course of their lives only observe this that in judging â—…our actions you must not judge â—â—em so much by the muchnesse â—ad greatnesse of the quantitie as â—…y the soundnesse ripenesse and goodnesse of the quality If it bee good in truth according to the measure of grace received God accepteth it in Christ She hath done what shee could faith our Saviour A little sound and true fruit though weake in comparison is farre better than many blades and blossomes yea then plenty of grapes if they be wild and sowre SECTION 2. Of the markes of uprightnesse THat you may coÌ„ceive more distinctly may better remember the signes of uprightnesse I reduce them to these heads They are taken 1. from universalitie of respect to all Gods will 2. From specialtie and prioritis of respect to such things as God requireth specially 3. From a will and desire to please God in one place as well as another in secret as well as open 4. From a constancie of will to please GOD at one time as well as another 5. From the true causes efficient and finall 6. From the effects that follow well-doing 7. From the effects that follow evil-doing 8. From the conflict which shall be found betweene uprightnesse and hypocrisie First the upright man is universall in his respect to the whole will of God For first he unfainedly desireth and indevoureth to know what manner of man hee ought to be what he ought to do He would know beleeve any one part of Gods will so farre as it may concerne himselfe as well as another Threats as well as promises Commandements as well as either and that not some but all the threats all the promises and all the Commandement Comming to the light readily that his deeds may be made manifest He is willing to know and beleeve what he should doe as well as what he should have and hope for But the hypocrite not so hee winketh with his eyes and is willingly ignorant of that sinne which he would not leave and of that dutie which hee would not doe and of that judgement which he would not feele He is willing to know the promises of the Gospell but willingly ignorant of the precepts of the Gospell and of the conditionâ— annexed to the promises 2. Secondly His universall respect to Gods wil is not onely to know but todoe and to submit unto it in all things willing to leave and shun everie sin willing to doe everie thing which he knoweth to be his dutie willing to beare patiently thankfully fruitfully everie correction wherwith the Lord doth exercise him He disliketh sinne in all Hee loveth grace and goodnesse in all Hee would keepe a good conscience in all acts of Religion towards God and in all acts of righteousnesse and sobrietie towards and amongst men Hee would forbeare not onely those sinnes to which his nature is not so much inclined or to which his condition of life affoordeth not so manie temptations but those to which his nature and condition of life doth most carrie him he will crossâ— himselfe in his dearest iust namely his darling and beloved sinnes his * owne sinne as David calleth it Neither doth he indevour to abstaine from those vices which may bring losse and are out of credit which some men punish all men cry shame on but such as through the iniquitie of the times are in countenance with the greatest and practised by most the forbearance whereof may threaten and procure danger and discredit the doing whereof may promise and performe much worldly gaine and honour Moreover the upright man doth not only strive to doe those holy and vertuous actions which are in credit and for his advantage in the world but those also which may expose him to disgrace and losse even of his life and livelihood He would abstaine as well from lesse evils even from appearance of evils as from grosse sinnes And would so doe the greater things of the Law as not to leave the other undone But the hypocrite not so there is some sin he wil not leave some dutie he will not doe c. Follow the opposition 2. Secondly an upright man is knowne by this Where GOD hath laid a speciall charge there he will have a first and speciall respect to it As to seeke the kingdome of God and his righteousnesse that one thing necessary and to shew a specialty of love to the houshold of saith To be first and most at home reforming himselfe and his pulling out the beame out of his owne eye To be most zealous for matter of substance in religion and lesse in matter of ceremony and circumstance Lastly his chiefe care will bee to apply himselfe to a â— conscionable discharge of the duties â—f his particular calling knowing â—hat a man hath no more conscience nor goodnesse in truth then â—e hath will and desire to shew â—â— in the workes of his particular â—…ace and calling The hypocrite â—â— contrary in all these Thirdly the upright man indeâ—oureth to approve himselfe to God â— well in secret as openly as well â—â— the inward man as in the outward as well in thought as in â—ord and deed But it is quite â—therwise with the hypocrite if â—â— may seeme good to men it is â—â— he careth for Fourthly the upright man is constant his will is that he might alwayes please God He doth as well bethinke himselfe how to doe well in prosperity as in adversity and even then studieth how to be able to hold out before God if his state should alter I do not meane such a constancy as admitteth of no intermissions or stoppages in the open course of his life A constant running spring may betweene two hils be stayed in his course for a time by damming it up yet the spring will approve it selfe to run constantly for it wil be stil thrusting to get thorow or get under or if it can doe none of these it will raise it selfe in time according to its strength and get over all lets and will beare down all before it and will run with a more full streame afterwards by as much as it was before interrupted so it is with an upright maâ— But the hypocrite is but by fiâ—â— and starts as he calleth not on Goâ— at all times so it is with all other his goodnes it is but as the corne in stony ground and amongst thornes and as a morning dew it endureth but for a season Fifthly An upright man is known by the causes from which all his good actions spring and to which they tend for these two the efficient and the end denominate the action 1. That which causeth the upright man to endevour to keepe a good conscience alway is an inward principle and power of grace causing him through faith in Christ in and from whom as from the roote of all grace he bringeth forth
going to bed at nighâ— my meaning is not to urge thâ—… as necessary as if it were sinneâ— omit any of these particulars bâ—… except better come in place 〈…〉 most coÌ„venient Wherfore taâ—… these Cautions First as I said if other pertiâ—ent more profitable thoughts â—ffer not themselves or if you be â—…rren of other holy meditatiâ—ns use these Secondly the bare similitudes â—nd allusions with all such reâ—emblances which are free not â—ommanded by God but in our â—…oyce to take up from things â—atural artificiall to put vs in â—…ind of spirituall things and to â—…eare our judgements therein â—ust beused with puttinga wide â—ifference betweene them and â—hofe which are Sacramentall â—or the SacrameÌ„ts besides their â—aturall aptnesse to signifie what â—hey doe represent they have diâ—ine institution from GOD whereby to the beleever they â—re through Gods Spirit effectuâ—ll not onely outwardly to signiâ—ie exhibit seale but inwardâ—y to apply and confer the thing signified these not so yet as â—elps to your memory and understanding these are of singular use For our Saviour in his speeches while hee lived upon the earth and in his writings in the holy Scripture is frequent in the use of them as you may observe in the manifold parables and similitudes in the Gospell CHAP. III. Of beginning the day well walking with God SECTION I. VVHen you are thus awake and are risen out of your bed that you may walke with GOD the remainder of the day It will be needfull that you first renew your peace with God and then keepe it by doing those workes of pietie equitie mercy and sobrietie which any way may concerne you that day For how can two walke together safeâ—y especially a weake one with him that is strong except they be agreed And how can any walke with God if hee be not holy in â—ll his conversation You have as much cause to beware of him and to obey his voice and not provoke him who goeth before you in the wildernesse of this world to guide and bring you to his heavenly kingdome as the Israelites had to beware of him who went before them to keepe them in the way and to conduct them unto the earthly Canaan the place which he had promised and prepared for them It was for this that Iosuah told the people that except they would feare the Lord and serve him in sincerity and put away their strange gods they could net serve God they could not walke with him For he is saith he a holy God he is a iealous God hee will not forgive your transgressions nor your sinnes For this cause if unavoydable necessity hinder not Begin the day with solemne prayer and thanksgiving Before which that these duties may bee the better performed it wil be convenient if you have time that you prepare your selfe by meditation the matter whereof should be an enquiry into your present estate how all things stand betweene God and you How you have carried your selfe since you last prayed and renewed your peace with God what sinnes you have committed what graces benefits you want what fresh favours God hath bestowed on you since last you gave him his Tribute of thankes and how much prayse and thanks you doe owe to him also for continuance of the old Thinke also what imployments you shall have that day Consider likewise what ground and warrant you have to approach to the Throne of Grace to aske â—ardon and to aske and expect â—avour and helpe of God Vpon â—hese considerations rightly proâ—ecuted you must worke your â—eart to a resolution through Gods grace to reforme whatsoever you find to be amisse And that you will flie unto and only relie upon Gods mercy in Christ that you will acknowledge him in all things and that you will now seeke grace and helpe of him whereby you may walke as in his sight in all well-pleasing all that day To further you herein doe thus First lay a peremptory charge upon your conscience to deale unpartially plainely and fully in this examination and judging of your selfe Secondly you should be so well acquainted with the summe and meaning of the Law that you may bee able to carry in your head a Catalogue or Table of the principal duties and vices required and forbidden in each Commandement whereby you may try your obedience past and may set before you a rule of your life for time to come Thirdly lest the calling to minde the multitude and greatnesse of your sinnes by the Law should make you despaire of Gods favour you should be so well exercised in the Articles of the Christian faith and in the principall promises and precepts of the Gospell that you may be able also quickly to cal them to mind for the strengthening of your faith and hope in God The patterne of wholesome words should be familiar unto you for these purposes All this need not take up much time you will finde it to bee time well redeemed For first by such preparation you shall keepe your selfe from that rude and rash thrusting yourselfe into Gods holy presence whereof â—ou are warned in the Scripâ—ures Eccles 5. 