THE PRACTICE Of CHRISTIAN PERFECTION.  
Wherein Several Considerations, Cautions, and Advices are set down, For the perfecting of the Saints, and completing them in the knowledge of CHRIST JESUS.  
By THOMAS WHITE, Minister of the Word of God.  THES. 3. 10. 
Praying exceedingly, that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith.  
London, Printed by T. M. for Tho. Vere, at the sign of the Angel, at the uper end of the old Daily. 1651.   

The Dedicatory PRAYER.  
LET not my Lord be angry, and I thy servant, which am but dust and ashes, will speak unto my Lord.  
Blessed God, unto the glory of thy Name I dedicate and consecrate all that I have, and do, and think, and speak, and am, and in particular this Treatise, beseeching thee to give me gifts, and strength, and wisdom, opportunity, and a heart to serve thee, that I may not be as a broken vessel. And I beseech thee, if thy servant hath found favour in thy sight, grant that whensoever any one shall read this Treatise, thou wilt set in with such overpowering workings of thy holy SPIRIT, that what they read may not be as a dead letter unto them, but that Thou wilt so prevail with their hearts when they shall read it, that they may both understand and practise the things that belong to their peaee.  
Grant this, and more, for his sake in whom thou art well pleased. Amen.   

To the Famous UNIVERSITIES of this Land, Grace, Mercy, Peace and Truth be multiplied.  
MEn, Brethren, and Fathers, when I consider that all men generally by Nature, and Universities by design desire and endeavour to Know, and yet generally all live cross to that principle when they come to act in the matters of God, I cannot but be astonished: for though the knowledge of him be demonstrably the most excellent, yet, as the Apostle observeth, they like not to retain God in their knowledge, Rom. 1. 28. Arationall Tract of Insects, or any such thing, is bought, and read, and studied, admired and commended, whilst the Word of God is a Book which men are rather ashamed not to have, then delight to read and understand. Now the great mischief of doting upon the knowledge of the Creature, and despising the knowledge of the Creator, is, that as they did reprobate the knowledge of God, so God did give them up to a reprobate sense, as the Apostle speaketh in the following words. Wherefore, since the insatiable desire of knowledge and unsanctified learning is a snare, though it be looked upon as a harmless and an innocent thing, and in that respect the more dangerous, I shall crave leave to give some Christian advises for study.  
Adv. I. Get holiness before you get learning: for,  
1. Except you be holy your learning itself is defiled and defileth.  
2. It puffs up, It builds not up.  
3. You must never think by Learning unsanctfied to learn the things of God, 1 Corin. 2. 14. Nor will the Socinians distinction serve, that it is meant of carnal debauched men, for it is not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.  
4. If it were no hinderer it were far better, but it is an utter Enemy; nay it is not only an Enemy, but Enmity, yea enmities, Romans 8. 7. And indeed, an enemy may be reconciled, but Enmity never. 2 Corinthians 10. 5. It builds strong holds and Syllogisms against Gospel truths, and accounts the knowledge of Christ an illiterate thing. Pardon me if I desire to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. If I wrote to those that despise Learning, I should in that case show them many great advantages human Learning gives one, if sanctified, and that one might as well not make use of Riches as not of Learning in the service of God: yet since I write to you, whose great business is to get knowledge, I must say of that as it is said of Riches, If human Learning increase, set not your hearts upon it. And though for a man to be holy is no hindrance but rather a furtherance to him in the getting of learning; yet to be learned is a great hindrance to the getting of holiness, that is, if he be first learned before holy.  
5. Except you have holiness, you will be subject to run out to the wild and ungodly studies of Jacob Boheme, Astrology, &c. for 'tis grace that directs the choice and moderates the use of studies.  
6. That of our Saviour carries all before it, Matth. 6. 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. But alas! how unproportionable and unsuitable are the lives of Christians to the rule of Christ, and how few do account it their business to be Christians? But I have spoken of that in the following Treatise.  
II. Advice. Take heed of making an idol of human Reason: and that you do when you make God and all his Truths do homage to it; when you set Reason in the Throne, and bring Christ & his Truths to the bar, to be judged by it. To show the vanity of this, Consider,  
2. Some things, even in the very wisdom of men would seem to be very folly, if so be the reason of their actions were not discovered to us. I am confident, that Sentence of Solomon concerning the two women would seem foolish, cruel, and unjust, if one had gone away so soon as ever that Sentence had been pronounced: for were it not very cruel and unjust to deprive a mother of her child? an Infant of its life, for no default of either? and foolish, for would not the living child be dead when it was divided into half? and so each mother would have but two halfs of two dead Children in stead of one baving one whole dead child. And it would have required no less than Solomon's wisdom to find out the reason of that sentence, and it was one part of it to give such a sentence that might least seem to do what he intended, lest the mother that pretended to the living child, discovering his design, might give such an answer that should not discover what Solomon intended to manifest: So some of the ways of God, the reasons of them are past finding out, except by the same wisdom that contrived them; nay it may be, God doth some things on purpose to deceive human reason, and that some of the reasons of his ways are so full of wisdom, that were they revealed, we were no more able to understand them, than a child of three years old, could understand some propositions in Euclid, Vietta, Cartes, Apolonius, or Archimedes.  
3. It seems that God hath So ordered matters, that except we love him and his truths there shall be such objections, that the wit of man can never answer. I shall give you an instance of this both in the speculative and practical part of Religion, Deuter. 13. ver. 1, 2, 3. If we might discover the deceit of that prophet by human reason or wisdom, without the love of God being in us, how could it prove whether we did love GOD or no, if we could find out the fallacy of that deceit without love? 2. In the 2d of Thessal. 2. 10, 11. God will send strong delusions, that those which love not the truth, be they never so learned, shall not be able to know it; for if so be it were said they should profess lies, it might be, that they knew the truth though they professed the contrary; but it is said, they believed lies. Our saviour gives this reason why he would manifest himself to his Disciples, and not to the world, viz. because the world did not love him, John 14. 22, 23. For none will unbosom himself unto an Enemy, nor mayst thou think to master God by thy Learning, and know him whether he will or no; for God must manifest himself, or else thou canst never know him, and he will not manifest himself to thee except thou love him, though thou be'st never so learned or great a Politician, Mat. 11. 25. For you must understand, it is not a speculative knowledge, but a knowledge of acquaintance. So in that sense is that saying of our Saviour verified, Matth. 7. 23. And this knowledge of God is not got by study, but by prayer and meditation, by an inward strict communion with God, and the friends of God the Saints, but especially with Christ the Son of God, for he is the express image of God the Father, &c. Can we be acquainted with a man whether he will or no? nor can we be throughly acquainted with a wise holy man, that is, we cannot know his wisdom and holiness without much observing and pondering his words and actions; nor can we much observe and be acquainted with any with whom we do not dwell and have private Conference. Thou mayst know God to discourse of him, and to write learned tracts, yet if thou art not acquainted with God, at the last day God will not know thee: Therefore be much with God; and to that purpose, I have one humble and earnest request to you, though I need not be very earnest to obtain so small one, it is, that you would spend an hour every day in prayer, meditation, and searching out the inward spiritual corruptions of your own heart, and an impartial examining what interest you have in Christ, and such like spiritual exercises; do not you say, How can you prove that we are bound to spend one hour every day? For 1. Suppose God, when you go to prayers, should answer you so, How can you prove that I am bound to give you such a mercy? Thou mayst cause God to carry himself as froward by this froward answer; for it is said, With the froward he will show frowardness. 2. How wilt thou spend eternity in the admirings, adoreings and praisings of God, if an hour spent so, is now so irksome to thee? how shall it then be thine Heaven, if it be now thine hell? 3. Is it a friendly answer? If a friend should come to desire a courtesy of you, do you so answer him? how can you prove that I am bound to do it? 4. Consider, This is the question of a slave to ask; What must I do? but the question of a friend and a child is, What may I do to please my Father or my friend? 5. Keep this answer until the World or the Flesh come unto thee; give this answer to those thine enemies, and not to thy God. 6. Dost thou stand out? Shall the great and holy God be ready and willing to meet thee, and have communion with thee as often and as long as thou pleasest, and shalt thou refuse? It should be his part, one would think, to be hard to be intreatted, not thine: Shall he account it his riches to bestow mercies on thee, and thou account it thy trouble to receive them? 7. Do but do that which thou art bound to do; viz. Love God with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; and then thou wilt ask, not, Why so much? but, Why no more? And indeed, when once thou hast found the sweetness and profit, thouthy self wilt not only continue, but increase these holy duties: and that is the reason why I propose no more time, because I suppose this being spiritually spent, more will follow of itself. David wisheth us to taste and see how gracious the Lord is, not because he would not have us feed on him, but because if we once taste how good he is, he supposeth it needless to wish us to feed on him. 8. if thy friend comes to visit thee, thou wilt afford him an hour with thanks: he comes in his own name, but I come unto thee in my fathers, desiring thee to afford God as much; if thou deniest, that saying of our Saviour belongs unto thee, John 5. 43. I am come in my father's name, and ye receive me not; if another come in his own name, him ye will receive.  
To conclude, I desire to speak one word more as to human Learning, which I account of singular use for the understandiug of the word of God, and have doted on it as much as any, and love it still, as much as I dare, for I account the love of it dangerous, the use of it very advant; and could I set down how far I have gone in it with the same spirit that Saint Paul doth set down, (Phil. 3.) his excellencies in leg all privileges and righteousness, I would; but I account it safer for me to be thought wholly ignorant, then to venture priding myself of that small knowledge I have: yet thus much I conceive of human Learning, that besides the incertainty of it, there are many inconveniences incident to it. 1. Our thoughts are wholly taken up with it when we are studying of it, which are not necessarily so in other employments; for one may buy, and sell, and yet have our minds often upon GOD, even in the very midst of those employments. 2. Men generally judge of the truths and ways of God's Worship according to that way of Learning wherein they excel: Those who excel in the Fathers and Church Histories, are subject to admit of the Truths and ways of GOD's Worship, because they are attested and warranted by them: Those who most excel in philosophy and school Divinity, they make Reason the touchstone to try even gospel truths by; yet I do much esteem of these Egyptian jewels, so we make not an idol of them, and fall down and worship them. 3. And lastly, I find it as hard a thing to deny human Learning as to get it. Moses is much to be admired, who being brought up in all the Learning of the Egyptians, yet preached so plainly as you may see in Deuteronomy: and Paul, who preached so very plain, that his adversaries objected it against him Consider what is said, and the Lord give you understanding in all things.  
Your Servant in the Lord, THOMAS WHITE.   

A DIRECTORY TO Christian Perfection.  MATT. 5. VER. 48. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect. 
A Malicious Christian and a courteous cynic, are expressions equally including contradiction; yet notwithstanding, it is too manifest, that thousands that honour themselves with the name of Christians, dishonour God, and by their works deny their very name; for if the least injury be offered them either in word or in deed, though in passion, how do they foam and rage, like the troubled Sea, while they are revenged of the injury? But our Saviour here doth abundantly condemn, and give rules to the contrary, from ver. 43. to the end of the Chapter. A brief exposition whereof shall serve both for the prosecution of the point, and introduction to the text. In the 43. ver. our Saviour says, That you have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy: our Saviour does not say that ever it was said so; for there is not any place in Scripture where we are commanded to hate our enemy; and there are three things wherein their gloss is faulty.  
First is, that they restrain the word Neighbour, to one of their own kindred or nation, which our Saviour fully confutes in the tenth of Luke, in the parable of the good Samaritan.  
Secondly, they leave out, as thy self.  
Thirdly, they put in, thou shalt hate thine enemy; whereas there is nothing in the scripture for it, but many places against it: Exod. 23. ver. 4, 5. If thou meetest thine enemy's Ox or his Ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. If thou seest the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him. And whereas some say it was to be meant of an Israelite, if he be an enemy, but not of those of other Nations, but that they might hate them; the contrary is evident, Deut. 10. v. 19 Love ye therefore the strangers, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.  
use. The use of this is, That every one should read the Word of God, for if he only hears the Word, and searhes not the Scripture, he shall hear that many things are said in the Word of God, which are nowhere there to be found; but divers times the clean contrary.  
