In presenting to the public, Mr. FLAVEL'S Saint Indeed, or, the Great work of a Christian in keeping the Heart, it may be necessary for the Publisher to remark, that this edition comes into existence with the original title given to it by the Author, and that his own arrangement of the work is strictly adhered to, without any mutilation, except that various quotations and references given in the work have been fairly translated, with all other necessary corrections.
He has also annexed, for the improvement of the volume, a Double Table, selected from the works of the reverend author; and he has subjoined to his Preface, a sketch of Mr. Flavel's life, taken from Calamy's Ejected Ministers. The whole work will be found to contain that vigour of thought and ingenuity of language, which so predominates through all his works, with every other excellence of this good and pious Christian--and which generally marks the production of an earlier day, and for which it is allowed that the
The voluminous works of Mr. Flavel, shew that he was equally as laborious for the good of souls in the closet as in the pulpit--they have passed through many editions, and have made his name precious to the pious in both England and America, for near a century and a half past; and, as one of his contemporaries have said, they will be so, as long as the earth shall endure. This great and good man, like the Great Apostle to the gentiles, whether in bonds or in imprisonment, must be breathing out the praises of his Divine Master, and bringing forth consolatory epistles, and pointing out land marks for the people of God to steer by, through this dangerous and solitary wilderness, and bring them safe into their desired haven. Thus it appears at the time he penned this ingenious work, his own doors were shut against himself,--Still his breast lay open to the flock over whom his lord had made him overseer, having lived in those perilous times, when it was not safe for a true disciple of Christ to shew his face; and, being proscribed from preaching in the narrow sphere of his own flock, went forth without fear into the fields, and
'John Flavel, a celebrated English divine, was born in Worcestershire about the year 1627. He was educated at the University College, Oxford, where he took his degree of B. A. In 1650, he settled as assistant minister to Mr. Walplate, rector of Diptford in Devonshire, and shortly after succeeded to the rectory, which, however, in 1656, he resigned, in order that he might enlarge the sphere of his usefulness, by becoming minister of a very populous parish at Dartmouth; though the stipend in this situation was much less advantageous than that which he had left. In 1662, he was among the number of ejected ministers, for refusing the terms proposed by the act of uniformity. He did not however, entirely separate himself from his people, but preached and administered the sacrament privately, till the passing of the Oxford act in 1665, which prohibited non-conforming ministers from residing within five miles of any city, corporate town, &c. or any place where they had preached.
'Mr. Flavel was now obliged to retire to Slapton, a village five miles from Dartmouth,
'In 1687, when king James assumed the right of dispensing with the laws, and granting more liberty to non-conformists, Mr. Flavel's congregation immediately obtained for him a large place, in which he was enabled to exercise his ministerial functions; and by the revolution in 1688, he was permitted to do that by law, which he had performed before by connivance. He died at Exeter in 1691, in his 61st year, having long possessed, in an eminent degree, the respect and esteem of all good men.
'He was a man of exemplary piety, and his various works were once much read, and are still greatly esteemed. They were collected after his death in two volumes folio.--Calamy's Ejected Ministers.'
His works are at this time again passing through the press in England, which in a great degree goes to establish these lines penned by Mr. Richard Baxter, when he says of Flavel,
"Mr. Flavel being in London in 1673, his old bookseller, Mr. Boulter, gave him the following relation, viz. that some time before there came into his shop a fashionable gentleman to inquire for some play books; Mr. Boulter told him he had none, but shewed Mr. Flavel's Treatise on Keeping the Heart, entreated him to read it, and assured him it would do him more good than play books. The gentleman read the title, and glancing upon several pages here and there, broke out into these and such other expressions, 'What damnable fanatic was he who made this book?' Mr. Boulter begged him to buy and read it, and told him he had no cause to censure it so bitterly; at last he bought it, but told him he would not read it. 'What will you do with it then?' said Mr. Boulter. 'I will tear and burn it,' said he, 'and send it to the devil.' Mr. B. replied, 'Then you shall not have it.' Upon this the gentleman promised to read it; and Mr. Boulter told him, if he disliked it upon reading, he would return him his money. About a month after, the gentleman came to the shop again in a very modest habit, and, with a serious countenance, addressed Mr. Boulter thus:
To my dearly beloved and longed for, the flock of Jesus Christ in Dartmouth, over whom the Holy Ghost hath made me an overseer; sound judgment, true zeal, and unstained purity, are heartily wished.
My Dear Friends,
There are three sad sights with which our eyes should continually affect our hearts: the 1st, is to behold in every place, so many profane and dissolute ones, who bear the very image of Satan; the face of whose conversation plainly discovers what they are and whither they are going,
So the people of God do speak, so they pray, and even so they open their conditions: these look like saints, but are none. The 3d, is to see so many real saints, in whom the spirit of truth is, who yet, through the impetuous workings of their corruptions, and neglecting of the watch over their hearts, do often fall into such scandalous practices, that they look like hypocrites, though they are not so.
These are three sad sights indeed; and, Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes fountains of tears, that I might weep abundantly over them all!
For the first, I would mourn heartily,
For the second, I would both weep and tremble, considering that they (so abiding) must be damned doubly,
And for the third, no less than any of the rest, because, though they themselves may, and shall be saved, yet their examples make fast the bonds of death upon both the former,
Alas! that ever they should shed the blood of other souls, for whom Christ shed his own blood! that ever they should be cruel to others, who have found Christ so kind to them! I know they dare not do it directly and intentionally, but so it proves occasionally and eventually. Suffer me here to digress a little, and expostulate with these prejudiced and hardened souls; I will presently return to you again. O why do you
Query 1. Doth religion any way countenance or patronize the sinful practices of its professors? Or doth it not rather impartially and severely condemn them? It is the glory of the Christian religion, that it is pure and undefiled,
Query 2. Is it not a most irrational thing to let fly at religion because of the scandalous ways of some, whilst in the mean time you wholly slight and overlook the holy and heavenly conversation of many others? Are all that possess godliness loose and careless in their lives? no, some are an ornament to their profession, and the glory of Christ; and why must the innocent be condemned with the guilty? why the eleven, for one Judas?
Query 3. If you condemn religion because of the scandalous lives of some that profess it, must you not then cast off all religion in the world, and turn downright Atheists? Surely this is the consequence of
Now there are two ways by which this may be effected: First", by convincing the consciences of professors of their miscarriages; and the evil and aggravations of them. Secondly, by medicating the heart, and cleansing the fountain whence they proceed. In the first of these, a worthy and eminent servant of Christ has lately laboured, holding a clear gospel-glass before the faces of professors, which truly represents their spots and blemishes: if he that reads it will consider, apply, and practice, it shall doubtless turn to his salvation; but if it turn to
I will exercise your patience no longer than whilst I tell you,
1. Why I publish it to the view of the world.
2. Why I direct it particularly to you.
First, for the publication of it, take this sincere and brief account, that, as I was led to this subject by a special providence, so to the publication of it by a kind of necessity: the providence at first leading me to it, was this, a dear and choice friend of my intimate acquaintance, being under much inward trouble, upon the account of some special heart-disorder, opened the case to me; and earnestly requested some rules and helps
Object. If any say, the world is even cloyed with books; and therefore, though the discourse be necessary, yet the publication is needless.
2. And if you be so highly conceited of your own furniture and ability, that such books are needless to you; if you let them alone, they will do you no hurt, and other
Object. If it be said, that several of the cases here handled touch not your condition, I answer,
Sol. 1. That which is not your condition may be another's condition. If you be placed in an easy, full, and prosperous state, and so have no need of the helps here offered to support your heart under pinching wants, others are forced to live by faith for every day's provision: If you be dandled upon the knee of providence, some of your brethren are under its feet: if you have inward peace and tranquility of spirit, and so need not the counsels here given, to ward off those desperate conclusions that poor afflicted souls are ready to draw upon themselves at such a time; yet it may be a word in season to them, and they may say, as David to Abigail, blessed be thou of the Lord, and blessed by thy advice.
2. That may be your condition shortly, which is not your condition at present: say
1. Of the relation I have to you above all the people in the world: I look upon my gifts as yours, my time as yours, and all the talents I am intrusted with, as yours: it is not with you as with a woman whose husband is dead, and so is freed from the law of her husband; the relation still continues, and so do all the mutual duties of it.
2. By the consideration of my necessitated absence from you. I would not that
3. Another inducement (and indeed the main) was the perpetual usefulness and necessity of these truths for you, which you will have continual need of: and I know few of you have such happy memories to retain, and I cannot be always with you to inculcate these things, but litera scripta manet. I was willing to leave this with you as a legacy, as a testimony of sincere
To hasten now to a conclusion: I have only three requests to make to you, which I earnestly beseech you not to deny me; yea, I charge you, as ever you hope to appear with comfort before the great shepherd, do not dare to slight these requests;
1. Above all other studies in the world study your own hearts: waste not a minute more of your precious time about frivolous and sapless controversies. It is reported even of Bellarmine (how truly I examine not) quod a studiis scholasticae theologiae averteretur fere nause abundas, quonian succo carebant liquid pietatis, i.e. he turned with loathing from the study of school divinity, because it wanted the sweet juice of piety. I had rather it should be said of you, as one said of Swinkfeldius, he wanted a regular head, but not an honest heart,
3. My next request is, that you will carefully look to your conversations, and be accurate in all your ways; hold forth the word of life: be sure by the strictness and holiness of your lives, to settle yourselves in the very consciences of your enemies. Remember that your lives must be produced in the great day to judge the world,
O then be precise and accurate in all manner of conversation: keep up the power of godliness in your closets and families, and
My third and last request is, that you pray for me: I hope I can say, and I am sure some of you have acknowledged, that I came at first amongst you, as the return and answer of your prayers; and indeed so it should be,
Your loving and faithful pastor,
JOHN FLAVEL.
From my study at Ley in Slapton,
Oct. 7th, 1667.
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life--
The heart of man is his worst part before it be regenerate, and the best afterwards: it is the seat of principles, and fountain of actions. The eye of God is, and the eye of a Christian ought to be, principally fixed upon it.
The greatest difficulty in conversion, is, to win the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion, is, to keep the heart with God. Here lies the very pinch and stress of religion; here is that which makes the way to life a narrow way, and the gate to heaven a strait gate. Direction and help in this great work, are the scope and sum of this text; wherein we have,
2. The reason, or motive enforcing it; for out of it are the issues of life.
In the exhortation I shall consider,
1. The matter of the duty.
2. The manner of performing it.
1. The matter of the duty, keep thy heart. Heart is not here taken properly for that noble part of the body which philosophers call, the primum vivens, et ultimum moriens; the first that lives, and the last that dies; but by heart, in a metaphor, the scripture sometimes understands some particular noble faculty of the soul: in
And by keeping the heart, understand the diligent and constant
2. The manner of performing it, is with all diligence; the Hebrew is very emphatical, cum omnicustodia, keep with all
3. The reason, or motive quickening to this duty, is very forcible and weighty: for out of it are the issues of life. That is, it is the source and fountain of all vital actions and operations; hinc fons buni et pecandi orige,saith Jerom; it is the spring and original both of good and evil, as the spring in a watch that sets all the wheels in motion. The heart is the treasury, the hand and tongue but the shops: what is in these, comes from thence; the hand and tongue always begin where the heart ends. The heart contrives, and the members execute,
Doct. That the keeping, and right managing of the heart in every condition, is the great business of a Christian's life.
What the philosopher saith of waters, is as properly applicable to hearts; suis terminis: dafficile continentur: it is hard to keep them within any bounds: God hath set bounds and limits to them, yet how frequently do they transgress, not only the bounds of grace and religion, but even of reason and common honesty? Hic labour hoc opus est: this is that which affords the Christian matter of labour, fear and trembling to his dying day. It is not the cleansing
The method in which I shall improve the point shall be this;
First, I shall enquire what the keeping of the heart supposes and imports.
Secondly, Assign divers reasons, why Christians must make this the great work
Thirdly, Point at those special seasons which especially call for this diligence in keeping the heart.
Fourthly, and lastly, apply the whole in several uses.
First, What the keeping of the heart supposes and imports.
To keep the heart, necessarily supposes a previous work of sanctification, which hath set the heart right, by giving it a new spiritual bent and inclination; for, as long as the heart is not set right by grace, as to its habitual frame, no duties or means can keep it right with God. Self is the poise of the unsanctified heart, which biases and moves it in all its designs and actions; and, as long as it is so, it is impossible that any external means should keep it with God.