1 2. Secondly when by this meanes â—ou have well humbled softeâ—ed seasoned and set streight your heart to God-ward so that you can say you regard no iniquity in your heart and when hereby you have called your thoughts in from stragling and have gotten composednesse of minde and inward strength of soule without which the arrow of prayer can never flye home to the marke then you may approach unto Gods speciall presence with more faith and boldnesse you shall be more able to utter before him apt confessions lawfull requests and due thankesgivings more understandingly more distinctly more humbly more devoutly more feelingly more fervently and with more assurance of a gracious hearing all which are requisite in prayer then possibly you could ever be able to doe without such preparation Thirdly this due preparation to prayer doth not only fit you to pray but is an excellent furtherer of a godly life For it maketh the conscience tender and watchfull over you by the daily exercise of the knowledge of the precepts and threats of the Law and of the precepts and promises of the Gospell And it being enforced to examine accuse judge and passe sentence yea to doe a kind of execution upon you for your sinne smiting your heart and wounding it selfe with godly feare griefe and shame a worke to which the coÌ„science is loth to come till it must needs wherefore to prevent all this trouble vexation and smart it will rather give all diligence in other acts which are more pleasing namely it will direct you in the wayes of God check and warne â—ou before-hand lest you should sinne to the end that when you come to examine your selfe againe it might finde matter not of grieving and tormenting but of reioycing comforting your heart
from the marriage-bed and the like Thirdly Abstaine from all worldly labour as upon a Sabbath day for worldly busines the cares thereof doe as well as worldly delights distract the thoughts and hinder humble devotion and a ceasing there-from giveth a full opportunitie to holy imployments the whole day Therfore the Iewes were commanded to sanctifie a fast And that yearely Fast called the day of Atonement was upon perill of their lives to be kept by a forbearance of all manner of worke Now albeit the Ceremonials of that day are abolished in Christ yet forbearing worke as well as meate and drinke being of the substance of a Fast doth remaine to bee observed in all such as may properly be called Religious Fasts Thus much for the outward fast you must be as strict in observing the inward Begin the day with prayer according as I directed you to doe every day but with more than ordinary preparation with fervency and faith praying for Gods special grace to enable you to sanctifie a fast that day according to the Commandement Then apply your selfe to the maine worke of the day which hath these parts 1 unfained Humiliation 2 Reformation together with Reconciliation and 3 earnest Invocation The soule is then humbled the heart rent and truly afflicted when a man is become vile in his owne eyes through conscience of his owne unworthinesse and when his heart is full of compunction and anguish through feare of Gods displeasure with godly sorrow and holy shame in himselfe and anger against himselfe for sinne These affections stirred doe much afflict the heart To attaine this deepe humiliation know that it is to be wrought partly by awakening your Conscience through a sight of the Law and apprehension of Gods just judgements due to you for the breach of it which wil break your heart and partly by the Gospell raising up your heart to an apprehension and admiration of the love of God to you in Christ which will melt your heart and cause you the more kindely to grieve and to loath your selfe for sin and withall to conceive hope of mercy whence wil follow reconciliation reformation and holy calling upon God by prayer To worke this Humiliation there must be First Examination to find out your sinne Secondly a Accusation of your selfe with due aggravation of your sinne Thirdly Iudging and passing sentence against your selfe for sinne Sinne is the transgression of the Law and revealed will of God Wherefore for the better search and finding out of your sinne you must set before youthe glasse of the Law for your Light and Rule And if you have not learned or cannot beare in minde the heads of the manifold duties commanded or vices forbidden then get some Catalogue or Table wherein the same are set downe to your hand which you may reade with pausing and due consideration staying your thoughts most upon those particular sinnes whereof you finde your selfe most guiltie If of those many that are you doe not meete with one more fit for this purpose or which you shall like better then use this Examinatorie Table in manner as Followeth But expect not herein an enumeration of all particular sinnes which is beyond my skill nor yet of all the heads of duties or kindes of sinnes which would require a volumne but of those which are principall and most common yet hereby if your Conscience be awake it will be occasioned to bring to your thoughts those other not mentioned in the Table if you bee thereof guiltie The first Table of the Law concerneth duties of love and pietie to God the performance whereof tendeth immediately to the glory of God and mediately to the salvation and good of man The first Commandement concerneth the setting up of the onely true God to your selfe to bee your God Examining your selfe by this and so in the other Commandements thinke thus with your selfe Doe I know and acknowledge the onely true GOD to be such a one as hee hath revealed himselfe in his Word works namely One onely Infinite Immateriall Immutable Incomprehensible Spirit and Everlasting Lord God having beeing and All-sufficiencie in and from himselfe One who is simply full of all perfections and uncapable of the least defect being Wisedome Goodnesse Omnipotencie Love Truth Mercy Iustice Holinesse and whatsoever is originally and of it selfe Excellent The only Potentate King of Kings Lord of Lords of whom through whom and to whom are all things The Father Sonne and holy Ghost God blessed for ever Amen Doe I Beleeve his Word in all things related commanded promised and threatned therein and that his holy and wise Providence is in all things Have I Him and his Word in continuall remembrance Doe I esteeme and exalt God in my heart above all so that it doth humbly adore him at the very mention and thought of him making my selfe to be nothing in mine owne eyes yea esteeming all creatures to bee nothing in comparison of him Have I given religious worship to him onely Have I beleeved in him and in him onely Have I sworne by him as there hath beene cause and by him alone Have I prayed onely unto him and have I sought to him and to obtaine helpe of him only by such meanes as he hath appointed giving the glory and thanks of my being and well-being and of al other things which are good unto him Is my Conscience so convinced of the truth Authority of God that it holdeth it selfe absolutely bound to obey him in all things that it doth incite to that which is good restrain from that which is evill encourage me in well-doing and check me when I doe ill Is my will resolved upon absolute and unfained obedience to doe whatsoever God commandeth to forbeare whatsoeuer hee forbiddeth to subscribe to whatsoever he doth as well done and have I borne patiently all which either by himselfe or by any of his creatures hee hath inflicted upon me Have mine affections beene so for God that I have loved him with al my heart loving nothing more than him nothing equally to him Doe I hate every thing that is contrary to him Hath my Confidence beene onely in him and my expectation of good from him Have my desires beene to him and for him longing above all things to have communion with him Hath it beene my greatest feare to offend him or to be severed from him Hath it beene my greatest griefe and shame that I have sinned against him Have I reioyced in God as in my chiefe Good Hath mine anger risen against whatsoever I saw crosse to his glory Have I beene zealous for God And have I made him the utmost end of all mine actions Hath my whole outward man as tongue senses and all other active powers of my body been readie to professe the true God and to yeeld obedience to his will Or contrariwise Am I not guilty of denying of God in word in workes or at least in heart
fruit and from love and feare of God and from conscience of the Commandement to doe the will of GOD. Not onely feare of wrath and hope of reward causeth him to abstaine from evill and doe good but chiefly love of God and conscience of duty Now if you would know when you obey out of conscience of the Commandement and from love of Christ consider 1. whether your heart and minde stand ready prest to obey every of Gods Cōmandements which you know as well as any and that because the same God which hath given one hath given all If yea then you obey out of Conscience 2. Consider what you doe or would doe when Christ and his true Religion and his Commandements goe alone and are severed from all outward credit pleasure and profit Doe you or will you then cleave to Christ and to the Commandement Then love of Christ feare of God and conscience of the commandement was and is the true cause of your wel-doing especially if you will and indev our all this when that all these are by the world cloathed with perill contempt 3. Consider whether you can goe on in the strict course of godlinesse alone and whether you resolve todoe it though you shall have no company but all or most goe in the way of sinne and withall perswade thereunto When you wil walke with God alone without ether company this sheweth that your walking with God is for his sake So walked Noah and Eliah as he thought But the cause of an hypocrites well-doing is onely goodnesse of nature or good education or meere civility or some common gifts of the spirit also selfe-love slavish feare onely or the like See this in Ahabs repentance in Iehu his zeale and Ioash his goodnesse Ahabs humiliation was only from a slavish feare of punishment The zeale of Iehu was only from earthly ioy and carnall policy for had it beene in zeale for God he would as well have put downe the Calves at Dan and Bethel as to stay the Priests of Baal And the goodnes of Ioash it was chiefly for Iehoiada's sake whom he reverenced and to whom he held himselfe beholding for his kingdome and not for Gods sake For the Scripture saith that after Iehoiadans death his Princes sollicited him and hee yeelded and fell to Idolatry and added this also he commanded Zechariah the High Priest Iehoiada's sonne to be slaine because hee in the name of the Lord reproved him for his sinne Secondly the upright mans actions as they come from a good beginning so they are