Argu. So the first argument against revenge is, that from the Alpha, & beginning of Genesis, to the Omega and Amen of the Revelations, there is not one syllable to warrant us in such practices, but they are diametrically opposite to the doctrine of the Gospel, as you have it in the next verse; But I say unto you: as if Christ should say, Whatsoever thoughts your own corruption suggests unto you, or whatsoever men shall say unto you, it matters not, they are likely enough to blow the least spark of contention into a flame; they haply will tell you, that if you bear one injury you invite another. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, besides, there is an Emphasis in the words, I and you; for it hath the same force to move us to love our enemies, Mat. 11. 33. He that hath loved us, and gave himself for us when we were his enemies, may he not justly expect and command from us that we should love our enemies? that we should forgive an hundred pence when he commands us so to do, that hath forgiven us ten thousand talents. But to the further exposition of the following words, we are to love our enemies, be they never so many we must love them all, and be they never so much ones enemies, for here is no limitation put either in respect of their number or enmity, or in respect of our love; it is not said how much we should love them, to show that we should love them without measure.  
Reas. Now the reason why love your enemies is put first, is because that this must have an influence upon all the rest; we must bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, upon this very ground, and from this principle, because we love them.  
But if our enemies curse us, than we are not to content ourselves with a bare inward love to them, but we must show our love by our outward expressions; and as our enemies increase in the manifestations of their enmity, so we must increase in the manifestations of our love, and we must not only not curse again, or be silent, and neither bless nor curse, but we must bless them that curse us: nor is it set down how much, how often, nor when we must bless, that we might put no limits to our blessing in any of these respects: and as before it is observed concerning our enemies, be they never so many, and never so much our enemies, we ought to love them; for the same observations may run thorough all the rest of the branches of this precept, nor doth our Saviour wish us to reprove those that curse us, but to bless them.  
First, Because reproofs at such a time are very unseasonable; for doubtless there is a time to reprove.  
Secondly, Generally because reproofs at such times when people are cursing of us, are a kind of revenge taken of them, especially, if it be before others; for we lay open their shame.  
Thirdly, Because this is the mildest, the secretest, and lovingest way of reproof; for I remember, the rule is given, that one should not, if one hears one speak a word of Latin wrong, tell him that he pronounces it not as it should be pronounced, much less to tell him that he is an Ignorant man, but speedily to take some occasion to speak that word right; so here, if thine enemy speak false Christian language thy mildest way to show him his error, is by speaking those words right which he hath spoke wrong; for by thy blessing him, thou dost in a mild manner show that he should have blessed thee.  
The next branch is, that we should do good to them that hate us: many are willing to give good words, but they will not do any good deeds to their enemies, they will serve God of that which cost them nought; but in the original it is not, Do good to them that hate you, but do well; to show us that if we do our enemy good, yet if we do it in a churlish and scornful manner, we do not observe his commandment: But if thine enemy shall have blocked up this way, because he scorns to receive, or by reason of his persecution hath disabled thee to bestow any temporal courtesy upon him, then take another way, and do him that courtesy which he cannot reject; for though one cannot give a man money who will not receive it, yet one may pray, and ones prayers may be powerful to do our enemies good whether they will or no; so that thou canst never be so impoverished by persecution, but thou art worth a prayer; nor thine enemy can hardly be so obstinate, but thy prayers may fasten blessings on him: do thine enemy as much good as thou canst, & what thou canst not do, desire God to do for him. It follows, That ye may be the children of your Father.  
First, it is not meant as if we could love our enemies before we were God's children, or that this is the way to get adoption or regeneration; for he calls God their Father when he wishes them to do thus, that they may be his children; therefore the meaning may be thus: First, that you may be, id est, that you may be known to be both to yourselves and others; as it is said, We are justified by works, id est, our justification is known to ourselves and others by works; or so that you may be children, is meant, that since two ways we are the children of God, by adoption, and sanctification; in respect of sanctification we may have the image of God renewed more and more in us, and so in a qualified sense may be said more to be God's children; & in that sense we may attain to be more the children of God, id est, more like him.  
Secondly, None can be the children of God unless they love their enemies.  
Thirdly, That every one should strive both to be, and to know himself to be the child of God.  
Fourthly, That no man by nature is the child of God, since no man by nature can or does love his enemy, as it follows, which is in heaven.  
First, We can never love our enemies, so long as we are no more than the children of our earthly father.  
Secondly, That it is an heavenly thing to love one's enemies, and therefore ex diametro, an hellish thing to hate one's friends, and therefore to hate God's people.  
1. Because they are our friends.  
2. They are heavenly.  
3. This is the first motive to persuade to love, &c. And as it follows; for he makes his Sun to arise.  
First, This is that second motive to the duty, id est, God's Example; and it stands thus; If God who is greater than you, does bestow greater blessings upon those that are greater enemies, and between whom and him there is a greater distance, how much more should you love, & c?  
Secondly, The Sun doth not arise of itself, that knows not what it does, nor is it of necessity that the Sun should arise; of necessity, it is in respect of the Sun, not in respect of God, for he makes it to arise; so that the Sun cannot choose but arise, but God might choose whether he would make it arise.  
Thirdly, These common blessings come not by chance, as well as not by necessity; it is by God's providence that we enjoy them.  
Fourthly, It shows the continual concurrence and power of God with natural causes, it is not like a clock, which when it is once wound up, will go of itself by the weight; but as a pen, that writes not without the continual guidance of the writer; so God did not at the first create the World, Sun, &c. and so without his actual concurrence to every particular act enable them to do it, so that the Sun did not arise at the first moment of its creation more immediately by the power and providence of God, than it does now, this advances God's goodness; for as one that hath settled maintenance upon▪ an hospital for the poor, it argues not so much patience in him, to suffer the men there if they abuse him to receive their settled stipend, as it does for him daily to feed them with his own hand, and to put money into one of their hands, while the other is lifagainst him.  
Fifthly, Or may not he make it be taken in this sense? that all the creatures of God are enemies to the wicked; the earth will not bear them, but open her mouth and swallow them; the fire will not warm them, but consume them; the sun will not give light unto them, as it did once in Egypt, while they had light in Goshen; but God, as it were, renuente sole, doth make it arise upon the good and the bad; it shows the great power of God, that not only the things on earth, but all the creatures in heaven and earth obey him: he that can make the sun arise, what can he not do? Nehemiah 9 6. As it follows; His Sun to arise.  
First, à fortiori, it is a Motive to us to do good to our enemies.  
Reas. First, Because that which we give or bestow on them in respect of God, we have no right to, we are but his Stewards, and what have we that we have not received? we have the possession of all those things we have, but not the disposing of them: in respect of the poor, to give them alms is charity, in respect of God it is justice. But you see here the Sun is called his Sun, he hath a full title to it: if he therefore gives that which is his own, and is Lord of, much more should we deliver that, of which we are only Stewards, when he that is the Lord commands us.  
Secondly, Consider what he gives; it is his Sun, the greatest of all temporal blessings in the world; for we might longer live without food or raiment, then without the benefit of the Sun; for without his heat all things would immediately freeze to death: nay, not only by giving the wicked the benefit of the sun, they enjoy that heat which is necessary, for life, but they enjoy the light of the sun, which is a thing of ornament and pleasure, to make their life comfortable, Eccle. 11. 7. Therefore if God gives the wicked things of ornament, much more give your enemy bread, Romans 12. 20. No man not only cannot, but doth not offer to lay claim to the Sun: and as it follows, On the good and the bad: some will say, how can it be otherwise? for if the sun shines upon the good, how can it but shine upon the bad also, since they are in one kingdom, in one town, in one house? but God is not necessitated to bestow this mercy upon the bad, though he bestows it upon the good; For de facto, God did make it dark in Egypt when it was light for three days in Goshen, though they were of the same kingdom; the cloud gave light to the Israelites in their March, and at the same time was darkness to the Egyptians, Exod. 14. 19, 20. Besides, God can strike all wicked men with blindness, so that the sun shall be in respect of his light, as if it was not to them: and he might strike them with such a burning fever as he threatens, Deuter. 28. 22. that for its heat the sun should be worse to them, then if it was not, and thousand other ways known to the Lord.  
Secondly, We see that by common and temporal blessings, the good are not distinguished from the bad.  
Thirdly, It follows that wicked and unjust men are God's enemies, and curse God, hate God, persecute God, and dedespitefully use him; or else it would not follow from this example of God's dealing with wicked men, that we should love our enemies, &c. For one might say, it is true, God makes his Sun to shine upon the bad and unjust, but though indeed they be God's enemies, yet they do not hate him, curse, &c. as mine do me.  
Thirdly, That God may be said to bless, and do good to those that are bad and unjust, Deut. 10. 17. Acts. 14. 17. And as it follows; He sendeth rain.  
First, God bestows not one, but many blessings upon the wicked, he doth not only make the Sun to arise, but sends also the rain upon them; nay, by bestowing this second blessing, he takes off that inconvenience which otherwise would follow upon the enjoyment of the first; nay they do help mutually one another; for the rain cools the heat of the Sun, and the Sun warms the coolness of the rain, and both together make the earth fruitful: from hence we may learn,  
First, To do great and many benefits to our enemies.  
Secondly, Not to do them such courtesies that we know will bring mischiefs upon them; and to do them good in one thing, on purpose to do them hurt in another.  
Thirdly, We should do good to those that do not only not thank us for courtesies, but attribute it to others; for God does so, he makes his sun to shine, and his rain to fall, not only upon those that are so bad as not to be thankful for them, but are so exceeding unjust as not to account God the Author of them. The observations concerning God's making the sun to arise, &c. Mutatis mutandis, may agree to this later part of the verse; this may also be observed, that God doth not only give temporal blessings to those that ask and come for them, but he sends his mercy's home to their very doors; for the clouds that arise from the Sea, or other places, he causes his winds to carry them to their habitations. Besides, this may be observed, that one reason why our Saviour instances in these blessings rather than in others, may be, not only the reasons before, but this also, that we might never want a Motive to our doing good to our enemies; for whether it rains, or shines, we have either the instance of God's making the sun to shine, or his rain to fall upon wicked men; as it follows, upon the just and unjust.  
First, It is not set down here as contradistinguished, as if there were some bad that were not unjust, and some unjust that were not bad; nor is it meant, God makes his sun to arise on the bad, and sends his rain upon the unjust, bestows some kind of these blessings upon some wicked, and the other kind upon other wicked men, but he bestows both upon all; as before it is not meant, we should love our enemies, but not love those that curse us; or bless those that cursed us, but not bless those that hate us; but as when God commands us to bless them that curse us, and does not say, do good to them that curse you, it is because blessing is directly opposed to cursing; and so it is more likely to make him that curses see his error, because contraries being placed one by another, make each other more apparent, as it is before shown, and as it follows; for if ye love them that love you: The former argument was from the example of Almighty God, whom all confess in all things to do well; there he brings an argument from them whom all condemn, and the argument stands thus; You all desire and expect to be rewarded for your works, but none of you think that the Publicans shall have any reward, therefore neither you, if you love them that only love you, for so do they.  
Secondly, It is good to make use of that evil opinion we have of others, as a Motive to ourselves to be better.  
Thirdly, That the wickedest man may have something good in him, but nothing perfect; and as it follows; What reward have ye? Christ doth not set it down positively, that they have no reward, but by way of Question to show them that it is not only his judgement, but their own, for he appeals to their own consciences; and it shows the manifestness of the truth, since self-love doth cast such a mist before our eyes when we are to judge of things concerning ourselves, that except the truth doth shine very bright, we cannot behold it; it is not said, what great reward, but what reward: to show them that they should be so far from expecting everlasting life, that they cannot expect any reward at all.  
Thirdly, It is not said, what reward shall ye have, but what have ye; to show that they are not to expect so much as a temporal reward for loving their friends.  
