hearts and wayes and presently to apply the balme of comfort the promise of pardon take the present when we have searched the wound to get pardon and forgivenesse daily as we sin daily Christ bids us ask it daily This will make us fit for comfort by discerning the estate of our souls and the remainders of corruption That which sharpens appetite and makes the balme of God to be sweet indeed is the sence of and the keeping open of our wound a daily search into our wants and weaknesses a daily fresh sight of the body of sin in us and experience how it is fruitful in ill thoughts and desires and actions this will drive us to a necessity of daily comfort And certainly a fresh sight of our corruptions it is never without some fresh comfort We see St. Paul Rom. 7. he sets himself to this work to complain of his indisposition by reason of sin in him and how doth he end that sight and search into his own estate he ends in a triumphing manner Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus After he had complained Oh miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this bodie of death There can be no danger in a deep search into our waies and hearts if this be laid as a ground before that there is more supplie and heavenly comfort in God and the promises of God then there can be ill in our souls then the more ill we find in our selves the more we are disposed to fetch grounds of comfort from God And together with this searching of our souls and asking daily pardon let us for the time to come renew our covenant with God that we may have the comfort of a good conscience to get pardon for our sins past and renew our resolutions for the time to come And withall that we may use an orderly course of comfort let us every day feed on Christ the food of life let us every day feed upon something in Christ consider the death of Christ the satisfaction he hath made by his death his intercession in Heaven his blood runs afresh that we may every day feed on it We may run every day into new offences against the law to new neglect of duty into new crosses let us feed upon Christ he came into the World to save sinners to make us happie with peace of conscience here and with Glorie afterward Let us feed on Christ daily as the bodie is fed with cordialls so this feeds and comforts and strengthens the soul. This is to live by faith to lead our lives by faith to feed on Christ every day And likewise if we will keep our souls in a perpetual temper of comfort let us every day meditate of some prerogatives of Christians that may raise our souls Let us single out some or other As for example that excellent prerogative to be the Sons of God What love saith the Apostle that we of Rebels and Traitors in Christ should be made the sons of God That of slaves we should be made Servants of servants sons of sons heires and of heires fellow-heires with Christ what prerogative is this that God should give his Son to mak us that were Rebels sons heires and fellow heires with Christ And to consider what follows upon this liberty that we have from the curse of the Law to goe to God boldly to go to the throne of Grace through Christ our elder brother by prayer to think of eternall life as our inheritance to think of God above as our Father Let us think of our prerogatives of Religion adoption and justification c. Upon necessity we are driven to it if we consider the grievances of this world together with our corruptions our corruptions and afflictions and temptations and desertions one thing or other will drive us to go out of our selves for comfort to feed on the benefits by Christ. And consider what he hath done it is for us the execution of his office and all for us what he is what he did what he suffered what procured all is for us The soul delighting it self in these prerogatives it will keep the soul in a perpetuall estate of comfort Therefore the Scripture sets forth Christ by all terms that may be comfortable he is the door to let us in He is the way the truth and the life the water and the bread c. In sinne he is our righteousness in death he is our life in our ignorance he is our way in spirituall hunger and thirst he is the bread and water of life he is all in all And if we cannot think of some prerogative of Christianity then think of some promise as I said before think of the Covenant of Grace there is a spring of comfort in that that God in Christ is our God to death and for ever and that promise I speak of that All things shall work for the best Let us every day think of these things and suggest them to our owne souls that our souls may be affected with them and digest them that our souls and they may be one as it were And every day stirre up our hearts to be thankfull a thankfull heart can never want comfort for it cannot be done without some comfort and chearefulness and when God receives any praise and glory he answers it with comfort a thankfull heart is alway comfortable And let us stirre up our hearts to be fruitfull in the holy actions the reward of a fruitfull life is a comfortable life besides Heaven God alway in this life gives a present reward to any good action it is rewarded with peace of conscience Besides it is a good foundation against the evil day every good action as the Apostle sayth to Timothie it layes up a good foundation The more good we do the more we are assured that our faith is not hypocritical but sound and good and will hold out in the time of tryall It will be a good foundation that we have had evidence before that we have a sound and fruitful faith What do wicked men carelesse sinful creatures that go on in a course of prophanenesse and blasphemie c they lay a ground of despaire a ground of discomfort to be swallowed up in the evil day then conscience will be awaked at the last and Satan will be ready to joyn with conscience and conscience will seal all the accusations that Satan layes against them and where is the poor soul then As it is with them so on the contrary the Christian soul that doth good besides the present comfort of a good conscience it layes a good foundation against the time to come for in the worst times it can reason with it self my faith is not fruitlesse I am not an hypocrite though the fruits of it be weak and mixed with corruptions yet there is truth in them this will comfort us when nothing
be at the cost with us to exercise us It is a ground not onely of patience but of thankfulnesse when God humbles us be not discontent man grudge not murmur not God doth a work that seems strange to thee and which is not his own proper work that he may do his own work that he may bring thee nearer to himself why dost thou murmur at thy own good The Patient cries out of the Physitian that he torments him he hears him well enough but he will not be advised by his patient he means to advise him and to rule him he would faine have comfort he is in pain and cries for ease but his time is not yet come So let us wait and not murmur under crosses God is doing one work to bring to passe another he brings us out of our selves that he may bring us nearer to himself And another Use that we may make of it let us examine our selves whether our afflictions and crosses have had this effect in us to bring us to trust in him more if they have all is well but if they make us worse that we fret and murmur and feel no good by them it is an ill sign for God doth bring us low that we may not trust in our selves but in him Quem praesentia mala non corrigunt c. Whom the presence of ill and grievance amends not they bring to eternal grievance This is Ahaz saith the Scripture a strange man a wicked King that notwithstanding God followed him with judgements yet he grew worse and worse This is Ahaz he might well be branded When a man belongs to God every thing brings him nearer to God when a man is brought to be more humble and more careful and more watchful every way to be more zealous more heavenly minded it is a blessed sign that God then is working a blessed work to force him out of himself and to bring him nearer himself to trust in him This we cannot too much consider of It should teach us likewise this that we judge not amisse of the generation of the righteous when we see God much humbling them when we see him follow them with sicknesse with troubles and disgraces in the world perhaps with terrour of consience with descertions be not discouraged if he be thy friend censure him not add not affliction to his affliction is not his affliction enough thou needest not to add thy unjust censure as Job said to his friends The more we are afflicted of God the more good he intends to work to us the end is to bring us from our selves to trust in him It is a wicked disposition in men that know not the wayes of God they are ignorant of the wayes that he takes with his children when they see men that are Christians that they are humbled and cast down and troubled they think they are men forsaken of God c. alas they do not know Gods manner of dealing he casts them down that he may raise them up they receive the sentence of death against themselves that he may comfort them after that he may do them good in their latter end Let this therefore keep us from censuring of other men in our thoughts for this hard course which God seems to take with them And let us make this Use of it when we are in any grievance and God followes us still let us mourn and lament the stubbornsse of our hearts that will not yeeld God intends to draw us near to him to trust in him if we would do this the affliction would cease except it be for tryall and for the exercise of Grace and for witnesse to the truth When God afflicts sometime for tryall and for witnesse there is a spirit of Glory in such a case that a man is never afflicted in mind but I say when God followes us with sicknesse with crosses with loss of friends and we are not wrought upon let us censure our hard hearts that force God to take this course And justice God in all this Lord thou knowest I could not be good without this thou knowest I would not be drawn without this bring me near to thy self that thou mayest take away this heavy hand from me The intemperate man that is sick makes the Physitian seeme cruel It is because I set my affections too much on earthly things that thou followest me with these troubles we force God to do this A Physitian is forced to bring his Patient even to skin and bone an intemperate Patienr sometimes that hath surfetted upon a long distemper he must bring him to Deaths doore even almost to death because his distemper is so setled upon him that he cannot otherwise cure him So it is with God the Physitian of our souls he must bring us wondrous low we are so prone so desperately addicted to present things to trust to them and to be proud of them and confident in them that God must deal as a sharp Physitian he must bring us so low or else we should never be recovered of our perfect health again and all is that we might trust in God Observe we from hence another point that God in all outward things that are ill intends the good of the soul. He takes liberty to take away health and liberty and friends to take away comforts but whatsoever he takes away he intends the good of the soul in the first place And all the ills that he inflicts upon us they are to cure a worse ill the ill of the soul to cure an unbelieving heart a worldly proud carnal heart which is too much addicted to earthly things We see here how God dealt with St Paul all was to build up his soul in trust and confidence in God all was for the soul. The reason is other things are vanishing the soul is the better part the eternal part if all be well with the soul all shall be well otherwise at last If it be well with the soul the body shall do well though God take liberty to humble us with sicknesse and with death it self yet God will riase the body and make it glorious a good soul will draw it after it at last and move God to make the body glorious But if the soul be naught let us cherish and do what we will with the body both will be naught at last This life is not a life to regard the body we are dead in that while we live the sentence of death is passed we must die we are dying every day The body is dead because of sin we are going to our grave every day takes away a part of our life This is not a life for this body of ours it is a respite to get assurance of an eternal estate in heaven God takes our wealth and liberty and strength c. That he may help our souls that he may work his own blessed work in our souls that he may lay a foundation of
their worst if you will needs fear I will tell you whom you shall fâ—…ar Fear him that can cast both body and soul into hell So if we be forced to suffer the losse of any thing that is good in the world or be cast into any ill condition what saith S. Paul The troubles and afflictions of the world are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed Let us set that glory before us and that will prevail against that all the world can threaten or take from us what is all to it nothing Therefore by faith we stand we keep our own standing and withstand all oppositions whatsoever Oh but what if there come more subtile temptations end the Lord himself seemes to be our enemy that we have sinne and God is angry and we see he followes us with afflictions that are evidences of his anger how shall we stand now and keep our selves from despair This is a fiery dart of Satan when a man hath sinned and conscience is awakened to make him sink in despair O but faith will make the soul to stand in these great temptations against those fiery darts faith puts a shield into the hand of the soul to beat back all those fiery darts For faith will present Christ to God Indeed I have been a sinner but thou hast ordained a Saviour and he is of thine own appointing of thine own aâ—…ting a Saviour of thine own giving and thou hast made a promise that Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life I cast my self upon thy mercy in him hereupon faith comes to withstand all such fiery temptations whatsoever nay against God himself Lord thou canst not deny thine own Saviour thou â—…mest to be an enemy and though I be a sinner and have deserved to be cast into hell yet I come to thee in the Name of thy Son that is at thy right hand and pleads for me by vertue of his blood shed for me I came in his Name thou canst not refuse thy owne Son For all temptations when a man hath faith in him it will send Satan to Christ to answer for him Go to Christ he is my husband he hath paid my debts he hath satisfied for my sins So that whatsoever the temptation be make it as subtle as you will there is a skill in faith to stand against it and to beat back all the fiery darts of Satan Therefore to end all we see here what an excellent estate a Christian is in above all others that he hath a better standing then others have not onely a better standing in Religion then the Papists have but in the profession of Religion he hath a better standing then common professors why he stands by faith by sound faith He stands not upon opinion or because he hath been bred so he stands not upon his wit because he sees reason for it he stands upon faith and faith stands upon divine authority he stands partly upon his own experience that seconds faith Those then that care not for Religion what standing have they those that stand only in pleasures and profits and in the favour of great men what standing have they They stand as the Psalmist saith in slippery places There is no man but if he nave not faith he stands slippery though he be never so great if he be a Monarch alas what is it to stand a while all these things are but uncertain though they yield present content they are but uncertain contentments the Wise-man saith they are but vanity they are like the reed of Egypt that will not uphold they will not sustein the soul in the time of trouble there is nothing that a man can stand upon and fasten his soul upon if he be not Religious that will hold scarce the fit of an ague that will hold in the pangs of death even in the entrance of it that will hold in terrours of conscience How little a trouble will blow away all those that stand on so weak a foundation as an earthly thing is For they have but an Imaginary good to speak of and that Imagination is driven out by the sense of the contrary Let contrary troubles come and all their fooles Paradise and their happinesse they had before is at an end it goes no deeper then Imagination All the things in this world stablish not the heart Those that do not stand by faith in the favour of God in Christ let their standing be what it will it will soon be over turned by any temptation they can stand out against nothing Therefore let us labour above all things in the world to have that faith strengthened by which we stand and let us often be encouraged to strengthen our faith by all means that we may stand the better upon it and try our faith before we trust it it is that that we must trust to and stand to in life and death Therefore let us often think Is my faith good is it well built Let us oft put this query to our soules I believe the Religion I professe but upon what grounds I believe the truths in the Word of God but upon what grounds have I a clear understanding of them because they are divine doth the Spirit of God open them and shew a light in the Scripture that is divine doth the Spirit of God give me a relish of the Scriptures above all the pleasures in the world Do I find God speaking to my heart in the Word do I find the Spirit of God with his Ordinance then my knowledge and my faith will hold out I can stand by that faith in the Word that is wrought by the Spirit and fastened upon the Word with the Spirit But if I believe the Religion I professe only because the State doth so and if the King and State should do otherwise I would change my Religion or if it be because my parents were so or my friends and Patron is of that religion whom I depend upon or because I see greater seeming reason for this then for the other I can hold argument for this and not for the other Alas this will not hold But labour to know the truth of the Word of God by experience as much as we can and by the Spirit of God giving evidence to our soules from the inward grounds of Scripture that it is the Word I know whom I have trusted I know the promises are good I have felt them in my soul the Spirit hath reported them to my soul they are sweeter then all the things in the world It is a sure Word I bottome upon it I have found the comfort of it before therefore I will build upon it We can never stand unlesse we can make our knowledge spiritnal it is but acquisite knowledge else We fall in three things vilely we labour that our knowledge of Religion be spiritual and fetched divinely out of the Word of God together with the Spirit We
it breeds discomfort and is terrible that way Again in death we leave those that cast their care upon us we leave oft times Wives and Children without Husband or Father those that had dependance upon us and this must needs work upon nature upon a right principle of nature indeed the excesse of it is with corruption alway Again in death there is great pain They say Births are with great pangs and so they are Now death is a birth the birth of immortality no wonder then if it have great pangs therefore nature fears it even for the pangs the concomitants that are joyned with it And then in death nature considers the state of the body presently after death that that goodly body that strength and vigour I enjoyed before must now be wormes-meat I must say to the worm Thou art my brother and to corruption Thou art my mother and the like as it is in Job That head that perhaps hath ruled the Common-wealth the place where I lived it must lie level with others and that body that others were inamoured with it must now be so forlorn that the sight of it will not be indured of our best friends Nature considers what the estate will be there that it shall turn to rottenesse ere long that the goodliest persons shall be turned to dust and lie rotting there till the day of the Resurrection Faith and Grace looks higher but because we have nature as long as we are men these and such like respects work upon nature and make death grievous But besides the glasse of nature and these things here in the World look upon it in the Law of God in that glasse and so nature trembles and quarrels at death Death what is it It is the wages of sin it is the end of all comfort and nature cannot see any comfort after that it is beyond nature Nature teacheth us not that there will be a Resurrection of the body nature teacheth not that the soul goes to God here must be a great deal of Grace and a great deal of Faith to convince the soul of this nature teacheth it not Now when besides this the Law of God comes and faith Death came in by sin and sin is the sting of death death is armed with sin and sin comes in with the evidences of Gods anger here unlesse there be Faith and Grace a man is either as Nabal a stone and a fot in death or as Judas and Cain swallowed up with despaire It is impossible for a man that is not a true Christian that is not a good man but that either he shouldbe as a stone or desperate in sicknesse and Death without Grace he must be one of them If he be a wise man he cannot but despair in the hour of Death For is it a matter to be dallied with or to be carried bravely out as your Roman spirits and Atheists think they account it a Glory to die bravely in a stout manner Is it the terrible of terribles so to be put off when all the comforts in this world shall end and all imployments cease when there is eternity before a man and after death hell and eternall damnation of body and soul Are these matters to be slighted it would make a man look about him if a man have not faith and Grace he must eitherr despaire or die like a stone none but a good Christian can carrie himself well in the hour of death nay a good Christian is sensible of death and till he see Gods time is come he labours to avoid it by all meanes as St. Paul doth here But St. Paul had another ground beyond nature to avoid Death He knew himself ordained for the service of the Church therefore he desired to escape that he might serve God a longer time for the good of his Church Are Gods Children sensible of Death and the danger of it and out of a principle of nature and Grace too How then should carnall wretched men look about them that have not made their accounts even with God the report of Death to them should be like the hand-writing upon the wall to Belteshazer it should make their knees beat together and make their countenance pale it should strike them with terrour and like Nabal make their hearts to die as a stone within them But it is a Use of comfort to poore deluded Christians they think alas can my estate be good I am afraid of Death I tremble and quake at the name of Death I cannot endure to hear of it but it most of all affects me to see it therefore I fear I have no Grace in me I fear I have no faith in me Be not discomforted whosoever thou art that sayest so if thou labour to strengthen thy faith and to keep a good conscience for thou mayest do thus out of a principle of nature nature trembles at Death A man may do two things from diverse principles from diverse respects both without sin For example in fasting nature without sin desireth meat or else fasting were not an afflicting of a mans body but Grace that hath another principle and that desires to hold out without sustenance to be afflicted so here is both a desire and not a desire and both good in their kind So a man in the time of sicknesse and death he may by all meanes desire to escape it and tremble at it out of a principle of nature but out of a higher principle he may triumph O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory and they that believe in Christ shall never die We are in heavenly places together with Christ we are as sure of heaven as if we were there So out of such kind of principles we may triumph over Death by Faith and Grace So let none be discouraged nature goes one way and faith and grace another a man may know when it is nature and when it is grace when grace subdues nature and subordinates it to a higher principle a man need not be much troubled Christ himself our head he was afraid of death when he looked on death as death but when he looked upon death as a service as a redemption as a sweet sacrifice to God so with a thirsting I have thirsted saith he he thirsted after death in that respect looking to his humane nature to the truth of his manhood then saith he Oh that this cup might passe from me but in another consideration he willingly gave his soul a sacrifice for sin to God The desire is as the objects are presented let heaven and happinesse be presented so death is a passage to it so death is the end of misery and the beginning of happinesse so Gods Children desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ as St. Paul did But look upon death otherwise as it is an enemy to nature as it is a stop of all imployment in this world and of all service
to the Church that we can do God no longer service and so a man may desire to live still and be afraid of death if he look upon death in the glasse of nature and in the glasse of the Law likewise that it comes in as a punishment of sin so indeed it is terrible it is the King of fears But look upon it in another glass in the glass of the Gospel as it is sweetned and as it is disarmed by Christ and so it is comfortable Better is the day of death then the day of birth for in our birth we come into miserie in death we go from it So upon diverse considerations we may be diversly affected and have diverse rspects to things for the soul of man is framed so to be carried to the present object and therefore to a good man in some respects at sometime death is terrible he trembles at it which upon higher considerations and respects he imbraceth willingly Indeed it is a signe of a wise man to value life it is the opportunitie and advantage to honour God After death we are receivers and not doers then we receive our wages but while we are here we should desire even for the glory that is reserved for us to do all the good we can because the time of life is that blessed advantage of doing good and of taking good It is to be in heaven before our time to do others good and to get evidence of heaven for our selves This is the second thing that as Gods children are suffered to fall into extream dangers so they are very sensible of them especially in matter of death which is the last enemie there the Devil sets upon them indeed he knows that that is the last enemy and that there he must get all or lose all and he labours to make death more terrible then it is or should be The way not to fear death and not to let nature have over-much scope is to disarm death before hand to pluck out the sting of it by repentance weaken it before hand that it may not get the better Even as we doe with our enemies the way to overcome them is to weaken them to weaken their Forces to starve them if we can to intercept all their provision What makes death terrible and strong we put stings into it our sins our sins against conscience the time will come when conscience will awaken and it will be then if ever to our comfort and then our former sins will stare in our faces the sins of our youth the sins that we have before neglected soundly to repent for therefore let us labour this way to make death less terrible Again That we may not fear it over-much let us look upon it in the glasse of the Gospel as it is now in Christ as it is turned cleane another way Now it hath sweet names it is called a dissolution a departure a sleeping a going to our Fathers and such like God doth sweeten a bitter thing that it may enter into us with lesse terrour so it must be our wisdom to sweeten the meditation of it by Evangelicall considerations what it is now by Christ. And withall to meditate the two termes from whence and whither what a blessed change it is if we be in Christ it is a change for the better better company better imployment a better place all better Who would be grieved at and afraid of death Let us recal the promise of the presence of God he wil be with us to death and in death Blessed are those that die in the Lord. And especially faith in Christ wil make us that we shal not fear death when we shall see him our head in heaven before us ready to receive us when we come there and to see our selves in heaven already in him as verily in faith and in the promise as if we were there We are set in heavenly places with Christ already Let us have these and such like considerations to sweeten the thought of death But to touch this which is an Appendix to that formerly mentioned that Gods children are deceived concerning their death oft-times The time of death is uncertain St. Paul thought he should have dyed when he did not he was deceived There is a double errour about death sometimes we think we shall not dye when indeed we are dead men sometimes we receive the sentence of death we passe a censure upon our selves that we cannot live when God intends our escape so it is uncertain to us the houre of death sometime we are uncertain when it is certain sometime we think it certain when it falls not out so both wayes we are deceived Because God will have us while we live here to be at an uncertaintie for the very moment of death Our times are in his hand Our time of life is in his hand we came into the world when he thought good our time of living here is in his hands we live just as long as he will have us our time of death is in his hand The Prophet saith not only my time is in thy hands but my times my time of comming into the world my time of living in the world and my time of going out of the world shall be when thou shalt appoint me therefore he will have us uncertain of it our selves till the moment of death come St. Paul was deceived He received the sentence of death in himself but he dyed not at that time So that the manner and circumstances of death are uncertain whether it shall be violent or faire death it shall beby diseases or by casualties whether at home or abroad all the circumstances of death are hidden from us as well as death it selfe and the time of it And this is out of heavenly wisdome and love of God to us that we should at all times be provided and prepared for our dissolution change It is left at this uncertainty that we might make our estate certaine to be fitted to die at all times Let us make that use of it to provide every day oh it were a happy thing if we could make every day as it were another life a severall life and passe sentence upon our selves a possible and probable sentence it may be this day may be the last day And let us end every day as we would end our lives how would we end our lives we would end them with repentance for our sins past with commending our souls into the hands of God with resolution purpose to please God in all things with disposing all things wisely in this world Let us end our daies every day so as much as possible may be let us set every thing right let us set the state of our souls in order set all in order as much as may be every day it were a blessed course if we could do so And this is one part one main branch of our corruption wherein it shews it self
