; if you be still digging in this mine,
this would make you rich in knowledge \ and, if you be rich in
knowledge, it will make you rich in grace likewise. The New
Covenant, by Dr. Preston, pp. 4M, 455. 4to. 1630.
r P. Henry. Orig. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
47
and exhorted all ministers to do so, as an excellent
means of increasing their acquaintance with the
Scriptare. His expositions were not so mach criti-
cal as plain, and practical, and nsefnl ; and such as
tended to edification, and to answer the end for
which the Seriptares were written, which is to make
us wise to salvation. And herein he had a peculiar
excellence, performing that daily exercise with so
much judgment, and at the same time with such
facility and clearness, as if eyery exposition had
been premeditated ; and very instructive they were,
as well as affecting to the auditors. His observations
were many times very pretty and surprising, and
such as one shall not ordinarily meet with. Com-
monly, in his expositions, he reduced the matter of
the chapter or psalm read to some heads ; not by a
logical analysis, which often minceth it too small,
and confounds the sense with the terms; but by
SQch a distribution as the matter did most easily and
imforcedly fall into. He often mentioned that say-
ing of Tertullian's, " I adore the fulness of the
Scriptures i" and sometimes that, — Scriptura semper
h§het aliquid reUgentihus, When sometimes he had
hit upon some useful observation that was new to
hira, he would say afterwards to those about him, —
How often have I read this chapter, and never before
now took notice of such a thing in it \^ He put his
children, while they were with him, to write these
expositions ; and when they were gone from him,
the strangers that sojourned with him did the same.
What collections his children had, though but broken
and very imperfect hints, yet, when afterwards they
were disposed of in the world, were of good use to
them and their families. Some expositions of this
nature, that is, plain and practical, and helping to
raise the affections and g^ide the conversation by
the word, he often wished were published by some
good hand for the benefit of families : but such was
his great modesty and self-diffidence, though few
more able for it, that he would never be persuaded
to attempt any thing of that kind himself. As an
evidence how much his heart was upon it, to have
the word of God read and understood in families,
take this .passage out of his last will and testament ;
—I give and bequeath to each of my four daughters,
Mr. Poole's' English Annotations upon the Bible, in
two volumes, of the last and best edition that shall
k See a like testimony of the Hey. Geo. PhiUps. Mathers Hist
of New England, Book III. p. 83.
i The author of the Synopsis Criticoram. Nat 1034, ob. 1679.
or that elabonte work the foUowing notices appear in Mr. HenrjTs
divjx-
MO, Dec. la I sent 30*. to Mr. T&lents. with Mr. Down's ac-
(pilttancefor the SOt. formerly paid upon Mr. Poole*s propositions,
ud am now to receive the lint volnme, and the second hereafter,
vbenteiriied. Orig. MS.
1678, Oct. 9L I have received the Ave Tolumes of Mr. Poole*s
Syoopsi*, and do admowledge myself therewith superabundantly
mXuied, retnming beaity thanks to him for his worthy pains, and
heuty poise to Ood for his giacious aaiifltance, without which it
be to be had at the time of my decease, together
with Mr. Barton's last and best translation of the
Singing Psalms, one to each of them ; requiring and
requesting them to make daily use of the same, for
the instruction, edification, and comfort of them-
selves and their families.
But it is time we proceed to the method of his
family worship.
The chapter or psalm being read and expounded,
he required from his children some account of what
they could remember of it; and sometimes would
discourse with them plainly and familiarly about it,
that he might lead them into an acquaintance with it ;
and, if it might be, impress something of it upon
their hearts.
He then prayed, and always kneeling, which he
looked upon as the fittest and most proper gesture
for prayer ; and he took care that his family should
address themselves to the duty, with the outward
expressions of reverence and composedness. He
usually fetched his matter and expressions in prayer,
from the chapter that was read, and the psalm that
was sung, which was often very affecting, and helped
much to stir up and excite praying graces.^ He
sometimes observed in those Psalms, where reference
is had to the Scripture stories, as Psalm Ixxxiii. and
many others, that those who are well acquainted
with the Scriptures, would not need to make use of
the help of prescribed forms, which are very neces-
sary for those that cannot do the duty without them,
but unbecoming those that can ; as a go-cart is
needful to a child, or crutches to one that is lame,*
but neither of them agreeable to one that needs
them not. It was the comparison he commonly
used in this matter.
[In recommending the use of free prayer, he would
sometimes say, — Consider, whether it be possible to
draw up a form that shall reach to all a man's par-
ticular occasions ; that shall serve in adversity, as
well as prosperity ; when sick, as when in health.
We are to pray always, in every thing. The Lord's
Prayer is the most complete, and perfect, and com-
prehensive, that can be, yet we never find either
Christ himself, or his apostles, making use of it, but
still varying, according to their present occasion.
True, all petitions may be reduced to it ; see John
xvii. and Acts iv. But, what folly were it, if a man
could not have been brought to pass. P. H. Orig. MS. See Mr.
Chalmers's Biog. Diet v. 25. p. 154, &c. There the particulars
relatire to the publication of the Synopsis are preserved.
k See a like statement as to Blr. Wheatley. Fuller's Abel
Redivivus, p. 504. irf ntfra.
1 A Christian, in the want of gifts, may lawfully use a set forme
of prayer, as a man that hath a weake backe, or a lame legge,
may lean upon a enteh. Perkins's Works, v. 3. p. 07. fol. 1617.
A prescribed forme, eyther conned by heart, or read out of a
booke, is very helpefhll; as a entek, for one that is lame in his
limbes. Yet let me give this caution,— that wee doe not alwaies
tye ourself es to a forme of word& An Expos, on the Parable of
the Prodigal Son, by Nehemiah Rogere, pp. 105, 166. 4to. 1633.
48
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
should get a petition drawn up, and then resolve,
whatever be his straits, to deliver only that petition.
— Consider, whether you do not find forms deadening
things. If a preacher should preach the same ser-
mon over, in the same congregation, twenty times,
or oftener, in a year, would it not quite weary and
tire out his hearers ? Were it not the ready way to
preach them all asleep ? It is one considerable pre-
judice that is in the hearts of some against praying
by the Spirit,*" that many times the same thing is
repeated. Supposing it to be so, yet, whether is
worse, — always to repeat the same prayer, or, now
and then, to repeat one and the same expression in
prayer? — Consider, whether forms do not pervert the
very nature of prayer. In prayer there should be,
first, desires, and then words to express those desires.
But in forms, first, words are prescribed, and then
desires are to be stirred up to answer to those words.
It may be objected ;— ' I am not learned, as others
are ; neither have I such parts as others have ;
therefore, it is best for me to pray out of a book.'
This is grounded upon a mistake ; it is not learning
and parts, but grace, that doth it ;— it is the Spirit of
grace and supplication ; not of learning and suppli-
cation. I deny not, but where grace and natural
abilities are together in the same person, there, ordi-
narily, a man is the more powerful in prayer; I
mean, in affecting others who join ; and yet, another,
who wants those abilities, and is truly godly, may
pray as acceptably, and speed as well in prayer, as he.
But it is said,—' I distrust myself, I dare not go
to God with a prayer of my own inditing ; it is, there-
fore, best for me to borrow one that may have some
method and elegance in it.' This also is grounded
upon a mistake. God regards not elegancy in
prayer." He cares not how little there is of the head
in the duty, so there be a great deal of the heart.
We must be well acquainted with that boldness of
access which we have to God, upon all occasions,
by Jesus Christ, else we shall never do any thing
this way. Hebrews iv. 14—16. We must approach
God in prayer as children to a father. Ignorance
of this causes formality and ceremony. Is not a
tender-hearted father far more delighted with the
lispings and stanmiering^ of his littie child, when it
first begins to speak, than with the neatest, finest
speech that he can hear from another ? And what is
the reason ? Why, it is his child. Take a noble-
man's child, and what doth he do when he wants
clothes, or other necessaries? Go to a scrivener
m They, says Bishop Hopkins, who use prescribed and set forms
of prayer, pray by the Spirit^ when their petitions are accompanied
with fervent affections, stirred in them by the Holy Ghost
Works, vol. I. p. 257. oct. ed.
tt Though it be the duty of every person to labour for fit words
of prayer, yet God doth not hear prayer for the elegancy of phrase,
but for the heavenliness, and spiritualness, and brokenness of
heart of him that prayes. The Christian compleatly Aimed, by
Mr. Ralph Robinson, p. 172. duod. I(U6.
and get a petition drawn, to present it to his father !
No ; he comes with boldness, — * Father, I want
clothes; will you please to give me them?' Whereas,
another must observe ceremonies, and circumstances,
or else have no hopes of success.*]
In family prayer he was usually most full in giving
thanks for family mercies, confessing family sins,
and begging family blessings. Very particular he
would sometimes be in prayer for his family ; if any
were absent, they were sure to have an express peti-
tion put up for them. He used to observe, concern-
ing Job i. 6. that he offered burnt-offerings for his
children, according to the number of them ally an offier-
ing for each child ; and so would he sometimes in
praying for his children, put up a petition for efich
child. He always observed, at the annual return
of the birth-day of each of his children, to bless God
for his mercy to him and his wife in that child ; the
giving of it, the continuance of it, the comfort they
had in it, &c. with some special request to God for
that child. Every servant and sojourner, at their
coming into his family, and their going out, besides
the daily remembrances of them, had a particular
petition put up for them, according as their circum-
stances were. The strangers, that were at any time
within his gates, he was wont particularly to recom-
mend to God in prayer, with much affection and
Christian concern for them and their concernments.
He was daily mindful of those that desired his pray-
ers P for them, and would say, sometimes, — It is a
great comfort that God knows who we mean in
prayer, though we do not name them. Particularly
providences concerning the country, as to health or
sickness, good or bad weather, or the like, he com-
monly took notice of in prayer, as there was occa-
sion ; and would often beg of God to fit us for the
next providence, whatever it might be. Nor did he
ever forget to pray for the peace of Jerusalem,
[He maintained, that supplication must be made
for all saints ; for those you do not know, as well as
for those you do ; for those that differ from you, as
well as for those with whom you agree ; for those who
are in prosperity, as well as in adversity. For aU
saints, because all are alike related to* Jesus Christ;
because all are alike related to you, as fellow-mem-
bers ; and it will be an evidence you love them, as
brethren, when you love them all, and pray for them
all. When you have nearest communion with God.
then remember me, said Bernard <i to a friend ; then
speak, say I, for the church.']
o p. Henry. Orig. MS. See Dr. Owen's Work*, vol. 4. p. I, &c.
oct. 1823. Treatise on the Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer.
P Not to care for the prayers of others is pride -. not to put up
prayers for others is uncharitableness. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
q See Flavel's Seaman's Farewell. Works, vol. 6. p. 395. oct.
1770 ; and Milner's Church Hist. v. 3. p. 330, &c. v/ supra. Bernard
died, A. D. 1153. aet. about 63.
r P. Henry. Orig. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
49
He always concluded family prayer, both morning
and evening, with a solemn benediction, after the
doxology ; — The blessing of God Almighty, the Fa-
ther, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be with us, &c.
Thos did he daily bless his household.
Immediately after the prayer was ended, his chil-
dren together, with bended knee, asked blessing of
him and their mother ; that is, desired of them to
pray to God to bless them: which blessing* was
given with great solemnity and affection ; and if any
of them were absent, they were remembered, — The
Lord bless yon and your brother, or, — ^you and your
niter, that is absent
This was his daily worship, which he never alter-
ed, unless, as is after mentioned, nor ever omitted
any pait of, though he went from home never so
early, or retamed never so late, or had never so much
buaness for his servants to do. He would say, that
sonetiiiies he saw cause to shorten them ; but he
woold never omit any of them ; for, if an excuse be
OBee admitted for an omission, it will be often re-
tondng. He was not willing, unless the necessity
veie urgent, that any should go from his house in a
■oming before family worship ; but, upon such an
occasion, would mind his friends, that, — prayer and
provender never hinder a journey.'
He managed his daily family worship so as to
make it a pleasure, and not a task, to his children
and servants ; for he was seldom long, and never
tcdioos in the service; the variety of tlic duties
made it the more pleasant ; so that none who joined
vith him had ever any reason to say. Behold, what
• w€0rin€s$ it it ! Such an excellent faculty he had
of iradering religion the most ^weet and amiable
employment in the world ; and so careful was he,
like Jacoby to drive as the children could go, not put-
ting new wine into old bottles. If some good people,
that mean well, would do likewise, it might prevent
flttny of those prejudices which young persons arc
apt to conceive against religion, when the services of
it are made a toil and a terror to them.
On Thursday evenings, instead of reading, he
his children and servants in the Assem-
• Sec the Ecd. Biog. v. 5. p. 166. n. Also the Supplement to the
Koniag Exerdae, p. 170. 4to. 1674.
t It ii a true pro? erb,~Prayer and provender hinder no man.
The Svppl to the Mom. Exerc. W ntpra. p. 287.
• Mr. AlTEUKier Chalmers snggesto that Collins may be a mis.
ipdliaf fkv ColUnges. Dr. ColUnges was a voluminous writer;
■e tlir Noneon. Mem. v. 3L p. 9. No Catechism, however, appears
is the list* of his Works ; and every effort to obtain further infor-
MttoB on the sutrfect has been inefl^ctual. It may be observed,
tktt it Is ** midtt *# writUH by Dr. CollixM."
The aoppoaicioii, as to Dr. Colllnges being the author, is the
more Ukely, inamucb as he was usually styled Collins, or rather
ColliDg& Tim, on liis Portrait, by White, 4to. 1678, we read,—
Veim Eflfics Jofasnnit CtQingt^ Si T. P. Anno Dom. 1678. »ta-
tti^
* AppeDdiz, No. Xf. .
> 1M». Sab. Apr. 30th. I have long since beea taught the mtb- '
bly's Catechism, with the Proofs ; or, sometimes, in
a little Catechism, concerning the matter of prayer,
published in the year 1674, and said to be written
by Dr. Collins," which they learned for their help in
the gift of prayer, and he explained it to them. Or
else they read, and he examined them, in some other
useful book, as Mr. Poole's Dialogues against the
Papists,"" the Assembly's Confession of Faith with
the Scriptures, or the like.
On Saturday evenings, his children and servants
gave him an account what they could remember of
the chapters that had been expounded all the week
before, in order, each a several part, helping one
another's memories for the recollecting of it. This
he called, — gathering up the fragments which re-
mained, that nothing might be lost. He would say to
them sometimes, as Christ to his disciples,— ffave
ye understood all these things ? If not, he took that
occasion to explain them more fully. This exercise,
which he constantly kept up all along, was both de-
lightful and profitable, and, being managed by him
with so much prudence and sweetness, helped to
instil into those about him betimes the knowledge
and love of the Holy Scriptures.
When he had sojourners in his family, who were
able to bear a part in such a service, he had com-
monly in the winter time, set weekly conferences,
on questions proposed, for their mutual edification
and comfort in the fear of God ; the substance of
what was said, be himself took, and kept an account
of, ill writing."
But the Lord's day * he called and counted the
queen of days, the pearl of the week,^ and observed
it accordingly. The Fourth Commandment inti-
mates a special regard to be had to the sabbath in
families ; TAou, and thy son, and thy daughter, fyc.
it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.
In this, therefore, he was very exact, and abounded
in the work of the Lord in his family on that day.
Whatever were the circumstances of his public op-
portunities, which varied, as we shall find after-
wards, his family religion on that day was the same.
Extraordinary sacrifices must never supersede the
liath is a sign ; • the institution a sign of God's love to us; the
sanctification, a sign of our love to him. Mrs. Savage. Diary,
Orig. MS.
The opinion of Sir Edward Turner, Speaker of the House of
Commons, at the Prorogation, July 27, 1663. is worth preserving :
— " He that remembers not to keep the Christian Sabbath, at the
beginning of the week, will be in danger to forget, before the end
of the week, that he is a Christian." P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
A statement, like the one last mentioned, is the more observ.
able, because early associations were then generally of another
cast, and repugnant alike to good taste and devotional feeling.
See Alleine's Vindicias Pietatis, p. 129. duod. 1663.
7 The Jews were wont to call it the guftn of daft. One of ours,
now translated into his glorious rest, honours it thus, calling it,—
The map of heaven, the golden spot of the week, the market day of
the soul, the qneen of dayt, &c. Mr. Geo. S«\T\Ttf«X V«iV\%^iwA
• Sm Bxod. bdO. 1), VI ' Vwt'^L. n. V%, t«.
50
THE UFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
continual humt-offering amd hii meat-offering^ Namb.
xxviii. 16. His common salutation of his family or
friends, on the Lord's day in the morning, was that
of the primitive Christians ;— TA* Lord it risen ; he
is risen indeed; making it his chief business on that
day to celebrate the memory of Christ's resurrection ;
and he would say, sometimes,— Every Lord's day is
a true Christian's Easter day. ;He took care to have
his family ready early on that day, and was larger
in exposition and prayer on sabbath mornings than
on other days. He would often remember, that,
under the law, the daily sacrifice was doubled on
sabbath days ; two lambs in the morning, and two
in the evening. He had always a particular subject
for his expositions on sabbath mornings ; the har-
mony of the evangelists several times over, the Scrip-
ture prayers, Old-Testament prophecies of Christ ;—
Christ, the true Treasure, so he entitled that subject,
sought and found in the field of the Old Testament.
He constantly sung a psalm after dinner, and an-
other after supper, on the Lord's days. And in the
evening of the day his children and servants were
catechized and examined in the sense and meaning
of the answers in the Catechism ; that they might
itot say it, as he used to tell them, like a parrot,—
by rote. Then the day's sermons were repeated,
commonly by one of his children, when they were
grown up, and while they were with him; and
the family gave an account of what they could
remember of the word of the day, which he en-
deavoured to fasten upon them, as a nail in a sure
place. In his prayers on the evening of the sab-
bath, he was often more than ordinarily enlarg-
ed ; as one that found not only God's service per-
fect freedom, but his work its own wages, and a great
reward, not only after keeping, but, as he used to
observe, from Psalm xix. 11. in keeping, God*s com-
mandments, A present reward of obedience an
obedience. In that prayer he was usually very par-
ticular, in praying for his family, and all that be-
longed to it. It was a prayer he often put up,—
That we might have grace to carry it as a minister,
and a minister's wife, and a minister's children, and
a minister's servants, should carry it, that the minis-
try might in nothing be blamed. He would some-
times be a particular intercessor for the towns and
parishes adjacent. How have I heard him, when he
hath been in the mount with God, in a sabbath-even-
ing prayer, wrestle with the Lord for Chester, and
Shrewsbury, and Nantwich, and Wrexham, and
Whitchurch, &c. those nests of souls, wherein there
are so many, that cannot discern between their right
hand and their left in spiritual things, &c. He closed
his sabbath work in his family with singing Psalm
oxxxiv. and, after it, a solemn blessing of his family.
Wish to the Lord's Day. Supplement to the Morotag Everciae at
Cripplegate, p. 141, ut $wprs. Senn. 6.
[He frequently observed days of humiliation in
his family. Some of those occasions are noted in
his Diary. The following are instances :
1661. July 10. A day of family humiliation. The
Lord was sweetly seen in the midst of us, and I trust
it was a day of atonement. Sin pardoned, requests
made, covenants renewed, in Jesus Christ.
October 10. We kept a day of private prayer, and
humiliation, in the family, and the Lord was with
us. This confession much aflfected me, that things
are not so among us as they should be among those
who are the relations of a minister of Jesus Christ.
Lord, pardon, and grant for time to come it may be
better ! »]
Thus was he prophet and priest in his own house ;
and he was king there too, ruling in the fear of God,
and not suffering sin upon any under his roof.
He had many years ago a man servant, that was
once overtaken in drink abroad ; for which, the next
morning, at family worship, he solemnly reproved
him, admonished him, and prayed for him, with a
spirit of meekness, and soon after parted with him.
But there were many that were his servants, who,
by the blessing of God upon his endeavours, got those
good impressions upon their souls which they retained
ever after ; and blessed God, with all their hearts,
that ever they came under his roof. Few went from
his service till they were married, and went to fami-
lies of their own ; and some, after they had been
married, and had buried their yoke-fellows, returned
to his service again, saying,— 3fa«ter, it is good to
be here.
He brought up his children in the fear of God, with
a g^at deal of care and tenderness, and did, by his
practice, as well as upon all occasions in discourses,
condemn the indiscretion of those parents who are
partial in their aflfections to their children, making
a difi*erence between them, which he observed did
often prove of ill consequence in families ; and lay
a foundation of envy, contempt, and discord, which
turns to their shame and ruin. His carriage towards
his children was with great mildness and gentleness,
as one who desired rather to be loved than feared
by them. He was as careful not to provoke them to
wrathf nor to discourage them, as he was to bring
them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
He ruled indeed, and kept up his authority, but it
was with wisdom and love, and not with a high hand.
He allowed his children a great degree of freedom
with him, which gave him the opportunity of rea-
soning them, not frightening them, into that which
is good. He did much towards the instruction of
his children in the way of familiar discourse, ac-
cording to that excellent directoiy for religious edu-
cation, Deuteronomy vi. 7. — Thou shalt whet these
■ P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
I
r
)
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
61
dingi (so the word is, which, he said, noted frequent
repetition of the same things) ufiofi thy children, and
ikmlt talk of them when thou nttest in thy house, ^c.
wkich made them loye home, and delight in his com-
pany, and greatly endecued religion to them.
[He woald ohserve, sometimes, that there are five
good lessons, which they are hlessed who learn in
the days of their youth.
1. To remember their Creator. Not only remem-
ber that yon haye a Creator, but remember him to
lore him, and fear him, and serve him.
2. To come to Jesus Christ. Every man that hath
heardj mnd hath learned of the Father, cometh unto
me. Behold, he calls yon ; he encourages you to
come to him. He vnll in no wise cast you out,
3. To bear the yoke in youth. The yoke is that
which young ones cannot endure. But it is good for
them to bear it.* The yoke of the cross. If God lay
aflictlon on you when young, do not murmur, but bear
that cross. It is good to be trained up in the school
of affliction. The yoke of Christ. Tahe my yohe. It
is an easy yoke ; his commandments are not grievous.
4. Tofiee youthful lusts. Those who are taught
of God haTC learned this. See that you do not love
your pleasures more than the sanctifying of the sab-
bath. This man is not of God, because he heepeth not
the sahhatk day.
5u To cleanse their way. How? By tahing heed
thereto according to thy word. Love your Bibles.
Meditate in them day and night. And, if you do
thus, you are taught of God.**]
He did not burthen his children's memories by im-
posing upon them the getting of chapters and psalms
without book ; but endeavoured to make the whole
word of God familiar to them, especially the scrip-
tare stories, and to bring them to understand it and
love it, and then they would easily remember it. He
■sed to observe, from Psalm cxix.03. — / will never
fsrget thy jtrecepts,for with them thou hast quichened
me ^— that we are then likely to remember the word
of God when it doth us good.'
He tanght all his children to write himself, and set
them betimes to write sermons, and other things that
mif^t be of use to them. He taught his eldest
dangfater the Hebrew tongue when she was about six
or seven yean old, by an English Hebrew Grammar,
whidi he made on purpose for her ; and she went so
fitf in it, as to be able readily to read and construe
a Hebrew Psalm.
He drew op a short form of the baptismal cove-
it for the use of his children. It was this ; —
OHt bavc not been imired to the yoke of obedience
wtil never endnre the yoke of suffering. P. Henry. Com. Place
Book. Or%. MS.
b P. Henry. Fhm a MS. in the hand-writing of Bfn. Savage.
• *«T1ioie that have received comfort, life, and quickening, by
the word of God, find themadves obliged to remember it for
ever ** Dr. Maaton. UTorfca, vol. i. p. J07. Fol. 1681.
4 To dnoac Cbriit, ^Ot freely and ^eHberateJy, upon advice and I
* M 2
I take God the Father to be my chiefest good
and highest end.
I take God the Son to be my Prince and Saviour.^
I take God the Holy Ghost to be my Sanctifier,
Teacher, Guide, and Comforter.
I take the word of God to be my rule in all my
actions.*
And the people of God to be my people in all
conditions.
I do likewise devote and dedicate unto the Lord,
my whole self, all I am, all I have, and all I
can do.
And this I do deliberately, sincerely, freely, and
for ever.
This he taught his children ; and they each of
them solemnly repeated it every Lord's day in the
evening, after they were catechised, he putting his
Amen to it, and sometimes adding, — So say, and so
do, and you are made for ever.
He also took pains with them to lead them into
the understanding of it, and to persuade them to a
free and cheerful consent to it. And, when they
g^w up, he made them all write it over severally
with their own hands, and very solemnly set their
names to it, which he told them he would keep by
him, and it should be produced as a testimony
against them, in case they should afterwards depart
from God, and turn from following after him.
He was careful to bring his children betimes
(when they were about sixteen years of age) to the
ordinance of the Lord's supper, to take the cove-
nant of God upon themselves, and to make their de-
dication to God their own act and deed ; and a g^eat
deal of pains he took with them, to prepare them
for that great ordinance, and so to translate them
into the state of adult church-membership. And he
would often blame parents, who would think them-
selves undone if they had not their children baptized,
and yet took no care when they grew up and made
a profession of the Christian religion, to persuade
them to the Lord's supper.— It is true, he would say,
buds and blossoms are not fruit, but they give hopes
of fruit ; and parents may, and should, take hold of
the good beginnings of grace which they see in their
children, by those to bind them so much the closer
to, and lead them so much the faster in, the way that
is called holy. By this solemn engagement, the door,
which stood half open before, and invited the thief,
is shut and bolted against temptation. And, to those
who pleaded that they were not fit, he would say, —
consultation with ounelvea, being thoroughly convinced of hit
excelleney, and our own need or him, to accept him at our only
Portion, our Lord and Saviour, renouncing every tiling elae, be
what it will, that may stand in competition with him. P. Henry.
Orig MS.
c It it our principle, that we mu«l moiVLe tkt word tK« tuU oj aU mt
aeliwt. Borroughs'B Motea^s CV^oice, p. ttX. 4\.q. VonK^.
m
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
That the further they went into the world, the less
fit they would be. Qui non est hodie eras minus
aphis erit. Not that phildren should be compelled
to it, nor those that are wilfully ignorant, untoward,
and perverse, admitted to it, but those children that
are hopeful and well inclined to the things of God,
and appear to be concerned in other duties of re-
ligion, when they be(pn to put away childish things,
should be incited, and encouraged, and persuaded
to this, that the matter may be brought to an issue,
— Nay, bui we will serve the Lord ; fast bind, fast
find. Abundant thanksgivings have been rendered
to God by many of his friends for his advice and
assistance herein.
In dealing with his children about their spiritual
state, he took hold of them very much by the handle
of their infant baptism, and frequently inculcated
that upon them, that they were bom in God's house,
and were betimes dedicated and given up to him,
and, therefore, were obliged to be his servants.
Psalm cxvi. 16. / am thy sei'vanty because the son
of thine handmaid. This he was wont to illustrate
to them by the comparison of taking a lease of a fair
estate for a child in the cradle, and putting his life
into it. The child then knows nothing of the matter,
nor is he capable of consenting ; however, then he
is maintained out of it, and hath an interest in it ;
and when he grows up, and becomes able to choose,
and refuse, for himself, if he go to his landlord, and
claim the benefit of the lease, and promise to pay
the rent, and do the services, well and good, he hath
the benefit of it, if otherwise it is at his peril. Now,
children, he would say, our great Landlord was
willing that our lives should be put into the lease of
heaven and happiness, and it was done accordingly,
by your baptism, which is the seal of the righteous-
ness that is by faith ; and by that it was assured to
you, that if you would pay the rent and do the ser-
vice, that is, live a life of faith and repentance, and
sincere obedience, you shall never be turned off the
tenement ; but if now you dislike the terms, and re-
fuse to pay tills rent, (this chief rent, so he would
call it, for it is no rack,) you forfeit the lease. How-
ever, you cannot but say, that you had a kindness
done you, to have your lives put into it. Thus did
he frequently deal with his children, and even tra-
vail in birth again to see Christ formed in them, and
from this topic he generally argued ; and he would
often say, — If infant baptism were more improved,
it would be less disputed.
He not only taught his children betimes to pray,
(which he did especially by his own pattern, his
method and expressions in prayer being very easy
and plain,) but when they were young he put them
f See Tong'sLifc of Matt Henry, p. 18, uinpra.
g Boreatton, near Baschurcli, in Shropshire. See Letters to a
Vouagr Cle/iB^ymaD, v. i. ^. 145, 146.
upon it, to pray together, and appointed them on
Saturdays in the afternoon ' to spend some time to-
gelher, — none but they, and such of their age as
might occasionally be with them,— in reading good
books, especially those for children, and in singing
and praying ; and would sometimes tell them for
their encouragement, that the God with whom we
have to do, understands broken language. And, if
we do as well as we can in the sincerity of our
hearts, we shall not only be accepted, but taught to
do better. To him that hath shall 6; given.
He sometimes set his children, in their own read-
ing of the Scriptures, to gather out such passages as
they took most notice of, and thought most con-
siderable, and write them down. Though this per-
formance was very small, yet the endeavour was
of good use. He also directed them to insert in
a paper book, which each of them had for the pur-
pose, remarkable sayings and stories, which they
met with in reading such other good books as he
put into their hands.
He took a pleasure in relating to them the remark-
able providences of God, both in his own time, and
lit the days of old, which, he said, parents were taught
to do by that appointment. Exodus xii. 26, 27.—
Yotw children shall ash you in time to come. What
mean you by this service, and you shall tell them so
and so.
What his pious care was concerning his children,
and with what a godly jealousy he was jealous over
them, take in one instance. When they had been
for a week or a fortnight kindly entertained at
B ,« as they were often, he thus writes in his
Diary upon their return home ; — ^My care and fear is,
lest converse with such so far above them, though of
the best, should have influence upon them to lift
them up, when I had rather they should be kept
low. For, as he did not himself, so he was very so-
licitous to teach his children, not to mind high things;
not to desire them, not to expect them in this world.**
We shall conclude this chapter vnth another pas-
sage out of his Diary : —
April 12, 1681. This day fourteen years the Lord
took my first-bom son from me, the beginning of
my strength with a stroloe. In the remembrance
whereof my heart melted this evening. I begged
pardon for the Jonah that raised the storm. I blessed
the Lord, that hath spared the rest. I begged mer-
cy,.~mercy for every one of them ; and absolntely
and unreservedly devoted and dedicated them, my-
selfv my whole self, estate, interest, life, to the will
and service of that God from whom I received
all. Fathei, hallowed be thy name. Thy hingdom
come, Sfc,
h Appendix, No. XII.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
&X
CHAPTER V.
S miSCTMENT FROM IVOBTHENBURY i HIS NONCONFORMITY;
IIS RRMOTSS TO BROAD OAK ; AND THE PROVIDBNCBS THAT
KTRRB CONCBRNINO HIM TO THB TBAR 167*i.
Having thus laid together the instances of his
imiiy religion, we must now return to the history
' erents that were concerning him, and are ohliged
• look back to the first year after his marriage,
hich was the year that king Charles the Second
une in ; a year of great changes and struggles in
16 land, which Mr. Baxter, in his Life,* gives a
ill, and clear, and impartial idea of ; by which it
ay easily be guessed how it went with Mr. Henry
I his low and narrow sphere, whose sentiments in
lose things were very much the same with Mr.
axter's.
Many of his best friends in Worthenbury parish
ere lately removed by death; Emeral family con-
ary to what it had been ; and the same spirit,
hich that year reyived all the nation over, was
orking violently in that country, viz, a spirit of
"eat enmity to such men as Mr. Henry was.
''orthenbury, npon the King's coming in, returned
to its former relation to Bangor, and was looked
loa as a chapelry dependent upon that. Mr.
chert Fogg had, for many years, held the seques-
red Rectory of Bangor, which now Dr. Henry
ridgman,^ (son to John, Bishop of Chester,*^ and
other to the Lord Keeper Bridgman,**) returned to
e possession of. By which Mr. Henry was soon
tprehensive that his interest at Worthenbury was
laken ; but thus he writes.: — The will of the Lord
; done. Lord, if my work be done here, provide
me other for this people, that may be more
ilful, and more successful, and cut out work for
e elsewhere; however, I will take nothing ill
bich God doth with me.
He laboured what be could to make Dr. Bridg-
an his friend,* who gave him good words, and was
:ry civil to him, and assured him that he would
;ver remove him till the law did. But he must
ok upon himself as the Doctor's Curate, and
spending upon his vvjjl, which kept him in con-
lual expectations of a removal ; however, he con-
sued in his liberty there above a year, though in
ly fickle and precarious circumstances.
The grand question now on foot was, whether to
•nform, or no. He used all means possible to
tisfy himself concerning it, by reading and dis-
t See Reljq. Baxter. Lib. L Part. IL p. 229, &,c. vt supra.
* Ob. 15th May. 1682. Wood's Ath. Ozon. ut npra. v. 4. p. 86a
He died at Morton, near Oswestry, in Shropshire, and was
ried at Kinneriey . He wa< the author of the " Leger/* now depo-
ed in the Episcopal Retristry. Ormerod'sHist. of Cheshire, v. i.
C See alao Prioce's Worthies of Devon, p. 133. 4 to ed. 1810.
See pi 4%. Mir.
Appendix, No. XnL
course, particularly at Oxford, with Dr. Fell, after-
wards Bishop of Oxford, but in vain ; his dissatis-
faction remained; — however, saith he, I dare not
judge those that do conform ; for, who am I, that I
should judge my brother?
[Addressing Dr. Bridgman about this period, his
views are thus expressed : —
I think I am none of those who are in the ex-
tremes ; nevertheless, my resolution is, if those
things be indispensably imposed which I cannot
practise without sinning against my conscience, I
shall choose rather to lose all, yet not violating, by
my good will, the public peace of the church. And
herein, I presume, you will not blame me. But, if
moderation be used, wherein it will be your honour
to be instrumental, if my poor talent may contribute
any thing to the glory of God, and the salvation of
souls, I trust I shall never be found guilty of wil-
fully burying it, lest I fall under the woe, if I preach
not the gospel. God, of his infmite mercy, direct you,
and all who are called to consult in the affairs of
religion, that you may do nothing against the truth
and peace, but /or it, which is the hearty prayer of,
Sir,
Your servant in the gospel,
P. Henry.']
He hath noted, that being at Chester, in discourse
with the Dean and Chancellor and others, about
this time, the great argument they used with him to
persuade him to conform was, that else he would
lose his preferment ; and what, said they, you are a
young man, and are you wiser than the King and
Bishops? 8 But this is his reflection upon it after-
wards ; — God grant that I may never be left to con-
sult with flesh and blood in such matters !
In September, 1660, Mr. Fogg, and Mr. Steel, and
Mr. Henry, were presented at Flint Assizes, for not
reading the Common Prayer, though as yet it was
not enjoined, but there were some busy people that
would outrun the law. They entered their appear-
ance, and it fell ; for, soon after the King's Decla-
ration,** touching Ecclesiastical Affairs, came out,
which promised liberty, and gave hopes of settle-
ment ; but the spring assizes afterwards, Mr. Steel
and Mr. Henry were presented again. On this he
writes,— Be merciful to me, O God, for man would
swallow me up ! The Lord show me what he would
have me to do, for I am afraid of nothing but sin.*
It appears by the hints of his Diary, that he had
f Orig MS.
K See Dr. Ames's Fresh Suit. 4to. 16J3. Prefoce, p. 10.
h See it in Tracts selected from Lord Somers's Collections. 4to.
17M. p. 349, &c.
i When Chrysostom had offended the Empress Eudoxla, and she
thereupon sent him a threatening message, he answered,— Go, telt
her, Ntt nisipeccatum tinuo ; 1 fear nothing but sin. The Marrow ot
EccL Hist by Samuel Clark* p. 145. ut supra.
M
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRT.
melancholy apprehensions at this time about pub-
lic affairs, seeing and hearing of so many faithful
ministers disturbed, silenced, and insnared ; the
ways of Sion mourning, and the quiet in the land
treated as the troublers of it ; his soul wept in secret
for it. [What to think, I know not, concerning the
affairs of the nation ; a cloud rises ; but. Lord, mine
eyes are unto thee!''] And yet he joined in the
annual commemoration of the King's Restoration,
and preached, on Mark xii. 17. Render to Casar the
things that are Casar*s ; considering, saith he, that
this was his right ; also, the sad posture of the civil
government, through usurpers, and the manner of
his coming in without bloodshed. This he would all
his days speak of as a national mercy, but what he
rejoiced in with a great deal of trembling for the
ark of God ; and he would sometimes say,—- That,
during those years between forty and sixty, though
on civil accounts there were g^eat disorders, and the
foundations were out of course, yet, in the lAatters of
God's worship, things went well ; there was free-
dom,' and reformation, and a face of godliness was
upon the nation, though there were those that made
but a mask of it Ordinances were administered in
power and purity ; and, though there was much
amiss, yet religion, at least in the profession of it,
did prevail. This, saith he, we know very well, let
men say what they will of those times.
In November, 1600, he took the oath of allegiance
at Orton,*" before Sir Thomas Hanmer," and two
other Justices, of which he hath left a memorandum
in his Diary, with this added ; — God so help me, as
I purpose in my heart, to do accordingly. Nor could
any more conscientiously observe that oath of God
than he did, nor more sincerely promote the ends
of it.
That year, according to an agp'eement with some
of his brethren in the ministry, who hoped thereby
to oblige some people, he preached upon Christmas
day. The sabbath before, it happened, that the
twenty-third chapter of Leviticus, which treats en-
tirely of the Jewish feasts, called there the feasts of
the Lord, came in course to be expounded, which
gave him occasion to distinguish of feasts into divine
and ecclesiastical ; the divine feasts that the Jews
had were those there appointed ; their ecclesiastical
feasts were those of Purim° and of Dedication, p
And, in the application of it, he said, — He knew no
divine feast we have under the gospel but the Lord's
k p. Henry. Orig. MS.
1 Let it not be ima^nned that this superior religious rreedom was
a privilege at all peculiar to the Commonwealth, or to the Protec-
torshipi for, the most perfect religious emancipation may be
equally guaranteed and enjoyed under a King, Lords, and Com-
mons, as under any other form of government in the world. Brook's
Hist, of Rel. Lib. v. i. p. 53G.
m Overlon. Orton is a corruption. See Camden's Brit Gougb's
eelv.2. p. IS3.
a SeePenn&nrs Touts in Wales, r. I. p. 'J92,
day, intended for the commemoration of the whole
mercy of our redemption. And the most that could
be said for Christmas was, that it is an ecclesiastical
feast; and it is questionable with some, whether
church or state, though they might make a good
day, Esther ix. 19. could make a holy day. Never-
theless, forasmuch as we find our Lord Jesus, John
X. 22. so far complying with the church feast of
dedication, as to take occasion from the people's
coming together, to preach to them, he purposed to
preach upon Christmas day, knowing it to be his
duty, in season and out of season. He preached on
1 John iii. 8. — For this purpose was the Son of God
manifested, that he might destroy the works of the
devil. And he minded his people, that it is double
dishonour to Jesus Christ, to practise the works of
the devil then, when we keep a feast in memory of
his manifestation.
His annuity from Emeral was now withheld, be-
cause he did not read the Common Prayer, though,
as yet, there was no law for reading of it : hereby
he was disabled to do what he had been wont for the
help and relief of others ; and this he has recorded
as that which troubled him most under that disap-
pointment. But he blessed God,— That he had a
heart to do good, even when his hand was empty.
When the Emeral family was unkind to him, he
reckoned it a great mercy, which he gave God thanks
for, (who makes every creature to be that to us that
it is,) that Mr. Broughton and his family, which is
of considerable figure in the parish,i continued their
kindness and respects to him, and their countenance
of his ministry, which he makes a grateful mention
of more than once in his Diary.
Many attempts were made in the year 1661 to
disturb and insnare him, and it was still expected
that he would have been hindered.— Methinks, saith
he, sabbaths were never so sweet as they arc, now
we are kept at such uncertainties ; now, a day in thy
courts is better than a thousand ; such a day as this,
saith he of a sacrament-day that year, better than
ten thousand. Oh, that we might yet see many such
days!
[Some extracts from his Diary, at this period,
clearly evince the elevated piety and holy meekness
of the writer, and should excite gratitude for present
privileges, civil and religious.
1661. January, 24, 25. A time of trouble in the
nation. Many good men imprisoned and restrained :
o The Feast of Lots, in commemoration of the provideRtial
deliverance ofthe Jews from the cruel* machinations of Haman.
See Home's Introd. to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the
Holy Scriptures, v. 3. p. 314. 4th ed.
p A grateful memorial of the cleansing of the second teiUple ana
altar, after they had been proOined by AnUochus Epiptianes.
Home's Introd. v. 3. p. 315. it/ wfta. <-
% John Broughton d welleth y n Wortbembre Paroche, at Brough-
ton. Leland, vt—pra, p. 31.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
66
fome withy some withoat, cause. I am yet in peace,
blessed be Ood, bat expect saffering^. Lord, pre-
pare me for it, and grant that I may never suffer as
an eril-doer, but as a Christian !
31. Thin^ are low with me in the world; but
three-pence ' left. My hope is yet in the Lord, that
in doe time he will supply me. Amen,
April 3. Hanmer exercise.* Mr. Porter and Mr.
Steel taught. I was design^ed to it, but it was much
better as it w^m. Sir Thomas Hanmer signified his
disiike of it, ^which made it doubtful whether we
should haTe any more, but at parting I never saw
mcb a face of sadness as was upon those who were
present. Sure, God hears the sighs, and sees the
tears, of his poor people.
Jane 16. Common-Prayer Book tendered again ;
why, I know^ not. Lord, they devise devices against
me, but in thee do I put my trust. Father, forgive
thm ! My hands are yet clean from the pollutions of
the times. Lord, keep them, and let no iniquity pre-
uiltigainst me.
23. Strong reports I should not be suffered to
preach to-day ; but I did ; and no disturbance.
Blessed be God, who hath my enemies in a chain.
July 4. News from London of speedy severity
intended against nonconformists. The Lord can
yet, if he vrill, break the snare. If not, welcome the
will of God.
7. In despite of enemies, the Lord hath granted
the liberty of one sabbath more. To him be praise.
8. I received a letter from Dr. Bridgman, wherein
he informed me, if I did not speedily conform, his
power would no longer protect me ; to which I wrote
a dilatory answer, hoping, yet, my God may find out
some way to break the snare. However, I had rather
lose all, and save my conscience, than contra,
9. I advised with friends ; R. B. told me, though
he desired my stay above any outward thing in the
world, yet he could wish rather I would be gone,
tiian conform. I was with Mr. Steel, with whom I
spent two or three hours in discourse about it, and
returned home strengthened.
24. Great expectation of a severe act about im-
posing the Common-Prayer and ceremonies. It
passed both Houses of Parliament, but is not signed
by the King. Lord, bis heart is in thy hand ; if it be
r See the life of Thomas Perkins. Palmer's Noncon. Mem. y.
3LP.133.
• l0 the year 1576 Archbishop Griodal " encouraged a practice
vliicii was taken ap in divers places of the nation : the manner
whereof was. that the ministers of such a division, at a set time,
met together in some church ; and there, each in their order, ex-
piafned, according to their abihty, some particular portion of
gripliire allotted them before, fcc. At these anemblies there were
great conflmres of people to hear and learn." These were com.
oonlj called SxtrctM*^ or Prophesyings. However, the Queen
(Eltiabeth) ** liked not of them," nor would she have them con.
tlDoed. ** The Arcbbiibop being at court, she required him to
abridge the Domber of preachers, and to put down the religious
exeioaea.*' ** This did not a Uttie afflict the grave man." '* He
thought the Queen nvKle some infringement upon his office, nor
thy will, turn it ; if otherwise, fit thy people to safier,
and cut short the work in righteousness !
August 11. One sabbath's liberty more. Oh, how
good is the Lord ! Many hearers from Wrexham are
forced to wander for bread. Lord, pity them, and
provide for them !
22. Mr. Steel came to see us. We are in doubt
what to do in point of conformity. Lord, say unto
us, This, or that, is the way, and we will walk in it !
25. Common-Prayer tendered. God knows how
loth I am to go off my station ; but I must not sin
against my conscience.
27. I went to Wrexham, and thence to Ash,* where
I stayed all night, and was much made of. Offence
taken at Mr. Hanmer saying more than needed about
conformity. He shall be Lot's wife" to me.
September 1. The Lord hath been good this day,
in giving liberty for public ordinances ; on which
score wc are indebted to him for ever ; we of this
place, above many other places.
8. This morning I verily thought I should have
been hindered from preaching, but was not. The
Lord heard prayers. Dr. Bridgman sent me a Pro-
hibition from the Chancellor to peruse, upon com-
plaint from Sir Thomas Hanmer. It was not pub-
lished. Mr. Taylor "^ hindered at Holt. Mr. Adams
at Penley. Lord, think of thy vineyard ! They took
the cushion from me, but the pulpit was left. Bless-
ed be God.
29. Liberty yet continued ; an order was brought
to me to be published, prohibiting strangers from
coming hither to church, but I published it not.
Lord, provide for poor congregations, that are as
sheep without a shepherd !
October 17. I was cited to appear at the Bishop's
Court, as upon this day, but went not. My fault was,
-^hindering the publishing of the Dean's Order as to
strangers. If I had hindered it, it had been a email
fault ; but I did not ; I only refused to publish it
mytelf,
19. Day of preparation for the sacrament. I
preached from 2 Chronicles xxx. 18, &c. The good
Lord pardon! Full of fears lest we be hindered,
and lest something fall between the cup and the lip,
for our adversaries bite the lip at us.
20. Through the good hand of our God upon us,
could he in conscience comply with her commands.'* He, there,
fore, wrote to Her Ms^jesty, and the whole of his " excellent and
memorable letter** is preserved in the Appendix to his Life and
Acts, by Strype, Book U. No. DL Her M^esty, however, was
immovable, and sent her own commandmentr May, 1577, to the
'* Bishops throughout England for suppressing *' these Exercises,
they t)eing an *' oflSence '* to her quiet subjects, who desired " to
live and to serve God according to the uniform orders established
in the church.'* Nor was this all i the venerable Archbishop was
both confined and sequestered. Life, «/ «vpr<i, B. II. ch. viii. ix.
See also. Dr. M'Crie's Life of Knox, v. a. p. 285. 4th ed.
t Near Frees.
tt A saying of Bishop Latimer's. See his Sermons, p. 83. «/
impta.
T See the Noncon. Mem. v. 3. p. 478.
56
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
we have this day enjoyed one sweet sacrament more.
They did us ail the hinderance they could, but, not-
withstanding, afterwards, we proceeded.*
He was advised by Mr. Ratcliff * of Chester, and
others of his friends, to enter an action against Mr.
P. for his annuity, and did so ; — but, concerning the
success of it, saith he, I am not over solicitous ; for,
though it be my due, (Luke x. 7.) yet it was not that
which I preached for; and, God knows, I would
much rather preach for nothing, than not at all;
and besides, I know assuredly, if I should be cast,
God would make it up to me some other way. After
some proceedings he not only moved, but solicited,
Mr. P. to refer it ; — having learned, saith he, that it
is no disparagement, but an honour, for the party
wronged to be first in seeking reconciliation. The
Lord, if it be his will, incline his heart to peace. I
have now, saith he, two great concerns upon the
wheel, one in reference to my maintenance for time
past ; the other, as to my continuance for the future ;
the Lord be my friend in both ; but, of the two,
rather in the latter. But, saith he, many of greater
gifts and graces than I are laid aside already, and
when my turn comes, I know not ; the will of God
be done. He can do his work without us.
[The process by which he arrived at the con-
clusion^stated, is apparent from the following docu-
ment. As an instance of cautious deliberation
and foresight, it is worth preserving. It exhibits a
fine specimen of a well-disciplined mind, and is a
practical illustration of self-cultivation and Chris-
tian prudence : —
Why Ithould not jriVU to a Compotition with
Mr. P.
1. Because I have so much pro-
bability to recover, by law, that
which is my due for the time past :
and not only so, but also for time
to come, whilst I continue unpre-
ferred ; which, as the case stands,
may be long enough. I have Mr.
Ratclifi^s and Sir Orl. Bridg^an's
opinion upon my deed.
2. Now is a bad time to treat
with Mr. P. for composition', be-
cause those about him, come what
will, care not for parting with any
thing.
3. Lest it should hinder my return
hither again, if the door should yet
be open; and who knows but it
may?']
Reasons,
fThylihould.
1. Law is chargeable and trou-
blesome, and the issue tedious, and
uncertain.
2. Besides, the times favour me
not; judges and juries may be
partial.
3. 1 have a potent adversary in
respect of purse and greatness.
4. If I should have a trial this
next Assize, which yet is doubtful,
and should have a verdict, which
yet is more doubtful, he, being
plaintifi*, may, for ought I know,
remove it : and so, from time to
time, to the Court of Exchequer,
which, of all other, is most charge-
able and tedious.
5. My present occasions for
money to discharge my debt to my
father. Considering, withal, be-
sides the misery of debt, how hard
it is to procure it ; as, upon trial, I
have found.
6. He being taken off, I may be
in the less danger of confinements,
and other troubles, upon public ac-
counts.']
fF/tf Mr. P. thoyld fMd to a Composilion
with wu.
1. In point of equity: thelabourer
being worthy of his hire ; espe-
cially, considering the labourer's
wages detained cries loud in hea-
ven, and brings a curse.
2. In point of advantage. If I
should recover, as there is hope I
may, it will be bad for him, espe-
cially having parted with the tithes
which he might have kept.
3. In point of honour. I came
hither upon the invitation of his
family ; left my place in the Uni-
versity, where, he knows, I had
encouragement to have stayed.
Also the relation wherein I stood
to him as Tutor. Also, his pro-
mise. If there was any occasion
of his anger given, it was when he
was a child, and under my tuition,
and it was my duty to complain ;
though, he knows, how sparing I
was that way. And for persuad-
ing his father to disinherit him, he
hath acknowledged he did believe
it was not so ; and I know it was
not.']
The issue of this afi'air was, that, there having
been some disputes between Mr. P. and Dr. Bridg-
man, about the tithe of Worthenbury, wherein Mr.
P. had clearly the better claim to make, yea, by the
mediation of Sir Thomas Hanmer, they came to this
agreement, September 11, 1661, that Dr. Bridgman
and his successors, Parsons of Bangor, should have
and receive all the tithe corn and hay of Worthen-
bury, without the disturbance of the said Mr. P. or
w p. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
X Probably of the same family as the husband of Mrs. Ratdiff,
his heirs, except the tithe hay of Emeral demesne,
upon condition that Dr. Bridgman should, before
the first of November following, avoid and discharge
the present minister or curate, Philip Henry, from
the chapel of Worthenbury, and not hereafter, at any
time, re-admit the said minister, Philip Henry, to
officiate in the said cure. This is the substance of
the Articles agreed upon between them, pursuant
to which Dr. Bridgman soon after dismissed Mr.
whose life is recorded in the Memoirs of Eminently Pious WomeD,
V. I. p. 280. ed. 1815. 7 P- Henry. Orig. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY
57
Henry ;" and, by a writing under his hand, which
was published in the church of Worthenbury, by
one of Mr. Puleston's servants, October the 27th
following, notice was given to the parish of that
dismission. That day, he preached his farewell*
sermon on Philippians i. 27. — Only let your conver-
futiam be ns becomes the gospel of Christ. In which,
as he saith in his Diary, his desire and design was
rather to profit than to affect, —It matters not what
becomes of me^^— whether I come unto you^ or else he
ehsent^ — but let your conversation be as becomes the
gotpel. His parting prayer for them was, — The Lordy
ike God of the spirits of all fleshy set a man over the
ttmyreyation. Thus he ceased to preach to his people
there, but he ceased not to love them, and pray for
tbem ; and could not but think there remained some
donnant relation betwixt him and them.''
As to the arrears of his annuity with Mr. P. when
he was displaced, after some time Mr. P. was will-
JDg to give him £100, which was a good deal less
tlian what was due, upon condition that he would
surrender his deed of annuity, and his lease of the
hoQsc, which he, for peace sake, was willing to do ;
tnd so he lost all the benefit of Judge Puleston's
^reat kindness to him. This was not completed till
September, 1662, until which time he continued in
the house at Worthenbury, but never preached so
mach as once in the church, though there were va-
cancies several times.
Mr. Richard Hilton was immediately put into the
curacy of Worthenbury, by Dr. Bridgman. Mr.
Henry went to hear him while he was at Worthen-
bury, and joined in all the parts of the public worship,
pardcularly attending upon the sacrament of bap-
tism;— not daring, saith he, to turn my back upon
God's ordinance, while the essentials of it are retained,
though corrupted, circumstantially, in the adminis-
tration of it, which, God amend ! Once, being allowed
the liberty of his gesture, he joined in the Lord's sup-
per. He kept up his correspondence with Mr. Hilton,
and, as he saith in his Diary, endeavoured to possess
him with right thoughts of his work, and advised
him the best he could in the soul affairs of that people ;
—which, saith he, he seemed to take well. I am sure
I meant it so ; and the Lord make him faithful !
Inunediately after he was removed and silenced
< 16111, October 24. Dr. Bridgman came to Worthenbury. and
before a rabble there, again repeated and read over my dischaiige.
Tbe drcvDxiatances whereof, place, manner, witnesses, somewhat
cneved me. He called it peeYishneas. I justify not myself! Lord,
by not my ain to my charge, nor his sin to bis ! P. Henry. Diary,
Orif.llS>.
I » See a Complete Collection of Farewell Sermons by many
I Emioent DtTines who were ejected by tbe Act of Uniformity, 4to.
1663.
^ M61, Jamary 5. In the afternoon I went to Captain Heneage,
wh«re wai Mr. Tallenta, Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Parsons, Mr. Steel ;
ve discooned aU oight, especially upon this query. -Whether
<Kur relation do yet remain to our people! In tbe close, we were,
^ided la our opinloiis about it P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
at Worthenbury, he was solicited to preach at Ban-
gor, and Dr. Bridgman was willing to permit it,
occasionally ; and intimated to his curate there, that
he should never hinder it ; but Mr. Henry declined
it. Though his silence was his great grief, yet, such
was his tenderness, that he was not willing so far to
discourage Mr. Hilton at Worthenbury, nor to draw
so many of the people from him, as would certainly
have followed him to Bangor. — But, saith he, I can-
not get my heart into such a spiritual frame on sab-
bath days now, as formerly ; which is both my sin
and my affliction. Lord, quicken me with quicken-
ing grace !
When the King came in first, and showed so good
a temper, as many thought, some of his friends were
very earnest with him to revive his acquaintance
and interest at court, which it was thought he
might easily do. It was reported in the country,
that the Duke of York ' had inquired after him ;
but he heeded not the* report, nor would he be per-
suaded to make any addresses that way For, saith
he, my friends do not know, so well as I, the strength
of temptation, and my own inability to deal with it.
Qui bene latuit, bene vixit. Lord, lead me not into
temptation !
He was greatly afiected with the temptations and
afflictions of many faithful ministers of Christ at
this time, by the pressing of conformity ; and kept
many private days of fasting and prayer in his own
house at Worthenbury, seeking to turn away the
wrath of God from the land. He greatly pitied
some, who, by the urgency of friends, and the fear
of want, were over-persuaded to put a force upon
themselves in their conformity. — The Lord keep me,
saith he, in the critical time !
He preached sometimes occasionally in divers
neighbouring places, till Bartholomew day,*' 1662 ;
— ^the day, saith he, which our sins have made one
of the saddest days to England, sinoe the death of
Edward the Sixth ;• but, even this for good, though
we know not how, nor which way. He was invited
to preach at Bangor on the black ' Bartholomew
day, and prepared a sermon on John vii. 37. — In the
last dayy that great day of the feasts Sfc. but was pre-
vented from preaching it ; and was loth to strive
against so strong a stream.
c Afterwards King James the Second. See Dr. D'Oyley's Life
of Archbishop Sancroft, v. I. p. 163. ice. .
d August 24. It was a day famous for two remarkable events
happening upon it, and both fatal. The one. that day three-score
years before, fktal to the Church of France in the maa<tacre of
many thousands of Protestants at Paris. The other, fiital to the
Dissenting Ministers of England, near upon two thousand, (where*
of myself an unworthy one.) who were put to silence on that day.
and forbidden to preach the gospel under severe penalties, because
tbey would not, they durst not, sin against God. P. Henry.
Orig. MS.
« July 6. 1553.
f My dear father used to call it " the Black Bartholomew." BArs.
Savage. Diary, Orig. MS. See the Farewell Sermons, p. AOO.vi supra.
68
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
Ab to his nonconfonnity, which some of his worst
enemies have said was his only fault, it may not be
amiss here to give some acconnt of it.
1. His reasons for his nonconformity were yery
considerable. It was no rash act, but deliberate,
and well weighed in the balances of the sanctuary.
He could by no means submit to be re-ordained ; so
well satisfied was he in his call to the ministry, and
his solemn ordination to it, by the laying on of the
hands of the presbytery, which God had graciously
owned him in, that he durst not do that which looked
like a renunciation of it, as null and sinful, and
would be at least a tacit invalidating and condemn-
ing of all his administrations. Nor could he truly
say, that he thought himself moved by the Holy Ghost
to tahe upon him the office of a deacon. He was the
more confirmed in this objection, because the then
Bishop of Chester, l>r. Hall,> in whose diocese he
was, besides all that was required by law, exacted
from those that came to him to be re-ordained, a
subscription to this form ; — Ego A. B. prtetensas
meoi ordinationU literas, a quibusdam presbyteris
olim obtentoi jam penitus renuneiOf et dimitto pro
vanis ;** humiliter supplicans guatenui Rev, in
Christo Pater et Dominut Dominus Georgius per-
missione divinA Cestr, Epitc, me ad sacrum Diacon-
atiis ordinem juxta morem et ritus Ecclesits Angli"
tamt dignaretur admittere. This, of re-ordination,
was the first and great bar to his conformity, and
which he mostly insisted on. He would sometimes
say,— that, for a presbyter to be ordained a deacon,
is at best suscipere gradum Simeonis.
Besides this, he was not at all satisfied to give his
unfeigned ''assent and consent to all and every
thing contained in the book of Common Prayer,"
he, for he thought that thereby he should receive the
book itself, and every part thereof, rubrics and all,
both as true and good ; whereas there were several
things which he could not think to be so. The ex-
ceptions which the ministers made against tlie
Liturgy, at the Savoy Conference, he thought very
considerable ; and could by no means submit to,
much less approve of, the impositions of the ceremo'
niesJ He often said, that, when Christ came to free
us from the yoke of one ceremonial law, he did not
leave it in the power of any man, or company of
men, in the world, to lay another upon our necks.
Kneeling at the Lord's supper he was much dis-
satisfied about ; and it was for many years his great
grief, and which, in his Diary, he doth often most
c Dr. George Hall, son of the venerable Bishop of Norwich, was
bom in 1613 ; ob. 1C68. Mr. Chalmers's Biog. Diet v. 17. p. 57.
h Mr. Cook, of Chester, told the Bishop, that though his ordina.
tion by presbyters was not legal yet it was evangelical. P. Henry.
Diary, Orig. WS.
i We see the primitive Christians did not make so much of any
uniformity in rites and ceremonies; nay, I scarce think any
churches in the prlmiUve times can be produced that did exactly,
in ail things, observe the ame customs » which might, espc-
patheticaliy lament ; that, by it, he was debarred
from partaking of that ordinance in the solemn
assembly. For, to submit to that imposition, he
thought, whatever it was to others, whom he was
far from judging, would be sin to him.
[Take his own statement of the case, as follows :
The reasons why I do not communicate in the
public administration of the Lord's supper, are ;»-
1. 1 am not satisfied to kneel in the act of receiving.
(1.) Because it hath no warrant (not in the
least) from Scripture, neither by precept nor
precedent ; whereas, sitting hath : at least by
precedent ; clearly, in the practice of Christ
himself, and the apostles ; and, probably, in
the practice of the first churches ; for it seems
the AgapsB, or love feasts, were used together
with the Eucharist. See 1 Corinthians xi,
(2.) Because it doth no way suit with the nature
of the ordinance, which is a supper ; an ordi-
nance wherein the blessed Jesus calls us to
the nearest familiarity and fellowship with
himself, — to eat with him ; and therefore to
sit, not to kneel, with him, at his table.
(3.) Because it hath been grossly abused, even
to idolatry, by the papists, in worshipping the
consecrated host, which, in all probability,
brought it first into the church ; and, more-
over, grives them advantage to argue, as
Bellarmin ^ expressly states, '' We do no
more in kneeling before an image than the
Protestants do in kneeling at the sacrament ;
— ergoy if we are idolaters, so are they."
(4.) Because, having made trial myself of both
gestures, — kneeling heretofore, and sitting of
late, — I dare not sin against my conscience,
which tells me, I ought not to quit the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made me free.
I know that which is said, for it is the command
of my superiors ; to which I oppose the com-
mand of my Supreme, saying, — Be not, ye
servants of men ; and, Call no man master ;—
which I then do, when I give a blind obedi-
ence to their injunctions, for the authority-
sake of the enjoiners, rendering me no rt^ason
why, or wherefore, but only,^iStc «o/o, sie
jubeo} And to do this in the things of God's
worship, I conceive to be sinful. •
2. If I were satisfied to kneel, yet I should not at the
rails,"" which are used in our parish church of Mal-
pas, because it is an innovation warranted by no law,
dally, be an aigument of moderation in all as to these things.
Bidiop Stillingfleet's Irenicum, «< wfro, pp. 66, 67.
k Robert Bellarmin, an Italian Jesuit, and a celebrated contro.
▼ersial writer, was born in 1M2. Ob. 16*21. Mr. Chalmen!*s Biog.
Diet. V. 4. p. 383. to:.
1 See these words singularly associated in the Life of Lord Chief
Justice Dyer, prefixed to Mr. Vaillant's edition of his Reports, oct
1704.
■ In the British Mmeum, fol. 4275, Plut. IIL E. BiU. Birch. Is
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
60
divine nor hnman, civil nor canonical. And,
tlio, it smells rank of popish snperstition, yea, of
Indaism itself. By Jesos Christ the vail is rent,
and all sach like walls of partition are broken down.
3. Though, before God, I am the chiefest of sin-
■eis, and dare not say to any, Stmnd off^ for I am
hUier tkmn thou ; yet, since the Scripture enjoins me
with such and such not to eat, and saith withal, that
« Uiile iemten leavetu the whole /Kmp,— while so many
lie adnutted grossly profane, yea, none indeed ex-
ehided that will receive, I am afraid, as, on the one
hand, of defiling myself; so, on the other hand, of
haideoing them, by eating and drinking into the
tame body with them.**]
He never took the covenant, nor ever expressed
any fondness for it ; and yet he could not thinh, and
tterefore durst not deelare, that, however unlaw-
filly imposed, it was in itself an unlawful oath,
•ad Hutt no person that took it was under the obli-
gitioti df it : for, sometimes, quod fieri non dehv.it
fettmm valet. In short, it cannot be wondered at,
dnt he was a nonconformist, when the terms of
conformity were so industriously contrived to keep
out of the church such men as he ; which is mani-
Ibled by the fall account which Mr. Baxter hath
left to posterity, of that affair ;<> and it is a passage
worth noticing here, which Dr. Bates, in his funeral
mrnon on Mr. Baxter, relates ;p that when the
Lord Chamberlain Manchester told the King, while
^ Act of Uniformity was under debate, that he was
afraid that the terms were so hard, that many of the
■inisters would not comply with them. Bishop
Sheldon,^ being present, replied, " I am afraid
ttey will.'' And it is well known how many of the
mat sober, pious, and laborious ministers, in all
parts of the nation, conformists as well as noncon-
formists, did dislike those impositions.
He thought it a mercy, since it must be so, that
the case of nonconformity was made so clear as it
vas, abundantly to satisfy him in his silence and
lofefingB. I have heard that Mr. Anthony Burges, '
who hesitated before, when he read the Act, blessed
God that the matter was put out of doubt. And
yet, to make sure work, the printing and publishing
sf the new Book of Common Prayer was so defer-
prmitid a MS. coofalniog ** Some animadveriioiis on a Letter
of the Bev- Dr. U. Fowler, [of Whitchurch,] to Mr. VCatea, oPDan-
Ibid lun, near Whitchurch J concerning kneeling at the rayles
la leccivifig the Lofd*i Supper.** Mr. Yates was the Doctor's
fklikwicr, and had applied for a dispensation to receive the
Loftfs aupficr withoot kneeling at the altar. Dr. Fowler's Letter
is copied ia the margin ; and the animadversions are ably written.
It ta registered as a MS. of Mr. Henry's,— but it seems doubtful
whether it be hb hand-writing. Indeed, the editor does not think
its tatcrnal evidence would justify its introduction as his compo-
SitiOB.
Thia opf nkm turns out to be correct The MS. is good old Mr.
Steele'a la a letter fVom Matthew Henry to Ralph Thoresby,
Esq. of Lceda» dated Oct 10, itfOS, and in Mr. Upcott's possession,
he mys. Meeting among my father^s papers with a sheet of his
(Hr. Slede*!) in aatircr to Dr.* 'eQw\etB ugameot$ for setUag f
red, that few of the ministers, except those in London,
could possibly get a sight of it, much less duly
consider of it,* before the time prefixed ; which Mr
Steel took notice of in his Farewell Sermon at
Hanmcr, August 17, 1662,— that he was silenced
and turned out for not declaring his unfeigned
assent and consent to a book which he never saw^ nor
eould see.
One thing which he comforted himself with in his
nonconformity was, that as to matters of doubtful
disputation touching church government, ceremo-
nies, and the like, he was ica#i£7orfi, either on one
side or the other, and so was free from those snares
and bands in which so many find themselves tied up
from what they would do, and entangled that they
know not what to do. He was one of those that
feared an oath, Ecclesiastes x. 2. and would often
say, — Oaths are edged tools, and not to be played
with. One passage I find in his papers, which con-
firmed him in this satisfaction ; it is a letter from
no less a clergyman than Dr. F.* of Whitchurch to
one of his parishioners;" who desired him to give
way that his child might be baptized by another
without the cross and godfathers, if he would not do
it so himself; both which he refused : it was in the
year 1672-3. '^ For my part, said the Doctor, I
freely profess my thoughts, that the strict urging of
indifferent ceremonies hath done more harm than
good ; and, possibly, had all men been left to their
liberty therein, there might have been much more
unity, and not much less uniformity. But what
power have I to dispense with myself, being now
under the obligation of a law and an oath V* And
he concludes, " I am much grieved at the unhappy
condition of myself, and other ministers, who must
either lose their parishioners' love, rf they do not
comply with them, or else break their solemn obli-
gations to please them."
This, he would say, was the mischief of imposi-
tions, which ever were, and ever will be, bones of
contention. When he was at Worthenbury, though
in the Lord's supper he used the gesture of sitting
himself, yet he administered it without scruple to
some who chose rather to kneel ; * and he thought
that ministers' hands should not, in such things, be
up rails about the conununion table, written with his own hand, I
send it you enclosed. J. B. W. Oct 5, 1837.
a P. Henry. Orig. MS.
o See Reliq. Baxter. Lib. 1. Part 11.
P Dr. Bates's Works, ▼. 4. p. 330.
q Afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. Nat A. D. .1506, ob.
Nov. 9, 1677. Mr. Chalmers' Biog. Diet v. 27. p. 442.
r See Noncon. Mem. ▼. 3. p. 350.
■ A curious anecdote illustrative of this statement is recorded
by Dr. Calamy in his Defence of Moderate Nonconformity, v. 2.
Part H. p. 357.
t Dr. Matthew Fowler was Rector of Whitchurch, and died
there in 1683, ast. 06. Wood's Fasti, ut npra. Ath. Oxon. ▼. 4 p. 55.
« A Mr. Morgan. P. Henry. Diary. Orig. MS.
▼ See the Ufe of Mn. Jane RalcWflte, \>) 0;ift Uiet . ^o\ak\A^ > v-
143; &c. dttod. 1040 1 and aal«, p. M.
00
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
tied up ; but that he ought, in bis place, though he
suffered for it, to witness against the making of
those things the indispensable terms of communion,
which Jesus Christ hath not made to be so. Where
the Spirit of the Lord, and the spirit of the gospel,
iSf there is liberty.
Such as these were the reasons of his nonconfor-
mity, which, as long as he lived, he was more and
more confirmed in.
2. His moderation in his nonconformity was very
exemplary and eminent, and had a great influence
upon many, to keep them from running into an un-
charitable and schismatical separation ; which, upon
all occasions, he bore his testimony against, and was
very industrious to stem the tide of. In church go-
vernment, that which he desired and wished for, was
Archbishop Usher's reduction of episcopacy.* He
thought it lawful to join in the Common Prayer in
public assemblies, and practised accordingly, and
endeavoured to satisfy others concerning it The
spirit he was of was such as made him much afraid
of extremes, and solicitous for nothing more than
to maintain and keep Christian love and charity
among professors. Wc shall meet with several
instances of this in the progress of his story, and
therefore wave it here. I have been told of an aged
minister" of his acquaintance, who, being asked
upon his death-bed, — What his thoughts were of
his nonconformity, replied, he was well satisfied in
it/ and should not have conformed so far as he did,
viz. to join in the Liturgy, if it had not been for Mr.
Henry. Thus was his moderation hnotcn unto all men.
[It were a desirable thing, he would sometimes
say, that all who fear God in the land, in the neigh-
bourhood, were at peace among themselves ; for, as
for peace with wicked men, it will never be while
the world stands ; the seed of the serpent, of the
bond-woman, will hate, will persecute, the seed of the
woman, the free- woman. Fire and water will as
soon be reconciled as these two seeds. But how
happy were it if all good people were at peace ; if all
their enmities were at an end ! The Saviour left
this blessing as a legacy, John xiv. ; pressed it,
John XV. ; prayed for it, John xvii."]
But to proceed in his story. At Michaelmas, 1662,
he quite left Worthenbury, and came with his family
to Broad Oak, just nine years from his first coming
into the country. Being cast by Divine Providence
into this new place and state of life, his care and
prayer was, — that he might have grace and wisdom
to manage it to the glory of God, which, saith he, is
V See Buck's Theol. Diet. vol. i. Tit. Episcopacy. Atid Reliq.
Baxter. Lib. 1. Part II. p. 238.
X Mr. Robert Fojjg, sen. See the Noncon. Mem. v. 3. p. 481.
7 See the Sel. Noncon. Rem. pp. 48, 49, aiO.
1 P. Henry. Orig. MS.
a A very small and antique building ; it is yet standing. See
Ormerod'B History of Cheshire, v. 2. p. 347.
b See ttBiit p. 32.
my chief end. Within three weeks after his coming
hither, his second son was bom, which we mention
for the sake of the remark he has upon it — ^We have
no reason, saith he, to call him Benoni, I wish we
had none to call him Ichabod. And, on the day of
his family-thanksgiving for that mercy, he writes, —
We have reason to rejoice with trembling, for it goes
ill with the church and people of God, and reason
to fear worse because of our own sins, and our ene-
mies' wrath.
At the latter end of this year he hath in his Diaiy
this note : — It is observed of many who have con-
formed of late, and fallen from what they formerly
professed, that, since their so doing, from unblam-
able, orderly, pious men, they are become exceeding
dissolute and profane, and instanceth in some.
What need have we every day to pray, — Lord, lead
us not into temptation !
For several years after he came to live at Broad
Oak, he went constantly on Lord's days to public
worship, with his family, at Whitewell chapel,*
which is hard by, if there were any supply there, as
sometimes there was from Malpas ; and if none, then
to Tylstock, where Mr. Zachary Thomas continued
for about half a year, and the place was a little
sanctuary ; and, when that string failed, usually to
Whitchurch ; and did not preach for a great while,
unless occasionally, when he visited his friends, or
to his own family, on Lord's days, when the weather
hindered them from going abroad. He comforted
himself, that sometimes in going to public worship,
he had an opportunity of instructing and exhorting
those that were in company with him, by the way,
according as he saw they had need ; and in this his
lips fed many y and his tongue was as choice silver;
and he acted according to that rule which he often
laid down to himself and others, — That, when we
cannot do what we would, we must do what we can,**
and the Lord will accept us in it. He made the
best of the sermons he heard in public.^^It is a
mercy, saith he, we have bread, though it be not as
it hath been, of the finest of the wheat. Those are
froward children who throw away the meat they
have, if it be wholesome, because they have not what
they would have. When he met with preaching
that was weak, his note is,->That is a poor sermon
indeed, out of which no good lesson maybe learned.
He had often occasion to remember that verse of
Mr. Herbert's :—
The worst speaks something good ; if all want sense,
God takes the text, and preacheth patience,**
c Mr. Rovre sometimes said,—" When I meet with a sermon that
doth not like me, I first look into myself to see if there were nothing
amiss there, and, if there were no fault there. I would then scan
it over again. We many times blame the minister when the ftiult
is our own ; we have not prayed for him as we should have done.'*
Life. pp. 56, 57, ui npra.
d The Temple, Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, by Mr.
George Herbert, late Oraiour of the University, of Cambridge,
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
61
NaT, and once he saith, he could not avoid thinking
of Eli's sons, who made the sacrifices, of the Lord to
ie abhorred. Yet he went, to bear his testimony
topablie ordinances. — For still, saith he, the Lord
kteth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of
Jtcob ; and so do I. Sach, then, were his senti-
ments of things, expecting that God would yet open
a door of return to former public liberty, which he
mach desired and prayed for ; and in hopes of that,
was backward to fall into the stated exercise of his
miiiistr>' otherwise, as were all the sober noncon-
fomiists generally in those parts, but it was his grief
and burthen that he had not an opportunity of doing
more for God. He had scarce one talent of oppor-
tunity, bat that one he was very diligent and faithful
in the improyement of. When he visited his friends,
bow did he lay out himself to do them good ! Being
aiked once, where he made a visit, to expound and
pray, which his friends returned him thanks for, he
thus ¥rrites upon it ; —They cannot thank me so much
for my pains, but I thank them more, and my Lord
God especially, for the opportunity. Read his con-
flict vrith himself at this time ; — I own myself a
minister of Christ, yet do nothing as a minister.
What will excuse me ? Is it enough for me to say.
Behold^ I stand in the market-place, and no man hath
hired me ? And he comforts himself with this ap-
peal ; — Lord, thou knowest what will I have to thy
work, public or private, if I had a call and oppor-
tunity. And shall this willing mind be accepted ?
Surely this is a melancholy consideration, and lays
a great deal of blame somewhere, that such a man as
Mr. Henry, so well qualified with gifts and graces
for ministerial work, and in the prime of his time
for usefulness ; so sound and orthodox, so humble
and modest, so quiet and peaceable,* so pious and
blameless ; should be so industriously thrust out of
the vineyard, as a useless and unprofitable servant,
and laid aside as a despised broken vessel, and a vessel
in which there was no pleasure. This is a lamentation,
and shall beybr a lamentation ; especially, since it
was not his case alone, but the lot of so many hun-
dreds of the same character.
In these circumstances of silence and restraint,
be took comfort himself, and administered comfort
to others, from that scripture, Isaiah xvi. 4. Let my
vut'Casts dwell with thee, Moab, God's people may
be an out-cast people, cast out of men's love, their
synagogues, their country ; but God will own his
people when men cast them out ; they are out-casts,
bat they are his, and somewhere or other he will
provide a dwelling for them.
— -* —
p. U. ed. 1650. Mr. Herbert was born April 3. 1593. and died in I«35.
lives, bj bask Walton. Dr. Zoach's ed. v. 2. p. 1. oct
• Hr. Wesley, after noticiiiff the disputatious temper of some as
to opinions and eatemala. proceeds ;— " But I do not include that
venerable nan, Mr. Philip Henry, nor any that were of his spirit,
in this muaber. I know tbey abhorred contending about exter-
nls. Ndtber did they separate themselves from the church.
[On the return of his birth-day, his Diary contains
the following affecting record.— 1063, August 34.
This day thirty-two years I was born; this day
twelve-month I died ;— that fatal day to the godly,
painful, faithful ministers of England, among whom
I am not worthy to be numbered. We mourned
and prayed before the Lord at W. B/s house, if so
be there may be hope, Zechariah vii. 3. compare
Jeremiah i. 3. The Jews, in their captivity, fasted
in the fifth month, because in the fifth month Jeru-
salem was carried away captive ; and, in the seventh
month, Zechariah vii. 5. because in the seventh
month Gedaliah was slain, Jeremiah xli. 1.^]
There were many worthy able ministers thereabout
turned out, both from work and subsistence, that
had not such comfortable support for the life that now
is, as Mr. Henry had, for whom he was most affec-
tionately concerned, and to whom he showed kind-
ness. There were computed, within a few miles
round him, so many ministers turned out to the wide
world, stripped of all their maintenance, and ex-
posed to continual hardships, as with their wives
and children, having most of them numerous fami-
lies, made up above a hundred, that lived upon Pro-
vidence ; and, though oft reduced to wants and
straits, yet were not forsaken, but were enabled to
rejoice in the Lord, and to joy in the God of their
salvation, notwithstanding : to whom the promise
was fulfilled. Psalm xxxvii. 3. — So shalt thou dwell
in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. The world
was told long since, by the ** Conformist's Plea,"'
that the worthy Mr. Lawrence,'' Mr. Henry's inti-
mate friend, when he was turned out of Baschurch,*
and, if he would have consulted with flesh and blood,
having, as was said of one of the martyrs, eleven
good arguments against suffering, viz, a wife and
ten children, was asked how he meant to maintain
them all, and cheerfully replied, — They must all
live on the sixth of Matthew, Take no thought for
your life, SrC' and he often sung, with his family,
Psalm xxxvii. 16. And Mr. Henry hath noted
concerning him in his Diary, some time after he
was turned out, — That he bore witness to the love
and care of our Heavenly Father, providing for him,
and his present condition, beyond expectation.
One observation Mr. Henry made not long before
he died, when he had been young and now was old,
That, though many of the ejected ministers were
brought very low, had many children, were greatly
harassed by persecution, and their friends generally
poor and unable to support them ; yet, in all his ac-
quaintance, he never knew, nor could remember to
They continued therein till they were driven out, whether they
would or not." Further Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion.
Works, vol xii. pp. 274, 275.
f P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
r 4to. 1682. See Granger's Hist. v. 3. p. 336. ul tvpra.
h See the Noncon. Mem. v. 3. p 129.
i A parish in the hund. of PIrohill, Salop, 8 miles from Shrewsbury.
THE UFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
haye heard of, any nonconformist minister in prison
for debt.
[It is obyious, he writes, to observe at four seve-
ral times, and upon four several occasions, ministers
have been silenced and turned out of their places ;
and yet still, after a time, more or less restored
again.
i. In Queen Mary's days, — ^because they would
not close with popery at the return of it. But that
interdict lasted under five years, being taken off
upon Queen Elizabeth's coming to the throne.
2. In Queen Elizabeth's, King James's, and King
Charles's days, — because they could not conform to
the hierarchy and ceremonies; and this interdict
lasted long, even till the Long Parliament, A. D.
1640 ; but it was then taken off.
3. Under the Long Parliament many ministers
were sequestered and silenced for malignancy, and
not covenanting.
4. Many others, after the King's death, for not
engaging to be true to the Commonwealth, as then
established; both which restraints, though much
remitted before, yet quite ceased at the coming in
of the King, A. 1>. 1660.
And now more ministers are silenced, and with
more severity than ever, by the Act of August 2i,
And who among us can tell for how long ? This
only I know, — He who katk delivered, doth deliver.
Script. March 31, 1663.
The Lord is my protection, I shall not fall. What
need I fear ?
The Lord is mif portion, I thall not want. What
need I care 7*^]
In October, 1663, Mr. Steel, and Mr. Henry, and
some other of their friends,' were taken up and
brought prisoners to Hanmer,™ under pretence of
some plot said to be on foot against the government :
and there they were kept under confinement some
days, on which he writes ; — It is sweet being in any
condition with a clear conscience. The sting of
death is sin, and so of imprisonment also. It is the
first time, saith he, I was ever a prisoner, but per-
haps may not be the last. We felt no hardship, but
we know not what we may. They were, after some
days, examined by the Deputy Lieutenants, charged
with they knew not what^ and so dismissed, finding
verbal security to be forthcoming upon twenty-four
hours' notice, whenever they should be called for.
Mr. Henry returned to his tabernacle with thanks-
givings to God, and a hearty prayer for his enemies,
that God would forgive them. The very next day
1c P. Henry. Grig. MS.
1 Luke Lloyd, Esq. was one of the number. P. Henry. Diary,
Orig. MS.
m Mr. Steel being removed from Hanmer by Uie Bartholomew
Act, Mr. Hilton was pot in there, and left Worthenbniy, which
continued long aOer without any stated supply. Life. Orig. MS.
Minora.
1 SirEvmn Lloyd, Governor of Cbeeter, is the person referred
after they were released, a great man in the coun-
try, at whose instigation they were brought into that
trouble, died, as was said, of a drunken surfeit.*^
So that a man shall say,-- Verily there is a God that
judgeth in the earth.
In the beginning of the year 1666, when the Act for
a Royal Aid, to His Majesty, of two millions and a
half, came out, the Commissioners for Flintshire were
pleased to nominate Mr. Henry sub-collector of the
said tax for the township of Iscoyd, and Mr. Steel for
the township of Hanmer. They intended thereby to
put an affront and disparagement upon their ministry,
and to show that they looked upon them but as lay-
men.** His note upon it is,— It is not a sin which
they put us upon, but it is a cross, and a cross in
our way, and, therefore, to be taken up and borne
with patience. When I had better work to do, I
was wanting in my duty about it, and now this is
put upon me; the Lord is righteous. He procured
the gathering of it by others, only took account of
it, and saw it duly done ; and deserved, as he said
he hoped he should, that inscription mentioned in
Suetonius, ladkCtQ rtKuvtiaavn, — To the memory of an
honest publican.'
In September, the same year, he was again, by
warrant from the Deputy Lieutenant, fetched pri-
soner to Hanmer, as was also Mr. Steel and others.
He was examined about private meetings. Some
such, but private indeed, he owned he had been
present at of late, in Shropshire, but the occasion
was extraordinary ; the plague was at that time
raging in London, and he, and several of his friends,
having near relations there, thought it time to seek
the Lord for them, and this was imputed to him as
his crime. He was likewise charged with adminis-
tering the Lord's supper, which he denied, having
never administered it since he was disabled by the
Act of Uniformity. After some days' confinement,
seeing they could prove nothing upon him, he was
discharged upon recognizance of £20, with two
sureties, to be forthcoming upon notice, and to live
peaceably, '^Bniy saith he, our restraint was not
strict, for we had liberty of prayer and conference
together, to our mutual edification. Thus out of the
eater came forth meat, and out of the strong sweet-
ness; and we found honey in the carcase of the lion,
[In reference to his own improvement, his Diary,
about this period, contains the following interesting
record.— Covenants renewed in these particulars.
By the Lord's help, I purpose to be more substantial
in secret worship ; more sparing of precious time ;
to. His death occurred, Oct 15, 1663. P. Henry. Diary, Orig.
MS.
o Hit excellent son notes, on one occasion,— Fell in company
with Mr. D — ; he told me he looked upon me as a deceived lay.
man. God give me grace to make this good use of the censure-
to be so much the more diligent to approve myself a yood miniUn
•fJn%$ CkrUt. Matthew Henry. Diary, Orig. MS. March 10, I70SA
P Sabinus. See Matt. Henry's Expos. Mar. ii. 13—18.
THE LIFE OP MR, PHILIP HENRY.
6S
more constmnt in reading the Scriptures alone, and
meditating in them ; more carefal to improve all
oppoitonitiea of doing good to souLs : not only tak-
ing but seeking them ; less fearful about ey^its when
in a way of duty. In all which I have lately missed
it, but the Lord hath pardoned me in Christ Jesns.<>]
It was but a little before this, that Mr. Steel, set-
ting out for London, was, by a warrant from the
justices, nnder colour of the report of a plot, stopped
and searched, and, finding nothing to accuse him
of, they seised his almanack,' in which he kept his
Diaiy for that year ; and, it not being written very
legibly, they made what malicious readings and
comments they pleased upon it, to his great wrong
and leproach ; though, to all sober and sensible
people, it discoTered him to be a man that kept a
striet watch over bis own heart, and was a g^reat
hnsband of his time, and many said they got good
by h, and should love him the better for it. Psalm
xxxrii. 5, 6. This event made Mr. Henry some-
wbt more caotious and sparing in the records of
his Diary, irhen be saw how evil men dig up mischief.
At Lady I>ay, 1666, the Five-mile Act eom-
meneed, by -which all nonconformist ministers were
forbidden, upon pain of six months imprisonment,
to oome or be -within five miles of any corporation, or
of any place where they had been ministers, unless
tbey would take an oath ; of which Mr. Baxter saith,
it was credibly reported, that the Earl of South-
ampton, then Lord High Treasurer of England,
said. No honest man could take it. Mr. Baxter, in
bis life, hath set down at large his reasons against
takmg this Oxford oath, as it was called, part ii. p.
398, &c. part. iii. p. 4, &c. Mr. Henry set his down
in short. It was an oath, not at any time to endea-
four any alteration of the government, in the church
or state. He had already taken an oath of alle-
giance to the King, and he looked upon this to
amount to an oath of allegiance to the bishops,
which he was not free to take. Thus he writes,
Maich 22, 1066-6:
This day methoughts it was made more clear to
me than ever, by the hand of God upon me, and I
note It down, that I may remember it; (1.) That
the government of the church of Christ ought to be
managed by the ministers of Christ. It appears,
Hebrews xiii. 7. that they are to rule us, that speak
to OS the word of God. (2.) That nnder prelacy,"
miaisters have not the management of church-go-
1 P. Heoiy. Orig. MS.
' GoUmith's was uaed by Mr. Henry. He had it interleaved
lor the purpoae ofa Diary. In blank leaves, at the beginning and
tht end, be often made extracts from books, or recorded remarka
which occurred in con venation, &c
• Dr. Wordawoitb baa the following annotation connected with
the abof« aentanoe ;— This reasoning seems hardly worth the
aottar dowaaad icmembering. Do not prelates speak to us the
wcRd of Gad 1 (are not tbey. too, ministers of Christ t) and are they
not enfitlcd, tlwrcfivr* <if the citation from the apoatlc be valid J
vemment, not in the least, being only the publishers
of the prelates' decrees, as in exconununication, and
absolution ; which decrees sometimes are g^ven forth
by lay-ehancellors. (3.) That, therefore, prelacy is
an usurpation in the church of God, upon the crown
and dignity of Jesus Christ, and upon the gospel-
rights of his servants the ministers. And therefore,
(4.) I ought not to subscribe to it, nor to swear not
to endeavour, in all lawful ways, the alteration of it,
viz. by praying and persuading, where there is
opportunity. But, (5.) That I may safely venture
to suffer in the refusal of such an oath, committing
my soul, life, estate, liberty, all, to him who judgeth
righteously.
And on March 25, the day when that act took
place, he thus writes : A sad day among poor
ministers up and down this nation ; who, by this act
of restraint, are forced to remove from among their
friends, acquaintance, and relations, and to sojourn
among strangers, as it were in Meteeh and in tk§
tents of Kedar, But there is a God who tells their
wenderingsj and will put their tearsy and the tears of
their wives and children, into his bottle. Arc they
not in his book ? The Lord be a little sanctuary to
them, and a place of refuge from* the storm, and from
the tempest, and pity those places from which they
are ejected, and come and dwell where they may
not.
He wished their removes might not be figurative
of evil to these nations, as Ezekiel's were, Ezekie!
xii. 1, 2, 3. This severe dispensation forced Mr.
Steel and his family from Hanmer, and so he lost
the comfort of his neighbourhood ; but withal it
drove Mr. Lawrenoe from Baschurch to Whitchurch
parish, where he continued till he was driven thence
too.
Mr. Henry's house at Broad Oak was but four
reputed miles from the utmost limits of Worthenbuiy
parish, but he got it measured, and accounting 1700
yards to a mile, according to the Statute, 35 Eliz.
cap. 6, it was found to be just five miles and three-
score yards, which one would think might have been
his security. But there were those near him who
were ready to stretch such laws to the utmost rigour,
under pretence of construing them in favour of the
King, and, therefore, would have it to be understood
of reputed miles. This obliged him for some time
to leave his family, and to sojourn among his friends,
to whom he endeavoured, wherever he came, to
to rule over us t" Eccl. Biog. v. 6. p. 238. Mr. Henry's language
is, however, evidently to be construed in connexion with the
existing state of tbintts, and in contrast with those early days of
episcopacy, to which reference is thus made in the Homilies f
" Tliey were then preaching bishops, and more often seen in pul.
pits than princes* palaces; more often occupied in his legacy,
who said,— >l»!9 jrr inta th» wkoU Mwrld, and yreaeJk th* gotpel to aU awa,
than in embaamges and aflhtrs of princes in this world." The
Homilies appointed to be read in Churches in the time of Queen
Elizabeth, p. 214. 4ta 1706.
64
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
impart some spiritual gift. At last he ventured
home, presuming, among other things, that the war-
rant hy which he was made collector of the Royal
Aid, while that continued, would secure him, ac-
cording to a proviso in the last clause of the act,
which, when the gentlemen perceived, they dis-
charged him from that office, before he had served
out the time.
[In a document consisting of reasons on the sub-
ject, he thus concludes in favour of measured, rather
than reputed, miles.
1. Because measured miles are certain ; reputed
miles uncertain ; one reputing more, another less.
2. Because otherwise some would be punished
beyond others ; viz. those who live where reputed
miles are of extraordinary length.
3. Because in penal laws the interpretation should
be such as most favours the offender.
4. Upon other statutes the decision of controver-
sies hath been by measuring ; ergo in this.
6. He who swears against the delinquent must
swear, not that it is reputed, but that it is five miles.
It is not always from one great town to another that
the question is like to be, but from a particular
house, — as suppose Broad Oak, to an obscure boun-
dary,—suppose the Sam.
6. The Scripture speaks of measured miles in a
law-case, Deuteronomy xxi. 2.^]
He was much affected with it, that the burning of
London happened so soon after the nonconformists
were banished out of it. He thought it was in mercy
to them, that they were removed before that deso-
lating judgment came, but that it spoke aloud to our
governors, — Let my people go that they may serve
me ; and if ye will not, behold this and thus will I do
unto you. This was the Lord's voice crying in tlie
6ity.
In the beginning of the year 1667, he removed
with his family to Whitchurch," and dwelt there
above a year, except that for one quarter of a year,
about harvest, he returned again to Broad Oak.
His remove to Whitchurch was partly to quiet his
adversaries, who were ready to quarrel with him
upon the Five-mile act, and partly for the benefit of
the school there for his children.
t p. Henry. Grig. BIS.
« In some memoranda respecting his eldest son, Bfr. Henry writes;
—In January. 1667, we removed to Whitcharch, partly to satisTy
the law, partly to have convenient schooling for him and his bro-
ther, in regard Mr. Catheral was appointed by Sir Orlando Bridg-
man to teach in Wigland, in a hoose newly built by him for that
purpose, which was too for oflT us. I entered him at the Free
School, being yet in coats, which had never been known there
before. Orig. MS.
r He was bom at Worthenbury, May 3, 1661. His complexion
was observed to be sweet and ruddy, his countenance compleat,
bis eyes lively. He was baptized. May 12, by Mr. George Main-
waring, late of Malpas. He preached in the morning, firom Zech.
xii. 1. I preached in the afternoon, flrom Ps. li. 5. On the 14th of
May, neighbours dined with us, and rejoiced in Ood's goodness.
There, In April following, he buried his eldest
son,"" not quite six years old, a child of extraordinary
pregnancy and forwardness in learning, and of a
very towardly disposition. His character of this
child is,
Prater que atatem nil puerile fuit,
[He was remarkable for four things.
1. Forwardness in learning, having all the three
requisites, — apprehension, j udgment, memory ,—«ven
beyond his age, and also a great love to it ; never
seeking, at any time, to stay from school.
2. Tenderness of disposition. He was apt to melt
into tears at the least show of displeasure, though
but in a frown.
3. Patience under correction ; which he had not
often, because he did not deserve it ; and, when he
did, his penitence prevented it, if not altogether, yet
in the severity of it.
4. Love to his brother and sisters. When Mat-
thew sickened first, with the measles, (of which John
died,) he went to bed with him of his own accord,
sooner than ordinary, and wept over him.
He was of a strong, healthy constitution, not
smaying* for cold in school like other children. He
was full of action, stirring, always doing something,
and what he did, he did with all his might']
This child, before he was seized with the sickness
whereof he died, was much afiected with some verses
which he met with in Mr. White's Power of Godli-
ness,^ said to be found in the pocket of a hopeful
young man, who died before he was twenty-four
years old. Of his own accord he got them without
book, and would be often rehearsing them: they
were these ; —
Not twice twelve years (he might say.
Not half twelve years) full told, a wearied breath
I have exchanged for a happy death.
Short was my life ; the longer is my rest ;
God takes them soonest whom he loveth best
He that is bom to^ay and dies to-morrow,
Loses some hours of joy, but months of sorrow ;
Other diseases often come to grieve us.
Death strikes but once, and that stroke doth
relieve us.
The same night my dear wife began to be ill of an ague. There
are no comforts but what are mixed and chequered till we come
to heaven. Tis the evening commends the day ; therefore, we
should serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. In
the beginning of 1665, he went to school to Mr. Samuel Catheral,
at Whitewell chapel, and by the end of that year, had learned to
read English. In the beginning of 1666, he began his accidence,
which he despatched in that year, with some of his grammar also.
P. Henry. Orig. MS.
V Probably a contraction of diaoaying.
X p. Henry. Orig. MS.
7 See onte, p. 32. The copy which belonged to BIr. Henry, con-
taining his hand-writing, and a few words ill written, supposed to
be his son Jcfhn's, is in the editor's possession. See an account
of Mr. White, in the Noncon. Mem. v. i. p. 106. ut npra.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
66
Tins was a greal affliction to the tender parents.
Xr. Hemy writes upon it in the reflection,
€hnequid anuu eupias non placuisse nimis
Many years after, he said, he thought he did
ipply to himself at that time, but too sensibly, that
soiptare. Lamentations, iii. 1. — I am the man that
katk iten ajfiietion. And he would say to his friends
■poD such occasions, — '* Losers think they may have
leave to speak,' but they must have a care what
tfMy lay, lest speaking amiss to God's dishonour,
tfMy make work for repentance, and shed tears that
Bast be wept over ag^ain,"* He observed concern-
ing this child, that he had always been very patient
nder rebokes. The remembrance of which^ saith he,
teadieth me now how to cany it under the rebukes
of my hcayenly Father. His prayer under this pro-
vidaice wasy— Show me, Lord, show me wherefore
ikon cootendest with me ; have I over-boasted, over-
bred, orer-priced ? A Lord's day intervening be-
tween Hie death and burial of the child, — I attended,
saith he, on public ordinances, though sad in spirit,
ai Job, who, after all the evil tidings that were
kouglit him, whereof death of children was the last
and heaviest, yet fell down and worshipped. And
he would often say upon such occasions, that weep-
iag most not hinder sowing. Upon the interment''
of tike child, he writes,— My dear child, now mine
BO longer, was laid in the cold earth, not lost, but
loon to be raised again a glorious body, and I shall
go to him, but he shall not return to me. A few
days alter, his dear friend, Mr. Lawrence, then living
in Wbitchnrch parish, buried a daughter, that was
grown up and very hopeful, and g^ve good evidence
of a work of g^ce wrought upon her soul. How
willing, aaith he, may parents be to part with such
when the Lord calls ; they are not amini but pra-
■ifW. And he hath this further remark,— The Lord
hath made his poor servants, that have been often
companions in his work, now companions in tribu-
iaticm, the very same tribulation ; me for my sin,
him for his trial.*
While he lived at Whitchurch, he attended con-
stantly upon the public ministry, and there, as ever,
he waa careful to come to the beginning of the ser-
vice, which he attended upon with reverence and
devotion; standing all the time, even while the
dttpCers were read.
[He saidy—He that gives to God his soul, and
scfwcs him with the inner man, will think no out-
ward expression of reverence too much. He will
give his body too.', Mr. Hemy had high thoughts of
Too mort give losers
to ipeak. Ben Jonaon, v. 6. p. 106. oct 101&
• See Biibop Poreiidgc't Private Thoughts, Article IV.
k He died April It. Monday, AprillS, be was boiied, toward the
upper end of the siiddle aisle in Whitchurch church. ICr. Samuel
EdwardiWidt srhonhnaster, preached his ftmeial sermon. Text,
MaifciiiLaa P. Btmy. Oilg. MS.
the body as well as the soul. He would say, it is the
workmanship of God, therefore not to be misused, —
it is the house of the soul, — it is the servant to the soul,
made use of in honouring God,— it is the purchase of
Christ, united to him, 1 Corinthians vi. 1^. — ^it is the
temple of the Holy Ghost, 1 Corinthians vi. 19.—
it is intended for glorious things in the resurrection,
Philippians iii. 21. Job xix. 26. 1 Corinthians xv.<]
In the evening of the Lord's day, he spent some
time in instructing his family, to which a few of his
friends and neighbours in the town would some-
times come in ; and it was a little gleam of oppor-
tunity, but very short, for, as he notes ; — He was
offended at it, who should rather have rejoiced, if,
by any means, the work might be carried on in his
people's souls.
He observes in his Diary tnis year, how zealous
people had generally been for the observation of
Lent, a while ago, and how cold they are towards it
now. The same he notes of processions in Ascen-
sion-week ; for, saith he, what hath no good foun-
dation, will not hold up long ; but in that which is
duty, and of God, it is good to be zealously affected
always.
In this year, I think, was the first time that he
administered the Lord's supper, very privately to be
sure, after he was silenced by the Act of Unifor-
mity ; and he did not do it without mature delibera-
tion. A fear of separation kept him from it so long;
what induced him to it at last, I find thus under his
own hand. I am a minister of Christ, and as such
I am obliged, virtute officii^ by all means to endea-
vour the good of souls. Now here is a company of
serious Christians, whose lot is cast to live in a
parish, where there is one set over them, who preach-
eth the truth ; and they come to hear him, and join
with him in other parts of worship ; only, as to the
Lord's supper, they scruple the lawfulness of the
gesture of kneeling ; and he tells them, his hands
are tied, and he cannot administer it unto them any
other way ; wherefore they come to me, and tell me,
they earnestly long for that ordinance ; and there is
a competent number of them, and opportunity to
partake ; and how dare I deny this request of theirs,
without betraying my ministerial trust, and incur-
ring the g^ilt of a grievous omission ?
In February, 1667-8.' Mr. Lawrence and he were
invited by some of their friends to Betley, in Staf-.
fordshire, and (there being some little public con-
nivance at that time) with the consent of all con-
cerned, they adventured to preach in the church,
one in the morning, and the other in the afternoon,
e When others are aiBicted, we are to conclude it is for trial,—
when ouFselves, for sin. Calamy. P. Henry's Com. Place Book.
Orig. MS.
i P. Henry. See Mem. of Mn. Savage, p. 217. •i mipTa.
• lb. Orig. BdS.
f AppeAdis,No.XlV.
06
THE LIFE OF MR, PHIUP HENRY.
of the Lord's day, very peaceably and profitably.
This action of theirs was presently after reported in
the House of Commons, by a Member of Parlia-
ment,' with these additions, — ^That they tore the
Common Prayer Book, trampled the surplice under
their feet, pulled down the ministers of the place out
of the pulpit, &c. Reports which there was not the
least colour for. But that, with some other such
like false stories, produced an address of the House
of Commons to the King, to issue out a proclamation
for the putting of the laws in execution against
papists and nonconformists, which was issued out
accordingly ; though the King, at the opening of
that Session a little before, had declared his desire,
that some course might be taken, to compose the
minds of his Protestant subjects, in matters of re-
ligion ; which had raised the expectations of some,
that there would be speedy enlargement ; but Mr.
Henry had noted upon it,^We cannot expect too
little from man,** nor too much from God.
And here it may be very pertinent to observe,
how industrious Mr. Henry was at this time, when
he and his friends suffered such hard things from
the government, to preserve and promote a good af-
fection to the government notwithstanding. It was
commonly charged at that time upon the noncon-
formists in general, especially from the pulpits,' that
they were all a factious and turbulent people, as
was said of old,— Ezra iv. 16.— hurtful to kings
and provinces; that their meetings were for the
sowing of sedition and discontents, and the like;
and there is some reason to think, that one thing in-
tended by the hardships put upon them, was to
drive them to this : there is a way of making a wise
man mad. But how peaceably they carried them-
selves, is manifest to God, and in the consciences of
many. For an instance of it, it will not be amiss
to give some account of a sermon, which Mr. Henry
preached in some very private meetings, such as were
called seditious conventicles, in the year 1669, when
it was a day of treading down, and of perplexity ;
it was on that text. Psalm xxxv. 20. Against them
that are quiet in the land. Whence (not to curry
favour with rulers, for whatever the sermon was, the
very preaching of it, had it been known, must have
been severely punished, but purely out of conscience
towards God) he taught his friends this doctrine, —
That it is the character of the people of God, that
they are a quiet people in the land. *' This quiet-
ness he described to be an orderly, peaceable sub-
r Miyor-^neral Egrerton. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
b I remember one saying or General Lambert's, *'Tbat the best
of men are but men at the best.** Letters written by Eminent Per.
sons, and Lives of Eminent Men, by John Aubrey, Esq. voL ii. part
I, p. 199.
i The cleiigytnan at White well Chapel sometimes was one of the
accusers above alluded to. On one of those occasions, Mr. Henry
thus writes ;— *' Mr. Green at chapel to-day aeemed to say some-
thiag with reflection : Mark thm that eatue diviiiotu, mvins tktir
jection to governors and government in the Lord.
We must maintain a reverent esteem of them, and
of their authority, in opposition to despising do-
minion, 2 Peter ii. 10. We must be meek, under
severe commands, and burdensome impositions, not
murmining and complaining, as the Israelites
against Moses and Aaron; but take them up as
our cross in our way, and bear them as we do foul
weather. We must not speah evil of dignities^ Jude
8. nor revile the gods, Exodus xxii. 28. . Paul
checked himself for this, Acts xxiii. 5. dvc ffiuVy I did
not consider it ; if I had, I would not have said so.
We must not traduce their government, as Absalom
did David's, 2 Samuel xv. 3. Great care is to be
taken how we speak of the faults of any, especially
of rulers, Ecclesiastes x. 20. — ^The people of God do
make the word of God their rule, and by that they
are taught, (1.) That magistracy is God's ordi^
nance, and magistrates God's ministers ; that by him
kings reign, and the powers that be are ordained of
him. (2.) That they, as well as others, are to have
their dues; honour, and fear, and tribute. (3.) That
their lawful commands are to be obeyed, and that
readily and cheerfully, Titus iii. 1. (4.) That the
penalties inflicted for not obeying unlawful com-
mands, are patiently to be undergone. This is the
rule, and as many as walk according to this rule.
Peace shall he upon them, and there can be no dan-
ger of their unpeaceableness. They are taught to
pray for kings and all in authority, 1 Timothy ii. 1,
2. and God forbid we should do otherwise ; yea,
though they persecute, Jeremiah xxix. 7. Peace-
able prayers bespeak a peaceable people, Psalm cix.
4. If some professing religion have been unquiet,
their unquietness hath given the lie to their profes-
sion, Jude 8, 11, 12. Quietness is our badgei
Colossians iii. 12. It will be our strength, Isaiah
XXX. 7, 15, our rejoicing in the day of evil, Jere-
miah xviii. 18. It is pleasing to God, I Timothy iL
2, 3. It may work upon others, 1 Peter ii. 12, 13,
The means he prescribed for the keeping of us quiet,
were to get our hearts filled with the knowledge and
belief of these two things : 1. That the kingdom of
Christ is not of this world, John xviii. 36. Many have
thought otherwise, and it made them unquiet. 2.
That the wrath of man worheth not the righteousness
of God, James i. 20. He needs not our sin to bring
to pass his own counsel. We must mortify unquiet-
ness in the onuses of it, James iv. 1. We must al-
ways remember the oath of God, Ecclesiastes viii. 2.
•»» bdlf. Lord, I can only appeal to thee, and ny, if I seelL
myself in what I do, or my own things, and not the good of souls*
and the advancement of thy glory ; if I do it in any respect to di-
vide, then fill my face with shame, and let my enemies have power
over me. But if otherwise,— Lord, take my part, and plead
my cause, and clear my integrity, for thy mercy sake." Diaiy,
Orig. MS.
See an appeal somewhat similar by the venerable martyr Bishop
Hooper. Fuller's Ch. Hist. b. vii. p. 401 fol. M55. .
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
67
The oath of alle^ance is an oath of quietness.
And we must beware of the company and converse
of those that are unquiet. Proverbs xxii. 24, 25.
Tboug^h deceitful matters be devised, yet we must
bd quiet still ; nay, be so much the more quiet."
I have been thus large in gathering these hints
oat of that sermon, (which he took all occasions in
odier sermons to inculcate, as all his brethren like-
wise did,) that if possible it may be a conviction to
the present generation ; or, however, may be a wit-
ness in time to come, that the nonconformist minis-
ters were not enemies to Caesar, nor troublers of
the land ; nor their meetings any way tending to
the disturbance of the public peace, but purely de-
signed to help to repair the decays of Christian
piety.
All that knew Mr. Henry, knew very well that his
practice all his days was consonant to these his
settled principles.
In May, 1668,'^ he returned again with his family
ram Whitchurch to Broad Oak, which, through the
;ood hand of his God upon him, continued his set-
led home, without any remove from it, till he was
amoved to his long home above twenty-eight years
ifter. The edge of the Five-mile Act began now a
ittle to abate, at least in that country ; and he was
iesirous to be more useful to the neighbours, among
whom God hath given him an estate, than he could
t>e at a distance from them, by relieving the poor,
employing the labourers, especially instructing the
ignorant, and helping as many as be could to heaven.
Be made that scripture his standing rule, and wrote
it in the banning of his book of accounts, Pro-
ferbs iii. 9, 10. Honour the Lord with thy substance,
kc. And having set apart a day of secret prayer
ind humiliation, to beg of God a wise and an un-
derstanding heart, and to drop a tear, as he ex-
presseth it, over the sins of his predecessors, for-
merly in that estate, he laid out himself very much
IB dioing good. He was very serviceable upon
all accounts in the neighbourhood, and though it
to(^ up a. great deal of his time, and hindered him
from his beloved studies, yet it might be said of
him, as the Bishop of Salisbury saith of Archbishop
liltotsoo, in his sermon at his funeral, that he
ehose rather to live to the good of others than
to himself ; and thought, tbat to do an a^pt of cha-
rity, or even of tenderness and kindness, was of
Bore value, both in itself, and in the sight of God,
k Mftj 3L This week I removed again with my (kmily from
Vbitdmrcfa to Broad Oke, Zvv Ocm.
The reaaoDS indadng me thereunto were these ;
L The ccuii^ of thoae things which brought us thence t which
rere.1 To avoid the penalty of the taw, now rebated. 2. For
loodscbooUnf for my ions, now not to be had, by the removal of
fr. Edwards to Newport ; and besides, the Lord hath taken my
'Jdcstsoo tohimsetr, twbiaiA etaud, loBUur tftctut.
1L That 1 nifht be of mcnre me thefe where God hath given me
ui ettate, than I can be at this distance, by relieving the poor
'kcRabovli^ and hy helpfug as many as I can to heaven. Now,
p 9
than to pursue the pompous parts of learning, how
much soever his own genius might lead him to it.'
He was very useful in the common concernments
of the township and country, in which he was a
very prudent counsellor ; it was, indeed, a narrow
sphere of activity, hut, such as it was, to him, — as
to Job, chapter xxix. 21, 22.— 3feit gave ear and
waited, and kept silence at his counsel; after his
words they spake not again ; and many of the neigh-
bours who respected him not as a minister, yet loved
and honoured him as a knowing, prudent, and
humble neighbour. In the concernments of private
families, he was very far from busying himself, and
further from seeking himself; but he was very much
busied, advising many about their affairs, and the
disposal of themselves and their children, arbitrat-
ing and composing differences among relations and
neighbours, in which he had an excellent faculty,
and often good success, inheriting the blessing
entailed upon the peace-makers. References have
sometimes been made to him by rule of court, at
the assizes, with consent of parties. He was very
affable and easy of access, and admirably patient in
hearing every one's complaint, which he would
answer with so much prudence and mildness, and
give such apt adviccf, that many a time to consult
with him, was to ask counsel at Abel, and so to end
the matter.*^ He observed, in almost all quarrels
that happened, that there was a fault on both sides ;
and that generally they were most in the fault, that
were most forward and clamorous in their com-
plaints. One making her moan to him of a bad
husband she had, that in this and the other instance
was unkind ; and Sir, saith she, after a long com-
plaint which he patiently heard, what would you
have me to do now ? Why truly, saith he, I would
have you to go home, and be a better wife to him, and
then you will find that he will be a better husband to
you. Labouring to persuade one to forgive an in-
jury that was done him ; he urged this, Are you not
a Christian ?° and followed that argument so close
that at last he prevailed.
He was very industrious, and oft successful, in
persuading people to recede from their right for
peace sake ; and he would for that purpose tell tnem
Luther's story of the two goats, that met upon a
narrow bridge over a deep water ; they could not
go back, they durst not fight ; after a short parley,
one of them lay down, and let the other go over him.
Lord, glorify thyself in and by thy poor servant, and prevent
trouble here, or.make me able to bear it. P. Henry's Diary.
Orig. MS.
1 pp. 24, 25. 4tO. 1694.
m See 2 Sam. xx. 18.
n In allusion, probably, to the martyrs, particularlyt •* that
blessed woman," Blandina, who, " fighting the worthy battell, be.
came stronger and stronger, and as often as she spake these
words,— /«! a CkrUtian, neither have Wee committed any evill,
—it was to her a marvellous comfort and .boldening to abide
the torments." Fox's Acts and Monuments, v. I. p. 60. foL 1641.
68
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
and no hann was done.* He would likewise relate
sometimes a remarkable story, worthy to be here
inserted, concerning a good friend of his, Mr. T. Y.p
of Whitchurch, who in his youth was greatly wrong-
ed by an unjust uncle of his. Being an orphan,
his portion, which was £200, was put into the
hands of that uncle ; who, when he grew up, shuf-
fled with him, and would give him but £40, instead
of his £200, and he had no way of recovering his
right but by law ; but before he would engage in
that, he was willing to advise with his minister, who
was the famous Dr. Twiss,'» of Newbury; the coun-
sel he gave him, all things considered, was, for
peace sake, and for the preventing of sin, and
snares, and trouble, to take the £40, rather than
contend ; and Thomas, saitfa the Doctor, if thou dost
so, assure thyself, that God will make it up to thee
and thine some other way, and they that defraud
thee will be the losers by it at last He did so, and it
pleased God so to bless that little which he began the
world with, that when he died in a good old age, he
left his son possessed of some hundreds a year ; and
he that wronged him fell into decay.
Many very pious, worthy families in the country
would say of Mr. Henry, tiiat they had no friend
like-minded, who did naturally care for their state,
and so affectionately sympathize with them, and in
whom their hearts could safely trust
[The interest of families lay near his heart, and,
sometimes, he would ask the affectionate question.
Are there no families to be wept over? Yes. When
there are none in a family, as far as we can judge,
spiritually alive. As in Eg^pt, there was not a
house in which there was not one dead, so there are
many families in which not one is alive* We weep
over the body from which the soul is departed, and
why not over the soul from which God is departed ?
There are families too in which God is not wor-
shipped. And are not those to be wept over? There
are families where worldliness prevails, where all
are for the wealth of the world, and where there is no
care for the soul. There are families where divisions
reig^, two are against three, and three against two ;
and there the house is on fire ; the house is falling.
o The moral is easy. Be content thy person be trod upon for
peace sake. Thy ptnw^ 1 say, not thy enuciimcf. P. Henry.
Orig. MS.
p Yates.
q Dr. Twiss, Prolocutor of the Assembly of Divines, in 1643.
He died the 90th of July, 1646. SBt. 71. He was oflTered a preben.
dary at Winchester, which he declined, because he foresaw it
would excite a quarrel between two neighbouring clergymen.
Clark's Lives of Eminent Persons, p. 13. «f npra.
r P. Henry. From a MS. in Mr. Matt Henry's hand. writing.
• This was the practice of Dr. Hammond. See his Life, by Dr.
Pell, p. 160. kf ntfra. It is said of a renowned nobleman, that he
would often give to labouring men .** good summes of money,
making them believe bee did but lend it them ; and causfaigsome
about him to passe their words for the repayment, when hee never
meant to receire it again t but did that, as himself was wont to
r^/y u^ inpoUde, to make them continae their iaboor, and to be
There are families where God's hand hath been by |
correction, and they have been sensible of it ; but ^
the correction being removed, they are as bad or ,
worse than ever. These are to be wept over.^J t
He was very charitable to the poor, and was full
of alms'-deeds, which he did, (as was said of Tabitha, .
Acts ix. 36.) not which he said he would do, or
which he put others on to do, but which he did kirn-
selfy dispersing abroad and giving to the poor, seek-
ing and rejoicing in opportunities of that kind. And
whenever he gave an alms for the body, he usually
gave with it a spiritual alms, some good word of
counsel, reproof, instruction, or comfort, as there
was occasion, and in accommodating these to the
persons he spoke to, he had a very great dexterity.
He was very forward to lend" money freely to
any of his poor neighbours that had occasion, and
would sometimes say, that in many cases there was
more charity in lending than in giving, because it
obliged the borrower both to honesty and industiy.
When one of his neighbours, to whom he had lent
three pounds, failed, so that he was never likely to
see a farthing of it, he writes thus upon it ; — not-
withstanding this, yet still I judge it my duty to
lend, Miy^v dwfXwUifav, nothing despairing ; so Dr.
Hanmiond reads it, Luke vi. 36. Though what is
lent in charity be not repaid, yet it is not lost
When those that had borrowed money of him paid
him again, he usually gave them back some part, to
encourage honesty. He judged the taking of mode-
rate interest for money lawful,' where the borrower
was in a way of gaining by it. But he would advise
his friends that had money rather to dispose of it
otherwise if they could.
It must not be forgotten, how punctual and exact
he was in all his accounts with tenants, workmen,
&c. being always careful to keep such things in black
and white, as he used to say, which is the surest way
to prevent mistakes, and a man's wronging either
himself or his neighbour ; such was his prudence,
and such his patience and peaceableness, that all
the time he was at Broad Oak, he never sued any,
nor ever was sued, but was instrumental \o prevent
many a vexatious law-suit among his neighbours.
good husbands." A Sermon preached at the Funeral of WiUiarn
Lord Russel. by William Walker. D. D. p. 4a 4to. 1614.
t Bfr. Henry has thus recorded the opinion of Mr. Baxter on this
subject It is transcribed from his coinmon.phice book. *' If
usury be condemned, 'tis either by law of nature or some positive
law. If the former, then either as an act of impiety, ipjustice, or
unmercifuhiess. That which can be proved to have any of these
I am resolved against, but there is some usury which I am not
able to see any of these in, nay, I think I could so lend on usury
in some cases, as might be as great an act of bounty or mercy as
to give near half the money. If it be forbidden by a positive law,
then either of Moses, or of Christ. Not of Moses, for the Mosaic
law is abrogated, though much of the matter of it be still in force,
—as the law of nature, and of Christ Not of Christ ; for where
hath Christ any such posiUve law ! On these grounds I fptak
against all uigust tnd unmerciful usury, but I dare go no flntber,
and yet I will justify none,— there is a paper of Dr. Sanderson's
THE LIFE OP MR. PHILIP HENRY.
m>
He used to say ,-— There are four rules to be duly ob-
lerred in going to law ; (1.) We must not go to law
for trifles, as he did who said, he would rather si>end
a hundred pounds in law, than lose a penny-worth
of his right, Matthew v. 30, 40, 41. (2.) We must
not be rash and hasty in it, but tiy all other means
possible to compose difierences ; wherein he that
yields most, as Abraham did to Lot, is the better
nan ; and there is nothing lost by it in the end, 1
Corinthians vi. 1, 2. (3.) We must see that it be
without malice, or desire of revenge. If the undoing
of oar brother be the end of our going to law, as it
is with many, it is certainly evil, and it speeds ac-
cordingly. (4.) It must be with a disposition to
peace, whenever it may be had, and an ear open to
all overtures of that kind. The two mottos proper
for the great guns are applicable to this, ratio ultima
regumf and sic qumrimus pacem,
[He was an enemy to austerity of deportment, and
much enjoyed the pleasures of social intercourse.
'' Pest-houses," he would say, '' always stand alone^
and yet are full of infectious diseases. Solitariness
is no infallible argument of sanctity."** It was against
the evil* of society his watchfulness was directed,
and these he uniformly endeavoured to counteract.
Hence four rules he sometimes g^ve to be observed in
our converse with men. Have conmiunion with few.
Be familiar with one. Deal justly with all. Speak
evil of none.
He was noted for an extraordinary neat husband
about his house and ground, which he would often
say he could not endure to see like the field of the
slothful^ and the rineyard of the man void of under-
ttanding. And it was strange, how easily one that
had been bred up utterly a stranger to such things,
yet when God so ordered his lot, acquainted himself
with, and acconmiodated himself to, the affairs of
the country, making it the diversion of his vacant
hours to over-see his gardens and fields ; when he
better understood that known Epode of Horace,
Beatus ille qui procul negotiisy' than he did when in
his youth he made an ingenious translation of it.
His care of this kind was an act of charity to poor
labourers whom he employed ; and it was a good
example to his neighbours, as well as for the com-
fort of his family. His converse likewise with these
things was excellently improved for spiritual pur-
poses, by occasional meditations, hints of which there
tetf moderate and clear in it" Mr. Baxter. MS. letter to Mr.
Kewcome.
• Com. PI. Book. Orig. MS. " It is a acandall that is cast upon
reiigion, and the profeflBOTS of it, that they are unneighbourly and
aaiociable. God himaelf loves society, he loves holy meetings,
be lovct the communion of saints, the household of foith, and his
delSgikt is to be with the sons of men, and well approves that the
soosermentfKMild be one with another, yet so that he may not
be exdndtd.** Bzpoa. on Luke zi. 5-U. by Nehemiah Rogers,
4tOLMfiapkU9.
«£podtIL VitiaRosUcsLandea.
« P.Uenry. Diary, Oiif. MS.
are often in his Diary, as those that conversed with
him had many in discourse. Instances of this were
easy, but endless, to give.
[The following may suffice :—
1661, March 20. The garden finished in time of
an eclipse.— Lord, lift up upon me the light of thy
countenance, and let nothing cloud it towards my
soul!
Hawthorn sets planted to hedge in the orchard*
Lord, be thou a wall of fire roimd about thy church,
and let not the wild boar out of the forest devour thy
tender plants I
A tree cut up by the roots may have the leaves
green upon it a great while. So a people, or person,
devoted by God to ruin, may yet retain many of
their outward comforts for a time, but they are
withering. Saul, though rejected, obtained many
victories."
As far as the boughs of a tree spread, so far spread
the roots. As much corruption in our actions, so
much in our hearts.*
He used to say, that therefore many of the scrip-
ture parables and similitudes are taken from the
common actions of this life, that when our hands are
employed about them, our hearts may the more
easily pass through them to divine and heavenly
things. I have heard him often blame those, whose
irregular zeal in the profession of religion makes
them to neglect their worldly business, and let the
house drop through ; the affairs of which the good
man will order with discretion ; and he would tell
sometimes of a religious woman, whose fault it was,
how she was convinced of it by means of an intelli-
gent, godly neighbour ; who, coming into the house^
and finding the good woman, far in the day, in her
closet, and the house sadly neglected, children not
tended, servants not minded. — What, saith he, is
there no fear of God in Uiis house ? Which much
startled and affected the good woman, that over-
heard him. He would often say, — Every thing is
beautiful in its season ; and that it is tlie wisdom of
the pnident, so to order the duties of their general
callings as Christians, ^d those of their particular
callings in the world, as that they may not clash or
interfere,^ I have heard it observed from Ecclesiastes
vii. 16. — That there may be over-doing in well-doing.*
[He maintained, however, — That a Christian ought
not to engage himself further in worldly business
X Com. PI. Book. Orig. MS.
y One of the fathers,* speaking of the practice of Christians in
the primitive times, saith,—" At supper, we eat and drink as those
that must pray before they go to bed. So should we follow our
callings all day as those who must pray before they go to bed.*'
Lay not out the strength of your spirits upon earthly things, but
keep it for fellowship with God. P. Henry. Orig. BAS.
I It is said of the " pious and profoundly-learned ** Joseph Mede.
that the apophthegm,— Over-doing always undoes,— was " often
in his nrauth." Appendix to his Life, preflzed to his Works* p^
xlli. foL 1679.
• TaitoUiWi wd Mt ri«v«l%W*rks,Tol.Tf.p: 991.
70
THE LIFE OF MR, PHIUP HENRY.
than 80 as still to keep himself fit for prayer. And
sometimes would exclaim, — After the heart hath
been let loose a little in the world, oh, what a hard
matter is it to find it again ! *]
I cannot omit one little passage in his Diary, be-
cause it may be instructive. When he was once
desired to be bound for one that had, upon a particu-
lar occasion, been bound for him, he writes, — Solo-
mon saith, He that hateth suretyship is sure ; but he
saith also, He that hath friends, must show himself
friendly. But he always cautioned those that be-
came sureties, not to be bound for any more than
they knew themselves able to pay, nor for more than
they would be willing to pay, if the principal fail.
His house at Broad Oak was by the road side,
which, though it had its inconveniences, yet, he
would say, pleased him well, because it gave his
friends an opportunity of calling on him the oftener.'*
[He was a lover of good men, and such always
met a cordial welcome under his roof; so that he
would pleasantly say sometimes, when he had his
Christian friends about him,— He had room for twelve
of them in his beds, a hundred of them in his barn,
and a thousand of them in his heart.*^
Nor was he unmindful of others ; for he spoke of
it with pleasure, that the situation of his house also**]
gave him an opportunity of being kind to strangers,
and such as were any way distressed on the road, to
whom he was upon all occasions cheerfully ready,
fully answering the apostle's character of a bishop,
that he must be of good behaviour,— K<Kr;jioCf decent,
aflable, and obliging, — and ^iven to hospitality;
1 Timothy iii. 2. like Abraham, sitting at his tent-
door, in quest of opportunities to do good. If he
met with any poor near his house, and gave them
alms in money, yet he would bid them go to his door
besides, for relief there. He was very tender and
compassionate towards poor strangers and travellers,
though his charity and candour were often imposed
upon by cheats and pretenders, whom he was not
apt to be suspicious of ; but would say, in the most
favourable sense,— TAou knowest not the heart of a
stranger. If any asked his charity, whose representa-
tion of their case he did not like, or who he thought
did amiss to take that course, he would first give
them an alms, and then mildly reprove them ; and
labour to convince them that they were out of the
• P. Henry. Orig. MS.
b 1697.a Friday, January la
One of my dear father's remarks was this,— That, though it be
comfortable to have friends to visit, and comfort in them ; yet it
is more to have a comfortable home ; such a rest as this world
affords. Blessed be God for the remaining rest. Mrs. Savage's
Diary. Orig. MS.
The learned Henry Jessy could not ** bix>ok fruitless visits, and
wrote his mind concerning it over his studie door accordingly i"—
DirtdUnu to aU FisHon, »
No fruitless visits. No, nor speech.
For time is precious: hinder none.
way of duty, and that they could not expect that
God should bless them in it ; and would not chide
them, but reason with them. And he would say,»-
If he should tell them of their faults, and not give
them an alms, the reproof would look only like an
excuse to deny his charity, and would be rejected
accordingly.
In a word, his greatest care about the things of
this world was, how to do good with what he had,
and to devise liberal things ; desiring to make no
other accession to his estate, but only that blessing
which attends beneficence. He did firmly believe,
and it should seem few do, that what is given to the
poor, is lent to the Lord, who will pay it again in
kind or kindness ; and that religion and piety are
undoubtedly the best friends to outward prosperity,
and he found it so ; for it pleased God abundantly
to bless his habitation, and to make a hedge ahoui
him, and about his house, and about all that he had
round about.* And though he did not delight him-
self in the abundance of wealth ; yet, which is far
better, he delighted himself in the abundance of
peace ; Psalm xxxvii. 11. All that he had, and did,
observably prospered, so that the country oftentimes
took notice of it; ..and called bis family a family
which the Lord had blessed.
His comforts of this kind were, as he used to pray
they might be, — Oil to the wheels of his obedience /
and, in the use of these things, he served the Lord
his God with joy fulness and gladness of heart, yet
still mindful of, and grieved for, the affliction of
Joseph. He would say sometimes, when he was in
the midst of the comforts of this life, as that good
man ; — All this, and heaven too ! Surely, then, we
serve a good Master. Thus did the Lord bless him,
and make him a blessing ; and this abundant grace,
through the thanhsgiving of many, redounded to the
glory of God.
Having given this general account of his circum-
stances at Broad Oak, we shall now go on with his
story, especially as to the exercise of his ministry
there, and thereabouts ; for that was his Th Ipyov,
the thing in which he was, and to which he wholly
gave himself, taking other things 'Qc xaptpya. After
this settlement at Broad Oak, whenever there was
preaching at Whitewell Chapel, as usually there wa^
two Lord's days in the month, he constantly attended
Let words be few,— good. Then cease.
Despatch :— prepare for death, i \^*^ i gone.
Life duod. 1671, p. 102.
e So Mr. Vavasor Powel, who " was very free in the entertain,
ment of strangers, and all saints,'* would say.—'* He had room for
twelve in his beds, a hundred in his bams, and a thousand in his
heart." Life and Death of Mr. Powel, p. 111. duod. 1671.
d Life. Orig. MS. ut npra.
• See P. Henry's Sermons, utntpra. Sermon I. p. 33.
t If love be the weight and the oil that makes the wheels run.
thine obedience is such as it ought to be. Dyke's Worthy Com>
municant, •/ ntpro, p. 341. See jmiA p. 79.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
7t
hen with his family, was usually with the first, and
tTerently joined in the public servite ; he dili-
rently wrote the sermons; always stayed if the
ffdinance of baptism was administered, but not if
bere were a wedding, for he thoug^ht that a solem-
lity not proper for the Lord's day. He often dined
he minister that preached ; after dinner he sung a
)5alm, repeated the morning sermon, and prayed ;
tnd then attended in like manner in the afternoon,
in the evening he preached to his own family ; and,
)erfaaps, two or three of his neighbours would drop
n to him. On those Lord's days, when there was
)o preaching at the chapel, he spent the whole day
It borne ; and many an excellent sermon he preached,
rben there were present only four besides his own
amily, and perhaps not so many, according to the
imitation -of the Conventicle Act.^ In these narrow
vivate circumstances he preached over the former
•art of the Assembly's Catechism, from divers texts;
e also preached over Psalm cxvi. besides many
articular occasional subjects.
What a grief of heart it was to him, to be thus
at under a bushel, and confined to such a narrow
phere of asefnlness, read in his own words, which
shall transcribe out of an elegy he made, to give
ent to his thoughts, upon the death of his worthy
riend, Mr. George Mainwaring, some time Minister
f Malpas, who was silenced by the Act of Uni-
omity, and died, March 14, 1609-70 ; wherein he
bus bewails, feelingly enough, the like restraints
nd confinements of his friend : —
His later years he sadly spent.
Wrapt up in silence and restraint.
A burden such as none do know,
But they that do it undergo.
To have a fire, shut up and pent
Within the bowels, and no vent ;
To have gorg'd breasts, and, by a law.
Those that fain would, forbidden to draw.
But his dumb sabbaths here, did prove
Loud crying sabbaths in heav'n above.
His tears, when he might sow no more.
Watering what he had sown before.
Soon after Mr. Henrjr's settlement at Broad Oak,
e took a young scholar into the house with him ;
f In reference to the termination oT the Conventicle Act, IG
harles IL c. 4 he writes :— 16A9, March 1. This day, as is sup.
Dsed, determines th«.Act against Conventicles, the Parhament
tmg prorogued by proclamation, from this day to October 19,
hicb prorogation makes a session, and the Act was to continue
T three years, and to the end of the next session after, which is
lia
And, blesKd be God, who liath let me live to see il die { for,
loogb bat few in these parts have suffered much by it, yet some
ire, and to others it bath been as a bridle of restraint, hindering
em in the free exercise of their duty, which is, as they have
xaaioo, tosnemble themselves together for mutual edification,
hereby God bath bad great dishonour, and poor souls no small
» in heaven's way*
partly to teach his son, and partly to be a companion
to himself, to converse with him, and to receive help
and instruction from him ; and, for many years, he
was seldom without one or other such ; who before
their going to the University, or in the intervals of
their attendance there, would be in his family, sit-
ting under his shadow. One of the first he had with
him, in the year 1668, and after, was Mr. William
Turner, born in the neighbourhood ; afterwards of
Edmund Hall, in Oxford, now Vicar of Walburton
in Sussex, to whom the world is beholden for that
elaborate '* History of all Religions," which he pub*
lished in the year 1695, and from whom is earnestly
expected the performance of that nob^ and useful
project for the " Record of Providences." •» Betwixt
Mr. Henry and him there was a most entire and
affectionate friendship ; and, notwithstanding that
distance of place, a constant and endearing corres-
pondence kept up as long as Mr. Henry lived.
It was observed, that several young men who had
sojourned with him, and were very hopeful, and
likely to be serviceable to their generations, died
soon after their removal from him ; I could instance
in six or seven, as if God had sent them to him to
be prepared for another world, before they were
called for out of this ; yet never any died while they
were with him.
He had so great a kindness for the University,
and valued so much the mighty advantages of im-
provement there, that he advised all his friends who
designed their children for scholars, to send them
thither, for many years after the change, though he
always counted upon their conformity. But long
experience altered his mind herein, and he chose
rather to keep his own son at home with him, and
to give him what help he could there, in his educa-
tion, than venture him into the snares and temp-
tations of the University.
It was also soon after this settlement of his at
Broad Oak, that he contracted an intimate friend-
ship with that learned, and pious, and judicious
gentleman, Mr. Hunt of Boreatton, the son of Colo-
nel Hunt, of Salop, and with his excellent lady
Frances, daughter of the Right Honourable the
Lord Paget.* The acquaintance then begun be-
tween Mr. Henry and that worthy family, continued
to his dying day, about thirty years. One Lord's
It seems the Lord hath inclined the King's heart to this, which
is in his hand, and he tumeth it whithersoever he pleaseth. To
him be glory !
I am somewhat fearful lest any ill use should be made of this in-
dulgence by intemperate spirits, especially now at first ; which,
God prevent, for his own name, mercy, and gospel sake. P.
Henry. Diary, Orig. MS. Another Conventicle Act soon after
passed ; the 22nd Charles n. c. I.
h Afterwards published in folio, 1607.
i Ambassador for many years at Vienna, afterwards at Constan-
tinople. He and Lady I^et sojourned for some years with his
brother-in-law Mr. Hunt of Boreatton. He came oft to Broad Oke
to visit Mr. Henry. Life. Orig. MS. m/ npra. See the Life and
Errors of John Dunton, v. 1. p. 347. ut supra.
72
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
day in tf quarter he oommonly spent with them, be-
sides other interviews. And it was a constant re-
joicing to him to see religion and the power of god-
liness uppermost, in such a family as tiiat, when not
many mighty, not many noble, are called ; and the
branches of it branehei of righteovuneUy the planting
of the Lord. Divers of the honourable relations of
tiiat family contracted a very g^eat respect for him,
particularly the present Lord Paget, now his Ma-
jesty's Ambassador at the Ottoman Court, and Sir
Henry Ashurst, whom we shall have occasion after-
wards to make mention of.
[Mr. Henry also stood high in the esteem of
Thomas CAbet, Esq.'' of Stanwardine,' George
GljTve, Esq. of Walford, and Mr. Harris, of Pres-
cot These gentlemen were always glad to receive
him into their houses, and to attend upon his minis-
try whenever they had an opportunity. They lived
in the same parish,™ and though they generally fre-
quented the place of public worship, where they had
a sober, judicious, and peaceable minister, the Rev.
Mr. Hudson, yet they had often sermons preached
in their own houses by the nonconformists, who
lived near them, sometimes on week-days, sometimes
on the Lord's day, out of the time of public worship ;
and I have often seen some of Mr. Hudson's family,
his wife and children, present on such occasions."]
In the time of trouble and distress by the Conven-
ticle Act, in 1670, he kept private, and stirred little
abroad, as loth to offend those that were in power,
and judging it prudence to gather in his sails when
the storm was violent. He then observed, as that
which he was troubled at, — ^That there was a gp^eat
deal of precious time lost among professors, when
they came together, in discoursing on their adven-
tures to meet, and their escapes, which he feared
tended more to set up self, than to give glory to God.
Also in telling how they got together, and such a one
preached, but little inquiring what spiritual benefit
and advantage was reaped by it ; and that we are
k See two sermons preached at Cockahatt Chapel, Salop, by
William Gearing, entitled." Wisdom JusUfled of her Children,**
and dedicated to Robert Corbet and Thomas Corbet, of Stanwar-
dine, Esqis. and to the fertuous Gentlewomen, their Wives.*'
duod. 166&
1 1871. July 12. With my wife, at Stanwardine.
1 accompanied them in killing a buck in their own park; ftur
from being taken with any great delight or pleasure in the
sport They sent part of him to Broad Oak. P. Henry. Diary,
Orig. MS.
m Baschorch.
B Tong's life of Blatt Henry, pp. 96, 37. «# npre.
o The following minutes are now curious:—
1671. August 14. Lodged this night at Wolverhampton.
15. To Bromicham: thence to Coventry.
16. To Daventry : thence to Stony Stratford. Ebenezer.
17. To Bamett.
la To London. The ways fair, and the weather tevonrable
beyond expectation. Spent by the way, self and hone, 20#. P.
Henry. Diary, Orig. BIS.
p See CoUins's Peerage, v. 2. p. 606^ and Reliq. Baxter, part. fii.
p. 96.
apt to make the eireumttaneet of our religious ser-
vices more Ihe matter of our discourse than the
tubttanee of them.
[At the latter end of the year 1671, he ventured
to London; and the following extracts from his
Diary, on that occasion, will not be uninteresting.
1671, August 13. Preached on Jacob's vow,
Genesis xxviii. 20, &c. with personal application,
saying,— 7/* God will be with me in this way thai I
ffo, then the Lord shall be my God.
14. I set forward ° towards London.
19. To Kensington.
22. Back to London again.
24. Solemn fast in remembrance of the sad day
of ministers' ejection, kept at the Countess of Exe-
ter's, P with some measure of holy meltings and en-
largements. Dr. Jacomb,*! Mr. Steel,' Mr. Mayo,*
Mr. Bull,' Mr. Poole," prayed and preached alter*
natim. Texts, Psalm li. 4 ; xxxix. 9.
27. Preached at Mr. Doolittel's meeting place.*
Text, Matthew xxv. 29.-7(9 him that hath, &c.
30. Preached at Mr. Steel's.^ Text, 1 Corin-
thians X. 12. in much distraction.
September 1. This evening I was ill.
2. Attempted to keep the annual fast, this day,
in remembrance of the dreadful fire of London, A.
D. 1666 ; but strength failed : to will was present,
to do was not. Thanks is also to be g^ven for the
strange and wonderful rebuilding of it in so short a
time ; which, but that my eyes saw, I could hardly
have believed. I had the sentence of death within
myself, and was, in some measure, willing to it, at
that time, and in that place, though a stranger,'
had God seen good ; but a reprieve came.
3. I should have preached and communicated
with Dr. Annesley,^ but prevented. Multa eadent
inter. Time was when I might, and did not ; now
I would, and might not.
7. To Islington, where was buried Mr. Burghess,'
a nonconformist minister of the west country : there
^ Dr. Thomas Jacomb was bora in 1632, and died 27 Mar. 1687.
See Wilson's Hist of Dissenting churches, ▼. 3. p. 13, fcc.
r See amttt P- 35.
« The Rev. Richard Mayo, an eminent nonconformist, was bora
about 1631 ; he died Sept. 8, 1606. See Wilson's Hist ▼. 3. p. 9.
t Rev. Daniel Bull. See Palmer's Noncon. Mem. v. 3. p. 458,
fcc. W n^rm,
n See aitUt p. 47.
▼ Whether then in MonkwelUstreet, or not, seena rather an.
certain. Query,— Was not Monkwell-street Meeting-house in the
possession of the Lord Mayor in 1671 1 See Wilson's Hist ▼. 3. pp.
193, 194. Mr. Doolittle was born at Kidderminster, A. D. 1030,
Hedied,May34,1707.a.
w His congregation met at Armourer's Hall, Coleoan^street
Wilson's Hist v. '2. p. 4&L
X See Lire oT Archbishop Leighton. Works, v. I. p. xli. oct.tSSO.
7 Dr. Samuel Annesley was bom A. D. 1690, and died Dec. 31,
1696. See Wilson's Hist. y. 1. pp. 365-370.
t It is probable that the rererence is to the Rev. John Burgesi.
M. A. See the Noncon. Mem. v. S. p. 3. «/ mpra : also, an extract
from a letter written by Mr. Henry to his wire relating to the
funeral of Mr. Burgess, fn the Univ. Thaol. Biag. voL & p. 184.
TH£ LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
73
were {Kretent one hundred or aixscore ministers ; and
I bless God that for one dead there were so many
lifing. Bat it grieyed me to see them diyided ;
part stayed the office for the dead, part going oat.
Here I saw Mr. Senior/ Mr. Bull, Mr. Rowles, for-
mer acquaintances.
10. A sabhatb spent with Mr. Doolittel. Text,
John yiii. 36. persnading sinners to be willing to be
made free.
11. I saw Dean Hodges,** persuading to conform,
but I dare not on such terms.
18. I reached home.
29. Day of family thanksgiving. The Lord
accept in Christ Jesus.^
The Tisit, and particularly the indisposition which
has been stated, gave rise to a letter which, viewed
as an illustration of character, is too interesting to
be entirely omitted. '* For Mr. Philip Henry, to
be left with Mr. Enock Darack, at the sine of the
Trumpet, within Aldersg^te, London,'
ft
My dear Husband ;
I received your last yesterday, and am
grieved to hear of your being ill. The children and
family are well, blessed be God, and myself as well
as I can be whilst in fear that you are ill. I have
given up all my interest in you to my heavenly
Father, and am labouring to be ready for evil
tidings, which, if it be, God knows how I shall bear
it I shall expect, between hope and fear, till to-
monow night, and, whatever the issue may be,
labour to justify God. Yet I hope to hear of your
coming, and when it will be, in your next. My
dear heart, the Lord be with you, and send us a
happy meeting ; so prayeth your
Faithful and loving Wife,
September 6, IG71. Katherine Henry.']
We shall close this chapter with two remarks out
of his Diary, in the year 1671, which will show what
manner of spirit he was of, and what were his senti-
ments of things at that time. One is this,— AH ac-
knowledge that there is at this day a number of
sober, peaceable men, both ministers and others,
among Dissenters ; but who either saith Or doth any
thing to oblige them ? Who desireth or endeavoureth
to open the door to let in such ? Nay ; do they not
rather provoke them to run into the same extrava-
gances with others, by making no difference, but
• The Rer. Hkmiibs Senior, B. D. was Fellow and Lecturer or
Trinity Cburcti, Cambridge. He was a Westminster Scholar.
NoneoD. Mem. ▼. I. p. ^S. ntnfra.
b Dean of Hereford, and fother of Dr. Natb. Hodges. He had
tbe Hving of Kensington, and was buried there Aug. 37, 1672.
LfRNM's EnF. of London, ▼. 3. p. 193L Dr. N. Hodges was one of
Mr. Henry's contemporaHes at Westminster and Oxford. See Mr.
Cbafanenrs Biog. Diet. toL is. p. 24.
• P. Henry. Diary. Orig. MS.
«Orig.MS.
« Tbe giaodiOB of tbe Tenerable John Dod, (see j»m/. p. 80»)
laying load on them as if they were as bad as the
worst? It is true that about this time the Lord
Keeper Bridgman, and Bishop Wilkins,* and the
Lord Chief Justice Hale,' were making some over-
tures towards an accommodation with them ; but it
is as true, that those overtures did but the more ex-
asperate their adversaries, who were ready to account
such moderate men the worst enemies the Church
of England had, and the event was, greater acts of
severity.
Another is this,~If all that hath been said and
written to prove that prelacy is anti-christian, and
that it is unlawful to join in the Common Prayer,
had been effectual to persuade bishops to study and
do the duty of church rulers, in preaching, and feed-
ing the flock, according to the word^ and to persuader
people to be serious, inward, and spiritual in the use
of forms, it had been much better with the church of
God in England, than it now is. Consonant to the
spirit of this remark, was that which he took all
occasions to mention as his settled principle.— In
those things wherein all the people of God are
agreed, I will spend my zeal; and wherein they
differ I will endeavour to walk according to the
light that God hath given me, and charitably believe
that others do so too.
CHAPTER VI.
HIS UBBBTT BT THB INDULOKNCB IN THB TBAft 1673, AKD
THBNCEFORWARD TU THB TBAR 1681.
Notwithstanding the severe act against conven-
ticles in the year 1670, yet the nonconformists in
London ventured to set up meetings in 1671, and
were connived at ; * but in the country (here was
little liberty taken, till the King's declaration of
March 15, 1671-2, gave countenance and encou-
ragement to it. What were the secret springs which
produced that declaration,'' time discovered ; how-
ever, it was to the poor dissenters as life from the
dead, and gave them some reviving in their bondage ;
God graciously ordering it so, that the spirit he had
made might not fail before him. But so precarious
a liberty was it, that it should never be said, those
people were hard to be pleased, who were so well
pleased with that, and thanked God, who put such
a thing into the King's heart. The tenor of that
declaration was this, — In consideration of the ineffi-
was bom in 1fil4 ; ob. 19 Nov. isrx Chalmers's Biog. Diet ▼. 32.
p. 74. &c. And see the Biog. Brit. v. L p. 637.
f Sir Matthew was bom Nov. 1. iaO0, and died 05 Dcc:i676. Sec
his Life and Works, 2 vols. oct. 1R05.
a 1671. Nov. 0. Five London ministers with the King; Dr.
Annesley, Mr. Watson, Mr. Whitaker, and the two VincenU} to
whom he said,- He was sensible of their straits, and would endea.
vour their enlargements. Amen. He said,>Ashe would not wlll-
ing>'y be persecuted himself Tor his own religion, so neither did he
like to penecute others for theirs. P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
b See it at length in Nears Hist. v. 4. p. 461, fcc. «/ wfta.
74
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
cacy of rigoar, tried for divers years, and to invite
strangers into Uie kingdom, ratifying the Establish-
ment in the Church of England, it suspends penal
laws against all nonconformists and recusants, pro-
miscth to license separate places for meetings, limit-
ing papists only to private houses.
On this Mr. Henry writes ; It is a thing diversely
resented, as men's interests lead them ; the con-
formists displeased, the presbyterians glad, the in-
dependents *" very glad, the papists triumph. The
danger is, saith he, lest the allowing of separate
places help to overthrow our parish-order, which
God hath owned, and to beget divisions and animo-
sities among us, which no honest heart but would
rather should be healed. We are put hereby, saith
he, into a trilemma, either to turn independents in
practice, or to strike in with the conformists, or to
sit down in former silence and sufferings, (and silence
he accounted one of the greatest sufferings,) till the
Lord shall open a more effectual door. That which,
he saith, he then heartily wished for, was,— That
those who were in place, would admit the sober
nonconformists to preach sometimes occasionally in
their pulpits; by which means he thought preju-
dices would in time wear off" on both sides, and they
might mutually strengthen each other's hands against
the common enemy, — the papists ;«* who he foresaw
would fish best in troubled waters. This he would
choose much rather than to keep a separate meeting.
But it could not be had. No, not so much as leave
to preach in Whitewell chapel when it was vacant,
as it often was, though it were three long miles from
the parish church. He found that some people, the
more they are courted, the more coy they are ; how-
ever, the overtures he made to this purpose, and the
slow steps he took towards the setting up of a dis-
tinct congregation, yielded him satisfaction after-
wards in the reflection, when he could say, — we
would have been united, and they would not.
It was several weeks after the declaration came
out, that he received a licence to preach, as Paul
did/ in his own house, and elsewhere, no man for-
bidding him. This was procured for him by some
of his friends in London, without his privity, and
came to him altogether unexpected.
[On the King's declaration, his papers contain
the following observations : —
All or most of the conformists have said they
could not deny us ministers, but not ministers of
the Church of England, without episcopal ordina-
tion.
By a minister of the Church of England can be
e In two things the independents are to be commended,— they
keep up discipline among them ; they love and correspond one
with another. P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
d In the debates on the Bill for unitiog His Majesty's Protestant
Subjects, Dec. 21, 1690, it was remarked, by a Member of the
lioi/Be of Commons, that the Oxford Act, and other laws against
£f/saeatcn, were much promiited by Sir ThonoB Clifford, Sir Solo-
meant no other than a minister of Christ authorized
to preach in the Church of England.
All the power' to be owned in bishops, is derived
to them from the King ; and, in those things where-
in the King hath power in church matters, in those
things we may obey the bishops, as his delegates and
substitutes.
In King James's time, when four Scotch presby-
ters were to be consecrated bishops at Lambeth, it
was moved that they might first be ordained pres-
byters again ; but it was overruled, being without
need.
In OUT case, the King immediately, without
bishops, which is the better, gives us liberty, being
already ministers of Christ, to preach in his do-
minions where he appoints.
The law calls the King patron-general of Eng-
land. His appointing me to preach, supposes I must
have hearers, and tliose, of necessity, out of some
parish or other. What we do is to serve the present
necessity, and not of choice.
There are many among us debarred by imposi-
tion from communicating with freedom in public in
the Lord's supper ; the King takes pity upon them^
authorizes one or another to give it in a way wherein
they are satisfied. And why not ? > ]
The use he made of it was, that at his own house,
what he did before to his own family, and in private,
the doors being shut for fear, he now did more pub-
licly ; threw his doors open, and welcomed his neigh-
bours to him, to partake of his spiritual things. Only
one sermon in the evening of the Lord's day, when
there was preaching at Whitewell chapel, where he
still continued his attendance with his family and
friends as usual ; but when there was not, he spent
the whole day, at public time, in the services of the
day, exposition of the Scriptures read, and preach-
ing, with prayer and praise. This he did gratis^
receiving nothing for his labours, either at home or
abroad, but the satisfaction of doing good to souls,
which was his meat and drink, with the trouble and
charge of giving entertainment to many of his friends,
which he did with much cheerfulness ; and he would
say, he sometimes thought that the bread did even
multiply in the breaking ; and he found that God
did abundantly bless his provision with that bless-
ing, which, as he used to say, will make a little to
go a gfreat way. He was wont to observe, for the
encouragement of such as had meetings in their
houses, which sometimes drew upon them inconve-
niences,— That the ark is a guest that always pays
well for its entertainment. And he noted, that when
mon Swale, and Sir Roger Strickland, who since all appeared to
be Papists. ColL of the Parliamentary Debates, from 166& ▼. L
p. 484. oct. 1741.
e See Acts xxi. 40.
f See Hooker's Eccl. Pol ^tnfm, B. VII. pp. II, \% dec.
% P. Henry. Orig. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
76
Cfariit hmd bonoiped Peter's boat to preach a sermon
oat of it, he presently repaid him for the loan, with
a $remi draught ofjuhes, Luke y. 3, 4.
Many thoughts of heart he had concerning this use
he made of the liberty, not knowing what would be in
the end hereof; but after serious consideration, and
Biany prayers, he saw his way very plain before him,
and addressed himself with all diligence to the im-
proTcment of this gale of opportunity.^ Some had
dismal apprehensions of the issue of it ; and that
tliere would be an after-reckoning. But, saith he,
let us mind our duty, and let God alone to order
events, which arc his work, not ours.
It was a word upon the wheels, which he preached
at that time for his own encouragement, and the en-
couragement of his friends, from that scripture,
Ecclesiastes xi. 4. He that observet the wind thall
not taw J mnd he that regardeth the clouds shall not
reap. Those that are minded either to do good, or
^ good, most not be frighted with seeming difficul-
ties and discouragements. Our work is to sow and
reap, to do good and get good ; and let us mind that,
and let who will mind the winds and clouds. A lion
in the way^ a lion in the streets ;' a very unlikely
place, he would say, for lions to be in ; and yet that
senres the slugged for an excuse.
[In one of his Diaries, in reference to this subject,
he thus writes: — I had occasion to discover ano-
ther of the sins which do so easily beset me, and
that is fearfalness. I am often afraid where no fear
is. Dr. Hammond observes, — In evil times it fares
best with them that are most careful about duty, and
least about safety.
To be afraid where no fear is, is sometimes the
sin of God's people, and oftentimes the punishment
of wicked men. Proverbs xxviii. l.*'
Thus diligently did he watch against evil, and
excite himself to activity in his Master's service.]
While this liberty lasted, he was in labours more
abundant; many lectures ho preached abroad in
Shropshire, Cheshire, and Denbighshire,' laying out
himself exceedingly for the good of souls, spending
and being spent in the work of the Lord. And of
that neighbourhood and of that time it was said, that
this and that man was bom again, then and there ;
and many there were who asked the way to Sion,
with their face thitherwards, and were (not prose-
lyted to a party, but) savingly brought homo to Jesus
h Opportuoity is the flower and crram ortime. All opportunity
b time, bat all time is not opportunity. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
See tbc *' Gale of Opportunity ;" a Sermon, preached at Lidbury
North, at the Funeral or the Worehipful Humphrey Walcut. or
Walcot, Esq. June S. 1650; by Thomas Froysell, Minister of the
Gospel at Clan, in Shropshire, duod. 1658.
i See the outlines of a Sermon by Mr. P. Henry on this passage,
in the Evan. Mag. v. zxii. p. 512.
k Ong^MS.
I Particularly Wrexham. In 1672 he has recorded a circum-
stance, which, while locally interesting, is illustrative or his own
character, and (kaught with ioatruction :~I said to Mn. Figes, in
Christ. I mean this ; such as had been vain, and
worldly, and careless, and mindless of God and
another world, became sober, and serious, and
concerned about their souls, and a future state.
This was the conversion of souls, aimed at, and
laboured after, and through grace not altogether in
vain.
Whatever lectures were set up in the country
round, it was still desired that Mr. Henry would
begin them, (which was thought no small encourage*
ment to those who were to carry them on,) and very
happy he was, both in the choice and management
of his subjects at such opportunities, seeking to find
out acceptable words. Take one specimen of his
address, when he began a lecture with a sermon on
Hebrews xii. 15. I assure you, saith he; and God
is my witness, I am not come to preach, either sedi-
tion against the peace of the state, or schism against
the peace of the church, by persuading you to this
or that opinion or party ; but as a minister of Christ,
that hath received mercy from the Lord, to desire to
be faithful, my errand is to exhort you to all possible
seriousness in the great business of your eternal
salvation, according to my text, which if the Lord
will make as profitable to you, as it is material and
of weight in itself, neither you nor I shall have cause
to repent our coming hither, and our being here to-
day ; looking diligently, lest any of you fail of the
g^ace of God. If it were the last sermon I were to
preach, I did not know how to take my aim better
to do you good."
In doing of this work, he often said, that he looked
upon himself but as an assistant to the parish
ministers, in promoting the common interests of
Christ's kingdom, and the common salvation of pre-
cious souls, by the explication and application of
those great truths, wherein we are all agreed. And
he would compare the case to that in Hezekiah's
time, when the Levites helped the priests to kill the
sacrifice, which was something of an irregularity,
but the exigence of affairs called for it ; the priests
being too few, and some of them not so careful as
they should have been to sanctify themselves ; (see
2 Chronicles xxix. 34.) and wherever he preached,
he usually prayed for the parish minister, and for
a blessing upon his ministry. He hath often said
how well pleased he was, when, after be had preached
a lecture at Oswestry, he went to visit the minister
my own house, speaking of the odbnce taken at the meeting-place
in Wrexham being a bam, that,— wheat in a bam is better than
chaflTin a church. Her brother. Stephen Morhal, hearing it, told
some, who told others, and it reached Dr. Fowler, who, a sabbath
or two after, look notice of it in the pulpit, and said,—" There
are some who, in the abundance of their humility, have said,
lately, that there is nothing but chaflT in churches; whereas chaff
is rather to be looked for in bams,"— or, to that purpose. Where-
by, I sec how words, innocently spoken, may be perverted ; but
I, as a deaf man, heard not ; for, 1 said, Lotd, tbou\^«U«^. V .>\^T£rs .
Diary, Orig. MS.
m Appendix, No. XV.
76
THE LIFE OF MR. PmLIP HENRY.
of the place, Mr. Edwards^'* a worthy good man,
and told him, he had been sowing a handful of seed
among his people, and had this answer,^That's well,
the Lord prosper your seed and mine too, there is
need enough of us both. And another worthy con-
formist that came privately to hear him, but was re-
primanded for it by his superiors, told him after-
wards with tears, that his heart was with him.
His heart was wonderfuUy enlarged in his work
at this time,' the fields were white unto the harvest;
and he was busy, and God did remarkably own him,
setting many seals to his ministry, which much con-
firmed him in what he did. He hath this observable
passage in his Diary, about this time, which he
recorded for his after benefit, and the example of it
may be instructive. — Remember that if trouble should
come hereafter, for what we do now in the use of
present liberty, I neither shrink from it, nor sink
under it ; for I do therein approve myself to God,
and to my own conscience, in truth and uprightness ;
and the Lord whom I serve, can and will certainly
both bear me out, and bring me off" with comfort in
the end. I say. Remember, and forget it not, this
24th day of March, 1672-3.
It was at the beginning of this liberty, that the
society at Broad Oak did commence; made up,
besides their neighbourhood, of some out of Whit-
church, and Whitchurch parish, that had been Mr.
Porter's people, some out of Hanmer parish, that
had been Mr. Steel's, and some out of the parishes
of Wem, Prees, and Ellesmere. Persons generally
of very moderate and sober principles, quiet and
peaceable lives, and hearty well-wishers to the king
and government ; and not rigid or schismatical in
their separation, but willing to attend, though some-
times with difficulty and hazard, upon those admi-
nistrations which they found most lively and edify-
ing, and most helpful to them, in the great business
of working out their salvation. To this society he
would never call himself a pastor, nor was he willing
that they should call him so ; but a helper, and a
minister of Christ for their good. He would say, —
That he looked upon his family only as his charge,
and his preaching to others was but accidental,
whom if they came, he could no more turn away,
than he could a poor hungry man, that should come
to his door for an alms. And being a minister of
Jesus Christ, he thought himself bound to preach
the gospel, as he had opportunity.
[His epistolary communications, as well as his
public preaching, bore upon this object, as is mani-
B Ejected from ChrisUeton, in Cheshire. He afterward* con<
formed. See the Noncon. Mem. ▼. 1. p. 346. «/ tupra.
o There dwelled in his parish a tanner, a very godly man, and
one that had much comroanion with my father. This man, as he
was very busie tawing or a hide with all his might, (not so much
as turning aside his head any way.) my father, coming by acci-
dentally, came behind him, and merrily gave him a little clap upon
the back; be started; and, looking behind bim suddenly, blushed.
fest from the following letter ; which also corrobo-
rates the testimony borne of him as to the poor.
The souls of such, he would say, are as precious as
the souls of the rich.
To John Beard and Jane Comberbach,
Loving Friends ;
Though the superscription be only to one of you,
yet the letter is intended to you both. God having
in his providence cast your lot to be fellow-servants
in th^ same family. I hope you are, according to
your opportunities, mutually helpful to each other
in your way to heaven ; it is a narrow way, and an
up-hill way, but it is the way to life, and few find
it, and fewer walk in it ; if God hath given you to
be of those few, he hath done that for you which
should for ever engage your hearts to him, and for
which you have gn*eat cause to be thankful, and to
say with Judas, not Iscariot, John xiv. 22. Lord,
how is it ! — I doubt not but your hands are full of
the employments of your particular calling, and it
ought to be 80,° in obedience to the will of God
appointing you to it, and that the tempter may find
you busy ; but it is a good question you should be
often putting to yourselves, — Where is the mind
now ? They only are too busy that lose God in their
business, if you abide with him, and walk with him,
and live to him, doing what you do in his name and
fear, and as in his sight, not with eye-terviee m .
men-pleaters, but in singleness of heart as to the Lord^
you may be assured you are, in Jesus Christ,
accepted of him, and shall as certainly receive the
reward of the inheritance, as any other in the world;
wherefore Encourage yourselves and one another
with these words. Let the things of the other world
be real things in your account and esteem; see
heaven and hell before you, and believe every
thought, word, and work, nowy is so much seed sown
that, according as it is, will be sure to come up
again, either in corruption, or in life etefnal. I
know not how it is with you at present, as to your
liberties for worship, but you had a day of it ; and,
were you diligent? Have you provided meat in
summer ? Did you gather food in harvest ? If aye,
bless God ; if no, reflect with grief and shame, and
make peace, and tip yet, and be doing ;^ it is no =
small measure of guilt that rises from our neglect <
of opportunities when God puts them as a price (
into our hand. I am glad to hear that you, Jane, -
have been in fellowship at the table of the Lord ; ;
— " Sir," saith he, '* I am ashamed you should find me thus.** To
whom my father said again,—" Let Christ, when he comes, find
me so doing!" " What," says the man, '• doing thus?"— •• Yei,"
saith my father to him. " faithful in the duties of my calling.**
The Tomb-stone, or. a broken and imperfect Monument, of thst
worthy Man, the Rev. John Carter, p. 15. duod. 163a
p See I Chron. xxii. v. 16. A valuable note upon the phnae
occurs in Mr. Dibdin's Akles Altborp. v. 1. p. ix.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
77
remember the tows of God that are upon you, and
also the coYenant of God there sealed with you, the
former for yonr establishment, the latter for your
eooafort. And I hope that you, John, either have
already or will speedily apply yourself to it, con-
sidering it is not privilege only, — if so, it were ano-
ther matter,— but duty, and while you live without
it, having opportunity for it, let the pretence be
that it will, — awe and reverence towards it, sense
»f your own unworthiness, or whatever else,— you
fve in a sin of omission, and that of a known duty,
I gieat doty, a sweet duty, made so by the command
•f a dear and dying Redeemer, saying,— />o this,
md, — do it in remembrance of me. We commend
lor love to you both. God everlasting be your Sun
ind Shield, Father and Friend, Part and Portion.
Amen !
So prays.
Broad Oak, Flint, Yours, in true affection,
March 24, 1074-5. Philip Henry.
For John Beard,
At Mr. Bray's House,
In Worcester .'»]
Usually once a month he administered the ordi-
nance of the Lord's supper. Some of his oppor-
tunities of that kind he sets a particular remark
upon, as sweet sealing days, on which he found it
good to draw near to God.
When, about the year's end, there was a general
expectation of the cancelling of the indulgence, he
hath this note upon a precious sabbath and sacra-
ment day, as he calls it ;— '^ Perhaps this may be the
last ; Fmtker, thy will he done ; it is good for us to
k at such uncertainties ; for now we receive our
liberty from our Father fresh every day, which is
l)est and sweetest of all."
[In the spring and summer of 1673, he preached
orer at Broad Oak, the parable of the Prodigal Son,
in about forty sermons, in which it pleased the Lord
vonderfully to assist and succeed him. Many who
sot good to their souls by those sermons, earnestly
desired the publishing of them, and he was almost
persuaded ; but his modesty proved invincible, and
it was never done.
He preached over the several articles of the new
eovenant, Hebrews viii. 10, &c. in the year 1674.
When an end was put to that gleam of liberty,
which had continned about three years, he viras
pleaching upon the parable of the barren fig-tree,
Luke xiii. 6, &c. These three years do I come seeh-
ing fruii, and observed how the word of God was
foUUIed,— though not out down, yet cut short,— >in
opportanities.
Ufe.0rig.lf5. mi
However, after a year or two, there was such a
general connivance of authority, that the meetings
grew again as full as ever, especially at Broad Oak ;
the neighbouring magistrates of Flintshire being
very civil, and not willing to give trouble to one
who was so very peaceable and obliging, — for which
he would often give thanks to God, who hath the
hearts of all men in his hands.^]
On the 3rd of March, 1676-7, being Saturday night,
the town of Wem, in Shropshire, about six miles
from him, was burnt down,* the church, market
house, and about one hundred and twenty-six dwell-
ing houses, and one man, in little more than an
bourns time, the wind being exceeding violent ; at
which time Mr. Henry was very helpful to his
friends there, both for their support under, and their
improvement of, this sad providence. It was but
about half a year before, that a threatening fire had
broke out in that town, but did little hurt; some
serious people there presently after celebrated a
thanksgiving for their deliverance, in which Mr.
Henry imparted to them a spiritual g^ft, October 3,
1676, from Zechariah iii. 2. Is not this a brand plueh-
ed out of the fire ? In the close of that sermon,
pressing them, from the consideration of that re-
markable deliverance, to personal reformation and
amendment of life ; that those who had been proud,
covetous, passionate, liars, swearers, drunkards,
sabbath-breakers, would be so no more ; and urging
Ezra ix. 13, 14. he added, — If this providence have
not this effect upon you, you may in reason expect
another fire ; for when God judgeth, he will over-
come ; and minded them of Leviticus xxvi. where
it is so often threatened against those who walk con-
trary to God, that he would punish them yet seven
times more. The remembrance of this could not but
be affecting, when, in so short a time after, the whole
town was laid in ruins. The first time he went
thither after that calamity, a neighbouring justice,
having notice of it, sent to forbid him to preach, to
his own grief, as well as to the grief of many
others, who came expecting. But, saith he in his
Diary, there was a visible sermon before us, the
ruins preaching, that sin is an evil thing, and God
a terrible God. However, a few days after he got
an opportunity of preaching to them a word in
season, which some will not forget, from Hosea vi.
l.-^Come, and let us return unto the Lord, for he
hath torn ■ ■ . And, at the return of the year,
when the town was in the re-building, he gave them
another very suitable sermon, from Proverbs iii.
33. The curse of the Lordis in the house of the wiched,
but he hlesseth the habitation of the just. Though it
be rising again, saith he in his Diary, out of its
ashes, yet the burning of it should not be forgotten,
• ^ee tbe History of Wem, by the Rev. S. Garbet, A. M. p. 283,
I fcc. Oct ISia
78
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
especially not the sin that kindled it. He often
prayed for them, that the fire might be a refining fire.
In the years 1677, 1678, and 1679, in the course
of his ministry at Broad Oak, he preached over the
Ten Commandments, and largely opened from other
texts of Scripture, the duties required, and sins
forbidden, in each commandment. For though
none delighted more than he in preaching Christ
and gospel-grace ; yet he knew that Christ came
not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to
fulfil ; and that though, through grace, we are
not under the law as a covenant, yet we are under
it as a rule; under the law to Christ. He was
very large and particular in pressing second-table
duties, as essential to Christianity. We have known
those, saith he, that have called preaching on
such subjects, good moral preaching ; but let them
call it as they will, I am sure it is necessary, and
as much now as ever. How earnestly would he
press upon the people the necessity of righteousness
and honesty in their whole conversation. A good
Christian, he used to say, will be a good husband, a
good father, and a good master, and a good subject,
and a good neighbour, and so in other relations.
How often would he urge to this purpose, that it is
the will and command of the great God, the charac-
ter of all the citizens of Sion, the beauty and orna-
ment of our Christian profession ; and the surest
way to thrive and prosper in the world. Honesty is
the best policy. He would say, that these are things
in which the children of this world are competent
judges. They that know not what belongs to faith,
and repentance and prayer, yet know what belongs
to the making of an honest bargain ; they are also
parties concerned, and oftentimes are themselves
careful in these things ; and, therefore, those who
profess religion, should walk very circumspectly,
that the name of God and his doctrine be not blas-
phemed, nor religion wounded through their sides.
[How sensible he was of the dislike frequently
felt to practical preaching, as well as of the import-
ance of such preaching, appears in the following
extract Having explained, in a course of sermons,
the Redeemer's sayings, as recorded in the fifth,
sixth, and seventh chapters of Matthew's Gospel,
he pressed, in his last discourse, the importance, the
necessity, oi doing y as well as hearing, from the divine
assurance, — that a stormy day is coming shortly,
when hearers only will be found fools, and suffer
loss ; whereas hearers and doers will be owned for
wise people, and will have the comfort of it. What
ado, he remarks, some one will object, is here
t Sincerity is all in all. It is all in all our prayers ; all in all oar
tears; all in all our services. It is all to Go<l,~that which God
accounts all. Sincerity is gospel perfection. The Dead Saint
speaking to Saints and Sinners living, by Samuel Bolton, D. D. p.
298. fol. 1657.
« P. Henrj. Orig. MS. *
•- l/e that backbites with bis toague wovnds four At once ; he
about doing ; doing ! If I had preached, he pro-
ceeds, these sermons, I know where, I ,had cer-
tainly been called a legal preacher, if not a papist,
a Jesuit, a preacher of works ; and some would have
said, we will never hear him again. If to preach
on these things be legal preaching, then our Lord
himself was a legal preacher, for you see they were
hit sayings all along that I took for my text to each
sermon. Such a preacher as he was, may I be, in
my poor measure. I cannot write after a better
copy. I cannot tread in better steps. His sayings
must be done, as well as heard, that we may answer
his end in saying them, which was to promote holi-
ness,— that we may approve ourselves his true kin-
dred,~that God may be gIorified,-^that our profes-
sion may be beautified, — and that our building may
stand. But they must be done aright. The tree
must be good. All must be done by faith, and in
the name of the Lord Jesus. Hebrews xi. 6. Colos-
sians iii. 17. — ^with evenness and constancy, — with
humility and 8elf-denial,-~in charity, — and with
perseverance, and continuance.
Do all you do as those who are under a covenant
of grace, which, though it requires perfect, yet ac-
cepts of sincere, obedience.^ While the hand is
doing, let the eye be looking at Jesus Christ, both
for assistance and acceptance. This is the life of
faith. Be resolved in duty. Look often at the re-
compence of reward. ■
Thus he preached, and his constant practice was
a comment upon it. One thing I remember, he was
more than ordinarily enlarged in the pressing of,
which was, — ^uponthe ninth commandment, — to speak
evil of no man, from Titus iii. 2. If we can say no
good of persons, we must say nothing of them. He
gave it as a rule. — Never to speak of any one's faults
to others, till we have first spoken of them to the
offender himself. He was himself an eminent ex<-
ample of this rule. Some that have conversed much
with him, have said. That they never heard him
speak evil of any body ; nor could he bear to hear
any spoken evil of, but often drove away a back-
biting tongue with an angry countenance.'' He
was known to be as faithful a patron of offenders
before others, as he was a faithful reprover of them
to themselves.
Whenever he preached of moral duties, he would
always have something of Christ in his sermon ;
either his life, as the great pattern of the duty, or
his love, as the great motive to it ; or his merit, as
making atonement for the neglect of it.
[Thus, in pressing moral duties, he observed that,
wounds the good name of his neighbour, which is dearer to him
than the apple or his eye ; he wounds the name of God, religion
suffers, when tliose who profess it thus backbite each other ; he
wounds his own soul, brings the guilt of a great sin upon his own
soul, which he must certainly answer for ; he wounds love in him
that hears it, so that the esteem of his brother is lessened.^ P.
Henry. Mrs. Savage^sBIS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
m
.To an acceptable act of obedience, it is necessary
lat the principle be right, which is a habit of true
race in the heart. There must also be a knowledge
r, and respect to, the will of God, as well as free-
9m, cheerfulness, and delight in doing it, in oppo-
tion to forced obedience. We are not to be haled
) duty as a bear to a stake ; but we are to do it
>lnntarily and pleasantly. There must also be
ith * in Jesus Christ, both for strength to do, and
r acceptance when we have done. And, withal,
single eye to God's glory.*
With a view to chronological arrangement, the
irrative may be here interrupted by the introduo-
»n of the following epistle.
I have lately met, remarks Mr. Henry's biographer,
ith a letter of his to a couple related to him, who,
I a Tery short time, had buried all their children
!* the small-pox to their great grief ; it was in the
^ar 1679. What comfort and counsels he adminis-
led to them, may be of use to others in their afflic-
ons, and, therefore, I shall .transcribe the whole
tter, though it be long.
Dear Cousins ;
This is to you both, whom God hath made one in
le conjugal relation, and who are also one in the
resent aflliction ; only to signify to you that we do
eartily sympathize with you in it. The trial is, in-
eed, sharp, and there will be need of all the wisdom
nd grace you have, and of all the help of friends
9n can get, both to bear, and to improve, it aright.
on must bear it with silence and submission. Surety
is meet to be taid unto God, I have borne chastise-
eui. He is Sovereign Lord of all, and may do with
s, and ours, as pleaseth him. It is not for the clay to
aannel with the potter. It was a mercy you had chil-
ren, and comfort with them so long ; it is a mercy
tal yet you have one another,' and your children are
(rt lost, but gone before, a little before, whither you
Minelves are hastening after. And if a storm be
ming, (as God grant it be not,) it is best with
lem that first put into the harbour. Your children
re taken away from the evil to come, and you must
It moum as they that have no hope. Sensible you
innot but be, but dejected and sullen you must
It be ; that will but put more bitterness into the
ip/ and make way for another, perhaps a sharper,
loke. You must not think, and I hope yon do not,
lat there cannot be a sharper stroke ; for God hath
lany arrows in his quiver ; he can heat the furnace
w Look, what oyle is to the wheels, what weights are to the
odt, wtiat wiDp are to the bird, what saSls are to the ship,—
at/mtk U to an religious duties and services. HeaTen on Earth,
r Tbomas Brooks, duod. 16&7. p. 342.
« P. Henry. Orig. lf&
f V God should have riven the tree asunder, I meane, severed
m one IhMi another, it must have been taken thankAiUy ; but,
och more, when be leaveth the tree, and taketh but the fhiit
tyacs's Ctviillaii Lettert, ut iwpra, p. 137.
seven times hotter, and again, and ag^in, seven
times hotter, till he hath consumed us ; and if he
should do so, yet still we must say, he hath punished
us less than our iniquities have deserved. For exam-
ples of patience in the like kind, we have twoeminent
ones in the book of God, those are Job and Aaron ; of
the latter it is said, Leviticus x. 3. He held his peace ;
and that which quieted him, was what his brother
Moses said to him,— TAt^ is that which the Lord hath
said, I will be sanctified ; and if God be sanctified,
Aaron is satisfied ; if God have glory from it, Aaron
hath nothing to say against it. Of the former it is
said. Job i. 20, he fell down, but it was to worship ;
and we are told how he expressed himself, The Lord
gave, Sfc. He acknowledgeth God in all : and, in-
deed, after all, this is it (my dear cousins) that you
must satisfy yourselves with under the sad provi-
dence, that the Lord hath done it, and the same will
that ordered the thing itself' ordered all the circum-
stances of it ; and who are we that we should dis-
pute with our Maker? Let the potsherds strive with
the potsherds of the earth, but let not the thing form"
ed say to him that formed it, — Why hast thou made
me thus ? And as for the improvement of this afilic^
tion, (which, I hope, both of you earnestly desire,
for it is a great loss to lose such a providence, and
not to be made better by it,) I conceive there are
four lessons which it should teach you ; and they
are good lessons, and should be well learned, for the
advantage of them is unspeakable. 1. It should for
ever imbitter sin to you ; you know what she said to
the prophet, 1 Kings xvii. 18. Art thou come to call
my sins to remembrance, and to slay my son ? It is
sin, sin that is the old kill-friend, the Jonah that hath
raised this storm, the Achan that hath troubled your
house ; then how should you grow in your hatred of
it, and endeavours against it, that you may be the
death of that which hath been the death of your dear
children ? I say the death of it, for nothing less will
satisfy the true penitent, than the death of such a
malefactor. 2. It should be a spur * to you, to put
you on in heaven's way ; it may be you were growing
amiss in duty, beginning to slack your former pace
in religion, and your heavenly Father saw it, and
was grieved at it, and sent this sad providence to be
your monitor, to tell you, you should remember
whence you are fallen, and do your first works, and
be more humble, and holy, and heavenly, self-deny-
ing, and watchful, abounding always in the work of
the Lord. Oh, blessed are they that come out of
I The will of God's purpose is the rule or all his actions; the
will of his precept is the rule of all our acUons. P. Henry.
Orig.MS.
a Therefore, sickness, weepings, sorrow, mourning, and, in con.
elusion, all adveisities, be unto us as ipmrM ; with the which, we
being dull horses, or, rather, very asses, are forced not to remain
long in this transitory way. A Meditation toucbitk% K^'^txAX^^
made by Lady Mary's Gtace, \54a. S\iypt*% lSj«ift\. >^wBuN . "i. ^.
552. oct ed. 1822.
%0
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
sucb a faraace thus refined ; they will say hereafter,
it was a happy day for them that ever they were put
in. 3. You must learn by it, as long^ as you live, io
keep your affections in due bounds towards creature-
comforts. How hard is it to love, and not to over
love ; to delight in children, or yoke-fellows, and
not over delight; now God is a jealous God, and
will not give his glory to any other ; and our access
this way doth often provoke him to remove that
mercy from us, which we do thus make an idol of ;
and our duty is to labour, when he doth so, to get that
matter amended, and to rejoice in all our enjoyments
with trembling, and as if we rejoiced not. 4. It
should be a means of drawing your hearts and
thoughts more upwards and homewards ; 1 mean your
everlasting home. You should be looking oftener now
than before into the other world. / shall go to him,
saith David, when his little son was gone before. It
is yet but a little while ere all the things of time
shall be swallowed up in eternity. And the matter
is not gpreat whether we or ours die first, while we
are all dying ; in the midst of life we are in death :—
What manner of persons then ought we to be !^ Now
our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our
Father, be your support under, and do you good by,
this dispensation, and give yon a name better than
that of sons and daughters. We are daily mindful
of you at the throne of g^race, in our poor measure,
and dearly recommended to you, &c.^
In answer to the inquiry,— How are we to glorify
God in our afflictions ? he replied, Own and ac-
knowledge sin to be tlie cause, and give glory to
God. Own him as the author of your sufferings ;
acknowledge the mercies left, with all thankfulness.
See what has been amiss, and when you have found
it, turn again unto the Lord.^ Glorify him by
patience, and quietness, and cheerful submission
unto his will— Ply the throne of grace. Believe,
and wait for a good issue. Hold fast your in-
tegrity.*
On another occasion it being asked,— When are
we inordinately dejected and disquieted under
afflicting providences? he answered, — ^When we
grieve beyond the nature of the thing for which we
grieve. When we are wearied and faint in our
b 2 Peter iii. IL It it a word of admiration.— What manDer of
holiDeas should we \ue,— looking /or Mdkasttmiig mttto tho eoming of
iki dag of th§ Lord ; that is, despatching and doing all for our lives
against that day. Our lives should, as it were, be in a hurry after
the day of judgment, as those that are to remove at quarter day,
they hasten to do all against the time. Dr. Goodwin. Works, v. 5.
30. fol. 1704.
e Transposed firom p. 177. Life. 3d. edit
« Get repentance by an affliction, and then you may look on
It as traffic, and not as a trouble, like a merchant's voyage, which
hath pain in the way, but treasure in the end. No afflictions can
hurt him that is penitent Bishop Reynolds on Hosea. Works,
p. 732. ut njna.
* P. Henry, from Mr& Savage's MS.
r/b/d.
minds. When we grieve as those that have no hope.
When we are unfitted for the duties of our calling.
When we are hindered from worshipping and rejoic-
ing in God. When our grief exceeds bounds, — in
continuing too long. 1 Samuel xvi. 1.^
In the year 1680 he preached over the doctrines
of faith and repentance from several texts of Scrip-
ture. He used to say, that he had been told con-
cerning the famous Mr. Dod,^ that some called him
in scorn, faith and repentance ; because he insisted
so much upon those two,** in all his preaching.
But, saith he, if this be to be vile, I will be yet
more vile ; for faith and repentance are all in all in
Christianity.
[Illustrating the nature of faith, he would observe
that, — ^We must take hold of Christ, as a man that
is sinking in deep waters takes hold of a bough, or
cord, or plank. We must see him to be the only
way, and rest on him accordingly. We must see
ourselves pursued by the justice of God, and sec
him to be the only altar. As the guilty malefactor
took hold of the city of refuge. As a besieged gar-
rison takes hold of terms when offered. As a man
takes hold of an arm that is going to strike him,
so must we resort to and accept of Christ. Plainly
thus ; there are three things in believing, — The sight
and sense of our sin and misery,~Assent to the
testimony given in the word concerning Christ, be-
lieving that though I am a great sinner, yet he is a
great Saviour,~Application of him to ourselves,
consenting to take him to be ours, and we to be
his,— -to be ruled by him, and saved by him.*]
Concerning repentance he hath sometimes said,
If I were to die in the pulpit, I would desire to die
preaching repentance ; as if I die out of the pulpit, I
would desire to die practising repentance : And he
had often this saying concerning repentance. He that
repents every day, for the sins of every day,* when
he comes to die, will have the sins but of one day to
repent of.* Even reckonings make long friends.
[Speaking of Luke xxii. 62. concerning Peter, he
would say, — Peter's sin is recorded for our admo-
nition, his repentance for our imitation.*"]
[On this Christian duty he further remarks. It is
not required to make us precious to Christ, but to
make Christ precious to us, and when it does that,
ff Nat. 1540. Ob. 1645. et. 96. Ctaric*s LiTes, annexed to his
Martyrologie. p. 166, kc. ut ntpra.
h Mr. Hieron, noticing his own preaching, thus expressed him-
self. *' I have but two things to teach ; faith towards Ood, and a
holy life. In one of these two I must still insist." Woits. p.
333. foL 16M.
i From Mrs. Savage's MS.
k The dailiness of sin must be bewailed with the dailinea of
sorrow. Bishop Taylor. Cited in his Life prefixed to Bishop
Heber's edition of his Works p. clvii. «/ $uprm.
1 Sayth Seint Augustine, penance of good and humble folk
si the penance of every day. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales^
by T. Tyrwhitt, Esq. vol. a. p. 383. 4to. 179& The Personcs
Tale.
n Diary, Orlg. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
81
then are we hnmbled to divine acceptation, though
not to divine satisfaction. Sorrow is sin's echo, but
as the echo answers the voice best where there are
broken walls and ruined buildings to return it, so
does sorrow when reverberated by a broken ruined
heart. That eye weeps most which looks oftenest
on the Sun of Righteousness." Thongh we cannot
wash in innocency, yet we must wash in penitency.^
The ingredients of true repentance are, — hearty
sorrow, particular confession, faith in Christ, and
general amendment^ When we set our sins before
our faces in repentance and confession, God casts
them behind his back in pardon and remission ; but
if we carelessly cast them behind our back, God
justly sets them before his face.^i]
That year also, and the year 1681, he preached
over the duties of hearing the word and prayer ; of
the former, from the parable of the four sorts of
gronnd ; of the latter, from Luke xi. 1, &c. when he
preached over the Lord's Prayer in aboTC thirty
excellent and elaborate discourses. He looked
«pon the Lord's Prayer to be not only a directory or
pattern' for prayer, but, according to the advice of
the Assembly of Divines, proper to be used as a
form f and, accordingly, he often used it both in
public and in his family. And as he thought it
was an error on the one hand to lay so much stress
upon it as some do, who think no solemn prayer
accepted, nor any solemn ordinance or administra-
tion of worship complete, without it, and so repeat it
five or six times, and perhaps oftener, at one meeting ;
so he thought it an error on the other hand not to use
it at all ; since it is a prayer, a compendious, com-
prehensive prayer, and may be of use to us, at least
as other'^ripture prayers ; but he thought it a much
greater error to be angry at those who do use it, to
judge and censure them, and for no other reason to
conceive prejudices against them and their ministry.
A great strait, saith he^ poor ministers are in, when
some will not hear them, if they do not use the
Lord's Prayer, and others will not hear them if they
do.' What is to be done in this case? We must
walk according to the light we have, and approve
ourselves to God, either in using or not using it,
and wait for the day when God will end the matter ;
which I hope he will do in his own due time.
He vras in the close of his exposition of the
Lord's Prayer, when a dark cloud was brought upon
B P. Henry. Com. PI. Book. Orig. MS.
• P. Henty. Mem. of Mrs. Savage, uinpra. p. 317.
P P. Henry. Orig. MS.
^ P. Henry. Life of Lieut IlUdge. by Matt. Henry. Misc. Works,
vid. p0$L
T See '* A Guide to goe to God, or an explanation of the perfect
Pattemc of Prayer, the Lord's Prayer," by [Dr.] W. Gouge. 4to.
1«36.
■ See the Larger Catechism argued upon by the Assembly of
Divines. 4to. 187. And their Directory Tor public worship, ed.
1793. p. 539.
t See Letters to and from Dr. Doddridge, published by Mr. Sted- I
o
his assemblies, and he was necessitated to contract
his sails.
[In the year 1G80, his son and biographer, Mr.
Matthew Henry, having nearly completed his
eighteenth year, was conducted to London, together
with his relation and friend, Mr. Robert Bosier, and
placed under the care of that '* holy, faithful
minister, Mr. Thomas Doolittle, who then lived at
Islington.''" This event gave rise to the following
letters :
From the Rev, Philip Henry, to Mr, Matthew Henry,
My Dear Child ;
Your letter to me I received, and your mother
also hers. In the former, an account of your being
busy, at which we were glad ; in the latter, of your
being not well, and that troubles us ; but we are in
hope, that this night's post will bring us better
tidings. However, we desire to acquiesce in the
will of God, in whose hand our timet are, and at
whose disposal are all our ways ; who doth always
that which is just and righteous, always that which
is best to those who love him. I am at Boreatton,
where I expected your mother this morning, as we
appointed, but, instead of coming herself, she sends
Roger with your two letters, and her desire to me to
answer them from hence by way of Shrewsbury.
They are all well, blessed be God, both there and
here. My Lord Paget intended to have gone from
hence to-morrow, which hastened me hither a week
sooner than I expected, and caused a failure at home
yesterday, no chapel-day ; but his stay, now, is till
next week. I am comforted, that you acknowledge
God in your distemper, and are prepared to receive,
with patience, what he appoints. The two last sub-
jects we were upon when you left Broad Oak, — faith
and repentance,— I hope were made profitable to
you. He that truly repents of sin, and truly believes
in the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing can come amiss to
him ; things present are his, things to come are his ;
life, death ; this world, and the other world. Though
you are at a distance from us, you are near to him,
who, according to his promise, is a present help, to
those that fear him, in every time of need. Our poor
prayers for you, you may be sure, are not, shall not,
be wanting,— that, if the Lord please, you may have
health to ply the work you came about, that you
man. pp, 14. 15. and Dr. Doddridge's Exposition on Luke xi. 1, 13.
n.d.
« Life of Matt Henry, p. 2S. «/ npra. Itmay be thought, indeedt
that he who taught his daughter Hebrew at seven years of age, had
little occasion to send his son from under the paternal roof, in
order to prepare him for the church; but Philip Henry was • pub-
lic spirited man, and he found that bis (Vequent labours in the
ministry were incompatible with the constant attentions whicn
education indispensably requires. Hist of Dissenters, v. 2. p. 291.
A list of Mr. Doolittle's pupiht may be seen inDT.TQM\TSiLVcC%>\\LV
torical View.p. 584.
?2
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
may serve the will of God in your generation ; if
otherwise, that you may be satisfied in what he doth ;
and so we, by his grace, shall endeavour to be also.
Commend us to Mr. Doolittel, and his wife, whose
tender love to you, and care concerning you, we
shall always acknowledge with all thankfulness;
also to Cousin Robert,"" who, I know, will help to
bear your burthen. The Lord Almighty bless yon,
my dear child, and cause his face to shine upon you,
and send us good news in your next concerning you.
Amen. This, from
Your loving father,
Aug. 16, 1680. P. H.'
From the Rev, Philip Henry , to Mr, Robert Rosier,
August 28, 1680.
Dear Cousin ;
I received yours, of August 24 ; the former part
whereof, which was concerning yourself, gave cause
for a great deal of joy and thankfulness to our good
God, that you are so well pleased in your present
circumstances of improvement ; and, I hope, will
be so more and more. I like it well, that you are
put upon the exercise of your gifts, which is the
ready way to increase, and add to them ; for, to him
that hath, shall be given, and he shall have more abun-
dantly ; and, I doubt not, but, if you set about it,
in the strength of the divine grace, and not in your
own strength, you will find that grace both ready to
you, and suflRcient for you. Your Concordance I
forbear to send till I hear from you again. Notes
upon the Galatians, &c. I have none yet, else you
should have them. Strive not to be large, but con-
cise, and close, and substantial, wherein, here, yon
wanted an example. I pray, be careful, in a special
manner, about secret communion ; for, you know,
as that is kept up, or falls, accordingly the soul pros-
pers. Do not over-tire yourself with study, especi-
ally by candle ; fair and softly goes far. Though
you do well to bewail your loss of precious time,
yet, blessed be God for what you have redeemed ;
and, though it is true, as things are with you, now is
your time, if ever, to be busy ; yet health and strength
must be considered, and nothing done to over-drive.
The latter part of your letter, which was concern-
ing Matthew, gave us some trouble, yet I thank
you that you were so large and particular in it.
We have freely yielded him up, and our interest in
liim, as well as we can, to our Heavenly Father;
and his will be done ! I have written to him, as you
will see, — if he be willing and able, and there be
cause, with advice of friends, — to hasten home ; and,
if he must so leave you, it will be an instance, — ^that
man purposes, but God disposes.
Present my dear love and respects to Mr. Doolit-
Bobert Boater
Oriff. MS.
tel, and to his wife, to whom I am much obliged for
their kindness, which I shall ever acknowledge,
whatever the event be. Fail not to write as there
may be occasion. Here is room only to tell you, that
we are all remembered to you ; and, particularly,
that I am,
Your true friend,
P. H.
This was intended for the superscription, but
the paper being thin, I chose to enclose it. My
two last sabbaths' absence hence, so quickly after
the former three, at London, though I designed it
not, hath caused reports, as if we had quite done,
but I hope it is not so. To-morrow, God willing, we
shall set the plough in again, begging of God, that
late intermissions may quicken desires, and make
the word so much the sweeter. Concerning Matthew
I know not what to say more than I have said. The
Lord prepare and fit us for evil tidings ! I will not
say, our life is bound up in the life of the lad, but
much of the comfort of our life is ; and yet. Father,
thy will be done ! Our cisterns may, and will, dry
up, first or last, but our Fountain remains for ever."]
CHAPTER VII.
THB REBUKES HE LAY UNDER, AT BROAD OAK; BETWEEN THE
TEARS 18S0 AND 1687.
In the beginning of the year 1681, in April and May,
the country was greatly afflicted and threatened by
an extreme drought ; there was no rain for several
weeks, the grass failed. Com, that was sown, lan-
guished ; and much that was intended to be sown,
could not. The like had not been known for many
years. It was generally apprehended that a dearth
would ensue, especially in that country, which is for
the most part dry. And now it was time to seeh the
Lord ; and, according to hts own appointment, to
ash of him rain in the season thereof. Several serious
thinking people being together at the funeral of that
worthy minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. Maiden, it was
there said, how requisite it was that there should be
some time set apart on purpose for fasting and
prayer, in a solemn assembly, upon this occasion.
Thomas MilUngton, of Weston, in Hodnet Parish,
in Shropshire, desired it might be at his house ; and
Tuesday, June 14, was Uie day pitched upon.
The connivance of authority was presumed upon,
because no disturbance of meetings was heard of
at London, or any where else. Mr. Henry was de-
sired to come and give his assistance at that day\s
work. He asked upon what terms they stood with
their neighbouring justices, and it was answered, —
" Well enough." The drought continuing in extre-
mity, some that had not used to come to such meet-
X Orig. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
83
ings, yet came thither, upon the apprehensions they
had of the threatening judgment which the country
was under. Mr. Edward Bury,* of Bolas, well
known by several useful books he hath published,
prayed ; Mr. Henry prayed, and preached on Psalm
Ixvi. 18. — If I regard iniqmty in my heart, the
Lord will not hear me; whence his doctrine was,
•That iniquity, regarded in the heart, will cer-
tainly spoil the success of prayer. When he was
in the midst of his sermon, closely appljdng this
truth, SirT. V.»» of Hodnet, and Mr. M.« of Ightfield,
two justices of the peace for Shropshire, with seve-
ral others of their retinue, came suddenly upon them ;
disturbed them, set guards upon the house door, and
came in themselves, severely rallied all they knew,
reflected upon the late Honourable House of Com-
mons, and the vote they passed concerning the pre-
sent nnseasonableness of putting the laws in execu-
tion against Protestant Dissenters, as if, in so voting,
they had acted beyond their sphere, as they did who
took away the life of King Charles the First They
diverted themselves with very abusive and unbe-
coming talk; swearing, and cursing, and reviling
bitterly. Being told the occasion of the meeting was
to seek to turn away the anger of God from us in
the present drought, it was answered; — "Such
meetings as these were the cause of God's anger.''
While they were thus entertaining themselves, their
clerks took the names of those that were present, in
all, about one hundred and fifty, and so dismissed
them for the present. Mr. Henry hath noted, in the
account he kept of this event, that the justices came
to this good work from the ale-house upon Frees
Heath, about two miles off : to which, and the bowl-
ing-green adjoining, they, with other justices, gen-
tlemen, and clergymen, of the neighbourhood, had
long before obliged themselves to come every Tues-
day, during the sunmier time, under the penalty of
twelve-pence a time if they were absent ; and there
to spend the day in drinking and bowling ; which is
thought to be as direct a violation of the law of the
land ; viz, the Statute of ddd Henry YIII. cap. 9.
" for debarring unlawful games,'' which was never
fet repealed, as the meeting was of the Statute
vf 22d Car. II. ; and, as much more to the dis-
boDOur of God, and the scandal of the Christian
l»fofession, as cursing, and swearing, and drunken-
ness, are worse thah praying, and singing psalms,
ind bearing the word of God.'' It is supposed the
iostiees knew of the meeting before, and might have
• 1700. Friday. May U). This week, old Mr. Bury, of Bolas, in
>lvofiriiire, was tniried, an aged nonconrormist, some time a fellow-
iaboorcr and sufTerer with my dear father, now gone to his reward ;
—few left of the old generation. Lord, pour out of thy Spirit on
aur fom and our daughters ! Mrs. Savage's Diary. Orig. MS. Mr.
Bury was bom A. D. 1616. He died May 5, 1700. Noncon. Mem.
V 3.p 141, 4cc.
k Sir Thomas Vernon. Orig. MS. P. Henry.
c Charles MUnwariDg, Esq. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
o 2
I
prevented it by the least intimation ; but they were
willing to take the opportunity of making sport to
themselves, and trouble to their neighbours. After
the feat done, they returned back to the ale-house,
and made themselves and their companions merry
with calling over the names they had taken, making
their reflections as they saw cause, and recounting
the particulars of the exploit. There was one of the
company, whose wife happened to be present at the
meeting, and her name taken among the rest ; with
which upbraiding him, he answered, that she had
been better employed than he was, and if Mr. Henry
might be admitted to preach in a church, he would
go a great many miles to hear him. For which
words he was forthwith expelled their company, and
never more to show his face again at that bowling-
green ; to which he replied, — ^if they had so ordered
long ago, it had been a great deal the better for him
and his family. Two days after they met again at
Hodnet, where, upon the oath of two witnesses, who,
as was supposed, were sent on purpose to inform,
they signed and sealed two records of conviction.
By one record, they convicted the master of the
house, and fined him £20, and £5 more as constable
of the town that year ; and, with him, all the persons
present, whose names they had taken, and fined
them 6s» a piece, and issued out warrants according-
ly. By another record, they convicted the two mi-
nisters, Mr. Bury and Mr. Henry. The Act makes
it only punishable to preach, or teach, in any such
conventicle; and yet they fined Mr. Bury £20,
though he only prayed, and did not speak one word
in the way either of preaching or teaching, not so
much as, — " Let us pray ;" however, they said,
'^ Praying was teaching ;*'« and, right or wrong, he
must be fined ; though his great piety, peaceable-
ness, and usefulness, besides his deep poverty, one
would think, might have pleaded for him, against
so palpable a piece of injustice. They took £7 oil'
from him, and laid it upon others, as they saw cause ;
and, for the remaining £13, he being utterly unable
to pay it, they took from him, by distress, the bed
which he lay upon, with blanket and rug; also,
another feather-bed, nineteen pair of sheets, most
of them new ; of which he could not prevail to have
so much as one pair returned for him to lie in ; also,
books, to the value of £5, besides brass and pewter.
And, though he was at this time perfectly innocent
of that heinous crime of preaching and teaching,
with which he was charged, (for so the record runs
i See Baxter's Eng. Noncon. p. 183. 4to. 1090.
• In the case of Robert Collins, A. M. it was 'contended, that
'* presbyteriao preaching and praying was all one; for they, in
their prayers, would undertake to teach Almighty God." Tlie
counsel for the prosecutor prayed the bench to call for a diction-
ary, and said, *' There they would find, that prgedicare and orare
were the same." See the Noncon. Mem. \ . %, v"*^- ^^ wv^a. ^^va^
V 3. p. 151.
84
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
again and again, concerning Mr. Henry and Mr.
Bury, Quod ad tunc et ibidem precaverunt, pre-
dieaverunt et docuerunt,) yet he had no way to
right himself, but by appealing to the justices them-
selves in quarter sessions, who would be sure to
affirm their own decree, as the justices in Montgo-
meryshire had done not long before in a like case,
especially when it was to recover to themselves
treble costs. So the good man sat down with his
loss, and took joyfully the spoiling of his goods ;
knowing in himself, that he had, tit heaven^ a better
and a more enduring substance.
But Mr. Henry being the g^atest criminal,' and
having done the most mischief, must needs be ani-
madverted upon accordingly; and, therefore he
was fined £40 ; the pretence of which was this : In
the year 1679, October 16, Mr. Kynaston, of Oatly,
a justice of peace in Shropshire, meeting him and
some others coming, as he supposed, from a con-
venticle, he was pleased to record their conviction,
upon the notorious evidence and circumstances of
the fact. The record was filed at Salop the next
sessions after, but no notice was ever sent of it,
either to Mr. Henry, or the justices of Flintshire;
nor any prosecution upon it, against any of the
parties charged ; (the reason of which, Mr. Henry,
in a narrative B he wrote of this affair, supposeth to
be not only the then favourable posture of public
affiairs towards dissenters, but also the particular
prudence and lenity of Mr. Kynaston;) so that,
having never smarted for this, he could not be sup-
posed to be deterred from the like offence ; nor, if
he were wronged in that first conviction, had he ever
any opportunity of making his appeal. However,
the justices being resolved he should have summum
juSf thought that first record sufficient to give deno-
mination to a second offence, and so he came to be
fined double. This conviction, according to the
direction of the Act, they certified to the next ad-
joining justices of Flintshire, who had all along
carried themselves with great temper and modera-
tion towards Mr. Henry, and had never given him
any disturbance ; though, if they had been so
minded, they had not wanted opportunities; but
they were now neccjisitated to execute the sentences
of the Shropshire justices. It was much pressed
upon him to pay the fine, which might prevent his
own loss and the justices' trouble. But he was not
willing to do it, partly, because he would g^ve no
f See an Account of the Rev. John Baily. Mather's History of
New England, book iii. p. 333 ; and Middleton*8 Biog. Evang. v.
4. p. 103. oct. 1786.
r This MS. Is entitled, *• An Account of the Proceedings
against the Rct. Philip Henry, and others, for Preaching and
Praying in the House of Mr. Thomas MiUington, of Weston, in the
I'arish of Hodnet. in the County of Salop, in the reign of Charles
II. in the year I68L** It is in the hand-writing of Mr. Henry, and
ifomemed by Mr. Witton.
-ft TA/s refusal is thought and termed contempt, stubbornness.
encouragement to such prosecutions, nor volunta-
rily reward the informers for that which he thought
they should rather be punished for; and partly
because he thought himself vrronged in the doubling
of the fine.** Whereupon his goods were distrained
upon, and carried away ; in the doing of which
many passages occurred which might be worth the
noting, but, that the repetition of them would
perhaps grate, and give offence to some, lict it
therefore suffice, waving the circumstances, to
remember only that their warrant, not giving them
authority to break open doors, nor their watchful-
ness getting them an opportunity to enter the house,
they carried away about thirty-three cart-loads of
goods without doors, com cut upon the ground, hay,
coals, &c. This made a great noise in the country,
and raised the indignation of many against the
decrees which prescribed this grievousness ; while
Mr. Henry bore it with his usual evenness and
serenity of mind, not at all moved or disturbed by
it. He did not boast of his sufferings, or make any
great matter of them ; but would often say, — Alas,
this is nothing to what others suffer, nor to what we
ourselves may suffer before we die! And yet he
rejoiced, and blessed God tliat it was not for debt,
or for evil doing, that his goods were carried away.
— And, saith he, while it is for well doing that we
suffer, they cannot harm us. Thus he vnites in his
Diary upon it ;~How oft have we said that changes
are at the door ; but, blessed be God, there is no
sting in this ! He frequently expressed the assur-
ance he had, that, whatever damage he sustained,
— God is able to make it up again. And, as he used
to say, — Though we may be losers/or Christ, yet we
shall not be losers by him in the end. He had often
said, that his preaching was likely to do the most
good, when it was sealed to by suffering ; and, if
this be the time, saith he, welcome the will of God ;
even this also shall turn to the furtherance of the
gospel of Christ Bene agere et male pati vere
Christianum est}
Soon after this, was the assizes for Flintshire,
held at Mold, where Sir George Jeffries,^ after-
wards Lord Chancellor, then Chief Justice of Ches-
ter, sat Judge. He did not, in private conversation,
seem to applaud what was done in this matter, so as
was expected ; whether out of a private pique against
some that had been active in it, or for what other
reason is not known ; but it was said, he pleasantly
and what not. But let Ood and |he world judge. It Is supposed
the easier they come by the fines, the likelier they will be to come
again. Besides, as yet, the general practice of good people
throughout the nation is to refuse payment, and to suffer distress,
though it be found, for the most part, to inflame the reclconing.
P. Henry. Orig. MS.
i Appendix, No. XVI. See 1 Pet il. 30.
k See Granger's Biog. Hist. v. 3. p. 368, and the Life of Lord
North, 4to. 1742. p. 209, &c.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
86
asked some of tlie gentlemen, by what new law they
pressed carts, as they passed upon their occasions
along the road, to carry away goods distrained for
a cooTentiele ? It was also said, that he spoke with
lome respect of Mr. Henry ; saying, he Jcnew him,
and his character, well, and that he was a great friend
of his mother's, (Mrs. Jeffries of Acton, near Wrex-
kam, a very pious, good woman,) and that some-
times, at his mother's request, Mr. Henry had ex-
amined him in his learning, when he was a school-
boy, and had commended his proficiency. And it
was much wondered at hy many, that, of all the
times Sir George Jeffries went that circuit, though
it is well enough known what was his temper, and
what the temper of that time, yet he never sought
aoy occasion ag^nst Mr. Henry, nor took the occa-
sions that were offered, nor countenanced any trou-
ble intended him, though he was the only noncon-
fonnist in Flintshire. One passage I remember, not
improper to be mentioned ; there had been an agree-
ment among some ministers, (I think it began in the
West of England, where Mr. Allen * was,) to spend
some time, either in secret, or in their families, or
both, between six and eight o'clock every Monday
morning. In prayer for the church of God, and for
the land and nation, more fully and particularly
than at other times, and to make that their special
errand at the throne of grace ; and to engage as
many of their praying friends as ever they could
to the observance of it. This had been communi-
cated to Mr. Henry, by some of his friends at
London, and he punctually observed it in his own
practice, I believe, for many years. He alsd men-
tioned it to some of his acquaintance, who did in
Gke manner observe it. It happened that one in
Denbighshire,*" to whom he had communicated it,
was so well pleased with it, that he wrote a letter of
it to a friend of his at a distance ; which letter hap-
pened to fall into hands that perverted it, and made
information upon it, against the writer and receiver
of the letter, who were bound over to the Assizes,
and great suspicions Sir George Jeffries had, that
it was a branch of the presbyterian plot," and rallied
the parties accused severely.
It appeared, either by the letter, or by the con-
fesnon of the parties, that they received the project
firom Mr. Henry, which, it was greatly feared, would
bring him into trouble ; but Sir George, to the ad-
miration of many, let it fall,° and never inquired
farther into it. It seems, there are some men, whose
I The Rev. Joseph AUeine. Nat. 1633 ; ob. Nov. 1688. See his
Life and Lettets, duod. 1671 ; lately reprinted.
■ Mr. AmtmM Lewid. BfS. See mif , p. 29.
A See Baxter Reliq: part Ui. p. I8ff, &c. Various curious pam-
phlets were originated by the accusation ; particulariy the Horrid
bio of Maa^atcMiHr, the Second Part, 4to. I68i : and *' No Pro-
testant Plot. inThfve Parts,'* 4to. 1681, 1688.
• At the same time, be (the judge) caused Blr. Ambrose Lewis,
us old school-BBBflter at Wrexham, in Denbighshire, a worthy
ways 90 please the Lord, that he makes even their
enemies to he at peace with them ; and there is no-
thing lost hy trusting in God.
Mr. Henry, at the next assizes after he was dis-
trained upon, was presented by one of the high con-
stables,— 1. For keeping a conventicle at his house ;
and, 2. For saying,— That the law for suppressing
conventicles ought not to be obeyed, and that there
was never a tittle of the word of God in it. As to
this latter presentment, it was altogether false. He
had, indeed, in discourse with the high constable,
when he insisted so much upon the law, which re-
quired him to be so rigorous in the prosecution, ob-
jected,—That all human laws were not to be obeyed,
merely because they were laws. But, as to any
such reflections upon the law he suffered by, he was
far from it, and had prudence enough to keep
silence at that time ; for it was an evil time when so
many were made offenders for a word. But these
presentments met with so little countenance from
Judge Jeffries, that Mr. Henry only entered his ap-
pearance in the prothonotary's office, and they were
no more heard of; wherein he acknowledged the
hand of God, who tumeth the hearts of the children
of men as tfie Hvulets of water.
As to what was taken fiom him by the distress,
they who took it made what markets they pleased of
it, payed those they employed, and, what the remain-
der was, is not known for certain ; but, it was said,
that the following summer about £27 was paid to Sir
T. v., of which, and Uie rest that was levied in other
places, which amounted to a considerable sum, it was
credibly reported, and I have not heard it contradict-
ed, that neither the king nor the poor had their share,
which, by the Act, is to be two-thirds, nor the in-
formers all theirs neither; but, people said, the
gentlemen had occasion for it all. But, as they that
had it were never the richer for it, so he that lost it
would often say,— That he found that God did so
abundantly bless the remainder to him, that he was
never the poorer ; which he would mention for the
encouragement of his friends, not to balk duty, as he
used to express it, for fear of suffering.
In the same year, 1681, happened a public dis-
course at Oswestry, between the th en Bishop of St.
Asaph, Dr. William Lloyd,P now Bishop of Coven-
try and Lichfield, and some nonconformist minis-
ters, of which Mr. Henry was one. The story, in
short, is this: — That learned bishop, at his first
coming to the diocese of St. Asaph, in his zeal for
good man, Mr. Henry's great friend, to be presented, and rallied
against him particularly, with great keenness in his charge to tlie
grand jury. Tor keeping conventicles, as he called it, in the school ;
•♦•by which means," salth he, " your children get the twang of
fanaticism in their noses when they are you!>g. and they will
never leave it." Life. Orig. MS. ut npra.
p Nat. A. D. 1687; Ob. 30th August, 1717. Mr. Cha1mera*s Biog.
Diet. V. 20. p. 347, &c.
86
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
the established church, set himself with vi^ur to
reduce dissenters to it; and, that he might do it
with the cords of a man, he resolved, before he took
any other methods, to reason the matter with them,
and to endeavour their conviction by discourse^ in
which he had a very great felicity, both by his
learning and temper. If there were any that de-
clined discoursing with him, he improved that
against them very much ; urging, as he wTOte after-
wards to Mr. Henry, — " That no man can pretend
conscience for not coming when he is required, to
give an account of his religion, to them that have
authority to demand it, by the laws under which he
lives, and to hear from their mouths what can be
said for the established religion. These are things
from which conscience is so far from exempting,
that the great rule of conscience requires it, as an
indispensable duty, that we should be always ready
toffive an account of the hope that is in us ; and that we
should hear them that are in Moses's chair f^ &c. ; and,
therefore, those who refused thi^-, he would consider
as men governed, not by conscience, but obstinacy."
t-He publicly discoursed with the quakers at
lanfyllin, in Montgomeryshire; their champion
was Dr. Lloyd, a physician. One of the most con-
siderable nonconformist ministers in his diocese
was Mr. James Owen, of Oswestry,' then very
young, but well known since by his learned book,
which he calls, " A Plea for Scripture Ordination ;"
proving ordination by presbyters, without diocesan
bishops, to be valid, (published in the year 1694,)
a point of controversy which he was then obliged,
in his own defence, to search into. Several dis-
courses the bishop had with him in private ; at last,
his lordship was pleased to appoint him to give
him the meeting in the town-hall at Oswestry, on
Tuesday, September 27, 1681, there to give account,
" by what right he exercised the ministry, not
having episcopal ordination." He directed him
also to procure what other ministers he could to
assist him, for he would be glad to hear what any
of them had to say for themselves. The notice was
very short, not above four or &ye days. Some,
whose assistance was desired, apprehended it might
do more hurt than good, and might be prejudicial
to their own liberty, and therefore declined it. It
was not agreeable to Mr. Henry's mild and modest
temper, to appear in such circumstances; but he
was loth to desert his friend, Mr. Owen, and so,
with much importunity, he was prevailed with to
come to Oswestry, at the time appointed ; and there
came no other but he and Mr. Jonathan Roberts, of
Denbighshire, in the diocese of Bangor, a plain
q See Matt, xxili. 3.
r Afterwards of Shrewsbury ; where he died, April 8, 1706, et
5*2. See his Life, ul npra ; and Memoirs or Mrs. Savage. Ap-
pendix, No. IV.
* Aat. Oct. 1641; Ob. 7th June, )7J1. Chalmers's Biog. Diet. v. 12,
p- Jif2, Ac. There is a curious statement respecting him in the
man, of ^great integrity, and a very good scholar.
The bishop came, according to appointment, and
brought with him, for his assistant, the famous Mr.
Henry Dodwell.* Mr. Henry, who was utterly a
stranger to the bishop, pressed hard to have had the
discourse in private, before a select number, but it
would not be granted. He also desired his lordship
that it might not be expected from him, being of
another diocese, to concern himself in the discourse,
but only a hearer. " Nay, Mr. Henry," said the
bishop, " it is not the concern of my diocese alone,
but it is the common cause of religion, and, there-
fore, I expect you should interest yourself in it more
than as a hearer." His lordship was pleased to
promise, that nothing that should be said by way of
argim[)ent, should be any way turned to the preju-
dice of the disputants, nor advantage taken of it
to give them trouble. There were present divers
of the clergy and gentry of the country, with the
magistrates of the town, and a great number of
people, which, if it could have been avoided, was
not easy to Mr. Henry, who never loved any thing
that made a noise ; herein like his Master,^ who did
not strive, nor cry. The discourse began about two
o'clock in the afternoon, and continued till between
seven and eight at night ; much was said, pro and
con, touching the identity of bishops and presbyters,
the bishoping and unbishoping of Timothy and
Titus," the validity of presbyterian ordination, &c.
It was managed with a great deal of liberty, and not
under the strict laws of disputation, which made it
hard to give any tolerable account of the particulars
of it. The arguments on both sides may better be
fetched from the books written on the subject than
from such a discourse. The bishop managed his
part of the conference with a great deal of gravity,
calmness, and evenness of spirit, and therein gave
an excellent pattern to all that are in such stations.
Mr. Henry's remark upon this business, in his Diary,
is this ;— That, whereas, many reports went abroad
far and near, concerning it, every one passing their
judgment upon the result of it, as they stood affect-
ed ; for my own part, saith he, upon reflection, I
find I have great reason to be ashamed of my mani-
fold infirmities and imperfections ; and yet, do bless
God, tliat, seeing I could manage it no better, to do
the truth more service, there was not more said and
done to its disservice. To God be glory. But there
were others, who said, that Mr. Henry was an in-
strument of glorifying God, and serving the church,
in that affair, almost as much as in any thing that
ever he did, except the preaching of the gospel.
And some, who were adversaries to the cause he
Preface to Dr. S. Clarke's Discourses, vol i. p. xvi. oct. 1730, by
Benjamin, Lord Bishop of Salisbury.
t •' 1 will always call Jesus my Master." Geo. Herbert. Lives
by Walton, v. a. p. 75. ut npra.
u See a curious volume bearing this title, 4to. 1636.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
87
pleaded, though they were not convinced by his
aifaments, yet, by his great meekness and humility,
and that truly Christian spirit, which appeared so
endently in the whole management, were brought
to have a better opinion of him, and the way in which
he walked.
The conference ' broke off a little abruptly. The
bishop and Mr. Henry being somewhat close at an
acgoment, in the recapitulation of what had been
disooorsed of, Mr. Jonathan Roberts whispered to
Mr. Henry, — " Pray, let my lord have the last word ;'*
which a justice of peace upon the bench over-hear-
ing, presenUy replied ;^^' Yon say, * My lord shall
have the last word ;' but he shall not ; for I will —
We thank God, we have the sword of power in our
hands ; and, by the grace of God, we will keep it ;
and it shall not rust ; and I hope every lawful magis-
trate will do as I do. And, look to yourselves, gen-
tlemen, by the grace of God, I will root you out of
the country." To which a forward man in the crowd,
said, — *' Amen ! Throw them down stairs.'' This
the bishop heard with silence, but the mayor of the
town took order for their safety.
Two days after this discourse, the bishop wrote a
very obliging letter to Mr. Henry, to signify to him
how very much he was pleased with the good temper
and spirit that he found in him at Oswestry, and
that he looked upon him as one that intended well,
bat laboured under prejudices ; and to desire further
acquaintance and conversation with him ; par-
ticularly that he would come to him, straightway,
to Wrexham.
[The letter was as follows ;—
« Sir ;
*^ I was much pleased with the good temper I
found in you at the conference at Oswestry, and
sorry to find so little of it in those to whom you had
joined yourself; therefore, though I would have be-
stowed a day or two more with them, in that service,
if I bad known what answer I should have received
from Mr. Evans, of Wrexham, and Mr. John Trevors,
I do not think it worth while to seek for an answer
from men that contend, not for truth, but only for
victory. But, for you, Sir, in whom I saw better
appearances, I would go a good way to have an in-
tercourse with you, could I be sure of finding you at
home ; and, since I cannot be sure of that, I send
this bearer to desire you would meet me at Wrexham,
where I intend, God willing, to be on Friday mor-
ning, and to stay all day ; and allow me as much of
V Appendix, No. XVII.
V Prom an antbentic copy.
X ** Envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableneaB," are the
ingredients of tcbisni. See the Enquiry into the nature or schism,
foti. Who will not Join hrartily in the response,— From all .these,
" Gooa Lord, deliver us !"
See the Ttects of the ever-memorable Hales, of Eton, p. ia4. .
d«od. ITS ; and Bishop Taylor's Liberty of Prophesying, sect. xxii. I
your company as you can. Give me leave to tell
yon, though I think you put a wrong interpretation
upon 2 Timothy iv. 17. it is probable, that, in thus
thinkings I may follow a prejudice of my own; and
I know no reason to suspect this in myself, but on
account of human infirmity ; but, I make bold to
say, with St. Austin, * I cannot be a heretic' I
trust God will keep me from being obstinate in any
error ; for I know, and desire to follow, none but
him. If you are of the same disposition, there may
be a good effect of this meeting. Howsoever, there
can be no bad of it, as far as I am able to judge.
God direct us in the way of peace and holiness !
" Your humble servant,
** In the Lord Jesus Christ,
W.St. Asaph."*
" September 29, 1680."
About three months after he sent for him again
to Chester ; in both which inter>iews a great deal
of discourse, with much freedom, passed between
them in private, in which they seemed to vie in no-
thing more than candour and obligingness, showing
to each other all meekness. I remember the bishop
was pleased to show him his plan for the govern-
ment of his diocese, and tlie method he intended to
take in church-censures, which Mr. Henry very well
approved of; but pleasantly told his lordship, he
hoped he would take care that Juvenal's verso
should not be again verified. (Sat. 2.)
Dat veniam corviSf vexat censura columbas.
Which the bishop smiled at, and told him he would
take care it should not. His lordship, observing
his true catholic charity and moderation, told him
he did not look upon him as <rxt(T/iariKO£, a schismatic ;*
but only as trapacfwdywyos, a separatist ; and, that
if he were in his diocese, he did not question but
that he should find out some way to make him useful.
But all his reasonings could not satisfy Mr. Henry\t
conscience of the lawfulness of being re-ordained
and conforming. The bishop, for some years after,
when he came that way, towards London, either
called on Mr. Henry, at his house, or sent for him to
him at Whitchurch, and still with all outward ex-
pressions of friendship.
[With his characteristic benevolence, Mr. Henry
took occasion to avail himself of the favour ^ of the
worthy prelate, on behalf of his oppressed brethren,
as appears by the following interesting letter: —
Works, vt tupra, vol. 8. p. 230. Likewise, Howe's Works, vol 8.
p. Ixvi.
y The Rev. Richard Stretton used to say, that he kept up his
acquaintance with persons of estate and figure as long as he could
improve it Tor the doing or good ; and, when it would no longer
be made to serve that purpose, he let it dio^. ^xwkKwX'icwvvvjxN.
fur Mr. Stretton, poiT.
88
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
For the Right Reverend
William, Lord Bishop of St. Asaph.
My Lord ;
The experience which I have had of your very
great candour, together with the particular leave
you were pleased to give me of applying myself to
you, as there might be occasion of this nature, are
my encouragement to trouble your lordship with
these few lines. I understand there are several
protestant dissenters of your diocese, that, being
excommunicate, are in danger of being cast into
prison, by writs remaining in the sheriff's hands for
that purpose, concerning whom, when I was with
you at Chester, you were pleased to say, — " It was
not for their mere nonconformity, but for withhold-
ing their church dues ;" and, having made inquiry
about it, I do find, that there are but few of them
chargeable with that neglect, and, of those few,
there is one William David, of Myvod, on whose
behalf the minister of the place hath written the
enclosed, whereby it will appear, 0iat his default
therein was not wilful and usual, but merely acci-
dental ; which, when your lordship sees, I hope it
will prevail to obtain from you his discharge. And,
for the rest, who suffer for not conforming, I have
personal acquaintance with divers of them, both
about Wrexham, and in Montgomeryshire; parti-
cularly with Mr. Walter Griffiths, and Richard
Gardner, and Evan Roberts; and have reason to
believe concerning them, that they are religious,
sober, peaceable men, though under dissatisfactions
in the things imposed ; and, being such, I would
entreat your lordship, that your lenity may be ex-
tended towards them, and the rather, considering,
that the casting them into the jail is like to be the
ruin of themselves, and of their families, as to this
world, which I am confident can be no way pleasing
to you in the reflection. Besides, the process against
them, if I be not misinformed, is upon presentments
made in your predecessor's days long since ; and if,
in other cases, the action dies with the person,* it
were but reasonable it should in this also. Would
your lordship please to forbear but for a while this
highest act of severity towards them, it may be,
upon further conference with them, and knowledge
of them, you will find them other persons than they
are represented to you to be. I humbly beg your
lordship's pardon for my boldness with you herein ;
and subscribe myself,
My Lord,
Your servant, much obliged,
March 26, 1682. Philip Henry.*]
t Actio personalis mon'tur cum persona. — A maxim in law.
a Orig. MS. This letter, a little altered, was printed in the Pro-
testant Dissenters* Bflagazine, v. 2. p. 4S6.
b Except to Boreatton. Lire. Orig. MS. «/ supra.
e Life. Orig. MS. ui supra. See Blather's History of New Eng.
land, tM>ok iv. p. 152.
d In allusion, no doubt, to the prophetic vision as to the state
The trouble which Mr. Henry was in, about the
meeting at Weston, obliged him for a while to keep
his sabbaths at home somewhat private ; but, in the
year 1682, he took a greater liberty, and many flock-
ed to him on Lord's days, through the kind con-
nivance of the neighbouring magistrates ; but, in
the year 1683, when the meetings were generally
suppressed throughout the kingdom, he was again
necessitated to contract his sails, and confine his
labours more to his own family, and his friends that
visited him. He continued his attendance at White-
well chapel as usual ; and, when he was abridged
of his liberty, he often blessed God for his quietness.
Once, when one of the curates preached a bitter
sermon against dissenters, on a Lord's day morning,
some wondered that Mr. Henry would go again in
the afternoon, for the second part.— But, saith he, if
he do not know his duty, I know mine; and, I bless
God, I can find honey in a carcass.
In this time of treading down, and of perplexity,
he stirred little abroad,** being forced, as he used to
express it,— To throw the plough under the hedge ;
but he preached constantly at home without disturb-
ance.
[During this period he preached over the Old-
Testament types of Christ, real and personal : twelve
of each ; and the principal passages in the history
of Christ's last sufferings ; also. Psalm Ixxiii. and
part of Psalm Ixxvii. besides many other occasional
subjects.*]
He often comforted himself with this ; — ^When we
cannot do what we would, if we do what we can,
God will accept us ; when we cannot keep open
shop, we must drive a secret trade. And he would
say,— There is a mean, if we could hit it, between
fool-hardiness and faint-heartedness. While he
had some opportunity of being useful at home, he
was afraid lest he should prejudice that by venturing
abroad. One of his friends, in London, earnestly
soliciting him to make a visit thither in this time of
restraint in the country, he thus wrote to him ;— I
should be glad once more to kiss my native soil,
though it were but with a kiss of valediction ; but
my indisposedness to travel, and the small prospect
there is of doing good to countervail the pains, are
my prevailing arguments against it. I am here, it
is true, buried alive, but I am quiet in my grave,**
and have no mind to be a walking ghost.* We re-
joice, and desire to be thankful, that God hath
given us a home, and continued it to us, when so
many, better than we, have not where to lay their
head, having no certain dwelling-place. (It was at
of the Jews, Ezek. xzxvii. 12, 13. See also Milton's Poetical
Works, ui supra, v. 5. pp. 352, 353. and the notes. Samson Ago-
nistes, 100, kc.
• ** When spirits walk, and ghosts hreak up their graves."
Shakspeare. Hen. VI. 2d part, act L sc. 4.
" Like a ghost, walk silent among men."
Ben Jonson. Works, v. 8. p. 41L «< suprt.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
89
the time of the dispersion of the French protestants.)
Why they exiles, and not we? They strangers in a
strange land, and not we ? We must not say, We will
die m our nests ; lest God say, Nay : nor, We will
wMJUiply our days as that bird, the phoenix ; (referring
to Job xxix. 18.) lest God say. This night thy soul
skull be required of thee. Oar times, and all oar
ways, are at his disposal, absolutely and universally ;
and it is very well they are so.
At the time of the Duke of Monmouth's descent,'
and the insurrection in the west, in the year 1685,
Mr. Henry, as many others, (pursuant to a general
order of the lord-lieutenant, for securing all sus-
pected persons, and particularly all nonconformist
ministers,) was taken up by a warrant from the
deputy-lieutenants, and sent under a guard to
Chester Castle, where he was about three weeks a
close prisoner. He was lodged with some gentle-
men and ministers that were fetched thither out of
Lancashire, who were all strangers to him, but he
bad great comfort in the acquaintance and society of
many of them.
[Thence he addressed to Mrs. Henry the follow-
ing letter ;—
July 8, 1685.
Dear heart ;
I continue very well at present,— thanks be to
God ! — and feel nothing yet of the inconyeniences
of a prison. We are better accommodated, as I
acquainted you in my last, than we could have ex-
pected, though we must pay for it. Just now, six
ministers, nonconformists, are brought in hither from
Lancashire, more than before ; so far are we from
enlargement But our times are in God's hand,
who hath sent us hither, I am confident, for good,
though how, or which way, or wherein, I know not ;
but He is faithful who hath promised. My chamber-
fellows and I differ something in our apprehensions
of things past, which will not be helped ; but, for
the unseen things that are to come, that are eternal,
we are all one. Our afternoons, till late, are filled
with visitants, who love us, and wish us well, and
are kind to us : but we cannot do with them what
we would. I have not yet opened the little bottle I
brought with me, not wanting it, and being more
afraid of what might heat me, in regard we have no
drink but strong, (unless very seldom,) which may
torn to feverish distempers, wanting exercise. I
bave not trodden on the ground since Saturday,
which, using myself to in the mornings, I thought
the want of might be prejudicial ; but hitherto, it
is not. I have not tasted butter yet with bread,
finee I came from home. This dinner we had beans
t See the Hiftory of Taunton, pp. 135—170.
t Grig. MS.
k *'The mercies of God are inflnite ; who doth, not only by his
void, but alio by tiis justice, make us fit for his kingdom. Little
and bacon, salmon, &c. I am careful what I eat;
not fishes and fleshes. Mrs. Wenlock was to see
me yesterday, and brought me a bottle of wine. I
bestow all of that kind in common with my compan-
ions, strangers here. Let me hear from you, how
you do, and the children, &c. 'as oft as you can.
Love to Matthew. Our guards change every hour,
which makes it so very hard to come to us. I would
gladly see him ; but when, or how, I know not. I
think there is little danger of any harm to him here,
if there be none at home at his return. Love to
Sarah and Eleanor, and to all the rest. Do what
you can to get to heaven yourselves, and to help one
another thither. Prepare for further sufferings, to
which it may be these things are but the preamble ;
but all is well that ends everlastingly well. Thanks
for all your love and faithfulness to me, and patience
with me; the Lord will reward it. One of my
fellow-prisoners last night received a letter from his
wife, subscribed, — '* So I rest, dear husband, in all
duty and obedience, your obedient wife.^' — Such is
Lancashire kindness ; but deeds exceed words.
I am, in short, most entirely, and most affection-
ately, thine ; p jj g-.
He often spake of this imprisonment, not as a
matter of complaint, but of thanksgiving,^ and
blessed God he was in nothing uneasy all the while.
In a sermon to his family, the day after he came
home, he largely and affectionately recounted the
mercies of that providence ; as for instance ;— That
his imprisonment was for no cause : it is guilt that
makes a prison. That it was his security in a dan-
gerous time. That he had good company in his
sufferings, who prayed together, and read the Scrip-
tures together, and discoursed to their mutual edi-
fication. That he had health there ; not sich ; and
in prison ; that he was visited and prayed for by his
friends. That he was very cheerful and easy in his
spirit, many a time asleep and quiet, when his
adversaries were disturbed and unquiet. That his
enlargement was speedy and unsought for, and that
it gave occasion to the magistrates who committed
him, to give it under their hands, that they had
nothing in particular to lay to his charge; and,
especially, that it was without a snare, which was
the thing he feared more than any thing else.
It was a surprise to some that visited him in his
imprisonment, and were big with the expectations
of the Duke of Monmouth's success, to hear him
say ; — I would not have you to flatter yourselves
with such hopes, for God will not do his work for
us in these nations by that man ; but our deliver-
ance and salvation will arise some other way.
do our enemies know what good, by these things, they do unto
us, and what wreck they bring to their own kingdom, while they
set forth the wickedness thereof." Life of BIrs. Katharine Brei-
tergh. 4to. 197C, p. 4. BU Lett.
90
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
It must not be forgotten how ready be was, nay,
how studious and industrious, to serve and oblige
such as bad been any way instruments of trouble to
him, as far as it lay in his power, and he had any
opportunity to do it ; so well had he learned that
g^at lesson of forgiving and loving enemies : of
this it were easy to give instances.
When a gentleman, who had sometimes been an
instrument of trouble to him, had occasion to make
use of his help to give him some light into a cause
he had to be tried, Mr. Henry was very ready to
serve him in it ; and though he might have declined
it, and it was somewhat against his own interest too,
yet he appeared a witness for him, which so won
upon the gentleman, that he was afterwards more
friendly to him. Mentioning in his Diary the death
of another gentleman in Shropshire, he notes, — ^That
he was one that had been his professed enemy ; but,
saith he, God knows I have often prayed for him.
Some have wondered to see how courteously and
friendly he would speak to such as had been any
way injurious to him, when he met with them, being
as industrious to discover his forgiving of wrongs,
as some are to discover their resentments of them :
[thus exemplifying the sentiment he pressed on
others;— When any have provoked you, you say,
you will be even with them ; there is a way not only
to be even with them, but above them, and that is,
— ^to forgive them.']
It was said of Archbishop Cranmer,*' that the way
to make him one's friend, was to do him an unkind-
ness; and I am sure it might be said of Mr. Henry,
that, doing him an unkindness would not make him
one's enemy. This minds me of an exemplary pas-
sage concerning his worthy friend Mr. Edward
Lawrence. Once going, with some of his sons, by
the house of a gentleman that had been injurious
to him, he gave a charge to his sons to this purpose,
— That they should never think or speak amiss of
that gentleman for the sake of any thing he had done
against him ; but, whenever they went by his house
should lift up their hearts in prayer to God for him,
and his family. And, who is he that will harm
those who are thus followers of him that is good^ in
his goodness ? It is almost the only temporal pro-
mise in the New Testament, which is made to the
i P. Henry. Com. PI. Book. Orig. MS. 0%itrcome nil with good.
That is a noble victory indeed. This is the way not to be even
with him that wrongs us, but to be above him. Poole's Annota-
tions on Romans xii. *21. fol. 1688.
k Nat. July 2, 1498. He suffered martyrdom at Oxford in the
sixty-seventh year of bis age. See bis Life by the Rev. J. Strype,
M. A. fol. 1694.
1 See Gen. xvi. 16.
in Dean of Norwich. He was a pupil of Dr. Busby's, and died
Ist Nov. 1724. 8Bt. 77. Aikin's Gen. Biog. v. 8. p. 340.
B We should keep a pair of scales between our heart and our
mouth, to weigh what is suggested. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
o Life. Orig. BIS. ni iupra. It is said of Mr. Eliot, that when he
heard any ministers complain, that such and such in their flocks
meek, Matthew v. 5. — that they shall inherit the
earth; the meaning whereof. Dr. Hammond, in his
Practical Catechism, takes to be especially this ;
that, in the ordinary dispensations of God's provi-
dence, the most mild and quiet people are most free
from disturbance. Those only have every man's hand
against them, that have theirs against every man.'
[He often mentioned the memorandum which Dr.
Prideaux'" gave in the war-time to a gentleman
who had been his pupil, containing three good
lessons, in three Hebrew names twice put together,
(lessons which he had well learned,) Mishmah,
DumahjMassa; Genesis xxv. 14. 1 Chronicles i.
30. which signify, Hear, Keep silence. Bear. The
apostle has them together, James i. 19. — Be swift to
hear, slow to speah,^ slow to wrath/*
Being asked, — ^What are the common vices of the
tongue, of which Christians ought more especially to
beware ? — he replied ; — Vain, flattering, and proud
speeches ; also, much speaking ; an open mouth is
a sign of an empty heart ; as a chest open is a sign
nothing is in it ; when money or jewels are within
it, it is kept locked. Filthy speaking ; we ought to
sprinkle gracious discourses among our other dis-
courses about worldly things ; else, not wholesome
food. False and profane speaking; beware of
making use of scripture expressions without due
reverence. Make not sport of the sins of others.
Abusive speeches ; our tongues must not be scourges,
nor razors, nor swords.P
In advising as to the government of the tongue,
he pressed commencement with the heart.*! — Re-
solve, he added, to Take heed; but resolve in the
strength of Christ. Be not hasty in speech. Commit
the guidance of your tongue to God in prayer. He
is the Maker of the tongue.']
We shall next introduce some of Mr. Henry's
letters to a person of quality in London. The be-
ginning of his correspondence with that gentleman,
(which continued to his death, and was kept up
monthly for a great while,) was in the year 1686 ;
and the following letter broke the ice : —
Honoured Sir ;
Hoping you are, by this time, as you intended,
returned to London, to your home and habitation
were too difficult for them, the strain of his answer still was,—
Brother, compass them ! Learn the meaning of those three little
words. Bear, Forbear, Forgive. Life, by Cotton Mather, p. 36.
duod. 1C8I.
P P. Henry. Orig. MS.
q The heart is the scribe that indites matter ; the tongue is the
pen that writes it down. Ps. xlv. 1. The heart is as be that rides
upon a horse ; the tongue is as the horse that is ridden. James iii.
3. The heart is the pilot in the ship ; the tongue is the ship.
James iii. 4. The heart is the fountain ; words are as the streams.
Matt. xii. 34. The heart is the treasury ; words are as stufT
brought out of it Matt. xii. 35. The heart is the root; words
are the fruit. Prov. xv. 4. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
r P. Henry. Orig. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
91
there, I make bold, according to my promise, to
filiate you in a few lines. In the first place, to be
foor remembrancer of the tows of God which are
opon yon, upon the account of the many mercies of
joar journey, both in your going out, and in your
eoming in. Was not every step you took hedged
about with special providence ? Had not the angeU
charge over you? Did they not pitch their tents
where you pitched yours? Did not goodness and
mercy fblUna you, — and should it not then be had in
thankful remembrance ? Where mercy goes before,
shoald not duty follow after ? If you have Mr.
Angler's Life, you will find there, pages 88, 89, a
collection out of his Diary, of ten heads of mercies,
acknowledged in a journey,* to heighten God's
praises, and to quicken his own and others' hearts
therein, and they are certainly very affecting. Next,
Sir, I am to acquaint you, that I have faithfully dis-
posed of the money you left with me at parting, to
eight poor praying widows in this neighbourhood,
as yoa appointed. And this, among all the rest of
your alms'^deeds, is had in memorial before God ; —
it is fruit that will abound in your account ;— bread,
sent a voyage upon the waters, which you and yours
will Jind again after many days ; for, he is faithful
that kmik promised. The apostle's prayer shall be
mine, 2 Corinthians ix. 10. — Now he that minister-
etk seed to the sower, both minister bread for your
food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the
fruits of your righteousness. A men}
[Who shoots an arrow, and looks not after it ;"
or knocks at a door, and stays not for an answer?'
/ will direct my prayer to Thee, says holy David,
Pialm V. 3, as an archer his arrow to the mark, and
vili look up, to see what becomes of it. And, again.
Psalm Ixxxv. 8. / will hearken what God the Lord
viilsuy. And so, another prophet, having been at
prayer, says, Habakkuk ii. 1. / will get me to my
waick'tower. Sometimes our heavenly Father with-
holds mercies, to quicken prayer ; grants them, to
awaken our thankful acknowledgments ; or, if de-
nied, to excite penitent reflections, searching and
• ** I. Dir^ioM la M# right vajf ; want of this cauaeth wander,
inf , latxnir, and wnow. Ps. cvii. 7.
" i Preservation of man and beast, of life and health, fh>m
f»\h. barm, from enemies, robbers, murderers : some have died in
Uie way, as Rachel ; others fallen sick by the way, as 1 Sam.
XXX. 13. It is a mercy when God supports in travel, to endure
heat and cold ; for a bone to die, or be lame, in the way, is a great
affliction ; so. daily supply of new strength is mercy.
** X Comfort in the way and weather, when both are good, and
company is suitable and comfortable.
" 4. Convenient places for rest, and good refreshment for noon
and nigbt
** & Seasonable provision of necessary food, and cheerful en-
teftainnKnt.
** 6 Temporary ease from the borthen of domestic affkirs, both
care and labow, the mind and body t>oth are eased ; others take
the tmrtben upon them for a time.
** 7. Variety of object! to delight the sense, fkir buildings, fruitful
flelds. pletMot meadows.
trying,—why, and wherefore: for, it is never so,
but there is some cause. Thus the soul and God
converse, and correspond. We send to him for some
mercy wanted. He replies in his providence, either
giving, delaying, or denying. We, in suitable re-
turns, as there is occasion ; and, if so, he is never
wanting to rejoin, either in kind, or kindness, as he
sees best.
With my due and true respects, I take leave, and
rest.
Sir, Yours, ever obliged,
to honour and serve you, in our dear Lord,
Novembers, 1686. Philip Henry.*
For Henry Ashurst, Esq.
at his house in St. John-street,
London.
December 15, 1686.
Sir;
I received yours soon after the date of it ; and,
according to your order therein, I have distributed
other 20s, to the same eight poor praying widows in
this neighbourhood, to whom I gave the former. 1
did also oblige them to continue their supplications
at the throne of grace on the same particular ac-
count, which you at first desired ; and, I believe,
they have done and do it accordingly ; and, you
may be sure, it shall not be in vain, because Truth
itself hath said it shall not Isaiah xlv. 19. It is
true of prayer what is said of winter, that it rots not
in the skies." Though the answer be not always in
the thing asked, yet it is in something else as good,
or better. Abraham's prayer for Ishmael was heard in
Isaac. Sometimes God answers us, by strengthening
us with strength in our souls. Psalm cxxxviii. 3.
He answered his Son so, Luke xxii. 42, 43. If the
prayer be for the removal of a present burthen, and
it be not removed, yet, if we are enabled with faith
and patience to undergo it, the prayer is answered.
If, for the bestowing of a desired mercy, as that of
Moses, that he might go over into the promised land ;
if he say, as he did to him. Let it suffice thee ; that
is, if he give a contented frame of heart in the want
" 8. Change of air ; pleasantness and healthfulness there, by
refreshing gales in the beat of the day.
" 9. The socieiy of friends whom we visit, and the mutual com.
fort that ariseth from their meeting. af\er a time of absence, and
from their friendly and hearty converse.
" 10. Opportunity of understanding more fully how God bath
answered our prayers for them ; opportunity of soul-help, of doing
and receiving good by joint prayer, and by conference, by declar.
ing experience^ by stirring up one another to what is good." Life
of the Rev. John Angier, pp. 08, 8». duod. 1685.
t Transposed fh)m the 3rd edit. pp. 176, 177.
tt See Ps. V. 3.
▼ See Gumall's Christian in Ck)mplete Armour, part iii. pp. 603,
604, 4tO. 166^
V From an authentic copy.
X Beware of extremities ; and, till the Lord hath truly brought
downe tky winter out of the tkjf, know it will ntver rot tkere^ it must be the
mercifuUcalme of grace which must bring a settled state upon thy
soule. Naaman's Disease and Cure, by Dan. Rogers, p. 264. fol. 1642-
92
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
of it, the prayer is answered ; a* was also that of
Panl's, when he prayed that the^om in the flesh
might pass from him ; — My grace, said he, is tuffi-
cient for thee. We have great need of heavenly
wisdom, (the Lord give it !) both to discern and to
improve answers to prayer ; if we have them not in
kind, if we have in kindness, we should be no less
thankful. I shall be glad to hear, if God see good,
that your child recovers ; but, if not, if he sanctify
the affliction to him and you, that is, further you in
sanctification, do your souls good by it, bear you up
under it in a quiet, patient, submissive frame, you
will say, at last, — li was well. So, also, as to the
fitting you with a convenient seat for your family ;
it were very desirable, if he please, that you should
be sped in it ; but, if his pleasure be rather to keep
you longer in your present circumstances, and then,
withal, to give you a heart to improve the same, and
to take occasion, from the uncertainties and unset-
tlements of this world, to be so much the more dili-
gent in making sure, what will be made sure, a
building in heaven, not made with hands, you will
be no loser thereby, but a gainer.
My thoughts of justifying faith and sincere re-
pentance, are, 1. That they are choice gifts of God,
Ephesians ii. 8. Acts xi. 18. If he give not to us to
believe and to repent, we can neither believe nor
repent ; and therefore, in the want of them, we are to
ask them : and, if we ask, he will give. 2. That
they are the fruits of electing love. Those that were,
from all eternity, given to Christ,—- to all those, and
to none but those, it is in time given to believe, and
repent. Acts xiii. 48. John vi. 37 ; xii. 39, 40. If
it be said, *' Why doth he then find fault?" I should
answer, — ^The decree is secret, which is concerning
us, but that is revealed which is our duty ; and to
that we must attend. 3. That they are necessary
conditions of pardon. There may perhaps be such
a notion framed of a condition, as will by no means
be applicable to them, but sano sensu, they are so
required, that, if we have them not, our sin remains
upon us. Luke xiii. 3 — 5. John iii. 36. If we have
them, it is most certainly done away ; 1 John i. 9.
John iii. 16. not for their sake, but for Christ's sahe,
4. That they are inseparable companions; where
one is, there is the other also. He that says, '* I be-
lieve," and doth not repent, presumes ; he that says,
'* I repent," and doth not believe, despairs. Faith in
Christ doth not justify /rom sin, where there is not
godly sorrow /or sin;^ neither can sorrow for sin
f The motivts to repentance are,— the shortness or life, and un-
certainty or the space for repentance, Rev. ii. 21.— the misery and
danger of impenitency, Luke xiii. 3, 5.— the commands of God,
ActH xvii. 30. 3L— the goodness of Ood, Rom. ii. 4.— his readiness
to forgive us upon our repentance, Ps. Ixxxvi. 5— the gospel's
gracious invitations of Jesus Christ, Matt. iii. 2. -there is no other
way to pardon and reconciliation. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
I She was the fifth daughter of William, Lord Paget, by the Lady
Frances, eldest daughter of Henry. Earl of Holland. See a Sermon
preached on the Death of the Lady Diana Ashurst, who died Aug
obtain pardon of it, where there is not faith in Jesus
Christ, because his blood, alone, cleanseth from all
sin. If your meaning were, what the nature of them
is, and how they may be known, I have not left
myself room in this paper to tell you. The Lord, by
his grace, work them in us, and increase them more
and more !
Please to give my most humble service to your
good lady," and to your virtuous daughter. I
hope she doth not forget her baptismal covenant
The Lord fill you with comfort in each other, and
in all your children, but especially, and above all,
in himself, who is the Spring-head and Foun-
tain!
With my due respects to your good self, Sir, I rest.
Yours, much obliged, to honour and serve you,
P. H.
For Henry Ashurst, Esq.
At his house in St. John-street,
London.*']
CHAPTER VIII.
THE LAST NINB TBAR8 OF HIS LIPS IN LIBERTY AND ENLARGE-
KENT AT BROAD OAK, FROM THE TEAR 1687.
[The correspondence, already introduced, was early
continued in the year 1687, by the following excellent
letters : —
Sir;
Our last to each other, as it seems, were of the
same date, and met upon the road. You begin with
a good subject ;— to have my thoughts of faith and |
repentance. They are the two hinges, upon which
the door of our salvation turns ; except we repent, and
believe the gospel, we cannot possibly be accepted,
and saved. Paul tells the elders of Ephesus, Acts
XX. 20. that he had kept back nothing that was pro-
fitable unto them ; and then adds, verse 2\.—t€ttify-
ing repentance towards God, and faith towards our
Lord Jesus Christ, — as if those included all that is
profitable.* But why repentance towards God? Be-
cause he is the party wronged and injured .by sin;
and, therefore, to him it is fit the penitent acknow-
ledgment should be made. And, also, because if
it be not towards God, it is worth nothing. If we
sorrow not with an eye to him ; Ezekiei vi. 9. — They
shall remember me, and loathe themselves. If our
confessions be not before him, as the prodigal's, —
24, 1707, by Richard Bfayo, Minister of St Thomas's Hospital in
Southwark, 4to. 170R, p. 17.
a Orig. MS.
a In managing the great business of repentance, set God be.
fore thee in his holiness, Christ in his love, and thy sins in their
fllthiness. Dwell awhile upon the sight: compare one with
another. Compare thy sins with the pure law. P. Henry. Origt
MS.
Guilt in the soul is like a mote in the eye ; not at ease till wept
out. P. Henry. Palmer's Noncon Mem. v. a p. 480.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
93
Father, I ktive sinned, frc< (not as Judas who tolil
the chief-priests what he had done, but did not tell
6od«) and, if our forsaking of sin, which is a neces-
sary infpredient of saving repentance, be not for
God's sake, and from a tme respect to his will and
glory, — it is not the sorrow, the confession, the for-
saking, that accompanies salvation. We are, not-
withstanding it, but as sounding brags and tinkling
tymbaU. And, therefore, this is the main matter in
repenting. Is what I do in it, done as towards God?
Is he in the beginning, in the middle, at the end of
i(? — When ye fasted and mourned, saith he, those
seventy years, did ye at a II fast unto me, even to me?
Zcchariah vii. 5. That there should be fasting and
mourning for seventy years together, and not a jot
of it to God, how sad was this ! There is repentance
in hfll, but it is not repentance towards God, and,
therefore, it avails nothing. If the sight and sense
we have of sin drive us from God, and we pine
away in our iniquities, how should we then live?
Bat, if it bring us to God, lay us low, even at his
feet, with shame and blushing, then it is right.^ I
say, with shame and blushing, as Ezra, Ezra ix. 6.
^O my God, I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my
i face to thee, my God. It is that inward blushing of
I soul that is the colour of repentance. / abhor my-
telf, saith Job, and repent, Self-abhorrency is
; always the companion of true repentance, and it
, flows from a sight of God, in his purity and glory.
Mine eye seeth thee, therefore I abhor myself There
is the shame of a thief, when he is taken, Jeremiah
ii. 26. the ground whereof is the shameful punish-
ment he is to undergo ; and there is the ingenuous
shame of a child towards a father, when he hath
offended him, and cannot lift up his face with that
boldness as before, which is quite another thing.
Such was David's repentance, when he cries for
washing, purging, cleansing ; like one fallen in the
dirt: and, when he prays, — Open thou my lips;
Psaim 11. like one tongue-tied through guilt. I be-
lieve there is no tme penitent but what can witness
this there, where no eye hath seen, but his that sees
eveiy where, and that daily, more or less, as there
is occasion. And that is another evidence of true
lepentance, that it is constant and continual ; not
like a land-flood, but like the flowings of a spring ;
sot a single, but an abiding, habit.
With most affectionate respects, and humble ser-
vice, to your whole good self ; beseeching the Lord
b The UfredUmti of true repentance are, inward, hearty sorrow,
Zecb. lil. 10. hatred of sin, and of self because of sin, Job xlii.
& spprefaension of the mercy of Ood in Christ, Matt. iii. 2. par-
tieabr confeasioD, with shame and blushing, 1 John i. 7. a special
eye to original ain. Pa. li. &. reformation of life, Prov. xxviii. la
Heh. n. I. reatitution io case of wrong to man, Luke xi3L a P.
Henry. Orif. MS.
« Vhim a copy by the late Rev. S. Lucas, of Shrewsbury, from
the Oris. MS.
4 There are variooa signs of uprightness of heart. See Prov.
to remember both you and yours with the favour
which he bears unto his people, that you may see the
good of his cfufsen, and rejoice in the gladness of his
nation; I rest.
Sir,
Yours, obliged, to honour and serve you,
January 14, 1686-7. P. H.
To Henry Ashurst, Esq.
At his house in St. John-street,
London.^
Sir;
I had yours from Hampton this week, and rejoice
to hear of your good health, which God continue I
I shall do as you direct in the distribution of 20s.
at present to the eight widows, and shall acquaint
them with your concern in the young man you men-
tion. God, if it be his will, prevent your fears
about it! Uncertainty is written upon all things
here below, but there is an unchangeable happiness
laid up for us in the other world, and that may be
made sure. Your acknowledging God in it, as in
all your affairs, I cannot but rejoice in, as an evi-
dence of the uprightness of your heart*' towards
him. It is the life and soul of all religion. It is,
indeed, to walk with God : and includes as much
as any other scripture command in so few words ;
— In all thy ways acknowledge him. In every thing
thou dost, have an eye to him ; make his word and
will thy rule ; his glory thy end ; fetch strength
from Aim ; expect success from him ; and, in all
events that happen, which are our ways too, whe-
ther they be for us, or against us, he is to be acknow-
ledged ; that is, adored ; if prosperous, with thank-
fulness; if otherwise, with submission; as Job; —
The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath tahen, and
blessed be the name of the Lord I This is to set the
Lord always before us : to have our eyes ever towards
him. Where this is not, we are, so far, without God
in the world.
As to what you desire concerning your son, I am
heartily willing to my poor power, to serve you in
his education here, for a while, but I am afraid, by
reason of your undeserved over- valuing thoughts of
me, (wherein you would abate if you knew me
better,) lest you promise yourself that, from it,
which will not be. Should the liberty talked of
prove an open door, concerning which we are yet
ziv. 3. an upright man fears the Lord. See Prov. xvi. 17. he
depans from evil. See Ps. xix 13. he is kept back fh>m presump-
tuous sins. See Ps. xviii. 23. he is kept from his own iniquity,
and performs all duties, Luke i. 6, 7. See Prov. x 9. he walketh
surely. See Matt xix. 21. be is willing to part with any thing for
Christ. He is as good in secret as before others ; he keeps a
single eye at God's glory, 2 Cor. i. 12. To get an upright heart,
walk as always In God's sight, I Cbron. xxviii. 9. Gen. xvii. I.
It will be a comfort when you lie upon your death-bed. Isa.
xxxviii. 3. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
94
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
in the dark here, and, I perceiVe, so are they also
that are nearer you, I think, if others enter, (salv.
come) I shall be loth to stay behind ; it will be a
hindcrance to that attendance to hb teaching, which
should be, especially if he be not yet past the school
measures. And, another thing is, that he will be
alone, which will make the wheels go heavy. I
have refused several of late, and at present do not
know of any undisposed of, that will be meet for
him. It were desirable it should be one who is
rather a step before than behind him. These are
the things, at present, that offer themselves to my
thoughts concerning it, and, from mine, they come
to you, if my son have not already hinted them to
you. I suppose it will not be long ere he will be
looking homewards ; and, if so, with his help, it
will be the better done. Please to weigh it yet
further with yourself, and the Lord direct and
determine your will by his will, and that shall be
my will in the matter.
Sir, I most heartily thank both you and your good
lady, (to whom I give my humble service,) for your
very great kindness and respect to my son;* he
intimates the deep sense he hath of it, and I join
with him in the thankful acknowledgment.
I shall be glad to hear, in your next, how it is
with your younger son, and also the young man you
mention. The Lord, I trust, will be gracious. To
his mercy, grace, and peace, I recommend you and
yours ; and beg again, that I, and mine, may be
remembered of you, who am.
Sir, Yours, much obliged,
to honour, love, and serve you,
March 26, 1687. P. H.
For Henry Ashurst, Esq.
At his house in St. John-Street,
London.^]
It was in the latter end of the year 1685, when the
stream ran so very strong against the dissenters, that
Mr. Henry, being in discourse with a very great man
of the church of England,' mentioned King Charles's
indulgence in 1672, as that which gave rise to his
stated preaching in a separate assembly ; and added,
if the present King James should, in like manner,
g^ve me leave, I would do the same again. To
which that great man replied, — *' Never expect any
such thing from him ; for, take my word for it, he
hates you nonconformists in his heart.''— Truly, said
Mr. Henry, I believe it, and I think he doth not
c Matthew Henry, then in London.
f Orig. MS.
fr Most likely Dr. Lloyd. Bishop of St Asaph. See ante, p. 85.
k Dr. William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Dr. William Lloyd. Bishop of St Asaph.
Dr. Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely.
Dr. John Lake, Bishop of Chichester.
Dr. Thomas Kenn, Bishop of Bath and Wells.
love you of the Church of England neither. It was
then little thought that the same right reverend per-
son who said so to him, should have the honour, a&
he had soon after, to be one of the seven bishops ^
committed to the Tower by King James ; as it was
also far from any one's expectation, that the same
King James should so quickly give liberty to the
nonconformists. But we live in a world, wherein
we are to think nothing strange, nor be surprised at
any turn of the wheel of nature, as it is called.
James iii. 6.
The measures then taken by King James's court
and council were soon laid open, not only to view,
but to contempt, being in a short time, by the over-
ruling providence of God, broken and defeated.
However, the indulgence granted to dissenters in
April, 1687, must needs be a reviving to those, who,
for so many years, had lain buried in silence and re-
straint ; nor can any, who will allow themselves the
liberty of supposing the case their own, wonder that
they should rejoice in it, though the design of it
being manifest, they could not choose but rejoice
with trembling, Mr. Henry's sentiments of it were,
—Whatever men's ends are in it, I believe God's
end in it is to do us good.
There were many that said, surely the dissenters
will not embrace the liberty which is intended only
for a snare to them. Mr. Henry read and considered
the letter of advice' to the dissenters at that junc-
ture ; but concluded, — Duty is ourSy und events are
GotTs. He remembered the experience he had had
of the like in King Charles's time, and that did good,
and no hurt. And why might not this do so too ?
All power is for edification, not for destruction.^
Did Jeremiah sit still in the court of the prison,
because he had his discharge from the King of
Babylon? Nay, did not Paul, when he was per-
secuted by his countrymen for preaching the gospel,
appeal to Caesar ; and find more kindness at Rome
than he did at Jerusalem ? In short, the principle
of his conversation in the world being not fleshly wis-
dom^ or policy, but the grace of God^ and particu-
larly the grace of simplicity and godly sincerity, he
was willing to make the best of that which was, and
to hope the best of the design and issue of it.
Doubtless it was intended to introduce popery ; but
it is certain, that nothing could arm people against
popery more effectually than the plain and powerful
preaching of the gospel ; and thus, they who grant-
ed that liberty, were out-shot in their own bow,
which manifestly appeared in the event and issue.
Dr. Thomas White, Bishop of Peterborough.
Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bishop of Bristol.
The Speech, prepared to have been spoken by the Bishop of
St. Asaph, on his trial, is preserved in Gutch's Ck>llect. Cur. v. I.
p. 369.
i Written by the Marquis orHalirax. See Neal, ut supra, v. 5. pp
42-<44.
k See2Cor. xiii. 10.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
05
they did good service to the Protestant re-
mong scholars, who wrote so many learned
gainst popery ' at that time, for which we
them our best thanks ; so they did no less
among the common people, who are the
1 and body of the nation, that preached
r good sermons to arm their hearers against
rong delusioHy which Mr. Henry, as the
the nonconformists generally did, took all
OS to do. How often would he commend his
, as Dr. Holland," Divinity Professor in
, was wont to do, to the love of God, and the
>f popery."
les his preaching professedly to discover the
nd corruptions of the church of Rome, (which
Id have taken occasion to do more fully, had
those he preached to in any immediate dan-
he infection,) there could not be a more ef-
antidote against popery, than the instructing
ifirming of people in the truth, as it u in Je-
d advancing the knowledge of, and a value
leration for, the Holy Scriptures ; to which,
ich Mr. Henry in his place did contribute,
knew him will bear record. He used to ob-
lat the fall of Babylon followed upon the free
:n preaching of the everlasting ffospel, Reve-
JUT. 6, 7. He apprehended this liberty likely
very short continuance, and to end in trou-
id, because he could not see how his not
f it would help to prevent the trouble, but
lee that his vigorous improvement of it would
prepare for the trouble, he set himself with
;ence to make the best use he could of this
both at home and abroad, on sabbath days,
;k days, to his power ; yea, and beyond his
as at this juncture that Mr. Henry had the
»s of recognizing, in his son, an ordained
r of the gospel. The occasion gave rise to
)wing letter : —
May 14, 1687.
1 Matthew ;
ice in what you heard, and saw, and felt, of
Monday last, and hope it hath left upon you
^lland. *' when be went any journey, calling the fellows
ege together, used to say to xhem.^Qmmtndo vo$ dUec-
t odu fopatu* et tmpertiUfonis.** Clarke's Man*. EccL Hist.
9pra.
\T. la We heard of the strengthening of the popish in.
ery are to have places for their worship in many great
uticularly that which was ray dear father's chamber at
trcb, must now, as they say, be a mass-house. Mrs.
)iary. Orig. MS.
At Ludlow, in Shropshire. Ob. mh March. UU-12.
h. OxoD. V. 2. p. 111. «/ npra. Brooks's Lives of the Pu-
, 2. p. 21X «/ npra.
Common Prayer Book of King Edward the Sixth, the
I thus ; — ** From the tiranny of the Bishope of Rome,
deteitable enormities, good Lord, deliver us ! 4to. 1547.
a truly indelible character, and such impressions as
no time, nor any thing else, shall be able to wear
out. Remember ; assisted by thy strength, O God,
I will ! As to the manner and circumstances of your
return, we cannot order them here, but must leave
it to yourself to do as you shall see cause, beseech-
ing the Lord, in every thing, to make your way plain
before you ; but, as to the thing itself, we rejoice in
hopes it will not be long now ere we shall see you
here, (though multa cadunt intery) and, I must not
say, be filled with your company, for this is not the
world that we must be together in. Your dear mo-
ther hath no great joy in the thoughts of your closing
with them at Chester upon the terms proposed ; her
reasons are weighty, and, in other things, have many
times swayed with me against my own, and it hath
done well. What they are in this matter, you shall
hear immediately from herself. As to your North-
ampton affair we are no little concerned about it,
making mention of it in every prayer, to our hea-
venly Father, who, we have learned, besides a com-
mon providence, [hath a special hand in such pro-
posals. Proverbs xix. 14. And we say, if you, of
all the other, should miss, it would be a grief of
mind. Genesis xxvi. 35.
The clergy in Cheshire and Shropshire are ham-
mering an address of thanks, but divers of them
will not strike. They begin to feel now for their
oaths' sake.
Our love and blessing is all here is room for.
'Eppburo ! "Epfmao \ twice ; within, without^
Mr. Matthew Henry having, shortly after the pre-
ceding letter was written, settled at Chester,? the
following was addressed to him by his father, on
another, and interesting subject: —
July, 1687.
Son Matthew ;
I am very much concerned that two si!ch g^eat
affairs are, at this time, met together upon your
hand, — ^that of the next sabbath, and that of the
week after. You know which of the two should fill
you most, and I hope it will accordingly ; and, if it
do, you may the more comfortably expect a blessing
e p. Henry. Orig. BiS.
P Urbs Legionuro, its primeval name.
Where many a Roman toil'd ; where many a brow
Has grac'd a mitre ; 'twas a kingdom once,
And now a County Palatine ; all that's rare
In army, navy, church, and state, dwells here
In miniature. But, most of all revered
For that great name, a valiant Philip's son,
J^/Mer tAan ht of Maeedon : for grace
Jdakes heroes, such as Plutarch never knew.
As Homer never sung ; to courts unknown.
While Matthew Henry in his " Comment " lives,
Chester can never die.
See the Select Remains of the late Rev. Ebenezer White of
Chester, p. 152. duod. 1812.
96
THE LIFE OF MR PHILIP HENRY.
upon the other ; for, ever since I knew any thing in
those matters, I have found it tnie, that, when I have
been most careful in doing God's work, God hath
been most faithful in doing mine.*' I have not
sealed, but subscribed, a draught of articles with
Mr. Hardware/ We were together yesterday at
each place ; and, upon Tiew, found every thing, not
worse, but rather better, than represented. As to a
time and place of sealing, I would meet half way
on Monday, but Wednesday being the first day
appointed at Hanmer, I must needs attend that. If
you would not think it too long to defer till the week
after, that is, to the 19th instant, I should hope, by
that time, (your next sabbath work, and your War-
rington journey, and our engagements here, being
all over,) there would be much more of clearness
and freeness, without hurry, as to each circum-
stance ; but I must not move it, however, not insist
upon it, lest the heart be made sick ;* therefore do
as you see cause, only in every thing take God
along with you,' and do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus.
Give my kind respects to , your good
friend, whom I hope to call by another name
shortly. The Lord bless you both, and first fit you
for, and then give you to, each other, in much
mercy! Amen.^
To resume the narrative.] The great .subject of
debate at this time in the nation, was, concerning
the repeal of penal laws and tests. Mr. Henry's
thoughts were, as to the penal laws, that, if those
against the dissenters were all repealed, he would
rejoice in it, and be very thankful both to God and
man ; for he would sometimes say, without reflection
upon any, he could not but look upon them as a
national sin ; and, as for those against the papists,
if our law-givers see cause to repeal them in a
regular way ; I will endeavour, saith he, to make
the best of it, and to say,— The will of the Lord be
done!
When King James came his progress into that
country, in August, 1687,* to court the compliments
of the people, Mr. Henry joined with several others,
in and about Whitchurch, Nantwich, and Wem, in
an address to him, which was presented when he lay
q God saith to us, as a king laici to a nobleman who desired to
leave the court that be might provide for some that relied upon
him : " Do my work," mid the king, " and I will do thine." Ca-
naan's Flowings. by Ralph Venning, duod. 1658, p. 351.
r Miss Hardware, of Moldsworth, was Mr. Matthew Henry's
first wife. See his Life by Tong, v/ iwpra, p. 101, ice.
• See Prov. xili, 12.
t Mr. Matthew Henry vras married July 19. See Tong's Life of
Mr. M. Henry, chap. iii. ut supra.
n P. Henry. Orlg. MS. Addressed to Mr. Matthew Henry at
Moldsworth.
▼ In the former editions of the Life, the royal visit is stated to
have been in September. This no doubt was a mistake. The
last visit made to Uie ancient town of Shrewsbury, by its sove-
reign, was on the 25th of Auput, [1687.] The King, James the
at Whitchurch ; the purport of which was, not to
sacrifice their lives and fortunes to him and to his
interest, but only to return him thanks for the liberty ,
they had, with a promise to demean themselves
quietly in the use of it.
Some time after, commissioners were sent abroad ;
into the country, to inquire after the trouble the
dissenters had sustained by the penal laws ; and how
the money that was levied upon them was disposed
of, little of it being found paid into the Exchequer ;
they sent to Mr. Henry, to have an account from him
of his sufferings ; he returned answer, by letter, that
he had indeed been fined some years before, for a
conventicle, and distrained upon, and his goods
carried away ; which all the country knew, and to
which he referred himself. But, being required to
give a particular account of it upon oath, though he
said he could be glad to see such instruments of
trouble legally removed, yet he declined giving any
further information concerning it ; having, as he
wrote to the commissioners, long since, from his
heart, forgiven all the agents, instruments, and occa-
sions of it ; and having purposed never to say any
thing more of it.
It was on Tuesday, June 14, 1681, that he was
disturbed at Weston in Shropshire, when he was
preaching on Psalm Ixvi. 18. and on Tuesday, June
14, 1687, that day six years, he preached there again
without disturbance, finishing what he was then pre-
vented from delivering, concerning prayer, and going
on to verse 19, 20 Buf, verily, God hath heard
me, blessed be God, concerning the duty of thanks-
giving. This seventh year of their silence and re-
straint, proved, through God's wonderful good pro-
vidence, the year of release.
[Some admirable letters to Mr. Ashurst will carry
the year to its close, and cannot fail to impress the
reader with the writer's accomplishments as a Chris-
tian, a divine, and a gentleman.
Sir;
September 2, 1687.
My sabbath subject was. Acts xi. 21. — The hand
of the Lord was unth them : and a great number be-
lieved, and turned unto the Lord, In this I shall
acquaint you, the subject being the same, with the
Second, passed a day there, and kept his court at the council
house ; and, during his stay, the conduits ran with wine. ScMne
Account of the Ancient and Present State of Shrewsbury, pp. 53,
515.
In unison with the above statement is the following extract from
the Diary of Mrs. Savage :—
"1687. Friday, August 26, the king came into Whitchurch.
James the Second, in bis progress to Chester ; great flocking to see
him. Lord, order all consultations and actions for glory to thy
name!
" Tuesday. 1 went to Whitchurch to see His Majesty in his re-
turn from Chester ; saw him only in his coach ; desired heartily
to pray that be were as good as he is great." Mrs. Savage. Diary.
Orig.MS
THE UFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
97
Ikeads of what was then spoken, after my plain,
eoantiy manner. The preachers here were such as
kid been scattered by persecution after the death of
Stephen, Acts viii. which scattering was intended
by the devil, and wicked men, for hurt to the church ;
bat God turned it for good, as he often does, and
we ourselyes have had experience of it. It was like
flie scattering of seed, or salt, whereby more were
seasoned. It seems, then, that the hand of the Lord
may be with us, when the hand of man is ag^nst
us. Preachers disowned and persecuted by worldly
powers, may be owned and blessed in their labours,
by the Crod of Heaven. The place was Antioch,
where these converts were, the first that took the
honoarable and sweet name of Christians. At An-
tioch, not at Rome. If Christians should own one
ptoce more than another, as the mother church of all
churches, inethinks it should be that, rather, where
they first had their name. The preaching was Jesus.
They preached the Lord Jesus, and then the hand of
the Lord was with them. We are then most likely
to have the hand of the Lord with us, in our preach-
ing, when we preach Jesus.* Not when we preach
ourselves ; but when we preach Jesus, and ourselves
yemr servants for Jesus' sake. By the hand of the
Lord with them, is meant, the Lord himself, accord-
ing to his promise, Matthew xxvii. 20. Lo! I am
with ffou. He assisted them in their preaching;
made way for the word into the hearts of those that
heard it ; gave it the setting on there : and this is
always all in all. If the hand of the Lord be not
with the preachers, there will be no believing, no
taming, among the people ; for faith is the gift of
God :-— Unto you it is given to believe ; — Turn thou
«e, and I shall be turned, A great number believed.
Sometimes God is pleased to enlarge his hand, in
the conversion of many, by the ministry of the word ;
not a fish or two, but whole shoals, caught in the net
of the gospel. Oh, that it might be so at this day !
Your love to souls, I know, will say, Amen !
To believe, has three things in it; — 1. Assent to
vhat is spoken, as true, either from the evidence of
the tiling itself, or upon the account of the veracity
of him that speaketh it 2. Application of it to my-
lelf ; I must look upon myself as concerned in it,
tod say, '* Thb belongs tome.'' 3. Answerable affec-
tions and actions, according as the thing is that is
spoken. Without this, my believing is nothing. Noah
believed, and feared, Hebrews xi. The devils believe,
and trtwUfle, James ii. If one tell me the house is
falling, and I believe it, I shall fear, and run out of
it ; or, that there is a pot of gold hid in such a place,
and I may have it for digging for it, if I believe, I
V See Somon, nuth in Christ inferred, &c. pott.
s To believe in Jetut Christ for salvation is to come to him.
Matt zi. i8. John vi. 37 ; v. 40. By unbelief, we depart flromhim.
Heb. iii 13. It is to lean upon him. Cant viii. 5. forsaking all
other leaoiQf -stocks whitever. It is to look upon liim. JohniiJ.
H
shall dig. Now, there are, among many others, four
great truths revealed in the word of God, the belief
whereof, such a belief as hath in it the three things
before mentioned, doth always accompany conver-
sion and salvation. —
1. That a sinful condition is a miserable condi-
tion. That it is so, is certainly true ; thou art wretch-
ed and miserable, under the curse of God, liable to
all miseries. But do we believe it ; that is, assent
to it ; and that with application ? I am the man ;
sinful, and therefore miserable. And are we there-
upon afraid, brought under a spirit of bondage?
And doth that fear set upon serious inquiries, *' What
shall we do to get out of it ?'* If so, so far is well.
2. That Jesus Christ is ordained of God to be
Prince and Saviour ; that he is able and willing to
save, to save even to the uttermost. Do we assent to
this, iiAs faithful saying? And do we apply it? " He
is able and willing to save me.'' And are we suit-
ably affected thereunto? And do we act accordingly ?
Come to him, close with him, accept of him, as he
is offered to us in the gospel.* If so, we are be-
lievers ; and, if believers, then the sons of God, justi-
fied by that faith, at peace with God, and heirs of
heaven. And to that also we must assent, with
application, and be affected, and act accordingly ;
rejoicing always with joy unspeakable, and abounding
always in the work of the Lord.
3. The absolute necessity of an holy heart, and
an holy life. That we must be new creatures, or we
cannot enter the New Jerusalem ; bo9m again, or we
cannot see the kingdom of God, That we must deny
all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and live soberly,
righteously, and godly, in this world, if ever we mean
to be happy in another world. Do we believe this ;
that is, assent to it? Is it not plain in the word of
God, written there as with a sun-beam, so that he
who runs may read? But do we apply it? I must be
regenerated ; if I be not, I shall not be saved. My
civility and moral honesty, my profession and out-
ward form of godliness, will not serve my turn ; — I
must put off the old man, and put on the new. And
doth there follow suitable affection and action ? Do
I love the word as a regenerating word ? Do I pray
for and receive the Spirit, as a regenerating Spirit ?
Do I set myself, in the use of all God's appointed
means, to the great work of crucifying the flesh, with
all the affections and lusts, — walking in all the com-
mandments of the Lord blameless ? This is believing.
4. The certainty and reality of future rewards
and punishments. That there is another life after
this, and that it is to be a life of retribution ; that,
as sure as there is an earth which we tread upon, so
14, 15. L«ok unto mi, and ht y# taved. It is to receive, and accept of
him, as he is offered in the promise, to be Lord and King, as well
as Priest and Saviour; giving ourselves to him unreservedly.
2 Cor. viii. 5. Hos. iiL 3 : P. Henry. Orig. MS.
98
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
sure there is an hell under it, a place of eternal tor-
ments ; so sure as there is an outward heaven, which
our eyes see, so sure there is another heaven beyond
it, a fixed state of everlasting blessedness. Are
these things so ? Certainly they are ; for the mouth
of the Lord hath spoken it. No room is left for doubt-
ing. But will one of these be our place shortly ?
Certainly it will. I must ; I ; even I, be, ere long,
either in hell miserable, or in heaven happy. Oh,
then, how should I be affected ? How should I act ?
Should I not fear that place of torment, and fly from
it? Make sure that place of happiness, and rejoice
always in the hope of it ; having my conversation
there ; ^ laying up treasure there ? This is believing.
The same may be said in reference to every other
truth of God; precept, promise, threatenings. There
are quarter-believers, and half-believers ; but the
te^o/e-believer is he that assents, applies, is affected,
and acts according to what he says he believes.
Now the good Lord work this belief in all our
hearts, fulfilling in us all the good pleasure of his
goodness and this work of faith with power,* Amen,
Sir;
Your continued kind acceptance is still my encou-
ragement to perform this monthly service to you,
wishing I could do it better to your soul's advantage
and edification. The grace of faith is, indeed, the
g^ce of all graces. 1 . The grace that God hath most
honoured in making it, — whether the condition or
the instrument,— I am sure, the means of our justi-
fication, reconciliation, acceptation, salvation. Of
all graces, faith doth most abase the creature, and
lift up God ; it is a self-emptying and a God-ad-
vancing grace; and therefore, of all graces, God
doth most advance and lift up faith ; for so is the
word that he hath spoken. Those that honour me, I
7 I find ray heart inclined to things below, and am sensible, in
some measure, what a dishonour it is to God, and what a wrong
to myseir, and fain I would that it might be otherwise.
Get to know the nature of earthly things, common things, such
as a man may abound in, and perish everlastingly. They are
empty things, that will not satisfy-, vexing things, vtxatiott of
spirit. Labour for a serious, practical knowledge of this. Beg of
God to give you a sight of their vanity and emptiness. Look
into the word. Prov. xxiii. 5. Isa. Iv. 2. Matt. vi. 24. John vi. 27.
I Tim. vi. 0, 10. Ecclesiastes. Observe and improve your own
crosses and disappointments, and the crosses and disappointments
of others. The voice of these dispensations is,— Cease from the
world, the men of the world, the things of the world. Consult
with dying men, and see what account they will give you of
earthly things.
Actuate this knowledge by meditation, and do it often. There
is no duty more profltable.— none more neglected.
Study the nature and necessities of thy soul. Thou hast a soul
that is greatly in want, a poor, though precious, soul ; it wants
pardon of sin, wants peace with God, wants his image, wants his
grace, wants his Spirit. And can the world furnish these! No.
Mic. vi. 6, 7.
Look beyond this to another world. Will these things avail
there ! No. Tis not getting more, but making use of what we
have, that will then avail. Luke xvi. 9. 2 Cor. iv. 18.
Cast thy care upon the Lord ; if thou art a believer, he careth
for thee. I Pet. v. 7.
will honour. 2. The grace that of all graces we do
live by; for the just shall live by faith, Habakkuk
ii. 4. than which, I think, there is scarce any one
passage in the Old Testament more often quoted in
the New ; and good reason, for it is the marrow of
the gospel. We live by faith, 1. Spiritually, as to
justification, sanctification, consolation; in which
three stands our spiritual life. We are justified by
faith) Romans v. 1. Acts xiii. 39. justified from the
guilt of sin, the curse of the law, and the damnation
of hell. In the want of which justification, we are
but dead men, that is, under a sentence of death ;
so that in that sense, by faith we live ; we live by
it as we are made just by it ; the just, by faith, shall
live. We are sanctified by faith, Acts xxvi. 18. as,
by it we receive the spirit of sanctification, who finds
us dead in trespasses and sins, as to our spiritual
state, and then breathes into us the breath of spi-
ritual life, whereby we become living souls, alive to
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are com-
forted by faith, Romans xv. 13. and that comfort is
our life, 1 Thessalonians iii. 8. Now we live, that
IS, now we are comforted, if ye stand fast in the
Lord: non est vivere sed valere vita. Faith comforts
as it applies the promises, which promises are our
breasts of consolation, at which the believing soul
sucks and is satisfied. And there are two of them,
one concerning the things of the life that now is, the
other concerning the things of that which is to come ;
for godliness haih both, and hath need of both, in order
to comfort, upon one occasion or other, every day.
They are also called well-springs of salvation, and,
as such, faith is the bucket by which we draw water
from those wells. If the well be deep, as good no
well as no bucket ; so, as good no promise as no
faith. 2. As we live spiritually * by faith in all these
three great concernments of our spiritual life, so we
Be acquainted with the reality and excellency of heavenly
things. Heb. xi. 1. John iv. 10. Earthly-minded men are like
moles, they live in the earth, and so are blind as to spiritual
things; they see no beauty in holiness, no comelinesi in Jesus
Christ.
Learn to spiritualize earthly things. It is our sin and misery
that earthly thoughts mix themselves when we are employed in
spiritual duties ; it were our profit and advantage if heavenly
thoughts might as often mix themselves, and t>e as welcome, when
we are employed in worldly affkirs.
Choose as much as may be to be in heavenly company. Com-
pany is of a transforming nature. Prov. xxii. 24, 35. 1 John i. 2, a
Be often discoursing of things above.
Labour to tread in the steps of those who have gone before us
in heaven's way. Phil. iii. 17, &c. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
I Evan. Mag. v. 3. p. 376.
a Spiritual life is an inward principle in the soul of a believer,
arising from his union with Jesus Christ. The following are signs
of such a life:— The knowledge of God and Christ, John xvii. 3.
—Growth in grace and knowledge, John xv. 2.— Fftith in JesM
Christ, John vi. 47.^Heavenly mindedness, CoL iii. 1. 2. Rom.
vi. 11.— Spiritual sense ; of sin, the first risings of it Rom. vii. 24.
the sins of others, 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8. of the withdrawings of God's
presence, Ps. xxii. 1. of the afflictions of God's people, Jer. ix. I.
Neh. i. 4, &c. 1 John iii. 14.— Speech; to God in prayer. Gal. iv.6.
Acts ix. II. Zech. xii. 10. for God.— Appetite, 1 Pet. ii. 2.— Care for
self-preservation, Job ii. 4. comp. I Pet. ii. 7.— Desires to com-
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
99
live oar life in the flesh by the faith of the Son of
God, Galatians ii. 20.^ He means his life of con-
rersation in the world ; for, that is the life that he
liyed then in the flesh. We walk hy faith, not by
tight, — not as glorified saints do in heaven by imme-
diate vision, — nor by carnal sight, as the men of the
world, who look only at the thinys that are teen with
bodily eyes, — ^but by faith. So that faith is a prin-
ciple of living quite different from the one and from
the other. It is far short of living by heavenly vision,
bat it is infinitely above and beyond the life of carnal
reason, which men, as men, live. In the ordinary
tetums and off air t of life, I. It is by faith and no
otherwise, that we set the Lord alwayt before u$, and
•ee him that is invisible. And what influence that
hath upon the conversation, to make it what it should
be, they can best tell that have tried. 2. It b by
fidth, and no otherwise, that we close with the word
of €k>d as our rule and square, by which we regulate
and order our conversation. The commandments
are to be believed. Psalm cxix. 66. as well as the
promises. 3. It is by faith that we fetch strength
from the Lord Jesus, for the doing of what we have
to do every day in every thing, for without him we
can do nothing, 4. It is by faith, that we look at the
reeomprnce of reward, which makes us lively and
cheerful in our obedience, both active and passive ;
forasmuch at we hnow our labour thall not be in vain
ta the Lord. And then for life eternal, as we look
at it by faith, so by faith it is that we have title to
it ; he that believes shall be saved. Whosoever believes
ihall not perith, but have ev^lasting life. We are all
the children of God by faith in Jesus Chritt. And if
children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with
Chritt, of an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and
that fadeth not away.^ If all this be true of faith,
and not the one half hath been told you, then there
is good reason why it should be called /TreciotM/aith.
It closes with a precious Christ, and to them only
that believe is he precious. It embraces precious
promises, and it saves precious souls. Is Christ our
■ c = ,
manicate, 1 John i. h 3, 3.— Art thou alive 1 live at a higher rate
tban others, I Cor. iii. a— Art thou dead? make haste to Christ,
^ V- 14.— He complains. Ye will not come to me that ye might
tevelife, John v, 40. For encouragement to come to Christ, he
raised three to life In the gospel, -one in the chamber, secret
anners,— another in the street, open 8inners,~a third buried, dead
four days, aged sinners. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
b See a sermon by P. Henry, on these words. Eighteen Ser-
motts, 9t smpra. p. 144.
c There are evideneet oX saving (kith. Faith, however, is the best
evidence of itself, 1 John v. 10. as we know that the sun shines by
its own light The following are evidences.— A new nature, Acts
xxvL 18.~ Heart parity. Acts xv. 9. at least begun and laboured
after.— A low esteem of earthly things, Phil. iii. 8. a high esteem
of Christ, 1 Pet. Ii. 7.— Joy in tribulaUon, Acu xYi.25, &c. Rom. v.
L 1 I Pet I. 7. Hab. iii. 17, 18.-Reliance upon God for things
of this life, as well as of heaven.— How came we by our faith !
Did it come by hearing! Rom. x. 17.— Did it begin in doubting t
What fruit doth it bear! James ii. 14, &c. Oal. v. 6.— Self-denial,
Luke Tii. 6, 7, 9.— Fear of offending.— A true believer reckons it
the hardest thins in the world to believe. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
H 2
all in all? So, in a sense, is faith our all in all.
Oh, faith, (but that also must be taken with a grain
of salt,) thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory ; not thine to rest with thee, but thine to hand
to him, whose it is. Amen.
Your son shall be truly welcome here at the time
you mention, and I shall think it long till it come.
As to the late access made to your estate, much good
may it do you, that is, much good may you do with
it, which is the true good of an estate. Lady War-
wick ^^ would not thank him that would give her
£1000 a year, and tie her up from doing good with
it. I rejoice in the large heart which God hath
given you with your large estate, without which
heart, the estate would be your snare. As to your
purposed kindness to me, yuu will call me unkind
if I refuse it; but as to the quantity, let it be as
little as you please, for it cannot be too little where
so little is deserved, as is by
September 28, 1687.
Your Servant.
My most humble service is to your worthy lady,
and to your son and daughter with you, whom God
bless.
For Henry Ashurst Esq.
At his house in St. John Street,
London.*
Sir;
October 28, 1687.
Yet further concerning the grace of faith. Be-
sides that it is that by which we live,— as of Christ
it is said, who is our /i/e,— so we may say of faith,
in a different sense, it is our life. As Paul says, to
me to live is Chritt ; so we may say, to us to live is
to believe. I say, besides this, there are four great
things said in Scripture concerning faith, which
deserve a particular consideration. 1. It purifies
the heart ; ^ purifying their heartt by faith. Faith
is a heart-purifying grace, elsewhere called, purging
the contcience from dead workt, Hebrews ix. 14.
It is done by the blood of Chritt, who, through the
d See a sermon at the Tunerall of the Countesse of Warwick.
By Anthony Walker, D. D. duod. 1680. Also Memoirs of Emi-
nently Pious Women, v. 1. p. 109. oct. 1815. She died A. D. 1678.
• P. Henry. Orig. MS. Part of this letter was printed in the
Evan. Mag. v. a p. 36&
f Means are to be used to get and keep a pure heart. We must
l»e sensible of our impurity, Prov. xxx. la.— Pray for a clean heart,
Ps. Ii. : it is promised, Ezek. zxxvi. i5. 26.— Be frequent in self-
examination.— Beware of other men's sins, i Tim. v. 22.— Abstain
from all appearance of evil, 1 Thess. v. 22, 231— Act faith. This is
a heart-purifying grace, Acts xv. 9. it interests us in the blood of
Christ, and that cleanses, 1 John i. 7. Zech. xit. 1. by it we receive
the Spirit ; by it we apply the promises, 2 Pet. i. 3, 4. Attend
upon the ordinances, John xv. 3. xvii. n. Titus, iii. 5.— Improve
your baptism, it is a cleansing ordinance.— AflBictions, when
sanctified, are means of cleansing.— WatchfVilness, Ps. cxix. |9.
We must take heed where we tread. We are in the light, and
must walk as children of the light ; carefully ; cleanly. P. Henry
Orig. MS.
100
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
Eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God,
meritoriously, and, by faith, instrumental ly. Christ's
blood is the water of purification, the true and only
water, and faith is as the bunch of hyssop, dipped
in it, and so purging the conscience, that is, paci-
fying it in reference to the guilt contracted, quiet-
ing the mind as to the pardon and forgiveness of it
before God, which nothing else can do. AH the
legal purifyings prescribed by the law of Moses,
availed nothing as to this ; it is done by faith only,
and, therefore, the Gentiles, which is the scope of
that place, ought not to be obliged by circumcision
to those ceremonial observances, seeing there was
another nearer and better way to that blessed end,
and that was, by believing. We may also, by puri-
fying the heart, understand the work of sanctifica-
tion, wherein faith is greatly instrumental; but 1
conceive the other the design of the place. 2. It
works by lovCy Galatians v. 6. It is a working
grace ; if it be idle, and work not, it is not genuine
faith. And how works it? By love. Love in the
full extent and latitude of it ; the love of God, and
the love of our neighbour, which two are the fulfil-
ling of the law ; so that to work by love, is to work
by universal obedience, which obedience b worth
nothing further thdn love hath a hand in it, and
love stirs not further than faith acts it. He that
believes the love of Christ for poor sinners, in dying
for them, with particular application to himself, <
cannot but find his heart constrained thereby, more
or less, according as the belief is, to love him ag^n,
and out of love to him to keep his conmiandments.
Do we find love cold? It is because faith is weak.
Do we love little ? Our belief is little. Therefore,
when a hard duty was enjoined, which is that of
loving and forgiving enemies, — Lord, say the dis-
ciples, increase our faith ; intimating, without more
faith, it would not be possible. The more strongly
and stedfastly we believe that Christ loved us when
we were enemies to him, the more frequently and
freely, readily and cheerfully, we shall forgive our
brother, who is become an enemy unto us. 3. It
overcomes the world, 1 John v. 4. This is the vic-
tory, thai overcometh the world, even our faith ;•*
where, by world, is meant, especially, its smiles and
frowns; they are both as nothing to us, have no
power or pre valency with us, so as to draw or drive
us from our Christian course, as long as we keep
faith alive and active,— either upon the past great
things that our great Redeemer hath done and suf-
fered for us ; or upon the future invisible realities
of the other world, that crown and kingdom which
he hath set before us, and made over to us. 4. It
quQnches all the fiery darts of the wicked, Ephe-
r See Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. James Her?ey, by the
Rev. J. Brown, p. 57. kc. 3d ed. 1888. .
k See the substance of a sermon by VLtr P. Henry, on these
words, in the Evan. Mag. v. xxnl p. 314.
sians vi. 16. that is, the devil and all his instru^
ments ; all the temptations o<r which kind soever,
wherewith, at any time, they may assault us, they
are quenched by faith, lose their hurtful keenness,
and wound us not. But then that faith must be not
in habit only, but in act and exercise ; as a shield,
not hanging up, but in the hand. Oh that to us,
then, it might be given always to believe! How much
better would it be with us, on this four-fold account,
had we more faith !
As to the truth of the matter whereof you desire
an account, it was this ; what reports are concerning
it I know not. When I had read the address, the
words which the King spoke' were to this pur-
pose.— Gentlemen, I perceive you have been your-
selves sufferers for your consciences, and, therefore,
I cannot but look upon you as men of conscience,
and take it for granted, you will be ready to do
what is fit to be done for the ease both of yourselves
and others in that case, when there is a Parliament
For my part, I shall be ready to do what lies in me,
and I hope, so will you. You desire me to con-
tinue your liberty, and I promise you I will as long
as I live, and could be well contented, it might be
as secure to you by law, as your Magna Charta is.
Q, What persuasion are you of ? Are you for the
congregational way ?
A. No, Sir, we are not for the congregational
way.
Q. What then are you for?
A. We are for a moderate presbytery.
Q, Are you all so hereabouts ?
A. There are few dissenters, if any, hereabouts,
that differ from us in that matter.
This was all that was spoken, as far as I can
remember ; after which, he gave each of us (in all
eight, whereof two were ministers) his hand to kiss,
and so went his way.
Sir, I received your extraordinary kind token,
and return you my most humble, hearty thanks for
it. It hath no fault but that it is too good. Last
week, another of your praying widows . went to
rest, a very choice flower in our small garden.'^
Most humble service to your whole self, &c.
P. H.'
For Henry Ashurst, Esq.
At his house in St. John-street,
London.
Sir;
The nature, excellency, and usefulness of the
grace of faith, is the subject concerning which I do
yet owe you a further account of my poor thoughts.
And, oh ! that I, while I am writing, and you also,
i See mitt p. 96.
k See Sol. Song. iv. 12 ; v. 1. Ps. xcii. 13.
1 Orig. MS.
f
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
101
wbile yon are reading, might each of us find,
Uuoagh the powerful working of the Spirit in us,
an increase of that grace, that precious grace, tLat
we may b^ strong in believing, giving glory to God,
and that our consolations may be strong also ; for
as the faith is weak or strong, so the comfort is.
Faith is the eye of the soul, by which we look unto
Ckiistv as the poor stung Israelites did to the brazen
Bopent, lifted up upon the pole, and thereby receive
a cure from him ; but, as Paul saithin another case,
1 Corinthians xii. 14. the body is not one member
but many, so faith is not one member but many.
If the whole body were an eye, where were the
hearing? Terse 17. So if faith were our eye only,
and nothing else, what should wc do for other in-
struments of spiritual life and motion? Behold,
therefore, how faith, besides being our eye, is our
FOOT, by which we come to Christ; an expression
often used in Scripture, e, g, Matthew xi. 28. Come
onto me, that is, believe in me. John vi. 37. Him
tUi c&metk vnto me, that is, that beiieveth in me, /
will in no wise cast out. By unbelief we depart
from the living God, Hebrews iii. 12. By faith we
eooie to him by Christ, ib, vii. 25. And without him
there is no coming, for he is the way, the true, and
liring, and only way ; all that are out of him are
oot of the way. It is our hand also, by which we
receive him, John i. 12. To as many as received him,
tot kern gave he power to become the sons of God , even
to them that believe on his name ; where believing
is the same with receiving. In the gospel, God
offers him to us, freely and g^ciously, to be our
Prince and Saviour, to be the Lard our righteous-
issj to redeem us from iniquity, and to purify us
to himself. When we do heartily, by faith, close
vith that offer, and accept of him to be ours, he
becomes ours : we have union with him, relation to
him, and benefit by him. But then, there is another
act of faith put forth at the same time by another
hand, which is the giving act, whereby we give
ouselves to him to be his, to love him, and serve
him, and live to him. O Lord, saith David, / am
Hkff servmnt, truly I am thy servant. Psalm cxvi. 16.
Tkey gawe their ownselves unto the Lord, 2 Corin-
thians viii. 5. Without this our receiving is not
Hgfat. There is a faith that is one-handed, receives,
bat gives not ; this will not save. They that come
to Christ for rest, and receive Christ, must take his
yoke upon them, and learn of him."" It is the
HouTH of the soul, by which we feed upon him, and
kre nourished by him. John vi. Except ye eat his
fUsk, mnd drinh his blood, that is, believe in him, as
it is there explained, ye cannot be saved. And this
of aU the rest doth in the most lively manner re-
present to us what it is to believe. To believe, is
■i Sec the WorU oTBisbop Cowper, foL 1429. p.eoi.
• Sec Phil. L sa
when a poor soul, being made sensible of its lost and
undone condition by sin, doth earnestly desire, as
they do that are hungry, and thirsty, after a Saviour.
Oh for a righteousness, wherein to appear before
God ! Oh for a pardon for what is past ! Oh for
grace and strength to do so no more! And hearing,
by the report of the gospel, and believing that
report, that all this, and a great deal more, is to be
had in Christ; the next request is, — Oh for that
Christ ! Oh, that that Christ might be mine ! Why,
he is thine, man, if thou wilt accept of him ! Accept
of him ! Lord, I accept of him. Then feed upon
him. His flesh is meat indeed, his blood is drink in-
deed. Oh, taste and see that he is gracious. How
sweet are his promises ! What inward refreshment
doth the soul find by his suffering and dying to re-
deem, and save ! How is it thereby strengthened,
as by bread, and made glad, as by wine ! We must
and do each of us eat for ourselves, and drink for
ourselves. My eating will not refresh another, nor
strengthen another ; neither will my believing. The
just shall live by his faith, his own faith. Other
creatures die to make food for our bodies, and to
maintain natural life ; but then we must take them,
and eat them, and digest them, and having done so,
they turn into nourishment to us, and so become
ours, that they and we cannot be parted again. It
is so in believing. Christ died to make food for our
souls ; and not thereby to maintain only, but to give
spiritual life, which other food doth not to the body.
But then we must take him, and eat him, and digest
him, that is, make a particular application of him
to ourselves, and, having done so, nothing shall,
nothing can, separate us from him. Oh that unto
us itmight be more and more given, thus to believe !"
Sir, I thank you most heartily, as for your last
great kindness, (had it been coarser it would have
been fitter for me,) so for your aflTectionate inquiry
after my poor children. I bless God, they are all
yet, both married and unmarried, oujr comfort and
joy. Bless God with me that it is so, and pray that
it may be more and more so, especially that my son
may be still owned and blessed in his great work !
My most humble service to your good lady, and
dear children, with you. The Mediator's blessing
be upon them. Upon the 8th instant, there was a
public ordination in the meeting-house at Warring-
ton in your Lancashire; the ordainers six, the
ordained six, with solemn fasting and prayer, where
much of God was seen.
November 25, 1687.
For Henry Ashurst, Esq.
At his house in St. John-street,
London.®
o p. Henry. Orig. BUS. See the Evan. Blag. ?. 8. y. <iaA.
102
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
Sir;
This once more concerning the grace of faith. As
it is tliat by which we live, so it is that by which
also we must die, if we will die well. There is no
dying well without it. Hebrews xi. 13. These all
died in faith ; meaning Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abra-
ham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, spoken of before, who
all died well, who all died believing. To die well,
is to die safely, comfortably, profitably.
1. Safely. He dies safely, whose spiritual state
and condition is good ; who is a new creatvre ; bom
again ; reconciled to God ; whose sins are forgiven ;
whose person is justified. Death hath no hurt in it
to such an one : it shall be well with him for ever.
Now, without believing, there is none of all this.
It is faith that justifies ; it is faith that sanctifies.
There is no adoption, no reconciliation, no accepta-
tion, and, consequently, no salvation, without it.
He that helieveth not, is condemned already ; the law
condemns him, though the sentence be not yet
actually passed upon him.
2. Comfortably. These two may be, and often
are, parted. How many die safely who do not die
comfortably ; whose sun sets under a cloud. And
whence is it? They are of little faith, and, therefore,
they doubt; and, therefore, they are not comforted ;
they are not filled with joy and peace, for want of
believing. Such kind of dying brings an evil
report, like that of the evil spies, upon the good
ways of the Lord ; causes them to be ill thought of,
and ill spoken of. If religion will not bear us out,
and bear us up, at the last cast, in a dying hour, what
is it good for ? There are degrees of this comfort in
dying. All that have it, have it not alike ; some have
more, some less. There is such a thing as dying trium-
phantly, which is putting into harbour with full-
spread sails ;P when an abundant entrance is admi-
nistered unto us into the everlasting kingdom. And
it is according as the faith is.
There are six things, the firm belief whereof will
exceedingly promote our comfort in dying : —
1 . That, at what time soever, and in what way
soever, death comes, it comes by the will and ap-
pointment of our heavenly Father. He cuts no com
of his down till it is fully ripe, Job v. 26. Reve-
lations xi. 7.
2. That death hath no sting in it to them that are
in Christ Jesus ; and therefore, though it may hiss
at us, we need not fear it. -The brazen serpent had
the form of a serpent, which is affrighting, but it
hurt none; it healed the believing looker on it.
P See " InviBible Realities demonstrated in tbe Holy Life and
Triumphant Death of Mr. John Janeway, Fellow of King's Col-
lege, Cambridge." duod. 16da A new edition was published in
1815, with a Preface by the Rev. R. HalL
q Let him be afraid to die that is afraid of going to heaven. Mr.
Henry. Palmer's Nonoon. Mem. v. 3. p. 490.
r See a Sennon at tbe Funeral of Lady Anne Waller, by Ed-
mund Calamy, B. D. 4ta 1662.
How doth Paul exult over death and the grave !
1 Corinthians xv. 56.
3. That, to them that fear the Lord, immediately
beyond death is heaven,i Luke xvi. 25. now, now,
he is comforted; Philippians i. 23. No sooner
dissolved, but presently with Christ. Where this
is believed, witli application, there cannot but be
comfort.' Were the soul to be no more, or to sleep
till the last day, or to go, for nobody knows how
long, to a popish purgatory, what comfort could we
have in dying? But, if the last moment on earth be
the first moment in heaven, how sweet is that !
4. That the body will certainly rise again a glo-
rious body ; — it is sown in weakness, and dishonour,
and corruption ; it shall be raised in power, and
glory, incorruptible ; — even this body. Yours, and
mine, now crazed and sickly, hereafter shall be like
the glorified body of Jesus Christ, or like the tun
shining in its brightness,
5. That God will certainly take care of poor dis-
consolate relations left behind, Psalm xxvii. 10.
Jeremiah xlix. 11. *' He that feeds the young
ravens will not suffer the young Herons to starve,"
as godly Mr. Heron said to his wife on his death-
bed.* This helped to make Jacob's death comfort-
able to him, Genesis xlviii. 21. Joseph's, Genesis
1.24.
6. That God will certainly accomplish and fulfil,
in due time, all the great things that he hath pur-
posed and promised concerning his church and
people in the latter days ; as, that Babylon shall
fall ; the Jews and Gentiles be brought in ; the
gospel kingdom more and more advanced ; divi-
sions healed. Oh ! how have some rejoiced, and
even triumphed, in a dying hour, in the firm belief
of these things ! As Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's
day, now past, and died in the faith of it, so may
we as to another day of his, which is yet to come,
before and besides the last day.
3. To die profitably is a step beyond dying com-
fortably ; I mean, to die so as to do good to those
that are about us in dying. To die so as to convince
them of sin, and convert them from it ; which is to
die like Samson, who slew more Philistines at his
death, than in all his life before.' We die profit-
ably when our natural death is a means of spiritual
life to any. Now this will not, cannot be, but in the
way of believing. He that doubts, droops, de-
sponds, calls all in question, and dies so, rather
frightens from, than allures to, the love of religion
and godliness. What need have we then to pray,
• •• He that, feeds the young ravens will not starve the young
Herons." The Morning Exercise at Cripplegate, 4to. 1661. p. 437.
Sermon 18. •
See Turner's Remarkable Providences, ch." xxvii. p. 128, fol
1697. where the same fact, differently expressed, is cited from
** Dr. Fuller in his Meditations."
t See Judges xvi. 30.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
103
and pray again,— JLorrf, increase our fait hj — ^that we
may not only have wherewithal to live, while we
live, but wherewithal to die also, when we die !
Thus I have written you. Sir, a funeral letter, God
knows whose, perhaps my own. It is certainly good
to be always ready, seeing we know neither day nor
hour.
Sir, I sent on Friday for your worthy, hopeful son,
who came hither safe and well on Saturday. I see
him veiy much upon improvement in learning, and
rejoice that God hath guided you, both now, and
formerly, to put him into circumstances conducent
thereunto. His profiting is much beyond his equals
in age ; and I hope he doth also, which is the main
matter, seriously set his face heavenwards, and
means to make religion his business. God keep it
always tn the imagination of the thoughts of his heart,
und establish his waif before him !
My most affectionate respects and service are to
your good lady, son, and daughter. God Almighty
spare you to them, and them to you, to your mutual
I comfort and joy ! Amen,
December 20, 1687.
For Henry Ashurst, Esq.
In St. John-street, London."
To resume the narrative :] —
In May, 1688, a new commission of the peace
eame down for the county of Flint, in which, by
whose interest or procurement was not known^ Mr.
' Henry was nominated a justice of peace for that
county. It was no small surprise to him to receive
a letter from the clerk of the peace, directed to Philip
Henry, Esq. acquainting him with it, and appoint-
ing him when and whither to come to be sworn. To
which he returned answer, that he was very sensible
of his unworthiness of the honour, and his unfitness
' for the office which he was nominated to, and, there-
fore, desired to be excused, and he was so, and did
what he could, that it might not be spoken of in the
country. There were some, who, upon this occasion,
unhappily remembered, that, a few years before, a
reverend clergyman in Shropshire told Mr. Henry to
his face, that he had done more mischief in the coun-
try than any man that ever came into it ;'' and that
he himself hoped shortly to be in the commission of
the peace, and then he would rid the country of him.
But, alas, he was quite disappointed ! Thus honour
is like the shadow, which flies from those that pursue
it, and follows those that flee from it.
For two years after this liberty began, Mr. Henry
still continued his attendance, as usual, at White-
well chapel, whenever there was preaching there ;
and he preached at his own house only when there
was no supply there, and in the evening of those
« P. Henry. Orig. MS.
V The AposUe Paul was called a pestilent rellow, Acts xxiv !» ;
days when there was. For doing thus he was greatly
clamoured against by some of the rig^d separatists,
and called a dissembler, and one that halted between
two, and the like. Thus, as he notes in his Diary,
one side told him, he was the author of all the mis-
chief in the country, in drawing people from the
church; and the other side told him, he was the
author of all the mischief, in drawing people to the
church. — And, which of these, saith he, shall I seek
to please ? Lord, neither, but thyself alone, and my
own conscience ; and, while I can do that, I have
enough.
In a sermon at White well chapel, one Lord's day
in the afternoon, where he and his family, and many
of his congregation, were attending, much was said,
with some keen reflections, to prove the dissenters
schismatics, and in a damnable state. When he
came immediately after to preach at his own house,
before he began his sermon, he expressed himself to
this purpose; — Perhaps some of you may expect
now that I should say something in answer to what
we have heard, by which we have been so severely
charged ; but truly I have something else to do ;—
and so, without any further notice taken of it, went
on to preach Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
It was not without some fear and trembling, that
Mr. Henry received the tidings of the Prince of
Orange's landing, in November, 1688, as being
somewhat in the dark concerning the clearness of
his call, and dreading what might be the conse-
quence of it. He used to say ; — *' Give peace in
our time, O Lord," — was a prayer that he would
heartily set his Amen to. But, when secret things
were brought to light, and a regular course was taken
to fill the vacant throne with such a king, and such
a queen, none rejoiced in it more heartily than he
did. He celebrated the National Thanksgiving for
that great deliverance, with an excellent sermon on
that text, Romans viii. 31. — What shall we then say
to these things f If God be for t», who can be against
us?
[Referring to this change of affairs, as it affected
associating for Christian worship, he thus endea-
voured to raise the minds of his flock above the con-
sideration of mere second causes. —Christ is, said
he, a shield to particular congregations and assem-
blies, professing faith in, and obedience to, him ;
especially, walking worthy of their profession, to
protect and defend them against the wrath and vio-
lence of those who hate them. Are not we ourselves
an instance, among many others, in like circum-
stances ? Had we been here to-day, if the blessed
Jesus had not been a Shield to us ? Whose hand
but his hath been our covering ? It is true, we have
a good law, and a good king and queen,* but had
they been for us if the Lord Jesus had been against
and see Archbishop Lelghton's Works, v. 2. p. 275, &c. ■/ npra^
w William and Biary.
104
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
lis ? No, no ;— he hath been for us, therefore they.
The shields of the earth belong unto God, He who
hath undertaiken the protection of the whole taber-
nacle, hath undertaken the protection of every apart-
ment in it. He who hath undertaken the care of
the whole vineyard, hath undertaken the care of
every bed in it. He who hath undertaken to look
after the whole flock, hath undertaken to look after
every sheep in it He who hath the command of
the whole army, hath the command of every troop in
it. Therefore, to him let us give the glory. There-
fore, on him let us still wait.'']
Soon after that happy settlement, there were over-
tures made towards a comprehension of the mode-
rate dissenters nith the church of England ; which
Mr. Henry most earnestly desired, and wished for,
if it could be had upon any terms less than sinning
against his conscience ; for never was any more
averse to that which looked like a separation than
he was, if he could possibly have helped it, salva
conscientiA, His prayers were constant, and his en-
deavours, as he had opportunity, that there might be
some healing methods found out and agreed upon.^
But it was well known what was the vox cleri at
that time, viz, — That, forasmuch as the oaths, sub-
scriptions, and ceremonies, were imposed only to
keep out such men, they would never consent to
their removal, for the letting them in again. Noln-
mus leges Anglia mutariy* was a saying perverted
to this purpose. And the fixed principle was, —
Better a schism without the church, than a faction
within it, &c. This was at that time published and
owned, as the sense of the clergy in convocation.
Which temper and resolve, so contrary to that which
might have been expected upon that happy and glo-
rious revolution, did a little alter his sentiments in
that matter ; and he saw himself perfectly driven
from them. Despairing, therefore, to see an accom-
modation, he set himself the more vigorously to im-
improve the present liberty. In June, 1660, the
Act of Indulgence * passed, which not only tolerated,
but allowed, the dissenters meetings, and took them
under the protection of the government.
[In allusion to the gratifying event, he writes :*' —
The condition of many ministers and people
among ourselves, of many in France, hath been, in
outward appearance, a dead condition. The words
of the Act' are, that they shall be as if naturally
dead : but, blessed be God, there hath been a resur-
rection in some measure, a coming out of the grave
X p. Henry. Orig. MS.
y Appendix. No. XVlll.
* See Letten from a late eminent Prelate to one of his Fneods,
p. l^"). 4to.
• Usually styled the Toleration Act, and entitled,—'* An Act
for exempting their M^esty*8 Protestant Subjects, dissenting from
the Church of England, from the Penalties of certain Lairs." 1st
William and Mary,st. 1. c. I8: confirmed by loth Anne, c. 2 ; t9th
Geo. lU. c. 44 i and ft2d Geo. IlL c. I5&. See the Hist of Rel.
again, of which, whoever was the instrument, the
Lord Jesus himself hath been the principal Agent.
He is the Resurrection to us. When a company of
nonconformists went to court to congratulate the
king and queen, and to thank them for the present
liberty, being clothed alike in long black cloaks,
such as ministers usually wear in London, a scoffer
said ; — " Whither are all these going ; — to a burial V
" No, Sir," said one of them, " to a resurrection."*]
Soon after, though he never in the least changed
his judgment as to the lawfulness of joining in the
Common Prayer, but was still ready to do it occa-
sionally ; yet the ministers that preached at White-
well chapel, being often uncertain in their coming,
which kept his meeting at Broad Oak at like uncer«
tainties, to the frequent disappointment of many of
his hearers that came from far ; he was at last pre-
vailed with to preach at public time every Lord's
day, which he continued to do while he lived, much
to his own satisfaction, and the satisfaction of his
friends. An eminent minister in Lancashire, who
did in like manner alter his practice about that time,
gave this for a reason ; — '* That he had been for
twenty-seven years striving to please a generation of
men, who, after all, would not be pleased; and
therefore he would no longer endeavour it as he
had done.*'
It may be of use to give some account how he
managed his ministerial work in the latter part of
his time, wherein he had as signal tokens of the pre-
sence of God with him as ever ; enabling him still
to bring forth fruit in old age j and to renew his youth
lihe the eagles. Though what he did, he still did
gratis, and would do so, yet he was not willing to
have any constant assistant, nor had he any ; so
much was he in his element, when he was about his
Master's work. It was his meat and drink to do it.
1 . As to his constant sabbath work, he was uni-
form and abundant in it. He began his morning
family worship, on Lord's days, at eight o'clock,
when he read and expounded pretty largely, sung a
psalm, and prayed ; and many strove to come time
enough to join with him in that service. He began,
in public, just at nine o'clock, winter and summer.
His meeting-place was an out-building of his own,
near adjoining to his house, fitted up very decently
and conveniently for the purpose. He began with
prayer? then he sung Psalm ex. without reading
the line ; next, he read and expounded a chapter in
the Old Testament in the morning, and in the New
Lib. ▼. 2. pp. 172, 213, 394. Also, Lord Mansfield's Speech in the
House of Lords. Letters to the Hon. Mr. Justice Blackstone by
P. Fumeaux, D. D. p. 257. oct. 1771.
b P. Henry. Orig. MS.
c The Act of Unifonnity.
d A similar anecdote, and. probably, originating in this, is i«lat.
ed of the Rev. Thomas Bradbury, in the reign of King George the
First. See Wilson's History of Dissenting churches, v. a p. 514.
History of Dinenters, v. 3. p. lia
THE LIFE OP MR. PHILIP HENRY.
106
Testament in the afternoon. He looked upon the
public reading of the Scriptures in religious assem-
blies to be an ordinance of God, and that it tended
Tery much to the edification of people by that ordi-
nance, to have what is read expounded to them.
The bare reading of the word he used to compare
to the throwing of a net into the water ; but, the ex-
pounding of it is like the spreading out of that net,
which makes it the more likely to catch fish ; * espe-
eially as he managed it, with practical, profitable
observations. Some that have heard him read a
chapter with this thought, — How will he make such
I chapter as this useful to us?— have been surprised
nrith snch pertinent, useful instructions, as they
have owned to be as much for their edification as
any sermon. And, commonly, when he had ex-
pounded a chapter, he would desire them, when they
came home, to read it over, and recollect some of
those things that had been spoken to them out of it.
In his expounding of the Old Testament, he in-
dustriously sought for something in it concerning
Christ, who is the true treasure, hid in the field, the
true manna hid in the dew of the Old Testament
Take one instance : The last sabbath that ever he
spent with his children ai Chester, in the public
rooming worship, he read and expounded the last
chapter of the Book of Job. After he had gone
through the chapter, and observed what he thought
fit out of it, he expressed himself to this purpose.—
When I have read a chapter in the Old Testament,
I used to inquire what there is in it that points at
Christ, or is any way applicable to Christ Here is
in this chapter a great deal of Job, but is there no-
thing of Christ here? Yes. You have heard of the
patience of Job, and have in him seen the end of the
Lord. This in Job is applicable to Christ, that
after he had patiently gone through his sufferings,
he was appointed an intercessor for his unkind
friends. Verse 8. Go to my servant Job, and my
servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept.
If any one hath an errand to God, let him go to
Jesus Christ, and put it into his hand, for there is
no acceptance to be hoped for with God, but by him,
who is his beloved Son ; not only with whom he is
well pleased, but in whom, viz. with us in him, he
hath made us accepted in the beloved.
[On another occasion, having gone through a
course of lectures on the real types' (as distinguish-
ed from personal ') of Christ, he thus concluded the
repetition sermon, in which he had briefly recapitu-
lated the twelve topics;— Thus I have endeavour-
ed to break these shells that you may come at the
« See Matt iv. 18, 19. John xxi. 7. &c.
t Haying Mrs Savafre's liIS. copy of these excellent discourses
before me, it seems desirable to preserve here the order in which
they were delivered, and the texts.
The Lamb, from John i. 30.— Rock, 1 Cor. x. 4.~Ark. 1 Pet
iii. 18—31.— Sam, Gen. zxii. 13 — Bfanna/john vi. 48— 51.— The
brazen serpent, John ili. 14, 15.— Jacob's ladder. Gen. xxvlii. 13.
kernel. What have we need of, that is not to be
hkd in CAmf,— the marrow in all these bones? In
him we have an ark against a deluge, a ram to be
slain for us, a ladder to get to heaven by, a lamb to
take away our sins, manna to feed us, water out of
the rock to refresh us, a brazen serpent to heal us,
purification-blood to cleanse us, a scape-goat to
carry our sins into a land of forgetfulness, a city of
refuge to fly to, a temple to pray to, an altar to
sanctify all our gifts. Lo, Christ is all this, and
infinitely more, therefore we need to look for no
other.** ,
After the exposition of the chapter, he sung a
psalm, and commonly chose a psalm suitable to the
chapter he had expounded ; and would briefly tell
his hearers how they might sing that psalm with
understanding, and what affections of soul should
be working towards God, in the singing of it ; his
hints of that kind were of great use, and contributed
much to the right performance of that service ; he
often said, — The more singing of psalms there is in
our families and congregations on sabbath days, the
more like they are to heaven, and the more there
is in them of the everlasting sabbath. He would say
sometimes, he loved to sing whole psalms, rather
than pieces.
After the sermon in the morning, he sung the 117th
psalm, without reading the line.
He intermitted at noon about an hour and a half,
and on sacrament days not near so long, in which
time he took some little refreshment in his study^
making no solemn dinner ; yet many of his friends
did partake of his carnal, as well as of his spiritual,
things, as those did that followed Christ, of whom
he was careful they should not faint by the way.
The morning sermon was repeated, by a ready writer,
to those that stayed in the meeting place, as many
did ; and when that was done, he begun the after-
noon's exerpise ; in which he not only read and ex-
pounded a chapter, but catechised the children, and
expounded the catechism briefly before sermon.
Thus did he go from strength to strength, and from
duty to duty, on sabbath days; running the way
of God's commandments with an enlarged heart.
And the variety and vivacity of his public services
made them exceeding pleasant to all that joined with
him, who never had cause to complain of his being
tedious. He used to say, — Every minute of sabbath
time is precious, and none of it to be lost ; and that
he scarce thought the Lord's day well spent, if he
were not weary in body at night ; wearied with his
work, but not weary of it, as he used to distinguish.
— Tlie red heifer, Heb. ix. 13, 14.— The scape-goat, Lev. xvi. 8—
10, 21.— Cities of refuge, Josh. xx. I— 3.— Temple, John il. 19— 2L—
An altar, Hebrews xiii. ID. See ante, p. 88.
ff The personal types discussed by Mr. Henry, were,— Adam,
Melchisedec, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Samson, Joshua, David,
Solomon. Jonah, Cjrrus. Mrs. Tybton's MS.
b P. Henry. Orig. MS.
106
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
He would say ^metimes to those about him, when
he had gone through the duties of a sabbath, — Well,
if this be not the way to heaven, I do not know
what is. In pressing people to number their days,
he would especially exhort them to number their
sabbath days, how many they have been, and how
ill they have been spent ; how few it is like they may
be, that they may be spent better ; and to help in the
account, he would say, that for every twenty years
of our lives, we enjoy above a thousand sabbaths,
which must all be accounted for in the day of rec-
koning.
As to his constant preaching, it was very substan-
tial and elaborate, and greatly to edification. He
used to say, he could not starch in his preaching ;
that is, he would not ; as knowing where the lan-
guage and expression is stiff, and forced, and fine,
as they call it, it doth not reach the greatest part of
the hearers. When he grew old, he would say, sure
he might now take a greater liberty to talk, as he
called it, in the pulpit, that is, to speak familiarly
to people ; yet to the last he abated not in his pre-
parations for the pulpit, nor ever delivered any thing
raw and undigested ; much less any thing unbecom-
ing the gravity and seriousness of the work. If his
preaching was talking, it was talking to the pur-
pose. His sermons were not common-place, but
even when his subjects were the most plain and trite,
yet his management of them was usually peculiar,
and surprising. In those years, as formerly, he kept
for the most part in a method for subjects, and was
very seldom above one sabbath upon a text And
his constant practice was, as it had been before, when
he concluded a subject that he had been a good
while upon, he spent one sabbath in a brief rehearsal
of the marrow and substance of the many sermons
he preached upon it ; which he called the clenching
of the nail, that it might be as a nailin a sure place.
So very industrious was he, and no less ingenious, in
his endeavours, that his hearers might be able, after
his decease, to have these things always in remem-
brance, 2 Peter i. 15. and it is hoped, that, by the
blessing of God, the effect did not altogether disap-
i Thus in a discourse on Rom. ▼. 12. J7y on* man gin entered into
the world ; after showing that sin consists in the want of original
righteousness, and in the corruption of the whole nature, he re.
marked that a natural state is,—
An estate of distance from God, Eph. ii. 13. Luke xr. 13. Gen.
iii. & Eph. iv. 1&
Desperate enmity against God, Rom. viii. 7. Rom. i. 30.
Universal disorder in the whole man. That which should obey,
rules : the will rules the understanding ; the afl'ections the Judg.
ment ; the body the soul : alluding to Eccles. x. 6, 7.
A dark state, Eph. v. 8. Eph. It. 18. Nay, not only void of light,
but hating it, resisting it, not receiving niiitoal things, 1 Cor.
ii. 14.
A defiled state, Ps. xiv. 3. Eiek. xvi 6. Ps. Ii. 5, 7.
A diseased state, Isaiah i. 6.
Dead to every thing that is good, Eph. ii. L No will, desire, or
inclination to do the will of God, no more than a dead man hath
to any natural action of life.
point his expectation. In the latter times of his
ministry he would often contrive the heads of his
sermons to begin with the same letter, or rather two
and two of a letter ;' but he did not at ail seem to
affect or force it ; only if it fell in naturally and
easily, he thought it a good help to memory, and of
use, especially to the younger sort And he would
say, the chief reason why he did it was, because it
is frequently observed in the Scripture, particularly
the Book of Psalms. And though it be not a fashion-
able ornament of discourse, if it be a scripture orna-
ment, that is sufficient to recommend it, at least to
justify it against the imputation of childishness. Mr.
Porter, of Whitchurch, very much used it ; so did
Mr. Maiden. But the excellency of his sermons lay
chiefly in the enlargements, which were always very
solid, grave, and judicious ; but in expressing and
marshalling his heads, he often condescended below
his own judgment, to help his hearers' memories.
Some of his subjects, whence had finished them, be
made some short memorandums of in verse,*^ a dis-
tich or two of each sabbath's work, and gave them
out in writing, among the young ones of his congre-
gation, many of whom wrote them, and learned them,
and profited by them.'
It might be of use, especially to those who had
the happiness of sitting under his ministry, to give
some account of the method of his sabbath subjects,
during the last eight or nine years of his ministry ;
and it was designed, till it was found it would swell
this narrative into too great a bulk.*"
2. As to the administration of the sacraments,
those mysteries of God, which ministers are the
stewards of.
As to the sacrament of baptism, he had never,
that I know of, baptized any children except his
own, from the time he was turned out in 1662, till
his last liberty came, though often desired to do it ;
such was the tender regard he had to the establish-
ed church ; but now he revived the administration
of that ordinance . in his congregation. The occa-
sion was this : One of the parish ministers, preach-
ing at White well chapel, — Mr. Henry and his family,
Disposed to all manner of evil, Hos. xi. 7. bent, as the bowl to
follow the bias.
Disabled for ever to help himself out of this condition, Ezek.
xvi. 1, 2, 3,kc. Rom. v. 6. without strength ; nay, refusing help when
offered ; alluding to Luke xiii. 11. P. Henry. Orlg. MS.
k A godly minister in Wales, perceiving his people to be igno-
rant, and also much addicted to singing, at last took this course;
—he turned the subject of his sabbath sermon into a song, and
gave it to his parishioners ; and it did good. Much of God's mind
is revealed in Scripture by songs. P. Henry. From Matthew
Henry's MS.
The allusion is supposed to be to the Rev. Rees Prichard, author
of the Welshman's Candle. See a version of part o^* this useful
poem, entitled, The Vicar of Llandovery, a Light ft-om the Welsh-
man's Candle, " by John Bulmer." duod. 18*21. Preface, pp. x.
xvi. &c. Mr. Prichard died in 1644, et. 60.
1 Appendix, No. XIIC
m Appendix, No. XX.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
107
and many of his friends, being present, — was earn-
estly cautioning people not to go to conventicles,
and used this as an argument against it, — *' That
they were baptized into the Church of England."
Mr. Henr3r's catholic charity could not well digest
this monopolizing of the great ordinance of baptism,
and thought it time to bear his testimony against
such narrow principles, which he ever expressed his
dislike of in all parties and persuasions. Accord-
ingly he took the next opportunity that offered itself,
publicly to baptize a child, and desired the congre-
gation to bear witness,— That he did not baptize
that child into the church of England, nor into the
church of Scotland, nor into the church of the Dis-
senters, nor into the church at Broad Oak, but into
the visible catholic church of Jesus Christ. After
this he baptized very many, and always publicly,
though, being in the country, they were commonly
carried a good way. The public administration of
baptism, he not only judged most agreeable to
the nature and end of the ordinance, but found to
be very proOtable and edifying to the congregation ;
for he always took that occasion, not only to explain
the nature of the ordinance, but affectionately and
pathetically to excite people duly to improve their
baptism. He usually received the child immediately
oot of the hands of the parent that presented it, and
returned it into the same hands again, with this, or
the like charge ; — Take this child, and bring it up for
God. He used to say, that one advantage of public
baptism was, that there were many to join in prayer
for the child, in which therefore, and in blessing
God for it, he was usually very large and particular.
After he had baptized the child, before he gave it
back to the parent, he commonly used these words ;
-.We receive this child into the congregation of
Christ's church, having washed it with water, in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost, in token, that, hereafter, it shall not be
ashamed to confess Christ crucified, and manfully
to fight, &c.
He baptized many adult persons, that, through the
error of their parents, were not baptized in infancy,
and some in public.
The solemn ordinance of the Lord's supper he
constantly celebrated in his congregation once a
month, and always to a very considerable number
of communicants. He did not usually observe pub-
lic days of preparation for that ordinance, other
than as they fell in course in the weekly lectures ;
nor did he ever appropriate any particular sub-
■ The peculiar work of deacons, according to the primitive in-
ititation, was the serving tables, and making a prudent and Taith-
'al distribution of the stock of the society, Acts vi. 2. Dr. Lard-
lers Works, vol. ii. p. ix. oct. 1788. Watts's Works, v. 4. p. 146.
xrt. isia Some of them, perhaps all, were occasionally preach-
trs ; but this was no part of their office astieacons. Mr. Newton.
Review of Ecclesiastical History. Works, v. 3. p. fi7 oct. 1808.
• 1687a Sab. Mar. 11, 1 spent still at dear Broad Oak; many I
ject of his preaching to. sacrament days, having
a great felicity in adapting any profitable subject
to such an occasion : and he would say ; — ^What
did the primitive Christians do, when they cele-
brated the Lord's supper every Lord's day? His
administration of this ordinance was very solemn
and affecting. He had been wont to go about in
the congregation, and to deliver the elements with
his own hand ; but, in his latter time, he deliver-
ed them only to those near him, and so they were
handed from one to another, with the assistance
of one who supplied the office of a deacon," as hav-
ing also the custody and disposal of the money
gathered for the use of the poor ; Mr. Henry taking,
and carefully keeping, a particular account of it
Such as desired to be admitted to the Lord's sup-
per, he first discoursed with concerning their spirit-
ual state, and how the case stood between God and
their souls ; not only to examine them, but to in-
struct and teach them, and to encourage them, as he
saw occasion ; gently leading those whom he dis-
cerned to be serious, though weak and timorous. He
usually discoursed with them more than once, as
finding precept upon precept, and line upon line, ne-
cessary ; but he did it with so much mildness, and
humility, and tenderness, and endeavour to make
the best of every body, as did greatly affect and
win upon many. He was herein like our great
Master, who can have compassion on the ignorant^
and doth not despise the day of small things.
But his admission of young people out of the rank
of catechumens into that of communicants, had a
peculiar solemnity in it Such as he catechised,
when they grew up to some years of discretion, if
he observed them to be intelligent and serious, and
to set their faces heavenwards, he marked them out
to be admitted to the Lord's supper, and, when he
had a competent number of such, twelve or fifteen,
perhaps, or more, he ordered each of them to come
to him severally, and discoursed with them of the
things belonging to their everlasting peace ; put it
to their choice, whom they would iAtx\e ; and en-
deavoured to affect them with those things with
which, by their catechisms, they had been made ac-
quainted ; drawing them with the cords of a man,
and the bands of love, into the way which is called holy.
For several Lord's days he catechised them, par-
ticularly in public, touching the Lord's supper,*' and
the duty of preparation for it, and their baptismal
covenant, which in that ordinance they were to take
upon themselves, and to make their own act and
sweet lessons taught us. The subject,— that a bold spirit is an ex-
cellent spirit; but I was most affected with the catechising, which
was not then of the children, but the young persons who are
shortly to be admitted to the Lord's supper. After many serious
exhortations and questions, all the company, as well as dear
father, were much aflfected, when tears would scarce let him say
any more than,— God bless you! Mrs. Savage. Diary, Orig.
MS.
106
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
deed. Often telling tbem upon such occasions, that
they were not to oblige themselves to any more than
what they were already obliged to by their baptism,
only to bind themselves faster to it. Then he ap-
pointed a day in the week before the ordinance ;
when, in a solemn assembly on purpose, he prayed
for them, and preached a sermon p to them, proper
to their age and circumstances ; and so the follow-
ing sabbath they were all received together to the
Lord's supper. This he looked upon as the right
confirmation, or transition into the state of adult
church-membership. The more solemn our cove-
nanting with God is, the more deep and the more
durable the impressions are likely to be. He hath
recorded it in his Diary, upon one of these occasions,
as his heart's desire and prayer for those who were
thus admitted ;~^That it might be as the day of
their espousals to the Lord Jesus, and that they
might each of them have a wedding-garment
3. The discipline he observed in his congregation
was, not such as he could have vdshed for, but the
best he could get, considering what a scattered flock
he had, which was his trouble ; but it could not be
helped. He would sometimes apply to the circum-
stances he was in, that of Moses, Deuteronomy xii.
8, 9. However, I see not but the end was effectually
attained by the methods he took, though there
wanted the formality of officers and church-meet-
ings for the purpose. If he heard of any that walked
disorderly, he sent for them, and reproved them
gently, or sharply, as he saw the case required. If
the sin had scandal in it, he suspended them from
the ordinance of the Lord's supper till they gave
some tokens of their repentance and reformation.
And where the offence was public and gross, his
judgment was, that some public satisfaction should
be made to the congregation before re-admission.
But, whatever offence did happen, or breaches of
the Christian peace, Mr. Henry's peculiar excel-
lence lay in restoring with the spirit of meekness i^
which with his great prudence, and love, and con-
descension, did so much command the respect of
his people, and win upon them, that there was a
universal satisfaction in all his management ; and
it may be truly said of him, as it was of David, 2
Samuel iii. 36, that whatsoever he did pleased all
the people. And it is an instance and evidence,
p Once he preached on that occasion, on 1 Cor. xiii. U; at ano-
ther time on 2 Chron. xzx. & another, on 1 Chron. xxix. IL Lire.
Orig. MS. ut ntpra.
4 Meekness is a grace of the Spirit, Gal. v. 2*2, 23. and is of
general use to us in every thing we do, both towards God and
man, James iii. 13. Meelcness in the understanding is seen in
receiving the truths of God. James i. 21. Meekness in the will
is seen in yielding to his commands. Matt xi. 29. The proper
work of meekness is to compose, and cool, and quiet the spirit.
It regulates anger in its cause, measure, and continuance, Eph.
It. 26. We must answer with meekness, I Pet iii. 15. We roust
instruct with meekness, 2 Tim. ii. 25. We must restore with
meekness. Gal. vi. L We must bear reproaches with meekness,
that those ministers who will rule by love and meek-
ness, need no laws or canons to rule by, other than
those of the Holy Scripture. — How forcible are right
words! Job vi. 25.
4. He was very strict and very serious in observ-
ing the public fasts appointed by authority, and
called them a delight He had seldom any one to
assist him in carrying on the duties of those days,
but performed the service of them himself alone.
He began at nine of the clock, or quickly after, and
never stirred out of the pulpit till about four in the
afternoon, spending all that time in praying, and
expounding, and singing, and preaching, to the ad-
miration of all that heard him, who were generally
more on such days than usual. And he was some-
times observed to bd more warm and lively towards
the latter end of the duties of a fast day than at the
beginning ; as if the spirit were most willing and
enlarged when the flesh was most weak. In all his
performances on public fast days, he did, hoc agere,
attend to that which was the proper work of the day ;
every thing is beautiful in its season. His prayers
and pleadings with God on those days, were especi-
ally for national mercies, and the pardon of national
sins. How excellently did he order the cause before
God, and fill his mouth with arguments in his large
and particular intercessions for the land, for the king,
the government, the army, the navy, the church, the
French Protestants, &c. He was another Jacob, a
wrestler, an Israel, a prince with God.^ Before a
fast day, he would be more than ordinarily inquisi-
tive concerning the state of public affairs, as Nehe-
miah was, Nehemiah i. 2. that he might know the
better how to order his prayers and preaching ; for,
on such a day, he hath sometimes said, — As good
say nothing, as nothing to the purpose. He made
it his business on fast-days, to show people their
transgressions, especially the house of Jacob their
sins. — It is most proper, said he, to preach of Christ
on Lord's days, to preach of sin on fast days, and to
preach duty on both. He went over the third chap-
ter of the Revelations, in the fast sermons of two
years. Another year he preached over the particu-
lars of that charge,* Zephaniah iii. 2. Hypocrisy
in hearers, and flattery in preachers, as he would
sometimes say, is bad at any time, but it is especially
abominable upon a day of humiliation.
Numb. xii. 2, 3. 2 Sam. xvi 7, 8. We must bear reproofs with
meekness. Meekness towards God stands opposed to murmuring
and repining at his dealings with us. The language will be,— /r
it tk* LvrJt Ut kirn do what $eemeth him good. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
r 16P7.8 Sab. Sept. 4. I oft think of a petition of dear praying
ftther, now with God. thus;— Let O Lord, the blessing of the
ordinances reach these whose hearts are with us here to.day,
though their persons \x not. God grant I may tread in his steps,
and be truly of the seed of this praying Jacob, who was so mighty
in tliat duty. Mrs. Savage's Diary. Orig. MS.
• See P. Henry's Seipaons, oct t8I9. pp. 226, 242, 269. Also, a
Sermon on the Fifth of November, by P. Henry. Evan. Mag. vol.
xxviii. p. 456.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
100
5. He preached a greiR many lectures in the coun-
try about, some stated, some occasional, in suppljring
of which he was very indefatigable. He hath some-
times preached a lecture, ridden eight or nine miles,
and preached another, and the next day two more.
To quicken himself to diligence he would often say,
—Our opportunities arc passing away, and we must
work while it is day, for the night cometh. Once,
having very wet and foul weather to go through to
preach a lecture, he said, he comforted himself with
two scriptures ; one was, 2 Timothy ii. 3. — Endure
Urdness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ ; the other,
because he exposed and hazarded his health, for
which some blamed him, was, 2 Samuel vi. 21. — It
was before the Lord. He took all occasions in his
lectures abroad, to possess the minds of people with
sober and moderate principles, and to stir them up
to the serious regard of those things wherein we are
all agreed.— .We are not met here together, said he,
once in an exhortation, with which he often began
at bis lecture, because we think ourselves better than
others, but because we desire to be better than we
are.
He was very happy in the choice of his subjects
for his week-day lecture. At one, which was stated,
he preached against errors ^ in general, from James
i. 16. — Do not err, my beloved brethren ; — ^particu-
larly, from divers other scriptures he showed, that
we must not err concerning God, and Christ, and
the Spirit ; concerning sin and repentance^ faith
and good works ; concerning God's ordinances ;
concerning grace and peace, and afflictions and
prosperity, and the things of the life to come."
[At another lecture, he considered what the peo-
ple of God are compared to in Scripture. They are
ike salt of the earth ; the light of the world ; God's
witnesses ; the planting of the Lord ; his husbandry ;
his building. '''\
At the monthly lectures at his own house, he chose
to preach upon the four last things, death and judg-
ment, heaven and hell, in many particulars, but
commonly a new text for every sermon. When he
had, in many sermons, finished the first of the four,
one that used to hear him sometimes, inquiring of
his progress in his subjects, asked him if he had
done with death, meaning that subject concerning
death ; to which he pleasantly replied ; — No, I have
not done with him yet. I must have another turn
with him, and he will give me a fall ; but I hope to
have the victory at last. He would sometimes re-
t Appendix, No. XXL
■ As a preservative against error, get truth of grace, and grow
in it, % Pet. ifi. 17, 18. Heb. ziii. 0. Matt. xxiv. 34. Be filled with
knowledge, especially in fundamentals, Biatt. xiii. 29. Ps. cxix.
104, te. Get an humble heart, Ps. cxxxi. 1, S. Ps. zxy. 9. Receive
the truth in the love of it, STheas. ii. le, 11. John vii. 17. Be much
in secret prayer ; prey for the Spirit, who is given to lead into
truth, John xvf . la Maintain communion with the saints ; come
not near seducers, 2 Cor. vi. 17. Prov. iv. 14, 15. 2 John 10. Jer.
move the lectures in the coimtry from one place to
another, for the benefit of those that could not travel.
Once having adjourned a lecture to a new place, he
began it with a sermon on Acts xvii. 6 — These men
that have turned the woi'ld upside down, are come
hither also ; in which he showed how false the charge
is as they meant it ; for religion doth not disturb the
peace of families, or societies, doth not cause any
disorder or unquietness, &c. And yet, that in an-
other sense there is a great truth in it, — that, when
the gospel comes in power to any soul, it turns the
world upside down in that soul ; such is the change
it makes there.
All this he did gratis, and without being burthen-
some to any ; nay, he was best pleased, when, at
the places where he preached, nothing was got for
his entertainment, but he came home, though some
miles, fasting; as in other places it was a trouble
to him to see his friends careful about much serv-
ing, though it was out of their respect to him.
Lastly. As he was an excellent preacher himself,
so he was an exemplary hearer of the word, when
others preached, though every way his inferiors ; so
reverent, serious, and attentive was he in hearing,
and so observant of what was spoken. I have heard
him tell, that he knew one, and I suppose it was as
Paul knew a man in Christ, who could truly say,
to the glory of God, that for forty years he had
never slept at a sermon.
[He would sometimes remark; — ^Those who are
ordinarily drowsy in hearing the word of God, and
allow themselves in it, are next door to some great
affliction, or great temptation, or on the declining
hand.*]
He was diligent also to improve what he heard
afterwards by meditation, repetition, prayer, and
discourse ; and he was a very great encourager of
young ministers that were humble and serious,
though their abilities and performances were but
mean. He hath noted in his Diary, as that which
affected him, this sajring of a godly man, a hearer
of his ;— *< I find it easier to go six miles to hear a
sermon, than to spend one quarter of an hour in me-
ditating and praying over it in secret, as I should,
when I come home."
As to the circumstances of his family in these last
nine years of his life, they were somewhat different
from what they had been ; but the same candley of
God, which had shined upon his tabernacle, con-
tinued still to do so. In the years 1687 and 1688,
xziii. 16. Keep up due esteem of ministers whom God hath set
over you, Heb. xiii. 7, 17. 1 Thess. v. 12, 18. Jer. vi. W, 17. Eph. iv.
II, &c. Mai. ii. 2,7. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
▼ Life. Orig. MS. s/Mpro.
w From an authentic MS. believed to be in the hand-writing of
his daughter. Mrs. Tylston.
z Appendix, No XXII.
y See Job xxix. 3.
110
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
he married all his five children ; the three eldest in
four months' time, in the year 1687 ; and the other
two in a year and a half after ; so many swarms, as
he used to call them, out of his hive ;' and all, not
only with his full consent, but to his abundant com-
fort and satisfaction. He would say, he thought it
the duty of parents to study to oblige their children
in that affair. And though never could children be
more easy and at rest in a father's house than his
were, yet he would sometimes say concerning them,
as Naomi to Ruth, Ruth iii. 1. — Shall I not seek rest
for thee f Two advices he used to give, both to his
children and others, in their choice of that relation.
One was : — Keep within the bounds of profession,
such as one may charitably hope is from a good
principle. The other was; — Look at suitableness
in age, quality, education, temper, &c. He used
to observe, from Genesis ii. 18. — I will make him a
help meet for him, — ^that where there is not meet-
ness, there will not be much help. And he would
commonly say to his children, with reference to that
choice ;— Please God, and please yourselves, and
you shall never displease me ; and greatly blamed
those parents, who conclude matches for their chil-
dren, and do not ask counsel at their mouth.
[When the proposal made to his youngest daugh-
ter was communicated to him, his sentiments were
expressed in the following letter : —
My dear Daughter ;
Your present affair we can truly say was no less
a surprise to us, than it was to you ; but we have
learned, both from our fixed belief of God's uni-
versal providence in every thing, and his particular
special providence towards those that fear him, and
also from our last year's experience, once and again,
of his doing that for us which we looked not for ; —
to cease our wonder,* and to apply ourselves, as we
ought to do, to our duty. We would have you do
so likewise ; saying, as Paul, which was the first
word that grace spoke in him,— Xoref, what wilt thou
have me to do ^ Your way is, in the first place, to
acknowledge God, not only in the thing itself, but
in all the motions and events of it ; and if you do
so, he will direct you ; that is, guide, and bless,
and succeed your steps. You are, next, to admit
the person -into your converse, as in another case,
1 Timothy v. 2. with all purity ; that is, at no unfit-
ting time, in no unfitting place, manner, or other
circumstance ; as it will not be desired, so neither
t Probably in allusion to Shakspeare :—
*' All's well that end's well." - Act I, sc. 2.
I after him, do after him wish too.
Since I nor wax, nor honey, can bring home,
1 quickly were dissolved from «y AiW.
To give some labourer room.
• See the Sure Guide to Heaven, by Joseph Alleine, pp. 235,
345. ed. 1704 duod.
b See asae, p. 10.
c See the Investigator, v. 7. p. 70. Also the works of the Rev.
ought it to be granted. Y\>ur end, herein, is to be
the same with his ; your next end that you may be
acquainted with each other's temper and disposition.
Especially that you may feel the pulse of each
other's soul, how it beats towards God, and his
works and ways. As the agreement is in that, ac-
cordingly will be much of the sweetness and comfort
of the condition.
As to the calling, estate, and other things of that
kind, I am glad you know, and am more glad you
have espoused, Mr. AUeyn's six principles,* which
are the same in practice, and are of as great use and
influence, as Mr. Perkins's Six Principles^ in Doc-
trine ; and, therefore, hold to them. If height and
fulness in the world were the things that would
make us happy, those who have them would be
the happy people ; but it is not so. It shall be my
endeavour, as far as I can, to inform myself how
things are in those matters, that there may be no
mistake on either side, and then to do as there
shall be cause. You will remember one thing,
which you have often heard from me in others' cases,
though never in your own, and that is, — To keep
yourself free from all engagements, by promise, till
the time come when it shall be thought proper, by
mutual consent, that I contract you,^ which will be
time enough for you to do that. To how many hath
the not observing this rule been a snare ! We are
truly thoughtful for you, you may well believe, but
must not be too thoughtful. Unto God we must,
and do, commit our way in it, and so must you yours,
— casting all our care upon him, for he careth for us.
We have, hitherto, found his contrivances best, not
ours. I am glad you have so worthy a friend as
Mrs. M. K. to unbosom yourself to, and to help to
advise you, and pray for you. I told your brother
when I thought it would be convenient you should
come home. If he has not opportunity of sending
you then, we shall, soon after, God willing, send for
you. Our love and blessing is to him, and our
daughter, and to your dear self, having confidence in
you in all things, (2 Corinthians vii. 16. — but it is
through the Lord, as it is limited, Galatians v. 10.)
that you will act as I have counselled you.
Committing you to his protection and guidance,
I rest. Your loving father,
Feb. 17, 1687-8. Philip Henry.«»]
He never aimed at gpreat things* in the world for
his children, but sought for them, in the first place,
It Greenham, p. 174. fol. 1805. where there is a Treatise of a Con-
tract before Marriage.
d Orig. MS.
• Having in view, very likely, the pithy couplet of his admired
poet, George Herbert :—
'* For gold and grace did never yet agree ;
Religion always sides with povenie.**
The Temple, &c. «/ gvpra^ 191. Also, Clark's Lives annexed to
theMartyrologie, p. 152. «/ iwprs.
THE UFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
Ill
the kingdom of God, and the righteousnest thereof.
He uaed to mention, sometimes, the saying of a pious
gentlewoman, that had many daughters ; — " The
eare of most people is how to get good husbands for
their daughters ; but my care is to fit my daughters
to be good wives, and then let God provide for them."
In this, as in other things, Mr. Henry steered by
that principle, — ^That a tnan*s life consisteth not in
tke ahmndance of the things that he possesseth. And
it pleased God so to order it, that all his children
were disposed of, into circumstances very agreeable
and comfortable, both for life and godliness. He
was greatly affected with the goodness of God to
him herein, without any forecast or contrivance of
his own.— The country, saith he, in his Diary, takes
notice of it, and what then shall I render? Surely,
this is a token for good.
[Speaking of the arrangements of outvrard com-
forts, and the eagerness of the affections towards
them, he would remark, that, — God hath three hands,
wherewith he distributes earthly things : A hand of
common providence ; with this he feeds the ravens,
when they cry. A hand of special love ; vnth this
be feeds his children, who commit their way to him,
and put their trust in him. A hand of anger and
wrath ; with this he gives to those who are impatient:
they must and will be rich ; they must and will have
this or that.' In gifts from men we look more at the
mind of the giver than the value of the gift. So
should we in gifts from God. Have / his love with
what I have ? Then I am well enough. If other-
wise, it is but a sad portion ; as a golden suit with
the plague in it.<]
All his four daughters were married at Whitewell
chapel, and he preached a wedding-sermon** for
each of them in his own family after.'
He would often tell his friends, that those who
desire, in the married condition, to live in the favour
of God, must enter upon that condition in the fear
of God. For it is an ill omen to stumble at the
threshold ; and an error in the first concoction is
seldom amended in the second.
While he lived he had much comfort in all his
children, and their yoke-fellows, and somewhat the
more, that, by the Divine Providence, four of the
^we families which branched out of his, were settled
in Chester.
His youngest daughter*^ was married April 26,
1688, the same day of the year, as he observes in his
Diary, and the same day of the week, and in the
f UpoD those men who escape the curse of Adam, Genesis iii.
10.— /a tJkt twtat of dijf fact ikait thorn eat brtad,'--God commonly
loSicts the serpent's curse ; verse 14.— Upo» thy holly thalt tkom go,
imat ohalt tkoa oat. Those usually that have most dote most upon
vrhat they have, Krovclling in the earth, &c. We must use riches
Bs thorns; make a hedge, and stop gaps with them; but by no
means make a bed oT them, as that fool, Luke xii. 19. P. Henry.
Com. PI. Book,Orig. MS.
ff P. Heury. Orig. MS.
same place, that he was married to his dear wife,
twenty-eight years before ; upon which, this is his
remark ; — I cannot desire for them, that they should
receive more from God than we have received, in
that relation and condition ; but I would desire, and
do desire, that they may do more for God in it than
we have done.
His usual compliment to his new-married friends,
was ; — Others wish you all happiness, I wish you all
holiness, and then there is no doubt but you will
have all happiness.
When the marriage of the last of his daughters
was about to be concluded on, he thus writes ; — But
f« Joseph gone, and Simeon gone, and must Benjamin
go also ? We will not say, that all these things are
against us, but for us. If we must be thus, in this
merciful way, bereaved of our children, let us be
bereaved ; and God turn it for good to them, as we
know he ^ill, if they love and fear his name. And
when, some time after she was married, he parted
with her to the house of her husband, he thus writes ;
— We have sent her away, not as Laban said he
would have sent his daughters away, with mirth,
and with songs, with tabret, and with harp, but Mith
prayers, and tears, and hearty good wishes. — And
now, saith he, in his Diary, we are alone again, as
we were in our beginning. God bo better to us than
twenty children. Upon the same occasion he thus
writes to a dear relation ;— We are now left as we
were, one and one, and yet but one one ; the Lord, I
trust, that has brought us thus far, will enable us to
finish well ;' and then all will be well, and not till
then.
That which he often mentioned, as the matter of
his great comfort that it was so, and his desire that
it might continue so, was the love and unity that was
among his children; and that, as he vmtes, the
transplanting of them into new relations, had not
lessened that love, but rather increased it ; for this
he often gave thanks to the God of love ; noting,
from Job i. 4 ; — That the children's love to one an-
other is the parents' comfort and joy. In his last
will and testament, this is the prayer which he puts
up for his children, — That the Lord would build
them up in holiness, and continue them still in bro-
therly lovC; as a bundle of arrows which cannot be
broken.
When his children were removed from him, he
was a daily intercessor at the throne of grace
for them, and their families. Still the bumt-offer-
h For a singular Collection of Wedding Sermons, see the Anec-
dotes of Literature and Scarce Books, by the Rev. W. Beloe, v.
3. pp. 100—109, oct. 1%08 ;— •• Every one of which, IVom some cause
or other, the whin»sicality of the title, the phraseology, or the
matter, is an object of curiosity." lb. p. 100.
i Appendix, No. XXIII.
k See mtto.
1 Sec Acts XX. 24.
112
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
ings were offered according to the number of them all.
He used to say ; — Surely, the children of so many
prayers will not miscarry. Their particular circum-
stances of affliction and danger were sure to be men-
tioned by him with suitable petitions. The greatest
affliction he saw in his family, was the death of his
dear daughter-in-law, Catharine,*" the only daughter
of Samuel Hardware, Esq. ; who, about a year and
a half after she was transplanted into his family, to
which she was the greatest comfort and ornament
imaginable, died of the small-pox in child-bed, upon
the Thanksgiving-day for King William's coming
in. She died but a few weeks after Mr. Henry had
married the last of his daughters ; upon which
marriage she had said ; — " Now we have a full lease,
God only knows which life will drop first.'' She
comforted herself in the extremity of her illness
with this word ;— '^ Well, when I come to heaven, I
shall see that I could not have been without this
affliction." She had been for some time before
under some fears as to her spiritual state, but the
clouds were, through grace, dispelled, and she
finished her course with joy, and a cheerful expect-
ation of the glory to be revealed. When she lay ill,
Mr. Henry, being in fear not only for her that was
ill, but for the rest of his children in Chester, who
had none of them past the pikes ° of that perilous
distemper, wrote thus to his son, on the evening of
the Lord's day.— I have just done the public work
of this day, wherein, before many scores of witnesses,
many of whom, I dare say, are no little concerned for
you, I have absolutely, freely, and unreservedly,
given you all up to the good-will and pleasure of
our heavenly Father, waiting what he will do with
us, for good I am sure we have received, and shall
we not receive evil also ? He preached at Chester,
upon occasion of that sad breach in his family,
on Job X. 3. — Shew me wherefore thou contendest
with me. ,
When two of his children lay ill, and in perilous
circumstances, after he had been wrestling with
God in prayer for them, he wrote thus in his 0f ary ;
— If the Lord will be pleased to grant me my request
this time concerning my children, I will not say as
the beggars at our door used to do ;-— I'll never ask
any thing of him again ; but, on the contrary, he
shall hear oftener from me than ever ; and I will
m See Tong*s Lire of the Rev. Matthew Henry, 105. &c. utswpra.
Her epitaph U preserved in the History of Che^re, «/ tvpra, vol.
1. p. S6S; and a pedigree of the Hardware family, A. vol. 3. p. tsi.
Mr. Matthew Henry bewailed his loss in some pathetic lines
which were first printed in the Evan. Mag. v. 3. p. 351 ; and, a little
altered, v. 29. p. 163.
B Mr. Paul Bayne, in his Christian Letters, «/ npra, p. 346. urges
for consolation, that it is,—*' promised we shall paue the pik*», and
bring forth, though with sorrowes.** In another of his works he
says;— " We see that who will keepe life and power in his course,
endeavouring a good conscience in all things, they must fouttht
pikn of evill tongues which are shaken against them.** The Triall
of a Christian's Estate, p. 37. duod. 1637. See also Bishop Saun.
love God the better, and love prayer the better, as
long as I live. He uted to say, — ^Tradesmen take it ill
if those that are in their books go to another shop.
While we are so much indebted to God for past mer-
cies, we are bound to attend him for further mercies.
As he was an intercessor for his children at the
throne of grace, so he was upon all occasions a re-
membrancer to them, both by word and letter, to
quicken them to that which is good. How often
did he inculcate this upon them ? Love one another,
and the God of love and peace will be with you. Do
all you can, while you are together, to help one an-
other to heaven, that you may be together there, for
ever, and with the Lord. When the families of his
children were in health and peace, the candle of
God shining upon their tabernacles, he wrote thus
to them ; — It was one of Job's comforts in his pros-
perity, that his children loved one another, and
feasted together. The same is ours in you, which,
God continue. But you will not be offended, if we
pray that you may none of you curse God in your
hearts. Kemember the wheel is always in motion,
and the spoke that is uppermost will be under,** and
therefore mix tremblings always with your joy.
He much rejoiced in the visits of his children,
and made that, as other things, which were the mat-
ter of his rejoicing, the matter of his thanksgiving.
His usual saying, at parting, was ;— This is not the
world we are to be together in, and it is well it is
not ; but there is such a world before us. And his
usual prayer was,— That our next meeting might be
either in heaven, or further on in our way towards it
He had, in eight years' time, twenty-four grand-
children bom ; some by each of his children ; con-
cerning whom he would often bless God, that they
were all the sealed ones of the God of heaven, and
enrolled among his lambs. On the birth of his se-
cond grand-child, at a troublesome time as to pub-
lic affairs, he thus writes ;— I have now seen my cAt7-
dren*s children ; let me also see peace upon Israel ;
and then I will say,— Xorcf, now lettest thou thy ser-
vant depart. Some were much affected with it,
when he baptized two of his gprand-children together
at Chester, publicly, and preached on Genesis xzziii.
5. — Tltey are the children which God hath graciously
given thy servant. He observed in what a savoury,
pious, gracious manner Jacob speaks. He had
derBon*s Thirty-four Sermons, p. 34. fol. 1674 1 and an Expositioa
of the Ten Commandments, by John Dod and Robert Cleaver, p.
16. 4to. 1632.
An Old Biographer says ;~There are no preachers so experi-
mental, spiritual, powerf\il, courageous, awakening, convincing,
converting, compassionate, comforting, as those who have passed
tknmgh tkt pikn. Life of lilr. John Murcot, p. 5. prefixed to his
Works, ut nipra.
o Heavenly honour and glory, like a pole, or axle-tree, is fixed
and immoveable; but earthly is like a wheel that turns over and
over, and runs round ; that part which is now above, or aloft, will
by and by be below, and at bottom. Precepts for Christian Prac-
tice, by Edward Reyner. p. 184. duod. 1668. edit. 13th.
tHE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
113
spoken good sense if he had only said ; they are my
children ; bat then he had not spoken like Jacob,
like one that had so lately seen the face of God.
Though onr speech be not always of grace, yet it
most be always with grace ; grace poured into the
fips. There is a kind of language, the air of which
speaks it the lan^vAge of Canaan, Christians should
speak like Christians.
It was not long after his children were married
from him, but his house was filled again with the
children of several of his friends, whom he was, by
much importunity, persuaded to take to table with
him.' All that knew him, thought it a thousand
pities that such a master of a family should have
but a small family, and should not have many to sit
down under his shadow.^ He was first almost ne-
cessitated to it, by the death of his dear friend and
kinsman, Mr. Benyon, of Ash, who left his children
to his care. Some he took gratis, or for small con-
sideration ; and when, by reason of the advances of
age, he could not go about so much as he had done,
doing good, he laid out himself to do the more at
home. He kept a teacher to attend their school-
learning ; and they had the benefit not only of his
inspection in that, but, which was much more, his
family worship, sabbath instructions, catechising,
and daily converse, in which his tongue was as choice
silver^ and his lips fed many. Nothing but the hopes
of doing some good to the rising generation could
have prevailed virith him, to take this trouble upon him.
He would often say ; — We have a busy house, but
there is a rest remaining. We must be doing some-
thing in the world while we are in it ; but this fashion
will not last long, methinks I see it passing away.
Sometimes he had such with him as had gone
through their course of university-learning, at pri-
vate academies, and desired to spend some time in
his family, before their entrance upon the ministry,
Aat they might have the benefit, not only of his
public and family instructions, but of his learned
and pious converse,' in which, as he was thoroughly
furnished for every good word and work, so he was
very free and communicative. The great thing
which he used to press upon those who intended the
ministry, was to study the Scriptures, and make them
familiar. Bonus textuarius est bontis theologusj was
a maxim he often minded them of. For this purpose
he recommended to them the study of the Hebrew,
that they might be able to search the Scriptures in
F It would be interesting to see a list of his "Tablera," as his
papos desiirnate them, but an effort to furnish one has proved in-
elfectuaL Dr. Latbanu in a " Sermon preached at Uttoxeter, Biay
a6w 1745, on occasion of the Death of the Rev. Mr. Daniel BSadock,"
says ;—*« His first years were spent in old Mr. Philip Henry's fiu
mily. vbere be was early formed to piety as well as instructed in
good literatiire.** p. 27. oct 1745.
^ See SoL Song. cb. ii. v. a
r Mr. WUaoB, ofWarwick. an eminent young minister, (See Tong's
life ofMatthew Henry, pp. 48. 271 ) before he undertook a public
chaige doifed to spend some time in the family of the excellent
the original. He also advised tlicm to the use of an
interleaved Bible, wherein to iusertsuch expositions
and observations as occur occasionally in sermons
or other books : which he would say, are more happy
and considerable sometimes, than those that are
found in the professed conunentators. When some
young men desired the happiness of coming into his
family, he would tell them ; — You come to roe, as
Naaman did to Elisha, expecting that I should do
this and the other for you, and, alas, I can but say
as he did. Go, wash in Jordan, Go, study the Scrip-
tures. I profess to teach no other learning but
scripture-learning.
[Sometimes he would say ; — Prefer having eyes to
read the Scriptures, and be blind to every thing else,
rather than to read every thing else, and neglect the
Bible.* Christ is the lesson there taught, and it is a
lesson which it will do us abundant good to learn.
It is unspeakably satisfying to the understanding.
It is both sweet and comfortable, refreshing and
joyous. It is strangely renewing and changing
within, as to the inner man, by making the tree good,
bowing the will, and raising the affections ; and as
strangely reforming and mending without, in the
life and conversation.^]
It was but a little before he died, that, in reading
Isaiah 1. he observed, from verse 4. — The Lord hath
given me the tongue of the learned, ^'c. — That the true
learning of a gospel minister consists,-,.not in being
able to talk Latin fluently, and to dispute in philo-
sophy,— but in being able to speah a word in season
to weary souls. He that knows how to do that well,
is a learned minister.
[He still employed his edifying talent in letter-
writing, to the no small gratification of his friends.
In these communications he usually wrote with the
warmth of holy affection and zeal ; occasionally in-
dulging in a playfulness of expression, which served
to show how far he was from being gloomy, or mo-
rose. The following may be taken as examples : —
July 5, 1(J92.
Dear Sir ;
The change of your hand for so much the better,
made me altogether uncertain to whom I owed the
kindness of the printed paper, till your father in-
formed my ignorance, which is now quite removed
by your second letter. The tidings whereof, though
it be not like that of the former, as to the account it
Philip Henry; and said to a near relation of his,— He desired to
learn Mr. Henry's way of preaching, and praying, and living ; and,
says he. " If God will give me his Spirit, I shall be a happy per-
son." This desire or his was pleasing to God ; he had tlie oppor-
tunity, and most disceniible advantage by it. A Funeral Sermon
for the Rev. Mr. Samuel Slater, p. 26. 4to. 1704. By the Rev. W.
Tong.
t See Hildersam's Lecture upon the 4th of John, fol. IU29. Ad-
dress, " To the godly reader, whether minister or private Chris-
tian."
• P. Henry. Orig. MS.
114
THE UFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
gives of public affairs, yet as to this were very ac-
ceptable, that it assures me of the continuance of
your personal respect to, and remembrance of, un-
worthy me ; and also gives me good ground of hope,
that you are confirmed more and more in your choice
of tlie good ways of the Lord, the good old ways of
religion and godliness, as the ways you resolve to
walk in, though but few of your rank and circum-
stances, yea, very few, do so. And what then? Is
it not better to go to heaven with a remnant, than to
hell with a multitude ? Are diamonds and rubies
ever the less precious, because they are short in
number of tlie pebble stones ? I am glad to think
there is one the more for you ; and I hope. He that
hath begun the good work, the same will perform it
unto the dag of Jesus Christ, What you write of
the paralyzing atheism of the town, I am afraid is
too true ; but what do you think of such a thing as
a-christism ^ I am sure Ephesians ii. 12. mentions
both. How many are there that own a God, and
worship him, that have no regard to Christ Jesus in
doing so,— as if we could come to him, and have to
do with him, and receive from him, without a Medi-
ator ! How is he then the wag ? Hath he not said,
— No man cometh to the Father hut hg me f Is he the
way to those that do not walk in him, or an Advocate
to those that do not employ him ? The blessed Paul
could say. To me to live it Christ ; and if we can-
not, in some measure, say so too, to us to die will not
be gain. Dear Sir, give me leave, with all the affec-
tionate earnestness I can use, to recommend him to
your study and acquaintance ; and to entreat you to
abound therein more and more ; learn him, and love
him, and live him, and, my soul for yours, all will
be well. Learn him, for he is a good Lesson ; love
him, for he is a good Friend ; and live him, for he is
a good Pattern. Count upon it you can have no sin
pardoned without him : no strength to do your duty
without him ; no acceptation, when it is done, with-
out him ; no communion with God here, without
him ; and no heaven hereafter, without him. And
is there not good reason, then, why you should make
him your All in all, and use him accordingly?
I have been for some weeks, of late, a poor pri-
soner, under pain in an ill-affected limb, which still
continues ; but, I thank God, with less violence. I
am in hopes of creeping to the pulpit again, from
which, for three sabbaths, I have been excluded ; if
so, it shall be to preach Christ Jesus the Lord, the
Prince of our peace, and the Captain of our salvation ;
to whose acquaintance I again recommend yOQ ; and
rest,
Dear Sir,
Your truly loving friend, to serve you,
My wife is, with all due re- \ Philip Henry.
spects, remembered to you. f
a Origr. MS. Mr.HuntwasorBoreaUon, in Shropshire, and after,
wards a magistrate for the county. See antt, p. 52.
For Thomas Hunt, Esq.
In White Hart Yard,
In Fleet-street, London."
Dear Sir, Cousin, and Brother ;
You have authorized me more than ever to call
you so, since yon have superscribed your letter to
Mr. Philip Tallents, at Broad Oke. It was no mis-
take ; for my name is Philip, and I am Talients's ;
obliged his, adopted his. As to Mr. Hal, I have
not yet a conveniency for him, there having been no
vacancy made as yet, as I expected. If he will
please to come guestvrise for a night or two, he shall
be welcome. It may be, the sight of our mean cir-
cumstances, when he sees them, will give him enough
to prevent inquiring further ; for they are really poor
and mean.
We do both of us most affectionately salute you
both in our dear Lord. He that told us you talked
of letting us see you here together, when the days
and ways would permit, did make us really glad.
Many thanks to you for your kind entertainment of
my last Mercury. The Lord Almighty be your Sun
and Shield! Amen, This from.
Dear Cousin and Brother,
Yours to serve you,
Jan. 12,1602-3. Philip Henry.
For tlie Rev. Mr. Tallents,
At Salop.
These,'
I send you these few lines to be your remembrancer
when you do not see me. You are now come out
of the age of childhood ; and, though when you
were a child, you thought and spake as a child, and
understood as a child, it will be time for you now to
put awag childish things. You must begin to bethink
yourself for what you are come into this world ; not
to eat, and drink, and play, but to glorify God, and
save your soul. You are, bg nature, a child of wratky
even as other's ; your understanding dark ; your
mind carnal, and that carnal mind no better than
downright enmitg against God, — prone to all manner
of evil, and backward to all manner of good. Do
not you find it so, every day, in every thing ? Must
there not, then, be a change ? Must you not be re-
newed in the spirit of your mind, bom again, passed
from death to life ? You must, if you will be saved,
for none but new creatures are fit for the New Jeru-
salem.
And is the good work wrought in you ? When ?
Where? How was it? How long is it since you
closed with Christ upon gospel terms, taking him to
be yours,— giving yourself to him to be his. I do
not mean in word and tongue only ; — I have often
heard you so do it, but tn deed and truth ; in secret,
' T Orif . MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
115
^od and yoar own soul, where no eye hath
no ear hath heard ; from a due sight and
four lost condition without him; as one
ry of the heavy yoke of sin and Satan, —
bed no longer to draw in it, laying your
er Christ's sweet and easy yoke. If you
done this, do it before you sleep ; do it
u proceed any further. Once well done,
done fw ever. Can you give any good
the contrary, why you should not? either
iiing itself, or as to the speedy doing of it?
begin too soon to be Christ's ? Is any time
the present time ? Until this be done, you
i of the devil, and heir of the curse and
ition. The guilt of all your past sins is
r score. God is your enemy. But assure
as soon as it is done aright, and as it ought
e, in the very moment in which you repent
ve the gospel, and receive Christ Jesus the
>e your Prince and Saviour, you arc immc-
ade a child of God, and an heir of heaven ;
last sins are forgiven ; your peace is made ;
omises in the Bible are yours, both con-
tiis life and the other. No evil thing shall
1 ; no good thing shall be wanting to you.
lot that a blessed dondition? Will it not
e for ever, that you might so easily have
rd, and would not? And why would you
hecauMe you would not? They t&at hate
cath, says wisdom. Do you love death,-—
^th ? I hope you do not.
ame-sake, Mary, made a wise choice, and
t be yours. When she had an opportunity
all other matters aside, and sat down at
eet, and heard his word. So do you love
e, take your alone meals out of it every
ides what you have in common with the
Be sure you read and hear with applica-
t the word of Christ dwell richly in you,
»usiness of prajring ; though you cannot do
would,' do it as you can ; — to him that hath
iven. Remember, it is to a Father, and let it
name of Christ, and it shall not be in vain,
r 'place and calling be diligent, humble,
y. Take heed of vain companions, either
omen, lest you be insnarcd by them. Let
s be modest, and according to your place,
ng every fine thing that you see others have,
ing to be like them. Learn Peter's good
be clothed with humility ; and, to put on
ny knawledge, and do speik my conscience, that sa
s wtit and drink is to the presenratioun of lyfe cor-
\o neceflarie as the helt and brjrghtnes of the sone is
oyng of the hcrbisand to expell darknes; sa neces-
to lyfe everlasting, and to the illuminaution and
nule, the perpetuall meditation, exercis, and use of
word. Let na day slip over without sum comfort
le mouth oi God ^ open your earis. and he will speik
g thiD^l* ^o y^^ ^^^'^' Knox's Letter of Instructions
itants of ScoUand. Life, by Dr M'Crie, vol L p. 416.
f 2
the ornament of a meeh and quiet spirit, which is^ in
the sight of God, of great price.
I have not room to enlarge ; if you receive it, and
heed it, it is enough ; if not, it is too much.
The grace of our Lord Jesus he with you. Amen,
P. H.
August 1, leoa.y
Bear Brother ;
I received yours by Mr. Travers ;• and, though I
am so near you, and though it be so much in my
desires to see you both, yet, being at present not in
a capacity to do it, through my great indisposedncss
to travel, further than needs must, (especially winter
travel, unless about my Master's immediate work,)
yet, having so fair an opportunity, a line is better
than nothing, if it be only to wish you both a holy,
^^^PPy* ^^^ yc^r* &Dd to present you with a new-
year's gift, — which is, a half-moon, the body of the
sun, and the fourth part of a star ; which, when you
have put together, you will find me^ as always.
Dear sir,
Tour coRdial brother,
. Friend, Cousin, Servant,
Jan. 1, 1693-4. P. H.
the laoth day of
my dying year.'
For the Rev. Mr. Fran. Tallents, at Salop :
This, with my hearty love and respects.**
Mar. 20, 1603-4.
DD SS. ;«
It is as long since we heard from you, as it is since
you heard from us ; and we thought it long. As
yours to us brings no evil tidings from the wood,°
so neither doth this to you from the oak. Your
mother continues to mend, through God's goodness,
and bids me tell you she is better,— God be praised,
— to day, than she was yesterday, and yesterday
than the day before. She is come down stairs, and
that is, to her, like launching into a sea again ; for
we have at present a troublesome house of it. Oh,
that you and we may be better after late corrections !
For, though no affliction, for the present, seemeth to
be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterwards,-^
afterwards, it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of right-
eousness,
z See a Sermon by P. Henry, on GaL v. 17.— So that jr# cmmtt
do the things that ye w<ndd,—\ik the Cong. Mag. y. 7. p. 230.
7 The above letter was *' written by my honoured fother, Bfr.
Henry, to a young woman newly gone fVom her parents to senrice
in Chester ; Mary Web, now Mrs. Frail " Mn. Savage. Orig. MS-
I See Tong's Life of Matthew Henry, p. S&O, «/ supra.
• See j»o«/. p. 216.
b Orig. MS.
e Dear Daughter, Sarah Savage.
d Wrenbury Wood, Mrs Savage's residence.
110
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
This is the 210th day of my commonly dying
year. Lord, teach me to number aright. Amen !
Our love and blessing are to you both, and to all
yours.
The God of love and peace be with you,
This, from
Your loving Father,
For Mrs. Savage. P. H.«
Bor. May 14.
264, d. I(i04.
Dear and Honoured Brother ;
I should have answered your last sooner, but
wanted opportunity of sending it. I rejoice in the
continuance of your mercies, that your bow doth yet
abide in ttrengthy and that my dear sister also is
spared to you in her usefulness. The Lord's most
holy name be blessed and praised for it ! It seems you
have your mixtures for exercise. God will have
you yet to shine brighter ; the dish-clouts that he
makes use of, must help to do it ; theirs the shame,
yours the honour. Qui volens detrahit famas f ucr,
nolens volens addit mercedi husJ It is a sign we
gallop in our way,' when the dogs follow us bark-
ing. Slack not your pace, though they do so. There
will as certainly be a resurrection of names,** as of
bodies, and both with advantage. Both as the sun
at noon day. I know not when I shall be so happy
as to see you at Salop, though I much desire it I
am like a traveller's horse that knows its stages,
which, if he exceed, he tires, and is the worse for it.
Hither, once a quarter, is my non plus ultra, I have
not been at Chester, though I have many loadstones
there, above these thirteen months.
Once a week, and sometimes twice, I keep my
circuit of two miles, or four miles, each Wednesday,
by which time I am recovered from my sabbath
weariness ; and, by the time I am recovered from
that, the sabbath work returns again ; so that I am
never not weary. But why do I tell you this?—
That I may boast what a labourer I am ? I am a
loiterer, a trifler, a slug. Magnis conatibtis nihil ago.
It is that you may know wherein to help me with
your prayers. Beg for me, that I may be found
faithful, and that, while I preach to others, I myself
may not be a cast-away, I have some hope, through
grace, that I shall not ; but the heart is deceitful,
the devil is busy, and God is just and holy. Only
this I trust to, ^Christ hath died, yeA, rather, is
risen again.
e Orig. MS.
f Augustine : with mtm altered to tua.
g Mr. .William Fenner, of Essex* that eminent servant of Jesus
Christ, was so taken with the active spirit of Mr. Wilson, that he
said.—" I am even ashamed of myself to see bow Bilr. Wilson
gallopeth towards heaven, and I do but creep on at a snail's
pace." Clark's Live^ p. 34. fol. 1683.
h " There shall be a resurrection, not only of bodies, but of
credits." The Bruised Reed and Smoaking Flax, by Dr. Sibbs,
p. 113. duod. 1808. 9th ed.
Dear love, and service to you both. The Lord
himself be your everlasting portion. Amen.
This, from
Your affectionate obliged Brother,
Friend, Servant in our dear Lord,
For Mr. Francis Tallents, P. fl.'
At Salop.
These.
Aug. 13, 355 d. 1694.
Dear Cousin and Brother ;
I came from home on Saturday, not without some
hopeful thoughts of seeing you two, and dear Mr.
Bryan,'' in his present illness, this day; but the
weather and ways are grown suddenly such, that
really. Sir, I dare not venture, for my strength will
not bear it ; and I dare not tempt God. I am there-
fore hastening back to my nest, where the young
ones are at present such, and so many, that the poor
hen, though she can do as much as another, yet,
alone, cannot manage them without me. *If we do
any good, it is well ; the Lord accept of it in Christ ;
but, I am sure, it is not without a great deal of care
and cumber to ourselves in our declining age. It
was a special providence to gratify dear Cos.
Benyon, that at first brought us into it ; and I wait
upon the same providence, in what way the Lord
pleases, for there are many ways, to let us fairly out
again, that we may not break prison. I pray this,
once more, accept of this true excuse ; and give my
dear love and respects to good Mr. Bryan, and tell
him, my heart is with him, and my daily prayers
are to God for him. If there be more work to be
done, well ; he shall recover to do it ; if not, better,
(for him better, whatever for others,) there is a rest
remaining. We serve a good Master.
Dearest love to you both. The Eternal God be
your refuge ; and underneath you be his everlasting
arms, living, dying. Amen !
For the worthy Mr. Tallents,
At Salop.
These.']
CHAPTER IX.
MIS SICKNB88, DXATH, AND BURIAL.
In the time of his health, he made death very fami-
liar to himself, by frequent and pleasing thoughts
1 Orig. MS.
k Tlie Rev. John Bryan, M. A. He was Minister of St Chad's
Church, in Shretrsbury, till Aug. 24. 1662. He died Aug. 31.
1689.
" 1609, Sept. 2. I heard of the death of good Mr. Bryan, of Salop:
an aged nonconfonnittt, and a bold, zealous preacher of the truth ;
gone to receive his fTell done." Mrs. Savage's Diary. Oiig. MS.
A portrait, in oil, of Mr. Bryan, is in the editor's possession. See
Palmer's Noncon. Mem. v. 13. p. 15.
» P Henry. Orig. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
117
and meditations of it ; and endeavoured to make it
so to his friends, by speaking often of it. His letters
and discoarses had still something or other which
spoke his constant expectations of death. Thus did
be learn to die daily. And it is hard to say whether
it was more easy to him to speak, or uneasy to his
friends to hear him speak, of leaving the world. This
minds me of a passage I was told by a worthy Scotch
minister, Mr. Patrick Adair, that, visiting the fam-
ous Mr. Durham,* of Glasgow, in his last sick-
ness, which was long and lingering, he said to him.
Sir, I hope you have so set all in «»rder, that you
have nothing else to do but to die.^ ** I bless God,''
said Mr. Durham, " I have not had that to do
neither these many years.'' Such is the comfort of
dying daily, when we come to die indeed.
[Mr. Henry, some time before his last illness, had
a severe attack of disease, which greatly excited the
alarm of his friends. His excellent wife was then on
a visit to Mrs. Savage, at Wrenbury Wood. How
his own mind was affected by the apparent approach
of the last enemy will be seen by the following
letter :—
Dear Daughter ;
This is to yon because of yours to me. I am glad
to see you so well so quickly, as to be able to write,
— ^that your rip hi hand hath not forgot its cunning ;
neither hath mine yet. I had an ill day yesterday,
and an ill night after, but ease came in the morn-
ing. I have been preaching Christ, the door to God,
and letting a little one in to him by the door of bap-
tism, and hope for strength for the afternoon work,
though in some pain, yet less than deserved. Your
mother hath sometimes told me, she could not en-
dure to see me die, and for that reason I was glad
she was away, for I thought, all night, there was
in/ a step. Here are many people, and they are come
to hear of Christ ; and willing, I am, they should,
and that they should learn what I have learned of
him. I can cheerfully say, — Lord, now lettest thou
thy servant depart in peace !^ God increase your
strength, and especially your thankfulness, and
write the name of the child in the booh of the living.
My dear love to my wife, and to yourself and
husband, and all the rest. I am glad that she is
• He died 25th June, 165a »t. 36. Biogrephia Scoticana, p.
»S^ 1796.
b When Dr. Googe was visited by his (Viends in his sickness, he
often said,-" I am willin; to die ; having, I bless God, nothing to
do bat to die." Clark's Lives annexed to the Martyrologie, p.
246. wt nfra.
• IflGP, Nov. 17. Ill of the cold, which provoked other distem.
perSk insomuch that, for a time, I despaired even uf lire. Apt to
fcint; and what is death, but a very little more? Lord. I bless
thee, that I can look death in the face with comfort, knowing
that my redempli»m draweth nigk. P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
• P. Henry. Orig. MS.
• He was, all bis days, a pattern of temperance in eating and
drinking, at>oTe any that 1 have known, as to time, quantity, aod
quality. U£t. Orig. MS. mi npra.
acceptable to you, and am willing she should be so,
while she and you please.
The Lord everlasting be your portion ! **
For Mrs. Sarah Savage,
At Wrenbury Wood.]
Mr. Henry's constitution was but tender, and
yet, by the blessing of God upon his great temper-
ance,* and care of his diet, and moderate exercise
by walking in the air, he did for many years enjoy
a good measure of health, which he used to call, —
The sugar that sweetens all temporal mercies ; for
which, therefore, we ought to be very thankful, and
of which we. ought to be very careful.
He had sometimes violent fits of the colic, which
would be very afilictive for the time. Towards the
latter end he was distressed sometimes with a pain,
which his doctor thought might arise from a stone
in his kidneys. Being once upon the recovery
from an ill fit of that pain, he said to one of his
friends, that asked him how he did, — he hoped, by
the grace of God, he should now be able to give one
blow more to the devil's kingdom ; and often pro-
fessed, he did not desire to live a day longer than
he might do God some service. He said to another,
when he perceived himself rccovering,^-Well, I
thought I had been putting into the harbour, but I
find I must to sea again.'
He was sometimes suddenly taken with fainting
fits, which, when he recovered from, he would say,—
Dying is but a little more.
When he was in the sixty-third year of his age,
which is commonly called the grand climacteric,
and hath been to many the dying year, and was so
to his father, he numbered the days of it, from
August 24, 1G93, to August 24, 1694, when he finished
it. And when he concluded it he thus wrote in his
Diary ; — This day finisheth my commonly dying
year, which I have numbered the days of; and
should now apply my heart, more than ever, to hea-
venly wisdom.
He was much pleased with that expression of our
English Liturgy in the office of burial, and frequent-
ly used it ;— ** In the midst of life we are in death."
The infirmities of age, when they grew upon him,
did very little abate his vigour and liveliness in
He never took tobacco, ir asked concerning it. he would say,
he was not come to it yet ; but he did not know what he might
do ; having known some who had vigorously resolved against it,
but atlerwards were persuaded to it. Ibid.
It is said or the learned Dr. Barrow, that he was very free in the
use of tobacco, believing it did help to regulate his thinking. Life,
prefixed to his Works, vol. d. fol. 1683.
f Sir Henry Wotton, being visited in his latter days by his
learned friend, the celebrated Mr. Hales, of Eton, said to hiio,—
•' I now see that I draw near my harbour of death ; that Aarbovr that
will secure me from all the future ttorwu and wavet of this restless
world ; and, I praise God, I am willing to leave it, and expect a
better." Walton's Lives, by Dr. Zouch, v. I. p. 284. See, also^
Clarke's Lives annexed to the Martyrologie, «/ tnpro, p. 171.
118
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
preaching, but he seemed even to renew his youth
as the eagles ; as those that are planted in the house
of the Lord, who still bring forth fi'uit in old age ;
not so much to show that they are upright, as to
show that the Lord is upright. Psalm xcii. 14, 15.
But, in his latter years, travelling was very trouble-
some to him ; and he would say, as Mr. Dod used
to do, that, when he thought to shahe himself as at
other times, he found his hair was cut ;> his sense of
this led him to preach an occasional sermon not long
before he died, on John xxi. IS,— When thou wast
young, thou girdedst thyself, ifc. Another occasional
sermon he preached when he was old,** for his own
comfort, and the comfort of his aged friends, on
Psalm Ixxi. 17, 18. — O God, thou hast taught me
from my youth, Sfc. He observed there, — That it is
a blessed thing to be taught of God from our youth ;
and those that have been taught of God from their
youth, ought to declare his wondrous works all their
days after. And those that have been taught of God
from their youth, and have all their days declared
his wondrous works, may comfortably expect, that
when they are old he will not forsake them. Christ
is a Master that doth not use to oast off his old
servants.^
[On another occasion, he writes ;— It was David's
prayer ; — O God, thou hast taught me from my youth,
and hitherto have I declared all thy wondrous works.
Now, also, when I am old and grey-headed, O God,
forsake me not ! And we should thus pray. For, when
God forsakes, it is like as when the soul forsakes the
body. There is nothing left but a carcass. It is as
when the sun forsakes the earth, which causes night
and winter. It is as when the fountain forsakes the
cistern, for God alone is the Fountain. It is as when
the father forsakes the children. It is as when the
pilot forsakes the ship ; then she is in great danger of
rocks and quicksands. It is as when the physician
forsakes the patient, which is not till the case is
desperate. It is as when the guide forsakes the tra-
veller, and then he is exposed to many dangers.*']
For some years before ho died, he used to com-
plain of an habitual weariness, contr&cted, he
thought, by his standing to preach, sometimes very
uneasily, and in inconvenient places, immediately
after riding. He would say, every minister was not
cut out for an itinerant ; and sometimes the manifest
attention and affection of people in hearing, en-
larged him both in length and fervency, somewhat
more than his strength could well bear. It was
r See Judges xvi. 19, 30. and the Account of the Rev. John
Dod. in Fuller's Church History, ni mtfn, B. xi. p. 2S0.
h April 28, 1692.
1 Appendix, No. XXIV.
\ P. Henry. From Mrs. Sarage^s MSS.
1 The body of him who hath, in truth, given his name to Clirist
and his gainfull service, shall goe into the grave, as into a chamber
or rest, and bed of downe, sweetly perfumed unto it by the sacred
^od^ of the Sonne of God lying in the grave. Directions for a
not many months before he died, that he wrote thus
to a dear relation, who inquired solicitously con-
cerning his health ; — I am always habitually weary,
and expect no other till I lie down in the bed of spices.
And, blessed be God, so the g^ve is to all the
saints,' since he lay in it, who is the Rose of Sharon,
and the Lily of the Valleys. When some of his
friends persuaded him to spare himself, he would
say ; — It is time enough to rest when I am in the
grave. What were candles made for, but to bum ? *"
[One of the last letters he wrote to Mrs. Savage
is thus expressed ; and it manifests the enlightened
and calm anticipation he indulged as to his final
change ; —
May 28, 1605.
Dear Daughter ;
You arc loath to part with your lister, but you
know this is not the world we are to be together in ;
and, besides, it is to a father and mother, that are
to be but a while, either for her or you to come to.
These short partings should mind us of the long one,
which will be shortly, but then the meeting again,
to be together /or ever, and with the Lord, is very
comfortable in the hope ; and much more will it be
so in the fruition. Two that awhile ago were of ust
Ann D. and Susan, are gone before ; and, as sure
as they are gone, we are also going, in the time and
order appointed.
Our dear love and blessing are to all and each.
Farewell.
Your loving father,
P. H.»]
It doth not appear that he had any particular pre-
sages of his death ; but many instances there were of
his actual gracious expectation of it, somewhat
more than ordinary, for some time before. The last
visit he made to his children in Chester, was in July,
1695, almost a year before he died, when he spent
a Lord's day there, and preached on the last verse
of the Epistle to Philemon ;-*TAe grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with your spirit. By grace, he un-
derstood not so much the good will of God towards
us, as the good work of God in us ; called the grace
of Christ, both because he is the Author and Finish-
er of it, and because he is the I^ittem and Sam-
plar of it. Now the choicest gift we can ask of God
for our friends, is, that this grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ may be with their spirit. This is the one thing
comfortable Walking with God, by Robert Bolton, B.D. 4to. 1638.
Ep. Ded.
n ** You are as a candle, the better part burnt out."
Shakspeare. Second Part of Henry IV. Act 1. Scene i.
See Matt v. \5. Mark, iv. 21, 22. Luke, viii 16,17. zi. 33.
We are wasted as candles. What matter, so we may liglit our
people to heaven! Mr. Steele, at an Ordination, Nov. 15,1659.
Philip Henry's MS.
> Ong. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
119
needful J the better party the root of the matter, the
wkole man, the principal thingy the more excellent
vcy, a blessing indeed, and the thing that accompanies
ialvaiian. The grace of Christ in the spirit enlight-
ens and enlivens the spirit, softens and suhdues the
spirit, purifies and preserves the spirit, greatens and
guides the. spirit, sweetens and strengthens the
spirit ; and therefore, what can be more desirable ?
A spirit 9dthout the grace of Christ, is a field with-
oat a fence, a fool without understanding ; it is a
horse without a bridle, and a house without furni-
ture ; it is a ship without tackle, and a soldier with-
>ut armour ; it is a cloud without rain, and a carcass
irithout a soul ; it is a tree without fruit, and a
traveller without a guide. How earnest, therefore,
Uiould we be in praying to God for grace both for
ourselves and for our relations. He had intended to
preach upon that text when he was at Chester the
year before, but was then prevented by a particular
sad occasion, which obliged him to a funeral ser- ■
mon, Di?inc Providence reserving that benediction,
which his heart was much upon, for his valediction.
The Thursday following, being kept as a fast in
his son's congregation at Chester, he preached on
Luke xix. 41. — He beheld the city, and wept over it ;
—which proved his farewell to the town, as the for-
mer was his farewell to his friends and relations in it.
It was not many weeks before he died, that he
wrote thus to one of his children : — We are well
here, thanks be to God, and are glad to hear that
you and yours are well also ; God, in mercy, con-
tinue it ! But why should we be well always ? Do
we deserve it ? Are there no mixtures in our obe-
dience ? Are there any persons or families, at whose
door sickness and death never knocked ? Must the
tvrth beforsahen for us, or the rock removed out of its
place f Is it not enough that we be dealt with ac-
eording to the manner of men ? And that we have a
promise, that it shall end well, everlastingly well.
To another of his children, about the same time,
he writes : We are sensible that we decline apace,
hat the best of it is, that as time goes, eternity
comes ; and we are in good hope, through grace, that
it will be a comfortable eternity.
It was in April, 1696, a few weeks before he died,
that his son's father-in-law, Robert Warburton, Esq."
was gathered to his grave in peace, in a good old age*
Upon the tidings of whose death, Mr. Henry wrote
thas to his son : — Your fathers, where are they ?
Your father-in-law gone, and your own father going;
• Of HctTerston Grange in Cheshire. See Tong's Lire ofBlatthew
Henry, v/n^o, p. 108. Nicbors Lit. Anecd. v. 5. pp. 529,530.
Mr. Matthew Henry married his daughter, Mrs. Mary Warburton,
July 8, 1690. See also Blr. Tong's Sermon on the Death of Matthew
Henry, 4to. 1714. Dedication.
f Nat. Nov. 1619 i ob. April 11, 170& See his Life in this
volame.
He was an inUmate acquaintance of the Hon. Robert Boyle.
Bitig. Brit Y. a p. 496. n. F.
but you have a God-Father that lives for ever. He
was wont, sometimes, to subscribe his letters,— Your
ever-loving, but not ever-living, father.
It was not a month before he died, that, in a letter
to his very dear and worthy friend and brother, Mr.
Tallents,P of Shrewsbury, he had this passage :—
Methinks it is strange, that it should be your lot
and mine, to abide so long on earth by the stuff,'^
when so many of our friends are dividing the spoil
above, but God will have it so ; and to be willing to
live in obedience to his holy will, is as true an act
of grace, as to be willing to die When he calls, espe-
cially when life is labour and sorrow. But when it
is labour and joy, service to his name, and some
measure of success and comfort in serving him ;
when it is to stop a gap, and stem a tide, it is to be
rejoiced in ; it is heaven upon earth ; nay, one
would think, by the psalmist's oft repeated plea
Psalms vi. xxx. Ixxxviii. cxv. cxviii. that it were
better than to be in heaven itself. And can that be ?
[In a manuscript, showing wherein the happiri^s
of heaven consists, he has thus expressed his views.
We shall see God, Matthew v. 8. Job xix. 26. This
^ill be a clear sight, 1 Corinthians xiii. 12. 1 John
iii. 2. transforming, Psalm xvii. 15. and satisfying,
John xiv. 8. We shall enjoy the presence of Jesus
Christ, John xvii. 24. Phiiippians i. 23.' — and have
society with glorified saints, Matthew viii. 11. There
will be freedom from sin and sorrow, Revelations
vii. 17. It will be a heavenly sabbath, Hebrews iv.
9. which will dllTer from sabbaths now, — in the ex-
ercises to be performed : there will be all praise ;
no mourning for sin. — In the frame of our hearts for
the performance: our affections will be raised. —
In the place: it will be our Father's house. — In the
continuance : there will be no intermissions, no part-
ing, no night Now, while we are sanctifying the sab-
bath, others are piofaning it ; but then all shall join.']
A little before his sickness and death, being sum-
mer time, he had several of his children and his
children's children about him, at Broad Oak, with
whom he was much refreshed, and very cheerful ;
but ever and anon spoke of the fashion he was in, as
passing away ; and often told them, he should be
there but a while to bid them welcome. And he
was observed frequently in prayer, to beg of God,
that he would make us ready for that which would
come certainly, and might come suddenly. One
asking him how he did, he answered,— I find the
chips fly off apace, the tree vnll be down shortly.'
q 1 Sam. xxx. 24.
r The happiness of heaven consists in being with Christ; That
they may be with me. Thoughts of this are reviving, and should be
improved, as a cordial, to keep from fainting under any trouble ;
as a spur, to put us forward in duty ; as a bridle, to restrain from
sin ; and as a loadstone, to draw our aflections upward. P. Henry.
Mem. of Mrs. Savage, p. 2ia nt npra.
• P. Henry. Orig MS.
t When King James the First was informed of the death of his
120
THE UFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
The last time he administered the Lord's sapper,
a fortnight before he died, he closed the administra-
tion with that scripture, 1 John iii. 2. It dotk not yet
appear what we shall he ; not yet, but it will shortly.
The sabbath but one before he died, being, in the
course of his exposition, come to that difficult part
of Scripture, the 40th of Ezekiel, and the following
chapters, he said he would endeavour to explain
those prophecies to them ; and added,— If I do not
do it now, I never shall. And he observed, that the
only prophetical sermon which our Lord Jesus
preached, was but a few days before he died. This
many of his hearers not only reflected upon after-
wards, but took notice of at that time with a concern,
as having something in it more than ordinary.
On the Lord's day, June 21, 1696, he went through
the work of the day with his usual vigour and live-
liness. He was then preaching over the first chap-
ter of St. Peter's Second Epistle, and was that day
on those words. Add to your faith virtue^^ vcxse 5.
Ho* took virtue for Christian courage and resolution
in the exercise of faith ; and the last thing he men-
tioned, in which Christians have need of courage,
is in dying ; for, as he was often used to say, it is a
serious thing to die, and to die is a work by itself."^
[He that would not die when he must,* and he
that would die when he must not, are both alike
cowards.*
A Christian's desire of life, he sometimes re-
marked, should proceed from a desire of honouring
God with his life, as it was with Paul. Phillppians
i. 23, 24 J]
That day he gave notice, both morning and after-
noon, with much affection and enlargement, of the
public fast, which was appointed by authority the
Friday following, June 26. pressing his hearers, as
he used to do upon such occasions, to come in a
prepared frame, to the solemn services of that day.
The Tuesday following, June 23, ho rose at six
o'clock, according to his custom, after a better night's
sleep than ordinary, and in wonted health. Between
seven and eight o'clock he performed family worship,
according to the usual manner ; he expounded very
largely the former half of the 104th Psalm, and sung
it ; but he was somewhat shorter in prayer than he
used to be, being then, as it was thought, taken ill.
Blessed is that servanty whom his Lord, when he com-
cthy shall find so doing. Immediately after prayer
fayourite, James, Marquis of Hamilton, he said. If Uie hranchn be
thut cut down^ the stock cannot coiUinue long. Walton's Lives by Dr.
Zouch. V. 2. pp. 50, 51.
u This was bis last subject. See the discourse among " Eighteen
Sermons," by Philip Henry, p. 350. ut supra.
▼ My dear father's prayer for such usually was.— When they
come to do a work they never did, let them have that strength and
prace they never had.— This once to die.— What emphasis has it !
Mrs Savage's Diary. Orig. MS.
w Moses and Aaron, like well nurtured children, went to bed
when they were bidden, though great provision was making ready
for others. P. Henry. Com. Place Book. Orig MS. See also Dr
he retired to his chamber, not saying any thing of
his illness, but was soon after found upon his bed
in great extremity of pain in his back, breast, and
bowels ; it seemed to be a complicated fit of the
stone and colic together in very great extremity.
The means that had been used to give him relief in
his illness were altogether ineffectual. He had not
the least intermission or remission of pain, neither
up nor in bed, but [was] in a continual toss. He
had said sometimes, that God's Israel may find Jor-
dan rough ; but there is no remedy, they must through
it to Canaan ; and would tell of a good man who
used to say, — he was not so much afraid of death as
of dying.* We know they are not the godly people,
part of the description of whose condition it is, that
there are no bands in their death, and yet [it is of
the godly alone that we can say,] their end is peace,
and their death gain, and they have hope in it
In this extremity he was still looking up to God,
and calling upon him, who is a present help in the
needful hour.
[He had been accustomed to remark when in usual
health, — Prayer is never out of season, but it is in a
special manner seasonable when we are sick and
come to die, — Christ's last breath was praying breath,
— then we take our leave of prayer for ever. Those
that do not pray while they live, cannot expect to
be heard and accepted when they come to die.*]
When the exquisiteness of his pain forced groans
and complaints from him, he would presently cor-
rect himself with a patient and quiet submission to
the hand of his heavenly Father, and a cheerful ac-
quiescence in his heavenly will. I am ashamed,
saith he, of these groans, I want virtue, O for virtue
now when I have need of it, referring to his subject
the Lord's day before. Forgive me that I groan thus,
and I will endeavour to silence them. But, indeed,
my stroke is heavier than my groaning. It is true
what Mr. Baxter said in his pain, there is no dis-
puting against sense. It was his trouble, as it was
Mr. Baxter's, that by reason of his bodily pain, he
could not express his inward comfort ; however, that
was it with which God graciously strengthened him
in his soul. He said to those about him, they must re-
member what instructions and counsels he had given
them when he was in health, for now he could say
but little to them ; [he could] only refer them to what
he had said, as that which he would live and die by.
Sibb's Soules Conflict, p. 36-2. duod. 1651. x P. Henry.
Orig. MS. It was the speech of dying Julian. See Swinnock's
Christian Man's Calling, part. iii. p. 618. 4to. 1665.
y P. Henry. Orig. MS
« Would you be above the fear of death,- get an interest in
Christ,— labour to know thy interest in Christ, 2 Cor. v. 1. 9, &c.
—lave in the fear of God, Luke xii. 4, 6— Learn to die daily, i
Cor. XV. 31. in meditation ; in expectation ; Job ziv. 1-L Ps.
xliv. ^2.— Sit loose from the world ; keep a good conscience ; live
by faith ; 2 Cor. iv. 18; v. I.&c. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
• P. Henry. Mr. Matthew Henry's MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
121
It was two or three hoars after he was taken ill,
before he would suffer a messenger to be sent to
Chester for his son, and for the doctor, saying,^He
ihould either be better, or dead before they could
come ; but at last he said, as the prophet did to his
importiinate friends, — Send.** About eight o'clock
that evening they came, and found him in the same
extremity of pain, which he had been in all day.
And nature being before spent with his constant and
indefatigable labours in the work of the Lord, now
sank, and did perfectly succumb under its burthen,
and was quite disabled to grapple with so many
hours' incessant pain. What further means were
then used proved fruitless, and did not answer the
intention. He apprehended himself going apace,
and said to his son when he came in, — Oh son, you
are welcome to a dying father. / am now ready to
be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
His pain continued very acute, but he had peace
within. / am tormented, said he once, but, blessed
be God, not in this flame ;^ and soon after, I am all
on fire, (when at the same time his extreme parts
were cold,) but he presently added, — Blessed be God,
it is not the fire of hell. To some of his next neigh-
boars who came in to see him, for those at a distance
had not notice of his illness, he said, — Oh, make
•are work for your souls, by getting an interest in
Christ while you are in health, for if I had that work
to do now, what would become of me? But I bless
God I am satisfied. It was a caution he was often
wont to give, — See to it, that your work be not un-
done, when your time is done, lest you be undone
for ever.
Towards ten or eleven o'clock that night, his pulse
and sight began to fail ; of the latter he himself took
notice, and inferred from it the near approach of his
dissolution. He took an affectionate farewell of his
dear yoke-fellow, with a thousand thanks for all her
love, and care, and tenderness ; left a blessing for
all his dear children, and their dear yoke-fellows,
and little ones, that were absent. He said to his
son, who sat under his head, — Son, the Lord bless
you, and grant that you may do worthily in your
generation, and be more serviceable to the church
of God than I have been ; such was his great humi-
lity to the last. And when his son replied. Oh, Sir,
pray for me that I may but tread in your steps ; he
answered, — Yea, follow peace and holiness, and let
them say what they will. More he would have
said, to bear his dying testimony to the way in which
he had walked, but nature was spent, and he had
not strength to express it.
His understanding and speech continued almost
to the last breath, and he was still in his dying
agonies calling upon God, and committing himself
to him. One of the last words he said, when he
w See 2 Kingi ii. n. c See Luke xvi. 24.
4 See Mattbew Henry's Sermons on these words, July 8, 1696. I
found himself just ready to depart, was,— O death,
• where is thy— ;<' with that his speech faltered, and
within a few minutes, after about sixteen hours' ill-
ness, he quietly breathed out his precious soul into
the embraces of his dear Redeemer, whom he had
trusted, and faithfully served in the work of the
ministry, about forty-three years.* He departed
between twelve and one o'clock in the morning of
June 24, Midsummer-day, in the sixty-fifth year of
his age. Happy, thrice happy, he to whom such a
sudden change was no surprise, and who could
triumph over death, as an unstung, disarmed enemy,
even when he made so fierce an onset He had often
spoke of it as his desire, that if it were the will of
God, he might not outlive his usefulness; and it
pleased God to grant him his desire, and give him a
short passage from the pulpit to the kingdom, from the
height of his usefulness, to receive the recompcnccof
reward. So was it ordered by him, in whose hands
our times are.
[The afflicting dispensation was communicated
to Mr. Tallcnts, in the folldwing interesting letter.
Broad Oke, June 24, 96*
Honoured Sir;
Here is an opportunity that offers itself soon
enough to bring you the evil tidings of this place
and day. My dear and honoured father was this
time yesterday as usual, worshipping God witli his
family, and in wonted health ; but, presently after,
was seized with violent pain and sickness. It was
in g^eat extremity, and without any intermission ;
means used gave him no relief. Doctor Tylston and
I had speedy notice of his illness sent us to Chester^
and came hither last night, and found him very ill.
Nature, being decayed with his great labours in the
work of the Lord, was not able to bear up under it,
but sunk away apace under the heavy load of pain ;
and a little after midnight he quietly breathed outhis
dear soul into the hands of the Lord Jesus, in whom
he now sleeps. Oh, Sir, this is a sad providence, and
so sudden, that I am as one stunned. I cannot
express my loss. I have many things to write to you
concerning it, but I am in haste, and much confused.
We intend, if the Lord will, to lay up the mantle of
this translated prophet in the wardrobe of the grave,
upon Saturday next, not doubting but our friends
that hear will, as far as they can, let us have their
company. My poor mother's and my respects to
yourself, and Mrs. Tallents, and Mr. Bryan, and
Mr. Jones.
I rest your's totus in lachrymis,
M. Henry.
I know you will pray for us, and mourn with us.'
For the Rev. Mr. Tallcnts.
Eighteen Sermons, by P. Henry, p. 371, ut tupra. • See
Tong's Life of MaUhew Henry, p. 131, &c. «/ $Mpra. t Orig. AiS.
122
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
In reply to a letter written by Mr. Tallents, ex-
pressive of the greatness of his sorrow on this melan-
choly occasion, the bereaved widow writes thus.
Ju8 24, 06.
Dear Ser ;
It is my conmfort and joy that the people of God
do sympathise with me in this my great loss, and
truly I have reason to acknowleg the goodnes of
God that did spar him so long, and dus suport' and
send reuiuing in the midst of trubel. Pray for me
that I may be a widdou inded, trusting in God ;
that my children may, in all things, carry themselucs
like the children of such a fathar, and that wee may
get the good and learne what our heauenly Fathar
is tcching us by this sad strok. Good Sir, giue my
loue and saruis to my ould good friend and sistar,
for so I wil make bould to cale her, your dear yoak-
fellow, and except of the same, with many thanks
to you both for past and present favors.
From Sir, yours.
My sister presents her Much obliged,
sarvis to you both. Kat. Henry."^]
After the account we have given of his great useful-
ness, it is easy to imagine what sorrow and mourning
there was among his friends, when they heard that
the Lord had taken away their master from their
head. One that lived so much desired, could not
but die as much lamented. The surprise of the
stroke put people into a perfect astonishment ; and
many said, — the Lord removed him so suddenly,
because he would not deny the many prayers that
would have been put up for his recovery, had it been
known that he was in peril. One thing that aggra-
vated this severe dispensation, and made it, in the
apprehension of many, look the more dismal, was,
^that this powerful intercessor was taken away just
before a fast-day, when he would have been wrestling
mightily with God for mercy for the land. How-
ever, it proved a fast-day indeed, and a day of
humiliation, to that congregation, to whom an empty
pulpit was an awakening sermon. The Broad Oak
was then like that under which Rebekah's nurse was
V Supposed to bt July. Mr. Tallents has written at the top,
** In answer to one of mine."
b The wives of many painful ministers, while their husbands
lived, were made account of. and invited, that, when God hath
taken their husbands flrom them, (when they had most need of
comfort,) have found cold friendship, not of strangers only, but
even of those that professed greater love to the parties deceased.
This is but carnal, or at least but cold, love, that is then farthest
oflT, when there is roost need of it. A Treatise of Love, by Jo.
Rogers, p. 220. duod. 1632.
i We went to Broad Oak to visit dear mother: found her in
health. I cannot but own the goodness of God in supporting her
under this heavy stroke. It is to me the answer of my dear
father's prayer, which he. thus, (Vequently expressed ;->" Fit us
to leave, or to be left, according to the will of God." Dr. Preston
hath an expression to this purpose,— that the children of God
receive no prejudice by affliction, no more than the sun by an
buried, Genesis xxxv. 8. AUon-hacuthy — the 6ak
of weeping. They who had many a time sat with dry
eyes, under melting ordinances, could not sit so under
such a melting providence, by which the Lord God
called so loudly to weeping^ and to mourning^ and to
girding with sackcloth. But because Mr. Henry had
been wont to give it for a rule,— that weeping must
not hinder sowing, a mite was cast into the treasury
of the nation's prayers, and a word spoken, to bring
the work of the day and the event of the day toge-
ther, from 2 Kings xiii. 20.
The day following, being Saturday, June 27, the
earthen vessel, in which this treasure had been
lodged, was laid up in the g^ve in Whitchurch
church, attended thither with a very great company
of true mourners, all the country round. Many from
Chester and Shrewsbury, and the towns about, came
to do him honour at his death. And, besides the
floods of tears that were shed, there were abundance
of testimonies given to him by persons of all sorts,
like that to Jehoiada, 2 Chronicles xxiv. 16. That
he was one that had done good in Israel. And there
were those who said, — He was a man that nobody
did or could speak evil of, except for his noncon-
formity. He was used to say to his relations,— When I
am dead, make little ado about me, a few will serve
to bring me to my g^ve ; — ^but his mind could not be
observed in that ; it was impossible such a burning
and shining light could be extinguished, but there
must be a universal notice taken of it Multitudes
came unsought unto, notto fill their eyes, as Mr. Vines
expresseth it, but to empty ' them ; nor was there any
other noise there, but that of general lamentation.
That morning, before the removal of the corpse,
a most affectionate sermon was preached at Mr.
Henry's meeting-place, by his dear and worthy
friend, Mr. Tallents, of Shrewsbury, who was eleven
years older than he, and, through God*s goodness,
still survives him. He was willing to take that
opportunity, to testify the great love and honour
that he had for Mr. Henry, whom he called a friend
that is nearer than a brother. His text*" was, Rom.
viii. 23. And not only they, hut ourselves also, which
have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
eclipse. We think it darkened, but it really is not so. Mrs.
Savage. Diary. July 29, 1696. Orig. MS.
After dear father's death, my dear mother thus comforted her-
self. She was especially thankful to God, 1. That she ever knew
Mr. Henry. S. That she had him so long. 3. For the good hope
she had of being eternally with him in glory. Mr& Savage.
Diary. Orig. MS. Nov. 1743.
k Orig. MS.
1 See the Hearse of the renowned, the Right Hon. Robert
Earl of Essex, ice. in a Sermon preached at his Funerall, Oct. '^
1646. by Richard Vines, p. 6. 4to. 1646.
Mr. Vines was bom about 1600, and died in 1655. See Enoch's
Walk and Change ; a Sermon at his Funeral, by Thomas Jacomb,
(afterwards D. D.) 4to. 1656. 2d edit.
m See the Sermon at large, prefixed to Eighteen Sermons, by Mr.
P. Henry, p. 1. wi nfra.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
133
groan wiikin ourselves^ waiting for the adoption, to
vit, the redemption of our body. In his application
he showed excellently, and with much affection, how
'' the consideration of the spirit and life of this emi-
nent servant of God, would f^eatly lead us to believe
on Christ, and to have the Spirit of Christ and live
after it;'' and to suffer with Christ, and to groan
for our adoption. Several things were hinted con-
cerning him, which have been mentioned already in
this narrative, and a very honourable testimony
borne to him. From a long acquaintance with him,
he witnessed concerning him, to those who knew his
record to be true, that " he was humble and meek,
kind and peaceable, wise and charitable, and one
in whom the fruits of the Spirit were eminently :
that he was a friend and a counsellor and a father
to many ; that his expounding and preaching was
plain and pleasant, warm and savoury, full, and
such as few could reach, and greatly blessed by
God ; and that in it he laboured more abundantly
than any." And after a great encomium of him, it
was excellently observed, and must be mentioned
here, as that which was highly agreeable to Mr.
Henry's spirit, and his expressions upon all occa-
sions,— '' That it was not his own righteousness that
saved him, nor his own strength that qaickeoed and
apheld him, but Christ's righteousness and Christ's
strength ; for to him to live was Chtist, And in all
bis discourses, sermons, and letters," he was very
careful to ascribe the honour of all to Christ, and to
make Christ his all in all.'' He concluded with some
words of seasonable advice to those of that society
and neighbourhood.
^* 1. Give thanks to God that ever you had him or
saw him, and that you had him so long, above thirty
years in this place. Do not many of you owe even
your ?cry souls to him under God ? While you mourn,
pve thanks to God that you ever knew him. Old
and great mercies must be thankfully remembered.
'' 2. Rejoice in the glory that he now enjoys. Weep
not for kim^ but weep for yourselves. It was the text
on which he preached, not much above a year ago,
at the funeral of that intelligent, holy, useful man,
Mr. William Lawrence, of Wem." The primitive
Christians buried their stunts with hymns and psalms
of joy. Chrysostom, on the Hebrews, saith, we are
to glorify God, and give thanks to him, that he hath
crowned the deceased, and freed them from their
labours ; and chides those that mourned and howled.
And the days of their death were called Natalitia
Mertyrum et Saneiorum, the birth-days of the saints
B Thus, not long before his death, he wrote to Mr. Tallents,—
No?. 1. 1605.
Uj dear Brother Tallentt :
You do, in all your letters, ifirart Ckrithtm, which, I thank Ood,
^des your love to me, unworthy me, declared in them, is the
thing, that I ean truly say, makes them sweet to me ; to see. tliat
vben I myself am ao poor and low in my knowledge of him, de-
*rn after him, delight in him, there are you and others that do so
and martyrs. And Hierom, in his epitaph on holy
Paula, (and in the lives of other holy persons, wrote
by him,) saith, that at her funeral no shrieks were
heard, but multitudes of psalms and hymns were
sung in divers languages.
*^ 3. Bewail the loss, the general loss, and yours
in particular, yet so as to have hope in God. I need
not tell you how g^eat your loss is, you feel it more
than I am able to express. If any rejoice that he is
gone, because he tormented them ; say as the church,
Micah vii. 8, 9.
** 4. Seek out for a supply ; do not mourn and sit
still, but up and be doing in your places. You have
had a cheap gospel hitherto. God sent you one
that could preach freely, and which is more, that
would do so too ; one that sought not yours, but you ;
and now God will see what you will do for your-
selves, that now the Shepherd is smitten the sheep
may not be scattered. Pray to God to raise up others
like him, and graciously to give you one.
*' 5. Take heed of liking no preacher, now he is
gone. This is a usual fault among many that have
had excellent preachers ; nobody can please them.
But God may bless weaker means, and make your
souls live, and thrive under them.
** 6. Hold fast that which you have ; it is the ad-
vice given to Philadelphia, the best of the churches.
Revelations iii. II. Keep that good thing which is
committed to you, that savouriness of heart, that
love to Christ and to saints, to all saints, that know-
ledge of the truth. Keep to his sober principles.
Remember his dying counsel. — Follow peace and
holiness. Have these things always in remembrance.
Take heed of falling off; take heed of falling away.
The world will draw you, and Satan will tempt you,
and your own busy hearts will be apt to betray you,
but go on humbly and honestly in the strength of
Christ, and fear not. Be not like those Jews that
turned aside, when John Baptist was dead, John v.
36. The Lord keep you from being such, and give
you to go on to his heavenly kingdom.''
It would have swelled this book too much, if we
had inserted the sermon at large, and therefore we
forbear it.
The next day, being Lord's day, Mr. Owen, of
Oswestry, preached a most excellent sermon in the
morning, agreeable to that sad occasion, upon that
pathetical farewell which Elisha gave to Elijah, 2
Kings ii. 12. My father, wm father ! the chariot of
Israel, and the horsemen tMlteof And he saw him
no more : and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent
abound therein. He is truly worthy, altogether worthy, that it
should be so. To learn him, and love him, and to live him, is
M iH nil He is Foundation, Food, Root, Raiment, Rffygr, Righteout-
nett. Head, Hope, Light, Life, Peace, Fropitiation,— what not, that
we have need of, to make us holy and happy. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
o The father of the Rev. S. Lawrence. See the Life of Mr. S.
Lawrence, in this volume, where his character is delineated by
Philip Henry.
124
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
them. He observed, '' 1. That faithful ministers are
the fathers of a people, and their chariots and horse-
men ; the former a metaphor taken for a family, a
peaceable society ; the latter from an army, a war-
like body. Fathers, — to provide good things. Cha-
riots and horsemen, — to protect from evil things.
2. There is a time when we shall see these fathers,
these chariots and horsemen, of Israel no more. Their
time is appointed, their work cut out for them, and
when those are finished they are removed. 3. When
God takes away our fathers, the chariots of our
Israel, and the horsemen thereof, it is a proper sea-
son for mourning and lamcntation.p Under this, he
did most affectionately excite us, 1. To be sensible
of our loss, which is better felt than expressed. It
is the loss of one that was a father; a father
to his family, to whom he was constant, in un-
folding the holy oracles ; a father to the prophets,
for counsel, and conduct, and example ; the sons
of the prophets never conversed with him, but they
were, or might have been, the better for him ; a fa-
ther to his congregation, now left orphans. It is the
loss of one of the chariots and horsemen of our Is-
rael ; so eminent was he for prcvalency in prayer,
courage in duty, conduct in affairs, constancy in
religion, and a firm adherence to his ministerial
vows, and lastly, a contempt of the world, in which,
as he that warreth, he did not entangle himself. 2.
To be sensible of those sins, which have provoked
God to deprive us of him. Barrenness and unfruit*
fulness under his ministry- ; it is for this that God
hath a controversy with us. 3. To bless God that
we enjoyed him so long ; eaten bread must not be
forgotten. 4. To be followers of him, as he was of
Christ.*! He was a pattern for ministers, excelling
in the knowledge of the Scriptures, which made this
man of God perfect, and industrious to advance the
honour of Jesus Christ, whom he made the Alpha
and Omega of his religion ; not addicted to contro-
versies, but walking in the good old way ; unweari-
ed in the work of God ; it was the delight of his
heart, to be laying out himself for the good of souls.
Exemplary for humility and low thoughts of himself,
and his own performances ; for meekness and readi-
ness to forgive injuries ; for candour in speaking of
others, and their words and actions, on which he
ever put the best construction,^ and was never apt to
speak evil of any man. Eminent for family religion,
and in that an excellent copy to all masters of fami-
lies. Those things, thodhbre, which you have heard
p U is not only no sin, but our duty, to mourn for our departed
rriends. Tears are a tribute which we owe them. Jenu wepi^
John xi. 35. And this, though they were godly, and thererure
twiners by death, for our own loss. God complains when it is not
so, Isaiah Ivii. 1. The sin lies in the txettt. We must not 9orTo» at
/Aocr/Aa/Zurofno Aopf,lTbesBaloniansiv. 13. either concerning them,
or concerning ourselves, who are left behind. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
q If we copy the example of Christ, it will be an evidence that
we are bis now, in the kingdom of grace, and an earnest that we
and seen in him do, and the God of peace shall be
with you.*' These were the heads which were copi-
ously and excellently enlarged upon in that sermon.
In the afternoon of that sabbath, another sermon
was preached by a near relation* of Mr. Henry's,
on Hebrews xi. 4. And hy it he being dead yet speak-
ethf m XaXtXraif is yet spoken of by us, and yet
speaketh to us.
The Wednesday following, July 1, being the lec-
ture in course at Dan ford, in Whitchurch parish, Mr.
Samuel Lawrence,' of Nantwich, whose turn it was
to preach that lecture, brought up the long train of
mourners, as he expressed it, in a most savoury and
pertinent discourse, on Hebrews xiii. 7. Remember
them which have (or have had) the rule over you, who
have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith
follow, considering the end of their conversation,
" Bishops, no doubt," saith he, ** are here meant,
scripture primitive bishops, the pastors of particular
congregations, for they were such as had spoken
to them the word of God, and watched for their
souls, verse 17. Such a one Mr. Henry was, that
great man, who is fallen this day in Israel, re-
moved from us, but hath left behind him a good
name to be remembered; a good example to be
imitated; many a good word spoken to us, and
many a good prayer put up for us. Remember
him with thankfulness, that God has given such
power, such gifts and graces unto men ; (I never
knew a man,'' said he, ** in all my acquaintance,
in whom I have seen so much of God as in good
Mr. Henry, whose holy, humble, heavenly, gracious
conversation hath been to me some small confirma-
tion of the truth of the Christian religion ;) that God
gave him to you, and continued him so long, to see
the church in a better state than he had sometimes
seen it ; that God crowned his labours witli such
great success. Many souls in heaven, and some on
earth, blessing God that ever they saw his face,
and that God continued him in his usefulness to
the last. Remember him with a quiet submission
to the hand of God in his removal from us. Sensi-
ble we must be of the stroke ; it is a public loss,
a loss to the ministry ; our hands are this day weak ;
a loss to the nation, for which he was a powerful
intercessor ; a loss to this country, in which he was
a burning and shining light; but yet we must
acquiesce in the divine will. The treasure was in
an earthen vessel, and God will bring us to depend
more upon himself ; and he is teaching us to live,
shall follow him, hereafter, into the kingdom of glory. P. Henry.
Memoirs of Mrs. Savage, p. 217. ui svpra.
r A wise man hath a court of chancery in his breast, to which
appeals are made when the letter of the law will admit of no apo.
logy. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
• Mr. Matthew Henry. See the Sermon, post.
t Nat 1601-, ob. April -24, 1712. See his Lite in this volume. There
wasmuch in him that resembled old Mr. Henry, both in temper,con-
versation, and preacliing. Tong's Life of M. Henry, p. wo. *tnpra.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
125
iDd live to Christ, without good Mr. Henry, though
we ha\e sometimes said, we did not know how we
eould live without him. Remember him, to pay all
lionoar and respect to his name and memory ; rise
up, and call him blessed. That is a foul tongue,
as well as a lying one, that can say any thing of him
unbecoming a disciple, servant, and minister of Jesus
Christ. Remember him, to imitate his good example.
Many of you will be called Mr. Henry's followers.
Be so indeed. He was a pattern to ministers of dili-
gence, zcaly humility, and great meekness in deal-
ing with all people, which contributed abundantly
to his success; his preaching affectionate without
affectation. To all people he was a pattern of faith
and charity, and contempt of the world, of zeal and
moderation, patience in suffering, and of constancy
and perseverance to the end. Remember him, and
remember your sins which have provoked God to
take him away. Have not we grieved this good
man's spirit? &c. Remember him, and remtmber
Christ's fulness, who is the same, verse 8, and hath
the residue of the Spirit. Instruments shifted, cis-
terns emptied, but there is the same in the fountain.
Remember him, and remember your own death, and
heaven, where he is. We may think the worse
of this world, which is much impoverished, and the
better of heaven, which is somewhat enriched, by
the removal of this good man.''
Thus we have gleaned a little out of the sermons,
which very well deserved to have been published
at large, some of the testimonies that were borne to
him, by such as had had long and intimate ac-
quaintance to him, that knew his excellences very
much, and knew as little to give flattering titles.
Nor was it any invidious piece of service, to speak
thus honourably of one, who, like Demetrius,* had
a good report of all men, and of the truth itself.
Nor was it there only, but from abroad, that very
bonourable testimonies were given of him. Sir
Heniy Ashurst, (whose great worth and usefulness
the world hath been made to know, by some of the
best pens of the age,) besides the personal acquaint-
ance he had with Mr. Henry, both at Boreatton
and in London, had kept up a constant correspond-
ence with him, by letter, for many years. Read the
character he gave of him, in a letter to a near rela-
tion of Mr. Henry's, upon the tidings of his death.
" I need not tell you how sadly I received the dole-
ful news of Mr. Henry's translation, who, I do think,
lived the greatest example of sincere godliness,
with prudence and sweetness of temper, of any I
ever knew.'' And in another letter, not only pro-
V See 3 John 12.
* Alterwardi Lord Brooke. Nat. l.)54 } ob. Sept. 30. 1628. Mr.
Cbfthnen s Biog. Diet. v. 16. p. 305.
« Nat flKta Nov. ISM ; ob. 1586. See Dr. Zouch's Memoirs of
SirP.Sidoc7.4lo.l806.
7 The remaric* applied to an emlneat iionconformist, may be
posing, but pressing, the publication of an account
of his life, he professeth, he thought there was
'* none like him in his day," at least of his acquaint-
ance, which is known to be both of the largest and
of the best. " And," saith he, '* if Sir Fulke
Greville* would have it inscribed upon his tomb-
stone, that he was a friend to Sir Philip Sidney,"
I may well be pleased to have it told to the world,
that I loved, and honoured, blessed Mr. Henry ; a
man of so much prudence, and withal so much sin-
cerity, of so good a temper, so much a gentleman,
and yet of such strict piety and devotedness to God,
that I scarce ever knew his fellow."
The Rev. Mr. William Turner, now Vicar of
Walburton in Sussex, of whom mention was made
before, lately sent to me a very kind letter, Ex mero
motu, with his free consent to have it inserted in this
account ; some hints whereof I think fit to subjoin.
" Worthy Sir ;
** I am glad to hear that you have been prevailed
with to set upon so good a work, as recording the
most remarkable passages of Mr. Henry's life. I
doubt not but you will meet with some, that will
g^ve such a history but a cold reception. All that
part of the world that lies in darkness, will be
offended, when beams of clear light and sunshine first
dart into their faces. Virtutem prasentem odimtu.
" A little before I went to the University, I was,
upon the conmiendation of my worthy schoolmaster,
Mr. E., yet living, and with my father's consent, half
a year a domestic with him ; partly as a tutor to his
young ones, and partly as a pupil to himself ; and
in some little degree as a companion ; where I had
the opportunity of informing myself more fully con-
cerning the humour, and principles, and conversa-
tion of a sort of people, and especially him and his
family, whom I had heard aspersed very freely in
former companies, and represented to the world as
very hypocritical and disloyal people. At my first
going, I resolved to stand upon my guard, and pry
into the cause, which was then the great subject of
difference and dispute; and upon the whole do
say, that Mr. Henry was a man of so clear a brain,
so gentle a behaviour, so steady a conversation, so
regular a devotion, was so courteous and conde-
scending to inferiors, so respectful and dutiful to
superiors, so sweet and obliging to aU ; was so
careful to improve his time well, to do as much
good as possible to every body, so constancy affec-
tionate in his prayers for the king and government,
so desirous to keep up a fair correspondence and
communion with his conformable brethren,' so very
fitly quoted in connexion with Mr. Henry:—" As he chose to
leave his living rather than stain his conscience, so his nonconfor-
mity was no way tinctured, either with spleen to the established
church, or disloyalty to his prince." Life of Richard Alleln.
Biog. Brit. V. 1. p. 143.
126
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
indifferent in making proselytes to his particular
opinions ; and withal, so zealous to promote sub-
stantial goodness and true Christianity, so mighty
inoffensive and peaceable in all his expressions and
actions ; so prudent, pure, pious, just, sober, chari-
table, cheerful, and pleasant, that I profess I am
almost afraid to give him his due character without
some correctives, lest they that knew him not should
suspect my veracity, and imagine my pen to be
managed by some mercenary hand. I remember the
worshipful Rowland Hunt, of Borcatton, Esq.
speaking of Mr. Henry, thus expressed himself to
me, and, if I mistake not, the Lord Ambassador
Paget was present I was, said he, near seven
years resident in the Universities, and seven more
at the Inns of Court in London, and had opportu-
nity of knowing and acquainting myself with the
most eminent divines and preachers in both those
places ; yet I never found any every way so accom-
plished, for clearness and quickness of apprehen-
sion, solidity of judgment, and roundness of style,
as Mr. Henry is. I have noted in my Book of Pro-
vidences,* the remark I made upon the temporal
blessings God hath rewarde<^ him with; viz. a
good and virtuous consort, who brought him a good
estate, g^ve him a due reverence, loved him with an
entire affection; an ingenious and hopeful offspring,
well affected, well educated, and well disposed in
the world ; the favour of men, and a quiet undis-
turbed habitation upon earth, in great measure,
&c.
Sic testatus, tic monet, $\c precatur,
Amieui nutrens, anheltu, superstes.
W. Turner, A. M."
Another very worthy conformist, formerly of his
acquaintance, but now living at a great distance,
having occasion to mention him in a letter to a
friend, calls him, — ^The great, good, and now glori-
ous, Mr. Henry, whose memory, saith he, shall ever
be precious, and even sacred to me.
Such as these were the honourable testimonies
which all that knew him, and knew how to value
true excellency, attended him with. It is part of
the recompence of charity and moderation in this
world, that it obtains a ifood report of mil men. The
• " Mr. Philip Henry, of whom I hare made mention before,
was a man of a very sedate even temper, a calm spirit, a great
peace-maker in his neigfaboarhood ; and, acconlingly, he lived,
loved, and died, with the universal lamentation of people of all
sorts ; and which, perhaps, ought not to be omitted in the con-
sideration, after the ei^ojrment of a kind and loving wife, who
brought him a good and plentiful estate ; and, seeing his children
all disposed of with his consent, and to the content of all persons
concerned, and they walking in the truth, and In mutual love one
with another, and his children's children, to his great Joy and
comfort. 1 Hiy, after all these blessings poured plentifully upon
Ms head, with great assurance and ntisfaction about his spiritual
and eternal estate, he, quietly, with a short sickness erf" about
twelve hours' continuance, or not much more, resigned up his
kingdom of God, saith the blessed apostle, Romans
xiv. 17, IB. is not meat and drink, which were then
the matters of doubtful disputation, but righteous-
ness, and peace, and joy in tke Holy Ghost ; and he
that in these things serveth Christ, is not only ac-
ceptable to God, but approved of men : as, on the
contrary, they that judge will be judged, and with
what measure we mete, it will he measured to us again.
And this is the excellency of a good name, that it is
out of the reach of death, and is not buried in the
grave, but rather grows up from it. It is not for
nothing that Solomon hath joined this good name,
which is better than precious ointment, with the day
ofone*$ death, which, upon that account, is better
than the day of one's birth, that it completes the
character of those that finish their course well, and
are faithful unto death ; whereas a great name, like
the names of the great ones of the earth, is often
withered and blemished by death. We read of
those that bear their shame when they go down to the
pit, though they were the terror of tlie mighty in the
land of the living, — Ezekiel xxxii. 25.,
At a meeting of the Dissenting Ministers of Che-
shire, at Knutsford, in May, 1696, a few weeks be-
fore Mr. Henry died, it was agreed, that their next
meeting should be at Chester,* though inconvenient
to many of them, upon condition that he would meet
them there, and g^ve them a sermon. It was with
much diflSculty that he was prevailed with to pro-
mise it, but his Master called for him before the
time appointed came. Mr. Flavel, of Devonshire,^
died when he was under a like appointment But
happy they that are come to the general assembly
and church of the Jirst-born, and to the spirits of just
men made perfect.
As to his bodily presence, he was of a middle
stature, his complexion not approaching to any ex-
treme, of a very pleasant aspect, and an unusual
mixture of g^vity and sweetness in the air of his
countenance, which was the true index of the mind.
[He would never be persuaded to wear a periwig or
border, though he had but very little hair, and was
like Elisha for a bald-head. He sometimes said, —
As long as I have three hairs of my own, I will
never wear any body^s else.*] When some of his
friends have solicited him to have his picture drawn,
spirit into the hands of the Ood of peace." Turner's History of
Remarkable Providences, ch. Izxvii. p. 100. «/ gupra.
• See Memoirs of Mra Savage, pp. 51. 5*2. «/ tupra,
b See his Life, prefixed to his Works, vol. L He died the 26th
of June, 1691. ast. 64.
e Life, Orig. US. «/ rapra. See Walton's Lives by Dr. Zonch,
V. S. p. 417. Mr. Matthew Henry, in his Diary, writes thus :~
*' 1707-8. January 32. This day I was quite overruled by Bro-
ther H. and some of my friends, to cut off my hair, 1 having of late
been very uneasy with coldness in my head, tooth-ache, and at
present a deafhess. I had purposed not to have done it. but
feared, lest persisting in my refXisal against the most earnest
advice of my physician and friends, should arise from a secret
pride in my own hair, and an affectation of singularity.** Orig. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
127
be would pat them off <* with this, that the best pic-
ture ofa minister is in the hearts of his people.
CHAPTER X.
A MISCBLLAKBOnS COLLBCTION OP SOME OP HIS SAYINGS,OB8Ka-
VATIONS, COUXSBI^, AND COMFORTS, OUT OP HIS SBRMONS,
LffrrSftS, AKU DISCOURSES.
Mr. Henry, through the excess of his modesty and
self-diffidence, never published any of his labours to
the world, nor ever fitted or prepared any of them
for the press ; and yet none more valued the labours
of others, or rejoiced more in them ; nor have I
heard any complain less of the multitude of good
hooks, concerning which he often said, that store is
10 sore,* and he was very forward to persuade others
to publish ; and always expressed a particular plea-
sore in reading the lives, actions, and sayings of
emiiientmen, ancient and modem, which he thought
the most oseful and instructive kind of writings.
He was also a very candid reader ^ of books, not apt
to pick quarrels with what he read, especially when
the design appeared to be honest ; and when others
would find fault, and say this was wanting, and the
other amiss, his usual excuse was, — ^There is nothing
perfect under the sun.
It will be but a small repair of this want of the
publishing of some of his works, but I doubt it will
prove the best we can make, to glean up some few
• of many of his sayings, observations, and good in-
structions, as his remains, which we shall not mar-
shal in any order, but give them as they occur, be-
sides those which have been already inserted into
tbis narrative.
It was a saying he frequently used, which hath
been mentioned already, — ^That every creature is that
to us, and only that, which God makes it to be : and
another was, — Duty is ours, events are God's : ^ and
another was, — The soul is the man,^ and therefore,
that is always best for us, which is best for our souls :
and another was, — The devil cossens us of all our
time, by cozening us of the present time.
[Referring to the death of a friend who had often
i See Heywood** Life of Angler, p. 62. ui nyra ; and Dr. Jor-
tnlLife of Erasmos, v. S. p. 93.
A ** 8ion M no ««r«, young mistresB*
My mother is wont to my."
Ben Jonson. Works, toI. 6. p. 34. ut npra.
b Appendix, No. XXV.
c See also a Letter from Philip to Matthew Henry, where this
and others of Mr. Henry's sayings are introduced. Prot. Diss.
Ifsg- ▼. 2. p. 454.
" Duties are ours, and events are God's." Mr. Rutherford. See
Joshua KediTiTaa. or 352 Religious Letters, by the " eminently
pious and learned Mr. S. Rutherford." Lett. zei. to the Rev. D.
Dickson, Mar. 7. l(Rf7, oct. tSOO, p. 1 1 1. I3tb ed.
* ** Tbe sovl,** aaitb a Heathen, '* is the man ; that which is seen
Boot the man:**
Omm conrcr av^pmttot to opttfitvov. Plato.
^FbTd^Hastandry Spiritualised, ch vi. Works, ut tvpra^ v. 6.
expressed his intention of leaving the substance of
his estate to pious uses, but had not done so, he re-
marked,—Many good purposes lie in the church*
yard.«]
In his thanksgivings for temporal mercies, he often
said,— If the end of one mercy were not the begin-
ning of another, we were undone : and to encourage
to the work of thanksgiving he would say,— That
new mercies call for new returns of praise, and then
those new returns will fetch in new mercies.
[Sometimes he would say,— Former mercies are
a support to faith in expectation of future mercies :
at other times, — Praise is our rent-penny, which we
pay to our great Landlord. We are God's tenants
for his creatures, and we are tenants at will. Three-
pence of rent he looks for ; a penny of thankfulness,
of obedience, of charity. We must relieve tp our
power proportionable to what we hold.
Of all the blessings we enjoy, saving, spiritual
blessings cry loudest on us for returns of praise.
They are the best blessings, the most excellent in
themselves, the most costly to the Father, the most
advantageous to us.']
From Psalm 1. 23. He that offer 9 praise' glorifies
me, and to him that orders his conversation aright, he
observed, that thanks-giving is good, but thanks-
living is better.
[O what a mercy, he would say, is health. If the
least wheel in our watch (the most menial servant)
be out of order, what trouble is it to all the family.**]
When he spoke of a good name, he usually de-
scribed it to be a name for good things with good
people.
When he spoke of contentment, he used to say, —
When the mind and the condition meet, there is
contentment.' Now in order to that, either the con-
dition must be brought up to the mind, and that is
not only unreasonable but impossible, — for as the
condition riseth, the mind riseth with it,— or else
the mind must be brought down to the condition,
and that is both possible and reasonable. And he
observed, — That no condition of life will of itself
make a man content, without the grace of God ; for
we find Haman discontented in the court, Ahab dis-
Mens cujusqoe is est quisque.
Cicero. Somnium Sdpionia. Fragmenta, p. 64. op. torn, a
duod. 1642.
And see 3 Cor. iv. 16, where the soul is called the inward man.
e Diary. Orig. MS.
f P. Henry. Orig. MS.
s Christians are to give Ood the praise, Ps. cxv. 1. of all they
have; gifts, graces ;— of all they do; duties;— of all they get;
success. P.Henry. Orig. MS.
h Diary. Orig. MS.
i " Though a man cannot bring his condition to be as big as his
heart, yet, if he can bring his heart to be as little as his condition,
to bring them even ;— flrom thence is contentment The Rare
Jewel of Christian Contentment, by Jer. Burroughs, p. 30, 4to.
1685. So Plato ;— '* The man, who would be truly happy, should
not study to enlarge his estate, but to contract his desires." Plu-
tarch, vol. 5. p. 385. a/nipra.
128
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
contented on the throne, Adam discontented in
paradise ; nay, and hi^er we cannot go, the angels
that fell discontented in heaven itself.
[It pleases God to divide and dispense his gifts
severally to the children of men : not all to one ;
but some to one, and some to another. There is no
man so happy but hath something that is an alloy to
his happiness, some trouble, or cross, or other, which
should make us humble. And no man is so miser-
able, but he hath something that is an alloy to his
misery ; if he be poor, yet he hath health. This, if
well considered, might help to quiet our hearts, and
teach us, in whatsoever state we are, therewith to
be content.*^
You that have estates, he advised,— be sober in
the use of them. Yon that have none, be sober in
your desires.'
With a view to check inordinate desires, he would
sometimes say, — Consider what are those things
towards which thy desires are, — they are earthly,
vanity. This I can assure thee, thou wilt not find
that in them which thou lookest for. The Holy
Ghost hath caused a whole book of scripture to be
written about this argument ; it is the book of Eccle-
siastcs, — Delight thyself in the Lord, Creature-com-
forts ebb and flow, but God is always the same.