Fourthly, They have temporal blessings as Motives to obedience, but none by way of reward for obedience; for it is not said, What blessings, but what reward have you; for if one say of your righteousness you do, Do not the Publicaus the same? one may say of your blessings, Have not the Publicans the same? Do not even the Publicans the same? The Publicans were such as used to receive custom, tribute-money, and other taxes, and were men very odious to the Jews, both for their injustice and oppression of them, and they were generally Heathens, because the Jews did abhor to have any hand in the oppressing of their own Nation; nay, our Saviour joins them with Harlots, Sinners, Heathens; and if you salute your brethren only, the word translated salute, signifies to kiss and embrace; and our Saviour doth signify by it all outward expressions of love.  
Secondly, By Brethren is meant our near kindred and acquaintance.  
Thirdly, this word only is to be referred as well to the former verse as to this; and the observations (mutatis mutandis) upon that may he applied to this. And so I come to the words of the text, Be ye perfect, &c.  
In the handling of these words, I shall show these things.  
First, How we must be perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect.  
Secondly, in the pressing of Christian perfection, three things I shall set down. First, several Considerations. Secondly, several Cautions. Thirdly, several Rules or advices  
Before I come to the Exposition of the words, to show how we must be perfect as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect, I must remove an Objection that quarrels against the perfection of this rule of perfection; viz First, That this rule is too high: Secondly, It is dangerous: Thirdly, That it is imperfect and too short.  
First, It is too high: for what man or Angel is able to be as perfect as God? It is not compatible to any created nature, for that being finite, cannot possibly be capable of infinite perfection; for his glorious name is exalted above all blessing and praise, Neh. 9 5. And the Lord is fain to dwell in thick darkness, and thereby doth connivere radios suae gloriae; and the Angels also do cover their faces with their wings, or else they were not able to behold his glory, their understanding would be dazzled: if therefore they are not able to behold his glory in its full strength and vigour, how much less are they able to attain it? how much less able are we that are sinful dust and ashes, who are not able to behold (that which is darkness in comparison of God) the sun, to be perfect as God is perfect?  
First, I answer, That we are here commanded to attain the same kind, not the same degrees of perfection: it is not, Be as perfect as your Father; but, be perfect as your Father; we are to go in the same steps, though not aequis passibus, his example is the copy we should write by; though it be impossible to write so curious an hand, yet we may write the same words &c.  
Secondly, It is an advantage to have so perfect a copy set us, though we cannot attain it, for who is there that learns to write, that blames the exactness of the copy he writes by? And he that taketh aim and shooteth at the highest point or Zenith of the Heaven, will shoot higher with the same strength than he that shoots at a level, or any other point besides.  
Thirdly, It adds to the holiness of any action, that we desire in that action to be like to God, and upon that ground to desire to be holy because God is holy.  
Secondly, You may say, it is a dangerous rule, for we may not strive to be like unto God in many things; we may not desire our own glory as he doth; Adam desiring to be like him, it was his sin and his fall. I answer to that, that there are two kinds of perfections in God, communicable and incommunicable: incommunicable are called those, not which the creature cannot have, but which the creature ought not to have, as to do all things for its own glory; for a creature may do all things for its own glory, but ought it not so to do; not only because it is folly in the creature to do so; for glory is a thing of ornament, & man is a poor creature that wants things necessary; and it is folly for man to buy Jewels to adorn him, while he is ready to starve for want of garments to clothe him; but it is because it is incommunicable to the creature; that is, God and the creature cannot do things for their own glory without thwarting one another; for if man do things for his own glory, than it must needs follow that he doth it not for the glory of God, and so thwarts the end that God proposeth to himself, and to all creatures, viz. his own glory: so that here when our Saviour commands us to be perfect as he is perfect, it is meant, that we should endeavour to attain those perfections which our having doth not hinder his having of them, as holiness, patience, wisdom, &c. for our holiness, be it never so great, makes not God less holy; but the more we seek our own glory, the more we rob God of his.  
Secondly, I answer, that all these kinds of perfections which are incommunicable, are rather resultancies and consequences of perfection, than perfections; for it is more proper to say, that because God is infinitely perfect, therefore all the heaven and earth should praise him; then to say, because heaven and earth doth praise him, therefore he is infinitely perfect; for the praises which are given unto him, are not the causes of his perfection, but his infinite perfections are the causes of his praises.  
Thirdly, It may be objected, That it is an imperfect rule, for it seems to come short.  
First, In respect of our relations; as of husband, wife, child, subject, how can we have an example of God in these particulars, since he is not capable of these relations?  
Secondly, in respect of duties; we are to pray, to worship, to hear the Word.  
Thirdly, In respect of graces; repentance, faith, hope, patience in afflictions; all these are below him.  
I answer, First, that though we have not an example of any of these from God, considered in himself, yet we have of most of these from Christ, who was God as well as Man; for we have an example, how to carry ourselves in afflictions, of obedience both to God and man, and those relations which our Saviour left us no example of in a temporal way, yet in a mystical way he hath: though he was not a Magistrate, nor an husband in a temporal way, yet in a mystical way he is both Lord and husband to the Church.  
And as for those graces which suppose sin, as repentance doth, our Saviour hath left us an example of those graces, which if we obtain, they will certainly produce repentance in us, and enable to carry ourselves in all duties and in all our relations as becometh Christians; so that as one that should teach us to write, and set us exact Copies, we should not quarrel with him and say, that he hath been a defective schoolmaster, because that some of those words that afterward we have occasion to write, were never in those Copies that he set us; sufficient it is for him to vindicate himself and say, that I have taught you all those Letters, and all those several joinings, which will spell and make up that word that you are to write, whatsoever it be; so Christ hath left us an example of all those graces, which are able to spell and make up any duty or grace we stand in need of. there are the ingredients, of which all compositions may be made up, if we follow Christ in our love to God▪ and our hatred to sin, our godly sorrow for sin will necessarily follow, & be made up of these two ingredients, though Christ for his part had never any occasion to use such a composition for himself, having never need of that physic: and so I come, the jection being removed, to the prosecuting of the point, to show how we should be perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect.  
First, in respect of the kinds of perfections, they must be spiritual and divine: carnal, corporal, or civil, or moral perfections are two low for a Christian to look at, especially to make it his business, or the mark he shoots at: moral virtues were the highest perfections of the Heathens; but alas moral virtues transform us not, they change not our natures, but only gild our rottenness; though one be never so good a natured man, as they call it, if one has not the divine nature, one is but a tame devil; for one is his child, if one's nature be not sanctified, and our person justified, and so become the child of God by regeneration and adoption; and the most excellentest act that is merely, morally virtuous, is sin, and cannot please God: Let me give a Simile to make this evident; A great Emperor commands his Empress to come to him, as Ahasuerus did Queen Vasthi; his commands not prevailing, he entreats her, after that sends his Letters full of love and importunity, sends ambassadors after ambassadors, and lest those should fail, sends her many gifts very rich and magnificent, and thus he continues week, month, year after year, yet she utterly refuses; but after her rejecting and slighting all these ways of love from the Emperor her husband, there comes a base slave, from whose company her husband had especially forewarned her, because she had formerly committed folly with him, and dishonoured both herself and the Emperor, this adulterer and traitor speaks but half a word to her to go, and she presently without delay and with joy goes, when she perceives it would please the slave. What do you think now? do you think the Emperor will be pleased with her, coming upon those terms? this is the case of all men that are no more then morally virtuous. God persuades us to be just, and to defraud no man, he entreats us, sends the ambassadors the Ministers unto us, giveth us mercy upon mercy, sends us his Word, his Epistles from Heaven, line upon line to persuade us to do justice, or to be temperate: not we, for his sake we will do nothing: The world comes, the world, which is a slave to Satan, for he is a Prince and Ruler of the darkness of this world; the world, with which we have committed so often spiritual whoredom, and against which God hath so often and seriously forewarned us; now only upon a supposition that we should please the world if we are just or temperate, we will be intemperately temperate, if I may so say, even to macerate our bodies with fasting, for a good look of the world; we do indeed in being temperate or just, do that which God commands, but far are we from pleasing him, considering the grounds from which we do it; for can he be pleased that we should do more for a good look of the world, than we would for all the ways of love that he took with us; nay indeed, never to do any one action for his sake; nay but before his face at the same time when we refuse all his entreaties, &c. to do it at the first word of the world; therefore moral virtues, considering the ground upon which they were done, are sins before God; therefore let us learn not to be virtuous as Philosophers were virtuous, but holy as God is holy.  
Secondly, The perfections of God are infinite, so must ours as far as it is possible for creatures to attain; our desires of holiness must be without limits, we must not set bounds to our holiness, saying, Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further: but we must always hunger and thirst after righteousness.  
Thirdly, God hath all perfections, or rather is all perfections: so we must add to our faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance, &c. We must receive from Christ grace for grace, as a child receives from his father limb for limb, part for part; the same parts that the father's body hath, the child's hath also, the same for number, figure, and position, though neither for strength, nor bigness: and as God is the act of all possible absolute perfections, either in degree or in kind, so we should endeavour to have those perfections that a creature of that kind is capable of.  
Fourthly, As the perfections of God are both inseparable from God, and from themselves, so should ours be also; our wisdom must be holy, our holiness innocent, our wisdom zealous and our zeal wise; for we must not conceive that some of God's actions are holy, others, wise, but all are all; his wisdom is holy, just, & good; his justice, holy, good and wise, and every attribute is as inseparably united to all the rest of his attributes, as any of them are to his Essence: as if there were an hundred Suns shining at once in the firmament, one could not say that one of these suns shined in this part of the air, and another in that, but the light of every one of them would be in every point of the air; nor could you possible take away the light of one of the Suns, and leave the rest, unless you could take away the Sun itself: so it is in God's perfection: but thy glorious Name is exalted above all knowledge, above all blessing, and above all praise.  
Many men will be zealous, but without knowledge; others will be wise, but without zeal; and so their wisdoms come to be no better then carnal, sensual, and devilish: the former zeal was that zeal of the Jews, Rom. 10. 2. The other wisdom was the wisdom of Pilate; both of them crucified Christ.  
Lastly, For I do not intend to be large in these parallels, but make haste to press the great point of Christian perfection; we must be perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect, notwithstanding all hindrances or provocations to the contrary; though God by his wisdom governs and orders all things, not a spire of grass, or blade of wheat grows but by him, 1. Cor. 15. 38. Not a sparrow falls on the ground, nor an hair from our head, but by his providence; not a lily is clothed in the field, nor a fowl of the air is fed but by him; yet notwithstanding such an innumerable number of creatures, are both in respect of their essence and operations, nay even in respect of the smallest circumstances of either, are acted, governed, and ordered continually by his providence; yet he doth no less know, love, and enjoy himself, than he did from all eternity, before there was any creature for his providence to watch over: so should we do, we should not have our thoughts less fixed on God, or our love less fervent; our communion with God should be neither remitted nor intermitted by the employments in the world; Mothers that have their little children to look to, should be like the Angels, which always behold the face of our Father which is in heaven, Mat. 18. 11. But I come (as I promised) to the great business of this Treatise. viz. The pressing of Christian perfection, which is almost forgotten, and nothing left of it but the form of godliness; and I shall refer the whole discourfe to these three heads.  
First, several Considerations.  
Secondly, several Cautions.  
Thirdly, several advices.  

Considerations.  
1. Consid. Let us consider what the word of God speaks in this matter, 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God: do we live up to the meaning of these words? let us consider a little of it, and see the meaning of the words.  
First, We are to glorify God in all our actions; that is, we ought in the secret of our hearts to admire and adore him, to have high thoughts of him, and sweet thoughts of him; and to express it fully, we ought to honour him as God, Romans 1. Which he blames the Gentiles for not doing, That knowing him as God, did not honour him as God: to honour him but as we would honour the holiest man in the world, nay the highest Angel in Heaven, is nothing, and as great derogation to his glory, as to give his glory to them; for to give the honour due unto God to a creature, and to give that that is due unto a creature unto God, are equally vicious: butlet us deal freely and openly with our own souls, Do we do so much, as that which if we did no more we were guilty of that great sin of the Heathens, which the Apostle in the forenamed place doth condemn? do we honour God as much as we do honour an Angel, or an holy man? let us but ask our own consciences, and they will tell us. Would we do that in the presence of either of them as we do in the presence of God; nay, of a child that is come to that understanding to distinguish between good and evil?  
