of God you that travell up and downe mourne in secret and say Here is every man busie in the world one makes haste this way another that way so many chapmen and clothiers going up and downe every weeke and yet how few goe home to Christ by faith and receive mercy from him in truth I condemne my owne soule because I have not a heart to mourne for them we reprove their sinnes and condemne them for their sinne and wee must doe so but where are the heart bloud petitions that wee put up for them and where are the teares that wee make for the slaine of our people if they will needs goe to hell let us bury them with bitter lamentations and not only should we doe this but also you tender hearted mothers and you that live one with another you tender hearted wives you have husbands and you prize them and love them and some good you have from them consider this when you see your husbands take lewd courses let your hearts breake over them and say Oh woe is mee for that poore husband of mine Iohn 3.18 He that beleeveth not is condemned already hee is cast in heaven and in earth both by law and Gospell there is no releefe for him can you sit by a condemned husband and eat and drinke and lye by a condemned husband and never mourne for him haply you follow him from one taphouse to another and still a condemned man doe you love your husbands if they were poore you would mourne for them if they were dead you would mourne for them and say alas I am left a poore widow but he is a condemned husband and hath not a dram of faith and yet you cannot mourne for him mee thinkes the sight of this should make you sinke againe but alas our hearts are flinty and we cannot mourne and the like I may say of you mothers there are many of you whom God hath given children beautifull obedient and wise Oh mourne for them that so many come into the world and so few come home to Christ by faith the Lord be mercifull to us in this last age of the world wee meerly scramble for our owne comfort and regard not our salvation therefore get you home and mourne for them and say Oh these poore children which I have brought up and had much comfort from they are poore condemned children this were enough to sinke us Secondly it should bee a ground to make us search into our selves and thinke that the staffe stands at our doore imagine the hand-writing comes upon every man then let every man take his portion and say No faith no Christ and so consequently no salvation by Christ looke to thy owne soule and say Have I found faith in the Lord Jesus Christ if there be not then I can tell my owne doome the sentence is past already shall we thinke of these and yet live quietly lay this under your pillow and say How can I sleep a condemned man and sleep what if God should take away my life ere morning hell is prepared and I fall into it let every man take account of his owne heart and say Have I any faith husband wife childe hast thou any faith It may be saith one I have it as well as another but how doe you prove it and how will you doe if you have it not no ignorant person no carnall Gospeller none of all these hath faith what so many men that have so much knowledge and yet fall short of faith and salvation Lord what shall become of mee is there any faith here make it good then or else yeeld the day and confesse that there is no faith and then there is some hope say I am a thousand miles off from faith I never knew what it was to be thus inlightened and to bee wounded for sinne I can commit sinne and play with sinne but I never knew what it was to be wounded for sinne I never knew what it was to be zealous in a good course there are many strict truths that I have not a heart to receive I confesse I have no faith now if you yeeld this then there is some hope that you may get out therefore take this advice goe to some faithfull humble experienced Christian and to some faithfull Minister and intreat them to advise you how to get faith but doe not goe to a faithlesse heart that hath no savour of grace nor godnesse in him how can he tell that which he never had experience of make privie search whether ever you had grace or no and if not then labour to know the way how to come to it if a mans state did lye at hazzard he would have every mans opinion and hee would inquire of this man and that man whether his evidences were sound and his title good and he would spare for no paines not cost much more should we doe it for the title of eternall life there is much conterfeit faith in the world and thousands perish upon this ground like motes in the sunne and never know where they are till they are in hell therefore goe to the Lord by prayer aske the counsell of some faithfull Minister and never rest till thy heart is perswaded of it Vse last It is of exhortation you that see the way walke in it you that know the way I should set an edge on your desires and endevours labour I say hard for this blessed grace as for you that have beene labourers you are to be encouraged continue your prayers and quicken those endevours every day more and more you that never did yet you are to be provoked to the performance of the dutie and give no sleep unto your