strongly that we live in an estate that we are ashamed to die in Come to some men and aske them how it is with you have you repented of your sins past have you renewed your purposes for the time to come Yes we doe it solemnly at the Communion but we should renew our repentance and renew our Covenants every day to please God that day Do you do so now If God should seize upon you now are you in the exercise of faith in the exercise of repentance in the exercise of holy purposes to please God are you in Gods wayes do you live as you would be content to dye But Satan and our own corruption bewitcheth us with a vaine hope of long life we promise our selves that that God doth not promise us we make that certain that God doth not make certain indeed we are certain of death but for the time and manner and circumstances we know them not sometimes we think we shall dye when we doe not and sometimes we dye when we think we shall not Oh will some say If I knew when I should dye I would be a prepared man I would be exact in my preparation Wouldest thou so thou art deceived Saul knew exactly he should die he took it for exact when the Witch in the shape of Samuel told him that he should dye by to morrow this time and yet he dyed desperately upon the swords point for all that he did not prepare himself It must be the Spirit of God that must prepare us for this if we knew never so much that we should die never so soon we cannot prepare our selves our preparation must be by the Spirit of God let us labour continually to be prepared for it And let no man resolve to take liberty a moment a minute of an houre to sinne God hath left it uncertain the day of death what if that moment and minute wherein thou resolvest to sin should be the moment of thy death and departure hence for it is but a minutes work to end thy dayes what if God should end thy dayes in that minute Let no man take liberty and time to sin when God gives him no liberty in sin If God should strike thee thou goest to Hell quick thou must sink from sin to Hell It is a pittifull case when as eternity depends upon our watchfulness in this world But to come to the end and issue why he was thus dealt with by God carrying him through these extremities That we might not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead Here is the end specified that God intended in suffering him to be brought so low even to deaths door that there was but a step between him and death the end is double That we should not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead It is set down negatively and positively First That we should not trust in our selves and then that we should trust in God And the method is excellent for we can never trust in God till we distrust our selves till our hearts be taken off from all confidence in our selves and in the creature and then when our hearts are taken off from false confidence they must have somewhat to relie on and that is God or nothing for else we shall fall into despaire The end of all this was that We might not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead The wisdom of heaven doth nothing without an end proportionable to that heavenly wisdom so all this sore affliction of the blessed Apostle what aimed it at To pull downe and to build up to pull downe selfe-confidence That we might not trust in our selves and to build up confidence and affiance in God but in God that raiseth the dead We being in a contrary state to grace and communion with God this order is necessary that God must use some way that we shall not trust in our selves and then to bring us to trust in him so these two are subordinate ends one to another We received the sentence of death that we might not trust in our selves From the dependance this may be observed that The certain account of death is a meanes to weane us from our selves and to make us trust in God The sentence of death the assured knowledge that we must dye the certain expectation and looking for death is the way to wean us from the world and to fit us for God to prepare us for a better life you see it follows of necessity We received the sentence of death that we should not trust in our selves c. The looking for of death therefore takes away confidence in our selves and the creature Alas in death what can all the creatures help what can friends or physick or money help then honours and pleasures and all leave us then This the rather to note a corrupt Atheisticall course in those that are to deale with sick folk that are extreame sick that conceale their estate from them and feed them with false hopes of long life they deserve ill of persons in extremity to put them in hope of recoverie Physitians that are not Divines in some measure what doe they against their conscience and against their experience and against sense Oh I hope you shall doe well c. Alas what do they they hurt their souls they breed a false confidence it is a dangerous thing to trust upon long life when perhaps they are snatched suddenly away before they have made their accompts even with God before they have set their souls in that state they should doe Therefore the best way is to doe as good Isay did with Hezekiah set thy house in order for thou must dye that is in the disposition of second causes thou shalt have a disease that will bring thee to death and God had said so God had a reservation but it was more then Isay knew at that time Set thy house in order for thou must dye So they should begin with God to tell them as we say the worst first It is a pittifull thing that death should be accounted the worst but so it is by reason of our fearfulness deal plainly with them let them receive the sentence of death that so they may be driven out of themselves and the creature altogether and be driven to trust in God that raiseth the dead Put thy soul in order you are no man of this world lest they betray their souls for a little self-respect perhaps because they would not displease them It may be in some cases discreet to yield to make the means to work the better but where there is nothing but evident signs of death they ought to deale directly with them that they may receive the sentence of death It wrought with St. Paul this good effect I received the sentence of death that we might not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead It is Gods just judgment upon Hypocrites and
Paul was in these two The point is very large and I will take it onely according to the present scope How doth a Christian exercise trust in extremity in extream crosses for then he must go to God he hath none else to go to he is beaten from the creature and as I said before the soul will have somewhat to go to The poor creatures the silly conies they have the rocks to go to as Solomon saith the Soul that hath greater understanding it is necessitated to trust in God in afflictions Then the soul must say to God Lord if thou help not none can as Jehosaphat said in 2. Chron. 20. We know not what to do but our eyes are to thee In great afflictions we exercise trust because we are forced And because then we are put to this we put the promises in suit the promises made to us for extremity In Isay 43. 2. he hath promised to be with us in the fire and in the water There is a promise of Gods presence and the soul improves that Lord thou hast promised to be present in great perills and dangers as there are two of the greatest specified fire and water Thou hast promised thou wilt be present with us in the fire and in the water now Lord make good thy promise be thou present And when God makes good this promise of presence then the Soul triumphs as in Psal. 23. Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I will not fear because thou art with me Lord. So in Psal 27. he begins triumphantly The Lord is my shield whom shall I fear of whom shall I be afraid Let us exercise our trust this way in extremity God is with us and who can be against us saith the Apostle Thus the Christian soul lives by trusting in God in all extremity of crosses whatsoever the soul is forced to God and claimes the promises of presence And not onely the promise of his presence but the promise of support and comfort and of mitigation There is a promise in 1. Cor. 10. 13. God is faithfull and will not suffer us to be tempted above our strength Here faith is exercised Lord I am in a great crosse now I am in afflictions thou hast promised that thou wilt not suffer me to be tempted above that I am able to bear Now make good this promise of thine be present and be present by way of mitigation either pull down the crosse and make it lesse or raise up my strength and make that greater for thou hast promised that thou wilt not suffer us to be tempted above our strength And then the soul lives by faith of the issue in great extremities I am in great extremity but I know all shall end well Thus we trust in God in all extremity of afflictions whatsoever in the houre of Death when we receive the Sentence of Death how do we then exercise trust in God In Psal 16. My flesh shall rest in hope because thou wilt not suffer thy Holy one to see corruption Because God did nor suffer Christ to see corruption who is our head therefore my flesh likewise shall rest in hope when I die Our head triumphed over Death and is in Heaven and I die in Faith I trust in God that raised him from the Dead who was my surety I know my debts are paid my surety is out of prison Christ who took upon him to discharge my debts he is out of the prison of the grave he is in heaven therefore my flesh shall rest in hope If it were not for this that Christ were risen when we have the sentence of Death we over-look the grave we see our selves in Heaven as David saith I should utterly have failed but that I looked to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living Then faith lookes beyond Death and beyond the grave it looks up and with Stephen it sees Christ at the right hand of God we see Christ ready to receive our souls Then we trust in God that raiseth the dead nay we see our selves as it were raised already Thus we see how we should trust in God in great crosses and in the sentence of Death This in a word should be another ground of Patience not only of patience but of contentment in extrream crosses in the hour of Death that all that God doth is for this that we may exercise trust in him And if the Soul clasp to him who is the Fountain of life the chief good it cannot be miserable but this it doth by trust our trust makes us one with him it is that which brings us to God and afflictions and Death it self force us to exercise faith in the promises and drive us to him So God hath overpowered all crosses extream crosses even Death it self that he hath sanctified them to fit us to trust in him and who can be miserable that trusts in God What construction should we make of crosses and afflictions Surely this is to take away false confidence this is to drive me to God shall I be impatient and murmur at that which God hath ordained to bring me nearer to himself to trust in him to take away all false confidence in the creature No this should cut the sinewes of all carnall confidence and make us patient and thankful in all crosses Because God now is seeking our good he is drawing good out of these crosses he labours by this to bring us nearer to himself Blessed is that crosse blessed is that sicknesse or losse of friends whatsoever that brings us nearer to God Why doth God take away our dear friends that we might clinge nearer to him because he will have us to see that he is al-sufficient VVhat doth a man lose when he trusts in God though he lose all the world hath he not him that made the world at the first and can make another if he please If a man lose all and have God as he hath that trusts in him and in his Word for God will not deny his Word and truth he that trusts in God hath him and if he have him what if he be stripped of all he can make another world with a Word of his mouth Other things are but a beame to him what need a man care for a beame that hath the Sunne All the afflictions of this world are to draw or to drive us to God whether we will or no. As the Messengers in the Gospel to force the guests to the banquet with violence so afflictions they are to force us to God this blessed effect they have in all Gods Children But those that do not belong to God what do they in the hour of death and in extremity they are either blocks as Nabal was senslesse creatures or raging as Cain Achitophel and Judas either sots or desperate in extremity Saul in extremity goes to the Witch to ill meanes David in all extremity
will tell them that it is another manner of sin and that it is the fountain of all sin And so for Justification by works conscience it self if there were no Book of God would say it is a false point And then they plead for Ignorance they have blind consciences their Clergy being a subtile generation that have abused the world a long time because they would sit in the conscience where God should sit they sit in the Temple of God and would be respected above that which is due to them they would be accounted as petty gods in the world therefore they keep the people from the knowledge of the true rule and make what they speak equal with Gods word Now if the people did discern this they would not be Papists long for no man would willingly be cozened Let us labour therefore for a true rule And when we have gotten rules apply them for what are rules without application Rules are instrumental things and instruments without use are nothing If a Carpenter have a rule and hang it up by him and work by conceit what is it good for So to get a company of rules by the word of God to refine natural knowledge as much as we can and then to make no use of it in our lives it is to no purpose therefore when we have rules let us apply them In this those that have the true rule and apply it not are better then they that refuse to have the rule because as hath been said an Ignorant man that hath not the rule he cannot be good But a man that hath the rule and yet squares not his life by it yet he can bring the rule to his life there is a near converse between the heart and the brain such a man he hath the rule in his memory he hath it in his understanding and therefore there is a thousand times more hope of him that cares to know that cares to hear the word of God and cares for the meanes then of sottish persons that care not to hear because they would not do that they know and because they would not have their sleepy dull and drowsie conscience awaked there is no hope of such a one It should be our care to have right rules and in the application of them to make much of conscience that it may apply aright in directing and then in comfort If we obey it in directing it will witnesse and excuse and upon witnesse and excuse there will come a sweet Paradise to the soul of joy and peace unspeakable and glorious The last thing I observe from these words is this that The testimonie and witnesse of conscience is a ground of comfort and joy The reason of the joyning these two the witnesse of a good conscience and joy it is that which I said before in the description of conscience for conscience first admonisheth and then witnesseth and then it excuseth or accuseth and then it judgeth and executeth Now the inward execution of conscience is joy if it be good for God hath so planted it in the heart and soul that where conscience doth accuse or excuse there is alway execution there is alway joy or fear the affections of joy or fear alway follow If a mans conscience excuse him that he hath done well then conscience comes to be enlarged to be a Paradise to the soul to be a Jubile a refreshing to speak peace and comfort to a man For rewards are not kept altogether for the life to come hell is begun in an ill conscience and heaven is begun in a good conscience an ill conscience is a hell upon earth a good conscience is a heaven upon earth therefore the testimony of a good conscience breeds glorying and rejoycing Again conscience when it witnesseth it comforts because when it witnesseth it witnesseth with God and where God is there is his Spirit and where the holy Spirit is there is joy for even as heat followes the fire so joy and glorying accompany the Spirit of God The Spirit of glory Now when conscience witnesseth aright it witnesseth with God and God is alway cloathed with joy he brings joy and glory into the heart Conscience witnesseth with God that I am his And it witnesseth with my self that I have led my life thus Our rejoycing is the witnesse of our conscience It is not the witnesse of another mans conscience but my own other men may witnesse and say I am thus and thus but all is to no purpose if my own conscience tell me I am another man then they take me to be But when a man 's own conscience witnesseth for him there followes rejoycing A man cannot rejoyce with the testimony of another mans conscience because another man saith I am a good man c. unlesse there be the testimony of my own conscience Now it is a sweet benefit an excusing conscience when it witnesseth well Let us see it in all the passages of life that a good conscience in excusing breeds glorying and joy It doth breed joy in Life in Death at the day of judgement In life in all the passages of life in all estates both good and ill In good the testimonie of conscience breeds joy for it enjoyes the pleasures of this life and the comforts of it with the favour of God conscience tells the man that he hath gotten the things well that he enjoyes that he hath gotten the place and advancement that he hath well that he enjoyes the comforts of this life with a good conscience and all things are pure to the pure If he have gotten them ill conscience upbraids him alway and therefore he cannot joy in the good estate he hath If a man had all the contentments in the world if he had not the testimonie of a good conscience what were all What contentment had Adam in Paradise after once by sin he had fallen from the peace of conscience none at all A little that the righteous hath is better then great riches of the ungodly because they have not peace of conscience And so for ill estate when conscience witnesseth well it breeds rejoycing In false imputations and slanders and disgraces as here it was insinuated into the Corinthians by false teachers and those that followed them that St. Paul was so and so saith St. Paul You may say what you will of me My rejoycing is this the testimony of my conscience that I am not the man which they make me to be in your hearts by their false reports The witnesse of conscience is a good and sufficient ground of rejoycing in this case Therefore holy men have retired to their conscience in all times as Saint Paul you see doth here So Job his conscience bare him out in all the false imputations of his comfortlesse friends that were miserable comforters they laboured to take away his sincerity from him the chief cause of his joy Yeu shall not
comforted then it is most terrible at the hour of death we should have most comfort if we had any wisdom when earthly comforts shall be taken from us and at the day of judgment then an ill conscience look where it will it hath matter of terrour If it look up there is the Judge armed with vengeance if it look beneath there is hell ready to swallow it if it look on the one side there is the divell accusing and helping conscience if it look round about there is heaven and earth and all on a fire and within there is a hell where shall the sinner and ungodly appear If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the sinner and ungodly appear at that time O let us labour to have a good conscience and to exercise the reflect power of conscience in this world that is let us examine our selves admonish our selves judge our selves condemn our selves do all in our selves Let us keep court at home first let us keep the assizes there and then we shall have comfort at the great assizes Therefore God out of his love hath put conscience into the soule that we might keep a court at home Let conscience therefore do its worst now let it accuse let it judge and when it hath judged let it smite us and do execution upon us that having judged our selves we may not be condemned with the world If we suffer not conscience to have its full work now it will have it one day a sleepy conscience will not alway sleep if we do not suffer conscience to awake here it will awaken in hell where there is no remedy Therefore give conscience leave to speak what it will perhaps it will tell thee a tale in thine ear which thou wouldest be loath to hear it will pursue thee with terrours like a blood-hound and will not suffer thee to rest therefore as a bankrupt thou art loath to look in thy books because there is nothing but matter of terrour This is but a folly for at the last conscience will do its duty it will awaken either here or in hell Therefore we are to hope the best of them that have their consciences opened here there is hope that they will make their peace with God that they will agree with their adversary while they are in the way If thou suffer conscience to be sleepy and drowsie till it be awaked in hell wo unto thee for then thy estate is determined of it will be a barren repentance Now thy repentance may be fruitful it may force theeto make thy peace with God dost thou think it will alway be thus with thee Thou besottest thy conscience with sensualitie and sayest Go thy way and come another time as he said to St. Paul I will tell thee this peace will prove a tempest in the end Conscience of all things in the world deserves the greatest reverence more then any Monarch in the world for it is above all men it is next unto God and yet what do many men regard the honour 〈◊〉 their friends more then conscience that inward friend that shall accompany them to heaven that will go with them to death and to judgement and make them lift up their heads with joy when other friends cannot help them but must needs leave them in death Now for a man to follow the humours of men to follow the multitude and to stain conscience what a foolish wretch is he though such men think themselves never so wise it is the greatest folly in the world to stain conscience to please any man because conscience is above all men Again those that follow their own humours their own dispositions and are carried away with their own lusts it is a folly and madnesse for the time will come that that which their covetous base lust hath carried them to that shall be taken away as honours riches pleasures which is the fuel of that lust which makes them now neglect conscience all shall be taken away in sicknesse or in the time of despair when conscience shall be awaked Now what folly is it to please thy own lust which thou should'st mortifie and subdue and to displease conscience thy best friend and then when thy lust is fully satisfied all that hath been fuel to it that hath fed it shall be taken away at the hour of death or some special judgement and conscience shall be awaked and shall torment thee for giving liberty to thy base lusts and to thy self And those eyes of thy soul that thy offence delighted to shut up there shall some punishment come either in this life or in that to come that shall open those eyes As Adams eyes were opened after his sin why were they not open before he had such a strong desire to the apple he did not regard them but his punishment afterward opened those eyes which his inordinate desire shut So it shall be with every sinner therefore regard no man in the world more then thy conscience Regard nothing no pleasure no profit more then conscience reverence it more then any thing in the world Happie is that man that carries with him a good conscience that can witnesse that he hath said nor done nothing that may vex or grieve conscience if it be otherwise whatsoever a man gains he loseth in conscience and there is no comparison between those two One crack one flaw in conscience will prove more disadvantagious then the rest will be profitable Thou must cast up the rest again they are sweet bits downward but they shall be gravel in the belly We think when we have gained any thing when we have done any thing we shall hear no more of it as David said to Joab when he set him to make away Uriah Let not this trouble thee So let not this ill gain let not this ill speech or this ill carriage trouble thee thou shalt hear no more of this We take order to stop and silence conscience thinking never to hear more of it oh but remember conscience will have its work and the longer we defer the witnesse and work of conscience the more it will terrifie and accuse us afterward Therefore of all men be they never so great they are most miserable that follow their wills and their lusts most that never have any outward check or inward check of conscience but drown it with sensual pleasures As Charles the 9 th who at night when conscience hath the fittest time to work a man being retired then he would have his singing boyes after he had betreyed them in that horrible Massacre after which he never had peace and quiet And as Saul sent for Davids Harpe when the evil spirit was upon him So wicked men they look for forreign helps but it will not be for the greatest men with their forreign helps are most miserable The reason is because the more they sink in rebellion and sin against conscience the more they sink in terrours it shall be the
hidden windings and turnings for plotting makes it more odious of all men doublers are most hateful How shall we come to attain this Grace to converse in the world in simplicity First of all take it for a rule though many think it no great matter to be a dissembler our nature is full of dissimulation since the fall the heart of man is unsearchable there is deep deceit in man Take a Child and see what dissimulation he learns it is one of the first things he learns to dissemble to double to be false We see the weakest creatures what shifts what windings and turnings they have to save themselves It is a vertue to be down-right for therein a man must crosse himself It is no thanks for a man to shuffle and to shift in the world nature teacheth this to dissemble to turn and wind c. A man need not to plough to have weeds the ground it self is a mother to them though it be a stepmother to good seed So we need not teach men to dissemble every man hath it by nature but it must be strength of grace that makes a man down-right Take that for a ground There are a company of sottish men that take it for a great commendation to dissemble and rather then they will be known not to dissemble in businesse they will puzzle clear businesse when a thing is fair and clear they will have projects beyond the Moon and so carry themselves in it as if they desired to be accounted couzeners and dissemblers Alas poor souls nature teacheth men to be naught in this kind well enough Know therefore whosoever thou art that studiest this Art of dissembling and doubling thy own nature is prone enough to this and the divel is apt to lead thee into it This being laid for a ground how may we carry our selves in the world in holy simplicity that may yield comfort to our conciences in life and in death First consider that the time will come that we shall deal with that that will not dissemble with us Let the cunningest dissembler hold out as long as he can he shall meet with sicknesse or with terrour of conscience he shall meet with death it self and with the judgement of God and hell torment although now he carry himself smoothly and dance in a net as we say and double with the world though he make a fair shew yet ere long thou shalt meet with that that will deal simply with thee that will deal plain enough with thee Thou shalt be uncased and laid open to the world ere long let us consider this We see a Snake or Serpent it doubles and winds and turns when it is alive till it be killed and then it is stretched forth at length As one said seeing a Snake dead and stretched out so saith he it behoved you to have lived So the Divel that great Serpent that ancient old Serpent he gets into the Snake into the wilely wit and makes it winde and turn and shift and shuffle in the world but then some great crosse comes or death comes and then a man is stretched out at length to the view of the world and then he confesseth all and perhaps that confession is sincere when it is wrung out by terrour of conscience then he confesseth that he hath deceived the world and deceived himself and laboured to deceive God also If we would have comfort in the hour of death labour we to deal plainly and directly and of all other sins as I said before remember this is that which will lie the heaviest on us as comming nearest the sin against the holy Ghost For what is the sin against the holy Ghost when men rush against their knowledge in malice to the truth known Where there is most knowledge and most will there is the greatest sin Now in lying and dissembling and double-dealing a man comes near to the sin against the holy Ghost for he knows that he doth ill he plots the ill that he knows and when there is plotting there is time to deliberate a man is not carried away by passion Consider the time will come when you will be uncased when you will be laid open and naked and then at that time of all sins this will lie heavy on thee thy dissembling in the world Therefore every one in his calling take heed of the sins of his calling among the rest of this one of double-dealing And therefore that we may avoid it the better labour for faith to live by faith What is the reason that men live by shifts and by doubling in the world They have not faith to depend upon God in good and plain down-right courses Men are ready to say If I should not dissemble and double and carry things after that manner hwo should I live why where is thy faith The righteous man lives by his faith and not by his shifts not by his wits God will provide for us are we not in Covenant with God Do we not professe to be Gods Children Do children use to shift No a child goes about to do his fathers will and pleasure and he knowes that he will maintain him It is against the nature of the Child of God as farre as he knowes himself to be a Child of God to use any indirect course any windings and turnings in his calling let us depend upon God as a Child depends on his father and of all others God will provide most for them that in simple honesty in plain downe-right dealing depend on him in doing good For God accounts it a prerogative to defend and maintain them that cast themselves on him he will be their wisdom that can deny their own wisdom and their own shifts by nature and in conscience labour to deale directly he will be wise for them and provide for them It is his prerogative to do so and not to suffer his Children to be deserted A little faith therefore would help all this and would make us walke in simplicity If we could make God our alsufficiencie once then we should walk uprightly before God and men For what makes men to double This certainly makes men to double they think they shall be undone if they be direct for if they deale directly they shall lose their liberty or their lives or their opportunity of gaining c. Well come what will deale thou directly and know this for a rule thou shalt have more good in Gods favour if thou be a Christian then thou canst lose in the World if upon grounds of conscience thou deal directly in what estate so ever thou art If thou be a Judge if thou be a Witnesse deale directly speake the truth If thou be a divine speak directly in Gods cause deale out the Word of God as in Gods presence come what will whatsoever thou losest in thy wealth or liberty c. thou shalt gain in God Is not all good in him what is all the