directed to a good end he propoundeth the pleasing of God and the glory of his Name as the direct chiefe and utmost end not as if a man might not have respect to himselfe and to his neighbour also propounding to himselfe his owne and his neighbours good as one end of his actions somtimes but these must not bee propounded either onely or chiefly or as the farthest and utmost marke but onely as they are subordinate to these chiefe ends and doe lye directly in the way to procure Gods glory For so farre forth as a mans health and well-fare both of body and soule lyeth directly in the way to glorifie God hee may in that respect ayme at them in his actions Our Saviour Christ in an inferiour and secondary respect aymed at his owne glory and at the salvation of man in the worke of mans redemption When he said Glorifie thy Son and prayed that his Church might be glorified here he had respect unto himselfe and unto man But when he said that thy Sonne may glorifie thee here he made Gods glory his utmost end and the only marke which for it selfe hee aymed at The upright mans ayme at his owne and at his neighbours goods is not for themselves as if his desire ended there but in reference to GOD the chiefe Good and the highest end of all things Indeed such is GODS wisedome and goodnes that he hath set before man evill and good Evill that followeth upon displeasing and dishonouring him by sinne that man might feare and avoyd sinne Good and recompēce of reward that followeth upon faith and indevour to obey that he might hope and be better induced to beleeve and obey This GOD did knowing that man hath need of all reasonable helps to affright him from evill and to allure him to good Now God having set these before man man may and ought for these good purposes to set them before himselfe Yet the upright man standeth so straight and onely to God that so farre as he knoweth his owne heart he thus resolved that if there were no feare of punishment nor hope of reward if there were neither Heaven or Hell he would indevour to please and glorifie GOD even out of that duty hee oweth to him and out of that high and awful estimation which he hath of Gods Soveraigntie and from that entire love which hee beareth unto him He that ordinarily in doing of common and earthly businesse though they concerne his owne good hath a will to doe them with an heavenly mind and to an heavenly end principally certainly hee standeth well and uprightly resolved albeit intemptations and feares he doth not alwayes feele the said resolution But the hypocrite not so hee onely or chiefly aymeth at himselfe and in his aime serveth himselfe in all that he doth If he looke to GODS will and glory as sometimes he wil pretend he maketh that but the by and not the main he seeketh Gods will and glory not for it selfe but for himselfe not for Gods sake but for his owne Thus did Iehu Sixthly An upright man may know hee is upright by the effects that follow upon his well-doing First his chiefe inquiry is and hee doth observe what good commeth by it and what glory God hath had or may have rather then what earthly credit and benefit hee hath gotten to himselfe Or if this latter thrust in it selfe before the other as it will oft-times in the best he is greatly displeased with himselfe for it The hypocrit not so all that he harkeneth after is pleased with after hee hath done a good deed is what applause it hath amongst men c. Secondly when an upright man hath done a prayse-worthy action he is not puft up with pride and high conceit of his owne worth glorying in himselfe but hee is humbly thankefull unto God Thankefull that God hath enabled him to doe any thing with which he will be wel-pleased and accept as well done Humble and low in his eyes because of the manifold failings in that good worke and because he hath done it no better and because whatsoever good hee did it was by the grace and power of God not by any power of his own Thus David shewed his uprightnesse in that solemne thanksgiving when hee said But who am I and what is my people that wee should bee able to offer
till their turne be to be thought upon and till the more excellent and more needfull be dispatched 3. If thoughts of the world will impudently intrude themselves and will not be kept out rebuke them sharply give them no hearing but dishearten them and rebuke the porter and keeper of the doore of your heart smite wound and checke your conscience because it did not checke and restraine them 4. In all lawfull businesse inure yourselfe hoc agere fully and sufficiently to intend that one thing which you have in hand for the present and at all times restraine wandring thoughts as much as may be Let your Reason get such power over Phantasie that you may bee able to thinke of what you please when you please You will say to a sickle brain this is hard if not impossible To this I answer If you wold not nourish and entertaine evill flying unseasonable thoughts when they arise and would as oft as they offer themselves be much displeased with them and with your selfe for them then in time you shall finde it possible and not exceeding hard to think of what good things you would and not of what evill things you would not 5. Lastly when the time and turne of thinking and doing of your worldly businessesis come then thinke thereof sufficiently and to good purpose for then they will be the lâ—sse troublesome in thrusting themselves in out of place because it is known that in their place they shall be fully regarded Idlenesse and improvidence about these things puts a man into streights many times and into distempers about his worldly businesse more then cls needs or would be You would also know when your thoughts of successe in your worldly affaires are distractions in your preparation to prayer together with a remedy against them To thinke that if you be not provident and diligent in your calling and that if God doe not blesse your diligence you may doe the works of your calling in vaine and that you may looke for ill successe thus to thinke is lawfull and usefull For it will raise up in you a resolution to be provident diligent and when you haue done all you can these thoughts also will quicken you to prayer unto God for successe But if your thoughts of thriving or not thriving be other then these and doe bring forth other effects namely if desire of successe drive you to thinke of using unlawful meanes from doubting that you cannot so soon or so certainly or not at all speed by the onely use of lawfull if it make you full of anxietie and feare that though you use what good meanes you can all will be in vaine if you be yet doubtfull and take thought about what you shall eate what you shall drink and what you shall put on or how you yours shall live another day then your thoughts about successe in worldly busines are worldly and distractfull I shall let this sinne with its remedy appeare morefully when I shall write against taking care in any thing cap. 13. Yet for the present know All the fruit you shall reape through eating up your heart with feare and distrust doubting of successe will be nothing else but a farther degree of vexation of heart For all the carking in the world cannot bring good successe Besides nothing provoketh the Lord to give ill successe sooner then when you shall nourish distrustfull care Secondly consider the ability and faithfulnesse of GOD who hath taken care of the successe of your labour upon him commanding you not to care but to cast all the care on him If you would rest upon this you might be secure of good successe in â—our outward state even according to your desire or else God will more then recompence the want thereof by causing you to thrive and to haue good successe in spirituall things which is much better which you should desire much more 4. A fourth caution to be observed in your preparation to prayer and in prayer is Be not sleight and formall herein which is when cursorily and out of an overt custome you only cal your sins your duties Gods favours and his promises unto a bare and fruitlesse remembrance For if the heart be not withall affected with anger feare griefe and shame for sinne And if it be not affected with ioy and with an acknowledgement of being beholding to God for his favours Moreover if it be not affected with hope and confidence in God at the remembrance of his blessed promises And if withall the heart be not gained to a renowed resolution for to reforme what is faulty and to cry earnestly to God for grace and mercy and for the time to come to endevour to live a godly life all your preparation is nothing Nay this slight and fruitlesse ealâ—ing of vice and vertue to rememâ—rance and no more is a great â—…holdner and strengthner of sinne â—nd a great weakner and quencher â—f the Spirit For sinnes are like to â—dle vagrants and lawlesse subâ—ects If Officers call such before â—hem and either say nothing to â—hem or onely give them threatâ—ing words but doe not make â—hem smart they grow ten times â—ore bold more insolent and â—wlesse Good thoughts are like â—â— dutifull servants and loyall â—â—bjects such as are ready to â—ome at every cal offer themâ—â—lves to be imployed in all good services now if such be not cherished in their readinesse they like Davids people returne dis-heartned and their edge to future readinesse is taken off Besides this cursorie performing of holy duties is the high way to an habit of hypocrisie that cursed Marre-good 5. My last caution is that if in your meditations and in your prayers you finde a dulnesse and want of spiritualnesse I would haue you to be humbled in the sense of your impotency and infirmity yet Be not discouraged nor yet give them over but rather betake your selfe to these duties with more diligence earnestnesse When you want water your Plumpe being dry you by powring in a little water and by much labour in plumping can fetch water so by much labouring the heart in preparation and by prayer you may recover the gift of prayer And as when your fire is out you by laying on fuell and by blowing the sparke remaining doe kindle it so by meditation whereby you must stirre up the grace that is in you and by the breath of prayer you may revive and inflame the spirit of grace and prayer in you Yet if you finde that you have not time to prepare by meditation or hauing time if you finde a confusion distraction in your meditation then it wil be best to breake through all lets without further preparation fal upon the duty of prayer onely with premeditation of God to whom and of Christ by whom through the Spirit you must pray If for all this you doe not satisfie your selfe in these holy exercises yet give them not over