eyes nor rest unto your selfe untill you have this and here are two things to be done First you must labour to get it Secondly you must labour to use it when you have it First you must labour to get faith we ought to make it our daily taske and study the aime of a mans desire the maine white and marke that we should shoot at in all our labours I would not have men account this as a matter of course a dutie reserved for a rainy day as sometime I have observed here in the countrie they will delay their base services their lesser necessities for a rainy day when they can do nothing else but O let us count it the most necessary duty and not to reserve faith for a sick bed an old age a crazy body only to get faith to goe unto Christ when weare going out of the world no this is unseasonable this is unreasonable and therefore take this home to you and make it the maine businesse of thy life to get faith I would have a Christian count all the endevours that he did besides his duties and performances to count them all losse wherein he hath not made some step in this glorious grace why alas your hearing your sacrifices will never profit you unlesse
how David makes the conclusion David was almost disquieted and his heart disquieted with the prosperitie of the wicked therefore hee said if this bee so then have I cleansed my hands in innocencie and washed my hands in vaine yet marke how hee recovers himselfe againe saying Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none in earth that I desire in comparison of thee therefore it is good for me to draw neere to God Let the wicked take the world and their profits and their pleasures yet there is nothing in the world that I desire in comparison of the Lord Jesus Christ and his grace and goodnesse Consider it sadly the wicked have much wealth and friends and means Oh thou beloved faithfull soule thou hast the rich treasury of grace and mercy to inrich thee all this whole world is nothing to that rich treasury of mercy which faith brings in as Salomon saith in Ecclesiastes Money answers all if a man have money he may buy meat to feed him and cloth to apparell him and cover him If money will doe so much what will mercy doe then thou hast not wealth nor friends nor meanes but thou hast mercy from God in Christ and this will answer all it is better than friends and meanes and all therefore if thou hast this let thy heart be contented and know that thou hast a childs part and thy lot is fallen into a marvellous faire ground Secondly as faith takes off all miseries and supplies the want of them so in the second place faith takes away all feares for the time to come alas saith the soule friends and means and wealth are good but they continue not ever What if sicknesse come and if povertie come what shall I doe then and so the heart shakes at the feare of evill Now pray marke how faith cures all feares and takes off the edge of all those inconveniences that may bee brought upon a man as in the 112. Psalme 7. He shall not bee afraid of any evill tidings why for his heart is fixed and he beleeveth in the Lord for although heaven and earth may shake yet God and Christ and the promise will never faile and hee casting his heart there by faith he must needs hold What is it that a man may feare we feare the power and policy and malice of the devill and his wicked instruments now faith outbids these and faith rests upon the precious promises of God in Jesus Christ and faith perswades the heart that they have no power but from God and they cannot use that power further than God gives leave and they cannot have successe further than God goes with them they can goe no further than God gives a Commission Now sayes faith that God which orders the power of all these he is my God hee is the God of Hosts and none of all the armies can either command peace neither can they hinder peace therefore I adde a little more faith levies new forces from heaven against all the sorces of earth are the wicked politique then sayes faith the Lord is much more wise and is able to dash all their enterprises and are the wicked fierce and violent then faith lookes to God where there is more power to defend him than they can have to hurt him doe wee see the wicked maliciously bent and full of spleene to wrong the people of God faith sees mercy and goodnesse in the Lord that is more able to releeve us than all the wicked can bee to hurt us faith sayes if hell gates were open and all the devills were about thy eares they can doe nothing further than God gives them power and gives a Commission to them therefore I may bee quieted because God is more able to keepe me than they are to hurt me Thirdly faith it is that inables a man to all duties for imagine a man had all the power in his owne hands and had no wants present nor feared no wants nor troubles to come if yet hee were not able to doe what God required this would disquiet his heart therefore by faith the Lord inables a man to doe every duty that the Lord commends to him or expects from him It is the ground that Paul contents his heart withall Phil. 4.13 I can doe all things through the power of Christ which strengtheneth me I can