say we did nothing to God we have not obeyed him how can we answer him we must needs yield to the tempter But when we can say with Peter Lord thou knowest that I love thee thou knowest I have laboured to approve my heart to thee and that I have prosecuted this desire with endeavours this will comfort a man in the time of temptation therefore let us labour to have our conversation in sincerity It will afford us much comfort in this life as it did S. Paul S. Paul here was in some grievous sicknesse even to death and he was disgraced as a person that regarded not his promise of coming to them Now what doth he do in all this sicknesse and disgrace what doth he answer to them he comforts himself in this My rejoycing is that my conscience doth testifie my sincerity He runs to God and to his sincerity as his strong hold he approves himself to God Some thing we shall have in this life first or last afflictions or disgraces and troubles will come What is then the strong hold of a Christian Then he runs to his sincerity What would Hezekias have done when he received the sentence of death that he had walked before God in uprightnesse and sincerity Sincerity then is worth more then the world And he that will not labour for that which is worth more then all the world it is a sign he is ignorant of the worth of it A man at the hour of death he would lose all the world if he had it for sincerity Therefore let us not part with our sincerity Let us not offend against sincerity and truth by falshood in our carriage and in our tongues or conversations any manner of way since it will yield us so much comfort in temptations and afflictions and at the Tribunal and Judgment-seat of Christ. Let us not have false aimes and ends and do things in a false manner It is not action onely that God requires but the manner If we regard not the manner God will not regard the matter The matter of the Pharisees performances was very good for stuffe but their hearts being naught God regarded it not Let us look to the manner of doing all that we do that we do them to God that we do them in sincerity in a holy manner The Scripture requires this receive the Sacrament but thus Examine your selves Take heed how you hear Let your conversation be in the world but thus in simplicity and godly sincerity S. Paul doth not say that he rejoyced in miracles or in the great works that he had done in converting of Nations c. which yet were matters of joy but when he comes to joy indeed here is his joy that his Conversation had been in simplicity and godly sincerity And Christians must take heed that they reason not against sincerity another way that is to conclude they have no goodnesse because they see a great deal of corruption and imperfections for imperfections may stand with truth Asa as I said had many infirmities in his life yet notwithstanding it is said that he walked in sincerity So Hezekias it is said he walked before God uprightly yet he had many infirmities and imperfections Nay a man may well retort this upon such poor soules that are witnesses with Satan against themselves in the sight of their sins that their sins being known by them especially with hatred of them it is a sign of sincerity Again others are ready to say I am not sincere because God followes me with afflictions and distresses Reason not so for he therefore followes thee with afflictions because he would have nothing but sincerity in thee he would make thee wholly sincere and purge thee as metal is purged in the fire from the drosse Therefore take heed thus of sinning against sincerity Do nothing in hypocrisie and when we are once sincere let us not sin against it by yielding to the Devil This comforted Job when his friends alledged his corruptions Well saith he you shall not take away my sincerity from me He looked to the eye of God that saw him to whom he approved his heart and that consideration made him sincere and thence he comforted himself So let us comfort our selves in our sincerity against Satan's allegations as a condition of the Covenant of grace which respects not perfection but truth To adde one thing more As there is an order of other graces so there is an order in this sincerity which we should labour for There is this order to be kept We must digg deep we must lay a sincere foundation What is that A deep search into our own hearts and waies by sound humilition We say of digestions if the first be naught all are naught if the first concoction in the body be naught there can never be good assimulation there can never be good blood so if there be not a good a sincere foundation there can never be a sincere fabrick Therefore many mistake and build Castles in the Ayr comb Downes as we say they build a frame of profession that comes to nothing in the end because it is not sincere in this order they were never truly humbled they had a guilefull heart in the cnofession of their sins they never knew what sin was throughly and feelingly Blessed is the man in whose spirit there is no guile Psal. 32. The Psalmist especially means and intends there in regard of down-right dealing with God in the confession of sins For he himself when he did not deal roundly and uprightly with God in the confession of his sinnes with detestation and with resolution never to commit the same again he was in a pitiful plight both of soul and body his moisture was turned into the drought of Summer But when without guile he laid open his soul to God then he came from sincere humiliation and sincere confession to sincere faith Therefore for the order let us first labour to be sincere in the sight of that which is ill in us in the confession of our sins and then we shall be sincere the better to depend upon Gods mercy in Christ by faith And from thence we shall come to sincere Love when we believe that God is reconciled in Christ we shall love him Our love is but a reflexion of his love to us when once we know that he loves us we shall love him again The Spring of all duty is sincere love coming from sincere faith as sincere faith is forced out of the sincere sight of our sins of the ill and miserable estate we are in A man will not go out of himself so long as he sees any hope in himself and therefore sound knowledge of the evil condition we are in it forceth the grace of faith which forceth a man to go out of himself And then when he is perswaded of Gods love in Christ he loves him again Love is that which animates
therefore he is not constant Or if times do not fall out so crosse he is not constant in his disposition and God looks on him as he is in his disposition and so he will judge him at that day now being led with the flesh his disposition alters and varies How shall I know whether I consult according to the flesh or no In a word examine two things The ground and the aime of our actions whence they rise and what they aym at Spring they from self-love aym they at our self-contentment and private interest then a man is led with the flesh To use a familiar instance In Marriage when a man looks more to wealth then to Religion he adviseth according to the flesh And so for a Minister to respect his living more then any thing that might weigh with his conscience otherwise if he were good he is led with respects according to the flesh Those that leave their former good acquaintance and choose such as they only hope to gain by and forsake those acquaintance that they cannot gain by though they be never so good otherwise they are led according to the flesh How shall we know that we do not things and consult not of things according to the flesh Some men may know it easily as when men are of pregnant parts when the strength of their wit leads them one way and Religion leads them another way yet in the awe of God they do not go that way that politick respects would carry them they could be as errant Politicians as the best but they dare not here now is a man that is led by the Spirit when it is not for want of parts but out of conscience he doth not so miscarry by his enemy Many times an honest man could be rich by ill means as well as another he knowes the way it is not for want of wit but because he dares not the awe of conscience and the awe of God lead him to better rules and aymes so it is easily discerned in eminency of parts And likewise in fitnesse of opportunities if there be not parts when a man hath all outward advantages to satisfie the flesh to yield to it to have his aimes and yet he will not If a man have power and yet doth not revenge himself he consults not with flesh and blood for he might be revenged if he would So I say when there is something that might sway us another way and yet notwithstanding out of meer conscience and better rules we will not it is a sign we purpose not we advise not things according to the flesh but according to the Spirit we are led with better rules then the world is In strong suggestions a Joseph can say How shall I do this and offend against God Doth not God see it saith Job so a Christian in the strength of Temptations and solicitations and opportunities to do ill he considers Doth not God see How shall I do this and offend against God Shall I break the peace of my conscience for the gaining of this and this why no then a man is not led with Carnal wisdome Again we may know this that we are not led by the flesh and advised by the flesh when we are humble in all our consultations It is a perpetual concomitant of carnal wisdome to be proud knowledge mingled with corruption puffeth up But how shall we labour to overcome this because we have the flesh ready by us in all our consultations we have this counsellour alway ready at hand as S. Paul complains Rom. 7. That when we would do well evil is present it is present at our elbow nay it is nearer the flesh is mingled in all the powers of our soules and with heavenly wisdome there is a mixture of carnal wisdome how shall we do that we may not be tainted with it I will give a direction or two First of all have a prejudice of it Cave time c. saith the holy man S. Austin Take heed of the evil man thy self take heed of carnal reason be jealous of it it is an enemy and the issues of the wayes it adviseth to are death There is a way that seems good to a man in his own eyes the issues whereof are death not temporal onely but eternal death It is a deadly enemy have a prejudice of it and conceit of it to be as it is have a jealousie of it and of our own selves especially in things that concern our selves What is the reason that a man is an incompetent Judge in his own cause This because there is natural self-love and flesh that drawes all to it self Consult not with it therefore consult with higher rules and principles what may make most for the chief end for the glory of God for the assurance of our comfort while we live here and a better estate hereafter that which may make most for the common good let us labour to live by right rules and principles God will value us by that Put the case a man by passion be led another way what is his rule what is his aym his aym is not carnal he may fall by passion c. God judgeth not by passion but by the tenour of our life God esteems us not by a single particular exorbitant act that by passion or incogitancy a man falls into but by the tenour of our life Therefore let us labour to have our rules and aimes good though we fail in particular yet that our way may be good though we step awry yet our way may be good that when Judgment shall come when death shall come it may not find us in an ill way in an ill course Therefore let us consult with God consult with his Word consult with those that are led by the Spirit of God labour to be under the government of Gods blessed Spirit to be guided by the Spirit of God and by the Word of God This should be our care to labour that God would guide us by his good Spirit in those wayes that may lead to our comfort that of all other enemies in the world he would not give us up to our own flesh to guide us but that he would take the guidance of us to himself that as he hath right to us by his Covenant so he would take us into his government And desire Christ that as he is our Priest to die for us so likewise he would be our Prophet to instruct us to subdue all in us And let Divine truth be our counsellour to bring our inner man into subjection as it is 2 Cor. 10. The weapons of our warfare are mighty to bring all into captivity to subject all high devices and reasonings How shall I do this I shall misse of my ends I shall misse of my projects O but Religion when it comes and brings down all it makes not a man to cast away reason but brings reason under and brings
yea and amen to be yea and nay We make truth a lie and do rather believe our own lying hearts then Gods immutable and unchangeable Promises Therefore let us see the fulnesse of our hearts and complain of them to God and desire him to cure it and redresse it and he will do it This is to give glory to God indeed we cannot honour God more then to believe his Promises and build on him This will breed love when we feel the comfort of the Promises Foolish men think to honour God by complements by dead performances filly men consider that the principal honour in the world to God is to seal his truth that thou shouldest not make him a liar Hath he promised all things in the world get faith that will honour him and he will honour thy faith What makes God honour faith so much He that believes he will bring him to heaven Faith honours him it gives him the glory of his truth the glory of his goodnesse of his mercy of his truth c. as it honours him he honours it The Believer shall come to heaven when the idle fashionable Christian shall vanish with his conceits that thinks to serve God with empty vain shadowes Honour God with the obedience of faith man cast thy self upon him trust in him in life and death and then thou givest him the honour that he requireth at thy hands For as the honour of his mercy is the greatest honour he will have in this world more then that in the Creation so thou honourest him more in the Gospel to cast thy self on him for forgivenesse of sins and life everlasting and for the guidance of thy daily course of life thou honourest him more then by looking on the creature or by doing him any service He is honoured more by faith in Christ then by any other way Let faith go to him as faith honours him so he will honour it Let it be according to thy faith Let not all be lost let us bring vessels for the precious Promises the vessel of a believing heart Shall all this be lost for a vain heart that will not lodge up these promises shall we have a rich portion and neglect it shall we have so many promises and not improve them and make use of them Therefore I beseech you let it be our practice continually every day of all portions of Scripture make the Promises most familiar to us for duties follow promises if we believe the Promises with our heart they are quickning Promises we will love God and perform other duties Faith works by love If we believe love will come kindly off Therefore he saith here All the Promises are Yea and Amen insinuating that all is included in the Promises Let us empty our hearts of confidence in any thing and fill them with the Promises in Christ that are Yea and Amen Let us stablish our hearts with the Promises let us warm and season and refresh our hearts every day with these In these times of infection what do we those that are careful of themselves that go abroad in dangerous places they have Preservatives they take something to preserve their spirits and to strengthen them against the contagion abroad and it is wisdome so to do it is folly to neglect it and to tempt God not to be careful in this kind it is very well done But what is this if thou do not fence thy soul and thy spitit and take a draught of the Promises every day afresh Let us take out our pardon of course every day of the forgivenesse of sins We sin every day let us go for our pardon If we sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ and he is the propitiation for our sins And the blood of Jesus Christ shall purge us from all sin And he is in justifying us still every day he is acquitting our soules and there is a pardon of course to be taken out every day Let us renew and refresh our hearts with the Promises of pardon and forgivenesse of sins every day Let us strengthen our soules with renewing the Promises of grace for that day to walk comfortably before God that he will keep us by his Spirit from sin that he will be a shield and a Sun to us that he will give us wisdome to carry our selves as we should and he will give us his holy Spirit if we beg it Let us every day take these Promises to be Cordials in these dangerous times and then come life come death all shall be welcome why because we are in Christ and have imbraced the Promises and Christ and all in Christ is Yea and Amen it shall go well with us What a wondrous comfortable life would a Christians life be if he could yield the obedience faith answerable to the promises What a shame is it that having such rich promises we should be so loose so changeable that we should be cast down with crosses and lift up with prosperity It is because we believe not the promises of better things therefore we are proud of present things and cast down with present crosses and are fast and loose Now we have good things for the present afterward the devil comes between us and the promises and makes us let go our hold Religion stands on this which makes me to presse it the more If this were well taken to heart and digested we should know what Religion means if we know Christ and the promises all other things will come off All others are but formalities they will never comfort without the confideration of knowing God in Christ and the rich promises to us in Christ. Likewise if this be so that the promises of God in Christ are Yea and Amen This teacheth us how to make use of all former examples of others and of all former goodnesse to our selves Was God merciful to Abraham and to David Our father 's trusted in thee and were not confounded Psal. 22. Therefore he reasons If I trust in God I shall not be confounded for the Promises are Yea and Amen they are true to one as well as another And whatsoever was written afore was written for our comfort Rom. 15. And this is a singular good use we may make of reading of the stories of the Scripture and of holy men that the same God he lives for ever his arm is not shortened he that was is and is to come and therefore we should read histories with application Did God make sure his Promises to them surely he will make sure his Promises to us Had David forgivenesse of sins upon his confession surely so shall we Abraham believed and it was accâ—…ed to him for righteousnesse and â—…o it shall to us if we believe It is alledged for that end Rom. 4. And S. Paul prefixeth his example to all posterity God was mercifull to me and not so onely but to all that believe in him 2 Tim. 2. This is an Use
a Christian to be cowardly because he hath death and hell conquered and every thing is made serviceable to help him to heaven But for another man to set light by these things it is more madnesse No man but a Christian can be stout and couragious except it be from a false spirit especially in things that are above mans natural power as death it is eternal and what man can stand out against the eternal wrath of God And therefore those that put on a Roman stoutnesse and courage though they seem to have strong spirits it is but false either they are besotted with sensuality or else with a spirit of pride When they look before them and see eternity and see their sins and that they must all appear at the day of Judgment they cannot be strong Let us labour therefore to have our hearts stablished by the Spirit of God and try our selves often by propounding Queries how we do things with what minds and upon what grounds Again another Evidence whereby we may know that we have spiritual strength and stability in Christ wrought in us by the Spirit of God is this when it makes us desire the coming of Christ when it makes us think of death and of the time to come with joy and comfort and that for the present it gives us boldnesse to the Throne of Grace in extremities He that in extremity can go to God in Christ it is a sign his heart is established Hypocrites in extremity flye to desperate courses as Saul and Achitophel did but in extremity the soul that is stablished goes to God My God my God saith Christ so Job Though he kill me yet will I trust in him I say it is an evidence of a soul stablished upon Christ by the Spirit of God to have boldnesse to the Throne of Grace in extremity nay when God seems to hide himself which is the principal extremity of all as in Divine temptations when God seems to be an enemy then for a man to fight and wrastle with God and tug with the temptation and not to let God go though he kill him this is a true Israel a conquerour of God this is a heart fortified by the Spirit It is an argument of a heart established when besides for the present for the time to come he can chearfully and boldly think how it will be with him when death shall come that he shall go to Christ that the Match shall be fully made up that is begun by God between Christ and him for the contract is in this world but the nuptials are celebrated in heaven and in confidence hereof can say Come Lord Jesus come quickly A heart that is not stablished saith Oh come not Wherefore art thou come to torment us before our time say the Devils to Christ so an unstablished heart at the hour of death is afraid it shall be tormented before the time and therefore come not come not saith such a soul. But the soul that is stablished upon Christ and upon the promises in Christ of forgivenesse of sins and life everlasting by the Spirit of Christ that saith Come Lord Jesus come quickly I have been larger upon this Point then I intended these unsettled times moved me to speak a little more then ordinary that we might labour to have our hearts stablished that whatsoever comes we may have somewhat that is certain to stick to that our estate in Christ may be sure whatsoever becomes of our state in the world otherwise VERSE XXII Who hath anointed us and also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts THe Apostle having formerly laid open the riches of a Christian In this Verse he cometh to shew his strength His riches consisteth in the promises of God in Christ His strength in being stablished upon those promises Now that which he had spoken of more generally in the word stablishing he unfolds in three borrowed Terms Anointing Sealing Earnest Implying therein the manner of the Spirits establishing a Christian. He who stablisheth us how is that wrought By the Spirit anointing by the Spirit sealing and by the earnest of the Spirit which three terms do all argue assurance For you know that in the old Law Kings Priests and Prophets were anointed that is they were authorized and confirmed in their places And for sealing Writings among our selves are sealed for security And an Earnest secures Contracts and Bargains So that whatsoever may serve to strengthen a Christians faith and assurance is here laid down God to help our soules by our senses fetcheth it from humane affaires applying words borrowed from earthly commerce by a heavenly anagogical sense to spiritual things First the sure estate of a Christian is set down in the general by stablishing and then in particular we are anointed and sealed and have the Earnest of the Spirit God in the Covenant of grace doth our part and his own too he gives faith and strengthens faith and seales us he gives us promises he doth stablish us upon those promises and works our hearts to an embracing of them he anoints us and seales us and gives us the Earnest of the Spirit All in the Covenant of Grace depends upon the faithfulnesse of God and not upon ours but upon ours dependantly as he is faithful in stablishing us Now because the holy Apostle would have us settled in the excellency of the state of a Christian in the Covenant of grace you see how large-hearted he is he useth four words implying one and the same thing Stablishing Anointing Sealing and giving Earnest all of them words used in ratification amongst men God is pleased to stoop to speak to us in our own language to speak of heavenly things after an earthly manner and therefore he sets down the certain estate of a Christian by borrowed speeches This is a gracious condescending of God stooping as it were lower then himself and indeed so he alwayes abaseth himself when he deales with man coming down far below himself To come to the words in particular And hath anointed us This word hath a double reference The holy Ghost carries our minds first to the relation and proportion that is between the graces of the Spirit of God and the oyntment with which in former times they were anointed in the Jewish Politie And it hath reference likewise and relation to the persons that were anointed The persons were Kings Priests and Prophets Now God hath anointed us in Christ. The order is this First Christ himself as Mediatour is anointed with the oyl of gladnesse above his fellowes but for his fellowes The oyntment is first poured on the head of spiritual Aaron and then it runs down to all the skirts of his garment that is to the meanest Christian. Even as the least finger and toe is actuated and enlivened and moved by the soul and spirits that the head and the chief vital parts are so every Christian though he be but as the toe or
witnesse to the soul that we are the sonnes of God Secondly a voyce or speech in us again to God causing us to have accesse to the Throne of grace with boldnesse Thirdly a work of Sanctification Fourthly Peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost By these four wayes we may know the sealing of the Spirit after we believe and that our faith is a sound belief and that we are in the state of grace indeed First I say the Spirit speaks to us by a secret kind of whispering and intimation that the soul feeles better then I can expresse Be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee saith he to the soul I am thy salvation there is I say a sweet joyning a sweet kisse given to the soul I am thine and thou art mine God by his Spirit speaks so much there is a voyce of Gods Spirit speaking peace to his people upon their believing And then secondly the Spirit of adoption stirres up the speech of the soul to God that as he sayes to the soul Because thou believest now thou art honoured to be my child so the Spirit stirres up in the soul a Spirit of prayer to cry Abba Father it can go boldly to God as to a Father for that Abba Father it is a bold and familiar speech There are two things in a prayer of a Christian that are incompatible to any carnal man there is an inward kind of familiar boldnesse in the soul whereby a Christian goes to God as a child when he wants any thing goes to his father a child considers not his own worthinesse or meannesse but goeth to his father familiarly and boldly so I say when the Spirit of God speaks to us from God and tells the soul I am thine I am thy salvation thy sins are forgiven thee be of good comfort and when the soul again speaks to God when it can pour forth it self with a kind of familiar boldnesse and earnestnesse especially in extremity and in time of trouble and can wait in prayer and depend upon God this spiritual speech of God to the soul and of the soul to God it is a seal of the Spirit that indeed we are true believers because we can doe that that none can do but Christians God speaks to our souls he raiseth our souls and by his Spirit he puts a spirit of supplication into us and helps our infirmities for we know not what to ask but he helps our weaknesse and enables us to lay out the wants of our soules to God these are evidences of the presence and of the seal of the Spirit In the third place this sealing of the Spirit after we beleeve is known by the sanctifying work of the Spirit for as I told you before in the unfolding of the Point the Spirit seals our spirits by stamping the likenesse of the Spirit of Christ on us so that when a man finds in his soul some lineaments of that heavenly Image of Christ Jesus when he finds some love he may know by that love that he is translated from death to life when he finds his spirit subdued to be humble to be obedient when he finds his spirit to be heavenly and holy as Christ was when he finds this stamp upon the soul surely he may reason I have not this by nature naturally I am proud now I can abase my self natureally I am full of malice now I can love I can pray heartily for mine enemies as Christ did naturally I am lumpish and heavy now in afflictions I can joy in the Holy Ghost I have somewhat in me contrary to nature surely God hath vouchsafed his Spirit upon my believing in Christ to mark me to seal 〈◊〉 to stamp me for his I carry now the Image of the second Adam I know the Holy Ghost hath been in my heart I see the stamp of Christ there Know you not that Christ is in you except you be cast awayes saith the Apostle so upon search the Christian soul finds somewhat of Christ alwayes in the soul to give a sweet evidence that he is sealed to the day of redemtpion The fourth evidence that the Spirit of God hath been in a mans heart is the joy of the Holy Ghost and peace of conscience sanctification is the ordinary seal that is alwaies in the soul this is an extraordinary seal peace and joy when the soul needs incouragement then God is graciously pleased to superadd this to give such spiritual ravishings which are as the very beginnings of heaven so that a man may say of a Christian at such times that he is in heaven before his time he is in heaven upon earth but especially God doth this when he will have his children to suffer or after suffering after some special conflict after we have combated with some special corruption with some sinfull disposition with some strong temptation and have got the victory To him that overcometh will I give of the hidden Manna and a white stone and a new name that none can read it but he that hath it that is he shall have assurance that he is in the state of grace and the sweet sense of the love of God and that sweet heavenly Manna that none else can have thus God dealt with Job after he had exercised that Champion a long time at the last he discovered himself in a glorious manner to him so it is usually after some great crosse or in the middest of some great crosse when God sees that we must be supported with some spiritual comfort we sink else then there is place and time for spiritual comfort when earth cannot comfort thus St. Paul in the middest of the dungeon when he was in the stocks being sealed with the Spirit he sang at midnight Alas what would have become of blessed Paul his spirit would have sunk if God had not stamped it with Joy in the Holy Ghost and so David and the three young men in the fiery furnace and Daniel in the den God doth then even as parents smile upon their children when they are sick and need comfort so above all other times God reserves this hidden sealing of his children with a spirit of joy when they need it most sometimes in the middest of afflictions sometimes as a reward when they come out of their afflictions sometimes before so our Saviour Christ had James and John with him upon the mountain to strengthen them against the scandal of suffering after so God when he hath a great work for his children to do some suffering for them to go through as an encouragement before-hand he enlargeth their spirits with the joy of the Holy Ghost and some times also after a holy and gracious disposition in the Ordinances of God God doth adde an excellent portion of his Spirit a seal extraordinary for indeed God thinks nothing enough for his children till he have brought them to heaven seal upon seal and comfort upon comfort and the more we depend upon him