way and affoordeth meanes to attain both through the commands and promises thereof in the doctrine of faith and repentance Now therefore bring your self to the Gospell Try your selfe thereby first whether your first faith and repentance were sound then set upon reforming getting pardon of particular and later offences But learne to put a difference betweene the Commandements of the Gospell and of the Law the Law exacteth absolute obedience The gracious Gospell doth through CHRIST accept of the truth of Faith and Repentance so that there be an endevour after their perfection It would be too long to shew you at large the signes of unfained Faith and Repentance I will for the present onely say this Have you been humbled heretofore and through the promises and commandement of the Gospell which biddeth you beleeue have you conceived hope of mercy relying on Christ for it and thereupon have had a â—â—ue change in your whole man so that you make God your utmost end and out of hatred oâ—… and love unto Christ and â—is wayes have had a will in all things to live honestly and to â—…devour in all things to keepe alwayes a good conscience to wards God and man desiring the sincere milke of the Word to grow by it loving the brethren desiring and delighting in communion with them then be you confident that your first faith repentance and new obedience was sound If upon tryall you finde that they were not sound then you must begin now to repent and beleeve it is not yet too late Touching reformation and obtaining of pardon and power of your particular sinnes doe thus Consider the Commandement which biddeth you to repent and amend Consider the Commandements which bid you to come unto Christ when you are weary and beavie laden with your sin beleeving that through him they shall be pardoned and subdued to this end Consider that Christ hath fully satisfied for such and such a sinne yea for all sinne and that you have many promises of grace and forgivenesse yea a promise that God will give you grace to beleeve in him that you may have your sinnes forgiven Consider that there is vertue and power in Christs death and resurrection appliable by faith through his holy Spirit for the mortifying the old man of sinne and quickning the new man in grace as well as merit to take away the guilt and punishment of your sinne Improve this power of Christ in you unto an actuall breaking off your sinnes and living according to the wil of Christ which is done by mortifying the old man of sinne and by strengthning the new and inner man of grace In mortifying your sinne doe thus Take all your sinnes especially your bosome sins those to which the disposition of your nature and condition of your place doth most incline you your strongest and Captaine sinnes and with them the body of corruption in you the originall and mother-sinne smite at them strike at the very roote arraigne them condemne them in your selfe dragge them all to the Crosse of Christ and nayle them thereunto that is by Faith see them all nayled with Christ to the Crosse whereon he was crucified and beleeve that not onelyin respect of their guilt but also of their raigning power they are al crucified with him dead and buried as is signified to you lively in your Baptisme When you see that your old man is crucified with Christ that the body of sinne should be destroyed you will take courage against sinne and will refuse to serve it sith by Christ you are freed from the dominion of it When you thus by faith put on the Lord Iesus Christ you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh Grieve heartily for your sinnes conceive deadly hatred against them displeasure against your selfe for them These like a corrasiue will eate out the core and heart of sinne Make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts of it but be sober in the use of all earthly things this by little and little will starve sinne Avoid all obiects and occasions of sinne yea abstaine from the appearance of it this wil disarme sinne When you feele any motion unto sinne whether it rose from within or came from without resist it speedily and earnestly by the Sword of the Spirit the Word of God as your Saviour did and as Ioseph did for which cause it must dwell plentifully in you Thus you shall kill sinne That you may strengthen the inner man by the Spirit whereby you may not onely mortifie the deeds of the flesh but bring forth the fruits of the Spirit doe thus First Apply Christ risen from the dead for you particularly beleeving that God by the same power quickneth you and raiseth you together with Christ to walke in newnes of life reckoning your selfe now to be alive unto God being dead unto sinne become the servant of righteousnesse This beleeving in Christ embracing and relying upon the precious promises of the Gospell doth draw downe Christ into your heart and doth more and more incorporate you into him by it he by his Spirit dwelleth in you wherby of his life grace you receive life and grace and so as the Apostle saith are made partaker of the divine nature flying the corruption which is in the world through lust Affect your heart with ioy unspeakeable and with peace in beleeving considering that you are iustified through our Lord Iesus Christ this Ioy of the Lord as a cordiall will exceedingly strengthen grace in the inner man Take heed of quenching or grieving the Spirit but nourish it by the frequent use of holy meditation prayer hearing and reading of the Word receiving the Sacraments by a Christian Communion with such as feare God and by following the motions of the Spirit of God which you shall know to be from it when the thing wherunto it mooveth is both for matter circumstance according to the Scripture the Word of the Spirit This is to be led of the Spirit and this will be to walke in the Spirit and then you shal not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Vpon your fasting day you shal doe well to renew your Covenant with God and in some cases so that it be done advisedly to enter into a particular vow to leave some grosse sinne with the occasions of it and to doe some necessary neglected dutie and to embrace all furtherances thereof This also will much strengthen your resolution against sinne and for holinesse There remaineth yet one principall work wherein a chiefe busines of the day of your fast lyeth for which all formerly spoken to maketh way and by which with the former meanes you may attaine to true reformation of your selfe reconciliation with your
like proud Lamech and froward Ionas 2. Be not overwhelmed or eaten up with griefe like covetous Ahab and foolesh Nabal But 3. Beare them patiently 4. Beare them chearefully and thankefully 5. Beare them fruitfully Now to helpe you that passion and heat of anger kindle not or at least breake not out or last not First Convince your judgement thorowly that passion and rash anger is forbidden and hated of GOD. It is a fruit of the flesh A worke of the Devill Bred and nourished by pride folly and selfe-love Also that it surpriseth all the powers of right reason putting a man besides himselfe causing him to abuse his tongue hands and the whole man making him like a foole to let flye and cast firebrands at every thing which crosseth him and that not onely against his neighbour and dearest friends but against God himselfe Consider likewise that it maketh a man out of case to pray heare the Word or to performe any worship to God and unfit to speak or heare reason or to give or receive good counsell God barreth such as are froward the company of good men and saith That such a one doth abound in transgression that there is more hope of a foole than of him Wherfore he must needs be exposed to all the just iudgements of God temporall and eternall By these and such like thoughts worke your selfe to an ill opinion of this vice and to such a loathing of it that you may beware and shun it Secondly Observe watchfully when anger beginneth to kindle and stirre in you and before it flame break forth into tongue or hand set your reason aworke let it step before it to hold it in and bridle it Nay set Faith aworke having in readinesse and calling to minde such pregnant Scriptures as these Be angrie but sinne not And Anger resteth in the bosome of fooles And say thus Shall I sinne against God Shall I play the foole Then you sinne and play the soole in your anger first when it is without cause as when neither GOD is dishonoured nor your neighbour or your selfe indeede injuried when it is for trifles and onely because you are crossed in your will and desire and the like but chiefly when you are angry with any for wel-doing Secondly though you have cause yet if it be severed from love to the person of him with whom you are angry so as you neglect the common and needful offices thereof Thirdly when it exceedeth due measure as when it is over-much and over-long Fourthly it is sinfull when it bringeth forth evill and unseemly effects such as neglect or ill performance of dutie to GOD or man also when it breaketh out into lowd clamorous reviling or sâ—appish peeches or into stamping staâ—ing flinging churlish sullen or dogged behaviour or when it breaketh out into any injurious act Thirdly If you cannot keepe anger from rising and boyling within you yet be sure that you binde your tongue and hand to the good behaviour Make a Covenant with them charge them not to shew it nor partake with it any farther then considerate reason and good conscience shall advise you Set a Law to your selfe that you will not chide nor strike while you are in your scalding heate of anger If there be cause of either deferre it untill you be your selfe If you say that if you doe them not in your heate you shall doe neither I answer that in saying so you discover a great deale of impotencie folly corruption I am sure you never doe them well in passion And conscience of dutie should lead you to chiding and correcting when there is cause not passion for in it you serve and revenge your selfe upon the partie but not God Fourthly Both before and when you are in a chafe See GOD by the eye of your Faith comming in hearing you and looking upon you This will make you whist and quiet causing you not onely to hold your hands and tongue as you finde by experience you use to doe when some reverend friend coÌ„meth in but this will coole and abate your very inward heate and passion Fifâ—ly if you feele your corruption and weakenesse to be such and the provocation to anger to be so great that you feare you cannot hold then if it be possible avoid all occasions of anger remove your selfe but in a peaceable and quiet manner from the person object or occasion thereof And at all times shunne the company of an angry man as much as your calling will give you leave lest you learne his wayes Sixthly Howsoever it may happen that anger doe kindle in you and breake out Be sure that youâ—uâ—dâ—e it before it grow into hatred of him with whom you are angry For this cause Let not the Sunne goe downe upon your wrath you know not what hatred it may hatch before morning And the best means which I know to subdue it is If you finde your heart to boyle against any pray heartily to God for him in particular for his good this you are commanded And be so farre from seeking revenge that you force your selfe to be loving and kinde shewing all good offices of love with wisedome as you shal have occasion overcome evill with good Pray also to God for your selfe that he would please to subdue this passion for you This act of love to him performed before God before whom you dare not dissemble will excellently quench wrath and prevent hatred aganist him with whom you were angry and will give proofe betweene God and your Conscience that you love him If pleading for your selfe you shall say It is my naturall constitution to be cholericke and flesh and bloud will have their course Know this is to nourish your passion Knowalso it is a wicked and hateful constitution of body which came in with the fall And flesh and bloud shall not inherite the kingdome of God Say not I am so crossed and provoked never any the like For Christ was more injured and more provoked yet was never in a chafe And you provoke God daily a thousand times more every day yet he is patient with you Say not It is such an head-strong passion that it is impossible to one who is of a cholericke nature thus to bridle and subdue it For I can assure you that by using the former meanes if a man also do oft and much shame and abase himselfe before God for his passion and folly and daily repent thereof and be watchfull over himselfe he may of a most cholericke man become most meeke before hee dye I have seene it in old men whose age in it selfe giveth advantage to tutchines and frowardnes who were exceeding passionat intheir youth yet through the grace of God by constant coÌ„flict against this vice have attained to an admirable degree of meeknesse Next as carnal anger so
