A Saint or a Brute, Part 2 · Chapter 10 · Section 4
Direct. 1. IF you would taſte the pleaſure of a holy life, bethink you better of the neceſſity and excellency of it; and caſt away your prejudice and falſe conceits, which have deceived you, and turned your minds againſt it: A child may be deluded to take his own Father for his enemy, if he ſee him in an enemies garb, or be perſwaded by falſe ſuggeſtions that he hateth him. A man may be perſwaded to hate his meat, if you can but make him believe that it is poyſon: or to hate his cloaths, if you can make him believe they are infected with the plague. If you will ſuffer your underſtandings to be deluded, ſo far as to overlook the amiable nature of holineſs, and to think the image of God is but a fancie, or that a heavenly life is nothing but hypocriſie, and that it is but pride that maketh men ſeek to be holyer then others, and that makes them they cannot goe quietly to Hell in deſpight of the commands and mercies of the Lord, as others do; I ſay, if the Devil the great deceiver, can poſſeſs you with ſuch frantick thoughts as theſe, what wonder if you hate the very name of Holineſs? How can you find pleaſure in the greateſt good, while you take it for an evil? If you will believe all that the Devil and his fooliſh malicious inſtruments ſay of God and of a holy life, you ſhall never love God, nor ſee any lovelineſs, or taſte any ſweetneſs in his ſervice.
Dir. 2. Come neer and ſearch into the inwards of a holy life, and try it a little while your ſelves, if you would taſte the pleaſure of it: and do not ſtand looking on it at a diſtance, where you ſee nothing but the out ſide: nor judge by bare hearſay, which giveth you no taſte or reliſh of it. The ſweetneſs of honey, or wine, o… meat is not known by looking on it, but by taſting it. Come neer and try what it is to live in the Love of God, and in the belief and hope of life eternal, and in univerſal obedience to the laws of Chriſt; and then tell us how theſe things do reliſh with you. You will never know the ſweetneſs of them effectually, as long as you are but lookers on. It was the ſimilitude which Peter Martyr uſed in a Sermon, which converted the Noble Neopolitane Marqueſs of Uicum, Galeacius Caracciolus, (who forſook wife, and children, and honours, and lands, and countrey, and all for the liberty of the Reformed Religion at Geneva:) ſaith he, [If you ſee the motion of dancers a far off, and hear not the Muſick, you will think they are frantick: but when you come near and hear the muſick, and obſerve their harmonical orderly motion, you will take delight in it, and deſire to joyn with them.] So men that judge at a diſtance of the truth and holy ways of God, by the ſlanderous reports of malignant men, will think of the godly as Feſtus of Paul that they are beſide themſelves. But if they come among them, and ſearch more impartially into the reaſons of their courſe, and ſpecially if they joyn with them in the inwards and vital actions of religion, they will then be quickly of another mind, and not go back for all the pleaſures or profits of the world. In the works of Nature, (and ſometimes of Art) the outſide is ſo far from ſhewing you the excellencies, that it is but a comely vaile to hide them. Though you would have a handſome cover for your watch, yet doth it but hide the well ordered frame, and uſeful motions that are within: You muſt open it, and there obſerve the parts and motions, if you would paſs a right judgement of the work. You would have a comely cover for your Books: but it is but to hide the well compoſed letters from your ſight, in which the ſenſe and uſe and excellency doth confiſt. You muſt open it, if you will read it and know the worth of it. A common ſpectator when he ſeeth a Roſe or other flower or fruit-tree, thinketh he hath ſeen all, or the chiefeſt part: But it is the ſecret unſearcheable motions and operations of the vegetative life and juice within, by which the beauteous flowers and ſweet fruits are produced, and wonderfully differenced from each other that are the excellent part, and myſteries in theſe natural works of God. Could you but ſee theſe ſecret inward cauſes and operations, it would incomparably more content you. He that paſſeth by and looketh on a Bee-hive, and ſeeth but the Cover, and the laborious creatures going in and out, doth ſee nothing of the admirable operations within, which God hath taught them: Did you there ſee how they make their wax and honey, and compoſe their combs, and by what laws, and in what order their Commonwealth is governed, and their work carryed on, you would know more then the out ſide of the …ive can ſhew you. So it is about the life of Godlineſs: If you ſaw the inward motions of the quickening ſpirit upon the ſoul, and the order and exerciſe of every grace, and by what laws the thoughts and affections are governed, and to whom they tend, you would then ſee more of the beauty of Religion, then you can ſee by the outward behaviour of our aſſemblies. The ſhell is not ſweet; but ſerves to hide the ſweeter part, from thoſe that will not ſtorm thoſe walls, that they may poſſeſs it as their prize. The kernel of Religion is covered with a ſhell ſo hard that fleſh and blood cannot break it; Hard ſayings, and hard providences to the Church, and to particular believers, are ſuch as many cannot break through, and therefore never taſte the ſweetneſs. The moſt admired feature and beauty of any of your bodies, (which fools think to be the moſt excellent part of the body) is indeed but the handſome well-adorned caſe, that God by nature doth cover his more excellent inward works with. Were you but able to ſee within that skin, and … once to obſerve the wonderful motions of Heart and Braine, and the courſe of the blood in the veins and arteries, and the ſeveral fermentations, and the cauſes and nature of chylifications, and ſanguifications, and the ſpirits and ſenſes and all their works: and if you ſaw the reaſon of every part and veſſel in this wonderous frame; and the cauſes and nature of every diſeaſe; much more if you ſaw the excellent nature and operations of that rational ſoul, that is the glory of all; you would then ſay that you had ſeen a more excellent ſight, then the ſmooth and beauteous skin that covers it: The inviſible ſoul is of greater excellencie then all the viſible beauties in the world. So alſo if you would know the excellencies of Religion, you muſt not ſtand without the doors, or judge of it by the skin and ſhell, but you muſt come neer, and look into the inward Reaſons of it, and think of the difference between the high imployments of a Saint, and the poor and for did drungery of the ungodly; between walking with God, in deſire, and love, and in the ſpiritual uſe of his Ordinances and creatures, and converſing only with ſinful men, and tranſitory vanities: between the life of faith and hope, which is daily maintained by the foreſight of Everlaſting Glory, and a life of meer nature and worldlineſs and ſenſuality, and idle complement and pompe, which are but the progenitors of ſorrow, and end in endleſs deſperation. Come neer, and try the power of Gods Laws, and of the workings of his ſpirit; and think in good ſadneſs of the place where you muſt live forever, and the glory you ſhall ſee; and the ſweet enjoyment and employment you ſhall have in the preſence of the eternal Majeſty, and think well of all the ſweet contrivances and diſcoveries of his love in Chriſt; and how freely all theſe are offered to you; and how certainly they may be your own; peruſe the promiſes and ſweet expreſſions of Love and Grace; and exerciſe your ſouls in ſerious meditation, prayer, thankſgiving, and praiſe; and withall remember, that none but theſe will be durable delights; and then tell me, whether a life of ſport and pride, and worldlineſs, and fleſh-pleaſing, or a life of faith and Holineſs, be the better, the ſweeter, and more pleaſant life.