Mortify inordinate affections. Let that of Jacob be
our rule, Genesis xxviii. 20 — ^22 ; or that of Agur,
Proverbs xxx. 7, &c. or that of Christ, daily bread.
Nature is contented with little; grace with less;
lust with nothing at all.*"
Earthly-minded men, he remarks, are like moles :
they live in the earth ; they see no beauty in holi-
ness, no comeliness in Jesus Christ**
The three questions which he advised people to
put to themselves in self-examination before the
sacrament, were. What am I ? What have I done ?
and. What do I want?"
[Noticing hypocrisy, he has remarked ; — ^Though,
to live in the least sin cannot consist with the power
of godliness, yet, to live in the greatest, may with
the form, Moses took a veil, when he spoke to
Israel ; put it off, when to God. Hypocrites do
quite contrary ; they show their best face to men,
their worst to God. But he sees through the veil.
Vipers speckled without, are poisonous within.p]
He used to recommend to his friends these four
scripture arguments against sin, expressed, for
memory sake, in four verses, to be ready in an hour
of temptation.
k P. Henry. Orlg. MS.
1 Ibid.
m Ibid. A little will satisfy nature, less will satisfy grace, but
nothing will satisfy a proud roan's lusts. Galen. See Brooks's Un.
searchable Riches of Christ, p. 19 4to. 167L
a P. Henry. Orig. MS.
o Appendix, No. XXVL
P P. Henry. Ortg. MS.
4 2 Sam. xvi. 17.
Is this thy kindness to thy friend ?<i
It will be bitterness in the end.'
The vows of God upon me lie ;*
Should such a man as I am fly?'
[Pressing upon professors the wrong done by their
sin to others, he would say ;^Your sin brings an
evil report upon the ways of God, and grieves the
hearts of your brethren, while it is the enemy's joy
and triumph. Your example doth mischief ; others
will think they may safely venture to do as they see
you do." There is not the least sin allowed of, and
affected, but will end in the eternal separation of
the soul from God. Guilty of one, guilty of all.
James ii. 10.*
If I sin, he remarked, I must repent of it, and re-
pentance is made up of shame and sorrow, and hath
much bitterness in it. Sin is against God. And,
how shall I do this great wickedness^ and sin against
the great God, and a great King above all gods f Sin
b pleasing to the devil ; and shall I do tiiat which
gratifies him who does all he can to destroy me ?
Consider the reflection of sin upon Jesus Christ ;
how it gprieves, pierces, and openly shames him, my
dear Redeemer, who shed his blood to redeem and
ransom my soul from sin. Of this, it may be said,
as of Goliah's sword. There is none like it. Consider
the vows of God, which are upon us, especially the
great vow of our baptism. Consider, though 1 may
not be damned for this sin hereafter, yet i may be
sorely chastened for it here, as David. The con-
sideration of death and judgment, and the account
that must be rendered when every secret thing shall
be revealed, is a weighty argument against sin. If
it be a public sin, consider the scandal of it to
religion, besides the harm it may do as a bad ex-
ample.*
Watch against the beginnings and occasions of
sin. This was Joseph's remedy.'^ Set the Lord
alwt^s before thee. How can I do this, not only
against God^ but in his very face ? Put on the whole
armour of God ; especially the shield of faith. Faith
realizes invisible things ; threatenings, promises,
hell, heaven, and above all, Christ crucified. Pray
much. The best way to fight against sin, is to fight
upon our knees. Remember your end. Death is at
hand, and, after death, comes judgment. Do but
suppose the next sin should be the determining sin,
as perhaps it may.^
When God pardons sin, he would say, he takes it
r 2 Sam. il. 36.
» Ps. Wi. 13.
t Neh. xi. II.
11 P. Henry. Orig. MS.
V Ibid.
w P. Henry. Orig. B«S.
X Sec a Sermon, by P. Henry, on Gen. xrixix. 9. Eighteen Ser-
mons, p. 40. «/ tnfra.
7 P. Henry. Ortg. MS.
THE UFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
129
off as a barthen ; removes it away, as filthiness ; and
blots it out, as a debt.
Saving grace takes off the affections from sin ;
but, most of all, from that which was formerly best
beloved."
Sanctiilcation is the resurrection of the soul from
the death of sin to the life of grace ; the fint retur-
T^ttiaUj Revelations xx. 6.*]
He said there were four things which he would
not for all the world have against him ;^The word
of God, his own conscience, the prayers of the poor,
and the account of godly ministers.
[There are four things he would say, we must not
make a mock of ;— sin. Proverbs xiv. 9. — people's
natural infirmities, — the word of God, — and good
people.**
TVia snnt difficilia ;— to believe things impossible
to reason, — to hope against hope when the thing
hoped for is deferred, — and to cleave to God as to
a friend, when he appears against us as an enemy .^
There are two things he remarked, we should
greatly beware of ; — That we may never be ashamed
of the gospel, — and, that we may never be a shame to
it. Proverbs xxx. 9.**]
** He that hath a blind conscience, which sees
nothing : a dead conscience, which feels nothing ;
and a dumb conscience, which saith nothing ; is in
as miserable a condition as a man can be in on this
side hell.''
[He remarked, — ^There are three things, which, if
Christians do, they will prove mistaken :
1. If they look for that in themselves, which is to
be had in another ; viz. righteousness,
2. If they look for that in the lawy which is to be
bad only in the gospel ; viz. mercy,
3. If they look for that on earth which is to be
had only in heaven ; viz. perfection.
Seriousness in trifles, trifling in the most serious
things, he would observe, undoes thousands.*]
Preaching on 1 Peter i. 6. If need he, ye are in
kenimess^ — He showed what need the people of God
have of afflictions. The same that our bodies have
of physic, that our trees have of pruning,' that gold
and silver have of the furnace, that liquors have of
being emptied from vessel to vessel, that the iron
hath of a file, that the fields have of a hedge, that
the child has of the rod.
« P. Henry. Orig. MS-
• Ibid.
kibid.
r Ibid.
i Ibid.
* Diary, Orig. MS.
f God's vine bears better for bleeding. Israel went but aeventy
into Egypt, but returned six hundred thousand,— being increased
by their bondage. P. Henry. Common Place Book. Orig. MLS.
r Mr. Henry. Palmer's Noncon. Mem. v. 3, p. 490 , said to be
printed firom hii Diary.
>> Cypnao.
»P- Henry. Orig.
[The evil of an affliction, he would say, is the
wrath of God in it.
The pilot is wise though the sea is rough.'
Afflictions are enlightening ; they open the eyes.
Schola cruets est schola lucis :" — humbling ; they help
to lay us low : — softening ; as the rain to the parched
earth, as fire that melts the metals :— composing ;
they help to make people sober and serious, opening
the ear to discipline.^
When outward afflictions are upon the Lord's
people, their chief endeavours should be after spi-
ritual, inward mercies; to get sin pardoned, peace
established. Psalm xxv. 18. It is usual with Satan,
at such times, to disquiet God's people with the re-
membrance of old miscarriages. He is a great ene-
my to our peace. When he doth so, our best course
is to sue out a fresh pardon. '^
We are horn to trouble as men. Job xiv. 1 . and
horn again to it as Christians, 2 Timothy iii. 12.'
The graces of God's children are like fire in a
flint, the flint must be struck before the fire will
appear.
The way to make a burthen light, he writes, is to
poise it equally, that it may not hang all on one side.
So afflictions are made easy by parting our care, so
as to take upon us only the care of duty, and
leave events to God.°*
Great affections prove great afflictions."
Thus he would pray ; — ^When the flail^ of affliction,
O Lord, is upon me, let me not be as the chaff that
flies in thy face, but as the com that lies at thy
fect.p]
Preaching on that prayer of Christ for his dis-
ciples, John xvii. 21.; — That they all may he one;
which, no doubt, is an answered prayer; for the
Father heard him always ; He showed, — ^That, not-
withstanding the many sad divisions that arc in the
church, yet all the saints, as far as they are sancti-
fied, are one ; one in relation, one flock, one family,
one huildiny, one body, one hread; one by repre-
sentation ; one in imaye and likeness^ of one incli-
nation and disposition ; one in their aims, one in their
askings, one in amity and friendship, one in interest,
and one in their inheritance ; nay, they are one in
judgment and opinion ; though in some things they
difi'er, yet those things in which they are agreed are
many more, and much more considerable than those
k P. Henry. Orig. MS.
I P. Henry. Skeleton of a Sermon on Matt. xvii. 14. taken from
his own BiIS. Tbeol. Mag. and Review, v. % p. 422. A. D. 1802.
ni P. Henry. Common Place Book. Orig. MS.
n P. Henry. Orig. MS.
o The flayle, or the winde, hurtithe not the wheat, but clensyth
yt from the chafTe. And ye, dearly l»eioved, are God's wheat ;
feare not the fanning wind. An Epistle sent by Mr. Latimer, to all
the unfayned lovers of God's trewthe. owte of a prison in Oxen-
ford, called Bocardo ; where the said Latimer was emprisonned for
the testimony of Criste, the 15th of May, 1555. Strype's EccL
Mem. V. 3. p. 308. Mi supra.
P P. Henry. Orig. MS.
130
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
things wherein they differ. They are all of a mind
concerning sin, that it is the worst thing in the
world ; concerning Christy that he is All in all ; con-
cerning the favour of God, that it is better than life ;
concerning the world, that it is vanity ; concerning
the word of God, that it is very precious, &c.
Preaching on Galatians i. 16. concerning the con-
version of Paul, he began his sermon with this
remark, to raise attention ; — Much is said in story
concerning the seven wonders of the world, the
Temple of Ephesus, the Pyramids of Egypt, the
Tomb of Mausolus, &c. all which are now no
more ; but I have been sometimes thinking, whether
I could not name seven things which I would call
the seven wonders of the church. And what do you
think of these seven? Are they not wonderful? 1.
Our redemption by Jesus Christ, who is called
Wonderful, 2. The salvation of Noah in the ark.
3. The faith of Abraham in offering up Isaac. 4.
The patience of Job. 5. The providences of God
towards the nation and people of the Jews. 6. The
pouring out of the Spirit upon the apostles. 7. The
conversion of Paul.
[Preaching on Romans v. 12. — And death by $in,
and so death passed upon all men ; he observed, —
That eternal death is meant, or the death of both
body and soul in hell. This is part of the wages of
sin ; in Romans vi. 23. opposed to eternal life. It
is a living death, or a dying life. It is, therefore,
death, because separation from God. Depart from
me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels. Depart : — now, the Spirit saith,
Come ; and the Bride saith. Come ; but then. Depart
from me, — thfi Fountain of Lift ;— from my presence,
in which is fulness of joy. This is the punishment
of loss ; — the very hell of hell. Lord, if we must
go from thee, let us part friends ! No ; — Depart, ye
cursed ; and those whom he curses, are cursed in-
deed. Then let it be to some other place, where we
may be quiet, ^o \— into fire. Such fire as ours
is but a poor shadow of. Let us stay there but a
while. No ;— into everlasting fire. Let us have good
company. No ; — the devil, and his angels. The same
by whom thou didst choose to be ruled, shall now
torment thee.^
Preaching on Hebrews vi. 9 ',^But, beloved, we
are persuaded better things of you, and things that
accompany salvation,' though we thus speah ; he said,
in the close ; — Do these things. See sin to be the
worst of evils, and depart from it. See Christ to
be the best of goods, and choose him, and cleave to
q P. Henry. Orig. MS.
r The thingt that accompany salvatuM, zn^—Tepfntanet towartU Cod^
and faith towards our Lord Jent Chritt. Where these are, there is
salvation. Acts Hi. 19. xv\. 31. Without these, we cannot be
saved, Lulce xiii. 3. John viii. 24. A holy heart, and a holy life,
John iii.3. Heb. xii. 14. Matt, xviii. 3. Sincerity, truth, and up-
rightness, Gen. xviL L Ps. li. 6. Isa. xxxviii. a 2 Cor. i. 12. Habi-
tual jMreparation of soul to part with all for the sake of Christ
him. See tiie world passing away, and set not thy
heart upon it. See the ways of God to be the best
ways, and his people the best people ; and walk in
those ways, and with those people. See heaven and
hell before you, and carry it accordingly. Love the
word of God ; make it your g^ide, your food.*
In an exposition of Genesis iii. after analyzing
the awful sentence upon our first parents, he thus
beautifully remarked ; — In the midst of all the wrath
denounced and executed in this chapter, what a
sweet mixture there was of mercy: alluding to
Psalm ci. 1. There is a promise of Christ, verse
15. In sorrow thou shall bring forth ; there is wrath :
but then it shall be children ; there is mercy. Thy
desire shall be subject, but it shall be to thy husband.
Thy face shall sweat ; but in the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread, Mercy is seen in making gar-
ments for them, verse 15.'
Preaching on Matthew vii. 24, kjc-^^TTkerefore,
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth
them, I win lihen him, ^c. he observed, that he who
hears sermons, and doth not do them, is a monster
in religion. He is all head and ears, having neither
hands to work with nor feet to walk with. There is
a disease, which children have, called the rickets,
wherein their heads swell as large as two heads, and
their legs are crooked, which hinder their going. We
have many ricketty Christians ; they hear much, and
' their heads swell with empty notions, and indigested
opinions, but their legs are crooked, their walking
is perverse. Every such person is a mocker of God,
a deceiver of himself, a discourager of ministers,
barren soil, a bad servant, a beholder of his natural
face in a glass, a builder of his house upon the sand,'
Preaching on Christ, as the redemption of his
people, from 1 Corinthians i, dO.^But of him are ye
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us redemp-
tion ; he thus concluded ;— Live as the redeemed of
the Lord ; live with your eye upon the redemption ;
viewing it often ; aiming at it as your scope ; 2 Co-
rinthians iv. 18. Live with your hand upon the
plough, abounding always in the worh of the Lord.
Live with your feet upon the world, despising its
glories, bearing patiently its frowns. Live with
your heart upon the Redeemer, in love and thank-
fulness."^
Preaching on Ephesians ii. 12. That at that time
ye were without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel; he thus described the miserable con-
dition of those who are without Christ ;^They are
children without a father, orphans ; sheep, without
and his gospel, if God shall call us thereunto, Luke ix. 23. Matt.
X. 37. Matt. vi. 24. P. Henry. Orig. BIS.
■ P. Henry. Orig. MS.
t Ibid.
n Ibid.
V Ibid. A heart to be truly thankful for the Redeemer, Is a good
sign of an interest in the redemption. P. Henry. Memoin oTMn.
Sarage, p. 917. ni iupra.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
131
a shepherd, none to lead them, to feed them, to
i;aard them ; they are in the dark, and no sun to
enlighten them ; they are in a friendless condition,
Christ is their enemy ; they are under a deht, and
lia?e no surety ; they are in the midst of enemies,
and have do Saviour ; they have a cause to plead,
but haye no Advocate ; they are sinners, but have
DO Prophet, Priest, or King, to appear for them ;
they are out of the way, for Christ u the only way ;
they are mortally diseased, but have no Physician ;
they are naked, and have no clothing, for Christ's
righteousness is the only clothing ; they are food-
leis, breadless, for he only is bread to the soul;
thej are without wisdom ; and', therefore, fools. A
Christless condition is a muerable condition.*]
But it would be endless to gather up such passages
as these out of his sermons, which were full of them,
and we mention these only because they occur first.
He used to observe concerning the nation of the
Jews, that, before the captivity in Babylon, no
people could be more strongly addicted to idols and
idolatry than they were,— to admiration, considering
what clear warnings they had against it. But after
that captivity, never was any people more averse
to idols and idolatry than they, that the promise
might be fulfilled, Epkraim shall say. What have I
to do any mare with idols f And he looked upon it,
that the idolatry of the papists was one of the
greatest obstructions to the Jews' conversion, which
he did expect and look for, as not apprehending
how the promises, Romans xi. have yet had their
foil accomplishment ; not that they shall again be
incorporated into a people, but shall join themselves
to the churches of Christ, in the several nations
vhither they be scattered.
The great thing that he condemned and witnessed
against in the Church of Rome, was their mono-
potiadng of the church, and condemning all that are
not in with their interests, which is so directly con-
trary to the spirit of the gospel, as nothing can be
more. He sometimes said, — I am too much a
catholic to be a Roman Catholic.
He often expressed himself well pleased with that
healing rule,* which, if duly observed, would put an
end to all our divisions ;— tS^t> in necessariis unitas, in
lum necessariis libertas, in omnibus charitas. Let
there be in necessary things unity, in every thing
• Mn. Savage's Its.
s Of St. Augustine.
7 About the one.and- thirtieth yeare of Henry the Eighth, holy-
<ta7i were growne to such an unreasonable number, as that men
bad afanost no time to worke and attend the businesse of their
callrogs; servants had so many play days, and poore people so
few wwfcing dayeSk as began to breed much inconvenience, by
mson of much idleness. Wherefore there came forth injunctions
(ram the king by the convocation, for the restraint thereof. God's
Holy House and Service, by Foulke Robarts, pp. 22, 23. 4to. 1630.
See a copy of ** Tbacte made for Thabrogacion of certay iie holy-
^ye%** in Bishop Sparrow's Collection of Articles, &c. 4to. 1675.
K 2
charity, and then there need not be, in every punc-
tilio, uniformity.
By the institutions of the gospel, he said, he knew
of no holy place, one holy day,^ two holy sacra-
ments, and four holy canons. Let all things be done
in charity. Let all things be done to edifying. Let
all things be done decently, and in order. Let all
things be done to the glory of God.
When his opinion was asked about any doubtful
matter, as plajdng at cards, the marriage of cousin-
germans, or the like, he was very cautious in deter-
mining such things to be sinful ; but he would say ;
•—It is good keeping on the safer side ; and a man
would not choose to go upon a precipice, when he
might go upon even ground. Proverbs x. 5. He that
walks uprightly walks surely, in opposition to walk-
ing at all adventures.
[There are excellent rules to guide us in doubtful
cases. What would Peter, or Paul, or Christ him-
self do in this case, if they were here ? What would
I do myself if I were dying now, and going to judg-
ment?' What is the first dictate of my own consci-
ence; I say, tho^^rf^, — before interest, profit, hath
bribed it? Usually, that is the right.*
On another occasion, in reference to the sacred
injunction, — Commune with thine own heart, and be
still, he said, — When the question hath been put to
conscience, — Do I do well to live in the practice of
such and such a thing ?^Stay, and hearken to the
answer.**
Noticing the common objection urged against the
strictness of a holy life ; — It is more than needs. I
have a good heart towards God ; I go to church,
and give to every man his own ; and what do the
best more?— I will tell thee, saith he. — ^They do
more ; they watch against the occasions of sin, and
pray, and endeavour, that the wicked one may not
touch them. When he hath touched them, and
they have sinned, it is the great grief of their souls,
causes them to mourn bitterly. They take hold, by
faith, on the blood of Christ, and receive remission
through him. This they improve as the greatest,
and most prevailing, argument to all manner of
gospel obedience after. This they do, and these
are the things that accompany salvation,^
On Christian joy fulness we have the following
remarks :—
One of the injunctions of King Edward the Sixth, in 1547, was,
that—*' All parsons, vicars, and curates, shall teach and declare
unto their parishioners, that they may, with a safe and quiet con-
science, in the time of harvest, labour upon the holy and festival
days, and save the thing which God hath sent." Ibid. p. 7. This
was repeated by Queen Elizabeth, in I5S9. Ibid. p. 73.
Mr. Henry probably had tliese things in view.
I See the Sermon preached before the interment of Mr. John
Sympson, pp. 39, 40. 4to. 1663.
* P. Henry. Orig. MS.
b Ibid. %
c Ibid.
132
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENR¥!
Whosoever takes his full, though lawful, pleasure
in the things of the world,* to such God commonly
denies the extraordinary delights of his Spirit.
Men may be in a state of joy, and yet not appre-
hend it, as Hagar, who had a well by her, and yet
complained for thirst. Genesis xxi. 17.
Joy must not always be judged of by the outward
expressions ; for a man will laugh more at a jest
than he will at news of a pardon.
If we let the reins loose to sin and folly ; if we
suffer the world, and vanities of it, to encroach upon
us, and to steal away our thoughts and affections,
that will quickly spoil Christ's being our song,
Hosea ix. 1. Joy is forbidden fruit to a backslider.
Such have other work to do. It is they only who
keep a conscience void of offence^ that walk circum-
spectly, not as fools, but as wise, that keep close to
God and duty. — I say it is they only, that can
rejoice in Christ Jesus, And, therefore, see to it all
ye that desire to make Christ your song, and to
rejoice always in him. Mind your way ; mend your
pace ; ply your work.
Rest not, he would say, in having life, but press
after liveliness. Revelations iii. 1, 2. A lively frame
in our walking, is an excellent frame ; it rids work ;
brings something to pass in religion.'
Usually, after continued deadness, rested in,
comes some notable afHiction, or other cross. — ' Is it
so, indeed ? Can you afford me no better duties V
Withdraw, Comforter ! Smite, sickness ! Vex him,
Satan ! Persecute him, enemies ! Hosea v. 15; vi. 1.'
Writing upon worldliness, he observed, that,
although the affections may not be only upon earthly
things, they may be so principally ; as when we affect
earthly things in the first place ; when we affect them
for their own sakes, and not in subordination to a
higher end ; when heavenly things must give way
to them ; and when we can be content to forfeit a
good conscience, that we may gratify our regard to
them.
The root of a tree lies out of sight ; so the affec-
tions. When they are set upon the world, what they
do, they do slily. The soul is lost without noise.
One of the most dreadful expressions of wrath in
all the Scripture is denounced against a root of bitter-
d And, for pleasures and delights of the world, we must deal
with it as men who buy and taste honey, only touch it with the
tip of the finger, not with our whole hand, for feare of surfeit.
Venerable Bede. The Lives of the Primitive Fathers, p. 516. 4to.
1640.
« P. Henry. Orig. MS.
f Ibid.
: fr Ibid.
h Ibid.
i Ibid.
k One of these observations was noticed by BIr. Turner in proof
of " great effects being wrought by weak means." A woman
near Hanmer, going over a hedge, was bung to death with her
head.string catching accidentally in the sticks; as was related to
me by Mr. Henry of Broad Oak, in Flintshire. Remark. Provid.
cli. cxli. p 69. ut npra.
ness, Deuteronomy xxix. 18, 20, 21. Such a root
is earthly-mindedness ; and the fruit it brings forth
is bitter fruit.
A child of God may be master of the world, but
he cannot be a slave to it.s
If the affections of a Christian be towards earthly
things, the soul will be wronged. It vrill engage
him in a multitude of temptations and snares,
1 Timothy vi. 9. It will exceedingly hinder com-
munion vrith God. Earthly things are as bird-lime
to the soul. When the heart is mounting up towards
heaven, then will come in a wandering thought, as
a bullet, or as an arrow out of a bow, and on the
sudden fetch it down again. It is the very root of
apostasy ; and it unfits us for death. None are so
unwilling to die as those whose affections are towards
earthly things.**
Earthly riches are uncertain riches, 1 Timothy
vi. 17. but spiritual mercies are sure mercies, Isaiah
Iv. 3.*]
In the observations he made of God's providences,^
he frequently took notice, in discourse with his
friends, of the fulfilling of the Scripture in them ;
for, saith he, — The Scripture hath many accomplish-
ments, and is in the fulfilling every day. Speaking
of a vricked son in the neighbourhood, that was very
undutiful to his mother, he charged some of his
children to observe the providence of God concern-
ing him ; perhaps, saith he, I may not live to see it,
but do you take notice, whether God do not come
upon him with some remarkable judgment in this
life, according to the threatening implied in the
reason annexed to the Fifth Commandment. But
he himself lived to see it fulfilled not long after, in
a very signal providence.*
[On the subject of declensions in religion he
remarked ; — It was never said Of any one that fell
away,"* that he was ei\her justified, or begotten again;
whereas, many other glorious things are spoken of
them. Hebrews vi. 4, 6, &c."
Many men begin well in the profession of religion,
and hold on a while, and yet break off at last, and
come to nothing. What is the matter ? Want of a
single eye. They did not choose religion for religion's
sake, nor the ways of God for God's sake, but for
1 A striking illustration of a similar nature is recorded by Bishop
Hopkins, in his *' Exposition on the Commandments." Works,
V. I, p. 452. «/ wpro.
m They that voluntarily fall ofTfrom God's truth, are, of all men,
the most given to railing and bitterness, I Timothy i. 20. Julian,
the apostate, was the bitterest railer against Christians. Tliere
are various reasons for this. The de^re they have to justify them-
selves ; because they know they have made themselves odious to
God's people ; (as nations take up arms against those they have
no hope to be reconciled to ;) to give assurance to that side they
have given themselves to, 3 Sam. xvl. 21. A fury of spirit follows
the worst cause. Let us hold fast the truth, and take heed of
falling away ; for then we shall foil into the gall of hitterneu. Mr.
D. Bufgess on 2 Pet. ii. 1&, 16. Sept 21, 1619. From a MS. of the
Rev Arthur Hildersham. /V|fn mt.
B P. Henry. Common Place Book. Orig. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
133
some secular advantage, or by-respect ; and, when
the weight is off, the clock stands.^ J
He observed from scripture instances, as well as
from some providences, which he had taken notice
of in his own day, — ^That, if any began well in the
irays of religion and godliness, and afterwards cast
off their profession^ and returned to profanencss
again, usually God sets a mark of his displeasure
upon them, by some visible judgment in this world ;
their estates ruined, their reputation blasted, their
families sunk, or themselves brought to misery ; so
that all who passed by might say,—' This was an
apostate.' If any man draw back,, my soul shall have
no pleasure in him.
He observed, from Numbers x. 12.«-That all our
removes in this world are but from one wilderness
to another. Upon any change that is before us, wc
are apt to promise ourselves a Canaan, but we shall
be de<^ived, it will prove a wilderness.
Once, pressing the study of the scriptures, he ad-
vised to take a verse of Psalm cxix.P every morning
to meditate upon, and so go over the psalm twice in
the year ; and that, saith he, will bring you to be in
love with all the rest of the scripture ; and he often
said ;— All grace grows,*! as love to the word of God
grows.
[Mentioning that passage; — And turned my feet
m/o thy testimonies ; — he observed, that the great
turn to be made in heart and life, is from all other
things to the word of God. Conversion turns us to
the word of God, as our touch-stone, to examine
ourselves, our state, our ways, spirits, doctrines,
worships, customs ; as our glass, to dress by, James
i. as our rule to walk and work by, Galatians vi.
16 ; as our water, to wash us. Psalm cxix. 9 ; as
our fire, to warm us, Luke xxiv. as our food, to
nourish us. Job xxiii. 12 ; as our sword, to fight with,
Ephesians vi . as our counsellor, in all our doubts.
Psalm cxix. 24; as our cordial, to comfort us; as
oar heritage, to enrich us.'
Noticing the exceeding great and precious promises
of the divine word, he would say; — Those good
things, which are only convenient for us, arc not
absolutely promised ; as degrees of grace, comforts,
externals.
To every command there is a promise ; Deuter-
onomy X. 16 ; compare xxx. 6 ; Ezekiel xviii. 31 ;
compare xxxvi. 26 ; the command finds us work ;
• P. Henry. Orig. MS. Brit Mus. Fol. 4275. Piut. iii. E. Bibl.
Birch. They that are acted only by an outward law, are all the
while moved artificially, and not by any principle of motion from
thenaelTcs within ; or. like clocks and watches, that go pretty
regalariy for a while, but are moved by weights and plummets,
or tocne other artificial springs, that must be ever now and then
wound up, or else they cease. Or. Cudworth's Sermon before the
HouK of Commons, March 31, 1647, appended to the True Intel,
leetual System of the Universe, v. 2. p. 64. 4to. 1743.
f i087-fl^ March 9. Friday mom. I have been, of late, taking
Kiae pains to learn by heart Psalm cxix. and have made some
pn^rcatbcreiii. Mrs. Savage. Diary, Orig. MS.
the promise finds us strength. The purposes of God
are his concealed promises ; the promises, his re-
vealed purposes. A believer, though he may have
little in possession, he has treasures in reversion.
The promises of God to us are greater helps for
mortifying sin^ than our promises to God.*]
One, asking his advice, what to do when, as often
unavoidably, we are in the sight and hearing of the
wickedness of the wicked, and whether we arc to
reprove them ; — Why, saith he, you know what an
angry countenance doth, and wc may sometimes ^\\e
a reproof by our looks, when we have not oppor-
tunity of giving it otherwise.
[He would remark, that it is strange to see some-
times what an awe arises upon the spirits of wicked
men from the very company and presence of one
eminent in holiness ; they dare not do then as they
dare and do at other times. One having dined with
Mr. John Dod, said, afterwards, that he did not
think it could have been possible to have forborne
swearing so long.^
On the duty of Christian reproof, he observes ;—
When we reprove our brother, we must be careful
we violate not his credit. So Christ looked only
upon Peter, lest, if he had spoken to him, the Jews,
over-hearing, might have reviled and upbraided him
with his treachery to his Master. So, also, at supper,
when he reproved Judas, he speaks in general terms;
— (hu ofyou,^
Again; — To reprove a brother, is like as, when he
is fallen, to help him up again ; when he is wounded,
to help to cure him ; when he hath broken a bone,
to help to set it ; when he is out of his way, to put
him in it ; when he is fallen into the fire, to pluck
him out ; when he hath contracted defilement, to
help to cleanse him.*
In reproving, temper zeal with charity. In the
ark, as there was Aaron's rod, so there was also the
pot of manna ; virga severitatis manna dulcedinus ;
bitter pills must be gilded over with love and meek-
ness.^
He would not bear that any should be evil spoken
of in his hearing ; it was to him as vinegar to the
teeth. He would mind those who reflected upon
people behind their backs, of that law, Leviticus
xix. 14. Thou shah not curst the deaf Those that
are absent are deaf, they cannot right themselves,
and therefore say no ill of them. A friend of bis
q A man cannot continue long at a stand in godliness. If we
do not find an increase of grace, we may justly suspect a decay in
grace. 2 Pet iii. 17, 18. The regenerate part in a believer is styled,
in scripture, the mw man ; or, as it may be rendered, the young
man. Col. iii. 10 Youth is on the growing hand ; so is grace in
the heart. Mai. iv. 2. B Henry. Orig. MS.
r P. Henry. Orig. MS.
• P. Henry. Common Place Book. Orig MS.
t P. Henry. Orig. MS.
u P. Henry. Common Place Rook. Orig. MS.
T P. Henry. From Mrs. Savage's MS.
w P. Henry. Orig. MS.
134
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
inquiring of him concerning a matter which tended
to reflect upon some people ; he began to give him
an account of the story, but immediately broke off,
and checked himself with these words, but our rule
is, to speak evil of no fimn, and would proceed no
further in the story. It was but the week before he
died, that one desired him to lend him such a book.
Truly, saith he, I would lend it you, but that it rakes
in the faults of some, which should rather be covered
with a mantle of love. It were easy to multiply in-
stances of this.
[Speaking of anger, he would say,— Wise anger
is like fire in a flint: there is much ado to get it out,
and when it is out, it is gone again presently.*
To quicken people to diligence and liveliness in
the worship of God, he would sometimes observe,
that the temple was built upon a threshing-floor, a
place of labour. He would also urge that in answer
to those who turned it to his reproach, that his meet-
ing-place had been a bam ; no new thing, would
he say, to turn a threshing-floor into a temple.
[The following counsel is connected with the
same subject, — Beware of such things as deaden
the heart. Avoid guilt, for it mars all our boldness
of access. Guard against the cares of the world,
for they are as clogs and fetters. They are to the
soul as bird-lime. A bird so caught, cannot fly as
before.
Study things above that ye may be wise about
them. Mind them, Romans viii. 5. Philippians iii.
19 — Savour them : the word is so translated, Mat-
thew xvi. 23.— Keep up your relish of them. The
whole man is to be exercised, and set on work in
heavenly things, but chiefly the affections. Affect
things above.
Spiritual things, graces and duties, &c. are termed
things above, because they are so to the natural man,
above his reach to understand, above his power to per-
form, 1 Corinthians ii. 14.— because they elevate and
advance the soul that hath them, and is exercised
about them. (There is not a duty in religion, but
an angel might be seen performing it without dis-
paragement,)— because they are so in regard of their
original. (Duties were enjoined from above ; we
are enabled to perform them from above,) — and be-
cause they are so in regard of their tendency, —
upwards, towards heaven.^
Inquire, — ^which do we usually reckon the hap-
pier man, — he who is poor in the world, and hath
true grace, or he who is rich in the world, and hath
none ? In which of these two men's condition would
X P. Henry. Orig. MS.
r Ibid.
■ Ibid.
• See Stnitt*s Alaunen and Customs of the English, v. 3. p. 93.
&c. 4to. 1776. Id 1551, the King [Edward the Sixth] drew up for
the Paliament a bill for restraining and directing of apparel, but
it took not eflTect See the Rough Draft, in Strype's Eccl. Mem.
V. 2. p. 5ft&, &c. «/ npra.
we choose to be f What is it we are most solicitous
to make sure to ourselves, — things on earth, or
things above ? What is it you desire most to leave
your children ? Have you spent as many thoughts,
and cast as many ways, how you might bring them
to Christ, as how you might raise them, and provide
for them, in the world ? These queries, impartially
answered, will evidence what esteem we have of
things above, and our esteem will evidence what af-
fections we have towards them.']
When some zealous people in the country would
have him to preach against top-knots, and other
vanities in apparel, he would say, that was none of
his business ; if he could but persuade people to
Christ, the pride and vanity, and excess of those
things, would fall of course ; and yet he had a
dislike to vanity and g^ety of dress ;' and allowed
it not in those that he had influence upon. His rule
was, that in such things we must neither be owls
nor apes ; not affect singularity, nor affect modish-
ness ; nor, as he used to observe from 1 Peter iii. 3.
make the putting on of apparel our adominy, because
Christians have better things to adorn themselves
with.** When some complained to him of a relation
of theirs, that would not let them dress his children
with ribbons, and other fine things ; why truly, saith
Mr. Henry, those things are fit for children ; thereby
reproving both him that would not allow them to his
children, and them that perhaps minded them too
much themselves.
[On first wearing a new suit of clothes, he wrote,
— Lord, clothe me with thy righteousness, which is a
comely, costly, lasting, everlasting garment.^
Four sorts of zeal, he would remark, are to be
condemned. Blind zeal; Romans x. 2. Bitter
zeal ; James iii. 14. Proud zeal ; 2 Kings x. Par-
tial zeal ; Matthew xxiii. 23.*^
On one occasion he writes,— None should despair,
because God can help them ; none should presume,
because God can cross them.^
Referring to the fundamentals of the Christian
religion, they consist, he observes, in matters of
faith. John xvii. 3; viii. 24. Acts iv. 11. 1 Corin-
thians i. 23. t6. ii. 2. ib, iii. 11. ; of practice,
Matthew iv. 17. Luke ix. 23. John xiii. 34. ; xv.
14. ; and of worship, John iv. 24 ; xvi. 23. Philip-
pians iii. 3. Colossians iii. 17 ; ii. 18, 19.'
True godliness is scripture godliness. Godliness
according to what is written. Psalm cxix. 133.
Galatians vi. 16.'
Speaking of pride, he would say, — The worst sin,
b Christ is a Christian's glory. Pa. ill 3. No such ornament as
true godliness. Be not ashamed of your ornaments. Phil iii 3.
2 Cor. i. 12. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
e Diary. Orig. MS.
d Life. Orig. MS. ut wpra.
c P. Henry. Common Place Book. Orig. BfS.
f Ibid.
f P. Henry. Orig MS.
THE UFE Ot MR. PHILIP HENRY.
135
pride, comes out of our graces, and the best gprace,
which is hiunility, comes out of our sins.**
At other times, — Wc should be troubled as much
at unjust praises as at unjust slanders.*
What the soul is to the body, he would remark,
that the saints are to the world ; the balsam and life
of it ; yet as the body abuses the soul, so doth this
world the saints.''
The study of history, he notes, is pleasant I find
afflictions and persecutions have been always the
lot of the people of God, but God hath still upheld
his church, and will do it to the end.'
To one complaining of weakness in duty he said ;
—Remember two things ; that you are not under the
2nr, hut under grace ; that you are on earth, and
not in heayen.""
If yon wonid pray fervently, walk watchfully.
Rest not in forms. Artificial breath, such as that
which comes from a pair of bellows, is cold ; but
natand breath, which comes from the mouth of a
lifiag man, is warm. Stir thyself up with quick-
ening meditations. Psalm xxxix. 3. Beg assist-
ance from the spirit"
We must not go a step out of our way, neither to
meet the cross nor to misa it. °
He often, both in sermons and discourses, would
press people to fix to themselves some good princi-
ples, and to come off from the corrupt and carnal
principles that worldly people go by. He took all
occasions to reconmiend such principles as these.
That God who is the first and best, should have the
first and best^ — ^That a part in Christ is a good part.
—That son! prosperity is the best prosperity, and
that it is well or ill with us, according as it is well
or ill with our souls. — ^That honesty is the best policy.
—That those that would have the comfort of rela-
tions, must be careful to do the duty of them.—That
all is well that ends everlastingly well.i— That time,
and the tilings of time, are nothing compared with
eternity, and the things of eternity. — That it is better
to suffer the greatest afiliction, than to commit the
least sin. — ^That it highly concerns us to do that now,
which we shall most wish we had done when we
come to die. — ^That work for God is its own wages.
—That it is folly for a man to do that which he must
certainly undo again by repentance, or be undone
to all eternity. Such as these were the principles
he would have Christians to govern themselves
by.
k P. Henry. Common Place BooIl Orig. MS.
ilbid.
klbid.
1 P. Henry. Diary, Orig. BfS.
a Ibid.
■ P. Henry. Orig. MS.
• P. Henry. Cmmnon Place Book. Orig. BilS.
p SttkJMtkt kingdom 0/ God; first in time; not only chiefiy,
bot early. It is best to begin with him who is best. Caryl on
i^r.l,p.em,fail. 1670.
[Contrasting the superior principles under which
Christians act with those which influence others, he
writes ; — A man may be strong to do much, and
suffer much, from external weights, pulling and
drawing, that is, from motives from without; to
please men, or to g^n applause ; but that is another
thing from what is done by an inward principle ;
grace in the heart, the love of God shed abroad there,
the love of Christ constraining ; as the bias in the
bowl, the spring in a watch.'
Illustrating the future blessedness of Christians
by comparison, he remarked ; — Eternal life is the
life of heaven : this and spiritual life are for sub>
stance the same ; they differ in degree only. Life
spiritual, the life of grace, is life eternal, the life of
glory, begun ; and life eternal, the life of glory, is
life spiritual, the life of grace perfected .• They
differ as the child's life and the man's life, 1 Corin-
thians xiii. 11, 12. As the morning-sun from the
noon-son, Proverbs iv. 18. As the spring from the
summer ; the budding-rose from the blovm rosc.^]
Speaking of the causes of atheism, he had this
observation ; — That a head full of vain and unpro-
fitable notions, meeting with a heart full of pride
and self-conceitedncss, dispose a man directly to
be an atheist.
A gentlewoman, that upon some unkindness be-
tween her and her husband, was parted from him,
and lived separately near a twelvemonth, grew me-
lancholy, and complained of sin, and the withdraw-
ing of the light of God's countenance, and the want
of assurance ; ho told her she must rectify what was
amiss between her and her husband, and return into
the way of duty, else it was in vain to expect peace.
Her friends were against it ; but he said, he was
confident it would prove so.
[Noticing the causes of God's hiding his face from
his people, he remarks ; — That most commonly sin
in us is the cause. Sin is a separating, darkening
thing, Isaiah lix. 2. Ephesians v. 11. Particularly
security : carnal confidence. Psalm xxx. 6, 7 ; neg-
lect of opportunities, Solomon's Song v. 2, 3, &c. ;
world ly-mindedness, Isaiah Ivii. 17 ; 1 Timothy vi.
10. ; cowardice in God's cause and service, Jonah
ii. 4. Yet, sometimes he adds, pure love in himself
is the reason, Isaiah 1. 10. He has, hereby, several
holy ends in view. To convince us of our depend-
ence upon him for all the comfort we have ; to
quicken our desires after him. See Matthew xv.
q Mr. Dod would fVequently say,— That was well which ended *
everlastingly well ; and that was ill which ended everlastingly
ilL Life, by Clarke, ui npra, p. 174. See the Life of Mrs. Maiigaret
Corbet, A. p 417.
r P. Henry. Orig. MS.
■ The estate of grace, and that of glory, are like one to the
other; grace being. glory begun, and glory grace completed.
Archbishop Leighton, on I Petei i. 13. Works, ut Mnpra, vol. 1. p.
104.
t P. Henry. Orig. MS.
136
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
22, &c. to discover to us the worth of the light of
his countenance ; to prevent our being puffed up, 2
Corinthians xii. to stir up our longings after heaven.^
With reference to the Divine Being, he sometimes
observed, — ^That God reserves three things to him-
self; the revenge of injuries, Romans xii. 19. the
gloiy of deeds, Isaiah xlii. 8. the knowledge of
secrets, Deuteronomy xxix. 29.
The will of God's purpose is the rule of all his
actions ; the will of his precept is the rule of all our
actions.
God can provide for us without us ; so cannot we
for ourselves without God."]
[Mr. Henry] said he had observed concerning
himself, that he was sometimes the worse for eating,
but never for abstinence ; sometimes the worse for
wearing too few clothes, but never for wearing too
many ; sometimes the worse for speaking, but never
for keeping silence.^
As to his letters, he was very free in writing to
his friends. A good letter, he would say, may per-
haps do more good than a good sermon, because the
address is more particular, and that which is writ-
ten remains. His language and expressions in his
letters were always pious and heavenly, and season-
ed with the salt of grace ; and when there was occa-
sion, he would excellently administer counsels, re-
proofs, or comforts, by letter. He kept no copies of
his letters, and it is impossible, if we should attempt
it, to retrieve them from the hands into which they
were scattered. Mr. Rutherford's" and Mr. Allen's*
letters, that, like some of the most excellent of Paul's
Epistles, bore date out of a prison, have a mighty
tincture of their peculiar prison-comforts and en-
largements. We have none such to produce of Mr.
Henry's, no pastoral letters, or prison letters. He
was himself, in his whole conversation, an epistle of
Christ.
But we shall only glean up some passages out of
such of his letters as are in our hands, which may
be affecting and edifying.
To his son, when he was abroad, for improvement
at London, in the year 1685, and 1686, with the com-
mon business of his letters, which was always writ-
ten with a savour of religion, he would intermix such
lines as these : — ^We are all well here, thanks be to
God, the Divine Providence watching about our ta-
bernacle, and compassing us about with favour, as
with a shield. Our great inquiry is. What shall we
t P. Henry. Orig. MS.
n P. Henry. Common Place Book. Orig. MS.
▼ Xenocrates, holding his peace at some detractive discourse,
was asked, why he spoke not !— •* Because," said he, " I have some,
times repented of speaking, but never of holding my peace."
Stanley's History of Philosophy, p. 222. 4to 1743.
w Mr. Rutherford died in Blarch, 1661. See his Life in the Biog.
Scotic. p. 206. oct. 1796.
X See anie. p. 85.
f As Ood hath hedged up our way with strict commands, so he
render ? Alas ! our renderings are nothing to our ,
receivings ; we are like the barren field, on which
much cost is bestowed, but the crop is not accord-
ingly. Our heavenly Father is loading us with his be-
nefits, and we are loading him with our sins, grieving !
him that comforts us. And how long, how long shall
it be so ? Oh, that it might be otherwise ! that our
mercies might be as oil to the wheels, to make us so
much the more active and lively in our Master's
work, especially considering how it is with our
fellow-servants; they empty, and we full; they
Marahy and we Naomi. There may a day come when
it may cost dear to be honest, but after all,— To /ear
God and keep his commandments is the whole ofmmn.
I therefore conunend it to you, and you to God, who
is a shield and buckler to them that fear him.
We are well, but in daily expectation of that
which we are bom, and bom again to, and that is
trouble ' in this world, yet rejoicing in hope of the
glory of God, which we are reaching after, and press-
ing towards, as we trust you are also. Where you
are, you see more of the glittering vanities of this
world in a day, than we here do in an age ; and aie
you more and more in love with them, or dead and
dying to them ? I hope dead and dying to them, for
they are poor things, and perish in the using ; make
many worse that enjoy them, but none better. What
is translated, vexation of spirit, Ecclesiastes i. 2.
may be read, feeding upon wind ; compare Hosea
xii. 1. And can wind satisfy? The Lord preserve
and keep you from all evil ; the Lord preserve and
keep your soul. We both send you our love, and
bless you together and apart, every day, in the
name of the Lord. Amen and Amen.
Be sincere, and humble, and choice in your
company, always either getting good or doing good,
gathering in or laying out. Remember to keep the
heart ' with all diligence and above all keepings, for
there the fountain is, and if that be well kept and
clean, the streams will be accordingly.
It is some short refreshment to friends and re-
lations, to see and hear from one another, but it
passeth away, and we have here no continuing city,
no abiding delights in this world ; our rest remains
elsewhere ; those we have, lose much of their sweet-
ness, from the thoughts of parting with them while
we enjoy them, but the happiness to come is eternal ;
after millions of millions of ages, if wc may so
speak of eternity, as far from an end as the first
hath strewed it likewise with thorns of afBicUon. P. Henry.
Orig.BflS.
u^ narrow way,
Scatt'red with bushy thomes, and ragged breares.**
Spenser.
The Faerie Queeue, Canto x. xxiv. Works. Mr. Todd's edition, v.
3. p. 127.
I A Christian may have blows upon his back, but God will keep
his heart. My con, givevu thine heart ; i will keep it for thee. P.
Henry. Orig MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
137
moment ; and the last of glory will be glory,' so some
read Proyerbs xxt. 27. Keep that in your eye, my
dear child, and it will, as much as any thing, dazzle
your eyes to all the fading, deceiving vanities of
tills lower world ; and will be a quickening motive
to you, to abound always in the work of the Lord,
forasmuch as you know your labour shall not be in
Tain in the Lord. The Lord bless you, who blesseth
indeed.
See that you walk circumspectly,, not as the
foots, but as the wise ; many eyes are upon you, his
especially, who is all eye. Cave Deut videt. Memento
hoc agere ; our blessing with 1 Chronicles xxviii. 9.
The same which is yet the prologue of yours, is
of ours also. Omnia bene^ latit Deo I but he that
prdetk on the harness, must not boast as he that fmts
it off. While the world we live in is under the
moon, — constant in nothing but inconstancy,— and
such changes are made in other families, why should
we alone promise ourselves immunity from the com-
mon lot? There would be no need of faith and
patience, which are winter graces, if it should be
always summer time with us. We have three un-
changeables to oppose to all other mutabilities ; an
onchangeable covenant, an unchangeable God, and
an unchangeable heaven.** And while these three
remain the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,
welcome the will of our heavenly Father in all
events that may happen to us ; come what will,
nothing can come amiss to us.
Keep the invisible things of the other world
always in your eye. He that ventures the loss of an
eternal crown and kingdom, for a cup or two of
puddle water, such as all terrene pleasures in com-
parison are, makes a bargain, which no less a space
than that which is everlasting will be sufficient to
bewail and repent of. How much better it is to lay
up in store now a good foundation for time to come,
and to lay hold on eternal life ! Doing those works
which we would be willing should hereafter follow
us, yet still making the blessed Jesus our all in all.
The further progress you make in your studies,
you will find them the easier ; it is so with religion,
the worst is at first. It is like the picture that
frowned at first entrance, but afterwards smiles and
looks pleasant*' They that walk in sinful ways,
meet with some difficulties at first, which custom
conquers, and they become as nothing. It is good
• See Dr. Goodwin's Works, v. 5. part iii. p. 117. ut ntpra.
k So,— There are three things that are unsearchable; the nature
of God, the love of Christ, and the heart of man. P. Henry.
Orig.MS.
r The beginnings of a strict and serious Christianity are not
without much difllculty. The wprtiit thgjirtt. Bishop Hall. Works.
V. 6. p. 996. u£ «*fra.— The excellent Mr. Richard Rogers, urging to
s daily cooise of watchful piety, remarks,— The beginning is the
iardcst Seven Treatises, p. 360. fol. 1004.
Bo Spenser in the Faerie Qoeene. Canto x. VI.
Each goodly thing is kartUst to beyiit.
Works, Mt npra. v 3. p. 109.
accustoming ourselves to that which is good. The
more we do the more we may do in religion. Your
acquaintance, I doubt not, increaseth abroad, and
accordingly your watch must be ; for by that often-
times, ere we are aware, we are insnared. He that
walketh with wise men s/tall be wise.
The return of the spring invites our thanksgiv-
ing for the mercy of it. The birds are singing early
and late, according to their capacity, the praises of
their Creator ; but man only, tiiat hath most cause,
finds something else to do. It is redeeming love that
is the most admirable love ; less than an eternity
will not suffice to adore it in. Lord, how is it?
Lord, what is manf As the streams lead to the
fountain, so should all our mercies lead us to that.
We both of us send you our most afi'ectionate love
and blessing. Blessing! that is, we pray and
beseech the most blessed God, even our own God, to
give you his blessing, for he only can command the
blessing ; and those whom he blesseth are blessed
indeed. Let us still hear to our comfort, that you
walk in the truth, living above the things of the
world, as dead to them. The Lord in mercy fit us
for his will in the next providence, public and per-
sonal, for time is always coming.
Your improvement is our joy. Be sincere and
serious, clothed with humility, abounding always in
the work ^ of the Lord ; and when you have done
all, saying, / am an unprofitable servant. It was the
good advice of the moral philosopher, in your con-
verse with men, Mcftyiiffo Amviiv, — Distrust; but I
must add, in every thing towards God, yikfivtiao
ircrc^ccv,— Believe ; expect temptation and a snare
at every turn, and walk accordingly. -We have a
good cause, — a vanquished enemy, — a good second,
— an extraordinary pay ; for he that overcomes,
needs not desire to be more happy than the second
and third of the Revelation speaks him to be. The
God of all mercy and grace compass you about
always with \i\s favour as with a shield,
I would have you redeem time for hearing the
word in season and out of season ; your other stu-
dies will prosper never the worse, especially if yon
could return immediately from it to the closet ag^n,
without cooling divertisements by the way.
See your need of Christ more and more, and
live upon him ; no life like it, so sweet,* so safe.
Christus meus mihi in omnia. We cannot be dis-
The way to heaven is most difficult to young beginners in god.
liness: the image or Pallas seemed to frown as one came in at the
temple door, but afterwards seemed smiling and pleasant. P.
Henry. Orig. MS.
d The life of a Christian is a life of action. It is not talking that
will win the crown. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
• He is sweet food, 1 Pet ii. 3. Cant. ii. 3. He is sweet in his
pardons, his promises, his ordinances, his offices, his comforts,
his communion. Those who have fed upon Christ are lively in
the ways of God ; their appetites are dead to the world ; they are
solicitous to bring in others; and they are desirous after more.
P. Henry. Orig. MS.
138
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
charged from the guilt of any evil we do, without
his merit to satisfy ; we cannot move in the perform-
ance of any good required, without his Spirit and
grace to assist and enable for it ; and when we have
done all, that all is nothing, without his mediation
and intercession to make it acceptable; so that
every day, in every thing, he is All in alL Though
you are at a distance from us now, we rejoice in the
good hope we have, through gprace, of meeting again
in the land of the living ; that is, on earth, if God
see good ; however, in heaven, which is the true
land of the truly living, and is best of all. The
Lord God everlasting be your Sun and Shield in all
your ways. See time hasting away apace towards
eternity, and the Judge even at the door, and work
accordingly; wherever you are, alone or in com-
pany, be always either doing or getting good, iow-
ing or reaping. As for me, I make no other reckon-
ing, but tiiat the time of my departure is at hand ;
and what trouble I may meet with before I know
not ; the will of the Lord be done. One of my chief
cares is, that no iniquity of mine may be laid up for
you; which, God grant, for his mercy's sake, in
Christ Jesus. Amen.
Be careful of your health. Remember the rule,
— Venienti occurrere ; but especially neglect not the
main matter. The soul is the man ; if that do well,
all is well. Worship God in the Spirit ; rejoice in
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
God be gracious unto thee, my son ; redeem time,
especially for your soul. Expect trouble in this
world, and prepare for it.' Expect happiness in
the other world, and walk worthy of it, unto all
pleasing,
A good book is a good companion at any time,
but especially a good God, who is always ready to
hold communion with those that desire and seek
communion with him. Keep low and humble in
your thoughts and opinion of yourself ; but aim high*
in your desires and expectations, even as high as the
kingdom of heaven itself, and resolve to take up
with nothing short of it. The Lord guide you in all
your ways, and go in and out before you, and pre-
serve you blameless to his heavenly kingdom !
Immediately after his son was ordained to the
work of the ministry at London, in the year 1687,
he thus wrote to him ;—
Are you now a minister of Jesus Christ ? Hath
he counted you faithful, putting you into the minis-
In looking over a diary of Mr. Philip Henry, in manuscript, that
was lately put into my hand, I met with this passage ;— The Chris-
tian's life is in Christ, on Christ, hy Christ, to Christ, for Christ,
with Ctirist, Mr. English. See Memoirs of the Rev. Thomas Eng-
lish, by John Oriffln, p. 167.
i Mr. Greenham said,—** He never looked for a better estate
than that wherein he was, but often prepared himself for a
worse." Grave Counseb and Godly Observations. Woriu, p, 4.
«/ tupra.
try ? Then, be faithful. Out of love to him feed his
lamhs. Make it your rb fyyov, as a workman that
needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word
of truth, I hope what you experienced of the pre-
sence of God with you in the solemnity, hath left
upon you a truly indelible character, and such im-
pressions, as neither time, nor any thing else, shall
be able to wear out. Remember Psalm Ixxi. 16.^
It is, in the eye of sense, a bad time to set out in ;
but, in sowing and reaping, clouds and virind must
not be heeded. The work is both comfortable and
honourable, and the reward rich and sure ; and, if
God be pleased to give opportunity and a heart,
though there may be trouble attending it, it will be
easily borne. If we suffer with him, we shall also
reign with him. I am, and shall be, according to
my duty and promise, earnest at the throne of grace,
on your behalf, that the Lord will pour out upon
you of his Holy Spirit, that what he calls you to, he
would fit you for ; especially, that he would take
you off your own bottom, and lay you low in the
sense of your own unworthiness, inability, and in-
sufiiciency, that you may say, with the evangelical
prophet, — Woe is me, lam undone ! And, with Jere-
miah, I am a child ; and with Paul, / am nothing.
Where this is not, the main thing is wanting ; for
God resisteth the proud, hut giveth grace to thehumbU.
Now the Lord give you that grace to be humble ;
and then, according to his promise, he will make
you rich in every other grace.
It were easy to transcribe many more such lines
as these out of his letters to his son, but these shall
sujQSce.
We shall next gather up some passages out of his
letters to his children, after they were married and
gone from him.
To one of his daughters with child of her first
child, he thus writes ; — You have now one kind of
burthen more than ever you had before to cast upon
God ; and, if you do so, he will sustain you, accord-
ing to his promise.
And when the time of travail was near, thus ;—
You know whom you have trusted, even him who is
true and faithful, and never yet did, nor ever will,
forsahe the soul that seehs him. Though he be
almighty, and can do every thing, yet this he cannot
do, he cannot deny himself, nor be worse than his
word. But what is his word ? Hath he promised
g Covet grace earnestly, but beware of coveting any creature
earnestly, John vi. 27. Col. iii. 3. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
*' Pitch thy behaviour low, My preyecls kigk ;
So Shalt thou humble and magnanimous be ;
Sink not in spirit Who aimeth at the sky,
Shoots higher much than he that means a tree **
The Church Porch. Herbert's Poems, «/ ntpn^ p. Vi
h / ttiU go in the itrengtk of the Lord Cod : I will make mention of
Ihjf rigkte0iune$9, even of thine only.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
139
kat there shall be always a safe and speedy delivery ?
rbat there shall be no Jabez, no Benoni? No ; but,
f there be, he hath promised, it shall work together
%r pood ; hath promised, if he doth not save fronij
le will save through. If he call to go, even through
the valUy of the shadow of death, (and what less is
child-bearing ?) he will be with yon ; his rod and
Ids etmff shall comfort you ; and that is well. There-
fore, your faith must be in those things as the pro-
mise iSy either so, or so, and which way soever it be ;
God iff goody and doth good. Therefore, my dear
daughter, lift up the hands that hang down ; cast
your burthen upon him ; trust also in him, and let
your thoughts be established. We are mindful of
yon in our daily prayers ; but you have a better In-
tercessor than we, who is heard always.
To another of them, in the same circumstances,
be ihus writes ;— Your last letter speaks you in a
good frame, which rejoiced my heart, that you were
Jlxed^ fixedy waiting upon God; that your faith was
uppermost, above your fears ; that you could say, —
Behold the handmaid of the Lordy let him do with me
e$ seemeth good in his eyes ! We are never fitter for
a mercy, nor is it more likely to be a mercy indeed,
than when it is so with us.^ Now the Lord keep it
always in the imagination of the thoughts of your
heart And, he concludes ; — Forget not 1 Timothy
iL last verse.*'
When one of his daughters was safely delivered,
in a letter to another of them that was drawing near
to that needful hour, he observed, that, when David
laid. Psalm cxvi. l2.'-^What shall I render? He
presently adds, verse 13,—/ will call upon the name
rfthe Lord. — As if, saith he, calling upon the name
of the Lord for mercy for you, were one way of ren-
dering unto the Lord, for the great benefit done to
your sister.
On occasion of affliction in their families by the
sickness or death of children, or otherwise, he always
wrote soHie word in season.
In the furnace again, saith he, but a good Friend
sits by ; and it is only to take away more of the
dross. If less fire would do, we should not have it
so much, and so often. Oh, for faith to trust the
Refiner, and to refer all to his will and wisdom, and
to wait the issue ;— for, I have been young, and now
i Mait it, while you live, we are never nearer a mercy than
wbenwecan most freely resign up ourselves to the will of Ood>
and my ^— Lord, kere am I^do with m» aa uemeth yood in Mjr sight /
Bat you will say,—* If my heart be dead to it, what good will
It do me?*
I answer, most good of all. Thus : the goodness of any mercy
lies in the enjoyment of the God of the mercy ; the Giver, more
tbso the gift ; in heaven, God is instead of all to glorified saints ;
snd it is their happiness. Now the more our affections are morti-
fied to the thing itself, the more quick and keen they will be to-
wards God ; and, if so. tbe better. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
k WfnViHfOTrffTy, «A# sAott b4 saved is ekUd^earing, if thtf continue
M fmiky md ekarii^^ smd keUmena, with mAriety.
1 ** Like to the ftdling of a star,
Or as the flights of eagles are ;
am old, but I never yet saw it in vain to seeh God,
and to hope in him.
At another time he thus writes ; — ^Tough and
knotty blocks mtist have more and more wedges ;
our heavenly Father, when he judgeth, will over-
come. We hear of the death of dear S. T. and chide
ourselves for being so often pleased with his little
pretty fashions, lest we offended therein, by being
too much so. No rival must sit with him in his
throne, who deserves all our love and joy, and hath
too little of it.
At another time, upon the death of another little
one ; — ^The dear little one, saith he, made but a short
passage through this to another world, where it is to
be for ever a living member of the great body, where-
of Jesus Christ is the ever-living Head; but for
which hope, there were cause for sorrow indeed. If
he that gives takes, and it is but his own, why should
we say. What dost thou ?
At another time, upon the like occasion ; — Our
quiver of children's children is not so full, but God
can soon empty it. Oh, for g^^ce, grace, at such a
time, which will do that that nature cannot ! The
God of all grace supply your need, and ours, accord-
ing to his riches in glory ! The Lord is still training
you up in his good school ; and though no affliction
for the present be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless,
afterwards, it yields well. Your work is, in every
thing, to bring your will to the will of God.
To one of his daughters, concerning her little ones,
he thus writes ; — They are but bubbles.' We have
many warnings to sit loose. The less we rely upon
them in our joys and hopes, the more likely to have
them continued to us. Our God is a jealous God;
nor will he suffer the creature to usurp his throne in
our affections.
Upon the death of a little child but a few days old,
he thus writes ; — ^The tidings of the death of your
little one were afflicting to us, but the clay must not
say to the potter. What dost thou ? If he that took be
the same that gave, and what he gave and took was
his own, by our own consent, it becomes us to say.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. I hope you have
been learning to acknowledge God in all events,
and to take all as from his hand, who hath g^ven us
to know, — I say, to know, for Paul saith so, — that all
Or like the firesh spring's gaudy hue ;
Or silver drops of morning dew ;
Or like the wind that chafes the flood ;
OrbubbU$ which on water stood t
Even such is man, whose borrowed light
Is strait called in, and paid to-night.
The wind blows out : the bubble dies ^
The spring eotomb'd in autumn lies ;
The dew dries up ; the star is shot ;
The flight is past, and man forgot."
Poems, Elegies, Paradoxes, and Sonnets, by Henry King, Bishop
of Chichester, p. 139. 12mo. 1057. See Bishop Taylor's Works, vol
4. p. 335. «/ supra.
140
THE LIFE OF MR. PHIUP HENRY.
tilings do work together,-~not only shall, but do,—
for our good, that we may be more and more partakers
of his holiness. He can make the two left as com-
fortable to you as all the three, as all your ^\e could
have been. However, if all the cisterns were drawn
dry, while you have yonr fountain^ to go to, you are
well. You may also, by faith, look forward, and say.
It was a covenant-child, and, through mercy, we
shall see it again in a better world.
Upon the sickness of a dear child, he thus writes
to the parent ; — You and we are taught to say. It is
the Lord, Upon his will must we wait ; and to it
must we submit in every thing ; not upon constraint,
but of choice ; not only because he is the Potter, and
we the day, and, therefore, in a way of sovereignty
he may do what he pleaseth with us and ours, but be-
cause he is our Father, and will do nothing but what
shall be for pood to us. The more you can be satis-
fied in this, and the more willing to resign, the more
likely to have. Be strong, therefore, in the grace which
is in Christ Jesus ; it is given for such a time of need
as this. I hope your fears and ours will be prevented,
and pray they may; but, thanks be to God, we know
the worst of it, and that worst hath no harm in it,
while the better part is ours, which cannot be taken
away from us.
To one of his children in affliction he writes thus ;
— It is a time of trial with you, according to the
will of your and our heavenly Father. Though you
see not yet what he means by it, you shall see. He
means you good, and not hurt; he is showing you
the vanity of all things under the sun, that your hap-
piness lies not in them, but in himself only ; that
they and we are passing away, withering flowers,
that, therefore, we may learn to die to them, and live
above them, placing our hope and happiness in bet-
ter things ; trusting in him alone, who is tlie Rock
of Ayes, who fails not, neither can fail nor will fail
those that fly to him. I pray you, think not a hard
thought of him, no not one hard thought, for he
is good, and doth good in all he doth, and therefore
all shall work for good. But, then, as you are called
accordiny to his purpose, blessed be his name for it,
so you must love him ; and love, you know, thinks
no evil, but puts the best construction upon all that
the person loved saith, or doth ; and so must you,
thouyh now, for a season, if need be, you are in heavi-
ness.
And, at another time; — ^Your times, and the
times of yours, are in the Lord's good hand ; whose
will ** is his wisdom. It is one thing, as we read and
observed this morning, out of Ezekiel xxii. to be
m A saying of my dear father in a letter to one under weakness
was,— The cordial which I give and take is this,— 7X# blood of
Christ hiM Son deanaethw fromaU iim ; blessed be God for this foun.
tain, and that it is open. Mrs. Savage's Diary. Orig. MS.
You have scene the comforts of the world, you see how all
cistemes fail you, goe to the fountain. Dr. Harris. Works, p. 77.
fol. 1635. See Jer. ii. la
put into a furnace, and left there as dross, to be con- ;
sumed ; and another thing to be put in as gold, or
silyer, to be melted for use, and to have the Refiner
sit by. You know whom you have believed ; keep
your hold of the everlasting covenant He is faith-
ful that hath promised. We pray for you ; and we
give thanks for you daily, for the cup is mixed;
therefore, trust in the Lord for ever, and rejoice in
the Lord always ; ayain, I say. Rejoice.
To one of his sons-in-law, that was a little en-
gaged in building, he thus writes; — Be sure to
take God along with you in this, as in all other your
affairs ; for, except he build the house, they labour in
vain that build it. Count upon troublesome occur-
rences in it, and keep the spirit quiet within. And
let not God's time nor dues be intrenched upon;
and then all will be well.
It was a little before he died that he wrote thus to
one of his children ; — ^We rejoice in God's good-
ness to you, that your distemper hath been a rod
shaken only, and not laid on. He is good, and doth
good. And should not we love him, and rest in our
love to him ? He saith, he doth in his to us, and re-
joiceth over us with singing ^ Zephaniah iii. 17. And
have not we much more cause? What loveliness in
us? What not in him? I pray, let me recom-
mend him to your love. Love him, love him with all
the powers of your soul, and out of love to please
him. He is pleased with honest endeavours to please
him ; though, after all, in many things we come
short, for we are not under the law but under grace.
To one of his children, recovered from sickness,
he gives this hint; — Remember, that a new life
must be a new life indeed. Reprieves extraordinaiy
call for returns extraordinary.
The las^ journey he made to London was in
August, 1690. Before he went, he sent this farewell
letter to his son at Chester ;-~I am going forth this
morning towards the great city, not knowing but it
may be Mount Nebo to me. Therefore, I send yoo
this as full of blessings as it can hold, to yourself,
my daughter, your wife, all the rest of my daughters,
their husbands, and all the little ones, together and
severally. If I could command the blessings, I
would ; but I pray to him that hath, and doth, and,
I trust, will. The Lord bless you, and keep you, and
lift up the light of his countenance upon you. As
you have received, and you, for your part, preached
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him ; keeping con-
science always void of offence, both towards God, and
towards all men. Love your mother, and be dutiful
to her ; and live in love and peace among yourselves ;
n Sir Robert Harley, in " his sharpest pains, would moUifle them
with this consideration— Uiat is best which God doth, lie would
often say,— the will of the Lord be done, above all and in all, for
that is best of all." A Sermon, at the Funeral of the Hon. Sir
Robert Harley, Knt Dec. 10, 1656, by Thos. Froysell, duod. 1658,
p. 115.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
141
and the God of loye and peace, that hath been, will
be, with yon. Amen.
To one who desired his direction for the attaining
the gift of prayer he wrote the following letter of
advice:
If you woald be able in words and expressions of
your own, without the help of a form, to offer up
prayers to God, observe these following rules of di-
rection, in the use whereof, by God's blessing, you
may, in time, attain thereunto.
1. You must be thoroughly convinced, that, where
such a gift is, it is of great use to a Christian ; both
reiy comfortable, and very profitable, and therefore
very desirable, and worth your serious endeavours.
Tbis must first be, or else all that follows will sig-
nify nothing. For it is as the wise man saith.
Proverbs xviii. 1. — Through desire j a man having
Meparated himself ^ seeheth and intermeddleth with all
wisdom ; that is, till we are brought, in some good
measure, to desire the end, we shall never, in good
earnest, apply ourselves to the use of means for the
obtaining of it. It is a gift that fits a person to be
of use to others in the duty of prayer, according as
there is occasion, either in a family, or in Christian
communion.* It is also of great advantage to our-
lelves. For how can any form, though never so
exact, be possibly contrived so as to reach all the
eircnmstances of my particular case ? And yet it is
my duty, m evertf thing, to make my requests known
to God.
2. As you should be persuaded of the excellent
use of it, where it is attained, so also you should
believe, that, where it is not, it may be attained, and
tbat without any great difficulty. No doubt but
many are discouraged from endeavouring after it by
an opinion they have that it is to no purpose : they
think it a thing so far above their abilities, that they
were as good sit still, and never attempt it. This is
of very bad consequence, as in other matters of
religion, so particularly in this; and, therefore,
watch against this suggestion, and conclude, that,
though it may be harder to some than to others, yet
it is impossible to none. Nay, this wisdom is easy
to him that itnderstandethf, where means are used in
the fear of God.
3. You must rightly understand and consider who
it is^ with whom you have to do in prayer, for your
encouragement to come to him, though in the midst
• An ingeDuoos man would be ashamed to pretend unto any
vt or Acuity, wherein he is grossly igrnorant : so may that man
be to profess religion, who neglects to attain this gift. A Chris-
tiaa that cannot prayt ia Hl^e an orator that cannot speak, or a
timvellcT tbat cannot go. Bishop WiUdns on Prayer, p. 23. w
p By prayer we honour God in the acknowledgment or our
JepeUnee upon Um, and in the owning of him as aU-svffidnt, able
to supply «ff oar needs; also an all-seeing and all-knowing God.
of many infirmities and imperfections. He is your
Father, your loving, tender-hearted Father, who
knows your frame, and remembers you are but dust ;
who is not extreme to mark what we do amiss in
manner and expression, where the heart is upright
with him. You may judge a little concerning his
love, by the disposition that is in you towards your
children, when they come to ask things needful of
you. And, believe him to be infinitely more merciful
and compassionate than the most merciful and com-
passionate of fathers and mothers are or can be;
especially remembering that we have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, who is
the great High Priest of our profession, and whom
he heareth always.
4. You must pray that you may pray.*" Beg of
God, the Father of lights, from whom every g^ood
and perfect gift comes, to bestow this gift upon you.
We read, Luke xi. 1. that one of the disciples came
to Jesus Christ upon this errand ; Lord, teach us to
pray ! And he had his request granted presently.
Go you to him on the same errand. You may plead
the relation of a child, from that scripture, Gala-
tians iv. 6. — And because ye are sons, God hath sent
forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father! And the promise also from that
scripture, Zechariah xii. 10. / will pour upon the
house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the spirit of grate and of supplication ; which two,
relation and a promise, if they be not sufficient to
encourage your faith and hope in this address, what
is or can be ?
5. It is good, before you address yourself to the
duty, to read a portion of Holy Scripture, which will
be of great use to furnish you both with matter and
words for prayer, especially David's Psalms and
Paul's Epistles. The Holy Spirit hath provided for
us a treasury, or store-house, of what is suitable for
all occasions, and where both the word and the matter
are his own, and of his own framing and inditing ;
if affections be stirring in us accordingly, wc have
great reason to believe he will accept of us. In
divers places he hath himself put words into our
mouths for the purpose ; as, Hosea xiv. 2. Take with
you words ; Matthew vi. 9. After this mannei; there-
fore, pray ye ; and often elsewhere.
6. There must be some acquaintance with our own
hearts, with our spiritual state and condition, our
wants and ways, or else no good will be done in this
matter. It is sense of need, hunger, thirst, cold,
Therefore, to restrain prayer, is to deny him that service and
homage which are his due. But then prayer is an inward thing.
*Tis hfart-vf ork. It must be done in the spirit, Ephesians vi. 18.
He regards not what words, but what desires. Desires without
words are prayers ; but words without desires are but babbling.
P. Henry. Orig. MS.
q Do but think how a poor condemned creature would carry it,
if he might but find so much favour as to be admitted Into the
King's presence, to speak for himselC P. Henry. Orig. MS.
142
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
nakedness, that supplies the poor beggar at your
door with pertinent expressions and arguments ; he
needs not the help of any friend or book to furnish
him. So if we know ourselves, and feel our con-
dition, and set God before us as our God, able and
ready to help us, words will easily follow wherewith
to offer up our desires to him, who understands the
language even of sighs, and tears, and groaningi
which ctLnnot he uttered, Romans viii. 26.'
7. It is of use in stated prayer ordinarily to observe
a method, according to the several parts of prayer,
which are these four :
1. Compellation, or adoration, which is the giving
ot doe titles to God in our addresses to him, and
therein ascribing to him the glory due unto his name.
With this we are to begin our prayers, both for the
working of a holy awe and dread upon our hearts
towards him, on the account of his greatness and
majesty ; as also for the strengthening of our faith
and hope in him, upon the account of his goodness
and mercy.
2. Confession. Sin is to be confessed in every
prayer ; original sin as the root, spring-head, and
fountain ; and actual sin as the fruit and stream pro-
ceeding from it Herein you roust not rest in
generals, as the most do, but especially when you
are in secret before the Lord, you must descend to
particulars, opening the whole wound, hiding nothing
from him, also agg^vating the fault from the cir-
cumstances of it, judging and condemning yourself
for it in the sight of God. And, for your help
herein, you must acquaint yourself with the divine
law, the precepts and prohibitions of it, especially
their extent and spiritual nature, as the rule, and
then bring your own thoughts, words, and actions to
it daily, to be tried by it.
3. Petition, for such good things as God hath
promised, and you have need of, both concerning
this life and that which is to come. As to the latter,
you are to pray for mercy to pardon,* and grace to
help in time of need. As to the former, for bread to
eat^ and raiment to put on, and a heart to be there-
with contented. You are to pray for others also,
the church of God, the land of your nativity,
magistrates, ministers, relations, and friends, not
forgetting the afflictions of the afflicted.
4. Thanksgiving,^ which should have a consider-
able share in every prayer ; for our duty is, in every
thing to give Manib for mercies received, public and
personal, which is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning us.
r Prayers not felt by us, are seldom heard by God. P. Henry.
Com. P. Book. Orig. MS.
• Pardon of sin is set forth in Scripture by various expressions.
Covering, concealing, as the nakedness and blemishes of the body
by a garment. Ps. xxxii. 1. Prov. mlv. 2.— Easing, as from a burthen,
Matt. xi. -28.— Ps. ii. 1.— Forgiving, Hebr.— lifted off, -healing as a
disease, Ps. ciii. 3. Hos. xiv. A.—Bloitimg out, as a debt. Isa. xliii.
2& Actoiii. 19.-Ca8ting behind his back, Isa-xxxviii. 17.- Yea,
This rule of method is not so necessary to be ob-
served in prayer, as in no case to be varied from ;
but it is certainly very useful and expedient, and a
great help to young beginners in that duty.
8. My advice is, that you would delay no longer,
but forthwith apply yourself, in the strength of
Jesus Christ, to this sweet and excellent way of
praying ; and, I dare say, in a short time, you will
find, through the aids and supplies of divine grace,
what is at first hard and difficult, will, by degrees,
be easy and delightful. The promise" is, that, to
him that hath, i. e. that hath, and useth what he
hath, more shall be given. Though you cannot do
what you would, yet fail not to do what you can,
wherein the Lord will accept of you, according to his
everlasting covenant in Christ Jesus, for we are not
under the law, but under grace.
CHAPTER XI.
A SHORT ACCOUNT OF 80MK OF HIS FRIENDS, E8PBCIALLT HIS
BRRTHRXN IN THE MINISTRY, THAT DIED BEFORE HIM.
We think ourselves obliged to add to this account
out of his own papers, partly as an evidence of the
great esteem he had of the gifts and g^ces of others,
to whom he delighted to do honour, (an instance
of that humility which he was in all respects a great
example of,) and partly that we may preserve the
remembrance of some in that country, whose names
ought not to be buried in oblivion. It is part of that
honour which we owe to them that fear the Lord:
to mention them with respect when they are dead
and gone, that we may contribute something to the
fulfilling of the promise,— That the righteous, and
especially they who turn many to righteousness, shall
be had in everlasting remembrance. While their
glorified souls shine as the stars in the firmament of
our Father, it is fit that their embalmed memories
should, in these lower regions, go forth as a lamp
that bumeth. The Jewish Rabbins read Proverbs
X. 7. as a precept, — Let the memory of the just be
blessed. We will take them in the order wherein we
find them in his Diary, according to the time of
their death, premising only this note of his, occa-
sioned by n particular instance, — Such a day I
read the Life of old Mr. Brucn,* of Stapleford, in
which I met with some things that shame me, some
things that confirm me, and somethings that quicken
me. Blessed be God for that cloud of witnesses y/e
are compassed about with.
into the depths of the sea, Bfic. vti. 18> \9.—CUan$Ug, at /romJUthitu$t^
Jer. xxxiii. S. Ps. li. 2. 7, la Zech. xiii. 1, &c. P. Henry. Orig
MS.
t When our hearts and mouths are enlarged in praise to God,
God's heart and hand will he enlarged in mercy to us. P. Henry.
Orig. MS.
n Prayer is the echo of a promise. P. Henry. Orig. BiS
• Duod. 1641.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
143
[1661, Juiaary 14. At Wrexham, died my friend
Captain Gerard Barber; he was a pious, prudent
Christian, and had the good word of all, even the
filesL
On the 17th I went to Wrexham, where I perform-
ed the last office of my loTe to my dear deceased
friend Captain Barber, the saint of the Lord, ac-
companying him*to his grave, where he rests, as in
a bed of spices, till the day of the restitution of all
things. I hope to see him again, and so we shall be
together for ever with the Lord.
Mr. R. W. said he could better have parted with
his youngest son, than with his Captain ; the week
after, it pleased God, his youngest son died sud-
dcnly.**]
Mr. John Machin was buried at Newcastle, Sep-
tember 8, 1664, a worthy instrument in gospel work.
Laborious, faithful, and successful above his fel-
lows ; taken away in the midst of his days. The
first candle I have heard of put out by God, among
the many hundreds put under a bushel by men.^
An account of his holy, exemplary life, was printed
many years after, drawn up, I think, by Mr. New-
come. **
Mr. Heath, late minister of [St] Alkmond's
Church, in Salop, was buried May 28, 1666. He
vas of Christ's College, in Cambridge, where he
was much valued for his great learning, especially
in the Oriental tongues,* in which he was one of the
greatest masters of his age. He was employed to
correct the Syriac and Arabic of the Polyglot
Bible, which was sent down to him in sheets for
that porposc, for which Bishop Walton gave him a
eopy. He read the liturgy till August 24, 1662, and
then was silenced, because he could not come up
to the imposed terms of conformity. When the
Five-mile Act commenced, March 26, 1666, he re-
moved to Wellington, and there, within a few
weeks, died, and was buried. When he lay upon
his death-bed, Mr. Lawrence asked him what re-
flections he had upon his nonconformity. Truly,
said he, I would not but have done as I did for a
thousand worlds. He had great confidence, that
God would provide for his widow and children ac-
cording to promise. The character Mr. Baxter gives
of him is, that he was moderate, serious, quiet, and
religious.^
Much abont the same time, Mr. York died in
Stlop, a holy good man, and well approved in the
t> P. Henry. Orig. MS.
« See Job xviti. 6. Matt. v. 15.
* See Tongas Lire of Matt Henry, pp. 108, 273. it/ npra. Mr. New-
CQOie publistied Mr. Machines Mem. in 1671. duod. It was reprint-
ed by the ReT. Oeoi^e Border. See also Clark's Lives or Eminent
Penoos. p. 81. si nyra.
• EtpedaUy by his fe11ow<col1egiate, Mr. Shelton, who sent him
down the BibUa Polyglotta in sheets. He was /rtwn Unguanm
rmtimmn, the bert Hebrician in these parts of England. Life.
Orig. MS. n
ministry, who wasted his own candle in giving light
to others,' even after he was removed out of the
candlestick. Lord ! Is this the meaning of Revela-
tions xi. 12. concerning the witnesses ?
Mr. Thomas Porter,'* late minister of Whitchurch,
died in Salop at a good old age, J une 19, 1667. He was
bom in Northamptonshire, bred in Cambridge. He
was settled minister of Hanmer, in Flintshire, long
before the wars, by the means of Sir John Hanmer,
the patron, who was a very worthy pious gentleman,
and a great promoter of religion in that parish, but
died in the midst of his days. Here Mr. Porter's
ministry was blessed with wonderful acceptance and
success, both in that and the neighbouring parishes,
and a great harvest of souls was there gathered in
to Christ. After the wars were over, during the
heat of which he was forced to withdraw, he pro-
cured Mr. Steel for Hanmer, and he removed to
Whitchurch, where he continued an instrument of
much good, till the King came in, and then he gave
way to Dr. Bernard, a worthy, moderate man. He
preached his farewell sermon at Whitchurch, August
28, 1660, on Colossians i. 24. and spent the rest of
his days in silence and affliction. He was exercised
long with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of
his bones with strong pain. If this be done to the
green tree, what shall be done to the dry ? His
dying counsel to the Lord's people, was to stick to
Christ, and not to let him go, come life, come death. *
The worthy Colonel Thomas Hunt died at his
house in Shrewsbury, April 12, 1669, a true Natha-
nael, an Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile.
One that, like Caleb, followed the Lord fully in
difficult trying times. He was a member of the Long
Parliament for Shrewsbury, and veiy active for God
in his generation, abounding in good works, and his
memory is blessed. I was going to Shrewsbury upon
an appointment of his, and by the way met the sad
news of his death, which was sudden, but not sur-
prising to one that was always ready. He was twice
at public ordinances the day before, being Lord's
day ; worshipped God with his family in the even-
ing ; went to bed well as at other times ; but, about
two or three o'clock in the morning, waked very ill,
and before ^ye, fell asleep in the Lord. Help, Lord,
for the godly man ceaseth,
[15. He was buried. Mr. Roberts preached.
Text, Numbers xxiii. 10. Let me die the death of
the righteous, and let my last end he lihe his. Amen.
Qu. In What capacity did Mr. Shelton act?
f Reliq. Baxter. Part iii. p. 94. ■/ nfta.
g He was a burning and a shining larope. spending hirosieire
like a candle, and making tapers of his owne marrow to give others
light. Hieron's Works, p. 425. ut supra.
Another worthy driiy remarks ;— There are multitudes that
grumble at the expense or a penny for the maintenance of those
divine candles that waste themselves to give light to them.
Brooks's Unsearchable Riches, p. 322. «/ npra.
h See Reliq. Baxter, Part iii. p. 94. «/ twpra.
144
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
16. Fast kept in his house, now he is no more.
The Lord fill up his place to all his relations, and
to thy poor church in these parts, that hath lost a
pillar.']
Mr. George Mainwaring, a faithful minister of
Jesus Christ, and my worthy friend, died in a good
old age, March 14, 1669-70, gathered as a shock of
com in his season. He was bom in Wrcnbury
parish, in Cheshire, supported at the University by
Mr. Cotton, of Combermere,'' where he had the re-
putation of a good scholar; he was brought ac-
quainted with the ways of religion by means of Mr.
Buckly, his uncle, a strict puritan. He was first
chaplain to Sir Henry Delves, afterwards rector of
Baddely, and chaplain to Sir Thomas Manwaring.
After the wars, he was removed to Malpas, whence
he was ejected upon the King's coming in. His
conversation was exemplary, especially for plainness
and integrity; he was eminent for expounding
Scripture. While he was at Malpas, he constantly
gave all the milk which his dairy yielded, on the
Lord's day, to the poor.'
Mr. John Adams, of Northwood, was buried at
Ellesmere, April 4, 1670 ; he was a faithful minis-
ter of the gospel.
Mr. Zechariah Thomas, my worthy friend, died
of a consumption, at Nantwich, November 14, 1670,
in the forty-first year of his age. He was bred up
^ for a tradesman in Snfiblk, but always addicted to
his book, and was ordained a minister, after the
King came in, and entertained curate at Tylstock,
under Dr. Bernard ; but by reason of his noncon-
formity, could not continue there long. On the
Monday before he died, he said to those about him,
that towards Wednesday he should take his leave of
them, and did so. He was buried at Acton. Mr.
Kirkcs, Vicar of Acton, preached, and gave him a
worthy character, and such as he deserved, for up-
rightness, humility, moderation, prayer, faithful-
ness in reproving, patience under afiliction. And
in saying he was an Israelite indeed without guile,
he said all. The Lord make me a follower of him,
and of all the rest, who, through faith and patience^
inherit the promises.
[1671, May 15. This day died Cousin John Ma-
docks, of Llynbedith, in a good old age. I prayed
with him, and about an hour or two after, he com-
posed himself into a posture wherein, about five
o'clock, he sweetly gave up the ghost, and fell asleep
in Jesus. I hope heaven grows rich by it ; by it, I
am sure, Hanmer parish grows poor in men of piety
i P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
k See Ormerod's Hist nttupra. ▼. 3. p. 211, 212.
1 The learned historian or Cheshire, quoting this account from
Calamy, insinuates that it is incorrect. He adds, however, " The
question of its accuracy is only hinted at, from its being strongly
opposed by local tradition.*' Hist. «/ npra. ▼. 2. p. 340. It may
be remarked, that Mr. Henry, who was a near neighbour and an
intimate friend mentions it as a /ac/.
and integrity. Help, Lord, Psalm xii. 1. On the ,
18th I accompanied him to his grave. Mr. Green .
preached. Text, Colossians iii. 4."*]
Mr. Joshua Richardson, my truly worthy friend
and brother, died at Alkington in Whitchurch parish, .
September 1, 1671. Blessed be God for his holy
life and happy death. He was several years minis-
ter of Middle, in Shropshire, and was turned out
thence for nonconformity. He was a holy, loving,
serious man. Dr. Fowler preached his funeral ser-
mon at Whitchurch, on Daniel xii. 3. highly prais-
ing him, as he deserved, for wisdom, piety, and
peaceableness.
Mr. Samuel Hildersham died near Birmingham,
in April, 1674 ; the only son of Mr. Arthur Hilder-
sham," of Ashby, whose works praise him in the
gates : Fellow of Emanuel College, in Cambridge ;
Bachelor of Divinity, 1623 ; settled Rector of West-
Felton, in Shropshire, in the year 1628 ; and con-
tinued there till silenced by the Act of Uniformity.
He was one of the Assembly of Divines ; a father to
the sons of the prophets in and about Shropshire.
He was learned, loving, and charitable, an excellent
preacher, an eminent expositor, and very much a
gentleman. He was about fourscore years of age
when he died. He ordered by his will this inscrip-
tion upon his g^ve-stone ; — Samuel Hildersham,
B. D. Rector of West-Felton, in the County of
Salop, 34 years, till August 24, 1662.
Mr. Richard Sadler, my worthy friend and fellow-
labourer, died at Whixhall, in Frees parish, April
— , 1676. He was born in Worcester ; went, when
young, with his father into New England ; after the
wars he returned into England; was ordained at
Whixhall chapel, May 16, 1648, and was removed
thence to Ludlow. Being turned out there upon
the King's coming in, he spent the rest of his days
in privacy, at Whixhall. A man of great piety and
moderation.
Mr. Rowland Nevet died at his house near Os-
westry, December 8, 1675, and was buried at Morton
Chapel. I preached his funeral sermon at Swinny,
on 2 Peter i. 14. Knowing that I must shortly put
off this my tabetmaele. Thence showing that the ^
ministers of Christ must certainly and shortly die.
He was bom in Hodnet parish, ann. Dom. 1609,
brought up at Shrewsbury School, was afterwards
of Edmund Hall, in Oxford, commenced Master of
Arts in the year 1634. He was episcopally ordain-
ed : and anno 1635, he was presented to the vicarage
of Stanton, in Shropshire, where he continued many
ra P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
n A divine of great worth, and of royal descent;—" Yet he was
not." says Fuller, "like the proud nobles of Tecoa, who counted
themselves too proud to put their hands to God's work." Wor-
thies, Cambridgeshire, p. 158, fol. «/ tupra. Nat Oct. 6. 1563. Ob.
Mar. 4, 1631. See Clark's Lives annexed to Martyrologie, 114, vi
npra.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
145
years, with great success in his ministry. While
he was single, he kept house, judging that more for
the furtherance of his work among his people, than
to tahle. After the war, he removed to Oswestry,
where he laboured abundantly in the work of the
Lord ; and even after he was silenced for noncon-
formity, he continued among his people there to his
dying day, doing what he could when he might not
do what he would. He would say, he thought most
of his conTcrting work was done at Oswestry, the
first seven years of his being there. He loved to
preach, and to hear others preach, concerning the
great things of religion, redemption, reconciliation,
regeneration, &c. ; for these, said he, are the main
matter. When the plague was at Oswestry, he con-
tinued with his people, and preached to them, and
it was an opportunity of doing much good.
His conversation from his youth was not only
blameless, but holy and pious ; he was exemplary
for family religion, and great care and industry in
tke education of his children. He was looked upon
as ccmgregational in judgment and practice, and
▼as not satisfied to join in the Common Prayer ; but
be was free to communicate with those that did. It
was his judgment, that ministers should be ordained
by ministers ; and that a minister is not only a
minister of the particular congregation in which he
labours. He greatly bewailed the divisions of the
church, and the intemperate heats of some of all
persuasions. He was exceeding kind and loving
to his friends ; very frequent In pious ejaculations
to God. Being often distempered in body, he would
say, he was never better than in the pulpit, and that
it was the best place he could wish to die° in. He
often blessed God for a fit of sickness which he had,
which he said he would not have been without for a
world, the foundation of his comfort and hope of
heaven being laid then. When he was sometimes
much spent with his labours, he would appeal to
God, that though he might be wearied in his service,
he would never be weary of it. His dying prayer
for his children, after many sweet exhortations, was.
That the Mediator's blessing might be the portion
of every one of them ; adding, I charge you all see
to it. that you meet me on the right hand of Christ
at the great day. A little before he died, he had
this expression. Go forth, my soul, go forth to meet
tky God ; adding by and by, — It is now done. Come,
Lord Jesus, come quickly. One present saying to
• Dr. John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, ** one of the brightest
ornaments of the reformed religion," 8aid,~lt best became a
Bttbop to die preaching in a pulpit,— alluding to that of Vespasian,
"Of^rtH Imferaiorem stanUm mori : and thinking upon that of his
master,— Happy art thou, my servant, if when I come I find thee
10 doing. Clark's Marrow of Bed. Hist. p. 700. ut npra.
f Appendix, No. XXVIL
4 See Wood's Ath. Oxon. v 3 p. 1050. W mpra.
r P. Henry. Oiary, Origr. MS. And see the Noncon. Mem. v. 1.
pXW. */ rajprs.
• See the Noneon. Mem. ▼. a p. 480.
him, that he was now going to receive his reward,
he replied. It is free grace. Mr, Henry was much
importuned to print his sermon at Mr. Nevefs fune-
ral, with some account of his life and death, which
he was somewhat inclined to do, but was discouraged
by the difficulties of the times, and it was never done.
But some materials he had for it, out of which we
have collected these hints.p
[1676, January 30. This day died at London sud-
denly, Mr. Edward West,** my very worthy good
friend, pupil to Mr. Cole, at Christ Church, and tutor
to Mr. Thomas Puleston, at St. Mary Hall. It was
sabbath -day, and he had preached twice at his meet-
ing-place. He was a person of great ability for
learning, and of great prudence in conduct of
affairs.']
Mr. Robert Fogg, my old dear friend ,• was buried
at Acton, near Nantwich, April 21, 1676. He died
in a good old age, — about eighty. He was minister
of Bangor, in Flintshire, till after the King came
in, and thenceforward, to his death, was a poor silent
nonconformist, but of a bold and zealous spirit;
giving good counsel to those about him a little be-
fore he died, he had this weighty saying, among
others ; — Assure yourselves, the Spirit of God will
be underling to no sin.'
Mr. Andrew Parsons, sometime minister of Wem,
died at London, October 1, 1684. He was bom in
Devonshire, and was minister there some years before
the war ; being driven thence to London, he became
well known to Mr. Pym,° who sent him down to
Wem, when that town was garrisoned for the Par-
liament : there he continued in tlie exercise of his
ministry, till the year 1660. He was an active,
friendly, generous man, and a moving, affecting
preacher. Mr. Baxter, in his Life, Partiii. page 94,
commends him for a moderate man, and speaks of his
being in trouble/ for seditious words sworn against
him, which were these. Preaching from 2 Timothy
iii. 13. he said;— The devil was like a king, that
courted the soul, abd spoke fair till he was gotten
into the throne, and then played pranks. The wit-
nesses deposed contrary to the coherence of his dis-
course, that he said the king was like the devil.*
He was tried at Shrewsbury, before my Lord New-
port, Mr. Serjeant Turner, and others. May 28, 1662.
It was also charged upon him, that he had said, —
There was more sin committed now in England in
a month, than was heretofore in seven years : and
t Christ will be no underling to any base affection. Dr. Sibbs.
The bntittd reed and smoking flax. p. 121. ut iupra.
u He died in December, 1643. See his Funeral Sermon, by S.
M^hall. 4to. 1644.
Where is a full account or the transaction in the Conrormist's
Fourth Plea, 4to. ut tupra. pp. 30 —34.
w See Reljq. Baxter, part iii. p. 94. ut tupra.— \ heard of one that
said he would swear treason against a nonconformist : and being
asked, What he said, and whether ever he heard him speak ! he
said. No ; but he heard him whittle treason. And being asked,
How whistling could he treason 1 he said. That he whistled the
146
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
that there had been more and better preaching in
England for twenty years past, than was ever since
the apostles' days. He had a counsel assigned him,
who pleaded that the time limited by the statute in
which he was indicted, was expired. The court
yielded it was so, allowing twenty-eight days to a
month ; but they would understand it of thirty days
to a month. So he was found guilty, and fined
two hundred pounds ; and ordered to be imprisoned
till it should be paid.
Mr. Hugh Rogers, a worthy faithful minister of
Jesus Christ, turned out for nonconformity, from
Newtown in Montgomeryshire, was buried at Welsh-
pool, March 17, 1679-80. He was looked upon as
congregational ; but his declared judgment was,—
*' That ministers ought to be ordained by ministers,
and to give themselves wholly to that work ; and
that none but ministers have authority to preach and
govern in a constituted church ; and that Christ's
ministers are his ministers in all places'; and that
where the word of Christ is preached, and his sacra-
ments administered, there is a true church.'' He was
a man of excellent converse, and whose peculiar
felicity lay in pleasant and edifying discourse.
July 2d and 3d, 1680. These two days brought
tidings of the death of Mr. Haines, sometime minis-
ter of Wem, in Shropshire, and since at New Chapel,
in Westminster ; and of Mr. Richard Edwards,
minister at Oswestry, both worthy conformists, pious,
peaceable, and good men, whom I hope, through
grace, to meet shortly in heaven. The Lord raise up
others in their room to be and do better !
Mr. Robert Rosier,* my dear friend and kinsman,
having just completed the twenty- third year of his
age, died of a fever, September 13, 1680, at Mr.
Doolittle's^ house in Islington, whither he was gone
but a few weeks before for improvement in learning ;
being formerly a commoner of Edmund Hall, in
Oxford ; and since, having spent some years in my
family, and designed himself for the service of
Christ, in the work of the ministry. He was a young
man of pregnant parts, great industry, and exemplary
seriousness and piety, and likely to be an eminent
instrument of good in his day. His friends and rela-
tions bad promised themselves much comfort in him,
but we know who performeth the thing that is ap-
pointed for us, and giveth not account of any of his
matters,
Mr. John Maiden, my dear and worthy friend,
turned out from Newport, in Shropshire, for non-
tametuneWivx a ballad was sung in, that they said had treasonable
words in it Baxter's Eng. Noncon. p. 185. «/ mfra.
X See Tong*8 Life of M. Henry, vtwprat p. 36, &c. and emtejf^fS.
7 See ante^ p. 73.
« " The great Sir Isaac Newton*s Friend/' See Dr. lAtham's
Sermon for the Rev. D. Madock, (who was Dr. ll's son,) ui npra,
p. 27. The Appendix to that Discourse contains a letter from Sir
Isaac Newton, superscribed, **- For his honoured Friend, Joshua
Madock, Doctor of Physic, at his house in Whitchurch, in Shrop-
shire ** p. 33.
conformity, died at Alking^n, near Whitchurch,
May 23, 1681, a man of great learning, an excellent
Hebrician, and of exemplary piety, and a solid
preacher ; as he lived, so he died, very low in his
own eyes ; esteeming himself good for nothing,
though really good for every thing ; which was mani-
festly a prejudice, both to his comfort, and to his
usefulness. He said, he was far from, repenting his
being a sufferer against conformity. The relics of
so much learning, piety, and humility, I have not
seen this great while laid in a g^ave. But blessed
be God we had such a one so long.
Dr. Joshua Maddocks, a beloved physician, our
very dear friend and kinsman, died of a fever at
Whitchurch, in the midst of his days, July 27, 1682,
a very pious man, and especially eminent for meek-
ness ; an excellent scholar, and particularly learned
in the mathematics.' He lived much desired, and
died much lamented.
Mr. Thomas Bridge, who had been rector of the
higher rectory of Malpas about fifty-seven years,
being aged about eighty-two years, viras buried at
Malpas, October 7, 1682. In his last sickness,
which was long, he had appointed Mr. Green/ one
of the curates there, to preach his funeral sermon on
1 Timothy i. 16. — Howbeityfor this cause I obtained
mercy y that in me fir sty Jesus Christ miyht show forth
all long-suffering ; and, to say nothing in his com-
mendation, but to give a large account of his repent-
ance upon his death-bed, &c. He was a taking,
popular preacher, preaching often, and almost to
the last. When old, he could read the smallest
print without spectacles.''
Mr. William Cook,^ an aged, painful, faithful
minister of Jesus Christ, in Chester, finished his
course with joy, July 4, 1684, in the midst of the
cloudy and dark day. See Mr. Baxter's character
of him in his Life, Part iii. page 98. And an hon-
ourable account given of him by Mr. Samuel Bold,
of Steeple, in Dorsetshire, in a large preface to his
book of Man's Great Duty.* He was eminent for
great industry, both in public and private work ;
great self-denial, mortification, and contempt of the
world ;• and a strict adherence to his principles in
all the turns of the times. He was first minister at
Wroxal, in Warwickshire ; there he published two
treatises against the anabaptists. From thence he
was, by the advice of the London ministers, removed
to Ashby, in Leicestershire, whence he was turned
out for refusing the engagement, and afterwards
• Mr. Green was buried at Malpas, Feb. 14, 1687-^ Bfrs. Savage's
Diary. Orig. MS.
b The same is recorded of Dean Nowell. See his life by the
Rev. Archdeacon Churton. p. 364.
e See Noncon. Mem. v. I. p. 326. h/ t^ra ; and Dr. Calamy's
Continuation, v. 9. p. 119. &c. oct 1713.
d Duod. 1693. See the Noncon. Mem. v. l. p. 320. «/ nrf ra. note.
e He is fit to preach a crucified Christ, who is him^lf cnicified
to the world. Mr. Steele. Philip Henry's MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
147
settled in Chester, where he was minister of Mi-
chael's church, till he was onted by the Act of
Uniformity. He was an actiye man for Sir George
Booth, when he made that attempt to bring in the
lung, in 1659, for which he wad brought up a pri-
soner to London, and continued long under confine-
ment in Lambeth-house; and, had not the times
turned, had been tried for his life. During the
usurpation, his frequent prayer was ; — " That God
would pull down all usurped power, and restore
the banished to their right.'' After he was silenced
by the Bartholomew Act, he continued to his death
in a pastoral relation to a society of many worthy
eminent Christians in Chester ; though during the
heat of the Five-mile Act,' he was forced to withdraw
to Puddington in Wirral ; where, as in Chester, till
King Charles's Indulgence, he constantly attended
on the public ministry ; and he himself preached in
the intervals. He would say sometimes to his
friends, when he was in that retirement, that he
thought *^ what little peace and quietness there was
in this world, God's people enjoyed it in their
comers." Soon after he was silenced he was com-
mitted to the common gaol of Chester, for preaching
in his own house, by the mayor, at the instigation
of the then Bishop Hall. He was very indefati-
^ble in his ministerial labours, in which he never
sought the assistance of any other minister ; though,
while he had liberty, he constantly kept a public
fast in his congregation every month, as he did also
ft private fast in his own closet and family every
nreek. He usually set apart one afternoon every
week to visit the families of his congregation, and
^ catechise their children and servants, and dis-
course with them personally about their souls ; his
Fisits were short and edifying, (and he managed
them as one that was a great husband of his time,)
and he seldom, or never, parted without prayer.
He was not free to join in the Common Prayer, and
bore his testimony against prelacy, and the cere-
monies, with something of zeal ; but his great piety,
integrity, mortification, and charity, recommended
bim to the respects even of many that differed from
him.' If any asked his advice to any thing which
night draw suffering upon them, he would be very
tender, and desire them not to depend upon his
judgment ; but, since it was a matter of suffering,
to hefulfy persMaded in their own minds. He was a
^reat scholar, and a hard student to the last, and
Was far from entangling himself in the affairs of this
^>/f , not knowing ought he hady save the bread that he
iideat. In worldly matters he was not very con-
r Bishop Walton would speak civilly to Mr. Cook, but told him,
be must conform, or he could not help him. The Confonnist's
Ponrth Plea, ultmpra^ p. 109.
r Lfanvaier or LlaofiBtir. See Dr. Richards's Welsh Noncon.
MenLp.3S6.
^ Hit brother, Timothy Roberts, a learned faithful minister of
the gospel, eoning ftom London, when the plague was raging
versable, but in discourse of the things of God, none
more free and affable, or more ready to do good.
He lived and died a great example of strict and
close walking with God, and a heavenly conversa-
tion ; and his memory is very precious with many.
He died in the seventy-third year of his age. When
he lay on his death-bed, an aged friend of his, ask-
ing him if he had not comfort in reflection upon his
labours in the work of God, he presently replied ;
-*'' I have nothing to boast of.'' He was buried in
MichaeFs church, in Chester ; and though, for some
time before he died, such was the heat of the perse-
cution, that he durst not show his face in the city,
yet many considerable persons were very forward
to do him honour at his death.
Mr. Jonathan Roberts, of Llvair,^ in Denbigh-
shire, my dear and precious friend, and a faithful
minister of Christ, died at Mr. Titus Thomas's
house, in West Felton, and was buried there, Sep-
tember 26, 1684.*^ A true Nathanael, an Israelite
indeed, for plainness and integrity ; a silent sufferer
for his nonconformity, for which he quitted a good
living in Denbighshire. He was a learned man, a
Master of Arts of Oxford ; he died with comfort in
his nonconformity, and with confidence of a return
of mercy in God's due time. The sununer before
he died, he had been at Oxford, Cambridge, and
London, where he heard and saw that which much
confirmed him in his dissent
Mr. Zechariah Cawdrey, minister of Barthomley,
in Cheshire, a learned and godly divine, was buried
December 24, 1684 ;' a conformist, and formerly a
great sufferer for the king, but in his latter times
much maligned and reproached by some people for
his moderation towards dissenters^ for his book of
Preparation for Martyrdom, and for his zeal in
keeping up the monthly lectures at Nantwich, and
Tarvin. But he is gone to the world of peace and
love, and everlasting praises.
Mr. Titus Thomas,*^ minister of the Independent
congregation in Salop, was buried at Felton, De-
cember 10, 1686. He was a worthy good man, and
not so straight-laced as some others ; we were six
nonconformist ministers there at the funeral, and
the seventh dead in the midst of us, saying to us, —
Therefore, he ye also ready,
Mr. John Cartwright, my worthy friend and bro-
ther, a faithful minister of Jesus Christ, was buried
at Audlem, in Cheshire, February 17, 1687-8 ; for-
merly minister of West Kerby, in Wirral ; after-
wards chaplain to the pious Lady Wilbraham, at
Woodhey.'
there, was taken ill by the way, not far from Felton, and none
taking him into house, he died and was buried in the highway.
Philip Henry's Diary, in loe. from Mr. Matthew Henry's transcript.
See the Noncon. Mem. t. a p. 354.
i See the History of Cheshire, v. 3. p. 163. nt mpra.
k See the Noncon. Mem. v. 3. p. 139.
1 See Ormerod'8 Hist v. 3. p. 190, &c. Also at Weston, near
148
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
Mr. Edward Gregg,™ of Chester, a worthy gentle-
man, and my dear friend, died Jaiy 9, 1689, of a
fever, in the midst of his days. He was one that
feared God above many, of a meek and quiet spirit,
and eminently active and useful in his generation.
The Lord is pulling our earthen props from under
us, that we might lean upon, and trust in, himself
alone, and might learn to ceiuefrom man.
Mr. Daniel Benyon, of Ash, my dear friend and
kinsman, died June 25, 1690 ; a very serious, pious
gentleman, and an Israelite indeed; a true lover, and
ready benefactor to all good men, especially good
ministers. He told me a little before he died, God
had made use of me, though most unworthy, as an
instrument of his conversion ; for which I bless his
holy name. He had a long and lingering sickness,
which he bore with great patience."
Mrs. Crew, of Utkinton, in Cheshire, an aged
servant of the Lord, was buried July 8, 1690. She
kept her integrity, and abounded in works of piety
and charity, to the last, and finished well ; to God
be praise.
Mrs. Hunt, of Shrewsbury, the relict of Colonel
Hunt, another rare pattern of zealous piety, abound-
ing charity, and eminent usefulness in her place,
finished her course October 23, 1690, after two days'
sickness.
[In the house of this excellent lady, the dissenters
in Shrewsbury, then of the presbyterian denomina-
tion, assembled for worship after the Indulgence in
1673. This was continued till her death, Mr. Tal-
lents and Mr. Bryan** officiating as co-pastors.
After Mrs. Hunf s decease, the congregation met,
for one year, in Mr. Tallents's house, during which
period a convenient place of worship was erected in
the High-street.p]
The reverend, and learned, and holy Mr. Richard
Baxter,*! died at London, December 8, 1691, aged
seventy-six, and one month ; as much vilified ' by
some, and magnified by others, as most men that
ever were. But it is a small thing to be judged of
man's day. He was buried at Christ-church, Lon-
don, with great honour.
Shirnall, in Shropshire, " the seat of that wise and religious lady,
the Lady Wilbraliam, a sincere and generous fHend to all good
ministers, whether conformists, or nonconformists, without any
diflference." Tong's Life of Matt. Henry, «/ nrpra, p. 275.
1688. March. Ttiursday, 15. My Ikther preached at Mr. Buttre's,
and my dear went to hear him ; brought me home the sad news
of Mr. Cartwrigbt's death ; our neighbour ; a nonconformist : the
labourers are few, and God is making them fewer. Oh Lord God,
cease, I beseech thee ! Saturday. We were both at the funeral of
Mr. Cartwright, at Audlem. There I saw many dear friends. Mr.
Cole preached : gave him a high character. So he was laid in the
dust Oh that God would raise up many Elishas in the room of
EHjahs. Mrs Savage's Diary. Orig.BAS.
m See Tong's Life of Matthew Henry, «/ itipra, p. 90.
n Appendix, No. XXV m.
o Palmer's Noncon. Mem. v. 3. p. 151. See Matt Henry s Life of
the Rev. P. Tallents, in this volume.
p MS. of tlie Rev. Job Orton. Authentic transcript
Mr. John Wood, my good friend, died September
19, 1692, at Mitton, in Shropshire, aged about
seyenty; he was sometime Fellow of Magdalen
College, in Cambridge, where he was outed for non-
conformity ; a learned man, but wanted the faculty
of communicating ; one that feared God, and walked
in his integrity to the last ; had no certain dwelling-
place upon earth, but, I trust, hath one in heayen.
Hie tandem requieseit.
Mr. Richard Steele, my old and dear friend and
companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and
patience of Jesus Christ, died at London, November
16, 1692, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. A man
that had been greatly useful in his generation, both
in the country, and at London.
Mr. Thomas Gilbert* died at Oxford, July 15,
1694, formerly minister of Edgmond, in Shropshire,
aged eighty-three ; a learned good man.
Luke Lloyd, Esq. of the Bryn, in Hanmer parish,
my aged worthy friend, finished his course with joy,
March 31, 1695, being Lord's day. He was in the
eighty-seventh year of his age, and had been mar-
ried almost sixty-nine years to his pious wife, of the
same age, who still survives him.^ He was the
glory of our little congregation, the top branch, in
all respects, of our small vine, and my friend indeed.
When he made his will, under the subscription of
his name he wrote Job xix. 25, 26, 27. On which
text of scripture,-*/ know that my Redeemer liveth,
&c. — Mr. Henry, at the request of some of his
relations, preached a sermon at the licensed house
near Hanmer, some time after his funeral ; in which
sermon he bore a very honourable testimony to that
worthy gentleman, who, as he saith, went to heaven
without a blot, held fast his integrity, and was lively
and zealous in the Christian profession to the end of
his days. He was very exemplary for his love to
tlie ordinances of God, and his delight in attending
on them, his living upon Christ for strength and
righteousness, his great humility and condescending
obliging carriage in all his converse. He was a
man of great courage and resolution ; and yet, in
prayer, tender and self-abasing, to admiration, often
q A miniature portrait in oil of this excellent man, now in tlse
possession of Mr. Stedman, is said to have adorned Mr. Henry's
study. It much resembles the best engravings of Mr. Baxter, by
White.
" Our common usage or custome was ordinary in the olde age.
to wit, that they had in their secret cabinets or studyes, the per-
fect image and purtrait of all suche as had in any sorte excelled in
learning." The Forest, or Collection of Historyes, &c. 1576, 4to.
cited in the Bibliog. Decam. by the Rev. T. F. Dibdin, v. L p. 139.
See Dr. Gibbon's Memoirs of Dr. Isaac Watts, pp. 163, 164.
r In the Biog. Brit. v. '2. p. 18. ed. 1780. fol. is preserved a speci-
men. It is an epitaph drawn up while Mr. Baxter lived, and pub-
lished, that he might see how he was to be represented after his
death. The author was Thomas Long, B. D. and Prebendary of
St Peter's, Exon.
t See the Noncon. Mem. v. 3 p. 145.
t A daughter of — Whitley, of Aston. Life. Grig. MS. «/
nrpro.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
149
melting into tears in the confession of sin ; and his
charity and moderation were knotan unto all men. He
lived and died a pattern of piety and primitive Chris-
tianity, and still brought forth fruit in old age ; his
vigour, both of body and mind, being wonderfully
preserved to the last ; and, by the grace of God, he
finished well, and bis sun set under no cloud. Such
f^ood men are intended to be to us as the star that
led the wise men to Christ ; and, as far as they do
so, we are to follow them. Mark the perfect man, and
hekold the upright, for the end of that man is peace,
Mr. Samuel Taylor, an aged minister of Jesus
Christ, and my true friend and fellow-labourer,
died at Wem, June 26, 1695. He was turned out
from Edstaston chapel, near Wem, by the Act of
Uniformity ; choosing rather to beg his bread than
to wrong his conscience. He continued in Wem
ever since, and preached there as his strength and
liberty would permit. He had his house burnt in
the dreadful fire that was there in 1676, and had a
child born that very night. He was a man of a
very tender spirit, humble and low in his own eyes,
of approved integrity, and finished well. Mr. Henry
preached his funeral sermon " at Wem, on 2 Corin-
thians iv. 7. — We have this treasure in earthen vessels.
September 21, 1695. I heard of the death of two
holy and aged Bartholomew witnesses, Mr. Richard
Mayo, of London, and Mr. Henry Newcome, of
Manchester. Psalm xii. 1.
Mr. Edward Lawrence, of London, my dear and
worthy friend, and a faithful minister and witness of
the Lord Jesus, died November, 1695, about the
seventieth year of his age ; born at Moston, in Shrop-
shire, of Magdalen College, in Cambridge, turned
out from Baschurch, in Shropshire, by the Act of
Uniformity, in 1662, was driven from Whitchurch
by the violent persecution of the Conventicle Act,
in 1670, when he removed to London, and there
spent the rest of his days.
« vide Eighteen Sermons by Mr. Henry, ut npra. Sermon XV.
and the Noncon. Mem. v. 3. p. 146.
1605. June 3a Friday. My dear [husband] was at Broad Oak.
My dear fiither was gone to the Tuneral of a reverend aged minis-
ter, a nonconrormist, Mr. Taylor, of Wem, who preached at the
test fast, the 19th insL Now, before the 29th, laid in the dust
God a making breaches on us taking ofTold and young, that might
(we ihould think) be serviceable in his church. But I would,
witl) silence, adore bis wisdonL His work shall go on in the world,
notwithstanding tbe opposition of men and devils. Mrs. Savage's
Diary. Orig. MS.
Mr. Taylor ** was a clean, nice, little, slender man.'* Hist, of
Wem, p. 2I3L mi tmyra.
vDood. 1681.
* See tbeNoncoo. Mem. v. L p. 304. ut npra.
> 4ta 16961 At tbe end are given extracts from two letters, con-
He had many children, hut great affliction in some
of them, which gave occasion to his book, entitled,
" Parents' Groans over their Wicked Children."*
It is a very high, but just, character, which Mr.
Vincent,* hath given of him in his sermon " at his
funeral ; of which, let me take leave to add some
few instances that occur to us, which may be instruc-
tive, besides those which we have already mentioned
occasionally. At his meals, he would often speak
of *' using God's creatures as his witnesses that he
is good ;" and we cannot conceive how much good
our God doth every moment. An expression of his
great regard to justice, was that common caution he
gave his children; — " Tremble to borrow two-
pence ;*' and, of his meekness and tenderness, this ;
— ** Make no man angry nor sad." He ofteti said,
— *^ I adore the wisdom of God, that hath not seen
meet to trust me with riches." When he saw little
children playing in the streets, he would often lift
up his heart in an ejaculatory prayer to God for
them, calling them " the seed of the next genera-
tion." When his friend chose to ride the back way
into town, he pleasantly checked him, telling him,
that his heart had been often refreshed, when he had
looked out at the window, and " seen a good man
go along the streets."J^ He used to say, that Crom-
well did more real prejudice to religion by his hypo-
crisy, than King Charles the Second did, that never
pretended to it. As, also, that he '* feared the sins
of the land more than the French."*
A friend of his, in the country, writing to him not
long before he died, desired his thoughts concerning
the differences among the London dissenters, to
which he returned this answer ; — ** I can say little
concerning our divisions ; which, when some men's
judgments and tempers are healed, will be also
healed. But when will that be? They that have
most holiness are most peaceable, and have most
comfort."
taining some interesting particulars respecting him. Mr. Matthew
Henry writing to Mr. Tallents, Feb. 3, 169A.r*. thus notices the
production. *' I could wish Mr. Vincent had drawn Mr. Lawrence's
effigies in some proportion to tlie two letters, he might at least
have let us know what countryman he was, and the day and
year of his death. Surely so exemplary a life shall not be
suffered to pass so." Orig. MS. See the Noncon. Mem. v. 3.
p. 139. •
T *• Ipse aspectus boni virl delectat." Seneca. The very looks ol
a good man delight one. Brooks's Crown and Glory of Christi
anity, p. 6I8. 4to. 1602.
s It was said of Cardinal Mazarine, that lie would change his
countenance whenever he heard Oliver Cromwell named; so
that it passed into a proverb in France, that he was not so much
afraid of the Devil as of Oliver Cromwell. Wei wood, p. 109. ed.
1700.
150
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY/
Over Mr. Henry's grave, in Whitchurch church,
is a marble monument, with this inscription : —
M. &
PHILIPPU8 Hbitbt, de Brotd 0«k, ia ComlUtu nint, A. M.
Sdcri Mioiiter Erangelii ; Pastor olim Wortbenburiensif ;
In AulA Regi& natus piis ct honotis Pureatibus;
ScboUe WestmoDaifterienau, iod^q ; iEdis Chriiti Ozon.
Alnmoiu Regius :
Vir priacA Pietate at rcri ChriiHaDA,
Jndicio subacio et limato,
MemoriA pneaUnti, magno et fcecuodo Ing;enio,
Eraditione peqwlitA, aummo Animi Caodore, Morum VeousUte
Iraprimts Spectabilia, et in exemplam natus :
Cui Sacra semper s«ia Fides alionimqae Fama :
Divini Numinis Caitor assidaus;
Dirini Yerbi Interpresexquisitissimos,
Alioram Affectus morere non miniis pollens,
Qjuim suis moderari :
Conscionando pariter ac Vivendo palim exbibens
Cbristi Legem et Exemplar Christum :
Prudens peritusque rerum ; Lenis, Pacificus, Hospitalis,
Ad Pietatis omnia Cbaritatisque oflicia usque paratus ;
Suis Jucundus ; Omnibus Humanus;
Continuis Erangelii Laboribus snccumbens Corpus,
Nee tantse jam par ampliiis Animc,
In dormitorium h!c juxti poaitum demisit,
Jnn. 34« Anno Dom. M.DC.XCVI. iEutis LXV.
Viro opt multAmque desiderato
mceroDS poauit Gener ejus J. T. M. D.*
* The following words were afterwards substituted
Poauit hoc marroor in reris Uchrymis
Katharina coiy«x viduata.
It appears from Mr. Matthew Henry's diary, that
the mural tablet was subsequently obnoxious :—
*^ 1704-5. I had a letter from Mr. Trayers of Lich-
field, that the chancellor there designed to attempt
the demolishing of my father's monument.''*
And afterwards, he writes :—
" 1712, March 22. Wrote to Cos. Eddow, to re-
turn him- thanks for his care this week of the re-
mains of my dear father and mother in Whitchurch
church, where they are laying the foundation of a
• Odg. IIS.
b Ibid.
e Human Life; a Poem; by Sam. Rogers, p. 65. Ilr. Rogers is
[The following translation is from a copy p
served by the family ; and was most likely writ
by the author of the epitaph, Dr. Tylston :—
To the sacred memory
Of Philip Henry, of Broad Oak,
In the County of Flint;
Master of Arts, and Minister of
The Holy Gospel ;
Some time Pastor of Worthenbury ;
Bom in the Royal Palace, of good
And honest Parents ;
Of Westminster School, and chosen
Thence a King's Scholar
Of Christ's College, Oxford ;
A man, early remarkable,
And born to be an example
Of truly apostolic and primitive piety,
A solid and well.polished judgment.
Excellent memory, and fruitful invention.
Most fine learning, candid temper,
And graceful behaviour,
Who always kept his own, and the
Reputation of others, inviolable;
A diligent worshipper of the Divine Majesty ;
An exquisite interpreter
Of the Word of God.
And no less happy in moving the afiections
Of others, tlun in tempering his own ;
Who, both in preaching and living,
Openly set forth Jesus Christ,
And his Law, as a Pattern ;
A prudent manager of his affitirs.
Mild, peaceable, and hospitable ;
To offices of piety and charity, ever ready ;
Was pleasant to his friends.
And courteous to all ; —
His body, wore out
With ministerial labours,
And so no longer a match
For so great a aoul.
He dismissed to the adjacent repository,
June 34, 1096.
To the memory of this best Aged
of men, his sorrowful son.in.law
erected this monument,
John Tylston, M. D.*
new one, and have unworthily invaded my rig
there.'">
" When, by a good man's grave I muse alone,
Methinks an angel sits upon the stone ;
Like those of old, on that thriee-halloVd night.
Who sate and watch'd in raiment heav'nly-br\gh
And, with a voice inspiring joy not fear,
Says, pointing upward,— That he is not here ;
ThatAewrwen."*]
descended from Mr. Henry, being the great grandson of his secoi
daughter, Eleanor, Mrs. Radford.
* From Mrs. Brett's band-writing.
A SERMON,
PREACHED AT BROAD OAK,
JUNE 28, 1696,
ON OCCASION OF THB DBATH OF
THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A.
WHO FELL ASLEBP IN THE LORD, JUNE 24, 1606, IN THE 6dTH YEAR OF HIS AGE.
BY HIS SON,
THE REV. MATTHEW HENRY, V. D. M.
Hebrews xi. 4. latter part.
Andhy it he being dead yet speaketh.
Dead and yet speaketh, speaketh and yet dead ! Is
not this a paradox ? We always took the grave for
a land of silence ; and they that are gone down to the
congregations of the dead, are said to dwell in
silence ; the dead praise not the Lord, neither any
that go dawn into silence. Psalm cxy. 17. And if
praising God be silenced in the grave, every thing
else should. It is fit there should be silence,— for
there is no knowledge, nor wisdom, in the g^ave
where we arc going, Ecclesiastes ix. 10. And yet
my text tells you of one being dead, and yet he
speaketh. If you ask how can tiiis be ? The answer
is ready in the text ; faith, which makes other pa-
radoxes plain and easy, makes this so ; for by it,
hy ftithf he being dead yet speaketh. Faith is a
qaickeniug grace, a speaking g^ce. Faith calls
things that are not, as though they were, by fasten-
ing upon the word of the eternal God, which doth
ao. Romans iv. 17. The person spoken of is he who
stands here in the imprimis of the Old-Testament
worthies, that did and got such great things by
faith : the first of God's witnesses called to appear
to testify the excellency of the grace of faith. He
was, for aught we know, the first man that died, the
first that trod that darksome valley, the first begot-
ten to the dead as Christ, the first begotten from the
dead.' He died a martyr. So early did martyr-
• The tint who went to the grave, went to heaven. God would
not let the devil have the first firuita. ThoK were to be God's.
dom come into the world : the first that died died
for his religion. That is, the man of whom it is
here said, — that, by faith he being dead yet speak-
eth. That we may give the text its full extent of
usefulness, — Let us apply it to Abel himself;
to all the saints ; to the martyrs ; and, especially,
to faithful ministers; and, particularly, to him,
whom the Lord hath taken from our head this
day.
1. Let us apply it to Abel himself; he being dead
yet speaketh. The margin reads it, he being dead is
yet spoken of; and then it is but a particular ap-
plication of that to him, which is said, in general,
of all the Old-Testament saints, — that by faith they
obtained a good report. Dead men used to be for-
gotten, and being out of sight are out of mind, Psal.
xxxi. 12. but faith reasons from this in death. Abel,
though long since dead, yet is spoken of. Our Lord
Jesus spoke of him when he dated the great era of
martyrdom from the blood of righteous Abel. Matt,
xxiii. 35. And it was no small honour to be spoken
of by him who was the fountain of honour, to whom
all judgment is committed, and from whom the de-
cisive sentence will be received. He is yet spoken
of by the universal church ; for wherever thLs scrip-
ture is read, there shall this be told for a memorial
of Abel, that, by faith, he offered anto God a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain ; and for it, indeed,
lost his life, but by it obtained witness that he was
righteous, God testifying of his gifts. Thus is the
name of Abel made known and perpetuated as the
P. Henry, firom Matthew Henry's US.
152
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
days of heaven. — Being dead he yet speaketh. So we
read, and so the generality of interpreters take it ;
he speaketh against his brother Cain: so some
would make it parallel with that, Genesis iv. 10.
The voice of thy brother's blood cries. The cry of
blood, innocent and righteous blood, is very loud,
it reaches the ears of that God to whom vengeance
belongeth, to whom the life and death of his saints
is precious, and who will not suffer a drop of their
blood to be spilt, but upon a valuable consideration.
Being dead he yet speaketh. — The dying words of
Zechariah were, 2 Chronicles xxiv. 22. The Lord
look down upon it and require it ; — and the cry of the
souls under the altar was, Revelations vi. 10. How
long, O Lord, holy and tnte. Thus he yet speaketh.
The cry of blood is a continual cry, and will not
cease till the Lord cometh to make inquisition for it
at the great day, and to complete the recompence
for the controversy of Sion. Abel's blood yet crieth
against all that have gone in the way of Cain, as
persecutors. Abel, as the foreman of that great in-
quest of suffering saints, speaks to you all, to con-
vict the bloody generation that have eaten God's
people as they eat bread. Or, he speaketh io us.
There are many excellent lessons that are taught us
by the life and death of Abel. He speaketh for our
instruction and consolation. Scripture stories speak
a great deal, and particularly this concerning Abel,
who, being dead in the beginning of the world, yet
speaketh, ybr our learning, upon whom the ends of the
world are come, 1 Corinthians x. 14. — that we, through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope,
Romans xv. 4.
2. Apply it to other martyrs, who being dead
for the testimony of Jesus Christ, and for their
constant adherence to the word of his patience,
do yet speak for the comfort and encouragement of
those that follow after them, in that narrow, afflic-
tive way, which tends to life. What is here said of
Abel, who led the van, may be said of all the rest,
even of those that bring up the rear in that noble
army of martyrs, who, being dead, yet speak ;— speak
to us, who are exhorted to follow them, and take
them for our example. The martyrs of Jesus speak
to us that the truths of God are precious and valua-
ble things, and worth suffering for ; and that there
is a reality in future unseen things ; for the pros-
pect of them hath administered solid comfort to
them when they have been pressed above measure.
They tell us that Christ is a good Master, and his
cause a good cause ; and that, as affliction for Christ
hath abounded, consolation from him hath much more
abounded. The gospel of Christ being thus handed
down to us, sealed with the blood of the martyrs, hath
been, upon that account, so much the more cheer-
fully embraced. How many were baptized for the
b See the works of the learned Joshua Bingham^ vol 1. p. 478.
fol. 1736.
dead, 1 Corinthians xv. 29. that is, took upon them
the profession of the Christian faith for the sake of
the dead martyrs,** and upon the inducement of their
patience and constancy in suffering for the truth. If
there be no resurrection from the dead, nor a future
state, that argument, which hath been cogent with
so many, falls to the ground, and deceives them.
This is the sense that a late learned interpreter gives
of that difficult scripture. It were easy to give in-
stances out of church history of those that were con-
verted to the faith of Christ by the death of the mar-
tjrrs ; and the things which happened to them,
though hard things, fell out to the furtherance of the
gospel. Hence the blood of the martyrs became the
seed of the church ; and they overcame the old serpent
by not loving their lives unto the death, in defence of
the word of their testimony. Being dead, they speak
to others, to expect sufferings, and yet not to fear
them ; to count upon them ; to count them but light,
and for a moment. For our own parts, we have not
yet resisted unto blood ; but, if we should live to see
such a day, when he could not buy the truth at any
cheaper rate, than the laying down of that, for which
a man would part with skin for skin, that is, his life;
if it ever should come to this dilenmia, that we must
either die for Christ, or deny him, (as who knows
what event may be in the womb of time ? — let not
him that girdeth on the harness boast as he that puts
it off,) then let us hear what the martsrrs, being dead,
yet speak, and take encouragement from them to
choose affliction rather than iniquity ; the greatest
sufferings, rather than the least sin; for this yet
speaks, and it is b, faithful saying, — If we suffer with
Christ, we sliall reign with him, 2 Timothy ii. 11, 12<
And, though we be losers for Christ, we shall not,
we cannot, be losers by him in the end. Cruel per-
secutors sometimes, for politic ends, even then,
when they thirst after the blood of the saints, think
it enough to silence them, and not kill them. It was
the course Julian,' the Apostate, took for the extir-
pating of Christianity : and the martyrs that were
put to death in Queen Mary's days, in England, were
forbid to speak to the people when they died. Nothing
tormented the world more than their witness-speak-
ing. But, let them do their worst, they may kill, but
they cannot silence them ; they may stop their breath,
but they cannot stop their mouths ; for, being dead,
they yet speak to the confusion of their adversaries.
3. Apply it to all saints ; — Being dead, they yet
speak. The death of the saints is a very usual and
common dispensation of Providence; — Ti^ godly
man ceaseth, the faithful fail, and the merciful are
taken away. Such providences as these have a loud
voice, which crieth in the city to the survivors. The
death of the saints speaketh the evil of sin, the
remainder of which is in the best. It is owing to
c A Roman emperor, bom November 6, A. D. 331. Ob. 963. Mr.
Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, v. 19. p. 181, kc.
OF THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A.
163
that they die ; for the body is dead because of sin. It
speaks the vanity of life, and the delights and enjoy-
ments of it; for, if the favourites of heaven are
dying daily, and going out of the world, it is a sign
the things of the world are not the best things, else
those whom God loves best would not be taken
soonest from them. It speaks, that all things come
alike to all, and that one event happeneth to the right-
emts €nd the wiched, so that none knows love or
hatred by all that is before him in this world. But
he that would know it must look before him into the
other world. For, it is true of mankind abstract-
edly, from the destruction of saints and sinners, one
dies in his full strength, and another in the bitterness
of his soul. It speaks to us, that, — wliatsoever our
kandj!ndeth to do, we should be doing it with all our
might ; and to worh the worh of him that sent vs
while it is day, because the night cometh wherein no
man can worh. Being dead, they speak to us what
a cordial an interest in Christ is in a dying hour ;
and, therefore, death being found by them to be not
the king of terrors, but one of the best friends they
had next to Jesus Christ ; the period of all their
misery, and their passage to eternal glory; we cannot
bat wish to die the death of the righteous, and to
have our last end (or, as some read it, *' our future
state") like his. And what greater inducement can
there be than this, to live the life of the righteous,
and to have our present state and way like his ? If
the saints die, then there is no discharge in that war ;
and it is not the stroke, but the siing, of death, from
which righteousness delivers. And if, sometimes,
they have bands in their death, they speak to us to
prepare for the like ; for, if this be done to the
green tree, what may the dry expect ? Lay your ears,
this day, to the coffins and graves of departed saints,
who, though they do not pray for us, yet preach to
OS, in the words of Christ, Matthew xxiv. 44. — Be ye,
therefore, also ready. They are gone, and we are
going ; their glass is run out, and ours is running ;
and, therefore, it concerns us to be always on our
watch, with tnir loins girt, and our lamps burning ;
that, if at midnight the cry should be made. Behold,
the Bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet Aim,— we
may not have oil to buy when we should bum it ; nor,
with Saul, be hid among the stuff of this world,
when we are sent for to enter upon the kingdom.
4. Let me apply it to the faithful ministers that
have spoken unto us the word of God. They are
God's spokesmen in the world; the watchmen set
vpon your walls, which are not to keep silence. But
re have this treasure in earthen vessels, which are
«oon broken. What becomes of the treasure then ?
Why, the treasure is God's, and shall not be lost ;
the word shall be spoken though the minister be
silent in the dust, for it endures for ever. Nay, out
of the eater comes forth meat ; for ministers, being
dead, yet speak. Particularly, let me apply it to
your minister, (or, rather, Christ's, for you,) whom
God hath now, by a sad and sudden stroke, re-
moved from you, after he hath long been speaking
to you the word of God. You sec, I hasten to what
I principally intended, and you vrill not wonder why
my thoughts, at this time, could not fasten upon any
other subject, for, I am sure, yours cannot; and,
to have spoken of any thing else to-day, would be
a jar in the harmony of sorrow, wherein you and I
are concerned. I confess, it may seem incongruous,
that I, who stood in so near a relationship to him,
should stand here to speak of him; and, truly, if
his worth and honour were a matter of doubtful dis-
putation, and were only to be found by secret search,
it would seem so to me too. Were I to seek for his
glory, it would look too much like seeking my own.
But the matter is not so ; we need not dig for it. He
was one that had a good report of all men, yea, and
of the truth itself; and, therefore, none can blame
me, if I also bear record, since all of you, in this
assembly, can bear witness that my record is true.
Why should not I cast my mite into a common trea-
sury? Nay, the general duty required in the fifth
commandment, I think, obligeth me to take this
opportunity of doing him honour at his death. I
am sure I have as much reason for it, if I might
speak the deep impressions of my own soul, as ever
any son had. Those that have any sense of justice
and gratitude, cannot but honour and respect a
father that has been the instrument of their being ;
especially, if a kind and loving one ; — cannot but
respect a tutor, that has been the instrument of their
learning ; especially, if a skilful and faithful one ;
—cannot but respect a minister that hath been a
spiritual father, that hath been the instrument of
their regeneration; especially, if continuing a
tender and faithful overseer. Now, if any one of
these three relations challenge such a profound
regard, what may justly be expected when these
meet in one and the same person? Surely, I ought
to reckon such a one worthy of double, nay, treble
honour. The French have a proverb to this purpose,
which I have many a time thought of with applica-
tion to him;— "To father, teacher, and God All-
sufficient, none can render equivalent." But, I
must remember, I am preaching, not before you, but
to you, and must therefore speak that which is
profitable for you, and may be profitable to you,
rather than that which may give vent to my own
passions. Many a time he hath spoken to you
in this place the things pertaining to the kingdom
of God,— and now he is gone. The doleful accent
of your sorrow is, — " Alas, we shall never hear
good Mr. Henry more!" Yea, I am here to tell
you, (Is it not good news to you?) that you may
hear him again. He is dead, but not speechless ;
being dead he yet speaheth. What would you give
to hear him preaching in this pulpit this Lord's
154
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
day, whom you had here but the Uut, teaching you
to add to faith virtue y (which was his last subject,
2 Peter i. 5.) and to hear again those gracious
words which proceeded out of his mouth? Why,
my brethren, by faith, you may yet hear him. Faith,
acting upon what you have heard from him, and upon
the word of God compared with the proyidence of
the day ; for, by it, he, being dead, that is, notwith-
standing his death ; nay, he being dead, that is, by
his death, yet speaketh. Now, to take in what I
design, the products of a few broken thoughts, I
shall observe both the readings of the text, which
were hinted at before, with application to him.
I. He, being dead, is yet tpoken of
II. He, being dead, yet speaheth.
You see, the preacher of so many sermons among
you must be the subject of this, so that it is to him
that your serious attention is required.
I. He, being dead, is yet spohen of
1. I shall hint at this as his honour ;^ihBt, as
many eyes were fastened upon him while he lived,
(a city upon a hill cannot be hid,) so many tongues
do and will speak of him in this country, and
neighbourhood, now he is gone, and shall be seen
no more. All that knew him, knew very well, that
he was as far from seeking, or affecting, honour
among men, as any could be. Humility was his
master-grace, and that which he was most eminent
for. Honour is like the shadow, that, as it flies
from those that follow it,^follows those that fly
from it And, in the honour which his friends and
neighbours have done him at his death, and the
honourable testimonies which are given to him by
all sorts of persons, I cannot but read the fulfilling
of that scripture, — Before honour is humility,^ A
great name, like the names of the great ones of the
earth, is usually very much withered by death. We
read of those that bear their shame when they go
down into the pit, though they were the terror of the
mighty in the land of the living. Ezekiel xxxii. 25.
But a good name is out of the reach of death ; is not
buried in the grave, but rather grows up from it.
It is not for nothing that Solomon hath joined, that,
— A good name is better than precious ointment, —
with the day of one's death, which, upon that account,
among many others, is better than the day of one's
birth, — it completeth the character of those that
finish well. The sun may be a great part of the day
under a cloud, and yet is the sun still ; and, per-
haps, his reflected rays in the evening, after he is
set, may be more illustrious than any of all the day
before. It is so with humble souls, whom honour
shall uphold. God hath said it, and no word of
his shall fall to the ground,— TAem that honour me
I will honour. And who can conceive what shall be
done to the man whom the King of kings delighteth
to honour ? Commonly, that man is Mordecai, who
least expects; not a Haman, who thinks, whom
should it be but himself. Those that honour God
by self-denial, and self-abasement, God will honour
with that good report which the elders obtained,
though the other promises they received not. He-
brews xi. 39.
2. I shall speak more largely to it as your duty.
If God will honour those that honour him, it becomes
lis to be workers together with him, and to concur
with his design herein. It is made one part of the
character of the citizens of Zion, that he honoureth
them that fear the Lord, not only while they live,
but when they die. Why did the King of Babylon
'pay the respect of an embassy to Hezekiah upon the
occasion of his recovery, and the wonder done in the
land thereupon, but, perhaps, because the sun,
which was the god the Babylonians worshipped, did
him the honour to go back so many degrees for a
sign to him ? And shall not we, then, honour those
whom our God honours ; and confess them before
men, whom Christ will confess before angels ? That
promise to the righteous,— -That they shall be had in
everlasting remembrance, doubtless speaks duty to
those that survive. Take it as speaking your duty
to the memory of your translated minister ; and not
to him only, (though to him especially, I shall take
leave, at this time, to apply it,) but to all other faith-
ful ministers and Christians whom we have known,
that are gope before to glory ; though not all of one
mind, or all of your mind in little matters. Let the
memories of all those be precious, whether con-
formists or nonconformists, in whom you have seen
any thing of Christ ;* for, in every nation, he that
feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted
of him, and should be so of us. While your faithful
minister was with you, you know what a monitor he
was to you, and a remembrancer at the throne of
grace«'for you. I refer to that expression, Isaiah
Ixii. 6, 7. He did not, he could not, forget you, any
more than a woman can forget her sucking child.
It will therefore be ungrateful if you forget him now
he is gone. There are four things which I would
particularly reconunend to you as profitable to be
often spoken of concerning him : —
(1.) Speak of his preaching. What that was b
manifest before God and your own consciences.
Though he was often driven into comers, he never
sought them, nor needed them. Now he is gone,
you should give the more earnest heed to the things
you have heard from him, and not let them slip.
Speak often of the excellent subjects he preached
upon ; the choice and method, of which he had a
peculiar facility in above any minister I ever knew.
Very successful he was in seeking to find out accept-
able words, which I hope have been as goads to
d An humble spirit inclines and enables a person to have low I towards God and man. Mr. Henry. Mrs. Savage's Diary. Orig. MS.
and mean thoughts of himself, and to carry it accordiDgly, both ■ e See Mr. Baxter's Penitent's Confeauon, pp. 87, 88. 4ta 1091.
OF THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A.
166
quicken you, and are, and will be, as nails fastened
in a sure place, (not to be dropt, or drawn out,) by
the band of him who is the great Master of assem-
hlies. Of all the subjects he has preached on in
these last days of liberty, there was none that
affected and filled him more than that concerning
Christ, what he is made of God to true believers, in
fourteen personal relations, and forty real benefits/
His heart was upon these things, and in them he
was in his element ; and those that heard him could
not but take knowledge of him that he had been with
Jesus. I know many of you wish that they were
printed. Do you then print them upon the tables
of your hearts, and that will do you more good
than if they were graven with an iron pen, and laid
in the rock for ever. Many other profitable subjects
he handled ; and you cannot forget how he endea-
ronred, in the order of them, as well as in the
manner of his treating them, and his repetition-
sermons at the close of them, that, after his decease,
yon might have these things always in remembrance^
1 Peter i. 15. Let us not, therefore, receive the
grace of Gody therein, in vain. Now, one good way
to pr^erre in your memory what you haye heard,
is to be frequently speaking of it. Let it be known
by your pious and good discourse, that you were
the hearers of such a minister, whose sayings you
hare treasured up ; and bring out of that treasury,
things new and old. My advice, therefore, to you
is,— that you make much of what you have heard,
because you are never likely to have more. Speak
of his expositions on the Scripture, which were so
very pleasant and edifjring, and are easiest remem-
bered, because they attend the text so closely.
Speak of what you have heard from him in the ca-
techizing of children. The strongest of you may
have occasion for the milk that was provided for
hehes. Many of you have a good deal of his preach-
ing in writing, that may be of great use to jrou in
remembering what you have heard, and received,
and learned ; and, if it be preserved, and used as it
might be, it may be ¥rritten for the generations to
tome, that the people that may be created mag, for it,
praise the Lord,
(2.) Speak of his pattern. It hath been said by
many, that his life was a continued sermon ; and,
sore, it was both the explication, confirmation, and
application, of his doctrine. Christianity, in the
power and reality of it, was exemplified in his whole
conversation. Those that conversed with him, (and
it was no hard matter to do that, so easy he was of
access,) could not but see the Spirit and grace of
i See ttie Memoin of Mrs. Savage, p. 59. «/ nfta,
7Ur Ckri$i mof dwMt in ymn keartt by faith. Thus expressed in a
ytne by my dear &ttaer, who is now in that full ei\joyment : -
Bleit Guest, dwell thou awhile on earth with me ;
And let me dwell forever, in beav'n, with Thee '
Mrs. Savage's Diary. Orig MS.
God in him, which, wherever it is, like the ointment
of the right hand, betrayeth itself It may not be so
proper in me to instance, in every particular, what
you have both heard and seen from him, and those
did not contradict each other. How exemplary was
he in his family ! An instance, I think, scarcely to
be paralleled for constancy in all the parts of family
worship. He was one who made that, as all other
branches of religion, his business ; and he was not
slothful in it. How exemplary in his carriage to
all men ; and how much under the influence of that
meek and quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God,
of great price ! Many of you have had occasion,
one time or other, for personal converse with him,
and cannot but have observed many things well
worth your imitation. He being dead, let these
things be spoken of. Let him be mentioned among
the cloud of witnesses with which you are encom-
passed about, that you may be quickened, and
directed to run with patience the race which is set
before you. This is the best way to remember our
guides ; to follow their faith, considering the end of
their conversation, — ^that is, how well they finished,
Hebrews xiii. 17. When he hath sometime been so-
licited to have his picture drawn, he would say, —
*' No ; a minister's best picture is drawn in the hearts
of his people.'^ So a minister's best monument is in
the hearts of his people. There let each of us erect
a monument of love for him, and it will furnish us,
— as the historians saith the^ monument of David
did those who opened it long after, — with a rich and
valuable treasure, if we follow him as he followed
Christ.
(3.) Speak of his profitableness, through grace, to
you.
In other things, he used to say,^Let every man
speak as he finds. When your deceased minister is
to be spoken of, speak as you have found him ; that
is, as God hath made him to you ; for that saying,
he so often used, is applicable to himself; — ^'Every
creature is that to us, and no more, that God makes
it to be.'' So he was but the earthen vessel, the ex-
cellency of the power was God*s. By the grace of
God he was to you what he was;'* and, as such, we
should speak of him. To speak feelingly, and ex-
perimentally, is the surest way to preserve and pro-
mote the advantage we have had by him. There
are some, nay, many, of you, to whom he was a
spiritual father. Though you have many instructors
in Christ, yet have you not had many fathers, for he
hath begotten you again through the gospel. 1 Corin-
thians iv. 16. And it follows, verse 16. Wherefore,
r Josephus. See the Antiquities of the Jews, book vii. c.l5.
3.
h See 1 Cor. xv. 10. It was the rule of Bonaventure, whom the
Romanists honour for a saint,— /Toe piafum meniium m/, 4^r. This
is the part of pious souls, to ascribe nothing to themselves, all to
the grace of God. Bishop llalL Works, «/ nrpra, v. 6. p. 303.
156
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
be ffe followers of me. Not that he was the aathor
and giver of your grace. No ; it is the Spirit's prero-
gative to be so. What are Paul and Apollos, but
ministers by whom ye believed ? 1 Corinthians iii. 5.
But, though he was only the instrument of your
g^ce, the shaft in the hand of the Lord, the minister
by whom ye believed, yet God having honoured him,
in making him so, you ought to honour him, by
a grateful remembrance, as your spiritual father.
And, if he could witness the bowels of a father, surely
you ought to witness the respect of children towards
him, and his memory. Remember how your hearts
were opened by the key of David in his hand ; how
the strong holds were brought Aovm by the spiritual
weapons of his warfare ; and the powers of darkness
vanquished and subdued by the sword of the Lord
mnd of Gideon, Speak of the way he took in dealing
with souls, not to terrify with thunder-claps from
Mount Sinai, but to allure, and invite, in a still and
small voice from Mount Sion ; reckoning that the
most kindly work upon the soul, which is the pro-
duct of gospel grace, and redeeming love, revealed
there. Others of you have found him a spiritual
nurse, and a very skilful, careful, tender one, who
had learned of the great Shepherd of the sheep to
gather the lambs in his arms, and can*y them in his
bosom. He hath fed you with milh, and with strong
meat too, as you were able to bear it. Others of you
have found him a faithful reprover, when at any
time you had done amiss. Though it was much his
temper not to make himself uneasy to any body, yet
that did not hinder him from the discharge of his
duty, in the rebukes of love, when there was occa-
sion. You know how well he had learned to restore
with the spirit of meekness, Galatians vi. 1. — to set
in joint again, — so he used to observe the import of
the word to be ; alluding to surgeons setting broken
bones, in which you have heard him say,—" There
is need of the eagle's eye, the lion's heart, and the
lady's hand ;" that is, prudence, courage, and ten-
derness ; and his practice was according to this spi-
ritual operation. Others of you have found him a
comforter in your sorrows, and a helper of your joys.
Perhaps you have come to him labouring under
doubts and fears ; cast down, and disquieted ; walk-
ing in darkness, and having no light ; and have found
his tongue so much the tongue of the learned, speak-
i " I am the more large and pressing upon this bead, because 1
have been sometimes greatly delighted (I hope edified) in hear-
ing the old disciples of Jesus Christ tell ot their ministers that
were dead before I was bom, to hear them tell of their texts, and
sermons, and sayings, the good counsels they gave them, the in-
structions and comforts they ministered unto them, and what they
got while they sat under their shadow ; (for commonly, the first
impressions of the word in young converts, are the most lasting ;)
and of what use it hath been to them many a time since, one such
spiritual receipt, with a prdbatmm e$i annexed to it by one that
speaks fVom experience, may do more good tlian twenty in a book.
Thus you may be instrumental to comfort others, and to edify
them with the same thing by which you yourselves have been
ing a word in season to weary souls, that you have
gone from him comforted and refreshed, and your
countenance hath been no more sad. Well ; he, being
dead, let him, for this, be spoken of ; and your for-
mer comforts, thus brought to remembrance^ may be
present cordials and support to you.'
(4.) Speak of the providences of God that were
concerning him. If it be our duty to look not at oor
own things only, but at the things of others also,
then, of theirs especially, who are set over hs in the
Lord, He often spoke of the comfortable events of
Providence concerning him, with a thankful sense
of the goodness of God to him in them, that others
might join with him in his thanksgiving. You
would do well to remember them now he is gone,
that your praises may be continued, and even pass
unmixed with your sorrows. Let it be still spoken
of; for, it hath been many a time that his habitation
was blessed. The adversary might suggest, with
the same envious grudging as he did of holy Job ;—
Hast thou not made an hedge about him, and about
his house, and about all that he hath round about ?
Thou hast blessed the works of his hands, and his
substance is increased in the land. It was often ob-
served, that all that he had, and all that he put his
hand to, remarkably prospered, and that the dew lay
all night upon his branch. Let this, now he is dead,
be spoken of as the fulfilling of that scripture, Mat-
thew vi. 33. — Seeh ye first the kingdom of God, and
the righteousness thereof, and then all these things
shall be added untoyoUj — as far as is for God's glory,
and your own real good. Godliness hath the promise
of the life that now is, and many times tlie perform-
ance of it, — if not in kind, yet in kindness. It was
a maxim, which, among many that 1 remember, (and
I fear many more that I have forgot,) as the result
of his comparing his own experience with the word
of God, that, — " When we are doing God's work,
we may let him alone to do ours ; and, while we
mind our duty, we may comfortably trust God with
our safety and success." I confess, as to this, God
dealt better with him than with many others of hLs
faithful ministers. By this consideration alone no
certain rules can be taken by which to judge of the
divine favours;*^ but when, at any time, God is
pleased to crown remarkable piety ' with remarkable
prosperity in the world, we are not to pass by such
comforted and edified under his ministry. And you will never
have the less oil for rainistering to others; nay, to him that hath,
and thus useth what he hath, and what he hath had, more shall
be given ;— be that trades with five talents, makes them ten."
Mrs. Savage's Transcript of the Sermon. Orig. MS.
k The hypocrite builds his hope upon such a thing as outward
prosperity. I prosper in this world, therefore I shall be happy in
the other world ; as if a beggar should say,— Because such an one
gave me a farthing, he will make me his heir. See Eccl. ix. 1- P.
Henry, from Bfatthew Henry's MS.
1 For my own part, 1 can truly say, whenever I have set mj-self
to form an idea of the primitive apostolic spirit, (torn what ha^
appeared of it in the good men of our own age, none ever more
OF THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A.
167
a dispensation of providence unregarded. Whoto
it wise, and ohserveth these things, may, from thence,
yokderstandthe loving -kindness of the Lord; and infer,
—Behold, thus shall the man be blessed thatfeareth
tki Lord, Surely, in him, that scripture was re-
markably fulfilled, Psalm xxxvii. 11.— TAe meek
ikall inherit the earth. His prosperity was likewise
an instance of that truth ;— That, doing good with
an estate, is the only way to have the comfort of it ;
and there is that scattereth in bounty and usefulness,
and yet increaseth. That good bond which we have
ooder the hand and seal of the God of truth, still
remains in full force, power, and virtue, and is not
subject to any defeazance ;— That he who giveth to
the poor, lendeth to the Lord, and that which is given
he will pag him again with interest and rich advan-
tage."* This scripture you have seen fulfilled in him,
as in many others, who have dispersed and given to
the poor. What good he did with that which the
Lord had given him, notwithstanding his great hu-
mility in it, and care that his left hand should not
know what his right hand did, you all know some-
thing of. I appeal to the poor concerning it, whose
loins have blessed him, and whose hearts have bless-
ed God for him. In this, according to the rule he
was wont to give to others, he made his own hands
his executors. And, when you speak of the provi-
dence of God concerning him, do not forget that
measnre of health and strength, that God graciously
gave him, to go through such a great deal of work,
at home and abroad, on sabbath days and week
days, with so much vigour and constancy, to the
sixty-fifth year of his age ; and, even then, his how
abiding in strength, and renewed in his hands. This
was the LonTs doing, and much beyond what all
expected who knew the weakness of his body, and
the liveliness of his spirit, at his first setting out.
Nor will you forget the last scene of providence con-
cerning him, (you all think now you will never for-
g^et it,) — his removal from you. Among other things,
let him be spoken of as one whom his Lord, when he
eame, found so doing ; who took a very short step
from the pulpit to the throne ; and was ravished out
of your embraces, or ever you were aware. Speak
of this to one another, not merely as a matter of talk,
but as the Lord's controversy with you, which yon
are concerned to hear, and lay to heart. I doubt
not, but you are all sensible now of the loss yon
sustain, as Israel was when Aaron was dead. Let
readily occarred to my thoughts, than Mr. Philip Henry and
Mr. William Bagshawe. Mr. Tongs Prefatory Letter to the
Life and Character of Mr. William Bagshawe, by J. Ashe, l2mo.
1704.
B I rerily believe we all fare the better, even in this world, for
my dear &ther*« charity to the poor. It appears by some of his
pspCTs of accounts, that, out'ofhis small income, he gave, in money,
fifteen pounds in one year, besides all that were relieved at his
^oot',-~he ^awimd Uberaiihimgt. Mrs. Savage. Diary, 1732, Sept. 18.
Orig.lIS.
> By the Rcr. James Owen.
not the sense wear off, but continue, — that the re-
maining impressions of this providence, and your
frequent tender expressions, may appear to be deep
and sincere ; and that it may be said of you, as the
Jews said of Christ,— J^eAo/c^, how he loved him!
You know how free he was of his pains among you ;
and his ministry was not chargeable to any, but all
the pay he desired for his labours was, your spiritual
profit by them. In gratitude for which you are the
more obliged to remember, and continue the pay-
ment, now he is gone ; keeping in remembrance the
truths he taught you, and the copies he set you, that,
as was said in the morning," that, — *^ while religion
lives among you, the name of that blessed man, that
is now in glory, may flourish with you."® And,
when I say, you must speak of your minister, who
is dead, your doing it to his honour is the least that
I intended. No ; let him be spoken of, —
1. To the glory of God, whose instrument he was.
I bespeak not a grain of that incense to be burned
to his honour, which ought to be offered at God's
altar. God forbid I should ; for what is Paul,
and what is Apollos? — (earthen vessels, while they
live, and broken pitchers when they are dead ;) — but
what God is pleased to make them unto us. Do as
Paul did) 1 Thessalonians i. 2. 3. that thanked his
God upon every remembrance of his friends. Let
not your praise terminate in your minister, but pass
through him to the Lord Christ, in whose right hand
he was so long a bright and shining star.
2. With application to yourselves, and for your
own spiritual benefit and edification. For in all
our discourse, we must study that by which we may
edify one another. So speak of your minister as to
increase one another's good affections, and confirm
each other's resolutions for Christ and holiness ; and
thus you may find meat in the eater, and sweetness
in the strong ; the life of gospel grace by the death
of gospel ministers.
I have but one hint more under this head, and it
is this particular remark ; — Since he came into the
country, now almost forty-three years ago, you know
that two places have had the benefit of his labours.
The former enjoyed it about eight or nine years ;
and what a burning and shining light he was in
that parish, we, that are young, have heard with our
ears, and those of you, that are elder, do know, and
remember. And yet, though he was so eminent an
instrument of good there, within a few years after
o *' Thus 1 have suggested to you some things which you should
be frequently speaking of him, and, I am conscious to myself,
that, could he have foreseen 1 should have spoken thus much in
his praise, such was his great humility and self-denial, that he
would rather have prohibited it than have taken any pleasure in
it, but I thought myself obliged to it ; and, 1 remember, that,
when our Lord Jesus said to those that he cured,— 5m thou IM no
nan, and they went and Md ntry body, they were not reproved
for it } because as Christ, in his humility, gave them that order, so
it was in their yood will that they went coiuiter to it." Mrs. Sa-
vage's Transcript of the Sermon. Orig. MS.
158
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
his remoyal from thence, he was, in a manner, for-
gotten. Those few that were his joy and crown were
remoyed by death, and, as he himself observed, a
new generation soon sprung up which knew not
Joseph, You have had the happiness of his ministry
above three times as long ; but, if it be so soon for-
gotten here, and the fruits so soon withered, I doubt
not you will have a sad account to give another day.
But I have a great deal of reason to hope better
things of you, my brethren, and you will never for-
get what you went into the wilderness to see.
II. He, being dead, yet speaketh ; that is, as some
understand it, he yet liveth, and they think there is
no more than that in it ; that Abel, not only by faith,
obtained witness that he was righteous, but by it,
also, being dead, obtained eternal life, Cain killed
his body, but he yet speaketh the praise of the Lord
in heaven, with the blessed angels, those glorious
morning stars, which sang together. We are told,
Revelations vi. 9, 10. what was not only said, but
cried, with a loud voice, by the saints under the
altar, the souls which are slain ; by which it is wit-
nessed, that they live. Your deceased minister,
being dead, yet liveth. If it be asked of your fathers,
where are they ? Blessed be God, we know where
they are,— not lost, but gone before to glory. They
are where the great Shepherd of the sheep is. They
are no longer in our assemblies ; they are where
they longed to be, and where we, through grace,
hope to be with them shortly. For, he that was our
father's God, is not the God of the dead, but the living ;
and they live to him, and with him. But I shall
take it more particularly. There are some that he,
being dead, speaketh against. There are others,
nay, all, that he, being dead, yet speaketh to. Surely,
you will hearken ; if not to Moses and the prophets,
yet, when one speaketh to you from the dead.
1. Is it not a surprise to you, to hear that there are
some that he, being dead, yet speaketh against ? I
will tell you, in short ; — all those which sat under
his ministry in their impenitcncy and unbelief; all
who attended on his plain and powerful preaching,
from time to time, with unconverted, unsanctified
hearts ; all the hypocrites of this congregation, who
9 '* We must not be hypocrites, nor do any thing we do in
hypocrisy. Even disciples must beware of this. It is the cry of
the world against us, that we are such, but let us approve ourselves
to Godt that we may not, and then no matter. We must not have
a/orm of godiineu without the power. Nor a noma to live without
being alive indeed. We must not do what we do to be seen of men.
We roust not draw near to God with our mouths, when our hearts are
far from hinu We must not make dean the outside, and be earekss what
is vitAin. We must not look one way, and row another,* as Jehu
did. Suspect this evil $ search for it ; watch and pray against it
Contrary to all this is sincerity and truth. They differ like shadow
and lubstance,— like the picture of a man, and a man." P. Henry.
Origf. MS.
q Consider, he would say, the worth of the soul. Matt xvi. 86.—
• " AU ChrlatUnt lookf to heaven ; iodevd, ve« ar** all for the earth ; this
takrth np otir thou|rhtt and aifectioiu, that w«e are like boat-men, thaklooke ann
wajr, tut row another." Bajna'e ChritCiaa Lettcn, p. 879. nl utfrm.
keep np secret haunts of sin under the cloak of a
visible profession, and deny the power of godliness
while they pride themselves in the form of it ;p that
have a name to live while they are dead in trespasses
and sins; (and we have reason to fear there aie
such with you, even with you; it would be the
happiest society on this side heaven if there were
not;) these are they, he, being dead, yet speaketh
against. Fair warning he gave, from the word of
God, to every careless soul, and followed it with
precept upon precept, line upon Utu. How often
hath he called upon you to leave your sins, and turn
to God, and close with Christ ; and how did he order
his cause before you, and choose out words to reason
with you !i He hath set before you life and death ;
good and evil; the blessing and the curse. And many
a time hath he told you, if you did not return and
repent, after such warning, he had delivered his soul,
and your blood would be upon your own head. And,
perhaps, your hearts have, with Felix, trembled
under such reasonings as these. Whether you think
it, or not, your minister is gone to give up his
account, not only of himself, — that, no doubt, he
hath done with joy, — but of you too. It is said,
Luke xiv. 21 .-^that servant, who had been sent to
invite to the marriage, came and showed his Lord
how he had sped in his invitation. Your minister
was wont to ask you, sometimes, when he was
sincerely putting to you the grand case of your
eternal salvation, and earnestly pressing you to
consent to the gospel offer,— what answer he should
return to him that sent him? What answer you
gave him you best know ; but he is now gone to give
up his accounts, and to make his presentments at
the great tribunal, before which we must all appear
.shortly. Nay, let me tell you, further, he will not
only be a witness against you, but he will be an
assistant with Christ in the judgment, to assent and
subscribe to the sentence, which, at that day, will
be passed upon you ; for thus the saints will judge
the world, 1 Corinthians vi. 2. especially ministers,
Luke xxii. 30. Though, while he was with you, he
loved you well, and earnestly desired your welfare,
yet, if you perish in impenitcncy, the day is coming
its original, Gen. ii. 7.— its operations, its duration, immortal-,—
its nature, spiritual. Consider how God the Father bath loved it,
in giving Christ for it ! How Jesus Christ loved it, in coming to
die ! How Satan knows the worth of it, else he would never seek,
as he doth, to destroy it ; alluding to Gen. xiv. 31. Consider the
wants of the soul, blind, naked;— its dangers, likely to be lost;
its capacity, capable of heaven. Beware, then, of those things
that hurt and wound the soul, Proverbs viii. 36. Ply those things
that will make for its good, Prov. xi. 27. means of grace, oppor.
tunities. Be acquainted with it ; discourse much with thy soul ;
• Soul, whither art thou and I going!'— Seek to advance it ; put it
to a good service. Seek to adorn it ; get on the best robe, right-
eousness, grace, Prov. xix. 8. Seek to enrich it ; other riches are
not soul-riches, Luke xii. Seek to save it, Phil. ii. 12, 13. Provide
for it ; wife, children, the body, can say, • Here is for me ;' but the
poor soul hath nothing. It is the first thing thought of in conver.
sion, Acts xvi. 30. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
OF THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A.
\59
when he will be content to see you perish, and will
join with glorified saints in applauding the sentence.
HMelujah ; just and righteous are thy judgments I
Revelations xix. 12. The dresser of tiie yineyard,
that prayed so hard for another year's reprieve, and
promised to take so much pains with the barren fig-
tree, resolves, if he succeeds not, to say not another
word in its favour. If it bear fruit, well ; Luke
xiii. 9. but, if not, then, after that, thou shalt cut it
dincH ; so shall its doom be, the dresser himself hath
decided it. When the day of patience is over, the
rrath of the Lamb will break forth, without remedy,
against his enemies, who would not have him to
reign over them. I speak this, if it may be, at last,
to alarm and awaken some sleeping souls, and to
revive what you have heard from him, that it may
not be brought in evidence against you at the great
day ; and, if the death of your minister may but
awaken some impressions upon you, so as to prevail
with you to leave your sins, it vrill be, to such, a
happy providence ; and may Samson's story be again
verified, that he slew more of the enemies of the
Lord at his death than in his life.
2. There are those, and, indeed, all of us, that,
being dead, he yet speaheth to. Your minister is,
indeed, fallen, but the word of the Lord endurethfor
ever : even that word, which, by the gospel, is preached
unto yon, 1 Peter i. 25. Nay, not only notwithstand-
ing his death, but by his death, he speaketh; he
hath but exchanged this pulpit for another; the
grave is now his pulpit ; and methinks, I still hear
him speak to us that are of his family and relations,
—to you, that are of his congregation.— ^«tn^ dead,
ie yet speaheth. These are words of truth. Let us
rightly divide them among ourselves, and each of us
take a portion.
He, being dead, yet speaks to us that are his
relations, and are, of all others, most nearly con-
cerned in the stroke. Something he saith to us to
comfort us under our present sorrow ; — Weep not for
me! Our loss is his great and everlasting gain. I
shall especially observe what he saith to us by way
of direction and exhortation. We are all here, by
the providence of God, before the Lord this day, —
all his children, and their yoke-fellows, — ten of us.
We have observed, that, since we have been severally
disposed of in the world into families of our own,
we were never altogether here till yesterday; and
a sad meeting it was; but, by this sadness, the
heart will be made better, if we can but hear what
oar dear father, being dead, yet speaheth to us.
And, therefore, because the word of the day sounds
r When I liear repeated prayers on my poor daughter's account,
[Dear her confinement,] 1 cannot but think of what my dear father
once wrote to Hie when I was in her circumstances ;— We are
ilaily miodfiil of you, to that sometimes we are ready to fear our
heavenly Father abould be displeased, as if we doubted his
ludience and acceptance,— as »f should, if so frequently minded
of the ■»««<> bQiineaB;''lrat, we well know, his ways and thoughts
best in its day, and, perhaps, we may be never all
together again, (for death seldom strikes single in
a family,) give me leave to preach a little to myself,
and my dear relations, in your hearing, that if, at
any time, we, or any of us, walk unworthy of the
relation we stand in to such a father, this place may
be a witness against us, that it was not for want of
knowing our duty. While he was yet with us, he
was often speaking for us at the throne of g^ace,'
mahing mention of us, and others, always in his
prayers. And this is now not the least part of our
grief, — that we shall have such an intercessor to
pray for us no more. Yea, Lord, help us to pray
so much the more, and so much the better, for our-
selves ! But, in reference to this part of our loss, I
am comforted, not only with this thought, — that our
Lord Jesus Christ ever liveth to make intercession for
us, and he is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever,
— ^but with this thought also, that the prayers of our
dear father, who is gone, are upon the file, in hea-
ven,* and, through the mediation of the g^eat Re-
deemer, will receive an answer of peace. When
the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, were ended,
yet he and his views were remembered, and his seed
had the benefit of them. Psalm cxxxii. 1, 2. 7^
vision, in answer to prayer, is for an appointed time,
and at the end it shall speah, and not lie. Though
we cannot say, now he is gone to heaven, he there
prays for us. — No ; Abraham is ignorant of us, and
Israel acknowledgeth us not, yet we have reason
to think, the many prayers of faith he put up for us
while he was in the world of prayer, may be heard
for us now he is gone, and we and ours may fare
the better for them long after ; and shall do so, if we
do not, by our unworthy walking, forfeit our interest
in them. And. shall the children of so many prayers
miscarry ? While he was yet with us, he did also speak
to us, both by word and writing, as a faithful monitor,
comforter, and instructor; but, we shall, in that way,
hear from him no more. However, there are three
things which he, being dead, yet speaketh to us:
(1.) He speaks to us to be followers of him in the
way of holiness, because we must follow him to the
grave, and that we may follow him to heaven. It is
of great use to us, both for our direction ' and en-
couragement in our Christian course, to set before
us the good example of the saints ; for, blessed be
God, as there is an old way, which wicked men
have trodden. Job xxii. 15. so there is an old way,
which godly men have trodden, Jeremiah vi. 16.
But the nearer these examples are to us, the greater
influence they should have upon us. If a vain con-
are as far above ours as the heaven is high al>ove the earth.
Mrs. Savage. Diary, Orig. MS.
» *• Children of many prayers, which are all upon tAe JfU i«
Ataven." Mr. Case's Fnneral Sermon for Mrs. Scott, p. tw. duod.
1650. And see Oliver Heywood's Closet Prayer, p. 29 duod.
1671.
Dr. Owen, noticing Genesis iii. 15. says;—'* This promise hung
100
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
versation can, by this, recommend itself to some, as
being received by tradition, 1 Peter i. 18. — compare
Jeremiah xliv. 17.— Should not a holy and heavenly
conversation, transmitted to us, be, with resolution,
held fast by us ? Let the life of such a father, espe-
cially, seeing the end of his conversation, recommend
religion, in the power of it, to us, and engage us in
the steady practice of it. We, who had the happi-
ness of free and frequent converse with him, could
not but see a great deal that was excellent and
exemplary, and which our own consciences sub-
scribed to the goodness of. Let us, then, set our-
selves, in the strength of divine grace, to transcribe
it in our hearts and lives. Sure, never any one that
professed religion did more recommend it to others,
as lovely and amiable, than he did. We saw in
him, not only the power of holiness, but the beauty
of it. I have thought it the unhappiness of some
that, otherwise, I had reason to think were good in
the main, that, by the moroseness or melancholy of
their temper and converse, have greatly hindered
the success of the good instruction they have given
to their children ; and have, thereby, rendered reli-
gion a dull, melancholy thing, and thus has religion
been wounded in the house of her friends. But it
was the felicity of our education, that we had a
father, whose spirit and converse recommended a
life of serious godliness to us, as the most sweet and
easy, the most cheerful and charming, life that
could be ; which demonstrated to us that wisdom's
ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths
paths of peace. Let us not, then, be slothful, but the
willing, constant followers of him, who is now,
through faith and patience, inheHting the promises.
Let us tread in the steps of his humility^ and meek-
ness ; his love and charity ; his zeal and fervency in
the best things ; his self-denial and contempt of the
world ; his usefulness and beneficence to all ; that
those who see us may say, — Surely, these are the
children of such a father." Let us be mild and
gentle in all our carriage ; moderate in the use of
all our enjoyments. Let us love the Scripture;
continue instant in prayer; and maintain an even,
quiet composcdness of spirit under the varieties of
providence ; for, in all these things, we know very
longest on the file before its accomplishment." Exposition or the
Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. v. p. 53. oct. ed.
t " A roan truly humble is apprehensive of God's greatness, and
his own vilenesB, when he appears before him, Gen. xviii 27 ;
Ezra ix. 6. He highly prizeth God's favour ;— mercy is sweet
unto him. He is easily brought to acknowledgment and remorse
for sin. An humble heart is tender and melting, as Josiah, 2
Chron. xxxiv. 27. He will worship God according to his own pre-
scription, and dares not worship him after his own lancy, Col ii.
18, 33. He is much given to prayer, Ps. ix. 12; x. 17. He is
often singing God's praises, 2. Sam. vii. 18. 1 Chron. xxix. 14. He
desires God's glory, though with his own shame and disgrace, 2
Sam. vi. 22. John iii. 29, 30. It is not a nick-name, or a bye-
word, that will make him leave off his profession. He will ever
rejoice in the good of others. It is nothing but pride which
makes men envious, Ps. xxxiv. 2. cxix. 74. He will do all things
well, he set us an excellent copy. Let us, then, be
followers of him so far as he was of Christ. It was
the matter, both of his rejoicing and thanksgiving,
that he saw his children walking in the truth ; and
it was his prayer, that they might continue so to do,
and that none of his might be found at the left
hand of Christ at the great day. Let us, then, as
ever we hope to meet him with joy in the other world,
follow him with diligence now.' Having begun in
the spirit, let us not end in the flesh ; having laid our
hand to the plough, let us not look back, lest our latter
end be worse than our beginning.
(2.) Being dead, he speaks to us, to be loving and
helpful one to another. His common and undis-
tinguished love to us all, was such that it could
never be said which of us he loved best ; and, it
speaks to us, now he is gone, to love one another with a
pure heart fervently. We know very well that our
unity was the joy of his heart, while living; and
many a time he hath, with us, blessed God for it.
Let it, therefore, be the credit and honour of hb
family now he is gone. I find it is, I may call it,
his dying prayer forus, his children, not only that
we may be built up in holiness and comfort, but that
we may be continued in brotherly love, and be a
bundle of arrows, which cannot be broken. Now we
have lost him, who was wont to pray for us, and be
a common helper to us, let us pray so much the
more, one for another, and be so much the more
helpful one to another, especially in the things
that pertain to the kingdom of heaven ; and let all
our bands of unity be strengthened and confirmed ;
and let it be our constant endeavour, each of us in
our place, to be mutually serviceable to each other's
comfort and welfare, and jointly serviceable to the
glory of God, and to the comfort of our dear sur-
viving parent ; that the Lord of peace himself may
command his blessing upon us, and our families,
even life for evermore,
(3.) Being dead, he speaks to us, — ^to make death
and the grave, heaven and glory, familiar to us ;
and, in other things, to converse much with them.
This place used to be our father's house, but now the
place that knew him knows him no more. The grave,
the place appointed for all the living, is our father's
without murmuring and reasoning, Phil. ii. 2, 3.** Rev. Arthur
Hildersam. Orig. MS. Penei me.
The reader will have no difBculty in applying the preceding
sketch to Mr. Henry.
« 1731, Feb. 23. Read 1 Thess. ii. I could not but apply some
passages to my dear and honoured father, verse 9, &c. 1 remem-
ber his labour and travel. I can witness how holily, justly, and
unblamably, he behaved himself among us, charging us to imO;
worthy of God, 8fc. When he was forced from us to prison, as all
the nonconformist ministers in that country were, at Monmouth's
rebellion, his parting exhortation was that of the apostle ;— IPWit
oul yovr own udvation. Mrs. Savage. Diary, Orig. MS. See ante, p. flB.
V If hope be right, it doth not work by pride, but by humility ;
not by idleness, but diligence ; not by loose and careless, but by
close and circumspect, walking. P. Henry. From Matthew
Henry's MS.
\
OF THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A.
161
koQse. Let as, therefore, visit that house often in
oar meditations : take a walk, now and then, into
tke vaUey of the shadow of death. We could never
say of this house, when at any time we left it, we
were sure of condng to it again, but we may be cer-
tain that, sooner or later, we must go to the grave.
Let us, therefore, be always ready. The nearer
death approaches us, the louder are its calls to us
to prepare for our change. It would help to apply
OKr hearts unto wisdomy thus, to number our days ;
for if there were more of death in our thoughts, there
would be more of life and liveliness in all our ac-
tions.* He who is removed from us, was one that
was very industrious to familiarize death to himself;
he frequently thought, spoke, and wrote of it, not,
as many who are thus all their lives subject to bond-
age, with a certain fearful, but with a certain
cheerful, looking for that change. Let us, in like
manner, converse with it ; it will come never the
sooner, but it will be much the more easy, and wel-
come, and less formidable to us, when it doth come.
Every one im his own order y that is, in the order ap-
pointed by him in whose hand our souls are." We
must shortly be gathered to our fathers, and have
no reason to count upon an exemption from it.
Since, as Elijah pleaded, when he so passionately
desired to die, we are not better than our fathers, 1
Kings xix. 4. We see a generation rising up to
stand in our room, as we do in the room of those that
are gone before us. But it is only the body, that
poor, despised, broken vessel, that is laid in the
grave, the immortal soul is translated to the hea-
venly regions ; with heaven, therefore, we should
converse familiarly, and dwell more in our thoughts
among those mansions of light, where not only our
heavenly Father is, but, which should be some induce-
ment to us; he also that was the father of our flesh.
Many a time we have, with much delight and sa-
tisfaction, visited here at this house, and now we
can visit him here no more. If we have but bold-
ness to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus,
we may visit him there, converse with that glory
which he is in possession of. Let our conversation,
therefore, be in heaven, not only where Christ is,
bnt where so many of our dear relations are,
with whom we have taken sweet counsel. Now
there is one loadstone more in heaven to draw our
hearts thitherwards. Methinks, he being dead,
yet spealu to us in those words that came from
V "Die coDsideration of sbortneoe of lire, may be matter of con-
solilioD and comfort unto such as believe. What knowest thou,
hot tiMt there is but a step between thee and hearen ! Thou art
here this yere ; thou mayest be in heaven before the next. Thou
irt here this month, thou mayest be with Christ before the next.
Yea, tboa art here to-day ; thou mayest be in blisse before to.
Borrow. Oh, this happy estate ! How would men admire the
hsppioesse of such a begger as were in possibility every houre to
be advanced to a kingdome ! The Monument^ or Totnbe.stone ;
s Sennon at the FoneraU of Mn. Eliabeth Juxon, by Stephen
DemsoD, daod. 1690. pp. 3S, 23.
heaven to John, Revelations . iv. 1. Come up hither,
—up hither in your thoughts and meditations ; up
with your hearts,^ and live by faith in those serene,
quiet regions above ; and, blessed, blessed be God,
in our father's house are many mansions ; the place
is not too strait for us ; we need not scatter there as
we do on earth ; there is room enough for him who
is gone, and all his family, him and his seed, and
his seed's seed. God grant that a promise being
left us of entering into his rest, none of us may
seem to come short To conclude this head ; — being
dead, methinks, he yet speaks to us in the language
of Solomon, Proverbs xxvii. 10 Thine own friend^
and thy father s friend, forsahe not. The God with
whom we have to do, is our Friend, and was our
father's Friend, Psalm xxii. 4. The God in whom
our father trusted. He found him faithful, and,
from his own experience, recommended him to us
as a good Master,— tAe God that fed him all his life
long. Let us, therefore, avouch the Lord this day to
be our God, and to walh in his laws, and to heep his
statutes, and never be prevailed with to leave him,
or to turn from following him. If God loves the
children for the father's sake, as he is said to do,
Romans xi. 28. sure the children should love God,
and serve him, for the father's sake. Our father's
relation to God, we may plead with him in prayer,
as 2 Chronicles xxvi. 6. and, therefore, plead it with
ourselves, as a strong inducement to duty and obe-
dience. If we are born in God's house, and are the
seed of his servants, truly we should be his servants;
if he be our father's God, we must exalt him. He,
being dead, thus speaketh to his children, Thine own
God, and thyfather*s God, forsahe not and forget not,
^ 2. He, being dead, yet speahs to you of this congre-
gation. Long, and often, he hath been speaking to
you in the name of the Lord; and an account must
be shortly given for all that he hath spoken to you,
or rather God by him. Above thirty years he hath
been among you. Part of which time was, indeed,
a cloudy and dark day, when such a man as he was
hid; and yet, some of you know that even then his
labours were little the less. When he durst not do
what he would, he did what he could. But, blessed
be God, the evening of his day was more clear and
bright. Hishavingbeen thirty years with you, brings
to my mind a few lines which he penned on the death
of a worthy minister, who had been the same number
of years with his people, (Mr. Nevet, Oswestry.) ■
X So,— all the events and occurrences of every day of our life
are ordered by God,— are at his dispose, Ps. xxxi. 15. This is a
great truth. It was an expression 'oft used by my dear father s
—We know in whose hands our times are. This should quiet
us as to afflicting providences. Mrs. Savage. Diary. Orig.
MS.
7 In the ancient church, when the people began to bring their
offering unto the altar, the priest was to say— Atm rat xapatat,-
Lift up your hearts. BCede's Works, p. 383. ut $upra.
I See antt, p. 144.
1G2
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
The owner thought it much three years to come
To a barren tree^ which hastened its sad doom.
What then may they expect, who ten times three
Had such a dresser, if they barren be?
A faithful, self-denying shepherd, who
Sought not the fleece, but flock ; not yours, but you.
Thus, while he lived, he spoke to you ; but, being
dead, he yet speaketh : for, though he hath finished
his testimony on earth, yet his testimony is not
finished, but remains speaking still. When Elijah
was translated, it should seem he left a writing
behind him for a remaining testimony , so some under-
stand it, 2 Chronicles xxi. 12. Five things there
be which, being dead, he yet speaks to you. I shall
mention them briefly, and so conclude.
1. He, being dead, yet speaks to you, — to repent
of your sins. Especially, the sin of your unfruit-
fulness under the means of grace. It was sin that
was the procuring cause of this calamity ; it is that
which now corrects you and reproves you ; that is
it which hath quenched your coal, and put out your
light. If conscience be any wise awakened under
this sad providence, you cannot but say, — We are
verily guilty. Your unprofitableness and unfruit-
fulness, your barrenness, your barrenness; your
leanness, your leanness, — though you have been fed
in the fat pastures of the ordinances,— was the sin
that provoked God to remove your minister from you.
Turn your tears, therefore, into the right channel,
and weep not for him, but for yourselves, and for
your sins. Now is a time to reflect on your manage-
ment and improvement of the means of grace you
have had, and to be by that humbled before the Lord
for your carelessness and neglect. Now you oug^t
to remember against yourselves your vanity and hy-
pocrisy, and how often you have come before the
Lord as his people came, and sat before him as his
people, and heard his words, but your hearts in the
meantime have gone after your covetousness. He
hath been to you as a lovely song of one that hath a
pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument,
and, therefore, you have heard his words : but, have
you done them? See Ezekiel xxxiii. 31, 32. and
compare the next words, 33. When this cometh to
pass, such a providence as you are now under, then
shall you know that a prophet hath been among you :
so easy is it to us to see the worth of mercies when
we feel the want of them. Let this conviction
take hold on your consciences now, and endea-
vour, henceforth, by the grace of God, to be more
fruitful.
2. Being dead, he yet speaks to you,— to adorn
your holy profession by a suitable conversation. I
have been told he preached his farewell sermon at
Worthenbury, upon that text, Philippians i. 27. —
• There is no real deliverance from death, but to be carried
well through it Dear fother's frequent prayer was,— That God
Only let your conversation be as beeometh the gospel of
Christ, Will you take that scripture as his fare-
well to you, which, being dead, he yet speaketh ? I
doubt not but you have all a respect for his name and
memory, and could not contentedly hear him re-
proached and evil spoken of. Then do not you re-
proach him by doing any thing that may give
occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme
the name of Christ, and his doctrine. If any of you
leave your first love, and return, with the dog, to his
vomit ; if you do any ill thing at any time against i
the sacred laws of justice and sobriety, will it not
be said, *'This was one of Mr. Henry's disciples?''
—And thus the just reproaches you bring upon your-
selves, will unjustly fall upon him. Let the regard
you have for his name be a bridle of restraint upon
you. Many eyes are upon you, that watch for your
halting ; therefore, see that ye walk circumspectly,
3. Being dead, he yet speaks to you,*-to hold
fast the profession of your faith without wavering.
Remember what you have received and heard, and
hold fast. Let it never be said concerning yon of
this congregation, that your faith and religion were
pinned upon your minister's sleeve, and that when
he died, that died with him. God forbid ; for we
are built upon Christ, the chief comer stone. Minis-
ters are the builders of the church, but not the
foundation of it. Let me, therefore, exhort you all,
in the words of Barnabas, that with purpose of heart,
you would cleave to the Lord, Acts xi. 23. The shep-
herd is smitten, but it is only the itn<ier-shepherd of
the sheep ; the Great Shepherd is still the same, and
will be with you while you are with him : to him, there-
fore, you must resolutely adhere, with a firm and un-
shaken constancy. I believe that God, who hath the
residue of the Spirit, hath also such mercy in store for
the congregation, that he will not leave it altogether
destitute. When God hath work to do, he will
never want instruments to accomplish his designs.
Be not you wanting to yourselves, and the power
and grace of God will not be wanting to you. Nor
will the promise of the faithful witness fail, — Lo, I
am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
4. Being dead, he y^ speaks to you, — to prepare
for death,* for sudden death. This is spoken plain
enough if we do but consider the circumstances of
his removal. For a man to be well and dead in
fifteen or sixteen hours, may we not easily infer
from hence, how much we are concerned to be
always ready, that when our Master comes, we may
cheerfully, upon the first intimation, go forth to meet
him. We may, any of us, die as suddenly as he
did, but are we prepared a& he was? To him who
was dying daily, it was but a short cut over a
stormy sea; but if we continue unready, such a
sudden death will to us have another aspect. It
would go with us down to death, and up to gloiy. Mrs. Savage.
Diary. Orig. MS.
OF THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A.
163
will be like the arrest of a traitor ; a hurry out of
the world, like the surprise of that wretched world-
ling,— Tkoufool^ this night shall thy soul be required
(fthee. Let it, therefore, be our daily care, as we
observed it was his frequent prayer, to be ready for
that which will come certainly, and may come sud-
denly."*
Lastly. He being dead, yet speaks, — comfort and
encoaragement to those of you who belong to Christ,
and are faithful to him. Is there any honey in the
carcass of a lion ? Any sweetness to be extracted
oat of so sad a providence ? Yes, there is. If Christ's
leaving his disciples was (though then sorrow filled
their hearts) matter of rejoicing to them, John xiy.
28. why may not the removal of a faithful minister
furnish us vnth some comfortable thoughts ? He is
gone before, as it were, to show you the way. His
inheriting the promises is an engagement to those
who (diough they stay behind yet) have made those
promises their heritage for ever. You that were his
joy in this world, shall be his crown in the other.
You know in his monthly lecture in this place, he
was preaching over the four last things, viz. death,
judgment, hell, and heaven : the three first of which
he had spoken very largely and excellently to ; and,
in the coarse of his ministry, he was next to have
preached concerning heaven ;^ and, it is likely, if
God had continued him a while longer among you,
you might have heard many good words and com-
fortable words from him on that subject. But, as if
the great God should say,—'' Come, my dear ser-
\ See the Fading of the Flesh, &e. by the Rev. George S win-
nock, pp. 34, 36. 4(o. 1632.
e See a like record in the Life and Death of the Rev. R. Bolton,
p30.«/tiyra.
vant, you arc not enough acquainted with that glory,
you know but in part, and prophesy but in part ;
come up and see what it is ; and leave your congre-
gation to conclude what it is by the removal of one
thither that was such a jewel in this lower world.''
— ^We may make some faint guesses at heaven's
glory, when we consider that it is both the perfec-
tion and recompence of the holiness of the saints.
That is certainly a blessed and glorious place, that
is the receptacle of all those who were the blessings
and glories of this earth. Being deady he yet speaheth
to you ; that he is gone before, and is arrived, at
last, into a safe and quiet harbour, and you shall
not be long at sea. Though now we have parted
with him in a melancholy shower of tears, yet,
blessed be God, we sorrow not as those who have no
hope : for we have good hope through grace, of meet-
ing him again, and being for ever with him, and with
all the saints, — and, which is best of all, with the
Lord. Those who live up to these hopes in close
walking, may live upon these hopes in comfortable
walking. They who now sow in tears shall shortly
reap in joy ; and those who, by patient continuance
in well-doing J seek for glory , honour, and immortality ,
shall shortly return, as other the ransomed of the
Lord, to the heavenly Sion, with songs of praise and
triumph ; and everlasting joy shall fill their hearts
and crown their heads: tliey shall obtain joy and
gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. With
which words let all who mourn in Zion comfort
themselves, and one another.**
a From an authentic MS. in the poaseasion of the Rev. T. Sted.
man. On comparing it with lirs. Savage's MS. copy it appears to
have had the benefit of the author's emendations ; and it should
seem, fh)m their nature, for the press.
M 2
A SERMON,
PREACHED AT BROAD OAK,
JUNE 4, 1707,
ON OCCASION OF THE DEATH OF
MRS. KATHARINE HENRY,
RELICT OF MR. PHILIP HENRY,
WHO FELL ASLEEP IN THE LORD, MAY 25, 1707, IN THE 79TH YEAR OF HER AOE.
BY HER SON,
THE REV. MATTHEW HENRY, V. D. M.
7
PHOVERBS xxxi. 28.
Her children shall arise up, and call her blessed.
This is part of the just debt owing to the virtuous
woman, that answers the characters laid down in the
foregoing verses ; and part of the reward promised
and secured to her by him, who, in both worlds, is,
and will be, the Rewarder of them that diligently seeh
and serve him.
It is, indeed, enough to make them truly and eter-
nally happy, that virtuous people are blessed of God ;
that the Lord Jesus is raised up in his gospel to bless
them, will arise up at the great day to call them
blessed,~^ome ye blessed of my Father; of him- they
are sure to be blessed. He that sows righteousness, has
that sure reward ; and those whom he blesseth they are
blessed indeed ; his pronouncing them happy makes
them so. This is enough to engage us all to, and
encourage us all in, the study and practice of virtue
and piety, that the praise of it, whether it be o/* men
or no, is of God. If men should be unrighteous,
yet God will not, to forget the work and labour of
love ; though men should put slights, God will put
honours, upon those that fear his name.
Yet, ex abundanti, over and above, this is thrown
in as the reward of virtue, that among men also
ordinarily it hath its praise ; all that are wise and
good, to be sure are of God's mind, and will say an
he saith, and praise those whom he praiseth ; and
even in the consciences of others too, it is many
times powerfully made manifest. If there be any
virtue, saith the apostle, if there be any praise; which
intimates that virtue is a praise, not only phiLiT. &
praiseworthy, and the real praise of
those who wear that crown, but is attended with the
praises of others who praise it, and praise God for it
What is heaven, but lioliness in honour, — grace
crowned with glory? shining in the perfection of
lustre to the blessed inhabitants of the upper world;
and such praise as a dark and weak capacity is able
to give in this distant and imperfect state is made
likewise to attend virtue, and is one of the present
recompences of obedience in obedience. In keeping
of them there is this great reward.
It follows here, verse 30. — A woman that fearetk
the Lord, she shall be praised; which is, (1.) A pro-
mise to those who are virtuous, that they shall have
not only the comfort of it in their own bosoms, living
and dying, but the credit of it also among their rela-
tions, friends, and neighbours, of whom they shall
be had in honour, both present and absent. (2.) It
is a precept to those that are about them, that they
give them the praise of it That of Solomon the
Jews read as a precept. Proverbs x. 7. Let ike
memory of the just be blessed ; and, therefore, when
they make mention of any eminent saint, they add.
Sit memoria ejus benedieta. Let his memory be bless-
ed. We call the burying of our dead friends, the
last office of our hve to them, but it is ^t so, there is
B, further office of love owing to them, a debt to their
memories, which we must always be paying, and
must not, while we live, think ourselves discharged
from.
A SERMON, &c.
106
ProTcrbe zxii. 1.
Though we most not make the praise of men our
chief end» far be it from us to do so. If we seek
honour from men, we implicitly slight that which
comes from God, as not suflficient to reward our
services, and balance our losses ; yet in order and
rabordination to the glory of God, we must have an
Uatthew ▼ 16. ^^^ ^ ^^^ reputation with men. Let
your light so thine before meUy in a good
conversation, which is both pleasing and guiding as
the light, that they may not only hear your good
words, but see your good worhs, and glorify your
Father which is in heaven, from whom proceeds every
James L 17. P^c«» and every good and perfect gift,
and who, therefore, is the Father ofM
those lights. Not that they may see your good
works, and gloHfy you; you must expect to be
abased and vilified, and not seek your own glory ;
but see your good worhs, and glorify your Father, and
that from him all your glory may result and be
reflected.
We are to value things as they are rated in God's
Eccl viL 1 books, and there we are told that a
good name is better, not only than
precious ointment, but than great riches,
not only than all the pleasures, but than all the
profits, of ft is world. A good name' is a name for
good things with God and good people ; and this is
therefore to be valued, desired, and pursued, because
it is an honour to religion ; gives occasion for the
thanksgivings of many to God ; it is an advantage
to us in serving God and our generation ; and when
we are gone will be an encouragement to those that
shall come after us, to keep close to the ways of
€rod and godliness. And, therefore, whatsoever
things are honest and lovely, amiable and of good re-
part, let us think of those things, and abound in them.
The praise which particularly attends the virtuous
woman, is here described to come, among others,
from her own children ; her children shall arise up
and call her blessed. This virtuous woman, then, is
not a recluse, one shut up and cut off from the busi-
ness of this life, and the affairs of a family, under
pretence of devotion, and separation to God. The
church of Rome makes such only their religious, as
they call them, and celebrates their sanctity, who
abandon the relations they have, and abj ure those they
might have, as if none but they entered into reli-
gion and professed it. But the scripture canon gives
other measures by which to judge of religion, and
other rules by which to steer in it, than their canons
do. / will, saith the apostle, that they marry, bring
up children, guide the house, and give
' no occasion to the enemy to speak re-
• Be careful to walk ao that you may get and keep a good name,
bat not by anlavrfol meana, Qeii. xi. 4. Many discommend them*
•clTei to draw on others* commendation. Provide honest things.
Bom. ait n. 9 Cor. viii. 91. Phil. iv. 8. Avoid all appearance of
eril, EocL x. L I Tbeas. ▼. 22. Sin stains a good name,— Jik^i not
Paalmx. 14.
proachfully, as they do, who, under pretence of over-
coming the world, overrun it. And they that in
these things faithfully serve God and their genera^
tion, not only give no occasion to the enemy to
speak reproachfully of them, but give occasion to all
to speak honourably of them ; and, among the rest,
their children shall atnse up and call them blessed,
1. It is here implied, that it is a great comfort to
those who are good themselves, to see their children
rising up, risen up. Many good people are taken
away, and see their children but just come into the
world, putting forth like flowers, when they that
should have nursed them up are removed from them,
leave them in the cradle, or leave them, as we say,
to the wide world; this occasions them some sad
thoughts upon their death-beds, and if other diffi-
culties be got over, yet this makes them loth to
die ; but in that case, it is a comfort that the father-
less, motherless children, may be, must be, left with
one that will preserve them, and who has many a
time remarkably owned and blessed the orphans,
and proved himself the best of guar-
dians ; he is the Helper of the fatherless
that commit themselves to him.
But if God prolong the days of his people in the
land he has given them, so that they live to see their
children grown up, and applying themselves to the
service of God in their generation, likely to honour
God in their day, as the parents did in theirs ; it is
very comfortable, and makes it easier to them, when
they are called, to bid farewell to this world, and
very comfortable to think that their children will be
praising God on earth, when they are praising him
in heaven. You that are parents, who see your
children risen up, and bidding fair for usefulness
on this earth, and happiness in a better place, bless
God for it ; look upon it as one of the comforts of
the lengthening out of your life, that as you your-
selves, through grace, grow riper for heaven, so you
live to see your children, by the influence of the
same grace, setting their faces thitherward. This
may encourage you to say,^iVoic; let thy servant
depart in peace.
When godly parents are removed by death, and the
place they adorned and filled up must know them no
more, it is a very happy thing, and bodes well to the
land, to the age, to the next age, if their children rise
up in their room, a generation of humble, holy, serious
Christians, followers of them who, through faith and
patience, inherit the promises. It is very threaten-
ing, and an ill omen to the public, when (as Moses
saith to the two tribes and a half. Numbers xxxii.
14.) a generation of sinful men riseth up, in the room
licaviot. ir you honour Gk)d, he will honour you, 1 Sam ii. 30.
Walk humbly.— This is a grace very much adorning, Prov. xviii.
12. Phil. ii. 8, 9. Be tender of the good name of others, Matt. vl|.
1,2. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
•106
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
of their sinful parents, to fill up the measure of
their iniquity, and augment yet the fierce anger of
the Lord. But, on the contrary, it is comfortable
to those who are concerned for the honour of Christ,
and the prosperity of his church, to see a generation
of godly people rising up in the room of their godly
predecessors, to bear up the name of Christ in his
truths, ordinances, and laws, and to be to him for a
name, and a praise, and a glory, a seed to serve Aim,
and the interests of his kingdom among men, which
shall be accounted to him for a generation ; when it
may be said, as it is of the church. Psalm xW. 16.
Instead of the fathers shall he the children. It is for
the honour of God's promises concerning the seed of
the upright, and of his covenant with them ; it is for
the credit of good education, and an answer to many
prayers, when the children of religious families are
religious, when the entail is preserved, and piety
becomes an heir -loom to a house ; but if it should be
interrupted or cut off in particular families, we may,
with comfort, assure ourselves that the sacred line
shall be as long as the utmost line of time. Children
shall rise up to bless the Lord, if not our children ;
though there be a degeneracy in some families, we
hope there shall be an improvement in others to
balance it. So that in every age the Son of David
shall not want those that will be his witnesses,
though not always alike numerous, or alike conspi-
cuous, yet one generation shall certainly praise his
works to another; children shall be created, rather
than fail, to praise the Lord ; children raised up out
of stones to Abraham, even out of the stones of Je-
rusalem, to cry Hosanna, The promise is sure, it is
inviolable, it is what we may depend upon, that the
name of Christ shall endure for ever, whether in our
families or no we cannot tell, but somewhere it shall,
and his throne as the days of heaven ; so that as long
as the world stands, there shall be a people in it, in
one place or other, that shall fear God, and work
righteousness, and be accepted of him. Let God
alone, to secure his own interest, do his own work,
and fulfil his own counsels. When the mystical
body is completed then cometh the end.
Her children shall rise up. We will suppose the
virtuous woman described here to harve finished her
course, and then her children rise up, i. e. stir up
themselves, with so much the more vigour and zeal,
to pursue the same course, and do so much the more
and better service to God and their generation.
Note, The dying of old Christians should be the
quickening of young ones. When our godly parents
are removed, and an end put to their usefulness, it
is time for us to rise up, to put forth ourselves with
so much the more liveliness and resolution in serv-
ing Christ and striving against sin, that we may do
something towards making up the breach, and re-
b Dear father would tell us ;— It is not enough to be where pray
Joihuail
Job xvii. &
cr la, (that is easy,} but we must fray— put a shoulder to every > Orig. BIS.
pairing the loss. When good people are removed,
it is time for those that are left behind to stir up
themselves, and contrive what they shall do more
for God, that those that are gone may be the less
missed; to apply themselves with a double dili-
gence to all the services of religion, that though
there be fewer hands, there may not be less work
done. Moses my servant is dead, saith
God. Now therefore, Joshua, arise.
Such and such good Christians are dead, that pray-
ed much, and did much good, now, therefore, let us
arise, that are left behind, and take so much the
more care and pains in religion ; that though there
be fewer praying, teaching, giving people, yet there
may be no less praying,** no less teaching and ex-
horting one another, and no less good done. Holy
Job, speaking of his own afflictions, and approach-
ing death, saith, upright men shall be
astonished at this, astonished to see such
a useful man as Job removed in the midst of his
usefulness; and many such astonishing breaches
have been made upon us ; astonished to see those
soon removed, that could be ill spared. Sometimes
the sun goes down at noon, and no marvel if at that
we stand astonished, and know not what to make of
such dispensations; the flowers are plucked up,
while the weeds are left to grow. But shall we then
succumb and sit still in astonishment ? Shall we lie
down and despair of keeping up the work of God !
By no means. The innocent shall stir up himself
against the hypocrite, and resolve to make his part
good with him ; shall neither desert the cause, nor
despair of success, but exert himself so much the
more for the gloiy of God, that religion's righteous
cause may not sink for want of hands to bear it up.
2. The children of the virtuous woman that rise
up, shall call her blessed. It is her honour that she
shall be praised by them, by them that were best ac-
quainted with her, and most indebted to her. It is
their duty to praise her in return for all the care she
has taken of them, the pains she has taken with
them, and the pleasure she has taken in them; give
her of the fruit of her hands, so the honours paid her
by her children arc, and let her own works, those she
bore, those she nursed, those she taught, praise her
in the gates.
That this place has lately parted with a virtuous
woman, I believe you will all own ; one that was
here a pious, prudent, generous, charitable house-
keeper about threescore years ; bom here, and that
here spent almost all her days, and here ended them
in a good old age, with a great deal of holy security
and serenity of mind. One of whom it might be
said as it was of Ruth, All the children
of my people do know that she was a
virtuous woman. You have been told of it from this
petition to help to heave it heavenward. Mr& Savage. Diary.
Ruth iii. II.
OF MRS. KATHARINE HENRY.
167
3 John n.
place already,*^ and have been stirred up (God grant
the excitement may not be in vain) to follow her and
others, who are gone before us to the better country,
Hebrews vi. 12.
But we must also bear record, and we
may do it with the more assurance,
because you know that our record is true ; nor can
we be suspected of partiality herein, but might rather
be charged with injustice and ingratitude should
we neglect to pay this debt You then will witness
for us in this matter, that now the virtuous woman
is gone to receive the reward of her virtue in a better
state ; her children, those of them that are left be-
hind, rise up and call her blessed; while those of
them that are gone before, are sharers with her in
her blessedness. It is a comfort to us, and we reckon
it a great instance of the distinguishing mercy and
favour of our God, that we are the children of those
whom we have reason to call blessed. The greatest
honour that some children can do to their parents,
is only, like Shem and Japhet, to conceal their shame,
and cast a mantle over their follies : but, blessed
be God, we need not that. Nay, we may go further
than the daughters of Zelophehad did in the account
they gave of their father, of whom they could say
that he had not been any of the plagues of his gene-
ration. Numbers xxvii. 3. We can say more than
that of our parents, that they were not only blessings
to their family, but blessings to the country, bless-
ings to the age in which they lived ; and for this their
children shall rise up and call them blessed.
Doctrine. That the children of virtuous and
godly parents ought to rise up, when they are gone,
and call them blessed.
Here I shall endeavour to show,
1. What is the character of those parents to whom
this honour is due from their children.
2. What is the duty of the children, that they may,
in a right manner, discharge this debt to the memory
of their good parents.
For the first. What must the parents be, that
their children, when they are gone, may call them
blessed 1 If the parents be atheistical and profane,
drunkards and unclean, swearers and sabbath-
breakers, and scoffers at religion, or if they be mere
carnal worldlings, if covetous and contentious, de-
ceitful and oppressive, the children have no reason
to call them blessed. If the way of the parents be
their folly, let not their posterity approve their sayings,
nor lihe a vain conversat'on ever the
better for its being received by tradition
from their fathers. They who train up their children
in ungodliness and immorality, in prejudices against
religion, and enmity to the serious professors of it,
and so help to rain them, the day may come, when
their children will rise up in judgment against them.
Palm xlix. 13.
«In the funeral sennon, by Dr. Benion. See ante, postscript, and Appendix, No. I.
and call them cursed. But such black instances
make ours shine the brighter.
Her children ! Whose ? Why, the children of the
virtuous woman here described. Her husband, he
praiseth her, for his heart safely trusts in her, and
that gives her no small conmiendation ; yet that is
not all, he takes all occasions to speak well of her.
The children do the same, and both concur in the
matter of praise. Now let us briefly inquire after
some of the characters of those whose children must
rise up and call them blessed; and this inquiry I
intend, not only for a just encomium of her that is
gone, and indeed of both our parents, but for instruc-
tion of myself, and others of you that are parents.
Let us learn so to qualify ourselves, by the grace
of God, and so to carry ourselves, that our children
may rise up and call us blessed. As children should
be afraid of losing their parents' good wishes, so
parents should be afraid of doing any thing justly
to lose their children's good word and good will.
Now for the drawing of the character of those
whose children shall call them blessed, I shall look
but little further than the two verses before the text,
and the two verses after it ; and there we shall find
that such as are wise, and such as are kind, such as
are industrious, and such as are charitable, such as
are virtuous, and such as are truly pious and religi-
ous, their children shall rise up and call them blessed.
Such, by the grace of God, our parents were. May
the same grace make us such.
1. Those that are truly wise deserve praise. And
this is part of the character of the virtuous woman
here, that she opens her mouth with wisdom, verse 26 ;
she is not doomed, nor hath she doomed herself, to
perpetual silence; but what she doth say, wisdom
has the dictating of it, and it turns to her praise.
Wisdom not only mahes the face to shine for the
present, but leaves a good report to succeeding
generations, like the after-beams of the sun when
he is set, surrounded with which he lies down in
honour.
If we be wise, we shall not only be wise for our-
selves, but wise also for our children, and for their
good, especially if we open our mouth with wisdom,
and so instil into their minds what they will after-
wards have use for ; if we know when to speak, and
what, and how ; if we speak calmly and consider-
ately ; if our heart study to answer ; if our lips bring
forth wisdom out of a good treasure of it in the
heart ; if we put away all that foolish talking which
corrupts good manners, and debauchetb the minds,
especially of young people, and keep our mouth as
with a bridle at all times, particularly when our chil-
dren are before us, they will have reason to call us
blessed for setting them an example of the good go-
vernment of the tongue. Children learn to speak
168
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
from their parents and nurses: let them from us
learn to speak well, and not to mix the lan^age of
Ashdod with the Jews' language. We haye the
bending of the bough when it is yet young and ten-
der, let us be wise in managing it, that we may set
it right. We know how long a word ^ from a parent
to a child, that is just coming to years of under-
standing, will be remembered. I know it by expe-
rience. What the vessel is then seasoned with, it
will retain the savour of. Let us then open our
mouths with wisdom, that our lips, if they do not
feed many, yet at least may feed our own children,
with wisdom and understanding.
Some of you will say, that you have now lost, I
am sure I have lost, a very discreet and prudent
counsellor, that not only ordered her own affairs
with wisdom, but knew very well how to advise
others, and was many a time eyes to the blind ; one
that was very well versed in Solomon's Proverbs,
and the rules of wisdom which may be fetched from
thence for the conduct of human life, and knew how
to apply them, and to use hnowledge aright. Let us
in like manner stock ourselves with the principles
of wisdom, govern ourselves by the rules of wisdom,
submit ourselves to the laws of wisdom, and be ready,
on all occasions, to speak pertinently and to the
purpose ; that, opening our mouths with wisdom, our
children may suck it in when they are young, and
show it forth when they are old, and then they will
have reason to rise up and call us blessed,
2. Those that are truly kind deserve this honour.
I say truly kind, for many are very fond, as David
of Adonijah ; but are therein really unkind. Those
are tmly kind that are wisely so ; that are tender
of their children's comfort, but not indulgent of
their children's follies. That also is the character
of the virtuous woman'here, that in her tongue is the
law of kindness, not the humour of kindness, or the
pang of it, but the law of it, such kindness as receives
law from wisdom, and g^ves law to the whole con-
versation. Those parents that have this law in their
tongues, in their hearts, and are always under the
commands and regulations of it, gain their children's
love, and are entitled to their good word; those
parents who make conscience of that command,
which we have more than once among the laws of
Christ, — Parents, provoke not your children to wrath,
by haughtiness and moroseness, and keeping them
at an unreasonable distance, by constant chiding,
and severe correction, lest they be discouraged; — but
who are gentle towards them, as becomes parents
towards those that are parts of themselves, and that
derive their follies from them ; who reprove with the
meekness of wisdom, restrain with reason and a due
d See an instance in Mrs. Savage's Memoirs, p. 167. uinpra ;—
1696. Monday, Noy. 24. 1 went to Broad Oak.
Tuesday. One expression of Mr. Steel's 1 had from dear
mother, which I daily find the truth ot Speaking of the back^
consideration of all circumstances, counsel and ad-
monish with compassion and affection, and rule with
a steady, gentle hand ; such parents as these the chil-
dren will rise up and call blessed.
And for this I am sure we have reason to call our
parents blessed ; never were any more under the
government of the law of kindness, kindness par-
ticularly to their children, than they were. To be
kindly affectioned is of good report with all men,
recommends religion as that which softens and
sweetens men's tempers, fits them for all relations,
and makes them the joy of all the societies they are
members of; by this, among other things, they ob-
tained a good report.
Would we then be called blessed, let us study the
art of obliging, and not only be pitiful, but be court-
eous ; pitiful to the miserable ; courteous to all ; let
us be governed at all times by that wisdom from
above, which is gentle and easy to be j^^g, yj j^
entreated ; let our passions be always
under the check and conduct of religion and right
reason; let all bitterness, and frowardness, and
peevishness be put away from us, and every thing
that is sour and supercilious; let us not be like
Nabal, whose character it was, that he was sncb
a son of Belial, that a man could not speak to him,
— they that are so, trouble their own houses. But
let us study how to put a due respect upon all, and
particularly to convince our children that we love
them, and seek their good ; let the law of love rule
in our hearts, and the law of kindness in our tongues,
and let us study to make ourselves and all about us
easy, always easy : be pleasing ; be pleased ; then
shall our children rise up and call us blessed,
3. Those that are industrious and careful deserve
this honour. This is the character of the virtuous
woman here, verse 27.— That she looketh well to the
ways of her household. And most of the characters
g^ven of her in the verses before fall under this
head, where she is commended for her diligence and
consideration, in the management of her house and
the affairs of it, which is her particular calling, and
that in which she is to abide with God. It is not
made her praise that she spends her time in reading
and contemplation ; no, nor that she spends all her
time in devotion neither, though she has her stated
time for that. But that she looks well to the ways of
her household, appointing them their portion of meat
and work too, in due season ; has her eye upon all
under her charge, to see that they both do and have
what is fit. It is required from wives, that they
guide the house, and they have need
of wisdom to do it well. That is > Timothy ▼14.
their place, their post. Man goes forth to his work
wardnessofour hearts to duty:~When we have time, we want
nearts i when we think we have hearts to seek and serve Qod«
then we want time |— 7%e heart i$ tUeeii/iU above tM thimf$ ,- Wk»
kMw it r Mrs. Savage's Diary, Orig. BIS.
OF MRS. KATHARINE HENRY.
109
Proverbs xir. L
tnd to his labour, but the woman stays at home to
liers. Where i* Sarah thy wife ? Behold, in the tent ;
where shoald she be else ? The Tirtuous woman is
a good housekeeper; one that in magaging the
affairs of the house, prudently avoids both the ex-
tremes of undue sparing and undue spending ; that
doth not on one hand over-work her household, and
yet, on the other hand, suffers them not to mispend
their time and neglect their business ; that orders
every thing to its proper time and place, and yet is
not over nice or troublesomely curious : that is
neither anxiously careful with that fear which has
torment and amazement, nor yet careless and
thoughtless of the morrow. This is the wise woman
that huildeth her house j while the fool-
ish, by neglecting it, doth, in effect, pull
it down withher hands , and let it go to wreck and ruin.
This is she that knows and observes a due proportion
between laying up for her children, and laying out
upon them, so as that neither unduly exclude or
intrench upon the other, but both according to their
place. Such a mother in Israel hath this place now
lost, that provided well for her household, with a
great deal of ease and order, and looked well to all
the ways of it, and answered all the characters of
the virtuous woman here described ; and if her
children that reap so much benefit by her good
example, and the good education she gave them, do
not call her blessed, let every body call them un-
grateful, and you can call them no worse.
And let all parents thus merit their children's
respects, by consulting the prosperity of their family,
and providing for them food convenient, both for
the present and for hereafter, so as that there may
be an equality, so far as human prudence, in de-
pendence upon God's providence, can order. If all
be laid out, and none laid by, they must afterwards
come down,* and that will be a temptation one way ;
if all be laid by, and none be laid out, they will
afterwards rise, and that will be a temptation an-
other way. It is neither the wisdom nor the kind-
ness of parents to their children, to make it all their
care and business, either to hoard for them,— we have
seen riches kept for the owners thereofto their hurt,
— or, on the other hand, to set them off with advan-
tage to the world, by their making a show, — that
likewise has been of fatal consequence to many, —
but to give them an education according to their
rank, to do all they can to fit them for business, for
fte service of God, and their generation according
to the will of God ; to give them good instructions,
and good examples of humility, industry, benefi-
cence, and honesty, to put up good prayers for them,
and vrith them. And this is that care of children
for which we must rise up and call our parents
blessed.
• If a man keep but of even hand, his ordinary expenses ought
<o be bot to the half of bis receipts ; and If be tbink to wax rich.
Ps. caii. 2, 3, 9.
4. Those that are charitable, and do good in their
places, are worthy of this praise ; and this is here
made part of the character of the virtuous woman^
verse 20. — She stretcheth forth her hand to the poor;
yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. Her
prudence and diligence find out the poor and needy,
the proper objects of her charity, and she leaves not
the distribution of her alms with others, as if she
thought it below her, but with her own hand relieves
and succours the necessitous. Her charity is exten-
sive to those at a distance, intimated in the stretch-
ing forth of her hand to them ; it also intimates, that
she doth it cheerfully and heartily, with a willing
mind, and not grudgingly ; drawing out her soul
first to the hungry, and then reaching
out her hand to them.
Those who do this, set their children a good ex-
ample, going before them in good works ; they like-
wise leave them, if not a great, yet a good, inherit-
ance, which will be sweet and sure to them ; and,
though they may leave them so much the less of this
world's goods, yet they will leave them so much the
more of the blessing of God, which maketh rich, and
addeth no sorrow. He that disperseth and giveth to
the poor, has not only a righteousness which endureth
for ever, but wealth and riches, also, shall he in his
house, with which his posterity shall be
blessed. What is so laid out is bread
cast upon the waters, which will he found again after
many days; it is good seed sown in good soil, which
will come up again with a great increase ; it is put
out to the best interest, and upon the best security,
for it is lent to the Lord, and shall certainly be re-
payed more than a thousand-fold. This is another
thing for which we have reason to rise up, and call
our parents blessed ; for they were rich in good worhSf
as you very well know, yet without noise or ostenta-
tion. The loins of the poor blessed them, and, there-
fore, we should, in concurrence with the blessing of
him that was ready to perish.
And let us, in like manner, recommend ourselves
to those we shall leave behind, as Dorcas, who was
celebrated for the abns-deeds which she
did, not which she put others upon
doing, or which she purposed hereafter, or which
she would do by her will ; no ; but which she did
herself out of her own estate,— making her own
hands her executors. To do good, and to communicate^
let us never forget ; for, with such sacrifices, both
God and man are well pleased,
5. Those that are virtuous, their children shall
rise up and call them blessed, especially those that
excel in virtue, as it follows here, verse 28. — Many
daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them
all. Those we call virtuous, that are sober and tem-
perate, just and righteous in their conversation, con-
but to the third part. Lord Bacon's Essaya Essay xxviii.
Acts ix. 38.
170
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
Philip, iv. 8.
scicntious in all they say and do, in all they design
and endeavour, fair and honest in all their dealings,
that have no blot cleairing to their hands, or to their
hearts ; that have been exemplary for that integrity
and uprightness which doth become Christians, and
will preserve them, and study in every thing to con-
form to the laws of natural religion, which are not
repealed, but confirmed and improved by our Chris-
tianity. Devotion towards God, without justice and
sobriety, meekness and compassion towards men,
comes far short of that universal righteousness which
is requisite to our acceptance with God. Hands
lifted up will not reach heaven, unless they be
pure hands, and lified up without wrath and conten-
tion.
Virtue may be taken more strictly for vigour and
boldness, and resolution in that which is good;
courage and spirit in doing our duty, in facing diffi-
culties, giving reproofs, bearing reproaches, improv-
ing opportunities, and pressing forwards towards
perfection. The virtuous are those who are lively
and cheerful in religion, that sing in its waySf and
are fervent in spirit ^ serving the Lord; and, in this
sense, she was a virtuous woman whom we have
now lost.
Now, where there is virtue, there is
praise ; there is that which ought to be
praised, that for which the children must rise up and
call the parents blessed, especially those who ex-
celled in virtue, as ours did. Those who have only
made a profession of religion, who have rested in
the shows and formalities of devotion, while their
lives and conversations have been disagreeable, little
reason will either their children or their friends have
to call them blessed ; for the name of God, and his
doctrine, is evil spoken of through them ; but those
who beautify their profession by that which is lovely
and of good report, who thereby bring honour to their
families, and set them a good example, their chil-
dren, who shall be blessed for their sakes, must rise
up and call them blessed.
6. Those that are pious and religious towards
God are entitled to this honour ; verse 30 ; — A
woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
Moral virtue is a blessed thing, but it will not make
us blessed without serious godliness. As righteous-
ness towards men is an essential branch of true re-
ligion, so religion towards God is an essential branch
of universal righteousness. It is the fear of God that
crowns the character of this virtuous woman, without
which, all the rest was of small account. Those that
hereby honour God, he will honour, and will have us
to honour.
Those that keep up a holy awe and reverence of
f It ia recorded of Mrs. Hanmer, that the very much preferred
the spiritual welfare of her children before their temporal ; look-
ing 00 the former as the true felicity, and on the latter, without it,
but Asapleaaaut voluntary misery The last Work of a Believer,
God upon their minds, that set him always before
them, and have their eyes ever towards him, that
have a regard to his authority over them, and, with
an eye to that, submit themselves both to his pre-
cepts and to his providence ; that make conscience
of their duty to him, and are afraid of offending
him ; that devote themselves to his praise, and make
it the business of their lives to glorify him, as the
greatest and best of beings, and evidence it in all
the instances of a steady, uniform, and andissem-
bled devotion.
Those that make conscience of prayer in secret,
and in their families ; make a business of it, and take
a pleasure in it ; that delight in the holy word of God,
and make it their meditation day and night ; that
converse much with it, and converse with others out
of it ; that call the sabbath of the Lord, holy and
honourable, and honour God on that day ; that call
his courts amiable, and desire to dwell in his house,
where they may be still praising him, and thus do
the work of heaven while they are here on earth ;
that live a life of communion with God, conformity
to him, and complacency in him ; that have such a
holy dread of God and his wrath, as drives them to
Christ and his mediation, without which there is no
standing before the just and holy God. Those that in
their whole conversation, exemplify the fear of God
dwelling and ruling in their hearts. Those that,
not only by such a good example as this, but by
their prudent and pious instructions, teach their chil-
dren also the fear of the Lord, train them
up in the ways of pure religion, under
the conduct of the principles of catholic Christianity ;
not biassed to a party, nor soured with animosity
and uncharitable prejudices ; and in subjection to
that kingdom of God, which is not meat and drink,
but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost, They that do thus, as they are accepted of
God, so they shall be approved of men, and their
children, in a particular manner, have reason to rise
up and call them blessed. And such you know the
parents were whom we are (his day calling so.
And let this engage all that are parents to do like-
wise. Live in the fear of God, be in that fear every
day, and all the day long. Bring up your children
in that fear; look upon true devotion to be true
wisdom ;' and do all you can to preserve the entail
of it in your families, that your children may be
praising God for you on earth, when you are gone to
heaven, and you and they may be for ever calling
one another blessed.
For the second ^What is the duty of children,
that they may discharge this debt, which they owe
to the memory of their good parents ? How must we
, . *>
prepared for the Funerals of Mary, the Widow, first of Francis
Charlton, Esq., and after of Thomas Hanmer, Esq. By Richard
Baxter, p. 148. duod. 1G62.
Psalm xxxiv. IL
OF MRS. KATHARINE HENRY.
171
Heb.xl.4.
peifonn this service to those who have recommended
themaeWes by those characters ? I shall open this
in six things.
1. We ought always to maintain a grateful re-
membrance, and take all occasions to make an
honourable mention, of our godly parents. We can-
not keep them from the grave, but we may keep them
from the land of forgetfulneu ; let their memories
live with us when they are dead ; live while we live,
and be transmitted to those we leave behind ; let
them be always dear and precious to us, and being
dead let them be like Abel, yet spoken
of. Some think Laban's teraphim were
the eflBgies of his ancestors, which, therefore, he
would by no means part with. Let the remembrance
of them be preserved in our minds, and then we have
the best pictures of them, and such as we cannot be
robbed of. This is part of the duty required by the
fifth commandment, (which is the first command-
ment with promise^) — Honour thy father and thy
mother ; honour their memories when they are gone.
This we ought to do in gratitude for all their
kindness to us, both as parents, and as godly parents,
—their kindness to our bodies and our souls.
(1.) As parents, they took care of our natural life,
and preserved that lamp from being extinguished
when it was first lighted, and a little thing would
have blown it out. — Why did we not die from the
womb / why did we not give up the ghost when we came
out of the belly ? It was because the hnees prevented
usy and the breasts, that we should such. That ten-
der, that earnest, care, which the God of nature put
into the hearts of our parents concerning us, when
we were in the helpless state of innocency ; the
pains they took with us, when we were unable to do
any thing for ourselves, and perhaps froward with
those that did any thing about us, is what we can
never make a sufficient return for, either to them
while they live, or to their memory when they are gone.
The great favours God bestowed upon
his people Israel, are represented by the
compassionate relief g^ven to an infant, which inti-
mates that that is a kindness never to be forgotten.
(2.) As godly parents, and upon this account
mnch more, we ought to do honour to their names,
and their memory should be doubly precious to us ;
lememberiDg, that, in the sense St. Paul writes it
to Philemon, we owe unto them even our
own souls also, under God. What
shonld we have been that were bom like the wild
ats*s eolty that brought into the world with us so
much sin, and folly, and corruption, if we had not
had good parents, who took early care, to the utmost
of their power, to form us to tibat which is good ?
What should we have been if we had not been cate-
chised and instmcted in the principles of religion,
— 'Which we sucked in with our milk, — if we had not
tSee Flivfll** F^mntain of Life. Woiki, voL i. p 2S7. •/ wpra.
EzekielzvL
been restrained from sin, and the springing up of
the root of bitterness checked betimes ? And, if we
had not been directed and quickened in the way of
our duty, and told plainly, — This is the way, walk in
it ? Notwithstanding all the advantages of our edu-
cation, it is bad enough with us, and we have reason
to complain of our ignorance and mistakes, our de-
fects in our duty, and our proneness to sin. But
how much worse would it have been with us, if we
had never had those advantages ! Perhaps we
should never have learned to pray, if our good
parents had not taught us when we were young, and
trained us up to it; should never have been ac-
quainted with the word of God, if they had not made
us acquainted with it, and taken care, thai, from our
childhood, we should know the Holy Scriptures, as
Timothy did, who, being so conversant with the
Scriptures when he was a child, when he became a
man, a man of God, was by that means thoroughly
furnished for every good word and work ; and if we,
by the same means, be not so, in some measure, it
is our own fault. They did their part.
Blessed were they of the Lord that took pity on
us in our folly, and taught us the good knowledge
of the Lord, of the Lord Jesus, and led us into an
acquaintance with Jesus Christ, and him crucified ;
showed us the difference between good and evil,
that we might abhor that which is evil, and cleave to
that which is good ; reasoned with us many a time
about our souls and another world ; set before us
life and death, the blessing and the curse ; followed
us with precept upon precept, and line upon line ;
dealt with us as reasonable creatures, showing us
what a rational thing religion is, and so drawing us
with the cords of a man ; dealt with us according to
the capacities of our childhood, teaching us the
things of God as we were able to bear them, with
tenderness, and a gentle conduct, and so drawing us
with the bands of love. This is what we ought always
to retain the remembrance of, not only for our own
benefit, but for their honour.
Blessed were they of the Lord, who followed the
good instructions they gave us with constant and ear-
nest prayers to God for us night and day ; having pre-
sented us to Christ in our baptism, pursuant there-
unto they oft presented us to him in their addresses
to the throne of grace, and pleaded our baptism. A
good stock of prayers they laid up for us,* which we
hope are upon the file in heaven, and that we, and
ours after us, shall reap the benefit of them ; for, it
is true of prayer, what we say of winter, that it never
rots in the skies. Such parents as these ought not
to be forgotten, but to be daily remembered, and
spoken of with respect, who daily remembered us,
and whose prayers, like Cornelius's, came up before
God for a memorial.
2. We ought to give God thanks for them ; and
And, Life of the Rev. T. Cawton, p. 45. nt tvpra.
173
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
that is the best way of calling them blessed; bless-
ing God for them, and for the benefit we had by them.
They were themselves, and were to us, what the free
grace of God made them, and no more ; and, there-
fore, that grace must have all the glory. Whatever
is blessed to us we must bless God for, for he it is
that blesseth it, and so maketh it a blessing ; he is
the Author and Fountain of all that which is worthy
to be praised ; and, therefore, in him, as the Centre,
all the lines of praise must meet. All is of him, and
therefore all must be to him. We are not to pray
to God for the dead, but we are to praise God for
them.
Let us, then, who had godly parents, look far back
in our thanksgivings, and bless God,
(1.) For his grace in them, which carried them on
with comfort, and enabled them to finish their course
with joy. Now, we have seen the end of their con-
versation, and with what a holy security and serenity
of mind they put off the body, and removed to the
world of spirits, we have reason to give glory to him
who was the Author and Finisher of their faith; who
led them on in their way, and bore them as upon
eagles' wings, till he had brought them safely and
comfortably to their journey's end, — to that blessed
state, where they receive the end of their faith and
hope, even the salvation of thdr souls.
We have reason to bless God for her that is now
removed, who bid farewell to the world "^ so very
cheerfully, — said she had enough of it, and longed
to be with Christ ; — would not have her sickness
called an aflliction, but a welcome messenger to fetch
her home ; — and said, a little before she died, she
hoped she knew, in some measure, by experience,
what it is for a believer to have eternal life abiding
in him ; having little doubt of her future happiness.^
For this she blessed God, and so should we.
(2.) We must bless God for our benefit by that
grace. Though they could not give us grace^ no
more than they could give us being, yet God was
pleased to make use of them, as instruments in his
hand, in the beginning and carrying on of that good
work. God enabled them to teach us, and pray for
iis ; he made them guides to us, and faithful moni-
tors, and made their words to be to us as goads and
nails. Now, Thanks be to God, who put
3 Ck)r. viil.W. . ^ * • . .i • i r
that earnest care into their hearts lOr
us, even to travail in birth again, till they hoped
they saw Christ formed in us. Has there been in
the hearts of our parents, ministers, or friends, an
earnest care for the welfare, the eternal welfare, of
h Thus beautifully expressed by Mr. Baxter, as a motto for his
own picture.
Farewell, rain world t as thou hast been to me.
Dust and a shadow, such 1 leave to thee.
The unseen life and substance I commit
To him that's substance, light, love to it
Some leaves and fruit are dropped for soil and seed ;
Hcaveo'i heirs to generate -, to heal and feed :
Paatm xlix. 13.
our souls ? Blessed be God, that put it into their
heart, and made it such a blessing to us !
David thanked God for sending Abig^l to meet
him, and, with her vidsdom, to stop him from going
on in a sinful way. Surely, we have much more
reason then to thank God for our parents, who di-
rected us into the good and right way. Blessed be
God, that sent them ; and blessed be their advice ;
and blessed be their memory.
3. We must own the goodness of that way of reli-
gion and serious godliness, which they chose, and
wherein they walked, — even to the end, till they
finished their course. Wc call them blessed, in calling
that blessed which they so highly valued, and valued
themselves by ; in calling religion's ways, ways of
wisdom, and those ways of wisdom, ways of pleasant-
ness. It is a great matter to us, in the government
of ourselves, whom we call blessed ; whom we think
well of, as in the best and most desirable condition;
whose sayings we approve, and with whom we wish
to take our lot. Even Balaam desired
to die with the righteous, and have his
end with them ; but we must think it desirable to live
with the righteous, and have our way with them.
The fundamental error of a carnal world is, that
they call the proud happy, whom God resists, Malachi
iii. 15. and bless the covetous, whom God abhors. Psalm
X. 4. They think worldly people, that have abundance
of the wealth, and mirth, and gaiety of this world, are
the only happy people ; now, it is necessary that this
mistake be rectified, as the Psalmist rectifies it. Psalm
cxliv. 6. where he owns it to be the sentiment of the
most, — Happy are the people that are in such a oue*
— that live at ease, and grow rich,— but pronounceth
it his sentiment, that, rather,-*-/fappy are the people
whose God is the Lord. There are, then, hopes of
young people, that they will do well, when they
call their godly parents blessed, and reckon that,
though they made no great figure in the world,
were not dignified with pompous titles, did not raise
estates, nor obtain a name like the names of the
great ones that are in the earth, yet they were truly
honourable, truly happy.
(1.) We must reckon that they were truly honour-
able ; and value ourselves more upon it, that we are
a seed of saints, than if we were a seed of nobles.
This will quicken us to pursue honour in the same
way in which they obtained a good report. Though
there were those, perhaps, of the fools in Israel, that
might reproach and despise them, and say all man-
ner of evil against them, for Christ's sake, yet we
Them also thou wilt flatter and molest.
But Shalt not keep from everlasting rest.
Poems, new ed. p. 114.
< Good old Mrs. Doughty, sometime of Shrewsbury, who had
long walked with God. and longed to be with him ; and wasamoug
us an excellent example of holiness, blameleuness, contempt of
the world, constancy, patience, humility, and (wliich makes it
strange) bad a great and constant desire to die, tbougfa ilie was sUU
OF MRS. KATHARINE HENRY.
173
must reckon it was their honour, and honour enough,
that they were accepted of God, respected and va-
Ined by all wise and good men, and perhaps made
manifest also in the consciences even of those that
were bad ; and even the reproach of Christ was their
Hebre s L98. P™*®* ^^®^r riches, ^rrM^^r ricAe# /A«n
the treasures in Egypt ; it is an honour to
be dishonoured for Christ, much more to
be loTed and esteemed for his sake. They that live
and die in Christ, live and die in honour. Do we
believe this ? — Let us then but have the same honour
our godly parents had, — a name for that which is
good with those that are good, the honour of doing
good in a low and narrow sphere, — and we covet
not to make a fair shew in the flesh.
(2.) We must reckon that tiiey were truly happy,
—happy in the enjoyment of themselves, and of
what God had giyen them in the world ; happy in
the quiet and repose of their own minds ; and
happy in the prospect of better things in the better
country. — ^We have reason to say, — That the ways
of God and godliness, in which our good parents
walked, were good ways, — ways of pleasantness and
peace, — ^that the yoke of Christ is easy and gentle,
and very sweet They told us many a time, and
abode by it to the last, that they had found the Lord
Jesus a good Master, and his work good, even its
own wages, and a present great reward of obedience
in obedience. Let us set to our seal that this is true,
and account that true holiness is true happiness ;
for, in heaven, where there is the perfection of hap-
piness, there will be the perfection of holiness ; and,
let us account them happier in the love and favour
of God, the comforts of the Spirit, the testimony of
a good conscience, and the earnests of eternal life,
than if they had had all the delights of the sons and
daughters of men, and the peculiar treasure of kings
and provinces. And let us put in for the same hap-
piness, by following them as they followed Christ
4. We ought to be very sensible of our loss, when
such parents are removed from us. If we call them
hleued, we call them blessings, and reckon that we
were greatly blessed in them while they were con-
tinued to us, and therefore, that now they are re-
moved, the hand of the Lord is gone out against
ua, and he is contending with us. It concerns us,
Uierefore, to accommodate ourselves to such a provi-
dence, to hear the rod, and him that appointed it, —
to understand the meaning of it, and answer its in-
tention.
(1.) Wherein we have been in the least defective
in OUT duty to our parents, or other relations, when
they are removed from us, that is a call to us, a
loud call, to renew our repentance for it, and to
pray for pardon in the blood of Christ. This is a
time to bring to remembrance ; it is sin that provokes
eomplaiiiiiig of do«lytiiigi» and weak nes of anannce. Mr. 6axter*8
God to take our dear relations from us, that were
comforts to us ; and, therefore, when we mourn for
death, we must mourn for sin, for the wages of our
sin is their death.
(2.) Wc ought by it to be minded of leaving the
world, too ; for we are not better than our fathers;
they are gone, and we arc going, drawing after them
apace ; — Thou shalt be gathered to thy people^ saith
God to Moses, as Aaron thy brother was gathered.
We must leave the world, as our parents left it.
Let us, therefore, learn of them to die, and let their
removal to the grave help to make it the more fa-
miliar to us, and engage us to converse more with
it, that we may get more ready for it.
(3.) Now we want our parents to pray for us, God
calls us to pray so much the more for ourselves and
for our children. Now we want them to instruct
and advise us, we must meditate more in the word
of God, that best of counsellors, and keep a stricter
guard over our own hearts and ways, that thus we
may the less feel the loss of them.
6. We ought to think much of that happy state to
which our godly parents are removed. We must
call them blessed, not only for what they were, but
for what they are ; think and speak much of the
blessedness of that world into which God has now
sent for them from this world of ours. We have a
great deal of reason to be confident of this very thing,
that now, they are absent from the body, they are at
home with the Lord. Call them blessed, then ; —
blessed indeed ; for, they are not only at rest from
all their labours, but are entered into the joy of their
Lord. In this sense it may be asked, — Your fathers,
where are they ? (Zechariah i. 6.) Your godly pa-
rents, ancestors, and friends, that are fallen asleep in
Christ ; where are they ? And what a comfort is it to
think where they are ; not lost, not perished ; not
cast, as they suspected concerning Elijah, upon soma
mountain, or in some valley. No, though we are
much in the dark concerning the particulars of the
state of separate souls, yet we are sure, in general,
that, to them, to whom to live was Christ, to die will
be gain. Where are they? Why, they are where
they are perfectly and perpetually blessed in the
immediate vision and fruition of God within the veil ;
infinitely more happy where they are, than where
they were. Where are they ? Why, they are in the
mansions of light and bliss, that are in our Father's
house above ; in the New Jerusalem, in the paradise
of God, where they hunger no more, nor thirst any
more, neither doth the sun light on them, nor any heat.
They are in the best company, employed in the best
work, and eiyoying a complete satisfaction. Where
are they ? Why, they are where there are no com-
plaints, nothing to interrupt their conununion with
God, or cast a damp upon their spipts. Death has
Last Work of a Believer, «/ nfra. Addreasto tbe Reader, pp. 4, 5.
174
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH, &c.
done that for them which ordinances coald not do,
— has perfectly freed them from that body of sin and
death which was here their constant burthen ; and
hath set them, for ever, out of the reach of Satan's
fiery darts, which were here their terror. The spi-
rits of the jast are there made perfect ^ beyond the
perfection of Adam in innocency, for they are im-
mutably confirmed in it. Where are they ? Why they
are where they would be ; in their centre, in their
element They are where they have longed to be
in that blessed state, towards which, while they
were here, they were still reaching forth, and press-
ing forwards.^ Let us, then, rise up, and call them
blesied; for, blessed, thrice hleued, are the dead,
which die in the Lord.
And this will be of use to us ; —
(1.) To comfort us in reference to them now they
are gone ; for we sorrow not as those that have no
hope; blessed be God, we do not. Daughters of
Jef*nsalem, weep not for me ;— there is no occasion
for it. While our friends are here with us, in this
vale of tears, it is our duty, when they are in dis-
tress, to weep for them,— for, therein we weep with
them; and it is our duty to weep with them that
weep ; but they need not be wept for upon their own
account, that are not only not weeping, but have
for ever taken their leave of weeping, and have had
all tears wiped away from their eyes. While one
mendfer suffers, it is fit all the members should suffer
with it ; but, if that member be honoured, let all the
members think themselves honoured with it. If ye
loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go to my
Father. While we are here in the dark, and at a
distance, they are made nigh, and see face to face.
While we are struggling with our difltculties, and
groaning under our burthens, without are fightings,
within are f ears, '^ihey are easy and safe, and abund-
antly satisfied.
(2.) To encourage us in our Christian course,
work, and warfare, let the consideration of that
happy state into whfch they are gone before, make
us always to abound in the work of the Lord, because
our labour will not only not be in vain, but will be
abundantly recompensed. In due season we shall
thus reap; and, therefore, let us not be weary in
well-doing. If we sow to the Spirit^ as they did, we
shall reap life everlasting, as they did. Say then.
We will go with you, for we have heard God was
widi you, and we believe you are with him ; and,
therefore, let nothing turn us from following after
you.
6. We ought to tread in the steps of their virtue
and piety, and imitate them in every thing that was
praiseworthy. To commend that which was good
in them, and not to copy it out into our own hearts
and lives, — to Commend the way they walked in,
k The above beautiful passage inay remind the reader or Mr.
P. Henry*t remarksat the funeral of Mr. W. Lawrence, referred
and not to walk in it ourselves, is to give ourselTcs
the lie, and out of our own mouth shall we be judged.
Are not we under the same obligations to be reli-
gious that they were ? Is it not as much our concern
as it was theirs? Are not we as much bound to
serve God, and our generation, in our day, as they
were in theirs ? May not our children expect we
should take the same care of them, that our parents
did of us, — set them as good examples, and pray
as much for them ? Let us resolve, then, to walk
in the same spirit, in the same steps ; and, in the
strength of divine grace, to follow them, who are
now, through faith and patience, inheriting the pro-
mises ; and endeavour not to come behind in any gift,
in any grace, in any duty.
We are concerned thus to follow them, —
(1.) In pursuance of the good education they gave
us. They laid a good foundation by the lessons
they taught us, the counsels they followed us with,
and the good exercises they trained us up in ; let
us, therefore, while we live, be building upon that
foundation, till the top^tone be at length brought
forth with shouting. We have been led into green
pastures by still waters ; let us, then, by our holy
strength, and serviceableness, praise our keeping,
and conmiend our education by living up to it, and
giving the like to our children, and thus call them
blessed, to whom we owe so great an advan-
tage.
(2.) In compliance with the good example they
set us, and in conformity to that, by which the in-
structions they gave us were both explained and
enforced, and we were both directed and encouraged
in the way of our duty. It is the praise of all the
godly kings of Judah, that they walked in the way
of David their father, and ttimed not aside,
(3.) In kindness to the world we now live in, and
the generation in which our lot is cast. There is a
great gap made by the removal of good people, let
us endeavour to fill it up, by doing good in the place
where God has cast our lot, as they did that are gone*
that it may be said, while we survive,— They are
not gone, but they still live in us.
(4.) In expectation of the bliss of that world they
now live in. Their serious piety was found unto
praise, and honour, and glory, in this world, and
will be much more so at the appearing of Jesus
Christ. Let us, therefore, having an eye to the same
joy set before us, run with patience the same race set
before us ; let us proceed with holy vigour and re*
solution, and i>ersevere with an unshaken con-
stancy. We serve the same Master, have a promise
of the same Spirit, and a prospect of the same re-
compence. Let every one of us, therefore, — He-
brews vi. II, —shew the same diligence unto the full
assurance of hope unto the end,
to in the Life of BIr. Samuel Lawrence, in this vol.
THE
APPENDIX
APPENDIX, No. I.
Mrs. Katharine Henry died May 26th, 1707,
apt 79.
The only obituary of this excellent person forms
No. I. of the Appendix to the life of Mrs. Savage,
ul supra.
The following extracts are from Mr. Matthew
Henf^s diary :
17U7, May 25. This morning I received the sad
tidings of my dear mother's death, a little after twelve
o'clock in the night. At the entrance of the sabbath
she entered upon her everlasting rest I endeavoured
to do the work of the day, in much weakness and
heaviness, becaase Christ would not suffer him,
whom he called to preach the gospel, to go first and
bury his father. I expounded Zechariah xiv.
Philippians iv. Psalm xxv. 15.— ilftn^ eyes are ever
toward ike Lard. I went in the evening to the be-
headed family at Broad Oak, where we wept and
prayed together. My wife and two sisters were with
my mother when she died, which was a comfort to
me, though I was absent.
26. Spent at Broad Oak, in preparation for the
faneraly which I desire to do in the actual belief
and expectation of the resurrection of the dead, and
the eomummndment which will be given concerning
the hones.
27. Spent as the day before ; many thoughts of
hearty which are known to God. Friends are strange,
but I hope our God is nigh at hand.
28. This day my dear mother's remains were de-
cently conveyed to Whitchurch, and deposited in
the silent dust, close by my dear father's. Before
we set out. Dr. Benyon preached, ad rem, and very
affectingly, on Hebrews vi. 12.*
Dr. Benyon's funeral sermon had reference also
to Mr. Pell, who was placed over the congregation
at Broad Oak when the Dr. removed to Shrewsbury.
Mr. Pell died May 21, 1707, set. 25. See Memoirs
See also ToiHr*t Life of Hatthew Henry, p. 138.
• Orifr.
k It it reeofded of Mr. Baxter, that, such was his abborreDce of I Works, v. 4. p. 340.
of Mrs. Savage, Appendix, No. I. The notice taken
of Mr. and Mrs. Henry, together with the honour-
able memorial of Mr. Pell, seem to unite in render-
ing it desirable that the following extract from the
sermon should be preserved. The transcription is
from an authentic manuscript.
" Shall I run eleven years backwards to the ever-
memorable consort of that excellent person, whose
dear remains we are now going to inter ? I would
do so, did I not think his bright graces, and endear-
ing service, must needs have left impressions upon
you that cannot wear off as long as you have souls
to retain them ; and yet I cannot but excite you to
follow him in his second self ; for, they both thought,
and spoke, and did, the same things in religion, and,
heing dead, yet speak.
** I must add, too, that Divine Providence hath
ordered the melancholy event of an intervening
death — Mr. Pell — to enforce the instruction of the
other two more powerfully.
" He, I doubt not, inherits the promises ; follow
him ; imitate him ; he was industrious in his great
Master's service, and pleaded not, as he might have
done, the excuse of a crazy and dying body. Be
not weary in well-doing ; he reaps already ; and you
will reap, in due time, if you faint not.
" He was very penitent for sin, and spoke of it
with a mighty passion ; and, though he hoped God,
for Christ's sake, had forgiven him, he could never
forgive himself.^ He entertained the prospect of
death with gpreat composure. It was his dependence
on Christ that made him able to do so. He often
said he had nothing else to trust to, and he trusted
to that so far as to say, cheerfully, when he found
his expiring hour was at hand,—' Come now, death,
and do thine office.' How agreeable was the reflec-
tion, the excellent believer, whose funeral we now
attend, made on the report of this hopeful preacher's
death. ' And,' says she, ' is Mr. Pell got to heaven
before me ?' It was like her.
'^ There was so much to he followed, that, in pro-
liimseir for bis siiis, that be said,—*' I can more cfasily believe that
God will forgive me, than I can forgive royseir." Dr. Bates's
17«
APPENDIX, No. II.
posing her to yoar imitation, the only difficulty is
what is to be omitted.
** In general, she made it her business to regulate
her life by the word of God, the efficacy of which
she experienced betimes in the ministry of that now
happy divine whose name is precious with some of
you
ffe
APPENDIX, No. II
The will of the Rev, Philip Henry ^ transcribed from
an originaly (supposed to be a counterpart,) among
his Title Deeds, and in his oum hand-writing.
In the name of God ; Amen ! I, Philip Henry, of
Broad Oak, in the County of Flint, an unworthy
minister of Jesus Christ, having attained, this day,
to the sixty-fourth year of my age, in bodily health ;
God be praised ! — but, sensible of the decays of
nature, and desirous to be found ready, when death
comes, that I may have nothing else to do but to
die, do, with my own hand, make this my last will
and testament, in the usual manner and form fol-
lowing. First, I recommend my soul into the hands
of God, my heavenly Father, trusting only to the
merit and mediation of Jesus Christ my Lord, whose
I am, and whom I serve, for acceptation and salva-
tion ; my body to the earth, whence it was taken, to
be laid up there, as in a bed of rest, to sleep in Jesus,
till the last trump shall sound ; my wife and chil-
dren to the divine blessing and providence, together
with all my children's children, to be brought up in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord ; and, out
of the worldly estate, which God hath given me, I
give and bequeath to each of my four daughters,
Mr. Poole's English Annotations upon the Bible, in
two volumes, of the last and best edition that shall
be to be had at the time of my decease, together with
Mr. Barton's last and best Translation of the Singing
Psalms, one to each of them, requiring and request-
ing them to make daily use of the same for the in-
struction, edification, and comfort of themselves, and
of their families ; and, to each of all their children,
that shall be alive when I die, I bequeath a well-
bound English Bible, together with an English
Practical Divinity Book, in quarto, out of my books,
such as their fathers shall please to choose for them,
praying that the word of Christ may dwell richly in
them, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
To my son Matthew I give and bequeath all my books
and papers, except what is otherwise by this my will
g^ven, and except what my dear wife will please to
have for her own use, and exeept the four following,
of which I give one to each of my four daughters,
according as in seniority they shall choose ; viz. the
c The Rev. Mr. Steel. See ante, p. 148.
Sermons upon the Parable of the Prodig^ ; The
Baptismal Covenant Explained; The Four-and-
Twenty Good and the Four-and-Twenty Naughty
Spirits ; and. What Christ is made of God to True
Believers, in Forty Particulars; each to be tran-
scribed by them, in their own hand, if they have
leisure, and see cause ; however, to be transcribed
into their hearts and lives. To my dear daughter-
in-law, and to each of my dear sons-in-law, I give
twenty shillings to buy each of them a ring, or what
else they please, as a small remaining token of my
great love to them, beseeching the Lord as he hath
begun, so to go on to build them up into families,
but especially to build them up in holiness and
comfort, and to continue them still in brotherly love,
as a bundle of arrows which cannot be broken. To
each of my servants living with me at the time of
my death, that can read, I give a g^ood book, or to
each of tliem five shillings to buy one, at my dear
wife's discretion. To each of my three dear sisters,
I g^ve and bequeath as followeth; — To my dear
sister, Ann Henry, I give a gold ring, with this posy,
Thy brother shall rise again, John xi. 23. And, to
my other two sisters, Mary Dyer, widow, and Sarah
Wade, I give and bequeath the profits of my small
tenement in Iscoyd, called Kaywilkin, which I
purchased lately of John Probart, to be divided
equally between them, when taxes and repairs are
first discharged and allowed for, so long as they both
shall live ; and, when either of them dies, then the
whole to the survivor, during her natural life, to be
paid quarterly ; the first payment to commence from
the quarter's end from the time of my death. And,
from and after their decease, and the decease of the
longest liver of them, I give and bequeath the in-
heritance of the said tenement, vrith its appurte- .
nances, and all my estate and interest therein, and
all my right and title thereunto, to my dear wife, to
be disposed of by her to such of my dear children,
or to such of their children, as she shall think, in
her discretion, to have most need of the same, whe-
ther by will, deed, or otherwise, as soon as she shall
please, after my decease, and not deferring the
making of the said settlement till my said sisters'
decease. And, lastly, my will is, that, all my just
debts, and funeral expenses, being first discharged,
the remainder of all my goods, cattle, and chattels,
whatsoever, shall be to my dear wife, to whom,
accordingly, I do give and bequeath them, acknow-
ledging her past, and relying upon her future, faith-
fulness to me in all things ; and I do nominate and
appoint her, my said dear wife, Katharine Henry, to
be the sole executrix.
Witness my hand and seal, this twenty-fourth day
of August, 1695, being the day of the year in which
I was bom, 1631, and also the day of the year in
APPENDIX, No. III. IV.
177
hich, by law, I died, as did also neartwo thousand
her faithful ministers of Jesus Christ, 1602.
Declared and published, &c.
Philip Henry, L. S.
APPENDIX, No. Ill
HE title of the volume referred to is thus ex-
•essed:
Musarum Oxoniensium 'EXaio^pta, sive, ob foe-
;ra auspiciis Serenissimi Oliveri Reipub. Ang.
cot. et Hiber. Domini Protectoris inter Rempub.
ritannicam et Ordines Foederatos Belgii feliciter
abilita, Gentis togatae ad vada Isidis Celeusma
letricum.
Oxonias excudebat Leonardus Lichfield, Aca-
demiae Tjrpographus : 1654.
Mr. Henry's Latin verses, transcribed from the
olume above mentioned, are as follows :
Noli timere, Musa I Quid trepido pede
Scazontis instar claudicas ?
I, pende ventis carbasa et totos sinus ;
Tranquilla jam sunt omnia,
Nulli tumultus, nullus hostium furor,
Pax undique, et mare liberum est:
Mercator avidas, dum silentium videt
Serenioris CEquoris,
Se somniare patat, et baud credit sibi,
Soliicitus et plenus metu,
Ne forte fallax error aut evanidae
Felicitatis umbra sit ;
Gem mas, Smaragdos, orbis alterius opes.
Nunc ultro securus petit,
Et post tot annorum otia, laboris sui
Majora sperat pnemia,
Sperat, coloni more Messem duplicem
Post sic peractas ferias.
Toto Britannos orbe divisos adhuc
Tandem coire vidimus,
Terrasque pelago separatas arctior
Compensat animorum unis;
Et qoam neg^nt Terra, juncturam facit
Melior Amoris Copula,
Bellique lites nuperi (bono omine)
Pacis redintegratio est.
Philip Henry, A. M. ex Mde Christi. p. 22,
APPENDIX, No. IV.
rHB following more minute account of the solemn
nrvice will not be uninteresting, especially as it is
ranscribed from Mr. Henry's own hand-wnting ;
ind ooBtains, no doubt, an accurate statement of
lU that took place :—
1657, July 6. I made addresses to the presbytery
in Shropshire for ordination.
They met at Prees. There were present Mr.
Porter, President; Mr. Houghton, Mr. Parsons,
Mr. Binney, Mr. Steel.
Inquiry was made:— 1. Concerning the work of
g^ce upon my heart.
Whereunto I replied, the Spirit had been dealing
with me while I was very young, not only in the pub-
lic ministry, but by the private instructions of a
godly mother also ; and, I hoped, had convinced
me of my sin, and discovered to me my need of
Christ ; and bowed my will, in some measure, to
close with him, upon his own terms, in sincerity,
unfeignedly; and that, having taken him to be
mine, I had also resigned myself up to him to be
his, to be guided and governed by him ; and re-
solved, by his grace, to continue in his ways unto
the death.
2. Concerning my skill in the original languages
of the Scripture ; — for the Hebrew, I read and con-
strued Psalm ii. 1, 2.— for the Greek, I read and con-
strued Luke xvi. 1,2.
3. For logic, I was asked, — QuotnpUxest syllogU"
mus f 1 answered, — Vel categoricus vel hypotheticus.
Item, probabilis vel demonstrativus, Qu€B sunt lege$
legitimi tyllogitmit Resp. Nihil concluditur niH
altera propotitio tit univertalit, fyc,
4. For philosophy ; — Quid est elementum ? Resp.
Est substantia pura (potius est corpus simplex) ex
quA omnia fiunt, (I should have added, et in quam
ultimo resolvuntur.) An sit eadem materia, cceli et
terra f Resp. Non, materia cceli est incorruptib. Err,
Andetur elementum ignis ? Imo. Ubi? Sub concavo
luncB, nt prohas quid e elem, levissem, Src, ffc. jr.
5. What authors in divinity I had read.
Answer. Something in WoUebius, Amesius,
Calvin.
Question. What are the parts of Christ's Me-
diatorship ?
Answer. Three; his priestly, kingly, prophetic
offices.
Question. What doth Christ do as Prophet?
Answer. Teaches his church.
Question. Immediately?
Answer. No. By his Spirit, in his word.
Question. What are the parts of his priestly office.
Answer. Two ; his death, and his intercession.
6. What was my judgment in reference to infant
baptism ? —
Question. Ought any children to be baptized ?
Answer. I believe they ought ; and I am clear
in it.
7. What, in reference to the controversy between
presbyterian and independent?
Answer was made for me ; — If I had not approved
of the presbyterian way, I would not have come
thither. I replied^— In most things according to tny
178
APPENDIX, No. IV. V.
present light, I did, but I had not had opportunity
to search to the bottom of the controversy.
8. The place of Scripture proposed was, 1 Corin-
thians X. 26, 28.
Question. How came the same words of the
psalmist to be a reason why they should eat and
why they should not ?
Answer. In a different sense : — 1. You may eat ;
for, the earth is the Lord's, q. d. Every creature of
God is good, if received with thanksgiving by them
that know the truth. 2. If your brother be offended,
you may forbear ; for the earth, fyc, q. d. there are
other things enough which you may eat freely of
without offence.
9. This case of conscience was propounded ;— >
Suppose one should come to you, and make com-
plaint of his condition,—*' Oh, Sir, I am undone ; it
is to no purpose for me to wait upon the means of
g^ce ; I am a reprobate ; and, if a reprobate, there
is no salvation V*
Answer. I would deny his minor, and endeavour
to show him, that though a man may know his own
election, yet he cannot his reprobation.
Objection. Suppose he should reply, ''I have
the mark of a reprobate, much guilt, a hard heart,
a seared conscience."
Answer. I would endeavour to convince him,
there is nothing that befalls a reprobate but may
befall one that is elect, before conversion, except the
guilt of the sin against the Holy Ghost.
10. Concerning church-history, I was only asked
whether I had read Eusebius, &c. I answered, I had
read some of him, but not all over.
These were the occurrences of that day's meeting.
They gave me a query to provide a thesis upon
against the next meeting.
Query. An providentia divina extendat $e ad
omnia f AS.
There were examined, the same day, Mr. Hall, of
Newcastle, in Staffordshire, and Mr. Jones of Llan-
armon, in Denbighshire.
The Lord prosper all my undertakings, that are
according to his will !
August 3. I exhibited my thesis upon the afore-
said question : —
An providentia divina extendat $e ad omnia?
Concerning which, disputation was held for about
the space of half an hour, or more. There opposed,
Mr. Parsons, Mr. Binney, Mr. Houghton ; and Mr.
Porter moderated. The main thing insisted on was :
— If God concur, by his providence, to every action,
how is he not then the author of sin ? To which an-
swer was g^ven ;— The materiality of the action is
from God, but the formality, which is the sinfulness
of it, is from the sinner himself.
Lord, I desire thou mayst have the glory of all
my abilities, natural, moral, spiritual. If they were
more, thou shouldst have more glory. And I beg
of thee to overlook my failings, especially the pride
and selfishness that is often stirring itself in my
soul, for Christ's sake.
I left two certificates with Mr. Brean, the regis-
trar to the classis ; one from Oxford, subscribed by
Dr. Wilkinson, Dr. Langley, Mr. Cornish, Mr. But-
ton. The other, subscribed by Mr. Steele, Mr. OrL
Fogg, Mr. Jenkyn ; both testifying of my conversa-
tion, &c. The Lord forgave me, that it hath not
been more exemplary, as it ought, for piety and in-
dustry ! Amen, Lord, in Christ !
The day for ordination was appointed to be. Wed*
nesday, September 16 ; the place, Prees.
I would fain have been ordained at Worthenbniy,
the place where God hath cast my lot, (which, I be-
lieve, comes nearest the institution,) but it might
not be rebus publieis sic stantibus. Hope thereof wai
one main motive to me to defer being ordained lo
long. The Lord prosper me in his work.
APPENDIX, No. V.
There were special reasons and ends of Chrisft
being made man ; viz. — That the same nature that
sinned might suffer; and, by suffering, satisfy,
Hebrews ii. 14. As God, he could not. Without
blood there was no remission, Hebrews ix. 22. That
the same nature, which was under the law, mi^t
yield obedience to the law, Romans v. 10. That
man's nature might be advanced to the dignity fiom
which it fell. Made but little lower than angels, I
Psalm viii. 6. but fallen as low as beasts, Psalm 1
xlix. 20. Now Christ hath restored, yea, bettered I
it, Ephesians i. 20, 21, &c. Hebrews i. 6. That kt
might be a merciful High Priest, Hebrews ii. 17, 1&
Hebrews iv. 15, 16. That he might set before of
an example of holy living, 1 Peter ii. 21.
But, though Jesus Christ was truly man, yet be wai
not a mere man, but God-man. Isaiah ix. 6. Christ,
our Redeemer, is God. This is a main doctrine of
the gospel. If this fail, all fails, 1 Corinthians xf.
14, 17. There were those, betimes, in the church,
who denied it, 2 Peter i. 1. which occasioned the
writing of St. John's Gospel, John i. 1.
The Saviour's deity is proved ;— From the niunes
and titles attributed to him in Scripture, John L 1.
1 John V. 20.— God. The great God, Titus ii. 13.
The mighty God, Isaiah ix. 6. Romans ix. 5. Jo*
hovah, Jeremiah xxiii. 6. An incommunicable
name to any creature, signifying as much as having
being of himself. Lord of all ; Acts x. 96. Lord of
Hosts ; the Son of God. So are believers ; but he is his
onltf begotten Son, John iii. 16. Philippians ii. 6L
Hebrews i. 3. John v. 18.— From divine properties
and attributes, not only communicable, such as holy,
righteous ; but incommunicable, as eternity, from
1
APPENDIX, No. VI. VII.
179
ting to everlasting^, Micah t. 2. Before John,
r i. 16. Before Abraham, John viii. 68. Be-
3 creation. Proverbs viii. 23. Omnisciency ;
ig the heart, John ii. 24. Omnipotency ; in-
lohn iii. 13. — From divine works. Creation,
3. Providence, John v. 17. Colossians i.
Redemption ; he forgives sins, Matthew ix,
he gives the Spirit, John xvi. 7. he g^ves
life, John x. 27, 28.— Miracles ; which he
nsists on, John v. 36 ; John x. 37, 38.— From
worship ascribed to him ; inward, outward.
Acts xvi. 31. John xiv. 1. Absolute obedi-
iatthew xvii. 6. Prayer, Acts vii. 60. Praise,
»thy i. 12. Adoration by angels, Hebrews i.
elations v. 11, 12.
IS necessary that our Mediator should be God,
e none else could be competent for the work,
Ixxxix. 19, 20.«»
APPENDIX, No. VI.
Uowing specimen is taken from a volume, in
iter's possession, embracing the Book of
is, and in Mr. Henry's hand-writing.
Exp. Gen. xxii. Oct. 24, 1668.
story of this chapter is very remarkable ; it
as an instance of the most eminent act of
lid obedience.
tempts Abraham, verse 1. To tempt, is no
properly, but to try ;— to bore a hole, as into
$1, to know what liquor is in it. Himself knew
; but, that Abraham might know, and that
might know, therefore doth he put him upon
ard service ; Take, now, thy ton, Sfc,
re are several circumstances which make it
1 service, and, by consequence, advance the
ind obedience of Abraham,
'ake thy ton. If it had been a stranger, or a
if in his house, it had not been so much ; but,
m,
*hy only son ; viz. by Sarah. He had another
ihmael ; he was by Hagar.
liy only son Isaac ; the child of promise ; that
mceming whom I have told thee, that, in him,
ill the nations of the earth be blessed.
^om thou lovest. He loved Ishmael, but
more, because he was the son of his old age,
[▼en in a miraculous way ; had it been a son
, though an only son, it had not been so much.
yet thee into the land of Moriah, — three days'
sy : — it was to be done, — not presently, — but
1 blood. What a conflict must Abraham needs
lad between faith and unbelief !
A P. Henry. Orig. MS.
N 2
6. Offer him there for a humt-offering. It had
b een a great trial if only to take his leave of his son,
never to see him more ; but to kill him ; nay, to burn
him ; and, to do it himself !
This was the temptation ; — Abraham readily yields
at God's command ;— 'Ae rote up early, verse 3.
Free obedience is acceptable obedience.
Observe. The angel of the Lord calls to him, and
bids him hold his hand ; verse 11, &c.
A ram was ready, and that was offered, verse 13.
Isaac and the ram were types of Christ. Isaac,
in two respects :—
1. In his willingness to be offered ; there was no
resistance : so Christ, — Lo, I come,
2. He was laid upon the altar; but rose again ; a
type of Christ's resurrection.
The ram also, in two respects:—
1. He was caught in a thicket ; Christ was crown-
ed with thorns.
2. He was sacrificed ; so Christ was a Sacrifice
of God's providing.
Hereupon the promise is renewed, verse 17. There
is nothing lost in being willing to lose for God, Matt,
xix. 29. Abraham was contented to part with one
son, and God assures him of ten thousand thousand
sons instead.
God accepts the will for the deed, Hebrews xi. 17.
Abraham's love to God in offering up Isaac, was
nothing to God's love to us in offering up Christ.
Behold, what manner of love ! God called, and had
right to call, for Isaac. He gave him. We neither
called, nor had right to call, for Christ.
Have we no Isaac to offer? no beloved sin to
sacrifice ? Assuredly, he that will not part with a
beloved sin for Christ, when he requires it, will not
part with a beloved son for him. Let us not deceive
ourselves.
APPENDIX, No. VII.
On those occasions the records of inspired truth
were the basis of communications, as interesting as
they were conducive to edification. A manuscript
of Mr. Henry's, commencing July 1, 1666, ending
Aug^t 7, 1660, and embracing observations on the
first forty-four psalms, affords a satisfactory illus-
tration of the plan adopted during the period refer-
red to. From that source of information it appears,
that, after a brief exposition of the psalm, a question
was '' propounded for conference." A brief selec-
tion of the topics, with Mr. Henry's remarks, are as
follow : —
Thus ; on the 10th psalm, the inquiry, from the
fourth verse ;— TAf wicked through the pride of his
180
APPENDIX, No. VII.
countenance^ will not seek after God, was ;— What is
it that keeps men from seeking after God; from
seeking after friendship with God, from seeking
after the glory of God ? To this Mr. Henry replied ;
— Pride, Luke xix. 14. Ignorance, Romans iii. 11.
Psalm Ixxix. 6. John iv. 10. Solomon's Songs, v. 9.
compare vi. 1 ; strong inclinations after something
else ; things of the world possessed, or laboured
after ; credit with men of the world ; and a reproach
feared, Mark x. 22. Luke xiv. 16, &c. ; presumption ;
evil company. Hence, see the apostle's counsel to
young converts. Acts ii. 40.
On the first verse of the 18th psalm ;•— / will love
thee, O Lord, my strength; the question was;—
What are the fruits of the true love of God ? It will
appear in reference to sin. Where the true love of
God is, there is hatred of sin. Psalm xcvii. 10 ; uni-
versal, without exception ; constant, without inter-
mission ; implacable, without reconciliation. There
is also sorrow for sin, Zechariah xii. 10 ; xiii. 6. In
reference to duty. Where love is, there is willing-
ness to it, 2 Corinthians v. 14 ; delight in it. Psalm
Ixxxiv. 1 John v. 3. Where love is, it causes the
heart to run out after God, Psalm Ixiii. 8; he is
highest in the thoughts, oftenest, dearest ; sincerity,
Canticles i. 4. Ephesians vi. 24. Love is boundless ;
it never thinks it hath done enough. In reference
to suffering, it is ready for it ; it is patient under it,
Romans v. 3, 5. Canticles viii. 6, 7. To these may
be added, — Love is tender of God's honour ; it loves
all that belong to God ; see 1 John iii. 20. That
love to the brethren, which will evidence love to God,
1 John iii. 14. must be, to all ; poor, as well as rich ;
strangers, as well as acquaintance; to those that
differ in opinion from us, as well as those that agree
with us ; wheresoever we see the image of God ; it
will show itself when the brethren are persecuted ;
it will be willing to cover their infirmities ; the more
godly, the more we love them. It eats up the love
of the world, 1 John ii. 15. Romans viil. 7. There
is no looking upon heaven with one eye, and earth
with the other. It longs for the appearance of Jesus
Christ, Canticles viii. 14.
From the drift and scope of the twenty-second
psalm, the inquiry was ; — What may, and ought, a
Christian to learn from the sufferings of Jesus
Christ ? We learn the great love of God to mankind,
John iii. 16. Romans v. 8. We learn how just he
is ; we learn the great evil that is in sin ; a lesson
of godly sorrow, Zechariah xii. 10 ; humility, Phi-
lippians ii. 5, 6, &c.; holiness, 2 Corinthians v. 15;
hatred of sin, 1 Corinthians v. 7. 1 Peter iv. 1, 2.
Patience in afflictions, Hebrews xii. 1, 2, 3. 1 Peter
ii. 20, 21, &c. Consolation against accusations,
« See a Sermon by Mr. P. Henij^, on this paange. Evan. Mag.
v. xxix. p. 55.
t When Cardinal Campeggio presented the letters of his legation
at the Diet of Augsbuigh, he made an oration in Latin i the sub-
Romans viii. 33, 34. John i. 29. Courage against
the fear of death, 1 Corinthians xv. 55, &c. Hebrews
ii. 14. Love to our brethren, Ephesians ii. 13, 14
Thankfulness. Blessed be God for Jesus Christ i
Upon Psalm xxix. it was inquired ;— How many
ways may we become guilty of other men's sins ?
By command, 2 Samuel xi. 2 Samuel xxiv. By
counsel, 2 Chronicles xxii. 2,3. Numbers xxxi. 16.
By consent, Psalm 1. 17. Acts xxii. 20. 1 Kings
xxi. 16, 19. By provocation, £phesians vi. 4. Ha-
bakknk ii. 15. By example, Jeremiah xxxii. 19.
By neglect to warn, Ezekiel xxxiii. 7, 8 ; to restrain,
1 Samuel iii. 11 ; to punish, 1 Kings xx. 42 ; to re-
prove, Leviticus xix. 17 ; to mourn, 1 Corinthians
V. 2.
On Psalm xxxi. the question was, — What are the
common sins of professors in these days ? Empty,
vain discourse, James iii. 2. Lukewarmness, Reve-
lations iii. 15, 16.* Hypocrisy, formality, Matthew
XV. 7, 8. Want of love ' one towards another, John
xiii. 35. Debates, quarrellings ; want of meekness
to bear injuries ; neglect to watch one over another,
to reprove, exhort ; easiness of belief of slanderous
reports ; abatement in first love to Jesus Christ, Re-
velations ii. 4. Worldliness, pride, sensuality, flesh-
pleasing, Luke xvii. 26, &c. Itching ears, 2 Timothy
iv. 3, 4.
And, on Psalm xxxv. it was proposed ; — Wherein
consists the power of godliness ? See Psalm cxix.
104 . — / hate every false way, A hjrpocrite doth not
hate every false way. Naaman, 2 Kings v. ; Mat-
thew viii. 19, &c. He has a Rimmon to bow to, a
father to bury, some secret lust. But the true Chris-
tian can let all go. See Philippians iii. 20. Our
conversation is in heaven, A hypocrite hath not his
conversation in heaven ; but, either in hell, or earth,
at best ; it may be, now and then, he may take a
turn in heaven ; whereas, the heart, thoughts, affec- ,
tions, desires, trading, discourse, are all heavenly,
where there is the power of godliness. See Habak-
kuk iii. 17, 18. A hypocrite cannot rejoice in God
in the want of creature-comforts ; his form withers
in winter. Job xx. 20. He is in straits in the ful-
ness of his sufficiency, whereas, a child of God hath
a fulness of sufficiency in his straits. Sec Proverbs
iv. 23. The power of godliness consists in keeping
the lieart ; not the eyes, feet, hands, only, but the
heart. See Psalm i. 2. — His delight is in the law of
the Lord, He can call the sabbath a delight, Romans
vii. 24.— O wretched man that I am, who shall de-
liver me from the body of this death ? The Christian
has complaints about, and combats with, the whole
body of sin. He looks on his heart as his worst part
A hypocrite counts it his best. Where the power
stance whereof was, that the cause of so many sects, which then
reigned, was want of charity and love. The History of the Coun*
dl of Trent, p. 53. foL 1620.
APPENDIX, No. Vm.
181
of godliness is, there will be endeavours to promote
h in others, especially in such as are under our
charge. Genesis xviii. 19. Joshua xxiv. 15. There
will be willingness to part with any thing if God
calls for it, Genesis xxii. Also, willingness to be
tried. Psalm cxxxix. 20. Tenderness of God's hon-
onr. Psalm cxv. 1. Care in second-table duties,
eren as in first ; and, in all we do, to do it with an
upright heart. Here the true Christian and the hy-
pocrite part Both do duties : — ^they pray, hear, &c.
but, in the manner, they differ. The one does all
from love to God, with an eye to his will and glory ;
the other, from form. Evenness of conversation is
a part of the power of godliness.
APPENDIX, No. VIII.
The following is a specimen : —
That there is one God, 1 Timothy ii. 5. That
there is a mutual enmity between God and man, by
reason of sin, Zechariah xi. 8 ; that Christ is the
Mediator, I Timothy ii. 5; that he was made man,
being in the form of God, Philippians ii. 5, 6 ; that,
being made man, he became obedient to the law,
Matthew iii. 15 ; was, The Lord our Righteousness,
Jeremiah xxiii. 6.
Therefore, put on Christ, Romans xiii. 14 ; who
has left us an example, 1 Pet. ii. 21 ; he gave him-
self to die the death for us. Acts ii. 23.
The particulars of his sufferings, at large, from
several scriptures. He was buried. Acts xiii. 29.
His resurrection, 1 Corinthians xv. 4.
The benefits flowing from his death ; — God wett-
plemsed; Matthew iii. 17 ; for he died as a Sacrifice,
1 Corinthians v. 7. Believers are justified, Romans
V. 9 ; t. e, their sins pardoned, Isaiah xliii. 25, 26.
Christ's ascension, Acts i. 9 ; sitting at God's right
hand. Psalm ex. I ; his intercession, Romans viii.
34 ; as a Priest, Psalm ex. 4 ; and, in all this, our
hope, 1 Timothy i. 1.
The work was thus wrought for us, to reconcile
God to as. There is a work to be wrought in us,
which is, to reconcile us to God, Colossians i. 21 ;
the Author of it, the Spirit, John xv. 26.
The work of the Spirit in reference to sin ; — ^he
worketh,
I. Conviction of sin, John xvi. 8; for which the
means used are, the preaching of the word, Isaiah
Iriii. 1 ; which is a lamp, and a light. Proverbs vi.
23; privatepersonalreproof. Proverbs vi. 23; afflic-
r So divine a thing is wisdom, and so excellent is knowledge,
(how macb toerer it be despised by carnal hearts,) that inno-
eeocy itself was to ambitious of it, as to choose rather to incur
the highest displeasure of an offended God, than want of it ; nay,
Uan want greater degrees of it. P. Henry. From Matthew
Henry*8llS.
tions. Psalm cxix. G7 ; the conversation of those
that are godly, 1 Corinthians vii. 16.
2. Contrition for sin, Zechariah xii. 10. (Digres-
sion,— of the Spirit, as a spirit of supplication, from
several other texts.) This contrition is goring a
heart of flesh, Ezekiel xxxvi. 26 ; breaking up fallow
ground, Jeremiah iv. 3 ; rending the heart, Joel ii. 13.
3. Conversion from sin, Acts iii. 26; from all
sins ; from beloved sins ; and, to a course of godli-
ness, Hebrews xii. 1.
In reference to grace. Sanctification in general,
1 Thessalonians, v. 23. 2 Corinthians vii. 1. Parti-
culars : —
1. The sanctification of the mind, or understand-
ing, Ephesians iv. 23 ; in respect of knowledge,
Colossians iii. 10; motives to get knowledge,' Colos-
sians i. 9 ; directions, Hosea vi. 8. 2 Timothy i. 13.
Luke viii. 18 ; in respect of wisdom, Ephesians i.
7, 8 ; exhortations to get wisdom. Proverbs xvi. 16 ;
in respect of thoughts ; vain thoughts hated. Psalm
cxix. 113; good thoughts loved, Psalm civ. 34.
2. The sanctification of the memory, John xiv. 26.
3. Of the conscience, Hebrews ix. 14.
4. Of the will. Psalm ex. 3; willing to submit to
the will of God, Acts xxi. 14 ; willing to die, 2 Cor-
inthians V. 8 ; unvrilling to sin. Genesis xxxix. 9.
5. Of the affections, Colossians iii. 2. The affec-
tion of love ;— love to God, 1 John iv. 19. Mark
xii. 30. Revelations ii. 4; love to ourselves and to
our neighbour, Mark xii. 31. Of hatred. Psalm
cxxxix. 21, 22. Job xiii. 6. Of desire after God,
Isaiah xxvi. 8, 9 ; after righteousness, Matthew v.
6 ; against inordinate desires. Genesis xxx. 1. Of
joy, Hosea ix. 1. Philippians iv. 4. Of grief; not
to grieve at the good of others. Acts xiii. 45 ; not to
grieve inordinately at any thing. Psalm xiii. 11 ;
sorrow according to God, Matthew v. 4 ; for the sins
of sinners. Psalm cxix. 136; for the sufferings of
saints, Amos vi. 6. Of hope in God, Psalm cxlvi.
6 ; for heaven, Romans v. 2 ; against presumption,
Job xxvii. 8. Despair," Ezekiel xxxiii. 10, 11. Of
fear, Luke xii. 4, 6. Ecclesiastes viii. 12, la Of
anger, Ephesians iv. 26, 27 ; its opposite, meekness,
1 Peter iii. 4. Of zeal, Galatians iv. 18.
6. The sanctification of the body, Romans xii.
1 ; sensual appetite subdued, Hebrews xi. 25. The
eye sanctified, Psalm cxix. 37 ; the hands, Psalm
xxiv. 3, 4; the tongue. Psalm xxxix. 1. Against
lying, Psalm cxix. 163 ; swearing, Jeremiah xxiii.
10; slandering. Psalm I. 20. Of good discourse,
Colossians iv. 6.
The summary of these sermons about sanctifica-
tion, he gave in two sermons from 2 Corinthians v.
h You must despair before you can hare a good hope ;— despair
of being saved in yourselres. He that is out of his way, must de-
spair of reaching his journey's, end, except he turn. P. Henry.
From Biatthew Henry's MS.
182
APPENDIX, No. IX. X.
17 ; and observed, that, while he was upon that sub-
ject, about three years, there were more than forty
of that little parish that were removed into eternity,
who, when he began, were alive, and in health, &c.
The Spirit's work, in reference to grace, is, having
implanted it, to excite and actuate it. Canticles iv.
16 ; to strengthen it against corruption ; to increase
it. Proverbs iv. 18. Exh. 2 Peter iii. 18. —to perform
it, Philippians i. 6. Exh. Philippians iv. 1.
The work of the Spirit, in reference to peace,
John xiv. 27. And that was his last subject in the
course of his ministry at Worthenbury.
These were the subjects and texts of about six
years' sabbath sermons ; only, that once he spent
about two months in preaching over the doctrine of
the Lord's Supper, before his setting up that ordi-
nance there ; and once he spent about half a year in
preaching over the epistle to Laodicea, Revelations
111.'
APPENDIX, No. IX.
Mr. Henry, noticing assurance, has thus expressed
himself : —
Assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, and
joy in the Holy Ghost, are the glorious privileges of
true believers. Justification is the root, and these
are the branches from it
There is a low and weak degree of assurance,
where the evidences of the love of God to our souls
are not full and clear; a mixture of much doubting
and fear. Even this produces peace.
There is a strong and high degree, which is called
full assurance ; clear evidence, and little doubting.
This produces joy.
Peace and joy differ thus ;— peace stills and quiets
the soul, but joy stirs and transports it. Peace is
joy in the bud and blossom ; joy is peace in the ripe
fruit. There are more believers who have peace
than have joy, because there are more whose evi-
dences are dark and weak.— and it is their own fault
There is the assurance or certainty of the object ;
that is, God's love is sure and certain to a believer.
He doth love him now, Proverbs viii. 17. He did
love him from everlasting^ Jeremiah xxxi. 3. He
will love him to the end, John xiii. 1.
There is also the assurance and certainty of the
subject ; that is, — this or that particular believer is
certain that God loves him now, and hath loved him
from everlasting, and will love him to everlasting.
Many a child of God gets to heaven who is never
1 Life. Oriff. MS. «/ npra,
k Grace, with assurance, is no less than keaven let down into
the soul. Bishop Hopkins. Works, v. 3. p. 7*2. ed. 1800.
1 Scripture marks of those who shall be saved, are. Faith U the
tvrd Jtnu, John iii. 16 ; vi. 47. Love to God, 1 Corinthians ii. 0 }
able to say,— I am sore I have an interest in the love
of Ood. Yet this assurance is attainable, as may
b# proved from those scriptures which make it our
duty to labour after it^ 2 Peter i. 10. and from scrip-
ture instances of such as did attain it, both in the
Old Testament, Job xix. 26. and in the New, 2
Corinthians v. 1. Galatians ii. 20. 1 John iii. 19;
iv. 13.
Where it is attained, it sweetens all conditions.^
We then see all our mercies, and all our crosses,
not only consist with, but flow from, the love of God.
It is a g^reat furtherer of obedience. None walk so
close with God as those who have clearest evidences
of his love. Assurance makes a man truly willing
to die, 2 Corinthians v. 1, &c. Luke ii. 29.
Labour after it. How? Not without diligence.
Bring thy condition to the word of God. See what
it saith of those who shall be saved, and then in-
quire,— Am I such an one? John iii. 96. — Do I
believe?— Do I accept of Jesus Christ? Romans viii.
9.— Have I the Spirit of Christ ? 1 John iii. 14.— Do
I love the people of God ?*
Reading in some of my dear father's [Philip
Henry] diary, kept in a little almanack, I find ex-
cellent things; c. g. From, — The rather give dili^
gence to make your calling and election #icre,^he
notes : This has many sweet advantages. It promotes
godliness, keeps humble, is got with pains, &c. A
man may be a child of God who hath it not ; yet
such will seek and press after it To which he adds;
— I have both sought, and found it, in some poor
measure. Lord, increase it every day, more and
more, unto full assurance ! *"
APPENDIX, No. X,
Among Mr. Henry's papers the following statement
has been preserved ; and, as it appears to have been
placed in the hands of Miss Matthews, and may be
of use to others, especially in like circumstances, it
is here introduced. It may be regarded as a grati-
fying specimen of the prudence, the simplicity, and
devotional frame of mind, for which the writer is so
deservedly eminent : —
April 16.
Day of Prayer and Fasting.
What warrant for this duty ?
Answer. From Philippians iv. 6 ; — In every thing f
by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let
your requests be made known unto God,
obedience to his commandoaents, Hebrews v. 9. liattbew vil il
John X. 27, 38: foithfulness in his senrice, Matthew zxt. 21, 23;
peiaeverance to the death. Revelations ii. 10. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
m Mrs Savage. Diary, Orig. MS.
APPENDIX, No. X. XI.
183
If in every thing, then, surely, in a tiling of so
much weight bb marriage, CoIossianB iii. 17.
Bat -why are friends called ?
Answer. We are commaml^, Oalatians vi. 3; to
hemr one tmoiher*9 burdens ; to sympathize with each
other in ail our concernments ; to weep with them thmt
weep, and to rejoice with them thai rejoice, David's
practice, calling others to join with him. Psalm
xxxiv. 3. The command, in case of sickness, James
V. 14, 16. Besides, Vis unita fortior ; Many hands
make light work.
For what end is this duty ?
Answer. There are many ends of it. These are
some of the chief, which are fit to be commani-
cated : —
1. To bless God, who hath ordered things so in his
providence, as to bring things to the pass they are
at ; in this plain way, — more comfortable to as, less
offensive to others, who, not knowing the glands
we proceeded on, might have drawn ill consequences
from it, and sinned by our example.
2. To make atonement for sin in the blood of Christ,
James t. 16. In general, for all the sins of our
Angle state. In particular, for miscarriages in the
carrying on of this afiair;— distrust of God, unbelief,
impatience ; distractions occasioned by it ; irregu-
larities of affection. It being my desire, that no
guilt may go with me into that condition, which
may be as poison and gall, but that I may enter
into it as innocent as Adam, in the day when he was
narried in the garden.
3. To beg the presence, and the favour of God,
which is the happiness and sweetness of every
condition and relation, that he will own and bless
us.
4. To beg a frame of heart suited to the condition ;
that, as Saul had another spirit g^ven when he was
crowned, so we may have when we are married.
As cares and burthens will be new, so strength may
be renewed also to bear them ; as temptations will
be new, so sufficient grace may be bestowed to resist
them ; as comforts will be new, so a heart may be
given to enjoy God in them, and to sit loose from
the creature ; as duties will be new, so we may be
enabled to perform them, that we may live together
as heirs of the grace of life.
5. In reference to events as to outward things ;
that the Lord will take into his own hand the dis-
posal of them, and quiet our hearts in what he
determines, whether it be for the worse, or for the
better. That, if he see good, he will please to grant
OS the comfortable fruits and pledges" of marriage.®
• So cbfldien wen limply called by the Latins ;~pi>wra,~
iMfet. See MiltoD't Poetical Works, «/ nfra^ v 6. p. 38. note.
• P. Henry. Orijr- BIS.
APPENDIX, No. XI.
Some of these records being still preser\'ed, the
following selection will not be unacceptable : —
How far may a man go towards heaven, and yet
fall short?
In general; a great way, Mark xii. 34. Almost
a Christian, Acts xxvi. 28.
In particular ; a man may have a great deal of -
knowledge, 1 Corinthians xiii. 1, 2; even so much,
as to teach others, Matthew vii. 22. He may be
free from many, nay, from any, gross sins, Luke
xviii. 11. He may perform, not only some, but all
manner of external duties of religion ; — pray, fast,
give alms, Matthew vi. 1, 2, &c. He may be a
lover of good men, as Herod, Pharaoh, Darius. He
may repent, after a sort, as Ahab ; and believe, after
a sort, as Simon Magus. He may suffer much for
religion, as, no doubt, Judas did, while a retainer
of Christ. If a man may go thus far, and yet fall
short, then what will become of those who go not
near so far ? Then, what need have we to look about
us, and to make sure of regeneration, and sincerity,
which are things that certainly accompany salvation !
What are the common hinderances of men's sal-
vation ?
Ignorance, John iv. 10; unbelief, John v. 40; love
of the world, 2 Timothy iv. 10; pride,p men will not
stoop to be saved by the righteousness of Christ,
Romans x. 3. nor to be ruled by his laws, Luke
xix. 14. prejudice against the ways of God, and
against the company that walk in them; their
paucity, their poverty; presumption upon God's
mercy, and upon long life. See that none of these
things hinder us, especially now being forewarned.
What are evidences of love to God ?
Hatred of sin, Psalm xcvii. 11 ; and that, espe-
cially, because it dishonours him ; care to keep his
commandments, John xiv. 15 ; and that of choice,
and with delight, 1 John v. 3 ; love to the people of
God, as such, 1 John iii. 14 ; willingness to part with
any thing for his sake. Genesis xxii. 12 ; desire of
fellowship with him in his ordinances, Canticles i. 2 ;
grief when he withdraws ; love to, and longing for
the appearance of, Christ ; mourning that we can
love him no more.
How are we to express love to our neighbour?
By praying for him, for all men, 1 Timothy ii. 1 ;
even for enemies, Matthew v. 44. By reproving him,
Leviticus xix. 17 ; unless he be a scomer, which we
are not rashly to conclude. By not envying him
because either of what he is, or hath, or doth, 1
Corinthians xiii. 4 ; but, rather, rejoicing, Romans
xii. 15. Doing to him as we would have him to do
P See a striking illustration of this subject, in '* The Christian
in Complete Armour, by William Oumall, M. A." 2nd part. p. 73
4to. 1658.
184
APPENDIX, No. XI. XII.
to as, Matthew vii. 12. Being tender of his name,
neither to raise, nor receive, an ill report against him,
Psalm XXV. 23. If a superior, we are to honour
and respect him ;*> if an equal, or inferior, to be
affable, and courteous, and condescending towards
him. If good, to associate with him. Psalm xvi. 2;
if bad, to pity him, and pray for him, but not be
over-familiar with him/
It may be here added, that Mr. Matthew Henry,
in a little volume, in his own hand-writing, has pre-
served some copious memoranda of another, and im-
portant, series of " Questions of Conference in the
Family.'' The following list of them will show how
his venerable father studied the welfare of those
around him : —
What are the scripture attributes of God the Father?
What are the scripture names, titles, and attri-
butes of God the Son ?
What are the scripture names, titles, and attri-
butes of the Holy Ghost ?
What doth the scripture say concerning the om-
nisciency, power, wisdom, holiness, justice, good-
ness, mercy, truth, and faithfulness of God?
These are respectively answered by an extensive
selection of inspired statements, and concluded by
a deduction of uses. Those which close the last
mentioned question are thus stated : —
This is terror to us to consider, that God will be
true to his threatenings ; they are not bugbears, to
frighten children and fools, but such as he will be
true to. Then, stand in awe, and sin not,* This is
comfort also, that, seeing he is true and faithful to
his promises, we may trust in him, and rely upon
him. There is duty also ; we must labour, as well
as we can, to be like God ; to be true to our words,
especially in witness-bearing, and to be faithful to
all our entrustments. Our yea must be yea, and our
nay, nay. We must be punctual in everything;
not off and on, cozening and cheating, and deceiv-
ing ; for, that God, whom we profess to believe in,
and serve, is not so. Those who were afterwards
called puritans, were, in King Henry the Eighth's
time, called fast-men.
APPENDIX, No. XIL
Another instance occurred in the address delivered
by Mr. Henry, at Boreatton, on occasion of his son
q Besides the mantle of love that is to be thrown over the faults
of all, there is a robe of reverence and honour to be cast over
the faults of superiors. The emperor, Constantine. did not think
the imperial purple too precious to make a veil to cover the in-
firmities of his bishops. P. Henry. From Matthew Henry's MS.
r P. Henry. Ong. MS.
• Sins are like circles in the water when a stone is thrown into
it, one produces another. When anger was in Cain's heart, murder
was not far off. P. Henry. From Matthew Henry's MS.
« Tong's Life of the Rev. Matthew Henry, p. 55. ut wpra.
Matthew, and the only son of his friend, Mr. Huntf
leaving the country for a residence in London,
A. D. 1687.' The following is the substance of it;
And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy \
father, and serve him with a perfect heart, and with
a willing mind : for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and
understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts:
if thou seek him, he will he found of thee ; but if thou
forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever, 1 Chron.
xxviii. 9. These words are the pious advice of an
aged father to his young son to be religious.
To be religious is to know God, John xvii. 3 ;
that be is, Hebrews xi. 6 ; and what he is, as far as
he hath revealed himself in the books of creation,
and Scripture. He hath revealed himself to us in
the face of Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians iv. 6. Those
who are diligent in the use of the means," shall attain
this knowledge, Hosea iii. 6.
This knowledge is such an act of the understand-
ing, as includes the will and affections. We must
own and acknowledge him as the first cause of all
things, and see our absolute and universal depend-
ence upon him, as our benefactor, who hath preserved
and provided for us ; as the chiefest good, and love
him with all our heart, soul, mind, and might ; as our
highest end, and aim at his glory in all things ; and
as our God and Father in Jesus Christ. This is the
most comfortable : bis New-Testament title. If he be
our Father, we must carry it as children.
To know God is to be acquainted with him. Job
xxii. 21 ; to have intimate acquaintance with him :
and this includes all religion ; it is walking with
God.
To be religious is also to serve God* You cannot
serve a better master ; you cannot be employed in
better work ; you cannot have better wages."" The
gift of God is eternal life. There are wages in hand.
There is the testimony of a good conscience ; there
are the smiles of God ; there is the reward of the
inheritance.
This service of God is to wait upon him daily and
duly in the duties of his immediate service and wor-
ship. If you do not pray, and read, and hear, you are
not God's servants. And it is to walk in all holy
obedience before him. Serious inquiries into the will
of God, and sincere endeavours to do it, are the pro-
perties of bis servants. You must look into the word
of God if you would know his will.
A servant of God must be lowly-minded and
humble, diligent and industrious, not only do his
u Labour after knowledge in the use of means. These are prayer.
James i- 5. Prov.ii. 3,4. David, Ps. cxix. Solomon. — Reading and
meditating in the word of God. This is the tree of knowledge,
2 Timothy iii. 15, 16.— Practice, John vii. 17. P. Henry. Orig.
MS.
▼ Dr. Sibbs would say, could we suppose sorrow in heaven, this
would be our sorrow there, that we did no more work for God,
before we came thither to receive so great wages A Sermon at
tlie Funeral of Mr. Jeremiah Whitaker, by Simeon Ashe. 4to, 1654.
p. 43.
APPENDIX, No. XII.
185
work, but abound in it,^and patient, to undergo
the difficulties of the work, and the delays of the
reward.
All this must be with a perfect heart ; that is, with
truth and uprightness, Genesis xvii. 1. Job i. 1. If
yoa would be thus perfect, be sure to lay a good
foundation. Take heed of double-dealing with
God ; of vain thoughts' in duty, Matthew xv. 7, 8.
See that you pray in praying, and hear in hearing,
&c. Approve yourselves to God. Do all to his
glory. Let his word be your rule, 1 Corinthians x.
31. See your imperfections, and bewail them daily.
Here is tiie difference between the true Christian
and the hypocrite. The hjrpocrite acts in hypocrisy,
and it never troubles him. He thinks he merits.
The godly man bewails the imperfections of his
sincerity, and that is a pitch no hypocrite can at-
tain to.
A willing mind too is of great consequence. It is
that which God looks at very much. In conversion,
the great change is on the will. Now, when there
is a willing mind, vain excuses will not be made.
See Luke xiv. There will be forwardness in good
works, Titus iii. I. Ready to every good work ; the
original is, go before in good works. When the
mind is willing, duty is done cheerfully. When
the heart is enlarged, then we run in the way of God's
commandments. There is a great difference between
a volunteer and a pressed soldier.
Now every day take notice of the willingness and
unwillingness of your minds to that which is good.
Look up to God, and beg of him to make you
willing. Draw me. Consider how willing he is to do
you good, and let that make you willing to do him
service. Consider how willing Christ was to come
and die to save us. Think of this when you are un-
willing to duty.
Remember the omniscience of God. He searches
ail hearts. He understands all the imaginations of
the thoughts. He understands the unobserved mo-
tions of the fancy. Do you believe this ? Improve
it, as a bridle to keep you from all sin ;' as a spur
to put you on your duty, especially secret duty,
especially sincerity in duty. There may be hypo-
crisy that you do not see, but he sees it. There
may be also sincerity that you do not see, but he
sees that When you are from under the eyes of
your parents, remember,— God sees.'
w See Chamock's Works, v. a p. 50 1, &c.
s An ancient divine urging a "carerui attention unto, and a
beedfal hiding of the word in our hearts,"->aay8, it *' may re-
stiaine aa a Iwidle from sinne," and '* quicken us as a spurre to
every good duty." Sermons by Alexander Groase, B. D. p. 237.
daod. IdlO. And Dr. Barrow remarks, ** Did we only believe the
fature judgment, with the results of it, that alone would be an ef-
fectual both 9pmrr and ewrb to us." Works, vol. 3. p. 40. «/
7 This may be of use to us, when the thoughts of it are kept
■live upon the heart in reference to these great concernments of
oar lives. In reference to ms,— it may teach us watchfulness.
Consider the promise. If thou seek kirn, ke witt
be found of tkee. He hears prayer. Be not sparing
in that duty. If you seek the pardon of sin, you
shall have it. If any thing burthens us, he will
either support or deliver us. We must seek him
with our whole heart ; early and earnestly. Ob-
serve how the promise is applied to Solomon. — If
tkou seek, tkouy though a child,—- if thou seek him,
he will be found of tkee. Promises must be parti-
cularly applied.
Recollect the threatening. If thou forsake him,
he will cast thee off, — though thou art Solomon, my
son. It is best that we be drawn to duty, but it is
better to be driven than not to do it at all. Adam in
innocency was awed by a threatening. You who
have given up your names to God, take heed that
you do not forsake him. Do not forsake his truths.
Do not forsake the ways you have walked in. Do
not forsake the people of God. Go by tke footsteps
of tke flock. Unbelief causes departing. It may
be you are thinking you will never forsake God, as
Peter, tkougk all men forsake, yet I will not. Take
heed of resolving in your own strength. It is by
faith you stand. Fear, lest you should be a cast-a-
way.
There are some who are especially concerned to
know God, and serve him.
Those who are young are so. Solomon was young
when this counsel was given him, and he counsels
others, Ecclesiastes xii. 1. Remember now tky
Creator in tke days of tky youtk. God must have
the flower of our age.' The beloved disciple was
the youngest of the disciples.
The children of godly parents are especially con-
cerned to know God. Know tke God of tkyfatker.
Thy father hath served him, and doth not repent it.
Godly parents dedicate their children to God in a
special manner, — tke son of my vows. The children
of many prayers should seek and serve God ; in-
deed, every prayer for them will turn to a curse if
they do not. God is a tried friend.
Those also who are advanced above others, in
honour, or estate, in the world, are especially con-
cerned to know God. Thou, Solomon, my son.
David had other children, but we do not read of
any such charge to them. Solomon was to sit upon
the throne. Those who have more than others,
should render accordingly. Others will be apt to
Beware of doing that which you would not have the Lord see
you do, Genesis xxxix. 0. Apply it to the sanctiflcation of
the sabbath.— In reference to dvh'n. It concerns us to look
to our ends in coming to duty, and to see alter what manner
we perform, Hebrews xii. 2S, 29. Servants work hard when
the master stands by. Soldiers flght stoutly when the gene,
ral is present. And when we have done duty, it may support us
in expectation of our reward ; though unknown to men. Matt
vi. 4, 18.— In reference to wantt. Despond not. Be not careful.
Matt. vi. 32 —In reference to dangen, Ps- xvi. 8. P. Henry. Orig.
BAS. See P. Henry's Eighteen Sermons, «/ npro, p. 87.
I See 1 Sam. ii. 33. 1 Cor. vii. 36.
186
APPENDIX, No. XIII. XIV.
do as they see them do, the higher the place is, the
greater is the danger if we are not religious. And
consider the advantage to be g^ned by it ; those
who honour God he will honour.
Suffer the word of exhortation. Labour always
to keep up right and good thoughts of God. He is
not a hard master, but a good master. He accepts
the will for the deed. Let Jesus Christ be always
precious to you. Let him be your Alpha and Ome-
ga, your strength every day. Take him along with
you in all your studies, in all yon do. Let him
commend his word to yon ; it is the book of books.
He is not a true Christian that doth not love the
word of God. The more of this love there is, the
more is the evidence of a good work wrought upon
the soul. Be sure you practise prayer ! You have
need of strength from God in every thing, and that
must be fetched in by prayer. Pray continually.
The praying Christian will be the thriving Christian.
Beware of bad company ; choose such as are good
for your companions :— say, Depart from me ye evil
doers, for I will heep the commandments of my God,
Psalm cxix. 115. I cannot keep in with you, and
keep in with God too. Be watchful ; we walk in
the midst of snares.*
APPENDIX, No. XIII.
It was, possibly, in reference to this, that the fol-
lowing testimonial was written.
These may certify whom it concerns, that Mr.
Philip Henry, Master of Arts, and Minister of the
Gospel at Worthenbury, in the County of Flint, is
orthodox in doctrine, well-qualified with learning,
parts, gifts, and graces, for the work of the ministry,
laborious and successful in his calling, unblamable
in conversation, and hath continued well-affected to
his Majesty.
N. Bernard.*"
William Holland of Malpas, R.
Robert Fogg, Minister at Bangor.^
R. Steele, Pastor of Hanmer.^
k From Mn. Savage's BIS.
b D. D. See anit, pp. 143, 144. ** 1661. Oct 15. Upon the evening
ofthisday^Dr. Beraard, parson of Whitchurch, died.it seems sud.
denly. Nov. 7. I vrasat Whitchurch, at the burial of Dr. Bernard.
Mr. Bridge preached. Luke six. 44*' P. Henry. Diary, Orig. BIS.
e See ante, p. 14^
d From the Orig. BIS.
• The Noncon. Bilem. v. 3. pp. 5-23-4.
f lililson's History of Dissenting Clmrches, v. 9. p. 213.
f See Dr. Harris's Funeral Sermon for Dr. Evans, pp. 31—44 ed.
1730.
h Bfr. Tong's Life of BIr. Blattbew Henry, p. 978. winpra.
APPENDIX, No. XIV.
It was about this period, A. D. 1668, that the Rev.
John Evans settled at Wrexham, as pastor of the
Independent church. He was of Baliol College, in
Oxford, and successively master of the free schools,
in Dolgelly, Merionethshire, and Oswestry, in Shrop-
shire. His father and grandfather were both cler-
gymen and rectors of Penegos, in Montgomeryshire,
but, notwithstanding the zealous interference of re-
latives, his inquiries resulted in nonconformity ; and
though, like his brethren, an implicit follower of the
dictates of conscience, he partook largely of the
sufferings of the times. He was a man of good
learning, great g^vity, and seriousness; of a most
unblamable conversation, and a laborious and judi-
cious preacher." Mrs. Evans, his second wife, was
the daughter of Colonel Gerrard, Governor of Ches-
ter Castle ; a woman of an excellent spirit, and of
a strong understanding.' Their son, Dr. John
Evans, was the author of the well known Discourses
on the Christian Temper. > Mr. Evans was *< strictly
congregational,"" and '' a high Dissenter:" there
was, nevertheless, an intimacy kept up between him
and the family at Broad Oak. Mr. Matthew Henry
has thus recorded the termination of his course,
which event took place, July 16, 1700. * A little
while before he died, which was in his seventy-second
year, he spoke with more apprehension than usual,
rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ as his only rock :
and when it was said to him that he was going to
his Father's house, he cheerfully answered, — It will
not be well with me till I am there. Some present
desired him to leave some good counsel with them ;
to whom he replied,— Go to God by prayer. ^
The reader will pardon the continuance of this
narrative, for the purpose of perusing, in connexion
with it, the following letter. It is transcribed from
Mrs. Savage's hand-writing, and appears to have
been copied by her in early life, while under the
direction of her father. It presents an interesting
specimen of the pastoral vigilance and affectionate
care of those holy men who have been, and are, tiK>
much spoken against
i 1700, July 30. Satt. I heard of the* death of Bfr. Jenks, of
Widinbury, a high conformist, formerly curate of Whitchurch ;
and also, of the death of Mr. Evans, of Wrexham, a high Dissenter,
—both, I hope, good men, yet of such ininciples as that my dear
father (of blessed memory) hath had many sharp censures from
them both : (torn the one for complying so far, from the other for
complying no further. Saith he in his diary,— Lord, which of these
shall I seek to please! Neither, but thyself alone.— I hope they
are now all happy together in that blessed vision, where Luther
and Calvin are both of a mind. BIre. Savage*B Diary, Orig. BIS.
k Tong's Life of Matthew Henry, p. 378. ut $mpra. See also the
Welsh Nonconfonnist's Memorial, p. 310. uttwpra.
APPENDIX, No. XIV.
187
A Letter from Mr, Evans to his people in the time of
persecution.
To the saints and faithful brethren in and about
Wrexham, with whom I have walked in the
fellowship of the gospel.
My dearly beloved brethren ;
Though the circumstances of the present day take
me off from the main work of a watchman over your
souls, in Tisiting, preaching to, and praying among
you ; yet, being taken from you in presence only,
not in heart, I desire still to be a faithful remem-
brancer of the Lord for you, that ye may be taught
of him, and holpen by him to feed upon the truths,
promises, and precepts of the gospel ; and experience
the same to be a green pasture^ and stiU waters, to
renew and strengthen your inward man, and further
your growth into him, — into him in all things, who
is the only head and lawgiver to the church, even
our Lord Jesus Christ What the apostle said vnth
respect to the Corinthians, I may truly say, in some
measure, with respect unto you, my desire with my
poor weak endeavours have been to espouse yon
unto one husband, and to present you a chaste vir-
gin unto Christ. Pardon me if my love to you make
me jealous over you, and to fear (as he did) lest your
minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that
\% in Christ ; and so another, to wit, a subtle, formal,
lukewarm, self-seeking, men-pleasing, worldly, car-
nal frame of spirit grow upon you, to the wearing off
the gospel savour, that sometimes hath appeared in
you, and to the beguiling you of all you have hitherto
done and suffered. I speak not this, as having any
demonstration hereof from most of you ; but as con-
sidering the day of temptation and trial that hath
overtaken both you and me, and earnestly desiring
that herein both I and you, our knowledge, faith,
love, patience, self-denial, sincerity, integrity, sted-
fastness, and constancy, may, when tried, be found
to praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that in such a day
I may not be wholly wanting to you in point of ad-
vice, consider and improve the particulars following,
which, under present circumstances, not so much I
as Christ himself requires of you. Hearken not to
the instruction that causeth to err from the words
of knowledge. Proverbs xix. 27. nor to those that by
1 ** Toooavince thow of error who say that believers need not
troaUe tbemaelTes Huther with reading and hearing,— if they be-
lieve, they are jostifled ; if once joatifled, al wajra Justified. Con-
sider i—aoch have cause to suspect they have no true laith, for a
troe believer bath that in him, which will stir him up to use all
laeans to know Christ better, and grow in faith,— The best are
ignorant of many things concerning .Christ, Prov. xxx. 2, 3.—
Thoqgb Juatmeation be an act absolved in one instant, yet the
oanifestatioii and asaunmce of it increaseth according as we in-
crease in Mtb. Bom. xiil. II. Our salvation is nearer than when
we beUevcd,^thOQgh inch as believe are sure to be saved, Rom.
reproaches, contempt, and scorn, would make yon
forget what of God you have seen and experienced
in his own appointments, Jeremiah xxiii. 16. com-
pare with verse 27. Let your most familiar converse
be, not with those that make it their study and dis-
course to palliate the neglect of God and conscience
in their compliance with evil, nor with those that
are mainly solicitous how they may shift off the
cross, but with those that are most careful to keep
themselves from sin, and to grow in grace, to the
pleasing of that God from whom they expect the
crown.
Be much in searching the Scriptures, which are able
to make yon wise unto salvation, and thoroughly to
furnish you with what is suitable to your case and
condition, whatever it be. Pray and wait for the
Spirits teaching through them. Neglect no means *
God affords you to discover his mind and will in
them, yet admit of no interpretation or gloss on
them, but what is consonant to the main scope of
the whole of them, which always and unchangeably
is,— the advancing of the gprace of God in Christ ;
the debasing of man in himself, with the bringing
of him to a sole dependence on Christ for wisdom,
righteousness, and sanctifioation, and redemption ;
the destruction of sin ; the furtherance of holiness ;
and, therein, the everlasting happiness of the soul.
When you cannot take forth new lessons, learn the
old better. Watch over your hearts, lest, through
unbelief, they draw back from any thing of God or
Christ that once you have received ; or, through the
deceitfulness of sin in them, they turn you aside to
any crooked path. Acquaint yourselves well with
the state of your own souls, especially, whether they
grow or decline in their esteem of, love to, and de-
light in, Christ and holiness ; in their hatred of sin
and vanity : as also in their weanedness from the
world, and preparedness for the cross. Let every
defect you find in yourselves still lead you to a more
naked dependence on Christ, and be as a fresh in-
centive to lift your souls with more earnestness to
God in prayer. In your addresses to him, forget not
Your fellow-servant and brother, who desires
so to be found with you waiting for the gracious
and glorious appearance of our Lord Jesus,
John Evans.
viii. 1 i yet a true believer, negligent in seeking to grow, shall be
greatly abridged of his comfort in this life, and afflicted with many
outward crosses, and inward terrors, so as he may lose his assur-
ance and joy, and comfort in prayer, and be like a tree in winter.
Yea, it may be he shall never, while be lives, recover his comfort
Though he shall go to heaven in the end, yet he shall have a hell
here all his life.** Mr. Herring. Oct. 14,1618 ; on 1 John v. 13. From
a MS. of the Rev. Arthur Hildersam. Ptnti mt. See Bfr. Herring's
Life, in Clark's Lives, annexed to the Blartyrologie, p. 180. ut
188
APPENDIX, No. XV.
APPENDIX, No. XV.
Another which was delivered not long after, shall
be added more at length. The text was, Jeremiah
vi. 16. Thu saith the Lord^ Stand ye in the wayt and
see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way,
ajid walk therein, and you shall find rest, fyc. The
first words, — Thus saith the Lord, should be sufficient
to engage attention ; for, wherever God has a month
to speak, we should have an ear to hear. Here he
looks upon the children of men as a company of
travellers out of the way, — he calls after them, —
Come to me, I will put you in a better way. The
way is Christ, John xiv. 4, 5, 6.
The ways of religion, like others, have an entrance,
•—the strait gate. They are hedged in with the com-
mandments of God. They are tracked by others
who have gone before ; and they have an end, — life
and salvation. The way of godliness is the old way,
and it is the will of God that we should walk in it.
It is also a good way, and those who walk in it shall
find rest.
Many look upon these ways to be upstart, and the
way of sin to be old. It is true, the way of sin has
been of long standing, and in it we all set out; but the
way of godliness is older. The devil was not up so
soon, but God was up before him, Ecclesiastes vii. 29.
There are four remarkable periods of time,— -two
concerning the old world, and two concerning the
new ; but in both, godliness had the start.
The first edition of the old world was when Adam
was created. He was made upright, and walked in
uprightness. The way of religion was ihe first way.
The second edition was in Noah's time, 1600 years
after. The old world was filthy and vile, and it was
drowned ; eight persons were saved, to be the seed
m In the preface, a like phrase was introduced from the pen of
filr. Matthew Henry, and it is gratifying to observe the representa-
tion as the joint testimony of two such witnesses. Though the
idea conveyed is opposed to that which, for reasons best known
to the promulgers, the persons called Puritans commonly receive,
it appears in full consistence with truth ; indeed, it seems to the
writer, as the result of diligent investigation, that due allowance
being made for defects, incidental to the times, and otherwise,
without invidious distinctions easily accounted for, it would be
difficult to find a body of men more loyal, useful, or devout *' Be
not ashamed," said the pious Rector of Weston Favell, *' of the
name of Puritan ; they were the soundest preachers, and, I believe,
the truest followers of Jesus Christ. I esteem them as some of the
most zealous Christians that ever appeared in our land." See Mr.
Brown's Memoirs of Mr. Hervey. pp. :{23, 224, ■/ tufra.
It may be remarked, that, in proportion as contemporary autho-
rities, distinguished by their religious excellence, or attention to
the simple verity, are consulted, and the assertions so frequently
reiterated, watchfully scruiinited, the more wariness of observa.
tion will be discerned in the description given of a Puritan by
Dr. Watts,— a separatist from the vain and dangerous courses of a
vicious world. Works, v. 7. p. 565. «/ npra ; the more candid
and favourable also, commonly, will be the judgment.
The following extract (h)m an original relic. Is a satisfactory
corroboration of many others.—*' The Puritanes, whose fantastical
zeal I mislike, thoughe they difTer in ceremonies and accidents,
jr«f tbey agree with us in miMMcg of rdifioit, and 1 think all, or
of the new. Then godliness got the ascendancy,
Noah walked with God ; so did Abraham, and Isaac,
and Jacob.
The first edition of the new world, was in the days
of the incarnation ; called, in the Old Testament,
the world to come. Jesus was the great exemplar.
There were also his apostles, divers holy men and
holy women. Inquire how they walked. The second
edition may be dated at the Reformation. Between
the apostles' time and Luther's there was a great
apostasy, but God raised him up, and the Spirit
was then working. Many were eminent for piety,
and strict and holy walking. This was the way of
the blessed martyrs in the days of Queen Mary;
and of the good old Puritans"* in the days of Queen
Elizabeth and King James. Some of whom some
of us have known. Oh, walk in their way. Nay,
it may be, you may be sent to your own old ways
.—not your first : they were wicked ; but, ask. What
were my ways when first converted f Most Christians
have their ^r«f love, and too many leave it.
The way of doctrinal faith is a good old way. The
Papists ask us ita scorn. Where our religion was
before Luther ? We answer. It was where theirs was
not, before or since ; namely, in the word of God.
We must try all doctrines by the Scripture. Those
doctrines are likely to be according to truth, and not
error, which abase men, and lift up God.
The way of divine worship, in all the ordinances,
is a good old way. The way of sabbath religion.
Genesis ii. 1, 2. is as old as paradise. Adam kept
the sabbath. The disciples kept the sabbath, and
Christ appeared to them again and again. Acts xxii.
6. They remained till midnight, praying and preach-
ing. John was tii the Spirit on the Lord's day,^
This was the way of the old Puritans ; they were up
early on the sabbath morning, diligent in the ways
most of them, love hit Ma***:' Letter from Archbishop Hutton, to
Lord Cranbome, 18 Dec. 1604. Printed in Dr. Whitaker's History
of Richmondshire, vol. 2. p. 315. See the " Character of an old Eng-
lish Purltane, or Nonconformist," by John Oeree.M A. 4to: 1648.
n It is an excellent thing, and very desirable, and to be labour-
ed after, that we be in tht Spirit on th» Lord's day ; and that is, not
to be,— either in the world, or in the flesh, or in the devil. Sab-
bath time must not be spent in worldly employments,— no man-
ner of work, except necessity and mercy. It is a good rule, to de-
fer what may as well have been done before, or be left alone till
after. Neither must we be in the flesh, in recreations. There
should not be feasting on the Lord's day ; nor in the devil, in
wrath and malice, in strife and envy But we should be in the
Spiiit, that is, in a spiritual fVame of heart, as walking, living, in
the Spirit ; worshipping God in holy ordinances,— public, private,
secret ; and also we should be tpirituai in them ; that is, sincere
and serious. When we are out of actual worship, we must be
spiritual in our thoughts and words. If we are doing works of
necessity or mercy, eating, drinking, travelling to and firo to or-
dinances, attending sick people, taking care of cattle,— we must
not do it as at other times. The day is holy, and must he sancti-
fied. Learn to keep sabbaths better. Christian resolution, care
and watchfulness over ourselves, and one another, will do some-
thing. Let us so act for the oommamTs sake,— an easy, sweet com-
mand ; for the cMaequenti" sake ; the promise and threatening sake,
wherewith the conunand is backed ; for the ernvtrwHom sake the
week following \ for the Redeemer's sake, whose day it Is. The
APPENDIX, No. XV. XVI.
180
of God, and went far in denying lawful liberties.
Many suffered mach against the proclamation for
sports on that day.^ But now there is a new way.
Many look upon family worship as an upstart. But
it was in Adam's family, in Noah's, in Abraham's,
Isaac's, and Jacob's. Abraham catechised his family,
Genesis xviii. 18. In the New Testament we read of
the church in the house; of families walking to-
gether hand in hand in heaven's way. As for pub-
lic worship. Then began men to call upon the name
of the jLorc/, Genesis iv. 26. — that is, publicly, — beibre
it was in families. Or; Then men began to be
called by it — to make profession. In the New Tes-
tament, we read that they continued ttedfastly in
the apostle's doctrine, and fellowship, and in breaking
of bread and ih prayers. Acts ii. 42. The old Puri-
tans saw many corruptions in worship, yet they
waited upon God in it.
The way of holiness and close walking is a good
old way ; as old as Adam, before he fell ; as Enoch,
as Noah. The primitive Christians so walked ; not
only in ways of worship, but in all manner of obe-
dience, Hebrews xi. 5. The way to please God is
to walk with hira.
The way of heavenly-mindedness, and contempt
of the world, is a good old way. The patriarchs
]i\ed like pilgrims, — here to-day, and gone to-morrow.
So the primitive Christians, Acts iv. 37. How many
professors now carry it otherwise, as if they had a
mind to have the world for their portion.
The way of plainness and simplicity is a g^ood old
way. In it Jacob walked, and Nathaniel, and the
old Protestants, and Puritans.
The way of peaceableness and patience under the
cross, is a good old way. The martyrs prayed for
the Queen. The old Christians took joyfully the
spoiltHg of their goods. This is according to rule ;
let every soui be subject to the higher powers.
The way of brokenness and tenderness of heart is
a good old way,^the way of godly sorrow for sin. I
have heard an old Christian say, I think Christians
do not come in at the same door that we did, for we
were long under terrors of conscience, sound humi-
liation, before we tasted joy, p— but now it is other-
wise. I fear, lightly come, lightly go. This made
them more watchful.
Riiig:'a friends are known by keeping the king's holiday ; for re.
Hfio^B lake, which is adorned by it ; for the reektmUg.aec9unti
sake hereafter. It is supposed that Christ will come to judgment
on the Lord's day. Remember the. sabbath, and prepare for it
bcfore-band. Set out well ; the Lord is rinen. Look up for the
Spirit's help. Do what you can. See to your families. P.Henry.
Orig. MS.
• A striking instance is recorded by Mr. Baxter in his Divine
Appointmeot of the Lord's day, p. lie. oct. 1671.
f Id oooDeiion with the above passage, the following observa.
tions by Dr. Doddridge may have their use. " Some sense of sin,
Jutd some serious and bumbling apprehension of our danger and
niseiy in consequence of it, must indeed be neceaary to dispose
(■ to reeelTe the grace of the gospel, and the Sariour who is there
The way of brotherly-kindness, and love one to
another, is a good old way. The way of unity and
unanimity. See how they Uwe one another, was the
old remark. But now ; see how they hate one ano-
ther ; — what strangeness and distance. There is no
telling one anothcr^s experience ; but jealousies and
heart-burnings. Acts ii. 46, 47. The way of love is
I called the old conmiandment and the new, 1 John
ii. 7 ;— old, because from the beginning ; new, be-
cause a new edition of it, a new example in Christ
and the apostles, and a new argument to enforce it.
Oh, love this old religion; strive to excel one
another in good ways. You have a cloud of witnesses.
You have Jesus Christ, who was a traveller in this
way. Endeavour to make this new bad world like
the old good one. There is a promise of a netc; Aeo-
ven, and a new earth. Be earnest with God to hasten
it, and endeavour, in your own practice, to hasten
his coming.<i
APPENDIX, No. XVI.
With such sentiments Mr. Henry's remarks, on the
case of Job, evidently accord, and may be fitly in-
troduced. They occur in a lecture delivered at this
time in the neighbourhood of Broad Oak.' His text
was, Job xiii. 26 ; — For thou writest bitter things
against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of
my youth.
Considering Job as a g^ood man, it may be noted,
that, even against such, God, sometimes, writes bit-'
ter things. Regarding him as an old man, it is ob-
servable, that youthful sins are oftentimes the smart
of old age ; they are so when God is pleased to make
us possess them. Viewing him as an afflicted man,
we are taught, that, times of affliction are times of
smart, often, for forgotten sins. Job was a remark-
able instance. He was perfect and upright; one
that feared God, and eschewed evil ; and yet against
him bitter things were written ; or, as the word is,
bitternesses. Many others of God's dear saints and
servants have drank, in their several ages and gene-
rations, of the same cup, though some deeper than
others; and Job, as deep as any. God had one Son,
exliibited to our &ith. But God is pleased, sometimes, to begin
the work of his grace in the heart, almost from the first dawning of
reason, and to carry it on by such gentle and insensible degrees,
that very excellent persons, who have made the most eminent
attainments in the divine life, have been unable to recount any
remarkable history of their conversion ; and so Ikr as I can learn,
this is most frequently the case with those of them who have en-
joyed the benefits of a pious education, when it has not been
succeeded by a vicious and licentious youth.'* Prefhce to the
Rise and Pmgreas of Religion in the SouL Works, v. i. p. iiS. mi
4 P. Henry. From filr. Matthew Henry's MS.
r At Danford Hall, near Whitchurch, on the road leading thence
to Wem. It is yet standing. See m/ir, p. 58.
190
APPENDIX, No. XVI.
and but one, withoat sin, but none withoat saffer-
ings. * He, wlut had no sin, was a man of sorrows,
stnd acquainted with griefs.
Against Job, as against others, were written bitter
things of affliction. He was afflicted in his estate,
in all his family relations, in his servants, in his
children, in his wife, and in his body. He endared
the bitter things of persecution. His friends sharply
and severely censured him ; they charged him with
the blackest crimes and enormities; called him
wicked, a hypocrite, an oppressor, Job xix. 13.
This was the more grievous, because they were good
men ; as for the jeers and scoffs of the multitude,
he made nothing of them. To be the song of the
drunkard was nothing ; but that so many grave,
wise, knowing, religious persons should combine to
vilify him, was bitter indeed ; especially, consider-
ing that they were his/rt>iti2f , from whom he expect-
ed different treatment. Psalm Iv. 12. When God
lets loose our brethren to persecute us, either with
hands, or tongues, or both, in our names, liberties,
livelihoods ; and that without cause, only that we
will not say as they say, where our conscience tells
us they say amiss ; these are bitter things. He suf-
fered also the bitterness of desertion. This, by what
goes before, in the 24th verse, should seem, especi-
ally, to be meant. Whatever his professed enemies
had done against him, or his professed friends had
said against him ; whatever losses, crosses, calami-
ties, or distempers, had befallen him ; if God bad
carried it as a friend,' all had been well ; the bur-
then would have been light But for God, at the
same time, to appear as an enemy, — to take him by
the collar, and shake him, — to withdraw the light of
his countenance, and to leave him in darkness and
horror, must have been grievous indeed. This made
him cry out, — Thou writest bitter things against me.
This put a sting into all the rest ; — the fire, says he,
was the fire of Godj chapter i. verse 16.
The phrase, writest bitter things^ intimates delibe-
ration, duration, and determination. The allusion,
some think, is to a judge or magistrate, to the king
or his secretary, signing an order for the apprehend-
ing, imprisoning, arraigning, executing a malefac-
tor, q. d. Lord, there could nothing have been done
against me, but by thy warrant, and that thou hast
granted ; not a verbal order only, but a written war-
rant, under hand and seal. Thouputtest mgfeet
also in the stocks. Thus God deals with others of his
dearest children.
B Dfus wuemn habuit jUimm km ptectUo, tmlhm Mine Jtagtilo. Aug.
In ConresB. P. Henry's Common Place Book. Orig. MS.
t Carritd it at a /rind. The Afiendship existed. Bfr. Henry,
noticing this, would say,— There are three evidences oT God's
being at peace with us. Are you ftienda with Ood, and at peace
wfth him t If so, he is at peace with us. Colossians i. 11. We
were bom enemies ; are we reconciled ! Recondliation is not
yet perfected; but is it btgunf There was enmity; but is there
friendship? Proverbs viii. 17.— Are you at war with sin! You can. 1
And it is not because he hates them, but because
he loves them. It is hard to reconcile bitter things
with the love of God, but they are reconcilable. Job
was greatly beloved, even when he was sitting upon
a dunghill; and so it appeared afterwards. The
sun broke out from behind the cloud. See chapter
xlii. 7, 8, &c. He is called again and again, — Mg
servant Job, See Revelations iii. 19.
Nor is it to hurt them, but to do them good. This
also is hard to be believed ; but it is so, Hebrews
xii. 10. It is like a bitter recipe under the hand of
a skilful physician.
It is done to purge out their corruptions. That
which doth this is certainly for good. Is it not?
Doth not thy soul really think so ? Is it not the
thing thou art praying for, and longing for every
day? as Paul, Romans vii. 24. Now afflictions,
. persecutions, desertions, are marvellously useful this
way. As aloes, and such like purgatives, though
bitter, are beneficial to the body, so are these things
to the soul, Isaiah xxvii. 9. xlviii. 10 ;— / have re-
fined thee ; I have chosen thee in the furnace of afflic-
tion. The reference is, especially, to captivity in
Babylon, when very bitter things were written
against them ; but they were thus cured of their
idolatries. See Psalm cxix. 67.
It is done to purify and brighten their graces. We
had never heard of the famous patience of Job, but
for the bitter things which were written against him.
His tribulations worked patience. The remark ap-
plies to the courage and fortitude of holy Jacob ; to
the meekness and humility, the constancy and per-
severance, of David, when Saul persecuted him.
These bitter things are like frosts in winter, which,
when clothes are laid out all night, whiten them,
Daniel xii. 10.
It is done to imbitter sin, and to make himself
sweet to them. Afflictions put us in mind of the
past, — of the sins of youth. And is not the remem-
brance bitter ? Zechariah xii. 10. They render the
present pleasures of sin distasteful ; whatever they
have been formerly, now they are insipid ; ° and we
never know what a friend God is till we have tried
him in adversity. He is a friend, to whom we may
safely and freely unbosom ourselves in hearty prayer.
He is a friend at hand, to support us, when we cast
our burthen upon him. Psalm Iv. 522. Then he affords
his choicest visits. He is a friend to save and de-
liver us out of our trials ; — that he can do, and he
doth and will do it. Now this we know, at other
not keep in with sin, and keep in with God too.— Have you taken
hold of Christ! If so, Qod is at peace with you. P. Henry. From
Bfr. Matthew Henry*s MS.
« Let the bittemesse of punishment make us all distaste the
sweetnesse of slnne. Say sinne what it will, believe thou the word
of God, which saith,— 7Xf »ag«t o/$imwii death ;— believe thou the
well-ezperienced In godlinessr. which say,— i>ii/c#f mmAtm, amara
man. Salves for the Soule*s Sicknesse, by Robert Lovell. 4to
1021, p. 30.
APPENDIX, No.' XVI.
191
times, doctiinally ; but, in affliction, we know its
use and application.
It is done to imbitter earth, and make heaven
sweet. Though the world be that to us, which Sodom
was to Lot, a place of trouble, and temptation, and
vexation, yet, like him, we are loth to go out of it
till it be fired about our ears ; — then we can say,
Farewell. Bitter things are, to us, what wormwood
is to the breast, for the weaning of little children.
Heaven to an afflicted saint is heaven indeed. It is
as the sun-shine after a storm. How pleasant is rest
after labour ! The blessed angels find not that sweet-
ness which the saints do, because no bitter things
were ever written against them.
We must not, therefore, think, concerning the
fiery trutl, personal or public, that doth, or may, at
any time, try us, at though tome ttrange thing happen-
ed. It is the common road, — the highway. We must
not, from thence, infer, that we are not God's chil-
dren, or are not beloved of him. Such thoughts are
apt to arise, Isaiah xlix. 14.
But, say you, my afflictions are extraordinary for
kind, for continuance. And were not Jonah's ? Was
ever any one so afflicted before, to be coffined alive,
in the belly of a fish, in the depths of the sea ? And
yet he was beloved of God. And were not the Jews'
afflictions extraordinary for continuance, when they
were seventy years captives in Babylon ? Yet they
were the Lord's dear people ; nay, his only people.
Sometimes the love of God is questioned, be-
cause persons are without affliction, and a con-
clusion is drawn, that they are battardt, and not
tmu, Alas ! What would we have the great God to
do ? But, as we must not make wrong inferences
concerning ourselves, so neither must we concerning
others ; as if, because God is pleased, in his pro-
vidence, to write bitter things against them, there-
fore they are none of his. God hath been a great
while writing bitter things against the protestant
churches. How long have they been afflicted, totted
with tempetts, and not comforted? Yet, certainly, he
hath mercy in store. So, also, against his ministers
and people, in these three nations, hitter thingt have
been written ; though, blessed be his name, not with-
out some mixture. The same is true as to particular
persons. Now, when the arrow is fixed in the deer's
side, the rest of the herd thrust him from them.^ But
we most not do so. Take heed how ye carry it at
such a time. Times of affliction are critical times.
V When the deer, pierced with the arrow, and punned hy the
boond^ runneth to the herd for shelter, they will not admit her
among them, out of a principle of self-presenration, lest the dogs,
in fetching her out, should fall on /Am. Swinnock's Christian
Ifsn's CaUing, part i. p. 97 4to. 1865.
w See Clark's Lives, annexed to the fifartyrologie, p. 171. «/
s When Ood'a hand is on our back, our hand should be on our
inooth. P. Henry. Common Place Book. Orig. BIS.
Dear brother (Matthew Henry) would say, if you have the
They are called trialt^ because they find what metal
we are of.
Do not you write bitter things against God while
he is writing them against you. Be sure you enter-
tain no hard thoughts of him, of his love, wisdom,
faithfulness, or providence. Say, — All is well that
God doth.* Neither write nor speak bitter things
against instruments. Remarkable is that of David
concerning Shimei, 2 Samuel xvi. Look to the
bitter root that is in you ; the corrupt nature, that it
bring forth no gall, nor wormwood, as at such a time
it is apt to do. There should be no murmuring, no
repining, no complaining.' There is great danger in
this respect When the water is upon the fire it is very
apt to send forth its filthy scum. The Psalmist said,
his heart wat grieved; Hebrew, toured, leavened.
Labour to answer the ends before mentioned. Is
love at the bottom, notwithstanding? Then let us
love him. Doth he design to do us good ? Does he
aim, by weaning us from the world, and its enjoy-
ments, to win us to himself, and to make us long to
be with him ? Then let it have that effect Sanctified
afflictions are good promotions ;' that is, when they
further us in sanctification. Believe,' and pray, and
wait, and ere long, God will arise for deliverance and
salvation. There is no such remedy ag^nst inordi-
nate dejections and despondencies, in an afflicted
condition, as a lively faith, and a lively prayer,
Psalm xxvii. 13 ; xlii. and xliii. 5. James v. 13.
To bring us on our knees is one end, sometimes,
wherefore God afflicts. See 2 Samuel xiv. 29, 30.
Those of you against whom God writes, at present,
sweet things, and not bitter, should be very thank-
ful. His ways towards you, in this respect, are dis-
tinguishing; with some he deals otherwise. Be
very faithful ; summer time is fruit-bearing time.
While he is doing for you, you should be doing for
him,— improving opportunities. Be very merciful
and pitiful ; remembering thote who are in bondt, at
bound with them. Be very watchful. Expect and
prepare for changes.
Let the whole be applied in the words of the
Apostle — For the time it come, that judgment mutt
begin at the house of God: andifitfirtt begin at ut,
what thall the end be of them that obey not thegotpel
of God? If God write such bitter things against
his Jobs, what will he write against the Cains, Pha-
raohs, Ahabs, Judases, of the world ? Take heed
that none of you be such, 2 Corinthians v. 11.'
use of reason, and peace of conscience, do not complain of any
other affliction. Mrs. Savage. Diary, Orig. BfS.
7 A saying of Bfr. Dod's. Life, «/ npro, p. 17L
• Faith is that to the soul, which the cork is to the net, when
the lead sinks it t— which the anchor is to the ship in a storoL P.
Henry. Orig. BiIS.
So'Dr. Sibbs says of hope,— It will ** as corke, keep the soul
(though in some heavine«e) fh»m sinking.*' The Soule's Conflict,
p. 486. Mt mpra.
• P. Henry. Orig. BAS.
193
APPENDIX, No. XVII.
APPENDIX, No. XVII.
The following notes of this discussion, though
evidently incomplete, having been preserved, are
here inserted, from an authentic MS.
Bishop. Mr. Owen, to enter into that matter as
soon as I can which is the canse of onr
meeting, I do desire you here that you
would give some satisfactory account of
your title to the ministry which you exer-
cise, and also of the reason of your sepa-
ration from the Church of England. I call
that the Church of England which is by
law established. I desire you to give ac-
count in the first place, by what right it
is that you take upon you the ministry.
Owen. My Lord; 1 judge myself every way
unfit to manage a discourse of this nature
before so great an auditory. I am a child
in years and knowledge, and your lordship
a father in both respects; my converse
hath been with a few modem authors,
and your lordship's with many venerable
and ancient; and, therefore, you have
every way the advantage ; I can speak
but very little, and possibly to little pur-
pose ; but the reasons are in print, and to
nominate them will be but actum agere.
There is Ames's Fresh Suit, ^ Alsop's
Melius Inquirendum; the answer of the
London divines, who were commissioned
to debate with Ihe bishops ; there is Mr.
Baxter's Plea, and his late Reasons, why
ejected ministers ought to preach; and
what Dr. Owen hath written ; and none
of these, that I have heard, answered.
These strenuously vindicate our cause, and
might effectually vindicate my silence at
this time ; but, my lord, having had more
satisfying experiences of your candour
and goodness, I cast myself at your feet,
not as an opposer, but as a learner. You
were pleased to promise me protection with
reference to the laws, that I may fully
speak my thoughts. Your lordship knows
that we cannot speak our reasons, but we
render ourselves obnoxious to the severity
of the law, and it would be satisfactory to
me if you would please to move the magis-
trates present that they will manifest the
same candour towards me, if I should, bv
b See Reliq. Baxter, part i. pp. 13, U
e Mr. Baxter, rererring to an interview «rith Archblihop Uaber,
•ayi,— **I asked him his judgment about the validity of presby-
ters* ordination ; which he asKrted, and told me, that the King
asked him at the Isle of Wight, wherever he found in antiquity,
Itet pretbytcn alooe ordained any ! And that he answered, I
unwary expressions, transgress the limits
of the law. My lord,, to come to the busi-
ness ; — I have been three times with your
lordship, and have given you, as I thought,
a pretty full account of fdy call to the mi-
nistry, and of the lawfulness of it. I was
ordained by presbjrters, whose ordination
I look upon as valid f that which I insisted
upon, as one of my first arguments.
Bishop. You go on and leave me some things to
say, which I cannot say, unless I will speak
them now presently. Those books that you
mentioned, I have not read one of them. I
am not so happy to have time to spare to
read all the late books that come forth. I
hope I shall not need the reading of any of
them. We have abundantly enough out of
those books that have been anciently writ-
ten. For that which you speak of, that you
desire that whatever you say, you may not
suffer any prejudice by it ; that, as for my
own part, I do promise you, and I desire of
the magistrates here, that whatever you say,
by way of dispute, (I only promise as to my
own part,) you shall not receive any preju-
dice by what you say ; and I do not think
you can speak within the compass of the
magistrates ; the matter doth not require it.
I will preserve you from suffering any pre-
judice, so far as I am able, in way of dis-
pute. Now to what you say as to your
reason.
Owen. As to my ordination, I acquainted your
lordship I was ordained by presbjrters. My
argument is this, — presbyter and bishop are
identitive ; both as to name and office.
Bishop. That is, both those names of bishop and
presbyter are used of one and the same
person.
Owen. They have the same commission, the same
work, and, therefore, are the same order.
Dodwell. They who receive their order from them,
which are the same with bishops, are the
same with bishops. But, ergo.
Roberta. I suppose there is no time to form syllo-
gisms.
Dodwell. Without a syllogism, it is easy to evade
one argument, with starting a new.
Bishop. When you find yourselves hurt with syl-
logisms, you may wave the argument.
Owen. They that receive their order from those
that are the same with bishops, have the
same call that those have who are bishops
can show your Mi^jesty more, even where presbyters alone suc-
cessively ordained bishops ; and instanced, in Hierom's words.
Epist. ad Evofrimm, of the presbyters of Alexandria choosing and
making their own bishopa, from the days of Hark till Heradus and
Dyonisius.** Reliq. Baxter, lib. i. pait ii. p. *i06.
APPENDIX, No. XVII.
193
But those persons have received their order
from these that are the same with bishops,
trgo.
Bishop. The minor will be denied, that presbyters
and bishops are of the same order.^
Owen. Acts xx. 17, 28. Paul came to Miletus,
sends for the presbyters of Ephesus, and
gave them a charge of the flock, calls them
bishops ; and that we may not conceive that
it is only the mere name that is (pven them,
he bids them rule the flock.
Bishop. You produce that text. Acts xx. 17, 28.
when the same persons, —
Dodwell. Methinks it were convenient that that
hypothesis were understood. I say there
are several times, of Scripture, when we
say, presbyters are not tlie same with
bishops, we mean, that when there was a
church government established, to last to
the end of the world, they were distinguish-
ed ; we suppose that in the first age. In
the second, the church was governed by
. In the third degree, there
were churches imperfectly constituted;
and possibly, in this time, there mi^t be
some instances. But, in the last age of the
apostles, when churches were perfectly
constituted by them, and left as a precedent
for them to imitate, presbyters and bishops
were left distinct.
Roberts. We urge that they were the same at that
time in acts ; — ^prove any rule for the alter-
ation.
Bishop. The reason why they are all one, is be-
cause the same persons and officers are
called presb]rters, and afterwards bishops,
and the same word ascribed to them, they
were then all one. We do grant, that the
same persons, the same officers, were called
preshyterij and episcopi. So the same apos-
tles were called apostolic and diaeonu
Roberts. But not in point of office.
Bishop. I will show you that, in point of office,
they were the same, Acts i. Apottoli and
ejnseopif who are all of the same office.
Henry. That makes for us. If one and the same
office may have several names, that apostoli
were diacani, why may not presbyteri be
episcopi ?
Bishop. If the apostles were called apostoli and
dimeoni, they were distinct offices.
Henry. The presbjrters succeed the bishops.
Bishop. You will say the same of the deacons.
Henry. No, not so, they were to take care of the
poor.
Roberts.
d Sec Dr. X*Crie*s life, of Knox, foL 1. p. 38S.
Bishop. If you will refer it to St Jerome, we shall
soon determine it.
Dodwell. This is the case you are concerned in, if
you will refer it to St. Jerome, we will refer
it to him.
Owen. Leave St. Jerome.
Henry. If your lordship please, we are upon the
foundation of the Scripture. Please to give
a satisfactory answer to that objection, that
the same persons are called presbyters and
bishops.
Bishop. I say, while the apostles were the sole
officers in the church, they had all those
names in themselves. I showed you the
apostles were called episcopi j nnd presbyteri,
and diaconi,
Henry. They had them all virtually and eminently
in themselves.
Roberts. When they made standing officers for
the church* they made only presbyters and
deacons.
Bishop. It is denied that they made no other
officers besides.
Henry. Be pleased to tell us what officers.
Bishop. The apostles made single persons to be
governors of churches.
Dodwell. A single presiding presbyter.
Henry. If there were no more but this one place,
it makes it as clear as the sun, that the
same persons were presbyters and bishops.*
Bishop. It makes it as plain as the sun, that tiicy
were called so before they were distinguish^
ed ; by the same rule, deacons may be
applied to them.
Henry. Jesus Christ is called the deacon, —
minister of the circumcision.
Bishop. He is called All ; that I showed you that
these words at first, before there were dis-
tinct offices in the church, were promis-
cuously used.
Dodwell. If you would please to say in those times
wherein churches were imperfectly planted ;
for proving of the distinction, I suppose
you will not make a difference about words ;
if there were one of these presbyters oi
bishops, that had a presidency over the
whole presbjrtery, and did preside for term
of life, and had the power of calling and
dissolving of assemblies; this is all we
desire to examine the ministry by, if you
will grant that one of these presbyters
were president over the assembly.
Henry. We are to distinguish between episcopus
prases and episcopus princeps.
Dodwell. There were nine arcontes among the Athe-
nians. I showed that in the same office ;
• SeeiTox'g Acts and Momiments, y. % p. 41L fol. IMi. T^
Answer of John Lambert to ttie Biib&^'% \t>2kx\«i.
194
APPENDIX, No. XVII.
yet there have been presidents that have
had some prerogative by virtue of their
place.
Heniy. As the chairman of a committee, the
presbyters that ordained us, had a mode-
rator. You are pleading for the bishop.
There was never a bishop to be found when
I was ordained.
Dodwell. There were bishops, but they must not
ordain out of their own diocese.
Bishop. For that which you produce, Acts xx. it
was before there was any single person
settled in that church, while it was under
the power of the apostles themselves ; but,
afterwards, there was a single person placed
in that church, with a superiority over those
persons that you call bishops and presbyters.
Henry. Prove that.
Bishop. 1 Timothy i. 3. the church of the Ephe-
sians, of which we read. Acts xx. and
there, after that which was spoken by the
apostle, there he writes this Epistle to Timo-
thy, wherein he minds Timothy wherefore
he left him at Ephesus. He left him there
with such a power as to govern the presby-
ters, and to ordain, govern, reward, and
punish ; therefore, there was afterwards a
person set over those presbyters, with such
a power, as we ascribe to the bishops.
Roberts. That power comprised no more than the
power of an ordinary presbyter.
Bishop. It hath a greater power than you ascribe
to single presbyters.
Roberts. The power lies in the minister to declare
God's judgments and mercies^ and church
censures.
Henry. There is no power committed to Timothy,
but what did agree to him as a presbyter.
Bishop. Hath every individual person the same
power that was here committed to Timothy?
Henry. I see no passage there that doth not agree
to the office of a gospel minister ns such.
Bishop. Here is first a power given to him who
should have a g^reater or lesser maintenance
among ministers; at first, all was in the
hands of the apostles ; whatever was given
to the church, was laid at the apostles' feet;
afterwards, it was committed to the governor
of the church, and Timothy, as a governor,
had power to judge who of the elders should
be most rewarded ; the labourer is worthy
of his reward, chapter v. 17.
Henry. Those things, which I say were com-
mitted to Timothy, were conmiitted to
gospel ministers as such; your lordship
mentions this verse there, which says, —
Let the elders that rule well be counted
worthy of double honour, &c. I suppose
yovLT lordship doth not question whether it
belongs to the office of a presbyter to preach,
but new, that verse that you mention doth
expressly ascribe rule to presbyters.
Dodwell. I question that — there are several gifts
of the Spirit,— and among them government,
which is one gift, for them that rule well,
then for labouring in word and doctrine,
there was prophetia and didascalif and logos
didahosj there was a different gift of the
spirit for preaching and ruling. Some
presbyters had the gift of preaching, some
the gift of government; so it is the rule of
the apostle, that every one that had a gift,
should apply himself wholly to it ; they,
therefore, that had the gift of government,
were to apply themselves wholly to it
Henry. Prove it that the apostles did observe
men (there were several gifts) that had
these gifts, and according as they were
endued with these gifts, accordingly they
employed them; that some persons that
had the gift of government, and not the
others, were to employ themselves that way.
Bishop. Romans xii. 6, 7. 8.
Henry. Doth this prove that these might not be
in the same person.
Dodwell. They were not always in the same person,
that is enough for our purpose ; and, there-
fore, where there was the gift of govern-
ment, there the person.
Henry. If It should be said, he that hath a gift
of memory, let him make use of his (pft of
memory, he that hafh a gift of is
not this.
Bishop. Is that denied?
Henry. I understand him that the apostles did
observe who had the gift to rule, and made
them rulers, and what persons had the gift
of teaching, they made them teachers.
Show us that the same persons there have
the same gifts there mentioned.
Dodwell. But they had not always the same gifts,
some had not the gift of government. I will
not make them always separate.
Henry* If you please, I will prove. Hebrews xiii.
Roberts. The lay-elders may as well come in, as
the distinct office of a bishop.
Bishop. I bring it for this purpose, to show a
single person, Timothy, that had the judg-
ing of this, who should be counted worthy
of double honour,— he was that judge.
Owen. That he might as the apostle's substitute.
Bishop. So then every thing he might do as
the apostle's substitute, a single person
was to judge of the presbyters, and to that
purpose to receive accusations against
them, chapter v. 19. receive them.
APPENDIX. No. XVII.
185
odwell. You are opposing now,— -that argument
may be framed thus,— They by whom ac-
cusations are to be receiyed against pres-
byters, are more than ordinary presbyters ;
but they who are endued with authority
over ordinary presbyters, are more than
ordinary presbyters ; accusations were to be
receiyed by Timothy, therefore, he was more
than an ordinary presbyter.
oberts. We deny the major. We will show you
a reason. A person might have power to
receiye accusations against presbyters, and
be one himself ; for one judge may receive
accusations against another judge, and yet
both have equal power. His having such
power did not put him in any degree, but
a presbyter might have done all that.
odwell. The proposition is this : — They by whom
accusations are received against presbyters,
are more than ordinary presbyters. The
proposition is undoubtedly —
enry. A superior order of presbyters ?
Ddweli. We do not say so.
ishop. Reduce questions to as few as you can.
MiwelL I will not wrong you if I can avoid it.
The proposition, as it lies, is undoubtedly
true,— that they who are to receive, that is,
the whole body, according to the hypothe-
sis, and in the whole body particular pres-
byters are contained, and by this means,
particular presbyters, not acting as parts
of the body, may receive accusations, and
so are superiors, as parts of the body, they
are above ordinary presbyters. Single
presbyters, as parts of the presbsrtery, may
have power over other presbyters, consi-
dered in their private capacity, where this
is, the whole direction of the epistle would
not be directed to particular presbyters, for
it is not one particular presbyter that hath
constantly this power. Here is a whole
epistle directed to one person, — they who
have a constant superiority and power of
receiving accusations without mention of
any other, are more than ordinary presby-
ters. But St. Timothy, a single person in
the church of Ephesus, hath this constant
authority. If he had been written to as a
presbjrter, it would have been written to
the whole presbytery.
ishop. I charge thee that thou observe these
things.
enry. Do you think that doth not belong to
every presbjrter ?
shop. No.
odwell. Give me leave to tell my medium. This
you say, that St. Timothy had a power of
iMaring accusations against presbyters as
o 2
a private presbyter. I prove not; that
power which it supposes to be constant in
Timothy, cannot be the power in particular
presbyters, therefore not the power.
Henry. I deny your major.
Dodwell. I will prove it Every particular pres-
bjrter may become a reus as well as a judge,
that is no constant power which doth not
always agree to the office. I deny that
bishops may be ret before presbyters.
Owen. We spoke of the college of presbyters.
Bishop. I say a bishop is not to be reus in a synod
of presbyters, but only in a synod of
bishops.
Dodwell. A common presbyter may sometimes be a
judge, and sometimes reus himself.
Bishop. He is not only to receive the accusations,
but to judge.
Henry. That is only to reprove, I conceive.
Owen. Elenehyn is to cut ofl* from the church.
Henry. It is to reprove sharply.
Owen. 2 Corintiiians xiii. that I may not use
apolomos,
Henry. But your lordship uses elenehyn; it is
that which is fraternal : an equal may re-
prove his equal.
Bishop. The authoritative is called elenehyn,
Owen. Against an elder receive not an accusa-
tion.
Dodwell. That is an elder in age. Let no man
despise thy youth, in age not in office,
the younger as brethren.
Henry. You were speaking^ of Timothy, as a
superior officer in the church, and now
your lordship grants it may be meant of
elder in age.
Bishop. Take heed, Mr. Henry. I expected bet*
ter from you. It is the apostle's charge,
— o^Atnif an elder receive not an accusation^
&c. those that are found guilty, elenche,
correct that others may fear.
Henry. Will your lordship give me leave to read
the words ?
Bishop. That place spoken of by Mr. Owen, was
spoken of elders in age ; pray go to the
other place, chapter v. 19, 20, 21 ; that spo-
ken of preferring one before another may
be meltnt of rewards spoken of in the 17th
verse, it is spoken with relation to the
power he had over presbjrters.
Henry. Why may not presbyter, in that place,
be taken in the same sense that it was in
the first verse concerning elders in age ?
Bishop. Because it follows what is spoken in the
17tfa verse, of elders in office.
Henry. He speaks of elders offending, it is ne-
cessary I should grant that, verse 19.
Bishop. After that which is spoken in the first
i
196
APPENDIX, No. XVII.
verse, there are twenty verses spoken in
tiie chapter concerning ecclesiastical af-
fairs, which he considers as all in the
hands of that single person, for that may
deserve to be taken notice of; he gives
him, as a single person, still rule concern-
ing those women that belonged to the ec-
clesiastical body, verse 11, 'the younger
women refuse ;— do not receive them into
the rule of the office, so verse 16 and verse
17, he goes on to other ecclesiastical offi-
cers, those which indeed were the prin-
cipal.
Henry. Under your lordship's favour, this proves
what was before asserted, that there is no-
thing said to Timothy by the apostle, but
what belongs to a particular minister over
a particular congregation, and lays before
him his duty ; suppose a particular mem-
ber of a congregation offend, suppose he
be an aged person, complaint is to be made
to the minister concerning this man, he is
not to receive an accusation, but before a
witness ; in his reproving of him, he is ex-
horted to carry himself towards him, not as
a younger, but as his elder, especially he
being himself Timothy, a young man.
Dodwell. This seems to proceed somewhat ration-
ally, if the case in the apostle's time were
the same as now.
Henry. The Scripture is our rule.
Dodwell. If every particular presbyter in the apos-
tle's time Jbad had a particular portion of
the flock allotted to his charge, as parish-
ministers have now, you speak something,
you read not of any government among
presb]rters, but only in the whole body ; not
one presbyter for one place, and another
for another ; they are always mentioned
together in the Scripture. Ignatius in
the—
Henry. This makes directly against episcopacy,
and for presbytery.
Dodwell. This was the case in the apostle's time, it
was not as now, that every particular pres-
bjrter had a particular parish by himself,
but the whole governed by the common
body. Now judge, whether it were requi-
site for the apostle to write a whole epistle,
particularly of that which belonged to him
only in common with others.
Henry. Do not you think,—
Bishop. Lay hands suddenly on no man.
Henry. I believe it belongs to presbyters, you do
not lay hands yourself alone, you have
your authority from these words, I do not
t In scripture we And, what ruling any minister hath, it is over
sacb people as he tpeaHa the word of God to, Hebrews zfii. 7. See
know where else ; their power was given
by Jesus Christ
Dodwell. Christ doth not give by immediate reve-
lation.
Henry. It is inherent in them by virtue of their
office.
Dodwell. This government being, as it was in the
apostle's time, administered by a whole
body of presbyters, whether you, in such
a case, would have written to one of this
body only, and not the rest.
Bishop. Ordain elders in every city ; it is not a
thing done one time.
Henry. If the government of the church in the
apostle's time were by common authority,
it ought to be so now. But it was so ac-
cording to this gentleman's argument
Dodwell. As far as I say, it is so still, for I only
mentioned common authority, in opposition
to particular presbyters not having parti-
cular proportions of their flock committed
to their particular charge ; that is not now
your doctrine.
Henry. The apostle's doctrine is my doctrine, that
I am to be ruled by those that preach to me.'
Obey them which have the rule over, that
preach to you, &c. That is one argument
we have against diocesans, that tkey rule
us that do not preach to us.
Bishop. Show this to be Scripture, or else wipe it
out.
Dodwell. I have showed the office of government
and preaching to be different, and, there-
fore, they may govern you that do not
preach to you.
Henry. Hebrews xiii. 7. Remember them that
have the rule over you, who have spoken
unto you the word of God, compare it
with verse 17, for they are the same per-
sons.
Bishop. Those in the seventh verse, are those that
were dead, those in the seventeenth verse,
are those that were living.
Henry. They weve such, as while they did live,
did rule and preach.
Bishop. That cannot be proved. Put that into a
syllogism.
Henry. Remember them which have the rule
over you, verse 17, obey them.
Owen. JEgoumeni^ — it is the same word.
Henry. Your lordship supposes them dead,— that
is not the argument Grant them to be
either dead or alive, the argument is the
same ; when they were alive, they did rule
over them, and did preach to them the word
of God.
Gospel Convemlion, by Jer. Burrouf hs, p. 30. 4to. 1648. S^
enU, p. 69.
APPENDIX, No. XVII.
197
Bishop. That did the Apostle James, and James,
Bishop of Jerusalem.
Henrj. DoUi your lordship think nobody else
did preach to them ?
Bishop. I know none that did but those.
Henry. The argument is still the same; those
that had the rule over them, were those that
preached to them the word of God.
Bishop. You saw in that text, 1 Timothy v. 17.
tiiey are spoken of as distinct offices.' Let
the elders that rule well, be counted worthy
of double honour, especially, &c.
Henry. By your lordship's favour, that is the
thing that is urged against those, against lay-
elders ; you make use of that interpretation
in that place.' Let the elders, &c. especially
they who labour, &c. ; that is, if they are
such rulers as are preachers ; therefore rul-
ing and preaching are in the same person.
Bishop. Therefore there may be rulers that are not
preachers.
Henry. It is a presbytery that is spoken of there,
and not bishops.
Bishop. You infer hence, that those only are to
be their rulers, that are their teachers.
Heniy. Yes. Why should they be called by the
same name, and the one be apostles, and
the other, ordinary presbyters ?
Bishop. The Hebrews, if they are to speak of a
Christian bishop, call him egoutnenos,
Henry. So is every minister to his flock.
DodwelL Those distinctions were really distinc-
tions of government, and of teaching. So
there are distinct offices.
Henry. That doth not follow. What, so many
offices as gifts ? An office of memory then.
Dodwell. The Scripture' doth not mention that ;
atterance it doth. I am showing the names
of the offices ; as these are distinct gifts of
the Spirit, so there are offices suitable to
those as distinct, they that had the gift of
government, they are called , they
that had the gift of teaching, are called
pastors or teachers.
Henry. Resolve to lay by names, and speak of
things.
Dodwell. They that were both pastors and teachers,
were particularly to be respected.
Henry. I think every pastor is to be a teacher.
Dodwell. I say not He ascended up on high, he gave
gifts unto men, Sfc,
Henry. It is some pastors and teachers ; it is not
some pastors and some teachers.
Dodwell. They seem to be in that place as much
distinct pastors and teachers, as apostles
and evangelists.
r See Bntcr*! NoncoDformist't Plea for Peace, p. 194. oct.
1629.
Bishop. All this is not worth the while.
Henry. What is gathered from thence, that is, as
in the government of the Church of Scotland,
they have their doctors, that is, teachers, that
is to manage controversies, and preach on
such subjects. Pastors are to apply them-
selves to practical preaching. I do not know
what the gentleman would infer thence.
Dodwell. That text, that those which rule, count
worthy of double honour, especially, &c.
shows that they might be very separable
offices ; as they were separable offices, so
the rulers might be distinct from the la-
bourers in word and doctrine ; some might
do one, and some the other, and some both.
Henry. I do not understand any thing you drive
at by that.
Dodwell. That consequence that you spoke of
just now, I overthrow, wherein you made
governing and teaching synonymous, —
none to govern you, but those that taught
you, this proves that the same persons were
not necessary to do both.
Henry. No. Let the elders that rule, &c. but if
they be rulers, and do not labour in the
word and doctrine, they are to have but
single honour; and, therefore, both might
be in the same person.
Bishop. We have been about that which is of
little moment. Here is plainly a command
to Timothy, to see to that matter of dis-
tributing honours and rewards among the
elders of the church, and to receive accu-
sations, and judge upon them, and to
punish whatever it is that elenchyn signi-
fies. Here is also a power of ordination
given to the same single person, (for that is
in the same singular number,) the apostle
charges him to lay hands suddenly on no
man ; the same is (pven to another single
person, Titus. These epistles were written
to Timothy and to Titus, after Paul came
out of prison.
Owen. Be pleased to prove that the 1st of Timo-
thy** was written after his coming out of
prison at Rome.
Bishop. I will prove it. That which was written
by St. Paul, going into Macedonia, to
Timothy, abiding still at Ephesus, must be
written after his coming out of prison.
Owen. I deny the major.
Bishop. Paul was but fwice at Ephesus, he could
not be there sooner than we read. Acts xviii.
Owen. You speak of Macedonia. I deny your
major, that it was written after his coming
out of prison.
h As to the controversy respecting the date of this E^lstU^tft.^
Dr. Doddridge's Family Exjpoq&lQT, ^ . •>. pv- "^'»-^fif^
198
APPENDIX, No. XVII. XVIII.
Bishop. That which was so circumstanced, I must
prove that by texts ; — that which was writ-
ten by Paul, going into Macedonia, and
leaving Timothy at Ephesns, must be after
he was at liberty, because there could be
no such thing before he went into prison ;
before that, he was only twice at Ephesus,
« and it could not be either of those times.
Owen. You say it was neither the first nor the
second journey, therefore, it was not till
after. I suppose it might be.
Bishop. He was so far from leaving Timothy at
Ephesus, that he being there, sent Timothy
into Macedonia, and there met Timothy.
Owen. But, my Lord, you will find that after
Paul sent Timothy to Macedonia, he de-
signed speedily to go after hiim, but there
fell out an uproar, that detained him a con-
siderable time ; and Grotius thinks Timo-
thy did return to Paul, to Ephesus, before
he went into Macedonia; and so Paul
leaves Ephesus, goes to Macedonia, thence
to Greece,— >stays there three months, comes
to Macedonia again, and Timothy came to
meet him there.
Bishop. I grant you that Paul went into Mace-
donia, and all that which follows, that there
he did meet with Timothy ; but that he re-
turned to Ephesus, I do not at all sit down
by Grotius's opinion. Pray give me a
reason. His opinion is, that the 2nd of
Thessalonians was written before the 1st
of Thessalonians, which is a senseless thing.
Henry. He had his faults.
Owen. It is the opinion of most writers on the
text You can hardly produce any author
that will stand by this notion of yours ;
that it was a third journey that was intended
in the Epistle to Timothy. Hanmiond.
Lightfoot is of another mind.
Bishop. He wrote his Epistle to the Corinthians
at that time. The Son of God, Jesus Christ,
was preached among you by us, &c. — 2nd
of Corinthians was written by Paul and
Timothy.
Owen. It was so, my lord.
Bishop. There are several things to be considered
in the proof of this, being a point of chrono-
logy, he sent Timothy from Ephesus into
Macedonia ; he finds afterwards, Timothy
in Macedonia ; it lies upon you to prove
that Timothy was at Ephesus between ; and
you should prove also, that St. Paul left
Timothy at Ephesus, when he went into
Macedonia. Here it appears to be quite
contrary. I will show you another arg^-
% ment *, it appears,—
Owen. I have produced several authorities to
Owen.
Bishop.
prove it, which I thought sufficient Ca-
pellus.
Dodwell. There are chronologers of many minds.
Bishop. All their authorities do not weigh with
me against one word of Scripture.
I will show that it is a new way you go.
I cannot find any one that times this Epis-
tle so late as your lordship mentions. Ba-
ronius quotes several authors.
The Epistle which was written after
Timothy's suffering for the Christian faith.
I have showed that St. Paul sent Timothy
from Ephesus into Macedonia, you do not
bring him back again. I will show yon
further.
Roberts. Let that lie, and go to another argument
Bishop. That Epistle which was vrritten after
Timothy had been a sufferer for the Chris-
tian faith, was written after Paul's impri-
sonment at Rome ; this was written after
Timothy had suffered for the profession of
the faith.
What does this prove ?
Therefore it was written after Paul was
set at liberty.
Prove that consequence.
St Paul being at Rome, we find Timothy
with him. What is said in this Epistle of
Timothy's sufferings, makes it appear that
it was written after he was set at liberty.
What is said of Timothy's sufferings?
Chapter vi. 12. Fipkt the good fykt of
faith ; lay hold on etertud life^ whereunto thou
art also called, and hast prof eseed a good pro-
fession before many witnesses :^-it is the
same which fellows in the next verse, —
even as Christ before Pilate had witnessed
a good confession, so had Timothy before
this time.
My lord, you are to prove that this was
at Rome. He was Paul's companion in
many of his troubles; it is conceived,
Timothy went with Paul to Rome, and ho
suffered much by the way, and it is like he
might suffer with him. This is no clear
proof.
Owen.
Bishop.
Owen.
Bishop.
Owen.
Bishop.
Owen.
APPENDIX, No. XVIII.
Afterwards, Mr. Henry despaired to see an ac-
commodation ; and, among his papers, the following
document, in his own hand-wridng, is preserved.
It bears internal evidence of being his composition,
but to whom it was sent cannot now be ascertained.
Probably it was a communication to the ecclesias-
tical commissioners, who, in 1689, were appointed
APPENDIX, No. XVm.
199
for making^ alterations in favour of the dissenters.'
His friend, Dr. Lloyd, the Bishop of St. Asaph, was
of the nomber. It is an interesting specimen of the
catholic moderation which pervaded all his feelings
and -deportment ; and it conveys his sentiments on
some points which were, at the time, the occasion of
uigry controversy.
1. Concerning Ministers.
It is our humble desire that all those that have
received ordination by ministers, with imposition of
bands, by fasting and prayer, whether of late, or
heretofore, may be declared to be true ministers of
the church of Christ, and equally capable, with
others, of ecclesiastical employment and preferment.
That when they shall any of them be called to
< any particular charge, they may be admitted freely
thereunto without oaths other than those of allegi-
ance and supremacy, whereby to evidence themselves
good protestant subjects ; and without subscriptions,
other than such as are unquestionably clear and
scriptural.
That, being so admitted, in case of failure in their
duty afterwards, either by error, negligence, or other
immorality, they be liable to censure and suspension
for it, by such ecclesiastical superiors as shall be
thought fit ; which ecclesiastical superiors, our opi-
nion is, should be a single person, assisted with
other ministers, gprave, pious, and experienced, re-
siding, if it may be, in some one the most conve-
nient place in each shire or county; which same
society may henceforward be concerned both in or-
dinations, and in the placing of ministers also where
they are wanted in those precincts.
We are likewise inclined to think it may do well,
that that single person be, as now he is, styled the
bishop, and those assistants in the stead of deans
and chapters ; and their vacancy, from time to time,
to be supplied by the substituting of such aged mi-
nisters, in the said precincts, whose infirmities disfit
tibem for the ordinary parish work, especially if they
be themselves desirous thereof; there to be comfort-
ably accommodated till their death.
Our desire is, that each minister may have so
much authority over his own people, as to call them
together in assemblies as oft on week-days as he
shall think fit, not compelling any to join with him
therein, but as volunteers in such duties, according
as they find it profitable to them for their spiritual
improvement and edification.
Also, that be may himself, with the advice of the
churchwardens, or parish eldership, both admit adult
people, after trial of their fitness, to the communion
of the Lord's supper : and also, in case of unques-
tionable scandal, and wilful persisting therein, to
suspend offenders from the said communion r ex-
* Abridgment of Baxter's History of his Life and Times, by
horting the congregation, till they repent, to with-
draw from them, as from disorderly walkers, that
they may be ashamed.
More than this, in this matter, we desire not ; for
we are taught that the weapons of our warfare are
not carnal.
2. Concerning Worship.
The ordinary parts and ways of worship, are, the
word, and prayer, and sacraments, and singing of
psalms, &c.
1. For the word, our way is, and we desire to be
allowed in it, not only to road the Scriptures without
being imposed upon, either what, or how much, but
also to expound it to the people, and to give the
meaning, which is found to be for edification. To
preach also, according to the ability given to us of
God,ybr doctrine J reproof, correction, instruction in
righteousness,
2. For prayer ; (concerning which we differ, whe-
ther by form, or no form ; if by form, whether by
the established Liturgy only, or by some other joined
with it;) that which we desire is this, that ministers
may be wholly left to their freedom, to do as they
shall judge best, and most conducent to the good
of their congregations.
3. For the sacraments, our method and way in the
administration of them is well and sufficiently known.
(1.) In baptism, we conceive the parents' profes-
sion of the Christian faith g^ves the child its title to
it ; and, therefore, we use not godfathers and god-
mothers ; and in baptizing we use no other dedicating
sign than washing with water. In both which par-
ticulars, if our brethren be otherwise persuaded, let
them do as they see cause ; we shall not be against
them in it.
(2.) In the Lord's supper, we prefer the gesture
of sitting as most agreeable to the nature of the
ordinance, being a feast of remembrance, and to
the practice of Christ and the apostles at the first
institution, yet wc deny it not to communicants
standing or kneeling. We use no words of prayer
in the time of the administration, therefore we kneel
not ; and, as for the people's either taking it imme-
diately from the minister, or handing it from one to
another, whether at a table, or in seats near adjoin-
ing within view, we lay no stress, either one way or
the other.
4. For singing of psalms, we use it after the ac-
customed way, only forasmuch as the common
translation, in many things, is defective, and the
words, divers of them, obsolete, we desire we may
have the liberty of such other translations as we
find better, — as Barton's, Patrick's.
6. For catechising, we have found much good done
by the use of that of the assembly, and desire we
Calamy, vol. 1. p. 452. «/ nfra.
200
APPENDIX, No. XVIII. XIX.
may be still allowed the use of it till we find a
better.
6. In marrying, we dislike some of the words
made use of and enjoined, and do desire they may
be altered, and that the use of the ring may be
either wholly omitted, or the reason of using it
better explained.
7. In burying, we Would desire not to be required,
either to meet the corpse, or to read, or say, or sing
any thing at or over the grave, or to do what is to
be done in the usual place of worship.
3. Concerning Ceremonies.
We desire there may be no law to impose them
either on ministers or people, and do not desire a law
to forbid them ; but, let every mdn be fully persuaded
in hU own mind. Such as wearing the surplice in
worship ; bowing to the east, or at the name of Jesus ;
churching of women; observation of holy days|
consecrating of churches ; keeping of Lent.
4. Concerning the Sabbath.
We desire that all possible care may be taken for
the due sanctification of the Lord's day, not only
by laying restraint upon unnecessary travelling,
worldly labours, and especially upon riot and re-
creations, but also by appointing, that all persons
whatsoever, not disabled by age, sickness, or other
justifiable reason, do attend ordinarily upon some
public place of protestant worship, of one kind or
other, if within their reach.
5. Concerning Courts*
Our desire is, that a difference maybe put between
those things that belong to and are of a spiritual
concern, and other things that are not. The former
to be managed by ministers only ; the latter, only
by others. We think (if authority so please) it may
do well, that, in every county, there be a trust in
the hands of lay-persons with power, such as justices
have, to inflict secular penalties :—
1. In things pertaining to churches and church-
yards, pews, and burying-places.
2. In tithes, and other church-duties, and dues of
that nature, for ministers' maintenance; and also
monies left for charitable uses, and for schools.
3. In register of baptizings, marriages, and bu-
rials, to be transmitted thither, and lodged there for
particular parishes.
4. In proving wills, and granting letters of ad-
ministration.
Concerning the regulating of all which, as they
are to hold their power immediately from the civil
magistrate, so to him only we desire they may be
accountable in case of mal-administration.
These are the things we do desire ; which, if
k p. Henry. Orig. MS.
granted to us, we will be thankful; if denied^ we
pray we may be protected from violence and per-
secution in the circumstanced of liberty and indul-
gence wherein we are. The act against conven-
ticles, and the act for excluding ministers from
corporations, being repealed, and as much of the act
of uniformity, as makes it penal to preach the gos-
pel and administer the sacraments without episcopal
ordination, and the use of the liturgy i''
APPENDIX, No. XIX.
The following are spcicimens :-^
An Alphabet of good Spirits,
An active spirit. 1 Corinthians xv. 68.
An active spirit is an excellent spirit.
Always abounding in the works of God ;
'Tis Christ-like, angel-like ; such shall inherit
Heav'n's highest glory ; sloth invites the rod.
A bold spirit. Proverbs xxviii. 1.
The bold in spirit are the lion-like men.
That turn not back for ought in duty^s way ;
That run and fight, and fighting, conquer ; when
The timorous coward never wins the day.*
Another mode of arranging subjects for the assist-
ance of his hearers may be here introduced. The
transcripts are from a manuscript in the hand- writing
of his daughter, Mrs% Savage, and a volume believed
to be the hand-writing of Mrs. Tylston : —
Alphabetical Precepts.
A. Acquaint now thyself with him, and he at
peace, and thereby good shall come unto thee,
B. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
sJuilt be saved.
C. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall
sustain thee,
D. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall
give thee the desires of thy heart,
E. Enter not into the path of the wiehed, and g4
not into the way of the evil man.
F. Fear God^ and heep his commandments, for
this is the whole duty of man.
6. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his
name.
H. Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with
the first-fruits of all thine increase.
■ ■
I From an authentic BIS. See alao the Evangelical Magaxine,
v.85»p.84».
APPENDIX, No. XIX. XX.
901
I. It is ffoodfor a fiurn that he hear the yohe in hie
youth.
K. Keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of
the Lord, and be more ready to hear, than to give
the satrifiee of fools.
L. Let not thy heart envy sinners, but be thou in
the fear of the Lord all the day long.
M. Mahe no friendship with an angry man, and
with a furious man thou shalt not go.
N. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord.
0. Offer unto the Lord thanksgiving, and pay thy
vows unto the Most High.
P. Pray continually.
Q. Quench not the spirit.
R. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy
youth, before the evil days come, and the years
draw nigh, wherein thou shalt say, I have no plea-
sure in them.
I S. Seeh the Lord while he may be found, call upon
I Aim while he is near.
T. TVffin up a child in the way that he should go,
I end when he is old he will not depart from it.
\ U. Unto man he said. Behold the fear of the Lord,
that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is under-
standing.
W. Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or what-
soever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
X. * Xamine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.
Y. Ye ihall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my
sanctuary ; I am the Lord.^
What are the promises ?
A. Articles of the covenant of grace.
B. Breasts of consolation.
C. Christians' charter.
D. Declarations of the good will of God to poor
sinners.
£. Effects of the merit and mediation of Jesas
Christ
F. Foundation and food of oar faith and hope.
G. Gifts of divine power.
H. Heritage for ever.
1. Joy and rejoicing of oar hearts.
K. Knit with the precepts, and the precepts with
them.
L Legacies left as by the last will and testa-
ment of oar Lord Jesas.
M. Means of gprace and sanctification.
M Mn. SftVBgc's MS*
« ** Give nlves to every tore, bat coanieU to the mlDde/*
Spenaer. Faerie Queene, b. vi. canto ri.
•t. ▼. World, ut iupra, r. 6. p. 464.
** ChriK Jesot is a aalve for every tore, a remedy for every
mlady^
Beamet of Divine Light, by Dr. Slbbs. p. 6. 4to. 1830.
** St Aartin doth wituen that the Holy Scriptures be the
N.
Namher, nomherless.
0.
Ordered in all things, and sure.
P.
Powerfal pleas in prayer.
Q.
Qaickeners to quietness ander the cross.
R.
Ready refuge.
S.
Salve for every sore."
T.
Truest treasure.
U.
Universally useful, every day in evcr>- thing.
W.
Wells of salvation.
X.
Exceeding great and precious.
Y.
Yea and amen in Christ Jesus.
Z.
Zion's peculiar.®
What is prayer?
A.
Access to the Father.
B.
Breath of the new creature.
C.
Caterer.
D.
Desires that should be offered up to God by as.
E.
Enemy to every evil work and way.
F.
Friend to faith and godliness.
G.
Guard against all temptations.
H.
Hearths ease.
I.
Incense in the ears of God.
K.
Key, to unlock all our treasure.!*
L.
Letter to heaven.
M.
Music in the ears of God.
N.
Nurse of holy joy.
0.
Ordinance of all ordinances.
P.
Privilege.
Q.
Quickener to all holy obedience.
R.
Remedy against care and fear.
S.
Salve for every sore.
T.
Terror to the devils.
V.
Voice of the Spirit of God.
w.
Wrestling with God.
X.
Exercise.
Y.
Yielding of ourselves to God in holy ob<s
dience.
Z.
Zion's artillery against all the Zamzamniim.H4
of the world.'
APPENDIX, No. XX.
His subjects, besides those mentioned before, of the
good and bad spirits, in 1688 and 1089, were, what
Christ is made to believers. He was about a year
(the whole year 1090) preaching over the history of
•aalves for eVcry man^s aore.' •• See Strype's Life of Archbishop
Parker, App. b. W. Numb. IxxxiU. p. 135, foL 171L
e Mn. Tylston • MS.
p " Though prayer be the key to open God s treasures, yet fifUth
is the band that tumes the key, without which it will doe do
good." The Saint-s Daily Exercise, by John Preston, D. D. p.
105. 4to. 1630.
q See Deuteronomy ii. 20.
r P. Henry. From the MS. of his daughter, Mra Tylston.
202
APPENDIX, No. XXI. XXII.
Christ in twenty heads His foremnner ; his con-
ception and birth ; his circumcision and name ; his
being presented in the temple ; his flight into Egypt;
his dispute with the doctors ; his being baptized of
John ; his being tempted of the devil ; his disciples
and followers; his preaching; his miracles; the
obedience of his life ; his sufferings at his death ;
his death itself ; his burial ; his resurrection ; his
ascension into heaven ; his sitting at the right hand
of God; his intercession; his second coming to
judge the world ;— which he closed up, and made a
short rehearsal of, in one sabbath-day's work, from
2 Corinthians iv. 6. — We preach not ourtelves, but
Christ, Then, what Christ is made of to believers,
in 1691 and 1092. Afterwards, in the years 1092
and 1093, what the church is to Christ, in twenty-
four particulars, alphabetical, from so many tdxts,
each of them a sabbath-day's work. His army,
Canticles vi. 10 ; his building, 1 Corinthians ii 9,
&c After that he preached, in 1093 and 1094, Upon
the most remarkable passageif in Christ's sermon
upon the mount. And then, in like manner, went
over, in the years 1094 and 1095, Christ's last ser-
mon, in John xiv. and xv. and xvi. ; and his prayer,
John xvii. Then he preached over the beginning
of 1 Peter i. : and, the winter before he died, having
had occasion in a lecture-sermon to warn people
against four common and scandalous sins; — dis-
honesty, drunkenness, uncleanness, and unquiet-
ness ; — and, finding them all together in one scrip-
ture, in the same order, he preached it over, Romans
xiii. 13, 14 ; subjoining to it Galatians v. 10. Then
he began 2 Peter i. ; and, when his Lord came, he
found him thus doing.
A little before he died, he said, — he scarce knew
now what subject to choose that he had not preached
upon already.*
APPENDIX, No. XXI.
Truth, he would remark, is a jewel of inestimable
value; and we should prize it accordingly. We
must buy it, and not sell it, Proverbs xxiii. 23.
Hold it fast, and not let it go, 2 Timothy i. 13.
Abide in it, and not fall from it, 2 John 9. 2 Peter
iii. 17. And, as a mean of all the rest, we must love
it, Zechariah viii. 19. 2 Thessalonians ii. 10. We
must love it more than thontandt of gold tmd silvery
Psalm cxix. 127.
Errors, on the other hand, are sins ; sins, because
transgressions of the divine law. Do not err, be-
cause errors are works of the flesh, Galatians v. 20 ;
• Life. Orig. MS. wi npra,
t P. Henry. Orig. MS.
u " Nee verb qmemijtiam tenvm audivi eMUmn, qwo loco tkotattnim o6nM-
let. Cicero de Senect p. 155. Op. torn. 8. Hi npru.
and because they are invasions upon God's rale and
government. He has authority over our under-
standing ; we owe the same subjection to his truths
as to his commands. Errors in judgment are the
causes of sins in practice, Matthew vi. 23. Epistle
of Jude. It is said that fishes first putrefy in the
head ;~so do many.
Error is very bewitching, Galatians iii. 1. It
works like poison, silently and insensibly ; it drinks
up the good spirits, the sap and savour of a man.
It is infecting, like the leprosy. A leper in the head
was utterly unclean, Leviticus xiii. 44. It is destroy-
ing ; a shot, or cut, in the head, will as surely kill
as in the heart. See Psalm, xcv. 10, 11.
Lay a good foundation in being well acquainted
with the principles of the doctrine of Christ. Take
heed of pride and conceitedness. The low shrubs
in the valley escape the storm when the tall cedars
on the bill-tops are up-rooted ; weather-cocks, set
high, turn. Seek grace, and special growth in it,
Hebrews xiii. 9. 2 Peter iii. 17, 18. Take heed of
living in any known sin, or indulging any secret lust
against light Avoid needless familiarity with false
prophets, 2 John 10, 11. Romans xvi. 17, 18. 1
Timothy vi. 6. Give yourselves to the word and
prayer, Acts vi. 4. '
APPENDIX, No. XXIL
The cultivation of the memory, with a view to reli-
gions improvement, Mr. Henry both felt, and urged,
as being of special importance. Of this his manu-
scripts furnish the following illustration.
In reply to the inquiry, — What means are we to
use, that we may remember spiritual things better,
to carry away with us more of what we hear, and to
keep it more faithfully ? He says :—
Get the heait filled with love to the things of
God. I never yet saw a covetous old man forget
where his money lay.°] The reason is, his heart is
upon it; see Psalm cxix. 16. Labour to see the
worth and excellency of heavenly truths ; so many
truths, so many jewels. Jewels we lay up. See
your own concern in them, Deuteronomy xxxii. 46,
47 ; get a clear and distinct apprehension, Psalm
cvi. 7 ; and the more distinct the better. A man
may carry a great deal more upon his back, if the
things be well-ordered and packed up,^ than if they
lie loose and confused. So it is with the memory.
Hence catechisms are exceedingly useful. Submit
to the power of the word ; the sermon that doth us
most good we shall best remember. Psalm cxix. 93.
▼ " One will carrie twice more weight trussed and packed up in
bundles, than when it lies untowardly flapping and hanging about
his shoulders. Tblogs orderly fiurdled up, under beads, are most
^ portable." Fuller's Holy State, p. 164. ut evpra.
APPENDIX, No. XXII. XXIII.
203
Attention is a special help, Hebrews ii. 1 . It is
said the people hanged on Christ while he was
preaching to them, Luke xix. 48. See Lake viii. 18.
Meditation,'' Lake ii. 19. A g^arment that is
doable-dyed, dipped again and again, will retain the
colonr a great while ; so a truth which is the sub-
ject of meditation. What harrowing is after sow-
ing, the same is meditation after hearing,— it hides
the word.
Conference. See this and the former in one
flcriptare. Psalm Ixxvii. 11, 12. As an orange, by
being tossed to and fro, from hand to hand, leaves a
scent behind it, — so doth truth.
Prayer. We should tarn sermons into petitions.
Pray for the Spirit There is great encouragement
from promises, Luke xi. 13.
The memory is a lazy faculty, unless rubbed up,
2 Peter i. 12, 13. Exercise your memories. The
way to have limbs is to use them.
Consider the great advantage we shall get by it ;
by the help of a faithful, sanctified memory, truths
may do us good long after we have heard them.
See John x. 41, 42. Psalm cxix. 62. Lamentations
iii. 21.
But there are some things which God would have
us especially to remember. In general, every part
of his revealed will. Particularly, our Creator,
Ecclesiastes xii. 1 ; To keep holy the $ahhiUh-day,
Exodus XX. 8.
Also, our latter end, Deuteronomy xxxii. 29.
Shortly, we must put off this our tabernacle; the
thing itself is certain, the time uncertain. Could
I be contented death should find me in my pre-
sent state, in this place, company, so employed?
Forgetfulness of our latter end makes us careless
and secure, Isaiah xlvii. 7. Lamentations i. 9.
The days of darkness, Ecclesiastes xi. 8; not only
that we must die, but also what comes after death ;
our state after death is to be an abiding state. If
we die in sin, eternal darkness follows. Think of
this. What a misery were it to be shut up in a
dungeon, though in ease, for a few years; much
greater, to be shut up in hell under chains of dark-
ness,* and flames of brimstone,^ and that for ever !
We have little cause to envy wicked men those
merry days which they now enjoy, for they are but
few ; the days of darkness, which are coming, are
like to be many.
Those who are in bonds, Hebrews xiii. 3 ; our poor,
distressed, afflicted brethren ; those, especially,
who suffer for righteousness* sake. When we are at
meat, we should think of those who are hungry, for
whom nothing is provided ; when at ease in our
V Meditation keeps out Satan. It increases knowledge. Psalm
ciiz. 99. 1 Timothy Iv. I&. It inflames love, Psalm xzxix. a It
wofks paticfice. Psalm cxix. 83; IxxTiL 6. It promotes prayer,
Psslm IzliL 5, & It efidesces sincerity. See Proferbs xxiii. 7.
PHeofy Orig.llS.
beds, of those who are sick, and in pain. Such a
thought may conduce much to seriousness, sobriety,
and thankfulness. Their condition might have been
ours, and ours theirs. They are our fellow mem-
bers. See Psalm cxxxvii. 6, 6. We must remem-
ber them so as to relieve them, when we have oppor-
tunity, Hebrews xiii. 16 ; which God will remember,
Acts X. 31.
Our past sins, Deuteronomy ix. 7. The sins of
our youth, of our unregenerate state ; not barely to
talk of them, much less to please ourselves in the
remembrance of them, but for holy, spiritual ends
and purposes ; as to mourn over them that they may
be pardoned, if that be not yet the case. If they
are forgiven, the remembrance of them may be use-
ful to keep us humble and low in our own eyes, 1
Corinthians xv. 9. Ezekiel xvi. 63; to provoke
thankfulness, 1 Timothy i. 12, &c. ; to quicken us
in our obedience. See 1 Peter iv. 2, 3.
The mercies we have received. Psalm cii. 2. Deu-
teronomy xxxii. 6, 7 ; though long since. Herein
the people of God have been very careful ; some-
times compiling long songs of remembrance. Exodus
XV. Judges v.; sometimes setting up monuments
of remembrance. Exodus xvii. 16. 1 Samuel vii. 12 ;
sometimes imposing names of remembrance. Genesis
xli. 51, 62. Exodus xviii. 3, 4.
There is good reason why it should be so ; for God
remembers our kindness towards him, Jeremiah ii^^.
The judgments of the Lord. Towards ourselves,
Lamentations, iii. 19, 20. Thus and thus the Lord
chastened me, and my sin was the cause. Shall I
then continue in sin ? Towards others, Luke xvii.
32. so as to be warned.
The words of the Lord Jesus, and of those whom
he hath sent. Acts xx. 36. Jude, verse 17.
What are those special things which God would
have us to forget ? Injuries done to us, Romans xii.
19, 20 ; our own people, and our father's house. Psalm
xlv. 10 ; i, e, the persons of our nearest, dearest re-
lations, when they seek to keep us from Christ, Deu-
teronomy xxxiii. 9 ; the customs, fashions, usages,
of those with whom we conversed in our ignorance,
^~those things which are behind, Philippians iii. 13.'
APPENDIX, No. XXIII.
The following specimen of Mr. Henry's paternal
counsel will not, it is presumed, be unacceptable.
s 3 Peter ii. 4.
7 Revelations zxi. a See Bishop Jeremy Taylor's Works, v. &
p. 517. «/ ntpra.
I P. Henry. Orig. MS.
204
APPENDIX, No. XXIII.
Advice to the Rey. Matthew Henry, and Mrs. Henry,
newly married, 1687.
Dear pair, whom God hath now of two made one.
Suffer a father's exhortation.
In the first place see, that with joint endeavour,
You set yourselves to serve the Lord together.
You are yok'd to work, but for Work, wages write.
His yoke is easy, and his burthen light
Love one another, pray oft together, and see
You never both together ang^ be.*
If one speak fire ; t'other with water ** come ;
Is one provok'd ? be t'other soft or dumb.'
Walk low, but aim high, spotless be your life,
You are a minister, and a minister's wife.
Therefore as beacons, set upon a hill.
To angels and to men a spectacle.
Your slips will falU be call'd, your falls, each one
Will be a blemish to religion.
Do good to all, be affable and meek.
Your converse must be preaching all the week.
Your garb and dress must not be vain and gay ;
Reckon good works your richest, best array.
Your house must be a Bethel, and your door
Always stand open to relieve the poor.
Call your estate God's, not your own, eng^ve
Holiness to the Lord on all you have.
Count upon suffering, or you count amiss,
Sufficient to each day its evil is ;
All are bom once to trouble, but saints twice,
And, as experience shows, ministers thrice.
But if you suffer with and for your Lord,
You'll reign with him according to his word.**
On the marriage of Mrs. Savage, March 28, 1687,
he founded an address, on Genesis ii. 22. Aitd
hrought her unto the man,*
Weddings are likely, he observed, to be comfort-
able, when God brings the married couple to each
other. All who come together, do so by his common
providence. A sparrow doth not fall to the ground
without him. But there is a special providence to
be owned, when people marry in the Lord, That a
marriage may be in the Lord, it is necessary that
the proceedings be according to rule. — In respect of
parties, they must not be too near in relation, nor
too far off in age, quality, and profession. The more
suitableness, the more likely is it that they were
II IT an oO^nce be given by one, it must not be taken by the
other • Tor if both be angry together, the fire will be the greater.
Shute't Sarah and Hagar. p. 85. fol. 1649.
b " A good man, being vehement with the ' Reverend and fiuth.
'ftill servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Richard Greenham,* he said,—
* You are Are, and I will be water.* " Greenham's Works, p. 742.
minpn.
« See Discourse concerning Meekness, poii. The Supplement
brought together by God. Solomon missed It in
marrying strange wives, and it was bis ruin. Sons
of God should not match with the daughters of men.
Be not unequally yoked. There should be free con-
sent of both parties, and parents also. Parents are
not to infringe children's right, by forcing them,
nor children theirs, by disposing of themselves. It
should be managed as an ordinance of God, eaneti-
fied by the word of God and prayer.
What God brings, he will bless to us, and what he
blesses, must needs be comfortable. When God
blows upon any thing, it never prospers. Psalm
cxxvii. 1,'
At Mrs. Hulton's marriage, he selected as a to-
pic for advice, Ephesians v. 24, 25. Therefore at
the church is subject unto Christ, ^c. And thus
pleasantly remarked ; — I am loth to invert the apos-
tle's method and order, and, therefore, shall keep to
that Though the husband be the superior, and
have the pre-*eminence in other things, he must not
be offended, if his wife go before him learliing her
duty. The church (that is, of the first-bom, con-
sidered as such, all the true saints in the world) is
subject to Christ He is owned by them as their
Lord and Ruler, both in word and deed. They have
learned to deny their own wills, whereinsoever they
come in competition with his, both as to what they
must have, and as to what they must do. Now just
thus, in like manner, are wives to be subject to their
own husbands. It is called re>*erence, 1 Peter iii.
Their speech is to be accordingly, 1 Peter iii. 6, 6.
They are to be obedient to their lawful commands and
appointments. I am unwilling to call them eomnumds,
unless in a soft sense, 1 Peter iii. 6. They are to be
patient under their rebukes ; be never both angry
together, 1 Peter iii. 4, 5. Thus God will have it;
your place requires it, 1 Timothy ii. 12, 13, 14. Gen.
iii. 16. You will have most comfort when it is so.
Observe one caution, — it must be tit the Lord, not
absolutely and universally without exception, but,
— in the Lord.
Husbands must learn to love their wives, by
Christ's love to his church, that was, a sincere, up-
right, unfeigned love ; a special, singular, superla-
tive love ; a permanent, abiding, and fruitful love.
The husband should show his affection to his wife,
by dwelling with her, by bearing her infirmities, by
going in and out before her, by guiding her way,
and providing all things that are fit for her.s
to the Morning Exercise at Cripplegate, ut npra. p. 997. Sermon
xvi.
d From a copy, in the hand- writing or Mrs. Savage.
• Dear fiaither preached at family prayer that night, from that
scripture in Genesis,— oimI ^brmigkt her to tht mm. Blrs. Savsge.
Diary, Orig. MS.
f From Mrs. Savage's MS.
f P. Henry. Orig. MS.
APPENDIX, No. XXIV.
206
APPENDIX, No. XXIV.
The following memoranda respecting the duties of
tjie aged,** drawn up by Mr. Henry, in his latter
days, will serve, still further, to illostrate his views
in the nearer prospect of eternity.
God expects old persons to be very penitent for
past sin. Repentance is unravelling our ill-spun
thread;* going back our missed way, — and this,
when old, should be our special work,— our repent-
ing work is almost done. Some are never merrier
than when telling stories of their youthful extrava-
gances. But this must not be,'' — it is to act them
over again. Never think nor speak of them, with-
out a tear, or a sigh, and that towards God ; sec
Psalm XXV. 7. As you should never think of a
friend without a praying thought, so you should
never think of sin without repenting. And this
should extend to present sins also. The pump of
repentance must be kept going continually. It is a
rare sight to see old people melt in tears for sin.
The aged should be strong in faith, giving glory
to God. Abraham was so when he was one hundred
yean old, Romans iv. Zechariah believed not the
angel's message, and he was struck dumb, Luke i.
The whole word of God, particularly concerning
Christ, the Saviour, is to be believed, and by old
people especially. Though others have as many
promises, yet they have more experiences. It aggra-
vated Zechariah's unbelief, to have had the instance
of Abraham, who had a son when old, before him. Be
exhorted then, by faith, to close with the Lord Jesus
as yours, though with a trembling hand. Close
with him for pardon, peace, acceptation. Live by
faith in all things, setting the word before you;
k See *' A DtocoQTM concerning Old Age, by Richard Steele,
IL A. 1668.'*
i How wilt thou untwist the fgrmer web, which thoa hast been
10 long a weavingt Dr. Manton. Works, vol. 2 p. 76. fol. 1684.
k See the Worlcs of Bisnop Taylor, •/ nrpra, v. 8. p. M5.
1 Tboogh your aflbctions are not only upon earthly things, yet
are they not principally sot This appears, when we afTect earthly
things in the first place. (The rule our Saviour gives, is to seek
/rrf tkt kiufiem of God, and to trust him for other thing8,)~when
we affect earthly things for their 0¥m aakes, and not in subordi-
aatioD to m hiffher end. It is only right, when we find the comforts
which God hath given us, excitements to obedience.— When
heavenly things must give way to earthly.— When we can be
content to forfeit m good conscience, that we may gratify our
ailfcctioaa towards earthly things. Herod affected John the
Baptist, and beard him gladly. But Herodias must be graUfled.
It may be you can say,—" 1 bless God, I am in Christ ;— I have
GlKMen him.- earthly things shall not keep me from him.** Be it
•o. But if thy affections are towards earthly things, thou may est,
nevertbelesB, wrong thy aoul. You will be exposed to a multi-
tude of temptations and snares, 1 Timothy vi. 9. A man» whose
afl^ctions are upon ikiuga abooo, is like a bird flying in the air;
whatever gins are laid, she is out of danger. It is the earth
that is the deviVs walk. Job i. 7. Here he lays his snares. Many
a good maa bath oict with temptations to pride, security, carnal
confidence: wbldi, if his heart had been in heaven, he would
have escaped, Ik xix. 6. 2 Kings xx. la— It will exceedingly
eyeing unseen things. Be filled with joy in believ-
ing, and be not doubting and disquieted.
They should also be dead to the world.' All its
riches, honours, and pleasures, are the vainest vanity.
Now to be dead to them, is to be weaned from them,
to see in them no such beauty, excellency, or desir-
ableness, as most persons think there is; and to
carry it accordingly ; see 2 Samuel xiii. 19 — 35. It
is commonly said, that covetousness is one of the
reigning sins of old age. How strange that it should
be so ! Especially considering what they have seen,
and known, and it may he felt , of the emptiness and
uncertainty of riches. They have witnessed how
often they make themselves wings. What ! and not
yet convinced? What! almost at the end of thy
journey, and yet loading thyself with thick clay ?"
Thinktof the time of day. It is almost night : even
sun-set. And art thou unmindful of the grave?
Thy body is bending downwards, let the heart be
upwards. Remember,— covetousness is idolatry.
Set ifotir affections on things above.
God expects them to be very meek, and gentle,
and patient. Old people are apt to be hasty and
angry. But they should put on meekness. Some-
times distempers and infirmities are a cause of fro-
wardness. Old age is often attended with deafness,
blindness, lameness ; but to quarrel with these, is
to quarrel with God. They are the fruits of sin.
Sometimes the disappointments and disasters which
happen in the estate, the family, the relations, chil-
dren, or perhaps children's children, occasion fret-
fulness. Remember in all these things to acknow-
ledge God ; Psalm xxxix. 9. Lamentations iii. 90.
Only by. pride comes frowardness. Old people are
apt to think themselves wise, whether they are so or
not, and to despise the young. The cure for this is
hinder thy communion with God. Earthly things are pr^dlcial
to our fellowship with God in duty,^when they put us by it,
when they indispose us to it, when they distract us in it, when
they choke it, as thorns, Matthew xiii. 23.~lt is the very root of
apostasy. Though a child of God cannot finally fall away,— for
the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal,— /4# Lord htoma
tkom thai art Am ; yet he may fearfully backslide, both in opinion
and judgment, firom truth to error; and also in aflfection and con-
versation, lirom his first love, and former zeal, and forwardness in
the ways of God. Therefore, iot kim that Udnlu ko ttandt toko kotd
le»t ko fall, Sfc. I Tim. vi. 10. 3 Tim. iv. 10. It unfito us for death.
A Christian should always he in such a frame of mind, as he would
be willing for death to find him in. Now, if death should find
thee drunk with cares, it were as bad a case as if he should find
thee drunk with wine, or ale ; the one would make thee as unfit
as the other, to 90 forth to moot tht bridegroom^ Luke xxi. 34.
Let us use God and the world, as God and the world use us.
God is our daily fHend,— the world our daily enemy. A man that
hath friends, must show himself friendly, Prov. xviii. 34. Is God
thy friend 1 Show thyself friendly towards him. Love him.
Delight in him. Beware of displeasing him. Is the world thy
enemy? Watch against it. Stand upon thy guard, lest it insnare
thee. Take heed of it. It hath slain thousands. P. Henry.
Grig. MS.
m Hab. ii. 6. Gravioribus sumptibus se onerare festinat cum jam
pervenerit quo tendebat Augustine. Ser. de temp. 947. See
Steele on Old Age. p. fil. «/ npra.
1206
APPENDIX, No. XXIV.
humility, 1 Peter v. 5. Consider how sinful it is in
the sight of God, how much uneasiness it causes
relations, and how much hurt it does to yourselves.
Moses's meekness prolonged his days, and made
him young when he was old.
The aged should be knowing in the things of God,
and communicate what they know. Many old peo-
ple are shamefully ignorant in the Scriptures : blind
spiritually. See Hebrews v. 12. Think how often
you have read, and heard the Scripture read over ;
think how many sermons you have heard. What !
and all gone? Has nothing remained? How will
you answer it ? What a shame it was to old Nico-
demus, not to know what regeneration meant. Be-
stir yourself yet to grow in knowledge. Be often
speaking to the young. Tell them what you have
learned concerning God and Christ, and holiness
and sin ; what you have seen of the wisdom and
righteousness of God in past events. See Psalm
Ixxviii. 1, 2, &c. Titus ii. 2, 3. You should be
teachers of good things.
I have known several, who are dead ; and do
know some in this neighbourhood, yet alive, — aged
men, of such competent knowledge, and so well
experienced in the things of God, that I could wish
they were made ministers, as being more likely to
convert and save souls, than many youths who can
talk Greek and Latin, but have little savour of God
upon their hearts. There is a reverend prelate, yet
living, in the Church of England, who hath lately,
in print, declared himself of the same mind.** See
the Bishop of Hereford's Naked Truth.*"
The aged should redeem as much time as may be
for their souls, and the duties of God's worship. All
time is our soul's time, principally and ultimately,
and it concerns us all to use, and improve, and re-
deem it accordingly. But it especially concerns
the aged, for they have lost much, and they have
little remaining. They know not how little, perhaps,
less than we are aware of. How busy then should we
be in praying, reading, hearing, meditating, sanctify-
ing sabbaths, communicating in the Lord's supper.
Sec Luke ii. 25, 96, 37. Thu would be work for your
souls, — work in which yon would have comfort to
eternity. Many aged persons have, in a great
measure, put oif their worldly business to children
and grand-children ; they can do little in the fieldS;^
or in the bam. The more then should be done in
the closet, and in the assembly. And let me warn
B And we Puller's Church History, book ▼iii. pp. 34, 35.
o ** The Naked Truth, or the True State of the Primitive
Church," 4to. 1675. See particularly the chapter concerning
preaching. Mh. p. 25. The worthy bishop (Dr. Croft) styled himself
in the title page, ** An Humble Moderator.** And, says Baxter,
*' because he wrote to heal us, and strengthen us against popery,
they gnash their teeth at him.** English Nonconformity, pp. 831,
333. «/ npta. See Walton's Lives* by Dr. Zouch. v. 3. pp. 349,
391. where there is some account of this oelebnted pamphlet, and
itsciftcts.
you of one fault, and that is, — drowsiness in the
duties of God's worship. I know what may be
said from bodily infirmities, — the spirit willing, and
the flesh weak. But yet we should strive all we can
against it, and grieve that it should be so.
Old people should be mindful of death and judg-
ment, and careful always to prepare and make
ready for it. Two things are to be set in order,—
the house and the heart. The house,— by settling
our worldly estate. We shall die none the sooner,
but we shall certainly be readier for death.P Isaiah
xxxviii. 1 ; The heart, by settling our spiritual
estate; that is, making our calling and election
sure ; repenting of sin, receiving Christ Jesus the
Lord, walking in all his commandments blameless.
He who hath done this, is ready for death. Romans
viii. 1. It is delay in doing it that spoils all.
Nobody says they will never do so; nobody says
they will never make their will \^ but they say. Not
yet ; not till such an affair be settled. And, alas !
death comes, and prevents both the one and the
other.
Now, consider what a mercy it is that we have
lived to be so old, when so many have been cut off.
How many have died, who never saw the sun. And
how many thousand suns^hast thou seen. How have
thy dajTS been multiplied. As many three years as
thou hast lived, so many thousand days, and up-
wards, have been given to thee. As many twenty
years as thou hast lived, so many thousand sabbath-
days hast thou enjoyed. And should not thb engage
us ? Lord, thou hast been good to me, — in reprieving,
and sparing, and prolonging, and shall I forget
thee?
Consider what an honour he hath put upon us.
Old age is a ray or beam of the divine image. God
is called the Ancient of Days, Daniel vii. 9, 13,22.
But he is not, therefore, to be pictured as an old
man. ' As magistrates bear the image of his autho-
rity and sovereignty, he sajrs,— they are gods. So
in a sense old men are gods. Yea, they are all
children of the Eternal. Oh, 'then, make sure of
his other image, which is called the image of his
son, and consists in knowledge, righteousness, and
true holiness.
Consider what an encouraging example it will be
to others. Our neighbours and relations will take
occasion from thence, both to glorify God, and to
reverence us. The hoary head is a crown of glory.
P Setting a man's house and heart in order, will not make a
man die the sooner; it will help the man to die the better. Ca.
naan's Flowings, by Ralph Venning, p. 47. «/ «»pra.
q One of the three things of which Aristotle repented, was,—
That he had lived one day, not having his will made. Stanley*s
History of Philosophy, «/ npra.
t Alluding, probably, to the celebrated picture in the window
of St. Edmund's Church, Salisbury. See Prynn^^ Canterburies
Doome. foL 1946. p. 102.
APPENDIX, No. XXIV. XXV.
207
foand in the way of righteousness ; other-
is a crown of shame. Noah was drunken
e, and then he was mocked. The apostle,
Qg Timothy, said,-*/>f no man despise thy
So I would say to you, — Let no man despise
, Do nothing to he despised. Watch against
1 may think you are in no danger of. Be an
e of the believers. The young will dress
Yes by you, as by their glass.*
ider how comfortable it will be to yourselves,
ind dying. Old age is attended with many
But much of their effect is taken off by re-
nd godliness. ^ He thai is of a merry heart,
THtinual feast, A merry heart, that is, a good
Dce, bearing testimony to our integrity, 2
ians i. 12. This will lighten all our bur-
We shall have the smiles of God's face, and
and we may boldly entreat for them, as Da-
ilm Ixxi. 17, 18. Isaiah xlvi. 3, 4. Psalm
•
der what a foundation it lays for a happy
All the good fruit we bring forth now, will
abounding to our account for ever. I say,
'.° Thou thinkest seventy, eighty, ninety
long time, and so it is. But what then is
? An ocean, without bound or bottom. A
vithout beginning or end. Oh, eternity, eter-
[ow should the thought thereof fill us. To
rable to eternity ! How miserable ! To be
9 eternity ! What happiness !
I prevail with you to bring forth fruit in old
on will not repent it. Your labour shall not
lin in the Lord. Not a prayer, a tear, an
good thought, a good word, a good work,
in vain.
your fruit-bearing, see your need of Christ
r need of his grace and strength to enable
in XV. 5. And come to him for it daily,
r need of his merit and righteousness, to
u and your fruit accepted, Ephesians i. 6.
his love to you, in suffering and dying, be
ailing motive in every thing, Philippians
Swinnock, in bis Heaven and Hell epitomized, ad-
n an epistle dedicatory, his Mend, Richard Beres-
aya of great men.— You are the looking-glasses by
rs dress themselves, ut npra.
le troubles and afflictions that be&ll us, it is matter of
itt, they are to last but a while. BMd, Mm kaai mad*
K kMd^nUik. At furthest, death will set us free, and
be &r off; then sinning will cease, and sorrow and
flee away. They that are in Christ, as David was, may
maelves with this. Others cannot P. Henry. Orig.
I of lioly llr. Ward, that being in the midst of a dinner,
ooplative, and the people wondering what he was I
APPENDIX, No. XXV.
It may be gratifying to some readers to know, tiiat
Mr. Henry was an advocate for common-place books.
He used two. The one was adapted for the pocket,
being merely a volume of reference: titles were
placed on each leaf, and a blank left underneath,
in which to note the names of authors and pages.
The other was a large folio volume, divided into
1250 pages."
The volume ' thus commences.
ii
Quod leyis intente meditare ae imjnime mentis
Ne si eharta eadai, tune euneta scieniia vadat,"
I read a book the first time, to see and like it ; the
isiecond time, to note and observe both method and
matter ; the third time, to carry away and make use.
A saying of Sir Edward Maunsell, cited by Mr. H.
Holland, in his Preface to the second part of Mr.
Greenham's Works.^
The first part of the volume is miacellaneons, and
is arranged under the ensuing titles.
Holy Scriptures. Their excellency ; the love and
study of them, et contra ; their authority ; their per-
spicuity; their harmony; translation; interpreta-
tion; apocrypha.
God. There is a God ; names of Grod ; attributes
of God ; vrill of God ; holiness ; wisdom of God ;
power of God ; mercy of God ; justice of God ; om-
nisciency.
Trinity of persons.
Holy Ghost.
Decrees of God.
Election.
Reprobation ; creation ; providence.
^ Angels. Their creation and nature ; their num-
ber and orders ; their offices ; not to be worshipped ;
their fall.
Devils. Given to the devil ; possessed ; apparition.
Man. Woman. Man in innocency; man in
misery.
Christ. Godhead of Christ ; incarnation ; life of
Christ ; sufferings of Christ ; death of Christ ; burial ;
musing abont, he presently breaks ont, F^ ntr^ for etm, fgr «Mr ;
and though they endeavoured to still him. yet he still cried out,—
F^ttrjor ntr^for etm. Oh, eternity ! to be for ever in heaven
with God and Christ, how shall this swallow up all other thoughts
and aims ! Looking unto Jesus, by Isaac Ambroae. 4to. 1GS8. p. 504.
T P. Henry. Orig. MS.
w idSS. Jan. 17. Exchanged with Mr. Thomas my common-place
book, wherein something written for a larger of clean paper.— la.
New oommon«place book, ruled and prepared, wherein 1 purpose
to take pains. Non $tra nutria, P. Henry. Diary. Orig. MS.
X In the possession of Joseph Lee, Esq. Jun., Red Brook Fum,
hear Broad Oak.
7 See ffs/r, p. 110.
208
APPENDIX, No. XXV.
descent into hell ; resurrection of Christ ; satisfac-
tion of Christ ; intercession of Christ ; kingdom of
Christ.
Covenant. Covenant of works; law; covenant of
grace.
Gospel. Decalogue ; promises ; threatenings ; re-
demption ; idleness ; vocation ; calling ; conversion ;
regeneration ; adoption ; justification ; sanctifica-
tion; mortification; assurance-wanted; growth in
grace ; perseverance ; apostasy ; good works ; obe-
dience ; perfection ; spiritual gifts ; grace ; know-
ledge ; ignorance ; of self ; faith ; repentance not
to he deferred ; godly sorrow ; tears ; confession of
sin ; sincerity ; hypocrisy ; humility ; pride,— in
clothes, — in long hair ; meekness ; charity ; forgiv-
ing injuries ; lending ; not judging ; fidelity ; pati-
ence ; impatience ; contentment ; discontent ; jus-
tice ; liberality ; frugality ; fortitude ; sobriety ;
temperance ; gluttony ; drunkenness ; of healths ;
self-denial ; public spirit ; unity ; division ; differ-
ences ; duties ; meditation ; occasional prayer,— 'a
duty ; prayer, — fervent ; success of prayer ; secret
prayer; family prayer; posture and gesture in
prayer ; Amen ; thankfulness ; thanksgiving ; alms'-
giving ; watchfulness ; reproof taken ; oath ; vow.
Sin. None little ; excuses of sin ; others' sins ;
evil of sin ; reigning sin ; God not the author of sin ;
original sin ; inherent.
Atheism. Idolatry ; blasphemy ; swearing ; per-
jury ; cursing ; superstition ; will- worship ; temples.
Sacrilege. Punished.
Murder. Prevented; discovered; revenged.
Duels. Uncleanness ; adultery ; fornication ; in-
cest ; sodomy ; bestiality ; chastity ; theft ; resti-
tution; bribery; lying; equivocation; dissimula-
tion ; slander.
Flattery. Checked; courted.
Envy. Covetousness ; prodigality.
Usury. Heathen; canons.
Ambition. Omissions ; presumption ; despair^
sin against tiie Holy Ghost ; temptation ; desertion.
Persecution ; judgpnents on persecutors.
Martyrdom. Martyrs ; courage of dying martyrs.
Soul. Understanding.
Will. Free will ; contra.
Memory. Defect ; vast memory.
Conscience. Thoughts ;' affections.
Love. Of God ; of self; of friends ; of enemies.
Hatred.
Joy. In tribulation.
Grief. Desire ; hope ; fear and boldness.
Anger. Yielding pacifies ; revenge.
Zeal. Examples.
Sympathy. Antipathy.
Body of man. Eye ; face ; hands ; veins.
Tongue.
Recreation. Plays ; gaming ; tables, cards, and
dice; chess; dancing.
Melancholy. Infancy ; childhood ; youth ; old
age; health.
Sickness. Stone ; king's evil ; French disease.
Honour. To be denied for Christ ; nobiii^ ;
riches contemned.
Poverty. Prosperity; afflictions; life.
Death. Desirous of death ; afraid of death ; of
the godly ; to be thought of.
Burial. Resurrection of the body ; last j udgment
Heaven. Shall we know one another there.
Hell. War.
Peace. Peace-making.
Plenty. Famine ; company ; solitude ; time;
eternity.
Fathers. Schoolmen; Christian religion ; church;
government ; toleration ; church reformation ; cen-
sures.
Excommunication. Who are to excommunicate ;
who are to be exooDununicated.
Councils. Synods.
Ordination.
Ministers. Dignity ; duty ; industry ; skill in
languages ; conversation ; success ; opposition ;
contentions ; pluralities.
Lay elders. Deacons ; prelacy ; prelates ; ordi*
nances ; public worship ; liturgy ; Lord's Prayer.
Ceremonies. Bowing at the name of Jesus ; sur«
plice.
Christian liberty. Preaching ; hearing ; cat^
chising; psalm-sing^ng ; confirmation ; sacraments^
baptism.
Godfathers and godmothers. Of infants.
Lord's supper. Names; nature; elements; abuse;
preparation; administration; place; g^ture.
Lord's day. The doctrine of it ; the love and
practice of it.
Fasting. Feasting; festivals.
Tithes. First fruits; impropriations; mortuaries.
Marriage. Polygamy ; divorce ; husband and
wife ; parents and children ; master and servants ;
magistrate and] subjects ; minister and people ; re-
sidency; respect
Heresy. What it is ; qualities ; necessity ; refu^
tation.
Heretics. Cunning ; seeming holiness ; pride ;
sin and punishment.
Schism. What is it ?
Schismatic. Antichrist ; pope's supremacy ; pope's
infallibility ; indulgences ; purgatory ; extreme unc-
tion ; transubstantiation ; mass ; image worship ;
relics ; prayer for the dead ; praying to saints ;
merit; supererogation ; traditions : miracles ; tntii;
error; papists; protestants.
Popish orders. Cardinals ; Jesuits.
Arminians. Socinians; Antinomians; Ana-bap-
tists; Quakers; Jews.
Jewish rites. Sabbath ; circumcision ; passoTor.
Jews' conversion. Schools ; universities ; leam-
APPENDIX, No. XXV.
209
bg ; grammar ; rhetoric ; poetry ; philosophy ; his-
tory; mathematics; masic; optics; politics.
Laws. Lawyers ; judges ; physic ; physician ;
astrology; meteors; dreams; witchcraft; jests;
riddles ; proverbs ; emblems ; anagrams ; chrono-
irams ; mottos ; epitaphs.
The Second Part is geographical, and thus ar-
ranged:—
World. Europe; Asia; Africa; America. Eng-
land,— London, Oxford, and Cambridge. Wales;
Scotland; Ireland. France,— Paris ; Spain; Italy;
Naples ; Florence ; Siena ; Verona ; Milan ; Ge-
nera; Venice; Padua; Rome, Old, New; Ger-
many ; Low Countries ; Denmark ; Swedland ; Hun-
gary ; Poland ; Transylvania ; Russia ; Greece ;
Turkey; Palestine; Jerusalem; Tartary; China;
Persia ; East Indies ; Arabia ; Egypt ; Islands ;
Crete ; Cyprus ; Zante.
The Third Part is biographical, consisting of
four sub-diyisions.
Viri celebriores.
A h orbe amdito ad Christum natum.
Adam ; Eve ; Homer ; Lycurgus ; Hesiod ; Ro-
mulus ; Thales ; Socrates ; Pythagoras ; iEsop
Pindar ; Heraclitus ; Democritus ; Hippocrates
Euripides ; Sophocles ; Herodotus ; Thucydides
Aristophanes ; Isocrates ; Xenophon ; Demosthenes
Plato; Euclid; Aristotle; Alexander; Theocritus
Aratus; Zeno; Berosus; Diogenes; Hannibal ; Cato|:
Polybius ; Archimedes ; Chrysippus ; Plautus
Ennius ; Terence ; Lucretius ; P. Scipio ; Cicero
Catiline; Pompey ; Julius Caesar ; Aug^tus Caosar
Oiidius; Virgil.
Viri celebriores.
A nato Chriiio ad Constantinum.
Peter ; Andrew ; James of Zebedee ; John ;
l^hilip; Bartholomew; Thomas; Matthew; James,
of Alphens ; Lebbeus, alias Thaddeus ; Simon, the
Canaanite; Judas Iscariot; Philo; Simon Magus
Meoander; Nicolaus; Plinius Secundus; Lucan
Tiberiiu Csesar ; Cains Caligula ; Claudius Caesar
Kero Caesar ; Sulpitius Galba ; Salvius Otho
Aulas VitelUos ; Flavins Vespasianus ; Titus Ves-
ipaaanofl ; Flavimi Domitianus ; Coccejus Nerva ;
Ulpius Trajanus ; iElius Adrianus ; Lucius iElius
Vems ; Antoninus Philosophus ; Antoninus Pius ;
L. Aurelins Commodus ; HelviusPertinax; Didius
Jalianos; Pescennios Niger, a usurper; Clodius
AAimiSy MFrtfti**^ tmirper, with Niger ; L. Septimus
Severus; Ignatius; Justin Martyr ; Irenaeus; Cle-
mens Alexandrinus ; Tertullian; Origen; Cyprian.
Viri celebriores.
A Constantino ad Luthei*um.
t. e. ab A. D. 307. ad A, D. 1517.
Constantine, sumamed the Great; Julian, the
Apostate ; Lactantius ; Ambrose ; Augustine ;
Monica ; Hierome ; Athanasius ; Chrysostom ; Hi-
lary ; Germanus St. Germane ; St Patrick ; Co-
lumba ; St Kintigem, or Mungo ; Mahomet ; Jo«
annes Duns Scotus ; Columbus.
Viri celebriores.
A Luthero ad usq, nunc.
Martin Luther ; Joannes Capnio : Henry the
Seventh, of England ; Zuinglius ; CBcolampadius ;
Melancthon ; Erasmus ; Scaliger ; Paulus Fagius ;
Charles the Fifth ; Philip the Second ; Henry the
Eighth ; Edward the Sixth ; Queen Mary ; Lady
Jane Grey ; More ; Wolsey ; Paracelsus ; John
Calvin ; Peter Martyr ; Roger Ascham ; Ursin ;
Beza ; Junius ; Francis ; Patrick Hamilton ;
George Wischart, alias Wishart; John Knox; Mary
Stewart, Queen of Scots; John Rogers, martyr;
Cranmer ; Latimer ; Ridley ; Brown ; Queen Eli-
zabeth ; Leicester ; Cecil ; - Drake ; Rawleigh ;
Sidney ; Greenham ; Faustus Socinus, hceresiar-
cha ; Bancroft ; Whitaker ; Perkins ; John Craig ;
George Abbot ; John Welsh ; Heinsius ; Henry the
Fourth, of France ; Jacobus Arminius, al. Van Har-
min ; Hugh Broughton ; King James ; Camden ;
Rogers ; Gustavus ; Jansenius ; Francis Bacon ;
John Preston ; Grotius ; Herbert ; Selden ; Salma-
sius ; John Spotswood ; John Cotton ; Abraham
Cowley; Mary Boyle, Lady Warwick; Robert
Foulks ; James Sharp ; Mr. Thomas Gouge ; Sir
George Booth ; Lord Delamere ; Mr. John Flavel ;
King WUUam the Third.
This interesting volume contains a variety of valu-
able and curious reading, selected principally from
the writings of Ovid ; Terence ; Juvenal ; Horace ;
Martial ; Tacitus ; Cicero ; Quintilian ; Velleius
Paterculus; Seneca; Pliny; Plutarch; August-
tine ; Tertullian ; Nazianzen ; Chrysostom ; Cy«.
prian; Lactantius; Basil; Origen; Bernard; Am-
brose and Epiphanius ; Luther ; Calvin ; Melanc-
thon; Beza; Scaliger; Erasmus, and Grotius;
Melchior Adam ; Bacon; Camden; Stow and Spel*
man ; Jewel ; Rivet ; Peter Martyr ; Musculus ;
Thuanus; Fox; Bishop Hall; Dr. Harrison;
Ames; Nehemiah Rogers; Perkins; Bolton; Dr.
210
APPENDIX, No. XXV. XXVI.
Harris ; White ; Quarles ; Arrowsmith ; Stoughton ;
Strong; Hildersham; Taylor; Burroughs; Gouge;
Trapp ; Shepherd ; Greenham ; Capel ; Burgess ;
Tuckney ; Rutherford and Blake ; Heylin ; New-
come ; Hales ; Baxter ; Case ; Caryl ; Cud worth ;
Reyner ; Bridge ; Calamy ; Clark ; Howel ; San-
derson; Reynolds; Lightfoot; Stillingfleet ; Leigh;
Hammond ; Prideaux ; Mede ; Spurstowe ; Dr.
Owen ; Polhiil ;* Gurnal ; Rycaut, and Gale.
Much of the volume still remains unwritten,
scarcely a sentence having been added to it since
Mr. Matthew Henry's decease. It served as a com-
mon-place book to that gentleman, as well as his
venerable father.
To the volume are added three indexes. The
first biographical ; the second miscellaneous ; the
third geographical.
From the preceding analysis, Mr. Henry's taste
and habits, as a student, will, in some degree, be
apparent. It has been much desired to ascertain
his judgment upon the authors he consulted ; but
the search has been, as, at this distance of time,
might be expected, almost ineffectual. The follow-
ing are the only instances, and though brief, can
scarcely be omitted. They may serve as specimens,
and being transcribed from his own hand, are
genuine.
Herodotus. Tully calls him the father of history,
which title he deserves in regard of antiquity, being
the oldest Greek historian extant.
Thucydides. A most grave and accurate Greek
historian, than whom scarce any Grecian ever dis-
covered a more impartial love to the truth in what
he wrote.''
Fathers. It is a good rule in reading the Fathers,
to begin with the most ancient : to know which of
their works are genuine, and which spurious ; con-
sult Photius Mvpio/3i/3Xov ; Possevin's Apparat ; Bib-
liothec ; Bellarm. de Script. Eccl. ; Abbas Trithe-
mius. And among the Protestants, — Scultetus Me-
dull ; Rivett's Critic, Sacr. ; Cooke's Censur. Patr ;
Erasm. in his Prefaces, Epistles, and Annotations
on all those Fathers put forth by him.
To know the best edition of the Fathers, it is a
general rule, those which Erasmus set out arc freest
from corruptions: and in particular, Clemens Ro-
man, edit. Oxon. A. D. 1633. Ignatius by Dr
Usher. Oxon. 1646.*^
■ I read in Polhiirs Precious Faith ; of which book, dear father
once said,— It was hard to say which excelled, the gentleman, or
the divine. Mrs. Savage. Diary, Orig. MCS.
b Comnion-place Book. Orig. BiIS.
e lb. See Home's Introduction to the Critical Study and Know-
ledge of the Holy Scriptures. 4th edit. v. 2. Appendix, p. 739.
d P. Henry. From a MS. in Mr. Matthew Henry's .hand. writing.
APPENDIX, No. XXVI.
What am I ? In sin, or in Christ? Am I effect-
ually called, or am I not ? If not, it is dangerous
coming. Ask what am I, that if I am not as I
should be, I may mend my state. If not alive, then
go to God for spiritual life. And when God gives
life, then away to the sacrament for the support of
the spiritual life. Those mentioned in Acts ii., as
soon as they were converted, were presently in
church-fellowship.
What have I done ? Here is work for self-exami-
nation. To consider our sins ; the sin of our nature;
the sins of our hearts and lives ; the sins of our par-
ticular relations; sabbath sins; tongue sins, &c.
When we have found out our sins, then we must
repent. Repenting includes contrition, hearty sor-
row ; contrition is the breaking of the heart, pound-
ing it as in a mortar. Confession, telling God what
we have done. Conversion, turning from sin. With
all these, hearty prayer must be joined.
What do I want ? A condemned malefactor wants
a pardon ; a hungry soul wants bread ; a debtor
wants a surety ; a traveller wants a guide ; a g^uilty
person wants a city of refuge ; a blind man wants
eye-salve ; a weak soul wants strength ; a j^celess
heart wants grace ; a sinner wants a Saviour, Now
all these are to be had with Christ All these are
offered in the sacrament. In one word, Christ and
all his benefits. When we are going to a market,
we look about the house to see what is wanting. The
sacrament is the market When we have found
out our wants, we must represent them to God in
prayer.**
In reference to this subject he would say ; — Self-
examination is required before the communion ; and
he was urgent in pressing it. He frequently ex-
plained the nature of the duty, and pointed out the
hinderances of it ; such as laziness, self-love, pride,
and ignorance of its necessity. Many think, he
remarks, every man is bound to believe his sins are
pardoned, and that God is his Father ; — that it is a
fault to question it. They are ignorant of the nature
and way of the duty ; know not how to examine,
where to begin, nor what to inquire after. Some
are hindered by a desperate resolution — To what
purpose should they try ?— They resolve to continue
as they are, come what will ; this preciseness will
not suit them : they must have liberty. The world
is a snare to many. False persuasions, that the
work is done already, hinder others/ Many who
1683-4. See Matthew Henry's Communicant's Companion, chap.
IV. post
• They are fully persuaded that Christ died for them, and that
they shall l>e saved. How they came by this persuasion they can.
not tell. But it is suspicious to liave goods, and know not how
one came by them. The Doctrine of Faith, by John Rogers, p^
32. duod. 1634.
APPENDIX, No. XXVI. XXVII.
211
mine, yet do it by halves ; they go about it in
vn strength, and so miscarry,
lotives to it, he would urge, that multitudes
wrho thought all was well. Proverbs xiv. 12.
dii. 25. xviii. 10, 11; Revelations iii. 17;
in easy and a common thing to be mistaken ;
re many bye-ways ; the heart is deceitful,
least despairing are most desperate, Isaiah
K What if death should come before thou
ed ? Thou wilt be lost for ever ; — there will
trjring in the grave. Shortly, God will try
besides, there is great advantage in it. If
erted, it will be a means to bring thee out of
ndition. If in Christ, it will marvellously
consolation ; in this way, and no other, thou
attain assurance, 2 Peter i. 10 ; which will
B admirable sweetness ; — sweetness in every
on, let public troubles be what they may. It
ate the terribleness of death and judgments
d wings to obedience.
MTOuld say, by way of direction ; — Art thou
d to set about it ? Sequester thyself from all
nployments. Implore the Spirifs assistance
ty prayer, Psalm cxxxix. 20. Pitch upon
time when you are fittest for the work, — best
d. Have in readiness some scripture marks
ti and grace, and then try, — Is it thus with
is it not ? Give not over till it be brought to
;suc; let the sentence pass without fear or
. When thou knowest thy condition, be af-
accordingly. If thou find thou art, to this
thy sins, oh, tremble, and make haste ! Do
elude it is in vain to turn. If otherwise, re-
nd be exceeding glad,
mother occasion he writes ;— Are ye passed
ath unto life ? There is such a thing, and it
known, and we can have no comfort in living
of nature, if we are not spiritually alive ; if
not live the life of grace. Now, one good
o know it by, is the end that we live to. Is
kI, or self? Another, is by the food that we
9n. Is that Christ ? — His merit and righte-
( for justification; his Spirit and grace for
cation ? Another is by the rule that we live
that the rule of the new creature, — the word
? Is that the card and compass we sail by, —
it and lamp we walk by ? Or, is it something
lie dictates of our own corrupt nature, car-
son, fleshly appetites, the course and custom
?ain world ? Try by this/
my. Oiig. MS.
srenlng before the death of the Rev. Daniel Burgess, a
K) came to see him, speaking of public affairs, said, it was
•re would be a storm ; he answered with cheerfulness,^
p 2
APPENDIX, No. XXVII.
At this distance of time, any fact is interesting
which illustrates the character, and perfumes the
memory, of such men as Mr. Nevett. The Elegy,
composed on his death, by Mr. Henry, being the
only additional document that can be found respect-
ing him, will, therefore, form a fit appendage to the
narrative ; and if it adds no honours to the writer as
a poet, it will furnish the reader with a pleasing re-
lic of Christian friendship.
Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes
A spring of tears, like melting Jeremy's ;
That I might weep, and weep, and weep again
O'er the sad hearse of a dear prophet slain.
Slain by an arrow, darted from above ;
Tow'rds us in anger; towards him in love.
A star is fallen, not from God to sin.
But from this lower orb he shined in :
Rather from sin to God ; from wandering here.
To fix with him in a more holy sphere ;
New storms are rising, he's put into shore ;
A deluge coming, he is ark't before.'
Oh, earth, earth, earth, hearken what heaven saith ;
Each rod, a voice, this rod a loud one hath.
The owner thought it much, three years to come
To a barren tree, which hastened its sad doom ;
What then can they expect, that ten times three
Had such a dresser, if they barren be ?
A faithful, self-denying shepherd, who
Sought not the fleece, but flock ; not yours, but
you.
Many a time he to the pulpit went,
Pain'd as a gorged breast, till he had vent ;
And then his zeal so eat him up, that pain
Being strait forgotten, all was well again.
How far unlike those ministers, to whom
A burthen 'tis ; their only martyrdom.
'Tis hard to say, whether he rather was
A Boanerges, or a Barnabas.
Not one but both ; he did both wound and heal ;
Preach law and gospel ; sin and Christ reveal.
But his delight was chiefly to distil,
Not from black Sinai, but from Sion's hill,—
Such sweet refreshing showers of holy d6w,
As would at once both melt and comfort too.
Great love, rich mercy, and free grace to all
That truly do embrace the gospel call.
This was his text, this was his doctrine, this
The burthen was in every song of his ;
Ev'n to the last, for when his master came,^
So doing he was found,— found in this frame ;
^ — ■ , '
" But Ood will house some of his children first'* Matthew Henry's
account of Mr. Daniel Burgess, pM/.
b His last subject was, Ephesians ii. 4, 5.
212
APPENDIX, No. XXVII. XXVIII.
And by his constant breathing in such air,
His spirit, his converse, strangely sweeten'd were.
You'd think, sure he had lean'd upon that breast
Where that disciple lean'd, that love so press'd.
Jonathan's love, greater than woman^s was,
But his did even Jonathan's surpass.
And one good argument it is to prove
Him greatly lov^d, himself that did so love.
Flaming affections, bowels that did stir,
As husband, father, brother, friend, minister ;
This was his fiery chariot, in this
Living he rode, as th' dying prophet in his.
'Mongst all his other graces, 'twere most fit
That loving Nevett be his epithet.
Methinks I see him, ever and anon,
Casting up eyes and hands to heaven's throne ;
Darting ejaculations thither; where
Heart-words are understood, and silent prayer.
His conversation was above, and he
Hath changed his place, but not his company.*
That sacred knot tied between him and you,
Law upon law did not, could not undo.
Still he was yours, you his, he would not part,
For Oswestree was written on his heart.*'
But death hath done it, death the knot hath cut ;
And those whom God hath join'd, asunder put
Yet 'tis for present only ; time shall come,
When you shall meet again at Father's home
And be together ever, — with the Lord ;
Souls, take the comfort that these words afford.
And may those hopeful young ones each inherit
A double portion of their father's spirit :
Copies of him, that so it may be said.
While they sor vive, he is not wholly dead.'
i An allusion, probably, to the death-bed scene of Dr. Preston.
Expressing his belief of a ** sudden change/' he said,—" Not of
my company ; for I shall still converse with God and saints, but
of my place, and way of doing it.** Clark's Lives, appended to
the Martyrologie, pp. 113, 113, «/ tupra.
k Queen ISary •* letted not to say, that the loss of Callis was
written on her heart, and might therein be read when her body
should be opened.** Speed's Hist of Great Britain, p. 1131. fol. 1632.
APPENDIX, No. XXVIII.
Mr. Bbnyon's mother is distinguished by Mr.
Henry, in his diary, by a special memorial, of which
the following is a transcript.
1663. May 5. At ten o'clock, I was sent for to
Ash, where I came at eleven, and found my worthy,
dear aunt Benyon alive, and that was all. We went
to prayer,— and her life and prayer ended together.
She was, without comparison, the best friend I had
in this country, and it is no small loss to lose such
an one. Lord, make up the loss to me, and all her
relations, and humble us for sin, that kill-friend.
7. My dear aunt Benyon was buried at Whitchurch,
Mr. Thomas preached. Text, I Corinthians iii. 22.
Lord, tkke up the children, and come in her stead to
all her relations, and to me. Amen.
She was daughter to Mr. Knight, of Shrewsbury,
and had been married twenty-seven years to my
uncle Benyon, by whom she had issue , now living,
Daniel, Martha, Mary, Sarah, Elizabeth. She was
the fittest wife for him in the world, being patient
and prudent, in opposition to his passion and rash-
ness. She was, I verily believe, one that truly feared
God, and was taught to do it from her youth. She
was of the mourners of Sion, laying much to heart
the sins and sufferings of the times. She was pro-
vident and diligent in family affairs, laying ker
hands to the spindle, and her hands held the distojf.
She was an inward, real, true-hearted friend. Emi-
nent for humility and self-denial. Witness that
expression of hers, when speaking of her childien.
I said,— I did not doubt but God had a kindness in
store for them for her sake. She answered, — " For
my sake ! Alas, poor things, if it be not for another's
sake than mine, they are undone.""*
** —Had he opened been by surgeons* ert.
They had found London burning in his heart**
Dr.'Wild, on the Death of Mr. Calamy.
Iter Boreale, &c. p. 80. duod. I67L
1 From Mrs. Savage* s MS.
m P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS.
NOTES.
Sir H. Ashursl,— p. 3.
elleot pervon was descended from the AsbursU of Aihunt, in
e. His father, best known as Alderman Ashnrst, apjpears to
eminent fnr piety, and every Christian virtue. His character
1 at lar^e by Mr. Baxter. Works, v. 4. p. 189, &c. fol. Keliq.
*art. I. 290. Part. HI. 17. 189. The ahlerman died In 1680,
K $imilar testimony has been borne by Dr. Bate.^ in the pre>
is funeral sermon for Mr. Benjamin Ashurst, Sir Henry's
Works. 4. p. 390. Sir Henry Ashurst trod in the steps of
able parent, and distingiiishea himself on the trial of Mr.
as a steady, faithful friend. Reliq. Baxter. Preface, &c. Biog.
. p. 16, &c. He published the Life of the Rev. Nath. Hey.
ko was ejected, by the Art of Uniformity, from Ormskirk, m
-e. Hi« intimacy with Mr. Henry, and also with Mr. Matt.
as coojitant. Mr. Matt. Henry, in his Diary, May 8. 1707-8,
le following: incident. " Wrote to Sir H. Asfiurst, who writes
Ivi Saturday, he presented the Queen [Anne] my father's
ray t>ook of the Sacrament ;— sapless things, I fear, at court,
i sure, unworthy to be so ret:arded." f
lenry died at his seat at Waterstoke, near Coventry, I3th
10-11." Matt. Henry. Diary. Drig. MS. Afterwards, be
He left £800, to be paid to me 3 years after his decease, to be
a( by me, as I should think most for the glory of God. It is
e to me. God give me wisdom and grace to use it well."
f 36. Orig. MS.
in Dunton's encomium upon him in his Life and Errors, v.
«l tvpra. See, aUo, Uid. p. 273.
Object his nonconformity, — p. 4.
i.coropliance, observes a distinguished Clergyman, was a great
the Church, for he was eminently qualined, as a divine, a
nd a gentleman, for one of its ministers. Noble's Continua-
anger's Biog. Hist, of England, v. I. p. 124.
gin of the distinction between cooformii»ts and nnn-conform-
t>e sought for ** in the conduct of tlia<ie persecuted' fugitives,
ave their lives, their families, and their fortunes, from the
ge and inhuman tyranny of Queen Mary, left the places of
ivity, in the year 1554, and took refuge in Germany. Of
iti*e congregations, some performed divine worship with the
bad been authorized by Edward VI. while others preferred
method of worsliip, as more recommcndable, on account of
and simplicity. The former were called conformists, on ac-
their compliance with the ecclesiastical laws enacted by the
w mentioned ; and the denominations of non-conformists and
rere given to the latter, from their insisting upon a form of
nore exempt from superstition, and of a more pure kind than
8:y of Edward seemra to be." Mosheim's Eiccl. Hist v. 4.
: ed. 1774. OCt.
Two of his four daughters died,— p. 7.
!, Mrs. Radford, who died, Aug. 1, 1697. Sec a Memoir of'
c Savage's Life, Appendix, No. V. ut tupra.
er, Mrs. Hulton, who died, Sept. 6, 1697. A Memoir of her,
tended to the third edition of Mrs. Savage's Life.
nee to thoae affecting events, their eldest sister, Mrs. Savage,
to another sinter, Mrs. Tylstou.
pretence for this prosecution was a supposed reference of some
I one of his works, to ttie Bishops of the Church ot England ;"
>al motive was the desire of puniahina an eminent Dissenting
History of the Early Part of the Ileign of Jams " by the
es James Fox, p. 97. 1
S.
Dear Sister,
Sept 17.
I thank you for your letter, though loadeu with heavy
tiding*. Dear brother wrote to me on Saturday, whith would have
prepared *roe for worse, but it came not till to.day. I too much disco-
ver that my heart is not fixed as it should be. God's will it done, and
my judgment is satisfied, but breach upon breach causes double sor-
row; tluit which comforts, is,— hopes of a glorious meeting in the
other world, to be together for ever, and witn the Lord. How shall
we do to search and discover the Jonah that hath raised this storm t
Certainly we have deserved worse. I find my heart too much glued
to creature-comforts, whereby I have procured this to myself, and, in
particular, as to dear sister Hulton, now in glory. I did too much re.
joice, and please myself with her correspondence ; for, next to com.
munion with God, (in whose favour is life,) converse with those that
have acquaintance with him is the most desirable happiness that this
world affords ; but even this must not be overvalued. Indeed, we
wither our flowers by too much smelling them. Blessed be God, that
lath mixed the cuji as to both you and I. We and ours are yet
spared. And, wherefore ? But because the work we have to do is not
nnished. This morning, as I lay on my sorrowful bed, that call of God
to Joshua came to my mind,— t/p: Wherefort liett thou thiu on th^
face t larael hath tinned, 4'C. From whence 1 gather, that it is more
proper work, when under the tokens of God's displeasure, to search for
the cause, and humble myself under his mighty hand, than to lie down
in despondency.
1 think it an aggravation of my grief, that I am confined, and cannot
come to pay my last respects to one so dear to us ; bnt the wise God
sees it best tliat thus it shall be. If not two sparrows, sure not two
dear sisters, fiill, without his providence. Why shoula not I expect
to pledge the cup also?— God prepare me! — Welcome sickness, wel-
come death, if the sting be out. Blessed be God, that you are in any
measure recovered ;— the same hand that wounds, must heal. I tnist
he will heal the rest tliat are sick, and preserve tlie sound. Sister
Hulton, in her last letter but one, writes thus:— Ob, we want our
Aaron, our prevailing intercessor, the priest of the fiimily, who would
have stood oetween the living and the dead, that the plague might
have been stayed. Blessed be God, we once had such a relation, who
had so much interest in heaven as he had ; but, especially, blessed be
God for Jesus Christ,— the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, seeing
he ever lives to make intercession. My dear love to brother, and all
yours , and believe me to be, as indeed I am.