Secondly, By these words we are enjoined that our words, actions, gestures, and all our carriages should be such, as may be suitable and fit to raise up those high thoughts of God in others, as we ourselves have; for instance; in prayer we ought not only ourselves to admire and adore our good and glorious God, but so to lift him up and hold forth his excellencies by our very expressions, pronounciations and gestures, that they may be such as not only may be suitable to our inward admirings of him, but fit to beget the same thoughts in all that hearus; our loves should be like a flame, that takes hold of all that comes near it.  
Thirdly, We should, as much as in us lies, do all our actions, and speak all our words with an actual intention by them to edify others, & to cause them to glorify the Lord. Now, how far we come short of this, we may even be confounded with shame to speak of it.  
The second place that sets down Christian perfection, is Phil. 3. 20. We should have our conversation in Heaven; we should think with ourselves how we should live when we come thither, or how those live that are there, or one would live that should come from thence to live on earth again; how feelingly would they speak of God? how fervently would they praise him? how would their songs of praise be all flames of love? how are they continually taken up with thoughts of admiration of the excellencies of God, of the love of God? let us not dally with ourselves or God, but consider with ourselves whether we live in any measure suitable to such a life. But to proceed, let us consider another place, Eph. 3. 19 To say of such an one, that he is a godly man, the holy Spirit of God is in him, that he is full of the Holy Ghost, that he is filled with all the fullness of God: if one went upon such relations and expressions to see him of whom they were spoken, doubtless one should come with great expectations to meet with one that was wholly taken up with thoughts of God, and if one spoke any thing to him of God, doubtless one would expect that he should speak wonderful things of God, with so much admiration, such zeal, such love, with such feelings, that his very word would be able to inflame our hearts with love of God; but if when one came to see such an one, he should entertain one with vain and idle jests, with discourses of the world, and spend the whole day generally in recreations, and sometime when he hath nothing else to do, go and spend half an hour in reading, or in praying; and when he comes from those duties (Iron will be red hot if it be put into the fire for any time) speak as savourly and with as much delight of the vanities of the world, as if he had spent his time not in prayer, but in admiring and gazing upon the beauty of the creature; and if one should speak to him something of God, he should answer one overly, would ye not think in your own souls, is this that holy man you spoke of? is he that man that was full of God? But to proceed a little further, 2 Cor. 3. 18▪ the Apostle says of himself, and of Christians in his days, that they were transformed into the Image of God; that is, lived the life of God, such a life as Christ lived when he was here on earth; nay, the grace of God in them was in such an high degree, that it might be rather called glory then grace; they lived as if they were of the Church triumphant, in respect of holiness, though of the Church militant, in respect of afflictions; their grace was of such an high degree, that it was more like glory, as was said before, than grace; yet they did not content themselves with that neither, but made a progress from glory to glory: Dear Brethren, are our saviour's words but wind? and can we imagine that the lives of those that take upon them the names of Christians, are any whit suitable to these expressions? many times have I thought of that saying of Erasmus, That since men could not bring the world to Christianity, they have brought Christianity to the world; and those expressions and precepts that have been too strict to give us liberty to follow the vanities of the world, we have found out vain distinctions and expositions of the places, to make them signify no more than we do, and to quiet our consciences, that they being deceived and laid a sleep, we might not be troubled with their clamours. Our Saviour says, That for every idle word we must give an account at the last day, Mat. 12. 36. The words are so plain, that it will ask one a great deal of labour to find out such an exposition as might not be a continual accuser of us in all companies, in all discourses: our saviour's example is the best exposition of this precept; we do not read in all the Scripture, one word that he spoke, but was some way or other to edification; and yet how loose are we in our discourses; as if there were no such place of Scripture in the whole Bible as these words? surely, our time would be better spent in praying to God for strength against our corruptions, then in studying to find out excuses and intricate expositions of plain places to justify them. But you will say, that it is true, these are excellent things, if one could live so, it were a blessed life; but alas who can do it?  
I answer; First, If thou sayst thou canst not live thus, I ask thee how dost thou know? didst thou ever try what might be done in this case? didst thou ever make it thy business? It may be thou hast had some perfunctory and careless desires, some cold prayers and faint endeavours; but didst thou ever set thyself to it? didst thou ever spend as much time, so many thoughts, with as much earnestness, to get acquaintance with God, as men in the world do in their trades▪ to get a little thick clay? didst thou ever pray with half that earnestness for grace, as ambitious men do sue for places and preferments, or a condemned man for a pardon? Didst thou ever seriously, and from the very bottom of thy heart and soul say, Well, by the blessing of God I will not speak an idle word, nor employ myself in things that profit not: hast thou said with David? I have sworn and I will perform thy righteous judgements, Psal. 119. 106. or as in the 20. or with the Apostle; I fight not as one beating the air, but I press thorough towards the mark, and forget the things that are behind, &c. So that if thou shalt say that one cannot live thus, I say again, there is no question, thou canst not live holily, doing no more than thou dost; neither the word of God, nor any one that knows the ways of God, ever said or thought that thou couldst upon these terms do any thing to purpose in the attainment of holiness: for our Saviour plainly says, We must strive to enter in at the strait gate; and, that many shall seek to enter in (with such seeking that comes not to the height of striving) and shall not be able: if thou shouldest bid thy servant lift such a piece of timber, and he should go with his little finger to lift it, and not being able, should tell thee, that he could not lift it: wouldest thou not think that he mocked thee, in stead of obeying thee? so when we shall complain of Religion, that it is too difficult a thing, we cannot attain it, and yet we will not so much as touch it scarce with one of our fingers; may not God justly say, that we do but mock him, and unjustly murmur against his commands, complaining of their difficulty, when we never tried, in using the means he hath appointed us, what might be done?  
Furthermore, Let us consider how far many of God's servants, whose stories are recorded in the sacred Scriptures, have gone in this way of perfection; it is said, that Enoch walked with God, and that Noah was perfect in his generations, and walked with God. Can we possibly think that these Expressions import no more than that sometimes when they had little or nothing else to do, they spent their time in prayer and meditation of divine matters? or that they did no more than usually men do, in the morning spend some small time in prayer, and then take their leave of God all the day, as it were compounding with God for two or three prayers a day? but doth it not much rather import a sweet, constant, and strict communion with God? for doubtless Enoch found so much sweetness in his walk with God, that he could not be content with that communion that earth could afford him. And of all the patriarchs before the Flood, we read of none that lived so few years upon earth as Enoch did; and doubtless those years which he did live were more tedious to him, to be so long absent from the full fruitition of God, then if he had lived ten times as long and had not tasted of those joys, in comparison of which the pleasures of this world are but as the gall of asps. What think we of Abraham, Moses, David. and Daniel? with how much faith, zeal, meekness, holiness, breathings after God did they live? What high expressions of joy, love, and heavenly desires are there in the Psalms? What, do we think all these holy Examples are set down in the Scripture to find us matter of discourse? or that the wisdom of God set down an idea of holiness, as Plato hath done of a commonwealth? or were they not set down for our imitation? thousands of expressions almost in the psalms we must make strange Hyperboles, and say, they were but David's rhetoric; or else we must needs acknowledge that he was a giant in compariof us in spiritual matters. O what heavenly spiritual frame of heart had he! surely his righteousness in comparison of Christ's was but as filthy rags, but in respect of ours a glorious robe: and now I pray, what reason is there in the world, why we might not live as holily as they, but that we take it for granted, we cannot, and so never strive; 'tis true, to think ourselves holier than the meanest Saint, is pride, but not to strive to be as holy as the highest Saint is sin: what means had they to attain holiness that we have not? They had prayer, meditation, reading, hearing; so have we: if their prayers and meditations were more servant, and more heavenly, who must we blame, God is not a barren wilderness unto us, and his grace is as sufficient for us, as for them; they had Circumcision, and the Passeover; the breasts of the new Testament are as full of graces as those of the old; nay doubtless, in respect of means they are far more abundantly glorious in our days then in theirs, in respect of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and the mysteries of salvation: may we not say as our Saviour does, that of all that was born of Women, there was none like John the Baptist, and yet the least in the times of the Gospel, is, or may be greater than he? and what enemies or hindrances have we that they had not? Was Satan, the flesh, the world, all or either of these not their enemies as much as ours? or had they better weapons and armour to fight against them than we have? we have the armour of God, they could have no better; if you shall say, you had a great family to provide for, weighty affairs and employments lay upon you, and these are great hindrances: in all these they exceed thee, and yet they were no hindrances to them in comparison of that, generally they are to us; Abraham drew three hundred out of his family to deliver Lot, besides what men, women, and children were left behind. Job had also a great family, he was a Judge, and a Prince, and yet notwithstanding in all the whole world there was none like unto him. So David had a whole kingdom to look to, besides continual wars, and yet how often did he pray, every day; how frequent was he in meditation? without all question, did we make it our business to entreat the Lord for strength & grace to serve him, were we frequent & servant enough in such desires, did we seek for wisdom as for silver, and search for understanding as for hid treasures, we might do wonders in religion, in comparison of what we do. And if you shall say, that all these you speak of are Prophets. I answer, what then? for the gifts of prophecy are not gifts of sanctification, but of edification; they might have been as holy, and not have been Prophets, and they might have prophesied, and yet been workers of iniquity. But to return to what we spoke, surely if men had faith, and that wrought by love as it should do; if we were as watchful over our ways as we might be, if we were not wanting to ourselves, and to God, (for he is not wanting unto us) we might live many days, without doing or speaking any thing that materially is a sin: I do assuredly know, that no one thought, word, or action, but in some respect or other is sinful, either the ground is not spiritual; or not so spiritual; the end is not heavenly, or not so heavenly; we do not purely aim at the glory of God, nor purely do it out of obedience to God, and in the name of Christ, &c. as we should; therefore I do not say, we can live one minute without sinning against God; but one may live many hours and days without doing such actions which materially and in their own nature are sins: as now for those which are accounted gross sins in the world, and are so, as adultery, murder, theft, blasphemy, swearing; it may be some of God's people live their whole life without actually committing any one of them. What is meant by that that is said of Zachary and Elizabeth, that they lived blameless, Luke 1. 6. And what is meant by that of St Paul, 1 Cor. 4. 4. That he knew nothing by himself? well, certainly those that love not to keep a strict communion with God, and love not the truth, may find excuses enough to bolster themselves up in their careless walk; nay, let them take heed, lest they so provoke the Lord, that he sends them strong delusions to believe lies. It may be, they will plead the infirmities and falls of the Saints, Noah's drunkenness, David's adultery, Peter's denial, and so encourage themselves in their own wickedness; surely these failings of the Saints are set down as sands and rocks to avoid, not as our compass whereby we should steer our course: 'tis true, if after prayers and strivings against those sins, through the strength of our corruptions we fall into some sin, we may take comfort from the infirmity and failings of the Saints: but before our fall, what use have we of such failings, but only rocks, as I have said: comforts they may be after, but not encouragements before; otherwise our spots are not the spots of God's people.  
2. Consid. The second consideration is, that no art, science, or trade whatsoever, is attained without some years being Apprentice, or studying of it; and can we imagine that we can attain to any measure of perfection in Religion, without spending either time or thoughts about it, but making it a thing merely by the buy? The unreasonableness of this conceit appears the more, if we consider, that we have no such impediments to hinder us from the attainment of excellencies in Trades, Arts, and Sciences; nay, those things that are hindrances in the attainment of holiness, do further us in the attainment of such kind of excellencies: to be an excellent workman in any trade, or to be an excellent Physician, neither the world, nor our corruptions, nor Satan are against it; the World generally doth promote and employ such persons; when they have an occasion to use any one of any trade or calling, they use the skilfullest, and so they are an encouragement to them: and for our corruptions, they do not hinder, but rather further, for we pride ourselves generally in such kind of excellencies: and if the World nor the Flesh be not, certainly Satan is not against them neither; but against holiness they are all enemies. Now if we should see a man rowing, having both wind and tide with him, and should row with all his might, and yet with much ado come to such a place by night, and the next day being to row back again against wind and tide, should take no pains at all, but lie sleeping in the boat, as if the stream that was against him, should carry him back of itself, we should much wonder at such a man's folly. Much more than may we wonder, when men shall spend so much pains, so many thoughts to get an estate; and in things concerning God and eternity, should carry themselves as if they were either not worth having, or as if holiness (like weeds) should grow of itself.  