Direct. 3. If you would taſte the Pleaſures of a Holy life, you muſt apply your ſelf to Chriſt in the uſe of his appointed means, for the renewing of your natures: that his Spirit may give you a new underſtanding and a new heart, to diſcern and relliſh spiritual things: For your old corrupted minds and hearts will never do it. They are unſuitable to the things of God, and therefore cannot Receive them, nor ſavour them, nor be ſubject to the holy laws, 1 Cor. 2. 14, 15. Rom. 8. 5, 6, 7, 8. The appetite and relliſh of every living creature is agreeable to its nature. A fiſh hath ſmall pleaſure in the dry land; nor a bird in the deeps of water; graſs and water is ſweeter to an Ox then our moſt delicate meats and drinks▪ Corruption and Cuſtom have made you ſo vitious, that your natures are not ſuch as God made them at the firſt, when he himſelf was mans deſire and delight: but they are now inclined to ſenſual things, being captivated by the fleſhly part, and have contracted a ſtrangeneſs and enmity to God. And therefore thoſe Hearts will never relliſh the ſweetneſſes of a life of Faith, and Holineſs, till Faith and Holineſs be planted in them, and they be born again by regenerating grace: For that which is born of the fleſh is fleſh, (and but fleſh; and therefore doth reach no higher then a fleſhly inclination can move it); and that which is born of the ſpirit is ſpirit; and therefore will relliſh and love things Spiritual.
Direct. 4. Laſtly, if you would taſte the pleaſures of a Holy life, you muſt forbear thoſe ſinful fleſhly pleaſures, which now you are ſo taken up with. For theſe are they that infatuate your underſtandings, and corrupt your appetites, and make the ſweeteſt things ſeem loathſom to you. As the uſing of vain ſports, and filthy luſt, abroad, doth make ſuch perſons a weary of their own relations, and families, and buſineſs at home; ſo alſo the glutting of the mind with vanity, and uſing your ſelves to ſinful pleaſures, is it that turns your hearts from God, and maketh his Word and Wayes unſavoury to you. You muſt firſt with the Prodigal, Luke 15. be brought into a famine of your former pleaſures, and be denyed the very husk, and then you will remember that the meaneſt ſervant in your Fathers houſe is in a far better caſe then you, having bread enough, while you periſh through hunger. And hence it is that God doth ſo often promote the work of Converſion by Affliction; and by the ſame means carryeth on the work of Grace in moſt that he will ſave. Cannot you tell how to leave your ſenſual pleaſures? What will you do when ſickneſs makes you weary of them? Weary of your meat, and drink, and bed; weary to hear talk of that which now doth ſeem ſo ſweet? and to ſay, I have no pleaſure in them? Cannot you ſpare your friends, your ſports, your bravery, your wealth and other carnal accommodations? What will you ſay of them, when pain diſgraceth them, and convinceth you of their inſufficiency to ſtand you in any ſtead? Theſe things that you are now ſo loth to leave, may ſhortly become ſuch a load to your ſouls, as undigeſted meat to the ſtomack that is ſick, that you can have no eaſe till you have caſt them off.
Away therefore with theſe luſcious Vanities betime, which vitiate your appetites, and put them out of relliſh with the things that are truly pleaſant. O what a ſhame it is to hear a man ſay [I ſhall never endure ſo godly, and ſpiritual, and ſtrict a life;] when he can endure and take pleaſure in a life of ſin! You may wiſelyer lie down in the dunghill or the ditch and ſay, [I ſhall never endure a cleaner place;] or feed on carrion, and ſay, [I ſhall never endure a cleaner dyet;] or accompany only with enemies and wild beaſts, and ſay [I ſhall never endure the company of my friends.] What! is God worſe then the creature, and Heaven then earth? and ſo much worſe, as not to be endured in your thoughts and affections in compariſon of them? You will never know your friends till you forſake theſe deceivers! Nor ever know the Pleaſures of a Holy life, till you will let go the poyſonous pleaſures of ſin: And then you may find that Sanctification deſtroyeth not, but changeth and recovereth your Delights: and giveth you ſafety for the greateſt peril, health for ſickneſs, friends for enemies, gold for droſs, life for death, and the fore-taſts of Reſt for tiring vexation.