Your affectionate, tliough sorrowfiil,
S. «.•
Matthew Henry,— p. 8.
Ob. June 32, 1714, set. 53. See an Account of his Life and Death,
by W. Tong, oct. 1716. Also the Dissenting Doctors, by John Dun-
ton. Life and Errors, v. 3. pp. 736, 727.
Mr. Henry of Chester. He is son (if I do not mistake) to that fa.
mous Henry, whose *' Life" was lately printed in London. I am told
be does patrizare ; for all his actions appear to be perfectly devoted to
God, strictly observing St. Paul's rule, in the fourth of tne Philippi.
ans, — "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if
there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things ;"
which Mr. Henry does, with that exactness and sincerity, tlie very
churchmen love him; and e«en malice is angry she can find no cause
to be angry with him. The Life and Errors of John Dunton, ut supra,
V. I. p. 376.
Philip Henry was so pre-eminent in worth, that it would have been
high honour to any roan to have been his son ; but he was blessed with
such a son, that posterity reveres him as the fiither of Matthew Henry.
History of Dissenters, \. 3. p. 209l
• Orig. MS.
214
NOTES.
Mag^en Rochdale,— p. 10.
She wa« the daughter of Mr. Henry Rochdale, was born, Oct 19,
1599, and married to Mrf John Henry, Dec. 10, 1620.
Mr. Henry thus records her death : —
1644-5, Alar. 6, Thuniday. My dear mother departed this life be-
tween the hours of 12 and 1 in the morning, and lies interred in Mar-
garet Church, Westmiuxtcr. Note. She was a woman of extraordinary
piely and prudence, very careful in brinaring up her children in tlie
fear of God, a loving wife, a kind neighbour, a good mother. The
memory of her virtues remains exceedingly dear and precious with all
that were acquainted with her. P. Henry's Diary, Orig. MS.
Gave him his name,— p. 10.
Mr. Henry's name has been often adopted, and the custom, it is
probable, will lonii: continue.
The learned and excellent Dr. J. P. Smith, in an elegant memorial
of his beloved son, Philip Henry Smith, araigos an instructive reason.
** The name was given, not from the honopr of relationship, nor from
aflfectation ; but solely with the hope that, under the blessing of divine
grace on the association of ideas, he mijiht be trained up to feel a pe-
culiar interest in the character of that distinguished servant of Christ,
and to love, admire, and imitate it.'* Evan. Mag. vol. 26. p. 378.
Asaembly of divines,— p. II.
Usually styled the Westminster Assembly. They were cmivened by
Parliament n>r the Settlement of the Government, Liturgy, and Doc-
trine of the Church of England. They first met July I, 1643, in
Henry the Seventh's Chapel. See Fuller's Church Hist, nt supra.
Book XI. p. iy7, tec. Dr. Lightfoot's Works, in vit. fol. 1684. vol. I.
p. 8. Hearne's Works, Peter Langtoft's Chronicle, v. 1. p. clii. &e.
And Memoirs of the Lives and Writings of those eminent Divines who
convened in the famous Assembly at Westminster, by James Reid, 2
vols. oct. 1811.
Mr. Marshal,— p. 11.
Stephen Marshall, B. D. oh. Nov. 1665. The Lives of the Puri.
tan.^ V. 3. p. 241, &c. " Going to hear Mr. Marshall, whiUt 1 was
nodding, and almost asleejt, his powerful voice awakened roe, thunder,
ing in my ears the dreadrul danger of such as were drowsie, and slept
and slumbered away their salvation ; which 1 thought %»as spoken
directly to me, and had such prevalency upon me, that 1 started up
with an aching heart, being much terrified at his words, which he .«itill
pursued, and wounded me to the very heart, when he told us, — that,
when time was pa.«»ed, it could never lie recalled a^ain, and then there
was no other way but to ilonbleour diligence, and redeem the time we
had lost by making more haste, and taKing more care and pains, or
else we should be utterly lost and undone." Dyer's Heaven upon
Earth, p. 6. ed. 1697. duod. In IQBOa quarto pamphlet was printed,
entitled, " The Godly Man's Le;;acy to the Saints U(>on Earth, exhi.
bited in the Life of that great and able Divine, and painful Labourer
in the Word, Mr. Stephen Marshall, sometime Minister of the Gospel
at Finchin^field, in Eist^x." The object is to revile, and, by partial
statementfi, so to repre^^ent, Mr. Marshall, as toclieck esteem, and lower
the standard of his worth. It contains many curious things, and the
title, though sarcastic, conveys a stronger testimony in his »vour than
the writer intended.
Mr. Palmer, &c.— p. 11.
The Rev. Herbert Palmer, B. D. He was bom in 1601, and died
in 1647. See Clark's Lives, annexed to the Martyrologie, p. 183, Uc.
fol. 1677 : and the Life of the Rev. T. Cawton, p. 12, &c. ut tvpra.
The Rev. Charles Herle, A. M. was born l.%)8, ob. Sept. 1659.
See the Liva of the Puritans, v. 3. p. 324. Mr. Herle was one of the
Licensers for printing Books of Divinity. The order for regulating
printing is preserved in Rnshw. Hist. Coll. v. .5. p. .T)5.
Edmund Staunton, D. D. was born, 1600, ob. 1671, July 14. Life,
duod. 1673.
The Rev. Philijt Nye was born about 1596, ob. Sept 1672. Wilson's
History of Dissenting Churches, v. 3. p. 71, &c.
Jeremiah WhUaker, A. M. was born, 1509, ob. June 1, 1654. See
the Sermon preached at his Funeral, by Simeon Ashe, ut supra.
nomas Bill, D. D. died Dec. 18, 1653. Lives of the Puritans, v.
3. p. 170.
Chosen from Westminster School,— p. 14.
In May, that year, I was chosen to Oxford with four others, John
Busby, nephew to Mr. Busby ; John Vincent, brother to Mr. Vin-
cent, Second Usher ; John Carrick, and George Annesley, son to the
Viscount Valentia, brotlier to him who was afterwards Earl of Angle.
■ey and Lord Privy Seal. Of these I had the second place. Five mora
were chosen, at the same time, to Cambridge,— Palmer, Wickham,
Stone, Stacey, Chandler. P. Henry. Orijf. MS.
In the List of Scholars of St. Peter's College, Westminster, by Jo-
seph Welch, 4to. 1788. p. 39. it is sUted, that '* Uiomas Vincent,
Rector of St. Mary Magaalen, Milk-street, Ix>ndon," was the person
elected to Oxford with P. Henry. But Wood says, that that " Inomas
Vincent, of St Mary Magdalen, was made a Student of Ch. Ch. in
1648, by the favour of the ParHamentarian Visitors," v. 3. p. 1174. ut
supra; wbereas P. Henry, and his colleagiios, were elscted %nm
Westminster, — and the year before. The minute descriptioo above
given renders Mr. Henry's correctness the more probable, espedilhr as
the office of Second Master was filled from 1645 to 1656, by a lir.
Vincent See Welch, ut supra, p. 6. The same person was^ most
likely, usher prior to that appointment. See an/e, p. 11.
Visitation of the University,— p. 15.
See Neale's History, v. 3. p. 395, &c. and Walker's Sufferion of the
Clergy, Part I. p. 123, &c.
Dr. Edward Reynolds,— p. 15.
Afterwards Bishop of Norwich. Nat Nov. 1559, ob. 98tb Joiy,
1676. Middleton's Evang. Biog. v. 3. p. 424. See Reliq. Buter.
Lib. 1. Part II. p. 963. ut supra.
Dr. Wall,-p. 15.
Dr. Wall, elected a Student of Christ Church, A. D. lo04. «t 17.
Wood's Ath. Oxon. v. 3. p. 734. ut supra.
Mr. Wilkinson,— p. I&>
The Kev. Henry Wilkiuson, jun. commonly called Dean Harry.
Nat. A. D. 161& ob. May 13, 1600. Mr. dtalmers's Biog. Diet.
V. 32. p. 84.
Mr. Pocock,— p. 15.
Edward Pocock, S. T. P. Life and Writings of Dr. Pocock, m«.
fixed to his Theoloaical Works, 2 vols. fol. 1740. vol. I. pp. 1—64. J>r.
Pocock died in 1691, in his 87tii year.
Mr. Finmore, — p. 16.
Rev. William Finmore. Wood says he was afterwards Archdeacon
of Chester. He died, A. D. ]f)86. Wood's Fasti. Ath. Oxon. v. 4.
p. 121. wf supra. Walker says he died in 1681. Salliertn«s of tlic
Clergy, Part II. p. III.
Bishop of Oxford,— p. 16.
Dr. Fell was born in 1625, and died lOth July, 1686. Mr. Chalmers's
B.og. Diet. v. 14. p. 176, &c.
*' I6ti5. Feb. 24. Dr. Fell, Canon of Christ Church, preached before
the King, a very formal discourse, and in blank verse, accordioK to
his manner - however, he is a good man." Meov of John Evelyn, Esq.
V. 1. p. 356.
When the King was belicaded,— p. 17.
See Dr. Parr's Lik of Archbishop Usher, p. 72. ut supra.
Wherein appeared, shvs Baxter, the severity of God, the mutability
and uncertainty of worldly things, and the fruits of a sinfhl nation's
provocations, and the infamous edfecls of error, pride, and selfishness,
prepared by Satan to be cliarged hereafter u|ion reformation and god-
liness, to the unspeakable injury of the Christian name and Protestant
cause. Ministers preached and prayed ajspin.st disloyalty. They drew
up a writing to the Lord General, (Fairfax,) declaring their abhor-
rence of all violence against the person of the King, and urging him
and his army to take heed of such an unlawful act. But pride [and
probably fear also] prevailed a'xainst their counsels. Reliq. Baxter, p.
6:). ut supra. See tlie Life of Dr. Owen, by the R^rv. W. Omae, pp. 93,
94; and also, the Christian Observer, vol. 19. p. 811, ice.
In Vesperiis,—p. 18.
Vesp^rie. Th^se qu*on soutient dans les Colleges \m apr^dinies
par un simple exercise, et sans c4rimonie. Cest aiissi le dernier acte
aue soutient dans les Universites un Bachelier la veille du jour qu'il
oit prendre le bonnet de Docteur, oii celui qui pr^de donne quelques
avis au R£pondant: et cette Th^ a pour titre " pro acta vesperiali."
Dictionnaire de Trevoux.
The University of Oxford borrowed the Vesperi*, name and thi7)g»
i which must not be confounded with Vespene, vespers,) from that o(
'aris, Vesperial Disputations were, in Oxford, formerly performed
once a year, on the Saturday evening preceding the Act, which wu
held on Monday . There is a full account of them in the Statutes, Tit
vii. Sect. 1. in which it is provided, tliat the respondent of the Vcs-
pcrite of one year, sliall the next year be appointed magister replicans
of tlie comitia or Act, i. e. of the Monday morning disputations. This
appointment (which was esteemed honourable) vested with the Senior
Proctor.
In cofltitiu,— p. 18.
The Comitia are the stated times at which the University mteets, or
comes t<^ther for the purpose of conferring honours, Piutardi, re-
NOTES.
216
•wdiM the ratiftcmtion of oertmin articles during the ^vernmeDt of
RooiaTus, states tluit the place where it was done " is still called
Cbsaifuias, from the Latin word coire^ which signifies to attemble."
Lives, r. 1. p. 71. tUwupra.
No less a poet than an orator, — p. 19.
Mr. Palmer rrniarks in this connexion,—" Wood says not a word
about Mr. Henry, thoug^b he was a noted Oxonian." Nonron. Mem. ?. 3.
5. 489. Had not the Athense and Fasti included living characters, the
eath of " Toney," the year before Mr. Henry, might have accounted
for the omission. It may be said that the work, at least the roost ira-
portant part, professes to record ** the tcrUer* and bishops who have
nad their education in tlie University of Oxford." But Mr. Henry
having publislied the Latin Poem, would, therefore, strictly upeakinif,
come within the arrangement. Had he, however, printed nothing, the
omiiBtion is observable, inasmuch as many names, equally distant with
his from the mitre and autltorship, are there perpetuated. See Atb.
Oxou. V. 1 . p. cxlv. ut npra. Note 2.
Dr. Calamy, in his Abridgment of Baxter's Life and Times, v. 2. p.
708. has, indeed, assigned a cause, and too accordant with the historio.
grapber's celebrity, but its incivility is such as to render an application
objecti«>nablc, even to a more universal contemner of the non-con-
formists, not to mention "some of the greatest men in the Church of
England." See Calaroy's Abr. ut wupra. v. 2. pref. pp. vii— xiii.
It has been excellently noted, that "God would have us judge the
best in matters doubtful ;" and the same writer adds,— "Beware how
thou jndgest of actions, for thou mayest judge amisse, and speake
amisae."— The Watchful Shepherd, by Nehemiah Rogers, p. 104.
4to. 1632.
The work of the ministry,— p. 03.
lilliat is meant by th<f work of the ministry ? Something i» pre.
maoo9ed. — Godlin*^s. 1 Tiro. iv. 7, 12. Our lives should be the bf»ok
oflne ignorant. This is essential to save ourselves, though not others.
It will be small comfort to us to be as conduits, and liave no relish of
what tliey convey to others; or to be as one who opens a gate the
wrong way. Others go in ; he remains out. Something ia prepara-
tivt. Remding. meditation, prayer. Something i$ practical in private
exhortation. 1 Tim. iv. 13. 2Tim. iv. 2. Rfproof; in public, preach-
ing, (ocraments, dixcipline. Mr. Steel at an ordination. — From a M8.
in the hand-writing of Philip Henry.
An edifying form of " serious self-examination before ordination,"
is preserved in Tong's Life of Matt. Henry, p. 58, ice ut mpra.
Constitnted by ordinance of parliament, — p. 23.
Byway of probation. See Neal's History, v. 3. p. 274, <cc.
"The Parliament, tltourh they had early abolished episcopal antho-
rity, bad not, during so long a time, substituted any other spiritual
govcnsmcot in its place, and their Committees of Religion had hitlierto
aasamad the wliole ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; but they now established
by an ordhumce the presbyterian model in all its forms of congrega-
tiotal, classical, provincial, and national assemblies. All the inhabitants
of earh parish were ordered to meet and choose elders, on whom, toge-
ther with the minister, was bestowed the entire direction of all spi-
ritoal cooccrns within the congre^tation. A number of neighbourine
parishes, commonly between twelve and twenty, formed a classis; and
the ooart which eoverned this division, was composed of all the minis,
ters, together with two, three, or four elders chosen from each parish.
The proviDcml assembly retained an inspection o\er several neiglilMur-
ang clasMes, and was composed entirely of clergymen ; the national as.
sembly was constituted in the same manner, and its aathority extend-
ed over the whole kingdom." Hume's Hist vol. 7. p. 420, 421.
Mr. Houghton,— p. 23.
He pnblisbcd "An antidote against Henry Haggar's po3^nons
pamphlet, entitled the Foundation of the Font discovered," 4to. 1658.
The volume » dedicated " to the truly honoured, and his indeared
friend the worshipful Thomas Hunt, Esq. Major of the Corporation of
Salop. A praiseworthy patriot, and professed pattern of piety, witlmut
respect of persons, even of all that love the truth in sincerity." See
Me^ p. 143.
He set np a monthly lecture, tec— p. 29.
It appears that the lecture thus referred to occasioned offence ; at
this Mr. Henry expresses his regret; but it being " owned by a good
attrodance," and as it would be " matter of great rejoicing to the iin-
Kodly there if laid down," he was encouraged to go on. And, ** for
ntytelf*' he writes, " if I am allowed to preach to them on the Sabbath
day, why not on a week day !" " Fhr Mr. J>iour," he proceeds, " he
it a godly roan, a scholar, intending the ministry, approved of by
those who are able to judsce ; desired often by Mr. Fogg himself, tio
preach, and others." P. Henry. Orig. MS.
Mr. Lewis was evidently a lay-preacher. The following notices are
rnnous: —
When the Select Assembly met at Windsor Castle, various ques-
ti^ms were propounded for tlieir resolution. Their judgments were ac-
raraiely sammed up by their venerable head— Cranroer, Lord Arch-
bislmp of Canterbury. One query was, " whether, (if it fortuned a
prtac* darisCieo lemed, to conquer certain domynyous of infidells, hav.
ing none but the temporall lemed men with him,) it be defended bv
G<k1's law, that he and they should preche and techethe loord of God
there, or no, and also to make and constitute priests, or noe." The an-
swer follows, — " It is not against €k>d's law, but contrary ; they ought
in dede so to do, and there be historyes tliat witnesseth, that some
christien princes, and other laymen unconf«rrate, have dnne the same."
Orig. MS. cited in the Irenicuro, by Dr. Stillingfleet, p. 392, 393.
British History, ice. v. 3. p. 236.
He laid by the tenth of his income for the poor,— p. 35.
See Riches increased by giving to the Poor, or the surest and safest
Way of Thriving, by the Rev. Thomas Gouge, duod. 1700, of which
a reprint has lately appeared. Dr. Fell's Life of Dr. Hammond, p.
139. duod. 1662, and the Life of W. Stephens, Esq. by the Hon. Mr.
Justice Park, p. 32.
It appears from Mr. Henry's papers, that he distributed many books.
The Life of Mr. Nathaniel Mather was of the number. See Meinoir»
of Dr. Increase Mather, p. 14. oct. 1725.
In their judgments episcopal, — p. 35.
Those are said to maintain the divine right of diocesan episcopacy,
who anert that Christ haa appointed an order of ministers in his church,
superior to the pastors of particular congregations, who are to exercitie
the highe.«it acts of jurisdiction, especially ordination, excominuuica.
tion. and confirmation; these they supitose to be, properly speaking,
the succenors of the apostles, in such a sense as no other ministers are ;
to whose aiithnrity, therefore, neighbouring churches with tlieir pas.
tors are to submit themselves in all matters which are not apparently
contrary to tlie will of God. Doddridge's Work.«, v. 5. p. 300. ut m-
pra. See Buck's Theol. Diet V. 1. Title, Episcopacy.
Others congregational,— p. 35.
Those who hold every pastor to be so a bishop or overseer of his own
congregation, as that no other person or t>ody of men have, by divine
institution, a power to exercise any superior or pastoral office in it,
may, properly speaking, be called (so far at least) con<:regational ; and
it is by a vulgar mistake that any such are called Presbyterian;); for
the Presbyterian discipline is exercised by synods and assemblien
subordinate to each other, and all of them subject to the authority of
what is commonly called a general assembly. Dr. Doddridge's Works,
v. 5. p. 300. ut tupra. See Buck's Theol. Diet. v. I. Tit Church.
Others classical,— p. 35.
The union of many particular congregations under one presbyterial
government See Neal's History, ut mpra. Appendix, No. VIII.
pp. 84-86.
Mismanagement of that difference,- p. 36.
See Hope and Fear balanced ; a Sermon, in this vol.
Excellent was the advice of Dr. Richard Gilpin : — " If you are not
perfectly joined together in the same mind ami judgment about some
disputable things, yet censure not one another for differences. All of
you may hold tne Head, though your consciences be not alike satisfied
in all things; nay, be not over-confident of your own understand ines.
I am speaking ofthe disputes about discipline and gnveruineut." The
Temple Rebuilt ; a Discourse on Zcch. vi. 13. preached at a General
Meeting of the Associated Ministers of the County of Cumberland, at
Keswick, p. 39. 4to. 1658.
The Cheshire Rising,— p. 37.
In the month of August, 1659, Sir George Booth, appearing in arms
in Cheshire, at the head of an army of upwards of three ttioiitand men,
he was accompanied by the Earl of Derby, Lord ChnlnmndeJey, Liord
Kilmnrey, ana several ofthe principal gentlemen of the county: they
mus'ereo niton Rowton Heath, the spot which had proved uiifortu.
natf to King Charles Land there read and puhlinhed a Declaration, set ■
ting forth that they totik up arms for a free Parliament, and to deliver
the nation from tlie slavery they then laboured under. General Lam-
bert l>eing sent by the Parliament, with an army against Sir George
Booth, they met at Winniu^ton Bridge, nenr Northwich, on the ICth
of August, when an action ensued, in which Booth's forces were soon
defeated, he himself escaped from the field in disjruise, but was taken
at Newport Pagnell, and sent to the Tower." Lvsons's Magna Britan.
nia, V. 2. p. 315. See also Ormerod's Hi!«t<»ry or Cheshire, v. 1. pp. xl.
xli. and pp. 210, 404 ; and the Earl of Clarendon*!* State Papers, v. 3.
p. 552. Many of the nonconformists took an active interest in this
measure for tne restorstion of the Kin::, for which they suffered im*
prisonment See Fawcett's Life of Hey wood, p. 62; and the Select
Nonconformist's Remains, p. 13, &c.
Sir George Booth,— p. 37.
He had two wives, the former out of Lincoln, the latter out of Stam-
ford fiunily, wlio aurvived him. He owned religion in the cloaet and
2ie
NOTES.
fkmily, especially daring his first wife's time. He sided with the eause
of Uie Long PaniamenC but not in the death of the King. He had a
Commission from Charles H. dated Aug. 9, 1G59, at Bruxels, whereby
he wan made Commander in Chief of all His Majesty's Forces in Che.
i^ire, Lancashire, and North Wales ; and was in arms accordingly, tliat
month, but soon <^uellcd by Lambert, near Nortbwich.
One of the Regicides said, he had conjured up the old monarchical
spirit in the nation, which he feared would never again be suppreswd.
Shortly after, when the King came in, he was made Baron of Dela-
mere. These words in his patent, were read by Mr. Cawdry, at his
funeral, and by his son, at hu trial for high treason, in Westminster
Hall, in Jan. 1686-6. •
Idem (ireorgiu8 itummis majoribus nequtiquam virtute minor, crude-
lissimo Patris iiostri Augusta; memoriae Parricidio^ nee non nostro mi-
•errimo loneoq; Exilio Saevisq. Regnorum calamitatibus, barbara et
inhumana Re^icidarum rriidelitate. Manci^iatonim gravissiroe af-
fectus, sinji^ulari in nos Amore in ruentem Patriam raemorabili pietate
impulxuN incredibili virtute, Rei familiaris viteq. sumrao cum peri-
culo, coacta fida et nobili fortium virorum manu e Coroitatibus Cea.
trie et lancantriae Arma sumsit, nos RejniiSi nobis Regna redditurus
Q,uibuB Ausis Indent ibus licet tunc temporis ceciderit, restaurationis
tamen nostrse tam felicis, tarn dii\ cxoptatK Ansam praebuit.
Towards his tenants, according to the hereditary virtue of his family,
he was one of the best f>f landlords.
He was buried at Boden, in Cheshire, Septembef 9, 1084.
It was his pious custom, not only to search the Scriptures and medi-
tate on them, but also to refer the Scriptures to their proper subjects,
that they might be of ready use to hiro on all occurrences. I have
seen three lH)oks in ouarto, writ by bis lordriiip's own hand, of that
kind: under the head of "certainty of salvation," was Rev. xiv. 13.
his funeral text. P. Henry. Com. P. Book. Orig. MS. See the Life
and Errors of John Dunton, v. I. p. 178. ut ntprtL " He left it upon
record to his children,— Tliat whenever he happened, which was very
seldom, to omit his secret devotions, though upon never so urgent an
occasion, he always found some cross interruptions and disappoint-
ments in the business of that day." Dunton, v. 2. p. 541, 2.
See, also, Ormerod's History of Cheshire, v. I. pp. 404, 406; and
Mr. Turner's Remark. Provid. ch. Ixxii. vl supra.
He wrote the notes of his sermons, &c.— p. 39.
And most of them twice over ; the first short, and, as he would call it,
the bunesof his wrmons. Life of P. Henry by Matth. Henry. Ori^. MS.
See Ot>servatinns on some Specialties of Divine Providence m the
Life of Bishop Hall. Works, v^- 1- P- xxxiv. ed. 1806. Mr. Baxter,
noticing the objection, as put by the Quakers,— Vou read your sermons
out of a paper, therefore you liave not the Spirit, — says, ft is not want
of your abilities, that makes miuisteniuse notes, but it is a regard to the
work, and good of the hearers. I use notes as much as any man, when
I take pains; and as little as any man, when I am Ut\, or busie, and
have not lei Mire to prepare. It is easier to us to preacii three sermons
without note-i, than one, with them. He is a simple preacher, that is
not able to preacli all day without preparation, it his strength would
serve; especially if he preach at your rates. Church Hutory, 4to.
IGBO. p. 471.
God gave him six children,— p. 43.
Philip Henry was born at Whitehall, Aug. 24, 1631, London. Katha-
.ffine Mathewcs, was born at Broad-Oke, March 25, 1629.
Philip Henry and Katharine Mathewes were married at White-
well Chapel, April 26, 1600.
And had issue, which are the heritage of the Lord,
John Henry, bom at Worthcnbury, on Friday, May 3, 1661, aboot 5
of the clock in the evening, -f
Matthew Henry, born at Broad Oke. on Saturday, Oct. 18, 1662,
about 3 of the cUxrk in the rooming.
Sarah Henry, born at Broad Oke, on Lord's day, Aug. 7, 1664,
about sun-sett.
Katharin Henry, born at Broad Oke, on Thursday, Dec. 7, 1665,
about one of the clock in the morning.
Eleanor Henry, born at Broad Oke, on Tuesday, July 23, 1667, about
two of the clock in the afternoon.
Ann Henry, born at Broad Oke, on Wednesdsy, Nov. 25, 1668, about
eleven of the clock in the forenoon. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
He put his children to write these expositions, — p. 47.
I had almost forgot to mention the practice of my dear friend and
correspondent, Mr. Henry, spoken of in the last chapter : t (which I am
very unwilling to omit. Because I would provoke myself, and others, to
some degree of emulation in the case:) besides his exercine on the
Lord's days, mentioned before, every day of the week his custom was
every morning and nisht to read a chapter to his (iimily,and expound
it distinctly and clearly, and after singing a palm, and prayers, toap.
point his children to n*tire by themselves, and write over a copy of his
Exposition; by which means, as himself once told me, every one of
his children, tn« in number, (one son, and four daughters,) had the
• See Margrave's State Trials. ▼. 4. p. SIO.
f I was then at Chester, but God was bare, at Worthenbury, a preaaat
help, P. Henry. Diary. Orig. MS.
Z See note, in next column.
ExpodtioD of the whole Bible by them, writtea i»ith their oim
This custom he kept up constantly in hia own home §ar wT '
if not airave thirty years, together, without any intermiUi
in cases of absence from home, which happened but addom.
History of Remarkable Providences, cb. Izvi. p. 83. til
He would never be persuaded, flee— >p. 47.
Mr. Orton, in his copy of the Life, and from which hia cditiao of it
was printed, hss written here. ** This bis wish was fulfilled to the st
most, by his son, Mr. Matthew Henry, in hia well.koowB and cxeci.
lent Exposition of the Bible." Orig. MS. The beat edition appcanl
in 1828, in 3 large vols. 8vo. published by J. O. RoWnsoii, «l,
Poultry. An esteemed living author, noticiogr M. Heory's Con.
ment. says, " Others may excel it in profound diacoaaioii, in andeat
lore, or elaborate criticiaro; but none has yet equalled it in the is.
ffenuity, the richness, and the beauty of its practical reflactiaia
This book should have a place in every Chriatian femiiy.** SketdMi
of Life and Character, by the Rev. H. Belfrage, [now D. D] p. 42.
The proper gesture for prayer,— p. 47.
One would think that no body should be so abaurd as to dislike the
gesture of kneeling in prayer. But because I have aeene with miae
eyes, and that not seldome, whole troo|M of men and women, and tboae
not of the meanest, in the time and place of divine serrice, while any.
ers and supplications were made unto God, tit all the while, I think not
altogether need lease, to free the gesture of kneeling in God's wordiifL
from all auspition of superstition. And that by precept, pnictJce,tM
reason ; for precept, taxe the words of the Pmlraist, O coaie, Ift as
worship, and fall dotrve, and knede, before the Lord our Maker.
Ps. xcv. 6. For practice, we will looke upon the farest president.
Our blesNcd Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ kneeled down, nndpraped.
Luke xxii. 41. If men will be ruled by reaaoo they will not, wbai
they are to petition the Kine of kings, omit such a gesture of ho.
mility, as kneeling is, beinsr the most suitable for a nun at his pray,
ers. God's Holy House and Service, by Foulke Roberta, pp. 78, Tk «l
tvpra.
Mindful of providences,— p. 48.
A new parliament to be chosen. My dear father UJOially prayed at
such occasions that God would be seen in elections, that nithftil men
might be chosen. Mrs. Savage's Diary. Orig. MS.
He closed his sabbath work. Ice. — p. 50.
His friend and pupil, the Rev. W. Turner, has thns preserved Mr.
Henry's habit*. " Before I went to the University, from the montn
of August, till the latter end of February following, I was a boarder in
the house of one Mr. Philip Henry, where I had the opportunity of
observing his manner of liiie and coovemtion. He was formerly sta-
dent of Christ Church, in Oxford, Junior of the Act, C^apbin to
Judee Puleston, and Minister of Worthenbury. But afterwards not
conforming, he married an heiress, and lived at Bruad.Oke, in Hanmer
Parish, in Flintshire. Bishop Wilkins sent twice for him in my tine,
with a design to draw him over to conformity, as he liad done nssny of
his brethren before in his own diocess. Dr. Bridgman, Bishop of
Man, and his successor, at Worthenbury, spoke very honourably of
him to Major Trevers and me, at his own table at Chester. Bi«i)op
Fell, of Oxford, lamented his going oif from tlie communion of the
Church of England, as by law established ; and the present learned
and ingenious Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry * is ready to give an
honourable testimony to his sincerity, I doubt not, (having some know,
ledge of the correspondence between them.) This man (ever since I
knew him, and whilst I was his neij^hbour) was careful to rise early ta
Sunday mornings, to spend a itinsiderable portion of his time io his
{irivate devotions and preparations, then to come down and call his
amily together, and, after some short pre|mratory prayer, to sing a
Psalm, (commonly the 100th,) and then read some part of the Sacred
Scripture, and expound it very largely and particularly, and at last
kneel down with all his family and pray devoutly ; with particular
referenoes to the day anddutiea of it, and the minister that was to ofll<
ciate. After which, a short refection fur breakfiist, he made hute to
church, and took care that all his family that could be spared, should
go in due time likewise : sometimes he was before the preacher, and
often before the rest of the congregation ; fas once particularly, when
I gave them a sermon in that place, he ana I walked together a con-
siderable time before the people came ;) he l>ehaved hinoself reverently
and very gpravely in tiie church during the service ; stood up common-
ly at prayers, and always, in my time, wrote a sermon after the minis,
ter : when the mornine' service was ended, he commonly invited the
minister to dine with him, who seldom refused ; and many others, who
either lived at a distance, as Mrs. Hanmer, Sir Job Charletoo'a daugh-
t4'r, married to a Justice of Peace in that country ; or else such as were
poor and needy. His discourse homewards was sweet and spiritual ; at
table it was seasoned as well as his meat ; edifying, and yet pleasant, and
taking; never wild or offensive. After meat, ana thanks returned, they
commonly (I think constantly) before departure from table, sung the
23rd Psaim. Sometime after, when the servants had dined, he pro.
pounded to such guests as he thought in prudence he shuuld not be
too free with, to retire into the parlour for a while, till he had at-
tended upon his fiuoaily, repeated over the sermon, and prayed with
• Dr. Lloyd. La Neve's Fasti, p. 126. ut sufrm.
NOTES.
217
ter which he returned to his guests ofirain, and UriDg enter.
;m with soine diort discourse, he retired awhile himself, and
i called upon his family to go to church. After evening ser.
«rmon ended, he retired sji^in till six o'clock, (then called
rs, catechised, took an account of children and lervants of
f remembered at church, which accounts were given some-
y largely and particularly,) sung a Psalm, kneeled down to
which coDsistacI more of praise and benediction than at other
d at last his children kneeling d<iwn before him, (to beg his
he blessed them all, and concluded tite service of the day
123rd Psalnn ; save that after supper, he retired for about
Mir more into bis study before bed time. Sometimes after
ic service ended at church, he gave some spiritual instnic-
prcached in his house to as many as would come to hear
i in his last years, when the incumbents grew careless in pro-
pplles for two or three neighbouring churches and chapels,
copic cried out for lack of vision, he set up a constant mmis.
d preaching at home, never taking any thing by way of re.
lis pains, unless with a purpose to give it away to those who
reater necessities." Turner s History of Remarkable Provi.
I. Ixv. p. 80. Hi tufra.
Religion, &c. did prevail,— p. 64.
d's Hi!(tory, vol. ii. p. 5&3. tt< twpta. A sensible writer, with
• reference in view, has remarked,—" It hath been intimated
tiiKiorians, that the religion of these tiroes was all hypocrisy
nuUiion. The cenmire itself i» ignorant and uncharitable.
^ and di>«iraulation there might be among them, but I should
net;, in our day, such an appearance of religion." Religious
recommended by Job Orton, p. 230. duod. 1769. A similar
is Imrne by Mr. Baxter, Reliq. Baxter, part i. p. 07.
can* ago family religion was a fashiunable thing. You could
>ng some streets without liearing psalms sung, kc. but now it
y neiflected, but becnme reproachable. Men are ashamed of
- are forced to retire for fear of bein;; made a proverb and re-
Sermon by Dr. Benion. See anU^ p. 8. Nov. 1702. From the
\t%. Tylston, Mr. P. Henry's tiecond daughter.
Christmas day, — p. 54.
irious collection of facts and customs respecting Christmas, in
Dljnervations on Popular Antiquities, v. i. p. 350, &c. In
h Houses of Parliament issued an order for the obwrvaiice of
f day as a day of fasting, ->" because it may call to remem-
ir sins, and tli^ ••iiis of our forefathers, who have turned this
tending the memory of Christ, into an extreme forgetfulness
ly giving litierty to carnal and sensual deli((hts, being con-
he life which Christ led here on earth, and to the spiritual life
in our souls, for the sanctifying and saving whereof God was
K>tb to take a human life, and to lay it down again." Rusli.
5. p. 817. Some time afterwardt, this was succeeded by an
r for abolishing the observation of Christmaa as a festival al>
Neal's History, v. iii. p. 390. In 1663, Mr. Henry thus no.
return of the season. " Dec. 24. As busy as people are to
heir houses for Christnus, so much more busy slionld I be to
ay heart for Christ. 25. No preaching at chapel, (vix. Wbite-
lel, where he attended wlien silenced,) wherefore I stayed at
iking no conscience of the day as a day to be kept holy, for
livine institution." Diary, Orig. MS.
All the parts of public worship,— p. 57.
ning a practice not uncommon in public wonhin, he thus
I himself; — "Secret prayer is that which is performed be-
d and ourselves alone, which no eye or ear is a witness to,
35. Act* X. 9. Of this our Saviour speaks, Matt. vi. 5, 6.
ice we derive a word of reproof to those who visibly address
^s to secret prayer in the public congregation. Such are so
shutting the door, that they rather throw it wide open, which
Jesus plainly condemns as savouring of hypocrisy. It is not
ul, but necessary to lift up our hearts to God in prayer, men.
r enlargement to him that speaks, for a blessing upon liis or.
o our souls, and vet so as to do it without those external ex-
of worship, kneeling, 4cc. which, if we were alone, we might
t indeed to noake use of, but before others, we may and ought
r." P. Henry. Orig. MS. See BaxUr's Christian Directory,
)uest. cxxi. Practical Works, v. 5. p. 490. oct. ed.
Submit to be re-ordained,— p. 5&
liq. Baxter. Part. iii. p. 38. And " A petition for peace with
mation of the liturgy, as it was presented to the Right
Bisliops, by the Divines, appointed by His Majevty's Com-
» treat with them about tite alteration of it." pp. 2, 3, 10. 4to.
»e Petition fur Peace is styled by the Author of the Con.
Pica for the Nonconrorniistii, " most humble, grave, and
I." Third Plea, p. 18. See also CaUmy's Life of Howe, p. 39.
TIm Savoy Conference^— p. 58.
ing of a corlain number of Bisliops and Presbyterian Di.
vfftiie of a Commission, granted by King Charles, «iate«l 2j||i
i6l, to couauli respecting tlie ezpediaicy uf making altera-
tions in the Liturgy. As to the altermtioos and additions made, see
NichoH's Prefiice to bis Comment on the Book of Common Prayer,
p. z. A list of the individuals employed in the alterations, may be
seen in Dr. D'Oyley's Life of Archbishop Sancroft, r. 1. p. 112, fcc.
and a full account of the whole, with the exceptions and proposed al.
terations, is preserved in Reliq. Baxter. lib. 1. part ii. p. icb, &c.
He never took the Covenant,— p. 59.
This document appears at length in Fuller's Church History, b. xi.
p. 201.
Mr. Henry's Diary contains the following memoranda : —
" 1061, May 27. I saw an order from the House of Lords, for burning
the Covenant.--See Jer. xxxvi. 23, .11— which was done, in Loodtm, by
the common hangman. May 22nd.
" June 18. Tlie lords* order for burning the Covenant was hanged
up in the church by Mr. Puleston's appointment, near the leading,
deak.
** June 23. Strong reports I should not be suffered to preach to-day,
but I did, and no disturbance, blessed be God, who hath mine enemies
in a chain. I took down the lords* order, knowing no authority but
malice that caused it to be hanged where it was." Orig. MS.
Came to Broad Oak,— p. GO.
A house standing near the road.side. between Whitchurch and
Wrexham, and situate in the township of Iscoid, in Flintshire, within
the parish of Malpas, in Cheshire. See Tong*s Life of Matt. Henry,
p. 2. ut nipra. The Broad Oak esUte was Mr. Henry*s property.
The oaks in the immediate neighbourhood, but on premises held by
lease from Mr. Hanmer, from which the residence was denominated,
seem to have been aAerward* an occasion of dispute. " 1710-1 1, May 2.
Heard from Broad Oak that Mr. Hanmer has cut down the le»ier of
the grest oaks. I wrote to him about it." " May 5. I hear Mr. Han.
mer, when m^ letter was brought in, would not receive it, or read it,
but ordered it to be burnt, and the great oak to be cut down, though
he had promised Mr. Key it should not. I would learn to take wrong.
I have reason to think be could not justly do it** " May 14. The
broad.oak was a week in falling.*' Matt. Henry's Diary, Orig. MS. A
new dwelling-house, and also, in part, new oiit-houses, have been
erected on the site of the premises where Mr. Henry's house stood, so
that there is nothing now left of former appearances, unless a portion
of the garden wall, and part of the out-buildings. These may fairly
be presumed to have been contemporary with the renowned occupier.
The "Chapel Barn," as it is denominated, was taken down about
twelve years ago ; the cushion used in the pulpit is in the possession of
the present tenant.
Provide a dwelling for them,— p. 61.
In one of Mr. Henry's Diaries is the following record ;— " 1063. July
7. A day of prayer atMrs. F with much sweetness. Lord, liear,
and have mercy. Is. xvi. 4. much upon my heart. Zet tnj/ outcattg
dwell ttith thee^ Moab. 1. God's people may be an outcast people;
when men cast them out of their synagogues, out of their country. 2.
God will own his people when men cast them out : my outcasts. 3. God
will provide a dwelling for his outcast people. 4. Even Moab, an
enemy, shall be a shelter to God's people, when the Lord speaks the
word." Orig. MS. See the Rev. Matt. Henry's Comment. Id Ioc.
Similar instances occur in that invaluable work.
One of the martyrs,— p. 61.
Mr. John Rogers. Fox's Martyrol. pp. 98—106. fol. 1684. Fuller's
Church History, cent. xvi. b. viii. p. 23. ui supra.
Imputed to him as his crime,— p. 62.
To the assertion that Mr. Henry's attendance at a meeting for prayer
" was imputed to him as a crime," Dr. Wordsworth, in his edition of
the life,* has appended the following note. " His crime was disobeying
an Act of Parliament."
This so directly affects Mr. Mattliew Henry's statement, and his
venerable father's impressions, as, evidently, to render some remarks
necessary. They proceed from a conviction that the biographer is cor.
rect, ana are offered with unaffected respect.
The great point, it u apprehended, upon which Protestantism, not
to mention nonconformity, rests, may be thus stated. Have any Popes,
however renowued, any Parliament, nowever wise, any synods or coun.
cils, however select, or any church, however ancient or devotional, su.
fireme authority t in matters of faith and practice; or can they make
hat unlawful, which, in its own nature, is right? If not, there could,
in the instance before us, be no criminality, it is conceived, in non.
compliance^ ^'^POX '"^ '^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^' peace of the world, and the
prosperity of undenfed religion, if the principle, thus negatived, had
never struggled for domination. To the praise of heavenly mercy, in.
deed, it is now no longer considered a crime in our fiivoured country,
* Ecd. Biogr. v. 0. p. 936.
t See Bishop Stillingfleet's Irenicum, p. 118. ut svfra.
t I believe that he that obeyeth not a law which was made aipunst God's
law, or without authority given by him, sinneth not against authority.
Kichard Baxter's Answer to Dr. Edward Stillingflect's Cbaree of Separa-
tion, p. XX. 4to. 1660.
kc uuLubIg
ibig ri^hu of vniy ChruliiD. ITuIn' llw Briluh le^kl*-
cnltd mRIiug.bDU*, ii in tlw irry picdbcU of cctloiuliol rule.
Nor would one of Ihc luliat. niirt ]i«*c(*blt. and loyal of mm. wtn
he Dov iliTc, be dtpiiiwd a( hii libnt). euniocd u * ftlnn, lod no.
bimhidmptcttolhelaHorhltGod.
cOBiidErcd, Ihi cinni. it ii Ibought, will be the caDTiitiou Hut Mr.
Now It ii eThlrat tint tlw Bible, whicli u the fuide of F
ovtaioa DO laihoriiT liir leie>*1*ti€>n u to divine wanhip,
lite to in aecfiuiilmhlc rmtuie wheiB he iIibII render lli* hoinaicc re-
qiiind b; lin Cntlnr,— vhtlbet in ■ bouie, « t ettbedtil, with t
pnjrer.book, or witliout, with fi»e perwim or a null inimbn-,— hii
IHrtiea to whom Ihe ehccaliob of nrh lawn ia intniated, Itrj un>D
coDariFDIioii* ol^eetnrB tji Ihetr inipoaitiona Ihe »?«*< penaltiet, Ihey
Tbo.,4poiflciwenbetten.(nd cnmnunJed, by
that lh«f ■h.^.iik^l >u.l ■■w.lr !.. Ih. ^^„^ «/ r^k.. .
^Zjr,
1 trnnek Jewe Ckriit. I
ninal t Tliry anwered. " We atsU to nt« Oid rotAfr
if tny] may be nllcd a nalii'ial nHiim, and Ihat'the'^d'
r Ihe ^cat child that cube made to undenrtandUMIerau,
iBDUUHnt Id the truth or the j>r<i|>o>ltiaD, ■• readily iithey petrelte
tlial twouid two Bike lour. How ilrangi Ihni it it, tint men oftbe
■nateft iiattf and pewetiation in other tliinn, *i irtdiini reci-i<e it.
Tliere arc few period* to be fiinnd, even in the Cliriitian rliurch, io
which then wlto itcadUy acted upon tbii princinle, were not con-
•id«*d u heretiea of the worfl nn.'-l
Let an inntiHX be Hibmillcd, Buppoae my indiTidualt. rron ater-
•iiHi to • nrlain cliaa of their fellow.tiiljccte, and nppoiition Io their
ihouid pray •Ine for Ihirty dayijor that In inite of every thine dirin*
at to Ilia '- coiDiniinioD of Binu^" oily n imny. bowtnr einllent,
•hould pnt lotfelhir. NslwilhiludhK their dectee, oik and inotlirr
ofUwnctlee "kHdaad pny, aad (in tlnnki unto Ond •> brf «,"
oaetUnikiagHchliw. Sanm Hum to be uprehewled nd nuniilHd.
Ow it be credited that Ilieir via were rtMrinil, « Hat tin were
pwriihedfordnbedieai'elothekw! Trua it in, without tlie »Uf«ia
nially obvinw tiiat Ihcrrime waa pnyine. and thai ilielr mune IwiuR
kbnwo, the law wai framed u a hwr. and •• a ■nctnii Sw penal In.
aicliDntl "TlieM wui time," aya Ihr nnatablg epinropalian abnve
qaoled. rel«r>ii|; to Mr. Hrory't daya. " wlieii ilie naBciAfarnMi
Kraned Dadrr tlie iron tod o( opprewoa, and were rxgnied to flnet,
|irnalliei,aKd nnprinnuiHt, aa wril ai InrrDel morkininandthe lew.
lew law of a raliUe, /or HVTfhIpplBS Gai accenUnB '• t*« '<»*' 'I
thtir ronititntt: V.A I apprrhi^ their nnnnxifon^ily wa. nih^
tbcomunoil. tad Meniibk. Iliao Ibereaf, raueof tliE iiard treat.
The Una tbn appwt to be, ta rialed by Mr. Hittliew Henry, that
prayini with ulhcii waa fi»aM to liii fithcr ai a crime ; the matter
nf flie bw heini: liDrul, the rrimioilily waa llierr, and not in hit ron.
duet.** nitIWHgoad.tadDn«pDiiir(Utempnnl puiilthnKnIiaHlId
make it otlwrwiw, an* more Uaui tlie aeTerei* human dnnnriationi
tan nnder obrdleace to intiinvd prttrriniioni liable to elernt) ten-
««HU. Akd, wbatHilhUHSerlptnre! Wkm tiro er Ihrtt mn iia.
Uenrlli>«UFrliiii»«n(.Mrr«ui/larXrH(Maft*ni.tt "fle
■yj ?"*•].' f •"■ I™' ' «>n..reterHiiK In bin divine i>re(tnnalall timrt^
Spiril. to mmmiipicalF bJEtiiq^to hit peopl?. ujleiitfiier, orirAfrmr,
Jtvuy, Diary, urii. Kt.
Kmewudl
mice, be aulnectcd to any invenlKilii. or impoaitliiDt, howc
rlirittiin,— the nnctttarT diitiDctwn bctwrtn right udwtui|waiU
be cnnfouoded,— the Refornulioo fF«n Pupery would need wttM
Tindiration, - Ine Purltaot, ioatead of detcrviag euluutic adu^
would b« canble of adracacy,— and even criraioalily originated, nal-
■ithntnding tpait.itic eIlH>rtalilHI^ t b. adlwriag to f*e Utrb
ahtrtrUK ChritI imth made Ala ptrnte /ra. t
Let not lb* matter neTerlhetat fie mimuxircd, Tbe deniititf
nugiiletial control erer cwnicienc* and religion, doe* not intriat*
upon authority in ritil ■Sain. Conacientioui penoiu eaprriaUy, tad
n«ltr camidetatiao, ner feci tbe laircdnes of divine injaoctioDi. Aad,
ui-twithitanding Chriit reinii in the linrtt lud eoaaciennw of taiilnie
lolgecu, " Die pHnm of tliii world," to borrow llie appropriaH ^
SMoflbclateadaiiral rector of Alton Sudlbrd, "haTC uottaiagtt
Irom the obedience of Chrltlitot to hit authorit*. Hia ■truli
are rommandtd to render trlbuu to whoa Iribote ii dub bownr ta
wlmn buoour. In submit Id Ihe powert tint be. to fear Ood and Ihr
It the iiinc time. iSej) nuiat oiry Cod ralSer Utaa hh. latea aia
ill ga Id bim, ti
il it probable Mr. Bcny bid
1, called the " Eieqny.*'
Sec that Ihoa make thy rack^ning atnight.
And yield her luck again by welahl.
For lliou muil audit on thy Imit
Each giain and atom of Ihii dual.
ly approach, tell
It lut ^t'don'l
The word Caain
iOra. tccudiag tc
_ . _ ._.. . I.*rtutint tiiciktor lh<
riinrrh, where Ihe ChrMitn met. And Amabi
Nee Blagliam-a WorkiL ml. % p. glO. M npn. lot lent
tlia derrer of the fourtli General Council of IMeiu, A. D.
nlU Oneratlciila celebnnteK. f ■•■"-■■■■
the Emiicrort' praclamaliaa, the pnce* wntr* t-nritnana tT^ttlcdt*
liDblirnnyer, weRalMOKmilirln. Tbe Honilk^ p. Stt « ■■■
pni. Tbe third part of the Homily Mainit peril of idolatry.
In the art louclinuC Hfreliei. 9 lien. IV. c. It. Prelrtttnl* are. by
the then Popiili GonnriMnl, raiimntcd aa. " A cotain new wl, of
Ihe faith of th* wramenti of the church, and Ihe aulhorily of tbe
nmc damnably UilnkiHi" and the ttatute alle^ that •'oriwh
wicked dorlrine and oPiiiona, tliey make nnlawful OimrtmHela ai
ronfr^ncioi tliey hold and eiercitc acboolti they make and wiite
boaki; thrydowickedly initmet tud inform people." Bidupl^b.
ton't Oideic. 1. 1. n. aS. W npro.
Tile venenUe conpnttra of the Hoodliea eridenllr uanl tlw trm
favnunhly, •■ Ln." lay Ihey. " unto llie liaie of CooiUntiue, by thi
mtt of above three hundred ycara after our Kaviour Cbrbi. whrn
Clirltlian irligiim wu nw< puie. and indeed golden, Chridiini had
bnl law and poor CuKudcfea, and linple ortlariei. yea. caret under
tlie ground, calicd cryptK, where Ibcy, |iir fear of ncrtecutioa, aBcni-
bled aecrell vtoEether. A figure whereof remainelh in th* viulbi. wkirb
old ttaleof llie primitive church brfore ContlaBIine." Hanilia, nl
npro, p. sas.
Afterwiidt, indeed, the epithet waa applied by Ihe Church al
England bencU to thoc of her felh>w.pratettanta, in tbt ITIb rvn.
thcr reformitiim, partially withdrew from ber tommuaion, and were
icruitomed, in ronan,uei>n of tlwir liabililien to ca■vtn^ if tbey at-
mbled for dieine worthip at all, hi earb otlirr't btbiaiioot. Suth
r dieine «<>nhip at
lUpplKU bv atatulory en:
ppreai aeJiHHHeaiivciit
ical deni
> Mr^ Scott'i ComoienDui'i John ivUi. 31—40. Practical O
NOTES.
219
ofSdiMD, in tbii vol. Henceforward the phraK, " tedUUmi eonven.
tide," was rendered permanently expreHive,* id order that, by an
ioocndo of sedition, the meeting together of fire or more persona of
the age of sixteen yean, " in other manner than according to the
Liturgy and practice of the Church of England," might be fully ob-
ttrocted.
In connexion with the conaequences, an eminent clergyman made a
remark not very favourable to the parties. " See," said he, " the piety
of annoe of our supprewors of Conventicle*. Preachers are threatened
with hanginir, and the death of traytors; they pull down a pulpit to
set up healthing in it ; tear the pulpit, distrain and sell the Bible to
choose, when they mi^ht have made choice of other." The Conform-
ist's Fourth Flea, ut ntprOt p. 76.
The tubjert cannot be dismissed without observing, that Bishop
Latimer, at the commencement of one of his sermons, before King Ed-
ward, d^tf nates the Chapel Royal a " preaching place in the palace at
Wevtraittster ;"-f or, according to subfle<]uent parlance, a Conventicle.
" And," says Fuller, " no diqpace is imported in the notation of tlie
word ; Conventicle soundins; nothing else but a tmall convention."'
Church History, b. ix.p. 102. ut supra. See Memoirs of the Rev.
Joha Shower, by W. Tong, pp. 49, 50. oct. 1716.
Whence not to curry favour, 8cc. — p. 66.
This remark has attracted Dean Wordswortirs notice, (see Eccl.
Bi<^T- vol. vi. p. 3.36.) as tbouffli, coupling it with the statement of an
imputation of crime, already discuMeil, it was intended to suit some
mysterious purpose. What the iuueudo was meant to accomplish, is
best known tit its learned author ; but, judi^ing impartially, as Mr. M.
Henry's representation ia no departure from the simple verity, so it
Wbuld he oniair to surrender his reputation to any thing abort ol proof.
And sorely it Unot presumptuous to inquire,
— — Who can blot that name
With any just reproach?
Subjection to government,— p. 66.
Calvin In his chapter on Civil Government, says, " To entertain a
thought of its extermination is inhuman barbarism ; it is equally as
necenary to mankind as bread and water, light and air, and far more
excelleot." Institutes, v. 3. p. 518. Allen's Translation.
All thia and heaven too,~p. 70.
See an anecdote, very similar, in the Christian's Magasine, vol. 1. p.
902. oct. 1700.
Mr. William Turner,— p. 71.
See Mr. Chalmers's Biog. Diet. v. xxx. p. 100. In Mr. Henry's
Diary are the following memoranda.
** 1668. Ausr. 26. William Turner came to winter with us, and to
teach tiie thildren."
" 1671, Feb. 24. William Turner went from os towards Oxford, haV'
ing smoumed with us, for the most part, since August last, in which
time he entered Katy in reading English, and Sarah in Hebrew. I
pcay Ood preserve him from University sins and snares."
**1073, Feb. 27. Jos. Mainwaring went with William Turner to.
wards Oxford. The Lord prosper their studies, and keep them frum
preaeat sins and snares." Orig. MS.
Time discovered,— p. 73.
Namely, the King's disposition to support the Roman Catholic at
the expense of the Protestant interest. Dr. D'Oyley's Life of Arch-
bishop Sancroft, v. i. p. 158, &c. and the Gent. Mag. v. 31. p. 253.
wlicre tlie Address, presented by the Dissenters, on that occasion, was
first printed.
Spent in the work of the Lord,— p. 7a
Must we have no relsxationt We are servants to Christ, not slavea.
The how always t>eut becomes useless. Though wc are ministers, we
arr men, therefore we need food, and physic, and friends to visit.
Divinity excludes not humanity. But all should be made subservient
to our work. As, if our people love any creature more than Christ,
titey will he lost for ever ; so, if we love and follow any pleasure more
than oar people, we fail in duty. We must prop the earthen vessel,
but it is that it may hold the treasure, and so far as is useful. We
must be merry with onr peonle in all civility, that they may be cheer,
ful with us in all religion. Mr. Porter, at an Ordination. From a MS.
in P. Henry's band-writing.
First spoken to the offender,—^. 78.
This rule is prominently noticed by the late Ambrose Serle, Esq. in
• Sec the 16tti Charles II. c. 4. and CCd Charles II. c. 1. Walker had
4t an earlier period (A. I>. 1649) applied the term to the House of Com-
HiotM. styling it. the better to inspire odium, a " frishted Conventicle."
Hisiory of Independency, part ii. p. 167. 4to. 16t9.
* Sermooa, p. 24. M ti^rm.
his excellent Manual, '* The Cliristian Remembrancer," part iii. c
xiv. p. 276. oct ed. 1823. An edition enriched by an introductorv
essay from the pen of Dr. Chalmers. '
They are not lost, &c.— p. 79,
1 bus Mr. Rutherfoord, writing to John Gordon, remarks;—*' Your
bairns, now at their rest, are not lost to you; they are laid up in
Christ's treasury in heaven. At the resurrection ye shall ii eet with
them there ; they are sent before, but not sent away." Religious Let-
ters, ut supra. Letter 25. p. 35. Again, addressing " Lady Gaitgirth "
he say^,-" If vour Lord lake any of them [your bairnsj home to his
house before the storm comes on, take it well ; the owner of the
orchard may take down two or three apples off his own trees before
Midsummer, and ere they get the harvest sun ; and it would not be
seemly that his servant, the gardener, should chide him for it • let our
Lord pluck his own fruit at any season he pleaseth. They are not lost
to you; they are laid up wliere our Lord's best jewels lie." Letter 76.
I I. 95. ib. And, addressing Lady Keomure, he writes;—" Ye have
ost a child ; nay, she is not lost to you who is found to Christ ; she is
not sent away, but onlv tent before; like unto a star, which, going
out of our sight, doth not die, and vanish, but shineth in another
hemisphere." Part 2. Letter 4. p. 252. ib. See the Gardener and Rose
Tree, a Fable, addressed to Mrs. H. on the Death of her Child, by the
Rev. S. Pearce. Memoirs of Mr. Pearce, by the Rev. A. Fuller p 247
oct 1808. » r- •
Not to be obeyed merely because they were laws,— p. 85.
In Queen Mary's time there was a law to go to mass, &c. But, saith
T. P. you do not compare this law with that No, saith Mr. Henry,
God forbid ; but I only mentioned it, to show that all human laws are
not to be obeyed merely because they are laws. Life of P. Henry bv
Matt. Henry. Orig. M^ ' '
An illustration is furnished by the vacillations of religion, as by law
established, in England. Four alterations were crowded, during one
period of our history, into the short space of fifty years. Popery, on
the accession of King Henry the Eighth, A. D. 1509, was dominant;
snd, in 1533, eavc way to Protestantism. In 155.3, Popery was again
the religion of the sUte. In 1558, Mass was abolished, and the Liturgy
of King Edward restored. Mr. Henry, it is likely, had this sUte of
things in view ; and, if his doctrine be incorrect, it must have been
criminal to luive done otherwijie than go with the stream.
The times, says the witty •• Prebendarie of Sarura," under Diorle.
slap, were Pagan ; under Constantine, Christian ; under Constantius.
Arian; under Julian, Apostate; under Jovian, Christian as^ain ; and
all within the aire of man, the term of seventie years. And would it
not have wrenched and sprained his soul with short tuminsr, who, in all
these, should have been of the religion/or the time being 1 Fuller's Holy
State, p. 200. ut nipra.
Beza published an answer to the railings of Francis Baldwinus, who
followed the steps of Eceboliu«, both of them teaching,— that men
might change their religion as tlie state changed. Clarke's Marrow
of Eccl. Hist. p. 8H0. ut supra. Cicero says, Nihil tam absurdum,
quod non dictum sit ab aliquu philusophorum.
Dispersion of the French Protestants,— p. 80.
In consequence of the revocation of the edict of Nantz, nearly fifty
thousand refugees pasMed over into England, and were so many prool^
in addition to numberless others, that " persecution," as His Majesty
King Charles the First well observed, " never was, nor will be, found a
good way for conversion." Earl Clarendon's State Papers, v. 2. p. 267.
It would furnish a source of interesting, as well as curious, employ,
ment, to collect the various exhibitions of the evil of intolerance, and
the dangers to which its instruments are exposed. Without recurring
to the primitive ages of the Church, the space from the Reformation
to the period respecting which Dr. Doddridtre urred, with so much
force, '' the absurdity and iniquity of persecution for conscience sake,
in all its kinds, and degrees," '•' would supply ample materials, ana
which, placed together, would display a succession of reasoning, and
illustration, almost as varied as the pens employed in their composi.
tion. One, and not a little curious, occurs in a srarce volume, entitled,
" A Rare Sight ; or, the Lyon Sent from a Far Country, and presented
to the City of Norwich ; in a Sermon, June 18, 1650, by John Carter,
pp. 105—108. duod. 1653." Mr. Carter was the gentleman to whom
the letter for promotinsr the London Polyglott Bible was addressed,
by Archbishop Usher, Dr. Walton, and others, as preserved in the Life
of Dr. Pocock. Works, by Twells, v. 1. p. 47. ttf supra.
He doth not love you of the Church of England neither, ~p. 94.
Mr. Henry's opinion was expressed by the Quakers to the King him.
self in their Address on his accession. " We are come to testify our
sorrow for the death of our good friend Charles, and our joy for thy
being made our governor. "H e are told thou art not of the persuasion
of the Church of England no more than we ; therefore, we hope that
thou wilt grant us the same liberty which thou allowest thyself."
Rapin's History of England, v. 15. p. 8. ed. 1731.
• Doddridge's Works, vt nyi-^, v. 3. p. 117, &c See Bishop Hoadley'a
Works, v. 3. p. 763. ttt aufrm.
220
NOTES.
Books miiiMt Popery,— p. 9&.
A letrned antiquary, the Rev. Francta Peck, published in 4to. 1735,
"A Complete Catalogiie of all the DiscoTirses written, both for and
against Hopery, in the time of King James II. ; containing, in the
whole, an Account of Four Hundred and Fifty.seven Books and Para.
phletM." See Palmer's Vindication, ch. iv. p. 31. 4to. 1706, for " the
true reason why Dissenters terit no more against Popery in the reign
of James II." Also, see Popery a Spiritual Tyranny, in this vol.
Orertores noade towards a comprehension,-'p. 104.
Two similar attempts had been before made. The first by Sir Or.
Undo Bridgman, in 1667-8. A full account of the whole, and the pro.
posed alterations, is recorded In Reliq. Baxter. Part. III. pp. 33—38.
ut tupra. The second, by Dr., afterwards Archbishop, Tillotson ; and
Dr., afterwards Bishop, ^illiugfleet, in 1674. Reliq. Baxter. Part iii.
p. 167, &c. Birch's Life of Archbishop Tillotson, p. 43, &c.
As to the comprehension more immediately referred to, see Dr.
D'Oyley's Life of^ Archbishop Sancroft, v. 1. p. 336. and the Hist, of
Rel. Lib. v. 3. pp. 182-190.
A comprehension was anin talked of in the year 1748, and an in-
teresting letter on the subject, written bv Mr. Barker to Dr. Dod.
dridge, noay be seen in the Letters to and from Dr. Doddridge, p. 113.
oct 1790.
Hearen and Hell, — p. 109.
Heaven and Hell may be considered <oca//t(,— so it matters not
where they be ; and, morally, so Heaven is holiness completed ; Hell
is sin completed. Hence they are set out by the same names ; Hell
and Min, by darkness, Jude 6. 3 Pet. ii. 4. comp. Eph. v. 8, 11.
Prov. ii. 13.— by Death, Rev. xx. 6. comp. Eph. li. 1. Luke xv. 33.
Heaven andholtneMg by light, Col. i. 13. comp. Eph. v. 8. bv life, JRom.
vi.33, 33. 1 John v. II. romp. I John iii. 14. Luke xv. 32. by glory,
3 Cor. iv. 18. comp. iii. 1& 3 Pet. i. 3. P. Henry. Com. Place Book.
Orig. MS.
Thy God, thy sin, thy death, thy Christ,
The eternal pains of hell,
The joyes of heaven, the day of doome, —
These seven, remember well.
" An ancient Minister now with God." See a Treatise on Christian
Conference, by Edmund Staunton, D. D. p. 128. daod. 1673; also, the
Lives of the Puritans, v. 3. p. 470.
All this be did gratis,<— p. 109.
But few are of ability to do this, and when the power is enjoyed, it
is, perhaps, questionable how far, on the whole, it is best to relieve the
congregation from the privilege, to say nothing of the duty, of afford,
ing a due maintenance. Should a minister, by the kindness of Pro.
Tidence, be raised above the need of the supply, still the use of it would
enlarge his capacity for usefulness, dissatisfaction towards those who
are less supplied with outward blessings would be prevented, and his
successor would be neither prejudiced by a feeling of inferiority, nor
encumbrance. ** If men held in as dear a regard tlieir immortal souls,
as they generally do their corruptible bodies, then would they never
basely grudge unto the pastors ot them a liberal affluence of all neces-
saries : so that no want of worthy respect, nor of time, nor of means,
might discourage them from making meet and manifold provision to
lead, to feed, to fold, to d«>fcnd their docks." A Liberal! Maintenance
is manifttstly due to the Ministers of the Gos|>ell, by Joshua Meene,
Vicar of Wyraoiidliam in Norfolke. 4to. 1638. p. 66.
It should he observed, however, that reasons existed, in Mr. Henry's
time, for the course he and others of his brethren p'lrsued, which have
long ceased ; and before a conclusion is drawn from their example,
they are entitled to consideration. The charge, for instance, was
general, and not confined to a single calumniator ; that covetousness
was the ground of nonconformity. " Did I gain by nonconformity,"
exclaims the dignified and benevolent Baxter, " that, from the day
that I was silenced, had never taken a groat for preaching, nor ever
had a church to maintain me, and had commonly refused even friends'
gratuities, (save £10 from one man that I could not refuse,) for many
years after this, and, save from few, to this day ? Who, by refusing a
Bishopric, and other emoluments, have lost, I think, above twenty,
thousand pounds by nonconformity? What answer do these men de.
serve?" Penitent Confession, «( tupra. 80, 90.
Mr. Steele, addressing a congregation at an ordination in 1669, thus
expressed himself; "Help us with your prayers. Help us in main,
tenance, that we who should live to study, may not be put to study to
live." From a MS. in Mr. Philip Henry's hand.writing.
Private academies,— p. 113.
There was a Prophet's School at Gilgal, 3 Kings ii. 1. comp. Iv.38;
at Jericho, 3 Kings ii. 4, 6; at Bethel, v. 33 ; at Carmel, v. 36. comp.
•V. 33, 36; at Samaria, 3 Kings ii. 36; v. 3; at Ephrairo, 3 Kings v.
23. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
A History of the early Dissenting Academies may be seen in Dr.
Toulmin's Historical View, 316-301. ut tupra ; and, at the end of the
same volume, a List of the Students. Appendix, No. V. pp. 66if— 603.
Sec also, the History of Dissenters, vol. 4.
A correct view of the internal arrangement of the Institutions above
referred to, may be obtained from a Letter written by Archbishop
Seeker. See Dr. Gibbon's Mem. of Dr. Watts, p. 346. and the Works
of Dr. Doddridgv, toI. S. p. 559. til anpra. Also, from Dr. Raflks's
Life of Mr. Spencer; Appendix, No. L ed. 1813; and the History of
Dissenters, vol. ii. p. I, tec.
One who bad been the pnpil of Dr. Benion, obserTiog that such
Academies are by some most maliciously calumniated as nurseries of
rebellion and sedition, and hurtful to kings and provinces, ttalesL tlat
what insif ht the Doctor thought fit to give his pupils iotop^tica,
tended to Deget in them not only a satisfaction in, out an admiratioa
of, the established constitution of the English GovemroeDt ; and be
doubted not, but they brought with them, hom his instructions, a true
value for monarchy, and as thorough an abhorrence of the cxeciable
murder of King Criarles I. as they could have brought from Christ.
Church itself. Life of Dr. Benion, in this volume.
Metbinks it is strange, <cc.— p. 119.
Old Mr. Turton, who, in the year 1668, we bad a while at Nantwieh,
but who ended his days in Birmingham, when visited by Mr. Btack.
more, complained of being left behind by so many of his dear frieadi
in Christ ; and added ;— " It is because 1 am not ready." Mr. Black,
more replied ;— •' No, Sir ; you are left here to help to oiake others
ready for heaven." Mrs. Savage's Diary. Orig. MS.
Find Jordan roagfa,— p. 130.
I«t roe tell yon that which I know, vea. foreknow,— Death is some,
what drierie, and the streams of that Jordan betweene us and oor Cs.
naan runne furiously ; but they stand still when the arke commeth.
Let your anchor be cast within the vaile, and fiuteoed on the Rocke
Jesus. The Life of Bishop Cowper, Works, p. 6. ut cvpro.
Holy Paula,— p. 123.
Widow of Toxotius. She died at Bethlehem, A. D. 404, «t 56. She
is celebrated for her piety, and skill in the Hebrew language. Her
bounty was immoderate. She took up money at interest to give to the
poor, and left her daughter deep in debt ; a great charge of brothers
and sisters, and nothing to maintain it. " I like not this charitie re.
versed, when it begins far off, and neglects those at home. Sure, none
need be more bountiful in giving, than the sunne is in shining, which,
though freely bestowing his beams on the world, keeps, notwithstand.
log, the body of light to himself. Yea, it is necessary that liberality
should as well have banks as a stream. Yet, surely. God's glory was
the mark she shot at, though herein the hand of her practice did some,
time shake, and oftener the eye of her judgment did take wrong aim."
Fullers Holy SUte, p. 39, 30. ui tupra.
Playing at cards, — p. 131.
See Archspologia, vol. 8. Nos. xvii. xviii. xviii ♦.
" In that imthense repository of papers," says an eminent writer,
" which Thoresby's curiosity had Brathered, was the rough draft of an
answer made by the Rev. John KcTliubeck, to an application made by
an unknown person whose conscience was disquieted in consequence of
having played at cards, and laid a wa^er: one sentence of this proves
him to have been an able and discerning casuist.— Though I do not
think it utterly unlawful, yet the circumstanLCs and consequences too
often render it so. It would be well if the consciences of the present
generation were sufficiently awake to perceive, that, amone these cir.
curostances and consequences, are to be reckoned, rapacity, fretful,
ness, and waste of time " Loidis and Elmete, by the Rev. T. D.
Whitaker, p. 43. See Mr. Joseph Williams's Diary, p. 433. oct 1816.
A celebrated poet, who will not easily be suspected of puritanic in.
clinations, satirically exclaims,—
See bow the world its veterans rewards !
A youth of frolics, an old age of cards.
Pope's Moral Eenya, Ep. II.
Turned it to his reproach that his meeting. place had been a
bam,— p. 349.
See Eiffhteen Sermons by Mr. Henry, p. 307. n. Also Dr. Lem.
priere's Univ. Biog. 4to. 1808. in verb. P. Henry.
1694. Oct 36th. The lower bay of the chapel was benched by Wil.
liam Evans, for which be had out of the sacrament money, 2U. 6d. P.
Henry, Orig. MS.
The Nonconformists generally were reproached for preaching in
barns. In noticing which, the Reverend Author of the Conformist'a
Plea, remarks, " His Gospel, who was laid in a manger, may be preach,
ed in a bam, if there be no room for his preachers in better places."
Third Plea, ut tmra. p. 50.
The venerable Archbishop Usher says, ** In times of persecntion, the
godly did often meet in Barnt, and such obscure places, which inde«l
were public, because of the church of God there; tlie tx^iise or phct
availing nothing to make it public or private; even as, wlieresoever the
Prince is, there is the Court although it were in a poor cottage."
Cited in Mather's History of New England, book iv. p. 14a
Memento hoc agere,— p. 137.
See a most elegant and edifyine volume, entitled, "Thonghts,
chiefly designed as Preparative or Persuasive to Private Devotion,"
by John Sheppard, p. 171. 3nd ed. 1834.
NOTES.
221
Advice of the moral phifcMopheri &c.— p. 137.
See laocntes. Edit Wolf. Bu. 1570. p. 7. c. 30. which Kntence, from
the phraie ** morml phikMopher," and the use of tlie verbft avtinttvt and
wirrtvttv, leems here to be referred to, but is itself founded on * frag-
awDt of Epichannus, preserved in Dio Chrysostom vepi avurrtat Orat.
LXXI V. p. 636. Edit. MorelU
Yta^ Kot f^tfxtnio^ oiriffTCiv' apOpa ravra tmv (Pptvmv.
" The Sicilian ^ngg, Epicbarmus, whispered,— Be watchfull. and
distrust ; for those are the nerves of the mind." Dr. Middleton's Life
of Cicero, vol. 1. p. 382. 4to. 1741 ; and note [a].
Gave him a copy,— p. 143.
The venerable Archdeacon Owen, noticing the Polvglott, nys, " One
of the two copies of that great work in our school library, was tlie gift
of Heath." Some account of the ancient and present state of Shrews,
bory, p. 274.
In the Mem. of Bii4iop Walton, vol. 1. p. 269. ii< supra, the donation
of Mr. Heath is stated merely as a report. Mr. Heury, who must have
known the fact, asserts it above positively. Mr. Todd's representation
i% rendered more otiservable, inasmuch as it stands connected with a
refcrence to the Life of P. Henry.
He read the liturgj' till, &c.-p. 143.
In Bishop Kennet's Register, vol. 1. p. 820. this statement somewhat
vario. It is there said, tliat,— " Mr. Heath, at the persuasion of
BisiMp Walton, continued a few Lord's-davs after August 24, 1663,
reading tlie Liturgy, but was soon sileuced, because he could not come
up to the imposed terms of conformity."
Tlw account is Uken from Dr. Caiaray's Abridgment, and is adopted,
without a remark, in the Noncon. Mem. vol. 3. p. 15a
Notwithstanding an apparent discrepancy, may not both the ac-
eoonts be substantially correct ? Mr. Henry's referring to Mr. Heath's
conduct from the Kestoratioo.— Bishop Kennet's, to the same fact,
etatimued a little longer than August 24, when the Act of Uniformity,
which passed in May preceding, was enforced.
A lew only of the ministers who were ejected, it will be recollected,
Kd the Liturgy. Mr. Fairclough, who left Keddington in Suffolk,
"could and did submit to the use of it, though lie made it not the mat-
ter of hi« choice.'* Clark's Lives of Eminent Persons, p. 157. ut ni.
rn. And, Mi. Rowland Fog^g, (son of Mr. Fogg, ante, p. 23.) " was
OMng the first who restored its public use in 1660, and continued the
use of it till August, 1662, yet he could not satisfy his conscience to
kfcp in his living." Noncon. Mem. vol. 3. pp. 481, 482. Mr. Heath
*u like-minded. The continuance of the practice during his pro.
koged incumbency at St. Alkmond's is, therefore, probable.
lo the Life of Mr. Wyar, who left Chiltern, in Wiltshire, it is re.
Barked, that, — '* If the reading of the Liturgy, without declaring un.
fagntd assent and consent, would have satisfied the law, he might have
continued vicar.** Noncon. Mem. vol. 3. p. 360. A like representa.
tim w» applicable to each of those who adopted the Liturgy, but
*tre afterwards ejected, as well as to those who disliked its use.
While some seceded early, (Mr. Baxter, for instance, in May, Reliq.
dntcr, part ii. p. 384. ui mpra,) most of the nonconformists continued
ia their respective churches until tlie statutory limitation had nearly
expired. Mr. Heath not onlT did the same, but it is likely remained, ac.
eordiog to the statement followed by Bishop Kennet, a few Lord's,
^rs after. Many instances of such continuance may be referred to.
See rtjtf. al.) tlieXives of Mr. Aslihurat, Noncon. Mem. vol. 1. p. 281.
Mr. Tapper, ih. p. 357. Mr. Hardy, ib. vol. 2. p. 146. Mr. Crossin, ib.
^ 265. Mr. Creswick, ib. p. 266 Mr. Hawes, ib. p. 293. Mr. Angier, ib.
p. 300. And Mr. Truman, ib. vol. 3. p. 93.
It may be noticed, that, immediately after the restoration, the ba-
ard of not reading the Common Prayer was peat, and the results
costly. See ante, pp. 45, 46; and Fawcett's Life of O. Hey wood, p.
31 ; also the Livesof Mr. Thoroughgood, Noncon. Mem. vol. 2. p. 342;
Mr. Barret, ib. voL 3. p. 103 ; and Mr. Slater, ib. p. 257.
It would be difficult to find an exemption from trouble between the
R«rtoratioa and St Bartholomew's dav, 1662, unless where the Liturgy
was used, either in whole or in part. Mr. Heath remained, during
that itttcrraljiindisturbed, which strengthens the probabtlitY, that,
agreeably to Mr. Henry's assertion, he read the Liturgy, before Au.
nsl, 1603. On any other principle it is puxsling to account for his
medom from molestation. Mr. Tallents was indulged with like tran.
^Uity ; and Mr. Matthew Henry expressly says, that, " when the
ting was restored, in the year 1660, he (Mr. T.) intinoated his readi-
•ess to con farm, as fiu' as he could, Ice. He therefore read (as I
think I have been tdd) some puis of the Liturgy at that time." Life
of Mr. TaOents, appended to his Funeral Sermons, in this vol.
Theoaly point of difference between the two narratives seems to be.
— ia Mr. Heath reading, according to Mr. Henry, till August 24, and
then being silenced ;— and, according to the register, at the persuasion
of Bishop Waltmi, continuing, before actual silence, a few Lord's-davs
•ftcr, reading the Liturg:^. Without pressing an inference in Mr.
Htnnr's fiivoor from his yicinity to, and intimacy with, Mr. Heath, it
■sjr nirly be obeerred, that his record derives eoofirroation from the
^phraseology adopted by Bishop Kennet. The register does not
vj tut Mr. Hcnth rend the Lffnrgy /ron August, but that he con.
t**aed a few Lord*a-day« after, rea£ng it ; thus implying the previous
''•itit, as mentkiDed by Mr. Henij.
Mr. Henry's notice d the case is perfectly natural ; for the silencing,
"keeaaK Mr. Benth coold not come op to the imposed terms of con.
'"'vuty/* (in idiich both ■Utemciiti a^ree,) was, in pursuance of the
Act, which strictly operated on the Lord's.day preceding the 24th of
August. The rigid eflfecta of that statute were warded off in each in-
stance, (and at great peril,) by special favour, which favour terminated,
with a few exceptions only, speedily. It will appear less surprising, that
the continuance of Mr. Heath, "a few Lord Vdays after August 24,"
should not have l>een adverted to, when it is borne in mind, that, in
such an occurrence, there was nothing singular. The liabit of reading
the Liturgy was more unusual, and was therefore memorialized.
Two objections to the other account present themselves. The re-
gister even mistakes the name of the church in which Mr. Heath
officiated, St. Mary's, instead of St. Alkmond's. It asserts, also, that
Mr. Heath's continuance a few Lord's-days beyond August 24, 16i62,
was at the persuasion of Bishop Walton. Bishop Kennet, indeed,
properly notices, in the margin, that " Bishop Walton died Nov. 29,
1661 ;" it is added, however, he "yet might resp«^:thim, (Mr. Heath,)
and advihe him to church-ctnifonnity." Were the writer to abandon
the explanation thus offered, he should, unhesitatingly, determine in
favour of Mr. Henry's accuracy. It is conceivMl, that another cir.
cumstance, in addition to what has been submitted, would justify
such a conclusion. The third and best edition of the Life of Philip
Henry, " corrected" by his biographer, was published several years
after the promulgation of the account adopted by Bishop Kennet ;
but, in the statement in question, no alteration was nude. Dr.
Calamy's Abridgment appeared in 1702. The third edition of Mr.
Henry'^s Life, in 1712. Mr. Tallents, too, who was the fellow.towna-
man and associate of Mr. Heath, lived several years after thecircula.
tion of Dr. Calamy's statement, with two prior editions of Mr. Henry's
Life, published in 1698 and 1699, before him. He had, as we have
seen, special communications with Mr. Matthew Henry, relative to
the fects introduced intotliat volume. Had, therefore, any inaccuracy
crept in, it is difficult to conceive of it remaining unobserved by both
of those excellent men,— Mr. Tallents, an acute and indefatigaUe
chronologist, snd Mr. Matthew Henry, a vigilant and minute in-
quirer after truth.
On the whole, the conclusion seems justifiable, that, notwithstanding
Mr. Henrv's silence as to Mr. Heath's lubits after Bartholomew.day,
1662, botn his statement, and that adopted in the register, are en-
titltrd to credit. Mr. Henry's, as an account not quite complete, but to
the full extent correct ; and Bishop Kennet's, or rather Dr. Calamy's,
as perfect, evincing Mr. Heath's use of the Liturgy, not only be/ore
August 24, 1662, but also for a few Lord's-days after.
Mr. Joshua Richardson, &c.— p. 144.
The same power that displaced Mr. Moore, did, in his stead, place in
Myddle Mr. Joshua Richardson, M. A. (Son of Joshua Richardson, of
Broughton,) upon condition that he would allow the tythes of Had-
nail's Ease, or pay a salary, equivalent to the value thereof, to a preach,
ini^ minister, to be constantly resident in Hadnall's Ease. This Mr.
Richardson was an able and laboriouse minister; his whoale im.
ployment was about the concemes of his ministry. His wife, beeing a
Srudent and careftill woman, managed the rest or his afaires with great
iligence and discretion. After the death of Mr. Moore, the Right
Honourable John Earle of Bridgewater, (knowing that Mr. Richard,
son was well beloved in his parish.) by a certain kind of state amnesty,
permitted him to continue minister, on the same termes and condicons
that hee was putt in by the Parliament. This Mr. Richardson built
that pt. of the psonsge house, which is the kitchen and the romes bee.
low it, in which hee made use of soe much of the timber as was left of
the barne that fell downe in Mr. More's time. Aftor the restauracon
of King Charles the Second, when the act for conformity came ont,
Mr. Richardson refuseing to subscribe the declaracon inserted in tlie
act concerning the solemne league and covenant, lost his place, and
with him fell the minister of Hadnall's Ease.
I had so much intimate acquaintance with Mr. Richardson, that
hee would willingly have conformed to the discipline and constitucons
of the Church of England. But hee told mee liee could not, with a
safe conscience, subscribe to the declaration sninst the covenant ; he
received the tythes due before Bartholomew.tide, (according to the act
of Parliament,) at which time all the ry and wheate was gott in, and
someoates. Hee removed to Broughton, where he lived one year with
his brother, Captaine Richardson, and afterward went to a ferme called
Ditches, neare Wem. But when the Act of Parliament came forth
that noe outed minister should live within five myles of the j>lace
where he had formerly officiated, hee removed to Alkinton, near Whit-
church, (the place from whence bis ftther came when hee had pur-
chased his lands in Broughton, of Mr. Ottey.) Here Mr. Richardson
lived a private, peaceable, and pyouse life, exercising himselfe in re-
li^ouse duetyes, and instructing and teaching his owne, and some of
his relations' children in good literature. He dyed at Alkinton, and
was buried at Whitchurch. Dr. Fowler preached his fnnerall sermon,
and therein gave him a deserved commendation. He bequeathed a
certaine numuer of bibles, and of thoee books of Mr. Baxter, entitled
*' A Call to the Unconverted," to be given to certaine poore people in
the parish of Myddle, after his decease : which legacy was faithfully
Srformed by his prudent widdow, ana executrix. Antiquityes and
emoyres of the Parish of Myddle, written by Richard Gougb, anno
set sue 66. annodomini 1700. MS in folio, pp. 10, II.
The following el^y on bis death was written by Mr. Maiden. See
ante, p. 146.
Venture, I will, to fix a verse
On my dear brother's sable heane.
This star did sometimes shine most bright.
Although the clouds eclipst his liffht
And now he's set, both grief xnd fears.
Express tbemselTcs in showers of tears.
222
NOTES.
But, let our hope our erief reHrain,
For he tliall rite mod inine a^in.
While he doth faalleluialM iin)c,
Let ut devout hoMnoans bring.
Help, Lord !— our lights go out apace ;
Shew u* the brightBe«of thy hce.
Heath. Porter, Wright, aod Kichardno,
And York, and Th<muui, dead and gone !
A sign thou wilt no longer itay.
But break up houae, and go away.
When thou thy jewels dost remove,
Frona this below, to that above.
And, wilt thou leave un here behind.
Like worthlen atuff ! Lord, be so kind
As to continue with ui here ;
Or else to take us with thee there !
From a MS. in the hand- writing of Mrs. Savage.
Mr. Samuel Hildersham, <cc.— p. 144.
See Clark's Lives, annexed to the Martyrologie, p. 134. til Muvra.
A1m>, VindiciK Fcpderis : or. a Treatise on the Covenant of God en-
tered into with Man.kinae in the several Kindes and Dei^reesof it," by
Thomas Blake, 4tu. I6&3. The *' Epistle Dedicatory" is from Mr.
Blake's study in Taroworth. and addresi«d " To bis Reverend and
much Huuuured Friend, Mr. Samuel Hilderflam, Bachelor in Di.
vinity. and Pastor of West Felton, in the County of Salop ; together
with Mrs. Mary Hildermm, his pious Consort." After referrini^ to a
severe affliction,— the pestilence,— which had issued in an invitation to
himself, "and those who had dependence upon him," to Mr. Hilder-
4iam*s house, Mr. Blake thus proceedn ;— " In your houMC I had not only
leisure to make a good progresse in this work, but singular accommo-
dation from your accomplished library. I know you affect not pane-
gyricks ; neither am I fitted for them, nor was ever accustomed to
them. There is much published to the world of one of you in the
life of tRe reverend father, to whom I have often, in my thoughts, ap-
plied that of Dr. Hall,* concerning learned Whittaker ;— * Who ever
saw him without reverence, or heard him without wonder!' Having
lead the reader through his glory, they adde ; — And yet his name,
with the lively picture of his person, lives, in his worthy sonne. Master
Samuel Hildersam; whose learning Cambridge knew, when lie was
Fellow of Emmanuel College ; and whose present ministerial labours,
and pious conversation, at West Felton, in Shropshire, do (lerpetuate
the honour of his reverend father; whose memory be doth much
reverence ; and whose rich virtues, both personal and ministerial, he
doth happily imitate. And it is not little that is said of the otiier,
where it is remembered, that you were propounded bv him, for a meet
wife for his dearest sonne ; and recordea, that he was neard with affec-
tion to ingeminate these words;—' Never man had a kinder daughter-
in.law.' To be a follower of such a precedent, and to be found worthy
of such a testimony, is a greater glory than all the noble blood that
no through the veins of tlie greateat of eilher of your aocestora."
Mr. R. Nevet died, &c.— p. 144.
This event, in connexion with the death of several Shropshire wor.
thies already mentioned, and otiiers, not named, produced the follow,
ing lines from the pen of Mr. Tallents. Thev are transcribed, by
fcvour of the Reverend Dr. Butler, from Mr. Tallents's own hana-
writing, in a copy of a thin folio, entitled, " Large and Sure Founda-
tions," publishea anonymously by that gentleman, and deposited in
the Library of the Royal Free Grammar School, in Shrewsbury : —
" On occasion of the death of Mr. Rowland Nevet, formerly Minister
of Oswestre, in Shropshire, December, 1975, and of other noncon-
formist ministers in that county, Iwfore that tione.
When dismal edicts, fourteen years ago.
Thousands of pastors from their flocks did throw ;
In this small countie many took that way.
And, mourning, yet, with courage, bore the day ;
Like stars i* th* night, more glorious did appear.
And in their scorns and suff'rings brighter were.
Great Hildersam, aod zealous Nevet go.
Kind Richardson, and reverend Porter too ;
Smith, Paston, Thomas, Adams, Humphreys, Bote,
With fomous Wright, and Froysel, men of note ;
Sadler, and learned, holy, humble Heath ;— * Forty went out
Others survive, and many ;• May tlieir breath 9»»t new con-
Keep many precious touls from endless death ! i?'[i3!l!S.f\SLi "™
These, from their labours rest, nor can their name, JS iSSt dS^cSS!
Envy, or fierce ambition justly blame. fbnn after.
Good men, from you these troubles never are,
Your actions, and your mildness since declare ;
Nor, from those peers and patriots, who forbear
To press, with rigorous force, the laws severe ;
Nor from those clergymen, that deeply groan,
For needless burdens on their brethren thrown ; —
But, from those churchmen, and their friends, aod train,
Whose blindness, pride, and int'rest, made the flame ;
And from those men, whose bitter spirit stands
Irreconcileable to puritana.
* Epistles, Dec. 1, £p. 7. Bishop Hall's Works, vol. 7* p. 137. ut tuprn.
Rome counsell'd. strove, retoiced, in this
As a good step to their hop'd happiness ;
Blind se«« tber, who could not this descry.
And feel their downfall by these arts draw nigh.
When large and aure foundationa they laid by.
Blest King of Saints, of thy dear church take care.
And faithful pastors for thy flocks prepare ;—
And haste those righteous days, thou seem'st to ay.
Shall be on earth, before the last great day ; —
And when the tares are burnt, the just let ahine
Forth, like the glorious sun, in light divine."
He was a young man, Ace— p. 146.
The following is a copy of a manuscript in Mrs. Savage's liaod
ing, entitled,— >' On the Death of Mr. William Jennings, who
February 3, 1676.7, by Cosin Robert Bower."
My mother, (reader, pardon me,
If that I interrupted be;
And if my trembling hand doth dread.
And knows not how to write.) is dead.
Oh. grief! What news is next! Sure, aooie.
My sorrow to allay, is come.
No. no ; more sable clouds are spread ;
My uncle 's sick, is worse, is dead.
Two friends, at unce, are lost, I see ;
And both of them most dear to me.
Two ways I'll tell my grief likewise.
By ink and tears, by tongue and eves.
But how must I these two tiestowf
Both these to both of them I owe.
I'll, then, divide; and, to be just,
I'll write his (ame, and wash her dust.
Aod, now, I wish that any one
Would pen his deeds as they were done :
My glutted quill would write but dull;
I cannot speak, my mouth 'm so full.
First, we unto the church will »>,
For one o' th' first he's there, I Know.
If he were absent, ask not why j
*Tis sicknesH, or necessity.
No cold, nor heat, could him prevent.
Through rain and snow he often went ;
And yet on foot ; he thought it best.
On sabbath- days, his beasts should rest,
nf he more pains did take ;) though I
May call it,— his humility.
Unto his cloeet next return ;
Thither betake thyself, and mourn.
But yet, my muse. awhile forbear;
Thou art too hasty ;— he's at pray'r.
Search it throughout, and you will find
Some relics of a godly mind {
Some wit and ingenuity ;
Some learning, but more piety ;
Some memorandums of his end ;
Some notes of sermons by him penn'd,
And fix'd upon the wall, that he
Without a guide might never be.
Besides ;— be lov'd, unto the end.
The king, his country, and his friend.
A loyal heart he ever bore
Unto his prince. Need I siy more ?
He always took as great a care
To do wiiat he had sworn, as swear.
A nun of peace ; aa such was known
In ev'rv town, chiefly his own.
Next, I appeal unto the poor.
Which were relieved at his door.
And, oh, roethinks, I hear them say, —
" Alas, we miss him ev'ry day !"
Much used, in our neighbourhood,
A private man of publick good.
His skill in husbandry was much.
You'll scarce, in all these parts, nod such
His house and orchards, all complete ;
Not only needful were, but neat.
Expect not I should tell you all :—
Gn, ask his garden, and his wall,
His walks, his trees, his meads, and fields.
Which of hia care an instance yields.
Next, I couM tell you, might it be,
How good a friend he was to me :
At every time his readiness,
In every thing, he did express.
Few like himself he left behind ;
A foithful friend is hard to find.
And, now I've done, I do desire.
My spark may kindle others* fire ;
That better poets mav amend.
And finish what I did intend ;—
For, there's a great deal yet behind ;
My tongue could not express my mind.
He's dead, and yat he lives ; and, why 7
His lasting fiune shall never die.
TbMgh Ihon hut
Sbitl rw igitn in ipilc of
And be urUker of that jo
Wben£ettulMi>t,butu
A UXiig. populu pre
FrDOi Mn, SiTi£c'> MS.
Dr. Wordtworth. In Ibt votk •Imdy nftrml («.■ hu, in Ibii
pUrf, uil luDtbrr Hrt of tbr voLmine, iDKiluted a chtricc tgniHt Mat'
tbtw Htnry» » liiv uElwr'i bioinphcT, which, if cofrect, would bt Dot
oiilf dcliiiiMDUl (o hit SdtlitjF, but append tg hii *el1-kDaini lim.
plicity ind apriKhlDiw.
In ^luiion to the obitury of Mr. Biidsc. Dt. Wordmorth Hyiii—
mitihl hiif brm wiihid. 0» inuiiict, •! iait. will be ipccilltd
(»ln^, riind^ (°^l>itl'i2'uid^''tlK '^Itnlioo in»£'tl''tlw'eo«t
"Oct. 1. Mr. Thamu BrMgi, miniitn of the hiKbtr-puwinue of
Mlilp■l^ DC IT RIly.eiRht yean, i^ed eishly-twD yt^rt^ vu burieo thli
•by. Hr. Onoi pmrhid. Text, I TiBothy i. IS. told what he liid
deebrrd to him in ■ lale fit whirU hn tiu) (ouccrain^ bb nnentann :
lowanla hi! latter end, very eharitiblei i tahinci popuUr, eood
prrarlwr; preulwd often, and, to the laat, could rend (tie mjalleit
hrly. Tl<e deriHX word '■ ftoS." it will be renailtd, !• omitted in
aa final. The eirciinatanc« of hi* bein;. '^Eowardahu latter end, vrry
eharfiahle ■" that 1>, {probably,) toward* the Doiv.coBfi}riniiti, la totally
On Ihii. the only nalirniatory initaiuF, the foltowinf obwralioni
(i wnna lo be aninird, that Mr. Matthew Henry, haiini Hated hii
iwlertion nf the nuteriale lo be frtMB hia lather'a papen, npccially bit
diary, waa tliereby obMuHi if he ^und, aa in thia inatance. a character.
The Imth i^ thai, allhoucli il wai Mr. Henry'a nutDm, on the death
of Hobe of hit neifrhboart aiM friendt, to prcierve chtracteriatlc rcmarlu,
ll m^^. i c^ptTl^ u^^it. ul'a'JfMclm " Ihl ~i^ cha^lrt^r
(rtoMallyaratlctediR the ditrieiL tlwBih the mort minute Halement
aimmpaniei the record of diwdutfon.
"hit own npera," IT ami not confined lolbcditriatallhoiiKh tSnte la-
lere^inf documenti are made prominent- It may be further mnark.
ed, thai Mr. Hniry, in compilinic hit father't Life, would Dot wrilr II
XmSi He biTnTefi ahnon'atT'h^diyi InTbe ne™lMiirll«d"f
their chancier and Btrainnenti. Thii, indeed, be hai placed beyond
dosU. In a Idler addrewd In Mr. Tallenli, he Ihn wrote t— -^ My
progrct ii, lo pul llie rolleclion concerning my dnv bllier, (wliichl
hntc now finidied, Btl cf af nrn tiatrleilgt, and hii diary,) into the
hand* of ray lyieod, Hr- Tons, who, you know, hath a very flreat fa-
cility of expretnoa ; and will. I hope, put It into an a;{T»lirc ahapc,
dnpiH iL Vo Ihni I would have to boaided ■ iH^ief exTract of your
iwnBoa, (if you pitoe,) and of Mr, Oweu't, and Mr. Idwrence'L the
WeduaJay (Ullawlai:, lakini; that out of each which ii nermui, and
belter IHesrrcd Ihan if pu
ncTcT pol much upon the
a^rTl^yior, ' ' "" * "'""'"
M.]n-.yer-'
1.1. SnW other 'mile miMaketal«lh<
fted. ■odamne thiDKt.lihewite. which may hoc naio rcry proper to be
woken lo all the world in Ihia crilica] ag«. There are amie of your
capecially cnmderiDf that the occalwu ia lurh ai will cerlainly brinE
it into the hande of JHny who are rrry ioduatrloua in accking matter
of OTiland rrmom^f'** ^Ihiok, aner thia autlieptic IpecimeD of
Mr. Matthew Henry't prudence, tod deilR of accuracy, it may aafdy
J ^ii)et'kBtEwlBM«n(«i)',Tol.B. p.Il9. « Ibid. rol.A. p.SM. n.
** Tfeil llfler it In Mr. Matthew Henrjr'i hanil-wriliii|, i> italM Spp^
•rmher J», Id**, and luperviibed,— " For the K«^. »lr. TullrnB, at hu
relRi. waa Dot'rirogled tnllre lill the •eaJ' IBK, 5m EUhleen Scminni,
b) Phdlp llis^, w n^a: alio, the prefKt U IhH VDlnma. pp. wu. •iii.
at and wclUh
wwn uelKhbDuc, expos hinu
Iter jua quote
d,he.o.xpl
cilly deprecilEa
Regarding Ih
Kenerallcn
ni
ir In renurk.
e word "(ood
oral quahtlea.
ufhl not lo be
ThSt M^^Mat
•orda, " upon h
thew Heury hat rejected the
.dealh.b^,'i.ajn.ilt.di
T
bcconuScred
™i,l. unco 1w r.
"e.-s:i.f:r-
'•, Vrllapir'
jJETpnlaP
^..•F.r'i,"
.nedcrof Mr.
H
probability, aupplied from tome document now unknown.* Thia
Mallhew Henry, from hit blbcr^a papcri,) varlct, in anmc parliculart,
IhnuKh uiiimnortaol, both from the paragraph In Ihe Lilr, and Ilie it.
and in Dr. Wordiimrth'B note ; Dot la mention, tlial, in Ihe teienl
wardi hit latter end rery chtritiAle." do nnt oc
ckiJJymenrMr.'Wain. , ,. ...
pp. IW. UT; nor, indeed, with the iieneral fcalureaof Ihe Lile. The
whole narraliTe ■uppocu the eoncluaion,— that neither Mr. Henry, m
. all Ihe publicatiou of Mr. Mttihrw Henry diacoicr ap exen
Bolh li^, and hii Ibllitr. cridcutly agrentin Kntlment wil
queried wbeVher the mcnmritl referred to could, by piwi'hilily. hate
been conMrued uultiourabty lo Mr. BrMitc. Thai Mr. M^Ihew
Henry had no intention ll ahnuld be lo regarded, Li auAcienlly clear
The abjecl of Ihal chapter ii, prslvwcdly, lo record " tbe gitu and
»™«.''»r ~~..... _h~, ^mp Hen^ ■■ deli(hled In doTinuour;-
emrnla. Sut. aince nn iitjnatlc
ch hai, hillierlo, aaccaled Ihw
. . good purpoar to remove tbe veil,
liofle parlanf Mr. Henty'a diary, which
ic inapectioBi apeeiany, aa the ktan.
oftbcnntelilaledluUKedilnr. Ibat
1 the many oppnrlunitiet an cxleniin and femiliaracqi
Ihe manuacnpla haiadifrded of judfrini:, Ihe editored
nerel; the Uriet aecuiacy of Hr. Mallhew Henry, but al
1 hat Dol been In nim a> i
ly with Mr. Philip Hem
d'eiilwcy
In the preceding remirki, the
talion iKainHHr. BridRe; hit intlmaey with Mr, Philip Heniyeeent
to halt been regular and neighbourly; and hit prearhlnt, judging
from ha •ermona. preterred in Mr. HVnry't hand.w tiling, in acco^
anre Willi Bound doclrine. Dot to Hy evidential of reapeclahle pulnit
ability. The deaign ■«, limply, lo defend a reputation, which la tnn
un«|uirDcilly groa, may, wilhoul oKwe. be peimilted to retain ita
fullibareof blotedoett-
The"|iurling^«'minrorHel1^,
To lin mine eyei, aa full of Ian,
Ai it my heart of grief, and feart ;
And muc my linai brrathe dokliil tDnee i
Pul wordafjr light, anditopafcrgnmnt!
Such high.itraia'd raplurea, Ihote Ihal knew
Bui yet. methlnlu, I lee him itand
In glorioui lobea. at God'a rwht hand.
Triumphing in this happy day.
iiethrec
• Of Mr. Henry's rM'ar dii
thty coniiitBd of ihir^-nlne
I hope iiM will maka me more
pniGlable. baavenl)' art. O Dn
Diarr . On«. M^
t Pnface to Dialup W
324
NOTES.
And to we do, blest soul, for we
Do not lament so much for thee.
Too well we loved thee, to exprew
RepiniD^ at thy happiness ;
As Knowing w«ll, tliat, though it be
A loss to us, 'tis gaia to thee.
For, now thy blemea race is run.
Thou bast received thy— Well done;
And, seasonably, put in to shore,
When winds and storms are at the door.
Now, got safe in thy resting-place.
Just now, when tempests rise apace.
Therefore it was thou mad*st such haste
To hide thee, till the storm be past.
But, for ourselves, we may, we must
Shed showers of tears over this dust.
We need not wonder if the wall
Do tremble when the pillars fall.*
Well may we fear an evil day.
When ri|(hteous men are ta'en away.
A sign night's coming o'er our head.
When Goa thus calls his babes to bed.
A sign he will no lon^r stay,
When he sends for his pearls away.
A sign he'll as an enemy, come,
When he commands his agents home.i
What reason, then, with one accord,
If ever, now to cry,— J^elp, Lord/
His character I need not tell
To those his friends, that knew him welL
His learning, and his piety,
His patience, and humility.
How general a scliolar he
Always anprov'd himself to be !
How be, by long experience, knew
Both study's pains, and pleasures too!
How much he diligently read.
And wliat a memory be had ;—
How readily be could produce
That which he read for others' use ;
E'en as the good householder brings,
Out of his store, old and new thingi.
His warm and zealous British blood.
He well employ'd for God and good*
The faith he stoutly did defiend,
And for the present truths contend.
But plainness was his master-graoe ;
He was of honest Jacob's race ;—
A BOO of old Nathaniel,
Without allow'd, approv'd of, guilt.
No welt, or gard ;t a downright man,
As preacher, and as Christian.
* It presageth the fall of an house when the pillars are removed. Rev.
T. Watson's Funeral Sermon for Mr. .lohn Wells, 4to. 1676. p. SS.
t Well may we all feare God intendeth wars.
When he commands home his ambassadours.
Poem upon the Death of so nuiny reverend ministers of
late. See Enoch'sWalk and Change, ia npr a, p. 49-
t A plain man be was, as Jacob, without ««// or gard ; and a plam deal*
ins mao, as ?«athaniel, without craft or icuile : free ftx>m all courtship,
enner for couDtertcit, or compliment. Clark's IJves annexed to the Mar-
tyrologie, p. 59. tu tufrm.
He learnt that leiaon,— to despite
Being despis'd in other** eyes.
Much hated by the world was be.
As Christ's belov'd ones us'd to be;—
For lie, consulting the repose
And quiet of his conscience,* dioie
The greatest suflTrings rather than
The seeming least, and smallest sin.
But now kind death hath sent him thither,
Where sin and sorrow cease together.
And placed him in that happy state.
Where all their writs are out of date.
Lo, he who was a planet here.
Is a fixt star in glory there ;—
With freedom to his heavenly home,
Though not to his earthly he could come.
Death gave him his quiauM-ett,
And laid him where the trrnrw retL
Those that but little rest ran have
On earth, yet find it in the grave ;
Except some commissary know ;
And tlien. perhaps, 'twill not be so.
But bold awhile :— Shall Jonathan,—
Jonathan die,— do what we canf
Nay ; 'tis too late ; too late to cry, —
Shul Jonathan, dear Jonathan, die?
The stroke is giv'n ; — he is sent.
To his father's bouse from banishment.
Where now we leave him full possess'd
Of everlasting peace and rest ;
While I, in Uiese poor rhymes^ do tdl
A prophet's fkll in Israel.
HIS EPITAPH.
Reader ! consider, and adjust
Thy tlioughts to this despised dusL
'Tis learn'd Athenian dust; nay, mocc;
^Tis sacred dust from Zion's floor.
Here fell a star, that once did stand.
A shining »tar, in Christ's right hand;
A faithful, painful minister
Of Jesus Christ, lies sleeping here.
Consid'riog, then, it is his due.
Come drop, with me, a tear, or two.
From Mrs. Savage's MS.
Mrs. Crew, Ice.— p. 148.
See Dr. Ormerod's History, vol. 3. p. 136L To the merits of
lady the following testimony appears in Sir John Crewe's manoK
journal. " Sunday, July 6, 1600. This day died my mother, the
Earent, the truest Trieod, the best mistress, the greatest housekeepe
er rank, and the most pious Christian of her time." She was bmu
up under the direction of her kinsman, the celebrated John Bniec
Suplefbrd, Esq. Jb. 136.
* To him, who must judge us all at the great day, we can appeal be
angels and men, that it is not thu thing, or that thing, that 6uts osu
this dissent, but it is rooscieoce towards God, and fear ot offending t
Dr. Jacorob. Farewell Sermons, p. 115. 4to. 1663.
THE
PLEASANTNESS
OF A
RELIGIOUS LIFE
DISPLAYED. PROVED. AND RECOMMENDED TO THE CONSIDERATION OF EVERY ONE.
PARTICULARLY OF THE YOUNG. .
To THE Reader.
*
HAT distinction which the learned Dr. Henry
ore insists so much apon, in his explanation of the
miMl Mytter^f of GodlineUy between the Animal
ife and the Divine Life, is certainly of g^at use to
ad QS into the understanding^ of that mystery.
'^hat was the fall and apostasy of man, and what
still his sin and misery, but the soul's revolt from
e Divine Life, and giving up itself wholly to the
Kuna/ Life ? And what was the design of our Re-
emer, but to recover us to the Divine and Spiritual
fe again, by the influences of his grace ? And to
is, his gospel has ^ direct tendency ; his religion
all spiritual and divine, while all other religions
rcMir of the Animal Life. '* Christianity " (says
) '* is that period of the wisdom and providence
God, wherein the Animal Life is remarkably in-
hed, and triumphed over, by the Divine ,** Bk. 2.
. 7. And so far^ and no farther, are we Chris-
ms indeed, than as this revolution is brought about
our souls.
The conflict is between these two. Nothing
aws more forcibly than Pleasure ; in order there-
re to the advancing of the interests of the Divine
fe in myself and others, I have here endeavoured,
God has enabled me, to make it evident, that the
Uasures of the Divine Life are unspeakably better,
td more deserving, than those of the Animal Life.
'ere people convinced of this, we should g^ain our
»int
The substance of this was preached last year in
r sermons, in the ordinary course of my ministry,
aong many other Reasons why we should be
eligious. I was then solicited to make it public,
id now take this opportunity to prepare it for the
ess, when, through the good hand of my God upon
t, I have finished my Fifth Volume of Expositions,
ibre I go about the Sixtk, And herein, I confess,
4
I indulge an inclination of my own ; for this doctrine
of the Pleasantness of Religion is what I have been
long delighted with, and taken all occasions to men-
tion. Yet I would not thus far have gpratifled either
my friends' request, or my own inclination, if I had
not thought that, by the blessing of God, it might be
of some service to the common interest of Christ's
kingdom, and the common salvation of precious souls.
May 31, 1714.
M. H
Proverbs iii. 17.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and alLher paths
are peace.
True religion and godliness are often, in Scripture,
and particularly in this book of the Proverbs, re-
presented, and recommended to us, under the name
and character of wisdom ; (Prov. i. 2, 7, 20 ; ii. 2,
10; iii. 13; Ps. cxi. 10.) because it is the highest
improvement of the human nature, and the best and
surest gpuide of human life. It was one of the first
and most ancient discoveries of God's mind to the
children of men, to the inquisitive part of them, that
are in search for wisdom, and would have it at any
rate. Then when God made a weight for the winds,
and a decree for the rain, when he brought all the
other creatures under the established rule and law
of their creation, according to their respective capa-
cities, then he declared this to man, a reasonable crea-
ture, as the law of his creation, (Job xxviii. 25—528.)
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to
depart from evil, the evil of sin, is understanding.
The great men of the world, that engross its wealth
and honours, are pretenders to wisdom, and think
none do so well for themselves as they do; but
tKough their neighbours applaud tJh«m<» 'axA ^^
226
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
posterity^ that reap the fruit of their worldly wisdom,
approve their sayings, yet this their way is their folly ^
(Ps. xlix. 13.) and so it will appear, when God him-
self shall call those fools, who said to their souls,
Take your ease, in bams full of corn, and bays full
of money, Luke xii. 20. Jer. xvii. 11.
The learned men of the world were well-wishers to
wisdom, and modestly called themselves ^iXoffo^,
— Lovers of wisdom; many wise principles we have
from them, and wise precepts ; and yet their philo-
sophy failed them in that in which man's great duty
and interest consist, .acquainting himself with his
Maker, and keeping up communion with him : here-
in they that professed themselves to be wise, became
fools ; (Rom. i. 22.) and the world, by wisdom, knew
not God, 1 Cor. i. 21.
But tr\ie Christians are, without doubt, the truly
wise men, to whom Christ is made of God, Wisdom,
(1 Cor. i. 30.) tit whom are hid, not from them, but
for them, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Col. ii. 3. They understand themselves best, and on
which side their interest lies, that give up themselves
to the conduct of Christ, and his Word and Spirit ;
that consult his oracles, and govern themselves by
them, which are indeed the truest oracles of reason,
Prov. ix. 10. Men never begin to be wise, till they
begin to be religious ; and they then leave off to be
wise, when they leave off to do good, Ps. xxxvi. 3.
Now, to recommend to us the study and practice
of this true wisdom, to bHng us into a willing sub-
jection to her authority, and keep t«i to a conscientious
observance of her dictates, the Great God is here,
by Solomon, reasoning with us, from those topics,
which in other cases arc usually cogent and com-
manding enough. It is wonderful condescension,
that he who has an indisputable authority over us,
thus vouchsafes to reason with us ; to draw with the
cords of a man, and the bands of love ; (Hos. xi. 4.)
when he might make use only of the cords of a God,
and the bands of the law, (Ps. ii. 3.) to invite us to
that by precious promises which he enjoins upon us
by his precepts, and those not grievous, 1 John v. 3.
Interest is the grevii governess of the world ; which
when men are once convinced of, they will be swayed
by more than by any thing else ; every one is for what
he can get, and therefore applies himself to that
which he thinks he can get by. The common inquiry
is. Who will show us any good? We would all be
happy, would all be easy.
Now it is here demonstrated by Eternal Truth
itself, that it is our interest to be religious; and
therefore religion deserves to be called wisdom,
because it teaches us to do well for ourselves. And
it is certain, that the way to be happy, that is, per-
fectly holy, hereafter, is to be holy, that is, truly
happy, now. It is laid down for a principle here,
Happy is the man that finds wisdom, (». 13.) that
finds the principles and habits of it planted in his
own .soul by divine grace ; that, having diligently
sought, has, at length, found that Pearl of fruit
price : the man that getteth understanding, reckoai
himself therein a true gainer. The man — quiprefert
intelligentiam — that draws out understanding, so tlie
original word signifies ; that produces it, and 6rtii^
it forth; and so the Chaldee reads it. — Happy is
the man, that, having a good principle in him, makes
use of it both for his own and others' benefit ; that,
having laid up, lays out.
It is necessary to our being happy, that we ha^e
right notions of happiness; the nature of it, wherein
it consists, what are the ingredients of it, and what
the ways that lead to it : for many keep themselves
miserable by thinking themselves happy, when really
they are not ; and we have reason to suspect their
mistake concerning themselves, because they mis-
take so grossly concerning others: they call the
proud happy, (Mai. iii. 15.) they bless the covetous,
whom the Lord abhors, Ps. x. 3. It concerns us
therefore to consider, whence we take our measures
of happiness, and what rules we go by in judging
of it ; that we may not covet our lot with those with
whom we should dread to have our lot ; that we may
not say, as the Psalmist was tempted to say, when
he looked upon the outward prosperity of worldly
people, Happy is the people that is in such a case;
but as he was determined to sa}', when he looked
upon the true felicity of godly people, Happy, thrice
happy, for ever happy, is that people, whose God ii
the Lord; (Ps« cxliv. 15.) and as God here says,
whose judgment, we are sure, is according to truth,
Happy is the man that finds wisdom.
The happiness of those that are religious, is here
proved,
I. From the true profit that is to be got by religion.
Godliness is profitable to all things; (1 Tim. iv. 8.) it is
of universal advantage. Though we may be losers
for our religion, yet we shall not only not be losers 6y
it, but we shall be unspeakable gainers, in the end.
They that trade with wisdom's talents, will find tkt
merchandise of it better than the merchandise of silver,
and the gain thereof than fine gold, and that it is more
precious than rubies. As long since as Job's time it
was agreed, that the advantages of religion were
such, that, as they could not be purchased, so they
could not be valued, with the gold of Ophir, the pre^
cious onyx, or the sapphire. The topaz of Ethiopia
could not equal them. Job xxviii. 16, 19. Length rf
days is in wisdom's right hand, even life for ever-
more ; length of days, and no shortening of them ;
and in her left hand riches and honour, (v. 16.) tke
unsearchable riches of Christ, and the honour that
comes from God, which are true riches, and true
honours, because durable, because eternal, and for
ever out of the danger of poverty and disgrace.
In all labour there is profit, more or less, of one
kind or other, but no profit like that in the labour
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS
227
religioD. They who make a husiness of it will
1 great advantage by it ; its present incomes are
liable* and a comfortable, honourable mainte-
ice for a soul ; but its future recompences infinitely
re so, above what we are able either to speak or
nk.
[I. From the transcendent pleasure that is to be
md in it Here profit and pleasure meet, which
nplete the happiness ; and Omne tulit punctum,
' miseuit utile dulci —
Where pleasure and advantage meet.
They make the cheerful scene complete.
ose that pursue the gains of the world in wealth
1 riches, must be willing to deny themselves in
ir pleasures ; and those that will indulge them-
ves in their pleasures, must be content not to get
ney, but to spend it. As they that are covetous,
ow they must not be voluptuous ; so they that are
uptuous, leave no room to be covetous ; but it is
t so in the profits and pleasures of religion. Here
aan may both get and save, the spiritual riches of
ine grace, and yet, at the same time, bathe in a
1 stream of divine consolations, and be a holy
care in spiritual delights, while he lays up trea-
es in heaven ; the soul may even then dwell at
e, when it is labouring most diligently for the
If that endures to eternal life,
This is that which the text speaks of ; and both
profit and pleasure of religion are put together
the next words, jS^^ is a tree of life, (r. 18.) both
iching and delighting to them tliat lay hold upon
. What gain or comfort like that of life ?
. We are here assured, that her ways are ways
pleasantness ; not only pleasant ways, but, in the
itract, ways of pleasantness, as if pleasantness were
ifined to those ways, and not to be found any
ere else ; and the pleasantness arises not from
r foreign circumstance, but from the innate good-
is of the ways themselves. Or it notes the super-
ive pleasantness of religion ; it is as pleasant as
tsantness itself. They are ways of pleasantness,
0; it is the word from which Naomi had her
ne in the day of her prosperity, which afterward
disclaimed; (Ruth i. 20.) Call me not Naomi,
asant ; but Marah, bitter. Think you hear Wis-
a saying, on the contrary, '' Call me not Marah,
ter, as some have miscalled me, but call me Naomi,
asant '' The vulgar Latin reads it, vtVe pulehra
eauiifui ways ; ways of sweetness, so the Chaldee.
Wisdom's ways are so ; that is, the ways which
has directed us to walk in, the ways of her com-
ndments ; they are such, that if w^ keep close to,
I po an in, them, we shall certainly find true plea-
e and satisfaction. Wisdom says, *' This is the
f, walk tn tl ; and you shall not only find life at
end, hot pUeuure in the way.'' That which is
only right way to happiness, we must resolve to
Q 2
travel, and to proceed, and persevere in, whether it
be fair or foul, pleasant or unpleasant ; but it is a
great encouragement to a traveller, to know that his
way is not only the right way, but a pleasant way :
and such the way to heaven is.
God had told us by Solomon, (eh. ii. 3, 4.) that
we must cry after hnowledge, must give our voice to
understanding, that we must seek it, and search for
it, must spare no cost or pains to get it. He had
told us, that this wisdom would restrain us from the
way both of the evil man, and of the strange woman ;
{ch, ii. 12, 16.) that it would keep us from all the
forbidden pleasures of sense. Now lest these re-
straints from pleasure, and constraints to piety and
labour, should discourage any from the ways of re-
ligion, he here assures us, not only that our pains
will be abundantly recompensed with the profits of re-
ligion, but that the pleasures we forego will be abun*
dantly balanced with the pleasures we shall enjoy.
2. It is added. All her paths are peace. Peace is
sometimes put for all good ; here some take it for
the good of safety and protection. Many ways are
pleasant ; they are clean, and look smooth, but they
are dangerous, either not sound at bottom, or beset
with thieves : but the ways of wisdom have in them
a holy security, as well as a holy serenity ; and they
that walk in them, have God himself for iheir shield
as well as their sun, and are not only joyful in the
hope of good, but are, or may be, quiet also from
the fear of evil.
But we may take it for the good of pleasure and
delight ; and so it imports the same as the former
part of the verse. As there is pleasantness in wis*
dom's ways, so there is peace in all her paths,
(1.) There is not only peace tn the end of religion,
but peace tn the way. There is not only peace pro-
vided as a bed, for good men to lie down in at night,
when their work is done, and their warfare is ac-
complished ; (they shall then enter into peace, rest
in their beds, Isa. Ivii. 2. Mark the perfect man, and
behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace,
Ps.xxvii. 37. it is everlasting peace;) but there is also
peace provided as a shade, for good men to work in
all day, that they may not only do their work, but
do it with delight : for even the work of righteous-
ness, as well as its reward, shall be peace, (Isa. xxxii.
17.) and the immediate effect of righteousness, as
well as its issue at last, quietness and assurance for ever.
It is possible, that war may be the way to peace ;
Sic quterimus pacem-^hus we pursue peace, is the
best motto to be eng^ven on weapons of war ; but
it is the glory of those who are truly religious, that
they not only seek peace, but enjoy it ; the peace of
God rules their hearts, and by that means heeps them ;
and even while they are travellers, they have peace,
though they are not yet at home.
It is the misery of the carnal, irrelig^us world,
that The way of peace th^ have not known, (Rom. iii.
228
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
17.) for they arc like the troubled sea ; there is no
peace, says my God, to the wicked^ Isa. Ivii. 20, 21.
How can peace be spoken to them that are not the
sons of peace, (Luke x. 6, 6.) to them that have not
grace for the word of peace to fasten upon ? They
may cry peace to themselves, but there i% no true
peace either in their way, or in their end. To such,
I say, (2 Kings ix. 18.) What hast thou to do with
peace ? Turn thee behind me ; while in God's name I
speak peace to all that are in covenant with the God
of peace, to all the faithful subjects of the Prince of
peace. They have experimentally known the way of
peace, and to them I say, •* Go on, and prosper ; go
on in peace, for the God of love and peace is and will
be with you,"
(2.) There is not only this peace in the way of re-
ligion in general, but in the particular paths of that
way ; view it in the several acts and instances of it,
in the exercise of every grace, in the performance
of every duty, and you will find, that what is said
of the body of Christianity, is true of every part of
it ; it is peace.
The ways of religion are tracked as path-ways are ;
(Cant. i. 8.) We go forth by the footsteps of the flock.
It is the good old way that all have walked in that
are gone to heaven before us, and this contributes
something to the peace of it ; *' Walk in the old way,
and you shall Jind rest to your soul,** Jer. vi. 16.
We go on in our way with so much the more assur-
ance, when we see those going before us, who
through faith and patience are now inheriting the pro-
mises ; let us but keep the path, and we shall not
miss our way.
The Chaldee reads it, itinera, ejus, pacifiea^her
journeys are peace. The paths of wisdom are not like
walks in a garden, which we make use of for diver-
sion only, and an amusement ; but like tracks in a
great road, which we press forward in with care and
pains, as a traveller in his journey, plus ultra^fur-
ther still, till we come to our journey's end. We
must remember, that in the ways of religion we are
upon our journey, and it is a journey of business,
business of life and death, and tlierefore we must
not trifle, or lose time ; but must lift up our feet,
as Jacob did, (Gen. xxix. 1.) Then Jacob went on
his way ; in the margin it is, he lift up his feet ; and
we must lift up our hearts, as Jehoshaphat did in
the ways of the Lord, (2 Chron. xvii. 6.) and not take
up short of the end of our faith and hope, not take
up short of home : and though the journey is long,
and requires all this care and application, yet it is
pleasant, it is peace, notwithstanding.
In the way of religion and godliness, taken gene-
rally, there are different paths, according to the
different sentiments of wise and good men in the
less weighty matters of the law ; but, blessed be
God, every different path is not a by-path ; and if it
be not, but kept within the same hedges of divine
truths and laws, as to the essentials of religioii, it
may be, it shall be, a way of peace ; for both he that
eateth, and he that eateth not, give God tkankSf (Ron.
xiv. 6.) and have comfort in it. If we have dew
views, we shall perceive that the kingdom of Goi^
the way of wisdom, is not meat and drink, and we
shall find it to he, righteousness and peace^ emdjoym
the Holy Ghost, Rom. xiv. 17.
(3.) There is this peace in all the paths of wisdoB,
in all the instances of pure and undeJUed religitm.
Look into them all, make trial of them ally and yos
will find there are none to be excepted, none to be
quarrelled with : they are all uniform, and of a piece:
die same golden thread of peace and pleasare nms
through the whole web of serious godliness.
We cannot say so of this world, that all its paths
are peace, however some of them may pretend to
g^ve the mind a little satisfaction. Its pleasures
have their allays ; that which one thing sweetens,
another comes presently, and imbitters. But as
there is a universal rectitude in the principles of
religion, (Ps. cxix. 128.) I have esteemed all tky pre-
cepts concerning all things to be right ; and, (Prov.
viii. 8.) All the words of my mouth are in righteous-
ness, (says wisdom,) and there is nothing froward or
perverse in them ; so there is a universal peace and
pleasure in the practice of religion. All our paths,
if such as they should be, will be such as we could
wish.
The doctrine, .therefore, contained in these words,
is.
That true piety has true pleasure in it. Or thus ;
The ways of religion are pleasant and peaceful ways.
CHAPTER I.
TUB EXPLICATION OF THE DOCTRIKB.
It is a plain truth which we have here laid down,
and there is little in it that needs explication : it
were well for us, if we would but as readily sab-
scribe to the certainty of it, as we apprehend the
sense and meaning of it. Nor will any complain,
that it is hard to be understood, but those who know
no other pleasures than those of sense, and relish
no other, and therefore resolve not to g^ve credit to
it. Those who think, how can this be, that thero
should be pleasure in piety? will be ready to ask,
what is the meaning of this doctrine ? and to call it a
hard saying.
You know what pleasure Js ; I hope you know,
in some degree, what the pleasure of the mind is, a
pleasure which the soul has the sensation of. And
do you not know, in some deg^e, what piety is, a
due regard to a God above us, and having the eyes
of the soul ever up unto him ? Then you know what
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
221^
1 mean when I say, that there is an abundance of
leal pleasure and satisfaction in the ways of reli-
gion and godliness.
Bat to help yon a little in the understanding of
h, and to prevent mistakes, observe,
I. That I speak of true piety, and of that, as far
mt it ffoes.
1. Hi^pocrites are very much strangers to the de-
Bghts and pleasures of religion ; nay, they are alto-
gether so, for it i&joy which those strangers do not
miermeddle with. Counterfeit piety can never bring
in true pleasure. He that acts a part upon a stage,
though it be the same part of one that is ever so
pleasant, though he may humour the pleasantness
well, does not experience it. The pleasures of God's
house lie not in the outer courts, but within the vail.
None know what the peace of God means, but those
Aat are under the dominion and operation of his
grace ; nor can any that deny the power of godliness,
expect to share in the pleasures of it. When wisdom
enters into thine heart, takes possession of that, and
becomes a living, active principle there ; then, and
not till then, it is pleasant unto thy soul, Prov. ii. 10.
They that aim at no more than the credit of their
religion before men, justly fall short of the comfort
of it in themselves.
Hypocrites have other things that they delight in,
the satisfactions of the world, the gratifications of
sense, which put their mouths out of taste for spiritual
pleasures, so that they have no pleasure in them. They
that have their hearts upon their marketings, are
weary of the new moons and the sabbaths, Amos
Till. 6. With good reason, therefore, does Job ask.
Will the hypocrite delight himself in the Almighty?
{eh. xxvii. 10.) No, his soul takes its ease in the
creature, and returns not to the Creator as its rest
and home.
Some transitory pleasure a hypocrite may have .in
religion, from a land-flood of sensible affections, who
yet has not the least taste of the river of God^s
pleasures. There were those who delighted to hnow
God's ways; (Isa. Iviii. 2.) they met with some agree-
able notions in them, that surprised them, and
pleased their fancies, but they did not delight to
walk in them. The stony ground received the word
with joy, and yet received no lasting benefit by it, Luke
viii. 13. Herod heard John gladly, (Mark vi. 20.)
He found something very agreeable in his sermons,
and which natural conscience could not but embrace,
and yet could not bear to be reproved for his Hero-
dias. A florid preacher, such as Ezekiel was, may
be to them as a very lovely song of one that can play
well on am instrument, (Gzek. xxxiii. 32.) and yet,
at the same time, the word of the Lord, if it touch
their consciences, and show them their transgres-
dons, is to them a reproach, Jer. vi. 10.
They whose hearts are not right with God in their
religion^ cannot have the pleasure of communion
with God : for it is the soul only that converses with
God, and that he communicates himself to ; bodily
exercise profiteth little, (1 Tim. iv. 8.) and therefore
pleases little. The service of God is a burthen and
a task to an unsanctified, unrenewed heart ; it i»
out of its element when it is brought into that air :
and therefore, instead of snuffing it up, and saying.
Behold, what a pleasure it is ! it snuffs at it, and
says. Behold, what a weariness it is ! Mai. i. 13.
Nor can they take any pleasure in communing
with their own consciences, or in their reflections ;
for they are ready, upon all occasions, to give them
uneasiness, by charging them with that which is
disagreeable to their profession, and gives the lie to
it. And though they cry. Peace, peace, to themselves,
they have that within thcra, that tjells them the God
of heaven does not speak peace to them ; and this
casts a damp upon all their pleasure, that their reli-
gion itself gives them pain, God himself is a terror
to them, and the gospel itself condemns them for their
insincerity. In time of trouble and distress, none
are so much afraid, as the sinners in Zion, (Isa.
xxxiii. 14.) the secret sinners there ; and fearful-
ness is the greatest surprise of all to the hypocrites,.
(Amos vi. 1.) that were at ease in Zion, and thought
its strong holds would be their security.
Therefore it is that hypocrites cast off religion^
and discharge themselves of the profession of it,
after they have a while disguised themselves vrith
it, because it did not sit easy ; and they are weary
of it. Tradesmen that take no pleasure in their
business, will not stick to it long; no more will
those that take no pleasure in their religion; nor
will any thing carry us through the outward diffi-
culties of it, but the inward delights of it ; if those
be wanting, the tree is not watered, and therefore
even its leaf will soon wither, Ps. i. 3. The hypocrite
will not always call upon God, will not long do it,
because he will not delight himself in the Almighty,
Job xxvii. 10. This ought not to be a stumbling-block
to us. Thus hypocrites in religion prove apostates
from it ; and the reason is, because they never found
it pleasant. They never found it pleasant, because
they were never sincere in it, which was their fault,
and not the fault of the religion they professed.
Let us therefore take heed, and beware of hypo-
crisy, (Luke xii. 1.) if ever we hope to find pleasure
in religion. Counterfeit piety has some other end
in view, some other end to serve, than that which is
the spring of true delight. They who rest in that,
hew them out cisterns (Jer. ii. 13.) that can hold but
little water, and that dead ; nay, brohen cisterns that
can hold no water; and how can they expect the
pleasure which they have, who cleave to, and con-
tinually draw from, the Fountain of life and lioing
waters? No; as their principles are, such are their
pleasures ; as their aims are, such are their joys :
they appeal to the world, and to the world they shall
230
THE PLEASURE OF BEING REU6I0US.
go. Bat let not the credit of religion suffer for the
sake of those who are only pretenders to it, and so
indeed enemies to it.
2. It is possible that true Christians may, through
their own fauU and foliy, want very much of the
pleasure of religion ; and therefore, I say, true piety,
as far as it goes, is very pleasant ; as far as it has
its due influence upon us, and is rightly under-
stood, and lived up to.
We abide by it, That Wisdom's ways arc always
pleasant, and yet must own, that Wisdom's children
are sometimes unpleasant, and therein come short
of justifying Wisdom in this matter as they ought
to do, (Luke vii. 35.) and rather give advantage to
her accusers, and prejudice to her cause. Either
they miss these ways, and turn aside out of them,
and so lose the pleasure that is to be found in them ;
or, (which is a common case,) they refuse to take the
comfort which they might have in these ways. They
hamper themselves with needless perplexities, make
the yoke heavy which Christ has made easy, and
that frightful which he designed should be encou-
raging : they indulge themselves, and then, as Jo>
nah when he was angry, justify themselves, iu cause-
less griefs and fears, and think they do well to put
themselves into an agony, to be very heavy and sore
amazed, and their souls exceeding sorrowful even
unto death, as Christ's was ; whereas Christ put him-
self into such an agony to make us easy.
But let not true piety suffer in its reputation be-
cause of this ; for though it be called a religious me-
lancholy, it is not so, for it is contrary to the very
nature and design of religion, while it shelters itself
under the colour of it, and pretends to take rise from
it. It is rather to be called diiaidaiixovia — a superstiti-
ous melancholy, arising from such a slavish fear of
God as the heathens were driven by to their daemons
and barbarous sacrifices ; which is a great injury to
the honour of his goodness, as well as a great injury
to themselves.
If the professors of religion look for that in the
world, which is to be had in God only, and that is
perfect happiness ; and if they look for that in them-
selves, which is to be had in Christ only, and that
is a perfect righteousness ; or if they look for that on
earth, which is to be had in heaven only, and that
is perfect holiness ; and then fret, and grieve, and
go mourning, from day to day, because they are dis-
appointed in their expectations, they may thank
themselves ; Why seek they the living among the dead f
Luke xxiv. 5.
Let but religion, true and pure religion, in all
the laws and instances of it, command and prevail,
and these tears will soon be wiped away. Let but
God's servants take their work before them, allow
each principle of their religion its due weight, and
each practice of it its due place and proportion,
find let them not dash one precept of the gospel, any
more than one table of the law, in pieces agaiattte
other. Let them look upon it to be as mach fMk
duty to rejoice in Christ Jesus, as to mooin for riKj
nay, and more, for this is in order to tkmt : and
we shall not fear, that their sorrows will in the lessfe^
shake the truth of our doctrine, for, as fkr as 49
religion is carried, it will carry this cbaraeter a]oi|-'
with it, and further it cannot be expected.
II. In true piety ^ I say, there is a pleasurt: teft:
is that which we may find comfort in, and fetchjar,
tisfaction from. There is a 601111111 jucmubaAii-
pleasant good, as well as utile-^-a useful oim. That
is pleasant, which is agreeable, which the soul ie«i
joices in, or, at least, reposes in ; or which it reliilieiy
pleases itself with, and desires the continuance and
repetition of. Let a man's faculties be in tbeir doe
frame and temper, not vitiated, corrupted, or de-
praved, and there is that in the exercise of religion
which highly suits them, and satisfies them. And
this pleasure is such as is not allayed with any thing
to cast a damp upon it.
1. The ways of religion are right and pUsuatU;
they are pleasant without the allay of injury and in-
iquity. Sin pretends to have its pleasures, but they
are the perverting of that which is right, {Job xjam.
27.) they are stolen waters, (Prov. ix. 17.) unjust,
though pleasant ; but the pleasures of godliness are
as agreeable to the rectitude of our nature as they
are gratifying to the pure and undebauched desires
of it. It is the way in which we should go ; and the
way in which, if we were not wretchedly degene-
rated, we would go of choice.
They are right, for they are marked out to us by
our rightful Lord, who, having given us the being of
rational creatures, has authority to give us a law
suited to our being ; and he has done it, both by
natural conscience, and by the written word: he
has said, This is the way, walk in it, Isa. xxx. 21.
It is not only permitted and allowed us, but charged
and commanded us, to walk in it. He has sent us,
as messengers from him, to travel this road upon his
errand.
They are right, for they lead directly to our great
end, have a tendency to our welfare here and for
ever. They are the only right way to that which is
the felicity of our being, which we shall certainly
miss and come short of, if we do not walk in this
way.
But that is not all, they are also pleasant ; Behold
how good and how pleasant ! Ps. cxxxiii. 1. It is the
happiness of those Uiat fear God, that he not only
teaches them in the way that he shall c/toase, (and
we may be sure that is the right way,) but also that
their souls shall dwell at ease, Ps. xxv. 12, 13. Justly
may they dwell at ease, who have Infinite Wisdom it-
self to choose their way, and guide them in it That
may be right, which is not pleasant, and ihat pleasant
which is not right ; but religion is both : therefore.
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
231
111 tke next verse it is compared to the tree of life.
Tbe tree of knowledge was indeed pleasant to the
9if€Sf and a tree to he desired, but it was forbidden,
(Gen. ill. 6.) and therefore religion is called a tree
^aftf which was not only pleasant, bat was allowed,
till tin entered.
" 3. They are easy and pleasant ; pleasant without
ti^ alia J of toil and difficulty, any more than what
Ariies ffom the corruption of our own nature ; that
indeed makes such opposition, that we have need
•f argiunents, (and, blessed be God, we have good
wqgnmeots,) to prore the practice of religion easy :
init it is more than this, it is pleasant.
Maeh less is said than is intended, when we are
told that his eammandments are not grievous, 1 John
T. 3. They are not only not gricTOus and galling,
but they are g^cious and pleasing. His yoke is
easy. Matt. xi. 30. The word there used, xP*7^t
signifies more than so, it is su^eet and gentle ; not
only easy as a yoke is to the neck, when it is so well
fitted as not to hurt it, but easy as a pillow is to the
head, when the head is weary and sleepy. It is not
only tolerable, but very comfortable. There is not
only no matter of complaint in the ways of God,
nothing to hurt us, but there is abundant matter of
joy and rejoicing. It is not only work which is not
weariness, but work which is its own wages ; such
a tree of life, as will not only screen us from the
storm and tempest, and feed us with necessary food,
but we may sit down under the shadow of it with
^at delight, and the fruit of it will be sweet unto
9Hr taste. Cant. ii. 3.
3. They are gainful and pleasant, and have not
the allay of expense and loss. That may be profit-
able, which yet may be unpleasant, and that plea-
sant, which afterward may prove very unprofitable
ind prejudicial. What/ririt have sinners from those
things in which yet they said they had pleasure ?
Rom. vi. 21. But religion brings both pleasure with
it, and profit after it. The pleasures of religion do
lot cost us dear ; there is no loss by them when the
account comes to be balanced.
The gain of this world is usually fetched in by
[oil and uneasy labour, which are grievous to fiesh
md blood. The servants of this world are drudges
\o it ; they rise up early, sit vp late, and eat the bread
ff sorrows, (Ps. cxxvii. 2.) in pursuit of its wealth.
They labour, and bereave their souls of good ; (Eccl.
V. 8.) but the servants of God have a pleasure even
n the work they are to get by, and which they shall
ye recompensed for.
Beside the tendency that there is in the practice
»f serious godliness to our happiness in the other
ife, there is much in it that conduces to our comfort
n this life. David observes it to the honour of re-
igion, (Ps. xix. 11.) that not only nfter keeping, but
« keepinf^, God's commandments, there is a great
eward; a present great reward of obedience in obe- i
dience. A good man is satisfied from himself, (Prov.
xiv. 14.) that is, from that which Divine Grace has
wrought in him ; and the saints are said to sing in
the ways of the Lord, (Ps. exxxviii. 5.) as those that
find them pleasant ways.
The more closely we adhere to the rules of reli-
gion, the more intimate our converse is with divine
things ; and the more we live with an eye to Christ
and another world, the more comfort we are likely
to have in our own bosoms. Great peace have they
that love God's law, (Ps. cxix. 166.) and the more
they love it, the greater their peace is ; nay, it w
propiised to the church, that all her children shall
be taught of the Lord, (and those whom he teaches,
are well taught, and taught to do well,) and then
great shall be the peace of her children, (Isa. liv. 13.)
it shall be entailed upon them ; Peace like a river,
in omne volubilis Ofvum^rolling on from age to age.
III. I call it a true pleasure. As there is science,
falsely so called, (1 Tim. vi. 20.) so there is pleasure,
falsely so called. One of the ancients distinguishes
between 'Hoova^ dXtidiis, and 'HSovdQ '¥ivitiQ, (Damas-
cen, Orthod. Fid. I. 2.) pleasures that have some
truth in them, and pleasures t/tat deceive us with a
lie in their right hand. Some have said that the
School of Epicurus, which is commonly branded and
condemned for making pleasure man's chief good,
did not mean sensual pleasure, but the pleasure of
the mind. And we should be willing enough to
admit it, were not the other principles of his philo-
sophy so atheistical and irreligious. But this we
are sure of, that it is a true pleasure which religion
secures to us ; a pleasure that deserves the name,
and answers it to the full.
It is a true pleasure, for,
1. It is real, and not counterfeit. Carnal world-
lings pretend a great satisfaction in the enjoyments
of the world, and the gratifications of sense. Soul,
take thine ease, says one, Luke xii. 19. / have found
me out substance, says another, (Uos. xii. 8.) even the
life of my hand. I have seen, says a third, the fire,
Isa. xliv. 16. The wicked boasts of his heart's desire ;
but Solomon assures us, not only that the end of
that mirth is heaviness, but that even in laughter the
heart is sorrowful, Prov. xiv. 13. But those that
make a god of their belly, and those that make a
god of their money, find such a constant pain and
uneasiness attending their spiritual idolatries, that
their pleasure is but from the teeth outward. Dis-
content at present disappointments, and fear of
worse ungoverned passions, (which seldom are made
less turbulent by the gratifications of the appetite,)
and above all, conscience of guilt, and dread of di-
vine wrath, these give them the lie, when they boast
of their pleasures, which, with such allays, are not
to be boasted of ; they would not be thought to be
disappointed in that which they have chosen for their
happiness, and therefore they seem to be pleased,
^32
THE PLEASURE OF BEING REUGIOUS.
they seem to be pleasant, when really their heart, if
it knows its own wickedness, cannot but know its own
bittemea, Prov. xiv. 10.
And many of the good things of this world, of
which we said. These same shall comfort fu, prove
icexatious to us ; and we arc disappointed in that,
wherein we most promised ourselves satisfaction.
If we say our bed shall comfort us^ perhaps it is not a
bed to rest on, but a bed to toss on, as it was to
poor Job, when wearisome nights were appointed to
him* Nay, such strangers are we to real pleasure
in the things of this life, and so often do we deceive
ourselves with that which is counterfeit, that, we
wish to live to those days of life which we are told
will be evil days, and those years of which we are
assured that we shall say, We have no pleasure in
them, Eccl. xii. 1.
But the pleasures of religion are solid, substantial
pleasures, and not painted ; gold, and not gilded
over: these sons of pleasure inherit substance, (Prov.
viii. 21.) it is that which is the firm foundation, the
strong superstructure, the consolations vfGod, which
are not few, nor small, (Job xv. 14.) while a vain
and foolish world, cause their eyes to fly upon that
which is not, Prov. xxiii. 6. Worldly people pretend
to the joy they have not ; but godly people conceal the
joy they have ; as he did, that had found the treasure
hid in the field. They have, like their Master, meat
to eat, which the world knows not of John iv. 32.
2. It is rational, and not brutish. It is the plea-
sure of the soul, not of sense ; it is the peculiar
pleasure of a man, not that which we have in com-
mon with the inferior creatures. The pleasures of
religion are not those of the mere animal life, which
arise from the gratifications of the senses of the
body, and its appetites ; no, they affect the soul,
that part of us by which we are allied to the world
of spirits, that noble part of us, and therefore are to
be called the true pleasures of a man.
The bnite creatures have the same pleasures of
sense that we have, and perhaps, in some of them,
the senses are more exquisite, and consequently they
have them in a much higher degree ; nor are tlieir
pleasures liable to the correctives of reason and
conscience as ours are. Who live such merry lives
as the leviathan, who plays in the deep, or the birds
that sing among the branches ? Ps. civ. 12, 26.
But what are these to a man, who being taught more
than the beasts of the earth, and made wiser than the
fowls of heaven, (Job xxxv. 11.) and being dignified
above the beasts, not so much by the powers of rea-
son, as by a capacity for religion, is certainly de-
signed for enjoyments of a more excellent nature,
for spiritual and heavenly delights. When God
made man, he left him not to the enjoyments of the
wide world, with the other creatures, but enclosed
him a paradise, — a garden of pleasure, (so Eden
signifies,) where he should have delights proper for
him ; signified indeed by the pleasures of a garden,
pleasant trees, and their fruits, but reallj the de^
lights of a soul, that was a ray of divine light, and t
spark of divine fire, newly breathed into him fima
above, and on which God's image and likeness we^
imprinted. And we never recover our felicity, wfaitA
we lost by our first parents* indulging the appetite
of the body, till we come to the due relish of those
pleasures which man has in common with angels,
and a due contempt of those which he has in common
with the brutes.
The pleasures of wisdom's ways may at second*
hand affect the body, and be an advantage to that ;
hence it is said (Prov. iii. 8.) to be health to the kcm/,
and marrow to the bones ; but its residence is in the
hidden man of the heart, (1 Pet. iii. 4.) and its com*
forts delight the soul in the multitude of its thoughts,
Ps. xciv. 19. It is pleasant to the soul, and makes it
like a watered garden. These are pleasures which
a man, by the assistance of divine grace, may reason
himself into, and not, (as it is with sensual plea-
sures,) reason himself out of
There is no pleasure separate from that of religion,
which pretends to be an intellectual pleasure, but
that of learning, and that of honour ; but as to the
pleasure of a proud man in his digniti(;s, and the
respects paid him, as Herod, in the acclamations of
the crowd, it does but affect the fancy ; it is vmn-
glory, it is not glory, it is but the folly of him that
receives the honour, fed by the folly of them that g^ve
it ; so that it does not deserve to be called a rational
pleasure ; it is a lust of the mind that is gratified by
it, and that is as much an instance of our degeneracy,
as any of the lusts of the flesh are.
And as to the pleasure of a scholar, abstracted
from religion, it is indeed rational and intellectual;
but it is only the pleasure of the mind in knowing
truth, and not its enjoying good. Solomon, who had
as much of this pleasure as ever any man had, and
as nice a taste of it, yet has assured us from his own
experience, that in much wisdom of this kind is much
grief, and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth
sofTow, Eccl. i. 18.
But the pleasures which a holy soul has in know-
ing God, and in communion with him, are not only
of a spiritual nature, but they are satisfying, they
are filling to the soul, and make a happiness ade-
quate to its best affections.
3. It is durable, and not ^ashy and transitory :
that is true pleasure, and deserves the name, which
will continue with us as a tree of life, and not
wither as the green herb ; which will be not as the
light of a candle, which is soon burnt out, but as
that of the sun, which is a faithful witness in hea-
ven. We reckon that most valuable, which is most
durable.
The pleasures of sense are fading and perishing ;
I as the world passetk away, (1 John ii. 17.) so do lA#
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS;
hMtofU : tliat which at first pleases and satisfies,
after a while palls and surfeits. As the crackling
fftkonu under a pot, (Eccl. vii. 6.) which make a
^reat blaze, and a great noise for a little while, bat
soon end in soot and ashes ; such is the laughter of
ike fool ; the end of his mirth is heaviness, Belshaz-
lar's jollity is soon turned into the utmost conster-
nation ; The night of my pleasure hath he turned into
fear to me^ (Isa. xxi. 4.) The pleasures of sin are
said to be bat for sl season, (Heb. xi. 25.) for the end
of that mirth is heaviness. As they have no consist-
ence, so they have no continuance.
Bat the pleasures of religion will abide, they
wither not in winter, nor tarnish with time, nor
does age wrinkle their beauty ; frost nips them not,
nor do storms blast them ; they continue through the
S^eatest opposition of events, and despise that time
and chance, which happens to all things under the sun,
Eccl. ix. 11. Believers, when they are sorrowful,
they arc but as sorrowful, for they are always re-
joicing, (2 Cor. yi. 10. and ii. 14.) thanhs be to God,
who always causeth us to triumph. If an immortal
soul make an eternal God its chief joy, what should
hinder but that it should rejoice evermore, (1 Thess.
V. 16.) for as the treasure, so the pleasure, is laid up
there, where neither moth nor rust can corrupt, nor
thieves break through and steal. The joy which
Christ gives to those that arc his, is joy which no
man tahethfrom them, (John xvi. 22.) for it is their
heart that rejoices. They are the beginning of
everlasting pleasures, the earnest and foretaste of
them ; so that they are, in effect, pleasures for ever-
more.
So then the great truth which I desire my heart
and yours may be fully convinced of, is this ; That
a holy, heavenly life, spent in the service of God,
and in communion with him, is, without doubt, the
most pleasant and comfortable life any man can live
in this world.
CHAPTER IL
THB PLBASURB OF BEING RBLIOIOHS, PKOVED FROM THB NA-
TURB OFTRUB RBUGION, AND MANY PARTICULAR INSTANCES
OFrr.
The doctrine needs no further explication, nor can
have any better, than our own experience of it;
hut the chief part of this undertaking is to prove the
trath of it. And O that God, by me, would set it
before you in a true light, so that you may be all
convinced of it, and embrace it as a faithful saying,
and well worthy of all acceptation, that a godly life
is a pleasant life : and that we may be wrought upon
to livesach a life*
Pleasure is a tempting thing ; what yields delight
timiot but attract desire ; it is next to necessity, so
strongly does it urge. Surely, if we .were but fully
persuaded of this, that religion has pleasure on its
side, we should be wrought upon by the allurement
of it to be religious. It is certainly so, let us not be
in doubt of it. Here is a bait that has no hook
under it, a pleasure courting you which has no pain
attending it, no bitterness at the latter end of it ; a
pleasure which God himself invites you to, and
which will make you happy, truly and eternally
happy : and shall not this work upon you ?
But we may entertain ourselves, and our hearers^
long enough with discourses of the pleasantness of
Wisdom's ways, but they will not profit unless
they be mixed with faith, O ! that we would all
mix faith with this truth ! that we would 3ield to
the evidence of it
To make way for the proof of it, I would only de-
sire two things :
1 . That you would lay aside prejudice, and give a
fair and impartial hearing to this cause, and do not
prejudge it. He that answers any matter before he
hears it, hears it out, it is folly and shame to him f
(Prov. viii. 13, 14.) especially if it be a matter of
great importance and concern to himself ; a matter
of life and death. Be willing, therefore, to believe,
that it is possible there may, and then I doubt not
but to make out, that it is certain there is true plea-
sure in true religion.
You have got a notion, it may be, and are con-
firmed in it by the common cry of the multitude, that
religion is a sour melancholy thing, that it is to bid
farewell to all pleasure and delight, and to spend
your days in grief, and your years in sighing : and
if we offer any thing to the contrary, that it is a
pleasant thing, and the best entertainment that can
be to the mind, you are ready to say, as EzekiePff
hearers did of him, Doth he not speak parables ?
(Ezek. XX. 49.) does he not speak paradoxes ? You
startle at it, and start from it as a hard saying, like
Nathaniel, when he said. Can any good tking come
out of Nazareth ? (John i. 46.) So you are ready to
say. Can there be any pleasure in religion ? Believe
it. Sirs, there can be, there cannot but be, pleasure
in it.
Do not measure religion by the follies of some
that profess it, but do not live up to their profession,
nor adorn it ; let them bear their own burthen, or
clear themselves as they can ; but you are to judge
of things, not persons, and therefore ought not to
be prejudiced against religion for their sakes. Nor
should you measure by the ill opinions which its
adversaries have of it, or the ill name which they
endeavour to put it into, who neither know it, nor
love it, and therefore care not what unjust things
they say to justify themselves in the contempt of it,
and to hinder others from embracing it ; but think
freely of this matter.
2. That you would admit this as a principle, and
234
THE PLEASURE OF BEINO RELIOIOUS.
abide by it,— that, The soul it the man: this is the
Pottnlatum that I lay down, in order to the proof of
the doctrine, and I hope it will be readily granted
me, that man is principally to be considered as an
intellectual, immortal being, endued with spiritual
powers and capacities, allied to the world of spirits,
and accountable to the Father of spirits ; that there
is a spirit in man, that has sensations and disposi-
tions of its own, active and receptive faculties dis-
tinct from those of the body ; and that this is the
part of us, which we are, and ought to be, most con-
cerned about, because it is really well or ill with
us, according as it is well or ill with our souls.
Believe, that in man's present state, the soul and
the body have separate and contesting interests ; the
body thinks it is its interest to have its appetites
gratified, and to be indulged in its pleasures ; while
the soul knows it is its interest to have the appetites
of the body subdued and mortified, that spiritual
pleasures may be the better relished ; and we are
liere upon our trial, which of these two we will side
with.
Be wise, therefore, be resolute, and show your-
selves men that are actuated and governed by rea-
son, and are affected with things as reason repre-
sents them to you : not reason, as it is in the mere
natural man, clouded, and plunged, and lost in
sense ; but reason elevated and guided by divine
revelation to us, and divi^ie grace in us. Walk by
faith, and not by sense ; let the God that made you,
and knows you, and wishes you well, and from whom
your judgment must proceed, determine your senti-
ments in this matter, and the work is done.
Now I shall, in the first place, endeavour to prove
this doctrine, by showing you what religion is, where-
in it consists^ and what those things are which con-
stitute serious godliness ; and then you shall your-
selves judge, whether it be not in its own nature
pleasant. If you understand religion aright, you
will find, that it has an innate sweetness in it, in-
separable from it. Let it but speak for itself, and it
will recommend itself. The very exhibition of this
beauty in its own features and proportions, is enough
to bring us all in love with it.
You shall see the pleasures of religion in twelve
instances of it.
I. To be religious, is to hnow tlie only true God, and
Jesus Ch-ist whom he hath sent, (John xvii. 3.) And
is not that pleasant ? This is the first thing we have
to do, to get our understandings rightly informed,
concerning both the object and the medium of our
religious regards, to seek and receive this light from
heaven, to have it diffused through our souls as the
morning light in the air, and to be turned to the im-
pressions of it, as the clay to the seal, (Job xxxviii.
14.) and this is a pleasure to the soul that under-
stands itself, and its own true interest. Truly the
light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to
behold the sun, (Eccl. xi. 7.) it rejoieeth the heart,
Prov. XV. 30. Hence, light is often put for joy and
comfort ; but no light is comparable to tliat of the
hnowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ, 2 Cor. iv. 6.
This is finding the knowledge we had lost, and
must for ever have despaired of finding, if God had
not made it known to us by his Spirit It is finding
the knowledge that we arc undone witkontt and
happy for ever in ; for what is heaven but this
knowledge in perfection ? It is finding the know-
ledge which the soul would covet and rest in, if it
had but recovered itself from the delirium, which
by the fall it is thrown into. They that sat in darh-
ness, when they begin to be religious, begin to see a
great light. Matt iv. 16. And it is a pleasing sur-
prise to them ; it is coming into a new world ; such
a pleasure as none could know so well, as he that
had his sight given him, though he was bom blind,
John ix. 25. Blessed are your eyes, (says Christ to
those whom he had brought into an acquaintance
with himself,) for they see. Apply thy heart to my
hnowledge, saith Solomon, Prov. xxii. 17, IS, for it
is a pleasant thing iftlutu heep jt within thee. Thou
wilt eat honey, because it is good, Prov. xxiv. 13, 14.
and the honey-comb, which is sweet to the taste ; so
sliall tlie knowledge of wisdom be to thy soul. Could a
learned man, that had hit upon a demonstration in
mathematics, cry out in a transport of joy, Svp^sa,
^vpifca, — I liave found, I have fout\d ; and may not
they much more boast of the discovery, that have
found the knowledge of the Most High ? i
There is no pleasure in any learning like that of
learning Christ, and the things that belong to our
everlasting peace; for that which is known is not
small and trivial, is not doubtful and uncertain, is
not foreign to us, and which we are not concerned
in ; which are things that may much diminish the
pleasure of any knowledge ; but it is great and sure,
and of the last importance to us, and the knowledge
of it gives us satisfaction. Here we may rest our
souls. To know the perfections of the divine nature,
the unsearchable riches of divine grace to be led
into the mystery of our redemption and reconcili-
ation by Christ ; this is food, such knowledge as
this is a feast to the soul: it is meat indeed, and
drink indeed: it is the knowledge of that which the
angels desire to look into, 1 Peter i. 12. If the
knowledge of the law of God was so sweet to David,
sweeter titan honey to his taste, Ps. xix. 10; cxix. lOa
how much more should the knowledge of the gospel
of Christ be so to us? When God gives this wisdom
and knowledge, with it he gives joy to him that is
good in his sight, Eccl. ii. 26.
I wonder what pleasure or satisfaction those can
have in themselves, that are ignorant of God, and
Christ, and another world, though they are told
there is such a knowledge- to be had, and there are
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
335
those that have it, and it is their continual enter-
tainment. But thus do men stand in their own
light, when thej /ore darknett rather than light,
II. To be relif^ious, is to return to God, and re-
ffose in hint as the rest of our souls. And is not that
pleasant? It is not only for our understandings to
embrace the knowledge of him, but our affections to
fasten upon the enjoyment of him : it is to love God
as our chief good, and to rest in that love ; to love
him with ull our hearty and soul, and mind, and
might, who is well worthy of all that love, and infi-
nitely more ; amiable in himself, gracious to us ;
who will accept our love, and return it ; who has
promised to lave those that love him, Prov. viii. 17«
The love of God reigning in the soul (and that is
true religion) is as much a satisfaction to the soul,
as the love of the world is a vexation to it. when
it comes to be reflected upon, and is found to be so
ill bestowed.
How pleasant must it needs be, so far to recover
ourselves, as to quit the world for a portion and hap-
piness as utterly insufficient to be so, and to depend
upon him to be so, who has enough in him to answer
our utmost expectations ! When we have in vain
sought for satisfaction where it is not to be had, to
seek it and find it where it is ! To come from doat-
ing upon Iging vanities, and spending our money for
that which is not bread, (Isa. Iv. 2.) to live, and live
plentifully, upon a God that is enough, a God all-
sufficient, and in him to enjoy our own mercies! Did
ever any thing speak a mind more easy and better
pleased than that of David, Return unto thy rest, O
my soul ? (Psalm cxvi. 7.) to God as thy rest, for in
him, I am where I would be, I have what I would
have : or that, (Ps. xvi. 2, 5, 6.) O my soul, thou hast
said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord, the portion of
my inheritance, and of my cup ? And then, The lines
are fallen to me in pleasant places, and I have a goodly
heritage ? Or that, (Ps. Ixxiii. 25.) Whom have I in
heaven hut thee, and there is none upon earth that I
desire in comparison of thee ; for when flesh and heart
faily thou art the strength and joy of my heart, and
my portion for ever /
Religion consists not in raptures and transports ;
yet, without doubt, holy souls that are at home in God,
that have made the Mott High their habitation, (Ps.
xci. 9.) whose desires are toward him, whose delights
are in him, who are in him as their centre and ele-
ment, dwell at ease. None can imagine the pleasure
that a believer has in his covenant relation to God,
and interest in him, and the assurance of his love.
Have I taken thy testimonies to be my heritage for
ever? (Ps. cxix.lll.) surely they are the rejoicing of
my heart ; I cannot be better provided for. When
King Asa brought his people to renew their covenant
with God, it is said they sware unto the Lord with
« loud voice and with shoutings, and with trumpets,
i2 ChroD. xv. 14, 15.) And all J ndah rejoiced at the
oath, for they had sworn with all their heart. When
we come to make it our own act and deed, to join
ourselves to the Lord in an everlaiting covenant, and
are upright with him in it, we cannot but be pleased
with what we have done ; it is a marriage covenant,
it is made with joy : (Cant. ii. 16.) My Beloved is
mine, and I am his,
III. To be religious, is to come to God as a father,
in and by Jesus Christ as a mediator. And is not this
pleasant ? We have not only the pleasure of know-
ing and loving God, but the pleasure of drawing nigh
to hiin, and having by faith a humble freedom and
intimacy with him ; (Ps. Ixv. 4.) blessed are they thai
dwell in his courts, they shall be satisfied with the
goodness of his house^ even of his holy temple. Reli-
gion is described by coming to God ; and what can
be more agreeable to a soul that comes /rom him?
It is to come to God as a child to his father, to his
father's house, to his father's arms, and to cry, Abba,
Father, To come as a petitioner to his prince, is a
privilege ; but to come as a child to his father, is a
pleasure ; and this pleasure have all the saints, that
have received the Spirit of adoption. They can look
up to the God that made them, as one that loves
them, and has a tender compassion for them, as afa^
ther has for his children, (Ps. ciii. 13.) and delights
to do them good, taking pleasure in their prosperity ;
as one whom though they have offended, yet is recon-
ciled to them, owns them as his children, and encou-
rages them to call him father. When he afilicts
them, they know it is in love, and for their benefit,
and that still it is their Father* s good pleasure to give
them the kingdom, Luke xii. 32. When Ephraim be-
moaned himself as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke^
God bemoaned him as a dear son, as a pleasant child f
Jer. xxxi. 18, 20. And if even prodigals, when peni-
tents, become pleasant children to God, surely thej
have no reason to be unpleasant to themselves.
But this is not all, it is not only to come to God
as B.fathei', who himself loves us, (John xvi. 27.) but
it is to come to him in the name of Jesus Christ, who
is our Advocate with the Father ; that by these two
immutable things we might have strong consolation j
. that we have not only a God to go to, but an Advo-
cate to introduce us to him, and to speak for us«
Believing in Christ is sometimes expressed by
rejoicing in him ; for it is a complacency of soul in
the methods which infinite wisdom has taken, of
bringing God and man together by a Mediator. We
are the circumcision that rejoice in Christ Jesus,
(Phil. iii. 3.) not only rely upon him, but triumph
in him. Paul is not only not ashamed of the cross
of Christ, but he glories in it. Gal. vi. 14. And
when the eunuch is brought to believe in Christ
with all his hearty he goes on his way rejoicing,
highly pleased with what he has done.
What a pleasure, what a satisfaction, is it, to lodge
the great concerns of our souls and eternity (which.
290
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
surely, we cannot but have some careful thoughts
about) in such a skilful, faithful hand as that of our
Lord Jesus ? And this we do by faith. To cast the
burthen upou him who is able to save to the utter-
most, and as willing as he is able, and thus to make
ourselves easy. How is blessed Paul elevated at
the thought of this ! Who is he tltat condemneth ? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, is risen again, Rom.
viii. 34. And with what pleasure does he reflect
upon the confidence he had put in Jesus Christ!
(2 Tim. i. 12.) / hnow whom I have believed, and he
is able to heep that which I have committed to him
against that day. They that know what it is to be
in pain for sin, and in care to obtain the favour of
God, cannot but know what a pleasure it is to be-
lieve in Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and
our intercessor with God.
How can we live a more pleasant life, than to live
by the faith of the Son of Godf (Gal. ii. 20.) to be
continually depending on him, and deriving from
him, and referring all to him; and as we have
received him, so to walk in him ? It is in believing,
that we 2itt filled with joy and peace, Rom. xv. 13.
IV. To be religious, is to enjoy God in all our
creature-comforts. And is not that pleasant ? It is to
take the common supports and conveniences of life,
(be they of the richest, or be they of the meanest,)
as the products of his providential care concerning
us, and the gifts of his bounty to us, and in them
to taste and see that the Lord is good, (Ps. xxxiv. 8.)
good to all, good to us. It is to look above second
causes to the first, through the creature to the Creator,
and to say concerning every thing, that is agreeable
and serviceable to us, *' This I asked, and this I
have from the hand of my heavenly Father." What
a noble taste and relish does this put into all the
blessings with which we are daily loaded ; our health
and ease, our rest and sleep, our food and raiment,
all the satisfaction we have in our relations, peace
in our dwellings, success in our callings ! The sweet-
ness of these is more than doubled, it is highly
raised, when by our religion we are taught and
enabled to see them all coming to us from the good-
ness of God, as our great Benefactor, and thus to
enjoy them richly, (I Tim. vi. 17.) while those who
look no further than the creature, enjoy them very
poorly, and only as the inferior creatures do.
Carnal, irreligious people, though they take a
greater liberty in the use of the delights of sense
than good people dare take, and therein think they
have the advantage of them, yet, I am confident,
they have not half the true delight in them that
good people have ; not only because all excesses are
a force upon nature, and surfeits are as painful as
hunger and thirst, but because, (though they do not
thus abuse God's good creatures,) they deprive them-
selves of the comfort of receiving them from their
Father's hand, and are not aflTected to him as obe-
dient children. They knew not thai Igaw them cam,
and wine, and oil, Hos. ii. 8. They make use of the
creature, but (Isa. xxii. 11.) they have not looked
unto the Maker thereof, nor had respect to kim tkat
fashioned it long ago, as good people do; and so they
come short of the pleasure which good people have.
Is it not pleasant to taste covenant-love in commoa
mercies ? very pleasant to see the hand of our hea-
venly Father spreading our table, filling our cup,
making our houses safe, and our beds easy ? This
they do, that by faith have their eyes ever towards
the Lord, that by prayer fetch in his blessing upon
all their enjoyments, and by praise give the gloiy
of them to that mercy of his which endureth for
ever. And when thus a continual regard is had to
that mercy, an abundant sweetness is thereby in-
fused into all the comforts of this life ; for as the
wrath and curse of God is the wormwood and the
g^ll, (Lam. iii. 19.) in all the afflictions and miseries
of this life ; so his loving kindness is the honey and
oil in all the comforts and enjoyments of this life:
that is it which is better than life, (Ps. Ixiii. 3.) and
which is abundantly satisfying ; which puts gladness
into the heart beyond the joy of harvest, Ps. iv. 7.
Then the nations are glad, and sing for joy, when not
only the earth yields her increase, but with it God,
even their own God, gives them his blessing, Ps. Ixvii.
4, 6. And when the church is brought to such a
sense of God's grace, as to cry out, How great is his
goodness, and how great is his beauty ! (Zech. ix. 17.)
it follows, that then com shall make the young men
cheeiful; intimating that we have no joy of our
enjoyments, no true joy of them, till we are led by
these streams to the fountain. To the pure, all things
are pure, (Tit. i. 15.) and the more pure they are, the
more pleasant they are.
V. To be religious, is to cast all our cares tqnm
God, and to commit all our ways and works to kim,
with an assurance that he will care for us. And is not
this pleasant ? It is a very sensible pleasure to be
eased of some pressing burthen which we are ready
to sink under ; and care is such a burthen : it is a
heaviness in the heart of man, which makes it to
stoop. Now true religion enables us to acknowledge
God in all our ways, (Prov. iii. 6.) and then depend
upon him to direct our steps, and follow his direc-
tions, not leaning to our own understanding. It is
to refer ourselves, and the disposal of every thing
that concerns us in this world, to God, and to his
will and wisdom, with an entire acquiescence in his
award and arbitration ; Here I am, let the Lord do
with me as seemeth good in his eyes, 2 Sam. xv. 26.
To be truly godly, is to have our wills melted into
the will of God in every thing, and to say Amen to
it, not only as a prayer, but as a covenant ; Father
in heaven, thy will be done ; not as I will, but as thou
wilt. It is to be fully reconciled to all the disposals
of the divine providence, and methods of divine
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
337
grace, both concemiDg others and ourselves : to be
satisfied that all is well that God does, and will ap-
pear so at last, when the mystery of God shall be
finished. And how does the mind enjoy itself that
is come to this ! How easy is it ! It is not only freed
from racking anxieties, but filled with pleasing pros-
pects : fears are hereby silenced, and hopes kept up
and elcTated. Nothing can come amiss to those who
have thus been taught by the principles of their reli-
gion to make the best of tiiat which is, because it is the
will of God ; which is making a virtue of necessity.
What uncomfortable lives do they live, that are
continually fretting at that which cannot be helped,
quarrelling with the disposals of Providence, when
diey cannot alter them; and thus by contracting
l^ilt as well as by indulging grief, doubling every
borthen ? But how pleasantly do they travel through
Ike wilderness of this world, who constantly follow
the piilar of cloud and fire, and accommodate them-
selves to their lot, whatever it is ? That, like Paul,
through Christ strengthening them, have learned tn
evtry estate to he content, know how to want, and how
to abound? PhiL iv. 11, 12, 13.
Religion brings the mind to the condition, what-
ever it is, and so makes it easy, because the condi-
tion, though it be not in every thing to our mind, it
is according to God's mind, who in all occurrences
pefformeth the thing that is appointed for us, (Job xxiii.
14.) and will make all work for good to them that love
him. When the psalmist had directed us to delight
ourselves always in the Lord, (Ps. xxxvii,4, 5.) that is,
to make our religion a constant pleasure to ourselves,
he directs us, in order thereunto, to commit our wag
unto the Lord, to trust also in him that he will bring
it to pass, so that we shall have the desire of our
hearts. And when St. Paul had encouraged us to
be careful for nothing, but in every thing to make our
requests known to God, he assures us that if we do
so, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
shall keep our hearts and minds, Phil. iv. 6, 7.
VI. To be religious, is to rejoice in the Lord alway,
Phil. iii. 1. and iv.4. And is not that pleasant? It
is not only one of the privileges of our religion, that
we may rejoice, but it is made one of the duties of
it We are defective in our religion, if we do not
live a life of complacency in God, in his being, his
tttribotes, and relations to us. It should be a
eonstant pleasure to us, to think that there is a God ;
that he is such a one as the Scripture has revealed
him to be, a Being infinitely wise and powerful, holy,
josty and good ; that this God governs the world, and
gives law to all the creatures ; that he is our owner
and ruler ; that in his hand our breath is, in his
hand our times, our hearts, and all our ways are.
Thus certainly it is, and thus it must be, and happy
tiiey that can please themselves with these thoughts ;
as those must needs be a constant terror to thcm-
selvesy wlio oonld wish it were otherwise.
They who thus delight in God have always some-
thing, and something very commanding too, to de-
light in ; a fountain of joy that can never be either
exhausted or stopped up, and to which they may
always have access. How few are there that live
many days, and rejoice in them all! Eccl. xi. 8.
Such a Uiing is supposed indeed, but it is never
found true in any, but those that make God their
joy, the gladness of their joy, as the psalmist ex-
presses it, (Ps. xliii. 4.) their exceeding joy : and in
him it is intended the joy should terminate, when we
are bid to rejoice evermore, 1 Thess. v, 16.
The conversion of the nations to Christ, and his
holy religion, is often prophesied of in the Old Tes-
tament, under the notion of their being brought into
a state oi holy joy ; (Ps. xcvi. 11. and xcvii. 1. andc.
1.) Let the earth rejoice that the Lord reigns, and
lei the multitude of isles be glad thereof; make ajoy^
ful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. The gospel is
glad tidings of great joy to all people, Rom. xv. 10.
When Samaria received the gospel, there was great
joy in that city. Acts viii. 8. so essential is joy to re-
lig^'on.
And the conversation of those that are joined to
the Lord, when it is as it should be, is cheerful and
joyful. They are called upon to walk in the light of
the Lord, (Isa. ii. 5.) and to sing in the ways of the
Lord, (Ps. cxxxviii. 5.) and to serve the Lord their God
with joyfulness and gladness of heart in the abundance
of all things, (Deut. xxviii. 47.) yea, and in the want of
all things too, (Hab. iii. 17.) Though the fig-tree do
not blossom, and there be no fruit in the vine. Has
God now accepted thee, and thy works in Jesus
Christ, Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink
thy wine with a merry heart ; Eccl. ix. 7. It is the will
of God that his people should be a cheerful people,
that his Israel should rejoice in every good thing
which the Lord their God giveth them, (Deut xxvi. 11.)
so that it is their own fault if they have not a con*
tinual feast, and be not made to rejoice with the out-
goings of every morning, and every evening ; for the
compassions of that God, in whom they rejoice, are
not only constant, but new and fresh daily.
VII. To be religious, is to make a business of
praising God : And is not that pleasant ? It is indeed
very unpleasant, and contrary to our inclination, to
be obliged continually to praise one that is not
worthy of praise ; but what can be more pleasant,
than to praise him to whom all praise is due, and
ours particularly ; to whom we and all (he creatures
lie under all possible obligations ; who is worthy of,
and yet exalted far above, all blessing and praise ;
from whom all things are, and therefore to whom all
things ought to be ?
There is little pleasure in praising one, whom none
praise that are wise and good, but only the fools in
Israel ; but in praising God we concur with the
blessed angels in heaven, and all the saints, and do
238
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
it in conoert with them, who the more they know
him, the more they praise him, Bless the Lord, ye
his angels, and all his hosts; and therefore with
what pleasare can I cast in my mite into such a trea-
sury, Bless the Lord, O my soul !
There is little pleasure in praising one, who will
not regard our praises, nor take notice of our ex-
pressions of esteem and affection : but when we offer
to God the sacrifice of praise continually, (according
to the obligation which our religion lays upon us,)
that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to hit name,
(Heb. xiii. 15.) we offer it to one that takes notice of
it, accepts it, is well pleased with it, smells a savour
of rest from it, (Gen. viii. 21.) and will not fail to
meet those with his mercies, who follow him with
their praises : for he has said, that they who offer
praise, glorify him ; such a favourable construction
does he put upon it, and such a high stamp upon
coarse metal.
Now what is it that we have to do in religion but
to praise God ? We are taken into covenant with
God, that we should be to him /or a name^ and for a
praise, (Jer. xiii. 11.) are called into his marvellous
light, that we should show forth the praises of him
that called us, (I Pet ii. 9.) and how can we be more
comfortably employed ? They are, therefore, blessed
that dwell in God's house, for they will be still praising
him, Ps. Ixxxiv. 4. And it is a good thing, good in
itelf, and good for us ; and it is very pleasant to give
thanks unto the Lord, and to showforth his praises, (Ps.
cxxxv. 3. and xcii. 1.) for we cannot do ourselves
a greater honour, or fetch in a greater satisfaction,
than by giving unto the Lord the glory due unto his
name: it is not only a heaven upon earth, but it is
a pledge and earnest of a heaven in heaven too ;
for if we be here every day blessing God, (Ps. cxlv. 2.)
we shall be praising him for ever and ever ; for thus
all that shall go to heaven hereafter begin their
heaven now. Compare the hellish pleasure which
some take in profaning the name of God, and the
heavenly pleasure which others take in glorifying
it, and tell me which is preferable.
VIII. To be religious, is to have all our inordinate
appetites corrected and regulated. And is not that
pleasant? To be eased from pain is a sensible plea-
sure, and to be eased from that which is the disease
and disorder of the mind, is a mental pleasure.
Those certainly live a most unpleasant, uncomfort-
able life, that are slaves to their appetites, and in-
dulge themselves in the gratifications of sense,
though ever so criminal ; that lay the reins on the
neck of their lusts, and withhold not their hearts
from any joy. The drunkards and unclean persons,
though they are said to give themselves up to their
pleasures, yet, really, they estrange themselves from
that which is true pleasure, and subject themselves
to a continual pain and uneasiness.
The carnal appetite is often overcharged, and that
is a burthen to the body, and its distemper. When
enough is as good as a feast, I wonder what plea-
sure it can be to take more than enough ; and the
appetite, the more it is indulged, the more humor*
some and troublesome it grows ; it is surfeited, bnt
not satisfied ; it does but grow more impetuous, and
more imperious. It is true of the body, what Solo-
mon says of a servant, (Prov. xxix. 21 .) He that deli-
cately bringeth up his servant from a child, shall hate
him become his son, nay his master, at the length. If
we suffer the body to get dominion over the soul, so
that the interests of the soul must be damaged to
gratify the inclinations of the body, it will be a ty-
rant, (as a usurper generally is,) and will rule with
rigour. And as God said to the people, (1 Sam. viii.
18. when by Samuel he had showed them the man-
ner of the king that they chose, when they rejected
his government,) you will cry out in that day because
of your king which ye have chosen you, and the Lord
will not hear ; so it is with those that bring them-
selves into disorders, diseases, and terrors by the
indulgence of their lusts. Who can pity them ? They
are well enough served for setting such a king over
them. Who hath woe ? Who hath sorrow ? (Prov. xxiii.
29, 30.) None so much as they that tarry long at
the wine, though they think themselves to have the
monopoly of pleasure. The truth is, they that live
in these pleasures are dead while they Hve, ( 1 Tim. v.
6.) and while they fancy themselves to take the
greatest liberty, really find themselves in the great-
est slavery ; for they are led captive by Satan at his
will, and o(whom a man is overcome, of the same is
he brought in bondage, 2 Pet. ii. 19.
And if the carnal appetite has not gained such a
complete possession, as quite to extinguish all the
remains of reason and conscience; those noble
powers, since they are not permitted to give law, will
give disturbance ; and there arc few that have so
full an enjoyment of the forbidden pleasures of
sense, but that they sometimes feel the checks of
reason, and the terrors of conscience, which mar
their mirth, as the hand-writing on the wall did
Belshazzar's, and make their lives uncomfortable
to them, and justly so, which makes them the more
so.
Now to be religious, is to have the exorbitant
power of those lusts and appetites broken, and since
they will not be satisfied, to have them mortified,
and brought into a quiet submission to the com-
manding faculties of the soul, according to the di-
rection of the divine law ; and tiius the peace is
preserved, by supporting good order and govern-
ment in the soul.
Those certainly live the most easy, healthful, plea-
sant lives, that are most sober, temperate, and
chaste ; that allow not themselves to eat of any for-
bidden tree, though pleasant to the eye ; that live
regularly, and are the masters, not the servants, of
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
230
their own bellies, (1 Cor. ix. 27.) that keep under their
bodies f and briny them into subjection to religion and
ri^t reason, and by laying the axe to the root, and
breaking vicious habits, dispositions, and desires, in
the strength of divine grace, have made the refrain-
ing from vicious acts very easy and pleasant : Rom.
viii. 13. If through the Spirit we mortify the deeds
of the body, we live, we live pleasantly.
IX. To be religious, is to have all our unruly passions
likewise governed and subdued. And is not that plea-
sant ? Much of our torment arises from our intemper-
ate heats, discontent at the providence of God,
fretfulness at every cross occurrence, fear of every
imaginary evil, envy at those that are in a better state
than ourselves, malice against those that have inj ured
us, and an angry resentment of every, the least, pro-
vocation. These are thorns and briers in the soul ;
these spoil all our enjoyments, both of ourselves,
and of our friends, and of our God too ; these make
men's lives unpleasant, and them a terror to them-
selves, and to all about them.
But when hy the grace of God these roots of bit-
terness are plucked up, which bear so much gall and
wormwood, and we have learned of our Master to be
meek and lowly in heart, (Matt xi. 29.) we find rest to
our souls, we enter into the pleasant land. There is
scarcely any of the graces of a Christian, that have
more of a present tranquillity and satisfaction, both
inherent in them, and annexed to them, than this
of meekness. The meek shall eat, and be satisfied,
(Ps. xxii. 26.) they 'shall inherit the earM, (Matt
v. 5.) they shall delight themselves in the abundance of
peace, (Ps. xxxvii. 11.) and they shall increase their
joy in the Lord, (Isa. xxix. 19.) which nothing di-
minishes more than ungovemed passion ; for that
grieves the Spirit of grace, the Comforter, and pro-
vokes him to withdraw, Eph. iv. 30, 31.
How pleasant it is for a man to be master of his
own thoughts, to have a calmness and serenity in
his own mind, as those have, who havertr/e over their
own spirits, and thereby are kej}t in peace ; peace,
that will break an angry man's heart, but that will
not break a meek man's sleep.
X. To be religious, is to dwell in love to all our bre-
thren, and to do all tke good we can in this world.
And is not that pleasant? Love is the fulfilling of
the law ; it is the second great commandment, to
love our neighbour as ourselves, Rom. xiii. 10. All
oar duty is summed up in one word, which as it is
a short word, so it is a sweet word. Love, Behold,
hofo good and hoto pleasant it is to live in holy love ! Ps.
cxxxiii.l. Itisnotonlypleasingto God, and amiable
in the eyes of all good men, but it will be very com-
fortable to ourselves ; for they that dwell in love,
dwell in God^ and God in them, I John iv. 16.
Religion teaches us to be kind to our relations,
and to please them well in all things; neither to give
nor resent proviications; to bear with their ipfirmi-
ties ; to be courteous and obliging to all with whom
we converse ; to keep our temper, and the posses-
sion and enjoyment of our own souls, whatever af-
fronts are g^ven us : and can any thing contribute
more to our living pleasantly ?
By love we enjoy our friends, and have commu-
nion with them in all their comfoits, and so add to
our own; rejoicing with them that do rejoice, 1
Thess. iii. 9. By love we recommend ourselves to
their love ; and what more delightful than to love,
and be beloved ? Love is the very element of a pure
and sanctified mind, the sweet air it breathes in, the
cement of the best society, which contributes so
much to the pleasure of human life. The sheep of
Christ, united in flocks by the bond of holy love,
lie down together in the green pastures, by the still
waters, where there is not only plenty, but pleasure.
The apostle (exhorting his friends to be of good
comfort, (2 Cor. xiii. 11.) and to go on cheerfully in
their Christian course) exhorts them, in order to
that, to be of one mind, and to live in peace, and then
the God of love and peace will be with them.
And what pleasure comparable to that of doing
good ? It is some participation of the pleasure of the
Eternal Mind, who delights to show mercy, and to
do good. Nay, besides the divinity of this pleasure,
there is a humanity in it ; the nature of man, if it be
not debauched and vitiated, cannot but take pleasure
in making any body safe and easy. It was a plea-
sure to Job, to think that he had caused the widow's
heart to sing for joy, had been eyes to the blind, feet
to the lame, and a father to the poor, and that they had
been warmed with the fleece of his sheep. Job xxix.
13, 15, 16. and xxxi. 20. The pleasure that a good
man has in doing good, confirms that saying of our
Saviour's, that it is tnore blessed to give than to receive.
Acts XX. 35.
XI. To be religious, is to live a life of communion
with God, And is not that pleasant ? Good Chris-
tians being taken into friendship, have fellowship
with the Father, and with his son Jesus Christ, (1 John
i. 3.) and make it their business to keep up that
holy converse and correspondence. Herein consists
the life of religion, to converse with God, to receive
his communications of mercy and grace to us, and
to return pious and devout affections to him : and
can any life be more comfortable? Is there any con-
versation that can possibly be so pleasant as this to
a soul that knows itself, and its own powers and
interests?
In reading and meditating upon the word of God,
we hear God speaking with a great deal of conde-
scension to us, and concern for us ; speaking freely
to us, as a man does to his friend, and about our
own business, speaking comfortably to us in com-
passion to our distressful case : and what can be
more pleasant to those who have a value for the
favour of God, and care about the interests of t^eir
240
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
own souls ; Ps. cxli. 6. When their judges are over-
thrown in stony plaeei, they shall hear my words, for
tkey are sweet: the words of God will be very sweet
to those who see themselves overthrown by sin, and
so they will be to all that love God. With what
an air of pleasure does the spouse say, Jt is the
voice of my beloved, and he speaks to me ? Cant ii.
8, 10.
In prayer and praise we speak to God, and we
have liberty of speech, have leave to utter all our
words before the Lord, as Jephthah did his in Mizpeh,
Judg. xi. 11. We speak to one whose ear is open,
is bowed to our prayers, nay, to whom the prayer of
the upright is a delight, (Prov. xv. 8.) which cannot
but make it a very great delight to them to pray. It
is not only an ease to a burthened spirit to unbosom
itself to such a friend as God is, but a pleasure to a
aoul that knows its own extraction, to have such a
boldness, (as all believers have,) to enter into the
holiest.
Nay, we may as truly have communion with God
in providences as in ordinances, and in the duties of
common conversation, as in religious exercises ; and
thus, that pleasure may become a continual feast to
our souls. What can be more pleasant, than to have
a God to go to, whom we may acknowledge in all our
ways, and whom our eyes are ever towards; (Ps. xxv.
15.) to see all our comforts coming to us from his
hand, and all our crosses too ; to refer ourselves,
and all events that are concerning us, to his dis-
posal, with an assurance that he will order all for the
best ? What a pleasure is it to behold the beauty of
the Lord in all his works, and to taste the goodness
of the Lord in all his g^fts, in all our expectations to
see every man's judgment proceeding from him ; to
make God our hope, and God our fear, and God our
joy, and God our life, and God our all ! This is to
live a life of communion with God.
XII. To be religious, is to keep up a constant ex-
pectation of the glory to be revealed: it is to set eter-
nal life before us as the mark we aim at, and the
prize we run for, and to seek the things that are above.
Col. iii. 1. And is not this pleasant 7 It is our duty
to think much of heaven, to place our happiness in its
joys, and thitherward to direct our aims and pursuits ;
and what subject, what object, can be more pleasing?
We have need, sometimes, to frighten ourselves
from sin, with the terrors of eternal death ; but it is
much more a part of our religion, to encourage our-
selves in our duty ; with the hopes of that eternal
life which God hath g^ven us, that life which is in
his Son, 1 John v. 11.
What is Christianity, but having our conversation
in heaven, (Phil. iii. 20.) trading with the New Jeru-
salem ; and keeping up a constant correspondence
with that better country, that is, the heavenly, as the
country we belong to, and are in expectation of; to
which we remit our best effects and best affections;
where our head and home is, and where we hope and
long to be ?
Then we are as we should be, when oar minds
are in a heavenly frame and temper ; then we do as
we should do, when we are employed in the heavenly
work, as we are capable of doing it in this lower
world ; and is not our religion then a heaven upon
earth ? If there be a fulness of joy and pleasure in
that glory and happiness, which is grace and holi-
ness perfected ; there cannot but be an abundance
of joy and pleasure in ih^t grace and holiness, which
is glory and happiness begun. If there will be such
a complete satisfaction in vision and fruition, there
cannot but be a great deal in faith and hope, so well
founded as that of the saints is. Hence we are said,
believing to rejoice with joy unspeakable, (1 Pet. i. 8.)
and to ht filled with joy and peace in believing f Rom«
XV. 13.
It is the character of all God's people, that tiiey are
horn from heaven, and bound /or heaven, and have
laid up their treasure in heaven ; and they that know
how great, how rich, how glorious, and how well
secured that happiness is to all believers, cannot but
own, that if that be their character, it cannot but be
their unspeakable comfort and delight.
Now sum up the whole, and then tell me, whether
religion be not a pleasant thing indeed, when even
the duties of it themselves are so much the delights
of it : and whether we do not serve a good master,
who has thus made our work its own wages, and has
graciously provided two heavens for those that never
deserved one
CHAPTER IIL
THB PLBABANTNE88 OF RBLIOION PROVBD, FSOM THK PBOmiON
THAT 18 MADB FOE THB COMFORT OF THOBB WHO AKB RBU-
GIOUS, AND THB FRIVILB0E8 THBT ARB BNTITLkD TO.
Wb have already found by inquiry, (O ! that we
could say we had found by experience !) that the
very principles and practices of religion themselves
have a great deal of pleasantness in them, and the
one half of it has not been told us ; and yet the com-
fort that attends religion, and follows after it, can-
not but exceed that which is inherent in it, and
comes with it. If the work of righteousness be peaee^
much more is the effect of righteousness so, Isa. xxxii.
17. If the precepts of religion have such an air of
sweetness in them, what then have the comforts of
it ? Behold, happy is the people^ even in this world,
whose God is the Lord.
We must conclude, that they who walk in the ways
of Holy Wisdom, have, or may have, true peace and
pleasure ; for God has both taken care for their com-
fort, and given them cause to be comforted : so that
THE PLEASURE OF BEING REUGIOUS.
341
if they do not live easily and pleasantly, it is their
own fault
I. The God whom they serve, has, in general,
taken care /or their comfort, and has done enough
to convince them, that it is his will they should he
comforted ; that he not only g^ves them leave to be
cheerful, hut would have them to be so : for what
could have been done more to the satisfaction of
his family, than he has done in it ?
1. There is a/ncrcAoie made of peace and pleasure
for them, so that they come to it fairly, and by a
good title. He that purchased them a peculiar peo-
ple to himself, took care that they should be a plea-
sant people, that their comforts might be a credit to
his cause, and the joy of his servants in his work
might be a reputation to his family. We have not
only peaee wUh God through our Lord Jems Christ,
(Rom. V. 1, 2, 3.) but peace in our own consciences
too: not only peace above, but peace within; and
nothing less will pacify an offended conscience,
than that which satisfied an offended God. Yet this
is not all, we have not only inward peace, but we re-
joice in the hope of the glory of God, and triumph over,
lULj^ we triumph tit, tribulation.
Think what a vast expense (if I may so say) God
was at, of blood and treasure, to lay up for this, and
secure to us, not only a future bliss, but present
pleaaure, and the felicities not only of our home but
of our way. Christ had trouble, that we might have
peace ; pain, that we might have pleasure ; sorrow,
that we might have joy. He wore the crown of
thorns, that he might crown us with roses, and a
lasting joy might be upon our heads. He put on
the spirit of heaviness, that we might be arrayed with
the garments of praise. The garden was the place
of his agony, that it might be to us a garden of Eden,
and there it was that he covenanted with his prose-
cutors for the disciples, (upon his surrendering him-
self,) saying in effect to all agonies, as he did to
them, Ifyeseeh me let these go their way, (John xviii.
8.) If I be resigned to trouble, let them depart in
peace.
This was that which made Wisdom's ways plea-
santness : the everlasting righteousness which Christ,
by dying, wrought out, and brought in. This is the
foundation of the treaty of peace, and consequently
the fountain of all tho^ consolations which believ-
ers are happy in. Then it is, that all the seed of
Israel glory, when they can each of them say, In
the Lord have I righteousness and strength ; (Isa. xlv.
24, 25.) and then Israel shall dwell safely, in a holy
security, when they have learned to call Christ by
this name. The Lord our Righteousness, Jer. xxiii.
6. If Christ had not gone to the Father, as our High
Priest, with the blood of sprinkling in his hand, we
could never have rejoiced, but must have been
always trembling,
Christ is our peace, (Eph. ii. 14, 17.) not only as
he made peace for us with God ; but as he preached
to them that were afar off, and to them that were nigh,
and has engaged that his people, whenever they may
have trouble in the world, shall have peace in him ;
(John xvi. 33.) upon the assurance of which they
may be of good cheer, whatever happens. It is ob-
servable, that in the close of that ordinance which
Christ instituted in the night wherein he was betrayed,
(to be a memorial of his sufferings,) he both sung a
hymn of joy, and preached a sermon of comfort ; to
intimate, that that which he designed in dying for
us, was to give us everlasting consolation, and good
hope through grace, (2 Thess. ii. 16.) and that we
should aim at in all our commemorations of his death.
Peace and comfort are bought and paid for ; if
any of those who were designed to have the benefit
of this purchase, deprive themselves of it, let them
bear the blame, but let him have the praise who in-
tended them the kindness ; and who will take care,
that though his kindness be deferred, it shall not be
defeated ; for though his disciples may be sorrow-
ful for a time, their sorrow shall be turned into joy,
John xvi. 20.
2. There are promises made to believers of peace
and pleasure. The benefits Christ bought for them,
are conveyed to them and settled upon them in the
covenant of grace; which is well-ordered in all
things, (2 Sam. xxiii. 5.) for the comfort and satis-
faction of those, who have made that covenant all
their salvation and all their desire. There it is that light
is sown for the righteous, and it will come up again
in due time ; the promises of that covenant are the
wells of salvation out of which they draw water with
joy; the breasts of consolation, out of which, by faith,
they such and are satisfied, Isa. xii. 3. and Ixvii. 11.
The promises of the Old Testament, that point at
gospel times, speak mostly of this as the blessing re-
served for those times, that there should be great joy
and rejoicing; (Isa. xxxv. I. and Ix. 1.) The desert
shall rejoice and blossom as the rose ; Arise, shine, for
the light is come. The design of the gospel was to make
religion a more pleasant thing than it had been, by
freeing it, both from the burthensome services which
the Jews were under, and from the superstitious
fears which the heathen kept themselves and one
another in awe with ; by enlarging the privileges of
God's people, and making them easier to come at.
Every particular believer is interested in the pro-
mises made to the church, and may put them in
suit, and fetch in the comfort contained in them, as
every citizen has the benefit of the charter, even the
meanest What a pleasure may one take in apply-
ing such a promise as that, / wiU never leave thee, nor
forsake thee? Or that. All things shall work for good
to them that love God? These, and such as these,
guide our feet in the ways of peace ; and as they are a
firm foundation on which to build our hopes, so they
are a full fountain from which to draw our ioi[&^
242
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
By the exceeding great and precious promises, we par-
take of a divine nature, (2 Pet. i. 4.) in this instance
of it as much as any, a comfortable enjoyment of
ourselves : and by all the other promises that pro-
mise is fulfilled, Isa. Ixv. Id, 14. Mg servants shall
eat, but ye shall be hungry ; my servants shall drink,
but ye shall be thirsty ; my servants shall rejoice, but
ye shall be ashamed ; my servants shall sing for joy of
heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart : and the
encouragement given to all the church's faithful
friends, is made good, Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and
be glad with her all ye that love her ; Isa. Ixvi. 10.
3. There is provision made for the application of
that which is purchased and promised to the saints.
What will it avail that there is wine in the vessel,
if it be not drawn out ? that there is a cordial made
up, if it be not administered? Care is therefore
taken, that the people of God be assisted in making
use of the comforts treasured up for them in the
everlasting covenant.
A religious life, one may well expect, should be
a very comfortable life ; for Infinite Wisdom has
devised all the means that could be to make it so ;
What could have been done more for God*s vineyard,
(Isa. V. 4.) to make it flourishing as well as fruitful,
than what he has done in it ? There is not only an
overflowing fulness of oil in the Good Olive, but
golden pipes, (as in the prophet's vision, Zech. iv.
12.) for the conveyance of that oil to the lamps, to
keep them burning. When God would himself fur-
nish a paradise for a beloved creature, there was
nothing wanting that might contribute to the com-
fort of it ; in it was planted every tree that was plea-
sant to the sight, and good for food, (Gen. ii. 9.) so in
the gospel there is a paradise planted for all the
faithful offspring of the second Adam : a Canaan, a
land flowing with milk and honey, a pleasant land, a
rest for all the spiritual seed of Abraham. Now, as
God put Adam into paradise, and brought Israel
into Canaan, so he has provided for the giving of
possession to all believers, of all that comfort and
pleasure that is laid up for them. As in the garden
of Eden, innocency and pleasure were twisted toge-
ther ; so, in the gospel of Christ, grace and peace,
righteousness and peace have kissed each other, (Ps.
Ixxxv. 10.) and all is done that could be wished, in
order to our entering into this rest, this blessed sab-
bath, (Heb. iv. 3, 9.) So that if we have not the
benefit of it, we may thank ourselves : God would
have comforted us, and we would not be comforted,
our souls refused it.
Four things are done with this view, that those
who live a godly life, may live a comfortable and
pleasant life ; and it is a pity they should receive
the grace of God herein in vain.
(1.) The Blessed Spirit is sent to be the Comforter ;
he does also enlighten, convince, and sanctify, but
he has his name from this part of his office, (John
xiv. 16.) he is, 6 wapAtXriTac, the Comforter, As the
Son of God was sent to be the Consolation of Israel,
(Luke ii. 2&) to provide matter for comfort ; so tbt
Spirit of God was sent to be the Comforter, to apply
the consolation which the Lord Jesus has provided.
Christ came to make peace, and the Spirit to speak
peace, and to make us to hear joy and gladsuss, even
such as will cause broken bones themselves to rejoice,
Ps. Ii. 8. Christ having wrought oat the salvation
for us, the work of the Spirit is to give us the com-
fort of it ; hence the joy of the saints is said to be
the joy of tke Holy Ghost, (1 Thess. i. 6.) because
it is his office to administer such comforts as tend
to the filling of us with joy.
God, by his Spirit miwtfi^ on the face of tke waiters,
made the world according to the word of his power;
and by his Spirit moving on the souls of his people,
even when they are a perfect chaos, he creates tke
fruit of the lips, Peace, (Isa. Ivii. 19.) the product of
the word of his promise ; and if he did not create it,
it would never be : and we must not only attend to
the word of God speaking to us, but submit to the
Spirit of God working upon us with the word.
The Spirit, as a Comforter, was given not only for
the relief of the saints in the suffering ages of the
church, but to continue with the church ahoay to
the end, for the comfort of believers, in reference to
their constant sorrows, both temporal and spiritnal ;
and what a favour is this to the chureh, no less
needful, no less advantageous, than the sending of
the Son of God to save us, and for which, therefore,
we should be no less thankful. Let this article
never be left out of our songs of praise, but let us
always give thanks to him, who not only sent his
Son to make satisfaction for us, for his mercy endur-
etkfor ever, but sent his Spirit to give satisfaction
for us, for kis mercy enduretkfor ever ; sent his Spi-
rit not only to work in us the disposition of children
towards him, but also to witness to our adopticm,
and seal us to the day of redemption.
The Spirit is given to be our Teacher, and to Uad
us into all truth, and as such he is a Comforter ; for
by rectifying our mistakes, and setting things in a
true light, he silences our doubts and fears, and sets
things in a pleasant light The Spirit is oar Re-
membrancer, to put us in mind of that which we do
know, and as such he is a Oomforter ; for, like the
disciples, we distrust Christ in every exigence, be-
cause "Wt forget the miracles of the loaves, Mat xvL
9. The Spirit is our Sanctifier ; by him sin is mor-
tified, and grace wrought and strengthened, and as
such he is our Comforter ; for nothing tends so much
to make us easy, as that which tends to make us
holy. The Spirit is our Guide, and we^ are said to
be led by the Spirit, and as such he is our Comforter ;
for under his conduct we cannot but be led into
ways of pleasantness, to the green pastures, and
still waters.
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
S43
(2.) The Scriptures are written, that our jay may
he full; (1 John i. 4.) that we may have that joy
which alone is filling, and has that in it which will
fill up the vacancies of other joys, and make up their
deficiencies ; and that we may be full of that joy,
may have more and more of it, may be wholly taken
op with it, and may come, at length, to the full per-
fection of it in the kingdom of glory : these things
are written to you, not only that you may receive the
word with joy ^ at first, when it is a new thing to you,
but that your joy may be full, and constant. The
word of God is the chief conveyance, by which
comfort is communicated from Christ, the fountain
of life, to all the saints. That book, which the
Lamb, that was slain, took out of the right hand of
kim that sat on the throne, is that which we are by
faith to feed upon and digest, and to fill our souls
with ; and we shall find that it will, like Ezekiel's
roll, (Ezek. iii. 3,) be in our mouths as honey for sweet-
ness, and the opening of its seals will put a new
song into our mouth. Rev. v. 9.
Scripture light is pleasant, much more sweet,
more pleasant, than for the eyes to behold the sun;
the manner of its conveyance is such, as makes it
abundantly more so, for God speaks to us after the
manner of men, in our own language. The comforts
which the Scripture speaks to us are the sure mercies
of David, such as wc may depend upon, and it is
continually speaking. The Scriptures we may have
always with us, and whenever we will, we may have
recourse to them ; so that we need not be to seek for
cordials at any time. The word is nigh thee, (Rom.
X. 8.) in thy house, and in thy hand, and it is thine
own fault if it be not in thy mouth, and in thy heart.
Nor is it a spring shut up, nor a fountain sealed:
those that compare spiritual things with spiritual,
will find the Scripture its own interpreter; and
spiritual pleasure to flow from it as easily, as plenti-
fally, to all that have spiritual senses exercised, as
the honey from the comb.
The saints have found pleasure in the word of
God, and all those who have given up themselves to
be led and ruled by it It was such a comfort to
David in his distress, that if he had not had that for
deUghi, he would have perished in his affliction, (Ps.
czix. 92.) nay, he had the joy of God's word to be
Ids continual entertainment, (Ps. cxix. 64.) Thy
itahUes have bean my songs in the house of my piU
primage: — ** Thy words were found, (says Jeremiah,)
end I did eat them, feast upon them with as much
pleasure, as ever any hungry man did upon his
necessaiy food, or epicure upon his dainties ; I per-
fectly regaled myself with them ; and thy word was
mUo me ike joy asui rejoicing of my heart :" ( Jer.
XV. 16.) and we not only come short of their expe-
rieneeSy bnt finuitrate God's gracious intentions, if
we do not find pleasure in tiie word of God ; for
whatsoevar ihirngt were written aforetime, Wfre written
B 2
for our learning, that we through patience and comfort
of the Scriptures, might have hope, Rom. xv. 4.
(3.) Holy ordinances were ifutituted for the further-
ance of our comfort, and to make our religion plea-
sant unto us. The conversation of friends with
each other, is reckoned one of the greatest delights
of this world ; now ordinances are instituted for the
keeping up of our communion with God, which is
the greatest delight of the soul that is allied to the
other world. God appointed to the Jewish church
a great many feasts in the year (and but one fast,
and that but for one day) for this end, that they
might rejoice before the Lord their God, they and
their families, Deut. xvi. 11.
Prayer is an ordinance of God, appointed for
the fetching in of that peace and pleasure which is
provided for us. It is intended to be not only the
ease of our hearts, by casting our burthen upon God,
as it was to Hannah, (1 Sam. i. 18.) who, when she
had prayed, went her way, and did eat, and her coun-
tenance was no more sad ; but to be the joy of our
hearts, by putting the promises in suit, and improv-
ing our acquaintance with heaven: Ash, and ye shall
receive, that your joy may be full, John xvi. 24,
There is a throne of grace erected for us to come to ;
a Mediator of grace appointed, in whose name to
come ; the Spirit of grace given to help our infir-
mities, and an answer of peace promised to every
prayer of faith : and all this, that we might fetch
in, not only sanctifying, but comforting, grace in
every time of need, Heb. iv. 16. God's house, in
which wisdom's children dwell, is called a house of
prayer, and thither God brings them, on purpose to
mahe them joyful, Isa. Ivi. 7.
Singing of psalms is a gospel ordinance, that is
designed to contribute to the pleasantness of our
religion ; not only to express, but to excite, and to
increase, our holy joy. In singing to the Lord, we
make a. joyful noise to the Roch of our salvation, Ps.
xcv. I. When the apostle had warned all Chris-
tians to take heed of druhkenness. Be not drunh with
wine, wherein is excess, lest they should think, that
thereby he restrained them from any mirth, that
would do them good, he directs them, instead of the
song of the drunkard, when the heart is merry with
wine, to entertain themselves with the songs of
angels; (Eph. v. 18, 19.) Speahing to yourselves
(when you are disposed to please yourselves) in
psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and
mahing melody in your hearts to the Lord. There is
no substance in this ordinance, but the word and
prayer put together; but the circumstance of the
voice and tune being a natural means of affecting
our hearts, both with the one and with the other,
God, in condescension to our state, has been pleased
to make a particular ordinance of it, to show how
much it is his will, that we should be cheerful:
(J Am. V. 13.) Is any merry, let him sing psalms. Is
244
THE PLEASURE OF BEING REU6I0US.
any vainly merry ? let him suppress the vanity, and
turn the mirth into a right channel ; he need not
banish nor abjure the mirth, but let it be holy, hea-
venly mirth, and in that mirth let him sing psalms.
Nay, It any afflicted, and merry in his affliction, let
him show it by singing psalms, as Paul and Silas
did, in the stocks. Acts xvi. 25.
The Lord's day is appointed to be a pleasant day,
a day of holy rest, nay, and a day too of holy joy ;
a thanksgiving day: (Ps. 118. 24.) This is the dug
which the Lord hath made, tee will rejoice, and be glad
in it. The Psalm or Song for the Sabbath-day
begins thus, It is a good thing to give thanks to the
Lord, Ps. xcii. 1. So far were the primitive Chris-
tians carried in this notion, that the Lord's day was
designed for holy triumph and exultation, that they
thought it improper to kneel in any act of worship
on that day.
The Lord's supper is a spiritual feast; and a
feast (Solomon says, Eccl. x. 19.) was made for
laughter, and so was this for holy joy. We cele-
brate the memorials of his death, that we may re-
joice in the victories that he obtained, and the pur-
chases he made, by his death ; and may apply to
ourselves the privileges and comforts, which by the
covenant of grace are made ours. There we cannot
but be glad, and rejoice in him, where we remember
his love more than wine. Cant. i. 4.
(4.) The ministry is appointed for the comfort of
the saints, and their guides in the ways of wisdom
are instructed, by all means possible, to make them
wags of pleasantness, and to encourage them to go
on pleasantly in those ways. The priests of old
were ordained for men, (Heb. v. 1,2.) and were there-
fore taken from among men, that they might have
compassion upon the mourners. And the prophets
had this particularly in their commission. Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, speak ye comfortably to
Jerusalem, Isa. xl. 1.
Gospel-ministers, in a special manner, are ap-
pointed to be the helpers of the joy of the Lord's
people; to be Bamabases, Sons of consolation ; to
strengthen the weak hands, and feeble knees, and to
say to them who are of n fearful keart. Be strong,
Isa. XXXV. 3, 5. The tabernacles of the Lord of hosts
being amiable, the care of all that serve in those
tabernacles, must be to make them appear so ; that
they who compass the altars of God, may find him
their exceeding joy.
Thus has God taken care for the comfort of his
people, so that he is not to be blamed if they be not
comforted. But that is not all :
II. There are many particular benefits and pri-
vileges which they are entitled to, who walk in the
ways of religion, that contribute very much to the
pleasantness of those ways. By the blood of Christ
those benefits and privileges are procured for them,
which speaks them highly valuable, and by the
covenant of grace they are secured to them, whicb
speaks them unalienable.
1. Those who walk in Wisdom's ways are dis-
charged from the debts of sin, and that is pUasanL
They are privileged from arrests, (Rom. viii. 33.) Who
shall lay any thing to their charge ? while ii is Gad that
justifies them, and will stand by his own act, against
hell and earth : and he is always near that justifies
them, Isa. 1. 8. And so is their Advocate, that pleads
for them, nearer than their accuser, though he stand
at their right hand to resist them ; and is able to cast
him out, and all his accusations.
Surely, they put a force upon themselves, that are
merry and pleasant under the guilt of sin : for if
conscience be awake, it cannot but have a fearful
looking for of wrath; but if sin be done away, the
burthen is removed, the wound is healed, and all is
well : ** Son, be of good cheer, (Mat.^ix. 2.) Thou^
sick of a palsy, yet be cheerful, for thy sins are for-
given thee; and therefore, not only they shall not
hurt thee, but God is reconciled to thee, and will do
thee good. Thou mayst enjoy the comforts of this
life, and fear no snare in them ; mayst bear the
crosses of this life, and feel no sting in them ; and
mayst look forward to another life without terror or
amazement/'
The pain which true penitents experience in their
reflections upon their sins, makes the pleasure and
satisfaction they have in the assurance of the pardon
of them doubly sweet ; as the sorrow of a woman in
travail is not an allay, but rather a foil to the joy,
that a child is bom into the world. No pain is more
acute than that of broken bones, to which the sor-
rows of a penitent sinner are compared ; but when
they are well set, and well knit again, they are not
only made easy, but they are made to rejoice, to
which the comforts of a pardoned sinner are com-
pared : Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the
bones which thou hast broken may rejoice, Ps. li. 8.
All our bones, when kept, that not one of them was
broken, must say. Lord, who is like unto thee ? But
there is a more sensible joy for one displaced bone
reduced, than for the multitude of the bones that
were never hurt ; for one lost sheep brought home,
than for ninety and nine that went not astray. Such
is the pleasure which they have, that know ^eir sins
are pardoned.
When God's prophets must speak comfortably to
Jerusalem, they must tell her that her iniquity is
pardoned, Isa. xl. 2. Such a pleasure there is in
the sense of the forgiveness of sins, that it enables
us to make a light matter of temporal afflictions,
particularly that of sickness, (Isa. xxxiii. 24.) Tke
inhabitants shall not say, I am sick, for tke peopU tkat
dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. And to
make a great matter of temporal mercies, when
they are thus sweetened and secured, paiticalarly
that of recovery from sickness; (Isa. xxxviii..l7.)
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
946
ThoukoMtj in love to my tout, cured my body, and de-
livered it from the pit of corruption ^ for thou hast cast
all my sins behind thy back. If our sins be pardoned,
and we know it, we may go out, and come in, in
peace, tiothing can come amiss to us ; we may Ho
down and rise up with pleasure, for all is clear
between as and heaven: thus blessed is the man
whose iniquity is forgiven*
2. They have the Spirit of God witnessing with
their spirits J that they are the children of God, Rom.
Tiii. 16. and that is pleasant. Adoption accompa-
nies jasti6cation, and if we have an assurance of
ihe forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of
God'^s grace, (Eph. i. 5, 7.) we have an assurance of
this further comfort, that we were predestinated unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, The same
evidence, the same testimony that is given of our
being pardoned, serves as an evidence and testimony
of our being preferred, our being thus preferred. Can
the children of princes and great men please them-
selves with the thoughts of the honours and expec-
tations that attend that relationship ? And may not
the children of God think with pleasure on the
adoption they have received, (Gal. iv. 6.) the Spirit
of adoption, and that Spirit is witness to their
adoption ? And the pleasure must be the greater,
and make the stronger impression of joy, when
they remember, that they were by nature not only
strangers Rud foreigners , but children of wrath, and
yet are thus highly favoured.
The comfort of relations is none of the least of
the delights of this life ; but what comfort of rela-
tions is comparable to this, of being related to God,
as our Father; and to Christ, as our elder Brother;
and to all the saints and angels too, as belonging to
the same family ; which we are happily brought
into relation to? The pleasure of claiming and
owning this relation, is plainly intimated in our
being taught to cry, Abba, Father, (Rom. viii. 15.)
why should it be thus doubled, and in two lan-
guages? but to intimate to us, the unaccountable
pleasure and satisfaction with which good Chris-
tians call God Father; it is the string they harp
upon, Abba, Father,
With what pleasure does David's own spirit
witness to this ! O my soul, thou hast said ufito the
Lord, thou art my Lord ; (Ps. xvi. 2.) and it is
more to me that God is mine, than if all the
world were mine. But when with our spirits the
Spirit of God witnesses this too, saying to thy soul,
*' Yea, he is thy God, and he owns thee as one of
his family ; witness what he has wrought both in
thee, nndfor thee, by my hand ;'' what joy does this
fill the soul with, joy unspeakable ; especially con-
sidering that, as the prophet speaks in the place,
in the same heart and conscience, where it was said,
(and by the Spirit too, when he convinced as a
Spirit of bondage,) Ye are not my people, even there
it shall be said unto them, by the Spirit, (when he com-
forts as a Spirit of adoption,) Ye are the sons of the
living God, Hos. i. 10.
3. They have access with boldness to the throne of
grace, and that is pleasant. Prayer not only fetches
in peace and pleasure, but it is itself a g^eat pri*
vilege, and not only an honour, but a comfort ; one
of the greatest comforts of our lives, that we have
a God to go to at all times, so that we need not
fear coming unseasonably, or coming too often :
and in all places, though as Jonah in the fsh's
belly, or as David in the depths, or in the ends of
the earth, Ps. cxxx. 1. and Ixi. 2.
It is a pleasure to one that is full of care and
grief to unbosom himself ; and we are welcome to
pour out our complaint before God, and to show &«-
fore him our trouble, (Ps. cxlii. 2.) and to one that
wants, or fears wanting, to petition one that is able
and willing to supply the wants. And we have
great encouragement to make our requests known to
God; we have access with confidence, (Eph. iii. 12.)
not access with difficulty, (as we have to great men,)
nor access with uncertainty of acceptance, as the
Ninevites, Who can tell if God will return to us ?
But we have access with assurance, whatsoever we
ask in faith, according to his will, we know that we
have the petitions that we desired of him, 1 John v. 15.
It is a pleasure to talk to one that we love, and that
we know loves us, and though far above us, yet takes
notice of what we say, and is tenderly concerned for
us: what a pleasure is it then to speak to God! to have
not only a liberty of access, but a liberty of speech,
Tra/fptioia, freedom to utter all our mind, humbly, and
in faith ; boldness to enter into the holiest by the
blood of Jesus, Heb. x. 19, 20. (and not with fear
and trembling, as the high priest under the law,
entered into the holiest,) and boldness to pour out our
hearts before God, (Ps. Ixii. 8.) as one (though he
knows our case better than we ourselves) who will
give us the satisfaction of knowing it from us, ac-
cording to our own showing. Beggars that have
good benefactors, live as pleasantly as any other
people ; it is the case of God's people, they are beg-
gars, but they are beggars to a bountiful Benefac-
tor, that is rich in mercy to all that call upon him :
Blessed are they that wait daily at the posts of wis-
dom^s doors, Prov. viii. 34. If the prayer of the up-
right be God's delight, it cannot but be theirs, Canl
ii. 14.
4. They have a sanctified use of all their creature^
comforts, and that is pleasant. The Lord knows the
way of the righteous, and takes cognizance of all their
concerns ; (Ps. xxxvii. 23.) The steps, yea, and the
stops too, of a good man are ordered by the Lord ;
both his successes when he goes forward, and his
disappointments when he goes backward ; he blesses
the work of their hands, and his blessing makes rich,
tmd adds no sorrow with.it, Prov. x. 22. More is im<^
346
THE PLEASURE OF BEING REU6I0US.
plied than is expressed ; it adds joy with it, infuses
a comfort into it.
What God's people have, be it little or much, they
have it from the love of God, and with his blessing,
and then behold all things are clean and sweet to
them ; they come from the hand of a Father, bif the
hand of a Mediator, not in the channel of common
providence, but by the golden pipes of the promises
of the covenant. Even the unbelieving husbandj
though not sanctified himself, yet is tanctijied to the
believing wife, (1 Cor. vii. 14.) and so is the comfort
of other relations ; for to those who please God,
every thing is pleasing, or should be so, and is made
so by his favour. And hence it is, (Ps. xxxvii. 16.)
that a little that a righteous man has, having a heart
to be content with it, and the divine skill of enjoy-
ing God in it, is better to him than the riches of many
wicked were to them ; and that dinner of herbs
where love is, and the fear of the Lord, is better,
and yields abundantly more satisfaction, than a
stalled ox, and hatred and trouble therewith, Prov.
XV. 16, 17.
6. They have the testimony of their own consciences
for them in all conditions, and that is pleasant. A
good conscience is not only a brazen wall, but a
continual feast; and all the melody of Solomon's
instruments of music of all sorts, were not to be com-
pared with that of the bird in the bosom, when it
sings sweet If Paul has a conscience void of offence,
though he be as sorrowful, yet he is always rejoicing;
nay, and even when he is pressed above measure,
(2 Cor. i. 8, 12.) and has received a sentence of death
within himself, his rejoicing is this, even the testimony
of his conscience concerning his integrity.
As nothing is more painful and unpleasant, than
to be smitten and reproached by our own hearts ; to
have our consciences fly in our faces, and give us
our own ; so, there is nothing more comfortable,
than to be upon good grounds reconciled to our-
selves ; to prove our own work (Gal. vi. 4.) by the
touchstone of God's word, and to find it right, for
then have we rejoicing in ourselves alone, and not in
another. For if our hearts condemn us not, (1 John
iii. 21.) then have we confidence towards God; may
lift up our face without spot unto him, and comfort-
ably appeal to his omniscience: Thou, O Lord,
hnowest me, thou hast seen me, and tried my heart to-
wards thee, Jer. xii. 3.
This will not only make us easy under the cen-
sures and reproaches of men, as it did Job, My heart
shall not reproach me, though you do ; and Paul, It
is a very small thing with me to be judged of man^s
judgment ; but it will be a continual delight to us,
to have our own hearts say. Well done. For the
voice of an enlightened, well-informed conscience,
is the voice of God, it is his deputy in the soul. The
thoughts of the sober heathen between themselves
when they did not accuse, yet the utmost they could
do was but to excuse, which is making the best of
bad ; but they who haTe their hesarts sprinkled frem
an evil c&nscienee by the blood of Christy (Rom. iL
15.) are not only excused, but encouraged and com-
mended, for their praise is not ofmen^ but of God,
It is easy to imagine the holy, humble pleasure
that a good man has, in the just reflection upon the
successful resistance of a strong and threateniiig
temptation ; the seasonable suppressing and cross-
ing of an unruly appetite or passion, and a check
g^ven to the tongue, when it was about to speak un-
advisedly. What a pleasure is it to look back upon
any good word spoken, or any good work done, in
the streng^ of God's grace, to his glory, and any
way to the advantage of our brethren, either for
soul or body ! With what a sweet satisfaction may
a good man lay down in the close of the Lord's day,
if God has enabled him, in some good measure, to
do the work of the day in the day, according as the
duty of the day requires ? We may then eat our bread
with joy, and drink our wine witk a merry heart,
when we have some good ground to hope, that God
now aeeepteth our works through Jesus Christ, EccL
ix. 7.
6. They have the earnests and foretastes ofetemel
life and glory, and that is pleasant indeed. They
have it not only secured to them, but dwelling in
them, in the first-fruits of it, such as they are capa-
ble of in their present imperfect stato, (1 John v. 13.)
These things are written unto you tfiat believe on the
name of the Son of God, that ye may hnow, not only
that you shall have, but that you have eternal life ;
you are scaled with that holy Spirit of promise, (Epb.
i. 13, 14.) marked for God, which is the earnest of
our inheritance, not only a ratification of the grant,
but part of the full payment.
Canaan, when we come to it, will be a land flow-
ing with milk and honey ; in Gotfs presence, there
is a fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore, Ps. xvi.
11. But lest we should think it long ere we come to
it, the God whom we serve has been pleased to send
to us, as he did to Israel, some clusters of the grapes
of that good land to meet us in the wilderness:
which if they were sent as an excuse of the full en-
joyment, and we were to be put oflf with them, that
would put a bitterness into them ; but being sent os
in earnest of the full enjoyment, that puts a sweet-
ness into them, and makes them pleasant indeed.
A day in God's courts, an hour at his table in
conununion with him, is very pleasant, better than
a thousand days, than ten thousand hours, in any of
the enjoyments of sense ; but this very much in-
creases the pleasantness of it, that it is the pledge
of a blessed eternity, which we hope to spend within
the vail, in the vision and fruition of God. Sabbaths
are sweet, as they are earnests of the everlasting
sabbatism, or heeping of a sabbath (as the apostle
calls it, Heb. iv. 9.) which remains for tkepeopU ef
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
247
God^
-Gospel feasts are therefore sweet, be-
cause earnests of the everlastiii|^ feast, to which we
shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, a^d Jacob.
The joys of the Holy Ghost are sweet, as they are
earnests of that joy of our Lord, into which all
Chrisfs good and faithful servants shall enter.
Prating God is sweet, as it is an earnest of that
blessed state, in which we shall not rest day or night
from praising God. The communion of saints is
sweet, as it is an earnest of the pleasure we hope to
have in the general assembly, and church of the first-
bomj Heb. xii. 23.
They that travel in Wisdom's ways, though some-
times they find themselves walking in the low and
darksome valley of the shadow of death, where they
can see but a little way before them, yet at other
times they are led with Moses to the top of mount
Pisgah, and thence have a pleasant prospect of the
land of promise, and the glories of that good land,
not with such a damp upon the pleasure of it as
Moses had, (Deut xxxiv. 4.) Thou shalt see it with
thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither ; but such
an addition to the pleasure of it as Abraham had,
when God said to him, (Gen. xili. 15.) All the land
which thou seest, to thee will I give it. Take the plea-
sure of the prospect as a pledge of the possession
shortly.
CHAPTER IV.
THB DOCTRINB FURTHBB FROVBD BT BXFBBIBNCB.
Having found religion in its own nature pleasant,
and the comforts and privileges so, with which it is
attended ; we shall next try to make this truth more
evident, by appealing to such as may be thought
competent witnesses in such a case. I confess, if
we appeal to the natural man, the mere animal (as
the word signifies, 1 Cor. ii. 14.) that looks no fur-
ther than the things of sense, and judges by no other
rule than sense, and reeeiveth not the things of the
Sffirit of God, for they 9xe foolishness to him ; such
a one vrill be so far from consenting to this truth,
and concurring with it, that he will contradict and
oppose it : our appeal must be to those, that have
some spiritual senses exercised, for otherwise the
brutish man hnows not, neither doth the fool under-
stand this, Ps. xcii. 6.
We must therefore be allowed to appeal to con-
vinced sinners, and comforted saints; wicked people
whom the Spirit has roused out of a sinful security,
and godly people, whom the Spirit has put to rest in
a holy serenity, are the most competent witnesses
to g^ve evidence in this case ; and to their experi-
ence we appeal.
I. Ask those that have tried the ways of sin and
wickedness, of vice and profaneness, and begin to
pause a little, and to consider, whether the way they
are in be right ; and let us hear what is their expe-
rience concerning those ways ; and our appeal to
them is in the words of the apostle. What fruit had
ye then in those things, whereof ye are now ashamed?
Rom. vi. 21. Not only. What fruit will ye have at
last, when the end of these things is death ? or, (as
Job xxi. 21.) What pleasure hath he in his house
after him, when the number of his months is cut off in
the midst ? But what fruit, what pleasure had ye
then, when you were in the enjoyment of the best
of it ?
Those that have been running to an excess of riot,
that have laid the reins on the neck of their lusts,
have rejoiced with the young man in his youth, and
walked in the way of their hearts, and the sight of their
eyes, have taken a boundless liberty inthe gratifica-
tions of sense, and have made it their business to
extract out of this world, whatever may pass under
the name of pleasure : ask them now, when they be-
gin to reflect, which they could not find in their
hearts to do while they were going on in their pur-
suit, what they think of those pleasures which pretend
to vie with those of religion ; and they will tell you,
1. That the pleasure of sin was painful and unsatis-
fying in the enjoyment, and which then they had no
reason to boast of. It was a sordid pleasure, and
beneath the dignity of a man, and which could not
be had, but by yielding up the throne in the soul to
the inferior faculties of sense, and allowing them the
dominion over reason and conscience, which ought
to command and give law. It was the gratifying
of an appetite which was the disease of the soul,
and which would not be satisfied, but, like the
daughters of the horse-leech, still cry, Give, give.
What poor pleasure has the covetous man in the
wealth of the world ! It is the lust of the eye that is
thereby humoured, for what good lias the owner thereof,
save the beholding thereof with his eyes f And what
a poor satisfaction is that ! And yet even that is
no satisfaction neither, for he that loveth silver, will
find, that the more he has, the more he would have-
so that he shall not be satisfied with silver ; nay, it
fastens upon the mind a burthen of care and per-
plexity, so that the abundance of the rich will not
suffer him to sleep, Eccl. v. 10, 11, 12.
Drunkenness passes for a pleasant sin, but it is
a brutish pleasure, for it puts a force upon the
powers of nature, disturbs the exercise of reason,
and puts men out of the possession and enjoyment
of their own souls ; and so far is it from yielding
any true satisfaction, that the gratifying of this base
appetite is but bringing oil to a flame : When I awahe,
I will seek it yet again, is the language of the drunk-
ard, Prov. xxiii. 36.
Contention and revenge pretend to be pleasant
sins too, Est vindicta bonum vit& jueundius ipsA, —
848
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
vengeance it a gratification more delightful than life
itself f but it is so far from being so, that it is, of all
other sins, the most vexatious ; it kindles a fire in
the soul, puts it into a hurry and disorder : where
they are, there is confusion and every evil work.
The lusts, whence not only wars smd fightings come,
(Jam. iv. 1.) but other sins are said to war in the
menders ; they not only war against the soul, (1 Pet.
ii. 11.) and threaten the destruction of its true
interests, but they war in the soul, and give dis-
turbance to its present peace, and fill it with con-
tinual alarms.
They that have made themselves slaves to their
lusts, will own, that it was the greatest drudgery in
the world, and therefore is represented in the parable
of the prodigal, by a young gentleman hiring him-
self to one that sent him into his field to feed swine,
(Luke XV. 16.) where he vras made a fellow-com-
moner with them, and would fain have filled his belly
with the husks that they did eat ; such a disgrace,
such a dissatisfaction, is there in the pleasures of sin :
besides the diversity of masters which sinners are at
the beck of, and their disagreement among them-
selves ; for they that are disobedient to that God who
is Onf , are deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures,
and therein led captive by Satan, their sworn enemy,
at his willy Tit. iii. 3.
2. That the pleasure of sin was very bitter and
tormenting in tlie refiection. We will allow that
there is a pleasure in sin /or a season, (Hcb. xi. 25.)
but that season is soon over, and is succeeded by
another season that is the reverse of it ; the sweet-
ness is soon gone, and leaves the bitterness be-
hind in the bottom of the cup : the wine is red, and
gives its colour, its flavour very agreeable, but at the
last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder,
Prov. xxiii. 32. Sin is that strange woman, whose
flatteries are charming, but her end bitter as worm-
wood, Prov. V. 3, 4.
When conscience is awake, and tells the sinner
he is verily guilty ; when his sins are set in order
before him in their true colour, and he sees himself
defiled and deformed by them ; when his own wicked-
ness begins to correct him, and his backslidings to
reprove him, and his own heart makes him loathe him-
self for his abominations, (Jer. ii. 19.) where is the
pleasure of his sin then ? As the thief is ashamed
when he is discovered to the world, so are the drunk-
ards, the unclean, when discovered to themselves ;
and say. Where shall I cause my shame to go? there
is no remedy, but I must lie down in it. If the
pleasure of any sin would last, surely that of ill- got
gain would, because there is something to show for
it ; and yet though that wickedness be sweet in the
sinner's mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,
yet tit his bowels it is turned into the gall of asps.
Job XX. 12, &c. He hath swallowed down riches, but
shall be forced to vomit them up again.
Solomon had skinuned the cream of sensaal
delights, and pronounced not onlj vsmity and
tre^ralton , concerning them all, even the best; bot
concerning those of them that were sinful, the for-
bidden pleasures into which he was betrayed, that
the reflection upon them filled him vdth horror and
amazement : / applied mfl heart, (says be,) to hum
ike wickedness of folly, even of foolishness mnd Motf-
ness ; so he now calls the irregularities into whick
he had fallen : he cannot speak bad enough o^them,
for / find more bitter thsM death, the woman whose
heart is snares and nets, and her kamd* a* hamds,
EccL vii. 26.
And is such pleasure as this worthy to come in
competition with the pleasures of religion, or to be
named the same day with them? What senseless
creatures are the sensual, that vrill not be persuaded
to quit the pleasures of brutes, when they shall
have in exchange the delights of angels !
II. Ask those that have tried the ways of wisdom,
what is their experience concerning those ways?
Call now if there be any that wiH answer you, and to
which of the saints will you turn? Job ▼. 1. Tun
you to which you will, and they will agree to this,
that Wisdom*s ways are pleasantness, and her paths
peace. However about some things they may differ
in their sentiments, in this, they ai:e all of a mind,
that God is a good master, and his service not only
perfect freedom, but perfect pleasure.
And it is a debt which aged and experienced
Christians owe both to their Master and to their
fellow-servants, both to Christ and Christians, to
bear their testimony to this truth; and the more
explicitly and solemnly they do it, the better : let
them tell others what God has done for their souls,
and how they have tasted that he is gracious, (Ps.
Ixvi. 16.) let them own, to the honour of God and
religion, that (1 Kings viii. 56.) there has not failed
one word of God*s good promise, by which he de-
signed to make his servants pleasant ; that what is
said of the pleasantness of religion, is really so:
let them set to their seal that it is true. Let it have
their probatum est — we have found it so.
The ways of religion and godliness, are the good
old ways, (Jer. vi. 16.) N(7w if you would have an
account of the way you have to go, you must inqoire
of those that have travelled it, not those who have
only occasionally stept into it, but those whose busi-
ness had led them to frequent it. Ask the ancient
travellers, whether they have found rest to their
souls in this way ; and there are few yon shall inquire
of, but will be ready to own these four things from
experience :
1. That they have found the rules and dietates^of
religion very agreeable both to right reason, and to
their true interest, and therefore pleasant They
have found the word nigh them, and accommodated
to them, and not at such a mighty distance aa they
THE PLEASURE OF BEING REUGIOUS^.
940
were made to believe. They have found all God^s
precepts concerning all things to be right, and reason-
able, and highly equitable ; and when they did but
show themselves men, they could not but consent,
and subscribe to the law, that it was good, (Rom.
vii. 16.) and there is a wonderful propriety in this.
For the laws of humility and meekness, sobriety and
temperance, contentment and patience, love and
charity, are agreeable to ourselves when we are in
our right ndnd ; they are the rectitude of our nature,
the advancement of our powers and faculties, the
composure of our minds, and the comfort of our
lives, and carry their own letters of commendation
along with them. If a man understood himself, and
his own interest, he would comport with these rules
and govern himself by them, though there were no
authority over him to oblige him to it. All that
have thoroughly tried them, will say they are so far
from being chains of imprisonment to a man, and as
fetters to his feet, that they are as chains of orna-
ment to him, and as the girdle to his loins.
Ask experienced Christians, and they will tell you
what abundance of comfort and satisfaction they
have had in keeping sober, when they have been in
temptation to excess; in doing justly, when they
might have gained by dishonesty as others do, and
nobody know it; in forgiving an injury, when it
was in the power of their hand to revenge it; in
giving alms to the poor, when perhaps they strait-
ened themselves by it ; in submitting to an afflic-
tion, when the circumstances of it were very aggra-
vating ; and in bridling their passion under great
provocations. With what comfort does Neheniiah
reflect upon it, tiiat though his predecessors in the
goveinment had abused their power, yet so did not I,
(says he, Neh. v. 15.) because of the fear of God ! And
with what pleasure does Samuel make his appeal ,
(1 Sam. xii. 3.) Whose ox have I tahen, or whom
ktne I defrauded? And Paul his; / have coveted no
man's siiver, or gold, or apparel. If yon would have
a register of experiences to this purpose, read the
119th Psalm, which is a collection of David's testimo-
nies to the sweetness and goodness of God's law, the
equity and excellency of it, and the abundant satis-
faction that is to be found in a constant conscienti-
ous conformity to it.
2. That they have found the exercises of devotion
to ha very pleasant and comfortable, and if there be
an heaven upon earth, it is in communion with God
in his ordinances ; in hearing from him, in speaking
to him, in receiving the tokens of his favour and
communications of his grace, and returning pious
affections to him, pouring out the heart before him*
lifting up the soul to him.
All good Christians will subscribe to David's ex-
perience ; (Ps. Ixxiii. 28.) It is good for me to draw
nemrio God; the nearer the better; and it will be
best of all, when I come to be nearest of all, within
the vail, and will join with him in saying, Metum
unto thy rest, O my soul! (Ps. cxvi. 7.) to God as to
thy rest, and repose in him. I have found that satis-
faction in communion with God, which I would not
exchange for all the delights of the sons of men, and
the peculiar treasures of kings and provinces.
What a pleasure did those pious Jews in Heze-
kiah's time find in the solemnities of the passover,
who, when they had kept seven days according to
the law in attending on God's ordinances, tooh coun^
sel together to heep other seven days, and they hept
other seven days with gladness, 2 Chron. xxx. 23. And
if Christ's hearers had not found an abundant sweet-
ness and satisfaction in attending on him, they would
never have continued their attendance three days in
a desert place, as we find they did, Matt xv. 32. No
wonder then that his own disciples, when they were
spectators of his transfiguration, and auditors of his
discourse with Moses and Elias in the holy mount*
said. Master, it is good for us to be here ; here let us
mahe tabernacles. Matt. xvii. 4.
I appeal to all that know what it is to commune
with God in an ordinance, to worship him tn thi
spirit, whether they have not found abundant satis-
faction in it ? They will say with the spouse, (Cant
ii. 3.) / sat down under his shadow with delighty and
his fruit was sweet unto my taste : and with the noble
Marquis of Vico, ** Let their money perish with them,
that esteem all the wealth and pleasure of this world
worth one hour*s communion with God in Jesus
Christ" They will own that they never had that
true delight and satisfaction in any of the employ-
ments or enjoyments of this world which they have
had in the service of God, and in the believing re*
lishes of that loving- kindness of his, which is better
than life, Ps. Ixiii. 3. These have put gladness into
their hearts, more than the joy of harvest, or theirs
that divide the spoil. If in their preparations for
solemn ordinances iheyhB,\e gone forth weeping, bear"
ing precious seed, yet they have come again withrejoie*
ing, bringing their sheaves witik them, Ps. cxxvi. 6, 0.
That they have found the pleasures of religion suffi-
cient to overcome the pains and trouble of sense,
and to tahe out the sting of them, and take off the
terror of them. This is a plain evidence of the ex-
cellency of spiritual pleasures, that religious con-
victions will soon conquer sensual delights, and quite
extinguish them. So that they become as songs to
a heavy heart ; for a wounded spirit who can bear f
But it has often been found, that the pains of sense
have not been able to extinguish spiritual delights,
but have been conquered and quite over-balanced
by them. Joy in spirit has been to many a power-
ful allay to trouble in the flesh.
The pleasure that holy souls have in God, as it
needs not to be supported by the delights of sense,
so it fears not being suppressed by the grievances
of sense. They can rejoice in the Lord, and ys^ im
260
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
him as the God of their salvation, even then, when
the^-<ree doth not hlottomy and there is no fruit in
the vine, (Hab. iii. 17, 18.) for even then, when in
the world they have tribulation, Christ has provided
that in him they should have satisfaction.
For this we may appeal to the martyrs, and other
sufferers for the name of Christ ; how have their spi-
ritual joys made their bonds for Christ easy, and
made their prisons their *' delectable orchards,*' as
one of the martyrs called his. Animated by these
comforts, they have not only taken patiently, but
taken jot/fully, the spoiling of their goods ^hnowing in
themselves that they have in heaven a better and a more
enduring substance, Heb. x. 34. Ask Paul, and he
will tell you, (2 Cor. vii. 4, 6.) that even then, when
he was troubled on every side, when without were
fightings and within were fears, yet he whs filled with
comfort, and was exceeding joyful in all his tribula-
tion ; and that as his sufferings for Christ increas-
ed, his consolation in Christ increased proportion-
ably, 2 Cor. i. 5. And though he expects no other
but to finish his course with blood, yet he doubts not
but to finish his course with joy.
Nay, we may appeal to the sick-beds and death-
beds of many good Christians for the proof of this ;
when wearisome nights have been appointed to them,
yet God's statutes have been their songs, their songs
in the night, Ps. cxix. 64. ** I have pain," says one,
" but I bless God I have peace;** ** weak and dying,"
said another, " but sat lucis intus," light and com-
fort enough within. The delights of sense forsake
us, when we most need them to be a comfort to us ;
when a man is chastened with pain upon his bed, and
the multitude of his bones with strong pain, he abhor-
reth bread and dainty meat, and cannot relish it.
Job xxxiii. 19, 20. But then the bread of life and
spiritual dainties have the sweetest relish of all.
Many of God's people have found it so : This is
my comfort in mine affliction, that thy word hath
quickened me, Ps. cxix. 60. This has made all their
bed in their sichness, «id made it easy.
The pleasantness of Wisdom's ways has sometimes
been remarkably attested by the joys and triumphs
of dying Christians, in reflecting upon that divine
grace which has carried them comfortably through
this world, and is then carrying them more comfort-
ably out of it to a better. << What is that light which
I see ?** said an eminent dirine upon his death-bed.
<* /* t# *Ae #im-#Atfttf," said one that was by. " No,**
replied he, " it is my Saviour's shine, O the joys ! O
the comforts that I feel ! Whether in the body, or out
of the body, I cannot tell ; but I see and feel things
that are unutterable, and full of glory, O let it be
preached at my funeral, and tell it when lam dead and
gone, that God deals familiarly with man, I am as
full of comfort as my heart can hold,*' Mr. Joseph
Allein's life, and Mr. John Janeway's, have remark-
able instances of this.
4. They have found, that the closer they have kept
to religion's ways, and the better progress they havt
made in those ways, the more pleasure they have found
in them. By this it appears, that the pleasure takes
its excellency from the religion ; that the mare reli-
gion prevails, the greater the pleasure is. What dis-
quiet and discomfort Wisdom's children have, is
owing, not to Wisdom* s ways, those are pleasant, bat
to their deviations from those ways, or their slothful-
ness and trifling in these ways ; those indeed are un-
pleasant, and sooner or later will be found so.
If good people are sometimes drooping, and in
sorrow, it is not because they are good, but because
they are not so good as they should be. They do not
live up to their profession and principles, but are
too much in love with the body, and hanker too much
after the world : though they do not turn back to
Sodom, they look back towards it, and are too mind-
ful of the country from which they came out ; and
this makes them uneasy, this forfeits their comforts,
and grieves their Comforter, and disturbs their peace,
which would have been firm to them, if they had
been firm to their engagements. But if we turn
aside out of the ways of God, we are not to think
it strange, if the consolations of God do not follow
us.
But if we cleave to the Lord with full purpose of
heart, tiien we find the joy of the Lord our strength.
Have we not found those duties most pleasant, in
which we have taken most pains and most care ? and
that we have had the most comfortable sabbath-
visits made to our souls when we have been most t'n
the Spirit on the Lord's day ? Rev. f. 10.
And the longer we continue, and the more we
mend our pace, in these ways, the more pleasure we
find in them. This is the excellency of spiritual
pleasures, and recommends them greatly, that they
increase with use, so far are they from withering, or
going to decay : the difficulties which may at first be
found in the ways of religion wear off by degrees,
and the work of it grows more easy, and the joys of
it more sweet.
Ask those that have back-slidden from the ways
of God, have left their first love, and begin to be-
think themselves, and to remember whence they are
fallen, whether they had not a great deal more com-
fort when they kept close to God, than they have
had since they turned aside from him; and they
will say with that adulteress, when she found the
way of her apostasy hedged up with thorns, I will
go and return to my first husband, for then was it
better with me than now; Hos. ii. 7. There is
nothing got by departing from God, and nothing lost
by being faithful to him.
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
251
CHAPTER V.
THS DOCTBINK ILLUSTRATED BY THB BIMILITUDB U8BD IN THB
TBXT, OF A FLBA8ANT WAT OB JOUBNBY.
The practice of religion is often in Scripture
spoken of as a way, and our walking in that way:
it is the way of God's commandments, it is a high
wuy : the King's high way, the King of kings' high
way ; and those that are religions, are travelling in
that way. The schoolmen commonly call Christians
in this world, Viatarei^'travellers ; when they come
to heaven, they are Comprehentaret'^they have then
attained, are at home : here they are in their journey,
there at their journey's end. Now if heaven be the
joMrney's end, the prize of our high calling , and we be
sure if we «o run as we ought, that we shall ohtain,
it is enough to engage and encourage us in our way,
though it be ever so unpleasant ; but we are told, ex
tAundanti — very fully, that we have also a pleasant
road.
Now there are twelve things which help to make a
journey pleasant, and there is something like to each
of them which may be found in the way of Wisdom,
by those that walk in that way.
I. It helps to make a journey pleasant to go upon
a good errand. He that is brought up a prisoner in
the hands of the ministers of justice, whatever con-
veniences he may be accommodated with, cannot
have a pleasant journey, but a melancholy one : and
tiiat is the case of a wicked man ; he is going on in
this world toward destruction ; the way he is in,
though wide and broad, leads directly to it; and
while he persists in it, every step he takes is so much
nearer hell, and therefore he cannot have a pleasant
journey : it is absurd and indecent to pretend to
make it so ; though the way may seem right to a
man, yet there can be no true pleasure in it, while
the end thereof is the ways of death, and the steps
tahe hold on hell, Prov. v. 5.
But he that goes into a far country to receive for
himself a kingdom, whatever difficulties may attend
his ioumey, yet the errand he goes on is enough to
make it pleasant : and on this errand they go that
travel Wisdom's ways : they look for a kingdom which
cannot be moved, and are pressing forward in the
hopes of it Abraham went out of his own country
nai hnowing whither he went, (Heb. xi. 8.) but those
that set out and hold on in the way of religion, know
whither it will bring them, that it leads to life, eter-
nal life ; and therefore in the way of righteousness is
life, (Prov. xii. 28.) because there is such a life at
the end of it.
Good people go upon a good errand, for (hey go
on God's errand as well as their own ; they are serv-
ing and glorifying him, contributing something to
his honour, and the advancement of the interests
of his kingdom among men ; and this makes it plea-
sant ; and that which puts so great a reputation upon
the duties of religion, as that by them God is served
and glorified, cannot but put so much the more satis-
faction into them. With what pleasure does Paul
appeal to God, as the God whom he served with his
spirit in the gospel of his Son ! Rom. i. 9.
II. It helps to make a journey pleasant, to have
strength and ability for it He that is weak, sickly^
and lame, can find no pleasure in the pleasantest
walks : how should he, when he takes every step in
pain ? A strong man rejoices to run a race, but he that
is feeble trembles to set one foot before another. Now
this makes the ways of religion pleasant, that they
who walk in those ways, are not only cured of their
natural weakness, hut are filled with spiritual
strong^ ; they travel not in their own might, but in
the greatness of his strength, who is mighty to save,
Isa. Ixiii. 1.
Were they to proceed in their own strength, they
would have little pleasure in the journey, every
little difficulty would foil them, and they would tire
presently; but they go forth, and go on, in tho
strength of the Lord God, (Ps. Ixxi. 16.) and upon
every occasion, according to his promise, he renews
that streng^ to them, and they mount up with wings
lihe eagles, they go on with cheerfulness and alacrity,
they run, and are not weary, they walk, and do not
faint, Isa. xl. 31. God, with his comforts, enlarges
their hearts, and then they not only go, but run the
way of his commandments, Ps. cxix. 32.
That which to the old nature is impracticable and
unpleasant, and which therefore is declined, or
undertaken with reluctancy, to the new nature is
easy and pleasant: and this new nature is g^ven
to all the saints, which puts a new life and vigour
into them, strengthens them with all might in the
inner man, (Col. i. 11.) unto all diligence in doing-
work, patience in sufieriog-work, and perseverance
in both; and so all is made pleasant. They are
strong in the Lord, and in the power of his mighty
(Eph. vi. 10.) and this not only keeps the spirit will-
ing, even when the flesh is weak, but makes even
the lame man to leap as an hart, and the tongue of
the dumb to sing, Isa. xxxv. 6. / can do ail things
through Christ strengthening me, Phil. iv. 13.
III. It helps to make a journey pleasant to have
day-light It is very uncomfortable travelling in thQ
night, in the black and dark night He that walheth
in darkness (says our Saviour) knows not whither he
goes, (John xii. 35.) right or wrong, and that is un-
comfortable : and in another place. If a man walk in
tke night he stumhleth, because there is no light in him,
John xi. 10. And this is often spoken of as the miser-
able case of wicked people. They know not, neitker
will tkey understand, tkey walk on m darkness, PsaL
Ixxxii. 5. They are in continual danger, and so
much the more, if they be not in continual fear.
But Wisdom's children are all children ot th^
2sa
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIOIOU8.
light, and of the day. They were darkness, bat are
ligfht in the Lord, and walk as the children of the
light. Tru/y the light is tweet, even to one that sits
still, but mach more so to one that is on a journey ;
and doubly sweet to those who set out in the dark,
as we all did. But this great light is risen upon us,
not only to please our eyes, but to guide our feet into
the wag of peace, Luke i. 79. And they are indeed
paths of peace when we are guided into them, and
guided in them, by the light of the gospel of Christ.
And all that walk in the light of gospel conduct,
cannot fail to walk in the light of gospel comforts.
And it adds to the pleasure of having day-light in
our. travels, if we are in no danger of losing it, and
of being benighted : and this is the case of those
that walk in the light of the Lord ; for the Sun of
Righteousness that is risen upon them, with healing
under his wings, shall no more go down, but shall be
9heir everUstiug light, Isa. Ix. 20.
IV. It helps to make a journey pleasant, to have
a good guide, whose knowledge and faithfulness one
can confide in. A traveller, though he has day-light,
yet may miss his way, and lose himself, if he have
not one to show him his way, and go before him,
especially if his way lie, as ours does, through a
wilderness, where there are so many by-paths ; and
though he should not be guilty of any fatal mistake,
yet he is in continual doubt and fear, which makes
his journey uncomfortable.
But this is both the safety and the satisfaction of
hll true Christians, that they have not only the gospel
of Christ for their light, as a discovering and direct-
ing light, but the Spirit of Christ for their guide.
It is promised, that he shall lead them into all truth,
(John xvi. 13.) shall guide them with his eye, Ps.
xxxii. 8. Hence they are said to walh after the
Spirit, and to be led by the Spirit, (Rom. viii. 1, 14.)
as God's Israel of old were led through the wilderness
by a pillar of cloud and fire, and the Lord was in it.
This is that which makes the way of religion such
a highway, as that the way-faring men, though fools,
shall not err therein, Isa. xxxv. 8. There are fools,
indeed, wicked ones, who walk after the flesh, that
miss their way, and wander endlessly ; The labour
of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he
knowethnot how to go to the city, Eccl. x. 15. But those
fools that shall not err therein, are weak ones, the
foolish things of the world, who, under a sense of their
own folly are so wise, as to give up themselves entirely
to the conduct of the Spirit, both by conscience and
the written word : and if they have done this in
sincerity, they know whom they have depended
upon to guide thetn by his counsel, and afterwards to
receive them to his glory, Ps. Ixxiii. 24. Those may
go on their journey pleasantly, who are promised,
that whenever they are in doubt, or in danger of
mistaking or being misled, they shall hear a voice,
saying, This is the way, walk in it, Isa. xxx. 21.
y . It helps to make a journey pleasant to be under
a good guurd or convoy, that one may travel safelj.
Our way lies through an enemy's country, and thej
are active, subtle enemies ; the road is infested with
robbers, that lie in wait to spoil, and to destroy ; we
travel by the lions' dens, and the mountains of the
leopards ; and our danger is the greater, that it
arises, not from flesh and blood, but spiritual wick-
ednesses ; Satan, by the world (1 Peter v. 8.) and
the flesh, way-lays us, and seeks to devour us ; so
that we could not with any pleasure go on our way,
if God himself had not taken us under his special
protection.
The same Spirit that is a guide to these traveller!
is their guard also ; for whoever are sanctified by flie
Holy Ghost, are by him preserved in Christ Jesus,
(Jude 1.) blameless; and shall be preserved to the
heavenly hingdom, (2 Tim. iv. 18.) so as tfaey shall
not be robbed of their g^ces and comforts, which
are evidences for, and earnests of, eternal life, they
are hept by the power of God, through faith unto sal-
vation, (1 Pet. i. 6.) and therefore may go on cheer-
fully.
The promises of God are a writ of protection to
all Christ's good subjects in their travels, and give
them such a holy security, as lays a foundation for
a constant serenity. Eternal truth itself has assured
them, that no evil shall befall them, (Ps. xci. 10.)
nothing really and destructively evil, no evil but
what God will bring good to them out of. God him-
self has engaged to be their Keeper, and to preserve
their going out and coming in, from henceforth and
for ever, which looks as far forwards as eternity
itself : and by such promises as these, and that gn^tce
which is conveyed through them to all active believ-
ers, God carries them as upon eagles' wings to bring
them to himself, Deut xxxii. 11.
Good angels are appointed for a guard to all that
walk in Wisdom's ways, to bear them in their arms,
where they go, and to pitch their tents round about
them where they rest, (Ps. xxxiv. 7.) and so to keep
them in all their ways. How easy may they be that
are thus guarded, and how well pleased under all
events ! as Jacob was, who went on hu way, and the
angels of God met him. Gen. xxxii. 1.
VI. It helps to make a journey pleasant, to have
the way tracked by those that have gone before in
the same road, and on the same errand. Untrodden
paths are unpleasant ones ; but in the way of reli-
gion, we are both directed and encouraged by the
good examples of those that have chosen the way of
truth before us, and have walked in it We are
bidden to follow them, who are now through faith
and patience (those travelling graces of a Christian)
inheriting the promises, Heb. vi. 12.
It is pleasant to think that we are walking in the
same way with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
with whom we hope shortly to sit down in the lang-
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
268
dom of God. How many holy, wise, g^ood men have
goyemed themseWes by the same rules that we go-
Tern ourselves by, with the same views ; have lived
by the same faith that we live by, looking for the
same blessed hope, and have by it obtained a good
repoTty Heb. xi. 2. Andwegoforikby the footsteps
oftkefiocky Cant. i. 8.
Let us, therefore, to make our way easy and plea-
sant, take the prophets for an example, Jam. v.
10. And being compassed about with so great a cloud
of witnesses^ (that like the cloud in the wilderness
that went before Israel, not only to show them the
way, but to smooth it for them,) let us run with pa-
tienecy and cheerfulness, the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the most encouraging pattern of
all, who has left us an example, that we should follow
kis steps, Heb. xii. 1. And what more pleasant than
to follow such a leader, whose word of conunand is,
Follow me !
VII. It helps to make a journey pleasant to have
good company : this deceives the time, and takes
off the tediousness of a journey as much as any thing.
Amicus pro vekiculo — A friend is as good as a car-
riage. It is the comfort of those who walk in Wis-
dom's ways, that though there are but few walking
in those ways, yet there are some, and those the
wisest and best, and more excellent than their neigh-
bours ; and it will be found there are more ready to
say. We will go witk gou, for we have heard that God
is witk gou, Zech. viii. 23.
The communion of saints contributes much to the
pleasantness of Wisdom's ways ; we have many
fellow-travellers, that quicken one another, by the
fellowship they have one with another, as companions
in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, Rev.
i. 9. It was a pleasure to those who were going up
to Jerusalem to worship, that their numbers increased
in every town they came to, and so they went from
strengtk to strength, they grew more and more nu-
merous, till every one of them in Zion appeared before
Gody (Ps. Ixxxiv. 7.) and so it is with God's spirit-
ual Israel, to which we have the pleasure of seeing
daily additions of such as shall be saved.
They that travel together make one another plea-
sant by familiar converse ; and it is the will of God
that his people should by that means encourage one
another, and strengthen one another's hands. They
that fear the Lord shall speak often one to anotker,
(Mai. iii. 16.) exhort one another daily, and com-
municate their experiences, and it will add much to
the pleasure of this, to consider the kind notice God
is pleased to take of it ; ke kearkens, and kears, and
a book of remembrance is written for tkose tkatfear
tke Lord, and iktnk on kis Name.
Yin. It helps to make a journey pleasant, to have
the way lie through green pastures, and by the still
waters; and so the ways of Wisdom do. David
speaks his experience herein, (Ps. xxiii. 2.) that he
was led into ihe green pastures, the verdure whereof
was grateful to the eye ; and by tke still waters, whose
soft and gentle murmurs were music to the ear : and
he was not driven through these, but made to lie
down in the midst of these delights, as Israel when
they encamped at Elim, where there were twelve
wells of water, and threescore and ten palm-trees,
Exod. XV. 27.
Gospel ordinances, in which we deal much in our
way to heaven, are very agreeable to all the children
of God, as these grctm pastures, and still waters ;
they call the sabbath a delight, and prayer a delight,
and the word of God a delight. These are tkeir
pleasant tkings. There is a river of comfort in gos-
pel ordinances, the streams wkereof make glad tke
city of God, tke koly place of tke tabernacles of tke
Most Higk ; (Ps. xlvi. 4.) and along the banks of this
river their road lies.
Those that turn aside from the ways of God's
commandments are upbraided with the folly of it,
as leaving a pleasant road for an unpleasant one.
Will a man, a traveller, be such a fool as to leave
my fields, which are smooth and even, for a rock
that is rugged and dangerous, or for the snowy
mountains of Lebanon ? Jer. xviii. 14. Shall the
running waters be forsaken for the strange cold
waters ? Thus are men enemies to themselves, and
the foolishness of man perverteth his way.
IX. It adds to the pleasure of a journey, to have
it fair over-head. Wet and stormy weather takes
off very much of the pleasure of a journey ; but it
is pleasant travelling when the sky is clear, and the
air calm and serene : and this is the happiness of
those who walk in Wisdom's ways, that all is clear
between them and heaven ; there are no clouds of
guilt to interpose between them and the Sun of
Righteousness, and to intercept his refreshing beams ;
no storms of wrath gathering that threaten them.
Our reconciliation to God, and acceptance with
him, makes every thing pleasant ; how can we be
melancholy, if Heaven smile upon us? Being justi*
fied by faitk, we kave peace witk God, (Rom. v. 1» 2.)
and peace from God, peace made for us, and peace
spoken to us, and then we rejoice in tribulation.
Those travellers cannot but rejoice all the day, who
walk in tke ligkt of God's countenance, Ps. Ixxxix. 15.
X. It adds likewise to the pleasure of a journey,
to be furnished with all needful acconunodations
for travelling. They that walk in the way of God,
have wherewithal to bear their charges; and.it is
promised them that they shall want no good thing,
Ps. xxxiv. 10. If they have not an abundance of the
wealth of this world, which perhaps will but over-
load a traveller, and be an encumbrance, rather than
any furtherance, yet, they have good bills ; having
access by prayer to the throne of grace wherever
they are, and a promise that they shall receive what
they ask; and access by faith to the covenant. of
354
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
grace, which they may draw upon, and draw from,
as an inexhanstible treasury. Jehovah jireh. The
Lord will provide.
Christ, our Melchizedec, brings forth bread and
wine, (Gen xiv. 18.) for the refreshment of the poor
travellers, that they may not faint by the way, 1 Kings
xix. 8. When Elijah had a long journey to go, he
was victualled accordingly; God will give grace
sufficient to his people for all their exercises, (2 Cor.
xii. 9.) Strength according to the day ; Verily they
shall be fed. And since travellers must have re-
freshing places, and resting-places, Christ has pro-
vided rest at noon, (Cant. i. 7.) in the heat of the
day, for those that are his ; and rest at night too :
Return to thy rest, O my soul.
XI. It adds something to the pleasure of a journey
to sing in the way : this takes off something of the
fatigue of travelling, exhilarates the spirits ; pilgrims
used it; and God has put a song, a new song,
into the motUhs of his people, (Ps. xl. 3.) even
praises to their God, and comfort to themselves. He
has given us cause to be cheerful, and leave to be
cheerful, and hearts to be cheerful, and has made it
our duty to rejoice in the Lord always.
It is promised to those, who are brought to praise
God, by hearing the words of his mouth, that they
shall sing in the ways of the Lord, (Ps. cxxxviii. 6.)
and good reason, /or great is the glory of the Lord,
How pleasantly did the released captives return to
their own country, when they came with lin^^ng
unto Zion ! Isa. li. 11. And much more Jehosha-
phafs victorious army, when they came to Jerusalem,
psalteries and harps to the house of the Lord; for the
Lord had nuide them to rejoice over their enemies,
2 Chr. XX. 28. With this the travellers may revive
one another, O come, let us sing unto the Lord,
XII. It helps to make a journey pleasant to have
a good prospect. The travellers in Wisdom's ways
may look about them with pleasure, so as no travel-
lers ever could ; for they can call all about them
their own, even the world, and life, and death, and
things present, and things to come, in this state, all
is yours, if you be Christ's, 1 Cor. iii. 22. The
whole creation is not only at peace with them, but
at their service.
They can look before them with pleasure; not
with anxiety and uncertainty, but with a humble
assurance; not with terror, but with joy. II is plea-
sant in a journey, to have a prospect of the journey's
end ; to see that the way we are in leads directly to
it, and to see that it cannot be far off; every step
we take is so much nearer it, nay, and we are within
a few steps of it We have a prospect of being
shortly with Christ in paradise ; yet a little while,
and we shall be at home, we shall be at rest ; and
whatever difficulties we may meet with in our way,
when we come to heaven all will be well, eternally
Well.
CHAPTER VI.
THE DOCTRINB VINDICATBD.
SUFFER me a little, (says Elihu to Job, Job
xxxvi. 2.) and I will show thee that I have yet to
speah on God's behalf, something more to say in
defence of this truth, against that which may seem
to weaken the force of it We all ought to concern
ourselves for the vindication of godliness, and to
speak what we can for it, for we know that it is
every where spoken against : and there is no truth
so plain, so evident, but there have been those who
have objected against it: the prince of darkness
will raise what mists he can to cloud a truth, that
stands so directly against his interest ; but great is
the truth, and will prevail.
Now as to the truth of the pleasantness of reli-
gion;
I. It is easy to confront the reproaches of the
enemies of religion, who give it an ill name. There
are those who make it their business, having per-
verted their own ways, to pervert the right ways of
the Lord, and cast an odium upon them ; as Elymas
the sorcerer did, with design to turn away the deputy
from the faith. Acts xiii. 8, 10. They are like the
wicked spies, that brought up an evil report of the
promised land, (Numb. xiii. 32.) as a land that did
eat up the inhabitants thereof ; and neither could be
conquered, nor was worth conquering.
The scoffers of the latter days speak ill of religrion,
as a task and drudgery ; they dress it up in frightful,
formidable colours, but very false ones, to deter
others from piety, and to justify themselves in their
own impiety. They suggest that Christ's yoke is
heavy, and his commandments grievous, and that to
be religious is to bid adieu to all pleasure and de-
light, and to turn tormentors to ourselves ; that God
is a hard master, reaping where he has not sown^ and
gathering where he has not strawed. Matt xxv. 24.
There were those of old that thus reproached the
ways of God, and slandered religion ; for they said.
It is vain to serve God, (Mai. iii. 14.) there is neither
credit nor comfort in it, and what profit is it that we
have hept his ordinances, and (observe their invidious
description of religion) that we have walked snotim-
fuUy before the Lord of hosts ; as if to be religious
was to walk mournfully, whereas indeed it is to walk
cheerfully.
Now in answer to these calumnies we have this to
say, that the matter is not so. They who say thus
of religion, speah evil of the things which they hnow
not: while what they hnow naturally as brute beasts,
in those things they corrupt themselves, Jude 10. The
devil we know was a liar from the beginning, and a
false accuser of God and religion, and in this par-
ticular represented God to our first parents, (Gen. iii.
THE PLEASURE OF BEING REUOIOUS.
1266
6.) as having dealt hardly and unjustly with them,
in prohibiting them the tree of knowledge ; as if he
enyied them the happiness and pleasure they would
attain to by eating of that tree ; and the same
methods he still takes to alienate men's minds from
the life of God, and the power of godliness. But we
know, and are sure, that it is a g^roundless impu-
tation, for Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness,
and mil her paths are peace.
II. It is easy also to set aside the misrepresenta-
tion of religion, which are made by some that call
themseWes its friends, and profess kindness for it
As there are enemies of the Lord that blaspheme, (2
Sam. xii. 14.) so there are among the people of the
Lord those that give them great occasion to do so, as
David did. How many wounds does religion receife
in the house of her friends, false friends they are or
foolish ones, unworthy to be called Wisdom's chil-
dren, for they do not justify her as they ought ; but
through mistake and indulgence of their own weak-
ness, betray her cause, instead of pleading it, and
witnessiqg to it; and confirm people's prejudices
against it, which they should endeayour to remove.
Some that profess religion are morose and sour in
their profession, peevish and ill-humoured, and
make the exercises of religion a burthen, and task,
and terror to themselves, and all about them, which
ougrfat to sweeten the spirit and make it easy, and
candid, and compassionate to the infirmities of the
weat and feeble of the flock.
Others are melancholy and sorrowful in their pro-
fession, and go mourning from day to day under pre-
railing doubts and fears, and disquietudes about
their spiritual state. We know some of the best of
€rod's servants have experienced trouble of mind to
a great degree.
But as to the former, it is their sin ; and let tliem
bear their own burthen, but let not religion be blam-
ed for it : and as to the latter, though there are some
very good people that are of a sorrowful spirit, yet
we will abide by it, that true piety has true pleasure
in it notwithstanding.
1 . But God is sometimes pleased, for wise and holy
ends, for a time, to suspend the conununication of
his comforts to his people, and to hide his face from
them, to try their faith, that it may he found to praise
and kanamTf and glory, at the appearing of Christ, (1
Pet. i. 6, 7.) and so much the more for their being
awhile t» heaniness through manifold temptations.
Thus he corrects them for what has been done amiss
by them, and takes this course to mortify what is amiss
in then ; even winter seasons contribute to the fruit-
fulness of the earth. Thus he brings them to a closer
and more humble dependence upon Christ for all
their comfort, and teaches them to live entirely upon
him. And though for a small moment he thus Jfor-
sakes ihem, (Isa. liv. 7, 8.) it is but to magnify his
power so maeh the more in supporting them, and to
make his returns the sweeter, for he will gather them
with everlasting loving-hindness. Light is sown for
them, and it will come up again.
2. This is their aflliction, God's hand must be ac-
knowledged in it, as his righteous hand ; yet there
is sin in it, and that is from themselves. Good
people have not the comforts they might have in their
religion, and whose fault is it? They may thank
themselves ; they run themselves into the dark, and
then shut their eyes against the light. My wounds
stink and are corrupt, (says David, Ps. xxxviii. 6.)
The wounds of sin which I gave myself are unhealed,
not bound up, or mollified with ointment. And why ?
Is it for want of balm in Gilead, or a physician there ?
No, he owns, it is because of my foolishness ; I did
not take the right method with them. God speaks
joy and gladness to them, but they turn a deaf ear
to it, like Israel in Egypt, that hearkened not to
loupes, for ait^ttifA of spirit and sore bondage, Exod.
vi. 9. But let not the blame be laid upon religion,
which has provided comfort for their souls ; but let
them bear the blame whose souls refuse to be com-
forted, or who do not take the way appointed for
comfort ; who do not gb through with Uieir repent-
ing and believing. David owns that the reason
why he wanted comfort, and was in pain, and agi-
tated, was because he kept silence. He was not so
free with God as he might and should have been ;
but when he said, / will confess my transgression
unto the Lord, he was forgiven, and all was well,
Ps. xxxii. 3 — 6.
Those do both God and Christ, and themselves
and others, a deal of wrong, who look upon him
with whom they have to do in religion, as one that
seeks an occasion ag^nst them, and counts them for
his enemies, and is extreme to mark what they think,
or say, or do amiss ; whereas he is quite otherwise,
is slow to anger, swift to mercy, and willing to make
the best of those whose hearts are upright with him,
though they are compassed about with infirmity : he
will not always chide ; he does not delight in the
death of them that die, but would rather they should
turn and live, Ezek. xxxiii. 11. Nor does he delight
in the tears of them that weep, does not afflict wiU^
ingly, nor grieve the children of men, (Lam. iii. 33.)
much less his own children, but would rather they
should be upon good grounds comforted. Religion
then clears itself from all blame, which some may
take occasion to cast upon it, from the uncomfort-
able lives which some lead that are religious.
III. But it will require some more pains to recon-
cile this truth of the pleasantness of religious ways,
with (that which the word of God itself tells us of)
the difficulties with which the ways of religion are
attended. We value not the misapprehensions of
some, and the misrepresentations of others, concern-
ing religious ways ; but we are sure the word of
God is of a piece with itself, and does not contnr
266
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIOIOUS.
diet itself. Oar Master has taught us to oall the
way to heayen a narrow way, Sdot nSDufifuvti, — an
afflicted way, a distressed way ; and we have in Scrip-
ture many things that declare it so. And it is true ;
but that does not contradict this doctrine, '' That
the ways of Wisdom are pleasant : ** for the plea-
santness that is in Wisdom's ways, is intended to be
a balance, and is very much an over-balance, to any
thing in them which is any way distasteful or incom-
modious. As for the imaginary difficulties, which the
sluggard dreams of, *' A lion in the way,'' '' A lion
in the street," we do not regard them : but there are
some real difficulties in it, as well as real comforts ;
for God hath set the one over against the other, (Eccl.
vii. 14.) that we might study to comport with both,
and might sing, and sing unto God, of both, Psal.
ci. 1.
We will not, we dare not, make the matter better
than it is, but will allow there is that in relig|^
which at first view may seem unpleasant ; and yet
doubt not but to show that it is reconcilable to, and
consistent with, all that pleasure which we main-
tain to be in religion, and so, to take off all excep-
tions against this doctrine. Amictr Scripturarum
lites ; utinam et nostrtB I — It were well if we could
agree with one another, as well as Scripture does with
itself.
There are four things which seem not well to
agree with this doctrine, and yet it is certain they do.
1. It is true, that to be religious, is to live a life
of repentance, and yet, religious ways are pleasant
notwithstanding. It is true, that we must mourn
for sin daily, and reflect with regret upon our
manifold infirmities ; sin must be bitter to us, and
we must even loathe and abhor ourselves for our cor-
ruptions that dwell in us, and the many actual trans-
gressions that are committed by us. We must renew
our repentance daily, and every night must make
some sorrowful reflections upon the transgrel»sions
of the day. But then,
(1.) It is not walking in the way of Wisdom that
creates us this sorrow, but our trifling in that way,
and our turning aside out of it If we would keep
close to these ways, and pass forward in them as we
ought, there would be no occasion for repentance.
If we were as we should be, we should be always
praising God, and rejoicing in him ; but we make
other work for ourselves by our own folly, and then
complain that religion is unpleasant; and whose
fault is that? If we would be always loving and
delighting in God, and would live a life of commu-
nion with him, we should have no occasion to re-
pent of that ; but if we leave the fountain of living
waters, and turn aside to broken cisterns, or the
brooks in summer, and see cause (as doubtless we
shall) to repent of it, we may thank ourselves.
What there is of bitterness in repentance, is owing
not to our religion, but to our defects and defaults in I
religion ; and it proves, not that there is bittemesi
in the ways of God, but in the ways of sin, which
make a penitential sorrow necessary, for the pre-
venting of a sorrow a thousand times worse; for
sooner or later sin will have sorrow. If repentance
be bitter, we must not say, this is occasioned througli
being godly, but through being sinful ; Jer. It. 18.
This is thy wickedness, because it is bitter. If by
sin wc have made sorrow necessary, it is certainlj
better to mourn now, than mourn at the lasty Pro?.
V. 11. To continue impenitent, is not to put away
sorrow from thy heart, but to put it oflT to a worse
place.
(2.) Even in repentance, if it be right, there is a
true pleasure, a pleasure accompanying it. Cor
Saviour has said of them, who thus mourn, not only
that they shall be comforted, bu^ that they are bUst-
ed. Matt. v. 4. When a man is conscious to him-
self that he has done an ill thing, and what is un-
becoming him, and may be hurtful to him, it is
incident to him to repent of it Now religion has
found a way to put a sweetness into that bittemesi.
Repentance, when it is not from the influence of
religion, is nothing but bitterness and horror, as
Judas's was ; but repentance, as it is made an act
of religion, as it is one of the laws of Christ, is plea-
sant, because it is the raising of the spirit, and the
discharging of that which is noxious and offensive.
Our religion has not only taken care, that peni-
tents be not overwhelmed with an excess of sorrow,
(2 Cor. ii. 7.) and swallowed up by it ; that their
sorrow do not work death, as the sorrow of the
world does ; but it has provided, that even this bitter
cup should be sweetened: and therefore we find
that under the law, the sacrifices for sin were cmn-
monly attended with expressions of joy ; and while
the priests were sprinkling the blood of the saeri-
fices to make atonement, (2 Chr. xxix. 24, 26.) the
Levites attended with psalteries and harps^ for so
was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets.
Even the day to afflict the soul is the day of atone-
ment ; and when we receive the atonement, we joy
tit God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Rom. v. 11.
In giving our consent to the atonement, we take the
comfort of the atonement
In sorrowing for the death of some dear friend or
relation, thus far we have found a pleasure in it,
that it has given vent to our grief which our spiriti
were full of ; so in sorrow for sin, the shedding of
just tears is some satisfaction to us. If it is a plea-
sure to be angry, when a man thinks with Jonah,
that he does well to be angry ; mnoh more is it a
pleasure to be sorry, when a man is sure he does
well to be sorry. The same word in Hebrew, on
signifies both consolari and pcenitere^ both to eotnfort
and to repent, because there is comfort in true re-
pentance.
(3.) Much more after repentance, there is a plea*
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
267
lure attending it, and flowing from it. It is a way
if pleasantness, for it is the way to pleasantness.
To them that mourn in Zion, that sorrow after a
^odly sort, God has appointed beauty for ashes, and
iie ail of joy for mofwrnxng, Isa. Ixi. 3. And the more
ihe soul is humbled under the sense of sin, the more
sensible will the comfort of pardon be ; it is wound-
^ in order to be healed: the jubilee trumpet
sounded in the close of the day of soul-afllicdon,
[Ley. XXV. 9.) which proclaimed the acceptable year
of the Lord, the year of release ; and an acceptable
year it is indeed, to those who find themseWes tied
and bound with the cords of their sin.
True penitents go weeping, it is true, but it is to
seek the Lord of hosts, (Jer. 1. 4, 5.) to seek him as
their God, and to enter into covenant with him : and
let their hearts rejoice that seek ihe Lord, (Ps. cv. 3.)
for they shall find him, and find him their bountiful
rewarder. They sorrow not as those that have no
hope, but good hope that their iniquities are for-
given ; and what joy can be greater than that of a
pardon to one condemned ?
2. It is true, that to be religious is to take care,
and to take pains, and to labour earnestly, (Luke
xiii. 24.) and yet Wisdom* s ways are ways of plea-
santmess. It is true, we must strive to enter into this
way, must be in an agony, so the word is. There is
a violence which the kingdom of heaven suffers, and
the violent take it by force. Matt xi. 12. And when
we are in that way, we must run with patience, Heb.
xiL I. The bread of life is to be eaten in the sweat
of our face; we must be always upon our guard,
and keep our hearts with all diligence. Business
for God and our souls is what we are not allowed to
be slothful in, hut fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,
Rom. xii. 11. We are soldiers of Jesus Christ, and
ire must endure hardness, must war the good warfare,
till it be accomplished, 2 Tim. ii. 2.
And yet even in this contention there is comfort.
It is work indeed, and work that requires care ; and
jret it will appear to be pleasant work, if we consi-
der how we are strengthened for it, and encouraged
m it
(1.) How we are strengthened for it, and animated
with strength in our souls to go on in it, and go
through with it. It would be unpleasant, and would
^o on very heavily, if we were left to ourselves, to
travel in our own strength ; but if we be actuated
uid animated in it by a better spirit, and mightier
power than our own, it is pleasant. If God work in
lu both to will and to do of his own good pleasure,
[Phil. ii. 13.) we shall have no reason to complain
9f the difllculty of our work ; for God ordains peace
for us, true peace and pleasure, by working all our
works in us, Isa. xxvi. 12.
We may sing at our work, if our minds be by the
Spirit of God brought to it, our hands strengthened
for it, and oar infirmities helped, (Rom. viii. 26.)
P
and particularly our infirmities in prayer ; that by
it we may fetch in strength for every service, strength
according to the day. Daniel at first found God's
speaking to him a terror, he could not bear it ; but
when one like the appearance of a man came and
touched him, (who could be no other than Christ the
Mediator,) and put strength into him, saying. Peace
be unto tkee, be strong, yea, be strong ; it was quite
another thing with him, then nothing more pleasant.
Let my Lord speak, for thou hast strengthened me,
Dan. x. 17—19.
Though the way to heaven be up-hill, yet, if we
be carried on in it as upon eagle's wings, it will be
pleasant ; and those are so that wait upon the Lord,
for to them it is promised that they shall renew their
strength. That is pleasant work, though against the
inclination of our corrupt natures, for the doing of
which we have not only a new nature given us, in-
clining us to it, and making us habitually capable
of application to it, but actual supplies of grace
sufficient for the doing of it promised us, (2 Cor. xii.
9, 10.) by one who knows what strength we need,
and what will serve, and will neither be unkind to
us, nor unfaithful to his own word. And it is ob-
servable that when God, though he eased not Paul
of the thorn in the flesh, yet said that good word to
him. My grace is sufficient for thee ; immediately it
follows. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in
reproaches, in distresses for Christ's sake ; for when I
am weak, then I am strong, Sufiicient grace will
make our work pleasant, even the hardest part of it.
(2.) How we are encouraged in it It is true, we
must take pains, but the work is good work, and is
to be done, and is done by all the saints, from a prin-
ciple of holy love; and that makes it pleasant,
(1 John V. 3.) as Jacob's service for Rachel was to
him, because he loved her. It is an unspeakable
comfort to industrious Christians, that they are
working together with God, and he with them ; that
their Master's eye is upon them, and a witness to
their sincerity: he sees in secret, and will reward
openly. Mat. vi. 6. God now accepts their works, '
smiles upon them, and his Spirit speaks to them
good words and comfortable words, (Zech. i. 13.)
witnessing to their adoption. And this is very
encouraging to God's servants, as it was to the
servants of Boaz, to have their master come to them,
when they were hard at work, reaping down his own
fields, and with a pleasant countenance say to them.
The Lord be with you, Ruth ii. 4. Nay, the Spirit
says more to God's labourers. The Lord is with you.
The prospect of the recompence of reward,, is in
a special manner encouraging to us in our work,
and makes it pleasant, and the little difficulties we
meet with in it to be as nothing. It was by having
an eye to this that Moses was encouraged not only
to bear the reproach of Christ, but to esteem it greater
riches than the treasures of Egypt, Heb. xi. 26. In
268
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
all labour there is profit ; and if so, there is pleasure
also in the prospect of that profit, and according to
the degree of it. We must work, but it is to work
out our salvation, a great salvation, which, when it
comes, will abundantly make us amends for all our
toil. We must strive, but it is to enter into life,
eternal life. We must run, but it is for an incor-
ruptible crown, the prize of our high calling. And
we do not run at an uncertainty, nor fight as those
that beat the air; for to him that sows righteousness
there is a sure reward, (Prov. xi. 18.) and the assur-
ance of that harvest will make even the seed-time
pleasant
3. It is true, that to be religious, is to deny our-
selves in many things that are pleasing to sense:
and yet Wisdom's ways are pleasantness notwith-
standing. It is indeed necessary, that beloved lusts
should be mortified and subdued, corrupt appetites
crossed and displeased, which, to the natural man,
is like pinching out a right eye, and cutting off a right
hand, }/l?it v. 29. There are forbidden pleasures
that must be abandoned, and kept at a distance
from : the flesh must not be gratified, nor provision
made to fulfil the lusts of it, (Rom. xiii. 14.) but on
the contrary, we must keep under the body, and bring
it into subjection, (1 Cor. ix. 27.) we must crucify the
flesh, must kill it, and put it to a painful death.
The first lesson we are to learn in the school of
Christ, is to deny ourselves, (Matt xvi. 24.) and this
must be our constant practice ; we must use ourselves
to deny ourselves, and thus take up our cross daily.
Now will not this spoil all the pleasure of a reli-
gious life? No, it will not; for the pleasures of
sense, which we are to deny ourselves, ate compara-
tively despicable, and really dangerous.
(1.) These pleasures we are to deny ourselves are
comparatively despicable: how much soever they
are valued and esteemed by those who live by sense,
and know no better, they are looked upon with a
generous contempt by those who live by faith, and
are acquainted with divine and spiritual pleasures.
And it is no pain to deny ourselves in these plea-
sures, when we know ourselves entitled to better,
more rational, and noble, and agreeable ; the delights
of the blessed spirits above.
The garlic and onions of Egypt were doated upon
by those that knew not how to value either the
manna of the wilderness, or the milk and honey of
Canaan, Numb. xi. 5. So the base and sordid plea-
sures of sense are relished by the depraved and
vicious appetites of the carnal mind. But when a
man has learned to put a due estimate upon spiritual
pleasures, those that are sensual have lost all their
sweetness, and are become the most insipid things
in the world ; have no pleasure in them, in compari-
son with that far greater pleasure which excelleth.
Is it any diminution to the pleasure of a grown
man, to deny himself the toys and sports which he
was fond of when a child ? No, when he became a
man, he put away those childish things ; be is now
past them, he is above them, for he is acquainted
with those entertainments that are manly and more
generous. Thus mean and little do the pleasures of
sense appear to those that have learned to delight
themselves in the Lord.
(2.) They are really dangerous, they arc apt to
take away the heart. If the heart be set upon them,
they blind the mind, debauch the understanding and
conscience, and in many quench the sparks of con-
viction, and of that holy fire which comes from hea-
ven, and tends to heaven. They are in danger of
drawing away the heart from God, and the more
they are valued and coveted, the more dangerous
they are, of piercing us through with many sorrows,
and of drowning us in destruction and perdition :
to deny ourselves in them is but fb avoid a rock,
upon which multitudes have fatally split
What diminution is it to the pleasure of a safe
and happy way on sure g^und, which will certainly
bring us to our journey's end, to deny ourselves the
false and pretended satisfaction, of walking in a
fair but dangerous way, that leads to destruction?
Is it not much pleasanter travelling on a rough
pavement, than on a smooth quicksand? Where
there is a known peril, there can be no true pleasure,
and therefore the want of it is no loss or uneasiness.
What pleasure can a wise or considerate man take
in those entertainments, in which he has continual
reason to suspect a snare and a design upon him,
any more than he that was at a feast could relish
the dainties of it, when he was aware of a naked
sword hanging directly over him by a single thread ?
The foolish woman, indeed, calls the stolen waters
sweet f and bread eaten in secret pleasant, (Prov. ix. 17,
18.) But those find no difficulty or uneasiness in
denying them, who know that the dead are there, and
her guests are already in the depths ofkelL There-
fore, however the corrupt heart may find some re-
luctance in refusing those forbidden pleasures, we
may say of it as Abigail did of David's denying
himself the satisfaction of being revenged on Nabal ;
afterwards this shall be no grief unto us, nor offence
of heart, 1 Sam. xxv. 31.
4. It is true, that through much tribulation we must
enter into the kingdom of God, (Acts xiv. 23.) that
we must not only deny ourselves the pleasures of
sense, but must sometimes expose ourselves to its
pains ; we must take up our cross when it lies in
our way, and bear it after Christ. We are told, that
all, that will live godly in Christ Jesus, must suffer
persecution, at least they must expect it, and get
ready for it ; bonds and afilictions abide them, losses
in their estates, hinderances in their preferment,
reproaches and contempts, banishments, deaths
must be counted upon ; and will not this spoil the
pleasure of religion ? No, it will not ; for.
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
259
(1.) It is but light affliction at the worst, that we
are called to suffer, and hut for a momenty compared
with theyirr tnore exceeding and eternal weight of glory
that is reserved for us, (2 Cor. iv. 17.) with which
the sufferiiigi of this present time are not worthy to be
compared, Rom. viii. 18. All these troubles do but
touch the body, the outward man, and the interests
of it, they do not at all affect the soul : they break
the shell, or pluck off the husk, but do not bruise
the kernel.
Can the brave and courageous soldier take plea-
sure in the toils and perils of the camp, and in jeo-
parding his life in the high places of the field, in the
eager pursuit of honour, and in the service of his
prince and country ? And shall not those who have
the interests of Christ's kingdom near their hearts,
and are carried on by a holy ambition of the honour
that comes from God, take a delight in suffering for
Christ, when they know that those sufferings tend
to his honour, and their own hereafter ? They that
are persecuted for righteousness sake, that are re-
tiledy and have all manner of evil said against them
falselyy because they belong to Christ, are bidden
not only to bear it patiently, but to rejoice in it, and
to be exceeding glad, for great is their reward in hea-
ven. Matt v. 11, 12. Every reproach we endure for
Christ, will be a pearl in our crown shortly.
(2.) As those afflictions abound for Christ, so our
consolmtions in Christ do much more abound, 2 Cor. i.
5. The more the waters increased, the higher was
the ark lifted up ; the more we suffer in God's
cause, the more we partake of his comforts ; for he
will not be wanting to those whom he calls out to
any hardships more than ordinary for his name's
sake. The Lord was with Joseph in the prison,
when he lay there for a good conscience ; and those
went from the council rejoicing, that were counted
worthy to suffer shame for Christ's name ; were ho-
noured to be dishonoured for him. Acts v. 41.
Thus the extraordinary supports and joys which
they experience, who patiently suffer for righteous-
ness sake, add much more U^e pleasantness of the
ways of Wisdom, than the sflrerings themselves do,
or can, derogate from it; for the sufferings are
human, the consolations are divine. They suffer in
the flesh, but they rejoice in the spirit ; they suffer
for a time, but they rejoice evermore ; and this their
joy no man tahethfrom them.
CHAPTER VII.
THS APPLICATION OP THB DOCTRINB.
Concerning this doctrine of the pleasantness of re-
ligious ways, I hope we may now say, as Eliphaz
does of his principle, Lo ! this, we have searched it,
8 2
so it is, (Job v. 27.) it is incontestably true, and
therefore we may conclude as he does, Hear it, and
hnow thou it for thy good; know thou it ybr thyself,
so the margin reads it ; apply it to thyself, believe
it concerning thyself, not only that it is good, but
that it is good for thee, to draw near to God, Ps.
Ixxiii. 28. Then only we hear things and know tliem
for our good, when we hear them and know them
for ourselves.
Three inferences, by way of counsel and exhorta-
tion, we shall draw from this doctrine.
1. Let us all then be persuaded, and prevailed
with, to enter into, and to walk in, these paths of
Wisdom, that are so very pleasant. This is what I
principally intend in opening and proving this truth :
most people would rather be courted than threatened
to their duty. Much might be said to frighten you
out of the ways of sin and folly, but I would hope
to gain the same point another way, by alluring you
into the ways of wisdom and holiness. This comes
to invite you to a feast which the Lord of hosts has,
in the gospel, made to all nations, (Isa. xxv. 6.) and
to all in the nations, and to you among tlie rest, for
none are excluded, that do not by their unbelief ex-
clude themselves ; a feast of fat thitigsfull of mar-
row, of wines on the lees well refined ; delights for
souls, infinitely transcending the delicacies of sense.
Tou are welcome to this feast : come, for all things
are now ready. Come, eat of Wisdom's bread, and
drinh of the wine that she has mingled, Prov. ix. 5.
Is a life of religion such a sweet and comfortable
life ? Why then should not we be religious ? If such
as these be the ways of Wisdom, why should not we
be travellers in those ways ? Let this recommend to
us a life of sincere and serious godliness, and en-
gage us to conform to all its rules, and give up our-
selves to be ruled by them. It is not enough to have
a good opinion of religion, and to give it a good
word ; that will but be a witness against us, if we
do not set ourselves in good earnest to the practice
of it, and make conscience of living up to it.
I would here, with a particular and pressing im-
portunity, address myself to you that are young ; to
persuade you, now in the days of your youth, now in
the present day, to make religion your choice and
your business ; and I assure you, if you do so, you
will find it your delight. May God, by his grace,
convince you of the real comforts that are to be had
in real godliness, that you may be drawn cheerfully
to Christ with these cords of a man, and held fast to
him with these bands of love. My son, (says Solo-
mon to his little scholar, Prov. xxiv. 13, 14.) eat
thou honey, because it is good ; and the honey^comb,
which is sweet to thy taste. He does not forbid him
the delights of sense, he may use them soberly and
moderately, and with due caution; but remember
that, so shall the hnowledge of Wisdom be to thy soul,
when thou hoit found it : thou hast b«,Uft\ ^\^%a!<QX«^
neo
THE PLEASURE OF BEING REU6I0US.
than these to mind and pursue, spiritual and rational
ones * and instead of being made indifferent to those,
we should rather be led to them, and quickened in
our desires after them, by these delights of sense,
which God gives us to engage us to himself and his
service.
The age of youth is the age of pleasure ; you think
you may now be allowed to take your pleasure ; O
that you would take it, and seek it there, where alone
it is to be had, and that is, in a strict observance of
the laws of virtue and godliness. Would you live
a pleasant life? begin betimes to live a religious
life, and the sooner you begin, the more pleasant it
will be : it is best travelling in a morning. Would
you rejoice, O young people ! in your youth, and
have your hearts to cheer you in the days of your
youth ? (Eccl. xi. 0.) do not walk in the way of your
corrupt and carnal hearts, but in the way of God's
commandments ; for he knows what is good for you,
better than you do yourselves : do not walk in the
sight of your eyes, for the eyes are apt to fly upon
that which is not, (Prov. xxiii. 5.) but live by faith,
that faith, which, being the substance of things hoped
for, and the evidence of things not seen, will lead you
to that which is ; for Wisdom makes those that love
her to inherit substance, and fills their treasures,
(Prov. viii. 21.) and thence arises their true satis-
faction.
That which I would persuade you to, is, to walk
in the way of Wisdom, to be sober-minded, to be
thoughtful about your souls and your everlasting
state, and get your minds well-principled, and well-
affected, and well-inclined. Wisdom is the principal
thing, therefore getWisdom, and, with all thy getting*
get understanding, Prov. iv. 7. That of which I
would persuade you, is, the pleasantness of this way ;
you cannot do better for yourselves, than by a reli-
gious course of life. Mg son^ if thine heart be wise, my
heart shall rejoice, even mine ; (Prov. xxiii. 15, 16.)
yea, my reins shall rejoice if thy lips, out of the abun-
dance of thy heart, speak right things ; but that is
not all, not only my heart shall rejoice, but thy own
shall.
I wish you would see, and seriously consider, the
two rivals that are making court to you for your souls,
for your best affections, Christ and Satan, and act
wisely in disposing of yourselves, and make such a
choice as you vrill afterwards reflect upon with com-
fort. You are now at the turning time of life ; turn
right now, and you are made for ever. Wisdom says,
(Prov. ix. 4.) Whoso is simple, let him turn in to me ;
and she will cure him of his simplicity : Folly says,
Whoso is simple, let him turn in to me ; and she will
take advantage of his simplicity : now let him come,
whose right your hearts are, and give them him,
and you shall have them again more your own.
That you may determine well between these two
competitors for the throne in your souls,
(I.) See the folly of carnal, sinful pleasures, and
abandon them ; you will never be in love with the
pleasures of religion till you are persuaded to fall oat
with forbidden pleasures. The enj oyment of die de-
lights of sense suits best with diat age, the appetite
towards them is then most violent; mirth, sport
plays, dainties, are the idols of young people ; they are
therefore called youthful lusts. The days will come,
the evil days, when they themselves will say tfaej
have no pleasure in them, like Barzillai, (2 Sam. xii.
35.) who, when he is old, can no more relish what
he eats and what he drinks. O that reason, and
wisdom, and grace, might make you as dead to
them now, as time and days will make you altera
while.
Will you believe one that tried the utmost of what
the pleasures of sense could do towards making a
man happy ? He said of laughter, It is mad, and of
mirth, What doth it f and that sorrow is better then
laughter, Eccl. ii. 2. and vii. 3. Moses knew what
the pleasures of the court were, and yet chose rather
to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to
continue in the snare of them ; (Heb. xL 25.) and
you must make the same choice ; for you will never
cordially embrace the pleasures of religion, till yea
have renounced the pleasures of sin. Covenant
against them, therefore, and watch against them.
If you would live, and go in the way of under-
standing, you must forsake the foolish, (Prov. ix. 6.)
take heed of the way both of iht evil man, and of the
strange woman ; avoid It, pass not by it, turn from
it, and pass away, Prov. iii. 12, 16. Look upon sinful
pleasures as mean, and much below you ; look upon
them as vile, and much against you ; and do not
only despise them, but dread them, and bate even
the garments spotted with the flesh.
(2.) Be convinced of the pleasure of Wisdom's
ways, and come and try them. Tou are, it may be,
prejudiced against religion as a melancholy thing,
but, as Philip said to Nathanael, (John i. 46.) Com
and see. Believe it possible, that there may be a
pleasure in religion i^ch you have not yet thought
of. When religion iMooked upon at a distance,
we see not that pleasure in it, which we shall cer-
tainly find when we come to be better acquainted
with it. Peter Mart3rr, in a sermon, illustrated it
by this comparison, (and it proved a means of the
conversion of the Marquis of Yico,) *^ He that looks
upon persons dancing at a distance, would think
they were mad ; but let him come nearer, and ob-
serve how they take every step by rule, and keep
time with the music, he \n\\ not only be pleased
with it, but inclined to join with them."
Come and take Christ's yoke upon you, and yoa
will find it easy ; try the pleasure there is in the
knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, and in converse
virith spiritual and eternal things ; try the pleasure
of seriousness and self-denialy and you will find it
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
261
far exceeds that of vanity and self-indulgence. Try
the pleasure of meditation on Ihe word of God, of
prayer and praise, and sahbath-sanctification, and
yoa will think that yon have made a happy change
of the pleasure of vain and carnal mirth for these
true delights.
Make this trial by these four rules :
[1.] That man's chief end is to glorify God, and
enjoy him. Our pleasures will be according to that
which we pitch upon and pursue as our chief end :
if we can mistake so far, as to think it is our chief
end to enjoy the world and the flesh, and our chief
business to serve them, the delights of the sense will
relish best with us ; but if the world was made for
man, certainly man was made for more than the
world ; and if Gtxi made man, certainly he made
him for himself. God then is our chief good, it is
our business to serve and please him, and our hap-
piness to be accepted of him.
And if so, and we believe so, nothing will be a
greater pleasure to us, than that which we have
reason to think will be pleasing to him. If we do,
indeed, look upon God as our chief good, we shall
make him our chief joy, our exceeding joy. If we
consider that we were made capable of the pleasure
of conversing virith God in this world, and seeing and
enjoying him in another ; we cannot but think that
we vrretchedly disparage ourselves, when we take
ap with the mean and sordid pleasures of sense as
our felicity, especially if we forego all spiritual and
eternal pleasures for them ; as certainly we do, and
g;ive up all our expectations of them, if we place
our happiness in these present delights ; and we
are guilty of a greater absurdity than that which
profane Esau was guilty of, who, for a mess of pot-
tage^ sold his birth-right, Heb. xii. 16.
[2.] That the soul is the man, and that is best for
us, that is best for our souls. Learn to think meanly
of thb flesh, by which we are allied to the earth and
the inferior creatures ; it is formed out of the dust,
it is dust, and it is hastening to the dust ; and then
the things that gratify it, will not be esteemed of any
great moment : Meats for t/ie belly, and the belly for
meatSf but God shall destroy both it and them ; and
therefore let us not make idols of them.
But the soul is the noble part of us, by which we
are allied to heaven, and the world of spirits ; those
comforts therefore which delight the soul, are the
comforts we should prize most, and give the prefer-
ence to, for the soul's sake. Rational pleasures are
the best for a man.
[3.] That the greatest joy is that which a stranger
doth not intermeddle with, Prov. xiv. 10. The best
pleasure is that which lies not under the eye and
observation of the world, but which a man has and
hides in his ^wn bosom, and by which he enjoys
himself, and keeps not only a peaceable, but a com-
fortable, posnession of his own souK though he does
not by laughter, or otner expressions of joy, tell
them the satisfaction he has. Christ had meat to eat
which the world hnew not of (John iv. 92.) and so
have Christians, to whom he is the bread of life.
[4.] That all is well that ends everlastingly well.
That pleasure ought to have the preference, which is
of the longest continuance. The pleasures of sense
are withering and fading, and leave a sting behind
them to those that placed their happiness in them ;
but the pleasures of religion wiH abide with us ; in
these is continuance, (Isa. Ixiv. 6.) they will not turn
with the wind, nor change with the weather, but are
meat which endures to everlasting life.
Reckon that the best pleasure which will remain
with you, and stand you in stead, when you come to
die: which will help to take ofi* the terror of death,
and allay its pains. The remembrance of sinful plea-
sures will give us killing terrors, but the remem-
brance of religious pleasures will give us living
comforts in dying moments. They that live in Bel-
shazzar's revels, may expect to receive the summons
of death, with the same confusion that he did, when
the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote
one against another ; (Dan. v. 6.) but they that live
in Hezekiah's devotions, may receive them with the
same composure that he did, when with a great deal
of satisfaction he looked back upon a well-spent life:
Now, Lord, remember how I have walked before thee
in truth, and with an upright heart, Isa. xxxvii. 3.
2. Let us, that profess religion, study to make it
more and more pleasant to ourselves. Wc see how
much is done to make it so ; let us not receive the
grace of God herein in vain. Let them that walk
in Wisdom's ways, taste the sweetness of them, and
relish it. Christ's service is perfect freedom; let
us not make a drudgery of it, nor a toil of such a
pleasure. We should not only be reconciled to our
duty, (as we ought to be to our greatest afflictions,
and to make the best of it,) but we should rejoice In
our duty, and sing at our work. If God intended
that his service should be a pleasure to his servants,
let them concur with him herein, and not walk con-
trary to him.
Now in order to the making of our religion increas-
ingly pleasant to us, I shall give seven directions.
(1.) Let us always keep up good thoughts of God,
and carefully watch against hard thoughts of him.
As it is the original error of many that are loose and
careless in religion, that they think God altogether
such a one as themselves, (Ps. 1. 21.) as much a
friend to sin as themselves, and as indifTerent whe-
ther his work be done or no ; so it is the error of
many that are severe in their religion, that they think
God, like themselves, a hard master ; they have such
thoughts of him, as Job had in an hour of tempta-
tion, when he looked upon God as seeking occasions
against him, numbering his steps, and watching over
his sins« and taking him for his enemy ; (Job xiii^
262
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
24. and xiv. 16.) as if he were extreme to mark ini-
quities, and implacable to those who had offended,
and not accepting any ser\'ice that had in it the
least defect or imperfection.
But the matter is not so, and we do both God and
ourselves a great deal of wrong, if we imagine it to
be so ; what could have been done more than God
has done, to convince us that he is gracious and
merciful, slow to anger , and ready to forgive sin when
it is repented of ? / said, I will confess mine iniquity
unto thee, and thou forgavest ; (Ps. xxxii.5.) and he
is ready to accept the services that come from an
upright heart. He will not always chide, nor contend
for ever. So far is he from taking advantage of us,
that he makes the best of us : where the spirit is
willing, he ircccpts that, and overlooks the weakness
of the flesh. Let us deal with him accordingly ;
look upon God as Love, and the God of love, and
then it will be pleasant to us to hear from him, to
speak to him, to converse with him, and to do him
any service.
It is true, God is great, and glorious, and jealous,
and to be worshipped with reverence and holy fear ;
but is he not our Father, a tender, gracious father ?
Was not God, in Christ, reconciling the world to
himself, (2 Cor. v. 19.) and to all his attributes and
relations to us, by showing himself willing to be
reconciled to us, notwithstanding our provocations ?
See him, therefore, upon a throne of grace, and
come boldly to him ; and that will make your service
pleasant.
(2.) Let us dwell much, by faith, upon the pro-
mises of God. What pleasant lives should we lead,
if Ve were but more intimately acquainted with
those declarations which God has made of his good
will to man, and the assurances he has given of his
favour, and all the blessed fruits of it, to those who
serve him faithfully? The promises arc many, and
exceeding great and precious, suited to our case,
and accommodated to every exigence ; there are not
only promises to grace, but promises o/* grace, grace
sufficient ; and these promises are all Yea and Amen
in Christ.
What do these promises stand in our Bibles for,
but to be made use of? Come then, and let us apply
them to ourselves, and insert our own names in them
by faith. What God said to Abraham, / am thy
shield, (Gen. xv. 1.) I am El-shaddi, ti God All-suffi-
dent ; (Gen. xvii. 1.) what he said to Joshua, I will
never fail thee nor forsake thee, (Josh. i. 5.) he says to
me. What he says to all that love him, that all
things shall work for good to them, (Rom. viii. 28.)
and to all that /ear him, that no good thing shall be
wanting to them, (Ps. xxxiv. 10.) he says to me ;
and why should not I take the comfort of it ?
These promises, and the like, are wells of salva-
tion, from which we may draw water with joy ; and
breasts of consolation, from which we may suck, and
he satisfied; they will be both our strength, and our
song in the house of our pilgrimage. So well-ordered
is the covenant of grace in all things, and so snre,
(2 Sam. xxiii. 5.) that if, having laid up our portion
in it, and so made it all our salvation, we would but
fetch our maintenance from it, and so make it all our
desire and delight, we should have in it a continual
feast, and should go on our way rejoicing, Ps. cxix.
111.
(3.) Let us order the affairs of our religion with
discretion. Many make religion unpleasant to them-
selves, and discouraging to others, by their impru-
dent management of it ; making that service to be a
burthen by the circumstances of it, which in itself
would be a pleasure ; doing things out of time, or
tasking themselves above their strength, and under-
taking more than they can go through with, espe-
cially at first ; which is like putting new wine into old
bottles, (Matt ix. 17.) or like over-driving the fiocks
one day, Gen. xxxiii. 13. If we make the yoke of
Christ heavier than he has made it, wc may thank
ourselves that our drawing in it becomes unpleasant.
Solomon cautions us, (Eecl. Vii. 16.) against being
righteous overmuch, and making ourselves averunse,
as that by which we may destroy ourselves, and put
ourselves out of conceit with our religion ; there
may be over-doing in well-doing, and then it be-
comes unpleasant.
But let us take our religion as Christ has settled
it, and we shall find it easy. When the ways of
our religion are ways of Wisdom, then they are
ways of pleasantness; for the more wisdom the
more pleasantness ; and that Wisdom dwells with
prudence. Wisdom will direct us to be even and
regular in our religion, to take care that the duties
of our general and particular calling, the business
of our religion, and our necessary business in the
world, do not interfere oi* intrench upon one another.
It will direct us to time duty aright ; for every thing
is beautiful and pleasant in its season, (Eccl. iii. 11.)
and work is then easy, when we are in frame for it
(4.) Let us live in love, and keep up Christian
charity, and the spiritual communion of saints ; if
we would be of good comfort, we must be of one
mind, (2 Cor. xiii. 11.) and therefore the apostle
presses brotherly love upon us, with an argument
taken from the consolations in Christ, (Phil. ii. 1.)
that is, the comfort that is in Christianity'. As ever
you hope to have the comfort of your religion, sub-
mit to that great law of it. Walk in love : for. Be-
hold, how good, and how pleasant, it is, (how g^ood in
itself, and pleasant to us,) for brethren to dwell to-
gether in unity. The more pleasing we are to our
brethren, the more pleasant we shall be to ourselves.
Nothing makes our lives more uncomfortable than
strife and contention ; Woe is me that I dwell among
those that hate peace, Ps. cxx. 5. It is bad being
among those that are disposed to quarrel, and worse
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
263
having in ourselves a disposition to quarrel. The
resentments of contempt put upon us, are uneasy
enough, and contrivances to revenge it much more
so. And nothing makes our religion more uncom-
fortable, than strifes and contentions about that.
We forfeit and lose the pleasure of it, if we entangle
ourselves in perverse disputings about it.
But by holy love we enjoy our friends, which will
add to the pleasure of enjoying God in this world.
Love itself sweetens the soul, and revives it, and,
as it is the loadstone of love, it fetches in the further
pleasure and satisfaction of being beloved, and so
it is a heaven upon earth ; for what is the happiness
and pleasure of heaven, but that there love reigns
in perfection? Then we have most peace in our
bosoms, when we are most peaceably disposed
towards our brethren.
(5.) Let us be much in the exercise of holy joy,
and employ ourselves much in praise. Joy is the
heart of praise, as praise is the language of joy ;
let us engage ourselves to these, and quicken our-
selves in these. God has made these our duty, that
by these all the other parts of our duty may be
pleasant to us ; and for that end we should abound
much in them, and attend upon God with joy
and praise. Let us not crowd our spiritual joys
into a corner of our hearts, nor our thankful praises
into a comer of our prayers, but give both scope
and vent to both.
Let us live a life of delight in God, and love to
think of him as we do of one whom we love and
value. Let the flowing in of every stream of com-
fort lead us to the fountain ; and in every thing that
is grateful to us, let us taste that the Lord is gracious.
Let the drying up of every stream of comfort drive
us to the fountain ; and let us rejoice the more in
God for our being deprived of that which we used
to rejoice in.
Let us be frequent and large in our thanksgivings.
It will be pleasant to us to recount the favours of
God, and thus to make some returns for them;
though poor and mean, yet such as God will gra-
ciously accept. We should have more pleasure in
our religion, if we had but learned in everi/ thing to
give thanks, (1 Thess. v. 18.) for that takes out more
than half the bitterness of our afflictions, that we
can see cause even. to be thankful for them; and it
infuses more than a double sweetness into our enjoy-
ments, that they furnish us with matter for that
excellent heavenly work of praise ; Sing praises unto
his name, for it is pleasant ; comfortable, as well as
comely, Ps. cxxxv. 3.
(6.) Let us act in a constant dependence upon
Jesus Christ. Religion would be much more plea-
sant, if we did but cleave more closely to Christ in
it, and do all in his name. The more precious Christ
is to uSy the more pleasant will every part of our
work be ; and therefore believing in Christ is often
expressed by our rejoicing in him, Phil. iii. 3. We
may rejoice in God, through Christ, as the Mediator
between us and God ; may rejoice in our commu-
nion with God, when it is kept up through Christ ;
may rejoice in hope of eternal life, when we see this
life in the Son : He that hath the Son of God, has
life, that is, he has comfort, 1 John v. 11, 12.
There is that in Christ, and in his undertaking
and performances for us, which is sufficient to satisfy
all our doubts, to silence all our fears, and to
balance all our sorrows. He was appointed to be
the consolation of Israel, and he will be so to us,
when we have learnt not to look for that in ourselves,
which is to be had in him only, and to make use of
his mediation in every thing wherein we have to do
with God. When we rejoice in the righteousness of
Christ, and in his grace and strength, rejoice in his
satisfaction and intercession, rejoice in his dominion
and universal agency and influence, and in the
progress of his gospel, and the conversion of souls
to him, and please ourselves with prospects of his
second coming, we have then a joy, not only which
no man takes from us, but which will increase more
and more; and of the increase of Christ's govern-
ment, (and therefore of that peace,) there shall he no
end, Isa. ix. 7. Our songs of joy are then most
pleasant, when the burthen of them is, None but
Christ, none but Christ,
(7.) Let us converse much with the glory tiiat is
to be revealed. They that by faith send their hearts
and best afiections before them to heaven, while
they are here on this earth, may in return fetch
thence some of tiiose joys and pleasures that are at
God's right hand. That which goes up in vapours
of holy desire, though insensible, in groanings which
cannot be uttered, will come down again in dews
of heavenly consolations, which will make the soul
as a watered garden.
Let us look much to the end of our way, how glo-
rious it will be, and that will help to make our way
pleasant This abundantly satisfies the saints, and
is the fatness of God's house on earth, Ps. xxxvi. 8,
9. This makes them now to drink of the river of
God's pleasures, that with him is the fountain of life,
whence all these streams come, and in his light they
hope to see light, everlasting light. By frequent
meditations on that rest which remains for the peo-
ple of God,(Hcb. iv. 3.) we now enter into that rest
and partake of the comfort of it
Our hopes of that happiness through grace would
be very much strengthened, and our evidences for
it cleared up insensibly, if we did but converse more
with it, and the discoveries made of it in the Scrip-
ture. We may have foretastes of heavenly delights,
while we are here on earth, clusters from Canaan,
while we are yet in this wilderness, and there is no
pleasure comparable to that which these afford.
That is the sweetest joy within us, which is borrowed
264
THE PLEASURE OF BEING REUGIOUS.
from the joy set. before us. And we deprive our-
selves very much of the comfort of our religion, in
not having our eye more to that joy. We rejoice
most triumphantly, and with the greatest degrees of
holy glorying, when we rejoice in hope of the glory
of Gody Rom. v. 2. In this our heart is glad, and
our glory rejoices, Ps. xvi. 9.
3. Let us make it appear, that we have, indeed,
found Wisdom's ways to be pleasantness, and her
paths peace. If we have experienced this truth, let
us evidence our experience, and not only in word,
but in deed, bearing our testimony to the truth of
it. Let us live as those who believe the sweetness
of religion, not because we are told it, but because
we have tasted it, 1 John i. 1.
If so be then, to borrow the apostle's words, (1
Pet. ii. 3.) we have tasted that the Lord is gracious,
if we have, indeed, found it a pleasant thing to be
religious ;
(I.) Let our hearts be much enlarged in all reli-
gious exercises, and all instances of gospel-obedi-
ence. The more pleasant the sen'ice of God is, the
more we should abound in it. When God enlarges
our hearts with his consolations, he expects that we
should run the way of his commandments, that we
should exert ourselves in our duty with more vigour,
and press forward the more earnestly towards per-
fection.
This should make us forward to every good work,
and ready to close with all opportunities of serving
God, and doing good ; that which we take a plea-
sure in, we need not to be twice called to. If indeed
the hearts of those rejoice that seek the Lord, (as in
Ps. cv. 3.) then when God says, Seek ye my facc^ how
steadily should our hearts answer at the first word,
Thy face. Lord, will we seek; (Ps. xxvii, 8.) and
how glad shall we be, when it is said. Let us go to
the hoxtse of the Lord! Ps. cxxii. 1. This should
make us forward to acts of charity, that there is a
pleasure in doing good ; and we shall reflect with
comfort upon it, that we have done something that
will turn to the honour of God and our own account.
This should make us lively in our duty ; and fix
tbe heart in hearing the word, and in prayer and
praise. Those that take delight in music, how does
it engage them ! How do all the marks of a close
application of mind appear in their countenance
and carriage ! And shall not we, by our attending on
the Lord without distraction, make it to appear, that
we attend upon him with delight, and are in our
element when we are in his service ? Let this be my
rest for ever: here let me dwell all the days of my
life.
This should keep us constant and unwearied in
the work and service of God. What is really our
delight, we are not soon weary of. If we delight in
approaching to God, we shall seek him daily, and
make it our daily work to honour him. If medita-
tion and prayer be sweet, let them be our daily exer-
cise; and let this bind our souls with a bond to
God, and the sacrifice as with cords to the horns of
the altar. With this we should answer all tempta-
tions to apostasy : '< Shall I quit so good a master,
so good a service ? Entreat me not to leave Christ,
or to turn from following after him ; for it is good
to he here.** Here let us make tahemaelesy (Matt xvii.
4.) Whither else shall we go, but to him that has the
words df eternal life.
(2.) Let our whole conversation be cheerful, and
melancholy be banished. Are the ways of religion
pleasant ? Let us be pleasant in them, both to our-
selves, and to those about us. As for those who are
yet in a state of sin and wrath, they have reason to
be melancholy ; let the sinners in Zion be afraid,
be afllicted, joy is forbidden fruit to them; what
have they to do with peace ? Rejoice not, O Israel,
for joy as other people, for thou hast gone m whoring
from thy God, Hos. ix. 1.
But those who, through grace, are called out of
darkness into a marvellous light, have cause to be
cheerful, and should have hearts to be so. Arise,
shine, for thy Light is come, Isa. Ix. 1. Is the Son
of Righteousness risen upon us ? Let us arise, look
forth as the morning with the morning. That com-
fort which Christ directs to our souls, let us reflect
back upon others. And as our light is come, so is
our liberty. Art thou loosed from the bands of thy
neck ? O captive daughter of Zion, awake^ awake,
put on thy strength, put on thy beautiful garment, and
shake thyself from the dust, arise and sit dawn, 0
Jerusalem, Isa. lii. 1, 2.
Though vain and carnal mirth is both a great sin,
and a great snare, yet there is a holy cheerfulness
and pleasantness of conversation, which will not
only consist very well with serious godliness, but
greatly promote it in ourselves, and greatly adorn it
and reconunend it to others. A merry heart (Solo-
mon says) does good like a medicine, (Prov. xvii. 22.)
and make fat the bones ; while a broken spirit does
hurt like a poison, and dries the bones. Christians
should endeavour to keep up a cheerful temper, and
not indulge themselves in that which is saddening
and disquieting to the spirit; and they should show
it in all holy conversation, that those they converse
with may see, they did not renounce pleasure, when
they embraced religion.
I am sure none have so much reason to rejoice
as good people have, nor so much done for them to
encourage their joy ; and therefore, (to allude to that
of Jonadab to Amnon,) Why art thou, being the king's
son, lean from day to day ? 2 Sam. xiii. 4. Are wo
in prosperity? Therefore let us be cheerful, in
gratitude to the God of our mercies, who expects
that we should serve him with joy fulness and gladness
of heart, in the abundance of all things, (Deut. xxviii.
47.) and justly takes it ill if we do not.
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
265
Tristis eSiCtfeliz? Sciat hoc Fortuna caveto,
Ingratum dicet te (Lupe) si scierit Mart.
in the wudit ofprotperitf org yra torrow/uif Btwart tkai Forhuu
ktar it not ; if skt be informed of it {LuputJ tho will call jrov un-
froUfoL Hart.
Are we in affliction ? Tet let us be cheerful, that
we may make it appear that our happiness is not
laid up in the creature, nor our treasures on earth.
If it is the privileg^e of Christians to rejoice in tribu-
lation, let them not throw away their privilege, but
glory in it, and make use of it Let the joy of the
Lord, which has infused itself into our hearts, dif-
fuse itself into all our converse. Go thy way, eat thy
bread with joy^ (Eccl. ix. 7.) and drink thy wine; nay,
if thou shouldst be reduced to drink mere water,
drink it with a merry heart, if thou hast good ground
to hope that in Christ Jesus, God now accepts thy
works : and this joy of the Lord will be thy strength.
(3.) Let us look with contempt upon the pleasures
of sense, and with abhorrence upon the pleasures of
sin. The more we have tasted of the delights of
heaven, the more our mouths should be put out of
taste with the delights of this earth. Let not those
who have been feasted with the milk and honey of
Canaan, hanker after the garlic and onions of Egypt.
Let us keep at a distance from all forbidden
pleasures ; there is a hook under those baits, a snake
under the green grass ; a rock under those smooth
waters, on which multitudes have split. We must
ao dread the drunkard's pleasure, as not to look upon
the wine when it is red, (Prov. xxiii. 31.) so dread the
pleasures of the adulterer, as not to look upon a
woman to lust after her ; (Matt v. 28.) for these
pleasures of sin not only are but for a season, but at
the last they bite like a serpent, and sting like an
adder. Either spiritual pleasures will deaden the
force of the pleasures of sin, or the pleasures of sin
will spoil the relish of spiritual pleasures.
Let us keep up a holy indifference even to the
lawful delights of sense, and take heed not to love
them more than God. The eye that has looked at
the sun, is dazzled to ever}' thing else. Have we
beheld the beauty of the Lord ? Let us see and own
bow little beauty there is in other things. If we be
tempteS to do any thing unbecoming us, by the al-
Jarements of pleasure, we may well say, ** Offer these
things to those that know no better ; but we do, and
will never leave fountains of living water for cis-
terns of puddle water."
(4.) Let not our hearts envy sinners. Envy arises
from an opinion that the state of others is better
than our own, which we grudge and are displeased
at, and wish ourselves in their condition. Good
people are often cautioned against this sin : Be not
thou envious against evil men, nor desire to he with
them ; (Prov. xxiv. 1. Ps. xxxvii. 1.) for if there be
all this pleainre in religion, and we have expe-
rienced it, surely we would not exchange our con-
dition with any sinner, even in his best estate.
Envy not sinners their outward prosperity, their
wealth and abundance, which put them into a capa-
city of having all the delights of sense raised to the
highest pitch of pleasure ; though they lie upon beds
of ivory, {Amos vi. 4, 6, 6.) and stretch themselves
upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flocks,
and the calves out of the midst of the stall, though they
chant to the sound of the viol, drink wine in bowls, and
anoint themselves with the chief ointments ; yet those
have no reason to envy them, whose souls dwell at ease
in God ; who are fed with the bread of life, the true
manna, angels' food, and drink of the water of life
freely ; that make melody with their hearts to the
Lord, and are made to hear from him joy and glad-
ness ; and have received the anointing of the Spirit.
If we have relished the delights of religion, we shall
say as David, Let us not eat of their tlainties, Ps.
cxiv. 4.
Envy not sinners the liberty they take to sin ; that
they can allow theniselves in the full enjoyment of
those pleasures which we cannot think of without
horror ; but have not we then the enjoyment of those
pleasures which are infinitely better, and which they
are strangers to ? We cannot have both, and of the
two, are not ours, without dispute, preferable to
theirs ; and why then should we envy them ? Their
pleasures are enslaving, ours enlarging ; theirs de-
basing to the soul, ours ennobling ; theirs surfeit-
ing, ours satisfying ; theirs offensive to God, ours
pleasing to him ; theirs vnll end in pain and bitter-
ness, ours will be perfected in endless joys ; and
what reason then have we to envy them ?
(5.) Let not our spirits sink, or be dejected, under
the afflictions of this present time. We disparage
our comforts in God, if we lay too much to heart our
crosses in the world : and therefore, hereby let us
evidence, that, being satisfied o/* God's loving-kind-
ness, we are satisfied with it. Let us look upon that
as sufficient to balance all the unkindnesses of men.
They that value themselves upon God's smiles,
ought not to vex themselves at the world's frowns.
The light of God's countenance can shine through
the thickest clouds of the troubles of this present
time : and, therefore, we should walk in the light of
the Lord, even when, as to our outward condition,
we sit in darkness.
We manifest that we have found true delight and
satisfaction in the service of God, and communion
with him, when the pleasure of them will make the
bitterest cup of affliction that our Father puts into
our hand, not only passable but pleasant ; so that,
like blessed Paul, when we are as sorrowful, yet we
may be always rejoicing, and may take pleasure in
infirmities and rcprouches, because, though, for the
present, they are not joyous but grievous, yet when
afterwards they yield the peaceable fruit of righte-
266
THE PLEASURE OF BEING RELIGIOUS.
oasness, they become not grievous, but truly joyous.
Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest.
(6.) Let the pleasure we have found in religion,
dispose us to be liberal and charitable to the poor
and distressed. The pleasing sense we have of God's
bounty to us, by which he has done so much to make
us easy, should engage us bountifully to distribute
to the necessities of saints, according to our ability ;
not only to keep them from perishing, but to make
them easy, and that they may rejoice as well as we.
Cheerfulness that enlarges the heart, should open
the hand too. Paul observes it concerning the
churches of Macedonia, who were ready to give for
the relief of the poor saints at Jerusalem, that it
was Ihe abundance of their joy, their spiritual joy,
their joy in God, that abounded unto the riches of
their liberality ^ 2 Cor. viii. 2.
When the people of Israel are commanded to re-
joice in every good thing which God had given them,
(Deut. xxvi. 11, 12.) Ihey are commanded also to
give freely to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless,
and the widow, that they may edt and be filled. And
when upon a particular occasion they are directed to
eat the fat, and drink the sweet, (Neh. viii. 10.) at
the same time they are directed to send portions to
them for whotn nothing is prepared: and then the
joy of the Lord will be their strength. By our being
charitable, we should show that we are cheerful ;
that we cheerfully taste God's goodness in what
we have, and trust his goodness for what we may
liereafter want.
(7.) Let us do what we can to bring others to par-
take of the same pleasures in religion which we
have tasted, especially those who are under our
charge. It adds very much to the pleasure of an
enjoyment, to communicate of it to others, especially
when the nature of it is such, that we have never the
less, but the more rather, for others sharing in it
What good tidings we hear, that are of common
concern, we desire that others may hear them, and
be glad too. He that has but found a lost sheep,
calls his friends and neiglibours to rejoice with him ;
(Luke XV. 6.) but he that has found Christ, and
found comfort in him, can say, not only. Come, re-
joice with me, but, Come, and partake with me ; for
yet there is room enough for all, though ever so nu-
merous, enough for each, though ever so necessitous
and craving.
When Samson had found honey in the carcass
of the lion, (Judg. xiv. 8.) he brought some of it to
his parents, that they might partake with him : thus
when we have found a day in God's courts better
than a thousand, we should invite others into those
courts, by telling them what God has done for our
souls, and how willing he is to do the same for
theirs, if tliey, in like manner, apply themselves to
him. When Andrew, with a surprising pleasure,
finds the Messiah, (John i. 41, 45.) he cannot rest
till he has brought his brother Peter to him ; nor
Philip till he has brought his friend Nathaniel-
They that are feasted with the comforts of God's
house, should not covet to eat their morsel alone, bot
be willing to communicate of their spiritual things.
(8.) Let us be willing to die, and leave this world.
We have reason to be ashamed of ourselves, that we,
who have not only laid up our treasures above, bat
fetch our pleasures thence, are cu much in love with
our present state, and as loth to think of quitting
it, as if our riches, and pleasure, and all, were wrapt
up in the things of sense and time. The delights
of sense entangle us and hold us here ; these aro
the things that make us loth to die, as one once
said, viewing his fine house and gardens. And are
these things sufficient to court our stay here, when
God says. Arise, and depart, for this is not yottr
rest ? Mic. ii. 10.
Let us not be afraid to remove from a world of
sense to a world of spirits, since we have found the
pleasures of sense not worthy to be compared with
spiritual pleasures. When in old age, which is one
of the valleys of the shadow of death, we can no
longer relish the delights of the body, but they be-
come sapless and tasteless, (as they were to Barzil-
lai,) yet we need not call those evil days, and years
in which we have no pleasure, if we have walked and
persevered in Wisdom's ways ; for if so, we may
then in old age look back with pleasure upon a life
well spent on earth, (as Hezekiah did,) and look
forward with pleasure, upon a life to be better spent
in heaven.
And when we have received a sentence of death
within ourselves, and see the dav approaching, the
pleasure we have in loving God, and helieving in
Christ, and in the expressions of holy joy and thank-
fulness, should make even a sick-bed and a death-
bed easy ; The saints shall be joyful in glory, and
shall sing aloud upon their beds, (Ps. cxlix. 5.) those
beds to which they are confined, and from which
they are removing to their graves, their beds in the
darkness. Our religion, if we be faithful to it, will
furnish us with li\dng comforts in dying moments,
sufficient to balance the pains of death, and take off
the terror of it, and to enable us to triumph over it ;
O death ! where is thy sting ? Let us then etidence
our experience of the pleasures of religion, by living
above the inordinate love of life, and fear of death.
(9.) Lastly, Let us long for the perfection of tliese
spiritual pleasures in the kingdom of glory. When
we come thither, and not till then, tiiey will be per-
fected ; while we are here, as we know and love but
in part, so we rejoice*but in part ; even our spiritual
joys here have their damps and allays ; we mix
tears and tremblings with them : but, in heaven,
there is ti fulness of joy without mixture, and plea-
sures for evermore, without period or diminution.
The servants of Christ will there enter into the joy
THE PLEASURE OF BEING REU6I0US.
267
of their Lord, and it shall be everlasting joy, Isa.
XXXY. 10.
And what are the pleasares in the way of Wisdom,
compared with those at the end of the way? If a
complacency in the divine beauty and love be so
pleasant while we are in the body, and are absent
from the Lord, what will it be when we have put off
the body, and go to be present with the Lord? If a
day in God's courts, and a few minutes spent there
in his praises, be so pleasant ; what will an eternity
within the veil be, among them that dwell in his
house above, and are still praising him ? If the ear-
nest of our inheritance be so comfortable, what will
the inheritance itself be ?
Now whenever there is grace, it will be aiming
at, and pressing towards, its own perfection ; it is a
well of water springing up to eternal life ; (John iv.
14.) this therefore we should be longing for. Our
love to God in this world is love in motion, in heaven
it will be love at rest : O when shall that sabbatisra
come, which remains for the people of God ? Here
we have the pleasure of looking towards God ; O
when shall we come and appear before him ? Our Lord
Jesus, when at his last passover, which he earnestly
desired to eat with his disciples, he had tasted of the
fruit of the vine, speaks as one that longed to drink
it new in the kingdom of his Father, Matt. xxvi. 29.
It is very pleasant to serve Christ here, but to depart
and be with Christ, is far better. Now are we the sons
of God, (1 John iii. 2.) and it is very pleasant to
think of it ; but it doth not yet appear what we shall
be : something there is in reserve, which we are kept
in expectation of. We are not yet at home, but should
long to be there, and keep up holy desires of that
glory to be revealed, that we may be quickened, as
long as we are here, to press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling.
DISCOURSE
CONCERNING
MEEKNESS AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
TO WHICH IS ADDED
A SERMON ON ACTS XXVIII. 22.
SHOWING THAT THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION IS NOT A SECT ; AND YET THAT IT IS EVERY WHERE
SPOKEN AGAINST.
To THE Reader.
I DO not think it at aH needful to tell the world what
it was which led me to the writing of this discourse
concerning Meekness, the substance of which was
preached several years ago ; nor am I concerned to
apologize for the publication of it : if I thought it
needed an apology I would not consent to it. That
temper of mind, which it endeavours to promote, and
to charm men into, every one will own to be highly
conducive to the comfort of human life, the honour
of our holy religion, and the welfare and happiness
of all societies, civil and sacred: and therefore, while
the design cannot be disliked, I hope what is weak and
defective in the management, will be excused. Some
useful discourses have been of late published against
rash anger, and an excellent dissuasive from revenge
by the present Bishop of Chester; wherein those
brutish vices are justly exposed. I am cooperating
in the design, while I recommend the contrary vir-
tues to the love and practice of all that profess rela-
tion to the Holy Jesus. And if this Essay have.that
good effect upon those into whose hands it shall at
any time fall, my object will be attained.
As to the Sermon annexed, it is published (with
some enlargements) at the request of a very worthy
friend who heard it preached in London last summer:
and since, blessed be God, there are a great many
testimonies borne at this day, against the avowed
infidelity and impiety of the age, I hope this may be
accepted as a mite cast into that treasury, by a cor-
dial friend to peace and holiness.
M. HENRY.
Chester, Nov. 21, 1098.
• V. 1, 2.
1 Peter iii. 4. [latter part.]
Even the ornament of a meeh and quiet spirit,
which is in the sight of God of great price.
The apostle Peter, in this Epistle, (as also his be-
loved brother Paul, in many of his,) is very earnest
in pressing upon Christians the conscientious dis-
charge of the duties of their particular relations, and
not without good reason ; for generally it holds true,
** That we are really, as we are relatively."* He is
here, in the former part of this chapter, directing
Christian wives how to carry themselves in that re-
lation, to the glory of God, their own comfort, and
the spiritual benefit and advantage of their yoke-
fellows. Among other good lessons, he teaches
them how to dress themselves as it becomes women
professing godliness.* Those of that sex are com-
monly observed to be very solicitous about their or-
naments. When the question is asked, Can a maid
forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? it is
supposed scarcely possible, Jer. ii. 32. This pre-
vailing inclination the apostle here takes hold of,
for the recommending of those graces and duties to
their choice and practice, which are indeed the most
excellent and amiable adorning, not only of their
sex to whom the exhortation is primarily directed,
but of the other also, for whom, no doubt, it is like-
wise intended. Observe this method :
1. He endeavours to wean them from the vanity
of outward ornaments, v. 3. whose adorning let it not
be that outward adorning, &c. aiv (?{■)— ic6<r^oc« This
does not forbid the sober and moderate use of decent
ornaments, when it is according to the quality, place,
* Genui muUehre e*t if>t\6ii9cuo».—The race of women U attached
to ornaments. LeriH. in loc.
^;-.
*
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS, &c.
and station, and in dae season ; (not on dajs of
fasting, and humiliation, when it is proper for orna-
ments to be laid aside, Exod. xxxiii. 4, 6.) but it
forbids the inordinate love and excessive use (that
is, the abuse) of them. There may be the plaiting of
the hair, and the wearing ofgold^ and there mutt he the
putting on of apparel; (that shame, which came into
the world with sin, has made it necessary ;) but we
must not make these things our adorning ; that is,
we must not set our hearts upon them, nor value
ourselves by them, nor think the better of ourselves
for them, nor pride ourselves in them, as if they
added any real excellency to us, nor say to them as
Saul did to Samuel, Honour me now before this
people, out of a vain ambition to make a fair show
in the flesh. We must spend no more care, or
thoughts, or time, or words, or cost, about them, and
lay no more stress or weight upon them, than they
deserve, and that is but a very little. It is but glm'y
hung upon ui, as the expression is, (Isa. xxii. 24.)
and has no glory, if compared with the glory that
excelleth it even in the creatures that are so far
below us :*" for Solomon, in all his glory, was not
arrayed or beautified like one of those lilies, which
to-day iSf and to-morrow is east into the oven. We
must not seek first these things, nor seek them most,
as if we had bodies for no other end than to wear
out our clothes, and had nothing else to do with
them than to make them fine. It was the folly, and
proved the ruin, of that rich man in the parable,
that he made his purple, and his fine linen, (with the
other ornaments and delights of the body,) his good
things, the things in which he placed his happiness,
and in which he had his consolation, (Lukexvi. 19,
25.) that is, in the language of this scripture, he
made them his adorning f and so, being unclothed
of these, he was found naked. Let not the wearing
of gold, and the putting on of apparel, be thapo^^the
world ; so it may be rendered : it is mundus mulie-
Iris — a woman's world. Let not these things be all
the world with us, as they are with many, who rec-
kon that to be out of the fashion (whatever it be) is
to be out of the world.' Christians are called out
of the world, and delivered from it, and should evi-
dence a victory obtained by faith over it, as in other
instances, 90 in this. It is a prescribed rule of our
holy religion, (whether they will hear, or whether
they will forbear,) that women adorn themselves in
modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, 1
Tim. ii. 9. But whereas there are some, on the one
hand, that exclaim against vanity in apparel as the
crying sin of this age, above any other, as if it were
a new thing under the sun, and the former days
were, in this respect, better than these ;* and some,
on the other hand, condeom it as a piece of fanati-
cism io witness (as there is occasion) against this
vanity; both may receive a sufficient answer, if
they will but read that excellent Homily of the
Church of England, entitled, *' An Homily against
Excess of Apparel," (No. 18.) by which it will ap-
pear, that even in those early days of the reforma-
tion, it was a vanity that prevailed much in our land,
and which the rulers of the church thought them-
selves obliged to reprove. But we will hasten to
the text.
2. He endeavours to bring them in love with the
better ornaments, those of the mind, the graces of
the blessed Spirit, here called b cpvirr^c AvO^umoQ-^
the hidden man of the heart. Grotius observes, that
'' though he writes to women, yet he uses a word of
the masculine gender, because the ornament he re-
conunends, is such as both men and women must be
adorned with.'' Grace, as a living principle of
regular holy thoughts, words, and actions, is some-
times called the new man, (Eph. iv. 24.) sometimes
the inward man, (Rom. vii. 22. and 2 Cor. iv. 16.)
and so here, the hidden man of the heart. It is called
a man, because it is made up of many parts and
members, and its operations are vital and rational ;
and it restores those to the dignity of men, who, by
sin, had made themselves like the beasts that perish.
' It is called the man of the heart, because out of
the heart are the issues of life ; there lie the springs
of the words and actions, and therefore into that the
salt of grace is cast, and so all the waters are healed.>
He is the Christian indeed, that is one inwardly, and
that circumcision, that baptism, which is of the
heart, Rom. ii. 29. It is called the hidden man of
the heart, because the work of grace is a secret
thing, and does not make a pompous show in the eye
of the world ; it is a mystery of godliness ; a** life
that is hid with Christ in God, to whom secret things
belong; therefore the saints are called his hidden
ones, (Ps. Ixxxiii. 3.) for the world knows them not,
much less does it yet appear what they shall be.
The king's daughter that is espoused to Christ, is
all glorious within, Ps. xlv. 13. The working of
grace in the soul is often represented as a regenera-
tion, or being begotten again ; and perhaps when
this good work is called the hidden man of the heart,
there may be some allusion to the^ forming of the
bones in the womb of her that is with child, which
Solomon speaks of as unaccountable, as is also the
way of the Spirit, Eccl. xi. 6. compare John iii. 8.
And lastly, it consists in that which is not corrupti-
ble ; it is not depraved or vitiated by the corruption
that is in the world through lust, and is in the soul
a well of living water, springing up unto eternal life,
John iv. 14.
In the text he specifies one particular gprace, one
member of this hidden man in the heart, which
we must every one of us adorn ourselves with, and
¥ Mfttt vi. 89, 30.
4 Gal. L 4. 1 John v. 4.
e 3 Cor. ▼. 3.
• Eccl. vii. 10.
f Prov. It. 33l
b Col. iii. X
r 3 Kings ii. 21.
i Ps. cixxix. I4-1S.
270
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
that is, a meek and quiet gpirit, which is in the $ight
of God of great price. Where observe,
(1.) The grace itself here recommended to us ; it
is a meek and quiet spirit. There must be not only
a meek and quiet behaviour outwardly ; there may
be that, either by constraint, or with some base and
disguised design, while the soul in the mean time
is rough and turbulent, and envenomed ; the words
may be softer than oil, while war is in the heart, Ps.
Iv. 21. But the word of God is KpiriKoo—^ discemer
and judge of the thoughts and intents of the heart,
Heb. iv. 12. The power of men's laws may bind a
man to good behaviour, but it is only the power of
God's grace that will renew a right spirit within
him, Ps. li. 10. It is this that makes the tree good,
and then the fruit will be good. The God with whom
we have to do, demands the heart, looks at the prin-
ciple, and requires truth in the inward parts, not
only in the duties of his own immediate worship, that
those be done in the Spirit, but also in the duty we
owe to our neighbour, that that also be done with a
pure heart, and without dissimulation. The word of
command which the Captain of our salvation gives,
is. Christians, take heed to your spirits, Mai. ii. 15.
(2.) The excellency of this grace ; it is in the sight
of God of great price. It is really a precious grace,
for it is so in the sight of God, and we know that he
can neither deceive, nor be deceived. It is woXvriKkQ,
which is the same word that is used, (1 Tim. ii. 9.)
for that costly array, which is joined with gold and
pearls, iftawtrfu^ woXvrtXti, Persons of quality, in their
ornaments, affect not so much that which is gay, as
that which is rich ; not that which makes a glitter-
ing, gaudy show, and pleases children and fools,
but that which is of intrinsic value, and recommends
itself to the intelligent. A meek and quiet spirit is
such an ornament, which has not that gaiety which
is agreeable to the humour of a carnal world, but that
real worth which recommends it to the favour of God.
It is one of those graces which are compared to the
powders of the merchant, (Cant. iii. 6.) far-fetched,
and dear-bought, even with the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus. ^ Herein we shou Id every one ^ikorifivfuda
labour, and this we should be ambitious of, as the
greatest honour, that present or absent, living and
dying, we may be accepted of the Lord; and blessed
be God it is a thing attainable, through the Medi-
ator, from whom we have received how to walk so
as to please him ; we must walk with meekness and
quietness of Spirit, for this is in the sight of God of
great price. Therefore this mark of honour is, in a
special manner, put upon the grace of meekness,
because it is commonly despised and looked upon
with contempt by the children of this world, as a
piece of mean-spiritedness ; but (however they be
termed and treated now) they are happy, and will
k s Cor. ▼. 9.
appear so shortly, whom God approves, and to whom
he says. Well done, good and faithful sercani; for by
his judgment we must stand or fall eternally.
These words, therefore, will easily afford us this
plain Doctrine,
That meekness and quietness of spirit is a very
excellent grace, which we should every one of
us put on, and be adorned with.
In the prosecution hereof, we shall endeavour,
I. To show what this meekness and quietness of
Spirit is. And,
II. What excellency there is in it. And,
III. Apply it.
CHAPTER I.
THB NATURE OF MBBKNB88 AND QUlBTNXSt OP SFIBIT.
Meekness and quietness seem to import much the
same thing, but the latter having something of
metaphor in it, will illustrate the former, and there-
fore we shall speak of them distinctly.
I. We must be of a meek spirit.— irpaoc qu. pooc
—facilis^^asy: so the critics. Meekness is easiness
of spirit ; not a sinful easiness to be debauched, as
Ephraim's, who willingly walked after the csommand-
ment of the idolatrous princes, (Hos. v. 11.) nor a
simple easiness to be imposed upon and deceived,
as Rehoboam's, who, when he was forty years old,
is said to be young and tender-hearted, (2 Chron.
xiii. 7.) but a g^cious easiness to be vrrought upon
by that which is good, as theirs whose heart of stone
is taken away, and to whom a heart of fiesk is
given. Meekness is easiness, for it accommodates
the soul to every occurrence, and so makes a man
easy to himself, and to all about him. The Latins
call a meek man mamuetus, qu. manu assuetus^^used
to the hand ; which alludes to the taming and re-
claiming of creatures wild by nature, and bringing
them to be tractable and familiar.* Man's corrupt
nature has made him like the wild ass used to the
wilderness, or the swift dromedary traversing her
ways, (Jer. ii. 23, 24.) but the grace of meekness,
when that gets dominion in the soul, alters the
temper of it, brings it to hand, submits it to manage-
ment ; and now the wolf dwells with the lamb, and
the leopard lies down with the kid, and a little child
may lead them ; for enemies are laid aside, and there
is nothing to hurt or destroy, Isa. xi. 6, 9.
Meekness may be considered with respect both to
God, and to our brethren ; it belongs to both the
tables of the law, and attends upon the first great
commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God;
as well as the second, which is like unto it. Thou
a Jam. iii. 7, 8.
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
371
skMh lave iMy neighbour as thyself ; though its special
reference is to the latter.
1. There is meekness toward God, and it is the
easy and quiet submission of the soul to his whole
will, according as he is pleased to make it known,
whether by his word or by his providence.
(I.) It is the silent submission of the soul to the
word of God : the understanding bowed to every
divine truth, and the will to every divine precept ;
and both without murmuring or disputing. The word
is then an engrafted word, when it is received with
meekness, (Jam. i. 21.) that is, with a sincere will-
ingness to be taught, and desire to learn. Meekness
is a grace that cleaves the stock, and holds it open,
that the word, as the imp, or shoot, may be grafted
in ; it breaks up the fallow ground, and makes it fit
to receive the seed ; captivates the high thoughts,
and lays the «ml like white paper under God's pen.
When the day-*prin^ takes hold of the ends of the
tsrth, it is said to be turned as clay to the seal. Job
xxxviii. 12—14. Meekness does, in like manner,
dispose the soul to admit the rays of divine light,
which before it rebelled against ; it opens the heart,
as Lydia's was opened ; and sets us down with Mary
at the feet of Christ; the learner's place and posture.
(Compare Dent, xxxiii. 3.) The promise of teaching
is made to the meek, because they are disposed to
learn ; The meek toilt he teach his way, Ps. xxv. 8, 9.
The word of God is gospel indeed, good tidings to
the meek, (Isa. Ixi. 1.) they will entertain it and bid
it welcome ; the poor in spirit are evangelized, (Matt
xi. 6.) and wisdom's alms are given to those that with
meekness ^ wak daily at her gates, and like beggars
wait at the posts of her doors. The language of this
meekness is that of the child Samuel, (1 Sam. iii. 9.)
Speak Lard, for thy servant heareth ; and that of
Joshua, who, when he was in that high post of ho-
nour, giving command to Israel, and bidding de-
fiance to all their enemies, (his breast filled with
great and bold thoughts,) yet, upon the intimation
of a message from heaven, thus submits himself to
it, (Josh. V. 14.) What saith my Lord unto his servant ?
And that of Paul, (and it was the first breath of a
new man,) Acts ix. 6. Lord, what wilt thou have me
to do? And that of Cornelius, (Acts x. 33.) And now
we are aU here present before God, to hear all things
that are commanded thee of God. And that of the
good man I have read of, who, when he was going
to bear the word, used to say, ** Now let the word
of the Lord come ; and if I had six hundred necks,
I would bow them all to the authority of it." To re-
ceive the word with meekness, is to be delivered into
it, as into a mould : it seems to be PauFs metaphor,
Rom. Ti. 17. that form of doctrine tig ov wapti6^
kProv. vUiac
• MOmtrt Mi SM cmUndtetr* divine ScriptMTtB tivt inUUeeUt, ti
nlitptrewtii, siwtatm imIiUeeUe, quasi no* nuUn* tapert postemui. Aug.
i't.i9 D§elHad CMstL—Tvat meekness will prevent us from op-
into which you were given up. Meekness softens the
wax, that it may receive the impression of the seal,
whether it be for doctrine or reproof, for correction
or instruction in righteousness. It opens the ear to
discipline, silences objections, and suppresses the
risings of the carnal mind against the word ; con-
senting to the Law that it is good,* and esteeming
all the precepts concerning all things to be right,
even when they give the greatest check to flesh and
blood.
(2.) It is the silent submission of the soul to the
providence of God, for that also is the will of God
concerning us.
[1.] When the events of Providence are grievous
and afflictive, displeasing to sense, and crossing our
secular interests ; meekness not only quiets us under
them, but reconciles us to them ; and enables us not
only to bear, but to receive, evil as well as good at
the hand of the Lord ; which is the excellent frame
that Job argues himself into. Job ii. 10. It is to kiss
the rod, and even to accept of the punishment of our
iniquity ; taking all in good part that God does :
not daring to strive with our Maker, no, nor desiring
to prescribe to him, but dumb, and not opening the
mouth because God does it. How meek was Aaron
under the severe dispensation which took away his
sons with a particular mark of divine wrath ! He
held his peace, (Lev. x. 3.) God was sanctified, and
therefore Aaron was satisfied, and had not a word
to say against it Unlike to this was the temper, or
rather the distemper, of David, who was not like a
man after God's own heart, when lie was displeased
because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzziah,
(2 Sam. vi. 8.) as if God must have asked David
leave thus to assert the honour of his ark. When
God's anger is kindled, ours must be stifled ; such
is the law of meekness, that whatsoever pleases
God, must not displease us. David was in a better
frame when he penned the 66th Psalm, the title of
which, some think, bespeaks the calmness and sub-
missiveness of his spirit when the Philistines took
him in Gath. It is upon Jonathelem-reckokim, — the
silent dove afar off. It was his calamity, that he was
afar off", but he was then as a silent dove ; mourning
perhaps, (Isa. xxxviii. 14.) but not murmuring, not
struggling, not resisting, when seized by the birds
of prey ; and the Psalm he penned in this frame,
was, Michtam, a Golden Psalm. The language of
this meekness is that of Eli, (1 Sam. iii. 18.) It is
the Lard: and that of David to the same purport,
(2 Sam. XV. 26.) Here I am, let him do to me as seem-
eth good unto him. Not only, he can do what he will,
subscribing to his power, for who can stay his hand ?
Or, He may do what he will, subscribing to his
posing either the obvious parts of Scripture, severely as they may
task our vices ) or the mysterious parts, in reading which, vanity
may suggest that we could have dictated what Is more profit-
able.
272
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
soverei^ty, for he giyes not accoant of any of his
matters. Or, He will do ivhat he will, sabscribing
to his unchangeableness, for he is in one mind, and
who can turn him ? But, Let him do what he will, sub-
scribing to his wisdom and goodness, as Hezekiah,
(Isa. xxxix. 8.) Good is tht word of the Lord, which
thou host spohen. Let him do what he will, for he
will do what is best ; and therefore, if God should
refer the matter to me, (says the meek and quiet
soul,) being well assured that he knows what is
good for me better than I do for myself, I would
refer it to him again ; he shall choose our inheritance
for vs, Ps. xlvii. 4.
[2.] When the methods of Providence are dark and
intricate, and we are quite at a loss what God is
about to do with us, his way is in the sea, and his path
in the great waters, and his footsteps are not known,
clouds and darkness are round about him ; a meek
and quiet spirit acquiesces in an assurance, that all
things shall work together for good to us, if we love
God, though we cannot apprehend how or which way.
It teaches us to follow God with an implicit faith, as
Abraham did when he went out, not knowing whither
he went, but knowing very well whom he followed,
Heb. xi. 8. It quiets us with this, that though what
he doeth we know not now, yet we shall know here-
after, John xiii. 7. When poor Job was brought to
that dismal plunge, that he could no way trace the
footsteps of the divine providence, but was almost
lost in that labyrinth, (Job xxiii. 8, 9.) how quietly
does he sit down, v. 10. with this thought. But he
knows the way I take ; when he hath tried me, I shall
come forth as gold.
2. There is meekness toward our brethren, toward
all men, (Tit. iii. 2.) and so we take it here. Meek-
ness is especially conversant about the affection of
anger, not wholly to extirpate * and eradicate it out
of the soul ; (that were to quench a coal which some-
times there is occasion for, even at God's altar, and
to blunt the edge even of our spiritual weapons, with
which we are to carry on our spiritual warfare ;) but
its office is to direct and govern this affection, that
we may he angry and not sin, Eph. iv. 26.
Meekness, in the school of the philosophers, is a
virtue consisting in a mean between the extremes of
rash excessive anger on the one hand, and a defect
of anger on the other, in which Aristotle f confesses
it very hard exactly to determine.
Meekness, in the school of Christ, is one of the
fruits of the Spirit, (Gal. v. 22, 23.) it is a grace,
(both gratis data— freely given^ and gratum faciens
— rendering kind,) wrought by the Holy Ghost both
as a sanctifier and as a comforter in the hearts of all
true believers, teaching and enabling them at all
• Not airof^cto— insensibility, but M«Tpioiro0<ia— moderation.
Anger is cot /ortitUJinu-~\he whetstone of courage,
t Ethic. 1. 4. c. 6.
times to keep their passions ander the conduct tad
government of religion and right reason. I obsene
that it is wrought in the hearts of all troe believeis,
because, though there are some roagh and koott]f
pieces that the Spirit works apon, whose natnnl
temper is unhappily sour and harsh, which are Umg
in the squaring ; yet wheresoever there is true gr^e,
there is a disposition to strive against, and strength
in some measure to conquer, that distemper. And
though in this, as in other gpraccs, an absolute sinlen
perfection cannot be expected in this present state,
yet we are to labour after it, and press towards it
More particularly : the work and oflElce of meek-
ness is to enable us prudently to govern our own
anger when at any time we are provoked, and pa-
tiently to bear the anger of others, that it may not
be a provocation to us. The former is its office es-
pecially in superiors, the latter in infefiDrs, and both
in equals.
(I.) Meekness teaches us prudently to govern our
own anger, whenever any thing occurs that is pro-
voking. As it is the work of temperance to mode-
rate our natural appetites toward those things that
are pleasing to sense, so it is the work of meekness
to moderate our natural passions against those
things that are displeasing to sense, and to g^ide and
govern our resentments of those things. Anger ia
the soul is like mettle in a horse, good if it be well
managed. Now meekness is the bridle ; as wisdon
is the hand that gives law to it ; puts it into the right
way, and keeps it in an even, steady, and regular
pace in that way, reducing it when it turns aside,
preserving it in a due decorum, and restraining it
and giving it cheek when at any time it g^ws head-
strong and outrageous, and threatens mischief to
ourselves or others. It must thus be held in, like tke
horse and mule, with bit and bridle, (Ps. xxxii. d.)
lest it break the hedge, run over those that stand in
its way, or throw the rider himself headlong. It is
true of anger, I which we say of fire, that it is a
^* good servant,*' but a ** bad master ;" it is good on
the hearth, but bad in the hangings. Now meekness
keeps it in its place, sets banks to this sea, and says.
Hitherto thou shalt come, and no further ; here shaU
thy proud waves be stayed.
In reference to our own anger, when at any time
we meet with the excitements of it, the work of
meekness is to do these four things :
[I.] To consider the circumstances of that which
we apprehend to be a provocation, so as at no time
to express our displeasure, but upon due and ma-
ture deliberation. The office of meekness is to keep
reason upon the throne in the soul, as it ought to be,
to preserve the understanding clear and unclouded,
I AVa eoyntneUmr avdacin nisi in iWZp, amiau nisi im meceisiute,
sapiens nisi in ird.— It is in war, that we discover the hero ; in a
time of need, the friend ; and during auger, the man of wisdom.
Stnl. jtrab.
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
273
tbe jad^ment untainted and unbiassed in the midst
of the greatest provocations, so as to be able to set
every thing in its true light, and to see it in its own
eolour, and to determine accordingly, as also to
keep silence in the court, that the still small voice,
in which the Lord is, (as he was with Elijah at
Mount Horeb, 1 Kings xix. 12, 13.) may not be
drowned by the noise of the tumult of the passions.
A meek man will never be angry at a child, at a
servant, at a friend, till he has first seriously weigh-
ed the cause in just and even balances, while a
steady and impartial hand holds the scales, and a
free and unprejudiced thought adjudges it neces-
sary. It is said of our Lord Jesus, John xi. 33.
Irapait Mavrbv — he troubled himself; which denotes
it to be a considerate act, and what he saw reason
for. Then things go right in the soul, when no re-
sentments are admitted into the affections, but what
have first undergone the scrutiny of the under-
standing, and thence received their pass. That
passion which comes not in by this door, but climbs
up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber,
which we should stand upon our guard against In
a time of war, (and such a time it is in every sanc-
tified soul in a constant war between grace and
corruption,) due care must be taken to examine all
passengers, especially those that come armed, whence
they came, whither they go, whom they are for, and
what they would have ? Thus should it be in the
well-governed, well-disciplined soul. Let meekness
stand centinel, and, upon the advance of a provoca-
tion,* let us examine who it is that we are about to
be angry with, and for what ? What are the merits
of the cause, wherein lay the offence, what was the
nature and tendency of it? What are likely to be
the consequences of our resentments, and what harm
will it be if we stifle them, and let them go no fur-
ther ? Such as these are the interrogatories which
meekness would put to the soul, and in answer to
them would abstract all that which passion is apt to
SQ|rirc^ ^^^ hear reason only, as it becomes rational
creatures to do.
Three great dictates of meekness we find put to-
gether, in one scripture, James i. 19. Be swift to
kemr^ slow to speak, slow to wrath ; which some ob-
serve to be couched in three proper names of Ishmael's
SOD, Gen. xxv. 14. 1 Chron. i. 30. (which Bishop
Prideaux, in the beginning of the wars, recommend-
ed to a gentleman that had been his pupil, as the
sommary of his advice,) Mishmoy Dumah, Massa ;
the signification of which is, Hear, Keep silence.
Bear. Hear reason, keep passion silent, and then
* EsptndantMT verha^ $i dieeiuhm hoe, n dictndwm adttrsum hvnct li
kmfm ttrwumU til Av/nf , 4rc.— We should carefully consider whether
vhat we ny ought to be said, whether it ought to be said against
this particalar peraou, whether this is the time for saying it, &c.
^air. Je OJU. I. I. c. SK
t /• €9neyHemf mtitrmm mht$»t nunti d*M Infcnndia^ mon fratue.^
In reproving vice, tboogh we admit a degree of anger, we
T
you will not find it difficult to bear the provoca-
tion.
It is said of the Holy One of Israel, when the
^^P^^>is provoked him, Lihravit semitam ira sua
— He weighed a path to his anger: so the margin
reads it from the Hebrew, Ps. Ixxviii. 50. Justice
first poised the cause, and then anger poured out the
vials. Thus (Gen. xi. 6.) the Lord came down to see
the pride of the Babel-builders, before he scattered
them; and (Gen. xviii. 21.) he came down to see
the vrickedncss of Sodom, before he overthrew it,
though both were obvious and barefaced ,t to teach
us to consider before we are angry, and to judge be-
fore we pass sentence, that herein we may he follow-
ers of Gody as dear children, and be merciful, as our
Father which is in heaven is merciful.
We read, (Jam. iii. 13.) of the meekness of wisdom ;
for where there is not wisdom, (that wisdom which is
profitable to direct, that wisdom of the prudent which
is to understand his way,) meekness will not long be
preserved.' It is our rashness and inconsideration
that betray us to all the mischiefs of an ungoverned
passion, on the | neck of which the reins are laid,
(which should be kept in the hand of reason,) and so
we are hurried upon a thousand precipices. Nehe-
miah is a remarkable instance of prudence presiding
in just resentments ; he owns, (Neh. v. 6, 7.) / was
very angry when I heard their cry ; but that anger
did not at all transgress the laws of meekness, for it
follows. Then I consulted with myself or as the He-
brew has it. My heart consulted in me. Before he
expressed his displeasure, he retired into his own
bosom, took time for a sober thought upon the case,
and then he rebuked the nobles, in a very solid ra-
tional discourse, v. 8 — 11. and the success was good,
V. 12, 13. In every cause, when passion demands
immediate judgment, meekness moves for further
time, and will have the matter fairly argued, and
counsel heard on both sides.
When the injured Levite had pitched upon a
very barbarous course to irritate the tribes of Israel
(who commonly were too fiery to need a spur) against
the men of Gibeah, yet vrithal lie referred the
matter to their deliberate counsels, to teach us, when
our hearts are meditating revenge, to do likewise,
Judg. xix. 30. So and so the matter is, consider of
it, take advice, and then speak your minds. When
Job had any quarrel with his servants, he was will-
ing to admit a rational debate of the matter, and to
hear what they had to say for themselves. For,
(says he,) what shall I do when God riseth up ? And
withal, did not he that made me in the womb, make
»
should not suffer it to usurp arbitrary sway. Crrg. i« Jo6, 1. 3G.
e. 36.
e Eccl. X. 10. Prov. xlv. 8.
t Ratio id judicar* puU qtutd ^eqnum ttt^ Irm id aquum videri ptit,
7vo</yvJtctfrt/— Reason prompts us to pass a righteous judgment ;
anger first hurries us into an opinion, and then, whatever it is, re.
solves to maintain it. Sen.
274
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
him ? Job xxxi. 13—16. When our hearts arc at
any time hot within us, we should do well to put
that question to ourselves which God put to Cain,
(Gen. iv. 6.) Why am I wroth ? Why am I angry at
all ? Why so soon angry ? Why so very angry ? Why
so far transported, and dispossessed of myself, by
my anger? What reason is there for all this? Do I
well to be angry for a gourde that came up in a night,
and pei-ished in a night ? Jonah iv. 9. Should I be
touched to the quick by such a sudden and transient
provocation ? W^ill not my cooler thoughts correct
these hasty resentments, and therefore were it not
better to check them now ? Such are the reasonings
of the meekness of wisdom.
[2.] The work of meekness is to calm the spirit,
so as that the inward peace may not be disturbed by
any outward provocation. No doubt a man may
express his displeasure against the miscarriages of
another, as much as at any time there is occasion
for, without suffering his resentments to recoil upon
himself, and to put his own soul into a hurry.
What need is there for a man to tear himself (his
soul, so it is in the Hebrew) in his anger ? Job xviii.
4. Cannot we charge home upon our enemy's camp,
without the wilful disordering of our own troops ?
Doubtless we may, if meekness have the command,
for that is the grace which preserves a man master
of himself, while he contends to be master of an-
other, and which, though there may be some firing in
the outworks, yet fortifies the heart, the main fort,
the inner wards, against the assaults of provocation,
which do us no great harm, while they do not rob
us of our peace, nor disturb the rest of our souls. As
patience in case of sorrow, so meekness in case of
anger, keeps possession of the soul, (as the expression
is, Luke xxi. 19.) that we be not dispossessed of
that freenold, and takes care when the bell is up,
that it does not overturn. The drift of Christ's
farewell-sermon to his disciples we have in the first
words of it, John xiv. 1. Let not your hearts be
troubled. It is the duty and interest of all good
people, whatever happens, to keep trouble from their
hearts, and to iNive them even and sedate, though
the eye (aA Job expresses it) should continue una-
voidably in the provocation of this world. Job xvii.
2. The wicked (a^yvn the turbulent and unq^iiet,
so the world primarily signifies) are lihe the troubled
sea when it cannot rest, (Isa. Ivii. 20.) but that peace
of God, which passeth all understanding, keeps the
hearts and minds of all the meek of the earth. Meek-
ness preserves the mind from being ruffled and dis-
composed, and the spirit from being anhinged by
the vanities and vexations of this lower world. It
stills the noise of the sea, the noise of her waves, and
the tumult of the soul ; it permits not the passions
to crowd out in a disorderly manner, like a confused
ungovemed rabble ; but draws them out like the
trained-bands, rank and file, every one in his own
order, ready to march, to charge, to fire, to retreat,
as wisdom and grace give the word of command.
It is said of the just and holy God, that he is Lord
of his anger, Nah. i. 2. where we translate it, he is
furious, (perhaps not so well, iorfury is not in him,
Isa. xxvii. 4. but,) he is ncn Sya the Lord of anger,
compos \r<B, so some of the critics render it ; he is
master of his own anger, and we should labour to
be so too. Some interpreters give this as the sense
of that which God said to Cain, (Gen. iv. 7.) Unto
thee, or, subject unto thee, shall be its desire, and thou
shalt rule over it ; that is, over this passion of ang^r,
which thou hast conceived in thy bosom, thou
shouldst, and (if thou wouldst use the grace offer-
ed to thee) thou mightst subdue and keep under
these intemperate heats, so as that they may not dis-
quiet the repose of thy soul, nor break out into any
extravagance.
[3.] Meekness will curb the tongue, and keep the
mouth as with a bridle when the heart is hot, Ps.
xxxix. 1, 2, 3. Even then, when there may be oc-
casion for a keenness of expression, and we are call-
ed to rebuhe sharply, (iiror6ii^---'euttingly, Tit. i. 13.)
yet meekness forbids all fury and indecency of lan-
guage, and every thing that sounds like clamour and
evil'speahing, Eph. iv. 31. The meekness of Moses
was not at hand when he spake that unadvised
word, Num. xx. 10. [rebels,'] for which he vras shut
out of Canaan, though rebels they were, and at
that time very provoking. Men in passion are apt
to give reviling language, to call names, and those
most senseless and ridiculous, to take the blessed
name of God in vain, and so to profane it. It is a
wretched way by which the children of hell vent
their passion at their beasts, their servants, any
person, or any thing, that provokes them, to swear
at them. Men in a passion are apt to reveal secrets,
to make rash vows and resolutions which afterward
prove a snare, and sometimes to slander and belie
their brethren, and bring railing accusations, and so
to do the devil's work ; and to speak that in their
haste concerning others, (as David, Ps. cxvi. 11.
All men are liars,) which they see cause to repent
of at leisure. How brutishly did Saul, in his pas-
sion, call his own son, the heir-apparent to the
crown, the ion of the perverse rebellious woman! 1
Sam. XX. 30. that is, the son of a strumpet, a fine
credit to himself and his family ! Raca and TTkou
fool, are specified by our Saviour as breaches of
the law of the sixth commandment, (Matt v. 22.)
and the passion in the heart is so far from excusing
such opprobrious speeches, (for which purpose it is
commonly alleged,) that really it is that which g^ves
them their malignity, they are the smoke from that
fire, the gall and wormwood springing from that root
of bitterness ; and if,*^ for every idle word that men
d Bilatt xit. 86.
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
276
speak, mach more for such wicked words as these,
must they ffive an account at the day of judgment.
And as it is a reflection upon God to kill, so it is to
curse men that are made after the image of God,
(though ever so much our inferiors,) that is, to speak
ill of them, or to wish ill to them.
This is the disease which meekness prevents, and
is in the tongue a law of kindness, as the expression
b, Prov. xxxi. 26. It is to the tongue as the helm
is to the ship, (it is the apostle's comparison, Jam.
iii. 4.) not to silence it, but to guide it, to steer it
wisely, especially when the wind is high. If at any
time we have conceived passion, and thought evil,
meekness will lay the hand upon the * mouth, (as the
wise man's advice is, Prov. xxx. 32.) to keep that
evil thought from venting itself in any evil word,
reflecting upon God or our brother. It will reason
a disputed pmnt without noise, give a reproof with-
out a reproach, convince a man of his folly with-
out calling him a fool, will teach superiors either
to forhear threatening, (Eph. vi. 9.) or (as the
margin reads it) to moderate it, and will look dili-
gently, lest any root of bitterness, springing up, trouble
«#, and thereby we, and many others, be defiled, Heb.
xiL 15.
[4.] Meekness will cool the heat of passion quickly,
and not suffer it to continue. As it keeps us from
being soon angry, so it teaches us, when we are
angry, to be soon pacified. The anger of a meek
man is like fire struck out of steel, hard to be got
out, but when it is out, soon gone. The wisdom
that is from above, as it is gentle, and so not apt to
provoke, so it is easy to be entreated when any pro-
vocation is given, (Jam. iii. 17.) and has the ear
always open to the first proposals and overtures of
satisfaction, submission, and reconciliation, and so
the anger is turned away. He that is of a meek
spirit, will be forward to forgive injuries, and to put
up with affronts, and has some excuse or other ready
wherewith to extenuate and qualify the provocation,
which an angry man, (for the exasperating and
justifying of his own resentments,) will industriously
agg^vate. It is but saying, ** There is no great
harm done, or, if there be, there was none intended,t
and peradventure it was an oversight \" and so the
offence being looked at through that end of the
perspective which diminishes, it is easily past by,
and the distemper being taken in time, goes off
quickly, the fire is quenched before it gets head, and
by a speedy interposal the plague is stayed. While
the world is so full of the sparks of provocation, and
there is so much tinder in the hearts of the best, no
marvel if anger come sometimes into the bosom of
a wise man, but it rests only in the bosom of fools,
■
• /■ Stcrait ira tignmm *ral, voetm vtbmiUn0t Icqni pareitit ; appa-
r^mt hme Uktm »At ob$tart.^An%eT was indicated in Socrates by his
■peaking little, and in a low key ; thus he was obsenred to main-
tain a conflict within bimseir. Jta refnl Sewca tU ha, I. 3. c 13.
Plulmck dt mta ira$centb.
T 2
Eccl. vii. 9. Angry thoughts, as other vain thoughts,
may crowd into the heart upon a sudden surprise,
but meekness will not suffer them to lodge there,
(Jer. iv. 14.) nor let the sun go down upon the wrath,
(Eph. iv. 26.) for if it do, there is danger lest it rise
bloody the next morning. Anger concocted, becomes
malice; it is the wisdom of meekness, by proper
applications, to disperse the humour before it comes
to a head. One would have thought when David
so deeply resented Nabal's abuse, that nothing less
than the bluod of Nabal and all his house could
have quenched his heat, but it was done at a cheaper
rate ; and he showed his meekness, by yielding to
the diversion that Abigail's present and speech gave
him, and that with satisfaction and thankfulness.
He was not only soon pacified, but blessed her, and
blessed God for her that pacified him. God does
not contend for ever, neither is he always wroth ; his
anger endures but a moment, Ps. xxx. 5. How
unlike then are those to him, whose sword devours
for ever, and whose anger bums like the coals of
juniper? But the grace of meekness, if it fail of
keeping the peace of the soul from being broken,
yet fails not to recover it presently, and to make up
the breach, and, upon the least transport, steps in
with help in the time of need, restores the soul, puts
it in frame again, and no great harm is done. Such
as these are the achievements of meekness, as it
governs our own anger.
(2.) Meekness teaches and enables us patiently to
bear the anger of others, which property of meek-
ness we have especially occasion for, in reference to
our superiors and equals. Commonly, that which
provokes anger, is anger, as fire kindles fire ; now
meekness prevents that violent collision which forces
out these sparks, and softens, at least, one side, and
so puts a stop to a great deal of mischief; for it is
the second blow that makes the quarrel. Our first
care should be to prevent the anger of others, by
giving no offence to any, but becoming all things to
all men ; every one studying to please his neighbour
for good to edification, (Rom. xv. 2.) and endeavour-
ing as much as lies in us, to accommodate ourselves
to the temper of all with whom we have to do, and
to make ourselves acceptable and agreeable to them.
How easy and comfortable should we make every
relation, and all our intercourse, if we were but
better acquainted with this art of obliging. Naph-
tali's tribe, that was famous for giving goodly words,
(Gen. xlix. 21.) had the happiness of being satisfied
with favour, (Deut, xxxiii. 23.) for every man shall
kiss his lips that giveth a right answer^ Prov. xxiv. 26.
In the conjugal relation it is taken for granted
(1 Cor. vii. 33, 34.) that the care of the husband is
t It it a maxim in the law. In verbis dubiit benignior temtentia ett
pro'/erenda.— On words or dubious import we should pass a favour-
able construction. And, Semper fit preetumpUo in meliorem partem.
—We should always presume on the candid side. riiL /llciat de
preevunpt. Reg. 3.
276
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
to please his wife, and the care of the wife is to
please her husband ; and where there is that mutual
care, comfort cannot be wanting. Some people love
to be unkind, and take a pleasure in displeasing,
and especially contrive to provoke those they find
passionate and easily provoked, that (as he that
giveth his neighbour drink, and putteth his bottle to
him, Hab. ii. 15, 16.) they may look upon his shame,
to which, in his passion, he exposes himself, and so
they make a mock at sin, and become like the mad-
man that casts firebrands, arrows, and death, and
says, ^^ Am not I in sport?** But the law of Christ
forbids us io provoke one another. Gal. v. 26. (unless
it be to love and to good works,) and enjoins us (as it
follows there, ch.vi. 2.) to bear one another's burthens,
and so to fulfil the law of Christ.
But because they must rise betimes, who will
please every body, and carry their cup even indeed,
who will give no ofience ; our next care therefore
must be, so to behave ourselves when others are angry
that we may not make bad worse. And this is one
principal thing, in which the younger must submit
themselves to the elder; nay, in which all of us
must be subject one to another, as our rule is, 1 Pet.
V. 5. And here meekness is of use, either to enjoin
silence, or indite a soft answer.
[I .] To enjoin silence. It is prescribed to servants,
(Tit. ii. 9.) to please their masters well in all things,
not answering again, for that must needs be displeas-
ing ; better say nothing, than say that which is pro-
voking. When our hearts are hot within us, it is
good for us to keep silence, and hold our peace ; so
David did, (Ps. xxxix. ii. 3.) and when he did speak
it was in prayer to God, and not in reply to the wick-
ed that were before him. If the heart be angry,*
angry words will but inflame it the more, as wheels
are heated by a rapid motion. One reflection, and
repartee, begets another, and the beginning of the
debate is like the letting forth of water, which is
with difficulty stopt when the least breach is made in
the dam; and therefore meekness says, *<By all
means keep silence, and leave it ofl* before it be
meddled with.'' When a fire is begun, it is good, if
possible, to smother it, and so prevent its spreading.
Come on, let us deal wisely, and stifle it in the birth,
lest afterward it prove too strong to be dealt with.
Anger in the heart, is like those books which were
stowed up in cellars in the conflagration of London,
which, though they were extremely heated, yet never
took fire, till they took air many days after, where
giving vent to the heat put them into a flame. When
* Quid re/erl inter provocanftm $t provoeatum, nisi quod i/U prior in
wuUefieio deprehonditurt *t itU ptuterior t nulla veto in maUJieio ordinis
ratio ft/.— What is the difTerence between him tliat provokes and
him that is provoked, but this, that the one did wrong in the first
instance, and that the other did wrong afterward! In the act of
doing wrong^they are alike culpable. TVr/v/. de Falientiii, c. 10.
t Compluret vidi loquendo peccatum inciMiSf, tis quemquam laeendo :
the spirits are in a ferment, though it may be some
present pain to check and suppress them, and the
headstrong passions hardly admit the bridle, yet
afterward it will be no grief of heart to as.
Those who find themselves wronged and aggrieved
think they may have leave to speak, bat it is better
to be silent than to speak amiss, and make work for
repentance. At such a time, he that holds his tongue
holds his peace ; and if we soberly reflect, we shsll
find we have been often the worse for oar speaking,
but seldom the worse for our silence. f This most be
especially remembered and observed by as many as
are under the yoke, who will certainly have most
comfort in meekness, and patience, and silent sab-
mission, not only to the good and gentle, bat also to
the froward. It is good in such cases to remember
our X place, and (if the spirit of a ruler rise np mgahut
us,) not to leave it, that is, not to do any thing unbe-
coming, for yielding pacifieth great offentes, Eccl. x.
4. We have a common proverb that teaches hj
this, *' When thou art the hammer, knock tkyJUl; but
when thou art the anvil, lie thou still:*' for it is the
posture thou art cut out for, and which best becomes
thee.
If others be angry at us without caose, and we
have ever so much reason on our side, yet oftentimes
it is best to adjourn our own vindication, though we
think it necessary, till the passion be over : for there
is nothing said or done in passion, but it may be
better said and better done afterwards. When we
are calm, we shall be likely to say it and do it io a
better manner ; and when our brother is calm, we
shall be likely to say it and do it to a better purpose.
A needful truth, spoken in a heat, may do more hmt
than good, and oflcnd rather than satisfy. The pro-
phet himself forbare even a message from God, when
he saw Amaziah in a passion, 2 Chron. xxv. 16.
Sometimes it may be advisable to get some one else
to say that for us, which is to l^e said, rather than
say it ourselves. However, we have a righteous Crod,
to whom (if, in a meek silence, we suffer oarselves to
be run down unjustly) we may commit our cause:
and having his promise, that he will bring fortk o«r
righteousness as the light,andour judgment as the noon-
day, (Ps. xxxvii. 6. ) we had better leave it in his hands
than undertake to manage it ourselves, lest that
which we call clearing ourselves, God should call
quarrelling with our brethren. David was g^reatly
provoked by those that sought his hurt, and spake
mischievous things against him ; and yet, (says he,)
I as a deaf man heard not, I was as a dumb man that
ideoq ; laeere'not»e quam loqui diffieOiut etl. — I bave known HMUiy ibl
by speaking, scarcely one by continuing silent, it is therefore
more difficult to know how to be silent than how to speak, ^ok.
de Offie. I. 1. c. 2.
X i*oeu* tuut palientia m/, locus hsu* sapientio eMt^ locui tmme ratio nf. it
sedatio indignob'onit.'^Yf^Mr place is to be patient, wise, and reason-
able. Ambr. ubi supra ^ c. '21.
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
277
ipenetk not his mouthy Ps. xxxviii. 13. And why
K> ? It was not because he wanted something to
lay, or because he knew not how to say it ; but, ».
15. because tit thee, O Lord, do I hope, thou wilt
k«ir, O Lord my God, If God hear, what need
lave /to hear? Hit concerning himself in the mat-
ter supersedes ours ; and he is not only engaged,
in justice, to own every righteous cause that is in-
jured, but he is further engaged, in honour, to appear
for those who, in obedience to the law of meekness,
sommit their cause to him, and trust him with it.
[f there be any vindication or avenging necessary,
[which Infinite Wisdom is the best judge of,) he
can do it better than we can ; and therefore give
pUee unto wrath, (Rom. xii. 19.) that is, to the
judgment of God, which is according to truth and
equity ; make room for him to take the seat, and do
not you step in before him : it is fit that our wrath
should stand by to give way to his, for the wrath of
man engages not the righteousness of God for him.*
Even just appeals made to him, if they be made in
passion, are not admitted into the court of heaven,
being not duly put in ; that one thing, error, is suf-
ficient to overrule them: let not therefore those
that do well, and suff'er for it, spoil their own vindi-
cation by mistiming and mismanaging it ; but tread
in the steps of the Lord Jesufi, who, when he was re-
nUd, reviled not again ; when he suffered, he threaten-
ed not, but was as a lamb dumb before the shearers ;
and so committed himself to him that judges righte-
ously. It is indeed a great piece of self-denial to
be silent when we have enough to say, and provo-
cation to say it; but if we do thus control our
tongues, out of a pure regard to peace and love, it
will turn to a good account, and will be an evi-
dence for us that we are Christ's disciples, having
learned to deny ourselves. It is better by silence
to yield to our brother, who is, or has been, or may
be, oar friend, than by angry speaking to yield to
the devil, who has been, and is, and ever will be,
our sworn enemy.
[2.] To indite a soft answer. This Solomon com-
mends as a proper expedient to turn away wrath,
while grievous words do but stir up anger, Prov.
XT. 1. When any speak angrily to us, we must
pause a while, and study an answer, which, both
for the matter and manner of it, may be mild and
gentle. This brings water, while peevishness and
provocation would but bring oil to the flame. Thus
is death and life in the power of the tongue ; it is
either healing or killing, an antidote or a poison,
according as it is used. When the waves of the
sea beat on a rock, they batter and make a noise ;
but a soft sand receives them silently, and returns
them without damage. A soft tongue is a wonder-
ful specific, and has a very strange virtue in it ; for
• Jam. L 20.
Solomon says, It breaks the bone, (Prov. xxv. 15.)
that is, it qualifies those that were provoked, and
makes them pliable ; it heaps coals of fire upon the
head of an enemy, not to bum him, but to melt
him, Prov. xxv. 21, 22. ** Hard words (we say)
break no bones ;" but it seems soft ones do, (and yet
do no harm,) as they calm an angry spirit, and pre-
vent its progress, breaking it, as we do a flint, upon
a cushion. A stone that falls on a wool-pack
rests there, and rebounds not to do any further
mischief, such is a meek answer to an angry
question. It is observed in that rencounter which
was between the ro3'al tribe and the other ten,
that the words of the men of Judah were fiercer
than the words of the men of Israel, 2 Sam. xix. 43.
When passion is up, that God whose eyes are upon
all the ways of men, takes notice who speaks
fiercely, and sets a mark upon them.
The good efi'ects of a soft answer, and the ill
consequence of a peevish one, are observable in the
stories of Gideon and Jephtba. Both of them in the
day of their triumphs over the enemies of Israel,
were causelessly quarrelled with by the Ephraimites,
(an angry sort of people it seems, *) who took it very
heinously, when tlie danger was past and the victory
won, that tliey had not been called upon to engage
in the battle. Gideon pacified them with a soft an-
swer, (Judg. viii. 2.) What have I done now in
comparison of you? magnifying their achievements,
and lessening his own, speaking honourably of
them, and meanly of himself, Is not the gleaning of
the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of
Abiezar ? In which reply it is hard to say whether
there was more of wit or wisdom : and the efl*cct
was very good ; the Ephraimites were pleased, their
anger turned away, a civil war prevented, and no
body could think the worse of Gideon, for his mild-
ness and self-denial ; but, on the contrary, that he
won more true honour by this victory over his own
passion, than he did by his victory over all the host
of Midian ; for he that hath rule over his own spirit,
is better than the mighty, Prov. xvi. 32. The Angel
of the Lord has pronounced him a mighty man of
valour, (Judg. vi. 12.) and this his tame submission
did not at all derogate from that part of his charac-
ter. But Jephtba, (who by many instances appears
to be a man of a rough and hasty spirit, though en-
rolled among the eminent believers, Heb. xi. 32.
for all good people are not alike happy in their
temper,) when the Ephraimites in like manner pick a
quarrel with him, rallies them, upbraids them
with their cowardice, boasts of his own courage,
challenges them to make good their cause, Judg.
xii. 2, 3. They retort a scurrilous reflection upon
Jephtha's country ^as it is usual with passion to
taunt and jeer one another) Ye Gileadites are fugi-
■ ■ ■ ^ ■ ^— I ^W— ^— ^■^l— — ^^»^^— ^— ^^» I ■■^■»l ■■■■I.I ^
* Hence wc read of the envy of Ephraim, Isa. xi. 13.
(
278
A DISCOURS£ CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
tives, V. 4. From words they go to blows, and so
great a matter does this little fire kindle, that there
goes no less, to quench the flame, than the blood of
two and forty thousand Ephraimites, v. 6. All
which had been happily prevented, if Jephtha had
had but half as much meekness in his heart, as he
had reason on his side.
A soft answer is the dictate and dialect of that
wisdom which is from above, which is pemeeabU,
gentle, and easy to be entreated. And to reconunend
it to us, we have the pattern of good men, as that
of Jacob's carriage to Esau ; though, who is so hard
to be won, as a brother offended, yet, as he had pre-
vailed with God by faith and prayer, so he prevailed
with his brother by meekness and humility. We
have also the pattern of good angels, who, even
when a rebuke was needful, durst not turn it into
a railing accusation, durst not give any reviling
language, not to the devil himself, but referred the
matter to God, The Lord rebuke thee, as that passage,
Jude 9. is commonly understood. Nay, w^ have
the pattern of a good God, who, though he could
plead against us with his great power, yet gives soft
answers : witness his dealing with Cain, when he
was wroth, and his countenance fallen, reasoning
the case with him, (Gen. iv. 6, 7.) Why art thou
wroth If thou doest welly shalt not thou be accepted?
"With Jonah likewise, when he was so discontented,
Jonah iv. 4, 9. Doest thou well to be angry ? This is
represented in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, by
the carriage of the father towards the elder brother,
who was so high and humorsome, so angry, that he
would not come in. The father did not say, '* Let
him stay out then," but he came himself and entreated
him, (when he might have interposed his authority,
and commanded him,) and said. Son, thou art ever
with me, Luke xv. 28, 31. When a passionate
parley is begun, there is a plague broke out ; the
meek man, like Aaron, takes his censer vnth the
incense of a soft answer, steps in seasonably, and
stays the plague.
This soft answer, in case we have committed a
fault, (though perhaps not culpable to that degree
that we are charged with,) must be penitent, humble,
and submissive, and we must be ready to acknow-
ledge our error, and not stand in it, or insist upon
our own vindication, but rather aggravate than
excuse it, rather condemn than justify ourselves.
It will be a good etidence of our repentance toward
God, to humble ourselves to our brethren, whom we
have offended.; as it will be also a good evidence of
our being forgiven of God, if we be ready to forgive
those that have offended us: and such yielding
pacifies great offences. Meekness teaches us, as
often as wc trespass against our brother, to turn
again and say, / repent, Luke xvii. 4. An acknow-
ledgment in case of a wilful affront, is perhaps as
necessary to pardon, as (we commonly saj) restitii-
tion is in case of wrong. And so much for the
opening of the Nature of Meekness, which yet will
receive further light from what follows.
II. We must be of a quiet spirit. Quietness ii
the evenness, the composure, and the rest of the
soul, which speaks both the nature and the excd-
lency of the grace of meekness. The greatest
comfort and happiness of man is sometimes set fofHi
by quietness. That peace of conscience which
Christ has left for a legacy to his disciples, that
present sabbatism of the soul, which is an earnest
of the rest that remains for the people of God, b
called quietness and assurance for ever, and b
promised, as the effect of righteousness, Isa. xxxii.
17. and it follows, v. 18. My people shmll dwell is
quiet resting-places. So graciously has God been
pleased to intwine interests with us, as to enjoin the
same thing under the notion of a duty, which he
proposes and promises under the notion of a privilege.
Justly may we say, that we serve a good Masto",
whose yoke is easy, (Matt. xi. 30.) it is xP9v^» ^^
only easy, but sweet and gracious, (so the word
signifies,) not only tolerable, but amiable and accept-
able : Wisdoms ways are not only pleasant, bat
pleasantness itself, and all her paths sore pesiee,
Prov. iii. 17. It is the character of the Loid'i
people, both in respect of holiness and happiness,
that (however they be branded as the tronblers of
Israel) they are the quiet in the land, Ps. xxxv. 2a
If every saint be made a spiritual prince, (Rev. i. d.)
having a dignity above others, and a dominion over
himself, surely he is like that Seraiah, Jer. li. 20. a
quiet prince. It is a reign with Christ, the transcend*
ent Solomon, under the influence of whose golden
sceptre there is abundance of peace eu long as the
moon endures, yea, and longer, for, of the inenatt
of his government and peace there shall be no end.
Quietness is in the text recommended to as as a
grace which we should be endued with, and as a
duty which we should practise. In the midst of all
the affronts and injuries that are or. can be offered
us, we must keep our spirits sedate, and undisturbed,
and evidence by a calm, and even, and regular be-
haviour, that they are so. This is quietness. Our
Saviour has pronounced the blessing of adoption
upon the peace-makers, Matt. v. 9, Lfnivowotoi, those
that are for peace, as David professes himself to be,
Ps. cxx. 7. in opposition (such an opposition as
meekness is capable of) to those that delight in war,
Ps. Ixviii. 90. Now if charity be for peace-makiog,
surely this '* charity begins at home,'' and is for
making peace there in the first place. Peace in oar
own souls is some conformity to the example of the
God of peace, who, though he does not always give
peace on this earth, yet evermore makes peace in his
own high-places. Job xxv. 2. *This, some think, is
* Dr. Hammond, Pract. Catech. p. lis.
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
279
(he primary intention of that peace-making, on
which Christ there commands the hlessing : it is to
have strong and hearty affections to peace, to be
peaceably-minded; for making in Scripture notes
the bent and inclination of the soul : as to make a
lie, is to be given to lying ; so to make peace, is to
be addicted to peace ; to have a disposition in the
soul ready to command the peace, when there is at
«ay time any kind of disturbance. In a word,
quietness of spirit is the souFs stillness, and silence,
from intending provocation lo, or resenting provo-
cation/ram, any with whom we have to do.
The word has something in it of a metaphor,
which we would not choose but fairly prosecute, for
the illustration of the grace of meekness.
1. We must be quiet as the air is quiet from
winds. Disorderly passions are like stormy winds
in the soul ; they toss and hurry it, and often split,
or strand, or overset it ; they move it as tfit trees of
the wood are moved with the wind ; it is the prophet's
comparison, Isa. vii. 2. and is an apt emblem of a
man in passion. Now meekness restrains these
winds, says to them, Peace, be still, and so preserves
a calm in the soul, and makes it conformable to
fcim, who has the winds in his hands, and is herein
to be praised, that even the stormy winds fulfil his
word. A brisk gale is often useful, especially to the
skips of desire, (as the Hebrew phrase is, Job ix
26.) so there should be in the soul such a warmth
and vigour as will help to speed us to the desired
harbour. It is not well to lie wind-bound in duU
ness and indifferency ; but tempests are perilous,
yea, though the wind be in the right point ; so are
strong passions, even in good men, they both hinder
the voyage and hazard the ship : such a quickness
as consists with quietness is what we should all
labour after, and meekness will contribute very
much toward it; it will silence the noise, control
the force, moderate the impetus, and correct all
undue and disorderly transports. What manner of
grace is this, that even the winds and the sea obey
it ? If we will but use the authority God has given
us over our own hearts, we may keep the * winds of
passion under the command of religion and reason,
and then the soul is quiet, the sun shines, all is
pleasant, serene, and smiling, and the man sleeps
sweetly and safely on the lee-sidc. We make our
voyage among rocks and quicksands, but if the
weather be calm, we can the better steer so as to
avoid them, and by a due care and temper hit the
mean between extremes; whereas he that suffers
these winds of passion to get head, and spread a
large sail before them, while he shuns one rock,
splits upon another, and is in danger of being drown-
ed in destmction and perdition, by many foolish and
hurtful lusts, especially those whence wars and
fyhtings come,
* jBtk» n$ tffeetmmm tuonm.—Rvle your paasions, as JEo\um the
2. We must be quiet as the sea is quiet from
waves. The wicked (whose sin and punishment both
lie in the unruliness of their own souls, and the vio-
lence and disorder of their own passions, which per-
haps will not be the least of their eternal torments)
are compared to the troubled sea, when it cannot rest,
whose waters cast forth mire and dirt, (Isa. Ivii. 20.)
that is, they are uneasy to themselves, and to all
about them, raging waves of the sea, (so they are
described, J ude 13.) foaming out their own shame ;
their hard speeches which they speak against God,
V. 15. and dignities, v. 8. and things which they know
TUft, V. 10. their great swelling words, v. 16. and mock-
ings, V, 18. these are the skame they foam out. Now
meekness is the grace of the Spirit, that moves upon
tke face of tlu waters, and quiets them, smooths the
ruffled sea, and stills the noise of it, (it is now mare
pacificum—tke Pacific Ocean,) it casts forth none of
the mire and dirt of passion. The waves mount not up
to the heaven in proud and vain-glorious boastings ;
go not down to the depths to scrape up vile and scur-
rilous language ; no reeling to and fro, as men over-
come with drink, or with their own passion, which
is all one, (for if wine be a mocker, and strong drink
raging, Prov. xx. 1. anger is no less so,) none of that
transport which brings them to their wits' end : I
refer to the Psalmist's description of a storm, Ps.
cvii. 26, 27. but as it follows there, v. 30. They are
glad because they are quiet, so he bringeth them to their
desired haven. This calmness and evenness of spijit
makes our passage over the sea of this world safe
and pleasant, quick and speedy towards the desired
harbour, and is amiable and exemplary in the eyes
of others ; such a path does the meek and quiet
Christian make to shine after him, that one would
think the deep to be hoary.
3. We must be quiet as the land is quiet from
war. It was the observable felicity of Asa's reign,
that in his days the land was quiet, 2 Chron. xiv. 1,
6. In the preceding reigns there was no peace to
him that went out, or to him that came in, whether
outward bound or homeward bound, they were ex-
posed to great vexations, ch, xv. 6. but now the
rumours and alarms of war were stilled, and the
people delivered from the noise of archers at the place
of drawing waters, as when the land had rest in De-
borah's time, Judg. v. 11. Such a quietness there
should be in the soul, and such a quietness there
will be where meekness sways the sceptre. A soul
inflamed with wrath and passion upon all occasions,
is like a kingdom embroiled in war, in a civil war,
subject to continual frights, and losses, and perils ;
deaths and terrors, in their most horrid shapes, walk
triumphantly, sleeps disturbed, families broken,
friends suspected, enemies feared, laws silenced,
commerce ruined, business neglected, cities wasted ;
such heaps upon heaps does ungoverned anger lay
winds. Neiremh.
280
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
'wben it is let loose in tbe soul. Jusq ; datum sceleri
^Wheu vice has free scope, ffc. But meekness makes
these wars to cease, breaks the bow, cuts tbe spear,
sheaths the sword, and in tbe midst of a contentious
world, preserves the soul from being the seat of war,
and makes peace in those borders. The rest of the
soul is not disturbed, its comforts not plundered, its
government not disordered ; the laws of religion and
reason rule, and not the sword : the trading duties
are not interrupted, neither its communion with
God, nor its communion with the saints, intercepted ;
no breaking in of temptation, no going out of cor-
ruption, no complaining in the streets, no occasion
given, no occasion taken, to complain. Happy is the
soul that is in such a ease, Ps. cxliv. 14, 15. The words
of such wise men are heard in quiet, more than the cry
of him that ruleth among fools, and this wisdom is
better than weapons of war, Eccl. ix. 17, 18. This
IS the quietness we should every one of us labour
after, and it is what we might attain to, if we would
but more support and exercise the authority of our
graces, (which are as the conmiissioners of the peace,)
and guide and control the power of our passion,
(which arc as the commissioners of array,) in our
souls.
4. We must be quiet as the child is quiet after
weaning. It is the Psalmist's comparison, Ps.
cxxxi. 2. / have behaved (or rather, I have composed,
so Ainswortb reads it) and quieted myself, (my soul,
Heb. for our souls are ourselves, and our principal
care must be concerning them,) as a child that is
weaned of his mother, my soul is even as a weaned child.
A child while it is in the weaning perhaps is a little
cross and froward, and troublesome for a time ; but
when it is perfectly weaned, how quickly does it
forget the breast, and accommodate itself to its new
way of feeding ! Thus a quiet soul, if provoked by
the denial or loss of some creature-comfort or de-
light, that has been dear, quiets itself, and does not
fret at it, nor perplex itself with anxious cares how
to live without it, but composes itself to make the
best of that which is. If wormwood be put upon
the breasts, which we have called the breasts of our
consolation, it is but to make us indifferent to them,
and we must set ourselves to answer that intention,
and sit loose to them accordingly. And this holy
indifference to the delights of sense, is (like the
weaning of a child) a good step taken towards the
perfect man, the measure of tlie stature of the fulness
of Christ.* A child newly weaned is free from all
the uneasiness and disquietude of care, and fear,
and envy, and anger, and revenge : how undisturbed
are its sleeps, and even in its dreams it looks plea-
• Yet corrupt peasions appear betimes. Fidi Mdantm pamimm
fw tKhubatur peJUiut amaro tupeetu eoUactannm Mwn.— I have seen a
youDg child pale with envy, while looking on another child tliat
was nourished at the lame breast, ^ug. Com/. L 7.
t ^ It eilo fneri inter $t mcwenlwr, /aciU aedmiur rt wuovri ttunHak
sant and smiling ! How easy its days ? How quiet
its nights ! If put into a little pet now and then, how
soon is it over, the provocation forgiven, the sense
of it forgotten, and both buried in an innocent kiss!
Thus, if ever we would enter into the kingdom of
heaven, we must be converted from pride, envy,
ambition, and strife for precedency, and most be-
come lihe little children.f So our Saviour has told
us, (who, even after his resurrection, is called, J%e
Holy Child Jesus, Acts iv. 27.) Matt, xviii. 3. And
even when we have put away other childish things,
yet still in malice we must be children, 1 Cor. xiv.
20. And as for the quarrels of others, in all broils
and heats, a meek and quiet Christian endeavours
to be as disinterested, and as little engaged, as a
weaned child in the mother's arms, that is not capa-
ble of such angry resentments.
This is that meekness and quietness of spirit
which is here recommended to us, such a command
and composure of the soul, that it be not unhinged
by any provocation whatsoever, but all its powers
and faculties preserved in due temper for the just
discharge of their respective offices.' In a word ;
Put off all wrath, and anger, and malice, (those cor-
rupted limbs of the old man,) pluck up and cast
away those roots of bitterness, and stand upon a
constant guard against all the exorbitances of your
own passion, and then you will soon know, to your
comfort, better than I can tell yon, what it is to be
of a meek and quiet spirit.
CHAPTER II.
THB SXCELLBNCT OF MBBKNB8S AND QnUTNBSS OP SFIHT.
The very opening of this cause, one would think,
were enough to carry it, and the explaining of the
nature of meekness and quietness, should suffice to
recommend it to us; such an amiable sweetness
does there appear in it, upon the very first view,
that if we look upon its beauty, we cannot but be
enamoured with it But because of the opposition
that there is in our corrupt hearts to this, as well as
to the other graces of the Holy Spirit, I shall en-
deavour more particularly to show the excellency of
it, that we may be brought (if possible) to be in love
with it, and to submit our souls to the charming
power of it.
It is said, (Prov. xvii. 27.) That a man cf under-
standing is of an excellent spirit. — He is nn np (so
the Chetib, though the Keri, which our translation
follows, reads it '\p^)frigidus Spiritu, so Tremellius,
i« H reemmnt; wiciu^ h nbdoU ortijteiottqw Iraeterv.— Though
bojrs are soon irritated, they are soon reconciled, and become
kinder than before they quarrelled ; they are strangers to aitifict
and circumvention. AwA. it Offle. 1 1. «. ai .
i Col. iii. a
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
281
he 18 of a cool spirit ; pat them together, and teach
us, that a cool spirit is an excellent spirit, and that
he is a man of underttanding who is governed by such
a spirit. The text tells us (what need we more)
that it is in the sight of God of great price ; and
we may be sure that is precious indeed which is
so in God's sight; that is good, very good, which
he pronounces so, for his judgment is according to
truth, and sooner or later he will bring all the world
to be of his mind ; for as he has decided it, so shall
our doom be, and he will be justified when he speah-
etkj and clear when hejudgeth.
The excellency of a meek and quiet spirit will
appear, if we consider the credit of it, and the com-
fort of it, the present projit there is by it, and the
preparedness there is in it for something further.
I. Consider how creditable a meek and quiet spirit
is. Credit or reputation is a thing which most
people are very sensibly touched with the ambition
of, though few consider aright either what it is, or
what is the right way of obtaining it, and particu-
larly it is little believed what a great deal of true
honour there is in the grace of meekness, and what
a sure and ready way mild and quiet souls take to
gain the good word of their Master, and of all their
fellow-servants who love our Master, and are like
him.
Let us see what credit there is in meekness.
1 . There is in it the credit of a victory. What a
great figure do the names of high and mighty con-
querors make in the records of fame ! How are their
conduct, their valour, and success, cried up and
celebrated ! But if we will believe the word of truth,
and pass a judgment upon things according to the
rules of it, he that is slow to anger, is better than the
mighty ; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that
taketh a city, Prov. xvi. 32. Behold, a greater than
Alexander or Caesar is here ; the former of which
(some think) lost more true honour by yielding to
his own ungovemed anger, than he got by all his
conquests. No triumphant chariot so easy, so safe,
so truly glorious, as that in which the meek and
quiet soul rides over all the provocations of an in-
jurious world, with a gracious unconcemedness : no
train so splendid, so noble, as that train of comforts
and graces which attend this chariot. The conquest
of an unruly passion is more honourable than that
of an unruly people, for it requires more true con-
duct. It is easier to kill an enemy without, which
may be done at a blow, than to chain up and govern
an enemy within, which requires a constant, even,
steady hand, and a long and regular management.
It was more to the honour of David to yield himself
conquered by Abigail's persuasions, than to have
made himself a conqueror over Nabal and all his
bouse. A rational victory must needs be allowed
x<irT», wp^ iidtX^v tmidwort uvfxMff «fxc. Have botone enemy.
more honourable to a rational creature than a
brutal one. This is a cheap, safe, and unbloody
conquest that does nobody any harm, no lives, no
treasures are sacrificed to it, the glory of these tri-
umphs are not stained, as others generally are, with
funerals. Every battle of the warrior (says the pro-
phet, Isa. ix. 5.) is with confused noise, and garments
rolled in blood ; but this shall be with burning, even by
the Spirit of the Lord of hosts ; as a Spirit of judg-
ment and a Spirit of burning. Nay, in meek and
quiet suffering we are more than conquerors through
Christ that loved us; (Rom. viii. 37.) conquerors with
little loss ; we lose nothing but the gratifying of a
base lust : conquerors with great g^ain, the spoils we
divide are very rich, the faVour of God, the com-
forts of the Spirit, the foretastes of everlasting
pleasures : these are more glorious and excellent
than the mountains of prey. We are more than
conquerors; that is, triumphers, we live a life of
victory, every day is a day of triumph to the meek
and quiet soul.
Meekness is a victory over ourselves and the re-
bellious lusts in our own bosoms ; it is the quieting
of intestine broils, the stilling of an insurrection at
home, which is oftentimes more hard to do than to
resist a foreign invasion. It is an effectual victory
over those that injure us, and make themselves
enemies to us, and is often a means of winning their
hearts. The law of meekness is, If thiw enemy
hunger, feed him : if he thirst, irSrtZt Avrbv, propina
illi, not only give him drink, (which is an act of
charity,) but drink to him, in token of friendship, and
true love, and reconciliation ; and in so doing thou
shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, not to consume
him, but to melt and soften him, that he may be
cast into a new mould : and thus while the angry
and revengeful man, that will bear down all before
him with a high hand, is overcome of evil, the pa-
tient and forgiving overcome evil with good; (Rom.
xii. 20, 21.) and forasmuch as their ways please the
Lord, he makes even their enemies to be at peace
with them, Prov. xvi.* 7. Nay, meekness is a victory
over Satan, the greatest enemy of all. What con-
quest can sound more great than this ? It is written
for caution to us all, and it reflects honour on those
who through grace overcome, that we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities and
powers, and the rulers of the darhness of this world,
Eph. vi. 12. The magnifying of the adversary,
magnifies the victory over him ; such as these are
the meek man's vanquished enemies,* the spoils of
these are the trophies of his victory. It is the design
of the devil, that great deceiver and destroyer of
souls, that is baffled ; it is his attempt that is de-
feated, his assault that is repulsed by our meekness
and quietness. Our Lord Jesus was more admired
the devil ; never be reconciled to him, with a brother never fall
ouL CbryBOttHooLlO.
282
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
for oontroUing and commanding the unclean spirits,
than for any other cures which he wrought : unruly
passions are unclean spirits, legions of which some
souls are possessed with, and desperate outrageous
work they make ; the soul becomes like that miser-
able creature, (Mark v. 3 — 6.) that cried and cut him-
iclf; or that, (Mark ix. 22.) who was so often ca$t
into thefircy and into the waters. The meek and quiet
soul is through grace a conqueror over these ene-
mies, their fiery darts are quenched by the shield of
faith, Satan is in some measure trodden under his
feet, and the victory will be complete shortly, when
he that overcometh shall sit down with Christ upon his
throne, even as he overcame and is set down with the
Father upon his throne, where he still appears in the
emblem of his meekness, a Lamb as it had been slain.
Rev. V. 6. And upon mount Zion, at the head of
his heavenly hosts, he appears also as a Lamb, Rev.
xiv. 1. Such is the honour meekness has in those
higher regions.
V 2. There is in it the credit of beauty. The beauty
of a thing consists in the symmetry, harmony, and
agreeableness of all the parts : now what is meek-
ness, but the soul's agreement with itself ? It is the
joint concurrence of all the affections to the univer-
sal peace and quiet of the soul, every one regularly
acting in its own place and order, and so contribut-
ing to the common good. Next to the beauty of
holiness, which is the soul's agreement with God, is
the beauty of meekness, which is the soul's agree-
ment with itself. Behold how good and how pleas-
ant a thing it is for the powers of the soul thus to
dwell together in unity, the reason knowing how to
rule, and the affections at the same time knowing
how to obey. Exorbitant passion is a discord in the
soul ; it is like a tumour in the face, which spoils the
beauty of it ; meekness scatters the tumour, binds
down the swelling, and so prevents the defonnity,
«nd preserves the beauty. This is one instance of
the comeliness of grace, through my comeliness, (says
God to Israel, Ezek. xvi. 14.) which I had put upon
thee. It puts a charming loveliness and amiableness
upon the soul, which renders it acceptable to all who
know what true worth and beauty is. He that in
righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,
(that is, in Christian meekness and quietness of
spirit,) serveth Christ, is acceptable to God and approv-
ed of men, Rom. xiv. 17, 18. And to whom else can
we wish to recommend ourselves ?
Solomon (a very competent judge of beauty) has
determined, that it is a man's wisdom that makes his
face to shine, (Eccl. viii. 1.) and doubtless the meek-
ness of wisdom contributes as much as any one
branch of it to this lustre. We read in Scripture of
three whose faces shone remarkably, and they were
all eminent for meekness. The face of Moses shone,
• Luke i. 6.
(Exod. xxjuv^ dO.) and he was the meekest of all
the men on earth. The face of Stephen shone, (Acts
vi. 15.) and he it was, who, in the midst of a shower
of stones, so meekly submitted, and prayed for his
persecutors. The fkce of our Lord Jesus shone is
his transfiguration, and he was the great pattern of
meekness. It is a sweet and pleasing air which this
grace puts upon the countenance, while it keeps tbe
soul in tune, and frees it from those jarring ill-fa-
voured discords which are the certain effect of an
ungovemed passion.
3. There is in it the credit of an ornament The
text speaks of it as an adorning much more excel-
lent and valuable than gold, pearls, or the most
costly array ; much more recommending than all the
bravery of the daughters of Zion. It is an adorning
to the soul, the principal, the immortal part of the
man. That outward adorning does but deck and
beautify the body, which at the best is but a sister
to the worms, and will ere long be a feast for them ;
but this is the ornament of the soul, by which we
are allied to the invisible world : it is an adorning
that reconunends us to God, which is in his sight of
preat price; so the text says, and in that says
enough to its praise. Ornaments go by estimatioD :
now we may be sure the judgment of God is right
and unerring. Every thing is indeed, as it is with
God ; those are righteous indeed, that are * right-
eous before God ; and that is an ornament indeed
which he calls and counts so. It is an ornament of
God's own making ; is the soul thus decked ? it is
he that has decked it: By his Spirit he hath gar-
nished the heavens, (Job xxvi. 13.) and by the same
Spirit has he garnished the meek and quiet soul. It
is an ornament of his accepting, (it must needs be so
if it be of his own working,) for to him who has this
ornament, more adorning shall be given. He has
promised, (Ps cxlix. 4.) that he will beautify the
meeh with salvation ; and if the garments of salva-
tion will not beautify, what will ? The robes of
glory will be the everlasting ornaments of the meek
and quiet spirits. This meekness is an ornament
that (like the Israelites' clothes in the wUdemess)
never waxes old, nor will ever go out of fashion
while right reason and religion have any place in
the world : all wise and good people will reckon
those best drest that put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and walk with him in the white of meekness and
innocency. Solomon in all his glory was not array-
ed like one of these lilies of the valleys, though lilies
among thorns.
The same ornament, which in the text is recom-
mended to wives, is, by the same apostle, recom-
mended to us all, (1 Pet. V. 5.) Yea, all of you he
subject one to another : that explains what meekness
is ; it is that mutual yielding which we owe one to
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
283
another, for edification and in the/ear of God^ Eph.
▼. 21. This seems to he a hard saying, how shall we
digest it ? an impracticahle duty, how shall we con-
quer it ? Why, it follows. Be clothed with humility.
The word is * npf raviwo^poavvfiv lyKOfipuKrav^if in-
nodate, from leofi^oc, a hnot. Which notes, (1.) The
fixedne$9 of this grace : we must gird it fast to us,
and not leave it to hang loose, so as to be snatched
away by every temptation. Carelessness is no com-
mendation of the souFs adorning : watchfulness and
resolution in the strength of Christ must tie the knot
upon our g^ces, and make them as the girdle that
cleaves to a man's loins. (2.) The comeliness and
ornament of it : put it on as a knot of ribbons, as
an ornament to the soul. Such is the meekness of
wisdom, it gives to the head an ornament of grace,
and (which is more) a crown of glory. Pro v. i. 9.
and iv. 9.
- There is in it the credit of true courage.f Meek-
ness is commonly despised and run down by the
grandees of the age, as a piece of cowardice and
mean-spiritedness, and the evidence of a little soul,
and is posted accordingly ; while the most furious
and angry revenges are celebrated and applauded
under the pompous names of valour, honour, and
greatness of spirit, which arise from a mistaken
notion of courage ; the true nature whereof is thus
stated by a very ingenious pen, % *< That it is a reso-
lution never to decline any evil of pain, when the
choosing of it, and the exposing of ourselves to it, is
the only remedy against a greater evil.'* And there-
fore, he that accepts a challenge, and so runs him-
self upon the evil of sin, which is the greater evil,
only for fear of shame and reproach, which is the less
evil, he is the coward ; while he that refuses the
challenge, and so exposes himself to reproach, for
fear of sin,§ he is the valiant man. True courage
is such a presence of mind, as enables a man rather
to suffer than to sin ; to choose affliction rather than
iniquity ; to pass by an affront, though he lose by it,
and be hissed at for a fool and a sneak, rather than
engage in a sinful quarrel. He that can deny the
brutal lust of anger and revenge, rather than violate
the royal law of love and charity, (however contrary
the sentiments of the world may be,) is truly resolute
and courageous ; the Lord is with thee, thou mighty
man of valour. Fretting and vexing is the fruit of
the weakness of women and children, bat much be-
low the streng^ of a man, especially of the new man,
that is bom from above. When our Lord Jesus is
described in his majesty, riding prosperously, the
^lory he appears in, is truth, and meekness, and
* FMm imjtxam kaMt.^Fix within you. Eras.
4 Maymi atuwu ni propritunt pha'dum ease el injuriat $vperne dtipi.
Ten —It belongs to a great mind to be calm, and to despise injuries
IS one elevated above their power. S«m.
t Norris Miscell. p. 167. I8&
I Paul ihowed more true valwr when he said, I earn do nothing
righteousness, Ps. xlv. 4. The courage of those who
overcome this great red dragon of wrath and re-
venge, by meek and patient suffering, and by not
loving their lives unto the death, (Rev. xii. 11.) will
turn to the best and most honourable account on the
other side the grave, and will be crowned with
glory, and honour, and immortality; when those
that caused their terror in the land of the living, fall
ingloriously, and bear their shame with t/iem that go
down to the pit. Ezek. xxxii. 24.
5. The credit of a conformity to the best patterns.
The resemblance of those that are confessedly excel-
lent and glorious, has in it an excellence and glory.
To be meek, is to be like the greatest saints, the
elders that obtained a good report, and were of re-
nown in their generation. It is to be like the g^at-
est angels, whose meekness in their converse with,
and ministration to, the saints, is very observable in
the Scriptures. Nay, it is to be like the great God
himself, whose goodness is his glory, (who is Deus
optimus — the best God, and therefore maximus^4he
greatest,) who is slow to anger, and in whom fury
is not, Isa. xxvii. 4. We are then followers of God,
as dear children, when we walk in love, and are hind
one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another,
Eph. V. 1, 2. compare ch. iv. 2. The more quiet and
sedate we are, the more like we are to that God, who,
though he be nearly concerned in all the affairs of
this lower world, is far from being moved by its most
violent convulsions and revolutions: but as he was
from etemity,|| so he is and will be to eternity, infi-
nitely happy in the enjoyment of himself. It is
spoken to his praise and glory, Ps. xxix. 10. The
Lord sits upon the floods, even when the floods have
lifted up their voice, have lifted up their waves, Ps.
xciii. 3. Such is the rest of the Eternal Mind, that
he sits asf firm and undisturbed upon the movable
flood, as upon the immovable rock, the same ye#-
terday, to-day, and for ever : and the meek and quiet
soul that preserves its peace and evenness against
all the ruffling insults of passion and provocation,
does thereby somewhat participate of a divine na-
ture, 2 Pet i. 4.
Let the true honour that attends this grace of meek-*
ness recommend it to us : it is one of those things
that are honest, and pure, and lovely, and of good
report ; a virtue that has h, praise attending it, Phil,
iv. 8. A praise, not, perhaps, of men, but of God,
Rom. ii. 29. It is the certain way to get and keep,
if not a g^eat name, yet a good name ; such as is
better than precious ointment. Though there be those
that trample upon the meek of the earth, and look
againit th§ truth, than GoUah did, when he defied all the host of
Israel Ward
I The HebretT critics observe, that in the name rnrr all the let-
ters are quiescent.
IT Quod dniderai maymm el tuMmun ett, Deoque vieinum^ non concuti.
Sen. — Diii proniwuu iUe #»/, quern ratio nan ira movf/.— What you
284
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
upon them as Michal upon David, despising them
in their hearts ; yet if this is to be viU^ let as be yet
more vile, and base in our oum sight, and we shall find
(as David argues there) that there are those of whom
we shall be had in honour, sooner or later, (2 Sam.
vi. 22.) for the word of Christ shall not fall to the
ground, that those who humble themselves shall be
exalted.
II. Consider how comfortable a meek and quiet
spirit is. Inward comfort is a desirable good, which
has more in it of reality, and depends less upon
opinion, than that of credit : and this is that which
meekness and quietness of spirit has such a direct
tendency to, nay, which it carries along with it
What is true comfort and pleasure, but a quietness
in our own bosom ? Those are most easy to them-
selves, who are so to all about them ; while they
that are a burthen and a terror to others, will not be
much otherwise to themselves. He that would lead
a quiet, must lead a peaceable, life, 1 Tim. ii. 2.
The surest way to find rest to our souls, is to learn
of hini who is meek and lowly in heart, Matt xi. 29.
Let but our moderation be known unto all men;
and the peace of God which passeth all understand'
ing, will heep our hearts and minds, Phil. iv. 6, 7.
Quietness is the thing which even the busy, noisy
part of the world pretend to desire and pursue : they
will be quiet, yea, that they will, or they will
not endure the least disturbance of their quiet-
ness. But verily they go a mad way to work, in
pursuit of quietness ; greatly to disquiet themselves
inwardly, and put their souls into a continual hurry,
only to prevent or remedy some small outward dis-
quietude from others. But he that is meek, finds a
sweeter, safer quietness, and much greater comfort,
than that which they in vain pursue. Great peace
have they that love this law of love, for nothing shall
offend them, Ps. cxix. 166. Whatever offence is
intended, it is not so interpreted, and by that means
the peace is preserved. If there be a heaven any
where upon earth, it is in the meek and quiet soul,
that acts and breathes above that lower region,
which is infested with storms and tempests, the
harmony of whose faculties is like the music of the
spheres they talk of, a perpetual melody. Mercy
and truth are met together, righteousness and peace
have hissed each other,
A meek and quiet Christian must needs live very
comfortably, for he enjoys himself, he enjoys his
friends, he enjoys his God, and he puts it out of the
reach of his enemies to disturb him in these enjoy-
ments.
1. He enjoys himself. Meekness is very nearly
allied to that patience which our Lord Jesus pre-
want is, that noble, that divine attainment— Unshaken tranquil-
lity. CJaud.
* Opinion is the rate of things
From whence our peace doth flow :
scribes to us, as necessary to the keeping possession '
of our own souls, Luke xxi. 19. How calm are die
thoughts, how serene are the affections, how rationtl
the prospects, and how even and composed are all
the resolves, of the meek and quiet soul !* How fwb
from the pains and tortures of an angry man, who
is disseized and dispossessed even of himself, and
while he toils and vexes to make other things his
own, makes his own soul not so : his reason is in a
mist, confounded and bewildered, cannot aigae,
infer, or foresee with any certainty. His afiectioDS
are on the full speed, hurried on with an impetus,
which is as uneasy as it is hazardous. Who is that
g^ood man who is ^satisfied from himself? Prov. xiv.
14. Who but the quiet man, that needs not go abroad
for satisfaction, but having Christ dwelling in bis
heart by faith, has in him that peace, which the
world can neither give nor take away ? While those
that are fretful and passionate rise up early, and
sit up late, and eat the bread of sorrow, in pursuit
of revengeful projects, the God of peace gtoas to hit
beloved (Jedidijahs, one of Solomon's names, who
was a man of peace) sleep, Ps. cxxvii. 2. The sleep
of the meek is quiet, and sweet, and andistnrbed:
those that by innocency and mildness make them-
selves the sheep of Christ, shall be made to lie down
in the green pastures, Ps. xxiii. 2. That which
would break an angry man's heart, will not break a
meek man's sleep. It is promised, Ps. xxii. 26.
That the meeh shall eat and be satisfied. He has
what sweetness is to be had in his conmion comforts,
while the angry man either cannot eat his stcnnach
is too full and too high, (as Ahab, 1 Kings xxi. 4.)
or eats and is not satisfied, unless he can be revenged,
as Haman, Esth. v. 12, 13. All this avails me
nothing, (though it was a banquet of wine with the
king and queen,) as long as Mordccai is unhanged.
It is spoken of as the happiness of the meek, that
they delight themselves in the abundance of peace, Ps.
XXX vii. 11. Others may delight themselves in the
abundance of wealth ; a poor delight that is inter-
woven with so much trouble and disquietude ; but
the meek, though they have but a little wealth,
have peace, abundance of peace, peace like a river,
and this such as they have a heart to delight them-
selves in ; sat lucis intus — light enough within, as
Oecolampadius said, their souls are a Goshen in the
midst of the Mgypi of this world, they have a light
in their dwelling, when clouds and darkness are
round about them : this is the joy which a stranger
doth not meddle with. We may certainly have (and
we would do well to consider it) less inward dis-
turbance, and more true ease and satisfaction in
forgiving twenty injuries, than in avenging one. No
I have a better fate than kings.
Because I think it so.
•Nt If gMmnwirii fgtra.
Mrs. Philips.
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
285
V
doubt Abigail intended more than she expressed,
when to qualify David, and to persuade him to pass
by the affront which Nabal had given him, she
prudently suggested, that hereafter this shall he no
grief unto thee, nor offence of heart.^ Not only
so, but it would be very sweet and easy, and com-
fortable in the reflection. Such a rejoicing is it,
especially in a suffering-day, to have the testimony
of conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity,
not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, par-
ticularly the grace of meekness, we have liad our
conversation in the world, and so have pleased God,
and done our duty. He did not speak the sense,
no not of the sober heathen, that said. Est vindicta
bonum, vit& jucundius ipsA — Revenge is sweeter than
life ; for it often proves more bitter than death.
2. He enjoys his friends : And that is a thing
in which lies much of the comfort of human life.
Man was intended to be a sociable creature, and a
Christian much more so. But the angry man is unfit
to be so, that takes fire at every provocation ; fitter
to be abandoned to the lions' dens, and mountains
of the leopards, than to go forth by the footsteps of
the floch. He that has his hand against every man,
cannot but have (with Ishmael's character Ishmael's
fate) every man*s hand against him, (Gen. xvi. 12.)
and so he lives in a state of war ; but meekness is
the cement of society, the bond of Christian com-
munion ; it planes and polishes the materials of that
beautiful fabric, and makes them lie close and tight,
and the living stones which are built up a spiritual
house, to be, like the stones of the temple that
Herod built, all as one stone, whereas, *' Hard upon
hard " (as the Spaniards' proverb is) ** will never
make a wall.'' Meekness preserves among brethren
that unity, which is like the ointment upon the holy
head, and the dew upon the holy hill, Ps. cxxxiii.
1,2. In our present state of imperfection there can
be no friendship, correspondence, or conversation
maintained without mutual allowances ; we do not
yet dwell with angels or spirits of just men made
perfect, but with men subject to like passions. Now
meekness teaches us to consider this, and to allow
accordingly ; and so distances and strangeness,
feuds and quarrels, are happily prevented, and the
beginnings of them crushed by a timely care. How
necessary to true friendship it is to surrender our
passions, and to subject them all to the laws of it,
was (perhaps) intimated by Jonathan's delivering to
David his sword, and his bow, and his girdle, all
his military habiliments, when he entered into a
covenant of friendship with him, 1 Sam. xviii. 3, 4.
3. He enjoys his God ; and that is most comfort-
able of all. It is the quintessence of all happiness,
and that without which all our other enjoyments
are sapless and insipid; for this, none are better
b 2 Sam. XXV. 31.
qualified than those who are arrayed with the orna-
ment of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight
of God of great price. It was when the Psalmist
had newly conquered an unruly passion, and com-
posed himself, that he lifted up his soul to God in
that pious and pathetic breathing. Whom have I in
heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I
desire in comparison of thee? Ps. Ixxiii. 25. We
enjoy God when we have the evidences and the
assurances of his favour, the tastes and tokens of
his love, when we experience in ourselves the com-
munication of his grace, and the continued instances
of his image stamped upon us : and this, those that
are most meek and quiet have usually the greatest
degrees of. In our wrath and passion we give place
to the devil, and so provoke God to withdraw from
us ; nothing grieves the Holy Spirit of God (by
whom we have fellowship with the Father) more
than bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour,
and evil speaking, Eph. iv. 30, 31. But to this man
does the God of heaven look with a peculiar regard,
even to him that is poor, poor in Spirit, (Isa. Ixvi. 2.)
*^y Ste, — to him that is quiet, so the Syriac ; to him that
is meek, so the Chaldee. The great God overlooks
heaven and earth, to give a favourable look to the
meek and quiet soul. Nay, he not only looks at
such, but (Isa. Ivii. 15.) he dwells with them ; noting
a constant intercourse and communion between God
and humble souls. His secret is with them ; he
gives them more grace, and they that thus dwell in
love, dwell in God, and God in them. The waters
were dark indeed, but they were quiet, when the
Spirit of God moved upon them, and out of them
produced a beautiful world.
This calm and sedate frame does very much qua-
lify and dispose us for the reception and entertain-
ment of divine visits, and sets bounds to the mountain,
(Exod. xix. 12.) on which God is to descend, that
no interruption may break in, and charges the
daughters of Jerusalemy by the roes and the hinds of
the field, (those sweet, and gentle, and peaceable
creatures,) not to stir up or awake our Love till he
please. Cant. ii. 7. Some think it was for the quiet-
ing and composing of his spirit, (which seems to
have been a little ruflled,) that Elisha called for the
minstrel, (2 Kings iii. 15.) and then the hand of the
Lord came upon him. Never was God more intimate
with any mere man, than he was with Moses, the
meekest of all the men on the earth ; and it was re-
quired as a needful qualification of the high priest,
who was to draw near to minister, that he should
have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are
out of the way, Heb. v. 1,2. The meek will he
guide in judgment, with a still small voice, which
cannot be heard, when the passions are loud and
tumultuous. The angry man, when he awakes, is
286
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
still with the devil, contrivinfi^ some malicioas pro-
ject ; the meek and quiet man, w(en he awakes, is
still with God, solacing himself in his favour. Re-
tutu unto thy rest^ O my soul, says David, (Ps. cxvi.
7.) when he had reckoned himself among the sim-
ple, that is, the mild, innocent, and inoffensive
people. Return to thy Noah, so the word is, (for
Noah had his name from Rest,) perhaps alluding to
the rest which the dove found with Noah in the
ark, when she could find none any where else.
Those that are harmless and simple as doves, can
with qomfort return to God as to their rest. It is
excellently paraphrased by Mr. Patrick, *' God and
thyself " (my soul) " enjoy ; in quiet rest, freed
from thy fears." It is said, Ps. cxlvii. 6. that the
Lord lifteth up the meek : as far as their meekness
reigns, they are lifted up above the stormy region,
and fixed in a sphere perpetually calm and serene.
They are advanced indeed that are at home in God,
and live a life of communion with him, not only in
solemn ordinances, but even in the common acci-
dents and occurrences of the world. Every day is a
sabbath day, a day of holy rest, with the meek and
quiet soul, that is, one of the days of heaven. As
this grace gets ground, the comforts of the Holy
Ghost grow stronger and stronger, according to that
precious promise, (Isa. xxix. 19.) The meek also
shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor
among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
4. It is not in the power of his enemies to disturb
and interrupt him in these enjoyments. His peace
is not only sweet, but safe and secure : as far as he
acts under the law of meekness, it is above the reach
of the assaults of those that wish ill to it. He that
abides quietly under the shadow of the Almighty, shall
surely be delivered from the snare of the fowler, Ps.
xci. 1, 3. The greatest provocations that men can
give would not hurt us, if we did not,* by our own
inordinate and foolish concern, come too near them,
and within reach of theii cannon ; we may therefore
thank ourselves if we be damaged : he that has
learned, with meekness and quietness, to forgive in-
juries, and pass them by, has found the best and
surest way of baffling and defeating them ;t nayi it
is a kind of innocent revenge. It was an evidence
that Saul was actuated by another spirit, in that,
when the children of Belial despised him, and
brought him no presents, (hoping by that con-
tempt to give a shock to his infant government,) he
held his peace, and so neither his soul nor his crown
received any disturbance, 1 Sam. x. 27. Shimei,
when he cursed David, intended thereby to pour
vinegar into his wounds, and to add affliction to the
• Nfwto Ueditur nin a Mf>«o.— No man is hurt but by himseli*.
Diet. Dioftn.
t Idcireo quit U Uedit nt doteatt quiafruetiu Uedtnti* in dalon Uui e$t ;
ergo, cum fnctum ejus evtrttrit non dolendo, ipie doUat ntce$ti est amit-
tions fncine ni, impro^m ctedit nstiitendo.—Ue who injures you,
does it io order to grieve you, for the grier or the person injured
afflicted ; but David, by his meekness, preserved his
peace, and Shimei's design was frustrated, So let
him curse ; (2 Sam. xvi. 10.) alas, poor creature',
he hurts himself more than David, who, while ht
keeps his heart from being tinder to those sparks, is
no more prejudiced by them, than the moon is by
the foolish cur that barks at it. The meek man's
prayer is that of D^vid, (Ps. Ixi. 2.) Lead me to the
rock that is higher than I ; and there I can (as Mr.
Norris expresses it)
Smile to see
The shafts of fortune all drop short of me.
The meek man is like a ship that rides at anchor,
movetur, sed non amovetur — is moved, but not removed*
The storm moves it, (the meek man is not a stock or
stone under provocation,) but does not remove it from
its port. It is a grace that in reference to the temp-
tations of affront and injury, (as faith in reference
to temptation in general,) quenches the fiery darts
of the wicked. I It is armour of proof against the
spiteful and envenomed arrows of provocation, and
is an impregnable wall to secure the peace of the
soul there, where thief cannot break through tmd
steah while the angpry man lays all his comforts at
the mercy of every wasp that will strike at him.
So that, upon the whole matter, it appears. That
the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is as easy
as it is comely.
III. Consider how profitable a meek and quiet
spirit is. All people are for what they caii g^t ; it
is that which the busy world is set upon. Every one
for his gain from his quarter, Isa. Ivi. 11. It is for
this that they break their sleep, and spend their
spirits, and raise so great a dust Now it will be to
convince such, that, really, there is more to be gotten
by meekness and quietness of spirit, than by all this
hurry and confusion. They readily believe, that tii
all labour there is profit; but let God himself tell
them. In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quiet-
ness and in confidence shall be your strength ; they
will not take his word for it, but they say, (as it
follows there,) No, for we willfice upon horses, and we
will ride upon the swift, Isa. xxx. 1 5, 16. He tha
came from heaven to bless us, has entailed a special
blessing upon the grace of meekness. Matt v. 5.
Blessed are the meek : and his saying they are bless-
ed, makes them so, for those whom he blesses are
blessed indeed ; blessed, and they sliall be blessed.
Meekness is gainful and profitable,
1. As it is the condition of the promise. The meek
are therefore blessed, /or they shall inherit the earth:
it is quoted from Ps. xxxvii. 11. and is almost the
is precisely the ii^urer's reward ; if therefore you deprive him of
this reward by suppressing your grier, you turn the mischief be
intended, on bimseir. TrrtuU. de Patientia, cap. 8.
I Meekness is the greatest affh)nt to all injuries in the world, for
it returns them upon the injurious, and makes them useless^ in
effective, and innocent. Tfay^r** Great Exetupl p. 304.
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
287
only expreM promise of temporal good things in all
the New Testament* Not that the meek shall be
put off with the earth only, then they would not be
truly blessed, but they shall have that as an earnest
of something more. Some read it. They shall inherit
the landf tliat is, the land of Canaan, which was not
only a type and figure, but to them that believed, a
token and pledge, of the heavenly inheritance. So
that, ** A double Canaan'' (as Dr. Hammond ob-
serves) '' is thought little enough for the meek man.f
The same felicity, in a manner, attending him which
ire believe of Adam, if he had not fallen, a life in
Paradise, and thence a transplantation to heaven."
But besides this, meekness is a branch of
godliness, which has more than other branches of it,
the promise of the life that now is, 1 Tim. iv. 8. They
shall inherit the earth ; the sweetest and surest ten-
ure is that by inheritance, which is founded in son-
ship : that which comes by descent to the heir, the
law attributes to the act of God, who has a special
hand in providing for the meek. They are his chil-
dren, and if children then heirs. It is not always the
largest proportion of this worlct's goods that falls to
the meek man's share, but whether he has more or
less, he has it by the best title ; not by a common,
but a covenant-right: he holds tn Capite,X — i**
(Christ) our Head, an honourable tenure.
If he has but a little, he has it from God's love,
and vrith his blessing, and behold all things are
clean and comfortable to him. The wise man has
determined it, (Prov. xvii. 1.) Better is a dry morsel
and quietness therewith, than a house full of sacrifi-
ces with strife : and, chap. xv. 17. Better is a dinner
of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred
therewith. Be the fare ever so scanty, he that has
rule over his own spirit, knows how to make the
best of them ; how to such honey out of the roch, and
oil out of the flinty rock, Deut xxxii. 13. Blessed
are the meeh, for they shall wield the earth ; so old
Wickliff's translation reads it, (as I remember it is
quoted in the Book of Martyrs,) and very significant-
ly. Good management contributes more to our com-
fort than great possessions. Whatever a meek man
has of this earth, he knows how to wield it, to make
a right and good use of it ; that is all in all. Quiet
souls so far inherit the earth, that they are sure to
have fis much of it as is good for them ; as much as
will serve to bear their charges through this world
to a better ; and who would covet more ? Enough is
as good as a feast. The promise of God without
present possession, is better than possession of the
world, without an interest in the promise.
• Af heaven is taken by violence, so is earth by meeline«.
TVtfp imUe.
♦ Fnd. Cat. p. fmiki) 117.
t Ihrmm imJMitamt gwam nfti dioinitiu conentam mm iidnm/, tt wewe
apuU nb tUi luietA ; tt hoe iUu $atis m/, doiue mumdi kserediiaitm mUu
m» St mitanf, Fkroen 9tro omnio fotsidtndo nikit potnJtni. —They in*
2. As it has in its own nature a direct tendency to
our present benefit and advantage. He that is thus
wise, is wise for himself, even in this world, and ef-
fectually consults his own interest
(1.) Meekness has a good influence upon our
health. If envy be the rottenness of the bones, (Prov.
xiv. 30.) meekness is the preservation of them. As
the indulging of inordinate appetites towards those
things that are pleasing to the flesh, so the indulg-
ing of inordinate passions against those things
that are displeasing, do in the effect prejudice
and injure the very body which they contend so
much for. The excesses and exorbitances of anger
stir up those peccant humours in the body which
kindle and increase wasting and killing diseases ;
but meekness governs those humours, and so contri-
butes very much to the good temper and constitution
of the body. When Ahab was sick for Naboth's
vineyard, meekness would soon have cured him.
Moses, the meekest of men, not only lived to be old,
but was then free from the infirmities of age ; his
eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated, (Deut.
xxxiv. 7.) which may be very much imputed to his
meekness, as a means. The days of old age would
not be such evil days, if old people did not, by their
own frowardness and unquietness, make them worse
than otherwise they would be. Ungovemed anger
inflames the natural heat, and so begets acute dis-
eases, dries up the radical moisture, and so hastens
chronical decays. The body is called the sheath or
scabbard of the soul, Dan. vii. 15. marg. How often
does an envious fretful soul, like a sharp knife, cut
its own sheath, and, as they say of the viper's brood,
eat its own way out : all which, meekness happily
prevents.
The quietness of the spirit will help to cool distem-
pering heats, to suppress melancholy vapours ; and
this, as other of wisdom's precepts, will be health to
the navel, and marrow to the bones ; length of days,
and long life, and peace they shall add unto thee : but
wrath hills the foolish man. Job v. 2.
(2.) It has a good influence upon our wealth, the
preservation and increase of it. As in kingdoms, so
in families and neighbourhoods, war begets poverty.
Many a one has brought a fair estate to ruin, by
giving way to the efforts of an ungovemed anger,
that barbarous idol, to which, even the children's
portions and the family's maintenance are oftentimes
sacrificed. Contention will as soon clothe a man
with rags an slothfulness ; that, therefore, which
keeps the peace, does not a little befriend the plenty.
It was Abraham's meek management of his quarrel
habit the earth which they Iciiow to be theirs by the divine allot
ment, and they are safe beneath the divine protection ; this suf.
flees them, till, in the last day, they arrive at the full possession
of their inheritance. The furious, on the contrary, by grasping at
all, lose every thing. Calv. in Matt. ▼. 5.
288
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
with Lot, that secured both his own and his kins-
man's possessions, which otherwise would have been
an easy prey to the Canaanite and the Perizzite that
dwelt then in the laud, Gen. xiii. 7, 8. And Isaac,
whom I have sometimes thought to be the most quiet
and calm of all the patriarchs, and that passed the
days of his pilgrimage most silently, raised the great-
est estate of any of them, (Gen. xxvi. 13.) he grew
till he became very great: and his son Jacob lost
nothing in the end, by his meek and quiet carriage
toward his uncle Laban. Revenge is costly ; Haman
bid largely for it, no less than ten thousand talents
of silver : (Esth. iii. 9.) it is better to forgive, and
save the charges. Mr. Dod used to say, *< Love is
better than law ; for love is cheap, but law is charge-
able." Those tradesmen are commonly observed to
thrive most, that make the least noise, that with
quietness work and mind their own business, 2
Thess. iii. 12.
(3.) It has a good influence upon our safety^
In the day of the Lord's anger, the meek of the earth
are most likely to be secured. It may he you shall
he hid, (so runs the promise, Zeph. ii. 3.) if any be,
you shall, you stand fairest for special protections.
Meekness approaches to that innocence which is
commonly an efi'ectual security against wrongs and
injuries. However some base and servile spirits
may insult over the tame and humble ; yet, with all
persons of honour, it is confessedly a piece of
cowardice to set upon an unanned unresisting man,
that resents not provocation. Who is he that will
harm you, if you be followers th dyaSs, of him that is
good, in his goodness, 1 Pet. iii. 13. Who draws
his sword, or cocks his pistol, at the harmless silent
lamb ? while every one is ready to do it at the furious
barking dog. Thus does the meek man escape many
of those perplexing troubles, those woes, and sorrows,
and wounds without cause, which he that is pas-
sionate, provoking and revengeful, pulls upon his
own head. Wise men turn away wrath, but a fool's
lips enter into contention, and his mouth calls for
strokes. It is an honour to a man to cease from
strife, but every fool will be meddling to his own
hurt. An instance of this I remember Mr. Baxter
gives in his book of " Obedient Patience," which
was this ; " That once, going along London streets,
a hectoring rude fellow justled him : he went on his
way, and took no notice of it ; but the same man
affronting the next he met in like manner, he drew
his sword and demanded satisfaction, and mischief
was done." He that would sleep both in a whole
skin, and in a whole conscience, must learn rather
to forgive injuries than to revenge them. The two
goats that met upon the narrow bridge (as it is in
Luther's fable) were both in danger should they
quarrel ; but were both preserved by the condescen-
•■ Dr. Hammond, Prael. Cat. p. 117.
sion of one, that lay down and let the other go o¥er
him. It is the evil of passion, that it turns our
friends into enemies ; but it is the excellency of
meekness, that it turns our enemies into friends,
which is an effectual way of conquering them. Saul,
as inveterate an enemy as could be, was more than
once melted by David's mildness and meekness.
Is this thy voice, my son David? (says he, 1 Sam.
xxiv. 16.) I have sinned, return, my son David, 1 Sam.
xxvi. 21. And after that, Saul persecuted him no
more, ch, xxvii. 4. The change that Jacob's meek-
ness made in Esau, is no less observable ; and (some
think) is remarked as very strange and surprising,
by an unusual pointing in the Hebrew text, upon
Esau's kissing Jacob, Gen. xxxiii. 4. inpv^ a point
over every letter, to put the reader in niind to take
special notice of it. In the ordinary dispensatioiis
of Providence, some tell us,* that they have found
it remarkably true in times of public trouble and
calamity, that it has commonly fared best with the
meek and quiet ; their lot has been safe and easy,
especially if compared with the contrary fate of the
turbulent and seditious. Whoso is wise and observes
these things, will understand the loving-kindness of
the Lord to the quiet in the land, against whom we
read indeed of plots laid, and deceitful matters
devised, (Ps. xxxv. 20 ; xxxvii. 12, 14.) but those
by a kind and overruling providence are ordinarily
baffled and made successless. Thus does this grace
of meekness carry its own recompence along with it,
and in keeping this commandment, as well as after
keeping it, there is a great reward, Ps. xix. 11.
IV. Consider what a preparative it is for some-
thing further. It is a very desirable thing to stand
complete in all the will of God, (Col. iv. 12.) to be
fitted and furnished for every good work, to be made
ready, a people prepared for the Lord: a living
principle of grace is the best preparation for the
whole will of God. Grace is establishing to the
heart, it is the root of the matter, and a good foun-
dation for the time to come. This grace of meek-
ness is particularly a good preparation for what lies
before us in this world.
1 . It makes us fit for any duty. It puts the soul
in frame, and keeps it so, for all religious exercises.
There was no noise of axes and hanmiers in the
building of the temple : those are most fit for temple
service that are most quiet and composed. The work
of God is best done, when it is done without noise.
Meekness qualifies and disposes us to hear and
receive the word : when malice and envy are laid
aside, and we are like new-bom babes for innocence
and inoffensiveness, then we are most fit to receive
the sincere milh of the word, and are most likely to
grow thereby, 1 Pet ii. 1, 2. Meekness prepares
the soil of the heart for the seed of the word, as the
\
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
380
hasbandman opens anr! breaks the clods of his pround,
mnd makes plain the face thereof and then casts in the
principal wkeat and the appointed barley, Isa. xxviii.
24, 25. Christ's ministers are fishers of men, but
we seldom fish snccessfally in these troubled waters.
The Toice that Eliphaz heard, was ushered in with
a profound silence, (Job iv. 16.) and in slumberings
Mpon the bed, a quiet place and posture. God opens
the ears of men, and sealeth their instructions. Job
xxxiii. 15, 16. Prayer is another duty which meek-
ness disposes us for the right and acceptable per-
formance of. We do not lift up pure hands in prayer,
if they be not without wrath, 1 Tim. ii. 8. Prayers
made in wrath are written in gall, and can never be
pleasing to, or prevailing with, the God of love and
peace. Our rule is. First go and be reconciled to thy
brother^ and then come and offer thy gift,* Matt. v.
23, 24. And if we do not take this method, though
we seek God in a due ordinance, we do not seek
him in the due order.
The Lord's day is a day of rest, and none are fit
for it but those who are in a quiet frame, whose souls
are entered into that present sabbatism which the
gospel has provided for the people of God, Heb. iv.