3. Consid. The third Consideration is, That there is no pain nor trouble in its self in Religion, nor no true pleasure nor profit in sin; or what pleasure or pain soever there is in them, it is so short and so small, that it deserves not the name of either: Do but truly and seriously consider, what pain or trouble is there in spending an hour, in reading, meditating, or praying, I speak to the most disadvantage; for indeed, one should rather say, what wonderful delight there is in a strict and constant communion with God in such duties: but let it be supposed it be troublesome, the trouble is nothing, but the comfort and the benefit is exceeding great; when thou hast spent a day in humbling thy soul before God, I pray, next day, is it any pain or trouble to you? in respect of them, it is as the way of a Serpent upon a stone, there is nothing of the trouble that did accompany those holy duties doth remain when they are ended, but the comfort and profit of them thou Mayst meet withal twenty years hence: and so for sin, the pleasure of it is momentany, but the guilt and sting of it is eternal; the poor empty pleasures of sin, what are they while they do continue? but sure I am, they are bitterness at the last. To have a guilty conscience, and a wounded spirit, but one hour in any extremity, as poor souls in desertion or despair have, hath so much horror in it, that doubtless whosoever hath had any experience in such things, would not edure them for all the pleasures in the world for Methusalem's age: But alas, we look not afar off, consider neither the end of holiness, nor of sin; nay to speak the truth, we consider not the essential excellency of the one, nor filthiness of the other.  
4. Consid. Fourthly, Consider that there is not the least sin, nor the least holy thought that shall vanish into air, or into nothing; for if God shall call us to account for every idle thought or word, shall not every holy thought or word, through his mercy, tend to our good also? The wicked do treasure up wrath against the day of wrath; as a man that should cast in every day many pieces of silver and gold into a room for twenty years together, or more, when he should come to look in that room at the twenty years' end, he would find many a piece which he had forgotten; so it is with one that treasures up sin, when the book of conscience shall be opened at the last, day, and the bags wherein God sealed up his sins, as Job speaks, how many sins will he meet withal that he never thought of, until that day? not one of them shall be lost that ever he cast in: so surely it will be with thee that treasurest up prayers and holy thoughts; God doth as safely seal up them, as he doth the sins of the wicked: there is a book of remembrance writ of all thy good words, and there is a bottle to bottle up all thy tears: now how easy is it for thee to cast into this treasury a thousand holy thoughts a day? to what a numberless number would they arise to in few years? and by these not any business is hindered; thou mayest ride, thou mayest eat and drink, thou mayest sell and buy, thou mayest walk for all them: now if every holy thought do add something to thy grace here, and to thy glory hereafter, and since they do not hinder, but sweeten and sanctify all employments, why dost thou not treasure up these against the day of the Lord?  
5. Consid. Fifthly, Consider seriously the excellencies of the Scriptures; for we are not sensible enough of their worth, nor do we firmly nor feelingly enough believe that they are the Word of God: Suppose that by some infallible arguments it might be demonstrated that there were a Prophet now in England, with what extraordinary care and observation would you observe his words that he spoke in the Name of the Lord: if when thou wer● pouring out thy soul before God, humbly begging of him that he would discover to thee more the things that belong to thy peace, and thou shouldest have an Angel from Heaven coming unto thee, as one did to Cornelius; or that our Saviour should himself speak to thee from Heaven, as he did to Paul, when thou shalt say as he did, Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do? With what reverence and attention wouldst thou observe, and what obedience to a tittle wouldst thou give to such Messages? Wouldest thou not mark every word, and every syllable? and wouldest not vary from them one jot. Well, thou shouldest give no less reverence nor obedience unto the Word of God, then unto them. If thy friend speaks to thee, or writes to thee, so thou art sure that it is his hand, they are both of equal authority with thee; and why should not the word of God immediately spoken from Heaven, or written, be so too, of equal authority with thee? to have an Angel from heaven to tell thee what thou shouldst do, is a stronger temptation to pride; but there is no more of reality in it to move thee to obedience, than there is in the written word: nay, may I not say less? for the word of God is the rule by which we must judge their Messages; and not their Messages the rule by which we must judge the Word of God; for if an Angel from Heaven should preach another doctrine, let him be accursed. Now there is no reason, thou believing the Bible to be the Word of God, which we all profess, but thou shouldest with as much care endeavour to understand and practise what therein is written. If we will do but as Luther did, that he might understand Rom. 3. 25, 26. fast and pray when we find any place of Scripture too difficult to be understood; or when we found our corruptions so strong, that we obeyed not when it is understood: If we sought the Lord by prayer and fasting (a duty generally neglected, and by some condemned, though by the Apostles commended and practised) surely, we should both understand more of the mind of God, and live more suitable to what what we know.  
6. considerate. Sixthly, Consider, that howsoever we esteem it, it matters not, without question the enjoyment of God is infinite happiness: for, do but truly and really consider wherein doth the happiness of Angels consist; Doth it not consist in the vision, fruition, and union with God? Is not God their all? and shall he not be ours when we come thither? How comes it to pass, that it is not so now? Nay, it is so; but how comes it to pass, that it is not so to us? Either the Angels are deceived in making of it their happiness; or we must be deceived in not making of it ours: we cannot have the face to say, That if the Angels knew what pleasure there were in eating and drinking, and other vain and wicked pleasures of the word, they would never spend their eternity in singing the praises, in beholding the face, and admiring the excellency of God; yet though we are ashamed to say thus, yet by our lives we generally hold forth this blasphemy, and proclaim it to the whole world; nay, let me raise this one step higher, the blessedness, of God wherein doth it consist? the creature is not his happiness, but himself; and if God be enough for himself, shall be not be enough for thee? of dust and ashes, his enjoyment of himself, is his happiness; how comes it to pass that it is not thine? God doth command, invite thee, entreat thee to enjoy him; nay, indeed what is it that God requires of thee, but this, even to admire, love and enjoy him in the secret of thy soul? thou wilt not, thou preferrest every trifle before him; thou wilt go and see a carnal friend for carnal ends, rather than spend thy time in the enjoyment of him, who is the praise, and above the praise of men and Angels to all eternity; pray to him, who only can discover his love and excellencies to thee, that he would make thee taste of this hidden Manna; that he would draw away the veil before thine eyes, that thou mayst be no longer ignorant of this truth; that he would purge out those corruptions out of thy heart, that thou mayst relish and experiment the sweetness of it.  
7. Consid. Seventhly, Consider that we have three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil; Consider this, I say, fully and feelingly; for few there are that live so much as a tittle of this truth: or who lives as if the World was his implacable enemy? for, do we not generally into all our actions put something of that poisonous ingredient, viz. a desire to please men, and to get their good word and will? We ought not to scandalize any one, as much as in us lies; we ought to be all things to all men; but it is that we may gain them to God, not to ourselves: If this truth was engraven on our hearts, That it is as possible to go to heaven and please the devil, as go to heaven and please the world: I say, if we were fully persuaded in our hearts of that Truth, we would neither wonder the World hates us, nor endeavour that it should love us: we should not endeavour nor cast away our pains to do that which is absolutely impossible: So then, if we resolve to be Christians, we must neither fear nor care what the World can say of, or do unto us. And we should in all our actions of Religion, not so much as once bring it into our consideration, to think what men will say or do unto us, if we do so or so, except it be by their dislike to help ourselves to know what is right; for though it is not an absolute rule, yet it is a general rule, that such a thing is right, because men generally speak against it: certainly, our desires and endeavours to please men, is one of the greatest snares in the world; for generally we live so that we enslave ourselves, and lose not only our Christian, but our natural liberty for men; but indeed if it was no more but our outward liberty, it was nothing, but we wound our consciences and offend our God, which is worth more than a thousand Heavens.   

Cautions.  
1. Caut. First, Take heed of the perfunctory performance of holy duties; for many mischiefs come by them.  
First, They puff up, not edify; if thou pourest out thy soul before God in prayer, feelingly, spiritually, and faithfully, thou never departest without some spiritual profit; but if thou dost it carnally and formally, thy prayers are but wind, and they puff thee up; for thy carnal heart would plead these carnal performances to thy conscience, and make thee believe, because thou hast many pieces of this counterfeit coin, that thou art rich and wantest nothing, though thou art poor, and blind, and naked, and miserable; for thy duties have not the right stamp, having neither the image nor superscription of God upon them, being neither performed for the glory of God, nor by the Spirit of God, nor in the name of Christ: and between carnal and spiritual duties, this is the difference, that we usually pride ourselves in the one, and are humble by the other.  
Secondly, Which follows upon the former, we shall grow weary in time of performing carnal duties; for needs must we be weary of these things from which we get no profit nor strength: when duties are dry breasts unto us, it is no marvel if we are weary of drawing them; by spiritual duties we get strength; and such prayers do enable us to pray more; but carnal prayers tire us.  
Thirdly, Consider the same time is spent in the one as in the other, whether thou hearest or prayest with zeal and attention, or without, it takes up the same time in the public Congregatition, though not the same profit.  
Fourthly, Consider that you spoil both, by mixing the thoughts of worldly business with spiritual duties; for thy outward performance of the duty keeps thy thoughts of business from coming to maturity, and the thoughts of worldly things keep thy prayers from doing thee any good, so that they spoil one another; I mean, of those wandering thoughts that we let lie in our duties, for those that are resisted, and removed, and mourned for, do somewhat hinder, but not putrify the duty; for as the Wise man saith, That dead flies cause the ointment of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking savour; if one takes out a fly as soon as it is come into it, so much of the ointment that sticks about the fly is lost, but the rest remains sweet and pure, as it was before: so wandering thoughts spoil something of our prayers, though they be resisted and removed, they make a little hole in our prayer, by taking up that time which should have been filled up with better thoughts; but if they continue, they eat up the fat of those sacrifices, and make the sweet odours of our prayers noisome. But to conclude this Caution, if we were but in any measure sensible of the Majesty of him to whom, and the necessity of those things for which we pray, (to instance in that duty) for they are our life, and of the necessity of having them from God; we need no other motives to deter us from perfunctory performances.  
2. Caut. Secondly, Take heed of worldly company, for whosoever delights in that, will find that he never comes out of it but worse than he comes into it; for when one goes into such a company among whom there is nothing spoken of God, of Christ, or of the Spirit of the Word of God, and of spiritual experiences, where there is no spiritual duty performed; except one be exceeding careful to sequester one's mind from their discourses, and keep a stricct communion with God in the secrets of our hearts, our graces, if they were strong, would grow weak; and our corruptions, though they were weak, would grow strong; and that spiritual advantage which you have got by many prayers, you will find will be lost in a little time spent in such company, except their discourses be as dry breasts unto you, and as Meshech and Kedar were unto David; they must either be a grief or sin unto them, except in some cases, as in case of business, thy particular calling, or charity, if thou comest as a Physician, either of their bodies or of their souls, than thou not only mayst, but oughtest to come unto them; in such cases, our Saviour did frequently eat with Publicans and sinners, not out of any love he had to their worldly conversation, but to their conversion; and this must be taken as a rule, He that knows not how to be alone, knows not how to be in company with profit.  
3 Caut. Thirdly, Take heed of idleness; for as the Wise man says, Seest thou one wise in his own eyes, there is more hope of a fool then of him. For to make such a man wise, there are two things to be done.  
First, You must bring him to that, that he may know himself to be ignorant, and then you must teach him wisdom; whereas he that is ignorant and knows himself to be so, needs only the last; so he that is in any honest employment, Satan hath two works to do to make him sin.  