errours of the times Thus we have unfolded to you the sealing of the Spirit and you see the Spirit of God not onely anoints but seales Now we should labour to have our hearts thus sealed by the Spirit Can we desire and never be at quiet till our Instruments be sealed till our acquittances till our Charters be sealed and shall we be patient not to have our soules sealed Let us labour by all means to have the Image and likenesse of Christ stamped upon our soules especially that is wondrous comfortable when we can find somewhat in us like to Jesus Christ. To encourage us to this let us consider that death and Judgment will come and God will set none at his right hand but his sheep that have his mark those that he sets his stamp and Image upon those he will set on the right hand in the day of Judgment And how comfortably in the hour of death can the soul commend it self to God when it sees it self stamped and sealed by the Spirit of Christ when he can say to Christ Lord Jesus receive my soul that thou hast redeemed by thy blood that thou hast sealed by thy Spirit and that thou hast set thine own stamp upon acknowledge thine own likenesse though it be not as it should be what a comfort I say hath the sealed soul at the hour of death and so in all other extremities and in times of trouble and danger those in whom God sees his own Image and likenesse he will own and to those he will alwayes shew a distinct and respective love in hard times What a difference is between that soul and others in the time of affliction as in the time of pestilence and war the soul that is sealed knowes that he is marked out for God for happinesse in the world to come whatsoever befalls him in this world and he knowes that God in all confusion of times knowes his own seal those that are sealed God hath a speciall care of I say therefore in Ezek. 9. they are said to be marked in their foreheads not that there was any visible mark on them but it is a phrase to signifie what speciall care God had of his people specially in times of destruction God will as it were set them out in those times and make special provision for them thus Josiah was taken away from the evill to come and Lot was taken out of Sodom when fire and brimstone was to come from heaven and Pella a little Village was delivered when the general destruction came upon Jerusalem So that I say God hath a speciall care of his little ones in this life and if he take them away yet their death is precious in his sight He will not part with them but upon special consideration he sees if they live it will be worse for them he sees it is better for them to be gathered to himself and to the soules of men made perfect in heaven And as he hath a special care of them in regard of outward miseries and calamities so in regard of spiritual contagion and infection as Rev 7. there Gods holy ones were sealed so many of such a tribe c. which is to signifie to us that God hath alwayes some that he will keep and preserve from the universal infection and contagion of Antichrist in the worst times God hath alwayes a Church in the worst times in the obscurest ages of the Church eight or nine hundred years after Christ especially nine hundred years when Egyptian darknesse had overspread the world and there was little learning and goodnesse in the world God had alwayes sealed ones marked ones that he preserved from the danger of dark times and so he will alwayes have a care of his own that they be not led away with that soul-hurting errour Popery another manner of mischief then men take it for The Scripture is more punctual in setting down the danger of those especially in lighter times of the Church that are carried away with that sin then any other sin whatsoever they have a contrary mark those that have the mark of the Beast it is contrary to the mark of Christ it is far from being the mark and seal of the Spirit that implicite bloody faith Theirs is the bloody Church pretend what they will and they stand out to blood in the defence of all their cruel superstitious and bloody decrees Those persons I say that are deeply died in Popery that have the mark of the Beast they are in a clean opposite condition to those that are marked with the Spirit that Christ marks for his Let us not fear therefore I say if we have the Spirit of God stamped upon us though in a little measure if it be true let us not fear death Christ knowes his own mark even in death and out of death And let us not fear afflictions nor evil times Christ will know his seal He hath a book of remembrance for those that are his Mal. 3. for those that mourn for the sins of the times and when he gathers his Jewels those shall be his he will gather his Jewels as a man in his house gathers his jewels he suffers his luggage to burn in the fire so God in common calamities he suffers luggage wicked men to go to wrack but he will free his own Let us labour therefore for this seal to have our soules stamped with the Spirit of God to have further and further evidence of our state in grace that in the time of common calamity we may be free from danger free from errour and destruction But you will say What shall I account of it if there be but a little sign of grace Be not discouraged when the stamp in wax is almost out it is currant in Law put the case the stamp of the Prince be an old coyn as sometimes we see it on a King Harry groat yet it is currant money yea though it be a little crackt So put tbe case the stamp of the Spirit be as it were almost worn out it is our shame and ought to be our grief that it is so yet there are some evidences some pulses some sighes and groans against corruption we mourn in our spirits we do not joyn with corruption we do not allow our selves in sin there is the stamp of the Spirit remaining though it be overgrown with the dust of the world that we cannot see it Sometimes Gods children though they have the graces of the Spirit in them yet they yield so much to their corruptions that they can read nothing but their corruptions when we bid them read their evidences they can see nothing but worldlinesse nothing but pride and envy c. though there be a stamp on them yet God holds the soul from seeing it so that they can see nothing but corruption this is for their negligence God gives them up to mistake their estates because they will not stirre up the graces of the Spirit
A Learned COMMENTARY OR EXPOSITION UPON The first CHAPTER of the Second Epistle of S. Paul to the CORINTHIANS BEING The Substance of many SERMONS formerly Preached at Grayes-Inne London By that Reverend and Judicious Divine RICHARD SIBBS D. D. Sometimes Master of Catherine-Hall in Cambridge and Preacher to that Honourable Society Published for the Publick Good and Benefit of the Church of CHRIST By Tho. Manton B. D. and Preacher of the Gospel at Stoake-Newington near London Vivit post funera virtus Psalm 112. 6. The Righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance 2 Pet. 1. 15. Moreover I will endeavour that you may be able after my decease to have these things alwayes in remembrance LONDON Printed by J. L. for N. B. and are to be sold by Tho. Parkhurst at his Shop over against the Great Conduit at the Lower end of Cheapside 1655. RIC SIBBS S THEOL D AVL KATHARINAE CANTAB MAG NEC NON HOSPITIO GRAI AS CONCIONIBVS Aetat Suae 58. The Portracture of the Late Reverend and Iudicious divine Richard Sibbs D D Mr. of Katharine Hall in Camb and sometimes Preacher to that honble Society of Grayes-Inn London Printed for Nich Bourne at the South entrance of the Royall Exchange 1655 To the Reader Good READER THere is no end of Books and yet we seem to need more every day there was such a darknesse brought in by the Fall as will not thoroughly be dispelled till we come to Heaven where the Sun shineth without either cloud or night for the present all should contribute their help according to the rate and measure of their abilities Some can onely hold up a Candle others a Torch but all are usefull The Presse is an excellent meanes to scatter Knowledge were it not so often abused all complain there is enough written and think that now there should be a stop indeed it were well if in this scribling age there were some restraint Uselesse Pamphlets are grown almost as great a mischief as the erroneous and prophane Yet 't is not good to shut the door upon industry and diligence there is yet room left to discover more above all that hath been said of the Wisdome of God and the riches of his grace in the Gospel yea more of the stratagems of Satan and the deceitfulnesse of mans heart meanes need to be encreased every day to weaken sin and strengthen trust and quicken us to holinesse Fundamentals are the same in all ages but the constant necessities of the Church and private Christians will continually enforce a further explication as the Arts and sleights of besieging and battering encrease so doth skill in fortification if we have no other benefit by the multitude of Books that are written we shall have this benefit an opportunity to Observe the various workings of the same Spirit about the same truths and indeed the speculation is neither Idle nor unfruitfull There is a diversity of gifts as there is of tempers and of tempers as there is of faces that in all this variety God may be the more glorified The Pen-men of Scripture that all wrote by the same Spirit and by an infallible Conduct do not write in the same stile In the Old Testament there is a plain difference between the lofty Courtly stile of Isaiah and the Priestly grave stile of Jeremiah In Amos there are some marks of his Calling in his Prophecie In the New Testament you will find John sublime and Seraphicall and Paul rational and argumentative 't is easie to track both by their peculiar phrases native elegancies and distinct manner of expression this variety and manifold grace still continueth the stones that lye in the building of Gods house are not all of a sort there are Saphires Carbuncles and Agates all which have their peculiar use and lustre some are doctrinall and good for information to clear up the truth and vindicate it from the Sophismes of wretched men othets have a great force and skill in application Some are more Evangelical their soules are melted out in sweetnesse others are sons of Thunder more rouzing and stirring gifted for a rougher strain which also hath its use in the art of winning soules to God 't was observed of the three Ministers of Geneva that none thundred more loudly than Farell none piped more sweetly than Virett none taught more learnedly and solidly than Calvin so variously doth the Lord dispense his gifts to shew the liberty of the Spirit and for the greater beauty and order of the Church for difference with proportion causeth beauty and to prevent Schisme every member having his distinct excellencie so that what is wanting in one may be supplyed by another and all have something to commend them to the Church that they may not be despised as in several Countreys they have several Commodities to maintain traffique between them all we are apt to abuse the diversity of gifts to divisions and partialities whereas God hath given them to maintain a communion in the Churches Vestment there is variety but no rent varietas sit scissur a non sit All this is the rather mentioned because of that excellent and peculiar gift which the Worthy and Reverend Authour had in unfolding and applying the great Mysteries of the Gospel in a sweet and mellifluous way and therefore was by his hearers usually termed The sweet dropper sweet and heavenly distillations usually dropping from him with such a native elegancie as is not easily to be imitated I would not set the gifts of God on quarrelling but of all Ministeries that which is most Evangelical seemeth most usefull the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecie Rev. 19. 10. 't is spoken by the Angel to disswade the Apostle from worshipping him you that preach Jesus Christ and him crucified and risen from the dead have a like Dignity with us Angels that foretell things to come your message is the Spirit of Prophecie As if he had said This is the great and fundamental truth wherein runneth the life and the heart-blood of Religion The same Spirit is breathing in these discourses that are now put into thy hand wherein thou wilt find much of the Comforts of the Gospel of the sealing of the Spirit and the constant courses of Gods love to his people fruitfully and faithfully improved for thy edification Let it not stumble thee that the work is posthume and commeth out so long after the Authours death it were to be wished that those who excell in publick gifts would during life publish their own labours to prevent spurious obtrusions upon the world and to give them their last hand and pollishment as the Apostle Peter was carefull to write before his decease 2 Pet. 1. 12 13 14. But usually the Churches treasure is most encreased by Legacies as Elijah let fall his Mantle when he was taken up into heaven so Gods eminent servants when their persons could no longer remain in the World have left behind them some
phrase that puffs them up they are but Gods in a kind of sence and the other are but creatures in a kind of sence because perhaps they have nothing in them and in that sence deservedly creatures but it is proper to God to make somewhat of nothing and so he is the God of Comfort where there is no comfort at all he can raise comfort as he made the World of nothing by his very Word And which is more it is the property of God as God it is peculiar to God to make comfort out of that which is contrary therein he shews himself most to be a God of all he can raise comfort out of discomfort life out of death When Christ had been three dayes in the grave he raised him As it is with the head of comfort with the head of believers so it is with every particular Christian he raiseth them out of death those that sow in sorrow they reape in joy What cannot he do that can raise comfort out of discomfort and discomforts oftimes are the occasions of the greatest comforts Let a Christian go back to the former course of his life and he shall find that the greatest crosses that ever he suffered will yeeld him most comfort and who did this certainly it must be God that can raise all out of nothing and that can make comfort not only out of comfortable creatures that are ordained for comfort but he can draw honey out of the Lions belly Out of the eater came meat and out of the stronge câ—me sweetnesse saith Sampson in his Riddle When a hony combe shall câ—â—â— out of the Lions belly certainly this is a miracle this may well be a Riddle This is the Riddle of Christianity that God who is the God of comfort he raiseth comforts out of our chief discomforts he can create it out of that which is contrary Therefore Luthers speech is very good All things come from God to his Church especially in contraries as he is righteousnesse but it is in sin felt he is comfort but it is in misery he is life but it is in death we must die before we live indeed he is all but it is in nothing in the soul that feels it self to be nothing there is the foundation for God to work on Therefore the God of comfort can create comfort if none be he can make comfort if the contrary be he can raise contraries out of contraries he is the God of all comfort Every word hath Emphasis and strength in it The God of all Comfort Amongst divers other things that flow from hence mark the order he is the God and Father of Christ first and then the Father of mercy and the God of comfort Take him out of this order and think not of him as a God of comfort but as a Consuming fire but take the method of the text now he is the God of comfort after he is the Father of Christ. This being laid as a ground the text it self as a doctrine what subordinate truths arise hence First of all if God be God of all comfort there is this conclusion hence that Whatsoever the meanes of Comfort be God is the spring of it Christ is the Conduit next to God for he is close to God God is the God of Christ and the Holy Ghost is usually the stream The streams of comfort come through Christ the Conduit from God the Father the fountain by the graces of the Spirit But I speak of outward comforts Blessed be God the Father Son and Holy Ghost all are comforters God the father is the father of comfort the Holy Ghost is the comforter Christ Jesus likewise is the God of Comfort whatsoever the outward meanes be yet God the Father Son and Holy Ghost are the comforters take them together that is the conclusion hence I observe it the rather to cure a disposition to Atheisme in men that look bruitishly to the thing they look to the comfort and never look to the comforter even for outward comforts Wicked men their bellies are filled with the comforts of God but it is with things that are comfortable that are abstracted from the comforter they care not for the root the favour and mercy of God so they have the thing they care not Therefore they are not thankful to God nor in their wants they go not to the God of comfort why they think they have supply enough they have friends they have riches that are their strong hold and if they have outward necessaries to supply and comfort them that is all they care for as for the God of comfort they trouble not their hands with him A Christian whatsoever the comfort be if it be outward he knowes that the God of comfort sends it and that is the reason he is so thankful for all outward comforts if they be the necessaries for this life in meat he tasts the comfort of God in drink he tasts the comfort of God in the ornaments of this life he tasts the comfort of God It is God that heates him with fire it is God that cloaths him with garments it is God that feeds him with meat it is God that refresheth his senses in these comforts Therefore the Heathen out of their Ignorance they made every thing a God that was comfortable out of which they received comfort they made a God of the fire and of the water these are but instruments of the God of comfort but the Heathen made gods of them A Christian doth not so but he sees God in them and drives these streames from the fountain God is seen to be the God of Comfort in them all Again considering that God is The God of all comfort This should teach us as thankfulnesse to God so prayer in the want of any comfort that he would both give the thing and the comfort of the thing We may have the thing and the wrath of God with it but thou that art the God of comfort vouchsafe the outward comforts to us and vouchsafe comfort with them thou that art the God of every thing and of the comfort of the thing vouchsafe both Again if God be the God of all comfort whatsoever then here is a ground of diverse other truthes as for instance that if we look for any comfort from the things or from reasons and discourse or from God we should go to God in the use of the thing before the use after the use at all times before the use that God would suggest either by reading or hearing c. reasons of comfort in the use that he would settle and seal comfort to our souls Lord I hear many sweet things I read many comfortable things these would affect a stone almost yet unlesse thou set them on my soule they will never comfort me thou art the God of comfort the materials are from thee but except with revelation discovery thou joyne application all will not
Other reasons there may be given but these are sufficient If this be so then we ought from hence to learn that whatsoever we have we are debtors of it to others whatsoever comfort we have whether it be outward or inward comfort And even as God hath disposed and dispensed his benefits graces to us so let us be good stewards of it we shall give account of it ere long Let every man reason with himself why have I this comfort that another wants I am Gods Steward God hath not given it me to lay up but to lay out To speak a little of outward comforts It is cursed Athiesme in many rich Persons that think they are to live here only to scrape an estate for them and their children when in the mean time their Neighbour want and Gods Children want that are as dear to God as themselves and perish for want of comfort If they were not Athiests in this point they would think I am a steward and what comfort shall I have of scraping much that will but increase my account Such a Steward were mad that would desire a great account the more my account is the more I have to answer for and the more shall be my punishment if I quit not all well Now men out of Athiesme that they do not believe a day of Judgment a time of account they ingrosse comforts to them and theirs as if there were not a Church as if there were not an afflicted body of Christ they think not that they are Stewards Whereas the time will come when they shall have more comfort of that that they have bestowed then of that that they shall leave behind them to their children That which is wisely dispensed for the comfort of Gods people it will comfort us when all that we shall leave behind will not nay perhaps it will trouble us the ill getting of it And so whatsoever inward comforts we have it is for the comfort of others we are debtors of it whatsoever ability we have as occasion is ofâ—…ered if there be a necessity in those that are of the same body with our selves we ought to regard them in pitty and compassion If we should see a poor creature cast himself into a whirlpoole or plunge himself into some desperate pit were we not accessorie to his death if we should not help him if we would not pull one out of the fire Oh yes and is not the soul in as great danger and is not mercy to the soul the greatest mercy shall we see others ready to be swallowed up in the pit of despair with heaviness of spirit shall we see them dejected and not take it to heart but either we are unable to Minister a word of comfort to them or else unwilling as if we were of Cains disposition that we would look to our selves only we are none of their keepers It is a miserable thing to professe our selves to be members of that body whereof Christ is the Head to professe the communion of Saints and yet to be so dead hearted in these particular Exigences and occasions It lies upon us as a duty if God convey comfort to us from others and his end in comforting us any way of putting any comfort in our hands outward or inward it is to comfort others if we do it not we are liable to sin to the breach of Gods command and we frustrate Gods end But if this lie upon us as a duty to comfort others then it concerns us to know how to be able to do it That we may be able to comfort others let us be ready to take notice of the grievance of others as Moses went to see the afflictions of his brethren and when he saw it laid it to heart It is a good way to go to the house of mourning and not to balk and decline our Christian brethren in adversity God knowes our souls in adversitie so should we do the souls of others if they be knit to us in any bond of kindred or Nature or Neighbourhood or the like that bond should provoke us for bonds are as the veins and Arteries to derive comfort All bonds are to derive good whether bonds of Neighbourhood or acquaintance c. A man should think with himself I have this bond to do my Neighbour good It is Gods providence that I should be acquainted with him and do that to him that I cannot do to a stranger Let us consider all Bonds and let this work upon us let us consider their grievance is a bond to tie us And withall let us labour to put upon us the bowels of a father and mother tender bowels as God puts upon him bowels of compassion towards us So St. Paul being an excellent comforter of others in 1 Thess. 2. he shewes there how he carried himself as a Father or Mother or Nurse to them Those that will comfort others they must put upon them the affections of tender creatures as may be they must be patient they must be tenderly affected they must have love they must have the graces of communion What be the graces of communion The graces of Christian communion to fit us in the communion of Saints to do good they are a loving meek patient spirit Love makes patient as we see Mothers and Nurses what can they not endure of their câ—…ildren because they love them And they must be likewise wise and furnished they that will comfort others must get wisedom and abilityâ—… They must get Humility they must abase themselves that they may be comfortable to others and not stand upon terms these be the graces of communion that fit us for the communion of Saints What is the reason that many are so untoward to this duty and have no heart to it that they cannot indeed do it The reason is they consider not their Bonds they do not Consider the poor and needy Psal. 41. they have not the graces of communion they want loving spirits they want ability they are empty they are not furnished they have not knowledge laid up in store they want humble spirits the want of these graces makes us so barren in this practise of the communion of Saints Therefore we should bewaile our own barrennesse when we should do such duties and cannot And beg of God the spirit of love and wisedom that we may do things wisely that we may speak that which is fit a word in season is as apples of Gold with Pictures of Silver And let us beg a humble spirit that we may be abased to comfort others As Christ in love to us he abased himself he became man and when he was man he became a servant he abased himself to wash his Disciples feet talk with a silly woman and such base offices and if the Spirit of Christ be in us it will abase us to offices of love to support one another to bear one anothers burthens Again if we would comfort
might have kept himself out of this trouble I would ask such a party had not Christ as much wisdom as thee He was the wisdom of the Father did he keep out of reproaches was he not reproached as a troublesome man as an enemie to Cesar and taxed for base things as a wine bibber c. and one that had a divell and many other waies Was not St. Paul as discreet as we are who in our understanding and conceit are ready to conceive distastfully of men that suffer any thing for the Gospel and yet notwithstanding all his wisdom kept him not from the crosse but the crosse abides me saith he every where The Divell and the crosse follow Gods Children wheresoever they go all their wisdome and holinesse cannot keep them from it because God hath decreed it and called them to it and they must be conformable to Christ. Therefore let us take heed that we do not suffer men to suffer in our conceits when they suffer in a good cause the crosse of Christ reproachful things base death c. Afflictions are therefore called the crosse because there is a kind of basenesse with them and as it is so so carnal men esteem it presently with the suffering there goes a taint and an abasing in their conceit of those men that suffer in a good cause there is a diminishing conceit goes in carnall men of that which should be their glorie our crosses abound but what ought we to judge of these crosses They are the sufferings of Christ. Why Christ suffers nothing he is in heaven in glorie how can he suffer This is to disparage his Glorious estate to make him suffer any thing I answer the sufferings of Christ they are two-fold the sufferings of Christs person that which he suffered himself which were propitiatory and satisfactory for our redemption and the sufferings of Christ in his mystical body which likewise is called Christ. For Christ in scripture is taken either for Christ himself or for the members of Christ why persecutest thou me saith he to Saul or for the whole body mysticall with the head 1 Cor. 12. so is Christ Christ head and members is called Christ. Now when he calls the sufferings of the Church the sufferings of Christ he meanes not the sufferings of Christ in his own person for he suffers nothing he is out of all the malice of persecutours they cannot reach to heaven to Christ but he means the sufferings of Christ in his mystical body these are called the sufferings of Christ. Why are these called the sufferings of Christ Partly because they are the sufferings of mystical Christ the body of Christ the Church for the Church the companie of true belevers are the fulnesse of Christ they make up the mystical body of Christ therefore when they suffer he that is the head suffers Again they are called the sufferings of Christ those that his members and Children suffer because they are for Christ they are in his quarrell they are for his truth for his cause and by his appoyntment he calls us to suffering it is for his cause in our intendment we intend to suffer for Christ to maintain his cause they are the sufferings of Christ likewise in the intent of the opposites and enemies they persecute us for some goodnesse they see in us they persecute the cause and truth of Christ in us so they are the sufferings of Christ both waies Especially they are the sufferings of Christ by way of sympathie because Christ doth impute them to himself The sufferings of Christ. It is a phrase that springs from the near union that is between Christ and his members the Church which is as near or nearer then any natural union between the head and members hereupon it comes that we are said to suffer with him to die with him to be crucified with him to ascend with him to fit in heavenly places with him to judge the world with him to do all with him by reason of this union and he is said to suffer with us to be afflicted in us to be reproached with us he was stoned in Stephen he was persecuted by Saul he was beheaded in Paul he was burned with the Martyrs he was banished with the Christians and he suffers in all his Children not that he doth so in his own person but because it pleaseth him by reason of the near communion that is between him and us to take that which is done to his members as done to himself therefore they are called the sufferings of Christ he suffers when we suffer and we suffer when he suffers The difference is all the comfort in our sufferings it comes from communion in his sufferings because he is our surety for why are we encouraged to suffer by way of sympathy and communion with him because he in love died for us and was crucified for us and abased for us and shamed for us And when is the soul encouraged to suffer afflictions for Christ when it hath a little felt the wrath of God that Christ suffered for it Oh how much am I beholding to God for Christ that endured the whole wrath of God They are the sufferings of Christ this is a wondrous comfortable point and it is a notion that doth sweeten the bitterest crosses that they are the sufferings of Christ not onely that we are conformable to Christ in them we suffer as he did but they are the sufferings of Christ he imputes them as done to him he suffers with us And another reason why they are the sufferings of Christ it is because he not onely takes it as done to himself but he is present with them he was with St. Paul in the dungeon he was with the 3. young men in the firie-furnace there were 3. put in and there was a fourth which was Christ the son of God he goes with the martyrs to the prison to the stake he is with them till he hath brought them to heaven he is present with them when they suffer Here I must before I come to make use of it distinguish between the crosses and sufferings of Christ and of ordinary sufferings as men Something in this vale of misery we suffer as creatures as being subject to mutability and change because this is a world of changes In this sublunary world there is nothing but changes thus we suffer as creatures all creatures are subject to vanity and complain and groane under it Somwhat we suffer as men it is the common condition of men this nature of ours since the fall is subject to sicknesses to crosses and pain and casualties every day brings new crosses with it this we suffer as men Now the sufferings of Christians as religious holy men those are here meant those are the sufferings of Christ. Yet notwithstanding the sufferings as men by the Spirit of God helps our conformity to Christ by them the