9. The Lord's supper is the gospel-feast of uniea'
tened bread, which must be kept, not with the old
leaven of wrath, and malice, and wickedness, but
with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.f
God made a gracious visit to Abraham, (Gen. xiii.
14.) after that Lot was separated from him, viz.
after the strife betwixt him and Lot was over, in
which he had discovered so much mildness and hu-
mility. The more carefully we preserve the com-
munion of saints, the fitter we are for communion
with God. It is observable, that the sacrifices which
God appointed under the law, were not ravenous
beasts, and birds of prey ; but calves, and kids, and
lambs, and turtle-doves, and young pigeons, all of
them emblems of meekness, and gentleness, and
inoffensiveness ; for with such sacrifices God is
well pleased. This quietness of spirit contributes
very much to the constant steadiness and reg^ilarity
of a religious conversation. Hot and eager spirits,
that are ready to take fire at every thing, are usually
very inconstant in their profession, and of great in-
consistency with themselves, like a man in an ague-
fit, sometimes burning hot, and sometimes shivering
for cold ; or like those that gallop in the beginning
of their journey, and tire before the end of it:
whereas the meek and quiet Christian is still the
same; and, by keeping to a constant rate, rids
ground. If yon would have one foot of the compass
* LcSTC thy Gift : Ocor an nXcirai artfiiav etvat ru dwp« KaraXt/X'
wa*ofit99, ica< 0wofiiC*i* ^^i*% civai, to irporcpor oireXtfeiv koi xoraX*
XoTiiMM.— Ood does not deem that any dishonour attaches to him.
when be ksres a gift, though it should be slighted ; and do6t thou
think it degrading to make the first overture toward reconcili-
ition ? CkrjfBotL H^m.
^ Qnid eti od pectm Dei acctdert »in§paef f Ai rtrnmionem dtbi-
V
go even round the circumference, you must be sure
to keep the other fixed and quiet in the centre, for
your strength is to sit still.
2. It makes us fit for any relation, which God in
his providence may call us into. Those who are
quiet themselves, cannot but be easy to all that are
about them ; and the nearer any are to us in relation
and converse, the more desirable it is that we should
be easy to them. Relations are various, as superiors,
inferiors, and equals ; he that is of a meek and quiet
spirit, is cut out for any of them. Moses was forty
years a courtier in Egypt, forty years a servant in
Midian, and forty years a king in Jeshurun ; and
his meekness qualified him for each of these posts,
and still he held fast his integrity. There are vari-
ous duties requisite, according as the relation is,
and various graces to be exercised; but this of
meekness is the golden thread that must run through
all. If man be a sociable creature, the more he has
of humility, the more fit he is for society. Meekness
would greatly help to preserve the wisdom and due
authority of superiors, the obedience and due subjec-
tion of inferiors, and the love, and mutual kindness,
and serviceableness of equals. A calm and quiet
spirit receives the comfort of the relation most thanJc-
fully, studies the duty of the relation most carefully,
and bears the inconvenience of the relation (for
there is no unmixed comfort under the sun) most
cheerfully and easily. I have heard of a married
couple, who, though they were both naturally of a
hot and hasty temper, yet lived very comfortably in
that relation, by observing an agreement made be-
tween themselves, " Never to be both angry toge-
ther :" an excellent law of meekness it is, which, if
faithfully lived up to, would prevent many of those
breaches among relations, which occasion so much
gniilt and grief, and are seldom healed without a
scar. It was part of the good advice given by a pious
and ingenious father, to his children newly entered
into the conjugal relation ;
Doth one speak fire ? t'other with water come ;
Is one provoked ? be t'other soft or dumb.
And thus one wise, both happy. But where wrath
and anger are indulged, all relations are imbittercd,
those that should be helps, become as thorns in our
eyes, and goads in our sides. Two indeed are better
than one, and yet it is better to dwell alone in the
wilderness, than with a contentious and angry rela-
tion, who is like a continual dropping in a very rainy
day, Prov. xxi. 19 ; xxvii. 15. Some of the Hebrew
critics have noted, that if you take away n* the fear
tortm am retention* t Quomotb piacabit palrem irattu infratrem, aim
omnit ira ab initio interdieia lit nobit /—How can we attain the peace
of God without peace ! How can we attain the remission of our
sins without remitting the sins of others 1 How can he that is an.
gry with his brother, pacify bis bther, who, from the first, forbids
us to be angry * Jh-tuL de Orat. c. 10.
290
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
of the Lord, from vm and nvtt husband and wife ;
there remains but vie and rw fire, fire, — It is so in
other relations.
3. It makes us fit for any condition, according as
the wise God shall please to dispose of us. Those
that through grace are enabled to compose and quiet
themselves, are fit to live in this world, where we
meet with so much every day to discompose and dis-
quiet us. In general, whether the outward condition
be prosperous or adverse, whether the world smile
or frown upon us, a meek and quiet spirit is neither
lifted up with the one, nor cast down with the other,
but still in the same poise; in prosperity humble
and condescending, the estate rising, but the mind
not rising with it ; in adversity encouraged and
cheered up, catt doum, but not in despair ; in both
even, like a dye, throw in which way you will, it
lights on a square side. St Paul, who had learned
in every state to be content, a urapcijc — satisfied with-
in himself knew how to be abased, and knew how to
abound; every where, and in all things^ he was in-
structed both to he full and to be hungry, both to
abound, and to suffer need, Phil. iv. 11, 12. Changes
iHithout made none witliin. It is a temper which,
as far as it has the ascendant in the soul, makes
every burthen sit light, by bringing the mind to the
condition, when the condition is not in every thing
brought to the mind. Prosperity and adversity have
each of them their particular temptation to peevish-
ness and frowardness ; the former by making men
imperious, the latter by making men impatient.
Against the assaults of each of these temptations,
the grace of meekness will stand upon the gn^^rd.
Being to pass through this world by honour and dis-
honour, by evil report and good report, that is, through
a great variety of conditions and treatments, we
have need of that long-suffering and kindness, and
love unfeigned, which will be the armour of right-
eousness, on the right hand and on the left. I refer
to that scripture, 2 Cor. vi. 6 — 8. Meekness and
quietness will fortify the soul on each hand, and
suit it to the several entertainments which the world
gives us ; like a skilful pilot, that, which point of
the compass soever the wind blows from, will shift
his sails accordingly ; and knows either how to get
forward, and weather his point with it, or to lie by
without damage. It is the continual happiness of
a quiet temper, to make the best of that which is.*
4. It makes us fit for a day of persecution. If
tribulation and affliction arise because of the word,
(which is no foreign supposition,) the meek and quiet
spirit is armed for it, so as to preserve its peace and
purity at such a time, which are our two great con-
cerns, that we may neither torment ourselves with a
base fear, nor pollute ourselves with a base com-
pliance. We are accustomed to say, *' We will give
ytvu$itva J»t ftveratf nat t» iroiqvctff.— Seek not to sdjost events to
any thing for a quiet life.''— I say, any thing for a
quiet conscience, which will be best secured under
the shield of a meek and quiet spirit, which doth
not render railing for railing, (1 Pet. iii. 9.) nor
aggravate the threatened trouble, or represent it
to itself in its most formidable colours, but has
learned to put a but upon the power of the most
enraged enemies ; they can but kill the body ; and
to witness the most righteous testimony with meek^
ncss and fear, (I Pet. iii. 15.) like our Master, who,
when he suffered, threatened not, but committed him-
self to him tJiatjudgeth righteously, 1 Pet ii. 23. Suf-
fering saints (as the suffering-Jesus) are compared
to sheep, (Isa. liii.7. Rom. viii. 36.) as sheep dumb
before the shearer, nay, dumb before the butcher.
The meek and quiet Christian, if duly called to it,
can tamely part, not only with the wool, but with
the blood ; not only with the estate, but with the
life, and even then rejoice with joy unspeakable,
and full of glory. Angpry, froward people, in a day
of rebuke, are apt to pull crosses upon themselves
by needless provocations, or to murmur, and com-
plain, and fly in the face of instruments, and give
unbecoming language, contrary to the laws of our
holy religion, and the example of our Master, and
so do more hurt than good by their suffering. When-
ever we have the honour to be persecuted for right-
eousness-sake, our g^eat care must be to glorify Grod,
and to adorn our profession : (which is done most
effectually by meekness and mildness, under the
hardest censures, and the most cruel usage:) so
manifesting that we are indeed under the power and
influence of that holy religion, which we think it
worth our while to suffer for.
. 6. It makes us fit for death and eternity. The
grave is a quiet place ; there the wicked cease from
troubling. Job iii. 17. Those that were most trouble-
some, are there bound to the peace ; and their hatred
and envy (those great make-bates) are there perishedf
Eccl. ix. 6. Whether we will or no, in the grave we
shall lie still and be quiet. Job iii. 13. What a great
change then must it needs be to unquiet, ang^, and
litigious people ! and what a mighty shock will that
sudden forced rest give them, after such a violent
rapid motion ! It is therefore our wisdom to compose
ourselves for the grave, to prepare ourselves for it
by adapting and accommodating ourselves to that
which is likely to be our long home : this b dying
daily, quieting ourselves, for death will shortly
quiet us.
The meek and quiet soul is at death let into that
rest which it has been so much labouring after; and
how welcome must that needs be ! Thoughts of
death and the grave are very agreeable to those who
love to be quiet ; for then and there they shall enter
into peace, and rest in their beds, Isa. Ivii. 3.
your will so much ai to adjust your will to events ; thus you wiU
act a t>ecomlng part. Spict. c. 13.
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
291
ith we expect the judgment, than which
more dreadful to them that are conten-
. ii. 8. The coming of the master brings
r with it, to those who smite their fellow-
Luke xii. 45, 46.) but those that are meek
are likely to have their plea ready, their
tated, and whenever it comes, it will be
: to them : to those whose moderation is
ill men, it will be no ungrateful news to
he Lord is at hand, Phil. iv. 5. It is there-
ibed, as that which ought to be our con-
that whenever our master comes, we may
>f him in peace, 2 Pet. iii. 14. that is, in
e temper. Blessed is that servant, whom
hen he comes shall find in such a frame.
xan " (says the late excellent Abp. Tillot-
preface to his book of Family Religion)
oth to he taken out of the world reeking hot
rp contention with a perverse adversary;
ittle out of countenance to find himself in
translated into the calm and peaceable re-
' blessed, where nothing but perfect charity
ill reigns for ever.*' Heaven, for certain,
place, and none are fit for it but quiet
he heavenly Canaan, that land of peace,
no heaven to those that delight in war ;
md unquiet people would be out of their
ke a fish upon dry ground, in those calm
I the sheep of Christ, (such as are patient
islve,) that are called to inherit the king-
out are dogs that bite and devour, Rev.
the wings of a dove, not those of a hawk
lat David would fly upon to his desired
.6.
f all this together, and then consider,
lere be not a real excellency in this meek-
aietness of spirit, which does highly re-
t to all that love either God or themselves,
y sensible regard to their own comfort,
lis world, or in that which is to come.
CHAPTER III.
THB APPLICATION.
w, have we not reason to lament the want
tment of a meek and quiet spirit, among
profess religion, and especially in our own
If this be Christianity, the Lord help us !
is there of the thing, even among those
great pretensions to the name! Sure-
said in another case,) Avt hoc non Evan-
\ hi non Evangelici — Either this is not Qos-
f are not Gospel-professors. And oh ! how
u 2
bare and uncomely does profession appear, for want
of this adorning ! When the Israelites had stript
themselves of their ornaments, to furnish up a gold-
en calf, it is said, they were made naked to their
shame, Exod. xxxii. 25. How naked are we (like
Adam when he had sinned) for want of this orna-
ment ! It is well if it were to the shame of true repent-
ance ; for there is reason enough for it.
I am not teaching you to judge and censure others
in this matter, there is too much of that to be found
among us; we are quick-sighted enough to spy
faults in others^ the transports of whose passions we
should interpret favourably. But we have all cause,
more or less, to condemn ourselves, and confess guilt
in this matter. In many things we all offend, and
perhaps in this, as much as in any, coming short of
the law of meekness and quietness.
We are called Christians, and it is our privilege
and honour that we are so : we name the name of
the meek and lowly Jesus, but how few are actuated
by his Spirit, or conformed to his example ! It is a
shame that any occasion should be given to charge
it upon professors, who, in other things, are most
strict and sober, that in this, they are most faulty :
and that many who pretend to conscience and devo-
tion, should indulge themselves in a peevish, froward,
and morose temper and conversation, to the great
reproachof that worthy Name by which we are called.
May we not say, as that Mahometan did, when a
Christian prince had perfidiously broke his league
with him, ** O Jesus ! are these thy Christians V
It is the manifest design of our holy and excellent
religion, to smooth, and soften, and sweeten our tem-
pers, and to work oflf the rugged ness and uneven-
ness of them. Is it not a wretched thing therefore,
that any who profess it, should be soured, and im-
bittered, and less conversable and fit for human so-
ciety, than other people ? He was looked upon as a
very good man in his day, (and not without cause,)
who yet had such an unhappy temper, and was
sometimes so transported with passion, that his
friend would say of him, *< He had grace enough for
ten men, and yet not enough for himself." All the
disriples of Jesus Christ, even those of the first
three, do not know what manner of spirit they are of
Luke ix. 55. So apt are we to deceive ourselves,
especially when these extravagances shroud them*
selves under the specious and plausible pretence of
zeal for God and religion. But yet the fault is not
to be laid upon the profession, or the strictness and
singularity of it in other things which are praise-
worthy ; nor may we think the worse of Christian-
ity for any such blemishes : we know very well that
the wisdom that is from above, is peaceable, and gentle,
and easy to be entreated, and all that is sweet,. and
amiable, and endearing, though she is not herein
justified of all who call themselves her children.
But the blame must be laid upon the corruption and
292
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS.
folly of the professors themselves, who are not so
perfectly delivered into the moald of Christianity as
they should be ; but neglect their ornament, and
prostitute their honour, and suffer the authority of
their graces to be trampled upon ; they let fire go
out of the rod of their branches, which devour their
fruit : so that there is no meekness as a strong rod,
to be a sceptre to rule in the soul, which is a lamen-
tation, and shall be for a lamentation ; (I refer to
that complaint, Ezek. xix. 14.) something resembling
the woful degeneracy of the angels that sinned,
of whom it is said, (Jude 6.) That they kept not
ri|v lavrotv apxfiv — Suum principatum. So the Vulgate :
might it not be read, The government of themselves?*
They lost the command they should have had over
their inferior faculties, and suffered them to get
head. And is it not much like this, when those
pretend to the dignity, who have lost the dominion,
of a religious profession, having no rule over their
own spirits.
And yet, blessed be God, even in this corrupt
and degenerate world, there are many, who appear
in the excellent ornament of a meek and quiet
spirit ; and some whose natural temper is hasty and
choleric, (as it is said Calvin's was,) yet have been
enabled by the power of divine grace to show in a
good conversation their works with meekness and
wisdom. It is not so impracticable as some imagine,
to subdue these passions, and to preserve the peace
of the soul, even in a stormy day.
But that we may each of us judge ourselves, and
find matter for repentance herein, I shall only men-
tion those instances of irregular deportment towards
our particular relations, which evidence the want of
meekness and quietness of spirit.
I. Superiors are commonly very apt to chide, and
that is, for want of meekness. It is spoken to the
praise of him, who is the great ruler of this perverse
and rebellious world, that he will not always chide j
Ps. ciii. 9. But how many little rulers are there of
families and petty societies, that herein are very
unlike him, for they arc always chiding! Upon
every little default, they are put into a flame, and
transported beyond due bounds; easily provoked,
either for no cause at all, or for very small cause ;
greatly provoked, and very outrageous, and un-
reasonable, when they are provoked. Their carriage
is fiery and hasty, their language is scurrilous and
indecent; they care not what they say, nor what
they do, nor whom they insult; they are such sons
of Belial, that a man cannot speak to them, 1 Sam.
XXV. 17. One had as good meet a bear robbed of
her whelps, as meet them. These require meekness.
Husbands should not be bitter against their wives^
Col. iii. 19. Parents should not provoke their chil-
dren^ Eph. vi. 4. Masters must forbear threatening y
• CudvortK$ fnttUeci. Sytt. p. 816.
Eph. vi. 9. These are the rules, but how few are
ruled by them ! The undue and intemperate passion
of superiors goes under the umbrage and excuse of
necessary strictness, and the maintaining of authority,
and the education and control of children and
ser\'ants. But surely every little failure needs not
be animadverted upon, but rather should be passed
by ; or if the fault must needs be reproved and
corrected, may it not be done without such a beat?
What needs so much noise and clamour, and all
this ado ? Is this the product of a meek and quiet
spirit ? Is this the best badge of your authority yoo
have to put on ? and are these the ensigns of your
honour? Is there no other way of making your
inferiors know their place, but by putting theu
among the dogs of your flocV, and threatening them
as such? Not that I am against government and
good order in families, and such reproofs as are
necessary to the support and preservation of it, and
those, so sharpened, as some tempers require and
call for. But while you are governing others, pray
learn to govern yourselves, and do not disorder yonr
own souls, under pretence of keeping order in your
families: for though you yourselves may not be
aware of it, yet it is certain, that by those indica-
tions of your displeasure, which transgress the laws
of meekness, you do but render yourselves con-
temptible and ridiculous, and rather prostitute than
preserve your authority. Though your children dare
not tell you so, yet perhaps they cannot but think
that you are very unfit to command yourselves.t
Time was, when you were yourselves children, and
scholars, and perhaps servants and apprentices;
and so (if you will but allow yourselves tlie liberty
of reflection) you cannot but know the heart of ao
inferior, (Exod. xxiii. 9.) and should therefore treat
those that are now under you, as you yourselves then
wished to be treated. A due expression of displea-
sure, so much as is necessary to the amendment of
what is amiss, will very well consist with meekness
and quietness. And your graf ity and awful com-
posedness therein will contribute very much to the
preserving of your authority, and will command
respect abundantly more than your noise and chid-
ing. Masters of families (and masters of schools
too) have need, in this matter, to behave themsehes
wisely, (Ps. ci. 2.) so as to avoid the two cxtremefl»
that of Eli's foolish indulgence on the one hand,
(I Sam. ii. 23, 24.) and that of Saul's brutish rage
on the other hand, (1 Sam. xx. 30, 33.) and for tbe
hitting of this golden mean, wisdom is profitable to
direct.
2. Inferiors are commonly very apt to complain.
If every thing be not just to their mind, they vt
fretting and vexing, and their hearts are hot withio
them ; they are uneasy in their place and station,
■f JVfmo Tfgere potest, nisi qui el rr^'.— No one is lit tO rule, tlCtpi
he it willing to be governed. Seneca.
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
293
finding fault with eveiy thing that is said or done to
them. Here wants a quiet spirit, which would
reconcile as to the post wc are in, and to all the
difltculties of it, and would make the best of the
present state, though it be attended with many in-
conveniences. Those unquiet people, whom the
apostle Jude in his epistle compares to raging wavet
of the sea J and wandering start j («. 13.) were mur"
murers and compiainers (v. 16.) /icfii^i/ioipoc, — blamers
of their loty — so the word signifies. It is an instance
of unquietness to be ever and anon quarrelling with
our allotment. Those wives wanted a meek and
quiet spirit^ who cor ererf the altar of the Lord with
tears, Mai. ii. 13. Not tears of repentance for sin,
but tears of vexation at the disappointments they
met with in their outward condition. Hannah's
meekness and quietness was in some degree want-
ing, when she fretted, and wept, and would not eat ;
(1 Sam. i. 7.) but prayer composed her spirit, and
set her to rights, v, 18. Her countenance was no more
sad. It was the unquietness of the spirit of the elder
brother in the parable, that quarrelled so unreason-
ably with the father, for receiving and entertaining
the penitent prodigal, Luke xv. 29. For those that
are given to be uneasy, will never want something
or other to complain of. It is true, (though not so
readily apprehended,) that the sullenness, and mur-
muring, and silent frets of children and servants,
are as great a transgression of the law of meekness,
as the more open, noisy, and avowed passions of
their parents and masters. We find the king's cham-
berlains wroth with the king, Esth. ii. 21. And Cain's
quarrel witli God himself, for accepting of Abel,
was interpreted anger at God : Gen. iv. 6. Why art
thou wrothy and why is thy covntenance fallen? The
sour looks of inferiors are as certain an indication of
anger resting in the bosom, as the disdainful looks
of superiors ; and how many such instances of dis-
content there have been, especially under a con-
tinual cross, our own consciences may perhaps tell
OS. It is the want of meekness only that makes
those whom divine Providence has put under the
yoke, children of Belial, that is, impatient of the
yoke.
3. Equals are commonly very apt to clash and
contend. It is for want of meekness that there are
in the church so many pulpit and paper-quarrels,
such strifes of words, and perverse disputings : that
there are in the state such factions and parties, and
between them such animosities and heart-burnings :
that there are in neighbourhoods such strifes, and
brawls, and vexatious law-suits ; or such distances,
and estrangements, and shyness one of another:
that there are in families envies and quarrels among
the children and servants, crossing and thwarting,
finding fault one with another : and that brethren
that dwell together, do not, as they should, dwell
together in unity. It is for want of meekness that we
are so impatient of contradiction in our opinions,
desires, and designs ; that we must have our own
saying, right or wrong, and every thing our own
way ; that we are so impatient of competitors, not
enduring that any should stand in our light, or share
in that work of honour which we would engross to
ourselves ; that we are so impatient of contempt, so
quick in our apprehension and resentment of the
least slight or affront ; and so pregnant in our fancy
of injuries, where really there are none, or none in-
tended. They are not only loud and professed con-
tentions, that evidence a want of meekness, but also
those silent alienations in affection and conversa-
tion, which make a less noise; little piques and
prejudices conceived, which men are themselves so
ashamed of, that they will not own them : these show
the spirit disturbed, and wanting the ornament of
meekness. In a word, the wilful doing any thing to
disquiet others, slandering, backbiting, whispering,
tale-bearing, or the like, is too plain an evidence,
that we are not ourselves rightly disposed to be
quiet.
And now, may we not all remember our faults this
day ? and, instead of condemning others, though
ever so faulty, should we not each of us bewail be-
fore the Lord, that we have been so little actuated
by this excellent spirit, and repent of all that, which
we have at any time said, or done, contrary to the
law of meekness, and from under the direction and
influence of it? Instead of going about to extenuate
and excuse our sinful passions, let us rather aggra-
vate them, and lay a load upon ourselves for them :
So foolish have Iheen^ and ignorant, and so lihe a beast,
as the Psalmist speaks, when he is recovering him-
self from an intemperate heat, Ps. Ixxiii. 22. Think
how often we have appeared before God and the
world without our ornament, without our livery, to
pur shame. God kept account of the particular in-
stances of the unquietness of Israel ; they have
tempted ific (says he) now these ten times. Numb. xiv.
22. Conscience is God's register, that records all
our miscarriages ; even what we say and do in our
haste, is not so quick as to escape its observation :
let us, therefore, be often opening that book now,
for our conviction and humiliation, or else it will be
opened shortly to our confusion and condemnation.
But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be
judged of the Lord. May we not all say, as Joseph's
brethren did, (and perhaps some are, as they were,
in a special manner called to say it, by humbling
providences,) We are verily guilty concerning our
brother. Gen. xlii. 21. ** Such a time, in such a
company, upon such an occasion, I wanted meek-
ness, and was unquiet; my spirit was provoked,
and I spake unadvisedly with my lips, and now I
remember it against myself. Nay, have not I lived
a life of unquietness, in the family, in the neigh-
bourhood, always in the fire of contention, as in m^
294
element, and breathing thrcateninj^s ? And by so
doing, have not I dishonoured my God, discredited
my profession, disturbed my soul, grieved the blessed
Spirit, and been to many an occasion of sin ? And
for all this, ought not I to be greatly humbled and
ashamed ?'' Before we can put on the ornament of
a meek and quiet spirit, we must first wash in the
laver of true repentance, not only for our gross and
open extravagances of passion, but for all our neg-
lects and omissions of the duties of meekness.
II. Have we not reason to labour and endeavour,
since there is such a virtue, and such a praise, to
attain these things? Should we not lay out our-
selves to the utmost, for this ornament of a meek and
quiet spvnt ? For your direction in this endeavour,
(if you be indeed willing to be directed,) I shall
briefly lay before you,
1. Some Scripture-precepts concerning meekness.
2. Some patterns of it.
3. Some particular instances, in which we have
special need of it
4. Some good principles that we should abide by.
And,
6. Some good practices that we should abound in,
in order to our growth in this grace of meekness.
And in opening these things, we will endeavour to
keep close to the law and to the testimony
SECTION I.
1. Some Scripture-precepts concerning Meekness,
If we lay the word of God before us for our rule,
and will be ruled by it, we shall find the command
of God making meekness and quietness to be as much
our duty as they are our ornament We are there
told, as the will of God,
(1.) That we must seek meekness. This command
we have, Zeph. ii. 3. and (which is especially observ-
able) it is directed to the meek of the earth ; Seek
ye the Lord, all ye meek of the eartk ; — Seek meek-
ness. Though they were meek, and were pronounced
so by him that searches the heart, yet they must
seek meekness ; which teaches us, that those who
have much of this grace, have still need of more, and
must desire and endeavour after more ;* Si dixisti,
sufficity periisti — if you say that you have enough^ you
must perish. He that sits down content with the
grace he has, and is not pressing forward toward
perfection, and striving to grow in grace, to get the
habits of it more strengthened and confirmed, and
the operations of it more quickened and invigorated,
it is to be feared has no true grace at all ; but though
he sit ever so high and ever so easy in his own
opinion, yet sits down short uf heaven. Where
there is life, one way or other there will be growth,
* PtUo mmltot potuUtf ad sn'pientiam ptrvenire, nisi puitU$*iU te per-
venis^e.— lam persuaded that many who have falleu short of wis-
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
till we come to the perfect man. Job xrii. 9. He
that katH clean hands will be stronger and stronger:
Paul was a man of great attainments in grace,
and yet we find him forgetting the things that are
behind, and reaching forth to those that are before,
Phil. iii. 13, 14. Those who took joyfully the spoil-
ing of their goods, are yet told, that they have need
of patience f Heb. x. 34, 36. Thus the meek of the
earth (who being on the earth, are in a state of infir-
mity and imperfection, of trial and temptation) ha?e
still need of meekness ; that is, they must learn to be
yet more calm and composed, more steady, and even
and regular, in the government of their passions,
and in the management of their whole conversatioD.
They who have silenced all angry words, must learn
to suppress the first risings and motions of angry
thoughts.
It is observable, that when the meek of the earth
are especially concerned to seek meekness, even
when the decree is ready to bring forth, when the
day of the Lord's anger hastens on, when the times
are bad, and desolating judgments are breaking in,
then we have occasion for all the meekness we have,
and all we can get, and all is little enough. Meek-
ness toward God, the author, and toward men, the
instruments, of our trouble : meekness to bear the
trial, and to bear our testimony in the trial. There
is sometimes an hour of temptation^ (Rev. iii. 10.)
a critical day, when the exercise of meekness is the
work of the day : sometimes the children of men are
more than ordinarily provoking, and then the chil-
dren of God have more than commonly need of
meekness. When God is justly angry, and men are
unjustly angry, when our mother's children are angry
with us, and our Father angry too, there is anger
enough stirring, and then " Blessed are the meek,''
that are careful to keep possession of their souls,
when they can keep possession of nothing else,
whose hearts are fixed, and quiet in shaking and
unquiet times.
Now the way prescribed for the attainment of
meekness, is to seek it. Ask it of God, pray for it,
it is a fruit of the Spirit, it is given by the God of all
grace, and to him we must go for it. It is a branch
of that wisdom which he that lacketh must ask of
Gody and it shall be given him. Jam. i. 5. The God
we address is called, The God of patience and con-
solationy (Rom. xv. 5.) and he is therefore the God of
consolation^ because the God of patience, (for the more
patient we are, the more we are comforted under our
aflliclions,) and as such we must look to him, when
we come to him for grace to make us like-minded,
that is, meek and loving one toward another, which
is the errand the apostle there comes upon to the
throne of grace. God's people are, and should be, a
generation of seekers, that covet the best gifts, and
doro, would have attained it, had they not supposed that they bsd
attained it already. iSni, de 7)ranqu,
.^•.
AND QUi:tfrNESS OF SPIRIT.
205
make their court to the best giver^ who never said to.
the wrestling seed of Jacob, Seek in vain ; but has
given us an assurance, firm enough for us to build
upon, and rich enough for us to encourage ourselves
vrith, Seek and ye shall find. What would we more ?
Seek meekness, and ye shall find it.
The promise annexed is very encouraging to the
meek of the earth, that seek meekness ; // may he
ff€fH skall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger.
Though it be but a promise with an [it may he^'] yet
it ministers abundance of comfort: God's proba-
bilities are better than the world's certainties ; and
the meek ones of the earth that hope in his mercy,
and can venture their all upon an intimation of his
good-will, shall find to their comfort, that when
God brings a flood upon the world of the ungodly,
he has an ark for all bis Noahs, his resting quiet
people, in which they shall be hid, it may be, from
the calamity itself; however, from the sting and
malignity of it ; *' hid" (as Luther said) *' either in
heaven, or under heaven, either in the possession,
or under the protection, of heaven.'* See Ps. xci.
1,2.
(2.) We must put on meekness. This precept we
have. Col, iii. 12. Put on therefore (as the elect of
God, holy and beloved) — meekness. It is one of the
members of the new man, which, according to the
obligations we lie under from our baptism, we must
put on. Put it on as armour, to keep provocations
from the heart, and so to defend the vitals. They
that have tried it, will say it is '* armour of proof."
When you are putting on the whole armour of God,
do not forget this. Put it on as attire, as your
necessary clothing, which you cannot go without ;
look upon yourselves as ungirt, undrest, unblest
without it. Put it on as a livery-garment, by which
you may be known to be the disciples of the meek,
and humble, and patient Jesus, and to belong to
that peaceable family. Put it on as an ornament,
as a robe and a diadem, by which you may be both
beautified and dignified in the eyes of others. Put
it on as the elect of God^ holy and beloved,^ because
you are so in profession ; and that you may approve
yourselves so in truth and reality, be clothed with
meekness, as the elect of God, a choice people, a
chosen people, whom God has set apart for himself
from the rest of the world, as holy, sanctified to
God, sanctified by him. Study these graces, which
put such a lustre upon holiness, and recommend i^
to those that are without: as beloved, beloved of
God, beloved of man, beloved of your ministers ;
for love's sake put on meekness. What winning
persuasive rhetoric is here! enough (one would
think) to smooth the roughest soul, and to soften and
sweeten the most obstinate heart! Meekness is a
grace of the Spirit's working, a garment of his pre-
* AUtwr imdmmniur 0u7i7m, alitgr tacerdote$^ ergo induiU vobis eon-
vewulia MitfinM/a.— Soldiers are attired in one way, and prietts in
paring *, but we must put it on, that is, we must lay
our souls under the commanding power and influence
of it. Put it on, not as a loose outer garment, to be
put off* in hot weather, but let it cleave to us, as
the girdle cleaves to a man's loins ; so put it on, as
to reckon ourselves naked, to our shame, without it.
^ (3.) We mufX follow after meekness.^This precept
we have, 1 Tim. vi. 11. Meekness is there put in
opposition to those foolish and hurtful lusts that
Timothy must flee from: Thou, O man of God, flee
these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness,
faith, love, patience, $neehness: see what good com-
pany it is ranked with. Every Christian is in a
sense a man of God, (though Timothy is called so
as a minister,) and those that belong to God are con-
cerned to be and do so, as to recommend themselves
to him, and his religion to the world, therefore, let
the men of God follow after meekness. The occa-
sions and provocations of anger often set our meek-
ness at a distance from us, and we have it to seek
when we have most need of it ; but we must follow
after it, and not be taken ofi* from the pursuit by
any diversion whatsoever. While others are inge-
nious and industrious enough in following after
malice and revenge, projecting and prosecuting
angry designs, be you wise and diligent to preserve
the peace, both within doors and without.^^Fol-
lowing meekness bespeaks a sincere desire, and a
serious endeavour, to get the mastery of our passion,
and to check, govern, and moderate all the motions
of it. Though we cannot fully attain this mastery,
yet we must follow after it, and aim at it. Follow
meekness, that is, as much as in you lies live peace-
ably with all men, endeavouring to keep the unity of
the Spirit : we can but make one side of the bar-
gain ; if others will quarrel, yet let us bo peaceable ;
if others will strike the fire, that is their fault ; let
not us be as tinder to it.
(4.) We must show all meekness unto all men.
This is one of the subjects which Paul directs a
young minister to preach upon, (Tit. iii. 2.) Put
them in mind to show all meekness. It is that which
we have need to be often reminded of. Meekness
is there opposed to brawling and clamour, which is
the fruit and product of our own anger, and the
cause and provocation of the anger of others.
Observe, it is all meekness that is here reconunended
to us, iraaiiv irpaoTtira^all kinds of meekness; bearing
meekness, and forbearing meekness; qualifying
meekness, and condescending meekness ; forgiving
meekness ; the meekness that endears our friends,
and that which reconciles our enemies ; the meek*
ness of authority over inferiors, the meekness of
obedience to superiors, and the meekness of wisdom
towards all. A II meekness is meekness in all relations,
in reference to all injuries, all sorts of provocation,
another ; let every person wear what best becomes him. AqiiU%
in loo.
296
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
meekness in all the branches and instances of it ; in
this piece of our obedience we must be universal.
Observe further, we must not only have meekness,
all meekness, but we must show it, by drawing out
this grace into exercise, as there is occasion : in our
words, in our looks, in our actions, in every thing
that falls under the observation of men, wc must
manifest that we have indeed a regard to the law of
meekness, and that we make conscience of what we
say and do when we are provoked. Wc must not
only have the law of love written in our hearUi, but
in our tongues, too, we must have the law of kind-
ness, Prov. XX xi. 26. And thus the tree is known
by its fruit. This light must shine, that others may
see the good works of it, and hear the good words
of it too, not to glorify us, but to glorify our Father.
We should study to appear in all our converse, so
mild, and gentle, and peaceable, that all who see us
may witness for us, ihat we are of the meek of the
earth. We must not only be moderate, but let our
moderation be known, Phil. iv. 5.
He that is in this respect a wise man, let him show
it in the meekness of wisdom. Jam. iii. 13. What
are good clothes worth, if they be not worn ? Why
has the servant a fine livery given him, but to show
it for the honour of his master, and of the family he
belongs to? How can we say we are meek, if we do
not show it? The showing of our meekness will
beautify our profession, and will adorn the doctrine
of God our Saviour, and may have a very good in-
fluence upon others, who cannot but be in love with
such an excellent grace, when thus, like the oint-
ment of the right hand, it hetrayetk ittelf, and the
house is filled with the odour of it. Again, This
meekness must be thus showed unto all men, foes as
well as friends, those without, as well as those
within, all that we have any thing to do with. We
must show our meekness rot only to those above us,
that we stand in awe of, but to those below us, that
we have an authority over. The poor indeed use
entreaties, but, whatever is the practice, it is not the
privilege of the rich to answer roughly, Prov. xviii.
23. We must thow our meekneu not only to the good
and gentle y but also to the froward, for this is thank-
worthy, 1 Pet. ii. 18, 19. Our meekness must be as
extensive as our love, so exceeding broad is this com-
mandment. All meekness to all men. We must show
this meekness most to those with whom we most
converse. There are some that, when they are in
company with strangers, appear very mild and good-
humoured, their behaviour is plausible enough, and
complaisant; but in their families they are peevish,
and froward, and ill-natured, and those about them
scarce know how to speak to them :* this shows that
the fear of man gives greater check to their passions
* ////&«/ ulti te etiam in privato lore fxplicet nuignus animus.— A great
mind has an opportunity of displaying itself within the narrow
circle of a family scene. Sen.
than the fear of God. Our rule is to be meek toward
all, even to the brute creatures, over whom we are
lords, but must not be tyrants : a good man is mur-
eiful to his beast.
Observe the reason which the apostle there gives
why we should show all meekness toward all men, for
we ourselves also were sometime foolish, f v. 3. Time
was, when perhaps we were as bad as the worst of them
we are now angry at ; and if now it be better with us,
we are purely beholden to the free grace of God in
Christ, that made the difference : and shall we be
harsh to our brethren, who have found God so kind
to us ? Has God forgiven us that great debt, and
passed by so many vrilful provocations, and shall
we be extreme to mark what is done amiss against
us, and make the worst of every slip and oversight ?
The great gospel -argument for mutual forbearance
and forgiveness is, that God for Christ's sake has
forgiven us, Col. iii. 13.
It may be of use also for the qualifying of oar
anger at our inferiors, to remember not only our for-
mer sinfulness against God in our unconverted state,
but our former infirmities in the age and state of
inferiors: were not we ourselves sometimes foolish?
Our children are careless, and playful, and froward,
and scarcely governable, and were not wc ourselves
so when we were of their age? And if we have now
put away childish things, yet they have not. — Children
may be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord, without being provoked to wrath.
(6.) We must study to be quiet, (1 Theirs, it. 11.)
that is, study not to disturb others, nor to be our-
selves disturbed by others ; those are quiet that are
apt not either to give or take offence, ^Xon/iftdac
tievxattiv — Be ambitious of this, as the greatest honour,
to be quiet: so the word signifies. The roost of men
are ambitious of the honour of great business, and
power, and preferment ; they covet it, they court it,
they compass sea and land to obtain it: but the
ambition of a Christian should be carried out to-
wards quietness ; we should reckon that the happiest
post, and desire it accordingly, which lies most out
of the road of provocation. I cannot avoid mention-
ing, for the illustration of this, that most excellent
poem of my Lord Hale, (the sense of which is bor-
rowed from a heathen,)
Let him that will ascend the tottering seat
Of courtly grandeur, and become as great
As are his mounting wishes : as for me.
Let sweet repose and rest my portion be.
Let my age
Slide gently by, not overthwart the stage
Of public action, unheard, unseen.
And unconcerned as if I ne'er had been.
f Ifac et not risimu* oliquando ; Jlunt, mom natcwttnr Chtittiami. —
There was a time when wc too made sport of these things i we
were not horn Cbil6tians, but become such. TntuL
AND QUIETNESS OF SPlRrP.
097
This is studying to be quiet. Subdae and keep
under all those disorderly passions which tend to the
disturbing and clouding of the soul. Compose your-
selves to this holy rest ; put yourselves in a posture
to invite this blessed sleep which God gives to his
beloved. Take pains, (as students in arts and sci-
ences do,) to understand the mystery of this grace.
I call it a mystery because St. Paul, who was so
well versed in the deep things of God, speaks of this
as a myster}% Phil. iv. 12. fitftvtipunf I am instructed,
at in a mystery, both to be full and to be hungry, both
to abound and to suffer need; that is, in one word,
to be quiet, To study the art of quietness, is to
take pains with ourselves, to work upon our own
hearts the principles, rules, and laws of meekness ;
and to furnish ourselves with such considerations
as tend to the quieting of the spirit in the midst
of the greatest provocations. Others are studying
to disquiet us ; the more need we have to study how
to quiet ourselves, by a careful watching against all
that which is ruffling and discomposing. Christians
should, above all studies, study to be quiet, and la-
bour to be actuated by an even spirit, under all the
nnevennesses of Providence ; and remember that one
good word which Sir William Temple tells us the
then Prince of Orange (late K. William) said he
learnt from the master of his ship, who, in a storm,
was calling to the steersman with this word. Steady
steady. Let but the hand be steady, and the heart
quiet, and then, though our passage be rough, we
may make a shift to weather the point, and get safe
to the harbour.
SECTION II.
2. Some Scripture-patterns of meekness and quietness
of Spirit,
Good examples help very much to illustrate and
enforce good rules, bringing them closer to particu-
lar cases, and showing them to be practicable. Pre-
cedents are of great use in the law. If we would be
found walking in the same spirit, and walking in
the same steps, with those that are gone before us to
glory, this is the spirit we must be actuated by, and
these are the steps we must walk in : this is the way
of g^ood men, for wise men, to walk in. Let us go
forth then by the footsteps of the flock, and set our-^
selves to follow them who through faith and patience
inherit the promises. We are compassed about with
a great cloud of witnesses, who will bear their testi-
mony to the comfort of meekness, and upon trial re-
commend it to us ; but we shall single out only some
few from the Scripture.
(1.) Abraham was a pattern of meekness, and he
was the father of the faithful. The apostle here, in
the verse but one before the text, proposes Sarah
for an example to women, particularly an example
of meekness in an inferior relation; she obeyed
Abraham, and (in token of the respect due to a bus-
band) she called him Lord. Now Abraham is a
pattern of the same grace in a superior. He that
was famous for faith, was famous for meekness : for
the more we have of faith toward God, the more we
shall have of meekness toward all men. How
meek was Abraham, when there happened a strife
betwixt his herdsmen and Lot's, which, had it pro-
ceeded, might have been of ill consequence, for the
Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the
land ; but it was seasonably taken up by the pru-
dence of Abraham, (Gen. xiii. 8.) Let there be no
strife, I pray thee: though he might command the
peace, yet for love's sake he rather beseeches. Every
word has an air of meekness, and a tendency to
keep the peace. And when the expedient pitched
upon for the prevention of strife was their parting
from each other, though Lot was the junior, yet
Abraham, for peace-sake, quitted his right, and gave
Lot the choice, V. 9. and the gracious visit which God
gave him thereupon, v, 14. was an abundant recom-
pence for his mildness and condescension. An-
other instance of Abraham's meekness we have in
his carriage towards Sarah, when she quarrelled
with him so unreasonably about her maid, angry at
that which she herself had the doing of, (Gen. xvi.
5, 6.) My wrong be upon thee ; the Lord judge
between thee and me, Abraham might soon have re-
plied, you may thank yourself, it was your own con-
trivance ; but laying aside the present provocation,
he abides by one of the original rules of the relation.
Behold, thy maid is in thy hand. He did not answer
passion with passion, that would have put all into
a flame presently ; but he answered passion with
meekness, and so all was quiet. Another instance
of Abraham's meekness, we have in the transactions
between him and Abimelech his neighbour. Gen.
xxi. 24, 25. He first enters into a covenant of
friendship with him, which was confirmed by an
oath, and then (not reproaches him, but) reproves
him for a wrong that his servants had done him about
a well of water ; which gives us this rule of meekness,
** Not to break friendship for a small matter of differ-
ence:" such and such occasions there are, which
they that are disposed to it might quarrel about,
but what is that between thee and me ? If meekness
rule, matters in variance may be fairly reasoned and
adjusted without violation or infringement of friend-
ship. This is the example of that great patriarch.
The future happiness of the saints is represented as
the bosom of Abraham, (Luke xvi. 23.) a quiet state.
Those who hope to lie in the bosom of Abraham
shortly, must tread in the steps of Abraham now,
whose children we are, as long as we thus do well,
" and who " (as Maimonides expresses it) ** is the
father of all who are gathered under the wings of
the Divine Majesty."
288
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
(2.) Moses was a pattern of meekness, it was his
master-grace, that in which, more than in any other,
he excelled. This testimony the Holy Ghost gives
of him, (Numb. xii. 3.) That the man Moses was
very meek,* above all the men which were upon the
face of the earth.
This character of him comes in there in a paren-
thesis, (probably inserted by the same inspired pen
that wrote the last chapter of Deuteronomy,) upon
occasion of an affront he received from those of his
own house; which intimates, that his quiet and
patient bearing of it was, of all others, the greatest
proof and instance of his meekness. Those can
bear any provocation, that can bear it from their
near relations. The meekness of Moses, as the pa-
tience of Job, was tried on all hands. Armour of
proof shall be sure to be shot at. It should seem
that his wife was none of the best-humoured women ;
for what a passion was she in about the circumcising
of her son, when she reproached him as a bloody
husband ; and we do not read of one word that he
replied, but let her have her saying, Exod. iv. 25, 26.
When God was angry, and Zipporah angry, it was
best for him to be quiet. The lot of his public work
was cast in the provocation, in the day of temptation
in the wilderness, Ps. xcv. 8. But, as if all the
mutinies of murmuring Israel were too little to try
the meekness of Moses, his own brother and sister,
(and those of no less a figure than Miriam the pro-
phetess, and Aaron the saint of the Lord,) quarrel
with him, speak against him, envy his honour, re-
proach his marriage, and are ready to head a re-
bellion against him. Numb. xii. 1, 2. God heard
this, (v. 2.) and was angry, (v. 9.) but Moses, though
he had reason enough to resent it wrathfully, was
not at all moved by it, took no notice of it, made no
complaint to God, no answer to them, and so little
interested in the matter, that we do not find one
word that he said, till we find him, (v. 13.) praying
so heartily for his provoking sister, who was then
under the tokens of God's displeasure for the affront
she gave him. The less a man strives for himself,
the more is God engaged in honour and faithfulness
to appear for him. When Christ said, / seek not
mine own glory, he presently added, but there is one
that seekcth andjudgeth. And it was upon this occa-
sion that Moses obtained this good report, He was
the meekest of all the men on the earth, " No man
could have given greater proofs of courage than
Moses:'' (it is the learned Bp. Hall's remark, Con-
temp, 1. 6.) '^ He slew the Egyptian, beat the Midi-
anite shepherds, confronted Pharaoh in his own
court, not fearing the wrath of the king ; he durst
look God in the face amidst all tlie terrors of Mount
Sinai, and draw near to the thick darkness where
• Josephus, ^11/17. /. 4. c. 8. gives this character of Moses ; /#/.
fectus ita temper in potettaU Aabuit, ni omnino iUit earere videretur, et
nomiiui taiUum eorum ex hi$ qua in aiiis hominibvt conspicefef, cofnita
God was ; and yet that Spirit which made and knew
his heart, saith, he was the meekest, mildest man
upon the earth. Mildness and fortitude may well
lodge together in the same breast, which corrects
the mistake of those that will allow none valiant
but the fierce."
The meekness of Moses qualified him to be a ma-
gistrate, especially to be king in Jeshumn, among
a people so very provoking, that they gave him oc-
casion to use all the meekness he had, and all little
enough, to bear their manners in the wilderness.
When they murmured against him, quarrelled with
him, arraigned his authority, and were sometimes
ready to stone him, he resented these provocations
with very little of personal application or concern ;
but instead of using his interest in heaven to sum-
mon plagues upon them, he made it his business to
stand in the gap, and by his intercession for them
to turn away the wrath of God from them ; and thb
not once or twice, but many times.
And yet we must observe, that, though Moses
was the meekest man in the world, yet when God's
honour and glory were concerned, no one was more
warm and zealous. Witness his resentment of the
golden calf, when in a holy indignation at that abo-
minable iniquity, he deliberately broke the tables.
And when Korah and his crew invaded the priests'
office, Moses, in a pious wrath, said unto the Lord,
respect not thou their offering. Numb. xvi. 15. He
that was a lamb in his own cause, was a lion in the
cause of God ; anger at sin, as sin, is very well con-
sistent with reigning meekness. Nor can it be for-
gotten, that though Moses was eminent for meekness,
yet he once transgressed the laws of it ; when he
was old, and his spirit was provoked, he spake un-
advisedly with his lips, and it went ill with him for it;
(Ps. cvi. 32, 33.) which is written, not for imitation,
but for admonition ; not to justify our rash anger,
but to engage us to stand upon our guard at all times
against it, that he who thinks he stands, may take heed
lest he fall ; and that he who has thus fallen, may
not wonder if he come under the rebukes of divine
Providence for it in this world, as Moses did, and
yet may not despair of being pardoned upon repent-
ance.
(3.) David was a pattern of meekness, and it is
promised, (Zech. xii. 8.) That the feeble shall be a
David. In this, as in other instances, he was a man
'after God's own heart. When his own brother was
so rough upon him without reason, 1 Sam. xvii. 28.
Why earnest thou down hither, ^c, ? how mild was his
answer ! What have I now done? Is there not a cauuf
V, 29. When his enemies reproached him, he was
not at all disturbed at it, (Ps. xxxviil. 13.) /. as i
deaf man, heard not. When Saul persecuted him
habere.— He was so complete a master of himseir. that be seeiwd
altogether destitute of passions, and to be acquniuted with them
only from the manner in which be saw them agitate others.
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
299
with such an unwearied malice, he did not take the
advantage which providence seemed to offer him,
more than once, to revenge and right himself, hut
left it to God to do it for him. David's meek spirit
concurred vrith the proverb of the ancients, Wick-
edness proeeedetk from the wicked, hut my hand shall
not be upon him, I Sam. xxiv. 13. When Nabal's
churlishness provoked him, yet Abigail's prudence
soon pacified him, and it pleased him to be pacified.
When Shimel cursed him with a bitter curse, * in
the day of his calamity, he resented not the offence,
nor would hear any talk of punishing the offender :
So let him curse ; let him alone, for the Lord hath
hidden him : (2 Sam. xvi. 10, 12.) quietly committing
his cause to God, who judges righteously, v. 12.
And other instances there are in his story., which
evidence the truth of what he said, (Ps. cxxxi. 2.)
My soul u even like a weaned child. And yet David
was t a great soldier, a man of celebrated courage,
that slew a lion, and a bear, and a Philistine ; (as
mach a ravenous beast as either of them ;) which
shows, that it was his wisdom and grace, and not
his cowardice, that at other times made him so quiet.
David was a man that met with very many disqui-
eting and disturbing events in the several scenes of
his life, through which (though sometimes they
ruffled him a little, yet) for the main he preserved
an admirable temper, and an evenness and compos-
edness of mind, which was very exemplary. When,
upon the surprise of a fright, he changed his behaviour
before Abimeleeh, and counterfeited that madness
which angry people realize, yet his mind was so very
qaiet and undisturbed, that at that time he penned
the 34th Psalm, in which not only the excellency of
the matter, and the calmness of the expression, but
the composing of it alphabetically, (in the Hebrew,)
speaks him to be even then in a sedate frame, and
to have very much the command of his own thoughts.
As, at another time, when his own followers spake
of stoning him, though he could not still the tumult
of his troops, he could those of his spirits, for then
he encouraged himself in the Lord his God, 1 Sam.
XXX. 6. As to those prayers against his enemies,
which we find in some of his Psalms, and which,
sometimes, sound a little harsh, surely they did not
proceed from any such irregular passions, as did in
the least clash even with the evangelical laws of
meekness ; we cannot imagine, that one who was so
piously calm in his common conversation, should be
sinfully hot in his devotion : nor are they to be
looked upon as the private expressions of his own
angry resentments, but as inspired predictions of
* JWm erfo mopebahir eoHvitiu David, cvi abundabat boHomm opemm
CMtdtmUs ; itaqut U qui eito iajvria tnovHur, facit se dignvm eontumeUm
M^lm'.— David, having the abundant consciousness of good works,
beaid himaelf reproached without agitation ; he who, when re<
proacbed, shows that he is greatly disturbed, induces a suspicion
that be b not reproached without cause. Ambr. de Ojffic. IU>. I. cap. 6.
God's judgments upon the public and obstinate ene-
mies of Christ and his kingdom ; as appears by com-
paring Ps. Ixix. 22,23. with Rom xi. 9, 10. and Ps.
cix. 8. with Acts i. 20. Nor arc they any more opposite
to the spirit of the gospel, than the cries of the souls
under the altar, (Rev. vi. 10.) or the triumphs of
heaven and earth in the destruction of Babylon ,
Rev. xix. 1, 2.
(4.) St. Paul was a pattern of meekness. Though
his natural temper seems to have been warm and
eager, which made him eminently active and zealous,
yet that temper was so rectified and sanctified, that
he was no less eminently meek : He became all things
to all men. He studied to please all with whom be
had to do, and to render himself engaging to them,
for their good to edification. How patiently did he
bear the greatest injuries and indignities, not only
from Jews and heathens, but from false brethren,
thatwere so very industrious to abuse and undermine
him ! How glad was he that Christ was preached,
though out of envy and ilUwill, by those that studied
to add affliction to his bonds! In governing the
church, he was not led by the sudden resolves of
passion, but always deliberated calmly concerning
the use of the rod of discipline, when there was
occasion for it; (1 Cor. iv. 21.) Shall I come to you
with a rod, or in the spirit of meekness ? That is. Shall
I proceed immediately to censures, or shall I not
rather continue the same gentle usage I have hitherto
treated you with, waiting still for your reformation ?
Herein the spirit of meekness appears more open
and legible than in the use of the rod, though that
also is very well consistent with it.
Many other patterns of meekness might be ad-
duced, but the time will fail me to tell of Isaac, and
Jacob, and Joseph, and Joshua; of Samuel also,
and Job, and Jeremiah, and all the prophets and
apostles, martyrs and confessors, and eminent
saints, who by meekness subdued (not kingdoms,
but) their own spirits; stopt the mouths (not of
lions, but) of more fierce and formidable enemies ;
quenched the violence (not of fire, but) of intempe-
rate and more ungovernable passions ; and so
wrought righteousness, obtained promises, escaped
the edge of the sword, and out of weakness were
made strong : and by all this obtained a good report ^
Heb. xi. 32 —34. But, after all,
(5.) Our Lord Jesus was the great pattern of meek-
ness and quietness of spirit: all the rest had their
spots, the fairest marbles had their flaws, but here is
a copy without a blot. We must follow the rest no
further than they were conformable to this great ori-
f Datid fuit fortit in priftio, auiiukWm in imperio, patiens in am-
vilio, fetTf wtagit promptut quam re/erre injvriat.—D&vid was va*
liant in the field, clement on the throne, patient under reproacht
and more willing to bear an injury than to resent it. Ambr. 1. 3.
c. 17.
900
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
ginal : Be ye followers ofme, (says Paul, I Cor. xi.
I.) at I am of Christ, He fulfilled all righteousness,
and was a complete exemplar of all that is holy,
just, and good ; but I think, in most, if not all, those
places of Scripture where he is particularly and ex-
pressly propounded to us for an example, it is to
recommend to us some or other of the duties of
Christianity ; those I mean which tend to the sweet-
ening of our converse one with another : and there-
fore the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,
that he might teach us how to dwell together in
unity. We must walk in love, as Christ loved us,
Eph. V. 2. Forgive^ as Christ forgave «#, Col. iii. 13.
Please one another, for Christ pleased not himself,
Rom. XV. 2, 3. Be charitable to the poor, for we know
the grace of our Lord Jesus, 2 Cor. viii. 9. Wash one
another's feet, that is, sloop to the meanest offices of
love, for Christ did so, (John xiii. 14. Mat. xx. 27,
28.) Doing all with lowliness of mind, for it is the
same mind that was in Christ Jesus ; (Phil. ii. 3, 5.)
and many other the like : but above all, our Lord
Jesus was an example of meekness. Moses had
this grace as a servant, but Christ as a son ; he was
anointed with it above measure. He is therefore
called The Lamb of God, for his meekness, and
patience, and inoffensiveness ; and even in his ex-
altation he retains the same character. One of the
elders told John, (Rev. v. 5.) That the lion of the
tribe of Judah would open the sealed book : and I be-
held, (say^ John, v. 6.) and lo ! a Lamb. He that
was a lion for strength and courage, was a lamb for
mildness and gentleness: and if a lion, yet the
lion of the tribe of Judah, which the dying patri-
arch describes lo be a lion gone up from the prey,
and that is stooped down and couchvd, and not to be
roused up ; (Gen. xlix. 9.) which spesiksthe quietness
and repose even of this lion. If Christ be a lion,
he is a lion resting; the devil is a lion roaring,
I Pet. V. 8. But the adorations given to Christ
by the heavenly hosts speak of him as the Lamb,
Rev. V. 8, 12, 13. Blessing and glory — to him that
sits upon the throne ; they do not say, and to the lion
of the tribe of Judah, but to the Lamb ; though he
has a name given him above every name, yet he will
be known by that name which denotes his meekness,
as if this were to be his name for ever, and this his
memorial to all generations : as he that rides upon
the heavens, by his name Jah, is the Father of the
fatherless, and the Judge of the widows, Ps. Ixviii. 4,
6. Some make his* name xP*^oc» ^^ ItViyc an allu-
sion to x?ri*:roQ, which signifies kind, and gentle, and
gracious, Christ rides prosperously, because of meek-
ness, Ps. xlv. 4.
Now it is the character of all the saints, that they
follow the Lamb. Rev. xiv. 4. As a lamb they follow
• The heathens, by mistake, called Christ rArrt/w- Gracious;
and the Christians, Chretliani: So Sueton. Vil. Cland. c. 2.5. Impui-
tore Ckretto, Lactantius takes notice of this, Inttit. /. 4. c 7. Su
bim in his meekness, and are therefore so often
called the sheep of Christ, This is that part of his
copy which he expressly calls us to write after,
(Matt. xi. 29.) Learn of me, for I am meek andlowlf
in heart. If the master be mild, it ill becomes the
servant to be froward. The apostle is speaking of
Christ's meekness under his suflcrings, when be
says, that he left us an example, that we skmddfoUow
his steps, I Pet. ii. 21.
Let us observe particularly the meekness of oar
Lord Jesus, both towards his Father, and towards
his friends, and towards his foes ; in each of which
he is an example to us.
[1.] He was very meek toward God his Fatha*,
cheerfully submitting to his whole will, and standing
complete in it. In his commanding will, Lo, Icomt,
(says he,) 1 delight to do thy will ; thongh it enjoined
him a very hard piece of service, yet it was his meet
and drink, (John iv. 34.) and he always did those
things that pleased his Father, John viii. 29. So
likewise in his disposing will, he acquiesced from
first to last. When he was entering on that sharp
encounter, though sense startled at it, and said.
Father, if it be possible, let the cup pass from mf ;
yet he soon submitted with a great deal of meekness;
Not as I will, but as thou wilt. Matt. xxvi. 39, 42.
Though it was a very bitter cup, yet his Father put
it into his hand, and therefore he drank it withoot
any struggle or reluctance, when it came to the point,
reasoning himself from that topic into this compli-
ance, (John xviii. 11.) The cup that my Father hath
gireji me, shall I not drink it ? And it comes in there
as a reason why he would not have a sword drawn
in his defence.
[2.] He was very meek towards his friends that
loved and followed him. With what remarkable
instances of mildness, and gentleness, and tender,
ness, did he train up his disciples ; though from first
to last he was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief; and where the nature is corrupt, such are apt
to be peevish and froward with those about them ;
yet how meek and calm his carriage was towards
them all along, we may see.
First, In his bearing with their weaknesses and
infirmities. After they had been long under the
inspection and influence of such a teacher, and had
all the advantages that men could have for getting
acquaintance with the things of God ; yet how
weak and defective were they in knowledge, and
gifts, and graces ! How ignorant and forgetful were
they ! How slow of heart to understand and believe!
And what blunders did they make ! Dull scholars it
should seem they were, and very bad proficients.
But their hearts being upright with him, he did not
cast them ofl*, nor turn them out of his school ; bat
doth TertulUan, j4pol. c. a and thence calls the Christian name,
Somen i/nionimn— An innocent name.
ANP QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
301
made the best of them, rectified their mistakes, in-
structed them in their duty, and the doctrine they
were to preach, by precept upon precept, and line
upon line ; and taught them as they were able to
bear it, as one that considered their frame, and
could have compassion on the ignorant , and on them
that are out of the way, Heb. v. 2. As long as he
was with them, so long he suffered them, Mark ix.
19. This, as it is a great encouragement to Chris-
tian learners, so it is a great example to Christian
teachers.
Secondly, In his forgiving and passing by their
unkindnesses and disrespects to himself. He was
not extreme to mark, no, not what they did amiss of
this kind. When they murmured at the cost that
was bestowed upon him, and called it waste, and had
indignation at it, he did not resent it as he might
have done, nor seem to observe how much what they
said reflected upon him ; nor did he condemn them
any other way, than by commending the woman.
Matt. xxvi. 8, 11. When Peter, and James, and
John, the first three of his disciples, were with him
in the garden, and very unseasonably slept, while he
was in his agony praying, so little concerned did
they seem to be for him, and such a grievous slight
did they put upon him ; yet, observe, how meekly
he spoke to them, did not g^ve them any hard lan-
guage, but. Could ye not watch with me one hourt
And when they had not a word to say for themselves,
so inexcusable was their fault, he had something to
say for them, and instead of accusing them, he apo-
logizes for them, The spirit indeed is willingj but the
flesh is weahy Matt xxvi. 40, 41. When Peter had
denied him. and had cursed and sworn he did not
know him, than which (besides the falsehood and
perfidiousness of it) nothing could be more unkind ;
with what meekness did he bear it ! It is not said,
the Lord turned, and frowned upon Peter, though he
deserred to be frowned into hell, but, the Lord turned '
and looked upon Peter, (Luke xxii. 61.) and that look
recovered him into the way to heaven ; it was a kind
look, and not an angry one. Some days after, when
Chnst and Peter met in Galilee, and had dined to-
gether as a token of reconciliation, and some dis-
course passed between them, not a word was said of
this matter : Christ did not upbraid him with his
fault, nor chide him for it, nor did there appear any
other fruit of the falling out of these lovers, but only
the renewing of their love with greater endearments ;
(John xxi. 15—17.) which teaches us to forgive and
forget the unkindnesses of those that (we are satis-
fied) are for the main our true friends, and if any
occasion of difference happen, to turn it into an oc-
casion of confirming our lore to them, as the apostle
expresses it, 2 Cor. ii. 8.
[3.] He was very meek toward his enemies, that
hated and persecuted him. The whole story of his
life is filled with instances of invincible meekness ; |
while he endured the contradiction of sinners against
himself, which was a constant jar, he had a perpe-
tual serenity and harmony within himself, and was
never in the least discomposed by it. When his
preaching and miracles were cavilled at and re-
proached, and he himself represented under the
blackest characters, not only as the drunkard's com-
panion, but as the devil's confederate, with what a
wonderful calmness did he bear it! How mildly
did he answer, with reason and tenderness, when he
could have replied in thunder and lightning ! How
well satisfied, under all such invidious reflections,
with this, that Wisdom is however justified of all
her children! Matt. xi. 19. When some of his
disciples would have had fire from heaven upon
those rude people that refused him entertainment
in their town, he was so far from complying with the
motion, that he rebuked it, (Luke ix. 55.) Ye know
not what manner of spirit ye are of. This persua^
sion Cometh not of him that calleth you, Gal. v. 8. The
design of Christ and of his holy religion is to shape
men into a mild and merciful temper, and to make
tliem sensibly tender of the lives and comforts even
of their worst enemies. Christianity was intended
to revive humanity, and to make those men, who had
made themselves beasts. But our Lord Jesus did
in a more especial manner evidence his meekness
when he was in his last sufferings, that awful scene.
Though he was the most innocent and the most ex-
cellent person that ever was, who by the doctrine he
had preached, and the miracles he had wrought, bad
richly deserved all the honours and respects that
the world could pay him, and infinitely more, and
though the injuries he received were ingeniously
and industriously contrived to the highest degree of
affront and provocation, yet he bore all with an un-
disturbed meekness, and with that shield quenched
all the fiery darts which his malicious enemies shot
at him.
His meekness towards his enemies appeared.
First, In what he said to them, not one angary
word, in the midst of all the indignities they offered
him: When he was reviled, he reviled not again, I
Pet. ii. 23. When he was buffeted and spit upon,
and abused, he took it all patiently ; one would
wonder at the gracious words which even then pro-
ceeded out of his mouth, witness that mild reply to
him that smote him, (John xviii. 23.) If I have spoken
evil, bear witness of the evil : hut if well, why smitest
thou me ?
Secondly, In what he said to God for them ; Fa-
ther, forgive them, so giving an example to his
own rule, (Matt. v. 44.) Pray for them which despite-
fully use you. Though he was then deeply engaged
in the most solemn transaction that ever passed be-
tween heaven and earth ; though he had so much to
do with God for himself and his friends, yet he did
not forget to put up this prayer for his enemies. The
W2
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
mercy he begged of God for them, was the greatest
mercy, (that which he was then dying to purchase
and procure,) the pardon of their sins : not only, Fa-
ther, spare them, or reprieve them, but. Father, for-
give them : the excuse he pleaded for them, was the
best their crime was capable of : They know not what
they do. They did it ignorantly, 1 Cor. ii. 8. 1 Tim.
i. 13.
Now in all these things our Master has left us an
example. What is the practice of religion but the
imitation of God endeavoured by us ? And what the
principle of it, but the image of God renewed in us ?
We are bid to be followers of God, as dear children.
But this sets the copy we are to write after at a mighty
distance, for God is in heaven, and we are upon
earth ; and therefore in the Lord Jesus Christ, God
incarnate, God in our nature, the copy is brought
among us, and the transcribing of it, in some mea-
sure, appears more practicable : He that hath seen
me, (says Christ,) hath teen the Father, (John xiv. 9.)
and so he that imitates Christ imitates the Father.
The religion which our Lord Jesus came into
the world to establish, being every way so well cal-
culated for the peace and order of the world, and
being designed to recover the lapsed souls of men
from their degenerate state, and to sweeten their spi-
rits and temper ; and so to befriend human society,
and to make it some way conformable to the blessed
society above ; he not only gave such precepts as
were wonderfully fitted to this great end, but recom-
mended them to the world by the loveliness and
amiableness of his own example. Are we not called
Christians from Christ, whom we call Master and
Lord, and shall we not endeavour to accommodate
ourselves to him ? We profess to rejoice in him, as
our forerunner, and shall we not run after him ? To
what purpose were we listed under his banner, but
that we might follow him as our leader? We have
all of us reason to say, that Jesus Christ is very
meek, or else we, that have provoked him so much
and so often, had been in hell long ago : we
owe it to his meekness, to whom all judgment is
committed, that we have not ere this been carried
away with a swift destruction, and dealt with ac-
cording to the desert of our sins ; which, if duly
considered, one would think should tend greatly 'to
the^oftening of us. The apostle fetches an argu-
ment from that kindness and love to us^ which we
ourselves have experienced, who were foolish and
(^sobedient, to persuade us to he gentle, and to show
all meekness; (Tit iii. 2 — 4.) and he beseeches the
Corinthians, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,
as a thing very winning, and of dear and precious
account, (2 Cor. x. 1.) Let the same mind therefore
he in us, not only which was, but which, as we find
to our comfort, still is, in Christ Jesus, Phil. ii. 5.
That we may not forfeit our interest in his meekness,
let us tread in the steps of it ; and as ever we hope
to be like him in glory hereafter. Jet us study to be
like him in grace, in this grace, now. It is a certain
rule, by which we must all be tried shortly, thai if
any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, (that is, if he
be not spirited, in some measure, as Christ was
spirited,) he is none of his, Rom. Tiii. 9. And if we
be not owned as his, we are undone for ever.
SECTION III.
3. Some particular instances wherein the exercise ef
Meekness is in a special manner required.
The rule is general ; we must show ail meekness: it
will be of use to observe some special cases to
which the Scripture applies this general rule.
(1.) We must give reproofs with meekness. It is
the apostle's direction, (Gal. vi. 1.) If a man he over-
taken in a fault, (that is, if be be surprised by a
temptation and overcome, as the best may be, if God
leave them to themselves,) ye which are spiritual, re-
store such a one in the spirit of meekness. By the
spiritual man, to whom he g^ves this rule, he means
not ministers only, as if none were spiritual bot
they ; though they perhaps are chiefly intended, be-
cause they are, as the prophet speaks, (Isa. xxix. 21.)
reprovers in t/ie gate, that is, reprovers by office : yet
doubtless it is a rule to private Christians ; all that
have opportunity must reprove, and all that reprove
must do it with meekness. Ye that are spiritual, if
you would approve yourselves so indeed, actuated by
the Holy Spirit, and minding the things of the Spirit,
be careful in this matter. Especially, let those that
are Christians of the highest form, that excel ia
grace and holiness, and the best gifts, (such are
called spiritual in distinction from the babes in
Christ, I Cor. iii. 1.) let them look upon themselves
as obliged, in a more peculiar manner, to help
others ; for where God gives five talents, he expects
the improvement of five ; the strong must hear the
infirmities of the weak, (Rom. xv. I.) Do you there-
fore restore such a one, Karaprtlm — set kim in joint
again. The setting of a dislocated joint, or a broken
bone, is, for the present, painful to the patient, bot
it must be done, and it is in order to the nuiking of
hroken hones to rejoice. Now this ye must do with
the spirit of meekness, with all the candour, and
gentleness, and convincing evidences of love and
kindness that can be. The three qualifications of a
good surgeon, are very requisite in a reprover, vis.
to have an eagle's eye, a lion's heart, and a lady's
hand ; that is, that he be endued with a great deal
of wisdom, and courage, and meekness. Though
sometimes it is needful to reprove with vrarmtb, yet
we must never reprove with wrath, for the wrath ef
man worketh not the righteousness of God, Jam. i. 20.
There is an observable diflerence, but no contradic-
tion, betwixt the directions Paul gives to Timothy,
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
d03
and those he gives to Titus, in this matter. To Titus
he writes, to reprove sharply^ (Tit i. 13.) and to
rebuke with alt authority, ch. ii. 15. To Timothy
he writes, not to strive, but to he gentle, (2 Tim. ii.
24.) to reprove with all long-suffering, cA. iv. 2. The
reason of which may be taken either, [1.] From the
different temper of those they had to deal with.
Timothy was among the Ephesians, a tractable com-
plaisant people, that would be easily managed, and
with them he must always deal gently. Titus was
among the Cretians, that were head-strong and
rough-hewn, and not to be wrought upon but by
sharper methods. Thus, in reproving, a difference
mast be made : of some we must have compassion,
and others save with fear, but never with anger,
plucking them out of the fire, Jude 23. Or, [2.]
The reason may be taken (as Gregory, one of the
ancients, assigns it) from the different temper of
Timothy and Titus. '* Titus was a man of very soft
and mild temper, and he had need of a spur to
quicken him to a needful acrimony in his reproofs ;
but Timothy was a man of a more warm and sanguine
temper, and he had need of a bridle to keep him
from an intemperate heat in his reproofs ;" and then
it teaches us, that those who are naturally keen and
fervent, should double their guard upon their own
ipirits, when they are reproving, that they may do
it Mith all meekness. Christ's ministers must be
careful, while they display 6od*s wrath, to conceal
their own ; and be very jealous over themselves, lest
sinfnl anger shelter itself under the cloak of zeal
against sin. When reproving (whoever be the re-
prover) degenerates into railing and reviling, and
opprobrious language, how can we expect the desired
success ? It may provoke to contention, and every
eril work, but it will nover provoke to love, and to
good works. The work of heaven is not likely to
be done by a tongue set on fire of hell. Has Christ
need of mad men ? or will you talk deceitfully and
passionately for him ? A potion given too hot, scalds
the patient, and does more hurt than good ; and so
many a reproof, good for the matter of it, hath been
spoiled by an irregular management. Meekness
hides the lancet, gilds the pill, and makes it pass-
able; dips the nail in oil, and then it drives the
better. Twice we find Jonathan reproving his father
for his rage against David ; once he did it with
meekness, and it succeeded well, (1 Sam. xix. 4, 5.)
Let not the hing sin against his servant, [against
Devid,^ and it is said, v. 6. Saul hearkened to him.
But another time his spirit was provoked, and he
did it in a heat, eh, xx. 32. Wherefore shall he be
slain? and the issue of it was ill. Saul was not
only impatient of the reproof, but enraged at the
reprover, and cast a javelin at him, v, 33. Reproofs
* ASryM ^ttifi^tintht repr^^dmntwr, qiutm quimasims Umdari ««^
are then likely to answer the intention, when they
manifestly evidence the good will of the reprover,
and are made up of soft words and hard arguments.
This is to restore with the spirit of meekness, and
there is a good reason added, considering thyself:
ille hodie, ego a'as — he may fall to-day , I may to^
morrow. Those who think they stand fast, know not
how soon they may be shaken and overthrown, and,
therefore, we must treat those that are overtaken in
a fault, with the same tenderness and compassion
that we would wish to find, if it were our own case.
(2.) We must receive reproofs with meekness. If
we do that which deserves rebuke, and we meet with
those that are so just and kind to g^ve it us, we must
be quiet under it, not quarrelling with the reprover,
nor objecting against the reproof, nor fretting that
we are touched in a sore place ; but submit to it,
and lay our souls under the conviction of it If
reproofs be physic, it becomes us to be patient.*
Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness and
an excellent oil, healing to the wounds of sin, and
making the face to shine ; and let us never reckon
that it breaks the head, if it do but help to break the
heart. Meekness suffers the word of admonition,
and takes it patiently and thankfully, not only from
the hand of God that sends it, but from the hand of
our friend that brings it. We must not be like the
reprobate Sodomites, (Gen. xix. 9.) or that pert
Hebrew, (Exod. ii. 14.) that flew in the face of their
reprovers, (though really they were the best friends
they had,) with. Who made thee a judge ? but like
David, who, when Abigail so prudently scotched the
wheels of his passion, not only blest God that sent
her, and blest her advice, but blest her, (1 Sam.
XXV. 32, 33. and v. 35.) not only hearkened to her
voice, but accepted her person. Though perhaps the
reprover supposes the fault greater than really it
was, and though the reproof be not given with all
the prudence in tht. world ; yet meekness will teach
us to accept it quietly, and to make the best use we
can of it. Nay, if indeed we be altogether innocent
of that which we are reproved for, yet, the meekness
of wisdom would teach us to apply the reproof to
some other fault which our own consciences convict
us of; we would not quarrel with a real intended
kindness, though not done with ceremony, and though
in some circumstances mistaken or misplaced.
You that are in inferior relations, children, ser-
vants, scholars, must with all meekness and sub-
mission receive the reproofs of your parents, masters,
and teachers : their age supposes them to have more
understanding than you ; however, their place gives
them an authority over you, to which you are to pay
a deference, and in which you are to acquiesce, else
farewell all order and peace in societies. The angel
r^/vr.— Those who deserve the loudest applause, receive reproof
with the best temper. FUm,
ao4
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
rebuked Hagar for flying from her mistress, though
she dealt hardly with her, and obliged her to return
and submit herself vnder her hands. Gen. xvi. 6, 9.
If the spirit of any imler rise vp against thee, and
thou be chidden for a fault, leave not thy place, as an
inferior, for yielding pacifies great offences done, and
prevents the like, Eccl. x. 4. If thou hast thought
evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, to keep that evil
thought from breaking out in any undue and unbe-
coming language, Proy. xxx. 32. Reproofs are then
likely to do us good, when we meekly submit to them ;
then are they as an ear-ring of gold, and an ornament
of fine gold, when an obedient ear is given to a wise
reprover, Prov. xxv. 12. Nay, even superiors are to
receive reproofs from their inferiors with meekness,
as they would any other token of kindness and good
will. Naaman, when he turned away from the pro-
phet in a rage, yet hearkened to the reproof his own
servants gave him, and was overruled by the reason
of it, (2 Kings v. 11 — 14.) which was no more a dis-
paragement to him, than it was, to receive instruction
from his wife's maid, to whom to go for a cure of his
leprosy, v, 2, 3. Meekness teaches us, when a just
reproof is g^ven, to regard not so much who speaks,
as what is spoken.
(3.) We must instruct gainsayers with meekness,
2 Tim. ii. 24, 25. It is prescribed to ministers, that
they must not strive, but be gentle to all men, in meek-
ness instimcting those that oppose themselves. They
serve the Prince of peace, they preach the gospel of
peace, they are the ambassadors of peace, and there-
fore must be sure to keep the peace. The apostles,
those prime-ministers of state in Christ's kingdom,
were not military men, or men of strife and noise, but
fishermen, that follow their employment with quiet-
ness and silence. It is highly necessary that the
guides of the church be strict governors of their own
passions : Learn of me, (says Christ,)/or / am meek
and lowly, and therefore fit to teach you. Matt. xi.
29. We must contend earnestly, but not angrily and
passionately, no not /or the faith once delivered to the
saints, Jude 3. When we have ever so great an
assurance that it is the cause of truth we are plead-
ing* yet we must so manage our defence of it against
those who gainsay, as to make it appear, that it is
not the confusion of the erroneous, but the confuta-
tion of the error, that we intend. This meekness
woitld teach us not to pre-judge a cause, nor to con-
demn an adversary unheard, but calmly to state
matters in difierence, as knowing that a truth well
opened is half confirmed. It would teach us not to
aggravate matters in dispute, nor to father upon an
adversary all the absurd consequences which we
think may be inferred from his opinion : it would
teach us to judge charitably of those tliat difierfrom
us, and to forbear all personal reflections in arguing
with them. God's cause needs not the patronage
of our sinful heats and passions, which not only
shatter the peace, but often give a mighty shock eveo
to the truth itself we plead for. Meekness would
prevent and cure that bigotry which has been so long
the bane of the church, and contribute a great deal
towards the advancement of that happy state, in
which, notwithstanding little differences of appre-
hension and opinion. The Lord shall be one^ and his
name one. Public reformations are carried on with
most credit and comfort, and are most likely to
settle on lasting foundations, when meekness sits at
the stem, and guides the motions of them. When
Christ was purging the temple, though he was there-
in actuated by a zeal for God's house that even ate
him up, yet he did it with meekness and prudence,
which appeared in this instance, that when be drove
out the sheep and oxen, which would be easily
caught again, he said to them that sold doves. Take
these things hence, John ii. 16. He did not let loose
the doves, and send them flying, for that would have
been to the loss and prejudice of the owners. Ang^-,
noisy, bitter arguings ill become the asserters of that
truth which is great, and will prevail without all that
ado. It was a very froward and perverse genera-
tion our Lord Jesus lived in, and yet it is said,
(Matt xii. 19.) He shall not strive, nor cry, neither
shall any man hear his voice in the street ; though he
could have broken them as easily as a bruised reed,
and extinguish them as soon as one could quench
the wick of a candle newly lighted, yet he will
not do it till the day comes when he shall hring
forth judgment unto victory. Moses dealt with a very
obstinate and stiff-necked people, and yet my doe-
trine (says he) shall drop as the dew, and distil as ike
small rain, Deut. xxxii. 2. It was not the wind, nor
the earthquake, nor the fire, that brought Elijah into
temper, (for the Lord was not in them,) but the still
small voice did it ; when he heard that, he wraj^t
his face in his mantle, 1 Kings xix. 11 — 13. In deal-
ing with gainsa^'ers, a spirit of meekness will teach
us to consider their temper, education, custom, the
power of prejudice they labour under, the influence
of others upon them, and to make allowances accord-
ingly, and not to call (as passionate contenders are
apt to do) every false step an apostasy ; every error a
mistake; nay, every misconstrued, misplaced word, a
heresy ; and every misdemeanour, no less than trea-
son and rebellion ; methods of proceeding more
likely to irritate and harden, than to convince and
reduce, gainsayers. I have heard it observed long
since, " That the scourge of the tongue has driven
many out of the temple, but never drove any into it"
(4.) We must make profession of the hope that is
in us with meekness. 1 Pet. iii. 15. Be ready al-
ways to give answer, (to make your defence or apo-
logyf so the word is, irot/ioc Tpoc atrdkoyuiv) whether
judicially or extrajudicially, as there is occasion,
to every man that (soberly, not scoffingly and in deri-
sion) asks you a reason, or an account, of the kept
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
S05
that it in you^ that is, of the hope you profess, which
you hope to be sayed by, with meekness and fear.
Observe^ it is very well consistent with Christian
quietness, to appear in the defence of truth, and to
aTow our Christian profession, when at any time we
are duly called to it. That is not meekness, but base
cowardice, that tamely betrays and delivers up any
of Christ's truths or institutions, by silence, as if we
were ashamed or afraid to confess our Master. But
the office of meekness at such a time, is to direct us
how and in what manner to bear our testimony, not
with pride and passion, but with humility and mild-
ness. Those that would successfully confess the
truth, must first learn to deny themselves : and we
must give an account of our hope, with a holy fear
of missing it in such a critical juncture. When we
give a reason for our religion, we must not boast of
ourselves or of our own attainments, nor reflect
contempt and wrath upon our persecutors, but re-
member that the present truths (so it is called, 2 Pet.
i. 12.) the truth which is now to be asserted, is the
same with the word of Chrisi's patience, (Rev. iii. 10.)
that is the word which must be patiently suffered
for, according to the example of him, who with in-
vincible meekness (before Pontius Pilate) witnesied
a good confession, 1 Tim. vi. 13. A g^eat abase-
ment and diffidence of ourselves, may very well
consist with a firm assurance of the truth, and a
profound veneration for it.
In lesser things, wherein wise and good men are
not all of a mind, meekness teaches us not to be too
confident that we are in the right, nor to censure and
condemn those that differ from us, as if we were the
people, and wisdom should die with us ; but quietly
to walk according to the light that God has given
OS, and charitably to believe that others do so too,
waiting till God shall reveal either this to them,
(Phil. iii. 15.) or that to us. Let it in such cases
suffice to vindicate ourselves, which every man has
a right to do, without a magisterial sentencing of
others ; why should we be many masters, when we
are ail offenders, (Jam. iii. 1, 2.) and the bar is our
place, not the bench ? Meekness will likewise teach
OS to manage a singular opinion wherein we differ
from others, with all possible deference to them,
and suspicion of ourselves ; not resenting it as an
affront to be contradicted, but taking it as a kind-
ness to be better informed. Nor must we be angry
that our hope is inquired into : even such a trial of
it, if we approve ourselves well in it, may he found
to praise, stnd honour, and glory ; to which our meek-
ness will very much contribute, as it puts a lustre
apon, and a convincing power into, the testimony
we bear : we then walk worthy of the vocation where-
with we are called, when we walk in all lowliness and
meehuss, Eph. iv. I, 2.
(6.) We mast bear reproaches with meekness.
Reproach is a branch of that persecution which all
that will live godly in Christ Jesus, must count
upon ; and we must submit to it, behaving ourselves
quietly, and with a due decorum, not only when
princes sit and speak against us, but even when the
abjects gather themselves together against us, and
we become the song of the drunkards. Sometimes
we find it easier to keep calm in a solemn arrd ex-
pected engagement, than in a sudden skirmish, or a
hasty rencounter ; and therefore, even against those
slight attacks, it is requisite that meekness be set
upon the guard. It we be nick-named, and slan-
dered, and have all manner of evil said against us
falsely, our rule is, not to be disturbed at it, nor to
render railing for railing, (1 Pet. iii. 9.) but though
we may, as we have opportunity, with meekness,
deny the charge, as Hannah did, when Eli over-
hastily censured her for a drunkard ; No, my lord,
I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, I Sam.
i. 15. Yet, when that is done, we must, without
meditating any revenge, quietly commit our cause
to God, who will, sooner or later, clear up our inno-
cency as the light, which is promised, (Ps. xxxvii. 5,
6.) and therefore /r«^ not thyself, but wait patiently,
V. 7. cease from anger, and forsake wrath, v. 8. Mr.
Dod was wont to charm his friends into silence
under reproaches, with this, ** That if a dog bark at
a sheep, the sheep will not bark at the dog again.'*
We do but gn^tify our g^eat adversary, and do his
work for him, when we suffer the peace and serenity
of our minds to be broken in upon by the reproaches
of the world : for me to disquiet myself, and put
myself into a passion, because another abuses me,
is as if I shoul<f scratch up the skin of my face, to
fetch off the dirt which my adversary throws in it.
When reproaches provoke our passions, which put
us upon rendering bitterness for bitterness, we
thereby lose the comfort, and forfeit the honour and
reward, which the divine promise has annexed to
the reproach of Christ ; and shall we suffer so many
things in vain ? We likewise thereby give occasion
to those who had spoken evil of us falsely, to speak
evil of us truly ; and perhaps our religion suffers
more by our impatience under the reproach, than by
the reproach itself. What have we the law, and
pattern, and promise of Christ for, but to calm our
spirits under reproaches for well-doing? Truly those
can bear but a little for Christ, who cannot bear a
hard or an unkind word for him. If we either faint
or fret in such a day of adversity, it is a sign our
strength is small indeed. May it not satisfy us,
that by our meekness and quietness under reproach-
es, me engage God for us, who has promised that he
will with righieoHsness judge the poor, the poor in
spirit, and will reprove with equity for the meek of tke
earth, Isa. xi. 4. — He that has bid us to open our
mouths for the dumb, (Prov. xxxi. 8.) will not him-
self be silent And shall we not learn at last, instea<)
of fretting and being exceeding angry, to rejoice and
.306
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
to be exceeding glady (Matt. v. 11, 12.) when we suffer
thus for rigbteousness sake ? May we not put such
reproaches as pearls in our crown, and be assured
that they will pass well in the account another day,
when there will be an advantageous resurrection of
names as well as bodies ; in the prospect of which
we have reason to rejoice,* tfiat we are counted wor-
thy to suffer shame for his name, (Acts v. 41.) that
we are honoured to be dishonoured for him, who for
our sakes endured the cross, and despised the shame.
It is one of the laws of meekness, Spemere se spemi
— to despise being despised.
SECTION IV.
4. Some good principles or consideratioTis which tend
to make us meek and quiet.
In order to the well-governing of the soul, the judg-
ment must be furnished with proper dictates, else it
will never be able to keep the peace in the affec-
tions ; the motions of the soul are then likely to be
even, and regular, and constant, when we have fixed
to ourselves good principles which we are governed
by, and act under the influence of. There are some
carnal corrupt principles, which angry froward
people are guided by ; such as these, *' That the
forgiving one injury invites another ,"t whereas it
often qualifies an adversary ; or if otherwise, the
forgiving of one offence will enable us to bear the
next the more easily. And, '' That we must have sa-
tisfaction given us for every wrong done us ;" where-
as, if we have not satisfaction for if, yet if it be not
our own fault, we may have satisfaction under it,
and that is as good. And, '* That there is no
living in the world wi&out huffing and hectoring,
and frightening people ; Oderint dum metuant, —
Let them hate^ provided they fear ;" whereas, to live
continually in that element, is to live in a hell upon
earth ; mutual indignation and mutual fear perhaps
contributing to the torment of devils and damned
spirits: but, in opposition to these and the like ill
principles, shall we treasure up these few good
truths, chosen out of many which might be mention-
ed, proper for this purpose, and make use of them
as there is occasion ?
(1.) That he has the sweetest and surest peace,
who is the most master of his own passions. The
comfort that a man has in governing himself, is much
greater than he could have in having people to serve
him, and nations to bow dovim to him. It is certain,
the worst enemies we have, if ever they break loose
and get head, are in our own bosoms. Enemies
without threaten only the evil of pain ; they can but
kill the body, and no great hurt in that to a child of
* Dom»u» ipse maledietuM eti, et tanuii toliu t$t btnedictus. —The Lord
himself, the only blessed, is pronounced accursed. Tntui eh
Patient, cap. 8.
God, if they do not provoke the enemies within, oar
own irregular passions, which, if they be not kept
under, plunge us in the evil of sin, and that is a
much greater evil. An invasion from abroad does
not so much disturb the peace of a kingdom as an
insurrection at home ; and therefore it concerns as
to double our guard, where our danger is g^reatest,
and above all keepings to keep our hearts, that no
passion be allowed to stir, without a good reason to
be given for it, and a good use to be made of it ;
and then, if we be troubled on every side, yet not dis-
tressed; perplexed, yet not in despair, (2 Cor. iv. 8,9.)
offended by our fellow-servants, but not offending
our master ; reproached by our neighbours, but not
by our own consciences ; this is like Zion*s peace,
peace within the walls, Ps. cxxii. 7. We have need
to pray as one did. Libera me a malo isto homisu, me-
ipto — Lord, deliver me from that ill man, mine own
self, and then I am safe enough. The lusts that war
in our members, (Jam. iv. 1.) are the enemies that war
against our souls, 1 Pet ii. 11. If this war be brought
to a good issue, and those enemies suppressed,
whatever other disturbances are given, peace is in
the soul, with grace and mercy from God, and from
the Lord Jesus. Nchemiah was aware of this, as the
design of his enemies, when they hired a pretended
prophet to give an alarm, and to advise him meanly
to shift for himself; it was, (says he, Neh. tL 13.)
that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin. What-
ever we lose, we should not lose our peace, if we
do but keep our integrity; therefore, instead of
being solicitous to subdue our enemies that lay
siege to us, let us double our watch against the
traitors within the garrison, from whom, especially,
our danger is ; since we cannot prevent the shoot-
ing of the fiery darts, let us have our shield ready,
wherewith to quench them. If we would not hurt
ourselves, blessed be God, no enemy in the world
can hurt us. Let us but keep the peace within,
by the governing of our passions ; and then, what-
ever assaults may be made upon us, we may there-
in, with the daughter of Zion, despise them, and
laugh them to scorn, and shake our head at them,
Isa. XXX vii. 22. Let us believe, that in hurrying
and disquieting times, our strength is to sit still,
in a holy quietness and composure of mind : This
is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to
rest ; and this is the refreshing, and it is enough,
Isa. xxviii. 12.
(2.) That in many things we all offend. This
truth we have. Jam. iii. 2. and it comes in as a reason
why we must not be many masters, v. 1. It would
help to subdue and moderate our anger at the of-
fences of others, if we would but consider,
[1.] That it is incident to human nature to offend.
t Veteremferendo i^juriam invitat novawL—Dicl. Pub. Mim.
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
307
While we are in this world, we must not expect to
converse with angels, or the spirits of just men made
perfect ; no, we arc obliged to have a communica-
tion with creatures that are foolish and corrupt,
peevish and provoking, and who are all subject to
like passions ; such as these we must live among,
else must we needs go out of the world. And have
we not reason then to count upon something or other
uneasy and displeasing in all relations and conver-
sations. The best men have their roughnesses and
unevennesses in this imperfect state ; those who are
savingly enlightened, yet knowing but in part, have
their blind side ; the harmony, even of t^ commu-
nion of saints, will sometimes be disturbed with jar-
ring strings ; why then should we be surprised into
passion and disquiet, when that which g^ves us the
disturbance, is no more than what we looked for?
Instead of being angry, we should think with our-
selves thus : Alas ! what could I expect but provo-
cation from corrupt and fallen man ? Among such
foolish creatures as we are, it must needs be, that
offences will come ; and why should not I have my
share of those offences ? The God of heaven gives
this as a reason of his patience towards a provoking
world, tlyat it is in their nature to be provoking,
(Gen viii. 21.) / will not again curse ike ground any
more for man's sake, for the imagination of man*s
heart is evil from his youth, and therefore better is not
to be expected from him. And upon this account
he had compassion on Israel, (Ps. Ixxviii. 39.) For
he remembered that they were hut flesh ; not only
frail creatures, but sinful, and bent to backslide.
Do men gather grapes of thoims ? I knew that thou
Mwuldst deal treacherously, for thou wast called a
transgressor from the womb, Isa. xlviii. 8. And should
not we, much more, be governed by the same consi-
deration ? If thou seest the violent perverting of judg-
ment and justice in a province, remember what a pro-
voking creature sinful man is, and then thou wilt
not marvel at the matter, Eccl. v. 8. The consider-
ation of the common infirmity and corruption of
mankind, should be made use of, not to excuse our
own faults to ourselves, which does but take off the
edge of our repentance, and is the poor subterfuge of
a deceived heart ; but to excuse the faults of others,
and so take off the edge of our passion and displea-
sure, and preserve the meekness and quietness of
our spirits.
[2.] That it is incident to ourselves, among the
rest, to offend. The apostle there puts himself into the
number,* We all offend. We offend God ; if we say
we do not, we deceive ourselves, and yet he bears
with us from day to day, and is not extreme to mark
what we do amiss; though our debts to him are
* Zv»3«XoTicai ovTov.— Himseira fellow'servant.
t Paiienftr HUtam inj'uriam Merat, qui pi* meminit qnod foTtatM,ad.
Ave ktAfot i« fM debetU ip$e toUrari.—Th9X man patiently endures
wrong, who piously remembers that oerbaps there is something in
talents, our brethren's to us but pence. Think then,
if God should be as angry with me for every provo-
cation, as I am with those about me, what would
become of me ? They are careless in their observ-
ance, and perhaps wilful in their offence, and am
not I so to God ? yea, am not I a thousand times
worse ? Job said, when his servants were provok-
ing, and he was tempted to be harsh with them.
What then shall I do, when God riseth up? and
when he visiteth, what shall I answer him ? Job xxxi.
13, 14.
And are we not apt enough likewise to offend our
brethren? Either we have offended, or may offend ;
so that we have need that others should bearf with
us, and why should we not bear with them ? Hanc
veniam petimusque damusque vicissim — Let us seek
and grant pardon alternately. Our rule is. What we
would that men should do to us when we offend them,
the same we should do to them when they offend us, for
this is the law and the prophets. Matt. vii. 12.| Solo-
mon appeals to our consciences herein, Eccl. vii. 22.
For oftentimes also thine own heart (which is instead
of a thousand witnesses) knoweth that thou thyself
likewise hath cursed others. The penitent remem-
brance of former guilt would greatly help to curb
the passionate resentment of present trouble. When
the undutiful rebellious son (in a story that I once
read) dragged his father by the hair of the head to
the house door, it appeased the anger of the old
man, to remember, that, just so far he had dragged
his father; anditseems to have silenced Adonibezek,
that he was now treated no otherwise than he had
treated others, Judg. i. 7.
(3.) That men are God's hand : so it is said, Ps.
xvii. 14. From men whick are tky kand, O Lord, or
rather, tools in thy hand, so v. 13. which are thy
sword. We urast abide by this principle, that what-
ever it is that crosses us, or is displeasing to us, at
any time, God has an overruling hand in it. David
was governed by this principle, when he bore Shimei's
spiteful reproaches with such invincible patience ; So
let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse
David; (2 Sam. xvi. 10. and v. 11.) Let him alone,
for the Lord hatk bidden kim. This consideration
will not only silence our murmurings against God,
[the author] but all our quarrellings with men [the
instruments of our trouble and vexation]. Men's
reproaches are God's rebukes, and whoever he be
that affronts me, I must see, and say, that therein
my Father corrects me. This quieted the spirit of
Job, in reference to the injuries of the Chaldeans
and Sabeans, though he dwelt as a Ain^ tn the army,
(ch. xxix. 25.) and his power and interest seem to
have been sustained, when those intruders first
his conduct, which requires forbearance.— Cfrtg. M. i« /pA, /. 5. c. 32.
t Cdgittmttt alios mon faare injwiamt t«d repoturf.-^'We should con.
sider, that when others do a mischief, they may be not so much
inflicting an injury as revenging It Se«
308
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
made that inroad upon him, and so he could not but
see hb help in the gate ; yet we find him not medi-
tating any revenge, but calming the disturbances of
his own soul with the consideration of God's sove-
reign disposal, overlooking all the instruments of his
trouble, thoughts of which would but have mingled
anger (the more disquieting passion) with his sor-
row : this therefore suffices to still the storm, The
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away^ blessed be
the name of the Lord, ch. i. 21. When his brethren
stood aloof from him, his kindred and his friends
looked scornfully upon him, as an alien, and instead
of oil, poured vinegar into his wounds, so that his
eye continued in this provocation, yet even in that
part of his trouble he owns the hand of God, {ch,
ipix. 13.) He hath put my brethren far from me. It
is a very quieting truth, (the Lord help us to mix
faith with it,) that every creature is that to us, and
no more, that God makes it to be ; and, that while
many seek the ruler's favour, and more perhaps fear
the ruler's displeasure, every man's judgment pro-
ceedethfrom the Lord, Would we but more closely
observe, and readily own, the hand of God, in that
which disquiets and provokes us, surely, though we
regarded not man, yet if we had any fear of God
before our eyes, that would reconcile us better to it,
and suppress all intemperate and undue resent-
ments. In murmunng at the stone, we reflect
upon the hand that throws it, and lay ourselves
under the woe pronounced against him that strives
with his Maker, Isa. xlv. 9. We know it is inter-
preted a taking up arms against the king, if we
take up arms against any that are commissioned by
him.
(4.) That there is no provocation given us at any
time, but, if it be skilfully and graciously improved,
there is good to be gotten by it. If we have but that
wisdom of the prudent, which is to understand his
way, and all the advantages and opportunities of it,
doubtless we may, quite contrary to the intention of
those who trespass against us, gain some spiritual,
that is, some real, benefit to our souls, by the inju-
ries and offences that are done to us, for even these
are made to work together for good to them that love
God. This is a holy and a happy way of opposing
our adversaries, and resisting evil. It is an ill weed
indeed out of which the spiritual bee cannot extract
something profitable, and for its purpose. Whatever
lion roars against us, let us but go in the strength
and spirit of the Lord, as Samson did, and we may
not only rend it as a kid, so that it shall do us no
real harm, but we may withal get meat out of the
eater, and sweetness out of the strong. As it turns to
the unspeakable prejudice of many, that they look
upon reproofs as reproaches, and treat them accord-
ingly with anger and displeasure, so it would turn
* Tnpairirei rut af^pwimr « ra wpayfiaTa akha ra wept rttv wpay.
parwv doT/ioTa.— Mortals are made unliappy, not »o much by
to our unspeakable advantage, if we could but learo
to call reproaches reproofs, and make use of them
as such, for our conviction and humiliation; and
thus the reproach of Christ may become true riches
to us, and greater than the treasures of Egypt.
We are told of an imposthume that was cored
with the thrust of an enemy's sword ; and of one that
was happily converted from drunkenness, by beiof^
called (in reproach) *' a tippler.'' It is y&ry possi-
ble that we may be enlightened, or humbled, or re-
formed, may be brought nearer to God, or weaned
from the world, may be furnished with matter for
repentany, or prayer, or praise, by the injuries that
are done us, and may be much furthered in our way
to heaven by that which was intended for an affront
or provocation.* This principle would put another
aspect upon injuries and unkindnesses, and would
quite alter the property of them, and teach us to call
them by another name : whatever the subordinate
instrument intended, it is likely he meani not so,
neither did his heart thinh so, (Isa. x. 7.) but God
designed it, as our other afflictions, to yield the
peaceable fruit of righteousness ; so that instead of
being angry at the man that meant us ill, we should
rather be thankful to the God that intended us good,
and study to answer his intention. This kept Joseph
in that good temper towards his brethren, though he
had occasion enough to quarrel with them. Gen. I.
20. You thought evil against me, but God meant it
unto good. This satisfied Paul, in reference to the
thorn in the flesh, that is, the calumnies and oppo-
sitions of the false apostles, which touched him
more sensibly than all the efforts of persecuting
rage ; that it was intended to hide pride from him,
lest he should be exalted above measure, unth the
abundance of revelations, (2 Cor. xii. 7.) and there
seems to be an instance of that good effect it had
upon him, immediately upon the mention of it, for
within a few lines after he lets fall that humble
word, (v. 11.) I am nothing. We should be apt to
think too highly of ourselves, and too kindly of the
world, if we did not meet with some injuries and
contempts, by which we are taught to cease from
man. Did we but more carefully study the improve-
ment of an injury, we should not be so apt to desire
the revenge of it.
(5.) That what is said and done in haste, is likely
to be matter for deliberate repentance. We find
David often remembering with regret, what he said
in his haste, particularly one angry word he had
said in the day of his distress and trouble, which
seemed to reflect upon Samuel, and indeed upon all
that had given him any encouragement to hope for
the kingdom, Ps. cxvi. 11. / said in my haste, all
men are liars ; and this hasty word was a g^ef to
him long after. He that hasteth with his feet sinnetk,
EVENTS aii by the opsBATioir of their minds upon them. ^mcI
EhcM, c. 10.
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
300
Prov. xix, 2. When a man is transported by passion
into any impropriety, we commonly qualify it with
this, ** that he is a little hasty," as if there were no
harm in that, but we see there is harm in it ; he
that is in haste, may contract much guilt in a little
time. What we say or do unadvisedly when we are
hot, we must unsay or undo again when we are cool,
or do worse. Now who would wilfully do that,
which sooner or later he must repent of ? A heathen
that was tempted to a chargeable sin, could resist
the temptation with this consideration, *' that he
would not buy repentance so dear." Is repentance
such a pleasant work that we should so industriously
treasure up unto ourselves wrath against the day of
wrath, either the day of God's wrath against us, or
our own against ourselves. You little think what a
torrent of self-affliction you let in, when you let the
reins loose to an immoderate ungovemed passion.
You are angry at others, and reproach them, and
call them hard names, and are ready to abhor them,
and to revenge yourselves upon them; and your
corrupt nature takes a strange kind of pleasure in
this; but do you know that all this will at last
rebound in your own faces, and return into your own
bosoms ? Either here, or in a worse place, you must
repent of all this ; that is, you must turn all these
passions upon yourselves, you must be angry at
yourselves, and reproach yourselves, and call your-
selves fools, and abhor yourselves, and ;smite upon
your own breasts ; nay, and if God give you grace,
take a holy revenge upon yourselves; (which is
reckoned among the products of godly sorrow, 2
Cor. vii. 11.) and what can be more uneasy than all
this? You take a mighty liberty in chiding those
that you have under your power, and giving them
very ill-favoured language, because you know they
dare not chide you again ; but dare not your own
hearts smite you, and your consciences chide you ?
And is it not easier to bear the chidings of any
man in the world, (which may either be avoided, or
answered, or slighted,) than to bear the reproaches
of oar own consciences, which, as we cannot get
out of the hearing of, so we cannot make a light
matter of? for when conscience is awake, it will be
beard, and will tell us home, wherein we are verily
guilty concerning our brother ^ Gen. xlii. 21. Let this
thought therefore quiet our spirits, when they begin
to be tnmultnous, that hereby we shall but make
work for repentance ; whereas, on the contrary, as
Abigail suggested to David, (1 Sam. xxv. 30, 31.)
the bearing and forgiving of an injury will be no
trouble or grief of mind afterwards. Let wisdom
and grace therefore do that which time will do;
that is, cool our heat, and take off the edge of our
resentment.
(6.) That that is truly best for us which is most
pleasing and acceptable to God, and that a meek
and quiet spirit is so. No principle has such a I
commanding influence upon the soul, as that which
has a regard to God, and wherein we approve our-
selves to him. It was a good hint which the woman
of Tekoah gave to David, when she was suing for
a merciful sentence, (2 Sam. xiv. 11.) / ^^ay thee,
let the king remember the Lord thy God: nor
could any thought be more appeasing than that
Remember how gracious, and merciful, and patient
God is, how slow to anger, how ready to forgive,
and how well pleased he is to see his people like
him : remember the eye of thy God upon thee, the
love of thy God towards thee, and the glory of thy
God set before thee. Remember how much it is thy
concern to be accepted of God, and to walk worthy of
thy relation to him, unto all well-pleasing ; and how
much meekness and quietnessof spirit does contribute
to this, as it is consonant to that excellent religion
which our Lord Jesus has established, and as itrenders
the* heart a fit habitation for the blessed Spirit ; This
is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour^
to lead quiet and peaceable lives, 1 Tim. ii. 2, 3. It is
a good evidence of our reconciliation to God, if we
be cordially reconciled to every cross providence,
which necessarily includes a meek behaviour toward
those who are any ways instrumental in the cross.
Very excellently does St. Austin express it, (in Ps.
cxxii.) Quis placet Deo ? cui Deus placuerit — Those
please God who are pleased with him, and with all
he does, whether immediately by his own hand, or
mediately by the agency of provoking injurious
men. This is standing complete in all the will of
God, not only his commanding but his disposing
will, saying it, without reluctance. The will of the
Lord be done,'^ — He that acts from an honest prin-
ciple of respect to God, and sincerely desires to stand
right in his favour, cannot but be in some measure
adorned with that meek and quiet spirit, which he
knows to be in the sight of God of great price.
Such as these are softening principles, and as
many as walk according to these rules, peace shall
be upon them, and mercy, and no doubt it shall be
upon the Israel of God.
SECTION V.
5. Some rules of direction.
The laws of our holy religion are so far from clash-
ing and interfering, that one Christian duty does
very much further and promote another ; the fruits
of the Spirit are like links in a chain, one draws on
another ; it is so in this ; many other graces contri-
bute to the ornament of a meek and guift spirit.
You see how desirable the attainment is; will you
therefore, through desire, separate yourselves to tlie
pursuit of it, and seek and intermeddle with all trtV-
dom, (Prov. xviii. 1.) and all little enough, that you
may reach to the meekness of wisdom.
310
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
(I.) Sit loose to the world, and to every thing in it.
The more the world is crucified to us, the more our
corrupt passions will be crucified in us. If we would
keep calm and quiet, we must by faith live above the
stormy region. It is certain, those that have any
thing to do in the world, cannot but meet with that
every day from those with whom they deal, which
will cross and provoke them ; and if the affections be
set upon these things, and we be filled with a pre-
vailing concern about them, as the principal things,
those crosses must needs pierce to the quick, and in-
flame the soul, and that which touches us in these
things, touches us in the apple of our eye. If the
appetites be carried out inordinately towards those
things that are pleasing to sense, the passions will
be to the very same degree carried out against those
that are displeasing. And therefore Christians,
whatever you have of the world in your hands, be it
more or less, as you value the peace, as well as the
purity, of your souls, keep it out of your hearts, and
evermore let out your affections towards your posses-
sions, enjoyments, and delights in the world with a
due consideration of the disappointment and provo-
cation which probably you will meet with in them,
and let that restrain and give check to their inordi-
nacy.
It is the excellent advice of Epictetus, whatever
we take a pleasure in, to consider the nature of the
thing, and to proportion our complacency accord-
ingly : Av xvrpav cfpyijf, fiffivrifro on "xyrpav ^tpyuQ,
KanaytiariQ yap avrrn h TapaxSrri<nj—If thou art in love
with a China cup, or a Venice ylass, love it at a piece
of brittle ware, and then the breaking of it will be no
yreat offence, nor put thee into any disturbing passion,
for it is but what thou didst expect. Those that idol-
ize any thing in this world, will be greatly discom-
posed if they be crossed in it. '* The money which
Micah's mother had, was her god, (it is Bishop Hall's
note,) before it had the shape cither of a graven or a
molten image, else the loss of it would not have set
her a cursing, as it seems it did. Judges xvii. 2.
Those that are greedy of gain, trouble their own
hearts, as well as their own houses, (Prov. xv. 27.)
they are a burthen to themselves, and a terror to all
about them. They who will be rich, who are resolv-
ed upon it, come what will, cannot but fall into
these foolish and hurtful lusts, I Tim. vi. 9. And
those also who serve their own bellies, who are
pleased with nothing, unless it be wound up to the
height of pleasure, who are like the tender and deli-
cate woman, that would not set so much as the sole of
her foot to the ground for tenderness and delicacy ; lie
very open to that which is disquieting, and cannot,
without a great disturbance to themselves, bear a
disappointment ; and therefore Plutarch (that great
moralist) prescribes it for the preservation of our
• AV qutere molliaiu tibi continuant <<trra.— Ask not whether your
meekness,* ** Not to be curious in diet, or clothes, or
attendance ; for (says he) they who need bat few
things, are not liable to anger if they be diflappoint-
ed of many."
Would we but learn in these things to cross our-
selves, we should not be so apt to take it unkind if
another crosses us. And therefore the method of
the lessons in Christ's school, is first to deny our-
selves, and then to take up our cross. Matt. xvi. 24.
We must also mortify the desire of the applause of
men, as altogether impertinent to our true happiness.
If we have learnt not to value ourselves by their good
word, we shall not much disturb ourselves for their
ill word. St Paul bore reproaches with much meek-
ness, because he did not build upon the opinion of
man, reckoning it a small thing to he judged ofuuaCs
judgment, 1 Cor. iv. 3.
(2.) Be often repenting of your sinful passion, and
renewing your covenants against it. If our rash
anger were more bitter to us in the reflection after-
wards, we should not be so apt to relapse into it
Repentance in general, if it be sound and deep,
and grounded in true contrition and humiliation, is
very meekcning, and disposes the soul to bearinja-
ries with abundance of patience. Those who live a
life of repentance, (as we have every one of us rea-
son to do,) cannot but live a quiet life ; for nobody
can lightly say worse of the true penitent, than he
says of himself. Call him a fool, (an aflVont which
many think deserves a challenge,) the humble sonl
can bear it patiently with this thought, ^' Yea, a fool
I am," and I have called myself so many a time ;
more brutish than any man ; I have not the under-
standing of a man, Prov. xxx. 2. But repentance
does in a special manner dispose us to meekness,
when it fastens upon any irregular inordinate pas-
sion with which we have been transported. Godly
sorrow for our former transgressions in this matter,
will work a carefulness in us, not again to transgress.
If others be causelessly or excessively angprj with me,
am not I justly requited for the like or more indecent
passions. Charge it home therefore with sorrow
and shame upon your consciences, aggravating the
sin, and laying a load upon yourselves for it, and
you will find that '* the burnt child,'' especially
while the bum is smarting, '* will dread the fire,"
Job xlii. G.
With our repentance for our former unquietness,
we must engage ourselves by a firm resolution in
the strength of the grace of Jesus Christ to be more
mild and gentle for the future. Say, you will take
heed to your ways that you offend not, as you have
done, with your tongue ; and be often remembering
that you said so, as David does, Ps. xxxix. 1. Re-
solution would do much towards the conquering of
the most rugged nature, and the quiet bearing of the
nllotment will be pleasing or painrul. Phmnt,
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
311
greatest provocation ; it would be like the bit and
the bridle to the horse and mule, that have no un-
derstanding. It may be of good use every morning
to renew a charge upon our affections to keep the
peace, and having welcomed Christ in faith and
meditation, let no rude or unruly passion stir up or
awake our love.
(3.) Keep out of the way of provocation, and stand
upon your guard against it. While we are so very
apt to offend in this matter, we have need to pray,
(and to practise accordingly,) Lardy lead us not into
temptation,— ^Those are enemies to themselves
and to their own peace, as well as to human society,*
who seek occasion of quarrel, who fish for provoca-
tions and dig up mischief; but meek and quiet
people will on the contrary studiously avoid even
that which is justly provoking, and will see it as if
they saw it not. Those that would not be angry,
must wink at that which would stir up anger, or put
a favourable construction upon it. The advice of
the wise man is very good to the purpose, (Eccl. vii.
21.) Also take no heed to all words that are spoken^
lest thoH hear thy servant curse thee ; and it is better
for thee not to hear it, unless thou couldst hear it
patiently,t and not to be provoked to sin in the
hearing of it It is a common story of Cotys, that
being presented with a cupboard of curious glasses,
he returned his thanks to his friend that had sent
them, and gratified the messenger that brought them,
and then deliberateiy broke them all, lest by the
casual breaking of them severally, he should be
provoked to passion. And Dion relates it to the
honour of Julius Caesar, that Pompey's cabinet of
letters coming to his hand, he would not read them,
because he was his enemy, and he would be likely
to find in them that which would increase the quar-
rel ; " and therefore" (as Dr. Reynolds expresses it)
** he chose rather to make a fire on his hearth, than
in hlA heart :'' De non existentibiu et non apparenti-
bus eadem est ratio — Keep the injury out of sight, and
it will be out of mind.
But seeing briers and thorns are with us, and we
dwell among scorpions, (so the prophet, Ezek. ii. 6.)
and it must needs be that offences will come, let us
be so much the more careful, as we are when we go
with a candle among barrels of gunpowder, and
exercise ourselves to have consciences void of of-
fence, not apt to offend others, nor to resent the
offences of others. When we are at any time engaged
in business or company, where we foresee provoca-
tion, we must double our watch, and be more than
ordinarily circumspect. / will keep my mouth with
c hridUf (says David,) that is, with a particular
* fkeSims e$i eseludfrt pemiciosa qunm rtgete^ el non admittere ijnam
nihii'in ■wArgrt.— It it raster to exclude pernicious passions than
to govern tbem ; not to admit them, than to manage them when
admitted. Seneca,
* Nm ng M«# iracmndm$ t Nt tii csrii^nii.— Wouldst thou avoid
tflgerl SisppreaB curiosity. Sen.
actual care and diligence, while the wicked is before
me, and frequent acts will confirm the good disposi-
tion, and bring it to a habit. Plutarch advises, *^ To
set some time to ourselves for special strictness : so
many days or weeks in which, whatever provoca-
tions do occur, we will not suffer ourselves to be dis-
turbed by them." And thus he supposes, by degrees,
the habit of vitious anger may be conquered and
subdued. But after all, the g^ace of faith has the
surest influence upon the establishment and quiet-
ness of the spirit: faith established the mercy of
God, the meekness of Christ, the love of the Spirit,
tlie commands of the word, the promises of the cove-
nant, and the peace and quietness of the upper
world ; this is the approved shield, with which we
may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked
one, and all his wicked instruments.
(4.) Learn to pause. It is a good rule, as in our
communion with God, so in our converse with men,
(Eccl. V. 2.) Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not
thine heart be hasty to utter any thing. When at any
time we are provoked, delays may be as advantage-
ous, as in other cases they are dangerous. The dis-
cretion of a man deferreth his anger, Prov. xix. 11.
Cadissem nisi iratus essem — / would beat thee | (said
Socrates to his servant) if I were not angry ; but he
that is hasty of spirit, that joins in Vith his anger
upon the first rise of it, exalteth folly, Prov. xiv. 29.
The office of reason is to govern the passions, but
then we must give time to act, and not suffer the
tongue to overrun it. Some have advised, when we
are provoked to anger, to take, at least, so much time
to deliberate, as while we repeat the alphabet ; and
others have thought it more proper to repeat the
Lord's Prayer, and perhaps by that time we are past
the fifth petition, [Forgive us our trespasses, as we
forgive them that trespass against us,] we may be re^
duced into temper. It is a good rule, *' To think
twice before we speak once ;" for he that hasteth with
his feet, sinneth. It was the noted saying of a great
statesman in Q. Elizabeth's court, " Take time, and
we shall have done the sooner,'' \\ Nor can there be
any thing lost by deferring our anger; for there is
nothing said or done in our wrath, but it might be
better said, and better done, in meekness.
(5.) Pray to God by his Spirit to work in you this
excellent grace of meekness and quietness of spirit.
It is a part of that comeliness which he puts upon
the soul, and he must be sought unto for it. If any
man lack this meekness of wisdom, let him ask it
of God, who gives liberally, and does not upbraid
us with our folly. When we begin at any time to
be froward and unquiet, we must lift a prayer to
t Senera maJces it the saying of Socratet ; Ambr. de Ojjic. and
others ascribe it to Archift(u Ibrntinut.
II Polest pmna dilala esigi^ non point exacta rrvoeari.— Punishment
though deferred, may be inflicted ; but when once inflicted, it
cannot be recalled. Sn. de IrA,
312
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MEEKNESS,
him who stills the noise of the sea, for thht grace
which establishes the heart. When David's heart
was hot within him, the first word that broke oat
was a prayer, Ps. xxxix. 3, 4. When we are sur-
prised with a provocation, and begin to be in a fer-
ment upon it, it will not only be a present diversion,
but a sovereign cure, to lift up an ejaculation to
God for grace and strength to resist and overcome
the temptation : " Lord, keep me quiet now !" Let
your requests in this matter be made known to God ;
end the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds,
Phil. iv. 6, 7. You are ready enough to complain
of unquiet people about you ; but you have more
reason to complain of unquiet passions within you ;
the other, are but thorns in the hedge, these are
thorns in the flesh, against which, if you beseech
the Lord, as Paul did, (2 Cor. xii. 8.) with faith,
and fervency, and constancy, you shall receive
ffrace sufficient,
(6.) Be often examining your growth and profici-
ency in this grace. • Inquire what ground you
have got of your passion, and what improvements
you have made in meekness. Provocations recur
every day, such as have been wont perhaps to put
you into a passion ; these give you an opportunity to
make the trial. Do you find that you are less sub-
ject to anger,* and when angry that you are less
transported by it, than formerly, that your appre-
hci^ion of injuries is less quick, and your resent-
ments less keen, than usual ? Is the little kingdom
of your mind more quiet than it has been, and the
discontented party weakened and kept under ? It
is well if it be so, and a good sig^ that the soul
prospers, and is in health. We should examine
every night, whether we have been quiet all day ?
We shall sleep the better if we find we have. Let
conscience keep up a grand inquest in the soul,
under a charge from the judge of heaven and earth,
to inquire, and due presentment make of all riots,
routs, and breaches of the peace, and let nothing
be left unpresented for favour, affection, or self-
love ; nor let any thing presented be left unprose-
outed according to law. Those whose natural tem-
per, or their age, or distemper, leads them to be hot,
and hasty, and unquiet, have an opportunity, by
their meekness and gentleness, to discover both the
truth and strength of grace in general ; for it is the
surest mark of uprightness to keep ourselvei^ /rom
our own iniquitifj Ps. xviii. 23. And yet, if the
children of God bring forth these fruits of the Spirit
in old age, when commonly men are most froward
and peevish, it shows not only that they are upright,
but rather that the Lord is upright, in whose strength
they stand, that he is their rock, and there is no un-
ritfhteousness in him, Ps. xcii. 14, 15.
♦ Apf a< awo rmv funprnvt f Kx«'ra< to tXaitov ; cXf vrf ra« ot»aptov ;
eviX«7f, ort rovtirti ir«Xeira« aira^cia rocmtm arpafia.— Begin With
little thingi ^ Ib the oil gpilt ! Ib a trifling quantity of wine stolen !
7. Delight in the company of meek and quiet per-
sons. Solomon prescribes it as a preservative
against foolish passion, to make no friendship with
an angry man, lest thou leam his ways, ProY. xxii. 24,
25. When thy neighbour's heart is on fire, it is time
to look to thy own. But man is a sociable creature,
and cut out for converse ; let us, therefore, since
we must have some company, choose to have fellow-
ship with those who are meek and quiet, that we
may leam their way, for it is a good way. The wolf
is no companion for the lamb, nor the leopard for
the kid, till they have forgot to hurt and destroy.
Company is assimilating, and we are apt insensibly
to grow like those with whom we ordinarily con-
verse, especially with whom we delight to converse,
therefore, let the quiet in the land be the men of our
choice, especially into standing relations and bosom-
friendship. Observe in others how sweet and ami-
able meekness is, and what a heaven upon earth
those enjoy who have the command of their own
passions ; and study to transcribe such copies.—-
There are those who take a pleasure in riotous com-
pany, and are never well but when they are in the
midst of noise and clamour; sure beayen would
not be heaven to such, for that is a calm and quiet
region ; no noise there, but what is sweet and har-
monious.
8. Study the cross of our Lord Jesus. Did
we but know more of Jesus Christ, and him cruci-
fied, we should experience more of the fellowship
of his sufferings. Think often how and in what
manner he suffered ; see him led as a lamb to the
slaughter, and arm yourselves with the same mind.
Think also why and for what end he suffered, that
you may not in any thing contradict the design of
your dying Saviour, nor receive his grace in vain.
Christ died as the great peace-maker, to take down
all partition- walls, to quench all threatening flames,
and to reconcile his followers, not only to God, but
one to another, by the slaying of all enmities, Epb.
ii. 14, 16. The apostle often prescribes a believing
regard to the sufferings of Christ, as a powerful allay
to all sinful and intemperate heats, as Eph v. 2.
Phil. ii. 5, &c. Those who would show forth the
meek and humble life of Christ in their mortal
bodies, must bear about with them continually the
dying of the Lord Jesus, 2 Cor. iv. 10. The ordi-
nance of the Lord's supper, in which we show
forth the Lord's death, and the new testament
in his blood, must therefore be improved by us for
this blessed end, as a love-feast, at which all our sin-
ful passions must be laid aside, and a marriage-
feast, where the ornament of a meek, quiet spirit is a
considerable part of the wedding-garment. The
forgiving of injuries, and a reconciliation to oar
Say to thyself, ** So much tranquillity ia sold, so much eorapos-
ure." Sfici. c. 17.
AND QUIETNESS OF SPIRIT.
313
trother, is both a necessary branch of our prepara-
ion for that ordinance, and a good evidence and in-
tance of our profiting by it If God has there
poken peace to us, let not us go away and speak
rar to our brethren. The year of release under the
aw, which put an end to all actions, suits, and quar-
eU, begun in the close of the day of atonement ;
hen the jubilee-trumpet sounded.
9. ConTcrse much in your thoughts with the dark
md silent grave. You meet with many things now
hat disturb and disquiet you, and much ado you
iaye to bear them : think how quiet death will make
GO, and how incapable of resenting or resisting in-
aries ; and what an easy prey this flesh, you are so
ealous for, will shortly be to the worm that shall
eed sweetly on it. You will ere long be out of the
each of provocation, there where the wicked cease
rom troubling, and where their envy and their
iatred is for ever perished. And is not a quiet
pirit the best preparative for thatquiet state ? Think
low all these things, which now disquiet us, will
ippear when we come to look death in the face ;
low small and inconsiderable they seem to one that
s stepping into eternity. Think, " what need is there
hat I should so ill resent an afi'ront or injury, that
im bat a worm to-day, and may be worms' meat to-
Qorrow.'' They say, when bees fight, the throwing
ip of dust among them quickly parts the fray.
Hi motut animorwn atque hac certamina tanta
Puhent exiguijaetu eompresta quiescunt,*
\. little sprinkling of the dust of the grave, which
ve are upon the brink of, would do much towards
he quieting of our spirits, and the taking up of our
[uarrels. Death will quiet us shortly, let grace
|uiet us now. When David's heart was hot within
tint, he prayed. Lard, make me to know my end, Ps.
Lxxix. 3, 4.
To conclude : I know no errand that I can come
ipon of this kind to you, in which methinks I should
»e more likely to prevail, than in this ; so much does
aeekness conduce to the comfort and repose of our
• Firg. Gtor. lib 4.
Yet all those dreadful deeds, this dreadftil ftay,
A cast of scattei'd dust will soon allay. Ihftbm.
♦ CArgtoiiom aigaes excellently from the easiness of forgiving,
own souls, and the making of our lives sweet and
pleasant to us. If thou be wite herein^ thou thalt be
wise for thyself That which I have been so intent
upon in this discourse, is only to persuade you not
to be your own tormentors, but to govern your pas-
sions, so that they may not be furies to yourselves.
The ornament I have been recommending to you is
confessedly excellent and lovely; will you put it on,
and wear it, that by this all men may know that you
are Christ's f disciples, and you may bo found among
the sheep, on the right hand, at the great day, when
Christ's angels shall yuther out of hit kingdom every
thing that offends? Every one will give meekness a
good word ; but in this, as in other instances. Pro-
bitas laudatur et alget'-^Honetty it applauded, yet
neglected.
Love is commended by all, and yet the love of
many waxeth cold : but let all that would not be self-
condemned practise what they praise. And as there
is nothing in which I should more expect to prevail,
so there is nothing in which it will easier appear
whether I have prevailed or no ; this tree will soon
be known by its fruits ; so many are the circumstan-
ces of almost every day, which call for the exercise
of this grace, that our profiting therein will quickly
appear to ourselves, and to all with whom we con-
verse. Our meekness and quietness is more obvious,
and falls more directly under a trial and observation,
than our love to God and our faith in Christ, and
other graces, the exercise whereof lies more imme-
diately between God and our ovni souls. Shall we
therefore set ourselves to manifest, in all our con-
verse, that we have indeed received good by this
plain discourse ; that our relations and neighbours,
and all that we have dealings with, may observe a
change in us for the better, and may take knowledge
of us, that we have been with Jesus ? And let not
the impressions of it ever wear ofi*, but, living and
dying, let us be found among the quiet in the land.
We all wish to see quiet families, and quiet churches,
and quiet neighbourhoods, and quiet nations; and
it will be so if there be quiet hearts ; and not other-
wise.
and being meek : T« c»KoXwrcpov rnt optIV o^h'oi, firi jap fiaxpaw
awoini^of fv< %€t\a0att fir\ xpttfiara 6awuvriffat, apuet 0cXf|9oi fxovow,
&c.— What is more easy than to dismiss anger ; for there is no
necessity of sending to a remote country, nor to spend money { to
will is all that is wanting. Horn. 19. ad. Pop. Aniioek. This is
one ofEfidttus'i ra c^* qju'v—tbings within our power.
SERMON,
SHOWING
THAT THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION IS NOT A SECT,
AND YET THAT IT IS EVERY WHERE SPOKEN AGAINST.
Acts xxiriii. 22.
— —.Jar as concerning this sect, we know that every
where it is spoken against.
Would you think that such a false and imridious
representation as this should ever be given of the
Christian religion, that* pure religion and undefiled,
which came into the world supported by the strong-
est evidences of truth, and recommended by the
most endearing allurements of grace and goodness,
the ^ sayings whereof are so faithful, and so well
worthy of acceptation ; that sacred institution which
scatters the brightest rays of divine light and love
that ever were darted from heaven to earth ? That
it is, which is here so invidiously called a sect, and
is said to be everif where spoken against.
It will be worth while to observe,
1 . Who they were that said this, they were the
chief of the Jews who were at Rome, v. 17. The
Jews were looked upon (at least they looked upon
themselves) as a very knowing people ; the Jews at
Rome (a place of learning and inquiry) thought
themselves more knowing than the other Jews. St.
Paul, in his Epistle to the RomanS) ch, ii. 17—20.
takes notice of it : Thou art called a Jew, and mahest
thy boast of God, and knowest his will, — and art con-
fident that thou thyself art a guide to the blind, a light
of them which are in darkness, &c. And we have
reason to suppose, that the chief of the Jews there,
who had the greatest advantages of education and
correspondence, were the most intelligent. It might
also be justly expected, that upon the first notices
of the gospel, the Jews should have been of all peo-
ple most ready to acquaint themselves with a reli-
gion which was so much the honour and perfection
of their own ; and yet, it seems, the Jews, the chief
a Jam. i. '27. b I Tim. i. 15.
• TertuUian confidently asserts, Pritmm Neronnt in hone Sectam
him wtaxime Honue orientem Ctftariaito giadio feroeismt. — ^That Nero was
the first who raged with the imperial sword against this sect rising
at that time into general notice at Rome, jlpel. c. 5.
of the Jews at Rome, knew no more of Christianity
than this, that it was a sect every where spoken against.
This we know, (say they,) and it was all they knew
concerning it.
The Jews were of all ether the most bitter and
inveterate enemies to the Christians. While the
Roman emperors tolerated them, (as they did till
Nero's time,*) the Jews with an unwearied malice
persecuted them from city to city, and were the first
wheel in most of the opposition that the gospel met
with, when it was first preached. Now one would
think they would not have been so vigorous and in-
dustrious to suppress Christianity, if they had not
very well acquainted themselves with it, and known
it to deserve such opposition : but it seems by this,
they knew little or nothing of the religion they so
much maligned, had never searched into the merits
of its cause, nor weighed the proofs of its divine
authority; but against all law and reason con-
demned it, {Sia ri}v 0f}/ii}v — merely upon common fame,
as Justin Martyr complains ;t) and follow^ the ciy
to run it down, because it was every where spoken
against.
2. Upon what occasion they said this. They were
now appointing a time to discourse with St. Paul
upon the grand question in debate. Whether Jesus
of Nazareth were the true Messiah or no ? And they
seemed willing to hear what that great man had to
say in defence of the religion he preached: We
desire (say they) to hear of thee what thou thinkest,
Now, one would expect that so good a cause,
managed by such a skilful advocate, could not but
carry the day, and be victorious, and that they would
all have been brought over to the belief of Christi-
anity ; but we find, t;. 24. that it proved otherwise.
After all, there were those that believed not ; and
the text intimates the reason of their infidelity, they
came to hear the word under a prejudice ; they had
f Inqtutition* H agnitione wgUtta nomen detinftttr, women expwgnatwr
— rojr tola pradamiuit.— AW inquiry into the merits or the case is
omitted ; the name only is attacked, the name only consigns to
condemnation. Th-/. Ap. e. 3.
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
315
ilready imbibed an ill opinion of tbe way, which,
right or wrong, they resolved to hold fast: and
though some of them, by the help of divine grace,
^t over this stumbling-block, (that like the Bereans
were more noble than the rest, and of freer thought,)
^et, many of them continued under the power of
those prejudices, and were sealed up under unbelief,
V. 26, 27. Thus is the power of the word in many
baffled by the power of prejudice : they do not be-
lieve, because they are resolved they will not : they
conclude that no good thing can 'come out of
Nazareth, and will not be persuaded to come and
see. Thus do they prejudge the cause, ^antwering
the matter before they hear it, and it will prove folly
and shame to them.
Now in the account they here give of their know-
ledge of the Christian religion, we may observe,
(1.) That they looked upon it to be a sect, and we
will prove that to be false.
(2.) A sect every where spoken against, and we
will grant that to be true, that it is generally spoken
against, though it is most unreasonable and unjust
it should be so.
(1.) The Christian religion is here called (but
miscalled) a *sect, aipictQ — a heresy. After the way
which they call heresy, (says St. Paul, Acts xxiv.
14.) so worship I the God of my father s.-^The sect of
the Nazarenes ; so Tertullus calls it in his opening
the indictment against Paul, Acts xxiv. 5. It is called
this wayt Acts ix. 2. and that way. Acts xix. 9. as
if it were a by-path out of the common road. The
practice of serious godliness is still looked upon by
many as a sect, that is, a party-business, and a piece
of affected singularity in opinion and practice,
tending to promote some carnal design, by creating
and supporting invidious distinctions among men.
This is the proper notion of a sect, and therefore
the masters and maintainers of sects are justly in
an ill name, as enemies to the gpreat corporation of
mankind ; but there is not the least colour of reason
to put this invidious and scandalous character on
the Christian religion ; however it may be mistaken
and misrepresented, it is very far from being really
a sect. There were sects of religion among the
Jews ; we read of the sect of the Sadducees, (Acts
V. 17.) which was built on peculiar notions, such as
overturned the foundation of natural religion, by
denying a future state of rewards and punishments.
There was also the sect of the Pharisees, (Acts xv.
5.) the straitest sect o/* their religion, (Acts xxvi. 5.)
which was founded in the observance and imposition
of singular rites and customs, with an affected
separation from, and contempt of, all mankind.
These were sects ; but there is nothing of the spirit
e John i. 40. d ProY. xviii. 13. John vii. 51.
* Aipcrir. EUrlio, opth. An opinion not forced upon us by the
erideuces of truth, but chosen by us with some foreign design.
• 3 Cor. v. 19. f Luke ii. 14.
and genius of these in the Christian religion, as it
was instituted by its great author.
[I.] True Christianity establishes that which is of
common concern to all mankind, and therefore is
not a sect The truths and precepts of the everlast-
ing gospel are perfective of, and no way repugnant
to, the light and law of natural religion. Is that a
sect, which gives such mighty encouragements and
assistances to those that tn every nation fear God,
and work righteousness ? Acts x. 35. Is that a sect,
which tends to nothing else but to reduce the revolted
race of mankind to their ancient allegiance to their
great Creator, and to renew that image of God upon
man, which was his primitive rectitude and felicity?
Is that a sect which proclaims God in Christ, * recon-
ciling the world unto himself, and recovering it from
that degenerate and deplorable state into which it
was sunk? Is that a sect which publishes 'good-will
towards men, and Christ the ' Lamb of God, taking
away the sins of the world? Surely, that which
concurs so much with the uncorrupted and unpre-
judiced sentiments, and conduces much more to the
true and real happiness of all mankind, cannot be
thought to take its rise from such narrow opinions,
and private interests, as sects owe their original to.
[2.] True Christianity has a direct tendency to tiie
uniting of the children of men, and the gathering of
them together in one,t and therefore is far from
being a sect, which is supposed to lead to a division,
and to sow discord among brethren. The preaching
of the gospel did indeed prove the occasion of conten-
tion. Our Saviour foresaw and foretold, (Luke xii.
51—53.) that his disciples and followers would be
men of strife, in the same sense that the prophet Jere-
miah was, (Jer. xv. 10.) not men striving, but men
striven with : but the gospel was by no means the
cause of this contention, for it was intended to be
the cure of all contention. If there be any who,
under the cloak and colour of the Christian name,
cause divisions, and propagate feuds and quarrels
among men, let them bear their own burthen ; but
it is certain that the Christian religion, as far as it
obtains its just power and influence upon the minds
of men, will make them meek and quiet, humble
and peaceable, loving and useful, condescending
and forgiving, and every way easy, and acceptable,
and pro6table one to another. Is that a sect which
wa^ introduced with a proclamation of peace on
earth? That which beats swords into plow-shares,
and spears into pruning hooks? Or was he the
author of a sect, who is the great centre of unity,
and who died to break down ^partition walls, and tn
slay all enmities, that he might * gather together in
one the children of God, that were scattered abroad?
t Secta Jicitur a Secando— It is called a sect ftt>m Mc«si»— to be
separated.
ff John i. 20. iii. 16. 1 John ii. 3.
h Eph. il. 14-16. I John xi. 51
816
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
Was he the author of a sect, who came into the
world '' not to destroy men*s lives ^ hut to save them ;
and who taaght his followers not only to love one
'another, but to love their enemies, and to count
ever}* one their ' neighbour, to whom they could be
any way serviceable ?
[3.] True Christianity aims at no worldly benefit
or advantage, and therefore must by no means be
called a sect. Those who espouse a sect, are sup-
posed to be governed in it by their secular interest,
and to aim at wealth, or honour, or the gratification
of some base lust. The Pharisees proved them-
selves to be a sect, by their thirst after the praise of
men, and their greedy devouring of widows' houses :
but the professors of Christianity have not only been
taught, by the law of their religion, to live above this
world, and to look upon it with a holy contempt, but
have been exposed by their profession to the loss
and ruin of all their secular comforts and enjoy-
ments. Are those to be accounted politic and de-
signing sectaries, who have for Christ cheerfully '"
suffered the loss of all things ? Is that a sect, which
instead of preferring a lAan to honour, or raising him
an estate, lays him open to disgrace and poverty,
renders him obnoxious to fines and forfeitures, ban-
ishments and imprisonments, racks and tortures,
flames and gibbets, which were the common lot of
the primitive Christians. Ceesar Vaninus, a sworn
enemy to the Christian religion, and one who was
industrious in searching out objections against it,
owned that he could find nothing in it that savoured
of a carnal and worldly design : no, it has always
approved itself a " heavenly calling, and the strictest
professors of it (even their enemies themselves being
judges) have had ^ their conversation in the world in
simplicity and godly sincerity y not with fieshly wisdom.
Very unjustly therefore is it called a sect.
As to this, therefore, suffer a word of caution and
exhortation :
First, Let us take heed lest our profession of re-
ligion degenerate into any thing which may make it
look like a sect. Christianity, as it was instituted
by Christ, is not a sect ; let not Christians then be
sectaries. We make our profession of religion a
sect, when we monopolize the church and its mi-
nistry and sacraments, and spend that zeal in mat-
ters of doubtful disputation which should be reserv-
ed for the weightier matters of the law ; when •we
place our religion in p meats and drinks, which should
be placed in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the
Holy Ghost ; when we profess religion with a con-
ceit of ourselves, and a contempt of others, and with
any worldly design ; when we sacrifice the common
interests of Christ's kingdom to the particular inter-
ests of a party ; and, in a word, when our profession
is tainted with the ^ leaven of the Pharisees, which
k Luke ix. 56.
• Heb. iii. 1.
1 Luke z. 36, 37.
e 2 Cor. i. 12.
mPhU. iU.&
p Rom. xiT. 17, 18.
is both souring and swelling ; then it degenerates
into a sect. Let us therefore adhere to the sure and
large foundations, and be actuated by a principle of
love to, and so maintain communion with, ' all that in
every place, and under every denomination, call em
the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and
ours. Let us be modest in our opinions, charitable
and candid in our censures, self-denying in all oar
converse ; acting always under the influence of that
wisdom that is from above, which isjirst pure, then
peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mer-
cy and good fruits, without partiality and hypocrisy ;
that by this well-doing we may *put to silence the
ignorance of those who call religion a sect.
Secondly, Let us not be deterred from serious god-
liness, or any of the requirements of it, by the invi-
dious name of a sect, which is put upon it If a
strict, and sober, and circumspect conversation, a
conscientious government of our tongue, prajing
and singing psalms in our families, a religious ob-
servation of the Lord's day, a diligent attendance
upon the means of grace, joining in religious socie-
ties for prayer and Christian conference, and endea-
vouring, in our places, the suppression of profane-
ness and immorality : if these, and the like, be called
and counted the marks and badges of a sect, let us
not be moved at it, but say as David did, (2 Sam.
vi. 22.) If this be to be vile, I will be yet more vile. If
the practice of piety be branded as a sect, it is better
for us to come under the reproaches of men for fol-
lowing it, than under the curse of God for neglecting
it. It is a ' very small thing to be judged of man's day,
but he that judgeth is the Lord : let us therefore be
more afraid of being sectaries, than of being called so.
(2.) The Christian religion is here said to be every
where spoken against. That it was spoken against,
was evident enough ; but that it was every where
spoken against, was more than they could be sure
of: they did not know all places, nor had they cor-
respondence with, or intelligence from, every coun-
try ; but we must not wonder if those who oppose
the truth as it is in Jesus, make no conscience of
transgressing the laws of truth in common conver-
sation. But we will suppose that the acquaintance
and converse of those Jews at Rome lay mostly with
those who were enemies to Christianity, and spoke
against it, and they therefore concluded it eveiy
where spoken against, because they found it spoken
against in all places that they came to, or had advice
from. Thus apt are we to embrace that as a general
sentiment and observation, which we find received
by those that we usually associate with, and so we
run ourselves into mistakes, which larger and more
impartial inquiries will soon rectify.
But we will take it for granted, however, that
what they said was true, not because they said it.
q Luke xii. I.
r 1 Cor. I. 2.
» I f :or. iv. 3, 4.
• I Pet. ii. 15.
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
317
but because the experience of all ages does confirm
It, and concur with it : so that a little acquaintance
with books and the world will prove the observation
which we ground upon the text :
Doct, That it is, and always has been, the lot of
Christ's holy religion, to be every where spoken
against. Or thus :
That true Christianity has all along met with a
great deal of opposition and contradiction in
this world.
I purpose not to enter into a particular disquisi-
tion of that which has been, and is, spoken against
religion, nor do I undertake at present to show how
false and unreasonable it is ; that has been done
nany a time by tlie best hands, and so effectually,
hat every impartial eye must needs look upon the
;ause of the adversaries of religion to be a baflled
raose : but I shall only make some improvement of
his general observation, which cannotbe unseason-
ible in an age wherein the gates of hell seem to be
naking their utmost efforts against the church ; and
the devil, as the calumniator and false accuser, to
be ^more wroth than ever with the woman the church,
and to push on the war with an unusual vigour
against the remnant of her teed, which heep the com-
mandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus
Christ.
I shall therefore, I. Inquire what it is in Christianity
that 15 spoken against And, II. Show you why so
holy and excellent a religion is spoken against;
And then, III. Draw some inferences from this obser-
vation.
I. Who and what it is that is spoken against.
1. Jesus Christ, the author of our religion, is every
where spohen against. When the First-begotten was
brought into the world, old Simeon, among other
great things, pronounced this concerning him, that
he was a sign which should be spohen against, and by
that means was set /or the fall of many, Luke ii.
34. When he was here upon earUi, he was spohen
against. *The stone which was designed to be the
head of the comer, was rejected, and set at nought
by the builders. It was not the least of his suffer-
ings in the days of his flesh, that he endured the con-
tradiction of sinners against himself, Heb. xii. 3.
They spoke against his person, as mean and con-
temptible, and one that had no form, nor comeliness:^
they spoke against his preaching, as false and de-
ceiving, (John vii. 12.) as factious and seditious,
(Luke xxiii. 2.) as senseless and ridiculous, for the
Pharisees derided him for it, Luke xvi. 14. They
spoke against his miracles, as done in confederacy
with Beelzebub the prince of the derils, Matt. xii.
24. They spoke against his morals, charging him
with blasphemy against God, profanation of the
sabbath day, and all the instances of debauchery
« Rev. xii. 17.
» IH. Uii. % 3.
▼ Pt. cxviii. 23.
> Matt, xxvii. 39.
which were usually met with in a gluttonous man»
a wine-bibber, and a friend of publicans and sin-
ners. Matt xi. 19. They spoke against his follow-
ers, as a company of ignorant despicable people,
John vii. 48, 49. Pass through all the steps and
stages of his sufferings, and you will find him every
where spoken against. They reproached him in all
his offices ; in his office of teaching, when they chal-
lenged him to tell who smote him ; in his office of
saving, when they challenged him to save himself
as he had saved others ; in his office of ruling, when
they challenged him to prove himself the King of
the Jews by coming down from the cross. The com-
mon people spoke against him, even they that
"passed by reviled him. The Pharisees and chief
priests, the grandees of the church, were as severe
as any in tlieir reflections on him. Princes also did
sit and speah against him. ^ Herod and his men of
war set him at nought, tKs^ivfi9a£—made nothing of
him that made all things.
Nay, even now that he is set down at the right-
hand of the Majesty on high, /ar above all principa-
lities and powers,* (that is, both good and evil angels,
so as to be no more hurt by the contradictions of the
one, than he is benefited by the adorations of the
otlier,) yet still he is spoken against. Besides the
contempt cast upon him by the Jews and Mahome-
tans, are there not with us, even with us, those who
daringly speak against him ? Arians and Socinians
are daily speaking against him as a mere man,
thinking that a robbery in him, which he thought
none, to be "equal with God. Quakers and enthu-
siasts speak against him as a mere name, setting
up I know not what Christ within them, while they
explode that Jesus that was crucified at Jerusalem.
Atheists and deists speak against him as a mere
cheat, accounting the religpion he established a great
imposture, and his gospel a jest Profane and ig-
norant people speak slightly of him, as if our ''be^
loved were no more than another beloved ; and some
speak scornfully of him, as Julian the apostate did,
that called him in disdain the Galilean, and the
Carpenter's Son. Such as these are the hard speeches
which ungodly sinners have spoken against him :
the Lord rebuke them, even the Lord that has chosen
Jerusalem, rebuke them.
2. God himself, the great object of our religious
regards, is every where spohen against. It is not only
the Christian revelation that is thus attacked by
virulent and blasphemous tongues, but even natural
religion also. The glorious and blessed God, the
great Creator and Benefactor of the universe, that
does good to all* and whose mercies are over all his
works, even he is every where spoken against. Some
deny his being ; though his existence be so neces-
sary, so evident, that if he be not, it is impossible
J Luke xxiii. II.
■ Phil. ii. 6.
t £ph. i. 20. 31.
b Cant. v. 9.
318
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
any thing else should be, yet there are fools who
My in their hearts, what they dare not speak out, that
there it no God, Ps. xiv. 1. And he that says there
is no God, wishes there were none, and if he could
help it there should be none. Others blaspheme the
attributes of God, who charge the all-seeing eye
with blindness, saying. The Lord shall not see ; (Ps.
xciv. 7.) that charge the eternal mind with forget-
fulness, saying, God hath forgotten ; (Ps. x. 11.) that
charge the almighty arm with impotency, saying.
Can God furnish a table in the wilderness ? which is
there called speaking against God, Ps. Ixxiriii. 19,
20. Those speak against God that promise them-
selves impunity in sin, saying, ^ They shall not surely
die, and, God "* will not require it. And those that
boldly avow their impiety and irreligion, saying to
the Almighty, Depart from if#,— Job xxi. 14, 15.
Some speak meanly of God, though he is infinitely
great and glorious ; others speak hardly of him,
though he is infinitely just and good. The name of
God is spoken against by the profane using of it ;
so it is construed, (Ps. cxxxix. 20.) They speak
against thee wickedly, thine enemies take thy name in
vain. Can there be a greater slight put upon the
eternal God, than for men to use his sacred and
blessed name as a by-word, with which they give
Tcnt to their exorbitant passions, or fill up the va-
cancies of their other idle words? The name of God
is thus abused, not only by those who utter dreadful
oaths and curses, which make the ears of every good
man to tingle, but by those who mention the name
of God slightly and irreverently in their common
conversation, in whose * mouths he is near when he
isfarftom their reins. To use those forms of speech
which properly signify an acknowledgment and ado-
ration of God's being, as O God! or O Lord! or
an appeal to his omniscience, as God knows ; or an
invocation of his favour, as God bless me, or God be
merciful to me: I say, to use these or the like expres
sions impertinently, and intending thereby to express
only our wonder or surprise, or our passionate re-
sentments, or any thing but that which is their
proper and awful signification, is an evidence of a
vain mind, that wants a due regard to that glorious
and fearful name, ' Tke Lord our God. I see not that
the profanation of the ordinance of praying is any
better than the profanation of the ordinance of
swearing. The serious consideration of this, I hope,
will prevent much of that dishonour which is done
to God, and to his holy name, by some that run not,
with others, to an excess of riot.
The providence of God is likewise every wkere
spoken against by * murmurers and complainers,
who quarrel with it, and find fault with the disposal
of it, and, when they are ^hardly bestead, curse their
King and their God. Thus is the mouth of the un-
e Gen. iii. 4.
f Deal, xxvlii. 58.
d Ps. X. 13.
ff Jude 16.
* Jer. xii. 2.
h laa. viii.2l.
godly set against the heavens, and their tongue umlk^
cth through the earth, i
3. The Word of God, the great rale of our religioo^
is every where spoken against. So it was when it wis
first preached ; wherever the apostles went preacli-
ing the doctrine of Christ they met with those that
spake against it, contradicting and blaspheming. Acts
xiii. 45. So it is now that it is written. Atheists
speak ag^nst the Scripture as not of authority;
papists speak against it as dark and uncertaio,
further than it is expounded and supported by tbe
authority of their church, which receives* unwritten
traditions paripietatis affectu ac reverentia — withtki
same pious affection and reverence that they receiTC
the Scriptures ; nay, and, if we may judge by their
practice, with much more. Thus is the word of
God blasphemed by them, who call themselves The
temple of the Loi'd. But if we take away revelation
(as the deists do) all religion will soon be lost ; and
if we derogate from the Scriptures (as the papists
do) all revelation is much endangered.
Those also speak against the Scriptures who pro-
fanely jest with them ; and that they may the more
securely rebel against scripture laws, make them-
selves and their idle companions merry with the
scripture language : The word of the Lord is unto
them a reproach, as the prophet complains, Jer. vi.
10. And another prophet found it so, whose serious
word of the necessity of precept upon precept was
turned into an idle song, (as Grotius understands
it,) Isa. xxviii. 13. The word of the Lord was unto
them precept upon precept. — Very likely it was done
by the drunkards of Ephraim, spoken of, v. 1. and it
gave occasion to that caution, v. 22. Be ye not mock-
ers, lest your bands be made strong. Profligate and
debauched minds relish no wit like that which ridi-
cules the sacred text, and exposes that to contempt;
as of old the insulting Babylonians must be hu-
moured with the ^ Songs of Sion ; and no cups can
please Belshazzar in his drunken frolic, but the
sacred ^ vessels of the temple. Thus industrious are
the powers of darkness to vilify the Scriptures, and
make them contemptible : but he that sits in heaven
shall laugh at them; for in spite of all the little
efforts of their impotent malice, He will magnify the
law, and make it honourable, according to the word
which he has spoken, Isa. xlii. 21.
4. The people of God, the professors of this reli-
gion, are every where spoken against. Not only
those of some particular persuasion or denomination,
but (without regard to that) such as have been zeal-
ous in fearing God and working righteousness, have
been, in many places, very much spoken against. Our
blessed Saviour has told his disciples what treatment
of this kind they must expect, that they should be
reviled, and have all manner of evil said against them
i Ps. Ixxiii. 9.
• 7ViV/#A/. CoHc.Sn.4.
k Ps. cxxxvii. 3.
1 Dan. ?. 2.
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
^19
falsely y (Matt. ir. 11, 12.) that they and their names
should be cast out as evil. Lake yi. 22. And if they
called our Master, Beelzebub, no nick-names fasten-
ed on his followers can seem strange. Mocking was
an old way of persecuting the covenant seed, for
thus, he that was after the flesh, betimes persecuted
them that were after the Spirit, Compare Gen. xxi.
9. with Gal. iv. 29. God's heritage has always been
as a ■" spechled bird, that all the birds are against,
(Jer. xii. 9.) and his children for signs and for won-
ders in Israel, that every one has a saying to, Isa.
viii. 18. Even Wisdom's children have been called
and counted fools, and their life madness; the quiet
in the land represented as enemies to the public
peace, and those who are the greatest blessings of the
age, branded as the troublers of Israel. The primi-
tive Christians were painted * out to the world under
the blackest and most odious characters that could
be, as men of the most profligate lives and con-
sciences, and that even placed their religion in the
grossest impieties and immoralities imaginable.
Their enemies found it necessary for the support of
the kingdom of the devil, the father of lies and slan-
derSy fortiter ealumniari — to characterize them as the
worst of men, to whom they were resolved to give the
irrorst and most barbarous treatment. It had not
been possible to have baited them if they had not
firet dressed them up in the skins of wild beasts.
And as then, so ever since, more or less, in all ages of
the church, reproach has been entailed upon the
most serious and zealous professors of Christian re-
ligion and godliness.
5. The ministers of Christ, the preachers of this
religion, are with a distinguishing enmity every
where spoken against. Under the Old Testament
God's messengers and his prophets were generally
mocked and misused, and it was Jerusalem's mea-
eure-filling sin, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16. It was one of
the devices they devised against Jeremiah, to smite
him with the tongue, because they would not, and they
desired that others might not, give heed to any of his
words, Jer. xviii. 18. Those to whom the prophet
Ezekiel was a very lovely song, and with their
mouths showed much love to him, yet were still
talking against him by the walls, and in the doors of
their houses, and God lets him know it, Ezek. xxxiii.
; 30 — 32. And then it is not strange if the ministers
[. of the New Testament (in which truth shines with a
F. stronger light) be with no less enmity spoken against
r by those that love darkness rather than light. The
apostles, those prime ministers of state in Christ's
kingdom, were so loaded with reproach, that they
Were made a spectacle to the world,t a spectacle of
m Zech. iii. 8.
* See this at large, represented by CteeiliMt in Mittvcius Fttix.
f ec«T|K»» rr«pfi9n/i€v.—ihe ikeatrt they played upon.
I OUatftiata qm^^/uil but
Who made every seventh day a day of idleness. Juvenal.
pity to those'that have either grace or good-nature,
but a spectacle of scorn to those that had neither.
They were trampled upon as the filth of the world ;
and whereas the oflT-scouring of any thing is bad
enough, they were looked upon as the off-scouring
of all things, even unto this day ; after they had in
so many instances approved themselves well, and
could not but be made manifest in the consciences
of their worst enemies, 1 Cor. iv. 9, 13. And it has
all along been the policy of the church's enemies, by
all means possible to bring the ministry into con-
tempt, and to represent the church's Nazarites, even
those that were purer than snow, whiter than milh,
and more ruddy than rubies, with a visage blacker
than a coal, so that they have not been known in
the streets, I allude to that complaint. Lam. iv.
7, 8. Marvel not if the standard-bearers be most
struck at.
6. The Christian religion itself has been, and still
is, every where spoken against. The truths of it con-
tradicted as false and groundless, the great doctrines
of the mediation of Christ, and the resurrection of
the dead, were ridiculed by the Athenian philoso-
phers. The laws of it described as grievous and
unreasonable, as hard sayings, which could not be
borne by those who bid open defiance to the obliga-
tion of them, and say. Let us break their bands asun-
der, and cast away their cords from us, Ps. ii. 3. The
ordinances of it despised as mean, and having no
form nor comeliness. Sabbaths mocked at, as of
old, (Lam. i. 7,1) and the sanctification of them re-
presented as only a cloak for idleness. Sacraments
reproached, and the sacred memorial of Christ's
death and sufferings, by the persecutors of the primi-
tive Christians, represented to the world, as the
bloody and || inhuman killing and eating of a child ;
and their love- feasts, and holy kiss, (which were then
in use,) as only introductions to the most abomina-
ble uncleanness. Primitive^Chnstianity was indus-
triously put into an ill name ; it was called emphati-
cally *' The Atheism," because it overthrew idolatry,
and undermined the false gods and worships that
had so long obtained. This was the outcry at Ephe-
sus, that if Paul's doctrine took place, the temple of
the great goddess would be despised. Acts xix. 26,
27. It was also branded as a novelty, and an upstart
doctrine, because it took people o£r from that " vain
conversation, which they had received by tradition
from their fathers. It was called at Athens a * new
doctrine, and industriously represented in all places
as a mushroom sect, that was but of yesterday. § It
was looked upon as nearly allied to Judaism, because
it was so much supported by the Scriptures of the Old
I DidmuT tctUratiMsimi dt Saeramtnto infanlicidii^ it pabulo Udt, et
post eonvivium ince$to.—We are charged with murdering and eating
our children at the sacrament, and we are represented as incestu-
ous, &C. TtrtmU. Apol. e. 7.
B I Pet i. 19. o AcU XTii. 18. 19.
S See Dr. Cave's Primitive Christianity, lib. 1. ckap. I.
820
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
Testament, and nothing veas more despicable among
the Romans than the Jews and their religion. The
professors of Christianity were looked apon as un-
learned and ignorant men, (Acts iv, 13.) the very
dregs and refuse of the people.* Julian forbad the
calling of them Christians, and would have them
called nothing but Galileans, thereby to expose them
to the contempt of those who are (as indeed most
people are) governed more by a sound of words than
by the reason of things. Thus when the devil was
silenced in his oracles (as it is well known he was,
upon the setting up of Christianity in the world) his
mouth was opened in lies and slanders ; and being
forced to quit his pretensions to a deity, he appears
barefaced, as a devil, (itapoXoc) ti false accuser.
The reformed religion in these latter ages has
been in like manner spoken against. Though it main-
tains all that [and only that] doctrine which Christ
and his apostles preached, and was before Luther
there, where popery, as such, never was before or
since, that is, in the Holy Scriptures ; yet the pro-
fessors and preachers of it have been called and
counted heretics and schismatics,t and by all possible
artifices exposed to the odium of the people, that
none might buy or sell, that is, have the benefit and
comfort of civil society and commerce, that 'had
not the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number
of his name.
Nay, even among some that profess the Christian
and reformed religion, the practice of serious god-
liness is very much spoken against. The power of
religion is not only disliked and denied, but contra-
dicted^and condemned, by those who rest in the form.
They that call the evil good, will call the good
evil ;* and it is not strange if they, who abandon
themselves to work all uncleanness with gpreediness,
speak ill of such as run not with them to the same
excess of riot, ^ where the wicked walk on every side,^
he that departeth from evil, maketh himself a prey.'*
The old enmity between the seed of the woman
and the seed of the serpent is still working, and the
old game every day played over again. * The truth
as it is in Jesus, and the truth which is according to
godliness, will be contradicted by those that lie in
wait to deceive. Bigots on all sides will have some-
thing to say against catholic charity and moderation :
they that are fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, and
forward to every good work, must expect to be evil
spoken of by such as affect a lukewarmness and
indifferency in religion: nor can those who walk
circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, escape the
lash of their tongues who live at large, and walk
loosely, and at all adventures, as the fool* in Israel.
II. I come now, in the second place, to inquire
• Greg Nazian. Invtct. m Julian. Orat. 1. p. (mihi) 43.
t LeUardi from loUMm—tarn : so my Lord Cuke firom Mr. Pox.
r Rev. »lii. 17. a ba. y. 30. t I Pet. i?. 3, 4.
u Paalm xii. 8. ^ ba. lix. 15.
what is the reason that so holy and excellent a
religion as Christianity is, meets with such hard
usage, and is thus spoken against, every where spoke*
against. When we hear such an outcry as this made
against Christianity, it is natural for us to inqoire,
as Pilate did, when such a clamour was raised
against its author, l^hy, what evil katk it dsm!
Truly we may say concerning it, as Pilate did con-
coming him, We find no fault in it. Which of all
its opposers convinces it of sin or error ? It invades
no man's right, breaks in upon no man's proper^,
is no disturbance of the peace, no enemy to the
welfare of families and societies, is no prejudice at
all to the interests of states and princes, but to all
these highly beneficial and advantageous : why then
is it thus accused, condemned, and spoken against?
We will endeavour to find out the true reason of it,
though it is impossible to assign a justifiable reason
for that which is most unreasonable.
1. The adversaries of religion speak against it
because they do not know it. Sound knowledge
has not a greater enemy in the world than ignorance.
Our Lord Jesus was therefore despised and hated
by the world, because the world knew bim not, Jdm
i. 10. If they had known the dignity of his perMm,
the excellency of his doctrine, and the gnracioos
design and purpose of his coming into the worid,
certainly they would not have crucified the Lord sf
glory, I Cor. ii. 8. "^ They that did it, did it throagii
ignorance, and knew not what they did. Thus they
who say to the Almighty, ' Depart from us, could
not say so if they did not at the same time studi-
ously decline the knowledge of his ways. No man
will speak against religion and the power of it, that
has either seriously weighed the proofs and evidences
of it, or impartially tried the comfort and benefit of
it ' If they knew this gift, this inestimable gift of
God, instead of speaking against it, they would
covet it earnestly as the best gift. *' He that looks
at a distance upon men dancing, would think them
to be mad ;" (it was Peter Martyr's comparison, in
a sermon which had so good an influence upon the
conversion of the Marquis of Yico ;) " but let him
come nearer them, and observe the regularity and
harmony of all their motions and postures, ard he
will not only admire their order, but find in himself
an inclination to join with them. So be that con-
tents himself with a distant and transient view of
the practice of piety, will perhaps take up hard
thoughts of it; but a better acquaintance will rectify
the mistake." When the spouse in the Canticles
had given a description of her beloved to the daugh-
ters of Jeiusalem, the same, who before had scorn-
fully asked, * What is thy beloved more than another
w Eph. iv. 31. compared with Tit. i. 1.
X Acts Hi. 15, 17. Luke xxiii. 34. 7 Job xxi 14
I John iv. 10. • Cant. ?. a vi. L
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
921
beloved? now as seriously inquire, Whither it thy
beloved gone, that we may seeh him with thee ? Tbe
people of God are called his ^ hidden ones, and their
life is a "^ hidden lifcy their ** way above ; and there-
fore it is that the world speaks evil of them, because
it knows them not, I John iii. 1. They who speak evil
of these dignities, speak evil of those things which they
know not, as the apostle speaks, Jude 8, 10. How
unjust then and unreasonable is the enmity and ma-
lice of the adversaries of religion, to condemn what
they never inquired * into, and to load that with the
vilest reproaches, which, for ought they know, merits
the highest encomiums ! And how excellent then
are the ways of God, which none speak ill of but
those that are unacquainted with them ! while those
that know them, witness to the goodness of them,
and Wisdom is justified of her children, Matt. xi. 19.
2. They speak against it, because they do not like
it; and we know that ill-will never speaks well.
Though they have little acquaintance with religion,
yet they know this concerning it in general, that it
is not agreeable f with the way of their hearts, which
they are resolved to walk in, nor with the course of
this world, which is the chart and compass they
steer by, and from which they take their measures.
They know this, that it lays a restraint on their ap-
petites and passions, and consists much in the mor-
tifying their beloved lusts and conuptions; and
therefore they have a secret antipathy to it : « the
carnal mind, which is enmity against God, is so
against all who bear the image of God. Christ has
bid his disciples to expect the hatred of the world,
and not to marvel at it, John xv. 18, &c. They who
hate to be themselves reformed, will never love those
that are reformed : out of the abundance therefore
of the heart, and the malignity that is there, it is no
marvel if the mouth speak ; where the root of bitter-
ness is, it will bear gall and wormwood. The daring
sinner, that stretches out his hand against God, finds it
too short to reach him ; but, ' say they, with our
tongue we will prevail, our lips are our own. The
beast that made war with heaven, in the apocalyptic
vision, though he had ten horns, and those crowned,
yet is not described doing mischief with them, but
opening his mouth in blasphemy against God, to bias-
pheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that
dwell in heaven. Rev. xiii. 5, 6. The poison of the
serpent's seed is under their tongue, Rom. iii. 13.
3. They speak against religion because it speaks
gainst them. They who have fellowship with the
b Pnl. Uxxiti. a e Col. iii. 3. d Prov. xy. 24. Psal. x. 5.
* Quid iniquias quam ut oderint homines quod ignorant f Tune tnim
mergtmr^ quaut/o eognoncilur an mereatur.—WhiX is more unjust than
for men to hate what they are ignorant ofl First, let the merits
of a cause be known, and then let sentence be pronounced. Trr-
tmL Aptt. e. I.
t AnU Mff imeipntni oJi$t0 quan ntut, ne eognilot ant imtari pomnt^
omi dawumw lun pauimt.— They commence their hatred before they
commence their tcquatntance, lest, should they commence an
Y
unfruitful works of darkness, hate the light which
discovers them: nor do any curse the rising sun,
but those who are scorched by it. Why were the
Pharisees so exasperated against our Saviour,' but
because he spake his parables against them, and
laid them open in their own colours ? Why did the
world hate him who so loved the world,** but because
he testified of it that its works are evil ? Why had
Joseph's brethren such a spleen against him, but
^because he was a witness against them, and
brought to his father their evil report? Why did
Ahab hate Micaiah, and call Elijah his enemy, ^ but
because they were the faithful reprovers of his
wickedness, and never prophesied good concerning
him, but evil ? Why did the inhabitants of the earth
rejoice when the witnesses were slain, ^ but becauso
those two prophets, by their plain and powerful
preaching, tormented them that dwelt upon the earth ?
The everlasting gospel is a testimony, either to us
to convince us, or against us to condemn us ; and
then, no wonder if those speak against it, who hate
to be convinced by it, and dread to be condemned
by it. '"The prophet complains of those that laid
snares for him that reproveth in the gate ; and why is
it that faithful ministers are so much hated, but be-
cause their X business is to show people their trans-
gressions ? If they would flatter sinners that flatter
themselves in a sinful way, and cry peace to them
to whom the God of heaven does not speak peace,
they might avoid a great deal of reproach and cen-
sure; but they dare not do it. They arc not to
make a new law and gospel, but to preach that which
is made ; they IKlve their rule in that caution given
to the prophet, (Jer. xv. 19.) Let them return unto
thee, but return not thou unto them. The hearts and
lives of men must be brought to comply with the
word of God ; the word of God can never be made
to comply with the humours and fancies of men.
Ministers, as they would not for the world make the
way to heaven any straiter or narrower than Christ
has made it ; so they dare not make it any broader
or easier, nor offer life and salvation on any other
terms than the gospel has already settled. If they
aim at" pleasing men, they cannot approve them-
selves the servants of Christ ; and therefore are they
so much spoken against. And the same is the
reason why the most strict and serious Christians are
so much spoken against, because their piety and de-
votion, their justice and sobriety, their zeal and
charity, are standing reproofs to the wicked world,
acquaintance with us. they should either be constrained to imi.
tate us, or, at best, forbear condemnation. Jtfin. Fet. p. CmiAij 30.
« Rom. Till. 7. 1 John iii. 13. f Psal. xii. 4. r Matt xxi 4.V
h John viL 7. i Gen. xxxvii. % k I Kings xxii. 8. xxi. 20.
1 Rev. xi. 10. m Isa. xxix. *21. and Iviii. i.
} NaturaU est et oditt* quern timet ; et quern wt»turrit^ infetlare ti pouie.
-It is natural for us to bate, and if possible, to injure, the person
whom we fear. Min. W.
a Gal. i. 10.
322
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT,
and condemn it,* as the faith and holy fear of Noah
condemned the infidelity and security of the old
world. The Sodomites were vexed at Lot's godly
conversation, as much as he was at their filthy con-
versation. P Wherefore does the blood-thirsty hate
and revile the upright, while the^'itrl Meek his soul?
but for the same reason for which Cain hated Abel,
^ because his own works were evil, and his brother's
righteous,
III. Notc^for the application of this doctrine,
Let us see what good use we may make of this
observation concerning the wickedness of the wick-
ed, in speaking so much against religion and god-
liness, and what is our duty in reference hereunto.
I. Let us admire the patience and forbearance of
the God of heaven, in that he bears so much and so
long with those who thus speak against him and his
holy religion. The affront hereby given him is very
great, and (we would think) intolerable ; even hard
speeches, that reflect upon an infinite majesty, have
in them a kind of infinite malignity. He hears
and knows all that which is said against him, and
against his truth and ways, and as a jealous God
resents it. He has always power in his hands
to punish the proudest of his enemies; nor would
their immediate ruin be any loss to him : and yet,
'' sentence against these evil words and works is not
executed speedily. Be astonished, O heavens ! at
this, and wonder, O earth ! that these wretches who
rebel against the beams of such light and glory,
who spurn at the bowels of such love and grace, are
not immediately made the visible monuments of
divine wrath and vengeance ; and, flke Sodom and
Gomorrah, set forth for an example 1 That the blas-
phemers and scoffers of these last days are not in-
stantly struck dumb, struck dead. That he, who
has so much said against him, does himself keep
silence, and does not answer all these reproaches
and contradictions (as he easily could) in thunder
and lightning. Though his silence and'^brbearance
are turned to his reproach, even by those that have
the beneHt of it, who, therefore, think him altogether
such an one as themselves, and take occasion from
his patience to question his faithfulness, and chal-
lenge his justice, saying, • Where is the promise of
his coming? Yet he bears, and his patience is stretch-
ed out even to long-suffering, because he is * not
willing that any should perish, nor that any means
should be left untried, to prevent their perishing.
Therefore he bears with sinners, because this is the
day of his patience, and of their probation. The
" wrath of God is revealed from heaven in the word
of God, that we might be awed by faith more than
in present providences, which would be an awe to
o Heb. xl. 7.
r Eccl. viii. II.
u Rom. i. la
p ProT. xiix. 10.
• 2 Pet. ill. 3. 4.
T Ps. 1. 3.
q I John iii. 12.
t % Pet. ill. 9.
w Jude 14, 15.
sense. But there is a day coming, a dreadful day,
when our ' God shall come, and shall no longer keep
silence; a day foretold in the early ages of the
world, by * Enoch, the seventh from Adam ; when
judgment shall be executed upon ungodly ainnen,
for all their hard speeches, which day he will not
anticipate, ior he knows it is coming, Ps. xxxvii. 13.
It is agreeable to the regular course* of justice, that
all judgments be adjourned to the judgment-day,
and all executions deferred till execution-day; and,
therefore, now he condescends to reason with those
that speak against him, for their conviction, as he
does by the prophet, (Ezek. xviii. 25, &c.) where he
fairlj debates the case with those who said, The wag
of the Lord is not equal ; that every mouth may he
stopped with an unanswerable argument before it
be stopped with an irreversible sentence, and those
who have spoken against him, may be sent * speech-
less to hell He keeps silence now, because, when
he does speak, he will be justified. When our Lord
Jesus was here upon earth, with what an invincible
patience did he endure the contradiction of sinners !
When so many ill things were witnessed against
him, he was silent to admiration, ^ answered not a
word to all their unjust calumnies and accusations;
but at the same time he bound them over to the judg-
ment of the great day, by that awful declaration,
(Matt. xxvi. 64.) Hereafter ye shall see the Son of
man sitting on the right hand of the power ;— ' and
still he bears with us in expectation of that same
day. He docs not take vengeance presently, be-
cause he has an eternity before him for the doing
of it.
And, by the way, we may infer hence, that those,
who would be like their heavenly Father, must bear
reproach and contradiction patiently. When any
thing is said against us, reflecting ever so little dis-
paragement upon us, or our families, our resent-
ments of it are very sensible, and we are apt to take
it improperly ; nay, and to say we do well to he emffry,
for it is not a thing to be endured. Not to be en-
dured ? O think how much God bears with the con-
tempt and reproach cast upon his great name, and
that will surely qualify our resentments of any in-
dignity done to our little names ! Who are we, tiiat
we must not be spoken against ? or what are our say-
ings, that they must not be contradicted ? Such af-
fronts as these we should learn to bear, as David
did when Shimei cursed him, * So let him curse ;
and as the Son of David did when his enemies re-
viled him, blessing them that curse us, and praying
for them that thus persecute us, that we may he the
children of our Father who is in heaven. God ad-
journs his vindication to the great day, and then
X Matt. xiii. 1-2. Matt. xxvi. 63.
1 Heb. X. n
7 John six. 9.
M 2 Sam XTi. 10.
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
323
sorely we may adjourn ours to that day, as St. Paul
does his, 1 Cor. iv.-5.
2. Let us acknowledge the power of divine grace,
in keeping up the Christian religion in the world,
notwithstanding the universal contradiction and op-
position it has met with. One would think, that a
way thus spoken against every where, should have
been long ere this lost and ruined, and the Chris-
tian name cut off, to be no more in remembrance ;
*» which its adversaries have so kidustriously endea-
voured : Mf it had been of mfn, it had certainly
come to nought quickly, though they had let it alone ;
but being of God, it was to admiration victorious
over all opposition. A sect, a cheat, could never
have supported itself against so much condftdiction ;
no human power or policy could have kept it up,
nor any thing less than an almighty arm. The con-
tinuance of the Christian religion in the world to
this * day, is a standing miracle for the conviction
of its adversaries, and the confirmation of the faith
of those that adhere to it. When we consider what
a mighty force was raised by the powers of darkness
against Christianity, when it was in its infancy ; how
many they were who spoke against it, learned men,
great men; books were written, laws were made,
against it; those that spoke for it, how few were
they! and how mean and despicable! the foolish
things of the world, and the weak ; ^ and, yet, we
see the word of God mightily growing and prevail-
ing: must we not needs say. This is the Lord's
doing t and it is marvellous in our eyes ? The several
false religions of the heathens, with their various
superstitions and idolatries, though they gave very
little opposition one to another, but agreed together
well enough ; yet having no foundation in truth,
they all withered away, and dwindled to nothing :
and after the mighty sway they had borne, and all
means possible were used to support them, at length
their day came to fall, their oracles were silenced,
their altars were deserted, and the gods themselves
were famished, (Zeph. ii. 11.) and perished from the
earth ; according to that prediction, Jer. x. 11. which
is put into the mouths of the captive Jews, to retort
upon their insulting enemies, and for that purpose
is originally in the Chaldee dialect. We may ask
triumphantly, not only, * Where are the gods of Ha-
math and Arpad ? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim,
Henah, and Ivah, those obscure and petty deities ?
But where are the gods of Babylon and Egypt, Greece
and Rome ? the illustrious names of Saturn and Ju-
piter, Juno and Diana ? Where are the gods which
oar British and Saxon ancestors worshipped, before
they received the light of the glorious gospel ? Are
they not all forgotten, as dead men out of mind, and
b Ps. \%xx\\\. 3. 4. e AcU V. 38.
* See this excellcDtly enlarged upon by the learned Grotius,
42r K R. C. /. «.
4 AcU six. SO. t 2 Kings xviii. cM. f Exod. iii. 3, 4.
Y 2
their names written in the dust? But Christ's holy
religion, though for some ages it was utterly desti-
tute of all secular supports and advantages, and was
assaulted on all hands by the most vigorous attacks
of its daring and most implacable enemies ; yet it
has strangely weathered its point, and is in being ;
and, thanks be to God, in some places in a flourish-
ing state to this day ; its cause is an opposed, but
never i. baffled, cause. ' Let us turn aside now, and
see this great sight, a bush burning, and yet not con-
sumed ; and say, the Lord is in it of a truth ; come
and see the Captain of our salvation riding forth in
the chariot of the everlasting gospel,' with his crown
upon his head, and his bow in his hand, conquering,
and to conquer. That which was every where
spoken against Christianity, was like the viper which
fastened upon St. Paul's hand ; " it gave people oc-
casion to think very ill concerning it, and to look
for its speedy fall ; as the barbarous people concern-
ing him, whom they concluded to be a murderer,
and expected that he should have swollen, or fallen
down dead. But it has in all ages shaken those ve-
nomous beasts into the fire, and taken no harm, and
so has proved its own divine original. Let us herein
acknowledge the wisdom and power of our Lord
Jesus, who has so firmly built his church * upon a
rock, that the gates of hell, that is, all its powers,
and policies, and numbers, could never prevail
against it. Mahomet, though he industriously adapt-
ed his religion to the sensual appetites of men,
whose reason only, and not their ]usts,t could ob-
ject against it ; yet he obtained no strength nor in-
terest at all, till by a thousand artifices he had got
the power of the sword, and with it forbad any,
upon pain of death, to speak against him or his doc-
trine ; charging his first followers, who were to propa-
gate his religion, if they met with any that objected
against it, not to dispute with them, but to Ai7/them
immediately: by which means that grand imposture,
in a little time, got some footing in the world, and
by the same barbarous and inhuman methods it has
been supported now above a thousand years. And
in like manner that great enemy of the church, re-
presented in St John's vision, maintains his inter-
est, by causing that as many as would not worship the
image of the beast , should be hilled^ Rev. xiii. 15. Thus
are errors and false religions propagated; strip
them of these supports, and they fall to the ground
of course : but, on the contrary, the Christian reli-
gion was planted and preserved not only without,
but against, secular force, recommended and upheld
by its own intrinsic truth and excellency, and that
divine power which accompanied it The preachers
and professors of it every where spoken against, and
V Rev. vi. 3. h Acte xxviii. 3. i Matt. xvi. IS.
f See the learned Dr. Humphrey Prideaux*8 excellent History
of the lAfe of Blahomet
324
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
yet every where getting ground, and strangely vic-
torious, merely by the word of their testimony, and
by not loving their lives unto the death. ^Thus it
come salvation and strength^ and the kingdom of our
Gody and the power of hit Chritt,
3. Let us greatly lament the folly and wickedness
of those who speak against Christ and his holy reli-
gion, and if we can do any thing, have compassion
upon them, and help to undeceive them, and rectify
their mistakes. Surely this is one of the abomina-
tions committed among us, for which we should be
found among those that tigh and cry, (Ezek. ix. 4.)
one of those instances of the pride of sinners for
which our souls should weep in secret, Jer. xiii. 17.
This is that reproach of the solemn assembly which
is such a burthen to all good men, Zeph. iii. 18.
Our ears should tingle, and our hearts tremble, to
hear the reproach and contempt cast upon Christ
and his religion, or to hear of it ; and looking upon
ourselves as nearly concerned in sacred things, we
should be sensibly touched with the profanation of
them.
To affect us herewith, let us consider,
(1.) The great dishonour hereby done to our God
in the world. They that reflect upon his truths and
ways, his word and ordinances, reflect upon him,
he that touches these, touches the apple of his eye ;
If, therefore, we have any love to God, or concern
for his honour, and have cordially espoused the
interests of his kingdom, what is an affront to him,
will surely be a grief to us. It cannot but be a
vefy melancholy thought to every sensible soul, that
the God who made the world, is made so light of in
the world ; that he who docs so much good to the
children of men, has so little honour from them,
nay, and has so much dishonour dune him by them
every day, 'and his name continually blasphemed;
that the Lord Jesus, who so loved the world, is so
much hated and despised by the world. "• The re-
proaches of them who thus reproach our Master, if
we be his faithful ser%'ants, we should feel as falling
upon us. " And if he take what is said and done
against his people, as said and done against him-
self, much more reason have they to find themselves
aggrieved in that which is said and done against
him. If we pray heartily that God's name may be
hallowed, as we should do every day, we should
grieve heartily that his name is dishonoured, as we
see it is every day. And our resentments of the re-
proach cast upon God and religion, we should make
an humble and pious remonstrance of before God
in prayer, as king Hezekiah spread Rabshakeh's
blasphemous letter before the Lord, with that tender
and affectionate request, Lord^ how down thine ear
and hear : Open, Lord^ thine eyes and see, 2 Kings
xix. 16. How pathetically does Joshua plead, (eh,
k Rev xii. 10, 11. I Isa. Iii. 5. m Pt. Ixix. 9.
s Matt. XXV. 4S. • Ps. Ixiv. 8. p Gal. vi. 7. q Hos. xlv. 9.
vii. 9.) What wilt thou do unto thy gresU name ? And
with what a concern does the psalmist, in the name
of the church, insist upon this, Ps. Ixxiv. 10. 0
Gody how long shall the adversary reproach f SkmU
the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever? And, ». 1&
Remember this, that the enemy hath reproachedj 0
Lord, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy
name. And how earnestly does he beg, r. 22.
Arise, O God, plead thine othi cause. Thus should
the honour of God ^d religion lie nearer our hearts
than any other con2^m whatsoever.
(2.) Consider the miserable condition of those
who presumptuously speak against God and religion.
Though they may do it with an air of assurance, as
if they fpi no hazard, yet he that rolls this stone,
it will certainly return upon him sooner or later.
They that speak against religion speak against their
own heads, ° and their own tongues will at last fall
upon them. We have reason to bewail their mad-
ness, and to pity and pray for them, for they know
not what they do. Miserable souls ! How will they
be deceived at last, when they shall find that p God
is not mocked / And that while they were studying
to put contempt on religion, they were but preparing
eternal shame and confusion for themselves ! The
Lord is a jealous God, and will not hold them guilt-
less that thus profane his name: their wit, and
learning, and figure in the world, may imboldea
them in their sin, and bear them up a while in an
open defiance of all that is sacred, but nothing can
prevent their utter ruin, except a serious and sincere
repentance ; which is an unsaying, with shame and
self-loathing, of all that which they have proudly
spoken against God and godliness. They that per-
vert the right ways of the Lord, will certainly ifall
therein ; ^and they that wrest the Scriptures, do it
to their own destruction. Religion's motto is, Neme
me impune lacessit.^He who injures me, injures him*
self, ** It is dangerous playing with edge-tools."
* Jerusalem will certainly be a burthensome stone
to all people that burthen themselves with it. They
that spurn at the rock of Salvation, will not only be
unable to remove it, but will find it ' a stone of stum-
bling, and a rock of offence. And we find those who
ridiculed the word of the Lord, "^broken, and snared,
and taken. Let all those, therefore, that mourn in
Sion, weep over those that will not weep for them-
selves ; and look with pity and compassion upon
those who look upon them with scorn and contempt
(3.) Consider the mischief that is hereby done to
the souls of others. They who thus err, their error
remains not with themselves, but this poisonous and
malignant breath infects others. Words spoken
against religion ' eat as tloth a canker ; and they who
speak them, seldom perish alone in their iniquity,
for * many follow their pernicious ways. Unwary
r 2 Pet. iii. 16.
u Isa. xxviii. 13.
• Zech. xii. 3.
r a Tim. ii. I7.
t I Pet ii. a
w 2 Pet ii. ^
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
325
lOuts are easily beguiled, and broaght to conceive
rooted prejudices against that which they hear every
where spoken against; and few have consideration
and resolution enough, to maintain a good opinion
of that which they who set up for wits make it their
business to cry down. " Sergius Paulus was a
prudent man, and yet St. Paul saw him in danger
of being turned away from the faith, by the subtle
suggestions of Elymas the sorcerer, which therefore
the apostle resented with more than ordinary keen-
ness. It is sad to think how many young people,
who, perhaps, were well educated and hopeful,
when they go abroad into the world, by conversing
with those who lie in wait to deceive, have their
minds insensibly vitiated and debauched,^nd, per-
haps, they are made seven times more the children
of hell than those that first seduced them. Under
pretence of free thought and fashionable conversa-
tion, and a generous disdain of preciseness and
singularity, atheistical principles are imbibed, the
restraints of conscience shaken off, brutish lusts not
only indulged, but pleaded for, and serious godliness
and devotion looked on with contempt ; and thus
the heart is impregnably fortified for Satan against
Christ and his gospel, tcrath is treasured up against
the day of wrath, and those who might have been
the blessing, prove the plague, of their age ; which
is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation, to
all who wish well to the souls of men, and to those,
especially, who are desirous of the welfare of the
rising generation.
4. Let us take heed that none of us do at any time,
directly or indirectly, speak against the ways of
religion and godliness, or make a confederacy with
those that do so. ^ Submit to divine instructions,
given with a strong hand, not to walk in the way of
those people who speak ill of religion. Take heed
of embracing any notions which secretly tend to
derogate from the authority of the Holy Scriptures,
or to diminish the honour of religion in the soul; or
of accustoming yourselves to such expressions as
treat not sacred things with that awful regard which
is due to them. Those were never reckoned wise
men who would rather lose a friend than a jest;
much less are they to be accounted so, who will
rather lose the favour of their God. How can it be
expected, that those, who in their common converse
make themselves merry with serious things, should
at any time be serious in them, or experience the
influence and comfort of them ? It is not likely that
those who make the word of God the subject of their
jests, should ever make it the guide of their way,
or find it the spring of their joys. Let us not choose
to associate with those who have light thoughts of
religion, and are ready upon all occasions to speak
against it. It is not without good reason, that
I Actixili. 7^10.
7 Isa. viii. II, 13.
> Ps. i. I.
among the many words with which St. Peter ex-
horted his new converts, this only is recorded, save
yourselves from this untoward generation^ Acts ii. 40.
'Those that listen to the counsel of the ungodly ^ and
stand in the way of sinners, as willing to walk with
them, will come at length (if almighty grace prevent
not) to sit in the seat of the scornful. Let us there-
fore abide by that which Job and Eliphaz, even in the
heat of dispute, were agreed on, that the counsel of
the wicked shall be far from us ; which protestation
we have. Job xxi. 16. and xxii. 18. It is dangerous
making friendship with those who have an enmity
to serious godliness, lest we learn their way, and
get a snare to our souls.
There are two common pretences, and seemingly
plausible ones, under which those who speak against
religion shelter themselves ; but they are neither of
them justifiable.
(1.) They pretend that it is only for argument sake
that they object against religion, and pick quarrels
with it, and (so little esteem they have of the thing
called sincerity) they will not be thought to mean as
they say. And are the great principles of religion
become such moot points, such matters of doubtful
disputation, that it is indifferent which side of tlie
question a man takes, and upon which he may
argue, pro or con— for or against, at his pleasure ?
That grave and weighty •saying of a learned hea-
then is enough to silence this pretence. Mala enim
et impia consuetudo est, contra Deos disputandi, sive
ex animo id sitj sive simulate — It is an evil thing to
talk against religion^ whether a man means as he says
or no, or (in the language of our age) whether he
speak seriously, or only banter. Julian the apos-
tate, who, before he threw off his disguise, frequently
argued against Christianity, pretended it was only
for disputation sake. But out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaks, and whence can such
evil things come, but from an evil treasure there ?
(2.) They pretend that it is not religion that they
ridicule and expose to contempt, but some particular
forms and modes of religious worship which they
do not like. And this is one ill effect of the unhappy
divisions among Christians, that while one side has
laboured to make the other contemptible, religion
in general has suffered on all sides. To reprove
what we think amiss with prudence and meekness,
is well ; but to reproach and make a* jest of that
which our fellow-Christians look upon as sacred,
and make a part of their religion, cannot be to any
good purpose at all. To scoff at the mistakes or
weaknesses of our brethren, is the way to provoke
and harden them, but not to convince and reform
them. They who think to justify this way of ridi-
culing those that differ from them, by the instance
of Elijah's jeering the priests of Baal, perhaps
• Ch. J* Nat. Dnr. lib. 3. ad jl%.
326
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
^know not what manner of spirit they are of, no more
than those disciples did who would have their in-
temperate heats countenanced by the example of
that great prophet.
5. Let us, who profess the Christian religion, be
very cautious that we do not give occasion to any
to speak against it. If there are those, in all places,
who are industrious to cast reproaches upon religion,
then we have need to walk circumspectly, and to
look well to our goings, that those who watch for our
halting may have no occasion given them to blas-
pheme. It is certain, that though in religion there
is nothing which may be justly spoken against ; yet
among those who profess it, there is too often found
that which deserves to be taxed, and which cannot
pass without just and severe reflections. Pudet
hacapprohrxa nobis — These reproaches are a disgrace
to us, — Are there not those within the pale of the
church, through whom the name of God and his
doctrine arc blasphemed, ** and by reason of whom the
way of truth is evil spoken of? Are there not those
who wear Christ's livery, but are a ♦ scandal to his
family, ^ spots in the love-feasts, and a standing re-
proach to that worthy name by which they are call-
ed? Now though it is certainly very unjust and
unfair to impute the faults of professors to the reli-
gion they profess, and to reproach Christianity
because there are those that are called Christians
who expose themselves to reproach ; yet it is,
without question, the sin of those who give men
occasion to do so. This was the condemnation in
David's case, and entailed the sword upon his house,
though the sin was pardoned, by which he hvid given
great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blasphetne,
2 Sam. xii. 14. Let us therefore double our diligence
and care, to give no offence either to Jew or Gentile ;
that religion, which has so often been wounded in
the house of her friends, may never be wounded
through our misconduct.
If we inquire (as we are concerned to do) what it
is that gives occasion of reflection upon religion, we
shall find that the imprudence of those that profess
it gives some occasion, but their immoralities much
more.
(1.) The imprudence of Christians often turns to
the reproach of Christianity. There may be such
over-doing, even in well-doing, as may prove undo-
ing. When more stress is laid than ought to be
upon some instances of religion, to the exclusion of
others, and the exercises of devotion are either mis-
timed, or misplaced, or mispropoKioned, religion is
hereby misrepresented, or looked upon to disadvan-
tage. Rash and indiscreet zeal may give occasion to
those who seek occasion to speak against ail religious
• Luke ix. 55. b 3 Pet. ii. 2.
• The foulest reproaches or the primitive Christians took rise
from the vile practices of the Gnostics, and other Pseudo-chris.
Uans. or which. Vid. Ewitb, EccL Hist. 1. 4. c. 7.
zeal. Therefore ' walk in wisdom toward them thai
are without. Religion is a most sweet, and pleasant,
and amiable thing : let not us, by oar indiscretioii,
make it a task to ourselves, and a terror to othen.
The more the children of God * are children of wis-
dom, the more they justify it, and its ways. Chris-
tian prudence is very much the beauty and strengtli
of Christian piety. Though it will secure the wel-
fare of our own souls if we walk in oar integrity, yet
it is necessary, for the preserving the credit of our
profession, that we walk in wisdom, that ' wisdom «f
the prudent which is to understand his way^ that
^wisdom which is profitable to direct, ** And ifoKf
man lack this wisdom^ let him ask it of God^ wbo^'vei
liberally, and upbraids us not with our folly. Pray
with David, (Ps. xxvii. 11.) Teach me tfty way,0
Lord, and lead me in a plain pathy because of miae
enemies, (Hebr. because of mine observers.) Our
enemies are our observers, and will be ready to re-
proach our way, for the sake of the false steps we
take in it ; and therefore we have need to ponder the
path of our feet, and let discretion guide and goven
our zeal.
(2.) The immoralities of those who profess Chris-
tianity turn much more to the reproach of that holy
religion, when those who are called Christians are
griping and covetous, and greedy of the world ; when
they are false and deceitful, and unjust in their
dealings, sour and morose, and unnatural to their
relations, turbulent and unquiet in societies; when
they are froward and passionate, proud and haughty,
hard-hearted and oppressive, loose and intemperate;
when they are found guilty of lying and cheating,
drunkenness or uncleanness ; when it appears that
they keep up some secret haunts of sin, under the
cloak and covert of a specious profession ; when
they who profess the Christian faith, indulge them-
selves in those things that are contrary to the light
and law even of natural religion : this is that which
opens the mouths of the adversaries to speak re-
proachfully of that religion, the profession of which
is made to consist with such vile practices, which
cannot possibly consist with the power of it. This
makes people ready to say, as that Mahometan prince
did, when the Christians had broken their league
with him, *^ O Jesus! are these thy Christians?"
Or, as the complaint was upon another occasion,
Aut hoc non evangelium, aut hi nan eoangeUum^
Either this is not gospel, or these are not to he called
professors of the gospel, * If ministers give offence
in any thing, not they only, but their ministry, will
be blamed. Nay, if servants, and Christians of the
lowest rank and figure, be unfaithful and disobedient
to the government they are under, the ^ fuaae 9f
I;
e Jude 12.
• Luke vii. 35.
ff Eccl. X. la
i 3 Cor. vi. 3.
a CoL Iv. 5.
f Prov. xlv. a
k Jam. L5.
k 1 Tim. vi. I.
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
327
Gody and his doctrine , is likely tu be blasphemed.
Let us, therefore, who profess relation to the eternal
God, and dependence upon the blessed Jesus, and
a regard to the Holy Scriptures, as we value the
reputation of our religion, ^walk worthy of the Lord
ttnto all pleasing. Let us order our conversation so,
in every thing, that we may ''adorn the doctrine of
Gad our Saviour, While we are called by so good
a name, let us not dare to do an evil thing. The
disciples of Christ are as a "city upon a hill, and
have many eyes upon them, and therefore have need
to behave themselves with a great deal of caution,
and to *^ abstain from all appearance of evil. Let us
ot do any thing that is unjust, or unbecoming us,
nor allow ourselves in that which we know the gos-
pel we profess does by no means allow of, lest we
be to answer another day for all the reproach of re-
ligion which we have occasioned. How light soever
we may make of this now, we shall find that it will
greatly inflame the reckoning shortly, when God will
assert the honour of his own name, and will be glo-
rified upon those by whom he was not glorified. In
consideration of this, let us see to it, that we Phave
our conversation honest among the adversaries of
our religion, that they who speak against us as evil-
doers, may, by our good works which they shall
behold, be brought to glorify God, and to entertain
good thoughts of religion ; or at least, <ithat we may
with well doing put to silence the ignorance of foolish
men. Our religion, I am sure, is an honour to us ;
let not us then be a dishonour to it.
6. If there be those every where that speak against
religion and godliness, let us then as we have op-
portunity be ready to speak for it. Every Christian
should be both a witness and an advocate for his
religion, and the rather because it is so much op-
posed and contradicted : next to our care not to be
a shame to the gospel, should be our resolution not
to be ashamed of the gospel : you are subpoenaed by
the Ring of kings to appear for him in the world ;
Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, Isa. xliii. 10.
Do not betray this cause then by declining your tes-
timony, how much soever you may be brow-bentcn
and confronted. Say with a holy boldness, as Elihu,
(Job xxxvi. 2.) Suffer me a little, and I will show
you that I have yet to speak on God's behalf. You
hear what is daringly said against God, how his
holy name is trampled upon and abused, his truths
contradicted, his word and ordinances vilified, and
have yon never a word to say for him ? Is our Lord
Jesus appearing for us in heaven, pleading our cause
there, pleading it with his own blood, and shall not
we be ready to appear for him on earth, and plead
his cause, though it were with the hazard of our
blood ? As it is tlien a time to keep silence, when
1 Col. i. 10.
• Thea. ▼. S3.
m Tit H. 10.
p 1 Pet ii. 12.
a Matt V. 14.
q I Pet ii. 15.
T Pi. xxxTiii. 13.
ft Eccl iii. 7.
we ourselves are spoken against, ''/ as a deaf man
heard not ; so it is then * a time to speak when God is
spoken against, and the honour of our religion lies
at stake : at such a time we must take heed, lest by
a cowardly silence we wrong so just a cause, as if
we were either ashamed or afraid to own it Wis-
dom's children should take all occasions to justify
wisdom, and vindicate her from the aspersions that
are cast upon her. Read the doom of him that is
ashamed of Christ and of his words in this adulter-
ous generation, (Mark viii. 38.) Of him shall the
Son of man be ashamed when he comes in the glory
of his Father, Not confessing Christ when we are
called to it, is in efiect denying him, and disowning
relationship to him ; 'and they who do so, except
they repent as Peter did, will shortly be denied and
disowned by him. If we should, with an 'ang^
countenance at least, drive away a backbiting tongue
that reproaches our brother, much more a blasphe-
mous tongue that reproaches our Maker. Should
we hear a near relation, or a dear friend, (in whose
reputation it is natural for us to reckon ourselves
sharers,) spoken against and slandered, we would
readily appear in his vindication ; and have we no
resentments of the contempt and contumely cast on
religion? Can we sit by contentq^y to hear God
and Christ, and the Scripture and serious godliness,
reflected on, and have we nothing to say in their
behalf? Common equity obliges us to be the patrons
of a just, but wronged, cause. And that we may not
think ourselves discharged from this duty, by our
inability to defend the truths and ways of God, and
so make our ignorance and unskiifulness in the
word of righteousness an excuse for our cowardice
and want of zeal, we ought to take pains to furnish
ourselves with a clear and distinct knowledge of
the ^certainty of those things wherein we have been
instructed. We must labour to understand not only
the truths and principles, but the grounds and evi-
dences, of our religion, that we may be able to *give
an answer {airoXoytav, an apology) to every man that
asks us a reason of the hope that is in us. How in-
dustrious are the profane wits of the age to find out
something to say against religion ! and should not
that quicken us to provide ourselves with the
'armour of righteousness both on the right hand and
on the left, aiming at the *riches of the full assurance
of understanding ? And if we do (as there is occasion)
with humility and sincerity, and from a principle
of zeal for God and his honour, appear in defence
of religion and its injured cause, we may doubtless
take encouragement from that promise, (Matt. x. 19.)
It shall be given you m that same hour what ye sliall
speak, God will own those that own him, and will
not fail to furnish his faithful advocates with needful
t Lukexil.8. 9Tim.ii. 10.
» Luke 1. 4
J 2 Cor. f\. 7.
▼ Prov. XXV. 23.
X 1 Pet iii. 15.
• Col. ii. 2.
»28
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
instructions, and many times ordains such * strength
out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, as strangely
stills the enemy and avenger.
7. Let none of us ever think the worse-of the way
of religion and godliness for its being every where
spoken against, nor be frightened hereby from walk-
ing in that way. The contempt cast on the practice of
piety, is with many an invincible objection against
it; their good impressions, good purposes, and good
overtures, are hereby crushed and brought to no-
thing : they have that within them which tells them,
that the way of sobriety and serious godliness is a
very good way, and they sometimes hear that word
behind them saying, ^ This is the way, walh ye in it ;
but they have those about them that tell them other-
wise, and thus the convictions of conscience are
overruled and baffled by the censures and reproaches
of men, whose praise they covet more than the praise
of God,
But to take off the force of this objection, let us
consider these four things :
(1.) Consider who they are that speak against re-
ligion and godliness. Not only they who are mortal
men, whom the ^ moth shall eat up like a garment ;
men that shall die, and the sons of men, which shall
be made as grtgff, all whose thoughts will shortly
perish with them, and therefore why should we fear
their reproach, or be afraid of their revilings ? Not
only they who are fallible men, who may be mis-
taken, and whose judgment is by no means decisive;
nor such as will bear us out : shall we put what men
say in the scale against what God says ? Let God
be true, and every man a liar. We must not be judged
hereafter, and therefore should not be ruled now,
by the sentiments and opinions of men. Those who
speak against religion are also for the most part bad
men, men of unsettled heads, debauched consciences,
and profligate lives. It is the fool, and none but he,
that says in his heart. There is no God. The scoffers
of the last days are men that walk after their own
lusts, whose carnal fleshly interest retains them on
that side. David was abused by the abjects, (Ps.
XXXV. 15.) and the Christians at Thessalonica, by
certain lewd fellows of the baser sori. Acts xvii. 6.
Such as those are the men that make a mock at re-
ligion; and shall we be swayed and influenced in the
greatest concerns of our immortal souls by such men
as these \ Shall those have the government of us, that
have so little government of themselves? Shall the
cavils and vain scoffs of those, who know not what
it is to be serious, carry the day against the delibe-
rate sentiments of all wise and good men, who have
with one consent subscribed to the equity and good-
ness of religion's ways? If we choose such as these
PB.viii. 3. b l8a.xxz.2l.' e ba. li. 7, 8, 12.
d 9 TbesB. iii 2. • EccL x. 3.
t Arcbbp. TIllotBOD'ftSermoii on 2 Pet. i\. a
for our leaders, surely the blind lead the blind; and
we know the consequence.
(2.) Consider how trifling and frivolous that is
which is commonly said, against religion and godli-
ness. The devil made his first fatal assault upon
mankind by lies and slanders, suggesting bard
thoughts of God, and promising impunity in sin;
and by the same wretched methods he still supports
and carries on his interest in the world. They who
speak against religion, make lies their refuge, and
under falsehood they hide themselves. All those
bold and daring things which are spoken against
religion, are either groundless and unproved calum-
nies, or very unjust and unfair representations.
Hence the enemies of religion are said to be '^ eibsurd
and unreasonable men ; men who, while they cry up
the oracles of reason, rebel against all the light and
laws of it. Put all that together which is spoken
against godliness, and weigh it in the balances of
right reason, and you will write Tekel upon it,
weighed in the balances and found wanting. And, as
if an overruling Providence had forced the scoffen
of these last days to confess their own infatuation^
some of those who have been most sharp in their in-
vectives against religion, have been no less free in
their satires against reason itself, as if they were
resolved to answer the character of Solomon's fool,
whose * wisdom fails him so far, that he saiih to every
one that he is a fool.
(3.) Consider how much is to be said for religiout
notwithstanding it is every where spoken against. Re-
ligion has reason on its side, its cause is a good
cause ; and it is the right way, whoever speaks
against it. ''* It is no disparagement" (as that ex-
cellent pen expresses it) " to be laughed at, but to
deserve to be so." You have heard religion reproach-
ed, but did you ever find that it deserved to be so?
Nay, on the contrary, have you not found that it very
well deserves your best affections and services ? In-
quire of those who have made trial of it, consult the
experiences of others : ' Call now, if there be any
that will answer thee, and to which of the saints wilt
thou turn ? ^ Ask thy father, and he will show thee ;
thine elders, and they will tell ^ thee, that the fear of
the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil, that
is understanding. They will tell thee, ^ that reli-
gion's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths
are peace, and that all the wealth and pleasure in
this world is not worth one hour's communion vnth
God in Jesus Christ. They will tell thee, that there
are no truths so certain and weighty as divine truths,
and that no statutes and judgments are so righteous
as the divine law, which is holy, just, and good.
They will tell thee, that real holiness and sancti-
K Job ▼. 1.
i Job xxviii. 28.
k Deut xxxii. 7.
k Prov. lit 17.
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
329
fication is the perfection of the haman nature, as well
as the participation of the divine nature ; that a firm
belief of the principles of religion is the greatest
improvement of our intellectual powers, a strict ad-
herence to its rules our surest guide in all our ways,
and a cheerful dependence upon its promises, the
fountain of better joys, and the foundation of better
hopes, than any we can be furnished with in the
things of sense and time. They will tell thee, that
a life of serious godliness is incomparably the
most sublime and honourable, the most sweet and
comfortable, life a man can live in this world ; and
that nothing does more answer the end of our crea-
tion, better befriend societies, or conduce more to
our true interest in both worlds, than that holy reli-
gion which is every where spoken against,
(4.) Consider that the cause of religion and godli-
ness, however it be spoken against and opposed,
will infallibly be the prevailing cause at last. We
are sensible of a mighty struggle in the world be-
tween the seed of the woman^ and the seed of the ser-
pent : Michael and his angels on the one side, and
the dragon and his angels on the other. Many there
are who speak against religion, and are very vigor-
ous in opposing it, and some, though but a few,
who are speaking for it, contending for the faith,
and striving against sin. Now it is desirable to know
which of these contesting interests will be victorious;
and we may be assured that the cause of God and
religion will certainly carry the day. Contradicted
truths will be effectually cleared and vindicated ; de-
spised holiness will be honoured ; mistakes rectified ;
reproaches rolled away ; and every thing set in a true
light. ' Then you shall return and discern between
truth and falsehood, right and wrong, which now it
is not always easy to do. The day of the Lord is
said to be in the valley of decision, (Joel iii. 14.) be-
cause then and there will this great cause be decided,
which has been so long depending ; and a definitive
sentence given, from which there will be no appeal,
and against which there will be no exception. °* Our
God will then come, and will not keep silence: who-
ever now speaks against religion, he will then speak
for it, and will undoubtedly be " justified w/ten he
speaks^ and clear when he judgeth. Particular par-
ties and interests, as such, will wither and come to
nothing, but catholic Christianity, that is, denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world, in ex-
pectation of the blessed hope ; this is good, and the
goodness of it being founded on the unchangeable
will of the Eternal Mind, it is eternally good, and no
doubt will be eternally glorious, whatever is said
against it. This, this is that gold and silver, and
those precious stones, which will stand the test of
the fire that shall try every man's work, (1 Cor. iii.
1 Mai. ill. l& B Pt. 1. 3. D Pa. li. 4. e i Pet. i. 7.
f Ist. xzxiv. 8. q Jam. v. 9. t Joah. x. 24. • Rev. vl 16.
12, 13.) and will be ^ found unto praise, and honour^
and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Assure yourselves (Christians) there is a p day of
recompence for the controversy of Sion coming, and
it is at hand ; ^ Behold, the Judge standeth before the
door. Then vice and wickedness, which now appear
so daring, so threatening, will be effectually and
irrecoverably crushed ; and such a fatal and incur-
able blow given to the serpent's head, that he shall
never hiss, shall never spit his venom, any more :
then shall the upright have the dominion, (Ps. xlix.
14.) and all the faithful soldiers of the Lord Jesus
shall be called to ' set their feet upon the necks of
principalities and powers. Then atheists and blas-
phemers, the debauchees and profane scoffers of the
age, will have their mouths stopped with an irresist-
ible conviction ; will have all their vile calumnies
visibly confuted, their hearts filled with unspeak-
able horror, and their faces with everlasting shame :
their refuge of lies will then be swept away, and
* rocks and mountains called upon in vain to shelter
them : ' then shall the righteous, who are now tram-
pled upon and despised, shine as the sun in the firma-
ment of their Father. Wisdom and her children
shall be first justified, and then glorified, before all
the world : and they who through grace have ^ gotten
the victory over the beast, and over his image, shall
solace themselves, and praise their Redeemer with
everlasting songs of triumph. The dust that is now
unjustly thrown upon them, will not only be wiped
off, but will add to their glory,' and every reproach
for the testimony of Jesus, will be a pearl in their
crown. The righteous Judge of heaven and earth
*iri7/ shortly render to every man according to his work :
To them who by patient continuance in well-doing^
seek for glory, and honour, and immortality in the
other world, and (in pursuit of that) patiently bear
disgrace and contempt in this, to them he will ren-
der eternal life, which will make them as happy as
they can desire, far more happy than they can con-
ceive. But to them that are contentious, and do
not obey the truth, but contradict it, and rebel
against the light and laws of it, being resolved to
obey unrighteousness, to them he will render, i^ith
a just and almighty hand, indignation and wrath ;
the effect of which will be such tribulation and an-
guish to the soul, as will make them feel eternally,
what now they will not be persuaded to believe, that
* it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God ; for never any hardened their hearts against
him and prospered. Brethren, ^ these are the true
sayings of God, on the certainty of which we may
venture our immortal souls.
They who speak and act so much against religion,
design to run it down, and extirpate it, that the
' name of it may he no more in remembrance ; and
t Matt. iii. 43. n Rev. xv. 2. ▼ Matt, x II, 1*2. w Rom. ii. e-Ot-
s Heb. X. 31. 7 Rev. xix. 9. « Pa Ixxxiil. 4.
3d0
CHRISTIANITY NO SECT.
perhaps you hear them sometimes boast of their
success herein ; if they can but handsomely (as they
think) ridicule the sacred text, or banter any of the
divine mysteries, or hector over a good man, they
are ready to triumph, as if they had run down reli-
gion. Run down religion ! In the name of my great
Master, I defy all the powers of hell and earth to
run it down ;* they may sooner run down the flow-
ing tide, or the sun when he goes forth in his
strength, than run down the least of the dictates of
eternal truth, not one * iota or tittle of which shall
fall to the ground. Dagon will certainly fall before
the Ark of the Lord ; ^ and the rod of Aaron will
swallow up the rods of the magicians. Do they talk
of running down religion, and the Scriptures, and
the ordinances of Christ? ^ The virgin^ the daughter
of Sion, hath despised them, and laughed them to scorn ;
the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at
• MagM nt veritoi r/ pr^rvaMt/— Great is the truth, and it will
prevaiL
them : and has therefore put them to shame, bectuue
God hath despised them, as it is said, Ps. liii. 5. * He
that sits in the heavens enjojring himself, and * rides
upon the heavens for the help of his people, deridei
their attempts against the kingdom of his Son. as
vain and fruitless. The Lord shall laugh at them,
for he sees that his day is coming. They have their day
now, it is their hour and the power of darkness ; bot
God will have his day shortly, and a glorious day it
will be, when our Lord Jesus shall appear in all the
power and grandeur of the upper world, to the ever-
lasting terror and confusion of all his adversaries,
and the everlasting joy and honour of all his faithful
servants and soldiers : with the believing hopes and
prospects of which day, let all those who heartily
espouse and plead religion's righteous cause, comfort
themselves and one another.
• Matt ▼. 18.
dPs.il. 4.
b Ezod. Tii 12- e IML xxzfil. U.
• Deut xxxiii. 90.
I
THE
COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION
OR,
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE RIGHT RECEIVING OF THE
LORD'S SUPPER.
To THE Reader.
I HERE humbly offer yoa (Christian readers) some
assistance in that great and good work which you
have to do, and are concerned to do well, when
you attend the table of the Lord : a work wherein
I have observed most serious people desirous of
help, and willing to use the helps they have ; which,
I confess, was one thing that invited me to this
undertaking.
I offer this service, with all due deference and
respect to the many excellent performances of this
kind, which we are already blessed with, done by
far better hands than mine. Who yet have not so
fully gathered in this harvest, but that those who
come after may gather up plentiful gleanings, with-
out robbing their sheaves. Lord, it is done at thou
hast commanded, and yet there it room ; room enough
to enlarge upon a subject so copious, and of so great
a compass, that it cannot be exhausted.
I do this also with a just sense of my own un-
worthiness and unfitness to bear the vessels of the
Lord, and to do any service in his sanctuary. Who
am I, and what is my father's house, that I should
have the honour to be a door-keeper in the house of
God, to show his guests the way to his table ; and
that I should be employed thus to hew wood and
draw water for the congregation of the Lord? I
reckon it true preferment ; and by the g^ce of God,
his free grace, I am what I am. It is service which
is iXs own recompence ; work which is its own wages.
In helping to feed others, we may feast ourselves ;
for our Master has provided, that the mouth of the
ox be not muzzled when he treads out the com.
For my part, I would not exchange the pleasure of
converse with the Scriptures and divine things, for
all the delight of the sons and daughters of men,
and the peculiar treasure of kings an/l princes. It
was a noble 8a3ring of the Marquis of Vico, '' Let
their money perish with them, who esteem all the
wealth of this world worth one hour's commumon
with God in Jesus Christ"
In doing this, I hope I can truly say, my desire
and design is to contribute something to the faith,
holiness, and joy of those who in this solemn ordi-
nance have given up their names to the Lord Jesus.
And if God, by his grace, will make this endeavour
some way serviceable to that end, I have what I
wish, I have what I aim at, and it will not be the
first time that praise has been perfected, and strength
ordained, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings.
In this Essay I have an eye particularly to that
little handful of people among whom I have been
(in much weakness) ministering in these holy things
now seventeen years ; during all which time, through
the good hand of our God upon us, we have never
once been disappointed of the stated solemnities
either of our new moons, or our sabbaths. As I
designed my Scripture Catechism, and the other
little one that followed it, to be a present, and per-
haps ere long it may prove my legacy, to the young
ones, the lambs of the flock ; so I recommend this
to the adult, and leave it with them, being desirous
that the sheep, we are charged to feed, may go in and
out, and find pasture. And I earnestly wish that both
these may prove successful expedients, to preserve
some of those things they have been taught from
being quite forgotten ; and that, after my decease,
they and theirs will have those things always in
remembrance.
And (lastly) I send this abroad under the protec-
tion and blessing of heaven ; with a hearty prayer
to God to forgive what is mine, that is, whatever is
amiss and defective in the performance ; and gra-
ciously to accept what is his own, that is, whatever
is good and profitable. Hoping that, if GOD
pardon my defects and infirmities, my friends also
will overlook them; and that, if he favourably
accept my endeavours through Christ, they also will
accept them : for truly it is the height of my am-
bition to approve myself
A faithful servant
to Christ and souls,
Chester^ June 21, Matth. Henry.
1704.
333
THE COMMUNICANTS COMPANION.
CHAPTER I.
THB NAMB8 BY WHICH THIS ORDINANCE 18 USUALLY CALLED.
In discoarsiDg of this {preat and solemn ordinance,
which every serious Christian looks upon with a
peculiar regard and veneration, because I purpose,
as God shall enable me, to open as well the doc-
trine as the duty of it, it will be proper enough,
and, I hope, profitable, to take some of the several
names by which it is known.
I. We call it the Sacrament. This is the name
we commonly give it, but improperly, because it
does not distinguish it from the ordinance of bap-
tism, which is as much a sacrament as this ; a sa-
crament which we have all received, are all bound
by, and are concerned to improve, and live up to.
But when we call this ordinance the Sacrament,
we ought to mind ourselves that it is a sacrament :
that is, it is a sign, and it is an oath.
1. It is a sign, an outward and visible sign of an
inward and spiritual grace: for, such sacraments
are designed to be. It is a parable to the eye ; and
in it God uses similitudes, as he did of old, by his
servants the prophets, Hosea xii. 10. In it Christ
tells us earthly things, (John iii. 12.) that thereby
we may come to be more familiarly acquainted, and
more warmly affected, with spiritual and heavenly
things. In it Christ speaks to us in our own lan-
guage, and accommodates himself to the capacities
of our present state. Man consists of body and soul ;
and the soul admits impressions, and exerts its
powers, by the body. Here is an ordinance, there-
fore, which consists of body and soul too ; wherein
Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are, in
the instituted elements of bread and wine, set be-
fore us, and offered to us. We live in a world of
sense, not yet in the world of spirits ; and because
we find it hard to look above the things tliat are
seen, we are directed in a sacrament to look through
them, to those things not seen, which are represent-
ed by them. That things merely sensible may not
improve the advantage they have from our present
state, wholly to engross our thoughts and cares ; in
compassion to our infirmity, spiritual things arc in
this ordinance made in a manner sensible.
Let us therefore rest contented with this sign,
which Christ has appointed ; in which he is evidently
set forth crucified among us, (Gal. iii; 1.) and not
think it can be any honour to him, or advantage to our-
selves, but on the contrar}*, a dishonour to him, and
an injury to ourselves, to represent by images and pic-
tures, the same things which this ordinance was de-
signed to be the representation of. If Infinite Wisdom
thought this sign sufficient, and most proper to affect
the heart, and excite devotion, and stamp it accord-
ingly with an institution ; let us acqniesce in it.
Yet let us not rest contented with the sign only,
but converse by faith with the things signified ; else
we receive the grace of God in this appointment m
vain, and sacraments will be to us, what parables
were to them that were wilfully blind, blind us the
more, Mark iv. 11, 12. W^hat will it avail us to
have the shadow without the substance, the shell
without the kernel, the letter without the spirit ? As
the body without the soul is dead, so our seeing and
receiving the bread and wine, if, therein, we see
not and receive not Christ crucified, is dead also.
2. It is an oath. That is the ancient sig^ificatin
of the word sacrament. The Romans called tbe
oath which soldiers took to be true to their generd.
Sacrament um militare—a military oath ; and (Mr
law still uses it in this sense, dicunt svper smcrawuM-
turn suum — they say upon their oath ; so that, to take
the sacrament, is to take an oath, a solemn oath, by
which we bind our souls with a bond unto the Lord,
Numb. XXX. 2. It is an oath of allegiance ontotlK
Lord Jesus, by which we engage ourselves to be
his dutiful and loyal subjects, acknowledging biii
to be our rightful Lord and Sovereign. It is as a
freeman's oath, by which we enter ourselves mem-
bers of Christ's mystical body, and oblige ourselves
to observe the laws, and seek the good, of that Je-
rusalem which is from above, that we may enjoy tbe
privileges of that great charter by which it is incor-
porated. An oath is an appeal to God's knowledge
of our sincerity and truth in what we assert, or pro-
mise ; and in this ordinance we make such an ap-
peal as St. Peter did. Lord, thou knowesi all things;
thou knowest that I love thee, John xxi. 17. An oatb
is an imprecation of God's wrath upon ourselves, if
we deal falsely, and wilfully prevaricate : and some-
thing of that also there is in this sacrament; for if
we continue in league with sin, while we pretend
to covenant with God, we eat and drink judgment to
ourselves, 1 Cor. xi. 29.
Let us therefore, according to the character of a
virtuous man, (Eccl. ix. 2.) fear this oath : not fear
to take it ; for it is our duty, with all possible soleoi-
nity, to devote ourselves to the Lord ; but fear to
break it ; for oaths are not to be jested with, God
has said it, and has sworn it by himself, (Isa. xlv.
23.) Unto me every tongue shall swear; but he has
said also, (Jer. iv. 2.) that we must swear to him in
truth, in judgment, and in righteoumess ; and having
sworn, we must perform it, Ps. cxix. 106. If we
come to this sacrament carelessly and inconsiderate-
ly, we incur the guilt of rash swearing : if we go
away from this sacrament, and walk contrary to tbe
engagements of it, we incur the guilt of false swear-
ing. Even natural religion teaches men to make
conscience of an oath ; much more does the Chris-
tian religion teach us to make conscience of this
oath, to which God is not only a witness, but a party.
II. We call it the Lord's Supper, and very pro-
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
333
perly, for so the Scripture calls it, 1 Cor. xi. 20.
where the apostle, reproving the irregularities that
were among the Corinthians in the administration
of this ordinance, tells them, This is not to eat the
Lord's supper*
1. It is a supper. A supper is a stated meal for
the body ; this is so for the soul, which stands in as
much need of its daily bread as the body does.
Supper was then accounted the principal meal ;
this ordinance is so among Christ's friends, and in
his family it is the most solemn entertainment. It
is called a supper, because it was first instituted in
the evening, and at the close of the passover supper ;
which, though it tie not us always to administer it
about that time, because it would be inconvenient
for religious assemblies; yet it signifies, (1.) That
Christ now, in the end of the world, in the declining
part of its day, as the great evening sacrifice, has
appeared to put away sin, Heb. ix. 26. This glorious
discovery was reserved for us, upon whom the ends
of the world are come, 1 Cor. x. 11. (2.) That com-
fort in Christ is intended for those only who dwell
in God's house, who are night lodgers there, and not
only day visitants ; and for those only who have
done the work of the day, in its day, according as
the duty of every day required. They only that
work with Christ, shall eat with him. (3.) That the
chief blessings of the new covenant are reserved for
the evening of the day of our life. The everlasting
feast is a supper, designed for us when we have
accomplished as a hireling our day, and come home
at night.
2. It is the Lord's supper, the Lord Christ's sup-
per. The apostle, in his discourse concerning this
ordinance, (1 Cor. xi. 23, Sec.) all along calls Christ
the Lord, and seems to lay an emphasis on it. For
as the ordaining of this sacrament was an act of his
dominion, and as his churches' Lord he appointed
it ; so, in receiving this sacrament, we own his do-
minion, and acknowledge him to be our Lord. This
also puts an honour upon the ordinance, and makes
it look truly great, however to a carnal eye it have
no form nor comeliness, that it is the supper of the
Lord. The sanction of this ordinance is the autho-
rity of Christ ; the substance of this ordinance is
the grace of Christ. It is celebrated in obedience
to hi m, in remembrance of him, and for his praise.
Justly it is called the Lord's supper; for it is the
Lord Jesus that sends the invitation, makes the pro-
vision, gives, the entertainment. In it we feed upon
Christ, for he is the Bread of Life ; we feed with
Christ, for he is our Beloved, and our Friend, and
he it is that bids us welcome to his table. In it,
Christ sups with us, and we with him. He does us
the honoar to sup with us, though he must bring his
own entertainment along with him. He gives us
the happiness of supping with him upon the dainties
of heaven. Rev. iii.20.
Let our eye therefore be to the Lord, to the Lord
Christ, and to the remembrance of his name, in this
ordinance. We see nothing here, if we see not the
beauty of Christ ; we taste nothing here, if we taste
not the love of Christ The Lord must be looked
upon as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and
the end, and all in all in this solemnity. If we re-
ceive not Christ Jesus the Lord here, we have the
supper, but not the Lord's supper.
III. We call it the Communion, the Holy Commu-
nion. And justly do we call it so ; for,
1. In this ordinance we have communion with
Christ our head ; Truly our fellowship is with him,
1 John i. 3. He here manifests himself to us, and
gives out to us his graces and comforts : we here set
ourselves before him, and tender him the grateful
return of love and duty. A kind correspondence
betii^een Christ and our souls is kept up in this
ordinance; such as our present state will admit
Christ, by his word and Spirit, abides in us ; we,
by faith and love, abide in him. Here, therefore,
where Christ seals his word, and ofiers his Spirit,
and where we exercise our faith, and have our love
inflamed, there is communion between us and Christ
This communion supposes union ; this fellowship
supposes friendship ; for can two walh together except
they be agreed ? Amos iii. 3. We must therefore, in
the bond of an everlasting covenant, join ourselves
to the Lord, and entwine interests with him, and
then, pursuant thereto, concern him in all the con-
cerns of our happiness, and concern ourselves in all
the concerns of his glory ; and this is communion.
2. In this ordinance we have communion with the
universal church, even with till that in every place
call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs
and ours, 1 Cor. i. 2. Hereby we profess, testify,
and declare, that we being many, are one bread and
one body, by virtue of our common relation to one
Lord Jesus Christ ; for we are all partahers of that
one bread, Christ the bread of life, signified and com-
municated in the sacramental bread, 1 Cor. x. 17.
All true Christians, though they are many, yet tliey
are one, and we express our consent to, and compla-
cency in, that union, by partaking of the Lord's
supper. I say, though they are many, that is,
though they are numerous, yet as a vast number of
creatures make one world, governed by one provi-
dence, so a vast number of Christians make one
church, animated by one spirit, the soul of that great
body. Though they are various, far distant from
each other in place, of distinct societies, different
attainments, and divers apprehensions in lesser
things, yet all meeting in Christ they are one. They
are all incorporated in one and the same covenant,
and stamped with one and the same image, partakers
of the same new and divine nature, and all entitled
to one and the same inheritance. In the Lord's
supper we are made to drink into one spirit, (1 Cor.
3ai
.V
tHE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
xii. 13.) and therefore, in attending im that ordinance,
we are concerned not only to preserve, but to culti-
Tate and improve. Christian love and charity ; for
what will this badge of anion avail us, without the
unity of the Spirit
IV. We call it the Eucharist; so the Greek
church called it, and we from them. It signifies a
thanksgiving ; and it is so called,
1. Because Christ, in the institution of it, gave
thanks, 1 Cor. xi. 24. It should seem that Christ
frequently offered up his prayers in the form of
thanksgivings, John xi. 41. Father, I thank thee
that thou hast heard me ; and so he blessed the bread
and the cup, by giving thanks over them ; as the
true Melchisedec, who, when he brought forth bread
and wine to Abraham, blessed the Most High God,
Gen. xiv. 18, 20. Though our Saviour, when he in-
stituted the sacrament, had a full prospect of his
approaching sufferings, with all their aggravations,
yet he was not thereby indisposed for thanksgiving;
for praising God is a work that is never out of season.
Though the Captain of our salvation was now but
girding on the harness, yet he gives thanks as though
he had put it off, being confident of a glorious vic-
tory ; in the prospect of which, even before he took
the field, he did in this ordinhnce divide the spoils
among his followers, and gave gifts unto men, Ps.
Ixviii. 18.
2. Because we, in the participation of it, must give
thanks likewise. It is an ordinance of thanksgiving
appointed for the joyful celebrating of the Redeem-
er's praises. The sacrifice of atonement Christ
himself offered once for all, and it must not, it can-
not, be repeated ; but sacrifices of acknowledgment
Christians must offer daily, that is, the fruit of our
lips, giving thanks to his itame, Ileb. xiii. 15. The
cup of salvation must be a cup of blessing, with
which, and for which, we must biess God, as the
Jews were wont to do very solemnly at the close of
the passover supper ; at which time Christ chose to
institute this sacrament, because he intended it for
a perpetual thanksgiving, till we come to the world
of praise.
Come, therefore, and let us sing unto the Lord in
this ordinance ; let the high praises of our Redeemer
be in our mouths, and in our hearts. Would we
have the comfort, let him have the praise, of the great
things he has done for us. Let us remember, that
thanksgiving is the business of the ordinance, and
let that turn our complaints into praises ; for, what-
ever matter of complaint we find in ourselves, in
Christ we find abundant matter for praise ; and that
is the pleasant subject which in this ordinance we
should dwell upon.
V. We call it the Feast, the Christian Feast.
Christ our passover being sacrificed for us, in this or-
dinance we keep the feast, 1 Cor. v. 8. They who
communicate are said to feast with us, Jude 12. This
name, though not commonly used, yet is yeiy signi-
ficant ; for it is such a supper as is a feasL Gospel
preparations are frequently compared to a feast, as
Luke xiv. 16. The guests are many, the invitatioB
solemn, and the provision rich and plentiful, and
therefore fitly it is called a feast, a feast for souls.
A feast is made for laughter, Eccl. x. 19. so is this
for spiritual joy ; the wine here is designed to make
glad the heart. A feast is made for free conver-
sation, so is this for communion between heaven and
earth ; at this banquet of wine, the golden sceptre
is held out to us, and this fair proposal made, Wket
is thy petition, and it shall be granted thee I
Let us see what kind of feast it is.
1. It is a royal feast; a feast like ike feast oft
king, (1 Sam. xxv. 36.) that is, a magnificent feast,
like that of king Ahasuerus, (Eith. i. 3 — 6.) a feast
for all his servants, and designed, as that was, not
only to show his good will to those whom he feasted,
but to show the riches of his glorious kingdom, smd the
honour of his excellent majestg. The treasures hid
in Christ, even his unsearchable riches, are here set
open, and the glories of the Redeemer illustriously
displayed. He, who is King of kings, and Lord of
lords, here issues out the same orders that we find
him giving. Rev. xix. 16, 17. Come, gather yoursehts
together^ to the supper of tke great God; and that must
needs be a great supper. The wisest of kings intro-
duces Wisdom herself, as a queen or princess, mak-
ing this feast, (Prov. ix. 1, 2.) Wisdom hath killed
her beasts, and mi': g led her wine. At a royal feast
the provision, we may be sure, is rich and noble,
such as becomes a king to give, though not such as
wc beggars are to expect; the welcome also, we
may be sure, is free and generous: Christ gives like
a king.
Let us remember, that in this ordinance we sit to
eat with a Ruler, with the Ruler of rulers, and there-
fore must consider diligently what is before us, and ob-
serve decorum, Prov. xxiii. 1. He is a King that
comes in to see the guests, (Matt. xxii. 11.) and
therefore we are concerned to behave ourselves well.
2. It is a marriage feast : it is a feast made by a
king at the marriage of his son ; so our Saviour re-
presents it, (Matt. xxii. 2, 3.) not only to declare it
exceeding rich and sumptuous, and celebrated with
extraordinary expressions of joy and rejoicing, bat
because the covenant, here sealed between Christ
and his church, is a marriage covenant, such a cove-
nant as makes two one, (Eph. v. 31, ^.) a cove-
nant founded in the dearest love, founding the near-
est relation, and designed tabe perpetual. In this
ordinance, (1.) We celebrate the memorial of the
virtual espousals of the church of Christ, when be
died upon the cross, to sanctify and cleanse it, that
he might present it to himself, Eph. v. 26. That was
the day of his espousals, the day of the gladness of
his heart. (2.) The actual espousals of believing
^HE COMMUNICANTS COMPANION. ^
^'
335
louls to Christ are here solemnized, and that ag^ee-
Blent ratified, (Cant. ii. 16.) My Beloved i$ mine ^ and
f am his. The soul that renounces all other lovers
Rrhicb stand in competition with the Lord Jesus,
sind joins itself by faith and love to him only, is in
tills ordinance presented as a chaste virgin to him,
Z Cor. xi. 2. (3.) A pledge and earnest of the
public and complete espousals of the church of
Christ at his second coming, is here given : then the
marriage of the Lamb comet, (Rev. xix. 7.) and we,
according to his promise, hereby declare that we
look for it.
If we come to a marriage feast, we must not come
without a wedding garment, that is, a frame of heart
and a disposition of soul agreeable to the solemnity ;
conforming to the nature, and answering the inten-
tions, of the gospel, as it is exhibited to us in this
ordinance. Holy garments, and garments of praise,
are the wedding garments : put on Christ, put on
the new man, these are the wedding garments. In
these we must, with our lamps in our hands, as the
vrise virgins, go forth with all due observance, to
attend the royal bridegroom.
3. It is a feast of memorial, like the Feast of the
Passover, of which it is said, (Exod. xii. 14.) This
day shall be unto you for a memorial, and you shall
keep it a feast of the Lord a feast by an ordinance
for ever. The deliverance of Israel out of Egypt,
was a work of wonder never to be forgotten : the
feast of unleavened bread was therefore instituted
to be annually obser\ed throughout all the ages of
the Jewish church, as a solemn memorial of that
deliverance, that the truth of it, being confirmed by
this traditional evidence, might never be questioned,
and that the remembrance of it, being frequently
revived by this service, might never be lost by tract
of time. Our redemption by Christ from sin and hell,
is a greater work of wonder than that was, more
worthy to be remembered, and yet (the benefits that
flow from it being spiritual) more apt to be forgotten :
this ordinance was therefore instituted, (and insti-
tated In the close of the Passover Supper, as coming
in the room of it,) to be a standing memorial in the
church of the glorious achievements of the Re-
deemer's cross, the victories obtained by it over the
l)owers of darkness, and the salvation wrought by
it for the children of light Thus the Lord hath
made his wonderful works to be remembered, Ps.
Gxi. 4.
4. It is a feast of dedication. Solomon made
such a feast for all Israel, when he dedicated the
temple, (1 Kings viii. 65.) as his father David had
done, when he brought the ark into the tabernacle,
2 Sam. vi. 19. Even the children of the captivity
kept the dedication of the house of God with joy,
Ezra vi. 10. In the ordinance of the Lord's supper
we dedicate ourselves to God as living temples,
temples of the Holy Ghost, separated from every
thing that is common and profane, and entirely
devoted to the service and honour of God in Christ ;
to show that we do this with cheerfulness and full
satisfaction ; and, that it may be done with an
agreeable solemnity, this feast is appointed for the
doing of it, that we may, like the people of Israel,
w^hen Solomon dismissed them from his feast of
dedication, go to our tents joyful and glad of hearty
for all the goodness that the Lord has done for David
his servant, and for Israel his people,
5. It is a feast upon a sacrifice. This mcthinks Is
as proper a notion of it as any other. It was the
law and custom of sacrifices, both among the Jews,
and in other nations, that whe^ the peace-ofiering
was slain, the blood sprinkled, the fat, and some
select parts of it, burnt upon the altar, and the priest
had his share out of it; then the remainder was given
back to the ofi'erer, on which he and his family and
friends feasted with joy. Hence we read of Israel
after the flesh, eating the sacrifices, and so partaking
of the altar, (I Cor. x. 18.) that is, in token of their
partaking of the benefits of the sacrifice, and their
joy therein. And this eating of the sacrifices was
a religious rite, expressive of their communion with
God in and by the sacrifice.
Now, (1.) Jesus Christ is the great and only sacri-
fice, who by being once offered, perfected for ever
them which are sanctified, and this offering never needs
to be repeated ; that once was sufficient.
(2.) The Lord's supper is a feast upon this sacri-
fice, in which we receive the atonement, as the ex-
pression is; (Rom. v. 11.) that is, we give consent to,
and take complacency in, the method which Infinite
Wisdom has taken of justifying and saving us, by
the merit and mediation of the Son of God incarnate.
In feasting upon the sacrifice, we apply the benefit
of it to ourselves, and ascribe the praise of it to God
with joy and thankfulness.
6. It is a feast upon a covenant The covenant
between Isaac and Abimelech was made with a
feast, (Gen. xxvi. 30, 31.) so was that between Laban
and Jacob, (Gen. xxxi. 46, 64.) and the feasting
upon the sacrifices was a federal rite, in token of
peace and communion between God and his people.
In the Lord's supper we are admitted to feast with
God, in token of reconciliation between us and him
through Christ. Though we have provoked God,
and been enemies to him in our minds by wicked
works, yet he thus graciously provides for us, to
show that now he has reconciled us to himself. Col.
i. 21. His enemies hungering, he thus feeds them ;
thirsting, he thus gives them drink ; which, if like
coals of fire heaped upon their heads, it melt them
into a compliance with the terms of his covenant,
they shall thenceforth, as his own familiar friends,
eat bread at his table continually, till they come to
sit down with him at his table in his kingdom.
336
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
CHAPTER II.
THE NATURE OF THIS ORDINANCR.
When the Jews, according to 6od*s appointment,
observed the passover yearly throughout their gene-
rations, it was supposed their children would ask
them. What mean ye by this service ? And they were
directed what answer to give to that inquiry, Exod.
xii. 26, 27. The question may very fitly be asked
concerning our gospel passovcr. What mean ye by
this service? We come together in a public and
select assembly of baptized Christians, under the
conduct and presidency of a gospel minister ; we
take bread and wine, sanctified by the word and
prayer, and we eat and drink together in a solemn
religious manner, with an eye to a divine institution,
as our warrant and rule in so doing : this we do
often ; this all the churches of Christ do, and have
done in every age from the death of Christ down to
this day, and we doubt not but it will continue to bo
done till time shall be no more. Now what is the
true intent and meaning of this ordinance ? What
did Christ design it for in the institution, and what
must we aim at in the observance, of it ?
It was appointed to be a commemorating ordi-
nance, and a confessing ordinance ; a communicat-
ing ordinance, and a covenanting ordinance.
I. The ordinance of the Lord's supper is a com-
memorating ordinance. This explication our Lord
himself gave of it when he said, (Luke xxii. 19.)
Do this in remembrance of me. Etg rt|v tfttiv avafivriotv^^
do it for a memorial, do it for a remembrance^ of me.
In this ordinance he has recorded his name for ever,
and this is his memorial throughout all generations.
We are to do this,
1. In remembrance of the person of Christ, as an
absent friend of ours. It is a common ceremony
of friendship, to lay up;something in remembrance
of a friend we have valued, which, we say, we keep
for his sake, when he is gone, or is at a distance ; as
it is usual likewise to drink to one another, remem-
bering such a friend that is absent. Jesus Christ is
our beloved, and our friend ; the best friend that
ever souls had : he is now absent ; he has left the
world and is gone to the Father, and the heavens
must contain him till the time of the restitution of
all things. Now this ordinance is appointed for a
remembrance of him. We observe it in token of
this, that though the blessed Jesus be out of sight,
he is not out of mind. He that instituted this ordi-
nance, did as it were engrave this upon it for a
motto, •
When this you see,
Remember me.
Remember him ! Is there any danger of our for-
getting him ? If we were not wretchedly taken up
with the world and the flesh, and strangely carelesi
in the concerns of our souls, we could not forget him.
But, in the consideration of the treachery of our
memories, this ordinance is appointed to remind us
of Christ.
Ought we not to remember, and can we ever for-
get, such a friend as Christ is ? a friend that is our
near and dear relation ; bone of our bone, and
flesh of our flesh, and not ashamed to call as bre-
thren ? A friend in covenant with us, who puts more
honour upon us than we deserve, when he calls as
his servants ; and yet is pleased to call us friends.
John XT. 15. a friend that has so wonderfully sig-
nalized his friendship and commendetl his love?
He has done that for us, which no friend we have
in the world did, or could do for us ; he has laid
down his life for us then, when the redemption of
our souls was grown so precious, as otherwise to
have ceased for ever. Surely we must forget our-
selves, if ever we forget him, since our happiness is
entirely owing to his kindness
Ought we not to remember, and can we ever for-
get, a friend who, though he be absent from as, is
negociating our affairs, and is really absent for as?
He is gone, but he is gone upon our business ; as
the forerunner, he is for us entered : he is gone to
appear in the presence of God for us, as our advocate;
is gone to prepare a place for us, as our agent May
we be unmindful of him, who is always mindful of
us ; and who, as the great High Priest of oar pro-
fession, bears the names of all his spiritual Israel on
his breastplate, near his heart, within the veil ?
Ought we not to remember, and can we ever for-
get, a friend, who though he now be absent, will be
absent but a while ? We see him not, but we expect
to see him shortly, when he will come in the clouds,
and every eye shall sec him ; will come to receive
us to himself, to share m his joy and glory. Shall
we not be glad of any thing that helps us to remem-
ber him, who not only remembered us once in oar
low estate, but, having once remembered ns, will
never forget us ? Shall not his name be written in
indelible characters upon the tables of onr hearts,
who has graven us upon the palms rf his ktmdsf
Surely we must continually remember oar Judge and
Lord, when behold. The Lord is at hmnd, and the
Judge standeth before the door. Thus mast we show
him forth till he comes ; for he comes qaickly.
2. We are to do this in remembrance of the death
of Christ, as ai^ ancient favour done as. This oidi-
nance was instituted in the night wherein oar Master
was betrayed, (that night of observatiom, as the first
passover night is called, Exod. xii. 42.) which inti-
mates the special reference this ordinance was to have
to that which was done that night and the day fol-
lowing. In it we are to know Christ and him crnci-
fied, (1 Cor. ii. 2.) and to remember his aoffertogs,
to remember his bonds in a special manner. AH
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
337
the saints and all the cbarches could not see Christ
upon the cross, therefore in this ordinance that great
transaction is set before us, upon which the judg-
ment of this world turned, (John xii. 31.) Now is the
judgment of this world.
Here we remember the dying of the Lord Jesus ;
that is,
(1.) We endeavour to preserve the memory of it
in the church, and to transmit it pure and entire
through our age, to the children which shall be cre-
ated ; that the remembrance of it may be ever fresh,
and may not die in our hands. That good thing
which was committed to us as a trust, we must thus
carefully keep, and faithfully deliver down to the
next generation ; evidencing that we firmly believe
and frequently think of Christ's dying for us, and
desiring that those who shall come after us may do
so too
(2.) We endeavour to revive and excite the re-
membrance of it in our own hearts. The ordinance
was intended to stir up our pure minds, (our impure
minds we have too much reason to call them,) by way
of remembrance J as the expression is, 2 Pet. iii. 1.
That giving so earnestly heed to the things that be-
long to the great salvation, as the solemnity of this
ordinance calls for, we may not at any time let them
shp, or, if we do, we may in the use thereof speedily
recover them, Heb. ii. 1, 3. The instituted images
of Christ crucified are in this ordinance very strong
and lively, and proper to make deep impressions
of his gprace and love upon the minds which are pre-
pared to receive them, and such as cannot be worn
out.
We see then what we have to do in our attendance
Qpon this ordinance; we must remember the suflfer-
ingB of Christ there, else we do nothing.
[1.] This supposes some acquaintance with Christ
erucified ; for we caunot be said to remember that
which we never knew. The ignorant therefore, to
whom the great things of the gospel are as a strange
thing, which they are not concerned to acquaint
themselves with, cannot answer the intention of this
ordinance ; but they offer the blind for sacrifice,
not discerning the Lord's body, and the breaking of
it It concerns us therefore to cry after this know-
ledge, and to labour after a clearer insight into the
mystery of our redemption by the death of Christ :
for, if we be ignorant of this, and rest in false and
confused notions of it, we are unworthy to wear the
Christian name, and to live in a Christian nation.
[2.] It implies a serious thought and contempla-
tion of the sufferings of Christ, such as is fed and
supplied with matter to work upon, not from a strong
fancy, bat from a strong faith. Natural passions
maybe raised, by the power of imagination represent-
ing the stofy of Christ's sufferings as very doleful
and tragieal, bat pious and devout affections are
best kindled by the consideration of Christ's dying
as a propitiation for our sins, and the Saviour of our
souls ; and this is the object of faith, not of fancy.
We must here look unto Jesus, as he is lifted up in
the gospel, take him as the word makes him, and so
behold him.
[3.] This contemplation of the sufferings of Christ
must make such an impression upon the soul, as to
work it into a fellowship with, and conformity to,
Christ in his sufferings. This was the knowledge
and remembrance of Christ which blessed Paul was
ambitious of, to know Christ, and the fellowship of
his sufferings, (Phil. iii. 10.) and we all by our bap-
tism arc in profession planted together in the like-
ness of his death, Rom. vi. 5. Then we do this in
remembrance of Christ effectually, when we experi-
ence the death of Christ killing sin in us, mortify-
ing the flesh, weaning us from this present life,
weakening vicious habits and dispositions in us,
and the power of Christ's cross, both as a moral ar-
gument, and as the spring of special grace, crucify-
ing us to the world, and the world to us. Gal. vi. 14*
When, in touching the hen. of his garment, we find
(like that good woman, Mark v. 27.) virtue comet
out of him to beat our souls, then wc rightly remem-
ber Christ crucified.
II. It is a confessing ordinance. If the heart be-
lieve unto righteousness, hereby confession is made unto
salvation, Rom. x. 10. The Lord's supper is one of
the peculiarities of our holy religion, by the observ-
ance of which, the professors of it are distinguished
from all others. Circumcision, which was the initi-
ating ordinance among the Jews, by leaving its mark
in the flesh, was a lasting badge of distinction ;
baptism, which succeeds it, leaves no such indelible
character in the body ; but the Lord's supper is a
solemnity by which we constantly avow the Chris-
tian name, and declare ourselves not ashamed of the
banner of the cross, under which we were listed,
but resolve to continue Christ's faithful servants and
soldiers to our lives' end, according to our baptismal
vow.
In the ordinance of the Lord's supper we are said
to show the Lord's death, (1 Cor. xi. 26.) that is,
1. We hereby profess our value and esteem for
Christ crucified. KarayyiXXtre, — ye show it forth,
with commendation and praise, so the word some-
times signifies. The cross of Christ was to the Jews
a stumbling-block, because they expected a Messiah
in temporal pomp and power. It was to the Greeks
foolishness, because the doctrine of man's justifica-
tion and salvation by it was not agreeable to their
philosophy. The wisdom of this world, and the
princes of it, judged it absurd to expect salvation
by one that died a captive, and honour by one that
died in disgrace ; and turned it to the reproach of
Christians, that they were the disciples and follow-
ers of one that was hanged upon a tree at Jerusalem.
They who put him to such an ignominious death,
338
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
and loaded him with all the shame they could put
upon him, hoped therehy to make every one shy of
owning him, or expressing^ any respect for him : but
the wisdom of God so ordered it, that the cross of
Christ is that which above any thing else Christians
have cause to glory in, Gal. vi. 14. Such are the
fruits, the purchases, the victories, the triumphs of
the cross, that we have reason to call it our crown
of glory, and diadem of beauty. The politicians
thought it had been the interest of Christ's follow-
ers to have concealed their Lord's death, and that
they should have endeavoured to bury it in forget-
fulness ; but instead of that, they appointed to show
forth their Lord's death, and to keep it in everlasting
remembrance before angels and men.
This then wc mean, when we receive the Lord's
supper : we thereby solemnly declare, that we do
not reckon the cross of Christ any reproach to Chris-
tianity, and that we are so far from being ashamed
of it, that, whatever constructions an unthinking,
unbelieving world may put upon it, to us it is the
wisdom of God, and the power of God ; it is all our
salvation, and all our desire. We think never the
worse of Christ's holy religion, for the ignominious
death of its great author ; for we see God in it glo-
rified, man by it saved. Then it the offence of the
cross ceased ; then is the reproach of it rolled away
forever.
2. We hereby profess our dependence upon, and
confidence in, Christ crucified. As we are not
ashamed to own him, so we arc not afraid to venture
Our souls, and their eternal salvation, with him;
believing him abfe to save to the uttermost all that
come to God by him, and as willing as he is able ;
and making confession of tliat faith. By this solemn
rite, wc deliberately and of choice put ourselves
under the protection of his righteousness, and the
influence of his grace, and the conduct and opera-
tion of his Holy Spirit. The concerns that lie be-
tween us and God, are of vast consequence ; our
eternal weal or woe depends upon the right manage-
ment of them: now hereby we solemnly declare, that
having laid them near our own hearts, in a serious
care about them, wc choose to lodge them in the
Redeemer's hands, by a judicious faith in him, which
we can give a good reason for. God having declared
himself well pleased in him, we hereby declare our-
selves well pleased in him too : God having com-
mitted all judgment to the Son, wc hereby commit
all our judgment to him likewise, as the sole referee
of the great cause, and the sole trustee of the great
concern ; hnowing whom we have believed, even one
who is able, and faithful, to heep what we have com-
mitted to him against that datj, that great day when
it will be called for, 2 Tim. i. 12.
Thi« then we mean, wheh wc receive the Lord's
supper : we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and
own ourselves to be his subjects, and put ourselves
under his government : we confess that he is a skil-
ful physician, and own ourselves to be his patienta.
resolving to observe his prescriptions : wc confess
that he is a faithful advocate, and own ourselves to
be his clients, resolving to be advised by him in
every thing. In a word, in this ordinance wc pro-
fess that we are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ
nor of the cross of Christ ; in which his gospel is
all summed up ; knowing it to be the power of God
unto salvation, to all them that believe, Rom. L 16.
and having found it so to us.
III. It is a communicating ordinance. Here are
not only gospel truths represented to us, and con-
fessed by us, but gospel benefits offered to us, and
accepted by us ; for it is not only a faithful saying,
but well worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus
died to save sinners, 1 Tim. i. 15. This is the ex-
plication which the apostle gives of this ordinance,
(1 Cor. X. 16.) The cup of blessing which we bless,
that is, which we pray to God to bless, which wc
bless God with and for, and in which we hope and
expect that God will bless us, it is the communion
(vMwvia — the communication) of the blood of Christ:
the bread which we break is the communion, or commu-
nication, of the body of Christ, which was not only
broken for us upon the cross, when it was made an
ofiering for sin, but it is broken to us, as the chil-
dren's bread is broken to the children, in the ever-
lasting gospel, wherein it is made the food of souls.
By the body and blood of Christ, which this ordi-
nance is the communion of, we are to understand
all those precious benefits and privileges, which
were purchased for us by the death of Christ, and
are assured to us upon the gospel terms in the ever-
lasting covenant. When the sun is said to be with
us, and wc say we have the sun, as in the day, as in
the summer, it is not the body and bulk of the sun
that we have, but his rays and beams are darted
down upon us, and by them we receive the light,
warmth, and influence of the sun ; and thus the sun
is communicated to us, according to the law of cre-
ation: so, in this ordinance, we are partakers of
Christ; (Heb. iii. 14.) not of his real body and
blood, it is senseless and absurd, unchristian and
inhuman, to imagine so ; but of his merit and right-
eousness for our justification, his spirit and grace
for our sanctification. We must not dream of
ascending up into heaven, or of going down to the
deep, to fetch Christ into this ordinance, that we
may partake of him : no, the word is nigh thee, and
Christ in the word, Rom. x. 6 — 8.
Unworthy receivers, that is, those who resolve to
continue in sin. because grace has abounded, par- ^
take of the guilt of Christ's body and blood, and
have communion with those who cracified him ; for,
as much as in them lies, they crucify him afresh^ Heb.
vi. 6. What they do, speaks such ill thoughts of
Christ, that we may conclude, if they had been at
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
999
Jerusalem when be was put to death, they would
have joined with those that cried, Crucify him, cru-
cify hhn.
But humble and penitent believers partake of the
blessed fruits of Christ's death ; his body and blood
are their food, their physic, their cordial, their life,
their all. All the riches of the gospel are virtually
in them.
1 . Christ, and all his benefits, arc here communi-
cated to us. Here is not only bread and ¥rine set
before us to be looked at, but given to us to be eaten
and drank ; not only Christ made known to us, that
wc may contemplate the mysteries of redemption,
but Christ made over to us, that we may participate
of the benefits of redemption. God, In this ordi-
nance, not only assures us of the truth of the pro-
mise, but, according to our present case and capa-
cit}', conveys to us by his Spirit the good things
promised. Receive Christ Jesus the Lord, Christ and
a pardon, Christ and peace, Christ and grace, Christ
and heaven : it is all your own, if you come up to
the terms on which it is offered in the gospel.
Fountains of life are here broken up, wells of
salvation are here opened ; the stone rolled away
from the well's mouth, and you are called upon to
come and draw water with joy. The well is deep ;
but this ordinance is a bucket, by which it is easy
to draw. Let us not forsake these living streams
for puddle water. Breasts of consolation are here
drawn out to us, from which we may suck and be
satisfied. These arc wisdom's gates, where we are
appointed to wait for wisdom's gifts : and we shall
not wait in vain.
2. Christ, and all his benefits, are here to be re-
ceived by us. If we do indeed answer the intention
of the ordinance, in receiving the bread and wine,
we accept the offer that is made us : " Lord, I take
thee at thy word ; be it unto thy servant according
to it." Wc hereby interest ourselves in Christ's
mediation between God and man, and take the
benefit of it, according to the tenor of the everlast-
ing gospel. Christ, in this ordinance, is graciously
condescending to show us the print of the nails, and
the mark of the spear, to show us his pierced hands,
his pierced side, those tokens of his love and power
as Redeemer : we, by partaking of it, comply with
his intentions, we consent to him, and close with
him, saying, as Thomas did, (John xx. 28.) My Lord,
tmd my God ! None but Christ. None but Christ
We here, likewise, set ourselves to participate of
that spiritual strength and comfort, which through
grace flow into the hearts of believers, from their
interest in Christ crucified. The gospel of Christ
here solemnly exhibited, is meat and drink to our
souls ; it is bread, that strengthens man's heart, and
is the staff of life; it is wine, that makes glad the
heart, and levives the spirit. Our spiritual life is
lapported and maintained, and the new man eh-
f 2
abled for its work and conflicts, by the spiritual
benefits which here we communicate of, as the
natural life and the natural body is by our necessary
food. From the fulness that is in Christ crucified,
we here derive grace for grace ; g^ce for gracious
exercises, as the branches derive sap from the root,
and as the lamps derive oil from the olive-tree,
(Zech. iv. 11, 12. John i. 16.) and so, like healthy
growing children, are nuunslied up m the words of
faith and of good doctrine, (1 Tim. iv. 6.) till we are
come to the perfect man, to the measure of the stature
of the fulness of Christ. Thus it is our communion
with, and communicating, Christ's body and blood.
rV. It is a covenanting ordinance. This cup,
our Saviour tells us, (that is, this ordinance,) is the
New Testament, (Luke xxii. 20.) not only pertaining
to the New Testament, but containing it : it has the
whole New Testament in it, and is the sum and sub-
stance of it. The word ita^tini signifies both a
testament, and a cotfcnant: in general, it is an instru-
ment, by which a right passes and is conveyed, and
a title to some good thing given. The gospel reve-
lation of God's grace and will, is both a testament
and a covenant ; and the Lord's supper has a refer-
ence to it, as both.
1. It is the new testament. The everlasting gos*
pel is Christ's last will, by which he has given and
bequeathed a great estate to his family on earth,
with certain precepts and injunctions, and under
certain provisos and limitations. This will is be-
come of force by the death of the Testator ^ (Heb. ix.
16, 17.) and is now unalterable : it is proved in the
court of heaven, and administration given to the
blessed Spirit, who is as the executor of the will ;
for of him the Testator said, (John xvi. 14.) ffe shall
receive of mine, and show it unto you. Christ having
purchased a great estate by the merit of his death,
by his testament he left it all to his poor relations,
who have need enough of it, and for whom he bought
it; so that all those who can prove themselves
related to Christ, by their being born from above,
(John iii. 3.) their partaking of a divine nature, (2
Pet. i. 4.) and their doing the will of God, (Matt
xii. 50.) may claim the estate by virtue of the will,
and shall be sure of a present maintenance, and a
future inheritance out of it.
The Lord's supper is this new testament, it is not
only a memorial of the Testator's death, but is the
seal of the testament. A true copy of it, attested by
this seal, and pleadable, is hereby given into the
hands of every believer, that he may have strong
consolation. The general record of the New Testa-
ment, which is common to all, is hereby made par-
ticular.
(1.) The charge given by the will is hereby applied
and enforced to us. The Testator has charged us to
remember him, has charged us to follow him whither-
soever he goes ; he has charged us to love one ano-
340
THE COMMUNICANTS COMPANION.
ther, (John xiii. 34.) and the estate he has left us is
80 devised, as not to give any occasion to quarrel,
but rather to be a bond of union. He has charged
us to espouse his cause, serve his interest, and con-
cern ourselves in his concernments in the world, to
seek the welfare of the great body, and all the mem-
bers of it. He has likewise charged us to expect
and prepare for his second coming: his word of
command is. Watch, Now in the Lord's supper we
are reminded of this charge, and bound afresh faith-
fully to observe whatsoever Christ has commanded,
as the Rechabites kept the command of their father,
Jer. XXXV. 6, 8.
(2.) The legacies left by the will are hereby parti-
cularly consigned to us ; paid in part, and the rest
secured to be paid when we come to age, even at the
time appointed by the Testator. What is left for us
is not only sufficient to answer the full intention of
the will, enough for all, enough for each, but it is
left in good bands, in the hands of the Spirit of truth,
who will not deal unfaithfully with is ; for, as Christ
tells us, (John xiv. 17.) We know him. Nay. Christ
himself is risen from the dead, to be the overseer
of his own will, and to see it duly executed, so that
we are in no danger of losing our legacies, unless by
our own default. These are good securities, and
what we may with abundant satisfaction rely upon ;
and yet our Lord Jesus, more ahundnntly to show to
the heirs of promise the immortality of his counsel^ has
eon firmed it by an oath, (by a sacrament, which is his
oath to us, as well as ours to him,) that by all those
immutable things, in which it is impossible foi' God to
lie, we might have strong consolation, who have ven-
tured our all in the New Testament, Heb. vi. 17, 18.
2. It is the new covenant. Though God
is our sovereign Lord and Owner, and we are in his
hand as the clay in the hands of the potter, yet he
condescends to deal with us about our reconciliation
and happiness in the way of a covenant, that they
which are saved may be the more comforted, and
they which perish may be rendered the more inex-
cusable. The tenor of this covenant is, (Acts xvi.
31.) Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved. Salvation is the great promise of the cove-
nant, believing in Christ the great condition of the
covenant. Now this cup is the covenant, that is, it
is the seal of the covenant. There seems to be an
allusion to that solemnity which we read of, Exod.
xxiv. 7, 8. Moses read the book of the covenant in
the audience of the people, and the people declared
their consent to it, saying. All that the Lord hath
said we will do, and will be obedient : and then Moses
took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people,
part of it having before been sprinkled on the altar,
and said. Behold the blood of the covenant, which the
Lord hath made with you, concerning all these words.
Thus the covenant being made by sacrifice, (Ps. 1. 5.)
and the blood of the sacrifice being sprinkled both
upon the altar of God, and upon the representatives
of the people, both parties did, as it were, inter-
changeably put their hands and seals to the articles
and agreement. So the blood of Christ having sa-
tisfied for the breach of the covenant of innocency,
and purchased a new treaty, and being the sacrifice
by which the covenant is made, is fitly called, Th
blood of the covenant. Having sprinkled this blood
upon the altar in his intercession, when by his own
blood he entered in once into the holy place, he doei
in this sacrament sprinkle it upon the people : as
the apostle explains this mystery, Heb. ix. 12—20.
A bargain is a bargain, though it be not sealed,
but the sealing is the ratification and perfection of
it. The internal seal of the covenant, as adminis-
tered to true believers, is the Spirit of promise,
(Eph. i. 13.) whereby we are sealed to the day of re-
demption, Eph. iv. 30. But the external seals of the
covenant, as administered in the visible church, are
the sacraments, particularly this of the Lord's sap-
per. Sealing ordinances are appointed to make our
covenant with God the more solemn, and consequent*
ly the more affecting, and the impressions of it the
more abiding. The covenant of grace is the cove-
nant never to be forgotten, (Jer. y. 50.) This ordi-
nance therefore was instituted to assure as that God
never will forget it, and to assist us that we never
may forget it. It is the seal of the new covenant,
that is,
(1.) God docs in and by this ordinance seal to us
to be to us a God. This article of the covenant \%
inclusive of all the rest : in giving himself to us, to be
ours, he gives us all things, for he is God all-suffi-
cient. This is the grant, the royal grant, which tbe
Eternal God here seals, and delivers to true believ-
ers, as his act and deed. He gives himself to them,
and empowers them to call him theirs. What God
is in himself, he will be to them for their good. His
wisdom is theirs, to counsel and direct them ; bis
power is theirs, to protect and support them ; bis
justice is theirs, to justify them; his holiness is
theirs, to sanctify them ; his goodness theirs, to love
and supply them ; his truth is the inviolable seca-
rity of the promise ; and his eternity the perpetuity
of their happiness. He will be to them a Father,
and they shall be his sons and daughters, dignified
by the privileges of adoption, and distinguished by
the Spirit of adoption. Their Maker is their Hus-
band, and he has said, that he is married to them,
and rejoices in them as the bridegroom in his bride,
Isa. Ixii. 4, 5. The Lord is their Shepherd, and
the sheep of his pasture shall not want. He is tbe
portion of their inheritance in the other world, as
well as of their cup in this ; he has prepared for them
a city, and therefore is not ashamed to be called
their God, Heb. xi. 16. compare Luke xx. 37.
(2.) We do in and by this ordinance se«l to him,
to be to him a people. We accept the relation by
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
341
oor voluntary choice and consent, and bind our souls
with a bond, that we will approve ourselves to him
in the relation. We hereby resign, surrender, and
give up our whole selves, body, soul, and spirit, to
God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, covenanting
and promising that we will by his strength serve
him faithfully, and walk closely with him in all
manner of gospel obedience all our days. Claiming
the blessings of the covenant, we put ourselves
under the bonds of the covenant. O Lord^ truly I
am thy servant^ I am thy servant ; wholly, and only,
and for ever thine. And this is the meaning of this
service.
CHAPTER HI.
AN INVITATION TO THIS ORDINANCE.
Plentiful and suitable provision is made in this
ordinance, out of the treasures of the Redeemer's
grace ; and ministers, as servants, are sent to bid
to the feast ; to invite those whom the Master of the
feast has designed for his guests, and to hasten those
who are invited to this banquet ofwine^ alluding to
(Esth. vi. 14.) Wisdom has sent forth her maidens
on this errand, and they have words put into their
mouths, (Luke xiv. 17.) Come^for all things are now
ready : This is our message.
I. We are to tell you all things are ready, now
ready ; He that hath an ear, let him hear this. All
things are now ready in the gospel feast, that are
proper for, or will contribute to, the full satisfaction
of an immortal soul, that knows its own nature and
interest, and desires to be truly and eternally happy,
in the love and favour of its Creator.
1. All things are ready ; all things requisite to a
noble feast. Let us a little improve the metaphor.
(1.) There is a house ready for the entertainment
of the guests, the gospel church. Wisdom's house,
which she has built upon seven pillars, Prov. ix. 1.
God has set up his tabernacle among men, and the
place of this tent is enlarged, and made capacious
enough, so that, though the table has been replen-
ished with guests, yet there is room, Luke xiv. 22.
(2.) There is a table ready spread in the word and
ordinances, like the table in the temple on which
the shew-bread was placed, a loaf for every tribe
The Scripture is written, the canon of it completed,
and in it a full declaration made of God's good-will
towards men ; which he that runs may read.
(3.) There are lavers ready for us to wash in ; as
at the marriage feast in Cana, there were six water-
pots set for purification, (John ii. 6.) lest the sense of
pollutions contracted should deter us from the par-
ticipation of these comforts. Behold, there is a
fountain opened, (Zech. xiii. 1.) come and wash in
it, that being purged from an evil conscience by the
blood of Jesus, you may with humble confidence
compass God's altar.
(4.) There are servants ready to attend you ; and
those are the ministers, whose work it is to direct
you to the table, and to give to every one their portion
of meat in due season ; rightly dividing the word of
truth. They are not masters of the feast, but only
stewards, and your servants for Chrises sake, 2 Cor.
iv. 6.
(5.) There is a deal of company already come ;
many have accepted the invitation, and have found
a hearty welcome ; why then should your place be
empty ? Let the communion of saints invite you into
communion with Christ.
(6.) A blessing is ready to be craved. He is ready,
that is, to bless the sacrifice, 1 Sam. ix. 13. The
great High Priest of our profession, ever living to
intercede for us, and attending continually to this
very thing, is ready to command a blessing upon
our spiritual food.
(7.) The Master of the feast is ready to bid you
welcome ; as ready as the father of the prodigal was
to receive his repenting, returning son, whom he
saw when he was yet a great way off, Luke xv. 20.
God's ear is open to hear^ his hand open to give,
Isa. Ixv. 24.
(8.) The provisiopn is ready for your entertain-^
ment: All things are ready. [1.] For our justifica-
tion. Divine justice is satisfied, an everlasting
righteousness is brought in ; an act of indemnity has
passed the royal assent, and a pardoning office is
erected, where all that can make it appear that they
are interested in the general act, may sue out their
particular charter of pardon. There is a plea ready,
an advocate ready ; Behold, he is near that justifieth
us, Isa. 1. 8. [2.] For our sanctifi cation. There is
^fulness of grace in Christ, from which we may all
receive. The word of grace is ready as the means ;
the Spirit of grace is ready as the author ; every
thing ready for the mortifying of sin, the confirming
of faith, and our furtherance in holiness. [3.] For
our consolation. A well of living water is ready, if
we can but sec it ; peace is left us for a legacy,
which we may claim if we will; promises are given
for our support, which, if we have not the benefit of,
it is our own fault. There is something in the new
covenant to obviate every grief, every challenge,
every fear, if we will use it. [4.] For our salvation;
ready to be revealed, I Pet. i. 5. Angels upon the
wing arc ready to convoy us ; Jesus, standing at the
Father's right hand, is ready to receive us; the
many mansions are ready prepared for us. All things
are ready.
2. All things are now ready, just now; for, be-
hold, now is the accepted time, 2 Cor. vi. 2.
(I.) All things are now readier than they were
under the law. Grace then lay more hid than it
343
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
does now, when life and immortality are brought to
so clear a light by the gospeL Christ in a sacrament,
is much readier than Christ in a sacnfice.
(2.) All things are now readier than they will be
shortly if we triOc away the present season. Now
the door of mercy stands open, and we are invited
to come and enter ; but it will shortly be shut. Now
the golden sceptre is held out, and we are called to
come and touch the top of it; but it will be other-
wise, when the days of our probation are numbered
and finished, and he that now says. Come for a bless-
ing, will say, Depart with a curse.
II. We must call you to come : this is now the
call. Come, come. The Spirit says, Come ; and the
bride says, Cotne; Rev. xxii. 17. Come to Christ
in the first place, and then come to this ordinance.
All things are ready ; be not you unready.
This exhortation must be directed to three sorts of
persons. 1. Those who are utterly unmeet for this
ordinance, must be exhorted to qualify themselves,
and then come. 2. Those who, through grace, are
in some measure meet for this ordinance, must be
exhorted speedily to enter themselves. 3. Those
who have entered themselves, must be exhorted to
be constant in their attendance upon it
1. I must apply myself to those, who by their ig-
norance, profaneness, irreligion, or reigning world-
liness, put a bar in their own way, and may not be
admitted to this ordinance. If these lines should
fall under the eye of any such, let them know that I
have a message to them from God, and I must de-
liver it, whether they will hear, or whether they for'
bear.
Dost thou live a carnal wicked life, in the service
of sin and Satan, without fear, and without God in
the world ? Light is come into the world ; and dost
thou love darkness rather, not knowing, nor desiring
to know, the way of the Lord, and the judgment of
thy God ? Art thou a drunkard, a swearer, a sabbath-
breaker? Art thou an adulterer, a fornicator, or un-
clean person ? Art thou a liar, a deceiver, a railer,
or a contentious person? Art thou a mere drudge to
the world, or a slave to any base lust ? Does thy own
conscience tell thee. Thou art the man ; or would it
not tell thee so, if thou wouidst suffer it to deal
faithfully with thee ?
(1.) Know then, that thou hast no part nor lot in
this matter. While thou continuest thus, thou art not
an invited guest to this feast ; the servants dare not
bid thee welcome, for they know the Master will not,
but will ask thee, Friend, how camest thou in hither?
What hast thou to do to take God's covenant, and the
seal of it, into thy movth, seeing thou hatest insti-uc-
tion ? Read that Scripiure, and hear God speaking
to thee in it, Ps. 1. 16, &c. // is not meet to take the
children's bread and cast it to dogs. Thou art for-
bidden to touch these sacred things with thine un-
hallowed hands ; for what communion has Christ
with Belial ? If thou thrust thyself upon this ordi-
nance, while thou continuest under such a charac-
ter, instead of doing honour to the Lord Jesus, thoa
puttest a daring afi'ront upon him, as if he were alto-
gether such a one as thyself: instead of fetching in
any true comfort to thy own soul, thou dost bot
aggravate thy guilt and condemnatioii ; thy heart
will be more hardened, thy conscience more seared,
Satan's strong holds more fortified, and thou eatest
and drinkest judgment to thyself, not duceming tie
Lord's body, not putting a difference between (bis
bread and other bread, but trampling underfoot tkt
blood of the covenant, as a profane and common thinj^.
(2.) Know also, that thy condition is very miser-
able while thou debarrest thyself from this ordinance,
and art, as polluted, put from this priesthood. How
light soever thou mayst make of it, this is not of tbj
whoredoms, this is not of thy miseries, a small mat-
ter, that thou shuttest thyself out of covenant and
communion with the God that made thee, and in
effect disclaimest any interest in the Christ that
bought thee, as if thou hadst taken the devirs words
out of their mouths. What have we to do with thee,
Jesus, thou Son of God? And if thou persist in it, so
shall thy doom be ; thou thyself hast decided it If
now it be as nothing to thee to be separated from the
sheep of Christ, and excluded from their green pas-
tures, yet it will be something shortly, when thoa
shalt accordingly have thy place among the goats,
and thy lot with them for ever. Thou thinkest it no
loss now to want the cup of blessing ; because thoa
prefcrrest the cup of drunkenness before it: bat
what dost thou think of the cup of trembling, that
will ere long be put into thy hand, if thoa repent
not? Thou hast no desire to the wine of the love of
God, but choosest the puddle-water of sensual plea-
sures rather ; but canst thou drink of the wine of tkt
wrath of God, which shall be poured oni wiihont
mixture, in the presence of the Lamb ' Rev. xiv. 10.
Thou thinkest thyself easy and happy, that thou ait
not under the bonds and checks of this ordinance; bat
dost not thou see thyself extremely miserable, whilst
thou hast no right to the blessings and comforts of
this ordinance ? If there were not another life after
this, thou mightest have some colour of blessing thy-
self thus in thy own wicked way, (and yet, if so, I
should see no cause to envy thee,) but, wretched
soul. What wilt thou do in the day of visitation ? Thoo
that joinest thyself with the sinners in Zion, and
choosest them for thy people. Canst thou dwell with
devouring Jire ? Canst thou inhabit everhuting burn-
ings? Isa. xxxiii. 14. May God, by his grace, open
thine eyes, and give thee to see thy misery and
danger before it be too late.
(3.) Yet know, that though thy condition is very
sad, it is not desperate. Thou hast yet space given
thee to repent, and grace offered thee : O refuse not
that grace ; slip not that space. Leave thy sins, and
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
d4d
turn to God in Christ; cast away from thee all thy
transgprcssions ; make thee a new heart ; begin a
new life : forsake the foolish and live : live to some
purpose, and go in the way of understanding ; and
then, in Wisdom's name, I am to tell thee, that,
notwithstanding all thy former follies, thou art wel-
come to her house, welcome to her table ; freely
welcome to eat of her bread, and to drink of the wine
which she hath mingled, Prov. ix. 4 — 6. Now, at least,
now, at last, in this thy day, know the things that be-
long to thy peace. Be wise for thyself, wise for thy
own soul ; and cheat not thyself into thy own ruin.
Poor sinner ! I pity thee ; I would gladly help
fhce. The Lord pity thee, and help thee ! He will,
if thou wilt pity thyself, and help thyself. Wilt thou
be persuaded by one that wishes thee well, to ex-
change the service of sin, which is perfect slavery,
for the service of God, which is perfect liberty ? to
exchange the base and sordid pleasures of a sensual
life, which level thee with the beasts, for the pure
and refined pleasures of a spiritual and divine life,
which will raise thee to a communion with the holy
angels ? I am confident, thou wilt quickly find it a
blessed change. Awake, shake thyself from the dust,
loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, Isa. lii. 2.
Give up thyself in sincerity to Jesus Christ, and
then come and feast with him. Thou shalt then have
in this ordinance the pledges of his favour, assur-
ances of thy reconciliation to him, and acceptance
with him: and all shall be well, for it shall end
everlastingly well.
2. I must next apply myself to those, who having
competent knowledge in the things of God, and
making a justifiable profession of Christ's holy reli-
gion, cannot be denied admission to this ordinance,
and yet deny themselves the benefit and comfort
of it. Such are hereby exhorted, without further
delay, solemnly to give up their names to the Lord
Jesus, in and by this sacrament. Hear Hezekiah's
summons to the passover, (2 Chron. xxx. 8.) Yield
yourselves unto the Lord ; give the hand unto the Lord,
so the Hebrew phrase is ; join yourselves to him in
the bond of the covenant, and then exchange the
ratifications ; enter into the sanctuary. First, Give
your own selves unto the Lord, and then confirm the
surrender by the solemnity of this ordinance.
(1.) Let me address this exhortation to young
people, who were in their infancy baptized into the
Christian faitli, and have been well educated in the
knowledge of God, and of his ways, and are now
grown up to years of discretion ; are capable of un-
derstanding what they do, of discerning between
their* right hand and their left in spiritual things,
and of choosing and refusing for themselves accord-
ingly; and who have had some good impressions
made upon their souls by divine things, and some
good inclinations toward God, and Christ, and hea-
ven : snch are invited to the table of the Lord, and
called upon to come ; for all things are now ready f
and it is not good to delay.
You that are young, will you now be prevailed
with to be serious, and resolved for God ? You now
begin to act with reason, and to put away childish
things ; you are come to be capable of considering,
and you are thinking how you must live in this world ;
0 that I could prevail with you to think first how
you may live for another world ! I am not persuading
you to come rashly and carelessly to the Lord's
table, as when you were little children you went to
church for fashion's sake, and because your parents
took you with them : but I am persuading you now,
in the days of your youths from a deep conviction of
your duty and interest, and a serious concern about
your souls and eternity, intelligently, deliberately,
and with a fixed resolution, to join yourselves unto
the Lord in an everlasting covenant, and then to
come and seal that covenant at his table. You are
now come to the turning time of life, to those years
when ordinary people fix for their whole lives : I
beg of you, for Christ's sake, and for your own pre-
cious souls' sake, that now you will turn to God, and
fix for him, and set your faces heavenwards.
Come, and let us reason together a little ; and I
beseech you to reason with yourselves.
[1.] Are you not by baptism given up unto the
Lord ? Are not the vows of God already upon you ?
Is not your baptism your honour? Is it not your
comfort? It is so: but you are unworthy of that
honour, unworthy of that comfort, if when you arrive
to a capacity for it, you decline doing that for your-
selves, which was done for you when you were bap-
tized. How can you expect that your parents' dedi-
cation of you to God then, should avail you any
thing, if you do not now make it your own act and
deed ? Might not your backwardness to confirm tho
covenant, by this solemn takiugof itupon yourselves,
be construed an implicit renunciation of it, and be
adjudged a forfeiture of the benefit of it? I believe,
that you would not for a world disclaim your bap-
tism, nor disown the obligation of it : you will not,
1 am confident you will not, throw ofi* your Chris-
tianity, nor join with those that say. We have no pari
in David, no inheritance in the Son of David. Come
then, and ratify your baptism ; either let those arti-
cles be cancelled, or, now you are of age, come and
seal them yourselves. Either stand to the bargain,
or say you will not : either be Christians complete.
Christians by your own consent, or not Christians
at all. The matter is plain : the bonds of both the
sacraments are the same ; you are under the bonds
of the one, which I know you dare not renounce,
therefore come under the bonds of the other. Con-
sider ; take advice ; speak your minds.
[2.] How can you dispose of yourselves better
now in the days of your youth, than to give up your-
selves unto the Lord? These are your choosing days ;
342
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
docs now, when life and immortality are brought to
so clear a light by the gospeL Christ in a sacrament,
is much readier than Christ in a sacrifice.
(2.) All things are now readier than they will be
shortly if we trifie away the present season. Now
the door of mercy stands open, and we are invited
to come and enter ; but it will shortly be shut. Now
the golden sceptre is held out, and we are called to
come and touch the top of it ; but it will be other-
wise, when the days of our probation are numbered
and finished, and he that now says, Come for a bless-
ing ^ will say, Depart with a curse.
II. We must call you to come : this is now the
call. Come, come. The Spirit says, Come ; and the
bride says, Cotne; Rev. xxii. 17. Come to Christ
in the first place, and then come to this ordinance.
All things are ready ; be not you unready.
This exhortation must be directed to three sorts of
persons. 1. Those who are utterly unmeet for this
ordinance, must be exhorted to qualify themselves,
and then come. 2. Those who, through grace, are
in some measure meet for this ordinance, must be
exhorted speedily to enter themselves. 3. Those
who have entered themselves, must be exhorted to
be constant in their attendance upon it.
1. I must apply myself to those, who by their ig-
norance, profaneness, irreligion, or reigning world-
liness, put a bar in their own way, and may not be
admitted to this ordinance. If these lines should
fall under the eye of any such, let them know that I
have a message to them from God, and I must de-
liver it, whether they will hear, or whether they for-
bear.
Dost thou live a carnal wicked life, in the service
of sin and Satan, without fear, and without God in
the world ? Light is come into the world ; and dost
thou love darkness rather, not knowing, nor desiring
to know, the way of the Lord, and the judgment of
thy God ? Art thou a drunkard, a swearer, a sabbath-
breaker? Art thou an adulterer, a fornicator, or un-
clean person ? Art thou a liar, a deceiver, a railer,
or a contentious person? Art thou a mere drudge to
the world, or a slave to any base lust ? Does thy own
conscience tell thee, Thou art the man ; or would it
not tell thee so, if thou wouldst suffer it to deal
faithfully with thee?
(1.) Know then, that thou hast no part nor lot in
this matter. While thou continuest thus, thou art not
an invited guest to this feast ; the servants dare not
bid thee welcome, for they know the Master will not,
but will ask thee, Friend, how camest thou in hither?
What hast thou to do to take God*s covenant, and the
seal of it, into thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruc-
tion ? Read that Scripture, and hear God speaking
to thee in it, Ps. 1. 16, &c. // is not meet to take the
children s bread and cast it to dogs. Thou art for-
bidden to touch these sacred things with thine un-
hallowed hands ; for what communion has Christ
with Belial ? If thou thrust thyself upon this ordi-
nance, while thou continuest under such a chaimc-
ter, instead of doing honour to the Lord Jesiu, thou
puttest a daring afi'ront upon him, as if he were alto-
gether such a one as thyself : instead of fetching in
any true comfort to thy own soul, thou dost but
aggravate thy guilt and condemnation ; thy heart
will be more hardened, thy conscience more fteared,
Satan's strong holds more fortified, and thou eatest
and drinkest judgment to thyself, not discerning the
Lord's body, not putting a difference between this
bread and other bread, but trampling underfoot the
blood of the covenant, as a profane and common thing.
(2.) Know also, that thy condition is very miser-
able while thou debarrest thyself from this ordinance,
and art, as polluted, put from this priesthood. How
light soever thou mayst make of it, this is not of thy
whoredoms, this is not of thy miseries, a small mat-
ter, that thou shuttest thyself out of covenant and
communion with the God that made thee, and in
effect disclaimest any interest in the Christ that
bought thee, as if thou hadst taken the devil's words
out of their mouths. What have we to do with thee,
Jesus, thou Son of God? And if thou persist in it, so
shall thy doom be ; thou thyself hast decided it. If
now it be as notliing to thee to be separated from the
sheep of Christ, and excluded from their green pas-
tures, yet it will be something shortly, when thou
shalt accordingly have thy place among the goats,
and thy lot with them for ever. Thou thinkest it no
loss now to want the cup of blessing ; because thou
prefcrrest the cup of drunkenness before it: but
what dost thou think of the cup of trembling, that
will ere long be put into thy hand, if thou repent
not? Thou hast no desire to the wine of the love of
God, but choosest the puddle-water of sensual plea-
sures rather ; but canst thou drink of the wine of tie
wrath of God, which shall be poured ant without
mixture, in the presence of the Lamb ' Rev. xiv. 10.
Thou thinkest thyself easy and happy, that thou art
not under the bonds and checks of this ordinance: but
dost not thou see thyself extremely miserable, whilst
thou hast no right to the blessings and comforts of
this ordinance ? If there were not another life after
this, tliou mightest have some colour of blessing thy-
self thus in thy own wicked way, (and yet, if so, I
should see no cause to envy thee,) but, wretched
soul, What wilt thou do in the day of visitation ? Thou
that joinest thyself with the sinners in Zion, and
choosest them for thy people. Canst tkou dwell with
devounng Jire ? Canst thou inhabit everlasting burn-
ings? Isa. xxxiii. 14. May God, by his grace, open
thine eyes, and give thee to see thy misery and
danger before it be too late.
(3.) Yet know, that though thy condition is very
sad, it is not desperate. Thou hast yet space given
thee to repent, and grace offered thee : O refuse not
that grace ; slip not that space. Leave thy sins, and
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d4d
turn to God in Christ ; cast away from thee all thy
trans^n^cssions ; make thee a new heart ; begin a
new life : forsake the foolish and live : live to some
purpose, and go in the way of understanding ; and
then, in Wisdom's name, I am to tell thee, that,
notwithstanding all thy former follies, thou art wel-
come to her house, welcome to her table ; freely
welcome to eat of her bread, and to drink of the wine
which she hath mingled, Prov. ix. 4 — 6. Now, at least,
now, at last, in this thy day, know the things that be-
long to thy peace. Be wise for thyself, wise for thy
own soul; and cheat not thyself into thy own ruin.
Poor sinner! I pity thee; I would gladly help
thee. The Lord pity thee, and help thee ! He will,
if thou wilt pity thyself, and help thyself. Wilt thou
be persuaded by one that wishes thee well, to ex-
change the service of sin, which is perfect slavery,
for the service of God, which is perfect liberty ? to
exchange the base and sordid pleasures of a sensual
life, which level thee with the beasts, for the pure
and refined pleasures of a spiritual and divine life,
which will raise thee to a communion with the holy
angels ? I am confident, thou wilt quickly find it a
blessed change. Awake, shake thyself from the dust,
loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, Isa. Hi. 2.
Give op thyself in sincerity to Jesus Christ, and
then come and feast with him. Thou shalt then have
in this ordinance the pledges of his favour, assur-
ances of thy reconciliation to him, and acceptance
with him: and all shall be well, for it shall end
everlastingly well.
2. I must next apply myself to those, who having
competent knowledge in the things of God, and
making a justifiable profession of Christ's holy reli-
gion, cannot be denied admission to this ordinance,
and yet deny themselves the benefit and comfort
of it. Such are hereby exhorted, without further
delay, solemnly to give up their names to the Liord
Jesus, in and by this sacrament. Hear Hezekiah's
summons to the passover, (2 Chron. xxx. 8.) Yield
yourselves unto the Lord ; give the hand unto the Lord,
so the Hebrew phrase is ; join yourselves to him in
the bond of the covenant, and then exchange the
ratifications ; enter into the sanctuary. First, Give
your own selves unto the Lord, and then confirm the
surrender by the solemnity of this ordinance.
(1.) Let me address this exhortation to young
people, who were in their infancy baptized into the
Christian faith, and have been well educated in the
knowledge of God, and of his ways, and are now
grown up to years of discretion ; are capable of un-
derstanding what they do, of discerning between
their" right hand and their left in spiritual things,
and of choosing and refusing for themselves accord-
ingly; and who have had some good impressions
made upon their souls by divine things, and some
good inclinations toward God, and Christ, and hea-
ven: snch are invited to the table of the Lord, and
called upon to come ; for all things are now ready*
and it is not good to delay.
You that are young, will you now be prevailed
with to be serious, and resolved for God ? You now
begin to act with reason, and to put away childish
things ; you are come to be capable of considering,
and you are thinking bow you must live in this world ;
0 that I could prevail with you to think first how
you may live for another world ! I am not persuading
you to come rashly and carelessly to the Lord's
table, as when you were little children you went to
church for fashion's sake, and because your parents
took you with them : but I am persuading you now,
in the days of your youth, from a deep conviction of
your duty and interest, and a serious concern about
your souls and eternity, intelligently, deliberately,
and with a fixed resolution, to join yourselves unto
the Lord in an everlasting covenant, and then to
come and seal that covenant at his table. You are
now come to the turning time of life, to those years
when ordinary people fix for their whole lives : I
beg of you, for Christ's sake, and for your own pre-
cious souls' sake, that now you will turn to God, and
fix for him, and set your faces heavenwards.
Come, and let us reason togetlier a little ; and I
beseech you to reason with yourselves.
[1.] Are you not by baptism given up unto the
Lord ? Are not the vows of God already upon you ?
Is not your baptism your honour? Is it not your
comfort? It is so: but you are unworthy of that
honour, unworthy of that comfort, if when you arrive
to a capacity for it, you decline doing that for your-
selves, which was done for you when you were bap-
tized. How can you expect that your parents' dedi-
cation of you to God then, should avail you any
thing, if you do not now make it your own act and
deed ? Might not your backwardness to confirm the
covenant, by this solemn taking of it upon yourselves,
be construed an implicit renunciation of it, and be
adjudged a forfeiture of tlie benefit of it? I believe,
that you would not for a world disclaim your bap-
tism, nor disown the obligation of it : you will not,
1 am confident you will not, throw ofi* your Chris-
tianity, nor join with those that say. We have no part
in David, no inheritance in the Son of David. Come
then, and ratify your baptism ; either let those arti-
cles be cancelled, or, now you are of age, come and
seal them yourselves. Either stand to the bargain,
or say you will not : either be Christians complete.
Christians by your own consent, or not Christians
at all. The matter is plain : the bonds of both the
sacraments are the same ; you are under the bonds
of the one, which I know you dare not renounce,
therefore come under the bonds of the other. Con-
sider ; take advice ; speak your minds.
[2.] How can you dispose of yourselves better
now in the days of your youth, than to give up your-
selves unto the Lord? These are your choosing days ;
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you are now choosing other settlements, in callings,
relations, and places of abode ; why should you not
now choose this settlement in the service of God,
which will make all your other settlements comfort-
able ? Choose you therefore this day whom you will
serre, God or the world, Christ or the flesh ; and be
persuaded to bring the matter to a good issue : de-
termine the debate in that happy resolve which the
people of Israel came to, when they said, Nay^ but
we will serve the Lord, Josh. xxiv. 21. Why should
not he, who is the first and the best, have the first
and the best of your days ? which, I am sure, you
cannot bestow better, and which it is both your duty
and interest to bestow thus.
[3.] What will you get by delaying it? You in-
tend, some time or other, solemnly to give up your-
selves unto the Lord in this ordinance, and you hope
then to receive the benefit and comfort of it ; but the
tempter tells you, it is all in good time ; and you
dismiss your convictions, as Felix did Paul, (Acts
xxiv. 26.) with a promise, that at a more convenient
season you will send for them. You are ready to say,
as the people did, (Hag. i. 2.) The time is not come,
the time that the Lord's house should he built. You
think you must build your own first; and what comes
of those delays ? Satan, ere you are aware, gets ad-
vantage by them, and cozens you of all your time,
by cozening you of the present time. Your hearts
are in danger of being hardened ; the Spirit of grace
may hereby be provoked to withdraw, and strive no
more ; and what will become of you, if death sur-
prise you before your great work be done ?
[4.] What better provision can you make for a
comfortable life in this world, than by doing this
great work betimes? You are setting out in a world
of temptations, more than you think of; and how
can you better arm yourselves against them, than by
coming up to that fixed resolution, which will silence
the tempter, with. Get thee behind me, Satan ? When
Naomi saw that Ruth was stedfastly resolved, she
left ofi* speaking to her. The counsel of the ungodly
will not be so apt to court you to the way of sinners,
and the seat of the scornful, when you have vowed
yourselves set out in the way of God, and seated
already at the table of the Lord. You are launching
forth into a stormy sea ; and this will furnish you
with a blast. Your way lies through a vale of tears,
and therefore you have need to be well stocked with
comforts : and where can you stock yourselves
better, than in an ordinance, which seals all the
promises of the new covenant, and conveys all the
happiness included in them.
And how shall I gain this point with young
people? Will they be persuaded betimes to resolve
for God and heaven ? Remember thy Creator, remem-
ber thy Redeemer, in the days of thy youth ; and then
it is to be hoped thou wilt not forget them, nor will
they forget thee, when thou art old.
Let me address this exhortation to those, whose
inclinations are good, and their conversation blame-
less; but their desires are weak, and their affec-
tions cool and indifferent, and therefore they keep
off from this ordinance. This is the character of
very many ; who are honest, but they want zeal and
resolution enough to bring them under this engage-
ment. They can give no tolerable reason why they
do not come to the sacrament It may be they have
bought a piece of ground or a yoke of oxen ; their
hands are full of the world, and they are too busy;
they are unsettled, or not settled to their minds ; and
this makes them uneasy, and they hope that there-
fore they may be excused. But the true reason is,
they are slothful and dilatory, and the things that
remain are ready to die ; they cannot find in their
hearts to take pains, the pains they know they mast
take in a work of this nature ; they are not willing to
be bound to that strictness, care and watchfulness,
which this sacrament will oblige them to ; they will
be as they are, and make no advances : they have
hid their hands in their bosom, and it grieves them to
bring it to their mouth again ; that is, they will not be
at the pains to feed themselves, Prov. xxvi. 16.
What shall we say to rouse these sluggards ; per-
suade them to press forward in their profession, /or-
getting the things that are behind, and not resting in
them ? Hear, ye virgins, who slumber and sleep, and
let your lamps lie by neglected ; hear the cry. Be-
hold, the bridegroom cometh! cometh in this ordi-
nance, to espouse you to himself; stir up yourselves,
and go ye forth to meet him. Hear, ye servants, ye
slothful servants, your master's voice ; How long
wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? Is it not high time to
awake out of sleep, and apply thyself more closely
and vigorously to the business of a Christian ? Is it
not far in the day with thee, perhaps the sixth hour,
or further on ; dinner-time ; and yet, hast thou no
appetite to this spiritual feast, to which thou art in-
vited ? Thou hast lost a great deal of time already ;
should not thou now think of redeeming time for
thy soul and eternity? And Low can that be better
done, than by improving such advantageous oppor-
tunities as sacraments are ? Hear that call to care-
less and trifling professors, as if thou thyself wert
called by name in it, (Eph. v. 14.) Awake, thou that
sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall
give thee light.
First, Consider what an affront you pot upon the
Lord Jesus, while you live in the neglect of this or-
dinance. You contemn his authority, who has given
this command to all his disciples, (and among them
you reckon yourselves,) Do this in remembrance of
me. And is it nothing to live in the omission of a
knovirn duty, and in disobedience to an express pre-
cept? Is the law of Christ nothing with yon? If
you know to do good, and do it not, is it not sin ? Is
not this as much an ordinance of Christ, as the word
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
345
and prayer ? You would not live withoat them ; nor
would you be yourselves, or suffer your children to
be, witiiout baptism; why then is this neglected?
You arraign Christ's wisdom; he instituted this
ordinance for your spiritual good, your strength
and nourishment; and you think you need it not,
you can do as well without it. This appointment
you think might have been spared ; that is, yon
think yourselves wiser than Christ. You likewise
hereby put a great slight upon the grace and love of
Christ, which have made such rich provision for
you, and given you so kind an invitation to it.
This is excellently well urged in the public form
of invitation to the holy communion, which warns
those who are profligate to keep away, in these words:
'* If any of you be a blasphemer of God, an hinderer
or slanderer of his word, an adulterer, or in malice
or envy, or in any other grievous crime ; repent you
of your sins, or else come not to that holy table ; lest
after the taking of that holy sacrament, the devil
enter into you, as he entered into Judas, and fill you
full of all iniquities, and bring you to the destruc-
tion both of body and soul.*'
And the other exhortation stirreth up those who
are negligent, in these words ; ** Ye know how griev-
ous and unkind a thing it is, when a man hath pre-
pared a rich feast, decked his table with all kind of
provision, so that there lacketh nothing but the
guests to sit down ; and yet they who are called
(without any cause) most unthankfully refuse to
come : which of you, in such a case, would not be
moved? Who would not think it a great injury, and
wrong done unto him ? Wherefore, most dearly be-
loved in Christ, take ye good heed lest ye, withdraw-
ing yourselves from this holy supper, provoke God's
indignation against you. It is an easy matter for a
man to say, I will not communicate, because I am
otherwise hindered with worldly business ; but such
excuses are not so easily accepted and allowed be-
fore God. If any man say, I am a grievous sinner,
and therefore am afraid to come : wherefore then do
ye not repent and amend ? When God calleth you,
are ye not ashamed to say ye will not come ? When
ye should return to God, will ye excuse yourselves,
and say you are not ready ? Consider earnestly with
yourselves, how little such feigned excuses will
avail before God. They that refused the feast in the
gospel because they had bought a farm, or would try
their yokes of oxen, or because they were married,
were not excused, but counted unworthy of the
heavenly feast.'*
Secondly J Consider what an injury you hereby do
to your own souls. You know not what you lose
while yoa live in the neglect of this ordinance. If
you be deprived of opportunities for it, that is an
affliction, bat not a sin, and in such a case, while
you lament the want of it, and keep up desires after
it, and improve the other helps you have, you may
expect that God will make up the want some other
way ; though we are tied to ordinances, God is not :
but if you have opportunities for it and yet neglect it,
and when it is to be administered, turn your backs
upon it, you serve your souls so as you would not
serve your bodies ; for you deny them their neces-
sary food, and the soul that is starved is as certain-
ly murdered as the soul that is stabbed, and its blood
shall be required at thy hands. No man ever yet
hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it,
yet thou deniest thy own soul that which would
nourish and cherish it, and thereby showest how lit-
tle thou lovest it. If thou didst duly attend on this
ordinance, and improve it aright, thou wouldst
find it of unspeakable use to thee, for the strengthen-
ing of thy faith, the exciting of holy affections in
thee, and thy furtherance in every good word and
work. So that, to thy neglect of it thou hast reason
to impute all thy weakness, and all the strength and
pre valency of thy temptations, all the unsteadiness
of thy resolutions, and all the uneyenness of thy con-
versation. How can we expect the desired end,
while we persist in the neglect of the appointed
means ?
Think not to say within yourselves, we are not
clean, surely we are not clean, therefore we come
not to the feast. If you are not, why are you not ?
Is there not a fountain opened ? have you not been
many a time called to wash you and make you clean?
You are unready, and therefore you excuse your-
selves from coming; but is not your unreadiness
your sin ? And will one sin justify you in another?
Can a man's offence be his defence ? You think you
are not serious enough, nor devout enough, nor re-
gular enough in your conversation, to come to the
sacrament ; and perhaps you are not, but why are
ye not ? What hinders you ? Is any more required
to fit you for the sacrament, than is necessary to fit
you for heaven ? And dare you live a day in that
condition, in which, if you die, you will be rejected
and excluded as unmeet for heaven ? Be persuaded
therefore to put on the wedding-garment, and then
come to the wedding-feast. Instead of making your
unreadiness an argument against coming to this or-
dinance, make the necessity of your coming to this
ordinance an argument against your unreadiness.
Say not, I am too light and airy, too much addicted
to sports and pleasures, am linked too close in vain
and carnal company, or plunged too deep in
worldly care and business, and therefore I must be
excused from attendance, for this is to make ill
worse ; but say rather, it is necessary that I come to
the Lord's supper, and come in a right manner ; my
soul vrithers and languishes, dies and perishes, if I
do not, and therefore I must break off this vain and
sensual course of life, which unfits me for, and in-
disposes me to, that ordinance ; therefore I must dis-
entangle myself from that society, and disentangle
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myself from that incumbrance, whatever it is, which
cools pious affections, and quenches that coal.
Shake off that, whatever it is, which comes between
you and the comfort and benefit of this ordinance.
Delay no longer in a matter of such vast moment,
but speedily come to this resolution^ (Ps. cxix. 115.)
Depart from me^ ye evil doers, and evil doings, /or /
will keep the commandments of my God,
Thirdly, Let me address this exhortation to those
whose desires are strong toward the Lord, and to-
ward the remembrance of his name in this ordi-
nance ; but they are timorous, and are kept from it
by prevailing fears. This is the case of many, who,
we hope, fear the Lord, and obey the voice of his
servant ; but they walk in darkness, and have no liyht,
(Isa. I. 10.) who follow Christ, but they follow him
trembling. Ask them why they do not come to this
sacrament, and they will tell you they dare not come,
they arc unworthy ; they have no faith, no comfort
in God, no hope of heaven ; and therefore if they
should come, they should eat and drink judgment to
themselves. They find not in themselves that fixed-
ness of thought, that flame of pious and devout
affections, which they think should be ; and because
they cannot come as they should, they think it better
to stay away. What is said for the conviction and
terror of hypocrites and presumptuous sinners, not-
withstanding our care to distinguish between the
precious and the vile, they misapply to themselves ;
and so the heart of the righteous is made sad, which
should not be made sad. We are commanded to
strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble
knees ; to say to them that are of a fearful heart, be
strong, fear not, Isa. xxxv. 3, 4. But wherewith
shall we comfort such, whose souls many times
refuse to be comforted? If we tell them of the in-
finite mercy and goodness of God, the merit and
righteousness of Christ, the precious promise of the
covenant, their jealous hearts reply, all this is no-
thing to them; the Lord they think has forsaken
them, their God has forgotten them, and utterly
separated them from his people: As vinegar upon
nitre, so is he that singeth songs to those heavy hearts,
Prov. XXV. 20.
But O ye of little faith, who thus doubt, would
you not be made whole ? would not you be strength-
ened? Is it not a desirable thing to attain to such a
peace and serenity of mind, that you may come with
a humble, holy boldness to this precious ordinance?
For your help then, take these two cautions :
1. Judge not amiss concerning yourselves. As it
is a damning mistake common among the children
of men, to think their spiritual state and condition
to be good, when it is very bad, for there is that
maketh himself rich, and yet hath nothing ; so it is a
disquieting mistake, common among the children of
God, to think their spiritual state and condition to
be bad, when it is very good, for there is that maketh
himself poor, and yet hath great riches, Prov. xiii. T.
But it is a mistake, which I hope by the grace of God
may be rectified : and though a full assaronce is
rarely attained to, and we ought always to keep a
godly jealousy over ourselves, and a holy fear, lest
we seem to come short ; yet such good hope through
grace, as will enable us to rejoice in God, and go
on cheerfully in our work and duty, Lh what we
should aim at, and labour after, and which we ought
not to deny ourselves the comfort of, when God by
his grace hath given us cause for it. Whenever
there is such a serious concern about the soul and
another world as produces a holy fear, even that
gives ground for a lively hope.
You think you have no grace, because yoa are not
yet perfect ; but, why should you look for that on
eartli, which is to be had in heaven only ? A child
will at length be a man, though as yet he think as a
child, and speak as a child. Blessed Paul himself
had not yet attained, nor was already perfect. Gold
in the ore is truly valuable, though it be not yet
refined from its dross. Despise not the day of small
things, for God doth not, Zech. iv. 10. Deny not
that power and grace which hath brought you oot
of the land of Egypt, though you be not yet come to
Canaan.
You think you have no grace because you have
not that sensible joy and comfort which you would
have ; but those are spiritually enlightened who see
their own deformity, as well as those who see
Christ's beauty. The child that cries, is as sure
alive as the child that laughs. Complaints of spi-
ritual burthens are the language of the new nature,
as well as praises for spiritual blessings.
Drooping soul ! thou art under grace, and not
under the law, and therefore judge of thyself by the
measure of grace, and not by that of the law.
Thou hast to do with one that is willing to make the
best of thee, and will accept the willingness of the
spirit, and pardon the weakness of the flesh. Take
thy work before thee therefore, and let not the
penitent, humble sense of thy own follies and cor-
ruptions eclipse the evidence of God's graces in thee,
nor let thy diflidence of thyself shake thy confidence
in Christ. Thank God for what he has done for
thee ; let him have the praise of it, and then thou
shall have the joy of it. And this is certain, cither
thou hast an interest in Christ, or thou mayst have.
If thou doubt therefore whether Christ be thine, put
the matter out of doubt, by a present consent to
him : I take Christ to be mine, wholly, only, and for
ever mine ; Christ upon his own terms, Christ upon
any terms.
2. Judge not amiss concerning this ordinance. It
was instituted for your comfort, let it not be a terror
to you ; it was instituted for your satisfaction, let it
not be your amazement Most of the messages from
heaven which we meet with in Scripture, delivered
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
347
by angels, began with. Fear not, and particularly
that to the woman who attended Christ's sepulchre,
(Matt. xxTiii. 5.) Fear not ye^for I know that ye seek
Jetus. And do not ye seek him ? Be not afraid then.
Chide yourselves for, chide yourselves out of, these
disquieting fears, which steal away your spear, and
your cruse of water, (1 Sam. xxvi. 12.) and rob you
both of your strength and of your comfort.
You say you are unworthy to come. So were all
that ever came, not worthy to be called children,
nor to eat of the children's bread. In yourselves
there is no worthiness, but is there none in Christ ?
Is not he worthy ? And is not he yours ? Have you
not chosen him. Let faith in his mediation silence
all your fears, and dismiss their clamours with that.
But do thou answer y Lord, for me.
Yon say you dare not come, lest yon should eat
and drink judgment to yourselves ; but ordinarily,
those that most fear that, are least in danger of it.
That dreadful declaration was not intended to drive
men from the sacrament, but to drive them from
their sins. Can you not say, that through grace you
bate sin, you strive against it, you earnestly desire
to be delivered from it ; then certainly your league
with it is broken ; though the Canaanites be in the
land, you do not make marriages with them. Come,
then, and seal the covenant with God, and you shall
be so far from eating and drinking judgment to
yourselves, that you shall eat and drink life and com-
fort to yourselves.
You dare not come to this sacrament ; yet you
dare pray, you dare hear the word : I know you dare
not neglect either the one or the other. And what is
this sacrament, but the doing the same thing by a
visible sign, which is and ought to be done in effect
by the word and prayer ? Nor ought we to put such
an amazing distance between tliis and other ordi-
nances. If we pray in hypocrisy, our prayers are
an abomination ; if we hear the word and reject it,
it is a savour of death unto death : shall we therefore
not pray, nor hear ? God forbid. Commanded duty
must be done ; appointed means must be used ; that
which unfits and hinders us must be removed, and
we must in sincerity give up ourselves to serve God ;
do as well as we can, and be sorry we can do no
better ; and then, liaving a High Priest who is touched
vith the feeling of our infirmities, we may come boldly
to the throne of grace, and to this table of grace.
You say that your faith is weak, your pious affec-
tions are cool and low, your resolutions unsteady,
and therefore you keep away from this ordinance ;
that is as if a man should say, he is sick, and
therefore he will take no physic ; he is empty, and
therefore he will take no food ; he is faint, and there-
fore he will take no cordials. This ordinance was
appointed chiefly for the relief of such as you are ;
for the streng^ening of faith, the inflaming of holy
love, and tbe conflrming of good resolutions. In
God's name therefore, use it for those purposes : pine
not away in thy weakness, while God has ordained
thee strength ; perish not for hunger, while there is
bread enough in thy Father's house, and to spare ; die
not for thirst, while there is a well of water by thee.
3. This chapter must conclude with an exhorta-
tion to those who have given up their names to the
Lord in this ordinance, and sometimes sealed their
Covenant with God in it, but they come very seldom
to it, and allow themselves in the neglect and omis-
sion of it Frequent opportunities they have for it ;
stated meals provided for them ; the table spread and
furnished. Others come, and they are invited, but
time after time they let it slip, and turn their backs
upon it, framing to themselves some sorry excuse or
other to shift it off.
Shall I desire such to consider seriously,
(1.) How powerful the engagements are which wo
lie under, to be frequent and constant in our attend-
ance on the Lord in this ordinance. It is plainly
intimated in the institution, that the solemnity is to
be often repeated ; for it is said, Do this as often as
ye drink it in remembrance of me. Baptism is to be
administered but once, because it is the door of ad-
mission, and we are but once to enter by that door ;
but the Lord's supper is the table in Christ's family,
at which we are to eat bread continually, alluding to
2 Sam. ix. 13. The law of Moses prescribed how
often the passover must be celebrated, under very
severe penalties : but the gospel being a dispensa-
tion of greater love and liberty, only appoints us to
observe its passover often, and then leaves it to our
own ingenuity and pious affections, to fix the time»
and consider how often. If a deliverance out of
Egypt merited an annual commemoration, surely
our redemption by Christ merits a more frequent
one, especially since we need not to go up to Jeru-«
salem to do it If this tree of life, which bears more
than twelve manner of fruits, yieldeth her fruit to ust
every month, (Rev. xxii. 2.) I know not why we
should neglect it any month. Where there is the
truth of grace, this ordinance ought to be improved,
which, by virtue of the divine appointment, has a
moral influence upon our growth in grace. The great
Master of the family would have none of his chil-
dren missing at meal-time.
While we are often sinning, we have need to be
often receiving the seal of our pardon ; because,
though the sacrifice be perfect, and able to perfect for
ever them which are sanctified, so that it needs never
to be repeated, yet the application of it being per-
fect, admodum recipientis — as to the mode ofreception^
has need to be often made afresh : the worshippers,
though once purged, having still conscience of sins in
this defective state, (Heb. x. 2.) they must often have
recourse to the fountain opened for the purging of
their consciences from the pollutions contracted
daily by dead works, to serve the living God, Heb.
348
TfiE COMMUNICANTS COMPANION.
ix. 14. Even he who is washed thus needs to wash
his feet, or he cannot be easy, John xiii. 10.
While we are often in temptation, we have need to
be often renewing our covenants with God, and fetch-
ing strength from heaven for our spiritual conflicts.
Frequent fresh recruits, and fresh supplies, are ne-
cessary for those that are so closely besieged, and so
vigorously attacked, by a potent adversary. He im-
proves all advantages against us ; therefore it is our
wisdom not to neglect any advantage against him,
and particularly not this ordinance.
While we are often labouring under great cold-
ness and deadness of affection toward divine things,
we need often to use those means which are proper
to kindle that holy fire and keep it burning. We
find by sad experience, that our coal from the altar
is soon quenched, our thoughts grow flat and low, and
nnconcemed about the other world, by being so much
conversant with this ; we have therefore need to be
often celebrating the memorial of Christ's death and
sufferings, than which nothing can be more affecting
to a Christian, nor more proper to raise and refine the
thoughts : it is a subject that more than once has made
disciples' hearts bum within them, Luke xxiv. 32.
Much of our communion with God is kept up by
the renewing of our covenant with him, and the fre-
quent interchanging of solemn assurances. It is not
superfluous, but highly serviceable both to our holi-
ness and our comfort, often to present ourselves to
God as living sacrifices alive from the dead. It is a
token of Christ's favour to us, and must not be slight-
ed, that he not only admits, but invites, us often to
repeat this solemnity, and is ready again to seal to
us, if we be but ready to seal to him. Jonathan there-
fore caused David to swear again, because he loved
him, 1 Sam. xx. 17. And an honest mind will not
startle at assurances. Fast bind, fast find.
(2.) Consider how poor the excuses are with which
men commonly justify themselves in this neglect.
They let slip many an opportunity of attending upon
the Lord in this ordinance : why do they ?
Perhaps they are so full of worldly business, that
they have neither time nor a heart for that close ap-
plication to the work of a sacrament which they know
is requisite : the shop must be attended, accounts
must be kept, debts owing them must be got in, and
debts they owe must be paid : it may be, some aflfair
of more than ordinary difficulty and importance is
upon their hands, which they an^ in care about the
issue of, and till that be over, they think it not amiss
to withdraw from the Lord's supper. And is this thy
excuse ? Weigh it in the balances of the sanctuary
then, and consider ; is any business more necessary
than thy doing of thy duty to God, and the working
out of thy own salvation ? Thou art careful and
troubled about many things, but is not this the one
thing needful, to which every thing else should be
obliged to give way? Dost not thou think thy
worldly business would prosper and succeed the bet-
ter, for thy care about the main matter ? If it were
left at the bottom of the hill while thou comest hither
to worship, mightest thou not return to it with greater
hopes to speed in it ? And dost thou not spare time
from thy business for things of much less moment
than this ? Thou wilt find time, as busy as thou art,
to eat and drink, and sleep, and converse with tby
friends ; and is not the nourishment of thy soul, is not
repose in God, and communion with him, much more
necessary ? I dare say, thou wilt own it is.
If indeed thou canst not allow so much time for
solemn secret worship in preparation for this ordi-
nance, and reflection upon it, as others do, and as
thou thyself sometimes hast done, and wouldst do,
yet let not that keep thee from the ordinance ; thy
heart may be in heaven, when thy hands are about
the world ; and a serious Christian may, through
God's assistance, do a great deal of work in a little
time. If the hours that should be thus employed, be
trifled away in that which is idle and impertinent,
it is our sin ; but if they be forced out of our hands
by necessary and unavoidable avocations, it is bat
our affliction, and ought not to hinder us from the
ordinance. The less time we have for preparatioD,
the more close and intent we should be in the ordi-
nance itself, and so make up the loss. A welcome
guest never comes unseasonably to one that always
keeps a good house. •
But if indeed thy heart is so set upon the world,
so filled with the cares of it, and so eager in the par-
suits of it, that thou hast no mind to the comforts of
this ordinance, no spirit nor life for the business of
it, surely thou hast left thy first love, and thou hast
most need of all to come to this ordinance for the re-
covery of the ground thou hast lost. Dost tboa
think that the inordinacy of thy affections to the
world will be a passable excuse for the coldness of
thy affection to the Lord Jesus ? Make haste, and
get this matter mended, and conclude that thy
worldly business then becomes a snare to thee, and
thy concern about it is excessive and inordinate,
and an ill symptom, when it prevails to keep thee
back from this ordinance.
Perhaps some unhappy quarrels with relations or
neighbours, some vexatious law-suit they are en-
gaged in, or some hot words that have past, are
pleaded as an excuse for withdrawing from the com-
munion. They are not in charity with others, or
others are not in charily with them, and they have
been told, (and it is undoubtedly true,) that it is
better to stay away than come in malice ; but then
the malice is so far from being an excuse for the
staying away, that, really, the staying away is an
aggravation of the malice. The law in this case is
very express. If thy brother hath aught agminst thte,
that is, if thy conscience tell thee that thou art the
party offending, do not therefore leave the altar, hot
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
349
leute the gift before the altar, as a pawn for thy re-
turn, and go first and he reconciled to thy brother, by
confessing thy fault, begging his pardon, and mak-
ing satisfaction for the wrong done, and then be sure
to come and offer thy gift. Matt. v. 24. But on the
other hand, if ye have aught against him, and if
thou be the party offended, then forgive. Lay aside
all uncharitable thoughts, angry resentments, and
desire of re\enge, and be in readiness to confirm
and evidence your love to those who have injured
you ; and then, if they will not be reconciled to you,
yet, your being reconciled to them, is sufficient to
remove that bar in your way to this ordinance. In
short, strife and contention, as far as it is our fault,
roust be truly repented of, and the sincerity of our
repentance evidenced by amendment of life, and
then it needs not hinder us ; as far as it is our cross,
it must be patiently borne, and we must not be dis-
turbed in our minds by it, and then it needs not
hinder us. And that law-suit which cannot be car-
ried on without malice and hatred of our brother,
had better be let fall, whatever we lose. Law is
costly indeed, when it is followed at the expense of
love and charity.
But, (Lastly,) if the true reason of your absenting
yourselves so often from the Lord's supper be, that
you are not willing to take that pains with your own
hearts, and to lay that restraint upon yourselves both
before and after, whicfi you know you must if you
come ; if indeed you are not willing to have your
thoughts so closely fixed, your consciences so strictly
examined, and your engagements against sin so
strongly confirmed, as they will be by this ordi-
nance ; if this be your case, you have reason to fear
that the things which remain are ready to die, and
your works are not found filled up before God. It
is a sad sign of spiritual decay, and it is time for
thee to remember whence thou art fallen, and to
repent, and do thy first works. Time was when thou
hadst a dear love to this ordinance, when thou long-
edst for the returns of it, and it was to thee more
than thy necessary food : such was the kindness of
thy youth, such the love of thine espousals ; but it
is otherwise now. Do you now sit loose to it ? Are
you indifferent whether you enjoy the benefit of it
or do ? Can yon contentedly live without it ? You
have reason to fear lest you are of those who are
drawing back to perdition. Having begun in the
Spirit 9 will you now end in the flesh ? What iniquity
have you found in this ordinance, that you have thus
forsaken it? Has it been as a barren wilderness to
you, or as waters that fail ? If ever it were so, was
it not your own fault ? Return, therefore, ye backslid-
ing children, be persuaded to return ; return to God,
return to your doty, to this duty ; be close and con-
stant to it as you were formerly, for, I dare say, then
ii was better with you than now, Hos. ii. 7.
Those who by the grace of God do still keep up a
love for this ordinance, should Contrive their affairs
so, as (if possible) not to miss any of their stated op-
portunities for it. Thomas, by being once absent
from a meeting of the disciples, lost all that joyful
sight of Christ which the rest then had. It is good
to have a nail in God's holy place, Ezra ix. 8. Blessed
are they that dwell in his house; not those who only
sojourn there as a wayfaring man, who turns aside
to tarry but for a night, but those who take it for
tlieir home, their rest for ever.
Yet, if God by his providence prevent our enjoy-
ment of an expected opportunity of this kind at any
time, though we must lament it as an afflictive dis-
appointment, and take that occasion to humble our-
selves for our former unprofitableness, yet we may
comfort ourselves with this, that though God has
tied us to ordinances, he has not tied himself to
them, but by his grace can make providences work
instead of them, for the good of our souls. It is
better to be like David, under a forced absence from
God's altars, and have our hearts there, (Ps.lxxxiv.
1, 2.) than to be like Doeg, present, under a force
detained before the Lord, (1 Sam. xxi. 7.) and the
heart going after covetousness. It is better to be
lamenting and longing in the want of ordinances,
than loathing in the fulness of them.
CHAPTER IV.
HBLPS FOR 8SLF-BXAMINAT10N BBFORB WB COMB TO THIS
ORDINANCB,
How earnest soever we arc in pressing people to
join themselves to the Lord in this ordinance, we
would not have them to be rash with their mouths^
nor hasty to utter any thing before God, Eccl. v. 2.
It must be done, but it must be done with great cau-
tion and consideration. Bounds must be set about
the mount on which God will descend, and we must
address ourselves to solemn services with a solemn
pause. It is not enough that we seek God in a due
ordinance, but we must seek him in a due order,
(1 Chron. xv. 13.) that is, we must stir up ourselves
to tahe hold vn him, Isa. Ixiv. 7. Prepare to meet
thy God, O Israel, Amos iv. 12. Those who labour
under such an habitual indisposition to communion
with God, and are liable to so many actual discom-
posures as we are conscious to ourselves of, have
need to take pains with their hearts, and should, with
a very serious thought and steady resolution, en-
gage them to approach unto God.
Now the duty most expressly required in our pre-
paration for the ordinance of the Lord's supper, is
that of self-examination. The apostle, when he
would rectify the abuses which had sullied the beauty
of this sacrament in the church of Corinth, pre-
350
THE COMMUNICANTS COMPANION.
scribes this great duty as necessary to the due ma-
nagement of it, and preservative against sharing in
the guilt of such corruptions; (1 Cor. xi. 28.) But
let a man examine himself y and so let him eat of that
bread and drink of that cup. He who desires the
Lord's supper (to allude to that of the apostle,
1 Tim. iii. 3.) desires a good virork, but as it follows
there, ». 10. Let these also first be proved, let them
prove their oumselves, (2 Cor. xiii. 6.) and so let them
come ; so upon that condition, so with that prepa-
ration, (as Ps. xxvi. 6.) / will wash my hands in
innocency^ so will I compass thine altar. In this me-
thod we must proceed.
Let a man examine himself— ioKtfialiiro. The word
signifies either to prove or to approve ; and appoints
such an approbation of ourselves, as is the result of
a strict and close probation, and such a probation of
ourselves, as issues in a comfortable approbation,
according to the tenor of the new covenant. It is so
to prove ourselves, as to approve ourselves to God in
our integrity. Lord, thou knowest all things, thou
knowest that I love thee ; so as to appeal to God's
inquiry. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me, Ps.
xxvi. 2.
To examine ourselves, is to discourse with our own
hearts ; it is to converse with ourselves : a very ra-
tional, needful, and improving piece of conversation.
When we go about this work, we must retire from
the world, sit alone and keep silence ; we must re-
tire into our own bosoms, and consider ourselves,
reflect upon ourselves, inquire concerning ourselves,
enter into a solemn conference with our own souls,
and be anxious concerning their state. Those who
are ignorant, and cannot do this, or careless and
secure, and will not do it, are unmeet for this ordi-
nance.
Shall I illustrate this by some similitudes ?
1. We must examine ourselves as metal is ex-
amined by the touchstone, whether it be right or
counterfeit. We have a show of religion, but are
we what we seem to be ? are we current coin, or only
washed over, as a potsherd covered with silver dross?
Prov. xxvi. 23. Hypocrites are reprobate silver,
Jer. vi. 30. True Christians, when they are tried,
come forth as gold, Job xxiii. 10. The word of God
is the touchstone by which we must try ourselves.
Can I through grace answer the characters which the
Scripture gives of those whom Christ will own and
save ? It is true, that the best coin has an allay,
which will be allowed for in this state of imperfec-
tion ; but the question is. Is it sterling ? Is it stand-
ard ? Though I am conscious to myself there are re-
mainders of a baser metal ; yet, is love to God the pre-
dominant principle ? are the interests of Christ the
prevailing interests in my soul, above those of the
world and the flesh ? I bear God's image and super-
scription ; is it of God's own stamping? Is it upon an
honest and good heart? It is a matter of great con-
sequence, and in which it is very common, but veiy
dangerous, to be imposed upon, and therefore we
have need to be jealous over ourselves. When we
are bid to try the spirits, (1 John iv. 1.) it is8q>-
posed we must begin with our own, and try than
first
2. We must examine ourselves as a malefactor is
examined by the magistrate, that we may find out
what we have done amiss. We are all criminals, that
is readily acknowledged by each of us, because it is
owned to be the common character, AU have siwui,
and come short of the glory of God ; we are all pri-
soners to the divine justice, from the arrests of
which we cannot escape, and to the processes of
which we lie obnoxious: being thus in custody,
that we may not be judged of the Lord, we are com-
manded Xo judge ourselves, 1 Cor. xi. 31. We must in-
quire into the particular crimes we have been guiltj
of, and their circumstances, that we may discover
more sins, and more of the evil of them, than at first
we were aware of. Dig into the wall, as Ezekiel did,
(cA. viii. 8.) and see the secret abominations of yoor
own hearts ; look further, as he did, (v. 13, 15.) and
you will see more and greater. The heart is deceit-
ful, and has many devices, many evasions, to shift
off convictions ; we have therefore need to be very
particular and strict in examining them, and to give
them that charge which Joshua gave to Achan, when
he had him under examination ; (Josh. vii. 19.) Gin
glory unto the God of Israel, and make confession wnid
him ; tell me now what hast thou done, hide it not from
me.
3. We must examine ourselves as a copy is ex-
amined by the original, to find out the errata, that
they may be corrected. As Christians we profess to
be the epistles of Christ, (2 Cor. iii. 3.) to have his
law and love transcribed into our hearts and lives:
but we are concerned to inquire whether it be a
true copy, by comparing ourselves with the gospel
of Christ, whether our affections and conversation
be conformable to it, and such as become it. How
far do I agree with it, and where are the disagree^
mcnts ? What mistakes are there, what blots, and
what omissions? That what has been amiss may
be pardoned, and what is amiss may be rectified.
In this examination, faith must read the original,
and then let conscience read the copy ; and be sure
that it reads true, because there will shortly be a re-
view.
4. We must examine ourselves as a candidate is
examined that stands for preferment. Inquiry is
made into his fitness for the preferment he stands
for. We are candidates for heaven, the highest
preferment, to be with our God king and priest
We stand for a place at the wedding-feast : have
we on the wedding-garment ? Are we made meet for
the inheritance? What knowledge have we? What
gprace? Are we skilled in the mystery we make pro-
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
961
fession of? What improvement have we made in the
school of Christ ? What proficiency in divine learn-
ing ? What testimonials have we to produce ? Can
we show the seal of the Spirit of promise ? Have we
a ticket? If not, we shall not be welcome.
5. We mast examine ourselves as a wife is ex-
amined for the levying of a fine for the confirming
of a covenant. It is a common usage of the law.
A covenant is to be ratified between God and our
souls in the Lord's supper : do we freely and cheer-
fully consent to that covenant ; not merely through
the constraint of natural conscience, but because it
is a covenant highly reasonable in itself, and un-
speakably advantageous to us? Am I willing to
make this surrender of myself unto the Lord ? Am
I freely willing ; not because I cannot help it, but
because 1 cannot better dispose of myself? We must
examine ourselves as Joshua examined the people,
whether they would choose to serve the Lord or no ?
(Josh. xxiv. 15« &c.) and the product of the inquiry
must be a fixed resolution, like theirs, v. 21. Nay^
but we will serve the Lord,
6. We must examine ourselves as a wayfaring man
is examined concerniug his business. Our trifling
hearts have need to be examined as vagrants, whence
they come, whither they go, and what they would
have. We are coming to a great ordinance, and are
concerned to inquire what is our end in coming?
What brings us hither ? Is it only custom or company
that draws us to this duty, or is it a spiritual appe-
tite to the dainties of heaven? Our hearts must be
catechized as Elijah was, (1 Kings xix. 9.) What
dost thou here, Elijah? That wc may give a good
account to God of the sincerity of our intentions in
our approach to him, we ought before we come, to
call ourselves to an account concerning them.
More particularly, to examine ourselves, is to put
serious questions to ourselves, and to our own hearts;
and to prosecute them till a full and true answer be
given to them. These six questions (among others)
it is good for each of us to put to ourselves in our
preparation to the Lord's supper, both at our first
admission, and in our after-approaches to it. What
am I ? What have I done ? What am I doing ? What
progress do I make ? What do I want ? And what
shall I resolve to do ?
I. Inquire, What am I? It needs no inquiry, but
it calls for serious consideration ; that I am a reason-
able creature, lower than the angels, higher than
tbe brutes, capable of knowing, serving, and glorify-
ing God in this world, and of seeing and enjoying
him in a better. I am made for my Creator, and
am accountable to him : this I am ; God grant that
I may not have such a noble and excellent being in
vain ! But here this question has another meaning.
All the children of men, by the fall of the first Adam,
are become sinners ; some of the children of men,
by the grace of the second Adam, are become saints ;
some remain in a state of nature, others are brought
into a state of grace; some are sanctified, others
nnsanctificd : this is a distinction which divides all
mankind, and which will last when all other divisions
and subdivisions shall be no more ; for according to
this, will the everlasting state be determined. Now
when I ask. What am I ? the meaning is, which of
these two do I belong to ? Am I in the favour of
God, or under his wrath and curse? Am I a servant
of God, or a slave to the world and the flesh ? Look
forwards, and ask, whither am I going? to heaven
or hell ? If I should die this night, (and I am not
sure to live till to-morrow,) whither would death
bring me? where would death lodge me? in endless
light or in utter darkness ? Am I in the narrow way
that leads to life, or in the broad way that leads to
destruction ? I am called a Christian, but am I a
Christian indeed? have I a nature answerable to
the name ?
It highly concerns us all to be strict and impartial
in this inquiry : what will it avail us to deceive our-
selves? God cannot be imposed upon, though men
may. It is undoubtedly true, if we be not saints on
earth, we shall never be saints in heaven. It is not
a small thing which I am now persuading thee to
inquire about; no, it is thy life, thy precious life,
the life of thy soul, thine eternal life, which depends
upon it. Multitudes have been deceived in this
matter, whose way seemed right, but the end of it
proved the ways of death : and after they had long
flattered themselves in their own eyes, they perished
at last, with a lie in their right hand. We also are
in danger of being deceived, and therefore hstve
need to be jealous over ourselves with a godly
jealousy; and being told that many who eat and
drink in Christ's presence, will be disowned and
rejected by him in the great day, we have each of
us more reason to subject ourselves than the disciples
had, and to ask, Lord, is it I?
But it especially concerns us to insist upon this
inquiry, when we draw near to God in the Lord's
supper. It is children's bread that is there pre-
pared ; am I a child ? If not, I have no part nor lot
in the matter. I am there to seal a covenant witli
God, but if I never made the covenant, never in
sincerity consented to it, I shall put the seal to a
blank, nay, to a curse.
Therefore that I may discover, in some measure,
what my spiritual state is, let me seriously inquire,
I. What choice have I made? Have I chosen
God's favour for my felicity and satisfaction, or the
pleasures of sense, and the wealth of this world ?
Since I came to be capable of acting for myself, and
discerning between my right-hand and my left, have
I made religion my deliberate choice? Have I
chosen God for my portion, Christ for my master,
the Scripture for my rule, holiness for my way, and
heaven for my home and everlasting rest? If not.
352
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
how can I expect to have what I never chose? If
my covenant with the world and the flesh (which
certainly amounts to a covenant with death, and an
agreement with hell) be still in force, and never yet
broken, never yet disannulled ; what have I to do
to take God's covenant, and the seal of it, into my
mouth ? But if I have refused Satan's offers of the
kingdoms of this world, and the glory of them, and
given the preference to the gospel offer of a kingdom
in the other world, and the glory of that, I have
reason to bless the Lord, who gave me that counsel,
(Ps. xvi. 7.) and to hope, that he who has directed
me to choose the way of truth, will enable me to stick
to his testimonies, Ps. cxix. 30, 31.
2. What change have I experienced? When I
ask, Am I a child of wrath, or a child of love? I
roust remember that I was by nature a child of wrath ;
now, can I witness to a change ? though I cannot
exactly tell the time, and manner, and steps of that
change ; yet one thing I knowy that whereas I was
blind, now I seCf John ix. 25. Though in many
respects it is still bad with me, yet, thanks be to
God, it is better with me than it has been. Time
was when I minded nothing but sport and pleasure,
or nothing but the business of this world ; when I
never seriously thought of God and Christ, and my
80ul, and another world ; but now it is otherwise :
now I see a reality in invisible things, I find an alter-
ation in my care and concern ; and now I ask more
solicitously. What shall I do to be saved? than ever
I asked. What shall I eat, or what shall I drinh, or
wherewithal shall I be clothed? Time was, when this
vain and carnal heart of mine had no relish at all
of holy ordinances, took no delight in them, called
them a task and a weariness ; but now it is other-
wise : I love to be alone with God, and though I
bring little to pass, yet I love to be doing in his
service. If I have indeed experienced such a change
as this, if this blessed turn be given to the bent of
my soul, grace, free grace, must have the glory of
it, and I may take the comfort of it. But if I have
not found any such work wrought in my heart; if I
am still what I was by nature, vain, and carnal, and
careless ; if Jordan run still in the old channel, and
was never yet driven back before the ark of the
covenant; I have reason to suspect the worst by
myself. If all go one way, without struggle or op-
position, it is to be feared it is not the right way.
3. What is the bent of my afi*ections ? The afi*ec-
tions are the pulse of the soul : if we would know
its state, we must observe how that pulse beats.
How do I stand affected to sin ? Do I dread it as
most dangerous, loathe it as most odious, and com-
plain of it as most grievous? Or do I make a light
matter of it, as the madman who casts firebrands,
arrows, and death, and says. Am not I in sport ?
Which lies heavier, the burthen of sin, or the bur-
then of affliction ? and which am I most desirous to
be eased of? What do I think of Christ ? How do I
stand affected to him ? Do I love him and prise him,
as the fairest of ten thousand in himself, and the
fittest of twenty thousand for me ? Or has he, in mine
eyes, no form nor comeliness ; and is he no more
than another beloved ? How do I stand affected to
the word and ordinances? Are God's tabernacles
amiable with me, or are they despicable ? Am I in
God's service as in my element, as one who calls it
a delight ? Or am I in it as under confinement, an I
as one that calls it a drudgery? How do I stand
affected to good people ? Do I love the image of
Christ wherever I see it, though it be in rags, or
though not in my own colour? Do I honour them
that fear the Lord, and choose his people for my peo-
ple in all conditions ? or do I prefer the gaieties of
the world before the beauties of holiness ? How do
I stand affected to this world ? Is it under my feet,
where it should be, or in my heart, where Christ
should be ? Do I value it, and love it, and seek it
with a prevailing concern ? or do I look upon it
with a holy contempt and indifference ? Which have
the greater command over me, and which, in my
account, have the most powerful and attractive
charms, those riches, honours, and pleasures thatafe
worldly, or those that are spiritual and divine ?—
How do I stand afi*ected to the other world ? Do I
dread eternal misery in a world of spirits, more than
the greatest temporal calamities here in this world of
sense? Do I desire eternal happiness in a futnre
state, more than the highest contentments and sati^
factions this present state can pretend to ? or are tbe
things of the other world, though sure and near,
looked upon as doubtful and distant, and conse-
quently little ? By a close prosecution of such in-
quiries as these, with a charge to conscience in God'i
name, to make a true answer to them, we may come
to know ourselves.
2. What is the course and tenor of our conversa-
tions ? The tree is hnown by its fruits. Do I work
the works of the flesh, or bring forth the fruits of
the Spirit ? The apostle gives us instances of both,
(Gal. V. 19» 23.) Be not deceived yourselves, neither
let any man deceive you ; He that doth righteoKstuss,
is righteous, (1 John iii. 7.) and the surest mark of
uprightness, is, heeping ourselves from onr own m-
quitg, 2 Sam. xxii. 24. Do I allow myself in any
known sin, under the cloak of a visible profession?
Dare I, upon any provocation, swear or curse, or
profane God's holy name, and therein speak the
language of his enemies ? Dare I, upon any allure-
ment, to please my appetite, or please my company,
drink to excess, and sacrifice my reason, honour, and
conscience, to that base and brutish last? Dare I
defile a living temple of the Holy Ghost by adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, or any act of lascivious-
ness? Dare I tell a lie for my gain or reputation?
Dare I go beyond or defraud my brother in any
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
353
matter ; cheat those I deal with, or oppress those I
have the advantage against ? Dare I deny relief to
the poor that really need it, when it is in the power
of my hand to give it? Dare I bear malice to any,
and study revenge ? If so, I must know that these are
not the spots of God's children, Deut. xxxii. 5. li'
this be the life 1 live, I am certainly a stranger to
the life of God. But if, upon search, my own heart
tells me, that I keep myself pure from these pollu-
tions, and herein exercise myself to have always a con-
science void of offence, towards God, and towards man ;
if I have respect to all God's commandments, and
make it my daily care in every thing to frame my
life according to them, and to keep in the fear of
God every day, and all the day long ; and wherein
I find I am defective, and come short of my duty, I
repent of it, and am more watchful and diligent for
the future ; I have reason to hope, that though I have
not yet attained, neither am already perfect, yet
there is a good work begun in me, which shall be
performed unto the day of Christ.
Thus we must examine our spiritual state ; and
that the trial may come to an issue, we must earn-
estly pray to God to discover us to ourselves, and
must be willing to know the truth of our case ; and
the result must be this :
(1.) If we find cause to fear that our spiritual state
is bad, and that we are unsanctified and unregene-
rate, we must give all diligence to get the matter
mended. If our state be not good, yet, thanks be to
God, it may be made good : There is hope in Israel
concerning this thing. Rest not therefore in thy for-
mer faint purposes and feeble efforts ; but consider
more seriously than ever the concerns of thy soul ;
pray more earnestly than ever for the sanctifying
grace of God ; put forth thyself more vigorously than
ever, to improve that grace ; resolve more firmly than
ever to live a holy life, and depend more closely than
ever upon the merit and strength of Jesus Christ ;
and I hope thou wilt soon experience a blessed
change.
(2.) If we find cause to hope that our spiritual
state is good, we must take the comfort of it, and
give God the praise ; and not hearken to the tempter,
when he would disturb our peace, and hinder our
progress by calling it iu question. Though we must
always abase ourselves, and be jealous over our-
selves ; yet we must not derogate from the honour of
God's grace, nor deny its works in us. God keep
OS all both from deceiving ourselves with ground-
less hopes, and from disquieting ourselves with
groundless fears.
II. Inquire, What have I done ? We come to the
ordinance of the Lord's supper, to receive the remis-
sion of our sins, according to the tenor of the new
covenant. Now one thing required of us, in order
to peace and pardon, is, that we confess ovr sins : if
r« do that, God is faithful and just to forgive them ;
2 A
1 John i. 9. but if we cover them, we cannot /)ro«per,
Prov. xxviii. 13. Not that we can by our confessions
inform God of any thing he did not know before ; as
earthly princes are informed by the confession of
criminals ; but thus we must give glory to God, and
take shame to ourselves, and strengthen our own
guard against sin for the future. In the confession
of sin, it is requisite that we be particular. The
high priest, on the day of atonement, must confess
over the scape-goat all the iniquities of the children
of Israel, and all their transgressions, and all their
sins. Lev. xvi. 2] . It is not enough to say as Saul,
/ have sinned, (1 Sam. xv. 30.) but we must say as
David, / have sinned, and done this evil, Ps. li. 4.
As Achan, / have sinned, and thus and thus have I done,
Josh. vii. 20. A broken heart will hereby be more
broken, and better prepared to be bound up : a bur-
thcned conscience will hereby be eased, as David's
was, when he said, / will confess, Ps. xxxii. 3 — 6.
Commonly, the more particular and free wc are in
confessing our sins to God, the more comfort we
have in the sense of the pardon. Deceit lies in ge-
nerals.
It is therefore necessary, in order to a particular
confession of sin, that we search and trjy our ways,
(Lam. iii. 40.) that we examine our consciences, look
over their records, reflect upon the actions of our
life past, and call seriously to mind wherein we have
offended God in any thing. The putting of this
question, is spoken of as the first step towards re-
pentance, (Jer. viii. 6.) No man repented him of his
wickedness, saying, What have I done ? For want of
this inquiry duly made, when men are called to re-
turn, they baflic the call with that careless question,
(Mai. iii. 7.) Wherein shall we return ? Let us, there-
fore, set ourselves to look back, and remember
our faults this day : it is better to be minded of
them now, when the remembrance of them will
open to us a door of hope, than be minded of them
in hell, where, son remember, will aggravate an end-
less despair. We ought to be often calling ourselves
to account ; in the close of every day, of every week,
the day's work, the week's work, should be reviewed.
It is one of the richest of Pythagoras's golden verses,
wherein, though a heathen, he advises his pupil,
every night befoie he sleep, to go over the actions of
the day, and revolve them three times in his mind,
asking himself seriously these questions : IIii irapi(5riv ;
ri Btpt^a; ri /ioc dtov hk trsKio^ai: — Wherein have I
transgressed^ What have I done? What duty has
been omitted J The oftener it is done, the easier
it is done; even reckonings make long friends.
But it is especially necessary that it be done be-
fore a sacrament Former reflections made, ought
then to be repeated, and with a particular ex-
actness : we must consider what our ways have
been since we were last renewing our covenants
with God at his table, that we may be humble for
354
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
the follies we have returned to, since God spoke
peace to as, and may be more particular and steady
in our resolution for the future.
To give some assistance in this inquiry, I shall
ask a few questions :
1 . How have I employed my thoughts ? Has God
been in all my thoughts ? It is well if he has been
in any. When I awake, am I still with him? or
am not I still with the world and the flesh ? When I
should have been contemplating the glory of God,
the love of Christ, and the great things of the other
world ; has not my heart been, with the fool's eyes,
in the ends of the earth, following after lying vtini-
iieSf and forsaking mine own mercies ? How seldom
have I thought seriously, and with any fixedness, of
spiritual and divine things ! I set myself sometimes
to meditate, but I soon break off* abruptly ; and this
treacherous heart starts aside like a broken bow,
and nothing that is good is brought to any head.
But how have vain thoughts and wild thoughts
dodged within me, gone out and come in with me,
lain down and risen up with me, and crowded out
good thoughts ! Has not the imagination of the
thought of my heart been evily only evil^ and that con-
tinually? Gpn, viii. 21.
2. How have I governed my passions ? Have they
been kept under the dominion of religion and right
reason? or have they not grown intemperate and
headstrong, and transgressed due bounds? Have
not provocations been too much resented, and made
too deep an impression ? Has not my heart many a
time been hot within me, too hot, so that its heat has
consumed the peace of my own mind, and the love
I owe my brother? Has not anger rested in my
bosom ? Have not malice and uncharitablcncss, se-
cret enmities and antipathies, been harboured there,
where love and peace should have reigned and given
law?
3. How have I preserved my purity ? Have I pos-
sessed my vessel in sanctiBcation and honour ; or
am I not conscious to myself of indulging the lust of
uncleanness ? If, by the grace of God, I have kept
my body pure ; yet, has not my spirit been defiled
by impure thoughts and afl'ections ? I have made a
covenant with my eyes, not to look and lust ; but
have I made good that covenant? have I, in no in-
stance, transgressed the laws of chastity in my heart,
and modesty in my behaviour? Let this inquiry be
made with a strict guard upon the soul ; lest that,
which should not be named among Christians, be
thought of without that just abhorrence and detesta-
tion which becomes saints.
4. How have I used my tongue ? It was designed
to be my glory ; but has it not been my shame ? Has
not much corrupt communication proceeded out of
my mouth, and little of that which is good, which
might either manifest grace, or minister grace ? have
not I sometimes spoke unadvisedly, and said that im
haste, which at leisure I could have wished ansaid?
Have not I said that, by which God's great name
has been dishonoured, or my brother's good name
reproached, or my own exposed ? If, for every idle
word that I speak, I must give account to God; I
had best call myself to account for them; and I
shall find innumerable of these evils fx>inpassing me
about.
6. How have I spent my time ? So long as I ha?e
lived in the world, to what purpose have I lived •
What improvement have I made of my days, for
doing or getting good ? It is certain that I have lost
time ; have I yet begun to redeem it, and to repair
those losses ? How many hours have I spent, that
might have been spent much better ! There is a duty
which every day requires ; but how little of it has
been done in its day !
6. How have I managed my worldly calling?
Have I therein abode with God 7 or have I not, in
many instances of it, wandered from him ? Have I
been just and fair in all my dealings, and spoken
the truth from my heart ? or have I not sometimes
dealt deceitfully in bargaining, and said that which
bordered upon a lie ? Has not fleshly wisdom govern-
ed me more, than that simplicity and godly sincerity
which becomes an Israelite indeed? Have I no
wealth gotten by vanity, no unjust gain, no blot of
that kind cleaving to my hand ?
7. How have I received my daily food ? Have I
never transgressed the law of temperance in meat
and drink, and so made my table my snare ? Hate
not God's good gifts been abused to luxury and sen-
suality ; and the body, which, by the sober use of
them should have been fitted, by the excessive use
of them unfitted, to serve the soul in the service of
God ? Have not I eaten to myself, and drmnk io my-
self, (Zech. vii. 6.) when I should have eaten and
drank to the glory of God y
8. How have I done the duty of my particular re-
lations ? the word of God has expressly taught me
my duty as a husband, a wife, a parent, a child, a
master, a servant ; but have I not in many things
failed of my duty ? Have not I carried myself dis-
respectfully to my superiors, disdainfully to my in-
feriors, and disingenuously to my equals ? Have I
given to each that which is just and right, and ren-
dered to all their dues? Have I been a comfort to
my relations ? or have not I caused grief ?
9. How have I performed my secret worship!
Have I been constant to it, morning and evening? or
have I not sometimes omitted it, and put it by with
some frivolous excuse? Have I been conscientious
in it, and done it with an eye to God ? or have I not
kept it up merely as a custom, and suffered it to de-
generate into a formality ? Have I been lively and
serious in secret prayer and reading ? or have I not
rested in the outside of the performance, without any
close application and intention of mind in it ?
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
355
10. How have I laid out what God has given me
in the world? I am hut a steward; have I heen
faithful ? Have I honoured the Lord with my sub-
stance, and done good with it ? or have I wasted and
misapplied my Lord's goods ? Has God had his due,
my family and the poor their due, out of my estate ?
What should have been consecrated to piety and
charity, has it not been either sinfully spared, or
sinfully spent?
11. How have I improved the Lord's day, and the
other helps I have had for my soul ? I enjoy great
plenty of the means of grace ; have I grown in grace
in the use of those means ? or have I not received
the g^ce of God therein in vain ? Have I called the
sabbath a delight, holy of the Lord, and honourable ?
or have I not snuffed at it, and said. When will the
sabbath be over? How have I profited by sermons
and sacraments, and the other advantages of solemn
assemblies ? Have I received and retained the good
impressions of holy ordinances ? or have I not lost
them, and let them slip ?
12. How have I borne my afflictions? When
Providence has crossed me, and frowned upon me,
what frame have I been in, repining or repenting ?
Have I submitted to the will of God in my afflictions,
and patiently accepted the punishment of my
iniquity ? or have I not striven with my Makcr^ and
quarrelled with his disposals? When my own
foolishness has perverted my way, has not my heart
fretted against the Lord ? What good have I gotten
to my soul by my afflictions? What inward gain by
outward losses ? Has my heart been more humbled
and weaned from the world? or have I not been
hardened under the rod, and trespassed yet more
against the Lord ?
Many more such queries might be adduced, but
the.se may suffice for a specimen. Yet it will not
suffice to put these questions to ourselves, but we
most diligently observe what return conscience*
upon an impartial search, makes to them. We must
not do as Pilate did, when he asked our Saviour,
What is tmth ? but would not stay for an answer,
John xviii. 38. No ; we must take pains to find out
what hath been amiss, and herein must accomplish
a diligent search.
(1.) As far as we find ourselves not guilty, we must
own our obligations to the grace of God, and return
thanks for that grace, and let the testimony of con-
science for us be our rejoicing. Jf our hearts con-
demn us not, then have we confidence towards God,
(2.) As far as we find ourselves guilty, we must
be humbled before God for it, mourn and be in
bitterness at the remembrance oT it, cry earnestly to
God for the pardon of it, and be particular in our
folutions, by God's grace, to sin no more. Pray,
Job is taught. That which I see not teach thou me;
and promise, as it follows there, Wherein I have
done iniquity, I will do no more. Job xxxiv. 32.
2 A 2
III. Inquire, What am I doing ? When we have
considered what our way has been, it is time to con-
sider what it is. Ponder the path of thy feet, Prov.
iv. 26.
1. What am I doing in the general course of my
conversation ? Am I doing any thing for God, for
my soul, for eternity, any thing for the service of
my generation, or am I not standing all the day
idle ? It is the law of God's house, as wetf as of ours ;
He that will not labour, let him not eat, 2 Thess. iii.
10. If I find that, according as my capacity and
opportunity is, through the grace of Christ, I am
going on in the way of God's commandments, this
ordinance will be comforting and quickening to me ;
but if I give way to spiritual sloth and slumber, and
do not mind my business, let this shame me out of
it, and humble me for it. How unworthy am I to
eat my Master's bread, while I take no care to do
my Master's work ?
2. What am I doing in this approach to the ordi-
nance of the Lord's supper ? I know what is to be
done ; but am I doing it? Do I apply myself to it
in sincerity, and with a single eye, in a right man-
ner, and for right ends ? Am I by repentance undo-
ing that which I have done amiss ? And am I, by
renewing my covenants with God, doing that better,
which I have formerly done well? Am I joining
myself unto the Lord, with purpose of heart to cleave
to him unto the end ? It is the preparation for the
passover : am I doing the work of that day in its
day ? Am I purging out the old leaven, buying such
things as I have need of against the feast, without
money and without price ? Am I engaging my heart
to approach unto God ? or am I thinking of some-
thing else? Am I slothful in this business? or do I
make a business of it?
Here it is good to examine, whether, beside the
common and general intentions of this ordinance,
there be not something particular, which I should
more especially have in my eye in my preparation
for it Do I find my heart at this time more than
usually broken for sin, and humbled at the remem-
brance of it? Let me then set in vigorously with
those impressions, and drive that nail. Or is my
heart in a special manner affected with the love of
Christ, and enlarged in holy wonder, joy, and praise?
Let its outgoings that way be quickened, and those
thoughts imprinted deep and improved : so of the
like.
IV. Inquire, What progress do I mahe? If upon
examination there appear some evidences of the
truth of grace, I must then examine my growth in
grace ; for g^ce, if it be true, will be growing :
that well of water will be springing vp ; and he that
hath clean hands, will be stronger and stronger.
There is a spiritual death, or at least some prevail-
ing spiritual disease, where there is not some im-
provement and progress towards petfecti^Ti.
356
THE COMMUNICANrS COMPANION.
By what measures then may I try my growth in
grace?
1. Do I find my practical judgment more settled
and confirmed in its choice of holiness and heaven ?
if so, it is a sign I am getting forward. We cannot
judge of ourselves by the pangs of affections, those
may be more sensible and vehement at first, and their
being less so afterwards, ought not to discourage us :
the fire may not blaze so high as it did, and yet may
bum better and stronger. But do I see more and
more reason for my religion ? am I more strongly
convinced of its certainty and excellency, so as to
be able better than at first to pive a reason of the hope
that is in me ? My first love was able to call reli-
gion a comfortable service, was my after light better
able to call it a reasonable service ? I was extreme-
ly surprised when at first I saw men as trees walking ^
but am I now better satisfied, when I begin to sec
all things more clearly, Mark viii. 24, 25. Am I
through God's grace better rooted, or am I through
my own folly still as a reed shaken with the wind.
2. Do I find my corrupt appetites and passions
more manageable ? or, are they still as violent and
headstrong as ever'{ Does the house of Saul grow
weaker and weaker, and its struggles for the domi-
nion less frequent and more feeble ? If so, it is a good
sign that the house of David grows stronger and
stronger. Though these Cauaanites are in the land,
yet if they do not make bead as they have done, but
are under tribute, then the interests of Israel are
gaining ground. Do I find that my desires toward
those things that are pleasing to sense, are not so
eager as they have been, but the body is kept under
more, and brought into subjection to grace and wis-
dom, and is it not so hard a thing to me as it has
been sometimes to deny myself? Do I find that my
resentments of those things which are displeasing to
the flesh, are not so deep and keen as they have
been ? Can I bear afllictions from a righteous God,
and provocations from unrighteous men, with more
patience, and better composure and command of
myself, than I could have done ? Am I not so pee-
vish and fretful, and unable to bear an affront or
disappointment, as sometimes I have been ? If so,
surely be who has begun the good work, is carrying
it on : but if nothing be done toward the suppres-
sing of these rebels, toward the weeding out of these
roots of bitterness which spring up and trouble us,
though we lament them, yet, we do not prevail
against them, it is to be feared that we stand still or
go back.
3. Do I find the duties of religion more easy and
pleasant to me? or am I still as unskilful and un-
ready in them as ever ? Do I go dexterously about a
duty, as one that understands it, and is used to it,
as a man that is master of his trade goes on with the
business of it ? or do I go awkwardly about it, as
one not versed in it ? When God says. Seek ye my
face, do I, like the child Samael, run to Eli, and
terminate my regards in the outside of the service,
or do I, like the man David, cheerfully answer, Tki/
face. Lord, will I seek, and so enter into that within
the vail. Though, on the one hand, there is not t
greater support to hypocrisy than a formal and cus-
tomary road of external performances ; yet, on the
other hand, there is not a surer evidence of sinceritj
and growth, than an ever constant, steady coarse of
lively devotion, which by daily use becomes familiar
and easy, and (by the new nature) natural to os. A
growing Christian takes his work before him, and
sings at it.
4. Do I find my heart more weaned from this pre-
sent life, and more willing to exchange it for t
better ? or am I still loth to leave it ? Are thoughts
of death more pleasing to me than they have been,
or are they still as terrible as ever? If throagfa
grace we are raised above the fear of death, by rea-
son of which many weak and trembling Christians
are all their life-time subject to bondage, and can trolj
say, we desire to depart and be with Christ, whidt it
far better, it is certain we are gaining ground^ thoogk
we have not yet attained.
If upon search we find that we make no progress
in grace and holiness, let the ordinance of the Lord's
supper be empowered for the furtherance of our
growth, and the removal of that, whatever it is,
which hinders it. If we find we thrive, though bat
slowly, and though it is not so well with us as it
should be, yet through grace it is better with us than
it has been, and that we are not always babes, letos
be encouraged to abound so much the more. Go
and prosper, the Lord is with thee, while thon ait
with him.
V. Inquire, What do I want? A true sense of
our spiritual necessities is required to qualify as
for spiritual supplies. The hungry only are filled
with good things. It concerns us therefore, when we
come to an ordinance, which is a spiritual market,
to consider what we have occasion for, that we may
know what to lay hold on, and may have an answer to
that question which will be put to as at the banquet
of wine. What is thy petition, and what is thy request!
Or that which Christ put to the blind men. Matt.
XX. 32. What will ye that I should do unto you ?
Grace and peace from God the FatheVy and from
our Lord Jesus Christ, are inclusive of all the bless-
ings we can desire, and have in them enough to
supply all our needs : since, therefore, we must ask
and receive, that our joy may be full, it concerns as
to inquire what particular grace and comfort we
need, that we may, by faith and desire, reach forth
toward that in a special manner.
1. What grace do I most wantt Wherein do I
find myself most defective, weak, and exposecf?
What corruption do I find working most in me?
the grace which is opposite to it, I most need. Ao
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
357
I apt to be proud or passionate ? humility and meek-
ness then are the g^ces I most want. Am I apt to
be timorous and distrustful ? faith and hope then are
ibe graces I most want. What temptations am I
most frequently assaulted with? which way does
Satan get most advantage against me ; by my consti-
tution, calling, or company ? there I most want help
from heaven, and strength to double my guard. Am
I in danger of being drawn by my outward circum-
stances to intemperance, or deceit, or oppression, or
dissimulation? then sobriety, justice, and sincerity,
are the graces I most want. What is the nature of
the duties I am most called out to, and employed in ?
Arc they such as oblige me to stoop to that which is
mean.' then self-denial is the grace I most want
Are they such as oblige me to struggle with that
which is difficult and discouraging? then courage
and wisdom are the graces I most want. Whatever
our wants are, there are promises in the new cove-
nant adapted to them; which, in this ordinance, we
must in a particular manner apply to ourselves, and
claim the benefit of, and receive as sealed to us. If
we cannot bethink ourselves of particular promises
suited to our case, yet there is enough in the general
ones : / will put my spirit within you, and cause you
to walk in my statutes y Ezek. xxxvi. 27. / will put my
law in your hearts^ (Heb. viii. 10,) and my fear, (Jer.
xxxii. 40.) and many of the like. And we know
who has said. My grace is sufficient for thee, 2 Cor.
xii. 9.
2. What comfort do I most want? What is the
burthen that lies most heavy? I must seek for sup-
port under that burthen. What is the grief that is
most grieving ? I must seek for a balance to that
grief. The guilt of sin is often disquieting to me :
O for the comfort of a scaled pardon ! The power
of corruption is very discouraging ; O for the com-
fort of victorious grace ! I am often tossed with
doubts and fears about my spiritual «tate, as if the
Lord had utterly separated me from his people , and I
were a dry tree, Isa. Ivi. 3. O for the comfort of
clear and unclouded evidences ! I am sometimes
tempted to say, The Lord hath forsaken me ; my God
hath foryotten me, Isa xlix. 14. O that he would
seal to my soul that precious promise, / will never
Uave thee, nor forsake thee, Heb. xiii. 5. But my
greatest trouble arises from the sense of my own
weakness, and bent to backslide, and I am some-
times ready to make that desperate conclusion, /
shall one day perish by the hand of Saul, I Sam. xxvii.
1. O that I might have the comfort of that promise,
(Jer. xxxii. 40.) / will put my fear in their hearts,
that they shall not depart from me. There is in the
covenant of grace a salve for every sore, a remedy
for every malady, comforts suited to every distress
and sorrow ; but, that we may have the benefit of
them, it is requisite that we ktiow every one his own
sore, and his awn griif as it is expressed, 2 Chron.
vi. 29. that we may spread it before the Lord, and
may apply to ourselves that relief which is proper
for it, and/i'om the fulness, which is in Jesus Christ,
may receive, and grace for grace ; grace for all occa-
sions, John i. 16. t
Here it may be of use to take cognizance even of
our outward condition, and inquire into the cares and
burthens, the crosses and necessities of it ; for even
against these there is comfort provided in the new
covenant, and administered in this ordinance. God-
liness hath the promise of the life that now is : when
Christ was inviting his disciples to come and dine
with him, he asked them first, Children, have ye any
meat? John xxi. 5, 12. Christ's inquiry into our
afi'airs directs us to make known before him in par-
ticular the trouble of them. Let every care be cast
upon the Lord in this ordinance, lodged in his
hands, and left with him, and let our own spirits be
eased of it, by the application of that general word
of comfort to this particular case, whatever it is. He
careth for you, 1 Pet. v. 7. What is the concern I
am most thoughtful about, relating to myself, my
family, or friends ? Let that way be committed to
the Lord, and to his wise and gracious conduct and
disposal, and then let my thoughts concerning it be
established. What is the complaint I make most
feelingly ? Is it of a sickly body, disagreeable rela-
tions, a declining estate, the removal of those by
death that were very dear? Whatever it is, spread
it before the Lord, as Hczekiah did Rabshakeh's
letter, (2 Kings xix. 14.) and allow no complaint
that is not fit to be spread before him.
When God came to renew his covenant with
Abraham, and to tell him that he was his shield
and his exceeding great reward, Abraham presently
puts in a remonstrance of his grievance. Behold, to
me thou hast given no seed. Gen. xv. 1 — 3. Hannah
did so when she came up to worship, 1 Sam. i. 11.
And we also must bring with us such a particular
sense of our afflictions, as will enable us to receive
and apply the comforts here offered us, and no more.
Holy David observed how his house was with God,
and that it was not made to grow, when he was
taking the comfort of this, that however it were,
God had made with him an everlasting cove7iant,2 Sam.
xxiii. 5.
VI. Inquire, What shall I resolve to do? This
question is equivalent to that of Paul, (Acts ix. 6.)
Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? We come to
this ordinance solemnly to engage ourselves against
all sin, and to all duty ; and therefore it is good to
consider what that sin is which we should particu-
larly covenant against, and what that duty which
we should most expressly oblige ourselves to.
Though the general covenant suffice to bind con-
science, yet, a particular article will be of use to
remind conscience, and to make the general engage-
ment the more effectual. It is good to be particular
\
368
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
in our pious resolations, as well as in our penitent
reflections.
For our assistance herein, let us inquire,
1. Wherein ha\e we most missed it hitherto?
• Where we have found ourselves most assaulted hy
the subtilty of the tempter, and most exposed by our
own weakness, there we should strengthen our de-
fence, and double our guard. What is the sin that
hasmosteasilybesetme, Heb. xii. 1. cvireperarov a/iap-
riav — the well circumstanced sin ? that is it which I
must more particularly resolve against in the strength
of the grace of God. What is the duty I have most
neglected, have been most backward to, and most
careless in ? to that I must most solemnly bind my
soul with this bond.
2. Wherein we may have the best opportunity of
glorifying God ? What can I do in my place for the
service of Gbd's honour, and the interests of his
kingdom among men? The liberal deviseth liberal
things, and so the pious deviseth pious things, that
he may both engage and excite himself to those
liberal pious things in and by this ordinance. What
is the talent I am intrusted with the improvement
of? My Lord's goods I am made a steward of. What
is it that is expected from one in my capacity?
What fruit is looked for from me ? That is it that I
must especially have an eye to in my covenants
with God ; to that I must bind my soul, for that I
must fetch in help from heaven, that having sworn,
I may perform it.
CHAPTER V.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR RENEWING OUR COYENANT WTFH GOD IN
OUR PREPARATION FOR THIS ORDINANCB.
It is the wonderful condescension of the God of
heaven, that he has been pleased to deal with man
in the way of a covenant ; that, on the one hand, we
might receive strong consolations from the promises
of the covenant, which are very sweet and precious ;
and, on the other hand, might lie under strong ob-
ligations from the conditions of the covenant, which,
on this account, have greater cogency in them than
mere precepts, that we ourselves have consented to
them, and that we have therein consulted our own
interest and advantage.
The ordinance of the Lord's supper being a seal
of the covenant, and the solemn exchanging of the
ratifications of it, it is necessary to make the cove-
nant before we pretend to seal it. In this order there-
fore we must proceed, first, g^ve the hand to the
Lord, and then enter into the sanctuary ; first, in
secret consent to the covenant, and then, solemnly
testify that consent : this is like a contract before
marriage. They who ask the way to Zion with their
faces thitherward, must join themsehes to the Lord
in a perpetual covenant, Jer. 1. 5. The coTenant is
mutual, and in vain do we expect the blessings of
the covenant, if we be not truly willing to come
under the bonds of the covenant We mast enter
into covenant with the Lord our God, and into his
oath, else he does not establish us this day for a
people unto himself, (Deut xxix. 12, 13.) we arc not
owned and accepted, as God's people, though we
come before him as his people come, and sit before
him as his people sit, if we do not in sincerity mtoueh
the Lord for our God, Deut. xxvi. 17, 18. In our
baptism this was done for us, in the Lord's sapper
we roust do it for ourselves, else we do nothing.
Let us consider then in what method, and after
what manner, we must manage this great transac-
tion.
I. In what method we must renew oar covenant
with God in Christ, and by what steps we most
proceed.
1. We must repent of our sins by which we have
rendered ourselves unworthy to be taken into cove-
nant with God. Those who would be exalted to this
honour, must first humble themselves. God layeth kis
beams in the waters, Ps. civ. 3. The foundations of
spiritual joy are laid in the waters of penitential
tears. Therefore, this sealing ordinance sets that
before us, which is proper to move our godly sorrow;
in it we look on him whom we have pierced, and if
we do not mourn, and be not in bitterness for him,
surely our hearts are as hard as a stone, yea, harder
than a piece of the nether mill-stone. Zech. xii. 10.
Those who join themselves to the Lord, must go
weeping to do it; so they did, Jer. I. 4, 5. That
comfort is likely to last, which takes rise from deep
humiliation, and contrition of soul for sin. Those
only who go forth weeping, bearing this precious seed,
shall come again rejoicing in God as theirs, and bring-
ing the sheaves of covenant blessings and comforts
with them, Ps. cxxvi. 6, 6. Let as therefore begin
with this.
( 1.) We have reason to bewail oar natural estrange-
ment from this covenant : when we come to be for
God, we have reason to be affected with sorrow and
shame, that ever we were for any other ; that ever
there should have been occasion for our reconcili-
ation to God, which supposes that there had been a
quarrel. Wretch that I am, ever to have been a
stranger, an enemy, to the God who made me ; at
war with my Creator, and in league with the rebels
against his crown and dignity. O the folly and
wickedness and misery of my natural estate ! My
first father an Amorite, and my mother a Hittite, and
myself a transgressor from the womb, alienated from
the life of God, and cast out in my pollution. No-
thing in me lovely, nothing amiable, bat a great
deal loathsome and abominable. Such as this was
my nativity, my original, Ezek. r?i. 3.
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
350
(2.) We have reason to bewail our backwardness
to come into this covenant. Well may we be ashamed
to think how long God called, and we refused ; how
often he stretched forth his hand, before we regard-
ed ; how many offers of mercy we slighted, and how
many kind invitations we stood out against; how
long Christ stood at the door and knocked, before
we opened to him ; and how many frivolous excuses
we made to put off this necessary work. What a
fool I was to stand in my own light so long ! How
ungrateful to the God of love, who waited to be g^-
cious ! How justly might I have been for ever ex-
cluded this covenant, who so long neglected that
great salvation ! Wherefore I abhor myself,
(3.) We have reason to bewail the disagreeable-
ness of our hearts and lives to the terms of this cove-
nant, since first we professed our consent to it In
many instances we have dealt foolishly, it is well if
we have not dealt falsely, in the covenant In our
baptism we are given up to Chnst to be his, but we
have lived as if we were our own ; we then put on
the Christian livery, but we have done little of the
Christian's work ; we were called by Christ's name
to take away our reproach, but how little have we
been under the conduct and government of the spirit
of Christ ! Since we became capable of acting for
ourselves, perhaps we have oft renewed our covenant
with God, at his tabic, and upon other occasions,
but we have despised the oaih^ in breaking the cove-
nant, when /o, we had given the hand, Ezek. xvii. 18.
Our performances have not answered the engage-
ments that we have solemnly laid ourselves under.
Did we not say, and say it with the blood of Christ
in our hands, that we would be the faithful servants
of the God of heaven ? Wc did, and yet, instead of
serving God, we have served divers lusts and plea-
sures ; we have made ourselves slaves to the flesh,
and drudges to the world, and this has been our
manner from our youth up. Did we not say, We
would not transgress, (Jer. ii. 20.) we would not offend
anymore? Job xxxiv. 31. Wc did, and yet our
transgressions are multiplied, and in many things
we offend daily. Did we not say we would walk
more closely with God, more circumspectly in our
conversation, we would be better in our closets,
better in our families, better in our callings, every
way better ? We did, and yet we are still vnin, and
careless, and unprofitable ; all those good purposes
have been to little purpose : this is a lamentation,
and it should be for a lamentation. Lt^t our hearts
be truly broken for our former breach of covenant
with God, and then the renewing of our covenant
will be the recovery of our peace, and that which
was broken shall be bound up, and made to rejoice.
2. We must renounce the devil, the world, and
the flesh, and every thing that stands in opposition
to, or competition with, the God to whom we join
oarselves by covenant. If we will indeed deal sin-
cerely in our covenanting with God, and would be
accepted of him therein, our covenanting with death
must be disannulled, and our agreement with hell must
not stand, Isa. xxviii. 18. And all these foolish sin-
ful bargains, which were, indeed, null and void from
the beginning, by which we had alienated ourselves
from our rightful owner, and put ourselves in pos-
session of the usurper, must be revoked and can-
celled, and our consent to them drawn back with
disdain and abhorrence. When we tiike an oath of
allegiance to God in Christ, as our rightful King
and Sovereign, we must therein abjure the tyranny
of the rebellious and rival powers. O Lord our
God, other lards beside thee haae had dominion over
us, while sin has reigned in our mortal bodies, in
our immortal souls, and every lust has been a lord;
but now we are weary of that heavy |oke, and
through God's grace it shall be so no longer, for,
henceforth, by thee only will we mahe mention of thy
name, Isa. xxvi. 13.
Tlie covenant we are to enter into is a marriage-
covenant. Thy Maher is to be thy husband, (Isa. liv.
5.) and thou art to be betrothed to him, (Hos. ii. 19.)
and it is the ancient and fundamental law of that
covenant, that all other lovers be renounced, all
other beloved ones forsaken ; and the same is the
law of this covenant; (Hos. iii. 3.) Tliou shalt not
be for another man, so will I also be for thee. Quit-
ting all others, we must cleave to the Lord only ;
lovers and crowned heads will not endure rivals.
On these terms, and no other, we may covenant with
God, (1 Sam. vii. 3.) If ye do return unto the Lord
with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods,
and Ashtaroth; else it is not a return to God.
(I.) We must renounce all subjection to Satan's
rule and government. Satan's seat must be over-
turned in our hearts, and the Redeemer's throne
set up there upon the ruins of it We must disclaim
the devil's power over us, cast off that iron yoke,
and resolve to be deceived by him no more, and led
captive by him at his will no more. We must quit
the service of the citizen of that country, and feed
his swine no longer, feed upon his husks no more,
that we may return to our Father's house, where there
is bread enough and to spare. We must renounce the
treacherous conduct of the evil spirit, that we may
put ourselves under the gracious guidance of the
holy and good Spirit. All that turn to God, must
turn from the power of Satan, (Acts xxvi. 18.) for
what communion hath Christ with Belial? Our cove-
nant with God engages us in a war with Satan ; for
the controversy between them is such, as will by no
means allow us to stand neuter.
(2.) We must renounce all compliance with tlie
wills and interests of the flesh. The body, though
near and dear to the soul, yet must not be allowed
to have dominion over it The liberty, sovereignty,
and honour of the inmiortal spirit, by which we are
360
THE COMMUNICANTS COMPANION.
allied to the upper world, that world of spirits, must
be asserted, vindicated, and maintained against the
usurpation and encroachments of the body, which is
of the earth earthy, and by which we are allied to
the beasts that perish. The elder too long has
served the younger, the nobler has served the baser,
it is time that the yoke should be broken from off its
neck, and that part of man should rule under Christ,
whose right it is. The servants on horseback must
be dismounted, the lusts of the flesh denied, and its
vrill no longer admitted to give law to the man ; and
the princes who have walked like servants upon the
earth, must be raised from their debasement, and
made to inherit the throne of glory : the dictates (I
mean) of right reason, guided by revelation, and
consulting the true interests of the better part, must
have the commanding sway and empire in us, Eccl.
X. 7. 1 Sam. ii. 8. We must never more make it our
chief good to have the flesh pleased, and the desires
of it gratified ; nor ever make it our chief business
to make provision for the flesh, that we may fulfil
the lusts of it. Away with them, away with them ;
crucify them, crucify them ; for like Barabbas, they
are robbers, they are murderers, they are enemies
to our peace ; we will not have them to reign over
us ; no, no, we know them too well ; we have no
king but Jesus.
(3.) We must renounce all dependence upon this
present world, and conformity to it. If we enter into
a covenant which ensures a happiness in the other
world, and therefore look with a holy concern, we
must disclaim the expectations of happiness in this
world, and therefore look upon this with a holy con-
tempt. God and Mammon, God and gain, these
are contrary the one to the other ; so that if we vrill
be found loving God, and cleaving to him, we must
despise the world, and sit loose to it. Matt. vi. 24.
We must so far renounce the way of the world, as
not to govern ourselves by it, and take our princi-
ples and measures from it ; for we must not be con-
formed to this world, (Rom. xii. 2.) not walk accord-
ing to the course of it, Eph. ii. 2. We must so far
renounce the men of the world, as not to incorporate
ourselves with them, nor choose them for our people,
because though we are in the world, we are not of
the world, nor have we received the spirit of the
world, but Christ has chosen and called us out of it,
John XV. 19. We must so far renounce the wealth
of the world, as not to portion ourselves out of it,
nor lay up our treasure in it; nor to take up
with the things of this world as our good things,
(Luke xvi. 26.) as our consolation, (Luke vi. 24.)
as our reward, (Matt. vi. 2.) as the penny we agree
for. Matt. XX. 13. For in God's favour is our life,
and not in the smiles of this world. The Lord make
us cordial in thus renouncing these competitors,
that we may be found sincere in covenanting with
God in Christ.
3. We must receive the Lord Jesus Christ as he
is oflfered to us in the gospel. In renewing our
covenants with God, it is not enough to enter oar
dissent from the world and the flesh, and to shake
oflf Satan's yoke, but we must enter oar consent to
Christ, and take upon us his yoke. In the everlast-
ing gospel, both as it is written in the Scriptare, and
as it is sealed in this sacrament, salvation by Christ,
that great salvation, is fairly tendered to us ; to ns
who need it, and are undone for ever without it We
then come into covenant vrith God, when we accept
of this salvation, with an entire complacency and
confidence in those methods which inflnite wisdom
has taken of reconciling a guilty and obnoxious
world to himself, by the mediation of his own Son, \
and a cheerful compliance with those methods for '
ourselves, and our own salvation. Lord, I take thee
at thy word ; be it unto thy servant according to
that word, which is so well ordered in all things, and
so sure.
We must accept the salvation in Christ's way, and
upon his terms, else our acceptance is not accepted.
(1.) By a hearty consent to the grace of Christ,
we must accept the salvation in his own way, in
such a way, as for ever excludes boasting, humbles
man to the dust, and will admit no flesh to gloiy in
his presence : such a way, as (though it leave the
blood of them that perish upon their own heads)
lays all the crowns of them who are saved at the
feet of free grace. This method we must approve
of, and love this salvation, not going about to es-
tablish our own righteousness, as if by pleading not
guilty, we could answer the demands of the cove-
nant of innocency, and so be justifled and saved by
it ; but submitting to the righteousness of God, by
faith, Rom. iii. 22. All the concerns that lie be-
tween us and God, we must put into the hands of
the Lord Jesus, as the great Mediator, the great
Manager ; we must be content to be nothing, that
the Lord only may be exalted, and Christ may be
all in all, God has declared more than once by a
voice from heaven. This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased. To consent to Christ's grace, and
accept of salvation in his way, is to echo back to
that solemn declaration, '' This is my beloved Savi-
our, in whom I am well pleased." The Lord be
well pleased with me in him, for out of him I can
expect no favour.
(2.) By a hearty consent to the government of
Christ, we must accept the salvation on his own
terms. When we receive Christ, we must receive
an entire Christ ; for. Is Christ divided T A Christ
to sanctify and rule us, as well as a Christ to justify
and save us ; for he is a Priest upon his threme, and
the counsel of peace is between them both, Zech. vi. 13*
What God has joined together, let not us think to
put asunder. He saves his people from their sins,
not in their sins ; and is the Author of eternal re-
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
361
demption to those only that obey him. That very
grace of God which hHngeth salvation^ ieacheth us to
deny ungodlines* and worldly and fleshly /u#<*, and
to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in {his world.
Tit. ii. 11, 12. Life and peace are to be had on
these terms, and no other. And are we willing to
come up to these terms ? Will we receive Christ and
his law, as well as Christ and his love ? Christ and
his cross as well as Christ and his crown? " Lord,
I will ;" (says the believing soul ;) " Lord, I do ;"
My Beloved is mine, and I am his, to all the intents
and purposes of the covenant.
4. We must resign and give up* ourselves to God
in Christ. God in the covenant makes over, not
only his gifts and favours, but himself, to us, [/
will be to them a God,] what he is in himself, he will
be to us, a God all-sufficient ; so we in the covenant
must ofler up not only our services, but ourselves,
our own selves, our whole selves, body, soul, and
spirit, to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
according to the obligations of our baptism, as those
who are bound to be to him a people. This sur-
render is to be solemnly made at the Lord's table,
and sealed there ; it must therefore be prepared and
made ready before. Let us see to it, that it be care-
fully drawn up, without exception or limitation, and
the heart examined whether a free and full consent
be given to it. We must first give our own selves
unto the Lord, (2 Cor. viii. 5.) and I know not how
we can dispose of ourselves better. By the mercies
of God, which are inviting, and very encouraging,
we must be wrought upon to present our bodies and
souls to God a living sacrifice of acknowledgment,
not a dying sacrifice of atonement, which if it be
holy shall be acceptable, and it is our reasonable
service, Rom. xii. 1. Thus he who covenants with
God, is directed to say, / am the Lord's, and for the
greater solemnity of the transaction, to subscribe
with his hand to the Lord, Isa. xliv. 5. Not that we
do or can hereby transfer or convey to God any
right to us which he had not before ; he is our abso-
lute Lord and Owner, and has an incontestable
sovereignty over us, and property in us, as he is our
Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, and Redeemer ; but
hereby we recognize and acknowledge his right to
us. We are his already by obligation, more his than
our own ; but, that we may have the benefit and
comfort of being so, we must be his by our own
consent. More particularly,
(1.) To resign ourselves to God, is to dedicate and
to devote ourselves to his praise. It is not enough
to call ourselves by his name, and associate among
those who do so, to take away our reproach, but we
most consecrate ourselves to his name, as living
temples. Corban, It is a gift, a gift to God ; all I
am, all I have, all I can do is so ; it is a dedicated
thing, which it is sacrilege to alienate. All the
powers and faculties of our soul, all the parts and
members of our bodies, we must, as those that are
alive from the dead, freely yield unto God as ]ft#^rM-
ments of righteousness, to be used and employed in
his service for his glory, Rom. vi. 13. All our en-
dowments, all our attainments, all those things which
we call accomplishments, must be accounted as
talents, which we must trade with for his honour.
All being of him and from him, all must be to him
and for him. Our tongues must not be our own, but
his ; in nothing to offend him, but to speak his praise,
and plead his cause, as there is occasion. Our time
not our own, but as a servant's time, to be spent
according to our Master's directions, and some way
or other iA our Master^s glory ; every day being in
this sense our Lord^s day. Our estates not our own,
to be spent or spared by the directions of our lusts,
but to be used as God directs ; God must be honour-
ed virith our substance, (Prov. iii. 9.) and our mer-
chandise and our hire must be holiness to the Lord, '
Isa. xxiii. 18. Our interest not our own, with it to
seek our own glory, but to be improved in seeking
and serving God's glory : that is, God's glory must
be fixed and aimed at as our highest and ultimate
end, in all the care we take about our employments,
and all the comfort we take in our enjoyments. As
good stewards of the manifold grace of God, we must
have this still in our eye. That God in all things may
be glorified through Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. iv. 10, 11.
By this pious intention common actions must be
sanctified, and done after a godly sort, 3 John 6.
Our giving up of ourselves to be to God a people, is
thus explained, (Jer. xiii. 11.) it is to be to him, for
a name, and for a praise, and for a glory,
(2.) To resign ourselves to God, is to be subject
and submit ourselves to his power : to the sanctify-
ing power of his Spirit, the commanding power of
his law, and the disposing power of his providence.
Such as this is the subjection we must consent to ;
and it has in it so much of privilege and advantage,
as well as duty and service, that we hfiVe no reason
to stumble at it
[I.] We must submit ourselves to the sanctifying
power of God's Spirit We must lay our souls as
soft wax under this seal, to receive the impressions
of it; as white paper under this pen, that it may
write the law there. Whereas we have resisted the
Holy Ghost, quenched his motions, and striven
against him when he has been striving with us, we
must now yield ourselves to be led and influenced
by him. with full purpose of heart in every thing to
follow his conduct, and comply with him. When
Christ in his gospel breathes on us, saying, Receive
ye the Holy Ghost, (John xx. 22.) my heart must
answer, ** Lord, I receive him, I bid him welcome
into my heart, though he come as a Spirit of judg-
ment, and a Spirit of burning, as a refiner's fire,
Rnd fuller's soap, yet blessed is he that comet h in the
name of the Lard. Let him come and moitify my
362
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
lusts and corruptioDS, I do not desire that any of
them sliould be spared ; let them die, let them die
by the sword of the Spirit, Agag himself not ex-
cepted, though he comes delicately. Let every
thought within, even the inward thought, (Ps. xlix.
11.) be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
2 Cor. X. 5. Let the blessed Spirit do his whole work
in me, and fulfil it with an almighty power."
[2.] We must submit ourselves to the commanding
power of God's law. The law, as it is in the hand of
the Mediator, is God's instrument of government ;
if I yield myself to him as a subject, I must in
every thing be observant of, and obedient to, that
law ; and now I covenant to be so, in all my ways to
walk according to that rule. All my thoughts and
affections, all my words and actions, shall be under
the direction of the divine law, and subject to its
check and restraint. God's judgments will I lay
before me, and have respect to all his command-
ments ; by them I will be always ruled, overruled.
•* Let the word of the Lord come," (as a good man
once said,) ** and if I had six hundred necks, I would
bow them all to the authority of it." Whatever ap-
pears to me to be my duty, by the grace of God I
will do it, how much soever it interfere with my se-
cular interest ; whatever appears to me to be a sin,
by the grace of God I will avoid it, and refrain from
it, how strong soever my corrupt inclination may be
to it. A II that the Lord shall say to me, / will do, and
unll be obedient
[3.] We must submit ourselves to the disposing
power of God's providence. This must be the rule
of our patience and passive obedience, as the former
of our practice and active obedience. AH my affairs
relating to this life, I cheerfully submit to the divine
disposal ; let them be directed and determined as
Inflnite Wisdom sees fit, and I will acquiesce. Let
the Lord save my soul, and then, as to every tiling
else, let hiq^do with me and mine as seemeth good
unto him ; Twill never find fault with any thing that
God does : Not as I will, but as thou wilt, I know I
have no wisdom of my own ; I am a fool, if I lean
to my own understanding, and therefore I will have
no will of my own : Father, thy will be done. The
health of my body, the success of my calling, the
prosperity of my estate, the agreeableness of my
family, the continuance of my comforts, and the
issue of any particular concern my heart is upon, I
leave in the hands of my heavenly Father, who
knows what is good for me, better than I do for my-
self. If in any of these I be crossed, by the grace of
God I will submit, without murmuring or disputing :
all is well that God does, and therefore welcome the
will of God in every event. While he is mine, and
I am his, nothing shall come amiss to me.
5. We must resolve to abide by it as long as we
live, and to live up to it. In our covenanting with
God, there must be not only a present consent.
*^ Lord, I do take thee for mine, I do giwe ap mjieif
to thee to be thine ;" but this must be ripened into
a resolution for the future, with purpose of heart tt
cleave unto the Lord, Acts xi. 23. We mast lay hold
on Wisdom, so as to retain her, (Prov. ilL 18.) and
choose the way of truth, so as to stick to it, Ps. crix.
30, 31. The nail in the holy place must be well
clenched, that it may be a nail in a sure plsiet^ Isa.
xxii. 23. Many a pang of good affections, and manj
a hopeful turn of good inclinations, come to nothing
for want of resolution. It is said of Rehoboam,
(2 Chron. xii. 14.) that he did evil, becauge he pre-
pared not, or, he fixed not his heart (so the word is in
the margin) to seeh the Lord, The heart that is un-
fixed, is unprepared. Joshua took pains with the
people, to bring them up to that noble resolntioD,
(Josh. xxiv. 21.) Nay, but we will serve the Lord;
and we should not be content, till we also are in like
manner resolved, and firmly fixed for God and duty,
for Christ and heaven. This is the preparation ^
the gospel of peace, wherewith our feet must be shod,
Eph. vi. 15.
Let us inquire what that resolution is, which
is an entire dependence upon the grace of Christ, to
which we should come up in our covenanting with
God.
(I.) We must come up to such a settled resolution,
as does not reserve a power of revocation for our-
selves. The covenant is in itself a perpetnal cove-
nant, and as such we must consent to it ; not as ser-
vants hire themselves, by the year, or to be free at a
quarter's warning ; not as apprentices bind them-
selves, for seven years, to be discharged at the expi-
ration of that term ; but it must be a covenant for
life, a covenant for eternity, a covenant never to be
forgotten : and in this beyond even the marriage-
covenant, for that is made with this proviso, " till
death us do part ;" but death itself must not part as
and Christ Our covenant must be made like that
servant's who loved his master, and would not go
out free ; our ears must be nailed to God's door-
post, and we must resolve to serve him for ever, Exod.
xxi. 5, 6. A power of revocation reserved, is a de-
feasance of the covenant ; it is no bargain if it be
not for a perpetuity, and if we consent not to put it
past recal.
Let not those who are young, and under tutors
and governors, think to discharge themselves of
these obligations, when they come to be of age, and
to put them off with their childish things : no ; you
must resolve to adhere to it, as Moses did, when you
come to years. Heb. xi. 24. As children are not too
little, so grown people arc not too big, to be reli-
gious. You must resolve to live under the bonds of
this covenant, when you come to live of yourselves,
to be at your own disposal, and to launch out ever so
far into this world. Your greatest engagements in
care and business, cannot disengage you from these.
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
363
Whatever state of life yoa are called to, yoa mast
resolve to take your religion with you into it.
Let not those who are in the midst of their days
think it possible, or desirable, to outlive the binding
force of this covenant. If now we should set out in
(he way we should go, it must be with a resolution,
if we live to be old, how wise and honourable soever
old age be, yet, then, we will not depart from it,
(Prov. xxii. 6.) as knowing that the hoary hairs are
only a crown of glory y when they are found (as having
been long before fixed) in the way of righteousness,
Prov. xvi. 31.
(2.) We must come up to such a strong resolu-
tion, as will not yield to the power of temptation
from the enemy. When we engage ourselves for
God, we engage ourselves against Satan, and must
expect his utmost efforts to oppose us in our way,
and to draw us out of it. Against these designs we
mast therefore arm ourselves, resolving to stand in
the evil day, and having done all, in God's name, to
stand our ground, (Eph. vi. 13.) saying to all that,
which would either divert or deter us from prosecut-
ing the choice we have made, as Ruth did to Naomi,
when she was stedfastly resolved, (Ruth i. 16.) En-
treat me not to leave Christ, or to turn from follow-
ing after him ; for, whither he goes I will follow him,
though it be into banishment ; where he lodges, I
will lodge with him, though it be in a prison ; for
death itself shall never part us.
We must resolve, by God's grace, never to be so
elevated or enamoured with the smiles of the world,
as by them to be allured from the paths of serious
godliness ; for our religion will be both the safety
and the honour of a prosperous condition, and will
sanctify and sweeten all the comforts of it to us.
And we must in like manner resolve never to be
BO discouraged and disheartened by the frowns of
the world, as by the force of them to be robbed of
oar joy in God, or by the fear of them to be driven
from our duty to God. We must come to Christ,
with a steady resolution to abide by him all wea-
thers : Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou
goest, Tltough I should die with thee, yet will I not
deny thee. None of these things move me.
6. We must rely upon the righteousness and
strength of our Lord Jesus Christ in all this. Christ is
the Mediator of this peace, and the guarantee of it,
the surety of this better covenant ; that blessed days-
man, who has laid his hand upon us both ; who has
so undertaken for God, that in him all God's pro-
mises to us are Yea, and Amen, 2 Cor. i. 20. and
unless he ' undertake for us too, how can our pro-
mises to God have any strength or stability in them?
When therefore we enter into covenant with God,
oar eye must be to Christ as the Alpha and Omega
of that covenant. When God had sworn by himself,
that unto him every hnee should bow, and every tongue
should swear, (Isa. xlv. 23.) immediately it follows,
V. 24. Surely shall one say, every one that bows and
swears to God, In the Lord have I righteousness
and strength ; in the Lord Jesus is all my sufficiency
for the doing of this well. In making and rei^ew-
ing our covenant with God, we must take instruc-
tions from that of David, Ps. Ixxi. 19. / will go in
the strength of the Lord God ; I will make mention of
thy righteousness, even of thine only.
(1.) We must depend upon the strength of the
Lord God for assistance, and for the working of all
our works in us, and for us. In that strength we
must go, go forth and go on, as those that know we
can do nothing that is good of ourselves ; our own
hands are not sufficient for us ; but we can do alt
things through Christ strengthening us, Phil. iv. 13.
Our work then goes on, and then only, when we are
strengthened with all might by his Spirit. This way we
must look for spiritual strength, as Nehemiah did,
{ch. vi. 9.) Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.
On this strength we must stay ourselves; in this
strength we must engage ourselves, and put forth
ourselves, and with it we must encourage ourselves.
We cannot make this covenant, but in the strength
of Christ, nor make it at all. Nature, corrupt nature,
inclines to the world and the flesh, and cleaves to
them : without the influences of special grace, we
should never move towards God, much less resolve
for him. We cannot do it well, but in Christ's
strength, and in a dependence upon that If, like
Peter, we venture on our own sufficiency, and use
those forms of speech which import a reliance on
the divine grace, only as words of course, and do
not by faith trust to that grace, and derive from it ;
we forfeit the aids of it ; our covenant is rejected as
presumptuous, and shall not avail us. Promises
made in our own strength betray us, and do not
help us ; like the house built on the sand.
We cannot keep this covenant when it is made»
but in the strength of Christ; for we stand no longer
than he by his grace upholds us, we go no further
than he by his grace, not only leads us, but carries
us. His promises to us are our security, not ou^s to
him : from his fulness, therefore, we must expect to
receive grace for grace ; for it is not in ourselves, nor
is it to be had any where but in him. We then, that
are principals in the bond, knowing ourselves in-
solvent, must put him in as surety for us. He is
willing to stand ; and without him, our bond will
not be taken. We arc too well known to be trusted ;
for all men are liars ; and the heart is deceitful above
all things. Go to Christ therefore with that address,
(Ps. cxix. 122.) Be surety for thy servant for good.
(Isa. xxxviii. 14.) / am oppressed ; undertake for me,
(2.) We must depend upon the righteousness of
Christ ; make mention of that, even of that only,
for acceptance with God in our covenanting with
him. We have nothing in us, to recommend us to
God's favour ; no righteousness of our own, wherein
364
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
to appear before him : we have, by sin, not only for-
feited all the blessings of the covenant, but incapa-
citated ourselves for admission into it. By sacrifice,
therefore, by a sacrifice of atonement, sufficient to
expiate our guilt, and satisfy the demands of injured
justice, we must make a covenant with God. And
there is none such but that one offering , by which
Christ has perfected for ever them which are sanctified.
That is the blood of the covenant, which must be
sprinkled upon our consciences when we join our-
selves to the Lord, (Exod. xxiv. 8.) that everlasting
righteousness, which Messiah the Prince has brought
in, must be the cover of our spiritual nakedness, our
wedding-garment to adorn our nuptials, and the
foundation on which we must build all our hopes to
find favour in the sight of the Lord.
I shall not here draw up a form of covenanting
with God ; both because such may be found drawn
up by far better hands than mine, as Mr. Baxter's,
Mr. Allen's, and others ; and, because a judicious
Christian may, out of the foregoing heads, easily
draw up one for himself.
II. After what manner we must renew our cove-
nant with God, that we may therein please God, and
experience the good efl*ect of it in our own souls.
1. We must do it intelligently. Blind promises
will produce lame performances, and can never be
acceptable to the seeing God. Ignorance is not
the mother of this devotion. Satan indeed puts out
men's eyes, and so brings them into bondage to him,
and leads them blindfold ; for he is a thief and a
robber, that comes not in by the door, but climbeth up
some other way ; and therefore to him we must not
open. But the grace of God takes the regular way
of dealing with reasonable creatures, opening the
understanding first, and then bowing the will : this
is entering in by the door, as the Shepherd of the
sheep does, John x. 1, 2. In this method, therefore,
we must see that the work be done. We must first
acquaint ourselves with the tenor of the covenant,
and then consent to the terms of it. Moses read the
book of the covenant in the audience of the people,
(Exod. xxiv. 7.) and then sprinkled upon them the
blood of the covenant, v. 8. And we must take the
same method ; first peruse the articles, and then sign
them. That faith which is without knowledge, is
not the faith of God's elect
2. We must do it considerately. We need not
take time to consider whether we should do it or no,
the matter is too plain to bear that debate ; but we
must seriously consider what we do, when we go
about it. Let it be done with a solemn pause, such
as Moses put Israel upon, when he said, (Deut.
xxix. 10, 12.) Ye stand this day all of you before the
Lord your God ; that thou shouldest enter into cove-
nant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath. Con-
sider how weighty this transaction is, that it may be
managed with due seriousness, and of what con-
sequence it is that it be done well ; for it is to be
hoped, that if it be once well done» it is done for
ever. We must sit down and count the cost ; con-
sider the restraints this covenant will pat upon the
flesh, the loss and expense we may sustain by cor
adherence to it, the hazards we run, and the dif-
culdes we must reckon upon, if we will be faith-
ful unto death ; and in the view of these consent la
the covenant ; that hereafter, when tribalation and
persecution arises because of the word, we may not
say, " This was what we did not think of." Do it
deliberately, therefore, and then it will not be easilj
undone. The rule in vowing is. Be not rmsA wilk
thy mouth, neither let thy heart be hasty to utter awf
thing before God, Eccl. v. 2. It is the character of
the virtuous woman, that she considers et field, md
buys it. And it has been thought a dictate of pni-
dence, though it seem a paradox ; " Take time, and
you will have done the sooner." Many, that with-
out consideration have put on a profession, when
the wind has turned, have in like manner, withoat
consideration, thrown it off" again. " Light come,
light go." Those, therefore, that herein woald prove
themselves honest, must prove themselves wise
3. We must do it humbly. When we come to
covenant with God, we must remember what we are,
and who he is with whom we have to do, that the
familiarity we are graciously admitted to, may not
beget a contempt of God, or a conceit of ourselves;
but rather, the more God is pleased to exalt us, and
condescend to us, the more we must honour him,
and abase ourselves. Abraham fell on his face, in
a deep sense of his own unworthiness, when God
said, / will make my covenant between me mnd tkee,
and began to talk with him concerning it; (Gen.
xvii. 2, 3.) and afterwards, when he was admitted
into an intimate communion with God, pursuant to
that covenant, he drew near, as one that knew his
distance, expressing himself with wonder at the
favour done him, (Gen. xviii. 27.) Behold^ now I
have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, wkieh am
but dust and ashes. When the covenant of royalty
was confirmed to David, and God regarded him
according to the estate of a man of high degree, he
sits down as one astonished at the honour conferred
on him, and humbly expresses himself thus : Who
am I, O Lord God ; and what is mine house, that tkou
hast brought me hitherto? 1 Chron. xvii. 16, 17.
Thus must we cast ourselves down at the footstool
of God*s throne, if we would be taken up into the
embraces of his love. He that humhleth himself
shall be exalted,
4. We must do it cheerfully ; for here, in a special
manner, God loves a cheerful giver, and is pleased
with that which is done, not of constraint, but will-
ingly. In our covenanting with God, we must not
be actuated by a spirit of bondage and fear, but by
a spirit of adoption, a spirit of power and love, and a
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
305
somid mindy Rom. Tiii. 15. 2 Tim. i. 7. We must
join ourselves to the Lord, not only because it is our
datj, and that which we are bound to, but because
it is our interest, and that by which we shall be un-
speakable gainers : not with reluctance and regret,
and with a half-consent extorted from us ; but with
an entire satisfaction, and the full consent of a free
spirit. Let it be a pleasure to us to think of our
interest in God as ours, and our engagement to him
as his ; a pleasure to us to think of the bonds of the
eoTenant, as well as of the blessings of the covenant.
Much of our communion with God (which is so
much the delight of all that are sanctifled) is kept
np by the frequent recognition of our covenant with
him ; which we should make, as those who like our
choice too well to change ; and as the men of
Jndah did, when they tware unto the Lord with a
loud voice^ and with trumpets: and all Judah re-
joiced at the oath ; for they had sworn with all
their heart, and sought him with their whole desire,
2 Chron. xv. 14, 15. Christ's soldiers must be volun-
teers, not pressed men, and we must repeat our con-
sent to him with such joy and triumph, as appears
in that of the spouse, (Cant. v. 16.) This is my be-
loved, and this is my friend*
5. We must do it in sincerity. This is the chief
thing required in every thing wherein we have to do
with God ; Behold, he desires truth in the inward
parts. When God took Abraham into covenant with
himself, this was the charge he gave him, Walh
hefure me, and he thou perfect, that is, upright, for
uprightness is our gospel perfection. Writing the
covenant and subscribing it, signing and sealing it,
may be proper expressions of seriousness and reso-
lution in the transaction, and of use to us in the
review ; but if herein we lie unto God with our
mouth, VLud flatter him with our tongue, as Israel did,
(Ps. Ixxviii. 36.) though we may ]^ut the cheat upon
ourselves and others, yet we cannot impose upon
him ; Be not deceived, God is not mocked. If we only
give the hand unto the Lord, and do not g^ve our
hearts to him, whatever our pretensions, professions,
and present feelings of devotion may be, we are but
as a sounding brass, and tinkling cymbal. What will
it avail us to say, we covenant with God, if we still
keep up our league with the world and the flesh,
and have a secret antipathy to serious godliness?
dissembled piety is no disguise before God, but is
hated as double iniquity. It is certain, that thou
hast no part nor lot in the matter (whatever thou
mayst claim) if thy heart be not right in the sight of
God, Acts viii. 21. I know no religion but sincerity :
our vows to God are nothing, if they be not bonds
upon the soul.
CHAPTER VL
HBLP8 FOR MEDITATION AND PRAYER IN OUR PREPARATION
FOR THE ORDINANCE.
Meditation and prayer are the daily exercise and
delight of a devout and pious soul. In meditation
we converse with ourselves ; in prayer we converse
with God ; and what converse can we desire more
agreeable, and more advantageous ? They who are
frequent and serious in those holy duties at other
times, will find them the easier and the sweeter on
this occasion ; the friends we are much with, we are
most free with : but if at other times we be not so
close and constant to them as we should be, we have
the more need to take pains with our own hearts,
that we may effectually engage them in these ser-
vices, when we approach the ordinance of the Lord's
supper.
Enter into thy closet, therefore, and shut the door
against diversions from without: be not shy of
being alone. The power of godliness withers and
declines, if secret devotion be either neglected or
negligently performed. Enter into thy heart also,
and do what thou canst to shut the doors of that
against distraction from within. Compose thyself
for the business, and summon all that is within thee
to attend on it ; separate thyself from the world and
the thoughts of it ; leave all its cares at the bottom
of the hill, as Abraham did his servants, when he
was going up into the mount to worship God, (Gen.
xxii. 5.) and then set thyself about thy work ; gird
up thy loins, and trim thy lamp. Up, and be doing,
and the Lord be with thee.
We must set ourselves to meditate on that
which is most proper for the confirming of our faith,
and the kindling of pious and devout affections in
us. Good thoughts should be often in our minds,
and welcome there; so should our souls often
breathe towards God in pious ejaculations that are
short and sudden : but as good prayers, so good
thoughts, must sometimes be set and solemn. Morn-
ing and evening they must be so, on the Lord's day
also, and before the Lord's supper.
Meditation is thought engaged, and thought in-
flamed.
1. It is thought engaged ; in it the heart fastens
upon, and fixes to, a select and certain subject, with
an endeavour to dwell and enlarge upon it: not
matters of doubtful disputation, or small concern,
but those things which are of greatest certainty and
moment. And since few of the ordinary sort of
Christians can be supposed to have such a treasury
of knowledge, such a fruitfulness of invention, and
so great a compass and readiness of thought, as
to be able to discourse with themselves for any time
upon any one subject, so closely, methodically, and
806
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
pertinently as one would wish ; it may be advisable
either to fasten upon some portion of Scripture, and
to read that over and over with a closeness of obser-
vation and application ; or to recollect some profit-
able sermon lately heard, and think that over ; or to
make use of some books of pious meditations, or
practical discourses, (which blessed be God we have
great plenty and variety of in our own tongue,) and
not only read them, but descant and enlarge upon
them in our minds, still giving liberty to our own
thoughts to expatiate, as they are able, but borrow-
ing help from what we read, to reduce them when
they wander, and to furnish them with matter when
they are barren. In the choice of helps for this
work, wisdom and experience are profitable to di-
rect, and no rule can be given to fit all capacities
and all cases : the end may be attained in different
methods.
2. It is thought inflamed. To meditate, is not
only to think seriously of divine things, but to think
of Uiem with concern and suitable afiection. While
we are thus musinfff the fire mutt burn, Ps. xxxix. 3.
When the heart meditates terror, (Isa. xxxiii. 18.)
the terrors of the Lord, it must be with a holy fear.
When we contemplate the beauty of the Lord, his
bounty, and his benignity, which is better than life,
we must do it with holy complacency, solacing our-
selves in the Lord our God. The design of meditation
is to improve our knowledge, and to affect ourselves
with those things with which we have acquainted
ourselves, that the impressions of them upon our
souls may be deep and durable, and that by behold-
ing the glory of the Lord, we may be changed into the
same image.
Serious meditation before a sacrament, will be of
great use to us, to make those things familiar to us,
which in that ordinance we are to be conversant
with : that good thoughts may not be to seek when
we are there, it is our wisdom to prepare them, and
lay them ready beforehand. Frequent acts confirm
a habit ; and pious dispositions are greatly helped
by pious meditations. Christian g^ces will be the
better exercised in the ordinance, when they are
thus trained, disciplined, and drawn out in the pre-
paration for it.
For our assistance herein, I shall mention some
few of those things which may most properly be
pitched upon for the subject of our meditations be-
fore a sacrament : I say, before a sacrament, because,
though this be calculated here for the sacrament of
the Lord's supper, yet it may equally serve us in our
preparations for the other sacrament, both that we
may profit by the public administration of it, and,
especially, that we may, in an accceptable manner,
present our children to it ; for which service we have
as much need carefully to prepare ourselves as for this.
As we must in faith join ourselves to the Lord, so we
must in faith dedicate those pieces of ourselves to him.
i
That our hearts then may be raised, and quick-
ened, and prepared for conmianion with Christ at
his table,
I. Let us set ourselves to think of the anfalnesi
and misery of man's fallen state. That we may be
taught to value our recovery and restoration by the
grace of the second Adam, let us take a fall tad |
distinct view of our ruin by the sin of the first Adam; j'
come and see what desolations it has made on the
earth, and how it has turned the world into a wilder-
ness. How is this gold become dim, mnd the most
fine gold changed! What wretched work did sin
make ? What a black and horrid train of fatal con-
sequences attended its entrance into the world ! |
Come, my soul, and see how the nature of man is
corrupted and violated, and lamentably degenerated
from its primitive purity and rectitude : God's image
defaced and lost, and Satan's image stamped instead
of it The understanding blind, and unapt to admit
the rays of divine light ; the vnll stubborn, and nnapC
to comply with the dictates of the divine law ; the
affections carnal, and unapt to receive the impres-
sions of the divine love. Come, my soul, and lament
the change ; thou thyself feelest from it, and sharest
in the sad effects of it ; for a nature thus tainted,
thus depraved, I brought into the world with me,
and carry about with me to this day sad remainders
of its corruption. It was a nature by creation little
lower than that of angels, but become by sin much
baser than that of brutes. It was like the Nazarites,
purer than snow, whiter than milk, more ruddy than
the rubies f and its polishing was of sapphires ; bat now,
its visage is blacker than a coal, Lam. iv. 7, 8. Never
was beauty so deformed, never was strength so weak-
ened, never was a healthful constitution so spoiled,
never was honour so laid in the dust How is the
faithful city become a harlot! Man's nature was
planted a choice vine, wholly a right seed : but alas,
it is become the degenerate plant of a strange rine,
Jcr. ii. 21. I find in myself, by sad experience, I
am naturally prone to that which is evil, and back-
ward to that which is good. Foolishness is daily
breaking out in my life, and by that I perceive it is
bound up in my heart : for these things I blush, and
am ashamed ; for these things I tremble, and am
afraid ; for these things I weep, mine eye, mine eye
runs down with tears. Lam. i. 16.
Come, my soul, and see how miserable fallen man
is ; see him excluded God's favour, expelled the
garden of the Lord, and forbidden to meddle with
the tree of life ; see how odious he is become to
God's holiness, and obnoxious to his justice, and by
nature a child of wrath. See how calamitous the
state of human life is ; what troops of diseases, dis-
asters, and deaths, in the most horrid and frightful
shapes, man is compassed about with ; Lord, how are
they increased that trouble him ! See him attacked on
every side by the malignant powers of darkness that
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307
leek to destroy ; see him senteoced for sin to utter
darkness, to the devouring Are, to the everlasting
burning ; How art thou fallen, O Lucifer ^ son of the
morning ; O what a gulph of misery is man sunk
into by sin ; separated from all good to all evil ; and
bis condition in himself helpless and hopeless. A
deplorable case ! And it is my case by nature. I
un of this guilty, exposed, condemned race ; undone,
undone for ever ; as miserable as the curse of hea-
ven and the flames of hell can make me, if infinite
mercy do not interpose. And shall not this affect
me? Shall not this afflict me? Shall not these
thoughts beget in me a hatred of sin, that evil, that
only evil ? Shall I ever be reconciled to that which
has done so much mischief? Shall I not be quick-
ened hereby to fly to Christ, in whom alone help
and salvation is to be had? Is this thy condition, O
my soul, thine by nature, and is there a door of hope
opened to thee by grace ? Up, then, get thee out of
this Sodom ; escape for thy life, look not behind thee,
itmff not in all the plain, escape to the mountain, the
mountain of holiness, lest thou be consumed,
II. Let us set ourselves to think of the glory of
the divine attributes shining forth in the work of our
redemption and salvation. Here is a bright and
noble subject, the contemplation and wonder of
angels and blessed spirits above, and which eternity
itself will be short enough to be spent in the admir-
ing view of.
Come then, O my soul, come and think of the
kindness and love of God our Saviour, his good will
to man which designed our redemption ; the spring
and first wheel of that work of wonder. Herein is
love ! Though God was happy from eternity before
man bad a being, and would have been happy to
eternity, if man had never been, or had been miser-
able ; though man's nature was mean and despi-
cable ; though his crimes were heinous and detes-
table • though by his disobedience he had forfeited
the protection of a prince ; though by his ingratitude
he had forfeited the kindness of a friend ; and,
though by his perfidiousness he had forfeited the
benefits of a covenant ; yet the tender mercies of
our God moved for his relief. Come and see a
world of apostate angels passed by and left to perish ;
no Redeemer, no Saviour provided for them ; but
fallen men pitied and helped ; though angels had
been more honourable, and would have been more
serviceable.
Come and think of God's patience and forbear-
ance exercised toward man ; The long suffering of
our Lord is salvation. Think how much he bears,
and how long, with the world, with me, though most
provoking. This patience left room for the salva-
tion, and gives hopes of it. If the Lord had been
pleased to kill us, he would have done it before now.
Come and think, especially, of tlie wisdom of God,
which is so gloriously displayed in the contrivance
of the work of our redemption : here is the wisdom
of God in a mgstety, even the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world for our glory, 1 Cor.
ii. 7. Think of the measures God has taken, the
means he has devised, that the banished might not
be for ever expelled from him, 2 Sam. xiv. 14.
Think with wonder how all the divine attributes are,
by the method pitched upon, secured from damage
and reproach, so that one is not glorified by the di-
minution of the lustre of another. When sin has
brought things to that strait, that one would think
either God's justice, truth, and holiness must be
eclipsed and clouded, or man's happiness must be
for ever lost, infinite wisdom finds out an expedient
for the securing both of God's honour and of man's
happiness : it is now no disparagement at all to
God's justice to pardon sin, nor to his holiness to be
reconciled to sinners; for by the death of Christ
justice is satisfied, and by the Spirit of Christ sin-
ners are sanctified. Mercy and truth here meet
together ; behold, righteousness and peace kiss each
other. Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and won-
der, O earth. And thou, my soul, thou that owest
all thy joys and all thy hopes to this contrivance,
despairing to find the bottom of this unfathomable
fountain of life, sit down at the brink, and adore the
depth ; O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of
God I Rom. xi. 33.
III. Let us set ourselves to think of the person of
our Redeemer, and his glorious undertaking of
the work of our salvation. Come, my soul, and
think of Christ, who thought of thee ; think of him
as the eternal Son of God, the brightness of his Fa-
ther's glory, and the express image of his person ; who
lay in his bosom from eternity, and had an infinite
joy and glory with him before the worlds were, and
in whom dwells all the fulness of the godhead ; the
eternal Wisdom, the eternal Word that has life in
himself, and is one with the Father, and who thought
it no robbery to be equal with God. He is thy Lord,
(O my soul,) and worship thou him.
Think of him as the Former of all things, without
whom was not any thing made that was made.
Thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, all
things were created by him and for him, and he is be-
fore all things, and by him all things consist, Col. i.
16, 17. Let this engage my veneration for him, let
this encourage my faith and hope in him : if I have
my being from him, I must consecrate my being to
him, and may expect my bliss in him.
Think of him as Emanuel, the Word incarnate,
God manifest in the flesh, clothed with our nature,
taking part of flesh and blood, that for us in our
nature he might satisfy the justice of God whom we
had ofiended, and break the power of Satan, by whom
we were enslaved. Come, my soul, and with an eye
of faith behold the beauties, the transcendent, unpa-
ralleled beauties of the Redeemer. See him white aud
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ruddy, fairer than the children of men, perfectly
pure and spotless, wise and holy, kind and good ;
who has the infinite mercies of a God, and withal the
experimental compassions of a man, who has heen
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. See him
by faith, as John saw him in vision, Rev. i. 13, &c.
See him and admire him, as one who in all things has
the pre-eminence; none like him, nor any to be
compared to him.
Think of him as undertaking our redemption, the
redemption of the soul, which was so precious, that
otherwise it must have ceased for ever. When the
sealed book of God's counsels concerning man's re-
demption was produced, none in heaven or earth was
found worthy to open that booh, or to look thereon.
Rev. V. 3, 4. When sacrifice and offering for sin
would not do, and the blood of bulls and goats had
been tried in vain, and found ineffectual, then said
he, Lo, I come ; this ruin shall be under my hands,
alluding to Isa. iii. 6. Come, my soul, and see help
laid upon one that is mighty ; one chosen out of the
people, and every way qualified for the undertaking ;
able to do the Redeemer's work, and fit to wear the
Redeemer's crown. See how willingly he obliged
himself to the service, how cheerfully he obliged
himself to go through with it, and engaged his heart
to approach unto God as our advocate. It is the voice
of thy beloved, O my soul, behold he eometh, leaping
upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills, making
nothing of the difficulties that lay in his way. Be-
hold thy King comes, thy Bridegroom comes, go
forth my soul, go forth to meet him with thy joyful
hosannahs, and bid him welcome ; Blessed is he that
€ometh in the name of the Lord,
IV. Let us set ourselves to think of the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the dishonours done to him,
and the honours done to us, by it. Here is a wide
field for our meditations to expatiate in, nor can we
determine to know any thing before a sacrament
more proper and profitable ih&n Jesus Christ, and him
crucified ; lifted up from the earth, and drawing all
men unto him, as the attractive loadstone of their
hearts, and the common centre of their unity. Come
then, and behold the Man ; represent to thyself, (O
my soul,) not to thy fancy, but to thy faith, the Lamb
of God taking away the sins of the world, by the sacri-
fice of himself.
Come and look over the particulars of Christ's
sufferings, all the humiliations and mortifications of
his life ; but especially the pains, agonies, and ig-
nominies of his death. Review the story ; thou wilt
still find something in it surprising and very affect-
ing. Take notice of all the circumstances of his pas-
sion, and say. Never was sorrow like nnto his sorrow.
Take notice especially of the disgrace and reproach
done him in his sufferings, the shame he was indus-
triously loaded with : this contributed greatly to the
satisfaction made by his sufferings. God has been
injured in his glory by sin ; and no other way could
he be injured : he, therefore, who undertook to make
reparation for that injury, not only denied himself
in, and divested himself of, the honours due to an in-
carnate Deity, but, though most innocent and most
excellent, voluntarily submitted to the utmost dis-
g^ces that could be done to the worst of criminab.
Thus he restored that which he took not away. See
him, my soul, see him enduring the cross and despis-
ing the shame.
Come and see the purchases of the cross; the
blood, there shed, is the ransom with which we are
redeemed from hell, the price with which heaven is
bought for us. See it a price of inestimable value :
the topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor shall it be
valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precioMs onyx,
or the sapphire. No, my soul, thou wast not re-
deemed with such corruptible things. The pardon
of sin, the favour of God, the graces of the Spirit,
the blessings of the covenant, and eternal life, could
not be purchased with silver and gold, but are dearlj
bought and paid for vnth the precious blood of the
Son of God. AH the praise be to the glorious Par-
chaser !
Come and see the victories of the cross. See the
Lord Jesus even a conqueror when he seemed a cap-
tive ; spoiling principalities and powers, when he
seemed totally defeated and routed by them. See
Christ upon the cross breaking the serpent's head,
disarming Satan, triumphing over death and the j
grave, leading captivity captive, and going forth in '
that chariot of war, conquering and to conquer.
Think, my soul, think what thou owest to the dy-
ing of the Lord Jesus : the privileges of thy way,
and the glories of thy home ; all thou hast, all thou
hopest for that is valuable, they are all precious
fruits, gathered from this tree of life. Christ's
wounds are thy healing, his agonies thy repose, his
conflicts thy conquests, his groans thy songs, his
pains thy ease, his shame thy glory, his death thy
life, his sufferings thy salvation.
V. Let us set ourselves to think of the present
glories of the exalted Redeemer. When we medi-
tate on the cross he bore, we must not forget the
crown he wears, within the vail. Think, my soul,
think where he is, at the right hand of the Father,
far above all principalities, and powers, and every
name that is named ; he is set down upon the throne
of the Majesty in the highest heavens. Having ob-
tained eternal redemption for us, he is entered with
his own blood into the holy place. Think how he
is attended there with an innumerable company of
angels, who continually surround the throne of God,
and of the Lamb. Think of the song^ there sung to
his praise, the crowns there cast at his feet, and the
name he there has above every name. Think espe-
cially what he is doing there. He always appean
in the presence of God, as the great High Priest of
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
sm
)ar profession, to intercede for all those that come
.0 God by him, and he attends constantly to this
k'ery thing : there he is preparing a place for all his
followers, and thence he will shortly come to receive
:hera to himself, to behold his glory, and to share in it.
Dwell on these thoughts, O my soal, and say as
:hey did who saw the glory of his transfiguration, It
II pood to be here ; here let us make taheimacles : let
;hese thoughts kindle in thee an earnest desire (shall
[ call it a holy curiosity) to see him as he is, face to
'ace. His advancement is thy advantage: as the
forerunner, he is for me entered : let the contempla-
ion of the joy he is entered into, and the power he
s there girded with, have such an influence upon
ne, that by faith I may be raised up likewise, and
node to sit together with him in heavenly places,
Eph. ii. 6.
YI. Let us set ourselves to think of the unsearch-
ible riches of the new covenant made with us in
Jesus Christ, and sealed to us in the sacrament.
Peruse this covenant in the several dispensations of
it, from the dawning of its day in the first promise*
to that noon-day light, which life and immortality
are brought to by the gospel. Read over the several
Eirticles of it, and observe how well ordered it is in
all things ; so well, that it could not be better.
Review its promises, which are precious and many,
very many, very precious, and sure to all the seed.
Search into all the hidden wealth that is treasured
up in them ; dig into these mines ; content not
thyself with a transient view of these fountains of
living water, but bring thy bucket, and draw with
joy out of these wells of salvation. Go walh about
this Zion, this city of God ; tell the towers, marh
well the bulwarks, consider the palaces, and say, This
God, who is our God in covenant, i* ours for ever
und ever ; he will be our guide even unto death, Ps.
xiviii. 12—14.
Stir up thyself therefore, O my soul, to meditate
!>n the privileges of a justified state ; the liberties
ind immunities, the dignities and advantages, that
ire conveyed by the charter of pardon. O the
blessedness of the man whose iniquities are for-
l^ven ! See him secured from the arrests of the law,
iie curse of God, the evil of atfliction, the sting of
jeath, and the damnation of hell. Read with plea-
sure the triumphs of blessed Paul, Rom. viii. 33, &c.
Happy thou art, my soul, and all is well with thee,
>r shall be shortly, if thy sins be pardoned.
Meditate on the honours and comforts of a state
3f grace. If now I am a child of God, adopted and
regenerated, and have received the Spirit of adop-
tion, I have liberty of access to the throne of grace,
[ have a saoctified use of my creature-comforts, my
fellowship is with the Father, and with the Son Jesus
Christ; all ii mine, tfhether Paul, or Apollos, or
Cephoif or ike world, or life, or death, or things pre-
tent, or things to come, all are mine, 1 Cor. iii. 21,
2 B
22. I have meat to eat that the world knows not of,
joy that a stranger intermeddles not with. Let the
thoughts of these privileges work in thee, O my soul,
a holy disdain of the pleasures of sense, and the
profits of the world, whenever they come in compe-
tition with the gains of godliness, and the delights
of the spiritual life : offer those to them that know
no better.
VII. Let us set ourselves to think of the commu-
nion of saints. This contributes something to our
comfort in communion with Christ, that through
him we have fellowship one with another, (1 John i.
7.) so tliat we being many, are one bread and one body ;
for Christ died to gather together in one the children
of God that were scattered abroad, John xi. 62. That
all might be one in him, in whom we all meet, as
many members in one head, so making one body ;
many branches in one root, so making one vine ;
and many stones in one foundation, so making one
building.
Enlarge thy thoughts then, O my soul, and let it
be a pleasure to thee to think of the relation thou
standest in to the whole family, both in heaven and
earth, which is named of Jesus Christ ; to think that
thou art come in faith, hope, and love, even to the
innumerable company of angels, and to the spirits of
just men made perfect, Heb. xii. 22, 23. Even these
are thy brethren and fellow-servants. Rejoice in
thy alliance to them, in their affection to thee, and
in the prospect thou hast of being with them shortly,
of being with them eternally. Here we sit down
with a little handful of weak and imperfect saints,
and those mixed with pretenders; but we hope
shortly to have a place and a name in the general
assembly of the first-bom, and to sit down with
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of
our Father ; with all the saints, and none but saints,
and saints made perfect ; and so to be together for
ever with the Lord.
Please thyself also, O my soul, with thinking of
the spiritual communion thou hast in the acts of
Christian piety, and in the exercise of Christian
charity, with all that in everyplace on this earth call
on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs
and ours, 1 Cor. i. 2. Some good Christians there
are who fall within the reach of our personal com-
munion, to whom we give the right hand of fellow-
ship. Others within the line of our acquaintance
and correspondence, and many more, whom we
know not, nor have heard of, never saw, nor are
ever likely to see in this world ; hut all these our
companions in the kingdom and patience of Jesus
Christ : they and we are guided by the same rule,
animated by the same spirit, conformed to the same
image, interested in the same promises, and joined
to the same great body : they and we meet daily at
the same throne of grace, under the conduct of the
same Spirit of adoption, which teaches us all to cry,
370
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
Abbti, Father : and they and we hope to meet shortly
at the same throne of glory under the conduct of
the same Jesus, who will gather his elect from the
four winds, and present them all together unto the
Father. Christ hath prayed, that all that believe on
him may he one, and therefore we are sure they are
so, for the Father heard him always, John xvii. 20,
21. Let this subject yield us some delightful thoughts
here in a scattered world, and a divided church.
YIII. Let us set ourselves to think of the happi-
ness of heaven. A pleasant theme this is, very im-
provable, and pertinent enough to an ordinance
which has so much of heaven in it If indeed we
have heaven in our eye as our home and rest, and
our conversation there, we cannot but have it much
upon our hearts. Have we good hope through grace
of being shortly with Christ in the heavenly para-
dise, where there is fulness of joy, and pleaniresfor
evermore, where we shall see God's glory, and enjoy
his love immediately, to our complete and everlasting
satisfaction ? Do we expect, that yet a little while
and the veil shall be rent, the shadow of the evening
shall be done away, and we shall see as we are seen,
and know as we are known ? Are we in prospect
of a crown of glory that fades not away, an incor-
ruptible and undefilcd inheritance ?
Raise thy thoughts then, O my soul, to the joyful
contemplation of the glory to be revealed. Arise
then, and survey this land of promise, as Abraham,
Gen. xiii. 14. Go with Moses to the top of Pisgah,
and take a view of it by faith. Get a scripture map
of that Canaan, and study it well. Think, my soul,
what they see in that world, who always behold the
face of the Father, and in it see all truth and bright-
ness, and the perfection of beauty. Think what
they have there who eat of the tree of life, and the
hidden manna, whose faculties are enlarged to take
in the full communications of divine love and grace,
and who have God himself with them as their God,
Rev. xxi. 3. Think what they are doing there, who
dwell in God's house, and are still praising him, and
rest not day nor night from doing it. Think of the
good company that is there, thousands of thousands
of blessed angels, and holy souls, with whom w«
shall have an intimate and undisturbed converse in
perfect light and love.
Compare the present state thou art in, my soul,
with that thou hopest for ; and let it be a pleasure
to thee to think that whatever is here, thy grief and
burthen shall be there removed, and done away for
ever. Satan's temptations shall there no more assault
thee, thy own corruptions shall there no more in-
snare thee, the guilt of sin, and doubts about thy
spiritual state, shall there no more terrify and per-
plex thee ; no pain, nor sickness, nor sorrow, shall
be an allay to the enjoyments of that world, as they
are to those of this world. All tears shall there be
wiped away, even those for sin.
On the other side, whatever is here thy delight and
pleasure, shall ther^ be perfected. The knowledge
of God, joy in him, and communion with him, are
here as it were thy running banquets, there they
shall be thy continual feast. The work of grace be-
gun in thee, is that which reconciles thee to thyself,
and gives thee some pleasure now in thy reflections
upon thyself. This work shall there be completed,
and the finishing strokes given to it by the same
skilful and happy hand that begun it.
Come now, my soul, and neglect not the gift that is
in thee, but meditate upon these things, give thgulf
wholly to them, (1 Tim. iv. 14, 15.) tv rnrotc t^t^he
thou in them, as in thy business, as in thy element
Think of the things that are not seen, that are
eternal ; the things of the invisible and unchange-
able world, till thou findest thyself so affected with
them, as even to forget the things that are here be-
low, that are here behind ; and look upon them with
a holy negligence, that thou mayst with greater dili-
gence reach toward the things that are before, and
press toward the marh for the prize of the high call-
ing, Phil. iii. 13, 14.
We must not only meditate, but we must pray, and
cry earnestly to God for assistance and acceptance
in what we do. When the apostle had reckoned up
all the parts of the Christian's armour, he concludes
with this, Praying always, Eph. vi. 18. Prayer most
gird on the whole armour of God ; for without prayer
all our endeavours are Tain and ineffectual. There-
fore in our preparations for the Lord's supper, time
must be spent, and pains taken in prayer, for two
reasons :
1. Because this is a proper means of quickening
ourselves, and stirring up our graces. One duty of
religion is of use to dispose and fit us for another ;
and the most solemn services ought to be approach-
ed gradually, and through the outer courts. In
prayer the soul ascends to God, and converses witii
him, and thereby the mind is prepared to receive
the visits of his grace, and habituated to holy exer-
cises. Even the blessed Jesus prepared himself for
the offering up of the great sacrifice by prayer, a
long prayer in the house, (John xvii.) and strong
cryings with tears in the garden. Three times
Christ was spoken to while he was here upon earth,
by voices from heaven, and they all thr^e found him
praying. That at his baptism, (Luke iiL 21.) Jesus
being baptized and praying, the heaven was opened.
That at his transfiguration, (Luke ix. 29.) As kt
prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered.
And that a little before his passion, (John xii. 27,
28.) when he prayed. Father, glorify thy name; the
voice came from heaven, / have glorified it, &c
Saul of Tarsus prays, and then sees a vision^ (Acts
ix. 11, 12.) and afterwards. Acts xxii. 17, 18.
Cornelius had his vision when he was at prayer,
(Acts X. 30.) and Peter his, v. 9, 10. All whiek
THE COMMUNICANrs COMPANION.
071
instances, and many the like, suggest to us, that com-
munion with God in prayer prepares and disposes
the mind for communion with him in other duties.
2. Because this is the appointed way of fetching
in that mercy and grace which God has promised,
and which we stand in need of. In God is our help,
and from him is our fruit found ; and he has pro-
mised to help us, to give us a new heart, to put hi*
Spirit within nt^ and to cause u* to walh in hit statutei,
(Ezek. XXX vi. 26, 27.) but it follows there, v. 37.
/ wiil yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel,
to do it for them. How can we expect the presence
of God with us, if we do not invite him by prayer ?
or the power of God upon us, if we do not by prayer
derive it from him ? The greatest blessings are pro-
mised to the prayer of faith ; but God will not give,
if we will not ask : why should he ?
But what must we pray for, when we draw near
to God in this solemn ordinance? Solomon tells us,
that both the preparations of the heart in man, and
the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord, Prov. xvi.
1. To him therefore wc must apply ourselves for
both. The whole word of God is of use to direct us
in these prayers, and in it the blessed Spirit helpeth
our infirmities, for as much as we know not what to
pray for, in this or in any other case, as we ought
(1.) We must pray that we may be prepared for
the solemnity before it comes. Whatever is neces-
sary to qualify us for communion with God in it, is
spoken of in Scripture as God's gift ; and whatever
is the matter of God's promise, must be the matter
of our prayers ; for promises are given not only to
be the ground of our hope, but also to be the guide
of our desire in prayer. Is knowledge necessary ?
Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understand-
ing, (Prov. ii. 6.) and at Wisdom's gates we must
wait for Wisdom's gifts, rejoicing herein. That the
Son of God is come, and hath given us an understand-
ing, 1 John V. 20. Is faith necessary ? That is not
of ourselves, it is the gift of God, Eph. ii. 8. Him
therefore we must attend, who is both the author and
the finisher of our faith. To him we must pray. Lord,
increase our faith : Lord, perfect what is lacking in
it: hord, fulfil the work of faith with power. Is love
necessary ? It is the Holy Ghost that sheds abroad
that love in our hearts, and circumcises our hearts
to love the Lord our God. To that heavenly fire we
must therefore go for this holy spark, and pray for
the breath of the Almighty to blow it into a dame. Is
repentance necessary ? It is God who gives repent-
ance, who takes away the stony heart, and gives a
heart of flesh, and we beg of him to work that bless-
ed change in us. Behold the fire and the wood, the
ordinance instituted, and all needful provision made
for our sacrifice : but where is the lamb for a burnt-
cfferingT Where is the heart to be offered up to
God ? If God did not provide himself a lamb, the
tolemnity wodld fail^ (Gen. xxii. 7, 8.) to himthere-
2 B 2
fore we must go to buy such things as we have need
of against the feast ; that is, to beg them, for we
buy without money and without price; and such
buyers shall not be driven out of God's temple, nor
slighted there, however they are looked on in men's
markets.
(2.) Pray that our hearts may be enlarged in the
duty. It is the graciou^ promise of God, that he
will open rivers in the wilderness and streams in the
desert; and the joint experience of all the saints,
that they looked unto him and were lightened. Such
outgoings of soul, therefore, toward God, as may
receive the incomes of divine strength and comfort,
we should earnestly desire and pray for. Pray that
God would grace his own institutions with such
manifest tokens of his presence, as those two dis-
ciples had, who reasoned thus for their own convic-
tion that they had been with Jesus, Did not our hearts
bum within us ? Luke xxiv. 32. Pray that, by the
grace of God, the business of the ordinance may be
faithfully done ; the work of the day, the sacrament
day, in its day, according as the duty of the day re-
quires, Ezra iii. 4. Pray that the ends of the or-
dinance may be sincerely aimed at, and happily
attained, and the great intention of the institution of
it answered, that you may not receive the grace of
God therein in vain. O that my heart may be en-
gaged to approach unto God ! so engaged, as that
nothing may prevail to disengage it ! Come, blessed
Spirit, and breathe upon these dry bones ; move
upon the waters of the ordinances, and produce a new
creation. Awake, O north wind, and come thou south,
and blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may
fiow forth ; and then let my beloved come into his
garden, (his it is, and then it will be fit to be called
his,) and eat his pleasant fruits. Cant iv. 16.
(3.) Pray that we may be favourably accepted of
God, both in the preparation and the performance*
In vain do we worship if God do not accept us :
the applause of men is but a poor reward (such as
the hypocrites were content with, and put off with)
if we come short of the favour of God. Herein there-
fore we should labour, this we should be ambitious
of as our highest honour, the top of our preferment,
that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of
the Lord, 2 Cor. v. 9. About this therefore we should
be very solicitous in our inquiries. Wherewithal shall
I come before the Lord, so as to please him ? For this
we should be very importunate in our prayers, O thai
I knew where I might find him ! Job xxiii. 3. O that
I might be met at the table of the Lord with a bless-
ing, and not with a breach ! O that God would smile
upon me there, and bid me welcome! O that the
beloved of my soul would show me some token for
good there, and say unto me, / am thy salvation !
Son, daughter, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven
thee. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for
his love ii better than wine, O that it mig^t be a com-
372
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
munion indeed between Christ and my soul ! That
which is in vog^e with the most of men is. Who will
show %u any good? But when I am admitted to touch
the top of the golden sceptre, this is my petition,
this is my request, Lord, lift up the light of thy
eovntenance upon me, and thai shall put true gladness
into my heart , greater than the joy of harvest.
(4.) Pray that what is amiss may be pardoned in
the blood of Christ. This prayer good Hezekiah
has put into our mouths, (God put it into our hearts !
2 Chron. xxx. 18, 19.) The good Lord pardon every
one that prepareth his heart in sincerity, to seeh the
Lord God of his fathers, and aims honestly, though
he be not cleansed according to the purification of the
sanctuary. We cannot but be conscious to our-
selves, that in many things we come short of our
duty, and wander from it. The rule is strict; it is
fit it should be so ; and yet no particular rule more
strict than that general and fundamental law of
God's kingdom, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and soul, and mind, and might.
But our own hearts know, and God, who is greater
than our hearts, and knows all things, knows, that
we do not come up to the rule, nor continue in all
things that are written in the booh of the law to do
them. By our deficiencies we become obnoxious to
the curse, and should perish by it, if we were under
the law; but we are encouraged by a penitent
believing prayer, to sue out our pardon, having an
advocate with the Father.
Would we take with us words in these prayers ?
David's Psalms, and St PauFs Epistles, will furnish
us with great variety of acceptable words, words
which the Holy Ghost teaches ; and other helps of
devotion, which, thanks be to God, we have plenty
of, may be used to much advantage. And if in these
prayers we stir up ourselves to take hold on God,
our experience shall be added to that of thousands ;
that Jacob's God never said to Jacob's seed, Seeh ye
me in vain.
CHAPTER VII.
DIHBCnONS IN WHAT FRAMB OF SPIRIT WM SHOULD COMS TO,
AND ATTKND UPON, THIS ORDINANCB.
To make up the wedding garment, which is proper
for this wedding feast, it is requisite, not only that
we have an habitual temper of mind agreeable to
the gospel, but that we have such an actual dispo-
sition of spirit, as is consonant to the nature and
intentions of the ordinance. It is an excellent rule
in the scripture directory for religious worship,
(Eccl. V. I.) Keep thy foot when thou goest to the
house of God ; that is, keep thy heart with all dili-
gence, (Prov. iv. 23.) look well to the motions of
thy soul, and observe the steps it takes. When we
are to see the goings of our God, our King in the
sanctuary, (Ps. Ixviii. 24.) it concerns us to see ta
our own goings. Keep thy foot ^ that is, do nothing
rashly, but when thou goest to eat with a ruUr, eoK-
sider diligently what is before thee^ PrOY. xxiii. 1. It •
was not enough for the priests under the law, that
they were washed and dressed in their priestly gar-
ments, when they were first consecrated, but thej
must be carefully washed and dressed every time
they went in to minister, else they went in at their
peril. We are spiritual priests to our God, and nnist
do the office of our priesthood with a due dcconua,
remembering that this is that which the Lord has
said, (God by his grace speak it home to our hearts!)
/ will be sanctified in them thai come nigh me ; that
is, I will be attended as a holy God, in a hely
manner, and so before all the people I will be glar^uL
Lev. X. 3. We then sanctify God in holy datiei,
when we sanctify ourselves m our approaches to
them; that is, when we separate ourselves fitn
every thing that is common or unclean, from all
filthiness both of flesh and spirit, and consecrate
ourselves to God's glory as our end, and to his
service as our business. If wc would have the ordi-
nance sanctified to us for our comfort and benefit,
we must thus sanctify ourselves for it. Joshua's
command to the people, when they were to foUov
the ark of the covenant through Jordan, ahoold be
still sounding in our ears, the night before a sacn-
ment, (Josh. iii. 5.) Sanctify yourselves, for to-morrmo
the Lord will do wonders among you. When the
God of glory admits such worms, such a ^neration
of vipers as we are, into covenant and communion
with himself ; when he gives gifts, such gifts, ereo
to the rebellious ; when by the power of his grace he
sanctifies the sinful, and comforts the sorrowful, and
gives such holiness and joy as is life from the dead;
surely then he does wonders among us. That we maj
see these wonders done, and share in the benefit of
them, that we may experience them done in our
souls, Jordan driven back at the presence of the
Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, to open
a passage for us into the heavenly Canaan, let «
sanctify ourselves, and earnestly pray to God to
sanctify us.
For our help therein, the following directions per-
haps may be of some use.
I. Let us address ourselves to this service with a
fixedness of thought. There is scarce any instance
of the corruption of nature, and the moral impo-
tency which by sin we are brought under, more com-
plained of by serious Christians, than the vanity of
the th^ights, and the difficulty of fixing them to
that wnich is good. They are apt to wander after a
thousand impertinencies ; and it is no easy matter
to gather them in, and keep them employed as they
should be. We all find it so by sad experience. Vain
I
THE COMMUNICANTS COMPANION.
373
thoughts lodge within us, and are most a hinderance
and disturbance to us, when good thoughts are in-
vited into the soul, and should be entertained there.
When, therefore, we apply ourselves to a religious
service, which will find work for all our thoughts,
and which present objects well worthy of our closest
contemplation, we are concerned to take pains with
ourselves to get our hearts engaged, and to 6rtft^
every thought into obedience to the law of this so-
lemnity.
This is a time to set aside the thoughts of every
thing that is foreign and unseasonable, and all those
foolish speculations which use to be the unprofitable
amusements of our idle hours, and the sports and
pastimes of our carnal minds : away with them all ;
clear the court of these vagrants, when the doors are
to be opened for the King of glory to come in. Are
they thoughts that pretend business, and are as
buyers and sellers in the temple? Tell them you
have other business to mind ; bid them depart for
this time, and at a more convenient season you will
call for them. Do they pretend urgent business, as
Nehemiah's enemies did, when they sought to give
him a diversion ? Give them the repulse that he gave,
and like him, repeat it as oft as they repeated their
solicitations, (Neh. vi. 2—4.) / am doing a great
work, why should the work eeoie, while I leave it^ and
come down to you? Do they pretend friendship, and
send in the name of thy mother and thy brethren
standing without, to speak with thee? yet dismiss
them as Christ did, by giving the preference to
better friends : let not thoughts of those we love best,
divert us from thinking of Christ, whom wc know
we must love better.
This is a time to summon the attendance of all
the thoughts, and keep them close to the business
we are going about. Suffer none to wander, none
to trifle, for here is employment, good employment,
for them all, and all little enough. Though a per-
fect fixation of thought, without any distraction
during the solemnity, is what I believe none can
attain to in this state of imperfection, yet it is what
we should desire and aim at, and come as near to
as we can. Let us charge our thoughts not to
straggle, keep a watchful eye upon them, and call
them back when they begin to rove. Keep them in
full employment about that which is proper and
pertinent, which will prevent their starting aside to
that which is otherwise. Come, bind the iacrifice
with cards to the home of the altar, that it may not be
to seek when it should be sacrificed, Ps. cxviii. 27.