First, He must get him to leave off what he is doing, and then persuade him to the evil that he tempts him to: as a bowl that is running must be first stopped, before it can be made to run the contrary way; whereas the bowl that ●ies still may without stopping be cast what way one pleases: a bird that is flying one can hardly take any aim at, as one may at that which sits still; so Satan cannot level his temptations so at a busy, as at an idle man: but I shall not prosecute this common place of idleness, but my main design is to give you caution against spiritual idleness; for that which is not taken notice enough of, that is not avoidied nor mourned for enough, is that we think that we are not idle, if we are busied in worldly employments, if we are selling of wares in our shops, or riding of a journey, or busied in some such employment of our particular calling. The man thresheth and ploughs all day, and thinks that he is free from idleness; but we should know, that if our thoughts are not employed upon spiritual things when they may, it is the worst idleness of all: and very few worldly businesses there are that stand in need of the continual intentions of our thoughts upon them; for it is rather our love of the world that fixeth our thoughts upon worldly matters while we are employed about them, then because they might not be done without half that intention of mind: doubtless, there are many disseminata vacua, in all employments of the world, which might and aught to be filled up with spiritual thoughts; and as it is with Bees, though they gather honey from a flower, they leave it as fragrant and as fresh as they found it; so we gathering and mixing spiritual thoughts with and from our worldly business, we hinder it not at all; for as a vessel that is full of sand will hold almost as much water as if there were no sand in it; so when we are full of employments, we may hold a thousand holy thoughts; and as a ship can hardly be so filled with chests or other lading, but there will be so many corners unfild up, wherein Diamonds of such great value might be put in, that they would be more worth than all the lading of the Ship; so those thoughts of God and spiritual things which we might have in the midst of our other employments, may be of far greater value than they.  
Fourthly, Take heed of perfunctory and careless resisting of temptations; but what thou dost in that particular, as in spiritual things, do it with all thy might; for to think and weakly to resolve against sin, will not hinder, but aggravate thine offence; and it is one of the devil's policies, to let a man alone to think of several Motives, and make some faint resolutions against any sin, when he sees that he hath him fast enough; for he knows, that the more Motives and Resolutions we sin against, the more we are hardened, and GOD is provoked: And as it is with a Town that is besieged, they will willingly let so many of their enemies in, as they know they are able to master: so Satan, when he sees that the Motives and Resolutions that enter into the soul are too weak, he willingly suffers them to enter; for, perfunctory performance of duties, and feeble resisting of temptations are equally dangerous, if the later be not the worst; by the former we get no spiritual good, and by the later we overcome no spiritual evil.  
5. Caut. Take heed of making others sin, either by scandal, or being a temptation to them by example or provocation; it is a good way, when one hath to deal with a passionate man, not only to prepare ourselves for the combat by prayer and resolutions and keeping a strong guard upon our hearts, that we may not be overcome with passion, howsoever he shall use us, either in word or in deed; but to take special care and to use all means to keep him from passion; for there is a wretched joy that our hearts are subject to take in the sins of others, thinking them to be a foil to our innocency, to have others very passionate when we are very meek; there is a secret delight that the heart is prone to take, but it proceeds from a desperate pride in us, who desire to have our excellencies made manifest, though with the dishonour of God and damnation of our brother; but there is a great deal of hell in it, and charity rejoiceth not in ill. 1 Cor. 13.  
6. Caut. Take heed of studying high speculative points whatsoever; for when our thoughts are exceedingly intent in finding out truths, all the fire is in the top of the chimney, and none is left upon the hearth: generally high speculations leave the heart cold without devotion; for generally there is a great deal of curiosity and pride in such studies, for commonly we desire to be accounted knowing men, in searching into whies and hows of Gods works and truths; as why God made the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and how there can be three persons, and but one God: therefore in all reading, join prayer, whether it be in the reading of human or divine things, and take special care that the love of God go not out, nor grow cold in you. That which I have heard of one, is a good practice, that whatsoever book he was reading, every leaf that he turned over he would look what was become of his heart, and of God, and would not begin till he had sent up some prayers to the Lord for direction.   

advices.  
1. Adv. First, Concerning writing, many ways thou art to employ that for thy advantage.  
First, Write down all those spiritual passages out of Sermons, books, discourses, wherein thou hast found most relish and spiritual profit.  
Secondly, Keep a Register of all the mercies that God hath bestowed upon thee, whether it be temporal or spiritual, but especially thy spiritual experiences, and his manifestations of his love, if ever the terrors of the Almighty was upon thee; the ways of God's providence in supporting thee, and how, and when, and in what manner he delivered thee. And so for the discoveries of his love, and concerning the mercies God hath bestowed upon thee, how, and whether, and when he answers your prayers; as also all the special ways of God's providence to other spiritual persons, in temporals or spirituals; and when thou findest thy heart dull and cold in love, or weak in faith, these experiences of God's goodness to thyself and others, will be an excellent means to inflame and strengthen thee.  
Lastly, keep a diurnal of thy life in respect of the spiritual passages of every day; set down whether thou didst awake with God, or whether the world had the first fruits of thy thoughts, and how thou didst perform spiritual duties, whether with relish, fervency, or delights, or otherwise; mark and set down when thy heart made any default, intermitting its communion with God, and all the several sins that thou canst take notice of, that thou hast committed that day, and what mercies thou hast received; and when there is any mercy that thou prayest for, some mark should be set until thou hast an answer of that prayer from God, and that day the Lord gives thee that answer, make a reference from that day to the day of praying for that mercy.  
2. Adv. Secondly, Choose some spiritual friend one or more, to whom thou mayst wholly unbosom thyself in all spiritual matters; but a great deal of caution need to be had in this particular, he need to be one of a 1000 that thou choosest; thus thou needest have a gr●at deal of experience of his spiritual wisdom, humility, and experience of the ways of God; for be he never so learned, though he understand all mysteries and all knowledge, though he hath never such excellent gifts of edification, yet if he be not an experienced Christian, thou wilt little benefit either by his society, or counsel; for when he speaks of spiritual and experimental truths, and the discourses of such truths are the very life of the communion of Saints; I say, that his discourses concerning such matters, be he never so learned, if he be not experienced in them, will be without life or relish; he will seldom speak of such things, but when he does it, it will be with so much heaviness, that thou mayst clearly perceive he doth speak but by rote, and of things he delights not in; and for his advice in spiritual matters, it must needs be very imperfect, for thousand cases may happen of which books speak nothing; and having no other way to understand them, and direct thee, he will be at a loss; as one that travels by a Map, and hath no other way to guide himself, he will meet with many turnings, that put him to a nonplus which way to take; whereas he that hath often traveled that way is a far safer guide: the truth is, we have no knowledge of God, or no saving knowledge of him, but what is by experience: To conclude therefore, if thou wilt choose a spiritual friend, choose such an one as magnifies Christ, and the spirit of God, and his teachings, and the word of God, and inward mortifications above outward, and that is an experienced wise and humble Christian, and thou shalt get a world of good by the converse of such an one; for in doubts his wisdom and experience will direct thee, in thy distresses he will comfort thee, when thou art spiritually cold, his example and carriage in the performance of holy duties, his discourses of heavenly things, and the flames of his love will set thee on fire.  
3. Adv▪ The third is diurnal examination, every night strictly to examine what thou hast done that day; we read of God himself that every day he looked over his works: surely God hath no need to examine his works, but it is writ for our instruction, and doubtless the benefit and necessity of this examination are very great.  
First, We should find out our sins before they come to be customary, when they are but a day old, and before they have taken root in us, and so they will easily be pulled up, and by faith, repentance, prayer, and resolutions against them, we shall easily get the victory over them, and through the help of God, who makes us more than conquerors: it is very likely, by the blessing of God, if David had not neglected the examining of his soul that day when he defiled Bathsheba, he would have discovered that abomination, and he would never have gone foe far as to have added blood and the rest of his abominations to his uncleanness, and he would have watered h●s couch with his tears, which he had defiled with his adultery.  
The second advantage is, that we shall never lie in any sin unrepented of; and there be many other inconveniences (besides bringing it to a custom) that come by sin lying on our souls unrepented of; for it deads' our prayers, cools our love, hardens our heart, makes us that we cannot come to God with that joy, with that freedom of spirit; as when one hath done one's friend an injury, one is loath to see him.  
The third advantage is by dividing this great work of giving up our account, and making all even betwixt God and ourselves, the work will be very easy; which if we shall not do it but at our death, or only yearly, it would be exceeding difficult, and almost impossible: as if some Merchant who had very great trading, should ballast his accounts of debts, receipts, of disbursements, &c. but once in seven years, it would be an intolerable burden; besides, many things would be forgotten; whereas it being done daily, his accounts are perfected with more ease, and fewer defaults.  
The fourth advantage is, that at thy death thou wilt have a world of comfort by taking this course; for besides, thou art eased of that burden of having all the accounts of thy life to make up then, thou hast a clear way to answer Satan, when he shall lay to thy charge any sins of thy former life; for if he shall accuse thee, and say, dost not thou remember, that such a year, and such a day, thou didst commit such a sin? thou mayest answer him, and say, it is true, that such a day I did commit such a sin, but then that very night I mourned for it, and went not to bed before I had my pardon sealed with the blood of Christ to my soul; and when Satan shall not be able to lay to thy charge any debt of which thou hast not had an accquittance, nor any sin for which thou hast not had a pardon from the Lord, such fiery darts will have no power to wound thee: and this examination thou mayest make thus: Consider all the several hours of the day, and how thou hast spent them; when thou didst first awake, what didst thou think of? when thou wert asleep, and thoughtest not of thyself, God thought on thee, and thou wert safe under the shadow of his wings; When I awake, thou art with me, says David; was not God with David when he was asleep? yes surely; for his being with him when he was awake, showed that he was there before; for it is not said, When I awake thou comest to me, but art with me. Well, but what are thy thoughts when thou first wakest? are they of God, or of the World? Thou shalt much discover the temper of thy heart by this; those that are our very familiar acquaintance, we suffer them to come into our chamber before we are up: surely, God is a stranger to thee, if thou thinkest not of him, nor seekest him on thy bed; then as the Apostle says, If the first fruits are holy, the whole lump is holy: so generally, as thy first thoughts are, such art thou all the day after: in the morning thou sayest, it will be foul weather, says our Saviour, for the sky is red and lowering; so we may say of the day in respect of spiritual matters; if thy morning thoughts be red and lowering, it will be foul weather in thy soul that day: and when thou readest over thy diary, thou shalt find that those days when that thy waking and morning thoughts were full of God, that all the duties of that day, whether of thy general or particulat calling, were full of God also. Well, what didst thou think of afterwards, didst thou keep thy thoughts close to God, until thy morning exercise? didst thou dress thy soul, as thou didst dress thy body? Well, after that, what didst thou do such an hour and such and hour, & c? Or to help thee in this duty something more, examine at night thy works, words, thoughts, what they were every hour of the day. For thy works, consider what thy religious works, the works of thy particular calling, and thy recreations were. For thy prayers, hast thou not oomitted thy seven times a day, if thou hast attained with David to that number? or how often soever thy set times are, hast thou not omitted them? for I dare not discourage any one in observing set times, as if that could not be done lawfully. Well, how hast thou prayed? hast thou performed that duty as a task, or as a means? hast thou bound up thy devotion to such a number of times of going to God? or hast thou given God those prayers as a composition, or as the rent of the day, that thou mayest do with the rest, and spend the rest in vanity, as thou pleasest? Or didst thou not much rather perform that duty of prayer as an act of communion with God for the present, and as an help for communion with God for the future? Didst thou not by thy prayers intend and desire of the Lord power and strength not to depart from him? What were thy prayers? were they faithful, fervent, reverent, humble? What returns of thy prayers hast thou had this day? Hast thou endeavoured to obtain those mercies and graces that thou prayedst for? Thou mockest God, to pray for those things thou endeavourest not for; and thou mockest thyself, to endeavour for those things thou prayest not for. For thy Meditation and reading the Word of God, how hast thou performed them? What power have they had upon thy heart this day? Hast thou been more faithful, humble, charitable, & c? What resolutions didst thou make? and how hast thou kept them? &c. Concerning thy reading the Scriptures and meditation, most of the things which are spoken concerning Prayer, may be applied to these also: as, Didst thou meditate and read as a task, or as a means? and so of the rest. Concerning the works of thy particular calling, have they not justled out the works of thy general calling? hast thou not unnecessarily omitted thy set times for spiritual duties? or have not thy thoughts been taken up too much with them? hast thou not left off thy communion with God? God may be with thee in thy shop as well as in thy Closet. Again, if thou art a tradesman, hast thou not took advantage of the necessity of the seller, and bought too cheap, and of the ignorance of the buyer, and sold two dear? hast thou not sold thy conscience with thy wares? Concerning thy recreations, have they not been unlawful recreations in respect of the kind? hast thou not made a sport of sin, making that a recreation which should be thy grief? making that thy delight, which should make a Christian weep? have not thy recreations been unlawful in respect of time? have they not been unseasonable? hast thou not used recreations, when thou shouldest have put on sackcloth, not being sensible of the afflictions of Joseph? or have not thy recreations taken up too much time? hast thou not made a vocation of recreation? the best way is by prayer and by frequent communion with God, to attain to that spiritual frame of soul, that thou mayest go to God as David speaks, Psalm 43. ver. 4. to make God thy exceeding joy: so shall thy great business and design that thou hast in the whole world be turned into a recreation; and thou shalt need no other, but thou shalt be as those that are in heaven; it shall be thy eternal business and delight to admire and praise God. What have thy words been? thou must give an account at the last day for every idle word: how many hast thou spoken this day? Where, when, and with whom hast thou discoursed, and what hath thy discourse been of? Have thy words been to edification? Remember what the Apostle says, That we must avoid foolish talking and jesting, which is not convenient; Hast thou not this day slandered, or spoken ill of thy neighbour? if thou hast, besides thy humbling thyself before God, and asking pardon of him, make some recompense to thy neighbour, and put up as many prayers to God for him, as thou hast spoken evil words of him. For thy thoughts, what have they been? Have not vain thoughts lodged in thee? The fountain of all sin are our thoughts; if thou keepest them close to God, all the rest will follow, thy words and thy conversation will be spiritual also: Hast thou not had a thousand thoughts of God this day? if thou hast not, thou hast lost that which is irrevocable: for though thou hast a thousand thoughts of God the next day, thy loss this day is not thereby recovered; for thy having a thousand thoughts of God this day, doth not hinder thee from having a thousand thoughts next day, but rather further thee; the more thoughts thou hast of God, the more thou mayst have; and for thy thoughts of God, what have they been? have they been fervent as well as frequent? have thy thoughts of God been worthy of God? or have not thy thoughts of God been such that thou shouldest have had of the world, and thoughts of the world such as thou shouldest have had of God?  