despight of the world that will beare the cross of Christ For the other as their jollity increaseth in the world so their crosses and troubles shall increase As it is said Revel 18. 17. of mysticall Babylon the Church of Rome that hath flourished in the world a great while and sate as a Queen and blessed her self As she gloried herself and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her So it is true of every wicked man that is in an evill course and will be and as the Scripture phrase is blesseth himself in an evil course they shall be sure of the curse of God and not of comfort for in what proportion they have delighted themselves in this world in sin in that proportion they shall have torment of conscience if conscience be awaked in this world and in that proportion they shall have torment in the world to come As sin is growing so rods are growing for them wicked men saith St. Paul they grow worse and worse the more they sin the more they may they sink in rebellion and the more they sink in rebellion the more they sink in the state of damnation they fill up the measure of their sins and treasure up the wrath of God against the day of wrath Whosoever thou art that livest in a sinfull course and wilt do so in spight of Gods Ordinance in spight of the motions of the spirit that hast the good motions of the spirit knocking at thy soule and yet wilt rather refuse comfort then take comfort together with direction go on still in this thy wicked course but remember as thy comforts increase in this world so thy torment is increasing And here is the disproportion between Gods children and others they have their sufferings first and their comfort afterward but others have their pleasure first and their torment after theirs are for a time but others for ever Thus we see what we may comfortably observe from this that comforts increase as crosses increase A Word of the fourth and last point How comes this to pass that as our afflictions abound so our consolations abound They abound by Chrst saith the Apostle God the Father he is the God of comfort the Holy-Ghost is the Comforter but how comes this to pass that we that are not the Objects of comfort but of confusion should have God the Father to be the God of comfort and the Holy-Ghost to be our comforter Oh it is that Jesus Christ the great peace-maker hath satisfied God and procured the Holy-Ghost for the holy-Ghost is procured by the satisfaction and death of Christ and he was sent after the resurrection and ascension of Christ. Therefore Christ is called the consolation of Israel and those that waited for Christ waited for the consolation of Israel All comfort is hid in Christ he is the store-house of comfort we have it through him and by him and in him For that God is the Father of comfort it is because Christ is our Mediatour and Intercessour in Heaven that the Holy-Ghost is the comforter it is because Christ sent him and the comforts of the holy-Ghost are fetched from Christ from the death of Christ or the ascention of Christ from some argument from Christ. Whatsoever comforteth the soule the Holy-Ghost doth it by fetching some argument from Christ from his satisfaction from his worth from his intercession in Heaven something in Christ it is So Christ by his Spirit doth comfort and the reasons fetched by the Spirit are from Christ therefore it is by Christ. What is the reason that a Christian soule doth not feare God as a consuming fire but can look upon him with comfort It is because God hath received satisfaction by Christ. What is the reason that a Christian soule feares not Hell but thinks of it with comfort Christ hath conquered Hell and Satan What is the reason that a Christian feares not death Christ by death hath overcome death and him that had the power of death the Devill Christ is mine saith the Christian soule therefore I do not feare it but think of it with comfort because a Christian is more then a Conquerour over all these What is the reason that a Christian is not afraid of his corruptions and sins He knows that God for Christs sake will pardon them and that the remainder of his corruptions will worke to his humiliation and to his good All shall work for the best to them that love God What is the reason that there is not any thing in the world but it is comfortable to a Christian When he thinks of God he thinks of him as a Father of comfort when he thinks of the Holy-Ghost he thinks of him as a spirit of comfort when he thinks of Angels he thinks of them as his attendants when he thinks of Heaven he thinks of it as of his inheritance he thinks of Saints as a communion whereof he is partaker whence is all this By Christ who hath made God our Father the holy-Ghost our Comforter who hath made Angels ours Saints ours heaven ours earth ours Devils ours death ours all ours in issue For God being turned in love to us all is turned our crosses are no curses now but comforts and the bitterest crosses yield the sweetst comforts All this is by Christ that hath turned the course of things and hid blessings in the greatest crosses that ever were And this he did in himself before he doth it in us for did not his greatest crosses tend to his greatest glory who ever in the world was abased as our head Christ Jesus was that made him crie My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee All the Creatures in the world would have sunk under the sufferings that Christ indured what abasement to the abasement of Christ and what glorie to the glorie of Christ Phil 2. He humbled himself to the death of the cross wherefore God gave him a name above all names that at the name of Jesus euery knee should bow both of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth Now as it was in our head his greatest abasement ushered in his greatest glorie so it shall be in us our greatest crosses are before our greatest comforts he is our President he is the exemplarie cause as well as the efficient working cause it is by Christ all this that consolations abound in us it was performed first in him and shall be by him by his Spirit to the end of the world The use that we are to make of this is that in all our sufferings before we come to Heaven we should look to Christ he hath turned all things let us study Christ and fetch comfort from him our flesh was abased in him our flesh is glorified in him now in Heaven in his person And so it must be in our own persons our flesh must be abased and then as he is glorious in Heaven so shall we be in our selves That very
Spirit that raised and advanced him at the lowest that very spirit there being but one spirit in the head and members in our greatest abasement shall vouchsafe us the greatest advancement that we can look for to sit at the right hand of God to reigne with Christ for if we suffer with him we shall reign with him And hence you may have a reason likewise why Christians have no more comfort they doe not studie Christ enough they consider not Christ and the neernesse wherein Christ is to them and they to Christ that both make one Christ they doe not consider how Christ hath sweetned all he hath turned God and turned all to us he hath made God our Father and in him all things favourable unto us so that now the fire is our friend the Stone and the Gout and all diseases disgrace and temptation all are at peace and league with us all is turned in the use and issue to good to the help and comfort of Gods Children All things are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods 2 Cor. 3. ult There is not the worst thing but it is at peace with us because the malignant power it hath in order to damnation is taken away now it doth not hurt us but there is a soveraigne curing power to turne it to good I confesse Gods Children are discomforted but then they wrong their principles they wrong their grounds their religion their Saviour they wrong all the comforts they have interest in because they do not improve them when occasion serves As Job is checked Hast thou forgot the consolations of the Almighty or why dost thou forget them so if we have consolations and forget them and dote and pore upon our grievance it is just with God to leave us comfortless not that we want any comfort but we flatter our grievance and forget our comfort Let us change our object and when we have looked upon our grievance and been humbled in the sight of our sins let us look upon the promises let us look upon Christ in glory and see our selves in Heaven triumphing with him What can terrifie a Soul not Death it self when it sees it self in Christ Triumphing Faith sees me as well Triumphing in Heaven and sitting at the Right Hand of God as it doth Christ for it knowes I am a Member of Christ and whatsoever is between me and that happiness that is reserved for me in Heaven I shall triumph over it Christ triumphed in his own person over death Hell sin the Grave the Devil and she will triumph in me his mysticall body what he hath done in himself he will doe in me This faith will overcome the world and the Devill and Hell and all that is between us and Heaven A Christian that sees himself sitting at the right hand of God with Christ triumphing with him he is discouraged at nothing for faith that makes things to come present it sees him conquering alreadie Let us be exhorted to joy Rejoyce and again I say rejoyce we have reason to do so if we look to our grounds but when we yield to Satan and our own flesh we robb God of his glory and our selves of comfort but we may thank our selves for it But I come to the sixth verse wherein the Apostle inlargeth himself by shewing the end of his sufferings in regard of them by setting downe both parts both affliction and comfort VERS VI. Whether we be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation or whether we be comforted it is for your consolation and salvation IT is much in every thing how the mind is prepared to receive what is spoken the Apostle therefore to make way for himself in their hearts he removes therefore scandall from his sufferings and he shews that it was so farre that they should take offence at it that they ought to do as he did to bless God for it for as the sufferings of Christ abounded in him so his comfort abounded And because they should think themselves no way hurt by his sufferings and base usage in the world he tels them in the verse that all was for their good no man should be offended at his own good they had no reason to take scandall at that which was for their good but saith he if you think basely of me for my sufferings you think basely of your own comfort for my sufferings are for your good and my comforts are for your good whether I suffer or be comforted it is or you The crosse is a distastfull thing to us and likewise the crosse in others is a distastefull thing not onely distastfull and bitter to us but shamefull St. Paul knowing this because he would as I said work himself into their good conceit that he might prevaile with them for their good saith he you ought not to think a whit the worse of me for this for all is for you So you see the scope of the words Whether we be afflicted it is for your c. But first he speakes of affliction alone and then of comfort alone If we be afflicted it is for your good and if we be comforted it is for your good His reason is because sometimes afflictions appeare without comfort therefore he saith not If we be comforted onely it is for your good but if we be afflicted it is for your good Sometimes comfort is before our afflictions that we may indure it the better God cheares us to it Sometimes God sheds his Spirit in affliction that there is abundance of comfort in it but for the most part it comes after after we have waited but in it there is always such a measure of comfort that supports us that we sink not yet the speciall degree of comfort usually comes after therefore he speaks of affliction in the first place If I be afflicted it is for you c. The Point is easie that The afflictions of the Saints are for the good of others The afflictions of Gods Church are Gods peoples especially the afflictions of Pastors and Leaders of Gods Armie God singles out some to suffer for the good of others the good especially of consolation and salvation for these two goods How can this be that the afflictions of Gods people are for the consolation and salvation of others I answer many wayes as we shall see afterwards more particularly but onely now to make way Afflictions are for the good and comfort of others because we have their example in suffering to traine us up how to suffer Example is a forcible kinde of teaching therefore saith the Apostle our afflictions are for you to lead and teach you the way how to suffer Words are not enough especially in matter of suffering there must be some example therefore Christ from Heaven came not onely to redeem us but to teach us not onely by words but by example how to doe and suffer willingly and chearfully and stoutly in obedience to God as he
uncharitable men judge amiss of the generation of the righteous Whereas they should set the Court in their own hearts and begin to censure there and to examine themselves they goe out and keep their Court abroad but I say passe not a harsh censure upon others or on thy selfe no not for extream dangers for God now is making way for great comfort let God go on his way without thy censuring of him Again This should teach us that we should not build overmuch confidence on earthly things on the things of this world neither on health of body or on friends or on continuance of life alas it is Gods ordinary course to strip us of all in this world we think of great reputation but saith God I will take that from you you shall learn to trust in me You think you have strong and vigorous bodies and you shall live long and therefore you will venture upon such and such courses I but God suffers his children to come to extream dangers and hazards that they think the sentence of death is passed upon them And since this is Gods course with the body and with the Members and with our head Christ himself shall we think to have immunitie and to escape and not looke to Gods order The Church is in great miserie and we are negligent in prayer we think there are many good people and there is strong munition c. As if when Gods people are in security and forget him and his blessings it were not his course to strip them of all to suffer them to fal into extream dangers have we not the Church before our eyes to teach us Let us trust therefore in nothing in this world So much for that point The second thing in the first part is this that As Gods Children are brought to this estate so they are sensible of it They are flesh and not steele they have not the strength of steele as Job saith they are men they are not stones they are Christians they are not Stoicks Therefore St. Paul as he was in extremity so he apprehended his extremity and with all his heart he would have escaped if he could he looked about to all evasions how he might escape death Gods children are sensible of their crosses especially they are sensible of death as he speaks here of himself We despaired even of life it self The word is very significant in the originall we were in such a strait that we knew not how to escape with life so that we despaired of life we would have escaped with our lives but we saw no way to escape To make this clear there are 3. things in Gods Children There is Grace Nature Corrupt nature nature with the tang of Corruption Grace that looks upward to glorie and comfort Nature looks to the present grievance nature looks not to things to come to matters revealed in the Word to supernatural comforts nature looks to the present crosse even nature without sin Corrupt nature feeles and feeles with a secret murmuring and repining and heavinesse and dulnesse as indeed corrupt nature will alway have a bout in crosses it will alway play its part first or last There are alway these three works in the Children of God in all extremities Grace works and that carries up up still trust in God it looks to heaven it looks to the end and issue that all is for good Nature it fills full of sense and pain and makes a man desire remedy and ease Corrupt nature stirs a man up to fret and say what doth God mean to do thus it stirs a man oft-times to use ill meanes indirect courses St. Paul was sensible from a right principle of nature and no doubt here was some tang of corruption with it he was sensible of the fear of death Adam in innocencie would have been affected and exquisitly sensible no doubt if his body had been wronged for the more pure the complexion the more sensible of solution as Physicians say when that which should be knit together if any thing be loosed by sicknesse or by wounds that should by nature not be hurt but continue together it breeds exquisite pain As to cut that which should not be cut to disjoyn that which should be together this is in nature The Schoolemen say and the reason is good that Christs paines were the greatest paines because his senses were not dulled and stupified with sensuality or indirect courses he had a body of an excellent temper and he was in the perfection of his years when he died therefore he received such an impression of grief in his whipping and when he was crowned with thornes that was it that made him so sensible of grief that when he sweat he sweat drops of blood and upon the crosse it made him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Gods Children out of a principle of nature are sensible of any grievance to this outward man of theirs to the body especially in death as we see here St. Paul And there is most patience where there is most sense it is stupidity and blockishnesse else Why are Gods Children so sensible in grief especially in death Oh there is a great cause indeed in some regards they are not afraid of it for death is an enemy to nature it is none to Grace but when I speake not of Grace and Glory but of nature hath not nature great cause to tremble at death when it is an enemy to nature even to right nature It is the King of fears as Job saith it is that Tyrant that makes all the Kings of the earth to tremble at him when death comes it is terrible why because it strips us of all the contentments of this life of all comforts whatsoever we have here Nature without â—…n is sensible of earthly comforts that God hath appointed for nature and when nature sees an end of them nature begins to give in and to grieve Again death parts the best friends we have in this world the body and the soul two old friends and they cannot be parted without exquisite grief If two friends that take contentment in each other common friends cannot part without grief how shall these bosom-friends these united friends body and soul part without grief This marriage between the soul and the body cannot be disunited without exquisite pain being old acquaintance Again nature abhors death it hinders us of all imployment it hinders of all service of God in Church and Common-wealth And so grace which is beyond nature doth a little desire the continuance of life But nature even out of no sinful principle it sees that now I can serve God no longer I can do God no more service I can do good no longer in this World and therefore it takes it to heart Our Savour saith While you have light walke the night cometh when no man is able to work the night of sicknesse and death So
he not onely greives but with Achitophel he goes to ill courses it is a sign he trusted too much and too basely to them before Again when the enjoying of these things is joyned with contempt and base esteem of others it is a sign that we rest too much in them there is more trust put to them then they should bear we should not in the enjoying of honour or riches or pleasures or any thing think the meaner of others Especially security shewes that we trust too much in them when we bless our selves I shall do well Soul soul thou hast goods laid up for many years saith the foole and he was but a foole for it to promise certainty for uncertainty A man cannot stand in that which cannot stand it self to promise life in a dying condition to promise any thing in this world when the very nature of them is uncertain Thou foole saith the Scripture If his soul had been so full of faith as his Barnes were of Corn he would never have said Soul soul take thy rest for these things but he would have trusted in God It is a sign we trust too much to these things when we secure our selves all will be well and blesse our selves as the Scripture speaks Again it is a sign we trust too much to these things when upon confidence of these things we go to ill and unwarrantable courses and think to be born out by these things As when the younger sort shall pour forth themselves to vanity and are carelesse of swearing and licentiousnesse that they care not what to do they shall live long enough to repent c. This is a diabolicall trust that God will give them no security in So when men that have riches will venture on bad causes and think to carrie it out with their purse they trust in matter of oppression and think to bear out the matter with their friends or with their place or with their wits this is false trust Thy wisdom hath caused thee to rebell as the Prophet saith concerning Babylon they thought they had reaching heads and so ventured upon rebellious courses When any of these outward things draw us to unwarrantable unjustifiable courses it is a sign we plant too much confidence in them and it is a sign if we belong to God that he intends to crosse us in them The very confidence in these things hath drawn many to ill courses to do that that they should not do as good Josias Hezechias David and the rest Thus we see how we should examine our selves whether we trust too much in these things or no. Now since we are thus prone to this false confidence and since we may thus discern it if we discerne it in our selves how shall we cure it That in the next doctrine That we might not trust in our selves From whence observe It is a dangerous state to trust in our selves This ill disposition to trust in our selves or any thing out of our selves but onely in God in whom we should trust it is dangerous For a man may reason thus from the text That which God is forced to take such desparate courses for as to bring such an excellent man as St. Paul to such extremity and all that he should not trust in himself that he was not onely prone to but it was a dangerous estate for him but God brings him to deaths doore that he received the sentence of death that he might not trust in himself that he might see the nothingnesse of all things else therefore it was a dangerous estate for him to trust in himself It is ill in respect of God Our selves In respect of God to trust to our selves or the creature is to Idolize our selves or the creature we make an Idol of the thing we trust in we put God out of his place and set up that we trust in in Gods roome and so provoke God to jealousie VVhen men shall trust their wits in matters of Religion as in Popery they do they serve God after their own inventions what a dishonour is it to God as if he were not wise enough to prescribe how he will be worshipped Go after me Satan saith Christ to Peter he calls him Divell why what hurt was it he came with a good intention That which Popery think they please God most in they are Divells in and these things that they teach are the doctrines of Divells But the wisdom of the flesh is death it is not subject to the law of God nor can be subject saith the Apostle Rom. 8. So it is dangerous because it is offensive to God There is a way that seemeth right in a mans own eyes the issues whereof are the issues of Death It is Idolatry in regard of God And it is spirituall Adultery for what should take up our affections should we not place our joy our delight which follows our trust alway for trust carries the whole soul with it what should take up our joy and delight should not God and Heaven and Heavenly things should not these things have place in our hearts as they have in their own worth when we take these affections from God and place them upon the creature they are Adulterous affections when we love riches or pleasures better then God that gave us all it is an Adulterous whorish Love Oh ye Adulterer s and Adulteresses saith blessed St. James know ye not that the love of this world is enmity with God It is likewise falshood for it makes the creature to be that that it is not and it makes God that which he is not we despise him and set up the creature in his roome There is a false witnesse alway in false confidence indeed there are many sins in it There is Ignorance not knowing the creature to be so vain as it is there is Ignorance of God not knowing him to be All in all as he is And there is rebellion to trust in the Creature when God will not have it trusted in And there is impatience when these supports are taken away then men grow to murmuring There is almost all sins hidden in self-confidence and self-sufficiencie you see the danger of it to God Besides that it is dangerous to our selves it brings us under a curse Cursed is the man that maketh flesh his armes Jer. 17. that trusts in any thing but God It brings us under a curse as I said because it is Idolatry and spiritual Adultery And then again because leaning to a false prop that being taken away that shored us up before down we fall with that we leaned on Now all things but God being vanity we relying upon that which is vain our trust is vain as the thing is vain we can hope for no better condition then the things we trust to they are vain and we are vain so there is a curse upon them Therefore we have great cause to hate
whom we trust in growes and as his strength growes the more rich and strong a man growes in whom I trust and the more gracious and good he growes and the more my knowledge of him is increased with it too that I see he is so able so true so loving a man a man so affected to me the more he growes and my knowledge of him the more my trust is carried to him So a Christian the more he considers the infinitenesse of Gods love of his wisdom and goodnesse the more he is carried in trust and confidence to it Not to trouble you with many places the 62. Psal. is an excellent Psal. for trust and confidence in God the whole Psal. is to that purpose to stir up himself to trust in God for that followes knowledge when upon knowledge we rouze up our hearts God is my rock and my salvation and defence Is he so then my soul trust in God he chargeth it upon his soul Therefore I will trust in God And then he blames his soul Is God so Why art thou so disquieted O my soul This is the exercise of a Christian heart when upon sound knowledge he can charge his soul to trust in God and check his soul Why art thou cast down still trust in God Why dost thou not trust in him Is he not true Is he not wise He is The God of my salvation And in verse 8. Trust in God at all times in prosperity in adversity why God is my refuge There he sets forth his nature If our troubles be never so many there is somewhat in God that is answerable as in Psal. 18. He is a rock and a shield he hath somewhat in him that is opposite to every ill And withall Pour out thy heart to God for where there is trust there is prayer Trust in God at all times and pour out thy heart before him for he is our refuge And so Trust not in oppresion and Robbery If-riches increase set not your hearts upon them for God hath spoken once and twice that power belongs to God Trust not any other thing but God Power and Mercy belong to him This is a notable way to trust in God to know that power and mercy belong to him If another man love me hath not God another mans heart in his hand The Kings heart is in his hand therefore trust in God for the favour of men Hath he not all the power that that another man hath that affects me it is but a derived power from him he hath inclined him to do good to me All Mercy and Love it is from God and he turnes and disposeth it as it pleaseth him as it is the Scripture-phrase the language of Canaan the heart is in Gods hands he inclined the heart of such a man The knowledge of God with prayer and stirring up our selves to trust in God and checking our souls for the contrary it is a notable meanes to trust in God And though we feel no present comfort from God trust him for his word trust him for his promise though he seeme now to be a God hidden As a Child in the dark he holds his Father fast by the hand he sees not his Father but he knowes his Fathers hand is strong and though he see him not yet he believes it is his Father and holds him though it be in the dark Men they cast anchor in the dark at midnight though they cannot see yet they know that the anchor will hold fast Cast anchor upon God in darknesse and temptation hold God fast in the dark night although we see nothing we shall alway find this that he is a God able to fulfill his promise that he is a true and faithfull and able God cast anchor in him therefore though thou feele or see nothing be sure in all extremities to trust in God Besides other things trust in God is properly and primarily wrought by the promises trust in God so far as he hath discovered himself to be trusted I can trust a man no further then I have a writing or a word of mouth from him or a message from him Now what have we from God to trust him for we have his Word written and that is sealed by the Sacrament The way to trust in God therefore is to know the promises The general promises that doe concern all Christians and all conditions and estates of men God will be a Sun and a Shield a Sun for all good and a Shield to keep away all evill and no good thing shall be wanting to him that lives a godly life Again general promises for issue All things shall work for good to them that love God Romans 8. 28. And he will give his Spirit to them that ask him It is a generall promise to all askers whatsoever that they shall have the Spirit of God which is a promise that hath all particular graces in it for the Spirit is the Fountain of all grace it is the Spirit of Love of Faith of Hope all are in the promise of the Spirit and God hath promised this Let us trust in God for these generall things And for particular promises he hath made a promise to be a Husband to the Widow and a Father to the Fatherlesse He will regard the cause of the Widow and he is a God that comforteth he Abject He hath made promises to those that are afflicted to all estates and conditions of men trust in God for these But how he hath made these with conditions in regard of outward things Let us trust him so farre forth as he hath promised that is he will either protect us from dangers or give us patience in dangers he will give us all outward things or else contentment which is better take him in that latitude trust in him as he will be trusted to for outward things ' he will either give the things or give the grace which is better he will either remove the grievance or he will plant the grace which is better If he remove not the evill he will give patience to bear it and what do I lose if he give me not the good thing if he give me contentment I have grace to supply it which makes me a better man If he give me the thing without the Grace what am I the better a carnal Reprobate may have that So let us trust him as he will be trusted for Grace and spiritual things all shall be for our good without fail but for the things of this life either he will give them or else graces Let us trust God therefore as he will be trusted in his word and promises Now this trusting of God to speak a little to the present purpose because Saint Paul was now in great affliction when he learned to trust in God he was in fear of Death Let us see how we are to exercise this trust in great crosses and in the hour of Death St.