Be able to say, through grace, O God, my heart is
fixed^ my heart is fixed, though unfixed atother times,
yet fixed now. Look up to God for grace to esta-
blish the heart, and keep it steady : look with sor-
row and shame upon its wanderings : shut the door
against distractions : watch and pray against temp-
tations ; and when those birds of prey come down
upon the sacrifices, do as Abraham did, (Gen. xv.
11.) Drive them away. And while you sincerely
endeavour to keep your hearts fixed, be not discou-
raged ; the vain thoughts that are disallowed,
striven against, and repented of, though they are
our hinderance, yet they shall not be our ruin.
II. Let us address ourselves to this service with
an evenness and calmness of affection, free from the
disorders and ruffles of passion. A sedate and quiet
spirit, not tossed with the tempests of care and fear,
but devolving care on God, and silencing fear by
faith ; not sinking under the load of temporal bur-
thens, but supporting itself with the hopes of eternal
joys, easy itself, because submissive to its God;
this is a spirit fit to receive and return divine visits.
They were still waters, on the face of which the
Spirit moved to produce the world. The Lord was
not in the wind, was not in the earthquake. The
prince of the power of the air raises storms, for he
loves to fish in troubled waters : but the Prince of
peace stills storms, and quiets the winds and waves,
for he casts his net into a calm sea. The waters of
Shiloah run softly, and without noise, (Isa. viii. 6.)
And that river, the streams u^reof make glad the
city of our God, is none of those, the waters whereof
roar and are troubled, Ps. xlvi. 3, 4.
Let us therefore always study to be quiet, and
however we are crossed and disappointed, let not
our hearts be troubled, let them not be cast down
and disquieted within us. Let us not create or ag-
gravate our own vexations, nor be put into a dis-
order by any thing that occurs, but let the peace of
God always rule in our hearts, and then that peace
will keep them. They, whose natural temper is
either fretful or fearful, have the more need to
double their guard ; and when any disturbance
begins in the soul, should give diligence to suppress
the tumult with all speed, lest the Holy Spirit be>
thereby provoked to withdraw, and then they will
have but uncomfortable sacraments.
But especially let us compose ourselves, when wo
approach to the table of the Lord. Charge the peace
then in the name of the King of kings ; command
silence, when you expect to hear the voice of joy
and gladness : stop the mouth of clamours and noisy
passions, banish tumultuous thoughts, suffer not
those evil spirits to speak, but expel them, and let
your souls return to God, and repose in him as their
rest. Bring not unquiet distempered spirits to a
transaction which requires the greatest calmness
and serenity possible. Let all intemperate heats be
cooled, and the thoughls of that which has made an
uproar in the soul be banished, and let a strict
charge be given to all about you, to all within you,
by the roes and hinds of the fields those innocent plea-
sant creatures, that they stir not up, nor awake your
love, nor give disturbance to your communion with
him.
374
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
III. Let us address ourselves to it with a holy
awe and reverence of the Divine Majesty. We ought
to be in the fear of the Lord every day, and ail the
day long, for he is our strict observer wherever we
are„ and will be the Judge of persons and actions, by
whose unerring sentence our eternal state will be
decided ; but in a special manner he is greatly to he
feared in the assemblies of his saints, and to be had in
reverence of all them that are about him, Ps. Ixxxix.
7. and the nearer we approach to him, the more re-
verent we should be. Angels who always behold
God's face, see cause to cover their own. Even when
we are admitted to sit down at God's table, we must
remember that we are worshipping at his footstool,
and, therefore, must lay ourselves very low before
him, and in his fear worship toward his holy temple,
Ps. V. 7. Let us not rush into the presence of God
in a careless manner, as if he were a man like our-
selves, nay, so as we would not approach a prince,
or a great man, but observe a decorum, giving to
him the glory due unto his name, and taking to our-
selves the shame due to ours. If he be a Master,
where is his fear ? We do not wocship God accept-
ably, if we do not worship him with reverence and
godly fear, Hcb. xii. 28.
1. We must worship him with reverence, as a
glorious God, a God of infinite perfection, and al-
mighty power, who covers himself with light as with a
garment, and yet as to us makes darkness his pavilion.
Dare we profane the temples of the Holy Ghost by
outward indecencies of carriage and behaviour, the
manifest indications of a vain regardless mind ?
Dare we allow of flat and common thoughts of that
God who is over all, blessed for evermore ? See him,
(my souly) see him by faith, upon a throne, high and
lifted up, not only upon a throne of grace, which en-
courages thee to come with boldness, but upon a
throne of glory, and a throne of government, which
obliges thee to come with caution. Remember that
God is in heaven, and thou art upon earth, and there-
fore let thy words he few, (Eccl. v. 2.) Be still and
know that he is God, that he is great, and keep thy
distance. Let an awful regard to the glories of the
eternal God, and the exalted Redeemer, make thee
humble and serious, very serious, very humble in
thy approach to this ordinance^ keep thee so during
the solemnity.
2. We must also worship him with godly fear, as
a holy God, a God whose name is Jealous, and who
is a consuming fire, Heb. xii. 29. We have reason
to fear before him, for we have offended him, and
have made ourselves obnoxious to his wrath and
curse, and, we are but upon our good behaviour as
probationers for his favour. He is not a God that
will be mocked, that will be trifled with. If we think
to put a cheat upon him, we shall prove in the end
to have put a most dangerous cheat upon our own
souls. In this act of religion therefore, as well as in
others, we must work out our salvation with fear md
trembling.
IV. Let us come to this ordinance with a holy
jealousy over ourselves, and a humble sense of our
own unworthiness. We must sit before the Lord io
such a frame as David composed himself into, when
he said. Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my fa-
ther's house, that thou hast brought me hitherto! 2
Sam. vii. 18. Nothing prepares the soal more for
spiritual comforts than humility.
1. It may be, that we have reason to suspect oar-
selves, lest we come unworthily. Though we most
not cherish such suspicions of our state, as will damp
our joy in God, and discourage our hope in Christ,
and fill us with amazement ; nor such as will take
off our chariot wheels, and keep us standing at a
gaze, when we should be going forward ; yet we
must maintain such a jealousy of ourselves as will
keep us humble, and take us off from all self-con-
ceit, and self-confidence ; such a jealousy of our-
selves as will keep us watchful, and save us from
sinking into carnal security. And now is a proper
time to think how many there are who eat bread with
Christ, and yet lift up the heel against him ; the had
of him that betrayeth him perhaps is with him upon the
table i which should put us upon asking, as the dis-
ciples did, j ust before the first sacrament. Lord, is it I?
Matt. xxvi. 22. Many who eat and drink in Christ's
presence, will be rejected and disowned by him in
the great day. Have not I some reason to fear, lest
that be my doom at la&t? iofear lest a promise being
left me of entering into rest, I should seem^ to come
short ? to fear lest when the King comes in to see
the guests, he find me without a wedding garment !
Be not too confident, O my soul, lest thou deceive
thyself ; he not high minded, but fear.
2. However, it is certain, that we have reason to
abase ourselves, for at the best, we are unworthy to
come. If we are less than the least of God's mercies,
how much less are we than the greatest, than this,
which includes all ? We are unworthy of the crumbs
that fall from our Master's table, much more unwor-
thy of the children's bread, and the dainties that are
upon the table. Being invited, we may hope to be
welcome ; but, what is there in us that we should be
invited. Men invite their friends and acquaintance
to their tables, but we were naturally strangers and
enemies in our mind by wicked works, and yet are
we invited. Men invite such as they think will with
their quality or merit grace their tables ; but we are
more likely to be a reproach to Christ's table, being
poor and maimed, halt and blind, and yet are picked
up out of the high-ways and the hedges, Luke xiv. 31.
Men invite such as they are under obligations to, or
have expectations from, but Christ is no way indebt-
ed to us, nor can he be benefited by i^s ; our good-
ness extends not to him, and yet he invites us. We
have much more reason than Mqphiboahetb bad,
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
375
when be was made a constant guest at David's
table, to bow ourselves and say, What is thy servant,
that than shouidst looh upon such a dead dog as I am ?
2 Sam. ix. 8. They who thus humble themselves
shall be exalted.
V. Yet, let us come to this ordinance with a gra-
cious confidence, as children to a father, to a father's
table ; not with any confidence in ourselves, but in
Christ only. That slavish fear, which represents
God as a hard Master, rigorous in his demands, and
extreme to mark what we do amiss ; which straitens
our spirits, and subjects us to bondage and torment,
must be put off and striven against, and we must
come boldly to the throne ofgrace, to the table of g^ce,
not as having any thing in ourselves to recommend
us, but having a High Priest^ who is touched with the
feeling of our infirmities, Heb. iv. 15, 16. As a pre-
sumptuous rudeness is a provocation to the Master
of the feast, so a distrustful shyness is displeasing to
him, which looks as if we questioned either the sin-
cerity of the invitation, or the sufficiency of the pro-
vision.
This is the fault of many good Christians ; they
come to this sacrament rather like prisoners to the
bar, than like friends and children to the table;
they come trembling and astonished, and full of con-
fusion. Their apprehensions of the grandeur of the
ordinance, and the danger of coming unworthily,
run into an extreme, and become a hinderance to the
exercise of faith, hope, and love : this extreme we
should carefully watch against ; because it tends so
much to God's dishonour, our own prejudice, and
the discouragement of others. Let us remember we
have to do with one who is willing to make the best
of sincere desires, and serious endeavours, though
in many things we be defective, and who deals with
us in tender mercy, and not in strict justice ; and
who, though he be out of Christ a consuming fire,
yet in Christ is a gracious Father : let us therefore
draw near with a true heart, and in full assurance of
faith, Heb. x. 22. It is related of Titus the emperor,
that when a poor petitioner presented his address to
him with a trembling hand, he was much displeased,
and asked him, *' Dost thou present thy petition to
thy prince, as if thou wcrt giving meat to a lion ?''
Chide thyself for these amazing fears; Why art
thou east down, O my soul^ and why art thou disquiet-
ed within me? If the Spirit undertake to work all
my works in me, as the Son has undertaken to work
all my works for me, both the one and the other shall
be done effectually. Therefore hope thou in God,
for I shall yet praise him,
VI. Let us come to this ordinance with earnest
desires toward God, and communion with him. It is
a feast, a spiritual feast, and we must come to it
with an appetite, a spiritual appetite ; for the full
soul loathes even the honey-comb, and slights the
offer of it r hot to the hungry soul, that is sensible
of its own need, every bitter thing is sweet, even
the bitterness of repentance, when it is in order to
peace and pardon. Our desires toward the world
and the flesh must be checked and moderated, and
kept under the government of religion and right
reason ; for we have been too long spending our
money for that which is not bread, and which is at
the best unsatisfying ; but our desires toward Christ
must be quickened and stirred up. As the hart, the
huniedh&Tt,panteth after iheretreshmeniof the water-
brook, so earnestly must our souls pant for the living
God, Ps. xlii. 1, 2. The invitation is given, and the
promise made, to them only who hunger and thirst ;
they are called to come to the waters, (Isa. Iv. 1.) to
come and drink, (John vii. 97.) and it is promised to
them, that they shall be filled; (Matt. v. 6.) it is very
necessary therefore that we work upon our hearts
the consideration of those things that are proper to
kindle this holy fire, and to blow its sparks into a
flame. We are best prepared to receive temporal
mercies, when we are most indifferent to them, and
content, if the will of God be so, to be without them.
Did I desire a son of my lord ? said the good Shu-
namite, 2 Kings iv. 28. Here the danger is of being
too earnest in our desires, as Rachel, Give me chil-
dren, or else I die. But we are best prepared to re-
ceive spiritual mercies, when we arc most importu-
nate for them : here the desires cannot be too vehe-
ment. In the former case strong desires evidence the
prevalency of sense, but in this they evidence the
power of faith, both realizing and valuing the bless-
ings desired. The devout and pious soul thirsts for
God, for the living God, as a thirsty land, Ps. cxliii.
6; Ixiii. 1. It longs, yea even faints, for the courts
of the Lord, and for communion with God in them,
Ps. Ixxxiv. 2. It breaks for the longing it hath unto
God*s judgment at all times, Ps. cxix. 20. Can our
souls witness to such desires as these ? O that I might
have a more intimate acquaintance with God, and
Christ, and divine things ! O that I might have the
tokens of God's favour, and fuller assurances of his
distinguishing love in Jesus Christ ! O that my cove-
nant interest in him, and relation to him, might be
cleared up to me, and that I might have more of the
comfort of it ! O that I might partake more of the
divine grace, and by its effectual working on my
soul, might be made more conformable to the divine
will and likeness, more holy, humble, spiritual, hea-
venly, and more meet for the inheritance ! O that I
might have the earnest of the Spirit in my heart,
sealing me to the day of redemption !
Thus the desire of our souls must be toward the
Lord, and toward the remembrance of his name. In
this imperfect state, where we are at home in the
body, and absent from the Lord, our love to God
acts more in holy desires than in holy delights. It is
rather love in motion, like a bird upon the wing,
than love at rest, like a bird upon the nest All
376
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
those who have the Lord for their God, agree to
desire nothing more than God, for they know they
have enough in him ; but still, yet they desire more
and more of God, for till they come to heaven, they
will never have enough of him. Come then, my
soul, why art thou so cold in thy desires toward
those things which arc designed for thy peculiar
satisfaction, distinct from the body? Why so eager
for the meat that perishes, and so indifferent to that
which endures to everlasting life? Hast thou no
desire to that which is so necessary to thy support,
and without which thou art undone ? No desire to
that which will contribute so much to thy comfort,
and yield thee an inexpressible satisfaction ? Pro
vision is made in the Lord's supper of bread to
strengthen thee, will not the sense of thy own
weakness and emptiness make thee hunger after
that ? Canst thou be indifferent to that which is the
staff of thy life ? Provision is made of pleasant food,
fat things full of marrow, and wines on the lees ; art
thou not desirous of dainties, such dainties ? Was
the tree of knowledge such a temptation, because it
was pleasant to the eye, and a tree to be desired to
make one wise, that our first parents would break
through the hedge of a divine command, and ven-
ture all that was dear to them to come at it ? And
shall not the tree of life, which we are not only
allowed, but commanded, to eat of, and the fruit of
which will nourish us to life eternal, shall not that
appear more pleasing in our eyes, and more to be
desired ? God, even thy own God, who has where-
withal to supply all thy need, and has promised to
be to thee a God all-sufficient, a God that is enough,
he has said, (Ps. Ixxxi. 10.) Open thy mouth wide,
and I will fill it Thou art not straitened in him,
be not straitened in thy own desires.
VII. Let us come to this ordinance with raised
expectations. The same faith that enlarges the
desire, and draws it out to a holy vehemence, should
also elevate the hope, and ripen it to a holy confi-
dence. When we come thirsting to these waters,
we need not fear that they will prove like the brooks
in summer, which disappoint the weary traveller,
for when it it hot, they are consumed out of their place.
Job vi. 17, &c. Such are all the broken cisterns of
the creature, they perform not what they promise,
or rather, what we foolishly promise to ourselves
from them. No, but these are inexhaustible foun-
tains of living water, in which there is enough for
all, though ever so many, enough for each, though
ever so needy, enough for me, though most unworthy.
Come, my soul, what dost thou look for at the
table of the Lord ? The maker of the feast is God
himself, who does nothing little, nothing mean, but
is able to do exceeding abundantly, above what we are
able to ask or think. When he gives, he gives like
himself, gives like a king, gives like a God, all
things richly to enjoy, considering not what it be-
comes such ungrateful wretches as we are to receive,
but what it becomes such a bountiful Benefactor ai
he is to give. A lively faith may expect that wbick
is rich and great from him who is Possessor of hea-
ven and earth, and all (he wealth of both ; and that
which is kind and gracious from him, who is the
Father of mercies, and the God of all contolsUiom. A
lively faith may expect all that is purchased hj the
blood of Christ, from a God who is righteous in all
his ways, and all that is promised in the new cove-
nant, from a God who cannot lie nor deceive.
The provision in this feast is Christ himself, and
all his benefits, all we need to save us from being
miserable, and all we can desire to make us happy;
and glorious things, no doubt, may be expected from
him, in whom it pleases the Father that ali/ubuss
should dwell. Let our expectations be built upon a
right foundation ; not any merit of our own, bat
God's mercy and Christ's mediation ; and then build
large, as large as the new covenant in its atmost
extent; build high, as high as heaven in all its
glory. Come, expecting to see that which is most
illustrious, and to taste and receive that which is
most precious ; come, expecting that with which you
will be abundantly satisfied.
Though what is prepared seems to a carnal eye
poor and scanty, like the five loaves set before five
thousand men, yet when Christ has the breaking of
those loaves, they shall all eat and be filled. In this
ordinance the oil is multiplied, the oil of gladness,
it is multiplied in the pouring out, as the widow's
oil, 2 Kings iv. 2, &c Do as she did therefore,
bring empty vessels, bring not a few, they shall be
filled ; the expectations of faith shall all be answer-
ed ; the oil stays not (as there, v. 6.) while there is
an empty vessel, waiting to be filled ; give faith and
hope their full compass, and thou wilt find (as that
widow did, v. 7.) there is enough of this oil, this
multiplied oil, this oil from the good olive, to pay
the debt, and enough besides for thee and thine
to live upon. As we often wrong ourselves by ex-
pecting too much from the world, which is vanity
and vexation, so we often wrong ourselves, by ex-
pecting too little from God, whose mercy is upon
us, according as we hope in him ; and who in exert-
ing his power, and conferring his gifts, still says,
According to your faith be it unto you. The king of
Israel lost his advantage against the Syrians, by
smiting thrice, and then staying, when he should
have smitten five or six times, 2 Kings xiii. 18, 19.
And we do often in like manner prejudice ourselves,
by the weakness of our faith ; we receive little, be-
cause we expect little ; and are ■ like them among
whom Christ could not do many mighty works, be-
cause of their unbelief, Mark vi. 6.
YIII. Let us come to this ordinance with rejoicing
and thanksgiving. These two must go together, for
whatever is the matter of our rejoicing, most be the
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
877
matter of oar thanksgiving ; holy joy is the heart of
our thankful praise; and thankful praise is the
language of holy joy; and both these are very
seasonable, when we are coming to an ordinance,
which is instituted both for the honour of the Re-
deemer, and for the comfort of the redeemed.
Besides the matter for joy and praise, which we
are furnished with in our attendance on the ordi-
nance, even our approach to it is such an honour,
such a favour, as obliges us to come before his pre-
tence with singing^ and even to enter into his gates
with thanksgiving, Ps. c. 2, 4. With gladness and
rejoicing shall the royal bride be brought, Ps. xlv.
15. Those who in their preparations for the ordi-
nance have been sowing in tears, may not only come
again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with
them*, but go with rejoicing to fetch their sheaves, to
meet the ark, lifting up their heads with joy, knowing
that their redemption, and the sealing of them to the
day of redemption, draws on. Let those who arc
of a sorrowful spirit hearken to this ; cheer up, and
be comforted. This day is holy unto the Lord your
Godf mourn not, nor weep., Neh. viii. 9. It is the
day which the Lord hath made, and we must rejoice
and he glad in it, and the joy of the Lord will he
our strength, and oil to our wheels. All things con-
sidered, thou hast a great deal more reason than
Haman had, to go in merrily with the King to the
banquet of wine, Esth. v. 4.
Two things may justly be the matter of our re-
joicing and thanksgiving in our approach to this
ordinance :
1. That God has put such a price as this into oar
hands to gain wisdom. That such an ordinance as
this was instituted for our spiritual nourishment and
growth in grace : that it is transmitted down to us,
is administered among us, and we are invited to it.
This is a token for good, which we have reason to
rejoice in, and be very thatikful for. That oar lot
is not cast either among those who are strangers to
the gospel, and so have not this ordinance at all, or
among those who are enemies to the gospel, and
have it wretchedly corrupted, and turned into an
idolatrous service ; but that Wisdom's table is spread
among us, and her voice heard in our streets, and
we are called to her feasts ; we have a nail in God*s
holy place, a settlement in his house, and stated
opportunities of communion with him. If the
Lord had been pleased to kill us, he would not have
showed us such things as these. O what a privilege
is it thus to eat and drink in Christ's presence ! To
sit down under his shadow, at his table, with his
friends and favourites! That we who deserved to
have been set with the dogs of his flock, should be
set with the children of his family, and eat of the
children's bread ; nay, that we should be numbered
among his priests, and eat of the dedicated things.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
2. That God has given us a heart to improve this
price in our hands. We have reason to be thankful
that he has not only invited us to this feast, which
is a token of his good will toward us ; but, that he
has inclined us to accept the invitation, which is the
effect of a good work upon us. Many who arc
called make light of it, and go their way to their
farms and merchandise, and if we had been left to
ourselves, we should have made the same foolish
choice, and in the greatness of our folly should have
gone astray, and wandered endlessly. It was free
grace that made us willing in the day of power, and
graciously compelled us to come in to the gospel
feast ; it was distinguishing grace that revealed to
as babes, the things which were hidden from the
wise and prudent. Let that grace have the glory,
and let us have the joy of this blessed work.
IX. Let us come to this ordinance in charity with
all men, and with a sincere affection to all good
Christians. It is a love feast, and if we do not
come in love, we come without the wedding garment,
and forfeit the comforts of the feast. This is to be
seriously thought of, when we bring our gift to the
altar, as we hope for acceptance there.
When we come to this sacrament, we must bring
with us, ill will to none, good will to all, but espe-
cially to them who are of the household of faith,
1. We must bear ill will to none, no, not to those
who have been most injurious and provoking to us:
though they have affronted us ever so much in our
honour, wronged us in our interest, and set them-
selves to vilify us, and do us mischief, yet we must
not hate them, nor entertain any malice toward them ;
we must not be desirous or studious of revenge, nor
seek their hurt in any respect, but must from our
hearts forgive them, as we ourselves are, and hope
to be, forgiven of God. We must see to it, that there
be not the least degree of enmity to any person in
the world lodged in our breast, but carefully purge
out that old leaven ; not only lay aside the thoughts
of it for the present, but wholly pluck up and cast
out that root of bitterness, which bears gall and
wormwood. Pure hands must in this ordinance, as
well as in prayer, be lifted up, without wrath and
doubting, 1 Tim. ii. 8. How can we expect that God
should be reconciled to us, if we bring not with us a
disposition to be reconciled to our brethren? for our
trespasses against God are unspeakably greater than
the worst of our brethren's trespasses against us. O
that each would apply this caution to themselves ! You
have a neighbour, that upon some disgust conceived
you cannot find in your hearts to speak to, nor to speak
well of; some one that you have entertained a preju-
dice against, and would willingly do an ill turn to, if
it lay in your power ; some one, whom, it may be, you
are ready to say, that you cannot endure the sight of:
and dare you retain such a spirit when you come to
this ordinance? Can you conceal it from God ? or
378
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
do yon think that you can justify it at his bar, and
make it out that yon do well to be angry ? Let the fear
of God's wrath, and the hope of Christ's loTe, reduce
you to a better temper ; and when you celebrate the
memorial of the dying of the Lord Jesus, be sure you
remember this, that he is our peace, and that he died
to slay all enmities.
2. We must bear good will to all, with a particu-
lar affection to all good Christians. Christian cha-
rity not only forbids that which is any way injurious,
but it requires that which is kind and friendly.
The desire of our hearts must be toward the wel-
fare of all. If we be indeed solicitous about the sal-
vation of our own souls, we cannot but have a
tender concern for the souls of others, and be hearty
well-wishers to their sanation likewise : for this it
pood and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour,
who will have all men to be savedt I Tim. ii. 3, 4.
True grace hates monopolies. We must thus love
those whose wickedness we are bound to hate ; and
earnestly desire their happiness, even while we in-
dustriously decline their fellowship.
But the delight of our souls must be in the saints
that are on earth, those excellent ones ; as David's
was, Ps. xvi. 3. They are precious in God's sight,
and honourable, and they should be so in ours ; they
have fellowship with the Father, and with his Son
Jesus Christ, and therefore, by a sincere and affec-
tionate love to them, we also should have fellowship
with them. Our hearts will be comforted when they
are knit together in love. Col. ii. 2. This love must
not be confined to those of oar own communion, our
own way and denomination ; then we love them for
our own sakes, because they credit us, not for Christ's
sake, because they honour him : but since God is no
respecter of persons, we must not be such. In every
nation, he that fears God and works righteousness is
accepted of him, and should be so of us. Acts x. 34,
35. Doubtless there may be a diversity of appre-
hensions in the less weighty matters of the law, such
as the distinction of meats and days, and a diversity
of practice accordingly, and yet a sincerity of mu-
tual love, according to the law of Christ. Those
who think it is not possible, should be content to
speak for themselves only, and must believe there
are those who have much satisfaction in being able
to say, that they love the image of Christ wherever
they see it, and highly value a good man, though
not in every thing of their mind. He who cast out
devils in Christ's name, must be dear to us, though
he follows not us, Mark ix. 38. The differences that
are among Christians, though fomented by the malice
of Satan for the ruin of love, are permitted by the
wisdom of God for the trial of love, that they who
are perfect therein may be made manifest. Herein
a Christian commends his love, when he loves those
who differ from him, and joins in affection to those
with whom he cannot concur in opinion. This is
thankworthy : T%e kingdom of God is not meat mi
drink ; they who have tasted of the bread of life, ail
the water of life, know it is not, but it is righieemt'
ness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost ; he, there-
fore, who in these things serves Christ, is accept-
able to God, and, therefore, though he esteem not ov
days, though he relish not our meats, he should be
acceptable and dear to us.
Let us then in our approach to this sacrament, idr
up ourselves to holy love, love without dissimulation;
let us bear those on our hearts, whom the great Higb-
Priest of our profession bears on his ; and as we are
taught of God to love one another, let us increase there-
in more and more, 1 Thess. iv. 9, 10. Christ's having
loved us, is a good reason why we should love him;
Christ's having loved our brethren also is a good
reason why we should love them. Behold, how good
and how pleasant a thing it is for Christians to be
kindly affectioned one toward another, of one heart,
and of one soul ; there the - Lord commands tbe
blessing, and gives earnest of the joys of that world,
where love is perfected, and reigns eternally.
CHAPTER VIII.
SOMK ACCOUNT OF THB AFFBCTING STOHT8 THAT AMM TO BB
8BBN BT FAITH IN THIS OROINANCB.
Care being taken, by the grace of God, to compose
ourselves into a serious frame of spirit, agreeable to
the ordinance, we must next apply ourselves to that
which is the proper business of it, that we may do
the work of the day in its day, of the houi in its hour.
And the first thing to be done, is to contemplate
that which is represented to us. and set before of
there. This David aimed at, when he coveted to
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life,
that he might behold the beauty of the Lord, (Ps.
xxvii. 4.) might see his power and his glory, Ps. Ixiii.
2. To the natural man, who receives not the things
of the Spirit of God, there appears in it nothing
surprising, nothing affecting, no form nor comeli-
ness ; but to that faith which is the substance and
evidence of things not seen, there appears a great
sight, which, like Moses, (Exod. iii. 3.) it vrill with a
holy reverence turn aside now to see. As therefore,
in our preparation for this ordinance, we should pray
with David, Open thou mine eye, that I may see the
wondrous things of thy law and gospel ; so we should
with Abraham, (Gen. xiii. 14.) Lifi up our eyes imv
and look.
When the Lamb that had been slain had taken
the book, and was going to open the seals, St John,
who had the honour to be a witness in vision of the
solemnity, was loudly called by one of the four living
creatures to come and see. Rev. vi. 1, 3, ^ 7. Tbe
same is the call given to us, when in this sacnuaeiit
THE COMMUNICANTS COMPANION.
379
there is a door opened in heaven, and we are hidden
to come up hither^ Rev. iv. I.
I. In general, we are here called to see the Lamh
that had hecn slain opening the seals. This is the
general idea we are to have of the ordinance. We
would have thought ourselves highly favoured in-
deed, and heloved disciples, if we had seen it in
vision as John did ; behold, we are all invited to see
it in a sacramental representation.
1. In this ordinance is showed us the Lamb as it
had been slain. John the Baptist pointed to him as
The Lamb of God, and called upon his followers to
behold him, John i. 29. a Lamb designed for sacri-
fice, in order to the taking away of the sins of the
world, a harmless spotless Lamb; but John the
divine goes further, and sees him a Lamb slain, now
sacrificed for us, in the outer courts ; and not only
so, but appearing in the midst of the throne, and of
the four beasts, and of the elders, as if he were newly
slain, bleeding afresh, and yet alive, and lives for
evermore, (Rev. v. 6 ; i. 18.) constantly presenting
this sacrifice within the vail. The blood of the
Lamb always flowing, that it may still be sprinkled
on our consciences, to purify and pacify them, and
may still speak in heaven for us, in that prevailing
intercession which the Lord Jesus ever lives to make
there in the virtue of his satisfaction.
In this ordinance the Lord's death is showed forth,
it is showed forth to us, that it may be showed forth
by us. Jesus Christ is here evidently set forth cru-
cified among us, (Gal. iii. I.) that we may all with
open face behold, as in a glass, the glory of God in
the face of Christ. Thus as Christ was the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, in the types
and prophecies of the Old Testament, and the
application of his merits to the saints who lived
then ; so, he will be the Lamb slain to the end of
the world, in the word and sacraments of the New
Testament, and the application of his merits to the
saints that are now, and shall be in every age. Still
he is seen as a Lamb that had been slain, for this
sacrifice does not, like the Old-Testament sacrifices,
decay and wax old.
This is the sight, the great sight, we are here to
see ; the bush burning, and yet not consumed, for
the Lord is in it, his people's God and Saviour. The
wounds of this Lamb are here open before us : come
see in Christ's hands the very print of the nails, see
in his side the very marks of the spear. Behold
him in his agony, sweating as if it had been great
drops of blood falling to the ground ; then accom-
modating himself to the work he had undertaken ;
couching between two burthens, and bowing his
shoulder to bear them. Behold him in his bonds,
when the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the
Lord, was taken in their pits, and he was bound that
we might go out free. Behold him at the bar,
prosecuted and condemned as a criminal, because he
was made sin for us, and had undertaken to answer
for our misdemeanors. Behold him upon the cross,
enduring the pain, and despising the shame of the
accursed tree. Here is his body broken, his blood
shed, his soul poured out unto death ; all his suffer-
ings, with all their aggravations, are here in such a
manner as the Divine Wisdom saw fit, by an insti-
tuted ordinance, represented to us, and set before
us.
2. In this ordinance is showed us the Lamb that
was slain, opening the seals of the everlasting gospel ;
not only discovering to us the glories of the divine
light, but dispensing to us the graces of the divine
love : opening the seals of the fountain of life, which
had been long as a spring shut up, and rolling away
the stone, that thence we may draw water with joy:
opening the seals of the book of life, that things
hidden from ages and generations might be mani-
fested unto us, and we might know the things which
are freely given us of God: opening the seals of God's
treasures, the unsearchable riches of Christ, which
would have been sealed up for ever from us, if he
had not found out a way to supply and enrich us
out of them : opening the seals of heaven-gates,
which had been shut and sealed against us, and
consecrating for us a new and living way into the
holiest, by his own blood. This is a glorious sight,
and that which cannot but raise our expectations of
something further. This is the principal sight given
us in this ordinance ; but when we view this accu-
rately, we shall find there is that in it, which eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard.
II. In particular, we are here called to see many
other things, which we may infer from this general
representation of the sufi'erings of Christ. It is a
very fruitful subject, and that which will lead us to
the consideration of divers things very profitable.
When we come to this sacrament, we should ask
ourselves the question which Christ put to those
who had been John's hearers ; What went ye out for
to see ? What do we come to the Lord's table to see?
We come to see that, which, if God gives us the eye
of faith to discern, it will be very affecting. Let
this voice therefore be still sounding in our ears.
Come and see.
1. Come and see the evil of sin. This we are
concerned to see, that we may be truly humbled for
our sins past, and may be firmly engaged by resolu-
tion and holy watchfulness against sin for the future.
It was /or our transgressions that Christ was thus
wounded, for our iniquities that he was bruised: know
therefore, O my soul, and see, that it is an evil thing,
and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God,
and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of
hosts, Jer. ii. 19. That was a great provocation to
God, which nothing would atone for but such a
sacrifice ; a dangerous disease to us, which nothing
would heal but such a medicine : nU it thy wicked-
380
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
nett^ because it U hitter, because it reaeheth unto thine
heart f Jer. iv. 18.
(1.) Here sin appears sin, and, by the cross of
Christ, as well as by the command of God, it be-
comes exceeding sinful, Rom. vii. 13. The malig-
nity of its nature was Tcry great, and more than we
can conceive or express ; for it had made such a
breach between God and man, as none less than he
who was both God and man could repair ; none less
than he durst undertake to be made sin for us, to
become surety for that debt, and intercessor for
such offenders. It was impossible that the blood of
bulls and goats should take away sin ; the stain was
too deep, to be washed out so ; sacrifice and offering
God did not desire, would not accept, as sufficient
to purge us from it : no ; the Son of God himself
must come to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself ,
or it will for ever separate between God and us.
(2.) Here sin appears death, and, in the cross of
Christ, shows itself exceeding hurtful. Behold, my
soul, and see what mischief sin makes, by observing
how dear it cost the Redeemer when he undertook
to satisfy for it, how he sweat and groaned, bled
and died, when the Lord laid upon him the iniquity
of us all! Look on sin through this glass, and it will
appear in its true colour, black and bloody ; no-
thing can be more so. The fatal consequences of
sin are seen more in the sufferings of Christ, than in
all the calamities that it has broaght upon the world
of mankind. O what a painful, what a shameful,
thing is sin, which put our Lord Jesus to so much
pain, to so much shame, when he bore our sins in his
own body upon the tree !
See this, my soul, with application. It was thy
sin, thy own iniquity, that lay so heavy upon the
Lord Jesus, when he cried out, My soul is exceeding
sorrowful, even unto death. It was thy pride and pas-
sion, diy worldliness and uncleanness, the carnal
mind in thee, which is enmity against God, that
crowned him with thorns, and nailed him to the cross,
and laid him for a time under the sense of God's
withdrawings from him. Is this so? And shall I
ever again make a mock at sin ? ever again make a
light matter of that, which Christ made so great a
matter of? God forbid ! Is it a small thing to weary
men ; but have I, by my sins, wearied my God also ?
Isa. vii. 13. Have I made him thus to serve, thus to
suffer by my sins ? Isa. xliii. 24. And shall I ever
be reconciled to sin again ? or shall I ever think a
favourable thought of it any more ? No ; by the
grace of God, I never will. The carnal pleasure
and worldly profit that sin can promise me, will
never balance the pain and shame that it put my
Redeemer to.
Meditate revenge, my soul, a holy revenge, such
a revenge as will be no breach of the law of cha-
rity ; such a revenge as is one of the fruits of godly
sorrow, 2 Cor. vii. 11. If rin was the death of Christ,
why should not I be the death of sin ? When David
lamented Saul and Jonathan, who were slain by the
archers of the Philistines, (I Sam. xxxi. 3.) it is
said, (2 Sam.n. 18.) he taught the children of Jadah
the use of the bow, that they might revenge tiie
death of their princes upon their enemies. Let as
thence receive instruction. Did sin, did my sin,
crucify Christ? And shall not I crucify it? If it be
asked, Why, what evil has it done ? Say, It cost the
blood of the Son of God to expiate it ; and therefore
cry out so much the more. Crucify it, crucify it.
And thus all who are ChrisCs have, in some measare,
crucified thefiesh. Gal. v. 24. As Christ died for sio,
so must we die to sin.
2. Come and see the justice of God. Many ways
the great Judge of the world has made it to appear
that he hates sin ; and both by the judgments of his
mouth in the written word, and the judgments of his
hand in the course of his providence, he has revealed
his wrath from heaven against all ungodliness and im-
righteousness of men. It is true, that he is gracious
and merciful ; but is it true, that God i* jealous,
and the Lord revengeth f Nah. i. 2. God, even our
God, is a consuming fire, and will reckon for the
violation of his laws, and the injuries done to his
crown and dignity. The tenor of the Scripture, from
the 2nd of Genesis to the last of the Revelation,
proves this : The soul that sinneth shall die. In many
remarkable punishments of sin, even in this life, it
is written as with a sun-beam, so that he that runs
may read, that the Lord is righteous, 2 Chron. xii. 6.
But never did the justice of God appear so con-
spicuous, so illustrious, as in the death and suffer-
ings of Jesus Christ, set before us in this ordinance.
Here his righteousness is like the great mountains,
though his judgments are a great deep, Ps. xxxvi. 6.
Come and see the holy God showing his displea-
sure against sin in the death of Christ, more than in
the ruin of angels, the drowning of the old world,
the burning of Sodom, the destruction of Jerusalem ;
nay, more than in the torments of hell, all things
considered.
(1.) God manifested his justice, in demanding
such a satisfaction for sin as Christ was to make by
the blood of his cross. Hereby he made it to appear
how great the provocation was which was done him
by the sin of man, that not only %uch an excellent
person must be chosen to intercede for as, but his
sufferings and death must be insisted on to atone
for us. Sin being committed against an Infinite
Majesty, seems by this to have in it a kind of infinite
malignity, that the remission of it could not be pro-
cured, but by a satisfaction of infinite valne. If
mere mercy had pardoned sin, without any provision
made to answer the demands of injured justice, €rod
had declared his goodness ; but when Jesus Christ
is set forth to be a propitiation for sin, and God has
been pleased to put himself to so vast an expense.
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
381
or the saving of the hoDOur of bis government, in
he forgiveness of sins, this declares his righteous-
less, it declares, I say, at this time his righteous-
less. See what an emphasis the apostle lays upon
his, Rom. iii. 25, 26.
Sin had wronged God in his honour, for he cannot
itherwise be wronged by any of his creatures ; in
breaking the law we dishonour God ; we sin and
come short of his glory. For this wrong satisfaction
must be made ; that which offers itself is the eternal
rain of the sinner; eurrat lex — let the sentence of the
Imwbe executed, and thereby God may get him honour
upon Qs, in lieu of that he should have had from us,
Exod. xiv. 17. But can no expedient be found out to
satisfy God, and yet save the sinner ? Is it not possi-
ble to offer an equivalent ? Will the Lord he pleated
with thousands of rams, or ten thousand rivers of oil ?
Shall we give our first-born for our transgression, the
fruit of our body for the sin of our soul? No, these
are not tantamount : no submissions, sorrows, sup-
plications, services, or sufferings of ours, can be
looked upon as a valuable consideration for the
righteous God to proceed upon, in forgiving such in-
juries, and restoring such criminals to his favour. The
best we do is imperfect ; the utmost we can do is
already owing : here therefore the Lord Jesus inter-
poses, undertakes to make a full reparation of the
injury done to God's glory by sin ; clothes himself
with our nature, and becomes surety for us, as Paul
for Onesimus ; if they have wronged thee, or owe
thee ought, put that on my account, I have writ-
ten it with my own hand, with my own blood I will
repay it. He was made sin for us, (2 Cor. v. 21.) a
curse for us, (Gal. iii. 13.) an offering for our sin,
(Isa. liii. 10.) he bore our sins in his own body on the
tree, (1 Pet. ii. 24.) and thus the justice of God was
not only satisfied, but greatly glorified. Come and
see how bright it shines here.
(2.) God manifested his justice in dealing as he
did with him, who undertook to make satisfaction.
Having laid upon him the iniquity of us all, he laid
it home to him, for it pleased the Lord to bruise him,
and to put him to grief, Isa. liii. 10. He was not only
despised and rejected of men, who knew him not,
but he was stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
The ancient way in which God testified his accept-
ance of sacrifices, was by consuming them with fire
from heaven, (Lev. ix. 24. 2 Chron. vii. 1. 1 Kings
xviii. 38.) The wrath of God which the offerers
deserved should have fallen upon them, fell upon
the offering ; and so the destruction of the sacrifice
was the escape of the sinner. Christ becoming a
sacrifice for us, the fire of God's wrath descended
upon him, which troubled his soul, put him into an
agony, and made him cry out, My God, my God, why
host thou forsaken me ' Come, then, and behold the
goodness mnd severity of God, Rom. xi. 22. Christ
being made sin for us, God did not spare him, Rom.
viii. 32. By the determinate counsel and foreknow-
ledge of God, he was delivered to them, who with
wicked hands crucified and slew him: Awake, O
sword, the sword of divine justice, furnished and
bathed in heaven ; awake against my Shepherd, and
against the man that is my fellow, says the Lord of
hosts ; smite the Shepherd, Zech. xiii. 7.
Let us look on the sufferings of Christ, and say, as
he himself has taught us, (Luke xxiii. 31.) If this
be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry ?
What was done to him, shows what should have
been done to us if Christ had not interposed, and
what will be done to us if we reject him. If this
were done to one who had but sin imputed to him,
who, as he had no corruptions of his own for Satan's
temptations to fasten upon, so he had no guilt of
his own for God's wrath to fasten upon, who was as
a green tree, not apt to take fire ; what shall be done
to those who have sin inherent in them, which makes
them as a dry tree, combustible, and proper fuel for
the fire of God's wrath ? If this were done to one who
had done so much good, what shall be done to us
who have done so little ? If the Lord Jesus himself
was put into an agony by the things which were
done to him, was sorrowful, and very heavy, can
our hearts endure, or can our hands be strong, when
God shall deal with us? Ezek. xxii. 14. Who would
set the briars and thorns against him in battle ? From
the sufferings of Christ we may easily infer what a
fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living
God, Heb. x. 31.
3. Come and see the love of Christ This is that
which with a peculiar regard we are to observe and
contemplate in this ordinance ; where we see Christ
and him crucified, we cannot but see the love of
Christ, which passeth knowledge. When Christ did
but drop a tear over the grave of Lazarus, the Jews
said, See how he loved him, John xi. 36. Much more
reason have we to say, when we commemorate the
shedding of his blood for us, *< See how he loved
us." Greater love hath no man than this, to lay down
his life for his friend. Thus Christ has loved us ;
nay, he laid down his life for us when we were ene-
mies, (John XV. 13. Rom. v. 8.) herein is love without
precedent, love without parallel. Come and see the
wonders of his love.
(1.) It was free love. Christ gave himself for us ;
and what is more free than a gift 7 It was free, for
it was unasked ; nothing cried for this mercy, but
our own misery : when no eye pitied us, of his own
good will he relieved us ; said to us, when we were
in our sins, live ; yea, he said to us, live. That was
a time of love indeed. It was free, for it was unme-
rited ; there was nothing in us desirable, nothing
promising ; the relation we stood in to God as crea-
tures, did but aggravate our rebellion, and make us
the more obnoxious. As he could not obtain any
advantage by our happiness, so he could not sustain
382
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
any damage by our misery : if there were no profit
in oar blood, (which is pleaded, Ps. xxx. 9.) yet for
certain there would have been no loss by it No,
bat the reasons of bis love were fetched from within
him, as God's love of Israel was, (Deut. vii. 7, 8.)
he loved them, because he would love them. It
was free, for it was unforced ; he willingly offered
himself. Here am I, send me. This sacrifice was
bound to the itomt of the altar ^ only with the cords of
his love,
(2.) It was distinguishing love. It was good will
to fallen man, and not to fallen angels. He did not
lay hold on a world of sinking angels ; as their tree
fell, so it lies, and so it is like to lie for ever; but
on the seed of Abraham he taketh holdf Heb. ii. 16.
The nature of angels was more excellent than that of
man, their place in the creation higher, their capacity
for honouring God greater, and yet they were passed
by. Man who sinned was pitied and helped, while
angels who sinned were not so much as spared. The
deplorable state of devils serve as a foil to set off the
blessed state of the ransomed of the Lord.
(3.) It was condescending love. Never did love
humble itself and stoop so low as the love of Christ
did. It was great condescension, that he should fix
his love upon creatures so mean, 3Ian that is a trorfn,
the son of man that is a worm^ so near a- kin to the
brutal part of the creation, especially since the fall,
that one would think he should rather be the scorn
than the love of the spiritual and purely intellectual
world ; yet this is the creature that is chosen to be
the darling of heaven, and in whom Wisdom's de-
lights are, Prov. viii. 31. But especially that, in
prosecution of this love, he should humble himself
as he did. Humble himself to the earth in his in-
carnation ; humble himself on the earth in the mean-
ness of his life ; humble himself into the earth, when
he went to the grave, the place where mankind ap-
pears under the greatest mortification and disgrace.
(4.) It was expensive love. His washing the feet
of his disciples is spoken of as an act of love to them,
(John xiii. 1.) and that was condescending love, but
not costly like this. He loved us, and bought us,
and paid dear for us, that we might be unto him a
purchased people, 1 Pet. ii. 9. Because he loved
Israel, he gave men for them, and people for their
life, even Egypt for their ransom, (Isa. xliii. 3, 4.)
but because he loved us, he gave himself for us, even
his own blood for the ransom of our souls.
(5.) It was strong love, strong as death, and which
many waters could not quench. Cant. viii. 6, 7.
This was the greatness of his strength, in which the
Redeemer travelled, who was mighty to save ; Isa.
Ixi. 1. It was strong to break through great diffi-
culties, and trample upon the discouragements that
lay in his way : when he had this baptism to be bap-
tized with, this baptism of blood, it was love that
said, How am I straitened till it be accomplished ?
Luke xii. 50. It was love that said. With dssUrt I
have desired to eat this passover, which he knew was
to be his last. It was the strength of his love that
reconciled him to the bitter cup, which was pat into
his hand, and made him wave his petition, that it
might pass from him, which, for ought we know, if
he had insisted upon, it had been granted, and the I
work undone. '
(6.) It was an everlasting love, Jer. xxxi. 3. It |
was from everlasting in the counsels of it, and will
be to everlasting in the consequences of it ; not like
our love, which comes up in a night, and perishes in
a night He loved to the end, and went on with his
undertaking till he said. It is finished. Never was
there such a constant lover as the blessed Jesus,
whose gifts and callings are without repentance.
4. Come and see the conquest of Satan : and this
is a very pleasing sight to all those who throagh grace
are turned from the power of Satan unto God, as it
was to the Israelites, when they had newly shaken
off the Egyptian yoke, to see their task-masters and
pursuers dead upon the sea-shore, Exod. xiv. 30.
Come and see our Joshua discomfitinx the Amale-
kites, our David with a sling and a sfone yanqoish-
ing that proud Goliah, who not only himself basely
deserted, but then boldly defied, the armies of the
living God. Come and see, not Michael and his
angels, but Michael himself, Michael our prince,
who trod the wine-press alone, entering the lists
with the dragon and his angels, and giving them an
effectual overthrow : the seed of the woman, though
bruised in the heel, yet breaking the serpent's head,
according to that ancient promise made anto the
fathers. Gen. iii. 15. Come and see the great Re-
deemer, not only making peace with earth, bat
making war with hell ; dispossessing the strong
man armed, spoiling principalities and powers, mak-
ing a show of them openly y and triumphing over them
in his cross, Col. ii. 15.
Come and see Christ triumphing over Satan at his
death. Though the war was in heaven, (Rev. xii.
7.) yet some fruits of the victory even then appeared
on earth. Though when Christ was in the extremity
of his sufferings, there was a darkness over all the
land, which gave the powers of darkness all the ad-
vantage they could wish for, yet he beat the enemy
upon his own ground. Satan (some think) temfied
Christ into his agony, but then he kept possession of
his own soul, and steadily adhered to his Father's
will, and to his own undertaking: so he baffled
Satan. Satan put it in the heart of Judas to betray
him; but in the immediate ruin of Judas, wLo pre-
sently went and hanged himself, Christ triumphed
over Satan, and made a show of him openly. Satan
tempted Peter to deny Christ, desiring to kmfe kirn,
that he might sift him as wheat ; but by the speedy
repentance of Peter, who, upon a look from Christ,
went out and wept bitterly, Christ triumphed over
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
383
Satan, and baffled him in his designs. Satan was
ready to swallow up the thief upon the cross, bat
Christ rescued him fit>m the gates of hell, and raised
him to the glories of heaven, and thereby spoiled
Satan, who was as a lion disappointed of his
prey.
Come and see Christ triumphing over Satan by
his death ; the true Samson, who did more toward
the rain of the Philistines dying than living ; see
Judg. xvi. 23, 30. Having by his life and doctrine
destroyed the works of the devil, at length by his
death he destroyed the devil himself, who had the
power of death, Heb. ii. 14. In him was fulfilled
the blessing of God, (Gen. xlix. 19.) A troop thall
overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last ; and
through him who loved us, we are eonqueron, ;^ea,
mare than conquerors,
(1.) Christ by dying made atonement for sin, and
so conquered Satan. By the merit of his death, he
satisfied God's justice for the sins of all that should
believe in him ; and if the judge remit the sentence,
the executioner has nothing to do with the prisoner.
We are read&to fall under the curse, to be made an
Anathema, raat is, to be delivered unto Satan:
Christ said. Upon me be the curse; this blotted out
the handwriting that was against us, took it out of the
way, nailed it to the cross ; and so Satan is spoiled.
Who shall condemn ? It is Christ that died, Rom. viii.
33, 34. When God forgives the iniquity of his
people, he brings back their captivity, Ps. Ixxxv.
], 2. If we shall not come into condemnation, we
are saved from coming unto execution.
(2.) Christ by dying sealed the gospel of grace,
and purchased the Spirit of grace, and so conquered
Satan. The Spirit acting by the gospel as the in>
strament, and the gospel animated by the Spirit as
the principal, are become mighty to the pulling down
of Satan* s strong-holds. Thus the foundation is laid
for a believer's victory over the temptations and
terrors of the wicked one. Christ's victory over
Satan is our victory, and we overcome him by the
blood of the Lamb, Rev. xii. 11. Thus kings of
armies did flee apace, and even they that tarried at
home, and did themselves contribute nothing to the
victory, yet divide the spoil, Ps. Ixviii. 12. Christ
having thus trodden Satan under our feet, he calls
to as as Joshua to the captains of Israel, (Josh. x.
24.) Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these
kings. Resist the devil, and he shall flee from you,
for he is a conquered enemy.
5. Come and seethe worth of souls. We judge
of the Talue of a thing by the price which a wise
man who understands it gives for it. He who made
souls, and had reason to know them, provided for
their redemption, not corruptible things, as silver and
gold, hut ike precious blood of his own son ; see I Pet.
i. 18, 19. It was not a purchase made hastily, for it
was the contrivance of infinite wisdom from eter-
nity ; it was not made for necessity, for he neither
needed us, nor could be benefited by us ; but thus
he was pleased to teach us what account we should
make of our souls, and their salvation and happi-
ness. The incarnation of Christ put a great honour
upon the human nature ; never was it so dignified
as when it was taken into union with the divine
nature in the person of Immanuel, but the death
and sufferings of Christ add much more to its value,
for he laid down his own life to be the ransom of
ours, when nothing else was sufficient to answer the
price. Lord, what is man, that he should be thus
visited, thus regarded ! that the Son of God should
not only dwell among us, but die for us !
(1.) Now let us see this, and learn how to put a
value upon our own souls, not so as to advance our
conceits of ourselves, (nothing can be more hum-
bling and abasing, than to see our own lives sold
by our own folly, and redeemed by the merit of
another,) but so as to increase our concern for our-
selves, and our own spiritual interests. Shall the
souls, the precious souls which Christ put such a
value upon, and paid such a price for, debase and
undervalue themselves so far as to become slaves to
Satan, and drudges to the world and the flesh ? We
are bought with a price, and therefore we not only
injure the purchaser's right to us, if we alienate
ourselves to another, but we reproach his wisdom in
paying such a price, if we alienate ourselves for a
thing of nought. It is the apostle's argument
against uncleanness, (1 Cor. vi. 20.) and against
making ourselves the servants of men, 1 Cor. vii.
23. Christ having purchased our souls at such a
rate, we disparage them if we stake them to the
trifles of the world, or pawn them for the base and
sordid pleasures of sin. Shall that birthright be
sold for a mess of pottage, which Christ bought with
his own blood ? No ; while we live let our souls be
our darlings, (as they are called, Ps. xxii. 20. and
XXXV. 17.) for his sake, to whom they were so dear.
If Christ did and suffered so much to save our souls,
let us not hazard the losing of them, though it be to
gain the whole world. Matt. xvi. 26.
(2.) Let us see this, and learn how to put a value
upon the souls of others. This forbids us to do any
thing that may turn to the prejudice of the souls of
others, by drawing them to sin, or discouraging
them in that which is good. The apostle lays a
great stress upon this argument, against the abuse*
of our Christian liberty, to the offence of others,
(Rom. xiv. 15.) Destroy not him with thy meat for
whom Christ died ; and again he urges it on the same
occasion, 1 Cor. viii. 11. Shall not we deny our-
selves and our own satisfaction, rather than occa-
sion guilt or grief to them for whom Christ humbled
himself, even to the death of the cross ? Shall we
slight those whom Christ put such a value upon ?
Shall we set those with the dogs of our flock, whom.
3B4
THE COMMUNICANrS COMPANION.
Christ parchased with his own blood, among the
lambs of his flock ? God forbid !
This also commands us to do all we can for the
spiritual welfare and salvation of the souls of others :
did Christ think them worth his blood, and shall
not we think them worth our care and pains ? Shall
not we willingly do our utmost to save a soul from
death, and thereby hide a multitude of sins, when
Christ did so much and suffered so much to make it
feasible? Shall not we pour out our prayers for
them, for whom Christ poured out his soul unto
death? And bear them upon our hearts, Mhom
Christ laid so near his? Blessed Paul, in consider-
ation hereof, not only made himself the servant of
all, to please them for their edification, but was will-
ing to be offered upon the sacrifice and service of
their faith ; (Phil. ii. 17.) and so to fill up what was
behind of the afflictions of Christ for his body's
sake. Col. i. 24.
And if we be at any time called upon, even to lay
down our lives for the brethren, we must remember
that in that, as well as in washing their feet, Christ
has left us an example, I John iii. 16.
6. Come and see the purchase of the blessings of
the new covenant The blood of Christ was not
only the ransom of our forfeited lives, and the
redemption of our souls from everhisting misery,
but it was the valuable consideration, upon which
the grant of eternal life and happiness is grounded.
Christ's death is our life ; that is, it is not only our
salvation from death, but it is the fountain of all
our joys, and the foundation of all our hopes. All
the comforts we have in possession, and all we have
in prospect, all the privileges of our way, and all
those of our home, are the blessed fruits of that ac-
cursed tree on which our Redeemer died.
(1.) See the blood of Christ, the spring whence
all the blessings of the covenant flow. That is the
price of all our pardons, we have redemption through
his blood, even the foryiveness of sint, Eph. i. 7.
Without the shedding of blood, that blood, that
precious blood, there had been no remission. That
is the purchase of the divine favour, which is our
life; we are made accepted only in the Beloved,
Eph. i. 6. Peace is made, a covenant of peace
settled, peace secured to all the sons of peace, by
the blood of his cross, and not otherwise, Col. i. 20.
That is the price paid for the purchased possession,
that they which are called might receive the promise
of eternal inheritance, Heb. ix. 15. Christ was
made a curse for us, not only to redeem 7ts from the
curse of the law, but that we through him might in-
herit the blessing, Gal. iii. 13, 14. Thus, oiit of the
eater comes forth meat, and out of the strong sweetness.
Behold, he shows us a mystery.
(2.) See the blood of Christ, the stream in which
all the blessings of the covenant flow to us. The
blood of Christ, as it is exhibited to us in this ordi-
nance, is the vehicle, the channel, of conveyance, by
which all graces and comforts descend from heaven
to earth. This cup is the new testament in the
blood of Christ, and so it becomes a cup of blessing,
a cup of consolation, a cup of salvation : all the
hidden manna comes to us in this dew. It is the
blood of Christ, speaking for us, that pacifies an
offended God : it is the blood of Christ sprinkled
on us, that purifies a defiled conscience. As it was
the blood of Jesus that consecrated for ns the new
and living way, and opened the kingdom of heaven
to all believers, so it is by that blood that we have
boldness to enter into the holiest, Heb. x. 19, 20.
Come and see how much we owe to the death of
Christ, the rich purchases he made for us that he
might cause us to inherit substance, and might fill
our treasures. Let this increa.se our esteem of the
love of Christ, which was not only so very expen-
sive to himself, but so very advantageous to ns:
let this also enhance the value of covenant blessings
in our eyes. The blessings of this life we owe to
the bounty of God's providence ; but spiritual bless-
ings in heavenly things we owe to the blood of his
Son : let these, therefore, be to us more precious
than rubies ; let these always have the preference.
Let us be willing to part with any thing, rather than
hazard the favour of God, the comforts of the Spirit,
and eternal life, remembering what these cost Let
us never make light of Wisdom's preparations,
when we see at what rate they were bought in. To
tliem who believe they are precious, for they know
they were purchased with the precious blood of
Christ, which we undervalue as a common thing, if
we prefer farms and merchandise before heaven,
and the present earnests of it.
CHAPTER IX.
SOME ACCOUNT 07 THE PRECIOUS BENEFm TllilCH AtLE TO BE
KECEIVBD BY FAITH IN THIS OHDINANCB.
In the Lord's supper we are not only to show the
Lord's death, and see what is to be seen in it, as
many who, when he was upon the cross, stood afar
off beholding; no, we must there be more than
spectators, we must eat of t/ie sannfice, and so par-
take of the altar, 1 Cor. ix. 13. The bread which
came down from heaven was not designed merely
for shcw-bread, bread to be looked upon ; but for
household-bread, bread to be fed upon : bread to
strengthen our hearts, and wine to make them glad;
and Wisdom's invitation is. Come, eat of my bremd,
and drink of the wine that I hate mingled. Christ's
feeding great multitudes miraculously, more than
once, when he was here upon earth, was (as his
other miracles) significant of the spiritual provision
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
385
ht makes in the everlasting gospel, for the support
and satisfaction of those that leave all to follow him ;
if we do not all eat, and be not all filled, abundantly
satisfied with the goodness of his house, it is our own
fault. Let us not then straiten and starve ourselves,
for the Master of the feast has not stinted us : he
has not only invited us, and made provision for our
entertainment, but he calls to ils, as one who bids
us heartily welcome, Eat, O friendSf drink, yea,
drink abundantly, O beloved.
All people are for what they can get : here is
something to be got in this ordinance, if it be rightly
improved, which will turn to our account infinitely
more than the merchandise of silver, or the gain of
fine gold. Christ and his benefits are here not only set
before us, but offered to us ; not only offered to us,
but settled upon us, under certain provisos and
limitations ; so that a believer who sincerely con-
^nts to the covenant, receives some of the present
benefit of it in and by this ordinance, both in the
comfortable experience of communion with God, in
grace, and the comfortable expectation of the vision
and fruition of God, in glory.
Gospel ordinances in general (and this in parti-
cular, which is the seal of gospel promises) are welU
rf salvation, out of which we may draw water with
joy ; breasts of consolation, from which we may suck
and be satisfied ; golden pipes, through which the
oil of grace is derived from the good olive, to keep
Our lamps burning. We receive the grace of God
herein in vain, if we take not what is here tendered,
^pel blessings upon gospel terms. We are here
to receive Christ Jesus the Lord, and since with
bim God freely gives us all things, (Rom. viii. 32.)
we must with him by faith take what he gives ; all
spiritual blessings in heavenly things by Christ
Jesus.
I. Here we may receive the pardon and forgive-
ness of our sins. This is that great blessing of the new
covenant which makes way for all other blessings,
fremovendo prohibens — removing the hinderance,)
by taking down that wall of partition which sepa-
rated between us and God, and hinders good things
from us. It is the matter of that promise, which
comes in as a reason for all the rest, I will do so and
so for them, for I will be merciful to their unright-
eousness, Heb. viii. 12. — This is that great blessing
which Christ died to purchase for us ; his blood was
shed for many, for the remission of sins ; and per-
haps he intimated this to be, in a special manner,
designed by bim in his sufferings, when the first
Word we find recorded, that he spoke after he was
nailed to the cross, was. Father, forgive them, (Luke
xxiii. 34.) which seems to look not only to those that
had an immediate hand in his death, but to those
that are remotely accessary to it, as all sinners are,
though they know not what they do.
The everlasting gospel is an act of indemnity ; an
2 c
act of oblivion we may call it, for it is promised that
our sins and iniquities he will remember no more. It
is proclaimed to the rebels, that if they will lay down
their arms, acknowledge their offence, return to
their allegiance, approve themselves good subjects
for the future, and make the merits of him whom the
Father has appointed to be the Mediator, their plea
in suing out their pardon, the offended Prince will
be reconciled to them, their attainder shall be re-
versed, and they shall not only be restored to all the
privileges of subjects, but advanced to the honours
and advantages of favourites. Now it concerns us
all to be able to make it out, that we are entitled
to the benefit of this act, that we are qualified ac-
cording to the tenor of it, for the favour intended by
it ; and if we be so indeed, in the Lord's supper we
receive that pardon to us in particular, which in the
gospel is proclaimed to all in general. We do here
receive the atonement, as the expression is, Rom. v.
11. God has received it for the securing of his ho-
nour, and we receive it for the securing of our hap-
piness, and comfort ; we claim the benefit of it, and
desire to be justified and accepted of God for the
sake of it.
This sacrament should therefore be received with
a heart thus lifting up itself to God : ** Lord, I am a
sinner, a great sinner ; I have done very foolishly ;
I have forfeited thy favour, incurred thy displeasure,
and deserve to be for ever abandoned from thee. But
Christ has died, yea, rather, is risen again, has finish-
ed transgression, made an end of sin, made recon-
ciliation for iniquity, and brought in an everlasting
righteousness ; he gave his life a ransom for many,
and if for many, why not for me ? In him a free and
full remission is promised to all penitent and obe-
dient believers ; by him all who believe are justified,
and to them there is no condemnation. Thou, even
thou, art he thatblottest out their transgressions for
thine own sake, and art gracious and merciful, nay,
thou art faithful and just to forgive them their sins.
Lord, I repent, I believe, and take the benefit of
those promises, those exceeding great and precious
promises, which are to my soul as life from the dead.
I fly to this city of refuge, I take hold of the horns
of this altar : here I humbly receive the forgiveness
of my sins, through Jesus Christ, the great propitia-
tion, to whom I entirely owe it, and to whom I
acknowledge myself infinitely indebted for it, and
under the highest obligations imaginable to love
him, and to live to him. He is the Lord our right-
eousness, so I accept him ; let him be made a God
to me in righteousness, and I have enough, I am
happy for ever."
Every time we come to the Lord's supper, we come
to receive the remission of sins, that is,
1. A renewed pardon of daily trespasses. In many
things we offend daily, and even he who is washed,
who is in a justified state, needs to wash his feet.
386
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
John xiii. 10. And blessed be God there is a foun-
tain opened for us to wash in, and eneouragement
gi\cn to pray for daily pardon as duly as we do for
daily bread. We have to do with a God who mul-
tiplies to pardon. '* Lord, the guilt of such a sin
lies upon me like a heavy burthen ; I have lamented
it, confessed it, renewed my covenant against it, and
now in this ordinance I receive the forgiveness of
that sin, and hear it said to my soul, The Lord hath
put away thy sin^ thou shalt not die. Many a fault I
have been overtaken in since I was last with the
Lord at his table, and having repented of them, I
desire to apply the blood of Christ to my soul in a
particular manner, for tbe forgiveness of them."
2. A confirmed pardon of all trespasses. I come
here to receive further assurance of the forgiveness
of my sins, and further comfort arising from those
assurances. I come to hear again that voice of joy
and gladness, which has made many a broken bone
to rejoice, Son^ daughter j he of good cheer, thy tint
are forgiven thee, I come for the father*s kiss to a
returning prodigal, which seals his pardon so, as to
silence his doubts and fears. When God would by
his prophets speak comfortably to Sion, this he says,
Thy warfare it accomplithed, thine iniquity it pardon-
ed, Isa. xl. 2. And the inhabitant thall not tay, I am
tich, that is, he shall ske no cause to complain of
any outward calamity, if his iniquity be forgiven,
Isa. xxxiii. 24. O that I might here have the white
stone of absolution, (Rev. ii. 17.) and my pardon
written more legibly ! O that Christ would say to
me, as he did to that woman, to whom much was
already forgiven, (Luke vii. 48.) Thy tint are for-
given. This is that I come to receive, 0 let me not
go away without it !
II. Here we may receive the adoption of sons.
The covenant of grace not only frees us from the
doom of criminals, but advances us to the dignit}' of
children : Christ redeemed us from tlie curse of the
law, in order to this, that we might receive the adop-
tion of tont. Gal. iv. 5. The children's bread given
us in this ordinance, is as it were livery and seisin,
to assure us of our adoption upon the terms of the
gospel, that if we will take God in Christ to be to
us a Father, to rule and dispose of us, and to be
feared and honoured by us, he will take us to be his
sons and daughters ; Behold what manner of love it
thit! Be attonithed, O heavent, and wonder, O earth!
Never was there such compassionate, such conde-
scending love ! God here seals us the grant both of
the privileges of adoption, and the Spirit of adop-
tion.
1. Here is a grant of the privileges of adoption
scaled to us. Here we are called the children of
God, and he calls himself our Father, and encou-
rages us to call him so. Seemeth it to you a light
thing (said David, 1 Sam. xvii. 23.) to be a hing't
ton-in-law, teeing that I am a poor man, and lightly I
etteemed ? And shall it not seem to us a great thing,
an honour infinitely above all those which the world
can pretend to confer, for us (who are womui of the
earth, and a generation of vipers, children of diso-
bedience and wrath by nature) to be the adopted
children of the King of kings? This honour kme
all the taintt. Nor is it an empty title that is here
granted us, but real advantages of unspeakable
value.
The eternal God here says it, and seals it to every
true believer, Fear not, I will he a Father to thee^^n
ever-loving, ever-living Father; leave it to me to
provide for thee, on me let all thy burthens be cast,
with me let all thy cares be left, and to me let all
thy requests be made known. The young lionM thall
lack and tuffer hunger, but thou shalt want nothing
that is good for thee, nothing that is ^t for thee.
My wisdom shall be thy guide, my power thy sap-
port, and underneath thee the everlasting arms. As
the tender father pities his children, so will I pity
thee, and spare thee as a man spares his son that
serves him. Thou shalt have my blessing and love,
the smiles of my face and the kisses of my mootii,
and in the arms of my grace vrill I carry thee to
glory, as the nursing father does the sucking child.
Does any thing grieve thee? Whither shouldst
thou go with thy complaint but to thy Father, saying
to him as that child, (2 Kings iv. 19.) My head, my
head; and thou shalt find, that as one whom his
mother comforts, so will the Lord thy God comfort
thee. Does any thing terrify thee ? Be not afraid^
for I am thy God; when thou pattest through the
watert, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they
thall not overflow thee. Art thou in debt ? Consult
me, and / will inttruet thee in the way that thou shalt
go, I will guide thee with mine iye. Acknowledge
me, and I will direct thy steps. Dost thou offend ?
Is there foolishness bound up in thy heart ? Thou
mayst expect fatherly correction, / will chastise
thee with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the
tons of men, but my loving-kindness will I not utterly
take from thee ; thine afflictions shall not only con-
sist with, but flow from, covenant love ; and but for a
season, when need is, shalt thou be in heaviness.
I will be a Fatlier to thee, and, son, thou shalt
be ever with me, and all that I have is thine, whether
Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life,
or death, or things present, or things to come, all are
thine, as far as is necessary to thy happiness, nor
shall any thing be ever able to separate thee from
my love. I will be a Father to thee, and then Christ
shall be thy elder brother, the prophet, priest, and
king of the family, as the first-bom among many
brethren. Angels shall be thy g^ard, vrith the
greatest care and tenderness shall they bear thee in
their arms, as ministering spirits charged to attend
the heirs of salvation. Providence shall be thy pro-
tector, and the disposer of all thy affairs for the
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
387
htsX ; so that whatever happens, thou mayst he sare
it Mrill be made to work for thy good, though as yet
thou canst not see how or which way. The assurances
of thy Father's love to thee in his promises, and com-
munion with him in his ordinances, shall be thy
daily bread, thy continual feast, the manna that shall
be rained upon thee, the water out of the rock that
shall follow thee in this wilderness, till thou come
to Canaan.
Now art thou a child of God ; hut it does not yet
appear what thou shalt be. When thou wast predes-
tinated to the adoption of a son, thou wast designed
for the inheritance of a son : if a child, then an heir.
Thy present maintenance shall be honourable and
comfortable, and such as is fit for thee in thy mi-
nority, while thou art under tutors and governors ;
but what is now laid out upon thee, is nothing in com-
parison with what is laid up for thee ; an inheritance
incormptible, undefiled, and that fades not away.—
If God be thy Father, not less than a crown, a king-
dom, shall be thy portion, and heaven thy home,
where thou shalt be for ever with him: in thy Father's
house there are many mansions, and one for thee, if
tbou be his dutiful child. It is thy Father's good
pleasure to give thee a kingdom.
2. Here is a grant of the Spirit of adoption sealed
to us. As the giving of Christ for us was the great
promise of the Old Testament, which was fulfilled in
the fulness of time, so the giving of the Spirit to us
is the great promise of the New Testament, and a
inoznise that is sure to all the seed ; this promise of
the Father, which we have heard of Christ, we in
this ordinance wait for, Acts i. 4. And it follows
Upon the former, for wherever God gives the privi-
tef^es of children, he will give the nature and dis-
position of children : regeneration always attends
adoption ; Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth
the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, Gal. iv. 6.
Great encouragement we have to ask this gift, from
the relation of a father, wherein God stands toward
us : if earthly parents know how to give good gifts
to their children, such as are needful and proper for
them, much more shall our heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to those that ask him, Luke xi. 13. He
will g^ve the Spirit to teach his children, and as
their tutor, to lead them into ail truth ; to govern
his children, and as the best of guardians, to dis-
pose their affections, while providence disposes their
affairs for the best He will give his Spirit to renew
and sanctify them, and to make them meet for their
Father's service in this world, and their Father's king-
dom in a better world ; to be the guide of their way,
and the witness of their adoption, and to seal them
to the day of redemption.
An earnest of this grant of the Spirit to all be-
lievers in this ordinance Christ gave, when in the
fint visit he made to his disciples after his resurrec-
tion, having showed them his hands and his side, his
2c2
pierced hands, his pierced side, (which in efi*ect he
does to us in this sacrament,) he breathed on them,
and said unto them. Receive ye the Holy Ghost, John
XX. 22. What he says to them, he says to all his
disciples, making them an offer of this inestimable
gift, and bestowing it effectually on all believers,
who are all sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
Eph. i. 13. Receive ye the Holy Ghost then, in the
receiving of this bread and wine ; the graces of the
Spirit, as bread to strengthen the heart ; his com-
forts, as wine to make it glad. Be willing and de-
sirous to receive the Holy Ghost, let the soul and
all its powers be put under his operations and in-
fluences : Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye
lift up, ye everlasting doors, and then this King of
glory shall come in, to all that invite him, and will
bid him welcome.
But will God in very deed thus dwell with men,
with such men upon the earth ? And shall they be-
come temples of the Holy Ghost? Shall he come
upon them ? Shall the power of the Highest over-
shadow them ? Shall Christ be formed in me a holy
thing ? Say then, (my soul,) say as the blessed virgin
did. Here I am, be it unto me according to thy word.
I acknowledge myself unworthy the being of a man,
having so often acted more like a brute ; much more
unworthy the dignity of a son : I have been an un-
dutiful, rebellious prodigal, I deserve to be turned
out of doors, abandoned and disinherited, and for-
bidden my Father's house and table ; but who shall
set bounds to infinite mercy, and to the compassions
of the Everlasting Father ? If notwithstanding this
he will yet again take me into his family, and clothe
me with tlie best robe, though it is too great a favour
for me to receive, who am a child of disobedience,
yet it is not too great for him to give, who is the
Father of mercies. To thee, theiefore, O God, I
give up myself; and I will from this time cry unto
thee, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth, Jer.
iii. 4. Though I deserve not to be owned as a hired
servant, I desire and hope to be owned as an
adopted son. Be it unto thy servant according to
the promise.
III. Here we may receive peace and satisfaction
in our minds. This is one of those precious legacies
Christ has left to all his followers, and it is here in
this ordinance paid, or secured to be paid, to all
those that are ready and willing to receive it; (John
xiv. 27.) Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto
you, such a peace as the world can neither give nor
take away. This is the repose of the soul in God ;
our reconciliation to ourselves, arising from the sense
of our reconciliation to God ; the conscience being
purged from dead works, which not only defile, but
disturb and disquiet us. When the Spirit is poured
out from on high, then the work of righteousness is
peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and
assurance for ever, Isa. xxxii. 16, 17. The guilt of
390
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
affairs, and whilhcr shall I go for it but to wisdom's
feasts, whose preparations are not only good for
food, and pleasant to the eye, but greatly to be de-
sired to make one wise : here, therefore, I receive
Christ Jesus the Lord, as made of God unto me
wisdom, wisdom dwelling with prudence, wisdom
to understand my way, that wisdom which in every
doubtful case is profitable to direct. Having many
a time prayed Solomon's prayer, for a wise and un-
derstanding hearty I here receive the sealed grant in
answer to it, wisdom and knowledge are given thee,
80 much as shall be sufficient for thee in thy place
and station, to guide thee in glorifying God, so that
thou mayst not come short of enjoying him.
When we are assaulted with temptations to sin,
we find how weak and ineffectual our resistance has
often been ; here, therefore, we receive grace to for-
tify us against all those assaults, that we may not
be foiled and overcome by them. All that in this
sacrament list themselves under the banner of the
Captain of our salvation, and engage themselves (as
his faithful soldiers) in a holy war against the world,
the flesh, and the devil, may here be furnished with
the whole armour of God, and that power of his
might, (as it is called, Eph. vi. 10.) wherewith they
shall be able to stand and withstand in the evil
day, Cph. vi. 10, &c. I now receive from God and
his grace, strength against such a sin that has often
prevailed over me, such a temptation that has often
been too hard for me ; " Now therefore, O God,
strengthen my hands." Through God I shall do
valiantly.
When we are burthened with aflliction, we find it
hard to bear up ; we faint in the day of adversity,
which is a sign our strength is small ; we grieve
too much, and are full of fears in a day of trouble,
our hearts many a time are ready to fail us ; hither
therefore we come to receive grace suflScient for our
support under the calamities of this present time,
(that whatever we lose, we may not lose our com-
fort, and whatever we suffer, we may not sink,)
grace to enable us, whatever happens, to keep pos-
session of our own souls, by keeping up our hope
and joy in God, that when flesh and heart fail, we
may find God the strength of our hearts ; and if he
be so, as our day is, so shall our strength be, Deut.
xxxiii. 25. Such assurances are here given to all
believers, (of God's presence with them in all their
afflictions, and of the concurrence of all for their
good,) that being thus encouraged, they have all the
reason in the world to say, *' Welcome the will of
God ; nothing can come amiss."
We know not how we may be called on to bear
our testimony to the truths and ways of God in
suffering for righteousness' sake ; we are bid to
count upon them, and to prepare for them. We must
in this ordinance faithfully promise that (however
we may be tried) we will never forsake Christ, nor
turn from following after him ; though we shotM
die with him, yet will we not deny him : bat it
have no reason to confide in any strength of ov
own, for the making good of this promise, nor ca
we pretend to such a degree of resolution, steadi-
ness, and presence of mind, as will enable us to
encounter the difficulties we may meet with. Peter,
when he shamed himself, warned us to take heed
lest we fall, when we think we stand : here, tbel^
fore, we must receive streng^ for such trials ; that
we may overcome them by the blood of the Lanb,
and by not loving our lives unto the death ; ud
that the prospect of none of these things may movf
us.
3. How near our great change may be we cannot
tell, perhaps nearer than we imagine ; we are not
sure that we shall live to see another opportunity of
this kind ; but this we are sure of, that it is a serioni
thing to die, it is a work we never did, and when
we come to do it, we shall need a streng^th we ncTer
had. In this sacrament therefore, from the deatk
of Christ, we must fetch in grace to prepare us for
death, and to carry us safely and comfortably
through that dark and dismal valley. I depend not
only upon the providence of God, to order the cir-
cumstances of my removal hence for the best to
me, but upon the grace of God, to take oat the
sting of death, and then to reconcile me to the stroke
of death, and to enable me to meet death's harbin-
ger, and bear its agonies not only with the constancy
and patience that becomes a wise man, but with the
hope and joy that becomes a good Christian.
y. Here we may receive the earnests of eternal
bliss and joy. Heaven is the crown and centre of
all the prorhises, and the perfection of all the good
contained in them, all the blessings of the new
covenant have a tendency to this, and are in order
to this. Are we predestinated ? It is to the inheri-
tance of sons: called? It is to his kingdom and
glory : sanctified ? It is that we may be made meet
for the inheritance, and wrought to ithe self-same
thing. This, therefore, we should have in our eye,
in our covenant and communion with God, that
eternal life which God who cannot lie promises.
We must receive the Spirit in his graces and com-
forts, as the earnest of our inheritance, Eph. i. 14.
2 Cor. i. 22 ; v. 5. They who deal with God mast
deal upon trust for a happiness in reversion, a re-
compence of reward to come ; must forsake a world
in sight and present, for a world out of sight and
future. All believers consent to this, they lay up
their treasure in heaven, and hope for what they sec
not. This they depend upon, and in prospect of it
they are willing to labour, and suffer, to deny them-
selves, and take up their cross, knowing that heaven
will make amends for all ; though they may be
losers for Christ, they shall not be losers by him in
the end : this is the bargain. In the Lord's snppci
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
991
Christ gives us earnest upon this bargain, and
what we receive there we receive as earnest. An
earnest not only confirms the bargain, and secures
the performance of it, but is itself part of payment,
though but a small part in comparison with the full
sum.
We here receive the earnest of our inheritance,
that is, #
1. We receive the assurances of it; the royal
fljant of it is here sealed and delivered by the King
of kings, teste me ipso — being myself witness. God
says to me as he did to Abraham, (Gen. xiii. 14.)
Lift vp thine eyes notr, and look from the place where
thou ai-t. Take a view of the heavenly Canaan, that
land which eternally flows with better things than
milk and honey, ImmanueFs land ; open the eye of
faith, and behold the pleasures and glories of that
world, as they are described in Scripture, such as
eye hath not seen, nor ear heard; and know of a
surety, that all the land which thou seest, and that
which is infinitely more and better than thou canst
conceive, to thee will lyive i7, to thee for ever. Fear
not, little flock, fear not, ye little ones of the flock,
it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the king-
dom. Follow Christ and ser\'e him, and you shall
be for ever with him: continue with him now in
his temptations, and you shall shortly share with
him in his glories: only be faithful unto death, and
the crown of life is as sure to you as if it were
already upon your heads. Here is livery and seisin
upon the deed : take this and eat it, take this and
drink it ; in token of this, / will be to thee a God,
(that is, a perfect and everlasting happiness,) such
as shall answer the vast extent and compass of that
great word, Heb. xi. 16.
Come now, my soul, and accept the security
ofi*ered ; the inheritance ofl*ered is unspeakably rich,
and invaluable; the losses and sufl*erings of this
present time, are not worthy to be compared with
it The title is good ; it is a purchased possession ; he
that grants it has power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life, John xvii. 2. The assurances are
unquestionably valid (not only the word and oath,
but the writing and seal of the eternal God) in the
scriptures and sacraments. Here is that, my soul,
which thou mayst venture thyself upon, and venture
thine all for. Do it then, do it with a holy boldness.
Lay hold on eternal life, lay fast hold on it, and keep
thy hold. Look up, my soul, look as high as heaven,
the highest heavens. Look forward, my soul, look as
far forward as eternity, and let eternal life, eternal
joy, eternal glory, be thy aim in thy religion, and
resolve to take up with nothing short of these. God
has been willing more abundantly to show to the heirs
of promise the immutability of his counsel, and, there-
fore, has thus confirmed it, so as to leave no room
for doabting, that by all these immutable things, in
which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have
strong consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lay
hold on the hope set before us, Heb. vi. 17, 18. Take
him at his word then, and build thy hope upon it :
be not faitliless, but believing ; be not careless, but
industrious. Here is a happiness worth striving
for : run with patience the race that is set before
thee, with this prize in thy eye.
2. We receive the foretastes of it. We have in
this ordinance not only a ratification of the promise
of the heavenly Canaan, but a pattern or specimen
given us of the fruits of that land, like the bunch
of grapes which was brought from the valley of
Eshcol to the Israelites in the wilderness ; a view
given us of that land of promise, like that which
Moses had of the land of Canaan from the top of
Pisgah : as the law was a type and figure of the
Messiah's kingdom on earth, so the gospel is of his
kingdom in heaven ; both are shadows of good
things to come, (Heb. x. I.) like the map of a rich
and large country in a sheet of paper. Our future
happiness is in this sacrament not only sealed to us,
but showed to us, and we here taste something of
the pleasures of that better country. In this ordi-
nance we have a sight of Christ, he is evidently set
before us ; and what is heaven, but to see him as he
is, and to be for ever beholding his glory? We are
here receiving the pledges and tokens of Christ's
love to us, and returning the protestations and ex-
pressions of our love to him ; and what is heaven,
but an eternal interchanging of love between a holy
God and holy souls? We are here praising and
blessing the Redeemer, celebrating his honour, and
giving him the glory of his achievements; and what
is that but the work of heaven ? It is what the in-
habitants of that world are doing now, and what we
hope to be doing with them to eternity. We are here
in spiritual communion with all the saints, coming
in faith, hope, and love to the general assembly and
church of the flrst'born ; and what is heaven but that
in perfection? In a word, heaven is a feast, and so
is this ; only this is a running banquet, that an ever-
lasting feast.
Come (my soul) and see a door here opened in
heaven ; look in at that door now, by which thou
hopest to enter shortly. Let this ordinance do
something of the work of heaven upon thee, God
having provided in it something of the pleasure of
heaven for thee. Heaven will for ever part between
thee and sin ; let this ordinance, therefore, set thee
at a greater distance from it. Heaven will fill thee
with the love of God ; in this ordinance, therefore,
let that love be shed abroad in thy heart In hea-
ven thou shalt enter into the joy of tliy Lord ; let
that joy now enter into thee, and be thy strength
and thy song. Heaven will be perfect holiness;
let this ordinance make thee more holy, and more
conformable to the image of the Holy Jesus. Hea-
ven will be everlasting rest ; here, therefore, retam
390
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
affairs, and ivhilher shall I go for it but to wisdom's
feasts, whose preparations are not only good for
food, and pleasant to the eye, but greatly to be de-
sired to make one wise : here, therefore, I receive
Christ Jesus the Lord, as made of God unto me
wisdom, wisdom dwelling with prudence, wisdom
to understand my way, that wisdom which in every
doubtful case is profitable to direct. Having many
a time prayed Solomon's prayer, for a wise and un-
derstandiny hearty I here receive the sealed grant in
answer to it, wisdom and knowledge are given thee,
so much as shall be sufficient for thee in thy place
and station, to guide thee in glorifying God, so that
thou mayst not come short of enjoying him.
When we are assaulted with temptations to sin,
we find how weak and ineffectual our resistance has
often been ; here, therefore, we receive grace to for-
tify us against all those assaults, that we may not
be foiled and overcome by them. All that in this
sacrament list themselves under the banner of the
Captain of our salvation, and engage themselves (as
his faithful soldiers) in a holy war against the world,
the flesh, and the devil, may here be furnished with
the whole armour of God, and that power of his
might, (as it is called, Eph. vi. 10.) wherewith they
shall be able to stand and withstand in the evil
day, Eph. vi. 10, &c. I now receive from God and
his grace, strength against such a sin that has often
prevailed over me, such a temptation that has often
been too hard for me ; " Now therefore, O God,
strengthen my hands." Through God I shall do
valiantly.
When we are burthened with affliction, we find it
hard to bear up ; we faint in the day of adversity,
which is a sign our strength is small ; we grieve
too much, and are full of fears in a day of trouble,
our hearts many a time are ready to fail us ; hither
therefore we come to receive grace suflScient for our
support under the calamities of this present time,
(that whatever we lose, we may not lose our com-
fort, and whatever we suffer, we may not sink,)
grace to enable us, whatever happens, to keep pos-
session of our own souls, by keeping up our hope
and joy in God, that when flesh and heart fail, we
may find God the strength of our hearts ; and if he
be so, at our dag is, so shall our strength be, Deut.
xxxiii. 25. Such assurances are here given to all
believers, (of God's presence with them in all their
afflictions, and of the concurrence of all for their
good,) that being thus encouraged, they have all the
reason in the world to say, ** Welcome the will of
God ; nothing can come amiss."
We know not how we may be called on to bear
our testimony to the truths and ways of God in
suffering for righteousness' sake ; we are bid to
count upon them, and to prepare for them. We must
in this ordinance faithfully promise that (however
we may be tried) we will never forsake Christ, nor
turn from following after him ; though we should
die with him, yet will we not deny him: bat we
have no reason to confide in any strength of our
own, for the making good of this promise, nor can
we pretend to such a degree of resolution^ steadi-
ness, and presence of mind, as will enable us to
encounter the difficulties we may meetvdth. Peter,
when he shamed himself, warned us to take heed
lest we fall, when we think we stand : bere, there-
fore, we must receive strength for such trials ; that
we may overcome them by the blood of the Lamb,
and by not loving our lives unto the death ; and
that the prospect of none of these things may move
us.
3. How near our great change may be we cannot
tell, perhaps nearer than we imagine ; we are not
sure that we shall live to see another opportunity of
this kind ; but this we are sure of, that it is a serious
thing to die, it is a work we never did, and when
we come to do it, we shall need a strength we never I
had. In this sacrament therefore, from the death |
of Christ, we must fetch in grace to prepare us for
death, and to carry us safely and comfortably
through that dark and dismal valley. I depend not
only upon the providence of God, to order the cir-
cumstances of my removal hence for the best to
me, but upon the grace of God, to take out the
sting of death, and then to reconcile me to the stroke
of death, and to enable me to meet death's harbin-
ger, and bear its agonies not only with the constancy
and patience that becomes a wise man, but with the
hope and joy that becomes a good Christian.
y. Here we may receive the earnests of eternal
bliss and joy. Heaven is the crown and centre of
all the promises, and the perfection of all the good
contained in them, all the blessings of the new
covenant have a tendency to this, and are in order
to this. Are we predestinated ? It is to the inheri-
tance of sons: called? It is to his kingdom and
glory : sanctified ? It is that we may be made meet
for the inheritance, and wrought to Uie self-same
thing. This, therefore, we should have in our eye,
in our covenant and communion with God, that
eternal life which God who cannot lie promises.
We must receive the Spirit in his graces and com-
forts, as the earnest of our inheritance, Eph. i. 14.
2 Cor. i. 22 ; v. 5. They who deal with God must
deal upon trust for a happiness in reversion, a re-
compence of reward to come ; must forsake a world
in sight and present, for a world out of sight and
future. All believers consent to this, they lay up
their treasure in heaven, and hope for what they see
not. This they depend upon, and in prospect of it
they are willing to labour, and suffer, to deny them-
selves, and take up their cross, knowing that heaven
will make amends for all ; though they may be
losers for Christ, they shall not be losers by him in
the end : this is the bargain. In the Lord's supper
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
991
Christ gives us earnest upon this bargain, and
^hat we receive there we receive as earnest. An
earnest not only confirms the bargain, and secures
the performance of it, but is itself part of payment,
though but a small part in comparison with the full
sum.
We here receive the earnest of our inheritance,
that is, #
1 . We receive the assurances of it ; the royal
grant of it is here sealed and delivered by the King
of kings, teste me ipso — being myself witness, God
says to me as he did to Abraham, (Gen. xiii. 14.)
Li/i vp thine eyes now, and look from the place wliere
thou ai-t. Take a view of the heavenly Canaan, that
land which eternally flows with better things than
milk and honey, Immanuel's land ; open the eye of
faith, and behold the pleasures and glories of that
world, as they are described in Scripture, such as
eye hath not seen, nor ear heard; and know of a
surety, that all the land which thou seest, and that
which is infinitely more and better than thou canst
conceive, to thee will I give it, to thee for ever. Fear
not, little flock, fear not, ye little ones of the flock,
it is your Father* s good pleasure to give you the king-
dom. Follow Christ and ser\'e him, and you shall
be for ever with him: continue with him now in
his temptations, and you shall shortly share with
him in his glories : only be faithful unto death, and
the crown of life is as sure to you as if it were
already upon your heads. Here is livery and seisin
upon the deed : take this and eat it, take this and
drink it ; in token of this, / will he to thee a God,
(that is, a perfect and everlasting happiness,) such
as shall answer the vast extent and compass of that
great word, Heb. xi. 16.
Come now, my soul, and accept the security
offered ; the inheritance ofi*ered is unspeakably rich,
and invaluable; the losses and sufferings of this
present time, are not worthy to be compared with
it The title is good ; it is a purchased possession ; he
that grants it has power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life, John xvii. 2. The assurances are
unquestionably valid (not only the word and oath,
but the writing and seal of the eternal God) in the
scriptures and sacraments. Here is that, my soul,
which thou mayst venture thyself upon, and venture
thine all for. Do it then, do it with a holy boldness.
Lay hold on eternal life, lay fast hold on it, and keep
thy hold. Look up, my soul, look as high as heaven,
the highest heavens. Look forward, my soul, look as
far forward as eternity, and let eternal life, eternal
joy, eternal glory, be thy aim in thy religion, and
resolve to take up with nothing short of these. God
has been willing more abundantly to shoio to the heirs
of promise the immutability of his counsel, and, there-
fore* has thus confirmed it, so as to leave no room
for doubting, that by all these immutable things, in
wkieh it is impossible for God to lie, we might have
strong consolation, who have fl^d for refuge, to lay
hold on the hope set before us, Heb. vi. 17, 18. Take
him at his word then, and build thy hope upon it :
be not faithless, but believing ; be not careless, but
industrious. Here is a happiness worth striving
for : run with patience the race that is set before
thee, with this prize in thy eye.
2. We receive the foretastes of it. We have in
this ordinance not only a ratification of the promise
of the heavenly Canaan, but a pattern or specimen
given us of the fruits of that land, like the bunch
of grapes which was brought from the valley of
Eshcol to the Israelites in the wilderness ; a view
given us of that land of promise, like that which
Moses had of the land of Canaan from the top of
Pisgah : as the law was a type and figure of the
Messiah's kingdom on earth, so the gospel is of his
kingdom in heaven ; both are shadows of good
things to come, (Heb^ x. 1.) like the map of a rich
and large country in a sheet of paper. Our future
happiness is in this sacrament not only sealed to us,
but showed to us, and we here taste something of
the pleasures of that better country. In this ordi-
nance we have a sight of Christ, he is evidently set
before us ; and what is heaven, but to see him as he
is, and to be for ever beholding his glory? We are
here receiving the pledges and tokens of Christ's
love to us, and returning the protestations and ex-
pressions of our love to him ; and what is heaven,
but an eternal interchanging of love between a holy
God and holy souls? We are here praising and
blessing the Redeemer, celebrating his honour, and
giving him the glory of his achievements; and what
is that but the work of heaven ? It is what the in-
habitants of that world are doing now, and what we
hope to be doing with them to eternity. We are here
in spiritual communion with all the saints, coming
in faith, hope, and love to the general assembly and
church of the flrst-horn ; and what is heaven but that
in perfection ? In a word, heaven is a feast, and so
is this ; only this is a running banquet, that an ever-
lasting feast.
Come (my soul) and see a door here opened in
heaven ; look in at that door now, by which tliou
hopest to enter shortly. Let this ordinance do
something of the work of heaven upon thee, God
having provided in it something of the pleasure of
heaven for thee. Heaven will for ever part between
thee and sin ; let this ordinance, tlierefore, set thee
at a greater distance from it. Heaven will fill thee
with the love of God ; in this ordinance, therefore,
let that love be shed abroad in thy heart In hea-
ven thou shalt enter into the joy of tliy Lord ; let
that joy now enter into thee, and be thy strength
and thy song. Heaven will be perfect holiness;
let this ordinance make thee more holy, and more
conformable to the image of the Holy Jesus. Hea-
ven will be everlasting rest ; here, therefore, retam
d92
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
to God as thy rest, O my soui, and repose thyself
in him. Let every sacrament be to thee a heaven
upon earth, and each of these days of the Son of
man, as one of the days of heaven.
CHAPTER X
HELPS FOR THE EXCITING THOSE PIOUS AND DEVOUT AFFEC-
TIONS WHICH SHOULD BE WORKING IN US WHILE WE ATTEND
THIS ORDINANCE.
Wonderful sig^hts are here to be seen, where the
Lord's death is showed forth ; precious benefits are
here to be had, where the covenant of grace is sealed ;
the transaction is very solemn, very serious, nothing
more so on this side death : but what impressions
must bo made hereby upon our souls ? How must
we stand afifected while this is doing ? Is this ser-
vice only a show at which we may be unconcerned
spectators ? Or is it a market-place, in which we
may stand all the day idle ? No, by no means : here is
work to be done, heart-work, such as requires a very
close application of mind, and a great liveliness and
vigour of spirit, and in which all that is within us
should be employed, and all little enough. Here is
that to be done which calls for fixed thoughts and
warm affections, which needs them, and well deserves
them. What sensible movings of affection we
should aim at, is not easy to direct ; tempers vary.
Some are soon moved, and much moved with every
thing that affects them ; from such it may be ex-
pected that their passions, which are strong at other
times, should not be weak at this ordinance. And
yet, no doubt, there are others whose natural temper
is happily more calm and sedate, who are not con-
scious to themselves of such stirrings of affection as
some experience at that ordinance, and yet have as
comfortable communion with God, as good evidence
of the truth, and growth of grace, and as much real
benefit by the ordinance, as those who think them-
selves even transported by it. The deepest rivers
arc scarce perceived to move, and make the least
noise. On the other hand, there may be much heat
where there is little light, and strong passions where
there are very weak resolutions ; like the waters of
the land-flood, which make a great show, but are
shallow and soon gone. We must not, therefore,
build a good opinion of our spiritual state upon the
vehemence of our affection. A romance may repre-
sent a tragical story so pathetically, as to make a
great impression upon the minds of some, who yet
know the whole matter to be both feigned and
foreign : bodiiy exercise, if that be all, profits little.
And on the other hand, there may be a true and strong
faith in forming the judgment, bowing the will, com-
manding the affections, and purifying the heart and
life, where yet there are not any transports or pa-
thetical expressions. There may be true joy, where
yet the mouth is not filled with laughter, nor the
tongue with singing ; and true sorrow, where yet tbe
eye does not run down with tears. They whose
hearts are firmly fixed for God, may take the com-
fort of it, though they do not find their heart sensiblj
flowing out towards him.
And 3i^t in this sacrament, where it is designed
that the eye should affect the heart, we must not rest
in the bare contemplation of what is here set before
us, but the consideration thereof must make an im-
pression on our spirits, which should be turned as
clay to this seal. If what is here done do not affect
us for the present, it will not be likely to influence
us afterwards ; for we retain the remembrance of
things better by our affections than by our notions :
/ shall never forget thy precepts, when by (hem tkou
hast quickened me. Here therefore let us stir up the
gift that is in us, endeavouring to affect ourselves
with the great things of God and our souls ; and let
us pnty to God to affect us with them by his Spirit
and grace, and to testify his acceptance of the sa-
crifice of a devoted heart, which we are here to
offer, by kindling it with the holy fire from heaven:
Awake, O north wind, and come, thou south, and blow
upon my garden. Come, thou blessed Spirit, and
move upon these waters, these dead waters, to set
them a moving in rivers of living water ; ciime and
breathe on these dry bones, that they may live. 0
that I might now be in the mount with God ! That
I might be so taken up with the things of the Spirit
and the other world, that, for the time, I may even
forget that I am yet in the body, and in this worid!
O that I might now be soaring upward, upward to-
ward God, pressing forward, forward toward heaven*
as one not slothful in this business, but fervent in
spirit, serving the Lord, for here it is no time to
trifle !
Let us then see in some particulars how we should
be affected when we are attending on the Lord in
this solemnity, and in what channels these waters of
the sanctuary should run, that we may take our work
before us, and apply our minds to the consideration
of those things that are proper to excite those af-
fections.
I. Here we must be sorrowing for sin after a
godly sort, and blushing before God at the thought
of it. Penitential grief and shame are not at all
unsuitable to this ordinance, though it is intended
for our joy and honour, but excellent preparatives
for the benefit and comfort of it. Here we should
be, like Ephraim, bemoaning ourselves; like Job,
abhorring ourselves, renewing those sorrowful reflec*
tions we made upon our own follies, when we were
preparing for this service, and keeping the fountains
of repentance still open, still flowing. Our sorrow for
sin needs not hinder our joy in God, and therefore
oar joy in God must not forbid our sorrow for sin.
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
af»8
1. Our near approach to God in this ordinance,
should excite and increase our holy shame and sor-
row. When we see what an honour we are advanced
to, what a favour we are admitted to, it is seasonable
to reflect upon our own unworthiness by reason of
the guilt of sin, and our own unfitness by reason of
the power of sin, to draw near to God. A man's
deformity and defilement is never such a mortifica-
tion to him, as when he comes into the presence of
those who are comely, clean, and fashionable ; and
when we are conscious to ourselves that we have
dealt basely and disingenuously with one we were
under the highest obligation to love and honour, an
interview with the person so ofi'ended cannot but re-
new our grief.
I am here drawing nigh to God, not only treading
his courts with Christians at large, by sitting down
at his table with select disciples ; but when I con-
sider how pure and holy he is, and how vile and sin-
ful I am, 1 am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face
before him ; to me belongs shame and confusion of
face ; I have many a time heard of God by the hear-
ing of the ear, but now I am taken to sit down with
him at his table, mine eye sees him, sees the King in
his beauty, wherefore / abhor myself, and repent in
dust and ashes. What a fool, what a wretch, have I
been, to offend a God, who appears so holy in the
eyes of all that draw nigh unto him, and so great to
all them that are about him. Woe is me, for I am
undone, lost and undone for ever, if there were not a
Mediator between me and God, because I am a man
of unclean lips, and an unclean heart : now I per-
ceive it, and my own degeneracy and danger by
reason of it,ybr mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts, Isa. vi. 5. I have reason to be ashamed to
see one I am so unlike to, and afraid to see one I am
so obnoxious to. The higher we are advanced by
the free grace of God, the more reason we shall see
to abase ourselves, and cry, God be merciful to us
sinners.
2. A sight of Christ crucified should increase and
excite our penitential shame and sorrow, and that
evangelical repentance in which there ifi an eye to
the cross of Christ. It is prophesied, nay, it is pro-
mised, as a blessed effect of the pouring out of the
Spirit in gospel times upon the house of David, and
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that they shall looh
upon him whom they have pierced, and shall mourn,
Zeeh. xii. 10. Here we see Christ pierced for our
sins, nay, pierced by our sins ; our sins were the
cause of his death, and the grief of his heart. The
Jews and Romans crucified Christ, but as David
killed Uriah with his letter, and Ahab killed Naboth
with his seal, so the hand-writing that was against
us for our sins, nailed Christ to the cross, and so he
Hailed it to the cross. We had eaten the sour grapes,
and his teeth were set an edge. Can we see him
thus soffeiiDg for us, and not we suffer with him ?
Was he in such pain for our sins, and shall not we
be in pain for them ? Was his soul exceeding sor-
rowful, even unto death, and shall not ours be ex-
ceeding sorrowful, when that is the way to life?
Come, my soul, see by faith the holy Jesus made sin
for thee, the glory of heaven made a reproach of men
for thee ; his Father's joy made a man of sorrow for
thy transgressions. See thy sins burthening him
when he sweat, spitting upon him and buffeting him,
and putting him to open shame, crowning him with
thorns, piercing his hands and his side ; and let this
melt and break this hard and rocky heart of thine,
and dissolve it into tears of godly sorrow. Look on
Christ dying, and weep not for him, (though they
who have any thing of ingenuousness and good na-
ture, will see reason enough to weep for an innocent
sufferer,) but weep for thyself, and thy own sins ; for
them be in bitterness, as one that is in bitterness for
an only son.
Add to this, that our sins have not only pierced
him, as they were the cause of his death, but as they
have been the reproach of his holy name, and the
grief of his Holy Spirit. Thus we have crucified him
afresh, by doing that which he has often declared to
be a vexation and dishonour to him, as far as the
joys and glories of his present state can admit. The
consideration of this should greatly humble us:
nothing goes nearer to the quick with a true peni-
tent, nor touches him in a more tender part, than this,
(E^ek. vi. 9.) They shall remember me among the na-
tions whither they shall be carried captives, because lam
broken with their whonsh heart, which hath depart fd
from me. A strange expression, that the great God
should reckon himself broken by the sins of his
people ! No wonder it follows. They should loathe
themselves for the evils which they had committed. Can
we look upon an humbled broken Christ with an
unhumbled unbroken heart? Do our sins grieve him,
and shall they not grieve us? Come, my soul, and
sit down by the cross of Christ as a true mourner ;
let it make thee weep to see him weep, and bleed
to see him bleed. That heart is frozen hard indeed,
which these considerations will not thaw.
3. The gracious offer here made us of peace and
pardon, should excite and increase our godly sorrow
and shame. This is a gospel motive. Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand ; that is, the promise of
pardon upon repentance is published and sealed,
and whoever will, may come and take the benefit of
it. The terrors of the law arc of use to startle us,
and put us into a horror for sin, as those that are
afraid of God ; but the grace of the gospel contri-
butes more to an ingenuous repentance, and makes
us more ashamed of ourselves. This rends the heart,
to consider God so gracious and merciful, so slow
to anger, and ready to forgive, Joel ii. 13. Let this
loving-kindness melt thee, O ray soul, and make
thee to relent more tenderly than ever. Wretch
394
THE COMMUNICANrs COMPANION,
ihat I have been, to spit in the face, and spurn at
the bowels, of such mercy and love by ray wilful sin !
to despise the riches of g^ospel grace ! / am ashamed,
yea, even confounded^ because I do bear the reproach
of my youth. Does God meet me thus with tenders
of reconciliation ? Does the party offended make the
first motion of agreement? Shall such an undutiful,
disobedient, prodigal son as I have been, be em-
braced, kissed, and clothed with the best robe?
This kindness overcomes me ; now it cuts me to the
heart, and humbles me to the dust, to think of my
former rebellions ; they never appeared so heinous,
80 vile as they do now I see them pardoned. The
more certain I am that I shall not be ruiticd by them,
the more reason I see to be humbled for them. When
God promised to establish his covenant with repent-
ing Israel, he adds. That thou mayst remember and
be cdnfoundedf and never open thy mouth any more,
because of the shame, when I am pacijied towards thee,
Ezck. xvi. 62, 63. To see God provoked, causes a
holy trembling ; but to see him pacified, causes a
holy blushing. The day of atonement, when the sins
of Israel were to be sent into a land of forgetfulncss,
must be a day to afflict the soul, Lev. xvi. 29. The
blood of Christ will be the more healing and com-
forting to the soul, for its bleeding afresh thus upon
every remembrance of sin.
II. Here we must be confiding in Christ Jesus,
and relying on him alone for life and salvation.
When wc mourn for sin, blessed be God, we do not
sorrow as those who have no hope : true penitents
are perplexed, but not in despair; cast down, but
not destroyed : faith in Christ turns even their sor-
rows into joys, gives them their vineyards from
thence, and even the valley of Achor (of trouble for
sin) for a door of hope, Hos. ii. 15. We have not
only an all-sufficient happiness to hope for, but an
all-sufficient Saviour to hope in : here, therefore,
let us exercise and encourage that hope, let us trust
in the name of the Lord Jesus, and stay ourselves
upon him ; come up out of this wilderness, leaning
upon our beloved, Cant. viii. 5. Come, my soul,
weary as thou art, and rest in Christ ; cast thy bur-
then upon him, and he shall sustain thee ; commit
thy way to him, and thy thoughts shall certainly be
established ; commit thyself to him, and it shall
be well with thee, he will keep through his own
name that which thou committest to him. Commit
thyself to him, as the scholar commits himself to his
teacher to be instructed, with a resolution to take his
word for the truth of what he teaches ; (oportet dis-
centem credere — it is commendable in a learner to
ffive credit ;) as the patient commits himself to his
physician to be cured, with a resolution to take
whatever he prescribes, and punctually to observe
his orders; as the client commits himself to his
counsel to draw his plea, and to bring him off when
he is judged, with a resolution to do all such things
as he shall advise ; as the traveller commit<i himself
to his guide, to be directed in his way, with a reso-
lution to follow his conduct : as the orphan com-
mits himself to his guardian, to be governed and
disposed of at his discretion, with a resolution to
comply with him : thus must we conunit ouneWes
to Christ.
1. We must confide in his power, trusting io him
as one who can help and save us. (1.) He has an
incontestable authority, is a Saviour by office, sanc-
tified and sealed, and sent into the world for this
purpose : help is laid upon him. We may well offer
to trust him with our part of this great concern, which
is the securing of our happiness, for God trusted
him with his part of it, the securing of his honour,
and declared himself well pleased in him. Matt. iii.
17. (2.) He has likewise an unquestionable ability
to save to the uttermost. He is mighty to save, and
every way qualified for the undertaking ; he is skil-
ful, for treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid
in him ; he is solvent, for there is in him an inex-
haustible fulness of merit and grace, sufficient to
bear all our burthens, and supply all our need. We
must commit ourselves, and the greatest affairs of our
salvation, unto him, with a full assurance that he »
able to keep what wc commit to him against that
day, that great day, which will try the foundation
of every man's work, 2 Tim. i. 12.
2. We must confide in his promise, trusting in
him as one who will certainly help and save us on
the terms proposed ; we may take his word for it,
and this is the word which he has spoken. Him that
Cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out, (John vi.
37.) H ftri, a double negative, / will not, no, / will
not. He is engaged for us in the covenant of redemp- .
tion, and engaged to us in the covenant of grace, and ]
in both he is the Amen, the Faithful Witness. On this,
therefore, we must rely, the word on which he has
caused us to hope ; God hath spoken in his holiness,
that he will accept us in the Beloved, and in that /
will rejoice, I will divide Sichem, Gilead is tmine, and
Manasseh is mine, (Ps. Ix. 6, 7.) pardon is mine, and
peace mine, and Christ mine, and heaven mine, for
faithful is he that hath promised, who also will do it.
Come then, my soul, come thou and all thy con-
cerns, into this ark, and there thou shalt be safe when
the deluge comes. Flee to this city of refuge, and in
it thou shalt be secured from the avenger of blood.
Quit all other shelters, for every thing but Christ is
a refuge of lies, which the hail will sweep away.
There is not salvation in any other but in him ; trust
him for it therefore, and depend upon him only.
Reach hither thy finger, and in this ordinance behold
his hands ; reach hither thy hand, thrust it into hi.**
side, and say, as Thomas did, My Lordy mnd »y
God. Here I cast anchor, here I rest my soul, it is
Christ that died, yea, rather, is risen mgmin, and is,
and will be, the author of eternal salvation to sM them
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
386
ihat obey him. To him I entirely give up myself, to
be ruled and taught and saved by him, and in him I
have a full satisfaction. I will draw near to God
for mercy and grace, in a dependence upon him as
my righteousness ; I will go forth, and go on in the
way of my duty, in a dependence upon him as my
strength ; I will shortly venture in the invisible,
unchangeable world, in a dependence upon him as
the Captain of my salvation, who is able to bring
many sons to glory, and as willing as he is able.
Lard^ I believe^ help than my unbelief.
Having thus committed thyself (my soul) to the
Lord Jesus, comfort tliyself in him, please thyself
with the thoughts of having disposed of thyself so
well, and of having lodged the great concern of thy
salvation in so good a hand ; now return to thy resty
O my soul, and be easy. Every good Christian may
by faith triumph as the prophet does, pointing at
Christ, (Isa. 1. 7, 8.) The Lord God will help me,
there/ore shall I not be confounded ; therefore have I
set my face like a flint , in a holy defiance of Satan,
and all the powers of darkness, and I know that I
shall not he ashamed. He is near that justifieth me,
who will contend with me ? Take the Bible, turn to
the 8th of the Romans, and read from v. 31. to the
end of the chapter : if ever blessed Paul rode in a
triumphal chariot on this side heaven, it was when
he wrote these lines. What shall we say then to these
things? Sfc. Apply those comforts to thyself, O
my soul. Thou hast said of the Lord, he is my Lord ;
rejoice in him then, and be exceeding glad. Thy
Redeemer is mighty, and he rides upon the heavens
for thy help, and in his excellency on the sky, Deut.
xxxiii. 26. Do thou then ride upon the high places
of the earth, and suck honey out of this rock, and oil
out of this flinty rock, Deut. xxxii. 13. Isa. Iviii. 14.
Having made sure of thy interest in Christ, live in
a continual dependence upon him ; and being satis-
fied of his love, be satisfied with it: thou hast
enough, and needest no more.
III. Here we must be delighting in God, and so-
lacing ourselves in his favour. If we had not a
Christ to hope in, being guilty and corrupt, we could
not have a God to rejoice in ; but having an advo-
cate with the Father, so good a plea as Christ dying,
and so good a pleader as Christ interceding, we may
not only come boldly to the throne of grace, but
may sit down under the shadow of it with delight,
and behold the beauty of the Lord. That God who
is love, and the God of love, here shows us his mar-
vellous loving-kindness; causes his goodness to
pass before us ; proclaims his name gracious and
merciful ; here he gives us his love, and thereby
invites us to give him ours. It is a love- feast, the
love of Christ is here commemorated, the love of
God is here offered ; and the frame of our spirits is
disagreeable, and a jar in the harmony, if our hearts
be not here going oat in love to God, the chief good,
and our felicity. They who come hither with holy
desires, must refresh themselves here with holy
delights. If we must rejoice in the Lord always,
much more now, for a feast was made for laughter,
and so was this for spiritual joy. If ever Wisdom's
ways be ways of pleasantness, surely they must be
so when we come to eat of her bread, and to drink
of the wine which she hath mingled.
Put thyself then (my soul) into a pleasant frame ;
let the joy of the Lord be thy strength, and let this
ordinance put a new song into thy mouth. Come
and hear the voice of joy and gladness.
1. Let it be a pleasure to thee to think that there
is a God, and thkt he is such a one as he has re-
vealed himself to be. The being and attributes of
God are a terror to those who are unjustified and
unsanctified ; nothing can be more so : they arc
willing to believe there is no God, or that he is alto-
gether such a one as themselves, because they hear-
tily wish there were none, or one that they could be
at peace with, and yet continue their league vrith
sin : ^t to those who through grace partake of a
divine nature themselves, nothing is more agreeable,
nothing more acceptable, than the thoughts of God's
nature and infinite perfections. Delight thyself
therefore in thinking that there is an infinite and
eternal Spirit, who is self-existent and self-suflScient,
the best of beings, and the first of causes, the highest
of powers, and the richest and kindest of friends
and benefactors ; the fountain of being, and foun>
tain of bliss ; the Father of lights, and Father of
mercies. Love to think of him whom thou canst not
see, and yet canst not but know ; who is not far
from thee, and yet between thee and him there is
an infinite, awful distance. Let these thoughts be
thy nourishment and refreshment.
2. Let it be a pleasure to thee to think of the
obligation thou liest under to this God as thy Crea-
tor. He that is the Former of my body, and the
Father of my spirit, in whom I live, and move, and
have my being, is upon that account my rightful
owner, whose I am ; and my sovereign ruler, who I
am bound to serve. Because he made me, and not
I myself, therefore I am not my own, but his, Ps.
c. 3. Please thyself (my soul) with this thought,
that thou art not thy own, but his that made thee ;
not left to thy own will, but bound up to his ; not
made for thyself, but designed to be to him for a
name and a praise. Noble powers are then intended
for a noble purpose. Delight thyself in him
as the felicity and end of thy being, who is the
fountain and cause of it. Were I to choose, I would
not be my own master, my own carver, my own
centre : no, I would not, it is better as it is. I love
to think of the eternal God, as the just director of
all my actions, to whom I am accountable, and the
wise disposer of all my affairs, to whom I must sub-
mit. I love to think of him as my chief good, who
996
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
having made me, is alone able to make me happy ;
and as my highest end, of whom, and through whom,
and to whom, are all things, Horn. xi. 36.
3. Let it be a pleasure to thee to think of the
covenant relations in which this God stands to thee
in Jesus Christ. This is, especially, to be our
delight in this sealing ordinance. Though the sacra-
ment directs us immediately to Christ, yet through
him it leads us to the Father. He died, the just for
the unjust, that he might bring us to God, To God
therefore we must go, as our end and rest, by Christ
as oar way ; to God as a Father, by Christ as Medi-
ator. Come then, my soul, and see with joy and
the highest satisfaction, the God who made thee,
entering into covenant with thee, and engaging to
make thee happy. Hear him saying to thee, my
soul, / am thy salvation ; thy shield, and not only
thy bountiful re warder, but thy exceeding great re-
ward; I am, and will be, to thee a God all-sufficient,
a God that is enough. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee, wherever thou art; he not dismayed, for I am
thy God; whatever thou wantest, whatever thou
losest, call me God, even thy own God: when
thou art weak, / will strengthen thee, yea, when thou
art helpless, / will help thee, yea, when thou art
ready to sink, / will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness, Isa. xli. 10. The God that
cannot lie has said it, and here seals it to thee, /
will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Let this be to
thee, my soul, the voice of joy and gladness, making
even broken bones to rejoice. Encourage thyself
in the Lord thy God. He is thy Shepherd, thou
Shalt not want any thing that is good for thee, Ps.
xxiii. 1, &c. Thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord
of hosts is his name, (Isa. liv. 5.) and as the bride-
groom rejoices over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice
over thee, Isa. Ixii. 5. He shall rest in his love to
thee, Zeph. iii. 17. Rest then in thy love to him,
and rejoice in him always. The Lord is thy law-
giver, thy King who will save thee, Isa. xxxiii. 22.
Swear allegiance to him then with gladness and
loud hosannas ; Let Israel rejoice in him that made
him^ that new-made him ; Let the children of Zion
be joyful in their King, Ps. cxlix. 2. What wouldst
thou more ? This God is thy God for ever and ever.
Stir up thyself (my soul) to take the comfort which
is here offered thee: let this strengthen the weak
hands, let it confirm the feeble knees. If God be
indeed the health of thy countenance, and thy God,
Why art thou cast down ? why art thou disquieted ?
Die not for thirst when there is such a fountain of
living waters near thee, but draw water with joy out
of these wells of salvation. Shiver not for cold
when there is such a reviving quickciiing heat in
these promises, but say with pleasure. Aha, 1 am
warm, 1 have seen the fire, Isa. xliv. 16. Faint not
for hunger now thou art at a feast of fat things, but
be abundantly satisfied with the goodness of God's
house, Ps. xxvi. 8 ; Ixv. 4. The God whose wrath
and frowns thou hast incurred, here favoun thee,
and smiles on thee ; let this therefore give thee a
joy greater than the joy of harvest, and far surpass-
ing what they have who divide the spoiL Tboogk
thou canst not reach to holy raptures, yet compose
thyself to a holy rest ; delight thyself always in the
Lord, especially at this ordinance; and bj thus
taking the comfort of what thou hast received, thoa
qualifiest thyself to receive more, for then he shuU
give thee tlie desire of thy heart, Ps. xxxvii. 4. The
way to have thy heart's desire, is to make God thy
heart's desire. Triumph in his love, and thy interest
in him. His benignity is better than life ; let it be to
thee sweeter than life itself. Behold, God is my Sa-
viour. God is my salvation, I will trust and not be
afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength, and there-
fore my song ; the strength of my heart, and my por-
tionfor ever, Isa. xii. 2. Ps. Ixxiii. 26. When thoa
comestto the altar of God, call him, God thy exceed-
ing joy, (Ps. xliii. 5.) thy God thy glory, Isa. Ix. 19.
IV. Here we must be admiring the mysteries and
miracles of redeeming love. They that worshipped
the beast, are said to wonder after him, (Rev. xiii.
3.) so must they that worship the Lamb, for he has
done marvellous things. We have reason to say,
that we were fearfully and wonderfully made, but,
without doubt, we were more fearfully and wonder-
fully redeemed. We were made ^ith a word, but
we were bought with a price. Stand still then and
see the salvation of the Lord, see it with admiration.
Affect thyself (my soul) with a pleasing wonder,
while thou art seeing this great sight. The ever-
lasting gospel is here magnified and made honour-
able, let it be so in thy eyes ; call it The glorious
gospel of the blessed God, Let us take a view of
some of the marvellous things which are done in the
work of our redemption.
1. The contrivance of the salvation is marvellous.
It would have for ever puzzled the wisdom of angels
and men to have found out such a method of salva-
tion as might effectually satisfy God*s justice, and
yet sedure man's happiness; save the life of the
law-breaker, and yet maintain the honour of the
law-maker. This is that mystery which the angels
desire to look into, aUd which the most piercing eye
of those inquisitive spirits that see by the light of
the upper world, will not be able to eternity to dis-
cern the bottom of. O the depth of this hidden
wisdom !
2. The purposes of God's love concerning it from
eternity are marvellous. Be astonished, O m>
soul, at this, that the God who was infinitely happy
in the contemplation and enjoyment of himself and
his own perfections, should yet think thoughts of
love toward a remnant of mankind, and toward
thee among the rest, and design such favours for
them, such favours for thee, before the worlds were.
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
397
Bow precious should these thoughts be unto us !
for bow great is the sum of them ! Ps. cxxxix. 17.
3. The choice of the person who should undertake
it is marvellous ; the Son of his love, that in parting
witb him for us, he might commend his love ; the
eternal Wisdom, the eternal Word, that he might
elTectually accomplish this great design, and might
not fail, nor be discouraged. A person every way
fitf both to do the Redeemer's work, and to wear the
Redeemer's crown. It is spoken of as an admirable
invention, (Job xxxiii.2^,) I have found a ransom: and
(Ps. Ixxxix. 19, 20.) / have found David my servant.
On earth there is not his like, nor in heaven either.
4. The Redeemer's consent to the undertaking is
marvellous. Considering his own dignity and self-
sufficiency, our unworthincss and obnoxiousness,
the difficulty of the service, and the ill requitals he
foresaw from an ungrateful world, we have reason to
admire that he should be so free, so forward to it,
and should say, Lo I come: here am /, send me.
Never was there such a miracle of love and pity ;
Tfcrily it passeth knowledge.
5. The carrying on of his undertaking in his hu-
miliation is marvellous. His name was Wonderful,
Isa. ix. 6. His appearance in the world from first
to last was a continual series of wonders; without
controversy, great was this mystery of godliness.
The bringing of the First-begotten into the world,
was attended with the adorations of wondering
angels, Heb. i. 6. His doctrine and miracles, while
he was in the world, were admirable ; they that
heard the one, and saw the other, were beyond mea-
sure astonished.
But his going out of the world was the greatest
wonder of all ; it made the earth to shake, the rocks
to rend, and the sun to cover his face. Never was
there such a martyr, never such a sacrifice, never
such a paradox of love as that was. God forbid that
we should glory, save in the cross of Christ ; which is
so much the wisdom of God and the power of God.
6. The honours of his exalted state are marvellous.
He who was for a little while lower than the angels,
a worm and no man, is now the Lord of angels.
One in our nature is advanced to the highest hon-
ours, invested with the highest powers ; having an
incontestable authority to execute judgment, even
for this reason, because he is the Son of man ; not
only though he is so, but because he is so. This is
the Lord's doing, and it is, and should be, marvellous
in our eyes,
7. The covenant of grace made with us in him is
marvellous. The terms of the covenant are wonder-
ful, reasonable and easy ; the treasures of the cove-
nant are wonderful, rich and valuable. The cove-
nant itself is well ordered in all things, and sure ;
admirably well, both for the glory of God, and the
comfort of all believers. God in it sheweth %ls his
marvellous Umng-hindness, (Ps. xvii. 7.) and we an-
swer not the design of the discovery, if we do not
admire it Other things, the more they are known,
the less they are wondered at ; but the riches of re-
deeming love appear more admirable to those who
are best acquainted with them.
y. Here we must be caring what we shall render
to him who hath thus loved us. This wonderful love
is love to us, and not only gives the greatest encou-
ragements to us to come to God for mercy and peace,
but lays the strongest engagements upon us to walk
with God in duty and obedience. We are bound in
conscience, bound in honour, bound in gratitude,
to love him, and live to him, who loved us, and died
for us. This concern should much affect us, and lie
very near our hearts, how we may answer the inten-
tions of this love.
1. We should be afiected with a jealous fear, lest
we prove ungrateful, and, like Hezekiah, render not
again according to the benefit done unto us, 2 Chron.
xxxii. 25. We cannot but know something by sad
experience of the treachery and deceitfulness of our
own hearts, and how apt they are to start aside like
a broken bow ; and therefore we have no reason to
presume upon our own strength and sufficiency.
We are told of many who eat and drink in Christ's
presence, and yet are found at last unfaithful to him :
and what if I should prove one of those? This
thought is not suggested here to amuse any that trem-
ble at God's word, or to weaken the hands, and sad-
den the hearts, of those who are truly willing,
though very weak ; but to awaken those who slum-
ber, and humble those who are wise in their own
conceit. Distrust thyself, O my soul, that thou
mayst trust in Christ only : fear thine own strength,
that thou mayst hope in his. He who has done these
great things for thee, must be applied to, and de-
pended on, to work those great things in thee, which
are required of thee. Go forth, therefore, and go on
in his strength. If the same that grants us these
favours, give us not wherewithal to make suitable
returns for them, we shall perish for ever in our in-
gratitude.
2. We should be filled with serious desires to
know and do our duty, in return for that great love
wherewith we are loved. The affections of a grate-
ful mind are very proper to be working in us at this
ordinance. Does not even nature teach us to be.
grateful to our friends and benefactors ? Let us be
so to Christ then, the best of friends and kindest of
benefactors. Come, my soul, here I see how much
I am indebted, and how I owe my life, and joy, and
hope, and all to the blessed Jesus ; and is it not
time to ask, with holy David, (Ps. cxvi. 12.) What
shall 1 render unto the Lord for all his benefits to-
ward me I Shall I not take the cup of salvation, as
he does there, (v. 13.) with this thought. What shall
I render? Let David's answer to that question,
which we find in that Psalm, be mine.
398
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
(1.) / love the Lord, v. I. Love is the loadstone
of love ; even the publicans love those that love
them ; " Lord, thou hast loved me with an everlasting
love, from everlasting in the counsels of it, to ever-
lasting in the consequences of it, and shall not my
heart veith this loving-kindness be drawn to thee?
Jer. xxxi. 3. Lord, I love thee ; the world and the
flesh shall never have my love more ; I have loved
them too much, I have loved them too long; the
best affections of my soul shall now be consecrat-
ed to thee, O God, thee, O blessed Jcsus! Whom
have I in heaven but thee ? Lord, thou hnowest all
things, thou hnowest that I love thee. It is my sorrow
and shame that I am so weak and defective in my
love to thee. What a wretched heart have I, that I
can think, and speak, and hear, and see, so much of
thy love to me, and be so little affected with it ! So
low in my thoughts of thee, so cool in my desires
toward thee, so unsteady in my resolutions for thee !
Lord, pity me ; Lord, help me ; for yet I love thee, I
love to love thee ; I earnestly desire to love thee
better, and long to be there where love shall be made
perfect."
(2.) / will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiv-
ing, V. 17. As love is the heart of praise, so praise
is the language of love. What shall I render ? I
must render to all their dues ; tribute to whom
tribute is due : the tribute of praise to God, to whom
it is due. We do not accommodate ourselves to this
thanksgiving feast, if we do not attend it with hearts
enlarged in thanksgiving ; this cup of salvation
must be a cup of blessing ; in it we must bless God,
because in it God blesses us. Thankful acknow-
ledgments of God's favours to us, are but poor
returns for rich receivings, yet they are such as God
will accept, if they come from an upright heart.
Bless the Lord, therefore, O my soul, and let all that
is within me bless his holy name. Speak well of him
who has done well for thee. Thank him for all his
gifts both of nature and grace, especially for Jesus
Christ, the spring of all. As long as I live I will
bless the Lord, yea, I will praise my God while I have
my being; for he is the God of my life, and the
author of my well-being ; and when I have no life,
no being on earth, I hope to have a better life, a
better being, in a better world, and to be doing this
work for ever in a better manner.
(3.) O Loi'd, truly lam thy servant, I am thy ser-
vant, V, 16. I acknowledge myself already bound to
be so, and further oblige myself by solemn promise
to approve myself so. What shall I render ? Lord,
I render myself to thee, my whole self, body, soul,
and spirit ; not in compliment, bat in truth and
sincerity. I own myself thy servant, to obey thy
commands, to be at thy disposal, and to be service-
able to thy honour and interest. It will be my credit
and ease, my safety and happiness, to be under thy
government : make me as one of thy hired servants.
(4.) / will call upon the name of the Lord, r. 13.
This is the immediate answer to that question. What
shall I render ? And it is a surprising answer. It is
uncommon among men, to make petitions for fur-
ther favours our return for former favours ; yet such
a return as this, the God who delights to hear prayers
will be well pleased with. Is God my Father? I
will apply myself to him as his child, and call him,
Abba, Fattier, Have I an Advocate with the Fa-
ther? Then I will come boldly to the throne of
grace. Are there such exceeding great and precious
promises made me, and sealed to me ? Then I will
never lose the benefit of them for want of patting
them in suit. As I will love God the better, so I
will love prayer the better as long as I live ; and
having given myself unto God, I will give myself
unto prayer, (as David did, Ps. cix. 4.) till I conie
to the world of everlasting praise.
(5.) Return unto thy rest, O my soul, r. 7. The
God who has pleasure in the prosperity of bis ser-
vants, would have them easy to themselves, and that
they can never be, but by reposing in him ; this
therefore we must render : it is work that is its own
wages ; honour God by resting in him, please him
by being well pleased in him. Having received so
much from him, let us own that we have enough in
him, and that we can go no whither bat to him with
any hopes of satisfaction. Lord, whither shall we
go ? He has the words of eternal life.
(6. ) / will walk before the Lord in the haid of the
living, v, 9. A holy life, though it cannot profit God,
yet it glorifies him, and therefore it is insisted upon
as a necessary return for the favours we have re-
ceived from God. While I am here in this land of
the living, I will walk by faith, having my eyes
ever toward the Lord, to see him as he reveals him-
self, hoping that shortly, in that land which is truly
the land of the living above, I shall walk by sight,
having my eye ever upon the Lord, to see him as he
is. God has here scaled to me, to be to me a God
all-sufllicient ; here therefore I seal to him, accord-
ing to the tenor of the covenant, that, his grace en-
abling me, I will walk before him, and will be
upright. Gen. xvii. I.
(7.) / will pay my vows unto the Lord, v. 14, 18.
Those who receive the blessings of the covenant,
must be willing not only to come, but always to
abide, under the bonds of the covenant. Here we
must make vows, and then go away and make them
good. More of this in the next chapter.
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
399
CHAPTER XI.
CONCERNING THF. SOLEMN VOWS WB ARE TO MAKB
TO GOD IN THIS ORDINANCK.
)us vow is a bond upon the soul ; so it is
Numb. XXX. 2. where be that voweth a vow
<ord, is said thereby to bind his soul with a
Is a solemn promise, by which we volun-
^G ourselves to God and duty, as a willing
the day of his power, Ps. ex. 3. The cords
and bands of love, wherewith God draws
>lds us to himself, calls upon us by our
nd deed to bind ourselves, and these vows
jrds of a man, for they are highly reason-
bands of love, for to the renewed soul they
ly yoke, and a light burthen.
1 the other parts of our work at the Lord's
may infer, that this is one part of it ; we
; make solemn vows to God, that we will
and faithfully serve him.
re here to renew our repentance for sin, and
penitents to make vows. When we profess
sorry for what we have done amiss, it is
-al and necessary to add, that we will not
' more, as we have done : If I have done
r will do no more, Job xxxiv. 31, 32, We
1 when we say, " We repent that we have
shly," if we do not at the same time re-
we will never return again to folly, Ps.
Times of affliction are proper times to
s, and what is repentance but a self-afflic-
uble for sin was not the least of that trouble
vid was in when his lips uttered those vows,
speaks so feelingly of, Ps. Ixvi. 13, 14.
it was under this penitential affliction that
[into the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty
cob, that he would find a place for the ark,
i, 1, 2. Vows against sin resulting from
* sin, shall not be rejected, as extorted by
but graciously accepted, as the genuine
of a broken heart, and fruits meet for re-
are here to ask and receive mercy from
it becomes petitioners to make vows. When
nd himself in special need of God's gra-
sence, he vowed a vow, and set up a stone
lorial of it, (Gen. xxviii. 20.) and Hannah,
prayed for a particular mercy, vowed a
the comfort she prayed for should be con-
:o God. Great and precious things we are
ting to receive from God, and therefore
e cannot offer any thing as a valuable con-
I for his favours, yet it behoves us to pro-
h suitable returns as we are capable of
When God encourages us to seek to him
, we must engage ourselves not to receive
bis grace in vain^ but to improve and employ for him
what we have from him.
3. We are here to give God thanks for his favours
to us. Now it becomes us in our thanksgivings to
make vows, and to offer to God not only the calves
of our lips, but the works of our hands. Jonah's
mariners, when they offered sacrifice of praise to the
Lord, for a calm after a storm, as an appendix to
that sacrifice made vows, Jonah i. 16. The most
acceptable vows are those which take rise from gra-
titude, and which are drawn from us by the mercies
of God. Here I see what great things God has done
for my soul, and what greater things he designs for
me ; shall I not therefore freely bind myself to that
which he has by such endearing ties bound me to ?
4. We are here to join ourselves to the Lord in an
everlasting covenant ; and it is requisite that our
general covenant be explained and confirmed by
particular vows. When we present ourselves to God
as a living sacrifice, with these cords we must bind
that sacrifice to the horns of the altar ; and while
we experience in ourselves such a bent to backslide,
we shall find all the arts of obligation little enough
to be used with our own souls. As it is not enough
to confess sin in the gross, saying, I have sinned;
but we must enter into the detail of our transgres-
sions, saying with David, I have done this evil ; so it
is not enough in our covenanting with God, that we
engage ourselves in the general to be bis, but we
must descend to particulars in our covenants, as God
does in his commands, that thereby we may the more
effectually both bind ourselves to duty, and remind
ourselves of duty. If the people must distinctly say
Amen to every curse pronounced on mount Ebal,
(Deut. xxvii. 15.) much more to every precept de-
livered on mount Horeb.
Come then, my soul; thou hast now thy hand upon
the book to be sworn ; thou art lifting up thy hand
to the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and
earth ; think what thou art doing, and adjust the
particulars, that this may not become a rash oath,
inconsiderately taken. God is here confirming his
promise to us by an oath, to show the immutability
of his counsels of love to us, Heb. vi. 17, 18. Here,
therefore, we must confirm our promise to him by
an oath, to walk in God's law, and to observe and du
all the commandments of the Lord our God, Neh.
x. 29. Some of the oriental writers tell us, that the
most solemn oath which the patriarchs before the
flood used, was, '* By the blood of Abel ; " and we
are sure that the blood of Jesus is infinitely more
sacred, and speaks much greater, and much better,
things than that of Abel. Let us therefore testify
our value for that blood, and secure to ourselves the
blessings purchased by it, by our sincere and faith-
ful dealing with God in that covenant which this is
the blood of.
The command of the Eternal God is, that we cease
400
THE COMMUNICANTS COMPANION.
fo do evilj and ham to do well ; that we put off the
old inarij and put on the new : and our vows to God
mast accordingly be against all sin, and to all duty.
And under each of these heads we must be particu-
lar, according as the case is.
L We must here, by a solemn vow, bind ourselves
out from all sin ; so as not only to break our league
with it, but to enter into league against it. The
putting away of the strange wives in Ezra's time,
was not the work of one day or two, (Ezra x. 13.)
but a work of time ; and therefore Ezra when he
had the people under convictions, and saw them
weeping sore for their sin in marrying them, very
prudently bound them by a solemn covenant, that
they would put them away, v, 3, If ever we con-
ceive an aversion to sin, surely it is at the table of
the Lord; and, therefore, we should improve that
opportunity to invigorate our resolutions against it,
that the remembrance of those resolutions may
quicken our resistance of it, when the sensible im-
pressions we are under from it are become less
lively. Thus, we must, by a solemn vow, cast away
from us all our transgressions, saying with Ephraim,
What have I to do any more with idoU ' Hos. xiv. 8.
1. We must solemnly vow, that we will not in-
tlulge or allow ourselves in any sin: though sin
may remain, it shall not reign ; though those Ca-
naanites be in the land, yet we will not be tributaries
to them. However it may usurp and oppress as a
tyrant, it shall never be owned as a rightful prince,
nor have a peaceable and undisturbed dominion.
I may be, in some particular instances, through the
surprise of temptations, led into captivity by it;
but I am fully resolved, in the strength of Christ,
that I will never join in affinity with it, will never
espouse its cause, never plead for it, nor strike in
with its interests.
Bind thyself with this bond, O my soul, that
though, through the remainders of corruption, thou
canst not say. Thou hast no sin, yet, through the
beginnings of grace, thou wilt be able to say. Thou
lovestnone. That thou wilt give no countenance or
connivance to any sin ; no, not to secret sins, which,
though they shame thee not before men, yet shame
thee before God and thy own conscience; no,
not to heart-sins, those first-bom of corrupt nature,
the beginning of its strength. Vain thoughts may
intrude, and force a lodging in me; but I will
never invite them, never bid them welcome, nor
court their stay. Corrupt affections may disturb
me ; but they shall never have the quiet and peace-
able possession of me. No; whatever wars against
my soul, by the grace of God, I will war against it,
hoping in due time to get the dominion, and have
its yoke broken from off my neck, when judgment
shall be brought forth unto victory, and grace per-
fected in glory.
2. We must solemnly vow, that we will never yield
to any gross sin, such as lying, injosticey anoletB'
ness, drunkenness, profanation of God's name* ind
such like, which are not the spots of God's childreD.
Though all the high places be not taken away, yet
there shall be no remains of Baal, or of Baal's
priests and altars, in my soul. However my own
heart may be spotted by sins of infirmity, and may
need to be daily washed, yet, by the g^ce of God,
I will never spot my profession, nor stain the credit
of that by open and scandalous sin. I have no
reason to be ashamed of the gospel, and therefore it
shall be my constant endeavour, not to be in any
thing a shame to the gospel. It is an honour to me;
I will never be a dishonour to it : I will never do
any thing, by the grace of God I will not, whi<A
may give just occasion to the enemies of the Lord
to blaspheme that worthy name by which I am
called. So shall it appear that I am upright, if I
be innocent from these great transg^ressions, andtmly
penitent for all my transgressions, Ps. xix. 13.
3. We must solemnly vow, that with a particalar
care we will keep ourselves from our own iniquity.
That sin which, in our penitent reflections, oar own
consciences did most charge us with, and reproach
us for; that sin we must, in a special manner, renew
our resolutions against. Was it pride ? Was it pas-
sion ? Was it distrust of God, or love of the world ?
Was it an unclean fancy, or an idle tongue ? What-
ever it was, let the spiritual forces be mustered, and
drawn out against it. The instructions which
Samuel gave to Israel, when they were lamenting
after the Lord, are observable to this purpose ; (1
Sam. vii. 3.) If ye do return to the Lard with dl
your hearts, and would be accepted of him therein,
then put away the strange gods, and Ashtaroth, Was
not Ashtaroth one of the strange gods or goddesses?
Yes ; but that is particularly mentioned, becanse,
it had been a beloved idol, dearer than the rest;
that especially must be put away. Thus in our
covenanting with God, we must engage against
all sin, but in particular against that which, by
reason of the temper of our minds, the constitution
of our bodies, or the circumstances of our outward
affairs, does most easily beset us, and we are most
prone to.
Know thou thy own self, O my soul? If thon
dost, thou knowest thy own sickness, and thy
own sore ; that is, thy own iniquity. Bring that
hither, and slay it : let not thy eye spare, neither
do thou pity it : hide it not, excuse it not ; ask not
for leave to reserve it, as Naaman did for his house
of Rimmon : though it have been to thee as a right
eye, as a right hand, as thy guide, and thy ac-
quaintance : it has been a false guide, an ill ac-
quaintance ; pluck it out, cut it off, and cast it from
thee. Now come, and fortify thy resolutions in the
strength of Christ against that ; double thy guard
against that; fetch in help from heaven against
THE COBfMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
401
Ikat ; be vi^rous in thy resistance of that ; and how
iwuiy soever its advantages are against thee, yet
despair not of victory at last
4. We mast solemnly tow, that we will abstain
from all appearance of evil ; not only from that
which is manifestly sin, and which carries the evi-
dences of its own malignity written in its forehead,
but from that which looks like sin, and borders upon
iL Wisdom is here profitable to direct, so as that
we may not, on the one hand, indulge a Scrupulous
conscience, and yet, on the other hand, may pre-
■erve a tender conscience. Far be it from us to make
that to be sin, which God has not made so ; and yet,
in doubtful cases, it must be our care and covenant
to keep the safer side, and to be cautious of that
which looks suspicious: He that walks uprightly,
walks surely. That which we have found to be either
a snare to ns, and an occasion of sin, or a blemish
to ns, and an occasion of scandal, or a terror to us in
the reflection, and an occasion of g^ef and fear, it
may do well expressly to resolve against, though we
be not very sure that it is in itself sinful, nor dare
eensure it as evil in others ; provided this vow be
made with snch limitations, that it may not after-
wards prove an entanglement to ns, when either by
the improvement of our knowledge, or the change of
war circumstances, it ceases to have in it an appear-
wnce of evil.
And art then willing, my sonf, to come under this
bond? Wilt thou put far from thee the accursed
tbing ? Wilt thou, in this ordinance, make a cove-
nant with thy eyes, and oblige them not to look
on the wine when it is red, not to look on a woman
to lust after her ? Wilt thou shun sin as the plague,
•nd engage thyself, not only never to embrace that
adulteress, but never to come nigh the door of her
bouse ? Prov. v. 8. Thy vow being like that of the
Nazarite, not to drink of this intoxicating wine ; let
it be then like his, not to eat any thing that comes
of the vine, /ram the kernel to the husk, Numb. vi. 3,
4. Abandon sin, and all its appurtenances ; cast
oat Tobiah, and all his stuff: resolve to deny thyself
in that which is most desirable, rather than give
Satan any advantage ; to abridge thyself even in that
which is lawful, rather than come within the con-
£nes of sin, or bring thyself into danger of that
which is unlawful. Happy is the man that feareth
always.
5. We must solemnly vow, that we will have no
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
neither be partakers of other men's sins, Eph. v.
11.1 Tim. V. 22. We live in a corrupt and degene-
rate age, wherein iniquity greatly abounds : our
business, indeed, is not to judge others; to their
own master they stand or fall ; but our care must be
to preserve ourselves, and the purity and peace of
our own minds. Our covenant therefore must be,
that we will never walk in the counsel of the ungodly ^
2d
nor stand in the way of sinners, Ps. i. 1. When David
engaged himself to keep the commandments of his
God, pursuant to that engagement, he said to evil-
doers, depart from me, (Ps» cxix. 1 15.) and St. Peter
reminded his new converts of the necessity of this
care, (Acts ii. 40.) Save yourselves from this untoward
generation*
Let the psalmist's vow be mine, then, (Ps. xxvi.
5.) having hated the congpregation of evil-doers, (such
as drunkards, swearers, filthy-talkers, and scoffers
at godliness,) / will not sit with the wicked. Though
I cannot avoid being sometimes in the sight and
hearing of such, yet I will never take those for my
chosen companions and bosom friends in this world»
with whom I should dread to have my portion in
the other world. Religion in rags shall be always
valued by me, and profaneness in robes despised.
Having chosen God for my God, his people shall
always be my people ; Lord, gather not my soul with
sinners. If thou art in good earnest for heaven, re-
solve to swim against the stream, and thou wilt find,
that sober singularity is an excellent guard to seri-
ous piety. On all that glory let there be this defence.
II. We must here by a solemn vow bind ourselves
up to all duty. It is not enough that we depart from
evil, but we must do good : it is not enough that we
separate ourselves from the service of sin, and shake
off Satan's iron yoke, but we must devote ourselves
to the service of Christ, and put our necks under
the sweet and easy yoke of God's commandments,
with a solemn promise faithfully to draw in that
yoke all our days. We need not bind ourselves to
more than we are already bound to by the divine
law, either expressly or by consequence, either aa
primary duties, or secondary, in order to them. We
are not called to lay upon ourselves any other bur-
then than necessary things ; and they are not heavy
burthens, nor g^evous to be borne; but we must
bind ourselves faster, and by additional ties, to that
which we are already bound to.
1. We must, by a solemn vow, oblige ourselves to
all the duties of religion in general. Jacob's vow
must be ours, (Gen. xxviii. 21.) Then the Lord shall
be my God: having avouched him for mine, I will
fear him, and love him, delight in him, and depend
upon him, worship him, and glorify him as my Lord
and my God. Having owned him as mine, I will
ever eye him as mine, and walk in his name, Micah
iv. 5. David's vow must be ours, that we will keep
God's righteous judgments, (Ps. cxix. 106.) that we
will keep in them, as our way ; keep to them, as our
rule ; that we will keep them as the apple of our eye,
keep them always unto the end.
In the strength of the grace of Jesus Christ, we
must here solemnly promise and vow,
(1.) That we will make religion oor business. It
is our great business in this world, to serve tlie hon-
ouM^ him that made us, and secure the happiness
•102
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
>ve were made for : this we must mind as our busi-
ness, and not (as most do) make a by-basincss of it.
Religion must be our calling, the calling we resolve
to live in, and hope to live by : in the services of it,
we must be constant and diligent, and as in our ele-
ment. Other things must give way to it, and be made
(as much as may be) serviceable to it. — And this
must be our covenant with God here, that however
we have trifled hitherto, henceforward we will mind
religion, as The one thing needful, and not be sloth-
ful in the business of it, but fervent in spirit, serv-
ing the Lord. And art thou willing, my soul, thus
to devote thyself entirely to the service of thy God ?
Sliall that engage thy cares, fill thy thoughts, com-
mand thy time, and give law to the whole man ? Let
this matter be settled then in this day's vows, and
resolve to live and die by it.
(2.) That we will make conscience of inside god-
liness. Having in our covenant given God our
hearts, which is what he demands, we must resolve
to employ them for him ; for, without doubt, he is a
Jew, he is a Christian, that is one inwardly ; and
that is circumcision, that is baptism, that is true and
pure religion, which is of the heart, in the spirit, and
not in the letter, Rom. ii. 29. That we are really,
what we are inwardly ; and they only are the true
worshippers, who worship God in the spirit: this is
the power of godliness, without which the fottn is
but a carcass, but a shadow. The King's daughter
is all glorious within. This therefore we must re-
solve, in the strength of the grace of God, that we
will keep our hearts with all diligence ; keep them
fixed, fixed upon God ; that the desire of our souls
shall be ever toward God ; that our hearts shall be
lifted up to God in every prayer, and their doors
and gates thrown open to admit his word ; and that
our constant care shall be about the hidden man of
the heart, in that which is not corruptible ; so ap-
proving ourselves to God in our integrity, in every
thing we do in religion.
(3.) That we will live a life in communion with
God. Without controversy, great is this mystery of
godliness. If there be a heaven upon earth, certainly
this is it, by faith to set the Lord always before us,
having an eye to him with suitable affections, as the
first cause and last end of all things that concern us.
And so, having communion with him in providences
as well as ordinances, when we receive the common
comforts of every day from his hand with love and
thankfulness, and bear the common crosses and dis-
appointments of every day, as ordered by his will,
with patience and submission ; when we commit every
day's care to him, and manage every day's business
and converse for him ; having a constant habitual
regard to God in the settled principles of the di-
vine life, and frequent actual outgoings of soul to-
ward him in pious ejaculations, the genuine expres-
sions of devout affections ; then we live a life of
communion with God. Did we know by expeiicooe
what it is to live such a life as this, we woukl not
exchange the pleasures of it for the peculiar trea-
sures of kings and provinces.
Engage thyself then, my soul, elevate tbyself to
this spiritual and divine life, that every day may
thus be with thee a communion-day, and thy coi-
stant fellowship may be with the Father, and with
his Son Jesus Christ by the Spirit. Let me resolve
henceforward to live (more than hitherto I have
done) a life of complacency in God, in his beauty,
bounty, and benignity ; a life of dependence opoo
God, upon his power, providence, and promise ; a
life of devotedness to God, to the command of bij
word, the conduct of his Spirit, and the disposal of
his Providence ; and thus to walk with God in all
holy conversation.
(4.) That we will keep heaven in our eye, and
take up with nothing short of it. We are made for
another world, and we must resolve to set our hearts
upon that world, and have it always in our eye;
seeking the things that arc above, and sllghtiiig
things below, in comparison with them; as those
who are born from heaven, and bound to heaven. I
Bind thyself, my soul, with this bond, thtit/^ryettmg
the things which are behind, as one that hath not jrei
attained, neither is already perfect, thou wilt reircA
forth to those things that are hefM'e ; pressing for^
ward toward the mark for the prize of the high emHiMg,
Phil. iii. 13, 14. ''My treasure is in heaven; my
head, and hope, and home are there ; I shall never
be well till I am there: there, therefore, shall my
heart be ; and to that recompence of reward I will
ever have respect ; with an eye to that joy and glory
set before me in the other world, I will, by the grace
of God, patiently run the race of godliness set before
me in this world," Heb. xii. 1, 2.
2. We must, by a solemn vow, bind ourselves to
some duties of religion in particular. As it is good
to engage ourselves by covenant against particular
sins, that by the help of resolution our resistance of
them may be invigorated ; so it is good to engage
ourselves to particular duties, that thereby we may
be quickened closely and diligently to apply our-
selves to them, and may sec our work before us.
(1 .) We should particularly bind ourselves to those
duties, which our own consciences have charged us
with the neglect of. We have known that good
which our own hearts tell us we have not done: we
find upon reflection, it may be, that we hare not
been constant in our secret devotion, that we have
not done that good in our families which we should
have done ; we have been barren in good diseoarsct
careless of our duty to the souls of others, back-
ward to the works of charity, unfurnished for^ and
indisposed to, religious exercises : in these or other
things wherein we are conscious to ourselves that
wc have been defective, we must. covenant for the
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403
future to be more circumspect and indastrioas,thatoar
works may be found filled up before God. When the
Jews in Nehemiah's time made asare covenant, wrote
it, and sealed to it, they inserted particular articles
velatini^ to those branches of God's service which had
been neglected, and made ordinances for themselves,
according to the ordinances that God had given them,
(Neh. X. 32.) so should we do, as an evidence of the
sincerity of our repentance for our former omissions,
both of duty, and in duty : that work of our Lord
wherein we have been most wanting, in that we must
covenant to abound most, that thereby we may re-
deem the time.
(2.) We should particularly bind ourselves to
those duties which we have found by experience to
contribute most to the support and advancement of
the life and power of godliness in our hearts. They
who have carefully observed themselves, perhaps,
can tell what those religious exercises are, which
they have found to be most serviceable to the pros-
perity of their souls, and by which they have reaped
most spiritual benefit and advantage. Have our
hearts been most enlarged in secret devotion ? Has
God sometimes met us in our closets with special
eomforts, and the unusual manifestations of himself
to our souls ? Let us thence take an indication and
covenant to be more and longer alone in secret com-
manion with God. Have public ordinances been to
as as green pastures, and have we sat down by them
with delight? Let us resolve to be so much the more
diligent in our attendance on them, and wait more
closely at those gates where we have so often been
abundantly satisfied. Though one duty must never
be allowed to intrench upon anotlier, yet those duties
which we have found to be the most effectual means
of increasing our acquaintance with God, confirming'
oar faith in Christ, and furthering us in our way
to heaven, we should, with a peculiar care, engage
ourselves to.
Though God has strictly commanded us the g^eat
and necessary acts of religious worship, yet, for the
trial of our holy ingenuity and zeal, he has left it to
us to determine many of the circumstances, that
even instituted sacrifices may be in some respects
free-will offerings. He has commanded us to pray,
and read the Scriptures, but has not told us just how
often and how long we must prny and read ; here,
therefore, it is proper to bind ourselves to that which
will best answer the intention of the command in
general, best agree with the circumstances we are in,
and best advance the interest of our souls : in which
we must take heed, on the one hand, that we indulge
not spiritual sloth, by contenting ourselves with the
least proportions of time that may be, much less by
confining ourselves to them ; and, on the other hand,
that we make not religious exercises a task and
burthen to ourselves, by binding ourselves to that at
all times, which in an extraordinary fervour of devo-
2 D 2
tion is easy and little enough. In making resolutions
of this kind, we ought to be cautious, and not hasty
to utter any thing before God, that we may not after-
ward say before the angel, It was an error, Eccl. v.
2, 6. Though such is the decay of Christian zeal in
the age we live in, that few need this caution, yet it
must be inserted, because it is a snare to a man to
devour that which is holy, and after vows to make
inquiry.
(3.) We should particularly bind ourselves to those
duties, by which we have opportunity of glorifying
God, adorning our profession, and doing good in our
places. We are not born for ourselves, nor bought
for ourselves ; we were born for God, and bought
for Christ; and both as men, and as Christians, we
are members one of another, and ought to sit down
and consider how we may trade with the talent we
are intrusted with, though it be but one, to the
glory of our Creator, the honour of our Redeemer,
and the good of our brethren. The liberal and pious
devise liberal things, and pious things, and bind
themselves to them. Think then, my soul, not only
what must I do, but what may I do, for God, who
has done such great things for me ? How may I be
serviceable to the interests of God*s kingdom among
men ? What can I do to promote the strength and
beauty of the church, and the welfare of precious
souls ? And, if we have thought of any thing of this
kind that falls vrithin the sphere of our activity,
(though but a low and narrow sphere,) itmay do well,
when we find ourselves in a good frame at the table
of the Lord, by a solemn vow, with due caution, to
bind ourselves to it, that we may not leave room for
a treacherous heart to start back. Thus Jacob, for
the perpetuating of the memory of God's favour to
him, made it a part of his vow, (Gen. xxviii. 22.)
This stone which I have set for a pillar, slutll he God's
hoftse. Thus Hannah vowed; that if God would give
her a son, she would give him to the Lord, 1 Sam. i.
IL It is one of the rules prescribed, concerning cost
or pains bestowed for pious and charitable uses,
(2 Cor. ix. 7.) Every man, according as he purposeth
in his heart, so let him give ; so let him do. Now, lest
that purpose should fail and come to nothing, it is
good, when the matter of it is well digested, to bring
it to a head in a solemn promise, that the tempter
seeing us stedfastly resolved, may cease soliciting
us to alter our purpose.
(4.) We should particularly bind ourselves to
the duties of our respective callings and relations.
Much Christian obedience lies in these instances ;
and in them we are specially called to serve God
and our generation, and should therefore bind our-
selves to do so.
They who are in places of public trust and power,
should here bind themselves by a solemn vow to be
faithful to the trust reposed in them, and to use their
power for the public good. They who rule over men,
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THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
fnust here covenant that they will be jost, ruling in
the fear of God. Their oaths must here be ratified,
and David's promise must be theirs, (Ps. Ixxv. 2.)
When I shall receive the congregation^ I will judge
vprightly. This ought to be seriously considered by
all those who receive this holy sacrament at their
admission into the magistracy. When publicans
and soldiers submitted to the baptism of John, and
thereby bound themselves to live a holy life ; they
asked and received of John instructions, how to
discharge the duty of their respective employments,
Luke iii. 12 — 14. For when we vow to keep God's
commandments, though we must have a universal
respect to them all, yet we must have a special
regard to those precepts which relate to the calling
wherein we are called, whatever it is.
The stewards of the mysteries of God, when they
administer this ordinance to others, receive it them-
selves, as an obligation upon them to stir up the gift
that is in them, that they may make full proof of
their ministry. Their ordination-vows are repeated
and confirmed in every sacrament; and they are
again sworn to be true to Christ and souls. He who
ministers about holy things, must here bind himself
to wait on his ministering ; he that teachethj on teach-
ing ; and he that exhorteth, on exhortation, Rom. xii.
7, 8.
Governors of families must here oblige themselves
as David did, to walk before their houses in a per-
fect way, with a perfect heart ; and must affix this
seal to Joshua's resolution, that whatever others do.
They and their house will serve the Lord, Ps. ci. 2.
Josh xxiv. 15. Here they must consecrate to God a
church in their house, and bind themselves to set
up, and always to keep up, both an altar and a
throne for God in their habitation, that they may
approve themselves the spiritual seed of faithful
Abraham, who was famous for family-religion. It is
with this intent, I suppose, that the Rubric of the
public establishment declares it convenient, *' That
new-married persons should receive the holy com-
munion at the time of their marriage, or at the first
opportunity after their marriage;" tliat being en-
gaged to each other in a new relation, they may
solemnly engage themselves to discharge the duties
of that relation in the fear of God.
And inferiors must here oblige themselves to do
the duty they owe their superiors; children to be
dutiful to their parents, servants to be obedient to
their masters ; yea, all of us to be subject one to
another. They who are under the yoke, (as the
apostle speaks, 1 Tim. vi. 1.) may here make the
yoke they are under easy to them, by constraining
themselves to draw in it, from a principle of duty
to God, and gratitude to Christ, which will both
sanctify and sweeten the hardest services and sub-
missions.
Whatever our employments are, and oar dealings
with men, we must here promise and vow, that we
will be strictly just and honest in them; that what-
ever temptations we may be under to the contrary
at any time, we will make conscience of rendering
to all their due, and of speaking the truth from the
heart ; that we will walk uprightly, and work right-
eousness, despise the gain of oppression, and shake
our hands from holding of bribes; knowing that they
who do so shall dwell on high, their place of defence
shall be the munitions of rocks, bread shall be ^iwem
them, and their water shall be sure, Isa. xxxiii. 15,
16. We find it upon record, to the honour of Christ's
holy religion, when it was first planted in the world,
that Pliny, a heathen magistrate, and a persecutor
of Christianity, giving an account to the Emperor
Trajan of what he had discovered concerning the
Christians, (in an epistle yet extant,) acknowledges,
that in their religious assemblies they bound them-
selves by a sacrament, (it is the very word he oaes,)
Non in scelus aliquod, sed nefurta, ne latroemia, nt
adulter ia committerent ; nefidem fallereni, ne depo-
situm appellati abnegarent. That is, they boond
themselves not to do any ill thing, that they would mi
rob or steal, or commit adultery ; that they would newer
be false to any trust reposed in them, never deny any
thing that was put into their hands to keep, and the
like. The same is still the true intent and meaning
of this service ; it is the bond of a covenant added
to the bond of command, that we do justly, lovenuT'
cy, and walk humbly with our God.
Come then, my soul, come under these bonds ;
come willingly and cheerfully under them. He that
bears an honest mind, does not startle at assurances.
Be not afraid to promise that which thou art already
bound to do ; for these vows will rather facilitate
thy duty, than add to the difficulty of it ; the faster
thou findest thyself fixed to that which is good, the
less there will be of uneasy hesitation and wavmog
concerning it, and the less danger of being tempted
from it
Only remember, that all these vows mast be made
with an entire dependence on the strength and grace
of Jesus Christ, to enable us to make them good.
We have a gpreat deal of reason to distrust ourselves,
so weak and treacherous are our hearts. Peter be-
trayed himself by confiding in himself, when he
said. Though I should die with thee, yet I will mot
deny thee. But we have encouragement enough to
trast in Christ. In his name, therefore, let us make
our vows, in his grace let us be strong ; surely in
the Lord alone have we righteousness and strength.
He is the surety of the covenant for both parties:
into his custody, therefore, and under the protection
of his grace, let us put our souls, and we shall find
he is able to keep what we commit to him.
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400
CHAPTER XII.
OIKSCnONS CONCKKNINO THB PRAUB OF OUR 8PUUT8, WHBN
WB COMB AWAY FROM THIS ORDINANCB.
They wbo have fellowship with the Father, and
with his Son Jesus Christ, at the table of the Lord,
whose hearts are enlarged to send forth the work-
ings of pioQS and devout affections toward God,
and to take in the communications of divine light,
life, and love, from him, cannot but say, as Peter
did upon the holy mount, Lordj it u good for us to
he here ; here let us make tahemaeles. They sit down
under the refreshing shadow of this ordinance with
delight, and its fruit is sweet unto their taste : here
' they could dwell all the days of their life, beholding
the beauty of the Lord, and inquiring in his temple.
But it is not a continual feast. Wc must come down
from this mountain ; these sweet and precious
minutes are soon numbered and finished ; supper is
ended, thanks are returned, the guests are dismissed
with a blessing, the hymn is sung, and we go out to
the mount of Olives. Even in this Jerusalem, the
city of our solemnities, we have not a continuing
city. Jacob has an opportunity of wrestling with
the angel for a while, but he must let him go, for
the day breaks, and he has a family to look after, a
Journey to prosecute, and the affairs thereof call for
his attendance. Gen. xxxii. 26. We must not be
always at the Lord's table ; the high priest himself
must not be always within the veil, he must go out
again to the people when his service is performed.
Now it ought to be as much our care to return in a
right manner from the ordinance, as to approach in
a right manner to the ordinance. That caution is
here needful, (2 John 8.) Look to younelvet^ that we
lose not those things which we have wrought — which
we have gained — so some read it Have we in this
ordinance wrought any thing, or gained any thing
that is good ? We are concerned to see to it, that we
do not undo what we have wrought, and let slip
what we have gained. When the solemnity is done,
our work is not done ; still we must be pressing for-
ward in our duty. This, perhaps, is the mystery of
that law in Ezekiel's temple-service, (Ezek. xlvi.
9.) that they should not return from worshipping
before the Lord in the solemn feasts through the
same g^te by which they entered in, but by that
over against it. Forgetting those things which are
behind, still we must reach forth to those things
which are before.
Let us inquire, then, what is to be done at our
coming away from the ordinance, for the preserving
and improving the impressions of it
I. We should come from this ordinance admiring
the condescension of the divine grace to us. Great
are the honours which have here been done us,
and the faTonrs which here we have been admitted
to : the God who made us has taken us into cove-
nant and communion with himself; the King of
kings has entertained us at his table, and there we
have been feasted with the dainties of heaven,
abundantly satisfied with the goodness of his house ;
exceeding great and precious promises have here
been sealed to us, and earnests g^ven us of the eter-
nal inheritance : now, if we know ourselves, this
cannot but be the matter of our wonder, our joyful
and yet awful wonder.
1'. Considering our meanness by nature, we have
reason to wonder that the great God should thus
advance us : higher than heaven is above the earth,
is God above us. Between heaven and earth there
is, though a vast, yet only a finite, distance, but be-
tween God and man there is an infinite dispropor-
tion. What is man, (man that is a worm, ahd the
son of man that is a worm,) that he should be thus
visited and regarded, thus dignified and preferred ?
That favour done to Israel sounds great, (Ps. Ixxviii.
25.) Man did eat angels' food; bat here man is
feasted with that which was never angels' food, the
, flesh and blood of the Son of man, which gives life
to the world. Solomon himself stood amazed at
God's condescending to take possession of that
magnificent temple he had built, (2 Chron. vi. 18.)
Bui will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth f
And, which is more, shall men on the earth dwell in
God, and make the Most High their habitation?
If great men look with respect upon those who are
much their inferiors, it is because they expect to re-
ceive honour and advantage by them ; but can a
man be profitable unto God ? No, he cannot : our
goodness extendeth not unto him ; he was from
eternity happy without us, and would have been so
to eternity, if we had never been, or had been miser-
able ; but we are undone, undone for ever, if his
goodness extend not to us : he needs not our ser-
vices, but we need his favours. Men adopt others
because they are childless, but God adopts us purely
because we are fatherless. It was no excellency in
us that recommended us to his love, but poverty and
misery made us the proper objects of his pity.
Come then, my soul, and compose thyself as King
David did, when, having received a gracious mes-
sage from heaven, assuring him of God's kind inten-
tions to him and his family, he went in, and with a
great fixedness of mind sat before the Lord ; and say
as he said, Who am I, O Lord God? and what is mg
house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? That I
should be so kindly invited to the table of the Lord,
and so splendidly treated there ? That one so mean
and worthless as I am, the poorest dunghill-worm
that ever called God Father, should be placed among
the children, and fed with the children's bread ; and
yet, a» if this were a small thing in thy sight, O
Lord God, thou hast spoken also concerning thy
servant for a great while to come, even as f ar aa
406
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
eternity itself reaches ; and thus thou hast regarded
mc according to the estate of a man of high degree,
though I am nothing, yea, less than nothing, and
vanity. And is this the manner of men, O Lord God?
Could men expect to be thus favoured ? No, but
thou givest to men not according to their poverty,
but according to thy riches in glory. Do great men
use to condescend thus ? No, it is usual with them
to show their dignity, and to oblige (beir inferiors
to keep their distance : but we have to do with one
that is God, and not man, whose thoughts of love
are as much above ours, as his thoughts of wisdom
are; and therefore, as it follows there. What can
David gay more unto thee ? What account can I give
of this unaccountable favour? It is /or thy word's
sake, and according to thine own heart, for the per-
formance of thy purposes and promises, that thou
hast done all these great things, to make thy servant
know them, 2 Sam. vii. 18, 21. 1 Chron. xvii. 16,
&c.
2. Considering our vileness by sin, we have yet
more reason to wonder that the holy God should
thus favour us. We are not only worms of the
earth, below his cognizance, but a generation of
vipers, obnoxious to his curse ; not only unworthy
of his love and favour, but worthy of his wrath and
displeasure : how is it then that we are brought so
near unto him, who deserved to have been sentenced
to an eternal separation from him? He has said.
The foolish shall not stand in his sight, Ps. v. 5.
Foolish we know we are, and yet we are called to
sit at his table, being through Christ reconciled to
him, and brought into covenant with him. Justice
might have set us as criminals at his bar, but, be-
hold, mercy sets us as children at his board ; and it
is a miracle of mercy, mercy that is the wonder of
angels, and will be the eternal transport of glorified
saints. See how much we owe to the Redeemer, by
whom we have access into this grace.
Let me, therefore, set myself, and stir up myself,
to admire it. I have much more reason to say than
Mephibosheth had, when David took him to eat
bread at his table continually, (2 Sam. ix. 8.) What
is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a
dead dog as I am? I am less than the least of God's
mercies, and yet he has not withheld the greatest
from me ; I have forfeited the comforts of my own
table, and yet I am feasted with the comforts of the
Lord's table ; I deserve to have had the cup of the
Lord's indignation put into my hand, and to have
drank the dregs of it, but, behold, I have been
treated with the cup of salvation. Were over trai-
tors made favourites? such traitors made such fa-
vourites ? Who can sufficiently admire the love of
the Redeemer, who received gifts for men, yea, even
for the rebellious also upon their return to their
allegiance, that the Lord God might dwell among
them? Ps. Ixviii. 18. And have I shared in these
gifts notwithstanding my rebellions ? This is the
Lord's doing, and it is marvellous. Whence is this
to me, that, not the mother of my Lord, bat my Lord
himself, should come to me ? that he should thus
regard me, thus distinguish me with his favonn?
Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest tkyseif U we,
and not unto the world?
II. We should come from this ordinance lament-
ing our own manifold defects and infirmities in our
attendance upon God in it. When we look back
upon the solemnity, we find, that as we canoot speak
well enough of God and his grace, so we cannot
speak ill enough of ourselves, and of the folly and
treachery of our own hearts. Now, conscience,
thou art charged in God's name to do thy offee,
and to accomplish a diligent search : review the
workings of thy soul in this ordinance distinctly and
impartially.
1. If upon search thou findest cause to sospect
that all has been done in hypocrisy, then set thy
soul a trembling, for its condition is sad, and highly
dangerous. If I have been here pretending to join
myself in a covenant with God, while I continue in
league with the world and the flesh ; pretending to
receive the pardon of my sins, when I never repent-
ed of them, nor designed to forsake them ; I have
but deceived myself, and have reason to fear that I
shall perish at last with a lie in my right hand.
While this conviction is fresh and sensible, let care,
be taken to mend the matter, and, blessed be God, it
may be mended. Have I reason to fear that my
heart is not right in the sight of God, and that,
therefore, I have no part or lot in the matter, but
am in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity?
I must then take the advice which St. Peter gave
to Simon Magus, when he perceived that to be his
condition, after he had received the sacrament of
baptism, 'Acts viii. 21 — ^23.) Repent therefore of this
thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the tkmtgkt
of thine heart may be forgiven thee. Let that be done
with a double care after the ordinance, which should
have been done before.
2. But if upon search thou findest that here has
been, through grace, truth in the inward part ; yet,
set tliy soul a blushing, for it has not been cleansed
according to the purification of the sanctuary. When
we would do good, evil is present with us : our wine is
mixed with water, and our gold with dross ; and
who is there that doeth good, and sinneth not, even
in his doing good? We find, by sad experience,
that the sons of God never come together, but Satan
comes among them, and stands at their right hand
to resist them ; and that wherever we go, we cany
about with us the remainders of corruption, a body
of death, which inclines us to that which is evil,
and indisposes us to that which is good. If the
spirit be willing, yet, alas, the flesh is weak, and av
cannot do the things that we would, .
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
407
O what reason have I to he ashamed of myself,
•nd blush to lift up my face before God, wlien I
review the frame of my heart during my attendance
on this ordinance ! How short have I come of doing
my duty, according as the work of the day required !
My thoughts should have been fixed ; and the sub-
jects presented to them to fix upon, were curious
enough to engage them, and copious enough to
employ them ; and yet they went with the fool's
eyes unto the ends of the earth, and wandered after
a thousand impertinences. A little thing served to
give them a diversion from the contemplation of the
great things set before me. My affections should
have been raised and elevated, but they were low
and flat, and little moved : if sometimes they seemed
to soar upward, yet they soon sunk down again, and
the things which remained were ready to die. My
desires were cold and indifferent, my faith weak and
inactive ; nor were there any workings of soul in me
proportionable to the weightiness of the transaction.
Through my own dulncss, and deadness, and inad-
▼ertency, I lost a deal of time out of a little, and
slipt much of that which might have been done and
got there, if I had been close and diligent.
This thought forbids us to entertain a good con-
ceit of ourselves and our own performances, or to
build any confidence upon our own merit. While
we are conscious to ourselves of so much infirmity
cleaving to our best services, we must acknowledge
that boasting is for ever excluded : we have nothing
to glory of before God; nor can we challenge a
reward as of debt, but must ascribe all to free grace.
What good there is in us, is all of God, and he must
have the honour of it : but there is also much amiss,
which is all of ourselves, and we must take the
shame of it, lamenting those sad effects of the re-
mainder of sin in us, which we feel to our loss when
we draw nigh to God in holy ordinances.
This thought obliges us, likewise, to rely on Christ
alone for acceptance with God in all our religious
duties. He is that great and gracious High Priest,
who bears the iniquity of the holy thingsy which the
children of Israel hallow in their holy gifts^ that not-
withstanding that iniquity, when it is repented of,
the gifts may he accepted before the Lord, Exod.
xxviii. 38. Of his righteousness, therefore, we must
make mention, even of his only; for, the most
spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God only
through him, 1 Pet. ii. 5.
HI. We should come from this ordinance rejoic-
ing in Jesus Christ, and in that great love where-
with he has loved us. From this feast we should go
to our tents, as the people went from Solomon's feast
of dedication, joyful and glad in heart for all the
goodness that the Lord had done by David his servant,
for Israel his people, 1 Kings viii. 66. They that
went forth weeping, must come back rejoicing, as they
bave caasc, if they bring their sheaves with them.
Ps. cxxvi. 5, 6. Has God here lifted up the light
of bis countenance upon us? That should put glad-
ness into our hearts, Ps. iv. 6, 7. Have we here
lifted up our souls to God, and joined ourselves to
him in an everlasting covenant? We have reason,
with the baptized eunuch, to go on our way rejoicing,
Acts viii. 39. The day of our espousals should be
the day of the gladness of our hearts. Cant. iii. 11.
This cup of blessing was designed to be a cup of
consolation, and its wine ordained to make glad
man's heart, to make glad the heart of the new man.
Having, therefore, drank of this cup, let our souls
make their boast in the Lord, and sing in his ways,
and call him their exceeding joy.
Let this holy joy give check to carnal mirth ; for
having seen so much reason to rejoice in Christ
Jesus, we deceive ourselves, if we rejoice in a tiling
of nought : we are not forbidden to rejoice, but our
joy must be turned into the right channel, and our
mirth sanctified, which will suppress and silence
the laughter that is mad. The frothiness of a vain
mind must be cured by a religious cheerfulness, as
well as by a religious seriousness.
Let it give check also to the sorrow of the world,
and that inordinate grief for outward crosses, which
sinks the spirits, dries the bones, and works death.
Why art thou cast down, and why disquieted, for a
light affliction, which is but for a moment, when
even that is so far from doing thee any real prejudice,
that it works for thee a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory ? Learn, my soul, to sit down
upon the ruins of all thy creature-comforts, by a
withered fig-tree, a fruitless vine, and a blasted
crop, and even then to sing to the praise and glory of
God, as the God of thy salvation. When thou art
full, enjoy God in all ; when thou art empty, enjoy
all in God.
Let this holy joy express itself in praises to God,
and encouragements to ourselves.
1. Let it express itself in the thankful acknow-
ledgment of the favours we have received from God.
As spiritual joy must be the heart and soul of divine
praise, so divine praise must be the breath and
speech of spiritual joy. Whatever makes us joyful
must make us thankful. Do we come from this
ordinance easy, pleasant, and greatly refreshed with
the goodness of God's house ? Let the high praises
of God then be in our mouths, and in our hearts.
This is a proper time for us to be engaged with great
fixedness, and enlarged with great fluency, in his
service. If we must give thanks for the mercies we
receive at our own table, which relate only to a
perishing body, and a dying life, much more ought
we to give thanks for the mercies we receive at God's
table, which relate to an immortal soul, and eternal
life. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou
shalt bless the Lord thy God, for the good land which
he hath given thee, Deut. viii. 10. Bless him for a
406
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
Canaan on earth, a land of light, a valley of vision,
m which God is known, and his name great; and
for the comfortable lot thou hast in that land, a name
among God's people, and a nail in his holy place, a
portion in Immanuel's land. Bless him for a Ca-
naan in heaven, which he has given thee the promise
and prospect of, that land flowing with milk and
honey : rejoice in hope of that, and sing in hope.
Bleu the Lord, O my 4oul, and let all thai is within
thee, all thy thoughts, and all thy powers, be em-
ployed in blessing his hoty name; and all little
enough. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good,
good to all, good to Israel, good to me. / tnll men-
tion the loving-kindnestet of the Lord, and the praises
of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestow-
ed on usy 4rc. Isa. Ixiii. 7. Give glory to the exalted
Redeemer, and mention to his praise the great things
he has done for us. Worthy is the Lamb that was
slain, to take the book, and open the seals ; worthy to
wear the crown, and sway the sceptre, for ever wor-
thy to receive blessing, and honour, and glory, and
power ; worthy to be adored, by the innumerable
company of angels, and the spirits of just men made
perfect; worthy to be attended with the constant
praises of the universal church ; worthy of the inner-
most and uppermost place of my heart ; of the best
affections I can consecrate to his praise, and the best
services 1 can do to his name : for he was slain, and
has redeemed us to God, by his blood, and has made
us to our God kings and priests. He has loved us,
and washed us from our sins in his own b'ood ; a
note of praise, which the angels themselves cannot
sing, though they have many a song that we are-
strangers to. He loved me, and gave himself for me,
to satisfy for my sin, and to obtain eternal redemp-
tion for me. Blessed, and for ever blessed, be the
great and holy name of the Lord Jesus ; that name
which is as ointment poured forth ; that name which
is above every name ; which is worthy of, and yet
exalted far above, all blessing and praise.
And whenever we confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, let it always be done to the glory of God the
Father, Phil. ii. 11. His kindness and love to man,
was the original spring and first wheel in the work
of our redemption : it was he that gave his only-be-
gotten Son, delivered him up for us all, and who
was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.
Glory therefore, eternal glory be unto God in the
highest, for in Christ there is on earth peace, and
good-will toward men. God has in Christ glorified
himself; we must therefore in Christ glorify him, and
make all our joys and praises to centre in him. In
the day of our rejoicing this must be the burthen of
all our songs. Blessed be God for Jestu Christ,
Thanks be unto God for this unspeakable gift, the
foundation of ail other gifts.
2. Let this holy joy speak encouragement to our-
selves, cheerfully to proceed in our Christian course.
The comfort we have had in oar covenant-relatioiitf
God, and interest in Christ, should put a sweeCnoi
into all our enjoyments, and sanctify them to «:
we must see the love of God in them, and taste M
he is gracious, and this must make them comforti
indeed to us. See the curse removed from theiB,M
a blessing going along with them, and then Ge tkf
way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink tky tme mile
merry heart, for God now aceeptetk iky works, Ecd.
ix. 7. Have we good ground to hope, that tbroagk
grace our works are accepted of God t If we lii-'
cerely aim at God's acceptance, make that our ad,
and labour for it with an eye to Christ as Mediator,
we may hope that our persons and performances mn
accepted. If we accept God's works, accept the
disposals of his providence, and the offers of his
grace, with a humble acquiescence in both, that will
be a good evidence that he accepts our works. Asd
if so, we have reason to rejoice with joy unspeakable, |
and full of glory. Eat thy bread with joy, for itii
thy Father's gift, the bread wherewith the Lord tlij
God feeds thee in this wilderness, through which lie
is leading thee to the land of promise. Drink thj
wine vrith a merry heart, remembering Christ's k>vt
more than wine. What thou hast, though mean and
scanty, thou hast it with the blessing of God, which
will make the little thou hast better thantke rtekestf
many wicked, Ps. xxxvii. 16.
Rejoice in the Lord now, O my soul, rejoice in hia
always : having kept this feast with gladness, (as
Hezekiah and his people did, 2 Chron. xxx. 33.)
carry with thee some of the comforts of God's taUe
to thy own, and there eat thy meat with gladness, »
those primitive Christians did. Acts ii. 46. live a
life of holy cheerfulness, and the joy of the Lo d will
be thy strength.
IV. We should come from this ordinance madi
quickened to every good work. Seeing ourselves
compassed about here with so great a cloud of wit-
nesses, bound by so many engagements, invited by
so many encouragements, and obliged to God and
godliness by so many ties of duty, interest, and gra-
titude, let us lay aside every weight, and ike sim that
most easily besets vs, whatever it is, especially the
evil heart of unbelief which is our g^at hinderance,
and let us run with patience the race that is set brfere
us, looking unto Jesus, Heb. xii. 1, 2. Let the cove-
nants we have here renewed, and the comforts we
have here received, make us more ready to every
good duty, and more lively in it ; more active and
zealous for the glory of God, the service of oar gene-
ration, and the welfare and prosperity of our owa
souls. From what we have seen and done here, we
may fetch powerful considerations to shame us out
of our slothfulness and backwardness to that which
is good, and to stir us up to the utmost diligence in
our Master's work.
When Jacob had received a g^cions visit (mm
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
4011
God, and had made a solemn vow to him, (Gen.
xxviii. 12, 20.) it follows, {eh. xxix. 1.) Then Jaeoh
went on his way. The original phrase is obsenrable,
Then Jacob lift up his feet. After that comfortable
night he had at Bethel, knowing himself to be in
the way of his daty, he proceeded with a great deal
of cheerfulness : that strengthened the weak hands,
and confirmed the feeble knees. Thus should our
communion with God in the Lord's supper enlarge
our hearts to run the way of God's commandments :
after such an ordinance, we should lift up our feet
in the way of God ; that is, (as it is said of Jehosha-
phat, 2 Chron. xvii. 6.) we should lift up our hearts
in those ways ; abiding, and abounding, in the worhs
of the Lord.
Rouse up thyself now, my soul, from thy spiritual
slumber; up, and be doing, for the Lord is with
thee. Awake, awake, put on thy strength, put forth
thy strength, that thou mayst push on thy holy war,
thy holy work, with vigour; shake thyself from the
dust, to which thou hast too much cleaved ; loose
thyself from the bands of thy neck, with which thou
hast been too much clogged, Isa. Hi. 1, 2. Meditate
more fixedly, pray more earnestly, resist sin more
resolutel , keep sabbaths more cheerfully, do good
more readily. Thou hast heard the sound of a going
m the tops of the mulberry-trees, plain indications of
the presence of God with thee, therefore now thou
shalt bestir thyself 2 Sam. v. 24. Let the comforts
of this ordinance employ thy wings, that thou mayst
soar upward, upward toward God ; let them oil thy
wheels, that thou mayst press forward, forward to-
ward heaven : let God's gifts to thee stir up his gifts
in thee.
V. We should come from this ordinance with a
watchful fear of Satan's wiles, and a firm resolution
to stand our ground against them. Whatever com-
fort and enlargement we have had in this ordinance,
still we must remember that we are but girding on
the harness, and, theiefore, we have no reason to
boast, or be secure, as though we had put it ofi*.
When we return to the world again, we must re-
member that we go among snares, and must provide
accordingly : it is our wisdom so to do.
1. Let us therefore fear. He who travels with
a rich treasure about him, is in most danger of
being set upon, and is most afraid of being robbed.
The ship that is richly laden is the pirate*s prize.
If we come away from the Lord's table replenished
with the goodness of God's house, and the riches of
the covenant, we must expect the assaults of our
spiritual enemies, and not be secure. A strong guard
was constantly kept upon the temple, and there
needs one upon the living temples. The mystical
song represents the bed which is Solomon's, thus sur-
rounded by valiant men, of the valiant of Israel,
because of fear in the night, Cant iii. 7, 8. The
Holy Ghost this signifying, that believers in this
world are in a military state, and the followers of
Christ must be his soldiers. They that work tho
good work of faith, must fight the good fight of faith.
We must always stand upon our guard, for the
good man of the house knows not at what hour the
thief will come ; but this we know, that immediately
after our Saviour was baptized, and owned by a
voice from heaven, he was led into the wilderness^
to be tempted of the devil, (Matt. iv. 1.) and that
immediately after be had administered the Lord's
supper to his disciples, he told them plainly, Satan
hath desired to have you, {iKtirtiaaro v/iac — he' hath
challenged you,) that he may sift you as wheat, (Luke
xxii. 31.) and what he said to them then, he says to
all, Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.
Matt. xxvi. 41. We must then double our guard
against temptations to rash anger, and study to be
more than ordinarily meek and quiet, lest by the
tumults and transports of passion, the Holy Spirit
be grieved and provoked to withdraw. If we
have in this ordinance received Christ Jesus the
Lord, let a strict charge be given, like that of the
spouse, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field,
that nothing be said, nothing done, to stir up or
awake our Love until he please. Cant. ii. 7. Peace
being spoken, peace made, let us be afraid of every
thing that may give a disturbance to it We should
also watch against the inroads of worldly cares and
fears, lest they make a descent upon us after a sacra
ment, and spoil us of the comforts we have there
received.
But with a particular care we must watch against
the workings of spiritual pride after a sacrament
When our Lord Jesus first instituted this ordinance,
and made his disciples partakers of it, they were so
elevated with the honour of it, that not content to be
all thus great, a contest immediately arose among
them, which of them should be greatest, Luke xxii.
24. And when St. Paul had been in the third hea-
vens, he was in danger of being exalted above measure
with the abundance of the revelations, 2 Cor. xii. 7.
We therefore have cause to fear, lest this dead fly
spoil all our precious ointment ; and to keep a very
strict and jealous eye upon our own hearts, that they
be not lifted up with pride, lest we fall into the ron-
demnation of the devil, 1 Tim. iii. 6. Let us dread
the first risings of self-conceit, and suppress them ;
for what have we that we have not received? And if we
have received it, why then do we boast f 1 Cor. iv. 7.
2. Let us therefore ^x ; and let our hearts be
established with the grace here received. What we
have done in this ordinance, we must go away firmly
resolved to abide by all our days. I am now fixed,
immovably fixed, for Christ and holiness, against
sin and Satan. The matter is settled, never to be
called in question again : / will serve the Lord. The
bargain is struck ; the knot is tied ; the debate is
come up to a final resolve ; and here I fix, as one
410
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
stedfastly resolved with purpose of heart to cleave to
the Lord. No room is left to parley with a tempta-
tion : I am a Christian, a confirmed Christian, and,
by the grace of God, a Christian I will live and die;
and, therefore, Get thee behind me, Satan ; thou art
an offence to me. My resolutions, in which before I
wavered and was unsteady, are now come to a head,
and are as a nail in a sure place. 1 am now at a
point ; / have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I
cannot go bach, ( Judg. xi. 36.) and therefore, by the
grace of God, I am determined to go forward, and
not so much as look back, or wish for a discharge
from those engagements. 1 have chosen the way of
truth, and therefore, in thy strength. Lord, / will
itich to thy tettimoniety Ps. cxix. 30, 31. Now my
foot stands in an even place, well shod with the pre-
paration of the gospel of peace. I am now like a
strong man refreshed with wine, resolved to resist
the devil, that he may flee from me, and never to
yield to him.
YI. We should come from this ordinance pray-
ing, lifting up our hearts to God in ejaculatoiy pray-
ers, and retiring as soon as may be for solemn prayer.
Not only before, and in, the duty, but after, if we
have occasion to ofler up our desires to God, and
fetch in strength and grace from him.
Two things we should be humbly earnest with
God in prayer for, after this solemnity ; and we are
furnished from the mouth of holy David with very
emphatical and expressive petitions for them both :
we may, therefore, take with us those words, in
addressing God.
1. We must pray, that God will fulfil to us those
promises, which he was graciously pleased to seal
to us in this ordinance. David's prayer for this is,
(1 Chron. xvii. 23.) Now, Lord, let the thing that
thou haft spohen concerning thy tervant, and concern^
ing hit hotue, be established for ever ; and do as thou
hast said. God's promises in the word are designed
to be our pleas in prayer; and we receive the grace
of God in them in vain, if we do not make that use
of them, and sue out the benefits conveyed and se-
cured by them. These are talents to be traded with,
and improved as the guide of our desires, and the
ground of our faith in prayer ; and we must not hide
them in a napkin. Havir«;^ here taken hold of the
covenant, thus we must take hold on God for cove-
nant mercies : Lord, remember the word unto thy
servant, upon which thou hast caiued me to hope, Ps.
cxix. 49. Thou hast not only given me the word to
hope in, but the heart to hope in it. It is a hope of
thy own raising ; and thou wilt not destroy, by a
disappointment, the work of thy own hands.
Come, therefore, O my soul ! come, order thy
cause before him, and Jill thy mouth with arguments.
Lord, is not this the word which thou hast spoken ?
" Sin shall not have dominion over you : The God
of peace shall tread Satan under your feet: There
shall no temptation take you, but such as is oominoa
to men ; and the faithful God will never suffer you
to be tempted above what you are able.'' Lord, be
it unto thy servant according to these words ! Is not
this the word which thou hast spoken ; ** That ill
things shall work for good to them that love thee ;
that thou wilt be to them a God all-suflicient, ihdf
shield, and their exceeding g^at reward ; thattbon
wilt give them grace and glory, and withhold no
good thing from them ; that thou wilt never fidl
them nor forsake them V Now, Lord, let those words
which thou hast spoken concerning thy servant (and
many other the like) be established for ever, and do
as thou hast said, for they are the words open which
thou hast caused me to hope.
2. We must pray, that he will enable us to fulfil
those promises which we have made to him in this
ordinance. David's prayer for this is, (1 Chron.
xxix. 18.) O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and «f
Israel, our fathers,, keep this for ever in the immgina-
tion of the thoughts of the hearts of thy peopU, and
prepare (or confirm) their hearts unto thee. Have
there been some good afiections, good desires, and
good resolutions in the imagination of the thoughts
of our hearts at this ordinance, some good impres-
sions made upon us, and some good expressions
drawn from us by it ? We cannot bat be sensible
how apt we are to lose the good we have wrought ;
and therefore it is our wisdom, by prayer, to commit
the keeping of it to God, and earnestly to beg of
him effectual grace, thoroughly to furnish us for eveiy
good word and work, and thoroughly to fortify us
against every evil word and work. We made oar
promises in the strength of the grace of God ; that
strength we must therefore pray for, that we may be
able to make good our promises. Lord, maintain
thy own interest in my soul ; let thy name be ever
hallowed there ; thy kingdom come, and thy will be
done in my heart, as it is done in heaven.
When we come away from this ordinance, we re-
turn to a cooling, tempting, distracting world ; as
when Moses came down from the mount, where he
had been with God, he found the camp of Israel
dancing about the golden calf, to his great disturb-
ance, Exod. xxxii. 19. In the midst of such sorrows
and such snares as we are compassed about with
here, we shall find it no easy matter to preserve the
peace and grace which we hope we have obtained
at the Lord's table : we must, therefore, put our-
selves under the divine protection. Methinks it was
with an affecting air of tenderness, that Christ said
concerning his disciples, when he was leaving them,
(John xvii. 11.) Now I am no more in the world; the
days of my temptation are at an end ; but these are
in the world, they have their trial yet before them :
what then shall I do for them ? Holy Fathet-, keep
through thine own name those whom thou hast given me.
That prayer of his was both the great example and
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
411
the great encouragement of our prayers. Now, at
the close of a sacrament, it is seasonable thus to ad-
dress ourselves to God : *'I have not yet put off this
body ; I am not yet got clear of this world : yet I
am a traveller exposed to thieves ; yet, I am a
soldier, exposed to enemies : Holy Father, keep
through thy own name the graces and comforts
thou hast given me ; for they are thine. My own
hands are not sufficient for me ; O let thy grace be
ao, to preserve me to thy heavenly kingdom."
Immediately after the first administration of the
Lord's supper, our Saviour, when he had told Peter
of Satan's design upon him, added this comfortable
word, (Luke xxii. 32.) / have prayed for ihee, that
thy Jaith fail not ; and that is it that we must pray
for, that this faith, which we think is so strong in
the day of its advantage, may not prove weak in the
day of its trial : for, as they who would have the
benefit of the Spirit's operation must strive for
themselves, so, they who would have the benefit of
the Son's intercession must pray for themselves.
VII. We should come from this ordinance with a
charitable disposition. Anciently the Christians had
their Ayavaif their love-feasts ^ or feasts of charity^
annexed to the Eucharist ; but what needed that,
while the Eucharist is itself a love- feast, and a feast
of charity ? And surely that heart must be strangely
hardened and soured, that can go from under the
softening sweetening powers of this ordinance in an
uncharitable frame.
The fervent charity, which now we should have
among ourselves, must be a loving, giving, and for-
giving charity. Thus it must have its perfect work.
1. We must come from tliis ordinance with a dis-
position to love our fellow-Christians. Here we see
how dear they were to Christ, for he purchased them
with his own blood ; and thence we may infer, how
dear they ought to be to us, and how near they should
lie to our hearts. Shall I look strangely upon them
who have acquaintance with Christ ; or be indiffer-
ent toward them whom he was so much concerned
for ? No : we that are many, being one bread and
one body, and having been all made to drink into
one spirit, my heart shall be more closely knit than
ever to all the members of that one body, who are
quickened and actuated by that one spirit. I have
here beheld the beauty of the Lord, and, therefore,
most love his image wherever I see it on his sancti-
fied ones. I have here joined myself to the Lord in
an everlasting covenant, and thereby have joined
myself in relation, and consequently in affection, to
all those who are in the bond of the same covenant.
I have here bound myself to keep Christ's command-
ments ; and this is his commandment, that we love
one another ; and that brotherly love continve.
Those from whom we differ in the less weighty
matters of the law, though we agree in the great
things of God, we should now think of with parti-
cular thoughts of love and kindness, because from
them our minds are most in temptation to be alien-
ated : and those to whom we have given the right
hand of fellowship, in this and in other ordinances,
we should likewise be mindful of with particular
endearments ; because of the particular relation we
stand in to them, as our more intimate companions
in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. Yea,
after such an ordinance as this, our catholic charity
must be more warm and affectionate, more active,
strong, and stedfast, and more victorious over the
difficulties and oppositions it meets with ; and, as
the apostle speaks, (1 Thess. iii. 12.) we should in-
erettse and abound in love one toward another, and fo-
ward all men, and in all the fruits and instances of
love.
2. We must come from this ordinance, with a dis-
position to give to the poor and necessitous, according
as our ability and opportunity is. It is the laudable
custom of the churches of Christ, to close the ad-
ministration of this ordinance with a collection for
the poor ; to which we ought to contribute our share,
not grudgingly, or of necessity, but with a single
eye, and a willing mind, that our alms may be
sanctified and accepted of God. And not only to
this, but to all other acts of charity, we must be more
forward and free after a sacrament. Though our
Saviour lived upon alms himself, yet out of the
little he had he gave alms to the poor, particularly
at the feast of the passover, (John xiii. 29.) to set
us an example. Days of rejoicing and thanks-
giving (and such our sacrament days are) used to be
thus solemnized : for when we eat the fat and drink
the sweet ourselves, we must send portions unto them
for whom nothing is prepared, (Neh. viii. 10.) that
when our souls arc blessing God, the loins of the poor
may bless us. If our hearts have here been opened
to Christ, we must evidence that they are so, by our
being open-handed to poor Christians: for, since
our goodness cannot extend to him, it is his will
that it should extend to them, Ps. xiv. 2, 3. If we
have here in sincerity given ourselves to God, we
have with ourselves devoted all we have to his ser-
vice and honour, to be employed and laid out for
him ; and thus we must testify that we have heartily
consented to that branch of the surrender. As we
have opportunity, we must do good to all men, espe^
cially to them that are of the household of faith ; re-
membering that we are but stewards of the manifold
grace of God. If our prayers have here come up for
a memorial before God, as Cornelius, our alms, like
his, must accompany them. Acts x. 4. We have
here seen how much we owe to God's pity and
bounty toward us ; having therefore obtained mercy,
we ought to show mercy, knowing the grace of the
Lord Jesus, that though he was rich, yet for our sokes
he became poor^ that we through his poverty might be
rich, 2 Cor. viii. 9. Read Isa. Iviii. 7 — 1 1.
413
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
3. We must come from this ordiDance with a dis-
position to forf^ve those who have been provoking
and injurious to us. Our approach to the sacra-
ment made it necessary for us to forgive ; but our
attendance on it should make it even natural to us
to forgive, and our experience there of God's mercy
and grace to us, should conquer all the difficulty and
reluctance which we are conscious to ourselves of
therein, and make it as easy to forgive our enemies,
as it is to forgive ourselves, when at any time we
happen to have had a quarrel with ourselves.
That which makes it hard to forgive, and puts an
edge upon our resentments, is, the magnifying of
the affronts we have received, and the losses we have
sustained. Now, in this ordinance, we have had
honours put upon us sufficient to balance all those
affronts, and benefits bestowed on us sufficient to
countervail all those losses ; so that we may well
afford to forgive and forget both. With ourselves,
we have offered up to God our names, estates, and
all our interests ; in compliance therefore with the
will of God, (that God who bid Shimei curse David,
and who took away from Job that which the Sabeans
and Chaldeans robbed him of,) we must not only bear
with patience the damage we sustain in those con-
cerns, but must be charitably affected toward those
who have been the instruments of that damage,
knowing that men are God's hand, Ps. xvii. 14. and
to his hand we must always submit
But the great argument for the forgiving of
injuries, when we come from the table of the Lord,
is taken from the pardon God has in Christ there
sealed to us. The jubilee trumpet which proclaimed
releases, sounded at the close of the day of atone-
ment. Is God reconciled to us? Let us then be
more firmly than ever reconciled to our brethren.
Let the death of Christ, which we have here com-
memorated, not only slay all enmities, but take
down all partition -walls ; not only forbid revenge,
but remove strangeness ; and let all our feuds and
quarrels be buried in his grave. Has our Master
forgiven us that great debt, (and a very great debt
it was,) and ought not we then to have compassion
on our fellow-servants ? Matt xviii. 32, 33. Let us,
therefore, who have in this ordinance put on the
Lord Jesus Christ ; put on, as becomes the elect of
God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies and kind-
ness, inclining us to forgive ; humbleness of miud,
and meekness, enabling us to conquer that pride
and passion which object against our forgiving;
that if any man have a quarrel against any, it may
be passed by, as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven
OS, CoL iii. 12, 13.
VIII. We should come from this ordinance long-
ing for heaven. Every good Christian lives in the
belief of the life everlasting, which God (that cannot
lie) has promised ; looking for that blessed hope.
And doubtless, much of the power of godliness
consists in the joyful expectation of the glory to b»
revealed. But though we should look upon ou^
selves as heathens, if we did not believe it, and m
desperate, if we had not some hopes of it ; yet «e
have all reason to lament it, as not only our vdt'
licity, but our iniquity, that our desires toward it
are so weak and feeble. We are too apt to take up
our rest here, and wish we might live always oa tlib
earth ; and we need something, to make ns hangar
and thirst after that perfect righteousness, that crowi
of righteousness, with which only we shall be filled.
For this good end, the Lord's supper is Tery impnnr-
able, to hasten us toward the land of promise, and
carry our souls in earnest breathings after the feli-
cities of our future state.
1. The complaints we find cause to exhibit at thu
ordinance, should make us long for heaven; for
whatever is defective and uneasy here, we shall be
for ever freed from when we come to heaven. Whei
here we set ourselves to contemplate the beauty of
God, and the love of Christ, we find ourselves in a
cloud, we see but through a glass darkly ; let u
therefore long to be there, where the veil shall be
rent, the glasses we now make use of laid aside, asd
we shall not only see face to face, but (which will
yield us more satisfaction) we shall see as we are
seen, and know as we are known. When here we
would soar upward upon the wings of love, we find
ourselves clogged and pinioned ; this immortal
spirit is caged in a house of clay, and does but
flutter at the best : let us, therefore, long to be there,
where we shall be perfectly delivered from all the
incumbrances of a body of flesh, and all the en-
tanglements of a ^world of sense ; and love, in its
highest elevations, and utmost enlargements, shall
survive both faith and hope. When here we wonkl
fix for God, and join ourselves closely to him, we
find ourselves apt to wander, apt to waver; and
should therefore long to be there, where our love to
God will be no longer love in motion, constant
motion, as it is here, but love at rest, an ever- .
lasting rest. Here we complain, that through the I
infirmity of the flesh we are soon weary of well-
doing ; and if the spirit be willing, yet the flesh is
weak, and cannot keep pace with it : but there we
shall run, and not be weary, we shall walk, and not
faint ; and shall not rest, because we shall not need
to rest day or night, from praising God. O wbea
shall I come to that world, where there is neither sio,
nor sorrow, nor snare ; and to the spirits of just mm
made perfect there, who are as the anyeU of God u
heaven,
2. The comforts which, through grace, we expe-
rience in this ordinance, should make us long for
heaven. The foretastes of those divine joys shoold
whet our appetites after the full fruition of then.
The bunch of grapes that meets us in the wilder-
ness, should make us long to be in Canaan, tbat
THE COMMUNICANTS COMFANION.
413
land of overflowing plenty, where we shall wash our
garments in this wine, and our clothes in the hlood of
this yrape, Gen. xlix. 1 1 . Rev. vii. 14. If commu-
nion with God in grace here, affords as snch a satis-
faction as far surpasses all the delights of the sons
of men, what will the fulness of joy be in God's
presence, and those pleasures for evermore ? If the
shadows of good things to come be so refreshing,
what will the substance be, and the good things
themselves? If God's tabernacles be so amiable,
what will his temple be? If a day in his courts, an
hour at his table, be so pleasant, what then will an
eternity within the veil be ? If I find myself so
enriched with the earnests of the purchased pos-
sessions, what then will the possession itself be ? If
the joy of my Lord, as I am here capable of receiv-
ing it, and as it is mixed with so much allay in this
imperfect state, be so comfortable, what will it be
when I shall enter into that joy, and bathe myself
eternally in the spring-head of those rivers of plea-
sure?
Pant then, my soul, pant after those fountains of
living water, out of which all these sweet streams
arise ; that boundless, bottomless ocean of delights,
into which they all run ! Rest not content with any
of the contentments here below ; no, not with those
in holy ordinances, which are, of all others, the
best wc meet with in this wilderness ; but long for
the enjoyments above, in the vision of God. It is
good to be here ; but it is better to be there ; far
better to depart, and to be with Christ. While thou
art groaning under the burthens of this pre.sent state,
groan after the glorious liberties of the children of
God, in the future state. Thirst for God, for the
living God : O when shall I come and appear before
God! That the day may break, and Uie shadows
flee away, Mahe haste, my Beloved ; and be thou lihe
to a roe, oi' to a young hart upon the mountains of
spiees.
CHAPTER XIII.
AN KXHOBTATION TO ORDER THE CONVERSATION ARIGHT AFTKR
THIS ORDINANCE.
We will now suppose the new moon to be gone,
the sabbath to be post, and the solemnities of the
sacrament-day to be over; and is our work now
done ? No ; now the most needful and difllcult part
of our work begins, which is, to maintain such a
constant watch over ourselves, that we may, in the
whole course of our conversation, exemplify the
blessed fruits and effects of our communion with
God in this ordinance. When we come down from
this mount, we must, (as Moses did,) bring the ta-
bles of the testimony with us in our hands, that we
may in all things have respect to God's command-
ments, and frame our lives according to them. Then
we truly get good by this ordinance, whea we are
made better by it, and use it daily as a bridle of re-
straint, to keep us in from all manner of sin, and a
spur of constraint, to put us on to all manner of
duty.
I shall endeavour, I. to give some general rules
for the right ordering of the conversation, after we
have been at the Lord's supper: and then, II. I
shall mention some particulars, wherein we must
study to conform ourselves to the intention of that
ordinance, and abide under the influence of it.
I. The Lord*s supper was instituted, not only for
the solemnizing of the memorial of Christ's death
at certain times, but for the preserving the remem-
brance of it in our mind at all times, as a powerful
argument against every thing that is evil, and a
prevailing inducement to every thing that is good.
In this sense, we must bear about with us continu-
ally the dying of the Lord Jesus, so as that the life
also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal
bodies, 2 Cor. iv. 10. It was instituted not only for
the sealing of the covenant, that it may be ratified ;
but for the imprinting of it upon our minds, that
we may be ever mindful of the covenant, and live
under the commanding power of it
We must see to it, that there be an agreement
between our performances at tlie Lord's table and
at other times ; that we be uniform in our religion,
and not guilty of a self-contradiction. What will
it profit us, if we pull down with one hand, what we
build up with the other; and undo in our lives,
what we have done in our devotions ? That we may
not do so, let us be guided by these rules.
1. Our conversation must be such, as that we may
adorn the profession which in the Lord's supper we
have made. We have, in that ordinance, solemnly
owned ourselves the disciples and followers of the
Lord Jesus ; we have done ourselves the honour to
subscribe ourselves his humble servants, and he has
done us the honour to admit us into his family ; and
now we are concerned to walk worthy of the voca-
tion wherewith we are called, that our relation to
Christ being so much an honour to us, we may
never be a dishonour to it. We are said to be
taken into covenant with God for this very end,
that we may be unto him for a name, and for a
praise, and for a glory, (Jer. xiii. 11.) that we may
be witnesses for him, and for the honour of his
name among men.
We must, therefore, be very cautious that we
never say or do any thing to the reproach of the gos-
pel and Christ's holy religion, or which may give
any occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.
If those who profess to be devout toward God, be
unjust and dishonest toward men, this casts reproach
upon devotion, as if that would consist with and
countenance immorality. If those who call them-
414
THE COMMUNlCANrs COMPANION.
selves Cbrislians walk as other Gentiles walk, and
do Satan's drudg^ery in Christ's livery, Christianity
suffers by it, and religion is wounded in the house of
her friends: injuries are done it, which cannot be
repaired ; and those will have a great deal to answer
for another day, for whose sakes the name of God,
and his doctrine, arc thus evil spoken of. By our
coming to the Lord's supper, we distinguish our-
selves from those, whose profession of Christianity,
by their being baptized in infancy, seems to be more
their chance than their choice ; and by a voluntary
act of our own, we surname ourselves by the name
of Israel Now, if after we have so distinguished
ourselves, and so raised the expectations of our
neighbours from us, we do that which is unbecom-
ing the character we wear ; if we be vain, carnal,
and intemperate ; if we be false and unfair, cruel
and unmerciful; what will the Egyptians say? They
will say, commend us to the children of this world,
if these be the children of God : for what do they
more than others ? Men's prejudices against religion
are hereby confirmed, advantage is given to Satan's
devices, and the generation of the righteous is con-
demned for the sake of those who are spots in their
feasts of charity. Let us therefore always be jealous
for the reputation of our profession, and afraid of
doing what may in the least be a blemish to it : and
the greater profession we make, the more tender let
OS be of it, because we have the more eyes upon
us, that watch for our halting. When we do good,
we must remember the apostle's caution, Let not
your good he evil spoken of Rom. xiv. 16.
We must also be very studious to do that which
will redound to the credit of our profession. It is
not enough that we be not a scandal to religion ; but
we must strive to be an ornament to it, by excelling
in virtue, and being forward to every good work.
Our light must shine, as the face of Moses did when
he came down from the mount ; that is, our good
works must be such, that they who see them may
give religion their good word, and thereby glorify
our Father who is in heaven. Matt. v. 16. Our con-
versation must be as becomes the gospel of Jesus
Christ, that they who will not be won by the word,
may be won by it to say. We will go with you, for we
have heard that God is with you. If there he any vir-
tue, if there he any praise, more amiable and lovely
than other, let us think on these things, Phil. iv. 8.
Are we children ? Let us walk as obedient children,
well taught, and well managed. Are we soldiers ?
Let us approve ourselves good soldiers, well trained,
and well disciplined ; so we shall do honour to him
who has called us. If God's Israel carefully keep
and do his statutes, it will be said of them to their
honour among the nations. Surely they are a wise
and understanding people, Deut. iv. 6. And this will
redound to the honour of Christ ; for thus Wisdom
is justified of her children.
2. Our conversation must be such, that we maf
fulfil the engagements which at the Lord's supper
we have laid ourselves under. Having at God's
altar sworn that we will keep his righteous judg-
ments, we must conscientiously perform it in all the
evidences of a holy, righteous, and sober conversa-
tion. The vows we have made (express or Implicit)
must be carefully made good, by a constant watch-
fulness against all sin, and a constant diligence io
all duty ; because. Better it is not to vow, thsm to
vow and not to pay, Eccles. v. 4, 6.
When we are at any time tempted to sin, or in
danger of being surprised into any ill thing, let this
be our reply to the tempter, and with this let ns
quench his fiery darts ; Thy vows are upon me, 0
God. Did I not say, / will take heed to my ways,
that I sin not with my tongue ? I did say so ; and
therefore / will keep my mouth as with a bridU, Ps.
xxxix. I. Did I not make a covenant with my
eyes ? I did : that therefore shall be to me a cover-
ing of the eyes, that they may never be either the
inlets or the outlets of sin. Did I not say, / will
not transgress ? Jer. ii. 20. I did say so ; and there-
fore, by the grace of God, I will abstain from all
appearance of evil, and have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness. An honest man is u
good as his word.
When we begin to grow slothful and careless io
our duty, backward and slighting in it, let this stir
up the gift that is in us, and quicken as to every
good word and work. O my soul, tkou hast said unts
the Lord, thou art my Lord ; thou hast said it with
the blood of Christ in thy hand. He is thy Lord
then, and worship thou him, Ps. xvi. 2. and xW. 11.
When a lion in the way, a lion in the streets, deten
us from any duty, and we cannot ploagh by reason of
cold, nor sow or reap for fear of winds and clouds,
let this help our difiiculty, with a steady resolution;
it is what I have promised, and I roust perform it; I
will not, I dare not, be false to God, and my cove-
nants with him ; / have opened my mouth unto the
Lord, and (without incurring the guilt of peijuiy) /
cannot go hack.
3. Our conversation must be such, as that we may
make some grateful returns for the favours which
we have here received. The law of gratitude is one
of the laws of nature ; for the ox knows his owner,
and the ass his master's crib ; and some have
thought, that all our gospel-duties may very fitly be
comprised in that of gratitude to our Redeemer. In
the Lord's supper we see what Christ has done
for us, and we receive what he bestows, and in con-
sideration of both, we must set ourselves not only
to love and praise him, but to walk before him in
the land of the living ; that though we cannot re-
turn him any equivalent for his kindness, yet by
complying with his will, and consulting his honour,
we may show that we bear a grateful mind, and
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
416
would render again according to the benefit done
unto us.
By wilful sin after a sacrament, we load ourselves
with the guilt not only of treachery, but of base in-
gratitude. It was a great aggravation of Solomon's
apostasy, tkat he turned from the Lord God of Israel,
which had appeared unto him twice, 1 Kings xi. 9.
More than twice, yea, many a time, God hath ap-
peared not only for us in his providences, but to us
in his ordinances, manifesting himself in a distin-
^ishing way to us, and not unto the world. Now
if we carry ourselves strangely to him who has been
such a friend to us, if we affront him, who has so
favoured us, and rebel against him, who has not
only spared but ransomed us, we deserve to be
stigmatized with a mark of everlasting infamy, as
the most ungrateful wretches that ever God's earth
bore, or his sun shone upon. Foolish people and
unwise we are, thus to requite the Liord. Let us,
therefore, thus reason with ourselves, when at any
time we are tempted to sin : After he has given us
such a deliverance as this, shall we again break his
commandments? Shall we spit in the face, and
spam at the bowels, of such loving kindness ? After
we have eaten bread with Christ, shall we go and
lift up the heel against him ? No, God forbid, we
will not continue in sin after grace has thus abound-
ed« Rom. vi. 1, 2.
By an exact and exemplary conversation we show
ourselves sensible of the mighty obligations we lie
under to love him, and live to him, who loved us,
and died for us : we should, therefore, from a prin-
ciple of gratitude, always abound in the work of the
Lord, and lay out ourselves with zeal and cheerfulness
io his service, thinking nothing too much to do, too
hard to suffer, or too dear to part with, for him who
has done, and suffered, and parted with so much
for OS. Let the love of Christ constrain us.
4. Our conversation must be such, that we may
preserve the comforts which in the Lord's supper
we have tasted. Have we been satisfied with the
goodness of God's house? Let us not receive the
grace of God therein in vain, by the forfeiture or
neglect of those satisfactions. Fear the Lord and
his goodness, (Hos. iii. 5.) that is, fear lest you sin
against that g^dness, and so sin it away. Have we
received Christ Jesus the Lord ? Let us hold fast
what we have received, that no man take our crown,
and the comfort of it. Has God here spoken peace
to us? Let us then never return to folly, lest we
break in upon the peace that God has spoken : it is
a jewel too precious to be pawned, as it is by the
covetous for the wealth of this world, and by the
voluptuous for the pleasures of the flesh. Have we
tasted that the Lord is gracious ? Let us not put
our mouths out of taste to those spiritual and divine
pleasures, by any carnal delights or gratifications.
Has God made us to hear joy and gladness ? Let us
not set ourselves out of the hearing of that joyful
sound, by listening to the voice of Satan's charms,
charm he never so wisely.
If we walk loosely and carelessly after a sacra-
ment, we provoke God to hide his face from us, to
take from us the cup of consolation, and to put into
our hands, instead of it, the cup of trembling ; we
cloud our evidences, shake our hopes, wither our
comforts, and undo what we have been doing at this
ordinance. That caution, therefore, which the
apostle gives to the elect lady and her children,
should ever be sounding in our ears, (2 John 8.)
Look to yourselves, that we lose not tlie things which
we have wrought; or as the margin reads it, the
things which we have gained. Let us not, by our own
folly and neglect, let slip the benefit of what we have
done and of what we have got at the table of the
Lord.
Especially, we should take heed lest Satan get
an advantage against us, and improve that to our
prejudice, which we do not take due care to improve,
as we ought, to our benefit. After the sop, Satan
entered into Judas, John xiii. 27. If the comforts
which we think we have received in this ordinance,
do not make us more watchful, it is well if they do
not make us more secure. If they be not a savour
of life unto life, by deterring us from sin, there is
danger, lest they prove a savour of death unto death,
by hardening us in sin. It was one of the most im-
pudent words which that adulterous woman spoke
(and she spoke a great many) when she allured the
young man into her snares, (Prov. vii. 14, 15.) I have
peace-offerings with me, this day have I paid my vows,
therefore came I forth to meet thee. I have been
confessed, and been absolved, and therefore can the
better afford to begin upon a new score : I know the
worst of it, it is but being confessed and absolved
again. But shall we continue in sin, because grace
has abounded, and that grace may abound? God
forbid : far be it, far be it from us ever to entertain
such a thought. Shall we suck poison out of the
balm of Gilead, and split our souls upon the rock of
salvation? Is Christ the minister of sin ? Shall the
artifices of our spiritual enemies turn this table into
a snare, and that on it which should be for our
welfare into a trap ? Those are but pretended com-
forts in Christ, that are thus made real supports in
sin. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Hell will
be hell indeed to those who thus trample under foot
the blood of the covenant, as an unholy thing, and
do despite to the Spirit of grace. Their case is
desperate indeed, who are imboldened in sin by
their approaches to God.
5. Our conversation must be such, that we may
evidence the communion we have had with God in
Christ, at the Lord's table. It is not enough to say,
that we have fellowship with him ; the vilest hypo-
crites pretend to that honour, but by walking in
416
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
darkness they disprove their pretensions, and ^ve
themselves the lie, 1 John i. 6. We must therefore
show that we have fellowship with him, hy walking
in the light, v. 7. and as he also walked, I John ii.
6. By keeping ap communion with God in provi-
dences, having our eyes ever toward him, and ac-
knowledging him in all our ways, receiving all our
comforts as the gifts of his bounty, and bearing all
our afflictions as his fatherly chastisements, we evi-
dence that we have had communion with him in
ordinances. They who converse much with scholars,
evidence it by the tongue of the learned ; as one
may likewise discover by the politeness and refined-
ness of a man's air and mien, that his conversation
has lain much with persons of quality. Thus they
who have communion with the holy God, should
make it to appear in all holy conversation, not suf-
fering any corrupt communication to proceed out of
their mouth, but abounding in that which is good,
and to the use of edifying, that by our speech and
behaviour it may appear what country we belong to.
When Peter and John acquitted themselves before
the council with such a degree of conduct and assur-
ance, as one could not have expected from unlearn-
ed and ignorant men, not acquainted with courts, or
camps, or academies, it is said, that they who mar-
velled at it, took knowledge of them that they had been
with Jesus, Acts iv. 13. And from those who had
been with Jesus, who had followed him, sat at his
feet, and eaten bread with him, very great things
might be expected. In this ordinance we have been
seeing his beauty, and tasting his sweetness, and
now we should live so, that all who converse with
us may discern it, and by our holy, heavenly con-
verse, may take knowledge of us that we have been with
Jesus,
II. Let us mention some particulars wherein we
ought in a special manner to approve ourselves well
after this solemnity, that as we have received Christ
Jesus the Lordy we may so walk in him. Col. ii. 6.
After we have been admitted into communion with
God, and have renewed our covenants with him at
his table, it behoves us to be careful in these six
things :
1. We must see to it, that we be sincerely devout
and pious. It is not enough that we live soberly and
righteously, but we must live godly, in this present
world, and our sacramental engagements should stir
us up to abound therein more and more. After an
interview with our friends, by which mutual ac-
quaintance is improved, and mutual affections con-
firmed, we are more constant and endearing in our
correspondence with each other; so we should be
with God, after this ordinance, more frequent in holy
ejaculations and breathings of soul toward God, in-
termixed even with common business and conversa-
tion ; more abundant in reading, meditation, and
solemn prayer ; more diligent in our attendance on
public ordinances ; more fixed and enlarged in eloiet
devotions, and more lively and affectionate in oer
family worship. Those religious exercises wfaerda
we have formerly been remiss and careless, easily
persuaded to put them by, or put them off, we should
now be more constant to, and more careful in ; more
close in our application to them, and more serioos
in our performance of them.
If we have indeed found that it is good for os to
draw near to God, we will endeavour to keep near
him, so near him, as upon every occasion to speak to
him, and to hear from him. If this sacrament has
been our delight, the word will be our delight, and
we shall daily converse with it ; prayer will be oar
delight, and we shall give ourselves to it, and con-
tinue instant in it They who have been feasted
upon the sacrifice of atonement, ought to abound in
sacrifices of acknowledgment, the spiritual sacrifices
of prayer and praise, and a broken heart, which are
acceptable to God through Christ Jesus ; and having
in our flock a male, we must offer that, and not a
corrupt thing.
It is the shame of many who are called Christians,
and have a name and a place in God's family, that
they are as backward and indifferent to holy duties,
as if they were afraid of doing too much good for
God and their own souls, and as if their chief care
were to know just how much will serve to bring them
to heaven, that they may do no more. They can be
content to go a mile, but they are not willing to go
twain. And does it become those on whom God has
sown so plentifully, to make their returns so spar-
ingly ? Ought we not rather to inquire what free-
will offerings we may bring to God's altar? and
how we may do more in religion than we have used
to do? They who have found what a good table
God keeps, and how welcome they have been to it,
should desire to dwell in his house all the days of
their life ; and blessed are they that do so, tkeywiU
he still praising him, Ps. xxvii. 4 ; Ixxxiv. 4.
2. We must see to it that we be conscientioasly
just and honest. We not only contradict our pro-
fession, and give ourselves the lie, but we reproach
the religion we profess, and give it the lie, if after
we have been at this sacrament, we deceive or de-
fraud our brother in any matter ; for this is that
which the Lord our God requires of us, that we do
justly, that is, that we never do wrong to any, in their
body, goods, or good name, and that we ever study
to render to all their due, according to the relation
we stand in, and the obligation we lie under, to them*
That, therefore, which is altogether just (justice^ juS'
tice, as the word is,) thou shalt follow, Deut. xri. 20.
There are many who make no g^at pretensions to
religion, and yet natural conscience, sense of honour,
and a regard to the conmion good, keep them strictly
just in all their dealings, and they would scorn to
do a base and dishonest thing; and shall not the
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
417
• bonds of this ordinance added to those inducements,
restrain us from CTcry thing that has but the ap-
pearance of fraud and injustice? A Christian! a
communicant ! and yet a cheat ! yet a man not to
be trusted, not to be dealt with but standing on one's
guard ! How can those be reconciled ? Will that
man be true to his God, whom he has not seen, that
Is false to his brother, whom he has seen ? Shall he
be intrusted with the true richet, who is not faithful
in the unrighteous mammon ? Luke xvi. 11.
Let the remembrance of our sacramental tows be
always fresh in our minds, to give a check to those se-
cret covetings which are the springs of all fraudulent
practices. I have disclaimed the world for a por-
tion, shall I then, for the compassing of a little of
its forbidden gain, wrong my brother, whom I ought
to do good to ; wrong my profession, which I ought
to adorn ; and wrong my own conscience, which I
ought to keep void of offence ? God forbid. I have
likewise renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
and promised not to walk in craftiness. By the
grace of God I will therefore ever have my convert
sation in the world in simplicity, and godly sincerity,
not with fleshly wisdom, 2 Cor. i. 12 ; iv. 2. They
who are so well skilled in the arts of deceit, as to
save themselves from the scandal of it, and to be
able to say with £phraim, though he had the balances
of deceit in his hand. In all my labours they shall
find no iniquity in me, that were sin, (Hos. xii. 7, 8.)
yet cannot thereby save themselves from the guilt
of it, and the ruin that attends it ; for doubtless the
Lord is the avenger of all such, 1 Thess. iv. 6. Those
who cheat their neighbours, cannot cheat their God,
but will prove in the end to have cheated themselves
into everlasting misery ; and what is a man profited,
if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
3. We must see to it, that we be religiously meek
and peaceable. We must not only come from this
ordinance in a calm and quiet frame, but we must
always keep ourselves in such a frame. By the
meekness and gentleness of Christ (which the apostle
mentions as a most powerful charm, 2 Cor. x. 1.)
let us be wrought upon to be always meek and
gentle, as those who have learned of him. The
storms of passion that are here appeased, must never
be suffered to make head again, nor must the
enmities that are here slain, ever be revived. Hav-
ing eaten of this gospel passover, we must all our
life long keep the feast, without the leaven of malice
and wickedness, I Cor. v. 8. Having been feasted
at Wisdom's table, we must always abide under the
conduct and influence of that wisdom which ia first
pure, and then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated.
Jam. iii. 17. God was greatly displeased with those
who, after they had released their bond-servants
according to the law, recalled their release, and
brought them into subjection again, Jer. xxxiv. 11,
17. And so will he be with those who seem to set
2 E
aside their quarrels when they come to the sacra-
ment, but as soon as the fervour of their devotion is
over, the heat of their passion returns, and they
resume their quarrels, and revive all their angry
resentments ; thereby making it to appear that they
did never truly forgive, and, therefore, never were
forgiven of God. Factum non dicitur quod non per-
severat — The reality of the act is only proved by per'
severing in it.
Let those who have had communion with God in
this ordinance, be able to appeal to their relations
and domestics, and all they converse with, concern-
ing this ; and to vouch them for witnesses, that they
have mastered their passions, and are grown more
mild and quiet in their families than sometimes they
have been, and that even when they are most pro-
voked, they know both how to hear reason, and how
to speak it. Whatever others do, let us never give
occasion to the enemies of the Lord to say, that the
seriousness of religion makes men sour and morose,
and that zeal in devotion disposes the mind to
peevishness and passion: but let us evidence the
contrary, that the grace of God does indeed make
men good-natured, and that the pleasures of serious
godliness make men truly cheerful and easy to all
about them. Having been here sealed to the day of
redemption, let us not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,
that blessed dove; and that we may not, let all
bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and
evil-speaking, be put away from us, with all malice, as
it follows there, Eph. iv. 30, 31.
4. We must see to it that we be strictly sober and
chaste. Gluttony and drunkenness, and fleshly
lusts, are as great a reproach as can be to those who
profess relation to Christ, and the expectation of
eternal life. It becomes those who have been feasted
at the table of the Lord, and have there tasted the
pleasures of the spiritual and divine life, to be dead
to all the delights of sense, and to make it appear
that they are so, by a holy indifference to them. Let
not the flesh be indulged to the prejudice of the
spirit, nor provision made for the fulfilling the lusts
thereof. Have we been entertained with the dainties
of heaven ? Let us not be desirous of the dainties
of sense, nor solicitous to have the appetite gratified,
and all our enjoyments to the highest degree pleas-
ing. When our Lord had instituted his supper, and
given this cup of blessing to his disciples, he added,
(Matt. xxvi. 29.) / will not drink henceforth of the
fruit of the vine ; now welcome the bitter cup, the
vinegar and the gall : teaching us after a sacrament
to sit more loose than before to bodily delights, and
to be better reconciled to hardships and disappoint-
ments in them. It was the sin and shame of the
Israelites in the wilderness, that while they were fed
with manna, angels' food, they lusted, saying, Who
will give us flesh to eat? And they sin after the
similitude of that transgression, who, when they
418
THE COMMUNICANTS COMPANION.
have eaten of the bread of life, and drank of the
water of life, yet continue to be as curious and
careful about their meat and drink, as if they
knew no better things, and had their happiness
bound up in them ; as if the kingdom of God were
in this sense meat and diink, and a Turkish Para-
dise were their heaven. Surely, they who are of
this spirit serve not our Lord Christ, but their own
bellies.
But if they thus shame themselves who indulge
the flesh, though their reason remains with them,
what shall we think of those, who, by their intem-
perance, put themselves quite out of the possession of
their own souls, disfit themselves for the service of
God, and level themselves with the beasts ? A Chris-
tian ! a communicant ! and yet a tippler, a drunkard,
a companion with those who run to this excess of
riot ! This, this is the sin that has been the scandal
and ruin of many, who, having begun in the spirit,
have thus ended in the flesh ; this is that which has
quenched the Spirit, hardened the heart, besotted the
head, debauched the conscience, withered the pro-
fession, and so has slain its thousands, and its ten
thousands. Against this sin, therefore, the Lord's
prophets must cry aloud, and not spare : of the dan- I
f er of this the watchmen are concerned to give warn- ,
ing : and dare those who partake of the cup of the
Lord, drink of the cup of devils? 1 Cor. x. 21. Can
there be so much concord between light and dark-
ness, between Christ and Belial ? No, there cannot,
these are contrary the one to the other. If men's
communicating will not break them off from their
drunkenness, their drunkenness must break tbcm off
from communicating; for these are spots in our
feasts of charity, and if God be true, drunkards shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. Let me, therefore,
with all earnestness, as one that desires to obtain
mercy of the Lord to be faithful, warn all who pro-
fess religion, and relation to Christ, to stand upon
their guard against this snare, which has been fatal
to multitudes. As you tender the favour of God, the
comforts of the Spirit, the credit of your profession,
and the welfare of your own souls here and hereafter,
take heed of being entangled in any temptations to
this sin. Shun the society of those evil-doers : ab-
stain from all the appearances of this sin : watch and
be sober : he who loved us, and washed us from our
sins in his own blood, has made its unto our God kings
and priests. Rev. i. 5, 6. Are we priests? This was the
law of the priesthood, and it was a law made upon
the occasion of the death of Nadab and Abihu, who
probably had erred through wine, (Lev. x. 9.) Do
not drink wine nor strong drink when ye go into the
tabernacle of the congregation. Are we king^ t It is
not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink
wine — lest they drink and forget the law, Prov. xxxi.
4, 5. It is not for Christians to drink to excess, and
to allow themselves in those riotings and reVellings,
which even the sober heathen condemned and ab-
horred.
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and laacin-
ousness, are likewise lusts of the fleah, and deilii{
to the soul, which therefore all those most caiefiny
avoid, who profess to be led by the Spirit ; they ue
abominable things, which the Lord hates, and wkkk
we also must hate. Are not our bodies templei d
the Holy Ghost? Dare we then defile them? kn
they not members of Christ? And shall we make
them the members of a harlot ? Let those who est of
the holy things, be holy both in body and spirit, aad
possess their vessel in sanetification and kotumr, sai
not in the lusts of uneUanness. Let those eyes neitr
be guilty of a wanton look, that haTe here leei
Christ evidently set forth crucified among^ us : letM
lewd, corrupt communication proceed ont of tkit
mouth into which God's covenant has been takn:
let no unclean, lascivious thoughts be ever haihov-
ed in that heart which the holy Jesns Tonchsafetto
dwell in. Let those who have eaten of Wisdon't
bread, and drank of the wine that she has miagled,
never hearken to the invitations of the foolisk
woman, who courts the unwary to stolen wattxii
and bread eaten in secret, under pretence thattky
are sweet and pleasant ; for the dead are tiere, ud
the guests are in the depths of hell^ FroT. ix. 17, 1&
5. We must see to it that we are abundantly di-
ritable and beneficent. It is not enough that we do
no hurt, but if we would order our convemtioB
aright ; we must, as we have opportunity, do good to
all men, as becomes those to whom God in Christ is
good, and does good, and who profess themseiva
the disciples and followers of him, w^ho went aboat
doing good. Shall we be selfish, and seek our on
things only, who have here seen how Christ humbkd
and emptied himself for us ? Shall we be spariig
of our pains for our brethren's good, who have hat
seen Christ among us as one that serveth, as one
that suflereth, and as one that came not to he wamt-
tered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a muem
for many ? Shall we be shy of speaking to, of speak-
ing for, our poor brethren, who have here seen ov
Lord Jesus not ashamed to own us and intercede
for us, notwithstanding our poverty and meaDaesf
Shall we be strait-handed in distributing to the l^
cessities of the saints, who have here found Chriit
so liberal and open-handed in imparting to as, lot
only the gospel of God, but even his own soul. After
we have been at this ordinance, we should showbov
much we are affected with our receiving there, br
being ready and forward to every good work : be-
cause our goodness extendetk not to God, it ongbt to
extend to the saints thai are in the earik, Psal. XfL
2, 3. Thus we must be followers of God sis iter
children ; we must walk in love, as here we see Cbrift
hath loved us, and gave himself for us, £ph. v. 1, 3*
6. We must see to it, that we be more taken of
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
4i&
from this world, and more taken up with another
world. A Christian then lives like himself, when
he lives above the things that are seen, which are
temporal, and looks upon them with a holy contempt ;
and keeps his eye fixed upon the things that are
not seen, which are eternal, looking upon them with
a holy concern. We are not called out of the world,
but we are not of it ; we belong to another world,
and are designed for it ; we must therefore seek the
things that are above, and not set our affections on
things beneath.
The thoughts of Christ crucified should wean us
from this world, and make us out of love with ^it :
the world knew him not, but hated him ; the princes
of this world crucified him, but he overcame the
world ; and we also, by faith in him, may obtain a
i^ictory over it, such a victory over it, that we may not
be entangled by its snares, encumbered with its cares,
or disquieted by its sorrows. By frequent meditation
on the cross of Christ, the world will be crucified to
us, and we to the world, (Gal. vi. 14.) that is, the
world and we should grow very indifferent one to
another, and no love shall be lost between us.
The thoughts of Christ glorified, should raise our
hearts to that blessed place where Christ sitteth on
the right hand of God, (Col. iii. 1.) and/roffitc;AeYic«
we loohfor the Saviour, Phil. iii. 20. When we com-
memorate Christ's entrance within the veil, as our
forerunner, and have good hopes of following him
shortly ; when we think of his being in paradise,
and of our being with him ; how should our affections
be carried out toward that joy of our Lord ! How
studious should we be to do the work of heaven, con-
form to the laws of heaven, and converse (as much
as may be) with the glorious society there ! Having
received the adoption of. sons, we should improve
our acquaintance with, and raise our expectations
of, the inheritance of sons.
CHAPTER XIV.
son B WORDS or COMFORT, WHICH THIS ORDINANCB 8PBAK8 TO
SERIOUS CHRISTIANS.
The Lord's supper was intended for the comfort of
good people, not only while they are actually at-
tending on God in it, but even after ; not only that
their joy may be full, but that this joy may remain
in them, John xv. 11. It is a feast which was made
for laughter ; not that of a fool, which terminates in
a sigh, and the end of it is heaviness, but that of
the truly wise man, who has learned to rejoice
evermore, yea, to rejoice in the Lord always : not
that of the hypocrite, whose triumphing is short, and
his joy but for a moment, (Job xx. 5.) but that of a
sincere Christian, whom God eauset always to triumph
in Christ, 2 Cor. ii. 14. The water that Christ here
2 E 2
gives, is designed to be a well of water, living water,
sending forth streams that make glad the city of our
God. The feast, if it be not our own fault, will be
to us a continual feast, and a breast of consolation,
from which we may daily suck and be satisfied.
1. It is the will of God that his people should be
a comforted people. The most evangelical part of
the prophecy of Isaiah begins with this, (ch. xl. 1.)
Comfort' ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God:
he takes pleasure in their prosperity, he delights to
see them cheerful, and to hear them sing at their
work, and sing in his ways. Religion was never
designed to make people melancholy ; Wisdom's ad-
versaries do her wrong, if they paint her in mourn-
ing, and Wisdom's children do not do her right, if
they give the occasion to do so ; for though they are,
like St. Paul, as sorrowful, yet they should be, like
him, always rejoicing, because though they seem
(perhaps) to l^ave nothing, yet really they possess all
things, 2 Cor. vi. 10. So good a Master do we serve,
that he has been pleased to twist interests with us,
and so to compound his glory and our comfort, that
in seeking the one we seek the other also. He has
made that to be our duty, which is indeed our great-
est privilege, and that is, to delight ourselves alway
in the Lord, and to live a life of complacency in him.
And it is the New-Testament character of a Christian
indeed, that he rejoiceth in Christ Jesus, Phil, iii.' 3.
2. Good Christians have (of all people) most rea-
son to rejoice, and be comforted. As for those who
are at a distance from God, and out of covenant
with him, they have reason to be afflicted, and mourn,
and weep : Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy as other
people, for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God,
Hos. ix. 1. To them who eat of the forbidden tree
of knowledge, this tree of life also is forbidden ; but
those who devote themselves to God, have all the
reason in the world to delight themselves in God.
They who ask the way to Sion, with their faces thi-
therward, though they go weeping to seek the Lord
their God, (Jer. 1. 4, 5.) yet they shall go on rejoic-
ing, when they have found him ; for they cannot but
find the way pleasantness, and the paths of it peace.
Have not they reason to smile, on whom God smiles?
If God has put grace into the heart, has he not put
gladness there, and a new song into the mouth ? Is
Christ proclaimed King in the soul ? And ought it
not to be done with acclamations of joy ? Is the
atonement received, and the true treasure found ?
And shall we not rejoice with joy unspeakable?
Have we good hope (through grace) of entering
shortly into the joy of our Lord ? And have not we
cause now to rejoice in hope of it ?
3. Yet those who have so much reason to rejoice,
are often cast down, and in sorrow, and not altoge-
ther without cause. This state of probation and
preparation is a mixed state, and it is proper enough
it should be so, for the trial and exercise of various
4*20
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
graces, and thai God's power may have the praise
of keeping the balance even. In those whose hearts
are visited by the Day-spring from on high, the light
is neither clear nor dark, it is neither day nor night,
Zcch. xiv. 6, 7. They have their comforts, which
they would not exchange for the peculiar treasure
of kings and princes ; but withal they have their
crosses, under which they groan, being burthened.
They have their hopes, which are as an anchor to the
soul, both sure and stedfast, entering into that with-
in the veil ; but withal they have their fears, for
their warfare is not yet accomplished, they have not
yet attained, neither are already perfect. They have
their joys, such as the world can neither give nor
take away ; joys that a stranger does not intermeddle
with ; but withal they have their griefs, their way to
Canaan lies through a wilderness, and their way to
Jerusalem through the valley of Baca : their Master
was himself a man of sorrows , and acquainted with
grief, and they are to be his followers. While we
are here, we must not think it strange, if for a season,
when need is, we are in heaviness ; we cannot ex-
pect to reap in joy hereafter, unless we sow in tears.
We must not, therefore, think that either the present
happiness of the saints, which in this world they are
to expect, or their present holiness, which in this
world they are to endeavour after, consists in such
delights and joys, as leave us room for any mourning
and sense of trouble : no, there is sorrow that is a
godly sorrow; a jealousy of ourselves, that is a
godly jealousy : it is only a perfect love that casts
out all fear and all grief, which we are not to expect
in this imperfect state. All tears shall not be wiped
away from our eyes, nor shall sorrows and sighing
quite flee away, till we come to heaven : while wc
are here, we are in a vale of tears, and must conform
to the temper of the climate ; we are at sea, and
must expect to be tossed with tempests ; we are in
the camp, and must expect to be alarmed : while
without are fightings, no wonder that within are
fears.
4. Our Lord Jesus has, therefore, provided such
comfort for the relief of his people (in their present
sorrowful state) as may serve to balance their griefs,
and keep them from being pressed above measure ;
and he has instituted holy ordinances (and espe-
cially this of the Lord's supper) for the application
of those comforts to them, that they may never fear,
may never be sorry, as those that have no hope, or
no joy. The covenant of grace (as it is ministered
in the everlasting gospel) has in it a salve for every
sore, a remedy for every malady ; so that they who
have an interest in that covenant, and know it, may
triumph with blessed Paul, (2 Cor. iv. 8, 9.) Though
we are troubled on every side, yet we are not distress-
ed; perplexed sometimes, but (thanks be to God)
7iot in despair ; persecuted by men, but not forsaken
uf God ; cast down and drooping, but not destroyed
and lost. This is that which bears them up imder
all their burthens, comforts them in all their griefi,
and enables them to rejoice in tribulation. God if
theirs, and they are his, and he has m&tle with tkem
an everlasting covenant , well ordered in mil things, aad
sure ; and this is all their salvation and mU their d^
sire, however it be, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5.
The word of God is written to them for tliif
end, That their joy may be full, (1 John i. 4.) and
that, through patience and comfort of the Scrip-
tures, they may have hope, Rom. xv. 4. Preciou
promises are there treasured up, to be the foandt-
tions of their faith and hope, and consequently the
fountains of their joy. Songs of thanksgiving are
there drawn up for them, to refresh themselTes with
in their weary pilgrimage, and to have recourse to,
for the silencing of their complaints. Ministers are
appointed to be the helpers of their joy, (2 Cor. i.
24.) and to speak comfort to such as mourn in Zion.
The sabbath is the day which the Lord has made for
this very end, that they may rejoice and be glad is
it Prayer is appointed for the ease of troubled
spirits, that in it they may pour out their complaiots
before God, and fetch in comfort from him ; AA,
and you shall receive, that your joy may htfutt. This
sacrament was ordained for the comfort of good
Christians, for the confirmation of their faith, in order
to the preservation and increase of their joy; and
they ought to improve it, both for the strengtheniiig
of the habit of holy cheerfulness, and their actual
encouragement against the several particular griev-
ances of this present time. And there is no com-
plaint which a good Christian has cause to make at
any time, which he may not qualify, and keep from
growing clamorous, by comforts dravni from what be
has seen and tasted, what he has done and received
at the Lord's table. Let us therefore be daily draw-
ing water out of these wells of salvation, and when
our souls are cast down and disquieted within us,
let us fetch arguments from our communion with
God in this ordinance, both in chiding them for their
despondency, and encouraging them to hope and
rejoice in God. What is it that grieves and oppresses
us ? Why is our countenance sad, and why go we
mourning all the day long ? Whatever the occasion
of the heaviness is, let it be weighed in the balances
of the sanctuary, and I dare say there is that com-
fort to be fetched from this ordinance, which is
sufficient to be set in the scale against it, and out-
weigh it. Let us mention some of the most common
causes of our trouble, and try what relief we may
from hence be furnished with.
I. Are we disquieted and discouraged by the re-
membrance of our former sins and provocations?
There is that here which will help to quiet and en-
courage us in reference to this. Conscience some-
times calls to mind the sins of the unconverted state,
and charges them home upon the soul, especially if
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION,
421
they were heinous and scandalous ; it repeats the
reproach of the youth ; reminds us of old quarrels*
and aggravates them ; rakes in the old wounds, and
makes them bleed afresh ; and hence the disconso-
late soul is ready to draw such hard conclusions as
t these : '* Surely it is impossible that so great a sin-
ner as I have been, should be pardoned and accept-
ed ; that such a prodigal should be welcomed home,
and such a publican ever And mercy ! Can I ex-
pect to share in that grace which I so long slighted
c and sinned against ? or to be taken into that cove-
nant which I have so often cast away the cords of?
Will the holy God take one into the embraces of his
love, who has been so vile and sinful, and fitter to be
made a monument of his wrath ? Can there be any
hope for me? or if there be some hope, yet, can
there be any joy ? If I may (through a miracle of
mercy) escape hell at last, which I have deserved a
thousand times, yet ought I not to weep my eyes
out, and to go softly all my yean in the bitiemest of
my soul? Isa. xxxviii. 15. Ought I not to^ro down
to the grave mourning ? Gen. xxxvii. 35. Should
not my soul now refuse to be comforted, which so
long rel'used to be convinced ?"
These are black and sad thoughts, and enough to
sink the spirit, if we had not met with that at the
Lord's table, which gives a sufficient answer to all
these challenges. We have been g^eat sinners, but
there we have seen the great Redeemer, able to save
to the uttermost all that come to God by him ; and
have there called him by that name of his, which is
as ointment poured forth. The Lord our Righteous-
nets. Our sins have reached to the heavens, but
there we have seen God's mercy in Christ reaching
beyond the heavens. We have been wretchedly de-
filed in our own ways, but there we have seen not
only a laver but a fountain opened for the house of
David to wash in, and have been assured that the
blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin, even that
which (for the heinousness of its nature, and the
multitude of its aggravations) has been as scarlet and
crimson, Isa. i. 18. That article of the covenant,
which is so expressive of a general pardon, has been
sealed to me, upon gospel terms, Heb. viii. 12. For
I will be merciful to tlteir unrighteousness, and their
sins and their iniquities will I remember no more;
and this I rely upon. Great sinners have obtained
mercy ; and why may not I ?
And though an humble remembrance of sin will
be of use to us all our days, yet such a disquieting
remembrance of it, as hinders our faith in Christ,
and our joy in God, is by no means good ; even sor-
row for sin may exceed due bounds, and penitents
may be swallowed up with over-much sorrow, 2 Cor.
ii. 7. The covenant of grace speaks not only pardon,
hot peace to all believers ; and not only sets the
broken bones, but makes them to rejoice, Ps. li. 8.
When it says, Thy sins be forgiven thee, it says also,
Son, Daughter, be of good cheer. Matt. ix. 2. It is
the duty of those who have received the atonement,
to take the comfort of it, and to joy in God, through
our Lord Jesus Christ, Rom. v. 11. Acts of self-
denial and mortification are means and evidences of
our sanctification, and such as we ought to abound in ;
but they are not the ground of our justification. It is
Christ's blood that makes the satisfaction, not our
tears. Therefore we must not so remember former
sins, as to put away present comforts. A life of re-
pentance will very well consist with a life of holy
cheerfulness.
II. Are we disquieted and discouraged by the
sense of our sins of daily infirmity ? There is that
here which will be a relief against this grievance also.
I have not only former guilt to reflect upon, con-
tracted in the daysof my ignorance and unbelief; but
alas, I am still sinning, sinning daily ! God knows,
and my own heart knows, that in many things I do
offend : I come short of the rule, and short of the
glory of God every day. Vain thoughts lodge with
me ; idle words proceed from me. If I would count
either the one or the other, they are more in number
than the sand. When I think of the strictness and
extent of the divine law, and compare my own heart
and life with it, I find that innumerable evils com-
pass me about. Neglects of duty are many, and
negligences in duty are more. Who can tell how
often he offends ? If the righteous God should enter
into judgment with me, and be extreme to mark
what I do amiss, I were not able to answer him for
one of a thousand. It might have been expected,
that when the God of mercy had, upnn my repent-
ance, forgiven the rebellions of my sinful state,
taken me into his family, and made me as one of
his hired servants, nay, as one of his adopted chil-
dren, that I should have been a dutiful child, and a
diligent servant ; but, alas, I have been slothful and
trifling, and in many instances undutiful ; I am very
defective in my duty, both to my Master, and to my
fellow-servants, and in many things transgress daily.
For these things I weep ; mine eye, mine eye runs
down with tears.
But there is that in this ordinance which may keep
us from sinking under this burthen, though we have
cause enough to complain of it. It is true, I am
sinning daily ; and it is my sorrow and shame that I
am so ; but the memorial of that great sacrifice which
Jesus Christ offered once for all upon the cross, is
therefore continually to be celebrated on earth, be-
cause the merit of it is continually pleaded in hea-
ven, where Christ ever lives to make intercession in
the virtue of his satisfaction. Having therefore
celebrated the memorial of it at the table of the
Lord, here in the outer court, I ought to take the
comfort of the continual efficacy of it within the
veil, and its prevalency for the benefit of all believers.
The water out of the rock, the rock smitten, follow^L
422
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
God's Israel through this wilderness ; in the precious
streams, of which, they that are washed are welcome
to wash their feet from the pollutions they contract
in their daily walk through this defiling world ; and
the best have need of this washing, John xiii. 10.
That needful word of caution, That we nn not, is
immediately followed with this word of comfort,
but If any man tin, we have an Advocate with the
Father ; one to speak for us, and to plead our cause :
and he has a good plea to put in on our behalf, for
he is the propitiation for our tins, 1 John ii. 1, 2.
Add to this, that the covenant of g^ace, which is
sealed to us in this ordinance, is so well ordered in
all things, and so sure, that every transgression in
the covenant does not presently throw us out of the
covenant. We do not stand upon the same terms
that Adam in innocency did, to whom the least
failure was fatal : no ; to us God has proclaimed his
'Aome gracious and merciful ^forgiving iniquity, trans-
gression, and sin. If we mourn for our sins of daily
infirmity, are ashamed of them, and humble our-
selves for them ; if we strive, and watch, and pray
against them, we may be sure they shall not be laid
unto our charge, but in Christ Jesus they shall be
forgiven to us ; for we are under grace, and not
under the law. The God we are in covenant with,
is a God of pardon, (Neh. ix. 17.) with him there is
forgiveness, Ps. cxxx. 4. We are instructed to pray
for daily pardon, as duly as we pray for daily bread ;
and encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace
for mercy : so that, though there be a remembrance
of sins made every day, yet, thanks be to God*
there may be a remembrance made of the sacrifice
for sin, by which an everlasting righteousness was
brought in.
III. Are we disquieted and discouraged by the
sad remainders of indwelling corruption ? We may
hence derive support under this burthen. All that
are enlightened from on high, lament the original
sin that dwells in them, as much as the actual trans-
gressions that are committed by them ; not only that
they are defective in doing their duty, but that they
labour under a natural weakness and inability for
it; not only that they are often overtaken in a fault,
but that they have a natural proneness and inclina-
tion to that which is evil. It was the bitter com-
plaint of blessed Paul himself; O wretched man that
I am ! who sliall deliver me from the body of this
death ? Rom. vii. 24. and it is the complaint of all
that are spiritually alive, while they are here in this
imperfect state.
The most intelligent find themselves in the dark,
and apt to mistake; the most contemplative find
themselves unfixed, and apt to wander; the most
active for God, find themselves dull, and apt to tiro:
when the spirit through grace is willing, yet the flesh
is weak ; and when we would do good, evil is present
with us. Corrupt appetites and passions often get
bead, and betray us into many indecencies. This
makes the heart sad, and the hands feeble ; and by
reason of these remaining cormptions, many a good
Christian loses the comfort of bis g^races. l^icie
Canaanites in the land are as thorns in the eyes, and
goads in the side, of many an Israelite.
But be not cast down, my soul; the covenant
which was sealed to thee at the table of the Lord,
was a covenant of grace, which accepts sincerity at
gospel perfection ; not a covenant of innooeilcy,
which accepts of nothing less than a sinless, spotless
purity. Were not these complaints poured oat be-
fore the Lord ? and did he not say. My praet is
sufficient for tliee? And what canst thou desire more?
2 Cor. xii. 9. Were not orders given at the ban-
quet of wine, for the crucifying of the adversary and
enemy, this wicked Haman ; so that though it be
not yet dead, it is a body of death, and ere long it
shall be put ofi* for ever ? Was it not there said to
thee, was it not sealed. That sin shall not hsnfe dommiom
over thee ; but the God of peace shall bruise Satan
under thy feet shortly ? so that, though he may for t
while disturb thy peace, and his troops nuiy foil
thee ; yet, like God in Jacob's blessing, thoii shalt
overcome at the last, Gen. xlix. 18. The bruised
reed shall not be broken, nor the smoking flax
quenched ; but judgment shall in due time be
brought forth unto victory; grace shall get the
upper hand of corruption, and be a conqueror, yea
more than a conqueror, through him that loved us !
Come then, come set thy feet upon the necks of these
kings, and rejoice in hope of a complete vietory
at last. These lusts which war against thee, make
war with the Lamb too, and oppose his interests ;
but for certain the Lamb shall overcome them ; for
he is Lord of lords, and King of kings ; and they
that are with him are called, and chosen, andfaiikfid.
Rev. xvii. 14. Thou hast seen on how firm a rock
the kingdom of God within thee is built, and mayst
be sure that the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it Christ has given thee a banner to be
displayed because of the truth, and through him thou
shalt do valiantly, for he it is that shall tread down
thy enemies, Ps. Ix. 4, 12.
Go on, my soul, go on to flght the Lord's battles,
by a vigorous resistance of sin and Satan ; maintain
a constant guard upon all the motions of thy spiritual
enemies ; hold up the shield of faith, and draw the
sword of the Spirit, against all their assaults. Sup-
press the first risings of corruption ; make no pro-
vision for it ; resolve not to yield to it ; waik in the
Spirit, that thou mayst not fulfil the lusts of the
flesh. Never make league with these Canaanites ;
but vex these Midianites, and smite them ; mortify
this body of death, and all its members ; strengthen
such principles, and dwell upon such considerations,
as are proper for the weakening of the powerof sinfol
lusts. And then be of good comfort, this house of
THE CbMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
423
Saal shall grow weaker and weaker, and the house
of David stronger and stronger. Thon hast seen, my
F soul, thou hast tasted the hread and wine which the
^ Lord Jesus, that hiessed Melchisedeck, has provided
•* for the support and refreshment of all the followers
of faithful Abraham, when they return weary (and
' wounded perhaps) from their spiritual conflicts.
1 Make use of this provision then ; feast upon it daily,
> and go on in the strength of it Thank God (as St
F Paul did in the midst of these complaints) for Jesus
Christ ; who has not only prayed for thee, that thy
faith fail not, but is now, like Moses, interceding
on the top of the hill, while thou art, like Joshua,
fighting with these Amalekites in the valley. Be
faithful, therefore, to the death, and thou shalt
shortly have a place in that New Jerusalem, into
which no unclean thing shall enter. Now thou
^roanest, being burthened ; but in heaven there
shall be none of these complaints, nor any cause for
(hem.
IV . Does the trouble arise from prevailing doubts
and fears about thy spiritual state ? We may draw
that from this ordinance, which will help us to
silence those fears, and solve those doubts, and to
clear it np to us, that God in Christ is ours, and
we are his ; and that all shall be well shortly. Many
good Christians, though they are so far willing to
hope the best concerning themselves, as not to de-
cline coming to the Lord's table, and there perhaps
they meet with some satisfaction ; yet, afterwards
the tide of their comforts ebbs, a sadness seizes their
spirits, the peace they have had they suspect to
have been a delusion, and are ready to give up all
for gone. Unbelief makes hard conclusions, clouds
the evidences, shakes the hopes, withers the joys ;
suggests that it is as good to give off all pious pur-
suits, as thus to keep them up in vain ; as good to
make a captain, and return into Egypt, as to perish
in this wilderness ; for this is not the way to Canaan.
And thus many are kept from entering into the
present sabbatism, or rest, which is intended for the
people of God in this life, by unbelief, Heb. iv. 9, 11.
But, O thou of little faith ! wherefore dost thou
doubt ? Come, call to remembrance the former days,
the former sacrament days, and the sweet commu-
nion thou hadst with God in them ; days never to
be forgotten. Thou doubtest whether God loves
tbec ; and thou art ready to say as they did, (Mai.
i. 52.) Wherein hath he loved me ! But dost thou not
remember the love tokens he gave thee at his table,
when he embraced thee in the arms of his grace,
kissed thee with the kisses of his mouth, and his
banner over thee was love. Thou doubtest whether
thou be a child of God, and a chosen vessel or no,
and art sometimes tempted to say. Surely the Lord
kmih utterly separated me from his people, and I am
a dry tree, Isa. Ivi. 3. How should he set me among
the children, and give me a pleasant land? Jer. iii. 19.
But, dost thou not remember the children's bread
thou hast been fed with at thy Father's table, and
the Spirit of adoption there sent forth into thy
heart, teaching thee to cry, Abbaj Father? Thou
calledst thyself a prodigal, and no more worthy to
be accounted a son, because thou didst bear the
reproach of thy youth, which made thee ashamed,
yea, even confounded ; but, did not God at the same
time call thee, as he did penitent Ephraim, a dear
son, a pleasant child ? Were not his bowels troubled
for thee? and did be not say, / will surely have
mercy on thee? Jer. xxxi. 18 — ^20. Did not thy
Father meet thee with tender compassions ? Did he
not call for the best robe, and put it on thee ? Did
he not invite thee to the fatted calf, and, which
was best of all, gave thee a kiss, which sealed thy
pardon ? And wilt thou now call that point in ques-
tion, which was then so well settled ? Is God a man,
that he should lie, or the son of man, tliat he should
repent ? No, he is God, and no man. Thou doubtest
whether Christ be thine or no ; whether thou hast
any interest in his mediation or intercession ; whe-
ther he died for thee or no : but didst thou not at his
table accept of him to be thine, and consent to him
upon his own terms ? Didst thou not say to him,
with thy finger in the print of the nails. My Lord,
and my God ? And did he not answer thee with good
words, and comfortable words, saying unto thee, /
am thy salvation ? Hast thou revoked the bargain ?
or dost thou fear that he will revoke it? Was it
not an everlasting covenant, never to be forgotten ?
Why art thou troubled ? And why do thoughts arise
in thy heart ? Was not Christ present with thee, and
did he not show himself well affected to thee, when
at his table he said to thee. Behold my hands and my
feet, that it is I myself Luke xxiv. 38, 39.— Thou
doubtest whether thou hast any grace or no, any love
to God, any faith, any repentance ; but hast thou
forgotten God's workings on thy heart, and the
workings of tliy heart toward God at his table ? Did
not thy heart bum within thee, when thy dear Ke-
deemer talked with thee there ? Didst thou not sit down
under his shadow with delight, and say. It is good
to be here ? Didst thou not desire a sign of the Lord,
a token for good ? Didst thou not say. Do not deceive
me? and was there not a token for good showed
thee? Was not thy heart melted for sin? Was it
not drawn out toward God ? Did it not appear that
God was with thee of a truth? Wherefore, then,
dost thou doubt of that which thou hadst then such
comfortable evidences of ? Why sayest thou, O Jacob,
and speahest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord,
and my judgment is passed over from my God? Why
dost thou entertain such hard thoughts of God and
thy own state ? Hast thou not known, hast thou not
heard, that the everlasting God, even tlie Lord, the
Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither
it weary ? Isa. xl. 27, 28.
421
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
And why art thoa fearfal and faint-hearted?
Why dost thou look forward with terror and trem-
bling, while thou hast so much reason to look for-
ward with hope and rejoicing ? Alas, (says the trou-
bled spirit,) God has cast me off out of his sight, and
I fear will cast off for ever, and will be favour-
able no more; I shall no more see the Lord, even
the Lord in the land of the living ! My comforts are
removed, and all my pleasant things are laid waste !
My honet are dried, my liope is lost, and I am cut off
for my part, Ezek. xxxvii. 11. But hearken to this,
thou who thus fearest continually every day; dost
thou not remember the encouragements Christ gave
thee at his table to hope in him, and to expect all
good from him ? Does he not say, / will never leave
thee, nor forsake thee ? and didst thou not promise
that thou wouldst never leave nor forsake him ?
Nay, did he not promise to put his fear into thy
heart, that thou might^t not depart from him ? He
did : and is not he faithful that hath called thee?
faithful that hath promised, who also will do it?
Thou art afraid that some time or other Satan will be
too hard for thee, and thou shalt one day perish by his
hand : but hast thou not had that precious promise
sealed to thee, that the faithfuhGod will never suffer
thee to be tempted above what thou art able, but will
with the temptation make a way for thee to escape ? 1
Cor. X. 13. His providence shall proportion the
trial to the strength ; or (which comes all to one) his
grace shall proportion the strength to the trial. Thou
art afraid that after all thou shalt come short ; that
by reason of the violence of the storm, the treachery
of the sea, and, especially, thy own weakness and
unskilfulness, thou shalt never be able to weather
the point, and get safe into the harbour at last : but
shall I ask thee, thou that followest Christ thus trem-
bling, Dost thou not know whom thou hast believed ?
Is thy salvation intrusted with thyself, and lodged
in thy own hands ? No, it is not ; if it were, thou
wouldst have reason to fear the loss of it : but has
not God committed it, and hast not thou committed
it, to the Lord Jesus ? and is not he able to keep that
which is committed to him against that day, that great
day, when it shall be called for? Is not that a di-
vine power, which keeps ihce, a divine promise,
which secures thee ? Be not fearful, then, be not
faithless, but believing.
V. Are we disquieted and discouraged by the
troubles and calamities of this life ? From our com-
munion with God in the ordinance of the Lord's
supper, we may fetch comfort and support under all
the afflictions of this present time, whatever they be.
Our Master instituted this sacrament. in the night
wherein he was betrayed ; and soon after he put off
the body, and pleasantly said, A'oir / am no more in
the world: but when we have received this sacra-
ment, we find ourselves still in a world which is vex-
ation of spirit ; the soul ^till in a house of clay.
liable to many shocks; and ao close is the onioD be-
tween the soul and the body, that what toachcs fto
bone and the flesh, cannot but affect the spirit tt
second-hand. We are bom, and bom again, li
troubles ; besides that, we are exposed with othenli
the common calamities of human life, and the per-
secutions which all that will live godly in Cluirt
Jesus must count upon. We are under the disci-
pline of sons, and must look for chastisement Aflio-
tions are not only consistent with the love of God,
but they flow from it; As many as I love, I reMe
and chasten. They are not only reconcilable with fte
covenant, but a branch of it : — / mnll ekmsUn their
transgressions with the rod, and their sin with stripes,
is an article of the agreement with David and kis
seed, with this comfortable clause added ; Neverthe-
less my loving-kindness will I not utterly take /rem
him: — My covenant will I not hreeJt^ Ps. Ixxxix.
32,33.
There is no disputing against sense : Christianity
was not designed to make men stocks and stonei,
and stoics under their calamities. No affUetian/er
the present is joyous but grievous : hence the best
men, as they have their share of trouble, so they
cannot but have the sense of it: that is allowed tbesi,
they groan, being bnrthened. But this sense of
trouble is apt to exceed due bounds : it is hard to
grieve, and not to over-grieve ; to lay to heart in
aflliction, and not to lay it too near the heart When
grief, or any outward trouble, overwhelms our spiiiti,
imbitters our comforts, hinders our joy in €rod,
stops the mouth of praise, takes off our chariot
wheels, and makes us drive heavily in our way to
heaven ; then it is excessive and inordinate, tod
turns into sin to us. When sorrow fills the heart,
and plays the tyrant there ; when it makes us fret-
ful and impatient, and breaks forth into quarrels
with God and his providence, and robs us of the en-
joyment of ourselves, our friends, and our God ; itii
an enemy that we are concerned to take up aims
against
And from our sacramental covenants and comforts
we may fetch plenty of arguments against the un-
reasonable insinuations of inordinate gjief. Did I
not see at the table of the Lord, a lively representa-
tion of the sufferings of Christ, the variety and ex-
tremity of his sufferings ? Did I not see his tears,
his sweats, his agonies, his stripes, the pain and
shame he underwent ? And is the servant better then
his master, and the disciple than his Lord? Did
Christ go by the cross to the crown, and shall a
Christian expect to go any other way ? The Captain
of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings,
and have not we much more need of them, for the
perfecting of what is lacking in us ? Is not this one
part of our conformity to the image of Christ that
as he was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
griffs, so we should, that he might be thefirst-bem
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
436
mumg man^ brethren ? A sight of Christ's afflictions
should reconcile us to our own ; especially if we
consider, not only what he suffered, but how he suf-
fered, and with what an invincible patience and
cheerful submission to his Father's will, leaving us
4m example, 1 Pet. ii. 21. Have we so often cele-
Inraied the memorial of Christ's sufferings, and have
we not yet learned of him to say, The cup that my
Father hath given me, shall I not drinh it ? Though
it be a bitter cup. Father, not my will, hut thy will
he done. Have we not yet learned of him, who was
led as a lamb to the slaughter, to be dumb, and not
to open our mouths against any thing that God does
lo forgive our enemies, and pray for oar persecutors,
and cheerfully to commit ourselves to him that
jodgeth righteously? Let the same mind be in us,
which here we have seen to be in Christ Jesus.
Yet this is not all : in the Lord's supper we give
up ourselves, and all we have, unto the Lord, with a
promise to acquiesce in all the disposals of his pro-
Tidence, concerning us and ours ; let us not, there-
fore, by our discontent and uneasiness, revoke the
■urrender which we then made, or go counter to it.
We there said it, and sealed it, that we would be the
Lord's, and may he not do what he will with his
ewn, especially when it is so by his own consent ?
God there said it, and sealed it to us, that he would
be to us a Father ; and can we take any thing amiss
fnHn a Father, such a Father, who never chastens
us but for our profit, that we may be partakers of
his holiness ? Inviolable assurances were there given
to us, that all things should work together for our
present good, and for our future glory ; that as
afDictions abound, consolations shall so much the
more abound ; and some experience we there had
of the sweetness and power of those consolations,
irhich we ought to treasure up, that we may have
them ready for our supports in the evil day. Can
We forget how sweet God's smiles were which there
We saw ? how reviving his comforts were which
there we tasted ? And are not those sufficient to
countervail the loss of the world's flattering smiles,
and the comforts we have in the creature ? It is ge-
nerally supposed, that the comfortable sermon which
Christ preached to his disciples on that text. Let not
your hearts he troubled, (John xiv.) immediately fol-
lowed the administration of the Lord's supper ; for
it is the will of Christ, that those whom he has raised
up to sit with him by faith in heavenly places, should
not be cast down and disquieted for any cross or dis-
appointment in earthly things.
Art thou sick, languishing, perhaps, under . some
wasting distemper, which consumes thy strength and
beauty like a moth ? Or chastened it may be with
pain upon thy bed, and the multitude of thy bones
with strong pain ? Or labouring under the infirmities
and decays of old age ? Take comfort then from thy
eommanion with the Lord at his table. Didst thou
not see tl^ere how Christ himself bore our sicknesses,
and carried our sorrows, when he bore our sins in
his own body upon the tree, and so took away the
sting of them, extracted out of them the wormwood
and the gall, which he himself drank in a bitter cup,
and infused into them the comforts of his love, which
he has given us to drink of? Didst not thou there
receive a sealed pardon ? Did not God, in love to
thy soul, cast all thy sins behind thy back, and tell
thee so ? Thou hast then no reason to complain of
bodily distempers : (Isa. xxxili. 24.) The inhabitant
shall not say, I am sich : How so ? How can one that
is sick, avoid saying, I am sick ? Why, it follows.
The people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their
iniquity. And sickness is nothing, or next to nothing,
to those who know their sins are pardoned. When
thou didst present thy body to God in that ordinance
a living sacrifice, and didst engage that it should
be for the Lord, was it not graciously added — and
the Lord for thy body, 1 Cor. vi. 13. And if the Lord
be for thy body, he will strengthen thee upon the bed
of languishing ; and though he may not presently
help thee off it, yet he will sit by thee, and (which
speaks the wonderful condescension of divine
goodness) he will make all thy bed in thy sichnesSf
Ps. xli. 3. And that bed cannot but be made easy,
which he has the making of.
Art thou poor, crossed in thy affairs, disappointed
in lawful and hopeful designs, clogged with cares,
and perhaps reduced to straits ? Let the spiritual
riches secured to thee in that sealing ordinance, be
a balance to the affliction of outward poverty. The
God of truth has said, and thou mayst rely upon it,
that those who fear him, and seek him, shall not want
any good thing ; not any thing that infinite wisdom
sees really good for them. Trust in the Lord, there-
fore, and do good with the little thou hast, so shalt
thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed, Ps.
xxxvii. 3. It is not promised that thou shalt be
feasted with varieties and dainties ; those who are
feasted at God's table need not complain, though
they be not feasted at their own ; but thou shalt be
fed, fed with food convenient for thee. Some good
Christians, who have been in a very poor condition,
have said, that they have made many a meal upon
the promises, when they wanted bread : Verily thou
shalt be fed ; pascere fide, so the learned Junius
reads it, be fed by faith ; and compares it with Hab.
ii. 4. The just shall live by his faith ; and good liv-
ing, good feeding it is. Though the fig-tree do not
blossom, and thei-e be no fruit in the vine, yet, while
thou hast in the Lord's supper seen the rose of Sha-
ron blossoming, and tasted the fruit of the true vine,
thou hast reason enough, however it be, to rejoice in
the Lord, and to joy in the God of thy salvation, Hab.
iii. 17, 18.
Are thy relations a grief to thee ? Do those afflict
thee of whom thou saidst. These same shall comfort
426
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
me .' Suppose thy yoke-fellow unsuitable, children
undatiful, parents unkind, friends ungrateful, neigh-
bours injurious, yet the comfort of our relation to
God may suffice to make up the loss of comfort in
any relation on earth. If man be false, yet God is
faithful: if man be harsh, yet God is gracious.
Though the waters of our rivers may be muddied,
or turned into blood, yet the fountain of life runs
always clear, and its stream as pure as crystal,
Rey. xxii. 1. It was upon the supposition of family
disappointments, that David, in his last words, took
comfort from the covenant of grace made with him,
2 Sam. xxiii. 5.
Are those who are dear to thee removed from thee
by death ? It is fit that which is so sown should be
watered ; but sacrament comforts will keep us from
sorrowing, as those that have no hope, for them that
sleep in Jesus, We have lost the satisfaction we
used to have in them, but is not God better to us than
ten sons, far better than ten thousand such relations
could have been ? And yet they are not lost, they
are only gone before, and death itself cannot wholly
cut us off from communion with them, for we are
eome to the spirits of just men made perfect, and hope
to be with them shortly, Heb. xii. 23.
Are the calamities of the church and of the na-
tion our affliction ? It is fit they should be so, for we
have eaten and drank into the great body, and as
living members must feel from its grievances ; but
in the Lord's supper we have seen what provision
the grace of God has made for his household, and
thence may infer the protection under which the
providence of God will always keep it safe. The
promises that are sealed to us, are sure to all the
seed, and the covenant of grace is the rock on which
the church is built so firm, that the gates of hell shall
never prevail against it. The Lord (we see) hath
founded Sion, and the poor of his people shall trust to
that. Let us at this ordinance learn this new song,
and sing it often. Hallelujah, The Lord God Omnipo-
tent reigneth,
VI. Are the fears of death a trouble and terror to
us ? We may fetch from the Lord's supper that which
will enable us, through grace, to triumph over these
fears. This is a fear which is often found to have
torment, and by reason of it many weak Christians
have been all their life-time subject to bondage,
Heb. ii. 15. It is likewise a fear which often brings
a snare, exposes us to many temptations, and gives
Satan advantage against us. There are many, who
(we hope) through grace are saved from the second
death, and yet are afraid of the first death ; being
more solicitous than they need to be about a dying
life, and more timorous than they need to he of a
living death, a death that is their way to life.
But the arrests of death, and its harbingers, would
not be at all dreadful, if we did but know how to
make a due improvement of the comforts we were
made partakers of at the table of the Lord We
there saw Christ dying ; dying so great a death, t
death in pomp, armed and attended with all its ter-
rors ; dying in pain, in shame, in darkness, in ago-
nies ; and yet the Son of God, and the heir of all
things. This takes off the reproach of death; io
that now we need not be ashamed to die : If Chiiit
humbled himself, and became obedient to death, why
should not we? It likewise takes off the tenor (rf
death, so that now we need not be afraid to die.
When we walk through that dark and dismal Tallej,
we have no reason to fear any evil ; while the great
Shepherd of the sheep is not only gone before w,
but goes along with us, his rod and his staff ttcj
comfort us, Ps. xxiii. 4. He is our leader ; and we
do not approve ourselves his good soldiers, if we be
not willing to follow him whithersoever he goes. He
went through death to the joy set before him ; and
we cannot expect to follow him to that joy, but u
that way. Through this Jordan we most enter
Canaan.
The death of Christ has broken the power of death,
and taken from it all the armour wherein it trusted;
so that now let it do its worst, it cannot do a good
Christian any real prejudice, for it cannot separate
him from the love of God. Surely the bittemesi of
death is now past, by Christ's tasting it, Heb. iL Oi
The sharpness of death Christ has OTercome, by
submitting to it, and so has opened the kingdom of
heaven to believers. The suching child may nov
play upon this hole of the asp, and the weaned Mi
may put his hand in this cochatrice den : for death
itself shall not hurt or destroy, in all God's holy
mountain.
Nay, the death of Christ has quite altered the pro-
perty of death. It not only ceases to be an enemy,
but it is become a friend : the covenant of grace,
sealed to us in the Lord's supper, assures as of the
unspeakable kindness that even death itself shall
do us. All things are yours ; — and deaths among the
rest, 1 Cor. iii. 22. As the death of Christ was the
purchase of our happiness, so our own death is the
passage to our happiness ; it discharges us from our
prison, and conveys us to our palace. The promise
of eternal life sealed to us, and the earnests of that
life communicated to us in this ordinance, enable as
to look with comfort on the other side death ; and
then we need not look with terror on this side it
Art thou afraid to give up thy soul ? Thou hast
already given it up to God in Christ, to be sancti-
fied ; and, therefore, mayst then with a holy cheer-
fulness give it up to God in Christ, to be saved.
The dying Jesus, by committing his spirit into the
hands of his Father, has imboldcned all his follow-
ers in a dying hour to do the same. Why should that
soul be afraid to go out of the body, and quit thb
world of sense, which is through grace allied to,
and by faith acquainted with, the blessed world of
THE COMMUNICANT'S COMPANION.
427
spirits, and is sure of a guard of angels ready to con-
vey it to that .world, and a faithful friend ready to
leceive it into that world.
Art thou afraid to put off thy body ? The covenant
' aealed to thee at the Lord's table, is a covenant vrith
thy dost, and gives commandment concerning thy
Kones. Fear not the return of thy earth to its earth ;
Jt is in order to its being refined, and in due time
restored to its* soul, a glorious and incorruptible
body. Spiritual blessings are, perhaps for this rea-
son, in the sacraments represented and applied by
outward and sensible signs, in the participation of
irhich the body is concerned ; that we might thereby
be €X>nfirmed in our believing hope of the glory pre-
pared and reserved for these bodies of ours, these
Tile bodies ; which, even while they lie in the grave,
still remain united to Christ, and when they shall
be raised out of the grave, shall be made like unto
bis glorious body.
Let the sinners in Sion be afraid to die. Let fear-
falness surprise the hypocrites, when their souls
diall be required of them : let their hearts meditate
terror, and their faces gather blackness, who, hav-
ing lived a carnal, worldly, sensual life, have no
Interest in Christ and the promises ; for they shall
call in vain to rocks and mountains to shelter them
from the wrath of the Lamb. But let them who have
• Joined themselves to the Lord in an everlasting cove-
: Bant, and have obtained mercy of the Lord to be
faithful to that covenant, lift up their heads with joy.
for their redemption draws nigh : death will shortly
rend the interposing veil of sense and time, will
shortly scatter all the dark and threatening clouds
which here hang over our heads, and will open to
us a bright and glorious scene in that blessed world
of light, life, and love ; -where we shall enjoy the
substance of those things, which at the Lord's table
we are refreshed with the shadows of, and the full
vintage of those joys, which here we have the first
fruits of.
Learn then, my soul, learn thou to triumph over
death and the grave : O Death ! where is thy sting t
O Grave ! where is thy victory T Having laid up thy
treasure vrithin the veil, and remitted thy best effects
and best affections thither, and having received the
earnest of the purchased possession, be still looking,
still longing, for that blessed hope. Fear not death,
for it cannot hurt thee, but desire it rather, for it
will greatly befriend thee. When the earthly house
of this tabernacle shall be dissolved, thou shalt remove
to the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Wish then, wish daily, for the coming of thy Lord,
for he shall appear to thy joy. The vision is for an
appointed time, and at the end it shall speah, and shall
not lie. Look through the windows of this house of
clay, like the mother of Sisera, when she waited for
her son's triumphs, and cry through the lattice. Why
is his chariot so long in coming, why tarry the wheels
of his chariot ? Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.
DIRECTIONS
FOR
DAILY COMMUNION WITH GOD,
IN THREE DISCOURSES,
SHOWING HOW TO BEGIN, HOW TO SPEND, AND HOW TO CLOSE EVERY DAY WITH GOD.
To THE Reader.
The two first of these discourses were preached (that
is, the substance of them) at the morning lecture at
Bednal-Green, the former, Aug. 13, the other, Aug.
21, 1712. The latter of them I was much importuned
to publish by many who heard it; which I then
had no thoughts at all of doing, because in divers
practical treatises we have excellent directions
given, of the same nature and tendency, by better
hands than mine. But upon second thoughts I
considered, that both those sermons of beginning
and spending the day with God, put together, might
perhaps be of some use to those into whose hands
those larger treatises do not fall. And the truth is,
the subject of them is of such a nature, that if they
may be of any use, they may be of general and last-
ing use ; whereupon I entertained the thought of
writing thorn over, with very large additions through-
out, as God should enable me, for the press. Com-
municating this thought to some of my friends, they
very much encouraged me to proceed in it, but
advised me to add a third discourse of closing the
day with God, which I thereupon took for my sub-
ject at an evening lecture, September 3, and have
likewise much enlarged and altered that. And so
this came to be what it is.
I am not without hopes, that something may
hereby be contributed among plain people, by the
blessing of God upon the endeavour, and the work-
ing of his grace with it, to the promoting of serious
godliness, which is the thing I aim at, and yet I
confess that I should not have published it, had I not
designed it for a present to my dearly beloved friends
in the country, whom I have lately been rent from.
And to them, with the most tender affection, and
most sincere respects, I dedicate it, as a testimony
of my abiding concern for their spiritual welfare ;
hoping and praying, that their conversation may be
in every thing as becomes the gospel of Christ, that
whether I come and see them, or else be abient, I
may hear comfortably of their affairs, that they stand
fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together
for the faith of the gospel. I am,
Their cordial and affectionate
Well-wisher,
Sept, 8, 1712. Matt. Henry
THE FIRST DISCOURSE,
BHOWINO BOW TO BKGIN BVBRT DAT WTIH GOD.
Psalm v. 3.
My voice shalt thou hear in the momingy O Lord^ in
the morning tvill I direct my prayer unto thee, and
will look up.
You would think it a rude question, if I shoold ask
you, and yet I must entreat you seriously to ask
yourselves, what brings you hither so early this
morning ? and what is your business here ? When-
ever we are attending on God in holy ordinances,
(nay, wherever we are,) we should be able to give a
good answer to the question which God pat to the
prophet. What dost thou here, Elijah ? As when we
return from holy ordinances, we should be able to
give a good answer to the question which Christ put
to those who attended on John Baptist's ministry,
What went ye out into the wildemegt to see ?
It is surprising to see so many assembled together
here; surely the fields are white^unto the harvest;
and I am willing to hope, it is not merely for a walk
this pleasant morning, that you are come hither;
or for curiosity, because the morning-lecture was
never here before ; that it is not for company, or to
meet your friends here ; but that you are come with
a pious design to give glory to God, and to receive
grace from him, and in both to keep up y^ar com-
munion with him. And if you ask us, who are mi-
HOW TO BEGIN EVERY DAY WITH GOD.
428
nisters, what oar business is, we hope we can truly
say, it is (as God shall enable us) to assist and
further you herein. Cotnest thou peaceably ? said the
elders of Bethlehem to Samuel ; and so perhaps you
will say to us : to which we answer, as the prophet
did, Peaceably ; we come to sacrifice unto the Lord,
and invite you to the sacrifice.
While the lecture continues with you, you haye
an opportunity of more than doubling your mominff^
devotions. Besides your worshipping of God in
secret, and in your families, which this must not
supersede, or justle out, you here call upon God's
name in the solemn assembly -, and it is as much your
business in all such exercises to pray a prayer toge-
ther, as it is to hear a sermon ; and it is said, the
original of the morning exercise was a meeting for
prayer, at the time when the nation was groaning,
under the dreadful, desolating judgment of a civil
war. You have also an opportunity of conversing
with the word of God ; you have precept upon precept,
and line upon line : O that as the opportunity awakens
you morning by morning, (so as the prophet speaks,)
your ears may be wakened to hear us the learned,
Isa. 1. 4.
But this is not all : we desire that such impressions
may be made upon you by this cluster of oppor-
tunities, as you may always abide under the influ-
ence of; that this morning-lecture may leave you
better disposed to morning-worship ever after ; that
these frequent acts of devotion may so confirm the
habit of it, so that henceforward your daily worship
may become more easy, and if I may so say, in a
manner natural to you
For your help herein, I would recommend to you
holy David's example in the text, who having re-
solved in general, (v. 2.) that he would abound in
the duty of prayer, and abide by it. Unto thee will 1
, prayy here fixes one proper time for it, and that is
the morning : My voice shalt thou hear in the mom-
tug. Not in the morning only; David solemnly
addressed himself to the duty of prayer three times
a day, as Daniel did ; Morning, and evening, and at
noon will I pray, and cry aloud, Ps. Iv. 17. nay, he
does not think that enough, but Seven times a day
will I praise thee, Ps. cxix.. 164. But particularly
in the morning.
Doct. It is our wisdom and duty, to begin every
day with God.
Let us observe in the text,
I. The good work itself that we are to do. God
must hear our voice, we must direct our prayer to
him, and we must look up.
II. The special time appointed and observed for
the doing of this good work ; and that is in the
morning, and again, in the morning, that is, every
morning, as duly as the morning comes.
I.. The good work which by the example of David
we are here taught to do, is, in one word, to pray ; a
duty dictated by the light and law of nature, which
plainly and loudly speaks. Should not a people seek
unto their God? but which the gospel of Christ
g^ves us much better instructions in, and encourage-
ments to, than any that nature furnishes us with ;
for it tells us what we must pray for, in whose name
we must pray, and by whose assistance, and invites
us to come boldly to the throne of grace, and to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. This work
we are to do, not in the morning only, but at other
times, at all times. We read of preaching the word out
of season, but we do not read of praying out of
season, for that is never out of season : the throne
of g^race is always open, and humble supplicants are
always welcome, and cannot come unseasonably.
But let us see how David here expresses his pious
resolutions to abide by this duty.
1. My voice shalt thou hear. Two ways David may
here be understood : either,
(1.) As promising himself a gracious acceptance
with God, Thou shalt, that is, thou wilt, hear my
voice, when in the morning I direct my prayer to
thee ; so it is the lang[uage of his faith, grounded
upon God's promise, that his ear shall be always
open to his people's cry. He had prayed, v. 1. Give
ear to my words, O Lord ; and, v, 2. Hearken unto
the voice of my cry ; and here he receives an answer
to that prayer. Thou wilt hear, I doubt not but thou
wilt ; and though I have not presently a grant of
the thing I prayed for, yet I am sure my prayer is
heard, is accepted, and comes up for a memorial, as
the prayer of Cornelius did ; it is put upon the file,
and shall not be forgotten. If we look inward, and
can say by experience, that God has prepared our
heart, we may look upright, may look forward, and
say with confidence, that he will cause his ear to hear.
We may be sure of this, and we must pray in the
assurance of it, in a full assurance of this faith,
that wherever God finds a praying heart, he will be
found a prayer-hearing God: though the voice of
prayer be a low voice, a weak voice, yet, if it come
from an upright heart, it is a voice that God will
hear, that he will hear with pleasure, it is his delight,
and that he will return a gracious answer to ; he has
heard thy prayers, he has seen thy tears. When
therefore we stand praying, this ground we must
stand upon, this principle we must stand to, nothing
doubting, nothing wavering, that whatever we ask
of God as a Father, in the name of Jesus Christ the
Mediator, according to the will of God revealed in
the Scripture, it shall be granted us either in kind
or kindness ; so the promise is, (John xvi. 23.) and
the truth of it is sealed to by the concurring expe-
rience of the saints in all ages, ever since man
began to call upon the name of the Lord, that Jacob's
God never yet said to Jacob's seed. Seek ye me in
vain, and he will not begin now. When we come
to God by preyer, if we come aright we may be
430
HOW TO BEGIN EVERY DAY WITH GOD.
confident of this, that notwithstanding the distance
between heaven and earth, and oar great anworthi-
noss to have any notice taken of us, or any favour
showed us, yet God does hear our voice, and will
not turn away our prayer, or his mercy. Or,
(2.) It is rather to be taken, as David's promising
God a constant attendance on him, in the way he
has appointed. My voice shah thou hear, that is, I
will speak to thee : because thou hast inclined thy
ear unto me many a time, therefore I have taken
up a resolution to call upon thee at all times, even
to the end of my time ; not a day shall pass, but
thou Shalt hear from me. Not that the voice is the
thing that God regards, as they seemed to think, who
in prayer made their voice to be heard on high, (Isa.
Iviii. 4.) Hannah prayed and prevailed, when her
voice was not heard ; but it is the voice of the heart
that is here meant : God said to Moses, Wherefore
eriett thou unto me ? when we do not find that he
said one word, Exod. xiv. 15. Praying is lifting up
the soul to God, and pouring out the heart before
him; yet, as far as the expressing of the devout
affections of the heart by words may be of use to fix
the thoughts, and to excite and quicken the desires,
it is good to draw near to God, not only with a pure
heart, but with an humble voice : so must we render
the calves of our lips.
However, God understands the language of the
heart, and that is the language in which we must
speak to God. David prays here, v. 1. not only ^'oe
ear to my words, but consider my meditation ; and
Ps. xix. 14. Let the words of my mouth, proceeding
from the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy
sight.
This therefore we have to do in every prayer, we
must speak to God, we must write to him ; we say
we hear from a friend whom we receive a letter from ;
we must see to it that God hears from us daily.
1. He expects and requires it. Though he has no
need of us or our services, nor can be benefited by
them, yet he has obliged us to ofi'er the sacrifice of
prayer and praise to him continually.
(1.) Thus he will keep up his authority over us,
and keep us continually in mind of our subjection
to him, which we are apt to forget He requires
that by prayer we solemnly pay our homage to him,
and give honour to his name, that by this act and
deed of our own, thus frequently repeated, we may
streng^en the obligations we lie under to observe
his statutes, and keep his laws, and be more and
more sensible of the weight of them. He is thy Lord
and worship thou Atm,that by frequent humble adora-
tions of his perfections, thou mayst make a constant
humble compliance with his will the more easy to
thee. By doing obeisance we are learning obedience.
(2.) Thus he will testify his love and compassion
towards us. It would have been an abundant evi-
dence of his coDcem for us, and his goodness to us.
if he had only said, ** Let me hear from yon as oftea
as there is occasion ; call upon me in the time of
trouble or want, and that is enough :'* but to skov
his complacency in us, as a father does bis affedioa
to his child when he is sending him abroad, he gifcf
us this charge, *' Let me hear from yoa every dtj,
by every post, though you have no particular M-
ness ;" which shows, that the prayer of the aprigkt
is his delight ; it is music in his ears. Christ stji
to his dove. Let me see thy countenance, lei nu htsr
thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and thy commtenanetit
comely. Cant. ii. 14. And it is to the spouse, tbe
church, that Christ speaks in the close of that song
of songs, O thou that dwellest in the gardene^ (in tbe
original it is feminine,) the companions kearhentothf
voice, cause me to hear it. What a shame is thif to
us, that God is more willing to be prayed to, asd
more ready to hear prayer, than we are to pray ?
2. We have something to say to Grod every daj.
Many are not sensible of this, and it is their sin aid
misery : they live without God in the world ; they
think they can live without him, are not sensible d
their dependence upon him, and their obligations to
him, and, therefore, for their parts they have nothing
to say to him ; he never hears from them, no more
than the father did from his prodigal son, when he
was upon the ramble, from one week's end to another.
They ask scornfully. What can the Almighty disfm
them ? And then no marvel if they ask next, WkA
profit shall we have if we pray unto him ? And the
result is, they say to the Almighty, Depart from us,
and so shall their doom be. But I hope better thiogi
of you, my brethren, and that you are not of thoie
who cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God.
You are all ready to own that there is a great deal thit
the Almighty can do for you, and that there is praft
in praying to him ; and therefore resolve to draw aigl
to God, that he may draw nigh to you.
We have something to say to God daily:
(1.) As to a friend we love, and have freedom wii.
Such a friend we cannot go by vnthoat calling ci,
and never want something to say to, though we hsve
no particular business with him ; to such a friend we
unbosom ourselves, we profess our love and estees^
and with pleasure communicate our thoughts. Aim- ^
ham is called the friend of God, and this honoir ^
have all the saints : I have not called you serve»U,
(says Christ,) but friends ; his secret is with the rigitr
eoui. We are invited to acquaint ourselves with hia*
and to walk with him, as one friend walks with asa*
ther ; the fellowship of believers is said toheM
the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ ; and bi^e
we nothing to say to him then ?
Is it not errand enough to the throne of his gnce,
to admire his infinite perfections, which we can nefcr
fully comprehend, and yet never sufficiently conten-
plate, and take complacency in? to please ov-
selves in beholding the beauty of the LcMrd, and givi>(
'■
HOW TO BEGIN EVERY DAY WITH GOD.
431
im the glory due to his name ? Have we not a great
sal to say to him in acknowledgment of his con-
^cendiug grace and favour to us, in manifesting
imseif to as and not to the world ? and in profes-
OQ of our affection and submission to him ? Lordy
ou knowest all things, thou knowest thmt I love thee,
God has something to say to us as a friend every
ly, by the written word, in which we must hear his
nee, by his providences, and by our own consci-
ices : and he hearkens and hears whether we have
ly thing to say to him by way of reply, and we are
;ry unfriendly if we have not When he says to
3, Seek ye my face, should not our hearts answer
s to one we love, Thy face Lord will we seek ? When
B says to us, '^ Return, ye backsliding children,*'
lould not we readily reply, *' Behold, we come unto
lee, for thou art the Lord our God ?" If he speak
> us by way of conviction and reproof, ought not
e to return an answer by way of confession and sub-
lission ? If he speak to us by way of comfort, ought
ot we to reply in praise ? If you love God, you
etnnot be to seek for something to say to him, some-
ling for your hearts to pour out before him, which
is grace has already put there.
(2.) As to a master we serve, and have business
ith. Think how numerous and important the con-
ems are that lie between us and God, and you will
sadily acknowledge that you have a great deal to
ly to him. We have a constant dependence upon
im, all our expectation is from him ; we have con-
tant dealings with him, he is the God with whom
^e have to do, Heb. iv. 13.
Do we not know that our happiness is bound up
1 his favour ; it is life, the life of our souls ; it is
etter than life, than the life of our bodies : and
ave we not business with God to seek his favour,
» entreat it with our whole hearts, to beg as for our
ves that he would lift up the light of his counte-
iDce upon us, and to plead Christ's righteousness,
I that only through which we can hope to obtain
od's loving-kindness ?
Do we not know that wc have offended God, that
f sin we have made ourselves obnoxious to his
rath and curse, and that we are daily contracting
ailt ? And have we not then business enough with
im to confess our fault and folly, to ask for pardon
I the blood of Christ, and in him who is our peace
» make our peace with God, and renew our cove-
ants with him, in his own streng^, to go and sin
o more ?
Do we not know that we have daily work to do for
rod, and our own souls, the work of the day that is
> be done in its day ? And have we not then busi-
ess with God, to beg of him to show us what he
ould have us to do, to direct us in it, and streng^en
s for it ? To seek to him for assistance and accept-
Dce, that he will work in us both to will and to do
lat which is good, and then countenance and own
his own work ? Such business as this the servant has
with his master.
Do we not know that we are continually in dan-
ger ? Our bodies are so, and their lives and comforts ;
we are continually surrounded with diseases and
deaths, whose arrows fly at midnight, and at noon-
day ; and have we not then business with God, going
out and coming in, lying down, and rising up, to
put ourselves under the protection of his providence,
to be the charge of his holy angels ? Our souls much
more are so, and their lives and comforts ; it is those
our adversary the devil, a strong and subtle adver-
sary, wars against, and seeks to devour ; and have
we not then business with God to put ourselves
under the protection of his grace, and clad ourselves
with his armour, that we may be able to stand
against the wiles and violences of Satan ; so as we
may neither be surprised into sin by a sadden temp-
tation, nor overpowered by a strong one ?
Do we not know that we are dying daily, that
death is working in us, and hastening towards us,
and that death fetches us to judgment, and judgment
fixes us in our everlasting state ? And have we not
then something to say to God in preparation of what
is before us ? Shall we not say. Lord, make us to
know our end ? Lord, teach us to number our days ?
Have we not business with God, to judge ourselves
that we may not be judged, and to see that our mat-
ters be right and good ?
Do we not know that we are members of that body
whereof Christ is the head ? and are we not con-
cerned to approve ourselves living members ? Have
we not then business with God upon the public ac-
count, to make intercession for his church ? Have we
nothing to say for Zion ? nothing in behalf of Jeru-
salem's ruined walls? nothing for the peace and
welfare of the land of our nativity t Are we not of
the family, or but babes in it, that we concern not
ourselves in the cotacems of it ?
Have we no relations, no friends, who are dear to
as, whose joys and griefs we share in? and have we
nothing to say to God for them ? no complaints to
make, no requests to make knoMm? Are none of
tiicm sick or in distress ? none of them tempted or
disconsolate ? And have we not errands, at the throne
of grace, to beg relief and succour for them ?
Now lay all this together, and then consider whe-
ther you have not something to say to God every
day ; and particularly in days of trouble, when it is
meet to be said unto God, '* 1 have borne chastise-
ment ;'' and when, if you have any sense of things,
you will say unto God, '' Do not condemn me."
3. If you have all this to say to God, What should
hinder you from saying it? from saying it every day?
Why should not he hear your voice, when you have
so many errands to him ?
(I.) Let not distance hinder you from saying it.
You have occasion to speak with a friend, but he is a
430
HOW TO BEGIN EVERY DAY WITH GOD.
confident of this, that notwithstanding the distance
between heaven and earth, and oar great unworthi-
ness to have any notice taken of us, or any favour
showed us, yet God does hear our voice, and will
not turn away our prayer, or his mercy. Or,
(2.) It is rather to be taken, as David's promising
God a constant attendance on him, in the way he
has appointed. My voice shah thou hear, that is, I
will speak to thee : because thou hast inclined thy
ear unto me many a time, therefore I have taken
up a resolution to call upon thee at all times, even
to the end of my time ; not a day shall pass, but
thou shalt hear from me. Not that the voice is the
thing that God regards, as they seemed to think, who
in prayer made their voice to be heard on high, (Isa.
Iviii. 4.) Hannah prayed and prevailed, when her
voice was not heard ; but it is the voice of the heart
that is here meant : God said to Moses, Wherefore
eriest thou unto me f when we do not find that be
said one word, Exod. xiv. 15. Praying is lifting up
the soul to God, and pouring out the heart before
him; yet, as far as the expressing of the devout
afl*ections of the heart by words may be of use to fix
the thoughts, and to excite and quicken the desires,
it is good to draw near to God, not only with a pure
heart, but with an humble voice : so must we render
the calves of our lips.
However, God understands the language of the
heart, and that is the language in which we must
speak to God. David prays here, v. 1. not only ^'o«
ear to my words, but consider my meditation ; and
Ps. xix. 14. Let the words of my mouth, proceeding
from the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy
sight.
This therefore we have to do in every prayer, we
must speak to God, we must write to him ; we say
we hear from a friend whom we receive a letter from ;
we must see to it that God hears from us daily.
1. He expects and requires it. Though he has no
need of us or our services, nor can be benefited by
them, yet he has obliged us to ofi'er the sacrifice of
prayer and praise to him continually.
(1.) Thus he will keep up his authority over us,
and keep us continually in mind of our subjection
to him, which we are apt to forget He requires
that by prayer we solemnly pay our homage to him,
and give honour to his name, that by this act and
deed of our own, thus frequently repeated, we may
streng^en the obligations we lie under to observe
his statutes, and keep his laws, and be more and
more sensible of the weight of them. He is thy Lord
and worship thou Atm^that by frequent humble adora-
tions of his perfections, thou mayst make a constant
bumble compliance with his will the more easy to
thee. By doing obeisance we are learning obedience.
(2.) Thus he will testify his love and compassion
towards us. It would have been an abundant evi-
dence of bis concern for us, and his goodness to us.
if he had only said, '^ Let me hear from yoa as often
as there is occasion ; call upon me in the time of
trouble or want, and that is enough :'* but to show
his complacency in us, as a father does his affection
to his child when he is sending him abroad, he gives
us this charge, '' Let me hear from you eveiy dij,
by every post, though you have no particular busi-
ness ;" which shows, that the prayer of the upright
is his delight ; it is music in his ears. Christ sajs
to his dove. Let me see thy countenance, let me hear
thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and thy eountenanet it
comely. Cant. ii. 14. And it is to the spouse, tbe
church, that Christ speaks in the close of thatsoog
of songs, O thou that dwellest in the gardens^ (in the
original it is feminine,) the companions kearhen to tkf
voice, cause me to hear it. What a shame is this to
us, that God is more willing to be prayed to, and
more ready to hear prayer, than we are to pray ?
2. We have something to say to God eveiy dtj.
Many are not sensible of this, and it is their sin and
misery : they live without God in the world ; thej
think they can live without him, are not sensible of
their dependence upon him, and their obligations to
him, and, therefore, for their parts they have nothing
to say to him ; he never hears from them, no more
than the father did from his prodigal son, when he
was upon the ramble, from one week's end to another.
They ask scornfully. What can the Almighty do for
them ? And then no marvel if they ask next. What
profit shall we have if we pray unto him ? And the
result is, they say to the Almighty, Depart from w,
and so shall their doom be. But I hope better things
of you, my brethren, and that you are not of those
who cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God.
You are all ready to own that there is a great deal that
the Almighty can do for you, and that there is profit
in praying to him ; and therefore resolve to draw nigh
to God, that he may draw nigh to you.
We have something to say to God daily :
(1.) As to a friend we love, and have freedom with.
Such a friend we cannot go by without calling on,
and never want something to say to, though we have
no particular business with him ; to such a friend we
unbosom ourselves, we profess our love and esteem,
and with pleasure communicate our thoughts. Abra-
ham is called the friend of God, and this honour
have all the saints : I have not called you servantt,
(says Christ,) but friends ; his secret is with the right-
eoui. We are invited to acquaint ourselves with him,
and to walk with him, as one friend walks with ano-
ther ; the fellowship of believers is said to be with
the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ ; and hafc
we nothing to say to him then ?
Is it not errand enough to the throne of his grace,
to admire his infinite perfections, which we can nefcr
fully comprehend, and yet never sufliciently contem-
plate, and take complacency in? to please oar- i
selves in beholdingthe beauty of the Lord, and givinf [
HOW TO BEGIN EVERY DAY WITH GOD.
431
him the glory dae to his name ? Have we not a great
deal to say to him in acknowledgment of his con-
descending grace and favour to us, in manifesting
himself to as and not to the world ? and in profes-
sion of our affection and submission to him ? Lord^
thou knowest all things, thou knoweH that I love thee.
God has something to say to us as a friend every
day, by the written word, in which we must hear his
voice, by his providences, and by our own consci-
ences : and he hearkens and hears whether we have
any thing to say to him by way of reply, and we are
very unfriendly if we have not. When he says to
us. Seek ye my face y should not our hearts answer
as to one we love. Thy face Lord will we teek ? When
be says to us, '' Return, ye backsliding children,*'
should not we readily reply, '* Behold, we come unto
thee, for thou art the Lord our God ?" If he speak
to us by way of conviction and reproof, ought not
we to return an answer by way of confession and sub-
mission ? If he speak to us by way of comfort, ought
not we to reply in praise ? If you love God, you
cannot be to seek for something to say to him, some-
thing for your hearts to pour out before him, which
his grace has already put there.
(2.) As to a master we serve, and have business
with. Think how numerous and important the con-
cerns are that lie between us and God, and you will
readily acknowledge that you have a great deal to
say to him. We have a constant dependence upon
him, all our expectation is from him ; we have con-
stant dealings with him, he is the God with whom
we have to do, Heb. iv. 13.
Do we not know that our happiness is bound up
in his favour ; it is life, the life of our souls ; it is
better than life, than the life of our bodies : and
have we not business with God to seek his favour,
to entreat it with our whole hearts, to beg as for our
lives that he would lift up the light of his counte-
nance upon us, and to plead Christ's righteousness,
as that only through which we can hope to obtain
God's loving-kindness 7
Do we not know that we have offended God, that
by sin we have made ourselves obnoxious to his
wrath and curse, and that we are daily contracting
guilt ? And have we not then business enough with
him to confess our fault and folly, to ask for pardon
in the blood of Christ, and in him who is our peace
to make our peace with God, and renew our cove-
nants with him, in his own strength, to go and sin
no more ?
Do we not know that we have daily work to do for
God, and our own souls, the work of the day that is
to be done in its day ? And have we not then busi-
ness with God, to beg of him to show us what he
would have us to do, to direct us in it, and strengthen
us for it ? To seek to him for assistance and accept-
ance, that he will work in us both to will and to do
that which is good, and then countenance and own
his own work ? Such business as this the servant has
with his master.
Do we not know that we are continually in dan-
ger ? Our bodies are so, and their lives and comforts ;
we are continually surrounded with diseases and
deaths, whose arrows fly at nudnight, and at noon-
day ; and have we not then business with God, going
out and coming in, lying down, and rising up, to
put ourselves under the protection of his providence,
to be the charge of his holy angels? Our souls much
more are so, and their lives and comforts ; it is those
our adversary the devil, a strong and subtle adver-
sary, wars against, and seeks to devour ; and have
we not then business with God to put ourselves
under the protection of his grace, and clad ourselves
with his armour, that we may be able to stand
against the wiles and violences of Satan ; so as we
may neither be surprised into sin by a sudden temp-
tation, nor overpowered by a strong one ?
Do we not know that we are dying daily, that
death is working in us, and hastening towards us,
and that death fetches us to judgment, and judgment
fixes us in our everlasting state ? And have we not
then something to say to God in preparation of what
is before us ? Shall we not say. Lord, make us to
know our end ? Lord, teach us to number our days ?
Have we not business with God, to judge ourselves
that we may not be judged, and to see that our mat-
ters be right and good ?
Do we not know that we are members of that body
whereof Christ is the head ? and are we not con-
cerned to approve ourselves living members ? Have
we not then business with God upon the public ac-
count, to make intercession for his church ? Have we
nothing to say for Zion ? nothing in behalf of Jeru-
salem's ruined walls? nothing for the peace and
welfare of the land of our nativity t Are we not of
the family, or but babes in it, that we concern not
ourselves in the cotacems of it ?
Have we no relations, no friends, who are dear to
us, whose joys and griefs we share in? and have we
nothing to say to God for them ? no complaints to
make, no requests to make knoMm? Are none of
tliem sick or in distress ? none of them tempted or
disconsolate ? And have we not errands, at the throne
of grace, to beg relief and succour for them?
Now lay all this together, and then consider whe-
ther you have not something to say to God every
day ; and particularly in days of trouble, when it is
meet to be said unto God, *' I have borne chastise-
ment ;" and when, if yon have any sense of things,
you will say unto God, '* Do not condemn me."
3. If you have all this to say to God, What should
hinder you from saying it? from saying It every day?
Why should not he hear your voice, when you have
so many errands to him t
(I.) Let not distance hinder yon from saying it.
You have occasion to speak with a friend, but he is a
432
HOW TO BEGIN EVERY DAY WITH GOD.
great way off, yoa cannot reach him, yon know not
where to find him, nor how to get a letter to him,
and therefore yoar business with him is undone:
but this n^eds not keep you from speaking to God ;
for though it is true, God is in heaven, and we are
upon earth, yet he is nigh to his praying people in
all that they call upon him for ; he hears their voice
wherever they are. Out of the depths I have crud
unto thee, says David, Ps. cxxx. 1. From the ends
of the earth I will cry unto thee, Ps. Ixi. 2. Nay,
Jonah says, Out of the belly of hell cried /, and thou
heardest my voice, Undique ad ccelos tantundem est '
vi<B — Ln all places we may find a way open heaven-
ward: thanks be to him who by his own blood has
consecrated for us a new and living wb.j into the
holiest, and settled a correspondence between hea-
ven and earth.
(2.) Let not fear hinder you from saying what you
have to say to God. You have business with a g^eat
man it may be ; but he is so far above you, or so
stem and severe toward all his inferiors, that you
are afraid to speak to him, and you have none to
introduce you, or to speak a good word for you, and
therefore you choose rather to drop your cause ; but
there is no occasion for your being thus discouraged
in speaking to God ; you may come boldly to the
throne of his grace ; you have there a vappritrux, a
liberty of speech, leave to pour out your whole souls.
And such are his compassions to humble suppli-
cants, that even his terror need not make them
afraid. It is against the mind of God that you
should frighten yourselves, he would have yon en-
courage yourselves, for you have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption, by
which you arc brought into this among other the
glorious liberties of the children of God. Nor is
this all, we have one to introduce us, and to speak
for us, an advocate with the Father. Did ever
children need an advocate with a father ? But that
by those two immutable things, in which it is im-
possible for God to lie, we might have strong con-
solation, we have not only the relation of the Father
to depend upon, but the interest and intercession of
an Advocate ; a High Priest over the house of God,
in whose name we have access with confidence.
(3.) Let not his knowing what your business is,
and what you have to say to him, hinder you ; you
have business with such a friend, but you think you
need not put yourselves to any trouble about it, for
he is already apprized of it ; he knows what you
want, and what you desire, and therefore it is no
matter for speaking to him : it is true, all your desire
is before God, he knows your wants and burthens,
but he will know them from you ; he has promised
you relief, but his promise must be put in suit, and
he will for this be inquired of by the house of Israel
to do it for them, Ezek. xxxvi. 37. Though we
cannot by our prayers give him any information,
yet we must by our prayers give him faoncmr. It u
true, nothing we can say can have any inflileiiee
upon him, or move him to show us mercy, but it
may have an influence upon ourselves, and help to
put us into a frame fit to receive mercy. It is a veiy
easy and reasonable condition of his favours. Ask,
and it shall be given you. It was to teach us (he ll^-
cessity of praying, in order to our receiving favour,
that Christ put that strange question to the blind
men, What would ye (hat I should do ttnio you f He
knew what they would have, but those that touch
the top of the golden sceptre must be ready to tell,
what is their petition, and what is their request.
(4.) Let not any other business hinder oor saying
what we have to say to God. We have business
with a friend perhaps, but we cannot do it because
we have not leisure ; we have something else to do,
which we think more needful ; but we cannot say
so concerning the business we have to do with God,
for that is without doubt the one thing needful, to
which every thing else must be made to give waj.
It is not at all necessary to our happiness that we
be great in the world, or raise estates to such a
pitch ; but it is absolutely necessary that we make
our peace with God, that we obtain his favour, and
keep ourselves in his love. Therefore no business
for the world will serve to excuse our attendance
upon God ; but, on the contrary, the more important
our worldly business, the more need we have to
apply ourselves to God by prayer for his blessing
upon it, and so to take him along with us in it. The
closer we keep to prayer, and to God in prayer, the
more will all our affairs prosper.
Shall I prevail with you now to let God frequently
hear from you ? Let him hear your voice, though it
be but the voice of ^onr breathing, (Lam. iii. 56.)
that is a sign of life ; though it be the voice of your
groanings, and those so weak that they cannot be
uttered, Rom. viii. 26. Speak to him, though it be
in a broken language, as Hezekiah did ; Like a
crane or a swallow so I did chatter, Isaiah xxxviii.
14. Speak often to him ; he is always vnthin bear-
ing. Hear him speaking to you, and have an eye
to that in every thing you say to him ; as when you
write an answer to a letter of business you lay it
before you. God's word must be the guide of your
desires, and the ground of your expectations in
prayer ; nor can you expect that he should give a
gracious ear to what you say to him, if you turn a
deaf ear to what he says to you.
You see that you have frequent occasion to speak
with God, and therefore are concerned to grow in
your acquaintance with him, to take heed of doing
any thing to displease him, and to strengthen your
interest in the Lord Jesus, through whom alone it is
that you have access with boldness to him. Keep
your voice in tune for prayer, and let all your lan-
guage be a pure language, that you may be fit to
HOW TO BEGIN EVERY DAY WITH GOD.
433
call on the name of the Lord. And in every prayer
remember you are speaking to God, and make it to
appear you have an awe of him upon your spirits:
let us not be rash with our mouth, nor hasty to utter
any thing before God, but let every word be well
weighed, because God U in heaven, and we upon earth,
Xccl. V. 2. And if he had not invited and encouraged
us to do it, it had been unpardonable presumption for
snch sinful worms as we are to speak to the Lord of
glory. Gen. xviii. 27. And we are concerned to speak
from the heart, heartily, for it is for our lives, and for
the lives of our souls, that we are speaking to him.
2. We must direct our prayer unto God. He must
not only hear our voice, but we must with delibera-
tion and design address ourselves to him. In the
original it is no more but, / will direct unto thee ; it
might be supplied, / will direct my soul unto thee,
agreeing with Ps. xxv. 1. Unto thee, O Lord, do I
Uft up my souL Or, Z will direct my affections to
ikee ; having set my love upon thee, I will let out
my love to thee. Our translation supplies it very
well, / will direct my prayer unto thee. That is,
(1.) When I pray to thee I will direct my pra3xrs ;
and then it denotes a fixedness of thought, and a
close application of mind, to the duty of prayer. We
must go about it solemnly, as those who have some-
thing of moment much 2X heart, and much in view
therein, and therefore dare not trifle in it. When
we go to pray we must not give the sacrifice of fools,
who think not either what is to be done, or what is
to be gained, but speak the words of the wise, who
aim at some good end in what they say, and suit it
to that end ; we must have in our eye God's glory,
and our own true happiness ; and so well ordered is
the covenant of grace, that God has been pleased
therein to twist interests with us, so that in seeking
bis g^lory we really and efi'ectually seek our own true
interests. This is directing the prayer, as he that
shoots an arrow at a mark directs it, and with a fixed
eye and steady hand takes aim right. This is en-
gag^ing the heart to approach to God, and in order to
that disengaging it from every thing else. He who
takes aim with one eye shuts the other ; if we would
direct a prayer to God, we must look ofl* all other
things, must gather in our wandering thoughts, must
sammon them all to draw near and give their attend-
ance, for here is work to be done that needs them
all, and is well worthy of them all ; thus we must
be able to say with the psalmist, O God, my heart it
fixed, my heart is fixed,
(2.) When I direct my prayer, I will direct it to
thee. And so it speaks,
[1.] The sincerity of our habitual intention in
prayer. We must not direct our prayer to men, that
we may gain praise and applause with them, as the
Pharisees did, who proclaimed their devotions as
they did their alms, that they might gain a reputa-
tion, which they knew how to make a hand of: Verily
2 y
they have their reward, men commend them, but God
abhors their pride and hypocrisy. We must not let
our prayers run at large, as they did who said, Who
will show us any good? nor direct them to the world,
courting its smiles, and pursuing its wealth, as those
who are therefore said not to cry unto God with their
hearts, because they assembled themselves for com
and wine, Hos. vii. 14. Let not self, carnal self, be the
spring and centre of your prayers, but God ; let the
eye of the soul be fixed upon him as your highest end
in all your applications to him; let this be the habi-
tual disposition of your souls, to be to your God for a
name and a praise ; and let this be your design in
all your desires, that God may be glorified, and by
this let them all be directed, determined, sanctified,
and, when need is, overruled. Our Saviour has
plainly taught us this, in the first petition of the
Lord's prayer ; which is. Hallowed be thy name: in
that we fix our end, and other things are desired in
order to that; in that the prayer is directed to the
glory of God, in all that whereby he has made him-
self known, the glory of his holiness ; and it is with
an eye to the sanctifying of his name, that we desire
his kingdom may come, and his will be done, and
that we may be fed, and kept, and pardoned. An
habitual aim at God's glory is that sincerity which
is our gospel perfection, that single eye, which where
it is, the whole body, the whole soul, is full of light.
Thus the prayer is directed to God.
[2 ] It speaks the steadiness of our actual regard
to God in prayer. We must direct our prayer to
God, that is, we must continually think of him, as
one with whom we have to do in prayer. We must
direct our prayer, as we direct our speech, to the per-
son we have business with. The Bible is a letter God
has sent to us, prayer is a letter we send to him ;
now you know it is essential to a letter that it be
directed, and material that it be directed right ; if it
be not, it is in danger of miscarrying, which may be
of ill consequence. You pray daily, and therein send
letters to God ; you know not what you lose if your
letters miscarry : will you therefore take instructions
how to direct to him ?
Give him his titles, as you do when you direct to
a person of honour ; address yourselves to him as
the great Jehovah, God over all, blessed for evermore ;
the King of hings, and Lord of lords ; as the Lord
God, gracious and merciful; let your hearts and
mouths be filled with holy adorings and admirings
of him, and fasten upon those titles of his, which are
proper to strike a holy awe of him upon your minds,
that you may worship him with reverence and godly
fear. Direct your prayer to him as the God of glor}',
with whom is terrible Majesty, and whose greatness
is unsearchable, that yon may not dare to trifle with
him, or to mock him in what you say to him.
Take notice of your relation to him, as his chil-
dren, and let not that be overlooked and lost in your
434
HOW TO BEGIN EVERY DAY WITH GOD.
awful adorations of his ^i^lories. I have been told
of a good man, among whose experiences, which he
kept a record of, after his death, this among other
things was found ; that such a time at secret prayer,
his heart at the beginning of the duty was much
enlarged, in giving to God those titles which are
awful and tremendous, in calling him the Greats
the Mighty, and the Terrible God ; but going on
thus he checked himself with this thought, " And
why not my Father V* Christ has both by his precept
and by his pattern taught us to address ourselves to
God as our Father; and the Spirit of adoption
teaches us to cry Ahha, Father, A son, though a
prodigal, when he returns and repents, may go to his
father, and say unto him, Father, I have sinned; and
though no more worthy to be called a son, yet
humbly bold may call him " Father." When
Ephraim bemoans himself as a bullock unaccustomed
to the yoke, God bemoans him as a dear son, as a
pleasant child, (Jer. xxxi. 18, 20.) and if God is not
ashamed, let us not be afraid to own the relation.
Direct your prayer to him in heaven ; this our
Saviour has taught us in the preface to the Lord's
Prayer, Our Father which art in heaven. Not that
he is conGned to the heavens, or as if the heaven, or
the heaven of heavens, could contain him ; but there
he is said to have prepared his throne, not only his
throne of government, by which his kingdom mleth
over all, but his throne of grace, to which we must
by faith draw near. We must eye him as God in
heaven. In opposition to the gods of the heathens,
which dwelt in temples made with hands. Heaven
is a high place, and we must address ourselves to him
as a God infinitely above us ; it is the fountain of
light, and to him we must address ourselves as the
Father of lights ; it is a place of prospect, and we
must see his eye upon us, from thence beholding all
the children of men ; it is a place of purity, and
we must in prayer eye him as a holy God, and give
thanks at the remembrance of his holiness ; it is the
firmament of his power, and we must depend upon
him as one to whom power belongs. When our
Lord Jesus prayed, he lifted up his eyes to hea-
ven, to direct us whence to expect the blessings we
need.
Direct this letter to be left with the Lord Jesus,
the only Mediator between God and man ; it will
certainly miscarry if it be not put into his hand,
who is that other angel who puts much incense to
the prayers of saints, and so perfumed presents them
to the Father, Rev. viii. 3. What we ask of the
Father must be in his name ; what we expect from
the Father must be by his hand ; for he is the High
Priest of our profession, who is ordained for men,
to oSbr their gifts, Heb. v. 1. Direct the letter to
be left with him, and he will deliver it with care and
speed, and will make our service acceptable. Mr.
George Herbert, in his Poem called " The Bag,"
having pathetically described the wound in Christ's
side as he was hanging on the cross, makes him spetk
thus to all believers as he was going to heaven:
If yon have any thing to send or write,
1 have no bag, but here is room.
Unto my Father's hands and sight.
Believe me, it shall safely come ;
That I shall nund what you impart.
Look, you may put it very near my heart
Or if hereafter any of my friends
Will use me in this kind, the door
Shall still be open, what he sends
I will present, and something more.
Not to his hurt ; sighs will convey
Any thing to me ; hark, despair, away.
3. We must look up. That is,
(1.) We must look up in our prayers, as those who
speak to one above us, infinitely above us, the Hiyk
and Holy One that inhabiteth eternity ; as those who
expect every good and perfect gift to come from
above, from the Father of lights; as those who
desire in prayer to enter into the holiest, and to
draw near with a true heart. With an eye of faith
we must look above the world and every thing in it,
must look beyond the things of time. What is this
world, and all things here below, to one that knows
how to put a due estimate upon spiritual blessings
in heavenly things by Christ Jesus ? The spirit of i
man at death goes upward, (Eccl. iii. 21.) for it
returns to God who g^ve it ; and therefore, as mind-
ful of its original, it must in every prayer look
upward toward its God, toward its home, as having
set its afl'ections on things above, wherein it has laid
up its treasure. Let us, therefore, in prayer lift up
our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens.
It was anciently usual in some churches for the
minister to stir up the people to pray with this word,
Sursym corda, — Up with your hearts ; unio thee, O
Lord, do we lift up our souls,
(2.) We must look up after our prayers,
[1.] With an eye of satisfaction and pleasure)
looking up is a sign of cheerfulness, as a down-look
is a melancholy one. We must look np as those
who, having by prayer referred ourselves to God, irr
easy and well pleased, and with an entire confidence
in his wisdom and goodness patiently expect the
issue. Hannah, when she had prayed, looked up,
looked pleasant ; she went her way, and did eat,
and her countenance was no more sad, 1 Sam. i. 1(1
Prayer is hearts-ease to a good Christian ; and when
we have prayed we should look up, as those who
through grace have found it so.
[2.] With an eye of obser\'ation, what retims
God makes to our prayers. We must look up, as
one who has shot an arrow looks after it to see bow
near it comes to the mark ; we must look within ttfi
i
HOW TO BEGIN EVERY DAY WITH GOD.
435
and observe what the frame of our spirits is after we
have been at prayer, how well satisfied they are in
the will of God, and how well disposed to accommo-
date themselves to it ; we must look about U9, and
observe how Providence works concerning us, that
if our prayers be answered, we may return to give
thanks ; if not, that we may remove what hinders,
and may continue waiting. Thus we must set our-
selves upon our watch-tower, to see what God will
say unto us, and must be ready to hear it, (Ps. Ixxxv,
8.) expecting that God will give us an answer of
peace, and resolving that we will return no more to
folly. Thus must we keep up our communion with
God ; hoping that whenever we lift up our hearts
unto him, he will lift up the light of his countenance
upon us. Sometimes the answer is quick, WhiU they
are yet speaking,! will hear ; quicker than the return
of any of your posts ; but if it be not, when we have
prayed we must wait.
Let us learn thus to direct our prayers, and thus
to look up ; to be inward with God in every duty,
to make heart- work of it, or we make nothing of
it. Let us not worship in the outward court, when
we are commanded and encouraged to enter within
the vail.
IT. The particular time fixed in the text for this
good work is the morning ; and the Psalmist seems
to lay an emphasis upon this, in the morning, and
again, in the morning : not then only, but then to
beg^D with ; let that be one of the hours of prayer.
Under the law we find that every morning there was
a lamb offered in sacrifice, (Exod. xxix. 30.) and
every morning the priests burned incense, (Exod.
XXX. 7.) and the singers stood every morning to thank
the Lord, 1 Chron. xxiii. 30. And so it was ap-
pointed in EzekieFs temple, Ezek. xlvi. 13 — 16. By
which an intimation was plainly given, that the
spiritilal sacrifices should be offered by the spiritual
priestfi every morning, as duly as the morning comes.
Every Christian should pray in secret, and every
master of a family with his family morning by
morning ; and there is good reason for it.
1. The morning is the first part of the day, and it
is fit that he that is first should have the first, and be
first served. The heathen could say, A Jove prin-
cipium — Let your beginning be with Jupiter, What-
ever you do, begin with God. The world had its
beginning from him, we had ours, and therefore
whatever we begin, it concerns us to take him along
with us in it. The days of our life, as soon as ever
the sun of reason rises in the soul, should be devoted
to God, and employed in his service; From the
womb of the morning let Christ have the dew of thy
youth, Ps. ex. 3. The first-fruits were always to be
the Lord's, and the firstlings of the flock. By morn-
ing and evening prayer we give glory to him who is
the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last ;
with him we must begin and end the day, begin and
2 p 2
end the night, who is the beginning and the end, the
first cause, and the last end.
Wisdom has said, Thote that seek me early shall
find me ; early in their lives, early in the day ; for
hereby we give to God that which he ought to have,
the preference above other things. Hereby we show
that we are in care to please him, and to approve
ourselves to him, and that we seek him diligently.
What we do earnestly we are said in Scripture to do
early, Ps. ci. 8. Industrious men rise betimes.
David expresses the strength and warmth of his de-
votion, when he says, O God, thou art my God, early
will I seek thee, Ps. Ixiii. 1.
2. In the morning we are fresh and lively, and in
the best frame ; when our spirits are revived with
the rest and sleep of the night, and we live a kind
of new life ; and the fatigues of the day before are
forgotten. The God of Israel neither slumbers nor
sleeps, yet, when he exerts himself more than ordi-
nary on his people's behalf, he is said to awake as
one out of sleep, Ps. Ixxviii. 66. If ever we be good
for any thing, it is in the morning ; it is therefore
become a proverb, Aurora musis arnica — The morn-
ing is a friend to the muses ; and if the morning be a
friend to the muses, I am sure it is no less so to the
g^ces. As he that is the first should have the first,
so he that is the best should have the best ; and when
we are fittest for business, we should apply ourselves
to that which is the most needful business.
Worshipping God is work that requires the best
powers of the soul, when they are at the best ; and it
well deserves them ; how can they be better bestowed,
or so as to turn to a better account ? Let all that is
within me bless his holy name, says David, and all
little enough. If there be any gift in us by which
God may be honoured, the morning is the time to
stir it up, (2 Tim. i. 6.) when our spirits are refreshed,
and have gained new vigour ; then Awake, my glory,
awake psaltery and haip, for I myself will awake early ^
Ps. Ivii. 8. Then let us stir up ourselves to take
hold on God.
3. In the morning we are most free from company
and business, and ordinarily have the best opportu-
nity for solitude and retirement ; unless we be of
those sluggards who lie in bed, with yet a little sleep,
a little slumber, till the work of their calling calls
them up with. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard?
It is the wisdom of those who have much to do in the
world, that they have scarce a minute to themselves
of all day, to take time in the morning, before busi-
ness crowds in upon them, for the business of their
religion ; that they may be entire for it, and therefore
the more intent upon it.
As we are concerned to worship God, when we
are least burthened with deadness and dulness with-
in, so also when we are least exposed to distraction
and diversion from without; the apostle intimates
how much it should be our care to attend upon the
436
HOW TO BEGIN EVERY DAY WITH GOD.
Lord without distraction, 1 Cor. vii. 35. And there-
fore that one day in seven, (and it is the first day too,
the morning of the week,) which is appointed for
holy work, is appointed to be a day of rest from
other work. Abraham leaves all at the bottom of
the hill, when he goes up into the mount to worship
God. In the morning, therefore, let us converse with
God, and apply ourselves to the concerns of the
other life, before we are entangled in the affairs of
this life. Our Lord Jesus has set us an example of
this, who, because his day was wholly filled up with
public business for God and the souls of men, rose
up in the morning a great while before day, and
before company came in, and went out into a soli-
tary place, and there prayed, Matt. i. 35.
4. In the morning we have received fresh mercies
from God, which we are concerned to acknowledge
with thankfulness to his praise. He is continually
doing us good, and loading us with his benefits.
Every day we have reason to bless him, for every
day he is blessing us ; in the morning particularly ;
and therefore, as he is giving out to us the fruits of
his favour, which are said to be new every morning^
(Lam. iii. 23.) because though the same we had the
morning before, they are still forfeited, and still
needed, and upon that account may be called still
new ; so we should be still returning the expressions
of our gratitude to him, and of other pious and de-
vout afi'ections, which, like the fire on the altar,
must be new every morning. Lev. vi. 12.
Have we had a good night ? and have we not an
errand to the throne of grace to return thanks for it ?
How many mercies concurred to make it a good
night! distinguishing merqies, granted to us, but
denied to others ! Many have not where to lay their
heads, our Master himself had not ; The foxes have
holes, and the birds of the air have nests^ but the Son
of man tiath not where to lay his head ; but we have
houses to dwell in, quiet and peaceable habitations,
perhaps stately ones ; we have beds to lie in, warm
and easy ones, perhaps beds of ivory, fine ones, such
as they stretched themselves upon who were at ease
in Zion ; and are not put to wander in deserts and
mountains, in dens and caves of the earth, as some
of the best of God's saints have been forced to do,
of whom the world was not worthy. Many have
beds to lie on, yet dare not, or cannot, lie down in
them, being kept up either by the sickness of their
friends, or the fear of their enemies. But we have
laid us down, and there has been none to make us
afraid ; no alarms of the sword, either of war or
persecution. Many lay them down and cannot sleep,
but are full of tossings to and fro until the dawning
of the day, through pain of body, or anguish of mind.
Wearisome nights are appointed to them, and their
eyes are held waking ; but we have laid us down
and slept without any disturbance, and our sleep
was sweet and refreshing, the pleasant parenthesis
of our cares and toils. It is God who has given us
sleep, has given it us as he gives it to his beloved.
Many lay them down and sleep, and neTer rise
again, they sleep the sleep of death, aad their beds
are their graves ; but we have slept and waked
again, have rested, and are refreshed; we shake our-
selves, and it is with us as at other times, because
the Lord has sustained us ; and if he bad not up-
held us, we had sunk with our own weight when
we fell asleep, Ps. iii. 5.
Have we a pleasant morning ? Is the light sweet
to us, the light of the sun, the light of the eyes, do
these rejoice the heart I and ought we not to own
our obligations to him who opens oar eyes, and
opens the eye-lids of the morning upon as ? Have
we clothes to put oii in the morning, garments that
are warm upon us, (Job xxxvii. 17.) change of rai-
ment, not for necessity only, but for ornament ? We
have them from God ; it is his wool and his flax that
is given to cover our nakedness, and the morning
when we dress ourselves is the proper time of return-
ing him thanks for it ; yet, I doubt, we do it not so
constantly as we do for our food when we sit down
to our tables, though we have as much reason to do
it. Are we in health and at ease ? Have we been
long so ? We ought to be thankful for a constant
series of mercies, as for particular instances of it,
especially considering how many are sick and in
pain, and how much we have deserved to be so.
Perhaps we have experienced some special mercy
to ourselves or our families, in preservation from fire
or thieves, from dangers we have been aware of, and
many more unseen ; weeping perhaps endured for a
night, and joy came in the morning ; and that calls
aloud upon us to own the goodness of God. The
destroying angel perhaps has been abroad, and the
arrow that flies at midnight, and wastes in darkness,
has been shot in at others' windows, but our bouses
have been passed over. Thanks be to God for the
blood of the covenant, sprinkled upon oar door-
posts ; and for the ministration of the good angels
about us, to which we owe it that we have been pre-
served from the malice of the evil angels against as,
those rulers of the darkness of this world, who, per-
haps, creep forth like the beasts of prey, vfhen be
makes darkness and it is dark. All the glory be to
the God of the angels.
5. In the morning we have fresh matter ministered
to us for the adoration of the greatness and glory of
God. We ought to take notice, not only of the gifts
of God's bounty to us, which we have the comfort
and benefit of, they are little narrow souls that con-
fine their regards to them ; but we ought to observe
the more general instances of his wisdom and power
in the kingdom of providence, which redound to his
honour, and the common good of the universe. The
19th Psalm seems to have been a morning medita-
tion, in which we are directed to obseire how the
HOW TO BEGIN EVERY DAY WITH GOD.
437
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament
showeth his handy worh ; and to own not only tbe
advantage we receive from their light and influence,
but the honour they do to him who stretched out the
heavens like a curtain, fixed their pillars, and esta-
blished their ordinances, according to which they
continue to this day, for they are all his servants.
Day unto day utters this speech, and night unto night
showeth this knowledge, even the eternal power and
godhead of the g^reat Creator of the world, and its
great Ruler. The regular and constant succession
and revolution of light and darkness, according to
the original contract made between them, that they
should reign alternately, may serve to confirm our
faith in that part of divine revelation, which gives
us the history of the creation, and the promise of
God to Noah and his sons, Gen. viii. 22. His co-
venant with the day and with the night, Jer. xx^iii.
20.
Look up in the morning, and see how exactly the
day-spring knows its place, knows its time, and
keeps them : how the morning light takes hold of
the ends of the earth, and of the air which is turned
to it as clay to the seal, instantly receiving the im-
pressions of it. Job xxxviii. 12 — 14. I was pleased
with an expression of a worthy, good minister, I
heard lately in his thanksgivings to God for the
mercies of the morning: " How many thousand
milbs " (said he) '* has the sun travelled this last
night to bring the light of the morning to us poor
sinful wretches, that justly might have been buried
in tbe darkness of the night !" Look up and see the
sun as a bridegroom richly dressed, and greatly
pleased, coming out of his chamber, and rejoicing
as a strong man to run a race : observe how bright
his beams are, how sweet his smiles, how strong his
inBuences : and, if there be no speech or language
where their voice is not heard, the voice of these
natural preachers, proclaiming the glory of God, it
is pity there should be any speech or language where
the voice of his worshippers should not be heard,
echoing to the voice of those preachers, and ascrib-
ing glory to him who thus makes the morning and
evening to rejoice. But whatever others do, let him
hear our voice to this purpose in the morning, and
in the morning let us direct our praises unto him.
6. In the morning we have, or should have, had
fresh thoughts of God, and sweet meditations on his
name, and those we ought to ofi'er up to him in
prayer. Have we been, according to David's ex-
ample, remembering God upon our beds, and medi'
tating upon him in the night-watches? When we
awake, can we say as he did. We are still with God?
If so, we have a good errand to the throne of grace
by the words of our mouths, to offer up to God the
meditations of our hearts, and it will be to him a
sacrifice of- a sweet smelling savour. If the heart
has been inditing a good matter, let the tongue be
as the pen of a ready writer, to pour it out before
God, Ps. xlv. 1.
We have the word of God to converse with, and
we ought to read a portion of it every morning : by
it God speaks to us, and in it we ought to meditate
day and night, which if we do, that will send us to
the throne of grace, and furnish us with many a good
errand there. If God in the morning by his grace
direct his word to us, so as to make it reach our
hearts, that will engage us to direct our prayer to
him.
7. In the morning, it is to be feared, we find cause
to reflect upon many vain and sinful thoughts th^t
have been in our minds in the night season ; and
upon that account it is necessary that wc address
ourselves to God by prayer in the morning, for the
pardon of them. Tbe Lord's prayer seems to be
calculated primarily in the letter of it for the morn-
ing; for we are taught to pray /or our daily bread
this day : and yet we are then to pray. Father for-
give us our trespasses ; for as in the hurry of the day
we contract guilt by our irregular words and actions,
so we do in the solitude of the night, by our corrupt
imaginations, and the wanderings of an unsanctified
ungovemed fancy. It is certain. The thought of
foolishness is sin, Prov. xxiv. 9. Foolish thoughts are
sinful thoughts ; tbe first-born of the old man, the
first beginnings of all sin ; and how many of these
vain thoughts lod^e within us wherever we lodge ?
Their name is Legion, for they are many ; who can
understand these errors! They are more than the
hairs of our head. We read of those who work evil
upon their beds, because there they devise it ; and
when the morning is light they practise it, Mic.
ii. 1. How often in the night season is the mind
disquieted and distracted with distrustful careful
thoughts ; polluted with unchaste and wanton
thoughts ; intoxicated with proud aspiring tnoughts ;
soured and leavened with malicious revengeful
thoughts ; or, at the best, diverted from devout and
pious thoughts by a thousand impertinences: out
of the heart proceed evil thoughts, which lie down
with us, and rise up with us, for out of that corrupt
fountain, which, wherever we go, we carry about
with us, these streams naturally flow. Yea, and in
the multitude of dreams, as well as in many words,
there are also divers vanities, Eccl. v. 2.
And dare we go abroad till we have renewed our
repentance, which we are every night as well as
every day thus making work for ? Are we not con-
cerned to confess to him who knows our hearts, their
wanderings from him, to complain of them to him
as revolting and rebellious hearts, and bent to back-
slide ; to make our peace with the blood of Christ,
and to pray, that the thought of our heart may be
forgiven us ? We cannot with safety go into the busi-
ness of the day under the guilt of any sin unrepcnted
of, or unpardoned.
438
HOW TO BEGIN EVERY DAY WITH GOD.
8. Id the morning we are addressing ourselves to
tLe work of the day, and therefore are concerned by
prayer to seek unto God for his presence and bless-
ing. We come, and are encouraged to cmne boldly?
to the throne of grace, not only for mercy to pardon
what has been amiss, but for grace to help in every
time of need : and what time is it that is not a time
of need with us? And, therefore, what morning
should pass without morning prayer? We read of
that which the duty of everj' day requires, (Ezra iii.
4.) and in reference to that we must go to God every
morning to pray for the gracious disposal of his
providence concerning us, and the gracious opera-
tions of his Spirit upon us.
We have families to look after, it may be, and to
provide for, and are in care to do well for them ; let
us then every morning by prayer commit them to
God, put them under the conduct and government
of his grace, and then we effectually put tliem under
the care and protection of his providence. Holy Job
rose up early in the morning to offer bumt-offcrings
for his children, and we should do so to offer up
prayers and supplications for them, according to the
number of them all. Job i. 5. Thus we cause the
blessing to rest on our houses.
We are going about the business of our callings
perhaps, let us look up to God in the first place, for
wisdom and grace to manage them well, in the fear
of God, and to abide with him iu them ; and then
we may in faith beg of him to prosper and succeed
us in them, to strengthen us for the services of them,
to support us under the fatigues of them, to direct
the designs of them, and to give us comfort in the
gains of them. We have journeys to go, it may be ;
let us look up to God for his presence with us, and
go no whither, where we cannot in faith beg of God
to go with us.
We have a prospect, perhaps, of opportunities of
doing or getting good, let us look up to God for a
heart to every price in our hands, for skill, and will,
and courage to improve it, that it may not be a price
in the hand of a fool. Every day has its temptations
too ; some perhaps we foresee, but there may be many
more that we think not of, and are therefore con-
cerned to be earnest with God, that we may not be
led into any temptation, but guarded against every
one ; that whatever company we come into, we may
have wisdom to do good and no hurt to them, and
to get good and no hurt by them.
We know not what a day may bring forth ; little
think in the morning what tidings we may hear, and
what events may befall us before night ; and should
therefore beg of God grace to carry us through the
duties and difficulties which we do not foresee, as
well as those which we do; that, in order to our
standing complete in all the will of God, as the day
is, so the strength may be. We shall find, that
sufficient onto the day is the evil thereof, and that,
therefore, as it is folly to take thought for fo-mor-
row's event, so it is wisdom to take thought for to-
day's duty, that sufficient unto this day, and the duty
of it, may be the supplies of the divine grace,. tho-
roughly to furnish us for every good word and work,
and thoroughly to fortify us against every evil word
and work ; that we may not think, or speak, or do
any thing in all the day, which we 'may have cause
upon any account to wish untbought, unspoke, and
undone at night
The Application.
1. Let this word put us in mind of our omissions;
for omissions are sins, and must come into judg-
ment. How often has our morning worship been
either neglected or negligently performed! The
work has been either not done at all, or done deceit-
fully ; either no sacrifice at all brought, or it has
been the torn, and the lame, and the sick ; either
no prayer, or the prayer not directed aright, nor
lifted up. Wc have had the morning's mercies, God
has not been wanting in the compassion and care of
a Father for us, yet we have not done the oioming's
service, but have been shamefully wanting in the
duty of children to him.
Let us be truly humbled before God this morning
for our sin and folly herein, that we have so often
robbed God of the honour, and ourselves of the
benefit, of our morning worship. God has come into
our closets, seeking this fruit, but has found none,
or next to none; has hearkened and heard, but
either we spake not to him at all, or spake not
right. Some trifling thing or other has served for
an excuse to put it by once, and when once the good
usage has been broken in upon, conscience has been
wounded, and its bonds weakened, and we have
grown more and more cool to it, and perhaps by
degrees it has been quite left off.
2. I beseech you, suffer a word of exhortation
concerning this. I know what an influence it
would have upon the prosperity of your souls, to be
constant and sincere in your secret worship, and
therefore, give me leave to press it upon you with
all earnestness ; let God hear from you every morn-
ing, every morning let your prayer be directed U)
him, and look up.
(I.) Make conscience of your secret worship;
keep it up, not only because it has been a custom
you have received by tradition from your fathers,
but because it is a duty, concerning which yon have
received Commandments from the Lord. Keep up
stated times for it, and be true to them. Let those
who have hitherto lived in the total neglect, or in the
frequent omission, of secret prayer, be persuaded
henceforward to look upon it as the most needfal
part of their daily business, and the most delightfal >
part of their daily comtbrt, and do it accordingly
HOW TO BEGIN EVERY DAY WITH GOD.
439
iFitfa a constant care^ and, yet, with a constant
pleasure.
No persons who have the use of their reason, can
pretend to an exemption from this duty; what is
said to some is said to all, '* Pray, pray, continue
in prayer, and watch in the same/' Rich people
ire not so much bound to labour with their bands as
the poor, poor people are not so much bound to give
sdms as the rich, but both are equally bound to pray.
The rich are not above the necessity of the duty, nor
the poor below acceptance with God in it. It is not
too soon for the youngest to begin to pray ; and those
whom the multitude of years has taught wisdom,
yet at their end will be fools, if they think they have
no further occasion for prayer.
Let none plead they cannot pray ; for if you are
ready to perish with hunger, you could beg and
pray for food ; and if you see yourselves undone by
reason of sin, can you not beg and pray for mercy
and grace ? Art thou a Christian 7 Never for shame
say, thou canst not pray, for that is as absurd as
for a soldier to say, he knows not how to handle a
sword, or a carpenter an axe. What are you called
for into the fellowship of Christ, but that by him
you may have fellowship with God? You cannot
pray so well as others, pray as well as you can, and
God will accept of you.
Let none plead that they have not time in a morn-
ing for prayer. I dare say, you can find time for
>ther things that are less needful. You had better
:ake time from sleep, than want time for prayer.
And how can yon spend time better, and more to
iTOur satisfaction and advantage ? All the business
>f the day will prosper the better, for your beginning
t thus with God.
Let none plead that they have not a convenient
place to be private in for this work : Isaac retired
into the field to pray ; and the Psalmist could be
ilone with God in a comer of the house top. If you
cannot perform it with so much secrecy as you would,
j^et perform it; it is doing it with ostentation that
is the fault, not doing it under observation, when it
cannot be avoided. I remember, when I was a
young man coming up hither to London in the stage
coach, in King James's time, there happened to be
a gentleman in the company, who then was not
afraid to own himself a Jesuit. Many rencounters he
and I had upon the road, and this was one : He was
praising the custom in popish countries of keeping
the church doors always open, for people to go into
at any time to say their prayers. I told him it look-
ed too much like the practice of the Pharisees, that
prayed in the synagogues ; and did not agree with
Christ's command, T/ioti, when thou prayest thyself,
enter not into the church with the doors open, but
into thy closet and shut thy doom's. When he was
pressed with that argument, he replied with some
Tebemence, " I believe you Protestants say your
prayers no where ; for" (said he) ** I have travelled
a great deal in the coach in company with protest-
ants, have often lain in inns in the same room with
them, and have carefully watched them, and could
never perceive that any of them said his prayers
night or morning but one, and he was a presbyte-
rian." I hope there was more malice than truth in
what he said : but I mention it as an intimation, that
though we cannot be so private as we would be in
our devotions, yet we must not omit them, lest the
omission should prove not a sin only, but a scandal.
(2.) Make a business of your secret worship, and
be not slothful in this business, but fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord. Take heed lest it degenerate into
a formality, and you grow customary in your accus-
tomed services. Go about the duty solemnly : be
inward with God in it ; it is not enough to say your
prayers, but you must pray your prayers, must pray
in praying, as Elijah did. Jam. v. 17. Let us learn
to labour fervently in prayer, as Epaphras did, (Col.
iv. 12.) and we shall find that it is the hand of the
diligent in this duty that makes rich. God looks
not at the length of your prayers, nor shall you be
heard for your much speaking or fine speaking ; but
God requires truth in the inward part, and it is the
prayer of the upright that is his delight. When you
have prayed, look upon yourselves as thereby en-
gaged and encouraged, both to serve God and to trust
in him ; that the comfort and benefit of your morning
devotions may not be as the morning cloud which
passes away, but as the morning light which shines
more and more.
THE SECOND DISCOURSE,
8HOWINO HOW TO SPEND THB DAT WITH GOD.
Psalm xxv. 5.
-On thee do I wait all the day.
Which of us is there that can truly say this ? Who
lives this life of communion with God, which is so
much our business, and so much our blessedness?
How far short do we come of the spirit of holy David,
though we have much better assistances for our ac-
quaintance with God, than the saints then had, by
the clearer discoveries of the mediation of Christ.
Yet, that weak Christians, who are sincere, may not
therefore despair, be it remembered, that David
himself was not always in such a frame that he could
say so ; he had his infirmities, and yet was a man
after God's own heart ; we have ours, which, if they
be sincerely lamented and striven against, and the
habitual bent of our souls be toward God and heaven,
we shall be accepted through Christ, for we are not
under the law, but under grace.
440
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD
However, David's profession in the text, shows us
what shoald be our practice, On God we must wait
all the day. That denotes two things, a patient ex-
pectation, and a constant attendance.
1. It speaks a patient expectation of his coming
to us in a way of mercy ; and then, all the day must
be taken figuratively, for all the time that the want-
ed and desired mercy is delayed. David, in the
former part of the verse prayed for divine conduct
and instruction. Lead me in thy truth and teach me.
He was at a loss, and very desirous to know what
God would have him to do, and was ready to do it ;
but God kept him in suspense, he was not yet clear
what was the mind and will of God, what course he
should steer, and how he should dispose of himself ;
will he therefore proceed without divine direction ?
No, On thee I will wait all the day, as Abraham
attended on the sacrifice from morning till the sun
went down, before God gave him an answer to his
inquiries concerning his seed, (Gen. xv. 5, 12.) and
as Habakkuk stood upon his watch-tower to see
what answer God would give him, when he consult-
ed his oracle ; and though it do not come presently,
yet at the end it shall speak, and not lie.
David, in the words before the text, had called
God The God of his salvation, the God on whom he
depended for salvation, temporal and eternal sal-
vation ; from whom he expected deliverance out of
his present distresses, those troubles of his heart that
were enlarged, (». 17.) and out of the hands of those
enemies who were ready to triumph over him, (». 2.)
and who hated him with a cruel hatred, v. 19.
Hoping that God will be his Saviour, he resolves to
wait on him all the day, like a genuine son of Jacob,
whose dying profession was, (Gen. xlix. 18.) / have
waited for thy salvation, O Lord. Sometimes God
precedes his people with the blessings of his good-
ness, before they call he answers them, is in the midst
of his church, to help her, and that right early, Ps.
xlvi. 5. But at other times he seems to stand afar
off, he delays the deliverance, and keeps them long
in expectation of it, nay, and in suspense about it ;
the light is neither clear nor dark, it is day, and that
is all ; it is a cloudy and dark day, and it is not till
evening time, that it is light, that the comfort comes
which they have been kept all the day waiting for ;
nay, perhaps it comes not till far in the night, it is
at midnight that the cry is made, Behold the bride-
groom comes. The deliverance of the church out of
her troubles, the success of her struggles, and rest
from them, a rescue from under the rod of the wicked,
and the accomplishment of all that which God has
promised concerning it, is what we must continue
humbly waiting upon God' for, without distrust or
impatience ; we must wait all the day,
(1.) Though it be a long day ; though we be kept
waiting a great while, quite beyond our own reckon-
ing ; though, when we have waited long, we are still
obliged to wait longer, and are bid with the pro-
phet's servant to go yet seven times, (I Kings xviii.
43.) before we perceive the least sign of mercy com-
ing. We looked that this and the other had heem ke
that should have delivered Israel, but are disap-
pointed ; The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved, Jer. viiL 20. The time is pro-
longed, nay, the opportunities are let slip, the sum-
mer time, and harvest time, when we thought to have
reaped the fruit of all our prayers, and pains, and
patience, is past and ended, and we are as far as
ever from salvation. The time that the ark abode in
Kirjath-jearim was long, much longer than it was
thought it would have been, when it was first lodged
there ; it was twenty years, so that the whole bouse
of Israel lamented after the Lord, and began to fear
it would abide for ever in that obscurity, 1 Sam.
vii. 2.
But though it be a long day, it is but a day, but
one day, and it is known to the Lord, Zech. xiv. 7.
It seems long while we are kept waiting, but the
happy issue will enable us to reflect upon it as short,
and but for a moment It is no longer than God
has appointed, and we are sure his time is the best
time, and his favours are worth waiting for. The
time is long, but it is nothing to the days of eternity,
when those who had long patience shall be recom-
pensed for it with an everlasting salvation.
(2.) Though it be a dark day, yet let us wait upon
God all the day. Though while we are kept wait-
ing for what God will do, we are kept in the dark
concerning what he is doiqg, and what is best for us
to do,*yet, let us be content to wait in the dark.
Though we see not our signs, though there is none
to tell us how long, yet let us resolve to wait, how
long soever it be ; for though what God does we
know not now, yet we shall know hereafter, when
the mystery of God shall be finished.
Never was man more at a loss concerning God's
dealings with him than poor Job was : Igoforwetrd,
but he is not there ; backward, hut I cannot perceive
him ; on the left hand, oti the right hand, hit I cannot
see him, (Job xxiii. 8, 9.) yet he sits down, (». 10.) re-
solving to wait on God all the day with a satisfac-
tion in this, that though he know not the way that
he takes, he knows the way that I take, and when he
has tried me, I shall come forth as gold, approved
and improved. He sits by as a refiner, and will take
care that the gold be in the furnace no longer than
is needful for the refining of it When God's way
is in the sea, so that he cannot be traced, yet we are
sure his way is in the sanctuary, so that he may be
trusted, see Ps. Ixxvii. 13, 19. And when clouds
and darkness are round about him, yet even then
justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne,
(3.) Though it be a stormy day, yet we must wait
upon God all the day. Though we are not only
becalmed, and do not get forward, but Uiough the i
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH QQJ}.
441
wind be contrary, and drive us back, nay, though it
be boisterous, and the church be tossed with tempests,
and ready to sink, yet we must hope the best ; yet
we must wait, and weather the storm by patience.
It is some comfort, that Christ is in the ship ; the
church's cause is Christ's cause, he has espoused it,
and he will own it; he is embarked in the same
Tcssel with his people, and therefore. Why are you
fearful ? Doubt not but the ship will come safe to
land ; though Christ seem for the present to be
asleep, the prayers of his disciples will awake him,
and he will rebuke the winds and the waves ; though
the bush bum, if God be in it, it shall not be con-
sumed. Yet this is not all, Christ is not only in the
ship, but at the helm, whatever threatens the church
is ordered by the Lord Jesus, and shall be made to
work for its good. It is excellently expressed by
Mr. George Herbert :
Away despair, my gracious God doth hear,
When winds and waves assault my keel,
He doth preserve it, he doth steer,
E'en when the boat seems most to reel.
Storms are the triumph of his art.
Well may he close his eyes, but not his heart
It is a seasonable word at this day. What God
will do with us we cannot tell ; but this we are sure
of, that he is a God of judgment, infinitely wise and
just, and therefore, Blessed are all they that wait far
him, Isa. xxx. 18. He will do his own work in his
own way and time ; and though we be hurried back
into the wilderness, when we thought we had been
upon the borders of Canaan, we sufier justly for our
unbelief and murmurings, but God acts wisely, and
will be found faithful to his promise ; his time to
judge for his people, and to repent himself concern-
ing his servants, is when he sees that their strength
is gone. This was seen of old in the mount of the
Lord, and shall be again. And therefore let us
continue in a waiting frame. Hold out faith and
patience, for It is good that a man should both hope
and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
2. It speaks a constant attendance upon him in a
way of duty. And so we understand the day literally ;
it was David's practice to wait upon God all the
day, Dtn-Sa It signifies both every day, and all the
day long ; it is the same with that conmiand, (Prov.
xxiii. 17.) Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the
day long,
Doct. It is not enough for us to begin every day
with God, but on him we must wait every day,
and all the day long.
For the opening of this I must show, I. What it
IS to wait upon God : II. That we must do this every
day, and all the day long.
I. Let us inquire, what it is to wait upon God.
ing to speak to him, in solemn prayer. But have
we then done with him for all day ? No, we must
still be waiting on him ; as one to whom we stand
very nearly related, and very strongly obliged. To
wait on God, is to live a life of desire toward him,
delight in him, dependence on him, and devotedness
to him.
1. It is to live a life of desire toward God ; to wait
on him, as the beggar waits on his benefactor, with
earnest desire to receive supplies from him ; as the
sick and sore in Bethesda's pool waited for the stirring
of the water, and attended in the porches with desire
to be helped in and healed. When the prophet had
said. Lord, in the way of thy judgments we have waited
for thee, he explained himself thus in the next words,
The desire of our soul is thy name, and to the remem-
brance of thee ; and with my soul have I desired thee,
Isa. xxvi. 8, 9. Our desire must be not only toward
the good things that God gives, but toward God
himself, his favour and love, the manifestation of
his name to us, and the influence of his grace upon
us. Then we wait oa God, when our soul» pant
after him, and his favcar, when we thirst for God,
for the living God ; O fiat I may behold the beauty
of the Lord ! O that I may taste his goodness ! O
that I may bear his inage, and be entirely con-
formed to his will ! for bere is none in heaven or
earth, that I can desire ii comparison of him. O
that I may know him mere, and love him better,
and be brought nearer to lim, and made fitter for
him. Thus upon the wingt of hol> desire should
our souls be still soaring upvard toward God, still
pressing forward, forward tovard heaven.
We must not only pray solemnly in the morning,
but that desire which is the Ife and soul of prayer,
like the fire upon the altar, mist be kept continually
burning, ready for the sacrifice, that are to be offered
upon it. The bent and bias o' the soul, in all its
motions, must be toward God, tie serving of him in
all we do, and the enjoying of lim in all we have.
And this is principally intended in the commands
given us to pray alway, to prar without ceasing,
to continue in prayer. Even vhen we arc not
making actual addresses to Gol, we must have
habitual inclinations toward bin; as a man in
health, though he is not always eating, yet has
always a disposition in him towardthe nourishment
and delights of the body. Thus mist we be always
waiting on God, as our chief god, and moving
toward him.
2. It is to live a life of delight in GkI, as the lover
waits on his beloved. Desire is lovi in motion, as
a bird upon the wing ; delight is lov< at rest, as a
bird upon the nest; now though oir desire must
still be so toward God, that we must b wishing for
more of God, yet our delight must b so in God,
that we must never wish for more thai God. Be-
Yon have heard how much it is our duty in the morn- I lieving him to be a God all-sufficien\ in him we
442
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD.
must be entirely satisfied ; let him be mine, and I
have enough. Do we love to love God? Is it a
pleasure to us to think that there is a God ? that he
is such a one as he has revealed himself to be ? that
he is our God by creation, to dispose of us as he
pleases ? our God in covenant, to dispose of all for
the best to us? This is waiting on our God, always
looking up to him with pleasure.
Something or other the soul has that it values
itself by, something or other that it reposes itself
in ; and what is it? God or the world? What is it
that we pride ourselves in, which we make the mat-
ter of our boasting ? It is the character of worldly
people, that they boast themselves in the multitude
of their riches, (Pa. xlix. 6.) and of their own might,
and the power of their own hands, which they think
have gotten them this wealth ; it is the character of
godly people, that in God they boost all the day long,
Ps. xliv. 8. That is waiting on God ; having our
eye alway upon him with a secret complacency, as
men have upon that which is t^eir glory, and which
they glory in.
What is it that we please ourselves with, which
we embrace with the greatest satisfaction, in the
bosom of which we lay oir heads, and in having
which we hug ourselves, iS having all we would
have ? The worldly man, vhen his bams are full of
corn, says, Soul, take thne ease, eat, drink, and be
merry ; the godly man cin never say so till he finds
Ids heart full of God, aid Christ, and grace ; and
then. Return unto thy 'est, O my soul, here repose
thyself. The gracious >oul dwells in God, is at home
in him, and there dwels at ease, is in him perpetu-
ally pleased ; and wlatever he meets with in the
world to make hlmsdf uneasy, he finds enough in
God to balance it.
3. It is to live a liC of dependence on God, as the
child waits on his faher, whom he has a confidence
in, and on whom he casts all his care. To wait on
God, is to expect al good to come to us from him,
as the worker of al good for us, and in us, the giver
of all good to us, tnd the protector of us from all
evil. Thus Davil explains himself, (Ps. Ixii. 5.)
My soul, wait thoionly upon God, and continue still
to do so, for my apectation is from him, I look not
to any other for the good 1 need ; for I know that
every creature i; that to me, and no more than he
makes it to be, md from him every man's judgment
proceeds. Shal we lift up our eyes to the hills ?
Does our helf come thence ? Docs the dew that
waters the valUys come no further than from the tops
of the hills ? iShall we go higher, and lift up our eyes
to the heavevs, to the clouds ? Can they of them-
selves give r^n ? No, if God hear not the heavens,
they hear n</t the earth ; we must therefore look
above the hils, above the heavens, for all our help
«ometh fromjthe Lord. It was the acknowledgment
•f a king, aid no good one neither, Jf the Lord do
not help thee, whence shall I help thee, oiut of the Uarm-
floor, or out of the wine-press ?
And our expectations from God, as far as thej
are guided by, and grounded upon, the word which
he has spoken, ought to be humbly confident, and
with a full assurance of faith. We must know md
be sure that no word of God shall fall to the ground,
that the expectation of the poor shall not perish.
Worldly people say to their gold. Thou art my hope;
and to the fine gold. Thou art my confidence, and the
rich man's wealth is his strong city : but Grod is the
only refuge and portion of the godly man here in
the land of the living ; it is to him only that he says,
and he says it with a holy boldness, Thom art my
hope and my confidence. The eyes of all things wait
on him, for he is good to all ; but the eyes of his
saints especially, for he is in a peculiar manner
good to Israel, good to them. They know his name,
and therefore will tnist and triumph in him, as those
who know they shall not be made ashamed of their
hope.
4. It is to live a life of devotedness to God, as the
servant Muits on his master, ready to observe his
will, and to do his work, and in every thing to con-
sult his honour and interest. To wait on God is
entirely and unreservedly to refer ourselves to his
wise and holy directions and disposals, and cheer-
fully to acquiesce in them, and comply with them.
The servant that waits on his master chooses not his
own way, but follows his master, step by step : thus
must we wait on God, as those who have no will of
our own, but what is wholly resolved into his ; and
must therefore study to accommodate ourselves to
hb. It is the character of the redeemed of the Lord,
that they follow the Lamb wheresoever be goes,
with an implicit faith and obedience. As the eyes
of a servant are to the hand of his master, and the
eyes of a maiden to the hand of her mistress, so
must our eyes wait on the Lord, to do what he ap-
points us, to take what he allots us ; Father y thy will
be done ; Master, thy will be done.
The servant waits on his master, not only to do
him service, but to do him honour ; and thus most
we wait on God, that we may be to him for a name,
and for a praise. His glory must be our ultimate
end, to which we, and ail we are, have, andean do,
must be dedicated ; we wear his livery, attend in
his courts, and follow his motions as his servants,
for this end, that he may in all things be glorified.
To wait on God is to make his will our rule.
(I.) To make the will of his precept the rale of
our practice, and to do every duty with an eye to
that. W^e must wait on him to receive his com-
mands, with a resolution to comply with them, how
much soever they may contradict our corrupt incli-
nations or secular interests. We must wait on him
as the holy angels do, who always behold the face of
their Father, as those who are at his beck, and are
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD.
44d
ready to go upon the least intimation of his will,
though hut by a wink of his eye, wherevei* he sends
them. Thus must we do the will of God, as the
angels do it who are in heaven, those ministers of
his that do his pleasure, and are always about his
throne in order to it, and never out of the way.
David here prays, that God would show him his
way, and lead him, and teach him, and keep him,
and forward him, in the way of his duty ; and so the
text comes in as a plea to enforce that petition, for
OH thee do I wait all the day ; ready to receive the
law from thy mouth, and in every thing to observe
thy orders. • And then it intimates this, that those,
and those only, can expect to be taught of God, who
are ready and willing to do as they are taught. If
any man will do his will, be stedfastly resolved in
the strength of his grace to comply with it, he shall
know what his will is. David prays, Lord, give me
understanding f and then promises himself, / shall
keep thg law, yea, I shall observe it, as the servant
that waits on his master. They that go up to the
house of the Lord, with an expectation that he will
teach them his ways, it must be with an humble
resolution, that they will walk in his paths, Isa.
ii. 3. Lord, let the pillar of cloud and fire go be-
fore me, for I am determined with full* purpose pf
heart to follow it, and thus to wait on my God all
the day.
(2.) To make the will of his providence the rule
of our patience, and to bear every affliction with an
eye to that We are sure it is God who performs
all things for us, and he performs the thing that is
appointed for us ; we are as sure that all is well that
God does, and shall be made to work for good to all
that love him ; and in order to that we ought to ac-
quiesce in, and accommodate ourselves to, the whole
will of God. To wait on the Lord, is to say, It is
the Lord, let him do to me as seemeth good to him,
because nothing seemeth good to him but what is
really good ; and so we shall see, when God's work
appears in a full light It is to say. Not as I will, but
as thou wilt, for should it be according to my mind 1
It is to bring our mind to our condition in every
thing, so as to keep it calm and easy, whatever hap-
pens to make us uneasy.
And we must therefore bear the affliction, what-
ever it is, because it is the will of God ; it is what
he has allotted us, who does all according to the
counsel of his own will. This is Christian patience ;
I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, not because
it was to no purpose to complain, but because thou
didst it, and therefore I had no reason to complain.
And this will reconcile us to every affliction, one as
well as another, because, whatever it is, it is the will
of God, and in compliance with it we must not only
be silent, because of the sovereignty of his will, Woe
unto him that strives with his Maker ; but we must
be satisfied because of the wisdom and goodness of
it. Whatever the disposals of God's providence
may be concerning those who wait on him, we may
be sure that as he does them no wrong, so he means
them no hurt : nay, they may say as the Psalmist
did, even when he was plagued all the day long,
and chastened every morning, however it be, yet God
is good, and therefore, though he slay me, yet will I
trust in him, yet will I wait on him,
1 might open this duty of waiting on God by
other scripture expressions which speak the same
thing, and are, as this, comprehensive of a great
part of that homage, which we are bound to pay to
him, and that communion which it is our interest to
keep up with him. Truly our fellowship is with tlie
Father, and with the Son Jesus Christ.
It is to set God always before.us, Ps. xvi. 8. To
look upon him as one always near us, always at our
right hand, and who has his eye upon us wherever
we are, and whatever we are doing ; nay, as one in
whom we live and move, and have our being, with
whom we have to do, and to whom we are account-
able. This is pressed upon us, as the great principle
of gospel obedience. Walk before me, and be thou
upright ; herein consists that uprightness which is
our evangelical perfection, in walking at all times
as before God, and studying to approve ourselves to
him.
It is to have our eyes ever toward the Lord, as it
follows here, Ps. xxv. 15. Though we cannot see
him by reason of our present distance and darkness,
yet we must look toward him, toward the place
where his honour dwells ; as those who desire the
knowledge of him and his will, and direct all to his
honour as the mark we aim at, labouring in this, that
whether present or absent we may be accepted of
him. To wait on him, is to follow him with our eye
in all those things wherein he is pleased to manifest
himself, and to admit the discoveries of his being
and perfections.
It is to acknowledge God in all our ways, Prov.
iii. 6. In all the actions of life, and in all the afiairs
of life, we must walk in his hand, and set ourselves
in the way of his steps. In all our undertakings,
we must wait upon him for direction and success,
and by faith and prayer commit our way to him to
undertake for us, and him we must take with us
wherever we go ; 7/* thy presence go not up with us,
carry us not up hence. In all our comforts we must
see his hand giving them out to us, and in all our
crosses we must see the same hand laying them
upon us, that we may learn to receive both good
and evil, and to bless the name of the Lord both
when he gives and when he takes.
It is to follow the Lord fully, as Caleb did. Numb,
xiv. 24. It is to fulfil after the Lord, so the word
is ; to have respect to all his commandments, and
to study to stand complete in his whole will. Wher-
ever God leads us, and goes before us, we must be
444
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD.
followers of him as dear children, must follow the
Lamb whithersoever he goes, and take him for our
guide whithersoever we go.
This is to wait on God, and those who do so may
cheerfully wait for him, for he will without fail'ap-
pear in due time to their joy ; and that word of Solo-
tnon shall be made good to them, He tcho waits on
his master shall he honoured, for Christ has said,
Where I am, there shall also my servant be, Prov.
xxvii. 18.
II. Having showed yon what it is to wait on God,
I come next to show, that this we must do every
day, and all the day long.
i. We must wait on our God, omni die — every
day, so some. This is the work of every day which
is to be done in its day, for the duty of every day
requires it. Servants in the courts of princes have
their weeks or months of waiting appointed them,
and are obliged to attend only at certain times. But
God's servants must never be out of waiting; ail
the days of our appointed time, the time of our
work and warfare here on earth, we must be waiting,
(Job xiv. 14.) and not desire or expect to be dis-
charged from this attendance, till we come to heaven,
where we shall wait on God, as angels do, more
nearly and constantly.
We must wait on God every day.
(1.) Both on sabbath days, and on week days.
The Lord's day is instituted and appointed on pur-
pose for our attendance on God in the courts of his
house, there we must wait on him to give glory to
him, and to receive both commands and favours
from him. Ministers must then wait on their minis-
try, (Rom. xii. 7.) and people must wait on it too,
saying, as Cornelius for himself and his friends.
Now we are all here ready before God, to ftear all
things that are commanded thee of God, Acts x. 33.
It is for the honour of God, to help to flll up the as-
semblies of those who attend at the footstool of his
throne, and to add to their number. The whole
sabbath time, except what is taken up in works of
necessity and mercy, must be employed in waiting
on our God. Christians are spiritual priests, and
as such it is their business to wait in God's house
at the time appointed.
But that is not enough ; we must wait upon our
God on week days too, for every day of the week we
want mercy from him, and have work to do for him.
Our waiting upon him in public ordinances on the
first day of the week, is designed to fix us to, and fit
us for, communion with him all the week after ; so
that we answer not the intentions of the sabbath,
unless the impressions of it abide upon us, and go
with us into the business of the week, and be kept
always in the imagination of the thought of our
heart. Thus from one sabbath to another, and
from one new moon to another, we must keep in a
holy gracious frame ; must be so in the Spirit on
the Lord's day, as to walk in the Spirit all the
week.
(!2.) Both on idle days and busy days we must be
found waiting on God. Some days of oar lives are
days of labour and hurry, when our particular call-
ing calls for our close and diligent application ; but
we must not think that will excuse as from oar con-
stant attendance on God. Even when oar hands
are working about the world, our hearts may be
waiting on our God, by an habitual regard to him;
to his providence as our guide, and his glory as onr
end, in our worldly business ; and thus we mast
abide with him in them. Those who rise up eariy,
and sit up late, and eat the bread of carefulness, in
pursuit of the world, yet are concerned to wait on
God, because otherwise all their care and pains will
signify nothing ; it is labour in vain, (Ps. cxxvii.
1,2.) nay, it is labour in the fire.
Some days of our lives we relax from business,
and take our ease. Many of you have your time
for diversion; but then when you lay aside other
business, this of waiting upon God most not be laid
aside. When you prove yourselves with mirth, as
Solomon did, and say, you will enjoy pleasure a
little, yet let this wisdom remain with yoa, (Eccles.
iu 1, 3.) let your eye be then up to God, and take
heed of dropping your communion vrith him, in that
which you call an agreeable conversation with yoor
friends. Whether it be a day of work, or a day of
rest, we shall find nothing like waiting upon God*
both to lighten the toil of our work, and to sweeten
the comfort of our repose. So that whether we have
much to do or little to do in the world, still we most
wait upon God, that we may be kept from the temp-
tation that attends both the one and the other.
(3.) Both in days of prosperity, and in days of
adversity, we must be found waiting upon God.
Docs the world smile upon us and court us ? yet let
us not turn from attending on God to make our
court to it. If we have ever so much of the wealth
of the world, yet we cannot say we have no need of
God, no further occasion to make use of him, as
David was ready to say, when in his prosperity he
said he should never be moved ; but soon saw his
error, when God hid his face, and he was troubled,
Psalm XXX. 6. When our affairs prosper, and into
our hands God brings plentifully, we must wait upon
God as our great Landlord, and own our obligations
to him ; must beg his blessing on what we have,
and his favour with it, and depend upon him both
for the continuance and for the comfort of it We .
must wait upon God for wisdom and g^ce, to use
what we have in the world for the ends for which we
are intrusted with it, as those who must give ac-
count, and know not how soon. And how much
soever we have of this world, and how richly soever
it is given us to enjoy it, still we must wait upon God
for better things, not only than the world g^ves, but
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD.
446
than he himself gives in this world. '* Lord pat me
not off with this for a portion."
And when the world frowns upon us, and things
^ very cross, we must not so fret ourselves at its
frowns, or so frighten ourselves with them, as there-
by to be driven off from waiting on God, but rather
let us thereby be driven to it. Afllictions are sent
for this end, to bring us to the throne of grace, to
:each us to pray, and to make the word of God's
^race precious to us. In the day of our sorrow we
nust wait upon God, for those comforts which are
sufficient to balance our griefs ; Job, when in tears,
fell down and worshipped God, taking away, as well
is giving. In the day of our fear we must wait upon
Grod, for those encouragements that are sufficient to
silence our fears ; Jehoshaphat in his distress waited
upon God, and it was not in vain, his heart was
established by it ; and so was David's often, which
brought him to this resolution, which was an an-
chor to his soul, What time I am afraid, I will trust
in thee,
(4.) Both in the days of youth, and in the days
9f old age, we must be found waiting on God. Those
who are young cannot begin their attendance on
Grod too soon : the child Samuel ministered to the
Lord, and the Scripture story puts a particular mark
)f honour upon it; and Christ was wonderfully
)leased with the hosannas of the children who wait-
ed on him, when he rode in triumph into Jerusalem:
rhen Solomon in his youth, upon his accession to
he throne, waited upon God for wisdom, it is said,
^he saying pleased the Lord, I remember thee, (says
rod to Israel) even the kindness of thy youth, when
hou wentest after me, and didst wait upon me tit a
wilderness t Jer. ii. 2. To wait upon God is to be
lindful of our Creator, and the proper time for that
( in the days of our youth, Eccl. xii. 1. Those who
oald wait upon God aright, must learn betimes to
o it; the most accomplished courtiers are those
Jio are brought up at court.
And may the old servants of Jesus be dismissed
■oni waiting on him ? No, their attendance is still
squired, and shall be still accepted ; they shall not
e cast off by their Master in the time of old age,
nd, therefore, let not them desert his service. When
irough the infirmities of age they can no longer be
'orking servants in God's family, they may be wait-
ig^ servants. Those who like Barzillai are unfit for
le entertainments of the courts of earthly princes,
lay relish the pleasures of God's courts as well as
ver. The Levitcs, when they were past the age of
fty, and were discharged from the toilsome part of
leir ministration, yet still must wait on God, must
e quietly waiting to g^ve honour to him, and to re-
el ve comfort from him. Those who have done the
rill of God, and their doing work is at an end, have
eed of patience to enable them to wait till they in-
ent the promise : and the nearer the happiness is
which they are waiting for, the dearer should the
God be they are waiting on, and hope shordy to be
with, to be with eternally.
2. We must wait on our God, toto die — all the
day, so we read it Every day from morning to
night, we must continue waiting on God ; whatever
change there may be of our employment, this must
be the constant disposition of our souls, we must
attend upon God, and have our eyes ever toward
him ; we must not at any time allow ourselves to
wander from God, or to attend on any thing beside
him, but what we attend on for him ; in subordina-
tion to his will, and in subserviency to his glory.
(1.) We must cast our daily cares upon him.
Every day brings with it its fresh cares, more or less ;
these awake with us every morning, and we need
not go so far forward as to-morrow to fetch in care.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof You who
are great dealers in the world, have your cares at-
tending you all the day ; though you keep them to
yourselves, yet they sit down with you, and rise up
with you ; they go out and come in with you, and
are more a load upon you than those you converse
with are aware of. Some, through the weakness of
their spirits, can scarce determine any thing but
with fear and trembling.
Let this burthen be cast upon the Lord, believing
that his providence extends itself to all your affairs,
to all events concerning you, and to all the circum-
stances of them, even the most minute and seemingly
accidental ; that your times are in his hand, and all
your ways at his disposal. Believe his promise, that
all things shall be made to work for good to those
that love him, and then refer it to him in every thing,
to do with you and yours as seemeth good in his
eyes, and rest satisfied in having done so, and re-
solve to be easy. Bring your cares to God by prayer
in the morning, spread them before him, and then
make it to appear all the day, by the composedness
and cheerfulness of your spirits, that you left them
with him, as Hannah did, who, when she had prayed,
went her way and did eat, and her countenance was
no more sad, 1 Sam. i. 18. Commit your way to the
Lord, and then submit to his disposal of it, though it
may cross your expectations ; and bear up yourselves
upon the assurances God has given you, that he
will care for you as the tender father for the child.
(2.) We must manage our daily business for him,
with an eye to his providence, putting us into the
calling and employment wherein we are ; and to his
precept, making diligence in our duty ; with an eye
to his blessing, as that which is necessary to make
it comfortable and successful ; and to his glory, as
our highest end in all. This sanctifies our common
actions to God, and sweetens them, and makes them
pleasant to ourselves. If Gains brings his friends
whom he is parting with a little way on their journey,
it is but a piece of common civility, but let him do
{
446
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD.
it after a godly sort ; let him in it pay respect to
them, because they belong to Christ, and for his
sake ; let him do it that he may have an opportunity
of so much more profitable communication with
them, and then it becomes an act of Christian piety,
3 John 6. It is a general rule by which we must
govern ourselves in the business of every day. What-
ever we do in word or deed^ to do all in the name of
the Lord Jesusy (Col. iii. 17.) and, thus, in and by
the Mediator we wait on our God.
This is particularly recommended to servants,
though their employments are but mean, and they
are under the command of their masters according
to the flesh, yet let them do their servile work as the
servants of Christ, as unto the Lord, and not unto
men ; let them do it with singleness of heart as unto
Christ, and they shall be accepted of him, and from
him shall receive the reward of the inheritance, Eph.
vi. 5—8. Col. iii. 22, 24. Let them wait on God
all the day, when they are doing their day's work,
by doing it faithfully and conscientiously, that they
may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, by aim-
ing at his glory even in common business : they
work that they may get bread, they would live not
that they may live to themselves, and please them-
selves, but that they may live to God, and please
him. They work that they may fill up time, and fill
up a place in the world, and because that God who
made and maintained us, has appointed us with
quietness to work and mind our own business.
(3.) We must receive our daily comforts from him ;
we must wait on him as our Benefactor, as the eyes
of all things wait upon him to give them their food
in due season, and what he gives them that they
gather. To him we must look as to our Father for
our daily bread, and from him we are appointed to
ask it, yea, though we have it in the house, though
we have it upon the table. We must wait upon him
for a covenant right to it, for leave to make use of it,
for a blessing upon it, for a nourishment by it, and
for comfort in it. It is in the word and prayer that
we wait on God, and keep up communion with him,
and by these every creature of God is sanctified to
us, (1 Tim. iv. 4, 5.) and the property of it is altered.
To the pure, all things are pure ; they have them
from the covenant, and not from common providence,
which makes a little that the righteous man has,
better than the riches of many wicked, and much
more valuable and comfortable.
No inducement can be more powerful to make us
see to it, that what we have we get honestly, and
use it soberly, and give God his due out of it, than
this consideration, that we have our all from the
hand of God, and are intrusted with it as stewards,
and consequently are accountable. If we have this
thought as a golden thread running through all the
comforts of every day ; these are God*s gifts, every
bit we eat, and every drop we drink, is his mercy,
every breath we draw, and every step we take, Ui
mercy ; this will keep us continually waiting upon
him, as the ass on his master's crib, and will pita
double sweetness into all our enjoyments. God will
have his mercies taken fresh from his compassi<NH,
which for this reason are said to be new every mon-
ing; and, therefore, it is not once a week thatie
are to wait upon him, as people go to market tobij
provisions for the whole week, but we must wait oa
him every day, and all the day, as those who life
from hand to mouth, and yet live very easy.
(4.) We must resist our daily temptation, and do
our daily duties in the strength of his g^race. Eveiy
day brings its temptation with it ; our Master knev
that when he taught us, as duly as we pray for our
daily bread, to pray. Lead us not into iemptatin.
There is no business we engage in, no enjoyment ve
partake of, but it has its snares attending it ; Satan
by it assaults us, and endeavours to draw as into sii:
now sin is the great evil we should be continuallj
upon our guard against, as Nehemiah was, (eL vi
13.) That I should be afraid, and do so, and sin. Aod
we have no way to secure ourselves, but by waitiag
on God all the day, we must not only in the moni-
ing put ourselves under the protection of his grace,
but we must all the day keep ourselves under the
shelter of it ; must not only go forth, but go on ia
dependence upon that grace which he has said shall
be sufficient for us, that care which will not suffern
to be tempted above what we are able. Our wait-
ing upon God will furnish us vrith the best argi*
ments to make use of in resisting temptations, and
with strength according to the day. Be strong »
the Lord, and in the power of his might, and then ve
wait on the Lord all the day.
We have duty to do, many an opportunity of
speaking good words, and doing g^od works, and
we must see and own that we are not suflScient of
ourselves for any thing that is g^od, not so mucli as
to think a good thought ; we must therefore wait
upon God, must seek to him, and depend upon him,
for that light and fire, that wisdom and zeal, which
is necessary to the due discharge of our duty ; that
by his grace we may not only be fortified against
every evil word and work, but furnished for eveiy
good word and work. From the fulness that is in
Jesus Christ, we must by faith be continually draw-
ing grace for grace ; grace for all gracious exercises;
grace to help in every time of need : we must wait
on his grace, must follow the conduct of it, comply
with the operations of it, and must be turned to it
as wax to the seal.
(5.) We must bear our daily afflictions with sub-
mission to his will. We are bid to expect trouble hi
the flesh, something or other happens every day that
grieves us, something in our relations, something in
our callings, events concerning ourselves, oar
families, or friends, that are causes of sorrow : per-
:
I
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD.
447
haps, we have every day some bodily pain or sfck-
ness; or, some cross and disappointment in our
affairs; now, in these we mast wait npon God.
Christ requires it of all his disciples, that they take
up their cross daily. Matt. xvi. 24. We must not
wilfully pluck the cross down upon us, but must
take it up when God lays it in our way, and not go
a step out of the way of duty, either to meet iU or
to miss it. It is not enough to bear the cross, but
we must take it up, we must accommodate ourselves
to it, and acquiesce in the will of God in it. Not,
*' This is an evil, and I must bear it," because I
cannot help it, but, *' This is an evil, and I will bear
it,'' because it is the will of God.
We must see every affliction allotted us by our
heavenly Father, and in it must discover his cor-
recting hand, and, therefore, must wait on him to
know the cause wherefore he contends with us ; what
the fault is for which we are in this affliction
chastened ; what the distemper is which is to be by
this affliction cured ; that we may answer God's end
in afflicting us, and so may be made partakers of
his holiness. We must attend the motions of Pro-
vidence, keep our eye upon our Father when he
frowns, that we may discover what bis mind is, and
what the obedience is which we are to learn, by the
things that we suffer.
We must wait on God for support under our
bartheos ; must put ourselves into, and stay our-
selves upon, the everlasting arms, which are laid
under the children of God to sustain them, when
the rod of God is upon them. And him we must
attend for deliverance ; must not seek to extricate
ourselves by any sinful indirect methods, nor look to
creatures for relief, but still wait on the Lord until
he have mercy on us; well content to bear the
burthen till God ease us of it, and ease us in mercy,
Ps. cxxiii. 2. If the affliction be lengthened out,
yet we must wait upon the Lord, even when he hides
his face, (Isa. viii. 17.) hoping it is but in a little
wrath, and for a small moment, Isa. liv. 7, 8.
(6.) We must expect the tidings and events of
every day, with a cheerful and entire resignation to
the divine Providence. While we are in this world
we are still expecting, hoping well, fearing ill ; we
know not what a day, or a night, or an hour will
bring forth, (Prov. xxvii. 1.) but it is big with some-
thing, and we are too apt to spend our thoughts in
vain about things future, which happen quite differ-
ently from what we imagined. Now in all our
prospects we must wait upon God.
Are we in hopes of good tidings, a good issue ? Let
us wait on God as the giver of the good we hope for,
and be ready to take it from his hand ; and to meet
him with suitable affections when he is coming
toward us in a way of mercy. Whatever good we
hope for, it is God alone, and his wisdom, power,
and goodness, that we must hope in. And therefore
our hopes must be humble and modest, and regu-
lated by his will ; what God has promised us, we
may with assurance promise ourselves, and no more.
If thus we wait on God in our hopes, should the
hope be deferred, it would not make the heart sick ;
no, nor if it should be disappointed, for the God we
wait on, will overrule all for the best: but when
the desire comes, in prosecution of which we have
thus waited on God, we may see it coming from his
love, and it will be a tree of life, Prov. xiii. 12.
Are we in fearof evil tiding8,of melancholy events,
and a sad issue of the depending affairs ? Let us
wait on God to be delivered from all our fears, from
the things themselves we are afraid of, and from the
amazing tormenting fears of them, Ps. xxxiv. 4.
When Jacob was with good reason afraid of his
brother Esau, he waited on God, brought his fears
to him, wrestled with him, and prevailed for deliver-
ance. What time I am afraid^ says David, / will
trust in thee, and waiton thee. And that shall establish
the heart, shall fix it, so as to set it above the fear of
evil tidings.
Are we in suspense between hope and fear ? some-
times one prevails, and sometimes the other ? Let us
wait on God, and the God to whom belong the issues
of life and death, good and evil, from whom our
judgments, and every man's, proceed, and compose
ourselves into a quiet expectation of the event,
whatever it may be, with a resolution to accommo-
date ourselves to it ; hope the best, and get ready for
the worst, and then take what God sends.
The Application.
1. Let me further urge upon you this duty of wait-
ing upon God all the day, in some more particular
instances, according to what you have to do all the
day, in the ordinary business of it We are weak
and forgetful, and need to be put in mind of our
duty in general, upon every occasion for the doing
of it ; and therefore I choose to be thus particular,
that I may be your remembrancer.
(1.) When you meet with your families in the
morning, wait upon God for a blessing upon them,
and attend him with your thanksgivings for the
mercies you and yours have jointly received from
God the night past ; you and your houses must serve
the Lord, must wait on him. See it owing to his
goodness, who is the Founder and Father of the
families of the righteous, that you are together, that
the voice of rejoicing and salvation is in your
tabernacles, and therefore wait upoq him to continue
you together, to make you comforts to one another,
to enable you to do the duty of every relation, and
to lengthen out the days of your tranquillity. In all
the conversation we have with our families, the pro-
vision we make for them, and the orders we give
concerning them, we must wait upon God, as the
448
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD.
God of all the families of Israel, (Jer. xxxi. 1.) and
have an eye to Christ, as he in whom all the families
of the earth are blessed.
Every member of the family sharing in family
mercies, must wait on God for grace to contribute
to family duties. Whatever disagreeableness there
may be in ate faniily relation, instead of having the
spirit either n^rtbened with it, or provoked by it,
let it be an indHCj|fi[ient to wait on God, who is able
cither to redress the grievance, or to balance it, and
give grace to bear it.
(2.) When you are pursuing the education of your
children, or the young ones under your charge, wait
upon God for his grace to make the means of their
education successful. When you are yourselves
giving them instruction in things pertaining either
to life or godliness, their general or particular call-
ing, when you are sending them to school in a morn-
ing, or ordering them the business of the day, wait
upon God to give them an understanding, and a
good capacity for their business ; especially their
main business, for it is God that giveth wisdom. If
they are but slow, and do not come on as you could
wish-, yet wait on God to bring them forward, and
to give them his grace in his own time ; and while
yon are patiently waiting on him, that will encou-
rage you to take pains with them, and will likewise
make you patient and gentle towards them.
And let children and young people wait on God
in all their daily endeavours, to fit themselves for
the service of God and their generation. You desire
to be comforts to your relations, to be good for
something in this world ; do you not ? Beg of God
then a wise and an understanding heart, as Solomon
did, and wait upon him all the day for it, that you
may be still increasing in wisdom, as you do in sta-
ture, and in favour with God and man.
(3.) When you go to your shops, or apply your-
selves to the business of your particular calling, wait
upon God for his presence with you. Your business
calls for your constant attendance every day, and
all the day ; keep the shop, and thy shop will keep
thee ; but let your attendance on God in your call-
ings be as constant as your attendance on your call-
ings. Eye God*s providence in all the occurrences
of them. Open shop with this thought, I am now
in the way of my duty, and I depend upon God to
bless me in it. When you are waiting for custom-
ers, wait on God to find you something to do in that
calling to which he has called you ; those you call
chance customers, you should rather call providence
customers, and should say of the advantage you
make by them, The Lord my God brought it to me.
When you are buying and selling, see God's eye
upon you, to observe whether you are honest and
just in your dealings, and do no wrong to those you
deal with ; and let your eye then be up to him, for
that discretion to which God does instruct not only
the' husbandman, but the tradesman, (Isa. xxtiil
26.) that prudence which directs the way, and witk
which it is promised the good man shall order kii
affairs ; for that blessing which makes rich, and adds
no sorrow with it ; for that honest profit which may
be expected in the way of honest diligence.
Whatever your employments be, in codntry-bitti-
ness, city-business, or sea-business, or only in the
business of the house, go about them in the fear of
God, depending upon him to make them oomfoitable
and successful, and to prosper the work of yoar
hands unto you. And hereby you will arm your-
selves against the many temptations yoa are com-
passed about with in your worldly business; by
waiting on God, you will be freed from the care and
cumber which attends much serving, will have your
minds raised above the little things of sense and
time, will be serving God when you are most bosy
about the world, and will have God in yoar hearts,
when your hands are full of the world.
(4.) When you take a book into your hands, God's
book, or any other useful good book, wait upon God
for his grace to enable you to make a good use of it
Some of you spend a deal of time every day in read-
ing, and I hope none of you let a day pass without
reading some portions of Scripture, either alone or
with your families ; take heed that the time yoa
spend in reading be not lost time ; it is so, if yoo
read that which is idle and vain, and unprofitable;
it is so, if you read that which is good, even the word
of God itself, and do not mind it, or observe it, or
aim to make it of any advantage to yon ; wait upon
God, who gives you those helps for your souls, to
make them helpful indeed to you. The eunuch did
so, when he was reading the book of the prophet
Isaiah in his chariot, and God presently sent him
one, who made him understand what he read.
You read perhaps now and then the histories ot
former times. In acquainting yourselves with them,
you must have an eye to God, and to that wise and
gracious providence which governed the world before
we were bom, and preserved the church in it, and
therefore may be still depended upon to do ail for
the best, for he is Israel's King of old.
(5.) When you sit down to your tables, wait on
God ; see his hand spreading and preparing a table
before you in despite of your enemies, and in the
society of your friends ; often review the grant which
God made to our first father Adam, and in him to
us, of the products of the earth, (Gen. i. 29.) Bekoid,
I have given you every herb bearing seed, bread-corn
especially, to you it ghall be for meat ; and the giant
he afterwards made to Noah, our second father, and
in him to us, (Gen. ix. .3.) Every moving thing tkat
liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herh :
and see in those what a bountiful Benefactor he is
to mankind, and wait upon him accordingly.
We must eat and drink to the glory of God, and
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD.
440
then we wait on him in eating and drinking. We
most receive nourishment for our bodies, that they
may be fitted to serve our souls in the service of God,
to his honour in this world. We must taste covenant
love in common mercies, and enjoy the Creator
while we are using the creature. We must depend
upon the word of blessing from the mouth of God,
to make our food nourishing to us ; and if our pro>
visions be mean and scanty, we must make up the
want of them by faith in the promise of God, and
rejoice in him, as the God of our salvation, though
the Jig-tree doth not blossom, and there is no fruit in
the vine.
(6.) When you visit your friends, or receive their
visits, wait upon God. Let your eye be to him with
thankfulness for your friends and acquaintance,
that you have comfort in ; that the wilderness is not
made your habitation, and the solitary and desert
land your dwelling ; that you have comfort not only
in your own houses but in those of your neighbours,
with whom you have freedom of converse ; and that
you are not driven out from among men, and made
a burthen and terror to all about you. That you have
clothing not only for necessity but for ornament, to
go abroad in, is a mercy, which, that we may not
pride ourselves in, we must take notice of God in,
/ dechad thee with ornaments, says God, and put ear-
rings in thine ears, Ezek. xvi. 11, 12. That you have
bouses, furniture, and entertainment, not only for
yourselves but for your friends, is a mercy in which
God must be acknowledged.
And when we are in company, we must look up
to God for wisdom to carry ourselves so that we may
do much good to, and get no harm by, those with
whom we converse. Wait on God for that grace
with which our speech should be always seasoned,
by which all corrupt communication may be pre-
sented, and we may abound in that which is good,
and to the use of edifying, and which may minis-
ter grace to the hearers, that our lips may feed
many.
(7.) When you give alms, or do any act of charity,
wait on God ; do it as unto him, give to a disciple in
the name of a disciple, to the poor because they be-
long to Christ ; do it not for the praise of men, but
for the glory of God, with a single eye, and an up-
right heart ; direct it to him, and then your alms as
well as your prayers, like those of Cornelius, come
up for a memorial before God, Acts x. 4. Beg of
God to accept what you do for the good of others,
that your alms may indeed be offerings, (Acts xxiv.
17.) may be an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice
aeceptahle, well pleasing to God^ Phil. iv. 18.
Desire of God a blessing upon what you give in
charity, that it may be comfortable to those to whom
it is given, and that though what you are able to give
is but a little, like the widow's two mites, yet that by
God's blessing it may be doubled, and made to go a '
2c
g^eat way, like the widow's meal in the barrel, and
oil in the cruse.
Depend upon God to make up to you what you
lay out in good works, and to recompense it abun-
dantly in the resurrection of the just ; nay, and you
are encouraged to wait upon him, for a return of it
even in this life ; it is bread cast upon the waters,
which you shall find again after many days. And
you should carefully observe the providence of
God, whether it do not make you rich amends for
your good works according to the promise, that
you may understand the loving-kindness of the
Lord, and his faithfulness to the word which he
has spoken.
(8.) When you inquire after public news, in that
wait upon God ; do it with an eye to him ; for this
reason, because you are truly concerned for the in-
terests of his kingdom in the world, and lay them
near your hearts ; because you have a compassion
for mankind, for the lives and souls of men, and
especially of God's people ; ask, '' What news ? *'
not as the Athenians, only to satisfy a vain curi-
osity, and to pass away an idle hour or two, but
that you may know how to direct your prayers and
praises, and how to balance your hopes and fears,
and may gain such an understanding of the times,
as to learn what you and others ought to do.
If the face of public affairs be bright and pleas-
ing, wait upon God to carry on and perfect his own
work ; and depend not upon the wisdom or strength
of any instruments. If it be dark and discourag-
ing, wait upon God to prevent the fears of his people,
and to appear for them when he sees that their
strength is gone. In the midst of the greatest suc-
cesses of the church, and the smiles of second
causes, we must not think it needless to wait on
God ; and in the midst of its greatest discourage-
ments, when its affairs are reduced to the last ex-
tremity, we must not think it fruitless to wait upon
God ; the creatures cannot help without him, but he
can help without them.
(9.) When you are going journeys wait on God,
put yourselves under his protection, commit your-
selves to his care, and depend upon him to give his
angels a charge concerning you, to bear you up in
their arms when you move, and to pitch their tents
about you where you rest See how much you are
indebted to the goodness of his providence, for all the
comforts and conveniences you are surrounded with
in your travels. It is he who has cast our lot in a
land where we wander not in wildernesses, as in the
deserts of Arabia, but have safe and beaten roads ;
and that through the terrors of war the highways
are not unoccupied. To him we owe it that the in-
ferior creatures are serviceable to us, and that our
going out and coming in are preserved*; that when
we are abroad we are not in banishment, but have
liberty to come home again ; and when we arc at
450
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD.
home, we are not under confinement, but have
liberty to go abroad.
We must, therefore, have our eyes up to God at
our setting out, '* Lord, go along with me where I
go ; " under his shelter we must travel, confiding in
his care of us, and encouraging ourselves with that
in all the dangers we meet with ; and in our return
must own his goodness ; all our bones must say,
Lordy who is like unto thee, for he keepeth all our
bones, not one of them is broken,
(10.) When we retire into solitude, to be alone
walking in the fields, or alone reposing ourselves in
our closets, still we must be waiting upon God ; still
we must keep up our communion witli him, when
we are communing with our own hearts. When we
are alone we must not be alone, but the Father must
be with us, and we with him. We shall find temp-
tations even in solitude, which we have need to
guard against; Satan set upon our Saviour when he
was alone in a wilderness ; but there also we have
opportunity, if we know but how to improve it, for
that devout, for that divine, contemplation, which is
the best conversation, so that we may never be less
alone than when alone. If when we sit alone and
keep silence,* withdrawn from business and conver-
sation, we have but the art, I should say the heart,
to fill up those vacant minutes with pious medita-
tions of God and divine things, we then gather up
the fragments of time which remain, that nothing
may be lost, and so are we found waiting on God
all the day.
2. Let me use some motives to persuade you thus
to live a life of communion with God, by waiting
on him all the day.
(I.) Consider, the eye of God is always upon you.
When we are with our superiors, and observe them
to look upon us, that engages us to look upon them ;
and shall we not then look up to God, whose eyes
always behold, and whose eyelids try, the children
of men ? He sees all the motions of our hearts, and
sees with pleasure the motions of our hearts towards
him, which should engage us to set him always
before us.
The servant, though he be careless at other times,
yet when he is under his master's eye, will wait in
his place and keep close to his business ; we need
no more to engage us to diligence, than to do our
work with eye-service, while our master looks on,
and because he does so, for then we shall never look
ofi*.
(2.) The God you are to wait on, is one with whom
you have to do, Heb. iv. 13. All things, even the
thoughts and intents of the heart, are naked and
opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do ;
wpoQ by iniv b XoyoQ — with whom we have business, or
word ; who hath something to say to us, and to whom
we have something to say : or, as some read it. To
whom for us there is an account ; there it a reckon-
ing, a running account between at and him ; and
we must every one of us shortly give accoant of
ourselves to him, and of every thing done in the
body ; and therefore are concerned to wait on hin,
that all may be made even daily, between at and
him in the blood of Christ, which balancet the ac-
count Did we consider how much we have to do
with God every day, we would be more diligent and
constant in our attendance on him.
(3.) The God we are to wait upon, continaally
waits to be gracious to us ; he is alwayt doing as
good, precedes us with the blessings of hit good-
ness, daily loads us with his benefits, and slipt no
opportunity of showing his care of us, when we are
in danger, his bounty to us when we are in want,
and his tenderness for us when we are in tonow.
His good providence waits on us all the day, tD
preserve our going out and our coming in, (Ita. xxx.
18.) to give us relief and succour in dae teaaoo, to
be seen in the mount of the Lord. Nay, hit good
g^ce waits on us all the day, to help as in every
time of need ; to be strong^ to us according at oar
day is, and all the occurrences of the day. It God
thus forward to do us good, and shall we be back-
ward and remiss in doing him service ?
(4.) If we attend upon God, his holy angeb shall
have a charge to attend upon us. Thej are all ap-
pointed to be ministering spirits, to minister for the
good of them who shall be heirs of salvation, and
more good ofliccs they do us every day than we are
aware of. What an honour, what a privilege, is it
to be waited on by holy angels, to be borne op ii
their arms, to be surrounded by their tents ! What t
security is the ministration of those good tpiiiti
against the malice of evil spirits ! This boooar
have all they that wait on God all the day.
(5.) This life of communion with God, and cob-
stant attendance upon him, is a heaven apon eaith.
It is doing the work of heaven, and the vrill of God,
as they do it who are in heaven ; whose boaineas it
is always to behold the face of our Father. It it aa
earnest of the blessedness of • heaven ; it it a prepa-
rative for it, and a preludium to it ; it it having oor
conversation in heaven, whence we look for tiie Sa-
viour. Looking for him as our Savioar, we look
to him as our director ; and by this we make it to
appear that our hearts are there, which will give as
good ground to expect that we shall be there thoctly.
3. Let me close all with some directions, udMt
you must do, that you may thus wait on Grod all the
day.
(1.) See much of God in every creature ; of his
wisdom and power in the making and placing of it,
and of his goodness in its serviceableness to at. Look
about you, and see what a variety of wonders, whtt
an abundance of comforts, you are surroanded widi ;
and let them all lead you to him, who it the foot-
tain of being, and the giver of all good; all oar
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD.
451
spriDgs are in bim, and from him are all our streams ;
this will engage us to wait on him, since every crea-
ture is that to us that he makes it to be. Thus the
same things which draw a carnal heart from God,
will lead a gracious soul to him ; and since all his
works praise him, his saints will thence take con-
tinual occasion to bless him.
It was (they say) the custom of the pious Jews
of old, whatever delight they took in any creature,
to give to God the glory of it. When they smelled a
flower, they said, ** Blessed be he that made this
flower sweet ;" if they ate a morsel of bread, *• Bless-
ed be he that appointed bread to strengthen man's
heart" If thus we taste in every thing that the
Lord is gracious, and suck all satisfaction from the
breasts of his bounty, (and some derive his name
nr from nv tHumma — a breast,) we shall thereby be
engaged constantly to depend on him, as the child
is said to hang on the mother's breast.
(2.) See every creature to be nothing without God.
The more we discern of the vanity and emptiness of
the world, and all our enjoyments in it, and their
utter insufficiency to make us happy, the closer we
shall cleave to God, and the more intimately we
shall conyerse with him, that we may find that satis-
faction in the Father of spirits, which we have in
Tain sought for in the things of sense. What folly
is it to make our court to the creatures, and to dance
attendance at their door, whence we are sure to be
sent away empty, when we have the Creator himself
to go to, who is rich in mercy to all that call upon
him, is full, and free, and faithful ? What can we
expect from Ijring vanities ! Why then should we
observe them, and neglect our own mercies ? Why
should we trust to broken reeds, when we have a
Rock of Agtty to be the foundation of our hopes ?
And why should we draw from broken cisterns,
when we have the God of mil consolation to be the
foantain of our joys ?
(3.) Live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ We
eannot with any confidence wait upon God, but in
and through a Mediator, for it is by his Son that
God speaks to us, and hears from us ; all that passes
between a just God and poor sinners, must pass
tinoogh the hands of that blessed Days-man, who
has Und kis hand upon them both ; every prayer passes
IhNB as to God, and every mercy from God to us, by
that hand. It is in the face of the Anointed that God
looks upon us ; and in the face of Jesus Christ, that
we behold the glory and g^ce of God shining. It is
bj Christ that we have access to God, and success
fdth him in prayer, and, therefore, must make men-
tion of his righteousness, even of his only. And in
that habitual attendance we must be all the day
firing upon God, we must have an habitual depend-
ence on him, who always appears in the presence
of God for us ; always gives attendance to be ready
to introduce us.
2 o 2
(4.) Be frequent and serious in pious ejaculations.
In waiting upon God we must often speak to him,
must take all occasions to speak to him ; and when
we have not opportunity for a solemn address to him,
he will accept of a sudden address, if it come from
an honest heart. In these David waited on God all
day, as appears by v. 1. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift
up my soul ; to thee do I dart it, and all its gracious
breathings after thee. We should in a holy ejacu-
lation ask pardon for this sin, strength against this
corruption, victory over this temptation, and it shall
not be in vain. This is to pray always, and without
ceasing. It is not the length or language of the
prayer that God looks at, but the sincerity of the
heart in it; and that shall be accepted, though
the prayer be very short, and the groanings such as
cannot be uttered.
(6.) Look upon every day, as those who know
not but it may be your last day. At such an hour as
we think not the Son of man comes ; and therefore
we cannot any morning be sure that we shall live
till night ; we hear of many lately who have been
snatched away very suddenly ; What manner of per-
sons therefore ought we to be in all holy conversation
and godliness ? Though we cannot say, we ought
to live as if we were sure this day would be our
last, yet it is certain, we ought to live as those who
do not know but it may be so ; and the rather, be-
cause we know the day of the Lord will come first
or last : and, therefore, we aro concerned to wait on
him ; for on whom should poor dying creatures
wait, but on a living God ?
Death will bring us all to God, to be judged by
him ; it will bring all the saints to him, to the vision
and fruition of him ; and one we are hastening to, and
hope to be for ever with, we are concerned to wait
upon, and to cultivate an acquaintance with. Did
we think more of death, we would converse more
with God. Our dying daily is a good reason for our
worshipping daily ; and, therofore, wherever we
are, we are concerned to keep near to God, because
we know not where death will meet us. This will
alter the property of death ; Enoch, who walked
with God, was translated that he should not see
death ; and this will furnish us with that which will
stand us in stead on the other side death and the
g^ve. If we continue waiting on God every day,
and all the day long, we shall fprow more expe-
rienced, and consequently more expert in the great
mystery of communion with God ; and thus our last
days will become our best days, our last works our
best works, and our last comforts our sweetest com-
forts ; in consideration of which take the prophet's
advice, (Hos. xii. 6.) Turn thou to thy God; keep
mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God contin-
ually.
462
HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GOD.
THE THIRD DISCOURSE,
SHOWING BOW TO CL08B THE DAY WITH OOD.
Psalm iy. 8.
/ will both lay me down in peace, and deep : for i/iou,
Lordy only makest me to dwell in safety.
This may be understood, either figuratively, of the
repose of the soul, in the assurances of God's grace;
or literally, of the repose of the body, under the pro-
tection of his providence : I love to give Scripture
its full latitude, and therefore take in both.
1. The psalmist having given the preference to
God's favour above any good, having chosen that,
and portioned himself in that, here expresses his
great complacency in the choice he had made. While
he saw many making themselves perpetually uneasy
with that fruitless inquiry, Who will show ns any
good ? wearying themselves for very vanity ; he had
made himself perfectly easy, by casting himself upon
the divine good will, Lord, lift thou up the light of
thy countenance upon tis. Any good, short of God's
favour, will not serve our turn, but that is enough,
without the world's smiles. The moon, and stars,
and all the fires and candles in the world, will not
make day vnthout the sun ; but the sun will make
day without any of them. These are David's senti-
ments, and all the saints agree with him. Finding
no rest, therefore, like Noah's dove in a deluged
defiled world, he flies to the ark, that type of Christ,
Return unto thy rest, unto thy Noah, (so the word is
in the original, for Noah's name signifies rest,) O my
soul, Ps. cxvi. 7,
If God lift- up the light of his countenance upon
us, as it fills us with a holy joy, it puts gladness into
the heart more than they have, whose com and wine
increase, (v. 7.) so it fixes us in a holy rest, I will
lay me down and sleep. God is my God, and I am
pleased, I am satisfied, I look no further, I desire
no more, I dwell in safety, or in confidence ; while I
walk in the light of the Lord, as I want no good, nor
am sensible of any deficiency, so I fear no evil, nor
am apprehensive of any danger. The Lord God is
to me both a sun and a shield ; a sun to enlighten and
comfort me, a shield to protect and defend me.
Hence learn, that those who have the assurances
of God's favour toward them, may enjoy, and should
labour after, a holy serenity and security of mind.
We have both these put together in that precious
promise, (Isa. xxxii. 17.) But the work of righteous-
ness shall be peace ; there is a present satisfaction in
doing good ; and in the issue, the effect of righteous-
ness shall be quietness and assurance for ever ; quiet-
ness in the enjoyment of good, and assurance in a
freedom from evil.
(I.) A holy serenity is one blessed fruit of God's
favour ; 1 will now lay me down in pemct^ and sietf.
While we are under God's displeasure, or in doubt
concerning his favour, how can we have any enjoy-
ment of ourselves. While this great concern is un-
settled, the soul cannot but be unsatisfied. Has
God a controversy with thee? Give not sleep to thy
eyes, nor slumber to thy eye-lids, till thon bast got
the controversy taken up. Go, humble thyself, iiid
make sure thy friend, thy best friend, and when tboo
hast made thy peace with him, and hast some con-
fortable evidence that thou art accepted of hnn,
then say wisely and justly, what that carnal worid-
ling said foolishly and without ground, Saul, takt
thine ease, for in God, and in the covenant of grace,
thou hast goods laid up for many years, goods laid op
for eternity, Luke xii. 19. Are thy sins pardoned?
Hast thou an interest in Christ's mediation ? Does
God now in him accept thy works 2 Go thy iMjf,
eat thy bread with joy , and drink thy wine wiih « merry
heart, Eccl. ix. 7. Let this still every storm, and
command, and create a calm in thy soal.
Having God to be our God in covenant, we have
enough, we have all ; and though the gracious sool
still desires more of God, it never desires more than
God ; in him it reposes itself with a perfect compla-
cency ; in him it is at home, it is at rest. If we be
but satisfied of his loving-kindness, we may be satis-
fied with his loving-kindness, abundantly satisfied.
There is enough in this to satiate the weary scnil,
and to replenish every sorrowful sool, (Jer. xxxl
25.) to fill even the hungry with good things, wi&
the best things ; and being filled they should be at
rest, at rest for ever, and their sleep here should
be sweet.
(2.) A holy security is another blessed fruit of
God's favour. Thou, Lord, makest me to dwell in
safety ; when the light of thy countenance shines
upon me I am safe, and I know I am so, and I am
therefore easy, for with thy favour wiii fAmt compass
me as with a shield, Ps. v. 12. Being taken under
the protection of the divine favour, though an host
of enemies should encamp ag^nst me, yet my heart
shall not fear, in this I will be confident, (Ps. xxviL
3.) Whatever God has promised me, I can promise
myself, and that is enough to indemnify me, and
save me harmless, whatever difficulties and <langcrs
I may meet with in the way of my duty. Tkiugk
the earth be removed, yet will not wefeary (Ps. xlvL 2.)
not fear any evil, no not in the valley of the shadow
of death, in the territories of the king of tenors him-
self ; for there thou art with me, thy rod and tby
staff they comfort me. What the rich man's wealth
is to him, in his own conceit, a strong city and a
high wall, that the good man's God is to him, Prov.
xviii. 10, 11. The Almighty shall be iky gold,tkf
defence. Job xxii. 25. marg.
Nothing is more dangerous than security in a sin-
ful way, and men crying peace, peace, to them-
HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GOD.
453
teKes, while they continue under the reigning power
of d vain and carnal mind. O that the sinners that
are at ease were made to tremble ! Nothing is more
foolish than a security built upon the worlds and its
promises, for they are all Tanity and a lie ; but no-
thing more reasonable in itself, or more advantage-
ous to us, than for good people to build with assur-
ance upon the promises* of a good God ; for those
who keep in the way of duty, to be quiet from the
fear of evil ; as those who know no evil shall befall
them, no real evil, no evil but what shall be made to
work for their good ; as those who know, while they
continue in their allegiance to God as their King,
that th^y are under his protection, under the pro-
tection of Omnipotence itself, which enables them
^ to bid defiance to all malignant powers ; If God be
jor v#, who can be against tu ? This security even the
heathen looked upon every honest virtuous man to
be entitled to, that is^
Integer vita, gcelerisque purus.
He whose life was upright and free from iniquity.
And thought that
Et sifracttu illabatur orbit j
Impavidum ferient ruina.
If the world should fall in pieces about his ears, he
needed not fear being lost in the desolations of it
•
Much more reason have Christians, who hold fast
their integrity, to lay claim to it ; for who is he, or
what is it, that shall harm us, if we be followers of
bim that is good, in his goodness ?
[1.] It is the privilege of good people, that tiiey
may be thus easy and satisfied. This holy serenity
and security of mind is allowed them, God gives
them leave to be cheerful ; nay, it is promised them,
God will speak peace to his people and to his saints ;
he^ will fill them with joy and peace in believing ;
hifl peace shall keep their hearts and minds, keep
tiiem safe, keep them calm. Nay, there is a method
appointed for their obtaining this promised serenity
and security. The Scriptures are written to them
that their joy may be full, and that through patience
and comfort of them they may have hope. Ordi-
nances are instituted to be wells of salvation, out of
which they may draw water with joy. Ministers are
ordained to be their comforters, and the helpers of
their joy. Thus willing has God been to show the
heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
that they might have strong consolation, Heb. vi.
17, 18.
[2.] It is the duty of good people to labour after
this holy security and serenity of mind, and to use
[ the means appointed for the obtaining it. Give not
way to the disquieting suggestions of Satan, and to
■• those tormenting doubts and fears that arise in
your own souls. Study to be quiet, chide yourselves
- for your distrusts, charge yourselves to believe, and
to hope in God, that you shall yet praise him. You
are in the dark concerning yourselves, do as Paul's
mariners did, cast anchor and wish for the day.
Poor trembling Christian, that art tossed with tem-
pests and not comforted, try to lay thee down in
peace and sleep ; compose thyself into a sedate and
even frame. In the name of him whom winds and
seas obey, command down thy tumultuous thoughts,
and say. Peace, be still. Lay that aching trembling
head of thine where the beloved disciple laid his,
in the bosom of the Lord Jesus ; or, if thou hast not
yet attained such boldness of access to him, lay that
aching tremblingheart of thine at the feet of the Lord
Jesus, by an entire submission and resignation to
him, saying. If I perish, I will perish here: put it
into his hand by an entire confidence in him ; sub-
mit it to his operation and disposal,|Pio knows how
to speak to the heart. And if thou art not yet en-
tered into this sabbatism, as the word is, (Heb. iv.
9.) this present rest that remaineth for the people of
God, yet look upon it to be a land of promise, and
therefore, though it tarry, wait for it, for the vision
is for an appointed time, and at the end it shall
speak, and shall not lie. Light is sown for the
righteous, and what is sown shall come up again at
last in a harvest of joy.
2. The Psalmist having done hisday^s work, and
perhaps fatigued himself with it, it being now bed-
time, and having given good advice to those to whom
he had wished a good night, to commune with their
own hearts upon their beds, and to offer the evening
sacrifices of righteousness, (v. 4. 6.) now retires to
his chamber with this word, / will lay me down in
peace and sleep. That which I chose this text for
will lead me to understand it literally, as the dis-
ciples understood their Master, when he said, Laza-
rus sleepeth, of taking rest in sleep, John xi. 12, 13.
And so we have here David's pious thoughts when
he was going to bed. As when he awakes he is still
with God, he is still so when he goes to sleep, and
concludes the day as he opened it; with meditations
on God, and sweet communion with him.
It should seem David penned this psalm when he
was distressed and persecuted by his enemies;
perhaps it was penned on the same occasion with
the foregoing psalm, when he fled from Absalom
his son ; without were fightings, and then no wonder
that within were fears; yet then he puts such a
confidence in God's protection, that he will go to
bed at his usual time, and, with his usual quietness
and cheerfulness, will compose himself as at other
times. He knows that his enemies have no power
against him, but what is given them from above ;
and they shall have no power given them but what
is still under the divine check and restraint; nor
shall their power be permitted to exert itself so far
as to do him any real mischief ; and therefore he
retires into the secret place of the Most High, and
464
HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GOD.
abides ander the shadow of the Almighty, and is
very quiet in his own mind. That will break a
worldly man's heart which will not break a godly
man's sleep. Let them do their worst, says David, /
will lay me down and sleep: the will of the Lord he
done. Now observe here,
(1.) His confidence in God. Tho%i, Lord, makest
tne to dwell in safety ; not only makest me safe, but
makest me know that I am so ; makest me lo dwell
with a good assurance. It is the same word that is
used concerning him who walks uprightly, that he
walks surely, Prov. x. 9. He goes boldly in his
way, so David here goes boldly to his bed. He does
not dwell carelessly, as the men of Laish, (Judg.
xviii. 7.) but dwells at ease in God, as the sons of
Zion, in the city of their solemnities, when their
eyes see it a qri|t habitation, Isa. xxxiii. 20.
There is one word in this part of the text that is
observable ; thou. Lord, only dost secure me. Some
refer it to David ; *' even when I am alone, have none
of my privy-counsellors about me to advise me,
none of my life-guards to fight for me, yet I am
under no apprehension of danger while God is with
me." The Son of David comforted himself with
this, that when all his disciples forsook him, and
left him alone, yet he was not alone, for the Father
was with him. Some weak people are afraid of
being alone, especially in the dark, but a firm belief
of God's presence with us in all places, and that
divine protection which all good people are under,
would silence those fears, and make us ashamed of
them. Nay, our being alone a peculiar people,
whom God has set apart for himself, (as it is here,
V. 3.) will be our security. A sober singularity will
be our safety and satisfaction, as Noah's was in the
old world. Israel is a people that shall dwell alone,
and not be reckoned among the nations, and there-
fore may set them all at defiance, till they foolishly
mingle themselves among them; Israel sJiall then
dwell in safety alone, Dcut. xxxiii. 28. The more
we dwell alone, the more safe we dwell. But our
translation refers it to God ; Thou alone makest me
to dwell safely; it is done by thee only. God in
protecting his people needs not any assistance,
though he sometimes make use of instruments ; the
earth helped the woman, yet he can do it without
them ; and, when all our refuges fail, his own arm
works salvation ; so the Lord alone did lead him, and
there was no strange yod with him, Deut. xxxii. 12.
Yet that is not all, I depend on thee only to do it ;
therefore I am easy, and think myself safe, not
because I have hosts on my side, but purely because
I have the' Lord of hosts on my side.
Thou makest me to dwell in safety. It may look
either backward or forward, or rather, both. Thou
bast made me to dwell in safety all day, so that the
sun has not smitten me by day ; and then it is the
langruage of hit thankfulness for the mercies he had
received ; or, thou wilt make me to dwell in lafeAjr
all nighty that the moon shall not smite me by night;
and then it is the language of his dependence opon
God for further mercies. And both these ahonld'fD
together ; and our eye must be to God as ever the
same, who was, and is, and is to come ; who has
delivered, and does, and will.
(2.) His composedness in himself inferred hence,
Simul, or pariter in pace euhabo — / wHl baik Imy ■<
down and sleep. They who have their com and wine
increasing, who have abundance of the wealth and
pleasure of this world, lay them down and sleep
contentedly, as Boaz at the end of the heap of cocn,
Ruth iii. 7 But though I have not what they have,
I can lay me down in peace, and sleep as well at they.
We make it to join, his lying down and his sleep-
ing: I will not only lay me down, as one that
desires to be composed, but will sleep as one that
really is so. Some make it to intimate his falling
asleep presently after he had laid him down : so weU
wearied was he with the work of the day, and so
free from any of those disquieting tbonghts which
would keep him from sleeping.
Now these are words put into our months, with
which to compose ourselves when we retire at night
to our repose ; and we should take care so to manage
ourselves all day, especially when it draws towards
night, that we msy not be disfitted, and put oat of
frame, for our evening devotions; that oar hearts
may not be overcharged either, on the otfe hand, with
surfeiting and drunkenness, as theirs often are who
arc men of pleasure ; or on the other hand, with the
cares of this life, as theirs often are who are men of
business ; but that we may have sach a command
both of our thoughts and of our time, that we may
finish our daily work well ; which will be an earnest
of our finishing our life's work well ; and all is well
indeed that ends everlastingly well.
Doct, As we must begin the day with God, and
wait upon him all the day, so we mast endeavour
to close it with him.
This duty of closing the day with Qod, and In a
good frame, I know not how better to open to yoa,
than by going over the particulars in the text in
their order, and recommending to yon David's ex-
ample.
I. Let us retire to lay us down. Nature calls for
rest as well as food ; man goes forth to his wwrk and
labour, and goes to and fro about it, bat it is only
till evening, and then it is time to lie down. We
read of Ishbosheth, that he lay on his bed at noon,
but death met him there, (2 Sam. iv. 5, 6.) and of
David himself, that he came off from his bed at
evening-tide, but sin, a worse thing than death, met
him there. We must work the works of him that
sent us while it is day, it will be time enough to He
down when the night comes, and no man can work;
and it is then proper and seasonable to lie down.
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD.
447
baps, we have every day some bodily pain or sfck-
ness ; or, some cross and disappointment in our
affairs ; now, in these we must wait upon God.
Christ requires it of all his disciples, that they take
ap their cross daily. Matt. xvi. 24. We must not
wilfully pluck the cross down upon us, but must
take it up When God lays it in our way, and not ^o
El step out of the way of duty, either to meet \U or
to miss it. It is not enough to bear the cross, but
we must take it up, we must accommodate ourselves
to it, and acquiesce in the will of God in it. Not,
'* This is an evil, and I must bear it,'' because I
cannot help it, but, ** This is an evil, and I will bear
ity'' because it is the will of God.
We must see every affliction allotted us by our
heavenly Father, and in it must discover his cor-
recting hand, and, therefore, must wait on him to
know the cause wherefore he contends with us; what
the fault is for which we are in this affliction
chastened ; what the distemper is which is to be by
this affliction cured ; that we may answer God's end
in afflicting us, and so may be made partakers of
his holiness. We must attend the motions of Pro-
vidence, keep our eye upon our Father when he
frowns, that we may discover what his mind is, and
what the obedience is which we are to learn, by the
things that we suffer.
We must wait on God for support under our
burthens; must put ourselves into, and stay our-
selves upon, the everlasting arms, which are laid
under the children of God to sustain them, when
the rod of God is upon them. And him we must
attend for deliverance ; must not seek to extricate
ourselves by any sinful indirect methods, nor look to
creatures for relief, but still wait on the Lord until
he have mercy on us ; well content to bear the
burthen till God ease us of it, and ease us in mercy,
Ps. cxxiii. 2. If the affliction be lengthened out,
yet we must wait upon the Lord, even when he hides
his face, (Isa. viii. 17.) hoping it is but in a little
wrath, and for a small moment, Isa. liv. 7, 8.
(6.) We must expect the tidings and events of
every day, with a cheerful and entire resignation to
the divine Providence. While we are in this world
we are still expecting, hoping well, fearing ill ; we
know not what a day, or a night, or an hour will
bring forth, (Prov. xxvii. 1.) but it is big with some-
thing, and we are too apt to spend our thoughts in
vain about things future, which happen quite differ-
ently from what we imagined. Now in all our
prospects we must wait upon God.
Are we in hopes of good tidings, a good issue ? Let
us wait on God as the giver of the good we hope for,
and be ready to take it from his hand ; and to meet
him with suitable affections when he is coming
toward us in a way of mercy. Whatever good we
hope for, it is God alone, and his wisdom, power,
and goodness, that we must hope in. And therefore
our hopes must be humble and modest, and regu-
lated by his will ; what God has promised us, we
may with assurance promise ourselves, and no more.
If thus we wait on God in our hopes, should the
hope be deferred, it would not make the heart sick;
no, nor if it should be disappointed, for the God we
wait on, will overrule all for the best: but when
the desire comes, in prosecution of which we have
thus waited on God, we may see it coming from his
love, and it will be a tree of life, Prov. xiii. 12.
Are we in fearof evil tidings, of melancholy events,
and a sad issue of the depending affairs ? Let us
wait on God to be delivered from ail our fears, from
the things themselves we are afraid of, and from the
amazing tormenting fears of them, Ps. xxxiv. 4.
When Jacob was with good reason afraid of his
brother Esau, he waited on God, brought his fears
to him, wrestled with him, and prevailed for deliver-
ance. What time I am afraid, says David, / will
tnist in thee, and wait on thee. And that shall establish
the heart, shall fix it, so as to set it above the fear of
evil tidings.
Are we in suspense between hope and fear ? some-
times one prevails, and sometimes the other ? Let us
wait on God, and the God to whom belong the issues
of life and death, good and evil, from whom our
judgments, and every man's, proceed, and compose
ourselves into a quiet expectation of the event,
whatever it may be, with a resolution to accommo-
date ourselves to it ; hope the best, and get ready for
the worst, and then take what God sends.
The Application.
1. Let me further urge upon you this duty of wait-
ing upon God all the day, in some more particular
instances, according to what you have to do all the
day, in the ordinary business of it. We are weak
and forgetful, and need to be put in mind of our
duty in general, upon every occasion for the doing
of it ; and therefore I choose to be thus particular,
that I may be your remembrancer.
(I.) When you meet with your families in the
morning, wait upon God for a blessing upon them,
and attend him with your thanksgivings for the
mercies you and yours have jointly received from
God the night past ; you and your houses must serve
the Lord, must wait on him. See it owing to his
goodness, who is the Founder and Father of the
families of the righteous, that you are together, that
the voice of rejoicing and salvation is in your
tabernacles, and therefore wait upoq him to continue
you together, to make you comforts to one another,
to enable you to do the duty of every relation, and
to lengthen out the days of your tranquillity. In all
the conversation we have with our families, the pro-
vision we make for them, and the orders we give
concerning them, we must wait upon God, as the
448
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD.
God of all the families of Israel, (Jer. xxxi. 1.) and
have an eye to Christ, as he in whom all the families
of the earth are blessed.
Every member of the family sharing in family
mercies, must wait on God for grace to contribute
to family duties. Whatever disagreeableness there
may be in attr, family relation, instead of having the
spirit either nf rtbened with it, or provoked by it,
let it be an inowjifiient to wait on God, who is able
cither to redress the grievance, or to balance it, and
give grace to bear it.
(2.) When you are pursuing the education of your
children, or the jroung ones under your charge, wait
upon God for his grace to make the means of their
education successful. When you are yourselves
giving them instruction in things pertaining either
to life or godliness, their general or particular call-
ing, when you are sending them to school in a morn-
ing, or ordering them the business of the day, wait
upon God to give them an understanding, and a
good capacity for their business ; especially their
main business, for it is God that giveth wisdom. If
they are but slow, and do not come on as you could
wish-, yet wait on God to bring them forward, and
to give them his grace in his own time ; and while
yon are patiently waiting on him, that will encou-
rage you to take pains with them, and vnll likewise
make you patient and gentle towards them.
And let children and young people wait on God
in all their daily endeavours, to fit themselves for
the service of God and their generation. You desire
to be comforts to your relations, to be good for
something in this world ; do you not ? Beg of God
then a wise and an understanding heart, as Solomon
did, and wait upon him all the day for it, that you
may be still increasing in wisdom, as you do in sta-
ture, and in favour with God and man.
(3.) When you go to your shops, or apply your-
selves to the business of your particular calling, wait
upon God for his presence with you. Your business
calls for your constant attendance every day, and
all the day ; keep the shop, and thy shop will keep
thee ; but let your attendance on God in your call-
ings be as constant as your attendance on your call-
ings. Eye God*s providence in all the occurrences
of them. Open shop with this thought, I am now
in the way of my duty, and I depend upon God to
bless me in it. When you are waiting for custom-
ers, wait on God to find you something to do in that
calling to which he has called you ; those you call
chance customers, you should rather call providence
customers, and should say of the advantage you
make by them. The Lord my God brought it to me.
When you are buying and selling, see God's eye
upon you, to obser\'e whether you are honest and
just in your dealings, and do no wrong to those you
deal with ; and let your eye then be up to him, for
that discretion to which God does instruct not only
the* husbandman, but the tradesmao, (Isa« xxviiL
26.) that prudence which directs the way, and witk
which it is promised the good man shall order hit
affairs ; for that blessing which makes rich, and adds
no sorrow with it ; for that honest profit which may
be expected in the way of honest diligence.
Whatever your employments be, in coAntry-bnsi-
ness, city-business, or sea-business, or only in the
business of the house, go about them in the feiur of
God, depending upon him to make them oomfortabk
and successful, and to prosper the work of your
hands unto you. And hereby yoa will arm your-
selves against the many temptations you are com-
passed about with in your worldly business; by
waiting on God, you will be freed from the care and
cumber which attends much serving, will have your
minds raised above the little things of sense and
time, will be serving God when you are most busy
about the world, and will have God in your hearts,
when your hands are full of the world.
(4.) When you take a book into your hand;8y€rod'i
book, or any other useful good book, wait upon God
for his grace to enable you to make a good use of it
Some of you spend a deal of time every day in read-
ing, and I hope none of you let a day pass without
reading some portions of Scripture, either alone or
with your families ; take heed that the time yoo
spend in reading be not lost time ; it is so, if yoe
read that which is idle and vain, and unprofitable;
it is so, if you read that which is good, even the word
of God itself, and do not mind it, or observe it, or
aim to make it of any advantage to you ; wait upon
God, who gives you those helps for your souls, to
make them helpful indeed to you. The eunuch did
so, when he was reading the book of the prophet
Isaiah in his chariot, and God presently sent him
one, who made him understand what he read.
You read perhaps now and then the histories ot
former times. In acquainting yourselves with them,
you must have an eye to God, and to that wise and
gracious providence which governed the world before
we were bom, and preserved the church in it, and
therefore may be still depended upon to do all Ux
the best, for he is Israel's King of old.
(5.) When you sit down to your tables, wait on
God ; see his hand spreading and preparing a table
before you in despite of your enemies, and in the
society of your friends ; often review the grant which
God made to our first father Adam, and in him to
us, of the products of the earth, (Gen. i. 29.) Behold,
I have given you every herb bearing seed, bread-corn
especially, to you it shall be for meat ; and the grant
he afterwards made to Noah, our second father, and
in him to us, (Gen. ix. 3.) Every moving thing th*t
liveth shall be meat for you^ even as the green herb :
and see in those what a bountiful Benefactor he is
to mankind, and wait upon him accordingly.
We must eat and drink to the glory of God, and
HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GOD.
467
take bis cest, and receive his penny. It is good for
OS to think frequently of dying, to think of it as
often as we go to bed ; it will help to mortify the
eemiptions of our own hearts, which are our daily
burthens, to arm us against the temptations of the
world, which are our daily snares ; it will wean us
from our daily comforts, and make us easy under
our daily crosses and fatigues. It is good for us to
think familiarly of dying, to think of it as our going
to bed, that by thinking often of it, and thinking
thus of it, we may get above the fear of it
[I.] At death we shall retire, as we do at bed-
time ; we shall go to be private for a while, till the
pablic appearance at the great day ; Man lietk
HowUf and riseth not till the keavens be no more ; till
then they shall not awake, nor be raited out of their
sleep. Job xiv. 12. Now we go abroad to see and
be seen, and to no higher purpose do some spend
their day, spend their life ; but when death comes,
there is an end of both, we shall then see no more
in this world ; I shall behold men no more, (Isa.
xxxviii. 11.) we shall then be seen no more; The
eye of him that hath seen me, sludl see me no more,
(Job vH. 8.) we shall be hid in the grave, and cut
off from all living. To die is to bid good night to
all our friends, to put a period to our conversation
nith them. We bid them farewell, but, blessed be
God, it is not an eternal farewell ; we hope to
meet them again in the morning of the resurrection,
to part no more.
[2.] At death we shall put off the body, as we put
off our clothes when we lie down. The soul is the
man, the body is but the clothes. At death we shall
be unclothed, the earthly house of this tabernacle
•hall be dissolved, the garment of the body shall be
laid aside. Death strips us, and sends us naked out
of the world, as we came into it ; strips the soul of
all the disguises wherein it appeared before men,
that it may appear naked and open before God.
Our grave-clothes are night-clothes.
When we are weary and hot, our clothes are a
burthen, and we are very willing to throw them off;
are not easy till we are undressed ; thus we that are
in this tabernacle do groan, being burthened ; but when
death frees the soul from the load and encumbrance
of the body, which hinders its repose in its spiritual
satisfactions, how easy will it be ! Let us think
then of putting off the body at death, with as much
pleasure as we do of putting off our clothes at
night ; be as loose to them as we are to our clothes;
and comfort ourselves with this thought, that though
we are unclothed at death, if we be clothed with
Christ and his grace, we shall not be found naked,
but be clothed upon with immortality. We have
new clothes a making, which shall be ready to put
on next morning; a glorious body like Christ's,
instead of a vile body like the beasts.
f3.] At death we shall lie down in the grave, as
on our bed, shall lie down in the dust. Job xx. ll«
To those who die in sin, and impenitence, the g^ve
is a dungeon, their iniquities which are upon their
bones, and which lie down with them, make it so ;
but those who ilie in Christ, who die in faith, it is a
bed, a bed of rest, where there is no tossings to and
fro until the dawning of the day, as sometimes
there are upon the easiest beds we have in this
world ; where there is no danger of being scared
with dreams, and terrified with visions of the night;
there is no being chastened with pain on that bed,
or the multitude of the bones with strong pain. It
is the privilege of those, who while they live walk in
their uprightness, that when they die they enter into
peace, and rest in their beds, Isa. Ivii. 2. Holy Job
comforts himself with this, in the midst of his ago^
nies, that he shall shortly make his bed in the dark-
ness, and be easy there. It is a bed of roses, a bed
of spices, to all believers ever since he lay in it, who
is the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valleys,
Say then of thy grave, as thou dost of thy bed at
night. There the weary are at rest ; with this further
consolation, that thou shalt not only rest there, but
rise thence shortly, abundantly refreshed ; shalt be
called up to meet the Beloved of thy soul, and to be
for ever with him ; shalt rise to a day which will not
renew thy cares, as every day on earth does, but
secure to thee unmixed and everlasting joys. How
comfortably may we lie down at night, if such
thoughts as these lie down with us ; and how com-
fortably may we lie down at death, if we have accus-
tomed ourselves to such thoughts as these.
(3.) Let us lie down with penitent reflections upon
the sins of the day past. Praising God and delight-
ing ourselves in him is such pleasant work, and so
much the work of angels, that methinks it is a pity
that we should have any thing else to do ; but the
truth is, we make other work for ourselves by our
own folly, that is not so pleasant, but absolutely
needful, and that is, repentance. While we are at
night solacing ourselves in God's goodness, we must
intermix therewith the afflicting of ourselves for our
own vileness ; both must have their place in us, and
they will very well agree together ; for we must take
our work before us.
[1.] We must be convinced of it, that we are still
contracting guilt ; we carry corrupt natures about
with us, which are bitter roots that bear gall and
wormwood, ar-d all we say or do is imbittered by
them. In many things we all offend, insomuch that
there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and
sins not. We are in the midst of a defiling world,
and cannot keep ourselves perfectly unspotted from
it. If we say we have no sin, or that we have past
a day and have not sinned, we deceive ourselves ;
for if we know the truth by ourselves, we shall see
cause to cry. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse
us from our secret faults ; faults which we ourselves
460
HOW TO SPEND THE DAY WITH GOD.
home, we are not under confinement, but have
liberty to go abroad.
We must, therefore, have our eyes up to God at
our setting out, '* Lord, go along with me where I
go ; " under his shelter we must travel, confiding in
his care of us, and encouraging ourselves with that
in all the dangers we meet with ; and in our return
must own his goodness ; all our bones must say.
Lard, who is like unto thee, for he heepeth all our
bones, not one of them is broken,
(10.) When we retire into solitude, to be alone
walking in the fields, or alone reposing ourselves in
our closets, still we must be waiting upon God ; still
we must keep up our communion witli him, when
we are communing with our own hearts. When we
are alone we must not be alone, but the Father must
be with us, and we with him. We shall find temp-
tations even in solitude, which we have need to
guard against; Satan set upon our Saviour when he
was alone in a wilderness ; but there also we have
opportunity, if we know but how to improve it, for
that devout, for that divine, contemplation, which is
the best conversation, so that we may never be less
alone than when alone. If when we sit alone and
keep silence,* withdrawn from business and conver-
sation, we have but the art, I should say the heart,
to fill up those vacant minutes with pious medita-
tions of God and divine things, we then gather up
the fragments of time which remain, that nothing
may be lost, and so are we found waiting on God
all the day.
2. Let me use some motives to persuade you thus
to live a life of communion with God, by waiting
on him all the day.
(1.) Consider, the eye of God is always upon you.
When we are with our superiors, and observe them
to look upon us, that engages us to look upon them ;
and shall we not then look up to God, whose eyes
always behold, and whose eyelids try, the children
of men ? He sees all the motions of our hearts, and
sees with pleasure the motions of our hearts towards
him, which should engage us to set him always
before us.
The servant, though he be careless at other times,
yet when he is under his master's eye, will wait in
his place and keep close to his business ; we need
no more to engage us to diligence, than to do our
work with eye-service, while our master looks on,
and because he does so, for then we shall never look
oflf.
(2.) The God you are to wait on, is one with whom
you have to do, Heb. iv. 13. All things, even the
thoughts and intents of the heart, are naked and
opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do ;
irpoQ 6v tiiuv 6 XoyoQ-^with whom we have business, or
word ; who hath something to say to us, and to whom
we have something to say : or, as some read it. To
whom for us there is an account ; there is a reckon-
ing, a running account between us and him ; and
we must every one of us shortly ffive accout td
ourselves to him» and of every thing done in the
body ; and therefore are concerned to wait on hin,
that all may be made even daily, between us and
him in the blood of Christ, which balances the ac-
count Did we consider how much we faaTe to do
with God every day, we would be more diligent and
constant in our attendance on him.
(3.) The God we are to wait upon, continaally
waits to be gracious to us ; he is always doing as
good, precedes us with the blessings of his good-
ness, daily loads us with his benefits, and slips no
opportunity of showing his care of us, when we are
in danger, his bounty to us when we are in want,
and his tenderness for us when we are in sorrow.
His gfood providence waits on us all the day, to
preserve our going out and our coming in, (Isa. xxx.
18.) to g^ve us relief and succour in due season, to
be seen in the mount of the Lord. Nay, his good
grace waits on us all the day, to help us in eveiy
time of need ; to be strength to us according as oar
day is, and all the occurrences of the day. Is God
thus forward to do us good, and shall we be back-
ward and remiss in doing him service ?
(4.) If we attend upon God, his holy angels shall
have a charge to attend upon us. They are all ap-
pointed to be ministering spirits, to minister for the
good of them who shall be heirs of salvation, and
more good offices they do us every day than we are
aware of. What an honour, what a privilege, is it
to be waited on by holy angels, to be borne up in
their arms, to be surrounded by their tents ! What t
security is the ministration of those good spiriti
against the malice of evil spirits ! This honoor
have all they that wait on God all the day.
(6.) This life of communion with God, and con-
stant attendance upon him, is a heaven upon earth.
It is doing the work of heaven, and the will of CM,
as they do it who are in heaven ; whose business it
is always to behold the face of our Father. It is an
earnest of the blessedness of' heaven ; it is a prepa-
rative for it, and a preludium to it ; it is having oar
conversation in heaven, whence we look for the Sa-
viour. Looking for him as our Savioar, we look
to him as our director ; and by this we make it to
appear that our hearts are there, which will give as
good ground to expect that we shall be there shortly.
