Inquiry for a Suitable Return for Continued Life In and After Time of Plague, Part 2 · Section 17
SECT. XVII.
I Know the wicked World thinks that profeſſing people are too exact already, and that they make more adoe than is needfull: But their Charge is,
1. Falſe; for there is no man is ſo exact in his life as he ought.
2. Blaſphemous; for what do ſuch but blame God himſelf in giving ſuch ſtrict rules unto his people.
3. Malicious; Cain envyed Abel becauſe his works were evil, and his brothers good.
4. Diabolical; what could a Devil ſay more, or what is this but to play the Devils part, in diſcouraging, diſcountenancing, ſpeaking againſt the preſſing after the higheſt degrees of goodneſſe.
But let it be your great care whom God hath ſpared from the grave in this time of Plague, that are ſuch as truely fear God, and are truely good: On take heed, that after ſuch a preſervation none of you might be found worſe than you were; for though thoſe that once were truely good, ſhall never ſo decline as to be [abſolutely] bad, yet they may ſo farre fail, that they may [comparatively] be ſayd to be worſe. Here conſider,
Ten Aggravations of Gods Peoples ſin, if they be worſe.1. To loſe any degrees of Goodneſs and Grace, is a grievous and a ſinfull loſs: If you had loſt your life in this Plague, it might not have been your ſin, but you cannot be in the leaſt degree worſe than you were (after ſuch a providence) but it is a great ſin: Becauſe it is our duty to love God as much as we can, therefore to loſe any degrees of our love to God, is to come ſhort of our Duty, and therefore a ſin.
2. To be worſe in your ſpiritual condition, will be great unthankefulneſſe to God for his watchfull Providence over you. If a man do a kindneſs for you, will you be worſe towards him than you were before? And will you deal worſe with God than with a fellow Creature?
3. To be worſe in your ſpiritual condition after ſuch preſervation and deliverance, will be diſpleaſi…g unto God, and a grief unto him If God ſee his Children love him leſs, and fear him leſs, and delight in him leſs, will it not grieve him, and diſpleaſe him? And had it not been better you had dyed, than to live to be a grief to God? Had not you rather follow your Children to their graves, than to ſee them live to be worſe, and diſhonour God? and will you yet do ſo your ſelves? Is it not a grief to you, the more kindneſs you ſhew unto your Children, to ſee them the more undutiful to you? and will it not be ſo in you to God?
4. If you be worſe than you were in your ſpiritual condition, you ſhall have leſs communion with God than you had before: and had not you better dye than loſe your communion with God? for what is your life without fellowſhip with God?
5. If you be worſe, you will have leſs Comfort from God than you had before. If you deny Duty to him, which you performed to him before, he will deny that comfort to you, which he gave you before, and what will your life be, without the comforts of God let down into your ſoul? is not his loving kindneſs better than life? Pſal. 63.3. and what is life if you have no comfort in it? and where wi…l you have ſolid, laſting, ſuitable, ſatisfying comfort, if not from God?
6. If you are worſe in your ſpiritual condition than you were before, and love God leſs, and deſire after him leſs, and delight in him leſs, you will have leſs Evidences for Heaven than you had before, you will not ſo clearly ſee your Intereſt in Chriſt, your title to his Kingdom, as you did before; and do you live to blot your Evidences? Oh what an aggravation will it be to you, to ſay, before the Plague I knew that God did love me, but now I doubt of it. Before I knew, if I had dyed I ſhould have been ſaved, but now if I ſhould dye, I cannot tell.
7. If you are worſe than you were, you will have leſs experience of the workings of God upon your heart, than you had before. You will not have ſuch experience of his quickning preſence, nor of the powerful Operations of the Spirit upon your heart; and what is it, if you feel the motions and acting of life, if you do not feel the motions of the Spirit ſo much upon your heart?
8. If you are worſe, you will diſhonour God more than you did before, and that you need not do, you did that too much before: And hath God ſpared you to live to his diſhonour? I tell you, you had better dyed with others in the Plague, than live after it to diſhonour God.
9. If you have leſs of goodneſs than you had before, you will have more of ſin than you had before. If you love God leſs than you did, you will love ſomething elſe more than you did; if you have leſs faith, you will have more unbelief; if you be leſs heavenly, you will be more worldly; if you be leſs ſpiritual, you will be more carnal: And hath God been uſing phyſick to purge out your ſin, and ſhall it be found more in you than it was before? Hath God put you in the Furnace, and doth your droſs continue, and increaſe? It is the nature of contraries, the leſs there is of the one, the more there is of the other. If the Sun be ſetting, darkneſs is approaching; if heat be expelled out of the water, more cold is introduced; and ſo it is with your heart in reſpect of ſin and grace.
10. If you be worſe, it will coſt you much pains, and prayers, and tears, before you will recover to be as good as you were before. You may loſe that with a little neglect, which you will not re-gain without great diligence. Thus I have laid before you theſe Conſiderations, to prevent your being worſe: But that will not be a ſufficient Improvement of this Providence, that you be not worſe in your ſpiritual condition, but you muſt be better: Not enough, that you do not decline, but you muſt increaſe and thrive in grace and goodneſs. And before I come to preſs you to be better, let me lay down theſe following Poſitions; and the laſt ſhall bring me to my intended Work.