Application in Several Inferences

First, See here the right character of a Gospel Minister, he is full of love, he exhorts, he comforts, he reproves and all in love; he is never angry with his people but because they will not be saved, O how loath is a Minister of Christ to see precious souls (like so many jewels) cast overboard into the dead Sea of Hell? A conscientious Minister would account it an unhappy day if he should gain the world and lose the souls of his people: He says as the King of Sodom to Abraham, Genesis 14. 21. Give me the persons and take you the goods.

Secondly, How sad then is it to have such put upon people as have no love to souls? The work of a Minister is a labour of love. O how sad is it to have such in the Ministry who can neither labor nor love? They look more at Tithes than at souls. It must needs be sad with any people in any part of the world who have such Ministers set over them, who do either poison them with error, or destroy them by wicked example. How can the Devil reprove sin? How can that Minister cry out against Drunkenness in his pulpit, who will himself be drunk? Romans 2. 22. We read that the snuffers of the Tabernacle were to be made of pure gold, Exodus 37. 23. Those that by their calling are to reprove and snuff off the sins of others should be of pure gold, that is holy and spiritual. In the Law God did appoint that the lips of the Leper should be covered, he should not be permitted to speak the oracles of God, who though he be by office an Angel, yet by life a Leper.

Thirdly, See here the happy condition of that Minister who is settled among such a people as gives him abundant cause to love them, happy is he that can say to his people, in the words of the Apostle, My dearly beloved.

And here let me speak by way of encouragement to you of this parish. I find Saint Paul commending the good he saw in his people, 2 Thessalonians 1. 3. We are bound to thank God always for you brethren, because your faith grows exceedingly. In imitation of this Apostle let me at this time speak a commendatory word to you; I have exercised my Ministry among you now almost this sixteen years, and I rejoice and bless God, that I cannot say, the more I have loved you the less I am beloved; I have received many signal demonstrations of love from you: though other Parishes exceeded you for number of houses, yet I think not for strength of affection. I have with much comfort observed your reverend attention to the Word preached; you have rejoiced in this light not for a season, but to this day. I have observed your zeal against error, and as much as could be expected in critical times, your unity and amity; this is your honor, and if for the future there should be an interruption made of my Ministry among you, though I should not be permitted to preach to you, yet I shall not cease to love you, and to pray for you.

But why should there be an interruption made, where is the crime? Some indeed say we are disloyal, we are seditious. Beloved, what my actions and sufferings for his Majesty have been is not unknown to a few of you; but however we must go to heaven through good report and bad report; it is well if we can get to glory though we pass through the pikes. I shall endeavor that I may still improve the sincerity of my love. I will not promise that I shall still preach among you, nor will I say that I shall not; I desire to be guided by the guidance of God's Word and his providence, my heart is towards you; you know that expression, then we shall be laid down shortly as if we were naturally dead; and if it must be so, let me leave some Legacies before I go hence. I cannot but give some counsel to your souls, and I hope there is no hurt in this.

There are Twenty Directions I would leave with you, and I desire you would take notice of them.

Direction 1. Keep your constant hours every day with God; the godly man is a man set apart, Psalm 4. 3. not only because God hath set him apart by election, but because he sets himself apart by devotion: Give God his hours every day; visit God in the morning before you make any other visit: wind up your hearts to heaven in the morning and they will go the better all day after. O turn your Closets into Temples, read the Scriptures, the two Testaments of the two lips by which God hath spoken to us, these will make us wise to salvation: The Scripture is both a glass to show your spots, and a laver to wash them away; besiege Heaven every day with prayer, thus perfume your houses, and keep a constant intercourse with heaven.

Direction 2. Get good Books into your house; when you have not the spring near you, you will get water into your Cisterns; when you have not that wholesome preaching that you were wont to have, good books are the Cisterns to hold the water of life to refresh you. When David's natural heat was taken away they applied warm clothes to him, 1 Kings 1. When you find a chilliness upon your soul, and that your former heat begins to abate, ply yourselves with warm clothes, get these good Books that may furnish you with such truth as may warm and affect your hearts.