4. Adv. The fourth is Meditation, a duty of so great concernment, so much profit, that nothing but experience can make one know the benefit of it; and the man of the greatest devotion, and of the heaveliest affections, that we read of in all the Bible, though indeed, for matter of revelations, it may be, something more is spoken of others then of him, I mean David, was exceedingly versed in Meditation, and doth speak very much of it concerning his own practice, and commending it to others: you know very well, that he sets it down as the only, or at least the chief exercise of the blessed man, to meditate in the word of God day and night: he delights in the word of God, and therefore meditates in it; and meditates in it, and therefore delights in it: One that walks in a garden, sees the beauty, and may smell sweetness of the flowers growing there; but it is the Bee that gathers honey out of them: to read and study the Scriptures, hath a great deal of sweetness in it, but it is meditating on the Scriptures that brings the sweetest and lastingest benefit: the end of study is knowledge; but the end of meditation is also holy affection and practice. Now that which I advise and direct in this particular, is, to know how to read and meditate on the holy Scriptures to our greatest spiritual comfort and advantage: and there are many advices to this purpose.  
First, Take the Bible, open it, and read it with the same attention, reverence, and resolution to follow it, as if Christ living on the earth either by reason of sickness, or some other occasion, not being able to go to him thyself, thou shouldst send some special friend with thy humble desires to Christ, to advise thee what to believe and do, and Christ should send a Letter to thee by that friend. How exceedingly wouldst thou prize that Letter? how wouldest thou rejoice and long to read it? how strictly wouldest thou observe every syllable? Go, take the Bible, open it, and do likewise. We do not read that ever Christ writ any thing with his own hand, save that which he wrote upon the ground, John 8. and what that was we know not. And what might be the reason? might not one, if not the chiefest reason be, lest we should dolize that place of Scripture, and despise the rest in comparison of that: it is not the hand, but the spirit of Christ that gives authority to Scripture: we have strange opinions of the bodily presence of Christ; we think, had we lived in his days, we would have gone to him, and acknowledged our sins, and craved pardon and direction, and scarce doubt but we should have obtained both: but we consider no● we have as near and as certain a way to obtain them now as then; nay, we have the same way as they had; for it was their faith that made them whole, and by faith we may be made so too in respect of spiritual diseases. So, if an Angel should bring a message from heaven to us, how would we observe and follow it? The Scripture should be of as great power and authority with us, as that Message, and indeed more; for if it were possible that such a Message should contradict any thing in the Scripture, the Scripture must be believed before it. But of this more largely in the fifth Consideration.  
Secondly, Read every verse in the Bible with this consideration, that the holy Spirit of God, when he inspired the Apostle, Prophet, or other penmen of the holy Scriptures to write that place, did particularly intend thy good in it; for we must not conceive that the Scripture was written for their good only who lived in those times when those several Books were published; but to all ages, for every particular man that should live in those several generations. The Scripture itself is plain in this particular; Rom. 15. 4. For whatsoever things were written afore time, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope, Deut. 29. 29. The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but these things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of the Law.  
Nay, we read of a particular promise made to a particular person upon a special occasion; if any part of Scripture were not to extend to every particular person that should live while the world lasts, one would think it should be that; yet even that very promise the Apostle brings, even that, as a promise particularly to be applied to every Christian: compare but these places, Heb. 13. 5. Josh. 1. 5. The Scripture like a well made Picture looks upon every one in particular, so directly, as if it looked upon none else: we generally read the Scriptures as we hear Sermons, without a particular and personal application of them; if a godly Minister should come home to any one of our houses, and take one aside, and tell one privately and feelingly, you profess yourselves Christians, but there is little or nothing of Christianity appears in your lives, you live not as becomes the Gospel of Jesus Christ; it would startle us; we hear the same in the Pulpit, and we let it pass as a thing not concerning us: if one should come from an house of uncleanness, and hear a voice from Heaven, saying, Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge, it would strike terror into that man's heart; he reads the same words in the Scripture, and they are a dead letter to him.  
Thirdly, Read the Scripture to a right end for which it was written, not for custom, or that you might be able to discourse, and because you are ashamed to be ignorant of those things which you conceive every Christian should know, and having an occasion divers times in company to talk of such matters, than you would be loath to be able to say nothing; but consider what end the Scripture was writ for, Rom. 15. 4 Rev. 3. 10. 1 Pet. 2. 2. 2 Tim. 3. 16. and many other places, set them down; our knowledge, our affectionss, and our lives are quite out of frame, and thou must go to the holy Scriptures there to find out directions to cure these distempers: and in a word, that thou mayst be able to know, admire, love, fear, trust, and serve God more than thou dost; thou shouldst never read any part of the word of God, without a particular intention to advantage thyself in these particulars by thy reading.  
Fourthly, Thou must humbly and earnestly pray to the Lord to give thee his Spirit to understand what thou readest in his Word; take heed of going with thine own human spirit, and in the strength of thy learning, to search out the deep things of God; go to the shallows of the works, which we call the works of Nature, and thou shalt find that thou art not able to fathom them; the wind thou hearest the sound thereof, but knowest not whence it comes, nor whither it goes; and how canst thou presume to understand the great mysteries of God, which the Angels themselves desire to look into, without the help of the Spirit of God which teacheth wisdom secretly? let thy desires be fervent, for the things written in the Word of God are thy life; desire the Lord to give thee a powerful, spiritual, and experimental knowledge of the truths that thou shalt read.  
Fifthly, Promise to the Lord that if he will but reveal to thee his will, thou wilt do it, and obey him in it, whether it be good or evil; Jer. 42. 6. whether it be pleasing or displeasing to thine own will: we do not use to tell any one a receipt to cure a disease he is sick of, if we know he is resolved not to take it; nor do thou satisfy thyself with a neutrality, to find thyself neither resolved to follow, nor not to follow what thou shalt understand: it is an hard thing when one whom God hath loved so much, shall give no other return of all his goodness but this, that he doth not find his heart to hate and rebel against him: many people do little better than use the Scripture as a charm, they think by reading so many Chapters a day, they shall be cured of all spiritual diseases: had they not as good think, that by hanging some Chapters or two about their neck, they shall be cured of some corporal disease? if one should have a receipt to cure the gout, and he should read it over every day twice or thrice, and think thereby to be cured, though he never took what was prescribed; so it is with him that thinks the bare reading of the Word of God will do him any good without being, believing, and doing accordingly.  
Sixthly, When thou art thus prepared, read that place which thou intendest to meditate of, and consider what the true meaning of the place is, to thy understanding thereof before thou didst crave the assistance of the Spirit of God; but if the place be knotty and hard to be understood, pass it by, for such places are not proper places of meditation, but of study; thou must choose those places of Scripture as are fit for the affectionate, not the speculative part of Divinity, such as may more affect the heart, then busy the brain to understand it; and thou must not be curious to raise nice observations from the words, but take those truths that lie open in the Text.  
First, Because those truths that lie hidden in one place of Scripture, are obvious in another.  
Secondly, Because when the brain is much employed, the heart lies dead without affections.  
Thirdly, Because that time thou spendest in finding out curious observations, may be far more profitably spent in working thy heart to holy affections and resolutions, from some other truth that will presently occur from the words.  
Lastly, It shows that there is not so great spiritual hunger after righteousness as there should be; for hungry men do not use to stand and pick bones, when they have meat enough to eat.  
Seventhly, When thou hast raised any observation from the words, than thou art to put one of these three questions to thyself; Do I thus? Is it thus with me? and, believe I thus? One or two, or all of these will belong to every Text; some to all, and all to some, as Luke 12. 32. Fear not little flock, it is your father's good will to give you the Kingdom: Do I thus? that is, for the first branch, Fear not; do I fear? Then, Is it thus with me? am I little in mine own eyes? am I one of Christ's flock? am I one of that small number that shall be saved? Lastly, Do I believe this, that God will give the Kingdom of Heaven to such?  
Eighthly, If thou dost find, that thou art, dost, or believest as the Word requires, give God the praise, humbly acknowledging that it is not thy doing at all, either that thou art, or dost, or believest what thou shouldest: and if thou findest that thou pridest thyself in stead of being thankful, as if they were from thyself, or that by any of them as thine act thou mayest be justified, then do but think in how many other things thou failest, and how even in these very particulars, if thou considerest either the measure, manner, ground, and end, thou shalt find them all to be defective, and thy best righteousness not only to be ragged, but filthy too.  
Ninthly, If thou findest that either it is not with thee, or that thou dost not, or believest not as the Word requires, then,  
First, Humble thyself before the Lord, and desire pardon and help for the future.  
Secondly, Seriously consider what is the reason (if it be that thou believest not) why thou art not established in that truth: say to thyself, O my soul, God can neither be deceived, nor deceive, and that this is his word that we now read and meditate on, is more certain than any reason that can possibly be brought against it; consider that generally the howes and why's of God's truths and works are the things that stumble us; as, how can there be three persons and yet but one God? and, why should God hate Esau, and love Jacob? in those cases say to thyself, that for the whies and howes of Gods word and truths, it is curiosity and pride to inquire of them, except God does reveal them, and we ought to mortify our desire of knowing them: as that of our Saviour takes place in this case; Blessed are they that believe and see not.  
Thirdly, Think with thyself, if thou canst remember any other place or places that confirms the truth that thou doubts of.  