Man, by creation, was of one constant, uniform frame and tenor of spirit, held one straight and even course; not one thought or faculty ravelled or disordered: his mind had a perfect illumination to understand and know the will of God; his will a
Man, by degeneration, is become a most disordered and rebellious creature, contesting with and opposing his Maker, as the first cause, by self-dependence; as the chiefest good, by self-love; as the highest Lord, by self-will; and as the last end, by self-seeking; and so is quite disordered, and all his acts irregular: his illuminated understanding is clouded with ignorance; his complying will, full of rebellion and stubbornness; his subordinate powers casting off the dominion and government of the superior faculties:
But by regeneration this disordered soul is set right again; sanctification being the rectifying and due framing, or, as the scripture phrases it, the renovation of the soul after the image of God,
This being presupposed, it will not be difficult to apprehend what it is to keep the heart, which is nothing else but the constant care and diligence of such a renewed man, to preserve his soul in that holy frame to which grace hath reduced it, and daily strives to hold it.
For, though grace hath, in great measure, rectified the soul, and given it an habitual heavenly temper; yet sin often actually discomposes it again; so that even a gracious heart is like a musical instrument, which, though it be ever so exactly tuned, a small matter places out of tune again;
1. Frequent observation of the frame of the heart, turning in and examining how the case stands with it; this is one part of the work: carnal and formal persons take no heed to this, they cannot be brought to confer with their own hearts; there are some men and women that have lived forty or fifty years in the world, and have scarce had one hour's discourse with their own
2. It includes deep humiliation for heart-evils and disorders; thus Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart,
3. It includes earnest supplications and instant prayer for heart-purifying and rectifying grace, when sin hath defiled and disordered it; so,
4. It includes the imposing of strong engagements and bonds upon ourselves to walk more accurately with God, and avoid the occasions whereby the heart may be induced to sin: well composed, advised, and deliberate vows, are, in some cases, of excellent use to guard the heart against some special sin; so
5. It includes a constant holy jealousy
State viri, quae causa viae? quive estis in armis?Virg.
Ye men pause, what is the cause of journey? why are ye in arms?
Happy is the man that thus feareth always,
6. And Lastly, to add no more, it includes
In these and such like particulars, do gracious souls express the care they have of their hearts; they are as careful to prevent the breaking loose of their corruptions in
1. It is the hardest work; heart-work is hard work indeed: to shuffle over religious duties with a loose and heedless spirit, will cost no great pains; but to set thyself before the Lord, and tie up thy loose and vain thoughts to a constant and serious attendance upon him; this will cost thee something: to attain a facility and dexterity of language in prayer, and put thy meaning into apt and decent expressions, is easy; but to get thy heart broken for sin, whilst thou art confessing it; melted with free grace, whilst thou art blessing God for it; to be really ashamed and humbled through the apprehensions of God's infinite holiness, and to keep thy heart in this frame, not
2. It is a constant work. The keeping of the heart is such a work, as is never done till life be done; this labour and our life end together: It is with a Christian in this business, as it is with seamen that have sprung a leak at sea; if they tag not constantly at the pump, the water increases upon them, and will quickly sink them. It is in vain for them to say, the work is hard, and we are weary; there is no time or condition in the life of a Christian, which will suffer an intermission of this work. It is in the keeping watch over our hearts, as it was in the keeping up of Moses's hands, whilst
3. It is the most important business of a Christian's life. Without this we are but formalists in religion; all our professions, gifts and duties signify nothing: My son, give me thine heart,
Secondly. Next, I shall give you some rational account why Christians should make this the great business of their lives, to keep their hearts.
The importance and necessity of making this our great and main business, will manifestly appear in that, 1. The honour of God; 2. The sincerity of our profession; 3. The beauty of our conversation; 4. The comfort of our souls; 5. The improvement of our graces; and, 6. Our stability in the hour of temptation; are all wrapt up in, and dependent on our sincerity and care in the management in this work.
To conclude, such is the vileness of mere heart-sins, that the scriptures sometimes intimate the difficulty of pardon for them. So in the case of Simon Magus,
2. The sincerity of our profession much depends upon the care and conscience we have in keeping our hearts; for it is most certain, that a man is but an hypocrite in his profession, how curious soever he be in the externals of religion, that is heedless and careless of the frame of his heart: you have a pregnant instance of this in the case of Jehu, but Jehu took no heed to walk in the ways of the Lord God of Israel with his heart,
Objection. If any upright soul should hence infer that I am an hypocrite too, for many times my heart departs from God in
Solution.. To this I answer, the very objection carries in it its own solution. Thou sayest, do what I can, yet I cannot keep my heart with God. Soul, if thou doest what thou canst, thou hast the blessing of an upright, though God sees good to exercise thee under the affliction of a discomposed heart. There remains still some wildness in the thoughts and fancies of the best to humble them; but, if you find a care before to prevent them, and opposition against them when they come, grief and sorrow afterwards; you will find enough to clear you from reigning hypocrisy.
1. This fore-care is seen partly in laying up the word in thine heart to prevent them, Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee,
And, 3d, Thy after-grief discovers thy upright heart. If, with Hezekiah, thou art humbled for the evils of thy heart, thou hast no reason, from those disorders, to question the integrity of it; but to suffer sin to lodge quietly in the heart, to let thy heart habitually and uncontrolledly wander from God, is a sad, and dangerous symptom indeed.
3. The beauty of our conversation arises from the heavenly frames and holy order of our spirits; there is a spiritual lustre and beauty in the conversation of saints; The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour: they shine as the lights of the world; but whatever lustre and beauty is in their lives, comes from the excellency of their spirits, as the candle within puts a lustre upon the lanthorn in which it shines. It is
And if the heart be holy and spiritual, then, as David speaks from sweet experience, My heart is (inditing) a good matter, I speak of the things which (I have made) my tongue is as the pen of a ready writer,
Put but the heart in frame, and the life will quickly discover that it is so. I think it is not very difficult to discern, by the duties and conversations of Christians, what frames their spirits are under; take a Christian in a good frame, and how serious, heavenly, and profitable will his conversations and duties be! what a lovely companion is he during the continuance of it! It would
When the heart is right with God, and full of God, how dexterously and ingeniously will it wind in spiritual discourse, improving every occasion and advantage to some heavenly purpose! Few words run then at the waste spout.
And what else can be the reason why the discourses and duties of many Christians are become so frothy and unprofitable, their communion both with God, and one another, become as a dry stalk, but because their hearts are neglected? Surely this must be the reason of it, and verily it is an evil greatly to be bewailed; for want of this Christian-fellowship, it is become a sapless thing; so the attracting beauty that was wont to shine from the conversation of the saints upon the faces and consciences of the
Time was, when Christians did carry it at such a rate, that the world stood at a gaze at them. Their life and language were of a different strain from others, their tongues discovered them to be Galileans, wherever they came; but now, since vain speculations, and fruitless controversies have so much obtained, and heart-work, practical godliness, so much neglected among professors, the case is sadly altered, their discourse is become like other men's; if they come among you now, they may (to allude to that
4. The comfort of our souls doth much depend upon the keeping of our hearts; for he that is negligent in attending his own heart, is (ordinarily) a great stranger to assurance, and the sweet comforts flowing from it.
Indeed, if the Antinomian doctrine were true, which teaches you to reject all marks and signs for the trial of your conditions, telling you, it is only the Spirit that immediately assures you, by witnessing your adoption directly without them; then you might be careless of your hearts, yea, strangers to them, and yet no strangers to comfort: but, since both scripture and experience do confute this dotage, I hope you will never look for comfort in that unscriptural way. I deny not but it is the work and office of the Spirit to assure you, and yet do confidently affirm, that if ever you attain assurance, in the ordinary way wherein God dispenses it, you must take pains with your own hearts; you may expect your comforts upon easier terms, but
1st, Objectively, i. e. by working those graces in our souls which are the conditions of the promise; and so the Spirit, and his graces in us, are all one: the Spirit of God dwelling in us, is a mark of our adoption. Now the Spirit cannot be discerned in his essence, but in his operations; and to discern these, is to discern the Spirit; and how these should be discerned, without serious searching and diligent watching of the heart, I cannot imagine.
2d, The other way of the Spirit's witnessing is effectively, i. e. by irradiating the soul with a grace-discovering light, shining upon his own work; and this in order of nature follows the former work: he first infuses the grace, and then opens the eye of the soul to see it. Now since the heart is the subject of that infused grace, even this way of the Spirit's witnessing also includes the necessity of keeping carefully our own hearts: for,
1st, A neglected heart is so confused and
2d, God doth not usually indulge lazy and negligent souls with the comforts of assurance; he will not so much as seem to patronize sloth and carelessness; he will give it, but it shall be in his own way: his command hath united our care and comfort together; they are mistaken that think the
To conclude, suppose it possible for a careless Christian to attain assurance, yet it is impossible he should long retain it; as for those whose hearts are filled with the joys of assurance, if extraordinary care be not used, it is a thousand to one if ever they long enjoy it: for a little pride, vanity and carelessness, will dash to pieces all that for which they have been labouring a long time, in many a weary duty. Since, then, the joy of our life, the comfort of our souls, rises and falls with our diligence in this work, keep your hearts with all diligence.
Besides, the careless heart makes nothing out of any duty or ordinance it performs or attends on, and yet these are the conduits of heaven, from whence grace is watered and made fruitful: a man may go with an heedless spirit from ordinance to ordinance, abide all his days under the choicest teaching, and yet never be improved by them; for heart-neglect is a leak in the bottom, no heavenly influences, how
6. Lastly, The stability of our souls in the hour of temptation will be much according to the care and conscience we have of keeping our hearts; the careless heart is an easy prey to Satan in the hour of temptation, his main batteries are raised against that fort-royal, the heart; if he wins that, he wins all; for it commands the whole man: and, alas! how easy a conquest is a neglected heart! It is no more difficult to surprise it, than for an enemy to enter that
There is, 1st, The irritation of the object, or that power it hath to work upon and provoke our corrupt nature; which is either done by the real presence of the object, or else by speculation, when the object (though absent) is held out by the phantasy before the soul.
2d, Then follows the motion of the sensitive appetite, which is stirred and provoked by the phantasy, representing it as a sensual good, as having profit or pleasure in it.
3d, Then there is a consultation in the mind about it, deliberating about the likeliest means of accomplishing it.
4th, Next follows the election, or choice of the will.
5th, And lastly, the desire, or full engagement of the will to it; all this may be
Next, according to the method propounded, I proceed to point out those special seasons in the life of a Christian, which require and call for our utmost diligence in keeping the heart; for though (as was observed before) the duty binds ad semper, and there is no time or condition of life in which we may be excused from this work; yet there are some signal seasons, critical hours, requiring more than a common vigilance over the heart.
First Season, "Is the time of prosperity, when providence smiles upon us, and dandles us upon its knee. Now Christian, keep thy heart with all diligence; for now it will be exceeding apt to grow secure, proud, and earthly, rara virtus est humilitas honorata, (saith Bernard) to see a man humble in prosperity, is one of the greatest rarities in the world. Even a good Hezekiah could not hide a vain-glorious temper under this temptation, and hence that caution to Israel: And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware to thy fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things which thou
Now then, the first case will be this, viz.
Case 1. How a Christian may keep his heart from pride and carnal security, under the smiles of providence, and confluence of creature-comforts.
There are seven choice helps to secure the heart from the dangerous snares of prosperity; the first is this,
1. To consider the dangerous ensnaring temptations attending a pleasant and prosperous condition; few, yea, very few of those that live in the pleasures and prosperity of this world, escape everlasting perdition. It is easier (saith Christ) for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven,
2. It may yet keep us more humble and watchful in prosperity, if we consider that among Christians many have been much the worse for it. How good had it been for some of them, if they had never known
3. Keep down thy vain heart by this consideration, that God values no man a jot the more for these things. God values no man by outward excellencies, but by inward graces; they are the internal ornaments of the spirit, which are of great price in God's eyes,
5. The heart may be kept humble, by considering of what a clogging nature earthly things are to a soul heartily engaged in the way to heaven; they shut out much of heaven from us at present, though they may not shut us out of heaven at last. If thou consider thyself under the notion of a stranger in this world, travelling for heaven, and seeking a better country, thou hast then as much reason to be taken and delighted with these things, as a weary horse hath with a heavy load: there was a serious truth in that atheistical scoff of Julian, when he took away the Christians' estates, and told them, it was to make them fitter for the kingdom of heaven.