worldly griefe must be avoided in all sorts of crosses For by it you repine against GOD fret against men and doe make your selfe unfit for naturall civill and spiritual duties and if it be continued it worketh death The best remedy against worldly sorrow for any crosse is to turn it into godly sorrow for sin which is the cause of the crosse This will cause repentance to salvation never to be repented of and will drive you to Christ in whom if you beleeve you shall have joy and comfort even such ioy unspeakeable which will dispell and drie up both this and all other griefes whatsoever For godly sorrow doth alwaies in due time end in spirituall joy SECTION 2. Of bearing all crosses patiently IN the third place I told you that you must beare all your afflictions and crosses patiently By Patience I doe not meane a Stoicall sensclesnesse or blockish stupiditie like that of Isachar Nor yet a counterseit patience like Esau's and Absaloms Nor a meere civill and morall patience which wise Heathen to free themselves from vexation and for-vaine-glorie and other ends attained unto Nor yet a prophane patience of men insensible of GODS hishonour Nor a patience-perforce when the sufferer is meerely passive But a Christ an holy patience wherein you must be sensible of Gods hand and when you cannot but feele an unwillingnesse in nature to beare it yet for conscience to Gods Commandement you doe submit to his will and that voluntarily with an active patience causing your selfe to be willing to beare it so long as God shall please like the patience of Christ Not my will but thine be done The excellencie of Christs suffering was not in that he suffered but in that he was obedient in his suffering He was obedient to the death So likewise no mans suffering is acceptable if he be not active and obedient in suffering This Patience is a grace of the Spirit of God wrought in the heart and will of man through beleeving and applying the Commandement and promises of God to himselfe whereby for conscience sake towards God he doth submit his will to Gods will willing quietly to beare without bitternesse and vexation all the labours changes and evill occurrents which shall be fall him in the whole course of his life whether from God immediately or from man as also to wait quietly for all such good things which God hath promised but yet are delayed and unfulfilled To induce you to get and to shew forth this holy Patience know that you have need of it and that in these respects 1. You are but halfe a Christian you are imperfect in your parts you want a principall part if you want patience thus S. Iames argueth implying that hee that will be entire and want nothing to make him a Christian man he must have patience This passive obedience is greater than active it is more rare and more difficult to obey in suffering than to obey in doing 2. You have not a sure possession of your soule without patience In your patience possesse yee your soules saith our Saviour A man without patience is not his own man hee hath not power nor rule over his owne spirit nor yet of his own body The tongue hand and feet of an impatient man will not bee held in by reason But he that is patient enjoyeth himselfe and hath rule over his spirit no crosse can put him out of possession of himselfe Thirdly There are so many oppositions and lets in your race and growth of Christianity that without patience to suffer and to wait you cannot possibly bring forth good fruit to God nor hold out your profession of Christianitie to the end but shall give off before you have enjoyed the promise Therefore you are bid to runne with patience the race which is set before you And the good ground is said to bring forth fruie with patience And the faithfull are said through Faith and Patience to inherite the Promises Fourthly Patience worketh experience without which no man can be an expert Christian this experieÌ„ce being of the greatest use to confirme a Christian soule in greatest difficulties This be said of the necessitie together with the benefit of patience that you may love it and may desire to have and shew it By what meanes you may attaine it followeth First you must be after a sort impatient and must spend your passion on your lusts which war in your members fall out with them mortifie them for nothing maketh a man impatient so much as his lusts doe both because they wil never be satisfied it is death to a man to be crossed in them and because the fulfilling of lusts doth cause a guilty conscience whence followeth impatience troublesome vexation upon every occasion like unto the raging Sea which with every wind dothâ—ome and rage and cast up nothing but filth and dirt And as Saint Iames saith Whence are warres and brawlings So I say of all other fruits of impatiencie But from your lusts that warre in your members Take away the causes of impatiency then you have made a good way for patience Secondly Lay a good soundation of patience you must be humble and low in your owne eyes through an appreâ—eÌ„sion that you are lesse then the least of GODS mercies and that your greatest punishments are lesse than your iniquities have deserved As any man hath abounded in humility so hath â—ee abounded in patience witnesse the examples of Abraham Moses Iob David and others Thirdly Store your heart with faith hope and love all these and either of these do calm â—he heart and keepe it â—eadie For besides that they quiet the heart in the maine giving assurance of Gods love in Christ For being iusâ—â—fied by faith we have peace with God reiâ—yce in hope whence joy and patience in tribulation And who can be impatient with him whom hee loveth with all his heart and strength These graces also doe furnish a man with an ability of spiritual reasoning and disputing with a disquieted soule whereby it may be quieted in any particular disquietment Wherefore the fourth meane of patience is to doe as Davâ— did whensoever you finde your heart begin to boyle and to be impatient you must before passion hath got the bit in the teeth and carried you out of your selfe into height of impatience aske your soule what is the matter and why it is so disquieted within you This do seriously and your heart will quickly represent to your thoughts such and such crosse or crosses stretched out upon the tenters of manifold aggravations All which you must answer by the spirituall reasoning of your faith grounded on the word of God whereby you may quiet your heart and put it to siâ—ence Whatsoever the affliction be that may trouble you you may â—e furnished with reasons why you
strength and meanes be fully imployed in some lawfull businesse 5. Out of the fit the party thus affected must not oppresse his heart with feare of falling into it againe any more then to quicken him to prayer and to cause him to cast himselfe upon God 6. Out of the fits and in them also if the partie distempered be capable spirituall counsell is to be given out of GODS Word wisely according as the partie is fit for it whether to humble him if he hath not beene sufficiently humbled or to build him up and comfâ—â—â— him if he be already humbled 7. Lastly remember alwayes that when the troubled person is himselfe that he be moved to prayer and that others then pray much with him and at all times pray much for him When these troubles are mixt comming partly from naturall distemper and partly from spirituall temptation then the remedie must be mixt of helpes naturall and spirituall What the natural helps are hath bin shewne also what the spirituall in generall and shall be shewed more particularly in removing false feares rising from spirituall temptations The feares which rise for the most part from distemper of body may be knowne from those which for the most part or onely rise from the spirituall temptation thus When the first fort are clearely resolved of their doubts and brought unto some good degree of chearefulnesse and coÌ„fort they will yet it may be within a day or two sometimes within an houre or two upon every slight occasion and discouragement returne to their old complaints and will need the same meanes to recover them againe But those whose trouble is meerly out of spirituall temptation and trouble of conscience although for the time it is very grievous and hardly removed and sometimes long before they receive a satisfying answer to their doubts yet wheÌ„ once they receive satisfaction and comfort it doth hold and last untill there fall out some new temptation and new matter of feare This is because their Phantasies and memories are not disturbed in such sort as the others were The seeming grounds of feares that a man is not in state of grace when yet he is are for varietie almost infinite I have reduced them into this order and unto these heads First they who are taken with false feares will say their sinnes be greater than can be pardoned Secondly when they are driven from that they say then that they feare GOD will not pardon When they are driven from this by causing them to take notice of the signes of Gods actual love to them which give proofe that he will save them Then Thirdly they will question the truth of Gods love and favour But being put upon the ttyall whether God hath not already justified them and given them faith in Christ which are sufficient proofes of his love then Fourthly they will seeme to have grounds to doubt whether they have faith from which they are driven by putting them to the tryall of their Sanctification then Fifthly they doubt and will obiect strongly that they are not sanctified which being undeniably proved then Sixthly and lastly they feare they shall fall away and not persevere to the end Which feare being taken away also and all is come to this good