death yet I shall sleep in the Lord as when I goe to sleep I hope to rise again so I trust when the resurrection shall come that my body shall waken and arise I trust in God that raiseth the dead because he raiseth the dead he can recover me if he will if not he will make this body a glorious body afterward so every way it was a strong argument with Saint Paul I trust in God that raiseth the dead The Apostle draws an argument of comfort from Gods power in raising the dead And it is a true reason a good argument he that will raise the dead body out of the grave he can raise out of miserie out of captivity the argument is strong Thus God comforts his people in Ezek. 37. in that parable of the drie bones that he put life in So the blessed Apostle St. Paul he speaks of Abraham Rom. 4. 17. He looked to God who quickneth the dead who calleth things that are not as though they were What made Abraham to trust in God that he would give him Isaac again he considered if God can raise Isaac from the dead if he please he can give me Isaac back again and though Isaac were the sonne of promise yet he trusted Gods Word more then Isaac the sonne of his love Why he knew that God could raise him from the dead though he had sacrificed him he trusted in God who quickneth the dead The resurrection then is an argument to stengthen our faith in all miseries whatsoever It strengthens our faith before death and in death I will not enter into the common place of that point concerning the resurrection it would be tedious and unjust beause it is not intended here but onely it is used as a special argument Therefore I will but touch that point God will raise us from the dead Nature is more offended at this then any other thing But St. Paul makes it cleare that it is not against nature that God should raise the dead 1 Cor. 15. To speake a little of it and then to speake of the use the Apostle made of it and of the use that we may make of it Saith the Apostle in that place speaking to witty Atheists that thought to have cavilled out the resurrection from the dead Thou fool thou speakest against nature if thou think it altogether impossible Look to the seed do we not see that God every spring raiseth things that were dead We see in the silk-worm what an alteration there is from a flie to a worm c We see what men can doe by Art they make glasses of what of Ashes We see what nature can doe which is the ordinary providence of God we see what it can do in the bowels of the earth What is gold and silver and pearle is it not water and earth excellently digested exquisitely concocted and digested That there should be such excellent things of so base a creature We see what Art and nature can do If Art and nature can do so great things why do we call in question the power of God if God have revealed his Will to do so why do we doubt of this great point of Gods raising the dead The Ancients had much adoe with the Pagans about this point they handled it excellently as they were excellent in those points which they were forced to by the adversaries and indeed they were especially sound in those points I say they were excellent and large in the handling of this but I will not stand upon that it is an Article of our Creed I believe the resurrection of the body Indeed he that believeth the first Article of the Creed he will easily believe the last he that believes in God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth he will easily believe the resurrection of the body But I will rather come to shew the Use of it God will raise the dead Therefore Gods manner of working is when there is no hope in extremity as I touched before he raiseth us but it is when we are dead he doth his greatest works when there is least hope So it is in the resurrection out of troubles as in the resurrection of the body when there is no hope at all no ground in nature but it must be his power altogether that must do it then he falls to work to raise the dead Therefore our faith must follow his working he raiseth the dead he justifies a sinner but it is when he is furthest from grace a sinner despairing of all mercie then he hath the most need of justification He raiseth the dead but it is then when they are nothing but dust then it is time for him to work to raise the dead He restores but it is that which is lost God never forgets his old work this was his old manner of working at the first still every day he useth it he made all of nothing order out of confusion light out of darkness This was in the creation and the like he doth still he never forgets his old work This St. Paul being acquainted with he fastneth his hope and trust upon such a God as will raise the dead Therefore make that use of it that the Apostle doth when the Church is in any calamity which is as it were a death when it is as in that 37. of Ezekiel drie bones Comfort your selves God comforted the Church there that he would raise the Church out of Babylon as he raised those dead bones the one is as easie as the other So in the government of the Church continually he brings order out of confusion light out of darkness and life out of death that is out of extream troubles when men think themselves dead when they think the Church dead past all hope then he will quicken and raise it so that he will never forget this course till he have raised our dead bodies and then he will finish that manner of dispensation This is Gods manner of working We must answer it with our faith that is in the greatest dejection that can be to trust in God that raiseth the dead Faith if it be true it will answer the ground of it but when it is carried to God it is carried to him that raiseth the dead therefore though it be desperate every way yet notwithstanding I hope above hope I hope in him whose course is to raise the dead who at the last will raise the dead and still delights in a proportion to raise men from death out of all troubles and miseries Well this God doth and therefore carrie it along in all miseries whatsoever in soul in body or estate or in the Church c. God raiseth from the dead therefore we must feel our selves dead before we can be raised by his grace What is the reason that a Papist cannot be a good Christian he opposeth his own conversion what is conversion It is the first resurrection the resurrection of
the soul but that which is raised must be dead first they account not themselves dead and therefore oppose this resurrection And so when we are dead in grace or comfort let us trust in God that raiseth the dead And so for outward condition in this life and the estate of the Church The conversion of the Jewes which seems a thing so strange when a man thinks how they are dispersed and thinks of their poverty and disgrace he thinks Is this a likely matter Remember what God hath said he will raise the dead And because this is a work that seems as hard as the raysing of the dead therefore their calling and conversion is called a kind of resurrection Rom. 11. Let us hope for that He that raiseth the body will raise that people as despicable as they are to be a glorious people and Church And so for the confusion of the man of sin The revelation of the Gospel when it came out of the grave of darknesse out of the Egyptian darknesse of Popery was it not a raising of the dead When Luther arose for the defence of the truth a man might have said to him What doest thou set thy self against the whole World go to thy cloyster and say Lord have mercy upon us Doest thou hope to reform the World against all the World Alas he trusted in God that raiseth the dead that raiseth men to conversion when he pleaseth and that raiseth the Church when he pleaseth even from death He raised the Church out of Babylon And he will raise the Jewes that now are in a dead state why should we doubt of these things when we believe or professe to believe the main the resurrection from the dead And every day in the Church God is raising the dead spiritually the dead hear the voyce of Christ every day when the Ministery is in power when there is a blessing upon it conveying it to the heart then he is raising the dead So Wisdom is justified of her children the Gospel is justified to be a powerful doctrine having the Spirit of God clothing it to raise people from the dead those that are dead in sin There are none that ever are spiritually raised but those that see themselves dead And that is the reason why we are to abhor Popery because it teacheth us that we are not dead in our selves and then there can be no resurrection to grace for the resurrection is of the dead the more we see a contrarietie in Nature to Grace the more fit objects we are for the divine power of God to raise He raiseth the dead Thus we see how to go along with this in all troubles God will raise the dead therefore he will bring me out of this trouble if he see it good Therefore in extremity let us thus reason with our selves Now I know not which way to turn me there is but a step between me and death if God have any purpose to use my service furthet he that raiseth the dead will raise me from the grave to him belong the issues of death Psal. 67. he can give an evasion and escape if he will if not if he will not deliver me then I die in this faith that he will raise me from the dead This is that that upholds a Christian in extremity This made the Martyrs so confident this made those three young men so resolute that were cast into the fiery Furnace what was their comfort Surely this God can deliver us if he will say they he is able to deliver us now but if he will not do this for us he will raise our bodies if he will not deliver them here there will be a final deliverance at the resurrection So in Heb. 11. those blessed men they hoped for a better resurrection and this made them confident This makes us confident to stand out against all the threatnings and all the crosses of the world that we may hold our peace with God notwithstanding all the inticements and allurements to the contrary because we trust in God that raiseth the dead Again let us learn to extract contrary principles to Satan out of Gods proceedings What doth he reason when we are dead either in sin or in misery What hast thou to do with God God hath forsaken thee No saith faith God is a God raising the dead the more dead I am in the eye of the world and in my own sense the nearer I am to Gods help I am a despairing sinner a great sinner but the more God will magnifie his merey that where sin hath abounded grace may abound much more Retort home the argument draw contrary principles to him this is a divine Art which faith hath Oh but then you may presume and do what you list Not so retort the argument again upon him if I do so God will bring me to death he will bring me to despair and who is it that delights to have that course taken with him to be brought so low So every way we may retort temptations from this dealing of God If I be carelesse he will bring me as low as hell I shall have little joy to try conclusions with him And if thou be low despair not thou art the fitter object God raiseth the dead therefore I will not add to my sins legal I will not add this Evangelical sin this destroying sin of despair and unbelief but I will cast my self upon the mercy of God and believe in him that raiseth the dead and desire him to speak to my dead soul which is as rotten as Lazaru's body which had been so long in the grave that he would say to it Come forth of that cursed estate it is but for him to speak the word to blesse his word and then it will come out by faith It is the Art of faith to draw contrary arguments to Satan and those that belong to God do so in all temptations but those that do not they sink lower and lower having nothing to uphold their souls they have not learned to trust in God that raiseth the dead God is the God that raiseth the dead Therefore let us oft think of this think what God means to do with us that we may carry out selves answerably I trust in God that raiseth the dead Therefore let us honour God while we live with that body that he will raise let us be fruitful in our place Saint Paul drawes this conclusion 1 Cor. 15. from the resurrection Finally my brethren be constant unmoveable alway abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Especially considering that he will raise the dead bodies after a more glorious manner then they are now he will make a more glorious body For alway Gods second works are better then his first he raiseth the dead and will make our bodies like the glorious body of Christ. But the point of the resurrection is very large
and perhaps I shall have better occasion to speak of it afterward I onely apply it to the present purpose how it strengthens faith in misery and in the houre of death A man is strengthened in his faith when he thinks now I am going the way of all flesh I am to yield my soul to God and death is to close up mine eyes yet I have trusted in God and do trust in God that will raise my body from the grave This comforts the soul against the horrour of the grave against that confusion and darknesse that is after death Faith seeth things to come as present it sees the body after it hath a long time been in the dust clothed with flesh and made like the glorious bodie of Christ faith sees this and so a Christian soule dies in faith and sowes the body as good seed in the ground in hope of a glorious resurrection And that comforts a Christian soule in the losse of children of wife of friends that have been dearest and nearest to me I trust in God that raiseth the dead that he will raise them again and then we shall all be for ever with the Lord it is a point of singular comfort for the maine Articles of our faith they have a wondrous working upon us in all the passages of our lives it is good to think often upon the pillars of our faith as this is one That God will raise us from the dead But I go on to the next verse VERS 10. Who delivered us from so great a death who doth deliver us in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us SAint Paul sets down his troubles to the life that he might make himself and others more sensible of his comforts and of Gods grace and goodness in his deliverance These words contain his deliverance out of that trouble his particular deliverance out of a particular trouble And this deliverance is set down by a triple distinction of time as time is either past present or to come so God who is the deliverer for all times he hath delivered us for the time past he doth deliver us for the present in whom we trust that he will deliver us for the time to come Who delivered us from so great a death After St. Paul had learned to rrust in God after he had taken forth that lesson a hard lesson to learn that must be learned by bringing a man to such extremity I say after he had learned to trust in God that raiseth the dead God gave him this reward of his diligence in the blessed school of afflictions he delivered him who hath delivered us and who doth deliver us continually he will not take his hand from the work and for the time to come I hope he will do so still St. Paul here calls his trouble a death It was not a death properly it is but his aggravation of the trouble that calls it a death because Gods mercy onely hindred it from being a death it was onely not a death it was some desperate trouble some desperate sicknesse the particular is not set down in the Scripture We know what a tumult there was about Diana of Ephesus Acts 19. and in 1. Cor. 15. He fought with beasts at Ephesus which is in Asia after the manner of men Whether it were that or some other we know not whatsoever it was he calls it a death he doth not call it an affliction but a death a great death to make himself the more sensible VVherefore have we souls and understandings but to exercise them in setting forth our dangers and the deliverances of God to consider of things to affect us deeply The Apostle here to affect himself deeply he sets it down here by a death And oft-times in the Psalmes the Psalmist in Psalme 18. and Psal. 11. he calls his afflictions death and hell and so they had been indeed except God had delivered him But to come to the points that are considerable hence First of all we may observe this that God till he have wrought his own work he doth not deliver he brings men to a low ebbe to a very low estate before he will deliver Secondly After God hath wrought his own work then he delivers hischildren Thirdly he continues the work still he doth deliver me Fourthly That upon experience of Gods former deliverance Gods children have founded a blessed argument for the time to come He hath he will deliver me God is alway like himself he is never at a loss what he hath done he doth and will doe reserving the limitations as we shall see afterward God doth not at the first deliver his children He delivered St. Paul but it was after he had brought him to receive the sentence of death and after he had learned not to trust in himself but in God that raiseth the dead God deferres his deliverance for many reasons To name a few God doth deferre his deliverance when we are in dangers partly as you see here to perfect the work of mortification of self-confidence to subdue trust in any earthly thing St. Paul by this learned not to trust in himself And then to strengthen our faith and confidence in God when we are drawn from all creatures to learn to trust in him And to sweeten his deliverance when it comes to indear his favours for then they are sweet indeed after God hath beat us out of our selves Summer and Spring are sweet after Winter so it is in this vicissitude and intercourse that God useth favour after affliction and crosses is favour indeed That makes heaven so sweet to Gods Children when they come there because they go to Heaven out of a great deal of miserie in this world And partly likewise God defers it for his own glory that it may be known for his meer work for when we are at a losse and the soul can reason thus God must help or none can help then God hath the glory therefore in love to his own glory he defers it so long Again he useth to defer long that he might the more shame the enemies at length for if the affliction be from the insolencie and pride of the enemies he deferres deliverance till they be come to the highest pitch and then he ariseth as a Gyant refreshed with wine and smites his enemies in the hinder parts he is as it were refreshed on the sudden And as it is his greatest glory to raise his children when they are at the lowest so it is his glory to confound the pride of the enemies when it is at the highest if he should do it before his glory would not shine so much in the confusion of them and their enterprises against his children One would think he should not have let Pharaoh alone so long but he got him glory the more at the last in confounding him in the Red-sea So Haman came very farre almost to the execution of the decree he
us this and this So both the head of the Church and the Church it self plead with God from former experience and God calls them to former experience Remember the rock whence you were hewen And he upbraids them because they forgat the works done to their fathers in Psal. 105. and diverse others he objects to them that they did not make use of Gods former favours Psal. 106. 12. They forgot their Saviour that had done great things in Egypt c. they forgate his former favours And in the 13. verse of that Psal. They soon forgate his works and waited not sor his counsell And so it is with every particular St. of God they have reasoned from experience of Gods favours from the time past to the time to come the Psalmes are full of it among the rest Psal. 143. 5. I remembered the daies of old and meditated on all thy works I mused on the works of thy hands And in Psalme 116. 3. The sorrowes of death as the Apostle saith here I was delivered from so great a Death The sorrowes of death compassed me the paines of Hell took hold on me I found sorrow and trouble I cryed unto the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soule The Lord preserveth the simple I was brought low and he helped me What doth he build on that Return unto thy rest O my soul the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee thou hast delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling What will he do for the time to come I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living Thus we see how we may plead with God as the same Psalmist doth excellently in Psal 71. he goes along with God there from the beginning of his daies in verse 5. Thou hast been my hope Lord and my trust from my youth by thee I have been held from the wombe thou tookest me out of my Mothers bowels my praise shall be continually of thee What doth he plead from this now when he was old In verse nine Cast me not off in the time of my old age for sake me not when my strength faileth Why Thou hast been my God from my youth thou hast held me from the wombe therefore cast me not off in my old age forsake me not when my strength faileth So he pleads with God verse 17. Lord thou hast taught me from my youth now when I am old and gray-headed for sake me not till I have shewed thy strength to this Generation and thy power to every one that is to come Thus we see how the Spirit of God in his Children makes a blessed use of former experience to reason with God for the time to come and it will afford us arguments in all kinds We may reason from former spiritual favours to spirituall favours as for instance God hath begun a good work in us therefore He will finish it to the day of the Lord Phil. 1. His gifts and graces are without repentance And we may reason from spirituall favours past to all favours to come that are of a lower nature Rom. 8. He that spared not his own Son but gave him to death for us all how shall he not with him give us all things It is a strong reason he hath done the greate rtherefor â—…he may well do the lesse We may reason from one favour to another thus from temporal to temporal he hath delivered me therefore if it be for his glory and my good he will deliver me We may reason from once to all of the like Psal. 23. God is my shepherd c. He hath been with me in the valley of death he hath shewed himself to be my shepherd in all my troubles what doth he build on that for the time to come Doubtlesse the loving kindnesse of the Lord shall follow me all the dayes of my life This should teach us then this holy practice to lay up observations of Gods dealing and to take them as so many pawnes and pledges to move God for the time to come to regard us it is wondrous pleasing to him It is no argument to prevail if we come to men to say you have done this for me therefore you will because man hath a finite power which is soon drawn dry but God is infinite he is a spring he can create new what he hath done he can do and more too he is where he was at the fitst and will be to the end of the world he is never at a losse Therefore it is a strong argument to go to God and say Lord thou art my God from the womb thou hast delivered me from such a danger and such an exigence when I knew not what to do thou madest open a way I see by evident signs it was thy goodnesse thou art alway like thy self to be the same God now Therefore we should treasure up observations of Gods dealing with us And consider with them the promises and see how God hath made good his promise by experience and then joyn both together and we may wrastle with God Lord thou hast promised thus and thus nay I have had the performance of this promise in former times And now I stand in need of the performance of that promise which before I have had experience of And desire God by his Spirit to sanctifie our memories that we may remember fit deliverances fit favours that when the time shall come we may have arguments from experience What is the reason that we sink in temptation That we are to seek when troubles come It is from basenesse of Heart that though God have manifested his Care and Love to us by thousands of experiments yet we are ready upon everie new trouble to call all into question as if he had never been a good God to us this is base in fidelity of heart and our neglecting to treasure up blessed experiments of Gods former favour It should be the wisdom of every Christian to be well read in the story of his own life and to return back in his thoughts what God hath done for him how God hath dealt with him for the time past what he hath wrought in him by his holy Spirit Let us make use of it both in outward and in inward troubles in disconsolations of spirit and in inward desertions let us call to mind what good soever hath been wrought in us by such a meanes by such an Ordinance by such a Book by such an occasion Let us call to mind how effectually God hath wrought in us in former times and make use of this in the middest of the hour of darknesse when God seemes to hide his face from us I see not the Sun in a cloudy day yet notwithstanding the Sun is in the skie still At midnight we hope for the morning the morning will undoubtedly come though it be midnight for the present So David comforted himself in Psal. 77. 11. I
purpose not according to the flesh The rule from hence is this That A Christian man ought by all meanes to avoid the imputation of carnall policy Every Christian much more a Christian man in Authority and place a Minister or Magistrate ought by all meanes to avoid it Saint Paul here declines it Did I purpose things according to the flesh was I politick I had just occasion to speak largely of it in the former Verse concerning fleshly wisdome therefore I will speak the lesse of it now We ought by all means to decline the imputation of it and much more the conscience of it then the report of it to be holily wise and to be accounted so too The reason is It is Gods enemy and our enemy should a Christian consult and deliberate with his enemy to take his enemy to be his Judge and his friend and counsellour A man that hath his enemy to guide him to a place that hath a Pirate to guide him in a Ship how can he come to good He that is led by the flesh he consults with his enemy when he looks what is for his profit or his pleasure c. These things we should renounce as we promised in Baptisme when we gave our names to Christ. If we live and deliberate according to the flesh we shall dye saith the Apostle peremptorily It is a dangerous enemy death is the issue of all the counsell of the flesh Rom. 8. Again it is a secret enemy a domestick enemy it is in all the powers of the soul we cannot be too jealous against it It is a perpetual enemy that accompanies us continually in all our consultations in all places in prosperity in adversity it hinders us from all good it keeps us from the reformation of any thing that is ill If a Magistrate be suggested by any other or by a good motion of his own Do this reform this Oh I shall run my self into danger I shall incur censure so ill is done and is unreformed onely by consulting with the flesh and good is neglected I shall be accounted an hypocrite if I do this So there is flesh and blood to hinder in every good thing the flesh will be foysting bad ends or bad moving causes and the flesh will be ready to keep us from reforming ill from fear of danger And if we do ill and be in ill it will be ready to keep us in ill Oh it is time enough to repent c. a thousand such policies the flesh hath to keep us in ill till we be in hell it self Who would be advised and take counsel by such an enemy Therefore let us take heed we have it in us but let it live in us onely and not rule in us although it will be in us as long as we live yet let us not be ruled by it let us not admit it to counsel but suppresse it and keep it under Especially those that are Magistrates that are called to publick businesse let them not bring private respects to publick businesse but bring publick hearts to intend the good of Religion and of their Countrey before any private interest whatsoever And not consult according to the flesh If I do this I shall displease such and such that is no matter If it were not for Religion if a man have a publick mind such as the very Heathens had he would lay aside base respects in publick businesse Therefore I humbly desire such to examine deeply their intentions and purposes what they aym at whether to serve God and the Church and their Countrey or to serve themselves that if so be they may be safe they care not what befall their Countrey or Religion or whatsoever That is it that moves God to indignation to crosse their intentions for when God sees they set earth above heaven the world present before the world to come and the dirt of the world base respects before those that are greater that they invert the order of things he crosseth them in that they aime at because they crosse him in neglecting their duty Therefore as we would have things succeed well let us labour to consult not according to the flesh for our private advantage but for what may make most first for Religion and then for the publick good Again we may learn from hence That A ground of lightnesse is to purpose things according to the flesh To purpose according to carnal reason and affection it is a ground of lightnesse For mark the reason of it when a man is carried in his deliberations by carnal respects this will be for my profit this will incline such a man to me by this I shall get such a place c. when he is led by low and base respects it makes him light with God though he be never so good otherwise Because carnal respects build on outward things that are uncertain therefore all resolutions built on outward things and carnal respects are uncertain He that takes fleshly wisdome for his counsellour and adviser and intelligencer what doth he he is led with by-respects with one of the three Idols of the world some honour or pleasure or base profit now when the rule of deliberation is the flesh and the flesh carries to outward things that are variable a man is alway light and inconstant that propounds the deliberation of things according to the flesh What is the reason that a wicked man though he be not notoriously outwardly wicked but a shrewd man that is for himself that makes himself the end of all his projects what is the reason that such a man can never be a sound friend he is never a sound friend he is onely a friend so long as it makes for himself so long as he gets to his own in all things As the Jesuites use to say so it is true of every natural man they do all they do and consult in an order to spiritual things they do this and that and over-rule Kings and States and this is for the good of society and in an order of spiritual things A man that hath not grace in him above nature and above respects of nature he can never be a sound friend for when fleshly advantages come of pleasures and profits and honours when these rise one way or other there he leaves the bonds of friendship because there is a nearer bond between him and the things of this life he is led with the flesh and deliberates according to the flesh And that is the reason likewise why such a man can never be a good Christian he can never go through the variety of times why because he consults of things according to the flesh and as long as Religion stands with his aimes that he may enjoy his riches and his greatnesse and the contentments of this life with Religion so long he is content to be Religious if Religion crosse him in these he hath not learned to deny himself and
the soul under God A man may keep his wisdome and understanding safe still so he keep it under and let Divine truth sway and bring all in us into captivity to it self But alas the scope of the world is contrary instead of bringing the soul into captivity to Gods truth to be led by him to have no thoughts no aimes contrary to Gods will they make Gods truth a captive and prisoner to their own base affections as S. Paul saith Rom. 1. They hold the truth they withhold it as a prisoner under base affections And whereas all should serve the main end and intend better things they make a counterfeit loving of good things to serve their carnal ends they make heaven serve earth they make God serve man the Spirit serve the flesh they invert the order of things clean which is as contrary to nature if they had wisdome to consider it as that the heaven should be under the earth and the water above the air it overturnes all in Religion when we suffer carnal wisdome to rule all to imprison that light that God hath put into the heart and conscience and the light of his Word to base affections and not to bring all into captivity to the Spirit and the Word When we come to hear Gods Word we should consider that we come not for recreation but we come to a Counsellour to that that should sway and direct all our wayes and words to that that is not onely our comfort in the time of affliction but our counsellour as David saith it was the man of his counsel So we come here to be counselled to hear that which must direct us in the way to heaven we must come with a purpose to be guided by that to be taught As Cornelius faith We are here in the presence of God to hear what shall be said to us from God Saint Paul gives this direction 1 Cor. 3. If a man will be wise in heavenly things let him be a fool first It is a strange thing Let him be a fool that is let him be content to be esteemed so let him be content to lose his reputation of wisdome that he may be wise When he knowes others to be fooles let him take a substantial course that the vain world may think him wise It is hard counsel for of all imputations in the world many and the most had rather be accounted wicked then be accounted fooles account them the veriest fools which are unfit to speak think of them in the highest degree of ill you can oh they have wit enough for that they have learning and parts for that take not away their learning and parts account them not fooles account them what you will Religion masters this base opinion Saint Paul saith Let a man be a fool if he will be wise Let no man deceive himself and think Let poor men be so and so Religion is the private mans good and let them make conscience of such things but for us that are in place and authority we must rule by policy and he knowes not how to rule that is not a Politician Let no man deceive himself there is no man great or small but if he will be wise for heaven let him be a fool let him take courses that are conscionable though he be accounted a fool for his pains Let us be jealous of our own hearts in private and publick let us take heed to our own hearts that the flesh come not in Let us labour to be acquainted with Christ that he may be our counsellour and our guide in all things Specially now when we come to the Communion we now renew out Covenant with God and our acquaintance with Christ Jesus we come to feast with him Do we think to have any good by him any benefit by his death except we make him our King and Prophet to rule and guide us except we make him our Counsellour Therefore let us think before-hand we cannot come as we ought to receive the Communion unlesse we intend before-hand to renounce the flesh Christs enemy can you be welcome guests and resolve after to be led and ruled by his enemy If you will have good by Christs death as a Priest to reconcile you to God as this Sacrament seales the benefits of his death the breaking of the bread and the pouring out of the wine come with a purpose to be ruled and guided by this Counsellour in all things he is the great Counsellour Isai. 9. 7. that is willing to advise us by his Word and Spirit in all the particular passages of our lives and the more we enter into acquaintance with him by the Sacrament and maintain it by private prayer and by all sacred means the more ready he will be to do the office of a friend and counsellour in all the passages of our lives to advise us what is best I had occasion in verse 12. to speak at large of fleshly wisdome therefore I passe it That with me there should be yea yea and nay nay This sets down the manner of inconstancy the form of it yea yea to be on the affirmative part once and then nay nay the negative to be of one mind and peremptory in it and then to be of another mind and peremptory in that this is the issue of carnal wisdome and followes on it The things that I purpose do I purpose according to the flesh that with me there should be yea yea and nay nay insinuating that those that purpose things according to the flesh they are yea yea and nay nay Whence first we may observe which I touched before a little but it issues more properly hence from the dependance That Carnal men are alway inconstant men For a fleshly man led with the flesh being led with the things of the world and they being inconstant he must needs be as that which he is ruled by A man cannot stand safe upon the Ice because it self is not safe a man cannot stand in a thing that stands not that hath no consistence Now a Carnal man he hath no prop to hold him but the things below he cleaves to them and they are inconstant and variable and uncertain He that purposeth according to the flesh is yea yea nay nay Therefore his love is yea yea nay nay If he may have good by you he is yea yea he is for you but can you do him no good he is nay nay he will not own you then Therefore one way to be constant is not to be ruled according to the flesh which I spake of before for they that are are yea yea nay nay Therefore take heed how you trust carnal men in near intimate society as in marriage Or in near friendship never take a man that hath his own aimes and ends for he will respect you no more then he can advance his own ends by you Trust not the Wife of thy bosome saith the Prophet if she