3. Let me close all with some directions, what
you must do, that you may thus wait on God all the
day.
(1.) See much of God in every creature; of hif
wisdom and power in the making and placing of it,
and of his goodness in its serviceahleness to ns. Look
about you, and see what a variety of wonders, what
an abundance of comforts, you are surrounded with ;
and let them all lead you to him, who is the fbon-
tain of being, and the giver of all good; all oar
HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GOD.
4fiO
bed, God opens the ears of men, and seals their in-
struction, Job xxxiii. 15, 16. And with this Dayid's
experience concurs. He found that God \isited him
in the night, and tried him, and so discoyered him to
himself, Ps. xvii. 3. And that God gave him coun-
sel, and his reins instructed him in the night season,
and so he discoyered himself to him, Ps. xvi. 7. He
found that was a proper season for remembering
God, and meditating upon him ; and in order to our
due improvement of this proper season for convers-
ing with God in solitude, we need the powerful and
benign influences of the blessed Spirit, which, there-
fore, when we lie down we should earnestly pray
for, and humbly put ourselves under, and submit
ourselves to. How God's grace may work upon us
when we are asleep we know not ; the soul will act
in a state of separation from the body, and how far
it does act independent of the body, when the bo-
dily senses are all locked up, we cannot say, but are
sure, that the Spirit of the Lord is not bound. We
have reason to pray, not only that our minds may
not be either disturbed or polluted by evil dreams,
in which for aught we know evil spirits sometimes
have a hand, but may be instructed and quieted by
good dreams ; which Plutarch reckons among the
evidences of increase and proficiency in virtue, and
on which the good Spirit has an influence. I have
heard of a good man, that used to pray at night for
good dreams.
II. When we lay us down, our care and endeavour
must be to lay us down in peace. It is promised to
Abraham that he should go to his grave in peace,
(Gen. XV. 16.) and this promise is sure to all his
spiritual seed, for the end of the upright man it peace ;
Josiah dies in peace, though he is killed in a battle:
now as an earnest of this let us every night lie down
in peace. It is threatened to the wicked, that they
shall lie down in sorrow, Isa. 1. 11. It is promised
to the righteous, that they shall lie down, and none
shall make them afraid. Lev. xxvi. 6. Job xi. 19.
Let us then enter into this rest, this blessed sab-
batism, and take care that we come not short of it
1. Let us lie down in peace with God ; for with-
out this there can be no peace at all ; There is no
peace, saith my God, to the wicked, whom God is
at war with. A state of sin is a state of enmity
against God ; they who continue in that state are
under the wrath and curse of God, and cannot lie
down in peace ; what have they to do with peace ?
Hasten therefore, (sinner,) hasten to make thy peace
with God in Jesus Christ, by repentance and faith ;
take hold on his strength, that thou mayst make
peace with him ; and thou shalt make peace, for
fury is not in him. Conditions of peace are ofiiered,
consent to them ; close with him who is our peace ;
take Christ upon his own terms, Christ upon any
terms. Defer not to do this ; dare not to sleep in
that condition, in which thou darest not die. Escape
for thy life, look not behind thee. Acquaint now thy-
self with him, now presently, and be at peace, and
thereby this good shall come onto thee, thou shalt
lie down in peace.
Sin is ever and anon making mischief between
God and our souls, provoking God against us, alien-
ating us from God, we, therefore, need to be every
night making peace, reconciling ourselves to him
and to his holy will, by the agency of his Spirit upon
us, and begging of him to be reconciled to us, through
the intercession of his Son for us ; that there may
be no distance, no strangeness, between us and God,
no interposing cloud to hinder his mercies from com-
ing down upon us, or our prayers from coming up
unto him. Being justified hy faith, we have this peace
with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ; and then
we may not only lie down in peace, but we rejoice in
hope of the glory of God. Let this be our first care,
that God have no quarrel with us, nor we with him.
2. Let us lie down in peace with all men ; we are
concerned to go to sleep, as well as to die, in charity.
Those who converse much with the world can scarcely
pass a day but something or other happens that is
provoking, some aifront is given them, some injury
done them, at least they think so ; when they retire
at night and reflect upon it, they are apt to magnify
the ofience, and while they are musing on it the fire
burns, their resentments rise, and they begin to say^
/ will eh so to him as he has done to me, Prov. xxlv. 29*
Then is the time of ripening the passion into a rooted
malice, and meditating revenge; then, therefore,
let wisdom and grace be set on work, to extinguish
this fire from hell before it get head ; then let this
root of bitterness be killed and plucked \xp, and
let the mind be disposed to forgive the injury, and
to think well of, and wish well to, him that did it^
If others incline to quarrel with us, yet let us re-
solve not to quarrel with them. Let us resolve, that
whatever the affront or injury was, it shall neither
disquiet our spirits nor make us to fret, which Penin-
nah aimed at in provoking Hannah, (1 Sam. i. 6.)
nor sour or imbitter our spirits, or make us peevish
and spiteful ; but that we still love ourselves, and
love our neighbours as ourselves, and therefore not,
by harbouring malice, do any wrong to ourselves or
our neighbour. And we shall find it much easier in
itself, and much more pleasant in the reflection, to
forgive twenty injuries than to avenge one.
That it should be our particular care at night to
reconcile ourselves to those who have been injurious
to us, is intimated in that charge, (Eph. iv. 26.) Let
not the sun go down upon your wrath. If your passion
has not cooled before, let it be abated by the cool of
the evening, and quite disappear with the setting
sun. You are then to go to bed, and if you lie
down with these unmortified passions boiling in your
breasts, your soul is among lions, you.lie down in a
bed of thorns, in a nest of scorpions. Na>, some
4d0
HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GOD.
bave observed from what follows immediately,
neither gite place to the devil^ (v. 27.) that those who
go to bed in malice have the devil for their bed-
fellow. We cannot lie down at peace with God,
unless we be at peace with men ; nor in faith pray
to be forgiven, unless we forgive. Let us, therefore,
study the things that make for peace, for the peace
of our own spirits, by living, as much as in us lies,
peaceably with all men. I am for peace, yea,
though they are for war.
3. Let us lie down in peace with ourselves, with
our own minds, with a sweet composure of spirit and
enjoyment of ourselves ; Return unto thy rest, O my
4oul, and be easy ; let nothing disturb my soul, my
darling.
But when may we lie down in peace at night ?
(1.) If we have by the grace of God in some
measure done the work of the day, and filled it up
with duty, we may then lie down in peace at night.
If we have the testimony of our consciences for us,
that in simplicity and godly sincerity ^ not with fleshly
wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have this day
had onr convei'sation in the world, that we have done
some good in our places, something that will turn
to a good account ; if our hearts do not reproach us
with a diem perdidi, alas ! / have lost a day ; or
with that which is worse, the spending of that time
in the service of sin, which should have been spent
in the service of God ; but if, on the contrary, we
have abode with God, have been in his fear, and
waited on him all the day long ; we may then lie
down in peace, for God says. Well done good and
faithful sei'vant ; and the sleep of the labouring man,
of the labouring Christian, is sweet, is very sweet,
when he can say. As I am a day's journey nearer my
end, so I am a day's work fitter for it. Nothing will
make our bed-chambers pleasant, and our beds
easy, like the witness of the Spirit of God with our
spirits, thai we are going forward for heaven ; and
a conscience kept void of offence, which will be not
only a continual feast, but a continual rest.
(2.) If we have by faith and patience, and sub-
mission to the divine will, reconciled ourselves to all
the events of the day, so as to be uneasy at nothing
that God has done, we may then lie down in peace
at night. Whatever has fallen out cross to us, it
shall not fret us, but we will kiss the rod, take up
the cross, and say, '* All is well that God does."
Thus we must in our patience keep possession of
our own souls, and not suffer any affliction to put us
out of the possession of them. We have met with
disappointments in husbandry perhaps, in trade, at
sea, debtors prove insolvent, creditors prove severe,
but this and the other proceed from the Lord ; there
is a providence in it, every creature is what God
makes it to be, and therefore I am dumb, I open not
my mouth ; that which pleases God ought not to
displease mc.
(3.) If we have renewed our repentance for sin*
and made a fresh application of the blood of Cluiik
to our souh for the purifying of oar conscieneei^
we may then lay us down in peace. Nothing an
break in upon our peace but sin ; that is it wbick
troubles the camp ; if that be taken away there skiD
no evil befall us. The inhabitant, though he be fir
from well, yet shall not say, I am sick, shall not con-
plain of sickness, for the people that dwell thereii
shall be forgiven their iniquity, Isa. xxxiii. 24. The
pardon of sin has enough in it to balance all onr
griefs, and therefore to silence all oar complaiots.
A man sick of the palsy has yet reason to be easy,
nay, and to be of good cheer, if Christ says to him,
Thy sins are forgiven thee ; and / am thy solvation.
(4.) If we have put ourselves under the divine
protection for the ensuing night, we may then Uj
us down in peace. If, by faith and prayer, we hsYC
run into the name of the Lord as our strong tower,
have fled to take shelter under the shadow of his
wings, and made the Lord our refuge and habitation,
we may then speak peace to ourselves, for God in
his word speaks peace to us. If David has an eye
to the cherubim, between which God is said to
dwell, when he says, (Ps. Ivii. 1.) In the shadow sf
thy wings will I mahe my refuge ; yet, certainly, be
has an eye to the similitude which Christ makes lue
of, of a hen gathering her chickens under her wings,
when he says, (Ps. xci. 4.) He shall cover thee wilA
his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust;
and the chickens under the wings of the ben, an
not only safe but warm and pleased.
(5.) If wc have cast all our cares for the day fol-
lowing upon God, we may then lay us down in
peace. Taking thought for the morrow is the great
hinderance of our peace in the night; let ns but
learn to live without disquieting care, and to refer
the issue of all events to that God who may and can
do what he will, and will do what is best^ for those
that love and fear him ; Father, thy will be dmu,
and then we make ourselves easy. Our Saviour
presses this very much upon his disciples, not to
perplex themselves with thoughts what they shall
eat and what they shall drink, and wherewithal they
shall be clothed, because their Heavenly Father
knows that they have need of these things, and will
see that they be supplied. Let us, therefore, ease
ourselves of this burthen, by casting it on him who
careth for us ; what need he care and we care too?
III. Having laid ourselves down in peace, we
must compose ourselves to sleep ; IwiU lay me down
and sleep. The love of sleep for sleeping sake is the
character of the sluggard, but as it is nature's physic
for the recruiting of its weary powers, it is to be
looked upon as a mercy equal to that of our food,
and in its season to be received with thankfulness.
And with such thoughts as these we may go to
sleep :
I
HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GOD
461
1 . What poor bodies are these we carry about with
US, that call for rest and relief so often, that are so
soon tired, even with doing nothing, or next to
nothing. It is an honour to man above the beasts,
Ot homini sublime dedit — that he is made so erect ; it
was part of the serpent's carse, On thy belly shalt
thou go ; yet we have little reason to boast of this
honour, when we observe how little a while we can
stand upright, and how soon we are burthened with
our honour, and are forced to lie down. . The powers
of the soul, and the senses of the body, are our hon-
our, but it is mortifying to consider, how after a few
hours' use they are all locked up under a total disa-
bility of acting, and it is necessary they should be so.
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, or the strong
man in his strength, since they both lie for a fourth
part of their time utterly bereft of strength and wis-
dom, and on a level with the weak and foolish.
2. What a sad thing it is to be under the neces-
sity of losing so much precious time as we do in
sleep. That we should lie so many hours out of
eyery four and twenty, in no capacity at all of serv-
ing God or our neighbour, of doing any work of
piety or charity ! Those who consider how short our
time is, and what a great deal of work we have to do,
and how fast the day of account hastens on, cannot
jbut grudge to spend so much time in sleep, cannot
but wish to spend as little as may be in it; cannot
but be quickened by it to redeem time, when they
are awake, and cannot but long to be there where
there shall be no need of sleep, but they shall be as
the angels of God, and never rest day or night from
the blessed work of praising God.
3. What a good Master do we serve, that allows
US time for sleep, and furnishes us with convenien-
ces for it, and makes it refreshing and reviving to
us. By this it appears, the Lord is for the body, and
it is a good reason why we should present our bodies
lo him as living sacrifices, and glorify him with
them. Nay, sleep is spoken of as given by promise
to the saints, (Ps. cxxvii. 2.) So he givethhis beloved
sleep. The godly man has the enjoyment of that in
a quiet resignation to God, which the worldly man
labours in vain for, in the eager pursuit of the
world. What a difference is there between the sleep
of a sinner, who is not sensible of his being within
a step of hell, and the sleep of a saint, that has good
hopes, through grace, of his being within a step of
heaven : that is the sleep God gives to his beloved.
4. How piteous is the case of those from whose
eyes sleep departs, through pain of body, or anguish
of mind, and to whom wearisome nights are appoint-
ed ; who, when they lie down, say, When shall we
mrise? and who are thus made a terror to them-
selves. It was said, that of all the inhuman tortures
used by those whom the French king employed to
force his protestant subjects to renounce their reli-
l^ion, none prevailed more than keeping them by
violence long waking. When we find how earnestly
nature craves sleep, and how much it is refreshed
by it, we should think with compassion of those,
who upon any account want that and other comforts
which we enjoy, and pray for them.
5. How ungrateful we have been to the God of
our mercies, in suffering sleep, which is so great a
support and comfort to us, to be our liinderance in
that which is good. As when it has been the grati-
fication of our sloth and laziness, when it has kept
us from our hour of prayer in the morning, and dis-
fitted us for our hour of prayer at night ; or when we
have slept unseasonably in the worship of God ; as
Eutychus, when Paul was preaching ; and the dis-
ciples, when Christ was in his agony at prayer. How
justly might we be deprived of the comfort of sleep,
and upbraided with tiiis as the provoking cause of
it ! What ! could ye not watch with me one hour ?
Those who would sleep, and cannot, must think how
often they should have kept awake, and would not
6. We have now one day less to live, than we had
in the morning. The thread of time is winding off
apace, its sands are running down, and as time goes
eternity comes ; it is hastening on. Our days are
swifter than a weaver's shuttle ; which passes and
repasses in an instant. And what do we of the work
of time ? What forwardness are we in to give up
our account ? O that we could always go to sleep
with death upon our thoughts, how would it quicken
us to improve time ! It would make our sleep not
the less desirable, but it would make our death
much the less formidable.
7. To thy glory, O God, I now go to sleep ; whe-
ther we eat or drink, yea, or sleep, for that is in-
cluded in whatever we do, we must do it to the
glory of God. Why do I go to sleep now, but that
my body may be fit to serve my soul, and able for a
while to keep pace with it in the service of God to-
morrow ? Thus common actions, by being directed
toward our great end, are done after a godly sort,
and abound to our account ; and thus the advan-
tages we have by them are sanctified to us. To the
pure all things are pure ; and whether we wake or
sleepy we live together with Christy 1 Thess. v. 10.
8. To thy grace, O God, and to the word of thy
grace, I now commend myself. It is good to fall
asleep with a fresh surrender of our whole selves,
body, soul, and spirit, to God : now. Return to God
as thy rest, O my soul ; for he has dealt bountifully
with tfiee ; thus we should commit the keeping of
our souls to him, falling asleep, as David did, (Ps.
xxxi. 6.) with. Into thy hands I commit my spirit ;
and as Stephen did. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Sleep does not only resemble death, but is some-
times an inlet to it ; many go to sleep and never
wake, but sleep the sleep of death ; which is a good
reason why we should go to sleep with dying
thoughts, and put ourselves onder the protection of
402,
HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GOD.
a liviDg God, and then sudden death will be nosar-
prise to us.
9. O that when I awake I may be still with God !
that the parenthesis of sleep, though long, may not
break off the thread of my communion with God,
but that as soon as I awake I may resume it O
that when I wake in the night I may have my mind
turned to good thoughts I may remember God upon
my bed, who then is at my right hand, and to whom
the darkness and the light are both alike ; and that
I may sweetly meditate upon him in the night
watches ; that thus even that time may be redeemed,
and improved to the best advantage, which other-
wise is in danger not only of being lost in vain
thoughts, but mispent in ill ones. O that when I
awake in the morning, my first thoughts may be of
God, that with them my heart may be seasoned for
all day !
10. O that I may enter into a better rest than that
which 1 am now entering upon ! The apostle speaks
of a rest, which we that have believed do enter into,
even in this world, as well as of a rest which in the
other world remains for the people of God, Heb. iv.
3, 9. Believers rest from sin and the world ; they
rest in Christ, and in God through Christ; they
enjoy a satisfaction in the covenant of grace, and
their interest in that covenant ; TJiis is my rest for
ever, here will I dwell. They enter into this ark, and
there are not only safe but easy. Now, O that I
might enjoy this rest while I live, and when I die
might enter into something more than rest, even the
joy of my Lord, a fulness of joy !
IV. We must do all this in a believing depend-
ence upon God, and his power, providence, and
grace. Therefore I lay me dawn in peace, and com-
pose myself to sleep, because thou. Lord, keepest
me, and assurest me that thou dost so ; Thou, Lord,
makest me to dwell in safety. David takes notice of
God's compassing his path, and his lying down, as
his observer, Ps. cxxxix. 3. He sees his eye upon
him when he is retired into his bed-chamber, and
none else sees him ; when he is in the dark, and
none else can see him. Here he takes notice of
him, compassing his lying down as his preserver ;
and sees his hand about him to protect him from
evil, and keep him safe ; feels bis hand under him
to support him, and to make him easy.
1. It is by the power of God's providence that we
are kept safe in the night, and on that providence
we must depend continually. It is he that preserveth
man and beast, (Ps. xxxvi. 6.) that upholds all
things by the word of his power. That death, which
by sin entered into the world, would soon lay all
waste, if God did not shelter bis creatures from its
arrows, which are continually flying about, we can-
not but see ourselves exposed to in the night. Our
bodies carry about with them the seeds of all dis-
Death is always working in us; a little
thing would stop the circulation either of the blooi
or the breath, and then we are gone ; either never
awake, or awake under the arrests of death. Ilea
by sin are exposed to one another ; many have bees
murdered in their beds, and many bamed in tttir
beds. And our greatest danger of all is from fhit
malice of evil spirits, that go aboat seeking to
devour.
We are very unable to help ourselves, and <mt
friends unable to help us ; we are not aware of the
particulars of our danger, nor can we foresee whid
way it will arise ; and, therefore, know not when
to stand upon our guard ; or if we did, we know boC
how. When Saul was asleep, be lost his spear and
his cruse of water, and might as easily have lost his
head, as Sisera did when he was asleep, by the band
of a woman. What poor helpless creatures are we;
and how easily are we overcome when sleep hai
overcome us ! Our friends are asleep top, and caa-
not help us. An illness may seize ns in die night,
which, if they be called up and come to us, thc^
cannot help us against ; the most skilful and tender
are physicians of no valne.
It is therefore God's providence that proteds ai
night after night, his care, his goodness. That was
the hedge about Job, about him and his bouse, aad
all that he had round about, (Job i. 10.) a hedge that
Satan himself could not break through, nor fiad a.
gap in, though he traversed it round. There is a
special protection which God's people are takea
under, they are hid in his pavilion, in the secret of
his tabernacle, under the protection of his promise,
(Ps. xxvii. 5.) they are his own, and dear to hiau
and he keeps them as the apple of his eye, Ps. xviL
8. He is round about them from henceforth aad
for ever, as the mountains are round about Jerusa-
lem, Ps. cxxv. 2. He protects their habitations, as
he did the tents of Israel in the wilderness ; for he
has promised to create upon every dwelling-place
of Mount Zion a pillar of cloud by d&y^ to dieher
from heat, and the shining of a flaming fire hfwigk^
to shelter from cold, Isa. iv. 5. Thus he blesseth the
habitation of the just, so that no real evil shall beftO
it, nor any plague come nigh it
The care of the divine Providence concemiog as
and our families we are to depend upon, so as to hMk
upon no provision we make for our own safety sof-
ficient, without the blessing of the divine Providence
upon it ; Except the Lord heepeth the city, the watch-
man waheth hut in vain. Be the house ever so well
built, the doors and windows ever so well baned,
the servants ever so careful, ever so watchful, it ii
all to no purpose, unless he that keeps Israel, aad
neither slumbers nor sleeps, undertake for onijsMj;
and if he be thy Protector, at destruction emdfmm
thou shalt laugh, and shalt know that thy tahenadi
is in peace. Job v. 22, 24.
2. It is by the power of God's grace that we an
I
HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GQD.
468^
enabled to think oaneWes safe, and on that grace
we must continually depend. The fear of danger,
thongh groundless, is as vexations as if it were ever
•o just And, therefore^ to complete the mercy of
being made to dwell safely, it is requisite that, by
: tte grace of God, we be delivered from our fears,
I (Ps. xxxiv. 4.) as well as from the things themselves
that we were afraid of ; that shadows may not be a
, terror to us, no more than substantial evils.
I If, by the grace of God, we are enabled to keep
f conscience void of offence, and still to preserve our
I Integrity ; if iniquity be put far away, and no wick-
? edness suffered to dwell in our tabernacles, then
> shall we lift up our faces without spot, we shall be
stedfast, and shall not need to fear, (Job xi. 14, 15.)
for fear came in with sin, and goes out with it If
our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence
toward God, and man too, and are made to dwell
securely, for we are sure nothing can hurt us but
sin : and' whatever does harm us, sin is the sting of
it ; and, therefore, if sin be pardoned and prevented,
HFC need not fear any trouble.
If, by the grace of God, we be enabled to live by
faith ; that faith which sets God alway before' us ; that
faith which applies the promises to ourselves, and
puts them in suit at the throne of grace ; that faith
which purifies the heart, overcomes the world, and
^qaenches all the fiery darts of the wicked one ; that
faith which realizes unseen things, and is the sub-
stance and evidence of them : if we be actuated and
governed by this grace we are made to dwell safely,
and to bid defiance to death itself, and all its har-
bingers and terrors : O Death, where is thy sting ?
This faith will not only silence our fears, but will
open our lips in holy triumphs. If God be for iw, who
emn be against us ?
Let ns lie down in peace, and sleep, not in the
streng^ of a natural resolution against fear, nor
merely of rational arguments against it, though they
are of good use, but in a dependence upon the grace
of God to work faith in us, and to fulfil in us the
work of faith. This is going to sleep like a Chris-
tian under the shadow of God's wings, going to sleep
in faith ; and it will be to us a good earnest of dying
in faith ; for the same faith that will carry us cheer-
litlly through the short death of sleep, will carry ns
through the long sleep of death.
The Application.
1. See how much it is our concern to carry our
religion about with us wherever we go, and to have
it always at our right hand ; for at every turn we
have occasion for it, lying down, rising up, going
oat, coming in ; and those are Christians indeed,
who confine not their religion to the new moons and
tike sabbaths, but bring the influences of it into all
tike conunon actions and occurrences of human life.
We must sit down at our tables and rise from them,
lie down in our beds and arise from them, with an
eye to God's providence and promise. Thus we
must live a life of communion with God, even while
our conversation is with the world.
And in order to this, it is necessary that we have
a living principle in our hearts, a principle of grace,
which, like a well of living water, may be continu-
ally springing up to life eternal, John iv. 14. It is
necessary likewise that we have a watchful eye upon
our hearts, and keep them with all diligence, that
we set a strict guard upon their motions, and have
our thoughts more at command than I fear most
Christians have. See what need we have of the
constant supplies of divine grace, and of a union
with Christ, that by faith we may partake of the root
and fatness of the good olive continually.
2. See what a hidden life the life of good Chris-
tians is, and how much it lies from nnder the eye
and observation of the world. The most important
part bf their business lies between God and their
own souls, in the frame of their spirits, and the
workings of their hearts, in their retirements, which
no eye sees but his, that is all eye. Justly are the
saints called God's hidden ones, and his secret if
said to be with them, for they have meat to eat, and
work to do, which the world knows not of; and joys,
and griefs, and cares which a stranger does not in-
termeddle with. Great is the mystery of godliness.
And this is a good reason why we should look
upon ourselves as incompetent judges one of another^
because we know not each other's hearts, nor are
witnesses to their retirements. It is to be feared,
there are many whose religion lies all in the outside;
they make a fair show in the flesh, and perhaps a
great noise ; and, yet, are strangers to this secret
communion with God, in which consists so much of
the power of godliness. And on the other hand it
is to be hoped, there are many who do not distin-
guish themselves by any thing observable in their
profession of religion, but pass through the world
without being taken notice of, and yet converse
much with God in solitude, and walk with him in
the even, constant tenor of a regular devotion and
conversation. The hingdom of God comes not with
observation. Many merchants thrive by a secret
trade, that make no bustle in the world. It is fit,
therefore, that every man's judgment should proceed
from the Lord, who knows men's hearts and sees in
secret.
3. See what enemies they are to themselves, who
continue under the power of a vain and carnal mind,
and live without God in the world. Multitudes I
fear there are, to whom all that has been said of
secret communion with Gpd is accounted as a strange
thing, and they are ready to say of their ministers
when they speak of it. Do they not speah parables ?
They lie down and rise up, go out and come in, in
464
HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GOD.
the constant parsait either of worldly profits, or of
sensual pleasures ; but God is not in all their
thoughts, not in any of them. They live upon him,
and upon the gifts of his bounty from day to day,
but they have no regard to him, never own their de-
pendence on him, nor are in any care to secure his
favour.
Those who live such a mere animal life as this, do
not only put a great contempt upon God, but do a
great deal of damage to themselves ; they stand in
their own light, and deprive themselves of the most
valuable comforts that can be enjoyed on this side
heaven. What peace can they have who are not
at peace with God ? What satisfaction can they
take in their hopes, who build them not upon God,
the everlasting foundation? or in their joys, who
derive them not from him, the fountain of life and
living waters ? O that at length they would be wise
for themselves, and remember their Creator and Be-
nefactor !
4. See what easy, pleasant lives the people of God
might live, if it were not their own faults. There are
those who fear God and work righteousness, and are
accepted of the Lord, but go drooping and discon-
solate from day to day, are full of cares and fears
and complaints, and make themselves always uneasy ;
and it is because they do not live that life of delight
in God, and dependence on him, that they might
and should live. God has effectually provided for
their dwelling at ease, but they make not use of that
provision he has laid up for them.
O that all who appear to be conscientious, and are
afraid of sin, would appear to be cheerful, and
afraid of nothing else ; that all who call God Fa-
ther, and are in care to please him, and keep them-
selves in his love, would learn to cast all their other
care upon him, and commit their way to him as to a
Father. He shall choose our inheritance for us, and
knows what is best for us, better than we do for our-
selves. *' Thou shalt answer. Lord, for me." It is
what I have often said, and will abide by, *' That a
holy, heavenly life, spent in the service of God, and
in conmiunion with him, is the most pleasant, com-
fortable life any body can live in this world."
5. See in this, what is the best preparation we can
make for the changes that may be before us in our
present state ; and that is, to keep up a constant
acquaintance and communion with God, to converse
with him daily, and keep up stated times for callinf
on him, that so when trouble comes, it may find the
wheels of prayer a going. And then may we come
to God with a humble boldness and comfort, and
hope to speed when we are in affliction, if we bate
been no strangers to God at other times, but in oor
peace and prosperity had our eyes ever toward
him.
Even when we arrive to the greatest degree of holj
security and serenity, and lie down most in peace,
yet, still, we must keep up an expectation of trouble
in the flesh. Our ease must be grounded not upon
any stability in the creature ; if it be, we put a cheat
upon ourselves, and treasure up so much the greater
vexation for ourselves. No, it must be built upon
the faithfulness of God, which is unchangeable.
Our Master has told us. In the world you shall htn
tribulation, much tribulation, count upon it, it is
only in me that you shall have peace. But if eveiy
day be to us, as it should be, a sabbath of rest in
God, and communion with him, nothing ean come
amiss to us any day, be it ever so cross.
6. See in this, what is the best preparation we
can make for the unchangeable world, that ia before
us. We know God will bring us to death, and it is
our great concern to get ready for it. It ought to be
the business of every day, to prepare for our last day,
and what can we do better for ourselves in the pros-
pect of death, than, by frequent retirements for com-
munion with God, to get more loose from that world
which at death we must leave, and better acquabt-
ed with that world which at death we must remove
to. By going to our beds as to our graves, we shall
make death familiar to us, and it will become as
easy to us to close our eyes in peace and die, as it
used to be to close our eyes in peace and sleep.
We hope God will bring us to heaven ; and by
keeping up daily communion with God, we grow
more and more meet to partake of that inheritance;
and have our conversation in heaven. It is certain,
all that will go to heaven hereafter, begin their
heaven now, and have their hearts there. If we thus
enter into a spiritual rest every night, that will be a
pledge of our blessed repose in the embraces of
divine love, in that world wherein day and night
come to an end, and we shall not rest day or night
from praising him, who is and will be oor eternal
rest.
I
HOW TO CLOSE THE DAY WITH GOD.
405
Mr. Flatman's HYMN for the Morning.
Poems, p. 57.
Awake, my soul ! Awake mine eyes,
Awake, my drowsy faculties ;
Awake, and see the new-born light
Spring from the darksome womb of night.
liook up and see th' unwearied sun,
Already has his race begun ;
The pretty lark is mounted high,
And sings her matins in the sky.
Arise, my soul, and thou my voice,
In songs of praise early rejoice.
O Great Creator, Heavenly King !
Thy praises let mc ever sing !
Thy power has made, thy goodness kept
This fenceless body while I slept ;
Yet one day more hast given me,
From all the powers of darkness free.
O keep my heart from sin secure.
My life unblamable and pure ;
That when the last of all my days is come,
Cheerful and fearless I may wait my doom.
His ANTHEM for the Evening, p. 58.
Sleep, downy sleep ! come close mine eyes,
Tir'd with beholding vanities !
Sweet slumbers come and chase away
The toils and follies of the day.
On your soft bosom will I lie.
Forget the world and learn to die.
O Israel's watchful Shepherd, spread
Tents of angels round my bed.
Let not the spirits of the air
While I slumber me insnare ;
Bat save thy suppliant free from harms,
Clasp'd in thine everlasting arms.
Clouds and darkness is thy throne,
Thy wonderful pavilion ;
O dart from thence a shining ray,
And then my midnight shall be day :
Thns when the mom, in crimson drest,
Breaks through the windows of the east.
My hymns of thankful praises shall arise.
Like incense or the morning sacrifice.
Mr. Watt's Morning HYMN ; Ps. xix. 5, 8. Ixxiii.
24, 25. p. 63.
1 God of the morning, at whose voice
The cheerful sun makes haste to rise.
And like a g^ant doth rejoice.
To run bis journey through the skies.
2 From the fair chambers of the east
The circuit of his race begins ;
And without weariness or rest
Round the whole earth he flies and shines.
3 O like the sun may I fulfil
Th' appointed duties of the day,
2 H
With ready mind and active will
March on, and keep my heavenly way !
[4 But I shall rove and lose the race,
If God my sun should disappear.
And leave me in this world's wild maze
To follow every wand'ring star.
5 Lord, thy commands are clean and pure,
Enlight'ning our beclouded eyes.
Thy threat'nings just, thy promise sure,
' Thy gospel makes the simple wise.]
6 Give roe thy counsels for my guide,
And then receive me to thy bliss ;
All my desires and hopes beside
Are faint and cold, compar'd with this.
An Evening HYMN ; Ps. iv. 8. iii. 5, 6. cxliii. 8.
1 Thus far the Lord has led me on.
Thus far his power prolongs my days ;
And every evening shall make known
Some fresh memorial of his grace.
2 Much of my time has run to waste.
And I perhaps am near my home ;
But he forgives my follies past.
He gives me strength for days to come.
3 I lay my body down to sleep.
Peace is the pillow for my head.
While well appointed angels keep
Their watchful stations round my bed.
4 In vain the sons of earth or hell
Tell me a thousand frightful things,
My God in safety makes me dwell
Beneath the shadow of his wings.
[5 Faith in his name forbids my fear :
O may thy presence ne'er depart !
And in the morning make me hear
The love and kindness of thy heart.
6 Thus when the night of death shall come.
My flesh shall rest beneath the ground,
And wait thy voice to rouse my tomb.
With sweat salvation in the sound.]
A SONG for Morning or Evening ; Lam. iii. 23.
Isa. xlv. 7.
1 My God, how endless is thy love !
Thy gifts are every evening new.
And morning mercies from above
Gently distil like early dew.
2 Thou spread'st the curtains of the night.
Great guardian of my sleeping hours ;
Thy sovereign word restores the light,
And quickens all my drowsy powers.
3 I yield my powers to thy command.
To thee I consecrate my days *,
Perpetual blessings from thine hand
Demand perpetual songs of praise.
FOUR DISCOURSES
AGAINST
VICE AND PROFANENESS,
VIZ. AGAINST
I. DRUNKENNESS.
II. UNCLEANNESS.
III. SABBATH-BREAKING.
IV. PROFANE SPEAKING.
To THE Reader.
Without doubt it is possible that a man may be no
drankard or adulterer, no swearer or sabbath-break-
er, and yet be for ever ruined by his unmortified
pride and passion, his worldliness and covetousness,
his secret fraud and injustice, or his infidelity and
close impiety ; the pharisee in the parable went to
hb house not justified, though he could say, / am
not as other men are ; yet so great a decay is there
of religion, even in the Christian world, and such a
pre valency of sin, that it is easy to observe how far
it goes toward the gaining a man a fair character
among his neighbours, to be able to say of him, that
he is free from these vices, as if it were a rare thing
to find them that are so.
I hope the matter is not so bad ; but it is too plain
to be denied, that drunkenness and uncleanness,
sabbath-breaking and profane speaking, the sins
against which these four plain discourses are level-
led, do still very much abound both in city and
country, notwithstanding the good and wholesome
laws of the land, made pursuant to the laws of God,
for the suppressing of them ; and both enforced by
her Majesty's proclamation, solemnly read at cer-
tain times, in the chief places of concourse ; and the
pious endeavours in many parts of the kingdom,
both of magistrates, and of others also in their places,
formed into societies for that purpose, to reform the
manners of the age. Though their endeavours have
not been altogether in vain, yet it is evident the
disease is not conquered.
It would be a vanity to think, that snch will be
reclaimed and reformed by books, as will not be
wrought upon by those more sensible methods of
conviction ; and yet our writing against these sins
may be of some use, to give a check to those, who
are entering into temptations to them, and who are
therein checked by their own consciences likewise;
with which, if we can but seasonably set in, thej
may be prevailed with to start back in time, before
their hearts be hardened.
It may likewise be of use to those who fall under
the censure of the law for any of these sins, and are
thereby awakened to some deg^e of consideratioD,
to make the punishment answer the end aimed it,
which is nothing else but their reformation ; and diat
would contribute too to the reformation of others. If
the rod and reproof together might but give wiadoBiD
the foolish and disobedient, as there would be man
joy in heaven, so there would be more benefit on eailk,
by the example of one sinner that repenteth, than of
ninety-nine just persons, that need no repentanee.
And we may hope there are some, who tbroi^
the strength of temptation, and the weakness of re-
solution, are drawn away by these lusts, and entieed,
that yet are willing to be reasoned with, and to read
and consider what is said to them ; and may move
probably be wrought upon by a book, which they niy
peruse over and over again, than by a sermon whiek
they hear once ; and may in this way, by the giaee
of God, be reoovered out of the snares of the devil,
and become trophies of Christ's victory over him.
However, such endeavours as these to torn sin-
ners from the error of their ways, though they may
not have the desired success, will tarn to us for a
testimony, that we would have healed them, and
they would not be healed. By this and other me-
thods the watchmen g^ve warning, and so deliver
their own souls.
What more have we to do, but to be earnest witk
God in prayer night and day, that the wickedaeMof
the wicked may at leng^ come to an end, and the
just be established by a more plentiful pouring out
of the Spirit of g^race upon us from on high, wkiA
would soon turn the wilderness into a fruitful bad,
and make even the desert to blossom as the rose^
A FRIENDLY ADMONITION, tc.
407
And while wc yet see the wicked walk on every
side, it is expected from us, that our souls weep in
secret for it, that we complain of it to God, that we.
sigh and cry for the abominations committed among
us, and that by st regular and exemplary conversa-
tion, conformable to the gospel, we vindicate the
honour of our holy religion, and approve ourselves
God's faithful witnesses in the places where we live ;
then shall a mark be set upon us, and we shall be
hid in the day of the Lord's anger, hid either in
heaven or under heaven.
Matt. Henry.
A FRIENDLY ADMONITION
TO
DRUNKARDS AND TIPPLERS.
To address ourselves to you (sinners) when you are
actually overcome with wine or strong drink, is to
cast pearls before swine, that will trample them
under their feet, and perhaps will turn again and
rend us. You are then as incapable to hear reason,
as you arc to speak it. It was the prudence of Abi-
gail, that she would not reprove Nabal when he was
drunk, I Sam. xxv. 36. TJiey liave smitten m«, then
shah thou say, and I felt it noty (Prov. xxiii. 35.) and
then to what purpose wast thou smitten ?
But I will take it for granted that you are some-
times sober, and allow yourselves liberty to think ;
and that Nebuchadnezzar's misery is not your chosen
happiness, to be continually beasts from one year's
end to another. I am willing to hope that sometimes
your understanding returns to you ; and at such a
happy hour, when you are your own men, and mas-
ters of your own reason, I heartily wish this paper
might fall into your hands, to be read with a serious
and unprejudiced eye, and grace with it into your
hearts, to enable you to consider your ways, and to
tarn from the error of them.
And now at length, I beseech you, show your-
selves men, O ye transgressors^ (Isa. xlvi. 8.) and
let me bespeak one hour's application of mind, and
a little impartial consideration, while one, who really
wishes you well, attempts to recover you out of the
snare you are led captive in. You are, perhaps,
many a time thankful to your friend, who helped you
when yon were drunk, Belped you to your houses,
helped you to your beds, when you were not able to
help yourselves ; I beseech you then, count not one
your enemy, who would persuade you to such a
cM>iirse of life, as that your own hands may be suffi-
cient for you, and you may not again need their
help upon any such occasion.
2 n2
The transgressors to whom I address this paper, I
shall choose to describe in the express words of scrip-
ture, hoping that such a description of them will be
not only least exceptionable, but most effectual to
discover them to themselves, and to their own consci-
ences ; and further I do not desire to discover them ;
for I write not these things to shame you, (unless it
be to shame you out of your sin,) but as my beloved
friends, to warn you, 1 Cor. iv. 14.
Those therefore that I am exhorting in God's
name to repent and reform, are such as fall under
some of the following characters:
1. Those who inordinately love drink, are hereby
admonished. Solomon foretells the misery of him
who loves pleasure, that he shall be a poor man,
and particularly he who loves wine, Prov. xxi. 17.
To use wine or strong drink soberly, and with a
moderate delight, as a good creature of God, made
for the service and comfort of man, is allowed us ;
and it is sanctified, as other the good things of this
life, by the word of God and prayer, and the plea-
sure more than doubled to a good man by thanks-
giving. But to love wine and strong drink, to set
the heart upon it, to let out the desire towards it,
for the sake of the pleasure of drinking, and because
it is a gratification of the sensual appetite ; this is a
corrupt and vicious habit, which leads to drunken-
ness, as it is usually contracted by it.
To drink wine for the stomach's sake is prescrib-
ed as a medicine, (1 Tim. v. 23.) but then it is a
little wine, for a little, a very little, will serve the
necessities and regular desires of nature : but to
cat or drink for drunkenness, that is, purely to
please the palate, has a brand put upon it by the
wise man, (Eccl. x. 17.) where it is made the cha-
racter of virtuous princes, that (notwithstanding the
temptation of dainties and varieties they have about
them) they eat in due season, for strength and not
for drunkenness.
It is the everlasting reproach of Israel in the wil-
derness, that when God gave them meat enough for
their bodies, that did not content them, though it
was bread from heaven, but they asked meat for
their lusts, Ps. Ixxviii. 18. After the similitude of
their transgression do those sin, who are not pleased
with that which satisfies the just desires of nature,
but they thirst after that which really puts a force
upon nature.
This love of the pleasure of drinking is com-
monly jested with, as a *' spark in the throat ;"
but such a spark it is as must be quenched by true
repentance and mortification, or it will break out
shortly into such a flame, as will bum to the lowest
hell.
2. Those who err through wine, and through
strong drink are out of the way, are hereby admon-
ished. Such are complained of by the prophet,
(Isa. xxviii. 7.) who though they do not drink so far
468
A FRIENDLY ADMONITION
as ordinarily to deprive themselves of the common
exercise of reason, yet they debaach their own con-
sciences with the love of pleasure ; so that they are
unable to make a rig^ht judgment of divine things,
and especially of their own spiritual state and in-
terest : so losing the exercise of their reason about
that for the sake of which they had their reason
given them.
Their case is greatly to be lamented, who, by as-
sociating with drunkards, and liabituating them-
selves to loose practices, inconsistent with Ihe rules,
and destructive to the seeds, of divine life, come to
imbibe loose principles concerning Gcfd and Christ,
and the Scriptures, and their souls, and another
world, and entertain rooted prejudices against seri-
ous godliness, and a holy life. Thus the strong man
armed gets and keeps possession of the heart, and it
will be a miracle of free grace, if ever he be dis-
possessed.
It is sad to see how many form their notions of
religion, and settle their rules of living, by their free
conversation, as they call it, over a glass of wine ;
and for instruction in the most weighty concerns of
their souls, they have recourse not to reading, study,
prayer, or the serious advice of their grave and
pious teachers, but to the l>anter of their club in
the ale-house or tavern ; by this they resolve to
steer their course, and they take it for granted they
are in the right. These are the oracles they con-
sylt, in these schools they choose their education,
and so they err through wine ; and in the greatness
of their folly wander endlessly.
3. Those who tarry long at the wine are also
branded in the Scripture, Prov. xxiii. 90. Those
who waste a great many of their precious hours thus
idly and unprofitably, so as at the best to serve none
of the purposes of the rational, much less of the
divine, life. Those, I mean, who spend the best part
of every day in piping, and sipping, and chatting
over the glass, as if they had nothing else to do in
this world, but to please as brutish an appetite of
the mere animal life as any it has. They divide their
time, perhaps even their sabbath time, between the
bed and the bottle, and make tippling the constant
business of a worthless, useless life. They do not
stand in the market-place, but they sit in a worse
place, all the day idle.
These are such as we call sots ; the most insig-
nificant animals under the sun, the unprofitable
burthens of the earth, under which it groans : of
whom we may truly say, it had been as good for the
world if it bad never known them ; and they them-
selves will say shortly, when they come under the
fearful doom of the wicked and slothful servant,
that it had been better, a thousand times better, if
they bad never been bom : for the time thus spent,
thus mispent, will perhaps occasion melancholy re-
flections upon a death-bed ; it will, however, pass
very ill in the account, in the judgment of the great
day.
4. Those who follow strong drink are under a woe,
(Isa. V. 11.) Woe unto them that rite up emrlff in the
moniing that they may follow strong drink : and is
another scripture expresses it, They JUl tkemedtet
with strong drink, Isa. Ivi. 12. These are deliberate
drunkards, who are continually seeking opportimi-
ties to make themselves drunk ; who follow it u
their trade, and are in it as in their element. The
desire of excessive drinking will draw them at aoy
time, into any place, among any company, thoagi
ever so sordid and so much below them ; it will give
them a diversion from the prosecution of any busi-
ness, though ever so urgent. They are as solicitous in
their inquiry " Where are the best liquors ?" as tkc
most industrious tradesman is in inquiring '' Where
are the best goods, and the best bargains?" When
they awake out of a drunken fit, it is to seek it yet
again, Prov. xxiii. 35.
5. Those who are mighty to drink wine, and men
of strength to mingle strong drink, are likewise un-
der a woe, Isa. v. 22. There are those who gloiy in
it as a mighty perfection, that they are able to bear
a great deal of strong liquor without sinking under
it ; and boast of it as an heroic achievement, that
they have made shift to keep their seats, and to keep
their feet, when they had laid so many dead drunk
under the table. Probably such as these were those
drunkards of Ephraim, who wore the crown of pride,
the garlands they won by those sort of victories,
Isa. xxviii. 1. But it is there threatened, (e. 3.)
That those drunkards of Ephraim, with their crown
of pride, shall be trodden under foot. Be aatonish-
ed, O heavens, at this, and wonder, O earth, that
ever any should arrive to such a pitch of impudence
in sin, as thus to glory in their shame, and value
themselves upon that which is rather the commen-
dation of a brewer's horse, than of a man, to be able
to carry a great deal of liquor. But the day is com-
ing, when those who are so well able to bear the cap
of drunkenness, will find themselves too weak to
bear the cup of trembling.
6. Those whb are easif^and commonly biooglit
to drink themselves drunk, as the expression is,
(1 Kings xvi. 9. and ch» xx. 16.) fall under his re-
proof. Those, I mean, who though they know their
own weakness, the weakness of their heads, and
their inability to bear drink, together with the weak-
ness of their hearts, and their inability to resist
temptations to this sin, yet are ordinarily drawn
into such company as pr||ves a snare to them, awl
are soon brought to take more than doe^ them good;
the effect whereof is, that their reason is distniiied,
their tongues stanmier, their feet stumble, and they
reel to and fro, and are at their wits' end.^ Tbey
become like the fool, whom Solomon describeit
(Eccl. X. 3.) who when he walketk by the wcy, kit
TO DRUNKARDS AND TIPPLERS.
460
wisdom faileth Aim, and he tiyt to every one he meets,
that he is a fooL Those certainly drink to excess,
who by drinking lose the government of themselves,
and disable their own bodies and minds for their
respective offices.
They who are but once surprised into this excess,
IS Noah was, have reason to lament their own un-
wariness, and to double their guard for the future ;
but they who are again and again overcome by it
have no cloak for their sin. Wine is such a mocker,
that if it thus deceive us once, it is its part, it may
be its fault, but if twice, it is our own, wholly our
own.
7. Those who make others drink and be drunk,
though they themselves may escape being so, arc
vnder a woe, (Hab. ii. 16.) Woe unto him that giveth
Ais neighbour drinks and mahes him drunken also.
Those who contrive by urging healths, or other the
arts of drunkenness, to force this trade, must doubt-
less be accountable for all the sin they decoy others
into, and the blood of those souls and bodies, which
perish thereby, will be required at their hands.
Those especially incur guilt, who not only make a
jest of drawing an unguarded soul now and then
into a particular act of drunkenness, but lay plots
to debauch those who were soberly educated and
inclined, and to engage them in the course and way
of this sin ; and triumph in their success herein as
glorious victories, boasting how often they ha\e thus
quenched the glowing sparks of virtue, and crushed
its hopeful seeds. These have arrived at the highest
pitch of this wickedness ; they are factors for hell,
and betray such a malice against God and souls,
and such a zeal for the propagating of sin, as is the
very constitution of Satan himself.
Having thus described the disease, in the several
symptoms and degrees of it, we must next attempt
Che cure :' and that which makes the attempt more
difficult, and yet more necessary, is, that the disease
is epidemical ; the contagion is spread through the
nation, and multitudes are tainted with it. It is not
here and there one that is thus deprived of his rea-
son, and become distracted at times ; if so, hospitals
might be built in which to keep them up, and endea-
vour their relief; but the iniquity abounds in every
place. If the honour of temperance were to be car-
ried by the major vote, we have reason to fear that
tbe sober would be out-polled. Whether the former
days were in this respect any whit better than these,
I know not ; but these are certainly very bad, and
the prophet's complaint may too justly be revived,
(Isa. xxviii. d.) All talms are full of vomit and fU-
tkinesSj there is no place clean.
Now as when the pestilence rages in a city, whilst
care- is taken by the government to confine the in-
fected, that they appear not abroad to spread the
infeetioD, it is likewise incumbent upon physicians,
to prescribe and publish th%best methods they can
think of both of prevention and cure ; so, when this
brutish vice of drunkenness is grown so very common
as it is, it is high time to take the same course with
it. It is the duty of magistrates with their power,
to restrain and suppress it, that it appear not bare-
faced. Their sword ought to be a terror to these
evil doers ; for without doubt a common drunkard
is a common nuisance, which the conservators of
the public peace ought to take cognizance of. It is
also requisite that ministers in their places, as spi-
ritual physicians, should direct people what course
to take, and how to manage themselves, that they,
who are yet sound, may be preserved from the in-
fection, and they who are sick, who most need the
physician, may be recovered.
I must alter the title of this paper, if I should
here address myself to the sober, to give them rules
for the preserving of their sobriety : Let the fear of
God be kept up in the heart ; let the flesh be cruci-
fied, with all its corrupt affections and lusts ; let not
the dread and abhorrence of this sin be lessened
by the frequent sight of those who indulge them-
selves in it ; but let drunkards, as vile persons, be
contemned in their eyes, (Ps. xv. 4.) and let their
company be avoided, as much as is possible. Let
temperance be a constant pleasure to them, and let
them value themselves by it as their honour and re-
putation ; and let its rules be religiously and invio-
lably observed, and no sensual appetite gratified ;
but let the body be kept under, and brought into
subjection to religion and right reason ; and then,
I hope, by the grace of God, daily prayed for, apd
duly improved, he that is sober will be sober still,
and will still hold fast his integrity.
But my business at present lies with those who
are infected, and already captivated to the power of
this lust; whether they be known and open drunk-
ards, who declare their sin as Sodom, and seek not
to hide it, or whether they be more close and secret
tipplers, who roll it under their tongue as a sweet
morsel. O that ye would, both the one and the
other, suffer a word of exhortation ; and let me beg
of you with all earnestness and seriousness, if you
have any regard to the eternal God that made you,
or to the blessed Jesus that bought you, or to your
own precious and immortal souls, that you will break
off this sinful course of life you lead ; cease to do
this evil, and learn to do well. Fain I would per-
suade those who have been drunk, to be drunk no
more ; to forsake the foolish and live, and to go in
the way of understanding. Though the disease be
inveterate and very threatening, yet I would not
doubt but. by the grace of God, a cure might be
effected, if the diseased were but willing to be made
whole.
These sinners must be ranked under two heads,
who must be differently dealt with, According as
their case differs.
470
A FRIENDLY ADMONITION
I. There are some drunkards, who justify them-
selves in the sin, and so go on in it, under the pro-
tection of a debauched conscience ; and these must
be addressed to by way of conviction.
II. There are others, who condemn themselves for
it, but not knowing how to disentangle themselves
from it, they go on in it, notwithstanding the checks
of an accusing conscience ; and these must be ad-
dressed to by way of counsel and advice.
I. Let me begin with those who wallow in the
mire of this sin, and think there is no harm in it ;
who insist upon their own justification in it ; and
plead for Baal. They are retained of counsel for this
sin, and they confess the fact, that they are often in
drink, yet they deny the fault, and with the adul-
terous woman, wipe their mouth and say, they have
done no wickedness, Prov. xxx; 20. They have, if
not satisfied, yet silenced, their own consciences,
with the corrupt and foolish reasonings of that flesh
and blood, which they make their delight and their
counsellors. They are ready to ask. Why should not
the natural appetite, which we brought into the
world with us, be indulged and gratified ? And
how can the time and estate be better spent than in
the service of it ? And to show that they can quote
Scripture as well as Satan, (Matt. iv. 6.) they will
tell you that tlie fruit of the vine was created to
make glad the heart, and in vain was it created, if it
be not used for that purpose ; you shall not persuade
them that that is unlawful (how express soever the
divine law is against it) which seems so natural.
They plead also the benefit and advantage of it ;
for their parts they know no way to ease the cares of
this life, and take off the fears of death, but to
drown them in good liquor. "What!" (say they)
*' a man is never merry till he is half drunk ; never
enjoys himself till he has thus raised himself." And,
besides, they take it for granted that there can be no
good fellowship with their friends, no free or plea-
sant conversation, but in the tavern or ale-house,
and must either seek it there, or be perpetually me-
lancholy, and never enjoy one another ; they cannot,
that is, they will not, believe that such a pleasant
entertainment and diversion as this should have any
evil in it : what if they be drunk, they hope it is no
treason ; it is past off with a jest, and made a laugh-
ing matter the next day, among their companions.
But vnll you give me leave to ask you, (you that
thus palliate the matter,) what if your drinking to
excess, and your tippling, should not prove such an
innocent harmless thing, as you would make your-
selves believe it is? What if all these fig-leaves you
sew together, prove too thin and too narrow to cover
your shame ? Your consciences, which you have so
often baffled and brow-beaten, now, perhaps, begin
to let you alone, and give you no disturbance ; you
therefore^ with a great deal of security and careless-
ness, walk in the way of your own heart, and in the
sight of your eyes, and allow yourselves all the
looses of a vain and carnal conversation ; but what
if for all these things God should bnnf^ you into
judgment? Eccl. xi. 9. What will you do in the
day of visitation, when you shall be called to account
for all your drunken frolics and excesses? Can
you think that these pleas you insist on will stand
you in any stead at God's bar, or bring yoa off in
the judgment of the great day ? No, they will all be
overruled and rejected as f frivolous, and you yoar-
selves will be ashamed of your confidence. You
now say, that you shall have peace, though you go
on to add drunkenness to thirst ; you think God will
not be so severe upon you as we are, and at the worst
you shall fare as well as most of your neighbours,
and if you go to hell, God help a great many ! Bat
what if this self-flattery prove a self-deceit ? What
if your making light of the sin makes it really
the heavier? What if you come at last within
reach of that fearful threatening against the sinner,
who thus promises himself impunity in the way of
drunkenness? (Deut. xxix. 19, 20.) The Lord wUl
not spare him, but the anger of the Lord, and his jea-
lousy, shall smohe against that man. Is it not better
for you to be undeceived in time, than to have this
mistake discovered, when it is too late to rectify it?
Come, therefore, and let us reason together: yon
plead that drinking is natural, it is so ; but drinking
to excess is certainly unnatural. You plead it is
pleasant and profitable, but the plea is false, there
is no pleasure nor profit in it.
You ask what harm is there in being drunk?
What hurt does it do to any body ? But will yon
give me leave to ask you a few questions? and I will
appeal to the impartial and unbiassed judgement of
your own consciences for an answer to them.
1. Is it no harm to transg^ss the law of the great
God, the God that made you and will judge yon?
The very law of nature forbids this sin ; the hea-
then condemned it, and cried out shame on it, though
it is not expressly forbidden in the law of Moses,
(only the use of all wine and strong drink is prohi-
bited to the priests when they went in to minister,
(Lev. X. 9.) and to the Nazarites, (Num. yL 3.) and
Christians are spiritual priests and gospel Na-
zarites) yet it is frequently condemned by the pro-
phets, and many a woe denounced against it, as in the
places before quoted. And in the New Testament,
which is more immediately our rule, we have many
express laws against it. Luke xxi. 34. Tahe heed, lot
your heart he overcharged with surfeiting anddrmnken'
ness; and again, (Rom. xiifc 13.) Let us walk honestly
as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness ; and
again, (Eph. v. 18.) Be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess J but be filled with the Spint ; and again, (I
Thess. V. 7, 8.) They that be drunk, are dritnk w the
night, but let us who are of the day be sober. Are these
the commands of God pr are they not? If they be.
J'
TO DRUNKARDS AND TIPPLERS.
471
are tbey to be quarrelled with, and jested with, or are
they to be obeyed ? Are they repealed or antiquated,
or are they not still in as full force, power, and Tir-
tue as ever ? Were these sacred laws enacted for the
restraining and mortifying of our lusts, and can we
think that they should be relaxed and dispensed
with in favour of our lusts ? No ; as long as the car-
nal mind is enmity to the just and holy God, the
holiness and justice of God will be enmity to the
carnal mind.
Yoa argue that drunkenness must needs be law-
ful, because it is grateful to the flesh, and you can-
sot think that God should be so hard upon you, as
to bind you out from that which you have so strong
an appetite to ; as if God were altogether such a one
as yourselves, and as much a friend to the ease and
pleasure of the body as you are : thus the sensual
lives of Epicures are justified, by the atheistical
doctrine of Epicurus. But stay awhile and you shall
see this refuge of lies swept away, and shall know
whose word shall stand, God's or yours, (Jer. xliv.
28.) Fools make a mock at tin ; but be not deceived,
Ood is not mocked. How light soever you now make
of the divine law, and the injunctions of it, you will
find to your cost, that if it shall not command you,
it will condemn yon ; if it shall not rule you, it will
ruin you ; for God will magnify his law and make
it honourable, though you vilify it and make it con-
temptible.
2. Is it no harm to disturb the exercise of your
own reason, and to break in upon that ? Reason is
the crown and glory of the human nature, by the
noble powers and faculties of which you are distin-
guished from, and dignified above, the inferior crea-
tures : this is that which teaches you more than the
beasts of the earth, and makes you wiser than the
fowls of heaven. This is God's image upon the
human soul ; and is it no harm to deface that image ?
It is this spirit of a man, that is the candle of the
Lord ; and is it no harm to extinguish this candle,
or at least for the present to put it into a dark lan-
thom ? The inspiration of the Almighty has given
us understanding ; and will you throw away that
gift as not worth your keeping ? Is it no harm thus
to profane your crown by casting it to the ground,
and to undervalue the honour God has put upon you,
by patting yourselves upon a level with the beasts ?
If, indeed, you have but little value for the sacred
ties and honours of religion ; yet, is reason become
of so small account with you, that you can tamely
resign tiiat too, and prostitute it to the tyranny and
arbitrary government of a brutish appetite ? Hast
thou DO concern, no jealousy, for the liberty and
property of thy own soul ; but shall it be content-
edly, and without any struggle or regret, sacrificed
to a base and imperious lust? Wilt thou sell such a
birthright, as that which has so many privileges
annexed to it, like profane Esau, for a mess of pot-
tage ? Is thy own soul, that precious soul of thine,
which is capable of such noble services and enjoy-
ments, so little worth in thy esteem, that thou art
so easily persuaded to put thyself out of the posses-
sion of it ?
By excess of drink the understanding is clouded,
that sun in the little world is for the time eclipsed ;
it has no government of the thoughts, they are all
in confusion, and a perfect tumult ; no command of
the passions, they are in an uproar, and are carried
headlong ; no command of the tongue, it utters per-
verse things, (Prov. xxiii. 33.) and the whole soul is
for the present incapacitated to perform its offices,
all its foundations are out of course. This is thy case
(man) when thou art drunk ; thy wisdom is departed
from thee, and folly ascends the throne in thy soul ;
and is there no harm in this ? If a man wound, or
maim, or lame his body, or any way disable it for
its services, he is justly accounted either a mad
man, or a bad man ; and is he neither the one nor
the other, who does worse than this to his own soul,
his nobler and better part ? Is not he the worst of
robbers, who deprives himself of the use of his rea-
son, and says to that seer, *' See not ;" who puts out
his own eyes, that, Samson-like, he may grind in
Satan's prison. Consider (man) if the light that is
in thee be darkness, Itaw great is that darkness ! We
pity those who are either born idiots, or become mad
by disease ; yet drunkards, who make themselves
little better than idiots and mad, think all the world
should envy them their liberty and pleasures : it is
such a liberty as is the worst of slavery, such a
pleasure as will be bitterness in the end.
Wicked men are often in Scripture compared to
brute beasts, and particularly to swine, who wallow
in the mire ; (2 Pet ii. 22.) but of all sinners none
have more of the resemblance than drunkards have.
They say of any other brute creature, that if once it
has been intoxicated with any liquor, it will never
be brought to drink of that liquor again ; only the
swine will again and again be drunk with the same
liquor ; and a thousand pities it is that ever the
same should be said of a man, who has so much
more to lose by being drunk, than a beast has, and
is endowed with so much better powers for the cor-
recting of the appetite than the beasts are. Man
being in honour, understands not, abides not, but
thus becomes like the beasts that perish. The Lord
pity these poor sinners, and show them their foHy,
that they may pity themselves.
I confess I have often wondered that any, who
think themselves in reputation for wisdom and hon-
our, should yield themselves willing captives to this
vice, which does so much degrade and diminish a
man, and make him mean and despicable. If he
that is drunk is in his own imagination as g^eat as
d king, yet he is, in the eyes of all wise and sober
men, as contemptible as a brute, and in some re-
472
A FRIENDLY ADMONITION
spects more so ; and his conceit of himself does but
make him so much the more ridiculous.
A man may sweep the streets and rake the kennel,
and yet have the honour of being a man, while his
reason remains with him ; but he who voluntarily
drinks himself out of his reason, has resigned his
crown, and is so much more vile than a beast, that
he becomes one by his own act, and still retains the
shape and name of a man. It is an excellent dis-
tich of Mr. Herbert's, among other weighty sayings
against this sin, in his Church-Porch ;
The drunkard forfeits man, and doth divest
All worldly right, save what he hath by beast.
For this reason the ancient Lacedaemonians, if
any man happened to be drunk in their streets, (and
they thought none but scoundrels would be so,) they
brought their children out to look at him ; not to
divert them and make them merry, but that seeing
the foolish carriage, and hearing the foolish talk, of
a drunken man, they might conceive a loathing of
that detestable sin, and might be afraid of ever
making such fools of themselves. And verily it is
strange by what charms any rational man can be
drawn to drunkenness, who has ever seen and ob-
served the motions of a drunken man.
3. Is it no harm to abuse the gifts of God's bounty
to you ? If God has created wine to refresh the spirits
of men, and has allowed them the sober and mode-
rate use of it, as far as is for their real good ; will
you by using it intemperately, pervert the design of
the donor, and make that the food and fuel of your
lusts, which he gave for the support and comfort of
your lives? What is this but fighting against God
with his own weapons ? It is alienating the inherit-
ance of the Lord to his enemies, and suffering the
strong man armed to divide his spoils ; it is a traitor-
ous assigning over of the prince's grants to the
rebels.
Surely (sinner) thou dost not know, at least thou
dost not consider, that God by his providence gives
wine and strong drink, and gives them thee: that he
makes the earth to yield her increase, and gives thee
thy share of it, a large share it may be : and shall
this be sacrificed to Baal, to a dunghill god ? Doubt-
less they do so whose God is their belly, Hos. ii. 8.
And is this of thy whoredoms a small matter ? that
thou hast taken God's gifts, and used them to his dis-
honour, and hast made a calf of these spoils of the
Egyptians, which ought in gratitude to have been
consecrated to the service of the tabernacle ? Justly
may God by some judgment or other recover his com
and his wine, for the property is not altered by thy
alienation. It aggravated the barbarous idolatry
of the bigoted and besotted Jews, in sacrificing their
children to Moloch, that they were God's children
whom they had born unto him, Ezek. xvi. 20. It
likewise aggravates thy sin, that what God gave
thee to serve him with, thou servest the devil and a
base lust with.
Know then that thou art but a steward of these
things, and thou must very shortly g^ve account of
thy stewardship, when thou must be no longer stew-
ard. And if this be not wasting thy Lord's goods, I
know not what is. Thy account, therefore, unleis it
be first balanced by repentance and faith, will be
g^ven up with grief and not with joy. Strong drink
should be given to him who through emptiness is
ready to perish, that so it may help to save a life ;
not to him who is so full already, that be is ready to
vonut, so to destroy a life. Wine should be given,
not to them who are of a merry heart, who have
more need of a curb to their mirth than a spur,
but to them that are of a heavy heart, to revive their
drooping spirits : thus Solomon's mother taught him,
Prov. xxxi. 6. Those, therefore, who make that the
support of corruption, which was intended for the
refreshment of nature, pervert that which is right,
and must be accountable for the injury : to what
purpose is this waste ?
Know also that this abuse of the creatures, is that
which makes the whole creation groan, being bor-
thcned because of its subjection to vanity, by diis
means, Rom. viii. 20 — ^22. But when it shall be de-
livered from the bondage of corruption. Woe be to
that man by whom the offence came. As the 8t(»ie
cries out of the wall, against him who builds his
house by iniquity, (Hab. ii. 11.) so the com and the
wine cry against those who make them the instru-
ments of unrighteousness to God's dishonour.
4. Is it no harm to endanger the health and life of
your own bodies ? Let us reason with you from a
topic that is very sensible, and try what impression
that will make. The Lord is for the body, and be
would have you to be for it too in a regular way ;
but while you indulge its brutish appetites, you pre-
judice its trae interest, and by advancing it to the
power of a master, you really abuse it worse than a
slave.
Consider then how many are the dangers yon are
imminently exposed to, when you are drunk, and
incapable of self-preservation ; your souls are conti-
nually in your hands, but never more so than when
the liquor is in your heads. That foolish proverb,
which passes current, as an answer to this argument,
that drunken people catch no harm, is convicted of
falsehood by frequent instances to the contrary. How
often do we hear of those to whom, being in diink, a
fall down stairs, or off a house, or into a shallow
water, has been fatal, and (which is a dreadful
thought) has sent them drunk out of the world, under
the black and heavy charge of being self-murderen !
And not only so, but has hastened them to the judg-
ment immediately after death, without giving them
time to cry. Lord have mercy upon me ! So great a
death do drunkards often die, a sudden death, a
TO DRUNKARDS AND TlPl>L£RS.
473
violent death, a death in their sin, and a death to
irhich they themseWes are highly accessary. And
shall this consideration sway nothing with you ? Do
_ tile perils of the wars and the seas keep you upon
' dry ground, and in a land of peace, and shall not
' the perils of drunkenness prevail to keep you soher?
' Bare you put yoar lives in your hand for the service
of sin, and at the same time put yourselves out of
^ God's protection ? To say you have often been drunk,
^ and yet never got any hyrt, and therefore you will
venture still, is such a contempt of the patience and
forbearance of God, as will certainly treasure up
^vrath against the day of wrath, except you repent.
But besides this danger which you run your own
iKMiies into by this sin, consider further the real wrong
^and prejudice that is done to them by every act of
drunkenness. It is a sin that does violence to nature,
«uid overcharges the heart ; drunkenness is a present
nckness, a present distemper and disorder. You will
own you take more than does you g^ood, and when it
is so much more, how can it choose but to do you
hurt ? And why must those bodies of yours, which
are so fearfully and Wonderfully made, which were
made to be instruments of righteousness, and
temples of the Holy Ghost, be thus basely abused ?
Why must those vessels, which should be possessed
in sanctification and honour, be thus unsanctified
and dishonoured? that curious structure made a
sink and a swine-sty ? Shall that which has been
washed in the waters of baptism, and so dedicated
to the service of the sanctuary, thus wallow in the
mire of sin, and be alienated to the slavery of Satan ?
Shall the shield of the mighty be thus vilely cast away
end prostitutedy as though it had not been anointed
iHtkoil? 2 Sam. 1.21.
Art thou not told what will be in the end hereof?
If the sorrow of the world slays its thousands ; this
Hiirth of the world, running into these excesses, slays
Its ten thousands. And art thou so much in love
'^th woe, (man,) so fond of sorrow, and redness of
^yes, and wounds without cause, so well pleased
^rith all the instances of a dying life and a lingering
fleath, that thou wilt sell thy soul, and all thy
tiappiness in the other world, to^ purchase all these
^nijeries and calamities in this world ?
- You who drive a trade of drunkenness, if I
thooght you were capable of looking a little way
1>efore you, I would desire you to foresee, for with-
out a spirit of prophecy it is easy to foretell, the
threatening and fatal diseases, which by every
debauch you are preparing matter for. Are there not
a great many instances, and those melancholy ones,
daily before your eyes, of persons who have drunk
themselves into dropsies, consumptions, and other
diseases, which have soon carried them off in the
tnidst of their days, and have sent many a green
and flourishing head, in the flower of youth, unpitied
to the grave ? And is the honour of being a martyr
to Bacchus, or at least a faithful confessor to his
shrine, so valuable, so desirable, that you are willing
to be at the expense of your all, to purchase it?
Those are unwise, unthinking prodigals indeed, who
can sell their health and strength so shamefully
cheap ; and they have indeed made their belly their
god, their supreme god, who have prevailed with
themselves, not only to let out their blood as the
worshippers of Baal, or to bum their children, as
the worshippers of Moloch, but voluntarily to
sacrifice their own lives at its altar ; and by reso-
lutely persisting in these paths of death, even to
bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of that
altar. There needs no faith, nor is there much
occasion to appeal to reason ; sense itself, one would
think, were enough to make this argument cogent :
for surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of
any bird.
I entreat you therefore, for the sake of your own
bodies, which you pretend to be indulgent of, that
you will break off" this destructive course of life.
Have you no regard to their ease, and health, and
safety, and honour, and life? Will you disorder, and
defile, and destroy your ownselves, after we have ao
often cried unto you with a loud voice, as St. Paul
to the jailer, when he had his sword at his own
breast. Do yourselves no harm? Be not your own
murderers. Why (man) there is death in the cup,
there is poison in the glass, of which thou drinkest
immoderately. Thou dost not think how fatal the
consequences of thy drunken surfeits may prove;
but I desire thee to consider this one thing, while
thou canst not but have (if conscience be awake) a
most uncomfortable prospect of another world, it is
certain thou hast no reason to hasten thy departure
out of this world.
5. Is it no harm to waste and mispend precious
time ? If we would but seriously consider for what
great and excellent purposes time is appointed us
and continued to us, we should reckon that an
enemy to us which robs us of it, and alienates it from
the intentions for which it was designed us. No-
thing does this more than tippling ; nor are there any
who are worse husbands of their time than those
who tarry long at the wine. Therefore when the
apostle had minded us to redeem the time, (Eph. v.
16.) he presently adds, (v. 18.) and be not drunk.
Time is a talent that must shortly be accounted
for ; a price put into the hand to get wisdom ; but
what account will they give of it who spend, not
only hours, but days and nights, in this folly ? They
sit sotting in the ale-house or tavern day after day,
because they know not how otherwise to pass away
their time. Pass away the time (man) ! why, thou
wouldstsee thy time pass away fast enough, if thou
wert but sensible what work thou hast to do, which
is yet undone, and which, if it be never done, thou
art undone for ever ; and thou wouldst rather cod-
474
A FRIENDLY ADMONITION
trive how to recover the time that is past away, by
a close and vigorous application to the great busi-
ness of lifcy than how to lavish away the few remain-
ing minutes, in that which is opposite and destruc-
tive to thy great and true interests.
Believe it (sirs) you have an eternal God to serve,
an immortal soul to save, an everlasting state to
provide for, and it is no time to trifle. So much of
the stock of life, the quick stock, is spent, and so
little of the work of life done, that you must not
think of spare hours ; you have none to spare for
the service of sin, who have already lost so many
that should have been spent in the service of God.
Yet a little while is this light with you, and you
know not what you do, while you waste it in the
works of darkness.
Judge within yourselves ; do not you think that
the time which you spend in drinking and tippling,
might be much better spent in reading the word of
God, and meditating upon it, and in prayer and
acts of devotion in their season ? But you leave no
room for these, or next to none ; and one of the proper
times for them, which is the evening of the day, is
the time you ordinarily spend in this service of the
flesh. Or if your untoward hearts would snuff at
the religious exercises that are drawn out to any
length, and say. Behold whui a weariness is ii! yet,
might not you better spend your time in reading
and profitable conversation with wise and sober
people, for the cultivating and improving yourselves
in useful knowledge? Have you not a calling to
attend, a family to take care of, children to edu-
cate ? And do not these press urgently for the time
you idle away ? Or if not these, might not your time
be better spent in doing good to your neighbours,
and serving your generation some way or other, ac-
cording to the will of God ? You might find work
enough to do, if you had but a heart to it, which
would be fruit abounding to your comfort in the day
of reckoning; while the unprofitable talk, and idle
words, spent over your cups, will come against you,
when they must all be accounted for in the day of
judgment.
Thou sayst, that they are but vain words, that it is
better to spend thy time thus than spend it as many
do, in doing mischief to their neighbours, and cre-
ating trouble and vexation to all about them ; you
thank God you do nobody any hurt: but others
spending their time worse, will be far from justify-
ing or excusing you in spending it ill, while there
are so many ways of spending it well, and much
better than you do: may you be allowed to bury
your talents, because others waste theirs ?
Let those therefore who tarry long at the wine, and
sit at it, as they say, consider how in the mean time
their souls are neglected, and become like the Jieid
of the slothful, and the vineyard of (he man void of
understanding; their families are neglected, and
they leave them as the ostrich leaves her eggs in Uie
earth, forgetting that the foot may crush them; they
are hardened against their young ones, as thoagk
they were not theirs, because they are deprived of
wisdom. Job xxxix. 14, &c. The duties of their
callings are neglected, and the duties of God's wor-
ship in their closets and families neglected too, and,
in short, they live in the world to no good porpoie
at all ; the good which they should do, they do it
not ; the business they were made for, they mind it
not ; the time that should be spent in serving God
and doing good, is thrown away upon the 0esh and
the lust thereof.
Think how bitter the reflection upon this will be
when you come to die, if your consciences be not
seared : (hen you will wish you had those houn
again which you wasted in unprofitable talk, and,
perhaps, will cry in vain (as one did) '^ Call back
time, call back time.'' A thousand worlds for aa
inch of time, to be spent in making your peace with
God, and sure work for your souls. What woaU
damned sinners in hell give for a few of those mi-
nutes in a state of probation, which you are now so
lavish of. You may now, if you be wise, redeen
time, but you cannot then recall it
6. Is it no harm to misemploy your estates, and
the gain of your callings, and to take the moit
effectual course to bring yourselves and yours to
want and beggary ? Perhaps you have much to
spend, and can gratify this sensual appetite, without
doing any considerable damage to your estate ; but
then will you consider that your estates are not
your own, to be spent as you please ; no, you are but
stewards of them, and are accountable to God for
them. If you thus waste them, you waste you
Lord's goods, and pervert the design of giving ihtm
to you ; your families, which you ought to provide
for, according to your rank, are robbed ; the poor
are defrauded, for tlie more you spend upon yoar
own lusts, the less you have to give for the supply
of their wants ; the commonwealth is injured, for
that which should be expended for the encourage-
ment of honest labour, which would enrich tbe
nation, is wasted in the support of idleness and
luxury, which impoverish the nation.
But there are many that have but little to spend,
and that little shall be spent in the ale-house, to
that at last they spend their all there. Solomon^s
observation is confirmed by daily experience, that
he that loves pleasure shall he a poor Yuan, (Prov. xxi.
17.) and that the drunkard shall come to pavertfft
Prov. xxiii. 21. Have we not seen many a fair
patrimony sacrificed to this brutish lust ? Many a
portion we have known spent, many a house and
field sold, and many a good estate mortgaged and
made away, to maintain an idle drunken sot in h\»
excess of riot. Many a gentleman we have heaid
of, and many a farmer, and many a tradesman, whs
TO DRUNKARDS AND TIPPLERS.
475
have been reduced to rags and beggary, brought to
a morsel of bread, and perhaps lodged at last in a
prison, and it was drunkenness that brought them
to it. One sinner dettroys much good, Eccl. ix. 18.
And is there no harm in all this ? no sin ? no
shame ?
How amazing is the power which the god of this
world has over the children of disobedience ! The
Lord that bought them, cannot persuade them to
expose themselves to a little loss, hardship, and re-
proach, in his service, though they shall be abund-
antly recompensed for it another day. But Satan,
their sworn enemy, can prevail with them for the
serving of him and of his lusts, to ruin themselves
in both worlds ; so wretchedly are they led captive
by him at his will.
But think how very dismal and insupportable
those calamities will be, which you thus bring upon
yourselves, by your own sin and folly. The devil's
poor are the most miserable, and yet the least com-
miserated of any poor whatsoever. What wilt thou
have to comfort thyself with, when thou art brought
into straits by thy own wickedness? what wilt
thou do in such a day of visitation ? when the re-
membrance of what thou hast mispent, will g^te
upon thee? when thy lusts virill continue craving,
and thou wilt not have that plenty of fuel for them
which thou hast had ? but especially when divine
consolations, the only support of an afflicted state,
shall be denied thee? Awake ye drunkards, and
weep and how!, all ye drinkers of wine, because of t/ie
new wine, for tt is cut off from your mouth, Joel i. 5.
7. Is it no harm to unfit yourselves for the duties
of God's worship, and to put yourselves out of a
capacity to perform them ? Dare you go to bed at
night without solemn prayer ? Dare you sleep from
under God's protection? and can you see yourselves
under that protection, if you do not by prayer com-
mit yourselves to it ? Can you expect the mercies of
the night, when you have not penitently asked par-
don for the sins of the day, nor given God thanks
for the favours you have received ? and can this be
done, when your hearts arc overcharged with sur-
feiting and drunkenness, and you scarcely know
where you are, or what you say ? Dare you venture
to speak to God, when you are not able to speak
sense to a man like yourselves ?
When the evening has been spent in the ale-house
or tavern, and in immoderate drinking there, the
evening worship, not only in the family, but in se-
cret, will be either wholly omitted, or miserably
performed, so that it were better let alone. Either
there will be no evening sacrifice at all, or (which is
worse) it will be the sacrifice of fools, the torn, and
the lame, and the sick, and an affront to God rather
than a service of him. Pretend not to address your
God, when you arc in such a condition, that it would
be mdeness to address your governor.
8. Is it no harm to lay yourselves open to Satan'.i
temptations, and to make yourselves an easy prey
to them ? By this sin you expose yourselves to many
other sins, and disable yourselves to discern or resist
the most dangerous assaults of Satan. Is mocking
a sin ? Is rage a sin ? Behold, wine is a mocker, strong
drink is raging, Prov. xx. 1 . The drunkard's bench
is commonly the seat of the scornful ; and David
was the song of the drunkards. Is strife and con-
tention a sin? Are wounds given without cause a
sin ? these are the practices of them who tarry long
at the wine, Prov. xxiii. 29, 30. Drunken frays,
and those sometimes ending in barbarous murders,
are the common products of that, which, yet, will
be called good fellowship. When reason is sunk
and drowned, rage and passion will ride admiral ;
and when men have drunk themselves out of the
possession of their own souls, no wonder if the devil
(who is too watchful an enemy to lose any advan-
tages against us) soon get possession of them, and
oftentimes cast them intc the fire and into the water.
Are chambering and wantonness sins? These are
the companions of rioting and drunkenness, Rom*
xui. 13.
What mischief may not that man do, who neither
knows nor cares what he does, neither fears God nor
regards man, nor has any conduct or government of
himself? Yet this inability will be no excuse for the
sin that you are thus betrayed into, because it is a
self-created inability. Be not deceived ; a man's
offence will never be his defence, nor will one sin
serve for a cloak to another. He who sins when he
is drunk, must repent when he is sober or do worse^
You who think that it is but a little sin to be
drunk, yet, dread it because it may be the inlet of
great sins. I knew one who was effectually reclaim-
ed from this sin of drunkenness, by being once in
danger of killing a man when he was drunk, the
horror of which, when he came to himself, made
such an impression upon him, as proved a happy
occasion of his conversion : I wish others would in
like manner consider it and be wise.
9. Is it no harm to make yourselves obnoxious to
God's wrath and curse in the other world ? You
have fair warning given you, and are cautioned to
take heed of deceiving yourselves with a fancy to
the contrary, drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom
of God, If God be true they shall not, for so it is
written, (1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.) and thy case is miserable,
when it is come to this dilemma, that either God
must be false, or thou must be damned. If heaven
be not thy portion, hell will, unless thou repent and
reform in time.
Assure yourselves (sinners) heaven is no place for
beasts and self-made fools. Has God need of mad-
men ? The word of God has said it, and all the
world cannot unsay it ; If ye live after the flesh
ye shall die, die eternally, (Rom. viii« 13.) thine end
47(3
A FRIENDLY ADMONITION
u destruction if thy god be thy helly^ Phil. iii. 19.
Nothing that defiles shall enter into the New Jeru-
salem ; no, hell is the proper recepticle of unclean
spirits.
When you are serious, (if ever you can persuade
yourselves to be so,) heaven and hell will not be
looked upon as jesting matters ; for a few years
certainly Vill, nay, a few hours possibly may, de-
monstrate the reality of those invisible things, which
now you make so light of : Behold the Judge stand-
€th be/ore the door.
Now lay all this together, and then tell me whe-
ther drunkenness be indeed an innocent diversion,
a harmless entertainment, or at worst but a venial
sin, which will be pardoned of course though it be
still persisted in ? No, I hope by this time the thing
appears to you in other colours, and you will grant
that those, who make a mock at this sin, are like
the madman, who casteth firebrands, arrows, and
death, and yet says, " Am not I in sport V
II. Wc are in the next place to apply ourselves
to those who are convinoed in some measure, that
their drunkenness is their sin, and a dangerous one,
at least their own consciences sometimes tell them
so ; but they know not how to leave it off, it is be-
come so habitual to them that they are perfectly
captivated and overcome by it.
Is this thy case, sinner? Wouldst thou then be
delivered from this bondage of corruption, and
brought into the glorious liberty of the children of
God ? God in his infinite mercy deliver thee ! And
O that I could say something to pluck thee as a
brand out of this burning ! This paper comes to call
upon thee to repent, and amend thy ways and doings,
which, certainly, are not right. But who can call
loud enough to awaken drunkards ? Their sin takes
away their heart, it blinds their understandings,
perverts their judgments, and bribes their consci-
ences, so that they cannot weigh things in an even
balance ; they drink and forget the law, Prov. xxxi.
5. Strike them and they are not sick, beat them
and they feel it not, Prov. xxiii. 35. And is it pos-
sible to convince and reclaim such ? We cannot do
it ; but if God himself will take the work into his
own hands, and by his grace do wonderfully, who
knows what good may be effected ? To him, therefore,
we commit the success of this endeavour, and will
try to put you into the right method of cure.
If then you be willing to be cleansed horn this
pollution, you will thankfully take the following
directions, not as the commands of a taskmaster,
who would insult over you, but as the prescriptions
of a faithful physician, who consults your good.
I. Indulge not an excuse for this sin. There is
no sin so sinful, so shameful, but the wicked wit of
sinners has found out some fig-leaves or other to
cover it with ; and if you are fond of the fig-leaves,
it is a sign that you arc in love with the sin, and it
is your own iniquity. While the word of God sayi
so much to aggravate it, you confront that, and put
a cheat upon your own souls, if you are indnstriots
to extenuate it.
Custom will not excuse you in it ; neither your
own custom, nor the custom of the place yon live is;
there can be no prescription pleaded for a thing ii
itself evil. If this has been thy way and thy man-
ner from thy youth up, thou hast the more reason ta
be humbled and ashamed ; but know, that a sinner
a hundred years old shall be accursed. To say,
'* I have long used myself to this course of life, and
therefore I must be excused, if I go on in it ;*' is te
say in effect, '* I have long been walking in the way
that leads to hell, and therefore I will go on to the
end of it." The longer you have persisted in this
sin, the more reason there is why the time past of
your life should suffice that you have thus wrought
the will of the Gentiles, walking in excess of wine,
revellings, banquctings, 1 Pet. iv. 3, 4. Custom ii
sin (I know) is a great bar to conversion, and ren-
ders it extremely difficult ; but it is such a bar tt
must be broken, or you are undone.
Nor will it excuse you that you are drawn in by
your wicked companions : it is your fault to cboofe
such for your companions, who have fellowship with
sin, and those for your friends, who are enemies to
your souls. But how bad soever your companiotti
arc, you are then tempted, when you are drawn aside
of your own lust and enticed. Jam. i. 14. If thoa
scornest, thou alone shalt bear it ; and thy partnen
in sin shall be thy partners in ruin ; Bind tkem ts
bundles to bum them.
Your calling will not excuse you, whatever it is;
That is not a calling for a Christian, which will not
be followed without sin, or unavoidable and invin-
cible temptation ; and, therefore, if thou canst not
otherwise leave thy sin, leave thy calling, and choose
another more safe and innocent : it cannot be dearer
to thee than a right eye or a right hand, which mnst
be plucked out and cut off, if it become sin to thee.
But are there not some of the same calling who pre-
serve their sobriety, and will be witnesses against
thee? If thy calling be laborious, and require more
refreshment and diversion than others, wilt tboa,
therefore, disfit thyself for it by overcharging thy
heart?
Never go about to palliate this sin ; say not, it is
but being a little merry, it is but being somewhat
too free in keeping company, it hurts nobody, and
therefore what needs so much ado about it ? This if
agreeing with your corruptions against your convie-
tions, and taking part with the house of Saul against
the bouse of David. But by thus diminishing ov
sins we deceive ourselves ; for God will not stand
to our definitions and distinctions : we are snrettat
the judgment of God is according to truth.
2. Persuade yourselves to consider. If yon wonld
TO DRUNKARDS AND TIPPLERS.
477
bat be subject to the great and fundamental law of
consideration, I cannot think that you would ever
rebel against the royal law of temperance and so-
briety, which effectually secure both the preroga-
tive of the prince in thy soul, that is, thy reason,
and the liberty of the subject, that is, thy inferior
faculties.
Consider what thou art ; a rational creature, do
not dethrone thy reason ; a noble creature, do not
stain thy honour. Thou art an embodied spirit ; let
not the interests of the spirit, by which thou art
akin to the upper world, be crushed and ruined by
tbe tyranny of the body, which is of the earth earthy.
Consider who made thee* The eternal God gave
tbee that noble and excellent being, and did he give
it thee to be thus abused ? Is this to answer the ends
of thy creation, and to do that which thou earnest
into the world for ? Is this to serve and honour thy
Creator, who made thee for himself, to show forth his
praise ? Thou canst not think it is.
Consider whom thou servest by this sensual course
of life thou livest The devil is the master thou
obeyest ; he it is who puts the cup of drunkenness
into thy hand, and bids thee drink it, and laughs at
thee when thou art overcome by it ; and wilt thou
please the devil thy worst enemy, rather than God
the best friend ?
Consider that thou art a Christian, a baptized
Christian ; and by these evil practices of thine, thou
reproachest that worthy name by which thou art
called, and forfeitest all the honours and privileges
of thy Christianity. What ? A Christian, and yet a
tippler ! a sot ! Called a brother, and yet a drunkard !
1 Cor. V. 11. What an absurdity is this ! Dost thou
partake of the cup of the Lord, and yet partake of
the eup of devils? Canst thou think to compound
light and darkness, or to maintain a fellowship both
with Christ and Belial ? It cannot be ; if thou treat
thy Christianity thus disdainfully, thou dost in effect
renounce it, and shalt be for ever abandoned by it.
It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to
drink wine^ Prov. xxxi. 4. So it is not for Christians :
it is not for the professors pf that holy religion, to
make themselves slaves to a base lust ; it is not for
them who have tasted the wine of God*i consolations,
and hope to drink it new in the kingdom of the Fa-
ther, to put their mouths out of taste to it, by the
sordid pleasures of drunkenness.
Consider how near death and eternity are, how
ODcertain the time of thy continuance here below is,
and how certain thy removal very shortly to an un-
changeable world is ; and what if death should sur-
prise thee the next time that thou art drunk, as it
did Amnon when his heart was merry with wine ?
Barest thou go to judgement in such a condition ?
Ckn thy heart endure, or can thy hands be strong,
when the righteous God shall come to deal with thee ?
Thou say est, Soul, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be
merry ; but what if God should say to thee, T%>u
fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee, Luke
xii. 19, 20.
Couldst thou but see with an eye of faith, as Bel-
sbazzar did with an eye of sense, in the midst of his
drunken frolics, the handwriting upon the wall de-
termining thy fatal doom, surely it would frighten
thee from this vitious course, and make thd pretend-
ed pleasures of it sapless and insipid to thee. And
believe it, those mystical characters upon Belshaz-
zar's wall are more applicable to thee than thou art
aware, (Dan. v. 26.) Mene, Tekel, Peres, may be ren-
dered deatk, judgment, hell. The two first are very
easy, Mene, numbered, for thy days upon earth will
very shortly be numbered, andfinisked ; Tekel, weigk-
ed, after death we must be weighed in the balance of
God's judgment, and drunkards, I am sure, will be
found too light. And the third is not much forced,
Peres, divided, for damned sinners are cut asunder,
(Matt. xxiv. 51.) their kingdom is for ever separated
from them ; and if there be an allusion to the Per-
sians, they are to be looked upon as the executioners
of the doom, and hell is the execution of the sen-
tence of the great day : angels both good and bad
employed as executioners. Now consider this, ye
that forget God.
3. Humble yourselves g^atly before God for your
former excesses. While after a debauch or drunken
fit, which your consciences reproach you for tbe sin
and folly of, you can make all whole again, with a
cold. Lord kave mercy upon me, and can forgive your-
selves, before you have any good reason to think
that God has forgiven you, no wonder if you easily
return to the sin again ; and, therefore, deep sorrow
is made necessary in repentance, as a means to im-
bitter the sin, and so to prevent a relapse.
Be convinced of the evil of this sin, apply it to
your own guilt, and charge it home upon your con-
science, in the heinous nature of it, and all its aggra-
vating circumstances, which make it exceeding
sinful ; be pricked to the heart at the remembrance
of it, and say. So foolisk have I been and ignorant^
yea, I have been as a beast, and worse, before thee,
Ps. Ixxiii. 22. Surely I am more brutish tkan any
man, Prov. xxx. 2. What a fool have I been, to
hazard the life of my soul, for the g^tifying of the
lusts of my flesh ! And for the pleasing of a brutish
appetite, to unchristian and unman myself, and so
to pawn and forfeit all I have, and all I hope for,
that is valuable and honourable! For these things!
have reason to weep, and let my eye, my eye run
down with tears day and night As a sword in my
bones is the remembrance of my folly herein, and
the just reproaches of a guilty wounded conscience :
if God be not merciful to me in Christ, I am undone
for ever, this iniquity will be my ruin.
They who have conceived such a horror as this of
the sin, and of the fatal consequences of it, and
478
A FRIENDLY ADMONITION
have felt the pain and smart of it in their souls,
will not be easily decoyed into it again. The burnt
child dreads the fire,
4. Pray earnestly to God for his g^race. The divine
power can cure the most obstinate and inveterate
disease, and can conquer and change the most
depraved and vitious habits. You find by sad ex-
perience that you cannot keep nor govern yourselves;
commit yourselves therefore, by prayer, to the pro-
tection and government of that grace, which alone
is sufficient for you.
Pray for grace to enable yon to discern, resist, and
vanquish all temptations to this sin, that you may
never be surprised into it by the suddenness of the
temptation, nor overcome by the strength of it You
pray every day that you may not be led into tempta-
tion, but delivered from evil. If this be the sin that
most easily besets you, level your prayers against it
particularly, *< Lord, lead me not into this temptation,
but deliver me from this evil.*'
Pray for grace likewise, effectual grace, to mortify
and subdue all inward inclinations to this sin, and
to work in you a holy aversion and antipathy to it ;
pray that the axe may be laid to the root of bitter-
ness, and that, not only these polluted streams may
be closed up, but the corrupt fountain dried up.
Nothing is too hard for the grace of God to do, nor
shall that grace be denied to those who in sincerity
seek it, with a resolution to submit to it
b. Take up a firm and stedfast resolution, in the
strength of divine grace, against this sin, and all
appearances of it, and approaches to it Will you
be persuaded to resolve this day, that you will never
be drunk again, never sit to drink unseasonably, nor
ever drink immoderately; that you will never by
drinking distemper your bodies, or disturb your
minds, or unfit yourselves for the service of God ;
that you will never keep improper hours, nor be in
the ale-house or tavern when you should be about
business, or worshipping God with your families ;
and that you will never suffer your free conversation
with your friends, to indispose you for, or divert you
from, your communion with your God.
Be peremptory and at a point in these resolutions ;
and let not a secret inclination, either to the drink,
or to the company, make your resolutions weak or
wavering ; but as the people said in general with an
air of resolution, iVay, hut we will serve the Lard,
Josh. xxiv. 21. so do you say in particular, ** Nay,
but I will be sober ;'' I am resolved by the g^ce of
God I will. Do not resolve, as you say children do,
that you will never be drunk again till the next
time ; Be not deceived, God wiU not he mocked.
You would take up an invincible resolution,
grounded upon an antipathy against the cup, if you
knew there were poison in it ; and would drink with
a great deal of caution, if you were sure that you
should be hanged if you were drunk ; and will you
not be as solicitous not to exceed, when you ait
told that the drunkard's feet go down io demik, eCenni Ik
death, and his steps take hold on hell.
Let your resolution be very solemn, and coatrife
all the ways you can to make it strong and btndiai,
and to remind conscience of it, that these bonds mf
never be broken asunder, nor these cords cast fipon
you. And it will be your wisdom to renew tiui •
resolution, with a fresh dependence on divine graee,
when you see yourselves entering into any fmrticiiltr
temptation.
6. Industriously avoid the place and compaoj
that insnare you. If you would have no fellowdiip
with the sin, you must have no unnecessary fellow-
ship with those who practise it, but keep at a distance
from them, that you may keep out of harm's way.
Enter not into the path of the wicked, lest you be
drawn to walk in that path ; awid it therefore, f§n
not hy it, turn from it, and pass away^ Prov. It.
14, 15.
You may think the company good innocent com-
pany, pleasant, and diverting, and obliging to yoa;
but be it what it will, it is no company for yoa if
you cannot keep sober in it Think not that your
easiness, and good nature, and complaisance to yoor
friends, will excuse your continuing in that society,
which you find ordinarily draws you to sin ; or that
your engagement to the company can weaken your
obligations to your God. Art thou linked with t
drunken club, know that thou art snared with the
words of thy mouth, and do this now, my son, deliver
thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, Prof.
vi. 2, 3, 6.
Go to thy companions, and tell them thou findest
it impossible to preserve thy virtue in their compaoy,
and that therefore thou art resolved to take leave of
them. Tell them that thou canst not look upon those
as thy friends who entice thee to sin, and that thoa
wouldst rather lose their society and good will,
than lose thy God and thy soul. Be deaf to their
allurements, and be above their reproaches ; say as
David, (Ps. cxix. 115.) Depart from me, ye eml
doers, for I will keep the commandments of my God,
and I cannot keep in with yon and keep in with
God too.
7. Look not upon the wine when it is red. This
is a scripture caution, Prov. xxiii. 31. Take heed
of the beginnings of this sin, and do not entertaia
a pleasant thought of it. Crush the first risings of
the irregular appetite toward wine and strong drink,
and when you find you begin to love them, then try
whether yon have learned the first lesson in the
school of Christ, which is, to deny yourselves.
Watch against all advances toward this sin, let
the experience you have had of your own weakness
make you very cautious and jealous over yoorselves.
Be afraid of every thing that borders upon dmnken-
ness, and leads toward it insensibly. He that will
TO DRUNKARDS AND TIPPLERS.
479
ilways veoture as far as he may, will sometimes ere
le is aware be drawn further.
"When the wine giyea its colour in the cap, and
AOTcs itself aright, be blind and deaf to all its
noniles and chaims, remembering what follows there ;
liat at the last it bite* like a serpent, and stings like
m adder, Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness
'm the latter end ?
8. Abhor all those drunken ceremonies, which
force this cursed trade ; such as drinking healths
by measure ; with an obligation upon the company
\o keep the round in pledging them. What a
brutish senseless thing is it for men to offer yiolence
to nature, and coiret to make beasts, not only of them-
lel ves but of one another ; what pleasure, what profit,
what honour can there be in this ? Surely nothing
bat sin for sin's sake.
The law of the Persians will shame and condemn
the practice of many who are called Christians ; for
in the court of a prince, an arbitrary prince, yet the
drinking was according to the law, wnie did compel,
far so the king had appointed to all the officers of his
house, Esth. i. 8. Let all who wish well to sobriety
do what they can, in their places, to put these arts
of propagating vice out of countenance, and to run
tiiem down.
If you find you cannot govern yourselves, engage
some friend or relation to govern you. If, after the
most vigorous resistances and resolutions you have
made, you still find yourselves baffled and foiled,
think it not a disparagement to you to call in help,
and pray the aid of your neighbours. You would
do so if your house were on fire, and will you not
do so when your souls are so ?
Fix upon some discreet and serious friends ; some
toch you may find, who heartily wish well to the
prosperity of your souls, and would gladly contri-
hate their best assistance to it. Beg of them to
watch over you, to have an eye to you, and to warn
you when you are entering into this temptation.
Desire them, when there is occasion, to limit your
drinking, and to control your expenses, and put
it in their power to do so. Entreat them to fetch
you from your drunken companions, though it be to
your shame, rather than leave you with them, which
will be to your ruin. When you are in your right
BBud, bespeak those about you, that they give you
no more drink than they see does you g^ood, though
you call for it ; and assure them, that though they
may have your drunken reproach, yet, they shall
have your sober thanks, for so doing ; and when you
eome to yourselves make your words good.
Say not that it is below yen thus to put yourselves
ander government, as if you were infants or idiots ;
for to be drunk is much more below you, and there-
by you render yourselves more mean than either
infants or idiots.
Lastly, See that there be a living principle of true
gprace in your hearts, and that will effectually for-
tify you against all temptations to this sin. Let but
wisdom, heavenly wisdom, enter into thy heart
Let it have the innermost and uppermost place
there, and it will keep thee from this way of the evil
man, Prov. ii. 10, 12. The law of God in Christ
written in the heart, and the love of God in Christ
shed abroad there, would arm you against this
temptation, and quench all his fiery darts.
When the apostle had cautioned us not to walk
in rioting and drunkenness, (Rom. xiii. 13.) to
make that caution effectual, he adds, But put ye on
the Lord Jesus Christ, v, 14. Submit to the grace
of Christ, conform to the law of Christ, follow the
example of Christ, and thus make good your bap-
tismal covenant, by which you did in profession put
on Christ, and then you will be well principled and
well guarded against all these temptations. Study
the cross of Christ, the riches of his love, and the
design of his gospel, and then surely, being called
by his name, you will not dare so directly to con-
tradict the designs of his gospel, nor soung^tefully
to spurn at the bowels of his love, and spit in the
face of it
And in another place we find, when the apostle
had warned us not to be drunk with wine wherein
is excess, he immediately subjoins. But be JUled
with the Spirit, (Eph. v. 18.) plainly intimating, that
the best defence against drunkenness, is to lay our
souls under the sanctifying operations of the blessed
Spirit of grace, and to fill ourselves with spiritual
things. This is the sovereign remedy for the cure
of this disease, and the most powerful antidote for
the prevention of it, (Gal. v. 16.) Walk in the Spirit,
and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. An ex-
perimental taste of the spiritual pleasures of serious
godliness, antt a believing foretaste of the eternal
pleasures that are at God's right hand for evermore,
would enable us to look upon all sensual pleasures
and delights with a holy loathing and disdain.
And now (sinners) is the point yet gained, or is it
not? What issue have we brought it to at last?
What shall be the result of this debate, and what
the conclusion of the whole matter ?
Are there any of these sinners in Sion, who through
grace are now at length become willing that reli-
gion and reason shoul<^form them and rule them?
Are there any who now, at least in this their day,
will begin to understand the things that belong to
their peace, and to be wise for themselves? Are
there any who are weary of the toil and shame of
an intemperate life, and are resolved to try the true
and noble delights of a sober religious conversa-
tion ? The Lord keep it always in the imagination of
the thought of the heart, and establish their way before
him.
But to those who, after all, hate to be reformed, I
must conclude with this word, and God by his grace
480
A WORD OF ADVICE
make it an awakening word ! If all the fair warn-
ings given you stiall still be slighted, if you will set
at nought all our counsel, and will none of our re-
proof, but say you shall have peace, though you go
on to add drunkenness to thirst, know this, that
when the cup of the Lord's wrath poured out with-
out mixture shall be put into your hands, and shall
be to you a cup of trembling, everlasting trembling,
this will greatly aggravate your condemnation, that
your blood will be upon your own heads, your watch-
men, by giving you warning, having delivered their
souls.
A WORD OF ADVICE
TO THE
WANTON AND UNCLEAN.
Of all gross sinners, none lie more hid from the eye
of the world, and yet none more open to their own
.consciences, than those we are now dealing with,
and endeavouring the reformation of. For though
the eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, and
he is very solicitous to draw a veil over his lewd-*
ness, yet the works of the flesh are manifest, that is,
manifestly bad, and such as the sinner's own heart
cannot but disallow : though they are works of
darkness, yet they cannot avoid the discovery of
that light, that candle of the Lord,
The apostle tells us, that the works of the flesh
which are thus manifest, are these; Adultery, for-
nication, uncleannets, latciviousness, (Gal. v. 19.) in
short, all seventh-commandment sins, which are not
to be named among Christians but with the greatest
abhorrence and detestation. Nor are they to be
treated of, but with purity and caution, and a strict
and careful watch over our own hearts, lest sin
should take occasion by the commandment: they
are as thorns, which cannot be taken with hands ;
but the man who shall touch them, in order to the
removal of them, must be fenced with iron, and the
staff* of a spear, 2 Sam. xxiii. 6, 7.
And it were to be wished that there were no need
to name them, no need to discourse of them ; it is a
kennel which one cannot take any delight to rake
in ; but while this iniquity abounds, as it does in
all places, while so much of it comes to light, and
we have reason to fear there is much more that lies
concealed, it must be named ; Jerusalem must be
made to know her abomination, and the filthiness
that is in her skirts (as the prophet speaks) must be
witnessed against, as one of the crjring sins of the
land, and one of the danming sins of sinners.
The prophet Ezekiel little thought, till God showed
him in a vision, the great abominations which the
house of Israel committed, (Ezek. viii. 6.) and after-
wards he showed him greater, and yet greater aboo-
i nations, v. 13, 15. I wish it were not ao as to this
abomination in our own land, which the day will
declare, when God shall bring every work iato
judgment, with every secret thing. We desire not
to know these depths of Satan ; we are willingly
ignorant of them ; but we earnestly desire that tiMK
who are fallen into those depths, and are sinking to
the lowest hell, may by the g^ce of God be effeeti-
ally recovered, that their everlasting min may be I
prevented in time.
To you then who call yourselves the sons aid
daughters of pleasure, but whom the word of God
calls children of disobedience, and children ofwreA,
who live in the fire of lust, and wallow in the fihk
of whoredom and fomication,^ esett to yon is tk
word of this exhortation sent in God's name, witk a
kind and sincere design, if possible, to lift yoa sp
out of this mire, and to snatch yon as brands ont of
the burning. Assure yourselves nothing is intended
but your g^ood. This paper comes not to infom
against you, or to expose yoa to shame or pnniab-
ment ; but to persuade you to turn from your evfl
way, that you may live and not die, that you nay
have everlasting life, and may not be hurt by the
second death.
And O that I could now choose out proper wwdii
wherewith to reason with you; and that words of
truth might, by the grace of God, be made words of
power ! I draw the bow at a venture, not having an
eye to any particular person, but God can direct the
arrow between the joints of the harness, so that it
may pierce the heart of the sinner to his hamiliatioi<
and the heart of the sin to its mortification, for the
word of God is quick and powerful. God by his
Spirit make this word so !
Let me tell you then, who are the sinners to whom
this discourse is now addressed,
1. You that make a constant practice of this an,
and g^ve yourselves over to lascivioosness, to woik
all uncleanness with greediness, must be pat in the
front of this black regiment of unclean spirits, which
we are now charging, in the name of the Captain of
our salvation, who came into the world to oonqner
and cast out andean spirits.
If this paper should ever come into the gailty and
polluted hands of any of those wretched creatans
who have abandoned themselves to a life of whore-
doms, who are the devil's sworn slaves and votaries,
and who, as factors for hell, and avowed enemies
to God and virtue, drive a trade of debauching
others and making themselves vile ; those, I mean,
who keep houses of uncleanness, those nests of
wickedness, or who live in those houses, or who
frequent them, or acquaint themseWes with them:
let such know and consider, that Sodom's doom
will infallibly be the lot of all those who thus tread
TO THE WANTON AND UNCLEAN.
481
in Sodom's steps, unless they speedily repent and
reform : Fire and brimstone and a horrible tempett,
this shall be the portion of their cup.
That is a miserable calling which lust only lives
by, and which soul and body will certainly be ruin-
ed by. That is a miserable service wherein the de-
vil is the master, sin's drudgery is the work, and
hell-fire the wages, for the end of those things is death.
Such houses, and their inhabitants and maintaincrs,
are the scandal of a Christian nation, the pests of
the towns and countries where they arc, the slaugh-
ter-houses of precious souls, the rendezvous of the
vilest of creatures ; and more frightful habitations
of devils, holds of foul spirits, and cages of un-
clean and hateful birds, than Babylon the great
will be when it is fallen, Rev. xviii. 2. Solomon tells
as, that such houses are the way to hell, going down
to the chambers of death. Pro v. vii. 27.
And therefore, as it is the duty of those who have
power over them, vigorously to suppress such
houses, in which the strong man armed keeps his
palace ; and the duty of those who have power in
them, to alter the property of them, and to put away
iniquity, this abominable iniquity, far from their ta-
bernacles ; so it is the wisdom of every one, with
the greatest dread, caution, and resolution imagin-
able, to avoid such houses, to shun them as they
would a house infected with the plague, and not
to come nigh the door of them, or enter into any
familiarity with them, upon any colour or pretence
whatsoever. It is Solomon's advice, (Prov. v. 8.)
Remove thy way far from her ; he having observed
that that unwary young man, who was drawn into
the mining snares of the adulteress, was caught
passing through the street near her comer, at an
unseasonable time, Prov. vii. 8, 9.
Under this head we must also rank those who,
though they do not thus declare their sin as Sodom,
yet by their cursed arts of deceiving under the dis-
guise of love and honour, diversion and entertain-
ment, keep up and carry on a more secret, less
flospected, trade of debauchery and nncleanness;
who (as they arc described by the apostle, 2 Pet.
ii. 14.) have eyes full of adultery^ and that cannot
ctasefrom sin^ from this sin, beguiling unstable souls
by their wiles, and decoying them g^dually, and by
steps which seem harmless, into the fatal snare.
These are they who are continually projecting and
making provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts of
it, out of the road of common prostitutes, and among
those who have yet preserved some degrees of inno-
cency and reputation ; and the wickedness of these
is so much greater than the former, as the methods
they take, and the snares they lay, by plays, dances,
and other recreations, have a more fatal tendency
to the cormptioii of those, *' who" (as one of the
proclamations against vice and immorality expresses
it) ^' have been soberly educated, and whose incli-
2 I
nations would lead them to the exercise of virtue
and piety, did they not daily find such frequent and
repeated instances of dissolute living." Let such
know, that the sin is never the less sinful for its be-
ing carried on with 7/it and intrigue, and all the plot
and management that the playhouse instmcts them
in ; but it is rather so much the worse, as it speaks
the more design and deliberation in the tempters,
and the more danger to the tempted. Tbe more
there is of subtilty in any wickedness, the more there
is of Satan in it.
Nor is their guilt and danger much less, who,
though they traverse not the ranges of an unbounded
lust, yet keep up a cursed league with some one
particular person, with whom they live in adultery
or fornication, directly contrary to the law of God, or
in contempt of his ordinance, and yet flattering
themselves with a fancy, that this is of their abomi-
nations a small matter. And is it indeed a small
matter, for the gratifying of a base lust to live in
disobedience to the divine precept, and in defiance
of the divine wrath and threatenings ? This is a
covenant with death which must be broken, and an
agreement with hell which must be disannulled, or
it will certainly bind over to that judgment which
whoremongers and adulterers must expect.
2. You who at any time yield to this temptation,
and in any instance suffer yourselves to be overcome
by it, must next look upon yourselves as concerned
in this call to repentance. I speak to those, who,
though they are not arrived to that height of wick-
edness, nor have so far seared their consciences, as
to make a common practice of this wickedness, yet
have such favourable thoughts of this sin, and these
sinners, as to be drawn into their snare without any
great resistance or reluctance, thinking it, though a
sin, yet a very excusable one, and which they can
easily pardon both to themselves and others. When
a fair opportunity offers itself, that they can admit
the sin, and yet avoid the shame, they can promise
themselves to pass off the guilt with a " Lord, have
mercy upon me," or, " God forgive me," and a little
regret, when the pleasure is over, they think will
atone for the crime, and all will be well.
Such as these have need to be told, that every par-
ticular act of this sin is exceeding sinful, that it is
highly provoking to God Almighty, contrary to, and
destructive of, the spiritual and divine life in the
soul, and that it puts the eternal happiness very
much to a present doubt and a future hazard. You
flatter yourselves that you will commit it but once,
and will repent of that. But how can you be sure
that it will be truly repented of, when it is but per-
ad venture whether God will give you repentance to
recover yourselves out of this snare? The grace of
repentance is promised to those who sincerely pray
for it, but it is forfeited by those who boldly presume
upon it, and venture to sin in expectation of it : and
482
A WORD OF ADVICE
how can you be sure that you will not relapse into
the same sin another time, when, by yielding to one
temptation you strengthen the next, give the devil
hold of you, and provoke the Holy Spirit to with-
draw from you ? What Solomon says of strife is true
of this sin, The beginning of it it like the letting fm'th
of water ; therefore it is wisdom to leave it off before
it be meddled with, that is, never to begin k.
3. You who perhaps keep yourselves from the
gioss acts of adultery and fornication, but allow
yourselves in other instances of lewdness and lasci-
viousness, must be numbered among those to whom
this word of advice and warning is sent. You bless
yourselves in your own way, and thank God, with
the Pharisee, that you are not adulterers, when at
the same time unclean lusts reign in your hearts,
are indulged and harboured, lodged and welcomed
there. Have you never read of committing adultery
in the heart ? And is not that heart chargeable there-
with which bums continually in an inordinate affec-
tion and evil concupiscence ? Arc not those heart-
adulterers who give up themselves to vile affections,
and make filthy thoughts and imaginations, unchaste
reflections and desires, the constant entertainments
and disports of a lewd and vicious fancy.
Those are to be reckoned among the wanton and
unclean, out of whose mouth filthy communication
daily comes, produced by the unclean lusts that reign
in their ovm hearts, and designed to provoke the
like in the hearts of others ; whose stinking breath
plainly manifests that their inwards, their very vitals,
arc corrupted. No subject is so grateful to them, so
pleasing, as this, nor any discourse so agreeable as
that which is offensive to chaste cars. These are
unclean, their speech betrays them. No song, no
story, no jest entertains fhem so as a lewd one does,
nor can they laugh at any thing with so much plea-
sure as that which they ought to blush at. These
plainly show that the unclean spirit is upon the
throne in their souls ; for out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaks.
Those also must be numbered with the unclean,
whose wanton carriage, lascivious dalliances, are
upon all occasions their delight, and the fuel that
feeds the fire of lust in their hearts, (I should call it
the fire of hell,) and keeps it burning.
Now these are the sinners we would endeavour to
reform, and reduce into subjection to the sacred
laws of chastity and modesty ; and we should hope,
by the grace of God, to do them some good, if they
would but be persuaded to hear reason, and not
desperately to resolve against a change of their way.
When you are called (as you are at this time in
God's name) to return and repent, I beseech you be
willing to take it into your consideration, and do
not say, as they did who hated to be reformed, (Jer.
xviii. 12.) There is no hope, no, for we will walk after
our oicn devices.
Admit a parley then ; enter into a treaty, and let
us see whether we cannot propose such inducementt
as shall overcome yon, and prevail with you to sm-
render to the Lord Jesus (your Lord and ours) tbtt
heart which has long been garrisoned against hia
by the unclean spirit.
Shall I ask thee seriously, Wouldst thou not be
helped ? Wouldst thou not be healed ? Woaldstthon
not be made whole? Wouldst thou not be made
clean? Wouldst thou not have this devil, this un-
clean devil, dispossessed, which oftentimes casli
thee into the fire of sin, and often into the water of
sorrow for it? Tell nie, wouldst thou not exchange
the filthy sordid pleasures of a carnal, sensaal life,
for the pure, rational, and divine pleasures of a spi-
ritual, heavenly life?
If you be indeed in this good mind, will yoo be
convinced of the great evil of this sin ? And will
you be put into a way to break off from it ? These
are the two things I shall endeavour in this address
to you, and I am willing to hope the attempt shall
not be altogether in vain ; the Lord choose out words
for me wherewith to reason with you !
I. I shall endeavour to convince you of the evil of
this sin of uncleanness. Till the mistakes of the
judgment are rectified, the errors of the life will
never be reformed. Here, therefore,, we must be-
gin : and God by his grace begin here ! The carnal
mind suggests to you the pleasures of it, tells yoo
that stolen waters are sweety and bread eaten tn seersi
is pleasant, Prov. ix. 17. That this pleasure is pre-
sent and certain, but that the hurt of it is future and
doubtful : but that you may not be cheated intoyoor
own ruin by this fallacy, I shall not question hut to
make it out to you, that the hurt of it is not at all
doubtful, but of unquestionable certainty, nor only
future, but so much present, that, if you will weigh
things in an even balance, you will find the evil of
it to be infinitely greater than the good of it, and
that therefore our exhortations to virtue should have
your ears and hearts, and that your ears should be
deaf, and your hearts shut, against all temptations
to this vice.
This will appear, if you consider both the malig-
nity and guilt there is in this sin, and the miseiy
and wrath that follows after it They who choose
and wear the garment spotted with the flesh, most
th\is be saved with fear, and plucked with a shriek
out of the very fire, Jude 23. If you have any dread
either of sin or its punishment, you will acknowledge
the evil of wantonness and uncleanness.
I. Consider the malignity and guilt there is in it
It is a sin, an exceeding sinful sin, one of those
that are as scarlet and crimson, an abonunable thing
which the Lord hates.
There is no sin so heinous, so odious, but a re-
solved custom in it will do much towards the reoon-
ciling of the judgment to it, so that either it is
TO THE WANTON AND UNCLEAN.
483
tboaght no sin at all, or but a little one, an excusa-
ble trick of youth : and thus, if it be not justified,
yet it is palliated and excused, and a thousand arts
used to shift off the conviction of it. And verily the
case is bad, and extremely dangerous, when consci^
ence, which should be of counsel for the government
to detect and prosecute the'sin, is so debauched and
vitiated that it is retained on the other side, and
becomes an advocate for the sin. If this light which
is in thee he darkness, h<fw great is that darkness ? If
the judgment be bribed, the judge is so, and the
sentence will be accordingly.
Let me, therefore, beg of you to favour the case
with an impartial trial ; be willing to hear what we
have to say, upon the principles of revelation and
right reason, to prove uncleanness to be a sin, and
a very great sin. And if we prove in the general that
it is a sin, we desire you will do us and yourselves
the justice to acknowledge that your uncleanness,
and the lasciviousness you allow yourselves in, is a
sin, a daring and dangerous transgression of the
divine law ; that it is so to be accounted now, and
must so be accounted for shortly, whatever you have
imagined to the contrary.
Let us then carefully consider the intrinsic evil
that there is in adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
and lasciviousness, and in the indulgence of these
Beshly lusts.
(1.) It is contrary to God, and to his purity and
holiness, and, therefore, it is sin, both in its root
and in all its branches.
God who governs the world is a Spirit ; you im-
peach the equity of his dominion, if you, who consist
of flesh and spirit, give the pre-eminence to the
flesh, and be governed by that ; for the spirit ought
to rule, and the body to be in subjection.
God is a holy Spirit ; his holiness is his glory ;
it becomes his house and servants for ever to be holy ;
you contradict the design of the divine revelation of
God's holiness, if you wallow in uncleanness. The
more spiritual you are, the more conformable you
are to God, but the carnal mind is enmity against
him, Rom. viii. 7. Nor is any thing more directly
opposite to that divine nature w^hich the saints,
through grace, partake of, than the corruption that
is in the world through lust, 2 Pet i. 4! The laws
made for the restraint of these fleshly lusts are rati-
fied with this reason. For I the Lord am holy. Lev.
xix. 2. and xx. 7, 26. For no sin more defaces the
image of God*s holiness upon the soul than un-
cleanness, nor renders it more odious in the eyes of
the pure and holy God.
When Joseph was tempted to this sin he called it
great wickedness, because it was a sin against God,
Gen. xxxix. 9. When David had been surprised
into this sin, be laid the emphasis of his confession
upon thiSy Against thee, thee only have I sinned, Ps.
K. 4. As the prodigal son also, when he was re- '
2 1 2
turned from his harlots, thus ag^gravated his folly,
/ have sinned against heaven^ and be/ore thee, Luke
XV. 18.
And is this nothing with you ? Have you no re-
gard to' the God who made you, and maintains you,
and will judge you ? Is it nothing to you to be in a
state of enmity against him, and war with him?
With what satisfaction can you walk contrary to
him whose nature and will are the eternal original
and rule of good and right ? Are you his creatures,
and dare you be his enemies ? Have you a necessary
dependence upon him, and yet dare you persist in
an avowed rebellion against him ? Consider this,
ye that forget God.
(2.) It thwarts the design of the gospel of Christ
You are Christians, you profess that holy religion
which the Lord Jesus came into the world to insti-
tute and establish ; you are baptized into the pro-
fession of it, and by your baptism you are bound to
obey the laws of it, and to answer the intentions of
it The gospel of Christ is a remedial law, and you
hope to have remedy by it. It is a charter of privi-
leges, and you hope to be privileged by it ; but how
can you expect either remedy or privilege by it if
you will not observe its precepts, nor come up to its
conditions ? The gospel will never save you if it
shall not rule you.
The design of Christ's coming into the world, was
to purify a people to himself. Tit ii. 14. The design
of his gospel, is to cleanse us from all filthiness both
of flesh and spirit, 2 Cor. vii. 1. He has established
a religion, which, as far as it has the ascendant
brings all carnal lusts and appetites to be subject
to the dictates of right reason, sanctified by the grace
of God. Christ suffered in the flesh, that we might
die to the flesh, 1 Pet. iv. 1 — 3. Now uncleanness,
as far as that is yielded to, contradicts this design,
and supports the works of darkness, and conse-
quently the powers of darkness, in opposition to the
interests of the kingdom of light. For, what eom-
munion hath light with darkness ?
We are not dealing with professed pagans, nor
witli the worshippers of Baal-Peor, who learned of
the gods they adored to be vile and unclean ; no,
the religion you profess gives us some hold of you ;
for it is a pure religion and undeflled ; you arc
called by the name of the holy Jesus, that great pat-
tern of mortification and purity. You are enlisted
under the banner of the cross, and profess to believe
in Christ, and him crucified, and to be planted
together in the likeness of his death ; but while you
live in uncleanness yon espouse the opposite cause,
you are the deviPs soldiers, and fight under his
banner, with his weapons, for his interest
' Now Christ and Belial are contrary the one to the
other ; in God's name, therefore, I charge you, either
to forsake your uncleanness, or (at your peril) to re-
nounce your Christianity. Aut nomen, out mores
4ai
A WORD OF ADVICE
muta — Either change your namcj or reform your man-
ners ; cither be what you seem to be, or seem not to
be what you are not.
(3.) It grieves the blessed Spirit of God, and al-
ways resists the Holy Ghost. As it contradicts the
designs of him that was sent by the Father to save
us, so it fights against the intentions of him that was
sent by the Son to sanctify us, and to carry on his
undertaking for us. It forfeits all his comforts, and
counterworks his operations.
The fleshly lusts of the old world provoked God
to say, *' His Spirit should not always strive with
them ;" Gen. vi. 3. for his motions are quenched
by the motions of the flesh. When the apostle cau-
tions us (Eph. iv. 30.) not to grieve the Spirit of
God, he tells us, (r. 29.) what grieves him ; nothing
more than corrupt and filthy communication. That
pure and holy Dove will not dwell in a cage of un-
clean and filthy birds.
Now, if the Spirit of the Lord depart from you, as
he did from Saul, if he withdraw his influences and
operations from you, you are undone. If he let you
alone you are in the suburbs of hell already, aban-
doned of God, past conviction, past help, past hope,
given up to a reprobate mind and vile affections ;
and this you have reason to fear will be the conse-
quence of your persisting in that which is a constant
grief to him. What reason have you to expect the
continuance of the Spirit's powers if you yield to the
power of the carnal mind, and side with the unclean
spirit against him ? What have you to do with
spiritual comforts, who prefer sensual pleasures be-
fore them ? If you thus sin against the Spirit, take
heed lest you sin away the Spirit.
(4.) It is a great abuse of your own bodies. He
who commits fornication, or any other actof unclean-
ness, sins against his own body, 1 Cor. vi. 18. If
self-murder be therefore justly condemned as the
worst of murders, because it is against our own
bodies, shall not uncleanness for the same reason be
an abomination to us ? No man, no man in his wits,
ever yet hated his own flesh, so as to destroy it, yet
multitudes hate it so as to defile it.
Those who indulge the pleasures of their bodies
forget the honour of them ; and the honour of the
body we should be as careful to support and main-
tain, as to nourish and cherish the life of it. Some
people insist more upon honour than upon life itself.
This makes seventh-commandment sins their own
punishment, and sometimes the punishment of other
sins too, that by them sinners dishonour th^ir own
bodies, Rom. i. 24. It is as good an argument
ag^nst adultery as it is against murder, that in the
image of God made he man. Gen. ix. 6. Wilt thou
deface the image of God, and quite destroy the
poor remains of it? Wilt thou pervert the inten-
tion of him that made thy body so fearfully and
wonderfully, and formed it for himself, to show forth
his praise, the doing of which will be indeed thine
own praise.
Man, woman, insist upon thy hoDomry and |m«-
serve it by maintaining thy virtue. Arg^e thus wift
thyself, shall that noble structure which waseieeled
for a palace be converted into a swine-stye? Tkit
curious frame which was designed to be the tabemft-
cle of the human spirit, and the temple of the Divine
Spirit, shall that become the habitation of uncleu
spirits ? What a base and sordid thing is it to make
these bodies members of a harlot, which were desigi-
ed to be the members of Christ, as the apostle argues,
(1 Cor. vi. 15.) to make them instruments of onrif^t-
eousness to the dishonour of God, which he made to
be instruments of righteousness to his praise, Roo.
vi. 13. The body is for the Lord, for his service, for
his glory, and therefore ought not to be for fomics-
tion, 1 Cor. vi. 13.
If you have any sense of honour, surely you will
not do so vile a thing, as to prostitute that body to
the slavery of a base lust which was framed and
fitted for the service of God. If you should escape
reproach among men for the sin, yet surely you can-
not reflect upon yourselves without shame and blush-
ing ; and self-reproaches are of all other the most
uneasy. Chastity is called sanetification and ktmmir,
(I Thess. iv. 4.) for every thing that is unchaste is t
profanation both of your holiness and of your hon-
our. You were made but a little lower than the an-
gels, make not yourselves a great deal lower than
the brutes-
(5.) It unfits you for communion with God both
here, and hereafter. You were made for him that
made you, to serve, glorify, and enjoy him ; and thii
is the greatest happiness you are capable of; but by
indulging these filthy lusts, you render yourselves
utterly incapable either to do any thing for God, or
to have any thing to do with him ; you quench all
the sparks of love to him, and utterly extinguish
that holy fire ; you root up all the seeds of grace, and
kill them with these weeds.
Whoredom takes away the heart, (Hos. iv. 11.)
takes it away from God, who has the right to it,
and should have the possession of it, and puts it into
the hand of his enemy and ours. It takes the heart
away from Christ the Redeemer of souls, and gives
it to Satan the destroyer of souls; it alienates
the afiections from every thing that is heavenly and
divine, and causes them to cleave to the earth, and
to embrace dunghills. It fills the mind with vile
and wicked thoughts in holy duties, which render
them an abomination to the Lord ; for thus polluted
bread is offered on his altars. This we find a con-
vinced adulterer reproaching himself for as sensibly
as for any thing, (Prov. v. 14.) / was almost m mH
evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
These unclean lusts are the corruption of all the
faculties of the soul. They are the blindness of the
TO THE WANTON AND UNCLEAN.
485
Qiiderstandingy the debauchery of the conscience,
the alienation of the soul from its felicity, and the
obstruction of all its intercourse with heaven. For
what communion has light with darkness, the father
of lights with the works of darkness? What fellow-
ship can there be between the holy God and an un-
clean and filthy heart ? 2 Cor. vi. 14.
(6.) It is a sin not only against God and yourselves,
but against your neighbour also. The seventh com-
mandment is therefore one of the laws of the second
table ; and the apostle makes it the first of those
commandments which are comprehended in this
saying. Thou shah love thy neighbour as thyself , Rom.
xiii. 9.
Consider this, sinner ; if thou thyself be under the
sacred ties and bonds of marriage, every act of un-
cleanness is downright perjury, it is a violation of
the covenant of thy God, and a breach of the mar-
riage vow ; it is a great injury to thy yoke- fellow,
whose thou arf by solemn contract, who ought to be
dearer to thee than any other person whatsoever, and to
whom thou hast promised to be faithful. Darest thou
deal treacherously with her who is thy companion,
and the wife of thy covenant? Mai. ii. 14. or with
him who is the guide of thy youth, and that ought
to be to thee for a covering of the eyes? Prov. ii. 17.
and Gen. xx. 16. Is the marriage covenant nothing
with thee ? Is it nothing to thee, that thou art guilty
of the greatest injustice that can be to one whom
thou oughtest to be not only just but kind to? and to
do a wrong which thou canst never by any restitution
make amends for? Though thy injured yoke-fellow
may perhaps know nothing of the injury done, yet the
righteous God knows it, and will certainly avenge it.
If thou thyself be single, but the person with whom
thou committest lewdness is in the married state,
thou contractest the same guilt, by being injurious
to the yoke-fellow of another ; a crime of so heinous a
nature, that besides the prohibition of it in the letter of
the seventh commandment, the very desire of this for-
bidden fruit is expressly restrained by the tenth com-
mandment. Thou shah not covet thy neighbour's wife.
Yet this is not all ; the greatest injury of all is
done to the precious soul of that person who is thy
partner in the sin, and whom thou courtest, or con-
sentest to. Know, sinner, that thou perlshest not
alone in thy iniquity ; but, as if it were a light thing
for thee to defile and destroy thy own soul, thou art
accessary to the pollution and ruin of another soul,
a precious soul, more worth than all the world. If
thou be the tempter, thy guilt is double, thou art not
only a sinner, but a Satan, a child of the devil, (Acts
xiii. 10.) an agent and factor for him, who, not con-
tent to be himself a wicked one, goes about conti-
nually, seeking to make the children of men wicked
like himself. Verily, they arc of their father the
devil, who tlius do his lusts, they bear his image,
and they are in his interests, John viii. 44. And if
thou only consent to the temptation, yet besides thy
own guilt, thou sharest in the sin of those to whom
thou consentest, strengthening their hands, and
hardening their hearts in their wicked way. Hearken
to this, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye
not that the friendship ye pretend to each other is
really the greatest enmity that can be? You hurt,
you vnt)ng, you ruin one another's souls. O what a
stinging reflection will this be hereafter ! How many
precious souls are you accessary to the murder of?
Except a miracle of mercy give you and them re-
pentance, you will die in your iniquity, but their
blood will be required at your hands.
God by his grace make these words convincing !
Nothing less than almighty grace can make them so,
but that can do wondrously.
2. Besides the malignity and guilt that there is in
this sin, consider also the mischief and misery that
follow after it. If calling it sin will not frighten you
from it, we will call it death, and try what that will
do ; and we do not, either in the one, or in the other,
miscall it It is one of those things for which the
wrath of God comes upon the children of disobe-
dience. Col. iii. 6, 6. And woe to those, ten thou-
sand woes to those upon whom the wrath of God
alights and lies !
Let us take a distinct view of some of the dismal,
and perhaps fatal, consequences of this sin.
(1.) Uncleanncss wastes the body. He that com-
mits fornication sins against his own body, not only
by putting a dishonour upon it, and prostituting it to
a base and scandalous service, but by contributing
to the consumption and destruction of it. If you
have any regard to your own bodies (the pleasing of
the vitious appetites of which is the utmost the
tempter can pretend to) you will surely avoid that
sin which threatens so much mischief to them. Shall
the fundamental law of self-preservation have no
command over you, nor influence upon you ?
Have you no dread of those pains and loathsome
sicknesses which are commonly the products of these
abominations ? The righteous God, by a disease not
known in the world till these latter ages, has stigma-
tized very many who have given themselves over to
uncleanncss, and has set them forth as monuments
of his justice ; in them the Scripture has been
fulfilled, that whoremongers and adulterers God will
judge, if men will not. Multitudes have been made
to mourn at the last, (thoug^h I doubt very few have
been brought to repentance by it,) when their flesh
and their body have been consumed, and they have
rotted above ground, Prov. v. 1 1 .
The bones of many an old fornicator are full of the
sins of his youth, which will lie down with him in the
dust, as Zophar speaks. Job xx. 11. Yea, and many
in the midst of their days become the devil's martyrs,
and after they have long been racked and tortured
I with grievous pains, end a miserable life in a more
486
A WORD OF ADVICE
miserable death, and fall unpilied sacrifices to tbeir
own lusts. The word of God has said it, and all the
world cannot unsay it, He that defile* the temple of
Gody him gftall God destroy, 1 Cor. iii. 17.
(2.) It wars against the soul, the better, the im-
mortal part of the man. Fleshly lusts, though they
appear in the soft and charming guise of courtiers,
yet really they are warriors, they are enemies, they
are in arms against us ; they are rebels, enemies in
our own bosoms, and therefore the more dangerous;
the apostle tells us, (I Pet. ii. 11.) they war against
the soul, they lay siege to it, batter it, and threaten
the ruin of it.
How many precious souls have been undone by
these enemies ! They disturb the peace of the soul,
and make it subject to continual frights and alarms,
which fill it with secret terrors night and day. They
waste the wealth of the soul, as soldiers that make
havoc of all that is good for any thing in the coun-
tries they ravage and plunder. They obstruct the
administration of all government in the soul ; reason
loses its dominion and conduct ; conscience loses
all its power and influence, it is not heard, it is
not heeded ; these base lusts put all into tumult and
disorder.
And is thy soul, that precious soul of thine, no-
thing to thee? Darcst thou thus neglect it, thus
expose it, thus suffer it to be wasted and overrun
by the enemy ? Dost thou not know that thou must
very shortly give an account of it to him that made
it, and made thee the keeper of it? And an uncom-
fortable account thou wilt give, if thou thus resign
it to Satan, and yield it as his easy prey. The ser-
pent could not beguile thee but by thy own fault.
(3.) It is reproachful to the name. An incurable
wound and dishonour is got by it, Prov. vi. 33.
Though there may be other sins as provoking to
God, and as mischievous to the soul, yet there is
none so scandalous among men as this is. It is a
shame even to speak of these things^ Eph. v. 12.
And is this nothing to you ? Have you no value
for a good name, nor any care to preserve an inter-
est in the esteem of wise and sober people ? Can you
contentedly be looked upon as slaves and willing
captives to a sordid lust, and to lie under a stain
and brand of perpetual infamy and disgrace ? Is it
nothing to you what people think or say of you, when
they speak evil of you truly, and your own consci-
ences know a great deal more and worse than they
say? Is it nothing to you for good people to be
ashamed of you, as fit only for the society of those
who are altogether such as yourselves? Is it nothing
for you to bring such a blot upon your reputation as
will stick to it when you are dead and gone?
Or if your own names be of such small account
with you, yet have 3'ou no regard to the name of
Christ, that worthy name by which you are called ?
If you have made, and still make, a personal profes-
sion of relation to Christi and call yourselves by tlM
name of Jacob, the scandal of your sio goes further
than your own names, it is a reproach to God his-
self, and to the Lord Jesus. The name of God aad
his doctrine is blasphemed through yoa. What
shall pagans and Mahometans, atheists and deisti»
make of Christianity, if those who profess that holy
religion, act worse than heathens ? What will they
say of Christ and his gospel, if those who, by tbdr '
baptism, profess to follow Christ, and believe Us
gospel, live impure, unholy lives, contrary to tk
sacred character of both ? Surely then the old re-
proach of our Master will be again renewed, Tlas
Man receiveth sinners, and eateth with ihetm^ and yoo
who have occasioned it will bear this iniquity. The
apostle in God's name directs us. If any man that
is called a brother, called a Christian, be afomieaier,
with such a one we must not so much as eaty that we
may testify the utmost abhorrence and detestation
of those who thus name the name of Christ, and yet
allow themselves in this iniquity, 1 Cor. v. 11.
(4.) It is ruining to the estate. The prcKiigal sod
who spent his living on harlots at last was reduced
to husks, and became fellow-commoner with the
swine. Many a one has been brought to a moriel
of bread by means of a whorish woman, in our days,
as well as in Solomon's, Prov. vi. 26. Almost eveiy
place and every year can produce fresh instances of
the wastefulness and expensiveness of these fleshly
lusts. Many have so outspent themselves and their
patrimony in these lewd and dissolute courses, that
they have worn out the latter end of their days ii
miserable poverty, and, perhaps, ended them at last
in a prison. So that If a careless world would take
warning, others also might see and fear, and do no
more presumptuously.
As there is a direct tendency in the sin itself to
the impoverishing of men, for it spends that upon
the devil which should be spent upon the man, so
it provokes the righteous God to entail a corse upon
the house and family, which will undoubtedly sink
and ruin it. Holy Job says concerning this sin, and
he seems to speak the sense of the patriarchal age,
that it was a heinous crime, and an iniquity proper
to be punished by the judges, as it was under the
law of Moses, But if they, out of a contempt of
other people's guilt, or consciousness of their own,
should leave the sin unpunished, yet God would
take the work into his own hands, and it should be
a fire consuming to destruction, which would eat mii
all the increase. Job xxxi. 11, 12.
(5.) It is dreadful to the conscience, if ever it be
awake. Know this, (sinner,) that though now tboa
makest a light matter of this sin, and thy conscience
altogether holds its peace concerning it, yet if ever
God open thy eyes to see the error of thy ways, and
set thy sins in order before tliee, thy uncleannes
will appear above all the rest exceeding sinful, and
TO THE WANTON AND UNCLEAN.
487
the remembrance of it will bite like a serpent, and
sting like an adder. Solomon himself, in the reflec-
tion, found it more bitter than death, (Eccl. vii. 26.)
and more terrible ; and so wilt thou, if God have
mercy in store for thee, and set home the conviction
of it upon thy soul, making thee to know thy abomi-
nations, and to see them in their own colours and
consequences.
O the horror and amazement thou wilt then be
filled with ! Then the sin which thou madest a sport
of will sit heavy ; though the iniquity was sweet in
thy mouth, and rolled under thy tongue as a pleasant
morsel, it will then be as the gall of asps, and the
reflection upon it will perhaps make thee a terror to
thyself, and to all about thee : how canst thou be
otherwise, if the terrors of the Almighty set them-
selves in array against thee .' Thou wilt then loathe
thyself and abhor thyself, and call thyself fool a
thousand times, for venturing upon counterfeit and
transient pleasures, which thou seest and feelest
attended with real and remaining pains.
Think (sinner) when thou art tempted to this sin,
think seriously what will come of it : the best that
can come of it is, that thou wilt repent of it, and
this thou presumest upon ; but dost thou know what
it is to repent ? That it is to be filled with grief, and
shame, and fear, to see thyself under the wrath of
God, and the curse of the law, and upon the brink
6f hell, and to be under all the terrors that may be
supposed to arise from hence. And is repentance
a thing to be bought so dear? Or, What fruit will
you then hare of these things whereof you are now
ashamed ?
(6.) It is damning to eternity, if it be not repented
of in time. It is a sin which shuts the sinner out of
heaven. The Scripture speaks expressly, more than
onc^e, that they which do such things sJioU not inherit
the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. Gal. v. 21.
Nothing that defiles must enter into the New Jeru-
salem, that holy city. Heaven indeed would be no
heaven to these impure polluted souls ; nor will the
holy God take those to be near him and with him
for ever, who chose to set themselves at such a
distance from him, and engaged themselves in oppo-
sition to him here.
And if thy sin shut thee out of heaven, I need
not tell thee where it will shut thee up ; but the
word of God tells thee, that the abominable, and
particularly the whoremongers, shall have their part
in the lake that bums eternally witli fire and brim-
stone, which is the second death, Rev. xxi. 8. The
filthy Sodomites, who gave themselves over to fornix
cation, suffered the vengeance of eternal fire, and
are set forth for an example to all who should after-
wards in like manner live ungodly, Jude 7. There
is a special reservation of this kind of sinners to
the judgment of the great day, because, commonly,
they escape punishment from men; for when all
sinners are bound over to that judgment, it is added.
Chiefly they that walk after the flesh in the lust of
uncleannessj 2 Pet ii. 9, 10.
Let no man deceive you with vain words, as if
God would not be so severe with sinners as his word
says he will. Is he not a God of truth, faithful to
his threatenings as well as to his promises ? Is he
not a righteous Governor, the God to whom ven-
geance belongs ? And canst thou think that he will
suffer his law to be violated, and the authority of it
ridiculed, his gospel to be slighted, and the grace
of it trampled upon, and never reckon for all these
indignities done him ? No, sinner, thou art mistaken
if thou think him altogether such an one as thyself.
Say not then, " I shall have peace though I go
on," for that is to contradict God, who has said,
There is no peace to t/ie wicked: neither say thou,
** I will repent of it hereafter, though I go on in it
for a while ;" for that is to contradict thyself, since
the same reason that there is for thy repenting here-
after holds for thy repenting now. Do not then by
a daring presumption run thyself upon an endless
despair.
Now, consider this ye that forget God, consider it
seriously, and be persuaded to break off" this wicked
course of life you lead.
Consider that an unclean conversation is a certain
sign and evidence of a graceless heart ; it manifests
the prevalence and predominance of the corrupt
nature, and that the unclean spirit is upon the
throne. And if thou live and die graceless, thou
art undone for ever.
Consider also that it is a very dangerous thing to
sin against the warnings and checks of conscience.
Few go on in this sin without disturbance sometimes
from their own consciences, which say, O do not this
abominable thing which the Lord hates. Take heed of
baffling your own consciences, and of rushing as
Balaam upon this sword's point, lest you provoke
God to sear your consciences, and to give you up to
your own hearts' lusts, and so to seal you unto con-
demnation. When men deal with their consciences
as the Sodomites dealt with Lot, pr^ss hard upon
them, and will not allow them to be reprovers and
judges, (Gen. xix. 9.) Sodom's plagues are not far
off" ; Fire and brimstone, and a hm-rible tempest.
Consider also that an outward profession of religion
is so far from excusing, that really it aggravates, these
abominations ; it now aggravates the guilt of the
sin, and will shortly aggravate the ruin of the sinner.
Be sure your sin will find you out, though perhaps
your neighbours do not.
II. If you be in some measure convinced of the evil
of this sin, I would now put you in a way to break
off" from it ; and God, by his grace, put you into the
right way ! Perhaps, by this time, some of these sin-
ners, these sinners against their own souls, may be
so sick of their disease as to be glad of a physician,*
488
A WORD OF ADVICE
and desirous of a care. You that are enslaved to
these filthy lusts, and under the power of them, that
labour in these fires, like Israel in Egypt, do you not
sigh, as they did, by reason of the bondage ? Are
you not weary of serving divers lusts, and pleasures,
those unreasonable task-masters, and suffering at
the same time the frequent lashes of an accusing
conscience, that just avenger under God ? Are you
never brought to wish that you were disentangled
out of the snare you are in, and that you could live
a virtuous and a religious life, as you see some do
who have the comfort and honour of so doing ? Do
you never blush to think of the abominable lusts
you are under the dominion of? Nor ever tremble
to think of the bottomless pit you are upon the brink
of?
Know (sinner) that the God of heaven thinks the
time long that thou continuest in thine uncleanness.
See bow he expostulates with filthy sinners, (Jer.
xiii. 27.) Wih thou not be made clean ? When shall
it once be ! And dost thou not think it long enough ?
May not the time past svffice that thou hast walked
in lasciviousness ? I Pet. iv. 3. Is thy conscience
seared ? Is thy heart quite hardened ? Are darts,
God's darts, counted as stubble before thee, and
canst thou with the leviathan, laugh at the shaking
of this spear? Job xli. 29. Shall no considerations
influence thee ? Shall neither reason nor religion
sway with thee ? If they may be calmly and impar-
tially beard, I dare say thou wouldst be prevailed
with to break oflf this vile and wicked course of life,
and wouldst thankfully submit to the method of
cure, though the operations necessary to the cure
may be difficult and displeasing to flesh and blood.
Would you then be cleansed from this leprosy,
this noisome and dangerous disease ? Observe these
directions ;
I. Heartily repent of all the uncleanness you have
been guilty of, and be deeply humbled for it before
the Lord this day. Rest not in a bare disgust and
dislike of the sin, as if that would amount to repent-
ance ; Amnon hated Tamar. when he had satisfied
his brutish lust, and, yet, was far from being a true
penitent : no, it is necessary that you experience in
your own souls a very great and deep sorrow for the
sin, and that you reflect upon it with the highest re-
gret and remorse imaginable.
Think of the afi'ront that you have ofi'ered to the
holy God, the guilt and stain you have brought
upon your own souls; think of the folly and fil-
thiness of it. Think what you have lost and for-
feited by it, the favour of God, the grace of Christ,
and the joys of heaven; think what you have
deserved and exposed yourselves to by it, temporal,
spiritual, and eternal judgments. Think of these
things till you are pricked to the heart, and in bitter-
ness for the sin, as one that is in bitterness for a first-
born; and contract such an habitual indignation
against the sin, and yourselves because of it, tkit
you may be pained upon every remembrance of it,
and may even loathe yourselves because of it
They that can easily forgive themselves upoo a
slight and superficial repentance, and flatter them-
selves with a conceit that God has thereupon for-
given them, will easily be brought to yield to the
next temptation ; it is therefore necessary that yon
take pains with your own hearts, to work upon then
the powerful influence of those considerations which
are proper to open springs of godly sorrow there,
and to keep them ever flowing.
After David had been but once guilty of ancleaii-
ness, he went mourning from day to day for it The
sin was ever before him, Ps. li. 3. The remen-
brance of it broke his bones, (v. 8.) and was to him
as a heavy burthen, too heavy even for him to bear,
Ps. xxxviii. 4 — 6. Solomon confesses that he had
found it more bitter than death, and calls it not a
trick of youth, or an excusable slip of human frailty,
but the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and
madness, Eccl. vii. 25, 26. Imitate these great peni-
tents. Lay a load upon yourselves, and lie in tbe
dust before God in penitential tears. Let the sin be
a terror to you in the reflection upon what is past,
and then it will not appear such a pleasure to you as
formerly, in the next temptation. Thus the qoairel
with it must begin with true remorse and godly sor-
row for our former folly, and then it is to be hoped
the quarrel will be irreconcilable.
Perhaps it will help to melt and break the hard
and stony heart, if you humbly confess your guilt, not
only to God but to your minister, or to some Chrif-
tian friend, especially if the ofience has been made
public, and has proved a scandal : the Scriptan
prescribes this method of cure, (Jam. ▼. 16.) Cot/est
your faults one to another, and pray one for anotkeri
that you may he healed. That you may effectoally
humble yourselves, it will be of use for yoa to
shame yourselves ; you have not been ashamed to
sin, be not ashamed to repent, for next to the credit
of an innocent is that of a penitent. Do then as the
convinced leper under the law. Lev. xiii. 45. Pot
thyself into his place and posture, and cry with sor-
row and self-loathing, Unclean, unclean.
2. Take up a full resolution, by the grace of God,
now to break 00" this vitious course of life, and Derer
to return to it again. Faint purposes will not stmt
for the disentangling of you from the strong cords
of this iniquity ; they will but deceive you and be-
tray you to the tempter. Wishing is but trifling ; it
is not enough to say ** I hope I shall never be guiltT
of this sin again, surely I shall never again be sach
a fool as I have been ;" but you must say, *^ la the
strength of God I am firmly resolved I never will*
If these fleshly lusts be indeed your enemies, as eer-
tainly they are dangerous enemies, you must cany
on a war against them with vigour. Feeble efM
TO THE WANTON AND UNCLEAN.
i%9
will never repel the strong assaults of this tempta-
tion : you must be stedfastly resolved against it.
Say not, ** If I make a resolution I doubt I shall
break it ;" that is to yield to Satan : but /' I will make
a resolution, and I trust in God I shall never break
it ; '' this is to resist the devil, and if we do this
faithfully he will flee from us.
There have been instances of those who, by the
assistance of divine grace, have conquered and sub-
dued habits that were extremely vicious, and have
been wonderfully changed in the temper of their
spirits, and ihe course of their lives ; and the same
grace that wrought mightily in them shall be suffi-
cient for you, if you pray for it, improve it, and do
not rebel against it. Argue the case with yourselves,
reason with your own hearts upon it, and let the
result be a settled resolution to cleanse yourselves
from all filthiness, both of flesh and spirit, that you
may perfect holiness in the fear of God, 2 Cor.
vn. 1.
What can hinder but that you should speedily
come up to a firm resolution in this matter? Swear this
to the Lord, and vow it to the mighty God of Jacob,
that you will never, never more have fellowship with
these unfruitful works of darkness ; that you will
never return again to this folly. Bind your souls
with a solemn bond to this purpose, bind them fast,
for they are apt to fly off. Let every Christian in
this sense vow chastity, and call God to witness that
you are sincere in it.
3. Let the fear of God rule in your hearts. You
believe there is a God, you dare not deny it, you
dare not question it ; and do you not know that this
God sees you, and is acquainted with all your ways;
that he will judge you, and call you to an account
for all your works 1 Do you not know that his eye is
always upon you, and that all the hidden works of
darkness arc open before him ?
Be persuaded, therefore, to set the Lord always
before you ; and dare not to do that in his sight
and presence, which you would not dare to do in
the sight and presence of a worm of the earth like
yourselves. When none else sees, take heed, God
sees,
A living principle of grace in your hearts will pu-
rify and cleanse them, and then the streams will not
be thus muddy and polluted. Cast salt, the salt of
grace, into these springs, and then the waters will be
healed. Make the tree good, and then the fruit will
be good. Stand in awe of God's unspotted purity,
his tremendous majesty, and his strict and unerring
justice ; and say, How dare I live such a life as this
in a constant contempt of God's authority, and re-
bellion against his justice ? *' How dare I provoke a
God of almighty power to jealousy ? Am I stronger
than he?'' None oast off modesty till they have
cast off the fear of God, and are resolved to live
without him. If you have the fear of God before
your eyes, you will say as Joseph did, whenever you
are insulted by any temptations of this kind. How
can I do this great wickednen and sin against God?
4. Stand upon your g^ard against the first ap-
pearance of this evil, and all approaches towards it.
Take heed of every thing that leads to uncleanness,
that looks like it, or looks towards it. If you would
be innocent from the great transgression, allow not
yourselves in lesser transgressions of this kind. The
unwary fly often fools away her life by playing about
the candle. Those sports and dalliances which
seem harmless may introduce the greatest mischiefs,
as the little thief thrust in at the window opens the
door to the great ones. Nemo repentefit turpissimus
— Men arrive not at first to the highest pitch of this
wickedness, but gradually, and by indulgences less
criminal, come to the vilest enormities. The way of
this sin is down hill, a man cannot easily stop him-
self; one unclean thought, word, or action, draws on
another, streng^ens the corruptions by gratifying
them, weakens the convictions by baffling them, and
so the unthinking sinner goes from bad to worse :
so like to the letting forth of water is the beginning
of this sin ; therefore, if you love your souls, meddle
not with it.
Dread a snake under the green grass, and take
heed where you tread. Fear this enemy, and come
not within his borders. Watch that you enter not
into this temptation, for it will be no easy matter to
make a retreat Do as holy Job did, make a cove-
nant with your eyes (the common inlets of this sin)
that you may not admit, much less entertain, any
wanton and unchaste desires, Job xxxi. 1. If you
would not be burnt, do not take fire into your bosom,
nor go upon hot coals, it is Solomon's comparison,
Prov. vi. 27, 28. Crush this cockatrice in the e%%^
lest the fruit of it be a fiery flying serpent. Pluck
up this root of bitterness as soon as it puts forth, lest
it spring up and trouble you, and thereby you and
many more be defiled, Heb. xii. 15.
5. Be quick and peremptory in your resistance of
temptations to this sin. Stand not to parley with
them, nor ever listen to terms of surrender. Eve
was half betrayed when she entered into discourse
with the serpent, and was willing to hear what he
had to say.
Arguments enough there are against this sin, and
very convincing, cogent ones ; your sober thoughts
have many a time represented them to you in their
evidence and demonstration. Be satisfied then,
and look upon the case to be so plain that there
needs not a dispute upon it : there are no proba-
bilities, nothing but fallacies, on the side of the
temptation. And yet, such is the weakness, de-
ceitfulncss, and desperate wickedness of your own
hearts, that you may be imposed upon ere you are
aware, if you admit of a debate concerning it, and
recommit the resolves yon have made.
400
A WORD OF ADVICE
Therefore, whenever you are solicited to this sin,
startle at the thought of it, with the utmost abhor-
rence and detestation imaginable. Say as Peter,
(Acts X. 14.) Not to, for nothing unclean hath come
into my mouth. Say as David in another case, (1
Chron. xi. 19.) My God, forbid it me, that I should
do this thing ! Say as our Saviour has taught us to
say, when the tempter assaults us, Get thee hence,
Satan, Matt. iv. 10. The Lord rebuke this unclean
spirit, so that it may not be suffered to speak ; the
Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke it. Let the
very temptation be to you as a thorn in the flesh, a
pain and a terror, and not a pleasure. You who have
fallen into this sin have found, by sad experience,
how dangerous it is to venture too far ; therefore,
dread the thoughts of reasoning with indifference,
concerning that which, being confessedly most un-
reasonable, must be gainsaid with a severe resolu-
tion. As he who will dispute whether there be a
God or no, must be hissed at in the schools, and not
argued with, so must he who will question whether
he should keep the law of God, in so plain a case,
or break it.
6. Keep at a distance from the tempter. If there
be any particular person that you arc in special
danger of being insnared by, avoid that person as
you would avoid one that yon were in danger of
being infected by with the plague, though otherwise
dear to you.
The wise man's advice, or rather the wise God's
command, is. Remove thy way far from the house,
(Prov. V. 8.) much more far from the man, the
woman, who, under the colour of love and friend-
ship, would allure you, with the devil's baits, into
the devil's nets. This seems to be in part intended
in that command which our Saviour has given us,
to cut off the right hand, and pluck out the right
eye, which offends us. Matt. v. 29, 30. and again.
Matt, xviii. 8, 9. Though the person be dear to us,
and could be as ill spared as a right eye, or a right
hand, yet resolve upon a separation. This was Jo-
seph's wisdom, that he would not be alone in the
house with his mistress, when he perceived her vile
designs, Gen. xxxix. 10, 11. When we thrust our-
selves into temptation, we put ourselves out of God's
protection, for he has promised to keep us in all
our ways, and not otherwise. Presume not too near
the danger, in the strength of your own resolutions,
that hitherto you will go and no further, lest you be
found tempting the devil to tempt you, and so be-
come your own betrayers. If you would be kept
from harm keep out of harm's way.
This caution must go further than the particular
person yon are in danger of being insnared by ; yon
must carefully avoid the places of temptation to this
sin. As the plays have many of them, in this dege-
nerate age, been plainly designed to teach the arts
of debauchery, and not only to palliate this wicked-
ness as a jest, but to recommend it as the accom-
plishment of a finished gentlemen, so the phiy-
houses have been the rendezvous of these sionen,
where the plays have been indeed acted. There
those are mustered and disciplined, who having
in their baptism renounced ** the pomps and van-
ities of this world, and all the sinful lusts of the
flesh," and listed themselves under the banner of
the cross, now in effect disclaim their baptism, re-
turn to those pomps and vanities, (by which were
originally meant the plays,) and embrace these
fleshly lusts, and engage themselves to fight man-
fully against virtue and religion, and all that u
sacred, and to continue the devil's faithful servants
and soldiers to their lives' end. And are these per-
sons fit for you to associate with ? Are these places
fit for you to be found in ? No, if thou love thy son!,
if thou wouldst preserve thy purity, peace, and ho-
nour, come not nigh the door of that house ; avoid
it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away.
7. Think much of death and hell. Sinners of
this kind must be saved with fear, that is, they mast
be frightened out of their sin, pulled out of the fire
with a friendly violence. We must not, we dare not,
prophesy smooth things to you ; we prophesy deceit
if we do. O that these sinners in Sion were afraid I
O that fearfulness might surprise them ! Let yoor
hearts meditate terror, the terrors of the Lord, which
from the word of God we desire to set before yoo,
not to frighten you out of your wits, but to frighten
you out of your sins. And it is better to be saved
with fear, than that you should be damned your-
selves without fear.
Death is the king of terrors ; O that it might ap-
pear so terrible to you as to cool the courage yon
take in a sinful way ! Sirs, you are dying creatures,
your days upon earth are to be but few ; and, per-
haps, you are shortening the days of this life, and
hastening the day of your death, by this lewd and
vicious course of life you live. But O what a dis-
mal change will death make when it comes ! A
dismal change, when the charming eyes (as they
now call them) which give the wanton glances, shall
sink and fall, and be closed up ; when the counte-
nance that is now proud of its skin-deep beauty shall
gather blackness, and become ghastly ; when the
body that is now pampered and indulged, and such
provision made for it, shall become a loathsome car-
cass. O let the thoughts of the pains and agonies
of a death-bed, and the darkness and terror of a bed
in the grave, be an effectual damp and check to all
the forbidden pleasures of the bed of uncleanness !
It would be thought unaccountably absurd, and
would be imputed to a very high degnree of hardness
and seared ness, if a malefactor condemned to die,
and the warrant signed for his execution to-morrow,
should so far forget the dreadful pomp of it, as to
spend the night in wanton sport and revelling, is
TO THE WANTON AND UNCLEAN.
401
mirth and laughter. And are you sure that you
shall live till to-morrow ? Thii night, perhaps, your
^oul may be required of you. And O what a terror
>^'ill death be if it surprise you while you go on in
this sinful way !
But this is not all ; after death will be the judg-
ment, a strict and particular judgment, into which
God will bring every secret thing ; and after judg-
ment, the lire of hell will certainly be the portion of
all those who live and die in this sin : if God be
true it will. Our Saviour thunders hell and dam-
nation against this sin, and you may assure your-
selves he is in earnest : he has told us that if we do
not mortify these corrupt dispositions, our whole
body shall be cast into hell. Matt. y. 29, 30.
Lay your ears by faith to the gates of hell, and
hear the doleful shrieks and out-cries of multitudes
who lived as securely in this sin as you do, and said
they should have peace though they went on, and
are now paying dear for all their brutish pleasures,
in ap eternity of easeless and remediless torments.
The prophet speaks of it as a very sad change,
which approaching judgments in this world would
make with the daughters of Sion, when there should
be instead of a girdle a rent, and instead of well set
hair, baldness, Isa. iii. 24.
But much more dreadful and amazing will the
change be, when, instead of the cup of fornication.
Wherewith these besotted sinners are now intoxi-
cated, the righteous God, who has said he will judge
whoremongers and adulterers, shall put into their
hands a cup of fury, a cup of trembling, a cup of
lire and brimstone. Instead of music and songs of
Knirth, there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing
nf teeth. Instead of a bed of down shall be a bed
of flames. Instead of the amorous society of them
tliat wear soft clothing, there shall be the company
of devils and damned spirits. Let a holy fear of
this be a damp to all carnal mirth, and an effectual
check to all forbidden pleasures. Who among yon
can dwell with devouring fire, who can inhabit ever-
lasting burnings?
8. Lift up your hearts in prayer to God for strength
and grace to enable you to mortify fleshly lusts, and
to resist every temptation to this sin. Prayer is a
principal part of that armour of God which we are
to put on, that we may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil. It is that which girds on all the
rest, and fetches in that Spirit from on high, which
alone makes our armour impenetrable, and us invul-
nerable, Eph vi. 18.
Let it be your daily prayer to Almighty God, that
he would lead you out of this temptation which as-
saults you so frequently, so vigorously ; that he would
deliver you from this evil, this sin which most easily
besets you. Pray against your own iniquity, which
has so often, and so long, had dominion over you.
0 pray earnestly that the power of divine g^ce may
be greatly magnified and glorified in the suppressing
and extirpating those vicious habits, which havd
hitherto seemed inveterate and obstinate to the me>
thods of grace. Go and complain to Christ for thy-
self, as some did for their relations when he was here
on earth, Have mercy on me, thou Son of David, my
soul is grievously vexed with an unclean spirit ; Lordy
dispossess him, cast him out. This hind goeth not
out but by prayer and fasting ; add fasting therefore
to thy prayers, and thou shalt not seek in vain.
Whenever you find yourselves entering into this
temptation. Watch and pray. Lift up your hearts to
God in such an ejaculation as that of Nehemiah in
another case, Now therefore, O God, strengthen mf
hands ; strengthen them for this conflict, that I may
come off a conqueror. Some of the ancients thought
that the thorn in the flesh which St. Paul complained
of was a violent temptation to uncleanness, a met-
senger of Satan (for so all such temptations are)
which buffeted him ; and it was so far from pleasing
him that it pained him, and was as a sword in his
bones. But by prayer, instant and importunate
prayer, he prevailed for grace sufficient, 2 Cor. xii.
7 — 9. And if we come in faith on the same errand,
we need not fear but we shall speed as he did.
9. Bring the body into subjection by abstinence
and labour. Luxury and idleness are often the
unhappy incentives and causes of this sin. Sodom
was made a very sink of uncleanness by fulness of
bread (not plenty, but the abuse of plenty) and abun-
dance of idleness, Ezek. xvi. 49. What Solomon
says of a servant is true of the body : He that deli"
cately brings it up from a child, shall have it become
his son, nay, his master, his taskmaster, at the lengthy
Prov. xxix. 21 . They that do not deny themselves
in other things, will find it the more difiicult to deny
themselves in this.
Corporal austerities and mortifications, though
merit is not to be placed in them, nor will they of
themselves, without the grace of God, gain us a vic-
tory ; yet they are excellent means to subdue lust,
and to bring the body into a good temper, that it
may be more manageable by religion and right rea-
son. If you cannot drive out this enemy by storm,
try to starve him out, by denying yourselves the use
even of those lawful things, which through the infir-
mity of the flesh may prove a snare to you. Pamper
not the body with varieties and dainties, lest it g^w
wanton, but use yourselves to deny yourselves, so
shall it become easy to you.
Live not in sloth ; for when you have nothing to
do, the devil will quickly find you something to do.
Standing waters gather filth, while running streams
keep pure. Be always employing yourselves in some
good business, and then perhaps you will find it as
effectual an answer to a temptation, to say ** I have
no leisure," as to say '* 1 have no leave.*' Love not
the bed of idleness, lest it turn into the bed of lust.
492
A SERIOUS ADDRESS TO THOSE
10. Do not keep the devil's counsel. This treason
is in effect qaashed when it is discovered, and the
devices of it will be brought to nought, if they be but
brought to light, for it is an evil that hates the light
and seeks the shade as much as any other. Does
this sin then most easily beset you ? Is it violent and
importunate in its assaults ? If you have a friend
who is fit to make a confidant of, it may do well to
open your case to such a friend who will deal faith-
fully with you, and will help you by prayer and suit-
able advice, and, it may be, speak some word in
season.
It may be of use to shame yourselves out of the
danger of being overcome, by confessing your weak-
ness, and obliging yourselves to confess your wick-
edness, if, in any instance, you should be overcome.
You had better shame yourselves to a faithful friend
that will pity you and help you, than let the sin get
bead, and not only shame you in this world before
men who will insult over you, but fill your face with
everlasting shame and contempt.
If you think these metliods of cure too difficult,
and call these directions ^* hard sayings which can-
not be borne,'' you have reason to fear that you are
not yet thoroughly convinced of the danger of your
disease, nor truly desirous to be made whole. If the
prophet had bid thee do some great thing for the cure
of a bodily sickness, wouldst thou not have done it?
how much more when for thy spiritual cure he only
says to thee, Wash and be clean ?
And now (sinner) must I close this paper and
leave thee as I found thee ? Will he that is filthy re-
solve to be filthy still ? And will he that is unclean
be unclean still ? God forbid : shall neither the ter-
rors of the Lord startle thee and awaken thee out of
thy security in this sinful way? Nor his g^dness win
upon thee to lead thee to repentance ? Wilt thou make
thy condition desperate by adhering to that desperate
resolve. There is no hope, no, for I have loved stran-
gers, and after theni I will go, Jer. ii. 25. Is religion
a jest, and reason a sham, and the arguments fetched
from the word of God, and the sober sense of all
mankind, but rant and banter? Shall all that has
been said be turned off with a flout, and converted
into sport and ridicule ? Yet know that thy unbe-
lief cannot make the wrath and curse of God of none
effect. Though thou lovest to slumber, yet thy
damnation slumbers not
If, after all, thou dost indeed prefer the gratifica-
tion of a base lust before the favour of God, and the
pleasures of wisdom's ways; if thou dost indeed
choose the puddle water of sensual delights rather
than the pure water of life, and the wine of divine
consolations ; if thou wilt rather expose thyself to
all the just reproaches of thy own conscience now,
and to all the miseries of the damned for ever, than
submit thyself to the restraint and conduct of virtue
and religion ; know then, that God also will choose
thy delusions, and they will be thy eternal de-
struction : So shall thy doom he, thou thyself kati db-
cided it.
A SERIOUS ADDRESS
TO THOSE WHO
PROFANE THE LORD'S DAY.
Those I reckon guilty of profaning the Lord's day,
and to them in the name of God direct this paper,
who neglect the appointed work of that day, and
who violate the prescribed rest of that day.
1. It is a profanation of the Lord's day, and a
breach of the law of it, to neglect and omit the pro-
per duty and business of that day, which is, the im-
mediate service and worship of our God. If we
leave undone that which on this day ought to be
done, we are transgressors, for omissions are sins,
and must come into judgment
That the eternal God is to J[>e solemnly and reli-
giously adored by the children of men, and that we
are all bound, by acts of piety and devotion, to gifc
unto him the glory due unto his name» and pay oar
homage to him, none will question, who really be-
lieve that there is a God, who is a being infinitely
perfect and blessed, and the fountain of all bein;
and blessedness, our Creator, Owner, Ruler, and
Benefactor, on whom we have a necessary and con-
stant dependence, and to whom we lie under the
highest obligations imaginable. Never did reason-
able creatures speak more unreasonably, than they
did who said, What is the Almighty that wa skmdd
serve him? Jobxxi. 15.
Something of this work ought to be done eveiy
day ; no day must pass without some solemn acts of
religious worship, both morning and evening ; when
we address ourselves to the work of the day, and
when we compose ourselves to the rest of the night,
we ought actually to acknowledge God, both by oor
prayers and praises, as our Protector, Guide, and
Benefactor. Six days shalt thou labour and do aU thy
worh ; and is this no part of our work ? Is it not
the most needful and excellent work we have to do!
Those who live without daily worship live withoat
God in the world. As God allows us time for works
of necessity and mercy out of his day ; so we ought
to allow time for works of piety and devotion out of
our days, else we are not only undutiful, but veiy
ungrateful.
But besides the morning and evening sacrifice,
which the duty of every day requires, the wisdom of
God, for the preserving and securing of divine wor*
ship in the world, has instituted and appointed a
particular time for the special solemnities of il»
WHO PROFANE THE LORD'S DAY.
483
which is one daj in seven. The body of a seventh
day, that is, the working hours of it, are by this
institution appointed to be spent in the acts of reli-
^on and devotion, as the other days of the week are
intended for secular business, and the works of our
particular calling.
Now this instrumental part of religion, (give me
leave to call it so,) though it be not equally necessary
with the essentials of it, the love of God, and faith
in Christ, yet it is undoubtedly necessary, both as
a duty in obedience to the divine law, which requires
us thus to consecrate a seventh day to the services
of religion, and as a means of keeping up commu-
nion with God in holy ordinances, and preparing
ourselves, by his grace, for the vision and fruition of
him. It is so necessary, that revealed religion, and
with it all religion, would in all probability have
been lost and forgotten long ere this, if it had not
been kept up by the observation of sabbaths.
Now, forasmuch as it is the wol'k of the Lord's
day to worship God, not only in public solemn as-
semblies, which we ought conscientiously to attend
npon both the former and the latter part of the day,
but in secret and in our families, morning, evening,
and at noon, those do, certainly, profane the day,
who do not spend the best part of it, and much more
those who scarce spend any part of it, in pious exer-
cises ; either not attending on them at all, or with
socb a constant and allowed carelessness and in-
difference, as discovers a great contempt of the God
they pretend to honour.
Those profane this sacred day, who waste the pre-
cious hours of its morning in sleep and sloth, and
proud and needless dressing, and the rest of the day
in idle chat and perfect sauntering, as if sabbath time
hang upon their hands, and they knew not what to
do with it, nor how to idle it away, and pass it off
fast enough, till they have that which is their heart's
desire. When will the sabbath be gone ?
Such as these, how innocent soever they may think
themselves, are to be counted sabbath-breakers, who
instead of keeping the sabbath day lose it, and
throw it away, and wilfully suffer it to run waste ;
and instead of sanctifying it, and advancing it
above other times, vilify it, and make it the most
idle, insignificant, and unprofitable day of the week ;
for the days that are spent in worldly business serve
to some purpose, but this, that should be spent in
the business of religion, being trifled away, and the
work of it undone, serves to no purpose.
2. It is a profanation of the Lord's day, to vio-
late and break in upon theholy rest of that day, and
to do that from which we are bound up and re-
strained by the law of the day, in order to our more
close application to that which is the work of the
day. On that day we are to rest both from those
worldly employments of our particular callings,
which on other days are our duty, and the work of
the day, and from those sports and recreations which
on other days are lawful, as the entertainment of
our spare hours, and the preparatives for our busy
ones ; from both we are to rest on the Lord's day ;
for certainly carnal pleasure is as great an enemy
to spiritual joy as the sorrow of the world is, and
sport is as inconsistent with the sabbath rest as
labour is.
Rest from worldly business on the sabbath day was
under the Old Testament more primarily required
as a duty, and a great stress laid upon it, according
to the nature of that dispensation ; to all the pur-
poses of this rest we are not now so strictly tied up
as the Jews then were : but it is still secondarily re-
quisite as a means, in order to the due performance
of the work of the day ; and so far it is a duty.
Then, when the more solemn worship of God was
appropriated to one place, where the ark was, the
place which God chose to put his name there, which
the people were appointed generally to attend but
thrice a year, the rest of those, who were at a dis-
tance, was required and accepted as a tacit joining
with the temple service on the sabbath day ; by a
strict cessation from other work, they testified an
implicit concurrence in that work. But now, under
the gospel, we are not so confined to one place as
they then were ; it is God*s will that men pray every
where, and that in every place the spiritual incense
be offered ; we have now larger opportunities and
better helps for doing the work, and enjoying the
comforts, of that day than they then had ; and there-
fore, now the bare rest from worldly labour is not in
itself so much a sanctification of the sabbath as it
was then. Yet we cannot think ourselves less obliged
than they were to rest from worldly employments
and recreation, as far as that rest will contribute to
our attendance on the work of the day, with more
solemnity, and with greater freedom and closeness
of application, and without distinction.
Those, therefore, undoubtedly profane the Lord's
day, who absent themselves from the public worship
of God, either the former or the latter part of the
day, that they may underhand follow their callings,
settle their accounts, drive bargains, push on jour-
neys, make visits, or the like, unless when the occa-
sion is urgent, and mercy comes to take place of
sacrifice.
Yet, not they only are guilty of the breach of the
sabbath rest, who spend that part of the day, which
we call ** church time," in worldly employments
and recreations ; bat they also who spend the time
before, between, and after public worship, so as
either to intrench upon that foil scope of time, that
they ought to take on that day, for their secret and
family worship, and to abridge themselves of that,
or so as to unfit themselves and put themselves oat
of frame for holy duties, or obstruct their profiting
by them, do violate the sabbath rest Works of ne-
404
A SERIOUS ADDRESS TO THOSE
cessity (which yet ought not to he a self-created neces-
sity) we are allowed time for, the hody must be fed,
and clothed, and rested, that it may be fit to serve
the soul in the service of God on this day. But no
more of the time than is convenient for these must
be alienated from the business of the day; if it be,
we break in upon the appointed rest.
Those who go to their shops, and exercise their
trades openly or secretly on the Lord's day, thereby
show that they mind the world more than God, and
that they are more solicitous for the meat that pe-
rishes, than for that which endures to eternal life ;
and those who go to the ale-house, or follow their
sports, and divert themselves or others with idle
walking and talking, show that they mind the flesh
more than God, and that they are wholly taken up
with the mere animal life, and wretchedly estranged
from the principles, powers, and pleasures of the
spiritual and divine life.
If any pretend that they can perform the work of
the Lord's day well enough, though they do not ob-
serve the rest of the day, they suppose themselves
wiser than God, who has instituted the sabbath rest
in order to the better and more solemn management
of the sabbath work, both public and private.
We find now who are chargeable with the sin of
profaning the Lord's day; let the conscience of
every one that is guilty herein deal faithfully with
him in the reading of this, and say. Thou art the man ;
thou art the man, tlie woman that makest the day of
the Lord either a day of idleness, or a day of worldly
business, and dost not spend it in the service of God
and communion with him. Either thou dost not di-
ligently attend the public worship in its season, or but
one part of the day, or without any just cause stayest
at home, or walkest abroad, when thou shouldst
be in the holy convocation ; or, if thou go to
church for fashion sake, thou thinkcst when that
service is over thou hast no more to do, and dost not
spend the remaining part of the day as thou oughtest,
in prayer, reading, meditation, and other religious
exercises, alone and with thy family. God's time,
which is devoted to him, and should be employ-
ed for him, thou givest to the world, and thy worldly
business, or (which is perhaps more common) to the
body, and to the ease and pleasure of it, and to the
entertainments of a vain and foolish conversation.
Art thou verily guilty in these or any of these
things ? This paper comes with an humble request
to thee, that thou wouldest consider thy ways and
amend them. •
This is one of those sins which the public attempts
for the reformation of manners at this day are level-
led against, at least in some instances of it ; and
justly, for the profanation of God's sabbaths, which
he is very jealous for the honour of, is a sin, that
brings judgments upon a land* perhaps, as soon as
any other. It is a sin that kindles Jires in the pates
of Jerusalem^ (Jer. xvii. 27.) a sin that hriit§s fH
more wrath upon Israel^ Neh. xiii. 17* 18. Afid,
therefore, all who wish well to the pablic peace, tad
those, especially, who are intrusted with the preser-
vation of it, are concerned in interest, as well as duty,
to take care of the due sancCification of the sabbatb,
as far as it falls within their cognizance, so that
whatever guilt of this kind particular persons may
contract, it may not become national.
Now in our dealing with this sin, as we bare
this advantage, that we are not struggling with tke
violent impetus of a particular lust, appetite, or
passion, which is commonly deaf to reason and ex-
postulation ; so, on the other hand, we laboar nndcr
this difficulty, that they who are guilty of thlssii,
are commonly more ready to insist apon their owi
justification, than any other sort of sinners. It ua
way that seems right, and they who walk in it say,
They have done no wickedness ; and not only so, but
they are forward to censure and condemn those wk
allow not themselves the same latitude, as needlessly
and superstitiously precise.
I should transgress the designed limits of this
paper, if I should enter into the dispute coneemiiif
the perpetual obligation of the fourth commandmeBt,
which (as to the substance of it, the keeping of one
day in seven holy to God) is I hope no dispute with
us, since we are all agreed to pray to God to kat
mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep tkii
law.
I shall therefore only in a few lines (that I may
hasten to what I principally intend) endeavour to
make out the divine appointment of the Christiai
sabbath, as a day of holy rest in order to holy worhi
by these three steps :
(1.) It appears by the light of nature, that there
must be some such day observed. If God is to be
worshipped by us solemnly and in comfort, there
must be some fixed and stated times for the doing of
it, the designation of which is necessary both to pre-
serve the thing itself, and to put a solemnity upon it
The Gentiles had days set apart to the honour of
their gods, which they spent accordingly, in rest
from worldly labour, and, by the solemnities of theh
religion, looking upon those as peculiar days, distin-
guished from and dignified above other days. Does
not even nature teach men thus to own God the Lord
of time, and to constitute opportunities for the pab-
lic solemn worship of him? Now, if all people
will thus walk in the name of their god, should not
we walk in like manner in the name of the Lord oar
God ? Mic. iv. 5.
(2.) It appears by the Old Testament, that one
day in seven should be thus religiously observed.
It is plain that a sabbath was instituted from the
beginning, it was a positive institution in paradise,
as marriage was ; the former necessary to the pie-
serving of the church and sacred fellowship, as the
WHO PROFANE THE LORD'S DAY.
406
latter to the sapport of families and haman fellow-
ship, Gen. ii. 2, 3. When the Scriptare says expressly
there, that God rested on the seventh day^ and that
he blessed and sanctified it because he so rested ; we
wrest the Scripture, if we suppose it recorded there
as a thing done long after. By this management
the plainest evidence of Scripture may be turned off
and evaded. To suppose that sabbaths were not kept
in the patriarchal age, because no mention is made
of them in the history of that age, is absnrd ; since
we have a record of the institution of the sabbath
in the beginning, and an account of the religious
observation of a sabbath, before the giving of the
law upon mount Sinai, viz. when the manna was
given, Exod. xvi. 23, 26. As at the first planting of
religion in the world, so now at the revival of it
out of its ruins in Egypt, one of the first things
taken care of is the sabbath, and it is spoken of, not
as a new institution, but as an old law, which, when
' Moses had notified the day to them, (they having
' lost their reckoning in Egypt,) they are sharply re-
buked for the violation of, v. 28. How Umg refuse
ye to heep my commandments and my laws ?
The first word of the fourth commandment. Re-
member the sabbath day^ plainly shows that it was
the revival of an old commandment, which had
been forgotten, viz. That one day in seven should
he sanctified to God. It is the solemn declaration of
an ancient institution, and is of perpetual obligation,
that the seventh day, not the seventh from tho
creation, which in the revolution of so many ages,
we cannot be infallibly certain of, but the seventh
day, after six days worldly labour, is the sabbath of
the Lord our God, and is so to be sanctified. And
though God rested the seventh day from the creation,
yet in the fourth commandment it is not said he
blessed the seventh day, but he blessed the sabbath
day. or a sabbath day, (in that proportion of time,)
and sanctified it : and this part of the blessing of
Abraham's seed comes upon the Gentiles through
faith.
Very much stress was laid, in the times of the
Old Testament, upon the observation of the sabbath,
more than on any institution purely ceremonial:
and the Old-Testament prophecies, that point at
gospel times, make it part of the description of con-
verted strangers, that they make conscience of keep-
ing the sabbath from polluting it, Isa. Ivi. 6.
(3.) It appears by the New Testament, that the
first day of the week should be observed and sanc-
tified as a Christian sabbath. It is evident to any
who read the New Testament without prejudice,
[1.] That a weekly sabbath is to be religiously
observed in the Christian church. We not only
find no repeal of the fourth commandment, in the
New Testament, nor any reason for the repeal of it;
bat on the contrary we find it expounded by otir
Saviour, and vindicated from the corrupt glosses of
the Scribes and Pharisees, who, as in other things
they were profanely loose, so in this they were
superstitiously strict Several occasions Christ took
to show that works of necessity and mercy are no
violations of the sabbath rest; as Luke xiii. 14.
John V. 18; ix. 14. and especially Matt. xii. 1, fitc.
Had the law of the fourth commandment been to
expire presently, our Saviour would not have been
so careful to explain it ; but it is plain he designed
to settle a point, which would afterwards be of use
to his church, and to teach us, that our Christian
sabbath, though it is under the direction of the
fourth commandment, yet, it is not under the
arbitrary injunctions of the Jewish elders.
Our Saviour has likewise told us, that the sabbath
was made for men, and not for the Jews only ; and
that he himself was Lord of the sabbath day, that
is, that it should be in a special manner his day,
and devoted to him. He likewise supposed the con*
tinuance of a sabbath, to be so religiously obsened
by his disciples, at the very time of the destruction
of Jerusalem, which put a final period to all the
peculiarities of the Jewish economy, that he bids
them pray that their then flight might not be in the
winter, nor on the sabbath day. Matt. xxiv. 20.
And the apostle (Heb. iv. 9.) plainly speaks of a
sabbath, or day of rest, which believers have now
under the gospel, like that day of rest which God
instituted, when he had finished the work of creation.
[2.] It is likewise evident, that the day which the
Christian church has in all ages observed, and does
still, which is commonly reckoned the first day of
the week, is the day which it is the will of Christ
we should observe as our Christian sabbath. It is
certain that the apostles were authorized and
appointed to teach the churches of Christ those
things pertaining to the kingdom of God, wherein
he had instructed them ; the Spirit was poured out
upon them to enable them rightly and duly to execute
their commission, so as to answer all the great ends
of it. Now it is plain that the apostles and first
Christians did religiously observe the^ first day of
the week, as the day of their solemn assemblies for
divine worship, (Acts xx. 7. 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2.) and
that with a regard to the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. This they called, The Lord^s day^ (Rev. i.
10.) as a day that answers all the intentions of a
weekly sabbath ; as such it has been received and
observed by the churches of Christ. It is the day
which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad
in it, Ps. cxviii. 24.
What there was in the Old-Testament sabbath
which was typical, has had aad will have its accom-
plishment in the spiritual and eternal rest of true
believers; but that which was the main scope of
the fourth commandment, that the seventh day, after
six days' labour, should be kept holy to God, re-
mains still in fall force. But now, under the New
406
A SERIOUS ADDRESS TO THOSE
Testament, a ^eater stress is laid upon the holy work
of the day, than apon the holy rest, and upon the
rest, only in order to the work, and worship, and the
ends of it. When the church was in its infancy and
childhood, it was dealt with accordingly ; a bodily
rest was then mainly insisted on, as the sanctifica-
tion of the sabbath, which was so called because it
was a day of rest, for so sabbath si{;nifies. But now,
under the gospel, the church is grown up to full age,
and, therefore, now more notice is taken of the busi-
ness to which the day is devoted ; viz. joy in God,
(Ps. cxviii. 24.) copamunion with Christ, (John
XX. 19, 26.) and with the Spirit, (Rev. i. 10.) and
with our fellow-Christians, Acts xx. 7. And as to
the rest, this general rule is to be observed, that no-
thing be done to derogate from the solemnity and
honour of the day, and to lay it common with other
days, nor any thing to divert us from, or distract us
in, any part of the work of the day. Yet, still it is
not improper to call it the Christian sabbath, be-
cause it is a day of rest from the world, and rest in
God.
Having thus endeavoured to set this matter in a
true and convincing light, I come now to reason the
case a little with the consciences of those who make
light of the Lord's day. Those 1 mean who spend
it, or any part of it, in idleness, sport, tippling, or
secular business, and turn their backs upon the
public worship of God in religious assemblies ; or,
if not that, yet, either wholly neglect, or very care-
lessly and superficially perform, their secret and
family worship. And O that I could offer some-
thing now, which by the grace of God might help
to convince and awaken such !
I will take it for granted (sirs) that yon have not
abandoned religion, that you are not desirous to dis-
engage yourselves from its sacred bonds, nor willing
to disclaim its joys and hopes ; you are toot arrived
to that desperate resolution of living without God
in the world ; no, it is not come to that with you.
You have not renounced the Christian faith, nor
abjured your baptismal covenant, nor by searing
your consciences, as with a hot iron, marked them
for the devil and hell ; what I shall say, will have
little influence upon those who are of such a cha-
racter as this. But to you, O metij I call, and my voice
is to the sons of men, not to such incarnate devils : I
speak to those, who, I hope, have some sense of
religion, and of whose consciences God has still
some hold.
Give me leave, therefore, to recommend to your
serious consideration the two great intentions and
designs of the Lord's day, which are (as far as lies
in you) defeated and frustrated by your profanation
of it, and your constant neglect of the duties of it.
The Lord's day was appointed to be kept holy and
religiously observed,
I. For the glory and honour of God ;
II. For the good and happiness of man. So that all
those who profane the Lord's day, do a g^reat disho-
nour to God to whom it is dedicated, and no less
an injury to themselves, for whose benefit and com-
fort it was intended.
I. In profaning the Lord's day you sin agaioii
heaven, and put a daring . aflfront upon the divine
authority and grace. Here let me speak boldly,
let me speak warmly, as an advocate for God. 1 Iw-
seech you consider seriously what I have to say, sod
give me your patient hearing while I reason with
you.
You are baptized into the name of the Fatl^r,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and it is yoar hoooor
and privilege that you are so ; you say yon adhere
to it, and you would not for all the world be unhap-
tized, nor renounce your ChHstian name. Suffer ne
then a little to expostulate witli 3'oa apon the ac-
knowledged principles of your baptism, which, 1
think, you are not true to, while you continue to
profane the Lord's day as you do.
1. Have you no regard to the Eternal God, even
the Father, that made you and all the world ? Tbe
sabbath was first ordained to be celebrated by tbe
reasonable creatures in this lower world (for in tlie
upper world they keep an everlasting sabbath) to the
honour of the great Creator, as a standing memo-
rial of the finishing of the work of creation ; that is
the observance of H we may give him praise for the
wonders we see in all the creatures, and may give
him thanks for the favours and comforts we rccetve
by them. This is specified in the fourth command-
ment, as the ground of that ancient institution,
which bore date before the entrance of sin into tbe
world.
The author and spring of all the movements of
time justly claims to be the Lord of time, and he has
wisely appointed one day in seven to be consecrated
to him, as an acknowledgment that be is so, and that
our times are both from his hand and in his hand.
And dare you sacrilegiously rob him of this tribute,
and demand to have even this also, as well as tbe
rest of the days of the week, at your own disposal,
to be given away to the world and the flesh ?
Consider (sirs) you are God's creatures, and tbe
work of his hands ; you are his reasonable crea-
tures, the priests of the visible creation, the collec-
tors of his praises, to gather them in from tbe infe-
rior creatures, which do all praise him objectivel},
and to pay them in by actual adorations. For flus
noble purpose you were endued with noble powen,
those of reason ; you were taught more than the
beasts of the earth, and were made wiser than ^
fowls of heaven. All the supports and comforts of
your lives are likewise the creatures of God's
power, and the gifts of his providence ; so that joa
are bound both in duty and gpratitude to serve and
I praise him. And dare you then prostitate thattiaa
WflO PROFANE TBE LORD'S DAY.
Asn
U) the world and the flesh, which is consecrated to
the honour of your great Lord, the author of jour
beings, the protector of your lives, and the giver of
all your comforts? You do thus in effect say to the
Almighty, Depart from tu, we desire not the know-
ledge of thy ways, like those impudent sinners, Joh
xxi. 14. And do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish
creatures and unwise ? O faithless creatures and
unjust?
In your idle walks on the Lord's day, and the di-
Tersion you take abroad, while you find your own
pleasure in them, I wonder how you can look either
to the heavens above- or the earth beneath, or the
ornaments of either, and not be ashamed to think,
that when they observe their time of serving you,
and contributing to your comfort, in the proper
season of the day, the proper season of the year,
according to the law of their Creator, you do not
observe your time of serving God, and contribut-
ing to his praise, according to the law given you,
but are playing abroad when you should be praying
at home. The sun does the work of the day in its
day, but you do not. The stork in the heavens
knows her appointed time, and comes in her season
to wait upon you ; but you observe not the time
God has appointed for your approaches to him. To
say, can we not meditate, and praise our Creator,
like Isaac, in the fields as well as in our closets, is
no good reply to this reproof, unless your own
hearts can witness for you, that indeed you do so,
which I fear they cannot ; for your walks are plain-
ly chosen, to befriend your diversion by society, not
to befriend your devotion by solitude.
When you spend any part of the Lord's day in
the ale-house or tavern, do not the good creatures of
God, which there you abuse, upbraid you with the
basest ingratitude, that when you have been receiv-
ing the comfort of those gifts of God*s bounty, the
rest of the days of the week, you grudge to spend
the Lord's day in humble and thankful acknow-
ledgnnents of the goodness of God to the whole cre-
ation, and to you in particular. Do all God's works
praise him every day, and will you think much this
day, to join with his saints in blessing him ? Ps.
cxlv. 10.
Was it the will of God that his glorious rest from
the work of creation, wherein the Eternal Mind took
a complacency in the copies of its own wisdom, and
the products of its own power, should be thus com-
memorated here on earth, by a holy rest every se-
venth day from worldly employments, while it is
continually celebrated in heaven, by those blessed
spirits there, who rest not day nor night from prais-
ing him ? And will you in effect tell him to his face,
that it does not deserve such a firequent and solemn
commemoration ? And is the will and law of the
eternal God nothing with you ? Is his authority and
honour of so small account in your eyes ? Shall the
2 K
service of the flesh, to which you are not debtors, be
preferred before the service of your God, to whom
you are infinitely indebted ?
You hsfve your lives from God, your bodies, your
souls, all your powers, and all your comforts, and
therefore you ought to be his subjects, and to pay
him tribute ; you are his tenants, and must not with-
hold his rent: this is his tribute, this is his rent.
Sabbath time is demanded as his part of your time ;
let this then that is his due be justly and faithfully
paid him in full : for will a man rob God ? Your
receivings from him are rich and constant ; grudge
him not these poor returns in their season.
2. Have you no regard to the Lord Jesus who re-
deemed you, and who gave his life a ransom for
many? The NeW'^Testament sabbath, being observed
on the first day of the week, is without doubt de-
signed particularly for the honour of Christ, and to
be celebrated as an abiding memorial of his resur-
rection from the dead, by which he was declared to
be the Son of God with power, and our accepted
surety ; for, as by dying he paid our debt, for he
was delivered for our offences, so by his resurrection
he took our acquittance, for he was raised again
for our justification, Rom. iv. 25. The advancement
of that despised stone to be the head of the comer,
was that which made this day remarkable, (Ps.
cxviii. 22, 24.) and they who despise this dignified,
distinguished day, do in effect still trample upon
that exalted stone. It is for the Redeemer's sake
that it is called, The Lord*s day, an honourable title,
and we ought to call it so, that we may show we
look upon it as holy of the Lord and honourable, and
may so honour it It bears Christ's image, and his
superscription ; we ought, therefore, to render to him
the things that are his.
You are called Christians ; you profess relation
to the blessed Jesus ; you are baptized into his
name, and wear his livery, and you say you hope to
be saved by him ; you are enrolled among his fol-
lowers, and you have in his house, and within his
walls, a place and a name; and can you find in
your hearts, so treacherously, and so very disinge-
nuously, to alienate from him any part of that time
which he claims a special property in ? Shall he to
whom you owe your all, be defrauded of that little
which he demands from you? You name Christ's
name, you do well ; but you contradict yourselves,
and will be found liars and dissemblers, if you dare
to profane his day, and grudge to spend it in his
service to his praise.
Let me beg of you seriously to consider how much
you are indebted to the Redeemer; from what a
bondage, to what a liberty, and at what an expense,
you were redeemed ; think what were ihe kind in-
tentions of the Redeemer's love, and what the blessed
fruits of his undertaking ; and you will see that you
owe him even your ownselves, all you are, all you
498
A SERIOUS ADDRESS TO THOSE
have, all you can do, all little enoagh, and too little ;
and will you then grudge him the whole of his own
day, which is instituted in remembrance of that
blessed work, for which we are so much Indebted,
and should be ever studying what we shall ren-
der?
As the Old-Testament sabbath was appointed to
be a solemn memorial, not so much of the work of
creation itself, as of the finishing of it ; so the Chris-
tian sabbath was appointed, to preserve in remem-
brance Christ's resurrection, which gave the finish-
ing stroke to his undertaking on earth. Now con-
sider, if he had not finished his undertaking, what
had become of us ; if he had left it, no other could
have taken it up ; if he that laid the foundation-
stone, as the author of our faith, had not brought
forth the top-stone, as the finisher of it, we had been
undone, for ever undone. Unworthy therefore, for
ever unworthy, art thou of an interest in and benefit
by this undertaking, if really thou make so light a
matter as thou seemest to do of that weekly solem-
nity in which the remembrance of it is celebrated,
not only for the advancing of the Redeemer's hon-
our, but for the advancing of the Redeemer's designs
and interests.
Let me therefore with all earnestness beseech you,
in the bowels of Christ, if you have any regard to
the sweet and blessed name of Jesus, into which
you were baptized ; that name which is above every
name, and which is as ointment poured forth ; that
name which is your strong tower, and your best plea
for the best blessings ; have a conscientious regard
to that day which bears his name. As ever you hope
to see the face of Christ with comfort, and expect
he shall stand your friend, in the day of your extre-
mity, testify your veneration for him now, by a
veneration for his day, and dare not to break in
upon that sacred rest, which is instituted to his hon-
our, nor trifle away any of those precious hours,
which he expects and requires should be employed
in his service.
Shall we think one day in seven too much, when
eternity itself will be too little, to be spent in the
joyful contemplations, and thankful praises, of the
height and depth, the length and breadth, of the love
of Christ which passcth knowledge ? Do the holy
angels attend the Redeemer with their constant ador-
ations, and praise him without intermission ? and
shall we who are more immediately interested in,
and benefited by, his undertaking, convert to other
purposes any of those few hours of the week which
are consecrated to his praise ? Is our Lord Jesus
continually appearing in heaven for us, always
mindful of our concerns there, and shall we make
thus light of his glory, and care so little to appear
before him, and before the world, for him ? Might
but the love of Christ command us, and that love
constrain us, surely we should love the Lord's day,
for his sake whose day it is, woald bid it welcooie,
and call it a delight.
3. Have you no regard to the blessed Spirit of
grace, into whose name also you were baptized, and
in honour of whom the Christian sabbath is cele-
brated ? The first day of the week was observed by
the disciples as a day of solemn meeting, from the
vefy day that Christ rose, for we find tbem together
again that day seven-night, probably by his appoint-
ment, John XX. 26. The day of Pentecost that yesr
fell on the first day of the week, and on that day
they were together in a solemn meeting, all with one
accord in one place, when the Spirit descended
upon them. Acts ii. 1, &c.
Now the pouring out of the Spirit was the great
promise of the New Testament, as the incamatioii
of Christ was of the Old Testament, and was a gift
to the church no less necessary and valnable than
the resurrection of Christ. He rose to carry on the
good work in us, without which we could have do
benefit by his mediation. The influences and ope-
rations of the Spirit are as necessary to our salvation,
as the satisfaction and intercession of the Son.
When Christ rose he retired to heaven, to receive
his kingdom and to prepare ours ; but when he sent
the Spirit, he did in efiect return to his church on
earth ; for thus the want of his bodily presence was
supplied, abundantly to the advantage of his disci-
ples. It was expedient for us that he should go
away, that he might send the Comforter, John xvi.7.
To the descent of the Spirit we owe those gifts of
tongues, which spread the gospel to distant nations,
and to ours among the rest ; and those inspired writ-
ings which propagated the gospel to after ages, and
will perpetuate it to the end of time. Without this
the earth, even within the church's pale, had been
still a wilderness and a barren land ; for it is only the
pouring out of the Spirit upon us from on high, that
turns the wilderness into a fruitful field, Isa. xudi.
15. To the gift of the Holy Ghost is owing the con-
viction of conscience, the regeneration of the soul,
its progress and advances in holiness, and all those
consolations of God, which are our songs in the
house of our pilgrimage : had not the Spirit been
given to apply the redemption, we had never been
the better for Christ's purchase of it.
Now it is in remembrance of these gifts given to
men, after the Redeemer was ascended on high, that
we celebrate the Lord's day ; and therefore, to the
right sanctification of it, it is necessary that we be
in the Spirit, (Rev. i. 10.) that is, that we compose
ourselves into a spiritual frame, and submit oar-
selves to the Spirit's workings. The greatest honour
we can do to the Spirit, is to walk after the Spirit
We then give glory to the Holy Ghost, when we dili-
gently attend to that word, whidh was given by his
inspiration, and lay our souls under the command*
ing power and influence of it ; when we pray in the
I
WHO PROFANE THE LORD'S DAY.
499
Holy Ghost, under the conduct of the spirit of adop-
tion, teaching us to cry, Abba, Father ; and when we
carefully hearken to the checks, and follow the dic-
tates, of a well-informed conscience. Thus the sab-
bath must be sanctified to the praise of the Blessed
Spirit.
And is it nothing to you who profane the Lord's
day, that thereby you reflect dishonour upon the
Eternal Spirit, who proceedeth from the Father and
the Son, and who with the Father and the Son,
together is and ought to be worshipped and glorified
on the Lord's day ? You struggle against him who
is given to strive with you for your good ; you check
your Monitor, yon resist your Sanctifier, and grieve
your Comforter.
Do you not indeed think it worth your while to
spend so many hours every week, as the working part
of the Lord's day amounts to, in the joyful, thankful
commemoration of so great a blessing bestowed
upon the church, which still remains a real benefit
to all its ministers, and to all its members, and is
the quickening root of all their fruitfulness and
flourishing ?
It was on the first day of the first week of time,
that the Blessed Spirit moved upon the face of the
waters to produce a world, a world of beauty and
plenty, out of confusion and emptiness ; and it was
upon the first day of another week, that he descended
on the apostles, and inspired them to produce a
ehurch ; justly, therefore, is the first day of the week
consecrated to the honour of that divine person, to
whom we owe both our being, and our new-being,
in order to our well-being. Profane not then that
which is thus sanctified, to the praise of the great
Sanctifier. How can you expect the comfort of his
sacred influences, if thus you violate and break in
upon his sacred interests ? Our Saviour speaks of an
afi'ront put upon the Holy Ghost as more criminal,
more dangerous, and of more fatal consequence to
the sinner, than an affront put upon the Lord Jesus
himself. Matt. xii. 31, 32. Not as if every sin against
the Holy Ghost contracted the indelible stain of an
Unpardonable sin, God forbid ! but it is intimated
that there is a peculiar malignity and provocation
In those sins, which put a slight upon the Blessed
Spirit, as this certainly does, which not only pro-
fanes the time which is sacred to his honour, but
neglects the opportunity of receiving his promised
gifts, in the way of instituted ordinances.
If there be, therefore, any fellowship of the Spirit,
valae it, improve it, be not strangers to it. As ever
you look for any comfort from the Holy Ghost, living
or dying, here or hereafter, call it not a task, and a
burthen, and a weariness, to separate yourselves
from the world one day in a week, to an attendance
vpon the Spirit, that you may give honour to him,
and may receive g^ce and comfort from him ; but
rejoice in those stated opportunities, not only of I
2x2
I professing, but of improving, your faith in the Holy
Ghost.
You see (brethren) how great and honourable, how
holy and reverend, these names are by which we
plead with you, and beseech you not to profane the
Lord's day. I am willing to hope, that in what you
do, you intend not an affront to the eternal God,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; you still honour God
with your lips, and call yourselves by his name;
but whether you intend it so or no, you see it is with
good reason so interpreted. Every contempt of the
day of the Lord is, if not designedly, yet construc-
tively, a contempt of him who is the Lord of the day ;
and so he will resent it, and reckon for it, for in the
matters of his worship the Lord whose name is Jealous
is a jealous God, I beseech you, therefore, (brethnen,)
for the sake of the blessed God, whose you are, and
whom you are bound to serve, and to whom you are
accountable, if you have any respect to the honour
of his nanle, and the interests of his kingdom, and
desire of his favour and grace, or any dread of his
wrath and curse. Remember the sabbath day to keep
it holy, for it is the sabbath of the Lord your God.
Do not alienate to the world and the flesh any of
those precious minutes, which he challenges a special
property in ; but by a double care and diligence for
the future, endeavour to make restitution of those
which by your neglects hitherto yon have embezzled.
God fills up your time with mercy, look upon your-
selves, therefore, as bound in gratitude to fill up
his time with duty ; so shall God have the praise,
and you the comfort
II. In profaning the Lord's day, you sin against
your own souls, and throw away that good and
benefit, which is designed both to others and to your-
selves by the institutipn of it Our Saviour has told
us that the sabbath was made for man, and it is
reckoned among the favours God showed to his
Israel, that he made known unto them his holy
sabbath, Neh. ix. 14. And if the Old-Testament
sabbath was so great a privilege, much more is our
Christian sabbath so, for the New Testament begins
with a proclamation of good-will toward men. If
the ministration of death was glorious, much more
the ministration of the Spirit, We solicit yon for
your own good, and beg of you to consider for what
ends the Lord's day was appointed in your favours,
and if you will but consult yourselves, and the
comfort of your own souls, you will study to comply
with the intentions of it ; if thou be wise herein,
thou shalt be wise for thyself.
1. The Lord's day was appointed for the benefit
of the church and Christian societies. It was wisely
designed, that by the religious observance of that
day, and a visible difference made between it and
other days, a face of religion and godliness might
be kept up, and a profession of Christianity main-
tained, published, and propagated. This is the show
500
A SERIOUS ADDRESS TO THOSE
of that substance ; and though the show without
the substance, the form of godliness without the
power of it, will not avail particular persons that
rest in it ; yet, it is for the advantage of the church
in general, and helps to support it in the world.
It would have been hard for all Christian churches,
b}' a common consent among themselves only, to
have agreed upon such a badge and token of the
communion of saints, as the solemnizing of the
•
Lord's day is; and therefore the wisdom of the
church's head and lawgiver has appointed it Thus
still the sabbath is a sign, a distinguishing sign, as
it was to Israel of old, Exod. xxxi. 13. In the pri-
mitive times, when a Christian was examined by the
heathen judges. Hast thou kept the Lortft day ? His
answer was, lama Christian ; intimating, that being
a Christian he durst not do otherwise. By this might
all men know who were Christ's disciples ; it was one
of the badges of their profession ; so that in sancti-
fying the Lord's day, we testify our relation to, and
concurrence with, all that in every place call on the
name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.
Sinc^ all Christians cannot possibly meet in one and
the same place, by meeting thus on one and the same
day, and that the Lord's day, they testify their com-
munion with each other in faith, hope, and love, and
that though they are many, yet they are one. Those,
therefore, who violate and profane the Lord's day,
do as much as lies in them to thwart and defeat this
intention.
I beseech you consider it seriously, you are bap-
tized into the great body, and by virtue of that you
are called Christians, and it is your honour ; but
unworthy, for ever unworthy, are you of that honour,
while yon manifestly do disservice to the Christian
name and cause, stain the beauty of its profession,
stop the progress of its interest, and endanger the
cutting off of the entail of it, by putting the Lord's
day upon a level with other days, and in effect,
trampling upon it as a common thing : hereby you
pluck up some of the best ranges of the church's pale,
and lay all in common. Take away the conscience
of sabbath sanctification, and you open a gap, at
which all religion quickly runs out, and an inunda-
tion of virickedness breaks in of course ; they who
make no difference between God's day and other
days, will not long make any difference between
God's name and other names, and between God's
book and other books. If sabbaths be generally neg-
lected. Bibles, and ministers, and other institutions,
will not be duly prized ; and if these hedges of reli-
gion be broken down, religion itself will soon become
an easy prey to the boar of the wood, and the wild
beast of the forest
And is it nothing to you whether the Lord Jesus
has a church in the world or no ? and whether his
religion has a place and an interest among men or
no ? Are you Indeed in confederacy with those who
have said, " Come and let us cut off the Christias
religion, that the name of it may be no more in re-
membrance," Ps. Ixxxiii. 3, 4. Certainly, if all
should make as light of the Lord's day as yon do, it
would come to this in a little time ; the light of tbe
gospel would be put out, its coal would be quenched,
and there would remain to it neither root nor bruek.
If these outworks be betrayed to the enemy, themiiB
forts cannot long be maintained; but the gates of
hell will prevail against the church.
Let me, therefore, beg of you for the church's
sake, as you value its being and welfare, its conti-
nuance and prosperity in the world, if you haveasy
regard to its bleeding cause, to its dying interesti,
and would help to revive it, do what you can to
support the honour of the Lord's day. Let not Sion's
friends deal treacherously with her, nor betray bcr
to those who seek her ruin ; let them not join wiA
her enemies in mocking at her sabbaths ; for if thoie
fail into contempt, and the sanctification of them be
disused, she soon sits solitary, becomes as a widov,
and all her beauty is departed from her. I refer to
those complaints, Lam. 1. 1, 2, 6, 7. You would will-
ingly see the good of Jenualem, and retigion in a
flourishing state ; help then to maintain the honoar
of God's sabbaths, and thereby show before tbe
churches your professed subjection to the gospel of
Christ
2. The Lord's day was appointed for the wetiUBf
of us from this present world, and the taking off of
our affections from the things of it, by giving a stop
and pause once a week to our secular pursuits ; and
we lose this benefit of it if we neglect it, and viobte
the appointed rest of that day. It is certain that
much of the power of godliness lies in our livhi;
above the world, and being dead to it ; those are
Christians indeed who look upon the things that are
seen with a holy indifference and contempt, as those
who know their felicity and portion, lie in tbetfai]i|S
that are not seen.
But it would be very hard, and even impossible, to I
attain to this heavenly mind, if we were to be con-
stantly in the crowd and hurry of worldly emph^*
ments and recreations, and in an uninterrupted coa*
verse with the things of sense and time : if every
day were to be entirely for the world, without aoj
intermission, every thought and intent of the heart
will be for it too, and the whole soul will be plaoged
and lost in it
And, therefore, he who knows our frame, andtkit
we are, in mind as well as body, dust, apt to move
toward the dust of this earth, and to mingle with it;
he who knows where we dwell, even where Sataa's
seat is, the prince of this world, (Rev. ii. lS.)hti
wisely and graciously appointed us some rat frw
our worldly pursuits. His providence has appoiilBd
us the natural rest of every evening, which calh •
in from our work and labour, and gives vssoneai-
/
t
J
k
I
WHO PROFANE THE LORD'S DAY.
601
▼antageous minutes (if we have bat wisdom to im-
prove them) for retirement into ourselves ; and reflec-
tion upon ourselves, for communing with our own
hearts, and meditating on God and his word. But
this is not all ; his grace has also provided for us the
instituted rest of every sabbath, which gives us a
longer breathing time; that while our hands rest
from the business of the world, our minds may rest
from the cares of it, and so we may be saved from
the inordinate love of it.
Six days thou shalt labour and do all thy work,
all that work that must be done for the body thou
carriest about with thee, that that may be supported,
and for the world thou livest in, that thou mayst pass
comfortably through it ; but thou must shortly put off
this body, and bid adieu to this world ; and therefore,
one day in seven thou shalt rest from this work and
labour, and lay it aside, that thou mayst recall thy
thoughts and affections from the world and the body ;
and so learn to sit loose to them, and by these fre-
quent acts confirm the habit of heavenly-minded-
ness. By our weekly retirements from the world, it
will be made the more easy to us always to live
above the world, as those who are strangers and so-
journers in it.
And do you not find (sirs) that there is need of such
pauses, such parentheses, as these? Do you not
find the world encroaching upon you, and gaining
ground in your hearts ? Do you not experience the
insinuating nature of these present things, even of
care and toil about them, which are strangely be-
witching ; and that by constant converse with the
things of the earth, we grow in love with them and
become eartlfy ? And will you not then take the ad-
vantage which this institution ^ives you, to recover
the ground you lose all the week, by a total cessation
of worldly business on the Lord's day ? By a close
application of yourselves to the proper business and
pleasure of the Lord's day, you will find yourselves
00 well employed, and so well entertained by your
religion, that you will look with a holy contempt
upon the employments and entertainments of the
world.
Let me add under this head, that your accustom-
ing of yourselves to a strict retirement from the
world on the Lord's day, will make your final removal
out of it at death more easy and less formidable.
Brethren, you are dying, your souls are continually
in your hands ; death will shortly seal up your hands,
it will cut off all your purposes, and put a full stop
to all your pursuits ; yet a little while, and the place
that knows you will know you no more ; yet a little
while, and you must bid an eternal farewell to your
houses and lands, your farms and merchandise, and
this will be a hard task, if you never knew what it
was to intermit these cares and pleasures. If you
will not think it worth your while to leave them at
the bottom of the hill, while you go up to worship,
with a purpose to return to them again, as Abraham',
(Gen. xxii. 5.) what a difficulty will it be to you to
leave them, not to return to them again ! You can-
not find in your hearts to keep from your shops or
sports, to lay aside your worldly business and diver-
sions, one day in seven ; how then will you persuade
yourselves willingly to quit all at death? which yet
you must do, whether yon will or no. We must for-
sake these things shortly ; to prepare us for which, it
is good for us, at least as often as God hath appointed
us, to forget them now, and lay aside the thoughts
of them. If we would make a virtue of the neces-
sity we shall be under of leaving the world when we
die, let us make a necessity of the virtue of retiring
from the world, and putting off the care and business
of it, every Lord's day.
3. The Lord's day was appointed for our commu-
nion and fellowship with God, with the Father, and
with his Son Jesus Christ, by the Spirit, and we arc
enemies to ourselves, if we neglect to improve it for
this purpose ; we are on that day not only called
off from the world, but called up into the holiest,
into which, by the blood of Jesus, we have access
with humble boldness. We are invited from on high,
Cofne up hither, to the highest degrees of comfort and
honour that man on earth is capable of, and will
you choose to tarry below, to converse with earthly
things, when you are invited to a conversation with
things heavenly and divine ? How much soever this
may seem a paradox to those who are strangers to
the life of God, and to the power of godliness, all
who are serious and devout know what it is.
This is a day in which we are with all humility to
make visits to God, and with all reverence and ob-
servance to receive visits from him ; to hear what he
speaks to us out of his word, and to speak to him by
prayer. This is the proper conversation of that day,
for this it was instituted and intended ; and, there-
fore, to spend it in idle visits, and in impertinent
talk, either foolish in itself, and which would be
culpable any day, or,- at least, in that which is fo-
reign to the business of this day, is to put a great
slight upon God Almighty, and upon tiie provision
he has made for our communion with him. It is as
if a prince, or some great or wise man, should invite
you into his company, offer to entertain you with the
most pleasant and edifying discourse, and appoint a
time and place for the interview, and you should
leave him, and turn your back upon him, to go and
talk with some idle beggar or buffoon at the door.
Would not this justly be construed an intolerable
affront? Would you not blush to think that yon
should ever be guilty of such a piece of rudeness ?
Would you not expect to be forbidden the house
and presence of the person you had thus slighted ?
Yet you do ten thousand times worse than this, when
you trifle away that day in common conversation and
business, which God has appointed you to spend in
602
A SERIOUS ADDRESS TO THOSE
communion with himself, according as yonr oppor-
tunities are.
The whole life of a Christian ought to be a life of
communion with God ; our eyes must be ever toward
the Lord, we must walk with him, and set him al-
ways before us, and in all our ways we must ac-
knowledge him. Now, in order to the keeping up
of this habitual regard to God, wherein consists so
much of the power of godliness, it is requisite that
we be frequent and constant at stated times in the
solemn acts of devotion. We contract an acquaint-
ance with our friends, and an affection for them, by
being often in their company, interchanging know-
ledge and love : thus our acquaintance with God is
cultivated by religious worship, and without that it
withers and dies, and comes to nothing. The divine
life is supported and maintained by the receiving
and digesting of the bread of life, and no other-
wise.
Communion with God is in short this : it is to ad-
mit into our minds the discoveries God has been
pleased to make of himself, and of his will and
grace, and to dwell upon them in our thoughts, and
to make returns of agreeable affections and motions
of soul suited to those discoveries. It is to delight
ourselves in the pleasing contemplation of the
beauty, bounty, and benignity of our God, and to
employ ourselves in the pious exercises of faith, love,
and resignation to him, and in the joyful praises of
his name.
And is one day in seven too much to be spent in
such work as this ? Or shall we break in upon the
bounds which the divine law has set about that
mountain, on which God has promised to come down,
— and lay it in common with the wilderness ? Should
we not rather virish that every day were a sabbath
day, and that we might always dwell in God's house,
with them who are there still praising him ?
If we did indeed love God, as we ought, with all
our heart and soul, we would not say, when we have
been attending upon him two or three hours in pub-
lic worship, now we have sure done enough for this
day, when we are invited, encouraged, and appoint-
ed still to continue our communion with him, still to
feast upon his holy word, and repeat our addresses
at the throne of his grace in our closets and families.
Would we be so soon weary of an intimate conver-
sation with a friend we love and take pleasure in ?
No, with such a friend we contrive how to prolong
the time of conversation, and when the hours of sit-
ting together are expired, we stand together, and,
as those who are loth to part, bid often farewell, and
we add to this a walk together for further discourses.
Is this thy hindneit to thy friend, and wilt thou say
of communion with thy God, Behold what a weari-
ness is it? and contrive excuses to contract it, to
break it off, or cut it short ?
Reading the Holy Bible and other good books,
repetition, catechising, singing psalms, prayiaf,
praising, profitable discourse ; these are the exer-
cises which, if they meet with a heart piously and
devoutly affected toward God, will famish us with
such a pleasing variety of good works, to fill ap
those hours of the Lord's day which are not spent io
public worship, or in works of necessity and meicj,
and will turn so much to our advantage, that vc
shall complain of nothing so much as the speedj
returns of the sabbath evening, and the shadows
thereof. Did we call the sabbath a delight, as we
ought, and the work 6f it a pleasure ; we would be
ready to say. Sun, stand thou still upon this GHem;
let the day be prolonged, and the minutes of it
doubled, for it is pood to hs here, here let us smIt
tabernacles : or rather let us endeavour, by the gr^e
of God, to do a double work in a single day, and
long to be there where we shall spend an everiastiiif
sabbath in communion with God, a sabbath that
will have no night at the end of it, nor any week-
day to come after it.
Yon who trifle away sabbath time, I beseech yon
consider this seriously; Sesmeth it a small thing is
you, that the God of Israel has separated you to kriM§
you near to himself? That he has not only admitted
you into covenant, but invited you into communioa
with himself? And is this a favour that must got
begging with you, and that after all the court it
makes to you, you will not be persuaded to accept
of ? And shall the conversation of a vain companioo
in an ale-house or tavern, the entertainments of a
coffee-house, or an idle walk into the fields, be pre-
ferred before the honour and pleasure of communion
with God in Christ? And will you indeed chooee
these broken cisterns rather than the fountain of
living waters ; these lying vanities rather than yoor
own mercies? God in mercy open your eyes and
show you your folly ! Would David rather be a
door-keeper in the house of God, than dwell in the
tent; of wickedness ? and will you rather be door-
keepers, slaves, and drudges, in the tents of wick-
edness, than dwell in liberty, ease, and honour ia
the house of your God ?
O that I could now prevail with you to look upon
it as your main business on the Lord's day, from the
beginning to the end of the day, to converse with
God, and to mind it accordingly. If God will con-
descend to meet with you in your secret, as well as
public, addresses to him, and has appointed you a
set time for them, be not you so rude to him, and
so unjust to yourselves, as to neglect them, or make
but a short and slighting business of them.
4. The Lord's day was appointed for our further-
ance and increase in holiness, and the carrying on
of the work of sanctification in us ; in the due pe^
formance of the work of the Lord's day, and the doe
observance of its rest In order thereunto there is
not only the pleasure of maintaining communioa
WHO PROFANE THE LORD'S DAY.
603
with God, but the real benefit of increasing oar
conformity to him. This profit we shall have, if we
pray to him, and keep his ordinances ; while thus
we behold the glory of the Lord, we are through
^race changed into the same image. By worship-
ping the Lord in the beauty of holiness, we come to
be partakers of his holiness, and so the beauty of
the Lord our God is upon us. And is it not worth
while to oblige ourselves to the strictest and most
careful observance of the Lord's day, in prospect of
those advantages by it ?
The sabbath day is a market day, a harvest day
fur the soul ; it is an opportunity, — it is time fitted
for the doing of that which cannot be done at all, or
not so well done, at another time : now, if this day
be suffered to run waste, and other business minded
than that which is the proper work of the day, our
souls cannot but be miserably impoverished and
neglected, and the vineyards, we are made keepers
of, cannot but be like the field of the slothful, and
the vineyard of the man void of understanding.
While you make no conscience of keeping the sab-
bath day, and improving the precious minutes of it,
no wonder that you are ignorant in the things of
God, fools, or at least but babes in knowledge, for
that is the time of getting understanding ; no wonder
that your lusts and corruptions are so strong as they
are, and you so unable to resist Satan's temptations,
your graces so weak, and you so unready to every
good word and work ; for when you should be fur-
nishing yourselves with what is needful for the sup-
port of your spiritual life, and the carrying on of
your spiritual warfare, you are doing something
else, that is not only foreign and impertinent, but
prejudicial and inconsistent
Solomon has long since pronounced it, not only
as the sentence of a wise king, but of a righteous
God, that he who sleeps or plays in harvest, is a ton
thmt cauteth shame y and when he begs in winter , he
thall have nothing. This is your character, and this,
if you do not repent and amend your doings, will
be your case. If at last you perish eternally, under
the power of a vain and carnal mind, and go down
to hell in impenitence and unbelief, your contempt
and profanation of the Lord's day will greatly ag-
gravate your condemnation ; because your due im-
provement of that sacred day would have been a
means to prevent your coming to that place of tor-
ment, without a messenger sent to you from the
dead.
Sirs, it is better to think of this now, when lost
sabbaths may be redeemed by an after care and
diligence, than remember it in the bottomless pit,
when the reflection upon it will but pour oil into the
flames, and it will be too late to retrieve the pre-
cious hours that you are now so prodigal of. O what
a cutting, what a killing, remembrance will it be
hereafter, to think, if I had spent that time on the
Lord's day in reading and meditation, in prayer and
praise, and the study of the Scriptures, and other
religious exercises, public, private, and secret,
which I spent in tippling, or sporting, or working at
my calling, or in idle or unprofitable conversation,
I might have got that knowledge and g^ace, and
kept up that communion with God, which would not
only have prevented my misery in this land of dark-
ness, but would have prepared me for the inheri-
tance of the saints in light ! If I had been as eager
to get wisdom, as I was to get wealth, and as solicit-
ous and industrious to please God, as I was to gra-
tify my own sensual appetite, and to recommend
myself to a vaii^ world, I might have been eternally
^^PPy» luid equal to the angels of light, who am now
likely to be for ever miserable, a companion with
devils, and a sharer with them in their endless pains
and horrors.
Then, O then, thou wouldst give a thousand
worlds, if thou hadst them, for one of those days of
the Son of man thou art now so prodigal of. But
the impassable gulph between thee and that grace
which is now offered thee, will then be immovably
fixed, the bridge of mercy will then be drawn, and
the door of hope will be shut for ever. Sabbaths
cannot then be recalled, nor will the offers of life be
made thee any more ; now God calls and thou wilt
not hear, then thou shalt call and he will not hear.
Thou art now called once a week to rest ; to rest
from the world, and rest in God ; but thou callest
even this rest a weariness, and snuffest at it ; justly,
therefore, will he swear in his wrath, that thou shalt
never enter into that rest of which this is a type,
and if thou be shut out from it, thy condition will
be for ever restless. Surely thy heart is desperately
hardened, if this consideration make no impression
on thee.
5. The Lord's day was appointed to be an earnest
and sign of our everlasting rest ; the rest that re-
mains for the people of God. It is intended to re-
mind us of heaven, to fit us for heaven, and to give
some comfortable pledges and foretastes of the joys
and glories of that blessed state, to all those who
have their conversation in heaven, and their affec-
tions set upon things above. These are the days of
heaven, and if heaven be an everlasting sabbath,
surely sabbaths are a heaven upon earth, in them
the tabernacle of God is with men.
And have you no value for eternal life, (sirs,) no
concern about it ? Is heaven nothing to you, or not
worth the thinking of? Do you indeed despise the
pleasant land, and prefer Egypt's garlic and onions
before Canaan's milk and honey, and a mess of
pottage before such a birthright and the privileges
of it ? Your profanation and contempt of the Lord's
day plainly says that you do so, and according to
your choice you shall have your lot, so shall your
doom be.
504
A SERIOUS ADDRESS, S(c.
You say you hope to be saved ; bat what ground
have you for those hopes, while you plainly show
that you neglect this great salvation, by your neglect
to commemorate Christ's resurrection, by which it
was wrought out, and your neglect to improve the
means of grace, by which you are prepared for it ?
If you had indeed any good hope of eternal life, you
would not think much to spend one day in seven, in
the joyful contemplation of it, and in getting your-
selves ready for it.
You say you hope to go to heaven ; but what plea-
sure can you take in the expectations of an ever-
lasting sabbath, and of the employments and enjoy-
ments of that world, when you are so soon weary of
these short sabbaths, which are types of that, and
are ready to say. When will they he gone? What
pleasure can it be to you to be for ever with the Lord,
to whom it is a pain and a penance to be an hour or
two with him now ? What happiness will it be to
you to dwell in his house, and to be still praising him
in heaven, who, by your good-will, would be never
praising him on earth, but grudge the few minutes
that are so employed ? Heaven vrill not be heaven
to a sabbath-breaker, for there is no idle company,
no vain sports, no foolish mirth or unprofitable chat,
there ; and these are his delights now, which he pre-
fers before that communion with God, which is both
the work and bliss of that world. All who shall go
to heaven hereafter, begin their heaven now ; as in
other things, so, particularly, in their cheerful con-
scientious observance of the Lord's day.
And now lay all this together, and then tell me if
there be not a great deal of reason why you should
keep holy the sabbath day, call it a deiighty holy of
the Lordy and therefore truly honourable, and why
you should therefore honour and sanctify him on
that day ; not doing your own ways but his ; not
finding your own pleasure, but aiming to please God ;
not speaking your own words as on other days, but
speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of
God, Isa. Iviii. 13.
Can the entanglements of custom, company, car-
nal pleasure, or worldly profit, be more powerful with
you than all those sacred cords and bonds ? Can
the pleasing of a customer, the obliging of a friend,
much less the gratifying of a base lust, balance the
displeasing of God, the dishonouring of Christ, and
the wronging of your own souls ? I beseech you to
consider it seriously, and be wise for yourselves.
After these considerations which I have urged,
surely I need not insist upon any other. I am confi-
dent, the reigning love of God in your hearts, and a
deep and serious concern about your precious sools
and their eternal welfare, will furnish you with coa-
siderations suflScient to oblige you to as much strict-
ness and care in the sanctification of the Lord's day,
as the word of God requires, and as is necessary to
answer the intentions of the institution : and more
than this we do not insist on. Think much of thit
of the Pharisees, which though blasphemously mis-
applied to the Saviour, was grounded upon a great
truth ; This man is not of God, because Ae keeptih wst
the sabbath day, John ix. 16.
Will it be to any purpose to suggest this fortiier
consideration to you ; That the way to prosper in
your affairs all the week, and to have the blessing of
God upon you in them, is to make conscience of the
Lord's day ? That truly great and good man, the
Lord Chief Justice Hale> writes very solemnly to
his children ; *' I have found by a strict and diligent
observation, that a due observance of the duties of
the Lord's day hath ever had joined to it a blessing
upon the rest of my time, and the week that hath
been so begun hath been blessed and prosperous
to me ; and on the other side, when I have been
negligent of the duties of this day, the rest of the
week hath been unsuccessful and unhappy to my
own secular employments the week following. This
I write, (saith he,) not lightly or inconsiderately,
but upon long and sound observation and expe-
rience."*
Shall I remind you how much it will be for your
credit with all wise and good people ? Those who
honour God he will honour. Shall I tell you with
what comfort you may lie down at night in the
close of a sabbath, after you have carefully done the
work of the day in its day ? Yea, thou shalt lie damn,
and thy sleep shall be sweet. Especially, think how
sweet and easy your reflections upon well spent sab-
baths will be when you come to die, and with what
pleasure you will then look forward upon the ever-
lasting sabbath you hope to keep within the Teil.
Wonder not that I am thus earnest with you in
this matter ; I see how much depends upon it, and
I persuade as one who desires and hopes to prevail
with you ; let me not be disappointed, as yoo valoe
the glory of your Creator, the honour of your Re-
deemer, and your own comfort and happiness in
both worlds. I beseech you. Remember the sahbath
day, the Christian sabbath, to heep it holy. Most
certainly true that saying is, which I have somewhere
met with ; That the stream of all religion rmns either
deep or shallow, according as the banhs of the sabbeih
are kept up or neglected.
• LfOrd Hale's Contemplations, vol. L p 323L
I
A CHECK TO AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE.
606
A CHECK
TO AN
UNGOVERNED TONGUE.
The criminal we are now dealings with, is pro-
nounced by an inspired writer, iln unruly evil, full
of deadly poison, (James iii. 8.) and, which is a very
great discouragement to any attempt for the refor-
mation of it, it is there said. That the tongue eon no
man tame: not that it is impossible for men to
govern their own tongues, but it is extremely difficult,
and next to impossible, to reclaim and reform the
extravagances of other people's tongues. And yet,
though no man can tame this unruly evil, doubtless,
the almighty grace of God can. With iiifn this is
impossible, but with God all things are possible ; even
this. And that grace, though not tied to any methods
in its operations, yet, ordinarily, makes use of the
endeavours of men, as means to accomplish and
effect its purposes.
Again.st this Goliah, therefore, we go forth to battle,
though armed only with a sling and a stone, in the
name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies
of Israel, whom it hath defied ; leaving the success
of the attempt to him who made man's mouth, and
is alone able to new-make it, as he certainly does,
wherever he gives a new heart.
And we will first mention particularly the most
common and daring extravagances of an ungovemed
tongue, and severally show the evil of them ; de-
signing and endeavouring thereby to confirm the
innocent, and, especially, to reform the guilty : and
then we will, in some general directions, ofier some-
thing toward the cure of these epidemical diseases.
And God grant that this labour may not be alto-
gether in vain !
I. Profane swearing is one of the common trans-
gressions, or rebellions rather, of an ungovemed,
ill-governed tongue. A sin so common, that in most
places it is become the vulgar dialect of all sorts of
persons, with whose poisonous breath the air itself
■eems to be infected ; and yet a sin so exceeding
sinful, that tlie tongue is therein set against the
heavens, (Ps. Ixxiil. 9.) insults over and tramples
upon that which is most sacred and honourable.
The malignity of this sin lies especially in the
prostituting of that solemn appeal, which by an
oath is made, to God's knowledge and justice, to
the most impertinent and trivial purposes. Devout
and religious swearing, when we are duly called to
be sworn, is an ordinance of God, whereby we give
unto him the glory due unto his name, as an omnis-
cient, true, and righteous God. Profane swearing
is a scornful and insolent contempt of that ordinance,
treading it under foot, as a common thing, and
thereby doing despite to him, for whose honour it is
intended. It is a sacrilegious alienating of those
forms of speech which are consecrated to the glory
of God, and turning them to a profane and wieked
use ; like Belshazzar's polluting the vessels of the
temple, by gracing his drunken revels with them,
which filled the measure of his iniquity. It is
trifling and jesting with that, which in its own nature
is awful and reverend, and which ought at all
times to be treated and attended to with the greatest
seriousness.
Some accustom themselves wholly to this language
of hell ; all their discourse is corrupted by it They
cannot talk with you about business, nor tell you a
story, nor give yon an answer to the most common
question, but almost every other word must be an
oath. It is so familiar to them, that it passes alto-
gether unregarded ; charge them with it, and they
will tell you in the next breath, they do not know
that they swore.
Others, with whom it is not altogether so common,
yet think it no harm now and then, when they are in
a passion, or speak earnestly, or when they are in
company with those to whom they know it is agpree-
able, to '< rap out an oath," (as they call it,) and
perhaps, to multiply oaths ; and by these frequent
acts, at length they contract a habit, and become as
bad as the worst. It may be, some swear under
pretence of gaining credit, nobody will believe them
unless they swear what they say ; and I know no
wise man will believe them the sooner for it ; for he
that can dispense with the sin of profane swearing,
which he gets nothing by, I fear will not boggle
much at the sin of wilful lying ; especially, when
any thing is to be got by it. Others swear under
pretence of striking an awe upon their inferiors,
nobody will fear them unless they swear at them ;
that is, they would rather be dreaded and shunned,
as roaring lions and ranging bears, than respected
and honoured as wise, sober, and religious men,
who make conscience of what they say and do, even
when they are ever so much provoked.
And there are many who are such hearty well-
wishers to this sin, that though they have not yet
learned to swear distinctly, and in plain English,
for fear of the censure, either of the law, or of their
friends, or of their own consciences, yet they ven-
ture to lisp this language, and have the Sibboleth
of an oath, upon every occasion, at their tongue's
end. Though it be not swearing at large, and in
express terms, it is the abridgment of it ; it is swearing
in short^hand. They have learnt to contract wicked
words, and to disguise them by half words, which,
as they have the resemblance of profane swearing,
take rise from it, and border upon it; are bad words,
and at the best, are idle words, for which they must
give account in the judgment ; and being more than
yea, yea, and nay, nay, more than bare affirmations
606
A CHECK TO AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE.
and neg^ations, they come of evil, Mat. y. 37. No
wise man will say he knows not what, or that which
has no sense at all ; and no good man will say that
whieh he knows has the appearance of evil, and bor-
ders upon a bad sense.
And now, O that this paper might seasonably fall
into the hands of the swearer, the common swearer,
and the more cautious one, and might (by the bless-
ing of God) be an effectual and happy means to
convince and reform both the one and the other, be-
fore the flying roll which carries the curse (which
we read of as the swearer's doom, Zech. v. 3, 4.)
come into their houses, or, which is worse, into their
souls, to consume them : that is a roll which cannot
be slighted and thrown by, as I suppose this paper
will.
You ask sometimes what evil there is in swear-
ing ? Why so much ado should be made about a
common form of speech, and a man made an offender
for a word ? You plead, that it hurts nobody, words
are but wind.
But you will not say so, if you can but be per-
suaded seriously to weigh the following consider-
ations, and to fix them in your minds:
1. Consider what an enmity there is, in profane
swearing, to the Blessed God, and what an indig-
nity is done by it to his glorious and fearful name.
Would it not be justly interpreted a very high affront
to a magistrate, though a man like yourselves, if you
should send for him in all haste, to keep the peace,
to decide a controversy, to seize a criminal, or to do
any act of his office ; and when he comes, it is all
ludicrous, and a jest, and you intend nothing but to
make a fool of him, and to expose him and his au-
thority to contempt and ridicule ? How would such
an intolerable abuse be resented among men, espe-
cially if it were often repeated ! Yet just such an
affront, a daring affront, does the insolent swearer
put upon God Almighty ; making his truth, justice,
and omniscience to attend all the extravagances of
an ungoverned passion and an unbridled tongue.
And the affront is so much the worse, because it re-
flects upon his government, profanes his crown, dis-
gpraces the throne of his glory, vilifies his judgment-
seat, and attempts to make it mean and contempt-
ible, and thereby to render it questionable.
And is there no harm in this ? Whence can this
proceed but from that carnal mind which is enmity
against God, and from a rooted antipathy to him,
and to his dominion ? To this poisonous fountain the
Psalmist traces all these bitter streams, (Ps. cxxxix.
20.) Thine enemies take thy name in vain. It cannot
be imputed either to the lusts of the flesh, orthe lusts
of the eye, or the pride of life ; this is a forbidden
fruit that neither is good for food nor pleasant to
the eye, nor at all to be desired to make one wise,
or bespeak one so ; the sinner is not led to it by the
love of pleasure, or the hope of any gain or reward ;
it can, therefore, proceed from nothing else but a
spirit of contradiction to God Almighty, a contempt
of his honour, and a hatred of his government
This sin, as much as any other, seems to have taken
occasion from the commandment, and to have pat
forth itself purposely in defiance of the divine law ;
so that it may be questioned whether there would
have been such a sin as profane swearing, if it bad
not been prohibited by the third ccHnmandment
Now this renders the sin exceeding sinfal, and adds
rebellion to it ; and the swearer being a transgressor
without cause, (as the Psalmist speaks, Ps. xxv. 3.)
is a sinner without excuse, and sins purely for sin-
ning sake.
This is excellently expressed by our divine poet,
Mr. Herbert:
Take not his name, who made thy mouth, in vain,
It gets thee nothing, and hath no excuse :
Lust and wine plead a pleasure, avarice gain.
But the cheap swearer, through his open sluice
Lets his soul run for nought, as little fearing:
Were I an epicure, I could hate swearing.
And think est thou this, O man, whoever thoo art
that thus affrontest the majesty, ridiculest the go-
vernment, and dcfiest the judgment, of the eternal
God, that thou shalt go unpunished ? Be not deceived,
God is not mocked. He is jealous for the honour of
his own name, and will not see it trampled upon
and made a by-word, as it is by every profane
swearer. You would resent it, if your names shoaM
thus be turned into a proverb, and jested with by
every idle fellow ; and what then will God do for
his great name, which is thus abused ? Shall he not
visit for these things ? Shall not his soul be avenged
on such sinners as these ? Yes, no doubt, when the
day of recompence comes ; for, he has said, Venge-
ance is mine, I will repay. Nemo me impune lmee$sii
— No one provokes me with impunity.
2. Consider what an evidence it is against your-
selves, that you have no fear of God before your eyes.
Though you should indeed neither fear God nor re-
gard man, yet why should you hang out a sign to
give notice of this to every one who passes by?
What need you declare your sin as Sodom, and thus
publicly proclaim the devil king in your souls? Is
it not enough, that you harbour in your hearts a.
secret enmity to God and godliness, but dare you
thus avow the quarrel, and openly wage war with
heaven ? Dare you thus bid defiance to all that is
sacred, and wear the livery of Satan's family ? Is it
not enough that your hearts are graceless, and yoa
yourselves in the interest of the kingdom of dark-
ness, but you must be industrious to let the world
know this ? Thy wisdom fails thee, indeed, if (like
the fool Solomon describes) when thou walkest bj
the way, thou thus sayest to every one thai ikou tnrt i
foolf Eccl. X. 3.
A CHECK TO AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE,
607
Shall I beg of you to consider this a little : You
are called Christians ; your baptism, which I take
it for granted you have not renounced, entitles you
to that worthy name ; you live in an age and place
wherein it is your honour to be called by that name ;
it will do you neither credit nor kindness to ha\e
your Christianity disproved ; nay, you would take
it as an affront to have it questioned ; this you
would have looked upon as a thing so certain, that
*' As I am a Christian" must pass for an oath with
you, or vehement assertion ; which gives just cause
to suspect that you have little value for your Chris-
tianity, since you are so willing to pawn it, as you
do other sacred things, upon every trifling occasion.
But while thus you boast of your Christianity, you
do with your own tongues disprove it by your com-
mon swearing, and plainly give yourselves and your
profession the lie. Out of the abundance of the
hearty the mouth speaks. I see not how it is possible
that such a daring contempt of God's sovereign
authority, and sacred name, as profane swearing
(especially where it is commonly used) most cer-
tainly is, can consist with the reigning fear and love
of God in the heart, and that sincere regard to the
glory and honour of God, which are necessary to
denominate a man a true Christian.
When Peter was charged with it as a crime, that
he was a disciple of Christ, he took this method to
make it appear that he was not, he began to curse
and to swear. Matt. xxvi. 74. His speech indeed
bewrayed him to be a Galilean ; but this manner
of speech bewrayed him to be none of the fol-
lowers of Christ, for none of them used to curse and
swear ; all that knew any thing of their Master, and
his life and doctrine, would certainly conclude so.
When Peter therefore cursed and swore, he did as
effectually deny his Master, as when he said, I know
not the man : these are none of the spots of God's
children. It was but once that Peter was thus
guilty, and many a bitter tear it cost him; let none,
therefore, make Peter's example an excuse for their
swearing, unless they intend, as he did, to signify
thereby that they disown Christ, and their Chris-
tianity ; and since they are resolved not to be ruled
by their religion, they disclaim all hopes of benefit
by it I have that chanty for you, as to believe that
you will not do this professedly, and, therefore, you
should be so just to yourselves, as not to do that
which amounts to it, and which is capable of such
a construction, and which, the apostle tells us, en-
dangers our falling into condemnation. Jam. v. 12.
While there is a possibility of your being heirs of
heaven, and of the inheritance of the saints in light,
prove not yourselves the children of hell, by your
apeakingthe language of that kingdom of darkness.
3. Consider what an injury it is to those with
whom you converse. You think it does no harm to
others, because it does not hart them in their bodies,
goods, or good name ; but is harm done to the souls
of others no harm ? Nay, is it not the worst harm you
can do them ? If those who hear you swear be wick-
ed, their hearts are hardened by it, and their hands
strengthened, that they may not turn from their evil
way; from your poisonous breath they take their
infection, and add this to all their other sins. 4nd
is it no harm to propagate sin, and to support the
devil's interest, as his agents, and factors for hell ?
Yes, it is harm to them who are thus, by your means,
instructed and confirmed in wickedness ; and you
will find it harm to you too, when you shall bear the
iniquity of those who by your example are taught
and encouraged to swear. To what a height will
your account rise, when you shall be to answer for
all the sins you have thus been accessary to !
Which, though it aggravate your sin, yet will not
excuse those who have learnt this evil from you, nor
lessen their account ; for they also shall die in their
iniquity.
If they who hear you swear have the fear of God
in their hearts, and any concern for his glory, their
hearts are grieved, and their hands weakened. It
may be, that they have not courage to reprove you
for it, but it troubles them, and saddens their spirits,
to hear God's name dishonoured, and his soveicignty
thus insulted, and to see you thus sell your souls,
and all your valuable birthrights, for less than a
morsel of meat. It spoils the pleasure of their con-
versation with you, makes them shy of your com-
pany, and, perhaps, dull and uneasy in it ; such an
affliction it is to them to hear you swear. When
David had mentioned those who take God's name
in vain, he immediately adds. Do I not hate them^
am not I grieved because of them .• Ps. cxxxix. 21,
Though now perhaps you make a light matter of
this, and rather take a pride and pleasure in thus
creating vexation to a good man ; yet, shortly, you
will find it had been better that a mill-stone were
hanged about your neck, and you cast into the sea,
than that you should wilfully offend one of Christ's
little ones. They are the words of our Lord Jesus,
and we are sure no word of his shall fall to the
ground.
Besides this, is it no harm to bring the curse of
God into your house, which shall consume it ? Is it
no harm to add to the measure of the nation's guilt,
and to increase God's controversy with it ? Because
of swearing, the land mourns, (Jer. xxiii. 10.) the
land of your nativity, and is it nothing to you that
you contribute to its grief, and to the reproach
which this, as other sins, puts upon any people?
Prov. xiv. 34.
4. Consider, how very frivolous all your pleas in
defence of this sin are, and how unbecoming one
who pretends reason. When your own consciences
sometimes rebuke you for it, and admonish you to
reform, you shift off these convictions with such
A CHECK TO AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE.
trifling excuses as you would be ashamed to offer in
any other case.
I cannot think of more than two things that you
can allege in your own defence, and they have
neither of them so much as the colour of an excuse ;
while there is all that intrinsic malignity in the sin
which we have already showed you, and God has
declared he will not hold you guiltless.
(1.) You urge, that it is what you have been Ion*;;
accustomed to, and you cannot leave it off. But this
cannot make it lawful, no, not though the custom
were of so early a date, that you were taught to swear,
as soon as you were taught to speak ; for though we
brought sin into the world with us, that does not
make it the less sinful ; though it be bred in the
bone it must be forsaken, or it vrill be our ruin. If it
be absurd to allege a prescription against a record,
in human courts, much more to allege it against a
divine law. If a thief has been accustomed to steal-
ing, or an assassin to blood and murder, that will be
flo far from justifying their villanies, that it vrill
justly be accounted the highest aggravation of them.
Nor does it follow, that because thou hast long
used thyself to this profane and blasphemous dialect,
that it will therefore be impossible to leave it off; if
tiiou wert sure that the next time thou swearest thou
shouldst certainly have thy tongue cut oat, or thy
head struck off, I am confident thou wouldst break
off the custom : and is not the wrath of God, and
ihe damnation of hell, infinitely more formidable
than any punishment man can inflict? It is indeed
difficult for a man to change his language, and re-
quires some care and pains, but by the grace of God
duly and diligently improved, even this Ethiopian
may be made to change his skin, and this leopard
his spots. And if now thou wilt not believe it, thou
.wilt be convinced of it when it is too late, that it is
better a thousand times, to break through the diffi-
culties of a reformation, than to perish eternally in
the sin.
Despair not of a core though the disease be chro-
nical, but apply thyself with resolution to the use of
proper means : thou wouldst do so in case of bodily
sickness ; be as wise for thy soul then. If a dis-
eased appetite has long used itself to trash and dirt,
does it therefore follow that it must never be healed?
If the prodigal have been long upon the ramble,
must he never return to his father's house ? Better
late than never.
The longer thou hast been accustomed to the sin,
the more need thou hast to repent and reform, and
that quickly, lest thy heart be hardened, and thy
conscience seared ; and lest by a judicial sentence
of divine wrath, thou be at length given up to thy
own heart's lusts, abandoned by the divine grace,
and repentance ever hid from thy eyes. God's Spirit
is, it may be, now striving with thee» but if thou
resist him, he will not always strive.
Let me add this farther, to shame you oat of tUi
plea, that by persisting in this sin, after you have
been plainly told the evil of it, you not only in efeet
disclaim your religion, but you likewise csLSt a le-
proach upon your reason. Nothing can be moie
absurd, than for a man that pretends to any degree
of wisdom, to confess himself so weak, and so inca-
pable of governing himself, as not to be able to Hor-
bear a bad word, which he knows eu do him lo
service, but will certainly turn to his pn^dice. Bt-
member this, and show yourselves men, men of reason,
O ye transgressors, and allow not yourselves in flat
which your own sober thoughts cannot but ooi-
demn.
(2.) You urge, that it is the fashionable language
of the place you live in, and the company you con-
verse with, and therefore you are not willing to leave
it off. And if it were so, it is too great a compliment
to be willing to go to hell for company. What will
you get by herding yourselves with those who shall
be bundled for the fire, and by doing as they do who
are treasuring up to themselves wrath, against the day
of wrath ? That is an expensive fashion indeed, which
we cannot conform to without losing the favour of
God and ruining our souls for ever. If that which is
fashionable were manifestly prejudicial to your
health, and threatening to your life, you would
rather be singular than sick ; and would yoa not
rather be singular than damned ?
But the matter is not so ; we will not grant that
swearing is the fashionable language of our countiy,
it is only the common language of the fools in Israel,
who are the shame and scandal of their coantiy.
That which is in its own nature ugly and indecent,
and a reproach to mankind, thoagh it may in some
places become common, yet cannot be made fashioii-
able. There are those, (thanks be to God,) tiiere are
many, who have a deep and sincere reverence for the
blessed name of God, who fear an oath, and dafe
not profane it ; there are enough such to save yoo
from the imputation of singularity, and to keep yoa
in countenance, though you distinguish yourselves
from the vile herd of common swearers, and take
not that imperious liberty of speech which they
do, who say, Our tongues are our own ; who is lord
over us ?
Is that to be called fashionable, which not only
all the godly divines in the nation, of every persua-
sion, both in their preaching and conversation, wit-
ness against, as directly contrary to the law of God;
but which has the laws of the land against it too,
as an iniquity to be punished by the judge, and
those laws enforced and strictly ordered to be put in
execution, by her Majesty's most pious proclama-
tions, and these publicly read, both in our churches,
and in our courts of justice? Is that to be called
fashionable, which is branded with so many maiks
of public infamy, and which is so frequently and f^
A CHECK TO AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE.
509
lemnly proclaimed to be a discredit to the kingdom,
and a reproach to our holy religion? Shall it be
in the power of a few inconsiderate, inconsiderable
sots to keep up the reputation of that which all
wise, sober, and good men are agreed to run down ?
Shall that be called fashionable among persons of
distinction, which is become most customary with
those of the meanest rank and employment, and is
the ¥ulgar kmguage of the rakes, and such as are the
refuse of the people ?
Be persuaded, therefore, to break off all intimate
society and conversation with those, who not only
do such things, but have pleasure in them that do
them ; and with David, (Ps. cxix. 63.) be compa-
nions with those that fear God and keep his pre-
cepts, and then you will find it no hard matter (by
the grace of God) to break off this wicked practice,
how much soever you have been accustomed to it ;
and to forbear that language which you know is so
provoking to God, so displeasing to all good men,
and so destructive to the peace and welfare of your
own souls.
Set a double watch before the door of your lips,
that you thus offend not Abstain from all appear-
ances of this sin ; avoid temptations to it If gaming
have insnared you in it, eithernever play at all, or fix
it as a principle, that as there is no gain, so there is
no game, worth a profane oath. Keep up a dread
of the sin, which certainly you will do if you truly
repent of it Tremble to hear others swear. Learn
to pray, and then you will not be so apt to swear.
II. Cursing is near akin to profane swearing, is
the common companion of it, and is another of the
exorbitances of an ungoverned tongue. Cursing is
wishing evil to ourselves or others, absolutely or
conditionally ; a sin exceeding sinful ; as great an
instance of the corruption and degeneracy of the
human nature, and as sure an evidence of the
reigning power of Satan in the soul, as any other
whatsoever. Nothing is more naturally the lan-
guage of hell than this ; nay, the devil himself seems
to have smothered the curse implied, when he said,
(Job i. 11. according to the original,) Ifht curse thee
not to thy face ; but that which he stifled, his chil-
dren speak out, wishing themselves confounded and
damned, and what not, if such a thing be not so.
To show you the evil of it, I will only recommend
two things to your thoughts :
1. Consider, what a brutish piece of madness it
is to curse yourselves. If you do it absolutely, it is
of the same nature with self-murder ; vrishing harm
to yourselves is in effect doing it ; and is a breach of
one of the first and great laws of nature, that of
self-preservation. If yon do it conditionally, it is
of the same nature with profane swearing, and in-
curs the same guilt, with this additional stain, that
it is not only a mocking of God's government, by a
ludicrous appeal to him, but a defying of his judg-
mentf a challenge to the Almighty to do his
worst.
O the daring presumption of these sinners, sin-
ners against their own heads, their own souls ! The
devils begged of our Saviour, whose power they
were not ignorant of, not to torment them before the
time ; but these presumptuous wretches, as if they
thought their judgment lingered, and their damna-
tion slumbered too long, pull vengeance down upon
their own heads, and pray to God to damn them ; and
they need not fear but they shall be heard, for so
shall their doom be, themselves have decided it
They challenge the devil to take them, and he is
ready enough to seize his prey. But, shall I ask
you, are the arrests of devils, and the flames of hell,
such delectable things that you should court them ?
Or are they only the creatures of fancy and imagi-
nation, that you should make so light of them ? Be
not deceived, God's judgment is not a jest, nor hell
a sham ; if you persist in this impious contempt of
divine revelation, you will feel too late what yon
would not believe in time.
If you have no regard to God, nor any concern for
his honour, yet have you no good-vrill to yourselves,
nor any love to your own souls ? Is it not enough
that you are doing that every day which deserves
damnation, but will you be solicitous to demand
sentence against yourselves ? It is but a moderate
curse with you to vrish yourselves hanged, yet, I
have read of a person of quality in our own nation,
who, coming to die upon the gallows for murder,
publicly reflected upon it with bitter regret, that he
had accustomed himself to that wicked imprecation,
" and now " (says he) " I see the Lord is righteous.*'
But as if this were a small matter, you challenge
God to damn you, and the devil to take you : and
what if God should say " Amen" to the next curse,
and immediately order death to fetch you, and hell
to receive you ? What if the devils should be ready
at the next call, and take you presently ? And can
thine heart endnre^ or thy hands he strong^ when God
shall deal tpith thee ? Art thou able to dwell with de-
vouring fire, and to inhabit everlasting burnings ?
K newest thou the power of God's anger? Is thy
eternal salvation of such small account with thee,
that thou art vrilling to pawn it upon every trifling
occasion, and to imprecate the loss of it, if such or
such a thing be not so, which it is very possible
may prove otherwise ? How darest thou ihusprovohe
the Lord to jealousy, whilst thou canst not pretend
to be stronger than he ? 1 Cor. x. 22. Woe unto you
that thus desire the day of the Lord ! you know not
what you do, for the day of the Lord, whatever it is
to others, will be to you darhness, and not light, Amos
V. 18.
2. Consider what diabolical malice it is to curse
others. It is the highest degree of hatred, nor can
any thing be more contrary than this to the royal
610
A CHECK TO AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE.
law of love and charity. He who prays to God to
damn his neighbour, plainly intimates that he would
do it himself if he could ; and if he who bates his
brother is a murderer, surely he who thus curses him
is the worst of murderers, he is Abaddon — a destroyer.
That tongue is doubtless set on fire of hell, which is
for sending every body thither at a word, and which,
by cursing men who are made after the similitude
of God, would set on fire the whole course of nature,
and is an advocate for the devil, that roaring lion
which seeks to devour precious souls, Jam. iii. 6, 9.
Must the righteous God be summoned to execute
thy angry resentments, and called upon to destroy
those whom he sent his own Son into the world to
save, and to whom he is waiting to be gracious ?
Because thou art out of humour, must all about thee
be sunk and ruined presently ? As a madman in his
frenzy throws about him firebrands, arrows, and
death, so is he who curses his neighbour ; nay, per-
haps his wife, his child, his friend ; and says, " Am
not I in passion ?" or, " Am not I in sport?" Hast
thou no other way of signifying thy displeasure (if
it be just) but by the imprecation of evil, the worst
of evils, which bear no proportion at all to the offence
given ?
Put this case close to thy own heart. When thou
wishest thy child, or servant, or neighbour hanged,
confounded or damned, or sent to the devil, either
thou meanest as thou sayest, or not. If thou dost
not wish it, (as I charitably hope thou dost not,) thou
art guilty of a manifest falsehood, and must own thy-
self a liar : if thou dost really wish it, (and what
wickedness is it that will not enter into the heart of
a furious man ?) thou canst not but acknowledge thy-
self guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman ma-
lice imaginable. So that every curse proves thee a
wilful transgressor, either of the law of truth, or of
the law of love, two as sacred laws, and which have
as much of the image of the law-maker, as any man-
kind is bound by.
Consider further, that the curses thou art so libe-
ral of will not hurt those against whom they are
levelled ; thou dost but show thy ill-will ; for as the
bird by wandering^ and the swallow by flying, so the
curse causeless shall not come, Prov. xxvi. 2. But
they will certainly return upon thy own head, to thy
confusion, As he loved cursing so let it come unto him :
— into his bowels like water, and like oil into his
bones, Ps. cix. 17, 18. They who are called to inhe-
rit the blessing, are commanded to Bless and not
to curse, Rom. xii. 14. Believe it, sirs, curses are
edge-tools, which t< it dangerous playing with.
In your furious and outrageous cursing of the
brute creatures, or that which is inanimate and in-
capable of the harm you wish it, what is wanting in
malice is made up in folly and absurdity ; like that
which the apostle calls the madness of Balaam, when
he wished he had his sword to kill his own ass with.
By such silly nonsensical curses as yoo sometiflMS
throw about in your passion,'yoa make it to appetr,
that with your religion you put off common seiiie.
You are men, you are rational creatures ; speak with
reason then, and act with reason, and be ye not as Ik
horse and the mule, tliat have no understanding ; a
natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed,
III. Lying is another of the exorbitances of an
ungovemed tongue, and a very pemickNis one.
It has been said of some, that tboagh they do not
swear yet they will lie ; it is to be feared there ue
those, of whom it is too true ; and let them bear tbdr
own burthen ; but let not those, who would not for
a world do either, suffer for the same ; nor let swear-
ers think it will in the least excuse their sin, thit
there arc liars who are no swearers. It is certain
they arc both damning sins, and either of them
persisted in will undoubtedly be the ruin (^ tke
sinner. But if we may guess at one sin by another,
it is more probable, (as I hinted before,) that thej
who make no conscience of swearing will not stick
at lying ; and we may charitably hope, unless we
know the contrary, that they who dread a profane
oath, will be as much afraid of telling a wilful lie.
Let me, therefore, in God's name, seriously apply
myself to those who (as the prophet s|>eaks) have
taught their tongue to speak lies, Jer. ix. 5. For then
is an art in it, whether they be such lies as seem to
do good, or such as are directly intended to do hwt,
or such as are idle, and intended neither for good
nor hurt. If they are lies, they are sins ag^nst God,
and all liars shall have their portion in the bottom-
less pit, if they repent not ; and the nice distinctioai
with which they think to justify, or at least excuse,
themselves, will prove, in the great day, but a refuge
of lies, which the hail will sweep away, Isa. xxriii. 17.
1. A few words, one would think, may serve for
the conviction and discovery of these sinners. Sore
you need not be told what lying is ; your ovm con-
sciences will tell you, if they be not seared, or bribed,
or forbidden to deal plainly vrith you.
In your bargains and contracts if you say that
either for selling the dearer, or buying the cheaper,
which you know to be false, it is a lie. Yet bow
common is it, in the multitude of those words, for
the seller to call the commodity good and cheap, and
to aver that he gave so much for it, when he knows
that it is neither so nor so ! And the buyer in his
bidding vrill call that worthless and dear which he
has no reason to call so, and will say he can bay it
cheaper elsewhere, when he does not know that he
can. It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer ; bvt
when he is gone away, then he hoastetk of a good bar-
gain, not considering that he was helped to it by a
lie, Prov. xx. 14.
In your excuses which you make, either to supe-
riors or equals, if you deny, extenuate, or conceal a
fault, by representing a thing otherwise than it was.
)
A CHECK TO AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE.
511
though you may gain your point, and not be so much
as suspected of falsehood, yet the guilt is never the
less. When you are charged with any neglect or
injury, you are ready to say you did not know, or
did not remember, that which you are conscious to
yourselves you did know, and did remember ; you
plead that you thought or intended so and so, when
really you did not think or intend any such thing.
These are the common refuges of those who are cul-
pable, because the profession of a man's thoughts
and purposes is not easily disproved. But though
men cannot convict us of falsehood in those profes-
sions, he that searches the heart can. Men may be
shammed with a frivolous excuse, but God is not
mocked.
In your commendations of yourselves or others,
if you give a better character than you know there
is cause or ground for ; if you boast of a false gift,
and represent your abilities, possessions, and per-
formances, to greater advantage than they deserve,
and than the truth will bear, though these may pass
for innocent hyperboles with those who take the
same liberty themselves, yet your own consciences
will tell you, if they be faithful, that hereby you add
the sin of lying to the sin of pride, than which there
are not two sins that God hates more.
In your censures, if you put false constructions
upon the words and actions of your neighbours,
making a great crime of that which was nothing, or
next to nothing, unjustly aggravating faults, and
making them worse than really they are, or repre-
senting that as certain, which is but suspected and
doubtful, much more, if it should prove that you
lay to men's charge things that they know not,
hereby you involve yourselves in a double guilt,
falsehood and uncharitableness.
In your promises, if you engage that you will do
so or so, pay such a debt, or finish such a piece of
work within such a time, or do such a kindness for
your friend, when either you do not at all intend it,
or foresee you cannot perform it, or afterward take
no care either to fulfil the promise when it is in the
power of your hand, or if disabled to do that, in due
time to recall it, hereby there is g^ilt contracted.
Either the promise should not have been made, or
it should have been kept.
In your common reports, and the stories you tell
for discourse sake, and the keeping up of conversa-
tion, if you report that as true and certain which
you know to be otherwise, and do not make consci-
ence of representing every thing as near as possible
to the truth, and to your own sober thoughts, you
become transgressors.
2. Sure there need not many words to persuade
you to repent of this sin, and carefully to watch
against it for the future, and all appearances of it
Consider how contrary it is to God ; it is a breach of
bis law, it is a defacing of his image, for he is the |
God of truth ; and it exposes us to his wrath, for
lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. Consider
how conformable it is to the devil, and how much it
makes you to resemble him, for he is a liar, and the
father of it. It is an injury to your brother, not only
to the particular person, who, perhaps, is wronged
by it, but to human society in general. And it will
be the ruin of your own precious souls, if you per-
sist in it. They who thus do the works of the devil,
shall have their portion with the devil and his angels.
A lie is soon told, and perhaps as soon forgotten,
and a light matter made of it ; but the punishment
of it will be everlasting, in the lake that bums with
fire and brimstone, out of which there is no redemp-
tion.
lY. The common, careless using of the blessed
name of Grod, without due application, is another
instance of the ill government of the tongue, which
needs a check.
Many who never curse or swear, yet allow them-
selves in the taking of God's name in vain, and
either know not, or consider not, the evil of it, and
the dishonour done (though not intended) to God
by it. When you use those forms of speech, which
are properly expressive of a pious ejaculation, in a
light and careless manner, and to any other purpose
than their genuine and original signification, which
appears by your way of speaking not to be intend-
ed, but something else, you profane that which is
sacred, and alienate to a common use that which
appears to have been dedicated to God, and has
holiness to the Lord written on it. To say, *^ O
Lord," when you mean no more but '' I am hurt ;"
and '' God knows," when you mean no more but
" I do not know ;" and " God bless me," when you
mean no more but " I am surprised ;" and '' God
help you," when you mean no more but *^ I pity
you," or any the like, is certainly taking the name
of the Lord your God in vain, and to no purpose,
that is, to no good purpose.
Now will you who accustom yourselves to this
language consider a little,
1. That it is a great afi'ront to the God of heaven.
You hereby make his blessed name a by-word, and
put that slight upon it which you would not bear to
be put upon your own names. That is a great ex-
ample which the bishop of Sarum tells us was ob-
served of the honourable Mr. Boyle, that he never
mentioned the name of God but with a discernible
stop or pause in his discourse, in token of a rever-
ence for that glorious and fearful name, and to leave
room for a devout thought Great and serious things
ought to be spoken of with great seriousness, and
they are abused if they are prostituted to a common
use.
2. That it is certainly a breach of the law of the
third commandment, which is very express, Tkou
shah not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,
/
512
A CHECK TO AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE.
and it is backed with a threatening that the Lord
will not hold them guiltless that do so, in Trhich
certainly more is implied than is expressed ; it is
supposed that many sach will hold themselves guilt-
less, and think they do no harm, and others will
hold them guiltless, but God will severely reckon
with them, for he is a jealous God.
3. That it is a great profanation of the holy ordi-
nance of prayer. The better any thing is, the worse
it is when it is corrupted. There is nothing better
than the devout and serious mention of the name of
our God as there is occasion, nothing better than
pious addresses to God when the heart goes along
with them ; but if this degenerate into a mockery,
if the dead carcass hereof only is retained, and
there is no spirit or life in it, if there be not so much
as an outward solemnity and decorum observed, but
the manner of using those good words plainly shows
and avows it, that there is nothing pious and devout
intended by them, it is in effect a banter upon
prayer, turns it into burlesque and ridicule, and is
exceeding offensive to God and good men.
It will be hard to use those words seriously, when
they should be used so, which you have so often
used vainly when you should not ; and what comfort
can you expect in prayer, when you are serious and
need the comfort of it, if at other times you use the
words of prayer thus lightly and profanely ?
And now, shall I prevail with you never to mention
the name of God but with seriousness, and in a
holy and reverent manner? Say not you have so
used yourselves to these expressions that you cannot
leave them ; resolution, by the grace of God, will
change the dialect. Will those ever lose their lives
for Christ who will not leave a sinful, inconsiderate
word for him ? One would think this a small piece
of self-denial. Let the fear of God rule in your
hearts, and always maintain a holy awe and rever-
ence of him, and then out of the abundance of that
the mouth will speak of him with reverence, and
will not dare to speak otherwise. The description
which the Scripture gives of hypocrites, (Isa. xlviii.
1.) is, that they make mention of the God of Israel,
but not in truth ; but the description of true saints
is, that they think on God's name, Mai. iii. 16. Act
with reason, and either think of what you say, or
do not say what you do not think of.
y. Scoffing at religion and godliness, and jesting
with sacred things, is another of the exorbitances of
an ungovemed tongue.
By the commonness of this sin, in this loose and
degenerate age of ours, it appears that we live in the
dregs of time ; for the Scripture speaks expressly
that in the last days, those corrupt and perilous
times, there should arise scoffers, walking after their
own lustSf 2 Pet. iii. 3. Profane people, when they
set up for vrits, think they cannot better show their
wit than in endeavouring to justify their profaneness.
To show you the evil of it, consider,
1. The malignant principles whence it flows.
When there is in the heart an habitual contempt of
divine things, and an antipathy to them, and a reign-
ing enmity to the power of godliness, thus it vests
itself, and what is wanting in reason on its side, if
made up in jest and banter. When men are resolved
not to make themselves serious with the things of
God, they will make themselves merry with tbem,
and think they gain their point if they can buttoni
them off vrith a jest ; as if that, which they are
pleased to make the subject of their laughter, wov
therefore to be looked upon as a just object of con-
tempt They endeavour to represent the Word of
God as a sham, heaven as a fool's paradise, and
hell as merely the creature of a disordered imagi-
nation, by playing upon them, and turning Htm
into burlesque ; thus sporting themselves with their
own deceivings ; but it will prove like the Philis-
tines' making sport with Samson, what they spoit
with will prove too strong for them, and their profane
mirth will be a prologue to their ruin. Ba ye nd
mockers lest your bands be made strong, Isa. xxyiiL 2i
2. The mischievous consequences that flow fnn
it. You who thus make a jest of holy things, tboofk
you make a light matter of it, ought to consider
what you do, and what will be in the end hereof.
Think what an affront you hereby put upon the
blessed God, imputing folly to infinite wisdom,
and vilifying him who is the fountain of honour.
Think what an injury you hereby do to religion,
and how much you serve the interest of the deril
and his kingdom, as those who are retained of
counsel in his cause. Seems it a light thing to yoo,
that you are wicked yourselves, but will you do wImU
you can to make others wicked too, that you raaj,
besides your own torments hereafter, share in the
torments of all the souls you help to ruin? Think
how you will answer it at the great day, and what
bitter reflections you will then make upon yoor
daring impieties of this kind, when the Lord Jesos
shall be revealed from heaven to execute judgement
upon all, for all their hard speeches spoken against
him. It is better to reflect, and repent, and reform
now, while there is a possibility of your reconcilia-
tion to the God you have provoked, than to be forced
to remember it in hell to your utter confusion, in a
state of endless and hopeless separation from God.
YI. Scurrilous and reproachful language given to
those you have dealings witli, or power over, is
another exorbitance of an ungovemed tongue.
This is that which our Saviour has told, us is a
breach of the sixth commandment, Tlkou shmU mt
kill ; it is tongue-murder, a sin exceeding sinfol,
and certainly damning to the sinner if it be not re-
pented of and forsaken ; so he has forewarned as,
who is to be our Judg^. We are sure that his judg-
ment will be according to the truth of his word;
A CHECK TO AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE.
613
and he has said, (Matt v. 22.) Whotoever shall, in
wrath and passion, say to his brother, Raca, Thou
base, empty fellow, rogue, and rascal, (for Raca
was used then as those opprobrious names are now,)
he that does so shall be in danger of the couneilf that
is, shall be exposed to the wrath and curse of the
eternal God ; and not only so, but if he had his desert
should be called to an account for it by the civil
magistrate^ for it is an iniquity to be punished by
the judge. And whosoever shall in like manner
say. Thou fool; thou reprobate, thou wicked wretch,
thou damned confounded fellow, shall himself be in
danger of that hell fire, to which he so rashly con-
demns his brother.
Calling foul names, and giving foul language, es-
pecially to servants and inferiors, is grown so very
common among us, that with those who live at large,
and not only set their mouth against the heavens, but
let their tongue walh at liberty through the earth, (Ps.
Ixxiii. 9.) it is looked upon as part of the accom-
plishment of a gentleman to be able to do it bluster-
ingly, and with fluency and variety ; and yet, per-
haps, there are those of the meanest rank who may
Tie with them, and can do it with as good a grace.
But how common soever it is, and how much so-
ever countenanced by the practice of some who make
a figure, you see it is a sin expressly against the law
of Christ, and is certainly included, and perhaps
principally intended, in that bitterness and wrath,
that clamour and evil speaking ,which ought to be put
far from us, lest we grieve the Holy Spirit of God,
Eph. iv. 30, 31.
You who allow yourselves this liberty of abusing
all about you, and of dealing nick-names, and names
of reproach, at your pleasure among those you con-
verse with, or have power over ; shall I propound
two or three things to your serious thoughts ?
1. Consider who they are that you thus abuse and
trample upon, thus taunt and hector over. Are they
not your fellow-creatures, of the same rank of beings
with yourselves? Were not you made of the same
clay that they were, and as mean as they in your
original? Were not they made by the same great
and mighty hand that you were, and as honourable
as you in their relation to the Father of spirits?
This consideration swayed with holy Job to carry it
with all possible tenderness and respect, even to his
own servant, when he contended with him, (Job
xxxi. 15.) Did not he that made me in the womb make
him ? And the same argument is urged in a case not
much unlike, (Mai. ii. 10.) Have we not all one Fa-
ther ? why then do we deal treacherously every man
against his brother ?
Perhaps those whom you so readily, and with so
great an assurance, call " fools "and " knaves," have
as much ingenuity and integrity as yourselves ; nay
it may be they are every way wiser and better. How-
ever, as the apostle argues, (Jam. iii. 9.) they are
2 L
made after the similitude of God, they are of that
species of creatures which was at first so made ; and
therefore God is reflected on by the ignominious
treatment you give them. If they have natural de-
fects and infirmities of body or mind, which they
cannot help, those ought not to be turned to their
reproach, for they are as God made them, and he
might have made you so. If their condition in the
world be mean and despicable, and the distance
that Providence has put between you and them
seems great, it does not therefore follow that you
may give them what language and what usage you
please. Though God be high, yet has he respect
unto the lowly ; much more should you. He that
mocketh the poor, reproacheth his Maker, (Prov. xvii.
5.) not only him that made him, but him that made
him poor.
The crime is much aggravated if those you thus
abuse are pious and good, such as by grace are re-
newed after the image of God, and made partakers
of his holiness, which possibly they may be, and
yet not be numbered among either the witty or the
wealthy part of mankind. Whatever you may think
of yourselves, in comparison with those you thus
insult over, a wiser than yoii, even infinite wisdom
itself, has said it once, yea twice, (Prov. xix. 1. and
cA. xxviii. 6.) Better is the poor that walketh in his
integrity than he that is perverse in his lips, though
he be rich. Will you then despise those whom God
has honoured, and lay those under your feet whom
God has laid in his bosom? Dare you put those
among the dogs of your flock, whom Christ has put
among the lambs of his flock ?
2. Consider, that there is no good done by this
sort of language, hut a great deal of hurt. What
desirable end can you propose to yourselves ift i^?
You would be obeyed, you would be feared, and
will not the meekness of wisdom command respect
a thousand times better than the outrages of folly ?
It is certain there is nothing you say, which is in-
troduced and accented with this rude and boisterous
language, but the same thing might be better said,
and to much better purpose, if it were not so pre-
faced. Solomon's observation holds true, that the
words of wise men are heard in quiet, more than the
cry of him that rules among fools, Eccl. ix. 17.
Nay, you do a great deal of hurt by using your-
selves to such language.
(1.) You disturb and provoke others by it. These
grievous words stir up anger ; and who knows how
long that anger may last, what it may produce, and
where it may end? nor how great a matter a little
fire of this kind may kindle? Put your souls into
their souls' stead whom you thus abuse, and con-
sider if you were in poverty and meanness, and in
an inferior relation, how you would like it, and
how you could bear it, to be rated and trampled
on, and called by so many ill names : and do not
514
A CHECK TO AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE.
that to others which you would not should be done
to you.
(2.) You disgrace and disparage yourselves by it
While you think hereby to keep up your authority,
and make yourselves great and formidable, you
really prostitute your authority, and render your-
selves mean and contemptible, and give just occa-
sion to those you abuse to think as ill of you as you
say of them, though they dare not speak it out. You
declare plainly, [1.] That you are slaves to your own
passions, which is as toilsome and dishonourable a
slavery as a man can be in : you say that in the heat
of passion, which you yourselves could scarce turn
your tongues to if you were sober and calm, and
thereby proclaim passion king over you, that great
leviathan who is king over all the children of pride.
Job xli. 34. [2.] That you are not masters of your
own reason ; your anger is a fit of madness, and for
the time your wisdom is departed from you. When
in wrath you call others fools, the reproach returns
upon your own heads. Some of this foul ill-favoured
language you use to give, carries along with it its
own conviction of absurdity. You will call him a
'* dog,^' whom you see to be a man, and a *^ bastard,"
whom you really take to be legitimate : and what
sense is there in this ? Does this become one who
pretends to reason? Blush at it for shame, and re^
solve never again to make such a fool of thyself.
3. Consider how obnoxious you yourselves are to
the righteous judgment of God. If you seriously
retire into your own hearts, and impartially reflect
upon your own ways, you will find that you have
much more reason to reproach yourselves for your
provocations against God, than to fall foul upon
your servants or others for their defects in their duty
to you. We ought to forbear threatening, and to
moderate it, (Eph. vi. 9.) for what would become of
us if God should enter into judgment with us?
When we taunt others for their dullness and folly,
their carelessness and forgetfulness, we ought to re-
member the same things against ourselves, and then
we shall only give just and gentle reproofs, and not
senseless and furious reproaches. Holy Job re-
strained himself from the heats of passion, with this
consideration, (ch, xxxi. 14.) What then shall I do
when God riseth up ? And when he visiteth, what shall
I answer him ? Think not that the strength of your
passion will be a suflScient excuse for the indecen-
cies of your language. The sin of the heart vrill
never justify the sin of the tongue ; but on the con-
trary, the sin of the tongue will aggravate the sin of
the heart. Resolve therefore for the future, when-
ever your heart is hot within you, that you will
keep your mouth as with a bridle.
VH. Lewd, obscene, and filthy talk, is another of
the vile exorbitances of an unsanctified, ungoverned
tongue.
It is a thing to be greatly lamented, that this im-
pudent sin, which bids open defiance to Tiitoe and
honour, and wages war vnth them, like a spreadiig
leprosy, stains the beauty of our land, turns a Ca-
naan into a Sodom, and is become an epidemical
disease. For the relief of those who are infeeted
with it, and are not incurably uncleaD, I would ini
few words show you the evil of it.
1. Consider what an offence it is to the pure awl
holy God, who takes notice of, and is much displeas-
ed with, the uncleanness of your lips, as well as of
your hearts and lives. It is a violation ctcd of tie
law of nature, which prescribes modesty, and teacha
us to blush at every thing that is immodest. The law
of Moses provided for the keeping up of this hedge
of chastity, and in many instances paoished that
which broke through this hedge. It was one of the laws
of Romulus, (some of the most ancient homan lawi
that are extant,) Nequis obseeena verhm fmeii — Nem
should dare to speak an obscene word. Bat (which to
us is above all) the law of Christ is Tery exprea
against all filthiness and foolish talking and jesdiii,
and appoints, ih?ii fornication and all uneUmsmm
should not be once named among Christians withoot
the greatest abhorrence, Eph. v. 3, 4. And is tta
law of Christ nothing with you ? Can yon go ao di-
rectly contrary to it, and yet hope to prosper? CM
has told you plainly there, (v. 5.) that such unclean
persons have no inheritance in the kingdom of CkriM
and of God, and (v. 6.) that because of tkete
Cometh the wrath of God upon the children
dience. And you cannot suppose that the fixed lawi
of heaven should be dispensed with to gratify yoor
base lusts. The law of Christ shall either role yoo
or judge you.
2. Consider what an evidence it is against your-
selves, that you are possessed by the nnclean spirit,
and are under his power. Out of the abundance of
the filthiness that is in the heart the tongue speaks
thus filthily, and from that root of bitterness arises
this gall and wormwood. The abominable lewdness
that is in the heart, and is harboured and indulged
there, boils up in this noisome dross. Stinking
breath is a sign of putrid lungs. While yon please
yourselves and your companions with this dirty lan-
guage, you do but foam out your own shame, and
sport yourselves with your own deceivings. Ton think
you show your wit by it, but indeed yon show your
wickedness, and declare your sin as Sodom, as those
who are not ashamed, and cannot blush. Chastity
and modesty have been virtues, are so, and will be
so, how much soever they are despised and disdain-
ed by the first-rate sinners of the age; and that
which is a virtue, is a praise, is an honoar ; which if
you want, yet you need not proclaim that you do at,
nor be proud of your shame.
Unclean thoughts may, through the infirmity of
the flesh, and for want of watchfulness, come into
the minds of those who disallow them, lament theB>
A CHECK TO AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE.
616
and strive against them, knowing that even these
thoughts of foolishness are sin: hut nnclean dis-
course is much worse, and more exceeding sinful,
for thereby you signify your approbation and allow-
ance of those unclean thoughts ; you put an ** Im-
primatur '' to them, and consent to the publication
of them for the common service of the devil's
kingdom.
3. Consider what a great deal of hurt it is likely
to do to others. Though this sin does not so imme-
diately reflect upon the blessed name of God as
swearing does, and, therefore, has not so much ma-
lignity in its nature, yet it does more toward the
corrupting of the minds of others, and the propa-
^ting of vice and wickedness, than perhaps any
other tongue-sin whatsoever, and so is more mis-
chievous in its consequences. Such tinder is the
corrupt heart of man to these sparks, that one un-
clean word to an unguarded soul may be the unhap-
py occasion of a thousand unclean thoughts, which
may produce a world of iniquity. If this root of
bitterness thus spring up and sprout forth, thereby
many are defiled, (Heb. xii. 16.) more than perhaps
you are aware of: and your account in the great day
will rise high, if you must be answerable for all that
nncleanness which has been spawned in the minds
of others by your lewd talk.
Filthy stories, and songs, and jests, are the pesti-
lential breath of hell, which propagates the infection
of sin ; old Satan's wiles, by which he betrays un-
wary souls into their own ruin. And those unclean
lips which help to lay those snares, are factors for
the nnclean spirit, and by debauching the minds of
others with their vile discourses, perhaps serve the
devil's kingdom^and the interests of it, as effectually
ns those who debauch the bodies of others with their
Tile adulteries. Evil communications corrupt good
manners.
If those who hear your lewd talk be not so bad as
to be infected by it, certainly they are so good as to
be ofi*ended at it He is unlit for civil company, and
breaks the law of good manners, who takes a plea-
sure in saying that which a wise and good man must
frown upon, and hear with shame, or with an angry
countenance. What Mr. Cowley says of lewd poems,
is, with a little alteration, applicable to lewd dis-
course.
.Tis just.
The speaker blush there where the hearer must.
That discourse is but bad entertainment which
occasions either guilt or grief to all that hear it
Therefore, let all who have accustomed themselves
to this language, be persuaded to leave it off*, and
henceforward to set such a careful watch before the
door of your lips, that they never more offend thus
with their tongue : and if at any time they think this
eril, let them lay their hand upon their mouth,
2 L 2
(Prov. XXX. 32.) that it go no further. That mirth
is dear bought, which is purchased at the expense of
the favour of God, the honour of virtue, and the
purity and peace of our own consciences. Better
lose your jest, than lose all these jewels. Dread the
consequences of it, not to others only, but to your-
selves. Those who allow themselves in the trans-
gression of the laws of modesty, it is to be feared,
will not long be governed by the laws of chastity.
The way of sin is down hill.
And let me bespeak all who are well-wishers to
religion and virtue, not only to be very cautious
themselves never to say any thing that looks like
lewdness, or looks toward it, but in all companies to
contrive how they may put this vice to the blush,
expose it to contempt, and dash it out of counte-
nance. They who would approve themselves strictly
modest, must never seem pleased at the hearing of
that which is otherwise, nor laugh at an immodest
jest or story, lest they should have fellowship with
these unfruitful works of darkness, which ought to
be frowned upon, and reproved rather. Let it be
seen that you can be merry and wise, merry and
modest Reckon it a burthen to dwell among a
people of unclean lips, (Isa. vi. 6.) and pray to God
that (according to his promise, Zeph. iii. 9.) he
would turn our people to a pure language, that we
may be fit to call upon the name of the Lord.
Having thus mentioned some of the vices of an
ungovemed tongue, (especially those that are most
common vrith such as are openly profane,) and given
some particular hints of argument against them, I
shall now close with some general directions for the
reducing of the exorbitant power of an unruly
tongue.
1. See that the heart be truly and thoroughly
sanctified by the grace of God. If you would have
the disease cured, you must lay the axe to the root,
and meet it in its causes. The peccant humour
within must be purged out, else these eruptions,
though they may be checked for a time by external
restraints, yet will never be healed. The right
method prescribed by the great Physician, is first to
keep the heart with all diligence, and then by that
means to put away the froward lips. See Prov. iv.
23, 24. The way to heal the poisonous waters is,
like Elisha, (2 Kings ii. 21.) to cast salt into the
spring, Mahe the tree good, and then the fruit will be
good. It is out of an evil treasure in the heart that
evil things are brought ; men speak slightly of God,
and spitefully of their brethren, because they think
so ; let but the thoughts be rectified, and the lan-
guage will be soon reformed.
If the law of holy love to God and your neighbour
were written in your hearts, and you were, as you
should be, actuated and governed by these as a liv-
ing commanding principle, you would not dare to
off^end either the one or the other with your tongue ;
516
A CHECK TO AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE.
that good treasure laid up in tbe heart would bring
forth good things to the use of edifying, which would
manifest grace in him that speaks, and minister
grace unto the hearers. The fear of God always
before your eyes will be an effectual restraint upon
you from saying that by which either his name is
dishonoured, or his law violated. The grace of
God is a coal from the altar, which if it touch the
tongue, tbe iniquity of it will be purged away, Isa.
vi. 7.
Let tbe throne of Christ be set up in your hearts,
and his love shed abroad there, and then you will
not call it a needless preciscness to be thus careful
of your words, but a necessary strictness, because by
our words we must be justified or condemned.
Then you will not call it a task and a slavery to be
thus tied up, and to speak by rule, but an honour
and a pleasure ; for assuredly this blessed change,
wrought in the soul by the renewing grace of God,
will open such surprising springs of present joy and
comfort, as will abundantly balance all the uneasi-
ness which corrupt nature will complain of in these
restraints.
2. Solemnly resolve against these and all other
tongue-sins. Let holy David's vow be yours, and
bind your souls with it this day, / will take heed to
my ways, that I sin 9wt with my tongue ; and remem-
ber, as he does tliere, that you have said it, that you
may not break your promise, Ps. xxxix. 1, 2.
While the result of your convictions is no more
but this, that you hope you shall govern your tongues
better for the future, and that, for ought you know,
you will not swear so much as you have done, and
in the mind you are in, you will not speak so many
idle filthy words as you have spoken — if this be all,
you leave room for Satan to thrust in with his temp-
tations ; faint purposes are soon shaken, and prove
to no purpose : but when you are come to a point,
and without equivocation, or mental reservation,
will solemnly promise that by the grace of God you
will never swear nor curse any more ; you will never
take God's name in vain any more ; you will never
speak a lewd or scurrilous word any more ; this for-
tifies the strong hold against the tempter, who (like
Naomi, Ruth i. 18.) when he stes you are stedfastly
resolved, will leave off speaking to you.
Renew this resolution every day, especially if you
have a prospect of any occasion which will be a
more than ordinary temptation to you. Thus set a
guard upon the door of your lips, and at some times
double your guard, where you find yourselves
weakest and most exposed. Try the strength of
your resolutions, and do not for shame suffer your-
selves to be bafl]ed in them. Only remember to
make and renew these resolutions, in a dependence
upon the grace of Jesus Christ, which alone is suf-
ficient for you. Peter resolved against a tongue-sin
in his own strength, but it failed him, and he was
made ashamed of his confidence ; confide therefoic
in divine strength only.
3. Keep out of tbe way of bad company. Speed
is learned by imitation, and so is Gormpt speed.
We are apt in discourse to conform to those vilk
whom we do associate ; and therefore, if we voiU
keep those commandments of our God which rehte
to the government of the tongue, we must say to eiil
doers. Depart from ut, Ps. cxix. 115. Converse Bit
familiarly, and of choice, with those who aociulsn
themselves to any evil commanication, lest yoi
learn their way, lest you learn their words, and fet
such a snare to your souls as you will not easily dis-
entangle yourselves from.
That dread and terror, and abhorrence of swear-
ing and cursing, and all profane discourse, which
all who are virtuously and piously educated, an
conscious to themselves of at first, is apt to wear of
by frequent and free conversation with those wk
use such language. It is excused as a slip of tk
tongue, which does nobody any harm ; nay, it ii
justified as a fashionable ornament of speech; aid
so by degrees the debauched conscience comes to
be reconciled to it, and at last the tongue is taogH
not only to lisp the same cursed language, but, wA
a great deal of art and assurance, to speak it piaia.
Joseph himself, in the court of Egypt, had naa-
wares got the courtier's oath, By the life ef Pha-
raoh.
If you love your souls, therefore, be very caicM
what company you keep ; choose to converse faai-
liarly with those of whom you may learn that wfcieh
is edifying, and by whose discourse and exanpk
you may be made wiser and better ; and avoid Ik
society of those by whom, without /t greater degn^
of wisdom and watchfulness than you can pretend la,
you will certainly get hurt to yourselves. Improper
words are sooner learned than unlearned. Theie-
fore, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not, (Prov.l
10.) though they do not say, (as they there, *. 11.
Come, and let us lay wait for blood,) ** Come, and let
us swear and curse, and bid defiance to all that ii
sacred ;" but palliate the temptation, and make it
look very harmless, '* Come, and let as take aghif
and be merry over it." If they be such as are go*-
monly profane and lewd in their discourse, fear a
snare in their company, and keep at a distance fnis
it. Walk not in their counsel, stand not in tkeir
way, sit not in their seat, Ps. i. 1. Make no friead-
ship with those who make no conscience of tkir
words, and who show that they have no veneratiis
for the blessed name of God. Remember SoIobmm'i
advice, (Prov. xiv. 7.) and be ruled by it ; Gofrm
the presence of a foolish man^ when ikon perceiwestm^
in him the lips of knowledge,
4. Think twice before you speak once. We oAtt
speak amiss, because we speak in haste ; when tkit
comes out which comes uppermost, what can itii
\
A CHECK TO AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE.
617
but froth and dross ? Moses spake unadvisedly with
his lips, not consulting with himself before he spake,
and then he said that which shut him out of Canaan,
Ps. cvi. 33. What we speak in haste, we often find
cause afterwards to repent of at leisure. David more
than once reflects with regret upon what he said
in bis haste, and we have all a great deal of reason
to do so. Our second thoughts, if we would take time
for them, would correct the errors of the first ; and
we should not ofiend with our tongues so often as we
do, if we would but consider what we say, before we
say it. The heart of the riyhteous ttiidieth to answer
that which is fit and seasonable, while the mouth of
fools poureth out foolishness.
Be sparing of your words, and then you will not
have so many bad words to answer for as most have ;
for, in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin,
and divers vanities. You have often been the worse
for speaking, but seldom the worse for keeping
silence. Many a thing which you have said, you
would have smothered and suppressed if you had
bat allowed yourselves the liberty of a serious and
impartial thought upon it. ** Little said, soon
amended."
You durst not profane God's blessed name with
your unhallowed breath, if you would but think se-
riously what a God he is whom you thus blaspheme
and provoke. You durst not curse yourselves or others
if you would but consider the weight of the curse,
and w^hat a fearful thing it is to fall under it. You
dorst not scoflT at religion if you did but consider
how sacred and honourable it is. Reason in other
cases is of use to rectify the mistakes of imagination ;
use it here then.
5. Have a care to the account that is now kept,
and must shortly be given, of all your idle wicked
words. You believe the Holy Scriptures, you do
well. Now they tell you what will be in the end
hereof. The word of God will judge you shortly,
therefore, let it rule you now.
Notice is now taken of all you say, whether you
are aware of it or no. There is not a word in your
tongue, though spoken in haste, and not regarded
by you, but God knows it altogether, and a book of
remembrance is written. God told the prophet Eze-
kiel what the people said of him by the walls, and
in the doors of their houses, (Ezek. xxxiii. 30.) and
lie can make a bird of the air to carry the voice of
ttat which is said in the heart, or in the bedchamber,
lEccl. X. 20. You think you may curse and swear
8ecarely when you are out of the reach of those who
mroald reprove you, or inform against you ; and be-
cause God for the present keeps silence, you think
lie is altogether such an one as yourselves, as care-
less of his government as you are of your duty ; but
he will reprove you, and set them in order before
you, and make it to appear that he kept an exact
account of all you said : Now consider this, ye that
forget God, (Ps. 1. 21.) stand in awe of this, and sin
not with your tongues. Take heed, God hears;
were you in the presence of some grave men that
you had a reverence for, you would have a care what
you say, and shall not the presence of the great God
strike an awe upon you ?
But this is not all, the day is coming when there
will be a review ; when the books that are written
will be opened, and all your profane oaths and curses,
and corrupt communications, will be found upon re-
cord there, and produced as evidence against you.
He that is to be the Judge in that day, has himself
expressly told us, (Matt. xii. 36.) Every idle word
that men shall speah, they shall give account thereof
in the day of judgment ; and if for every idle word,
much more for every profane and wicked word.
What an account will they have to make, all whose
breath was corrupt, till their days were extinct ; who
always allowed themselves a boundless liberty of
speech from under the dominion of religion and
right reason, and never took care by repentance, and
prayer, and reformation, to empty the measure of
guilt they had filled, nor to balance the account in
the blood of Christ which cleanses from all sin.
Think not that any profession of religion which
you make will excuse you, or stand you in any stead
in that day, while you thus contradict it, and give
the lie to it, by the extravagances of your tongues.
The word of God has laid it down as a certain rule,
(Jam. i. 26.) If any man among you seem to be reli-
gious, and bridleth not his tongue, that man^s religion
is vain ; and if your religion be vain, it will never
bring you to heaven, and then I need not tell you
whither your irreligion will bring you.
It will be the eternal doom of those who persisted
in their tongue-sins, and would not be reformed, that
tlieir own tongues shall fall upon themselves, (Ps.
Ixiv. 8.) and if they do, they will sink them to the
lowest hell, in which the remembrance of all the
sins of an ungovemed tongue will be very bitter,
and bring oil to the flames Wc read of it, as the
misery of condemned sinners, that they are tor-
mented in a flame, where they have not a drop of
water to cool their tongues. Words are soon spoken,
and when they are spoken are soon gone, and yet
words spoken against an earthly prince, though
repented of, have cost many a man his life ; and
shall it then be difficult to us to believe, that words
spoken against the King of kings, and never repented
of, shall exclude men from his kingdom, and lay
them for ever under his wrath ? It is commonly said,
" Words are but wind,** but wicked words will prove
such a mischievous wind, as will not only keep the
soul out of the blessed haven of rest and happiness,
but sink it into the gulf of everlasting destruction.
6. Reflect upon it with sorrow and shame, and
great regret, if at any time you have, ere you were
aware, spoken any wicked word. Keep conscience
518
A CHECK TO AN UNGOVERNED TONGUE.
tender in this matter, and if, through the surprise of
temptation, you any way offend with your tongue,
let your heart presently smite you for it, humble
yourselves greatly before God for it, pass it not over
with a slighty careless, ** God forgive me," but be in
pain and bitterness at the remembrance of it ; abhor
yourselves, as holy Job, when he was reflecting upon
his tongue-sins, and repent in dust and ashes. If
you can easily forgive yourselves what is past, it is
to be feared you will easily be brought to do the
like again.
Lastly, Pray earnestly to God for his grace, to
keep you from sinning with your tongue. Though
the tongue be an unruly evil, yet he can tame it
who sets bounds to the proud waves of the sea, and
once stopped the lions' mouths. To him, therefore,
you must apply yourselves by faithful and fervent
prayer, and put yourselves under the conduct and
custody of his grace, which will be sufficient for
you if you seek it, and improve it, and go forth in
the strength of it Let David's prayer be yours
daily, (Ps. cxli. 3.) Set a watch, O Lord, before my
mouth, heep the door of my lips ; for without bis
assistance we can do nothing. Pray against provo-
cations to these sins, and pray for wisdom wherewith
to govern yourselves in the midst of provocations ;
Watch and pray, that either you may not be led into
temptation, or, however, not overcome bj it. If am/
man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God*
And now what shall be the success of this endea-
vour ? Shall all our reasonings with jou, in love to
your souls, be slighted and laughed at like the foolish
banter of your vain companions ? Can we not prevail
for a reformation of your language, when we plead
the honour of God, the law of Christ, the good of
your brethren, and the welfare of your own sooU,
and you have nothing to plead to the contrary but a
foolish, wicked custom? / hope better things, and
things that accompany salvation. Your tongue is your
glory, do not turn this glory into shame, but use it
as your glory, by honouring God and edifying one
another with it ; so shall the tongue which is thus
accustomed to the language of Canaan, sing Halle-
lujahs eternally in the New Jerusalem.
SELF-CONSIDERATION NECESSARY TO SELF-PRESERVATION:
OR,
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS,
AND
OUR OWN WAYS.
DISPLAYED IN TWO SERMONS TO YOUNG PEOPLE.
The former on Prov. xt. 32.
The latter on Prov. xix. 16.
To the Reader.
I WAS far from any thoughts of pablishing these two
plain drscourses, when I preached the former of
them, at the request of Mr. Biilingsley and his ca-
techumens, the 2dth of the last month, being Mon-
day in Whitsun-wcek, a day of leisure ; having
designed not to trouble the press any more till the
fifth volume of Expositions was ready for it, which,
if God spare my life and health, and continue his
gracious assistances, I hope will be by the end of
this year, and which (to answer a question that I
am often asked) I purpose shall contain the four
Evangelists and the Acts, if the Lord will.
The importunity of the many who earnestly de-
sired me to publish that sermon, should not have
overcome me to alter my purpose, if the advice of
some of my brethren, whose judgment I have a
value for, had not overruled me, to think it might
be worth while to take so much time from my greater
work, as the preparing and enlarging of that sermon
for the press would require.
And this made me the more easily to yield to
those who very earnestly pressed me to publish the
latter sermon, which was preached the day follow-
ing, at the request of Mr. Gordon and his cate-
chumens.
It grieves me, (yet not so much as it should,) to
see among the children of my people^ a great care-
lessness and unconcemedness about the things that
belong to their everlasting peace. I lament it in
myself, and therefore I hope I shall not be blamed,
if I thus endeavour, as God enables me, to awaken
myself and others to a due seriousness in those
things which relate to the soul and eternity ; I think
it can do harm to none ; I hope it may do good
to some. And nothing more likely to cool and
compose the heated and disquieted minds of men,
than thus to turn their zeal into the right channel.
June 4, 1713.
Mat. Henry.
THE FOLLY
OF
DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
Proverbs xv. 32.
He that refuseth instruction despiseth his oum soul,
Solomon's proverbs being generally designed to
instruct us in our duty to God and man, many of
them are particularly intended to dispose os to re-
ceive those sacred dictates, and to make way for the
rest, by opening the ear to instruction, and bowing
the heart to comply with it. If people were but
willing and desirous to learn, the teacher's work
were half done ; but (as says the proverb of the
ancients) ** They who will not be counselled cannot
be helped." How should those attain to knowledge
and grace, who will not be reconciled to the means
of knowledge and grace ?
In this text Solomon gives such an account of
those (in a few words) whom he found he could do
no good to, as makes their folly manifest before all
men. Though this princely preacher made it his
business still to teach the people knowledge ; thoOgh
his sermons were elaborate and well studied, for he
gave good heed, and sought out and set in order
520
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
many proverbs ; though his discourses were plain
and practical, sententious and methodical ; though
he took pains to find out acceptable words, and that
which was written was upright, even words of truth ; ■
yet there were those who were never the better for
such a preacher, and such preaching. Now Solo-
mon gives this short account of them, and then leaves
you to judge concerning them ; they refuse instruc-
tion, and in so doing they despise their own souls.
We who have the gospel preached among us, and
Wisdom herself by it teaching in our streets, may
truly say, Behold^ a greater than Solomon is here ;
and yet, as to multitudes, he stretches out his hand
in vain ; even Israel is not gathered, his minis-
ters labour in vain among them. And what is the
reason ?
I. They refuse instruction. The fool in the text,
(and he is, without doubt, more despicable than the
fool in the play,) is described to be one who refuseth
instruction, noto yn»6. We have the same words,
and thus translated, — Poverty and shame shall he to
him that refuseth instruction ;^ that neglects instruc-
tion, (so some,) puts it far from him, and sets him-
self at a distance from it ; not only because he hates
it, but because he fears it That strips himself of
instruction, (that is another signification of the word,
not only elongare, but denudare,) — shaking off his
education, as a garment he will not be heated with,
or hampered with, makes himself naked, to his
shame. Nay, the original word has a further sig-
nification, (ulcisci,) he that will be revenged on in-
struction ; that takes it for an affront, and studies
revenge, if he be told of his faults.
The word for instruction the margin reads correc-
tion ; for in our fallen state, when we are all wrong,
that which instructs us must correct us ; we cannot
be taught to do well, but we must be showed wherein
we have done ill. The rod and reproof give wisdom.
The corrections of providence are intended for in-
struction ; Blessed is the man whom t/iou chastenest
and teachest. But many, though they cannot help
being chastened, yet refuse and reject the instruc-
tion designed them by the chastening, and will not
learn any of the many good lessons designed to be
taught them by the chastening : instead of that, they
strive with their Maker, and kick against the pricks ;
they will not comply with the correction, or answer
the ends of it. They refuse discipline ; they will
not be under check and control^ will no more be
admonished.
1 . They refuse to hear instruction ; they turn their
backs upon the word, and will not come where it is
preached, if they can help it. Wisdom cries, and
they get out of the hearing of her cries, one to his
farm and another to his merchandise. A liitle for-
mality of devotion they can dispense with, to save
their credit, and keep up their reputation among
men, missa non mordet — and being dismissed it ms
longer stings, but the close and powerful applicatioo
of the word, as a discemer of the thoughts and in-
tents of the heart, they cannot bear. They cannot
go so far as EzekieFs hearers, to whom his preach-
ing was as a lovely song,^ charming^ enough, and
which, as they heard it, helped to lull them asleep;
but it is to them as the sound of a trumpet, the alarm
of war ; it makes their ears to tingle, and tberefoit
they get as far as they can from it.
2. They refuse to heed it; like the deaf adder,
they (if they should come within hearing of it) stop
their ears, and will not hearken to the voice of tk
charmer, charm he never so wisely.^ If they cannot
keep it from sounding in their ears, they keep it
from sinking into their hearts, and, if possible, will
keep it from going any further. They do not valoe
instruction, they see no need of it, and, therefore, do
not desire it. The word of the Lord is to tkem a n-
proach,* they are weary of it ; yea, though it shoald
come from the mouth of Christ himself ; witness the
lawyer that complained, Master, in so saying, thtsi
reproachest us also, Luke xi. 45.
3. They refuse to comply with it ; they will do u
they have a mind, whatever they are told or taaglit
to the contrary ; they have loved strangers, and
whatever you can say to put them out of love with
them, after them they will go.' They hold fast de-
ceit, though they are told of the deceitfalness of it,
and refuse to return.* This is the way of many, who
are running headlong upon their own ruin, and hate
to be stopped.
But it may be thought improper for me to insist
upon this now, when I am called to address myself
to a number of serious young men, who are eveiy
Lord's-day evening catechised in this place, and
who are so far from refusing instruction, that tbey
covet it, they delight in it, they are forward to re-
ceive it, and, as the good ground, drink in this rain,
that comes often upon them ; who have piously pn>-
jected and combined to set up this exercise, and
diligently attend it, not only for their own bene-
fit, but for the benefit of many ; for what is said to
them, is said to all ; and whoever will, may cone
and feed upon that bread of life which is broken to
them.
Yet to them it may be of use to hear of the sin and
folly of them who refuse instruction, of the many
that do so.
(I.) Bless God, who made you to differ; and let
his grace have all the glory, which has given your
hearts, by nature corrupt as others, such a different
bent from what it was, from what others are ; that
you are crying after knowledge, when others are
crying out against it ; are seeking it as silver,^ when
• £ccl. xii. 0, 10.
c £zek. zzxiii. 33.
b Eccl. ziii. la
d Pt.lviii. 4,&
• Jer. vL 10.
f Jer. riii. 5.
t Jer. ii. a&.
k ProT.iL3.4.
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
621
others are seeking silver only, and not it ; are de-
lighting to know God's ways, when others are de-
lighting in the by-paths of sin and vanity ; are help-
ing to let many into the knowledge of Christ, when
there are those who are contriving to take away the
key of knowledge ; you have reason to say with
thankfulness, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest
thyself to us, and not unto the world ?^ You ought not
to take a pride in it, the honour of it is spoiled if
you do so, you have nothing to boast of ; but you
ought to give God the praise, the honour of it is
doubled if you do so, for you have a great deal to
be thankful for. Who teacheth like God ?
(2.) Take heed, lest any of you should, notwith-
standing this, be found among those who refuse in-
struction ; who are pleased with it, and yet are not
ruled by it. It is not enough for you to have a
pleasing relish of divine truths, but you must be
delivered into the mould of them ; your souls must
be transformed by them, and conformed to them.
The instructions given you, must be transcribed and
copied out into your whole conversations, must guide
and regulate them, must not only restrain them from
the gross pollutions of sin, but must beautify and
adorn them with every thing that is excellent and
praise-worthy. You who are so much in the mount
with God on the Lord's day, ought to show it, as Moses
did, by the shining of your faces, in all instances of
wisdom and grace, all the week after. That man
does but shame himself, who boasts how long he
went to the writing-school, and yet writes a bad
band ; or to the dancing-school, and yet has a
graceless carriage ; much more does that man do
so, who boasts how much he has been conversant
^ith the principles of the Christian religion, and
yet submits not to the laws of it, nor practises ac-
cording to it.
(3.) Pity those who refuse instruction, and do not
despise them, but if you can do any thing, have
compassion upon them, and help them. You may
liave an opportunity, perhaps, in your common con-
Terse, to influence some who have hitherto turned a
deaf ear to the calls of God, to be willing to hearken
to Christ, and to bring them in by degrees to a liking
of those truths of God which they have been preju-
diced against, and those instances of serious godli-
Dess which they have looked upon with contempt ;
and they that will not be won by the word, may be
won upon by your conversation with them.''
(4.) What is said of the folly of those who refuse
instruction, is the commendation of the wisdom of
those who receive instruction. Yon do well for
yourselves, and so it will appear shortly ; and there-
fore go on and prosper, for the Lord is with you
while you are with him : encourage yourselves and
one another in so good a work, and be not weary in
well-doing.
i John ziv. 22.
II. They who refuse instruction thereby make it
to appear, that they despise their own souls ; they
evidence that they have very low and mean thoughts
of their souls. Now this is here mentioned as a
very absurd thing, and that which no rational man
will own himself guilty of, and yet which every
wicked man is really guilty of. He who refuseth
instruction,'' fiuni eavrov — so the Seventy — he hates
himself; despises himself; for Animus cujusque is
est quisque — The soul is the man.
There is a despising ourselves which is commend-
able, and our duty, the same with denying our-
selves, abasing, abhorring, and humbling ourselves.
The poor in spirit despise themselves ; those who
are willing to suffer rather than to sin, despise their
own lives, and do not count them dear. This gra-
cious self-contempt is a qualification for the greatest
honour and advancement, to which nothing is a
greater bar than self-conceit, and making an idol
of ourselves.
But there is a despising of ourselves and of our
own souls, which is culpable, and of pernicious con-
sequence, such a piece of folly as is the cause of
abundance of other folly, and particularly this of
refusing instruction. By giving us divine revelation
for the enlightening and directing, the renewing and
sanctifying, of our souls, God has pot the greatest
honour imaginable upon them, has distinguished
them not only from the beasts of the earth, and the
fowls of heaven, but from many and mighty nations
of the earth. Now if we regard not the dictates of
divine revelation, we throw away this honour that
God has put upon our souls, and declare that we do
not value it.
The honour of the soul is, that it is rational and im-
mortal : now they who refuse divine instruction de-
spise their own souls under both these considera-
tions ; for the design of that instruction is to cure,
direct, and cultivate the rational powers of the soul,
to support their authority, and assist their opera-
tions ; if, therefore, we have any value for that part
of their honour, we shall receive that instruction. It
is likewise intended to prepare the soul for its fu-
ture and immortal state, and so to secure to it a
blessed immortality : if, therefore, we have any value
for that part of our soul's honour, we shall reckon
the instructions of God's word well worthy of all
acceptation.
But I shall speak to it more generally, that I may
take in more of the many instances of contempt
which people put upon their own souls. And being
desired to address myself particularly to young
people, I know not how I could better serve the
design I have in view, which is to engage them to
be truly religious betimes, than by possessing them
with a value for their own souls, and arming them
against the folly of despising them. If the soul is
k 1 Pet iii. I.
522
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
the man, (as certainly it is,) as there is a holy self-
love, so there is a holy self-esteem, which is neces-
sary to that due concern which we all ought to have
about our souls and eternity.
Take this then for the Doctrine ;
That it is the greatest absurdity and folly imagi-
nable for men to despise their owa souls. Or
thus. It is the original error of wilful sinners,
that they undervalue their own souls.
In prosecution of this I shall endeavour, I. To
show who they are that despise their own souls.
II. To prove the absurdity and folly of it III. To
make some application of it.
I. How do people make it appear that they despise
their own souls? Who — where — ^is he that is guilty
of such a gross absurdity ?
1. Some despise their own souls in opinion ; who
advance notions of the human soul that derogate
from the honour of it, and put men upon a level
with the beasts that perish ; that care not how mean
a character they put upon the soul, so they can but
place their own souls from under God's government
and judgment.
The atheists and Sadducees of the age, that be-
lieve there is no substance but matter, and shut out
all incorporeal nature out of the number of beings,
and consequently make their own souls to be only
a particular species of matter modified and put in
motion, so as to produce sense and perception, and
that that is it which thinks and apprehends, that
reflects and deliberates, doubts and determines,
chooses and refuses ; that all the performances of
philosophy and politics are the products of matter
and motion ; and, in short, that man is but a very
little above the beasts, whereas the word of God has
made him but a little below the angels. The ab-
surdity of these notions is philosophically demon-
strated by Dr. Bentley, in his ** Confutation of
Atheism from the Faculties of the Soul.'' But it is
no wonder that men can look within them and say,
'' They have no souls/* when they are such fools as
to look about them and say. There U no God,
Many who would be thought to understand them-
selves better than their neighbours, that they may
get clear of the obligations of reason and conscience,
under colour of wit, wage war with Wisdom ; and
that thcy may not be charged with neglecting the
salvation, or incurring the damnation, of their own
souls, choose rather to despise them, as not capable
either of salvation oc damnation ; and that they may
not come under the imputation of acting unreason-
ably, ridicule reason, as the ipnisfatuus — the vapour
of the mind ; so it is called in a profane poem which
I remember to have seen in manuscript long since,
(I know not whether ever it was printed,) called, " A
Satire upon Man." It began thus ;
~ 1 laa. xxli. 13.
Were I (who to my cost already am
One of those strange prodigioiu creatures am,)
A spirit, free to choose for my own share
What case of flesh and blood I'd please to wear,
I'd rather be a monkey, dog, or bear.
Or any thing, than that vain animal
That boasts himself of being rationaL
Those who speak thus scornfully of that noble rank
of beings, and of the faculties and capacities of tkeir
own souls, make me think of that of Solomon, Eccl.
X. 3. When he that U a fool wmlheik by the nwy, hit
wisdom faileth Attn, and he ioiih to every one that hi
is a fool.
Those despise their own souls who deny the im-
mortality of them ; who, that they may justify them-
selves in living like beasts, expect no other bat to
die like beasts. Ede, hihe, lude, post mortem nnUa
voluptas — Let us eat, drinh, and play y for ufter duUk
there is no pleasure. Let us eat and drinkyfar to nter-
row we die} and there is an end of us. What a god-
tempt do they put upon this candle of the Lord, wlio
think it is put out by death ! whereas, it is only taka
out of a dark lantern and set upon a candlestick,
where it extends its light much further. And hov
ridiculously do the pretenders to free-thinking is-
sinuate that Solomon, in his Ecclesiastes, {eh, iiL
21.) speaks doubtfully of the existence of the soul
in a state of separation from the body. Who kmmu
that the spirit of a man goes upward ? whereas, be
speaks so very expressly, and with the greatest
assurance, of it in the same book, (eh. xii. 7.) tbat
when the dust returns to the earth as it wae^ the spirit
retwms to God who gave it ; and in that other place
only speaks as one in the dark concemini^ the man-
ner of its removal to that separate state; noae
knows the way of the spirit,"* either into the body,
or out of it.
The sober heathen will rise up in jadgmeat
against such men of this generation, and will con-
demn them ; for though they had no divine revela-
tion, as we have, to acquaint them how man at first
became a living soul ; that there is a spirit in man,
and that the inspiration of the Almighty givetk
them understanding ; that death itself cannot kill
the soul ; and, that it shall be redeemed from the
power of the grave ; yet had admirable notions of
the excellent nature of the human soul, and of its
immortality: they looked upon it to be a ray of
divine light, a spark of divine fire. Quid aliud voces
animam quam Deum in corpore hospitantem — Whtt
can you call the soul but God dwelling in the beAf ?
says TuUy. He could not say, that the soul of man :
was made in the image of God, and after his likeness, \
because he was not told so, as we are, but he says i
that which is equivalent. '
But among you here, I hope, I need not enfauire
m Red xi. ft.
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
upon these things ; you know and believe that God
has given to every man a soul of his own which is
immaterial, intelligent, and immortal, which is
formed by the Father of spirits, is nearly allied to
the world of spirits, and must shortly remove to that
world. The Lord strengthen and increase our faith
herein, and fortify us against the sly and subtile
insinuations of those who lie in wait to deceive !
2. Many more, who give not in with the notions of
those who thus in opinion despise their own souls,
and professedly degrade them, yet in practice despise
them ; as those who will give to a great man his
titles of honour, and yet look upon him as a vile
person, who is to be contemned. As many, who
profess they know God, and his glory, so many,
who profess they know the dignity of their own
souls, yet in works deoy both the one and the
other.
Those despise their own souls, (1.) Who abuse
them. (2.) Who hazard them. (3.) Who neglect
them. (4.) Who prefer their bodies before them.
(1.) Those who abuse their own souls, may truly
be said to despise them. Those we do injury to we
put the greatest contempt upon, as not worthy to
have right done them. Solomon fastens this brand
of foolishness and madness upon those who sin
against God, that they wrong their own souls, to
that degree, that they may be said to be in love with
the death and ruin of them.*^ Those who wrong
their servants, and abuse them, show that they de-
spise them, and set them with the dogs of their flock :
so those who without compassion, or even sense of
equity and justice, put despite upon their souls, do
indeed despise them. O what base usage many
people give their own souls, and, as the ostrich against
her young ones, are hardened against them as though
they were not theirs.
[I.] Those abuse their own souls who devote them
to the service of Satan ; as all wilfully wicked
people do, who make themselves his children by
doing his lusts," and surrender themselves his slaves
and vassals, to be led captive by him at his will,?
and held fast in his snare ; who, being children of
disobedience, yield themselves not only to work
for, but, which is worse, to be wrought upon, by the
prince of the power of the air.*i The faculties of the
soul are employed in doing Satan's will, and serving
his interest, so that the man seems listed under Sa-
tan's banner ; he is for Baal, and not on the Lord's
side ; with Beelzebub, and, therefbre, not only not
with Christ, but against him.
It is the honour of our souls, that they are made to
be the temples of the Holy Ghost, the living temples
of the living God ; they are capable of being so, and
intended to be so ; than which, what greater honour
could be put upon them ? But how then do those dis-
n Prov. viii. 36.
paTinLii. 96.
o John viii. 44.
4Eph. ii.3.
honour their own souls who suffer Satan, that apos-
tate from God and rebel against him, the head of
the apostasy and rebellion, to keep his palace as a
rival with God, nay, and to keep garrison as an
enemy against God, in the soul ; and are willing not
only that his goods should be in peace, and unmo-
lested, but that all the powers of the soul should be
employed for him, and be armour for him to trust in/
It is the honour of our souls, that they have a re-
lation to heaven, are in alliance with that upper
world ; and though they have by sin very much lost
their acquaintance with it, yet they are still, through
grace, capable of keeping up a correspondence with
it, and stand fair for an inheritance in it What
greater dishonour then can they put upon them-
selves, than by entering into a league with the devil,
(and all who go on still in their trespasses do so, in-
stead of entering into a war with him,) who left his
first estate there, was shamefully thrust out thence,
cast down to hell, and is in no manner of hopes, as
we are, to retrieve the honour from which he is de-
graded? Shall fire from heaven mingle itself with
fire from hell ? or that spirit of a man, which is the
candle of the Lord, the light which lighteth every
man that cometh into this world, come into the in-
terests of the rulers of the darkness of this world ?
can it forget itself so far ?
It is the honour of our souls, that they are made
capable of serving God, of doing his will, carrying on
his work, and so of pleasing him, and praising him,
and advancing the interests of his kingdom among
men : those souls, therefore, are basely abused that
are subjected to the power of Satan, and are under
his conduct. Our Saviour has represented this to us
in the parable of the prodigal son, who when he had
spent and wasted all his portion, (representing the
wretched havoc which outrageous sinners make of
their knowledge and gifts, the sparks of virtue that
were struck into their minds by a good education,
and the convictions of their own consciences,) then
disparaged himself to the last degpree, when he went
and joined himself to a citizen of that country, who
sent him into his fields to feed swine ;* representing
the slavery, that is, both the ignominy and the
drudgery, which sinners submit themselves to, by
giving themselves up to the service of Satan, and
looking upon his temptations not as the assaults of an
adversary, which are to be resisted, but as the com-
mands of a master, which are to be obeyed ; for of
whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought
into bondage ; as all those are who are the servants
of corruption.*
What ! Is the devil a master good enough for a
soul that has God for its Maker? Is feeding swine,
making provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts
thereof, work good enough for a soul that is capable
r Luke xi. 21, 33. • Luke xv. 15.
• 2 Pet xxL 19.
624
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
of glorifying and enjoying God? Are husks, the food
of swine, proper provision for a soul that is capable
of being feasted with angels' food? What disparage-
ment is it to a soul to serve its enemies, that tyran-
nize over it, and seek its ruin, especially since, if it
had any spark of honour left in it, it might, by divine
grace, easily and certainly not only regain a glorious
liberty from them, but gain a more glorious victory
over them ! O that the sounding of the jubilee trum-
pet, which proclaims the release of captives, might
awaken and animate poor enslaved souls, to think
their own liberty from Satan's yoke worth struggling
for, and to exert themselves accordingly. Let them
apply to their own case what God by the prophet
says to the Jews in Babylon, Awake^ awake, put on
thy strength,'* O Zion. Put on thy strength, O soul,
put on a holy resolution, in dependence upon divine
gprace, no longer to be ruled by a base lust, and led
captive by Satan ; throw away the rags of thy slavery,
and put on thy beautiful garments ; be bold and
appear great ; for if thou wilt but take Christ for thy
Redeemer and Ruler, and give up thyself entirely
to him, he will undertake, that henceforth there shall
no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the
unclean, that have no right to rule thee, but a design
to ruin thee ; sin shall not have dominion over you,
for you are not under the law, but under grace.
And therefore, as it follows there. Shake thyself from
the dust, the dust of the earth, dirt it should rather
be called, that dust into which by sin thou art not
only fallen, but in a manner turned ; for dust thou
art, earthly and carnal, and corrupt thou art; shake
thyself from that, and arise and sit down, to con-
sider what thou hast to do, and resolve to loose thy-
self from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter
of Zion : despise not ihyself, despise not thy own
soul, any longer, by a sneaking submission to the
tyranny of Satan, but reach out to, and take up not
short of, the glorious liberty of God's children.
[2.] Those abuse their own souls who defile them
with the pollutions of sin ; who having devoted
themselves to the conduct of the unclean spirit, are
unclean like him, and work all manner of unclean-
ness. All sin is defiling to the mind and to the con-
science, brings a blot and stain upon the soul, which
renders it odious in the eyes of the holy God, and
nauseous, and uneasy too, to itself, whenever it
comes to have spiritual senses exercised ; renders it
unfit to approach to God, and to eat of the holy
things, as ceremonial pollutions under the law did.
Now what an abuse is it to the soul, whose happi-
ness consists in the enjoyment of God and itself, to
be thus made offensive to both, afraid of its God,
and ashamed of itself ! What mean thoughts have
those of their own souls who can do them this indig-
nity, do them this injury, rather than deny them-
« In. lU. 1.
selves the gratification of a base last! Let us,
therefore, show that we have really a value for our
own souls, by hastening to make use of the water of
purification provided for them in the blood of Christ,
that the conscience being sprinkled with that, may
be purged from dead works, and so restored to the
service and enjoyment of the living God, and tbe
privileges of his sanctuary, from which we had de-
barred ourselves.*
But fleshly lusts are in a particular manner defil-
ing, all the irregular inordinate use of the pleasom
and delights of sense ; these are said to war against
the soul, against its purity and peace, and enjoy-
ment of itself; they are a reproach and dispara^
ment to the soul ; and, therefore, we sadly abuse ovr
souls when we think to refresh ourselves by bathing
in the filthy, muddy streamy of sensual pleasures, by
which we do but defile ourselves, and like the sow
wallow in the mire.
It is the honour of our souls that they are capt-
ble of spiritual and heavenly pleasures, of enter-
taining themselves with divine contemplations and
devout affections, the pleasures of which may be
brought near to the delights of blessed spirits above,
that are already entered into the joy of our Lori
And those maintain the honour of their souls, who
by faith and love, by prayer and meditation, keep
up their correspondence vrith heaven. But how do
those despise their souls, and this honour put opon
them, who not only neglect those heavenly enter-
tainments, but disfit themselves for them, and ex-
clude themselves from them, by the guilt they con-
tract every day in the use of the pleasures of sense,
which become pleasures of sin to them !
For the soul to be thrown from its rest in God,
where only it can find true rest, to be shut out fron
its communion with God, to be put in confusion
in its approaches to God, and made uneasy to itself,
is to have a deal of wrong done it, and a great deal
of contempt put upon it ; and all this they do in
their own souls who go a whoring after their own
inventions, and so are defiled with their ovm works,
with their own ways.^
[3.] Those abuse their own souls who decdve
them with lies and falsehoods ; those certainly pot
a contempt upon them who put a cheat upon them,
and delude them with flatteries to act against their
own true interest. A man justly reckons himself
affronted, and resents it accordingly, who is im-
posed upon with sham and banter ; it is a reflectioo
upon his understanding, as if he were not able to
discern the fraud, as well as a wrong to his interests,
which are prejudiced by it ; and yet, perhaps, be is
doing the same thing to his own soul. Taking ad-
vantage of its credulity in favour of itself, he not
only suffers it to persist in its mistakes, and guards
T Heb. ix. 14.
w Pa. cfi. sa
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
626
against the rectifying of them, but does all he can to
rivet and confirm them.
How many cheats do people pot npon their own
souls, which will turn at last to their own ruin, for
self-flatterers and self-deceivers will prove in the
end to have been self-destroyers ! How do they make
themselves believe the strangest and grossest absur-
dities, and proceed upon them as if they were un-
doubted truths ! There is none bad, but they are so
upon some bad principle, which if it were true, would
bear them out; but it is a strong delusion. The
wicked heart is a deceived heart, that turns men
aside ; and none perish, but it is with a lie in their
right hand.* And it is with lying vanities that they
are deceived who forsake their own mercies.^ They
who mock God, and think to put a cheat upon him,
do but deceive themselves, and putadanmingcheat
upon their own souls.'
When the word of God, which is a disccmer of
the thoughts, tells us what sinners say in their hearts ;
or, as sometimes it is in the original, say to their
hearts, we may thence infer what slights they put
upon their own souls, and how they abuse them.
The fool appeases his conscience with this, that there
is no God ; or if there be, that he may go on secure-
ly in his wicked way, for the Lord hath forsaken the
earth ;* He hath forgotten, he hides his face, and will
not require it.^ The Lord shall not see, neither shall
the God of Jacob regard,^ Did ever any man banter
another, as sinners banter their own souls, run them
down with assurance, and beguile them with fraud
and artifice.
When the soul begins to be afraid of the wrath
of God, and to think of fleeing from it by repent-
ance, it is abused with this suggestion, that there is
no danger; as God is not so strict in his demands,
80 he is not so severe in his punishments, as the
Scripture makes him to be. God has indeed said.
There is no peace to the wicked ; but when the sinner
comes to apply it to himself, he tells his own soul,
/ shall have peace, though I go on to walk in the way
of my heart, and to add drunkenness to thirst,^ He
says in his heart, / shall not be moved, for I shall
never be in adversity.* He is drawn into an opinion,
and lulled asleep with it, that heaven is a fool's
paradise, and hell is but a bugbear to frighten chil-
dren, and therefore he is taught to mock at fear, and
not to be affrighted, and not to believe that it is
the sound of the trumpet
They who flatter themselves with a conceit that
the external professions and performances of religion
will serve to bear them out, and bring them off, in
the judgpnent of the great day, though their spirit
and conversation be ever so disagreeable, give the
lie to their own consciences, and tell a lie to them,
ba. xliv. 20. 7 Jon. ii. 8. * OaL vi. 7. a Ezek. ix. 0.
b Ps. X. IL 13. e Pa. xciT. 7. d Deut. zxix. 19.
and in both abuse and despise their own souls.
Thus the apostle tells us, that he who only seems
to be religious, and is not so really, deceives his own
heart, seduces it, misleads it, and so abuses it ; and,
that they who are hearers of the word only, and not
doers, do but deceive themselves ; ' they put a fallacy
or false reasoning upon themselves, and not in a
small matter which one may safely make a jest of,
but in a matter, of the greatest consequence, which
every man is concerned to be in good earnest about.
Let us, therefore, do this justice to our own souls,
and put this respect upon them, to tell them the
truth. Let one faculty deal faithfully with another ;
for if they act separately, it will be to the ruin of
the whole. Let the understanding be true to the
conscience in informing it right concerning truth
and falsehood, good and evil ; and then let the con-
science be true to the soul in applying it, otherwise
we put a contempt upon our own souls.
[4.] Those abuse their own souls who distract and
disquiet them with inordinate cares and griefs about
this world, and the things of it As those despise
their souls who wallow in the mire of sensual plea-
sures, so do they who make them work in the mines,
and tug at the oar, of worldly pursuits ; who rise up
early, and sit up late, and eat the bread of sorrow,i^
in the business of this world ; who are careful and
cumbered about many things, and have their hearts
burthened and quite overcharged with an anxious
solicitude, not only what they shall eat and drink,
but what they shall do to get estates and grow great
in the world.
It is our duty to labour, working with our hands
the thing that is good. It is our sentence, to eat our
bread in the sweat of our faces ; and it is our sin
and folly, and an abuse to our own souls, if, all our
days, we eat in sorrows and darkness,^ always in
fear of losing what we have, and always in care to
make it more, to lay house to house, and field to
field,^ with an insatiable and boundless desire. If
we be hurried hither and thither with the cares of
this world; if our souls be put upon the rack,
always to the stretch in pursuit of lying vanities ;
if we be of doubtful mind, live in careful suspense,^
if we hover as meteors in the air, (so the word sig-
nifies,) so that we have no rest or enjoyment of our-
selves, we abuse our own souls.
It is the honour of our souls that they are made
capable of working, for the glory of God, and the
securing of eternal life ; of working for another
world, in preparation for it, working out our own
salvation ; and of working with another world, in
concert with it ; of doing the will of God as the
angels do it who are in heaven. What a disparage-
ment then is it to these souls, to make them slaves
• Ps. z. 6.
b Eccl. ▼. 17.
f Jam. I. 22, 26.
i laa. V. 8.
ir Ps. cxxvii. 2.
k Luke xii. 29.
626
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
and drudges to the world, and to keep all their
faculties employed in the work of the beasts that
perish, while those high and noble services for which
tliey were designed, are last and least thought of!
Covetous worldlings are said to load themselves with
thick clay, and with a continual perplexity about
it ; such perfect pack-horses do they make of their
souls, and so fast do they chain them to this earth,
when they should be mounting up with wings like
eagles heavenwards.
Let us, therefore, maintain the dignity of our own
souls, by disentangling them from the world, and the
cares of it, and managing ourselves with a holy in-
difference as to those things, rejoicing as though we
rejoiced not, and weeping as though we wept not,
and letting our souls dwell at ease, in an assurance of
the wisdom and goodness of the Divine Providence
working all for our good at last, and putting it out
of the power of any worldly cross or disappointment
to disturb us in that repose. This is to treat our
souls respectfully, and as they ought to be treated,
reserving them for the employments that become
them, and that they are fitted for. Let us think it
below us to fill our heads with contrivances about
those things, which, when we have compassed them,
we cannot fill our hearts with the enjoyment of them ;
nor suffer the losing of that to be vexation of spirit
to us, the having of which is but vanity, and no
satisfaction of spirit.
[5.] Those abuse their own souls who divide them
a portion of the things of this world, and put them
off with those things. A.s the soul is abused by an
inordinate coveting and pursuing of the world, so
it is abused by an inordinate complacency and re-
pose in the world ; for though that may give it a
present easiness, and so seem to befriend it, yet it
cuts it off from its true happiness, and lays a foun-
dation for an eternal uneasiness.
Those know how to value their own souls, who
can be content with a little of this world for their
passage, because there is better in reserve ; but
those greatly undervalue them, who could be con-
tent with it all for their inheritance and home.
It is the honour of the soul, that its original and
alliance is heavenly: it stands in relation to the
upper world, and, therefore, it is a debasement to it
to let it take up with the things of this world for its
felicity, which can neither suit its capacities, nor
satisfy its vast desires. This is excellently express-
ed by Mr. George Herbert ;
If souls be made of earthly mould,
Let them love gold ;
If bom on high,
^ Let them unto their kindred fly :
For they can never be at rest
Till they regain their ancient nest.
1 Luke xvi. lU.
It is the honour of the soul, that it is spiritual, ud
is capable of spiritual enjoyments, spiritoad lichei.
Those, therefore, put a slight upon them who think
that the entertainments of sense, which we have in
common with the brutes, are sufficient to make them
happy, and can call them their good things^ A fi-
ther cannot more show his displeasure against asn
he is irreconcilably fallen out with, than in makinf
his will to cut him off with twelvepence, who, other-
wise, was entitled to a child's part of a great estate:
yet much greater is the disproportion between tbe
happiness which the souls of men are bom to, and
that which the greatest part of men foolishly take
up with, as their reward, as their consolation, ai
their all, and which, therefore, they shall justly be
put off with ; Didst not thou agree with me far i
penny ? And, therefore, so shall thy doom be.
It is the honour of the soul, that it is immortal, is
so in its duration, and has something in its constitu-
tion, which, if it were not blinded and biassed by
the world and the flesh, would aspire after immortal
blessedness ; Non est mortale quod optai^ imm&riaU
petit — It desires not mortal, but seeks itmtmortaiy ob-
jects* How do they then dishonour their own souls,
who take up a rest and home for them in those tbiDp
that will not last so long as they must last, that
must be very shortly either buried in oar grayes, of
left to our heirs, and will not go with as to the
judgpnent, nor stand us in any stead in the soul's
state of separation from the body ; who confine their
happiness within the bounds of time, whereas they
are not themselves so confined, but are hastening
into a boundless eternity ! And thus the soul's being
must survive, must eternally survive, its bliss, and,
therefore, must of course be eternally miserable.
How did that rich man in the parable despise and
abuse his own soul, who, when he had his bams en-
larged and filled, said to his soul, Souly tkou kait
much goods laid up for many years, it is ail thy
own, and it is enough, it is thy all, now, take tiy
ease, eat, drink, and be merry /*" If the man had had
the soul of a swine, it had been something to talk to
it at this rate ; but what is this to a soul that must
this night be required, that must this night remove it
knows not where, and must leave all these things be-
hind, to it knows not who ? From his folly let us all |
learn this wisdom for ourselves, this justice and
kindness to our own souls, to lay up treasure for ,
them, not in this world, which we are hastening from,
but in the other world, which we are hastening to. '
(2.) Those despise their own souls who hastrd
them, and lay them open to danger, as well as those
who abuse them, and do them a direct mischief.
What we value we are loth to venture the loss of: (
those who know how to value their seals will not /
endanger their souls' lives ; yet this is that which '
I
m Luke xil 19
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
527
maltitades do, without any regret or reflection apon
their own folly.
[1.] Those hazard their souls who expose them to
the wrath and curse of God every day by wilful sin,
upon presumption that after a while they shall re-
pent of their sin, and it shall be forgiven them, and
all shall be well. Those have very light thoughts of
their own souls, who can thus venture them in hopes
of God's mercy, when at the same time they bid
defiance to his justice.
It is certain that every wilful sin lays us open to
the curse of God, and to the arrests of his law ; and
it is the soul that is exposed. As the sin is the sin
of the soul, so the curse it brings upon us is a curse
to the soul : so it is expressed with an emphasis,
(Job xxxi. 30.) by wishing a curse to his soul, which
will destroy it, and all its comforts, as a curse in the
house consumes it, with the timber thereof, and the
stones thereof. A curse upon the soul is a penetrat-
ing thing, it comes into the bowels like water, and
like oil into the bones." How little account do they
make of their souls who run them upon this sword's
point, and tremble not at all at the apprehension of
their danger ! They do in effect say, '* No matter
What becomes of them.'' They are by nature as
childrtin of disobedience, children of wrath, and that
wrath they not only leave abiding on them," but are
daily adding to it, and treasuring up wrath against
the day of wrath, not considering what a deluge of
wrath it will be when this treasury -comes to be
broken up, nor what will become of their souls in
that deluge ; it is as much as to say, they care not
what comes of them.
It is true, there is a way of escaping that wrath,
by repentance and faith in Christ, but these are
Good's gift, and his work, for those who pray for
them, not for those that presume upon them. It is
but a perad venture, whether God will give repent-
ance, whether the Divine Providence will give space
to repent, and whether the divine grace will give a
heart to repent, a tender heart, to those who have
thus hardened their hearts by the deceitfulness of
sin. Those have certainly little regard to their own
souls, who throw them thus into the fire of God's
wrath, in hopes of snatching them as brands out of
it, when there is such danger of perishing in it
But, of all sinners, none do more impudently avow
and proclaim their contempt of their own souls, than
those do who curse themselves in their passions or
vehement asseverations ; who challenge God Al-
mighty to damn them, nay, and sometimes explain
themselves, and challenge him with a horrid empha-
sis to damn their souls : as if they thought that their
damnation lingered and slumbered too long, they
imprecate that which the devils themselves depre-
cated, and that is, being tormented before the time.
aP8.C<]Ll8.
e John ili. 36.
Do they know what damnation is, what the damna-
tion of the soul is, who dare thus run upon God,
upon his neck, upon the thick bosses of his buckler,
and stretch out their hands against him ?p Those
make nothing of their own souls, who make nothing
of God's wrath, nor consider what a fearful thing it
is for a living soul, who hates holiness, to fall into
the hands of a living God, who hates sin, and will
reckon for it.
[2.] Those hazard their souls who embark them
in a false and deceitful bottom, and in that venture
them into the vast ocean of eternity. We have a
house to build for our souls, for them to retire to
and repose in when a storm comes, when the night
comes : now, if we build this house upon the sand,
when there is a rock provided for us to build it upon,
it is a sign that we despise our own souls, and think
any thing will serve to be a security for them ; as it
is a sign that a man makes small account of his
money when he puts it out upon very slender se-
curity, and cares not who he trusts with it, nor what
hands he lodges it in.
It is a great thing (my brethren) to venture into
another world, to be brought to judgment, and to
have our everlasting state determined by an irrever-
sible sentence ; and it concerns us all seriously to
consider, what hope we have that we shall come off
well in that day, and what ground we have for that
hope ; whether it be a hope that will not make us
ashamed. You are baptized, you are called Chris-
tians, you make a visible profession of religion, a
passable, perhaps a plausible, one ; you have a form
of godliness, and perhaps join yourselves with those
who are most strict and serious ; and this, you think,
will be a good security to you for the favour of God,
and the happiness of heaven, though you are
strangers to the power of godliness, and are under
the dominion of the world and the flesh. It is a
sign that you know not the worth of your souls, when .
you dare venture them thus upon that which will
not bear their weight.
Those despise their souls, who can send them to
God's bar with no other plea in their hands but
that. We are AhralianCt seed: or that, / am rich, I
have found me out substance ; in all my labours they
shall find none iniquity in me, that were sin :° or
that. We have eaten and drank in thy presence, and
thou hast taught in our streets : or that. The temple
of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we ; though
they have no evidence at all for them that they love
God, or believe in Christ, or repent of their sins, or
that they are sanctified by the grace of God. They
would not bring a cause to man's bar supported with
no better pleas, that will certainly be overruled;
nor venture a rich cargo in an old rotten vessel, that
a thousand to one founders at sea.
P Job XV. 35, 90L
4Hot.ziLa
628
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
Let as, therefore, show the esteem we have for oar
own souls, by bailding upon a firm foundation, and
making sure work for them, and preparing that for
their remoi^al into another world which will stand
them in stead, and which they may triumph in. Let
us not think it enough when we die, to say, We com-
mit our souls into the hands of Almighty God, and
to cry, Lord Jegut, receive my spirit ; but let us make
it the care and business of our lives to prepare our
souls, and get them made meet to be committed into
the hands of God and Christ, and to be welcomed,
that it may not be said to them, Departy I know you
not : these are not souls prepared for heaven, and
therefore heaven was not prepared for them. Let
not us run a risk in the concerns of our souls, but
press after that assurance which blessed Paul had
attained when he said, / know whom I have believed^
whom I have trusted with this precious soul of mine,
that great trust which I have lodged in the hands of
the great trustee, and he is able to keep that which
I have submitted to his conduct, and then commit-
ted to his care against that day.'
[3.] Those hazard their souls, who engage them as
a pawn for the world, and the gains of it. They
are aiming at great things here below, they will be
rich, for they think they must be rich, or they can-
not be happy. And this mistake makes way for a
thousand more. They are in haste to be rich, and
are told, that they who are so cannot be innocent ;*
yet they will hazard their innocence, and virith it all
the comfort and happiness of their souls, rather than
not be rich, than not be quickly rich. Contrary to
the judgment of Christ, they think themselves pro-
fited if they gain the world, though they should lose
their souls at last by it.
Here is a bargain to be made, some worldly de-
sign to be compassed, which, with the help of a lie,
of a fraud, of a false oath, may bring home a great
deal of worldly advantage. They cannot but own
that such ill practices are highly dangerous to their
souls, that they run a great hazard by them ; natu-
ral conscience at first startles at such things, but it
is for the getting of money, a present gain, and
which they think is certain, and not losable. The
loss of the soul is future, and they are willing to
think it either uncertain or retrievable, and, there-
fore, they resolve to run the hazard : they flatter
themselves with hopes that they may gain the world,
and save their souls too ; however, if they can but
gain the world, let the worst come to the worst, if
they do lose their souls, they shall fare as well as
their neighbours ; and if they alone must bear it,
they will bear it as well as they can. Now this is
making light of the soul indeed, to hazard its eter-
nal bliss for an inconsiderable trifle of this world's
wealth, and then to turn it ofi* with a jest. If I perish.
T S Tim. i. 12.
• Prov. xxviii. 2a
/ perish, and there is an end of it ; no, there is Mt
an end of it, for it is an everlasting destraction ; asd
those who run this venture will see their folly wki
it is too late, and will be taught by the loss of tlKir
souls to know the worth of them, which they M
better have considered in time.
How ready are many vain people to pawn tkv
souls for the troth of every idle word they spetk;
*' Upon my soul it is so." Verily they make light of
their souls indeed, who will yenture them uponfte
most trifling occasion. Dost thou know what tkot
pawnest, man, and what the value of it is? Thai
wouldst not be so free of a precious stone, if tbot
hadst it, as thou art of a precious soul. Those play
high that, whether in jest or earnest, stake tbdr
souls ; and do not consider what a subtle gamester
the devil is, that souls are the prize he aims at, and
that it is them he lies in wait to deceive, and so t»
devour : and, if we be so foolish as to hazard tbdr
ruin, — let him alone, to make sure their rain.
Let us, therefore, make it appear that we do not
despise our own souls, by taking heed to tiieai,
and keeping them diligently, keeping them out of
harm's way, keeping them that the wicked one tooeh-
eth them not ;' for there is danger, lest if he tooch.
he take. Let us avoid all occasions of sin, and
temptations to it, all appearances of evil, and ap-
proaches toward it, and take heed of a bold adven-
ture in any case wherein the soul is concerned, for
fear of the worst. In things of value, and that are
our all, it is good to be sure, and folly to ran t
hazard ; to hazard a soul for that which a nuui
would be loth to hazard his life.
(3.) Those despise their own souls that neglect
them, and though they do not, or think they do not,
do themselves and their own souls any harm, yet are
not at any care to do them the good they should do
them. They think it is well enough if they do not
wilfully destroy their souls, though nothing is done
towards the salvation of them ; whereas starving the
child is as surely the murder of it as poisoning it
Those certainly despise their own souls who make
no provision for them.
[1.] Who take no care to get the woands of their
souls healed. Sin is a wound to the soul, a bleeding,
killing wound, a wound and dishonour: Jesus Christ
has made provision for the cure of this wound, there
is balm in Gilead, and he himself is the physician
there ; by his stripes we may be healed ; bat in vain
doth the physician do his part in prescribing, if the
patient will not do his in observing the prescriptions.
Christ would have healed them, but they would not
be healed ; and so, as David complains, the wnmub
stink and are corrupt, and all because of the sinner'f
foolishness.** They fester, and are in danger of
bein*g gangrened, because no care is taken to get
1 1 John V. la
nPs.lviii.A.
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
529
them drest : and thus the wound, not looked after in
time, proves fatal.
Those who take no care to get their sins pardoned,
and their consciences purified, and their corruptions
mortified, leave their own souls as the priest and
Lievite did the wounded man, because (like them)
they have no value for them ; they care not whether
they live or die. They feel not the pain of their
wounds in conviction of sin, they fear not the con-
sequences of them in a dread of wrath, and so no
application is made to Christ ; no inquiry. What shall
I do to get my sin pardoned ? What method shall I
take to escape the death they threaten me with ? And
so the soul is filled with wounds and bruises, and
putrifying sores ^ which are not bound up.
It is certain that those fools who make a mock at
sin, and make light of it, are chargeable with this
farther instance of folly, they make light of their
own souls, and are not at all solicitous what becomes
of them. By this, therefore, let us all make it ap-
pear that we value the lives of our souls, by in-
quiring. With what will the Lord be pleased ? What
shall we do to recover his favour? with a readiness
to do any thing ; to submit to any operation, to go
through any course of spiritual physic prescribed,
so that we may not die of our wounds. When we
are reproved for a fault, and warned against it for
the future, and are called to repent of what we have
done amiss, if we fly in the face of the reprover, and
say, we care not for his help, who would help us up
when we are fallen ; it is a sign that we do not value
our own souls ; for we would thank any one that
would offer his service to help to cure a wound in
our bodies, or if we had missed our way, would
put us in the road again. If, therefore, by falling
into sin we have showed our neglect of our souls, by
hastening our repentance let us show our concern
for them.
[2.] Those who take no care to get the wants of
their souls supplied, despise them. The soul in its
own nature is craving, and has desires which ought
to be satisfied ; but the soul in its fallen state is
needy, it is miserably poor, it is ready to perish for
hunger, as the prodigal in the far country. This
world has nothing but husks for it : in our Father's
house, and there only, there is bread enough. Now
those have no value for themselves, who put off" their
souls with these husks, and think not of applying
themselves to the Father of spirits for the food of
spirits, the bread of life.
The soul wants knowledge, wants to be acquainted
with God its Maker, with Christ its Redeemer, with
the employments it is brought up, with the enjoy-
ments it is designed, for ; wants to be acquainted
with the upper world it is akin to, vCith the future
world it is bound for. The needful knowledge of
V Isa. i. d.
2 M
these things will not be got without care and pains.
Now those who will rather let their own souls be de-
stroyed for lack of knowledge, than take that care
and pains, show what a small account they make of
them. They are in care to furnish themselves with
that knowledge which is necessary to their getting a
livelihood in this world, but not that which is neces-
sary to their serving, glorifying, and enjoying God ;
and so in the greatness of their folly wander endlessly.
The soul wants to have communion with God ; it
is tired with the pursuits of the world, and surfeited
with its pleasures, and longs to have fellowship with
its own relations, to associate with those of its
own kind, to have a correspondence with heaven,
wants to hear thence, and send thither. There is a
way appointed for such an intercourse as this, which
would be its life and joy ; but holy ordinances, by
which it is to be kept up and maintained, are neg-
lected, and not attended on at all, or not duly at-
tended to; the great things of God's law and gospel
are accounted as a strange thing ; prayer, by which
the supply of our souls' wants should be fetched in
from the fulness which is in Jesus Christ, is either
omitted or sinks into a formality ; and in all this a
contempt is put upon the soul, as if it were not worth
making provision for.
[3.] Those who take no care to get the watch over
their own souls kept up, despise them. There ought
to be a constant guard upon our own spirits, a jea-
lous eye, and a careful hand upon them, that the
first risings of corruptions in them may be subdued
and mortified, stifled and suppressed, and the first
risings of any good affections in them cherished and
encouraged : we must have an eye upon them, as
upon children at their book, and servants at their
work, to keep them to it ; must have an eye upon
these jewels in our hands, that they be not snatched
from us. Take heed to thyself^ and keep thy soul
diligently,^ We are intrusted with these talents,
and charged to keep that which is committed to our
trust. And those who know how to value their souls,
will keep them with all diligence, as knowing that out
of them, out of souls well kept, are the issues of life.
But how many are there who have precious souls
to keep, and never cast an eye upon them, nor make
inquiries concerning them, where they are, or what
they are doing, or what is likely to become of them ;
never retire into their hearts, or commune with them ;
there is no care taken to keep out that which is dan-
gerous and prejudicial to the soul's interests, nor to
fetch in or keep up that which is necessary, and will
be serviceable to them.
And for want of watchfulness and circumspection,
the soul soon becomes like the field of the slothful,
and the vineyard of the man void of understanding,
which, when the stone wall was broken down, was
w Deut. W. 0.
530
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
all grown over with thorns ; and nettles covered the
face thereof.' There is the picture of a neglected
soal ; it is all overgrown with vain and foolish
thoughts, corrupt and vile affections, like the ground
when it was cursed, which brought forth thorns and
thistles. By these God is dishonoured, the soul is
disgraced, all good fruit is choked, and the earth
that brings forth these thorns and briers is rejected,
and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned.
It is sad to think how many precious souls, that
stand fair for heaven, are ruined and undone to all
eternity, through mere carelessness.
[4.] Those who take no care to get the welfare,
the eternal welfare, of their souls secured ; they are
hastening into a state where they must be for ever
either completely happy, or completely miserable,
and never were truly solicitous what they should do
to escape that misery, and to lay hold on that hap-
piness : certainly these despise their own souls,
they do not think them worth saving ; not worth the
jailer's inquiry. What mutt I do to be saved? or that
young man's, Good Master, what must I do to inherit
eternal life ? A thousand impertinences are inquired
after, and the great concerns of the soul and eternity
not regarded.
This honour God has put apon the soul, that he
has not only by its creation made it capable of eter-
nal life, but by its redemption made it a candidate for
eternal life : but those despise this honour God has
put upon them, who neglect the great salvation, and
think it not worth taking any care about, or striving
for ; they judge themselves unworthy of eternal life,
as is said of the unbelieving Jews.^ It is not from
a penitent sense of the sinfulness of their souls, but
from a proud contempt of the capacities of their
souls, which they do not think worth gratifying with
that life, and the joys and glories of it. They are not
at all solicitous what will become of them in the other
world, so that they can but have their wishes in this
world ; nor have the wisdom of the unjust steward,
who took care of a house to be in when he was
turned out of his stewardship. It is to be feared,
that even among those who are called Christians,
read the Scriptures, and hear sermons, there are
many who never yet put the question seriously to
themselves, ** What will become of me in the other
world? If I should die U)-nig,ht, whither would death
bring me ?"
Or if they have asked the question, they have not
pursued it, nor brought it to any issue, but the mat7
ter is still at uncertainties ; and they are content it
should be so, and put off the prosecution of this in-
quiry, as Felix did, to some more convenient season ;
they know not when. When they come to be sick,
or come to be old, then they will begin to think of
their souls and eternity, and to prepare for another
X Prov. xxiv. 30, 31
world, when they find they must stay no longer in
this. What low thoughts do these delays speak of
their own souls, as if their welfare were to be tte
last and furthest thing in their thoughts ?
And those who seem to be in earnest in inqoiring
the way to heaven, yet perhaps do not like it whea
they are showed it, but fly off* from the barg^n when
it comes to be struck ; as he did who went away
sorrowful from Christ, because he had great pos-
sessions. Some value he had for his soul, else be
had not gone away sorrowful ; but he had a greater
value for the world, else he had not gone away at
all. Those who have a beloved sin, a Dalilab, an
Herodias, a house of Rimmon, which they cannot
find in their hearts to part with, no, not to save thdr
souls, show how little they value them ; for those
who know the worth of them will be glad to accept
of Christ upon his own terms, of Christ upon any
terms.
(4.) Those despise their own souls, who prefer
their bodies before their souls. Man is a creature
admirably composed of matter and spirit, that thoagh
closely united, have distinct and separate interests
and capacities. It is the sinfulness and misery of
our fallen state, that the body has got dominion
over the soul, and tlie soul is become carnal ; it also
is flesh. It will be the felicity of our glorified state,
that the soul will have the dominion, and the body
itself will become spiritual ; but it is the test now,
in this state of trial and probation, which of tiiesc
we will give the preference to, and maintain the
dominion of, the soul or the body. Now those may
truly be said to despise their own souls compara-
tively, that prefer their bodies before them, and
allow them their principal cares.
[1.] Those who employ their souls only to serve
their bodies, and make provision for them, do in
effect despise their own souls. The body was made
to serve the soul, in serving God, and when it is
kept so employed, it is a temple of the Holy Ghost,
and upon that account truly honourable : but if, in-
stead of that, the soul be made to serve the body in
serving the world, and all its noble powers are kept
at constant work to provide for the gratifications of
the body and its appetites, this is a great contempt
put upon the soul.
Many people live as if they had bodies only to
take care of, and not souls ; or, as if the reasonable
soul were intended only to forecast for the sensitive
one ; and man had no other prerogative above the
beasts, but that, with the use of his reason, he is ca-
pable to screw up the delights of sense to a greater
degree of pleasure, and make them more nice and
delicate ; to improve by art the gifts of nature, which
the inferior creatures are content to take as they fiad
them ; which, after all, does but make the desires of
7 AeU xiii. 46.
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
531
le more bamoursome, and consequently the
3 of sense the less pleasing,
what a disparagement is this to a rational
be wholly taken up in sach sordid employ-
and to be made a perfect drudge to the body ;
\ had souls given us for no other end but to
ir bodies from putrifying ; and the powers of
;erved for no other purpose, but to be caterers
desires of sense ! This is that sore evil which
n saw under the sun, as an error, the servant
eback, and the prince attending as a servant
ley to him.' When the wits are set on work
it satisfactions for the appetites and passions,
! intellectual powers, which should be cm-
in the noblest speculations, and the most
conduct of the heart and life, are employed
leanest projects, here is a soul despised, and
itself truly despicable.
Those who injure their souls to please their
comparatively despise their own souls, and
ey do not value them as they ought.
'. do so who indulge the ease of the flesh to
/s loss and detriment, who, to spare a little
> the body, come short of great advantages
3ul, which it might gain to itself either here
ifter. The sluggard who will not plough by
»f cold, and, therefore, has nothing to gather
irvest, but is forced to beg in winter, pre-
iis present ease before his future benefit : so
, who, by observing the winds and clouds,*
iered from sowing and reaping ; and such is
)gitancy of those who, to save a little labour
»ody, lose the benefit of the means of grace
r souls : this will be found very improvident
iry at last, when profit and loss come to be
3d.
; do so who indulge the appetite of the flesh
ouPs hurt and damage ; who not only lose
i their souls might reap, because they cannot
their hearts to exert themselves, but involve
ves in a great deal of mischief, because they
find in their hearts to deny themselves, and
the cravings of the flesh. The sensual ap-
I apt to be carried out inordinately toward
s, and as far as it is gratified, the soul is pre-
by it, the heart is overcharged with surfeit-
drunkenness, and rendered unfit for heaven-
;rse and pursuits : and, therefore, those ma-
prefer their bodies above their souls, who, as
n speaks, are given to appetite, and have not
to put a knife to their throat.*^
sraelites in the wilderness coveted quails,
lid not live without flesh, and God gave them
quest ; but at the same time he sent leanness
ir souls. ^ He virithdrew his grace from them,
>se comforts which used to make their souls
• Eccl. X. 5, 6, 7.
3 m2
• Ck. xi. 4.
' as a watered g^arden. Those do not know how to
value their own souls, who can be content to have
them starved and made lean, so that their bodies
may be feasted and fattened, and fed to the full.
There is no sin that does more immediately pre-
judice the soul to please the body, than drunken-
ness does, for it deprives men for the time of the use
of their reason, and profanes that crown, that glory
of the human nature, by casting it to the ground,
and levelling men with the beasts that perish. The
understanding of the man is darkened when he is
drunk, his memory in a manner lost, his thoughts in
a tumult, and his passions have got clear of the
government of reason, and are all in an uproar ; his
speech bewrays him to be a fool.
The drunkard forfeits man, and doth divest
All worldly right, save what he has by beast
Herbert.
Can a man put a greater contempt than this upon
his own soul, thus to trample it in the dirt ; not
once or twice, but often ; to make a practice of it,
as many do ? And besides the present injury that it
does to reason, which a nighfs sleep does in some
measure recover, it does a lasting mischief to con-
science and religion ; it debauches the mind, hard-
ens the heart, and stupifies it ; it alienates the affec-
tions from divine things, and has been the ruin of
many who were well educated, and began well.
Drunkards, to gratify the spark in the throat, as
they call it, extinguish the fire from heaven, the fire
of holy love and devotion, and kindle a fire of vile
affections there, which, if infinite mercy do not pre-
vent, will bum to the lowest hell.
[3.] Those who endanger their souls to secure
their bodies, despise their own souls, and give the
preference to the inferior part of them. It is natural
to us when the head is struck at, to venture the right
hand for its preservation, which, though dear, is not
so dear. When at any time we are brought to this
dilemma, that there is no way of avoiding the sin of
the soul, but by suffering in the body, and no way
of avoiding suffering in the body, but by the sin of
the soul, then it will appear which we g^ve the pre-
ference to, the soul or the body : they are both dear
we will suppose, but then it will be seen which is
most dear.
Those who will deny Christ, rather than die for
him, and to escape the fiery furnace, will worship
the golden image, plainly show that they despise
their own souls ; for they will rather throw away
their comforts in God, and their hopes of heaven,
than their hopes and comforts in this world. When
the storm of persecution arises because of the word,
they will rather make shipwreck of faith and of a
g^d conscience, than of the world and of a good
b Prov. xxiii. i, 3.
e Ft. CYi. 15.
632
THE FOLLX OP DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
estate ; and, contrary to the common dictates of
reason, will rather cast themselves overboard than
their wares : and, though all that a man has he will
give for his life, but little of what they have will
they give for the life of their souls. Our Lord Jesus
has expressly told us, that he who will save his life
by disowning Christ, the same shall lose it;<^ by
saving a transient satisfaction he shall lose an eternal
felicity ; but whosoever is willing to lose his life, shall
find it with infinite advantage in eternal life : but
they will not take his word, and, therefore, choose
iniquity rather than affliction ; a choice which they
will certainly repent: it were well if they would
repent in time.
But let us show that we value our souls, by making
Moses's choice. Rather to suffer affliction with the
people of Gody than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season f and theirs, who loved not their lives to
the death in the cause of Christ ; and that of blessed
Paul, who counted not his life dear to himself, so
that he might finish his course with joy:' and let
us reckon our losses for our religion abundantly
made up, if we do but secure the salvation of the
soul. When that blessed martyr Bishop Hooper
was urged to recant, with this consideration, '' Life
is sweet, and death bitter :*' '* It is true,'' said he,
" but eternal life is more sweet, and eternal death
more bitter. '' This was the language of one who
put a value upon his own soul ; as on the contrary,
he who in the like case said, *' The fire is hot, and
nature is frail, and the truth is, I cannot bum,"
and, therefore, denied Christ, and turned papist;
showed that he preferred his body before his soul,
as multitudes do, who will rue it at the last.
II. I come next briefiy to show the folly of those
who thus despise their own souls ; and really the
thing speaks for itself ; men cannot be guilty of a
greater absurdity : their folly will shortly be made
manifest to all men ; and to themselves too, when
all these things, for the sake of which they slighted
their own souls, are lost and gone, and the soul
that despised itself is for ever abandoned by its
Maker to a miserable remembrance of its own folly,
in forsaking its own mercies, which would have put
a crown upon its hopes, for lying vanities, which
put a cheat upon them.
To show the folly of those who despise their own
souls, let us consider only these five things : The
nature of the soul ; its nearness to us ; the purchase
of the soul ; the projects that are concerning it ; and
its perpetual duration.
I. Consider the nature of the soul, which is too
noble, too excellent to be despised ; they who despise
it despise dominions, and speak evil of dignities.
They pursue my souly says Job, (cA. xxx. 15.) the
word in the original signifies my principal one ; for
A Matt. xvi. 25.
• Heb. zi. 25.
f Acts XX. 24.
the soul is the principal part of us. Jacob calls it,
His honour,* David calls it, His glory, ^ It is foUj
therefore to despise that which has such an innate
excellency in it, and has so much honour put upm
it. The soul of man is no despicable thing, and
therefore they are fools who despise it.
The soul is of divine original ; it was not made of
the dust, as the body was, but it was the brealk of
the Almighty, had the image of God stamped opoB
it, and is the master-piece of God's workmanship in
this lower world. He who despises the poor,
reproaches his Maker, so does he who despises his
own soul ; he thereby reflects dishonour upmi the
Father of spirits, as if that work of his hands
which he rejoiced in were not worth our r^i^arding.
The soul is of inestimable value ; for its powers
are great and noble ; its apprehensions not bounded
by the horizon of sense and time, but reach far be-
yond it; it is capable of knowing God, and eon-
versing with him, and of receiving a divine reveli-
tion in order thereunto; it is capable of being
sanctified by the Spirit and grace of God, and en-
ployed in praising and blessing God : nay, it is
capable of being glorified with God, of seeing hin
as he is, and enjoying him to eternity ; and is this a
thing to be despised? The soul is that one talent
which they who have received least from their
Master are intrusted with ; its being a talent speaks
it of value, as does the doom past upon the slothfal
servant who did not improve that one talent» though
he was intrusted with no more. The soul is a price
in the hand to get wisdom, that principal thing,
which is to be laboured for above all gettings.
Self-consciousness is in the nature of the soul ; it is
capable of reflecting upon itself, and conversing
with itself; Nosce teipsum — Know thy self , was an
ancient dictate of wisdom : and self-ignorance is
supposed to be a gross absurdity, when it is asked,
Know ye not your own selves .'* But those who despise
themselves, and are in no concern about their own
souls, show that they have no knowledge, no right
knowledge, of thentselves. This faculty of the sool,
which is so much its honour, does not do its part;
the light that is in them is darkness.
2. Consider the nearness of the soul. It is his own
soul that the sinner despises, that is, it is himself,
for the soul is the man, and what is the man but a
living soul? Abstract the soul as living, and the
body is a lump of clay ; abstract the soul as rational,
and the man is as the beasts that perish. Persons
in Scripture are often reckoned by souls ; for the
body is but the shell, the soul is the kernel.
Now, to the right value of a thing, it must be con-
sidered not only what it is in itself, but what interest
we have in it The loan of a thing is not so vain-
able as the property. Now the world is but lent
f Gen. xlix. 5.
h Pa. xvi ».
3 Cor. xiil. S
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
533
us, whatever we have in it, it is not to he called our
own ; hut our souls are our own ; we hrought them
into this world, and shall carry them out. The soul
is called the darling : ^ in the original it is, my only
one. We are intrusted with hut one soul, and
therefore, the greater is the shame if we neglect it,
and the greater the loss if we lose it. Our souls
being our only ones, should he our darlings, not our
drudges ; heing near to us. they should he dear to
us, and our constant care and concern should be
about them. This is my vineyard which is mine,
(such an emphasis does the spouse lay upon the
property,) and therefore should he ever before
Our soul is our own, for we are intrusted with it,
as committed to our charge, by him whose all souls
are, to be employed in his service now, and to be
fitted for a happiness in the vision and fruition of
him hereafter; and of this trust we must shortly
give account : '* Man, woman, thou hadst a soul of
thy own, what didst thou do with it ? It was lodged
in thy hand, where is it? It was to be thy peculiar
care, has it been so V* O what folly is it to despise
our souls, when we are so nearly interested in them,
that we really are good or bad, and it is with us
well or ill, according as our souls are or are not
well looked after. The concerns of our souls are, as
our Saviour speaks, the ra tiiunpat — ^he thinys that
are our own. The concerns of the world are the
Ta aKkoTfaa — another man*s ; Luke xvi. 12. Epic-
tetas spoke much the same when he made the con-
duct and government of our appetites and passions,
^tbstine and sustine, to be the ra i^* rifuv — the duty
which is ours, but the issues of our worldly affairs to
be the ra hc e^* 17/iiv — the event, which is God's. The
keeping of our hearts is above all keepings, and
flierefore, they ought to be kept with all diligence,
and not to be despised.*"
3. Consider the purchase of the soul, and the
price that was paid for its redemption. If we de-
spise the soul, we despise that, which not only the
all-wise Creator dignified, but which the all-wise
Redeemer too put yet greater honour upon, and so
reflect upon his judgment too. We reckon the
value of a thing by that which a wise man will give
for it, that knows it, and is under no necessity of
purchasing it. Our Lord Jesus knew very well
what souls were, and had no need of them, was
happy without them, and yet gave himself, his own
precious blood, to be a ransom for them ; avriXvrpov
— a counter-price. ^ He made his soul an offering for
ours, to teach us how to value them. When God
would prove the excellency of his people, and his
value for them, he mentions this instance of it, /
gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seha for
tkee,^ What a demonstration is it then of the intrin-
k Ps. XXXV. 17.
1 Cant. viii. 19.
m Prov. iv. 23.
sic value of souls, as well as of the kindness he had
for them, when he gave his own Son out of his
bosom for them, the Son of his love to suffer and die
for them.
You see how high souls stand in Christ's book of
rates, and shall they then stand low in ours? As
silver and gold would not satisfy the desires of a
soul, nor its capacities, in puris ejus naturalibus —
in its innate purity, so neither would they satisfy for
the sins of the soul, if I may so speak, in impuris
ejus naturalibus — in its innate impurity. We are
not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the
blood of Christ, which is of inestimable value ;
nothing less than that would buy them back out of
the hands of divine justice, would save them from
ruin, and secure to them their blessedness : shall
we then despise that which he paid so dear for, and
sell that for a mess of pottage, like profane Esau,
which he purchased with his own blood ?
And let us further consider, that if Christ paid
such a price for the purchase of our souls, he will
inquire after them, whether we take any care of
them or no ; as all wise men do after their purchases.
If we carelessly lose our own souls, yet Christ will
be no loser by it ; for if he be not glorified by our
souls in their everlasting happiness, he will be glo-
rified upon them in their everlasting ruin. And if
they forget the rock that formed them, and deny the
Lord that bought them, let them know, that as he
who formed them will show them no favour, so he
who bought them will say, Depart from me, 1 know
you not,
4. Consider the projects that are laid about souls,
and what striving there is for them, and for their love
and service. Nothing makes men value themselves
so much as being courted and contended about.
Sirs, you are fools if you despise your own souls,
for you cannot imagine what work there is about
them. God and the world, Christ and Satan, are
rivals for the throne in them: the good Spirit is
striving with men's souls, to sanctify and save them;
the evil spirit goes about continually seeking to
debauch and destroy them. God cannot have a
more acceptable present brought him than your
souls. My son, give me thy heart ; nor Safttn a more
acceptable prey.
It concerns you then to look about you, and to
make such a disposition of your own souls as you are
obliged to make, and as will be for your true inter-
est: it concerns you to fortify them against the
assaults of the worst of their enemies, and to furnish
them for the service of the llksi of their friends.
Think what projects the love of God has to save
souls ; with what a peculiar care that God, whose
the worlds are, even a world of angels, has been
pleased to concern himself for the world of mankind.
> Matt. XX. 98.
e Isa. xliii. 3. 4.
534
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
the world of souls. He had thoughts of love to a
remnant of the sons of men, of the souls of men, be-
fore the worlds were ; was devising means that his
banished might not be for ever expelled from bim.P
He sent his Son to seek and save lost souls ; and
says himself to the returning soul, / am thy salva-
tion.'^ He has given his Spirit to work upon our spi-
rits, and to witness with them. He has appointed
his ministers to watch for your souls ;' their busi-
ness is to win souls.* So much is done, so much is
doing, for souls' salvation.
Think also what projects the malice of Satan has
to ruin souls, to ruin your souls ; to get to rule them,
and then he knows he shall ruin them. What de-
vices, what depths, what wiles he has in hunting for
the precious soul ! and how all the forces of the
powers of darkness are kept continually in arms to
war against the soul ! The devil's agents trade in
the souls of men ; so we find, Rev. xviii. 13. Let us
not therefore despise our own souls, but have a care-
ful eye upon them, that they may become God's
children, and not the devil's slaves.
5. Consider the perpetual duration of souls, and
the preparations that are made in the other world to
receive them. Did we but live by that faith, which
is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence
of things not seen, we should value ourselves and our
own souls at another rate than commonly we do :
did we look more before us, we should look more
carefully and concernedly within us : and, there-
fore, our care about our souls, and our care about
eternity, are very fitly put together.
Things are valued very much by their duration :
gold is therefore the most valuable metal, because
most durable. Now this is the great thing which
speaks the worth of the soul, and shames those who
despise it, that it is an immortal spirit, it is to last
and live for ever ; it is a flame that can never be
extinguished ; the spirit of a man is that candle of
the Lord which will never be blown out, or burn out;
it must survive both the little world, when that is
turned into dust and ashes, and the great world,
when that is become a vast heap of ruins. O ! think
of thy soul, as that which will not only live and act
when it is separated from the body, but as that
which must be somewhere for ever, for ever.
It is an awful consideration when a child is bom,
to think here is the beginning of a being that must
outlive all the ages of time, and whose life will run
parallel with the endless ages of eternity. Here is
a candle lighted that must burn for ever, in flames
either of divine love, or of divine wrath. Here is a
perpetual motion set on foot that shall know no stop
or period. The brute creatures are mortal ; it is
not of the particular animals, but of the KntrtQ, the
whole creation in general, that there is said to be
9 2 Sam. xiv. U.
% PS. XXXT. 3.
r Heb. xiU. 17.
that earnest expectation, Rom. viii. 19. But maii
will be immortal in his individuals ; and is sock a
soul as this to be despised then ?
But this is not all ; there is everlasting happineai
or everlasting misery designed for souls in the other I
world, according to their character in this, and ac-
cording as they are found when they are fetched
hence. Were we all sure that oar immortal tools
would without fail be inunortally happy in the other
world, they ought not to be despised, bnt a great
deal of care taken of them, to prepare them for that
happiness ; but the matter is not so, — ^we are in dan-
ger of falling short of that happiness, and forfeitiag
our title to it, and of being cast away at last, and
then we are undone.
Think what preparations of wrath are made to re-
ceive sinful souls ; the Tophet that is ordained of old,
and to which they are reserved ; the day of wrath,
to which the wicked shall be brought forth ; and yon
will see yourselves concerned for yoar precioot
souls, that they may be saved from that wrath to
come, and will stir them up as the angel did Lot,
Escape for thy life, look not behind thee^ stmy mot n
all the plain, escape to the mountain, to the holy mouii-
tain, lest thou be consumed ;^ for souls that are de-
spised may even be despaired of: who will pity thy
soul, and snatch it as a brapd out of the burning, if
thou hast thyself no regard to it ?
Think what preparations of glory are made for
sanctified souls ; such as eye has not seen, nor ear
heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man
to conceive." Souls must needs be of great value,
when there is so much laid out, so much laid up, to
make those souls truly happy, whom the King of
kings delights to honour. The faculties and capa-
cities of the soul must needs be large, when there
goes so much to fill them and bear proportion to
them.
Look, therefore, upon the world to come, and then
you will see your souls worth taking care of. How
lightly soever some people now think of their own
souls, I am confident that they will be of another
mind shortly, when either the grace of God opens
their eyes ; for one of the first things that a sinna
is convinced of in order to his conversion, is of the
worth of his own soul ; or, when death having closed
the eyes of the body, and so drawn aside the inter-
posing veil of sense, opens the eyes of the mind.
When the soul is stript, it will see itself to be no
such despicable thing as it now looks upon itself to
be. Well, it is good for us always to have such
thoughts of ourselves, and of other things, as we shall
have shortly when we come to ourselves
III. Let us apply the subject.
I. Let us see and beWail our folly in having bad
such low thoughts of our own souls, and that we
• Prov. xL aa
t Gen. ux. 17.
« lCor.ii.Oi
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN SOULS.
635
have foT^t their dignity, and put dishonour upon
them. Evidences there are too many, and too plain,
of the low thoughts we have had of our own souls,
while we have thought of our bodies with a pride,
and pleasure, and concern more than was meet;
as if we had bodies only to take care of, and not
souls.
We arc apt to take up with a cheap and easy
religion, are still asking how much will serve just
to bring us to heaven, as if we were afraid of doing
too much for our own souls, whereas all the danger
is of doing too little. We crowd our religion into
a comer, and instead of making a business of it as
it requires and deserves, make a by-business of it :
we are eager in our worldly pursuits, but very remiss
and indifferent in holy duties ; and this is a sign
that we have low thoughts of our own souls.
We converse little with our own souls ; we do not
commune with them, nor inquire as we should into
their state and temper ; we show but little concern
about them, as if it were an indifferent thing to us
whether they were lost or saved. We take no care to
balance the accounts of our souls, but let their
affairs lie at large and unsettled, and this is an
evidence that wc despise our own souls ; we make
ourselves strangers to them, as if they were not
worthy our acquaintance. The face it may be is
admired, and therefore is often looked at in the
glass, but the soul is despised, and therefore never
considered.
We are very prodigal of our time and opportu-
nities, and take no care to improve what we have,
or to redeem what we have lost, and that is an evi-
dence against us that we have despised our own
souls ; for those who value their souls, value their
time, as knowing that the eternal welfare of their
souls depends upon the due improvement of the
days of time. What value do those put upon their
souls, who sleep in summer, and play in harvest,
when they should be laying in provision for their
souls against winter ; who idle away sabbath time,
and the time of the morning and evening sacrifice
every day, when they should be doing some service
to their own souls, or, which is equivalent, to God
with their souls ?
Well, let us be ashamed of our own folly in this
matter ; say. So foolish have I been and ignorant ;
surely I am more brutish than any man. If Christ
had not more care for our souls than we ourselves
have had, we had been in hell long since. Let us
be humbled before God for our contempt of that
which God has given us such a charge of, and which
we ought to have had such a concern for. The
matter is so bad, that it is not capable of aggravation.
We ourselves have suffered so much by our neglect,
that wc are inexcusable if we be not troubled for it,
and lay not that to heart which has been not only so
great a sin, but so great a damage to us, that
though we have reason to hope that upon our repent-
ance God has forgiven it to us, yet we have' reason
enough not to forgive ourselves.
2. Let us learn for the future how to put a due
value upon our own souls ; not to magnify ourselves
above our brethren, for they also have understand-
ing as well as we, they are not inferior to us, but
to magnify ourselves above the brutes, so as to scorn
in any respect to level ourselves with them ; and to
magnify our souls above our bodies, so as to be more
solicitous about our spiritual and eternal concerns,
than about any secular affairs whatsoever, even those
of the greatest importance.
Let us believe that one soul is more worth than all
the world ; that this soul of ours is so ; and that the
g^n of all the world, if we could compass it, will
not compensate or countervail the loss of it ; but
the saving of the soul will make us abundant amends
for whatever loss we may sustain in providing for
our souls, or protecting them.
Let us value our souls, as they have relation to
God, whose image they bear, and for whose glory
they were made, to show forth his praise, and to
qualify us to be the collectors of his praises from
the inferior creatures, and to pay them into the
treasury above. Let us value them as they have
relation to another world, which they were made for,
and are hastening to ; value them as spiritual, value
them as immortal, that they may employ themselves
in spiritual work, and entertain themselves with
spiritual delights, and may be still aiming high, at
glory, honour, and immortality, resolved not to take
up short.
Let us not so value ourselves, as to think any good
work below us, nor any service we can do to God
or our brethren, though it may be the meanest and
most despised ; but let us always so value ourselves,
as to think any evil work below us, and a disparage-
ment to us to do an improper thing, though never so
much in fashion and reputation. Let us think our
souls too good to be made drudges to the world, and
captives to the flesh, and slaves to any base lust. A
heathen could say. Major sum et ad majora natus
quam ut eorpori sim mancipium — / am superior,
and destined to superior privileges than to be the slave
of the body. It is the great soul of man, (so it has
been fitly called by some,) that great soul of thine,
whose cause we are pleading against thyself, who
dost despise it : shall we gain our point, and prevail
with you to think more highly and honourably of iC
and of its noble powers and faculties ?
3. Let us make it appear that we do indeed value
our own souls, and do nothing that looks like de-
spising or undervaluing them. You will all say
you value your own souls, but what proof do you
give of it ? Show it me by your works that you have
indeed a concern for your precious souls, and pre-
fer them before your bodies, and that you have
636
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR pWN SOULS.
nothing so mach at heart as their true welfare. Let
all who converse with you know, by your constant
watchfulness over your words and ways, that you
have a true respect for your own souls, and would
not do any thing to their prejudice.
Be much in communion with your own hearts, in
reflecting upon yourselves, and inquiring what pro-
gress you make in the way to heaven ; and how you
grow in grace, what ground you get of your corrup-
tions, and whether you do not lose ground. Be aware
of guilt contracted by your sins of daily infirmity,
and renew your repentance daily, and the applica-
tion of the blood of Christ to your consciences, to
cleanse and purify them ; and thus make it appear
that you value your souls.
Be afraid of sin, of every thing that looks like it
and leads to it, and stand upon your guard against
every temptation, that you may resist it at the first.
Check the risings of corruption, and look diligently,
lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble and
defile you. To sin, is to wrong the soul, and to save
that wrong from being its ruin, there is no other way
but to repent, and that is to afilict the soul, to be
pricked to the heart. To sin, is to make work for
repentance, that is the best that can come of it ; so
that if wc have any value for our own souls, we must
show it by keeping at a distance from sin, and hav-
ing not only a dread of it, but an antipathy to it.
We must show that we love our souls by our dili-
gent and constant attendance on the means of grace,
by our keeping up secret prayer, and conversing
much with the word of God, without which the soul
cannot prosper, or be in health. Whatever has a
tendency to the good of our souls, and the improving
of them in knowledge and grace, and fitness for
heaven, we must show our esteem for our souls by
improving them, for the directing and quickening,
the strengthening and comforting, of our souls, and
the renewing of the inward man more and more.
4. Let us value other things as they have relation
to our souls, and fix our estimate of them by the
value of our souls, and stand afiected to them accord-
ingly.
Let us value the Bible as the best book, because it
is a book for the soul ; it discovers our souls to us as
a glass, and is a discemer of the thoughts and intents
of the heart.^ It discovers to our souls the way that
leads to their present and future happiness. In the
Scriptures we think we have eternal life, life for
the soul.* It is the excellency of the word of God,
that it converteth the soul, it enlightens the mind, it
rejoiceth the heart ;* and for this we should value it,
because it makes the soul wise unto salvation, and
furnishes it for every thing that is good.
Let us value the sabbath as the best day of the
week, because it is a day for the soul, a day that
» Heb. It. 12.
w Ps. six. 7, 8.
befriends the soul's employments and enjoyments,
when the body rests, that it may give the soul the
more scope ; and, therefore, all who have an honour
for their own souls, will call the sabbalii A deU^ii,
holy of the Lord, and honourable.
Let us value those as our best friends who are
friends to our souls, and fear those as our worst ene-
mies who are enemies to our souls ; too often we do
the contrary. It is certain, that those who tempt as
to sin are enemies to our souls, who court as to for-
bidden pleasures, and flatter us in forbidden prac-
tices, and tell us that we shall have peace, though
we go on ; yet such as these, most people are pleased
with as their friends, delight in their company, and
willingly hearken to all they say. It is certain, that
those who reprove us for sin are friends to oar souls,
who faithfully tell us of our faults, and warn as of
our danger, and call us to our duty : yet, such as
these most people are displeased with as their ene-
mies ; so they reckon them, because they tell them
the truth. Would we show that we value our own
souls, let us learn to say to a tempter. Get thee behind
fite, Satan, thou speahest as one of the fooluh people-
speak ; and to say to a reprover, Smiie me, and k
shall be a kindness : and thai which I see not teadt
thou me.
Let us reckon that condition of life best for as,
that is best for our souls ; which is most free from
temptations, especially, to the sin that most easily
besets us ; and which gives us the greatest advan-
tage for our souls. Our value for oar soals should
reconcile us to afilictions, which thoagh grievous to
the body, yet, by the grace of God working with them,
are beneficial to the soul, and yield the peaceable
fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised
thereby. Blessed is the man whom God ekastenetk;
though it be painful and uneasy to the body, if
thereby he teach him out of the law, that will be
nourishing to the soul.*
But above all, let us value our Lord Jesos Christ
as the best friend that ever poor souls had, who died
to redeem and save them. The good Shepherd is
the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls ; ^ a good
Shepherd indeed, who laid down his life for our sools;
who has provided food for our souls, and healing
for our souls, and rest for our souls, and an eternal
happiness for our souls. O let our souls love him,
and prize him, and study what we shall render to
him for his love ! And what shall we render? All
the return he expects is, that since he has approved
himself such a good friend to our souls, we should
apply ourselves to him accordingly, and make use
of him. Let me therefore now, in the close, press
this upon you with all earnestness ; show the valae
you have, both for precious Jesus and for your own
precious souls, by trusting him with them ; commit
I
•
a Ps. xciv. 12.
7 I Pet ii aSb
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
546
the apostle says it was with the Gentiles, they were
carried away even as they were led. * Those make
DO account of their way, whose hearts are thus weak,
thus easy, thus yielding to the suggestions and so-
licitations of them who lie in wait to deceive, and
make them their rule.
3. When we are wavering and unsettled in the
course and tenor of our ways, then we despise
them. Those who in the course of their lives are of
no consistency with themselves, but halt between
two, and are continually contradicting themselves,
they make nothing of their way, nor bring any thing
to pass in it; these are the double-minded men,*
whose hearts are divided between God and the
world, the Spirit and the flesh, as if they had the art
of reconciling contraries ; and they are accordingly *
UDstable in all their ways, in a continual struggle
between their convictions and their corruptions, and
sometimes they yield to the one, and sometimes to
the other; and thus they go on from time to time,
fed with a fancy, as if it would justify the abundance
of bad in them, that there is something in them that
is good which does condemn it, and witness against
it. But this is despising their way, as if it were not
worth being entirely submitted to God, but it were
enough' to be in part so: but those who thus, like
Reuben, are as unstable as water, like him shall
never excel."
(1.) It is certain that those have not the concern
they ought to have for their own ways, who have not
resolution enough to persist in good purposes, and
to hold to them. You shall have them sometimes in
a good mind under the convictions of the word, or
the corrections of the rod ; or when they are going
out into the world, fresh from under the influence of
a religious education ; they will then promise very
fair, All that the Lord shall tay tinto us we will dOy
and be obedient ; and we have reason to think that
they mean as they say, and intend no other ; but the
buds and blossoms are blasted, their good purposes
prove to no purpose; and it is for want of resolution,
it is because they have not a just value for their
own way, otherwise they would stick to a good bar-
gain for it when they have made it.
You who are young, I hope, are ready to engage
yourselves to the Lord, to promise that you will walk
in his ways, and keep his statutes ; but will you ad-
here to it ? will you abide by it ? Having sworn, will
yon perform it ? Will you with purpose of heart
cleave to the Lord ? This would indeed put a value
upon your way ; if you had indeed one heart and
one way to fear God for ever. This was it that
Joshua laboured to bring the people of Israel to,
when he put it to theii choice, whether they would
serve other gods, or the true God only, and laid be-
fore them what there was in the service of God that
• 1 Cor. xiL 2. t James i. 8. « Oen. xWx. 4.
^ Jo»h. xxiv. 2J. w Hos. *i. 4.
2 N
was discouraging : all was to bring them to this
fixed resolution, and keep them to it. Nay, but we
will serve the Lord. *
(2.) Those who have not constancy enough to pro-
ceed and persevere in the good practices wherein
they have begun, have not the concern they ought
to have for their own ways. Those who did run
well, but something hindered them, and drove them
off; who had a first love, but have left it, even the
kindness of their youth, and the love of their es-
pousals, as if they had found some iniquity in God
or in his ways, which yet we challenge them to pro-
duce and prove any instance of: those despise their
way, who having begun in the spirit, end in the
flesh, whose goodness is as the morning cloud and
the early dew, which passeth away.*
You who now in the days of your youth are mind-
ful of your Creator, it is a good way in which you
set out, make it to appear that you have a value for
it, by persevering in it; and take heed lest, having
escaped the pollutions of the world through the
knowledge of Christ, you should through careless-
ness of your way, be again entangled therein and
overcome, and so fall from your own stedfastness/
I beseech you, look to yourselves and your own way,
and to every step you take in it, lest ye lose the
things ye have wrought and gained, that you may
receive a full reward. ^ Notice is taken in the cha-
racter of Jehoshaphat, that he walked in the first
ways of his father David:' it is a pity but those
whose first ways are good ways, should not have
such regard to them, as still to improve, that their
last ways may be their best ways.
4. If we do not apply ourselves to God in our
ways, and acknowledge him, we despise our own
ways. This honour has God been pleased to put
upon our ways, that he has undertaken to be our
guide and guard in them, if we look up to him as
we ought. If, therefore, we have not our eye up to
him, if we make light of this privilege, as all those
do who do not make use of it, we lose this honour.
(I.) God has promised those who seek him, that
he will teach them the way in which they should go,
that he will teach sinners in the way,* will teach
them his way, if they will but meekly attend his
conduct; that he will teach them in the way that
he shall choose, when otherwise they would be apt
to turn aside into the way that a vain mind and a
corrupt heart shall choose, r. 12. He has promised
that he will find out some means or other to make
their way plain before them, to guide them by his
counsel, to guide them with his eye, by some little
intimation of his mind, which they with whom his
secret is do understand the meaning of ; he knows
how much depends upon the right ordering of their
way, and how much it is his delight when it is a good
X 2 Pet. ii. 20.
s2 Chron. xvii. X
J 2 John 8.
• P». XXV. 8, 9.
636
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
may be together for ever praising him. It will be
80, if you really have the value you ought to have for
their souls, and for your own.
THE FOLLY
OP
DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
Proverbs xix. 16.
But he that detpiseth his ways shall die.
We have here a fair warning to a careless world ;
a fair warning given, O that it were but taken !
There are those by whom it is taken. David speaks
of it with comfort, that he had taken the alarms
which God's commands gave, and, therefore, hoped
for the rewards they proposed ; by them is thy ser-
vant warned; and in keeping them there is great re-
ward. The written word is a word of warning.*
The work of ministers is to warn sinners, they are
set as watchmen for this purpose, and are to hear
the word from God's mouth, and to warn them from
him, and in his name. And this is that warning
which they are to give from him ; O wicked man !
thou shalt surely die,^ if thou go on still in thy tres-
passes. O drunkard ! O swearer ! O sabbath-
breaker ! O extortioner ! O unclean person ! Who-
ever thou art, thou shalt surely die ; the God of
heaven has said it, and he will never unsay it, nor
can all the world gainsay it, The soul that sinneth
it shall die,
I am here to-day in God's name to warn you, from
this text, whether you will hear, or whether you will
forbear, O thou that despiseth thine own ways, thou
shalt die I if thou persist in this contumacy and
contempt, thou shalt surely die. O that I may give
the warning so as to deliver my own soul, and that
you may all receive it so as to deliver yours !
There are two things in the text :
1. The sinner's fall and ruin, which we are here
warned of: He shall die ; the wages of sin is death.
It is that which sin, when it is finished, brings forth.
It is the birth from that conception, the harvest from
that seedness. The end of all those things is death ;
that is it which sin has a direct tendency to.
There is a death that is the common lot of man-
kind ; it is appointed to men, to all men, once to
die : and that is the general effect of sin ; it came in
at the same door, at the same time ; By one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin. And if our
breasts were but as susceptible of just resentments
as they are of unjust ones, surely mankind would by
consent detest and abhor all sin, because that is tte
mother of all mischief; that was it that introdnced
all that death which sullies the world's beantf,
ruffles its peace, and stains the pride of all its gkiry.
But there is a death which is the particular lot of
impenitent sinners. We lie under a sentence of
death for the breach of the original law, but ttii
speaks another death, a much sorer condemnation,
which is inflicted for the contempt of the remedial
law.
(1.) It is a spiritual death. An impenitent soul
dies as a soul can die ; it lies under the wrath and
curse of God, which is killing to the soul, is its
death ; it is destitute of spiritual life* and of its
principles and powers. It is under the dominion of
corruption, which is as killing a sickness to the soul
as the curse of God is a killing sentence. When
Christ threatens concerning those who believe not in
him, that they shall die in their sins,* or as it is, t.
21 . «y ry afULpruf, i}iiiav, in your sin, in that sin of unbe-
lief ; he means not so much that you shall die the
death of the body, in an unconverted state, hot you
shall die spiritually, in the same sense that we are
said to be dead in trespasses and sins, Eph. ii. 1.
Sinners shall die, that is, their disease shall be in-
curable, and consequently mortal ; they shall lan-
guish of it awhile, and die of it at last.
They shall die, that is, they shall be cat off fjroB
all communion with God, which is the life of the
soul, and from all hope of his loving-kindness, wldd
is better than life. They shall die ; that is, tbey
shall be dead to God, and to all g^ood ; dead to
Christ, as branches in the vine that are withered,
which have no communication with the root, nor
derive any virtue from it.
This spiritual death is a thousand times worse
than the death of the body, and more to be dreaded.
The body separated from the soul, which is its life,
is only made a just and easy prey to the worms,
which feed sweetly on it ; but a soul separated firoai
God becomes a just and easy prey to tiie devils, as
tempters, tormentors, or both. The death of tbe
body is not to be called death to any but to those
who die in their sins, and to them it is followed by
the second death : to the saints it is but a sleep, for
they die in Christ, and the toil of their work ceases
while the comfort and recompence of them remains.
Those are dead indeed who are twice dead; the
body dying, and the soul dead. O dread this spi-
ritual death; Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise
from this death, and Christ shall give thee light md
life.
(2.) It is an eternal death : this is but the perfec-
tion of the former, the sinfulness of man and the
wrath of God both immutably fastened. He diaU
die ; that is, he shall perish eternally, he shall die
• Ps. lis. u.
b Esek. xzxiii. 7, a
e John Tiii. 24.
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WATS.
da9
the second death. The learned Mr. Mede observes,
that in Solomon's proverbs hell is called the *' con-
gregation of the dead/' of Rephaim, of the ffiants, so
some render it,<^ alluding to the sinners of the old
world, who were cat off by the deluge, and died to-
gether, which was a figure of the eternal punishment
of sin in hell,® and he supposes that Solomon has
an eye to that future state of torment, when he says,
of the strange and foolish woman, that her house
inclines to death, and her paths to the dead / and,
that the dead are there, and her guests are in the
depths of hell.> Agreeable to which it is here said
of the wilful sinner, that he shall die, be shall die
eternally, shall go down to the congregation of the
dead and damned.
That misery which those inevitably fall into who
live and die in their sins, is fitly called death, be-
cause, though it is not the extinguishing of their
being, yet, which is equivalent, it is the extinguish-
ing of their bliss, and non ett vivere ted valere vita —
life consists not in existence but in enjoyment ; they
are ever dying, and yet never dead. Death is the
most terrible thing we can conceive, especially death
by exquisite tortures, when death itself is courted as
ease and release ; ^ and, therefore, hell is represented
by the most killing tortures, to which that period is
denied, because it is indeed more terrible than
we can conceive. The metaphors are nothing to
what the thing itself will be ; nothing to what
it is represented to us, when it is stript of the
Bietaphors. It is indignation and wrath, tribulation
mnd anguish, to the soul of man that doeth evil; it is
the wrath of an immortal God, filling the conscience
of an immortal soul, that went out of this world un-
pardoned and unsanctified, and has in that world
its faculties vastly enlarged, to receive the impres-
sions of that wrath, and to make bitter reflections
upon itself; that has no delights of sense to divert
the thoughts of its own misery with, nor any hope of
ever having benefit by the rejected Saviour, and the
resisted Sanctifier.
This is no pleasing subject, nor is it any pleasure
to me to dwell upon it, but we dare not pass by it
when it comes in our way. I hope you do not desire
we should ; that you are not of those who would
have only smooth things prophesied to you You had
better hear of it than feel it, especially when you
hear of it for no other end but that for which the
rich man in hell desired his five brethren might have
it testified to them, lest they should also come into
this place of torment. They who blame ministers
for preaching these terrors of the Lord, and with
them persuading men, who turn it to their reproach,
that they fill their pulpits with hell and damnation,
forget how frequently our Lord Jesus preached upon
this subject, of being cast into utter darkness, where
f. Prov. xxi. 16.
f Prov.ii.l8.
• 9 Pet. ii. 18.
ff C*. ix. 18.
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth ; of
the destruction both of soul and body in hell ; of the
furnace of fire into which the wicked shall be cast ;
of the worm that dies not, and the fire that shall not
be quenched, the everlasting fire prepared for the
devil and his angels ; of those who cannot escape the
damnation of hell ; and many, very many, the like
passages we find in Christ's preaching. Such are
the warnings we have received from his mouth, and
we should be false to our Master, and false to your
souls, if we did not give yon this warning ; and we
should fall under his curse, and yours too, for our
unfaithfulness. Give me leave therefore briefly to
tell you,
[1.] That this second death, of which we give you
warning, is a real thing, and no fancy. It is un-
doubtedly true, that there is a state of misery and
torment in the other world, which will certainly be
the portion of all who live and die ungodly. It is
not the product of a crazed or terrified imagination,
nor an engine of state wherewith to keep the world
in awe : no, sirs, what we tell you concerning the
torments of hell, a? well as concerning the joys of
heaven, are the true sayings of God. This branch
of God's wrath is plainly revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.*
It is so far from being inconsistent with the justice
of God to punish sin to this degree, that considering
the pomp, pleasure, and prosperity of many wicked
people in this world, it is necessary to the maintain-
ing and asserting of the divine justice and holiness;
for considering how wickedness seems to be connived
at and countenanced in this world, how would it
appear that God hates it, and as a governor punishes
it, if there were not such a place of torment reserved
for it : and, therefore, the day of wrath is called the
day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of
God.'' And even natural conscience witnesses to the
truth of it, when the terrors of the Lord set themselves
in array against it. Some have felt such a hell within
them, as has been a plain indication of a hell before
them.
O that all our hearts were possessed with the firm
belief of this truth, that the wrath of God abides,
and will eternally abide, upon all those who be-
lieve not in Jesus Christ, and submit not to the
laws of his holy religion. The devil drew our first
parents in to eat the forbidden fruit, by promising
them impunity, and facing down the truth of the
threatening ; though in it he gave the lie to eternal
truth. God had said. In the day ye eat thereof ye
shall surely die ; and has said to us as plainly. He
that believes not shall be damned: yet, as Satan said
then to those who ate of the forbidden tree. Ye shall
not die, he still says to those who persist in unbelief
and impenitence. Ye shall not be damned. And shall
H Rev. ii. 5, 6.
i Rom. L la
k Rom. ii. 5.
640
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
we suffer ourselves to be imposed upon by the same
fallacy, or impudent falsehood rather, which was so
fatal to our first parents, and to us in them ? Shall
we credit the father of lies, who seeks our destruc-
tion, rather than the God of truth, who desires our
welfare ?
You who are young, in this age of infidelity, have
need to guard against temptations of this kind. Be
firmly established in this truth, and hold it fast
The revelation of it plainly comes from God, and,
therefore, every suggestion, how plausible soever,
that tends to shake your belief of it, must come
from Satan, and must be accordingly rejected with
abhorrence. Live not a carnal, sensual, wicked
life, for then you will be tempted to wish there were
no hell, and so by degrees to believe there is none :
but by your belief of it be driven to Christ, be re-
strained from sin, and kept in the way of your duty,
and by such good influence upon your hearts and
lives, you will have your belief of it confirmed ; and
it will be so far from being a terror to you, that it
will furnish you with matter of comfort and praise,
to think that through grace you are delivered from
the wrath to come.
[2.] The second death, as it is a real thing, so it
is a fearful thing, inconceivably dreadful ; for who
knows what is the power of God's anger, either what
he can inflict, or what it is possible for a soul to
suffer ; or what a fearful thing it is for a sinner, who
has made himself obnoxious to God's justice, and
would not come up to the terms of pardoning mercy
offered, and has made himself odious to God's holi-
ness, and would not come under the power of sanc-
tifying grace, offered likewise ; to fall into the hands
of the living God, when he comes to take vengeance,
not only for his injured holiness and justice, but
(which will add greatly to the account) for his de-
spised grace and mercy ?
The condition of all those will no doubt be very
sad and doleful, who shall be shut out from the
vision and fruition of God in heaven ; as all those
will be who are not, by the grace of God, made meet
for it : but it is observable, and it is what ought to
be observed to you who enjoy the gospel, and profess
Christianity, that the extremities of the torments of
hell are always spoken of as the portion of those,
who either might have had a place and a name in
the church of Christ, and would not, or have a
place and name in it, and do not live up to it.
They are the children of the kingdom, the unbeliev-
ing Jews who shall be cast into outer darkness,^ who
were invited into the Christian church, but refused
the invitation. They are the tares found in the field
of the church, and the bad fish enclosed by the gos-
pel net, who shall be cast into the furnace of fire."
And hypocrites, who shall not escape the damna-
1 Matt viii. \% m Matt xiii. 43. n Matt. xzii. 13.
tion of hell, even those who come to the wedding-
feast without a wedding-garment.** It is he who
follows Christ, and yet betrays him, whose conditioii
will be so miserable, that it had been better for that
man he had never been bom.* And thej are those
who had talents but buried them ; who had oppor-
tunity of relieving Christ's poor, and shut up the
bowels of their compassion from them, who shall
be most severely reckoned with. So that we, for oor
parts, are all concerned to fear the worst, and with
the utmost diligence to flee from the wrath to come;
for if we fall under it, (how charitably soever some
may be willing to hope concerning those who never
enjoyed the advantages that we enjoy, nor made the
profession that we make,) it is certain that our oob-
demnation will be more intolerable than that of
Sodom and Gomorrah, (so the Judge himself has
told us,) though theirs is no less than the vengeance
of eternal fire.P
Let our holy faith therefore produce a holy fear,
as Noah's did, who by faith being warned of a de-
luge coming, was moved with fear to prepare aa
ark.4 O that the sinners in Sion might hereby be
made afraid, because, of all sinners, it will fare
worst with the sinners in Sion ! O that fearfuloess
might surprise the hypocrites, whose doom will be
the most fearful ; that by this fear sinners may be
awakened to cast away the filthy rags of their ini-
quity, and hypocrites to trust no longer to the cloak
of their hypocrisy ; that sinners may^ become saints,
and hypocrites sincere : for when we preach soeh
terrible doctrine as this, it is not, as we are some-
times told, to frighten you out of your wits, butto
frighten you out of your sins.
[3.] This second death is very near to all who are
going on still in their trespasses. If Satan cannot
prevail to take away the influence of this truth upon
men's minds, by denying the reality or eternity of
hell-torments, or by diminishing the terror of them,
he then endeavours to do it by representing them at
a vast distance, that in that view they may appear
small and inconsiderable, in comparison with the
things that are present and near. When we tell
wicked people that they shall surely die, if they go
on in sin, they are ready to tell us, perhaps it may
prove so at last ; but the vision that we see is for
many days to come, and we prophesy of the times
that are very far off,' as the people said to the pro-
phet. If there be such an evil day coming, yet they
put it as far off from them as they can, and so it
makes no impression upon them.
And is it so indeed ? No, certainly ; I am to tell
thee, sinner, thou who goest on frowardly in the way
of thy heart, that there is but a step between thee
and this second death, and it may be a short step,
and soon taken. There is but one life between thee
o Matt uvi. 24. p Jude 7. s Heb. xi. 7. r Ezek. xii 27.
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
541
and belly and that is thy own, which, perhaps, will
be shortly at an end ; Behold the Judge standeih be-
he/ore the door. As the Saviour of the saints, though
he tarry, yet will come, and will not tarry ; so the
judgment of sinners, though it seem to linger, seem
to slumber, yet now of a long time it lingers not, it
slumbers not.*
It would amaze us if we could see it with our
bodily eyes, but (which is next door to it to a be-
liever) our Saviour has set it before us in two para-
bles, what a sudden change death makes with a
secure worldling, whose soul is promised the enjoy-
ment of goods laid up for many years, and yet is this
night required ; or with a secure sensualist, who fares
sumptuously every day, and the next news that is
heard of him is, he is dead and in hell torments.^
In a moment they go down to the grave, from the
height of prosperity to the depth of misery.
O that the nearness of this dreadful doom might
awaken sinners to a speedy repentance and return
to God ! Believe it, sirs, it is not a time to trifle, or
to be dilatory, yet a little, little while, and the vail
will be rent. The days of your probation will be
numbered and finished, and you will enter upon the
state of recompence and retribution. O that you
would bethink yourselves in time, now, at length, in
this your day, that you would know and consider
the things that belong to your everlasting peace ; for
though they are not yet hid from your eyes, thanks
be to God they are not, yet you know not how soon
they may ; when the misery, that might have been
in time prevented, must be to eternity rued, but can-
not to eternity be remedied.
Those are very awakening words of Mr. Baxter's,
in a sermon before the House of Commons, which
Dr. Bates quotes in his sermon at his funeral, and
which I shall crave leave to transcribe here. '< The
wretch that is condemned to die to-morrow cannot
forget it ; and yet poor sinners, that continually are
uncertain to live an hour, and certain speedily to
see the majesty of the Lord to their inconceivable
joy or terror, as sure as they now live on earth, can
forget these things, for which they have their memory,
and which one would think should drown the mat-
ters of this world, as the report of a cannon doth a
whisper, or as the sun obscures the poorest glow-
worm. O wonderful stupidity of an unrenewed soul I
O wonderful folly and distractedness of the ungodly !
that ever men can forget, I say again, that they can
forget, eternal joy, eternal woe, and the eternal God,
and the place of their eternal, unchangeable abodes,
when those stand even at the door, and there is but
the thin veil of flesh between them and that amazing
sight, that eternal gulf, and they are daily dying and
stepping in V
Be convinced ofthe certainty of these truths; that
• 2 Pet. ii. 3.
if we live after the flesh we shall die ; that the broad
way of sin leads to destruction, and ends in it ; that
except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish ; and
then tremble to think how miserable the condition
of that man is, who has brought himself to this fear-
ful dilemma, that either God must be false, or he
must be damned. But I hope better things of you,
my brethren, and things that accompany salvation,
though it is needful I should thus speak.
2. Here is the sinner's fault and folly, which
brings him to this ruin, and which we are here warn-
ed against, and that is, despising his own ways ; and
the opening of this is what I chiefly aimed at in the
choice of this text Having yesterday in another
place, upon a like occasion, showed the folly and
danger of despising our own souls, as those do who
are careless about their spiritual state, I thought this
might fitly follow it, to show the gross absurdity they
are guilty of who are careless about their particular
actions, and never heed whether what they do be
right or wrong; than which nothing can be of
more pernicious consequence, especially to young
people. And this is that which is here meant by the
sinner's despising his own way; — Qui negligenter
instituit vitam et more* — who is careless in the regula-
tion of his life and manners ; so Piseator: Non curans
quo modo vivat — who is heedless how he lives ; so Mer-
cer, ^The former part of the verse explains it. He
that keepeth the commandment, heepeth his own soul.
Those who walk circumspectly in the way of duty
secure all the true interests of their own souls, and
will be happy for ever. But those who despise their
way, and do not govern themselves according to the
commandment, do not keep to that, they ruin theii
own souls.
So that hence we may gather this doctrine,
That it is a very foolish and dangerous thing for
men to despise their own ways. Or thus : Those
who despise their own ways are in the high road
to utter ruin.
In the prosecution of this, as of the former, I must,
I. Show when we may be said to despise our own
ways; and, II. The folly and danger of doing so;
and then make application.
I. When may we be said to despise our own ways,
our conversation, and the particular actions of it,
which we ought to have a very tender and careful
regard to ? You shall see the crime opened in six
particulars :
I. When we are altogether unconcerned about the
end of our ways, we may then be truly said to de-
spise our own way^ This inconsideration ofthe end
of our way includes two things, which are both fatal.
(I.) Not designing the great end, which in our
way we should aim at, nor directing our ways
towards that end. We know very well, that the God
t Luke xTi. 19, 33.
643
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
who made ns, made us for himself, to show forth his
praise ; that the Christ who bought us, bought us
for himself, that we should not henceforth live to
ourselves, but should be a peculiar people to him,
should live to him, and be to him for a name and a
praise. So that the great end of our being and living
is the glory of our Creator and Redeemer ; and this
end we should at least virtually and habitually aim
at in all our ways.
And it is a great honour which the God of heaven
has put upon our ways, that he is pleased to reckon
himself glorified by them if they be good, and, it in
them oar light shine before men, glorified by the
fhiits of our ways." That not only such a favourable,
but such an honourable, construction should be put
upon any thing we can say or do, that it should be
acceptable and serviceable to tbe great God of hea-
ven and earth, who is infinitely exalted above all
blessing and praise ! That the worms of the earth
should be capable of doing tlie work of angels!
Man's honour, in being made Lord of the inferior
creatures, is very g^^at : the Psalmist, when he ob-
serves him to have dominion over the works of God's
hands, reckons him, in that, crowned with glory and
honour.'' But his honour in being made the mouth
of the inferior creatures in praising God is much
greater ; that whereas they can only minister matter
for praise, man is capable of ofiering up actual ador-
ations and praises to the Creator ; and he is pleased
to say, that he who offers praise, glorifies him, and
to take it among the titles of his honour, that he
*' inhabiteth the praises of Israel :" for this we have
much more reason to say, Lordy what is man, that
thou magnifi€$t him, and makett tueh account of him ?
In my eye, a man looks more truly g^eat when he is
in a right manner worshipping his Creator at the
footstool of his throne, and giving glory to him, than
when he is domineering over his fellow-creatures,
and giving law to them, on the highest of the thrones
of the kings of the earth.
Nor is it only in the solemn acts of religious wor-
ship that we are to glorify God, but even in our com-
mon actions, whether we eat or drink, or whatever
we do, we must do it to the glory of God ;* that God
in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ.*
The general scope and tendency of our conversations
must be toward the pleasing and praising of God ;
his favour must be pursued as our chief good in all
we do, and his honour aimed at as our highest end ;
that we may in all our actions express the honour
we have for God, and may excite others to honour
him. And when we do thus, t% borrow a phrase
that commonly passes from man to man, but much
more properly from man to God, we do ourselves
the greatest honour of subscribing ourselves his
*' admirers and humble servants."
u Matt. V. 16. John xy. 8.
w I Cor. X. 31.
▼ P«. viii. 5, 6.
X iPetiv.n.
But if, instead of directing our ways to this gieit
end, we regard not whether we do so or no : nay, if
we direct them to a contrary end, and instead of
living to God and to his glory, we live to ourselfei,
we eat to ourselves, and drink to ourselves,^ as God
complains concerning his people, to please ouraehes,
and gratify the appetites of sense, that we may eojoj
bodily ease and pleasure ; if, instead of seeking his
honour, and the honour that conies from him, «e
seek our own honour, in the praise and applause of
men ; if self be the centre in which the lines of all
our actions meet ; we may then be said to despise
our ways, and to disparage them, when we make
them subservient to an end so mean and trifling,
when they are capable of being made to serve u
end so great and noble. Belshazzar is said to haire
lifted up himself against the Lord of heaven,
whereas really he debased and diminished himself to
the last degree, when he served his base and bnitisli
lusts with the wealth and honour and power &at
God had given him, and praised the gods of wood
and stone, which neither hear, nor see, nor know;
and must stand mute to that high charge. But tke
God in whose hand thy breath is, and in whose are iff
thy ways, hast thou not glorified,*
(2.) Not inquiring what will be the last end, in
which our ways will terminate and have their period.
That which makes our way considerable, that is,
the course and tenor of our conversation well woittj
our care, — is, that it is either the broad-way tint
leads down to death and destruction, or the namv-
way that leads up to life and glory. The path le
walk in is either the path of life,* or the path of the
destroyer.** It is not only either a right way tbit
will bring us to the happiness we profess to be
journeying toward, or a wrong way that will net;
the difference is greater than that, it is a way tint
will end either in heaven or hell.
And does it not concern us then to put the question
seriously to ourselves. Whither will the vray that I
walk in lead me ? where will it lodge me? that if it
be the good way that leads to heaven, I may preii
forward in it ; if the bad way that leads to hell, I '
may hasten back out of it Whither am I going?
what will be in the end hereof ? what shall I do in
the day of visitation ? If I should die to-night, as I
am not sure to live till to-morrow morning, whither
would death bring me ? These are questions whicb
all those who have a concern for their own way will
ask themselves frequently ; as the pilot who raiadi
his business, often considers what port he is boond i
for, and then, by inspecting his compass, inqoins J
whether the course he now steers will bring him to it
But with tbe most of men this is the last thing in
their thoughts ; they have not the pmdenee to foie-
see the evil, and to hide themselves, but with iSst
7 Zech. Tii. 6.
• Pb. xTi. II.
■ Dailv. fl.
bPs.xTii4.
THE POLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
543
simple they pass on, and are punblied.^ We ear-
nestly wish, as God did of Israel, that they would
be so wise as to consider their latter end ; hut at the
same time, we have reason to complain, as God did
of Jerusalem, that because she remembered not her
last end, therefore she came down wonderfully,^
Those despise their way who look not on it with
that concern, which a serious prospect of the end of
it would fill them with ; and therefore it is, that they
go on securely in that way of the ungodly which
will perish ; but they consider not the perdition that
it will end in, and, therefore, are drawn into it, and
drawn on in it, by the allurements of worldly profit
and sensual pleasure. That simple unwary youth,
whom Solomon speaks of, was made to yield, and
in a manner forced, by the flatteries and fair speeches
of the adulterous woman, because he considered not
what would follow upon it, that it was the direct
way to hell, and to the chambers of death ; so that
he went as an ox to the slaughter, and as a fool to
the correction of the stocks ; as a bird that hastens
to the snare, and knows not that it is for his life.
Men would not be brought, as they are, to believe
a lie, by which they will all be damned, if they
were not given up to strong delusions.
And are there any here who have lived thus many
years in this world, and never yet bestowed one
serious thought upon this grand question. What
will become of them in the other world? who either
never put the question to themselves, or, like Pilate,
had not patience or courage to stay for an answer ;
who never yet judged it a matter worth being re-
solved in ? Know then, that you are of those who de-
spise their own ways : and can it be a thing of small
account with you, whether you are going to heaven
or hell ? Is the difference between them so minute as
to justify your indifference in this matter? O that at
length you would bring this matter to a trial ; and
not only so, but bring it to an issue, with all the soli-
citude that a matter of such importance both deserves
and requires. Make it to appear that you value
your ways, by being inquisitive, as a careful tra-
veller is, whether the way you are in will bring you
to your journey's end if you proceed in it, or not,
and proceed accordingly. If ye will inquire, in-
quire ye ; and leave not a matter of such moment
at uncertainty.
2. When we are indifferent about the rule of our
ways, and the measures by which we govern our-
selves in them, we despise oUr own ways. Men's
practices will be guided and ruled by their princi-
ples, and those who are loose and unfixed in their
principles can never be even and steady in their
practices. Those certainly despise their way who
walk at all adventures, and live at large when they
should walk circumspectly, and live by rule.
• ProT. xxii. 3.
(I.) We despise our Way, if we set aside the rules
which God has honoured us and our way with the
prescribing of, God has bid us stand in the way and
see. Consider what is the way appointed you to walk
in, ask for the old paths, for God has not put us to
seek for new rules to go by, such as were never heard
of before, but such as were from the beginning, and
he has said, Walh therein, and ye shall find rest for
your souls, spiritual rest in your way, and eternal
rest at the end of it. But they put contempt upon their
way, which God had discovered such a concern for;
for they said. We will not walh therein,^
It is a great honour God has put upon our way,
[I.] That he has given us the Scriptures to be the
guide of our way ; has in them showed us what is
good, and what the Lord our God requires of us ;
has here told us what are the by-paths we should
carefully avoid, what the stumbling-stones we should
take heed of: his word is a light to our feet, and a
lamp to our paths, not only a discovering but a direct-
ing light Could a greater regard have been had to
our actions by the God who made us, than to give us
a divine revelation exactly suited to our case, and
accommodated to all the steps that we have to take,
on purpose to be our guide to heaven ? What an
honour did God put upon Israel in the wilderness,
though an undeserving people, and upon their pas-
sage through it, in that he gave them a pillar of cloud
and fire to go before them, and show the way in
which they should go, and to direct all their removals
and rests! Such a divine conduct are we under,
who have the written word to be our guide and coun-
sellor.
But we despise our way if we make not use of
this rule, and conform not our hearts and lives to it ;
if it be an indifferent thing to us whether we be
ruled by the word of God, or no ; if we never con-
sult that oracle, never try our ways by that touch-
stone, nor are in care to walk by the light of th&law
and the testimony. As presumptuous sinners tram-
ple upon the law, and do what they can to make it
void, so careless sinners cast the law behind their
backs, and keep it as much as they can out of their
sight, as if it were not worth Vhile to order their
conversation according to it. Those who despise the
commandment of the Lord,' who despise the word,
and fear not the commandment, they despise their
own ways, and shall be destroyed :> but as many as
walk according to this rule, as they put a respect
upon it, so they put a respect upon their own way,
and peace shall be upon them, and mercy, as it is
upon all the Israel of God,*^ who are guided and
governed by that rule.
Let young people cleanse their way, and make it
pure and pleasant, acceptable to God, comfortable
to themselves, and beautiful before men. Let them
a Lam.i.9L
Jer. ?i. 19. I fa Sam. xll. 9. r Prov. xiil. 13. h QaL vi 1«.
544
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
direct their way to the right end, and in the right
paths, by taking heed thereto with a constant care
and concern, according to the word,' which we must
always have regard to. [See Mr. Nesbit's sermon
to yotmy people lately, on that text.]
[2.] That he has appointed conscience to be a
monitor to us concerning our way, according to the
Scriptures. As the commandment is a lamp, and
the law a light, so the spirit of a man likewise is the
candle of the Lord,^ Conscience, rightly informed,
is an excellent guide in subordination to the Scrip-
tores, and God has showed his care of our actions,
by appointing us such a tutor and guardian, such
an inspector of our manners, to be always with us,
to check us when we do amiss, and to direct and
encourage us to do well ; to be a voice behind us,
saying unto us. This is the way, walk in it, when we
are ready to turn aside.' God, by enduing us with
a faculty of reflecting upon our actions, which the
beasts have not, of accusing and excusing ourselves,
has evidenced the concern he has about our ways,
that they be straight and good.
But if we have no regard to the admonitions of
conscience, and turn a deaf ear to them ; if we say
to that seer. See not ; if we smite our hearts for
smiting us, or threaten to do so, as the king of Judah
did the prophet, ForheaVy why shonldest thou be
smitten?"^ if it be all one to us whether our con-
sciences be pleased or displeased, and no care is
taken to keep them void of offence ; then we despise
our own way, as if it were not worth looking into, or
looking after. But however conscience may for a
time be slighted and silenced, brow-beaten and run
down, first or last it will be heard.
O that young people would betimes manifest their
concern for their own way, by paying a respect to
their own consciences, getting them rightly informed
concerning good and evil, sin and duty ; hearkening
to their dictates, though they be but whispered;
keeping them tender and afraid of sin, and keeping
up their dominion over appetite and passion, and
all the lusts of the flesh and of the eye. . Often call
upon conscience to do its office, and not only give it
leave to deal faithfully with you, but charge it to do
so : maintain the honour of the government in your
own souls, and the due course of law, and suffer it
not to be insulted, obstructed, or made despicable.
Thus order is kept up in the soul, and its peace
secured ; and it is the greatest honour you can do
yourselves, to maintain a value and veneration for
your consciences.
(2.) We despise our way if we set up and follow
their rules of walking, in opposition to those which
God has appointed us ; and such rules as are not
only pernicious, but unworthy to be regarded in the
conduct of our way.
i Ps. CXix. 9. k Prov. XX. 27.
m 2 Chron. xxv. 16.
I Isa. XXX. 21.
o Jer. xliv. <I7.
What mean thoughts hare those of their own way,
[I.] Who are guided and governed by appetite and
passion, fancy and imagination, the sight of their
own eyes ; who will do just what they have a miiid
to do, whether right or wrong. Quidquid libet /i«^-
whatever pleases is right, that is their principle ; if
it be grateful to sense, it shall be lawful ; they will
do what is right in their own eyes, and what pleases
them, whether it be right in God's eyes, and please
him, or no. — We will certainly do whatsoever th\M§
goes forth out of our own mouth,'* is the language of
those who despise their own way. By this Solomon
describes the folly of the young man. That he walks
in the way of his heart, and in the sight of Ais eyes.*
But are those fit to direct a way that leads to
eternity ? Must the powers that are brutal command
a creature that is rational ? Must human reason and
divine revelation, and the oracles of both, give way
to the desires of the flesh, and the more foolish
inventions which man has found oat since bis
departure from his God ? Nothing is so unseemly as
servants on horseback, and princes walking as
servants upon the earth :p nothing so insufierable
as these servants when they reign, these fools whea
they are pampered.^ Can we think that maui, who
was made to be a subject to his Maker, should be
allowed a boundless liberty, and sent out free with
the wild ass ? No ; you mistake yourselves, if yoo
think you may do as you please.
[2.] Those, also, who are guided and governed bj
the course and custom of this vain and foolish world,
despise their own way, who think that a leader and
director wise enough, and good enough, and safe
enough for them. Those matter not much what they
do, who resolve to do as the most do, and follow the
multitude, though it be to do evil ; nor whither they
go, who resolve to go down the stream, without ask-
ing whither it will carry them. Christ says, Feihm
me, and it will be an honour to us and our coovcr-
sation to have such a leader, and to follow him
whithersoever he goes, who is wisdom itself. The
world says. Follow me, and we cannot do onrselves
a greater dishonour, than to put ourselves under the
conduct of such a leader; yet, thus the children of
disobedience do, they walk according to the conrae
of this world.' It is all one to them what they do,
so they can but recommend themselves to the gay
and the g^eat, or to the worldly-wise, on whom tiiat
principle has a greater influence than all the prin-
ciples of their religion, " As good he out of the world
as out of the fashion,**
What contempt do those put upon their own ways,
who are easily drawn aside from their duty into by-
paths, by any one who will put up the finger, and
flatter them, and speak a few fair words, and tell
them every body else does so ! It is with them as
o Cccl. xi. 9.
q Prov. XXX. 22.
p Eccl. X. S, 7.
r Epb. ii S.
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
545
the apostle says it was with the Gentiles, they were
carried away even as they were led. * Those make
no account of their way, whose hearts are thus weak,
thus easy, thus yielding to the suggestions and so-
licitations of them who lie in wait to deceive, and
make them their rule.
3. When we are wavering and unsettled in the
course and tenor of our ways, then we despise
them. Those who in the course of their lives are of
no consistency with themselves, but halt between
two, and are continually contradicting themselves,
they make nothing of their way, nor. bring any thing
to pass in it; these are the double-minded men,*
whose hearts are divided between God and the
world, the Spirit and the flesh, as if they had the art
of reconciling contraries ; and they are accordingly *
unstable in all their ways, in a continual struggle
between their convictions and their corruptions, and
sometimes they yield to the one, and sometimes to
the other ; and thus they go on from time to time,
fed with a fancy, as if it would justify the abundance
of bad in them, that there is something in them that
18 good which does condemn it, and witness against
it. But this is despising their way, as if it were not
worth being entirely submitted to God, but it were
enough' to be in part so : but those who thus, like
Reuben, are as unstable as water, like him shall
never excel."
(I.) It is certain that those have not the concern
tbey ought to have for their own ways, who have not
resolution enough to persist in good purposes, and
to hold to them. You shall have them sometimes in
a good mind under the convictions of the word, or
the corrections of the rod ; or when they are going
out into the world, fresh from under the influence of
a religious education ; they will then promise very
fair, A II that the Lord shall say unto us we will do^
and be obedient ; and we have reason to think that
thej mean as they say, and intend no other ; but the
buds and blossoms are blasted, their good purposes
prove to no purpose; and it is for want of resolution,
it is because they have not a just value for their
own way, otherwise they would stick to a good bar-
gain for it when they have made it.
You who are young, I hope, are ready to engage
yourselves to the Lord, to promise that you will walk
in his ways, and keep his statutes ; but will you ad-
here to it ? will you abide by it ? Having sworn, will
you perform it ? Will you with purpose of heart
cleave to the Lord ? This would indeed put a value
upon your way ; if you had indeed one heart and
one way to fear God for ever. This was it that
Joshua laboured to bring the people of Israel to,
when he put it to theii choice, whether they would
serve other gods, or the true God only, and laid be-
fore them what there was in the service of God that
• 1 Cor. xii. 2. t James i. 8. n Gen. xMx. 4.
▼ Josh. xxiv. 21. w Hos. vi. 4.
2 N
was discouraging: all was to bring them to this
fixed resolution, and keep them to it. Nay, but we
will serve the Lord,"
(2.) Those who have not constancy enough to pro-
ceed and persevere in the good practices wherein
they have begun, have not the concern they ought
to have for their own ways. Those who did run
well, but something hindered them, and drove them
oS\ who had a first love, but have left it, even the
kindness of their youth, and the love of their es-
pousals, as if they had found some iniquity in God
or in his ways, which yet we challenge them to pro*
duce and prove any instance of: those despise their
way, who having begun in the spirit, end in the
flesh, whose goodness is as the morning cloud and
the early dew, which passeth away."
You who now in the days of your youth are mind-
ful of your Creator, it is a good way in which you
set out, make it to appear that you have a value for
it, by persevering in it; and take heed lest, having
escaped the pollutions of the world through the
knowledge of Christ, you should through careless-
ness of your way, be again entangled therein and
overcome, and so fall from your own stedfastness.*
I beseech you, look to yourselves and your own way,
and to every step you take in it, lest ye lose the
things ye have wrought and gained, that you may
receive a full reward. ^ Notice is taken in the cha-
racter of Jchoshaphat, that he walked in the first
ways of bis father David:' it is a pity but those
whose first ways arc good ways, should not have
such regard to them, as still to improve, that their
last ways may be their best ways.
4. If we do not apply ourselves to God in our
ways, and acknowledge him, we despise our own
ways. This honour has God been pleased to put
upon our ways, that he has undertaken to be our
guide and guard in them, if we look up to him as
we ought. If, therefore, we have not our eye up to
him, if we make light of this privilege, as all those
do who do not make use of it, we lose this honour.
(1.) God has promised those who seek him, that
he will teach them the way in which they should go,
that he will teach sinners in the way,* will teach
them his way, if they will but meekly attend his
conduct; that he will teach them in the way that
he shall choose, when otherwise they would be apt
to turn aside into the way that a vain mind and a
corrupt heart shall choose, v. 12. He has promised
that he will find out some means or other to make
their way plain before them, to guide them by his
counsel, to guide them with his eye, by some little
intimation of his mind, which they with whom his
secret is do understand the meaning of; he knows
how much depends upon the right ordering of their
way, and how much it is his delight when it is a good
X 2 Pet. it. 20.
s2 Chroii. xvii. X
Y 2 John 8.
• Ps. XXV. 8. 9.
546
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
way, and, therefore, the steps of a good man are
ordered by the Lord,'' and we are instracted to pray,
Lordt order my steps in thy word,^
But now, if we do not think this divine conduct
worth asking, if we think we do not need it, or can
do well enough without it ; if in the most difficult
and doubtful cases we go on leaning to our own un-
derstanding, and ask not counsel at the mouth of
the Lord, wc despise our way, we put contempt
upon it, and bring more contempt. Thus they did
who took counsel, but not of God, and covered with
a covering but not of his Spirit, Isa. xxx. I. They
who over-value their own wisdom under-value their
own way.
(2.) God has promised them that seek him, to bear
them up and strengthen them in their way, to fortify
them against the temptations of their way, to furnish
them for the duties and services of it, and to work
all their good works in them and for them. What
an honour has God hereby put upon our way and
work, that he has promised us grace sufficient for us,
that as our day is, so shall our strength be ! to en-
large our hearts, that we may run the way of his
commandments, and work in us both to will and to
do ! But if we slight this grace which he has offered
us and encouraged us to ask, and instead of com-
mitting our way to the Lord, go on in it in our own
strength, as if we had no need of the divine aids,
we then despise our way, and it is just with God to
leave us to ourselves ; to leave the youths who are
confident of their own abilities, to faint and be
weary, and the young men utterly to fail,<i while by
renewed strength from him, the lame man is made
to leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb to sing
in the ways of the Lord.
5. When we are careless of our past ways, and
take not the account we ought to take of them, we
then despise our ways. It is our honour that we
can look back ; it is our concern to look back, be-
cause if we have done amiss, there is a way pro-
vided to undo it by repentance, and prevent the fa-
tal consequences of it. If we neglect that, we de-
spise our way.
(I.) If we are not willing that others should re-
prove us for what they see or hear is amiss in us, we
have not the care we ought to have for our own way.
So many things there are amiss, and so much is it
our concern to have them mended, and yet withal
so partial are we in favour of ourselves, that we have
need of more eyes than our own to discover us to
ourselves : and it is a great advantage to us in our
wray, to have faithful friends about us, to tell us of
our faults and of our dangers ; This is not well, the
other is not safe ; this is a blemish to you, and that
will be a snare to you.
But there are those who take it as an affront to be
b Ps. xxxvii. 23.
c Ps. cxix. 133.
d Isa. xl. 30.
thus admonished, are ready to fly ia the face of their
reprovers, yea, though they be ministers, reptaven
in the gate, reprovers by office ; yea, though they be
their own ministers, who ought to have some cue
particularly of their souls ; thoug^h they be their
parents and masters, who rebuke with authori^;
though they be those to whom they haTe given the
right hand of fellowship, with a mutual obligation
to watch over one another; yet they are ready to
say to them who show them the false steps they
have taken, '< What is that to you ? meddle with
your own business, we know what we have to do
better than you can teach us :" and it is well if
they bear them not a grudge for it. Is not this an
evidence that they despise their way, tboogh it be
*a way that leads either to heaven or to bell ? They
would not thus despise their way from one part of
the city to the other ; for there they would think
any one who would show them where they have
missed their way, or are in danger of missing it, and
would direct them in the right way.
2. If we are not willing to examine ourselves, and
to search and try our own ways, and to call our-
selves to an account, and correct ourselves forwbat
we have done amiss, we despise our own ways, and
do not make that account of them which God does,
and which he expects we should do. He looks upon
men when they have sinned, to see what they will
do next, whether they will make any sorrowful re-
flections upon it, and whether their spirits will be
grieved for that, by which they have grieved his
Spirit : and, if there be any who say, / kave siwui^
and kave perverted that which was rights mnd ii pn-
fited me not, « he is pleased with it, and meets such
returning souls more than half way with his com-
forts. But if, on the contrary, when he hearkens
and hears they speak not aright ; ' if none of them
say, " What have I done ? and it is all wrong ;" still
if they be not brought to that, he is disappointed,
and is provoked to say, that his Spirit shall not any
more strive with them.
Those despise their way, who never remember
against themselves their former iniquities, nor in-
quire wherein they have erred ; who never examine
their consciences, nor review the records of them ;
lie down at night, and never ask what they have
done amiss that day ; enter upon a sabbath, and
never look back upon their week's work ; perhaps
go to the Lord's table every month, and do not ex-
amine themselves how their conversation has been
ordered since they were last renewing their cove-
nants with God in that ordinance : and is not this a
great contempt put upon their own way ? They are
willing to take it for gpranted all has been well, as
Ephraim, though he had the balances of deceit in
his hand, and loved to oppress, yet flattered himself
• Job xuiii. 7.
f Jer. viU. 6w
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
547
with a conceit that they should find no iniquity in
him that were sin, > nothing very bad, or at least
nothing to be seen.
And while they thus neglect to inquire into their
own ways, how can they tell what confession of sin
to make, and what to pray particularly for the pardon
of? and how can they tell what sin to covenant
against, and to stand upon their guard against? You
that are great dealers in the world, know of what
consequence it is to you to keep your accounts even,
and often to review them ; and those who are shy of
looking into their books, it is to be feared, it is be-
cause they are not willing to know the worst of their
affairs ; they suspect they are going behind-hand,
and by this means are likely to go more and more so.
And will it not be of dangerous consequence to
the prosperity of our souls, if we neglect to look
over the books of conscience, that we may renew our
repentance, and make our peace with God in Christ?
He that is washed needs to wash his feet ;*> the sooner
the better, and in order to that to observe what filth
he has contracted ; if he do not, he despises his way.
Consideration of our ways is the first step towards
conversion from the errors of them, and, therefore,
reckon not that you can safely go forward, till you
have first seriously looked back.
6. When we are heedless and inconsiderate as to
the way that is before us, and walk at all adventures,
we despise our own way. If we think it is all one
what we do, that God Almighty is neither pleased
nor displeased with any of our thoughts or affections,
words or actions, and, therefore, do as we please,
and ask no question for conscience sake ; if, in
doubtful cases, we never consider what is our duty,
but what is our inclination and secular interest ; if
we go on in our callings, and never consider how
we may glorify God in the use of them, and keep a
good conscience ; if, like the men of Laish, we dwell
carelessly, never look back with any regret, nor for-
ward with any concern, we despise our way.
(I.) If we are in no care to avoid sin, which mars
our path, and is a by-path, then we are careless of
our way, as a fool upon the road, that never picks
his way, but goes, as we say, through thick and thin.
The chief, and indeed the only, thing we have to
dread in our way is sin, for nothing but that can
hurt or hinder us. The sin that most easily besets us,
is the weight that must be laid aside ; that is it that
defiles our way, that disorders and perplexes it ; that
is the false way which we are to hate.
But those who are careless of their way, are not
aware of their danger of sin, and their danger by
sin, and therefore rush into it as the horse into the
battle;* they consider not that they do evil,'' nor
what a great deal of evil there is in what they do.
They have, it may be, deceitful ways of trade, carry
r Hos. xii. s.
k John xiii.
10.
2
i Jot. viii. 6.
it on by a course of lying and fraud, cheating their
neighbours, cheating the government, and go on se-
curely in it, not considering what an abomination to
the Lord both the lying lips and the false weights
and measures are. They keep up drunken clubs,
and in them mispend their time, and unfit them-
selves for the service of God, not considering that
drunkenness and revellings, and such like, are
works of the fiesh, of which we have been told
again and again, that they who do such things shall
not inherit the kingdom of God.^
A.11 the corruptions of our way arise from the cor-
ruptions of our hearts, and if we take no care to
mortify and subdue them, and to suppress the first
risings of them, to get the habits of sin weakened,
and to shame ourselves and frighten ourselves out of
those inclinations and dispositions which are so
hurtful to us ; if we do not thus strike at the root, it
is a sign that we have not the concern we ought to
have for our own way.
Our own corruptions are excited and drawn out by
the temptations of Satan. We are told of our dan-
ger from that enemy, but are careless of our way if
we do not put on the whole armour of God, and in
dependence upon divine grace put on resolution to
resist him, and repel all his assaults. He has de-
vices and wiles wherewith to beguile the unwary,
latet an guts in herbd^ — there it many a snake under
the green grass, and therefore we have need to look
where we tread : and that we may be kept from evil,
are concerned to abstain from all the appearances of
evil, and to take heed of approaches towards it ; if
we do not we are careless of our way.
(2.) If we are in no care to do our duty, to be
found in the way of it, and to do it as it ought to be
done, we are careless of our way. It is not enough
to the making of our way good that we cease to do
evil, but we must learn to do well, and must learn to
do it well, which will not be done without consider-
ation. We must see to it, that in all the duties of
the Christian life we walk circumspectly, axpifiut^,
accurately, exactly ;"* must do it by rule, and there-
fore must do it with care.
What we do that is good, must be done from a right
principle, for a right end, and in a right manner ;
and therefore it must be done carefully, because
herein it is so easy a thing to miss it ; and if we are
carried on in a road of religious exercises only by
custom, and not by conscience and a due concern,
we do but mock God and deceive ourselves, and it
will turn to no good account.
Many an opportunity we have of doing good to
others, and getting good to our own souls, which,
if we do but walk carefully, we might make a good
improvement of ; but we lose it and let it slip, and it
is a sign we despise our way ; for the husbandman
It Eccl. V. I.
I Gal. V. 11
Eph. V. 15.
548
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
that has a respect to his business, and a value for it,
will not drop his proper time for sowing and reaping.
What is done in religion without care, is done ac-
cordingly. If we go about solemn exercises without
solemn preparation, we commonly come off from
them without advantage ; and if the commandment
be not duly observed, it will not be obeyed as it
should be. It is charged upon Jehu, that he took
no heed la walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel
with all his heart," And it is true of many, that they
do not walk surely, are in no care to go upon sure
grounds, and to take every step right, which is a
sign they do not walk uprightly, nor have any true
value for their own way.
II. I am next to show what a foolish and danger-
ous thing it is for us to despise our own ways, and
what an absurdity they are guilty of who do so.
Believe it, sirs, the ways we despise are not so des-
picable as we would make ourselves believe they
are ; but a great deal of stress ought to be laid upon
what we say and do, yea, upon what we think too;
and consequently a great deal of care and concern
ought to be about it.
This will appear if we consider these five things :
1. That the God of heaven observes and takes par-
ticular Tioticc of all our ways ; even the ways of our
hearts, even their thoughts and intents, are naked and
open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do/*
irpoc 6v I'lfnu 6 \oyoQ — with tchom there is for us an ar-
count running^ and to whom there must be shoilly
an account given up. God sees our ways, not only
as he sees all things, but with a particular observa-
tion, as things that must be judged of, and by which
judgment must be given justly.
It is a general truth laid down, and comes in as
an argument against all secret sins, and those which
are most artfully and industriously concealed ; that
the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and
hepoudereth all his goings,^ But we should each of
us apply it to ourselves, and to our own goings. Job
does so : Doth not he see my ways and count all my
steps .^ David does so : Thou compassest my path^
and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my
waysJ Now, shall we make a light matter of that
which the God of heaven makes such a great matter
of, or let that in us pass allowedly unobserved, which
he so carefully observes ? It is natural to us to have
some regard to ourselves, that we observe a due
decorum when we are in the presence of our betters,
whose eye we observe to be fixed upon us. There-
fore we should have a jealous eye upon ourselves,
because God has an eye upon us wherever we are,
and whatever we are doing.
Therefore we should be very careful and diligent
to avoid sin, because all our evil ways are before
God ; they can none of them be hid from his pierc-
a '3 Kin^ X. 31
o Heb iv. 13.
p Prov. V. 11.
ing eye ; he sees all the secret wanderings of <mr
hearts from him, and all the secret risings of oar
hearts against him, and is much displeased witk
them. And shall our sins be no proYOcation to us,
when they are such a provocation to him ? I>oes he
complain of his people's bent to backslide from him,
and shall not they complain of it ? Is he broken witk
their unfaithful heart, and shall they make li^lit
of it?
And therefore we should be very careful and dili-
gent to do our duty, because God takes notice of til
we think, or say, or do well, and is pleased with it,
and it shall be owned in the great day, even a cap
of cold water given to a disciple; which sboold
engage us to wait all opportunities of doing good,
because God observes all the good we do, especially
if it be done in secret; for that shall with a paiticQ-
lar regard be seen, and openly recompensed. Tk
Lord knows the way of the righteous^ and, therefore,
they should themselves take cognizance of it, of
every path, and every step.
2. That Satan is a subtle enemy, who seeks to
pervert our ways, and to draw them into his service
and interests. If we despise our ways, yet he does
not, but labours with the utmost subtilty and soda-
lity to draw us aside out of the good and night wij,
and to seduce us into the paths that lead to mio.
He is represented, and his agents, by the foolish
woman, who calls passengers who go right on their
way, to come share in the stolen waters. Now if
Satan be so watchful and busy to make us turn oat
of our way, or trifle in it, and lets slip no opportu-
nity of doing us a mischief in our way, we are fools
if we be unconcerned, and slip opportunities of doin;
ourselves a kindness. Our way is beset, and, there-
fore, we should t>e never off our guard.
Especially, because then our way is most endan-
gered when it is most despised : when we least eon-
sider what we do, our spiritual enemies gain most
advantage against us, and make an easy prey of as.
Satan's design is more than half accomplished, when
he has brought men to an indifference as io their
own actions, and let things go just as they will with-
out either forecast or review.
This is a good reason therefore why we should be
sober and vigilant, and make conscience of what we
say and do, because our adversary the devil is seek-
ing to devour us. Therefore St. Paul is jealoas
over the Corinthians, and has a watchful eye apon
all their ways, because there is danger, lest thfj
should be beguiled as Eve was through the subtiltr
of the serpent ; and of the Thessalonians, lest by
any means the tempter have tempted them, and his
labour should be in vain.* And for the same reasoB
we should have a jealousy of ourselves and oar owo
way, lest if we sleep, and neglect our way, we lose
q Job xxxi. 4.
I Ps. cxxxix. 3.
• ITbemiii.^
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYSl
KJg%
our spear and cruse of water, as Saul did when he
slept ; nay, and our heads and lives, as Sisera did,
when he slept in the tent of one who pretended to
be his friend.