6. Is thy spirit, for all this, flatulent and lofty? Then urge upon it the consideration of that awful day of reckoning, wherein, according to our receipts of mercies, shall be our accounts for them: and methinks
7. It is a very humbling consideration, That the mercies of God should work otherwise upon my spirit, than they used to do upon the spirits of others, to whom they come as sanctified mercies from the love of God. Ah Lord! what a sad condition
1st, That their mercies have greatly humbled them; the higher God has raised them, the lower they have laid themselves before God. Thus did Jacob, when God had given him much substance. And Jacob said, I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and all the truth which thou hast shewed thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now am become two bands,
2d, Others have freely ascribed the glory of all their enjoyments to God, and magnified not themselves, but him, for their mercies: so David,
3. The mercies of God have been melting mercies unto others, melting their souls in love to the God of their mercies. So Hannah,
4th, The mercies of God have been mighty restraints to keep others from sin. So
5. To conclude, the mercies of God to others have been as oil to the wheels of their obedience, and made them fitter for services,
"The second special season in the life of a Christian requiring more than a common diligence to keep his heart is the time of adversity. When providence frowns upon you, and blasts your outward comforts, then look to your hearts, keep them with all diligence from repining against God, or fainting under his hand; for troubles, though sanctified, are troubles still; even sweet-briar, and holy thistle, have their prickles. Jonah was a good man, and yet how pettish was his heart under affliction? Job was the mirror of patience, yet how was his heart discomposed by trouble? You will find it as hard to get a composed spirit under great afflictions, as it is to fix quick silver. O the hurries and tumults which they occasion
Case 2. How a Christian under great afflictions may keep his heart from repining or desponding under the hand of God. Now, there are nine special helps I shall here offer, to keep thy heart in this condition; and the first shall be this, to work upon your hearts this great truth,
1. That, by these cross providences, God is faithfully pursuing the great design of electing love, upon the souls of his people; and orders all these afflictions as means sanctified to that end.
Afflictions fall not out not by casualty, but by counsel,
Help 2. Though God hath reserved to himself a liberty of afflicting his people, yet he hath tied up his own hands by promise, never to take away his loving-kindness from them.
Help 3. It is of marvellous efficacy to keep the heart from sinking under affliction, to call to mind, that thine own father hath the ordering of them: not a creature moves hand or tongue against thee, but by his permission.
Help 4. God respects you as much in a low, as in a high condition; and therefore it need not so much trouble you to be made low; nay, to speak home, he manifests more of his love, grace, and tenderness, in the time of affliction, than prosperity. As God did not at first choose you because you were high, so he will not forsake you because you are low; men may look shy upon you, and alter their respects, as your condition is altered: when providence hath blasted your estates, your summer friends may grow strange, as fearing you may be troublesome to them; but will God do so? No, no; I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,
Help 5. And what if by the loss of outward comforts, God will preserve your souls from the ruining power of temptation? Sure then, you have little cause to sink your hearts by such sad thoughts about them. Are not these earthly enjoyments the things that make men shrink and warp in times of trial? For the love of these many have forsaken Christ in such an hour. He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions,
Help 6. It would much stay the heart under adversity, to consider, That God by such humbling providences, may be accomplishing that for which you have long prayed and waited: and should you be troubled at that? say, Christian, hast thou not many
Help 7. Again, it may stay thy heart, if thou consider, That in these troubles, God is about that work, which, if thou didst see the design of, thy soul would rejoice. We, poor creatures, are bemisted with much ignorance, and are not able to discern how particular providences work towards God's end; and therefore, like Israel in the wilderness, are often murmuring, because providence leads us about in a howling desert, where we are exposed to straits; though
Help 8. Further, it would much conduce to the settlement of your hearts, to consider, That by fretting and discontent, you do yourselves more injury than all the afflictions you lie under could do; your own discontent is that which arms your troubles with a sting, it is you that makes your burden heavy, by struggling under it. Could you but lie quiet under the hand of God, your condition would be much more easier and sweeter than it is; Impatiens aegrotus crudelem facit medicum. This makes God lay on more strokes, as a father will upon a stubborn child that receives not correction.
Besides, it unfits the soul to pray over its troubles, or take in the sense of that good which God intends by them: affliction is a
Help 9. Lastly, if all this will not do, but thy heart (like Rachel) still refuses to be comforted, or quieted, then consider one thing more, which, if seriously pondered, will doubtless do the work; and that is this, Compare the condition thou art now in, (and art so much dissatisfied with) with that condition others are, and thyself deservest to be in: others are roaring in flames, howling under the scourge of vengeance, and amongst them I deserve to be. O my soul! is this hell? Is my condition as bad as the damned? O what would thousands now in hell give, to change conditions with me!
"The third season calling for more than ordinary diligence to keep the heart, is the time of Zion's troubles: when the Church, like the ship in which Christ and his disciples were, is oppressed and ready to perish in the waves of persecution; then good souls are ready to sink, and be shipwrecked too, upon the billows of their own fears. I confess most men rather need the spur, than the reins in this case, and yet some sit down as overweighed with the sense of the church's troubles. The loss of the Ark cost old Eli his life; the sad posture Jerusalem lay in, made good Nehemiah's countenance change in the midst of all the pleasures and accommodations of the
"But though God allow, yea, command the most awakened apprehensions of these calamities, and in such a day calls to mourning, weeping, and girding with sackcloth,
Case 3. The third case that comes next to be spoken to, is this, How public and tender hearts may be relieved and supported when they are even overweighed with the burthensome sense of Zion's troubles. "I grant, it is hard for him that preferreth Zion to his chief joy, to keep his heart that it sink not below the due sense of its
Direction 1. Settle this great truth in your hearts, that no trouble befals Zion, but by the permission of Zion's God; and he permits nothing out of which he will not bring much good to his people.
There is as truly a principle of quietness in the permitting, as in the commanding will of God. See it in David,
This very consideration quieted Job, Eli, David, and Hezekiah; that the Lord did it, was enough to them, and why should it not be so to us? If the Lord will have Zion ploughed as a field, and her goodly stones lay in the dust; if it be his pleasure that Antichrist shall rage yet longer, and wear out
But then, if we pursue this argument further, by considering that God's permission do all meet at last in the real good of his people, this will much more quiet our spirits. Do the enemies carry away the good figs, even the best among the people, into captivity? This looks like a sad providence,
Well then, as Luther said to Melancthon, Desinat Philipus esse rector mundi; so say I to you; let infinite wisdom, power and love alone; for by these all creatures are swayed, and all actions guided, in reference to the church: it is none of our work to rule the world, but to submit to him that doth; Non caeco impetu volvuntur rotae; the
Direction 2. Ponder this heart-supporting truth, in reference to Zion's troubles: That how many troubles soever are upon her, yet her King is in her.
What? hath the Lord forsaken his churches? hath he sold them into the enemy's hand? doth he not regard what evil befals them? that our hearts sink at this rate? Is it not too shameful an undervaluing of the great God, and too much magnifying of poor impotent men, to fear and tremble at creatures, whilst God is in the midst of us? The church's enemies are many and mighty; let that be granted, yet that argument with which Caleb and Joshua strove to raise their own hearts, is of as much force now as it was then: The Lord is with us, fear them not,
Direction 3. Ponder the great advantages attending the people of God in an afflicted condition. If a low and an afflicted state in the world be really best for the church, then your dejections are not only irrational but ungrateful: indeed, if you estimate the happiness of the church by its worldly ease, splendor and prosperity, then such times will seem bad for it, but if you reckon its glory to consist in its humility, faith, patience and heavenly-mindedness, no condition in the world abounds so with advantages for these, as an afflicted condition doth. It was not persecutions and prisons, but worldliness and wantonness, that was the prison
And is it well done, then, to repine and droop, because your Father consults more the advantage of your souls, than the pleasing
Direction 4. Take heed that you overlook not the many precious mercies which the people of God enjoy amidst all their trouble.
It is a pity that our tears, upon the account of our troubles, should so blear and blind our eyes, that we should not see our mercies and grounds of comfort. I will not insist upon the mercy of having your lives given you for a prey, nor yet upon the many outward comforts, temporal conveniences and accommodations, which you enjoy even above what Christ and his precious
But what say you to pardon of sin? interest in Christ? the covenant promise? and an eternity of happiness in the presence of God after a few days are over? O that ever a people entitled to such mercies as these, should droop under any temporal affliction, or be so much concerned for the frowns of men, and the loss of trifles! You have not the smiles of great men, but you have the favour of the great God; you are, it may be, cast back in your estates, but thereby furthered in spirituals. You cannot live so bravely, plentifully, and easily as before; but still you may live as holy and heavenly as ever: will you then grieve so much for these circumstantials, as to forget your substantials? Shall light troubles make you forget weighty mercies? remember, the church's true riches are laid out of the reach of all its enemies: they may make you poor, but not miserable. What though God do not distinguish in his outward dispensations between his own and others? Yea, what
Direction 5. Believe that how low soever the church be plunged under the waters of adversity, it shall assuredly rise again.--Fear not, for as sure as Christ arose the third day, notwithstanding the seal and watch that was upon him; so sure the church shall arise out of all her troubles, and lift up its victorious head over all its enemies: there is no fear of ruin in that people who thrive by their losses, and multiply by being diminished. O be not too quick to bury the
Direction 6. Record the famous instances of God's care and tenderness over his people in former straits. Christ hath not suffered it to be devoured yet; for above these 1600 years the Christian church hath lived in affliction, and yet it is not consumed: many a wave of persecution hath gone over it, and yet it is not drowned: many designs to ruin it, and hitherto none hath prospered; this is not the first time that Hamans and Ahithophels have plotted its ruin; that an Herod hath stretched out his hand to vex it; still it hath been preserved from, supported under, or delivered out of all its troubles; and is it not as dear to God as ever? Is he not as able to save it now as formerly?--Though we know not whence deliverance should arise, Yet the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations,
"The fourth special season of expressing our utmost diligence in keeping our hearts, is the time of danger and public distraction; in such times the best hearts are but too apt to be surprised by slavish fear; it is not easy to secure the heart against distractions in times of common destruction. If Syria be confederate with Ephraim, how do the hearts of the house of David shake, even as the trees of the wood which are shaken with the wind?
But, my brethren, these things ought not so to be; saints should be of a more raised spirit: so was David, when his heart was kept in a good frame. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?
Case 4. How a Christian may keep his heart from distracting and tormenting fears in times of great and threatening dangers.
Now there are fourteen excellent rules, or helps, for the keeping of the heart from sinful fear when imminent dangers threaten us; and the first is this;
Rule 1. Look upon all the creatures as in the hand of God, who manages them in all their motions; limiting, restraining, and determining them all at his pleasure.
Get this great truth well settled by faith in your hearts: it will marvellously guard them against slavish fears. The first chapter of Ezekiel contains an admirable scheme or draught of providence; there you may see the living creatures who move the wheels, viz. the great affairs and turnings of things here below, coming unto Christ, who sits upon the throne, to receive new orders and
Rule 2. Remember that this God, in whose hand all the creatures are, is your father, and is much more tender over you, than you are or can be over yourselves: He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye,
Rule 3. Urge upon your hearts the express prohibitions of Christ in this case; and let your hearts stand in awe of the violations of them.
He hath charged you not to fear,
And hast feared continually because of the oppressor, as if he were ready to devour; and where is the fury of the oppressor?
Rule 5. Consider solemnly, that though the things you fear should really fall out, yet there is more evil in your own fear, than in the things feared.
And that not only as the least evil of sin, is worse than the greatest evil of suffering; but as this sinful fear has really more torment and trouble in it, than is in that condition you are so much afraid of. Fear is both a multiplying and a tormenting passion; it represents troubles much greater than they are, and so tortures and wrecks the soul much worse more than when the suffering itself comes. So it was with Israel at the Red Sea; they cried out, and were sore afraid till they put foot into the water, and then a passage was opened through those waters, which they thought would have
Rule 6. Consult the many precious promises which are written for your support and comfort in all dangers.
Objection. But that promise was made personally, and by name to him, so are not these to me.
Answer. If Jacob's God be your God, you have as good an interest in them as he had. The church, a thousand years after
Rule 7. Quiet your trembling hearts by recording and consulting your past experiences of the care and faithfulness of God in former distresses.