issue they shall have no cause of disquiet feare This is the easiest most familiar and the most naturall method so farre as I can conceive both in propounding and in removing false feares SECTION 2. Removing false feare rising from thoughts of the greatnesse of punishment and sinne FIrst some in their fits of despaire speake almost in Cains words saying that their punishment which they partly feele and which they most of all feare is greater than they can beare or than can be forgiven I answer such If sense and feare of wrath and punishment be your trouble I would have you not to busie your thoughts about the punishment but divert them and pitch them upon your sinnes which are the onely cause of punishment for get your sinnes off and in one the same worke you get off and free your selfe from the punishment Labour therefore that your heart may bleed with godly sorrow for sin cry out as David did against his sinne so doe you against yours confesse them to GOD strike at the root of sinne at the sinne of your nature wherein you were conceived aggravate your actuall sinnes hide none spare none finde out arraigne accuse condemne your sinnes and your selfe for them grow first into utter detestation of your sinnes which have brought present punishment and a sense and feare of the eternall vengeance of hell fire then likewise grow into a dislike with your selfe for sinne loath your selfe in your owne sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Now when you are as a prisonerat the barre who hath received sentence of condemnation when you are in your owne apprehension a damned wretch fearing every day to be executed Oh then it concerneth you and it is your part and duty to runne to GOD the King of Kings whose name and nature is to forgive iniquity transgression and sinnes and that you may be accepted goe to him by Iesus Christ whose Office is to take away your sinnes and to present you without sinne to his father whose Office is also to procure and sue out your pardon Wherefore in Christs name pray and aske pardon of God for his Sonne Iesus Christs sake and withall bee as earnest in asking grace and power against your sinne that you may serve him in all well-pleasing Doe this as for your life with all truth and earnestnesse then you may nay must beleeve that God for Christs sake hath pardoned your sinne and hath done away the punishment of your sinne For this is according to the Word of Truth even as true as God is who hath Commanded you to doe thus and to beleeve in him But some will Reply this putting me unto a consideration of my sinnes breedes all my woe and feare for I finde them greater and more than can be pardoned Oh Say not so for you can hardly commit a greater sinne than indeed to thinke and to say so It is blasphemy against GOD yet this sinne if you will follow GODS Counsell and all other may and shall be pardoned I intend not to extenuate and lessen your sinne but you must give me leave to magnifie Gods truth and mercy and to extoll Christs love and merit Howsoever it is true that because sinne is a transgression of a law of infinite holinesse and equity in respect of the evil disposition of the heart is of infinite intention would perpetuate it selfe infinitely if it had time and meanes and because God the object and Person against whom sinne is committed is infinite therefore sinne must needes contract an infinite guilt and deserve infinite punishment which the very least sinne doth yet because the subiect of sinne the man that sinneth is
flesh but after the Spirit And as for weeping at crosses sooner and more than for sinnes this doth not alwaies argue more griefe for one than for the other For weeping is an effect of the body following much the temper thereof also sense apprehendeth a naturall object or matter of bodily griefe in such sort that the body is wrought upon more sensibly then when a spirituall object of griefe is onely apprehended by Faith Wherefore bodily teares flow easily from sense of crosses and more hardly from thoughts of sinne For spirituall obiects doe not ordinarily worke passions in the body so soone or so much as bodily and sensible obiects doe Griefe for a crosse is more outward and passionate thence teares but spirituall griefe is more inward sad and soaking in which cases teares lye so farre off and the organs of teares are so much contracted and shut up that they cannot be fetcht or wrung out but with much labour When you are bidden in Scripture to mourne and weep for your sins nothing else is meant but to grieve much and to grieve heartily as they doe who weepe much at outward calamities Besides it is not unknowne that even in naturall griefe dry griefe is many times greater than that which is moistned and overfloweth with teares And some softer effeminate spirits can weep at any thing when some harder spirits can weepe at nothing As the greatest spiritual ioy is not expressed in laughter so neither is the greatest spirituall griefe expressed in teares God regards the inward sighing of a contrite heart more then the outward teares of the eyes An Hypocriticall Saul being overcome with kindenesse and a false-hearted Ahab being upon the racke of feare may in their quames and passions weepe and externally humble themselves and that in part for sinne when a deare child of God may not be able to command one teare The time when Gods Children have most plentie of teares is when the extremitie and anguish of griefe is well over namely When their hearts beginne to melt through hope of mercy Zach. 12. 10. And as for leaving sinne altogether Who ever did in this life Who ever shall Sith there is no man that liveth and sinneth not But mistake not you may through GODS grace have left sinne when yet sinne hath not left you For whosoever hateth sinne and resolveth against it and in the Law of his minde would not commit it but is drawne to it by Satan and by the law of his members and after it is done doth not allow it but disclaimes it with griefe this man hath left sinne And if this bee your case It may be said of you as the Apostle said of himselfe It is not you that doe evill but it is sinne that dwelleth in you that doth it Many yet complaine They cannot Pray Reade Heare Meditate nor get any good by the best Companies or best conference which they can meete with They are so dull so forgetfull so full of distractions and so unfruitfull when they goe about or have beene about any thing that is good that they feare they have no grace at all in them yea it maketh them sometimes to forbeare these duties and for the most part to goe about them without heart It is not strange that it should be so with you so long as there is a Satan to hinder you and so long as you carry about the old man and body of sinne in you Moreover Doe you not many times goe about these holy duties remissely negligently onely cursorily and customarily without preparation thereunto not looking to your feete and putting off your shooes before you approach unto Gods holy things and holy presence Doe you not many times set upon these holy duties in the power of your owne might and not in the power of Gods might or have you not beene proud or too well conceited of your selves when you have felt that you have performed good duties with some life or are you sure that you should not be spiritually proud if you had your desirein doing al these Further doe you not mis-call things calling that no Prayer no Hearing c. or no fruit because you doe them not so well nor bring forth so much as in your enlarged spiritually covetous desires you long to doe and have If it bee thus with you then first mend all these faults confesse them to GOD and aske mercie Next bee thankefull for your desires to Pray Reade Heare c. And for your longing to doe all these as you should Prosecute these desires but alwayes in the sense of your owne insufficiencies and in the power of Gods might then all the forementioned duties shall bee performed with lesse difficultie and with more fruit and comfort Yet because in all these duties you travell to heaven-ward against the hill and your passage is against Winde and Tyde and with a strong opposition of enemies in the way you must never looke to performe them without sense of much difficulty and little progresse in comparison of what you aime at in your desires It concernes you therefore to plye your Oares and to apply your selves by all meanes to worke out your Salvation with feare and trembling I meane with feare to offend in any the aforementioned duties not in feare that you have no grace because you cannot performe them as well as you should and would For sith that you feele and bewaile your dulnesse deadnesse and unprofitablenesse in holy services it argueth that you have life because no man feeleth corruption and disliketh it by corruption but by grace I am sure that such as have no true grace can and doe daily faile in all these duties but either they find not their failings or if they doe yet they complaine not of them with griefe and dislike If you heartily grieve because you doe no better your desires to doe as you should doe are a true signe of grace in you For that dutie is alwaies well done in Gods account where there is truth of indevour to doe it well and true griefe that it is done no better And whereas you say that by reason of want of spirituall life in holy duties you have beene made to neglect them altogether I pray what have you got thereby but much griefe â—â—d unrest But tell me how is â—â— with you are you pleased with your selfe in your neglect or is it so that you can have no peace in your hearts untill you set your selves diligently to do those duties again as well as you can If so it is a signe that you are not quite destitute of saving grace Others when they have beene at holy exercises and in good company have felt joy and sweet comfort therein but afterward oft-times much dulnesse hath suddenly seazed upon them Which maketh them fear they have not root in themselves and that their joyes and comforts were not sound This dulnesse after fresh-feeling-comforts