bee poore and beare it and I can be rich and yet not surfet of the world I can doe all but how through the power of Christ inabling me therefore famous is that of Abraham Rom. 4.18 God had promised Abraham a childe and yet his body was dead and his wife barren and it was even against nature for him to beget a childe or for her to beare any Now how doth God provide for this Abraham under hope beleeved above hope and in the 21. verse because he was fully perswaded that he that had promised it was able to make it good there was no hope in nature that Abraham should beget a child his body being dead and no hope that she should beare any therefore faith goes to God that was able to quicken them hast thou a barren a dead heart as theirs was and therefore thy soule complaines and thou saist I shall never be able to goe through the worke required I know it is the complaint of many poore soules Oh send faith up to Heaven and beleeve in him that is able to succour you and to quicken you to whatsoever he requires content thy heart in this manner and say when thou findest thy heart dead I am ignorant but the Lord is able to inlighten my blinde minde and I have a dead barren heart but the Lord who is the God of power hee is able to quicken me and to releeve a poore dead blockish sinner Hee beleeved in him saith the Text which calleth things that are not as if they were Abraham is not lively and Sarah is not fruitfull but the Lord can make them so and therefore faith goes to God so thou shalt be wise and have thy heart quickned to whatsoever duty concernes Gods prayse and thy owne comfort so then hee that hath what hee will or can desire or stand in need of and he that hath all his feares removed and is inabled to doe all duties commanded nothing more can bee added to this man therefore why should not hee be contented what would you have you poore beleevers Quest Then the question here growes namely if it be so that faith makes a mans life easie and gives him full contentment in every condition then why is it thus as Gedeon said so if faith thus contents the soule then how comes it to passe that those poore silly creatures are so troubled with discouragements and discontentments and none so cast downe with their owne basenesse and vilenesse as they they hang downe their heads and goe drooping all the day long either saith one I have not faith or else if I have faith then why
Spirit of God undermines these distempers and corruptions the corruption of the soule would faine have ease but the Spirit saith there is a better good than ease that saith horrour is terrible but the Spirit saith sinne is more miserable Looke as it is with a good Cordiall it will worke out a distemper though it lie long in the heart of a man yet it will drive it away at length So it is with the almightie worke of Gods Spirit which possesseth the heart of the soule truly humbled I would faine expresse my selfe more fully You must know that these shifts of spirit and privy prankes of heart whereby the Devill windes himselfe in upon a terrified conscience they are the last cast the maine hold of Satan he is now driven into his trenâ—hes and therefore he will play fast and loose a long time and discover desperate subtilties Originall corruption is like a fountaine now a fountaine hath many Conduits some nearer some further but if there bee any water in the Fountaine the neerest Conduit will have it soonest So if there be any originall corruption as there is in all it will be sure to bee seene in this Conduit of selfe-ease and selfe-confidence in horrour to bee avoyded and duty to bee performed The Naturalist observes the heart is the last that dies therefore though the eyes bee dimme and the tongue falters and the hands bee feeble yet the pulse of the heart will goe still so long as there is any life there So it is here the pulse of originall corruption will bee seene in these base distempers of spirit which cleave unto us whilest wee live in this world but they are still undermined and opposed by the Spirit of God Conclusion 2 Secondly judge not thy selfe in time of extremity and horrour of Spirit by the not stirring and not moving of thy affections to sinne Doe not thinke thy estate good because thou findest not this neither judge thy condition ill because thou findest some corruption stirring at such times for that is the false ground of an Hypocrite he judgeth the water to be meerly hot because he can feele no cold he thinkes hee hath no love to sinne because hee cannot feele that hee hath any affection to it in the time of horrour but he is deceived for the act of sinne may be overpowred when the union betweene sin and the soule still remaines As for example a poore Saint of God may have Gods Spirit and yet never perceive it because the Spirit may sometimes either suspend his action or else the action may be over-clouded by the distemper So it is here Satan may rule in the hearts of the children of disobedience and cast in the seeds of base corruptions and build holds of distempers and the poore soule not understand the same Quest But how shall a man judge himselfe in such times Ans I answer In such times labour to