3. That we have many eyes upon us, that are
witnesses to our way. David prays, Lord, lead me
in a plain path because of mine enemies ; ' because of
ihem who observe me ; so it is in the original. We
have need to look about us, for there are many about
us who look upon us, to take notice of what we say
and do. Let us walk honestly, fvffxijftovitfc — decently^
and as becomes our character, (so the word signifies,)
as in the day, when we may be seen, and when we
are in the midst of those who will observe us.
Some have their eye upon our way, perhaps, to
take pattern by it, and that they may learn to do as
we do, and then I am sure we ought not to despise
our way, because the example of it may have a
great influence upon others ; so that if we do amiss,
others will do amiss too, and so we shall become
accessary to their sin, and shall be to answer not
only for our ways, but, as the Scripture speaks, for
the fruit of our doings, as Jeroboam for his sin,
wherewith he made Israel to sin. If it be a good
reason why we should not make friendship, nor keep
company, with an angry man, lest we learn his ways,
mach more is it a reason why an angry man should
moderate his anger, and put on meekness, lest others
should learn his ways, and get a snare to their
souls," lest by setting his own house on fire he bum
down a whole street. We ought to be very careful
what language we speak, whether that of Canaan
or that of Ashdod/ for those about us will learn our
dialect, and be either the better or the worse for it.
Some, perhaps, have their eye upon our way to
seek for matter of reproach ; they watch for our
baiting, and if we say or do amiss, religion shall
suffer by it, and be evil spoken of ; and the enemies
of the Lord will have their mouths opened to bias-
]Aemy, as in David's case.* You who make a
greater profession of religion, who attend preaching
and catechising more than others, have need to be
Tery strict and regular in your whole conversation ;
for otherwise, by reason of you the way of truth will
be evil spoken of ;'^ religion will be struck at, and
wounded through your sides. That which, in others,
would be winked at as a small fault, will, in you, be
magnified and made a great matter of. Take ye
therefore good heed to yourselves, that you may cut
off occasion from them who desire occasion, ^ to re-
proach the good ways of the Lord, and prejudice
people against them.
Some, perhaps, have their eye upon our way, that
On the other hand would rejoice to see us do that
Which becomes us, would have no greater joy than
to see us walk in the truth, our strictness and sted-
t Ps. T. 8; xxrii. II. o Prov. xxii. 25. t Neh. liii. U.
w 2 Sam. xU. 14. % 2 Pet. ii. 2.
fastness would be their strength and song : Now we
live, says the apostle, if ye stand fast. We have
reason to think that the good angels rejoice, as in
the conversion of sinners, so in the even and regular
walking of the saints ; and, therefore, we are charged
to behave ourselves very reverently in the worship
'a branch of our way which is by no means to be
despised) because of the angels. Now, if our way
be compassed about with so great a cloud of wit-
nesses,' it concerns us to have an eye to it ourselves ;
and to run, and run well, the race that is set before
us, especially looking unto Jesus.
4. That we must shortly give an account of all
our ways. As there is now an account kept of them
all in the book of God's omniscience, and of the
sinner's own conscience, because we are here in a
state of trial and probation ; so there must shortly
be an account given of them all, and they must all
be reviewed, for God requircth that which is past,*
and will tell thee, these things thou hast done.
It is a folly for us to despise our own ways, and
make a light matter of them, and to turn off the
errors of them with a jest, when so great a matter
will be made of them in the judgment ; in the judg-
ment at hand, which follows immediately upon
death ; in the judgment at last, the public judgment
of the great day. Therefore, it concerns us to fear
God and keep his commandments, and to see that
our matters be right and good, for God shall bring
every work into judgment, bring it into the account,
with every secret thing, whether it be good or whe-
ther it be evil.*' This was known and pressed by an
Old-Testament preacher, but is much more clearly
revealed in the New Testament, which tells us, We
must all appear, one as well as another, all without
exception, before the judgment-seat of Chrvt, to give
an account of every thing done in the body, and to
receive according to it, whether it be good or evil.
Brethren, these are the true sayings of God ; all we
are doing now will be called over again in the day
of judgment; as sure as we see this day, we shall
see that day, and it will be to us according as we
are found.
O what a concern should this fill us with, to think
that what we are now doing, every day, has a re-
ference to that day; which methinks should make
every day a great day, a judgment day, with us : for
if we would daily judge ourselves concerning our
own way, we should not be judged of the Lord.^ It
would awaken us to consider our ways, if we would
but consider how they will appear in that day, when
we and they must appear undisguised, in true co-
lours ; and with what eye we ourselves shall look
upon them, an eye of shame, or an eye of satisfac-
tion, and thankfulness to God. This should espe-
cially give check to the looses and extravagances
y 2 Cor. xi. 12. « 1 Cor. xi. 10. « Eccl. iii. I&.
V Eccl. xii. 14 e 1 Cor. xi 31.
550
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
I
of youth : Thou hast a mind, O young man, to lay
the reins on the neck of thine appetites and pas-
sions, to indulge thyself in a sensual liberty, to
walk in the way of thy heart, and in the sight of
thy eyes, and this would be a brave way of living,
if thou wast never to hear of it again ; but know thou,
for all these things God will bring thee into judgment ;**
for all thy indulgence of thyself in carnal mirth and
sensual pleasure, unbounded and uncontrolled; for
all those merry days and merry nights of thine,
from which every thing was banished that was seri-
ous, and when God was not in all, not in any, of thy
thoughts. Let the thoughts of this take young peo-
ple off from their inordinate pursuits of the pleasures
of sense, and deaden their desires towards them,
that they may acquaint themselves with the plea-
sures of religion, which are spiritual and divine,
and as much exceed the other as the richest wine
does puddle-water.
5. That according as our ways are now, it is likely
to be well or ill with us to eternity. It is the great-
est folly imaginable to despise our way in this
world, for as our way is, so will our end be in that
world which has no end. Those who go upon the
water only for pleasure care not what course they
steer ; but they who go upon business must steer
the right course, and secure their point.
Believe it, sirs, and I pray consider it, that you
are here upon trial for another world, and it will be
to you a world of happiness or misery, according as
you pass your trials. As you spend your time, you
are likely to spend your eternity. If the prevailing
temper of your mind now be vain and carnal, selfish
and sensual, earthly and worldly, and you go out of
the world under the dominion of such a temper, you
are utterly unfit for heaven, and so is heaven for you,
it would be no heaven to you. If the general course
of your conversation be contrary to the rules of
Christianity ; if, instead of being constant and de-
vout worshippers of God, you slight and neglect
religious exercises, and think meanly of them ; if,
instead of living by faith in Christ, and in a con-
tinual dependence upon him for righteousness and
grace, you lay him aside, and overlook him in what
you have to do with God ; if, instead of living a life
of self-denial and mortification, you indulge your-
selves in all the gratifications of sense, and are in
them as in your element ; if, instead of bridling your
passions, you indulge them upon every provocation,
and are impatient of the least instance of contempt
and contradiction, as if humility and meekness were
no part of the law of Christ, or the livery of Chris-
tians ; if, instead of loving all men, even your ene-
mies, and forgiving injuries, you have a jealousy of
all, an antipathy to some, and bear malice and ill-
d Eccl. xi. 9.
will to all that you apprehend have been injurioas
to you, or stand in your light, or in yoar way; if,
instead of being charitable and doin;^ all the good
you can to every body, you are selfish, and leek
your own things only, and are oppressive and hard
with those you have power over or advantage
against ; if, instead of setting yonr affections oa
things above, and having your conversation in hea-
ven, you are wholly intent upon the world, and tho
things of it ; if that be the subject of your moit
serious cares, and the object of your most vigoiMs
pursuits, and you go on in such a course as this Is
the end of your way, you cannot inherit eternal life;
if the word of God be true, and there be any weigbt
in the reason of the thing itself, you cannot; yoo
cannot but perish, eternally perish. And can it then
be an indifferent thing to us what our way is? Caa
it be all one whether we live a godly or ungodly
life, when our everlasting weal or woe does eef-
tainly depend upon it ? O that we were wise and
understood this, that we would consider oor latter
end I then we durst not despise, durst not bat con-
sider, our way.
And those who have good hope through giaee
that they are in the way that leads to life, are con-
cerned to regard their particular paths, to look wcU
to their goings, and every step they take, because
they know not how much their vigorous advances in
grace and holiness, and their careful improvement
of all opportunities of doing good, may add to the
degrees of their glory and joy in heaven ; nor ham
much their remissness, and the unevenness of their
walking, may take from them : but this I am sure we
all ought to fear, lest a promise being left ns of en-
tering into that rest, and we having by faith laid
hold on that promise, any of us should so much at
seem to come short,* should seem either to others or
to ourselves, should in the nature of the thing be in
danger of it, or should come short of any of that
measure to which, if we had been more caiefnl, we
might have attained.
Nothing can be more proper to avraken us to pat
a value upon our own ways, than to lay this to heart,
that our present time is seed-time, and as we tow
now we shall be reaping to eternity. The husband-
man sows his ground with care, because he knows,
that when what he sows comes up again, it will ap-
pear whether it was sown wisely and well or no, GaL
vi. 7, 8. The matter is brought into a little compass*
If tt^ sow to the flesh in a carnal, sensual life, tee iAdf
of the flesh reap corruption ; but if we $ow t9 ike
spirit, we shall of the spirit reap life everlasting : and
then I am sure it is folly for us to despise oar own
way.
• Heb. iv. L
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
661
The Application.
The application of this plain and practical dis-
csonrse lies npon yoarseWes, brethren ; the Lord help
us all to apply it !
1. Let it be a caation to us not to be rigid and
severe in oar censures of other people's ways, for
that is none of our business ; (we are incompetent
jadges of our brethren, for we know not their hearts ;)
nor of their works, for we know not the principles
they act from, or the ends they aim at, nor the one
half of what is requisite to be known in order to the
passing a right judgement upon them ; we can judge
at best but by the outward appearance, and, there-
fore, it is ten to one but we are deceiyed in our
; judgment. And as we have not ability, so we have
not authority, to judge concerning them ; we step into
I the throne of God if we do : What have we to do to
. fudge another man's servant? to his own master he
, stands or falls. We are to hope charitably concerning
cor brethren, and to put the best construction upon
their words and actions that they will bear ; but as
to their way, and the end of it, the Lord only knows
that, and to him we must leave it.
And this is another good reason why we should
not pretend to judge our biethren and their way, be-
cause we have enough to judge ourselves and our
own way : and here it becomes us as much to be
strict and severe, as in judging of our brethren it
becomes us to be candid and charitable, and make
the best of every thing.
2. Let it be a charge to us to look well to our own
ways. Let others, if they be overtaken in a fault,
be restored with a spirit of meekness ; and let us
not be curious in prying into the fault, and examin-
ing all the circumstances of it ; nor sharp in upbraid-
ing them with their carelessness ; but let every man
prove his own work, let him bring that to the touch-
stone, and be very critical in trying it, and earnest
with God in prayer, to discover him to himself;
and if he find his heart upright with God, then he
shall have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in
another/
O that I could prevail with you who are young,
betimes to make conscience of what you say and do,
and oblige yourselves to live by rule, and not, as
most young people, to despise your own way.
When you go out into the world, and begin to ** be
for yourselves/' as you say, I beseech you, do well
for yourselves. When you are gone from under the
influence of your parents and masters, yet still con-
tinue under the influence of the good education they
gave you, and think not, when you are set at liberty
from them, you may live at large. With what grief
have I sometimes heard that vain song put into the
months of young people, which begins, " From grave
lessons and restraints." I cannot repeat it, nor
desire to do it, but it is designed to teach them to
triumph in having shaken off the shackles of virtue,
and laid the reins on the neck of lust. It is time
to warm, my brethren, and to show ourselves zealous
for the honour of God and conscience, of virtue and
serious piety, for that is it I here, in the name of my
great Master, contend for, and not the petty private
interests of any party: let them take their lot,
despise their way and spare not ; the kingdom of
God is not meats and drinks, either the imposition
or the opposition of those matters of doubtful dis-
putation ; but it is righteousness and peace, and joy
in the Holy Ghost. It is the great and fundamental
law of Christianity, repentance toward God, and
faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ ; it is humility
and meekness ; it is sobriety and temperance ; it is
chastity and strict modesty ; it is justice and equity ;
it is universal charity and beneficence ; that I am
pressing upon you : these are the ways that you must
walk in, if ever you hope to find rest to your souls;
these ways must be your ways, and in these you must
persevere to the end, and in these and all the acts of
devotion, and the instituted exercises of religion,
you must live a life of communion with God. In
urging these, I say again, it is time to be in earnest,
when the enemies of serious godliness are not only
so subtle as secretly to weaken it.s principles, and
sap its foundations under ground, but so daring as
openly to attack all its strong holds ; when you are
taught by a celebrated poet to say,
«
f Gal. vi. I, 4.
Conscience and Heaven's fears, religion's rules,
Are but state-bells to toll in pious fools."
This is instructing you how to despise your own
ways ; but. Cease my son to hear the instruction which
causeth to err from the words of hnowledge ;> and
the Lord rebuke those who give such destructive
instructions, even the Lord who has chosen Jerusa-
lem, rebuke them, and snatch those as brands out
of the burning who incline their ear to such in-
struction.
That which I am persuading you all to, both young
and old, is, to keep yourselves, and all your words
and actions, under a strict discipline. Are you your
own masters ? Be faithful masters then to yourselves,
and not careless ones. (I.) Be strict in your inquiries
concerning your present way, and herein deal faith-
fully with yourselves, and do not despise a matter
upon which your all depends. Are you in the
broad way that leads to destruction, or in the narrow
way that leads to life? among the many who walk
in the way of their own hearts, or among the few
who walk in the way of God's commandments?
Christ is the way; are you in Christ? Holiness is
the way ; and is it the way of holiness that you are
i Prov. ux. 27.
bsa
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
walking in ? Be willing to find oat the worst of your
case, you need not be afraid to do so, while it may
be amended, be it ever so bad : and be concerned
to find it out ; for if it be bad, and not amended in
time, it will shortly be past recovery.
Take heed of deceiving yourselves in a matter of
such vast moment as this is. The word of God has
plainly told you once and again. There is a way
which ieemeth right unto a tnan^ and be says I shall
have peace, though I go on in it, but the end thereof
are the ways of death ;*^ and will you suffer yourselves
to be cheated into your own ruin, when you have
such fair warning given you ? How bitter will the
reflection upon it be hereafter, if you thus put a
cheat upon your own souls ! Self-deceivers will be
self-destroyers, and, for that reason, to eternity self-
tormentors.
For the Lord's sake, sirs, and for your own pre-
cious souls' sake, bring this matter to an issue
quickly, by making your calling and your election
sure, and so making your salvation sure. You are
busy to make other things sure, that neither can
be made sure, nor are worth making sure : O that
you would make this sure, which may and must be
made sure, and leave it no longer in suspense ! You
cannot but tremble every step you take, as long
as your own consciences tell you, if you give them
leave to be faithful, that it is a step forward in
the way of sin and death ; but if you have good
ground to hope, that through grace you are walking
in the way of good men, that leads to life and happi-
ness, you may go on cheerfully ; you may sing in
that way. Believe this matter therefore worth set-
tling.
(2.) Be strict and impartial in your reflections
upon your past ways, and do not despise them be-
cause they are past, for they are not past and gone,
not gone out of God's remembrance : iVotr, there-
fore, thus saith the Lord of hosts^ consider your ways}
Set your hearts to your ways ; so the word is ; apply
your minds seriously to think of them, and lay the
concern of them near your hearts. Compare the
temper of your minds, and the tenor of your lives,
with the rule of God's word, which is right and strait,
and therefore of use to show you the crooked ways
into which you have turned aside ; as far as you
have varied and deviated from that, you have gone
wrong. Find out the particular obliquities of your
thoughts and afl'ections, your words and actions, that
you may know what to sorrow for, as the plague of
your own heart, and what to get healed ; for a dis-
ease that is known is half cured. Be particular in
your reviews, that you may be so in your penitential
acknowledgments; may be able to say not only,
" I have done evil," but, " I have done this evil ;"
and not only so, but, *' Thus and thus have I done ; **
h Prov. xiv. 12 i xvi. 25.
i Hag. i. 5, 7.
as Aaron, who on the day of atonement, (that dty
to afflict the soul,) was to confess over the scap^
goat all the iniquities of the children of Israel, aad
all their transgressions in all their sins,^ the nu
themselves and all the aggravations of them. Aid
usually the more particular we are in the confesiioo
of sin, the more comfort we have in the sense of tk
pardon, and the better fortified against temptatioBs
to relapse and return to folly : Dolus versattw ti
generalibus — Deceit employs general confessions nJtj,
It is good to be making penitential reflectiooi,
every day, upon our sins of daily infirmity ; and tke
more frequently this work is done, the more easy it
will be. *' Even reckonings make long friends:"
if we daily audit accounts with our own consciences,
and examine what we have done each day ; if in
the close of every week we do as God did, look apoo
the week's work, and behold all that we have done;
if, before we attend on the Lord at his table, we be
particular in censuring ourselves for what has beta
amiss, and renew our repentance, and fetch in fresk
assurances of the divine favour in Christ, we sbail
show that we have indeed a value for our way, and
the great day of account vdll be no terror to as.
3. Be very circumspect and considerate as to tke
particular paths that are before you. Do notbiog
rashly, but every thing with due care. Let Darid's
resolution be yours, and stick to it, I said I will tdu
heed to my ways} He who walks uprightly, walki
surely, will see to it that he goes upon sure grouDdi,
in opposition to walking at all adventures, and going
on frowardly in the way of his heart. You put cos-
tempt upon your ways if you do not make conscience
of them. Dread that wicked notion, that it is all
alike what you do ; though you be ever so poor and
low in this world, and ever so inconsiderable among
men, and your way ever so little taken notice oC
yet God's eye is upon it, and, therefore, yours should
be so. Do nothing rashly, for fear of doing amiss.
As those who value their own souls cannot bat
think themselves concerned to keep their hearts witk
»". diligence, so those who value their own ways
cannot but see themselves as much concerned to
ponder the path of their feet ; which direction follows I
the former, and is given in pursuance of it. What- I
ever you go about, consider diligently what is set /
before you ; stand not gazing about you, and making I
your remarks upon other people's ways, but let.voor I
eyes look right on, and your eyelids look straigU
before you, for your concern is vnth your own wajrs:
let not your eyes turn, lest your feet follow them to
the right hand or to the left Let heaven be the fixed
end you walk towards, and the Scripture the fixed
rule you walk by, and then you will walk steadllj
and with a holy security.
And as those who value their own souls cannot do
k Lev. xvi. 21.
I Pb. xulIz. I.
]
THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS.
653
better for them, than to commit the keeping of them
to God, as to a faithful Creator, and to Jesus Christ,
the Bishop of souls, who has taken the oversight of
them, not of constraint, but willingly ; so those who
value their own way cannot do better concerning it,
ihan to commit their way, to commit their works,
unto the Lord. Having chosen his word for your
^ule, be led by his Spirit. I know (says the prophet)
that the way of man it not in himself , neither is it in
man that walketh to direct his steps,^ We ought,
therefore, in all our ways to acknowledge God, and
to depend upon the conduct and support of his grace
which he has promised to those who seek him, and
m Jer. X. 23.
refer it to him to choose out their way, and to sit
chief; in dependence upon which, every good Chris-
tian may promise himself the same satisfaction that
the Psalmist pleases himself with. Thou shalt guide
me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to
glory.
And, now, am I leaving you at parting under any
serious, solicitous concern about your own way, re-
solving for the future to walk more circumspectly
than you have done, in the strength of divine gp'ace ?
And is this your resolution ? The Lord keep it
always in the imagination of the thought of your
heart, and thereby establish your way before him.
SOBER-MINDEDNESS
RECOMMENDED TO
YOUNG PEOPLE,
IN A DISCOURSE ON TITUS II. 6.
To THE Reader.
It has been the laudable practice of many good
ministers, both in city and country, now about this
time of the year, to preach sermons particularly to
young people, to awaken them to a sense of their
great concern. And it is very seasonable to do it
now, not only because in these days of leisure they
have more time to attend on such an opportunity,
but because in these days of liberty and recess from
business, young people are more exposed to tempt-
ations, which they have special need to be guarded
against. Nor know I how we can better do honour
to Christ, than by endeavouring thus to serve the
great intentions of his coming into the world, and to
bring in to him a seed to serve him, which shall be
accounted to him for a generation ; that from the
womb of the morning he may have the dew of their
youth.
Upon such an occasion as this, the substance of
the following discourse was preached the other day
in London; but I could not have persuaded myself
to publish it, had I not been requested to do it by a
number of very hopeful promising youths, to whom
I have lately become related, for the present, as a
Catechist ; in which service, though it has been
looked upon as one of the lowest branches of the
ministerial office, yet it is the top of my ambition
to be found, through grace, skilful, faithful, and
successful.
To their service I dedicate it, not forgetting my
friends in the country, the young ones of whose fa-
milies I must ever have a deep and tender concern
for. My prayer, both for the one and for the other,
is, that they may betimes know the God of their
fathers, so as to serve him with a perfect heart, and
a willing mind; so know him, and Jesus Christ
whom he has sent, as may be life eternal to them.
Matt. Henry.
Jan, 3, 1712-13.
Titus ii. 6.
Young men likewise exhort to be sober-mindet
Paul the aged is here directing Titus, a younf
nister, whom he calls his oum son in the common^
what subjects to preach upon ; in the choi
which ministers have need of wisdom, should
for wisdom, and take direction from this and
Scripture directions.
In general, he must speak the things whicl
come sound doctrine, v. 1. He mast preaci
doctrine of Christ, the truth as it is in Jesu:
great mystery of godliness, that is sound, or w
some, doctrine, which is good for food, spiritual
with which souls are nourished up, I Tim. i
And good for medicine too ; it is healing doctrii
it speaks pardon of sin to those who complain c
terror of guilt, and promises power ag^nst s
those who complain of the strength of cormp
and, blessed be God, this sound, this healing
trine is preached to you, in its purity, and I ho
its power, in season and out of season.
But this is not all, he must speak other tl
which become this sound doctrine, opposed to
Jewish fables and commandments of men,
which they of the circumcision corrupted the
trine of Christ; ch. i. 10, 14. The best wi
guard against them, will be to preach the duti
Christianity with the doctrines of it; the
which is after godliness, ch, i. 1. Practical reli
which regulates and governs the heart and li
that which becomes the doctrine of Christia
which it becomes the teachers of that doctrii
preach, and both they and the professors of thai
trine to make conscience of. The grace of Goc
brings salvation teacheth us, and, therefore, the n
ters of the word of that grace must teach yon,
all who hope for that salvation must learn, to
ungodliness, aiid worldly, fleshly lusts^ and to
soberly, righteously, and godly. Right notions
SOBER-MINDEDNESS RECOMMENDED, &c.
565
not serve without good morals. Young people say-
ing their catechism, if it were the best catechism in
the world, saying it ever so well, and sajing nothing
against it, will not save tliem, if the temper of their
minds, ,and the tenor of their conversation, be not
agreeable to the sound doctrine they converse with,
of a piece with it, and such as becomes it
Titus is here particularly directed to preach upon
the duties required from Christians of each sex, and
each age of life. He must teach aged men how
they ought to carry thenLselves, so that their hoary
head being found in the way of righteousness, might
be a crown of glory to them, v. 2. And the aged
women likewise, v. 3. that they may teach the young
women, v. 4. And here, in my text, he is directed
what application to make to young men. Thus par-
ticular should ministers be in their preaching, that
they may, as far as may be, reach every one's case,
which is the likeliest way to reach every one's con-
science. Thus ministers must endeavour rightly to
divide the word of truth, and as wise and faithful
stewards in God's house, to give every one their por-
tion of meat in due season : and O that every one
would take their portion, and feed upon it, and
digest it, and instead of saying, " This was for such
a one," would learn to say, " This is for me,"
In dealing with young men,
1. He is here directed to exhort them ; iraptueaXu,
He must instruct them what to do, that they might
know their duty ; he must put them in mind of it,
that they might know it when they had occasion to
do it ; he must excite and stir them up to it, and
urge it upon them with motives and arguments ; and
he must encourage them in the doing of it, and
comfort them, that they might go on in it cheerfully.
All this is included in the word here used for exhort-
ing them ; and there is need of all this, and all little
enough ; for some are ignorant and need to be
taught, others are careless and need to be quicken-
ed ; some think their duty an indifferent thing, and
on such we must press the command which makes it
necessary ; others think it an impracticable thing, and
to such we must preach the grace that makes it easy.
In urging practical godliness, it is hard to say
which is more needful, persuasion or direction ; and
which will be most serviceable to our end, good rules
to show us what we should do, or good reasons to
convince us that it is our duty and interest to do it :
perhaps some stand in more need of the one, others
of the other, and the Scripture furnishes us with
abundant matter for both, enough to furnish the man
of God for every good word of this kind.
The original word irapaicaXew, being a compound
of ffoXcitf, voco^ might properly be rendered, to ctdl to,
or call upon ; and that is the work of ministers, to
be your monitors. We call to you, we call upon
you, frequently, and with importunity, and as we
see occasion, to mind your duty, and not to trifle in
it, to take heed of sin, and not expose yourselves to
it This is the word behind you, which is promised,
(Isa. XXX. 21.) which shall say, This is the way, walk
in it, and turn not aside to the right hand or to the left
Titus must exhort them in his public preaching,
and in that must choose out words to reason with
them. The rulers of the Jewish synagogue, after
the reading of the Law and the Prophets in the as-
sembly, on the sabbath, desired of Paul, a word of
exhortation for the people. Acts xiii. 15. And pub-
lic exhortations to those of one age, relation, or
condition, may be of use to others, who are not to
sit by as unconcerned, but some way or other to
accommodate it to themselves, for what we say unto
some we say unto all.
Yet this was not enough ; he must exhort them in
his personal conversation with them, must visit them
at their houses, and there give them this admoni-
tion ; must give it in a particular manner to those
that he saw needed it, give it with application, '* In
this and the other instance you must be of a better
spirit, and carry it better." When he was in com-
pany with young men he must be giving them good
advice, and instead of allowing himself to be vain
as they were, endeavour to make them grave as he
was. Ministers must preach not only in the pulpit,
but out of it, their conversation must be a constant
sermon, and, in that they may be more particular in
the application, and descend to persons and cases
better than they can in their public ministry. Those
ministers who complain that they would do this
statedly and solemnly, but cannot bring it to bear,
yet can have no excuse for not doing it occasionally,
when it comes in their way, nor would seek an ex-
cuse if they had but a heart to it.
2. That which he must exhort them to, is to be
sober-minded ; all the law that concerns them ia
particular, is summed up in this one word ; exhort
them aiit^vuv, — to be sober-minded. It is a very sig-
nificant, comprehensive word ; and has in it a check
to all the ill habits and ill courses that are so mis-
chievous and ruining to young people. The word
speaks the duty of young men, but it is likewise
twice used in the directory for young women, (v.
4.) that they may teach the young women to be sober,
iva au^poviZun ra£ vtoQ — that they may sober the yofumg
women, may give them such instructions and exam-
ples as may help to make them sober ; and again,
(v, 5.) that they may teach them to be vw^povoc —
discreet ; so that it is the duty of young women, as
well as young men, to be sober-minded ; it is an
exhortation proper for both the sexes of that age ;
and it is my exhortation to all of that age, who are
within hearing to-day I beseech you suffer this
word of exhortation, receive it at your peril, for if it
come from God it is your utmost peril to refuse it
Doct, It is the g^at duty of all young people to
be sober-minded.
656
SOBER-MINDEDNESS RECOMMENDED
I shall endeavour to show you, I. What this sober-
mindedness is which young people must be exhorted
to. And, 11. What considerations should engage
you who arc young to be sober-minded. And then,
III. Make application.
I. Let us see what it is that we urge upon you,
when we exhort you to be sober-minded. And I
shall keep to the original word used in my text, and
the various significations of it. It is the same word
that is used to set forth the third part of our Chris-
tian duty, and is put first of the three lessons which
the grace of God teaches us, — to live soberly, aw-
^v(Mc« V. 12. And in another place it is put last of
three excellent Christian graces, God has given us
the spirit of power, and of love, and (rat^poviofiov — of
a sound mind, 2 Tim. i. 7. And oia^vwfioQ is put
by Plutarch, in general, for the education of youth ;
the sobering of them.
Give this exhortation its full latitude, and it
speaks to you who are young these nine things :
1. You must be considerate and thoughtful, and
not rash and heedless. To be sober-minded, is to
make use of our reason, in reasoning with ourselves,
and in communing with our own hearts ; to employ
those noble powers and capacities, by which we are
distinguished from, and dignified above, the beasts,
for those great ends for which we were endued with
them, that we may not receive the grace of God in
them in vain, but being rational creatures, may act
rationally, as behoves us, as becomes us.
You learned to talk when you were children ;
when will you learn to think ? to think seriously, to
think to the purpose ? Floating thoughts your heads
are full of, foreign and impertinent ones ; when will
you be brought to close and fixed thoughts? to
think with concern and application of the g^eat
things that belong to your everlasting peace and
welfare ?
Some have recommended the study of the mathe-
matics, as proper to fix the minds of young people,
and bring them to think. I wish any thing would
do it, but would much rather it were done by a deep
concern about the soul and another world, which, if
it once prevail, will effectually fix the thoughts, and
to the best purpose ; for when once you come to see
the greatness of that God with whom you have to
do, and the weight of that eternity you are standing
upon the brink of, you will see it is time to think,
high time to look about you.
Learn to think not only of what is just before you,
which strikes the senses, and affects the imagination,
but of the causes, and consequences, and reasons of
things ; to discover truths, compare them with one
another, argue upon them, and apply them to your-
selves, and to bring them to maturity ; not to fasten
upon that which comet first into your minds, but
upon that which should come first, and which de-
serves to be first considered.
Multitudes are undone because they areaothbk-
ing ; inconsideration is the ruin of thousands, and
many a precious soul perishes through mere care-
lessness ; Now therefoi-e, thus saith the Lord of hosts.
Consider your ways ; retire into yoor owii lools,
begin an acquaintance with them ; it will be tbe
most profitable acquaintance you can fall into, and
will turn to the best account. While you are covet-
ing to see the world, and to be acquainted with it,
be not strangers at home.
Take time to think ; desire to be alone now and
then, and let not solitude and retirement be an un-
easiness to you, for you have a heart of your owd
that you may converse with, and a God nigh onto
you, with whom you have a pleasing communion.
Learn to think freely ; God invites you to do so:
Come 710W, and let us reason together. We desire
not that you should take things upon tmst« but in-
quire impartially into them, as the noble Bereans,
who searched the Scriptures daily, whether those
things were so, which the apostles told them. Pure
Christianity and serious godliness fear not the sera-
tiny of a free thought, but despise the impotent
malice of a prejudiced one.
There are those, I find, who, under the pretence
of being free-thinkers, by sly insinuations, endea-
vour to shake young people's belief of the divine
authority of the Scriptures, and undermine all re-
vealed religion, by turning sacred things into jest
and ridicule ; but they usurp the honourable cha-
racter of free-thinkers : it does not belong to them;
they are as far from the freedom they pretend to, as
they are from the sincerity they protest against ; for
it is certain, that pride and affectation of singularity,
and a spirit of opposition and contradiction, do as
much enslave the thoughts on the one hand, as an
implicit faith and obedience on the other hand.
While they promise men liberty, they do but de-
ceive them ; and under colour of being sole mastcfs
of reason, and ridiculing all who agree not with
them, they as arbitrarily impose upon men's credu-
lity, as ever popes and councils did under colour of
being sole masters of faith, and anathematizing all
who differ from them.
Learn to think for yourselves, to think of your-
selves, to think with application. Think what you
are, and what you are capable of. Think who made
you, and what you were made for ; for what end yoo
were endued with the powers of reason, and attend-
ed by the inferior creatures. Think what you have
been doing since you came into the world ; of the
great work you were sent into the world about ; of
the vanity of childhood and youth, and how un-
avoidably the years of them are past away as a tale
that is told ; and whether, therefore, it be not time,
high time, for the youngest of you to begin to be re-
ligious, and to enter in at the strait g^te.
And as to your particular actions, do not walk tt
TO YOUNG PEOPLE.
6fi7
all adventures, as those do who despise their own
ways ; but consider what you do before you do it, that
you may not have occasion to repent of it afterwards.
Do nothing rashly, but always speak and act under
the government of the great law of consideration.
Ponder the path of your feet, that it may be a
straight path.
Some people take a pride in being careless ; tell
them of such and such a thing that they were warned
about, they turn it off with this excuse, that for their
parts they never heed ; they mind not what is said
to them ; nor ever thought of it since ; and so glory
in their shame.
But be not yon thus negligent ; for then, and not
(ill then, there begin to be hopes of young people,
when they begin to set their hearts to all these
things that are testified unto them, and to think of
tbem with the reason of men, and the concern they
deserve.
2. You must be cautious and prudent, and not
wilful and heady. The word in the text is the same
that is rendered, v. 6. to be discreet ; prudenter agere
— to behave prudently. You must not only think
rationally, but when you have done so, you must act
wisely, and so as will be most for your true interest ;
walk circumspectly; look before you, look about
you, look under your feet, and pick your way ; not
aa fools, but as wise.
David's purpose when he set out in the world
was, / will behave myself wisely in a perfect way ;
and his prayer was. Lord, when wilt thou come vnto
me, Ps. ci. 2. And accordingly we find, (I Sam.
xviii. 14.) his purpose performed, and his prayer
answered, He behaved himself wisely in all his ways,
mmd the Lord was with him. Those who govern
themselves, God will guide, but will justly leave
those who love to wander, to wander endlessly.
Put away childish follies with other childish
tilings, and do not all your days think and speak as
ehildren. Espouse principles of wisdom, fix to
yourselves rules of wisdom, and be ruled by those
roles, and actuated by those principles. It is the
irisdom of the prudent to understand his own way,
!iia own business, not to censure other people's;
ind this wisdom will in all cases be profitable to
lifvct what measures, what steps, to take.
Youth is apt to be bold and venturous, and there-
ore, resolute and peremptory, to its great prejudice.
Bat be not you so ; let reason and conscience, ac-
cording to the duty of their place, give check to the
riolence of appetite and passion ; let tbem rectify
lie mistakes, and overrule the hasty dictates, of
iumour and fancy, and reduce the arbitrary and
exorbitant power of those tyrants.
How often does Solomon press it upon the young
man he takes under his tuition ; My son, be wise,
witdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom,
fei understanding. You who are launching out into
the world must take wisdom to be your pilot, or you
are in danger of splitting upon some rock or other ;
this must be your pillar of cloud and fire, which
you must follow the conduct of through this wilder-
ness.
Be diffident of your own judgments, and jealous
of yourselves, that you do not take things right, or
not take them entire, and for that reason afraid lest
the resolutions, which are the result of your con-
siderations, should prove wrong; and therefore leave
room for second thoughts. Say not, " I will do so
and so, I am resolved I will walk in the way of my
heart, and in the sight of my eyes, whatever it cost
me/' Never have any will but what is guided by
wisdom.
And, therefore, in every case of moment and diffi-
culty, be willing to be advised by your friends, and
depend more upon their judgment, who have had
longer experience of the world, than upon your own.
Consult with those who are wise and good, ask them
what they would do, if they were in your case ; and
you will find that in multitude of counsellors there
is safety, and that that oftentimes proves best which
was least your own doing ; or if it should not prove
well, it will be a satisfaction to you, that you did not
do it without advice, and mature deliberation ; and
as the thing appeared then, you did it for the best.
What brighter character.can be given to a young
man, than to say he is wise? Or what blacker,
than to say he is stubborn ? See the former, — in
Solomon, who calls himself a child, that hnuws not
how to go out, or to come in, (I Kings iii. 7.) and yet
his father calls him a wise man, who knows what he
has to do ; see the latter, — ^in the character of the
rebellious son who was to be stoned to death, against
whom the indictment runs thus. He is stubborn, he
will not obey the voice of his father and mother, Deut.
xxi. 18, 20. Those are the fools whom there is little
hopes of, who despise wisdom and instruction, Prov.
i. 7. He who will not be counselled cannot be
helped.
But would you be wise ? Not only be thought so,
but really be so. Study the Scriptures ; by them
you will get more understanding than the ancients,
than all your teachers, Ps. cxix. 99, 100. Make
your observations upon the carriage and miscarriage
of others, that you may take pattern by those who
do well, and take warning by those who do ill, may
look upon both and receive instruction. But espe-
cially, be earnest with God in prayer for wisdom, as
Solomon was, and the prayer was both pleasing and
prevailing in heaven. If any man, if any young
man, lach wisdont, and is sensible that he lacks it,
he is directed what to do, his way is plain, let him
ash it of God ; and he is encouraged to do it, for
the Lord giveth wisdom, he has it to give, Prov. ii.
6. He delights to give it, he gives liberally ; he has
a particular eye to young people in the dispensing
658
SOBER-MINDEDNESS RECOMMENDED
of this gift, for his word was written to give to the
young man knowledge and discretion, Prov. i. 4.
And because some are willing to be counselled, yet
do not care to be chidden, we are told that he gives,
and upbraids not ; yet, as if this were not encou-
ragement enough to the beggars at Wisdom's gates,
there is an express promise to every one who seeks
aright, that he shall not seek in vain ; it is not a pro-
mise with a peradventure, but with the greatest
assurance, // ihall he given kim. Jam. i. 5. To all
true believers, Christ himself is and shall be made of
God Wisdom, I Cor. i. 30.
3. You must be humble and modest, and not
proud and conceited. The word signifies modesti
ie gerere, — to behave one^s self modestly. Zco^povwi^
fjcaXfiTf riyv rairuvo^pocrwiyv. So Chrysostom, Horn,
ad Rom, — Sober-mindedness is the same with lowly-
mindedness. And Theodoret makes it the same with
that poverty of spirit, on which Christ pronounces
his first blessing. Matt. v. 3. It is recommended to
the younger to be clothed with humility, (1 Pet v.
5.) that is being sober-minded.
It is an observation that I have made upon the
little acquaintance I -have had with the world, that I
have seen more young people ruined by pride, than
perhaps by any one lust whatsoever ; and, therefore,
let me press this upon you with all earnestness. And
it is a caution introduced with more than ordinary
solemnity, (Rom. xii. 3.) / say, through the grace
given unto me, unto every man that is among you, A.nd
what is the word that is thus declared to be of di-
vine original, and universal concern? It is this:
that no man thinh of himself above what he ought to
think, but think soberly. And there is an elegant par-
onomasia in the original, which, for the sake of the
young scholars, I beg leave to take notice of, fiij virep-
^povuv trap' 6 Sti ^povttv, aXXa ^ovtiv a^ to aut^povuv —
let him think unto sobriety ; the word used in the
text ; let him think himself into a sober mind, and
always keep in that good mind.
Keep up low thoughts of yourselves, of your en-
dowments, both outward and inward ; of your attain-
ments and improvements, and all your performances,
and all the things you call merits and excellences.
Boast not of a false gift, of what you have not, nor
be puffed up with what you have. What there is in
you that is commendable, wink at it yourselves, as
most people do at their own faults, and diminish it,
and look much at that in others which is more com-
mendable. Let not the handsome glory in their
beauty, nor the ingenious in their wit, for there can-
not be a greater allay to the glory than to have it said,
such and such arc comely, and witty, but they know
it. Does your face in any respect shine? Be as
Moses was, He wist not that the skin of his face shone ;
and do what Moses did, as soon as he perceived it,
— ^put a veil upon it. Delight more to say and do
what is praise-worthy, than to be praised for it ;
for what hast thou which tboo hast not leodici.
and what hast thou received which thon hast Mt
abused ? And why then dost thoa boast?
Keep np a quick and constant sense of yovr <nm
manifold defects and infirmities ; how macb theie
is in you, and how much is said and done by yos
every day, which you have reason to be ashaBiedo(
and humbled for ; in how many things yoo
short of others, and in how many more you
short of the rule. You will find no reason to be pnti
of what yoo know, when you see how much yoo are
ignorant of ; nor of what yoa do that is good, wIki
you see how much you do amiss. Dwell much vpot
humbling considerations, and those that tend to take
down your high opinion of yourselves; and keey
up a humble sense of your necessary and constui
dependence upon Christ and his gr^ice, withoil
which you are nothing, and will soon be worse thai
nothing.
Think not yourselves too wise, too good, too oU,
to be reproved for what is amiss, and to be taught
to do better. When you are doable and treble tki
age you are, yet yoo will not be too old to lean, ui
increase in learning. If any man think that he
knows any thing, that he knows every thing, so thai
he needs no more instruction, he knows nothing jwt
as he ought to know it, I Cor. viii. 2. And therefon
he who seems to be wise, seems so to himself, aeem
so to others, let him become a fool, that he may he
wise ; let him be sensible of his own folly, tkat he
may be quickened to use the means of wisdom, aai
prepared to receive the gprace of wisdom, 1 CeL
iii. 18.
Be not confident of your own judgment, nor kek
upon those with contempt that do not think as yaa
do. Elihu is a great example of humility and bs*
desty to those of your age ; he wraa swift to bear, aii
very ambitious to learn, for it is the learning age; /
am young and you are old, and therefore I waited fit
your words, I gave ear to your reastms, I sitttmki
unto you, ready to give what you said its due weight
and expecting to hear something that I had set
known before : but ho was slow to speak ; I 9m
afraid, and durst not show you my opiniom^for 1 said,
days should speak. Job xxxii. 6, 7, 11, 12. Be set
forward to say, '' I hold so and so," for (as a giave
divine once told a novice, that was laying down Ik
law ^ith great assurance) ** It best becomes yoo U
hold your peace."
Take heed of thinking yoorselves above year
business. You that are apprentices, think not yoor*
selves above your service ; humility will make the
yoke you are under easy to you, which will gall the
proud and stifi" neck. You who are set up for yov^
selves, think it no disparagement to you to
yourselves to your business, and to make a
of it, to see to it with your own eyes, no, nor to p^
your own hands to it. Be ashamed of nothing Imtfliii
TO YOUNG PEOPLE.
569
It will be yet much worse, if yoa think yourselves
above your relijpon ; above the restraints of it, as if
it were a thing below you to be afraid of sin, and to
make conscience of your words and actions, whereas
there cannot be a greater disgrace to you than loose
walking ; or above the exercises of religion, as if
it were a thing below you to pray, and hear the
word, and join in acts of devotion, for it is really
the greatest honour that you can do yourselves, thus
to honour God.
Let this branch of sober-mindedness appear in
your looks and carriage; let the show of your
countenance witness for you, that you are not con-
fident and conceited, but that you keep up a due
diffidence of yourselves, and a due deference to all
about you, especially those above you. Be not pert
in your carriage, nor fantastical in your dress. If
there be any thing in the garb and carriage, that young
people may be innocently proud of, because those
about them will be justly pleased with it, it is the
Ip^vity of it, when it is an indication of humility
ftnd modesty reigning in the heart ; for those are the
best ornaments, and in the sight of God, and all
wise men, of great price. And you will find, that
better it is to beef a humble spiHt with tfte lowly, than
to divide the spoil with the ftrovd ; for when meiCs
pritie shall bring them low^ honour shall uphold the
hwitnble in spirit, and they shall be upheld, borne up
and borne out in that honour.
4. You must be temperate and self-denying, and
QOt indulgent of your appetites. It is the same word
In the text, that, v. 2. is translated temperate, and
Is one of the lessons that the aged men must learn ;
and some think it properly signifies a moderate use
Df meat and drink : so as to keep the mean, and in
tbe use of them amtv rnv ^fivrivy or rriv ^v^aiv, to
save our mind from being clouded, and our wisdom
from being corrupted, that is, our hearts from being
9wercharged with surfeiting and drunkenness; we
commonly put a '* sober man" in opposition to one
that is drunk, or addicted to drunkenness.
Let me therefore warn young men to dread the
dn of drunkenness, keep at a distance from it,
siToid all appearances of it, and approaches towards
it. It has slain its thousands, its ten thousands, of
fonng people; has ruined their health, brought
liseases upon them, and cut them off in the flower
>f their days. How many fall unpitied sacrifices to
Lhis base lust ! It has ruined their estates and trades.
It their first setting out ; when tbe time that should
bave been spent in the shop and warehouse, is spent
In tbe tavern and ale-house. When the money they
shoo Id buy goods with, and pay their debts with, is
thrown away in the gratification of an inordinate
love of wine and strong drink, no wonder if they
soon break, and run their country.
Take heed of the beginnings of this sin, for the
way of k is down bill ; and many under pretence of
an innocent entertainment, and passing the evening
in a pleasant conversation, are drawn in to drink to
excess, and to make beasts of themselves. And you
should tremble to think how fatal tbe consequences
of it are ; how unfit it renders you for the service of
God at night, yea, and for your own business the
next morning; how many are thus besotted, and
sunk into that drowsiness, which clothes a man with
rags: and yet that is not the worst, it extinguishes
convictions, and sparks of devotion, and provokes
the Spirit of grace to withdraw ; and it will be the
sinner's eternal ruin if it be not repented of, and
forsaken in time ; for the word of God has said, and
it shall not be unsaid, it cannot be gainsaid, Drunh"
ards shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Look not then upon the wine when it is red, when
it gives its colour in tlie cup, is charming, is tempt-
ing, be not overcome with its allurements, for at the
last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.
If you saw the devil putting the cup of drunkenness
into your hand, I dare say you would not take it out
of his ; you may be sure the temptation to it comes
from him, and, therefore, ought to dread it as much
as if you saw it. If you saw poison put into the
glass you would not drink it ; and if it be provoking
to God, and ruining to your souls, it is worse than
poison : there is worse than death, there is hell, in
the cup ; and will you not then refuse it?
How many ways may you spend your evening,
when you are fatigued with the business of the day,
better than in drinking, in immoderate drinking ! I
am sorry we cannot urge against you, so much as
gladly we would, the scandal of it, it is grown so
fashionable. But whether you will hear, or whether
you will forbear, we will insist upon the sin of it,
and its prejudice to the soul both here and for ever,
and beg of you, in consideration of this, to frighten
yourselves from it We will insist likewise upon the
real disgrace, that it is a reasonable creature who is,
hereby, spoiled of his crown, and levelled with the
brutes ; and beg of you, in consideration of this, to
shame yourselves out of it before God and your own
conscience.
It is a sin that is in a special manner shameful
and hurtful to those who profess religion. You who
have been well educated, who have been bred up in
sober families, have had examples of sobriety set
you, and have known what the honours and plea-
sures of a sober conversation are ; if, when you set
up for yourselves, you think yourselves happy in
getting clear from the restraints of a sober regimen,
and take the liberty of tbe drunkards, what a
reproach will it be to you! what a degeneracy!
what a fall from your first love ! and where will it
stop ? Perhaps you have given up your names to the
Lord Jesus at his table, and dare you partake of the
cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils? Let Christians,
who are made to our God kings and priests, take to
560
SOBER-MINDEDNESS RECOMMENDED
themseWes tbe lesson which Solomon's mother taught
him. It is not for kings , O Lemuel, it is not for kings.
So it is not for Christians to drink wine, but with
great moderation, lest they drink and forget the law,
forget the gospel, Prov. xxxi. 4, 6.
Yet this is not all I have to warn you against,
under this head. Let not young people be nice and
curious in their diet, nor solicitous to have all the
delights of sense wound up to the height of plea-
surableness ; be not desirous of dainties, for they
are deceitful meat, Prov. xxiii. 3. It is true that
the use of them is lawful, but it is as true, that the
love of them is dangerous ; and the indulging of the
appetites of the body to them is often prejudicial to
the soul and its true interests. Learn betimes to
relish the delights that are rational and spiritual,
and then your mouths will be out of taste with those
pleasures that are brutal, and belong only to the
animal life; and be afraid lest by indulging the
body and the lusts of it, you come by degrees to the
black character of those that were ipiKtiSovoi ftaWov 17
^oBtoi — lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God,
2 Tim. iii. 4.
The body is made to be a servant to the soul, and
it must be treated accordingly ; we must give it, as
wc must to our servants, that which is just and
equal, let it have what is fitting ; but let it not be
suffered to domineer, for nothing is so insufferable
as a servant when he reigneth, (Prov. xxx. 22.)
nor let it be pampered, for he who delicately brings
up his servant from a child, shall have him become his
son at the length, Prov. xxix. 21. Be dead, therefore,
to the delights of sense ; mortify the love of ease and
pleasure ; learn betimes to endure hardness ; use
yourselves to deny yourselves, and so you will make
it easy to yourselves, and will the better bear the
common calamities of human life, as well as suffer-
ings for righteousness sake. Those who would ap-
prove themselves good soldiers of Jesus Christ,
must endure hardness, must inure themselves to it,
2 Tim. ii. 3.
5. You must be mild and gentle, and not indul-
gent of your passions. The word here used signifies
moderation, such a soundness of mind as is opposed
to frenzy and violence. We have need of sobriety
to restrain and repress, not only our inordinate ap-
" petites toward those things that are pleasing to sense,
but our irregular resentment of those things that are
displeasing ; for such a vexatious knowledge of
good and evil has mankind got by eating of the for-
bidden tree.
Young people are especially apt to be hot and
furious, to resent injuries, and to study revenge, like
Simeon and Levi, whose anger was cursed, for it
was fierce ; and their wrath, for it was cruel ; and,
therefore, the passion is ungoverned, because the
pride is unmortified. They are fond of liberty, and
therefore cannot bear control, and wedded to their
own opinion, and therefore cannot bear contradic-
tion, but are all in flame presently, if any one crots
them ; and reckon that an honour, which is really
their shame, to lay the reins on the neck of their pas-
sions, not caring what indecencies they are trans-
ported into by them, nor considering bow mischiev-
ous the consequences may be.
Learn betimes to bridle your anger; to gnard
against the sparks of provocation, that they may not
fall into the tinder ; or if the fire be kindled, pot it
out presently, by commanding the peace in your
own souls, and setting a watch before the door of
your lips. And when, at any time, you arc affronted,
or think yourselves so, aim not at the wit of a sharp
answer, which will stir op anger, but at the wisdom
and grace of a soft answer, which will turn away
wrath, Prov. xv. 1 .
You are setting out in the world, and would have
your passage through it comfortable. Now, there it
nothing will contribute more to that than a qoiet
spirit : The meek shall inherit the earth, was God's
promise, by David first, (Ps. xxxvii. 11.) and after-
wards by the Son of David, (Matt. v. 5.) that if they
possess not an abundance of wealth, yet they shall
delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Bj
the good government of your passions, yon will make
yourselves easy, and easy to those about you ; and
a great deal of mischief both to others and to your-
selves will be prevented.
The moral philosophers valued themselves very
much upon the power which their instructions had
upon young people, to soften and sweeten tbeir
temper, and teach them to govern their passions,
and keep a strict hand upon them. And shall
Christianity, which, to all the arguments which
reason suggests for meekness, adds tbe authority of
the God who made us, forbidding rash anger, as
heart-murder, — ^the example of the Lord Jesus Christ
who bought us, and bid us learn of him to be meek
and lowly in heart, — and the consolations of the
Spirit, which have a direct tendenoy to make us
pleasant to ourselves and others, — and our experi-
ence of God's mercy and grace, in forbearing and
forgiving us ; shall this divine and heavenly instito-
tion come short of their instructions, in plucking
up this root of bitterness which bears gall and worm-
wood, and making us peaceable, gentle, and easy ta
be entreated, which are the bright and blessed cha-
racters of the wisdom from above, Jam. iii. 17.
If you suffer your passions to get head now yoo
are young, they will be in danger of growing more
and more headstrong, and of making you perpetu-
ally uneasy ; but if you get dominion over them now,
you will easily keep dominion, and so keep the
peace in your hearts and houses ; and throogfa the
grace of God, it will not be in the power even of
sickness or old age to make you peevish, to soar your
temper, or imbitter your spirits. Put on tbeitfort«
TO YOUNG PEOPLE.
661
among the ornaments of your youth, as the elect of
Gadf holy and beloved, howeU of mercy, kindness, hum-
hleness of mind, meekness, and lony-sufferiny. Your
age is made for love ; let holy love therefore be a
law to you.
6. You must be chaste and reserved, and not
wanton and impure. Both the Greek fathers and
philosophers use the word aiMt^poaupti for chastity ;
' Continentiam et casiitatem significat — It signifies con-
tinence and chastity, Isidore Pelus. And when it
18 here made the particular duty of young men, this
signification of the word must certainly be taken in ;
for the lusts of the flesh, which are manifest, adul-
tery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, (Gal. v.
19.) are particularly called youthful lusts.
And against those, in Christ's name, I am here to
warn all you who are young ; for God's sake, and
for your own precious souls' sake, flee these youthful
lasts ; dread them as you would a devouring fire, or
a destroying plague, and keep at a distance from
them ; abstain from all appearances of these sins ;
hating even the garment spotted with the flesh, even
the attire of an harlot. Covet not to know these
depths of Satan, but take a pride in being ignorant
of the way of the adulterous woman. See all tempt-
ations to uncleanness coming from the unclean
spirit, that roaring lion who goes about continually,
thus seeking to devour young people. O that you
would betimes conceive a detestation and abhor-
rence of this sin, as much below you, and more
against you ; and put on a firm and steady resolu-
tion, in the strength of the grace of Jesus Christ,
never to defile yourselves with it ; remembering what
' the apostle prescribes, as that which ought to be the
. constant care of the unmarried, to be holy both in
' body and spirit, and so to please the Lord, 1 Cor.
, vii. 34.
Take heed of the beginnings of this sin, lest Satan
- In any thing get advantage against you, and the
> little thief, stolen in insensibly at the window, open
the door to the gp'eat one. How earnestly does So-
lomon warn his young man to take heed of the baits,
lest he be taken in the snares, of the evil woman.
.Remove thy way far from her, says he, for he that
^woald be kept from harm, must keep out of harm's
^way ; Come not nigh the door of her house, but go on
the other side of the street, as thou wonldst, if it
were a house infected ; lest thou mourn at the last,
when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, and say,
kam have I hated instruction, and my heart despised
reproof, Prov. v. 8. 11, 12.
Pray earnestly to God for his gp'ace to keep' you
fkom this sin, and that it may be sufficient for you ;
•o that be the temptation ever so sudden, it may find
yoa awake, and aware of it, that you may not be
nurprised into it ; and be it ever so strong, it may find
yon armed against it, with the whole armour of God,
HoA you may not be overpowered, and overcome by it.
2 o
Get your hearts purified by the word of God, and
sanctified by divine love, for how else shall young
people cleanse their way, but by taking heed there-
to, according to the word. Keep up the authority
of conscience, and keep it always tender, and void
of ofl'ence. Make a covenant with your eyes, that
they may not be the inlets of any impure thoughts,
or the outlet of any impure desires ; and pray
David's prayer, Turn away mine eyes from beholding
vanity ; that you may never look and lust
Modesty is the hedge of chastity, and it is the
ornament of your age, therefore, be sure to keep
that up. Let your dress and carriage be very
modest, and such as denotes a chaste conversation
coupled with fear. Make it to appear that you know
how to be pleasant and cheerful, without transgress-
ing even the strictest rules of modesty ; nay, that
you know not how to be so, when any thing is said
or done against those rules.
I would especially charge you who are young, to
take heed that no corrupt filthy communication pro*-
ceed out of your month. Never dare to speak, nor
delight to hear, any thing that is immodest ; Forni-
cation and all uncleanness, let it not be once named
among you ; it is foolish talking and jesting, which
is not convenient, which is very unbecoming the
professors of such a pure and undefiled religion as
Christianity is ; it is that evil communication
which corrupts good manners ; it is, as some think,
that idle word, for which our Saviour says we must
give account in the g^eat day. Think what a great
dishonour lascivious talk is to God, what a reproach
to yourselves, and what mischief it does to those you
converse with ; how great a matter a spark of this
fire from hell may kindle ; and how much of the sin
and ruin of souls you may hereby have to answer
for. God turns those to a pure language, whom he
brings to call upon his name.
7. You must be steady and composed, and not
giddy and unsettled. This we commonly take to
be signified by a sober mind, a mind that acts and
moves steadily, and is one with itself ; in opposition
to a roving, wandering heart, a heart divided, which
cannot but be found faulty. Be sober-minded, that
is, let your hearts be^^cf, Ps. cviii. 1. Establish
your hearts, and be not like Reuben, unstable as
water, for those who are so will never excel
Fix now, in the days of your youth, for God and
Christ, and serious godliness ; fix for heaven as your
end, and holiness as your way. Halt no longer,
hover no longer, between two, but be at a point ; you
have often been bid to choose whom you will serve,
stand no longer deliberating, but bring this matter
at length to the issue you will abide by, and abide
by it. Nay, but we will serve the Lord.
Fix to that, whatever it is, that you are designed
for in the world ; fix to your business, fix to your
book, if that is to be your business. Dum quid sis
QG2
SOBER-MINDEDNESS RECOMMENDED
iluhitas, jam potes esse nihil — While you are doubting
what to he, you can do nothing. Whatever it is that
you are employed in, let your application to it be
close and constant, and do not upon every slight
and trivial pretence start aside from it, and say you
are weary of it, or you hope to mend yourselves,
when the same volatile humour that makes you
uneasy in the place and work you are in, will soon
make you so in another.
Learn to fix your thoughts, and be not wandering ;
let them not run from one thing to another, as the
bird in wandering, and the swallow in flying, for
thus they run at length with the fooFs eyes into the
ends of the earth ; but what thy hand finds to do,
and tliy heart to think of, which is to the purpose,
do it and think of it with all thy might, and pursue
it close, till thou bring it to an issue, and then it is
done and thought to purpose indeed ; whatever thou
doest, hoc age — do this, mind thy business.
Learn to fix your aims, and act with a single eye ;
for the double-minded man, who is far from being
sober-minded, cannot but be anstable in all his ways,
and turns himself as the wind turns, and he that
wavers is as a wave oftlic sea. Jam. i. 6, 8. Act con-
siderately, that is, consistently with yourselves ; and
as those who understand your own ways ; and have
not your ear open to every whisper and suggestion
that would turn you out of it Be no more children,
tossed to and fro with every wind, enticed to and fro
with every bait, Eph. iv. 14. But in understanding
be ye men, be ye fixed ; let your foot stand in an
even place, and then let your hearts be established,
be not moved, be not removed.
8. You must be content and easy, and not ambi-
tious and aspiring. Some make the word to signify,
animi demissio — the bring mg of the mind down to the
conditiony when the condition will not in every thing
be brought up to the mind. A sober mind is that
which accommodates itself to every estate of life,
and every event of Providence, so that whatever
changes happen, it preserves the possession and
enjoyment of itself.
You who are young must learn betimes to recon-
cile yourselves to your lot, and make the best of that
which is, because it is the will of God it should be
as it is, and what pleases him ought to please us ;
for he knows what is fit to be done, and fit for us to
have, better than we do. Let this check all disquiet-
ing discontented thoughts. Should it be according
to thy mind? Shalt thou who art but of yesterday
control him, quarrel with him, or prescribe to him,
whose counsels were of old from everlasting ? It is
folly to direct the divine disposals, but wisdom to
acquiesce in them.
He who determineth the times before appointed, and
the bounds of men's habitation, ordered what our rank
and station should be in the world, what parents we
should be bom of, what lot we should be bom to,
and what our make and capacity of mind and bodj
should be ; and in these respects there is a gnsd
variety ordained by Providence between some and
others, who yet are made of one blood ; some aie
bom to wealth and honour, others to poveity and
obscurity. Some seem made and marked by natire
(that is, the God of nature) to be great and consider-
able, while others seem doomed to be all their dayi
little and low ; you see many above you, who mike
a figure in the world, and are likely to do so yet
more, while you are but as cjrphers ; yet do not eavj
them, nor fret at the place God's providence has pat
you in, but make yourselves easy in it, and make
the best of it, as those who are satisfied — not only
in general, that all is well that God does ; bat in par-
ticular, all is well that he does with yon.
Possess your minds, now you are yonng, with a
reverence for the divine Providence, its sovereignty,
wisdom, and goodness ; and bring your minds wntto
a cheerful reference of yourselves to all its arbitra-
tions ; Here I am, let the Lord do with me, and all
my affairs, as seemeth good in his sight. This would
have a mighty influence upon the conduct of yoar
affairs, and the evenness of your spirits, all your
days. Whatever you are dispossessed of, or dis-
turbed in the enjoyment of, resolve to be easy, not
because you cannot help it, '^ This is an evil, and
I must bear it,'' that is but a poor reason ; but be-
cause it is the will of God, whose will is his wis-
dom, '* This is an evil, but it is designed for my
good, and I will bear it"
Lay your expectations low from this world, ami
promise not yourselves great matters in it It is
God's command, ( Rom. xii. 16.) Mind not high things,
set not your eyes and hearts upon them, as if they
were the best things, and as if they would make you
happy, and you could not be happy without them ;
but condescend to them of low estate, and take as
much pleasure in conversation with them, as if they
were company for princes and peers ; or, as the mar-
gin reads it. Be content with mean things, with a
mean habitation, mean diet, mean clothes, mean
employments, if such be your lot, and instead of
blaming it, bless God for it, that it is not worse, ami
believe that it is fittest for you.
Not that I would have young people mean-spirited,
or cramped in their aims and endeavours ; whatever
your business is, strive to be excellent and eminent
in it ; whatever your substance is, be diligent, that
by the blessing of God upon it, it may, like Job's,
be increased in the land. A good man leaves an in-
heritance, honestly got, to his children's children.
But I would not have you ambitious of g^reat things;
covet not by taking thought to add cubits to yoor
stature ; let it suffice to thrive by inches, wHh the
increases of the sober-minded ; who do not make
haste to be rich, for *^ Soft and fair goes fttit***
We commonly say of you who are young, thatym
TO YOUNG PEOPLE.
563
are upon your preferment ; shall I persuade you to
reckon it your best preferment to be eminently pious,
and serviceable to the glory of God, and the interests
of bis kingdom in the world ? That is the way to have
the best reputation among men, which wise men
reckon no despicable preferment, for A good name
is better than precious ointment. Aim at advancing
yourselves, not that you may live in so much the
more pomp and ease, but that you may be in so
much the better capacity to do good, and that is true
preferment.
We commonly say of you who are young, that now
is your time to make your fortune ; it is a heathen-
ish expression, for it is not blind fortune, but an all-
seeing Providence, that we are governed by ; but
that is not all ; it is not in your power to make your
own lot ; Every man's judgment proceedeth from the
Lord^ every creature is that to you, and no more,
than he makes it to be ; and, therefore, you must
seek his favour; and reckon your lot best made
when you have the Lord to be the portion of your
inheritance and your cup, and then say. The lines
are fallen to you in pleasant places ; that is best for
you, which is best for your souls, and in that you
must soberly rest satisfied.
Jacob was setting out in the world, and g^ing to
take him a wife, when all he desired and aimed at,
and, if I may so say, indented for in his marriage
articles, was bread to eat, and raiment to put on, to
be kept in his way, and brought at length to his
father's house in peace ; and why should any of the
spiritual seed of Jacob look higher in this world,
who knows and hopes he has eternal riches in re-
Tersion after one life ? Let young people be modest
and moderate, and sober-minded, in their desires
and expectations of temporal good things, as be-
comes those who see through them, and look above
and beyond them, to the things not seen, that are
eternal.
9. You must be grave and serious, and not frothy
and vain. This signification we commonly give to
the word here used. Him that is serious we call a
sober man ; and I put this last, of the ingredients
of this sober-mindedness, because it will have a very
great influence upon all the rest ; we should gain our
point entirely vrith young people, if we could but
prevail with them to be serious. It is serious piety
we would bring them to, and to live in good earnest.
Not that we would oblige younii^ people never to
be merry, or have any ill-natured design upon them
to make them melancholy. No, religion allows them
to be cheerful ; it is your time, make your best of it.
jSvil days will come, of which you will say you have
no pleasure in them, when the cares and sorrows of
this world increase upon you, and we would not have
you to anticipate those evil days. It is mentioned
as an instance of the promised prosperity, and flour-
ishing state, of Jerusalem, that the streets of the city
f o2
shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets
thet^eof Zech. viii. 6. Nay, religion prescribes
cheerfulness to all tliose who are sincere and hearty
in it ; Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drinh
thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth
thy worhs, Eccl. ix. 7. God expects to be served by
us vrith joy fulness and gladness of heart, in the
abundance of all things, Deut. xxviii. 47.
And it is certain, that none have such good reason
to be cheerful as godly people have, none can be
so upon better grounds, or with a better grace ; so
justly or so safely. I have often said, and I must
take all occasions to repeat it, that a holy, heavenly
life, spent in the service of God, and in communion
with him, is without doubt the most pleasant, com-
fortable life, that any one can live in this world.
But that which I would caution you against under
this head, is vain and carnal mirth, that mirth, that
laughter of the fool, of which Solomon says. It is
mad, and What doeth it ? Innocent mirth is of good
use in its time, and place, it will revive the spirit,
and fit you for business, a merry heart does good
like a medicine ; but then it must be used like a
medicine, must be taken physically, only when there
is occasion for it, and not constantly, like our daily
bread ; and like physic, it must be taken sub regi-
mene — by rule ; as not too often, so not too much at
a time, like opiates, which are taken by drops, and
with great caution. When you make use of these
medicines, it must be with due correctives, and
you must take great care of yourselves, lest that
turn to your prejudice, and become a snare and a
trap, which was intended for your health and wel-
fare.
Allow yourselves in mirth as far as will consist
with sober-mindedness, and no further ; be merry
and wise ; never let your mirth transgress the laws
of piety, charity, or modesty, nor intrench upon your
time for devotion and the service of God. Wise
men will always reckon him over-fond of his mirth,
who will rather lose his friend than his jest ; much
more may he be reckoned so, who will rather lose
his God and a good conscience. Never make sport
with the Scripture and sacred things, but let that
which is serious always be spoken of with serious-
ness ; for it is dangerous playing with edge-tools.
Take heed lest your mirth exceed due* bounds,
and transport you into any indecencies ; that you
give not yourselves too great a liberty, and then
think to excuse it by saying. Am not I in sport!
Prov. xxvi. 19. Set a double guard at such a time
before the door of your lips, lest you offend with
your tongues ; and especially keep your hearts with
all diligence. Let the inward thought still be seri-
ous ; and in the midst of your greatest mirth, retain
a disposition habitually serious, and a reigning
aff'ection to spiritual and divine things ; such as will
make you indifferent to ail vain mirth and pleasure,
564
SOBER-MINDEDNESS RECOMMENDED
and set you above it, and enable you to look upon
that with a holy contempt, which many spend so
much of their time in with so ^eat a complacency.
A serious Christian, though, to relax himself and
entertain his friends, he may allow himself a little
mirth and recreation, yet he will make it to appear
that he is not in his clement, that he knows better
pleasures, and has given them the preference. A
believing foretaste of the milk and honey of Canaan,
is enough to put the mouth quite out of taste with
the garlic and onions of Egypt.
But while I am pressing you who are young to be
always serious, habitually so, always well affected
to serious work, what shall we think of those who
are never serious? who are always merry, always
jesting, always bantering, so that you never know
when they speak in earnest ; who are always in pur-
suit of some sensual pleasure or other, and never
know what it is to be one quarter of an hour serious,
from the beginning of the year to the end of it?
Certainly they forget, that for all these things God
shall bring them into judgment^ and they know not how
soon. O that this laughter might be turned into the
mourning of true penitents, and this joy into the
heaviness of sincere converts, that it may not be
turned, as otherwise it certainly will be, into the
weeping and wailing of damned sinners ! The same
Jesus who said, Blessed are they that moum^for they
shall be comforted, has said also. Woe unto 'you that
laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep, Luke vi. 25.
Shall I now prevail with you who are young, to
value wisdom above wit, and that which helps to
make you serious above that which helps to make
you merry ; and to take as much pleasure in gravity,
as others do in vanity ? It will be the honour of your
youth, will arm you against the temptations you are
surrounded with, and will not only mark you for
something considerable in this world, but for some-
thing infinitely more so in the other world. And, if
you understand yourselves aright, I dare say, one
hour spent in the employments and enjoyments of a
sober, serious mind, will afford you more true com-
fort in the reflection, than many spent in mirth and
gaiety, because it will certainly pass so much better
in the account another day.
If you take the world for your guide, you will be
bid to '* laugh and be fat ;" will be told that <* an
ounce of mirth is worth a pound of sorrow ;** but if
you will attend to the dictates of the word of God,
(and it is fit that the word that must judge us here-
after should rule us now,) that will tell you, that
sorrow is better than laughter ; and that it is better
to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of
feasting, for by tlie sadness of tlie countenance the
heart is made better ; it is made serious.
And thus you see what it is to be sober-minded,
and how much of your duty it takes in ; but are you
content that it should take in all thi^? Can you say,
that though in many things yod come short, yet you
esteem all these precepts, and all the things coatiis-
ed in them, to be right, and, therefore, hate ereiy
false way ? You will then be very willing to ban
this sober-mindedness further pressed upon yon.
II. Let us see what considerations are proper,
and may be powerful, to make young people in tU
these respects sober-minded : and will yoo who ait
young, apply your minds a little to these things?
I. You are all reasonable creatares, and tiiere-
fore ought to be sober-minded. Consider how noble
and excellent that rank of beings is that you are of;
how far advanced above that of the beasts, and cob-
sequently how unjust you are both to €rod and to
yourselves, if by incogitancy, inconsideration, or tk
indulgence of any brutish appetite or passion, yn
level yourselves with the beasts that perish.
What have you your reason for, if yt>a do not
make use of it ? your mind, if you do not take care
to keep yourselves of a sound mind ? or, if you nind
not that for the sake of which you had your rnindi
given you ? Shew yourselves men, therefore, by briag-
ing to mind, O ye transgressors, Isa. xlvi. 8. Sinncn
would become saints, if they would but show tkcn-
selves men, for the service of Christ is a reasontble
service, and those who are wicked are unreasonable
men : be persuaded therefore to act rationally; vai
to save the nobler powers of reason from being tied
up and overpowered by this and the other tfkd-
lious lust and passion.
You brought rational souls with you into te
world ; but think how long the seeds of reason kf
buried under the clods before they began to sprii^
up ; how long those sparks of a divine fire netati
lost in the embers, during the years of infancy, wbea
you were not capable of the consideration we are
persuading you to. Yet then God took care of yoi,
provided for you, and did you good, when jron were
not able to do him any service. Study, therefore,
now you are come to the use of reason, what honours
and what dignities shall be done to him, who wai
then careful for you with all that care. Study bov
you shall redeem the time that was then unavoidaUj
lost, by making so much the more use of your retsn
now.
Think likewise how much time runs to waste a
sleep, how many hours pass every day, daring wlnel
the operations of reason are suspended, and fancy
is all that while busy at work in a thousand fooliA
dreams ; yet then God preserves us, and gives kil
angels a charge over us. Let us, therefore, wbfli
we are awake, set reason on work, find it emphf
ment, and support its authority by sober-miodei*
ness ; and let not the conversation of the day betf
idle and impertinent as the dreams of the nigbtut;
as I fear with many it is, both young and old.
Think, likewise, how piteous the case of tboieii
who are deprived of the use of their reason, wbon*
TO YOUNG PEOPLE.
666
born idiots, or are fallen into deep melancholy, or
into distraction and frenzy ; who are incapable of
thinking, speaking, and acting rationally, and are
patent of the possession, government, and enjoyment
of themselves. This might have been your case ; it
is God's great mercy to yoa that it is not so ; nor
ean you be secure, but that some time or other it
may be so. You would dread it as the greatest afflic-
tion, not to be able to use your reason, and will you
not dread it as a great sin, not to use it well, and as
it should be used, now you are able.
When St. Paul would prove to the most noble
Festus, that he was not beside himself, that he was
act mad, his plea is, / speak the words of truth and
tobemest ; as if those that do not speak the words
>f truth and soberness, all whose talk is banter and
ranity, were no better than mad, and beside them-
selves. O that such young people as are thus taken
in the snare of carnal mirth, and are in effect made
lelirious by it, as you may perceive by the rambles
af their talk, would at length recover their senses,
return to their wits, and be sober-minded ! That they
would, like the prodigal son, come to themselves,
ind come to a resolution to stay no longer in the
devil's fields, to feed the swine of their own sinful
lusts but to return to their Father's house, where
they will be happy and shall be welcome.
When Christ was here upon earth, healing all
manner of sickness, and all manner of disease, there
was no one sort of patients that he had greater
numbers of than such as were lunatic, and their
lanacy was the effect of their being possessed with
the devil. It was the miserable case of many young
people ; we find parents making complaints of this
kind concerning their children ; one has a daughter,
another has a son, grievously vexed with the devil ;
but Christ healed them all, dispossessed Satan, and
•o restored them to the possession of their own
louls ; and it is said of some whom he thus relieved,
that they sat at the feet of Jesus clothed, and in
heir right mind ; it is the word used in the text, Luke
iii. 35. As far as sin reigns in you, Satan reigns,
Bd your souls are in his possession ; Christ by cast-
Dg out devils, gave a specimen and indication of
tie great design of his gospel and grace, which was
) cure men of their spiritual frenzy, by breaking
le power of Satan in them. O that you would
lerefore apply yourselves to him! Submit to the
'ord of his grace, pray for the Spirit of his grace ;
Dd by this it will appear, that both these have had
leir due influence upon you, if you sit at the feet
r Jesas in your right mind ; in a sober mind. And,
ideed, you never come to your right mind, till you
o sit down at the feet of Jesus, to learn of him, and
e ruled by him ; you never are truly rational crea-
ares, till in Christ you become new creatures.
2. Yon are .all sinners, and guilty before God ;
ODceived in iniquity, born in sin, you are by nature
children of disobedience, and children of wrath;
whether you have ever thought of it, or no, certainly
it is so, the Scripture hath concluded you all under
sin, and consequently under a sentence of death,
like that of a physician upon his patient, when he
pronounces his disease mortal ; nay, like that of a
judge upon the prisoner, when he pronounces his
crime capital, so that both ways your danger is
imminent and extreme. And shall not the con-
sideration of this prevail to make you sober.
Were your bodies under some threatening disease,
which, in all probability, would in a little time cut
off the thread of your life, I believe that would make
you serious, that would make you look solemn;
were you condemned to die shortly by the hand of
justice, that would sober you : and is not the death
and ruin of an immortal soul more to be dreaded
than that of a mortal body? and should not the
danger of that give a louder alarm to the most
secure, and cast a greater damp upon the most jovial,
than of the other ?
And when you are told, that though the disease is
mortal, it is not incurable, though the crime is
capital, it is not unpardonable, how should that yet
further prevail to make you serious, to make you
very solicitous, very industrious, to get the disease
healed, and the crime forgiven ! Your case will not
allow any of your time or thoughts to run waste, or
to be trifled away, but you have need, by sober-
mindedness, to employ both in a due attendance to
the things that belong to your everlasting peace.
You are sinners, and, therefore, have reason to
think very meanly and humbly of yourselves ; not to
expect applauses, or resent contempts, nor to aim at
great things in the world. What have such vile
wretches as we are to be proud of, or to promise
ourselves in this world, who owe our lives, which
we have a thousand times forfeited, to the divine
patience ?
You are sinners, and if yet you are in a state of
sin, in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity,
the misery of your state is enough to give an effec-
tual check to your vain mirth, and would do it if
you knew and considered it. Rejoice not, O Israel^
for joy, as other people, for thou luut gone a whoring
from thy God, Hos. ix. I. Joy is forbidden fruit to
wicked people. There cannot be a more monstrous
absurdity, than that which they are guilty of, who
say to the Almighty, Depart from us, who set him
at a distance, set him at defiance, and yet tahe the
timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ,
and spend their days in mirth. Job xxi. 12 — 14.
If, through grace, the power of sin is broken in
you, and you are delivered from the wrath to come,
and being in Christ, there is no condemnation to
you, yet the very remembrance of the misery and
danger you were in, and are delivered from, how
near you were to the pif s brink, and how you were
560
SOBER-MINDEDNESS RECOMMENDED
snatched as brands out of the burning, should make
you serious. You still carry a body of death about
with you, which should make you cry out, O wretched
creatures that we are ! You are compassed about
with enemies, who war against your souls ; you have
not yet put oflf the harness, but have reason still to
fear, lest a promise being left you of entering into
rest, any of you should seem to come short, and this
is enough to make you considerate and cautious,
and sober-minded.
In short, till you have by faith in Christ made
your peace with God, and are become sincere Chris-
tians, you have no reason to rejoice at all ; and when
you have done it, and have some comfortable evi-
dence of a blessed change, through grace, wrought
in you, you will then have better things to rejoice in,
than this world can furnish you with ; and having
tasted spiritual pleasures, will be dead to all the de-
lights of sense ; and you will say, offer them to those
who know no better.
3. You are setting out in a world of sorrows and
snares, of troubles and temptations, and therefore
are concerned to be sober-minded, that you may be
armed accordingly, so that the troubles of the world
may not rob you of your peace, nor the temptations
oTF it rob you of your purity. Your way lies through
a wilderness, a land of darkness and drought, and
nothing but sober-mindedness will carry you safe
through it to Canaan.
Now you are young, and have the world before
you, you are apt to flatter yourselves with a conceit
that every thing will be safe and pleasant, your
mountain you think stands so strong, that it cannot
be moved ; that nothing can shake either your in-
tegrity, or your prosperity ; but you little know
what this world is, a*hd what snares there are in
every condition of life, and every company ; in all
employments, in all enjoyments. And if you be
careless and vain, and live at large, you make your-
selves an easy prey to the tempter, and are in dan-
ger of being carried away by the course of this world :
you have need therefore to take heed to yourselves,
and to keep your souls diligently, that is, to be
sober-minded ; for considering the corruption that
is in the world through lust, and the corruption that
is in your own hearts, what may we not fear when
they come together?
When the restraints of education are taken off,
and you begin to find yourselves at liberty, you will
meet with so many enticing sins and sinners, that
you will be in danger of falling into licentiousness,
and being undone, unless the impressions of your
education still abide, unless by this sober-minded-
ness you still be your own parents, your own masters,
your own tutors, and by an established virtue,
through the grace of God, a law to yourselves.
You know not what trials and troubles you may
be reserved for, but yon know that man who is born
of a woman, is bat of few days, and full of titrable;
his crosses certain, more or less ; a cross to be takes
up daily ; his comforts uncertain ; and should sot
this make you sober, that when afflictions come, they
may not be so terrible as they are to those, who by
indulging themselves in mirth and pleasure, hate
made themselves like the tender and delicate womis,
that would not set so much as the sole of her foot to
the ground, for tenderness and delicacy, Deut. xxviiL
56. Even the common calamities of baman life
press hard upon such, and wound deep ; wheitti,
those who live a sober, serious, self-denying life,
are, like Christ, acquainted with f^ef, have Bade
it familiar to them, and can the easier reconcile
themselves to it.
Some of you, perhaps, are sickly, and often oatflf
health ; you carry distempers about with you, whiefc
tell you what you are, and you are inexcusable if
you be not thereby made sober ; if they do oet
deaden you to the delights of sense, and lower your
expectations from the creature, and dispose yoa (o
serious work. By the sickness of the body the bctit
should be made better, — many a one's has been;
the uncertainty of whose bodily health has eondoeed
very much to the health of their soals. Those doia-
deed walk contrary to God who allow themselves ii
vanity, while they carry about with them sensible
tokens of their mortality.
But even the most strong and healthful may die
in their full strength, and must die at last ; we tre
all dying daily, death is working in os, and weaie
walking toward it, and shall not that make ns sober?
Theirs was an unpardonable crime who atdd,lMm
eat and drink, for to-morrow we die, Isa. xxii. 13. 14
Who when they were minded by the prophet of tbe
near approach of death, as a reason why they AcM
repent and reform speedily, turned it quite a cos-
trary way, and argued, if we must have a short life,
let it be a merry one ; surely, says God, this imfwUjf
shall not be purged from you.
The end of all things is at hand, is near at hasd
with us, be ye therefore sober ; that whenever oir
Lord shall come, we may be in a good frame to meet
him. When we consider what oar bodies will k
shortly, how near akin they are to cormption wd
the worms, we shall see little reason to paa^
them, and to bring them up delicately, for we aie
hastening to the house of darkness, where the itk»
of mirth is no more heard.
*< When th' hair grows sweet with pride and losti
The powder doth forget the dust,'' — Mr. HerkrU
You see many young people abont yoa rained aid
undone, and it was for want of being sober-miiidcd.
Many, perhaps, you have known or might hate ob-
served, who were born of good parents, had a reli-
gious education, set oat well, were for some tisB
hopeful, and promised fair with buds and bksiM
k
k
hx
I
la
Is
TO YOUNG PEOPLE.
667
b ended in the flesh, after they had began in the
lit, and it was for want of consideration ; they could
: be persuaded to think soberly ; they were drawn
ay of their own lust and enticed ; and those en-
^ments were hearkened to, when a deaf ear was
ned to Wisdom's calls, and to all the dictates of
son and conscience ; they would not hearken to
voice of these charmers, charming ever so wisely.
$ome have outrun their apprenticeships, others
^c foolishly thrown themselves away in marriage,
crs have set up and made a flourish awhile, but
re soon broke and become bankrupts, either by
ing high, or by grasping at more business than
y could secure ; some have been carried away by
eistical and profane notions, and others by a loose
i vain conversation, all which would have been
3pily prevented, if they had been humble and
creet, and duly governed their appetites and
isions,
)thers' harms should be your warning^, to take
;d of the rocks they split upon. Sir Richard
ickmore, in his Heroic Poem of Job, thus gives
reason of Job's pious care concerning his sons,
sr the days of their feasting were gone about.
* For he with mournful eyes had often spied,
)catter'd on pleasure's smooth buttreach'rous tide.
The spoils of virtue overpower'd by sense,
^nd floating wrecks of ruin'd innocence."
». You are here in this world upon your trial for
Lven. O that you would firmly believe this, not
y that you are hastening apace into eternity, but
t it will certainly be to you a comfortable or a
terable eternity, according to what you are and
while you are in the body ; and this considera-
Q, one would think, should make you sober.
Sternal life is set before you, eternal happiness in
vision and fruition of God ; you may make it
e, if it be not your own fault ; may lay hold on it,
you look about you now. There are substantial
lours, satisfying pleasures, and true riches, in
nparison with which all the riches, honours,
i pleasures of this world are empty names and
idows ; these may be your portion for ever, they
ill be so, if by a patient continuance in well-
ng, through Christ, you seek for this glory, ho-
ur, and immortality. You are here probationers for
best preferment, for a place in the New Jerusa-
1 ; you stand candidates for a crown, a kingdom,
orruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away,
1 stand fair for it ; and is it not time to think then ?
think seriou.<(ly, and soberly to apply yourselves
that business for which you were sent into this
rid, and from which» if it be done faithfully, you
y remove with comfort to another world, but if
t, your removal to that world will be terrible?
Ml ought to be serious and circumspect now, be-
iise as you spend your time, so you are likely to
spend your eternity ; and a great deal of work you
have to do, and but little time to do it in.
Let mc put the case to you, as to this world. If a
wise and wealthy man should take one of you who
had but little, and tell you that you should come
into his family, and he would provide food and
clothing for you for one year, and if you carried your-
self well for that year, would submit to the prudent
discipline of his family, would be observant of him,
and take care to please him, that then at the year's
end he would give you ten thousand pounds ; but if
you were rude and ungovernable, he would turn you
out of doors ; would not this put you upon consider-
ing ? Would it not make you sober ? Would you not
deny yourselves in the gratification of many a desire,
for fear of displeasing such a benefactor ? If he were
ever so humorsome you would humour him, when
it were so much your interest. This is your case ;
the time of your probation is but short ; the terms are
easy and reasonable; the God you are to please is not
hard to be pleased, nor will impose any thing upon
you but what becomes you, and will be pleasant to
you ; the happiness he proposes is infinitely more
worth than thousands of gold and silver, and the
security he gives, is the inviolable promise of one
who cannot lie nor deceive ; the misery, if you come
short of it, is worse than being turned out of doors,
it is to be cast into utter darkness. Life and death,
good and evil, the blessing and the curse, are set
before you ; and will you not then set your hearts to
all the words which we testify unto you ; will you
not think soberly, that you may make sure work in
a matter of such vast importance, on which your
lives, and the lives of your souls, depend ? You are
here upon your good behaviour, and therefore are
concerned to behave yourselves well ; for if you do
not, 5on, remember, will be a dreadful peal rung in
your ears shortly, remember how fair thou stoodest
for happiness, and what the morsel of meat was,
for which, like profane Esau, thou .soldest that birth-
right.
Lastly, You must shortly go to judgment ; with
the consideration of this, Solomon endeavours to
make his young man sober, that is for walking in
the way of his heart, and in the sight of his eyes ;
Know thoUy that for all these things God sludl bring
thee into judgment. And thou who makest a jest of
every thing, shalt not be able to turn that off with a
jest hereafter, however thou mayst think to do it
now, Eccl. xi. 9. This likewise he urges upon his
pupil in the close of that book, as a reason why he
should be religious ; By these, my son, be admonished,
to/ear God and heep his commandments, for God shall
bring every work into judgnunt, with every secret
thing, Eccl. xii. 12 — 14.
Young men who have strict masters, who will
call them to an account bow they spend their time,
and how they go on with their business, are thereby
668
SOBER-MINDEDNESS RECOMMENDED
obliged to be industrioas and careful ; whereas, if
the master be careless, the servant is in temptation
to be so too. Bat you know that you have a Master
in heaven, whose eye is always upon you, and fol-
lows you closer than the eye of any master on earth
can ; he knows and observes all you do, all you say,
all yon think, and an acconnt is kept of it in the
book of his omniscience, and your oWn conscience.
These books will shortly be opened, and not only all
reviewed, but you will be judged accordingly; and
are you not then concerned to think, and speak, and
act accordingly? When you are vain and frothy,
and your conversation loose and profane, should not
this be a check upon you, and make you sober, to
think. How will this look, when it comes to be
looked over again ? How will it pass, when I pass
my trials for eternity ?
Your bodies are mortal, your souls are immortal,
therefore, let not sin reign either in the one or in
the other ; you are dying, are dying daily ; " In the
midst of life,'' nay, in the beginning of it, " we are
in death f' you may die this day ; may die in youth,
and the number of your months be cut off in the
midst ; and you know, that after death is the judg-
ment; and as your state is fixed in the particular
judgment at death, so it will be found in the general
judgment at the end of time, and so it will remain
to eternity. How awful, how dreadful, the appear-
ance of the Judge will be in the great day, the word
of God has again and again told us ; Knowing there-
fore those terrors of the Lord, the terrors of that day,
icepersuade menj we persuade young men, to be sober-
minded, and, therefbre, to let their moderation, that
is, their sober-mindedness, their good government
and management of themselves, be known unto all
men, because the Lord is at hand. The Judge stand-
tth before the door*
The Application.
You^ see now what is expected from you who are
young, and how justly it is expected ; you see both
from the Word of God : and now shall I entreat you to
make use of what I have said, to make it useful to your-
selves, that this discourse may not be lost upon you.
1 . Shall I desire you to examine yourselves, that
you may know your own selves ; and take heed of
being mistaken in your judgment concerning your-
Itolves. Can your hearts witness for you, that through
the grace of God, by remembering yourselves and
your Creator in the days of your youth, you are be-
come in some measure sober-minded, and answer
this beautiful character of young people ? I hope I
speak to many such ; and the misery is^ that those
who most need these instructions and warnings,
tome least in the way of them ; they will not hear
them, will not read them, because they resolve they
will not heed them, or be ruled by them.
But to you who are sober-minded, I say a^ Ckriit
did to the faithful ones in Thyatira, Iwnll lay i^
you no other burthen, but that which you have tftttdif,
and I am sure you will ag^ree to call it a light bv-
then. Hold fast till Christ comes ; bold fest yoor
integrity, hold fast your sober-mindedness.
Some are more inclined to soberness in tkdr
natural temper than others are, to them these laws
of sober-mindedness will be easier than to othen;
but to them who are not so, though it be more dif-
ficult, yet it is withal more necessary. Wisdon,
and grace, and consideration, are intended for the
checking of the disorders of the natural temper.
But take heed lest you deceive yourselves, and
be more forward, than there is cause, to rank your-
selves among the sober-minded, and to think HxtX
you need not these admonitions. It is not a sober
look that will serve, though that is graceful enough,
if it be not affected and forced ; but it is the sober
mind that we are pressing earnestly upon you ; ex-
amine that now, for God will examine that, and
judge of you by it; when you shall find that to be
carnally minded is death, but to be ipiriiumUy mindtd
is life and peace,
2. Shall I desire you to exhort yourselves ; so some
read that which we translate, Exhort one smother;
preach to jour own hearts, preach over this sennoa
to them. Let all young people charge, and admonish,
and encourage themselves to be sober-minded.
Let those who have loose notions in religion, and
are fond of suggestions, though ever so absurd, whidi
derogate from the authority and honour of the Scrip-
tures and revealed religion, exhort themselves to be
sober-minded, and not to be carried about with eveiy
wind, nor carried away from the great principles of
Christianity, by the craft of them who lie in wait to
deceive, and bring them to downright atheism.
Let those who are drawn in, or are in danger of
being drawn into the mining sins of drunkenness or
uncleanness, which have been so fatal to multitudes
of young people, exhort themselves to be sober-
minded, to sit down and consider seriously what
will be in the end thereof, and how dreadful that
destruction is which these vicious courses certainly
lead to* Except you repent and reform, you most
perish, must eternally perish ; if the word of God be
true, you must ; and how miserable will your case
be if you bring it to this dilemma, that either God
must be false, or you must be damned !
Let those who spend their time in carnal mirth,
and sensual pleasures, whose business is nothing but
sport and pastime, and their conversation nothing
but banter and buffoonery, exhort themselves to
be sober-minded ; sometimes to be seriouSf and con-
sider themselves ; and try if they can make it as
pleasant to themselves to think in earnest, as it is
now to talk in jest ; for I am sure it will be abun*
dantly more profitable.
to YOUNG PEOPLE.
569
Let those youn^ people who are addicted to gam-
ing, and flatter tbemsclves with hopes of getting
that easily and quickly, which they love ahove any
thing, but are not willing to be at the pains of get-
ting honestly, exhort themselves to be sober-minded,
and to consider what a sinful way this is of trading
with what they have, and which they cannot in faith
pray to God to bless and prosper them in ; to con-
sider, that whether they win or lose they can have
no true comfort ; no joy of their gains, for it is
Wealth gotten by vanity, that has a curse attending
it ; nor any support under their losses, for they are
owing to their own sin and folly. How many ap-
prentices have been brought by their love of gaming
to rob their masters, and so to ruin themselves ! And
how many young gentlemen have sunk their estates,
ftnd young tradesmen their stocks and business, by
it; and will yon for want of one sober thought, split
upon the same rock ? Let those who are allured into
this snare, into the beginning of it, dread it, and
keep at the utmost distance from it ; and let those
who are taken in it break out of it immediately,
with resolution : Do this now, my son^ deliver thyself
as a roe from the hand of the hunter.
Let young dealers in the world, who are entering
into business, exhort themselves to be sober-minded,
to set out under the conduct of religion and true
wisdom ; to love their business, to apply themselves,
and accommodate themselves, to it Let them learn
betimes to take care ; for nothing will be done to
purpose without it ; to attend the work of their call-
ings with diligence, and order the affairs of them
with discretion, and in all their ways to acknowledge
God, then are they likely to prosper, and to have
good success.
Let young professors of religion, who by the grace
of God have escaped the corruption that is in the
World, and given up their names to Jesus Christ,
exhort themselves to be sober-minded in their pro-
fession. Let them take heed of conceitedness and
spiritual pride, of confidence in themselves, and
their own judgment and ability ; let them aim to be
best, rather than to be greatest, in the kingdom of
God among men. Let them take heed of running
into extremes, and of falling into bigotry, and cen-
soriousness ; let them be sober in their opinions of
truth and f^sehood, good and evil, of others and of
themselves ; expecting that age and experience will
rectify many of their present mistakes.
Let young scholars, whose genius leads to books
and learning, exhort themselves to be sober-minded.
You soon find that you must be serious, must be
inach so, must learn to think, and to think closely,
or you will never make any thing of it ; it is not
enough to read, but you must study and digest what
you read. But that is not all ; in your pursuits of
knowledge you must be sober, not exercising your-
aeJves in things too high for ^ou, nor boasting your*
selves of your attainments ; be humble in the use of
what you do know, using it for edification, not for
ostentation ; it is but unprofitable knowledge that
puffeth up, that only is good for something that doeth
good, 1 Cor. viii. 1. Be humble likewise in your
inquiries after what you would know ; not coveting
to be wise above what is written, or to intrude into
those things which you have not seen, as many, who
are vainly puffed up with a fleshly mind ; but be
wise unto sobriety. Be willing to be in the dark
about that which God has not thought fit to reveal,
and in doubt about that which he has not thought fit
to determine. This is very well expressed by the
learned Grotius, in a poem of his :
Netrire velle qua Magister Maximut^
Docere non vult, erudxia insdtia est, —
Where Revelation ends, to check rash thought,
Were shade illum'd, and ignorance well-taught.
To recommend this sober-mindedness to all of yoa
who are young : This seriousness and sedateness of
spirit, and an aptness to consider, are so much the
more necessary, if you consider of what great advan-
tage they will be to you every way.
(1 .) Thus you will escape the vanity that child-'
hood and youth is subject to, and rescue those pre-
cious years from it. It will keep them from running
waste, as commonly they do, like water spilt upon
the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, and
will do much towards the filling up of the empty
spaces, even of those years. When Solomon had
observed that childhood and youth is vanity, he imme-
diately adds for the cure of that vanity. Remember
now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, that is, in
one word, " Be serious,"
By using yourselves to consideration, you will
come to be aware of the snares that your spiritual
enemies lay for you, of the snake under the green
grass, and will not be imposed upon so easily as
many are by the wiles of Satan ; and by habituating
yourselves to self-denial and mortification of the
flesh, and a holy contempt of this world, you will
wrest the most dangerous weapons out of the hand
of the strong man armed, and will take from him
that part of his armour in which he most trusted,
for it is by the world and the flesh that he mostly
fights against us : nay, and this sober-mindedness
will put upon you the whole armour of God, that yoa
may be able to stand in the evil day ; and so to re->
sist the devil, that he may flee from you.
This sober-mindedness will prevent many a temp*
tation which a vain mind invites, and courts, and
throws men into the way of; and will shut and lock
the door against the tempter, who when he finds it
so will give it up ; and his agents will be apt to do
so too; concluding it in vain to tempt the sober
mind ; they will do as Naomi, who, when she saw that
Ruth was itedfastly minded, left off speaking to her.
670
SOBER-MINDEDNESS RECOMMENDED
(2.) Thus you will recommend yourselves to the
favour of God, and of all wise and good men ; will
obtain that good name which is better than precious
ointment, and more fragrant; a name for good
things with God and good people.
God will love those who love him and seek him
early ; and will never forget this kindness of your
youth for serious godliness. If you thus give him the
first of your first-fruits, it will be an acceptable offer-
ing to him. The beloved disciple was the youngest.
And it is said of that young man, who asked that
serious question, and asked it soberly. Good Master,
what sliall I do that I may inherit eternal life ; that
Jesus beholding him loved him, Mark x. 21. And as
he was likewise well pleased with another, that
answered discreetly, vttvtxc»Cf Hke one who had a
sober mind, Mark xii. 34. And that humility and
quietness of spirit, which is one branch of this sober
mind, is an ornament, which, wherever it is found,
especially in young people, is in the sight of God of
great price ; and that is valuable indeed which he
values, and by it we ought to value ourselves.
Nor is it an argument to be despised by you, that
all sober people who know you, will love you, and
will have no greater joy than to see you live soberly ;
but it is an argument the rather to be insisted upon
by us, because young people are commonly very
much influenced by reputation, and have an eye to
that more than any thing in the government of
themselves, and the choice of their way ; now it is
certain that reputation is on religion's side, and if
the matter be rightly understood, will help to turn
the scale for sober-mindedness. It is true there are
some, there are many, to whom a young man will
recommend himself by being loose and extravagant,
and talking at random against that which is seri-
ous ; but what kind of people are they ? Are they not
X\k^ fools in Israel? Are they not sots or fops, whose
valuation of persons and things is not at all to be
regarded ? But do not all discreet and considerate
people esteem a young man who is sober, and show
him respect, and converse with him, and put a con-
fidence in him? It is the character of a citizen of
Zion, that in his eyes a vile person is contemned ;
though he set up for a wit, or a beau, yet if he be
loose and profane, he despises him as a fool, and a
flash, but he honours them who fear the Lord, and
live conscientiously. Now to which of these would
you recommend yourselves ? Whose opinion would
you covet to stand right in, to stand high in ? Would
you not choose to have credit with men of virtue and
probity, and who are themselves in reputation for
wisdom and honour, and to be laid in their bosoms,
rather than to be hugged, and caressed, and cried
up by those who, being slaves to their pleasures, can
never be masters of true reason ? Especially consi-
dering, that these young people who are truly sober,
serious, and conscientious, provided they take care to
avoid affectation and superciliousness, will beloved
and respected even by those who are themselHS
loose and vain ; and will be manifested in theii
consciences one time or other, that they are the moit
valuable young men. And I think it is worth eos-
sidering, and would bear a debate, whether oidi-
narily sober, serious people do not love their fiieiids
and companions better than vain, loose people do
theirs, and are not more ready to do them true icr-
vice?
(3.) Thus you will prepare for a useful life, if it
please God you live long, and for aiu^mfortableoiK.
Those who are sober-minded when they are yxaa%,
as they are thereby fortified against every evil word
and work, so they are furnished for every good wwd
and work, and are likely to be in their day vesiels
of honour fit for our Master's use, while the ludi-
crous and unthinking live to be at the best the un-
profitable burthens of the earth, and good for nothrag.
Young people who are sober, are likely to be good,
and to do good in every relation and condition of
life ; who are sober when they are children and ser-
vants ; who do the duties, and improve the advan-
tages, of their learning age, and behave themselfes
prudently then, are preparing hereafter to have tk
charge of families themselves, to which they tie
likely to be great blessings, and to the places in
which they live. They will not only be the joj of
their parents' hearts while they live, but an honoor
to their memories when they are gone, and thos tk
children will rise up and call the discreet and lir-
tuous mother blessed, by treading in her steps, and
producing the good fruits of their prudent and reli-
gious education.
Young men who are sober-minded, are likely to be
in time serviceable to the communities they aie
members of, civil or sacred, in a higher or lower
sphere. They may be called to the magistracy or
ministry, to serve the state, or to serve the chnreli,
but few ever come to do real service or credit tt
either, or to be of account in either of those posts of
honour, unless they be sober-minded when they are
young. Lose the morning, and you lose the day.
But though they may not arrive to such a public
station, yet they may, in a private capacity, be emi-
nently useful to their neighbours, in the things of
the world, and to their fellow-Christians in divine
things, and so be instruments of glory to God-
They who are sober-minded when they are yoiin;«
if they go on as they begin, what will the wisdom be
which the multitude of their years will teach \ Oba-
diah, who feared the Lord from his youth, came to
fear him greatly. Young saints, we hope, will be
eminent ones.
(4.) Thus you will prepare for a happy deatb, if
it please God you should die quickly, and may tben
die cheerfully. O that young people were so wise
as to consider their latter end, not only as sure, bat
TO YOUNG PEOPLE.
671
as near ; for it is folly for the youngest, and stroDgest,
and most healthful, to put far from them the day of
death, when death is every day working in us.
Now the best preparation you can make for it, if
you should die in youth, is to live soberly. Then
the sting of it will be taken out, through Christ, and
consequently the terror of it taken off; and there-
fore, though you may pray with the Psalmist, O my
God, take me not away in the midst of my days, yet if
the cup may not pass away you need not dread it,
you know the worst that death can do you, if it
shorten your life on earth, that will be abundantly
made up in a better life. Abijah, that sober youth,
in whom was found some good thing towards the
Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam, dies
in the flower of his age, but there is no harm done
him, he comes to his grave in peace, and goes to
heaven triumphantly, 1 Kings xiv. 13. Whereas
those who are loose and extravagant, if they die in
youth, (as Elihu speaks. Job xxxvi. 14.) their soul
dieth, so it is in the original, they are spiritually
dead, twice dead ; while they lived in pleasure, they
were dead though they lived ; and therefore when
they die in sin they are twice dead, and their life,
their life on the other side death, is among the un-
clean, among the Sodomites, (so the margin reads
it,) who suffer the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude
7,12.
Let me now close with some general directions to
young people, which may be of use to them, in order
to the making of them sober-minded.
[1.] Espouse sober principles; for men are, as
their principles are. In these avoid extremes, and
in the less weighty matters of the law, keep the
mean, that you may reserve your zeal for the great
things of God, the things that belong to your ever-
lasting peace. Take heed on the one hand of
bigotry in the circumstantials of religion, and on
the other hand of lukewarmness and indifference in
the essentials of it.
Fix such principles as these to yourselves with
reference to the main matter : That God's favour Li
better than life, and his displeasure worse than
death. That sin is the greatest evil. That the soul is
the man, and that that is best for us, that is best for
our souls. That Jesus Christ is all in all to us, and
we are undone without an interest in him. That it
is as much our wisdom, as it is our duty, to be reli-
gious. That the world has not that in it, which will
make us happy. That time, and the things of time,
are nothing in comparison with eternity, and the
things of eternity These, and such as these, are
principles of eternal truth, and our firm belief of
them, and adherence to them, will be to us of eter-
nal consequence. And as to other things, let your
principle be, that God is no respecter of persons, but
m every nation, he that fears God, and works righte-
ousnesss, is accepted of him, and therefore ought to
be so of us ; that the kingdom of God is not meat and
drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the
Holy Ghost ; and he that in these things serveth Christ,
is acceptable to God and approved of men. By such
principles as these keep up moderation and sober-
mindedness in your profession of religion, which
will contribute much to the promoting of it in every
thing else.
[2.] Dwell much upon such considerations as are
proper to make you sober-minded. Be frequent in
meditation upon serious things, the great things of
the law and gospel, and let not them be looked upon
as foreign things. As you think in your hearts, so
you are. If the imagination of the thought x>f the
heart be vain and corrupt, if that eye be evil, the
whole man will be accordingly ; but if that be seri-
ous, the affections and aims will be sober too»
However yon may allow the outward thoughts to be
sometimes diverting, the inward thoughts must be
reserved for that which is directing.
Think much of the eye of God, which is always
upon you, that you may be careful to approve your-
selves to him in every thing ; of the glory of God,
which you ought always to have your eye upon,
that you may answer the end of your creation ; .think
much of the many sins you have committed against
God, that you may give diligence to make sure the
pardon of them, and of the many mercies you have
received from God, that you may study what returns
you shall make for his favour ; think much of the
opportunities yon enjoy» that you may be busy to
improve them, and of the spiritual Enemies yon are
compassed about with, that you may be sober and
vigilant in guarding against them.
The four last things, death and judgment, heaven
and hell, are commonly recommended as proper
subjects of meditation, in order to the making of the
mind serious. Because the end of all things is at
hand, and that end an entrance upon a state without
end, be ye therefore sober ; and check vanity with
that consideration.
I have somewhere read of one who had been a
great courtier and statesman in Queen Elizabeth's
time, I think it was Secretary Walsingham, who in
his advanced years retired into privacy in the conn-
try, whither some of his pleasant companions came
to see him, and told him he was melancholy. ** No,''
says he, '* I am serious, and it is fit I should be so ;
for alf are serious round about me, and why then
should not yon and I be serious?" God is serious
in observing us, Christ is serious in interceding for
us, the Spirit is serious in striving with us ; the
truths of God are serious truths, his laws, his pro-
mises, his threatenings, all serious ; angels are seri-
ous in their administrations to us, and our spiritual
enemies serious in their attempts against us ; glo-
rified saints are serious in the embraces of divine
love ; poor damned sinners cannot but be serious
672
SOBER-MINDEDNESS RECOMMENDED, &c.
ander the pourings-out of divine wrath ; and we
ourselves shall be serious shortly.
[3.] Choose sober company. Nothing is of greater
consequence to young people than what company
they keep, for we insensibly grow like those with
whom we converse, especially with whom we delight
to converse. Many who were thought to be very
soberly inclined, have had their good inclinations
turned the contrary way, by keeping vain and loose
company, which, perhaps, at first they were not aware
of any danger by, but thought their conversation
innocent enough. Though bad company, perhaps,
bears more blame sometimes than it deserves, from
those who think to excuse themselves by laying the
fault on their companions, yet it is agreed to have
been of most pernicious consequence to multitudes
that set out well.
If, therefore, you would be wise and good, choose
«uch for your associates and bosom-friends as will
give you good advice, and set you good examples.
He who walketh with wise men, is wise, or would
be wise ; and he shall be wise, when a companion of
fools is deceived, and shall be destroyed. Keep at
a distance from loose and vain company ; for who
can touch pitch and not be defiled ? Who can con-
verse familiarly with those who are wicked and
profane, and not contract guilt, or grief, or both ? If
you resolve, as David did, to keep the command-
ments of your God, you must say to evil-doers, as he
did. Depart frofn me, (Ps. cxix. 115.) and be, as he
was, the comp^ion of all those that fear God, (v.
03.) and let your delight be in tiie excellent ones of
tfie earth, the sober ones.
[4.] Read sober books. Those who are given to
reading, are as much under the influence of the
books they read, as of the persons they converse with,
and therefore in the choice of them you need to be
very cautious, and take advice. Nothing more pro-
motes vanity, especially among the refined part of
mankind, than romances, and plays, and loose
poems ; and thus even their solitude and retire-
ment, which we hope might contribute to their seri-
ousness, are lost, and make them more vain, and
more ingeniously so.
Let us, therefore, take the same method to make
us sober, more sober; converse with those books
which are substantial and judicious, out of which
we may learn wisdom* The book of God is given
us on purpose to make us wise to salvation ; make it
familiar to you, and let it dwell in you richly. Let
it lead you, let it talk with you, and do you follow
it, and talk with it, Prov. vi. 22. And many other
good books we have, to help us to understand and
apply the Scripture, which we should be conversant
vrith. Inquire not for merry books, songs, and jests,
but serious books, which will help to put you into»
and keep you in, a serious frame.
[5.] Abound much in sober work. Habits uv
contracted by frequent acts ; if therefore you would
have a sober mind, employ yourselves much in me-
ditation and prayer, and other devout and holy
exercises. And in these let your hearts be fixed,
and let all that is within you be employed. Be
much in secret worship, as well as diligent and con-
stant in your attendance on public ordinance;
those who neglect these cannot bat lose their seri-
ousness.
And see to it that you be very aerious when yoi
are about serious work, that yoa profane not the
holy things. I look upon it to be in youog people u
happy an indication of a serious mind, and as hope-
ful an omen of a serious life, as any other, to be re-
verent and serious in the worship of God. For it is
a sign that the vanity of the mind runs high and
strong indeed, when even there it will not be re-
strained from indecencies ; and be is loose indeed,
that is almott in all evil in the midst of the amgrff^
tion and astemhly, Prov. ▼. 14. The greatness of the
God with whom you have to do, and the greatness
of the concern you have to do with him in, when joi
are engaged in his worship, should strike an awe
upon you, and make you serious.
And have this in your eye in all religious exer-
cises, that by them you may be made more seriovs;
and that the impressions of other holy exercises my
be the deeper, and take the faster hold, let me ad-
vise young people who are sober-minded, to come
betimes to the ordinance of the Lord's supper. Let
me press it upon them, not only as a duty they owe
to Christ, but as that which will be of great advan-
tage to themselves, to strengthen their resolatloBS,
with purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord.
Those who keep off from it, it is either becaose
they know they are not sober-minded, or becaase
they are not determined to continue so ; but none of
you will own either of those reasons. Delay not
therefore, by that most sacred, solemn bond, to join
yourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant, nefer
to be forgotten.
And how do you like this sober, serious work joo
have now been about in hearing or reading diis
discourse ? Have you been in it as in jrour element?
or as a fish upon dry ground ? Have you suffered
this word of exhortation, and bidden it welcome?
Shall I leave 3rou all resolved, in thestrengtii of God's
grace, that now in the days of your youth you will
be sober-minded ? If so. The Lord keep it alwayi m
the imagination of the thought of your kettrt^ and by
writing the law of sobriety there, establish your wef
before kim !
A SERMON
CONCERNING THE
RIGHT MANAGEMENT OF FRIENDLY VISITS,
PREACHED IN LONDON, APRIL 14, 1704.
Acts xv. 36.
Let us go again, and visit our brethren, in every city
where we have preached the word of the Lordj and
see how they do.
This was a good motion which St. Paul made to
Barnabas, his brother and companion in tribulation,
and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ,
inviting his company and assistance in watering
those churches among the Gentiles which they had
together lately planted. Blessed Paul, that prime
minister of state in Christ's kingdom, was not only
thoroughly furnished for every good word and work,
but was always forward to put forth himself to both ;
not only a chief speaker, (Acts xiv. 12.) but a chief
doer. Many will be content to follow, who do not
care to lead in those services that are difficult and
hazardous; but those who by the gprace of God
are spirited frpoi'saaBaif to go before in good works,
as the word is, (Tit iii. 8.) are worthy of double
honour : such a one was Paul ; witness this instance
here.
Though Paul and Barnabas had an extraordinary
call to preach the gospel among the Gentiles at first,
the Holy Ghost by special designation, separating
them to that great work, (Acts xiii. 2.) yet in the
prosecution of that service, they were not to expect
immediate direction from heaven at every turn, but
much was left to their own prudence and zeal, that
their example might be the more imitable, in after-
times ; and this, particularly, of visiting those to
whom they had preached.
Antioch was now a safe and quiet harbour, into
which Paul and Barnabas, after a troublesome but
soccessful voyage, were lately retired to refresh
fkemselves a little : there they were easy, and yet not
idle; for while they continued there (though not
many days) they were teaching and preaching the
word of the Lord, Acts xv. 35. And they had rea-
son to say. It is good to be here ; better be here than
in those cities, where bonds and afflictions continu-
ally awaited them. But St Paul's active spirit
could not long be reconciled to rest ; and, therefore,
he has soon thoughts of putting to sea again ; he is
not unmindful of, nor will he be disobedient to, that
heavenly vision which appointed him his work afar
off among the Gentiles, Acts xxi. 21. Among then,
therefore, he is here meditating a second expedition.
Against this it was easy to object, as the disciples
did against Christ's going into Judea, (John xii. 8.)
Master, the Jews of hUe sought to stone thee, and
goest thou thither again ? The Gentiles had of late
actually stoned Paul, (cA. xiv. 19.) and yet like a
stout soldier of Jesus Christ, that he might make full
proof of his ministry, he resolves to go thither again.
Those who have obtained mercy of the Lord to be
faithful, will prefer the service of God and their ge-
neration before their own ease and safety ; and will
consult the honour of Christ, and the good of souls,
more than any secular interest or satisfaction of their
own. If we would approve ourselves the servants
of Christ, we must be vrillingboth to labour for him,
for this is the day of our work, it will be time enough
to rest when we come to heaven ; and to venture for
him, for this is the day of our combat, and we
must not expect our crown, till our warfare is ac-
complished. Nay, and those who have laboured
much, and ventured far, must be willing, with St
Paul here, to labour more, and venture further ; Let
us go again to do the same work, and encounter the
same difficulties. If we would finish our course with
joy, we must, like the sun, be constant to it, rejoic-
ing as a strong man to run a race, according as our
work is renewed upon our hands, and as the duty of
every day requires.
574
\ SERMON CONCERNING THE
That which St. Paul here designs is a visit, a cir-
cular visit ; and as one who neither presumed that
be was able himself alone for the work that was to
be done, nor was ambitious himself alone to receive
the respects that would be paid, he urges Barnabas
to go along with him, as a sharer in both : for we are
members one of another, and the eye cannot say to
the hand, I have no need of thee. Christ sent forth
his disciples two and two.
Now observe in this project of Paul's,
I. Who they were whom he designed a visit to :
Let us visit our brethren in every city where we have
preached the word of the Lord. Note here,
(1.) That he called them brethren; not only the
brethren ; he means not only the ministers, the eiders
they had ordained in every church, (ch, xiv. 23.) but
all the believers. Though St. Paul was an eminent
apostle, the greatest favourite of heaven, and the
greatest blessing to this earth, tliat (for ought I know)
ever any mere man was, yet he styles himself brother
to the least fmd meanest of the disciples of Christ ;
so setting us a copy of humility and condescension,
and giving us an example to Christ's rule, with an
eye to its reason, (Matt, xxiii. 8.) Be not ye called
Rabbi, for all ye are brethren, IfourMastei be not
ashamed to call us all brethren, we must not be
ashamed to call one another so ; not in formality,
but in sincerity, and in token of brotherly love.
(2.) That he takes it for granted, that they had
brethren in every city where they had preached the
word of the Lord ; for the word of the gospel, though
in every place it met with a fierce opposition from
some, yet others gave it a kind reception ; though to
some it was a savour of death unto death, to others
it was a savour of life unto life. In every city where
the gospel was preached, there was some good done ;
some lost sheep brought home, some lost silver found.
This caused the apostles always to triumph, that by
them Christ made manifest the savour of his know-
ledge in every place, 2 Cor. ii. 14. Even in those
cities out of which the apostles were driven in seem-
ing weakness and disgrace, yet they left behind
them some lasting trophies of the Redeemer's vic-
tories, and seed under the clods, which sprung up
and grew by degrees to a plentiful harvest
They who are acquainted with the true principles
and pleasures of the communion of saints, have a
kind and tender concern, not only for their brethren
in their own city, but for their brethren in every city,
even those whom they never saw, nor are ever likely
to see in this world ; they love, esteem, and pray for,
and are one with, all that in every place call on the
name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours,
and have room for them all in their enlarged hearts ;
and when perhaps not many serious Christians fall
within the lines of their own communication, which
occasions them some melancholy thoughts, they com-
fort themselves with this, that they have brethren in
every city ; who all belong to that one city of tk
living God, the Jerusalem which i^ above, whick
is free, and is the mother of us all.
(3.) That he speaks with a particular concein for
their brethren, in those cities where they had preacli-
ed the word of the Lord. Those whom be had
preached to, were in a special manner dear to hiii,
dearer than others. To them he had imparted the
gospel of Christ, and was ready to impart even Atf
own soul also, as he speaks, 1 Thess. ii. 8. Tbey
who truly love Christ and his gospel, cannot bat
dearly love those to whom they preach Christ and
his gospel, especially those who, through giace,
have by their ministry received theai. Spiritaal
fathers naturally care for the state of those who are
born again by the word they have preached to them;
and it is a pity that there should be any love lost be-
tn'cen them.
These were they whom St. Paul would visit
though they lay remote and scattered : he did not
think it enough to send some of his attendants to
wait upon them, and bring him an account of their
state, much less did he summon them to come and
attend him with their several reports, but he under-
took*a perilous and expensive journey to visit them,
for he was in journeying often ; and yet all the toil
and fatigue of them was nothing compared with that
which put him upon them, even that which eame
upon him daily, the care of all the churches, 2 Cor.
xi. 26, 28.
2. On what errand he would visit them. Let as
see how they do, wtaQ txs^i — how it is with them ; qmd
faciunt — what they do ; so some : quid faeti suni—
what they have done ; so others ; and both from the
Syriac. It was not merely a compliment that he de-
signed, nor did he take such a journey with a bare
*' How do ye?" No, he made this visit to his bre-
thren, that he might acquaint himself with their case,
and impart unto them such spiritual gifts as were
suited to it. He visited them as the physician visits
his recovering patient, that he may prescribe what is
proper for him, for the perfecting of his core, and
the preventing of a relapse.
Let us see how they do ; that is. Let us see what
spirit they are of, and what state they are in.
(1.) Let us see what their temper and conversa-
tion are; how they stand affected, and bow diey
behave themselves. They received the word of tiie
Lord, which we preached to them, with all readincsi
of mind ; let us see whether they hold fast that whid
they received, or no, and what is become of the
blessedness they then spake of : a good work was
begun among them ; let us see how it goes on, and
what advances are made in the building which we
laid the foundation of. They embraced the gospel
of Christ, and professed a subjection to it ; let tf
see whether they stand firm or are shaken, wfaftker
they get ground or lose it, whether they arc an
RIGHT MANAGEMENT OF FRIENDLY VISITS.
675
tnent to that worthy name by which they are called,
or a reproach to it.
This inquiry was the fruit of his godly jealousy
over them, which he expresses in many of his epistles
with a great deal of tenderness, and true affection :
he was afraid concerning those among whom he had
laboured, lest he had bestowed upon them labour in
Tain, and lest Satan's emissaries had disordered and
undone that good work which had been done with
so much care and pains by Christ's ambassadors.
See 2 Cor. xi. 2, 3. If tar lest your minds should be
corrupted. — Gal. iv. 11. I am afraid of you, — 1 Thess.
iii. 5. Lest by some means the tempter have tempted you.
This was the language, not of his ill opinion of
them, but of his good affection to them : and from
this jealousy proceeded a diligent endeavour to
recall them if he found them straying, to confirm
them if he found them wavering, and to comfort
them if he found them stedfast Let those suspicions
which arc the bane of friendship be banished, and
then let not those jealousies, which are the fruits of
friendship, be misinterpreted.
(2.) Let us see what condition they are in, and
what their present circumstances are ; whether the
churches have rest and liberty, and their door of
opportunity open, or whether they are not in trouble
and distress, scattered and broken up. When they
had last taken leave of them, they gave them notice
of approaching trouble, {ch, xiv. 22.) that through
much tribulation they must enter into the hingdom of
Ood. Now, says he, let us go see whether the clouds
which were then gathering are dispersed, or no;
whether the wrath of their enemies be cooled and
restrained, or no. Come, let us go see how it is with
them, that however it is, we may be some way help-
fal to them ; that we may rejoice with them if they
rejoice, and caution them against security ; that we
may mourn with them if they mourn, and comfort
them under the cross.
Now this \isit here designed may be considered
two ways ; either,
1. As an apostolical visit to the churches ; or
2. As a friendly visit to their friends.
1. This visit was an apostolical visit to the
churches, those particularly to whom they themselves
had preached the word of the Lord ; not building
upon another man's foundation, as St Paul speaks,
(Rom. XV. 20.) but cultivating their own husbandry.
The persons visited must be considered as those who
faftd been within hearing of the joyful sound of the
gospel, and to whom the word of this salvation was
sent, as St. Paul had told them. Acts xiii. 26. Now
he would go and see how they do. Whence we may
observe.
That it is needful to inquire into the spiritual state
of those to whom the word of the Lord is
preached.
1 know I speak to those who have the word of the
Lord preached to them in as much purity and
power, as, perhaps, any people under the sun ; you
have precept upon precept, and line upon line, in
season and out of season. Now I would, as a friend
to your souls, suggest to you a necessary inquiry,
whether the intention of all this good preaching
you have here be answered, and the ends of it in
some measure attained, or whether it be not lost upon
you, and the grace of God therein received in vain.
(1.) Every man is most concerned to inquire into
the state of his own soul, while he sits under the
ministry of the gospel. It is the work and office
of conscience to visit the soul with this interrogation,
and to g^ve in a true answer to it. O that I could
prevail with you to deal faithfully with yourselves
in this matter, and to try and judge yourselves, be-
cause the day is coming when the righteous God
will try and judge us all.
So long the word of the Lord has been preached
to me, '< How do I do" with it ? It is a word of life ;
has it quickened me ? or am not I to this day dead
in trespasses and sins? It is light; has it enlightened
me, or am not I still sitting in darkness? It is
spiritual food ; has it nourished me ? It is spiritual
physic ; has it healed me ? What am I the better
for all the sennons I have heard, and all the ac-
quaintance I have got with the Holy Scriptures?
What state am I in, a state of sin, or a state of grace?
What frame am I in ? am I habitually serious and
heavenly, or vain and worldly ? Is my soul in health ?
Does not some spiritual disease hang upon me, which
is both weakening and threatening? What appetite
have I to spiritual delights? What digestion of
spiritual food ? What strength for spiritual labour ?
How do I breathe in prayer? How do I walk in a
religious conversation? Does my soul prosper, as
the soul of Gains did, 3 John 2 ? Do I thrive in
my spiritual merchandise, and increase my stock of
wisdom, grace and comfort, or do I decline and go
behind-hand? Am I getting nearer to God, and
fitter for heaven, or am I not cleaving to this earth,
and setting my heart upon it as much as ever ?
According as we find the case to be upon inquiry,
let us proceed in dealing vrith ourselves ; if we find
no improvement by the word, we ought to take the
shame of it ; if our profiting does through g^ce
appear, we ought to take the comfort of it.
(2.) Every minister is next concerned, to inquire
into the state of his own hearers ; they who dispense
God's words and sacraments should sometimes, with
Paul and Barnabas here, visit those to whom they
dispense them, and see how they do, how their souls
do. These are the visits which the text would in a
special manner lead us to discourse of.
Ministers should not think it e^ugh to preach
sound doctrine to their congregations in the lump,
which is like the shepherd's turning all bis flock
together into a good pasture, but they must search
576
A SERMON CONCERNING THE
the particular sheep, and seek them out, (as it is ex-
pressed, (Ezek. xxxiv. 11.) that they may streu^heu
the diseased, heal the sick, bind up that which is
broken, and bring again that which is driven away,
V. 4, 16. As we must look after our prayers, to hear
what answer God gives to them, (Hab. ii. I.) so we
must look after our preaching, to see what success it
has among those we preach to, that we may return
answer to him who sent us, (2 Sam. xxiv. 13.) and
like the servant who invited the guests, may show
our Lord all these things, (Luke xiv. 21.) Blessed
Paul, that prince and pattern of preachers, taught
not only publicly, but from house to house ; warning
every one night and day with tears ^ (Acts xx. 20, 31.)
exhorting^ comforting, and charging every one, at a
father doth his children, 1 Thess. ii. 11. Let us go and
do likewise, as those who naturally care for the state
of souls.
In the most humble, tender, and obliging manner
that may be, let us visit our brethren to whom we
have preached the word of the Lord, and inquire
what improvements they have made in knowledge
by the means of knowledge, that where we find them
defective, we may instruct them, mistaken, we may
rectify their mistakes. Inquire also what progress
they make in practical godliness, that what is amiss
may be amended, and what is good may be en-
couraged ; that their doubts may be removed, and
they may be helped over their difficulties and dis-
couragements. '* Come, (my friend) you are a con-
stant hearer of the word of the Lord, and you seem to
heed it, and to be attentive to it, I am come to ask
you how you do? The soul is the man; if it be
well with the soul it is well with the man. How
does your soul ? Have you understood all these
things? If any of the sayings you have heard be
hard sayings, let me know, and I will endeavour to
make them more easy. Are you affected with what
you hear ? And does your heart burn within you
while we reason with you ? Do you relish good
truths, and experience the power and influence of
them upon your heart? If so, it is well, go on and
prosper, the Lord is with you while you be with him :
that is a good sermon indeed that does you good ;
that convinces you of sin, and humbles you for it ;
shows you your duty, and quickens you to it. But
if you find yourself cold and unaffected with the
things of God, dull and inactive in the work of God,
dark and unacquainted with the life of God, in-
quire into the cause of it; whence it is that the
things which remain are ready to die. It may be
there is some secret sin indulged and harboured, the
love of the world perhaps, or some lust of the flesh ;
and this is the worm at the root of your profession,
which withers its leaves, and dries up all its fruit ;
if you love your soul, whatever it is, mortify it, cru-
cify it, and suppress the first risings of it. It may
be that you are not so close and constant to your se-
cret devotions as you should be, or careless and liie-
less in them, and the soul cannot prosper while tkat
work of the Lord is neglected, or done dec»tfallj.
Perhaps famil}' worship is not kept up as it sboakl
be, and therefore God has withholden the dews of
his grace from you. You let your place be emptj
perhaps at the table of the Lord, and deprive your*
self of the benefit of that ordinance ; the commuBioa
of saints is slighted, and it is well if the society of
evil-doers be not chosen rather. Come, let me be^
of you, as a friend who wishes well to yoor soul, that
you will walk more circumspectly, and keep more
close to God and your duty, and you will soon find
the comfort of it in your own breasC
How to adapt the inquiries and counsels to tlie
case of each person visited, young and old, rich and
poor, weak and strong, careless and careful, I can-
not undertake here to give particular rules; hot mih
dom is prof table to direct. And many excelleot
books we are furnished with, both ancient and mo-
dem, for our assistance herein. Mr. Baxter's Gil-
das Salvianus, or Reformed Pastor, will either qnickes
us or shame us. And cause for shame, I doubt, we
all have, for our woful neglect of this part of ov
duty. God by his grace revive this good work !
But if ministers have not the opportunity tbej
would have to visit their brethen, it would come aO
to one if their brethren would sometimes visit tbeo,
as their spiritual physicians, to consult them, and
converse with them about their spiritual state. If
the priest's lips should keep knowledgty the peopii
should seek the law at his mouth, for A« it the mustnr
ger of the Lord of hosts, Mai. ii. 7. And the spiri-
tual help thus sought is likely to be given molt
cheerfully, and received most thankfully.
2. This visit may be considered as a friendly viiit
made to their friends, with a pious design, and to
very good purposes. The brethren they speak of
were such as they had some knowledge of, and coB'
cem for, and whose welfare they were desirous of;
Let us go, (says St. Paul,) and visit them, thcr^y to
testify the kindness we retain for them, now we aic
at a distance, and that though they are out of sight,
they are not out of mind. And let us see how tkf
do, that we may sympathize with them according as
their condition is, and contribute what we can to
their holiness and comfort. This was that which St
Paul had in his eye, and thought worth his while, la
undertaking this circuit. Hence observe.
That friendly visits, and kind inquiries into eaah
others' state, are very good things, if they hi
managed in a right manner, and intended kt
good purposes.
There are two sorts of commendable visits to ht
made to our brethren.
(1.) There are visits, that are properly called
Christian visits, I mean visits of pure charity, <i^
signed for the succour, help, and comfort of thM
RIGHT MANAGEMENT OF FRIENDLY VISITS.
677
who are in sorrow, need, sickness, or any other ad-
Yersity. Few consider what stress the Scripture
lays on this part of our duty. When the apostle
undertakes to give a description of religion, and to
show wherein it consists, this is the first thing he
describes it by. Jam. i. 27. Pure religion^ and unde-
Jiled before God and the Father is this ; one would
think it should follow, — It is wholly to retire from
the world and all communication with it, and to
spend the whole time in acts of devotion, in prayer
and pious contemplations, or at least to fast twice
in the week, and to attend all the public perform-
ances of divine service ; sure, this is the principal
part of pure religion, and which must stand first in
its description : No, it is to visit the fatherless and
widows in their affliction ; that by owning them and
sympathizing with them, we may comfort and en-
<M>urage them ; and by inquiring into their state,
may learn which way we may show them real kind-
ness.
Nor does this act of charity make a less figure in
our Saviour's description of the processes of the
judgment-day, wherein this will be published to the
praise, and honour, and glory of the saved remnant,
f was sick, and ye visited me, I was in ftrison, and
yt came unto me, (Matt xxv. M.) therefore, Come
inherii the kingdom, (v. 34.) as if all the happiness of
heaven were not too much to be the return of these
visits. Probably St Paul had an eye of faith to
that word of Christ, when upon the mention of the
kind visits which Onesiphorus had made to him in
his bonds at Rome, he prayed. The Lord grant unto
kim that he mayfi^d mercy of the Lord in that day,
(2 Tim. i. 18.) that day when such visits shall be re-
membered, and abundantly recompensed, and ac-
counted as visits made to Christ himself.
Among all your visits therefore, I pray, let not
these charitable ones be omitted : the poor, the sick,
tiie prisoners, you have always with you ; the widows
and the fatherless you have always with you ; and
whenever you will, you may thus do them g^od,
Mark xiv. 7. You do not want objects of this charity,
if you do not want a heart to it Look after your
poor neighbours, Tisit them, either yourselves or by
your servants, and see how they do. Inquire into the
necessities of those who are not themselves forward
to make them known. Deep poverty, (as the apostle
calls it, 2 Cor. viii. 2.) like deep waters, commonly
makes the least noise, while counterfeit poverty is
telamorous. What our Saviour directs in making
feasts, (Luke xiv. I2cr— 14.) may be applied to tlie
making of visits, visit not thy friends and thy rich
neighbours, not them only who will visit thee again,
and so a recompence will be made thee ; but visit
the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, who cannot
recompense thee, and thou shalt be recompensed at the
tesmrreetion of the just. The liberal should devise
itberai things ; and since by works of charity we
2 p
sow upon the best soil, let out what we have to the
best interest, and upon the best securities, and send
our effects upon the most advantageous voyages,
contrivances of doing good will turn to a better ac-
count at last, than the most celebrated projects of
worldly wisdom. God presents us with the bless-
ings of his goodness, gives before we ask, and is
found of those who seek him not : therefore, we must
be merciful, as mir Father in heaven is mercifuL
We must seek opportunities of doing good, by
visiting our poor brethren, and inquiring into their
wants. If our proud hearts be sometimes ready to
ask. What are such and such poor people, that we
should visit them and regard them? we may soon
answer them with another question, What is man,
then, tliat God should visit him ? Man who is a worm,
and the son of man who is a worm ? What are we
that he should visit us, so visit and regard us? That
he should regard us, who are so mean and vile, oe-
cording to the estate of a man of high degree, 1 Chron.
xvii. 17. If we think much to visit the sick and
poor often, and to be liberal to them in our visits,
let us remember that God visits us every morning^
(Job vii. 18.) and that his visitation preserves our
spirits. Job x. 12.
(2.) Our common visits, which we make to our
relations, friends, and neighbours, as such, should be
so managed that they may be truly Christian visits.
These and the like — polite aetions of life, as well as
natural ones — are in themselves, morally, neither
good nor evil, but according to the principle we are
actuated by, and the rule we are governed by in the
doing of them. Whatever we do, even in our call-
ing and common conversation, we must do it to the
glory of God ; and then it is sanctified, it is digni-
fied. Holiness to the Lord is written upon it, and it
will be fruit abounding to our account. It is a com-
mon piece of civility to bring our friends forward
on their journey, and few look further therein tlian
the obliging of their friends, and the diverting of
themselves ; and yet, even this is capable of being
done after a godly sort, as we find, 3 John 6. Whom
if thou bring forward on their journey, after a godly
sort, acinic rM Ofit, as becomes one that belongs to
God to respect those who belong to him likewise,
thou shalt do well. And without controversy .great
is the mystery of godliness, wherein lies much of its
life and power, the doing of common actions after a
godly sort, with an eye to God's honour as our end,
his word as our rule, and his providence as our guide
and disposer. Believe it. Christians, religion is not
a thing to be confined to our churches and closets ;
no, wherever we are we must have it with us : Bind
it continually upon thine heart, tie it about thy neck :
When thou goest, let it lead thee ; when thou steepest^
let it keep thee ; when thou wakest, let it talk with thee,
Prov. vi. 21, 22. Let it sit down with thee at thy
table, lie down with thee in thy bed, go out with
67B
A SERMON CONCERNING THE
thee about thy business, come in with thee to thy
repose ; let it be at thy right hand in buying and
selling, in reading and writing, alone and in com-
pany. As the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so
let it cleave to thee : by this let it appear that reli-
gion has renewed thy heart, let it regulate thy life ;
and abide always under the commanding power and
influence of it.
Among other common actions of life, let this of
visiting our friends be done after a godly sort To
assist you herein is what I principally designed in
the choice of this text, and what will take up the
remainder of our time. And I shall offer something
by way of caution against those things which cor-
rupt our visits, and turn them into sin to us ; and
by way of direction to those things which will sanc-
tify our visits, and make them to turn to a very good
purpose. 4
I. Suffer, I beseech you, a word of caution ; and
take heed that your visits of your friends, and your
inquiries into their state, be^ot so mismanaged, as
to turn to some ill purpose. This we must not judge
of by the common sentiment or fashion of a vain
world; for our Saviour has told us, that there is
that which is highly esteemed among tfifit, perhaps as a
mighty accomplishment, and a piece of very good
breeding, which yet is an abomination in the sight of
God, Luke x vi. 16. Let us, therefore, have recourse to
the law and to the testimony, and take admonition
thence in this case.
1. Let us take heed, that our friendly visits be
not the waste and consumption of our precious time.
We are intrusted with time as a talent to be traded
with for eternity : as we spend our time well or ill,
so will our eternity be spent, comfortably or miser-
ably. Every good Christian will therefore endea-
vour to approve himself a good husband of his time;
and that is a piece of good husbandry, which is in-
deed good divinity. It is not only necessary that
.«^ome part of our time be spent in actual preparation
for another world, but all our time must be spent
with an habitual regard to it. Every hour of the
hireling's day must be at the disposal of him who
hired him into his vineyard. Our time is oot our
own, for we know in whose hands our tim'es are,
and must always live to him, by whom we always
live.
The wisdom which is from above will therefore
direct us what proportion of time is to be allotted
to every service, both of our general and particular
calling, so that the several duties we have to per-
form, and the several enjoyments we have to take
the comfort of, ipay not interfere with or intrench
upon one another. Every thing is beautiful in its
season, and to every purpose there is a time, which the
wise man's heart discerns. Now if that time be spent
in visits, which should be spent in any needful du-
ties relating to life or godliness, then they are not
Christian visits. If, under ooloar of visiting our
friends, and seeing how they do, we indalge our-
selves in sloth and laziness, and the careless neglect
of business and labour, we shall |^ve but a bad
account of so many of oar hours mispent. We
may justly say to many, as Pharaoh anjnstly sud
to Moses and the Israelites, Ye are idle, ye are uflr,
therefore ye say. Let us go and visit oar brethren ; nay,
it is perhaps pretended. Let ut go and do eaerijkt,
Exod. v. 17. Such as these the apostle describei,
(1 Tim. V. 13.) who learn to be idle, wmndering abeei
from house to house, under pretence of friendly visits;
and not only idle, (for few who are idle are only idle,
usually they have other faults ; when they have no-
thing to do, the devil will find them somethiog to
do,) they are tattlers also and busy-bodies; idle in
good, but busy in evil. But what will they do wbea
God rises up, and shall bring them into jadgment,
for all their idle visits, and idle frolics, and ereiy
idle word ?
Learn, therefore, to adjust and limit the expense
of your time, and be not prodigal of such a talent.
When you say that yoa will go and visit a friend,
ask. Can I afford time for it? Is there not some
greater good to be done at^ the same time, wbick
cannot so well be deferred till another time ? Will
not the calling be neglected, or some religious duties
be prevented by it? And let that be done first,
which, all things considered, is most needfal,— and
every thing in its own order. And where a visit,
which must be made, we fear intrenches too maeb
upon some more necessary business, it will be our
wisdom to improve it the more carefully for sonie
very good purpose, that so at least we may eiectii-
ally save it from being an idle visit.
2. Let us take heed that our friendly visits be not
the gratifications of pride and vain cmriosity. They
who desire to make a fair show in the flesh, (as the
apostle speaks. Gal. vi. 12.) visit their friends only
that they may see and be seen ; that they may shov
themselves in their best ornaments and accomplisli-
ments, and that they may observe what figure other
people make, and what they set themselves off by.
They go abroad only to learn fashions, and to sec
how the world goes ; like the Athenians, who spest
their time in nothing else, but either to tell or hear
some new thing, (Acts xvii. 21.) or like Dinak.
who went out to see the daughters of the land, (Get.
xxxiv. 1.) to see how they were dressed, what enter-
tainments they gave, and how they lived, only that
she might have something to talk of when rte cane
home, either by way of praise or censure. This was
all her business ; and the sequel of the story sbowt.
that the journey was not for her honour. Yet it is
to be feared that many of our visits are made froai
no better a principle.
Decency indeed is duty ; civility must be ptad wi
returned in that which is the current cflin of eitf
RIGHT MANAGEMENT OF FRIENDLY VISITS.
579
ooantry. Religion was never intended to destroy
good manners, or to make men rude and unfashion-
able ; in matters of common conversation, it is a rule
of direction, not a rule of contraries. But in our
compliances with the customs and usages of Uie
place we live in, and the persons we converse with,
we have need to look well to our spirits, and to keep
onr hearts with all diligence, lest that which is not
only innocent but commendable in itself, arise from a
corrupt principle, and so become sin to us. Hezekiah's
showing his house and furniture, his armoury and
jewels, to the king of Babylon's ambassadors, seemed
but a piece of common respect, and what is usually
done among friends ; and yet, because he did it in
tbe pride of his heart, wrath came upon him, and on
Judah and Jerusalem, for it, (2 Chron. xxxii. 25.)
and it is upon record for warning to all, even to
those who have escaped the grosser corruptions that
are in the world through lust, to take heed lest foolish
pride, that root of bitterness, which bears so much
gall and wormwood, make their visits, dress, and
compliments, a snare to them. Pride is a subtle sin,
a sin that most easily besets us, a sin that is apt to
mingle itself with our best actions, and like a dead
fly it spoils many a pot of precious ointment ; we
have therefore need to keep a jealous eye, and a
strict hand, upon the motions of our own souls, as in
other instances, so in this of making and receiving
visits, lest being lifted up with pride we fall into the
condemnation of the devil.
If in our common conversation we are more soli-
citous to approve ourselves to men, by appearing
gay and agreeable, than to approve ourselves to
God, either by doing or getting good, surely we for-
get that fundamental law of our Christianity, not to
live to ourselves, but to him that died for us, and rose
again. That common principle, (which too many
govern themselves by more than by the principles of
religion,) *' As good be out of the world as out of
the fashion," ought to be of no force with them who
know that they are called out of the world, and are
not to be conformed to it, nor to walk according to
the course of it.
Let us always endeavour, while we accommodate
ourselves to the fashions of our country, and of our
place in it, yet to be dead to them, and observe
them with a holy indifference, as those who seek a
better country, that is, a heavenly, and belong to it:
BO we may do what others do, and yet not as the most
do it. Let the visits we make daily to our God by
prayer, be more our care, and more our delight, than
any visits we have to make to our friends.
3. Let us take heed that our friendly visits be not
the cloak and cover of hypocrisy ; that they be not
such visits as David's enemies made to him, (Ps.
xli« 6.) If he come to see me he speaheth vanity^ that
is, what he says by way of compassion and condo-
tonce is all counterfeit and pretended : His heart
2 p «
gathereth iniquity to itself when he goeth abroad he
telleth it. A base practice, and that which all, who
have any sense of virtue and honour, will cry out
shame on. Next to hypocrisy in religion, nothing
is worse than hypocrisy in friendship.
It is bad enough if kindness be not designed in
our visits, and if we do not duly respect those whom
we thus profess a respect for ; for love ought to be
without dissimulation, (Rom. xii. 9.) but it is much
worse if mischief and unkindness be intended to
those whom we pretend to make visits of friendship
to; and we go to see them, that we, may find some
occasion against them, and pick up something to
make the matter of their reproach in the next com-
pany. Thus to make the shows and ceremonies of
friendship serve the designs of malice and ill-willy
is to involve ourselves in a double guilt, both the
want of charity, and the want of sincerity.
Not that therefore, when we have conceived a dis-
pleasure against any, whom upon the account of
relation, communion, neighbourhood, or former ac-
quaintance, we owe respect to, we must presently
break off all intercourse and conversation with them,
and deny due civilities to them, for fear of hypocrisy
in paying them ; no, that is to make ill, worse : but
we must mortify that corrupt passion which is work-
ing in us ; not let the sun go down upon our wrath ;
forgive the injury, whether real or imaginary ; be
reconciled to our friend, cordially reconciled, and
then come and offer our gift to God, and our respects
to our friend. We ought carefully to avoid every
thing that tends to the alienating of the affections of
Christians one from another, and the cooling of love ;
and to devise all means possible for the preserving
of true friendship where it is, and the reparation and
retrieval of it where it is withering and ready to die.
4. Let us take heed that our friendly visits be
not made the opportunities of slandering and tale-
bearing. Our rule is. Speak evil of no man, not only
that evil which is false and altogether groundless ;
but not that which is true, when our speaking of it
will do more hurt than good. If we have not where-
withal to speak well of those we speak of, we had
better not say any thing of them than say ill. The
general law of justice obliges to do as we would be
done by: we would not have our own faults and fol-
lies, our own miscarriages and mismanagements,
proclaimed in all companies, and made the subject
of discourse and remark ; let us then treat other
people's good name with the same tenderness that
we expect and desire our own should be treated with.
There is also a particular lawof charity, which obliges
us to cover even a multitude of sins ; to keep that
secret which is secret, for we need not make scan-
dals, by divulging that which might be concealed :
and to speak of that which cannot be hid, as those
who mourn, and not as those who are puffed up ; as
those who are willing to make the best, and hope
680
A SERMON CONCERNING THE
the best, of every person, and every action, and not
as if we were of counsel against the delinquent, and
thought ourselves obliged to aggravate the crime,
and press for judgment against the criminal.
Nothing is more destructive to love and friend-
ship than tale-bearing is : we have in the Scripture
laws against it, (Lev. xix. 16.) Thou shah not go up
and down as a talc'hearer among thy people. The
word S»3"^ here and elsewhere used for a tale-bearer,
properly signifies a pedlar or petty chapman, who
buys goods (stolen ones it may be) at one place, and
sells them at another, taking care to make his own
markets of them ; so a tale-bearer makes his visits,
to pick up at one place, and utter at another, that
which he thinks will lessen his neighbour's reputa-
tion, that he may build his own upon the ruin of it.
Another law to tlie same effect we have, (Exod.
xxiii. 1.) Thou shalt not raise a false report. The
margin reads it. Thou shalt not receive a false report :
for, many times, the receiver in this case is as bad
as the thief. We have also proverbs against it,
(Prov. XX. 19.) He that goes about (making visits
suppose) as a tale-bearer, revealeth secrets ; and
(Prov. xxvi. 20, 22.) Where there is no tale-bearer,
the strife ceaseth — and the words of a tale-bearer are
as wounds. They who make it their business in
their visits to carry peevish, ill-natured stories and
characters from place to place, to the wounding of
their neighbours' good name secretly, the propagat-
ing of contempts and jealousies, and the sowing of
discord, do the devil's work, and serve his interests,
more than they are aware of. That g^eat and good
roan, St. Austin, ordered the law of his house to be
written over his table, which forbad all tale-bearers
any room there '»
Quisquis amat dictis absentum rodere famam,
Hanc mensam vetitam noverit esse sibi, —
Be it known that this table is forbidden the man,
who delights in injuring the reputation of absent
persons.
As a greater than he had done before him, (Ps. ci.
6.) Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I
cut off; and I heartily wish that not the persons but
the thing might be cut off from all conversation.
You will do me the justice (my brethren) to think
that what I say in these cautions is intended not as
an accusation of any, I know the faces of but few of
you, much less do I know your faults ; but as an
admonition to you all, to take heed of those sins,
which I know most easily beset us : for as in water
face answers face, so doth the heart of man to man,
II. Suffer, I beseech you, a word of counsel, and
direction ; and let us all endeavour that our visits of
our friends, and our inquiries into their state, may
be made to serve some good purpose ; that they may
not only be rectified, and made innocent, but sanc-
tified, and made excellent ; and may be so managed
as to rescue that from being lost time, which we
cannot but be sensible has been too macb so, and
to make it pass well in our account. Even acts of
civility may be so improved as to become acts of
piety ; and the common salutation of a ** How <!•
you," may, by a good intention, be advanced to the
rank of those good words, which they that fear tke
Lord speak often one to another, and which the Lord
hearkens and hears, and of which he writes a book
of remembrance, Mai. iii. 16. As the sincere, sacred
words of *' God be with you," and *' God bless yoo,"
when they are used carelessly and lightly, degene-
rate, and turn into the sin of taking the name of the
Lord our God in vain ; so this common word, '* How
do you do?" and, *' How does your family?" maj
be consecrated by a principle of Christian friend-
ship, and we may even therein glorify God.
This, which I say concerning the personal visits
of our friends, may also be much of it accommo-
dated to paper visits, by letter. The keeping up of
our friendly correspondences, which is the chief is-
tention of most of the letters which we write, wIm
are not men of business in the world, ought to taut
from a good principle, and to be managed by as u
becomes Christians, that we may not have to answer
for waste paper, as well as lost time.
Let us then be governed in this matter by the fol-
lowing directions :
1. Let our friendly visits be the proofs and pnscf-
vatives of brotherly love. Brotherly love is the hf
of Christ's kingdom, the livery of his family, the
great lesson to be learned in his school ; nothing is
more the beauty and strength of the Christiai
church, nor a brighter ornament to that holy leligioi
which we make profession of: it is maintained asd
kept up by reciprocal kindnesses, and particnlarlj
by mutual visits. This, therefore, we must intend,
both in giving and receiving them, and manage then
accordingly, to testify our affection to those whoa
we are obliged by nature, providence, or gniee, is a
particular manner to respect ; and so to show tkc
proof of our love, as the apostle speaks, (2 Cor. viii.
21.) and thereby to confirm and improve that unity
wherein brethren ought to dwell together. We most
therefore visit one another, that we may the better
love one another, with a pure heart and more fer-
vently.
Mutual strangeness and affected distance, is botk
the effect and the cause of the decay of love ; it is
an evidence that it is cooled, and it cools it yet more,
and perhaps by degrees kills it, and gives Satu
room to sow his tares. When relations and neiglH
hours, and those who are under some partieular tici
of friendship, yet are as shy one of another, and as
much on the reserve, as if they never had seen ose
another before In this world, and never expected tv
see one another in a better world, it is easy to Hit I
contrary to what was said of the orimidvf ddi* ^
RIGHT MANAGEMENT OF FRIENDLY VISITS.
68L
liana, iS^ee haw little these people love one another* ;
but when they visit each other with mutual Oeeness
and openness, embrace each other with a cordial
endearedness, and concern themselves for each other
with all possible tenderness, by this it will appear
that they are taught of God to love one another ;
and hereby the holy fire m kept burning upon the
altar.
Now since our lot is cast in those latter days,
wherein it is foretold, that iniquity should abound,
and the love of many wax cold, (Matt. xxiv. 12.)
those perilous times in which men shall be lovers
of their own selves only, (2 Tim. iii. 1 , 2.) it is a good
service to the public, by all means possible to culti-
▼ate true and hearty friendship, and bring it into
reputation. Why should we be strange one to an-
other, who hope to be together for ever with the
Lord?
But if the diseases of selfishness and deceit should
prove still obstinate to the methods of cure among
most people ; yet if we approve ourselves warm and
cordial in our love, we shall have the comfort of
having done our duty, and delivered our souls : and
perhaps they who are more loving than others, will
have the further comfort of being better beloved than
others ; for he who watereth shall be watered also
himself.
2. Let our friendly visits be the helps and occa-
sions of Christian sympathy. Christian sympathy
is one branch of Christian love. As it is in the na-
tural body, it ought to be in the mystical body, If
erne member Buffers^ all the memhert suffer with ity and
if one member be honoured, all the members rejoice
wfiik it, 1 Cor. xii. 26. What is love but a union of
aouls, and a twisting of interests ? And where these
are, there will be sympathy, according to that law of
•or religion. Rejoice with them that do rejoice^ and
weep with them that weep, Rom. xii. 15.
We must therefore visit our friends, and see how
tketf do, that we may rejoice with them in those things
which are the matter of their rejoicing ; that when
we find them and their families in health and peace,
their employments successful, their substance in-
creased, their relations agreeable, the vine by the
side of the house fruitful, and the olive plants round
about the table g^een and flourishing, we may be
comforted in their comfort, as the apostle speaks,
'S Cor. vii. 13. God takes pleasure in the prospe-
fity of his servants, and so should we, Ps. xxxv. 27.
And we should be the more studious to show our-
»idve8 pleased in the prosperity of our friends, be-
mxiae most seek their own, and few another's weal ;
■'Hid thence arise envy, and emulation, and mutual
^Jealousies.
>- We mast likewise desire to know the state of our
iftiendSy that we may mourn with them for their af-
^iietions, and mingle our tears with theirs ; that if
4ibe hand of the Lord be gone out against them, and
breaches are made on them and their comforts, we
may give them some relief, by putting a respect upon
them in their sorrows, and assuring them of our con-
tinned friendship, when they are most apt to be dis-
couraged, and to think themselves slighted ; also by
giving them an opportunity of making their com-
plaints to such as will hear them, not only with pa-
tience, but with tenderness and compassion, and
this is some ease to a burthcned spirit. And perhaps
we may then speak some word in season, which God
may bless for the strengthening of the weak hands,
and confirming the feeble knees.
On this errand Job's friends came to visit him,
when they heard of all the evil tliat was come upon
him, that they might mourn with him, and comfort
him, (Job ii. 11.) and it is some comfort to the
mourners to have their friends mourn with them.
Thus Nehemiah inquired after the condition of his
friends with a tender concern ; as appears by his
deep resentment of the evil tidings brought him;
He sat down and wept, and mourned certain days.
Neb. i. 3, 4. Let us learn in this manner to bear
one another's burthens, by a compassionate sorrow
for others' griefs ; and this suffering at second-
hand, will either prevent our own afllictions, or pre-
pare us for them.
3. Let our friendly visits furnish us with matter
for prayer and praise. Besides the plain intimation
which our Master has given us, in teaching us to
address ourselves to God as our Father, we have an
express command, Praif one for another, (James v.
16.) whiq||i supposes it our duty likewise to give
thanks for one another ; for whatever mercy we pray
for, when it is given, we ought to return thanks for
it. We find St Paul, in mo^t of his Epistles, botK
to churches and particular friends, speaking of the
prayers and thanksgivings he offered up to God
daily upon their, account. And it could not but be
an unspeakable comfort to them, to think of the in-
terest they had in the prayers of so great an inter-^
cesser as he was. It is written also for our learn-
ing, that we may in like manner give thanks to God
for our friends, making mention of them always in
our prayers ; that thus we may testify our affection
to them, and may be really serviceable to their com-
fort, when perhaps we are not in a capacity of be-
ing so any other way ; and that we may thus keep
up the communion of saints in faith, hope, and love.
Now, that we may do this the more particularly,
and the more sensibly, it is of good use to visit our
brethren, and to see how they do ; that, whatever is
the matter of their rejoicing, and ours with them,
we may make the matter of our thanksgiving to
God ; and wliatever just complaint they make to us,
we may with them spread it before the Lord, and
beg relief and comfort for them. When we visit
our friends, we have an opportunity of praying with
them, and I heartily wish it were more practised,.
682
A SERMON CONCERNING THE
especially by ministers ; this would indeed sanctify
our visits, and turn them to a very good account*
When you are sick and in trouble, you desire us to
pray with you ; and why should you not desire us to
pray with you when you are in health and peace ?
that your prosperity may be continued and sanctified ;
and that you may be kept from the snares and
temptations of it. Help likewise in returning
thanks, is as necessary as help in prayer ; and they
who know how to value aright the privilege of
communion with God, will reckon this as good an
entertainment as they can either give or receive.
But besides the opportunity it gives of praying
together, it gives us much assistance in praying for
one another when we are alone. When we have
seen our friends, and talked with them, or heard
from them, we can pray the more affectionately for
them. And perhaps we shall find it a furtherance
to us in this part of our work, if we would make it
a rule to ourselves, (not to bind conscience, but to
mind it,) that those friends whom in the day we have
visited, or have visited us, whom we have written to,
or heiird from, we will at night in .our closets par-
ticularly pray for, and give thanks for, as there is
occasion. I know not why we may not as well
spread the letter of a friend before the Lord, as
Hezekiah did the letter of an enemy. And some
have observed, that they have had most comfort in
those relations and friends which they have prayed
most for: or if herein we should be disappointed,
as holy David was, and those we pray for should
prove unkind to us, it will be our satisfaction, as it
was his, that our prayers will return into our own
bosom, and we ourselves shall have the comfort of
them, Ps. XXXV. 13.
It is a pious request which serious Christians
commonly make one to another, both by word and
letter, ** Pray remember me in your prayers ;" and
it is good to use it, provided it do not degenerate
into a formality, and that we request this kindness
from a deep sense of our own wants and unworthi-
ness, and a real value both for the duty of prayer in
general, and for our friends, and their prayers in
particular, whom we suppose to have an interest
in heaven. And being separated from each other
in this scattering world, a world we cannot expect
to be always together in, by those mutual requests
for a share in each other's prayers, we make appoint-
ments of meeting often at the same throne of grace,
in hopes of meeting shortly at the right hand of the
throne of glory to part no more.
4. Let our friendly visits be improved as oppor-
tunities of doing good to the souls of our friends.
Spiritual charity, though it must begin at home in
teaching ourselves and our families, yet it must not
end there ; we must contribute what we can to the
edification of others in knowledge, faith, holiness,
and joy. This is mutual duty to be studied and I
done, in giving and receiving Tisits ; that «# tna
tharpens iron, so our pious affections and resolutions
may be sharpened by conversation vrith one another,
Prov. xxvii. 17. We are often commanded to exhort
one another, admonish one another, teacb one an-
other, comfort one another, and stir up one another
to that which is good, Heb. iii. 13 ; x. 25. 1 Tbesi.
V. 11. And when can this be better done thanniieii
we come together for mutual society ? Then we htTC
a price put into our hands, if we have bat a heart
to it, that is, — skill, and will, and courage to improve
it, Prov. xvii. 16.
Much has been said, and much written, to promote
pious discourse among Christians, but I fear to little
purpose. We have all reason to lament it« that so
much corrupt communication proceeds out of our
mouths, and so little of that which is good, and to
the use of edifying; which might either manifest
grace in him who speaks, or minister grace to them
who hear. A nd shall vain words never kmve an end!
Job xvi. 3. Shall we reason always with unpra^tahk
talk, and with speeches wherewith we can do no geei^
but are in danger of doing hurt? Job xv. 3. Shall
we never learn the art of introducing and keepiof
up profitable discourse in our conversation with o«r
friends, such as we may hear of with comfort in that
day, when by our words we must be justified, and
by our words we must be condemned? Matt. liL
37. A visit thus improved will be fruit aboondiiif
to a good account: What hnowest thou^ but thai
thou mayest thus save a soul from deaths eternal
death, or at least further a soul toward life, etcnnl
life ? Thus we must confess Christ before men, as
those who are not ashamed of him or of his words:
reproach for it wc must not fear, but say. If this he
to be vile, I will be yet more vile ; nay, we need not
fear it, for perhaps even of them whose reproach we
fear, if we manage it with meekness and hamilitj,
and without affectation, we may be had in boooor.
Serious godliness is an awful tJiing, and will cqb-
mand respect.
We grant, that our discourses with our friends
cannot be turned entirely into this channel ; allow-
ance must be made for a g^eat deal of common talk,
yet even upon that there should appear an air of
religion and godliness. Though a foreigner maj
speak English, yet ordinarily we can discern by kis
pronunciation, that he is a foreigner; so, though a
good Christian, who belongs to another world, while
he is here cannot avoid speaking much of the things
of this world, yet he ought to do it in such a manner,
that those he converses with may take knowledge of
him that he has been with Jesus, (Acts iv. 13.) asd
may say unto him. Thou art a ChriitUm^ mid thf
speech bewrays thee* I
If it appear that we make conscience of oar words, !
and are afraid of offending with our lips ; if in otr /
tongue be the law of kindness ; if we always tfetk
S
RIGHT MANAGEMENT OF FRIENDLY VISITS.
583
of God and his providence with reverence and a
holy awe, like the g^eatMr. Boyle, who, in discourse,
"was observed never to mention the name of God
without a discerning pause, or stop, leaving room
for a pious thought ; if we speak of common things
after a godly sort, as those who accustom themselves
to the language of Canaan, and not the language of
Ashdod ; God will hereby be honoured, our profes-
sion will be beautified, those we converse with will
be edified, and say that God is with us of a truth.
Our speech, though it be not always of grace, should
be always with grace, seasoned with it as with salt,
which gives it its own relish and savour. Col. iv. 6.
5. Let our friendly visits be improved as opportu-
nities of getting good to our own souls. By doing
good, we do indeed get good ; our own lamp vnll
bum the brighter for its lighting others ; but those
who are not in a capacity of doing much good in
conversation, and can say little to edify others, may
yet hear that which will edify themselves. They
who cannot be teachers, must be glad to be learners ;
and should visit those who are knowing and g^-
clous with this design, that they may improve them-
selves in knowledge and grace by conversation with
them, and that by walking with wise men they may
be wise. When St. Paul designed a visit to his
friends at Rome, he aimed both at their spiritual
benefit, and at his own, Rom. i. 1 1, 12. Hong to tee
ffoUj that I may impart unto you tome tpiritual gift, —
and, that I may be comfoi'ted together with you.
What we hear from our friends we visit that is
instructive, and what we see in tHem that is exem-
plary and praise- worthy, we should take notice of
and treasure up, that it may be ready for our use
when there is occasion. By conversing with those
who are wise and good, we should strive to be made
wiser and better. Some rules either of prudence, or
piety, or both, we should gather up for our own use
out of every visit, that in every thing we may order
our conversation aright. As vain people make
visits chiefly to see fashions, so serious people should
make visits chiefly to learn wisdom. A wite man
will thut hear and inereate learning, and a man of
underttanding will by this means attain to wite eoun-
selt, Prov. i. 6.
Nay, even from what we hear and see, which is
foolish and blame-worthy, we may learn that which
will be profitable to us. Solomon received instruc-
tion, even from the field of the slothful, and the
vineyard of the man void of understanding. What
we observe indecent in others, we most learn to
avoid ; and take warning by others' harms. Thus
out of the eater may come forth meat, and out of the
strong sweetness.
But it is now time to conclude, with a word or two
of exhortation, upon the whole matter.
1 . Let us all remember our faults this day, and be
humbled before God for the guilt we have contracted
by our mismanaged visits of our friends. , In our
common conversation, as well as in our common
business, it is hard to keep ourselves unspotted.
Think, how much time we have lost in needless and
unprofitable visits, which might have been better
bestowed, and cannot now be recalled ! What mean
and low ends we have proposed to ourselves in mak-
ing our visits, and how we have in them walked after
the course of a vain and foolish world, and not after
the conduct of the law of the spirit of life in Christ
Jesus ! Are we not carnal, and do we not walh at
men ? as the apostle speaks, (1 Cor. iii. 3.) far short
of the spirit of Christianity, that high and holy call-
ing wherewith we are called.
Think, how little good we have done in the visits
we have made and received ! How few have been
the better for us ! It is well if many have not been
the worse for us, and for our corrupt communica-
tion. When the company has fallen into vain dis-
course, that foolish talking and jesting which the
word of God expressly condemns, (Eph. v. 4.) have
we not been as forward as any to promote it and
keep it up, and showed ourselves well pleased with
it? Have we not provoked one another's lusts and
passions, instead of provoking one another to love
and to good works ? Have we not given ofience, and
put an occasion of stumbling in our brother's way,
by taking too great a liberty of speech in our con-
versation with our friends, encouraging the hearts
of the licentious in their looseness, and grieving the
hearts of those who are serious themselves, and ex-
pect we should be so too ? Let us for these things
judge mtrtelvet this day, that we may not he judged of
the Lord.
2. Let us be so wise as to choose those for our inti-
mate friends, who will concur with us in a serious
endeavour to get this matter mended. For the truth
is, in this, as in a trade, we have the making but of
one side of the bargain ; we can do but little toward
the rectifying of what is ordinarily amiss in conver-
sation, and the improving of it to some good purposes,
unless those we converse with will do their part :
those therefore we should desire to associate our-
selves with, who will edify us, and be edified by us,
whom we may either do good to, or get good by, or
both.
It is our wisdom to avoid that company which we
find corrupts our minds, and makes them vain, and
indisposes them for serious exercises: what good
there is in us is apt enough to dwindle and decay of
itself, we need not the help of others to quench it.
Therefore take Solomon's counsel. Go from the pre-
sence of a foolish nugn, when thou perceivett not in him
the lipt of knowledge, Prov. xiv. 7.
But since the communion of saints is intended to
be the furtherance of our holiness and comfort, and
the earnest of our future bliss, and we are taught
by the pattern of that truly primitive church (Acta
694
A SERMON, &c.
ii. 42.) to continue stedfast, not only in the Apostle*s
doctrine, bat in fellowship, let us acquaint ourselves
with some who appear to be serious Christians,
without distinction of parties, and converse with
them ; let such only be our bosom-friends : and let
us say to them, as the neighbour nations did to
God's Israel, (Zech. viii. 23.) We will go with you,
for we have heard that God is with you. Let God's
people be our people, and David's resolution ours,
(Ps. cxix. 63.) lam a companion of all them that fear
thee, and of them that keep thy precepts,
3. Let us all resolve, by the grace of God, to look
well to ourselves, and to the frame of our own spirits,
in giving and receiving visits. If we cannot reform
the world, yet I hope we may reform our own hearts
and lives, and every man prove his own work, so
shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, though
perhaps not in another ; so shall his praise be of
God, though perhaps not of men.
Christians, I am not persuading you to any thing
that is rude or morose, or looks like an affectation
of singularity ; nor am I declaiming against the
innocent diversions and entertainments of conyersa-
tion, which make it pleasant to yourselves and your
friends, and are a relief to the fatigue of business :
but I am only to remind you, that you be very care-
ful not to lose your religion in them. Remember
that you are Christians, and you must speak and
act in every thing as becomes saints, Eph. ▼. 3.
Remember that you are hastening into eternity, the
days of your probation vrill shortly be numbered and
finished : you are therefore concerned to spend your
time on earth as those who are candidates and pro-
bationers for heaven, so that you may not seem to
come short. Converse vrith this world of sense, as
those who know you must shortly remove to the
world of spirits ; and let this thought give a check
to every thing that is vain and frothy, and put you
upon considering, seeing you look for such things,
what manner of persons you ought to be in all holy
conversation and godliness, 2 Pet. iii. 11.
Lay before you (my brethren) the example of the
Lord Jesus, and as he was so let us be in this world ;
walking as he walked, — as in other things, so in
this : let us make visits as he did, with a design to
do good, according as the sphere of our activity is.
His lips dropt as a honey-comb, and fed many ; let
ours do so too, as we are able. Wherever he was,
still he was about his Father's business ; and let u,
though unworthy such an honour, still endeavour to
be so employed. When he visited his friends, be
sympathized with them in their ^efs, comforted
them under their afflictions, reproved them for what
was amiss, and entertained them with edifying and
instructive discourse, taking rise for it usually bj
an admirable yet imitable art, from common occar-
rences ; and these things are written for our leani-
ing : Go thou and do likewise.
And that we may be thoroughly fomished, like
the good householder, who brings out of his treasarj
things new and old, let us daily pray to God for that
wisdom of the prudent, which is to understand his
way in every thing. There is no one grace that ire
are more particularly directed and encouraged to
pray for than this ; (Jam. i. 5.) If any man lack wis-
dom (and which of us is there that does not ?) let kim
ask it of God, vfho gives liberally, and upbraids us not
with our former follies, our present necessity, or the
frequency of our addresses and applications to him.
Solomon, who in his youth made wisdom his choice,
wisdom his request, had that gp^nted him, and
abundance of other good things added thereto. In
putting up this petition, let us, therefore, be not only
constant and earnest, but very particular : Lord, give
me wisdom to direct me in such a case that is difii-
cult and doubtful ! Lord, enable me to behave myself
wisely in a perfect way towards my family, and mj
friends and neighbours whom I visit, and to walk in
wisdom also toward them that are without, that my
profession of religion and relation to Christ may
never suffer damage or reproach through any impra-
dence or indiscretion of mine, in any Tisit, given
or received.
And lest this wisdom should degenerate into that
which is worldly, and err by an excess of cautioii,
let us pray to God for a spirit of holy boldness and
courage also, that we may be enabled to appear and
act for God and godliness in all companies, and
upon all occasions, vrith that pioas zeal which be-
comes the good soldiers of Jesus Christ, that all we
converse vrith may see, that we serve a Master whom
we are neither ashamed nor afraid to own ; and that
we have ventured all our credit with men, upon the
security of that promise of God, Them thai konowr
me I will honour.
I
A CHURCH IN THE HOUSE.
SERMON
CONCERNING
FAMILY RELIGION.
PREACHED IN LONDON, APRIL 16, 1704.
1 Cor. xvi. 10.
With the church that is in their house.
Some very good interpreters (1 know) understand
this of a settled, stated, solemn meeting of Christians
at the house of Aquila and Priscilla, for public
worship ; and they were glad of houses to meet in,
where they wanted those better conveniences, which
the church was afterwards, in her prosperous days,
accommodated with. When they had not such places
as they could wish, they thankfully made use of such
as they could get.
But others think it is meant only of their own
family, and the strangers within their g^tes, among
whom there was so much piety and devotion, that it
might well be called a. church, or religious house.
Thus the ancients generally understood it. Nor
was it only Aquila and Priscilla, whose house was
thus celebrated for religion, (here and Rom. jcvi. 5.)
but Nymphas also had a church in his house, (Col.
iv. 15.) and Philemon, v, 2. Not but that others, to
whom and from whom salutations are sent in St
Paul's epistles, made conscience of keeping up re-
ligion in their families ; but these are mentioned,
probably because their families were more numerous
than most of those other families were ; which made
their family devotions more solemn, and conse-
quently more taken notice of.
In this sense I shall choose to take it ; hence to
recommend family religion to you, under a notion
of a church in the house. When we see your public
assemblies so well filled, so well frequented, we
cannot but thank God, and take courage; your
diligent attendance on the ministry of the word and
prayers, is your praise, and I trust, through grace,
it redounds to your spiritual comfort and benefit.
But my subject at this time will lead me to inquire
into the state of religion in your private houses,
whether it flourish or wither there ? whether it be
on the throne, or under foot there ? Herein I desire
to deal plainly and faithfully with your consciences,
and I beg you will give them leave to deal so with you.
The pious and zealous endeavours both of magis-
trates and ministers for the reformation of manners,
and the suppression of vice and profaneness, are
the joy and encouragement of all good people in the
land, and a happy indication that God has yet mercy
in store for us : If the Lord had been pleased to hill
us, he would not have shewed us such things as these.
Now I know not any thing that will contribute more
to the furtherance of this good work than the bring-
ing of family-religion more into practice and repu-
tation. Here the reformation must begin. Other
methods may check the disease we complain of, but
this, if it might universally obtain, would cure it.
Salt must be cast into these springs, and then the
waters would be healed.
Many a time, no doubt, you have been urged to
this part of your duty ; many a good sermon perhaps
you have heard, and many a good book has l^een
put into your hands with this design, to persuade
you to keep up religion in your families, and to
assist you therein : but I hope a further attempt to
advance this good work, by one who is a hearty
wellwisher to it, and to the prosperity of your souls
and families, will not be thought altogether needless,
and that by the grace of God it will not be wholly
fruitless : at least it will serve to remind you of what
you have received and heard to this purpose, that
you may hold fast what is good, and repent of what
is amiss. Rev. iii. 3.
The lesson then which I would recommend to yon
from this text, is this ;
686
A SERMON ON FAMILY REUGION.
That the familxet of Christians should be little
churches ; or thus, That wherever we have a house,
God should have a church in it.
Unhappy contests there have been, and still are,
among wise and good men about the constitution,
order, and government of churches. God by his
grace heal these breaches, lead us into all truth,
and dispose our minds to love and peace ; that while
we endeavour herein to walk according to the light
God has given us, we may charitably believe that
others do so too ; longing to be there where we shall
be all of a mind.
But I am now speaking of churches, concerning
which there is no controversy. All agree that mas-
ters of families who profess religion, and the fear of
God themselves, should, according to the talents they
are intrusted with, maintain and keep up religion
and the fear of God in their families, as those who
must give account ; and that families, as such,
should contribute to the support of Christianity in a
nation, whose honour and happiness it is to be a
Christian nation. As nature makes families little
kingdoms, (and perhaps economics were the first
and most ancient politics,) so grace makes families
little churches ; and those were the primitive churches
of the Old Testament, before men began to call upon the
name of the Lord in solemn assemblies, and the sons
of God came together to present themselves before him.
Not that I would have these family churches set
up and kept up in competition with, much less in
contradiction to, public religious assemblies, which
ought always to have the preference : The Lord loves
the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob,
(Ps. Ixxxvii. 2.) and so must we ; and must not for-
sake the assembling of ourselves together, under
colour of exhorting one another daily at home. Far
be it from us to offer any thing that may countenance
the invading of the office of the ministry, or laying it
in common, and the usurping or superseding of the
administration of sacraments. No, but these family
churches, (which are but figuratively so,) must be
erected and maintained in subordination to those
more sacred and solemn establishments.
Now, that I may the more distinctly open to you,
and press upon you, this g^at duty of family reli-
gion, from the example of this and other texts, of
a ** church in the house," I shall endeavour, I. To
show what this church in the house is, and when our
families may be called churches. And, II. To per-
suade you by some motives, thus to turn your fami-
lies into churches. And then. III. To address yon
upon the whole matter by way of application.
I. I am in the first place to tell you what that
family religion is which will be as a church in the
house, and wherein it consists, that you may see what
it is we are persuading you to.
Churches are sacred societies, incorporated for
the honour and service of God in Christ, devoted to
God, and employed for him : no should oar familiet
be.
1. Churches are societies devoted to God, calW
out of the world, taken in out of the common to be
enclosures for God ; he has set them apart for him-
self; and because he hath chosen them, they also
have chosen him, and set themselves apart for buD.
The Jewish church was separated to God forajMCtt-
liar people, a hingdom of priests.
Thus our houses must be churches ; with oarselves
we must give up our houses to the Liord, to be to hia
for a name and a people. All the interest we haTe,
both in our relations, and in our possessions, most
be consecrated to God ; as under the law all that
the servant had was his master's for ever, after be
had consented to have his ear bored to the door-post
When God effectually called Abram out of Ur of
the Chaldees, his family assumed the appearance of
a particular church ; for in obedience to God's pre-
cept, and in dependence on God's promise, they took
all the substance they had gathered, and the seals
they had gotten, and put themselves and their all
under a divine conduct and government. Gen. xii.
5. His was a great family, not dnly numerous, but
very considerable ; the father of it was the fathered
all them that believe ; but even little families,
jointly and entirely given up to God, so become
churches. When all the members of the family
yield themselves to God, subscribe with their hands
to be the Lord's, and surname themselves by the
name of Israel, — and the master of the family, witb
himself, gives up all his right, title, and interest, in
his house, and all that belongs to it, unto God, to be
used for him, and disposed of by him ; here is a
church in the house.
Baptism was ordained for the discipline of natioBS,
(Matt xxviii. 19.) that the kingdoms of the world,
as such, might, by their conversion of the people to
the faith of Christ, and the consecration of their
powers and governments to the honour of Christ, be-
come his kingdoms. Rev. xi. 15. Thus by baptism
households likewise are discipled, as Lydia's and
the jailer's, (Acts xvi. 15, 33.) and in their family
capacity are given up to him, who is in a particular
manner the God of all the families of Israel, Jer.
xxxi. 1. Circumcision was at first a family ordi-
nance, and in that particular, as well as others, bap-
tism somewhat symbolizes with it. When the chil-
dren of Christian parents are by baptism admitted
members of the universal church, as their right to
baptism is grounded upon, so their communion with
the universal church is, during their infancy, main-
tained and kept up chiefly by, their immediate rela-
tion to these "churches in the house;" to them,
therefore, they are, first, given back, and in them
they are deposited, — under the tuition of them, to be
trained up till they become capable of a place and
a name in particular churches of larger figure and
A SERMON ON FAMILY REU6I0N.
587
BXtent. So that baptized families, who own their
baptism, and adhere to it, and in their joint and re-
Lative capacity make profession of the Christian
Faith, may so far be called little churches.
More than once in the Old Testament we read of
Ihe dedication of private houses. It is spoken of as
a eommon practice, (Deut xx. 5.) What man is there
that hath built a new houte^ and liath not dedicated it ?
that is, taken possession of it ; in the doing of which
it was usual to dedicate it to God by some solemn
acts of religious worship. The 30th Psalm is en-
titled, A Psalm or Song at the Dedication of the House
ef David, It is a good thing when a man has a
house of his own, thus to convert it into a church,
by dedicating it to the service and honour of God,
that it may be a Bethel, a house of God, and not a
Bethaven, a house of vanity and iniquity. Every
good Christian who is a householder, no doubt does
this habitually and virtually ; having first given his
ownself to the Lord, he freely surrenders all he has
to him : but it may be of good use to do it actu-
ally and expressly, and often to repeat this act of
resignation ; This stone which I have set for a pillar
shall be God's house. Gen. xxviii. 22. Let all I have
in my house, and all I do in it, be for the glory of
God ; I own him to be my great Landlord, and I
^Id all from and under him : to him I promise to
pay the rents (the quit-rents) of daily praises and
thanksgivings ; and to do the services, the easy ser-
vices, of gospel obedience. Let Holiness to the Lord
he written upon the house, and all the furniture of
it, according to the word which God has spoken,
(Zech. xiv. 20, 21.) That every pot in Jerusalem and
Judah shall be Holiness to the Lord of hosts. Let
God by his providence dispose of the affairs of my
family, and by his grace dispose the affections of all
in my family, according to his will, to his- own
praise. Let me and mine be only, wholly, and for
ever his.
Be persuaded (brethren) thus to dedicate your
bouses to God, and beg of him to come and take
possession of them. If you never did it, do it to-
night with all possible seriousness and sincerity.
hift up your heads, O ye gatesy and be ye lift up, ye
everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.
Bring the ark of the Lord into the tent you have
pitched, and oblige yourselves, and all yours, to
attend it. Look upon your houses as temples for
God, places for worship, and all your possessions as
dedicated things, to be used for God's honour, and
not to be alienated or profaned.
2. Churches are societies employed for God, pur-
suant to the true intent and meaning of this dedi-
cation.
There are three things necessary to the well-being
of a church, and which are most considerable in the
eonstitution of it. Those are doctrine, worship, and
discipline. Where the truths of Christ are professed
and taught, the ordinances of Christ administered
and observed, and due care taken to put the laws of
Christ in execution among all who profess them-
selves his subjects, and this under the conduct and
inspection of a gospel ministry ; there is a church.
And something answerable hereunto there must be
in our families, to denominate them little churches.
Masters of families, who preside in the other
affairs of the house, must go before their households
in the things of God. They must be as prophets,
priests, and kings, in their own families ; and as
such they must keep up family doctrine, family
worship, and family discipline ; then is there a
church in the house, and this is the family religion
that I am persuading you to.
(1.) Keep up family doctrine. It is not enough
that you and yours are baptized into the Christian
faith, and profess to own the truth as it is in Jesus,
but care must be taken, and means used, that yon
and yours be well acquainted with that truth, and
that you g^ow in that acquaintance, to the honour
of Christ and his holy religion, and the improvement
of your own minds, and theirs who are under your
charge. You must deal with your families as men
of hnowledge, (1 Pet. iii. 7.) that is, as men who de-
sire to grow in knowledge yourselves, and to com-
municate your knowledge for the benefit of others,
which are the two good properties of those who de-
serve to be called men of knowledge.
That you may keep up family doctrine,
[1.] You must read the Scriptures to your families,
in a solemn manner, requiring their attendance on
your reading, and their attention to it ; and inquir-
ing sometimes whether they understand what you
read. I hope you are none of you without Bibles in
your houses, store of Bibles, every one a Bible.
Thanks be to God, we have them cheap and com-
mon in a language that we understand. The book
of the law is not such a rarity with us as it was in
Josiah's time. We need not fetch this knowledge
from afar, nor send from sea to sea, and from the
river to the ends of the earth, to seek the word of God;
no, the Word is nigh us. When popery reigned in
our land, English Bibles were scarce things; a load
of hay (it is said) was once given for one torn leaf of
a Bible. But now Bibles are every one's money. You
know where to buy them ; or if not able to do that,
perhaps in this charitable city you may know where
to beg them. It is better to be without bread in your
houses than without Bibles, for the words of God's
mouth are and should be to you more than your ne-
cessary food.
Bat what will it avail you to have Bibles in your
houses, if yon do not use them? to have the great
things of God's law and gospel written to you, if
you count them as a strange thing f You look daily
into your shop-books, and perhaps converse much
with the news-books, and shall your Bibles be thrown
588
A SERMON ON FAMILY RELIGION.
by as an almanack out of date ? It is not now penal
to read the Scriptures in your families, as it was in
the dawning of the day of reformation from popery
when there were those who were accused and prose-
cuted for reading in a certain great heretical book,
called an English bible. The Philistines do not
now stop up these wells, (as Gen. xxvi. 18.) nor do
the shepherds drive away your flocks from them,
(as Exod. ii. 17.) nor are they as a spring shut up,
or a fountain sealed ; but the gifts giycn to men
have been happily employed in rolling away the
stone from the mouth of these wells. You have
great encouragements to read the Scripture; for
notwithstanding the malicious endeavours of athe-
ists to vilify sacred things, the knowledge of the
Scripture is still in reputation with all wise and
good men. You have also a variety of excellent
helps to understand the Scripture, and to improve
your reading of it ; so that if you or yours perish
for lack of this knowledge, as you certainly will if
you persist in the neglect of it, you may thank your-
selves, the guilt will lie wholly at your own doors.
Let me, therefore, with all earnestness press it
upon you to make the solemn reading of the Scrip-
ture a part of your daily worship in your families.
When you speak to God by prayer, be willing to
hear him speak to you in his word, that there may
be a complete communion between you and God.
This will add much to the solemnity of your family
worship, and will make the transaction the more
awful and serious, if it be done in a right manner ;
which will conduce much to the honour of God, and
your own and your family's edification. It will help
to make the word of God familiar to yourselves, and
your children and servants, that you may be ready
and mighty in the Scriptures, and may thence be
thoroughly furnished for every good word and work.
It will likewise furnish you with matter and words
for prayer, and so be helpful to you in other parts of
the service. If some parts of Scripture seem less
edifying, let those be most frequently read that are
most so. David's Psalms are of daily use in devo-
tion, and Solomon's proverbs in conversation ; it
will be greatly to your advantage to be well versed
in them. And I hope I need not press any Chris-
tian to the study of the New Testament, nor any
Christian parents to the frequent instructing of
their children in the pleasant and profitable his-
tories of the Old Testament. When you only hear
your children read the Bible, they are tempted to
look upon it as no more than a school-book ; but
when they hear you read it to them in a solemn, re-
ligious manner, it comes, as it ought, with more au-
thority. Those masters of families who make con-
science of doing this daily, morning and evening,
reckoning it part of that which the duty of every
day requires, I am sure they have comfort and sa-
tisfaction in so doing, and find it contributes much
to their own improvement in Christian knowMp^
and the edification of those who dwell under thci
shadow ; and the more, if those who are ministcn
expound, themselves, and other masters of faai- ^
lies read some plain and profitable expo&tkmtf
what is read, or of some part of it.
It is easy to add under this head, that the seam-
able reading of otlier good books will contribute to;
much to family instruction. In helps of this kisd
we are as happy as any people under the sun, if ic
have but hearts to use the helps we have, as ikm
who must give an account shortly of them amMi
other talents which we are intrusted with.
[2.] Yon must also catechise yoor children and
servants, so long as they continue in that age of life
which needs this milk. Oblige them to learn sone
good catechism by heart, and to keep it in remes-
brance ; and by familiar discourse with tbera bdy
them to understand it, as they become capable. It
is an excellent method of catechising, which M
himself directs us to, (Deut. vi. 7.) to teach ow
children the things of God, by talking of them as
we sit in the house, and go by the way, when web
down, and when we rise up. It is good to keep >p
stated times for this service, and be constant ta
them, as those who know how industrious the eneaf
is to sow tares while men sleep. If this good waik
be not kept going forward, it will of itself go back-
ward. Wisdom also vnll direct you to manage yov
catechising, as well as the other branches of faaulf
religion, so as not to make it a task and bortko,
but as much as may be a pleasure to those andcr
your charge, that the blame may lie wholly opoi
their own impiety, and not at all upon your inqire-
dencc, if they should say. Behold what a vMitaot
is it !
This way of instruction by catechising does is a
special manner belong to the ** church in the hoase;"
for that is the nursery in which the trees of righte-
ousness are reared, that afterwards are planted io
the courts of our God. Public catechising will tani
to little account without family catechising. Tke
labour of ministers in instructing youth, and feeding
the lambs of the flock, therefore proves to many
labour in vain, because masters of families do mn
do their duty, in preparing them for public instrae-
tion, and examining their improvement by it. As
mothers are children's best nurses, so parents are, or
should be, their best teachers. Solomon's father was
his tutor, (Prov. iv. 3, 4.) and he never forgot the
lessons his mother taught him, Prov. xxxi. 1.
The baptism of your children, as it laid a strong
and lasting obligation upon them to live in the fear
of God, so it brought you under the most powerfal
engagements imaginable to bring them up in that
fear. The child you gave up to God to be dedicated
to him, and admitted a member of Christ's vtsiUe
church, was in God's name g^ven hack to joo, vilh
I
A SERMON ON FAMILY REU6I0N.
Ihe same charge that Pharaoh's daughter gave to
Moses's mother, Take this child and nurse it forme;
and in narsing it for God, you nurse it for better
preferment than that of being called the son of
Pharaoh's daughter. It is worth observing, that he
to whom God first did the honour of entailing the
seal of the covenant upon his seed, was eminent for
this part of family religion: / know Abraham^
(says God,) that he wiU command his children and his
household after him to keep the way of the Lord^ Gen.
xviii. 19. Those, therefore, who would have the
€»mfort of God's covenant with them and their seed,
and would share in that blessing of Abraham which
comes upon the Gentiles, must herein follow the
example of faithful Abraham. The entail of the
covenant of grace is forfeited and cut off, if care be
not taken, with it, to transmit the means of grace.
To what purpose were they discipled if they be not
taught? Why did you give them a Christian name,
if you will not give them the knowledge of Christ
and Christianity ? God has owned them as his chil-
dren, and bom unto him, (Ezek. xvi. 20.) and there-
fore he expects that they should be brought up for
bim ; you are unjust to your God, unkind to your
children, and unfaithful to your trust, if, having by
baptism entered your children in Christ's school,
and enlisted them under his banner, you do not
make conscience of training them up in the learning
of Christ's scholars, and under the discipline of his
soldiers.
Consider what your children are now capable of,
even in the days of their childhood. They are
capable of receiving impressions now which may
abide upon them while they live; they are turned
as clay to the seal, and now is the time to apply to
them the seal of the IHing God. They are capable
of honouring God now, if they be well taught ; and
by their joining, as they can, in religious services
with so much reverence and application as their age
will admit, God is honoured, and you in them present
to him living sacrifices, holy and acceptable. The
Hosannas even of children well taught will be the
perfecting of praise, and highly pleasing to the Lord
Jesus.
Consider what your children are designed for (we
hope) in this world ; they must be a seed to serve
the Lord, which shall be accounted to him for a
generation. They are to bear up the name of Christ
in their day, and into their hands must be trans-
mitted that good thing which is committed to us.
They are to be praising God on earth, when we are
praising him in heaven. Let them then be brought
up accordingly, that they may answer the end of
their birth and being. They are designed for the
service of their generation, and to do»good in their
day. Consult the public welfare then, and let no-
thing be wanting on your parts to qualify them for
nsefulnessy according as their place and capacity is.
Consider especially what they are designed for in
another world : they are made for eternity. Every
child thou hast has a precious and immortal soul,
that must be for ever either in heaven or hell, accord-
ing as it is prepared in this present state; and,
perhaps, it must remove to that world of spirits very
shortly : and will it not be very mournful, if through
your carelessness and neglect, your children should
learn the ways of sin, and perish eternally in those
ways? Give them warning, that, if possible, you
may deliver their souls, at least, that you may
deliver your own, and may not bring their curse and
God's too, their blood and your own too, upon your
heads.
I know you cannot give grace to your children,
nor is a religious conversation the constant conse-
quent of a religious education ; The race is not
always to the swifts nor the battle to the strong : but
if you make conscience of doing your duty, by keep-
ing up family doctrine ; if you teach them the good
and the right way, and warn them of by-paths ; if
you reprove, exhort, and encourage them as there is
occasion ; if you pray with them, and for them, and
set them a good example, and at last consult their
soul's welfare in the disposal of them, you have done
your part, and may comfortably leave the issue and
success with God.
(2.) Keep up family worship. You must not only
as prophets teach your families, but as priests must
go before them, in offering the spiritual sacrifices of
prayer and praise. Herein likewise you must tread
in the steps of faithful Abraham ; (whose sons yon
arc while thus you do dwell ;) you must not only
like him instruct your household, but like him yon
must with them call on the name of the Lord, the
everlasting God, Gen. xxi. 33. Wherever he pitched
his tent, there he built an altar unto the Lord, (Gen.
xii. 7, 8 ; xiii. 4, 18.) though he was yet in an un-
settled state, but a stranger and a sojourner ; though
he was among jealous and envious neighbours, for
the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the
land, yet, wherever Abraham had a tent God had
an altar in it, and he himself served at that altar.
Herein he has left us an example.
Families, as such, have many errands at the throne
of grace, which furnish them* with matter and occa-
sion for family prayer every day ; errands which
cannot be done so well in secret, or public, but
are fittest to be done by the family, in consort, and
apart from other families. And it is good for those
who go before the rest in family devotions, ordinarily
to dwell most upon the concerns of those who join
in their family capacity, that it may be indeed a
family prayer, not only offered up in and by the
family, but suited to it. In this and other services
we should endeavour not only to say something, but
something to the purpose.
Five things especially yon should have upon your
690
A SERMON ON FAMILY RELIGION.
heart in your family prayer, and should endeavour
to bring something of each, more or less, into e^ery
prayer with your families.
[1.] You ought to make family acknowledgments
of your dependence upon God and his providence,
as you are a family. Our great business in all acts
of religious worship, is to give onto the Lord the
glory due unto his name; and this we must do in
our family worship. Give honour to God as the
founder of families by his ordinance, because ** it
was not good for man to be alone ;" as the founder
of your families by his providence, for he it is ** who
buildeth the house, and setteth the solitary in fami-
lies." Give honour to him as the Owner and Ruler
of families ; acknowledge that you and yours are
his, under his government, and at his disposal, *' as
the sheep of his pasture." Especially adore him as
the ** God of all the families of Israel," in covenant
relation to them, and having a particular concern
for them above others, Jer. xxxi. 1. Give honour
to the great Redeemer as the head of all the churches,
even those in your houses ; call him the Master of
the family, and the great upholder and benefactor
of it ; for he it is in whom all the families of the
earth are blessed. Gen. xii. 3. All fam-ily blessings
are owing to Christ, and come to us through his
hand by his blood. Own your dependence upon
God, and your obligations to Christ, for all good
things pertaining both to life and godliness; and
make conscience of paying homage to your chief
Lord, and never set up a title to any of your enjoy-
ments in competition with his.
[2.] You ought to make family confessions of your
sins against God ; those sins you have contracted the
guilt of in your family capacity. We read in Scrip-
ture of the iniquity of the house, as of Eli's, 1 Sam.
iii. 13, 14. Iniquity visited upon the children ; sins
that bring wrath upon families, and a curse that
enters into the house to consume it, with the timber
thereof, and the stones thereof, Zech. v. 4. How sad
is the condition of those families who sin together,
and never pray together! who, by concurring in
frauds, quarrels, and excesses, by strengthening one
another's hands in impiety and profaneness, fill the
measure of family guilt, and never agree together
to do any think to empty it !
And even religious families, that are not polluted
with gross and scandalous sins, yet have need to join
every day in solemn acts and expressions of repent-
ance before God for their sins of daily infirmity.
Their vain words and unprofitable conversation
among themselves ; their manifold defects in rela-
tive duties, provoking one another's lusts and pas-
sions, instead of provoking one another to love and
to good works : these ought to be confessed and be-
wailed by the family together, that God may be glo-
rified, and what has been amiss may be amended for
the future. It was not only in a time of great and
extraordinary repentance that families movBei
apart, (Zech. xii. 11.) but in the stated retamiif
the day of expiation the priest was particularly ti
make atonement for his household. Lev. xvi. 17. In
many things we, all, ofiend God, and one another;
and a penitent confession of it in prayer together}
will be the most efi'ectual way of reconciling oiff-
selves both to God, and to one another. The best
families, and those in which piety and love prenfl
most, yet in many things come short, and do enovgli
every day to bring them upon their knees at night
[3.] You ought to ofier up family thanksgiving
for the blessings which you, with your families, re-
ceive from God. Many are the mercies which yw
enjoy the sweetness and benefit of in common ; whichi
if wanting to one, all the family would be sensible
of it. Has not God made a hedge of protectioi
about you and your houses, and all that yon have!
Job i. 10. Has he not created a defence upon every
** dwelling place" of Mount Zion, as well as upoo
her assemblies? Isa. iv. 5. The dreadful alarms of
a storm, and the desolations made, as by a fire, once
in an age, should make us sensible of our obligations
to the Divine Providence for our preservation fn»
tempests and fire every day and every night hit
of the Lord*s mercies that we are not consumed^ and
buried in the ruins of our houses. When the whole
family comes together safe in the morning from their
respective retirements, and when they retam safe
at night from their respective employments, there
having been no disaster, no *' adversary,'' no evil
occurrence, — it is so reasonable, and (as I may say)
so natural, for them to join ^gether in solemn thanks-
givings to their great Protector, that I wonder how
any who believe in a God, and a providence, can
omit it. Have you not healt^ in your family, sick-
ness kept or taken from the midst of you ? Does not
God bring plentifully into your hands, and Increase
your substance? Have you not your table spread,
and your cup running over, and manna rained about
your tents? and does not the whole family share in
the comfort of all ihh ? Shall not then the voice of
thanksgiving be in those tabernacles where the voire
of rejoicing is? Ps. cxviii. 15. Is the vine by the
house-side fruitful and flourishing, and the olive
plants round the table green and growing? Are
family relations comfortable and agreeable, not
broken nor imbittered, and shall not that God he
acknowledged herein who makes every creature to
be that to us that it is? Shall not the God of yoor
mercies, your family mercies, be the God of yoor
praises, your family praises, and tliat daily ?
The benefit and honour of your being ChristiaD
families, your having in God's house, and within
his walls, a place and a name better than that of
sons and daughters, and the salvation this brings to
your house, furnishes you with abundant matter for
joint thanksgivings. You hath he known ubov€ aB the
A SERMON ON FAMILY RELIGION.
591
families of tftt earth, and, therefore, he expects in a
.special manner to be owned by you. Of all houses,
. the house of Israel, the house of Aaron, and the house
of Levi, have most reason to bless the Lord, and to
say. His mercy endureth/or ever,
[4.] You ought to present your family petitions
for the mercy and g^ace which your families stand
in need of. Daily bread is received by families to-
gether, and we are taught not only to pray for it
every day, but to pray together for it, saying, Our
leather, give it us. There are affairs and employ-
ments which the family is jointly concerned in the
success of, and, therefore, should jointly ask of God
wisdom for the management of them, and prosperity
therein. There are family cares to be cast upon
God by prayer, family comforts to be sought for,
and family crosses which they should together beg
for the saoctification and removal of. Hereby your
children will be more effectually possessed with a
belief of, and regard to, the Divine Providence, than
by all the instructions you can give them ; which will
look best in their eye, when thus reduced to prac-
tice by your daily acknowledging God in all your
ways.
You desire that God will give wisdom and grace
to your children, you travail in birth again till you
see Christ formed in them, you pray for them ; it
is well, but it is not enough ; you must pray with
them ; let them hear you pray to God for a blessing
npon the good instructions and counsels you give
them ; it may perhaps put them upon praying for
themselves, and increase their esteem both of you,
and of the good lessons you teach them. Yon
would have your servant<i diligent and faithful, and
this perhaps would help to make them so. Masters
do not give to their servants that which is just and
equal, if they do not continue in prayer with them.
They are put together, Col. iv. 1,2.
There are some temptations which families, as
sach, lie open to. Busy families are in temptation
to world liness, and neglect of religious duties; mix-
ed families are in temptation to discord, and mutual
jealousies ; decaying families are in temptation to
distrust, discontent, and indirect courses to help
themselves ; they should therefore not only watch,
but pray together, that they be not overcome by the
temptations they are exposed to.
There are family blessings which God has pro-
mised, and for which he will be sought unto, such as
those on the house of Obed-edom for the arh*s sahe ;
or the mercy which St. Paul begs for the house of
Onesiphorus, 2 Tim. i. 16. These joint blessings
mast be sued out by joint prayers. There is a spe-
cial blessing which God commands upon families that
dwell together in unity, (Ps. cxxxiii. 1, 3.) which
they mast seek for by prayer, and come together to
seek for it, in token of that unity which qualifies for
it. Where God commands the blessing, we must
beg the blessing. God by promise blesses David's
house, and, therefore, David by prayer blesses it too,
2 Sam. vi. 20.
[6.] You ought to make family intercessions for
others also. There are families you stand related
to, or which by neighbourhood, friendship, or ac-
quaintance, you become interested in and concern-
ed for ; and these you should recommend in your
prayers to the grace of God, and your family that
are joined with you in the alliances should join with
you in those prayers. Evil tidings perhaps are re-
ceived from relations at a distance, which are the
grief of the family ; God must then be sought unto
by the family for succour and deliverance. Some
of the branches of the family are, perhaps, in dis-
tant countries, and in dangerous circumstances, and
you are solicitous about them ; it will be a comfort
to yourselves, and perhaps of advantage to them, to
make mention of them daily in your family prayers.
The benefit of prayer will reach far, because he who
hears prayer can extend his hand of power and
mercy to the utmost comers of the earth, and to them
that are afar off upon the sea.
In the public peace likewise we and our families
have peace ; and therefore, if we forget thee, O Je-
rusalem, we are unworthy ever to stand in thy courts,
or dwell within thy walls. Our families should be
witnesses for us that we pray daily for the land of
our nativity, and the prosperity of all its interests ;
that praying every where we make supplication for
the Queen, and all in authority, 1 Tim. ii. 2, 8. That
we bear upon our hearts the concerns of God's
church abroad, especially the suffering parts of it.
Thus keeping up a spiritual communion with all the
families that in every place call on the name of the
Lord Jesus.
In a word, let us go by this rule in our family de-
votions ; whatever is the matter of our care, let it be
the matter of our prayer ; and let us allow no care
which we cannot in faith spread before God. And
whatever is the matter of our rejoicing, let it be the
matter of our thanksgiving ; and let us withhold our
hearts from all those joys which do not dispose us
for the duty of praise.
Under this head of family worship, I must not
omit to recommend to you the singing of psalms in
your families, as a part of daily worship, especially
sabbath worship. This is a part of religious wor-
ship, which participates both of the word and prayer;
for therein we are not only to give glory to God, but
to teach and admonish one another ; it is, therefore,
very proper to make it a transition from the one to
the other. It will warm and quieken yoa, refresh
and comfort yoa ; and, perhaps, if you have little
children in your houses, they will sooner take notice
of it than of any other part of your family devo-
tion; and some good impressions may thereby be
fastened apon them insensibly.
S&2
A SERMON ON FAMILY REUGION.
(3.) Keep np family discipline, that so you may
have a complete charch in your house, though in
little. Reason teaches us that every man should
bear rule in his own house, Esth. i. 22. And since
that as well as other power is of God, it ought to be
employed for God ; and Ihey who so rule must be
just, ruling in his fear. Joshua looked further than
the acts of religious worship, when he made that
pious resolution. As for me and my house we will
serve the Lord, Josh. xxiv. 16. For we do not serve
him in sincerity and truth, (which is the service he
there speaks of, v, 14.) if we and ours serre him only
on our knees, and do not take care to serve him in
all the instances of a religious conversation. Those
only who have clean hands, and a pure heart, are
accounted the generation of them that seek God,
Ps. xxiv. 4, 6. And without this those who pre-
tend to seek God daily, do but mock him, Isa.
Iviii. 2.
The authority God has given you over your chil-
dren and servants is principally designed for this
end, that you jnay thereby engage them for God and
godliness. If you use it only to oblige them to do
your will, and so to serve your pride ; and to do your
business, and so to serve your worldliness ; yon do
not answer the great end of your being invested with
it ; you must use it for God's honour, by it to engage
them, as far as you can, to do the will of God, and
mind the business of religion. Holy David not
only blessed his household, but took care to keep
good order in it, as appears by that plan of his
family discipline, which we have in the lOlst Psalm,
a psalm wliich Mr. Fox tells us that blessed martyr
Bishop Ridley often read to his family, as the rule
by which he resolved to govern it
You are made keepers of the vineyard, be faith-
ful to your trust, and carefully watch over those
who are under your charge, knowing you must give
account.
[1.] Countenance every thing that is good and
praise-worthy in your children and servants. It is
as much your duty to commend and encourage those
in your family who do well, as to reprove and ad-
monish those who do amiss ; and if you take delight
only in blaming that which is culpable, and are
backward to praise that which is laudable, you give
occasion to suspect something of an ill nature, not
becoming a good man, much less a good Christian.
It should be a trouble to us when we have a reproof
to give, but a pleasure to us to say, with the apostle,
(1 Cor. xi. 2.) Now I praise you.
Most people will be easier led than driven, and we
all love to be spoken fair to: when yon see any thing
that is hopeful and promising in your inferiors, any
thing of a towardly and tractable disposition, much
more any thing of a pious affection to the things of
God, you should contrive to encourage it. Smile
upon them when you see them set their faces heaven-
wards, and take the first opportnnity to lei thi
know you observe it, and are well pleased vift I,
and do not despise the day of small things. T\m
will quicken them to continue and abound iaftit
which is good, it will hearten them against the tf-
ficulties they see in their way ; and, perhaps, mj
turn the watering, trembling scale the right way,
and effectually determine their resolutions to clem
to the Lord. When you see them forward to cow
to family worship, attentive to the word, devout ii
prayer, industrious to get knowledge, afraid of m,
and careful to do their duty, let them have the prue
of it, for you have the comfort of it, and God sai
have all the glory. Draw them with the cords of t
man, hold them with the bands of love ; so sbl
your rebukes, when they are necessary, be the mmc
acceptable and effectual. The great ShepM
gathers the lambs in his arms, and carries tbem ia
his bosom, and gently leads them ; and so AM
you.
[2.] Discountenance every thing that is evil ii
your children and servants. Use your authorityfiv
the preventing of sin, and the suppressing of evoy
root of bitterness, lest it spring up, and trouble jn,
and thereby many be defiled. Frown upon eioj
thing that brings sin into your families, and intiv-
duces any ill words, or ill practices. Pride iii
passion, strife and contention, idleness and iBt»
perance, lying and slandering, these are sins whkk
you must not connive at, nor suffer to go witkooti
rebuke. If you return to the Almighty, this aaaif
other things is required of you, that you f^tui
iniquity f all iniquity, these and other the likeiniqa-
iieSf far from your tahemaeUy Job xxii. 23. Mike
it to appear, that in the goTemment of your fanilics
you are more jealous for God's honour, than for jnr
own authority and interest; and show yooneHa
more displeased at that which is an offence to Goi
than at that which is only an affront or damage to
yourselves.
You must indeed be careful not to provoke yon
children to wrath, lest they be discouraged ; and ts
to your servants, it is your duty to " forbear, tr
moderate, threatening :'' yet you most also, with
holy zeal and resolution, and the meekness of wis-
dom, keep good order in your families, and set d0
wicked thing before their eyes, but witness againstit
A little leaven leavenetH the whole lump* Be afraid of
having wicked servants in your houses, lest yfm
children learn their way, and get a snare to tkir
souls. Drive away with an angry coonteoaoee aB
that evil communication which cormpt good nai-
ners, that your houses may be habitations of rights
ousness, and sin may never find shelter in then.
I corae now, II. To offer some motives to pemadt
you thus to turn your families into little chmcto
And O that I could find out acceptable words, wilk
which to reason with you, so as to prevail! Stfr
A SERMON ON FAMILY RELIGION.
593
fne a little, and I will show you what is to be said on
God's behalf f which is worth your consideration.
1. If your families be little churches, God will
come to you, and dwell with you in them ; for he has
said concerning the church, This is my rest for ever,
here will I dwell. It is a very desirable thing to have
the gracious presence of God with us in our families,
that presence which is promised where two or three
are gathered together in his name. This was it that
David was so desirous of, (Ps. ci. 2.) O when wilt thou
come unto me ! His palace, his court, would be as a
prison, as a dungeon to him, if God did not come to
him, and dwell with him in it ; and cannot your hearts
witness to this desire, you who have houses of your
own, would you not have Ood come to you, and dwell
with you in them? Invite him, then, beg his presence,
court his stay. Nay, he invites himself to your houses
by the offers of his favour and grace ; Behold, he stands
at your door and hnocks : it is the voice of your belov-
ed, open to him, and bid him welcome : meet him with
your " Hosannas, blessed is he that cometh." He
comes peaceably, he brings a blessing with him, a
blessing which he will cause to rest upon the habi-
tations of the righteous, Ezek. xliv. 30. He will
command a blessing, which shall amount to no less
than life for evermore, Ps. cxxxiii. 3. This presence
and blessing of God will make your relations com-
fortable, your affairs successful, your enjoyments
sweet ; and behold, by it all things are made clean
to you. This will make your family comforts double
comforts, and your family crosses but half crosses ;
it will turn a tent into a temple, a cottage into a
palace. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole
earth, arc the houses in which God dwells.
Now the way to have God's presence with you in
your houses, is to furnish them for his entertainment.
Thusthegood Shunammite invited the prophet Elisha
to the chamber she had prepared for him, by accom-
modating him there with a bed and a table, a stool
and a candlestick, 2 Kings iv. 10. Would you fur-
nish your houses for the presence of God, it is not
expected that you furnish them as his tabernacle was
of old furnished, with blue, and purple, and scarlet,
and fine linen, but set up and keep up for him a
throne and an altar, that from the altar you and
yours may give glory to him, and from the throne he
may give law to you and yours ; and then you may
be sure of his presence and blessing, and may solace
yourselves from day to day in the comfort of it God
will be with you in a way of mercy while you are
with him in a way of duty ; If you seek him he will
be found of you. The secret of God shall be in your
tabernacle, as it was in Job's, {ch, xxix. 4.) as it is
with the righteous, Ps. xxv. 14. Prov. iii. 32, 33.
2. If you make your houses little churches, God
will make them little sanctuaries; nay, he will him-
self be to you as a little sanctuary, Ezek. xi. 16. The
way to be safe in your houses, is to keep up religion
2q
and the fear of God in your houses ; so shall you
dwell on high, and the place of your defence shall be
the munition of rocks, Isa. xxxiii. 16. The law looks
upon a man's house as his castle, religion makes it
truly so. If God's grace be the " glory in the midst"
of the house, his providence will make a wall of fire
round about it, Zech. ii. 5. Satan found it to his
confusion, that God made a hedge about pious Job,
about his house, and about all that he had on every
side, so that he could not find one gap by which to
break in upon him. Job i. 10. Every dwelling place
of mount Sion shall be protected as the tabernacle
was in the wilderness, for God has promised to create
upon it a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining
of a flaming fire by night, which shall be a defence
upon all the glory, Isa. iv. 5. If wc thus dwell in
the house of the Lord all the days of our life, by
making our houses At« houses, we shall be hid in his
pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide
us, Ps. xxvii. 4, 5.
Wherever we encamp, under the banner of Christ,
the angels of God will encamp round about us, and
pitch their tents where we pitch ours ; and we little
think how much we owe to the ministration of the
good angels, that we and ours are preserved from
the malice of evil angels, who are continually seek-
ing to do mischief to good people. There are terrors
that fly by night and by day, which they only who
abide under the shadow of the Almighty can pro-
mise themselves to be safe from, Ps. xci. 1,5. Would
you insure your houses by the best policy of insur-
ance, turn them into churches, and then they shall
be taken under the special protection of him who
keeps Israel, and neither slumbers nor sleeps ; and
if any damage come to them, it shall be made up in
grace and glory. The way of duty is without doubt
the way of safety.
Praying families are kept from more mischiefs
than they themselves are aware of. They are not
always sensible of the distinction which a kind
Providence makes between them and others ; though
God is pleased sometimes to make it remarkable, as
in the story which is credibly related of a certain
village in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland, con-
sisting of ninety houses, which in the year 1584,
were all destroyed by an earthquake, except one
house, in which the good man and his family were
at that time together praying. That promise is sure
to all the seed of faithful Abraham, Fear not, I am
thy shield. Gen. xv. 1. Wisdom herself has past
her word for it, (Prov. i. 33.) Whoso hearkeneth to
me, wherever he dwells, he shall dwell safely, and
shall be quiet from all real evil itself, and from the
amazing, tormenting/ear of evil. Nothing can hurt,
nothing needs frighten, those whom God protects.
3. If you have not a church in your house, it is to
be feared that Satan will have a seat there. If reli-
gion do not rule in your families, sin and wickedness
£92
A SERMON ON FAMILY REUGION.
(3.) Keep ap family discipline, that so yoo may
have a complete church in yoor house, though in
little. Reason teaches us that every man should
bear rule in his own house, Esth. i. 22. And since
that as well as other power is of God, it ought to be
employed for God ; and they who so rule must be
just, ruling in his fear. Joshua looked further than
the acts of religious worship, when he made that
pious resolution. As for me and my house we will
serve the Lord, Josh. xxiv. 16. For we do not serve
him in sincerity and truth, (which is the service he
there speaks of, o. 14.) if we and ours serve him only
on our knees, and do not take care to serve him in
all the instances of a religious conversation. Those
only who have clean hands, and a pure heart, are
accounted the generation of them that seek God,
Ps. jLxiv. 4, 6. And without this those who pre-
tend to seek God daily, do but mock him, Isa.
Iviii. 2.
The authority God has given you over your chil-
dren and servants is principally designed for this
end, that you jnay thereby engage them for God and
godliness. If you use it only to oblige them to do
your will, and so to serve your pride ; and to do your
business, and so to serve your worldliness ; you do
not answer the great end of your being invested with
it ; you must use it for God's honour, by it to engage
them, as far as you can, to do the will of God, and
mind the business of religion. Holy David not
only blessed his household, but took care to keep
good order in it, as appears by that plan of his
family discipline, which we have in the 101st Psalm,
a psalm which Mr. Fox tells us that blessed martyr
Bishop Ridley often read to his family, as the rule
by which he resolved to govern it
You are made keepers of the vineyard, be faith-
ful to your trust, and carefully watch over those
who are under your charge, knowing you must give
account.
[1.] Countenance every thing that is good and
praise-worthy in your children and servants. It is
as much your duty to commend and encourage those
in your family who do well, as to reprove and ad-
monish those who do amiss ; and if you take delight
only in blaming that which is culpable, and are
backward to praise that which is laudable, you give
occasion to suspect something of an ill nature, not
becoming a good man, much less a good Christian.
It should be a trouble to us when we have a reproof
to give, but a pleasure to us to say, with the apostle,
(1 Cor. xi. 2.) Now I praise I'ou,
Most people will be easier led than driven, and we
all love to be spoken fair to : when you see any thing
that is hopeful and promising in your inferiors, any
thing of a towardly and tractable disposition, much
more any thing of a pious affection to the things of
God, you should contrive to encourage it. Smile
upon them when you see them set their faces heaven-
wards, and take the first opporinnity to let fk«
know you observe it, and are well pleased wilkk,
and do not despise the day of small things. Thb
will quicken them to continue and abound ia tint
which is good, it will hearten them against the &-
Acuities they see in their way ; and, perhaps, wkj
turn the wavering, trembling scale the right waj,
and effectually determine their resolations to ckafe
to the Lord. When you see them forward to coae
to family worship, attentive to the word, devout ii
prayer, industrious to get knowledge, afraid of ai,
and careful to do their duty, let them have the pniie
of it, for yon have the comfort of it, and God nmt
have all the glory. Draw them with the cords of a
man, hold them with the bands of love ; so shall
your rebukes, when they are necessary, be the moit
acceptable and effectual. The great Sbepheni
gathers the lambs in his arms, and carries them ii
his bosom, and gently leads them ; and ao shook!
you.
[2.] Discountenance every thing that is evil ii
your children and servants. Use your authority for
the preventing of sin, and the suppressing of errtj
root of bitterness, lest it spring up, and trouble yov,
and thereby many be defiled. Frown upon ercfj
thing that brings sin into your families, and intnh
duces any ill words, or ill practices. Pride asd
passion, strife and contention, idleness and intoi-
perance, lying and slandering, these are sins wUd
you must not connive at, nor suffer to go witbonti
rebuke. If you return to the Almighty, this amoif
other things is required of you, that you put mni
iniquity, all iniquity, these and other the likeimqui-
ties, /ar from your tabernacle. Job xxii. 2S. Make
it to appear, that in the government of your families
you are more jealous for God's hononr, than for ywr
own authority and interest; and show yonraelTes
more displeased at that which is an offence to God,
than at that which is only an affront or damage to
yourselves.
You must indeed be careful not to provoke yoar
children to wrath, lest they be discouraged ; and as
to your servants, it is your duty to '* forbear, or
moderate, threatening :" yet you mast also, with
holy zeal and resolution, and the meekness of wis-
dom, keep good order in your families, and set no
wicked thing before their eyes, but witness against it.
A little leaven Itaveneth the whole lump. Be afraid of
having wicked servants in your houses, lest yoor
children learn their way, and get a snare to thdr
souls. Drive away with an angry countenance all
that evil communication which corrupt good man-
ners, that your houses may be habitations of righte-
ousness, and sin may never find shelter in them.
I come now, II. To offer some motives to persoade
you thus to turn your families into little churches.
And O that I could find out acceptable words, with
which to reason with you, so as to prevail ! S^tt
A SERMON ON FAMILY RELIGION.
593
me a little, and I will show you what is to be said on
God's behalf y which is worth your consideration.
1. If your families be little churches, God will
come to you, and dwell with you in them ; for he has
said concerning the church, This is my rest for ever,
here will I dwell. It is a very desirable thing to have
the gracious presence of God with us in our families,
that presence which is promised where two or three
Eire gathered together in his name. This was it that
David was so desirous of, (Ps. ci. 2.) O when wilt thou
come unto me ! His palace, his court, would be as a
prison, as a dungeon to him, if God did not come to
him, and dwell with him in it ; and cannot your hearts
witness to this desire, you who have houses of your
own, would you not have Ood come to you, and dwell
with you in them? Invite him, then, beg his presence,
court his stay. Nay, he invites himself to your houses
by the offers of his favour and grace ; Behold^ he stands
at your door ami knocks : it is the voice of your belov-
ed, open to him, and bid him welcome : meet him with
your '* Hosannas, blessed is he that cometh." He
comes peaceably, he brings a blessing with him, a
blessing which he will cause to rest upon the habi-
tations of the righteous, Ezek. xliv. 30. He will
command a blessing, which shall amount to no less
than life for evermore, Ps. cxxxiii. 3. This presence
and blessing of God will make your relations com-
fortable, your affairs successful, your enjoyments
sweet ; and behold, by it all things are made clean
to you. This will make your family comforts double
comforts, and your family crosses but half crosses ;
it will turn a tent into a temple, a cottage into a
palace. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole
earth, are the houses in which God dwells.
Now the way to have God's presence with yon in
your houses, is to furnish them for his entertainment.
Thus the good Shunammite invited the prophet Elisha
to the chamber she had prepared for him, by accom-
modating him there with a bed and a table, a stool
and a candlestick, 2 Kings iv. 10. Would yon fur-
nish your houses for the presence of God, it is not
expected that you furnish them as his tabernacle was
of old furnished, with blue, and purple, and scarlet,
and fine linen, but set up and keep up for him a
throne and an altar, that from the altar you and
yours may give glory to him, and from the throne he
may give law to you and yours ; and then you may
be sure of his presence and blessing, and may solace
yourselves from day to day in the comfort of it. God
will be with you in a way of mercy while you are
with him in a way of duty ; If you seek him he will
be found of you. The secret of God shall be in your
tabernacle, as it was in Job's, (rA. xxix. 4.) as it is
with the righteous, Ps. xxv. 14. Prov. iii. 32, 33.
2. If you make your houses little churches, God
will make them little sanctuaries; nay, he will him-
self be to you as a little sanctuary, Ezek. xi. 16. The
way to be safe in your houses, is to keep up religion
2q
and the fear of God in your houses ; so shall you
dwell on high, and the place of your defence shall be
the munition of rocks, Isa. xxxiii. 16. The law looks
upon a man's house as his castle, religion makes it
truly so. If God's grace be the " glory in the midst"
of the house, his providence will make a wall of (ire
round about it, Zech. ii. 5. Satan found it to his
confusion, that God made a hedge about pious Job,
about his house, and about all that he had on every
side, so that he could not find one gap by which to
break in upon him. Job i. 10. Every dwelling place
of mount Sion shall be protected as the tabernacle
was in the wilderness, for God has promised to create
upon it a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining
of a flaming fire by night, which shall be a defence
upon all the glory, Isa. iv. 5. If we thus dwell in
the house of the Lord all the days of our life, by
making our houses At> houses, we shall be hid in his
pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide
us, Ps. xxvii. 4, 5.
Wherever we encamp, under the banner of Christ,
the angels of God will encamp round about us, and
pitch their tents where we pitch ours ; and we little
think how much we owe to the ministration of the
good angels, that we and ours are preserved from
the malice of evil angels, who are continually seek-
ing to do mischief to good people. There are terrors
that fly by night and by day, which they only who
abide under the shadow of the Almighty can pro-
mise themselves to be safe from, Ps. xci. 1,5. Would
you insure your houses by the best policy of insur-
ance, turn them into churches, and then they shall
be taken under the special protection of him who
keeps Israel, and neither slumbers nor sleeps ; and
if any damage come to them, it shall be made up in
grace and glory. The way of duty is without doubt
the way of safety.
Praying families are kept from more mischiefs
than they themselves are aware of. They are not
always sensible of the distinction which a kind
Providence makes between them and others ; though
God is pleased sometimes to make it remarkable, as
in the story which is credibly related of a certain
village in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland, con-
sisting of ninety houses, which in the year 1584,
were all destroyed by an earthquake, except one
house, in which the good man and his family were
at that time together praying. That promise is sure
to all the seed of faithful Abraham, Fear not, I am
thy shield. Gen. xv. 1. Wisdom herself has past
her word for it, (Prov. i. 33.) Whoso hearkeneth to
me, wherever he dwells, he shall dwell safely, and
shall be quiet from all real evil itself, and from the
amazing, tormenting/ear of evil. Nothing can hurt,
nothing needs frighten, those whom God protects.
3. If you have not a church in your house, it is to
be feared that Satan will have a seat there. If reli-
gion do not rule in your families, sin and wickedness
594
A SERMON ON FAMILY RELIGION.
will rule there. / know where thou dweUesty (says
Christ to the an^el of the charch of Pergamos, Rev.
ii. 13.) even where Satan** seat is ; that was his afflic-
tion : bat there are many whose sin it is ; by their
irrelig;ion and immorality they allow Satan a seat in
their houses, and that seat a throne. They are very
willing that the strong man armed should keep his
palace there, and that his goods should be at peace ;
and the surest way to prevent this, is by setting up a
church in the house. It is commonly said, that where
God has a church, the devil will have his chapel :
but it may more truly be said in this case, where God
has not a church, the devil will have his chapel. If
the unclean spirit find the house in this sense empty,
empty of good, though it be swept and garnished, he
taheth to himself seven other spirits mare wicked than
himse/f\ and they enter in and dwelt there.
Terrible stories have been told of houses haunted
by the devil, and of the fear people have had of
dwelling in such houses ; verily those houses in
which rioting and drunkenness reign, in which swear-
ing and cursing are the language of the house, or in
which the more spiritual wickednesses of pride,
malice, covetousness, and deceit have the ascendancy,
may truly be said to be haunted by the devil, and
they are most uncomfortable houses for any man to
live in ; they are holds of foul spirits, and cages of
unclean and hateful birds, even as Babylon the
great will be when it is fallen. Rev. xviii. 2.
Now the way to keep sin out of the house, is to
keep up religion in the house, which will be the
most effectual antidote against Satan's poison.
When Abraham thought concerning Abimelech's
house. Surely the fear of God is not in this place, he
concluded no less but they will slay me for my wife*s
sake. Gen. xx. 11. Where no fear of God is, no
reading, no praying, no devotion, what can one ex-
pect but all that is bad ? Where there is impiety
there will be immorality ; they who restrain prayer,
cast off fear. Job xv. 4. But if religious worship
have its place in the house, it may be hoped that vice
will not have a place there. There is much of truth
in that saying of good Mr. Dod, " Either praying
will make a man give over sinning, or sinning will
make a man give over praying.'' There remains
some hope concerning those who are otherwise bad,
as long as tlicy keep up prayer. Though there be a
struggle between Christ and Belial in your houses,
and the insults of sin and Satan are daring and
threatening, yet as long as religion keeps the field,
and the weapons of its warfare are made use of, we
may hope the enemy will lose ground.
4. A church in the house will make it very com-
fortable to yourselves. Nothing more agreeable to
a gracious soul than constant communion with a
gracious God; it is the one thing it desires, to
dwell in the house of the Lord ; here it is as in its
element, it is its rest for ever. If, therefore, our
liouses be houses of the Lord, we shall for tint
reason love home, reckoning oar daily devotioti the
sweetest of our daily delights, and our family wor-
ship the most valuable of our family comforts. Tlus
will sanctify to us all the conveniences of our boosei,
and reconcile us to the inconveniences of it. What
are Solomon's gardens, and orchards, and pools of
water, and other delights of the sons of men, (Eccl.
ii. 5, 6, 8.) in comparison with these delights of tho
children of God?
Family religion will help to make oar family rela-
tions comfortable to us, by promoting love, prevent-
ing quarrels, and extinguishing heats that may at
any time happen. A family living in the fear of
God, and joining daily in religious worship, tmly
enjoys itself; Behold how good and how pleasant m
thing it is for brethren tlios to dwell together ; it is
not only like ointment and perfume which rejoice
the heart, but like the holy ointment, the holy per-
fume, wherewith Aaron the .saint of the Lord was
consecrated ; not only like the common dew to the
grass, but like the dew which descends apon the
mountains of Sion, the holy mountains, Ps. cxxxiii.
1—3. The communion of saints in that which is the
work of saints, is without doubt the most pleasant
communion here on earth, and the liveliest represen-
tation, and surest pledge, of those everlasting joys
which are the happiness of the spirits of just men
made perfect, and the hopes of holy sonls in this
imperfect state.
Family religion will make the affairs of the family
successful ; and though they may not in every thiof
issue to our mind, yet we may by faith foresee that
they will at last issue to our good. If this beaoty
of the Lord our God be upon us and oar families, it
will prosper the work of our hands unto as, yea, the
work of eur hands it will establish ; or however, it
will establish our hearts in that comfort which makes
every thing that occurs easy, Ps. xc. 17 ; cxii. 8.
We cannot suppose our mountain to stand so
strong but that it will be moved ; trouble in the flesh
we must expect, and aflliction in that from which
we promise ourselves most comfort ; and when the
Divine Providence makes our houses houses of
mourning, then it will be comfortable to have them
houses of prayer, and to have had them so before.
When sickness, and sorrow, and death come Into
our families, (and sooner or later they will come,) it
is good that they should find the wheels of prayer
going, and the family ac«;ustomed to seek God ; for
if we are then to begin this good work when distress
forces us to it, we shall drive heavily in it. They
who pray constantly when they are well, may pray
comfortably when they arc sick.
5. A church in the house will be a good legacy,
nay, it will be a good inheritance, to be left toyonr -
children after you. Reason directs os to consult the f
welfare of posterity, and to lay up in stoiv a g«oi
1
A SERMON ON FAMILY REUGION.
505
foundation for those who shall come after us to build
upon ; and we cannot do this better than by keeping
up religion in our houses. A family altar will be
the best entail ; your children will for this rise up,
and call you blessed, and it may be hoped they will
be praising God for you, and praising God like you,
here on earth, when you are praising him in heaven.
Yon will hereby leave your children the benefit
of many prayers put up to heaven for them, which
will be kept (as it were) upon tlie file there, to be
answered to their comfort, when you are silent in the
dust. It is true of prayer, what we say of winter,
** It never rots in the skies." The seed of Jacob
know they do not seek in vain, though perhaps they
live not to see their prayers answered. Some good
Christians, who have made conscience of praying
daily with and for their children, have been encou-
raged to hope that the children of so many prayers
should not miscarry at last: and thus encouraged,
Joseph's dying word has been the language of many
a dying Christian's faith, / die, but God will surely
visit you. Gen. 1. 24. I have heard of a hopeful
son, who said he valued his interest in his pious
father's prayer far more than his interest in his estate,
though a considerable one.
You will likewise hereby leave your children a
l^od example, which you may hope they will follow
when they come into houses of their own. The
usage and practice of your families is commonly
transmitted from one generation to another; bad
customs arc many times thus entailed. They who
burnt incense to the queen of heaven, learnt it of
their fathers, Jer. xliv. 17. And a vain conversation
was thus received by tradition, 1 Pet i. 18. And
why may not good customs be in like manner handed
down to posterity ? Thus we should make known the
ways of God to our children, that they may arise
and declare them to their children, (Ps. Ixxviii. 6.)
and religion may become an heir-loom in our fami-
lies. Let your children be able to say, when they are
. tempted to sit loose to religion. That it was the way
of their family, the good old way, in which their
fathers walked, and in which they themselves were
educated and trained up ; and with this they may
answer him who reproaches them. Let family wor-
ship, besides all its other pleas for itself, be able in
your houses to plead prescription. And though to
the acceptableness of the service, it is requisite that
it be done from a higher and better principle than
purely to keep up the custom of the family, yet bet-
ter so than not at all : and the form of godliness
may by the grace of God at length prove the happy
vehicle of its power ; and dry bones, whilst unburied,
may be made to live. Thus a good man leaves an
inheritance to his children ; and the generation of the
vpright shall be blessed.
6. A church in the house will contribute very much
to the prosperity of the church of God in the nation.
2 Q 2
Family religion, if that prevail, will put a face of
religion upon the land, and very much advance the
beauty and peace of our English Jerusalem. This
is that which I hope we are all hearty well-wishers
to ; setting aside the consideration of parties, and
separate interests, and burying all names of distinc-
tion in the grave of Christian charity, we earnestly
desire to see true catholic Christianity, and serious
godliness in the power of it, prevailing and flourish-
ing in our land ; to see knowledge filling the land,
as the waters cover the sea ; to see holiness and love
giving law, and triumphing over sin and strife : we
would see cause to call your city, A city of righte-
ousness, a faithful city, its walls salvation, and its
gates praise. Now all this would be eflected, if
family religion were generally set up and kept up.
When the wall was to be built about Jerusalem,
it was presently done by this expedient, every one
undertook to repair over against his own house.
See Neh. iii. 10, &c. And if ever the decayed walls
of the gospel Jerusalem be built up, it must be by
the same method. Every one must sweep before his
own door, and then the street will be clean. If there
were a church in every house, there would be such
a church in our land as would make it a praise
throughout the whole earth. We cannot better serve
our country than by keeping up religion in our fa-
milies.
Let families be well catechised, and then the pub-
lic preaching of the word will be the more profitable,
and the more successful. For want of this, when
we speak ever so plainly of the things pertaining to
the kingdom of God, to the most we do but speak
parables. The booh of the Lord is delivered to them
who are not catechised, saying. Read this, and they
say. We are not learned ; learned enough in other
things, but not in the one thing needful, Isa. xxix.
12. But our work is easy with those who from their
childhood have known the Holy Scriptures.
If every family were a praying family, public
prayers would be the better joined in, more intelli-
gently, and more affectionately ; for the more we are
used to prayer, the more expert we shall be in that
holy and divine art of ^* entering into the holiest *' in
that duty. And public reproofs and admonitions
would be as a nail in a sure place, if masters of fa-
milies would second them with their family disci-
pline, and so clench those nails.
Religious families are blessings to the neighbour-
hood they live in, at least by their prayers. A good
man thus becomes a public good, and it is his am-
bition to be so. Though he see his children's chil-
dren, he has small joy of that if he do not see peace
upon Israel, Ps. cxxviii. 5, 6. And therefore post-
poning all his own interests, and satisfactions, he
sets himself to seek the good of Jerusalem all the
days of his life. Happy were we if we had many
such. That which now remains, is to address myself
396
A SERMON ON FAMILY REUGION.
to you upon Uie whole matter by way of exhorta-
tion ; and I pray you let my counsel be acceptable
to you ; and while I endeavour to give every one
his portion, let your consciences assist me herein,
and take to yourselves that which belongs to
you.
III. The Application.
1. Let those masters of families who have hitherto
lived in the neglect of family religion be persuaded
now to set it up, and henceforward to lAake consci-
ence of it. I know it is hard to persuade people to
begin even a good work that they have not been used
to ; yet, if God by his grace apply this word, who
can tell but some may be wrought upon to comply
with the design of it? We have no ill design in
urging you to this part of your duty : we aim not at
the advantage of a party, but purely at the prospe-
rity of your families. We are sure we have reason
on our side, and if you will but suffer that to rule
you, we shall gain our point ; and you will all go
home firmly resolved, as Joshua was, that whatever
others do themselves, and whatever they say of you,
You and your hornet will serve the Lord. God put it
into, and keep it in, the imagination of the thought
of your heart, and establish your way therein before
him!
Proceed in the right method ; first set up Christ
upon the throne in your hearts, and tlien set up a
church for Christ in your house. Let Christ dwell
in your hearts by faith, and then let him dwell in
your houses ; you do not begin at the right end
of your work, if you do not first give your owu selves
unto the Lord ; God had respect first to Abel, and
then to his offering. Let the fear and love of God
rule in your hearts, and have a commanding sway
and empire there, and then set up an altar for God
in your tents ; for you cannot do that acceptably
till you have first consecrated yourselves as spiritual
priests to God, to serve at that altar.
And when your hearts, like Lydia% are opened
to Christ, let your house, like hers, be opened to him
too, Acts xvi. 14, 15. Let there be churches in all
your houses ; let those who have the stateliest, rich-
est, and best furnished houses, reckon a church in
them to be their best ornament : let those who have
houses of the greatest care and business, reckon
family religion their best employment; and not
neglect the one thing needful, while they are care-
ful and cumbered about many things : nor let those
who have close and mean habitations be discou-
raged ; the ark of God long dwelt in curtains.
Your dwelling is not so strait, but you may find room
for a church in it. Church work is often chargeable,
but you may do this church work cheap : you need
not make silver shrines, as they did for Diana, nor
lavish gold out of the bag, as idolaters did in the
service of their gods, (Isa. xlvi. 6.) no. An tdtmr tf
earth shall you make to your God^ (Exod. xx.24.)aid
he will accept it. Church work is accustomed to
be slow work, but you may do this quickly. Pit
on resolution, and you may set up this tabernacle
to-night, before to-morrow.
Would you keep up your authority in yoar famflj?
You cannot do it better than by keeping aprdigioB
in your family. If ever a master of a family loob
great, truly great, it is when he is going before kii
house in the service of God, and presiding among
them in holy things. Then he shows himself woitbj
of double honour, when he teaches them the good
knowledge of the Lord, and is their month to God
in prayer, blessing them in the name of God.
Would you have your family relations comfort-
able, your affairs successful, and give an eyidence of
your professed subjection to the gospel of Christ!
Would you live in God's fear, and die in his favov,
and escape that curse which is entailed upon pny- |
erless families ? Let religion in the power of ithavt
its due place, that is, the uppermost place in yoor
houses. I
Many objections your own corrupt hearts will ,
make against building these churches, but they wiH '
all appear frivolous and triflingto a pious mind, that
is stedfastly resolved for God and godliness: yoo
will never go on in your way to heaven, if you wifl
be frightened by lions in the street. Whatever ii
the difficulty you dread, the discouragement yon
apprehend, in it, I am confident it is not insoper-
able, it is not unanswerable, ^ut he thai observes the
wind shall not sow, and he that regaris the elovdsMl
not reap.
Be not loth to begin a new custom, if it be a
good custom, especially if it be a duty, (as certainly
this is,) which, while you continue in the neglect of,
you live in sin ; for omissions are sins, and must
come into judgment. It may be, that yon have beea
convinced that you ought to worship God in your
families, and that it is a good thing to do so ; but
you have put it ofi* to some more convenient season.
Will you now at last take occasion from this sermoB
to begin it ? And do not defer so good a work anj
longer. The present season is without doubt the
most convenient season. Begin this day ; let thii
be the day of your laying the foundation of the
Lord's temple in your house ; and then consider,
from this day and upward — as God by the pnipbiC
reasons with the people who neglected to build tbo
temple. Hag. ii. 18, 19. take notice — whether God
do not from this day remarkably bless you in all that
you have and do.
Plead not your own weakness and inability to
perform family worship ; make use of the helps that
arc provided for you ; do as well as you can wbca
you cannot do so well as you wonld, and God wiff
accept of you. You willingly write what is need-
A SERMON ON FAMILY RELIGION.
697
sary for the carr}'ing on of your trade, though you
cannot write so fine a hand as some others can ; and
will you not be as wise in the work of your Christian
calling, to do your best, though it be far short of the
best, rather than not do it at all ? To him who has
but one talent, and trades with that, more shall be
given ; but from him who buries it, it shall betaken
away. Be at some pains to make the Scriptures fa-
miliar to you, especially David's Psalms, and then
you cannot be to seek for a variety of apt expres-
sions proper to be used in prayer, for they will be
always at your right hand. Take mth you those
words, words which the Holy Ghost teaches, for you
cannot find more acceptable words.
And now shall I prevail with you in this matter?
I am loth to leave you unresolved, or but almost
persuaded ; I beg of you, for God's sake, for Christ's
sake, for your own precious souls' sake, and for the
children's sake of your own bodies, that you will
live no longer in the neglect of so great, and neces-
sary, and comfortable a duty as this of family
worship is. When we press upon you the more in-
ward duties of faith and love, and the fear of God,
it cannot be so evident that we succeed in our errand
as it may be in this. It is certain that you get no
good by this sermon — ^but it is wholly lost upon you
— if after you have heard it, or read it, you continue
in the neglect of family religion ; and if still you
**cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God."
Your families will be witnesses against you that
this work was undone ; and this sermon will witness
against you, that it was not for want of being called
to do it, but for want of a heart to do it when you
were called. But I hope better things of you, my
brethren, and things that accompany salvation,
though I thus speak.
2. Let those who have kept up family worship for-
merly, but of late have left it off, be persuaded to
revive it. This, perhaps, is the case of some of you ;
yoo remember the kindness of your youth, and the
love of your espousals ; time was when you sought
God daily, and delighted to know his ways, as fami-
lies who did righteousness, and forsook not the or-
dinances of your God ; but now it is otherwise. The
altar of the Lord is broken down and neglected, the
daily sacrifice is ceased ; and God has kept an ac-
coont how many days it has ceased, whether you
have or no, (Dan. viii. 13, 14.) Now God comes into
your bouses seeking fruit, but he finds none, or next
to none : you are so eager in your worldly pursuits,
that you have neither hearts nor time for religious
exercises. You began at first frequently to omit the
service, and a small matter served for au excuse to
put it by, and so by degrees it came to nothing.
O that those who have thus left their first love, would
now remember whence they are fallen, and repent,
and do their first works! Inquire bow this good
I" work came to be neglected ; was it not because
your love to God cooled, and the love of the world
prevailed ? Have you not found a manifest decay
in the prosperity of your souls since you let fall this
good work? Has not sin got ground in your hearts and
in your houses? And though, when you dropt your
family worship, you promised yourselves that you
would make it up in secret worship, because you
were not willing to allow yourselves time for both,
yet have you not declined in that also ? Are you not
grown less frequent, and less fervent, in your closet
devotions too? Where is now the blessedness you
have formerly spoken of? I beseech you to lay out
yourselves to retrieve it in time. Say as that peni-
tent adulteress, (Hos. ii. 7.) / will go and return to
my first husband, for then it was better with me than
now. Cleanse the sanctuary, and put away the
strange god. Is money the god, or the belly the god,
that has gained possession of thy heart and house ?
Whatever it is, cast it out. Repair the altar of the
Lord, and begin again the daily sacrifice and obla-
tion. Light the lamps again, and burn the incense.
Rear up the tabernacle of David which is fallen
down, lengthen its cords, and strengthen its stakes,
and resolve it shall never be ncglccte'-l again as it
has been. Perhaps you and your families have been
manifestly under the rebukes of Providence, since
you left off your duty, — and Jacob was, while he neg-
lected to pay his vow ; I beseech you, hear at length
the voice of the rod, and of him who has appointed
it, for it reminds you of your forgotten vows, saying.
Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there. Gen. xxxv.
1. Let the place thou dwellest in ever be a Bethel,,
so shall God dwell with thee tiiere.
3. Let those who are remiss and negligent in their
family worship be awakened to more zeal and con-
stancy. Some of you perhaps have a church in
your house, but it is not a flourishing church ; it is
like the church of Laodicea, neither cold nor hot ; or
like the church of Sardis, in which the things that re-
main are ready to die ; so that it hath little more than
a name to live. Something of this work of the Lord
is done for fashion sake, but it is done deceitfully :
yon have in your flock a male, but you vow and sa-
crifice unto the Lord a corrupt thing; you grow
"customary" in your accustomed services, and bring
the torn and the blind, the lame and the sick, for sa-
crifice ; and you offer that to your God which you
would scorn to offer to your governor ; and though
it is but little you do for the church in your house,
you think that too much, and say. Behold what a
weariness is it ! You put it off with a small and in-
considerable scantling of your day, and that the
dregs and refuse of it. You can spare no time at all
for it in the morning, nor any in the evenitig, till
you are half asleep. It is thrust into a comer, and
almost lost in a crowd of worldly business and car-
nal conversation. When it is done, it is done so
slightly, in so much haste, and with so little rever-
698
A SERMON ON FAMILY RELIGION.
ence, that it makes no impression upon yourselves or
your families. The Bible lies ready, but you have
no time to read ; your servants are otherwise employ-
ed, and you think it is no matter for calling them in ;
you yourselves can take up with a '* word or two of
prayer," or rest in a lifeless, heartless tale of words.
Thus it is every day, and perhaps little better on the
Lord's day ; no repetition, no catechising, no sing-
ing of psalms, or none to any purpose.
Is it thus with any of your families ? Is this the
present state of the church in your house? My bre-
thren. These things ought not to he so. It is not
enough that you do that which is good, but you must
do it well. God and religion have in effect no place
in your hearts or houses, if they have not the inner-
most and uppermost place. Christ will come no
whither to be an underling ; he is not a guest to be
set behind the door. What comfort, what benefit
can you promise to yourselves from such trifling
services as these ; from an empty form of godliness
without the power of it ?
I beseech you, sirs, make a business of your
family religion, and not a by-business. Let it be
your pleasure and delight, and not a task and
drudgery. Contrive your affairs so that the most
convenient time may be allotted both morning and
evening for your family worship, so that you may
not be unfit for it, or disturbed and straitened in it ;
herein wisdom is profitable to direct. Address
yourselves to it with reverence and seriousness,
and a solemn pause ; that those who join with you
may see and say, that God is with you of a truth,
and may be struck thereby into a like holy awe.
You need not be long in the service, but you ought
to be lively in it ; not slothful in this business, be-
cause it is the business for God and your souls, but
fervent in spirit^ serving the Lord,
4. Let those who have a church in their house, be
very careful to adorn and beautify it in their con-
versation. If you pray in your families, and read
the Scriptures, and sing psalms, and yet are passion-
ate and froward with your relations, quarrelsome
and contentious with your neighbours, unjust and
deceitful in your dealings, intemperate and given to
tippling, or allow yourselves in any other sinful way,
you pull down with one hand what you build up with
the other. Your prayers will be an abomination to
God, and to good men too, if they be thus polluted.
Be not deceived^ God is not moched.
See that you be universal in your religion, that it
may appear that you are sincere in it Show that
you believe a reality in it, by acting always under
the commanding power and influence of it. Be not
Christians upon your knees, and Jews in your shops.
While you seem saints in your devotions, prove not
yourselves sinners in your conversations. Having
begun the day in the fear of God, be in that fear all
the day long. Let the example you set your families
be throughout good, and by it teach them
to read and pray, for that is but half their i
by it teach them to be meek and bumble, s
temperate, loving and peaceable, just and
so shall you adorn the doctrine of God our
and those who will not be won by the word
won by your conversation. Your family w
an honour to yon, see to it that neither you i
be in any thing a disgrace to it.
5. Let those who are setting out in the i
up a church in their house at first, and not
Plead not youth and bashfulness ; if you h
fidence enough to rule a family, I hope 3
confidence enough to pray with a family.
The time is not come, the time that the Lor*
should be built, as they did who dwelt in tkt
houses, while God's house lay waste. Hag
It ought to be built immediately ; and th
you put it off, the more difficulty there will 1
doing of it, and the more danger that it w
be done.
Now you are beginning the world, (as yot
is it not your wisdom as well as duty to be|
God ? Can you begin better 'i or can you e
prosper if you do not begin thus ? The full
heads are of care about setting up house, anc!
up shop, and settling in both, the more d<
have of daily prayer, that by it you may ca
care on God, and fetch in wisdom and directi
on high.
6. In all your removals be sure you t:
'' church in your house" along with you. A
often removed his tent, but wherever he pit
there the first thing he did was to build an ai
is observable concerning Aquila and Prise
whose pious family my text speaks, that wl
Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans they y
Rome ; for he sends salutations to them thith
there it is said they had a church in theii
Rom. xvi. 5. But now, when he wrote this e|
the Corinthians they were at Ephesus, for th
should seem this epistle bore date, and here h
salutations from them; and at Ephesus al:
had a church in their house. As wherever
ourselves we must take our religion with
wherever we take our families, or part of th
must take our family religion with us; foi
places we need divine protection, and exp
divine goodness. / ttnll therefore that me
every where.
When you are in your city-houses, let 1
business of them crowd out your family re
nor let the diversions of your country-houses
pose your minds to these serious exercises,
care and that pleasure are unseasonable and i
nate, which leave you not both heart and t
attend the service of the church in your boux
Let me here be an advocate also for those Ca
A SERMON ON FAMILY RELIGION.
\mWT7
whose masters are often absent from them, for their
health or pleasure, especially on the Lord's day, or
long absent upon business. And let me beg these
absent masters to consider, with whom they leave
those few sheep in the wilderness, (1 Sam. xvii. 28.)
and whether they do not leave them neglected and
exposed. Perhaps there is not a just cause for your
absence so much, nor can you give a good answer to
that question. What dost thou here, Elijah ? But if
there be a just cause, you ought to take care that
the church in your house be not neglected when yon
are abroad, but that the work be done when you are
not at home to do it
7. Let inferior relatives help to promote religion
in the families where they are. If family worship
be not kept up in the houses where you live, let so
much the more be done in your closets for God and
your souls : if it be, yet think not that will excuse
joa from secret worship. All is little enough to
keep up the life of religion in your hearts, and help
^oa forward toward heaven.
Let the children of praying parents, and the ser-
vants of praying masters, account it a great privi-
lege to live in houses that have churches in them,
find be careful to improve that privilege. Be you
also ready to every good work ; make the religious
exercises of your family easy and pleasant to those
who perform them, by shovring yourselves forward
to attend on them, and careful to attend to them ;
for your backwardness and carelessness will be their
greatest discouragement. Let your lives also be
a credit to good education, and make it appear to
all with whom you converse, that you are every way
the better for living in religious families.
8. Let solitary people, who are not engaged in
families, have churches in their chambers, churches
in their closets. When every man repaired the wall
of Jerusalem over against his own house, we read of
one that repaired over against his chamber, Nch.
iii. 30. Those who live alone, out of the way of
family worship, ought to take so much the more time
for their secret worship, and, if possible, add the
more solemnity to it. You have not families to read
the Scriptures to, read them so much the more to
yourselves. You have not children and servants to
catechise, nor parents or masters to be catechised
by ; catechise yourselves then, that you may hold
fast the form of sound words, which you have re-
ceived. Exhort one another ; so we read it, (Heb.
iii. 13.) trapaKCLkiiTi tavrnQ — exhort yourselves, so it
might as well be read. Yon are not made keepers
of the vineyards, and therefore the greater is your
shame if your own vineyard you do not keep. When
you are alone, yet you are not alone, for the Father
is with you, to observe what you do, and to own and
accept yon, if you do well.
9. Let those who are to choose a settlement, con-
sult the welfare of their souls in the choice. If a
church in the house be so necessary, so comfortable,
then be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers,
who will have no inclination for the church in the
house, nor assist in the support of it, but instead of
building this house, pluck it down with their hands,
Prov. xiv. 1. Let apprenticeships and other ser-
vices be chosen by this rule, that " that is best for us
which is best for our souls ;*' and therefore it is our
interest to go with those, and be with those, with
whom God is, Zech. viii. 23. When Lot was to
choose a habitation, he was determined therein
purely by secular advantages, (Gen. xiii. 11, 13.)
and God justly corrected his sensual choice, for he
never had a quiet day in the Sodom he chose, till he
was fired out of it. The Jewish writers tell of one
of their devout rabbins, who being courted to dwell
in a place which was otherwise well accommodated,
but had no synagogue near, he utterly refused to
accept the invitation, and gave that text for his rea-
son, (Ps. cxix. 72.) The law of thy mouth is better
to me than thousands of gold and silver,
10. Let religious families keep up friendship and
fellowship with each other, and as they have oppor-
tunity assist one another in doing good. The com-
munion of churches has always been accounted their
beauty, strength, and comfort, and so is the commu-
nion of these domestic churches. We find here,
and in other of St. Paul's epistles, kind salutations
sent to and from the houses that had churches in
them. Religious families should greet one another,
visit one another, love one another, pray for one an-
other, and as becomes households of faith, do all the
good they can one to another ; forasmuch as they all
meet daily at the same throne of grace, and hope to
meet shortly at the same throne of glory, to be no
more, as they are now, divided in Jacob, and scat-
tered in Israel.
Lastly, Let those houses that have churches in
them, flourishing churches, have comfort in them.
Is religion in the power of it uppermost in your
houses? And are you and yours sening the Lord,
serving him daily? Go on and prosper, for the Lord
is with you while you be with him. See your houses
under the protection and blessing of heaven, and
be assured that all things shall work together for
good to you. Make it to appear by your holy cheer-
fulness that you find God a good master. Wisdom's
ways pleasantness, and her paths peace ; and that
you see no reason to envy those who spend their
days in carnal mirth, for you are acquainted with
better pleasures than any they can pretend to.
Are your houses on earth God's houses? Are they
dedicated to him, and employed for him ? Be of
good comfort, his house in heaven shall be yours
shortly : In my Fathers house there are many man-
sions ; and there is one, you may be sure, for each
of you, who thus by a patient continuance in well-
doing, seek for glory , honour, and immortality.
A SERMON
PREACHED TO THE
SOCIETIES FOR REFORMATION OF MANNERS,
AT SALTERS HALL, ON MONDAY, JUNE 30, 1712.
Psalm vii. 9.
O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end ; but
establish the just.
In all your religious assemblies, it is as much the
business of your ministers, who preside in them, to
pray with you, as to preach to you ; to be your month
to God, as to be God's mouth to you. He is a pro-
phet, and he shall pray for thee* is as natural an in-
ference as, be is a prophet, and he shall teach thee :
and in these two the apostles themselves summed
up the business of their apostolical office. We will
give ourselves to prayer^ and to the ministry of the
word:^ and those, who herein obtain mercy of the
Lord to be faithful, are their most genuine sons and
successors. And it is as much your business in
your attendance on religious assemblies, seriously
to join in the errands they go upon to the throne of
God*s grace, as dutifully to receive the messages
they bring from the throne of God's government;
always remembering that God speaks to us, and we
to him, by his Son.
In this religious assembly of the Societies for the
Reformation of Manners, we having now, by solemn
prayer, committed them and their pious undertaking
to God, having humbly begged the continuance of
his presence with them, and his favour to them, to
carry them on and succeed them in it, and make it
a means of great good to our land, I look upon it
that the work of the day is more than half done ; for
I am sure God's grace can do wonders without any
services of ours ; but the best of our services can do
nothing without his grace ; which we have as neces-
sary and constant a dependence upon for all the
good that is to be done by us, and all the good effect
» Gen. XX. 7.
b Acts vi. 4.
of it upon others, as we have upon the providence
of God, for the actions of the natural life ; and that
grace must be fetched in by prayer. If, therefore, the
God of Israel grant us the things we have now re-
quested of him, our point is gained ; year work goes
on successfully.
And, therefore, I see not how I can better befriend
the Societies, nor do more to serve their pious design,
in what remains of my work at this time, than by
doing what I can to engage the continuance of the
prayers of all who hear me this day, for the pros-
perity of them and it ; and that is what I aim at in
the choice of this text.
The undertaking is bold and great, and one in
which the spirit of a truly Christian hero appears,
as much as in anything, — a catholic spirit; the spirit
of one who seeks the things of Christ more than bis
own things. It has a direct tendency to the advanc-
ing of the honour of God, and of his kingdom
among men, and the interests of that holy reUgion
which we make a profession of, and the weakening
of the devil's kingdom ; it aims at the good of the
souls of men, and the welfare of the public : and,
therefore,iISf(en of Israel, help f help, by your prayers f^
to forward this good work. From this part of the
service I am sure there is none can excuse, can ex-
empt, themselves ; you are all therefore, in this way,
summoned " to the help of the Lord, to the help of
the Lord against the mighty ;" it is at your peril if
you disobey the summons.
I hope I speak to a praying people ; who make
conscience of prayer, who make a business of prayer,
who dare not live without prayer, (for those who do,
live without God in the world,) who would not live
without prayer, for it is their delight to approach
unto God. I hope I speak to those who pray for the
e Acts Xxl. 'iS.
H 2 Cor. 4. II.
A REFORMATION SERMON.
601
peace of Jerosalem, preferring it before their chief
Joj ; you are not Israelites indeed, if you are not of
the g^eneration of them that seek God, and wrestle
with him ; if you do not seek him, and wrestle with
bim for the welfare and prosperity of Israel : let me
therefore press it upon you with .all earnestness, to
take this concern of the *' reformation of manners''
into your daily prayers — alone, and in your families.
— as those who have sincerely espoused this right-
eous cause, have laid it near your hearts, and who
keep it there, and have an entire dependance upon
the almighty grace of God to make it successful.
My text is a prayer, and will be of use to direct
us herein ; it puts words into our mouths ; not many,
to burthen our memories, but very proper and
suited to our purpose, for we are here taught to pray
against all sin, and for all saints.
1. We are here taught to pray against all sin, to
pray it down ; to pray it, if possible, out of the world :
O lei the wickedness of the wicked come to an end!
And in praying against the sin, we pray for the sin-
ners ; for whatever makes against the disease, makes
for the patient.
Observe with what a pathetic strain of devotion
the Psalmist breathes out this petition, and teaches
OS to do so ; Oh ! let it come to an end ! when shall it
once he 1 In prayer, as there should be a fixedness
of thought, and a firmness of faith, so there should
be a flame and fervour of pious and devout affec-
tions. Cold desires do but beg denials ; and lifeless
wishes are fruitless ones ; but it is the effectual fer-
vent prayer of a righteous man that avails muck.
When Jacob wrestles with God he commences
**• Israel, a prince with God." The original word Kj
here used to express the emphasis laid upon this re-
quest, is sometimes translated now ; O that the wick-
edness of the wickedness might speedily come to an
end ; the sooner the better. Sometimes it is trans-
lated obsecro — / pray thee, let the wickedness of the
wicked come to an end ; this is that for which I
would be very importunate ; O that I might have
my request, and that God would grant me this thing
which I long for !
Some of the critics read it, Evil shall consume the
wicked; and so it ifl a prediction of the gradual
and final destruction of all impenitent sinners : they
who will not be reclaimed shall be consumed ; Evil
shall slay the wicked.* Their sin will be their ruin,
if they repent not. The man of sin, that wicked one,
shall be consumed ; ' and we are to pray for the
hastening of the day when God will do this, as the
day of the revelation of his righteous judgment.
But it is rather to be taken as we read it ; it is a
prayer, not that the wicked may come to an end, but
that their wickedness may ; that that may be con-
sumed ; let it not only be restrained and curbed, and
• Pa xzxiv. 31.
driven into comers, but let it be utterly abolished,
that we may not see it, or hear it, or hear of it, any
more. God is calling to mankind from heaven by
his word, O let the wickedness of the wicked come to
an end. O that sinners would cease to do evil^ and
learn to do well! Let the wicked forsake his wny^ and
the unrighteous man his thoughts. He says to the fools,
Deal not foolishly ; let him thai stole ^ steal no more.
This is the burthen of every song, Ttini ye, turn ye.
Now we must, by our prayers, concur vrith him here-
in ; as those who are of God's mind ; Amen, so be
it ; O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end,
God commands that men forsake their sins ; we pray,
that he would by his grace turn them from it, as
those who are of his mind, and say in sincerity,
Thy will he done.
2. We are here taught to pray for all saints, for
all good people ; But establish the just. Lord, let
not those who are filthy be filthy still, but let those
who are holy be holy still ; let the bad be made good,
and the good be kept so, and made better ; let the
same grace that first made them just, and wrought
righteousness in them, secure and carry on that good
work in their souls ; as the same word of power that
first made the world still upholds it.
The conversion of sinners, and the confirmation and
edification of saints, are the two great things ministers
are to aim at in their praying and preaching ; io
bring souls to Christ, which will effectually bring their
wickedness to an end ; and then to build them up
in him, which vrill be an effectual establishment of
the just
Or, by the '' just" here, we may understand those
who are not only just themselves, but, like Phineas,
execute judgment and justice upon daring crimi-
nals, for the staying of the plague. Lord, establish
them in their good purposes, and strengthen their
hands.
This is the prayer which we at a distance in the
country have many a time put up to God for you
here, and those in other places, who have ^et their
hands to this good work. St. Paul, in his epistles,
often tells his friends what it was which he asked of
God for them, making mention of them always in
his prayers, that they might know what to ask for
themselves, and might be encouraged to hope for all
that grace from God, which one who'had so great an
interest at the throne of grace, as Paul had, prayed
for, for them ; this is that which we desire of God for
you, that God would spirit you for your work, by
establishing your hearts ; and that he would succeed
you in it, by bringing the wickedness of the wicked
to an end. And we desire that all praying people
would frequently put up this prayer to God for
you.
It is easy to gather from these words,
f 2TheaB. U.S.
603
A REFORMATION SERMON.
That it is, and ought to be, the desire and prayer
of ail good people, that God by his grace would
put an end to the wickedness of the wicked, and
establish the just.
Now, 1. This supposes that there are two contrary
contesting interests in the world, visibly appearing
in most places ; that of the wicked, and that of the
just ; the children of God, who bear his image, and
do his will, and the children of the devil, in whom
he works, and who are led captive by him, as all the
children of disobedience are. This is a distinction
which is as old as Cain and Abel, and will last as
long as heaven and hell.
Look abroad into the world, and you will see per-
sons of very different characters, the reverse to each
other ; one would wonder how those of the same
nature, education, and conversation, should be so
unlike one another. When Solomon is observing,
that in the course of providence there is one event
to the righteous and to the wicked, yet at the same
time he industriously and very particularly shows,
that notwithstanding that, there is a vast difference
between them, in the temper of their minds, and the
tenor of their lives ; for one is clean, and the other
unclean ; one sacrifices, and the other sacrifices not;
one swears, and the other fears an oath.s Some
make conscience of what they say and do^ are in
care to do right, and afraid of doing amiss ; while
others live at large, and walk at all adventures.
Some are sober and temperate, and keep their appe-
tites in subjection to religion and right reason, while
others run to an excess of riot, and wallow in all
manner of uncleanness. Some are honest and just
in their dealings, while others are false and deceit-
ful, and there is no confidence to be put in them.
Some speak the language of Canaan, others the
language of Ashdod. Some take time every day to
call upon God, and converse with him, and sanctify
the Lord's day to his honour, while others cast off
fear, and restrain prayer, and make no difference
between sabbath time and other time. Now which
of these two will we recommend ourselves to, herd
ourselves with, and cast in our lot among? Which
of these will we take for our people, will we associ-
ate with of choice, and will we study to conform
ourselves to ? As our choice is, so will our doom be;
and to them whom we take for our people, death
will gather us, which if we duly consider, it will be
our prayer. Gather not my soul with sinners,**
Abundance of wicked people there are in this
world : it is therefore said to lie in wickedness ; the
whole world does so.' It is strange, it is sad, it is
very sad, it is very strange, that among men, who
are reasonable creatures, and depending upon their
Creator, that there should be so many wicked, who
act in a constant contradiction to the right reason of
p Ecc. ix. 2. h Ps. zxvi. 9. i 1 John v. 19. k laa. i. 13.
man, and a constant rebellion against the rigktfil
authority of God : but as says the proverb of fke |
ancients, so says the observation and experience of
the moderns. Wickedness proceedeth from the wiekei;
for do men gather grapes of thorns ? or do they ex-
pect good things in the life, from an evil treasaie ii
the heart ? No ; though some men's sins are lo art-
fully concealed and disguised, that it must be left to
•
the day to declare them ; and it is only the heart-
searching God who can say. It it tnt^iciVjf, it is hy-
pocrisy, even the solemn meeting ;^ and to him ^
judgment of such sins must be left; yet there are
others whose sins are open beforehand, going befwe
to judgment ;^ of which any one may say, as the
angel to the prophet. This is wickedness ;"* and wick-
edness of this kind we may and must in our places
witness against. Do I need to tell you what that
wickedness of the wicked is, which we must endea-
vour in our places to put a stop to ? Your own hearts
will tell you ; some of the instances of it eveo (he
heathen were convinced of by natural conscience.
You know it is wickedness for men to profane the
holy name of God, and by their ludicrous or passion-
ate appeals to him, to make him altogether such a
one as themselves ; or to abuse themselves, their
own bodies, and the gifts of God's providence, aod
by their drunkenness and uncleanness to nake
themselves altogether such as the beasts, and non
vile. Do I need to tell you who the just are? Yoor
own hearts tell you. They are not those of this or
that dividing name or party : no, far be it froo as
to monopolize the character; for in every matin,
and under every denomination of Christians, those
who fear God, and work righteousness^ are aeeefttd
of him,'' and must be so of us. The just are they who
live in the fear of God, and make conscieoce of
rendering what is due to him, to themselves, to all
with whom they have to do : these are they whose
establishment we should seek.
2. This directs us which of these two interests to
espouse, and side with, and make our own ; asthoie
who are convinced which is in the rifj^ht, and which
in the wrong, which will make as happy, and which
will ruin us ; particularly we are directed which of
these to serve with our prayers. If we would he
found on the Lord's side, in the day of inquiry, we
must by our prayers act in concert with the just, and
in communion with them, and help to establish
them ; and in contradiction to the wicked, and tbdi
wickedness, which we must do all we can to biisf
to an end.
For the opening of this I shall endeavour to shov,
I. What it is we are directed in the text to de»R
and pray for. II. Why it is, and ought to be, the
desire and prayer of all good Christians. And then
make the application.
1 1 Tim. v. 24.
m Zech. V. 8.
• Actsz.3&.
A REFORMATION SERMON.
e03
I. That which we are to desire and pray for, is in
short this, That wickedness, that root of bitterness,
may be rooted out of this world, and that righteous-
ness, that plant of renown, may be planted and root-
ed in it This I say we must desire and pray for ;
it is not enough in word and tongue to pray for it,
but we must sincerely and in heart desire it; nor is
it enough in heart to desire it, but we must by prayer
offer up our desires to God, in the name of Christ,
for the plentiful effusions and powerful operations
of that g^ce upon the minds and spirits of men,
which are necessary to the effecting of these good
works, and the attaining of these good ends ;* that
that g^ce may be sufficient.
1. We must desire and pray, that God by his
grace would bring the wickedness of the wicked to
an end, to a full end ; that, by his Spirit, he would
counter- work and overrule that evil spirit, which
works and rules in the children of disobedience.
This charity must begin at home ; we must in the
first place pray, that God by his grace would bring
the wickedness that is in our own wicked hearts to
an end ; that our corruptions may be mortified and
subdued, and the power of our inordinate appetites
and passions crushed and broken, and that we may
be kept from every evil work and way.
But though it must begin at home, it must not end
there ; we must pray that the wickedness of other
wicked people may come to an end, in the places
where we live, in the city, in the nation, all the
world over.
It must be our heart's desire and prayer,
(1.) That wicked principles may be exploded and
abandoned, and that men may be set right in their
judgments concerning good and evil, right and
wrong, God and themselves, this world and the
other ; that the beast may be wounded in the head,
and that will be a deadly wound f that a blow may
be given to the root of wickedness, by rectifying the
mistakes of the understanding ; that salt may be
cast into the springs, and so the waters may be
healed ; for this is God's way of gaining the will
and affections, by opening the understanding ; and
it is the regular way, it is coming in by the door.
Till the peccant humours in the blood be purged
out, in vain is application made to the external
eruptions of the disease. Those who are bad, are
so upon some bad principles, with Which the god of
this world has blinded their minds, and till those
are conquered and laid aside, the wickedness of the
heart and life will not be brought to an end.
O that men may be made to see the folly and false-
hood of those atheistical notions and schemes, by
which their fear of God, and their dread of sin, and
the fatal consequences of it, are abated, and by de-
grees worn off, that they may no longer, as they have
o Rev. xiii;^ p Ps. xiv. 1. q Ps. zciv. 7. r- Pa. x. 11, 13.
done, call good evil, and evil good, put darkness for
light, and light for darkness. O that sinners may be
convinced of the absurdity of that with which they
support themselves in their sinful ways, and are en-
couraged to say, They shall have peace thovgh they
go oTiy and that they may see their mistake before
it is too late to have it rectified ! O that God's grace
would open men's eyes before the flames of hell do
it ! That the fallacy of that which pretends to wit
may be discovered, and made contemptible by that
which is real wisdom. The word of God, which is
a discemer of the thoughts and intents of the heart,
has intimated to us what the principles are that sin-
ners go upon ; they say in their heart. There is no
God ; P or, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the
God of Jacob regard it ;'' He hideth his face, and he
will not require it,' Nay, they have the impudence
to say. Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight
of the Lord;* or, Why doth he yet find fault, for
who hath resisted his will ? ' O that men might be
beaten off from these strong holds, and that the hail
might sweep away this refuge of lies; and these
high thoughts might be captivated and brought into
obedience to the power of divine truth. These cor-
rupt principles are commonly concealed, and those
who are fond of them are ashamed to own them ; I
wish the sinners yon deal with, could be brought to
discover them, and to confess what the tempter sug-
gested to them, when he drew them into his snares ;
that some course might be taken to inform them
better ; to give them right thoughts of the differences
between good and evil, of the holiness and justice of
God, the strictness of his law, and to convince them,
that for all these things God will bring them into
judgment." O that men were brought to shake off
the loose thoughts they have of the Scriptures, the
low thoughts they have of religion and godliness,
and the slight thoughts they have of sin, and to re-
ceive the truth in the light and love of it.
O that popery, which is so great a friend to sin,
might be known to be, what really it is, a mystery
of iniquity, sin in disguise, which when it is revealed
and set in a true light, is soon consumed by the
breath of Christ's mouth, his word, and Spirit, and
the brightness of the coming* of his truth into the
soul. Idolatry was always an inlet to immorality
and all impiety ; and, therefore, it is necessary to
the reformation of manners, that the principles upon
which we reformed from popery, be closely and
faithfully adhered to, by which the honour of Christ,
the authority of the Scriptures, and the strictness of
the divine law, are supported. These will help to
reform the manners of the nation ; and in return
thereof, the more the manners of the nation are re-
formed, the better fortified it will be against popery ;
for the mystery of faith is best held in a pure con-
• Mai. ii. 17. t Rom. ix. 19. » Eccl. xi. 9. ▼ 2 TheRS. ii. a
604
A REFORMATION SERMON.
science ;" our enemies know, tbat profaneness paves
the way to popery.
(2.) We must desire and pray, that wicked per-
sons may be converted and changed, by the grace of
God. Has God given us his grace, and have we
experienced the benefit of it ? O let us be earnest
with him to give it to those who are yet in sin ; that
thus the wickedness of the wicked might be brought
to an end, by the teaching of transgressors the ways
of God, and the conversion of sinners unto him ; '^
that the public preaching of the word may be effec-
tual for this purpose, and mighty through God for the
turning of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just;
that in the chariot of the everlasting gospel, the
great Redeemer may ride forth conquering and to
conquer.
O let us be humbly earnest with God in prayer,
that the eyes of the blind may be opened, and the
ears of the deaf unstopped ; that wandering sheep
may be sought and saved, and prodigal sons brought
to themselves first, and then to their father's house ;
that God would translate those into the kingdom of
his dear Son, who have been long subjects in the
kingdom of darkness. O that they who are Satan's
slaves may be the Lord's freemen, and that God
would bring their souls out of prison. O that the
sea might fly, and Jordan might be driven back, and
the rock turned into a fountain of waters at the pre-
sence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of
Jacob.y O that the Ethiopian might be made to
change his skin, and the leopard his spots, and tbat
they might yet at last be brought to do good, who
have been accustomed to do evil.'
We must not despair concerning the worst ; for
while there is life, there is hope, and room for prayer:
the repentance of Manai^eh, and the conversion of
Paul, tell us that nothing is too hard for the almighty
grace of God to do. The Corinthians were many of
them as bad as the worst, and as vile as the vilest;
such were some of you, and yet ye are washed,
and sanctified, and justified.* Let us, therefore,
apply ourselves to Christ, for those who have been
long under the power of sin and Satan, as the father
of the possessed child in the gospel. If thou canst
do any thing, have compassion upon thenty and help
them^^ O snatch them as brands out of everlasting
burnings ! O that drunkards and harlots might be
made sober and chaste ; that those who so passion-
ately curse and swear, may be brought as affection-
ately to pray and praise; that sabbath breakers
might be sabbath sanctifiers. O that Satan may be
dispossessed of his strong holds, that the prey may
be taken from that mighty one, and the unlawful cap-
tive may be delivered ; that Christ's throne may be
set up where the usurper's seat has long been : With
men, this is impossible^ but with God all things are
w 1 Tim. ili. 0.
y Ps. cxiv. 3, 7, 8.
X Ps. li. 13.
« Jer. xiii. 23.
possible, even this. Nay, the worse any are, the more
earnestly we should desire and pray for their con-
version, not only because otherwise their ruin will
be the greater, but because there will be so much the
greater joy in heaven for their repentance, more for
one of them than for ninety-nine just persons who
comparatively need no repentance.^ How earnest
should we be herein, did we consider that the con-
verting of a soul from sin is the saving of a aonl
from death.*
Those whom you reprove and inform against for
their wickedness, it should be with a strong desire
for tlyeir conversion, and that the trouble yon give
them may contribute to it ; that the uneasiness yon
put them to, may make them weary and heavy laden
under the burthen of sin, and willing to get clear of
it by coming to Christ. O that the punishing of than
might prevent their perishing, and that when they
are holden in the cords of affliction, their ear may
be open to discipline : let yonr prayers always ac-
company'your endeavours to reclaim and refoni
them, that while you are making tbem examples of
your justice, God by his grace may make then
monuments of his mercy. When you prosecute then,
pray that God would pardon them : Father, fergm
them, and qualify them for forgiveness. And if God
forgive them, and let them know that he has forgiren
them by a saving change wrought in them, they will
not only forgive you this wrong, bat will thank yon,
and thank God for you, as David for Abigail, and
for the seasonable stop you gave them, when they
were hastening apace to their own ruin.
(3.) We must desire and pray, tbat wicked prac-
tices may be prevented and restrained ; that tfaoagh
the root of bitterness be not plucked up, yet that it
may not spring up to trouble us, and thereby many
should be defiled ; and that whatever may lie kid,
yet there may not appear any fornicator or profane
person among us, as Esau.* Let as pray, that if
the stream be not turned, yet it may be checked
and dammed up, and may not become an over-
flowing deluge ; that though the Hon be not turned
into a lamb, yet he may be chained up and kept
within grates ; that though the unclean spirit be not
cast out, yet he may be silenced, and not suffered to
speak, not suffered to tear. Est aiiquid prodirt
tewis, si non datnr ultra — To this degree he may pre-
ceed, but not beyond. O that God by his grace woald
restrain tife remainder of the wickedness of the
wicked, would set bounds to the breaking out of it
as he does to the waves of the sea, hitherto skaB
it comcn and no further ; that though Balaam be
still the same he was, yet he may not be suffered
to curse Israel ; that though Sennacherib has sdU
an inveterate rage against God, yet he may be made
to feel that God has a hook in his nose, and a bridle
• 1 Cor. vi. 10, II.
4 James v. 20.
b Mark ix. 22.
e Luke XT. T.
• Heb.xii.15,16.
A REFORMATION SERMON.
eo6
in his jaws.' And O that the magistrate who bears
the sword might be, as the Scripture calls him. An
heir of rettraini,^ a terror to evil doers, and that
the proper means used for the suppression of vice
and profaneness, may attain the end ; so that though
sin has blossomed and budded, yet it may not rise
up into a rod of wickedness, to oppress the lot of
the righteous.''
We should desire and pray, that thus far at least
; the wickedness of the wicked may come to an end,
that it may not be committed openly, and that the
infection may not spread.
[1.] O let not wickedness be committed publicly
and openly, and in the face of the sun, as it were
by licence, and with allowance. Let those who will
not be persuaded to hate sin, and who cannot blush
for it, yet be compelled to forbear it before men ;
and since they will be as the horse and the mule
that have no understanding, let them be held in,
as they are, with bit and bridle.^ Let those who
will not by fair reasoning be made ashamed of the
sin they have committed, by a due correction be
made afraid to commit it again ; and if they will
not tremble at the wrath of God revealed from hea-
ven against them, let them be afraid of the civil
powers, which bear not the sword in vain.'' Let all
iniquity be made at least to hide her head, and stop
ber mouth,' that if men will not be wrought upon,
by ministers' preaching, to break off their sins, yet
by the magistrates' acting they may be driven into
corners, and if they do things that arc not right,
they may do them secretly, and so the nation may
not bear the guilt and blame of it."*
If the laws of God and religion prevail not to be
obeyed and submitted to, yet let them not be impu-
dently affronted and bid defiance to. If the wicked
will still do wickedly, and will not be made to
understand," yet let them not pass without rebuke,
and a testimony borne against their wicked ways ;
let them not be able to make their sin fashionable,
nor to bring it into reputation ; but let it be made to
appear, as it is, odious and scandalous, and that
which all wise and good men have a dislike of. If
the idols of iniquity be not driven out of the world,
and quite abolished, yet let them be cast to the moles
and to the bats.** If men will be drunk, let them
be drunk in the night,p and let the works of dark-
ness know and keep their place, but let those who
are of the day be sober, and walk honestly, and as
becomes them. O that the wickedness of the wicked
might thus far at least come to an end, that they may
not dare to declare it as Sodom,** so as to vex the
righteous souls of those about them from day to day,
with their filthy conversation.^ Let the sin be the
ruin of the sinner, as certainly it will be, if it be
f ItA. Kxxvii. 28, 39.
i Ps. xxxiU %
m 2 Kings xvii. 9.
f Judg. xviii. 7. Marg. b Ezek. vii. 10, 11.
k Rom. xiii. 4. l Ps. cvii. 42.
a Dan. xii. 10. o ba. ii. 20.
not repented of; but let it not, by going bare-faced
and undisturbed, be the reproach of the nation. Let
not the fathers of our country be such as Eli was to
his family, whose sons made themselves vile, and he
restrained them not;' but let it ever be said, to the
honour of our land, to the honour of your city, that
though there be found those who boldly bend their
tongues like their bow for lies, yet there are found
those likewise who are valiant for the truth in the
earth.' And though there are honis^four horns, that
attempt to scatter Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, io
run down all that is sacred and just, yet there are
those who lift up the head against them, there are
four carpenters who come to break these horns, and
to cast them out;** that the horns of the wicked
being cut off (though their heads be not) the horns
of the righteous may be exalted.*
[2.] O let not the wickedness of the wicked be
propagated, so as to infect others. Let this plague
die with those who are dying of it, because they will
die ; but O let the contagion be kept from spreading.
Though multitudes drop into the pit daily, yet let
not the bills of this mortality rise ; though things
are bad let them not grow worse. If the sinners
themselves will not be persuaded to leave, yet let
not those about them be persuaded to leam their
pernicious ways. They have erred, but let their
error remain with themselves, and let not others be
tainted with it, nor carried away by it. O let not
this leprosy overspread the whole body ; let it never
be said,4hatyrom the crown of the head to the sole of
the foot, there is no soundness, nothing but wounds and
bruises.
We know that sinners are enticing : the wise man
supposes this. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent
thou not. They who have the plague are willing to
infect others. The devil was no sooner an apostate
himself, but he became a tempter to man ; and they
who are of that wicked one thus do his lusts. Those
who are bad, I fear are more industrious to debauch
others, and to make them as bad as themselves, than
those who are good are to invite others to the ways
of religion and virtue, and to make them as good as
themselves.
We know also by sad experience, that sin is an
enticing thing ; it has its baits with which it allures
the unthinking and unstable into the net ; and there
is in the corrupt nature of man a proneness to follow
bad examines, and to go into the measures of those
who take their measures from the world and the
flesh ; and to follow them straightway, without any
consideration, as an ox goes to the slaughter." We
should therefore earnestly desire and pray, as we are
taught to do every day, that God would not lead
either us or others into temptation, but out of it,
P 1 Thess. V. 7.
• 1 Sam. iii. 13.
» Ps. Ixxv
q Isa. iii. 0.
t Jer. ix. 3.
10.
r 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8. 9.
u Zech. i. 19. 71.
Prov. vii. 22.
006
A REFORMATION SERMON.
and would deliver us and them from eyil. O pray
that the tongue of the tempters may be tied, and
they may be ashamed to do the devil's work, and
that the force of the temptation may be broken ;
pray that the ear of the tempted may be stopped,
and that they may be enabled, with the shield of
faith, to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked
one. Let us stand with our censer, like Aaron, be-
tween the living and the dead, between the sick and
the sound, and endeavour, by our intercessions, to
stay the plague. Let us desire and pray, that in
wicked families the entail of sin may be cut off,
that there may not rise up in the fathers' stead an
increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce
anger of the Lord, the thing Moses dreaded. Numb,
xxxii. 14. But that the son, when he sees all his
father's sins, may consider, and not do like him,"
nor tread in his steps, that so the next generation,
at least, may be better than this. Pray, that in
wicked places, where there are many sinners, there
may be no more ; that men may be so wise for them-
selves, as well as just to the cause of virtue and
serious godliness, as not to make friendship, or keep
company, with the vicious and profane, lest they
learn their way, and get a snare to their souls.
O let us be earnest with God in prayer, that he
would give more, and yet more, of that grace which
is necessary in order to the putting of this full stop
to the course of sin. Pray for grace for those who
do not yet desire it, or pray for it for themselves ; it
might do well, when we are alone with €k>d, to be
particular herein ; Lord give grace to such a sinner,
who is very provoking both to God and good men,
preventing grace, restraining grace, renewing grace,
victorious grace. Let Saul become Paul, that it
may appear, that that pattern of divine mercy, which
was of old set forth to them which should afterwards
believe,^ may yet be copied out again, in answer to
prayer, as that was in answer to Stephen's prayer ;
God's arm is not shortened that it cannot save the
greatest sinner, nor is his ear heavy, that it cannot
hear the weakest prayer, that is offered up in faith,
the prayer of the destitute.
2. We must desire and pray, that God by his grace
would establish the just ; that religion and godliness
may get ground, as vice andprofaneness lose ground.
Let us pray,
(I.) That the just may be established in their in-
tegrity, and may ever retain it. It is the duty of the
watchmen to warn not only the wicked, that they go
not a step further in their wicked ways, but the
righteous also, that they turn not a step back from
their righteous ways, that they do not so much as
look back,' and our desire and prayer must be ac-
cordingly, as those who are afraid, lest a promise
being left us of entering into rest, not only we our-
s Ezek. xviiL 14. i 1 Tim. i. 16. > Exek. iii. 19, 21. » Heb. iv. L
selves, but any others of us, should so much as
to come short.* O that good people may be esta>
blished in their good principles and good resolo-
tions, and may faithfully adhere to them ; tiiat die
righteous may still hold on their way, and those
who have clean hands may be stronger and stronger.
O that, though the stream be strong, the righteous
may be enabled to swim against it, and may never
be carried down by it ; but that, like Job, in diffi-
cult, trying times, they may still hold fast their in-
tegrity ; may keep themselves pure in times of
common iniquity, and may, like fish, be fresh in salt
water ; as Noah, in the old world. Nay, we shoald
desire and pray, that the just may be like springs of
water, which, by antiperistasis, are wannest when
the air is coldest ; that the worse others are, the bet-
ter they may be ; that the more others profane the
name of God, the more they may abound in praising
it ; the more loose others are in their conversation,
the more circumspect they may be ; as Noah and
Lot, who were both better in the midst of tempta-
tion, than when they were out of the way of it.
We should especially be earnest with God in
prayer for young people, who are setting out in the
world, that by the grace of God they may be pre-
served from the corruption that is in the world throaj^
lust ; that that may not be a spark to the tinder of
the corruption that is in their hearts. Commit them
to the conduct and custody of the divine grace.
JTeep, hohj Fathei\ keep throngh thy name ikote tiuit
we commit unto thee^ keep them from the evil of this
present worlds keep them to the end.^ Those who
have been blest with a good education, who have
begun well, and promise fair, and are norabered
among the just, O that they may be confirmed in the
choice they have made, and may always abide by
it ; that when they come to the turning time of life,
such a right turn may be given to their thoughts, as
that they may be stedfastly resolved for heaven, as
their end, and Christ and holiness as their way.
Satan and his agents have a particular spite at such,
and are industrious to draw them aside : O let us
help them by our prayers, that they may be fortified
against the temptations the world is full of, and may
never lose the things they have wrought, the things
they have gained; but may obtain a full reward.'
That the holy seed may be the substance of oar
land,** and never the shame of it, by mingling them-
selves with the people of these abominations ; that
they may appear to be a seed which the Lord has
blessed in answer to prayer, and which we shall
bless him for ; that the branches of the families of
God's people may continue branches of righteous-
ness.
(2.) That they may be established in their com-
fort and hope. In troublesome, threatening times
b John xvii. 11.
e 2 John 8.
4 ka TiI3L
A REFORMATION SERMON.
007
men are apt to be shaken in mind, and to fear
e cause and interest of religion should be sonk
in down ; when they see how iniquity abounds,
10W cold the love of many is, how bold the
s' for hell are grown, and how bashful the
ates for Christ and his gospel are, they are
to give up all for gone ; ready to say, when
iee the ungodly prosper in the world, that they
cleansed their hearts and hands in vain.* We
therefore, need to pray for them, that they may
ablished in the belief of the promise, that the
of hell shall never prevail against the church,
lay encourage themselves and one another with
d may never cast away their confidence in it.
t the just may be established in the assurance
I, that God will plead his own cause, will own
vn interests, will do his own work, and will be
*i\ in his own strength. Though his truths be
ed and ridiculed, yet they are great, and shall
il. Though his name be profaned, yet he has
ed it, and will glorify it yet again ; he will
ify his law, and make it honourable,' though
ilify it, and make it contemptible. These are
ue sayings of God,
^, Lord, give to the just to believe in the Lord
God, that so they may be established,^ and not
-aid of evil tidings, nor despair of their cause,
»r so much as distrust it ; for it is not the cause
•arty that they espouse and embark in, but that
tholic Christianity, pure religion, and unde-
)efore God and the Father, which we are sare
ceep its ground, and carry the day ; it is the
!om of God among men, which cannot be de-
;d. O that the just may rejoice and glory in
that this may keep their resolutions firm, and
hopes flourishing, in the worst of times ; that
nay rejoice in God, and glory in him, and their
icing set upon this rock, they may have a new
put into their mouths.
I That they may be established in their under-
g to do what they can to bring the wickedness
e wicked to an end ; Lord, by thy grace,
^then their hands in their opposition to the in-
s of sin and Satan in the world. O that they
t>e confirmed in the principles they go upon
in, and may not be shaken by any doubts or
jsies, concerning the equity and goodness of
luse they are engaged in, but may be abund-
satisfied in their own minds, that in bearing
testimony against, and giving a check to, im-
lity and profaneness, in their places, they are
; a good work, and if they sincerely aim at the
ir of God in it, he will graciously accept it, as
iir done to him.
hat they may not be shaken by any discourage-
s they meet with, any difficulties they find in
Pi Ixxiil. 12, 13. f Isa. xlii. 21. n 2 Chron. xx. 9a
b Job xvii. 8. i Ezra x. 2.
their way, but that their seal and resolution may be
rather the more animated thereby ; that they may
not be driven off from it, or made to drive on heavily
in it, either by the heat of those who own themselves
enemies to it, or by the coldness of those who yet
own themselves friends to it ; pray for them, that
God by his grace would help them over these dis-
couragements, that when upright men cannot but be
astonished at this," astonished that so good a work
should be so much opposed and so little furthered,
yet they may not sit down astonished, as Ezra, in a
like case, despairing to bring any thing to pass ;
but that the innocent may stir up himself so much
the more against the hypocrite, because, as Ezra
was then told. There is yet hope in Israel concerning
this thing ;' the case is bad, but not desperate.
We ought to pray for magistrates, for the Queen,
and all in authority, for the judges, and the justices
of peace in the several counties and corporations^
that they may be established in a holy zeal against
▼ice and profaneness, and a resolution to do the
utmost they can in their places to suppress it ; that
God would give them his judgment and his righte-
ousness,*' that, according to the trust reposed in
them, they may be for the punishment of evil doers,
and for the praise of them who do well.' We are
doing our own work when we are praying for kings
and all in authority, for if they be established in
their duty, we shall live quiet and peaceable lives
under them in all godliness and honesty ;°* the re-
straint of the vicious will be the repose of the vir-
tuous, and a defence of their virtues.
We ought to pray for ministers, for all the minis-
ters of the word of God, that they may be full of
power, by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment,
and of might, may have both wisdom and courage
to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Is-
rael his sin ;" that they may set their face as a flint,
in a holy zeal against profaneness ; and that the
Spirit of God may work with them, and by them, to
convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of
judgment® Pray that ministers may be established,
and their hands strengthened, in their work, though
they are sometimes tempted to say, *' We have la-
boured in vain."
We ought to pray for masters of families, that
their endeavours may be blessed in the education of
their children and servants, and they may be estab-
lished in Joshua's resolution, that they and their
houses will serve the Lord ; pray that they may be
reformers in their own families, may prevail to drive
out the foolishness that is bound up in the heart of
those under their charge, and to principle them with
an antipathy to that which is evil, betimes, and then
the work of magistrates and ministers would be very
easy.
k Piw Ixxii. 1. 1 1 Pet ii. 14. « 1 Tim. ii. %
■ Mic. iii. S. o John ivi. 9i
608
A REFORMATION SERMON.
And for all who in their places are striving against
sin, let us strive in our prayers, that they may be
established in their resolution not to draw back
their hand, wherewith they have stretched out the
spear against those vices that are the common ene-
mies of our Israel, (as is said of Joshua in his battle
with the men of Ai,) till they have utterly destroyed p
and suppressed them, or at least done their utmost
toward it ; that having an eye lo him, who, in striv-
ing against sin endured the contradiction of sinners
against himself, they may not be weary, nor faint in
their minds. <i And, in order to this establishment
of the just, and the progress and success of that
righteous cause wherein they are engaged, the great
thing, and indeed the one thing needful, we have to
ask of God, is, that the Spirit may be poured out
upon us from on high, a spirit of wisdom and under-
standing, of counsel and might, of knowledge and
of the fear of the Lord, and then the wilderness shall
become a fruitful field ; ' then the work will go on
and prosper, till there shall be no more occasion for
it. And there is no petition we can present at the
throne of grace with more hope of speeding than this,
" for the pouring out of the Spirit ;" for if earthly
parents, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto
their children, how much more shall our heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him /'
II. I come next to show why it is, and ought to
be, the desire and prayer of all good people, that
the wickedness of the wicked may come to an end,
and the just may be established in their opposition
to it.
1. All good people have a holy concern for the
name and honour of God, and the Lord Jesus, and
for the reputation of that holy religion which we
make profession of; and therefore they cannot but
desire, that that may come to an end, by which God
is dishonoured, his name is profaned, the Lord Jesus
crucified afresh, and religion wounded in the house
of her friends. All the children of God having his
glor}' in their eyes, as their highest end, have it upon
their hearts as their chief care, and it is dearer to
them than any interests of their own ; nothing grieves
them so much as the injury done to the honour of
God, by the wickedness of the wicked, and the
great occasion thereby given his enemies to blas-
pheme. Horror takes hold of their hearts, and rivers
of tears run down their eyes, because of this.' Every
good man should be able to say, as David, 77<e re-
proaches of them tliat reproached thee are fallen upon
me,^ I take them as cast upon myself, and there-
fore the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, has
made me forget myself, and all interests and con-
cerns of my own, that I might be wholly swallowed
up with the resentments of the dishonour to God,
and that worthy name by which I am called.
P Josh. viii. S6.
r laa. xxxii. \b.
q Heb. xii. 3.
■ Luke xi. 13.
Let that therefore come to an end, let it be wholly
extirpated, which is such a daring affront to God'i
majesty, such an impudent contempt of his sove-
reignty, such a direct contradiction to his truth, and
such an open violation of his law ; which grieves the
Spirit of his grace, and bids defiance to his strivings;
which supports the kingdom of Satan, that kingdom
of darkness and malignity, and is in constant oppo-
sition to that kingdom of light, holiness, and love,
which the Lord Jesus came to set ap in the world.
Will not all those then who rightly understand the
thing, and lay it to heart, earnestly pray that that
may come to an end, which has all this mischief in
it ; and that those may be established, who are do-
ing what they can to bring it to an end. And we
may come the more boldly to the throne of grace on
this errand, because we can plead God's interest in
the case ; Lord, thine is the kingdom, the power, and
the glory, and, therefore, let the wickedness of the
wicked come to an end, that thy kingdom may be
advanced, thy power submitted to, and that glory
given to thee, which thou hast by it been robbed of.
How may we wrestle with God, and hope to speed,
when our prayer is. Arise, O God, plead thine om
cause, * and our plea is. Lord, what wilt thou do viK»
thy great name V
2. All good people have a tender love to the soiib
of men, and a true desire of their welfare here and
for ever, and, therefore, they cannot but desire tod
pray that that may come to an end, which is the
only thing that ruins souls. Brethren, I hope yoa
are convinced of the worth of souls ; yon know what
they were made for, and in whose image they were
made ; what they were bought for, and with what
price they were bought ; what service for God they
are capable of doing, what happiness in God they
are capable of enjoying. You have made your con-
viction of this to appear by the concern you have for
your own souls, and will you not make it further to
appear by your concern for the souls of others?
Shall it not be your desire, and care, and prayer,
that none of those may perish for whom Christ died.'
Did Christ shed his blood for them, and shall we
think much to drop a tear over them ?
When you a see a poor sinner running to an ex-
cess of riot, think with yourselves. Here is a precioD»
soul, more worth than all the world, alienated from
its rightful Lord, and sold for a mess of pottage, for
the gratifications of a base lust, into the hands of
its sworn enemy, and made a prey to the roarinf
lion. Here is one made a cage of unclean and filtby
birds, who is capable of being made a temple of the
Holy Ghost ; a drudge to Satan, who might bate
been a servant of God ; an instrument of unrighte-
ousness, who might have been a vessel of honour:
O that the opposing interest may be overtamed ia
t Ps. cxix 53, 136.
T Ps. Ixxiv. *a. V Josh. vii. 9.
n Ps. bdx. 9.
X 1 Cor. viii. 11.
A REFORMAllON SERMON.
609
this soal, and that he may come whose right it is,
and it may be given him.^ Here is a miserable
creature running headlong into everlasting burnings,
upon the brink of ruin, and not aware of the danger:
O that the grace of God would snatch this brand
out of the burning, for it is yet capable of being
made use of in the building. Though it is spoken
of but with a " peradventure that God will give them
repentance," yet that is encouragement to pray for
it, and we should be earnest for it, because it is the
only way of their being recovered out of the snare
of the devil.' If you saw any of those about you
that you have the least concern for, thus destroying
tlieir own bodies, you would interpose, and do what
you could to prevent it ; and are not their souls of
unspeakably more value than their bodies ? Is not
eternal death more dreadful than temporal death ?
If, therefore, you can do nothing else toward their
recovery, pray for them ; O pray that their sins may
come to an end before their lives do.
3. All good people have a great value for the grace
of God, and are convinced of the sovereignty and
power, the necessity and efficacy, of that gprace ; and
therefore, they pray for that grace, both for the re-
formation of sinners, and for the establishment of
the just. They know how much they are themselves
indebted to that grace, what favours, what wonders
have been done for them by it ; that it is purely by
that grace that they are what they are that is good ;
and it is that grace that made them to differ from
the wicked ; that begun the good work in them, and
carries it on. They know there is a fulness of grace
in Christ, enough for all, though ever so many,
enough for each, though ever so bad ; and, therefore,
they are still for having recourse to that grace, and
fetching it in for themselves and others. They
know that nothing can be done without it, not a good
thought started or pursued, not a good word spoken,
or a good work done, by themselves, or any other ;
and therefore whatever good they wish may be effect-
ed, either upon sinners or saints, they depend upon
that grace for it, and its powerful influences.
They know also that this grace is promised to the
church, this clean water to cleanse it from all its
filth iness, and from all its idols,* yet God will for
this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it
for them : we must ask, and then we shall receive.
Having therefore such an esteem for God's grace to
do the work, and for the duty of prayer to obtain
that grace, this is their petition, this is their request,
Lord, bring thou the wickedness of the wicked to an
end. After all the pains we have taken to prophesy
upon the dead and dry bones, they are dead and dry
still, and therefore we look upwards: Come, O
breath,^ and breathe upon these slain, and then they
shall live. They know that the filth of Zion and
I Exek. «x1. 27.
t 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26.
2 R
• Ezek. xxxTi. 25. 37.
Jerusalem can never be washed away, unless God
himself do it by the spirit of judgment, and the spi-
rit of burning ;^ and therefore to him they apply
themselves : Lord, take the work into thy own
hands ; be thou exalted in thy own strength, the
strength of thy own grace, and thou shalt have the
glory.
4. All good people are hearty well-wishers to the
land of their nativity, and are in care for the pros-
perity of it, because it is a Christian nation, it is
their own, and in the peace thereof they shall have
peace, and in the setting up and keeping up of reli-
gion among them they have joy and satisfaction,
and, therefore, they seek the good of Jerusalem for
their brethren and companions' sake,** as well as
because of the house of the Lord their God, and the
interests of it.
It cannot but g^eve them to see this pleasant land
polluted, and all its beauty sullied and stained by
the filthiness of its inhabitants, so that it is become
odious in the eyes of him who cannot endure to look
upon iniquity; to see a land, that God has dealt
favourably with, exposed to his judgments, and ready
to be made as like to Sodom and Gomorrah in ruin,
as it has been in sin ; Shall not God visit for these
things, which are to be found among us ? Shall not
his soul be avenged on such a nation as this ? Do we
not see how fast the measure of the nation's sin fills?
how near fall it is, and how ready to overflow in a
delage of wrath ? Do we not see our plenty forfeited
by the abuse of it? Nay, the word of God, and the
means of grace, which are more than our necessary
food, forfeited by the contempt cast on them ; the
blessings of the government forfeited by the ineffi-
cacy of the endeavours used by it to suppress pro-
faneness ; and the honours and advantages of our
religion ready to be taken from us by the sworn ene-
mies of it abroad, becaase they have been so tamely
yielded to the destroyers of its powers and vitals at
home?
And is it not the concern of all good people then
to stand in the gap, to turn away the wrath of God,
and by their prayers to empty the measure, which
so many are filling by their sins ? to be earnest with
God to bring that to an end, which, otherwise, will
bring our nation to an end, and deprive it of all its
glory, and to establish and strengthen those whose
piety and zeal is the strength and stability of our
times ? When there was a general corruption of man-
ners, transgressions were multiplied, truth failed,
and there was no judgment ; it was such a presage
of destruction coming, that God wondered there was
no intercessor f but I trust there are and will be
many intercessors that cry day and night to God, not
only against the threatened calamities, but against
the threatening iniquities, the provoking cause of
b Czek. xzxvii. 9. e laa. iv. 4. A Pa. cxxii. 8. 0. e Isa. lix. 16.
610
A REFORMATION SERMON.
I
them, that those may be brought to an end ; for as
queen Esther pleaded with herself, How can we en-
dure to see the evil that shall come vpon our people,
and the destruction of our kindred?
III. And now that which remains is, to make ap-
plication of what has been said ; it is what we are
all concerned in, and therefore should each of us
apply to ourselves.
I. Let us address oursolves by earnest prayer and
supplication to God, for his grace, to promote and
advance the reformation of manners in our land,
and particularly in this city, the reformation of which
would have a good influence upon the nation. You
will all say, it is a desirable thing that the manners
of the nation should be reformed, now that which I
am pressing you to contribute towards it, is, that
which I am sure no one can except against in
others, no, nor plead that they are excused and ex-
empted from themselves. It will be no expense to
you, the poorest of the flock of Christ may do as
much in this part of the service as the rich. It will
not expose you to any hazard — to weep in secret
for the wickedness of the wicked, and to pray
against it; and I hope we shall not again see the
day when it will be penal to pray publicly against
it: nor will it expose you to any blame or censure,
as some of your endeavours for reformation perhaps
may : in this I am sure you can never be charged with
going out of your sphere, or meddling with that which
does not belong to you. So that the most timorous,
the most cautious, may thus help forward this good
work ; all who have any interest at the throne of
grace, (and miserable is the case of those who have
not,) all who know how to pray, (and those who do
not are concerned to learn,) are this day in God's
name summoned to this part of the service. The
daughters of my people, though we cannot expect
they should^-do Deborah's part against this Sisera,
this common enemy — lead the forces into the field
against him ; (yet, blessed be God, we have a De-
borah, that by her pious proclamation does that ;)
though we cannot expect they should do JaeFs part,
who laid her hand to the workman's hammer, to nail
this Sisera to the earth ; yet we expect and require
that they do the part of Anna the prophetess, who
served God with fastings and prayers night and day,^
and let them make this the matter of their daily
prayers; that in such a day of distress, such an
hour of temptation as this, they do the part of Es-
ther and her maids.' And when there are daugh-
ters of Belial, daughters of Moab, who contribute
to the debauching of the nation, let the daughters of
Israel, the daughters of Sarah, be glad that they can
any way contribute to the reforming of it. Let mas-
ters of families take this matter into their family
prayeis, that they may bring down a blessing not
f Luke ii. 37.
f Eftt. iv. !«.
h Exod. xvii. 11..
only on their own houses, but on the houses of tketr
neighbours, and thus may be themselves blessings ts
the places where they live.
Let me recommend it especially to my brethren in
the ministry, whose business it is to give themselves
to prayer ; let them lead those they pray with to the
throne of grace on this errand : O let the wickedness
of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just.
We are as Moses upon the mount, it is onr work to
lift up our prayers against Amalek with the rod of
God in our hand, whilst others in the valley are
doing Joshua's work. Ours is the safer and easier
province ; it is a shame for us then if we be wanting
in our work, and it may be of ill consequence, for
when Moses lifted up his hands, and kept them
steady, Israel prevailed. If we continue instant and
constant in prayer, the attempts for refonnation, it
may be hoped, will be the more soceessful; bat
when Moses let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.^
If we grow cold and remiss in prayer, the work is
in danger of going back and losing ground. We
pray for the success of our own endeavours, for tbe
conversion of sinners, and the confirmation of
saints ; I hope we dare not omit it ; and should we
not pray also for their success, who, in a diifereBt
way, are pursuing the same design ?
Let those who are engaged in the societiet for
reformation, look upon themselves as bound to far-
ther their own undertaking by their prayers, for otheit
must strive, together with you, in their prayeis ts
God for you.* Your associating in this good woit
obliges you in this way, as well as in other instaneei,
to give mutual assistance, and to strengthen tbe
hands one of another. You cannot but find whtl
need you have of the continual supply of the grace
of God, to furnish you for this good work, aiid to
fortify you against the temptations and ditficaltks
you meet with in it ; let that therefore drive you to
the throne of grace, for grace sufficient. You lack
wisdom for it, that wisdom which in the critical
cases that often occur is profitable to direct ; jon
must therefore ask it of God in Christ's name, and
you may expect, that if you sincerely aim at his
glory in it, he will give it you, will give libeially,
and will not upbraid ;i^ will give a mouth and wis-
dom, such as all your adversaries shall not be able
to gainsay or resist Let your prayers go before
all your undertakings in this work, and aceon-
pany your consultations about it; and let year
prayers follow what you do,.that it may answer tk
end, the reformation of the offenders thems^ves jfos
convict, and the deterring of others from doing the
like. You would prosper the better in this good
work, if you had it more upon your hearts in prsycr;
and it would be a token for good that you ^I
carry your point ; for when God stekt to dutroy ^
i
Rom. XV. 30.
k Jam. L &.
A REFORMATION SERMON.
611
the nations that come against Jerusalem, as a preface
and introduction to it, he pours out a spirit of prayer
and supplication.^
To stir you up all to be earnest with God in prayer
for the success of all pious designs, to suppress
profaneness and debauchery, consider,
(1.) How much depends upon the carrying on of
this good work. If there were a general reformation
of manners in our land, what a happy turn would
it give to all our affairs! what a blessed change
would it produce ! what a beauty would it put upon
the nation, upon this city, and render them amiable
in the eyes of God and all good men ! What a se-
curity would it be against the judgments that threaten
as, and what a preparative for the blessings we wait
for! How would the Lord then delight to do us
good, and to dwell among us !
Nay, though the desired reformation should not
be effected, yet while it is endeavoured, it turns
to us for a testimony, and helps to save the g^ilt
of the sin of sinners from being national. The
reigns of the reforming kings of Judah were blessed
of God though none of them made a complete
reformation.
But if the work should now be let fall, if the
forces that have for many years past been drawn
into the field, and have acted successfully against
▼ice and profaneness, should now be withdrawn, you
not only lose all the points you have gained, but, it is
to be feared, all iniquity will take encouragement to
be so much the more daring; as when the dam which
stopped the current for a while is broken through,
tbe stream runs so much more violently. We are
therefore concerned to prey the more earnestly, that
the wheels of this good work may be kept a-going,
and that though it should not get ground, it may not
lose ground. A good man said long since, ''He
feared the sins of the land more than the French.''
If iniquity were subdued, how soon would all our
other enemies be subdued ! Would you therefore
help to save a sinful nation from ruin, be inter-
cessors for it now, that the unclean spirit that has
met with a rebuke for some time may not recover
possession ; for if he do, it is to be feared it will be
with seven other more wicked than himself, then will
oar last state be worse than the first.
(2.) Consider, what difficulties yet lie in the way
of this good work, which nothing less than the
power of almighty grace can help us over, and that
grace must be obtained by prayer. I doubt you find
the work goes on heavily, and meets with many rubs,
many things retard it, and clog its wheels; and
perhaps the reason is, because it wants praying
hands to help it forward. Our complaint is the
same with Hezekiah's, This day is a day of rebuke
1 Z«ch. x\\. 9, 10. m Itt. XXX vii. 3, 4. a 2 Chron. xx. 12.
o Neh ii 4. p Neh. iv. 8,9.
2x2
and blasphemy, for the children are come to the birth,
and there is not strength to bring forth ; we must
therefore take the course he then took, lift up our
prayers for the remnant that is left, the little remnant."
We may plead, as Jehoshaphat did, Lord, we have no
might against this great company that fights against
us, these troops, these legions of iniquities that in-
vade our land, neither know we what to do, but our
eyes are up unto thee,^ and on thee do we depend.
When you meet with any difficulties in this work,
follow the example of Nehemiah,that great reformer,
who did such eminent service to the church of God
in his day, and was famous for this, that upon every
occasion he had recourse to God by prayer, made
himself easy, and carried his point by lifting up an
ejaculation to heaven. When he was waiting at
table, afraid to ask what he hoped to have, and the
king bid him speak his mind, he prayed to the God
of heaven,^ spoke to God in the silent language of
the heart before he ventured to speak to the king.
When the enemies of the work he was about, ridi-
culed it, as a foolish attempt, and made a jest of
these feeble Jews, he appealed to God, went and
told him of the contempt put upon them : Hear, O
our God, for we are despised. When he set a watch
against them, he first made his prayer to God, and
then set a watch.e When, to drive him off from his
undertaking, it was suggested to him, that the
government would take umbrage at it, and he would
be taken up as a disaffected person, that thereby his
hands might be weakened, he addressed himself to
prayer immediately. Now therefore O God, strengthen
my hands. ^ And if we thus, like Nehemiah, look
up to God by prayer for strength and grace to do our
work, we may, in faith, like him, look up to God for
his gracious acceptance of us in it ; Remember me,
O my God, for good:^ for what is done by divine
assistance, will be owned and favoured ; what comes
from God will come to him.
Let me now briefly tell you what further we must
do in our prayers for reformation.
[1.] We must sadly lament the wickedness of the
wicked, which we pray for the removal of; we must
complain of it to God, as those who do indeed lay
it to heart, and look upon it vrith inward trouble.
Can we each of us say, as David, / beheld the trans-
gressors and was grieved? Do as Joseph did then, con-
cerning his brethren, bring to your father, your
heavenly Father, their evil report* It will better
become us to weep in secret for the sins of sinners,
than openly to exclaim against them. The charac-
ter of those who are marked for preservation, and
whom the destroying angel must not touch, is, that
they sigh and cry for the abominations that are found
among us,' that is the spirit of a Christian; not
• ^ Neh. vi. 9.
• Gen. xxxvii. 2.
r Neh. xiii. 14.22,29.31.
t Ezek. ix. 4.
612
A REFORMATION SERMON.
that they are satirical in their invectives against
tliem, so far a Pharisee may go. We are then fit to
pray against sin when we truly bewail it.
[2.] We must bless God for what is done towards
the bringing of the wickedness of the wicked to an
end in our land. We have reason to be thankful to
God for the national testimonies that are borne against
vice and profaneness, that it does not go without a
check ; that good and wholesome laws are made
against drunkenness, swearing, and sabbath-break-
ing ; that the Queen's proclamation against immo-
rality is read in all our courts of justice; that here,
in this great city, and in some other places, societies
arc formed, and yet kept up, for the assistance of the
magistrates in turning the edge of the sword of
justice against the most notorious delinquents.
This standard the spirit of the Lord has lifted up
against the enemy who was coming in upon us like
a flood," this banner God has given to them that
fear him, to be displayed because of the truth / a
banner for them to triumph in, and list themselves
under.
[3.] Wc must in these prayers for grace to reform
our land, act faith upon the mediation of Christ,
and the promise of God, and make them our plea.
Let us take our encouragement in these prayers
from this, that Jesus Christ ever lives to make inter-
cession for the same thing ; that he came into the
world to destroy the works 'of the devil;* was
manifested to take away sin : and we are sure that
he will gain his point, and that him the Father
heareth always. And through him we have precious
promises to plead, on which we are caused to hope,
that God will remove the iniquity of the land in one
day ;* that the Redeemer shall come to Zion^ and
shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob ;^ and shall
sit as a refiner. So that we shall not pray in vain,
for faithful is he that has promised, who also will
do it.
2. Let us follow our prayers with our serious and
sincere endeavours ; and let us act as those who are
in good earnest, when we pray that God would
bring the wickedness of the wicked to an end, and
establish the just. When I press you thus to pray
for it, it is not as if I thought there were nothing
else to be done, and that prayers and tears were all
the weapons that the cause of reformation would
admit of, — as if no means were to be used, but we
must sit down, and leave it to God to do all ; or as
if I thought the case so deplorable, that it were to
no purpose to attempt any thing for the relief of it ;
I do not come upon this errand to you to-day, as
Luther's friend did to him, with his Ahi in cellam^
et die. Miserere mei Domine — Away to thy closet^
and say. Lord, have mercy on me ; bidding him con-
tent himself with praying for reformation, for it
« laa. lix. 19. r Ps Ix. 4. w i John ill. 8. > Zech. lii. 9.
would be in vain for him to think of doing any thiof
toward it No, my brethren, both God's promiief
and our prayers are intended to quicken and
encourage, not to supersede or slacken, our endea-
vours. When in answer to prayer yon do, like
David, hear the sound of a going upon the tops of
the mulberry trees, and you perceive that God goes
before you, that God is with you of a truth, then yoi
must bestir yourselves ; then up and be doing.'
(I.) You, especially, who are engaged in these
societies for reformation, now you have this day set
me upon your watch-tower, you must give me leave
to be your monitor in God's name, as one who desires
to be found faithful, and that you he found so toa
Be mindful of the obligations you laid upon your-
selves when you entered into these societies, in t
sense of your duty to God, as well as in love to yoor
country, to do all you could in your places for the
suppression of vice and profaneness. You have not
discharged yourselves from these obligations, make
conscience, therefore, of fulfilling them ; you hti«
opened your mouth unto the Lord, and you cannot
go back ; go forward, then ; go on, and prosper.
Though the endeavours of your societies should
prove unsuccessful, yet let not the title of them be
insignificant, and an empty name. You are called
'* Societies for Reformation of Manners," and there-
fore are concerned to inquire, what you are doinf
towards it ? Your warfare, I am sure, is not accooi-
plished, for the Canaanites are yet in our land, and
are as snares to us, and as thorns in our eyes.* The
exorbitant power of vice and profaneness is not
reduced. The house of Saul, though we hope it
grows weaker and weaker, yet is still in being, and
its forces thereatening ; and therefore you most
resolve, with meekness and fear, vigorously to cany
on this holy war, and to act offensively, not for the
destruction, but for the salvation, and spiritual
benefit, of those you appear against.
I understand you have societies of two sorts, that
have different provinces assigned them. Some made
up of persons of a lower rank, who are as the hands
and feet of this body ; others of a higher rank, who
are to them (as Moses said to Jethro) instead of
eyes ; and both these have need of, and are service-
able to one another. Shall I speak particularly to
each ?
[I.] You who have engaged yourselves in tk
more active part of this undertaking, be active is
it ; not as lords over your brethren, but as servasts
to God and the government, in a good work, htt
those of you who grow remiss, and indifferent, be
excited by the good example of those who yet
retain their zeal ; and let their care and ooonge ii
this matter flourish again ; and return with a dooMs
vigour to the relief of those who have long boioe
Li
m
n
ix
tl
J Rom. xi. Mk
s S Stm. V. S4.
a J<Mb. xxiiL IX
A REFORMATION SERMON.
613
the burthen and heat of the day, that yoa may
itrengthen the hands which you have weakened.
Complain not that the drudgery lies upon you, for
in such good work as this, nothing is to be called
inidgcry ; but rather say, Ifthu he to he vile, I will
Ve yet more vile.** Be not frightened with winds and
clouds from sowing and reaping; nor excuse your-
selves with a sluggard's fancy of A lion in the way^
A lion in the streets. The God whom you serve is
able to protect you, and to bear you out, however
you may be threatened, and abundantly to recom-
pense you, whatever charge you are at, and what-
ever damage you may sustain. You know whom you
have trusted, even one who will be faithful to yon
while you are so to him ; and though you may be
losers for him, you shall not be losers by him, in the
end.
[2.] You who have undertaken the directive part,
I beseech you do your part. What you also con-
tribute toward the necessary charges of this work,
c^ontinue to do it, increase it if there be occasion, do
it liberally, do it cheerfully and without grudging ;
how can you bestow what you have better, than in
thus honouring God with it? And what a pity it is
that such a good cause as this should be starved !
And there is another thing which may be justly ex-
pected from you, gentlemen, and that is, that yon
be forward to appear in person, when there is occa-
sion, for the keeping up of the reputation of this
pious undertaking. The figure you make in the
world, gives you an opportunity to do it, your edu-
cation and conversation enable you to do it with a
good grace ; and these are talents which put you
into a capacity of serving God and your generation,
and which must be accounted for. A frown from
you may daunt a daring transgressor, and put him
out of countenance, more than a reproof or an infor-
mation from an inferior person. A smile from you
may hearten an honest reprover, and keep him in
countenance when he is insulted, as Lot was, with
Who made thee a judge? It will be your honour, gen-
tlemen, to patronize those who are busy in this ser-
vice, and to stand by them, while there are those
who censure them, and run them down as over-busy.
Be ready to give your advice before-hand to the
most regular, prudent, and inoffensive methods for
carrying on this work ; and what is done conscien-
tiously and zealously, appear in the defence of it,
and think not to excuse yourselves, by saying it
might have been done with more caution and dis-
cretion in some little circumstance or other, which
it is an easy thing for those who seek an excuse, and
have a mind to be critical, to spy out ; but that will
no more justify you in an inglorious retreat from
them, than it would justify David in the orders he
gave to desert Uriah the Hittite, to say. Why went
bEccl.xi. 4.
e Neh. iii. 5.
he io near the wall? 1 know nothing can excuse
your drawing back, unless you be conscious to your-
selves of the beam in your own eye ; and if that be
the reason that you are ashamed to appear, it is your
own fault, and you cannot but be ashamed of your
reason. But I hope better things of you, gentlemen,
that your hearts condemn you not, and then yon
may have confidence in this cause of God, and shall
have confidence in the day of God. Be bold, there-
fore, and act like yourselves, like men of honour:
let it not be said of you, as it was of the nobles of
Tekoa,' that they put not their necks to the work of
the Lord ; nay, we ask yon not to put your necks to
it, only to show your faces in it. Honour God thus
with your honour, and you shall find him true to his
word, that those who honour him he will honour^
while those that despise and desert him shall be
lightly esteemed.
(2.) We are all obliged in our places to do our
utmost for the carrying on of this work, something
more than by our prayers.
[1.] Let us do what we can to bring the wicked-
ness of the wicked to an end. Let our conversation
in every thing be such as becomes the gospel of
Christ, strict, and universally conscientious, that
they who will not be won either by the word of the
ministers, or the rod of the magistrates, may be won
by that.' We must study to be not only blameless
and harmless, and without rebuke, but exemplary
in every thing that is virtuous and praise-worthy.
Let our light shine before men, that they may be
brought to glorify that name of God, which they
have reproached and dishonoured. Let those who
are masters of families keep up religion there, and
put away iniquity far from their tabernacles. In
all our conversation, let us witness against sin, and
drive it away (if we cannot use any other means)
by an angry countenance. It is our duty to tell our
neighbours of their faults, between us and them
alone, in any wise to rebuke them, and not to suffer
sin upon them, lest we bear sin for them, and make
ourselves sharers in their guilt Let us do what we
can to make sinners ashamed of their sin ; were they
brought to that, it would be an ingenuous and pre-
vailing principle of their reformation. Let us have
no fellowship with the works of darkness, but re-
prove them. Let us have as little fellowship as
possible with the workers of those works, and so re-
prove them.
[2.] Let us do what we can to establish the just,
to confirm those who are good in their goodness. Let
those who fear the Lord speak often one to another
for their mutual instruction, quickening, and en-
couragement ; for the sharpening of one another's
countenance, and the strengthening of one another's
hands. Those who are not themselves engaged with
4 1 Pet. iii. I
614
A REFORMATION SERMON.
the societies for reformation, yet should do what they
can to establish them ; if they have not your hand,
let them have your good word ; speak well of them
as it comes in your way : the city ought to be made
sensible of its obligation to them ; were it so, what
an establishment would it be to them ! As occasion
offers, let them have your help, and be ready to say.
We will go with you, for we have heard that God is
with you.
To conclude, it will, I hope, be some encourage-
ment to you — to be on the Lord's side, and to assist,
by your prayers and endeavours, for the bringing of
the wickedness of the wicked to an end, and the
establishing of the just — if I tell you from the word
of God, what will be, at least, the issue of this strug-
gle between Jacob and Esau, between the pious
and the profane. You may assure yourselves, bre-
thren, the cause of religion and serious piety is the
cause of God, and it will, in the end, be a victorious
cause : it will be so in the day of decision ; when
the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, mc
sinners in the congregation of the righteous.* Tk
Lord Jesus will then, and not till then, gather out of
his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do
iniquity. Then will the wickedness of the wickrd
come to a perpetual end, when into the New Jeni-
salem there shall not enter any unclean thing ; and
then shall the just be for ever established, wbei
they shall shine as the sun in the firmament of o«r
Father; when he who is holy shall be holy still,
shall be for ever holy. Then shall the great Rf.
deemer have put down all the opposing rule, prin-
cipality, and power of sin and Satan, which are now
so daring, so threatening, which we are sometimes
ready to fear will bear down all before them, aod
carry the day. It shall aU be crushed and sank;
and the kingdom shall be delivered up to God.
even the Father, that that God whom sinners dot
despise and make light of, may be '' all in all "to
eternity.
• Pb. i. 5w
/
POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY;
SHOWED IN
A SERMON
PREACHED ON THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER, 1712.
Isaiah li. 23.
Which have said to thy soul. Bow down, that we
may go over.
The haughtiness and insolence of the prond oppres-
sors of God's church and people, are here described,
as the ground of the controversy God had with them,
and of the kind designs he had concerning his op-
pressed people. Jerusalem was afflicted,* her sons
fainted -^ go, says God to the prophet, and encourage
them, lay up cordials in store for them, against this
time of need ; tell them the Lord Jehovah, the God
of all power and grace, is their Lord and their God ;
tell tlicm he owns them for his people still, and will
undoubtedly plead their cause ; tell them he will
take, nay, he has taken, the cup of trembling, that
bitter cup, out of their hands, which during their
captivity they have been daily drinking of, and
they shall no more drink it again,* shall know no
more of the hardships and terrors they have so long
suffered ; nay, tell them withal, that though they
must forgive their enemies and oppressors, and not
meditate revenge, yet God will reckon with them ;
tell them that the cup of trembling shall be put into
the hands of them who have afflicted them,** who
have trampled upon them, and tyrannized over
them, who said to their souls. Bow down, that we
may go over : so the text comes in. The Babylo-
nians, their cruel task-masters in their captivity,
shall be called to an account for the violence done
to Sion ;* and Babylon's destruction by the Persians,
shall be more terrible than Jerusalem's was by the
Babylonians.'
Now observe here for encouragement,
1. That there is a people in the world who are
God's own people. Such there have been, are, and
• ha. Ii.2i. b r. ao.
• Jer. li. 35.
« F. 23. 4 r. S3,
f Jer.li.49.
will be to the end of time ; they are his by choice,
his by covenant, called out of the world, and dis-
tinguished from it, such as approve themselves obe-
dient subjects, and faithful friends and well-wishers
to his kingdom among men. To them he still says,
as here to Israel, (let them take the comfort of it,) /
am thy Lord, the LORD, and thy God. They have
taken the Lord for their Lord, to rule and govern
them, and he will be their God, to make them happy.
All that he is in himself, and in his promises, is
made over to them, and settled on them. God him-
self shall be with them, and be their God. Let this
people then be our people, and this God our God.
2. There is a cause depending between the people
of God and their enemies, and has been so ever
since the enmity was put between the seed of the
woman, and the seed of the serpent.^ The children
of God, who are bom after the spirit, have been
hated, and envied, and persecuted by the children
of this world, the children of the wicked one, who
are bom after the flesh.'' And we are not to think
it strange ; the servant is not better than his Lord,
nor can expect better treatment.
3. While this cause is depending, the people of
God may have a cup of trembling put into their
hands ; may be in great frights and confusions, and
ready to give up all for gone ; fearing continually
every day, because of the fury of the oppressor, as
if he were ready to destroy ;* as it is described here-
before in this chapter. Providence gives them some
cause to fear, and then their fears prevail more than
there is cause for, so far as to bear down their faith
and hope in God ; and it is " their infirmity," per-
haps too much the inflrmity of some at this day.
When Zion said. The Lard has forsaken me, my God
has forgotten me ;^ My way is hid from the Lord, and
my judgment is passed over from my God^ she drank
r Gen. 111. 15. h Gal. iv. 20. * la. li. 13.
k Iia. xlix. 14. 1 Iia. xl. 27.
616
POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.
deeper than she need of the cup of trembling.
When the Lord roan like a lion, it becomes the
children to tremble*" before him. But when the
enemies roar in the sanctuary of God, we should
take sanctuary in God, by a holy trust and triumph
in him ; and not conclude our case desperate, though
it be very sad." We some of us remember what a
cup of trembling was in our hands before the Revo-
lution ; what black and dismal apprehensions we
then had of things, how ready we were to say, Our
bones are dried, our hope i* lost, we are cut off for
our parts ;° but cannot forget how much better God
was to us than our fears, and are therefore very un-
worthy and ungrateful, if again we distrust him, and
despair of relief from him.
4. God will plead his people's cause in due time,
their just but injured cause, and take the cup of
trembling out of their hands; and will put into their
hands a cup of salvation, and with it a cup of bless-
ing. God always espouses the cause of his church
and people ; and in the proper time he will plead it
with jealousy. His cause is theirs, and they plead
for his truths, ordinances, and laws, and reckon the
reproaches cast on him to fall on them ; and there-
fore their cause shall be his, and he will plead for
their rights and liberties ; those of the human nature,
which they are entitled to as children of men, and
much more those of the divine nature, which they
are entitled to as God's children. The clouds they
are under shall blow over ; and they shall not al-
ways drink of the cup of trembling, though they
cannot be sure they shall no more drink of it again,
till they come to heaven.
5. Sometimes God is pleased when he takes the
cup of trembling out of the hands of his oppressed
people, to put it into the hands of their oppressors
that afflicted them ; that they may themselves know
what it is to be terrified, who have taken a pride
and pleasure in terrifying others. When thou shalt
cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled.^ Thxx^the wicked
shall be a ransom for the righteous,^ when the righte-
ous is delivered out of trouble^ and the wicked cometh
in his stead,' And the Lord is righteous in it. — Nee
lex est justior ulla — nor is there any law more just ;
he who leadeth into captivity, shall go into capti-
vity/ and Babylon's doom is. Reward her even as she
rewarded you}
This was fulfilled in the glorious deliverances
which we this day celebrate the memorial of. What
a cup of trembling was put into the hands of our
popish adversaries, when the Gunpowder Treason
was discovered, and those who made the pit, and
digged it, fell into the ditch which they made," and
it proved an occasion of putting an edge both upon
the laws and upon the spirits of the nation against
popery. And no less upon the Revolution, when the
m Hos. \\. 10. n Ps. Uxiv. 3, 4. o Esek. xxxvii. II.
p ba. xxxiii. i. q ProT. xxi. 18. r prov. xi. a ■ Rev. xiii. 10.
enemies of our peace and holy religion, who soagk
our ruin, were seized with a panic fear, and melted
before our great deliverer, as wax before the fire,
both counsels and armies did so ; The speech of the
trusty was removed, and the understanding of the aged,
the strength of the mighty weakened, and the kesnrttf
the chief of the people of the earth ;' then, — as it was
foretold upon a much greater Revolution, the em-
pire becoming Christian, — the great men, and the
mighty men, hid themselves.* Thus when God took
off Pharaoh's chariot wheels, put his book into Sen-
nacherib's nose, made Belshazzar's knees smite one
against another by the hand-writing on the wall,
and smote Herod by an angel's hand, be made them
drink the cup of trembling, who had been the op-
pressors of his people, and made himself a terror to
them who had made themselves the terror of the
mis^ty, of the godly, in the land of ibe living.
6. The reason why God thus terrifies and brinp
down his church's enemies, and lays their power in
the dust, is, because when they had power tbey
abused it, and abused the people of God with it ;
who being conquered and taken captive, tamely
yielded to them all their temporal interests, they
laid their body as the ground, and as the street to them
that went over ; (as it follows here in the latter part
of the verse ;) whatever was theirs jure belli— hf
the right of war, let them take it. But this did not
satisfy these proud tyrants ; they grew upon their
concessions, as Benhadad upon Ahab's,*" and they
demand the submission of the soul too ; they ktne
said to thy soul. Bow down, that we may go over ; they
have ridiculed their religion, and so have gricifed
their spirits ; they have attempted to force them
from their religion, and to bring them to worship the
golden image which they have set up. Now tiiis
comes in here,
(1.) To justify God's quarrel with the oppressors
of his people, for he will be justified in every thing
he says and does. If God bring down the mighty
men of Babylon, and put a cop of trembling into
their hands, all the world shall be made to sec, tod
say, that he is righteous in contending with them.
For,
[1.] They have usurped his authority, and have
assumed to themselves that power over his people
which belongs to him only, as Pharaoh did, who
would not let God's people go, that they might serve
him. God is the Sovereign of the heart, it is bis
prerogative to command the conscience; he has
said. All souls are mine ; and he is jealous of all in-
vasions made upon his sovereignty, by those who
are vexatious to his people, in the matters of their
God, as Darius's edict was to Daniel.^
[2.] They have wronged his people's liberties, and
have been injurious to them in their most sacred in-
t Rev. xviii. 6.
w Rev. vi. 15.
ti Ps. vii. 15. T Job x\\. ^ 21, i4
X 1 Kings XX. 6. y Dan. vi. ^
POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.
ei7
terests. God sends his people into captivity, for
their good, and the temporal afflictions they are
tinder are sanctified to them ; but if the enemies say
to their souls, Bow down, — Now will I arise, saith
the Lord ; this affects a tender part indeed. If the
rod of the wicked on the lot of the righteous, force
them to put forth their hands unto iniquity,' it shall
rest no longer there, but be returned on the oppress-
ors. He who touches the souls of God's people,
touches the apple of his eye,* and it were better
they were thrown into the sea with a millstone about
their neck, than that they should thus offend one of
these little ones."* When the Philistines took the
ark prisoner, and that glory fell into the enemies'
hands, then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep,'
and put a cup of trembling into their hand.
(2.) It serves also to magnify the mercy of God's
delivering his people from them. Let them see
what kind of enemies they were, out of whose hands
God had saved them, that they might welcome the
salvation with so much the greater enlargements in
joy and thankfulness, and improve it for so much the
stronger engagements to duty and obedience. This
is that which God expects from us upon such days
as this, when we are celebrating the memorial of the
great deliverances God has wrought for our land,
both in our own age, and in the days of our fathers.
To be delivered from those who said to their souls.
Sow down^ that tee may go over, must needs be valued
as an inestimable mercy, by those who had any hon-
oar for their God, or love for their own souls.
[1.] Such as had a concern for God's glory, and a
true desire to approve themselves faithful to him,
and to his kingdom and interest, could not but mag-
nify such a deliverance as this ; for when these
proud oppressors bore sway, and carried all before
them, God's oppressed ones were more grieved for
the dishonour done to God, than for any damage
done to themselves ; this was their great petition.
Arise, O Lord, plead thine own cause y^ whatever be-
comes of ours ; and whatever disgrace we may lie
under, O do not disgrace the throne of thy glory,*
And this was their great plea. What wilt thou do
unto thy great name J As for our little names, it is
no matter, though they be written in the dust, and
buried there ; but let not thy name suffer, which is,
and ought to be, above every name. When, therefore,
God humbles the proud invaders of his right, and
asserts his own dominion, this is the burthen of their
praising songs. We give thee thanhs, O Lord God
Almighty, not so much because thou hast given us
our liberty, as because thou hast taken to thee thy
great power, and hast reigned, though the nations
were angry."
[2.] Such as had a concern for souls, their own and
others, and were in care about them, and tender of
• Pi. cxxv. 3 a Zecb. ii. 8.
e Ps. IxxTiil. 61. 65.
b Matt.xviii.6.
d Pa. Ixxiv. 3-2.
their interests, and would not have them wronged,
would greatly rejoice in a deliverance which set
them at liberty from serving the lusts of men, which
is perfect slavery, to keep a feast to (he Lord, and
to receive his law, (as Israel, when they were brought
out of Egypt,) which is perfect freedom. The
more the soul is concerned in any redemption, the
nearer related it is to the great redemption wrought
out for us by the Lord Jesus, and consequently the
more to be vaKied are the deliverances that we are
this day called to give thanks for ; and that is what
I desire to make myself and you sensible of, and
God by his grace make us so !
Doct, It is an unspeakable mercy, and must so
be accounted, to be delivered from those who
usurp a dominion, and exercise a tyranny, over
the souls and consciences of men.
The adversary and enemy that the text speaks of
is Babylon; Babylon in the New Testament is
Rome ; that is, it is the papacy, and the papal king-
dom. There are many things said of Babylon in the
Old Testament, which are plainly referred to in
those predictions, which -we have in the Revelations,
of the rise, reign, and ruin of that usurped power ;
and this of Babylon's saying to the soul. Sow down,
seems to be alluded to, in that article of the trading
of the New-Testament Babylon, where her merchan-
dise i^ said to be in slaves and souls of men ; ^ it is
put last, as that which all the other particulars had
a tendency to. And that by the souls of men there,
is not meant in general only the persons of men, as
we trade in negroes, but the souls taken strictly, as
the seats of reason and conscience, is plain, — ^be-
cause' they are there distinguished from slaves, or as
it is in the margin, bodies ; nay, and that they may
not be confounded, it is in the original put in a
different case; cat outfiarttv km ^/vxoq avOpwirw-^
it is the merchandise of bodies, but it is the soul they
aim at.
We are this day giving God thanks for the de-
liverance of our land from popery ; its Grst deliver-
ance at the Reformation, when popish errors and
delusions were discovered, disowned, and protested
against, popish powers shaken off and broken, and
popish idolatries and superstitions rooted up and
purged out ; its many deliverances since, from the
restless attempts of those inveterate hereditary ene-
mies of our peace, to bring us back into Egypt
again ; particularly, its deliverance from that base
and barbarous design of blowing up the parliament
house with gunpowder this day, 107 years ago; a
deliverance never to be forgotten by a people who
to this day reap the blessed fruits of it, inasmuch as
we should to this day have been groaning under the
dismal fatal consequences of the plot, if it had taken
effect. How deep the design was laid, and how
• Jer. 14. SI.
r Rev. x\. 17.
f Josh. vii. 9.
b Rev. xviii. 13.
618
POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.
\
high the hopes of our enemies grounded upon it
were raised, and how near to be put in execution,
when the discovery of it was its effectual defeat, we
have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told
us ; and a more full account of some particulars,
relative to that happy deliverance, was published
but last week, by an unknown but very judicious
pen, entitled, *^ A Memorial to Protestants on the
Fifth of November," and dated Oct 26, 1712.
We are likewise to call to mind Umt glorious de-
liverance of our land from another more dangerous
attempt upon our religion, when that, with our civil
liberties, lay ready to be sacrificed to a popish and
arbitrary government ; but God interposed, and our
extremity was his opportunity to appear so much the
more glorious for us : this was the Lord's doing, it
was then, and ought still to be, marvellous in our eyes,
for it was done, not by might or power, but by the
Spirit of the Lord of hosts.* To that happy revolu-
tion we owe all that liberty and quietness we have
enjoyed these twenty-four years past, all the bless-
ings of the present reign, and the provision that is
made for the preserving of that good thing which is
committed to us, and the transmitting of it to poste-
rity, by the entail of the crown upon the illustrious
house of Hanover: besides all the advantages,
which not only foreign churches, but foreign nations,
gained by the check it gave to the growing, threaten-
ing greatness of the French king.
Now what is it that is the ground of our rejoicingin
these great deliverances ? It is the preservation of
our religion, the protestant religion, owned and pro-
fessed among us ; it is the keeping out of popery,
which at the Reformation was driven out, and which
our popish enemies, both at home and abroad, have
been very industrious to bring in, and to re-establish
among us by force and violence.
It is proper, therefore, upon this occasion, to In-
quire what that thing called popery is ; that mis-
chievous, dangerous thing, from which we are de-
livered; what evil there is in it, and what harm it
would do us, if it should get the mastery ; that we
may see what reason we have to be thankful, to be
greatly thankful, to God for our deliverance from it;
and still to dread all its assaults upon us, and to
pray against it : and this among many other bad
things we have to charge it with, that if the pope
and Romish clergy might have their will, they would
say to our souls. Bow down^ that we may go over.
If popery had carried its point in these and other
attempts, we have reason to hope that many in our
land would have borne their testimony against it,
even to the death, and by the grace of God would
have overcome it" for themselves, and it would have
been their honour (and the honour of our religion)
to die martyrs J or live confeisors^ in so good a cause.
What multitudes of the most precious and Taluabk
lives, besides liberties, families and estates, mak
inevitably have been sacrificed to that Moloch, if it
had been set up, is easy to imagine ; for the spiiitof
popery is a spirit of inhuman cruelty to all who
oppose it, as appears not only by the martyrologiei
of former times, but by the late and present bloody
and barbarous persecution of the poor French pro-
testants, many of whom died martyrs, and raanj
still live confessors in prisons, in the galleys, and
in foreign countries ; and there are, of them, minis-
ters, aged ministers, in the extremes of poverty;
monuments of the tender mercies of the wicked,
which are cruelty, that we may see what we were
saved from when we were saved from popery. Yd
this effect of the prevalence of popery, though veij
dreadful, is capable of a more pleasing^ aspect — ^fnn
the crown of glory and life, which they are as sure
of who are faithful unto death in the service of
Christ, as if it were already upon their heads.
But we have reason to fear, that in case of tk
prevalence of popery, far the greater part of the
nation would have yielded to it, and have gonedowB
the stream ; those who are under the power of inf-
delity and impiety, and are indeed of no religioi,
will readily be of any religion, especially of tbtt
which will indulge them in their lusts. And the
tyranny of popery over the souls of sinners, is a
much greater mischief, and of more fatal conse-
quence, than \^ tyranny over the bodies. of saints,
and will appear so, if we look forward to the fatuit
state. And that is it which I would at this time opoi
to you.
The Romish clergy show themselves not to he the
follower i of Christ, by their affecting^ a worldly do-
minion, and the pomp and grandeur that attend it
Christ has said. My kingdom is not of this world;^
and gave that as a reason why his servants did not
draw the sword in his defence. The kings of tbe
earth, and those commissioned by them, exercise
Lordship, but the disciples of Christ '* shall not be
so,'"" the weapons of their warfare are not carnal, it
is the sword of the Spirit that is put into their hands,
which is the word of God, and with that they are to
fight his battles. Those, therefore, who propagate the
faith, and suppress heresy, by croisades, and inqui-
sitions, and massacres, and assassinations, and writs
de haretico comhurendo — of burning a heretic^ aie
certainly destitute of the Spirit of Christ and his
gospel. Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but rAs
are these f
Yet this is not all ; they show themselves to be
enemies of Christ, and rebels against him, by affect-
ing a spiritual dominion over the souls and consci-
ences of men ; and that is the dominion^ wbicli
(whatever they pretend) they thus violently contend
i Zech. iv. 6.
k Rev. xii. 11.
1 John xvili. 301
» Lukeuii.l&
POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.
619
for, and are so zealous for the maintenance and sup-
port of. It is not the faith of Christ, or the power
of godliness, that they thus lay out themselves for
the propagation of, but the advancement of their
own wealth and power.
It has been commonly said, that popery and
tyranny go together, and mutually befriend each
other. I remember it was said by a great man at
the time of the popish plot in King Charles the II.'s
time, that he apprehended the project to be thus
laid, " That in England popery was to bring in
slavery, and in Scotland slavery was to bring in
popery."* But with this I meddle not. As to our
civil rights and liberties, we have great reason to
thank God for our present enjoyment of them under
a good government, and to pray to God for the con-
tinuance of them ; but as to the claiming and ad-
justing of them, and contending for them, it must
be left to the proper persons, to lawyers, parliaments,
and diets ; the original contracts and pacta conventa
— agreed covenants of the nations — to states and
statesmen, Tractent fabrilia fahri — The engineers
nuinage the machines. But that which I have now to
say against popery is, that it is itself the worst of
tyrannies ; it is a spiritual tyranny, and usurpation;
it is a traitorous confederacy against the kingdom
of our Lord Jesus Christ — and that is the kingdom
of God, which we are in the first place to seek, and
to value ourselves upon our relation to.
Now I shall endeavour to make out, I. That popery
is an invasion upon the prerogatives of Christ, the
Prince ; and, II. Upon the rights and liberties of
Christians, the subjects of this kingdom ; and so it
is a direct and daring violation of the everlasting
l^ospel, the magna cbarta by which this kingdom
is incorporated, and an impudent oppression of the
souls of men, saying to them. Bow down, that we tnay
go over,
I. The papal power usurps the prerogatives of
our Lord Jesus, plucks the flowers of his crown,
plunders the jewels of it, nay, it profanes his crown,
by casting it to the ground, and, which is worse,
putting it upon the head of a man of sin ; and there-
fore, when our Lord appears against this bold but
base usurpation, for the bringing of it to ruin, his
manifesto, by which he justifies his declaration of
war, is included in the name written on bis vesture,
and on his thigh. King of kings, and lord of Lords, ^
Christ is the Sovereign of the heart, the rightful
Sovereign ; for him the throne is to be reserved.
Conscience is bis deputy ; by him it is to be com-
manded, and .to him it is accountable ; it is the
*' word of Christ ** that is to dwell in the soul, and
to rule there, and to him only every thought is to be
brought into obedience, into a blessed captivity f
The kingdom of God is within you,
• See the Bishop of Clogher's Sermon, Oct. 23, 1713.
n Rev. xix. 16. o a Cor. x. 5 p Phil. ii. 9, 10. q V. II.
Christ is the King of the church, the political
head of that body ; to him all judgment is commit-
ted, both the legislative and the judicial power, foi
he has all power given him both in heaven and in
earth ; in the treaty of peace between God and man,
he is the sole plenipotentiary, for the Father loveth
the Son, and has given all things into his hand,^ It is
proclaimed before him, as it was before Joseph, Bow
the knee ; bow the soul ; every tongue must confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord.^ Now this indisputable right
which Christ alone has to say to souls, Boto down,
is usurped in the church of Rome.
For, I. The pope is made to be the sovereign of
the heart, and the head of the church, and to him
they ascribe such a supremacy as is no way consist-
ent with the honour of our Lord Jesus, and his just
demands. Jesus Christ is our Lord and our God,
but it is frequent with them to call the pope, Domi-
nus Deus noster Papa, — Our Lord God the Pope, f This
was not a hasty word slipt from them, but some of
their writers undertake to make out that he ought to
be called so.
Christ is the great Law-giver, who is able to save
and to destroy ; but they lodge in the pope a power
to make laws immediately to bind conscience,
though there be neither Scripture nor reason for
them ; nay, though they be directly contrary both to
Scripture and reason ; and it is a principle of their
canon law, that the pope has all rights and all laws in
his breast, and papajudicatur a nemine — is account-
able to none. I
It is one of the new articles of Pope Pius the 4th'8
Creed, that the bishop of Rome, as successor of St.
Peter there, t> the supreme and universal pastor of
Christ's church by divine appointment,^ and that all
churches, all Christians, all souls, are bound to yield
an implicit obedience to his commands. The papists
will not allow the Scriptures to have any authority
but what is derived from the pope, and their church;
and whereas it is Christ's prerogative to have the
keys of hell and death, they put these into the hands
of the bishop of Rome. Christ is the chief Shepherd,
but they make the pope to be pastor pastorum — the
chief shepherd ; and though they pretend to make
him only Christ's vicar, they really make him a rival
with Christ for the throne. It is by Christ that kings
reign, and prince^ decree justice,' and it is his law
that every soul should be subject to the higher
powers ; but the church of Rome not only exempts
its clergy from the jurisdiction of princes and civil
powers, but subjects kings and emperors to the
pope, and gives him a power to dispose of their
kingdoms.
Thus is the kingly olRce of our Lord Jesus invaded
by that man of sin, who exalteth himself above all
that is called God, or that is worshipped ;' and if
t Olon. Extrevag. t Gratian, Deer. f Decret. i. 3. tit. 23.
r Prov. viil. 15. t 3 Tbess. ii. 4.
e2o
POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.
\
he have snch a power as be pretends to, it will fol-
low of course, that he may say to men's souls at bis
pleasure, Bow down^ that we may go over,
2. They make the pope an infallible director and
judg:e, in matters of faith ; and as one lie must be
called in to maintain another, so this of the pope's
infallibility must be advanced to support his supre-
macy. They maintain that their church never erred,
nor can err, that the pope, when he is in cathedrA —
the pontifical chairs is an oracle. One of their most
celebrated doctors has plainly said, If the pope
should err in commanding vices, and forbidding vir-
tues, yet the church is bound to believe vices to be good,
and virtues to be evil, or else she sins against con-
science,* It is a great slaivery to be bound to an
implicit obedience, but it is worse, and a greater
reproach, to be bound to an implicit faith.
Our Lord Jesus has forbidden his disciples to be
themselves called " Rabbi," because " One is our
master, even Christ," and his dictates alone are to
be subscribed to as infallible; he has forbidden us
to call any man Father upon earth, because one is
our Father in heaven,^ on whom we depend for our
education and direction ; yet the pope will have all
to call him Father, most holy Father, and to follow
him blindfold as their guide. The apostles pre-
tended not to have dominion over the faith " of
Christians ; but the church of Rome undertakes to
frame new creeds; witness that of Trent. Blessed
Paul anathematized himself if he should preach any
other gospel to Christians than what they had re-
ceived ;' but the church of Rome anathematizes all
who adhere to the gospel they had received, and will
not embrace that which they add to it, and sentences
them to the pit of hell. We are directed to take
heed to the Scriptures, as to a light shining in a darh
place," and to have recourse to the law and the testi-
mony,* and try by that touchstone ; and to that we
must bow our understanding : no, say they, you
must refer yourselves to the pope's infallibility, and
to him your understandings must be captivated.
And what sort of men do you think these bishops
of Rome have been, who have been intrusted with
this pretended infallibility? Were they holy men,
such as they were who were moved by the Holy
Ghost to write the Scriptures ? No ; one of them-
selves, even an historian of their own, confesses that
many of them were hominum portenta — monsters
of men ; and that there were eighteen popes succes-
sively, one after another, who were magicians, and
in league with the devil, f And another eminent
writer among them owns. There were scarce any sins,
except that of heresy i which the bishops of Rome were
not guilty of.
And what use have they made of their infallibi-
lity ? Have they with the help of it expounded the
• Bellarm. Lib. 4. De sum. Pontif. Cap. 5.
» Malt, xxiii. 8,u. u I Cor. ii 5. • Gal 1. 8.
dark places of Scripture, or accommodated differ-
ences among Christians ? No, but only have sup-
ported with it their own secular pomp and power,
and the dominion they claim over the consciences
of men in competition with, and therefore id opposi-
tion to, the prophetical office of Jesus Christ, in
whom alone we are to believe.
3. They give the pope a power to forgive sin, and
to absolve from the punishment of it ; and this is
another invasion upon the prerogatives of Christ,
who has the power on earth to forgive sin ; and herein
they are worse than the Scribes and Pharisees, whose
principle it was, none can forgive sins but GodomlyJ
They have a groundless notion that the sptre
merits of good men, by their works of supereroga-
tion, or superfluous satisfactions, which they bad
no occasion to make use of themselves, are laid up
in the treasures of the church, which the pope has
the key of, and grants the benefit of, for a sum of
money, to such as he thinks qualified for it, by the
fulness of his apostolical power. This is as daring t
usurpation upon the royalties of the Lord Jesus, as
it would be upon the prerogative of the sovereign
for any subject, and especially one who is himself
a criminal, to undertake to pardon crimes committed
against the majesty of the prince, or to remit any
part of the punishment; which would be so far
from being pleadable in any court of justice, that to
pretend to it would be a heinous crime.
The selling of the pope's indulgences was the
first thing that Luther witnessed against, of all the
delusions of the church of Rome, in the year 1517,
and it broke the ice of the reformation ; for his
sister having a mind to purchase a pardon, he dis-
suaded her from it, which displeased the priest who
had the selling of them, who complained that Lather
marred his markets ; which gave him occasion to
study the point, and that led him to a farther dis-
covery of that great and complicated mystery of
iniquity.
But their doctrine of indulgences is so miserably
patched up by themselves, that it plainly appears to
be a mere artifice for the magnifying of the power
of the pope, and the amusing of people into a bliod
veneration for him, and subjection to him ; and the
filling of his coffers with vast sums of money, which
have enabled him to support his tyranny.
4. They make all this power to extend to the uni-
versal church ; nay, and to all the world* declaring
it by their canon law absolutely necessary to salva-
tion, for every human creature to he subject to the
bishop of Rome; and not only all the reformed
churches, but all the Greek churches, are cutoff from
the catholic church by their sentence, because they
own not the pope for their supreme head.
It is Christ's prerogative to have power over all
w 2 Pet i. la
f Platina in Pool,
s In. vtn. 2a
7 MaikiiT.
POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.
€21
' flesh ;' his the kingdom is, and he is the goveraor
' among the nations;* he is the only universal monarch,
to whom every tongue must swear ;^ he is the centre
of the church's unity, to whom are gathered toge-
ther all the children of God who were scattered
abroad.^ This honour the pope usurps, though he
knows not a great part of the world, nor can have
any correspondence with it, or be any way of use to
it ; yet he will have all power derived from him, and
depend upon him ; and all churches to meet in him.
And herein he is a genuine king of Babylon, a son
and successor of Nebuchadnezzar, that son of pride,
who affected to have all people, nations, and lan-
guages, to tremble and fear before him.^
Thus is popery an impious usurpation of the powers
and prerogatives of the Lord Jesus, and therefore
ought to be looked upon with a jealous eye, by all
who know themselves obliged — to honour the Son as
they honour the Father f and therefore to be as far
from other Christs, as from other Gods ; and to call
them Anti-gods, and Anti-christs, however they
pretend to be Vice-christs and Vice-gods.
II. The papal power invades the rights and liberties
of the subjects of Christ's kingdom, enslaves them,
oppresses them, and tyrannizes over them, and says
to their souls. Bow down, and worship the image of
the beast, that golden image of paganism, the first
beast, which they have set up / Bow down, that we
may go over. As one of the popes made the
emperor bow down, and then set his foot upon bis
neck, impiously applying that promise to it. Thou
thalt tread upon the Hon and the adder. And thus
have the Romish priests gloried in their triumphs
over the souls of men : one of them said, ** If
Luther had not appeared when he did, they should
have brought the people to eat grass like oxen.''
Let us observe some of the many instances that
might be given of the tyranny of the church of
Rome over the souls of men.
1. They oblige people to believe as true, whatever
their church requires them to believe, though never
so contrary to sense and reason ; and not only so,
but to curse and condemn as heretical, whatever
the council of Trent has adjudged to be so. They
do in effect require men to give up their understand-
ings, and to pin their faith upon the pope's sleeve,
though they know not whither be will carry it, and
suffer him to put out their eyes, and lead them
whithersoever he pleases. All freedom of thought,
and with it all the dignities and privileges of the
human soul, as rational and intelligent, are surren-
dered and betrayed ; no liberty left for the use of
reason when a man is tied jurare in verba magistri
— to swear every thing that their church says, though
it should be that black is white, and white black.
The Collier's faith, ** I believe as the church believes.
* John xtH. 2. • P8. «ii. 28. b In. xlv 03. r John xi. S2.
and the church believes as I believe," which all
wise men make a jest of, they make the foundation
of their faith, and a sovereign antidote against
infidelity.
A grosser instance of this cannot be given, than
the belief of the doctrine of transubstantiation,
which was introduced for no other end but to magnify
the priests, and make poor people admire them, and
give up themselves to their conduct, though they
were ever so ignorant and scandalous. Was ever
such a tyranny over the souls of men, as making
them believe that that which they see and feel, and
smell and taste, to be bread, is not bread, but the
body of a man ; and that which they see, and smell,
and taste to be wine, is not wine, but the blood of a
man ; and this prodigious imaginary change to be
wrought by the priest's pronouncing five words
over it, Hoe est enim corpus meum—for this is my
body. Our Saviour appealed to men's senses : for
the proof of his miracles, Go tell John what ye hear
and see; and of his resurrection. Handle me, and
see me. This is dealing with men as men, and putting
an honour upon their nature ; but the church of
Rome demands the belief of that which bids defiance
to four of our five senses at once, and is directly
contradicted by them. So that, as the excellent
Archbishop Tillotson speaks, " The business of
transubstantiation is not a controversy of Scripture
against Scripture, or of reason against reason, but
of downright impudence against the plain meaning
of Scripture, and all the sense and reason of man-
kind. It is a most self-evident falsehood, and there
is no doctrine or proposition in the world that is of
itself more evidently true, than transubstantiation
is evidently false." And yet the papists as firmly
believe it as that there is a God ; nor do they leave
it to be a matter of doubtful disputation in the
schools, but have reduced it to practice : for if
they do not believe it, they must own themselves to
be the most gross idolaters, in worshipping the bread
they suppose to be thus metamorphosed ; and the
most barbarous murderers, in putting those to death
with inhuman cruelty who will not believe it too.
For (as Fuller observes) this was in Queen Mary's
time " The burning doctrine, the test by which the
martyrs were tried ; and the popish persecutors then
were so perfectly lost to all sense of reason and
honour, as to condemn the most valuable lives to so
great a death as being burnt at a stake, only because
they could not believe this monstrous absurdity.
Were ever the powers and faculties of the human
soul so trampled upon, and trodden into the dirt?
Yet those who receive popery must receive this.
And when the soul is brought to bow down to this,
they are ready to go over it with troops of strong de-
lusions, and make it believe a thousand lies, when
d Dan. ▼. 18.
t John T. 93.
f Rev. xiii. lA.
622
POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.
once it is persuaded to believe this. For as con-
science, so faith, when it is thoroughly debauched
in one instance, lies exposed in any other. Those
who have once swallowed transubstantiation, will
never be choked with any of the forgeries of their
lying legends, or the imposturesof their miracles and
relics, which some of themselves have the honesty
to own to be frauds, but the wickedness to call pious
frauds. And to say, " If people will be deceived,
let them be deceived,'' though it may serve them
to laugh in their sleeves with now, will prove but
a miserable excuse for their impiety and villany in
the great day.
2. They oblige people to obey all the commands
of their church, though ever so contrary to the di-
vine commands. I remember, in a little catechism
published here by the Romish emissaries in King
James the II. 's time, the answer to that question,
'< What is sin V* was, *^ Sin is the transgression of
the law of God, or of the church ;'' so making the
laws of their church equally binding with the laws
of God : nay, they make them to be of a superior
obligation ; and if men make conscience of observ-
ing the law of God, they say to such consciences.
Bow tlawHj that we may go over ; you are to obey the
church, and not God.
A plain proof of this is their worship of images.
God has expressly forbidden it, and frequently, in
his word, has given many reasons for that prohi-
bition ; there is no sin which has been more severely
punished by the righteoas God, nor more courage-
ously witnessed against by righteous men ; and yet
the charch of Rome commands and compels all its
members to fall down and worship images of God,
Christ, and the saints ; to pray before them, and
bum incense to them ; to adore the consecrated host
with the same worship that they would give to Christ
himself. And to show that they command this in
contempt and defiance of the law of God, and in
pursuance of their own authority over the souls of
men, they leave the second commandment out of
the ten, in all their catechisms and books of devo-
tion, and have done so for many ages, and so they
call the third commandment the second, the fourth
the third, and so on ; but because people had heard
that there were ten, lest they should miss that pre-
cious jewel which they have stolen, they divide the
tenth into two ; and the ninth commandment with
them is, Thou thalt not covet thy neighbour's house,
and the tenth, Thou shait not covet thy neighbour s
wife. You will scarce believe that men could be
guilty of such impudence and impiety, and imposi-
tion upon souls, but I assure you it is true.
It is the express command of God, Thou shalt wor-
ship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve ;
but contrary to this command, they require people
V Rev. xtx. 10.
h Rer. xxii. 9.
to pray to saints and angels, which is expressly l»
bidden to St. John by an angel himself, Seetkmk
it not;' but worship God.*" They require I knovvk
what higher degree of worship to be paid to Hi
Virgin Mary, than to other saints, and desire terti
command her Sou to help them ; and give noreiMi
for this and many other such impositions, bat m
volo, sic jubeo, stat pro raiione voluntoM — thus I w^
thus I command, my will stands /or reason, Nowkt
miserably must the souls of men be racked and im
by this usurped power, when their own reasoo ul
conscience tell them, they mast worship God ul
Christ only, but their priests tell them, inobediew
to the church they must pray to this and the otkr
saint. No man indeed can serve two fnmsters, wkl
their commands thus contradict one another ; ui,
therefore, they must certainly disown God for tkk
master, who take their charch for their mistral;
and a miserable choice they make, for God sijfsti
the soul. Lift it up, that he may receive and embmi
it ; they say to the soul. Bow dawn^ that thej wtf
go over it, and trample upon it.
3. They forbid the use of the Scriptures tothecoa-
mon people, and oblige them (as the heathen pen^
cutors of old forced the Christians) to surreate
their Bibles ; because they coald not enslave thai^
if they did not first pat out their eyes, and disva
them of the sword of the Spirit.
It is the privilege of reasonable creatares to jodge
for themselves, and therefore, in all matters of eoa-
cern, to be furnished with the proper rale they areli
judge by; but papists resign this privilege toAcir
priests, who bid them leave it to them to choose kt
them. It is the privilege of Christians, as fomeriy
of the Jews, that to them are committed the oraeki
of God,* the sure word of prophecy; they hsn
Moses and the prophets,^ and are c^mmaixied li
hear them. The Bereans are commended, beeaia
they searched the Scriptures daily, whether tkii
things were so which the apostles themselves i»^eacl*
ed to them. But the church of Rome will not aliof
Christians to consult this oracle, forbids what Ckrii
has commanded, not only as in other things to ibev
her authority, but because she cannot othenriie
support her authority ; for if people might but kave
liberty to look with an unprejudiced eye into tk
word of God, they would not suffer themselves to be
thus enslaved by the craft of men. Bat they wte
impose on their customers with counterfeit goodi,
find it their interest to keep their shops dark. Tie
Philistines could never have made Samson grind
in their prison-house, if they had not first blinded
him.
This is not only an imperious piece of tynwjr,
but a barbarous piece of cruelty to the soals of boi;
for they who take away the key of knowledge fiw
i John V. 39.
k Luke xvi. wU.
I
POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.
623
men, shat up the kingdom of heaven against them.
And " it is a very hard case '' (says Archbishop Til-
lotson) '* to which the church of Rome has reduced
men, that it will neither allow them salvation out of
their church, nor the best and most effectual means
of salvation when they are in it.'
4. They take away the cup in the Lord's supper
from the laity, and will allow them to communicate
bat in one kind. This is a great affront to our Lord
Jesus, who, in the institution of this ordinance, ap-
pointed his disciples, all of them to drink of the
cup, as well as to eat of the bread ; and that decree
of the Romish Church, which forbids the people the
use of the cup, did it with an express non obstante —
notwithstanding opposed to the divine institution.
So said the council of Constance, " Though Christ
did administer this sacrament under both kinds, yet
notwithstanding this, the custom of communicating
onder one kind only, is now to be taken for a law ;''
that is, you who make conscience of conforming to
the will of Christ, must quit that principle, and must
bow d9wny that we may go over.
But this is not all : as it is an affront to Christ,
so it is a great wrong and injury to Christians, and
deprives them of part of the legacy which their Re-
deemer left them ; in denying them the cup of bless-
ings, they do, as far as they can, deny them the
blessings themselves. And as those are reckoned
to tyrannize over the bodies of men, who take away
their goods which they are legally entitled to ; so
they certainly tyrannize over men's souls, who de-
prive them of a privilege they are evangelically
entitled to : for, as an excellent pen well expresses
it, '* Look what benefit a man would be robbed of,
in being deprived of Christ's blood ; that comfort
he is robbed of, who is deprived of this cup."
5. They make the validity and virtue of the sacra-
ments, to depend upon the intention of the priest or
minister.* So the council of Trent has decreed ;
and hence it will follow, that if the priest either be
carelessly thinking of something else, or wilfully
and wickedly design something else, when he bap-
tizes, or consecrates the bread and wine, it is no
sacrament at all, nor has any virtue in it to the re-
ceiver ; the person so baptized is no member of
the church ; the host so consecrated is not the
body of Christ, and therefore it is idolatry to worship
it
Now can any thing tyrannize more over the souls
of men than this ? or put it more into the power of
every profane, ignorant, drunken priest, to tyrannize
over them, — ^when they lie at his mercy, and in a
thing too which they can never be sure of, whether
they shall have any benefit by the sacraments ? '* So
that when a man has done all he can to work out
his own salvation, he shall be never the nearer, only
1 Compare Matt xziii. la witb Luke li. 51. • Can. 11.
for want of that which is wholly out of his power ;-!-
the right intention of the priest."
6. They offer up their public prayers and praises
in a language, which the generality of the people
do not understand. The mass is all in Latin, which
is not at this day the vulgar tongue in any nation ;
so are their psalms, and other devotions. And this
is designed to support the reputation of their priests,
that they maybe thought to have more learning than
their neighbours ; and to train people up in that
blind devotion of their church, which they boast that
ignorance is the mother of.
This is a great dishonour to God, it is taking his
name in vain, and bringing the blind for sacrifice ;
it is directly contrary to the law of Christ, who has
commanded us (o pray and praise with understand-
ing ; and so full and plain is the apostle's discourse
against it, (I Cor. xiv.) that a papist happening to
read that chapter, which he had been kept in ignor-
ance of before, professed he thought St. Paul was a
Lutheran.
But that which I now condemn it for is, its tyranny
over the souls of men ; it deprives them of the com-
fort and benefit of prayer ; utterly disables them to
pray in faith, and in the Spirit ; and puts it in the
power of the priest (and that is it which by all means
possible must be supported) to make the people say
Amen to the most direful imprecations, or execra-
tions, which a wicked priest, by the change of a
word or two, unobserved, and undiscovered, may
turn the prayers into. Thus as ip believing and
obeying, so in praying, the souls of men, considered
as rational, are tyrannized over, and are put under
the priests' girdles.
7. They oblige all people at some certain times to
confess all their sins privately to a priest, in order
to their receiving absolution from him. This is as
mischievous an engine of papal tyranny as any other,
and is as perfect a rack to the consciences of men.
Thus men are made to stand in awe of, and are
brought into subjection to, their priests, as the fathers
of their spirits, as having it in their power to admit
them into, or shut them out of the kingdom of hea-
ven. By this artifice they let themselves into the
secrets of men's lives and affairs, which makes it
every man's interest to please them, and upon any
terms to keep in witli them.
Scire volunt secreta domus atque inde limert.| —
They wish to know the secrets of the house, that
thus they may be feared.
This province therefore, of receiving confessions,
of all the orders of the Romish clergy, the Jesuits
have most applied themselves to, who are most slaves
to the pope, enemies to the protestants, and lords
over the souls of men ; and with the help of this
t See Archbishop Tlllotaon's Sermons, Vol. L I Jcv. Sat
624
POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.
\
carry on their f^eat design to aggrandize and enrich
themselves, and enslave and impoverish those ahout
them.
8. They impose what penances they please upon
those who come to them to receive absolution, and
force them to submit to them, by denying them ab-
solution unless they do. Never did any prince pre-
tend to such an authority over a subject, any parent
over a child, or master over his servant, as the con-
fessor claims over his penitent, which he is told he
is bound in conscience to submit to, though the ser-
vices enjoined be never so absurd, and the injunc-
tion never so arbitrary. Judges must give sentence
according to law, but confessors accordingto humour,
whether a gay humour, which makes the penance
like children's play, or an imperious malicious one,
which makes it worse than bridewell. These things
are industriously kept private ; but I have been told
of some, who, by pilgrimages to, and penances in,
St. Winifred's well, in my country, imposed upon
them by their priests, have ruined their health, and
lost their lives, and it is easy to say at whose hands
their blood will be required, for God never required
these things at their hands.
And that which in this matter is the greatest im-
position of all is, that they are made to believe, that
these corporal austerities (or barbarities rather) make
satisfaction to God's justice for their sins ; which is
a great indignity done to Christ, as if his satisfac-
tion were deficient, and needed to be thus helped
out, and a great cheat put upon the souls of men.
But thus do they triumph over conscience, and take
a pride in making that a duty and debt to God,
which is done in pure obedience to them.
Even crowned heads, by bringing conscience into
the case, have been made to submit to this tyranny ;
witness our king Henry II. who, because he com-
plained, and very justly, of the insolent and trai-
torous carriage of Thomas a Becket, then bishop of
Canterbury, whence some ruffians who heard him,
took occasion, utterly unknown to him, to go and
kill the bishop, was obliged to go to Canterbury,
and when he came within sight of Becket's church,
he alighted from his horse, put off his shoes and
stockings, and walked bare-foot to Becket's tomb,
and there suffered himself to be whipped on the
naked back, by the monks of Canterbury.* This is
popery, this is tyranny, this is saying to men's souls,
Jiow down that we nuiy go over.
9. They undertake to absolve men from their law-
ful oaths, and to dissolve and dispense with the most
solemn and sacred obligations; and thus triumph
over conscience as much by the looses they give it,
contrary to the law of God, as by the bonds they lay
upon it, contrary to that law.
There is nothing which the light of nature, and
• Fuller's Ch. Hist Lib. 3.
consent of nations, teach men to have more a TeB^
ration for, and a deeper sense of the obligatioB cf,
than the ordinances of marriage, and an oath, which
men who have any thing of conscience left, wiO
make conscience of being true to ; and yet tbe
church of Rome has ways of breaking these boids
in sunder.
As in the case of marriage, they exercise their
tyranny in forbidding marriage to ministers at all
times, and forbidding it to all people at some certaiD
seasons of the year ; so they do in dissolving mar-
riages, when the parties enter into religpion, (as tbej
call it,) and are professed.
And if a prince disoblige the pope so far, that be
adjudged him a heretic, his subjects are absohed
from their oath of allegiance to him; though he be
ever so able and willing to protect them, and goven
them according to law, they ought not to defend
him, or stand by him ; and if any think themsehei
bound by their oath, they shall be told, that the pope
has dispensed with that ; and thus does he sa; ti
men's souls. Bow down,
10. By the fear of purgatory, and the hope of ad-
vantage which men's souls may have by maascf
said for them after they are dead, they amass to
themselves vast riches, to the ruin of families, and
the civil interests of the nations ; and this is another
instance of the tyranny of popery.
When men have thoughts of death, and see it at
the door, then, if ever, conscience is awake, and
then it is seasonable to take hold of it, that in cod-
sideration of it, the soul may be effectuflly brought
to repentance and faith, and resignation to God, and
a holy heavenly temper; and they who are so in-
fluenced by it, may go comfortably under the con-
duct of our Lord Jesus into another world : but here
the Romish clergy put in for a dominion over men's
consciences ; they possess even good men with a
dreadful apprehension of the pains of purgatoij,
which they must endure for a great while before
they can go to heaven, in order to their cleansiDg,
that they may enter pure into eternal life ; it i& ire,
it is a prison ; and after all, it is a fancy, a mere
chimera, an invention of their own, that has no
foundation in the word of God. But they have a
way to lighten and shorten these pains ; leave the
church, the priest, or the convent, a good legacy,
leave them a part of your estates, and by masses
you shall soon have a discharge procured for yon.
Thus they frighten people with an imaginary evil,
which Christ never threatened, to seek for an iaa-
ginary deliverance, which Christ never promised;
by endowing monasteries, and maintaining priests in
superstition and idolatry, a service which Christ
never required.
" Purgatory pick-purse/' so it has been called for
POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.
626
this reason ; the locnsts of the Romish clergy have
been wont to swarm ahoat the beds of dying men,
to gain from them — or about their graves, to gain
from their surviving friends — grants of lands, or
sums of money, to pray them out of purgatory ; and
thus, by tyrannizing over men's souls, they vastly
enrich themselves and their church, and so become
capable of tyrannizing over men in every thing else.
In the dark times of popery, grants to the religious,
as they called them, and the religious houses, were
become so many, and so rich, that the wisdom of the
state saw fit to restrain them by the statute of Mort-
main, in the third year of Edward I. which made it
necessary to have the royal licence for such endow-
ments ; otherwise, says our historian, all England
would in a short time have become one entire con-
tinued monastery.* The like laws for limiting men's
liberality to the church, had been made a little be-
fore in France and Spain ; which could never have
been done at that time, if the fatal consequences of
it had not been most apparently clear ; and if the
guardians of the public peace and welfare had not
plainly seen what they were aiming at, who said to
their souls, Bow dowUj that we may go over ; nothing
less than enslaving the kingdom too.
11. The greatest instance of the tyranny of the
ehnrch of Rome over the souls of men, is their
making princes and magistrates, and others, the con-
scientious tools of their persecuting rage, against
those who will not receive the mark of the beast in
tiieir foreheads or their right hands.
When princes make bloody laws against their own
subjects, who willingly pay them tribute, are ready
to serve them, pray for them, and live quiet and
peaceable lives under them, and contribute their
share to the nations' wealth and strength, rendering
in every thing to Caesar the things that are Csesar's,
only desiring to reserve their consciences for God,
because they are his ; when edicts made for their
protection, and solemnly ratified, are most perfidi-
eusly and ungratefully repealed after a thousand
direct violations of them, and troops of dragoons,
those booted apostles, are commissioned (by the
most barbarous and inhuman outrages and tortures
that ever the malice of bell invented) to force men's
eonsciences, or destroy their lives and families ;
when those who might be the profitable members of
m state, are thrown into bonds or banishment, against
all the true politics of a nation ; when courts of in-
quisition are kept up, their proceedings connte-
muiced against all the established rules of justice
and equity, and their most unrighteous sentences
executed blindfold by the secular arm ; when all
the bowels of humanity are put off, and all the
bonds of relation, friendship, and neighbourhood,
are broken through, and those who are both harm-
Fulleri Ch. Hirt. Lib. 3. 1274
2 k
an John XVi. 1.
less and resistless are massacred in their beds and
houses in cold blood, as many thousands of protest-
ants were in Paris, and other parts of France, in
1572, and in Ireland in 1641 ; — and lastly, when
princes, whose persons are taken under the particu-
lar protection of the laws of God and man, are
barbarously assassinated by their own subjects, as
Henry IV. of France was by Ravillac ; — it is natural
to inquire, how it is possible that men should act so
contrary to tlic dictates of nature and reason, and
interest, how one man could be such a bear, such
a beast, to another ; and it will be found upon in-
quiry, that the power of the church of Rome over
misguided consciences is at the bottom of all this ;
the bigoted clergy said to their souls, Bow down,
that we may go over, and then they are at their service,
not only to do the greatest drudgery, and think it
no dishonour to themselves, but to perpetrate the
greatest villany, and to think it no dishonour to
God, as long as they are made to believe it is for
the advantage of the church, the propagating of the
faith, and the extirpation of heresy. A zeal for that
which they call the catholic cause is thought suffi-
cient, not only to justify, but even to sanctify, mur-
der, treason, perjury, and all manner of wickedness.
Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum. —
To so much evil could their religion persuade them.
In them is fulfilled what Christ said to his dis-
ciples, that those who killed them would think they
did God service ;" and what God of old said by the
prophet concerning his people, that those who hated
them, and cast them out, would say, Let the Lord
he glorified,^ But what an insult is this upon con-
science ! what a tyranny over it ! what a force put
upon it ! Such a dominion could never have been
gained over it, but by the power of strong delusions.
Surely never were kings and kingdoms so ridden,
never were princes so intoxicated,® as those are who
have given their power and honour to the beast.
Many more instances mighty be given for the proof
of this charge^ that popery is a spiritual tyranny,
but these shall suffice.
The Application.
1. Let this confirm and increase our pious zeal
against popery, and a holy indignation at the pride
and tyranny of the church and court of Rome. We
may now be tempted to cry out, *' O Jesus, are these
thy Christians?" Are these the followers of the
meek and lowly Saviour, who did not strive or cry ;
who came into the world not to be ministered unto,
but to minister ;P not to destroy men^s lives, but to
save them?^ Are these professors of that gospel,
which makes these two of its first precepts, humility
B Is9. Ixvi. 5. o Rev. xvii. 2. p Matt xx. 28. % Luke x. M.
626
POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.
and charity ? Can those be ever owned as friends of
Christ, who ride over the beads,' and set their feet
upon the necks, and, which is worst of all, trample
upon the consciences, of the free-born subjects of
G od's kingdom in the world ?
Is it possible that under the umbrage of Christ's
name — and that particularly by such, as from his
saving, healing name Jesus call themselves Jesuits
— ^so much opposition should be given, and so much
mischief done, to pure Christianity? But therefore
popery is called a mystery of iniquity,* because it
has a show of piety and devotion. It is that beast
that has horns like a lamb, and yet speaks as a
dragon ;' that enemy that sits in the temple of God,
and yet there tramples on all that is sacred.
Far be it from me to possess you with hatred
against the persons of any ; no, we ought to love our
enemies, and do them good ; but it is the way of
popery, as it is contrary to the way of Christianity,
that I think we all ought to conceive and retain a
dislike of, and an antipathy to.
Our Lord Jesus, in his preaching, was never so
severe upon any sort of sinners as he was upon the
Scribes and Pharisees, who buoying themselves up
with the traditions of the elders, bound heavy bur-
thens upon men's consciences, and grievous to be
borne ;" nor is there any thing more contrary to the
temper and constitution of the gospel, than ministers'
lording it over God's heritage,* for it is by the power
of truth, and reason, and holiness, and love, that
they are to rule ; nor than Christians making them-
selves the servants of men * in things pertaining unto
God, for where the SpiHt of the Lord is, there it
liberty,*
It may justly be wondered at, that such a spirit-
ual tyranny as this has continued so long in the
church, that God has so long suffered it, and men
have so long submitted to it ; but God has wise and
holy ends in permitting it, It must needs be that such
offences comcy that they which are perfect may be
made manifest ; and it ought not to be a stumbling-
block to us, for we are told before that the holy city
must be trodden under foot forty and two months ;7
and as for those who submit to it, we have reason to
fear that God has herein given them up to a judicial
infatuation, because they received not the love of
tlie truth that they might be saved.* They who shake
off the easy gentle yoke of God's government, it is
just with him to leave them to submit to the iron
yoke of the king of Babylon. They shall he his
servants^ (says God,) that they may know the differ-
ence between my service and the service of the hiny-
doms of the countries,^ Because Israel had despised
God's statutes, therefore he gave them statutes that
were not good,** he left them to be subject to the im-
position of their proud oppressors. But though this
T Ps. IxTi. 12. • 2 Then. ii. 7. t Rev. xiii.
» 1 Pet. V. 3. w I Cor. vii. 23.
II. n Matt, xxiii. 4.
X a Cor. iii. 17.
usurped, abused dominion has continued long, wt
may hope it will not continue always ; its day shall
come to fall, for the Lord whose name is jealous, is
a jealous God, and will fulfil every word that be
has spoken.
2. Let us pity and pray for those nations of (be
earth who are under the yoke of this tyranny and
oppression, and I wish I could say were groaning
under it. It is sad to think how many there are
who have a zeal for God, but it is not according to
knowledge,^ for they are kept in ignorance of the
Scripture, and so are easily led into idolatry and
false worship, and their devotion is misplaced.
We ought to look upon them with compassion, and
to pray that God would send the light of the gospel
among them, and open their eyes to receive it ; tbat
those who mean honestly, may be brought to tbe
knowledge of the truth. O that God would effectually
call his people out of that captivity ; and that Zion,
who dwells with the daughter of Babylon,^ woakl
deliver herself^ and that God would deliver her;
that God would by his Spirit stir up the captives to
arise and shake themselves from their dust, and
loose themselves from the bands of their neck.' 0
that the same spirit of life that entered into the dry
bones at the Reformation, might put life into tbe
bones that are yet dead, for they are very many, and
lo, they are very dry. We should pray earnestly for
the conversion of the papists who are of our own
nation, and live among us, that their mistakes may
be rectified, and their prejudices removed , and I
heartily wish that more were done toward it by tbe
rational, gentle methods of the gospel, than is ; and
particularly for the instruction of the papists in
Ireland, by the carrying on of that which seems to
be a very excellent design, of preaching the gospel
to them in their own language.
We have reason to fear there are many who are
convinced of the errors of popery, but are carried
down the stream in them^ (Eamus ad c&mmmum
error em — Let us join in the popular error, J and ara
held by force and fear in practices contrary to theii
convictions, and know not how to help themselves*
Did we, as we ought, put our souls into their souls'
stead, we should pity their case ; and, O that God
would hear the sorrowful sighings of those prisoners,
and find out a way to deliver them from the insults
of those who say to their souls. Bow domm, that wt
may go over. It is the case of those they call the
new converts in France ; O that by some means or
other, Pharaoh and his task-masters may be eooi-
pel led to let God's people go, that they may serve
him.
And by the prophecies in the Revelation, it is inti-
mated to us, that we should pray particularly for the
kings of the earth, that God would put it into tiieir
yRev. xL2. 1 2 Then. il. 10. a 2 Chron. zH &
k Esek. zx. 25. • Rum. x. 2. « Zech. ii.7. « ba.lD.2
POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.
627
hearts to assert the rights of their crovms against
the bold invasions of the man of sin ; and to give
their power and honour to the Lord Jesus ; that he
-would inspire them with hatred of this mother of
harlots, that, as it is prophesied, they may make her
desolate and naked ;^ that the righteous men may
judge her after the manner of adulteresses,* and free
themselves and their kingdoms from the papal yoke.
But who shall live when God docs this ?
3. Let us bless God that we of this nation are by
the providence and grace of God delivered out of this
house of bondage ; that we are a protestant nation,
were made so above 150 years ago, and continue so
to this day, notwithstanding the restless designs
of our popish enemies to bring us back into Egypt
again, like Pharaoh's to re-enslave Israel. Many a
weapon has been formed against us and our holy
religion, which has not prospered. Here we may
set up our Eben-ezer, for hitherto the Lord has
helped us. No etichantment has hitherto prevailed
mgainst our Jaeoh, nor any divination against our Is-
rael^ but according to this time it has been said, and
shall be said, of Jacob and of Israel, What has God
wrought /
We can never be enough thankful to God for the
abolishing of the papal power in these islands, and
the preventing of its return. Happy art thou, O
Great Britain ; who is like nnto thee, O people, saved
by the Lord ? Think what a mercy it is to us that
we have the Scriptures in a language we under-
stand, our Father's will in our mother tongue ; that
the pure word of God is read in our synagogues
every sabbath day ; that we have plenty of Bibles ;
that care is taken to teach even the children of the
poor to read, and that we have so many helps in
searching the Scriptures, that we may understand
them ; that we may see with our own eyes, and may
find our religion there, where alone we are to seek
it, in the word of God ; that our public prayers and
praises are offered up so that we may join in them
with understanding ; that we have the Lord's supper
in both kinds, and not maimed ; that we worship
God only, and are not compelled to pay the homage
to saints and angels which is his due, and to say
more Ave-Marys than Pater-Nosters. That we are
not imposed upon by the frauds and forgeries of
popish priests, as the poor deluded members of the
church of Rome are; but have the bread of life
broken to us by the stewards of the mysteries of
God, and are nourished up with the words of truth
and good doctrine ;* and what is the chaff to that
wheat ? We can never be enough thankful to God
for these privileges, and ought to take care, lest by
oar unthankfulness for them, we provoke God to
deprive us of them.
4. Being delivered from this spiritual oppression,
f Rev. xvii. le. r Ezek. niii. 4Si
h Numb. xxiW. 23.
2 8 2
let us serve God the more cheerfully in holiness and
righteousness before him all the days of our lives.^
What will it avail us to be protestants in profession,
if we be not Christians in sincerity ? to be of a reform-
ed church, if we be not reformed in our own con-
versations, and transformed through the grace of
God by the renewing of our minds ? This is that
which, with all earnestness, I would now in the close
press upon you all.
Brethren, we are delivered from the power of the
man of sin at Rome, but what the better shall we be
for that, if we continue under the power of the man
of sin in our own hearts, the anti-christ in our own
bosoms, which will be to us the more dangerous ene-
my. You can glory in it that you are not priest-
ridden, but your glory may well be turned into
shame if you be pride-ridden, and passion-ridden,
and lust-ridden. You thank God that you are not
drudges to the pope, and slaves to the French, and
you have reason to do so ; but your thanks are thank-
less, if by covetousness you continue drudges to the
world, and by sensuality, slaves to the flesh, and a
base lust, that saith to your souls. Bow down, that we
may go over. We live in an age of liberty, but
withal it is an age of libertinism, an age of licen-
tiousness, the stream of which is so strong, that there
is need of great resolution, and that in the strength
of God's grace, to swim against it. Be persuaded,
therefore, whatever snare of the devil any of you are
taken in, give diligence to recover yourselves out of
it, that you may not any longer be led captive by
him at his will.* The service of sin is perfect
slavery, let it not then reign in your mortal bodies,
— becausethey are mortal, and must shortly return
to the dust whence they came ; nor in your immor-
tal souls, — ^because they are immortal, and must
shortly return to God who gave them. Suffer not
appetite and passion to get dominion over conscience
and right reason, but since sin is a tyrant, dethrone
it, depose it, and shake off its yoke.
But this is not all, being delivered from this ty-
ranny, submit yourselves to the government of the
Lord Jesus. He saith to your souls. Bow down, not
that he may go over them, but that he may raise them
up. He has authority over your souls : yield to his
authority. Kiss the Son. Come and take his yoke upon
you, and draw in it ; it is an easy yoke ; the yoke of
his institution is very easy in comparison with the
yoke of the ceremonial law, much more in compari-
son with that of the canon law. He has right to rule
us, and rules by love ; his service is perfect freedom.
Come, therefore, and bow your souls to him ; your
understandings to his truths, your vri lis to his laws,
and let every thought within you be brought into
obedience to him. It is foretold, that they that go
dawn to the dust shall bow before him, since none can
i I Tim. ir. 6.
k Luke i. 74. 75. 1 2 Tim. it 28.
628
POPERY, A SPIRITUAL TYRANNY.
of himself keep alive his own soul ; we are all g^ing
down to the dust,*" nay, if infinite mercy prevent
not, we are going down to the pit, and cannot save
ourselves from death or hell. Come, therefore, and
let as bow before the Lord Jesus, make him our
head, and be willing in the day of his power.
6. Being delivered out of the snare of popish
tyranny, let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made us free," and dread the thoughts of
being again entangled in that snare. However it
may change its disguises, popery is the same evil
thing that ever it was ; and its patrons and factors
as restless as ever to re-establish it in our land, and
to bring us back again to the Egyptian brick-kilns;
and I wish there be not those among ourselves, —
who make light of our deliverance, as even the
captive Israelites did of Moses, because, when he
«aw the Hebrews strive together, he said to him that
did the wrong, Wherefwe smitest thou thy fellow ?** —
who, because we are not in Canaan immediately, are
for making a captain to return into Egypt.P
We have therefore no reason to be secure, but to
take heed lest by our sins wc provoke God to suffer
these oppressors of conscience again to have dominion
over us. O let us be earnest with God in prayer,
to keep popery out of our nation, and to fortify our
bulwarks against it, that if that enemy should come
in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord may again lift
np a standard against him.
We know not how we should be able to bear up
and keep our gp^und, if trying times should come,
and therefore have reason to pray that there may be
a lengthening of our tranquillity, and we may not
be put to the trial. Dread the departure of our
glory, in the captivity of our ark ; and the removal
of our candlestick, in the loss of our Bibles ; and
let us in our places do what it becomes us to do in
defence of the present protestant government and
settlement we are under, that the blessings thereof
may be safely transmitted to those who shall come
after us, that the children who shall be created may
praise the Lord for them.
0. Let as all carefully watch against that in our-
selves, which we witness against in the church of
Rome, lest we be found condemning ourselves in
that thing which we allow.
We condemn the papists for their idolatr}, and
formality in worship ; let as take heed of spiritual
idolatry, of making images of God in our fancy,
and worshipping them ; of resting in the outside of
duties, and suffering our hearts to depart from God,
when we draw nigh to him with our mouths, and
honour him with our lips ; let us take heed lest we
grow customary in our accustomed services, and
lest our devotion degenerate into a formality, and by
losing its life become a carcass.
We condemn them for putting contempt upon the
Pb.xxU.29.
u Gfll. T. L
• Exod. it 13L
Scriptures, keeping people in ignorance of tkn,
and setting up other rales in competition withtkcn;
let us take heed, lest we, through carelessness ai
neglect of our duty, keep our families, our childm
and servants, ignorant of the Scriptures ; and lestie
be ourselves strangers to them, and govern ouseha
by the will of the flesh, and the way of the world, ii
those things wherein the word of God ought to k
our commanding rule.
We have been now condemning them for imposiif
upon men's consciences, and tyrannizing over tliea;
let us take heed to oui^ves, lest there be in us uj
thing of that spirit; lest we grow magisterial it
prescribing to others, and censuring them ; and kn
we expect every sheaf to bow to ours, and eveiy oac
to believe just as we believe, and speak just as n
speak, and do just as we do ; or else condemn his
as none of God's people, and no follower of Chiat
because he follows not with us. Our conscienoi
ought to be a rule to ourselves, and by it let ctoj
man prove his own work ; but we ought not to makt
it a standard to every one else, by it to jadge aii
set at nought our brother; as if all were blind wto
do not see with our eyes, and all out of the wij li
heaven, who do not walk in our particular path; bit
let all our works be done with charity. Aji weatj
remember for our comfort, that others are not to be
our judges, or our lords, so we must remember ftr
caution, that we are not to be their judges or tkir
lords ; both they and we must stand or fall to ov
own master,^ to whom therefore we are concenNi
to approve ourselves, and refer one another.
There are many things, about which good Cbrii>
tians may, both in judgement and practice, difcr
from one another, and yet both sides be aeeepted if
God ; and therefore they ought to make the best m
of another, since there are faults on both sides, ui
neither without something good. And for prints
persons to hate and despise, to censure and oooden^
to expose and reproach, those who are not in evoj
thing of their mind, is in effect the same thing, aiM
is in popes and councils to exconununicate, heiei-
cate, and anathematize, all who subscribe not to tbdr
sentiments and injunctions; it is saying to aet^
souls. Bow down, that we may go over. Bot kt m
make it appear, that we have not so learned ChriH:
that we are governed by a spirit of love, and not d
bigotry. In those things which concern the povtr
of godliness, let us be fervent in spirit, ierving fit
Lord, and zealous of good works; but in UMia
things which only concern the form of it, let mttia
heed of being too hot, lest we be found serving s«-
selves ; but let us conscientiously walk aecofdiigto
the light that God has given us, and charilabJy
believe that others do so too ; which is hot doiif
as we would be done by.
P Neh. ix. IT.
« Rook xhr. ai C
/
A METHOD FOR PRAYER,
WITH
SCRIPTURE EXPRESSIONS
PROPER TO BE USED UNDER EACH HEAD.
To THE Reader.
Religion is so much the basiness of our lives,
and the worship of God so much the business of our
religion, that what has a sincere intention, and pro-
bable tendency, to promote and assist the acts of
religious worship, (I think,) cannot be unacceptable
to any who heartily wish well to the interests of
God's kingdom among men ; for if we have spiritual
senses exercised, true devotion (that aspiring flame
of pious affections to God, as far as in a judgment of
charity we discern it in others, though in different
shapes and dresses, which may seem uncouth to one
another) cannot but appear beautiful and amiable,
and as far as we feel it in our own breasts, cannot
but be found very pleasant and comfortable.
Prayer is a principal branch of religious worship,
which we are moved to by the very light of nature,
and obliged to by some of its fundamental laws.
Pythagoras's golden verses begin with this precept,
'* Whatever men made a god of they prayed to,"
Deliver met for ^l^ou art my God, Isa. xliv. 17. Nay,
deos qui rogat ille facit, — whatever they prayed to
they made a god of. It is a piece of respect and
homage so exactly consonant to the natural ideas
which all men have of God, that it is certain those
who live without prayer, live without God in the
world.
Prayer is the solemn and religions offering up of
devout acknowledgments and desires to God, or a
sincere representation of holy affections, with a de-
sign to give anto God the glory due unto his name
thereby, and to obtain from him promised favours,
and both through the Mediator. Our English word
prayer is too confined, for that properly signifies pe-
tition or request; whereas humble adorations of
God, and thanksgivings to him, are as necessary in
prayer as any other part of it. The Greek word
llpoo%vxfij from ^Evx*^ ^^ ^ ^^^ directed to God. The
Latin word Votum is used for prayer. Jonah's ma-
riners, with their sacrifices, made vows ; for prayer
is to move and oblige ourselves, not to move and
oblige God. Clemens Alexandrinus (Serom. 7. p
722. Edit Colon.) calls prayer, (with an excuse for
the boldness of the expression,) 'O/iiXia irpoc rov Oeoy,
it is conversing with God: and it is the scope of a
long discourse of his there, to show that his 6 rvw?ucoc,
that is, his believer, (for faith is called knowledge,
and, p. 719. he makes his companions to be 6i oftotuQ
imrtrtvKort^f those who have in like manner believed,)
lives a life of communion with God ; and so is pray-
ing always ; that he studies by his prayers continu-
ally to converse with God. Some (says he) have
their stated hours of prayer, but he rapa 'OXov tvxfrat
rov piovj prays all his life long. The Scripture de-
scribes prayer to be our drawing near to God, lifting
up our souls to him, pouring out our hearts before
him.
This is the life and soul of prayer ; but this soul
in the present state must have a body, and that body
must be such as becomes the soul, and is suited and
adapted to it. Some words there must be, of the
mind at least, in which, as in the smoke, this incense
must ascend ; not that God may understand us, for
our thoughts afar off are known to him, but that we
may the better understand ourselves.
A golden thread of heart-prayer must run through^
the web of the whole Christian life ; we must be fre-
quently addressing ourselves to God in short and
sudden ejaculations, by which we must keep up
our communion with God in providences and com-
mon actions, as well as in ordinances and religions
services. Thus prayer must be tpartim — a sprink-
ling of it in every duty, and our eyes oust be ever
toward the Lord.
In mental prayer, thoughts are words ; and they
are the first-born of the soul, which are to be conse-
crated to God. But if, when we pray alone, we
see cause, for the better fixing of our minds, and ex-
030
TO THE READER.
citing of our devotions, to clothe our conceptions
with words ; if the conceptions he the genuine pro-
ducts of the new nature, one would think words
should not he far to seek : verbaque pravisam rem
non invito sequuntur — when a subject has been medi-
tated, words spontaneously flow. Nay, if the groan-
ings he such as cannot be uttered, he who searcheth
the heart knows them to be the mind of the spirit,
and will accept of them, (Rom. viii. 26, 27.) and an-
swer the voice of our breathing, Lam. iii. 66. Yet,
through the infirmity of the flesh, and the proneness
of our hearts to wander and trifle, it is often neces-
sary that words should go first, and be kept in mind
for the directing and exciting of devout affections ;
and in order thereunto, the assistance here offered,
I hope, will be of some use.
When we join with others in prayer, who are our
mouth to God, our minds must attend them, by an
intelligent believing concurrence with that which is
the sense, and scope, and substance of what they say,
and affections working in us suitable thereunto : and
this the Scripture directs us to signify, by saying
Amen mentally, if not vocally, at their giving of
thanks, 1 Cor. xiv. 16. And, as far as our joining
with them will permit, we may intermix pious eja-
culations of our own with their addresses, provided
they be pertinent, that not the least fragment of
praying time may be lost.
But he that is the mouth of others in prayer, whe-
ther in public or private, and therein useth that
vapprifTta, that freedom of speech^ that holy liberty of
prayer, which is allowed us, (and which we are sure
many good Christians have found by experience to
be very comfortable and advantageous in this duty,)
ought not only to consult the workings of his own
heart, (though them principally, as putting most life
and spirit into the performance,) but the edification
also of those who join with him, and both in matter
and words should have an eye to it : and for service
in that case I principally design this endeavour.
That bright ornament of the church, the learned
Dr. Wilkins, bishop of Chester, has left us an ex-
cellent performance, much of the same nature with
this, in his discourse concerning the gift of prayer ;
which, some may think, makes this of mine unne-
cessary : but tlie multiplying of books of devotion is
what few serious Christians will complain of, and
as, on the one hand, I am sure those who have this
poor essay of mine will still find great advantage by
that, so, on the other hand, I think those who have
that may yet find some further assistance by this.
It is desirable that our prayers should be copious
and full. Our burthens, cares, and wants are many,
so are our sins and mercies. The promises are nu-
merous and very rich, our God gives liberally, and
has bid us open our mouths wide, and he will fill
. them, will satisfy them with good things. We are
not straitened in him, why then should we be strait-
ened in our bosoms ? Christ had taught his disciples
the Lord's prayer, and yet tells them, (John xvi. 2i)
that hitherto they had asked nothing, that is, nothiDg
in comparison with what they should ask when tlie
Spirit should bo poured out, to abide with tbe
church for ever ; and they should see greater thinp
than these. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your
joy may be full. We are encouraged to be particular
in prayer, and in every thing to make our requests
known to God, as we ought also to be particular in
the adoration of the divine perfections, in the con-
fession of our sins, and opr thankful acknowledg-
ment of God's mercies.
But since at the same time we cannot go over a
tenth part of the particulars which are fit to be tbe
matter of prayer, without making the duty burthen-
some to the flesh, which is weak even where the
spirit is willing, (an extreme that ought carefully to
be avoided,) and without danger of intrenching upon
other religious exercises, it will be requisite that
what is but briefly touched upon at one time, should
be enlarged upon at another time ; and herein this
store-house of materials for prayer may be of use, to
put us in remembrance of our several errands at
the throne of grace, that none may be quite for-
gotten.
And it is requisite to the decent performance of
the duty, that some proper method be observed, not
only that what is said be good, but that it be said
in its proper place and time ; and that we offer not
any thing to the glorious Majesty of heaven and
earth which is confused, impertinent, and indigested.
Care must be taken then more than ever, that we be
not rash with our mouth, nor hasty to utter any thing
before God ; that we say not what comes uppermost,
nor use such repetitions as evidence not the fervency,
but the barrenness and slightness, of our spirits ; hut
that, the matters we are dealing with God about
being of such vast importance, we observe a deco-
rum in our words, that they be well chosen, well
weighed, and well placed.
And as it is good to be methodical in prayer, so
it is to be sententious : the Lord's prayer is remark-
ably so; and David's Psalms, and many of St
Paul's prayers, which we have in his episties. We
must consider, that the greatest part of those who
join with us in prayer will be in danger of losing or
mistaking the sense, if the period be long, and the
parentheses many ; and in this, as in other things,
they who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of
the weak: Jacob must lead as the children and
flocks can follow.
As to the words and expressions we use in prayer,
though I have here in my enlargements upon the
several heads of prayer confined myself almost
wholly to Scripture language, because I would give
an instance of the sufficiency of the Scripture to
furnish us for every good work, yet I am^ far from
TO THE READER.
631
blinking, bat that it is convenient, and often neces-
sary, to use other expressions in prayer, besides
those that are purely scriptural ; only I would ad-
vise, that the sacred dialect be most used, and made
familiar to us and others, in our dealing about sa-
cred things. That language Christian people are
most accustomed to, most affected with, and will
most readily agree to ; and where the Scriptures are
opened and explained to the people in the ministry
of the word, Scripture language will be most intel-
ligible, and the sense of it- best apprehended. This
is sound speech, that cannot be condemned ; and
those who are able to do it, may do well to enlarge
by way of descant or paraphrase upon the Scrip-
tures they make use of ; still speaking according to
that rule, and comparing spiritual things with spiri-
tual, that they may illustrate each other.
And it is not to be reckoned a perverting of Scrip-
ture, but is agreeable to the usage of many divines,
especially the fathers, and I think is warranted by
divers quotations in the New Testament out of the
Old, to allude to a Scripture phrase, and to make
use of it by way of accommodation to another sense
than what was the first intention of it, provided it
agree with the analogy of faith. As for instance,
those words, (Ps. Ixxxvii. 7.) All my springs are in
thecy may very fitly be applied to God, though there
it appears, by the feminine article in the original, to
be meant of Sion ; nor has it ever been thought any
wrong to the Scripture phrase, to pray for the bUss-
ings of the upper springs and the nether springs,
though the expression from whence it is borrowed,
(Judg. i. 15.) has no reference at all to what we mean,
but by common use every one knows the significa-
tion, and many are pleased with the sig^ificancy of it.
Divers heads of prayer may no doubt be added to
those which I have here put together ; and many
Scripture expressions too, under each head ; (for I
have only set down such as first occurred to my
thoughts ;) and many other expressions too, not in
Scripture words, which may be very comprehen-
sive and emphatical, and apt to excite devotion.
And perhaps those who covet earnestly this excel-
lent gift, and covet to excel in it, may find it of use
to them to have such a book as this interleaved, in
which to insert suolpiother heads and expressions as
they think will be most agreeable to them, and are
wanting here. And though I have here recommended
a good method for prayer, and that which has been
generally approved, yet I am far from thinking we
should always tie ourselves to it ; that may be varied
as well as the expression : thanksgivings may very
aptly be put sometimes before confession or petition,
or our intercessions for others before our petitions
for ourselves, as the Lord's prayer. Sometimes one
of these parts of prayer may be enlarged upon much
more than another ; or they may be decently inter-
woven in some other method.
There are those, (I doubt not,) who at some times
have their hearts so wonderfully elevated and en-
larged in prayer, above themselves at other times ;
such a fixedness and fulness of thought, such a fer-
vour of pious and devout affections, the product of
which is such a fluency and variety of pertinent and
moving expressions, and in such a just and natural
method, that then to have an eye to such a scheme
'as this, would be a hinderance to them, and would
be in danger to cramp and straiten them : if tho
heart be full of its good matter, it may make the
tongue as the pen of a ready writer. But this is a
case that rarely happens, and ordinarily there is need
of proposing to ourselves a certain method in prayer,
that the service may be performed decently and in
order ; yet, in which one would avoid that which
looks too formal. A man may write straight without
having his paper ruled.
Some few forms of prayer I have added in the
last chapter, for the use of those who need such
helps, and who know not how to do as well or better
without them ; and, therefore, I have calculated them
for families. If any think them too long, let them
observe that they are divided into many paragraphs,
and those mostly independent, so that when brevity
is necessary some paragraphs may be omitted
But after all, the intention and close application
of the mind, the lively exercises of faith and love,
and the outgoings of holy desire toward God, are so
essentially necessary to prayer, that without these in
sincerity, the best and most proper language is but
a lifeless image. If we had the tongue of men and
angels, and have not the heart of humble serious
Christians, in prayer, we are but as sounding brass
and a tinkling cymbal. It is only the effectual fer-
vent prayer ; the BivoiQ f v€py8fi(viy — the inwrought , in-
laid prayer ; that avails much. Thus therefore we
ought to approve ourselves to God in the integrity
of our hearts, whether we pray by or without a pre-
composed form.
If any good Christians receive assistance from it
in their devotions, I hope they will not deny me one
request, which is, that they will pray for me, that I
may obtain mercy of the Lord to be found among the
faithful watchmen on Jerusalem's walls, who never
hold their peace day or night, but give themselves to
tho word and prayer, that at length I may finish my
course with joy.
Matt. Henry.
Chester f March 26, 1710.
632
ADORATION OF GOD, AND ADDRESS TO HIBf.
CHAPTER I.
OF THB FIR8T PART OF PRATER, WHICH 18 ADDRKM TO OOD,
ADORATION OF HIM, WITH SUITABLE ACKNOWLEDGMBNTS,
PROFESSIONS, AND PRBPARATORT REQUESTS.
Our spirits being composed into a very rever-
ent serious frame, our thoughts gathered in, and
all that is within us charged, in the name of the
great God, carefully to attend the solemn and
awful service that lies before us, and to keep
close to it; we must — with a fixed intention
and application of mind, and an active livel/
faith— set the Lord before us, see his eye upon
us, and set ourselves in his special presence ;
presenting ourselves to him as living sacrifices,
which we desire may be holy and acceptable, and
a reasonable service ; * and then bind these
sacrifices with cords to the horns of the altar,**
with such thoughts as these :
Let us now lift up our hearts^ with our eyes'* and
our hands unto God in the heavens.
Let us stir up ourselves to take hold on God,* to
seek his face,' and to give him the glory due unto
his name.*
Unto thee, O Lord, do we lift up our souls.**
Let us now with humble boldness enter into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus, in the new and living
way, which he hath consecrated for us through the
veil.*
Let us now attend upon the Lord without distrac-
tion/ and let not our hearts be far from him when
we draw nigh to him with our mouths, and honour
him with our lips.*
Let us now worship God, who is a Spirit, in spirit
and in truth, for such the Father seeks to worship
him."
Having thus engaged otrr hearts to approach
vnto Godj^
I. We must solemnly address ourselves to that
infinitely great and glorious Being with whom we
have to do, as those who are possessed with a
full belief of his presence, and a holy awe and
reverence of his majesty ; which we may do in
such expressions as these :
Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, which art,
and wast, and art to come.**
O thou whose name alone is Jehovah, and who
art the Most High over all the earth ! i*
O God, thou art our God, early will we seek thec;^
our God, and we will praise thee ; our fathers' God,
and we will exalt thee/
O thou, who art the true God, the living God,* the
• Rom. xll. I. b Ps. cxviii. 27. e Lam. iii. 41. d John
xvii. I. e Isa Ixiv. 7. f Ps. xtvii. 8. g Ps. xxix. 2. h Ps.
XXV. 1. i Heb. X. 19, 20. k 1 Cor. vii. 35. i Matt. xt. 8.
, m John iv. 23, 24. nJcr. XXX. 21. ©Rev. lv.8. pPs. Ixxxlii.
18. q Ps. Ixiii. 1. r Exod. xv. 2. • Jer. x. JO. t Dcut
one only living and true God, and the evcrlaitiii
King ! The Lord our God, who is one Lord.*
And we may, thus, distinguish ounelfesta
the worshippers of false gods :
The idols of the heathen are silver and gold,tkf
are vanity and a lie, the work of men's hands, tky
that make them are like unto them, and so is eroy
one that trusteth in them." But the Portiam sfj%-
cob is not like them, for He is the former of all thiB|i^
and Israel is the rod of his inheritance ; the LonI tf
hosts is his name,'' God over all» blessed for ever-
more.*
Their Rock is not as our Rock, even the eneaiia
themselves being judges ; * for he is the Roek of
Ages, the Lord Jehovah, with whom is everltsliig
strength ; ' whose name shall endure for ever, aiA
his memorial unto all generations,* when the fodi
that have not made the heavens and the earth sbifl
perish from off the earth, and from under tbett
heavens."
II. We must reverently adore God, as a bci^g
transcendently bright and blessed, self-exislcil
and self-sufficient, an infinite and eternal Spirit,
who has all perfections in himself, and givt
him the glory of his titles and attributes.
O Lord our God, thou art very great, thoa lit
clothed with honour and majesty, tboucoveresttbj-
self with light as with a garment,** and yet as to ni
makest darkness thy pavilion,^ for we cannot order
our speech by reason of darkness.^
This is the message which we have heard of tke,
and we set to our seal that it is true. That God ii
Light, and in him is no darkness at all ; * and,Tki(
God is Love, and they that dwell in love dwell ii
God, and God in them.^
Thou art the Father of light, with whom is m
variableness or shadow of turning, and from whoa
proceedetli every good and perfect gift.'
Thou art the blessed and only Potentate, the King
of kings, and Lord of lords, who only hast immor-
tality ; dwelling in the light, which no man cto
approach unto, whom no man hath seen, or cis
see.''
We must acknowledge his being to be u-
questionable, and past dispute.
The heavens declare thy glOKy, O God, and ^
firmament showeth thy handy-work ;' and by tke
things that are made is clearly seen and nndentood
thine eternal power and godhead ;^ so that they vn
fools without excuse who say there is no God^
for verily there is a reward for the righteous, veri^
there is a God that judgeth in the earth,* and ii
heaven too.
▼i. 4. n Ps. cxv. 4, 8. ▼ Jer. x. 15, IS. w Rom. ix. & sDnt
xxxil. 31. 7 1». xxri. 4. margin. ■ Ps csxxt. IX • J«r. x IL
b Ps. civ 1. 1. e Ps. xviii. 1 1. d Job xxxvii. m. • I Jota L i.
f 1 John iv. 16. r Jam. i. 17. hi Tim vi. 1&. le. iRiiii I-
k Rom. i. 30. 1 Pa xir. 1. m Pa Wiii. u.
ADORATION OF GOD, AND ADDRESS TO HIM,
039
We therefore come to thee, believing that thou
art, and that thoa art the powerfal and bountiful
rewarder of them that diligently seek thee."
Yet we must own his nature to be incompre-
hensible.
We cannot by searching find out God, we cannot
find out the Almighty unto perfection.®
Great is the Lord, and greatly tp be praised, and
his greatness is unsearchable.^
Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord ? Who
can show forth all his praise?^
And his perfections to be matchless, and
without comparison.
Who is a God like unto thee, glorious in holiness,
fearful in praises, doing wonders V
Who in the heavens can be compared unto the
Lord ? Who among the sons of the mighty can be
likened unto the Lord ? O Lord Go.d of hosts, who
is a strong Lord like unto thee, or to thy faithfulness
round about thee ? *
Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O
Lord, neither are there any works like unto thy
works ; for thou art great, and doest wondrous
things ; thou art God alone.*
There is not any creature that has an arm like
God, or can thunder with a voice like him."
And that he is infinitely above us, and all
other beings.
Thou art God and not man ;* hast not eyes of
flesh, nor seest as man seeth. Thy days are not as
the days of man, nor thy years as man's days.*
As heaven is high above the earth, so are thy
thoughts above our thoughts, and thy ways above
our ways.*
All nations before thee are as a drop of the bucket,
or the small dust of the balance, and thou takest up
the isles as a very little thing : they are as nothing,
and are counted to thee less than nothing, and vanity.^
Particularly, in our adorations, we must ac-
knowledge,
1. That he is an eternal, immutable God,
without beginning of days, or end of life, or
change of time.
Thou art the King eternal, immortal, invisible.'
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever
thou hadst formed the earth and the world, from
everlasting to everlasting thou art God / the same
yesterday, to-day, and for ever.**
Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the works of thy hands ; they
shall perish, but thou shalt endure ; yea, all of them
shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt thou
change them, and they shall be changed ; but thou
art the same, and thy years shall have no end.'
n Heb. xi. 0. o Job xl. 7. p Pi. cxlv. 3. % Ps. cvi ±
r Exod. XT. U. • Ps. Ixxxix. 6, a t Ps. Ixxxvi. 8, 10. n Job xl 9.
▼ Hob. xi. 9. v Job x. 4, 5. x I» Iv. 9. 7 laa. xl. 15, 17. « 1 Tim.
i. 17. • Ps. xc. 3. b Heb. xiii. a e Ps. cii. 35-97. d Mai.
iil. & • Hab. i. 13. f Isa. xl. 3a r Jer. xxiii. 83^ 91 h AcU
Thou art God, and changest not ; therefore is it
that we are not consumed.*^
Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord our God,
our Holy One ?" The everlasting God, even the Lord,
the Creator of the ends of the earth, who faintest
not, neither art weary ; there is no searching out of
thine understanding.'
2. That he is present in all places, and there
is no place in which he is included, or out of
which he is excluded.
Thou art a God at hand, and not a God afar off i
none can hide himself in secret places that thou
Canst not see him, for thou fillest heaven and earth.*
Thou art not far from every one of us.**
We cannot go any whither from thy presence, or
flee from thy Spirit ; if we ascend into heaven, thou
art there ; if we make our bed in hell, in the depths
of the earth, behold thou art there ; if we take the
wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost
parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead us,
and thy right hand shall hold us.^
3. That he has a perfect knowledge of all
persons and things, and sees them all; even that
which is most secret, at one clear, certiyin, and
unerring view.
All things are naked and open before the eyes of
him with whom we have to do ; even the thoughts
and intents of the heart.^
Thine eyes are in every place beholding the evil
and the good ; they run to and fro through the earth,
that thou mayst show thyself strong on the behalf
of those whose hearts are upright with thee."*
Thou searchestthe heart, andtriest the reins, that
thou mayst give to every man according to bis
ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."
O God, thou hast searched us and known us, thoo
knowest our down-sitting and our up-rising, and
understandest our thoughts afar off? Thou com-
passest our path and our lying down, and art
acquainted with all our ways ; there is not a word
on our tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it alto-
gether. Such knowledge is too wonderful for us, it
is high, we cannot attain unto it.
Darkness and light are both alike to thee.®
4. That his wisdom is unsearchable, and the
counsels and designs of it cannot be fathomed.
Thine understanding, O Lord, is infinite, for thou
tellest the number of the stars, and callest them all
by their names, p
Thou art wonderful in counsel, and excellent in
working.*! Wise in heart and mighty in strength.'
O Lord, how manifold are thy works ! in wisdom
hast thou made them all;* all according to the
counsel of thine own will.'
xvii. 37. I Ps. cxxxix. 7—10. k Heb. iv. 13, 13. 1 Prov. xv.
a m 3 Chron. xvi. 9. a Jer. xvii. 10. e Ps. cxxxix. 1-4, 0, IS:
p Ps. cxWii. 4, 5. q Isa. xxviii. 29. r Job ix. 4. • Ps. dv.
34. tEph.i. 11.
694
ADORATION OF GOD, AND ADDRESS TO HIM.
O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God !
How unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways
past finding out.°
5. That his sovereignity is incontestable, and
he is the Owner and absolute Lord of all.
The heavens, even the heavens, are thine,^ and
all the hosts of them. The earth is thine, and the
fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell
therein.^ In thy hand are the deep places of the
earth, and the strength of the hills is thine also :
the sea is thine, for thou madest it, and thy hands
formed the dry land." All the beasts of the forest
are thine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.'
Thou art therefore a great God, and a great King
above all gods.
In thy hand is the soul of every living thing, and
the breath of all mankind.*
Thy dominion is an everlasting dominion, and thy
kingdom is from generation to generation : thou
dost according to thy will in the armies of heaven,
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none
can stay thy hand, or say unto thee. What doest
thou?»
6^ That his power is irresistible, and the
operations of it cannot be controlled.
We know, O God, that thou canst do every thing,
and that no thought can be withholden from thee.^
Power belongs to thee ;^ and with thee nothing is
impossible.**
All power is thine, both in heaven and in earth.*
Thou killest and thou makest alive, thou wound-
est and thou healest, neither is there any that can
deliver out of thy hand.'
What thou hast promised thou art able also to
perform.'
7. That he is a God of unspotted purity and
perfect rectitude.
Thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises
of Israel :^ holy and reverend is thy name ;> and
we give thanks at the remembrance of thy holiness.^
Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity,*
neither shall evil dwell with thee."*
Thou art the Rock, thy work is perfect, and all thy
ways are truth and judgment; a God of truth, and
in whom there is no iniquity .° Thou art our Rock,
and there is no unrighteousness in thee.°
Thou art holy in all thy works,i^ and holiness be-
comes thy house, O Lord, for ever.**
8. That he is just in the administration of his
government, and never did, nor ever will, do
wrong to any of his creatures.
Righteous art thou, O God, when we plead with
i» Rom. li. 33. * P3. cxv. 16. w Pg. xxiv. 1. x Ps. xcv.
3-4. y Ps. 1. 10. I Job xii. 10. • Dan. Iv. 34, 35. b Job
xlii. 2. e Ps. Ixii. U. d Luke i. 37. « Matt, xxviii. 18
r Deut. xxxii. 30. g Rom. iv. 21. h Ps. xx!i. 2. i Pi. cxi 9.
k Ps. XXX. 4. I Hab. i 13. m Ps. v. 4. n Deut. xxxii. 4. o Ps.
xcii. 16. p Pi cxiv. 17. q Ps. xciii. &. r Jer. xli. I. • Ps.
thee,*^ and wilt be justified when then spcakeit, ai
clear when thou judgesL*
Far be it from God that be should do wickedicii^
and from the Almighty that he should
iniquity; for the work of a man shall he
unto him.^
Thy righteousness is as the g^reat mountains, etei
then when thy judgments are a great deep!" Aii
though clouds and darkness are round about fiiee,
yet judgement and justice are the habitation of tkj
throne. ""
9. That his truth is inviolable, and the tiii-
sures of his goodness inexhaustible.
Thou art good, and thy mercy endures for ever.*
Thy loving-kindness is great towards us,* and ftf
truth endureth to all generations.'
Thou hast proclaimed thy name : The Lofd, fli
Lord God, merciful and g^cious, slow to anga^
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy fv
thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, aii
sin.* And this name of thine is our strong tovcL*
Thou art good and doest good*^ good to all, asd
thy tender mercy is over all thy works.' But Inriy
God is in a special manner good to Israel, eves li
them that are of a clean heart.^
O that thou wouldst cause thy g^oodness to pM
before us ;« that we may taste and see that the Loii
is good / and his loving-kindness may be alwtji
before our eyes.v
10. et ult. That when we baTe said all «e
can of the glorious perfections of the difiie
nature, we fall infinitely short of the merit if
the subject
Lo, these are but parts of thy ways, and how little
a portion is heard of God ! But the thunder of Ui
power who can understand?**
Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him Oit;
he is excellent in power and in judgement, and k
plenty of justice,* and he is exalted far above ill
blessing and praise.^
III. We must g^ve to God the praise of fkit
splendour and glory wherein he is pleased Is
manifest himself in the upper world.
Thou hast prepared thy throne in the heavess,*
and it is a throne of glory, high and lifted op, and
before thee the seraphims cover their faces.* Aad
it is in compassion to us that thou boldest back tke
face of that throne, and spreadest a cloud upon it'
Thou makest thine angels spirits, and thy ministco
a flame of fire.® Thousand thousands of them m-
nister unto thee, and ten thousand times ten tboo-
sand stand before thee f to do thy pleasure. Tky
li. 4. t Job xxxiv. 10. 11. n Ps. xxxTi. & * ps. xcriL & » ft-
cxxxvi. 1. X Ps. cxTii. 9. j Ps. c. 5. s Exod. xxxiv. €, T^
• Prov. xviii. 10. b Ps. cxix. 68. e Ps. cxhr. a 4 Pi Inij^
1. f Exod. xxxiii. 19. f Pg. xxxiv. 8. ir Pft. xxri. X * J^<^
xxvi. 14. i Job xxxvii. 23. k Nch. Jx. &. i Ps. diL m ■ "
Yi. 1,3. « Job xxvi. 9. o Psu civ. 4. f Dul vii. la
Id
f
b
1
1
/
ADORATION OF GOD, AND ADDRESS TO HIM.
636
9xccl in strength, and hearken to the voice of thy
iirord.** And we are come by faith and hope, and
holy love, into a spiritual communion with that in-
numerable company of angels, and the spirits of just
men made perfect, even to the general assembly, and
church of the first-born, in the heavenly Jerusalem/
lY. We must give glory to him as the Creator
of the world, and the great Protector, Benefac-
tor, and Ruler of the whole creation.
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive blessing, and
honour, and glory, and power ; for thou bast created
all things, and for thy pleasure, and for thy praise,
they are and were created.*
We worship him that made the heaven and the
earth, the sea, and the fountains of waters ; ^ who
spake and it was done, who commanded and it
stood fast ;° who said. Let there be light, and there
was light ; Let there be a firmament, and he made
the firmament ; and he made all very good ;' and
they continue this day according to his ordinance,
for all are his servants.*
The day is thine, the night is also thine; thou
hast prepared the light and the sun : Thou hast set
all the borders of the earth ; thou hast made summer
and winter.*
Thou upholdest all things by the word of thy
power,^ and by thee all things subsist'
The earth is full of thy riches ; so is the great
and wide sea.* The eyes of ail wait upon thee, and
thou givest them their meat in due season ; thou
openest thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every
living thing.'' Thou preservest man and beast,' and
g^ivest food to all flesh .^
Thou, even thou, art Lord alone ; thou hast made
heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host ;
the earth, and all things that are therein ; the seas,
and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all:
and the host of heaven worshippeth thee,* whose
kingdom ruleth over ail.'
A sparrow falls not to the ground without thee."
Thou madest man at first of the dust of the ground,
and breathedst into him the breath of life, and so he
became a living soul.**
And thou hast made of that one blood all nations
of men, to dwell on all the face of the earth, and
hast determined the times before appointed, and the
bounds of their habitation.^
Thou art the Most High, who rulcstin the kingdom
of men, and givest it to whomsoever thou wilt,*^ for
from thee every man's judgment proceeds.*
Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigns,"
and doth all according to the counsel of his own will,
to the praise of his own glory."
s Pa. ciii. ao, 21, r Hcb. xii. 22, 2i • Rev. iv. H. t Rev.
xiv. 7. n ps. xxxiii. 9. ▼ Gen. i. 3, 6, 7, 31. w Ps. cxU. Ul.
« P*. Ixxiv. 16, 17. y Heb. i. 3. ■ Col. 1. 17. a Ps. civ. 24.
**• b Ps. cxlv. 15, 16. c Ps. xxxvi. 6. d Ps. cxxxvi. 2a.
• ^eh. ix. 6. f Ps ciii. 19. r Matt. x. 29. h Gen. ii. 7.
Acts xvii, as. k Dan. Iv. 25, i Prov. xxix. 2fl. » Rev.
y . We must give honour to the three persona
in the Godhead, distinctly ; to the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, that great and sacred
name into which we were baptized, and in
which we assemble for religions worship, in
communion with the universal church.
We pay our homage to the Three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost ;
and these Three are One.®
We adore thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth ;p and the Eternal Word, who was in the begin-
ning with God, and was God, by whom all things
were made, and without whom was not any thing
made that was made, and who in the fulness of time
was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and showed
his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth.i
And since it is the will of God, that all men should
honour the Son, as they honour the Father,*^ we
adore him as the brightness of his Father's glory,
and the express image of his person ; herein joining
with the angels of God, who were all bid to worship
him.*
We pay our homage to the exalted Redeemer, who
is the faithful witness, the first-begotten from the
dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth,' con-
fessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father."
We also worship the Holy Ghost the Comforter,
whom the Son has sent from the Father, even the
Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father,^
and who is sent to teach us all things, and to bring
all things to our remembrance ;" who indited the
Scriptures, holy men of God writing them as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost.*
VI. We must acknowledge our dependence
upon God, and our obligations to him ; as our
Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor.
Thou, O God, madest us, and not we ourselves,
and therefore we are not our own, but thine, thy peo-
ple, and the sheep of thy pasture ;' let us therefore
worship, and fall down, and kneel before the Lord
ouf Maker.*
Thou, Lord, art the former of our bodies, and thejf
are fearfully and wonderfully made, and curiously
wrought. Thine eyes did see our substance yet
being imperfect, and in thy book were all our mem-
bers written, which in continuance were fashioned,
when as yet there was none of them.*
Thou hast clothed us with skin and flesh, thou
hast fenced us with bones and sinews, thou hast
granted us life and favour, and thy visitation pre-
serves our spirit,''
xix. fi. « Eph. 1. 11, 12. o I John v. 7. p Matt xi. S&.
<K John i. I, 2, 3, 14. r John v. 23. • Hcb. i. 3, 6. • Rev. i.
5. « Phil. ii. U. ^ John xv. 26. w Jolin xiv. 26. « 2 Peter
i. 21. y Ps. C. 3. ■ Pi. XCV. 6. a Ps. Cxxxix. 14, Id, 10.
k Jobx. 11,12.
eoe
ORATION OF GOD, AND ADDRESS TO HIM.
Thoa art the Father of our spirits,*^ for thou form-
ed the spirit of man within him/ and madest ys
these souls.*" The Spirit of God hath made us, and
the breath of the Almighty hath given us life : ^ Thou
puttest wisdom in the inward part, and givest un-
derstanding to the heart.*
Thou art God our Maker, and teachest us more
than the beasts of the earth, and makest us wiser
than the fowls of heaven.'*
We are the clay, and thou our Potter ; we are the
work of thy hand.*
Thou art he that took us out of the womb, and
kept us in safety when wo were at our mother's
breasts ; we have been cast upon thee from the womb,
and held up by thee. Thou art our God from our
mother's^ bowels, and therefore praise shall be con-
tinually of thee.'
In thee, O God, we live, and move, and have our
being, for we are thy offspring.'"
In thy hand our breath is, and thine are all our
ways ; ° for the way of man is not in himself, neither
is it in man that walketh to direct his steps,^ but
our times are in thy hand.p
Thou art the God that has fed us all our life long
unto this day, and redeemed us from all evil.i
It is of thy mercy that we are not consumed, even
because thy compassions fail not: they are new
every morning; great is thy faithfulness.^
If thou take away our breath we die, and return
to the dust out of which we were taken.*
Who is he that saith and it cometh to pass, if thou
commandest it not ? Out of thy mouth, O thou the
Most High, both evil and good proceed.*
YII. We must avouch this God to be our
God, and own our relation to him, his dominion
over us, and property in us.
Our souls have said unto the Lord, Thou art our
Lord, though our goodness extendeth not unto thee,"
neither if we are righteous art thou the better.*
Thou art our King, O God :* Other lords betide thee
have had dominion over us, but from henceforth by
thee only will we make mention of thy name."
We avouch the Lord this day to be our God,' to
walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his
commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken
to his voice, and give ourselves unto him, to be his
peculiar people, that we may be a holy people unto
the Lord our God ; ^ and may be unto him for a name,
and for a praise, and for a glory."
O Lord, truly we are thy servants ; we are thy ser-
vants, bom in thy house, and thou hast loosed our
bonds ;* we are bought with a price, and therefore
c Heb. xil. 9. d Zech. xil. 1. • Jer. xxxviii. la f Job
xxxiii 4. IT Job xxxviii. 36. h Job xxxv. 10, II. i Isa.'lxiv.
8. k Pa. xxii. 9, 10. i Pa. Ixxl. 6. m Acts xvii 28. n Dan. v.
S3, e Jer. X. 33. p Ps. xxxi. 15. q Gen. xlviii. 15, 16. r Lam.
iit. 23. 33 • Ps. civ. 29. t Lam. iii. .17, 38. u Ps. xvi. 3.
▼ Job xxxv. 7. w Ps. xliv. 4. X Isa. xx? I. 13. j Deut.
xxvi. 17—19 I Jer. xiii. II. • Pt. cxvi. 16. b I Cor. vl. 19.
we are not our own,^ but yield onrselvcs unit || .^
Lord,^ and join ourselves unto him in aneverlaiii| ||
covenant, that shall never be forgotten.'
We are thine, save us, for we seek thy pfeoe|li:* |^
It is thine own. Lord, that we give thee, tad (kn
which cometh of thy hand.'
YIII. We must acknowledge it an miipeib>
able favour, and an inestimable privilegCviil
we are not only admitted, bat invited tad s*
couraged, to draw nigh to God in prayer.
Thou hast commanded us to pray always, wilkal
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, tad ti
watch thereunto with all perseverance and suppli-
cation for all saints,' to continue in prayer,^ aadii
every thing by prayer and supplication to make ov
requests known to God.^
Thou hast directed us to ask, and seek, and kood;
and hast promised that we shall receive, we skill
find, and it shall be opened to us.^
Thou hast appointed us a great High Priest, m
whose name we may come boldly to the Ibroae if
grace, that we may find mercy and g^ce to help m
time of need.^
Thou hast assured us, that while the sacriiee if
the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, the pnytf
of the upright is his delight ;■ and, ihat he lU
offers praise glorifies thee ; " and, the sacrifioe if
thanksgiving shall please the Lord better than tkit
of an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs.*
Thou art he that hearest prayer, and tbereAM
unto thee shall all flesh come.P
Thou say est. Seek ye my face, and ourheartitt*
swer, Thy face, Lord, will we seek.i For, sMA
not a people seek unto their God ? ■* Whither sbO
we go but to thee ? Thou hast the words of eteml
life.*
IX. We must express the sense we have if
our own meannes.% and unwortfainess to drav
near to God, and speak to him.
But will God in very deed dwell with man upos
the earth, that God whom the heaven of heaveat
cannot contain,* with man that is a worm, and ths
son of man that is a worm ?"
Who are we, O Lord God, and what is our Father's
house, that thou hast brought us hitherto,^ to yreteiit
ourselves before the Lord; that we have tbroaih
Christ an access by one Spirit unto the Father!'
And yet, as if that had been a small thing in tky
sight, thou hast spoken concerning thy servants kr
a great while to come ; and. Is this the manner of
men, O Lord God?*
What is man, that thou art thus mindful of U^
e 3 Chron. XXX. 8. a Jer. I S. •Ps.cxix. at. "^'^ti.
xxix. 16. V Eph. vl. la h Col. Iv.2. i Phil. ir.A » W*
vii. 7. 1 Heb. iv. 16. m Prov. xv. a • Ps. 1. » ^f*
Ixix. 31. p Ps. Ixv. 2. % Pa. xxvii. & r Isa. viti. ift ^ ^
vi. 68. t 3 Chron. vi. 18.
V Eph. ii. 18.
• Job XXY. 6.
.«*
ADORATION OF GOD, AND ADDRESS TO HIM.
esi
"wad the son of man, that thou visitest him, and dost
thus magnify him ? *
O let not the Lord be angpry, if we that are but
dust and ashes, take upon us to speak unto the Lord
of glory. ^
We are not worthy of the least of all the mercies,
and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto
thy servants ;' nor is it meet to take the children's
bread and cast it to such as we are ; yet the dogs eat
•of the crumbs that fall from their master's table :*
And thou art rich in nurey to ali that call upon thee.'*
X. We must humbly profess the desire of
our hearts toward God, as our felicity and
portion, and the fountain of life and ali good
to us.
Whom have we in heaven but thee ? And there is
none upon earth that we desire besides thee, or in
•comparison of thee. When our flesh and our heart
fail, be thou the strength of our heart, and our por-
tion for ever f the portion of our inheritance in the
other wofid, and of our cup in this, and then we will
say J that the lines are fallen to us in pleasant places,
and that we have a goodly heritage.*^
The desire of our souls is to thy name, and to the
remembrance of thee ; with our souls have we desired
thee in the night, and with our spirits within us will
we seek thee early.*
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so
pant our souls after thee, O God ; our souls thirst
for God, for the living God, who will command his
loving-kindness in the day-time, and in the night his
song shall be with us, and our prayer to the God of
our life.'
O that we may come hungering and thirsting after
righteousness,' for thou fillest the hungry with good
things, but the rich thou sendest empty away.*^
Our souls thirst for thee, and our flesh longs for
thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is,
that we may see thy power and thy glory, as we have
seen thee in the sanctuary. Thy loving-kindness is
better than life; our souls shall be satisfled with
that as with marrow and fatness, and then our
mouths shall praise thee with joyful lips.*
XI. We must likewise profess our believing
hope and confidence in God, and his all-suf-
ficiency ; in his power, providence, and promise.
In thee, O God, do Wj^ put our trust, let us never
be ashamed ;^ yea, letnone that wait on thee be
ashamed.*
Truly our souls wait upon God, from him cometh
our salvation ; he only is our rock and our salvation ;
In him is our glory, our strength, and our refuge,
and from him is our expectation."
X Ps. viit 4. 7 Gen. xyiii. 37. 30. • Gen. xxxii. 10. • Matt
XT. 20. 27. b Rom. X. 12. e Pa. Ixxiii. 25. 36. a Pb XTl- ft. &
• laa. xxvi. 8. 9. f Ps. xlii. 1. 2. 8. r Blatt. v. & b Luke i.
M. i Pi. Ixiii. 1-a, 5. kPs.xxxi.1. iPa.xxT.3. mPi.
IkU. 1, 2, 5-7. u Ps. cxlii. 4, 4. o Ps. xx. 7. p Ps. lii. S, 9. q Ps.
When refuge fails us, and none cares for our souls,
we cry unto thee, O Lord, thou art our refuge and
our portion in the land of the living."
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but
we will remember the name of the Lord our God :^
We will trust in thy mercy, O God, for ever and
ever, and will wait on thy name, for it is good before
thy saints.P
We have hoped in thy word, O remember thy
word unto thy servants, upon which thou hast caused
us to hope.i
XI L We must entreat God's favourable
acceptance of us and our poor performances.
There be many that say. Who will show us any
good? But this we say. Lord, lift up the light of thy
countenance upon us, and that shall put gladness
into our hearts, more than they have whose corn and
wine increaseth.'
We entreat thy favour with our whole heart," for
in this we labour, that whether present or absent, we
may be accepted of the Lord.^
Hear our prayers, O Lord, give ear to our suppli-
cations ; in thy faithfulness answer us ;" and be nigh
unto us in all that which we call upon thee for;* for
thou never saidst to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me
in vain.*
Thou that hearest tlie young ravens which cry," be
not silent to us, lest if thou be silent to us, we be like
them that go down to the pit.'
Let our prayers be set before thee as incense, and
the lifting up of our hands be acceptable in thy sight
as the evening sacrifice.*
XIII. We must beg for the powerful assist-
ance and influence of the blessed Spirit of grace
in our prayers.
Lord, we know not what to pray for as we ought,
but let thy Spirit help our infirmities, and make in-
tercession for us.*
O pour upon us the spirit of grace and supplica-
tion,'^ the spirit of adoption, teaching us to cry, Abba,
Father ;' that we may find in our hearts to pray this
prayer :*
*' O send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead
us, let them guide us to thy holy hill and thy taber-
nacles ; to God our exceeding joy."*
O Lord, open thou our lips, and our mouth shall
show forth thy praise.'
XIY. We must make the glory of God our
highest end in all our prayers.
This is that which thou, O Lord, hast said ; That
thou wilt be sanctified in them that come nigh unto
thee, and before all the people thou wilt be glori-
fied ;> we therefore worship before thee, O Lord, that
Cxix. 74, 49.
n Ps.cxliii. I.
J Ps. xxviii. I.
e Rom. Till. 15.
t Lev. X. 3.
r Ps. iv. 6, 7. • Ps. cxix. 5a « 2 Cor. ▼. 9.
V Deut. It. 7. V Isa. xlr. 19. s Pa. cxlvii. 9.
* Ps. cxli. 3. • Rom Tiii. 28. b Zech. xii. 10.
d2Sam.Tii.37. tPs. xliU.3,4. fPs.U.l&.
\
638
CONFESSION OF SIN.
we may glorify thy name ;** and therefore we call
upon Uiee, that thou may deliver us, and we may
glorify thee.*
For of thee, and through thee, and to thee, are all
things.'^
XV. We must profess our entire reliance on
the Lord Jesus Christ alone for acceptance with
God, and come in his name.
We do not present our supplication before thee
for our righteousness,* for we are before thee in our
trespasses, and cannot stand before thee because of
them ; *" but we make mention of Christ's righteous-
ness," even of his only, who is the Lord our right-
eousness.o
We know that even spiritual sacrifices are accept-
able to God only through Christ Jesns,p nor can we
hope to receive any thing but what we ask of thee in
his name,i and therefore make us accepted in the
Beloved ; ^ that angel, who puts much incense to the
prayers of saints, and offers them up upon the golden
altar before the throne."
We come in the name of the great High Priest,
who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of
God, who was touched with the feeling of our in6r-
mities,' and is therefore able to save to the utter-
most all that come to God by him, because he ever
lives making intercession."
Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face
of thine anointed,* in whom thou hast by a voice
from heaven declared thyself to be well pleased ; "
Lord, be well pleased with us in him.
CHAPTER II.
OP THB 8BC0ND PAST OP PRATBR, WHICH 18, CONPX88ION OP
81N, COMPLAINTS OP, OURSBLYBS, AND HUMBLE PEOPBS8ION8
OP BBPBNTANCB.
Having g^ven glory to God, which is his due,
we must next take shame to ourselves, which is
our due, and humble ourselves before him in the
sense of our own sinfulness and vileness. And
herein, also, we must give glory to him,* as our
Judge, by whom we deserve to be condemned,
and yet hope, through Christ, to be acquitted
and absolved.
In this part of our work,
I. We must acknowledge the great reason
we have to lie very low before God, and to be
ashamed of ourselves when we come into his
presence, and to be afraid of his wrath, having
h Pb. Ixxxvi. 9. 1 Pa. 1. 15. k Rom. «. 36. i Dan. ix. la
m Bzraix. 15. n Ps. Ixxi. 16. o Jer. xxiii. 6. p I Pet ii. 5.
q John xvi. 23. r Eph. i. 6. • Rev. viii. 3. t Heb. iv, 14.
« Heb. vii. 25. t Ps. Ixxxiv. 9. w Matt iii. 17.
• Josh. vii. 19. b Ezra ix. o. • Dan. ix. & d Job zl. 4.
made ourselves both odious to his holineai aai
obnoxious to his justice.
O our God ! we are ashamed, and blasb to lift
up our faces before thee, our God, for our iniquities
are increased over our head, and our trespasi b
grown up unto the heavens.^
To us belong shame and confusion of face, be-
cause we have sinned against thee.^
Behold, we are vile, what shall we answer tiice!
We will lay our hand upon our mouth,*' and putoor
mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope,* ciy-
ing, with the convicted leper under the law. Unclean,
unclean.'
Thou puttest no trust in thy saints, and the hea-
vens are not clean in thy sight : how much more
abominable and filthy is man, who drinketh iniquity
like water.B
When our eyes have seen the King, the Lord of
hosts, we have reason to cry out. Woe unto us, for
we are undone.**
Dominion and fear are with thee, thou makest
peace in thy high places : there is not any number
of thine armies, and upon whom doth not thy ligbt
arise? How then can man be justified with God, or,
how can he be clean that is bom of a woman?*
Thou, even thou, art to be feared, and who may
stand in thy sight when once thou art angry ?^ Eves
thou, our God, art a consuming fire,' and who knows
the power of thine anger?*"
If we justify ourselves, our own months shall eon-
demn us ; if we say we are perfect, that also shall
prove us perverse ; for if thou contend with us, we
are not able to answer thee for one of a thousand."