that is truely regenerate doth carry about with him the body of sin and corruption and lyeth open daily unto the temptations of the world and the divell a truely regenerate man may be drawne not onely into sinnes of ignorance and common frailty but into grosse sinnes whereby the light and warmth of Gods spirit may be so much chilled and darkned that he may breake out into presumptuous sinnes Yea upon his negligent use or omission of the means of spirituall life and strength God may justly give him over to a fearefull declination in grace and backesliding Yet the truely regenerate fal onely from some degrees of holinesse and from certaine Acts of holinesse but not from the first infused habit of holinesse that blessed seede ever remaineth in him His falling is either onely into particular sinnes and into much failing in particular good duties or if it be towards a more generall defection yet it is never universall from the generall purpose of well-doing into a generall course of evill For the regenerate man doth never so sinne as the unregenerate man doth although for matter their sinnes may be all alike yea sometime those of the regenerate greater There is great difference in their sinnes and manner of sinning 1. Regenerate men may sinne of ignorance but they are not willingly and wilfully ignorant as are the unregenerate in some things or other 2. Regenerate men may commit not onely the common sinnes of infirmitie into which by reason of the remains of the lusts of the flesh they fall often such as rash anger discontent doubts feares dulnesse and deadnesse of heart in spirituall exercises and inward evill thoughts and motions of all sorts but they may also commit grosse sinnes such as are an open and direct breach of GODS Commandements yet those are done against their generall purpose as David did for hee had said hee would looke to his wayes and hee had determined to keepe Gods righteous iudgements Yea many times they are doneagainst their particular purposes as Peters denyall of his Master They are not usually plotted or thought on before but fallen into by occasion or are haled and enforced therunto by the violent corruption of the affections or sensuall appetites Moreover they doe not make a trade and custome of sinne These kindes of sinnes doe not passe them any long time unobserved but are seene bewailed confessed to GOD and prayed against and are bâ—rthenous and irkesome to them making them to thinke worse of themselves and to become base in their own eyes because of them But it is directly otherwise usually with the unregenerate in all these particulars 3. The regenerate may not onely commit sinnes grosse for matter but presumptuous for manner namely they may commit them not onely against knowledge but with a premeditated deâ—â—eration and determination of will as David did in the murther of Urâ—aâ— But itis seldome that a childe of GOD doth commit presumptuous sinnes His generall determination and Prayer is against them It is with much strife reluctation of will and with little delight and content in comparison He never sinnes presumptuously but when he is drawne thereunto or forced thereupon by some over-strong corruption and violent temptation for the time as David was being over-eagerly bent to hide his sinne and to save his credit For if he could by any means have gotten Vriah home to his wife hee would never have caused him to be slâ—ine And although presumptuous sinnes cast him into a deadnesse benummednesse of heart and spirit in which he may â—â—e for a time speechlesse and prâ—yerlesse as it was with David yet he feeleth that all is not well with him untill he have againe made his peace with God And when he hath the ministery of GODS powerfull word to make him plainly see his sinne then he will humble himselfe reforme it The unregenerate nothing so 4. Lastly a regenerate man may fall one degree further namely He may so loose his first love that he may though I cannot say fall into utter Apostacy yet decline from good very far even to a coldnesse and remissenesse in good duties even in the exercises of Religion if not to an utter omission for a time The life and vigor of his graces may suffer sensible Eclipses and decay Asa a good King yet went apace this way as appeareth by his imprisoning the good Prophet and in oppressing the people in his latter dayes and in trusting to the Physicians and not seeking to God to be cured of his disease And Salomon the truly beloved of GOD in his youth went further back giving himselfe to all manner of vanities and in his old age did so dote upon his many wives that he fell to Idolatry or at least became accessory by building them Idoll Temples and accompanying them to Idolatrous services in so much that it is said they turned away his heart after other gods and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God as was the heart of Divid his Father Yet there is a wide difference betweene these backe-slidings and the Apostaâ—ies of men unregenerate For these doe not approve nor applaud themselves in those evil courses into which they are back slidden when out of the heat of temptation they doe thinke of them neither have the regenerate full content in them but finde vanity and vexation in them as Salomon did even in the dayes of his vanitie They doe not in this their declined estate hate the good generally which once they loved but looke backe upon it with approbation and their heart secretly inclineth unto a liking of it and of them that are as they once were so that in the midst of their bad estate they have a mind to returne but that they are yet so hampered and entangled with the snares of sinne that they cannot get out Lastly they in Gods good time by his grace doe breake forth out of this Eclipse of grace by the light whereof they â—â—e their nakednesse and folly and are ashamed of their back-slâ—ding and revolting and they againe aoe their first workes And with much adoe recover their wonted joyes comforts thogh it may be never with that life lustre and beautie as in former times and that as a just correction of their sinne that they may be kept humble and be made to looke better to their standing all the dayes of their life by it It is not so with hypocriticall professours who never were truly regenerate but quite contrary as you may observe in the Apostacies of Saul and of King Ioash and Simon Magus others Thâ—se differences rise hence because that the common graces of the unregenerate are but as flashes of lightning or as the fading light of Meteors which blaze but for a while and are like the water of Lana-flâ—nds which because they have no spring to feede
may judge theÌ„selves to be more barren in their age then they were in their youth It may be you feele not in you that vigour heat and abilitie to performe good duties now in age as you did in your younger dayes But may not this arise from naturall defects as from want of memorie want of quicknesse of wit and from want of naturall heate and vigour of your spirits all which are excellent hand-maids to grace You may observe this in those elder people that studie to approve themselves to God untill their age and in their age they have these naturall defects recompenced with other better and more lasting fruit as with more staydnesse and soundnesse of Iudgement more humility more patience and more experience where with their gray hayrs are crowned they continuing in the way of righteousnesse Looke for these and looke to approve your selves in these in your age and these will prove more beneficiall to you than your fresh feelings and your sensibly-felt zeale in your younger times There are yet others it may be the same when they observe that many who are of longer standing than themselves who have had much more knowledge and have made a further progresse in the practice of godlinesse than they are yet fallen fear fully into some grosse sinne or sinnes yea some of them are departed from the faith have embraced with Demas this present World either in the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye or pride of life They are some of them fallen to Popery or to some other false Religion Wherefore they feare that they shall fall away also and that their hearts will deceive them in the end That the falls of others should make all that doe stand to take â—eede lest they fall is according â—o the expresse will of God It is â—â— high point of wisedome for â—ou to observe and doe it Likeâ—ise to feare so much as to quicken you to watchfulnesse and â—â—ayer is an holy and commendable feare But to feare your totall or finall falling away onely because some that have made profession of the same Religion are fallen is without ground For it may bee those which you see to be fallen away never had any other than a forme of godlinesse and never had more than the common graces gifts of the Spirit For if they be quite fallen from the faith it is because they were never soundly of the faith Moreover grant that some of them which are â—â—â—â—n had saving grace may they not with David and Salomon recover their fals This you should hope and pray for rather than by occasion of their falls to trouble your selfe with false and fruitlesse feare Last of all some yet feare that if persecution should come because of the Word and the Religion which they doe professe that they should never hold out but should fall away Doe you thus feare Then buckle close unto you the compleat armour with the girdle of sinceritie exercise your selves before-hand at your spirituall weapons make and keepe your peace with GOD under whom at such times you must shelter your selves by whose power it is that you must stand in that evill day But know that a child of GOD need not feare persecution with such discouragefull and such desperate feare neither should you for this will but give advantage to your enemies of all sorts and will make your â—â—andsfeeble your hearts faint Raise up your spirits and chase way your feare thus Consider he goodnesse of your cause Consider the wisedome â—valour and prowesse of him that hath already â—edeemed you with his bloud who hath already led captivitie â—aptive who is your Champion and hath engaged himselfe for you not to leave you untill he hath brought you to glorie I meane Christ Iesus who is Lord of heasts under whose Banner you fight in your whole Christian warfare Consider likewise the faithfulnesse of Gods promise made to all his Children concerning his presence and helpe in time of persecution commanding them not to take thought thereabout having promised to give them a mouth and wisedome which all their adversaries shall not be able to resist And suppose that you have or at least feele that you have but little strength yet consider if it bee cherished thankfully acknowledged what this will doe it will cause you to keepe Gods word and that you shall not deny Christs name and it hath a promise of being kept from the houre of temptation that shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth you shall be kept at least from the hurt of the temptation Consider last of all the blessed experience which the holy Martyrs have had of GODS love and helpe according to his promise in their greatest persecutions and fiery trialls Observe the wisedome and courage of those who in their owne nature were but simple and fearefull Reade the Booke of Martyrs next unto the Scriptures for this purpose and through GODS grace though you were naturally as feareful as Hares you when you shall bee called to it shall be as couragious as Lyons It is not hard for you to know now whether you shal be able in time of persecution to stand fast and not fall away If you now in the peace of the Gospell can deny your selves in your lusts in love to God and for Conscience sake towards him and can rather part with them than with the sincere following of CHRIST then you shall be able and you will deny your selves in the matter of your life if you be put to it in time of persecution rather than deny CHRIST For this first is as difficult as the latter and the same love to GOD and Conscience of duty which doth now uphold you and beare you through the one will then rather uphold and beare you thorow the other For in times of triall and suffering for his name you may looke for his more speciall assistance Wherefore I doe wish all that are troubled with false feares to rest satisfied in these answers to their doubts and I would have them give over calling their Election Gods love their Iustification their Sanctification or their finall perseverance into question but rather fill your selves with hope and assurance of GODS favour I speake still to burdned Consciences comforting your selves therein abounding in thankesgiving to GOD for what you have rather than repining in your selves for what you want Yet I know there are some as if they were made all of doubting will object my heart is deceitfull I doubt all is not I doubt all will not be well with mee If your heart bee deceitfull Why then doe you beleeve it when it casteth in these doubts And why doe you trust to it more than unto the evidence of the Word and Iudgement of Gods faithful Ministers who by the Word give most satisfying resolutions to your doubts