These experiences are food for your faith in a wilderness condition,
Rule 8. Be well satisfied that you are in the way of your duty, and that will beget holy courage in times of danger.
Who will harm you, if you be followers of that which is good?
Righteousness is a breast-plate: the cause of God will pay all your expenses; let them tremble whom danger finds out of the way of duty.
Rule 9. Get your consciences sprinkled with the blood of Christ from all guilt, and that will set your hearts above all fear.
It is guilt upon the conscience that softens and cowardizes our spirits; The righteous
Rule 10. Exercise holy trust, in times of great distress.
Make it your business to trust God with your lives and comforts, and then your hearts will be at rest about them. So did David,
Is it for the honor of religion, (think you) that Christians should be as timorous as hares, to start at every sound? Will not this tempt the world to think, that whatever you talk, yet your principles are no better than other men's? O what mischief may the discoveries of your fears before them do! It was a noble saying of
Rule 12. He that will secure his heart
When this is done, then you may say, Now world do thy worst. You will not be very solicitous about a vile body, when you are once assured it shall be well to all eternity with your precious souls. Fear not them (saith Christ) that can kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. The assured Christian may smile with contempt upon all his enemies, and say, Is this the worst that you can do? What say you, Christians? Are you assured that your souls are safe: that within a few moments of your dissolution they shall be received by Christ into an everlasting habitation? Well, if you be sure of that, never trouble yourselves about the instruments and means of your dissolution.
Objection. O, but a violent death is terrible to nature!
Answer. But what matter is it, when thy soul is in heaven, whether it were let out at thy mouth, or at thy throat? whether thy
Rule 13. Learn to quench all slavish creature-fears in the reverential fear of God.
This is a cure by diversion: It is a rare piece of Christian wisdom to turn those passions of the soul which most predominate, to spiritual channels; to turn natural anger into spiritual zeal, natural mirth into holy cheerfulness, and natural fear into an holy dread and awe of God. This method of cure Christ prescribes in that forementioned place,
Rule 14. Lastly, Pour out those fears to God in prayer, which the devil and your own unbelief pour in upon you in times of danger.
Prayer is the best outlet to fear; where is the Christian that cannot set his probatum est to this direction? I will give you the greatest example in the world to encourage you in the use of it, even the example of Jesus Christ. When the hour of his danger and death drew nigh, he gets into the garden, separates from the disciples, and there wrestles mightily with God in prayer, even unto an agony,
Now, O that these things might abide with you, and be reduced to practice in these evil days, that many trembling souls may be established by them.
"The fifth season to excite this diligence in keeping the heart, is the time of straits and outward pinching wants; although at such times we should complain to God, and not of God (the throne of grace being erected for a time of need,
Case 5. How a Christian may keep his heart from distrusting God, or repining against him, when outward wants are either felt or feared.
This case deserves to be seriously pondered, and especially to be studied now, since it seems to be the design of providence to empty the people of God of their creature-fulness, and acquaint them with those straits which hitherto they have been altogether strangers to.
Now, to secure the heart from the before-mentioned dangers attending this condition, these following considerations, through the blessings of the spirit, may prove effectual. And the first is this,
Consideration 1. That if God reduce you to straits and necessities, yet he deals no
Your condition is not singular; though you have hitherto been strangers to wants, other saints have daily conversed and been familiarly acquainted with them. Hear what blessed Paul speaks, not of himself only, but in the names of other saints reduced to like exigencies. Even to this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked and buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place,
Well then, hereby God hath set no mark of hatred upon you, neither can you infer the want of love from want of bread.--When thy repining heart puts the question, was there ever any sorrow like unto mine? Ask these worthies, and they will tell thee, though they did not complain and fret as
Consid. 2. If God leave you not in this necessitous condition without a promise, you have no reason to repine or despond under it.
That is a sad condition indeed, to which no promise belongs. I remember Mr. Calvin upon those words, Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, &c.
It is better to be as low as hell with a promise, than in paradise without one. Even
Having therefore these promises, why should not your distrustful hearts conclude like David's, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want?
Objection. But these promises imply conditions; if they were absolute, they would afford more satisfaction.
Solution. What are those tacit conditions you speak of, but these? 1st, That either he will supply or sanctify your wants: 2d, That you shall have so much as God sees fit for you. And doth this trouble you? Would you have the mercy, whether sanctified or no? Whether God sees it fit for you or no? Methinks the appetites of saints after earthly things should not be so ravenous, to seize greedily upon any enjoyment, not caring how they have it.
But oh, when wants pinch, and we see not whence supplies should come, then our
Consid. 3. If it be bad now, it might have been worse; hath God denied thee the comforts of this life? He might have denied thee Christ, peace and pardon also, and then thy case had been woeful indeed. You know God hath done so to millions in the world:
Consid. 4. This affliction, though great, is not such an affliction, but God hath far greater, with which he chastises the dearly beloved of his soul in this world; and should he remove this and inflict those, you would account your present state a very comfortable state, and bless God to be as now you are.
What think ye, sirs? Should God remove your present troubles, supply all your outward wants, give you the desire of your hearts in creature-comforts, but hide his face from you, shoot his arrows into your souls, and cause the venom of them to drink up your spirits? Should he leave you but a few days to the buffeting of Satan, and his blasphemous injections: should he hold your eyes but a few nights waking with horrors of conscience, tossing to and fro till
Consid. 5. If it be bad now it will be better shortly.
O keep thy heart by that consideration: the meal in the barrel is almost spent; well, be it so, why should that trouble me, if I am almost beyond the need and use of all these things? The traveller hath spent almost all his money, but a shilling or two left: Well, saith he, though my money be almost spent, yet my journey is almost finished too; I am near home, and then shall
Objection. 1. But I may die for want.
Solution 1st. Who ever did so? When were the righteous forsaken? 2d. If so, your journey is ended, and you fully supplied.
Object. 2. But I am not sure of that, were I sure of heaven it were another matter.
Sol. Are you not sure of that? Then you have other matters to trouble yourselves about than these: methinks these should be the least of all your cares: I do not find that souls perplexed and troubled about the want of Christ, pardon of sin, &c. are usually very anxious or solicitous about these things. He that seriously puts such questions as these, What shall I do to be saved? How shall I know my sin is pardoned? doth not usually trouble himself with, What shall I eat, what shall I drink, or wherewith shall I be clothed?
Consid. 6. Doth it become the children of such a Father to distrust his all-sufficiency, or repine at any of his dispensations?
7. Consid. 7. Your poverty is not your sin, but your affliction only! if by sinful means you have not brought it upon yourselves; and if it be but an affliction, it may be born the easier for that.
It is hard indeed to bear an affliction coming upon us as the fruit and punishment of sin; when men are under trouble upon that account, they use to say, O! if it were but a single affliction coming from the hand of God by way of trial, I could
But it is not so here, and therefore you have no reason to be cast down under it.
Objection. But though there be no sting of guilt, yet this condition wants not other stings: as first, the discredit of religion; I cannot comply with mine engagements in the world, and thereby religion is like to suffer.
Solution. It is well you have an heart to discharge every duty, yet if God disable you by providence, it is no discredit to your profession, because you do not that which you cannot do, so long as it is your desire and endeavor to do what you can and ought to do; and in this case God's will is, that lenity and forbearance be exercised towards you,
2 Object. 2. But it grieves me to behold the
Sol. If you cannot, it ceases to be your duty, and God accepts the drawing out of your soul to the hungry in compassion and desire to help them, though you cannot draw forth a full purse to relieve and supply them.
Object. 3. But I find such a condition full of temptations, a sore clog in the way to heaven.
Sol. Every condition in the world hath its clogs and attending temptations; and were you in a prosperous condition, you might there meet with more temptations and fewer advantages than you now have: for though I confess poverty hath its temptations as well as prosperity, yet I am confident prosperity hath not those excellent advantages that poverty hath: for here you have an opportunity to discover the sincerity of your love to God, when you can live upon him, find enough in him, and constantly follow him, even when all external inducements and motives fail. And thus I have shewed
"The sixth season of expressing this diligence in keeping the heart, is the season of duty; when we draw nigh to God in public, private, or secret duties, then it is time to look to the heart, for the vanity of the heart seldom discovers itself more than at such times. How often doth the poor soul cry out, O Lord, how fain would I serve thee, but vain thoughts will not let me; I came to open my heart to thee, to delight my soul in communion with thee, but my corruptions have set upon me: Lord, call off these vain thoughts, and suffer them not to prostitute the soul, which is espoused to thee, before thy face." The sixth case then is this:
Case 6. How the heart may be kept from distraction by vain thoughts, in the time of duty.
Help 1. Sequester yourselves from all earthly employments, and set apart some time for solemn preparation to meet God in duty: you cannot come reeking hot out of the world into God's presence, but you will find a tang of it in your duties: it is with the heart a few minutes since plunged in the world, now at the feet of God, just as with the sea after a storm, which still continues working, muddy and disquiet, though the wind be laid and storm over: thy heart must have some time to settle. There are few musicians that can take down a lute or viol, and play presently upon it, without
Oh my soul, leave trifling now, be composed, watchful, serious, this is no common work; it is God-work, soul-work, eternity-work. I am now going forth bearing seed, which will bring forth fruit to life or death in the world to come; pause a while upon thy sins, wants, troubles; steep thy thoughts a while in these before thou address thyself to duty. David first mused and then spake with his tongue,
Help 2. Having composed thy heart by previous meditation, presently set a guard upon thy senses: how often are poor Christians in danger of losing the eyes of their mind by those of their body; for this Job
And truly, the more spiritual the heart is, the more it is troubled about the vanity and wildness of it. O what a sad thing it is! that thy nobler soul must lackey up and
Help 4. If thou wouldst keep thy heart from those vain excursions, realize to thyself by faith, the holy and awful presence of God in duties.
If the presence of a grave man will compose us to seriousness, how much more the presence of an holy God?--Thinkest thou, thy soul durst be so gay and light, if the sense of a divine eye
Help 5. Maintain a praying frame of heart in the intervals of duty; what is the reason our hearts are so dull, careless, and wandering, when we come to hear or pray, but because there have been such long intermissions in our communion with God; by reason whereof the heart is out of a
To this purpose those intermediate ejaculations, betwixt stated and solemn duties, are of most sweet and excellent use; by these, on duty is, as it were, linked to another, and so the soul, as it were, wraps up itself in a chain of duties. That Christian seldom misses his mark in solemn duty, that shoots up many of these darts in the intervals of duty. It is an excellent commendation Christ bestows upon the spouse, Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honey-comb,
A dropping eye, and a melting heart, are seldom troubled as others upon this account: when the soul is intent upon any work, it gathers in its strength, and bends all the thoughts about it; and when it is deeply affected, it will be intent, the affections command the thoughts to go after them; deadness causes distraction, and distraction increases deadness: could you but look upon duties as the galleries of communion in which you walk with God, where your souls may be filled with those ravishing and matchless delights which are in his presence, your soul would not offer to stir from thence.
It is with the heart in duty, as it is with those that dig for golden ore; they try here and finding none, try there; and so go from place to place, till at last they hit upon the rich vein, and there they sit down. If thy heart could but once hit the rich vein in duty it would dwell and abide there with
Help 7. Mourn over the matter to God, and call in assistance from heaven, when vain thoughts assault thy heart in duty.
When the messenger of Satan buffeted Paul by wicked injections, as is supposed, he goes to God and mourns over it before him,
Help 8. Look upon the success and sweetness of thy duties, as very much depending upon the keeping of thy heart close with God in them.
Help 9. Look upon it as a great discovery of the sincerity or hypocrisy of your hearts, according as you find them careful, or careless, in this matter.
Nothing will startle an upright heart more than this: what, Shall I give way to a
Help 10. Lastly, It will be of special use to keep thine heart with God in duties, to consider what influence all thy duties have into thy eternity.
These are your seed-times, and what you sow in your duties in this world, you must look to reap the fruit of it in another world,
"The seventh season calling for more than common diligence to keep the heart, is, when we receive injuries and abuses from men. Such is the depravedness and corruption of man in his collapsed state, that homo homini lupus, one man is become a wolf, a tiger, to another: they are, as the prophet complains, As the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them,
Case 7. How a Christian may keep his heart from revengeful motions, under the greatest injuries and abuses from men.