see how thy minde is inlightned to see the beauty of holinesse and how thy understanding comes to prize the excellency of goodnesse for it selfe how thy heart stands bent to entertaine all the truth and goodnesse of God made knowne unto thee And marke what now I say if thou desirest holinesse for it selfe and the bent of thy heart is after holinesse so that thou canst not bee content to bee eased by holines unles thou beest possessed overpowred by holinesse and the vertue thereof If it be thus with thee judge thy selfe by this means Suffer mee to expresse my selfe after this manner that every one may understand Conceive two women the one sicke the other in love both desire the Physitian the sicke desires the Physitian to bee healed by him the other desires him not so much to be healed but shee is desirous to be married to him So it is with the soule that is carried in a kinde of love and affection to godlinesse hee would not have Christ onely to heale him but he would be married to Christ that hee may enjoy the God of all pardoning that he may enjoy the God of all purging and purifying Take notice of it sometimes men in times of sicknesse use that for physicke which in the time of health they used for common diet So a gracious and holy heart in the time of terrour and vexation of conscience will embrace holinesse not for physicke sake onely to be healed by it but for diet sake to live by holinesse that hee might take possession of holinesse and that holinesse might take possession of him this is the best judgement the soule hath in time of extremity for marke some passages of this nature It is possible out of selfe-love for the preservation of a mans selfe to desire ease and quietnesse but hee cares not by whom if God or Christ or Holinesse or Prayer will ease him let them doe it and all this may bee for meere selfe-love not for any love of Christ or holinesse at all But to have the soule carried with desire to a supernaturall good to holinesse in the beauty thereof that it may enjoy it and be possessed of it corrupt nature cannot corrupt nature will not come to this it is the Spirit of the Lord onely that can enable a man to doe it Suffer mee to expresse a passage or two this way the extremity of Gods indignation is a farre greater evill than all the good things in the world can be comfortable it is a farre greater evill than any thing here below better to bee in beggery better to bee in prison better to bee persecuted than to be tormented than to be set upon a continuall wracke by the horrour of conscience Now as the indignation of the Lord is a far greater punishment than these so the ease from this is a greater good than can proceed from the things here below the ease is answerably good as the indignation is evill A wicked man would have ease for his sinnes therefore his sinnes are a greater good than his ease But a gratious heart desires holinesse beyond ease and sin and all though hee were in the greatest extremity I expresse it thus A gratious heart if he had all the ease in the world if hee had not holinesse hee could not bee satisfied and if he had holinesse though hee had not ease hee would bee contented I say had a gracious heart ease and quiet and yet had a vile and polluted soule if his old distempers were still remaining and his old corruptions still continuing he would complaine and say I have ease and quiet now but my heart is as bad as ever If hee had ease and not holinesse he could not bee satisfied if hee were of a right stampe and if hee had holinesse and more power against sinne and the presence of Christ prevailing with him and purging him from corruptions he would blesse Gods Name that is the second Conclusion 3 The third conclusion is this doe not content your selves in this that you see a need of a Saviour
confidence than in Christ this is marvellous easie and apparant even amongst the Heathens themselves Many of the Heathens themselves have beene so farre taken up with the admiration at and affecting of morall vertues one man with patience and another with temperance they have been so taken up in meditation and in the admiration of these that they have trampled upon crownes and have harsely esteemed of all the honours of the world many speeches of the Heathen wee have to this purpose as that when one said honours riches c. cannot properly be said to be good for then they would make him good which hath them as wee see wisedome makes a man wise that hath it but they that have riches and honours for the most part are most wicked and vilde wretches therefore onely the wise man is the happy man and an ignorant man is a miserable man therefore hee seeing the excellency of and putting a high price upon these morall vertues this hath made them put a high price on the one and trample on the other Now if Heathen men may be so farre taken up with these morall vertues which have onely the light of nature to guide them and never had the knowledge of Christ to drive them beyond themselves that yet they will doe all this then a Hypocrite may come to see a greater beauty than is in all these when they come from the Spirit of grace for the Heathens had but the very