Direction 3. Have a care of your company, take heed of having any unnecessary familiarity with sinners. We cannot catch health from one another, but may soon catch a disease: the disease of sin is very catching, Psalm 106. 35. I would be as much afraid to come among wicked men, as I would be to come among them that have the plague. If we cannot make others better, let us have a care they do not make us worse. Lot was a miracle that kept fresh in Sodom's salt waters. Take heed of the occasions of sin; evil company they are an occasion to sin. It is observable that the Nazarite in the old Law as he might drink no wine, so he was forbid to eat of the grape wherewith the wine was made, Numbers 16. to teach us that evil company is the Devil's draw net by which he has drawn millions to hell. How many in this City have been ruined in soul and body by evil company, many go from a Playhouse to a whorehouse, and from a Tavern to Tyburn.

Direction 4. Have a care who you hear, it is our Savior's caution, Matthew 7. 15. Beware of false Prophets. Let me tell you the Devil has his Ministers as well as Christ, we read in Revelation 12. 15. of a Serpent casting waters out of his mouth as a flood, that is, as the learned expound it, Satan by his Ministers and Emissaries cast out floods of Arian Doctrine to drown the Church. There are some of that subtlety and wit that have learned the art to mix error and truth together, and to give poison in a golden cup: Take heed whom you hear, and how you hear. Be like those noble Bereans, Acts 17. that searched the Scriptures, your ears must not be like Sponges that suck in the puddle water, with the purest Wine. But like the Fan that fans out the Chaff, whilst the solid grain abides; you must do like those in Matthew 13. 48. they gathered the good fish into vessels, and threw away the other. Saints are called Virgins for their wisdom, they will not let every one defile their souls with error; they have a judicious ear, and a critical palate, they can distinguish between truth and error, they can put a difference between meat of God's sending, and meat of the Devil's cooking.

Direction 5. Study sincerity, Psalm 51. 6. thou desirest truth in the inward parts; be what you seem to be; be not like the Waterman, that looks one way and Rows another; do not look Heaven-wards by a profession, and Hell-wards by your conversation; do not pretend God, and love sin; counterfeit piety is double iniquity: O let the heart be upright with God; the plainer the Diamond is, the richer; and the plainer the heart is, the more does God value this Jewel. A little rusty Gold, is far better than a great deal of bright Brass, so a little true grace, though rusted with many infirmities, is better than all the glitterings of hypocrisy, a sincere heart is God's Coin, and he'll give grains of allowance.

Direction 6. As you love your souls, be not strangers to yourselves; be much and often in the work of self examination, among all the books you read, turn over the book of your own heart; look into the book of Conscience, and see what is written there, Psalm 77. 6. I commune with my own heart, set up a judgment seat in your own souls, examine whether you have grace or no, prove whether you are in the faith; be as much afraid of painted holiness, as you would be of going to a painted Heaven. Do not think yourselves good, because others think so; let the Word be the touch-stone by which you try your hearts; let the Word be the looking glass by which you judge the complexion of your souls. For want of sincerity many that have lived known to others, have died unknown to themselves.

Direction 7. Keep your spiritual watch, Mark 13. 37. I say unto all watch, If it were the last word I were to speak, it should be this, Watch, O what need have Christians to be upon their watch, the heart is subtle, it will be stealing out unto vanity, and if we be not careful it will decoy us into sin, we have a special eye on such persons as we do suspect, your heart is a very suspicious piece, have your eye still upon it, watch it continually, for it is a bosom Traitor; Job set a watch before his eyes, Job 31. 1. We must every day keep Sentinel, do not sleep upon your guard, our sleeping time is Satan's tempting time, therefore let not your watch Candle go out.

Direction 8. Do you often who are the people of God associate together, Malachi 3. 16. Then they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another. Christ's Doves should flock together; one Christian will help to heat another. One single Coal of Juniper will soon die, but many put together will keep them burning; conference sometimes may do as much good as Preaching; one Christian by good discourse, drops the holy Oil into another, and makes the lamp of grace to shine the brighter. It is great wisdom to keep up the trade in a Corporation. Christians by meeting often together and setting good discourse on foot, keep up the trade of godliness, which else will decay and soon be lost. Is not the Communion of Saints an Article of our Creed? And yet do not many live as if this Article were blotted out. Naturalists have observed the sympathy of Plants, they say some Plants will grow better when they grow together, as the Vine and the Elm, the Olive and the myrtle; this is true in Religion, Saints who are trees of righteousness, thrive best in godliness, when they grow together.

Direction 9. Get your hearts screwed above the World, set your affections on things above, Colossians 3. 3. We may see the face of the moon in the Water, but the Moon is fixed above in the firmament; so though a Christian walks here below, yet his heart should be fixed above in Heaven; there is our best kindred, our purest joy, our Mansion house to have our hearts, above is the best and sweetest kind of life; the higher the Bird flies, the sweeter it sings; and the higher the heart is raised above, the sweeter are its joys. The Eagle that flies in the Air, is not stung with the Serpent. Those who have hearts elevated above this lower region of the World, they are not stung with the vexing vanities of the World, but are full of joy and contentment.