The gospel, indeed, allows a liberty to vindicate our innocency, and assert our rights, but not to vent our corruptions, and invade God's right. When, therefore, thou findest thy heart begin to be inflamed by revengeful motions, presently apply the following remedies; and the first is this,
Remedy 1. Urge upon thy heart the severe prohibitions of revenge by the law of God. Remember that this is forbidden fruit,
Remedy 2. Set before your eyes the most eminent patterns of meekness and forgiveness, that your souls may fall in love with them.
This is the way to cut off those common pleas of the flesh for revenge: as thus, No man would bear such affront: Yes, such and such have borne as bad, and worse. I shall be reckoned a coward, a fool, if I pass by this: no matter, as long as I follow the examples of the wisest and holiest of men; never did any suffer more or greater
I have often heard it reported of holy Mr. Dod, that when one, enraged at his close, convincing doctrine, picked a quarrel with him, smote him on the face, and dashed out two of his teeth; this meek servant of Christ spat out the teeth and blood into his hand, and said, See here, you have knocked out two of my teeth, and that without any just provocation; but on condition I might do your soul good, I would give you leave to dash out all the rest. Here is the excellency of a Christian's spirit, above all
Remedy 3. Consider well the quality of the person that hath wronged thee; either he is a good man, or a wicked man, that hath done thee the injury: if he be a good man, there is light and tenderness in his conscience, and that will bring him at last to a sense of the evil he hath done; however Christ hath forgiven him greater
Or is he a wicked man? If so, truly you have more need to exercise pity than revenge towards him, and that upon a double account: for, 1. He is beside himself, so indeed is every unconverted sinner,
2. There is a day coming, if they repent not, when they will have more misery than you can find in your hearts to wish them; you need not study revenge, God's vengeance sleepeth not, and will shortly take
Remedy 4. Keep down thy heart by this consideration, that by revenge thou canst but satisfy a lust, but by forgiveness thou shalt conquer a lust.
Suppose by revenge thou shouldst destroy one enemy, I will shew thee how, by forgiving, thou shalt conquer three; thine own lust, the devil's temptation, and thine enemy's heart; and is not this a more glorious conquest? If by revenge thou overcome thine enemy, yet, as Bernard saith, Infelix victoria, ubi superans virum succumbit vitio: unhappy victory, when, by overcoming another man, thou art overcome by thine own corruption. By this way you may obtain a glorious conquest indeed. What an honourable and dry victory did David this way obtain over Saul? And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words, that Saul lifted up his voice
It must be a very disingenuous nature indeed, upon which meekness and forgiveness will not work; a stony heart, which this fire will not melt. If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head,
Remedy 5. Seriously propound this question to thy own heart, Have I got any good by the wrongs and injuries received, or have I not? If they have done you no good, turn the revenge upon yourselves: O that I should have such a bad heart, that can get no good out of such troubles! O that my spirit should be so unlike to Christ's! the patience and meekness of other Christians,
If you have got any good by them; if the reproaches and wrongs you have received, have made you search your hearts the more, watch your ways the more narrowly; if their wronging you, has made you see how you have wronged God, then let me say for them, as Paul did, Pray forgive them this wrong.
Remedy 6. It is of excellent use to keep the heart from revenge, to look up and eye the first cause by which all our troubles are ordered.
This will calm and meeken our spirits quickly: never did a wicked tongue try the patience of a saint more than David's was tried by that railing Shimei; yet the spirit of this good man was not at all poisoned with revenge, though he goes along cursing and casting stones at him all the way. Yea, though Abishai offered David, if he pleased, the head of that enemy; yet the king said, What have I to do with you, ye son of Zeruiah? So let him curse, because the Lord
Objection. But you will say, To turn aside the right of a man, to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not,
Answer. True; but though it fall not under his approving, yet it doth under his permitting will, and there is a great argument for quiet submission in that: nay, he hath not only the permitting, but the ordering of all those troubles. Did we see more of an holy God, we should show less of a corrupt nature in such trials.
Remedy 7. Consider how you daily wrong
You are daily grieving and wronging God, and yet he bears, forgives, and will not take vengeance upon you; and will you be so quick in avenging yourselves upon others? O what a sharp and terrible rebuke is that! O thou wicked and slothful servant! I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me, shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee?
Remedy 8. Lastly, Let the consideration of the day of the Lord, which draweth nigh, withhold your hearts from anticipating it by acts of revenge.
Why are you so quick? Is not the Lord at hand, to avenge all his abused servants? Be patient therefore, my brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth, &c. Be ye also patient, for the coming of the Lord draws nigh: grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold the judge standeth at the door,
Objection 1. But flesh and blood are not able to bear such abuses.
Solution. If you resolve to consult flesh and blood in such cases, and do no more but what that will enable you to do; never pretend to religion: Christians must do singular and supernatural things.
Objection 2. But if I put up with such abuses, I shall be reckoned a fool, and every one will trample upon me.
Solution. 1. You may be reckoned so among fools, but God and good men will account it your wisdom, and the excellency of your spirits. 2. It must be a base spirit indeed, that will trample upon a meek and forgiving Christian: and thus learn to keep your hearts from revenge under all your provocations.
'The next season in which we are in danger of losing our hearts, is, when we meet with great crosses and provocations; then sinful passion is apt to transport the heart: it is the fault of many good men, to be of hasty and quick spirits when provoked: though they dare not concoct anger into malice, for that would be a note of wickedness: yet are they very incident to sudden anger, which is a sign of weakness. Beza, in the life of Calvin, observes, that he was of a keen and hasty spirit; and he that writes the life of great Cameron, saith, that his anger was soon stirred towards his near and familiar friends, but then he would soon depose it, and acknowledge his weakness. Alas! when provocations and trials of our
Case 8. How the heart may be kept meek and patient under great crosses and provocations.
There are three sorts of anger, natural, holy, and sinful anger. 1. Natural, which is nothing else but the motion of the irascible appetite towards an offensive object; and this in itself is no sin, they are propassions rather than passions; the infelicities, rather than the sins of nature, as Jerom calls them. Reason, saith Plutarch, is the driver, the soul is the chariot, and the two horses that draw it on in all its motions, are the concupiscible and irascible appetites; whilst these are rightly managed by reason, they are not only lawful, but very useful to the soul. God would not have us to be stupid and insensate, though he would have us to be meek and patient. In
The humble is ever the patient man; pride is the root of passion; a lofty, will be a surly spirit: bladders blown up with wind will not lie close together; let out the wind, and you may pack a thousand in a little room: Only by pride cometh contention,
Means 2. Be often sweetening your spirits in communion with God, and they will not easily be imbittered with wrath towards men.
A quiet conscience never produced an unquiet conversation; the peace of God doth rule in the heart, as an umpire, in appeasing strifes. Wrath and strife are hugely opposite to the frame and temper of a spiritual heart, because inconsistent with the delight and contentment of that dove-like spirit, which loves a sedate and quiet breast. O! saith a soul that feeds upon the sweet communion of the spirit, shall the sparkles of provocations now catch in my passions, and raise such a smoke in my soul as will offend and drive away the comforter from me? This is so effectual a remedy against passion, that I durst almost venture, in a Christian of a hasty nature, to make long-suffering a sign of communion
Means 3. Get due apprehensions of the evil nature and effects of sinful anger: Ira furor brevis; Anger is a short madness, saith one: Ira animae febris, saith another; Anger is the fever of the soul; it is the interregnum and eclipse of reason, saith a third. The effects of it are also very sad.
1. It grieves the Spirit of God,
Means 4. Consider how sweet a thing it is to a Christian to conquer his corruptions, and carry away the spoils of them.
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city,
Means 5. Shame yourselves by setting before you those eminent patterns that have been most excellent for meekness.
When I read what lenity and tenderness Lycurgus shewed to an insolent fellow that had struck out one of his eyes, I am
Means 6. Lastly, Avoid all irritating occasions.
He that will not hear the clapper, must not pull the rope: Grievous words stir up anger,
"The ninth season of exerting our greatest diligence, is the critical hour of temptation, wherein Satan lays close siege to the Fort Royal of a Christian's heart, and often surprises it for want of watchfulness: to keep thy heart now, is no less a mercy than a duty; few Christians are so well skilled in detecting the fallacies, and retorting the arguments by which Satan uses to draw them to sin, as to come off safe in those encounters. Watch and pray, saith our Lord, lest ye enter into temptation,
Now there are six special arguments by which Satan subtly insinuates and winds in the temptation; in all which I shall offer thee some help for the keeping of thy heart; and the first is this:
Argument. 1. The first argument is drawn from the pleasure of sin: O, saith Satan, here is pleasure to be enjoyed; the temptation comes with a smiling countenance, and charming voice: what art thou so phlegmatic and dull a soul, as not to feel the powerful charms of pleasure? Who can withhold himself from such delights?
Now thine heart may be kept from the danger of this temptation, by retorting this argument of pleasure upon the tempter; which is done two ways.
1. Thou tellest me, Satan, that sin is pleasant; be it so: but are the gripes of conscience, and the flames of hell so too? Is it pleasant to feel the wounds and throbs of conscience? If so, why did Peter weep so
Here I see the true face of sin; if I yield to thy temptation, I must either feel the pangs of conscience, or the flames of hell.
Arg. 2. The second argument is drawn from the secrecy of sin: O, saith Satan, this sin will never disgrace thee abroad, none shall know it.
This argument may be retorted, and thy heart secured thus: thou sayest none shall know it; but Satan, canst thou find a place void of the divine presence for me to sin in? Thus Job secured his heart from this temptation,
Arg. 3. The third argument by which Satan tempteth to sin is taken from the gain and profit arising out of it: why so
The heart may be kept from falling into this dangerous snare, by retorting the temptation thus: but what profit will it be, if a man should gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Shall I hazard thee for all the good that is in this world? There is an immortal spirit dwelling in this fleshly tabernacle, of more value than all earthly things, which must live to all eternity, when this world shall lie in white ashes. A soul for which Jesus Christ shed his precious and invaluable blood. I was sent into this world to provide for this soul; indeed God hath also committed to me the care of my body, but, as one happily expresses it, with this difference; a master commits two things to a servant, the child and the child's clothes; will the master thank the servant, if he plead, I have kept the clothes, but I have neglected the life of the child??
Arg. 4. The fourth argument is drawn
This argument may be retorted three ways.
1. But is the majesty of heaven a little one too? If I commit this sin, I must offend and wrong a great God,
2. Is there any little hell to torment little sinners in? Are not the least sinners there filled with the fulness of wrath? O there is great wrath treasured up for such as the world counts little sinners.
3. The less the sin, the less the inducement to commit it; what, shall I break with God for a trifle? destroy my peace, wound my conscience, grieve the spirit, and all this for nothing? O what madness is this?
Arg. 5. A fifth argument is drawn from the grace of God; and hopes of pardon: come, God will pass by this as an infirmity, he will not be extreme to mark it. But stay, my heart.
2. If God be a God of so much mercy, how can I abuse so good a God? Shall I take so glorious an attribute as the mercy of God is, and abuse it unto sin? Shall I wrong him because he is good? or should not rather the goodness lead me to repentance?
Arg. 6. Lastly, Sometimes Satan
1. Though good men may commit the same sin materially, which I am tempted to, yet did ever any good man venture to sin, upon such a ground and encouragement as this?
2. Did God record these examples for my imitation, or for my warning? Are they not set up as sea-marks, that I might avoid the rocks upon which they split? Now these were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted,
3. Am I willing to feel what they felt for sin? O I dare not follow them in the ways of sin, quia me vestigia terrent; Lest God should plunge me into the deeps of horror into which he cast them.
Thus learn to keep your hearts, in the hour of temptation, from sin.
'The tenth special season to keep the heart with all diligence, is the time of spiritual darkness and doubting, when it is with the soul, as it was with Paul in his dangerous voyage, neither sun, nor moon, nor star appeared for many days; when by reason of the hidings of God's face, the prevalency of corruption, and the inevidence of grace, the soul is even ready to give up all its hopes and comforts for lost; to draw sad and desperate conclusions upon itself; to call its former comforts vain delusions; its grace hypocrisy. When the serene and clear heavens are overcast with dark clouds, yea, filled with thunders, and horrible tempests; when the poor pensive soul sits down and weeps forth this sad lamentation, My hope is perished
Case 10. How the people of God, in dark and doubting seasons, may keep their hearts from entertaining such sad conclusions about their estates, as destroy their peace, and unfit them for their duty.