shell and outside of these but the Hypocrite knowes the vertue and benefit of these and the eternall good that will come by these this hee is able to discerne and therefore hee is able to put a high price upon these and it is no wonder when the people came to make Saul King hee hid himselfe amongst the stuffe 1 Sam. 10.22 as if hee were unworthy of the kingdome so that a man may for by-ends cast off preferment and ease and honour Secondly whereas the sturdy hypocrite tooke up a fine cold temper and an ordinary path in a Christian course this hypocrite scornes that and he is a profest enemy to lukewarmnesse and to a lazy carnall discretion in a Christian course This is the zeale and forwardnesse of this man but mistake me not for I doe not speake this to dishearten a good cause or the zeale and forwardnesse of any good man no God forbid nay let that tongue faulter and cursed be the head that contrives or the mouth that speakes any thing against the zeale and forwardnesse of any man in any good cause the way is warrantable and lawfull and must be done for though meere morall vertues will not save a Christian yet without them no man shall ever come to Heaven but I speake all this to shew that all this may bee done and yet all be starke naught I doe not speake this to discourage any man for you see I commend of this man hee is not swept downe from the firmament of his profession as the sturdy hypocrite was by the taile of the Dragon but he maintains his profession with credit and is zealous in it he goes for a marvellous broken hearted Christian he scornes to be a linsey-woolsey-man halfe one and halfe of another hee stands in the open defence of the truth and dares side with the Lord Jesus Christ and saith as Iehu who is on my side who 2 Kings 10.16 Come see my zeale which I have for the Lord of Hosts thus it was with Paul Gal. 1. 14. He profited above many of his brethren in the Iewish religion being more exceeding zealous of the traditions of the Fathers and Phil. 3.6 7. he was a Pharisee and concerning zeale he persecuted the Church touching the righteousnesse of the Law he was blamelesse and these he counted gaine This was all the gaine that Paul had namely that hee had such parts and gifts and abilities to doe duties this was all his gaine and because hee had all these hee thought he must needs goe to Heaven nay nay it is harder to goe to Heaven than you thinke for it is another manner of worke than so the greatest hindrance that ever Paul had in his conversion was the carnall confidence which hee had in himselfe there he stucke Now wherein doth the falsenesse of this man appeare I answer Amongst many others it discovers it selfe most grosly and notoriously in these particulars First you shall finde that as for lesser sinnes the reformation of which might spoile him in the venting of his commodities and marring his market that he cannot set himselfe his parts and commodities at sale he will slight those sinnes and make no account of them and swallow them downe without any chewing because such as these bee would hinder him in his trading that hee could not vent and shew himselfe and hee makes no great matter of them this is for his outward practice But if a mans exactnesse in a Christian course be sincere then he will be exact in all things but if his exactnesse may give way to some sinne then it is but hypocrisie it is but a cloake and no soundnesse at all why dost thou heare and pray and take up duties though these must bee done if thy duties bee sincere and if thou lovest duties abroad thou wilt love them at home too 1 Iohn 2.3 Hereby we know that wee know him if we keepe his Commandements if a man keepe all the Commandements of God then he shall savingly know God and hereby hee shall know that he knowes God this is a signe that saving faith is there because it makes a man keepe all the Commandements of God but cursed bee that prayer which seems to set it selfe against sinne and yet gives allowance unto sinne That prayer and performance which maintaines sinne is accursed and God will never accept of it this is for his out side Secondly though this hypocrite be very exact and expresse much power of religion in the world yet follow this wretch home and dog him to his owne heart and closet and there you shall finde him not onely living in but maintaining some sinne either in his practice or else in others as when hee was abroad hee would swallow downe such smaller sinnes as would hinder him in the venting of himselfe so at home hee maintaines some distemper either in his family or in himselfe A man out of the strength of parts and the excellency of his judgement and the ability that God hath bestowed upon him may doe this that wheresoever he comes he will comfort and quicken and exhort and pray with others these are good duties I doe not discommend them but he returnes home and is churlish and dogged and cruell to his servants and takes up a pang of passion and will bee upon the house top for every trifle and this is constant too this is the bane of religion and profession Of this straine are those that for their parts and gifts are marvellous large and they will goe from this