Fourthly, Know that that which thou art mainly to inquire of, is of the meaning of the Word of God, not of the truth of it; for we are seriously to consider, whether such a place holds forth such a point, not (it appearing to be the plain meaning of the Text) whether it be true or no, if it be a thing that thou dost not which thou shouldst do, or dost which thou shouldst not do; then seriously consider what are the reasons and grounds of thy disobedience, and thou shalt find them to be either the pleasure, profit, or honour of the world; and say, alas, O my soul, can we be so deceived as to be put off with vanities, such as by experience we have known to be vanities, and by faith much more? Shall we leave an Heaven of joys, the God of mercies? shall we leave Christ, who hath so loved us, that he left all, even the bosom of his Father, and emptied himself of all his glory, and filled himself with our misery? shall we leave all these for these, vanities which we must leave, and will leave us? Consider the impediments that hinder thee from doing thy duty; consider the temptations and occasions of thy sin; consider the means and motives to avoid it: remove the impediments; avoid the occasions; use the means; and think of the motives to do that which the Lord commandeth: but thou must neither think to find out these, nor to use the means, or avoid the occasions, &c. without imploring humbly and earnestly the direction and assistance of the Spirit of God, to assist and direct thee in the premises; for you must know, that you must find out and use spiritual Motives, or else thy very avoiding of sin is sin, when it is done upon carnal grounds or sinful motives.  
Tenthly, When thou hast finished all thy Meditations,  
First, Thou art to entreat the Lord, that he would work all these truths upon thy heart, and fasten them as a nail in a sure place, that his Word may not be a dry breast unto thee, nor thou a barren wilderness unto it.  
Secondly, Thou art to bless God for any spiritual frame of heart that is either wrought or discovered in thee by this Exercise.  
Lastly, choose some special truth or point (in which thou are either most defective, or wherein thou hast found most relish, which thou hast most occasion to make use of that day) and keep it by thee to think of; and do as those that walk in a garden of fragrant flowers, if one may have leave, generally he takes some along with him, to smell to the rest of the day: do thou bind up some spiritual truths out of thy Meditation, and do likewise.  
Last Adv. The last great Advice, and that which must serve for an Antidote, lest all the other Cautions and Advices being observed, they should be turned into poison to us, is, that we should often meditate, and never be satisfied in our souls, until we come to a clear Gospel experimental knowledge of Christ, without which indeed, we are not worthy of the name of Christians; for are we not called Christians from the very name? And doubtless, if we have not a right knowledge of Christ, we shall make up a Christ to ourselves of our prayers, and fastings, and alms, and repentance; and woe be to that soul that at the last day shall have nothing to trust to but his graces and duties, which will accuse him in stead of pleading his cause: and two things especially we should endeavour to know of Christ; first, the excellency of the person and mysteries of Christ. Secondly, the love of Christ.  
First, For the excellency of his person, though to say he was both God and man, is indeed to include all; yet some few things I shall speak to manifest this point.  
First, That all his people do receive from him grace for grace; John 1. 16. Now if we consider the vast emptiness and spiritual wants of the people of God, we must needs conclude that he must be an Ocean of excellency that must continually supply them.  
Secondly, (For I shall be very brief, setting down rather heads of Meditation, than Sermon-wise, to dilate upon them) Consider the dignity of his sufferings; for they did satisfy the Justice of God, and that could not be satisfied without something of infinite value; nor could it have been done by him save only by reason of the dignity of his person.  
Thirdly, Consider how he suffered; though the pains he suffered were exceeding great, yet was it without any abatement at all of his love of, and confidence in God; for while he satisfied the Justice of God by his passive obedience, in suffering the penalty of the Law; he also satisfied and fulfilled the righteousness of the Law, by his active obedience, which was a wonder full thing, that in the midst of all his agony and all his father's anger, while he was laying upon him the punishment of the iniquity of us all, and spared him not, that even then there should be no abatement at all of his confidence in, and love of his Father, but that he should love him and trust in him as much as at any other time; for had there been any abatement, and had he not loved God then with all his soul, with all his might, and with all his strength (and the same may be said of his trusting in God) his sufferings could never have satisfied for sin, but themselves had stood in need of forgiveness.  
Fourthly, Consider that saying of our Saviour, John 14. 9 He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father: the speech of Philip is as if he should say; we indeed see a great deal of holiness and wisdom in thy words and actions, but would we could see the Father; surely there would be a world of holiness and wisdom in his words and actions; if he would have lived amongst men as thou Lord hast done, surely than it had sufficed. Now our saviour's answer is as if he should say to Philip, If the Father himself had taken human nature, and lived amongst men, he would not have spoke one word more, or otherwise, nor done one action more or otherwise then I have done, he would not, nay could not have spoke, or done more wisely than I have done; So he that hath seen me, hath seen my Father.  
Fifthly, Consider that those who have had the greatest and highest revelations of divine things, have always had the highest esteem of, and have most magnified Christ. Saint Paul, rapt into the third heaven, and saw and heard things there, which was neither possible, nor lawful to be uttered; yet no man speaks higher things of Christ than he, he desires to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified; accounts all other knowledge but dross and dog's meat; such knowledge as dogs and swine, reprobates may have; nay, one step further, the very Angels in heaven, though they have the beatifical vision, yet notwithstanding they desire to look into the great mysteries of the Gospel, 1 Pet. 1. 12. Therefore never think that thou hast attained to any measure of Christian knowledge before thou seest an excellency in Christ, and an height and depth in the mysteries of the Gospel; which if thou shalt not do, say within thyself, it is so evident that nothing is more in the word of God, that Christ is the end of all the ceremonial Laws, and all the prophecies of the old Testament; that all the Prophets, nay all the Angels give witness; and the Apostle clearly says, that there is no controversy of this matter of the greatness of Gospel mysteries, and therefore that I do not admire them, it certainly proceeds from my ignorance of them; for if it proceeded from knowledge, without doubt the Apostles that had more knowledge than I, and the Angels which had more knowledge than the Apostles, would never have desired to have known more of them: And after thou hast wrought this upon thy heart, and art fully convinced of the truth of it, that there is no knowledge, not only not so profitable, but not so sweet, nor so excellent as this, then humbly beseech the Lord that he would show unto thee, teaching thee by his Spirit the deep things of God, and that he would not only do it to inform and enlighten thy understanding in, but to enamour thy will of the beauties of the mysteries of Christ: we stand doting and gazing upon hamane knowledge, which is but like a poor glowworm compared to the Sun of righteousness; but alas poor thing, it hath neither light nor heat, compared to the truths of the Gospel: and we must look upon Christ as the only author and finisher of our faith, and justifier of our persons; though we do all that hath been mentioned, yet we must not so much as make our doings, or not doings the least ingredient in our justification: and as Solomon speaks concerning our wisdom, so we must do in the matter of holiness; lean not to thine own wisdom, saith Solomon; not only not rely upon it, but lean on it: we must not partly trust in our own wisdom, and partly in the wisdom of God, but we must wholly rely upon his wisdom: so, we must not partly rely upon Christ's merits, and partly upon our own; but wholly on Christ: those sins which we do not commit, we are not innocent of; and those holy duties that we do perform, we are not innocent in; therefore neither can we escape hell, nor attain heaven by any thing that we do, or not do: and the reason why we either avoid sin, or perform holy duties, or frequent ordinances, is not because thereby we shall be justified, but that thereby we may glorify God and Christ, and because therein we have communion with Christ, and are made more conformable unto him, and made more capable of more of Christ. When we go to some stately Palace, where we have appointed to meet some dear friend whom we love with our whole soul, though we have never so much entertainment there when we come, yet if we neither see, nor enjoy the company of our so exceedingly loved and desired friend, we rather weep then rejoice, notwithstanding the feasts and buildings which we taste and see: Prayer, hearing the Word, the Lord's Supper, are stately Ordinances and rich Feasts; yet if we meet not Christ there, they are but dry breasts and barren wildernesses to a soul that loves Christ.  
Secondly, Now the main thing that hinders a poor soul from coming unto Christ, is, that it is not clearly satisfied of Christ's love and willingness to receive her: to this point therefore by the blessing of God I shall speak more largely, and as clearly as the Lord shall enable me; this therefore may be said to that point: Art thou not satisfied of the love and willingness of Christ to receive thee? What can Christ say or do more than he hath done? suppose Christ from Heaven should bid thee write down what expressions soever thou wouldest or couldst invent, and bid thee call all the Saints in the whole world, and all the Angels in heaven, and bid you consult together, and write down the highest, fullest, clearest, and largest expressions of love, and he will set his hand and seal to them, would that satisfy? surely God and Christ have done more; for the Holy Ghost comes not short of the expressions of love of whatsoever the Angels in heaven could invent, thou hast his hand and seal to them in his Word; thou wouldest be a▪ looser if thou shouldest make another draught of love for Christ to set his hand to, and take that in stead of the expressions of love which he hath already ratified and confirmed by his Word, his Oath, his Seal, that thou mighest have strong consolation: Suppose that thou shouldest search the whole world to find out the fondest, lovingest and tenderest parent in the world, and when thou hast found her, thou shouldest observe with what love, care, and bowels of affection she carried herself towards her little Infant, how she breaks her sleep, and even her very heart when her child is sick, and never complains of her pains and costs, and never thinks she can do or suffer enough for the little Infant: now if thou shalt say within thyself; O that I was sure that God loved me as much as this woman loves her child: well, would that satisfy? then be satisfied, God loves thee more: Isa. 49. 15. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she would not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea they may forget, yet will not I forget thee: the Lord doth not say, can women? but a woman, any woman: find out that woman which thou supposest is the most unlikely to forget her child, yet God is more unlikely to forget thee; nay it is more possible that all the women of the world should forget their children, than God; for though the question be put in the singular number, Can a woman? yet the answer is in the plural, not she may, but they may, they all may. Further again; Suppose thou wert at the solemnising of a marriage of the lovingest couple in the whole world, and shouldest observe with how much joy and love the Bridegroom carried himself toward the Bride, even in the midst and height of all his nuptial solemnities; wouldst thou not be satisfied if thou didst know that God did not only love thee with that tender love of compassion with which the lovingest mother in the world loves her Infant, but with that love of complacency which the Bridegroom beareth to, and with which he rejoiceth over his Bride: whose love was equal to their espousals? then be satisfied, for God doth so; Isa. 62. 5. And as a bridegroom rejoiceth over his Bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee: Nay surely, I may say, that the holiest Saint in the whole world, when by the clearest discoveries of God's love unto him, his heart is most inflamed; nay further, that the highest angel in Heaven doth not love God so much, as God loves the poorest and meanest Saint in the whole world; for God so loved the world, it is such a sic, that there is no sicut for it, not that of the Angels unto him; nothing can express it to the full, save only the greatness of the gift which he out of his love gave to, and for his people, even the Lord Jesus Christ.  
To conclude, Do but consider what Christ hath done, and if thou art fully satisfied of that, thou canst have no cause to have the least doubt of his willingness to do whatsoever more is to be done for thee; for that which is to be done is nothing in comparison of that which he hath already done for those that are his.  
First, Nothing in respect of excellency, for the Apostle brings that in, He will much more give us all things: also for God to give thee Christ, is much more than to give thee Heaven: as to give thee Heaven is much more than to give thee all temporal blessings, Mat. 6. 33. If one that ought thee 10000 pounds, should have paid thee nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine, thou wouldest no whit doubt, but he will pay thee the residue, especially if it stood upon the forfeiture of his credit; how much more shalt thou assure thyself of God's doing for thee whatsoever is behind, since he hath already done so much!  
Secondly, The great matter of difficulty is over; indeed it cost Christ dear, and God the Father dear to redeem thee; God spared not his own Son; Christ spared not his blood, nor his life; he suffered hunger, cold, and nakedness, and reproach, the painful and shameful death of the Cross to redeem thee; but he lives for ever to make intercession for thee; he needs not rise off from his throne, nor put off his robes of glory to carry on the remainder of thy work of salvation; he sits at the right hand of God to make intercession for thee; The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool.  
Thirdly, The great matter of wonder is over also: That a great and mighty Monarch should marry a poor wretched and diseased woman, is a thing of great wonder; but it's not so great a wonder that having married her, should make her partakers of all the glory and riches of his kingdom; nay indeed, it was a wonder if he should not. That Christ who is the Lord of glory should marry a poor sinful soul is a wonder; but having married thee, that he should sanctify thee, that he should present thee glorious, without spot or blemish, or any such thing, is no wonder; nay it was a wonder if he should still suffer thee to go in rags, and never adorn thee with the Jewels of his grace, and set upon thy head the Crown of glory. Therefore comfort thyself with these truths: Now to him that hath done so much, and much more, be glory and honour for ever, Amen.  
FINIS.