There are two general heads, to which the grounds of doubting our sincerity may be reduced. 1. God's carriage towards the soul, either in the time of some extraordinary affliction, or of some long and sad desertion. Or, 2, The soul's carriage towards God: and here it usually argues against the truth of its own graces; either 1. From its relapses into the same sins, from which it hath formerly risen with shame and sorrow. Or, 2. From the sensible declining of its affections from God. Or, 3. From the excess of the affections towards creature-comforts and enjoyments. Or, 4. From its enlargements in public and often
These are the common grounds of those sad conclusions: now in order to the establishment and support of the heart in this condition, it will be necessary,
1. That you be acquainted with some general truths, which have a tendency to the settlement of a trembling and doubting soul.
2. That you be rightly instructed about the 'forementioned particulars, which are the grounds of your doubting.
The general truths requisite for poor doubting souls to be acquainted with, are these:
1. That every working and appearance of hypocrisy doth not presently prove the person in whom it is, to be an hypocrite. You must carefully distinguish between the presence and predominancy of hypocrisy: there are remains of deceitfulness in the
2. That we ought as well to hear what can be said for us, as against us: it is the sin of upright hearts, sometimes to use an over-rigid and merciless severity against themselves: they do not indifferently consider the case of their own souls: it is in this case, as Solomon speaks in another, There is that maketh himself rich, and yet hath nothing; and there is that maketh himself poor, and yet hath great riches,
3. That many a saint hath charged and condemned himself for that, which God will never charge him with, nor condemn him for. Why hast thou hardened our hearts from thy fear?
4. Every thing which is a ground of grief to the people of God, is not a sufficient ground of questioning their sincerity. There are many more things to trouble you, than there is to stumble you: if upon every slip and failing through infirmity, you should
5. The soul is not at all times fit to pass judgment upon its own condition: to be sure in the dark day of desertion, when the soul is benighted; and in the stormy day of temptation, when the soul is in a hurry, it is utterly unfit to judge its estate: Examine your hearts upon your beds, and be still,
6. That every breach of peace with God, is not a breach of covenant with God. The wife hath many weaknesses and failings, often grieves and displeases her husband; yet in the main is faithful, and truly loves him: these failings may cause him to alter his carriage, but not to withdraw his love, or deny his relation. Return, O backsliding Israel, for I am married unto you.
1. You doubt, and are ready to conclude, the Lord hath no regard or love for your souls, because of some extraordinary affliction which is come upon you: but I would not have thy soul so to conclude, till thou be able satisfactorily to answer these three questions.
Question 1. If great troubles and afflictions be marks of God's hatred, why should not impunity and constant prosperity be tokens of his love? For contraiorum
Quest. 2. Dare I draw the same conclusion upon all others that have been as much, yea more afflicted than myself? If this argument conclude against thee, then so it doth against every one in thy condition; yea, the greater the affliction of any child of God hath been, the more strongly the argument still concludes; and then woe to David, Job, Heman, Paul, and all that have been afflicted as they were.
Quest. 3. Had God exempted you only from those troubles which all other his people feel, would not that have been a greater ground of doubting to you than this? Especially since the scripture saith, If ye be without chastenings, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons,
Oh how is our Father put to it by froward
2. Or do you rashly infer the Lord has no love for you, because he hides his face from you; that your condition is miserable, because dark and uncomfortable? Before you draw such rash conclusions, see what answer you can give to these four following queries.
Query 1. If any action of God towards his people will bear a favourable, as well as a harsh and severe construction, why should not his people interpret it in the best sense? And is not this such? May he not have a design of love, as well as of hatred, in this dispensation? May he not depart for a season, and not for ever; yea, that he might not depart for ever? You are not the first that have mistaken God's ends in desertion,
Query 2. Do you find the marks of an absolute, total and final desertion upon your own spirits, that you are so apt to conclude yours to be such? Do you find your heart inclined to forsake God? Have you lost your conscientious tenderness in point of sin? If so, sad characters appear upon you indeed; but if, in this dark hour, you are as tender of sin as ever, as much resolved to cleave to God as ever, I cannot, I will not forsake God, let him do what he will with me: Oh no, I cannot. If your hearts work thus, it can be but a partial, limited, and temporary desertion; by this he still keeps his interest in your hearts, a sure sign he will return and visit you again.
Query 3. Is sense and feeling a competent judge of God's actions and designs? Or may a man safely rely upon its testimony after so many discoveries of the infallibility of it? is this a sound argument? If God had any love for my soul, if it were not quite gone I should feel it now as well as
Query 4. Think you the Lord cares not to break his children's hearts, and his own promise too! Hath he no more regard to either? If he return no more, these must be the consequences,
Well then, from God's carriage towards you, either in affliction or desertion, no such discouraging, heart-sinking conclusions can be inferred. Next, let us see whether they may not be inferred from our carriage towards God; and here the principal grounds of doubting are such as these:
Query 1. If this be so, how comes it to pass that Christ puts such a favourable construction upon the disciples sleeping the third time, when he had as often reproved them for it?
Query 2. Is not your repentance and care renewed as often as your guilt is renewed? Yea, the oftener you sin, the more you are troubled; it is not so in customary sinning, the rise whereof Bernard excellently discovers. 1. Saith he, When a man
Query 3. Are you sure from scripture grounds, that a good man may not relapse again and again into the same sin? It is true, as for gross sins, they do not use to relapse into them: David committed adultery no more; Paul persecuted the church no more; Peter denied Christ no more: but
2. The second ground is, the declining and withering of our affections to spiritual things. O! saith the upright soul, if ever I had been planted a right seed, I should have been as a green olive-tree in the house of my God; but my branches wither: therefore my root is naught. But stay,
Query 1. May you not be mistaken about the decay of grace, and fading of your affections? What if they are not so quick and ravishing as at first, may not that be recompensed in the spirituality and solidity of them now? I pray God your love may abound more and more in all judgment:
Query 2. But grant it be so indeed as you affirm, must it needs follow, that the root of the matter is not in you? David's last ways are distinguished from his first,
3. A third ground of those sad conclusions is the excess of our affections to some creature enjoyments. I fear I love the creature more than God; and if so, my love is but hypocritical: I sometimes feel stronger and more sensible motions of my heart to earthly comforts, than I do to heavenly objects: therefore my soul is not upright in me. But stay, O soul,
Query 1. May not a man love God more
Query 2. If you indeed love the creature for itself, if you make it your end, and religion but a means, then the conclusion is rightly drawn upon you. But, if you love the creature in reference to God, and see nothing in it separated from him, though sometimes your affections offend in the excess; this is consistent with sincere love to God. To love the creature inordinately,
Query 3. Have not many souls feared as you do, that, when Christ and creatures should stand as competitors in some eminent trial, they should forsake Christ rather than the creature; and yet when brought to that dilemma, have been able to cast all the world at their heels for Christ? Many of the martyrs had such fears, and thus they were satisfied; the prevalency of love is best seen at parting; there may be more love to Christ in thy soul, than thou art now aware of; and if God bring thee to such a pinch, thou mayest see it.
4. A fourth ground of these sad conclusions is from hence, that we find our hearts sometimes more straitened in private, than in public duties. O! if my soul were sincere, its actings in duty would be uniform; I fear I am but a Pharisee upon this ground.
Query 1. Do not all thine enlargements in duty, whether public or private, depend upon the Spirit, who is the Lord of influences; and according as he gives out, or holds back those influences, so art thou enlarged or straitened? And what if sometimes he pleases to give that in a public, which he withholds in a private duty? As long as thy soul is satisfied with neither, without communion with God, and the straitness of thy heart is indeed its burden? Doth that argue thee to be an hypocrite?
Query 2. Dost thou not make conscience of private duties, and set thyself as before the Lord in them? Indeed, if thou live in the constant neglect or careless performance of them; if thou art curious about public, and careless about private duties, that would be a sad sign: but when you have conscientiously performed, and often met with God in them, it will not follow that you are insincere, because that communion is sometimes interrupted. Besides,
5. Another ground is from those horrid injections of Satan, with which the soul is greatly perplexed; by these I may see what an heart I have: can grace be where these are?
Yes, grace may be where such thoughts are, though not where they are lodged and consented to. Dost thou cry out under the burden, enter thy protest in heaven against them, strive to keep up holy and reverend thoughts of God? Then it is violence, not a voluntary prostitution.
6. The last ground of these sad conclusions, is the Lord's long silence, and seeming denial of our long depending suits and
Query 1. Have not many saints stumbled upon this stone before thee?
Query 2. Though God's abhorring, and final rejecting prayer, be an argument of his abhorring the person that prays; yet dare we conclude so from a mere suspension of the answer? God may bear long with his own elect, that cry unto him day and night.
'The eleventh special season, calling for this diligence to keep our hearts, is, when sufferings for religion come to an height, then look to your hearts,
Case 11. How the heart may be kept from relapsing under the greatest sufferings for religion? If the bitterness of sufferings at any time cause thy soul to distaste the way of God, and take up thoughts of forsaking it; stay thine heart under that temptation, by propounding these eight questions solemnly to it.
Question 1. What reproach and dishonour shall I pour upon Christ and religion, by deserting him at such a time as this? This will proclaim to all the world, that how much soever I have boasted of the promises,
Question 2. Dare I violate my conscience to save my flesh? Who shall comfort me when conscience wounds me? What comfort is there in life, liberty, or friends, when peace is taken away from the inner man? When Constantius threatened to cut off Samosatenus's right hand, if he would not subscribe somewhat that was against his conscience; he help up both his hands to the messenger that was sent, saying, he shall
Question 3. Is not the public interest of Christ and religion, infinitely more than any private interest of my own? It is a famous passage, that of Terentius, captain to Adrian the emperor; he presented a petition to Adrian, that the Christians might have a temple by themselves to worship God, apart from the Arians: the emperor tore his petition and threw it away, bidding him to ask something for himself, and it should be granted. But he modestly gathered up the pieces of his petition again, and told him, If he could not be heard in God's cause, he would never ask anything for himself. Yea, even Tully, though an heathen, could say, Ne immortalitatem quidem contra rempublicam; he would not accept even of immortality itself against the
Question 4. Did Jesus Christ serve me so, when for my sake he exposed himself to far greater sufferings than can be before me? His sufferings were great indeed, he suffered from all hands in all his offices, in every member, not only in his body, but in his soul; yea, the sufferings of his soul were the very soul of his sufferings: witness the bloody sweat in the garden; witness the heart-melting and heaven-rending out-cry upon the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And yet he flinched not, he endured the cross, despising the shame. Alas! what are my sufferings compared with Christ's? He hath drank up all that vinegar and gall that would make my sufferings bitter. When one of the martyrs was asked, why he was so merry at his death? Oh, said he, it is because the soul of Christ was so heavy at his death. Did Christ bear such a burden for me, with unbroken patience and constancy; and shall I shrink
Question 5. Is not eternal life worth the suffering of a moment's pain? If I suffer with him, I shall reign with him. O how will men venture life and limb for a fading crown, swim through seas of blood to a throne! and will I venture nothing, suffer nothing for the crown of glory that fadeth not away? My dog will follow my horse's heels from morning to night, take many a weary step through mire and dirt, rather than leave me, though at night all he gets by it is but bones and blows: if my soul had any true greatness, any sparks of generosity in it, how would it despise the sufferings of the way, for the glory of the end? how would it break down all difficulties before it? whilst by an eye of faith it sees the forerunner, who is already entered, standing, as it were, upon the walls of heaven, with the crown in his hand, saying, He that overcometh, shall inherit all things. Come on then, my soul, come on, there is eternal life laid up for them that, by patient continuance in
Question 6. Can I so easily cast off the society and company of the saints, and give the right hand of fellowship to the wicked? How can I part with such lovely companions as these have been? how often have I been benefited by their counsels?
Question 7. Have I seriously considered the terrible scripture-comminations against
Question 8. Can I look Christ in the face at the day of judgment, if I desert him now?
The twelfth season of looking diligently to our hearts, and keeping them with greatest care, is the time of sickness: 'When a child of God draws nigh to eternity, when there are but a few sands more in the upper part of his glass to run down, and when Satan busily bestirs himself; of him it may be said, as of the natural serpent, Nunquam nisi moriens producitur in longum; he is never seen at his full length till dying: and now his great design, since he cannot win the soul from God, is to discourage and make it unwilling to go to God, though the gracious soul, with Jacob, should then rouse up itself upon a dying bed, and rejoice that the marriage day of the Lamb is now almost come;
Case 12. How the people of God in times of sickness may get their hearts loose from all earthly engagements, and persuade them into a willingness to die.