Direction 10. Trade much in promises, the promises are great supports to faith; faith lives on a promise, as the fish lives in the Water; promises are both comforting and quickening, they are the very breasts of the Gospel: As a child by sucking at the breast gets strength, so faith by sucking at the breast of a promise will get strength as the Eagle. Promises are the bladders to keep us from sinking, when we come into the Waters of affliction: They are a sweet cluster of Grapes that grow upon Christ the true Vine; there is no condition we can be in, but there is a promise to it, the promises like manna suits themselves to every Christians palate.

Direct. 11. Live in a calling: Jerome gave this advice to his friend, that he should be always employed, that when the Devil came he might not find him idle. Sure I am, the same God that says remember the seventh day to keep it holy, says, six days shall you labor, the great God never sealed any warrant to idleness; an Idle person is a shame to his profession, 2 Thessalonians 4:11. Some we hear work not at all. Solon made a Law that Idleness should be punished, and Cicero says of an Idle person, that he draws his breath but does not live, that is in a calling he is not useful, a good Christian acts within the sphere of a calling.

Direct. 12. Join the first and second table together; piety towards God, and equity toward your Neighbor. The Apostle has put these two together in one verse, Titus 2:12, that you should live righteously and godlily; righteously that relates to morality, godly that relates to piety and sanctity. Always remember that every commandment has the same divine stamp and authority as the other have. I would try a moral man by the duties of the first Table, and I would try a Professor by the duties of the second Table, some pretend faith, but they have no works; others have works but they have no faith: Some pretend zeal to God, but they are not just; others are just, but they have not one spark of zeal. I beseech you, if you would go to Heaven, turn both sides of the Table, the first and second Table, join these two, piety and Morality. As we blame the Papists for blotting out the second commandment, let not the Papists blame us for blotting out the second Tables.

Direct. 13. Join the Serpent and the Dove together, Innocence and prudence, Matthew 10:16. Be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves; we must have innocence with our wisdom, else our wisdom is but craftiness; and we must have wisdom with our innocency, else our innocency is but weakness; we must have the harmlessness of the dove, that we may not wrong others; and we must have the wisdom of the serpent that others may not abuse and circumvent us: Not to wrong the truth by silence, here is the innocency of the dove; not to betray ourselves by rashness, here is the wisdom of the serpent; O how rare is it to have these two united, the Dove and the Serpent. The Dove without the Serpent is folly, and the Serpent without the Dove is impiety.

Direct. 14. Be more afraid of sin than of suffering; a man may suffer and yet have the love of God, but cannot sin but presently God is angry; sin eclipses the light of God's face; in suffering, the conscience of a man may be quiet; as when the hail beats upon the tiles, there may be music in the house; so when there is suffering upon the body, there may be that music in the conscience. But when a man sins presumptuously he loses all his peace. Spira when he had abjured his Faith became a terror to himself, he could not endure himself; he protested he thought Cain and Judas in Hell did not feel the terror that he felt. He that will commit sin to prevent suffering, is like a man that lets his head be broken to save his helmet.

Direction 15. Take heed of Idolatry, 1 John 5:21. Idolatry is an image of Jealousy to provoke God; It breaks the Marriage knot asunder, and makes the Lord disclaim all interest in his people. The popish Religion is not defended by strength of Argument, but by force of Arms. Keep yourselves from Idols, and beware of superstition which is the Gentleman-Usher to Popery.

Direction 16. Think not the worse of Godliness because it is reproached and persecuted. Wicked men being stirred up by the Devil, do maliciously reproach the ways of God: Such were Julian and Lucian. And I observe, though men would be godly on their Death-beds, yet in the time of their living they revile and hate Godliness. But think not the worse of Religion because it is reproached by the wicked. Suppose a Virgin should be reproached for her Chastity, is Chastity ever the worse? If a blind man should jeer the Sun, the Sun is never the less bright. Godliness is the Angels glory; and shall we be ashamed of that which makes us like Angels? There is a time coming when the wicked would be glad to have some of that Holiness which they now despise, but they shall then be as far from obtaining it, as they are now from desiring it.