If we knew nothing by ourselves, yet were we not
thereby justified, for he that judgeth us is the Lord ;*
who is gpreater than our hearts, and knows all things.'
But we ourselves know that we have sinned. Fa-
ther, against heaven, and before thee, and are no
more worthy to be called thy children.^
II. We must take hold of the great en-
couragement God has given us, to humble ov-
selves before him with sorrow and shame, and
to confess our sins.
If thou. Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord,
who should stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayst be feared ; vrith thee there is
mercy, yea, with our God 0kt is plenteous redemp-
tion, and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniqui-
ties.'
Thy sacrifices, O God, are a broken spirit; a
broken and a contrite heart, O God, thoa wilt not
despise ; * nay, though thou art the high and lofty
One that inhabitest eternity, whose name is Holy ; ^
t Laiil iii. 90. f Lev. xiii. 4S.
i Job XXV. 2—4. k Ps. Ixxvi 7.
n Job ix. 3, 20. o 1 Cor. iv. 4.
21. r Ps. CXXX. 3, 4, 7, 8.
g Job XV. 15, 16.
I Heb. xii. sSl
p 1 John lit »,
• P».ii.l7.
k lHLVi&.
aPt.xe.ll
4 Lake XV-
tlB.lvii.lfc
CONFESSION OF SIN.
63d
though the heaven be thy throne and the earth thy
footstool, yet to this man wilt thou look, that is poor
and humble, of a broken and contrite spirit, and
that trembleth at thy word," to revive the spirit of
the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite
ones.
Thou hast graciously assured us, that though they
that cover their sins shall not prosper, yet those that
confess and forsake them shall find mercy ."^ And
when a poor penitent said, I will confess my trans-
gression unto the Lord, thou forgavest the iniquity
of his sin ; and for this shall every one that is godly,
in like manner, pray unto thee in a time when thou
mayst be found.*
We know, that if we say we have no sin, we de-
ceive ourselves, and tiie truth is not in us ; but thou
hast said, that if we confess our sins, thou art faith-
ful and just to forgave us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.'^
III. We must therefore confess and bewail
our original corruption in the first place, that
we were the children of apostate and rebellious
parents, and the nature of man is depraved, and
wretchedly degenerated from its primitive purity
and rectitude, and our nature is so.
Lord, thou madest man upright, but they have
sought out many inventions ; ^ and being in honour
did not understand, and therefore abode not, but be-
came like the beasts that perish.*
By one man sin entered into the world, and death
by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that
all have sinned: By that one man's disobedience
many were made sinners,* and we among the rest.
We are a seed of evil-doers ; ^ our father was an
Amorite, and our mother a Hittite,^ and we ourselves
were called (and not mis-called) transgressors from
the womb, and thou knowest we would deal very
treacherously.'
The nature of man was planted a choice and noble
vine, wholly a right seed, but it is become the de-
generate plant of a strange vine ;* producing the
grapes of Sodom, and the clusters of Gomorrah.'
How is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold
changed ! v
Behold, we were shapen in iniquity, and in sin did
our mother conceive us.*> For, who can bring a clean
thing out of an unclean? Not one.* We are by
nature children of wrath, because children of dis-
obedience, even as others.'^
All flesh have corrupted their way;i we are all
gone aside, we are altogether become filthy, there is
none that doeth good, no, not one."
rv. We must lament our present corrupt dis-
« In. IxTi. 1, z T Prov. zxTiii. 19. w Pg. zxxii. 6, 6. *l John
1.8.9. yEccLvii. 20. ■Pi.xUx 1-2,90. • Rom. ▼. 12, 19.
b Isa. 1. 4. e Etek. xvi. 3. d laa. xlriii. 8. • Jer. ii. 31.
f Dmt. xxxM a. g Lam. i v. 1. h Ps. li. 5. i Job xiv. 4.
k Eph. il. 2 3. 1 Gen. vi. 12. m Ps. xiv. 3. n Eph. iv. la
positions to that which is evil, and our indis-
posedness to, and impotency in, that which is
good. We must look into our hearts, and con-
fess, with holy blushing,
1. The blindness of our understandings, and
their unaptness to admit the rays of the divine
light.
By nature our understandings are darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the
ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of
our hearts."
The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to
the natural man, neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned.**
We are wise to do evil, but to do good we have no
knowledge.^ We know not, neither do we under-
stand, we walk on in darkness.^
God speaketh once, yea, twice, but we perceive it
not;' but hearing, we hear, and do not understand;*
and we see men as trees walking.*
2. The stubbornness of our wills, and their
unaptness to submit to the rules of the divine law.
> We have within us a carnal mind, which is en-
mity against God, and is not in subjection to the
law of God, neither indeed can be."
Thou hast written to us the great things of thy law,
but they have been accounted by us as a strange
thing,^ and our corrupt hearts have been sometimes
ready to say. What is the Almighty that we should
serve him ?* — and that we should certainly do what-
soever thing goes forth of our own mouth.'^ For we
have walked in the way of our own heart, and in
the sight of our eyes,' fulfilling the desires of the
flesh, and of the mind.'
Our neck hath been an iron sinew,* and we have
made our heart as an adamant ; we have refused to
hearken, have pulled away the shoulder, and stopped
our ears,^ like the deaf adder, that will not hearken
to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so
wisely.*
How have we hated instruction, and our heart
despised reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of
our teachers, nor inclined our ear to them that in-
structed us.^
3. The vanity of our thoughts, their neglect
of those things which they ought to be con-
versant with, and dwelling upon those things
that are unworthy of them, and tend to corrupt
our minds.
Every imagination of the thoughts of our heart is
evil, only evil, and that continually,* and it has
been so from our yonth.^
O how long hath those vain thoughts lodged within
e 1 Cor. ii. 14. p Jf r. iv. 22. q Ps. Ixxxii. 5. r Job xxxiii. U.
• Blatt. xiii. 14. t Mark riii. 24. «Rom.viii. 7. ▼ Hos. viii. 12.
w Job xxi. 15. X Jfr. xliv. 17. T Eccl. xi. 19. ■ Eph. ii. 3.
• Isa. xlviii. 4. b Zech. vil. 1 1, l^ e Ps. Iviii. 4, 5. d Prov. v.
12, 13. • Gen. vi. 5. f Gen. viiL 21.
640
CONFESSION OF SIN
as !' Those thoughts of foolishness which are sin.v
From within, out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts ;**
which devise mischief upon the bed,' and carry the
heart with the fool's eyes into the ends of the earth>
But God is not in all our thoughts,' it is well if he
be in any : Of the Rock that begat us we have been
unmindful, and have forgotten the God that formed
us :■" We have forgotten him days without number,"
and our hearts have walked after vanity ,<* and become
vain. Our inward thought having been, that our
houses should continue for ever ; this our way is our
folly.P
4. The carnality of our affections, their being
placed upon wrong objects, and carried beyond
due bounds.
We have set those affections on things beneath,
which should have been set on things above,*! where
our treasure is,' and where .Christ sits on the right
hand of God, the things which we should seek.*!
We have followed after lying vanities, and for-
saken our own mercies ;* having forsaken the foun-
tain of living waters, for cisterns, broken cisterns,
that can hold no water.'
We have panted after the dust of the earth," and
have been full of care what we shall eat, and what
we shall drink, and wherewithal we shall be clothed,
the things after which the Gentiles seek, but have
neglected the kingdom of God, and the righteous-
ness thereof/
We have lifted up our souls unto vanity,^ and set
our eyes upon that which is not," have looked at
the things that are seen, which are temporal, but
the things that are not seen, that are eternal, have
been forgotten and postponed/
5. The corruption of the whole man ; — ^irregu-
lar appetites toward those things that are pleas-
ing to sense; and inordinate passions, against
those things that are displeasing ; and an alie-
nation of the mind from the principles, powers,
and pleasures of the spiritual and divine life.
We are born of the flesh, and we are flesh ;* Dust
we are :• We have borne the image of the earthly ;*»
and in us, that is, in our flesh, there dwells no good
thing. For if to will is present to us, yet how to
perform that which is good we find not; for the
good that we would do, we do it not ; and the evil
which we would not do, that we do.^
We have a law in our members warring against
the law of our mind, and bringing us into captivity
to the law of sin, that is in our members : So that
when we would do good, evil is present with us,<i
and most easily besets us.*
f Jer. iv. 14. r Prov. xxiv. 0. h Matt. xv. 19. i Blic. ii. I.
ii ProY. xvii. 94. I Ps. X. 4. m Deut xxxil. IS. n Jer. ii. 32.
• Jer. iL 5. p Pi. xlix. II, 13. q CoL iii. 1, 3. r BlaU. vi. 21.
• Jonah ii.& tjer.ii.l3. «Amosii. 7. ▼ Blatt. vi. 31— 33.
w pg. xxiv. 4. s Pror. xxiil. 5. 72 Cor. iv. 18. ■ John iii. &
ft GeD. iii. 19. b 1 Cor. xv. 49. e Rom. vii. 18, 19. 4 Rom.
▼ii. 91,28. tHeb.xiLl. fls.i. & gHo«.aL7. hJer.
The whole head is sick, the whole heart faiBt,ft«
the sole of the foot even unto the head, thers ii n
soundness in us, but wounds, and braises, and \Hta^
fying sores.^
There is in us a bent to backslide from the lifiig
God :* Our hearts are deceitful above all things, ail
desperately wicked ; who can know them ^ Tier
start aside like a broken bow.^
V. We must lament and confess oar oaif.
sions of our duty, our neglect of it, and trifliop
in it; and, that we have done so little wmc
we came into the world, of the great woik it
were sent into the world about, so very fittb
to answer the end either of our creation or §(
our redemption, of our birth and of our bapdai;
and that we have profited no more by the mnm
of grace.
We have been as fig-trees planted in the vineyiii
and thou hast come many years seeking fruit froBVi
but hast found none ;>' iherefore we might justly luic
been cut down and cast into the fire' for cuaibcr-
ing the ground -^ Thou hast come looking for grapc^
but behold wild grapes ;■" for we have been eapCf
vines, bringing forth fruit unto ourselves.*
We have known to do good, but have not don
it:<» We have hid our Lord's money ,p and therelsR
deserve the doom of the wicked and slothfml tenoL ■.
We have been unfaithful stewards, thtt hm <
wasted our Lord's goods,^ for one sinner destnft
much good.'
Many a price hath been put into our hand to pt
wisdom, which we have had no heart to/ or m
heart has been at our left hand.^
Our childhood and youth were vanity," and n
have spent our years as a tale that is told.*
We have not known, or improved, the day of •■
visitation,^ have not provided meat in summer, mi
gathered food in harvest, though we have had gnidei,
overseers, and rulers."
We are slow of heart to undersiand mud beliete?
and whereas for the time we might have been teach-
ers of others, we are yet to learn the first prindplci
of the oracles of God, have need of milk, and camMt
bear strong meat.*
We have cast off fear, and restrained prayer W-
fore God ;* have not called upon thy name, mi
stirred up ourselves to take hold on thee.^
We have come before thee as thy people eonc^
and have sat before thee as thy people sit, and htvs
heard thy words, when our hearts at the same tiae
have been going after onr covetousness.* Andtta
have we brought the torn, and the lame, and tki
xni. 9. i Hot. vii. I6>
mis. ▼.4. nHoaeax. I.
% Luke xTi. 1. r Ecd. ix.
• Eccl. xi. 10. V PB. xc. 0.
k Luke xiii. 6, 7. ilfttttt.it
• Jam. iv. 17. F Matt xxv. Ul*
IS. •Prov. ZTttlflL tBed.i.1
wLukexix.44. sPiw.viU
J Ltike xxiv. 9ft.
e Eiek. xxxiii. 31.
I Heb. V. IS. m Job xv. 4. b it. Wtt
CONFESSION OP SIN.
641
sick, f6r sacrifice, have offered that to God, which
we would not have offered to our governor; and
have vowed and sacrificed to the Lord a corrupt
thing, when we had in our flock a male.*'
y I. We must likewise bewail our many actual
transgressions, in thought, word, and deed.
We have sinned, Father, against thee ;* we have
sinned, and have come short of the glory of God ;'
for the God in whose hand our^breath is, and whose
are all our ways, have we not glorified.'
Against thee, thee only, have we sinned; and
have done much evil in thy sight ;*> neither have we
obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in
his laws, which he hath set before us,* though they
are all holy, just, and good.^
Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou us
from secret faults.*
In many things we all offend," and our iniquities
are more than the hairs of our head.**
As a fountain casteth out her waters, so do our
hearts cast out wickedness ;» and this hath been our
manner from our youth up, that we have not obeyed
thy voice.P
Out of the evil treasure of oui^ hearts we have
brought forth many evil things.^
1. We must confess and bewail the workings
of pride in us.
We have reason to be humbled for the pride of
our hearts,*' that we have thought of ourselves above
what hath been meet, and have not thought soberly,*
nor walked humbly with our God.'
We have leaned to our own understanding,* and
trusted to our own hearts,' and have sacrificed to our
own net.*
We have sought our own glory more than the
glory of him that sent us,« and have been puffed up
with that for which we should have mourned.'
2. The breaking out of passion and rash
auger.
We have not had the rule we ought to have had
over our own spirits, which have therefore been as
a city that is broken down and has no walls.'
We have been soon angry, and anger * hath rested
in our bosoms :^ and when our spirits have been pro-
voked, we have spoken unadvisedly vrith our lips,*^
and have been guilty of that clamour and bitterness
which should have been put far from us.'
3. Our covetoosness and love of the world.
Our conversation has not been without covetous-
ness,* nor have wc learned in every state to be con-
tent with such things as we have.'
Who can say he is clear from that love of money
i Mai. i. 8.14. • Luke xy. 18. t Rom fil. 29. r Dan.
▼. S3. h Psal. 11. 4. i Dan. iz. 10. k Rom. vii. 1% i Ps.
six. 12. a James iii. 2. ■ Pa xl. 12. o Jer. vi. 7. p Jer.
xxii.31. q Alatt xii. 35. r 2 Chron. xxxi|. 96. •Roii(.xit3.
t Micah Tl. 8. a Prov. iii. 5. ▼ prov. xxviii. 26, w Hab.
i. 16. M. John vii. 18. j 1 Cor. v. 2. a Ptot. xxt. 98.
• Prov. sir. 17. b Eccl. vii. &. e Pa cvi. 33. d Eph. Iv. 31.
2 T
which is the root of all evil,' that eoveiousness
which is idolatry.'*
We have sought great things to ourselves, when
thou hast said. Seek them not.^
4. Our sensuality and flesh-pleasing.
We have minded the things of the flesh more than
the things of the spirit,*^ and have lived in pleasure
on the earth, and have been wanton, and have nou-^
rished our hearts as in a day of slaughter.^
We have made provision for the flesh to fulfil the
lusts of it ;^ even those lusts which war against our
souls :** and in many instances have acted as if we
had been lovers of pleasure more than lovers of
God.»
When we did eat, and when we did drink, did we
not eat to ourselves, and drink to ourselves ? p
5. Our security and unmindfulness of the
changes we are liable to in this world.
We have put far from us the evil day,<i and in our
prosperity have said we shall never be moved," as
if to-morrow must needs be as this day, and much
more abundant*
We have encouraged our souls to take their ease,
to eat, drink, and be merry, as if we had goods laid
up for many years, when perhaps this night our
souls may be required of us.*
We have been ready to trust in uncertain riches
more than in the living God ;" to say ,to the gold,
thou art our hope ; and to the fine gold, thou art our
confidence.^
6. Our fretfulness, and impatience, and mur-
muring under our afflictions, our inordinate
dejection, and distrust of God and his provi-
dence.
When thou hast chastised us, and we were chas-
tised, we have been as a bullock unaccustomed to
the yoke,^ and though our own foolishness hath per-
verted our way, yet our heart hath fretted against
the Lord ;* and thus in our distress we have tresr
passed yet more against the Lord.'
We have either despised the chastening of the
Lord, or fainted when we have been rebuked of him ;■
and if we faint in the day of adversity, our strength
is small.*
We have said in our haste we are cast off from
before thine eyes,^ and that the Lord hath forsaken us,
our God hath forgotten us,« as if God would be fa-
vourable no more, as if he had forgotten to be graci-
ous, and had in anger shut up his tender mercies.
This has been our infirmity.^
7. Our uncharitableness towards our brethren,
and unpeaceableness with our relations, neigh -
• Heb. xiii. 5. f PhiL !▼. 11. t 1 Tim. vi. 10. h Col. iii. y
t Jer. xlv. 5. k Rom. Tiii. 5. i James v. A. n. Rom. xiii. 14.
n I Pet ii. II. 0 2 Tim. iii. 3, 4. p Zech. vii. 6. q Amos vi. 3
9 ps. XXX. 6. • Isa. Ivi. 12. t Luke xii. 19, 20. u i Tim.Ti. 17.
V Jol) xxxi. 24. w Jer. xxxi. 18. s Pror. xiz. 3. j 2 Chron.
xxviii. 22. « Prov. iii. II. • Prov. xxlv. 10. b Ps. xxxi. 22
n Isa. xlix. 14. d Pa Ixxvii. 7, 8, lO.
642
CONFESSION OF SIN.
\
bours, and friends, and perhaps injustice to-
wards them.
We have been verily guilty concerning our bro-
ther ;* for we have not studied the things that make
for peace, nor things wherewith we might edify one
another.'
We have been ready to judge our brother, and to
set at nought our brother, forgetting that we must all
shortly stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.f
Contrary to the royal law of charity, we have vaunt-
ed ourselves, and been puffed up, have behaved our-
selves unseemly, and sought our own ; have been
easily provoked, have rejoiced in iniquity,** and
been secretly glad at calamities.^
We have been desirous of vain-glory, provoking
one another, envying one another,'' when we should
have considered one another, to provoke to love and
to good works.^
The bowels of our compassion have been shut up
from those that are in need ; " and we have hidden
ourselves from our own flesh." Nay, perhaps our eye
has been evil against our poor brother,** and we have
despised the poor.P
And if in any thing we have gone beyond and de-
frauded our brother,*! if we have walked with vanity,
and our foot hath hasted to deceit, and any blot
hath cleaved to our hands,' Lord, discover it to us,
that if we have done iniquity, we may do so no
more."
8. Our tongue sins.
In the multitude of our words there wanteth not
sin,' nor can a man full of talk be justified."
While the lips of the righteous feed many,* our lips
have poured out foolishness,* and spoken froward-
ness.T
Much corrupt communication hath proceeded out
of our mouths;' that foolish talking and jesting
which is not convenient,^^ and little of that which is
good, and to the use of edifying, and which might
minister grace unto the hearers.*
If for every idle word that men speak they must
give an account, and by our words we must be justi-
fied, and if by our words we must be condemned,'
woer unto us, for we are undone ; for we are of un-
clean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of un-
clean lips.*
What would become of us, if God should make
our own tongues to fall upon us?**
9. Our spiritual slothfulness and decay.
We have been slothful in the business of religion,
and not fervent in spirit serving the Lord.<:
e Gen. xlii. 31. f Rom. xiv. 19. v Rom. xiv. 10. h 1 Cor. xiii.
4, 6. i Prov. xvti. 5. k Gal. v. 36. i Heb. x. 24. ml John
iii. 17. a Isa. Iviil. 7. o Deut. xv. 9. y James ii. 6.
H 1 TtiesB. iv. 6. r Job xxxi. 5, 7. ■ Job xxxiv. 33. t Prov. x.
19. u Jobxi. 2. ▼ Prov. X. 21, 32. w Prov. xv. 2. « Eph. iv.
29. J Eph V. 4. « Matt xii. 36, 37. • laa. vi. 5. b Ps. Ixiv. 8.
e Rom. xti. II. d Rev. iii. 3. t Eccl. xi. 4. f Prov. xxvi.
The things which remain are ready to die, ud
our works have not been found perfect before God.^
We have observed the winds, and therefore have
not sown, have regarded the clouds, and therefore
not reaped;' and with the sluggard have frighted
ourselves with the fancy of a lion in the way, a lim
in the streets, and have turned on our bed as the
door on the hinges ;' still crying. Yet a little sleep, a
little slumber.^
We have lost our first iove,^ and where is now die
blessedness we sometimes spake of ?* «
Our goodness hath been as the momiDg ekMidy
and the early dew, which passeth away>
And that which is at the bottom of all, is the evil
heart of unbelief in us, which inclines us to dqnrt
from the living God.^
YII. We must acknowledge the great erii
that there is in sin, in our sin ; the malignity of
its nature, and its mischievousness to us.
1. The sinfulness of sin.
O that sin may appear sin to as, may appear in its
own colours, and that by the commandment we isay
see it to be exceeding sinful," because it is the
transgression of the law.*^
By every wilful sin we have in effect said. We will
not have this man to reign over us : « and, Who is the
Lord, that we should obey his voice ?p And thus have
we reproached the Lord,'^ and cast his laws behind
our backs.**
2. The foolishness of sin.
O God, tiiou knowest our foolishness, and our ms
are not hid from thee : * we were foolish in being dis-
obedient,* and our lusts are foolish and hurtful"
Foolishness was bound up in our hearts when we
were children ;^ for though vain man would be wise,
he is born like the wild ass's colt.*
Our way hath been our folly," and in many in-
stances we have done foolishly, very foolishly.'
So foolish have we been, and ignorant, and CTen
as beasts before God.'
3. The unprofitableness of sin.
We have sinned, and perverted tiiat which wss
right, and it profited us not.*
What fruit have we now in those things whereof
we have cause to be ashamed, seeing the end of those
things is death ? ^ And what are we profited, if we
should gain the whole world, and lose our own
souls?'
4. The deceitfttlness of sin.
Sin hath deceived us, and by the commandmeBt
slain us ;^ for our hearts have been hardened throogk
13, 14. r Prov. vi. 10. h Rev. ii. 4. i Gal. iv. is. k Hos.
vi. 4. I Heb. iii. 12. ■> Rom. vii. 13. « 1 John iii i ,
o Luke xix. 14. p Exod. v. 2. q Numb. xv. 30. r Neli.u- 1
26. • Ps, Ixix. 5. t Tit. liL 3. n 1 Tim. vl. 9. r Pro*,
xxii. 15. w Job xi. IS. « Ps. xlix. 13. j 2 Sam. xxiv. R
B Ps. Ixxiii. 2S. • Job xxxiii. 27. b Rom. vi. 21. c Ibtt.
xvi. 26. 4 Rom. vii. 11.
CONFESSION OF SIN.
GiS
the deceitfulness of sin ;« and we have been drawn
away of our own lust, and enticed/
It hath promised us liberty, but has made us the
servants of corruption ;> bath promised that we
shall not surely die, and that we shall be as gods ;**
bat it has flattered us, and spread a net for our feet.*
The pride of our heart particularly has deceived
iis.k
5. The 'offence which, by sin, we have g^ven
to the Holy God.
By breaking the law we have dishonoured God,'
and have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger"
most bitterly." And many a thing that we have done
hath displeased the Lord.^
God has been broken by our whorish heart, and
our eyes that have gone a whoring after our idols.p
We have tempted him, and proved him, and
grieved him in the wilderness,'* have rebelled and
Tcxed his Holy Spirit •/ and pressed him with our
iniquities, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.*
We have grieved the Holy Spirit of God, by whom
we are sealed to the day of redemption.*
6. The damage which, by sin, we have done
to our own souls, and, their great interests.
By our iniquities we have sold ourselves," and in
sinning against thee we have wronged our own
soals.^
Our sins have separated between us and God,^
and have kept good things from us ; and by them
our minds and consciences have been defiled.'
OoT own wickedness hath corrected us, and back-
slid in gs have reproved us, and we cannot but know
and see, that it is an evil thing, and bitter, that we
have forsaken the Lord our God, and that his fear
hath not been in us.'
O what fools are they that make a mock at sin !*
YIII. We must aggravate our sins, and take
notice of those things which make them more
heinous in the sight of Grod, and more danger-
ous to ourselves.
We bewail before thee all our sins, and all our
transgressions in all our sins.*
1. The more knowledge we have of good and
evil, the greater is our sin.
We have known our Master's will, but have not
done it, and therefore deserve to be beaten with
many stripes.**
We have known the way of the Lord, and the
judgments of our God, and 'yet have altogether
broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.'
We have known the judgment of God, that they
which do such things are worthy of death, and yet
* Heb. ill. la f James i. U. r S Pet ii. 19. h Gen. iii.
S. 6. i Prov. xxix. 5. k Obad. 3. i Rom. ii. 23. o Isa.
i. 4. n Hos. xil. 14. e 3 Sam. xi. vlt ? Ezek. vi. o.
% Ps. xcv. 8, 0, 10. r iM. Ixiii. 10. • Amon. ii. 13 t Eph.
Iv. 30. « laa. 1. 1. T ProY. viii. 3«. w laa. lix. 2. « Tit.
»• W- y Jer. ii. 19. i l^rov. xiv. 9. • Lev. xvi. 10. b Luke
2t2
have done them, and have had pleasure in them that
do them.<*
We have taught others, and yet have not taught
ourselves f and while we profess to know God, we
have in works denied him.^
2. The greater profession we have made of
religion, the greater hath beq^ our sin.
We call ourselves of the holy city, and stay our-
selves upon the God of Israel, and make mention of
his name, but not in truth and righteousness ^ For
we have dishonoured that worthy name by which we
are called,^ and given great occasion to the enemies
of the Lord to blaspheme.*
We have named the name of Christ, and yet have
not departed from iniquity.^
3. The more mercies we have received from
God, the greater has been our sin.
Thou hast nourished and brought us up as chil-
dren, but we have rebelled against thee.*
We have ill requited thee, O Lord, as foolish
people and unwise: though thou art our Father,
that made us, and bought us, and established us,
yet our spot has not been the spot of thy children."*
We have not rendered again according to the be-
nefit done unto us."
4. The fairer warning we have had from the
word of God, and from our own consciences,
concerning our danger of sin, and danger by sin,
the greater is the sin if we go on in it
We have been often reproved, and yet have hard-
ened our neck,<* and have gone on frowardly in the
way of our heart.p
Thou hast sent to us, saying, O do not this abom-
inable thing which I hate ; but we have not heark-
ened, nor inclined our ear.i
The word of God hath been to us precept upon
precept, and line upon line ; ' and though we have
beheld our natural faces in the glass, yet we have
gone away and straightway forgot what manner of
men we were.*
5. The greater afflictions we have been under
for sin, the greater is the sin if we go on in it.
Thou hast stricken us, but we have not grieved ;
we have refused to receive correction, and have
made our faces harder than a rock ;' and the rod
hath not driven the foolishness out of our hearts.**
Thou hast chastened us with the rod of men, and
with the stripes of the children of men,^ yet we have
not turned to him that smiteth us, nor have we
sought the Lord of hosts.^
When some have been overthrown as Sodom and
Gomorrah were, we have been as brands plucked out
xii. 47. e Jer. v. 4, A. a Rom.f. 32. • Rom. ii. 21.
f Tit. i. ID. fr Isa. xlTiii. 1. 2. h James ii. 7. i 2 Sam.
xii. M. k 2 Tim. ii. 19. 1 Isa. i. 2. m Deut. xxxii. .% 6.
n 2 Cliron. Axii. 2A. o Prov. xxix. 1. p Isa. Ivii. 17. q Jer.
xliv. 4, 5. r Isa. xxviii. 13. • James i. 23, 94. t Jer. ▼. 3.
a Prov. xxii. 15. V 2 Sam. vii. 14. w laa. ix. 13.
644
CONFESSION OF SIN.
of the fire, yet have we not returned unto thee, O
Lord. ' And when thy hand has been lifted up, we
have not seen it J
6. The more vows and promises we have
made of better obedience, the greater has our
sin been.
We have not performed the words of the covenant
which we made before thee,* but, as treacherous
dealers, we have dealt treacherously.*
Did we not say we would not transgress,** we
would not offend any more?^ We did, and yet we
have returned with the dog to his vomit ; ^ have re-
turned to folly after God hath spoken peace,"
IX. We must judge and condemn ourselves
for our sins, and own ourselves liable to punish-
ment.
And now, O our God, what shall we say after this,
for we have forsaken thy commandments ?' We have
sinned, what shall we do unto thee, O thou preserver
of men? »
We know that the law curseth every one that con-
tinues not in all things that are written in the book
of the law, to do them;^ that the wages of every
sin is death ;* and that for these things' sake cometh
the wrath of God upon the children of disobedi-
ence.'
And we are all guilty before God ; * the Scripture
bath concluded us all under sin,™ and therefore thou
mightst justly be angry with us till thou hadst con-
sumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor
escaping."
If thou shouldst lay righteousness to the line,
and judgment to the plummet,^ thou mightst justly
separate us unto all evil, according to all the curses
of the covenant, and blot out our names from under
heaven.P
Thou mightst justly swear in thy wrath, that we
should never enter into thy rest;<> mightst justly
set us naked and bare, and take away our corn in
the season thereof, and our wine in the season there-
of,' and put into our hands the cup of trembling,
and make us drink even the dregs of that cup."
Thou art just in whatever thou art pleased to lay
upon us ; for thou hast done right, but we have
done wickedly.^ Nay, thou our God hast punished
less than our iniquities have deserved."
Thou therefore shalt be justified when thou speak-
est, and clear when thou jndgest ;* and we will ac-
cept of the punishment of our iniquity,^ and humble
ourselves under thy mighty hand,' and say, The
Lord is righteous.'
Wherefore should a living man complain, a man
X Amos iv. 11. 7 ba. xxvi. 11. t Jer. xxxlv. la a laa.
xxiv. 16. b Jer. ii. 20. c Job xxxiv. 31. da Pet. ii. 23.
e Ps. Ixxxv. 8. f Ezra ix. 10. g Job vii. 20. h Gal. iii. 10.
i Rom. vi. 23. k Cph. v. a i Rom. iii. 19. m Gal. iii. 22.
n Ezra ix. M. o Isa. xxviii. 17. p Deut. xxlx. 20, 21. q Ps.
xcv. uU. T Hos. ii. 3, 9. • Isa. Ii. 22. t Neb. ix. 33. « Ezra
ix. 13. T Ps, li. 4, w Lev. xxvi. 43. x i Pet. v. 6. y 2 Chron.
for the punishment of his sins?' No, wewiUbar
the indignation of the Lord, because we have AuA
against him.*
X. We mast g^ve to God the glory of his pi*
tience and long-suffering towards ub, ud Ui
willingness to be reconciled.
O the riches of the patience and forbeaauiee d
Godl^^ How long-suffering is he to us-ward! sol
willing that any should perish, bot that all sboiM
come to repentance.^
Thou hast not dealt with as according to our m,
nor rewarded us after oar iniquitiesy^ bot thou wtit*
est to be gracious to as.*
Sentence against our evil works has not been ex^
eouted speedily,^ but thou hast g^ven asspaoetore>
pent,! and make our peace with thee, and callestevci
backsliding children to retam to thee, and krt
promised to heal their backsliding ; and tberefoR;
Behold we come tinto thee, for thou art the hui
our God.*»
Surely the long-saffering of oar Lord is salvatkn;'
and if the Lord had been pleased to kill us, be wooU
not as at this time have showed as such things ai
these.^
And O that this goodness of God might letd b
to repentance ! * for though we have trespasid
against our God, yet now there is hope in Isnel
concerning this thing."*
Thou hast said it, and hast confirmed it with* u
oath, that thou hast no pleasure in the death of si-
ners, but rather that they should tarn and live:*
therefore will wc rend our hearts, and not our gv^
ments, and turn to the Lord oar God ; for he is gn-
cious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kind-
ness. Who knows if he will retam and repeoir
and leave a blessing behind him ?<^
XI. We must humbly profess oar sorrow and
shame for sin, and humbly engage oarseives^in
the strength of divine grace, that we will be
better, and do better, for the fatore.
Lord, we repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand,p to which thou hast exalted thy Son Christ
Jesus, to g^ve repentance and remission of sins.*
We have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear,
but now our eye seeth thee ; wherefore we abhor oar-
selves, and repent in dust and ashes ;' therefore wifl
we be like the doves of the valleys, every one rnoom-
ing for his iniquities.*
O that our heads were waters, and oar eyes foon-
tains of tears, that we might weep daj and nigit'
for our transgpressions, and might in such a manner
sow in those tears, as that at last we may reap in
xii. 6. B Lam. iii. 39. • Bfic. vii. 0. i> Rom. ii. 4. c iPet
iii. 9. d Ps. ciii. 10. « U|^ xxx. la. f EocLviiL 11. rBer
ii. 21. h Jer. iiL S3, S3. is Pet iii. 15. k Jnd^. xiiltx
1 Rom. ii. 4. m Ezra x. S. n Eiek. xxxiii II. • JodiiU
14. p Matt. iii. S. a Acts v. 31. r Job xlii.5,8. •ftefc
viL 16. t Jer. ix. i.
PETItlONS AND REQUESTS.
646
Joy ; may now go forth weeping, bearing precious
seed, and may in due time come again with rejoicing,
bringing oar sheaves with us."
Our iniquities are gone over our heads as a heavy
burthen, they are too heavy for us ;^ but weary and
heavy laden under this burthen we come to Christ,
who has promised that in him we shall find rest for
our souls.*
O that knowing every man the plague of his own
heart,* we may look unto him whom we have pierced,
and may mourn, and be in bitterness for him, as one
that is in bitterness for a first-born.' That we may
sorrow after a godly sort, with that sorrow which
worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented
of; and that we may remember, and be confounded,
and never open our mouth any more, because of our
shame, when thou art pacified toward us.*
And, O that we may bring forth fruits meet for
repentance !^ and may never return again to folly !*^
for, what have we to do any more with idols ?^ Sin
shall not have dominion over us, for we are not under
the law, but under grace.^
We have gone astray like lost sheep ; seek thy
servants, for we do not forget thy commandments.'
CHAPTER III.
or THB THIRD PART OP PRAYER, WHICH 18 PBTITION AND SUP.
PUCATION POR THB GOOD THINGS WHICH WE STAND IN NEED
OF.
Having opened the wounds of sin, both the
guilt of it, and the power of it, and its remain-
ders in us ; we must next seek — unto God — for
the remedy, for healing and help, for from him
alone it is to be expected, and he will for this
be inquired of* by us. And now we must impress
our hearts with a deep sense of the need we have
of those mercies which we pray for, that we are
undone, for ever undone, without them ; and
with a high esteem and value for them, that we
are happy, we are made for ever, if we obtain
them; that we may, like Jacob, wrestle with
him, in prayer, as for our lives, and the lives
of our souls. But we must not think in our
prayers to prescribe to hhn, or by our impor-
tunity to move him. He knows us better than
we know ovrselves; and knows what he will
do> But thus we open our wants and oi^r
desires, and then refer ourselves to his wisdom
and goodness ; and hereby we give honour to
him as our Protector and Benefactor, and take
u Ps. cixvi. 5, 6. ▼ Pa. xxxTiii. 4. w Matt. xi. 38. « I Kings
vlii. 38. J Zech. xii. 10. ■ 9 Cor. vii. 10. • Ezek. xvi. <i3.
b Matt. iii. b. «■ pg. Ixxxv. 8. d Hos. xiv. 8. • Rom. vi. 14.
' P». cxix. uU.
• Ezek. xxxvi. 37. b John ^. 8. < Mark xi. 24. d Ps.
the way which he himself has appointed, of
fetching in mercy from him, and by faith plead
his promise with him ; and if we are sincere
herein, we are, through his grace, qualified ac-
cording to the tenor of the new covenant, to
receive his favours, and are to be assured that
we do, and shall, receive them.<^
And now. Lord, what wait we for ? Truly our hope
is even in thee. Deliver us from all our transgpres-
sionif , that we may not be the reproach of the foolish.^
Lord, all our desire is before thee ; and our groan-
ing is not hid from thee ;< even the groanings which
cannot be uttered ; for he that searcheth the hedrt
knows what is the mind of the spirit.^
We do not think that we shall be heard for our
much speaking ; for our Father knows what things
we have need of before we ask him ;ff but our Master
has told us, that whatsoever we ask the Father in
his name, he will give it us. And he has said.
Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be
full.»»
And this is the confidence that we have in him,
that if we ask any thing according to his will, he
heareth us: and if we know that he heareth us
whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions that we desired of him.>
I. We must earnestly pray for the pardon and
forgiveness of all our sins.
Lord, we come to thee as the poor publican, that
stood afar off", and would not so much as lift up his
eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast; and we
pray his prayer, God be merciful to us sinners. The
God of infinite mercy be merciful to us.''
O wash us thoroughly from our iniquity, and
cleanse us from our sin, for we acknowledge our
transg^ssions, and our sin is ever before us. O
purge us with hyssop, and we shall be clean, wash
us, and we shall be whiter than snow : Hide thy face
from our sins, and blot out all our iniquities.'
Be thou merciful to our unrighteousness, and our
sins and our iniquities do thou remember no more.*"
O forgive us that great debt."
Let us be justified freely by thy grace, through the
redemption that is in Jesus,^ from all those things
from which we could not be justified by the law of
Moses.P
O let not our iniquity foe our ruin,^ but let the
Lord take away our sin, that we may not die, not die
eternally ;' that we may not be hurt of the second
death .^
Blot out as a cloud our transgressions, and as a
thick cloud our sins ; for we return unto thee be-
cause thou hast redeemed us.*
xxxix. 7, 8. • Ps. xxxviii. 9. f Rom. viii. 26, 27. r Matt,
vi. 7, 8. h John xvi. 2J. 24. i 1 John v. 14, 15. k Luke xviil.
13. 1 P& li. 2, 3, 7. m Heb. viii. 12. n Matt xviii. 32. o Rom.
iii. 24. P Acts xiii. 39. q Ezek. xviii. 30. r i Sam. xii. I&.
• Rev. ii. J 1. t Isa. xliv. 22.
646
PETITIONS AND REQUESTS
Enter not into judgment with thy servants, O Lord,
for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified."
Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously ;
heal our backslidings, and love us freely, and let
thine anger be turned away from us, for in thee the
fatherless findeth mercy ."^
Though our sins have been as scarlet, let them be
as white as snow ; and though they have been red
like crimson, let them be as wool, that being willing
and obedient, we may eat the good of the land.*
We will say unto God, do not condemn us,' but
deliver us from going down to the pit, for thou hast
found the ransom.^
For the encouraging of our faith, and the ex-
citing of our fervency, in this petition for the
pardon of sin ; we may plead with God,
(1.) The infinite goodness of his nature, his
readiness to forgive sin, and his glorying in it.
Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive ; and
rich in mercy to all them that call upon thee. Thou
art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long-
suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth."
Thou art a God of pardons, merciful, slow to
anger, and of great kindness,* that dost not always
chide, nor keep thine anger for ever.**
Thou, even thou, art he that blottcst out our trans-
gressions for thine own sake, and wilt not remember
our sins, which we are here to put thee in remem-
brance of, to plead with thee, and to declare, that
we may be justified.*^
And now, we beseech thee, let the power of our
Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, say-
ing, the Lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy,
forgiving iniquity and transgression. Pardon, we
beseech thee, the iniquity of thy people, according
unto the greatness of thy mercy ; and as thou hast
forgiven even until now.**
For who is a God like unto thee, that pardonest
iniquity, and passest by the transgression of the
remnant of thine heritage ; who retainest not thine
anger for ever, because thou delightest in mercy. O
that thou wouldst have compassion upon us, and
subdue our iniquities, and cast all our sins into the
depths of the sea.'
(2.) The merit and righteousness of our Lord
Jesus Christ, which we rely upon as our main
plea in our petition for the pardon of sin.
We know that as thou art gracious and merciful^
so thou art the righteous God that lovcth righteous-
ness,^ and wilt by no means clear the guilty.' We
cannot say. Have patience with us, and we will pay
thee all ;^ for we are all as an unclean thing, and
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.* But Jesus
Christ is made of GT>d to us righteousness ;^ being
tt Ps. cxliii. S. V Hos. xiv. 3,3. w Isa.i. 18. s Jobx. 2.
7 Job xxxiii. 24. > Ps. Ixxxvi. 6, 15. • Neh. ix. 17 b Pa.
ciil. 0. e Isa. xliii. 25, 36. a Numb. xiv. 17-19. o Mic.
vii. IS, m. f Ps. xi. 7. ff Exod. xxxiv. 7. h Matt xviii. 36.
I Isa. Ixiv. 6. k 1 Cor. i. 30. i 2 Con v. 21. a 1 John ii. 1, 2.
made sin for us, though he knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him.'
We have sinned, but we have an advocate witb
the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, who is the
propitiation for our sins, and not for oars only, but
for the sins of the whole world.™
It is God that justifieth, who is he that shall coo«
demn ? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is rises
again, and now is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us,** and whose blood
speaks better things than that of Abel.**
We desire to count every thing loss for Christ,
and dung that we may win Christ, and be found io
him, not having any righteousness of oor own, hat
that which is through the faith of Christ.i*
This is the name whereby we will call him. The
Lord our righteousness.*! In him. Lord, we believe ;
help thou our unbelief.^
Lord, remember David and all his troubles, the
Son of David. Remember all his offerings, and
accept his burnt sacrifice ;* and turn not away the
face of thine Anointed,^ who by his own blood is
entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God for us.**
Hast not thou thyself sent forth thy Son Christ
Jesus, to be a propitiation for sin through faith in
his blood, to deliver thy righteousness for the remis-
sion of sins, to declare at this time thy righteousness,
that thou mayst be just, and the justifier of him that
believeth in Jesus ;" and we now receiTe the atone-
ment.^
(3.) The promises God has made in his word to
pardon and absolve all them that truly repent
and unfeigncdly believe his holy gospel.
Lord, is not this the word which thoa hast spoken,
that if the wicked forsake his way, and the unright-
eous man his thoughts, and return unto the Lord,
even to our God, that thou wilt abundantly pardon,
wilt multiply to pardon ?'
To thee the Lord our God belong mercies and
forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against thee.'
Is not this the covenant which thou hast made
with the house of Israel, that thou wilt take away
their sins ;* that thou wilt forgive their iniquity, and
remember their sin no more ;* that the iniquity of
Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none;
and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found !^
Hast thou not said, that if the wicked vrill turn i
from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep
thy statutes, he shall live, he shall not die, all his
transgressions shall not be mentioned unto him ^
Hast thou not appointed, that repentance and re-
mission of sins should be preached in Christ's name
unto all nations ? <*
n Rom. viii. 33. 34. o Heb. xU. 34. p PhiL iii. 7—0. % itt-
xxiii. a r Mark ix. 24. • Ps. xx. 3. « Pa. «*«»^i. i, Ml
n Heb. ix. 13, 24. T Rom. iii. 35, 26. w^ Rom. v. Ii. > ba.
Iv. 7. 7 Dan. ix. 9. « Rom. xi. 27. a Jer. xxxi. 34. » Jet.
1. ». c Eaek. x?iii. 31, SS. d Luke uiv. 47.
PETITIONS AND REQUESTS.
647
Didst thou not promise, that when the sins of
Israel were put upon the head of the scape goat, they
should be sent away into the wilderness, into a land
not inhabited ?* And as far as the east is from the
west, so far dost thou remove our transgressions
from us. f
O remember these words unto thy senrants, upon
which thou hast caused us to hope.'
(4.) Our own misery and danger because of
sin.
For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon our iniquity,
for it is great ;^ for innumerable evils have com-
passed us about, our iniquities have taken hold upon
as, so that we are not able to look up : be pleased,
O Lord, to deliver us ; O Lord, make haste to help
US.*
O remember not against us former iniquities, let
thy tender mercy speedily prevent us, for we are
brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of thy name ; deliver us, and purge
away our sins for thy name's sake.*'
Remember not the sins of our youth, nor our
transgressions ; according to thy mercy remember
thou us, for thy goodness' sake, O Lord.^
(5.) The blessed condition which they are in
whose sins are pardoned.
O let us have the blessedness of those whose trans-
gression is forgiven, and whose sin is covered ; of
that man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no guile."
O let us have redemption through Christ's blood,
even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of thy grace, wherein thou hast abounded toward us
in all wisdom and prudence.'* That being in Christ
Jesus, there may be no condemnation to U8.*>
That our sins, which are many, being forgiven
as, we may go in peace :p And the inhabitant shall
not say, I am sick, if the people that dwell therein
be forgiven their iniquity .<i
II. We must likewise pray, that God will be
reconciled to us, that we may obtain his favour
and blessing, and gracious acceptance.
(1.) That we may be at peace with God ; and
his anger may be turned away from us.
Being justified by faith, let us have peace with
God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and through
him let us have access into that grace wherein be-
lievers stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of
God.'
Be not thou a terror to us, for thou art our hope
in the day of evil.*
In Christ Jesus let us, who sometimes were afar
off, be made nigh by the blood of Christ ; for he is
our peace, who hath broken down the middle wall
c I^v. xvi. 21, 22. f Ps. ciii. 12. g Ps. cix. 49. h Ps. xxv.
11. I Pb. Xl. 12, 13. k Ps. IXxiX. 8,9. I Ps. XXV. 7. m P«.
xxxii. 1,2. n Eph. i. 7, a o Rom. viii. 1. p Luke vii. 47,60.
q Isa. xxxiii. ult. r Rom. v. 1, 2. • Jer. xvii. 17. t Eph. ii.
1 3 - 16, 19. .Is. xxvii. 4, &. r Job xxii. 21. w Jer. xvii. 14.
of partition between us, and that he might reconcile
us to God by his cross, hath slain the enmity there-
by, so making peace. Through him therefore let
us, who had made ourselves strangers and foreign-
ers, become fellow-citizens with the saints, and of
the household of God.*
Fury is not in thee : who would set the briars and
thorns against thee in battle ? thou wouldst go through
them, yea, thou wouldst burn them together; but
thou hast encouraged us to take hold on thy strength,
that we may make peace ; and hast promised that
we shall make peace :" O let us therefore acquaint
ourselves with thee, and be at peace, that thereby
good may come unto us.^
Heal us, and we shall be healed ; save us, and we
shall be saved ; for thou art our praise."^ Be not
angry with us for ever, but receive us again, that
thy people may rejoice in thee. Show us thy
mercy, O Lord,.'and grant us thy salvation.'
(2.) That we may be taken into covenant
with God, and admitted into relation to him.
Be thou to us a God, and take us to be to thee a
people,' and make us a willing people in the day of
thy power.'
Though we are no more worthy to be called thy
children ;* for how shouldst thou put us, who have
been rebellious, -among the children, and g^ve us
the pleasant land ? but thou hast said that we shall
call thee our Father, and not turn away from thee.^
Shall wc not therefore from this time cry unto thee,
Our Father, thou art the guide of our youth ?«
Lord, we take hold of thy covenant,^ to thee we
join ourselves in a perpetual covenant ;* O that thou
wouldst cause us to pass under the rod, and bring
us into the bond of the covenant,^ that we may be-
come thine.
Make with us an everlasting covenant, even the
sure mercies of David.*
(3.) That we may have the favour of God,
and an interest in his special love.
We entreat thy favour, O God, with our whole
hearts : be merciful unto us according to thy word,^
for in thy favour is life :^ yea, thy loving-kindness
is better than life itself.*^
Lord, make thy face to shine upon us, and be
gpracious unto us ; Lord, lift up the light of thy
countenance upon us, and g^ve us peace.'
Remember us, O Lord, with the favour that thou
bearest unto thy people : O visit us with thy salva-
tion, that we may see the good of thy chosen, and
may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, and may
glory with thine inheritance.*"
(4.) That we may have the blessing of God.
O God be merciful to us, and bless us, and cause
z Ps. Ixxxv. 6—7. 7 Heb. viil. 10. i Ps. ex. 3. a Luke
XV. 19. b Jer. iii. 19. e Jer. iii. 4. d U. Ivi. 4. • Jer. I. 5.
f Ezek. XX. 37. Bzek. xvi. 8. r Is. Iv. a h Ps. cxix. 59. i Ps.
XXX. &. k Ps. Iziii. a 1 Numb. vL 25, S6. » Ps. cvi. 4, b.
048
PETITIONS AND REQUESTS.
tby face to shine upon us ; yea, let God, even our
own God, give us his blessing."
The Lord that made heaven and earth, bless us
out of Zion,<* bless us with all spiritual blessings in
heavenly things by Christ Jesus. p
O that thou wouldst bless us indeed !<i Command
thy blessing upon us, even life for evermore ;' for
thou blessest, O Lord, and it shall be blessed.*
Let us receive the blessing from the Lord, even
righteousness from the God of our salvation.^
Hast thou but one blessing ? Yea, thou bast many
blessings: bless us, even us also, O our Father;"
y^a, let the blessing of Abraham come upon us,
which comes upon the Gentiles through faith ;^ and
the blessing of Jacob, for we would not let thee go,
except thou bless us."*
(5.) That we may have the presence of God
with us.
If thy presence go not with us, carry us not up
hence ;" never leave us nor forsake us.y
O cast us not away from thy presence, nor ever
take thy Holy Spirit away from us ;* but let us always
dwell with the upright in thy presence.*
III. We must pray for the comfortable sense of
our reconciliatibn to God, and our acceptance
with him.
(1«) That we may have some evidetice of the
pardon of our sins, and of our adoption.
O make us to hear joy and gladness, that the bones
which sin hath broken may rejoice.^
Say unto each of us, Son, Daughter, be of good
cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.*^
Let the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge
our conscience from dead works to serve thee the
living God.**
Let thy Spirit witness with our spirits, that we are
the children of God ; and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ*
Say unto our souls, that thou art our salvation.'
(2.) That we may have a well grounded peace
of conscience ; a holy security and serenity of
mind, arising from a sense of our justificlttion
before God, and a good work wit>ught in us.
The Lord of peace himself give us peace, all pefltoe,
always, by all means ;9 that peace which Jesus Christ
hath left with us, which he gives to us ; such a peace
as the world can neither give nor take away ; such
a peace, that our hearts may not be troubled or
afraid.''
Let the work of rightcousniess in our souls be
peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness,
and assurance for ever.^
' ■ » » ■ ■ — ■ ■ ^^^i^» ■ » »^^^» ^— ^^^^^— ^^^— 1— ^■^i^.^-^.^^^M ■■■■■■ ■
n Ps. Ixvii. 1, 6. o Ps. cxxxiv. 3. p Eph. i. 3. q I Chron.
iv. 10. r Ps. cxxxiii. 3. • 1 Chron. xvii. 27. t Ps. xxiv. 5.
« Gen. xxvii. 38. ▼ Gal. iii. 14. w Gen. xxxil. 26. z Exod.
xxxiii. 15. y Heb. xiii. 5. t Ps. U. n. » Pg. cxl. la b Ps.
li. 8. c Matt. ix. 2. d Heb. ix. 14. • Rom. vtii. 16^ 17. t Ps.
XXXV. 3. g 2 Thess iii. 16. h John xif . 27. i Is. xxxii. 17.
Speak peace to thy people, and to thy saints, iod
let them not turn again to folly>
O create the fruit of the lips peace, peace to them
that are afar off, and to them that are nigh, and
restore comfort to thy moumersJ
Where the sons of peace are, let thy peace iad
them out, and rest upon them."*
Cause us to hear thy loving-kindness, and to taste
that thou art gracious," for in thee do we trust*
Let the peace of God, which passeth all nnder-
standing, keep our hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus ;p and let that peace rule in oar hearts, unM
which we are called.^
Now the God of hope fill as with all joy and
peace in believing, that we may abound in hope,
through the power of the Holy Ghost.'
IV. We must pray for the g^ce of God, aad
all the kind and powerful inflaenoes and open^
tions of that grace.
We come to the throne of graces that we may
obtain not only fenercy to pardon, but g^ce to help
in every time of need, grace for seasonable help."
From the fulness that is in Jesus Christ, (in whoa
it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwdV)
let every one of us receive, and grace for g^race.*
(1.) We must pray for grace to fortify os
against every evil thought, word, and woii.
Having been earnest for the removing of the
guilt of sin, that we may not die for it as t
crime ; we must be no less earnest for the break-
ing of the power of sin, that we may not die
by it as a disease ; but that it may be mortiiied
in us.
O let no iniquity have dominion over as, because
we are not under the law but under grace.^
Let the flesh be crucified in USj with its affectioDS
and lusts ; that walking in the Spirit^ we may not
fulfil the lusts of the flesh.''
Let our old man be crucified with Christ, tiial
the body of sin may be destroyed, that henceforth
we may not serve sin ; and let not sin reign in oor
mortal bodies, (in our immortal soals,) that we
should obey it in the lusts thereof; bat being made
free from sin, let us become the servants of righteous-
ness.*
Let the law of the Spirit of life, which is in Christ
Jesus, mak«> us free from the law of sin and deatb.t
Give us grace to put off the old man, which is cor-
rupt according to the deceitful lusts, that we may
put on the new man^ which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness.*
That the world may be crucified to as, and we to
the world, by the cross of Christ^*
k Ps. IxxxT. & I Is. Irii. IS, 19. » Luke x. IS. ■ Pi^ cxHil a
o 1 Pet. ii. 3. p Phil. tr. 7. q Col. iii. IS. t Rom. xf. IX
• Heb. iv. 16. t Col. i. 19. u John i. 16. v Rom. tL 14
w Gal. V. IS, 24. X Rom. vi. fl, IS, 18. 7 RonL viii. a. tfipiik
iv. 22, 24. • Gal. vi. 14»
PETITIONS AND R£QU£ST9.
649
And tbat the temptations of Satan may not over-
come us.
We pray tbat we may not enter into temptation ;^
6r, however, that no temptation may take as bat
sach as is common to men ; and let the faithful God
never suffer us to be tempted above what we are
ftblc, but with the temptation make way for as to
escape.^
Put upon us the whole armour of God, that we
may be able to stand ag&inst the wiles of the devil,
to withstand in the evil day, and having done all,
fo stand. Let our loins be girt about with truth, put
on us the breastplate of righteousness, and \tt our
feet be shod with the preparation of the gospel of
peace. Give us the shield 6t faith, wherewith we
inay quench all the Gery darts of the wicked, and the
helmet of salvation ; and let the sword of the Spirit,
ivhich is the word of God, be always ready to us.^
Enable us so to resist the devil, as that ht may flee
trom us ; *' to resist him stedfast in the faith.' And
the God of peace tread Satan tinder our feet, and
do it shortly.!
(2.) We must pray for grace t6 fomish us
for every good thought, word, and Work, that
we may not only be kept from sin, but may
be in every thing as we should be, and do as
we should do.
Let Christ be made of God to us, not only right-
eousness, but wisdom, sanetification, and itdemp-
Let us be planted together in the likeness of
Christ's death and resurrection, that as he was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so
^e also may walk in newness of life.^
[1.] That the work of grace may be Wrought
there, where it is not yet begun.
Lord, teach transgressors thy ways, and letliinners
be converted unto thee ; ^ and let the disobedient
be turned to the wisdom of the just, andtnake ready
a people prepared for the Lord.^
Let those be quickened that are yet dead in tres-
passes and sins : ■" say unto them. Live ; yea, say
unto them, Live ; and \he time shall be a time of
love."
Open their eyes, and turn them from darknifess to
light, and from the power Of Satan unto God, that
they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inherit-
ance among them which are sanctified.**
By the blOod of the covenant, send forth the prison-
ers out of the pit in which is no water, that they may
turn to the strong hold, as prisoners of hope.p
Let the word of God prevail to the pulling down
of strong holds, and the casting down of imagina-
tions, and every thing that exalteth itself against the
h Matt xxvi. 41. e 1 Cor. x. 13. d Eph. vi. 13—17. • James
4V. r f I Pet. V. 9. V Rom. xvi. 20. h I Cor. 1. 30. i Rom.
vi. 4. k Pa. li. 13. 1 Luke i. 17. m Eph. ti. 1. n Ezek.
tKvi. «, 8. o Acts xxvi. 18. p Zech. ix. U, !«. q 2 Cor. x. 5.
knowledge of God, and let every thought be brought
into obedience to Christ^
[2.] That where it is begun it may be carried
on, and at length perfected, and the foundation
that is well laid may be happily built upon.
Fulfil in us all the good pleasure of thy goodness,
and the work of faith with power.^
Let the God that has begun a good work in us,
perform it unto the day of Christ*
Perfect, O God, that which concerns us: thy
merdy, O Lord> endures for ever ; forsake not the
work of thine own hands.*
Lord, let thy grace be sufficient for us, and let thy
strength be made perfect In vmeakness, that where wo
are weak, there we may be strong ; " strong in the
Lord, atad the power of his might"^
(3.) More particularly we must pray for grace,
to teach and instruct us, and make us knowing
and intelligent in the things of God.
Give us so to cry after knowledge, and lift up our
voice for understanding, to seek for it as silver, and
to search for it as for hid treasure, that we may un-
derstand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge
of God.^
Give tis all to know thee, from the least even to the
greatest,' and to follow on to know thee ;f and so to
know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom thou bait sent, as may be life eternal to us.*
Givts us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Christ, that the eyes of our understand-*
ing being enlightened, we may know what is the
hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the saints, and may experience
what is the exceeding greatness of his power to as-*
ward who believe, according to the working of his
mighty power.*
Open thou our eyes, that we may see the wondrous
things of thy law and gospel.^
Give us tb know the certainty of those things
wherein we have been instructed f and let our
knowledge grow up to al) riches of the full assur-
ance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of
the mystery of God, even of the Father, and of
Christ.
Deal with thy servants according to thy mercy,
and teach us thy statutes ; we are thy servants, give
us understanding that we may know thy testimonies.
Let our cry come before thee, O Lord, give us under-
statading according to thy word ;** that good under-
standing which they have that do thy command-*-
ments, whose praise endureth for ever.*
(4.) To lead us into, and keep us in the way
of truth, and if in any thitag \ve are in an error,
to rectify our mistake.
r 2 Tbess. i. 11. • Phil. i. 6. t Ps. cxxxviii. 8. « !l Cor. xii.
9. 10. T Eph. vi. 10. w Prov. ii. 3-5. » Heb. viii. 11.
r Hos. vi. 3. I John xvii. 3. • Eph. i. 17—19. b Pa. cxix. la
« Luke i. i. d Ps. cxix. 134, 126, MM). « Ps. cxi. 10.
650
PETITIONS AND REQUESTS.
Let the Spirit of truth guide us into all truth/ and
cause us to understand wherein we have erred."
That which we see not teach thou us," and enable
us so to prove all things, as to hold fast that which
is good.'
Lord, grant that we may not be as children, tossed
to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, but speaking the
truth in love, may grow up into Christ in all things,
who is the head.*^
Lord, give us so to do thy will, as that we may
know of the doctrine whether it be of God ;' and so
to know the truth, that the truth may make us free,
may make us free indeed.'"
Enable us, we pray thee, to hold fast the form of
sound words, which we have heard, in faith, and
love, which is in Christ Jesus,^ and to continue in
the things which we have learned, and been assured
of.»
(5.) To help our memories, that the truths of
God may be ready to us, whenever we have oc-
casion to use them.
Lord, let thy Spirit teach us all things, and bring
all things to our remembrance, whatsoever thou hast
said unto us,p that the word of Christ may dwell
richly in us, in all wisdom and spiritual understand-
ing.4
Lord, grant that we may give a more earnest heed
to the things which we have heard, lest at any time
we let them slip,' and may keep in memory what
hath been preached to us, and may not believe in
vain.
Lord, make us ready and mighty in the Scrip-
tures,* that we may be perfect, thoroughly furnished
unto all good works,* and being well instructed into
the kingdom of heaven, may, as the good house-
holder, bring out of our treasure things new and old.
(6.) To direct our consciences, to show us the
way of our duty, and to make us wise, knowing,
judicious Christians.
Lord, give us a wise and an understanding heart,^
that wisdom which, in all cases, is profitable to
direct;^ that wisdom of the prudent, which is to
understand his way.*
This we pray, that our love may abound yet more
and more in knowledge, and in all judgment, that
we may discern things that differ, and may approve
things that are excellent ; that we may be sincere,
and without offence unto the day of Christ, and may
be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are
by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God."
O that we may be filled with the knowledge of thy
will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding ;
f John xvi. 13. f Job vi. 24. h Job xxxiv. 32. i iThess.
V. 21. k Eph. iv. 14, 15. 1 John vii. 17. m John viii. 32. 36.
■ 2 Tim i. 13. o 2 Tim. iii 14. p John xiv. 26. q Col. iii.
16. r Heb. ii 1. i Actsxviii. 29. t 2 Tim. iii. 17. u i Kings
iii. 9. V Eccl. x. 10. w Prov. xiv. 8. » Phil. i. 9—11. y Col.
i. 9, 10. t Ps. xxvii. II. • 2Chron. xx. 12. b Ua. xxx. 21.
that we may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleas-
ing, being fruitful in every good work, and increas-
ing in the knowledge of God.^
Teach us thy way, O God« and lead us in a plain
path, because of our observers.*
When we know not what to do, oar eyes are op
unto thee ;* then let us hear the word behind us,
saying. This is the way, walk in it, that we torn not
to the right hand, or to the left.'^
Order our steps in thy word, and let no iniquity
have dominion over us.^
(7.) To sanctify our nature, to plant in us all
holy principles and dispositions, and to increase
every grace in us.
The very God of peace sanctify as wholly ; and
we pray God our whole spirit, and soal, and body,
may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ ; for faithful is he that calleth lu,
who also will do it<*
Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a
right spirit within us : cast us not away from thj
presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit away from
us : restore unto us the joy of thy salvation, and op-
hold us with thy free Spirit.*
Write thy law in our hearts, and put it in oar
inward part,^ that we may be the epistles of Christ,
written by the Spirit of the living God, not in tables
of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart,' thattbe
law of our God being in our heart, none of our steps
may slide,'' and we may delight to do thy will,' 0
God ; may delight in the law of God after the inward
man.''
O that we may obey from the heart that form of
doctrine into which we desire to be delivered,* as
into a mould, that our whole souls may be leavened
by it ;"* and that we may not be conformed to this
world, but transformed by the renewing of our mind ;^
may not fashion ourselves after our former lusts in
our ignorance, but, as obedient children, may be
holy in all manner of conversation, as he which hath
called us is holy.°
[1.] We must pray for faith.
Unto us, Lord, let it be given to believe ;p for the '
faith by which we are saved is not of ourselves, it is
the gift of God.4
Lord, increase our faith,' and perfect what ii
lacking in it,* that we may be strong in faith, giving
glory to God.*
Lord, give us so to be crucified with Christ, ai
that the life we now live in the flesh, we may live
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and t
gave himself for us ;" and so to bear about with us
continually the dying of the Lord Jesus, as that the
e Ps. cxix. 133. 4 1 Theas. v. 23, S4. c Ps. ]i. 10—12. f Heb.
viii. 10. g 2 Cor. iii. 3. h Pa. xxxvii.31. i p«. xl.& k Roa
vii. 22. I Rom. vi. 17. m Luke xiii. 21. a Rqol nl S.
o 1 Pet. i. 14, 1ft. f Phil. i. 29. s Eph. ii. 8. t Lake xm &
• I Theas. iii. lo. t Rom. iv. 20. u Gal. ii. 90.
PETITIONS AND REQUESTS.
661
life also of Jesas mHy be manifested in our mortal
bodies.^
As we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, enable
us so to walk in him, rooted and built up in him,
and established in the faith as we have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving.*
Let every word of thine profit us, being mixed
' with faith,* by which we receive thy testimony, and
set to our seal that God is true J
' We beseech thee, work in us that faith which is
the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence
' of things not seen,* by which we may look above
' the things that are seen, that are temporal, and may
look at the things that are not seen, that are eter-
nal/
Enable us by faith to set the Lord always before
us,'* and to have our eyes ever toward him,<= that we
may act in every thing as seeing him that is invisi-
ble, and having a respect to the recompence of re-
ward.**
Let our hearts be purified by faith,* and let it be
oar victory overcoming the world ;^ and let us be
kept from fainting, by believing that we shall see
the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.i^
[2.] We must pray for the fear of God.
Lord, work in us that fear of thee, which is the
beginning of wisdom,^ which is the instruction of
wisdom,^ and which is a fountain of life, to depart
from the snares of death. ^
Unite our hearts to fear thy name,i that we may
keep the commandments, which is the whole of
man.'"
O put thy fear into oar hearts, that we may never
depart from thee." Let us all be devoted to thy
fear ;<> and let us be in the fear of the Lord every
day, and all the day long.p
[3.] We must pray that the love of God and
Christ may be rooted in us; and, in order there-
unto, that the love of the word may be removed
from us.
Give us grace, we beseech thee, to love thee, the
Lord our God, with all our heart and soul, and mind
and might, which is the first and great command-
ment ;<i to set our love upon thee,^ and to delight
oarsclves always in thee ; and therein we shall have
the desire of our heart.*
Circumcise our hearts to love thee, the Lord our
God, with all our hearts, and with all our soul, that
we may live.*
O that the love of God may be shed abroad in our
bearts by the Holy Ghost."
O that Jesus Christ may be very precious to us,
▼ 2 Cor. ir. 10. w Col. ii. 6, 7. x Heb. iv. 2. y John ill.
33. » Heb. xi. I. a 2Cos»iv. 18. b Ps xvi. 8. e Pa. xxv.
15. A Heb. xl. 26, 27. • Acts xv. 9. f 1 John v. 4. r Pa.
xxvii. 13. h Prov. i. 7. i Prov. xv. 33. k Prov. xiv. 27.
I Pa. Ixxxvi. II. m Eccl. xii. 13. n Jer. xxxli. 40. o ps.
cxix. 38. p Prov. xxili. 17. q Matt xxii. 37. r Pa. xci.
14. • P8. xxxTii. 4. I Dent. xxx. 6. « Rom. ▼. flu ▼ I Pet
as he is to all that believe,^ that he may be in our
account the chiefest of ten thousand, and altogether
lovely, and that he may be our beloved and our
friend :^ that though we have not seen him, yet we
may love him ; and though now we see him not, yet
believing, we may rejoice with joy unspeakable,
and full of glory.'
Let the love of Christ to us constrain us to live,
not to ourselves, but to him that died for us, and
rose again.r
And, Lord^ grant that we may not love the world,
nor the things that are in the world, because if any
man love the world, the love of the Father is not in
him ;* that we may set our afi'ections on things above,
and not on things that are on the earth.
[4.] We must pray that our consciences may
be always tender, and that we may live a life of
repentance.
Lord, take away the stony heart out of our flesh,
and give us a heart of flesh.*
Make us afraid of all appearances of evil,^ and
careful not to g^ve Satan advantage against us, a»
being not ignorant of his devices.*^
Lord, give us the happiness which fhey have who
fear always,*^ that when we think we stand, we may
take heed lest we fall.*
[5.] We must pray to God to work in us cha*
rity and brotherly love.
Lord, put upon us that charity which is the bond
of perfectness,f that we may keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace ;v and may live in love
and peace, that the God of love and peace may be
with us.*^
Lord, give us to love our neighbour as ourselves,
.with that love which is the fulfilling of the law ;* to
love one another with a pure heart, fervently,^ that
hereby all men may know that we are Christ's dis«
ciples.^
And as we are taught of God to love one another,
g^ve us to abound therein more and more,* and, as
we have opportunity, to do good to all men," and as
much as in us lies to live peaceably with all men,o
alleys following after the things that make for
peace, and things wherewith one may edify an-
other.p
Lord, make us able to love our enemies, to bless
them that curse us, and to pray for them that de-
spitefuUy use us, and to do good to them that hate
us,<) forbearing one another, and forgiving one an-
other in love, as Christ forgave us.'
[6.] We must pray for the grace of self-
denial.
ii. 7. w Cant. v. 10, 16. « I Pet i. a j 2 Cor. v. 14.
s 1 John ii. 15. « Ezek. xi. 19. b 1 Theaa. v. 22. e 2 Cor. ii.
11. d Prov. xxviU. 14. • 1 Cor. x. 12. f Col. iii. 14.
g Epb. iv. 3. h 2 Cor. xiii. II. i Rom. xiii. 9. 10. k i Pet
i. 22. 1 John xiii. 35. m I Theaa. iv. o. lo. b Gal. vi. 10.
o Rom. xii. 18. p Rom. xiv. 19. q Matt ▼. 44. r CoL UL
la
dos
PfiTItlONS A>4D REQUEStg.
Lord, give ns grace to deny ourselves, to take up
our cross daily, and to follow Christ,* to keep under
the hody and bring it into subjection.'
Lord, keep us from being lovers of our own selves,"
from being wise in our own conceit, and leaning to
our understanding.^
Lord, give us to seek, not our own only, but every
one his brother's welfare.^
And grant that none of ud may live to ourselves,
or die to ourselves, but whetlier we live or die, we
may be the Lord's, and may live and die to him.*
[7.] We must pray for humility and meek-
ness.
Lord, give us all to learn of Chilst to be meek
and lowly in heart, that we may find rest to our souls ;y
and that herein the same mind may be in us, that
was also in Christ Jesus.*
Lord, hide pride from us,* and clothe us with hu-
mility,^ and put upon us the ornament of a meek
and quiet spirit, which in thy sight is of great price.*
Lord, g^ve us grace to walk worthy of the voca-
tion wherewith we are called, with all lowliness and
meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one an-
other in love.*
Let anger never rest in our bosoms,* nor the sun
ever go down upon our wrath ;' but enable us to
2(how all meekness toward ail men, because we our-
selves also were sometimes foolish and disobedient.'
Let us be clothed as becomes the elect of God,
faoly and beloved, vritb bowets of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness and long-suffering,**
that being merciful as our Father which is in heaven
is merciful,* we may be perfect as he is perfect.^
[8.] We must pray for the grace of content-
ment and patience, and a holy indifference to
all the things of sense and time.
Lord, teach us whatsoever state we are in there-
with to be content ;^ let us know both how to be
abased and how to abound ; every where and in all
things, let us be instructed both to be full and to be
hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. And
let godliness with contentment be great gain to us,"
and a little with the fear of the Lord, and quietness,
is better than great treasure, and trouble therewith.^
Lord, grant that our conversation may be without
covetousness,o and we may always be content with
such things as we have ; still saying, The will of
the Lord be done.P
Enable us in our patience to possess our own
souls ;'* and let patience always have its perfect
work, that we may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing.'
# Matt. xvi. 34. t I Cor. ix. 27. » 2 Tim. iii f . » Prov.
iii. ft, 7. w 1 Cor. x. 24. z Rom. xiv. 7. 8. j Matt. xi. 29.
« Phil. ii. 5. a Job xxxiii. 17. b i Pet. v. 5. el Pet. iii. 4.
d Eph. iv. 1, 2. e Eccl. vii. 9. f Eph. iv. 26. g Tit. iii. 2, 3.
hCol. iii. 12. iLulcevi26. k Matt. v. «//. i Phil, i v. II,
12. m I Tim. vi. G. B Prov. xv. 16. o Heb. xiii. 5. p Acts
xzi. 14. q Luke xxi. 19. r James i. 4. • 1 Cor. vii. 29->3l. I
Lord, give us grace to weep as thoagh we wepl
not, and to rejoice as though we rejoiced not, and
to buy as though we possessed not, and to use this
world as not abusing it, because the time is sbort,
and the fashion of this world passeth away.*
[9.] We must pray for the grace of hope; a
hope in God and Christ, and a hope of etennl
life.
Let patience work experience in as, and experi-
ence hope, such a hope as maketh not ashamed.*
Through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, 1^
us have hope," and be saved by hope.^
Let the God of Jacob be our help, and our hope
always be in the Lord our God.^
Let us be begotten again to a lively hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ,' and let that hope be
to us as an anchor to the soul, sure ^nd stedfast,
entering into that within the veil, whither the fore-
runner is for us entered.'
Let us have Christ in us the hope of glory, and
never be moved away from that hope of the gospd;'
but enable us to give diligence unto the full assur-
ance of hope unto the end.*
(8.) We must pray for gmce to preserve as
from sin, and all appearances of it, and ap-
proaches towards it.
Now we pray to God that we may do no eTil,^birt
may be blameless and harmless as the children of
God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and
perverse generation.^
Turn away our eyes from beholding vanity, aad
quicken thou us in thy way. Remove from us the
way of lying, and grant us thy law graciously.'
Incline not our hearts to any evil thing, to prac-
tise wicked works with them that work iniquity, and
let us not eat of their dainties.*
O cleanse us from our secret faults ; keep back
thy servants also from presumptuous sins:' le^
them not have dominion over us, but let us be ap-
right, and innocent from the great transgressions;
and grant that hereby we may prove ourselves up-
right before thee, by keeping ourselves from our
own iniquity. 6
Let the word be hid in our hearts, that we mar
not sin against thee,** and thy grace be at all times
sufficient for us,* ready to us, and mighty in us, and
never give us up to our own hearts' lust, to walk in
our own couirsels.''
Enable us to walk circumspectly, not as fools,
but as Wise ; ^ so circumspectly that we may cut off
occasion from them which desire occasion* to blas-
pheme that worthy name by which we are called,*
I Rom. y. 4, 5. a Rom. xv. 4. ▼ Rom. viii. M. « Ps. cxhri
5. X 1 Pet. i. 3. 7 Heb. vi. 19, 90. * Col. i. 93,S7. kHeb.
vi. 11. b 2 Cor. xiii. 7. c Phil. ii. 1&. 4 Ps. cxis. 37, ••
• Ps. cxU. 4. f Ps. itix. 12, 13. nr Ps. xviii. tx k Pa. csii.
II.- 12 Cor. xii. a k Ps. Xxtxi. 12. i Bph. ▼. Ii. « SOtf.
xi. 12. B James ii. 7.
PETITIONS AND REQUESTS.
663
and whh well-doing may put to silence the igno-
rance of foolish men,** and may adorn the doctrine
of Godonr Saviour,? in all things.
(9.) We must pray for grace to enable ns both
to govern our tongues virell, and to use them virell.
liOrd, enable us to take heed to our ways, that we
offend not with our tongue^^ and to keep our mouth
as it were with a bridle, that it may not be hasty to
utter any thing/
Set a watch, O Lord, before our mouth, keep the
door of our lips," that we may not offend in word/
Let our speech be always with grace seasoned
with salt," and enable us always out of the good
treasure of our heart to bring forth good things/
Let our mouth speak wisdom, and our tongue talk
of judgment;* and let not thy words depart out of
oar mouth, nor out of the mouth of our seed, or our
seed's seed, from henceforth and for ever/
Enable u^ always to open our mouth with wisdom,
and let the law of kindness be in our tongue/ Give
as to know what is acceptable, that our tongues
maybe as choice silver, and our lips may feed many/
(10.) We must pray for grace to direct and
quicken us to, and to strengthen and assist ns
in, our duty, in the whole course of our conver-
sation.
Let the grace of God, which hath appeared to us,
and to all men, bringing salvation, effectually
teach us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts,
and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this
present world ; looking for the blessed hope, and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might
redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself
a peculiar people, zealous of good works.'
[I.] That we may be prudent and discreet in
our duty.
Thou hast said. If any man lack wisdom, he must
ask it of God, who gives to all men liberally, and
npbraideth not, and it shall be given him.^ Lord,
we want wisdom ; make us wise as serpents, and
harmless as doves ;^ that wisdom may make our
face shine,^ and may be better to us than weapons
of war.*
Enable us to walk in wisdom towards them that
are without, redeeming the time.'
Give us to order all our affairs with discretion,!
and to behave ourselves wisely, in a perfect way
with a perfect heart.**
[2.] That we may be honest and sincere in
our duty.
Let our wisdom be not that from beneath, which
is earthly, sensual, devilish, but wisdom from above.
o I Pet. il. 15. p Til. ii. 10.
• P». cxli. 3. t Jam. Hi. 2.
w Hs. xM¥ii. 30. « Is. lix. 21.
X. 33.20,21. •Titii. Il-U.
d Eccl. viii. I. • Eccl. ix. la
h Ps. ci. 9. i Jam. iii. 15, 17.
q Ps. XXXix. I. r ECOl. V. 2.
a Col. iv. 6. V Blatt. xii. 35.
J Prov. xxxl. 26. ■ Prov.
b Jam. i. 5. e Matt. x. 16.
f Col. iv. 5. r Ps. cxii. 5.
k 2 Cor. i. IS. 1 Ps. xli. 12.
which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy
to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, with-
out partiality, and without hypocrisy.^
O that we may always have our conversation in
the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with
fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God.''
Lord, uphold us in our integrity, and set us be-
fore thy face for ever,^ and let integrity and upright-
ness preserve us, for we wait on thee.*"
Let our hearts be sound in thy statutes, that we
be not ashamed ;■ and let our eye be single, that our
whole body may be full of light.^
[3.] That we may be active and diligent in
our duty.
Lord, quicken ns to work the works of him that
sent us, while it is day, because the night comes,
wherein no man can work ;p and what good our hand
finds to do, to do it vrith all our might, because there
is no work or knowledge in the g^ve, whither we
are going.^
Lord, grant that we may never be slothful in any
good business, but fervent in spirit, serving the
Lord ; ^ stedfast and anmovable, always abounding
in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know that
our labour is not in vain in the Lord/
Lord, make ns zealously affected in every good
work,* and what we do, enable ns to do it heartily,
as unto the Lord, and not unto men."
Lord, enable us to do the work of every day in
its day, according as the duty of the day requires,^
redeeming the time, because the days are evil,* that
when our Lord comes, he may find us so doing."
[4.] That we may be resolute and courageous
in our duty, as those who know, that though we
may be losers for Christ, we shall not be losers
by him in the end.
Lord, teach us to endure hardness, as good sol-
diers of Jesus Christ,' that we may not fear the re-
proach of men, or their revilings,* nor be ashamed
of Christ, or of his words,* knowing whom we have
believed, even one who is able to keep what we have
committed to him against that day.^
Though bonds and afllictions should abide us.
Lord, grant that none of these things may move ns,
and that we may not count life itself dear to us, so
we may finish our course with joy.^
Enable us in all things to approve ourselves to
God, and then to pass by honour and dishonour, by
evil report and good report, clad with the armour of
righteousness on the right hand and on the left,** as
those who account it a very small thing to be judged
of man's judgment, for he that judgeth us is the
Lord.*
m Ps. XXV. 21. n Ps. cxix. 80. o Bfott. vi. 22. p John iz. 4.
q EccL ix. 10. r Rom. xii. 11. • 1 Cor. xv. 56. t Gal. ir. IS.
« Col. iii. 23. ▼ Ezra iii. 4. w Eph. v. 16. x Luke xii. 43.
7 2 Tim. ii. 3. i Isa. li. 7. a Mark viii. 38. b 2 Tim. i. 12.
e Acts XX. 23, 94. 4 2 Cof. Vi. 4, 7. • 1 COT. W. 3, 4,
654
PETITIONS AND REQUESTS.
[5.] That we may be pleasant and cheerful in
our duty.
Lord, enable us to rejoice evermore/ to rejoice in
the Lord always, because he hath again said unto
US, Rejoice ;> that we may go on our way rejoicing,'*
may eat our bread with joy, and drink our wine with
a merry heart, as we shall have reason to do, if God
now accepteth our works.*
Give us grace to serve thee, the Lord our God, with
joyfulness and gladness of heart in the abundance
of all things ;^ and to sing in the ways of the Lord,
because great is the glory of our God.'
Let us have that cheerfulness of heart which doeth
good like a medicine,*" and deliver us from that
heaviness which maketh the heart stoop," and that
sorrow of the world which worketh death.**
[6.] That we may do the duty of every condi-
tion of life, every event of providence, and every
relation wherein we stand.
Lord, enable us in a day of prosperity to be joyful,
and in a day of adversity to consider, because God
hath set the one over against theother,p to add to our
knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience.^
Give us grace to abide with thee in the calling
wherein we are called ;' and in all our ways to ac-
knowledge thee, and be thou pleased to direct our
fiteps."
Let those who are called, being servants, be the
Lord's freemen ;' and those who are called, being
free, be Christ's servants.
Let all in every relation dwell together in unity,
that it may be as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew
that descended upon the mountains of Zion." O
that we may dwell together as joint heirs of the grace
of life, that our prayers may not be hindered.^
Give us grace to honour all men, to love the bro-
therhood, to fear God,'' and to be subject to the
higher powers, not only for wrath, but also for con-
science sake.'
[7.] That we may be universally conscientious.
O that we may stand perfect and complete in all
the will of God.y
O that our ways were directed to keep thy com-
mandments ! And then shall we not be ashamed,
when we have a respect to them all.'
Teach us, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and
we shall keep it to the end. Give us understanding,
and we shall keep thy law, yea, we shall observe it
with our whole heart. Make us to go in the path
of thy commandments, for therein do we delight.
Incline our hearts unto thy testimonies, and not to
covetonsness.*
Grant us, we pray thee, according to the riches of
f 1 Tbess. y. 16. w Phil. iv. 4. b Acta viii. 39. i Eccl. ix. 7.
k Dcut zxviii. 47. i Ps. cxxxviit. 6. m Prov. xvil. M. » Pro v.
xli. 35. o 2 Cor. vil. 10. p Eccl. vil. 14. q 2 Pet 1. 6. r i Cor.
▼ii. 20. ■ Prov. V.6. t 1 Cor. vil. 21. « Ps. cxxxiii. 1, 3.
T I PcL ill. 7. w I Pet ii. 17. X Rom. xiii. 1, 5. y Col. iv.
12. « Ps. cxix. 5. 6. a Ps. cxix. 33—36. b Eph. iti. 16—19.
thy glory, that we may be strengthened with all might
by thy Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell
in our hearts by faith, and that we being rooted aid
grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with
all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth,
and height, and may know the love of Christ, which
passeth knowledge, and be filled with a divine fsl-
ness,** and may partake of a divine nataie/
And let the love of Christ constrain ns to live not
to ourselves, but to him that died for us, and nae
again.^
(11.) We must pray for grace to Toatke as wiier
and better every day than other.
Lord, give us to increase with the increases of
God ;* to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ / to hold on ou
way, and having clean hands, to g^w stronger ud
stronger.i^
Let our path be as the shining light, which shines
more and more to the perfect day.i^
We have not yet attained, nor are we already per-
fect ; Lord, grant that therefore forgetting the things
that are behind, we may reach forth to those things
that are before, for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus.'
Be thou as the dew unto us, that we may grow as
the lily, and cast forth our roots as Lebanon ; that
our branches may spread, and our beauty be as the
olive-tree.^ And let the Sun of Righteousness arise
upon us with healing under his wings, that we maj
go forth and grow up as the calves of the stall.^
(12.) We must pray for effectual support and
comfort under all the crosses and afflictions that
we meet with in this world.
We know that we are born to trouble as the sparks
fly upward ; but in six troubles be thou pleased to
deliver us, and in seven let no evil touch as."
Let the eternal God be our refuge, and under-
neath be the everlasting arms," that the spirit thn
hast made may not fail before thee, nor the soul that
thou hast redeemed .<>
Let us be strengthened with ail might, accordiag
to thy glorious power, unto all patience and long-
suffering with joyfulness.p
Let thy statutes be our songs in the house of our
pilgrimage ; and let thy testimonies which we hate
taken as a heritage for ever, be always the rejoicings
of our hearts.1 i
When we are troubled on every side, yet let is
not be distressed, and when we are perplexed, letns
not be in despair,' but as sorrowful, and yet alwajs
rejoicing ; as having nothing; and yet possessing all
things.*
• 2 Pet. 1. 4. 4 2Cor. V. 14, 15. • Col. ii. 19. r a PeLtiL it
r Job xvil. 9. h Prov. iv. 18. i Pliil. iii. is— 14. ^ Hob^
xiv. 5, 6. 1 Bifal. iv. S. » Job v. 7. 19. m Deut. zxxiiiST
o Isa. Ivii. 16. p Col. i. II. q Ps. cxix. M, 111. r s Cor. iv.t
• 2 Cor. vi. 10.
PETITIONS AND REQUESTS.
665
(13.) We must pray for grace to preserve us
to the end, and to fit us for whatever lies before
as betvtrixt this and the grave.
Lord, deliver us from every evil work, and pre-
genre us to thy heavenly kingdom,' being kept from
falling, that we may be presented faultless at the
coming of thy glory with exceeding joy."
Lord, make us to increase and abound in love one
towards another, and towards all men, that our
hearts may be established unblamable in holiness
before God, even our Father, and the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.^
If Satan desire to have us, that he may sift us as
wheat, yet let Christ's intercession prevail for us,
that our faith fail nof
Till we are taken out of the world, let us be kept
from the evil, and sanctified through thy truth ; thy
word is truth."
Build us up, we pray thee, in our most holy faith,
and keep us in the love of God, looking for the
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.^^
Grant that we may continue to call upon thee as
long as we live,* and till we die may never remove
our integrity from us; and that our righteousness
we may hold fast, and never let it go, and our hearts
may not reproach us so long as we live.*
(14.) We must pray for grace to prepare us
for death, and to carry us well through our
dying moments.
Lord, make us to know our end, and the measure
of our days, what it is, that we may know and con-
sider how frail we are ; and that our days are as a
hand-breadth, and that every man at his best state
is altogether vanity,** and our days upon earth are
as a shadow, and there is no abiding.*
Lord, teach us so to number our days, that we
may apply our hearts unto wisdom,<> and make us to
consider our latter end.*
Lord, make us always ready, with our loins girded
about, and our lights burning, because the Son of
man comes at an hour that we think not.'
Keep us all the days of our appointed time, wait-
ing till our change comes ; and then shalt thou call,
and we will answer.^
Bring us to our grave as a shock of com in its
season ;^ satisfy us with life, whether it be longer or
shorter, and show us thy salvation.^
And when we walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, be thou with us, that we may fear
no evil, let thy rod and thy staff comfort us.*"
Let goodness and mercy follow us all the days of
our life, and let us dwell in the house of the Lord
for ever.* Mercy and truth be with us."
t 2 Tim. iv. 18. n Jude 24. t i Then. iii. 12, 13. w Luke
xxii. 31, 33. X John xYii. 15, 17. j Jude 20, 21. i Ps. cxvi. 2.
• Job xxvii. 5, 6. b Ps. xxxix. 4, 5. el Chron. xxlx. 15.
d Ps. xc. 12. e Dcut. xxxli. 29. f Luke xii. 35, 40. r Job
xW. 14, 15. h Job V. 26. i Ps. XCL 10. k Pi. xxUt 4. 1 Ps.
Redeem our souls from the power of the grave,
and receive us ;" guide us by thy counsel, and after-
wards receive us to glory."
(16.) We must pray for grace to fit us for
heaven, and that we may at length be put in
possession of eternal life. .
Lord, make us meet to partake of the inheritance
of the saints in light ; p let God himself work in us
to the self-same thing, and give us the earnest of the
Spirit in our hearts.^
O that we may now have our conyersation in
heaven ; that we may from thence with comfort look
for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who shall change
our vile bodies, that they may be fashioned like unto
his glorious body.'
O that now we may set our affections on things
above, and that our life may be hid with Christ in
God, that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear,
we also may appear with him in glory ;* that when
he shall appear we may be like him, and may see
him as he is,' may behold his face in righteousness,
and when we awake may be satisfied with his like-
ness."
When we fail, let us be received into everlasting
habitations,"" in the city that hath foundation, whose
builder and maker is God,* that we may be together
for ever with the Lord, to see as we are seen, and
know as we are known.*
And in the mean time help us to comfort ourselves
and one another with these words ; and having this
hope in us, to purify ourselves even as Christ is
pure.^
Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God,
even our Father, who hath loved us, and hath given
us everlasting consolation, and good hope through
grace, comfort our hearts, and stablish us in every
good word and work.*
(16.) We must pray for the good things of
life, with an humble submission to the vrill of
God.
Lord thou hast told us that godliness hath the
promise of the life that now is, as well as of that
which is to come :* and that if we seek first the
kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof,
other things shall be added to us ;^ and therefore we
cast all our care about these things upon thee, who
carest for us,*^ for our heavenly Father knows that
we have need of all these things.*^
[I.] We must pray to be preserved from the
calamities to which we are exposed.
Thou, Lord, art our refuge, and our fortress, and
under thy wings will we trust, thy truth shall be our
shield and buckler ; let us therefore not be afraid
xxiii. 6. m 2 Sam. xv. 30. b Ps. xlix. 15. o Ps. Ixxiii. 24.
p Col. i. 12. q 2 Cor. v. 5. r Phil. iii. 20, 21. • Col. iii. 2-4.
t 1 John iii. 2. u Ps. xvii. 15. ▼ Luke xvi. 9. w Heb. xi.
10. X I Cor. xiii. 12. 7 1 John iii. 3. n% Thess. ii. 16. 17.
A 1 Tim. iv. 8. b Matt vi. 33. e 1 Pet. ▼. 7. 4 Matt. vi. 32.
e66
THANKSGIVINGS FOR MERCY.
for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth
by day. Haviog made the Lord our refoge, and
the Most High oor habitation, let no evil befall us,
nor any plague come nigh our dwelling.*
I^t the Lord be our keeper, even he that keepeth
Israel, and neither slumbers nor sleeps. Let the Lord
be our shade on our right hand, that the sun may
not smite us by day, nor the moon by night ; let the
Lord preserve us from all evil ; the Lord preserve
our souls; the Lord preserve our going out and
coming in, from this time forth, and even for ever-
more.'
Lord, make a hedge round about us, about our
houses, and about all that w^ hav^ round about ;>
and take sickness away from the midst of us."
[2.] We must pray to be supplied with the
comforts and supporU we daily stand in need
of.
O that the beauty of the Lord our God may be
upon us, prosper thou the work of our hands upon
us, yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.i
Save now, we beseech thee, O Lord ; O Lord, we
beseech thee, send now prosperity.''
Let our sons be as plants grown up in their youth,
and our daughters as comer-stones polished after
the similitude of a palace: let our garners be full,
affording all manner of store ;' and let there be no
breaking in or going out, no complaining in our
streets. Happy is the people that is in such a case,
yea, rather, happy is the people whose God is the
Lord.
Let us be blessed in the city, and blessed in the
field, let our basket and our store be blessed, and
let us be blessed when we come in, and when we go
out.™
Let thy good providence so order all events con-
cerning us, that they may be made to work for gqod
to us, as thou hast promised they shall to all that love
thee, and are called according to thy purpose.^
Give us to trust in the Lord, and do good, and
then we shall dwell in the land, and verily we shall
be fed ; and be thou pleased tp bring forth our right-
eousness as the light, and our judgment as the noon
day.**
Let us be hid from the scourge of the tongue, and
not be afraid of destruction when it cometh ; let us
be in league with the stones of the field, and let the
beasts of the field be at peace with us ; let us know
that our tabernacle is in peace, itnd let us visit our
habitation, and not sin,p
And if God will be with us, and will keep us in
the way that we go, during our pilgrimage in this
world, and will give us bread to eat, and raiment
to put on, so that we may come to our heavenly
• Pa. xci. 2, 4, 9, |0. f Ps. cxxi. 4—8. g Job i. 10. h Exod.
Miii. 25. i Ps. xc. 17. k Ps. cxviil. 25. i Pa. cxliv. \% 13.
m Deut xxviii. 3, 5, 6. n Rom. vili. 28. o Ps. xxxvii. 3, 6.
P Job V. s^l, 23, 24. n Qen. xxviii. ao, 21. rSPet. i. 4. "^Cpr.
Father's bouse in peace, then the Lord shall be oor
Lord.*»
(17.) We must plead the promises of Godfior
the enforcing of all our petitions, put tiicse
promises in suit, and refer ourselves to them.
Lord, thou hast given us many exceeding groi
and precious promises,' which are all yea and amoi
in Christ* Now be it unto thy servants according
to the word which thou hast spoken.^
Give us to draw water with joy out of those welli
of salvation ,*■ to suck and be satisfied from thoie
breasts of consolation ;* and now, O Lord God, kl
the word which thou hast spoken concerning thy
servants be established for ever, and do as thoa
hast said.*
Deal with us according to the tenor of the ever-
lasting covenant, whiph is well ordered in all things,
and sure, and which is all our salvation and all ov
desire.*
Look npon us, and be in^rciful to us, as thoa
usest to do unto those that love thy name,' and do
more for us than we are able to ask or think,* and
supply all our needs according to thy riches in ghnj
by Christ Jesus.*
CHAPTER IV.
OF THB fOUKTH PAKT OF PRATBR, WHICH U THANKSfilVnei
FOR THB MBRCIB8 WB HAVB RXCBITKD FBOM GOD, AKD IHI
MANY FAV0UB8 OF HIS WB ARB IMTBJUnTBD DT, AXP BAVl
HOPS FOR BBNBFIT BT.
Ov^ errand at the throne of grace is not onlj
to seek the favour of God, but to give unto
dim the glory due unto his name, and that not
only by an awful adoration of his infinite per-
fections, but by a grateful acknowledgment of
his goodness to us, which cannot indeed add
any thing to his glory, but he is pleased to accept
of it, and to reckon himself glorified by it, if it
pome from a heart that is humbly sensible of its
own unworthiness to receive any favour from
God, that values the gifts, and lov^ the giver of
them,
We must stir np ourselves to praise God,
with the consideration both of the reason and
of the encouragement we have to praise him.
Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee
do we give thanks, for that thy name is near thy
wondrous works declare.*
Let our souls bless the Lord, and let all that is
within us bless his holy name ; yea, let oar soak
bless the Lord, and not forget any of his benefits.^
i. 20. tLukei.38. «Ifla.xii. ^ Tlaa-lxri. ll. wSSos,
▼ii. 25. s2Sam. xxiiLS. y Pi. cxix. 138. s EDb. ii|. SS.
• Phil. iv. 19.
aPs.lxxv. 1. bP8.diLI,9.
THANKSGIVINGS FOR MERCY.
65:
We will praise the Lord, for it is good, it is plea-
sant, and praise is comely for the upright ; ' yea, it
is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to
sing praises unto thy name, O Most High ; to show
forth thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy
faithfulness every night.**
We will extol thee our God, O King, and will bless
thy name forever and ever. Every day will we bless
thee, and will praise thy name for ever and ever ;
we will abundantly utter the memory of thy great
goodness, and sing of thy righteousness.*
We will sing unto the Lord a new song, and his
praise in the congregation of saints. O let Israel
rejoice in him that made him, let the children of
Zion be joyful in their King ; let the saints be joy-
ful in glory, and let the high praises of God be in
their hearts, and in their mouths.^
While we live we will bless the Lord, and will
sing praise unto our God while we have any being ;«^
and when we have no being on earth, we hope to
have a being in heaven, to be doing it better.
We are here through Jesus Christ to offer the sa-
crifice of praise to thee, which we desire to do con-
tinually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks
to thy name.** And thou hast said, that he that
offers praise glorifies thee,' and that this also shall
please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that
hath horns and hoofs.''
We will mention the loving-kindnesses of the
Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all
that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great
goodness towards the house of Israel, which he hath
bestowed on them according to his mercies, and ac-
cording to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses.'
(1.) We must be particular in our thanks-
giving to God for the discoveries which ho has
made to us in his word of the goodness of his
nature.
We give thanks unto the God of gods, unto the
Lord of Lords, for his mercy endures for ever.*"
Thy goodness is thy glory, and it is for that which all
thy works do praise thee, and thy saints do bless thee.°
Thou art gracious and full of compassion, slow to
anger, and of great mercy ,^ and hast told us, that
thou dost not afflict willingly, or grieve the chil-
dren of men, but though thou cause grief, yet thou
wilt have compassion, according to the multitude
of thy mercies.p
Thou takest pleasure in them that fear thee, in
them that hope in thy mercy .1
(2.) For the many instances of goodness in
his providence relating to our bodies, and the
life that now is ; and this.
e Pa. cxlvil. I. d Ps. xcU. 1, 2. - P». cxlv. 1, % 7. f Ps.
exllx. 1, 2, 5. 6. f Ps. cxWi. 2. h Heb. xiii. 15. i Ps. 1. »//.
k Ps. Ixix. 31. I Isa. Ixiii. 7. m P». cxxxvi. 2, 3 n Ps. cxlv. 10.
»P». cxIf.8. p Lam. iil. 32, 33. q P». cxlvii. 11. rps. civ. 2.
Pa. xlx. 4, 6. t Matt. v.iS. u ps. viii. 3, 4. ▼ Eccl. xi. 7.
2v
With reference to all the creatures, and the
world of mankind in general.
. Thou hast stretched out the heavens like a cur-
tain,'' and in them thou hast set a tabernacle for the
sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his
chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a
race.* And thou causest thy sun to shine on the
evil and on the good, and sendest rain on the just
and on the unjust.*
When we consider the heavens, the work of thy
fingers, the sun, the moon, and the stars, which thou
hast ordained. Lord, what is man, that thou thus
visitest him." For truly the light is sweet, and a
pleasant thing it is for the eyes to bfhold the sun : ""
all the glory be to the Father of lights,* who com-
mandeth the morning, and causeth the day-spring
to know his place.^
Thou didst not leave thyself without witness
among the heathen, in that thou didst good, and
gavest them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons,
filling their hearts with food and gladness.7
Thou coverest the heavens with clouds, and pre-
parest rain for the earth, and makes t grass to grow
upon the mountains. Thou givest to the beast his
food, and to the young ravens which cry.'
Thou causest it to rain on the wilderness, where
there is no man, to satisfy the desolate and waste
ground.*
Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it, thou
greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is
full of water ; thou preparest them com when thou
hast so provided for it; thou waterest the ridges
thereof abundantly, thou settlest the furrows there-
of, thou makest it soft with showers, thou blessest
the springing thereof; thou crownest the year with
thy goodness, and thy paths drop fatness.**
Thou sendest the springs into the valleys which
run among the hills ; and they give drink to every
beast of the field ; and by them the fowls of the
heaven have their habitation, which sing among the
branches.^
Thou hast laid the foundations of the earth, that
it should not be removed for ever, and settest bounds
to the waters of the sea, that they turn not again to
cover the elirth ;*^ thou hast shut up the sea with
doors, and broken up for it thy decreed place, say-
ing. Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, here
shall thy proud waves be stayed.* And thou hast
made good what thou hast sworn, that the waters of
Noah shall no more go over the earth. ^
Thy covenant of the day and of the night is not
broken,* but still thou givest the sun for a light by
day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars
w Jam. i. 17. X Job xxxviii. 12. 7 Acts xiv. 17. ■ Ps. cxlvii.
8, 9. • Job xxxviii. 26. 27. b Pa. Ixv. 9—11. e Pa. civ. 10—12.
d Ps. civ. A, 9. • Job xxxviii. 8, 11. f In. liv. 9. g Jer.
xxxiii. 20.
I
658
THANKSGIVINGS FOR MERCV.
for a light by night,^ and art faithful to that cove-
nant of providence, that while the earth remains,
seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and
winter, day and night, shall not cease.t
The heaven, even the heavens are thine, but the
earth thou hast given to the children of men,^ and
thou hast put all things under their feet, and made
them to have dominion over the works of thy hands ;<
so that the fear of man and the dread of man is upon
every beast of the earth, and upon the fowl of the
air, and into his hand they are delivered,"' because
thou hast a favour to him, and thy delights were
with the sons of men."
Thou causestithe grass to grow for the cattle, and
herb for the service of man, that thou mayst bring
forth food out of the earth, wine that makes glad the
heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and
bread which strengthens man's heart.*
Thou givest to all life, and breath, and all things,p
and the earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy .^
All the creatures wait upon thee, that thou mayst
give them their meat in due season ; that thou givest
them they gather, thou openest thy hand, they are
filled with good : thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they
are created, thou renewest the face of the earth.
This thy glory shall endure for ever, and thou re-
joicest in these works.'
It is through thy goodness, O Lord, that as one
generation of mankind passeth away, another gene-
ration comes," and that thou bast not blotted out
the name of that corrupt and guilty race from under
heaven.^
(3.) With reference to us in particular ; we
must g^ve thanks that he has made us reason-
able creatures, capable of knowing, loving, serv-
ing, and enjoying him, and that he has not made
us as the beasts that perish.
We will praise thee, for we are fearfully and won-
derfully made, and that our souls, our noble part,
know right well ;" for what man knows the things of
a man, save the spirit of man which is in him t*
Thou hast made us of that rank of beings which
is little lower than the angels, and is crowned with
glory and honour ;^ for there is a spirit in man, and
the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them under-
standing,'' and the spirit of a man is the candle of
the Lord.y
Our bodies are capable of being the temples of
the Holy Ghost, and our souls of having the Spirit
of God dwell in them ; we therefore glorify thee
with our bodies and with our spirits which are
thine.*
' Thou, Lord, hast formed us for thyself, that we
might show forth thy praise.*
h Jer. xxxi. 35. i Gen. viii. 22. k Ps. cxv. 16. i Ps. vili. ft
m Gen. ix. 2 n Prov. vlii. 31. © Ps. civ. 14, 15. p Acti
xvii. 25. q Ps. cxix. 64. r Ps. civ. 27, 28. 30. 31. ■ Eccl. i. 4.
t Deut. xxix. 20. u Ps. cxxxix. 14. ▼ 1 Cor. ii. 11. w Ps.
viil. 5. » Job xxxli. 2. y Prov. xx. 27. « I Cor. vi. 10, 20.
[1.] We must give thanks for our preserva-
tion, that our lives are prolonged, and that tlw
use of our reason and understanding, our hnbs
and senses, are continued to us.
It was owing to thy good providence that we died
not from the womb, and did not g^ve up the ghoA
when we came out of the belly ; that the knees pre^
vented us, and the breasts that we should sack.^
Though we were called transg^ssors from' Dm
womb,' yet by thy power we have been bom from
the belly, and carried from the womb ;* and thoa
boldest our souls in life, and sufferest not our foot
to be moved.*
All our bones shall say. Lord, who is like anto
thee,^ for thou keepest all our bones, not one of then
is broken.*
We lay us down and sleep, for thou. Lord, makest
us to dwell in safety.^
Thou hast given thine angels a charge concemii^
us, to keep us in all our ways, to bear us up in their
hands, lest we dash our foot against a stone.* And
they are all ministering spirits, sent forth to ministef
for the good of them that shall be heirs of salvatioa.^
[2.] For signal recoveries from danger Ij
sickness or otherwise.
When perhaps there has been but a step betwea
us and death,* and we have received a sentence of
death within ourselves,*" and have been ready to saj,
in the cutting off of our days we should go to tk
gates of the grave, and were deprived of the residiK
of our years, yet thou hast in love to our souls d^
livered them from the pit of corruption, and cast aO
our sins behind thy back."
When the sorrows of death ha^e compassed ss,
and the pains of hell have got hold upon us, ve
have called upon the name of the Lord, and have
found, that gracious is the Lord, and righteous, yeit
our God is merciful ; we have been brought kw,
and he hath helped us, and hath delivered oar sooli
from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet ffOB
falling. We will therefore walk before the Loid is
the land of the living.**
[3.] For the supports and comforts of this
life, which have hitherto made the land of oar
pilgrimage easy and pleasant to us.
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with Ui
benefits, even the God of our salvation.^
Thou makest us to lie down in gnreen pastmes,
thou fcedest us beside the still waters ; tiiou pie-
parcst a table for us in the presence of our eneraiei;
thou anointest our head, and our cup runs over.*
It may be we were sent forth without purse or
scrip, but lacked we any thing ? Nothing, Lord.'
The candle of God hath shined upon our head<
A Isa. xliii. 2r b Job iii. II.IS. • IsLxlvilUS. TH
xlvi. 3. • Ps. Izvi. 9. f Ps. xxzv. 10. g p^ zxxhr. Ml
h Ps. iii. 5. i Ps. xci. 11, is. k Heb. L 14. i 1 San. sz.X
m 2 Cor. i. 9. B Isa. xxxviii. 10^17. • Pa. czfL3~€,l^*
P Ps. IxTiii. 10. q Ps. xxiil. 9, d^ t Lake xxli. 3Sl
THANKSGIVINGS FOR MERCY.
659
-and by his light we have walked through darkness,
and the secret of God has been in our tabernacle.*
Thou hast given us all things richly to enjoy/ and
into our hands hast brought plentifully.
Many a time we have eaten and been filled, and
have delighted ourselves with thy great goodness."
When we remember all the way which tlie Lord
pnr God hath led us for so many years in this wil-
derness,^ we must here set up a stone and call it
Ebenezer^ for hitherto the Lord hath helped us.^
[4.] For success in our callings and affairs,
comfort in relations, and comfortable places of
abode.
It is God that girdeth us with strength, and maketh
oar way perfect,' that hath blessed the work of our
hands,^ and it may be so, that though our beginning
was small, yet our latter end hath gpreatly increased.*
Our houses have been safe from fear, and there
hath been no rod of God upon us,* so that the voice
of rejoicing and salvation hath been in our taberna-
cle ^ from day to day.
With our staff it may be we have passed over this
Jordan, and now we are become two bands f and it
is God that setteth the solitary in families.*^
If we have lived joyfully* with our relations, and
they have been to us as the loving hind and as the
pleasant roe,^ we must give thee thanks for it, for
every creature b that to us, and no more, than thou
makest it to be.
[5.] For our share in the public plenty, peace,
and tranquillity.
When we have eaten and are full, we have reason
to bless thee for the land which thou hast given as,>
a land which the eyes of the Lord our God are
always upon, from the beginning of the year even to
the end of the year.**
Thou makest peace in our borders, and fillest us
with the finest of the wheat :^ we are delivered from
the noise of archers in the place of drawing water ;
there therefore will we rehearse the righteous acts
of the Lord, even his righteous acts towards the in-
habitants of his villages.^
We thank thee that the powers that are set over
us are ministers of God to us for good, that they seek
the welfare of our people, speaking peace to all their
seed J
(4.) The goodness of his grace relating to our
souls, and the life that is to come.
But especially blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ *"
[I.] We must give thanks for his gracious
design and contrivance of man's redemption
• Job xzix. 3, 4. t I TinL vi. 17. u Neb. ix. 35. t Deut.
▼iiL S. w 1 Sam. vii. 12. « Ps. xviii. 32. j Job i. 10. ■ Job
vta. 7. m Job xxi. 9. \ Ps. cxviii. 15. « Gen. xxxii. 10.
A Pi. Ixviii. 6. • Eccl. ix. 9. r Prov. v. 19. f Deut viii. 10.
k Deut xi. IS. i Pt. cxlvii. 14. k Judges v. 11. i Esth. x. 3.
2 V 2
and salvation, when he was lost and undone by
sin.
O how wonderfully did the kindness and love of
God our Saviour towards man appear, not by any
works of righteousness which we had done, but ac-
cording to his mercy he saved U8.° We had destroy*
ed ourselves, but in thee, and thee only, was our
help.®
When we were cast out in the open field, and no
eye pitied us, thou sawest us polluted in our own
blood, and thou saidst unto us. Live ; yea, thou
saidst unto us, Live ; and the time was a time of
love.p
When the redemption of the soul was so precari-
ous, as that it must have ceased for ever, and no man
could by any means redeem his brother, or g^ve to
God a ransom for him,i th'en thou wast pleased to
find a ransom,r that we might be delivered from
going down to the pit.
When we must needs die, and were as water spilt
on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again,
then didst thou devise means that the banished
might not be for ever expelled from thee.*
When thou sparcdst not the angels that sinned, but
didst cast them down to hell ;' thou saidst concern-
ing the race of nmnkind, Destroy it not, for a bless-
ing is in it."
Herein appears the wisdom of God in a mystery,
even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before
the world for our glory.*
[2.] For the eternal purposes and counsels of
God concerning man's, redemption.
We are bound to give thanks always to thee, O
God, because thou hast from the beginning chosen
some to salvation through sanctification of the Spi-
rit :^ that there is a remnant according to the election
of grace,* whom God hath chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world, that they should be
holy and without blame before thee in love, hav-
ing predestinated them to the adoption of children,
by Jesus Christ, unto thyself, according to the good
pleasure of thy will, to the praise of the glory of thy
g^ce.^
Thine they were, and thou g^vest them to Christ,*
and this is thy will, that of all that thou hast given
him he should lose nothing, but should raise it up at
the last day.'
[3.] For the appointing of the Redeemer, and
God's gracious condescension to deal with men
upon new terms, receding from the demands of
the broken covenant of innocency.
We bless thee that when sacrifice and offerings
thou wouldst not, and in them hadst no plea.<iure.
m Epb. i. 3. n Tit Hi. 4, 5. o Hos. xiii. 9. p Ezek. xvi. 5. 6, a
q Ps. xUx. 7, a r Job xxxli. S4. • SSaoD. xiv. 14. t 2 Pet.
ii. 4. a Isa. Ixv. 8. V 1 Cor. ii. 7. w 2 Theas. ii. 13. > Rom.
xi. .V r Epb. i- 4—6. ■ John xvii. 6. • John vi. 30.
6G0
THANKSGIVINGS FOR MERCY.
that then the eternal Son of God said, Lo, I come to
do thy will, O God,*" and a body hast thou prepared
me : and that, as in the volume of the book it was
written of him, he did delight to do thy will, O God,
yea, thy law was within his heart.'
Thou hast laid help upon one that is mighty, one
chosen out of the people. Thou hast found David
thy servant, with tliy holy oil thou hast anointed
him, even with the oil of gladness above his fellows,
and didst promise that with him thy hand should be
established, and thy arm should strengthen him,
and that thou wouldst make him thy first-bom,
higher than the kings of the earth.**
We bless thee that the Father now judgeth no
man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son ;
that as he has life in himself, so he hath given to
the Son to have life in himself, and hath given
him authority to execute judgment also, because he
is the Son of. man :* that the Father loveth the Son,
and hath given all things into his hand / and that
the counsel of peace is between them both.'
That he is thy servant, whom thou dost uphold ;
thine elect, in whom thy soul delighteth ;^ thy be-
loved Son, in whom thou art well pleased;* that
thou hast given him for a covenant of the people, i'
and that through him we are not mider the law, but
under grace. ^
That God so loved the world, as to g^ve his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life."'
[4.] For the early and ancient indications of
the gracious design concerning fallen man.
We bless thee, that as soon as ever man had sin-
ned, it was graciously promised, that the seed of the
woman should break the serpent's head ;** and that
in the Old-Testament sacrifices Jesus Christ was the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
And that by faith the elders, though they received
not the promise, yet obtained a good report, for they
obtained witness that they were righteous.^
We bless thee for the promise made to Abraham,
that in his seed all the families of the earth should
be blessed ;i and to Jacob, that the Shiloh should
come, and to him should the gathering of the people
be ;■* and that the patriarchs rejoiced to see Christ's
day, and they saw it and were glad.*
[5.] For the many glorious instances of God's
favour to the Old-Testament church.
We adore that wisdom, peace, and goodness with
which thou brougfatcst the vine out of Egypt, didst
cast out the heathen and plant it ; thou preparedst
room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root,
and it filled the land.*
b Heb X. 5-7. t Ps. xl. 7, 8. d Pa. Ixxxix. 19—21. 27.
• John V. 22, 26, 27. ( John iii. 35. g Zech. vi. 13. h ba.
xlii. 1. i Matt. xvii. 5. k Isa. xlix. 8. i Rom. vi. 14.
m John iii. 16. n Gen. iii. 15. o Rev. xiii, 8. p Heb. xi.
2, 4, 30. q Gen. xii. 3. r Gen. xlix. 10. • John yiii. 56.
And they got not the land in possession by tiidr
own sword, neither did their own arm save thm,
but thy right hand, thine arm, and the light of tliy
countenance, because thou badst a favour to them."
We bless thee, that to the Jews were committed
the oracles of God,"" that they had the adoptioD, the
glory and the covenants, the giving^ of the law, and
the service of God and the promises:^ and that
there did not fail one word of all thy good promise,
which thou promisedst by the hand of Moses tby
servant*
We bless thee for all which thoa didst at sundry
times, and in divers manners, speak in time past
unto the fathers by the prophets,^ those holy men of
God, who spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost," and prophesied of the g^ce that should come
unto us, testifying before-hand the suffering of
Christ, and the glory that should follow, and that
not to themselves only but to us they ministered
those great things, things which the angels th«ii-
selvcs desire to look into.*
And especially we bless thee, that thoa hast pro-
vided some better things for us, that they without
us should not he made perfect.^
[6.] For the wonderful and mysterious incar-
nation of the Son of God, and his coming into
the world.
We bless thee, that when the fulness of time was
come, thou didst send forth thy Son, made of s
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law, that we might receive the adop-
tion of sons.<^
That the Eternal Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us, and there were those who saw his glory,
the glory of the only-begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth.^ And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness, that God was manifested
in the flesh.
We bless thee, that to this end he was bom, and
for this cause he came into the world, that he migbt
bear witness of the truth,* and we believe, and are
sure, that he is that Christ, the Son of the lifin;
God ; ^ that it is he that should come, and we are to
look for no other.'
We bless thee, that the Son of man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost ;^ that he is
come that we might have life, and that we miglit
have it more abundantly,! and that for this purpose
the Son of God was manifested, that he might de-
stroy the works of the devil.''
Lord, we receive it as a faithful sajring, and well
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, even the chief.*
t Ps. Ixxx. 8, 9. « Ps. xliv. 3. ▼ Rom. iii. 2. w RooLix. t
s I Kings viii. 56. y Heb. i. 1. ■ 2 Pet i SI. a I Pet i.
10-12. b Heb. xi. 40. e Gal. iv. 4, &. a John i M.
• John xviii. 37. f John vi. 00. r Matt. xi. 3. h Lake ni.
10. i John X. 10. k I John iii. 8. i I Tiin. i. law
THANKSGIVINGS FOR MERCY.
aei
We bless thee, that forasmuch as the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself like-
wise took part of the same : that he took not on him
the nature of angels, but our nature, and was in all
things made like unto his brethren, that he might be
a merciful and faithful High Priest, in things per-
taining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins
of the people ; "* and that he is not ashamed to call
them brethren.
And that the first-begotten was brought into the
world with a charge given to all the angels of God
to worship him.»
[7.] For God's gracious owning of him in his
undertaking, and in the carrying of it on.
We bless thee, that thou wast in Christ reconcil-
ing the world to thyself, not imputing their tres-
passes unto them, and that thou hast committed
unto us the word of reconciliation.**
That thou hast thyself given him for a witness to
the people, a leader and commander to the people.i*
That he was sanctified and sealed, and sent into the
world, 1 and that the Father which sent him did not
leave him alone, for he always did those things that
pleased him.'
Glory be to God in the highest, for in and through
Jesus Christ there is on earth peace, and good will
towards men.*
In this was manifested the love of God towards
US, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into
the world, that we might live through him.^
We thank thee for the power thou hast given him
over all flesh, tliat he should give eternal life to as
many as were given him."
[8.] For his holy life, his excellent doctrine,
and the glorious miracles he wrought to confirm
his doctrine.
We bless thee for the assurance we Lave, that he
is a teacher come from God, since no man can do
those miracles which he did, except God were with
him.^
That thou hast in these last days spoken unto us
by thy Son,* whose doctrine was not his, but his
that sent him," and he spake as one having autho-
rity ; ' and that we are encouraged to come and
learn of him, because he is meek and lowly in heart,
and in learning of him we shall find rest to our
flouls.'
We bless thee, that he has left us an example,
that we should follow his steps, in that he did no
sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, and when
he was reviled he reviled not again ;« and his meat
and drink was to do the will of his Father ;^ in that
he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separated
m Heb. ii. II, 14, 16, 17. n Heb. 1.6. o 2 Cor. v. 29. p Isa.
It. 4. q John x. 36. r John viii. 10. • Luke ii. U.
t 1 John iv. 9. u John xTii. 2. ▼ John iii. 2. « Heb. i. 2.
s John Yii. 16. r Matt. vii. 29. * Matt. xi. 39. » 1 Pet. ii.
«l-23. b John iv. 34. e Heb. vii 26. d I Pet. iv. i.
from sinners.^ O that we may be armed with the
same mind,^ and that as he was, so we may be, in
this world ;* and that we may so walk even as he
walked.
We bless thee, that the works which he did, the
same bore witness of him, that the Father had sent
him,^ that by his power the blind received their
sight, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed,
the deaf heard, the dead were raised up, and the
poor had the gospel preached to them,* and even
the winds and the sea obeyed him,!* for which we
glorify the God of Israel. Doubtless this was the
Son of God.*
[9.] For the great encouragements Christ
gave to poor sinners to come to him.
We bless thee, that Jesus Christ came to call, not
the righteous, but sinners (such as we are) to re-
pentance, and had power on earth to forgive sin ;^
that he came to save his people from their sins ;'
and is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of
the world,^ and that he is (to his honour, and not
to his reproach) a friend to publicans and sinners.*
We thank thee for the gracious invitation he gave
to those who are weary and heavy laden to come to
him for rest :<> and for the assurance he has given,
that whosoever comes unto him, he will in no wise
cast him out.v
That he made a gracious offer, that whosoever
thirsts might come unto him and drink.^i
[10.] For the full satisfaction which be made
to the justice of God for the sin of man, by the
blood of his cross, for the purchases, victories,
and triumphs of the cross, and for all the pre-
cious benefits which flow to us from the dying of
our Lord Jesus.
Herein indeed God commendeth his love to us,
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us,^ that we might be reconciled to him by the death
of his Son. Herein is love, not that we loved God,
but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the pro-
pitiation for our sins/ and not for ours only, but for
the sins of the whole world ;' that he tasted death
for every man,** that through death he might de-
stroy him that had the power of death, that is, the
devil.
We bless thee, that by one oflTering he hath per-
fected for ever them that are sanctified/ that he has
finished transgression, made an end of sin, made
reconciliation for iniquity, and hath brought in an
everlasting righteousness.*
That he has redeemed us from the curse of the
law, by being made a curse for us.^
That what the law could not do in that it was
• 1 John iv. 17. f John v. 36. rMatt xi 5. . h Matt viii. 27.
1 Matt, xxvii. 64. k Matt Ix. 6, 13. i Matt i. 21. m John
i. 29. n Matt xi. 19. • Matt xi. SA. p John vi. 87.
q John vii. .tt. r Rom. v. 8. • 1 John iv. 10. t i John ii. 2.
u Heb ii. 9. 14. v Heb. x 14. w Dan. ix. 24. x Gal iii. 13.
662
THANKSGIVINGS FOR MERCY.
weak through the flesh, God hath done by sending^
his own Son in the Jikeness of sinful flesh, who by a
sacrifice for sin condemned sin in the flcshJ
That he was wounded for our transgressions, and
bruised for our iniquities, and that the chastisement
of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we
are healed: and that the Lord having laid upon
him the iniquity of us all, it pleased the Lord to
bruise him and put him to g^ef.'
That appearing to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself, he did by the eternal Spirit offer himself
without spot unto God, and by his own blood enter-
ed once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us.*
That he hath spoiled principalities and powers,
and made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in his cross, and hath blotted out the hand-
writing of ordinances which was against as, which
was contrary to us, taking it out of the way, by nail-
ing it to his cross>
That he is our peace, who having broken down
the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gen-
tile, hath made himself of twain one new man, hath
reconciled both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby.^
That he hath loved us, and washed as from our
sins in his own blood, and hath made us unto oar
God kings and priests.*^
O the height, and depth, and length, and breadth
of that love of Christ which passeth knowledge ! *
that great love wherewith he loved us ! '
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive
power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and
honour, and glory, and blessing ; for he was slain,
and hath redeemed us to God by his blood.v
[II.] For his resurrection from the dead on
the third day.
We thank thee, that as he was delivered for our
offences, so he rose again for our justification,** and
was declared to be the Son of God with power, by
the resurrection from the dead.*
That though he was dead, yet he is alive, and
lives for evermore, and hath the keys of hell and
death ; *^ and being raised from the dead, he dies no
more, death hath no more dominion over him.*
That now is Christ risen from the dead, and is be-
come the first-fruits of them that slept, that as in
Adam all died, so in Christ all might be made alive,"*
and every one in his own order.
That God suffered not his Holy One to see cor-
ruption, but loosed the pains of death, because it
was impossible he should be holden of them, and
so declared to all the house of Israel, that that
J Rom. viii. 3. « Isa. liii. 5, 6, lo. » Heb. ix. 13. b Col. ii
U, 15. c Eph. li. 14—16. d Rev. i. i, c. « Eph. iii. 19.
f Eph. ii. 4. fr Rev. v. 9, 12. h Rom. iv. 35. i Rom. i. 4.
k Rev. i. 18. 1 Rom. vi. 9. m I Cor. xv. 3J, 22. a Acts ii.
34, 31, 3a. o Rom. ziv. 9. p 1 Thess. v. lo. q John xx. 17 I
same Jesus whom they crucified is both Lord ni
Christ"
And that for this end Christ both died, and me,
and revived, that he might be Lord both of thednd
and the living," and that whether we wake orikep^
we might live together with him.>*
[12.] For his ascension into heaven, asd Ui
sitting at God's right hand there.
We bless thee, that our Lord Jesus is ascended H
his Father and our Father, to his God and oor 6od;<
is ascended up on high, having^ led captivity captin,
and hath received gifts for men, yea, eren for tiiei»
bellious also, that the Lord God might dwdl amoai
them/
That as the forerunner he is for us entered,* »
tered into heaven itself, now to appear in the preieBte
of God for us,* a Lamb as it had been slain itandi^
in the midst of the throne."
That he is set on the right hand of the throne of
the Majesty in the heavens,^ angels, and anthoiitici,
and powers, being made subject to him.*
That he is gone before to prepare a place for m
in his Father's house, where there are many mansivNii;
and though whither he is gone we cannot follow liin
now, yet we hope to follow him hereafter,* wfaes k
shall come again to receive us to himself, that vkre
he is, there we may be also.^
[13.] For the intercession which he everlifcs
to make in the virtue of his satisfaction.
We thank thee, that having borne the sins dmuift
he makes intercession for transgressors ; * and pnys
not for those only that were given him when be wis
upon earth, but for all that shall believe on Um
through their word ; that they all may be one.'
That we have an advocate with the Father, evca
Jesus Christ the righteous,!* who is therefore aMe It
save to the uttermost all those that come to God*ist
Father, by him as Mediator, seeing be ever fivif
making intercession.*
That we have a Hig^ Priest taken from among mes,
and ordained for men in things pertaining to God,
that he may offer both gifts and sacrifice for sin, wh»
can have compassion on the ignorant, and on tboi
that are out of the way, and that he is become fte
author of eternal salvation to all them that okr
him.*
[14.] For the dominion and sovereignty tf
which the Redeemer is exalted.
We thank thee, that because our Lord Jesas bofl'
bled himself, and became obedient unto death, tftt
the death of the cross, therefore God hath higUy
exalted him, and given him a name above enrj
name, that at the name of Jesns every knee might
r Ps. Uxviii. ]& tHeb-vi. 90. iHeb.iz.M. %1Ln.rl
T Heb. viii. 1. « 1 Pet itt. 93. s John xiii. 38. j John vr.
3, 3. I Isa. liii. 19. • Jobn xvii. so, 9t. k 1 Jolui Ii >'
c Heb. vii. 25. d Heb. v. I, 9, 9.
THANKSGIVINGS FOR MERCY.
663
bow,* and every tongCie confess (as we do at this
time) that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God
the Father.
That all power is given unto him both in heaven
and on earth/ that thou hast set him over the works
of thy hands, and hast put all things in subjection
under his feet, and so hast crowned him with glory
and honour.f
That he is King of kings, and Lord of lords,^ that
the Ancient of days has g^ven him dominion and
glory, and a kingdom, an everlasting dominion, and
a kingdom which shall not be destroyed.^
That the government is upon his shoulders, and
that bis name is called Wonderful, Counsellor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the
Prince of peace ; and of the increase of his govern-
ment and peace there shall be no end>
That thou hast set him as King upon thy holy hill
of Zion,^ and that be shall reign over the bouse of
Jacob for ever,°> shall reign till he has put down all
opposing rule, principality, and power, till all bis
enemies are made his footstool, and then he shall
deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father,
that God may be all in all."
[15.] For the assurance we have of his second
coming to judge the world.
We bless thee, that thou hast appointed a day in
vhich thou wilt judge the world in righteousness, by
that man whom thou hast ordained, whereof thou
bast given assurance unto all men, in that thou bast
raised him from the dead.**
That in that day the Lord Jesus shall be revealed
from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire,
taking vengeance on them that know not God, and
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ :
and shall come to be glorified in his saints, and ad-
mired by all them that believe ;p for them that sleep
in Jesus he will bring with him."!
That he shall then send forth his angels to gather
out of his kingdom all things (hat offend, and them
which do iniquity,' and to gather together his elect
from the four winds,* and then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
And we then, according to thy promise, look for
new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwells right-
eousness : Lord, grant that, seeing we expect such
things, we may give diligence to be found of him in
peace, without spot, and blameless:' and then,
Com^, Lord Jesus, come quickly."
[16.] For the sending of the Holy Spirit to
supply the want of Christ's bodily presence,
to carry on his undertaking, and to prepare
things for his second coming.
e Pbil. ii. 8-10. f Matt xxviii. la s Heb. ii. 7-9. h Rev.
xix. 16. i Dan. ▼ii. U. k Isa. ix. 6,7. i P&ii. 6. m Luke
i. 33. n 1 Cor. XV. S4. 25, 28. o Acts xvii. 31. p 2 Tbeai. i.
7. 8, 10. q 1 Thess. iv. 14. r Matt. xiii. 41. • Matt xxiv. 31.
t s Pet iii. 13, 14. n Rev. xxil 20. r John xiv. 16, 17. w John
We bless thee, that when our Lord Jesus went
away, he sent us another Comforter to abide with us
for ever, even the Spirit of truth,'' who shall glorify
the Son, for he shall take of bis and shall show it
unto us.*
That being by the right hand of God exalted, and
having received of the Father the promise of the
Holy Ghost, ■ he poured it forth as rivers of living
water.y
Blessed be God for the signs and wonders, and
divers miracles and g^fts, of the Holy Ghost, with
which God bare witness to the great salvation."
And blessed be God for the promise, that as earthly
parents, though evil, know how to give good gifts to
their children, so our heavenly Father will give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask him,* that Holy Spirit
of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession.^
[17.] For the covenant of grace made with
us in Jesus Christ, and all the exceeding great
and precious privileges of that covenant, and
for the seals of it.
We thank thee, that in Jesus Christ thou hast
made an everlasting covenant with us, even the sure
mercies of David,^ and that though the mountains
may depart, and the hills be removed, yet this cove-
nant of thy peace shall never be removed.**
That thou hast g^ven unto us exceeding great and
precious promises, that by these we might be par-
takers of a divine nature:* and that Jesus Christ is
the Mediator of this better covenant, which is esta-
blished upon better promises.^
That though thou chasten our transgression with
the rod, and our iniquity with stripes, yet thy loving-
kindness thou wilt not utterly taCke away, nor
cause thy faithfulness to fail ; thy covenant thou wilt
not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of thy
lips.v
That being willing more abundantly to show to
the heirs of promise the immutability of thy counsel,
thou hast confirmed it by an oath, that by two immut-
able things, in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled
for refuge to lay hold on tlie hope set before us.^
That baptism is appointed to be a seal of the
righteousness which is by faith,* as circumcision
was : that it assures us of the remission of sins,
and the gift of the Holy Ghost ; and that this pro-
mise is to us and our children.*^ And that the cup
in the Lord's supper is the blood of the New Testa-
ment, which was shed for many, for the remission
of sins.i
[18.] For the writing of the Scriptures^ and
■■■■ .1.--. .. ... p,
xvi. 14. z Acts. ii. 33. J John vii. 38. i Heb. ii. 4. a Luke
xi. 13. b Eph. i. 13, 14. c Isa. Iv.3. d ha. liv. lo. e 2 Pet.
i. 4. f Heb. viii. 6. f Ps. Ixxxix. 32—34. h Heb. vi. 17, la
i Roro.iv. II. k Actsii. 38, 30. i Matt. xxvi. 28.
GG4
THANKSGIVINGS FOR MERCY.
the preserving of them pure and entire to our
day.
We thank thee, that we have the Scriptures to
search, and that in them we have eternal life, and
that they testify of Christ," and that all Scripture is
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruc-
tion in righteousness.'*
That whatsoever things were written afore-time,
were ^written for our learning, that we through
patience and comfort of the Scripture might have
hope:^ and that we have this most sure word of
prophesy, as a light shining in a dark place.p
That the vision is not become to us as the words
of a book that is sealed,^ but that we hear in our
own tongue the wonderful works of God/ *
We thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that the things which were hid from the wise
and prudent, and which many prophets and kings
desired to see, and might not,* are revealed to us
babes ; even so, Father, for so it seemed good in
thy sight.
[19.] For the institution of ordinances, and
particularly that of the ministry.
We thank thee, that thou hast not only showed thy
word unto Jacob, but thy statutes and judgments
unto Israel, unto us : Thou hast not dealt so with
other nations, and as for thy judgments they have
not known them.'
That the tabernacle of God is with men, and he
will dwell with them," and that he has set his sanc-
tuary in the midst of them for evermore,* and there
will meet the children of Israel.*
We thank thee, that thou hast made known unto
us thy holy sabbaths ;' and that still there remains
the keeping of a sabbath to the people of God.^
And that when the Lord Jesus ascended up on
high, he gave gifts unto men, not only prophets,
apostles, and evangelists, but pastors and teachers,
for the perfecting of the saints,* for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till
we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ ; ' and that while they teach us to observe all
things which Christ hath commanded, he has pro-
mised to be witli them always, even unto the end of
the world.*
[20.] For the planting of the Christian religion
in the world, and the setting up of the gospel-
church, notwithstanding all the oppositions of
the powers of darkness.
We thank thee, that the preaching of Jesus Christ
in John V. 39. n 2 Tim iii. 16. o Rom. xv. 4. p 2 Pet. i. 19.
q Isa xxix. II. r Acts ii. II. ■ Luke x. 21, 24. t Pa. cxlvii.
19, 20. o Rev. xxi. 3. V Ezra xxxvii. 26. w Exod. xxix. 43.
X Neh. ix. 14. r Heb. iv. 9. r Eph. iv. 8, 11—13. • Matt,
xxviii. 20. b Rom. xvl. 25, 26. c 2 Cor. x. 4. d Mark xvi. 20.
according to the conunandmcDt of the everlastiB(
God, and the gospel which was made known to ifi
nations for the obedience of faith,^ was nigiitT,
through God, to the palling down of strong boldsf
that the Lord wrought with it, and confinned fk
word by signs following;*' so that Satan fell ■
lightning from heaven.*
That though the gospel was preached in mA
contention,^ yet it grew and preTailed migfatilj^
and multitudes turned to God from idols, to lenc
the living and true God,^ and to wait for his S«
from heaven.
Now came salvation and strength, and the kng-
dom of our God, and the power of his Christ:' vi
the exalted Redeemer rode forth with his bow, uA
with his crown, conquering, and to conquer,*^ nd
nations were born at once.*
[21.] For the preservation of Christianitjii
the world unto this day.
We bless thee, that though the enemies of Imd
have afllicted them from their youth up, have mtif
a time afflicted them, yet they have not prevailed
against them ; though the ploaghers have ploagkd
on their back, yet the righteous Lord has cut asaider
the cords of the wicked."
That Jesus Christ has built his charch npoe t
rock, which the gates of hell cannot preTail agiiiui'
but his seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as
the days of heaven.<>
[22.] For the martyrs and confessors, fte
lights of the church, and the good examples of
those who are gone before us to heaven.
We bless thee for all those who have been enabled
to approve themselves to God in mach patience, la
afflictions, in necessities, in distrc^sses,^ who whea
they have been brought before gOTemors and kings
for Christ's sake, it has turned to them for a testi-
mony, and God has given them a month and wisdoo,
which all their adversaries were not able to gaiasa?
or resist.*»
That those who for Christ's sake were killed all
the day long, and accounted as sheep for tte
slaughter, yet in all these things were more tltti
conquerors, through him that loved us.'
That they overcame the accuser of the brethren 1?
the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their tes-
timony, and by not loving their lives unto the death.'
We bless thee for the cloud of witnesses with whieh
we are compassed about,* for the footsteps of tke
flock," for the elders that have obtained a good r^
port,^ and are now, through faith and patience, m-
heriting the promises.* Lord, give us to follow then,
as they followed Christ.*
e Luke X. 18. f 1 Thess. i!. 2. g Actsxix. 20. k 1 Tboii^li
I Rev. xii. 10. k Rev. vi. 2. i Isa. Ixvi. 8. mPa-cxxIx-l-*
B Matt. xvi. 18. o Ps Ixxxix. 29. f 3 Ccyr. vi. 4. s LaJtird.
12, 13. 15. r Rom. viii. 36, 37. t Rev. xit II. t Hekxii. L
u Cant. i. 8. ▼ Heb. ix. 3. w Heb. vi. li. x i Cor. & 1*
THANKSGIVINGS FOR MERCY.
e66
[23.] For the commanion of saints, that spi-
ritaal commanion which we have in faith, and
hope, and holy love, and in prayers and praises
with all good Christians.
We hless thee, that if we walk in the light, we
have fellowship one with another,^ even with all that
in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our
liord, both theirs and ours.'
That we, being many, are one bread and one body,*
and ihat though there are diversities of gifts, and ad-
ministrations, and operations, yet there is the same
Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God, which
worketh all in all.**
We thank thee, that all the children of God which
were scattered abroad <= are united in him who is the
head of the body, the church ;^ so that they are all
our brethren and companions in tribulation, and in
the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.*
[24.] For the prospect and hope of eternal
life, when time and days shall be no more.
We thank thee for the crown of life which the
Lord hath promised to them that love him -J the in-
heritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth
not away, reserved in heaven for us.
That having here no continuing city,f we are en-
couraged to seek the better country, that is, the hea-
venly, the city that hath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God.^
That we are in hope of eternal life, which God that
cannot lie, hath promised ;' and that all true be-
lievers through grace have eternal life abiding in
them.*^
(5.) We must give God thanks for the spiri-
tual mercies bestowed upon us in particular,
especially if we are called with an effectual
call, and have a good work of grace begun in us.
[1.] We must bless God for the strivings of
bis Spirit with us, and the admonitions and
checks of our own consciences.
We bless thee, that thou hast not given us over to
a reprobate mind,i that our consciences are not
seared,"* that thou hast not said, concerning us, they
are joined to idols, let them alone,** but that thy
Spirit is yet striving with us.*^
We thank thee for the work of the law written in
our hearts, our own consciences also bearing witness,
and our own thoughts between themselves accusing
or excusing one another.?
[2.] We must bless God if there be a saving
change wrought in us by his blessed Spirit
And has God, by his grace, translated us out of
the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his
dear Son V^ Has be called us into the fellowship of
J 1 John 1. 7. si Cor. i. 2, » 1 Cor. x. 17. » 1 Cor.
adl. 4—6. c John xi. 52. d Col. i. 18. • Rev. i. 9. f James
i. 12. r Heb. xiii. 14. h Heb. xi. lo. 16. i Tit i. 3.
k I John V. 13. I Rom. i. 28. ml Tim. iv. 2. b Ho«. iv. 17.
• Gen. vi. a p Rom. ii. 15. q Col. i. 13. r i Cor. i. 9.
Jesus Christ,' and made us nigh by his blood, who
by nature were afar off > Not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but unto thy name, give glory.*
We give thanks to God always for those to whom
the gospel is come, not in word only, but in power,
and in tb% Holy Ghost, and in much assurance."*
Thou hast loved us with an everlasting love, and
therefore with loving-kindness thou hast drawn us,^
drawn us with the cords of a man, and the bands of
love.''
When the strongman armed kept his palace in our
hearts, and his goods were in peace, it was a stronger
than he that came upon him, and took from him
all his armour wherein he trusted, and divided the
spoil.'
[3.] We must give thanks for the remission
of our sins, and the peace of our consciences.
We bless thee for the redemption we have through
Christ's blood, even the forgiveness of sins, accord-
ing to the riches of thy grace, wherein^ou hast
abounded towards us.r
That thou hast forgiven all our iniquities, and
healed all our diseases;* and hast in love to our
souls delivered them from the pit of corruption ; for
thou hast cast all our sins behind thy back.*
When thou broughtest us into the wilderness, yet
there thou spakest comfortably to us, and gavest us
our vineyards from thence ; and the valley of Achor
for a door of hope.**
[4.] For the powerful influences of the divine
grace, to sanctify and preserve us, to prevent
our falling into sin, and to strengthen us in
doing our duty.
Thou hast not quenched the smoking flax, nor
broke the bruised reed,c nor despised the day of
small things,** but having obtained help of God we
continue hitherto.*
In the day when we cried thou hast answered us,
and hast strengthened us with strength in our
souls.'
We have been continually with thee ; thou hast
holden us by the right hand, when our feet were
almost gone, and our steps had well nigh slipped.i^
We have reason never to forget thy precepts, for
by them thou hast quickened us ; and unless thy
law had been our delight, we should many a time
have perished in our afllictions ;'^ for thy statutes
have been our songs in the house of our pilgrimage.
Unless the Lord had been our help, our souls had
almost dwelt in silence: but when we said. Our foot
slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held us up : and in the
multitude of our thoughts within us, thy comforts
have been the delight of our souls.*
• Eph. ii. 13. t Ps. cxv. 1. « 1 Thesft. i. 2, 5. ▼ Jer. xxxi. 3.
w Hos. xi. 4. X Luke xi. 21. 22. r Eph. i. 7. 8. i Ps ciii. 3.
A Isa. xxxviii. 17. b Hos. ii. 14, 15. c Matt. xii. 90. 4 Zecb.
iv. 10. o ^cxs xxvl. 22. f Ps. cxxxviii. 3. t Ps. IxxUi. 9.
b Pa cxix. 92. 93. i Ps xdv. 17-19.
666
INTERCESSION FOR OTHERS.
[5.] For sweet communion with God in holy or-
dinances, aad the communications of his favour.
We have been abundantly satisfied with the fat-
ness of thy house, and thou hast made us drink of
the river of thy pleasures : for with thee is the foun-
tain of life, in thy light shall we see light.''
Thou hast brought us to thy mountain, and made
us joyful in thy house of prayer,' and we have found
it good for us to draw near to God."*
We have had reason to say, A day in thy courts
is better than a thousand, and it is better to be door-
keepers in the house of our God, than to dwell in
the tents of wickedness ; for the Lord God is a sun
and shield, he will give grace and glory, and no good
thing will we withhold from them that walk upright-
ly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trust-
eth in thee."
We have sitten down under thy shadow with de-
light, and thy fruit hath been sweet unto our taste ;
thou hast brought us into the banqueting house, and
thy banner over us has been love.**
[6.] For gracious answers to our prayers.
We have reason to love thee, O Lord, because
thou hast heard the voice of our supplications, and
because thou hast inclined thine ear unto us, we will
therefore call upon thee as long as we live.^
Out of the depths have we cried unto thee, O Lord,*i
and thou hast heard our vows, and given us the
heritage of those that fear thy name.'
Nay, before we have called thou hast answered,
and while we have been yet speaking, thou hast
heard," and hast said. Here I am,^ and hast been
nigh unto us in all that which we call upon thee for."
Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble,
thou wilt prepare their heart, and cause thine ear to
hear.''
Blessed be God, who hath not turned away our
prayer, or his mercy from us,* for we have prayed
and have gone away, and our countenances have been
no more sad/
[7.] For support under our afflictions, and
spiritual benefit and advantage by them.
Thou hast comforted us in all our tribulation,^
hast considered our trouble, and known our souls in
adversity, and showed us thy marvellous kindness,
as in a strong city.*
When afnictions have abounded, consolations
have much more abounded.*
Though no affliction, for the present, hath been
joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterward it hath
yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness, and
hath proved to be for our profit, that we might be
partakers of thy holiness.**
Wc have had reason to say, that it was good for
k P8. xxxvi. 8, 9. I laa. Ivi. 7.
Ixxxiv. 10-12. o Caut. ii. 3, 4.
cxxx. 1. T Ps. Ixi. 5. • Isa. Ixv. 23.
iv. 7. V l*s X. 17. w Ph. Ixvi. 20.
m Ps. Ixxiii. 28.
P Ps. cxvi. 1, 2.
t Isa. Iviii. 9.
X 1 Sam. i. 18.
» Ps.
9 Ps
« Deut.
r 2 Cor.
US we were afflicted, that we might learn tky
mandments ; for before we were afflicted we vett
astray, but afterwards have kept thy word.*
It has been but for a season, and when there wts
need, that we were in heaviness, through maniMd
temptations : and we beg, that all the trials of on
faith may be found unto praise, and hoDoar, aid
glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom baviig
not seen we love, in whom, though now we see lu
not, yet believing, we rejoice, with joy anspeakaUt
and full of glory ; and are longing to receive tk
end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls.'
[8.] For the performance of God's promisoL
Thou bast dealt well with thy servants, 0 Lord,
according to thy word,' and thoa bast been ew
mindful of thy covenant, the word which thoa has
commanded to a thousand generations/
There hath not failed one word of all the good
promises which thou hast promised to David ikf
servant, and Israel thy people.^
And now, what shall we render unto the Loni f«
all his benefits towards os ? Let our souls retnni H
him, and repose in him, as their rest, became k
hath dealt bountifully with us. We will take thecip
of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord:*
for tlie Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, asd
his truth endureth to all generations.'
We will bless the Lord at all times, yea, hu pniie ,
shall continually be in our months ; we will siig^
unto the Lord as long as we live;* and we hopeti
be shortly with those blessed ones who dwell in bis
house above, and are still praising him, and wkt
rest not day or night from saying. Holy, holy, bolj,
Lord God Almighty.*"
CHAPTER V.
OP THB FIFTH PART OF PRAYBE, WHICH 18 I2(TBBCISII0!r, «
ADDRESS AND 8UPPUCATION TO OOD FOB rvrmnmm
Our Lord Jesus has taught us to pray. Ml
only with, but for, others ; and the apostlehift
appointed us to make supplication for all saioti,-*
and many of his prayers in bis epistles ait i«
his friends : and we most not think, that whei
we are in this part of prayer, we may be km
fervent, and be more indifferent, because «t
ourselves are not immediately concerned in it
but rather, let a holy fire of love, both to God
and man, here make our devotions yet man
warm and lively.
1. We must pray for the whole world of maa-
i. 4. I Ps. xxxi. 7, 21. • 3 Cor. i. 6. b Heb xii. 10, II. « ft
cxlx. 67, 71. d I PeL 4. 6—9 e Ps. cxlx. 6&. f Pi. C». '.
f 1 Kings vtii. 46, 66. h Ps. cxvl. 7, 12, 13. i Ps. c& k ft
xxxiv. 1. 1 Ps. ciV. 33. m Rev. iv. 8. « Eph. vi M
/
INTiSRCESSION FOR OTHERS.
667
kind, the lost world ;** and thus we mast honour
all men, and according to our capacity do good
to all men.°
We pray, as we are taught, for all men, believing
that this is good and acceptable in the sight of God
oor Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and
to come unto the knowledge of the truth, and of
Jesus Chrbt, who gave himself a ransom for all.**
O look with compassion upon the world that lies
in wickedness,* and let the prince of this world be
cast out/ that has blinded their minds.'
O let thy way be known upon earth,^ that barbar-
oas nations may be civilized, and those who live
without God in the world * may be brought to the
service of the living God ; and thus let thy saving
health be known unto all nations. Let the people
praise thee, O God, yea, let all the people praise
thee : O, let the nations be glad, and sing for joy,
for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and
govern the nations upon earth.''
O let thy salvation and thy righteousness be
openly showed in the sight of the heathen, and let
nil the ends of the earth see the salvation of our
God.>
O give thy Son the heathen for his inheritance, and
the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession ;■"
for thou hast said. It is a light thing for him to raise
up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved
of Israel, but thou wilt give him for a light to the
Gentiles."
Let all the kingdoms of this world become the
kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ.*
2. For the propagating of the gospel in foreign
parts, and the enlargement of the church, by
the bringing in of many to it.
O let the gospel be preached unto every creature ;p
for how shall men believe in him of whom they have
not heard ? And how shall they hear without preach-
ers? And how shall they preach except they be
sent?*! And who shall send forth labourers, but the
Lord of the harvest?'
Let the people which sit in darkness see a great
light, and to them which sit in the region and shadow
of death let light spring up.*
Add unto thy church daily such as shall be saved ;*
enlarge the place of its tent, lengthen its cords, and
strengthen its stakes."
Bring thy seed from the east, and gather them
from the west ; say to the north. Give up, and to the
south. Keep not back : bring thy sons from far, and
thy daughters from the ends of the earth.* Let
them come with acceptance to thine altar, and glorify
the house of thy glory ; let them fly as a cloud, and
as the doves to their windows.*
b 1 Pet. ii. 17. c Gal. vi. lo. d 1 Tim. ii. 1. 3, 4, & • l John
V. 19. f John xil. 31. f 3 Cor. iv. 4. b Ps. Ixvil. 2. i Eph.
ti. 12. k Ps Ixvji. 3, 4. I Ps. xcvlii. a, 3. m Ps. ii. 8.
to Isa. xlix 6. o Rev. xi. 15. p Hark xvL 15. q Rom. x. 14, 15.
t Matt. ix. 38. ■ Matt. iv. 18. t Acts ii. 47.' u Isa. liv. 2.
In every place let incense be ofl'ered to thy name,
and pure offerings ; and from the rising of the sun
to the going down of the same, let thy name be great
among the Gentiles ;' and let the offering up of the
Gentiles be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy
Gbostr
O let the earth be full of the knowledge of the
Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
3. For the conversion of the Jews.
Let the branches which are broken off not abide
still in unbelief, but be grafted in again into their
own olive-tree. And though blindness is in part
happened to Israel, yet let the fulness of the Gentiles
come in, and let all Israel be saved.'
Let them be made to look unto him whom they
have pierced,^ and that they may turn to the Lordy
let the veil which is upon their hearts be taken
away.*
4. For the Eastern churches, that are groaning
under the yoke of Mahometan tyranny.
Let the churches of Asia, that were golden candle-
sticks,^ which the Lord Jesus delighted to walk in
the midst of,' be again made so.
Restore unto them their liberties, as at first, and
their privileges, as at the beginning ; purely purge
away their dross, and take away all their tin,^ and
turn again their captivity as the streams of the
south. V
5. For the churches in the plantations.
Be thou the confidence of all the ends of the earth,
and of those that are afar off beyond the sea; ^ and
let them have the blessing which came upon the
head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the head of
him that was separated from his brethren, even to
the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.*
Create peace to those that are afar off, as well
as to those that are nigh."
And let those that suck of the abundance of the
seas, and of treasures hid in the sand, call the
people to the mountain, that they may offer sacrifices
of righteousness.*
6. For the universal church, wherever dis-
persed, and for all the interests of it.
Our heart's desire and prayer to God for the gos-
pel Israel is, that it may be saved. °*
Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion, build
thou the walls of Jerusalem." Peace be within her
walls, and prosperity within her palaces. For our
brethren and companions' sake, we will now say,
peace be within her.®
O that we may see the good of the gospel Jerusa-
lem all the days of our life, and peace upon Israel .p
And that thus we may have reason to answer the
messengers of the nations, that the Lord hath found-
V Isa. xliii. 5, 6. v Ija. Ix. 7, 8. x Mai. i. 1 1. j Rom. xt. I6w
I Is. xi. 9. « Rom. xi. 23—26. b Zech. xii. lo. e 2 Cor. iii. 18.
dRev. i. II, 12. eRev. Ii. 1. f Isa. i. 25, 26. f Ps. cxxvi. 4.
h Ps. Ixv. 5. i Gen. xlix. 26. k Isa. Ivii. 19. i Deut xxxiii. 19.
m Rom. X. 1. a Ps. Ii. 1& o Ps. cxxii. 7, & p Ps.cxxviii. 5, 6.
668
INTERCESSION FOR OTHERS.
ed Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust to
thato
Save thy people, O Lord, and bless thine heritage:
feed them also, and lift them up for ever/ Give
strength unto thy people, and bless thy people with
peace;* with thy favour do thou compass them as
with a shield.'
Grace be with all them that love the Lord Jesus
Christ in sincerity ; ** for thou knowest them that
are thine : and give to all that name the name of
Christ, to depart from iniquity.*
We pray for all that believe in Christ, that they
all may be one ; ^ and since there is one body, and
one spirit, and one hope of our calling, one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of
all,* give to all Christians to be of one heart/ and
one way.
Let the word of the Lord in all places have a
free course, and let it be glorified.*
7. For the conviction and conversion of
atheists, deists, and infidels, and of all that are
out of the way of truth, and of profane scoffers,
and those that disgrace Christianity by their
vicious and immoral lives.
O teach transgressors thy ways, and let sinners be
converted unto thee.*
O give them repentance to the acknowledging of
the truth, the truth as it is in Jesus,** the truth which
is according to godliness,*^ that they may recover
themselves out of the snare of the devil.**
Let those who are as sheep going astray, return
to Jesus Christ, the Shepherd and Bishop of our
80uls.<>
Show those fools their folly and misery, that have
said in their hearts, there is no God, and that are
eorrupt, and have done abominable works.'
Lord, maintain the honour of the Scripture, the
law and the testimony, and convince those who
speak not according to that word, that it is because
there is no light in them ;t magnify that word above
all thy name ; ^ magnify the law, magnify the gos-
pel, and make both honourable.^
Let those who will not be won by the word, be won
by the conversation of Christians,'' which we beg
may be such in every thing, that they who believe
not may be convinced of all, and judged of all, may
be brought to worship God, and to report that God
is with them of a truth.'
8. For the amending of every thing that is
amiss in the church, the reviving of primitive
Christianity, and the power of godliness, and in
order thereunto the pouring out of the Spirit.
Lord, let thy Spirit be poured out upon thy
q Isa. xiv. .*». r Ps. xxvill. 9. • Ps xxix. II. t Ps. V. 12.
n Eph vi. 24. ▼ 2 Tim. ii. 19. w John xvii. 20, 21. « Eph.
Iv. 4—6. y Jer. xxxii. 39. « 2 Thess iii. 1. • Ps. li. 13.
b Eph. Iv. 21. e Tit. i. 1. d 2 Tim. il. 25, 26. el Pet ii. 25.
t Ps. xiv. 1. giaau viii. 20. b Pi. cxxxviii. a. i Isa. xlii. 2i.
churches from on high, and then the wildenenMI J ^
become a fruitful field,'^ then jadgment shall n- |<
turn unto righteousness, aAd all the upright in Imit
shall follow it."
Let what is wanting be set in order/ and letevoj
plant that is not of our heavenlj Fathei's pboiiii
be plucked up p
Let the Lord whom we seek come to his temple lib
a refiner's fire, and fuller's soap, and let him pmi^
the sons of Levi, and all the seed of Israel, tti
purge them as gold and silver, that they may ofir
unto the Lord an offering in righteousness,^ pleani
to the Lord, as in the days of old, as in fonier^
years.
Let pure religion, and ondefiled before God vd
the Father,** flourish and prevail every where ; tlit
kingdom of God among men, which is not meataid
drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy ii At
Holy Ghost.* O revive this work in the midst of it
years, in the midst of the years make known,* mI
let our times be times of reformation."
9. For the breaking of the power of all fte
enemies of the church, and the defeating afafi
their designs against her.
Let all that set themselves, and take comiael to-
gether, against the Lord, and against his Anoinled,
who would break their bands asunder, and cail
away their cords from them, imagine a vain tUi;.
Let him that sits in heaven laugh at them, and haw
them in derision ; speak unto them in thy wiatk,
and vex them in thy sore displeasure.^ Give thca.
O Lord, what thou wilt g^ve them ; give them a mil-
carrying womb, and dry breasts.^
O our God, make them like a wheel, and as stab-
ble before the wind ; fill their fac^s with shaac
that they may seek thy name, O Lord, and thatnei
may know that thou, whose name is Jehovah, art
the Most High over all the earth.*
Put them in fear, O Lord, that the nations nif
know themselves to be but men,' and wherein tk
proud enemies of thy church deal proudly, make it
to appear that thou art above them.*
Let them be confounded, and turned back, Ifat
hate Zion, and be as the grass upon the house-tops,
which withereth before it groweth up.*
Let no weapon formed against thy church prosper,
and let every tongue that riseth against it in jodf-
ment be condemned.**
Make Jerusalem a burthensome stone for ifl
people, and let all that burthen themselves widi it
be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth
should be gathered together against it;' so letafl
thy enemies perish, O Lord, but let them that lofe
k 1 Pet iii. 1. 11 Cor. xiT. 84, 35. m ba. xxziL U. «I^
xciv. 15. o Tit 1.5. pMatt. XV. 13. qMal.iill ^^f^
i. 27. • Rom. xiv. 17 t Hab. iii. a. a Heb. ix. le 'ft
ii. 1-5. wHos.ix. 14. «Ps Ixxxiii. 13, 16, 18. ffti*»
K Exod. xviii. 11. • Ps. cxxiz. 5, & v laa. liv. 17. r 2cdi sitl
\
INTERCESSION FOR OTHERS.
609
thee be as the san when he goes forth in his
strength.'
Lord, let the man of sin be consumed with the
spirit of thy mouth, and destroyed with the bright-
ness of thy coming: and let those be undeceived
that have been long under the power of strong delu-
sions to believe a lie, and let them receive the truth
in the love of it.«
Let Babylon fall, and sink like a mill-stone into
the sea ; ^ and let the kings of the earth that have
g^ven their power and honour to the beast, v be
wrought upon at length to bring it into the new Je-
rusalem.**
10. For the relief of suffering churches, and
the support, comfort, and deliverance of all that
are persecuted for righteousness.
We desire in our prayers to remember them that
are in bonds for the testimony of Jesus, as bound
with them, and them which suffer adversity, as being
ourselves also in the body.^ O send from above, and
deliver them from those that hate them, and bring
them forth into a large place.*"
O let not the rod of the wicked rest upon the lot
pf the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their
hands unto iniquity.'
. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the
Lord ; awake as in the ancient days, as in the ge-
nerations of old, and make the depths of the sea a
way for the ransomed of the Lord to pass over."*
For the oppression of the poor, and the sighing
of the needy, now do thou arise, O Lord, and set
them in safety from them that puff at them."
O strengthen the patience and faith of thy suffer-
ing saints,^ that they may hope, and quietly wait
for the salvation of the Lord.e
O let the year of thy redeemed come,*i and the
year of reeompences for the controversy of Zion.'
O that the salvation of Israel were come out of
Zion ; and when the Lord bringeth back the capti-
vity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel
shall be glad.*
O let not the oppressed return ashamed, but let
the poor and needy praise thy name.'
Lord, arise, and have mercy upon Zion, and let
the time to favour her, yea, the set time, come ; yea,
let the Lord build up Zion, and appear in his glory.
Lord, regard the prayer of the destitute, and do not
despise their prayer."
O Lord God, cease, we beseech thee : By whom
shall Jacob arise, for he is small?' O cause thy
face to shine upon that part of thy sanctuary that is
desolate, for the Lord's sake.^
a Judg. V. 31. 0 S Tbeas. ii. 3. 8, lo, 11. f Rev. zviii. 2, 31.
ff Rev. xvii. 17. h Rev. xxi. 24. i Heb. xiii. 3. k Pa.
xviii. 16. 17, 19. 1 PSw cxzy. 3. m Isa. li. 0, 10. u Ps. xii. 5.
• Rev. xiii. 19. p Lam. til. 2& q Isa. Ixiii. 4. r laa. xxxiv. 8.
• Pa. xiv. 7. t Pa. Ixxiv. si. u Pa. di. 13, 16, 17. ▼ Amos
vil 5. w Dan. ix. 17. > Pa. Ixxix. 11. f Isa. xxx. 20.
Let the sorrowful sighing of thy prisoners como
before thee, and according to the greatness of thy
power, preserve thou those that for thy name's sake
are appointed to die.'
Let those whose teachers are removed into comers,
again see their teachers, though they have the bread
of adversity, and the water of affliction.^
11. For the nations of Europe, and the coun-
tries about us.
Thou, Lord, art the Governor among the nations :*
Who shall not fear thee, O King of nations?' Thou
sittest in the throne judging right ; judge the world
therefore in righteousness, and minister judg^nent
to the people in uprightness.^
Lord, hasten the time when thou wilt make wars
to cease to the ends of the earth ;<^ when nation shall
no more lift up sword against nation, nor kingdom
against kingdom, but swords shall be beaten into
plough-shares, and spears into pruning-hooks, and
they shall not learn war any more.^
Make kings nursing fathers, and their queens
nursing mothers, to the Israel of God.*
And in the days of these kings let the God of
heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be de-
stroyed,' even the kingdom of the Redeemer. And
whatever counsels there are in men's hearts. Lord,
let thy counsel stand,' and do thou fulfil the thoughts
of thy heart unto all generations.^
12. For our own land and nation, the happy
islands of Great Britain and Ireland, which we
ought in a special manner to seek the welfare
of, that in the peace thereof we may have
peace.
(I.) We must he thankful to God for his
mercies to our land.
We bless thee, that thou hast planted us in a very
fruitful hill,' and hast not made the wilderness our
habitation, or the barren land our dwelling,^ but
our land yields her increase.*
Lord, thou hast dealt favourably with our land."*
We have heard with our ears, and our fathers have
told us, what work thou didst for us in their days,
and in the times of old :> and as we have heard, so
have we seen ; for we have thought of thy loving-
kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple.®
Thou hast given us a pleasant land,p it is Imma-
nuel's ]and,<i it is a valley of vision,' thou hast set
up thy tabernacle among us, and thy sanctuary is
in the midst of us.*
We dwell safely under our own vines and fig*
trees,' and there is peace to him that goeth out, and
to him that comes in."
■ Pa. xxii. 28. • ft Jer. x. 7. b Pa. ix. 4, a e Pa. xlvi. 9.
d laa. ii. 4. • laa. clix. 23. f Dan. ii. 44. f Prov. xix. 21.
h Pa. xxxiii. 11. t Isa. v. 1. k Job xxxix. 6. i Pa. Ixxxv.
12. m Pa. Ixxxv. 1. a Pa. xliv. 1. o pa. xlviii. 8, 9. p Jer.
iii. 19. q laa. viii B. * laa. xxll. 1. • Ezek. xxxvii. 28. 27.
t I Kinga \y„ 25. a 2 Cbron. xv. 6.
670
INTERCESSION FOR OTHERS.
And because the Lord loved our people, therefore
be hath set a good government over us, to do judg-
ment and justice ;' to be a terror to evil doers, and
a protection and praise to them that do well.^
(2.) We must be humble before God for our
national sins and provocations.
But we are a sinful people, a people laden with
iniquity, a seed of evil doers ;* and a great deal of
reason we have to sigh and cry for the abominations
that are committed among us.'
Iniquity abounds among us, and the love of many
is waxed cold.'
We have not been forsaken, nor forgotten of our
God, though our land be full of sin against the
Holy One of Israel.*
(3.) We must pray earnestly for the favour of
God to us, and the tokens of his presence among
us, as that in which the happiness of our nation
is bound up.
O the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time
of trouble : be not thou as a stranger in our land, or
a way-faring man that turns aside to tarry but for
a night ; but be thou always in the midst of us ; we
arc called by thy name, O leave us not. — ^Though
our iniquities testify against us, yet do thou it for
thy name's sake ; though our backslidings are many,
and we have sinned against thee.^
Turn us to thee, O Lord God of hosts, and then
cause thy face to shine, and we shall be safe. O
stir up thy strength, and come and save us.^
Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy sal-
vation ; yea, let that salvation be nigh them that
fear thee, that glory may dwell in our land. Let
mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and
peace kiss each other : let truth spring out of the
earth, and righteousness look down from heaven ;
yea, let the Lord give that which is good : let right-
eousness go before him, and set us in the way of
his steps.^
(4.) For the continuance of the gospel among
us, and the means of grace, and a national pro-
fession of Christ's holy religion.
O let the throne of Christ endure for ever among
us,* even the place of thy sanctuary, that glorious
high throne from the beginning.'
Let our candlestick never be removed out of its
place, though we have deserved it should, because
we have left our first love.' Never do to us as thou
didst to thy place which was in Shilofa, where thou
didst set thy name at the first.**
Let us never know what a famine of the word
means ; nor ever be put to wander from sea to sea,
and from the river to the ends of the earth, to seek
the word of God.'
r I Kings X. 9. w Rom. xiii a s laa. i. 4. 7 Ezek. ix. 4.
■ Matt xxlf . 12. ft Jer. li. 5. b Jer. xiv. 7-9. c Ps. Ixxx.
«, 3. d Ps. Ixxxv. 7—13. • Ps. xlv. e. f Jer. xvii. la.
s Rev. ii. 4, s. h Jer. vii. 12. 14. i Amos viil. II. 12. k Isa.
xxxiii. 6. 1 Ps. Ixxii. 5, 7. m P& cii. la n Zech. iJ. 5.
Let wisdom and knowledge be the stabili1|of Mr
times, and strength of salvation, and letthefetrof
the Lord be our treasure :^ let the righteou fkmA
among us, and let there be those that shall fetr tkee
in our land, as long as the sun and moon endiie;
throughout all generations,' may there be abimdaici
of peace, and may the children which shall Vt e»
ated praise the Lord.*"
(5.) For the continuance of car outward peace
and tranquillity, our liberty and plenty, for tli
prosperity of our trade, and a blessing upoathe
fruits of the earth.
Let God himself be a wall of fire round aboit 1%
and the glory in the midst of us," yea, let his goipd
be our glory, and upon all that ^lory let there bet
defence ; and create upon every dwelling-pliee tf
mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud uA
smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fiieby
night.**
Peace be within our borders, and prosperity will-
in our palaces,P the prosperity both of merchaiiditt
and husbandry, that Zebulun may rejoice in Ui
going out, and Issachar in bis tents.**
Appoint salvation to us for walls and bolwirici,
and in order to that let the gates be opened, that Hi
righteous nation which keepeth the tmth may cakr
in.'
Make our officers peace, and our exacton liglit-
eousness ; let violence never be heard in oar gitcf,
wasting or destruction in onr borders, bat let «r
walls be called salvation, and oar gates pnise;'
never let our land be termed forsaken and desobte,
but let the Lord delight in ns, and let oar land bi
married to him.*
Let our peace be as a river, and in order to tbil,
our righteousness as the waves of the sea." Let dot
righteousness abound among us which exaHcH a
nation, and deliver us from sin, which is areproiel
to any people.'
Never make our heaven as brass, and oar earth ai
iron,'' nor take away thy com in the season thereoC
and thy wine in the season thereof,* bat give as ran
moderately,^ the former and the latter rain ia dM
season, and reser\'e unto as the appointed weeks a(
harvest,* giving us fair weather also in its setsoa.
Let our land yield her increase, and the trees tbck
fruit, that we may eat bread to the fall, and dweUia
our land safely.'
Abundantly bless our provision, and satisfy 00
poor with bread,^ that they which have gathered it
may eat and praise the Lord.« Blow not thoa upai
it, for then when we look for much, it will ooae la
little,*^ but bless our blessings, that all nations uvf
call us blessed, and a delightsome land.*
o Isa iv. 5. p Ps. cxxii. 7. ^ Dent xxxiii. 18. » faa rtri
1,3. ■ Isa. Ix. 17, ia t I». Ixil. 4. • Iss. xlTio. IS
T Prov. xiv. 34. w Dettt. xxviii. S3. x Hos. ii 9. r Jodii
33. s Jer. ▼.94. • Lev. xxvi. 4, 5. v Pi cxxxii- li
e Isa. Ixii. 9. d Hag. i. 9. • Alal. iii. 10, \t.
INTERCESSION FOR OTHERS.
071
(6.) For the success of onr endeavours for
the reformation of manners, the suppression of
vice and profaneness, and the support of reli-
gion and virtue, and the bringing of them into
reputation.
O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an
end, but establish the just, O thou righteous God,
that triest the hearts and reins.' Spirit many to rise
up from thee against the evil doers, and to stand up
for thee against the workers of iniquity.'
L«et the Redeemer come to Zion, and turn away
ungodliness from Jacob;** and let the filth of Jeru-
salem be purged from the midst thereof by the spirit
of judgment, and the spirit of burning.*
Let ail iniquity stop her mouth,*' and let the infec-
tion of that plague be stayed, by executing judg-
ment.i
Let those who are striving against sin never be
weary or faint in their minds."*
Cause the unclean spirit to pass out of the land,**
and turn to the people a pure language, that they
may call on the name of the Lord.*
Make us high above all nations in praise, and in
name, and in honour, by making us a holy people
onto the Lord our God.P
(7.) For the healing of our unhappy divisions,
and the making up of our breaches.
For the divisions that are among us, there are great
searchings of heart ; i for there are three against two,
and two against three in a house.*^ But is the breach
wide as the sea, which cannot be healed ? * Is there
BO balm in Gilead ? Is there no physician there ?
Why then is not the health of the daughter of bur
people recovered?* Lord, heal the breaches of onr
land, for because of them it shaketh."
We beg, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that there be no divisions among us, but that we may
be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and
in the same judgment.*
Now the God of patience and consolation grant
us to be like-minded one towards another, according
to Christ Jesus, that we may with one mind and one
mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord
Jesu9 Christ,* and promote the common salvation.*
Lord, keep us from judging one another, and de-
spising one another, and give us to follow after the
things which make for peace, and things wherewith
one may edify one another ; i that living in love and
peace, the God of love and peace may be with us.*
Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory,
bat every thing in lowliness of mind,* and grant that
»ar moderation may be known unto all men, be-
cause the Lord is at hand.**
f Ps. vii. 9. f Ps. xciv. 18. h Rom. xi. 96. i laeu It. 4.
k Ps. cvii. 4% 1 Ps. cv\. 30. m Heb. xii. 3, 4. a Zech. xiii. 3.
• Zepb. iii. 9. p Deut. xxvi. 19. q Judg. v. 16. r Luke
xli. 51. ■ Lam. ii. S. t Jer. vi!i. 22. u pg. \x. 2. ▼ 1 Cor.
i. 10. w Rom. XT. 5. 6. X Jude 3. y Rom. xiv. 3, 19.
* 2 Cor. xiii. ii. a Phil. il. 3. b Phil. iv. 6. * Numb. x.
(8.) For victory and success against our ene-
mies abroad, that seek our ruin.
Rise, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered,
and let those that hate thee flee before thee, but re-
turn, O Lord, to the many thousands of thine Israel.*
Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of
man. Through God let our forces do valiantly ; yea,
let God himself tread down our enemies ;** and g^ve
them as dust to our sword, and as driven stubble to
our bow.«
Let us be a people saved by the Lord, as the
shield of our help, and the sword of our excellency;'
and make our enemies sensible that the Lord fight-
cth for us against them.r
Those who jeopard their lives for us in the high
places of the field,'' teach their hands to war, and
their fingers to fight, g^ve them the shield of thy
salvation, and let thy right hand hold them up,* and
cover their heads in the day of battle.^
(9.) For our sovereign lord the king, that
God will protect his person, preserve his health,
and continue his life and government long a
public blessing.
Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy
righteousness, thtft he may judge the poor of the
people, may save the children of the needy, and
may break in pieces the oppressor.*
Let his throne be established with righteousness,™
and upheld with mercy.*' Give him long life and
length of days for ever and ever, and let his glory
be great in thy salvation, and make him exceeding
glad with thy countenance: through the tender
mercy of the Most High let him not be moved.**
Clothe his enemies with shame, but upon himself
let the crown flourish,? and continue him long, very
long, a nursing- father to thine Israel .^
(10.) For the succession in the protestant
line, that a blessing may attend it, that the en-
tail of the crown may prove a successful expe-
dient for the establishing of peace and truth in
our days, the securing of them to posterity, and
the extinguishing the hopes of our popish ad-
versaries, and all their aiders and abettors.
Lord, preserve the lamp which thou hast or-
dained for thine anointed,' that the generation to
come may know thee, even the children which shall
be bom, that they may set their hope in God, and
keep his commandments.*
Let the protestant succession abide before God
for ever: O prepare mercy and truth which may
preserve it, so will we sing praise unto thy name for
ever.^ Thus let the Lord save Sion, and build the
cities of Judah, and the seed of thy servants shall
33, 36. a Pi. Iz. 11, 12. o Isa. xlL 2. f Deut xxxiii. 29.
r Exod. xiv. 2&. h Judg. ▼. 18. i Ps. xviii. 34, 35. k Ps.
cxl. 7. 1 Ps. Ixxil. 1, 4. «a Prov. XXV. 5. n ProT. xx. 28.
o Ps. zxi. 4—7. p Ps. cxxxii. 1& « Isa. xlix. 2a r Ps. cxxxii.
17. • Ps. IxxTiii. 6, 7. I Ps. Ixi. 7. 8.
C72
INTERCESSION FOR OTHERS.
inherit it, and they that love thy name shall dwell
therein."
Let their design, who would make a captain to
return into Egypt/ be again defeated, and let not the
deadly wound that hath been given to the beast be
healed any more.*
Let our eyes see Jerusalem, the city of our solem-
nities, a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not
be taken down : let none of the stakes thereof be
removed, nor any of the cords thereof be broken,
but let the glorious Lord be to us a place of broad
waters and streams ; for the Lord is our judge, the
Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king, he will
save us.''
(II.) For the privy-counsellors, the ministers
of state, the members of parliament, the am-
bassadors and envoys abroad, and all that are
employed in the conduct of public affairs.
Counsel our counsellors, and teach our senators
wisdom :y O give them a spirit of wisdom and un-
derstanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit
of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, to make
them of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord.*
O remove not the speech of the trusty, nor take
away the understanding of the aged,* nor ever let
the things that belong to the nation's peace be hid
from the eyes ^ of those that are intrusted with the
nation's counsels.
Make it to appear that thou standest in the con-
gregation of the mighty, and judgest among the
gods,' and that when the princes of the people are
gathered together,^ even the people of the God of
Abraham, the God of Abraham himself is among
them ; and let the shields of the earth belong unto
the Lord, that he may be greatly exalted.
Let those that be of us build the old waste places,
and raise up the foundations of many generations,
that they may be called the repairers of the breaches,
and restorers of paths to dwell in.*
(12.) For the magistrates, the judge, and jus-
tices of peace in the several counties and corpo-
rations.
Make those that rule over us just, ruling in the
fear of God ;^ and let those that judge remember,
that they judge not for man, but for the Lord, who
is with them in the judgment, that therefore the fear
of the Lord may be upon them.s
Make them able men and men of truth, fearing
God, and hating covetousness," that judgment may
run down like a river, and righteousness as a mighty
stream.*
Enable our magistrates to defend the poor and
fatherless, to do justice for the afflicted and needy,
tt Ps. Ixix. 35,36. ▼ Numb. xiv. 4. w Rev. xiii. 12. « Isa.
xxxiil. 20—22. y Ps. cv. 22 i I»a. xi. 2, 3. • Job xii. 20.
b Luke xix. 42. c Ps. Ixxxii. 1. d Ps. xlix. 7. o Isa. Iviil. 12.
f 2 Sam. xxiii. 3. ir 2 Chron. xlx. 6, 7. h Exod. xviil. ai.
1 Amos ▼. 24. k Ps. Ixxxii. 3, 4. i i Pet. ii. 14. m Rom.
xiii. 4. n I Tim. ili. I5b o 2 Cor. iv. 5. p 2 Tim. ii. 15.
to deliver the poor and needy, and to rid tbem oot
of the hand of the wicked,*^ and let rulers never k
a terror to good works,* but to the evil."*
(13.) For all the ministers of God's boly word
and sacraments, the masters of assemblies.
Teach thy ministers how they ought to behate
themselves in the house of God, which istbecbordi
of the living God," that they may not preach then-
selves, but Christ Jesus the Lord,** and nuiy sta^
to show themselves approved to God, workmen tint
need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the wa4
of truth.P
Make them mighty in the Scriptures,4thattbeMi'j{
they may be thoroughly furnished for every pni
work,' in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity,
and sincerity, and sound speech, which cannot W
condemned.*
Enable them to give attendance to reading, to ex-
hortation, to doctrine, to meditate upon these things,
to give themselves to prayer and to the ministiy of
the word,' to give themselves wholly to them; aad
to continue in them, that they may both save then-
selves and those thathear them."
Let utterance be given to them, that they may opei
their mouths boldly, to make known the mystery «f
the gospel, that thereof they may speak as they oagbt
to speak,^ as able ministers of the New Testameat*
not of the letter, but of the spirit,* and let them obtsiB
mercy of the Lord to be faithful."
Let the arms of their hands be made strong by tke
hands of the mighty God of Jacob ;' and let tbca
be full of power by the Spirit of the Lord of boits,
to show thy people their transgressions,' and tk
house of Jacob their sins.'
Make them sound in the faith,** and enable tbca
always to speak the things which become sound
doctrine,^ with meekness instructing those that op-
pose themselves ; and let not the servants of the Lord
strive, but be gentle to all men, apt to teach.'
Make them good examples to the believen,ii
word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith,
in purity ;" and let them be clean that bear the ves-
sels of the Lord,' and let holiness to the Lord' be
written upon their foreheads.
Lord, grant that they may not laboor in vain, or
spend their strength for nought, and in vain> bat let
the hand of the Lord be with them, that many maj
believe, and turn to the Lord.^
(14.) For all the nniversities, schools, and
nurseries of learning.
Let the schools of the prophets be replenished witt
every good gift and every perfect gift from above,
from the Father of lights.^
q Acts xviii. 24 T 2 Tim. iii. 17. • Tit ii. 7. t Ads vi. i
a 1 Tim. !▼. 13, 15, 16. r Eph. vi. 19, 20. « 2 Cor. iti. & < 1 Oor.
»ii. 25. y Gen. xlix. 24. % Mic. iii. 8. » Isa. Iviii. I. k Tit
i. 13. e Tit ii. I. d a Tim. ii. 24. 25. « I Tim. if tt
f l». Hi. 11. f Exod. xxviii. 36. k Isa. xlix. 4. i A(i»
xi 21. k James i. 17. .
/
INTERCESSION FOR OTHERS.
673
Cast salt into those fountains,^ and heal the waters
thereof, that from thence may issue streams which
shall make glad the city of our God, the holy place
of the tabernacles of the Most High.*"
(15.) For the common people of the land.
Give grace to all the subjects of this land, that we
may, under the government God has set over us, live
quiet and peaceable lives, in all godliness and ho-
nesty,* dwelling together in unity, that the Lord
may command a blessing upon us, even life for ever-
more.
Let all of every denomination, that fear God and
lit work righteousness, be accepted of him '/* yea, let
such as love thy salvation say continually. The Lord
be magnified, that hath pleasure in the prosperity of
his servants.?
(16.) For those who are young, and setting
out in the world.
Lord, give to those who are young to remember
their Creator in the days of their youth,4 that thereby
they may be kept from the vanity which childhood
and youth are subject to, and may be restrained
from walking in the way of their heart, and in the
sight of their eyes, by considering, that for all these
things God will bring them into judgment^
Lord, make young people sober-minded,* and let
the word of God abide in them, that they may be
strong, and may overcome the wicked one.^
From the womb of the morning let Christ have the
dew of the youth," and let him be formed in the
hearts of those who are young.*
Keep those who are setting out in the world from
the corruption that is in the world through lust ;*
and give to those who have been well educated to
hold fast the form of sound words,' and to continue
in the things which they have learned.^
(17.) For those who are old, and are of long
standing in profession.
There are some who are old disciples of Jesus
Christ ;' Lord, give them still to bring forth fruit in
old age, to show that the Lord is upright, that he is
their rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.*
Now the evil days are come, and the years of which
they say there is no pleasure in them,^ let thy com-
forts delight their souls.'
Even to their old age be thou he, and to the hoary
hairs do thou carry them thou hast made, we beseech
thee, bear, yea, do thou carry and deliver them.^
Those whom thou hast taught from their youth
op, and who have hitherto declared all thy wondrous
works, now, also, when they are old and grey-headed
1 2 Kings ii. 31. m Ps. xlvi. 4. » 1 Tkm. il. 3. o Acts x. 35.
p Ps. XXXV. 27. q Eccl. xii. 1. r Eccl. xi.^, 10. ■ Tit ii. 6.
t I John ii. 14. n Ps. ex. 3 t Qal. iv. 19. vr 3 Pet. i 4.
« 2 Tim. i. 13 7 3 Tim iii. 14. « Acts xxi 16. » Ps. xcii.
14. 15. b Eccl. xii. 1. e Ps. xciv. 19. d ba. xlvi. 4. 0 Ps.
2 X
leave them not, cast them not off in their old age,
fail them not when their strength fails.*
Let every hoary head be a crown of glory to those
who have it, being found in the way of righteousness,'
and give them to know whom they have believed.'
(18.) For those who are rich and prosperous
in the world, some of whom perhaps need pray-
ers as much as those that request them.
Lord, keep those that are rich in the world from
being high-minded, and trusting in uncertain riches,
and give them to trust in the living God, who giveth
us richly all things to enjoy : that they may do good,
and be rich in good works, ready to distribute, will-
ing to communicate ; that they may lay up in store
for themselves a good security for the time to come.^
Though it is hard for those that are rich to enter
into the kingdom of heaven, yet with thee this is pos-
sible.*
(19.) For those who are poor and in affliction,
for such we have always with us.
Lordy make those who are poor in the world, rich
in faith, and heirs of the kingdom,^ and give to them
to receive the gospel.^
O that the poor of the flock may wait upon thee,
and may know the word of the Lord.'"
Many are the troubles of the righteous, good Lord,
deliver them out of them all," and though no affliction
for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous, never-
theless, afterward let it yield the peaceable fruit of
righteousness to them that are exercised thereby .«
(20.) For our enemies, and those who hate us.
Lord, give us to love our enemies, to bless them
that curse us, and to pray for them that despitefuUy
use us and persecute us.p
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they
do ; ^ and lay not their malice against us to their
charge,'' and work in us a disposition to forbear and
forgive in love,* as thou requirest we should when
we pray.*
And grant that our ways may so please the Lord,
that even our enemies may be at peace with us."
Let the wolf and the lamb lie down together, and let
there be none to hurt or destroy in all the holy
mountain ; let not Ephraim envy Judah, nor Judah
vex Ephraim.^
(21.) For our friends and those who love us.
And we wish for all those whom we love in the
truth, that they may prosper, and be in health, espe-
cially that their souls may prosper.*
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with their
spirits."
Ixxi. 9. 17, 18. f Prov. xvi. 31. t 3 Tim. i. 13. hi Tim. vi.
17,19. i Matt xix.36. k Bfatt xi 5. 1 James ii. 5. m Zech.
xi. 11. u Ps. xxxiv. 19. o Heb. xii. 11. p Matt. v. 44.
q Litke xxiii. 34. r Acts vii. 00. • Col. iii. 13 t Mark xt
25. «> Prov. 16. 7. V Isa.'xi. 6, 9, 13. w 3 John 2. * Plulem. 35.
074
OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES.
CHAPTER VI.
OF ADDRESSES TO GOD UPON PARTICULAR OCCASIONS, WHBTHBB
DOMESTIC OR PUBUC.
It is made our duty, and prescribed as a re-
0icdy against disquieting care, that in every
thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanks-
giving, we should make our requests known to
God." And it is part of the wa/>prj<na — the bold-
ness,^ the liberty of speech, (so the word signi-
fies,) which is allowed us in our access to God,
that we may be particular in opening our case,
and seeking to him for relief; that according as
the sore and the grief is, accordingly the prayer
and the supplication may be by any man, or by
the people of Israel.^ Not that God needs to be
particularly informed of our condition, he knows
it better than we ourselves do, and our souls too
in our adversity, but it is his will that we should
thus acknowledge him in all our ways,** and
wait upon him for the direction of every step,*
not prescribing, but subscribing, to infinite wis-
dom, humbly showing him our wants, burthens,
and desires, and then referring ourselves to him,
to do for us as he thinks fit.
We shall mention some of the occasions of par-
ticular address to God, more or less usual, which
may either be the principal matter of a whole
prayer, or inserted in our other prayers, and in
some cases that are more peculiar to ministers,
or others, in common to them with masters of
families and private Christians. As there may
be something particular,
1. In our morning prayers.
Our voice shalt thou now hear in the morning, in
the morning will we direct our prayer unto thee, and
will look up ; ^ for our souls wait for thee, O Lord,
more than tlicy that watch for the morning, yea,
more than they that watch for the morning ; > and
we will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning ;
for thou hast been our defence.^
It is thou, O God, who hast commanded the morn-
ing, and caused the day-spring to know its place,
that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and
it is turned as clay to the seal.^
The day is thine, the night also is thine, thou hast
prepared the light and the sun.^
With the light of the morning let the day-spring
from on high visit us, to give us the knowledge of
salvation, through the tender mercy of our God ; i
and let the Sun of righteousness arise upon our
souls with healing under his wings ; "* and our path
• Phil. iv. 6. b Heb. x. 19. c 2Chron. vi. 29. d Prov. iii. 6.
e Ps. xxxvii 23 f Ps. V. 3. f Ps -cxxx. 6. h Ps. lix. le.
I Job xxxviii. 12-14. k Ps. Ixxiv. 16. i Luke i. 77, 78. m Mai.
iv. 2. n Prov iv. I8. o Lam. iii. 2-2, 2a p Ps. xxx. &. q Ps.
iii. 5. r Mult, viii 20. ■ Htb. xi. 38. t Job vii. 3, 4, IX
be as the shining light, which shines more and more
to the perfect day.»
It is of thy mercy, O Lord, that we are not con-
sumed, even because thy compassions fail not ; they
are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness:"
and if weeping sometimes endures for a night, joy
comes in the morning.'
We thank thee that we have laid us down,^ biTe
had where to lay our bead/ and have not been wan-
dering in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves
of the earth ;* and that we have slept, and have not
been full of tossings to and fro till the dawning of
the day, that wearisome nights are not appointed to
us, and we are not saying at our lying down. When
shall we arise, and the night be gone ? But oar bed
comforts us, and our conch eases our complaint*—
Thou gi vest us sleep as thou givest it to thy beloved;*
and having laid us down and slept, we have waked
again ; thou hast enlightened oor eyes, so that we
have not slept the sleep of death.""
Thou hast preserved us from the pestilence that
walketh in darkness,^ and from the malice of the
rulers of the darkness of this world,' the roaring lioo
that goes about seeking to devour.]^ — He that keeps
Israel, and neither slumbers nor sleeps,* has kept
us, and so we have been safe.
But we cannot say, with thy servant David, that
when we awake we are still with thee,* or that our
eyes have prevented the night watches, that we
might meditate on thy word ;^ but vain thoughts
still lodge within us.* O pardon oar sins, and
cause us to hear thy loving-kindness this momiiig,
for in thee do we trust ; cause us to know the way
wherein we should walk, for we lift up oar soals
unto thee : and teach us to do thy will, for thoo ait
our God. Thy Spirit is good, lead as into the way
and land of uprightness.*^
And now let the Lord preserve and keep as from
all evil this day, yea, let the Lord preserve oor souls.
Lord, preserve our going out and coming in ;* give
thine angels charge concerning as, to bear as ap in
their hands, and keep as in all oar ways.' And
give us grace to do the work of the day in its day,
as the duty of the day requires.'
2. In our evening prayers.
Thou, O God, makest the out-goings of the even-
ing, as well as of the morning, to rejoice;^ for
thereby thou callest us from our work and our la- |
hour,* and biddest us rest awhile.^ And now let j
our souls return to thee, and repose in that as o«r
rest, becaase thoa hast dealt boontifuUj with us,*'
so shall our sleep be sweet to us."*
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads as with his
u Ps. cxxvii. 2. ▼ Ps. xiii. 3. v Pi xci. & s Eph. vL U^
J I Pfct v. & s Ps. cxxi. 4. . • Ps. cxxxix. ra b Psi cxix. M
e Jer. iv. 14. d Ps. cxliii. 8. 10. « Ps. cxxl. 7. 8. f Pi xci i
II. 12. ir Ezra iii. 4. h Ps. Ixv. 8. i Ps. cir. 11 k Mnk |
vi 31. 1 Ps. cxvi. 7. m Jcr. xxxi. 26.
OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES.
676
benefits," who has this day presenred our going out
and coming in ; ** and now we have received from
thee our daily bread, we pray. Father, forgive us
our trespasses.P
And we will lie us down and sleep ; for thou,
Lord, makest us to dwell in safety .1 Make a hedge
of protection (we pray thee) about us, and about our
house, and about all that we have round about/
Let the angels of God encamp round about us to
deliver us ;* that we may lie down, and none make
us afraid/
Into thy hands we commit our spirits ;° that in
slumberings upon the bed,* our ears may be opened,
and instruction sealed; and let the Lord give us
counsel, and let our reins instruct us in the night-
season.^ Visit us in the night, and try us,' and ena-
ble us to commune with our own hearts upon our bed.^
Give us to remember thee upon our bed, and to
meditate upon thee in the night-watches,* with the
saints who are joyful in glory, and who sing aloud
upon their beds.*
3. In craving a blessing before meat
Thou, O Lord, givest food to all flesh, for thy
mercy endures for ever.** The eyes of all wait on
thee f but especially thou givest meat to them that
fear thee, being ever mindful of thy covenant.^
Thou art our life, and the length of our days,« the
God that hath fed us all our life long unto this day:'
Thou givest us all things richly to enjoy ,s though we
serve thee but poorly. Thou hast not only given us
every green herb, and the fruits of the trees to be to
us for meat,** but every moving thing that liveth,
even as the green herb.'
And blessed be God, that now under the gospel
we are taught to call nothing common or unclean,^
and that it is not that which goes into the man, that
defiles the man,^ but that every creature of God is
good, and nothing to be refused; for God hath
created it to be received with thanksgiving of them
which believe and know the truth."*
We acknowledge we are not worthy of the least
crumb that falls from the table " of thy providence :
Thou mightst justly take away from us the stay of
bread and the stay of water,' and make us to eat
our bread by weight, and to drink our water by
measure, and with astonishment ;p because when
we have been fed to the full, we have forgotten God
our Maker.*! But let our sins be pardoned, we pray
thee, that our table may not become a snare before
us, nor that be made a trap which should have been
for our welfare.'
n Ps. Uviii. 19. o Ps. cxxi. a p Matt. vl. II, 12. « Ps.
IT. 8. r Job i. 10. • Ps. xxxW. 7. t Job xi. 19. n Pb.
xxxi. *. ▼ Job xxxiii. 16. w Ps. xvi. 7. x Ps. xirii. 3.
J Ps. iv. 4. I Ps. Ixiii. 6. • Ps. cxlix. 5. b Ps czxxvi. 25.
e Ps. cxW. 15. d Ps. cxi. 5. • Deut xxx. 20. rGen. xlviii 15.
ir 1 Tim. vl. 17. h Gen. I. 29. I Gen. Ix. 3. k Acts x 15.
» Matt. XV. 11. m 1 Tiro. Iv. 3, 4. n Matt. xv.«7. o Isa.
iii. 1. p Ezek. iv. 16. q Deut. xxxll. 15. r Ps. Ixix 22.
2x2
We know that every thing is sanctified by the
word of God and prayer ;* and that man lives not
by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God ;^ and therefore according
to our Master's example, we look up to heaven, and
pray for a blessing " upon our food. Abundantly bless
our provision.'
Lord, grant that we may not feed ourselves with-
out fcar,^ that we may not make a God of our belly,*
that our hearts may never be overcharged with sur-
feiting or drunkenness,^ but that whether we eat or
drink, or whatever we do, we may do all to the glory
of God.«
4. In returning thanks after our meat.
Now we have eaten and are full, we bless thee
for the good land thou hast given us.* Thou pre-
parest a table for us in the presence of our ene-
mies, thou anointest our head, and our cup runs
over.''
Thou, Lord, art the portion of our inheritance and
of our cup, thou maintaine-st our lot, so that we have
reason to say, The lines are fallen to us in pleasant
places, and we have a goodly heritage.^
Especially we bless thee for the bread of life,
which came down from heaven, which was given
for the life of the world : Lord, evermore give us
that bread, and wisdom to labour less far the meat
which perisheth, and more for that which endures
to everlasting life.*^
The Lord give food to the hungry,* and send por-
tions to them for whom nothing is prepared.
Let us be of those blessed ones that shall eat
bread in the kingdom of God,^ that shall eat of the
hidden manna.r
5. When we are going a journey.
Lord, keep us in the way that we go,** and let no
evil thing befall us ;* let us have a prosperous jour-
ney by the will of God,'' and with thy favour let us
be compassed wherever we go as with a shield.^
Let us walk in our way safely, and let not our foot
stumble,™ or dash against a stone."
Direct our way in every thing,® and enable us to
order all our afifairs with discrction,P and the Lord
send us good speed, and show kindness to us.1
And the Lord watch between us, when we are
absent one from the other.**
6. When we return from a journey.
Blessed be the Lord God of Abraham, who hath
not left us destitute of his mercy and his tnith.'
All our bones shall say. Lord, who is like unto
thee,* for thou keepest all our bones."
• 1 Tiro. iv. 5. t Matt iv. 4. « Matt. xiv. 19. ▼ Ps. cxxxli. 15.
V Jude 12. X Phil. iii. 19. r Luke xxi. 34. si Cor. x. 31.
• Deut. viii. 10. b Ps. xxiii. 5. e Ps. xvi. 5. 6. d John
vi. 27, 33, 34. e Ps. cxlvi. 7. f Luke xiv. 15. r Rev. ii. 17.
b Gen. xxviii. 20. i Ps. xci. 10. k Rom. i. lo. i Ps. v. 12.
m Prov. iii. 23. n Ps. xci. 13. o i Thess. iii. 11. p Ps. cxii. 5.
q Gen. xxiv. 12. r Gen. xxxi. 49. • Gen. xxlv. 27. t Ps.
XXXV. 10. tt Ps. xxxiv. 20.
670
OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES.
It is God that girdeth us with strength, and mak-
eth our way perfect/
7. On the evening before the Lord's day.
Now give us to remember that to-morrow is the
sabbath of the Lord,' and that it is a high day," holy
of the Lord and honourable,' and give us grace so
to sanctify ourselves, that to-morrow the Lord may
do wonders among us:* and to mind the work of
our preparation now the sabbath draws on. ■
When thou sawedst every thing that thou hadst
made in six days, behold all was very good,'* but in
many things we have all offended.* O that by re-
pentance, and faith in Christ's blood, we may wash
not our feet only, but also our hands and our head,<>
and our heart, and so may compass thine altar, O
Lord."
Now give us to rest from all our own works,' and
to leave all our worldly cares at the bottom of the
hill, while we go up into the mount to worship God,
and return again to them.'
8. On the morning of the Lord's day.
We bless thee. Lord, who hath showed us light,**
and that the light we see is the Lord's ; that we see
one more of the days of the Son of man,* a day to be
spent in thy courts, which is better than a thousand
elsewhere.^
We thank thee. Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
that the things which were hid from the wise and
prudent are revealed unto us babes, even so, Father,
because it seemed good in thine eye? ; that our eyes
see, and our ears hear, that which many prophets
and kings desired to see, desired to hear, and might
not ;^ that life and immortality are brought to light
by the gospel.™
And now, O that we may be in the Spirit on the
Lord's day !° That we may call the sabbath a de-
light,** and may honour the Son of man, who is Lord
aLso of the sabbath-day, p not doing our own ways,
or finding our own plea.sure, or speaking our own
words.
9. At the entrance upon the public worship
on the Lord's day, by the masters of the assem-
blies.
Thou, O God, art greatly to be feared in the as-
sembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of
all them that arc about thee.*! O give us grace to
worship thee with reverence and godly fear, because
thou our God art a consuming fire.^
This is that which thou hast said. That thou wilt
be sanctified in them which come nigh unto thee,
and before all the people thou wilt be glorified."
Thou art the Lord that sanctified us;* sanctify us by
▼ P8. xviil. 32. w Exod. xvi. 2.T
I Josh. iii. 5. • Luke xxiii. 54.
d Julin xiii. 19. e Pb. xxti. 6.
h Ps, cxviii 27. iLakexvii.22
X. -21,23,21. m 2 Tim. i. 10.
P Mark ti. 28 q I*s. Uxxix. 7.
X John xix. .11. y Isa. Iviii. 13.
b Gen. 1. 31. c James iii. 2.
f Heb. Iv. 10. r Gen. xxii. 5.
k Ps Ixxxiv. 10. I Luke
B Rev. 1. 10. o Isa. Iviii. l.l
r Heb. xii. 2H, 2I». • Lev. x. 3.
thy truth," that we may sanctify thee in our hearts,
and make thee our fear and our dread/
We come together to give glory to the great Je-
hovah, who in six days made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that in them is, and rested the sevcoth
day, and therefore blessed a sabbath-day, and hal-
lowed it.* Our help stands in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.''
O let us be new creatures, ^ thy workmanship,
created in Jesus Christ unto good works :* and let
that God, who on the first day of the world com-
manded the light to shine out of darkness, on this
first day of the week shine in our hearts, to give us
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ.*
We come together to give glory to the Lord Jesns
Christ, and to sanctify this sabbath to his honour,
who was the stone that the builders refused, bat is
now become the head-stone of the comer. This is
the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.
This is the day which the Lord has made, we will
rejoice and be glad in it** He is the first and the
last, who was dead, and is alive.^
O that we may this day experience the power of
Christ's resurrection,^ and may be planted together
in the likeness of it, that as Christ was raised op
from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also
may walk in newness of life,* and may sit with
him in heavenly places / and by seeking the tbiop
that are above,* may make it to appear that we are
risen with him.
We come together to give glory to the blessed
Spirit of grace, and to celebrate the memorial of the
giving of that promise of the Father,^ in whom the
apostles received power on the first day of the week,»
as on that day Christ arose.
O that we may this day be filled with the Holy
Ghost, and that the fruit of the Spirit in os may he
in all goodness, and righteousness, and tmth.^
We come together to testify our communion with
the universal church ; that though we are many, jet
we are one;^ that we worship one and the same
God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in
him, in the name of one Lord Jesus Christ, hv
whom are all things, and we by him ;" ander the
conduct of the same Spirit, one and the self-same
Spirit, who divideth to every man severally as be
will;" walking by the same rule,* looking for the
same blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of
the great God and our Saviour.i*
10. In our preparation for the Lord's supper.
Now we are invited to come eat of Wisdom's
t Ezek. XX. IS. V John xvii. 17. « Isa. viii. IX w Exod. xx. II.
z Ps. cxxiv, a 7 a Cor. ▼• 17. s Eph. «. 10. a « Cor. i». i
b Ps. cxviii. 33-34. c Rev. ii. a d Phil. iii. 10. • Rom. vi. i 4^
f Eph.ii.6. V Col. iii. I. h Actsi. 4. i Acts it 1. ^EptL
V. 18. 1 1 Cor. x. 17. m 1 Cor. viil. «. ml Cor. xii II.
o Gal. vi. 16. p TiL ii. 13.
OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES.
677
bread, and drink of the i»ine that she has mingled,^
give as to hunger and thirst after righteousness ;'
and being called to the marriage sapper of the Lamb,*
l^ve us the wedding garment.*
Awake, O north wind, and come, thou south, and
blow upon our garden, that the spices thereof may
flow forth ; and then let our beloved come into his
garden, and eat his pleasant fruits."
Draw us, and we will run after thee ; bring us
into thy chambers, that there we may be glad and
rejoice in thee, and may remember thy love more
than wine. And when the King sits at his table,
let our spikenard send forth the smell thereof.^
And the good Lord pardon every one that preparcth
his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers,
though he be not cleansed according to the purifica-
tion of the sanctuary.* Hear our prayers, and heal
the people.
11. In the celebrating of the Lord's supper.
O let this cup of blessing, which we bless, be the
communion of the blood of Christ ; let this bread,
which we break, be the communion of the body of
Christ,"" and enable us herein to show the Lord's
death till he come.^
Now let us be joined to the Lord in an everlasting
covenant ;* so joined to the Lord, as to become one
spirit with him.* Now let us be made partakers of
Christ, by holding fast the beginning of our con-
fidence stedfast to the end.^
Let Christ's flesh be meat indeed to us, and his
blood drink indeed ; and give us so by faith to eat
his flesh and drink his blood, that he may dwell in
us, and we in him, and we may live by him.^
Let the cross of Christ, which is to the Jews a
stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness, be
to us the wisdom of God, and the power of God.**
Seal to us the remission of sins, the gift of the
Holy Ghost,® and the promise of eternal life,' and
enable us to take this cup of salvation, and to call
on the name of the Lord.s
12. After the celebrating of the Lord's supper.
And now. Lord, give us to hold fast that which
we ha>'e received, that no man take our crown :** and
keep it always in the imagination of the thoughts of
our hearts, and prepare our hearts unto thee.*
Give us grace, as we have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so to walk in him,^ that our conversation
may be in every thing as becomes his gospel.^
O that we may now bear about with us continually
the dying of the Lord Jesus, so as that the life also
of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal body,°>
that to us to live may be Chrisf
q Prov. ix. 6. r Matt. v. 6. ■ Rev. xix. 9. t Matt xxii. 1 1.
a Cant iv. 16. ▼ Cant i. 4, 12. w 2 Chron. %xx. 18, 19.
X I Cor. X. 16. y 1 Cor. xi. 20. • Jer. 1. 4. a 1 Cor. vi. 17.
b Heb. iii. 14. e John vi. 55-57. d l Cor. i. 23, 24. t Acts
ii. 38. 1 1 John ii. 25. f Ps. cxvi. M. h Rev. iii. ll. i l Chmn.
xxix. 18. k Col. ii. 6. i Phil. i. 97. »2 Cor. iv. 10. » Phil.
1 21. o Pa. ivi. i3L p Ps Ixi. 8. s Ezek. xviii. 4. r Rom.
Thy vows are upon us, O God,** O that we may be
daily performing our vows.p
13. Upon occasion of the baptism of a child.
To thee, O God, whose all souls are, the souls of
the parents, and the souls of the children,*] we pre-
sent this child a living sacriiice, which we desire
may be holy and acceptable/ and that it may be
given up and dedicated to the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost."
It is conceived in sin,* but there is a fountain
opened ;<* O wash the soul of this child in that foun-
tain, now it is by thine appointment washed with
pure water. ^
It is one of the children of the covenant/ one of
the children that is born unto thee," it is thy servant,^
born in thy house : O make good thy ancient cove-
nant, that thou wilt be a God to believers, and to
their seed;' for this blessing of Abraham comes
upon the Gentiles,* and the promise is still to us, and
to our children.^
Thou hast encouraged us to bring little children
to thee ; for thou hast said, that of such is the king-
dom of God. Blessed Jesus, take up this child in
the arms of thy power and grace, put thy hands upon
it, and bless it;<^ let it be a vessel of honour, sanc-
tified, and meet for the Master's use,*^ and owned as
one of thine in that day when thou makest up thy
jewels.*
O pour thy Spirit upon our seed, thy blessing upon
our offspring, that they may spring up as willows by
the water-courses, and may come to subscribe with
their own hands unto the Lord, and to surname them-
selves by the name of Israel.'
14. Upon occasion of a funeral.
Lord, give us to find it good for us to go to the
house of mourning,' that we may be reminded there-
by of the end of all men, and may lay it to our heart,
and may be so wise as to consider our latter end ;**
for we also must be gathered to our people, as our
neighbours and brethren are gathered ;' and though
whither those who are dead in Christ are gone we
cannot follow them now,^ yet grant that we may
follow them afterwards, every one in his own order.'
We know that thou wilt bring us to death, and to
the house appointed for all living;'" but let us not
see death, till by faith we have seen the Lord Christ,
and then let us depart in peace according to the
word." And when the earthly house of this taber-
nacle shall be dissolved, let us have a building of
God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens.®
And give us to know that our Redeemer liveth,
xii. I. > Matt, xxviii. 19. t Ps. Ii. 5. u Zech. xiii. 1. ▼ Heb.
X. 22. w Acts iii. 25. x Ezek. xvi. 20. j Ps. ex. 16. > Gen.
xvii. 7. a Gal. iii. 14. b Acts ii. 39. e Mark x. 14, 16.
d 2 Tim. ii. 21. e Mai. iii. 17. f Isa. xliv. 3—5. r Eccl. vii. 2.
h Deut xxxii. 29. iNumb. xxvii. 13. k John xiii. 36. 1 1 Cor,
XV. 23. m Job XXX. 23. a Luke ii. 26, 29. o 2 Cor. V. 1.
678
OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES.
and that though after our skin, worms destroy these
bodies, yet in our flesh we shall see God, whom we
shall see for ourselves, and our eyes shall behold,
and not another.?
16. Upon occasion of marriage.
Give to those who marry to marry in the Lord,'
and let the Lord Jesus by his grace come to the mar-
riage, and turn the water into wine.'
Make them helps meet for each other,* and instru-
mental to promote one another's salvation;* and
give them to live in holy love, that they may dwell
in God, and God in them."
Let the wife be as a fruitful vine by the side of
the house,' and the husband dwell with the wife as
a man of knowledge ; and let them dwell together
as joint-heirs of the grace of life, that their prayers
be not hindered.'* And make us all meet for that
world where they neither marry nor are given in
marriage.'
16. Upon occasion of the ordaining of minis-
ters.
Let the things of God be committed to faithful
men, who may be able also to teach others,' and
make others such burning and shining lights," that
it may appear it was Christ Jesus who put them into
the ministry ; * and let not hands be suddenly laid
on any.''
Give to those who are ordained to take heed to
the ministry which they have received of the Lord,
that they fulfil it,*" and to make full proof of it by
watching in all things.*^
Let those who in Christ's name are to preach re-
pentance and remission of sins, be endued with
power from on high;* give them another Spirit,^ and
make them good ministers of Jesus Christ, nourished
up in the words of faith and good doctrine.'
17. Upon occasion of the want of rain.
Thou hast kept back the rain from us, and caused
it to rain upon one city, and not upon another, yet
have we not returned unto thee *>
But thou hast said. When heaven is shut up that
there is no rain, because we have sinned against
thee, if we confess thy name, and turn from our sins,
thou wilt hear from heaven, and forgive our sin, and
give rain upon our land.^
We ask of thee the former and latter rain,^ and
depend upon thee for it ; for there are not any of the
vanities of the heathen that can give rain, nor can
the heavens give showers, but we wait on thee, for
thou hast made all these things.'
18. Upon occasion of excessive rain.
P Job xix. 25—27. q 1 Cor. vii. .19. r John ii. 1. ■ Gen.
ii. la 1 1 Cor. vii. Id. u i Jolin iy. 16. r Pa. cxxviii. 3. v I Pet
iii. 7. X Luke xx. 35. 7 2 Tim. ii. 2. » John v. 35. * 2 Tim. i. 13.
b I Tim. V. 22. c Col. iv. 17. d 2 Tim iv.5. • Luke xxiv.
47, 49. f 1 Sam. X. 9. V 1 Tim. iv. 6. h Amos iv. 7.
I I Kings, viii. 35, 36. k Zech. x. I. 1 Jer. xiv. 22, m Job
xxxvii. 13. D Prov. xxviii. 3. o Isa. liv. 9. p Job xxxviii. 22.
Let the rain thou seadest be in mercy to oar laod,"
and not for correction ; not a sweeping rain, which
leaveth no food."
Thou hast sworn that the waters of Noah shall u
more return to cover the earth ;'* let fair weather
therefore come out of the north, for with thee is ter-
rible majesty .p
19. Upon occasion of infections diseases.
Take sickness away from the midst of ns,^ and
deliver us from the noisome pestilence.'
Appoint the destroying angel to pat up his sword
into the sheath, and to stay his hand.*
20. Upon occasion of fire.
Thou callest to contend by fire,* we bewail the
burning which the Lord hath kindled :" O Lord God,
cease, we beseech thee,^ and let the fire be quenched,
as that kindled in Israel was at the prayer of Moms.*
21. Upon occasion of great storms.
Lord, thou hast the winds in thy hands,* aad
bringest them out of thy treasures,' even stormy
winds fulfil thy word :* O preserve us and our habi-
tations, that we be not buried in the rains of thea,
as Job's children were.*
22. Upon occasion of the cares, and bortfacas,
and afflictions of particular persons ; as,
(1.) When we pray with or for those that are
troubled in mind, and melancholy, and imder
doubts and fears about their spiritual state.
Lord, enable those that fear thee, and obey the
voice of thy servant, but walk in darkness, and hau
no light, to trust in the name of the Lord, and to
stay themselves upon their God ;^ and at eveoia^-
time let it be light.*^
O strengthen the weak hands, confirm the feeble
knees, say to them that are of a fearful heart. Be
strong, fear not<^ Answer them with good words,
and comfortable words,* saying unto them. Be of
good cheer, your sins are forgiven you :' Be of good
cheer, it is I ; be not afraid," I am your salvation :k
and make them to hear this voice of joy and glad-
ness, that broken bones may rejoice.'
Let those who now remember God, and are troo-
bled, whose spirits are overwhelmed,^ and .whose
souls refuse to be comforted, be enabled to trust in
thy mercy, so that at length they may rejoice in thj
salvation ; though thou slay them, yet to trust in
thee.*
Though deep calls anto deep, and all thy waves
and thy billows go over them, yet do thou command
thy lov^g-kindness for them in the day-time, aad
in the night let thy song be with them, and their
q Exod. xxiii. 3ft. r Ps. zd. 3. • S Sam. xxir. 16. t Amos vii 4
u Lev. X. 6. ▼ AmoB vii. 5. w Numbi xi. 2. x Pror. xxx.4
7 Ps cxxxv. 7. s Ps. cxlviii. 8. a Job i. 19. b ba. I. It
e Zech. xiv. 7. d Isa. xxxv. 3, 4. • Zech. i. 13. ( Matt
ix. 2. tc Mark vi. 50. b Ps. xxxv. 3. i Pa. Ii. & k Pi
IxxviL 3, 3. 1 Job xiii. 1&.
OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES.
679
prayer to the God of their life ; though their souls
are cast down and disquieted within them, give them
to hope in God, that they shall yet praise him, and
let them find him the health of their countenance,
and their God."*
O renew a right spirit within them, cast them not
away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spi-
rit from them, but restore unto them the joy of thy
salvation, and uphold them with thy free Spirit, that
their tongues may sing aloud of thy righteousness,"
and show forth thy salvation.**
O bring them out of this horrible pit, and this miry
clay, and set their feet upon a rock, establishing
their goings, and put a new song in their mouth,
even praises to our God:^ O comfort them again
now after the time that thou hast afflicted them.'<
Though for a small moment thou hast forsaken
them, and hid thy face from them, yet gather them,
and have mercy on them with everlasting kindness.^
O let thy Spirit witness with their spirits, that they
are the children of God ;* and by the blood of Christ
let them be purged from an evil conscience. ^
Lord, rebuke the tempter, even the accuser of the
brethren ; the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem re-
buke him, and let the poor, tempted, troubled souls,
be as brands plucked out of the burning.
(2.) Those who are under convictions of sin,
and begin to be concerned about their souls,
and their salvation, and to inquire after Christ.
Those who are asking the way to Zion, with their
faces thitherward,** that are lamenting after the Lord,*
and are pricked to the heart for sin,* O show them
the good and the right way,* and lead them in it
To those who are asking what they shall do to in-
herit eternal life,^ discover Christ as the way, the
truth, and the life,' the only true and living way.
O do not quench the smoking flax, nor break the
bruised reed, but bring forth judgment unto victory."
Liet the great Shepherd of the sheep gather the lambs
in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently
lead them,** and help them against their unbelief.'^
Let not the red dragon devour the man child as
soon as it is born, but let it be caught up to God, and
to his throne.**
(3.) When we pray with, or for, those who are
sick and weak, and distempered in body ; that
those who are sick, and in sin, may be convinced ;
those who are sick, and in Christ, comforted.
Lord, thou hast appointed those that are sick to
be prayed for, and prayed with, and hast promised,
that the prayer of faith shall save the sick f Lord,
help us to pray in faith for the sick, and as being
ourselves also in the body.
m P». xlii.7, 8. II. a Ps.li. 10-12, 14. o Ps. Uxi. 15. p Pa.
xl. 2, .3. q Ps. xc. 15. r IssL Hv. 7,8. • Rom. viii. 16. t Heb.
X. 22. u Jer 1. a. ▼ 1 Sam. Til. 2. vr Acta ii. 37. « I Sam.
xii 23. y Matt. xix. 16. « John xiv, 6. • Matt xii. 2«.
b Isa. xl. 11. e Mark ix. 24. d Rev. xii. 4. 5. c Jamea v. 14,
15. f Mattly.23,24. f Matt. viii. 8,9. iHeb.iv. 15. i Luke
When our Lord Jesus was here upon earth, we
find that they brought to him all sick people that
were taken with divers diseases and torments, and
he healed all manner of sickness, and all manner of
diseases among the people;' and he has still the
same power over bodily diseases that ever he had ;
he says to them. Go, and they go ; Come, and they
come ; Do this, and they do it ; and can speak the
word, and they shall be healed.' He is still touched
with the feeling of our infirmities :^ and in the belief
of this we do by prayer bring our friends that are
sick, and lay them before him.^
Lord, grant those who are sick may neither despise
the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when they
are rebuked of him ;'' but that they may both hear
the rod, and him that has appointed it,' and may
kiss the rod, and accept of the punishment of tlicir
iniquity.™
Give them to see, that affliction cometh not forth
out of the dust, nor springs out of the ground ;^ that
they may therefore seek unto God, to the Lord
more than to the physicians,** because unto God the
Lord belong the issues of life and deRth.P
Lord, show them wherefore thou contendest with
them,i and give them in their afflictions to humble
themselves greatly before the God of their fathers,*'
and to repent and turn from every evil way, and
make their ways and their doings good,* that being
judged and chastened of the Lord, they may not be
condemned with the world.' By the sickness of
the body, and the sadness of the countenance, let
the heart be made better."
O Lord, rebuke them not in thine anger, neither
chasten them in thy hot displeasure. Have mercy
upon them, O Lord, for they are weak. Lord, heal
them, for their bones are vexed, their souls also are
sore vexed. Return, O Lord, and deliver their souls,
save them for thy mercy's sake -/ and lay no more
upon them than tliou wilt enable them to bear, and
enable them to bear what thou dost lay upon them.*
When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for
sin, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a
moth. Surely every man is vanity. But remove thy
stroke, we pray thee, from those that are even con-
sumed by the blow of thine hand : O spare a little,
that they may recover strength before Uiey go hence,
and be no more seen.'
Those who are chastened with pain upon their
bed, and the multitude of their bones with strong*
pain, so that their life abhorreth bread, and their
soul dainty meat, show them thine uprightness, be
gracious to them. Deliver them from going down
to the pit, for thou hast found a ransom.7
V. 18. k Heb. xii. 5. i Mic. vi. 9. , m Lev. xxvi. 41. n Job
▼. n. o 2 Chron xvi. 12. p Pa. Ixviil. 2i». s Job x. 2.
r 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12. • Jer. xviii. II. t I Cor. xi. 32. u Eccl.
vii. 3. V Pa. vi. 1—4. w i Cor. x. 13. *■ Pa. xxxix. 10, II, 13l
y Job xxxiii. 19, 20, 23,24.
680
OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES.
Let the eternal God be their refuge, and under-
neath them be the everlasting arms.* Consider their
frame, remember that they are but dust.'
O deliver those that are thine in the time of
trouble, preserve them, and keep them alive: O
strengthen them upon their bed of languishing, and
make their bed in their sickness : be merciful to
them, and heal their souls, for they have sinned.^
O turn to them, and have mercy upon them, bring
them out of their distresses, look upon their affliction
and their pain, but especially forgive all their sin.«
Make thy face to shine upon them ; save them for
thy mercy's sake.* The God that comforteth them
that are cast down,* comfort them ; and let the soul
dwell at ease in thee,' when the body lies in pain.
If it be the beginning of a distemper, — Lord, set
bounds to this sickness, and say. Hitherto shall it
come, and no further ;« let it not prevail to extre-
mity, but in measure, when it shooteth forth, do thou
debate, and stay thy rough wind in the day of thine
east wind ; and by this let iniquity be purged, and
let this be all the fruit, even thetakingaway of sin.i"
If it have continued long,— Lord, let patience
have its perfect work,* even unto long-suffering, that
those who have been long in the furnace may con-
tinue hoping, and quietly waiting for the salvation
of the Lord :*" let tribulation work patience, and
patience experience, and experience a hope that
makcth not ashamed,' and enable them to call even
this affliction light, and but for a moment, seeing it
to work for them a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory."
If there be hopes of recovery, — Lord, when thou
hast tried them, let them come forth like gold ;■> let
their souls live, and they shall praise thee, let thy
judgments help them:<* O deal bountifully with
them, that they may live and keep thy word. In
love to their souls deliver them from the pit of cor-
ruption, and cast all their sins behind thy bapk.p
Recover them and make them to live. Speak the
word, and they shall be healed ;<> say unto them,
Live, yea, say unto them, Live, and the time shall be
a time of love/ Father, if it be possible, let the
cup pass away; however, not as we will, but as
thou wilt. The will of the Lord be done.* Perfect
that which concerns them. Thy mercy, O Lord,
endures for ever ; forsake not the work of thine own
hands,' but whether they live or die let them be the
Lord's."
If they be in appearance at the point of death, —
Now the flesh and the heart are failing, Lord, be
t Deut. xxxiii. 77.
• Pa. ciii. 14.
b Ps. xli. I-
e P8.
xxT. 16-18. d Ps. xxxt- 16. • 2 Cor. vii. 6. f Ps. xxt. 13
f Job xxxviii. II. h Isa. xxvii. 8, 9. i James i. 4. k Lam.
iii 36. 1 Rom. v. 3-5. m 3 Cor. iv. 17. n Job xxiii 10.
o Ps cxix. 175. p Isa. xxxviii. 16, 17. q Matt. viil. 8. r Ezek.
xvi. 6. R. • Matt. xxvi. 39. t Ps. cxxxviii. a « Rom. xiv. 8.
« Ps. Uxiii. sa w Ps. xxiii. 4. x Heb. xiii. 6. 7 Ps- zlvi- 1
t Ps. xxxi. 5. m I Pet. iv. 19. b Luke xvi. 32. e Eph. v. 37.
thou the strength of the heart,^ and an everlastiif
portion : in the valley of the shadow of death,* Lord,
be thou present, as the good Shepherd, with a gvid-
ing rod, and a supporting staff. O do not fail tkea
nor forsake them now:' be a very present helpj
Into thy hands we commit the departing spirit,* ai
into the hands of a faithful Creator,* by the hands of
him who has redeemed it. Let it be carried byfte
angels into Abraham's bosom.^ Let it be presented
to thee without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thin;.*
Lord Jesus, receive this precious soul t* let it cone
to the spirits of just men made perfect ;* when it ii
absent from the body, let it be present with the Lord !'
This day let it be with thee in paradise.^ Now let
it be for ever comforted,^ and perfectly freed froa
sin.* And prepare us to draw after, as there are is-
numerable before,^ that we may be together for cfer
with the Lord, there, where there shall be no noie
death, and where all tears shall be wiped away.*
(4.) When we pray with, or for, those that are
deprived of the use of their reason.
O look with pity upon those who are pat out of
the possession of their own souls,"* whose judgncst
is taken away," so that their soul choosetb strangliif
and death rather than life.** O restore them to tbea-
selves,p and their right mind.*i Deliver them from
doing themselves any harm.' And whatever aflic-
tions thou layest upon any of us in this worid,
preserve to us the use of our reason, and the petoe
of our consciences.
(6.) When we pray with, or for, sick ehildiea.
Lord, we see death reigning even over them that
have not sinned after the similitude of Adin'i
transgression ;" but Jesus Christ hath abolished
death,* and admitted even little children into the
kingdom of God.' O let sick children be pitied by
thee,' as they are by their earthly parents. They are
come forth like flowers, O let them not be cut don
again.* Turn from them, that they may rest tiD
they shall have accomplished as a hireling their day.
Be gracious to us, and let the children live.* How-
ever, Father, thy will be done.^ O let their spinti
be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.*
(6.) When we pray with, or for, families where
death is, especially such as have lost their head.
Visit the houses of mourning, as our Saviour did,
and comfort them, by assuring them that Christ is
the resurrection and the life,* that their relations
which are removed from them, are not dead, bat
sleep ; ^ and that they shall rise again, that they may
not sorrow as those that have no hope :« and enable
d Acts vii. 50. 0 Heb. xii. 23. f 3 Cor. v. ft f Loke xxiiL
43. h Luke xvi.3A. 1 Rom. vi. 7. k Job xxi.33. 1 Re«.
xxi. 4. m Luke xxi. 19. a Job xxvii. 2. • Job vii U.
P Luke XT. 17. q Bfatt t. 15. r Acta xti. 9R. • Ron. r 14
t 2 Tiin. i. 10. a Bfatt. xvui. 3. ▼ ?». ctU 13. w Job
xiv 2. 6. > 2 Sam. xii. 22. j Acts xxi. 14. • 1 Cor. r. a
a John xi. 95. b Blatt ix. 24. e 1 Tbca. iv. 13.
OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES.
681
them to trust in the living God,<> the Rock of Ages,'
and enjoy the fountains of living waters, when crea-
tures prove broken reeds and broken cisterns.'
Be a father to the fatherless, and a husband to
the widows, O God, in thy holy habitation.' With
thee let the fatherless find mercy ;^ keep them alive,
and let the widows trust in thee,* that they may be
widows indeed, who, being desolate, trust in God,
and continue instant in prayer night and day.i^
And where father and mother have forsaken,^ let the
Lord take up the children, and not leave them or-
phans,"* but come to them.
(7.) When we pray with, or for, those women
that are near the time of travail, or in travail.
Lord, thou hast passed this sentence upon the
woman that was first in the transgression," that in
sorrow she shall bring forth children.** But let this
handmaid of thine be saved in child-bearing, and
continue in faith, and charity, and holiness, with so-
briety .p Enable her to cast her burthen upon the
Lord, and let (he Lord sustain her ; ^ and what time
she is afraid, grant that she may trust in thee,*^ and
may encourage herself in the Lord her God.* O let
not the root be dried up from beneath, nor let the
branch be withered or cut off;' but let both live be-
fore thee. Be thou her strong habitation, her rock,
and her fortress, give commandment to save her."
And when travail comes upon her, which she cannot
escape,* be pleased, O Lord,to deliver her ; O Lord,
make haste to help her ; be thou thyself her help
and deliverer, make no tarrying, O our God.* Let
her be safely delivered, and remember the anguish
no more, for joy that a child is born into the world,*
is bom unto thee.
(8.) When we pray with, or for, those that are
recovered from sickness, or are delivered in
child-bearing, and desire to give thanks unto
God for his mercy.
We will extol thee, O Lord, upon the account of
those whom thou hast lifted up, whose souls thou hast
brought up from the grave, and kept them alive, that
they should not go down to the fit J Those who
were brought low thou hast helped, hast delivered
their souls from death, their eyes from tears, and
their feet from falling. Now give them grace to
walk before thee in the land of the living, to ofier
to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, to call upon thy
name, and to pay their vows unto the Lord.'
The grave cannot thus praise thee ; death cannot
celebrate thee ; they that go down to the pit cannot
hope for thy truth ; but the living, the living, they
shall praise thee, as we do this day.' Lord, grant
d I Tim.vi. 17. • Ps. xxvl. 4 f Jer. ii. 13. k Ps. Ixviii. 5.
b Hos. xiv. 3. i Jer. xlix. 11. v I Tim. v. 5. i ?». xxvii. 10.
m John xiv. 18. n I Tim. ii. 14. e Gen. iii. 16. p I Tim.
li. 13. q Ps. Iv. 23. r pft. Ivl. 3. • 1 Sam. xxx. 6. t Job
xviii. Id. u Ps. Ixxi. 3. » 1 Tliess. v. 3. w Ps xl. 13, 17.
« John xvl. 21. y Ps. xxx. 1,3. i Ps. cxvi. 6-9, 17, 18.
• Isa. xxxviii. I8, 19. b Luke xvii. 18. « 2 Chron. xxxii 25.
that those who are delivered from death may not be
as the nine lepers, who did not return to give thanks ;^
or as Hezekiab, who rendered not again according
to the benefit done unto him ;^ but that they may so
offer praise, as to glorify thee, and so order their
conversation, as to see the salvation of God.^
Those whom the Lord hath chastened sore, yet he
has not delivered over unto death : O that they may
therefore praise him, who is become their salvation.*
(9.) When we pray with, or for, those parents
whose children are a grief to them, or such as
they are in fear about.
Lord, give to parents the desire of their souls con-
cerning their children, which is to see them walking
in the truth ; ^ form Christ in their souls.* O give
them betimes to know the God of their fathers, and
to serve him vnth a a perfect heart and a willing
mind.^ Let children of the youth, that are as arrows
in the hand, be directed aright, that those parents
may have reason to think themselves happy that
have their quiver full of them, and they may never
be arrows in the heart.*
Let those foolish children, who are the grief of
the father, and the heaviness of her that bare them,''
who mock at their parents, and despise to obey'
them, be brought to repentance ; and let those who
have been unprofitable, now at length be made
profitable.'" O turn the hearts of the children to
their fathers," even the disobedient to the wisdom of
the just, that they may be made ready a people pre-
pared for the Lord.*^ O show them their work and
their transgression, that they have exceeded,^* and
open their ear to discipline.^
(10.) When we pray with, or for, those that are
in prison.
Those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of
death, being bound in afiliction and iron, because
they rebelled against the words of God, and con-
temned the counsel of the Most High, give them
grace to cry unto thee in their trouble/ and in a day
of adversity to consider. •
In their captivity give them to bethink themselves,
to humble themselves, and pray, and seek thy face,
to repent, saying. We have sinned, and have done
perversely,^ and to return unto thee with all their
heart, and with all their soul ; and bring their souls
out of prison, that they may praise thy name."
Bring them into the glorious liberty of the children
of God, out of the bondage of corruption.^ Let
the Son make them free, and then they shall be free
indeed.'
Those who are wrongfully imprisoned, be thou
d Ps. 1. 23. « Ps. cxviii. 18, 21. f 2 John 4. w Gal. iv. 19.
h I Chron. xxviii. 9. i Ps. cxxvii. 4, &. k Prov. xvii. 2&.
1 Prov. xxx. 17. m Philero. 11. n Mai. iv. 6. e Luke i. 17.
P Job xxxvi. 9. q Isa. xlviii. 8, 9. r Ps. cvii. 10. 11, 13. > Eccl.
vii. 14. t 1 Kings viii. 47. a Ps. cxlii. 7. ▼ Rom viii. 21.
w Joiin viii. 3(3.
682
THE CONCLUSION OF PRAYER.
with them, as thou wast with Joseph in the prison,
and show them mercy.* Hear the poor, and despise
not thy prisoners,' but let their sorrowful sighing
come before thee, and according to the greatness of
thy power preserve those that are unjustly appointed
to die.
(11.) When we pray with, or for, condemned
malefactors, that have but a little while to live.
O look with pity upon those, the number of whose
months is to be cut off in the midst > for their sin :
O give them repentance unto salvation,' as thou
didst to the thief upon the cross, that they may own
the justice of God in all that is brought upon them,
that he has done right, but they have done wickedly .*»
O turn them, and they shall be turned,' that being
instructed they may smite upon the thigh, and may
be ashamed, yea, even confounded, because they do
bear the reproach of their own iniquity. O pluck
them as brands out of the fire ;*^ let them be delivered
from the wrath to come.*
Enable them to give glory to God by making con-
fession,' that they may find mercy, and that others
may hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously.'
Lord Jesus, remember them now thou art in thy
kingdom.** O let them not be hurt of the second
death.* Deliver them from going down to that pit.^
Though the flesh be destroyed, O let the spirit be
saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.' The God of
infinite mercy be merciful to these sinners,*" — sinners
against their own souls."
(12.) When we pray with, or for, those who
are at sea.
Let those who go down to the sea in ships, that
do business in great waters, observe the works of the
Lord there, and his wonders in the deep :** and ac-
knowledge what a great God he is whom the winds
and the seas obey ;p who hath placed the sand for
the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it
cannot pass it ; and though the waves thereof toss
themselves, yet can they not prevail ; though they
roar, yet can they not pass over.*»
O preserve them through the paths of the seas,'
and in perils by waters, and perils by robbers.* If
the stormy wind be raised, which lifteth up the
waves, so that they are at their wits' end, deliver
them out of their distresses, make the storm a calm,
and bring them to their desired haven : and, O that
those who are delivered may praise the Lord for his
goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children
of men.'
z Gen. zxxix. 21. 7 Ps. Ixix. 33. > Job xxi. 21. a 2 Cor.
vii. 10. b Neh ix. 33. c Jer. xxxi. 18, 19. d Jude 23.
• 1 Thess. i. 10. f Josh. vii. 19. ir Dcut. xvii. 13. h Luke
xxiii. -12. i Rev. ii. 11- k Job xxxiii. 24. 1 1 Cor. v. 5.
m Luke zviU. 13. n Numb. xvi. 38. o Ph. evil. 23, 24.
CHAPTER VII.
OF THB CONCLUSION OP OUK PBATEIS.
Wb are commanded to pray always, to pny 1
without ceasing, to continue in prayer, because .
we must always have in us a disposition to tkb I
duty, must be constant to it, and never gnm
weary of it, or throw it up ; and yet we cioiMi
be always praying, we must come down fron
this mount j nor may we be over long, so as (•
make the duty a task, or a toil to ourselves, or
those who join with us. We ba^e other work
that calls for our attendance. Jacob wrestles
witli the angel ; but he must go, for the daj
breaks. We must therefore think of conclndin^
The prayers of David the son of Jesse mast be
ended. But how shall we conclude, so as to
have the impressions of the duty keep always
in the imagination of the thought of oar heart
1. We may then sum up our requests in some
comprehensive petitions, as the conclusion of
the whole matter.
Now the God of peace, that brought again frooi
the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting co-
venant, make us perfect in every good work, to do
his will, working in us that which is well-pleasiof
in his sight, through Christ Jesus.*
Now the Lord direct our hearts into the love of
God, and into the patient waiting for Christ^
And the God of all grace, who hath called us to
his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that we have
suffered a while, make us perfect, stablish, strength-
en, settle us.^
And now, Lord, what wait we for? Truly our hope
is even in thee,<* and on thee do we depend to be to
us a God all-sufiicient.*
Do for us exceeding abundantly above what we
are able to ask or think, according to the power that
worketh in us :' «nd supply all our need according
to thy riches in glory by Christ Jesua.r
2. We may then beg for the audience and
acceptance of our poor weak prayers, for
Christ's sake.
Now the God of Israel grant us the things we
have requested of him.^
Let the words of our mouths, and the meditations
of our hearts, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord,
our strength and our Redeemer. ^
Let thine eyes be open unto the supplication of
thy servants, and unto the supplication of thy people
Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call
p Matt. viii. 27. 4 Jer. ?. S2. r ps. viiL 8. • a Cor. xl SI
t Ps. cvii. 35, 27-31.
• Heb. xiii. 20, 21. b 2 Thesa. iii. 5^ « I Pet v. 10. * P>>
xxxix 7. • Gen. xvii. I. f £ph. iiL 90. f PbiL if- Ui
b I Sam. i. 17. i Ps. xix. U.
THE CONCLUSION OF PRAYER.
683
unto tbec for ; for they be thy people and thine in-
beritance>
O our God, let thine ears be attent unto the
prayers that we have made : O turn not away the
face of thine anointed: remember the mercies of
David thy servant ;> even Jesus, who is at thy right
hand making intercession for us.
Lord, thou hast assured us, that whatever we ask
the Father in Christ's name, he will give it us :" we
ask all these things in that name, that powerful
name, which is above every name ;** that precious
name, which is as ointment poured forth.** O make
thy face to shine upon us for the Lord's sake,P who
is the Son of thy love, and whom thou hearest al-
ways.<i Good Lord, give us to hear him, and be
well pleased with us in him.'
3. We may then beg for the forgiveness of
what has been amiss in our prayers.
Lord, we have not prayed as we ought ;• who is
there that does good, and sins not?* Even when we
would do good, evil is present with us ; and if to
will be present, yet how to perform that which is
good we know not ;" for the good that we would,
we do not ; so that thou mightest justly refuse to
bear even when we make many prayers.* But we
have a great High Priest, who bears the iniquity of
the holy things, which the children of Israel hallow
in all their holy gifts ;' for his sake take away all
that iniquity from us, even all the iniquity of our
holy things, and receive us graciously, and love us
freely ;" and deal not with us after our folly .t
4. We may then recommend ourselves to the
conduct, protection, and government of the di-
vine grace, in the further services that lie be-
fore us, and in the whole course of our conver-
sation.
And now let us be enabled to go from strength to
strength, until we appear before God in Zion, and
while we pass through this valley of Baca, let it be
made a well, and let the rain of the divine g^ce and
blessing 611 the pools.'
Now speak. Lord, for tliy servants hear.* What
saith our Lord unto his servants?^ Grant that we
may not turn away our ear from hearing the law ;
for then our prayers will be an abomination ;' but
may hearken unto God, that he may hearken unto
us.**
And now the Lord our God be with us, as he was
with our fathers ; let him not leave us, nor forsake
us ; that he may incline our hearts unto him, to
walk in all his ways, and to keep his command-
ments, and his statutes, and his judgments ;* and
let our hearts be perfect with the Lord our God all
our days, and continue so till the end be, that then
k 1 Kings viii. £2. i 2 Chron. vi. 40, 42. m John xvL 23.
n Phil. ii. 9. e Cant. i. 3. p Dan tx. 17. q John xi. 42.
r Matt xrii. 5. • Rom. viii. 26. t Eccl. vii. 20. u Rom.
Tli. 18, 19. ▼ IhslI. 15. w Exod. xxviii. 38. > Hoft. xiv. 2.
7 Job xlii. 8. ■ Ps. Ixxxiv. 6, 7. • 1 Sam. iii. 9. b Josh. v.
we may rest, and may stand in our lot, and let it be
a blessed lot in the end of the days/
5. We may conclude all with doxologies or
solemn praises of God, ascribing honour and
glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, and sealing up all our praises and pray-
ers with an affectionate Amen.
Now, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, from
everlasting to everlasting,' Amen and Amen.
For ever blessed be the Lord God, the God of
Israel, who only doeth wondrous things, and blessed
be his glorious name for ever, and let the whole
earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.^
Yea, let all the people say. Amen, Hallelujah.*
To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ
for ever, Amen.^
Now to God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver
us from this present evil world, according to the
will of God and our Father, be glory for ever and
ever, Amen.^
To God be glory in the church by Christ Jesus
throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.*"
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the
only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and
ever, Amen.*^ To him be honour and power ever«
lasting,** to him be glory and dominion, Amen.p
Now unto him that is able to keep us from falling,
and to present us faultless before tlie presence of
his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God
our Sa\iour, be glory and majesty, dominion and
power, now and ever, Amen.i
Hallelujah, salvation, and glory, and honour, and
power, unto the Lord our God, Amen, Hallelujah.'
And now, we prostrate our souls before the throne,
and worship God, saying. Amen, blessing, and
glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour,
and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and
ever. Amen.*
Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be
unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb for ever and ever ;* and let the whole creation
say. Amen, Amen.
6. It is very proper to sum up our prayers in
that form of prayer which Christ taught his dis-
ciples.
Onr Father which art in heaven ; hallowed be thy
name ; thy kingdom come ; thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven ; give us this day our daily bread ;
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them
that trespass against us ; and lead us not into temp-
tation, but deliver us from evil ; for thine is the
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and
ever. Amen."
14. e ProT. xxviii. 9. d Judg. ix. 7. e i Kings viii. 57, 58.
f Dan. xii. 13. r Ps. xli. 13. h Ps. Ixxii. 18, 19. i Ps. cvi. 48.
k Rom. xvi. 27. 1 Gal. i. 3—5. m Eph iii. 21. n i Tim. i 17.
e 1 Tim. vi. 16. p 1 Pet. v. II. q Jude 24, 25. r Rev.
zix. 1, 4. • • Rev. vii. 11, 12. t Rev. v. 13. u BAatt vi. 9-13.
e84
A PARAPHRASE ON THE LORD'S PRAYER-
CHAP. VIII.
A PARAPHRASE ON THB LORD'S PRATER, IN SCRIPTURE
EXPRESSIONS.
The Lord's Prayer being intended not only for a
form of prayer itself, but a rule of direction, a plan
or model in miniature, by whicb we may frame our
prayers ; and the expressions being remarkably con-
cise, and yet vastly comprehensive, it will be of
good use sometimes to lay it before us, and observ-
ing the method and order of it, to dilate upon the
several passages and petitions of it, that when we
use it only as a form, we may use it the more intel-
ligently ; of which we shall only here give a speci-
men in the assistance we may have from some other
scriptures.
Our Father which art in heaven.
O Lord our God, doubtless thou art our Father,
though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel ac-
knowledge us not; O Lord, thou art our Father,
our Redeemer, thy name is from everlasting ;* and
wc will from this time cry unto thee, our Father,
thou art the guide of our youth.**
Have we not all one Father, has not one God cre-
ated us?^ Thou art the Father of our spirits, to whom
we ought to be in subjection and live.**
Thou art the Father of lights,* and the Father of
mercies,' and the God of all consolation : the eter-
nal Father,^ of whom, and through whom, and to
whom, are all things>
Thou art the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,*
whose glory was that of the only-begotten of the
Father, who is in his bosom> by him as one brought
up with him, daily his delight, and rejoicing always
before him.'
Thou art in Christ our Father, and the Father of
all believers, whom thou hast predestinated to the
adoption of children,"* and into whose hearts thou
hast sent the Spirit of the Son, teaching them to cry,
Abba, Father." Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be
called the children of God.» That the Lord God
Almighty should be to us a Father, and we should
l>e to him for sons and daughters ;p and that as
many as receive Christ, to them thou shouldst give
power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on his name ; which are born, not of the will
of man, but of God,<i and his grace.
O that we may receive the adoption of sons«r and
a Isa. Ixiii. IG. b Jer. iii. 4. c Mai. ii. lo. d Heb. xii. 9.
• James i. 17. f 2 Cor. i. 3. ir laa. ix. 6. h Rom. xi. 36.
i Eph. i. 3. k John i. 14, 18. i Prov. viii. 3(». m Eph. i. 5.
« Gal. iv. 6. o 1 John iii. I. p 2 Cor. vi. la q John i. 12, 13.
r fJal. iv. 5. ■ 1 Pet. i. 14, 15. t Eph. v. I. u Rodl viii. 20.
r Eph. iii. 12. w Mai. iii. 17. « 1 John ii. 1. y John xvi. 27.
;
f
1
that, as obedient and fi^enuine children, we bbj
fashion ourselves according to the example of kia
who hath called us, who is holy ;* and may be fol-
lowers of God as dear children,^ and confoniKd n
the image of his Son, who is the first-boni lami
many brethren."
Enable us to come to thee with homble boldMS
and confidence,^ as to a Father, a tender FadM^
who spares us as a man spares his son that mha
him ;* and as having an Advocate with the Fatkr,'
who yet has told us, that the Father himself iofesv;
Thou art a Father, but where is thine honov^
Lord, give us grace to serve thee as becomes cUI*
dren, with reverence and godly fear.*
Thou art a Father; and if earthly parents, hua^
evil, yet know how to give good gifts onto thdr di-
dren, how much more shall our heavenly Fate
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?^ Lai
give us the Spirit of grace and supplication.*
We come to thee as prodigal children, who km
gone from our Father^s house into a far countiy; Iii
we will arise and go to our Father, for in his hois
there is bread enough, and to spare, and if we cm*
tinue at a distance from him, we perish with haogCL
Father, we have sinned against heaven, and bete
thee, and are no more worthy to be called thy cbB-
dren, make us even as thy hired servants.^
Thou art our Father in heaven, and therefore nto
thee, O Lord, do we lift op oor souls. Unto tki
we lift op our eyes, O thoo that dwellest in Ik
heavens. As the eyes of a servant are to the hiii
of his master, and the eyes of a maiden to the hudi
her mistress, so do oor eyes wait opon thee, 0 M
our God ;* a God whom the heaven of heavens en-
not contain,^ and yet to whom we may have accci^
having a High Priest that is passed into the heaven^
as our fore-runner.s
Thou, O God, dwellest in the high and holy plaee,^
and holy and reverend is thy name.' God is in bcft-
ven, and we upon earth,^ therefore should wecbow
out words to reason with him ; * and yet throogh a
mediator we have boldness to enter into the holiest"
Look down, we pray thee, from heaven, and te-
hold from the habitation of thy holiness, and of tbjr
glory," and have compassion opon os, and help vl*
Heaven is the firmament of thy power: O hearis
from thy holy heaven, with the saving strength af
thy right hand ; send os help from the sanctuarjt
and strengthen os out of Zion.p ^
And, O that since heaven is oor Father's hoose,^
we may have our conversation there,' and may seA
the things that are above.*
I Mai. i. 6. • Heb. xii. 28. b Luke xi. 13. r Zecb. xii. N.
d Luke XV. 13, 17—19. • Pa. Ixxxvl. 4. Ps. cxxiii. I, S. f I Kii«i
viii. 27. r Heb. iv. H. h Isa. Irii. 15. i Pa. cxi. 9. k Ecd
V. 2. 1 Job ix. 14. » Heb. x. 19. ■ Im. Ixiii. 15. • Mark
ix. 22. p Ps. XX. 2, 0. 4 John xiv. s. r PhiL iii. IB. • CoL iill
k PARAPHRASE ON THE LORD'S PRAYER.
686
Hat lowed be thy name.
And now, what is our petition, and what is onr
request?* What would we that thou shouldst do for
us?" This is our hearts' desire and prayer^ in the
first place. Father in heaven, let thy name be sanc-
tified.* We pray that thou mayst be glorified as a
Holy God.
We desire to exalt the Lord our God, to worship
at his footstool, at his holy hill, and to praise his
great and terrible name, for it is holy, for the Lord
oar God is holy.' Thou art holy, O thou that in-
habitcst the praises of Israel.i^
We glory in thy holy name, and therefore shall
our hearts rejoice," because we have trusted in that
boly name of thine,* to which we will always give
thanks, and triumph in thy praise.^
Lord, enable us to glorify thy holy name for ever-
more, by praising thee with all onr hearts,' and by
bringing forth much fruit, for herein is our heavenly
Father glorified.'^ O that we may be to our God for
a name, and for a praise, and for a glory,* that being
called out of darkness into his marvellous light, to
be to him a peculiar people, we may show forth the
praises of him that hath called us.'
O that we may be thy children, the work of thy
hands, that we may sanctify thy name, and sanctify
the Holy One of Jacob, and fear the God of Israel,'
and may be to the praise of his glory .*^
Enable us, as we have received the gift, so to mi-
nister the same, as good stewards of the manifold
grace of God, that God in all things may be glorified
through Jesus Christ : and if wo suffer, enable us to
suffer as Christians, and to glorify God therein,* for
, this is our earnest expectation and hope, that always
Jesas Christ may be magnified in our bodies, in life
and deaths
Lord, enable others to glorify thee, let even the
atrong people glorify thee, and the city of the terri-
ble nations fear thee ; > but especially let the Lord
be magnified from the border of Israel."* Let them
glorify the Lord in the fires, even the Lord God
of Israel in the isles of the sea." O let all nations
"Whom thou hast made, come and worship before thee,
O Lord, and glorify thy name ; for thou art great,
«Lnd dost wondrous things, thou art God alone."
O let the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy, let his
name be knowh and confessed among the Gentiles,
mnd let them rejoice with his people.^ O let thy
name be great among the Gentiles,*! and let all
the ends of the world remember and turn to the
t Etth. ▼. 6. u Matt. XX. 32. ▼ Rom. x. 1. w Lev. x. 3.
as Pa. xcix. 3, 5. 9. j Ps xxii. 3. • Pt. cv. 3. • Ps. xxxiii.
SI b Ps. cvi. 47. e Ps. Ixxxvi. 12. d John xv. ft • Jer.
aciii. II. f 1 Pet ii. 9. g Isa. xxix. 23. h Eph. i. 12.
i 1 Pet iv. 10. II, 16. k Phil. i. 23. 1 laa. xxv 3. m Blal. i.
«. n ISB. XXlv. IV o Ps. Ixxxvi. 9. 10. p Rom. XV. 9, 10.
^Mal.i. II. r Ps. xxii 27, 31. • Jcr. x. 7. tRcv. xv. 3.
Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations worship
before thee ; and let them declare thy righteousness
to a people that shall be born.'
Lord, do thou thyself dispose of all things to thy
own glory, both as King of nations,* and as King of
saints :* do all according to the counsel of thy own
will," that thou mayst magnify thyself, and sanctify
thyself, and mayst be known in the eyes of many
nations, that thou art the Lord.^ O sanctify thy
great name, which has been profaned among the
heathen, and let them know that thou art the Lord,
when thou shalt be sanctified in them.*
Father, glorify thine own name : thou hast glorified
it, glorify it again.' Father, glorify thy Son, that
thy Son also may glorify thee.' O give him a name
above every name,* and in all places and in all
things let him have the pre-eminence.*
Lord, what wilt thou do for thy great name?<> Do
this for thy great name ; Pour out of thy Spirit upon
all flesh f and let the word of Christ dwell richly in
the hearts of all.** Be thou exalted, O Lord, among
the heathen, be thou exalted in the earth f be thou
exalted, O God, above the heavens, let thy glory be
above all the earth ;' be thou exalted, O Lord, in
thine own strength, so will we sing and praise thy
power.i^ Do great things with thy glorious and ever-
lasting arm, to make unto thyself a glorious and an
everlasting name.''
O let thy name ht magnified for ever, saying, The
Lord of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to
Israel.'
lliy kingdom come.
In order to the sanctifying and glorifying of thy
holy name, Father in heaven, let thy kingdom come;
for thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art ex-
alted as head above all : both riches and honour
come of thee ; thou reignest over all, and in thine
hand is power and might ; in thine hand it is to
make great, and to give strength unto all.*^ And
we desire to speak of the glorious majesty of thy
kingdom, for it is an everlasting kingdom, and thy
dominion endures throughout all generations.' Thou
rulest by thy power for ever ; thine eyes behold the
nations. O let not the rebellious exalt themselves,"
but through the greatness of thy power let thine ene-
mies submit themselves unto thee."
O make it to appear that the kingdom is thine,
and that thou art the Governor among the nations, so
evident, that they may say among the heathen. The
Lord reigneth ;» that all men may fear, and may
declare the works of God,p and may say. Verily he
ti Eph. i. 11. ▼ Ezek. xxxviii. 23. «r Gzek. xxxvi. 23. « John
xii. 27. 28. J John xvii. l. ■ Phil. it. 9. • Col. i. la b Josh,
vii. 9- « Joel il. 28. d Col. iii. 16. • Ps. xlvi. 10. f Pa.
Ivli. 11. r Ps. xxi. 13. h Isa. Ixiii. 12. 14. i I Chron. xvii.
24. k 1 Chron xxix. 1 1, li i Ps cxlv. 12, 13. m Ps. Uvi. 7.
a Fs. Ixvi. 3. o Ps. xcvi. 10. p Ps. lxiv.9.
686
A PARAPHRASE ON THE LORD'S PRAYER.
is a God that jadgetb in the earth.^ Make all the
king.s of the earth to know that the heavens do rule,
even that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of
men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will ; and to
praise and extol, and honour the King of heaven,
all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment,
and those that walk in pride he is able to abase/
O let the kingdom of thy grace come more and
more in the world, that kingdom of God which com-
eth not with observation, that kingdom of God which
is within men.* Let it be like leaven in the world,
diffusing its relish till the whole be leavened, and
like a grain of mustard seed, which, though it be
the least of all seeds, yet when it is grown, is the
greatest among herbs/
Let the kingdoms of the world become the king-
doms of the Lord, and of his Christ Take unto thy-
self thy great power, and reign, though the nations
be angry." Set up thy throne there where Satan's
seat is,* let every thought be brought into obedience
to thee,* and let the law of thy kingdom be magni-
fied and made honourable.'
Let that kingdom of God, which is not in word,
but in power,' be set up in all the churches of Christ
Send forth the rod of thy strength out of thy Zion,
and rule by the beauty of holiness.*
Where the strong man armed hath long kept his
palace, and his goods are in peace, let Christ, who is
stronger than he, come upon him, and overcome him,
and take from him all his armour wherein he trusted,
and divide the spoil.*
O give to the Son of man dominion, and glory, and
a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages
may serve him, and the judgment may be given to
the saints of the Most High.''
Let the kingdom of thy grace come more and more
in our land, and the places where we live. There
let the word of the Lord have free course, and be
glorified,' and let not the kingdom of God be taken
from us, as we have deserved it should, and given
to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.^
Let the kingdom of thy grace come into our hearts,
that they may be the temples of the Holy Ghost*
Let no iniquity have dominion over us.^ Overturn,
overturn, overturn the power of corruption there, and
let him come whose right our hearts are, and give
them him ;f make us willing, more and more will-
ing, in the day of thy power.*" Rule in us by the
power of truth, that being of the truth, we may
always hear Christ's voice,* and may not only call
him Lord, Lord, but do the things that he saith."
And let the love of Christ command us, and con-
^ Ps. Iviil. II. r Dan. iv. 25. 26, 37. ■ Luke xvii. 20, 21.
t Matt. xiil. 31—3.1. u Rev. xi. 15, 17. ▼ Rer. ii. 13. w 2 Cor.
X. 5. z Isa. xUi. 21. 7 1 Cor. iv. 20. > Ps. ex. 2, 3. • Luke
xi.21, 2^2. b Dan. vH. 14. 22. o 2 Thcss. Hi. 1. d Matt. xxi.
43. e I Cor. iii. 16 f Fa. cxix. 133. ir Ezek, xxi. 27. h Ps.
ex. 3. I John xviii. 37. k Luke vl. 46. i 2 Cor. v. 14.
m Exod. XX. 20. n Malt. xxiv. 30. o Isa. Ixvi. 5. p 2 Tim. |
strain us,* and his fear be before oar eyes, that we
sin not"*
O let the kingdom of thy glory be hastened ; we
believe it will come, we look for the Savioiir, tiie
Lord Jesus, to come in the clouds of heaven with
power and great glory ; ^ we hope that he shall ap-
pear to our joy ;® we love his appearing ;' we are
looking for, and hasting to, the comiDg of the day <i
God ;<i make us ready for it,*" that we may then lift
up our heads with joy, knowing that oar redemp-
tion draws nigh.* And, O that we may have soch
first-fruits of the Spirit, that we oarselves may groai
within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, even the
redemption of our body ; * and may have a desire to
depart, and to be with Christ, which is best of all."
Blessed Jesus, be with thy ministers and people
(as thou hast said) always even onto the end of tk
world,* and then, as thou hast said, Sarely, I ooae
quickly ; Even so, come. Lord Jesas, come quickly;*
when the mystery of God shall be finished,' make
haste our beloved, and be thou like to a roe, or to a
young hart upon the mountains of spices.7
T%f will be done om earik as ii is in kemvem
And as an evidence that thy kingdom comes, and
in order to the sanctifying of thy name. Father ii
heaven, let thy holy will be done. We know, 0
Lord, that whatsoever thoo pleasest, that thoa doest
in heaven, and in earth, in the sea, and in all deep
places ;■ thy counsel shall stand, aod thoa wilt do
all thy pleasure :* Even so be it. Holy Father, wt
our will, but thine be done.** As thou hast tlionght,
so let it come to pass ; and as thou hast poiposed,
let it stand.c Do all according to the coonael of
thine own will.^ Make even those to serve thy par-
poses who have not known thee,' and who mean not
so, neither doth their heart think so.'
Father, let thy will be done concerning as and
ours : Behold here we are ; It is the Lord, let bin
do to us as seemeth good unto him ;> the will of the
Lord be done> O give us to submit to thy will io
conformity to the example of the Lord Jesus, who
said. Not as I will, but as thoa wilt;* and to say,
the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away,
blessed be the name of the Lord.^ Shall we receive
good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not re-
ceive evil also?i
Father, let the Scriptures be fulfilled ;"' the Scrip-
tures of the prophets, which cannot be brokfD.'
Though heaven and earth pass away, let not one
iota or tittle of thy word pass away.** Do what is
iv. 8. q 2 Pet. iii. IS. r Matt. xxiv. 44. • Luke xxi. *
t Rom. viii. 23. n Phil.i. 2a r Matt. xxTiii. 90. » R«*
xxii. 20. X Rev. t. 7. j Cant. viii. 14. « Ps czxxr. & • bB-
xWi 10. b Luke xxii. 42. e laa. xiv. 24. a Epb. i. 12. * te
xlv. 4. t 1m. X. 7. r 2 Sam. xv. 26. h Acts xxi. 14. i Iba
XX vi. 39. k Job i. 21. I Job ii. 10. m Ifatt. xxvt.Ml ■ i^
X. 35. o Matt. xxiv. 35.
A PARAPHRASE ON THE LORD'S PRAYER.
e87
written in the Scriptores of trath, and let it appear
hat for ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.P
Lord, give grace to each of as to know and do the
rill of our Father which is in heaven.** This is the
iHil of God, even oar sanctification.' Now the God
>f peace sanctify us wholly.' O let ns be filled with
the knowledge of thy will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding,* and make us perfect in every good
irork to do thy will." O let the time past of our life
laffice us to have wrought the will of the flesh/ and
lo have walked according to the coarse of this
world ;'' and henceforth grant that it may always be
our meat and drink to do the will of our Father,*
and to finish his work J not to do our own will, but
bis that sent us, that we may be of those that shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven,' and not those
that shall be beaten with many stripes.
Lord, give g^ce to others also, to know and do
thy will ; to prove what is the good, and acceptable,
and perfect will of God ;» not to be unwise, but un-
derstanding what the will of the Lord is ;** and then
give them to stand perfect and complete in all the
will of God.<: And let us all serve our generations
according to that will.' And when we have done
the will of God, let us inherit the promises f and let
that part of the will of God be done ; Lord, let the
word which thou hast spoken concerning thy ser-
vants be established for ever, and do as thou hast
said.^
We rejoice that thy vnll is done in heaven ; that
the holy angels do thy commandments, and always
hearken to the voice of thy word,' that they always
behold the face of our Father:)* and we lament that
thy will is so little done on earth, so many of the
children of men being led captive by Satan at his
will.^ O that this earth may be made more like to
heaven ! and saints more like to the holy angels !
And that we who hope to be shortly as the angels of
God in heaven,*^ may now, like them, not rest from
praising him ;* may now, like them, resbt and with-
stand Satan ; may be as a flame of fire,"* and fly
swiftly," and may go straight forward whithersoever
the Spirit goes f may minister for the good of others,
and thus may come into communion with the innu-
merable company of angels.i*
Give us this day our daily bread.
Thon, O God, who hast appointed as to seek first
the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof,
hast promised, that if we do so other things shall bo
added unto us:<< and therefore, having prayed for
P Ps. cxix. 89. q Matt. xii. 50. t i Thess. iv. 3. • 1 Thess.
V. 23. t Col. i.9. 11 Heb. xiii. 21. t 1 Pet. iv. 3. w Eph.
ii. 2. X John iv. 34. j John vi. 38. ■ Matt vii. 21. • Rom.
xiii. 2. b Eph. v. 17. e Col. iv. 12. d Acts xiii. 36. • Heb.
X. 36. f I Chron. xvii. 23. «r P& ciii. 20. h Matt, xviii. 10.
I 2 Tim. ii. 26. k Matt. xxii. 30. 1 Rev. iv. 8. m Ps. civ. 4.
b Dan. ix. 21. o Ezek. i.9, 12. p Heb. xii. 22. q Ifatt vi. 33.
the sanctifying of thy name, the coming of thy king-
dom, and the doing of thy will, we next pray. Fa-
ther in heaven, give us this day, give us day by day,
our daily bread/
Remove far from us vanity and lies: give us
neither poverty nor riches ; feed us with food con-
venient for us ;' lest we be full and deny thee, and
say. Who is the Lord ? or, lest we be poor and steal>
and take the name of our God in vain.
Lord, we ask not for dainties, for they are deceitful
meat;' nor do we pray that we may fare sump-
tuously every day, for we would not in our life- time
receive our good things ;° but we pray for that bread
which is necessary to strengthen man's heart.^ We
desire not to eat the bread of deceit,* nor to drink
any stolen waters,' nor would eat the bread of idle-
ness,7 but that if it be thy will we may eat the labour
of our hands,* that with quietness we may work, and
cat our own bread ;' and having food and raiment,
give us to be therewith content,** and to say, We
have all, and abound.*^
Bless, Lord, our substance, and accept the work
of our hands ;* and give us wherewithal to provide
for our own, even for those of our own house,* and
to leave an inheritance, as far as is just, to our chil-
dren's children.' Let the beauty of the Lord our
God be upon us ; prosper thou the work of our hands
upon us, yea, the work of our hands establish thoa
iti^ Bless, Lord, our land with the precious things
of the earth, and the fulness thereof; but above all
let us have the good will of him that dwelt in the
bush, even the blessing that was upon the head of
Joseph, and upon the crown of the head of him that
was separated from his brethren.''
But if the fig-tree should not blossom, and there
should be no fruit in the vine ; if the labour of the
olive should fail, and the field should yield no meat,
if the flock should be cut off from the fold, and
there should be no herd in the stall, yet let us have
grace to rejoice in the Lord, and to joy in the God
of our salvation.*
Father, we ask not for bread for a great while to
come, but that we may have this day our daily bread ;
for we would learn, and the Lord teach us, not to
take thought for the morrow, what we shall eat. or
what we shall drink, or wherewithal we shall be
clothed, but we cast the care upon thee, our heavenly
Father, who knowest that we have need of all these
things ; who feedest the fowls of the air, though
they sow not, neither do they reap, and wilt much
more feed us who are of more value than many
sparrows.^
r Luke xi. 3. • Prov. xxx. 8, 9. t Prov. xxiii. 3. « Luke
xvi. 19, 25. T P8. civ. 14. w Prov. XX. 17. x prov. ix. 17.
7 Prov. xxxi. 27. ■ Ps. cxxviii. 2. • 2 Thess. iii. 12. b 1 Tim.
vi. a c Phil. iv. 18. d Deut xxxiii. 11. « 1 Tim. v. a
f Prov. xiii. 22. ff Ps. xc. 17. h Deut. xxxiii. 13, 16. i Hab.
iii. 17, 18. k Mdtt vi. 31, 38.
688
A PARAPHRASE ON THE LORD'S PRAYER.
Nor do we pray for daily bread for ourselves only,
but for others also. O satisfy thy poor with bread.'
Let all that walk righteously and speak uprightly
dwell on high : let the place of their defence be the
munition of rocks ; let bread be given to them, and
let their waters be sure.™
And forgive us our debit as we forgive our debtors.
And, Lord, as duly as we pray every day for our
daily bread, we pray for the forgiveness of our sins;
for we are all guilty before God, have all sinned,
and have come short of the glory of God." In
many things we all oflfend every day.<* Who can
tell how often he offends? If thou shouldst mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand ? But there is
forgiveness with thee, that thou mayst be feared.p
God be merciful to us sinners.
We have wasted our Lord's goods,^ we have buried
the talents we were intrusted with,*^ nor have we
rendered again according to the benefit done unto
us,* and thus we come to be in debt The Scripture
Las concluded us all under sin ;* we have done such
things as are worthy of death," things for which the
wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedi-
ence.* Our debt is more than ten thousand talents,
it is a great debt, and we have nothing to pay, so
far are we from being able to say. Have patience
with us, and we will pay thee all.* Justly therefore
might our adversary deliver us to the judge, and the
judge to the officer, to be cast into prison, the prison
of hell, till we pay the last farthing.'
But blessed be God, there is a way found out of
agreeing with our adversary ; for if any man sin, we
have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ
the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our
sins.]^ For his sake, we pray thee, blot out all our
transgressions," and enter not into judgment with us.*
He is our Surety,** who restored that which he took
not away f that blessed Days-man, which hath laid
his hand upon us both.<^ Through him let us be
reconciled unto God;< and let the hand-writing
which was against us, which was contrary to us, be
blotted out, and taken out of the way, being nailed
to the cross of Christ,^ that we may be quickened
together with Christ, having all our trespasses for-
given us. Be thou merciful to our unrighteous-
nesses, and our sins and our iniquities do thou re-
member no more.*
And give us, we pray thee, to receive the atone-
ment,** to know that our sins are forgiven us.' Speak
peace to us,'^ and make us to hear joy and gladness.^
1 Ps. cxxxii. 15 m ba. xxxiii. 1&, 16. n Rom. iii. 19, S3,
0 Jam iii. 2. p Ps. cxxx. 3, 4. q Luke xvi. 1. r Matt xxv. 18.
• 2 Chron. xxxii. 25. t Gal. iii. 22. « Rom. i. 32. ▼ Eph v. 6.
w Matt, xviii. 24-26, 32. x Matt. v. 25, 26. / 1 John ii. 1. 2.
1 Ps. Ii. I. a Ps. cxiiii. 2. b Heb. vii.22. e Ps. lxix.4.
d Job ix. 33. e 2 Cor. v. 20. f Col. ii. 13, 14. t Heb. viii. 12.
h Rom. V. II. II John ii. 12. k Pt. Ixxxv. 8. i Ps. Ii. 8.
Let the blood of Christ thy Son cleanse us from all
sin," and purge our consciences from dead wods^
to serve the living 6od.°
And as an evidence that thou hast forgiven ov
sins, we pray thee give us g^ce to forgive our eo^
mies, to love them that hate us, and bless themtbt
curse us; for we acknowledge, that if we iwpn
not men their trespasses, neither will our F^ker
forgive our trespasses ; <> and, therefore, we for-
give. Lord, we desire heartily to forgive, if we kite
a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave uu
Far be it from os to say, that we will recompeiue
evil,*! or that we should avenge ourselves,' hot we
pray that all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and
clamour, and evil-speaking, may be pot away froa
us, with all malice ; and that we may be kind one to
another, and tender-bearted, forgiving one anotkr,
even as God for Christ's sake we hope hath forgiva
us.* O make us merciful as our Father which » in
heaven is merciful, who hath promised that with tk
merciful he will show himself merciful.'
And lead us not into temptation, hut deliver us frm
evil.
And, Lord, forasmuch as there is in us a bent to
backslide from thee,** so that when our sins are for-
given, we are ready to return again to folly,^ we pray
that thou wilt not only forgive us our debts, but tab
care of us, that we may not offend any more.* Lord,
lead us not into temptation. We know thatBomti
can say when he is tempted, that he is templed
of God, for God tempteth not any man ;* hot «e
know that God is able to make all grace to abovnd
towards us,t and to keep us from falling, and pie-
sent us faultless.' We, therefore, pray thattkoi
wilt never give us up to our own hearts' lusts, to
walk in our own counsels,* but restrain Satan, tkat
roaring lion, that goes about seeking whom be maj
devour,^ and grant that we may not be ignorant of
his devices.^ O let not Satan have us, to sift as as
wheat ; or, however, let not our faith fail.' Let not
the messengers of Satan be permitted to bofet
us ; but if they be, let thy grace be sufiicicat for ns.
that where we are weak, there we may be strong,'
and may be more than conquerors through him that
loved us.' And the God of peace tread Satan oDder
our feet, and do it shortly.' And since we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principali-
ties and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of
this world, let us be strong in the Lord, and in tbe
power of his might^
m 1 John i. 7. B Heb. ix. 14. o Matt. ▼. 44. Itatt vt Ii
p Col. iii. 13. q Prov. xx. 2B. r Rom. xii. la • Eph. iv. ». a '
t Ps. xviii. 25. « Hos. xi. 7. ▼ Pi. \xxxr. g. w Job xniv. I
zJam. i. 13. 7 3 Cor. ix. 8. iJude94. aPs-Ixxiia
b 1 Pet. v. 8. r 2 Cor. ii. 11. d Luke xxii. 31, 32. « f Cot
xii. 7, 9, 10. f Rom. viii. 37. t Jloin. xvi. 90. ii Eph. vi. W, t%
A PARAPHRASE ON THE LORD'S PRAYER.
C89
Lord, (^nt that we may never enter into tempta-
tion,^ but having prayed, may set a watch ;^ let thy
wise and good providence so order all affairs and
all events that are concerning us, that no temptation
may take us hut such as is common to men, and
that we may never be tempted above what we are
able ^ to discern, resist, and overcome through the
grace of God. Lord, do not lay any stumbling-
blocks before us,"* that we should fall upon them and
perish. Let nothing be an occasion of falling to us,**
but give us that gpreat peace which they have that
love thy law, whom nothing shall offend."
And lead us, we pray thee, into all truth ; lead
OS into thy truth,P and teach us, for thou art the God
of our salvation. Show us thy ways, O God, and
teach OS thy paths, the paths of righteousness ; O
lead us in those paths for thy name's sake, that so we
may be led beside the still waters.<i
And deliver us, we pray thee, from the evil one ;
keep OS, that the wicked one touch us not,' that he
sow not his tares* in the field of our hearts, that we
be not insnared by his wiles, or wounded by his fiery
darts ; * let the word of God abide in us, that we
may be strong, and may overcome the wicked one."
Deliver us from every evil thing, we pray, that we
may do no evil : * O deliver us from every evil work ;•
save OS from our sins,* redeem us from all iniquity,'
especially the sin that doth most easily beset us.*
Hide pride from us ;* remove from us the way of lying ;
let us not eat of sinners' dainties ; incline our hearts
to thy testimonies, and not to covetousness ; and keep
OS that we never speak unadvisedly with our lips :
but especially keep back thy servants from pre-
sumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over
OS.**
Preserve us, we pray thee, that no evil thing may
befall us ; let thy hand be with us, and keep us
from evil, that it may not hurt us.' O thou that
savest by thy right hand them which put their trust
in thee, from those that rise up against them, show
US thy marvellous loving-kindness, and keep us as
the apple of thine eye ; hide us under the shadow of
thy wings.<* Keep that which we commit unto thee.<
Thou hast delivered, dost deliver, and we trust and
pray that thou wilt yet deliver,^ wilt deliver us from
all our fears.> O make us to dwell safely, and grant
that we may be quiet from the fear of evil.** And
bring us safe at last to that holy mountain, where
there is no pricking brier, or g^eving thorn,* nothing
to hurt or destroy."
1 Matt zxvi. 41. k Neb. iv. 9. 1 1 Cor. x. 31. m Jer. vi. 21.
B IUmo- xiv. 13. e Ps cxix. 165. p John xvi 13. q Ps. xxv.
4. 5. Ps. xxiii 2, 3. r I Jotin v. 18. • Matt. ziii. 25. t Eph.
«i. II, lA. a 1 John ii. 14. « 2 Cor. xili. 7. w 2 Tim. iv. 18.
M Matt i. 21 J Tit ii. 14. ■ Heb. xiL 1. » Job xxxiii. 17.
b Pb cxix. 39. Ps cxli. 4. Ps. cxix. 36. Ps. cvi. 33. Ps. xix. la
Pt. xcL 10. e 2 Chroo. iv. lo. d ps. xvii. 7, a « 2 Tim. i. 12.
2 Y
For thine is (he hinffdom, the power, ami the glorify
for ever. Amen,
Father in heaven, let thy kingdom come, for thine
is the kingdom, thou art God in heaven, and rulest
overall the kingdoms of the heathen;' let thy will
be done, for thine is the power, and there is nothing
too hard for thee ; ■" let thy name be sanctified, for
thine is the glory, and thou hast set thy glory above
the heavens."
Father in heaven, supply our wants, pardon our
sins,and preserve us from evil, for thine is the king-
dom, the power, and the glory, and thou art Lord
over all, who art rich to all that call upon thee.®
None can forgive sins but thou only ;p let thy power
be great *> in pardoning our sins : and since it is the
glory of God to pardon sin,' and to help the help-
less, help us, O God of our salvation ; for the glory
of thy name deliver us, and purge away our sins for
thy name sake.*
We desire in all our prayers to praise thee, for
thou art great, and greatly to be praised.* We praise
thy kingdom, for it is an everlasting kingdom, and
endures throughout all generations," and the sceptre
of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest
righteousness, and hatest wickedness.^ To thee
belongeth mercy, and thou renderest to every man
according to his works." We praise thy power, for
thou hast a mighty arm ; strong is thy hand, and
high is thy right hand, and yet judgment and justice
are the habitation of thy throne, mercy and truth
shall go before thy face.' We praise thy glory, for
the glory of the Lord shall endure for ever.^ Glory
be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
O let God be praised in his sanctuary, and praised
in the firmament of his power ; let him be praised for
his mighty acts, and praised according to his excel-
lent greatness. Let every thing that hath breath
praise the Lord. Hallelujah.'
And forasmuch as we know that he heareth us,
and whatsoever we ask, according to his will, in
faith, we have the petitions that we desired of him,*
we will triumph in his praise.** Now know we that
the Lord heareth his Anointed, and for his sake will
hear us from his holy heaven with the saving strength
of his right hand i^ and therefore, in token not only
of our desire, but of our assurance to be heard in
Christ's name, we say. Amen, Amen.
Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy
Name, &c.
r 2 Cor. i. 10. g Ps. xxxiv. 4. h Prov. i. 33. i Ezelc. xxviii.
24. k Isa. xi. 9. 12 Chroa xx. 6. m Jer. xxxii. 17. a Ps.
viii. 1. o Rom. x. 12. p BSark it. 7. q Numb. xiv. 17.
r PrOT. xxv. 2. • P& IZXix. 9. t Ps. Cxiv. a a Ps. Cxlv.
la tPs.x1t. 6,7. wp8.1xii. 12. X Ps. Ixxxix. 13, 14.
f Pd, civ. 31. « Ps. cl. 1, 2, 6. • 1 John v. 15. b Ps. cvi. 47.
e Ps. ZX. 6.
690
FORMS OF PRAYER.
CHAP. IX.
80MR SHORT FORMS OP PRAYER, FOR THE USB OF THOSE WHO
MAT NOT BB ABLB TO COLLBCT FOR THEH8ELVBS OUT OF THE
FORBGOING MATERIALS.
A Prayer to be used by Children,
O God, tbou art my God, early will I seek thee.
Thou art my God, and I will praise thee; my
Father's God, and I will extol thee.
Who is a God like unto thee, glorious in holiness,
fearful in praises, doing wonders ?
Whom have I in heaven but thee 1 and there is
none upon earth that I desire besides thee. When
my flesh and my heart fail, thou art the strength of
my heart, and my portion for ever.
Thou madest me for thyself, to show forth thy
praise.
But I am a sinner ; 1 was shapen in iniquity, and
in sin did my mother conceive me.
God be merciful to me a sinner.
O deliver me from the wrath to come, through
Christ Jesus, who died for me, and rose again.
Lord, give me a new nature. Let Jesus Christ
be formed in my soul, that to me to live may be
Christ, and to die may be gain.
Lord, I was in my baptism g^ven up to thee ; rc-
cscive me graciously, and love me freely.
Lord Jesus, thou hast encouraged little children
to come to thee, and hast said, that of such is the
kingdom of God. I come to thee : O make me a
faithful subject of thy kingdom ; take me up in thy
arms, put thy hands upon me and bless me.
O give me grace to redeem me from all iniquity,
and particularly from the vanity which childhood
and youth are subject to.
Lord, give me a wise and an understanding heart,
that I may know and do thy will in every thing, and
may in nothing sin against thee.
Lord, grant that from my childhood I may know
the Holy Scriptures, and may continue in the good
things that I have learnt.
Remove from me the way of lying, and g^nt me
thy law graciously.
Lord, be thou a Father to me, teach me, and guide
me ; provide for me, and protect me ; and bless me,
even me, O my Father.
Bless all my relations, father, mother, brothers,
sisters, and give me grace to do my duty to them in
every thing.
Lord, prepare me for death, and give me wisely
to consider my latter end.
O Lord, I thank thee for all thy mercies to me :
for life and health, food and raiment, and for my
education; for my creation, preservation, and all
the blessings of this life ; but above all for thine
inestimable love in the redemption of the world by
our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of g^race, aod
for the hope of glory.
Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift ; bless-
ed be God for Jesus Christ None but Christ, none
but Christ for me.
Now to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, that great name into which I was baptised,
be honour and glory, dominion and praise, for ever
and ever. Amen.
Our Father which art in heaven, &c.
Another Paraphrase on the hordes Prmyer^ in the
words of the Assemhly*s Shorter Cmteehietn.
Our Father in heaven, we come to thee as children
to a Father able and ready to help as.
We beseech thee. Let thy name be sanctified;
enable us and others to glorify thee in all* that
whereby thou hast made thyself known, and dispose
of all things to thine own glory.
Let thy kingdom come ; let Satan's kingdom be
destroyed, and let the kingdom of thy grace be ad-
vanced ; let us and others be broag^t into it, and kept
in it, and let the kingdom of thy glory be hastened.
Let thy will be done on earth as it is done in
heaven ; make us by thy grace able and willing to
know, obey, and submit to thy will in all things, 85
the angels do in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread ; of thy free gift
let us receive a competent portion of the good thiogi
of this life, and let us enjoy thy blessing with them.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them
that trespass against us. We pray that for Christ's
sake thou wouldst freely pardon all our sins, and
that by thy grace thou wouldst enable as from the
heart to forgive others.
And lead us not into temptation, bat deliver us
from evil. Either keep us, O Lord, from being
tempted to sin, or support and deliver ns when we
are tempted.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory,
for ever. Lord, we take our encouragement in prayer
from thyself only, and desire in oar prayers to praise
thee, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to thee:
and in testimony of our desires and assorance to be
heard through Jesus Christ, we say, Amen.
Another Prayer drawn out of my plain Caieehism
for Children ; {which was first publiehed m the Year
1702 ;) which wiU he easy to those Children who here
learned that Catechism,
O Lord, thou art an Infinite and Eternal S|nrit,
most wise and powerful, holy, just, and good.
Thou art the great God who madest the worid,
and art my Creator ; and thou who madest me dott
preserve and maintain me, and in thee I live, and
move, and have my being. O that I may remember
FORMS OF PHAYER.
001
thee as my Creator in the days of my youth, and
never forget thee.
Lord, give me grace to serve and honour thee, to
worship and ohey thee, and in all my ways to trust
in thee, and to please thee.
Lord, I thank thee for thy holy word, which then
hast given me to be the rule of my faith and obe-
dience, and which is able to make me wise unto
salvation.
I confess, O Lord, that the condition I was bom in
is sinful and miserable. I am naturally prone to
that which is evil, and backward to that which is
good, and foolish ne-ss is bound up in my heart ; and
I am by nature a child of wrath, so that if thou
hadst not raised up a Saviour for me, I had been
certainly lost and undone for ever. I have been
disobedient to the command of God, and have eaten
forbidden fruit
But, blessed, and for ever blessed, be God, for
the Saviour Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God,
and the only Mediator between God and man, who
took our nature upon him, and became man, that he
might redeem and save us.
Lord, I bless thee for his holy life ; give me to fol-
low his steps. I bless thee for the true excellent
doctrine which he preached ; give me to mix faith
with it. I bless thee for the miracles which he
wrought to confirm his doctrine: and, especially,
that he died the cursed death of the cross to satisfy
for sin, and to reconcile us to God ; and that he
rose again from the dead on the third day, and as-
cended up to heaven, where he ever lives making
intercession for us, and has all power, both In hea-
ven and in earth ; and that we are assured he will
€M>me again in glory to judge the world at the last
day.
Lord, I thank thee, that I am one of his disciples ;
for I am a baptized Christian ; and I give glory lo
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in whose name I am
baptized.
Lord, be thou in Christ to me a God, and make
me one of thy people.
Be thou my chief good and highest end ; let Jesus
Christ be my Prince and Saviour ; and let the Holy
Ghost be my sanctifier, teacher, guide, and com-
forter.
Lord, enable me to deny all ungodliness and
worldly, fleshly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously,
and godly, in this present world, always looking for
the blessed hope.
Work in me repentance towards God, and faith
towards our Lord Jesus Christ ; and give me to live
a life of faith and repentance.
Lord, make me truly sorry that I have offended
thee in what I have thought, and spoken, and done
amiss, and give me grace to sin no more.
And enable me to receive Jesus Christ, and to
rely upon him as my Prophet, Priest, and King, and
2 t2
to give up myself to be ruled, and taught, and saved
by him.
Lord, grant unto me the pardon of my sins, the
gift of the Holy Ghost, and eternal life.
And give me grace to manifest the sincerity of my
faith and repentance, by a diligent and conscientious
obedience to all thy commandments.
Enable me to love thee with all my heart, and to
love my neighbour as myself.
Give me grace always to make mention of thy
name with reverence and seriousness, to read and
hear thy word with diligence and attention, to medi-
tate upon it, to believe it, and to frame my life ac-
cording to it.
Lord, grant that I may receive all thy mercies
with thankfulness, and bear all afflictions with pa-
tience and submission to thy holy will.
Lord, grant that my heart may never be lifted up
with pride, disturbed with anger, or any sinful pas-
sion ; and that my body may never be defiled with
intemperance, uncleanness, or any fleshly lusts ;
and keep me from ever speaking any sinful words.
Lord, give me grace to reverence and obey my
parents and governors. I thank thee for their in-
structions and reproofs : I pray thee bless them to
me, and make me in every thing a comfort to them.
Lord, pity, help, and succour the poor, and those
in affliction and dLstress.
Lord, bless my friends, forgive my enemies, and
enable me to do my duty to all men.
Wherein I have in any thing offended thee, I
humbly pray for pardon in the blood of Christ, and
grace to do my duty better for the time to come, and
so to live in the fear of God, as that I may be happy
in this world, and tliat to come.
Lord, prepare me to die, and leave this world : O
save me from that state of everlasting misery and
torment which will certainly be the portion of all the
wicked and ungodly, and bring me safe to the world
of everlasting rest and joy with thee, and Jesus
Christ
And give me wisdom and grace to live a holy,
godly life, and to make it my great care and busi-
ness to serve thee, and to save my own soul.
All this I humbly beg in the name and for the
sake of Jesus Christ, my blessed Saviour and Re-
deemer, to whom with thee, O Father, and the Eter-
nal Spirit, be honour, glory, and praise, henceforth
and for evermore. Amen.
A Morning Prayer for a Family.
O Lord our God, we desire with all humility and
reverence to adore thee, as a Being infinitely bright,
and blessed, and glorious ; thou hast all perfection
in thyself, and art the Fountain of all being, power,
life, motion, and perfection.
Thou art good to all, and thy tender mercies are
602
FORMS OF PRAYER.
over all thy works ; and thou art continually doing
us good, tliough we are evil and unthankful.
We reckon it an unspeakable privilege, that we
have liberty of access to thee through Jesus Christ,
and leave to call thee our Father in him. O look
upon us now, and be merciful unto us, as thou usest
to do unto those that love thy name.
O give us all to account our daily worship of thee
in our family, the most needful part of our daily
business, and the most pleasant of our daily com-
forts.
Thou art the God of all the families of Israel, be
thou the God of our family, and grant, that whatever
others do, we and ours may always serve the Lord ;
that thou mayst cause the blessing to rest on our
house from the beginning of the year to the end of
it. Lord, bless us, and we are blessed indeed.
We humbly thank thee for all the mercies of this
night past, and this morning, that we have laid us
down and slept, and waked again, because thou hast
sustained us; that no plague has come nigh our
dwelling ; but that we are brought in safety to the
light and comforts of another day.
It is of thy mercies, O Lord, that we are not con-
sumed, even because thy compassions fail not, they
arc new every morning ; great is thy faithfulness.
We have rested and are refreshed, when many
have been full of tossings to and fro till the dawning
of the day. We have a safe and quiet habitation,
when many are forced to wander and lie exposed.
We own thy goodness to us, and ourselves we ac-
knowledge less than the least of all thy mercy, and
of all the truth thou hast showed unto us.
We confess we have sinned against thee, we are
guilty before thee, we have sinned, and have come
short of the glory of God : we have corrupt and sin-
ful natures, and are bent to backslide from thee ;
backward to good, and prone to evil continually.
Vain thoughts come into us, and lodge within us,
lying down and rising up, and they defile or disquiet
our minds, and keep out good thoughts. We are
too apt to burthen ourselves with that care which
thou hast encouraged us to cast upon thee.
We are very much wanting in the duties of our
particular relations, and provoke one another more
to folly and passion than to love and to good works.
We are very cold and defective in our love to God,
weak in our desires toward him, and unsteady and
uneven in our walking with him ; and are at this
time much out of frame for his service.
We pray thee forgive all our sins for Christ's sake,
and be at peace with us in him who died to make
peace, and ever lives making intercession.
There be many who say. Who will show us any
good ? But, Lord, let not us be put off with the good
of this world for a portion ; for this is our hearts'
desire and prayer, Lord, lift up the light of .thy
countenance upon us, and that shall put gladness in
our hearts, more than they have whose corn, aid
wine, and oil, increase.
Lord, let thy peace rule in our hearts, and gire
law to us, and let thy peace keep oar hearts and
minds, and give comfort to os ; find let the coniob^
tions of God, which are neither few nor small, be
our strength and our song in the house of our pil-
gprimage.
Lord, we commit ourselves to thy care and keep-
ing this day : watch over ns for good ; compass u
about with thy favour aa with a shield ; preserve os
from all evil, yea, the Lord presenre and keep ou
souls ; preserve our going out and coming in.
Our bodies, and all our worldly affairs, we coauut
to the conduct of thy wise and gracious proTidence,
and submit to its disposals. Let no hurt or bans
happen to us ; keep os in health and safety ; blett
our employments, prosper us in all our lawful jor
dcrtakings, and give us comfort and success in them.
Let us eat the labour of our hands, and let it be well
with us.
Our precious souls, and all their concerns, we
commit to the government of thy Spirit and grace.
O let thy grace be mighty in us, and suflident fer
us, and let it work in us, both to will and to do that
which is good, of thine own good pleasure.
O give us g^ce to do the work of this day in iti
day, according as the duty of the day requires, and
to do even common actions after a godly sort;
acknowledging thee in all our ways, and having oar
eye ever up to thee, and be thou pleased to direct
our steps.
Lord, keep us from sin ; give us rule over oorowa
spirits, and grant that we may not this day break
out into passion upon any provocationy or speak
unadvisedly with our lips. Give us grace to b*Te
together in peace and holy love, that the Lord may
command the blessing upon os, even life for efcr-
more.
Make us conscientious in all our dealings, and
always watchful against sin, as become those who
see thine eye ever upon us. Arm us against eveiy
temptation, uphold us in our integrity, keep us in
the way\)f our duty ; and grant that we may be is
thy fear every day, and all the day long.
In every doubtful case let our way be made plain
before us ; and give us that wisdom of the prudent
which is at all times profitable to direct; and let
integrity and uprightness presenre us, for we wait
on thee.
Sanctify to us all our losses, crosses, afflictions,
and disappointments, and give us grace to sabmit
to thy holy will in them, and let us find it good for
us to be afflicted, that we may be partaken of tby
holiness.
Prepare us for all the events of thia^ day, for ve
know not what a day may bring forth. Give v>
to stand complete in tliy whole will ; to deny ov-
/
I
\
FORMS OF PRAYER;
693
selves, to take ap our cross daily, and to follow
Jesus Christ.
Lord, fit us for death, and judgment, and eternity,
and give us grace to live every day as those who do
not know but it may be our last day.
Lord, plead thy cause in the world : build up thy
church into perfect beauty ; set up the throne of the
exalted Redeemer in all places upon the ruins of the
devil's kingdom. Let the reformed churches be more
and more reformed, and let every thing that is amiss
be amended ; and let those who suffer for righteous-
ness' sake be supported and delivered.
Do us good in these nations ; bless the king and
all in authority ; guide public counsels and affairs ;
overrule all to thine own glory ; let peace and truth
be in our days, and be preserved to those who shall
come after us.
Be gracious to all our relations, friends, neigh-
bours, and acquaintance, and do them good accord-
ing as their necessities are. Supply the wants of
all thy people. Dwell in the families that fear thee,
and call upon thy name. Forgive our enemies, and
those that hate us ; give us a right and charitable
frame of spirit toward all men, and all that is theirs.
Visit those who are in affliction, and comfort them,
and be unto them a very present help. Recover the
sick, ease the pained, succour the tempted, relieve
the oppressed, and give joy to those who mourn in
Zion.
Deal with us and our family according to the tenor
of the everlasting covenant, which is well ordered in
all things and sure, and which is all our salvation,
and all our desire ; however it pleases God to deal
with us and with our house.
Now blessed be God for all his gifts, both of
nature and grace, for those that concern this life,
and that to come ; especially for Jesus Christ, the
fountain and foundation of all. Thanks be to God
for his unspeakable gift
We humbly beseech thee for Christ Jesus' sake to
pardon our sins, accept our services, and grant an
answer of peace to our prayers, even for his sake
who died for us, and rose again, who hath taught us
to pray, Our Father which art in heaven, 8fv,
An Evening Prayer for a Family,
Most holy, and blessed, and glorious Lord God,
whose we are, and whom we are bound to serve ;
for because thou madest us, and not we ourselves,
therefore, we are not our own, but thine, and unto
thee, O Lord, do we lift up our souls. Thy face,
Lord, do we seek ; whither shall we go for happiness
but to thee, from whom we derive our being?
Thou art the great Benefactor of the whole crea-
tion : thou givest to all life, and breath, and all things:
thou art our Benefactor ; the God who has fed us,
and kept us all our life long unto this day. Having
obtained help of God, we continue hitherto monu-
ments of sparing mercy, and witnesses for thee, that
thou art gracious, that thou art God and not man ;
for therefore it is that we are not cut off.
One day tells another, and one night certifies to
another, that thou art good, and doest good, and
never failest those that seek thee, and trust in thee.
Thou makest the out-goings of the morning and of
the evening to praise thee.
It is through the good hand of our God upon us,
that we are brought in safety to the close of another
day, and that after the various employments of the
day, we come together at night to mention the
loving-kindness of the Lord, and the praises of our
God, who is good, and whose mercy endureth for
ever.
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with his
benefits, even the God of our salvation ; for he who
is our God is the God of salvation. We have from
thee the mercies of the day in its day, according as
the necessity of the day requires, though we come
far short of doing the work of the day in its day,
according as the duty of the day requires.
We bless thee for the ministration of the good
angels about us, the serviceableness of the inferior
creatures to us, for our bodily health and ease, com-
fort in our relations, and a comfortable place of
abode, and that thou hast not made the wilderness
our habitation, and the barren land our dwelling ;
and, especially, that thou continuest to us the use
of our reason, and the quiet and peace of our con-
sciences.
We bless thee for our share in the public tran-
quillity, that thou hast given us a good land, in
which we dwell safely under our own vines and fig-
trees.
Above all, we bless thee for Jesus Christ, and his
mediation between God and man, for the covenant
of grace made with us in him, and all the exceeding
great and precious promises and privileges of that
covenant, for the throne of grace erected for us, to
which we may, in his name, come with humble
boldness, and for the hope of eternal life through
him.
We confess we have sinned against thee; this
day we have sinned and done foolishly: O God,
thou knowest our foolishness, and our sins are not
hid from thee. We mispend our time, we neglect our
duty, we follow after lying vanities, and forsake our
own mercies. We offend with our tongues. Are
we not carnal, and walk as men, below Christians ?
Who can understand his errors ? Cleanse us from
our secret faults.
We pray thee, give us repentance for our sins of
daily infirmity, and make us duly sensible of the
evil of them, and of our danger by them, and let the
blood of Christ thy Son, which cleanses from all
sin, cleanse us from it, that we may lie down to*
694
FORMS OF PRAYER.
night at peace with God, and our souls may com-
fortably return to him, and repose in him as our rest
And ^ve us grace so to repent every day for the
sins of every day, that when we come to die we may
have the sins but of one day to repent of, and so we
may be continually easy.
Do us good by all the providences we are under,
merciful or afflictive ; give us grace to accommodate
ourselves to them, and by all bring us nearer to thee,
and make us fitter for thee.
We commit ourselves to thee this night, and desire
to dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and
to abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Let
the Lord be our habitation, and let our souls be at
home in him.
Make a hedge of protection, we pray thee, about
us, and about our house, and about all that we have
round about, that no evil may befall us, nor any
plague come nigh our dwelling. The Lord be our
keeper, who neither slumbers nor sleeps. Lord, be
thou a sun and a shield to us.
Refresh our bodies, we pray thee, with quiet and
comfortable rest, not to be disturbed with any dis-
trustful, disquieting cares or fears ; but especially,
let our souls be refreshed with thy love, and the light
of thy countenance, and thy benignity, which is
better than life.
When we awake, grant that we may be still with
thee, and may remember thee upon our beds, and
meditate upon thee in the night-watches, and may
improve the silence and solitude of our retirements
for communing with God and our own hearts ; that
when we are alone we may not be alone, but God
may be with us, and we with him.
Restore us to another day in safety, and prepare
us for the duties and events of it : and by all the
supports and comforts of this life, let our bodies be
fitted to serve our souls in thy service, and enable
us to glorify thee with both, remembering that we
are not our own, we are bought with a price.
And, forasmuch as we are now brought one day
nearer our end. Lord, enable us so to number our
days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Let us be reminded by our putting off* our clothes,
and going to sleep in our beds, of putting oflf the
body, sleeping the sleep of death, and of making our
bed in the darkness shortly, that we may be dying
daily in expectation of, and preparation for, our
change, that when we come to die indeed, it maybe
no surprise or terror to us, but we may with comfort
put oflT the body, and resign the spirit, knowing
whom we have trusted.
Lord, let our family be blessed in him, in whom
all the families of the earth are blessed, blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things by
Christ Jesus, and with temporal blessings as far as
thou seest good for us. Give us health and prospe-
rityi but especially let our souls prosper, and be in
health, and let all that belong to as belong to Christ,
that we who live in a house together on eaitii, may
be together for ever with the Lord.
Look with pity upon a lost world, we beseech tbce,
and set up Christ's throne there where Satan's teat
is ; send the gospel where it is not, make it snceess-
ful where it is ; let it be mighty through God to tke
pulling down of the strong holds of sin.
Let the church of Christ greatly flourish in til
places, and make it to appear that it is built apon
a rock, and that the gates of hell cannot prevail
against it ; and suffer not the rod of the wicked any
where to rest upon the lot of the righteous.
Let the land of our nativity be still the particnlar
caro of thy good providence, that in the peace tbireof
wo may have peace. Let glory dwell in our land,
and upon all the glory let there be a defence.
Rule in the hearts of our rulers. We pray thee,
continue the king's life and government long a pub-
lic blessing ; make all who are in places of pablic
trust faithful to the public interest, and all wko
bear the sword a terror to evil doers, and a protec-
tion and praise to them who do well. Own tby
ministers in their work, and give them skill and will
to help souls to heaven.
Be gracious to all who are dear to us : let the
rising generation be such as thou wilt own, and do
thee more and better service in their day than this
has done.
Comfort and relieve all that are in sorrow and
affliction, lay no more upon them than thou wilt en-
able them to bear, and enable them to bear whatthoa
dost lay upon them.
Do for us, we pray thee, abundantly above what
we are able to ask or think, for the sake of our bless-
ed Saviour Jesus Christ, who is the Lord our Right-
eousness. To him with the Father, and the Eternal
Spirit, be glory and praise, now and for ever. Amen.
A Family Prayer for the Lord's Day Mominy,
Most gracious God, and our Father in our Lord
Jesus Christ, it is good for us to draw near to thee,
the nearer the better, and it will be best of all when
we come to be nearest of all in the kingdom of gloiy.
Thou hast thy being of thyself, and thy happiness
in thyself; we therefore adore thee as the Great
Jehovah : w^e have our being from thee, and our hap-
piness in thee, and therefore it is both our du^ and
our interest to seek thee, to implore thy favour, and
to give unto thee the glory due to thy name.
We bless thee for the return of the morning light,
and that thou causest the day-spring to know its
place and time. O let the Day-spring from on high
visit our dark souls, and the Sun of Righteousness
arise with healing under his wings.
We bless thee, that the light we see is the Lord's:
that this is. the day which the Lord has made, has
FORMS OF PRAYER.
606
made for man, has made for himself, we will rejoice
and he glad in it. That thoa hast revealed unto us
thy holy sahhaths, and that we were hetimes taught
to put a difference between this day and other days,
and that we live in a land, in all parts of which God
is publicly and solemnly worshipped on this day.
We bless thee, that sabbath liberties and opportu-
nities are continued to us ; and that we are not wish-
ing in vain for these days of the Son of man ; that
our candlestick is not removed out of its place, as
justly it might have been, because we have left our
first love.
Now we bid this sabbath welcome. Hosanna to
the Son of David, blessed is he that cometh in the
name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest O that
we may be in the Spirit on this Lord's day ; that this
may be the sabbath of the Lord in our dwelling ;
in our hearts, a sabbath of rest from sin, and a sab-
bath of rest in God. Enable us, we pray thee, so to
sanctify this sabbath, as that it may be sanctified to
us, and be a means of our sanctification ; that by
resting to-day from our worldly employments, our
hearts may be more and more taken off from present
things, and prepared to leave them ; and that, by
employing our time to-day in the worship of God,
-we may be led into a more experimental acquaint-
ance with the work of heaven, and be made more
meet for that blessed world.
We confess we are utterly unworthy of the honour,
and unable for the work, of communion with thee,
but we come to thee in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who is worthy, and depend upon the assist-
ances of thy blessed Spirit to work all our works in
us, and so ordain peace for us.
We keep this day holy, to the honour of God the
Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, in
remembrance of the work of creation, that work of
wonder, in which thou madest all things out of no-
thing by the word of thy power, and all very good ;
and they continue to this day according to thine or-
dinance, for all are thy servants. Thou art worthy
to receive blessing, and honour, and glory, and
power ; for thou hast created all things, and for thy
pleasure they are and were created. O thou, who
at first didst command the light to shine out of dark-
ness, who saidst on the first day of the first week,
Let there be light, and there was light ; we pray thee
shine this day into our hearts, and give us more and
more of the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ : and let us be thy
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good
works, a kind of first-fruits of thy creatures.
We likewise sanctify this day to the honour of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God, and our
exalted Redeemer, in remembrance of bis resurrec-
tion from the dead on the first day of the week, by
which he was declared to be the Son of God with
power. We bless thee, that having laid down his
life to make atonement for sin, he rose again for our
justification, that he might bring in an everlasting
righteousness : that the stone which the builders re-
fused, the same is become the head-stone of the
corner : Thit is the Lord's doing ^ and it is marvellous
in our eyes. We bless thee, that he is risen from the
dead, as the first-fruits of them that slept, that he
might be the resurrection and the life to us. Now
we pray, that while we are celebrating the memorial
of his resurrection with joy and triumph, we may
experience in our souls the power and virtue of his
resurrection, that we may rise with him, may rise
from the death of sin to the life of righteousness,
from the dust of this world, to a holy, heavenly,
spiritual, and divine life. O that we may be planted
together in the likeness of Chrisf s resurrection, that
as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of
the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life.
We sanctify this day also to the honour of the
eternal Spirit, that blessed Spirit of grace the Com-
forter, rejoicing at the remembrance of the descent
of the Spirit on the apostles on the day of Pentecost,
the first day of the week likewise. We bless thee,
that when Jesus was glorified, the Holy Ghost was
given to make up the want of his bodily presence,
to carry on his undertaking, and to ripen things for
his second coming; and that we have a promise that
he shall abide with us for ever. And now we pray,
that the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the
dead, may dwell and rule in every one of us, to
make us partakers of a new and divine nature.
Come, O blessed Spirit of grace, and breathe upon
these dry bones, these dead hearts of ours, that
they may live, and be in us a spirit of faith, and
love, and holiness, a spirit of power, and of a sound
mind.
O Lord, we bless thee for thy holy word, which is
a light to our feet, and a lamp to our paths, and
which was written for our learning; that we through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have
hope ; that the Scriptures are preserved pure and
entire to us, and tliat we have them in a language
that we understand. We beg that we may not re-
ceive the grace of God herein in vain. We bless
thee, that our eyes see the joyful light, and our ears
hear the joyful sound, of a Redeemer and Saviour,
and of redemption and salvation by him ; that life
and immortality are brought to light by the gospel.
Glory be to God in the highest, for in and through
Jesus Christ there is on earth peace, and good-will
toward men.
We bless thee for the great gospel record, that
God hatk given to us eternal life, and this life is in his
Son, Lord, we receive it as a faithful saying, and
well worthy of all acceptation ; we will venture our
immortal souls upon it ; and we are encouraged by
it to come to thee, to beg for an interest in the media-
tion of thy Son. O let him be made of God to us
696
FORMS OF PRAYER.
wisdom, rigbteonsness, sanctification, and redemp-
tion ; let OS be effectually called into fellowsbip witb
bim, and by faitb be united to bim, so tbat Christ
may live in us, and we may g^w up into bim in all
tbings, wbo is tbe bead ; tbat we may bring fortb
fruit in bim, and whatever we do in word or deed,
we may do all in bis name : O let us bave tbe Spirit
of Christ, tbat thereby it may appear we are his.
And through him we pray tbat we may have eternal
life, that we may none of us come short of it, but
may all of us have tbe first-fruits and earnests of it
abiding in us.
We bless thee for tbe new covenant made witb us
in Jesus Christ ; that when tbe covenant of inno-
cence was irreparably broken, so that it was become
impossible for us to get to heaven by that covenant,
thou wast then pleased to deal with us upon new
terms ; tbat we are under grace, and not under the
law ; that this covenant is established upon better
promises in tbe band of a Mediator. Lord, we fly for
refuge to it, we take bold of it as the hope set before
us. O receive us graciously into the bond of this
covenant, and make us accepted in tbe Beloved,
according to the tenor of the covenant. Thou bast
declared concerning the Lord Jesus, that be is thy
beloved Son, in whom thou art well pleased, and
we humbly profess tbat he is our beloved Saviour,
in whom we are well pleased : Lord, be well pleased
with us in him.
O that our hearts may be filled this day with
pleasing thoughts of Christ, and his love to us, that
great love wherewith he loved us. O the admirable
dimensions of that love, the height, and depth, and
length, and breadth of the love of Christ, which
passeth knowledge ! Let this love constrain us to
love him, and live to him, who died for us, and rose
ag^in. O that it may be a pleasure and great satis-
faction to us to think, that while we are here pray-
ing at the footstool of the throne of grace, our blessed
Saviour is sitting at the right hand of the throne of
glory, interceding for us. We earnestly beg that
through bim we may find favour with thee our God,
and may be taken into covenant and communion
with thee.
We humbly pray thee for his sake, forgive all our
sins, known and unknown, in thought, word, and
deed : through bim let us be acquitted of the guilt,
and accepted as righteous in thy sight : let us not
come into condemnation, as we have deserved ; let
our iniquity be taken away, and our sin covered ;
and let us be clothed with the spotless robe of Christ's
righteousness, that the shame of our nakedness may
not appear. O let there be no cloud of guilt to in-
terpose between us and our God this day, and to
intercept our comfortable communion with him;
and let our lusts be mortified and subdued, that our
own corruptions may not be as a clog to us, to binder
tbe ascent of our souls heavenwards.
We pray thee, assist as in all the religions aerrieei
of this thine own holy day. Go along witb u t»
the solemn assembly, for if tby presence go not ip
witb us, wherefore should we ^ up ? Give us tD
draw nigh to thee witb a true heart, witb a free
heart, with a fixed heart, and in fail assurance of
faith. Meet us with a blessing : grace thine om
ordinances with thy presence, that special ptesence
of thine which thou hast promised where two or
three are gathered together in thy name. Help u
against our manifold infirmities, and the sins that
do most easily beset us in oar attendance opoa
thee ; let tby word come with life and power to ov
souls, and be as good seed sown in good soil, taking
root, and bringing forth fruit to thy praise ; and Id
our prayers and praises be spiritual sacrifices, ac-
ceptable in tby sight through Christ Jesos ; and let
those wbo tarry at home divide the spoil.
Let thy presence be in all the assemblies of good
Christians this day. Grace be with all them that
love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity ; let great
grace be upon them all. In the chariot of the ever-
lasting gospel let the great Redeemer ride foilk
triumphantly, conquering, and to conquer ; and Id
Qvery thought be brought into obedience to bin.
Let many be brought to believe the report of ^
gospel, and to many let tbe arm of tbe Lord be
revealed. Let sinners be converted unto thee, and
thy saints edified, and built up in faith, bolioeii,
and comfort, unto salvation. Complete the number
of thine elect, and hasten thy kingdom.
Now the Lord of peace himself give us peace
always by all means. Tbe God of hope fill us with
joy and peace in believing for Christ Jesus' sake,
our blessed Saviour and Redeemer, who hath tangbt
us to pray. Our Father which art in heaven, jrc.
A Family Prayer for the Lcrd'$ Day Mhenimy,
O eternal and for ever blessed and glorious Lord
God ! Thou art God over all, and rich in mercy to
all that call upon thee, most wise and powerful, holy,
just, and good; the King of kings, and Lord of
lords ; our Lord and our God.
Thou art happy without us, and bast no need of
our services, neither can our goodness extend unto
thee, but we are miserable without thee ; we hsTO
need of thy favours, and are undone, for ever on-
done, if thy goodness extend not unto us; and
therefore. Lord, we entreat tby favour with oor
whole hearts ; O let thy favour be towards us in
Jesus Christ, for our happiness is bound up in it,
and it is to us better than life. We confess we ha^e
forfeited thy favour, we have rendered oursehet
utterly unworthy of it ; yet we are humbly bold io
pray for it in the name of Jesus Christ, who loved
us, and gave himself for us.
We bewail before tbee, that by the comiption of
FORMS OF PRAYER.
007
our natures we are become odious to thine holiness,
and utterly unfit to inherit the kingdom of God, and
that by our many actual transgressions we are be-
come obnoxious to thy justice, and liable to thy
wrath and curse. Being by nature children of dis-
obedience, we are children of wrath, and have
reason both to blush and tremble in all our approaches
to the holy and righteous God Even the iniquity
of our holy things would be our ruin, if God should
deal with us according to the desert of them.
But with thee, O God, there is mercy and plen-
teous redemption : thou hast graciously provided for
all those that repent and believe the gospel, that the
guilt of their sin shall be removed through the merit
of Christ's death, and the power of their sins
broken by his Spirit and grace ; and he is both ways
able to save to the uttermost all those that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever lives making intercession
for us.
Lord, we come to thee as a Father, by Jesus
Christ the Mediator, and earnestly desire by re-
pentance and faith to turn from the world and the
flesh to God in Jesus Christ, as our ruler and por-
tion. We are sorry that we have offended thee ; we
are ashamed to think of oar treacherous and un-
grateful carriage toward thee. We desire that we
may have no more to do with sin, and pray as
earnestly that the power of sin may be broken in us ,
as that the guilt of sin may be removed from us :
and we rely only upon the righteousness of Jesus
Christ, and upon the merit of his death, for the pro-
caring of thy favour. O look upon us in him, and
for his sake receive us graciously ; heal our back-
si id ings, and love us freely, and let not our iniquity
be our ruin.
We beg, that being justified by faith, we may
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
whom God has set forth to be a propitiation for sin,
that he may be just, and the justifier of them which
believe in Jesus. Through him who was made sin
for us, though he knew no sin, let us who know
no righteousness of our own, be accepted as right-
eous.
And the God of peace sanctify us wholly. Begin
and carry on that good work in our souls, renew us
in the spirit of our minds, and make us in every
thing such as thou wouldst have us to be. Set up
thy throne in our hearts, write thy law there, plant
thy fear there, and fill us with all the graces of thy
Spirit, that we may be fruitful in the fruits of right-
eousness, to the glory and praise of God.
Mortify our pride, and clothe us with humility ;
mortify our passion, and put upon us the ornament
of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of
God of great price. Save us from the power of a
vain mind, and let thy grace be mighty in us to make
us serious and sober-minded. Let the flesh be cru-
cified in us, With all its affections and lusts ; and
give us grace to keep under our body, and to
bring it into subjection to the laws of religion and
right reason, and always to possess our vessel in
sanctification and honour.
Let the love of the world be rooted out of us, and
that covetousness which is idolatry ; and let the love
of God in Christ be rooted in us. Shed abroad that
love in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, and give us to
love thee the Lord our God with all our heart, and
soul, and mind, and might ; and to do all we do in
religion from a principle of love to thee.
Mortify in us all envy, hatred, malice, and un-
charitableness ; pluck up these roots of bitterness
out of our minds, and give us grace to love one an-
other with a pure heart, fervently, as become the fol-
lowers of the Lord Jesus, who has given us this as
his new commandment. O that brotherly love may
continue among us, love without dissimulation !
We pray thee rectify all our mistakes ; if in any
thing we be in an error, discover it to us, and let the
Spirit of truth lead us into all truth, the truth as it
is in Jesus, the truth which is according to godli-
ness ; and give us tliat good understanding which
they have who do thy commandments ; and let our
love and all good affections abound in us yet more
and more, in knowledge, and in all judgment.
Convince us, we pray thee, of the vanity of this
world, and its utter insufiiciency to make us happy,
that we may never set our hearts upon it, nor raise
our expectations from it ; and convince us of the
vileness of sin, and its certain tendency to make us
miserable, that we may hate it and dread it, and
every thing that looks like it, or leads to it.
Convince us, we pray thee, of the worth of our
own souls, and the weight of eternity, and the aw-
fulness of that everlasting state which we are stand-
ing upon the brink of; and make us diligent and
serious in our preparation for it, labouring less for
the meat that perishes, and more for that which en-
dures to eternal life, as those who have set their
affections on things above, and not on things that
are on the earth, which are trifling and transitory.
O that time, and the things of time, may be as
nothing to us in comparison with eternity, and the
things of eternity ; that eternity may be much upon
our heart, and ever in our eye ; that we may be go-
verned by that faith which is the substance of things
hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen ; look-
ing continually at the things that are not seen, which
are eternal.
Give us grace, we pray thee, to look up to the
other world with such a holy concern, that we may
look down upon this world with a holy contempt
and indifference, as those that must be here but a
very little while, and must be somewhere for ever ;
that we may rejoice as though we rejoiced not, and
weep as though we wept not, and buy as though we
possessed not, and may use this world as not abusing
eDS
FORMS OF PRAYER.
it ; because the fashion of this world passeth away,
and we are passing away with it.
O let thy grace be mighty in as, and sufficient for
us, to prepare us for that great change which will
come certainly and shortly, and may come very sud-
denly ; which will remove us from a world of sense
to a world of spirits, from our state of trial and
probation, to that of recompence and retribution ;
and to make us meet for the inheritance of the saints
in light; that when we fail, we may be received into
everlasting habitations.
Prepare us, we beseech thee, for whatever we may
meet with betwixt us and the grave : we know not
what is before us, and therefore know not what par-
ticular provision to make ; but thou dost, and there-
fore we beg of thee to fit us by thy grace for all the
services and sufferings which thou shalt at any time
call us out to ; and arm us against every temptation
which we may at any time be assaulted with, that
we may at all times and in all conditions glorify
God, keep a good conscience, and be found in the
way of our duty, and may keep up our hope and joy
in Christ, and a believing prospect of eternal life ;
and then welcome the holy will of God.
Give us grace, we pray thee, to live a life of com-
munion with thee both in ordinances and provi-
dences, to set thee always before us, and to have our
eyes ever up unto thee ; and to live a life of depend-
ence upon thee, upon thy power, providence, and
promise, trusting in thee at all times, and pouring
out our hearts before thee; and to live a life of
devotedness to thee, and to thine honour and glory,
as our highest end. — And that we may make our
religion not only our business, but our pleasure, we
beseech thee, enable us to live a life of complacency
in thee, to rejoice in thee always ; that making God
our heart's delight, so we may have our heart's de-
sire ; and this is our heart's desire, to know, and love,
and live to God, to please him, and to be pleased in
him.
We beseech thee, preserve us in our integrity to
our dying day, and grant that we may never forsake
thee, or turn from following after thee; but that with
purpose of heart we may cleave unto the Lord, and
may not count life itself dear to us, so we may but
finish our course with joy and true honour.
Let thy good providence order all the ciroum-
staiices of our dying, so as may best befriend our
comfortable removal to a better world ; and let thy
grace be sufficient for us then to enable us to finish
well ; and let us then have an abundant entrance
ministered to us into the everlasting kingdom of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
And while we are here, make us wiser and better
every day than other ; more weaned from the world,
and more willing to leave it : more holy, heavenly,
and spiritual ; that the longer we live in this world,
the fitter we may be for another, and our last days
may be our best days, our last works our best woits,
and our last comforts oar sweetest comforts.
We humbly pray thee, accomplish all that wUch
thou hast promised concerning thy church in die
latter days; let the earth be filled witli thy glory:
let the fulness of the Gentiles'be brought in, aiidkt
all Israel be saved. Let the mountain of the Lord's
house be established upon the top of the mountiiiki,
and exalted above the hills, and let all natioos fkm
unto it
Propagate the gospel in the plantations, and let
the enlargement of trade and commerce oontribirte
to the enlargement of thy church. Let the kingdoa
of Christ be set up in all places, upon the mioi of
the devil's kingdom.
Hasten the downfall of the man of sin, aad kt
primitive Christianity, even pure religion, and sn-
defiled before God and the Father, be revived, tod
made to flourish in all places ; and let the power of
godliness prevail and get ground among all tkat
have the foriQ of it«
Let the wars of the nations end in the peace of
the church, the shakings of the nations in the en-
blishment of the church, and the convulsions ad
revolutions of states and kingdoms in the settleowit
and advancement of the kingdom of God auMn;
men, — that kingdom which cannot be moved.
Let Great Britain and Ireland flourish in all tbdr
public interests. Let thine everlasting gospel be
always tjie glory in the midst of us, and let thy pro-
vidence be a wall of fire round about us. — Destroy
us not, but let a blessing be among us, even a neat-
offering and a drink-offering to the Lord our God.
Be very gracious to our sovereign lord the king;
protect his person, preserve his health, prolong his
days, guide his councils, let his reign be prosperois,
and crown all his undertakings for the pablic
good.
Bless the privy-counsellors, the nobility, tltt
judges, and magistrates in our several counties and
corporations, and make them all in their places
faithful and serviceable to the interests of tke
nation, and every way public blessings.
Bless all the ministers of thy holy word and sacra-
ment ; make them burning and shining lights, and
faithful to Christ, and to the souls of men. Unite
all thy ministers and people together in the troth,
and in true love one to another ; pour out a healinj^
spirit upon them, a spirit of love and chanty, rautaal
forbearance and condescension, that with one
shoulder and with one consent all may study to pro-
mote the common interests of our great Master, and
the common salvation of preeious souls.
We pray thee, prosper the trade of the oatioB,
guard our coasts, disappoint the devices of our ene-
mies against us, preserve the public peace, and keep
all the people of these lands in quietness amoof
themselves, and doe subjection to the aothorttv God
FORMS OF PRAYER.
609
has set over us ; and let the Lord delight to dwell
among us, and to do ns good.
Bless the fruits of the earth, continue our plenty,
abundantly bless our provision, and satisfy even our
poor with bread.
We bless thee for all the mercies of this thine own
holy day ; we hare reason to say, that a day in thy
courts is better than a thousand. How amiable are
thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts ! Bless the word
we have heard this day to us, and to all that heard
it ; hear our prayers, accept our praises, and forgive
what thy pure eye has seen amiss in us and oar per-
formances.
Take us under thy protection this night, and en-
able us to close the day with thee, that we may lie
down, and our sleep may be sweet. Be with us the
week following in all our ways ; forgive us that we
brought so much of the week with us into the sab-
bath, and enable us to bring a great deal of the
sabbath with us into the week, that so we may be
the fitter for the next sabbath, if we shall live to it.
Make us meet for the everlasting sabbath which
we hope to keep within the veil, when time and days
shall be no more; and let this day bring us a sab-
bath day's journey nearer heaven, and make us a
sabbath day's work fitter for it.
As we began this Lord's day with the joyful me-
morials of Christ's resurrection, so we desire to con-
clude it with the joyful expectations of Christ's
second coming, and of our own resurrection then to
a blessed immortality, triumphing in hopes of the
glory of God.
Bless the Lord, love the Lord, O our souls, and
let all that is within us love and bless his holy name,
for he is good, and his mercy endures for ever. In
praising God we desire to spend as much of our
time as may be, that we may begin our heaven now>
for in this good work we hope to be spending a
happy eternity.
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible,
the only wise God, and our God, in three Persons,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be honour and glory,
dominion and praise, henceforth and for ever. Amen.
A Prayer proper to he put up by Parents for their
Children,
O Lord our God, the God of the spirits of all flesh !
all souls arc thine, the souls of the parents and the
souls of the children are thine, and thou hast grace
sufficient for both.
Thou wast our fathers' God, and as such we will
exalt thee ; thou art our children's God, and that
also we will plead with thee, for the promise is to us
and our children ; and thou art a God in covenant
with believers and their seed.
Lord, it is thy good providence that has built us
up into a family: we thank thee for the children
thou hast graciously given thy servants ; the Lord,
who has blessed us with them, make them blessings
indeed to us, that we may never be tempted to wish
we had been childless.
We lament the iniquity which our children are
conceived and bom in, and the corrupt nature which
they derive through our loins.
But we bless thee that there is a fountain opened
for their cleansing from that original pollution, and
that they were betimes by baptism dedicated to thee,
and admitted into the bonds, and under the bless-
ings, of thy covenant ; that they are bom in thy house,
and taken in as members of thy family upon earth.
It is a comfort to us to think that they are bap-
tized, and we humbly desire to plead it with thee.
They are thine ; save them ; enable them, as they
become capable to make it their own act and deed,
to join themselves unto the Lord, that they may be
owned as thine in the day when thou makest up thy
jewels.
Give them a good capacity of mind, and a good
disposition, make them towardly and tractable, and
willing to receive instruction ; incline them betimes
to religion and virtue. — Lord, give them wisdom
and understanding, and drive out the foolishness
which is bound up in their hearts.
Save them from the vanity which childhood and
youth are subject to, and fit them every way to live
comfortably and usefully in this world. We ask
not for great things in the world for them ; give them,
if it please thee, a strong and healthy constitution of
body, preserve them from all ill accidents, and feed
them with food convenient for them, according to
their rank.
But the chief thing we ask of God for them is, that
thou wilt pour thy Spirit upon our seed, even thy
blessing, that blessing, that blessing of blessings,
upon our offspring, that they may be a seed to serve
thee, which shall be accounted to the Lord for a ge-
neration: Give them that good part which shall
never be taken away from them.
Give us wisdom and grace to bring them up in
thy fear, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,
with meekness and tenderness, and having them in
subjection with all gravity. Teach us how to teach
them the things of God as they are able to bear them,
and how to reprove and admonish, and when there
is need, to correct them in a right manner, and how
to set them good examples of every thing that is vir^
tuous and praise- worthy, that we may recommend
religion to them, and so train them up in the way
wherein they should go, that if they live to be old,
they may not depart from it.
Keep them from the snare of evil company, and
all the temptations to which they are exposed, and
make them betimes sensible how much it is their in-
terest as well as their duty to be religious ; and.
Lord, grant that none who come of us may come
700
FORMS OF PRAYER.
short of eternal life, or be found on the left hand of
Christ in the great day.
We earnestly pray that Christ may be formed in
their souls betimes, and that the seeds of grace may
be sown in their hearts while they are young, and
we may have the satisfaction of seeing them walking
in the truth, and setting their faces heavenwards.
Give tbem now to hear counsel and receive instruc-
tion, that they may be wise in their latter end ; and
if they be wise, our hearts shall rejoice, even ours.
Prosper the means of their education ; let our
children be taught of the Lord, that great may be
their peace ; and give them so to know thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, as
may be life eternal to them.
O that they may betimes get wisdom, and get un-
derstanding, and never forget it As far as they are
taught the truth as it is in Jesus, give them to con-
tinue in the things which they have learned.
It is our heart's desire and prayer that our children
may be praising God on earth when we are gone to
praise him in heaven, and that we and they may be
together for ever, serving him day and night in his
temple.
If it should please God to remove any of them from
us while they are young, let us have grace submis-
sively to resign them to thee, and let us have hope in
their death.
If thou remove us from them while they are young,
be thou thyself a Father to them, to teach them, and
provide for them, for with thee the fatherless findeth
mercy.
Thou knowest our care concerning them, we cast
it upon thee ; ourselves and ours we commit to thee.
Let not the light of our family religion be put out
with us, nor that treasure be buried in our graves,
but let those who shall come after us do thee more
and better service in their day than we have done in
ours, and be unto thee for a name and a praise.
In these prayers we aim at thy glory. Father, let
thy name be sanctified in our family, there let thy
kingdom come, and thy will be done by us and ours,
as it is done by the angels in heaven ; for Christ
Jesus' sake, our blessed Saviour and Redeemer,
whose seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as
the days of heaven. Now to the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, that great and sacred name, into which
we and our children were baptized, be honour and
glory, dominion and praise, henceforth and for ever.
Amen.
A Prayer for the use of a Person before receiving the
Sacrament of the Lord*s Supper,
Most holy, and blessed, and gracious Lord God,
with all humility and reverence I here present my-
self before thee, to seek thy face and entreat thy
favour, and as an evidence of thy good will toward
me, to beg that I may experience thy good work in
me.
I acknowledge myself unworthy, utterly unworthy
of the honour ; unfit, utterly unflt for the service to
which I am now called. It is an inestimable privi-
lege that I am admitted so often to hear from thee io
thy word, and to speak to thee in prayer; and yet,
as if this had been a small matter, I am now invited
into communion with thee at thy holy table, there to
celebrate the memorial of my Savioor's death, and
to partake, by faith, of the precious benefits which
flow from it. I, who deserve not the crumbs, am '
called to eat of the children's bread.
O Lord, I thank thee for the institotion of this
blessed ordinance, this precious legacy and token
of love which the Lord Jesus left to his church;
that it is preserved to this age, that it is administered
in this land, that I am admitted to it, and have now
before me an opportunity to partake of it; Lord,
grant that I may not receive thy g^race herein in
vain.
O thou who hast called me to the marriage-supper
of the Lamb, give me the wedding-garment ; work
in me a disposition of soul, and all those pious and
devout affections, which are suitable to the solemni-
ties of this ordinance, and requisite to qualify me
for an acceptable and advantageous participation of
it. Behold the fire and the wood, all things are
now ready, but where is the lamb for the burnt-
offering ? Lord, provide thyself a lamb, by work-
ing in me all that which thou requirest of me upon
this present occasion. The preparation of the heart
and the answer of the tongue are both from thee ;
Lord, prepare my unprepared heart for communion
with thee.
Lord, I confess I have sinned against thee, I have
done foolishly, very foolishly, for foolishness u
bound up in my heart; I have sinned and have come
short of the glory of God ; I have come short of
glorifying thee, and deserve to come short of being
glorified with thee. The imagination of my heart
is evil continually, and the bias of my corrupt na-
ture is very strong toward the world, the flesh, and
the gratifications of sense: but toward God, and
Christ, and heaven, I move slowly, and with a great
many stops and pauses. Nay, there is in my carnal
mind a wretched aversion to divine and spiritual
things. I have mispent my time, trifled away my
opportunities, have followed after lying vanities,
and forsaken my own mercies. God be merciful to
me a sinner! for how little have I done, since I
came into the world, of the great work that I was
sent into the world about
Thou hast taken me into covenant with thee, for
I am a baptized Christian, set apart for thee, and
sealed to be thine ; thou hast laid me. and I have
also laid myself, under all possible obligations to
love thee, and serve thee, and live to thee. Bat I
FORMS OF PRAYER.
701
hsLve started aside from thee like a deceitfal bow, I
haTe not made good my coyenant with thee, nor
liath the temper of my mind, and the tenor of my
conversation, been agreeable to that holy religion
which I make profession of, to my expectations
from thee, and engagements to thee. I am bent to
backslide from the living God ; and if I were under
the law I were undone ; but I am under grace, a
eovenant of grace, which leaves room for repentance,
and promises pardon upon repentance, which invites
even backsliding children to return, and promises
that their backslidings shall be healed. Lord, I
take hold of this covenant, seal it to me at thy table:
there let me find my heart truly humbled for sin,
and sorrowing for it after a godly sort : O that I may
there look on him whom I have pierced, and mourn,
and be in bitterness for him ; that there I may sow
in tears, and receive a wounded Christ into a broken
heart! And there let the blood of Christ, which
speaks better things than that of Abel, be sprinkled
upon my conscience, to purify and pacify it : there
let me be assured that thou art reconciled to me,
that my iniquities are pardoned, and that I shall
not come into condemnation. There* say unto me.
Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.
And that I may not come unworthily to this
blessed ordinance, I beseech thee, lead me into a
more intimate and experimental acquaintance with
Jesus Christ, and him crucified ; with Jesus Christ,
and him glorified ; that knowing him, and the power
of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffer-
ings, and being by his grace planted in the likenes^
of both, I may both discern the Lord's body, and
show forth the Lord's death.
Lord, I desire by a true and lively faith to close
with Jesus Christ, and consent to him as my Lord
and my God : I here give up myself to him as my
Prophet, Priest, and King, to be ruled, and tai/ght,
and saved by him : this is my beloved, and this is
my friend. None but Christ, none but Christ ! Lord,
increase this faith in me, perfect what is lacking in
it, and enable me, in receiving the bread and wine
at thy table, by a lively faith to receive Christ Jesus
the Lord. O let the great gospel doctrine of Christ's
dying to save sinners, which is represented in that
ordinance, be meat and drink to my soul, meat in-
deed, and drink indeed: let it be both nourishing
and refreshing to me ; let it be both my strength and
my song, and be the spring both of my holiness and
of my comfort : and let such deep impressions be
made u^pn my soul by the actual commemoration
of it, as may abide always upon me, and have a pow-
erful influence upon me in my whole conversation,
that the life I now live i^Ke flesh I may live by the
fta$h of the Son of QM, who loved me tfbd gave
himself for me.
Lord, I beseech thee, fix my thoughts ; let my
heart be engaged to approach unto thee, that I may
attend unto thee without distraction. Draw my de-
sires towards thee; give me to hunger and thirst
after righteousness, that I may be filled ; and to
draw near to thee with a true heart, and in full as-
surance of faith ; and since I am not straitened in
thee, O let me not be straitened in my own bosom.
Draw me, Lord, and I will run after thee. O send
out thy light and thy truth, let them lead and guide
me ; pour thy Spirit upon me, put thy Spirit within
me, to work in me both to will and to do that which
is good ; and leave me not to myself. Awake, O
north wind, and come, thou south, and blow upon
my garden ; come, O blessed Spirit of grace, and
enlighten my mind with the knowledge of Christ,
bow my will to the will of Christ, fill my heart with
the love of Christ, and confirm my resolutions to live
and die with him.
Work in me (I pray thee) a principle of holy love
and charity toward all men, that I may forgive my
enemies, which by thy grace I heartily do, and may
keep up a spiritual communion in faith, hope, and
holy love, with all that in every place call on the
name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Lord, bless them
all, and particularly that congregation with which
I am to join in this solemn ordinance. Good Lord,
pardon every one that engages his heart to seek
God, the Lord God of his fathers, though not
cleansed according to the purification of the sanc-
tuary. Hear my prayers, and heal the people.
Lord, meet me with a blessing, a Father's bless-
ing, at thy table ; grace thine own institutions with
thy presence ; and fulfil in me all the good pleasure
of thy goodness, and the work of faith with power,
for the sake of Jesus Christ my blessed Saviour and
Redeemer. — ^To him, with the Father, and the Eter-
nal Spirit, be everlasting praise. Amen.
Another y after the receiving of the Lorttt Supper,
O Lord, my God and my Father in Jesus Christ, I
can never sufiiciently admire the condescension of
thy grace to me. What is man, that thou dost thus
magnify him, and the son of man, that thou visitest
him. Who am I ? and what is my house, that thou
hast brought me hitherto, hast brought me into thy
banqueting-bouse, and thy banner over me hath
been love ? I have reason to say, that a day in thy
courts, an hour at thy table, is better, far better, than
a thousand days, than ten thousand hours, elsewhere ;
it is good for me to draw near to God. Blessed be
God for the privileges of his house, and those com-
forts with which he makes his people joyful in his
house of prayer.
But I have reason to blush, and be ashamed of
myself, that I have not been more affected with the
great things which have been set before me, and
offered me at the Lord's table. O what a vain,
foolish, trifling heart have I! When I would do
702
FORMS OF PRAYER.
good, e?eii then evil is present with me. Good Lord,
be merciful to me, and pardon the iniquity of my
holy things, and let not my manifold defects in my
attendance upon thee be laid to my charge, or hin-
der my profiting by the ordinance.
I have now been commemorating the death of
Christ ; Lord, grant that by the power of it, sin may
be crucified in me, the world crucified to me, and I
to the world ; and enable me so to bear about with
me continually the dying of the Lord Jesus, as that
the life also of Jesus may be manifested in my mor-
tal body.
I have now been receiving the precious benefits
which flow from Christ's death ; Lord, grant that I
may never lose, may never forfeit, those benefits, but,
as I have received Christ Jesus the Lord, give me
grace so to walk in him, and to live as one that am
not my own, but am bought with a price, glorifying
God with my body and spirit, which are his.
I have now been renewing my covenant with thee,
and engaging myself afresh to thee, to be thine ;
now. Lord, give me grace to perform my vow. Keep
it always in the imagination of the thought of my
heart, and establish my way before thee. Lord,
preserve me by thy grace, that I may never return
again to folly , after God has spoken peace ;may I
never, by my loose and careless walking, undo what
I have been doing to-day ; but, having my heart
enlarged with the consolations of God, give me to
run the way of thy commandments with cheerfulness
and constancy, and still to hold fast my integrity.
This precious soul of mine, which is the work of
thine own hands, and the purchase of thy Son's
blood, I commit into thy hands, to be sanctified by
thy Spirit and thy grace, and wrought up into a
conformity to the holy will in every thing : Lord,
set up thy throne in my heart, write thy law there,
shed abroad thy love there, and bring every thought
within me into obedience to thee, to the command-
ing power of thy law, and the constraining power of
thy love. Keep through thy own name that which
I commit unto thee, keep it against that day when
it shall be called for ; let me be preserved blameless
to th') coming of thy glory, that I may then be pre-
sented faultless with exceeding joy.
All my outward afiairs I submit to the disposal of
thy wise and gracious providence. Lord, 'save my
soul, and then, as to other things, do as thou pleasest
with me ; only make all providences work together
for my spiritual and eternal advantage. Let all
things be pure to me, and give me to taste covenant
love in common mercies, and by thy grace let me be
taught both how to want and how to abound, how
to enjoy prosperity, and how to bear adversity, as
becomes a Christian ; and at all times let thy grace
be sufficient for me, and mighty in me, to work in
me both to will and to do that which is good of thine
own good pleasure.
And that in every thing I may do my datj, bd
stand complete in it, let my heart be enlarged is
love to Jesus Christ, and aflfected with the bdffat
and depth, the length and breadth, of that love of
his to me, which passes all conception and expres-
sion.
And as an evidence of that love, let my monftbc
filled with his praises ; Worthy is the Lamb tbt
was slain, to receive blessing, and honour, and
glory, and power ; for he was slain, and has re-
deemed a chosen remnant unto God by his blood,
and made them to him kings and priests. Blest the
Lord, O my soul, and let all that is within roe bley
his holy name, who forgiveth all mine iniquities,
and healeth all my diseases ; who redeemeth dj
life from destruction, and crowneth me with lofin;-
kindness and tender mercy ; who having be^un a
good work, will perform it unto the day of Christ.
As long as I live I will bless the Lord ; I will praise
my God while I have any being ; and when I bafe
no being on earth, I hope to have a being in heaTea
to be doing it better. O let me be borne up in erer-
lasting arms, and carried from strength to stren^
till I appear before God in Zion, for Jesus' sake, wbo
died for me, and rose again, in whom I desire to
be found living and dying. Now to God, the Father,
Son, and Spirit, be ascribed kingdom, power, and
glory, henceforth and for ever. Amen.
An address to God before meat.
O Lord our God, in thee we live, and move, and
have our being, and from thee we receive all the
supports and comforts of our being : thou spreadest
our table, and fillest our cup, and comfortest m
with the gifts of thy bounty from day to day. We
own our dependence upon thee, and obligations to
thee : pardon our sins we pray thee ; sanctify thj
good creatures to our use, and give as grace to re-
ceive them soberly and thankfully, and to eat and
drink not to ourselves, but to thy glory, throogb
Jesus Christ our blessed Lord and Saviour. Ameo.
Another .
Gracious God, thou art the prote<;tor and presenrer
of the whole creation, thou hast fed us all our hres
unto this day with food convenient for us, thoagb
we are evil and unthankful. We pray thee, forgive
all our sins, by which we have forfeited all thy
mercies, and let us see our forfeited right restored
in Christ Jesus. Give us a taste of covenant \on
in common mercies, and to use these and all our
creature comforts to the glory of our g^reat Beoe-
factor, through the grace of our great Redeemer.
Amen.
FORMS OF PRAYER.
703
An Address to God after Meat,
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads as with his
benefits, and gives as all things richly to enjoy,
thoagh we serve him but poorly. O Lord, we thank
thee for present refreshments in the nse of thy good
creatures, and for thy love to our souls in Jesus
Christ, which sweetens all. We pray thee, pardon
oar sins, go on to do us good, provide for the poor
that are destitute of daily food, fit us for thy whole
will, and be our God, and guide, and portion for
ever, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.
Amen.
Another,
We thank thee. Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for all the gifts both of thy providence and of thy
grace ; for those blessings which relate to the life
that now is, and that to come ; and for the use of
thy good creatures at this time. Perfect, O God,
that which concerns us, nourish our souls with the
bread of life to life eternal, and let us be of those
who shall eat bread in the kingdom of our Father,
for Christ Jesus* sake, our Lord and Saviour.
Amen.
FAMILY HYMNS,
i
1
1
UATHEKED MOSTLY OUT OF THE
TRANSLATIONS OF DAVID'S PSALMS
To THE Reader.
My design in this essay is to promote the singing of
psalms in families, as a part of their daily worship,
especially their sabbath worship ; an exercise which
(howcTcr it be now with other instances of the
warmest devotion sadly disused, yet) was anciently
practised by the generality of serions Christians,
who thus turned their houses into churches, (such
churches as St. Paul speaks of, Rom. xvi. 6. Col. iv.
15. Philem. 2.) by praising God together, and by
teaching and admonishing one another in singing of
psalms. If we ask for the good old way, we shall
find this path in it trodden by the primitive Chris-
tians in the church's early days; among the par-
ticulars of whose religion, that learned pen which
wrote the " Primitive Christianity," traces remark-
able footsteps of this family exercise, Part I. Ch. 9.
The sound of this melody was not only heard in
their solemn assemblies, where it appears by many
passages (particularly that known account which
Pliny gives to Trojan of the Christians, Epist 1. 10.)
to have been a considerable part of their public
worship, but in their private houses also, where it
seems to have been the common usage to sing
psalms with their wives and children, especially at
and after their meals ; a practice commended by
Clemens Alexandrinus, (Prodag. Lib. 2. c. 4. by
Chrysostom in Ps. xli.) which made the psalms so
familiar to them, that, as Jerom tells us, (Epist ad
Marcel.) in the place where he lived, you could not
go into the field, but you should hear the plough-
men, and the mowers, and the vine-dressers, thus
employed : Sonet psaltnos ctnivivium sobtnum — The
sober feast resounds with psalms, says Cyprian.
Socrates (Hist. Eccles. lib. 7. cap. 22.) speaks of it
as the practice of Theodosius, the Emperor, to rise
early every morning to sing psalms with his sisters ;
'' so that his palace" (says he) '* was like a monas-
tery or religious house," oIk ^iXXocorcpa i? iurKHTipwu
Kartrrioi ra Pamkua. And I have sometimes thought
that the service of the monasteries, in the degene-
rate ages of the church, (which is known to have
consisted very much in singing,) was bat the re-
maining form and carcass of that life and power of
godliness and religions worship which had origin
ally reigned in most Christian families. That is t
good hint of Tertullian, in his book ad Uxorea,
(written about the year 205,) Lib. 2. cap. 9. iriieft
cautioning Christian women not to marry with ■■•
believers, he urges this against it. That those wk I
were so linked, could not have their husbands to J
sing psalms with them in their bouses: wbenss,
when those in that relation draw together in the yoke
of Christ, Sonant inter duos psalmi et hywni, it
mutuo provocant, quis melius Deo suo ernnet^'—Tkef
sing psalms and hymns together ; their amhf strifi
then iSf which shall be most affectionate and serim
in singing. And, to come nearer to our own day,
that is worthy our notice which Mr. Quick, is tk
Introduction to his Synodicon, tells us. Vol. L p. 6.
That the singing of Psalms in families, even those
of the best rank, not only at their morning tid
evening worship, but at their meals, conduced voy
much to the strength and growth of the reformed re-
ligion in France, in its first and best days. Andtk
title-page of our Old English Translation of te
Psalms into Metre, set forth and allowed at the be-
ginning of our reformation, in Edward the Ylth's
time, recommends them to be sung in private houses
for their godly solace and comfort. And how the
houses of the good old protestants were perfmaed
with this incense daily, especially on Lord's dtjs,
we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have
told us. Gladly therefore would I contribute mmt-
thing toward the revival of this duty in Christiai
families, which, if they be (as they should be)
nurseries and seminaries of piety, would certamlf
embrace this as an excellent means of instilliBf re-
ligion betimes into the minds of their little childrea
who, as they commonly attend most to this doty, so
they will sooner receive the good impressions of it,
than of any other ; and thus out of the months of
babes and sucklings will praise be perfected to tie
glory of God, and strength ordained to the oomfort
of families ; compare Matt. xxi. 16. with Ps. viill
Austin (Prolog, in Lib. Psalm.) suggests that'PsahBf
FAMILY HYMNS.
705
were written, and the singing of psalms appointed,
very much for the sake of youth. Propterea psal-
fnorum (says he) nohis per modulos aptata sunt ear-
ntinay ut vel atate puerili^ vel qui adolescentes sunt
morilms, quasi cantilenA qu&dam psallentes deUctari
videantur — For this purpose were the psalms set to
musicy that the sprightly period of youth might he en-
tertained and exhilarated.
What shall I say then to persuade masters of
families, who have hitherto neglected their duty, to
begin it now ? Better late than never. The experi-
ence of many who make conscience of it will testify
both the sweetness and profit of it. If psalms were
more sung in families, they would be better sung in
cong^gations. Let none plead want of time as an
excuse ; for how can time be spent better than in
praising God ? And is there not a great deal of our
precious hours thrown away every day upon other
things that are less to the purpose of a Christian ?
Nor will there be room for this pretence, if care be
taken not to defer family worship too late, either
morning or evening, so as to crowd it into a comer,
(as many do by a thousand impertinences,) as like-
wise so to proportion the other parts of the duty, that
they may not prevent this. It is the wisdom of
masters of families, so to manage their family wor-
ship, that they may make it as much as possible a
pleasure, and not a task, to tlieir children and ser-
Tants. Nor let want of skill be any excuse ; there
may be much of acceptable affection, where there
appears bat little of art. Plain songs best befit plain
Israelites. A small degree of skill (and that is
easily attained by any who give their minds to it)
will suffice to the management of this duty decently
and in order, and more there needs not ; for in pri-
Tate families the quickest way of singing seems to
be most agreeable ; such singing as the great Atha-
nasius appointed in the church of Alexandria, Ut
pronuneianti vicinior esset quitm canenti — more like
reading than singing. So Austin tells us, (Confess.
Lib. 10. Cap. 33.) and approves of it as a good
means to preserve that spiritual delight which should
be in this ordinance, from degenerating into a sen-
sitive pleasure, which it is apt to do when tunes and
notes are overmuch studied and affected, and the
ear tickled with them.
Nor let any be afraid that their neighbours should
overhear them : we serve a Master that we have no
reason to be ashamed of, to whom we have engaged,
that whatever others do, we and our houses will
serve him ; and whose hold is so great of the con-
sciences, even of bad men, that those whose con-
tempt and reproach you fear, even of them perhaps
you will be had in honour, 2 Sam. vi. 22. Nay,
your light hereby may so shine before men, that
others may be brought to glorify your Father which
is in heaven. Matt. v. 16.
If any make it an excuse that they are unready in
2 z
finding out such psalms, or passages in the psalms,
as are most proper for family use, such may per-
haps receive some help from this small collection.
It is taken out of David's Psalms, and further we
seldom need to go for hymns and spiritual songs,
though other Scriptures may, no doubt, be used this
way much to edification. Nolite cantare nisi quod
legitis esse cantandum — Sing nothing but what you
read as being appointed to be sung, is a good rule,
which Austin gives, Epist. 109. This collection
will be the more useful, (and it is what I chiefly aim
at in it,) if every one in the family have a book, so
that the psalm or hymn (for the distinction is but
nominal) may be sung without reading the line be-
twixt, which is the general practice of the reformed
churches abroad, and renders the duty more pleasant
and profitable, and takes up less time, and is prac-
ticable enough in a family, if not in large congre-
gations.
The gathering of verses out of several psalms, and
putting them together, may seem to be a violation
of their own native coherence ; but I hope it will
not give offence to any, since it is no more so, than
the joining of several passages of Scriptures remote
from each other, and putting them together in our
prayers and sermons, which is generally practised :
besides that, it is a liberty which is often taken by
the clerks who give out the psalms in public ; and
I think those who dislike it not there, will the rather
allow it in private families. Nay, I am in hopes
that the reference I have made all along to the
psalms and verses, will increase and lead to an ac-
quaintance with the book of Psalms in general,
which I would not that this essay should at all lessen
or supersede.
I have made use of the best approved transla-
tions, especially Mr. Patrick's and Mr. Barton's ; as
likewise Bishop King's, Mr. Smith's, Dr. Ford's,
and Mr. Baxter's, who have each of them laboured
well in this province ; nor have I neglected the old
translation, which (considering the age in which it
was done, and that it broke the ice) is not such a
contemptible piece as some love to represent it. I
have taken that out of each, which I judged the best
and most suitable to my purpose, acting herein not
as a censor, but as a gleaner. Books are known to
have their fate, ad captum lectoris, and therefore
I hope my pardon for making this use of the labours
of others will be easily granted, and this general
acknowledgment will suflice to acquit me from the
charge of plagiarism. I have not varied at any
time from my authors merely for variation sake, yet
throughout I have seen cause very often to alter, and
in many places to build anew, (especially where I
was willing to contract,) according to the best of my
skill. The performance indeed is but very small,
yet the design is honest ; and it will be fruit abound-
ing to a good account, if it do but help forward the
i
706
FAMILY HYMNS.
work of singing^ psalms, in which the will of God is
done on earth, somewhat like as it is in heaven,
where singing hallelujahs to him that sits upon the
throne, and unto the Lamb, is both the everlasting
work, and the everlasting felicity, of those glorified
beings, that wear the crown of perfection within the
veil.
M. H.
Jan. 14, 1694.
POSTSCRIPT.
A third edition of this small collection being call-
ed for, though for the sake of those who had accus-
tomed themselves to the former, I would not make
any considerable alterations, yet I thought it might
be acceptable to make large additions, in which I
must own myself to have borrowed some lines from
that excellent version of the Psalms done by Mr.
Tate, which was not published when this collection
was first made ; I have also taken in some of the
New-Testament Hymns, which being calculated for
gospel times, will, I doubt not, be very agreeable to
every good Christian.
Far Mominy Worship.
HYMN I. Psal. Ivii. 7, 8.
My heart is now prepared for praise,
'Tis fixed for the same ;
And I will sing to thee, O Lord,
And bless thy holy name.
Awake my glory, lute and harp,
Concerts of praise to make.
Now in the morning I myself
Will to this work awake.
xix. 1 — 6.
The heavens, throughout their vast extent,
Declare their Maker's praise ;
The glittering starry firmament
His handy-work displays.
Day unto day doth celebrate.
And night to night proclaim,
Without the help of speech or tongue,
His universal fame.
There doth the sun with joy and strength
His constant course complete,
The earth rejoiceth in his light.
And in his quickening heat.
xc. 17.
So let the Lord shine on our souls,
Lighten and warm us thus :
Prosper, O God, our handy-works,
And stablish them to us.
HYMN II. Psal. cxviii. 15 ; iii. 6.
The voice of saving health and joy
In just men's dwellings is ;
The Lord's right-hand works powerfully,
That strong right-hand of his.
I lay me down, and sweetly slept.
And safely waked again,
Because it was the Lord that kept.
And did my soul sustain.
xxxi. 21 ; XXX. 5.
Blessed be God's most sacred name.
Who hath such wonders shown.
Wonders of love, securing me
As in a fenced town.
His wrath is in a moment past.
Life from his favour springs :
Though weeping for a nigbt may last.
The morning comfort brings.
xxxiii. 20—22.
Therefore we wait for thee, O Lord,
Who still art our defence ;
In all estates we trust in thee
With cheerful confidence.
Lord, let thy grace on ns descend
Like a refreshing shower ;
For all our hopes and joys depend
On thine almighty power.
HYMN III. Psal. Ixxiv. 16, 17.
The shining day, and shady night.
Peculiarly are thine ;
Thou hast, O Lord, prepared the light.
And caused the sun to shine.
The earth, with all its ends and coasts.
Thy mighty hand did frame.
Both summer's heat, and winter's fugsi^
By thine appointment came.
xxxiii. 6, 7; cxix. 91.
By thy great word the heavens were made ;
And all their hosts are thine ;
The gathered waters of the sea
Thou dost in bounds confine.
According to thine ordinance these
Continue to this day ;
For all are servants nnto thee.
And do thy word obey.
Rev. iv. 11. Psal. cxxiy. 8.
Glory and honour must, O Lord,
To thee of right be paid.
For all these things are by thy power
And for thy pleasure made.
And our continual hope and help
In his great name doth stand,
Who did create both heaven and earth
By his almighty hand.
FAMILY HYMNS.
HYMN IV. Psal. cxxi. 1—8.
Up to the hills I lift mine eyes,
From whence I look for aid ;
In God alone my succoar lies,
That earth and heaven made.
He will sustain thy weaker powers
With his almighty arm,
And keep thee with continual care
From all surprising harm.
The great Protector of the saints,
He slumbers not, nor sleeps ;
The Lord, thy shade on thy right-hand,
Thy soul in safety keeps ;
So that thy head the scorching sun
By day shall never smite.
Nor the moon's hurtful influence
Distemper thee by night. *!■
The Lord shall save thee from all ill,
And keep thy soul from sin,
He shall preserve thy going out.
And bless thy coming in.
HYMN V. Psal. cxv. 1, 8, 9.
Lord, not to us, but to thy name
Be given the praise we owe.
To thy rich goodness, and thy truth.
Whence all our blessings flow.
Whilst heathens worship senseless gods,
Such senseless fools they be ;
Let Israel trust the living God,
Onr help and shield is he.
cxv. 12, 13, 14, 17, 18.
The Lord hath had us in his mind.
And he will bless us still,
Even Israel's house, and Aaron's too.
With blessings he shall fill.
Them that be fearers of the Lord,
He Ml bless them, great and small ;
God shall increase you more and more,
You and your children all.
The dead indeed praise not the Lord,
They give him no renown.
Nor do they thus declare his name
To silence that go down.
We therefore that are yet alive
His praises will record.
From this time forth for evermore.
Amen, Praise ye the Lord.
HYMN VI. Psal. ci. 1—7.
Mercy and judgment in my song
United (Lord) shall be ;
And since from thee they both do flow,
I '11 sing of both to thee.
I '11 wisely walk in perfect ways ;
When wilt thou come to me,
2 z 2
To dwell and rule (Lord) in my house.
And bless my family ?
And that thou mayst be still my guest.
No sin I will abide.
But will abandon all the works
Of them that turn aside.
Him that persists in wicked ways
I '11 from my bouse discard.
No proud or scornful ones befriend.
Or in the least regard.
I will look out the faithful men,
That they may dwell with me.
And such as walk in righteous ways,
My servants they shall be.
I will no guileful person have
Within my walls to dwell.
Nor in my sight will I abide
The man that lies doth tell.
cv. 45.
That we the better may observe
The statutes of his word.
And from his precepts may not swerve,
O magnify the Lord !
HYMN VII. Psal. cxxvii. 1, 2.
Except the Lord do build the house.
Vain are the pains of man ;
Except the Lord the city guard.
No other watchman can.
Your rising early will not do.
Night-watching fruitless is,
And eating still the bread of care.
While God gives sleep to his.
xxxvii. 4, 5.
Therefore delight thyself in God,
To him by faith retire.
And he shall wisely bring about
Thy very heart's desire.
Commit thy way unto the Lord,
On him by faith depend.
And he shall bring thy just designs
Unto a happy end.
xvi. 23, 24.
A little that the just enjoys
Is better far to them
Than all the ill-got, ill-spent wealth
Of many wicked men.
Tlie Lord that guides a good man's steps,
Delighteth in his way ;
He is not ruined by his falls,
For God will be his stay.
XXV. 36 — 37.
In all my life I never yet
That liberal man could see.
Whose alms reduced himself to want.
Or his to beggary.
708
FAMILY HYMNS.
I 've seen the wicked rise and spread
Like laurels fresh and gpreen,
Till total ruin swept him off.
As if he ne'er had been.
Mark and behold the perfect man
That 's upright in his ways,
Mercy attends his happy life,
And peace concludes his days.
HYMN Vin. Psal. xy'i. 1—3.
Lord, save me, for I trust in thee
With all my mind and heart ;
To thee my soul hath often said.
My Lord, my God thou art.
My goodness never can extend
To thee, O Lord, above ;
But to thine excellent saints on earth,
Whom I entirely love.
6,6.
God is my portion, all my good
From his rich mercy flows,
And his kind providence secures
The blessings he bestows.
I envy not the great man's state.
Nor pine to see his store ;
With what I have I 'm pleased much.
With what I hope for, more.
7,8.
I bless the Lord, who did direct
My soul to choose aright.
On which my secret thoughts reflect
With comfort every night.
I still conceived the Lord to stand
Before me as my guide ;
While he doth stand at my right-hand
I know I shall not slide.
9, 10, 11.
Therefore my heart and tongue rejoice,
In him my flesh shall trust;
My soul shall not remain in hell,
Nor body in the dust.
The path of life they both shall find,
And in thy presence taste
Pleasures to full perfection grown,
And joys that ever last.
HYMN IX. Psal. cxii. I, 2.
Praise ye the Lord, for blest are those
That fear the Lord aright,
That greatly love his sacred laws.
And do them with delight.
The upright man's successful seed
On earth shall mighty grow,
To all that from his loins descend
Shall special blessings flow.
3,4.
Riches and wealth shall in his house
Abound from day to day.
Whilst graces do adorn his soul.
More durable than they.
In midst of darkness to the just
There springs a joyful light ;
Gracious he is, compassionate.
And every way upright.
6, 6, 7.
He lends assistance to (he poor.
Discreetly guides his way ;
Nothing shall ever move the just.
Nor make his name decay :
For any evil tidings told
He shall not be afraid.
But trusting; in the Lord alone.
His heart is fixt and staid.
cxxviii. 4 — 6.
Thus art thou blest that fearest God,
And he shall let thee see
The promised Jerusalem^
And her felicity.
ThoQ shalt thy children's children see.
To thy g^eat joy's increase,
Whilst on God*s Israel there shall rest
Prosperity and peace.
HYMN X. Psal. v. 3 ; cxxx. 3, 4.
Lord, thou shalt hear my morning cry.
At morning it shall be
That I '11 by faith direct my prayer.
And will look up to thee.
If thou shouldstmark iniquities.
Then who should stand, O Lord ?
But there's forgiveness (Lord) with thee.
That thou mayst be adored.
li. 9, 10; xvii. 6.
Lord, hide thine eyes from all my sin.
And my misdeeds deface ;
O God, make clean my heart within.
Renew my mind with grace.
Uphold my goings, Lord, my guide.
In all thy paths divine.
That I may never step aside
Out of those ways of thine.
xxvii. 11; cxli. 3.
Lord, let me plainly see thy way
Where I may safely tread.
Avoiding all the cunning snares
Mine enemies have laid.
And set a constant watch before
My hasty month, O Lord ;
And of my lips keep thoa the door
Against each evil word.
FAMILY HYMNS.
700
xix. 12—14.
For who can all his errors see.
And what lies bid within ?
Lord, cleanse me, and deliver me
From all my secret sin.
From bold presumptions keep me back,
Lest they dominion gain ;
So shall I shun the great offence,
And upright shall remain*
Accept my mouth, accept my heart.
My words and thoughts each one ;
For my redeemer and my strength,
O Lord, thou art alone.
HYMN XI. To the tune of Psalm Ixvii.
Psal. XXV. 6, 7.
Lord, lead me in thy truth,
And teach me in thy way ; ,
For thou my God and Saviour art,
On thee I wait all day.
My youthful sins and faults,
O keep not on record ;
In mercy, for thy goodness sake.
Remember me, O Lord.
8, 10.
The Lord is good and just.
And therefore takes delight
To teach poor sinners in his way.
That they may walk aright
For all the ways of God
Are mercy, truth, and grace,
To them that keep his covenant.
And his commands embrace.
12, la
What man doth fear the Lord,
And dread the paths of sin.
The Lord himself shall choose his way,
And guide his steps therein.
Possessed with quiet thoughts,
His soul shall dwell at ease ;
His happy offspring shall possess
The promised land of peace.
14, 21, 22.
The secret of the Lord
Shall all that fear him know :
His counsel and his covenant
He to his saints will show.
Let mine integrity
And uprightness defend
And keep me ; for in faith and hope
On thee I do depend.
Lord, by thy power redeem,
And bring thy people out
From all the straits and miseries
That compass them about
HYMN XII. Psal. xxiii. 1—3.
My shepherd is the Lord most high,
I shall be well supplied.
In pastures green he makes me lie.
By silent waters' side.
He doth restore my soul that strays.
And then he leads me on.
To walk in his most righteous ways.
For his name's sake alone.
4—6.
Yea, though through death's dark vale I go.
Yet will I fear no ill,
Thy rod and staff support me so.
And thou art witli me still.
My table thou hast furnished
In presence of my foe ;
With oil thou dost anoint my head.
My cup doth overflow.
Surely thy goodness and thy grace
Shall always follow me ;
And my perpetual dwelling-place
' Thy holy house shall be.
xxviii. last
Lord, save thy people powerfully.
And bless thine heritage :
Feed them likewise, and raise them high.
Henceforth from age to age.
Far Evening Wonhip,
HYMN XIIL Psal. Ixviii. 19, 20.
Blessed be God that doth us load
With daily favours thus ;
Even that God that hath bestowed
Salvation upon us.
For our God is the God alone
From whom salvation is ;
The issues and escapes from death
Are all and only his.
xxxiv. 3—6.
O magnify the Lord with me,
And let us praise his name.
Who heard my prayers, observed my fears.
And saved me from the same.
Who doth regard with favour those
That him by faith regard ;
Who poor afflicted souls hath saved.
And all their cries hath heard.
. Ixvi. 9 ; xxxiv. 20 ; xxxv. 10.
Who setting dangers all aside.
Our soul in life doth stay.
And suffering not our foot to slide.
Upholds us in our way.
710
FAMILY HYMNS.
Who kcepeth all bis people's bones,
That they unbroken be :
Therefore my bones shall all confess,
Lord, who is like to thee !
HYMN XIV. Psal. xxxiv. 7-0.
The angel of the Lord most high
Encampeth every where
About the saints, delivering them
That walk in God's trae fear.
0 taste and see that God is good.
And in his grace confide ;
For unto those that fear his name
No good shall be denied.
cxvi. 7 ; xxxi. 6.
Return, my soul, that art set free.
Return unto thy rest.
For graciously the Lord to thee
His bounty hath exprest
Lord God of truth, my precious soul
I to thy hands commit.
That spirit which is by purchase thine.
For thou redeemest it
xvii. 8, 16.
Preserve me. Lord, from hurtful things.
As tlie apple of thine eye.
And under covert of thy wings
Defend me secretly.
1 shall in righteousness behold
Thy reconciled face ;
And waking shall be satisfied
With the image of thy grace.
HYMN XV. Psal. xci. 1, 4, 5.
He that for his secure retreat
Hath chosen the Most High,
Shall underneath the Almighty's shade
Abide continually.
Under his sheltering wings concealed
Thou shalt be safe and warm ;
Terrors by night thou shalt not fear,
Nor dread the noon-day's harm.
9, 10.
Because thou madest the Lord most high
Thy constant home to be.
The same to whom I always fly.
To shield and succour me ;
No evil shall to thee betide,
Whatever comes to pass ;
Nor shall there any plague at all
Come nigh thy dwelling-place.
11,12,14—16.
Angels shall be thy faithful guards.
Being charged by his commands
To keep thee safe in all thy ways,
And bear thee in their hands.
Because he knew and loved my name.
Therefore, saith God, will I
Answer his prayers, deliTer him.
And set him up on high.
I will be with him in bis griefs.
Honour him with my love.
Suffice him with long life on earth.
And endless joys above.
HYMN XVI. Psal. iv. 1, 2.
O God that art my righteousness.
Hear when I call to thee.
For in the day of my distress
Thou hast enlarged me.
O mortal men, how long will ye
My glory thus despise ?
Why wander ye in vanity.
And follow after lies ?
3,4.
Know ye that g^d and godly men
The Lord doth take and choose,
And when to him I do complain.
He doth me not refuse.
Then stand in awe, and do not sin.
But set yourselves apart.
And silent on your beds begin
To commune vrith your heart.
6,6.
Offer to God the sacrifice
Of love and righteousness.
And then put all your trust in bim
For succour in distress.
Many take up with any good.
And worldly things embrace.
But we desire of thee, O God,
The shining of thy face.
7, 8.
For thou thereby shalt make my heart
More joyful and more glad.
Than they that of their com and wine
A great increase have had.
In peace therefore will I lie down
To take my rest and sleep.
For thou only wilt me, O Lord,
Alone in safety keep.
HYMN XVII. Psal. cxli. 1, 2.
To thee, O Lord, I call and cry.
Make basic and come to me ;
Give ear unto my humble voice.
Now when I cry to thee.
O let my prayer be now set out
As incense in thine eyes ;
And the up-lifting of my hands
As the evening sacrifice.
FAMILY HYMNS.
7U
cxix. 147, 148, 102 ;— cxxx. 6.
I did prevent the dawning^ day
In crying^ to the Lord,
And have engaged my waking thoaghts
To meditate in thy word.
Thy righteous judgments I will praise
In the dark silent night.
And thus my soul shall wait for thee
More than to see the light.
Ixiii. 6, 7.
In thee my soul shall be sufficed,
As if with fatness 611ed,
And thankful praise my mouth always
With joyful lips shall yield.
Since thou alone art he from whom
My help proceeds and springs.
Therefore will I rest joyfully
Under thy shady wings.
HYMN XVIII. Psal. cvi. 4 ; cxviii. 26.
Think on us, Lord, with favour free,
Such as thy people find ;
With thy salvation visit us.
And have us in thy ndnd.
Save now, we do beseech thee, Lord,
We pray thee earnestly.
Now to afibrd thy grace, O Lord,
And send prosperity.
cxliv. 12, 13.
That so our sons may thrive apace,
As plants in youth do grow ;
Like polished stones of some fair place.
So may our daughters show.
That our enlarged gamers may
With precious stores be filled ;
And in our streets the fruitful flocks
May many thousands yield.
14, 16.
Let not our labouring oxen faint,
Nor enemy invade :
No leading captive, no complaint
Within our streets be made.
O happy people ! would we say.
With all these blessings stored ;
Yea, rather happy people they
Whose God is God the Lord.
xiviii. last.
This God is evermore our God,
Our covenant God is he,
Even unto death, and beyond death,
Our faithful guide he '11 be.
HYMN XIX. Psal. cxvi. 1, 2, 7, 8.
God, that so gracious a regard
To my request did give.
Shall have my best and choicest love
And service while I live.
God and thyself, my soul, enjoy,
Quiet and free from fears ;
He saved thy life, upheld thy steps,
And dried up all thy tears.
12, 13, 16.
What shall I render. Lord, for all
The kindness thou hast shown ?
Praises I Ml offer, and with thanks
Will all thy favours own.
Truly I am thy servant. Lord,
Thy servant I will be.
Born in thy house, and from my bonds
By thy good hand set free.
xlii. 8, 11.
Therefore will God command for mc
His kindest love by day ;
His song shall be by night with me.
To God my life I '11 pray. •
Why art thou then cast down my soul,
With sorrows over-prest ?
Why do despairing thoughts disturb
Thy peace and break my rest ?
Have faith in God, for yet shall I
Sing forth his praise divine ;
He to my countenance is health.
He 's God, and shall be mine.
HYMN XX. Psal. cxxxviii. 1 — 5.
With my whole heart before the gods
I will with praise proclaim
That word of love and truth, which is
Greater than all thy name.
With spiritual strength thou answerest me,
And thou shalt have thy praise
From princes, all that hear thy word.
And sing in all thy ways
6—8.
Though God be high, he likes the low.
But proud men he disdains,
Therefore in midst of dangers great
My quickening hope remains.
The Lord will perfect mine affairs,
So sure thy mercy stands ;
Forsake not. Lord, but succour still
The work of thine own hands.
xcvii. 11, 12.
Since the immortal seeds of light
For upright men are sown,
A joyful harvest will at length
Their work and sorrows crown.
Then let our constant joys declare
The God we serve is kind,
Wc '11 praise him for his mercies past,
And wait for those behind.
712
FAMILY HYMNS.
HYMN XXI. Psal. cxxxix. 1-^.
Lord, thou hast searched my inward part,
And all my thoug^hts hast known ;
Thou seest me sit, thou seest me rise,
' Walking and lyings down.
All my close ways, all my quick words.
Thou, Lord, dost understand ;
Behind, before, thou hast besot.
And on me laid thine hand.
7, a— 10.
Whither can I retire from thee.
Or from thy presence fly ?
For neither heaven nor hell can hide
From thine all-seeing eye.
Could I remove to the utmost sea,
Winged with the morning ray.
Thy hand that must support my flight,
Would my abode betray.
• 11—16.
In vain I seek to lie concealed
In the darkness of the night.
For midnight darkness shines to thee
As clear as noon-day light.
Maker and Master of my reins
Thou didst at once become ;
Blest Lord, how strangely was I framed
And formed in the womb !
17, 18, 23, 24.
How precious are the thoughts of love
Thou dost to me express !
Deep in themselves, but dear to me,
And they are numberless.
When I awake I 'm still with thee.
And thus to thee I cry.
Search me, O God, and know my heart
My thoughts and conscience try ;
And see if I do go astray
In any course of sin ;
Show me the everlasting way.
And lead me, Lord, therein.
HYMN XXII. Psal. ciii. 1—3.
Bless thou the living Lord, my soul.
His glorious praise proclaim.
Let all my inward powers extol
And bless his holy name.
Forget not all his benefits.
But bless the Lord, my soul.
Who all thy trespasses remits,
And makes thee sound and whole.
4, 6, 8—10.
Who did redeem thy life from death.
And crowned thee with his love :
Renewed thy youth, and filled thy mouth
With goodness from above.
The Lord is kind, to anger slow.
Ready to pardon sin.
Deals not with us in constant wrath,
As our deserts have been.
11,12; xciv. 19.
As heaven is high above the earth.
So is his covenant love ;
Further than east is from the west.
He doth our sins remove.
Thus in the crowd and multitude
Of various thoughts which roll
Within my breast, these comforts rest.
And do delight my soul.
HYMN XXIII. To the tone of Psal. Ixvu
Psal. Ixv. I — 3.
O God, praise waiteth still
For thee in Sion hill ;
The vow will we perform to thee.
And readily fulfil.
O thou whose titles are.
The God that hearest prayer.
The God to whom all flesh shall come,
To thee do we repair.
Our sins have borne great sway.
And much against us say.
But as for these. Lord, thou shalt please
To purge them all away.
cxliii. 8.
Cause me to hear thy love
Before the break of day :
Cause me to know which way to go.
For thou art all my stay.
Ivi. 12, 13.
Thy vows upon me lie.
Lord, I will pay the same ;
And I always will render praise
To thy most holy name.
For thou my soul hast saved
From death so near at hand.
And wilt not thou uphold me now.
And make my feet to stand ;
That I may still proceed
To walk as in thy sight.
And spend my days unto thy praise.
With them that live in light ?
cl. 6.
Let every breathing thing
Be ready to record
The praise and fame of God's g^at name ;
Amen, Praise ye the Lord.
HYMN XXIV. Psal. viii. l, 2,
O Lord, our Lord, through all the earth.
How excellent is thy name ;
FAMILY HYMNS.
713
Who hast thy glory so advanced
Above the heavens' high frame.
Weak babes and socklings thou ordainest
Thy power and praise to show ;
To still thereby the enemy.
And the avengeful foe.
a— 6.
When to thine heavens I lift mine eye,
The palace thou didst rear,
And the bright moon and stars observe.
Ordained to govern there :
Lord, what is man, that he should have
In thy kind thoughts a place.
That thou shouldst thus advance and bless
His mean and mortal race !
Little below the angels high.
He stands in glory placed ;
Whilst all the creatures here below
Under his feet are cast.
Ixxiii. 25, 26.
But whom have I in heaven but thee ?
Nor is there any one
In all the earth desired of me.
Except thyself alone.
For when my flesh and heart do fail,
Then God upholds my heart ;
He is my strength for evermore.
My portion and my part.
27,28.
For they that far estranged be,
Lo, they, and every one
That goes a whoring. Lord, from thee.
Shall quite be overthrown.
But it is good for me always
That I to God draw nigh ;
Then shall I praise his truth and love,
When I on him rely.
For the Lord^i-day Morning,
HYMN XXV. Psal. cxviii. 1-4.
Give thanks to God, for he is good,
His mercies still endure ;
Let all the seed of Israel say,
His promises are sure.
Let Aaron's house confess this day
His goodness still prevails ;
Let them that fear the Lord now say,
His kindness never fails.
22,23.
For that same stone which men refused,
Despised and trampled on.
Is chosen and preferred to be
The head and corner-stone.
This is the work of oor great God,
He did the thing devise.
And he this great salvation wrought
That 's wondrous in our eyes.
24,25.
This is a joyful day indeed,
Which God hath holy made,
Hath made for man, and we will now
With holy mirth be glad.
We '11 join our acclamations now.
And loud hosannas sing.
Wishing prosperity may wait
On our anointed King.
26—29.
Blest Saviour ! that from God to us
On this kind errand came.
We welcome thee, and bless all those
That spread thy glorious name.
God is the Lord who gives the light
Which this high day adorns.
Come, bind the sacrifice with cords
Unto the altar's horns.
Thou art my God whom I '11 exalt.
My God whom I will praise ;
Give thanks to God, for he is good.
His mercy lasts always.
HYMN XXVL Psal. Ixxxiv. 1-^
How lovely is the place where thou
Thy presence (Lord) dost grant !
0 ! how I long to approach thy courts,
Impatient of restraint !
1 envy much the sparrow's place.
And grudge the swallow's bliss.
That build their nests in God's own courts ;
My King, my God he is.
4—7.
Happy the dwellers in thine house,
For they will praise thee still ;
Thrice happy they whose strength thoo art.
Whose hearts thy graces fill.
Who make the best of Sion's ways.
And go from strength to strength.
Till they appear before the Lord
In Sion hill at length.
8—10.
Lord God of hosts, hear thou my prayer,
0 Jacob's God, give ear,
O Lord our shield, behold the face
Of thine Anointed dear.
For in thy courts thy name to praise,
1 count a day spent there
Far better than a thousand days,
A thousand days elsewhere.
There would I rather be confined.
And at the threshold lie.
714
FAMILY HYMNS.
Than dwell in sinners' tents with ease
And boundless liberty.
11,12,
For God the Lord is sun and shield,
He grace and glory gives.
And no good thing shall he withhold
From them that purely live.
O Lord of hosts, that man is blest.
And happy sure is he,
Whase heart by faith doth ever rest
With con6dence in thee.
HYMN XXVIT. Psal. xxvii. 4.
This is my great request, O God,
Which here I do present.
That all the days I have to live
May in thy house be spent.
There to contemplate and behold
The beauty of the Lord,
And in his temple to inquire
Into his holy word.
8,9.
When as thou saidst. My face seek ye.
Instructed by thy g^ce,
My ready heart with joy replied.
Lord, I will seek thy face.
Hide not thy face from me in wrath ;
Lord, turn me not away :
My Saviour, thou hast been my help.
Be still my strength and stay.
xliii. 3, 4.
O send out light and truth divine.
To lead and bring me near
Unto that holy hill of thine.
And tabernacles there.
Then to God's altar I will go.
The gladness of my joy,
O God, my God, thy praise to show.
My harp I will employ.
cxix. 32.
And I will run with full consent
The way thou givest in charge.
When with thy sweet encouragement
Thou shalt my heart enlarge.
HYMN XXVin. Psal. xcii. 1, 2, 4.
O v^ HAT a pleasant work it is
To praise the Lord above.
Morning and evening to proclaim
His faithfulness and love !
Thy works, O Lord, with joy divine
• My ravished heart affect.
And in the glory of thy acts
My triumphs I 'II erect.
O Lord, how great are all thy works I
Thy thoughts are all profound ;
The foolish men mistake thy ways.
These depths they cannot sound.
When prospering sinners flourish most.
And as the grass do spring,
Tis that they may upon themselves
A swift destruction bring.
12, 13.
But saints like laden palms shall thrive.
So flourish and come on.
Grow strong and tall, like cedar trees
In fruitful Lebanon.
Trees planted in the holy place.
Where God the Lord doth dwell,
Still watered with the dews of grace,
Shall thrive and prosper well.
14, 15.
Yea (even when nature's strength decays)
In age much fruit shall bring.
And in the winter of their days
Be fat and flourishing.
To show that God 's an upright God,
He is a rock to me ;
And there is no unrighteousness
In him, nor none can be.
HYMN XXIX. Psal. xcvi. 1, 2.
Sing ye with praise unto the Lord
New songs of joy and mirth ;
Sing to the Lord with one accord.
All people of the earth.
Sing to the Lprd, enthroned on high.
Bless his adored name.
The great salvation he hath wrought
From day to day proclaim.
xcviii. 1, 2.
Renew your songs to God, and tell
What wonders he hath done ;
Let 's all admire the victories
His holy arm hath won.
His mercy which was kept before
A secret, and enclosed.
Now to the clear and open vievr
Of heathen is exposed.
3—6.
His promised goodness, and his truth.
Was first to Israel shown.
But now the ends of the earth have seen
HLs great salvation.
Let all the earth this welcome news
Applaud with loudest noLne,
Join music to their hymns of praise
To testify their joys.
FAMILY HYMNS.
716
7—0.
Let swelliog seas roar, and excite
The joys of neighboaring lands ;
Let echoing hills the noise repeat.
And rivers clap their hands.
Whole nature well may feel a change,
When God's approach is nigh,
Who comes to judge and rule the world
With truth and equity.
HYMN XXX. Psal. Ixviii. 4, 17.
Sing unto God, sing forth his praise.
Extol him with your yoice.
That rides on the heavens by JAH his name,
In which we will rejoice.
God's chariots twenty thousand are ;
Always before his face
Millions of angels do attend.
As in the holy place.
18.
Thou hast ascended up on high.
And thou, O Christ, didst then
Lead captive our captivity,
Receiving gifts for men :
Yea even for rebellious men
Thou didst those gifts receive,
That God the Lord might dwell with them.
And they rebellion leave.
24,28.
For they have seen thy power, O God,
They saw thy steps of grace,
The goings of my God, my King,
Within his holy place.
Thy God, by his supreme command.
Hath strengthened thee thus ;
Strengthen, O God, by thy good hand
What thou hast wrought for us.
34,35.
Ascribe ye strength to our great God,
Whose excellency rare
Is over IsraeFs land displayed,
Whose strength the clouds declare.
They that in holy places see
Thy glory are amazed.
The God of Israel gives us strength.
His holy Name be praised.
HYMN XXXL Psal. xcv. 1-^.
Come, let us sing with joyful noise
To our salvation's Rock,
With psalms of praise and thankful joys,
Into his presence flock.
A God, a King of great command,
A King of gods he is !
The earth's great deeps are in his hand.
The strength of hills is his.
6—7.
Dry land and seas, even both of these '
His hands did form and frame ;
O come, adore with bended knees
The Lord our Maker's name.
For he 's our God, and we the flock
Of whom he hath command.
His people, and his pasture-stock,
And' sheep of his own hand.
8—11.
Let 's therefore hear his voice to-day.
And not hard-hearted prove.
As those that in the wilderness
Provoked God above.
They proved his power, and saw his works.
And long they g^eved him there.
Till wearied with that murmuring race
He could no longer bear :
But did in just and holy wrath
By solemn oath protest.
That they should never come into
The blessed Canaan's rest.
Heb. iv. 1.
Let us then fear lest, a like rest
Being now proposed to us,
Any of us through unbelief
Come short and perish thus.
HYMN XXXII. Psal. xxxvi. 7, 8.
How excellent. Lord, is that grace
And love that from thee springs !
Therefore the sons of men do place
Their trust in thy spread wings !
With fatness of thine houise on high
Thou shalt thy saints suffice.
And make them drink abundantly
The river of thy joys.
9, 10.
Because the springs of life most pure
Do ever flow from thee ;
And in thy light we shall be sure
Eternal light to see.
To those who thus esteem thy love.
Thy kindness still impart.
And all thy promises fulfil
To men of upright heart.
Ixxxix. 16, 16.
Blest is the people that doth know
And hear the joyful sound.
Thy beams shall light them as they go.
And shine about them round.
The expressions of thy wondrous love
Will constant joys create ;
And thou the glory of their strength.
Wilt crown their low estate.
916
FAMILY HYMNS.
Ixv. 4; xli. 13
Tbey with the goodness of thy house
Shall feast their appetites;
Full of the joys thy temple yields,
And ravished with delig^hts.
The Lord, the God of Israel^
Be praised eternally.
From age to age, for evermore.
Amen, amen say I.
HYMN XXXm. Psal. cxxiii. 1 ; xxvi. 8 ; v. 7.
To thee, O Lord, to thee alone
Do I lift up mine eyes,
O thou the high and lofty One,
That dwellest above the skies.
The habitation of thine house.
Lord, I have loved well.
And that sweet place so glorious.
Where thy renown doth dwell.
And to that house will I draw near
In thine abundant g^ce.
And worship with an awful fear
Towards thine holy place.
cxix. 6, 11, 12, 18, 19.
Assist me therefore, O my God,
And so direct my way.
That I may keep thy holy word.
And never go astray.
Let it be hid within my heart.
From sin to keep me free :
A blessed one, O Lord, thou art,
Thy statutes teach thou me.
Open mine eyes, that I may see
The wonders of thy law :
For being a stranger here, I must
From thence my comfort draw.
24,54.
And these thy testimonies are
My heart's entire delight.
Nor need I other counsellor
To guide my ways aright.
For every where thy statutes are
My comfortable songs.
Whilst in my pilgrimage I am
Exposed to griefs and wrongs.
HYMN XXXIV. Psal. cxix. 68, 73.
Lord, thou art good, and thou dost good,
All graces flow from thee ;
Teach me to know thy testaments.
How good and just they be.
Thy hands have made and fashioned me,
Thy grace on me bestow.
To know thy precepts what they be.
And practise what I know
105, 106, 108.
For of my life they are the guide.
And to my paths give light ;
I 've sworn to keep thy righteous laws.
Which I il perform aright.
The free-will offerings of my month
I pray thee. Lord, accept.
And teach me now which way and how
Thy judgments may be kept.
109, 111.
My soul is ever in my hand.
Exposed to dangers great.
Therefore the precepts of thy word
I never will forget.
Thy statutes are the heritage
Whereof I have made choice
To my last day, for those are they
That make my heart rejoice.
112,96.
I have inclined my heart to keep
The laws thou didst decree.
And by thy grace will cleave to them
Even till I come to thee.
For, Lord, of all perfection here
I soon discern an end ;
But to all times and states of life
Thy perfect laws extend.
HYMN XXXV.
Psal. cxix. 137, 138, 162, 163.
Thy nature. Lord, and thy commands
Exactly do agree ;
Holy, and just, and true thou art.
And such thy precepts be.
I have rejoiced at thy word
As one that finds a prize ;
And I do love thy law, O Lord,
But hate the way of lies.
164, 165, 140.
Seven times a day I '11 give thee praise
For thy just judgments' sake.
Great peace have they that love thy ways.
And no offence they take.
Thy word indeed is very pure,
As silver tried by fire.
Therefore thy servant will be sure
To love it with desire.
17, 132.
Deal bounteously in gifts of grace
With me thy servant. Lord,
That I may live, and run my race.
And keep thy holy word.
Look on me in thy mercy. Lord,
And g^nt me of the same.
As thou art wont to deal with those
That love and fear thy name.
FAMILY HYMNS.
133, 171. ■
Let all my steps by thy just word
Exactly ordered be.
That DO iniquity may have
Dominion over me.
A.nd then my lips shall be prepared
To offer thankfal praise.
When anto me thou hast declared
And taught me all thy ways.
HYMN XXXVL To the tune of Psal. Ixvii.
Psal. Ixiii. 1, 2.
0 God, thou art my God,
1 'il seek thee earnestly ;
My soul in me thirsts after thee.
Here in the deserts dry :
That I might see thy power,
And thy most glorious grace,
As I sometimes have seen it shine
Within thy holy place.
3, 4, 8.
That loving-kindness. Lord,
Which I will ever praise.
Is better far than life itself.
Though filled with prospering days.
Thus while my life doth last
I will extol thy fame.
My heart and hands will I lift up
In thy most holy name.
My soul is pressing on
To follow after tliee.
And still I stand by thy right-hand,
For that upholdeth me.
cxxii. 1, 2, 4 — T,
Therefore will I rejoice
When they to me shall say.
Unto the house of God let us
Together take our way.
For there will we be found.
Where Israel's tribes attend
Upon the lively oracles
Joint praise to heaven to send.
Pray for Jerusalem's peace.
And for my brethren dear;
Peace be in Sion's sacred walls,
Prosperity be there.
For LordCi-day Noon and Evening.
HYMN XXXVn. Psal. xxxiii. 1—4.
Ye righteous in the Lord rejoice.
For praise becomes the saints ;
Praise God with psaltery, harp, and voice.
And ten-stringed instruments.
Sing to the Lord aloud with praise ,
With skilful songs and new.
Because his word, his works, and ways.
Are holy, just, and true.
xl. 6 ; xxii. 9 ; Ixxi. 17.
Many are those most wondrous works
Which thou (my God) hast wrought ;
Many thy gracious purposes
Which are to us-ward thought.
I have been cast upon thy care
Even from my birth till now.
And from the womb that brought me foith.
My God, my g^ide art thou.
Yea, from my tender infancy
I have by thee been taught.
And so have told continually
What wonders thou hast wrought.
civ. 33—36.
Therefore to God will I sing prabe,
While I have life and breath.
And glorify him all my days.
And hoiiour him till death.
My thoughts of him shall be so sweet
As nothing else can be.
And all the streams of joy shall meet.
When, Lord, I think on thee.
Let sinners perish from the earth
And wicked be no more :
But thou, my soul, God's praise set forth.
Praise ye the Lord therefore.
HYMN XXXVIII. Psal. Ixxi. 8, 14.
Lord, let my mouth be filled with praise,
That I with pleasure may
Thine honour to the world proclaim.
And publish all the day.
For I with never-fainting hope
Thy mercies will implore.
And celebrate with thankful heart
Thy praises more and more.
15, 16.
Thy righteous acts and saving grace
I daily will declare.
Though the one half cannot be told.
So numberless they are.
Depending on thy strength, O Lord,
I will go boldly on ;
Thy righteousness shall be my plea,
Thy righteousness alone.
19—21.
Thy righteousness, O God, exceeds
In the most high deg^e ;
Thou hast performed wondrous deeds,
Who can compare with thee ?
Thou who hast showed me troubles sore,
Shalt raise me from the ground,
718
FAMILY HYMNS.
With boandless joys and endless peace
Thoo shalt enclose me round.
22,23.
I will instruct each warbling string
To make thy praises known ;
Thy truth and goodness I will sing,
O Israel's Holy One !
A multitude of joys shall throng
Upon my lips to sit.
While my glad soul breathes out a song
To him that ransomed it.
HYMN XXXIX. Psal. cvi. 1, 2.
O RENDER thanks unto the Lord,
For kind he is and good ;
His mercies still continue sure.
As they have ever stood.
What language can his mighty deeds
Deservedly proclaim ?
What tongue can sing the immortal praise
Due to his sacred name ?
cv. 2, 3.
Therefore let us in thankful songs
Our great Redeemer bless ;
And what his mighty hand hath wrought
With joyful tongues express.
O make your boasts with one accord
In God's most holy name ;
Let every soul that seeks the Lord
Be joyful in the same.
6, 7, 8.
O let the works that he hath done
Your admiration move ;
Think on the judgments of his mouth.
And wonders of his love.
It is our glory and our joy.
That this great God is ours.
His judgments pass through all the earth
With never-failing powers.
His covenant to his people sealed.
He ever calls to mind,
And will his promises fulfil
To ages yet behind.
cvii. 21.
O that all men would praise the Lord
For his great goodness then.
And for his works most wonderful
Unto the sons of men.
HYMN XL. Psal. cxiii. 1—3.
Praise ye the Lord, praise ye his name.
Ye servants of the Lord :
His name be now and ever blest
Of all with one accord.
Even from the rising of the sun,
Unto his going down.
Must we proclaim the Lord's high praise.
And give his name renown.
4, 6, 6.
Above all nations he 's advanced ;
His fame surmounts the sky ;
And who is like the Lord our God,
Whose dwelling is on high ?
Yet humbleth he himself to see
Things done in heaven above,
And what is done on earth beneath.
Where we poor mortals move.
cxi. 2, 7, 8.
Great are the works of our g^at God,
And every one, no doubt.
That takes true pleasure in the same.
With care doth search them out.
Faithful and just are all his ways.
His word for ever sure.
When once his promise is engaged.
Performance is secure.
9, 10.
Holy and reverend is his name.
And to be had in dread ;
This true religious fear of God
Is wisdom's well-spring head.
Good understanding have they all
That carefully endeavour
To practise his commandments ;
His praise endures for ever.
HYMN XLL Psal. cxxxv. 1, 2.
Sing Hallelujah, ye that serve
The God by us adored ;
O bless the high and glorious name
Of our Almighty Lord.
O ye that are admitted thus
Within his house to stand,
And in his holy courts attend
The word of his command,
3,4.
Praise ye the Lord, for he is good ;
Sing praises to his name ,*
For it is sweet to be employed
His praises to proclaim.
For God hath chosen to himself
Beloved Jacob's race.
And Israel the chief treasure is
Of his peculiar grace.
6,6.
For well I know the Lord is great.
And that this Lord of ours
Transcends all gods, and hath his seat
Above all sovereign powers.
His word created all at first,
His pleasure rules them still :
His sovereign uncontrolled mind
Heaven, earth, and seas fulfil.
FAMILY HYMNS.
719
19—21.
O Israel's house, bless ye the Lord,
With them of Levi's tribe ;
All that devoutly fear the Lord,
Due praise to him ascribe.
Let us all now in Sion's courts
The Lord's high praise record.
Who dwelleth at Jerusalem :
Praise ye, praise ye the Lord.
HYMN XLII. To the tune of Psalm Ixvii.
Psal. cxxxvi. 1 — 3.
O RENDER thanks to God,
For he is very good ;
His mercies sure do still endure,
And have for ever stood.
The God of gods proclaim.
The Lord of lord's great name ;
His mercies sure do still endure
Eternally the same.
4—9.
Who wondrous things hath done,
Made earth and heaven alone ;
His mercies sure do still ensure
To ages all made known.
Gave sun and moon their light.
To rule both day and night ;
His mercies sore do still endure.
For they are infinite.
10—14, 16.
Who Egypt's first-bom slew,
And thence his Israel drew ;
His mercies sure do still endure.
And ever so shall do.
Led them through parted seas,
And deserts' unknown ways ;
His mercies sure do still endure,
Worthy eternal praise.
17—19, 22—24.
That famous kings destroyed,
Whose land Israel enjoyed ;
His mercies sure do still endure.
And evermore abide.
Our lost estate he knows.
Redeems us from our foes ;
His mercies sure do still endure,
A spring that overflows.
26,26.
Who still provideth meat.
Whereof all flesh may eat ;
His mercies sure do still endure
For ever full and great
The God of heaven therefore
With thankful thoughts adore ;
His mercies sure do still endure
Henceforth for evermore.
HYMN XLIII. Psal. cxlvi. 1—4.
Sing Hallelujah, O my soul,
To the eternal King ;
Yea, whilst I any being have,
His praises I will sing.
Trust not in kings, though ne'er so g^eat.
Nor in man's mortal seed.
Whose power is not sufficient
To help you in your need.
Because his breath doth soon depart.
Then turns he to his clay.
And all the counsels of his heart
Do perish in that day.
5,6.
Happy is he whose certain help
From Jacob's God descends ;
Thrice happy he whose fixed hope
On God, his God, depends.
Who formed the earth, and heavens' high frame.
Who made the swelling deep.
And all that is within the same ;
Who truth doth ever keep.
7,8.
Who with right judgments still proceeds.
For those that be opprest.
Takes care that hungry souls be fed.
And prisoners be released.
The Lord doth give the blind their sight,
The bowed-down doth raise ;
In righteous men he takes delight.
And loveth them always.
9, 10.
Strangers and widows he preserves,
The orphan's cause doth own,
But as for sinners' prosperous state,
He turns it upside down.
The Lord shall reign eternally ;
Thy God, O Sion hill,
Shall reign to all posterity ;
O praise him, praise him still.
HYMN XLIV. Psal. cxlvii. 1—3.
Praise ye the Lord, for it is meet
Our God's due praise to sing.
For the employment is most sweet,
And praise a comely thing.
The Lord builds up Jerusalem,
His out-casts he restores ;
With comfort heals the broken hearts.
And bindeth up their sores.
5,6, 11.
Unsearchable his wisdom is,
His power admits no bound ;
He raiseth up the humble souls.
Treads sinners to the ground.
720
FAMILY HYMNS.
The Lord's entire delight and joy
Is ever in the just.
In them that fear him faithfully,
And in his mercy trust.
13—14.
O praise the Lord, Jerusalem,
Thy God, O Sion, praise.
Who makes thy bars, and strengtheneth them.
Wherewith thy gates he stays.
Thy children in thee he hath blest.
Makes in thy borders peace ;
He 6 lis thee with the very best
Of all the 6elds' increase.
19,20.
The secret dictates of his lips
He hath to Jacob shown ;
His statutes and his judgments are
To chosen Israel known.
He hath not dealt so favourably
With any land beside.
Nor have they known his judgments ; so
The Lord be magnified.
•
HYMN XLV. Psal. cxiviii. 1. 2, 4.
Sing Hallelujah, praise the Lord,
Even from the heavens high.
And from the heights his praise proclaim
Above the starry sky.
His angels all his praise begin.
And all his hosts of might ;
Praise him both sun and moon ; praise him
O all ye stars of light.
4—10.
Ye heaven of heavens, and waters there,
Praise your Creator's name.
For by his great decree you do
Continue still the same.
Praise God from the earth, ye whales and deeps.
Fire, hail, and stormy wind,
Hills, trees, and cattle, worms and fowl.
Each in your several kind.
11—13.
Kings of the earth, and people there.
Princes and judges all.
Young men and maidens every where.
Old men and children small :
O let them praise the Lord's great name.
For that excels alone ;
His glory is above the frame
Of earth, and heaven's high throne.
cxlix. 1, 2, 4, 5.
But above all, let Israel's saints
Of their Redeemer sing,
And let the sons of Sion hill
Be joyful in their King.
For God takes pleasure in his saints.
Will crown the humble heads.
Therefore let them triumph in him.
And sing upon their beds.
cxiviii. 14.
For he exalts his Israel's horn.
And all his saints doth raise ;
A people near and dear to him ;
O give the Lord his praise.
HYMN XLVI. Psal. xlvii. 6, 7, 9.
Sing praise to God, sing praise with joy.
Sing praises to our King ;
For Christ is King of all the world ;
All skilful praises sing.
With shouts of joy he is gone up
To his imperial throne ;
Our Lord is with the trumpet's sound
To heaven in triumph gone.
ii. 8 ; xxii. 27.
At his request is given to him
The privilege of his birth ;
For his the heathen lands shall be.
And utmost parts on earth.
The kindreds of the nations all
Shall worship in his sight ;
For he must govern great and small ;
All nations are his right
Ixxii. 2, 4, 6, 7, 11.
With justice shall he judge the poor.
Set the oppressed free ;
Like showers of rain to parched ground
Shall his dominion be.
The just shall flourish in his days,
And all shall be at peace.
Until the very moon decays.
And all her motions cease.
Yea, all the kings and higher powers
Shall kneel before his throne ;
All nations, and their governors.
Shall serve this King alone.
18, 19.
Praise ye the Lord of hosts, and sing
To Israel's God each one ;
For he doth every wondrous thing.
Even he himself alone.
And blessed be his glorious name
All times eternally ;
Let the earth be filled with his fame ;
Amen, amen say I.
HYMN XLVII. Psal. Ixxxix. 1, 19.
The eternal mercies of the Lord
My song shall still express ;
My mouth to ages shall record
Thy truth and faithfulness.
FAMILY HYMNS,
7-21
For thou hast laid our help upon
A Prince of mighty power ;
A chosen one thou hast advanced
To be the Saviour.
20,21,27—29.
With sacred oil thou didst anoint
David, whom thou hadst found ;
He 's girt with strength for saving work,
His head with glory crowned.
Mercies through him are kept for us,
And promises are sure ;
His sacred seed and sovereign throne
For ever shall endure.
30—34.
But if his seed transgress the laws
And statutes of their God,
Then wilt thou visit their offence
With a correcting rod.
Yet wilt not quite withdraw thy love,
Nor let thy promise fade ;
Thy covenant thou wilt never break,
Nor change what thou hast said.
35,52.
Having confirmed it by an oath,
A sacred oath, and high ;
Thy faithful ones are well assured
Thou wilt not, canst not lie.
Blessed for ever be the Lord,
And blest be God again ;
And let the church with one accord
Resound, Amen, amen,
HYMN XLVin. Psal. ex. 1—3.
Jehovah to my Lord thus spake.
Sit thou at my right hand.
Until I make thy baffled foes
Subject to thy command.
God shall from Sion send that rod
in which thy strength appears ;
Thy people in that day of power
Shall all be volunteers.
Moved with the beauties of thy church
Young converts then shall come.
As numerous as the pearls of dew.
That drop from morning's womb.
4—7.
The Lord a solemn oath hath sworn,
Which he will never break.
Thou art an everlasting Priest,
As was Melchizedeck.
And being thus raised to his throne.
Kings that his reign oppose,
With all the adverse heathen powers.
Shall perish as his foes.
Because he shall vouchsafe to taste
The brook that 's in the way ;
Thus shall the Lord lift up his head
To triumph and bear sway.
Rev. v. 12 ; ix. 13.
Therefore to thee, O Lamb of God,
Riches and power belong,
Wisdom and honour, glory, strength.
And every praising song.
Thou as our sacrifice wast slain.
And by thy precious blood.
From every tongue and nation hast
Redeemed us unto God.
Blessing and honour, glory, power,
From all in earth and heaven.
To him that sits upon the throne.
And to the Lamb be given.
Hymns for tome Particular Occasions ,
HYMN XLIX. Psal. civ. 24, 27, 28.
PROPBR TO BB 8UKO AFTER MBAL8.
How many are thy works, O Lord,
In wisdom all composed !
The earth by thee is richly stored
With treasures there enclosed.
On thee do all the creatures wait,
And as expectants stand.
To have their seasonable food
From thy dispensing hand.
That which thou g^vest as thou seest best
They gather for their food ;
Thy liberal hand thou openest.
And they are filled with good.
14, 15.
For cattle thou makest grass to spring.
And herbs for man's own use ;
Convenient food for every thing
Thou makest the earth produce.
To glad man's heart the fruitful soil
Brings forth the grape for wine.
Heart-strengthening bread, and precious oi'
Which makes his face to shine.
xxii. 2(5 ; ciii. 22.
The meek shall eat and be sufficed.
And those that do endeavour
To know the Lord, shall praise his name ;
Your hearts shall live for ever.
O bless the Lord, ye works of his.
Wherewith the world is stored.
Wherever his dominion is.
My soul, bless thou the Lord.
722
FAMILY HYMNS.
HYMN L.
rOR THS SAMB OCCASION.
Psal. cxlv. 1, 2, 9.
Thy sacred name I will advance.
My King and God of love ;
I '11 bless thee now, 'twill be my work
Eternally above.
The Lord is very good to all,
As we do daily find,
For all his works, in every place,
Taste of his mercies kind.
10, 16, 16.
Therefore from all thy works thou dost
Tributes of praise receive ;
3at saints much more with thankful hearts
Their adorations give.
All creatures do expect from thee
Supplies of daily food ;
Thine open-handed bounty fills
All their desires with good.
cxi. 6 ; xxxvii. 19.
Chiefly to them that fear his name
He giveth meat good store.
Because he will be mindful of
His covenant evermore.
They shall not blush in evil times.
Nor hang their drooping head ;
When famine reigns they shall not want.
But be sufficed with bread.
cxv. 21,
My thankful mouth shall be employed
God's praises to proclaim ;
Let all the world adore his power.
And ever bless his name.
HYMN LL
PROPER TO BX 8DNO AT FAMILY CATBCHI81N0.
Psal. xxxiv. 11—14. 2 Cor. xiii. 11.
Come children, with a willing heart
Unto my words give ear,
I will instruct you what it is
The eternal God to fear.
Who is the man that would live long,
And lead a blessed life ?
See thou restrain thy hasty tongue
From all deceit and strife.
Depart from evil, and do good.
Seek peace, and peace pursue ;
Be of one mind, and dwell in love.
And God shall dwell with you.
Psal. ii. 11 ; cxix. 9.
See that yon do yourselves employ
In God's true service here ;
Mix trembling always with year joy.
And worship him in fear.
For how shall young men cleanse their way,
To walk before the Lord ;
Surely by taking heed thereto
According to his word.
The second pari,
Psal. xc. 16 ; cii. 28.
Thy great and blessed work, O God,
Unto thy servants show.
And let their tender children too
Thy grace and glory know.
So shall thy joyful servants' race
In happy state remain,
And the blest issue of their loins
Thy favour shall sustain.
xxii. 30, 31.
And thus a seed shall serve the Lord,
Accounted and foreknown,
A generation of the Lord's,
Which he himself doth own.
They shall arise with joy to tell
His righteousness to those
Who shall be bom when we are gone.
That God did thus dispose.
Ixxxix. 29.
And so shall David's spiritual seed '
Be made to last always ;
And his established throne abide
As heaven's eternal days.
HYMN LII.
PROPBR TO BB BUNG WHBN A CHILD 18 BORN rKTO 1
FAMILY.
Psal. cxxviii. 1 — 3.
Blest is the man who fears the Lord,
And therefore him obeys.
That keeps his feet within the paths
Of his prescribed ways.
Thou shalt with pleasure eat the sweet
Of what thy pains have got ;
Prosperity shall gild thy days,
And crown thy happy lot.
Thy wife shall like the spreading vines
With choicest fruit abound ;
Thy children like green olive-plants
Adorn thy table round.
cxxvii. 3 — 5.
For children are an heritage
Which from the Lord doth come ;
And his reward by marriage
Is every fruitful womb.
As arrows fitted to the bow
Are in a strong man*s hand ;
So children of the growing youth
Their parents' glory stand.
FAMILY HYMNS.
723
That man enjoys a happy state.
Whose quiver 's thus supplied ;
He needs not fear whene'er his cause
Shall in the gate be tried.
cvii. 41 ; cxiii. 9.
Thus God the poor doth set on high,
And from all harm doth keep,
And multiplies his family
Like to a flock of sheep.
The solitary wife he makes
A housekeeper well stored,
With joy to breed her faithful seed ;
Wherefore praise ye the Lord.
HYMN LHL
ON OCCASION OF SICKNESS IN THB FAMILY.
Psal. cxix. 76, 07, 71.
I JCNow, O Lord, and do confess,
That just thy judgments be ;
And that in love and faithfulness
Thou hast aflUcted me.
For foolishly I went astray
Before I was chastised.
But now thy holy word and way
I have observed and prized.
Therefore I count it good for me
That I have felt thy rod.
That I might better learn and keep
The statutes of my God.
xxxviii. 1 ; cxix. 76 ; xxxv. 9.
But do not chasten me in wrath.
For then I can't bear up ;
Nor let thine anger be infused
Into the bitter cup.
But now let thy compassions kind
Come to thy servant. Lord,
For comfort to my troubled mind
According to thy word.
And then my soul shall joy in thee,
Thy help, O Lord, to find ;
And thy salvation sure will be
A cordial to my mind.
HYMN LIV.
ON THB 8AMB OCCASION.
Psal. Iv. 1,2.
Vouchsafe, O God, my prayer to hear,
Turn not away thy face
From me, thy poor petitioner,
Now begging for thy grace.
Attend unto my sad complaints,
And hear my humble moans,
Whilst before thee my soul 's poured out
In doleful sighs and groans.
2 A 2
vi. a--5.
Pity me, Lord, for I am weak.
Help me, and make me whole ;
When wilt thou come to the relief
Of my distressed soul ?
Return, O Lord, our health restore,
And save us grraciously ;
For who can praise, or think on thee.
When dead in g^ve they lie ?
xli. 3, 4.
But the good man, when he lies sick.
The Lord will sure sustain,
And make his bed in such a sort
As best may ease his pain.
Trusting in this, to thee, my God,
My prayer shall be addressed.
For mercy sake, Lord, heal my soul.
Though I have oft transgressed.
XXV. 18 ; cxix. 176.
With tender eyes behold the pain
And troubles I am in.
But above all, remove the sting,
By pardoning all my sin.
And let my soul before thee live.
And it shall give thee praise ;
And unto me thy judgments give,
To guide me all my days.
HYMN LV.
ON OCCASION OF RBCOVBRT FROM SICKNB8S
Psal. XXX. 1 ; xxxi. 22.
I 'll study. Lord, to raise thy name,
For thou hast raised me ;
From racking pains and threatening death,
I have been saved by thee.
I said in haste, I am removed,
And banished from thine eyes ;
Yet still thou hadst me in thy thoughts.
And heardst my prayers and cries.
cxviii. 17, 18.
Surely I shall not die but live.
And living will declare
The gracious works of God, my God,
How manifold they are.
The Lord, indeed, hath chastened me.
Chastened me sore.
Yet hath not he abandoned me
To death, when at death's door.
cvii. 17—20.
When fools for their transgression were
With bands of sickness tied.
So that they loathed dainty meats.
Then unto God they cried.
He sent his word of grace and power,
And did them heal and save.
724
FAMILY HYMNS.
And broa(^ht them in the dangerous hour
Up from the very g^ve.
21,22.
0 that all men would praise the Lord
For his great goodness, then.
And for his works most wonderful
Unto the sons of men.
And let recovered ones present
The sacrifice of praise, ^
And with rejoicing hearts declare
His gracious works and ways.
HYMN LVL
ON THX 8AMB 0CCA8I0N. HBZBKIAH'S THANKSGIYINO FOR
MIS RBCOVBRT. TO THB TUNB OF PSALM C.
IsA. xxxviii. 10, 11.
Counting on nothing else hut death,
1 said, I must go down to the grave ;
I am deprived of all those years
Of joy on earth I hoped to have.
I said, I shall no more behold
The temple of the Lord most high ;
Nor be admitted to converse
With sons of men as formerly.
12—14.
Final farewells I gave to life.
Thinking I had cut off its thread.
This sickness sure will mortal be.
And the next night will see mc dead.
Expecting all my bones would break.
Dove-like I mourned out every word ;
My failing eyes did seem to speak,
** I am oppressed, ease me. Lord."
17, 18.
But thou in kindness to my soul
Hast daved it from corruption's pit.
For thou hast cast behind thy back
My sins, my sins that threatened it.
The land of silence cannot praise.
Nor the forgetful grave record.
Nor can the helpless dead expect
The comforts of thy faithful word.
19,20.
But living, living men shall praise
Thy holy name, like me this day,
The fathers to their wondering seed
Thy truth shall publish and display.
The Lord was nigh at hand to save.
Therefore we will with songs of praise
Exalt his name in God's own house.
And in this work spend all our days.
HYMN LVn.
PROPBR TO BB SUNG WHBN DBATH 18 IN THB FAMILY, OR IN
THE FAMILY OF ANY NBIOUBOUR OR RBLATION.
Psal. cii. 11 ; ciii. \6,
Thr days wherein my life doth pass
Are like the evening shade ;
And I am like the withering grass
Which suddenly doth fade :
For it is gone, and quickly too,
When some bleak wind goes o'er.
And then the place whereon it grew
Shall never know it more.
xxxix. 4—6.
Lord, make me understand my end.
And days' uncertain date.
That I may clearly apprehend
The frailty of my state.
Behold, thou hast my days reduced
Unto a narrow span ;
Mine age to thine as nothing is ;
Vain at the best is man.
The worldling walks in a vain show,
Vexeth and toils in vain ;
He heaps op wealth, but doth not know
To whom it will remain.
The second part,
7,8.
And now, O Lord, what wait I for?
What are these hopes at best ?
My hopes in thee. Lord, only are.
On thee my soul doth rest
Break thou these cords of sin and guilty
Wherewith my soul is tied ;
Let me not be the scorn of fools.
That piety deride.
9, 11.
When thou my comforts didst remove,
I spake not, but was dumb.
Because I knew my sufferings. Lord,
From thy good hand did come.
When thou for sin dost man correct.
His beauties fade and die.
Like garments fretted by the moth ;
Sure all are vanity.
12, 13.
My mournful state, O Lord, regard.
And to my cry give ear ;
I am a stranger here on earth.
As all my fathers were.
O spare me. Lord, and give me space.
My strength and peace restore,
Before I go away from hence.
And shall be seen no more.
HYMN LVni.
FOR THB LICB OCCASION.
Psal. xcl
Lord, thou bast been in changes past
Our refuge and abode.
From age to age, beyond all time,
Thou art eternal God.
FAMILY HYMNS.
726
When thoa recallest man to dust.
He can no long^er stay,
A thousand years are in thy sight
Passed off as yesterday.
6,9.
Swept with a hasty torrent hence,
Like a irain dream we pass.
Spring up, and grow, and wither soon.
As doth the short-lived grass.
For in thy wrath our sinful days
To a swift period tend :
Our years, by us unheeded, like
An idle story end.
10, 12, 14.
Our age to seventy years is set.
Or if we do arrive
To fourscore years, it's all but grief.
We rather die than live.
Lord, teach us this religious art,
Of numbering out our days.
That so we may apply our heart ^
To sacred wisdom's ways.
O fill us early with thy grace,
That so we may rejoice.
And all our days, to tlie last breath.
Triumph in heart and voice.
HYMN LTX.
PETITION FOR THK CHURCH OF GOD, AND FOR TUB NATION.
Psal. Ixxiv. 12 ; xliv. 4 ; vii. 9.
Lord, thou art Israel's King of old.
Thou hast salvation brought ;
Command thou that deliverance now
For Jacob may be wrought.
Let sinners* sin come to an end.
But 'stablish stedfastly
The righteous men, O righteous God,
That heart and reins dost try.
Ixxxv. 9 ; Ixxx. 3.
Let thy salvation be at hand
To those that do thee fear.
That glory may adorn our land.
And be a dweller there.
Turn us, O God, to thee again,
For we too long have swerved ;
Cause thou thy face on us to shine.
And we shall be preserved.
cxxvi. 4 — 6.
Thy captived churches. Lord, restore
As streams in southern parts ;
For they that sow in tears are sure
To reap with joyful hearts.
He that his precious seed bears out.
And tears behind him leaves.
Shall come again with joy, no doubt.
And with him bring his sheaves.
xiv. 6.
O that the sweet salvation then
Which Israel waits for still.
Were fully come to all good men.
From out of Sion hill.
When God his people's bondage turns.
That freedom once Is had.
Then Jacob shall rejoice, that mourns.
And Israel shall be glad.
HYMN LX.
FOR A FAtTDAY.
Psal. li. 1—3.
According to thy love and grace
Take pity. Lord, on me :
Blot out my sins for mercies' sake.
Mercies so great and free.
O wash and cleanse my guilty soul
From mine iniquity ;
For I acknowledge mine offence,
'TIS ever in my eye.
4,6.
Against thee. Lord, and in thy sight
I did my sins commit ;
For which if thou condemnest me,
Thou must be clear and quit
Corrupt and guilty in thine eyes
My nature I received ;
And when my mother gave me life,
I was in sin conceived.
7,8.
With hyssop sprinkle me, and then
I shall be clean, I know ;
And make me, with my Saviour's blood,
Whiter than driven snow.
Make me to hear, amidst my moans.
The comfortable voice
Of joy and gladness, that the bones
Now broken may rejoice.
The second part.
10, 11.
Create in me a clean heart. Lord,
Unspotted in thy sight.
And let thy grace renew in me
A spirit pure and right.
O cast me not away from thee.
And though thy Spirit was grieved.
Yet of his comfort and his grace
Let me not be deprived.
12, 13.
Thy saving joys, which now I 've lost
Restore to me again ;
And with thy free and princely spirit
My drooping squI sustain.
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Transg^ressora then shall learn of me
To dread the paths of sin.
And those that strayed, encoaraged be
To tarn to thee again.
15,16.
Open, O Lord, my praying lips,
Now closed with guilt and shame ;
And then my month shall freely speak
The praises of thy name.
Didst thou desire it, I would give
The richest sacrifice,
But that 's of very small account,
And value, in thine eyes.
17, la
Thine offering is a humble soul.
That is for sin in pain,
A broken and a contrite heart.
Lord, thou wilt not disdain.
Do good in thy good pleasure, Lord,
Do good to Sion hill.
Build up Jerusalem's broken walls,
And dwell among us still.
HYMN LXI.
FOR A TUANK8QIVINO DAT FOS PUBUC MIBCIB8.
Psal. xlvii. 1—4.
Y E people all, clap hands with joy.
To God in triumph sing ;
For he *s a high and dreadful one,
A universal King.
He shall subdue the heathen lands,
And all our battles fight,
And make the place of our abode ^
The place of his delight.
xlviii. 1; Ixxv. 1.
Great is the Lord, his praise no less,
For so we must record.
Here, in his hill of holiness,
And city of our Lord.
O God, we render thanks to thee,
To thee we give the same,
For by thy wondrous works we sec
The nearness of thy name.
Ixxvi. 4, 7.
Much brighter is thy glorious crown,
More excellent each way,
More to be praised, and feared, by far,
Than all the mounts of prey.
Thus thou alone commandest fear
With thy most piercing eyes ;
Who dares approach, who dares appear
When once thy wrath doth rise ?
8—11.
From heaven thou mad'st thy terror known,
The earth was silent then,
When God arose to judge and save
The meek and humble men.
Surely man's wrath shall praise thy name.
Held in by thy restraints.
Vow to the Lord your God, and pay.
All ye his faithful saints.
Let all about him stand in awe.
And daily presents bring ;
To him that even with a look.
Can daunt the proudest king.
HYMN LXn.
PRAISX FOft HABVBST MBRCIES.
Psal. xxxvi. 6 ; cxlvii. 8.
Thy justice, Lord, is high and plain.
Thy judgments are most deep.
And, Lord, thy providential care
Both man and beast doth keep.
Thy goodness covers heaveu with clouds.
And gentle rain bestows ;
And thence the grass on fruitful hills
With wondrous plenty grows.
Ixv. 9, 11.
The craving earth thou dost enrich.
And waterest with thy care ;
The com which furrowed fields produce
Thou dost for us prepare.
Thy grace doth the returning year
With great abundance crown ;
In all thy paths, thy goodness. Lord,
Distils its fatness down.
Ixvii. 6, 7,
Thus while the earth in various fruits
Yields her desired increase.
Let God himself, even our own God,
Bless us and give us peace.
Yea, God shall on his people dear
His spiritual blessings shower.
And all the earth shall stand in fear
Of his almighty power.
Four Hymnt of Instruction,
HYMN LXin.
Psal. i. 1, 2.
Thc man is blest that doth not lend
To ill advice his ear.
Nor stands in sinners* wicked way.
Nor sits in scomer's chair :
But in the law of God the Lord
Doth set his whole delight.
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And in that law doth meditate
Devoutly day and night.
3,4.
He shall be like the floarishiog tree
Set by the river side.
In season yielding plenteous fruit,
Whose leaf shall fresh abide.
The Lord shall prosper all he doth ;
The ungodly are not so,
But like rejected worthless chaff.
Which winds drive to and fro.
5,6.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand
In day of judgment clear.
Nor with the just at God's right hand
Shall wicked men appear.
Because the way of saints, though strait,
The Lord with favour knows ;
Whilst sinners' self-deceiving path
Unto destruction goes.
HYMN LXIT.
Psal. XY. 1, 2.
Lord, who shall have a blest abode
Within thy tents of grace ?
And who shall dwell with thee, O God,
In thy most holy place ?
The man who walketh uprightly,
And doth the thing that's just,
Whose words agreeing with his heart,
One may securely trust.
3,4.
He that backbites not with his tongue.
Nor doth his neighbour hurt ;
That neither raises, nor receives,
A slanderous report.
Who looks on vice, in all its pomp.
With generous neglect.
But piety, though clothed in rags.
He greatly doth respect.
Who to his plighted vows and trust
Hath ever firmly stood.
And though he promise to his loss.
Yet makes bis promise good.
5,6.
Who to oppressing usury
His money hath not lent.
Nor can be brought by bribery
To wrong the innocent
The man who thus his course doth steer.
By God and men approved.
Is sa(\s and good, above the fear
Of being ever moved.
HYMN LXV.
Psal. xxxvii. 1, 3.
Fret not thyself, Dor be incensed
At such as do transgress.
Nor be thou envious ag^nst
Workers of wickedness.
Trust in the providence of God,
Abound in doing good.
And thou shalt have a fixed abode.
And be assured of food.
7,8.
Rest on the Lord, with patience wait,
And do not vex thy mind,
When prosperous sinners do effect
The ills they have designed.
Let not rash anger in thee rise ;
Ungoverned passions shun ;
Fret not thyself in any wise,
Though evil things be done.
For meek men shall have sweet and sure
Enjoyment of the earth ;
And shall delight themselves in peace
And sanctified mirth.
They that are merciful and kind.
And charitably lend.
Abundant blessings leave behind,
Which to their seed descend.
27—30.
Depart from evil, and do well,
Lay up good works in store ;
And then thou shalt be sure to dwell
In peace for evermore :
Wisdom is in the just man's mouth,
His tongue of judgment talks.
The law of God is in his heart.
And steadily he walks.
«I4, OH.
Wait still on God, and keep his path.
And thou shalt surely find
In troublous times a present help,
A strength and Saviour kind.
HYMN LXVI.
Psal. cxxxiii.
O HAPPY families on earth,
Resembling that above,
Where brethren peacefully unite
In sweet accord and love.
Tib like the precious ointment poured
On Aaron's sacred head.
Which down his face and garments rich
Its fragrant odours spread.
'TIS as the dew which melting clouds
On Hermon's top distil,
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FAMILY HYMNS.
Or fruitful showers which Heaven lets fall
On Sion's holy hill.
For there the God of love commands
And pours out blessings' store,
The comforts of this present life,
And life for evermore.
Hymns of Praise, to be swug tn the Tune of the lOOM
Psalm, and the 148M.
HYMN LXVII.
Psal. ix. I, 7, 8.
With my whole heart I'll bless thee, Lord,
And all thy mighty works proclaim,
My joy in thee shall fill my soul,
Whilst I sing praises to thy name.
The almighty ever-living God
Hath fixt his throne in heavenly light ;
When he appears to judge the world.
His sentence will be just and right.
10,11,14.
All those that know thy faithful name.
Their hope and trust in thee will place ;
For never didst thou. Lord, forsake
Any that duly sought thy face.
Sing praises to the Holy One,
Who said he would in Sion dwell ;
Therefore in Sion's daughter's gates
With joy his great salvation tell.
cxxx. 7, 8.
Let us depend on God alone,
Because with him rich mercy is.
And full redemption from all sin
He gives with plenteous grace to his.
HYMN LXVIII.
Psal. xlv. 2 — 4.
O GLORIOUS King! thy form divine
All earthly beauties doth outshine ;
Into thy lips all grace is poured.
On thee eternal blessings showered.
Gird on thy sword, and in thy might
For wronged truth and justice fight,
That all the world may understand
The terror of thy conquering hand.
6,7.
Thy throne, O God, doth still endure.
Thy sceptre is most just and pure.
That which is right thou lovest best.
But wickedness thou dost detest.
And therefore God, thy God hath shed
Such oil of gladness on thy head.
As hath preferred thee far before
The highest angels evermore.
9, 11, 13, 17.
The queen and her attendants stand
To worship thee at thy right haud.
Her clothing of wrought gold is seen.
But all her glory is within.
In all succeeding times thy name
Shall be preserved with lasting fame :
Whilst thy glad followers shall crown
With endless praise thy high renown.
HYMN LXIX.
Psal. Ivi. 1, 2.
God is our refuge and defence.
Our hope is in his providence.
Which still affords a present aid.
When greatest troubles do invade.
Therefore we shall not need to fear.
No, though the earth removed were ;
Or, though the hills and mountains steep
Lay buried in the angry deep.
3—5.
Although the raging waters make
The mountains with their swelling shake,
Yet calmer rivers do embrace
God's city, his fair dwelling>place.
Whose tabernacles by his love
Are kept that they can never moye ;
For he in times of great distress.
His early succour will address.
6,7,9—11.
The threatening tempest he allays.
And is his people's strength and praise ;
He maketh strife and wars to cease.
And crowns the trembling earth with peace.
This is our God, whose awful sway
Both heaven and earth must still obey,
The Lord of hosts is with his own.
And Jacob's God their refuge known.
HYMN LXX.
Psal. xciii. 1.
The Lord doth reign, and like a king.
Puts on his robes of glorious light:
Tremble thou earth, when he appears
Clothed and girt with boundless might.
2.
Under his rule the unquiet world
Will gain establishment and peace ;
Of old his empire did begin.
And, like himself, shall never cease.
3.
In vain the world's rebellious powers
In tumults and commotions rise.
Like the enraged floods that swell,
And bid defiance to the skies.
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4.
The Lord on high is mightier far
Than all this loud and threatening noise ;
And the proud sea*s unruly waves
Are stilled by his commanding voice.
5.
Lord, as thy power can never fail,
So all thy promises are sure ;
'Tis thy perfection to be true,
And theirs that serve thee to be pure.
HYMN LXXI.
Psal. xviii. 1, 2.
No change of times shall ever shock
My firm affection, Lord, to thee ;
For thou hast always been a rock,
A fortress, and defence to me.
Thou my deliverer art, my God,
My trust is in thy sovereign power.
Thou art my shield from foes abroad,
At home my safe-guard and my tower.
6,ao.
To God I made my mournful prayer.
To God addressed my humble moan.
Who graciously inclined his ear,
And heard me from hb holy throne.
For God's designs shall still succeed.
His word will bear the utmost test,
He 's a strong shield to all that need,
And on his sure protection rest.
31,46.
Who then deserves to be adored.
But God, on whom my hopes depend ?
For who, except the mighty Lord,
Can with resistless power defend ?
Let the eternal Lord be praised.
The Rock on whose defence I rest.
O'er highest heavens his name be raised.
Who me with his salvation blessed.
HYMN LXXIL
Psal. Ixxxix. 5, 6.
The wonders of thy power and grace
Angels admire in heaven above ;
Whilst congregations here below
Still celebrate thy truth and love.
For they in heaven above know none
That can with thee, O God, compare ;
To vie with thee for light and power.
Which of the mighty angels dare ?
7,8.
And by assembled saints on earth
Thou must be eyed with holy fear.
And reverendly must they adore
That to thy throne of grace draw near.
Lord God of hosts, what Lord is he
With whom such strength and power is foond ?
Who true and faithful art thyself.
With faithful guards encompassed roand.
9, 10, 11.
Thou rulest the raging of the sea.
And quietest its rolling waves ;
Thy conquered foes by thee are made
Like still inhabitants of the graves.
The splendid, spacious heavens are thine ;
The earth, and all its stores, thine own ;
The world and all its fulness is
Founded and kept by thee alone.
13, 14, 18, 53.
Thy sovereign and resistless power
With an unerring justice reigns,
Thy ruling hand, though strong and high,
Yet truth and mercy still maintains.
The Lord, even Israel's Holy One,
Is our Protector and our King,
Blest be the Lord for evermore.
Amen, with hallelujah's sing.
HYMN LXXIII.
Psal. civ. 1, 2.
My soul, bless thou the Lord most high.
My God, thou art exceeding gpreat ;
Thou clothest thyself with majesty.
Such as becomes thy heavenly seat.
With a transcendant dazzling light
Thou art encompassed round about,
And the vast roof of heaven bright.
Thou like a curtain stretchedst out.
3,4.
His royal chamber's beams he lays
In the celestial water-springs.
He makes the clouds his chariot wheels.
And walks on winds' outstretched wings.
A spiritual host of angels bright
About his throne humbly attends.
Swifter than winds, purer than flames.
Ready to fly whither he sends.
ciii. 20, 22.
And since our praises fall so short.
Bless him ye angels, bless him still.
Ye that excel in strength to praise,
And all his orders do fulfil.
Let every creature bless the Lord,
And let my joyful, thankful heart
In humble songs with them accord,
And in this concert bear its part
HYMN LXXrV.
Psal. c. 1 — 3.
With one consent let all the earth
To God their cheerful voices raise ;
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Serve ye the Lord with awfal mirth,
And sing before him songs of praise.
The Lord, ye know, is God alone,
Who as without our aid did make.
Us for his flock vonchsafes to own,
And for his pasture-sheep to take.
4,6.
O enter then his tempie-gate.
And to his courts devoutly press,
And still your grateful hymns repeat.
And still his name with praises bless.
For he 's the Lord supremely good,
His mercy is for ever sure ;
His truth, which always firmly stood, .
To endless ages shall endure.
HYMN LXXV.
Psal. cxvii. 1,2.
Let all mankind express their mirth
Unto the Lord in joyful songs.
And tender him from all the earth
The homage that to him belongs.
For from his plenteous mercies' store
He doth continual grace afford,
His truth likewise lasts evermore :
For ever therefore praise the Lord.
HYMN LXXVI.
Psal. cxxxiv. 1 — 3.
Behold, ye servants of the Lord,
Which in his house by night do stand
Bless ye his name, his praise record.
Devoutly lifting up your hand.
I' the sanctuary bless his name,
Praise him, O praise him thankfully :
The Lord that heaven and earth did frame.
From Sion bless us plenteously.
HYMN LXXVII.
Psal. cl. 1, 2, 6.
O PRAISE the Lord in that blest place
From whence his grace and glory flows ;
Praise him in heaven, where he his face
Unveiled in perfect glory shows.
Praise him for all the mighty acts
Which he on our behalf hath done ;
His kindness this return exacts.
With which our praise should equal run.
Let all that vital breath enjoy,
The breath he doth to them afford
In thankful songs of praise employ ;
Let every creature praise the Lord.
HYMN LXXVni.
THB VIEGtlf MAST'S BOKO.
Luke i. 46, &c.
My soul doth magnify the Lord,
And with great joy my Saviour praise.
Who from a low estate was pleased
Me and my name highly to raise.
His name is holy, and his g^ce
Is upon them that fear him still :
With strong out-stretched arm he hath
Dispersed the proud, and crossed their will.
He hath exalted humble souls.
Whilst lofty ones he did abase ;
He fills the hungpry with g^od things.
But from the rich withholds his grace.
His servant Israel he hath helped.
Remembering what he spoke before
In mercy to our ancestors.
And to their seed for evermore.
HYMN LXXIX.
THI BONO OP XBCHAB1A8.
Luke i. 68, &c.
Blessed for ever be the Lord,
The God and King of Israel,
Who hath his people visited.
Redeeming them from sin and hell.
He hath advanced in David's house
Salvation plentiful and strong.
As by his prophets he foretold
From the beginning all along.
That we being safe from enemies' hands.
Might serve and eye him without fear.
Still living holy righteous lives.
During our short continuance here.
The great salvation long desired
He now hath let his people know.
By the remission of their sins.
Which they to sovereign mercy owe.
Whereby the Day-spring from on high
Brings welcome light, which shall increase
For them that in death's shades did lie.
To guide them in the paths of peace.
HYMN LXXX.
THB SONO OF THB ANOBLS, AND OF 8IMBOK.
Luke ii. 14, 29, 32.
The First-begotten being brought
Into the world, the angels then
Sang, Glory unto God most high.
Peace upon earth, good will towards men.
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And since my waitings eyes have seen
'With joy thy great salvation, Lofd,
I now can leave the world, and die
In peace, according to thy word.
To welcome him who comes to be
To Gentile lands a guiding light ;
And to his people Israel's tribes
Their crown of praise and honour bright.
To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
The God whom heaven and earth adore^
Be glory, as it was of old.
Is now, and shall be evermore.
HYMN LXXXI.
Rev. i. 4, 5, 17, 18.
All glory now be given to him,
Who was, and is, and is to come ;
And to the seven spirits of graee,
Which always are before the throne.
And to our Saviour Christ, who is
A witness true of heavenly things,
The First-begotten from the dead.
And sovereign Prince of earthly kings.
Who loved as at so high a rate,
And washed us in his precious blood
From all our sins, that we might be
As kings and priests unto our God.
To him who is the Orst and last,
And liveth, though he died to save ;
Behold, he lives for evermore.
And has the keys of death and grave.
vii. 12.
Blessing and glory, wisdom, thanks.
With honour, power, and boundless might,
Be to our God for evermore.
Let all say, Amen, with delight.
HYMN LXXXII.
Rev. iv. 8, 11.
Most holy, holy, holy Lord,
The Almighty and Eternal One,
Worthy thou art to be adored
Who madest all for thyself alone.
V. 9, 12, 13.
Worthy art thou to take the book,
And break the seals, O Lamb of God,
For thou wast sacrificed for us,
And hast redeemed us by thy blood.
Worthy's the Lamb that thus was slain,
For ever worthy to receive
The power, and wealth, and all the praise.
That either heaven or earth can give.
All blessing, honour, glory, strength.
With thankful songs be given therefore,
To him that sits upon the throne,
And to the Lamb for evermore.
HYMN LXXXIIL
Rev. xi. 17.
We give thee thanks, almighty God,
Who art, and wast, and wilt be still,
For thou hast taken thy great power,
And reigned according to thy will.
xii. 10—12 ; xv. 3, 4.
Now is the strong salvation come.
The glorious reign of God and Christ,
For the accuser is cast out.
That did our brethren still resist
But his assaults they overcame
By the Lamb's blood, and by their own ;
Loved not their lives unto the death.
Nor would the word of truth disown.
Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and say,
Thy works (O Lord) are marvellous.
Thy ways almighty King of saints.
Are great, and true, and righteous.
Who shall not fear thee, O Most High,
And glorify thy sacred name.
Which doth alone for holiness
Deserve eternal praise and fame ?
For all the nations of the earth
Shall come and bow before thy throne ;
Because thy judgments are set forth,
So plainly seen, so fully known.
HYMN LXXXIV
Psal. cxxxvi. I, 2.
Give land unto the Lord,
For very good he is.
The God of gods record.
And praise that name of his :
For certainly
Hb mercies sure do still endure
Eternally.
3,4.
Give thanks, O every one,
Unto the King of kings.
For he, and he alone.
Hath wrought such wondrous things ;
For certainly
His mercies sure do still endure
Eternally.
23,24.
Who did remember ui
When our estate was low,
And hath redeemed us
From the oppressing foe :
For certainly
His mercies sure do still endure
Eternally
25,26.
To him give praises due.
Who gives all flesh their food ;
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O give ye thanks unto
The Grod of heaven so good ;
For certainly
His mercies sore do still endore
Eternally.
HYMN LXXXV.
Psal. cxlviii. 1, 2.
Ye houndless realms of joy
Exalt yoar Maker's fame,
His praise yoar song employ
Above the starry frame :
Your voices raise,
Ye cherubim, and seraphim,
To sing his praise.
3,4.
Thou moon that rulest the night,
And sun that guidest the day ;
Ye glittering stars of light
To him your homage pay :
His praise declare.
Ye heavens above, and clouds that move
In liquid air.
5,6.
Let them adore the Lord,
And praise his holy name,
By virhose almighty word
They all from nothing came :
And all shall last
From changes free ; for his decree
Stands ever fast.
11, 12.
Let all of royal birth,
With those of humbler frame.
And judges of the earth,
His matchless praise proclaim :
In this design
Let youths, with maids, and hoary beads,
With children join.
13, 14.
U nited zeal be shown
His wondrous fame to raise.
Whose glorious name alone
Deserves our endless praise.
Earth's utmost ends
His power obey ; his glorious sway
The sky transcends.
His chosen saints to g^ce.
He sets them up on high ;
And favours Israel's race,
Who still to him are nigh :
O therefore raise
Your grateful voice, and still rejoice
The Lord to praise.
HYMN LXXXVL
Psal. Ixxv. 1.
To thee (O God) we bring
A crown of living praise ;
To thee our thanks we sing.
And hearts devoutly raise :
Though thou art high.
Thy wonders show, that we may know
Thy name is nigh.
xxxiii. 4, 6.
The word of God is right.
His works therewith agree.
And pleasing in his sight
Shall truth and justice be :
The earth so wide
Is evermore with goodness' store
Richly supplied.
8,9.
Let all the spacious earth
Its great Creator fear ;
And men of mortal birth
This mighty Lord revere ;
At whose command
All things were made, and still are staid
By his strong hand.
12.
That nation happy is
To whom the Lord is known.
And whom he doth for his
Peculiar people own :
In every age
They 're blest whom he doth choose to be
His heritage,
18, 19.
On them that do him fear.
He casts a gracious eye.
Who with a hope sincere
On his rich grace rely.
Sure food to give,
And from the grave their souls to save.
And keep alive.
20—22.
Our soul with joy expects
The help our God shall send.
Who as a shield protects
All that on him depend :
Lord, let thy grace
Upon us be, as we on thee
Our hope do place.
HYMN LXXXVII.
Psal. cxxviii. ]» 2.
That man God's blessing hath
Whose heart his fear doth awe ;
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That walketh in the path
Prescribed by his law :
For thou shalt feast
Upon the gains thou gettest with pains,
In plenty blest
3,4.
Like vines with fruit well stored,
Thy loving wife shall be,
Thy children round thy board
Like plants of olive-tree :
Lo, thus shall he
That fears the Lord, and keeps his word.
Still blessed be.
6,6.
The Lord from Sion hill'
His blessings choice shall give,
And whilst thou livest still
Jerusalem shall thrive :
Thy seed's increase
Shall please thee well, whilst Israel
Abides in peace.
HYMN LXXXVIIJ.
Psal. cxlv. 1, 2.
O LORD, my God and King,
Thy glory I will raise.
And evermore will sing
Thy name's deserved praise :
Each day will I
Thy praise proclaim, and bless thy name
Eternally.
6,7.
Thy glorious majesty *
With honour we 'II declare.
Thy works we '11 magnify,
And all thy wonders rare :
Our joyful tongues
Shall still express thy righteousness
In praisinjic songs.
8,9.
In grace the Lord excels,
And great compassions hath,
Much mercy in him dwells,
And slow he is to wrath :
His tender love
His creatures all in general
Do daily prove.
18, 21.
To those that on him call
The gracious God is near,
To help and save them all
That pray with heart sincere :
I 'II speak his praiie,
And let all flesh concur to bless
His name always.
HYMN LXXXIX.
Rev. xix- 6, 6.
Praise to our God proclaim,
O ye his servants all,
And ye that fear his name.
Together gpreat and small :
Hailelujahy
For God supreme with power doth reign.
And bears the sway.
9,1.
O they be ever blest
That shall be called unto
The Lamb's great marriage-feast ;
These are God's words most true :
Hallelujah,
Strength, glory, power, and praise to our
Lord God alway.
xi. 15.
The kingdoms of this world
Shall every one become
The kingdoms of the Lord,
And of the Christ his Son ;
And he alway
Shall reig^ on high with majesty.
Hallelujah.
To God the Father, Son,
And Spirit, ever blest.
Eternal Three in One,
All worship be addressed.
As heretofore
It was, is now, and shall be so
For evermore.
HYMN XC.
PABT OF THB HYMN 07 8T. AMBROSE, CALLXD, TB PBUX.
O GOD, we praise thee, and we own
Thee to be Lord and King alone ;
All things were made to honour thee,
O Father of eternity.
To thee all angels loudly cry,
The heavens and all the powers on high.
Cherubs and seraphijns proclaim,
And cry, thrice holy to thy name.
Lord God of hosts, thy presence bright
Fills heaven and earth with beauteous light ;
The apostles' glorious company.
And prophets' fellowship praise thee.
The crowned martyrs' noble host.
The holy church in every coast.
Thine infinite perfections own,
Father of majesty unknown.
Giving all adoration
Unto thy true and only Son ;
And to that blest remembrancer
The Holy Ghost, the comforter.
734
FAMILY HYMNS.
O Christ, thou glorious King, we own
Thee to be God's eternal Son ;
Who, oar deliverance to obtain,
Didst not the virgin's womb disdain.
When, death's sharp sting destroyed by thee,
Thoa gainedst a glorious victory.
Heaven's gate, that entrance had denied,
Was to believers opened wide.
At God's right hand thou, Lord, art placed,
And with thy Father's glory graced.
And we believe the day will come
When thoa, as Judge, shalt pass our doom.
From day to day, O Lord, do we.
Highly exalt and honour thee ;
Thy name we worship and adore
World without end, for evermore.
03
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