And there are seven arguments; which I shall urge upon the people of God at such a time as this, to make them cheerfully entertain the messenger of death, and die, as
Argument 1. First, The harmlessness of death to the people of God. Though it keeps its dart, it hath lost its sting: a saint (to allude to that,
Arg. 2. Thy heart may be kept from shrinking back at such a time as this, by considering the necessity of death, in order to the full fruition of God.
Whether thou art willing to die or no, I assure thee there is no other way to obtain the full satisfaction of thy soul, and to complete its happiness; till the hand of death do thee the kind office to draw aside the curtain of
Arg. 3. Another argument, persuading to this willingness, is the immediate succession of a more excellent and glorious life.
It is but wink, and you shall see God: your happiness shall not be deferred till the resurrection; but as soon as the body is dead, the gracious soul is swallowed up in life,
There are but two ways of the soul's living known in scripture, viz. the life of faith, and the life of vision,
Arg. 4. Farther, It may much conduce to thy willingness to die, to consider, That by death, God oftentimes hides his people out of the way of all temptations and troubles upon earth,
It is observed, that Methuselah died the very year before the flood; Augustine, a little before the sacking of Hippo; Pareus, just before the taking of Heidelburgh: Luther observes that all the apostles died before the destruction of Jerusalem: and Luther himself before the wars broke out in Germany. It may be the Lord sees thy tender heart cannot endure to see the misery, or bear the temptations that are coming, and therefore will now gather thee to thy grave in peace; and yet wilt thou cry, O spare me a little longer?
Arg. 5. If yet thy heart hang back, consider the great advantage you will have by death, above all that ever you enjoyed on earth; and that, 1. As to your communion
1. For your communion with God: the time of perfecting that is now come: thy soul shall shortly stand before the face of God, and have the immediate emanations and beamings forth of his glory upon it; here thy soul is remote from God, the beams of his glory strike it but obliquely and feebly, but shortly it will be under the line, and there the sun shall stand still, as it did in Gibeon; there shall be no cloudings nor declinings of it: O how should this fill thy soul with desires of being unclothed!
2. As for the enjoyment of saints, here indeed we have fellowship with them of the lower form; but that fellowship is so dissweetened by remaining corruptions, that there is no satisfaction in it: as it is the greatest plague that can befal an hypocrite, to live in a pure church; so it is the greatest vexation to the spirit of a saint, to live in a corrupt and disordered church; but when death hath admitted you into that glorious assembly of the spirits of just men made
Arg. 6. If this will not do, consider what heavy burdens death will ease thy shoulders of.
In this tabernacle we groan, being burthened. 1. With bodily distempers; how true do we find that of Theophrastus, the soul pays a dear rent for the tenement it now lives in? But glorified bodies are clogged with no indispositions; death is the best physician; it will cure thee of all diseases
Arg. 7. If still thou linger like Lot in Sodom, then, lastly, examine all pleas
Objection 1. O I have many relations in the world, I know not what will become of them when I am gone.
Solution. If thou art troubled about their bodies, and outward condition, why should not that word satisfy thee,
Objection 2. I would fain live, to do God more service in the world.
Objection 3. I am not yet fully ready, I am not as a bride completely adorned for the bridegroom.
Solution. Thy justification is complete already, though thy sanctification be not so; and the way to make it so, is to die: for till then, it will have its defects and wants.
Objection 4. O but I want assurance: if I had that, I could die presently.
Solution. Yea, there it sticks indeed; but then consider, that an hearty willingness to leave all the world to be freed from sin, and be with God, is the next way to that desired assurance; no carnal person was ever willing to die upon this ground.
You have heard, that the keeping of the heart is the great work of a Christian, in which the very soul and life of religion consists, and without which all other duties are of no value with God; hence then I shall infer, to the consternation of hypocrites, and formal professors,
1. That the pains and labours which many persons have taken in religion, is but lost labour and pains to no purpose, such as will never turn to account.
Many great services have been performed, many glorious works are wrought by men, which yet are utterly rejected by God, and shall never stand upon record in order to an eternal acceptation, because they took no heed to keep their hearts with God in those duties: this is that fatal rock, upon which thousands of vain professors have split themselves
2. Hence I also infer, for the humiliation even of upright hearts, That unless the people of God spend more time and pains about their hearts than generally and ordinarily they do, they are never like to do God much service, or be the owners of much comfort in this world.
I may say of that Christian that is remiss and careless in keeping his heart, as Jacob said of Reuben, Thou shalt not excel. It grieves me to see how many Christians there are that go up and down dejected and complaining, that live live at a poor low rate, both of service and comfort; and how can
You say your hearts are dead; and do you wonder they are so, as long as you keep them not with the fountain of life? If your bodies had been dieted as your souls have been, they would have been dead too; never expect better hearts, till you take more pains with them: Qui fugit molam, fugit farinam; he that will not have the sweat, must not expect the sweet of religion.
O Christians! I fear your zeal and strength have run in the wrong channel; I fear most of us may take up the church's complaint,
O how much better is it to see men live exactly, than to hear them dispute subtilly! These unfruitful questions, how have they rended the churches, wasted time and spirits, and called Christians off from their main business, from looking to their own vineyard? What think ye, sirs? Had it not been better if the questions agitated among the people of God of late days, had been such as these? How shall a man discern the special from the common operations of the Spirit? How may a soul discern its first declinings from God? How may a backsliding Christian recover his first love? How may
O how hath this wilderness entangled us! our discourses and conferences, nay, our very prayers and duties, have a tang of it: we have had so much work without doors, that we have been able to do but little within. It was the sad complaint of an holy one, `O, saith he, it is sad to think how many precious opportunities I have lost, how many sweet motions and admonitions of the Spirit I have passed over unfruitfully, and made the Lord to speak in vain; in the secret illapses of his Spirit the Lord hath called upon me, but my worldly thoughts did still lodge within me, and there was no place in my heart for such calls of God.' Surely there is a way of enjoying God, even in our worldly employments; God would never have put us upon them to our loss; Enoch walked
3. Hence also I infer, for the awakening of all, That if the keeping of the heart be the great work of a Christian, then there are but few real Christians in the world.
But, alas! to what a small number will they shrink, if you judge them by this rule! how few are there that make conscience of keeping their hearts, watching their thoughts, judging their ends, &c. O there be but few closet men among professors! it is far easier for men to be reconciled to any duties in religion, than to these: the profane part of the world will not so much as touch with the outside of religious duties, much less to this; and for the hypocrite, though he be polite and curious about those externals, yet you can never persuade him to this inward work, this difficult work: to which there is no inducement by human applause; this work, that would quickly
If the keeping of the heart be so important a business; if such choice advantages accrue to you thereby; if so many dear and precious interests be wrapt up in it, then let me call upon the people of God every where to fall close to this work.
O study your hearts, watch your hearts, keep your hearts! away with fruitless controversies and all idle questions; away with empty names and vain shews; away with unprofitable discourse and bold censures of others; turn in upon yourselves; get into your closets, and now resolve to dwell there. You have been strangers to this work too long; you have kept others vineyards too long, you have trifled about the borders of religion too long; this world hath detained you from your great work too long; will you now resolve to look better to your
Reader, methinks I should prevail with thee: all that I beg for is but this, that thou wouldst step a little oftener to talk with God, and thine own heart; that thou wouldst not suffer every trifle to divert thee; that thou wouldst keep a more true and faithful account of thy thoughts and affections; that thou wouldst but seriously demand of thine own heart, at least every evening, O my heart, where hast thou been to day? Whither hast thou made a road to day? If all that hath been said by way of inducement be not enough, I have yet more motives to offer you. And the first is this:
1. Motive. The studying, observing, and diligent keeping of your own hearts, will marvellously help your understanding in the deep mysteries of religion.
An honest well experienced heart, is a
Motive 2. The study and observation of your own hearts will antidote you against the dangerous and infecting errors of the times and places you live in.
For what think you is the reason that so many professors in England have departed from the faith, giving heed to fables; that so many thousands have been led away by the error of the wicked; that Jesuits and Quakers, who have sown corrupt doctrine, have had such plentiful harvests among us, but because they have met with a company of empty notional professors, that never knew what belongs to practical godliness, and the study and study of their own hearts.
If professors did but give diligence to study, search and watch their own hearts, they would have that steadfastness of their own, that Peter speaks of,
Motive 3. Your care and diligence in keeping your hearts, will prove one of the best evidences of your sincerity.
I know no external act of religion that differences the sound from the unsound professor: it is wonderful to consider, how far hypocrites go in all external duties; how plausibly they can order the outward man, hiding all their indecencies from the observation of the world.
But then, they take no heed to their hearts; they are not in secret what they appear to be in public; and before this trial no hypocrite can stand: it is confessed, they may in a fit, under a pang upon a death-bed,
If then it be a desirable thing in thine eyes to have a fair testimony of thine integrity, and to know of a truth that thou fearest God: then study thy heart, watch thy heart, keep thy heart.
Motive 4. How fruitful, sweet, and comfortable would all ordinances and duties be to us, if our hearts were better kept?
O what precious communion might you have with God, every time you approach him, if your hearts were but in frame! You
Motive 5. Acquaintance with your own hearts would be a fountain of matter to you in prayer.
A man that is diligent in heart-work, and knows the state of his own soul, will have a fountain-fulness of matter to supply him richly in all his addresses to God; his tongue shall not falter, and make pauses for want of matter;
Motive 6. By this the decayed power of religion will be recovered again among professors, which is the most desirable sight in this world.
Well, such a time may again be expected, according to that promise,
Motive 7. By diligence in keeping our hearts, we should prevent, and remove the fatal scandals and stumbling-blocks out of the way of the world.
Woe to the world (saith Christ) because of offences!
Yea, how are the consciences of fallen professors plunged and even overwhelmed in the deeps of trouble? God inwardly excommunicating their souls from all comfortable fellowship with himself, and the joys of his salvation: infinite are the mischiefs that come by the scandalous lives of professors.
And what is the true cause and reason of all this, but the neglecting of their
Motive 8. An heart well kept will fit you for any condition God casts you into, or any service he hath to use you in.
He that hath learnt how to keep his heart
Jesus Christ had an instrumental fitness for his Father's work above all the servants that ever God employed; he was zealous in public work for God, so zealous that he sometimes forgot to eat bread, yea, that his friends thought he had been besides himself: but yet he so carried on his public work, as not to forget his own private communion with God: and therefore you read,
Motive 9. If the people of God would more diligently keep their hearts, how exceedingly would the communion of saints thereby be sweetened.
How goodly then would be thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel: then, as it is prophesied of the Jews,
My brethren, these be the things that have spoiled Christian fellowship, and made it become a dry and sapless thing; so that many Christians are even weary of it, and are ready to say, with the prophet,
But now if professors would study their own hearts more, watch and keep them better, all this would be prevented; and the beauty and glory of communion again restored: they would divide no more, contend no more, censure rashly no more; when their hearts are in tune, their tongues will not jar; how charitable, pitiful and tender will they be of one another, when every one is daily humbled under the evil of his own heart. Lord, hasten those much desired days, and bless these counsels in order to them.
Motive 10. Lastly, By this the comforts of the Spirit, and precious influences of all ordinances, would be fixed, and much longer preserved in your souls, than now they are.
Ah! what would I give, that my soul
It is a thousand pities, that the ordinances of God, as to their quickening and comforting effects, should be like those human ordinances the apostle speaks of, that perish in the using. O then, let me say to you, as
The next use shall be for direction to some special means for the keeping of the heart. And here, besides what hath been hinted in the explication of the duty, at the beginning of this discourse, to which I refer the reader, and all those directions throughout the whole, appropriated to particular cases and seasons; I shall further add several other general means of excellent use to this end. And the first is this,
Means 1. Would you thus keep your hearts as hath been persuaded? then furnish your hearts richly with the word of God, which is their best preservative against sin.
Keep the word and the word will keep you: as the first receiving of the word regenerated your hearts, so the keeping of the word within you, will preserve your
Those that put a stock into the hands of unfaithful or suspicious servants, will be sure to make short reckonings with them; the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,
Means 3. He that will keep his heart, must take heed of plunging himself into such a multiplicity of earthly business, as he cannot manage without neglecting his main business.