what he preached among them and we have in them these particulars briefly to be unfolded First That Christ Jesus in his nature and his offices is the chief and main object and subject matter of preaching Secondly That to make him profitable to us he must be preached Thirdly That consent of Divines and Preachers helps faith Fourthly That Jesus Christ being preached by the Apostles is an undoubted yea that is an undoubted ground and foundation to build on in all the uncertainties of this life in all the uncertainty of Religion Jesus Christ pteached by S. Paul and other holy men of those times was not yea and nay but yea First Christ Jesus is the main object of Preaching It were impertinent here to stand on particulars to shew you how Christ is the Son of God for he is brought in here as the object of preaching Onely in a word we must of necessity believe that Christ Jesus is the Son of God For how wondrously doth this stablish our faith when we believe in a Saviour that is God the Son of God Jesus Christ by eternal Generation In a word here are these prerogatives of Christs Generation from all other sons whatsoever Other fathers are before their sons this Son of God was eternal with his Father Other fathers have a distinct essence from their sons the father is one and the son another they have distinct existences but here there is one common essence to the Father and the Son Other fathers beget a son without them but this Father begets his Son within him it was an inward work So it is a mystical Divine Generation which indeed is a subject of admiration rather then of explication that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Son of man This was typified in the Ark the Ark was a type of Christâ—… the Aâ—… had wood and gold that covered that wood Christs humane nature was the wood and his Divine nature that contained it that is the gold But I should be too large besides the scope of the Text if I should unfold this Point I only touch it by the way Christ Jesus in his natures as he is God Man and in his offices as Jesus Christ that is anointed as King Priest and Prophet and in his estates of abasement and advancement is the main subject matter of preaching For what can we say but it must be reductive and brought to Christ If we open mens consciences by the Law and tell them what a terrible estate they are in what do we but drive them to the Physician what is the law but as John Baptist was to Christ to prepare the way to level the soul to pull down the high thoughts and imaginations to make way and passage for Christ And then in Christ when we preach Christ we preach his natures God and man and his Offices as King Priest and Prophet as he is predestinate and sealed and anointed by God the Father for that purpose that we may have a strong Saviour strong in himself and authorized by his Father And we preach his estates of abasement as he was crucified and suffered for our sins and his estate of exaltation as he arose and ascended into glory These things belong to the preaching of Christ. And then the benefits we have by him reconciliation to his Father by his death and peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost and such like wondrous benefits we have by him And then our duty to him again which is faith and a conversation worthy To imbrace all that is offered by Christ that it be not lost for want of apprehending Christ Jesus is the subject matter of our preaching in his natures in his offices in the benefits we have by him in the duties we owe to him in the instrument of receiving all faith For in preaching that faith which we require to lay hold on Christ is wrought For preaching doth not onely manifest the benefits we have by Christ but is a potent instrument of the Spirit of God to work this qualification to make Christ profitable to us Now all that we preach of holy duties is either to humble us if we have them not to make us flye to Christ by faith or when we believe to make us walk answerable to our faith So whatsoever we preach is reductive to Christ either to prepare us or to furnish us to walk worthy of Christ. Indeed Jesus Christ is all in all in our preaching and he should be so in your hearing of all things you should desire to hear most of Christ. The apprehension of your sinfulnesse should drive you to Christ. The hearing of duties should be to make you adorn your Christian Religion you have taken on you Naturally men love to hear flashes witty conceits and moral points wittily unfolded but all these in the largest extent do but civilize men it must be Christ unfolded and Gods love and mercy and wisdome in him reconciling mercy and justice together The wondrous love of God in Christ and his justice and mercy and the love of Christ in undertaking to work our redemption and the benefits by Christ his offices estates and conditions these things work faith and love these things do us good All other things take them at the best they do but fashion our carriage a little but that which enlivens and quickens the soul is Jesus Christ. Therefore we should of all other things be desirous to hear of Jesus Christ. It is a point that the very Angels are students in For the Ark which I named before it had the Law and the Mercy-seat in it the mercy-seat to cover the Law Now Christ hath satisfied the Law and reconciled his Father he hath freed us from the curse of the Law and hath given full satisfaction to the Law he is the Mercy-seat by whom we have accesse to God the Father Now the Angels were upon the Mercy-seat interviewing one another and prying down upon the Mercy-seat insinuating that the reconciling of Gods Justice and Mercy by that infinite wisdome of God in Christ that our sins should be punished in him and yet he be merciful to us that he should punish our surety for us that he should joyn these attributes together that all the creatures in heaven and earth could not devise it is a matter for Angels to pry into the very frame of the Ark signified this and shall not we be students in those mysteries that the Angels themselves desire every day to behold If Christ be the main thing we are to stand on Let us labour more and more to understand Christ and him crucified let us see our nature in him advanced now in heaven to make us heavenly-minded let us see our nature in him punished let us see our sinful nature in him cleansed and purged by his death and abasement let us see our nature in him enriched Let us consider him as a publick person and
him mystically as the Son of his love so the promises are made and given over to him of all good he takes all the promises of good from God for us and then they are made to us as we are in him He himself is the first promise that runs along in all the Scripture and all the promises of Christ are yea for whatsoever was promised of Christ before he came it was fufilled when he came for all types were fulfilled in him and all Prophecies and all promises they were all accomplished in him All types whether personal or real For personall types he was the second Adam Adam was a type of him he is the true Adam He was the true Isaac the ground of laughter He is the true Joseph advanced now to the kingdome to the right hand of God he is the steward of his Church to feed his Church here and bring her to Heaven with himself afterward He is the true Joshua that brought Israel out of the wildernesse to Canaan he brings us from Moses from the law to heaven he is the true Joshua that brings us through Jordan from death and miseries in this world to heaven He is the true Solomon the Prince of peace so all personal types of Kings and Priests as Aaron was a type of him c. they were yea in him they were fulfilled in him And all reall types he is the true Mercie-seat wherein God would be heard and prayed unto for he covers the Law the curse of it as the Mercie-seat did He is the true brazen Serpent that whosoever looks on him with the eye of faith shall not perish but have everlasting life He is the true Mannah the bread of life that type had its yea in Christ. He is the true sacrifice the Passeover Lambe the Lambe of God that takes away the sins of the world if our hearts be sprinkled with his blood the destroying Angell hath nothing to do with us The Passeover hath its yea in him therefore that which is affirmed of the Passe-over is affirmed of him Not abone of it shall be broken that is attributed to Christ that was performed in the type that is applied to Christ that was spoken of the Passeover to signifie the identitie of the type and the thing signified He was the yea of that of all comfortable types that were real personal all have their yea in him Therefore saith our Saviour Christ the last words of his almost upon the crosse All is finished all the types real and personal And all promises and prophecies have their yea in Christ. The first promise what was it but Christ The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head it was nothing but Christ it was yea when he was born and when he died he crushed the Serpents head By death he overcame him that had the power of death that is the divel So the promise that was renewed to Abraham In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed that is in Christ. And so to David that he should come out of his family And that particular promise of I say that a Virgin should conceive And the Baptist points him out Behold the Lamb of God All the particular things that befel Christ in time they were prophesied of before and Christ was the yea of all that is all had their determinate truth in Christ when he came This is one reason why S. Paul saith All the promises in Christ are yea whatsoever was promised concerning Christ or foretold it was yea in him concerning his birth and the place of it concerning his death and the manner of it concerning his resurrection and ascension concerning his offices all was foretold as we see in Scripture in the New Testament it is the foot of diverse verses that It might be fulfilled so this that was foretold in the Old it was fulfilled in the New So Christ is the first promise and whatsoever was said of him is Yea and Amen Whatsoever was spoken of Christ it was Yea in the Old Testament and Amen in the New it was made to them in the Old Testament and performed in the New And what is the Old and New Testament but this syllogisme He is the Blessed seed that is the Son of the Virgin Mary born in Bethlehem that shall come in the end of Daniels weeks that shall come when the Scepter shall be departed from Juda c. He is the true Messias the true Christ saith the Old Testament here is the yea Amen saith the New Testament to this But Christ is the Son of the Virgin Mary he suffered these things that it might be fulfilled so all is Amen in the New Testament I say this is the main reason that all is built on He in whom all these agree is the true Messias But saith the New Testament all these are Amen in Christ therefore Christ the Son of the Virgin Mary he is the true Messias We see whatsoever was prophesied concerning Christ himself was yea And not onely so but all the prerogatives and good things that come by Christ are yea they are undoubted in Christ and they were yea before he was he profitted before he was he was yea to Adam because however he that was the seed of the woman came not till the latter end of the World till 4000. years after the beginning or thereabouts yet the faith of Adam and of Abraham made him present Abraham saw Christs day and rejoyced There was a vertue from Christ to all former ages they all had benefit by Christ as it is proved at large Heb. 11. And in Acts 15. We hope to be saved by Christ as well as they insinuating that they hoped to be saved by Christ as well as we so he was yea for comfort to all that were before him as well as now all the promises were yea even to the Patriarchs and Prophets Even as if a man should undertake three or four years hence to pay a debt that is due by one that is subject to be carried to prison and on that condition that this man shall be freed I undertake at such a time to pay such a debt so though the debt be paid three or four years hence he is let go free that was obnoxious to go to prison for the debt though it be to be paid after So it was with Christ he the second person in the Trinity undertook being so appointed by God the Father the blessed Trinity stablished this that Christ should pay the debt by death the debt to divine justice should be satisfied by the cursed death of the crosse that those that before should have gone to hell else for the debt should be all freed that had any part and interest by faith in Christ who should pay the debt afterwards Christ undertook at such a time to be incarnate and to pay it for us God the Father to whom we were obnoxious that
was the creditor for the payment of that 4000 years after let them go so Christ was yea to them they had benefit by Christs death Hereupon the Prophets spake of him as a thing present To us a son is born to us a Child is given Faith mounts over many years 600 years before Christ in the Prophet it mounted and made the time of Christs coming and his death to be present because they had benefit by him as if he had been present Onely with this difference in the time present when Christ came in the flesh they had some comfortable inlargement of Grace When he came in the flesh I say there was a new world as it were there was grace poured out in abundance So you see that all the promises concerning Christ they were performed They were Yea and Amen and the good things by Christ. Saint Paul saith excellently Heb. 13. Christ yesterday to day and the same for ever Yesterday to the Patriachs to day for the present time he is Yea and for the time to come he is Yea the same alway He is yea to all ages he is yea to us as well as to those that were in Christs time Christ is then crucified to thee when thou believest in Christ crucified If we now by faith look to Christ crucified and sent from his Father to take our nature on him we have as much benefit by Christ as those that beheld him crucified As they before looked forwards by the eye of Faith so we look backward we have benefits by Christ he is yesterday to day and the same for ever All the promises are yea in him that is they are constantly yea for all ages The promises of Christ as the spirits in the body they run through all ages of the Church Without him there is no love nor mercie nor comfort from God as I said before God cannot look on our cursed nature out of Christ therefore whosoever will apprehend any thing mercifull in God must apprehend it in Christ the promised seed All the promises in him are yea He is called Logos the Word why is he so both actively and passively Actively the Word because how should we ever have known the mind in the breast of God hidden and sealed there unlesse Christ had been the Logos the Word For a word is exprest from reason and there is a word that is essentiall that is reason Logos and so the word coming from it speech the issue of reason So Christ is the essentiall Word by nature and by office the Word to discover the inward will and purpose of God to us All the promises of God are discovered by Christ as the Angel of the Covenant And passively he is the Word Logos of whom all the Prophets spake as Peter saith Act 3. who was fore-signified by all the types as I shewed Christ he is truly all in all It is a comfortable way to study Christ this way to see him foretold in the Old Testament and to see the accomplishment in the New to parallel the Old and New Testament it is an excellent way of studying the Gosspel For we know men are delighted to know divers things at once when a mans knowledge is inriched diverse waies at once it delights him as when a man knowes the history of a thing and the truth with it when he knowes a promise and the truth a type and the ttuth how doth it delight When a man sees the type in the Old and the truth in the New the history there the promise and the accomplishment here it is a wondrous delightfull thing For why doth proportion delight the eye but because it is an agreement of different things a sweet harmony of different things Why doth musick so please the ear because it is a harmonie of different things When we see a type different from the truth performed and a promise different from the performance and yet a sweet agreement from agreement a man is delighted A man is not delighted with colours at colours but as they hold proportion with the rest of the body he is not delighted with a limb as a limb but as it holds proportion with the man if there be no proportion and comelinesse it delights not So in this case it is good to consider both together God therefore for this end and purpose would have truths conveyed in the Old Testament by way of types and prophecies and promises that it might delight us now to hear them and to study them the more for as I said when we know many things at once it is delightful That is the reason why comparisons and allusions are so delightful because we know the comparison and the thing to which it is compared And that is the reason why our Saviour Christ besides types and figures and promises and prophecies is set out by whatsoever is excellent in nature in the Scriptures There is nothing in nature that is excellent but there is something taken from it to set forth the excellencie of Christ. He is the Sun of righteousnesse he is the water he is the way he is the bread he is the vine he is the tree of Life Whatsoever is excellent in nature either in heaven or earth it serves to set forth the excellencie of Christ why to delight us that we may be willing and chearful to think of Christ that together with the consideration of the excellencie of the creature some sweet meditation of Christ in whom all those excellencies are knit together might be presented to the soul. When we see the sun oft to think of that blessed Sun that quickens and enlivens all things and scatters the mists of Ignorance When we look on a tree to think of the tree of righteousness on the way to think of him the way of life of him that is the true life When we think of any thing that is excellent think of Gods love in Scripture to set out Christ that he would shadow him in all for he is the true Sun all creatures must vanish ere long and whatsoever is excellent in the creature and what will stand then only he in whom all these excellencies are comprised in one All the promises in him are Yea and Amen If this be true then that the promise of Christ himself who is the chief good promised is in the New Testament Amen all of him is Yea and Amen then comes this as a deducted truth all other promises must needs be Yea and Amen for God he that performed the grand promise in giving Christ in the fulness of time will for Christs sake perform all other promises Therefore the incarnation the life the death and resurrection of Christ our blessed Saviour it is a pawn and pledge to us of the performance of all things to come God promised to the Jewes that they should come out of Babylon he promised that he would deliver them from the enemy and he usually prefixeth
with reasons discovering an absolute necessity of geting into Christ and of having him to be our Husband except we will lye under the wrath of God and be damned and withal discovering the fulnesse and excellency that is in Christ. Again it is God onely that must stablish the soul all the parts of it both judgment and conscience For I beseech you what can any humane creature what can any thing under God work upon the soul I mean so firmly as to stablish it and therefore our controversie with the Papists is just and good We say The reason and ground of our believing the Word of God to be the Word of God must not be the testimony of the Church and the authority thereof for alas what can the judgment of man what can the judgment of the Church do It may incline and move the will by inducing arguments and so cause a humane consent but to establish the soul and conscience and to assure me that the Word of God which is the ground of my faith is the Word of God it must be God by his Spirit that must do it the testimony of the Church will never do it The same Spirit that inspired holy men to write the Word of God works in us a belief that the Word of God is the Word of God The stablishing argument must be by the power of Gods Spirit God joyning with the soul and spirit of a man whom he intends to convert besides that inbred light that is in the soul causeth him to see a Divine Majestie shining forth in the Scriptures so that there must be an infused establishing by the Spirit to settle the heart in this first principle and indeed in all other Divine principles that the Scriptures are the Word of God And to go on a little further this is a fundamental errour in our practice For what is the reason we have so many Apostates what is the reason so many are so fruitlesse in their lives what is the reason that men despair in death but even this because men are not built and stablished aright Gods Spirit never stablished their soules in Divine truths For first concerning Apostasie ask them what is the reason they are of this or that Religion They will say they have been taught so they have been brought up to it the company with whom they have conversed have been devout men and have been alwayes led with this opinion and they see no reason to thwart it Is that all Hath not the Spirit wrought these things in thy heart hath he not given thee a taste of them hath he not convinced thee in thy judgment that it is so hast thou not found the power of the Spirit working upon thy soul changing of thee raising of thee drawing of thee out of the world nearer to God hast thou not I say felt the power of the Spirit this way No but thus I was catechized and thus I have been bred and thus I have heard in the Ministery And no otherwise Alas it will never hold out there will be a falling away for when a man believes not that which he believes from the Spirit of God he will be ready when dangerous times come when there is an onset made by the adversaries to fall and to fall clean away as we see it was in the time of Popery for whatsoever is not spiritual whatsoever knowledge is not Divine and from the Spirit of God never holds out Therefore I beseech you what 's the reason that you have many illiterate men that set upon the truth and hold out to the end and on the contrary many great seeming Scholars that are skilful in school-learning and in other Authours do not The reason is the one hath the truth from the Spirit discovering all the objections that the heart of man can make against it and the strength that is in the truth to answer and silence all those objections The other man hath onely a discoursing knowledge an ability to gather one thing from another and to prove one thing by another by strength of parts But the Spirit of God never discover'd the sleights and the corruptions of his heart never fastned and settled his heart upon the truth he never had experience of the truth For indeed nothing doth stablish so much as the experience of the truth on which we are stablished Again what is the reason of that unfruitfulnesse that is amongst men but because truths were never settled in the soul by the Spirit of God That which men know out of the Word of God concerning Christ and the priviledges by him they were never perswaded of it in their hearts therefore they come not to a fruitful conversation It is impossible but that men should be abundantly fruitful that have spiritual apprehensions of Divine things of Evangelical truths Hence comes all our unthankfulnesse and undervaluing of the Gospel The Gospel of it self is an unprized thing however we esteem of it God values it highly we value it not because our apprehensions of it are customary and formal gotten by breeding and education and discourse and not by the Spirit we feel not the spiritual and heavenly comforts of those truths we think we know How comes likewise Despair in time of temptation and in death but onely because men want this stablishing by the Spirit of God Men go on in evil courses trusting to a formal dead humane knowledge gotten by humane meanes and not settled in them by the Spirit of God that hath not sealed the truth in their hearts and hereupon when sharp tryals come they despair because they have no feeling of the truths of the Gospel and so when conscience is awakened and smarts it clamours and cryes out upon all their formall and humane knowledge For they having not a spiritual sense of the mercies of God in Christ and the perswasions of comfort are not so near to support the soul as the tentations and vexations and torments are how can they but despair Now who can still the conscience but the Spirit of God Why now if the knowledge that men had were spiritual and heavenly in all accusations of conscience it would set conscience down and still it I am a sinner indeed I am this and this but I have felt the sweet mercies of God in Christ God hath said to my soul I am thy salvation he hath intimated to my spirit by a sweet voyce Son thy sinnes are forgiven thee Where there is I say a knowledge and an apprehension of these Evangelical truths wrought by the Spirit it sets down Conscience and stills it though the heart rage at the same time There are thousands in the very bosome of the Church that miscarry because of this resting in a literall outward formall knowledge gotten onely by discourse and by reading and commerce with others and never labour to have their hearts stablished in Christ by Gods Spirit You see here then a
onely so but he sealed him by many miracles by the resurrection from the dead by which he was declared to be the Son of God by the calling of the Gentiles and by many other things Christ being sealed he sealed all that he did for our redemption with his blood and for the strengthening of our faith he hath added outward seales the two Sacraments to seal our faith in this blood and in him who is sealed of the Father But here in this place is meant another manner of sealing for here is not meant the sealing of Christ but the sealing of us that have communion with Christ. The same Spirit that sealed the Redeemer seales the redeemed What is our Sealing Sealing we know hath this use First of all it doth imprint a likenesse of him that doth seal upon the wax that is sealed as when the Kings Picture or Image is stamped or sealed upon the wax every thing in the wax answers to that in the seal face to face eye to eye hand to hand foot to foot body to body So we are said to be sealed when we carry in our soules the Image of Jesus Christ for the Spirit sets the stamp of Jesus Christ upon every Christian so that there is the likenesse of Christ in all things understanding answers understanding in proportion as a child you know answers the father it hath limb for limb foot for foot finger for finger but it is not in quantity but in proportion and likenesse so it is in the soul that is sealed by the Spirit there is a likenesse to Christ something of every grace of Christ there is understanding of the same heavenly supernatural truths there is a judging of things as Christ judgeth and the affections go as Christs do he loves that which Christ loves and he hates that which he hates he joyes in that which Christ delights in Every affection of the soul is carried that way that the affections of our blessed Saviour are carried in proportion Every thing in the soul is answerable to Jesus Christ and there is no grace in Christ but there is the like in every Christian in some small measure the Obedience of Christ to his Father even to the death it is in every Christian the Humility whereby Christ abased himself it is in every Christian. Christ works in the soul that receiveth him a likenesse to himself And this is an undoubted Character of a Christian The soul that believes in Christ doth not onely believe in him for his own sake to be forgiven of his sins but together with believing feeling the forgivenesse of his sins and that Christ hath so loved him and done such things for him he is ambitious to expresse Christ in all things and it stirres him up with desire to be like him for thinks he is there such love in Christ to me and is there such grace and mercy in God to me and was Christ so good as to do and to suffer such things for me Oh how shall I improve things for him Oh that I might be like him lovely in his eyes This I say must needs be so these desires are undoubtedly universally in the soules of all those that partake of Christ it is the nature of the thing to be so we shall desire to be transformed more and more to Christ Every way to bear the Image of the second Adam who is as the Apostle saith from heaven heavenly and so shall we be heavenly-minded as he was heavenly-minded on earth talking and discoursing of the Kingdome of Heaven and sitting people for the Kingdome of heaven and drawing others from this world to meditate of a better estate there is a likenesse to these in the soul of every believer and that 's the reason that Christs Offices are put together in all those that he saves that look whosoever he is a Priest to to dye for their sins to them he is a Prophet to teach them and a King to subdue their corruptions and to change them and alter them and to rule them by his Spirit You have carnal men in presumption which leads them to destruction they sever things in Christ they will take benefit by Christ but they care not for his likenesse they will have him as a Priest but they respect him not as a King Now all that are Christs have the stamp of the Spirit upon them there are desires wrought in them by the Spirit of God to that purpose and a Spirit of Sanctification that makes them every way like Christ in their proportion And that is an evidence of the sealing of such a soul because the soul of it self hath no such impression for the soul of it self is a barren Wildernesse a stone that is cold and uncapable of impression when therefore the soul can command nature being stiffe and hard and dead we see an impression of a higher nature a man may know that undoubtedly the Spirit of God hath been in this soul for we see a loving spirit an humble spirit a gracious a believing a broken spirit an obedient spirit to every commandment of God the soul can yield it self wholly to the will of God in all things certainly I say the Spirit of God hath been here for these things grow not in a natural soul. A stone you know is cold by nature and if a man feel a stone to be hot a man may undeniably gather Certainly the Sun hath shined upon this stone Our hearts are very cold by nature undoubtedly when they are warmed with the love of God that they are made plyable to duties the Sun of righteousnesse Christ hath shined on this cold heart Gods Spirit can work on Marble can work on Brasse as Jeremy saith It was the commendations of one of the Fathers that he could work on Brasse God can work on our soules which are as brasse and make an impression of grace there and therefore when a man sees an impression upon such hard mettal certainly he may know that the finger of Gods Spirit hath been there So that the work of Sanctification is an undoubted feal of the Spirit of God A second use of a Seal is Distinction Seales are given for distinguishing for you know sealing is a stamp set upon some few out of many so this sealing of the Spirit it distinguisheth Christians from others as we shall see more at large afterwards Then again a Seal it serves for Appropriation for men seal those things that are their own Merchants seal those Wares that they either have or mean to have a right unto Men seal their own sheep and not others and stamp their own Wares and not others God here stoops so low as to make use of terms that are used in humane matters and contracts and by sealing he shewes that he hath appropriated his own to himself chosen and singled them out for himself to delight in Again sealing further serves to make things authentical to give authority and excellency to