Direct. 17. Do not think the better of sin because you see it in fashion: Think not the better of impiety because most walk in this crooked way. The multitude is a foolish argument; I say it again, the multitude does not argue the goodness of a thing. The Devil's name is Legion, which signifies multitude. Hell's road is at this day full of Travelers: Esteem not better of sin because most go this way. The multitude is erroneous says Jerome: The pleading of the multitude will not hold at God's Bar, when God shall ask you, Why did you profane my Sabbaths? why were you drunk? why did you break your oaths? Lord, other men did so? God will say, seeing you have sinned with the multitude, you shall go to Hell with the multitude. I beseech you be tender of your souls, and walk Antipodes with the times; if you be living fish swim against the stream, Ephesians 5:11. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.

Direct. 18. In the business of Religion serve God with all your might, in Ecclesiastes 9:10. Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no work in the grave whether you are going. This is the argument why we should do all we can for God, and serve him with all our strength, because the grave is very near, and there is no praying, no repenting in the grave; our time is but short, therefore do as David, who danced before the Ark of God with all his might; act vigorously for God in your spheres, you must not only say a prayer, or read a prayer, but pour out your prayers before God, do not only love God, but be sick with love to God, in Leviticus 6:13. God would have the coals put to the Incense, and why so? to signify the heart should be inflamed in affection to God, your prayers should go up with the flame of devotion. I confess Hell may be taken without storm, you may drop into Hell with ease, but it is all up Hill to Heaven; in the 11 of Matthew and the 12, the violent take it by force; heaven is not taken but by storm. Do not we see the wicked active for the Devil and their lusts; and shall they take more pains for hell than you do for Heaven?

Direct. 19. Do all the good you can to others; God has made every creature useful. The Sun has not its light for itself but for us, the fountain runs free, & the Myrrh drops from the Tree; every creature does as it were deny itself for us, the Beast gives its labor, the Bird gives us its Music, the silk worm gives us its silk; has God made everything useful for us, and shall not we be useful to one another! O be helpful to the souls of others, and supply the wants of others. Jesus Christ was a public blessing in the World, he went about doing good, Acts 10:38. we are all Members of one body politic, nay are not we all members of one body mystical, and shall not every Member be useful for the good of the body! that is a dead member that does not communicate to the body. Be useful, that when you die there may be a miss of you when you are gone; many live so unfruitful, that their life is scarce worth a prayer, or their death worth a tear.

Direct. 20. And so I have done; every day spend some thought upon eternity. O eternity, O eternity, all of us here ere long, it may be some of us in a few days or hours, must launch out into the Ocean of eternity. There is no prospective Glass, says Boethius, by which we can see to the end of eternity; these sands can never be numbered, this line can never be measured; eternity it is a condition that is everlasting; you that are godly you shall be everlastingly happy, you shall always be sunning yourselves in the light of God's countenance, but the wicked shall be always suffering, ever lying under the scalding dropping of the wrath of the Almighty; eternity to the godly, it is a day that has no sun setting; eternity to the wicked, is a night that has no sun rising. The serious thoughts of eternity would be a great means to promote holiness, the fore-thoughts of eternity would make us be very serious about our souls. O my soul you are shortly to fly into eternity, a condition that never can be reversed or altered. How serious would this make us about the heaven-born soul, Zeuxis being asked why he was so long in drawing a Picture? Answered, I am now painting for eternity. How fervent would that man pray that thinks he is praying for eternity? how holy and circumspect would that man live that thinks upon this moment hangs eternity?

Secondly, the thoughts of eternity would make us slight and contemn all the things in the World, what is the world to him that has eternity always in his eye; did we think solemnly upon eternity, we should not over value the comforts of the World, nor over grieve at the crosses of the world. First I say we should not over value the comforts of the World; comforts they are sweet, but they are swift and soon gone; the pleasures of the World are but for a season, just like Noah's Dove that brought an olive branch in her mouth, but had Wings presently to fly away. Secondly, as not to over value, so not to over-grieve at the loss of them; what are these sufferings, they are but for a while, 1 Peter 5:10, and what is that to eternity? our suffering may be lasting, but they shall not be everlasting; our greatest afflictions are not worthy of that Eternal weight of glory.

And thus my Beloved I have given you twenty directions for your precious souls, I beseech you treasure them up as so many precious jewels in the Cabinet of your breasts, carrying these about you may prove an excellent antidote against sin, and to preserve zeal, and keep it flaming on the Altar of your hearts. I have many things more to say to you, and I know not if God will give another opportunity; but I beseech you let the things I have spoken abide upon you.