It cannot be imagined, he should keep his heart with God, that hath lost himself in a wood of earthly business: take heed you do not pinch your souls, by gratifying the immoderate desires of your flesh. I wish many Christians could truly say, what an Heathen once did, I do not give, but only lend myself to business. It is said Germanicus reigned in the Roman hearts; Tiberius only in their provinces. Though the world be in your hands, let it not justle Christ out of your hearts.
Take heed, Christian, lest thy shop steal away thy heart from thy closet. God never intended earthly employments for a stop, but rather for a step to heavenly ones. O
Means 4. He that means to keep his heart, must carefully observe its first declinings from God, and stop it there.
He that will find his house in good repair, must stop every chink as soon as discovered; and he that would keep his heart must not let a vain thought be long neglected: the serpent of heart apostasy is best killed in the egg of a small remission. Oh! if many poor decayed Christians had looked to their hearts in time, they had never come to that sad pass they now are! we may say of heart-neglects, as the apostle doth of vain babblings; that they increase to more and more ungodliness. Nemo repente fit turpissimus; Little sins neglected, will quickly become great and masterless; the greatest
Means 5. Take heed of losing the liveliness and sweetness of your communion with God, lest thereby your hearts be loosed off from God.
The heart is an hungry and restless thing; it will have something to feed upon; if it enjoy nothing from God, it will hunt for something among the creatures, and there it often loses itself, as well as its end. There is nothing more engages the heart to a constancy and evenness in walking with God, than the sweetness which it tastes therein: as the Gauls, when once they tasted the sweet wine of Italy, could never be satisfied till they conquered that country where it grew.
It is true, conscience of duty may keep the heart from neglecting it; but
Means 6. Habituate thy heart to spiritual meditations, if thou wouldst have it freed from those burdensome diversions.
By this means you will get a facility and dexterity in heartwork: it is pity those smaller portions of our time betwixt solemn duties should lie upon our hands, and be rendered useless to us. O learn to save, and be good husbands upon your thoughts. To this purpose, a neat author speaks, "These parentheses, which happen to come between the more solemn passages (whether business or recreation) of human life, are wont to be lost by most men, for want of a due value for them, and even by good men, for want of skill to preserve them; for though they do not properly despise them,
Something of that nature I have under hand, for a public benefit, if God give life to finish, and opportunity to produce it: certainly this is a great advantage for the keeping of the heart with God.
I shall now close the whole with a word or two of consolation to all diligent and serious Christians, that faithfully and closely ply heart-work; that are groaning and weeping in secret over the hardness, pride, earthliness and vanity of their hearts; that are fearing and trembling over the experienced deceitfulness and falseness of them, whilst other vain professors eyes are abroad, their time and strength eaten up by fruitless disputes, and earthly employments, or, at best by a cold and formal performance of some heartless and empty duties. Poor Christian! I have three things to offer thee in order to thy support and comfort; and doubtless either of them alone mixed with faith is sufficient to comfort thee over all the trouble thou hast with thine own heart.
It is uprightness of heart will comfort thee upon a death-bed,
I am really of his mind, who said, si mihi daretur optio, eligerem Christiani rustici sordidissimum et maxime agreste opus prae omnibus victoriis et triumphis Alexandri aut Caesaris; might I have my wish, I would prefer the most despicable and sordid work of a rustic Christian, before all the victories and triumphs of Alexander or Caesar; yea, let me add, before all the elaborated duties and excellent gifts of vain professors; before the tongues of men and angels. It will signify more to my comfort to spend one solitary hour in mourning before the Lord over heart-corruption, than many hours in a
By this very thing Christ distinguishes the formal and serious Christian,
Comfort 2. Know further for thy comfort, that God would never leave thee under so many heart-troubles and burdens, if he intend not thy real benefit thereby.
Thou art often crying out, Lord! why is it thus? why go I mourning all the day,
Pensive soul! let this comfort thee; thy God designs thy benefit, even by these occasions of thy sad complaints. For, 1st, hereby he would let thee see what thy heart by nature is and was, and therein take notice how much thou art beholding to free grace. He leaves thee under these exercises of spirit, that thou mayest lie, as with thy face upon the ground, admiring that ever the Lord of glory should take so vile a creature into his bosom. Thy base heart, if it be
Comfort 3. To conclude, God will
The time is coming when thy heart shall be as thou wouldst have it; when thou shall be discharged of these cares, fears, and sorrows, and never cry out, O my hard, my proud, my vain, my earthly heart, any more! when all darkness shall be banished from thine understanding; and thou shalt clearly discover all truths in God, that crystal ocean of truth: when all vanity shall be purged perfectly out of thy thoughts, and they be everlastingly, ravishingly, and delightfully entertained and exercised upon that supreme goodness, and infinite excellency of God, from whom they shall never start any more like a broken bow. And, as for thy pride, passion, earthliness, and all other the matters of thy complaint and trouble, it shall be said of them, as of the Egyptians to Israel, Stand still, and see the salvation of God. These corruptions thou seest to day, henceforth thou shalt see them no more for ever; when thou shalt lay down thy weapons of prayers, tears, and groans,
Lord! when shall this blessed day come? How long! how long! holy and true? My soul waiteth for thee! come, my beloved! and be thou like a roe, or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether. Amen.
Sin1. The first, and more general sin of church-members, is, a defect in their care and circumspection, to prevent all just offences to them that are without; forbidden
Sin 3. The third sin is tale-bearing, and revealing the secrets of families, and persons; whence many strifes arise, to the cooling and quenching of mutual love; expressly forbidden,
Sin 4. The fourth sin is an easy credulity of private whispers and rash censures thereupon. This we ought not to do against the meanest member.
Sin 5. The fifth sin is their neglect of God's ordinances upon slight diversions, when they are neither disabled by works of necessity, or mercy; contrary to
Sin 6. The sixth sin is a defect in zeal for God's ordinances, manifest in their dilatory attendance; contrary to
Sin 7. The seventh sin is irreverence, and want of seriousness under ordinances; contrary to
Sin 8. The eighth sin reprovable in them, is, the neglect of giving and taking due reproofs from each other; contrary to
Sin 9. The ninth sin is, mutual strifes and animosities, not seasonably and prudently composed among themselves, but scandalously exposed to the view of the world; contrary to the Apostle's rule,
Sin 10. The tenth sin is, the privateness of their spirits, centring too much in their own concerns; expressly condemned,
Duty 1. Their first duty is, to be often together in acts of Christian communion,
Duty 2. Their second duty is, to follow and back the great design of the gospel in
Duty 3. Their third duty is, humble condescension to the infirmities of their weaker brethren, and denying themselves in what they can, without sin, that they give them no offence,
Duty 4. Their fourth duty is, to be exceeding tender of the church's unity, both in judgment, love, and practice; avoiding (as much as may be, and as far as the gospel rule allows) all calls and occasions of division and separation,
Duty 5. Their fifth duty is, a respectful carriage towards the meanest Christian, and to have higher esteem of others than themselves. External things make no difference with Christ,
Duty 6. Their sixth duty is, meekly to receive reproofs from each other for their sins, especially when the matter is just, and the manner of delivering it regular,
Duty 7. Their seventh duty is, to communicate their spiritual stock of gifts, graces and experiences, not interfering with public offices, nor by sinful partiality including some, and excluding many others (to whom it is due, and who may have more need)
Duty 8. Their eighth duty is, cheerfully to communicate their outward good things for the relief of their brethren,
Duty 9. Their ninth duty is, not only to relieve the distressed members of Christ, but to seek out, and visit them, to know their spiritual and temporal wants, in order to a full discharge of that duty,
Duty 10. Their tenth duty is, to put charitable constructions upon doubtful words and actions; and, if either will admit a double sense, always to take it in the fairest, according to the law of charity,
Benefit 1. Strict and heedful attendance to these rules, will put a lustre upon religion before the world, and make it glorious in the eyes of such as now despise it,
Benefit 2. This will allure and win the world over to Christ, and wonderfully prosper and further the design of the gospel,
Benefit 3. This will effectually stop the mouths of all the detracting and blaspheming enemies of religion,
Benefit 4. This will eminently glorify God, which is the ultimate end of our beings,
Benefit 5. This will fill the people of God (by way of evidence) which much inward peace,
Benefit 6. This will secure the presence of God with, and among us; whence results both the efficacy of ordinances, and the stability and glory of the churches: for Christ walks among the golden candlesticks, and threatens the churches, in case of defection from gospel rules, to remove the candlestick out of his place, except they repent,
Genesis
4:14 5:22 6:5-7 6:7 17:1 17:1 18:27 21:17 32:7 32:9-10 32:10 32:12
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Judges
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
7:14 7:18 7:26 12:13-14 12:13-14 16:10 19:7
1 Kings
2 Kings
2 Chronicles
13:6-7 17:3 17:5 17:5-6 20:29 32:26 32:26
Ezra
Nehemiah
Job
1:7-8 1:11-12 1:21 5:6 11:13 15:11 19:3 31:1 31:1 31:1 31:4 31:4 35:13 38:41
Psalms
4:4 5:8 10:14 16:7 18:2 19:8 19:12 22:2-3 23:1 24:1 25:3 25:11 27:1 31:22 33:18-19 34:9-10 37:30-31 37:31 38:2 38:3 38:4 38:5 38:6 38:7 38:8 39:3-4 45:1 45:1 45:1 47:7 49:14 51:8 56:3 57:7 63:5-6 73:3-5 74:14 77:6 78:8 84:11 86:11 86:11 89:7 89:7 103:12 103:13 104:34 110:3 112:7 116:10 119:11 119:11 119:11 119:36-37 119:37 119:71 119:80 119:97 119:113 120:6 122:1 130:4 139:2 139:17-18 141:5 141:5
Proverbs
1:32 4:23 5:20-21 13:7 13:10 15:1 16:32 20:22 23:26 24:29 25:21 25:21 28:1 28:14
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
6:5 6:7 6:8 7:2 8:12-13 9:1 10:12 11:8 22:12 26:3 27:9 40:15-17 40:22 41:17 43:1-3 49:14 49:15 50:10 51:12-13 51:13 53:7 54:5 55:7 57:1-2 57:2 57:16-17 57:18 60:13 60:21 63:17 66:3 66:3
Jeremiah
2:3 2:31 2:31 3:22 4:7 4:14 9:2 10 11 17:5-6 17:9 17:17 24:5 25:6 29:13 30:21 49:11
Lamentations
Ezekiel
1:24-26 33:31 33:31-32 33:31-32 36:20
Daniel
Hosea
Amos
Jonah
Micah
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew
5:16 5:22 5:45 6:5 6:15 6:26 6:32 7:11 10 10:26 10:28 10:31 11:29 13:3-4 14:23 15:14 15:19 18:7 18:7 18:10 18:15 18:32-33 19:22 19:24 24:8-10 24:51 26:40-41 26:75 26:75
Mark
Luke
1:46 6:45 8:17 10:2 12:48 15:17 18:7 21:9 21:25-26 23:43
John
Acts
Romans
1:21 2:4 2:7 5:14 6:6-7 6:7 7:21 7:24 7:24 8:10-11 8:28 8:28 8:31 8:32 9:1 12:10 12:17 12:19 15:1 15:2 15:30 16:17
1 Corinthians
1:26 4:11 4:12-13 5:5 6:2 6:5-6 6:9 9:14 9:27 10:6 10:13 11:10 13:7 13:12 15:55
2 Corinthians
1:10 4:13 5:2 5:6 5:8 5:8 7:5 10:5 11:29 12:4 12:8 12:20
Galatians
Ephesians
1:3 1:11 1:18 3:17 4:15-16 4:24 4:26 4:26-27 4:28 4:30 5:21 6:18-19
Philippians
1:9 1:23 1:28 2:1-2 2:15-16 2:21 3:11 3:18-19 4:3
Colossians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
4:13 4:16 5:7 10:25 10:26-27 10:38 11:37 12:4 12:8 12:10 12:28-29 13:5 13:5 13:9 13:9 13:16 13:18-19
James
1:2-3 1:27 1:27 2:5 2:7 5:7-9 5:11
1 Peter
2:11-12 2:15 2:21-23 3:4 3:7 3:13 3:17 4:10 4:19
2 Peter
1 John
Revelation
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 67 68 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309