because they grieve the Spirit and quench the Spirit by doing that which is contrary to the Spirit Let us therefore that we may have the more comfort preserve the stamp of the Spirit fresh by the exercise of all grace and communion with God and by obedience and by faith honour God by believing and he will honour thee by stamping his Spirit on thee more and more And let this be our work every day to have the stamp of the Spirit clear Oh what a comfort it is to have this in us at all times if a man have nothing in him better then nature if he have nothing in him in regard of grace if he have not Christs Image upon his soul though he be a King or an Emperour yet he shall be stript of all ere long and be set on the left hand of Christ and be adjudged to eternal torments It is the folly of the times come up of late there is much labouring for Statues and for curious workmanship of that kind and some pride themselves much in it and account it great riches to have an old Statue Alas alas what a poor delight is this in comparison of the joy that a Christian hath by the seal of the Spirit and what is this to the ambition of a Christian to see the Image and representation of Christ stamped in his soul that he may be like the second Adam that he may be transformed more and more by looking on him and seeing himself in him to love him considering that he hath loved us so much for we cannot see the love of Christ to us but we must love him the more and be transformed into him Now this transforming our selves into the Image of Christ is the best picture in the world therefore labour for that every day more and more There is besides the common broad seal of God his Privy Seal as I may call it It is not sufficient that we have the one that we have admittance into the Church by Baptisme but we must have this privy seal which Christ sets and stamps upon the soul of the true Christian Alas for a man to build onely on the outward seals and outward prerogatives which in themselves are excellent yet the standing upon them betrayes many soules to the Devil in times of distresse It is another manner of seal then the outward seal in the Sacrament that will satisfie and comfort the conscience in the apprehensions of wrath at the hour of death or otherwayes It must be this privy seal and then comes the use of those publick open known seales the broad seales then a man with comfort may think upon his Baptisme and upon his receiving the Communion when he hath the beginnings of faith wrought in him by the Spirit of God when a man finds the beginnings of faith in him then he may make use of the broad seal to be a help to his faith We must not be so prophane as to think slightly and irreverently of Gods Ordinances they are of great and high consequence for when Satan comes to the soul and shakes the confidence of it and saith Thou art not a Christian and God doth not love thee Why saith the soul God hath loved me and pardoned my sins he hath given me promises and particularly sealed them in the Sacrament here is the excellency of the Sacrament it comes more home then the Word it seales the general promise of God particularly to my self I am sealed in the Sacrament and withall I find the stamp of the Spirit in my heart and therefore having the inward work of the Spirit and God having fortified the inward work and strengthened my faith by the outward seal I can therefore stand against any temptation whatsoever They are excellent both together but the speciall thing that must comfort must be the hidden seal of the Spirit Let us labour therefore to be sealed inwardly and observe Gods sealing-dayes as we use to speak which though it may be every day if we be in spiritual exercises yet especially on the Lords Day for then his Ordinance and his Spirit go together Now as there is a sealing of our estates that we are the children of God so there is of truths and both are in the children of God as for instance this is a truth Whosoever believes in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life now the same Spirit that stirred up the soul to believe this seales it in the soul even to death and in all times of temptation and likewise there is no promise but upon the believing of it it is sealed by the Spirit upon the soul for those truths onely abide firm in the soul which the Spirit of God sets on What is the reason that many forget the comforts and consolations that they hear because the Spirit sets them not on the Spirit seales them not What is the reason that illiterate men stand out in their profession to blood whereas those that have a discoursive kind of learning they yield the reason is this the knowledge of the one is sealed by the Spirit it is set fast upon the soul the Spirit brings the knowledge and the soul close together whereas the knowledge of the other is onely a notional swimming knowledge it is not spiritual Those therefore that will hold out in the end and not apostatize those that will stand out in the hour of death against temptation and those that will hold out in the time of life against solicitations to sin they must have a knowledge suitable to the things they know that is they must see and know heavenly things by a heavenly light spiritual things by the Spirit of God And therefore when we come to hear the Ministers of God we should not come with strong conceits in the strength of our wit but with reverend dispositions with dependance upon God for his Spirit that he would teach us together with the Ministers and close with our soules and set those truths we hear upon our soules we shall never hold out else And it must be the Holy Ghost that must do this for that which must settle and seal comfort to the soul must be greater then the soul especially in the time of temptation when the terrours of the Almighty are upon us and when the hell within a man is open when God layes open our consciences and writes bitter things against us and our consciences tell us our sins wondrous near they are written as it were with a pen of Iron and the point of a Diamond upon our soules now I say those truths that must satisfie conscience that is thus turmoiled must be set on by that which is above conscience the Spirit of God who is above our spirits can onely set down our spirits and keep them from quarrelling and contending against the truth and quiet the conscience and this the Spirit doth when it sets the truth upon the soul. And therefore when our soules are disquieted
this hope saith the Apostle purgeth himself he that finds some little beginnings of grace and comfort the beginings of heaven upon Earth he frames himself to the perfect state in heaven for it is the nature of faith and hope wheresoever they are to frame the disposition of the person in whom those graces are planted by the Spirit to the condition of that that soul believes and hopes for it is in the nature of the thing it should be so For doth not hope in any man that hopes to appear before some great person make him alter his attire and fashion his carriage and deportment as may be plausible before the person whom he goes to and doth not faith and hope of better things where they are in truth fashion and dispose every man to be such as may be fit for heaven The title to heaven we have indeed by Christ but the soul knowes there must be a qualification No unclean thing shall enter into heaven and therefore where the Earnest is there is a continual desire to be better a continual relinquishing of corruptions more and more a perfecting of the work of mortification and the work of grace more and more for the same Spirit that is an Earnest and gives us any beginning of a better life it likewise stirres us up it fits and prepares us for that state that is kept for us it is impossible it should be otherwise In what strength the Earnest is in that strength sanctification and mortification are and therefore persons that live in sins against Conscience that defile their tongues and defile their bodies let them talk what they will it is but a presumptuous conceit it is not the voyce of Gods Spirit but of carnal presumption for wheresoever the Spirit is an Earnest of heaven it is alwayes preparing and fitting the soul for that glorious happy estate And wheresoever likewise this Earnest of the Spirit is wheresoever this grace is begun in truth there is a desire of accomplishment an earnest desire of the coming of Christ to finish all to finish the bargain Rev. 22. The Spirit and the Spouse say Come that is the Spouse by direction of the Spirit where the Spouse is guided by the Spirit and so far as the Spouse is guided by the Spirit she saith Come Come Lord Jesus come quickly Except in two Cases Except the Christian hath grieved and wounded his conscience grieved the Spirit and then it is loath to go hence Unlesse likewise the spirit of a Christian be careless and would settle things in better order before he go to Christ for this is the fruit of presumption and carelesnesse that it grieves the Spirit of God and the Spirit being grieved grieves them he makes that which should be their comfort their going to Christ by death he makes it terrible for as we see a weak eye cannot endure the light so a gauled guilty conscience trembles to think of Christs coming though the Earnest be there yet if the soul tremble that the soul be wounded stay a while Oh stay saith the Psalmist before I go hence and be no more seen When the wife hath been negligent she would have her husband stay but when she hath been diligent then the wife is willing her husband should come but perhaps things are not settled as they should and therefore she doth not desire his coming as at other times But take a Christian in his right temper he is willing to dye nay he is willing and glad and joyful to go to Christ then he knowes the Earnest shall be accomplished with the bargain then he knowes what God hath begun he will perfect then he knowes all the Promises shall be performed when all imperfection shall be removed and all enemies shall be conquered c. A carnal man doth not say as the Spirit in the Spouse speaks Come Lord come but stay Lord stay and as the Devil that possessed that person What have we to do with thee Art thou come to torment us before our time they think of it with quaking For otherwise they that have the Earnest of the Spirit have joyful thoughts of it and wishes answerable to those thoughts Again wheresoever this Earnest is in truth the Earnest of the Spirit there is growth for it is the nature of things imperfect to come to their perfection that they may encounter with whatsoever is contrary to them and that they may do their functions that they are fitted by for God Now God having fitted the new creature to serve him and to go through all the impediments in this world and all the crosses where he hath begun this work it will labour to come to perfection As in the natural body we are not content to live but when we have life we desire health and when we have health we are not content with that but we desire strength not onely health but strength to perform that we should do So where the spiritual life is begun the living soul is not content to live to find an Earnest a little beginnings but if he have that he would have health he would not have any spiritual disease to lye on the soul that might hinder it in the functions of it and together with health it desires fuller and fully strength because it hath many temptations to encounter with many corruptions to resist many actions to do many afflictions perhaps to bear all which require a great deal of strength wheresoever grace is in truth it is alwayes with a desire of growth and answerable to that desire will be the use of all the means of growth Again to name one or two more and so end Wheresoever the Spirit is as an Earnest it doth as the seal doth spoken of before that as it hath a quieting power an assuring power it quiets the soul wheresoever it si it is given to stay the soul to comfort it that the whole shall be performed in time and therefore the soul that hath the Earnest of the Spirit so far forth as he hath this Earnest it quiets and stayes the soul. A man may know true faith from false and true Earnest from presumption by this as we know other things I say it stills and quiets the soul and it will endure the tryal We say of Alcumy gold it is counterfeit it will not strengthen the heart true gold hath a corroborating power to strengthen the heart whether it be so or no let the Alcumists look to it but it is true that true Eanest the beginnings of faith though it be but in a little measure it hath a quieting a stilling a strengthening power to strengthen and corroborate the soul for it is given for that purpose And a man that hath the least grace will endure the search as true gold will endure the touchstone the false will not and it is a sign that a man hath true grace in him although it be with much
fall into sin from this very ground for why do men fall into sin because at that time they stand not upon the Word of God revealed by conscience to be the Word of God Ask them why they sweat if they did believe the truth the Word saith I will not hold them guilâ—…lesse that take my Name in vain But I am not convinced by the Spirit assuring my soul that it is the Word of God if men did believe it would men bring a curse upon themselves And so whoremongers the Word of God saith Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge would men if they did believe this truth live in these sins But they have only an opinion of these things I hear that these things are divine perhaps they are not so and the knowledge that we have is not divine faith is not mingled with the Spirit Then again from sin we fall into despair for sin at last why because our knowledge of divine truthes is not spiritual nor from inward grounds of Scripture felt by experience the Spirit sealing the Scripture to my heart by some spirituall experience and thereupon men fall into despair for sin at length For Satan plies them with temptations from their own guilty conscience the grounds of their fears are present and the grounds of their terrours are present to their soules for they are there as it were sealed and branded in their very soules but their comforts are overly the promises are overly the Word is not rooted in their hearts by faith it is not sealed there by the Spirit of God the sanctifying Spirit never brought the Word and their soules together Hereupon they fall into desperation when their terrours are present and their comforts are overly If a man have never so sound a foundation if he stand not but float upon it he may fall and sink if a man be never so weak if he lie on a rock the strength of the rock is his so in our temptations if we have a strong foundation if we do not rest on it the foundation will not uphold us Now how can those rest on it that stagger in it that were never convinced by the Spirit that these things are so and that have had no spiritual experience Satan drawes thousands of soules to perdition because their terrours are present and their comforts are overly they are not built upon divine truth by the Spirit of God Again for Apostasie in the times of the alteration of Religion why do men alter as the State alters they are ready to have every Moneth a new faith if the times and Goverment alter why because they were never convinced by the Spirit of God of divine truths They had it from forreign arguments The former State of things countenanced this way now another State countenanceth another opinion therefore I will be of the safest This is because the soul was never convinced of the truth Therefore I beseech you labour to have arguments from the experience of the power of the Word in your soules and arguments from the Spirit of God to your spirits that it is the Word of God I will stand to divine truth I find such a majesty such a humbling pacifying satisfying power in it to all my perplexities and doubts that it cannot but be the Word of God it stayes my soul in all oppositions in all temptations and corruptions it gives a stay and foundation to my soul that no truth in the world else can do When the soul is brought to such a frame such a soul will not fall into grosse sins while it is in such a frame much lesse will it despair for sin and if there be altering of Religion a thousand times it stands as a rock unmovable because it knowes from inward grounds from the Word of God it self sealed by the Spirit to my spirit that it is the Word of God such a soul will hold out and only such a soul. We should labour therefore by all means to have our faith strengthened and amongst other meanes by the use of the Sacrament whereby God sweetly conveys himself to us by way of a banquet strengthening our faith in Christ he presents Christ to us as the food of our soules to refresh us even as the bread and wine doth Our blessed Saviour is wiser then we he knowes what we stand in need of that we have need to strengthen our faith For we have need to strengthen that that must be our strength which is faith And what is the Ordinance of God to strengthen faith is it not the Sacrament The proper use of the Sacrament is to strengthen faith which the Sacrament doth being a visible Sermon to us for here we see in the outward things Christs body broken and his blood shed it is a lively representation a visible crucifying of Christ a breaking of his body and pouring out of his bloud And withall here is an offer of Christ to us in the elements sealing of what it represents to our soules if we come prepared God feeds us not with empty signes but together with the outward things themselves he gives the spiritual to the soul that is a worthy Receiver Therefore come with a humble stooping to Gods wisdom in appointing these Ordinances to this end to strengthen faith And come with a desire to have faith strengthened that will uphold us against all temptations to sin or to despair for sin Oh beloved if we knew what good our faith must do us ere long we would labour to have it strengthened by all means What will become of us in the hour of death and in great temptations we shall be as chaffe driven with the wind if we have no consistence and stability in divine truth if our soules be not built on that if we have not faith whereby our soules may be rooted in Christ we shall be but a prey for Satan Therefore considering that faith is of such wondrous consequence it is the root of all other graces whatsoever as the Apostle saith here By faith ye stand He doth not say By patience or by hope or the like they are drawn from faith Strengthen that and strengthen all other that are infused from it As a tree we cast not water on the branches but on the root all the branches are cherished by the root so strengthen faith we strengthen love and hope and all if we strengthen faith and assurance of Gods love in Christ. Thus I have at length gone over this fruitfull portion of Scripture FINIS AN Alphabetical Table DIRECTING The Reader to the Ready finding out the Principal Points and Matters handled in this Book A. Achaia AChaia the Countrey wherein Corinth was Page 5 Acknowledge Acknowledge or Acknowledgment what p. 316 331 To acknowledge Christ what pag. 331 Christ acknowledged in the Minister p. 331 333 How to know whether we acknowledge the Minister p. 331 332 333 Action Three sorts of Actions good ill indifferent p. 254
27 28 Men are prone to presume of Gods mercy p. 26 27 28 See Presumption All Gods Attributes without mercy are terrible p. 23 Objection of a poor dejected soul against the Doctrine of Gods mercy or mercifulnesse answered p. 30 To whom Gods mercy is unlimited viz. to repentant soules not to presumptuous sinners p. 27 How to be made fit for or capable of mercy p. 36 How to improve mercy daily p. 37 Kinds of Gods mercies p. 24 25 Merit Against Merit p. 202 Minister Ministery Ministers must win by life as well as by doctrine p. 274 Ministers joyned are with Christ in acceptance and neglect p. 333 A faithful Minister is the joy of the people ibid. The Ministery is a great gift and blessing of God p. 334 346 347 348. The peoples proficiency in grace is the Ministers joy p. 336 All the good we have by Christ is conveyed by the Ministery p. 39 Consent of Ministers is a help to faith p. 391 Ministers are to be prayed for by the people See Prayer Mistake Holy men are subject to Mistakes pag. 374 See Errour N. Name MEn have oft their name and denomination in Scripture by that which they are ruled by p. 275 365 New Popery is a new Religion p. 396 397 O. Oath OAth what p. 376 515 An Oath lawful p. 516 517 Kinds of Oathes p. 376 514 515 A Christian life is a kind of Oath p. 518 Conditions of an Oath pag. 376 514 515 An Oath not good unlesse necessary p. 376 515 516 517 Qualifications of an Oath ibid. None but good men should take an Oath p. 515 Parts of an Oath ibid. An Oath to be taken onely in serious matters p. 515 517 See Swearing Occasion A good man must take all occasions to do good p. 354 Oil Ointment The Spirit with its graces compared to Oil or Ointment p. 464 c. Old Our Religion is the old Religion p. 394 395 c. Popery no old but new Religion p. 396 397 Onenesse A Christian man is one man he doth act one mans part p. 317 There is but one Faith p. 394 One Catholick Church ibid. Opinion It 's good to cherish a good Opinion of others p. 323 344 See Conceit Hope P. Partake THose that partake in other mens sins shall also partake in their sufferings p. 119 Paul St. Paul's prerogative above other Apostles pag. 2 St. Paul's modesty and humility p. 3 S. Paul had a good opinion and conceit of the Corinthians p. 322 How S. Paul could be deceived in his journey and not in his doctrine pag. 373 374 How Timothy is called S. Paul's brother p. 4 S. Paul's course to hold out in holy resolution to the end p. 324 Peace True Peace issues from Grace p. 14 Persecution They that persecute the Saints persecute Christ p. 81 See Affliction Suffering Tribulation Perseverance Resolution to persevere and hold out in a good course to the end p. 323 S. Paul's course to persevere in holy resolution to the end p. 324 Gods Children may be assured that they shall persevere and hold out to the end pag. 489 c. He that is in the state of Grace shall persevere in it to the end p. 490 Physician Physicians do ill in flattering the sick and feeding them with hopes of long life when they are at the point of death p. 136 We should open the case of our soules to our spiritual Physicians p. 535 Policy A Christian should avoid the imputation of carnal Policy p. 365 Not to subordinate Religion to State Policy p. 294 295 Pope Popery Popery crosses the Word of God p. 385 386 The Popes Treasury what p. 107 Popery founded upon Traditions p. 545 546 Popery a rotten and unsound Religion ibid. Popish Religion is full of Contradictions p. 386 Popish Religion is full of uncertainties p. 386 387 How and wherein Popish and Protestant Religin agree and differ p. 395 398 It's safer to be a Protestant then a Papist p. 397 Whether a Papist may be saved pag. 397 398 Popery to be detested because it teacheth men to trust to their own works and satisfactions p. 142 Praise God the object of Praise how p. 20 God to be praised as he is the Father of Christ p. 21 Praise follows prayer or After prayer praises are due p. 204 The praises of many are gratefull and acceptable to God ibid. How the unreasonable creatures praise God p. 206 We are to praise God for others for all sorts of men ibid. Wherein praise consists p. 207 See more in Blesse Thankfulnesse Prayer Prayer is a means to convey all good and deliver from all ill p. 188 Gods children can pray for themselves p. 190 Christians ought to help one another by prayer p. 191 People ought to pray for Ministers p. 193 200 201 What is to begg'd of God or pray'd for for Ministers ibid. Christians have not the Spirit of prayer at all times alike p. 193 Prayer is not a work of gifts but of grace p. 194 Divers gifts in prayer ibid. Prayer is a prevailing course with God and why p. 195 c. How to know whether our prayers help the Church p. 199 It 's an ill condition not to be able to pray p. 200 God will deliver the Ministers by the peoples prayers ibid. It 's a good thing to beg the prayers of others in sicknesse p. 203 The more eminent men are the more they are to be prayed for p. 215 Preach Christ is the main Object of Preaching p. 388 See Ministery Word Presence Personal presence hath a special power p. 346 Presumption Against presuming upon Gods mercy p. 27 28 See Mercy Difference between faith and presumption pag. 441 Pride Pride is a sin against all the Commandments pag. 219 Priest Christians are Priests how pag 467 468 Promise God deales with men by Promises pag. 402 Promise what p. 403 All Promises made in Christ pag. 403 All the Promises are Yea and Amen in Christ p. 407 408 c. Several kinds of Promises p. 413 Till a man be in Christ he hath no good by the Promises p. 418 What right a man out of Christ hath to the Promises p. 419 Comfort from the Promises to them that are in Christ pag. 420 421 c. How to make use of the Promises and to have comfort by them pag. 424 425 c. What to do when in trouble we cannot call to mind any particular Promise p. 425 We should make the Promises familiar to us p. 428 Signes or Evidences of believing the Promises pag. 432 433 434 c. to 438 Promises are Legacies as well as promises p. 435 Gods Promises called a Testament a Will ibid. Necessity of application of the Promises to our selves p. 440 None have interest in the Promises but such as find a change in themselves p. 473 Prophets How Christians are Prophets pag. 468 Prophets and Apostles how subject to errour how not p. 374 Providence Providence what p. 177 R. Rejoyce See Joy Religion NOt to
insinuates as if he should say What can I give you better then the Holy Ghost and yet this will I give you if you ask him that is the good thing that God gives for indeed that is the seed of all graces and of all comfort and therefore a world of promises are included in that promise that he will give the Spirit to them that ask him Labour by these and such like means for the Spirit and then if you have the Spirit the Earnest of the Spirit and the seal of the Spirit then mark what will come of such a temper of soul that will go through all conditions whatsoever come what will for the Spirit is above all and the comforts of the Spirit are above all earthly comforts and the graces of the Spirit are able to encounter with all temptations So that a man that hath the Spirit stands impregnable the work of grace cannot be quenched because it is the effect and the work of the Spirit all the powers of all the Devils in hell cannot stirre it God may hide his comfort for a time to humble us but to quench the work of the Spirit once wrought in the heart all the power of all the Devils in hell cannot quench the least spark of saving grace it will carry us through all opposition whatsoever Let a man never baulk or decline in a good cause for any thing that he shall suffer for the seal and the Earnest of the Spirit is never more strong then when we have no other comfort by us but that when we can draw comfort from the Well-head from the Spring therefore we should labour for the Earnest of the Spirit for it will fit us for all conditions whatsoever What makes a man differ from himself what makes a man differ from another Take a man that hath the Earnest of the Spirit you shall have him defie death the world Satan and all temptations Take a man that is negligent in labouring to encrease his Earnest you shall have him weak and not like himself The Apostle Peter before the Holy Ghost came upon him the voice of a weak damsel astonished him but after how willing was he to suffer any thing Therefore let us not labour much to strengthen our selves with the things of this life or to value our selves by our dependance upon others if thou hast grace thou hast that that will stand by thee when all other things will fail for all other things will be taken away but the Comforter shall never be taken away it goes along with us continually First it works Earnest in us and then it stamps upon us his own mark and then it leads us from grace to grace and in the hour of death then especially it hath the work of a Comforter to present to us the fruits of a good and holy life and likewise the joyes of heaven when we are dead the Spirit watcheth over our bodies because they were the Temples of the Holy Ghost and at the day of judgement the same Spirit shall knit both body and soul together and after the same Spirit that hath done all this shall be all in all to us in heaven for ever and then our very bodies shall be spiritual where as now our souls even the better part of them is carnal Even as the fire when it possesseth a piece of Iron it is all fire So our bodies shall be all spiritual What a blessed thing is this to have the Spirit what are all friends to the Holy Ghost which will speak to God for us The Spirit will make request with sighes and groans and God will hear the voice of his own Spirit What prison can shut up the Spirit of God Above all labour to have more of the Spirit of God this will make us more or lesse fruitfull more or lesse glorious in our profession more or lesse willing to dye Labour to encrease this Earnest that the nearer we come to heaven the more we may be fitted for it Consider but this Reason if you want this alas we can never be thankful to God for any thing if by the Spirit we have not assurance that our state is the state of grace for otherwise we might think that God gives us all in anger as a etrnal man he alwaies fears that God fatts him as an oxe to the slaughter what a fearfull case is this that a man cannot be thankful for that he hath Labour for the Spirit that we may be thankfull to God for every thing that we may see the love of God in every thing in every refreshing we take that that love of God that fits us for heaven and that fits heaven for us it gives us daily bread the Earnest of the Spirit will make us thankfull for every thing Again labour for the Earnest of the Spirit that we may be joyfull in all conditions how can a man suffer willingly that knowes not that he is sealed with the Spirit that knowes not that God hath begun a good work in him Alas he is lumpish and heavy under the Crosse. What makes a man bear the Crosse willingly but this assurance what makes him deny himself in temptations and corruptions Oh saith the child of God the work of the Spirit is begun in me sealing me up to life everlasting shall I grieve and quench this Spirit for this base lust But a man that hath not the Spirit saith I had as good take this pleasure as have none at all for ought I know I shall have none he sees no greater pleasure then the following of his lust So that none can resist temptations but he that hath the Spirit giving him Earnest in a comfortable measure and it is a good sign when we resist temptations for spiritual reasons that the Spirit works it Again unlesse we have this Earnest of the Spirit in our hearts we can never be content to end our dayes with comfort he that hath the Earnest of the Spirit is glad of death when it comes there shall be then an accomplishment of all the bargain then the Marriage shall be consummate then shall be the year of Jubile the Sabbath of rest for ever then is the triumph and then all teares shall be wiped from our eyes But now let a man stagger and doubt whether he be the child of God or no that he cannor find any mark of the child of God in him that he cannot read the evidences of a Christian state in his soul they are so dim he sees nothing but corruption in him he sees no change no resistence of corruption he hath no Earnest Alas what a miserable case is such a man in when he comes to dye death with the eternity of misery after it who can look it in the face without hope of life everlasting without assurance of a happy change after death Therefore we should labour for the Spirit that howsoever we grow or decay in wealth and reputation let
God alone with that but above all beg of God that he would encrease in us and renew the Earnest and the stamp of the Spirit that we may have somewhat in our soules wherein we may see the Evidences of a Christian estate I might adde many things to this purpose but this is sufficient to any Judicious Christian to encourage us to labour for the Spirit above all things in the world all other are but grasse but fading but grace and glory grace and peace and joy nay the very Earnest of the Spirit is better then all earthly things for the Earnest of it is joy unspeakable and glorious and peace that passeth all understanding If the Promise and the Earnest here be so I beseech you what shall the accomplishment of the promise be if the Promises laid hold on by faith so quicken and cheer the soul and if the giving a teste of heaven lift a Christians spirit above all earthly discouragements what shall it be when the Spirit shall be all in all in us if the Earnest be so comfortable But I go on to the next Verse VERSE XXIII Moreover I call God to record upon my soul that to spare you I came not yet to Corinth IN this Verse the Apostle labours to remove suspition of levity and inconstancy there were jealousies in the minds of the Corinthians which were also fomented by some vain-glorious Teachers amongst them that laboured to undermine S. Paul in the hearts of the Corinthians as if he had not loved the Corinthians so well as they did therefore he is so carefull to clear himself in their thoughts from suspition of inconstancy and want of love to them because suspition grounded upon the lightnesse in his carriage might reflect upon his doctrine He knew well enough the malice of mans nature and therefore he is very curious and industrious to make a clear passage for himself into the hearts of these Corinthians by all means possible as we heard in part out of the 17. Verse Moreover I call God to record c. Saint Paul is here purging himself still to clear himself First he labours to clear himself from the suspition of inconstancy and want of love to them in not coming Secondly he sets down the true cause why he did not come I came not to spare you You were much to blame in many things and among the rest of the abominations among you you cherished the incestuous person and many of you doubted of the resurrection I should have been very severe if I had come therefore I came net to spare you hoping that my letter would work upon your spirits so that I need not be severe to you therefore do not suspect that for any ill mind I came not for it was to spare you that I might not be forced to be severe Then the third thing is the sealing of this speech with a serious oath I call God for record upon my soul that I came not to spare you So here is the wâ—…ping away of suspition And the setting down the true cause why he did not come And the ratifying and confirming it by an oath he makes his purgation here by an oath These three things I will briefly touch First of all you see here he avoids suspition of lightnesse which the Corinthians had of him partly by the false suggestion of proud Teachers among them who fomented their suspitious dispositions because they would weaken S. Paul's esteem among the Corinthians they had a conceit he was an uncertain man he promised to come and did not now here he declines that suspition Where first Observe these two things briefly First that the nature of man is inclined to suspition And secondly that it is the duty of men to avoid it as much as may be and to wipe it away if it cannot be avoided Mans nature is prone to suspition Mans nature is prone to suspect ill of another though never so good Christ could not avoid it because he conversed sociably with other men he was thought to be a Wine-bibber a companion of sinners And God himself was suspected of Adam in innocency the Devil is so cunning that he calls God himself into question as if he had not meant so well to him What will that impudent spirit do that will bring the creature in suspition of him that is goodnesse it self God knowes that when you eat your eyes shall be open and you shall be as Gods knowing good and evil Do you think that he intends you any good in forbidding you to eat c He did not spare Christ innocency it self cloathed with mans flesh and will he spare to bring uncharitable suspitions upon others surely he will not And then mans nature of it self is prone to suspect and think ill of another From many grounds Sometimes out of experience of the common infirmities thnt men meet with in the world out of the experience of the falshood of men they are many times prone to suspition But most commonly it is out of guiltinesse that men think ill of others because others have cause to think ill of them none are so prone to suspition as those that are worst themselves because they judge others by their own hearts The better sort of people think of others as they are and as they deserve themselves but others because they are naught they think others are so because they deserve ill they think others have deserved an ill opinion of them so many times it comes of guilt because we are not as we should be Then again it ariseth from a guilty conscience in another respect we think because men have cause though they have no wrong to themselves yet because our own hearts tell us we are ill we suspect them So from an uncharitable disposition and guiltinesse of conscience it oft-times comes Then again sometimes from the concurrence of probabilities the suiting of circumstances that makes things somewhat probable whereupon suspition may be fastened Sometimes when there is a concurrence of probabilities of the likelihood of things there suspition is prone to rise for suspition is not a determining of a thing it is but a slight kind of conceit it is more then a fear and lesse then judgment of a thing It is more then fear for he that fears suspects not suspition is a degree to judgment it doth not fully judge for then it were not suspition it is more then fear suspects not but fears It conceives slightly that such a thing should be done and yet he dares not say it is done Suspition is nothing else but an inclination of the soul to think and imagine ill of another a looking curiously under a thing or person As we use to say Envy pries into things an envious person searcheth so a suspitious person looks under to see if he can see matter of ill to fasten his ill soul upon So it inclines the soul to think