to be at his owne disposing not at ours It should be your care onely to be present at GODS Ordinances and when you reade or heare the Word or will of God to indevour to beleeve and obey it As when hee saith Thou shalt love the Lord thy GOD with all thy heart Thou shalt beleeve in the name of the Lord thy God and trust in his Name Thou shalt obey the voyce of the Lord thy God and serve him and such like Attend to the Word heedfully and because this Word is infallibly true and excellently good bring your thoughts and heart to beleeve and to approve it and say within your selves these are true these are good this I ought to doe this I would beleeve and doe Lord helpe mee and I will doe it O that my wayes were directed to keepe thy statutes In such like agitations and reasonings of the reasonable soule it pleaseth GOD to give his grace both to will and to doe his Commandements But secondly doe not say that you have not faith and the feare of God and love to him all which God of his free grace promised as you heard to you absolutely which graces are indeed the conditions fore-going the reward promised when as in truth you have them For what kinde of duties be these thinke you Are they Legall which require perfect exact and full degrees of faith feare and love Or are they not Evangelicall Such as doe require truth in all these and doe not exact ful perfection in degrees If you have desire if you can desire to feare him which is the scantling of the feare of Gods people as Nehemiah calleth it so if you desire to beleeve and will to obey in the inmost longing of your soul according to the measure and strength of grace in you this according to the Tenour of the blessed Gospell of our Lord Iesus Christ is true and acceptable through Christ for whose sake GOD doth accept the will for the deede in all such cases wherein there is truth of will and endevour but not power to doe Furthermore if you thinke that it is your well doing that must make you acceptable to God you are in a proud and dangerous errour Indeede God will not accept of you if you doe not indevour to doe his will but you must propound to your selfe another end than to be accepted for your well-doing You must doe your dutie to shew your obedience to God and to shew your thankfulnes that God hath pleased and doth please to accept you in his Sonne Christ and that it is your desire to be accepted through him But I would have you which are pressed with the load of your sinnes looke neerely judiciously and impartially into your selfe it may be you have more faith feare of God and obedience then you are aware of or then you will be knowne of Can you grieve and doth it trouble you that you have so little faith so little feare of GOD and that you doe shew so little obedience and is it your desire and indevor to have more and to doe as well as you can though you cannot doe so well as you should then you have much faith feare and â—bedience For to grieve for little â—aith feare and obedience is an â—videntsigne of much faith feare â—nd obedience For whence is â—his trouble and griefe but from Gods saving graces And to â—rieve for little sheweth that you â—ong for and would have much Let this suffice to be a full answer to the principall doubts whereof fearefull hearts will â—ake no answer Never yeeld to your feares waite on God still â—or resolution of your doubts in â—is best time For it is not man that can but it is God that both â—an and will speake peace to his people not onely outward but inward peace In the meane time though you can have no feeling comfort in any of GODS promises yet consider God in the Lord and that Christ is Lord of all you are his creature you owe to him all obedience wherefore you will as much as you can keepe your selfe from iniquity and you will strive to doe his will let him do with you as hee pleaseth yea though he kill you or though he give you no comfort till death you will trust in him and will obey him and it is your desire to rest and hope in him as in your Redeemer then whether you know that God is yours or no I am sure he knoweth you to be his this is an argument of strong faith And you are upon a sure ground The foundation of God remaineth sure The Lord knoweth his and who be they Even all that professing his name depart from iniquitie And whosoever in his heart would he in truth doth depart from iniquity Something remaineth yet to be answered Many say that doe what they can they are assaulted still so thicke with temptations that they cannot have one houres quiet What of that Doth this hinder your peace with God that the Devill the World and your lusts Gods sworne enemies are not at peace with you So long as you have peace of Sanctification in this degree that the faculties of soule and body doe not mutinie one against the other but hold a good correspondencie in joyning together against their fleshly lusts which fight against the soule you are in good case I meane when the Vnderstanding Conscience Will and Affections are all willing to doe their part against sinne their common enemy Not but that you shall find a sensible warring opposition in all these while you live here even when you have most peace in this kinde but how The unsanctified part of the understanding is against the sanctified part of the understanding and unsanctified will against the sanctified will and so in all other faculties of the soule flesh in every part lusteth against spirit in every part spirit in every part lusteth against flesh in every part For as every sanctified part hath the spirit so it hath likewise the remaines of the flesh fighting one against the other Now if that your faculties and powers be ruled all by one spirit you have a good agreement and good peace within you notwithstaÌ„ding that the flesh doth so violently warre against this spirit For this warring of sinne in your members against the spirit the warring of the spirit against sinne argueth clearely that you have peace with God and this warre continued will in time beget perfect peace But let no man ever looke to have peace of sanctification perfect in this life For the best are sanctified but in part Wherefore let no man professing Chrisâ— think that he shal be freed from temptations and assaults risinâ— from within or comming from without so long as he liveth in this world Are not Christians called to be Souldiers Wherefore wee must arme our selves that we may stand by the power of Gods might and quit our selves like
excellency of Christian Experience 126 127. F An answer to them that question their Faith because they want feeling 590 Many doe not feele they have Faith because they feele not for it 603 How a man may know that he hath Faith 621 Reasons why many without cause thinke they have no Faith 584 Many presume they have Faith but have none 614 Reason for which many thinke they have Faith but have not 463 Who may Fall from grace and how 683 A regenerate man may Fall farre backe but not quite away 685 Grounds of difference betweene the Fals of men truly sanctified and others 688 Whence it is that a true Convert cannot Fall quite away from grace 695 Of Religious Fasting 68 A generall Reason of Fasting 72 Reasons why the body must be afflicted in Fasting 73 Reasons why the soule must be afflicted in Fasting 74 Who are to keepe a publike Fast 76 Who may keepe a private Fast 77 How oft we must Fast 78 How long we must Fast 80 Preparation to a Fast 82 How to keepe a Religious Fast 84 c. What to doe when a man is interrupted in his private Fast 142 Motives to oft Fasting 143 Directions what is to be done after a Fast 145 Cautions touching Fasting 146 Needful fear before coÌ„version 485 Holy Feare after conversion 486 Causlesse Feare 488 The kindes of causlesse Feares ibid Strange effects of Feares rising from naturall distempers 489 There is some difference between the regenerate in those Feares which arise froÌ„ melaÌ„choly others 490 Difference betweene those Feares which arise chiefly from melancholy and those which arise from trouble of conscience ibid Grounds of false Feares 495 Feare of punishment must be turned into trouble for sinne 498 Feares of sinning against the holy Ghost removed 527 Feare that because the heart condemneth God will condemne much more removed 529 Feare of being reprobates removed 531 Feare that God will not have mercie because they have let passe the time of their Conversion removed 540 Feares arising from doubts of Gods love removed 576 c. Feares through conceit of being in worse case than any other removed 561 Feares that God loveth them not because they thinke their prayers are reiected removed 576 Feares from doubting of faith removed 581 Feares of not being sanctified because they thinke they were never sufficiently humbled nor have repented removed 626 Reasons why some feele more sense of Feare and horror in their first conversion than others 627 Feares that a man is not sanctified because he is pestered with worse thoughts than ever removed 637 Feares of not being sanctified because of falling into grosse sinnes removed 656 Feares that they are not sanctified because of sense of dulnesse and deadnessein spirituall duties removed 665 Feares of not being sanctified because of sudden dulnesse after fresh feeling comforts removed 670 Feares of not being sanctified because out-gone by others removed 671 Feares of not being sanctified because of hardnesse of heart removed 677 Feares of falling away from grace removed 681 c. Feares taken from thinking the heart is deceitfull removed 727 Feares from present fainting removed ibid Feares because we doe not our part removed 729 Feare from want of such graces where of God hath absolutely promised removed 676 Feares through want of peace of Sanctification removed 744 G Convincing reasons to prove that there is a God 647 God doth never wholly forsake his children 566 Once and ever in state of Grace 685 Reasons why man being once in state of grace can never fall quite from it 701 Reasons why many thinke they have lesse grace now than in their first conversion but mistake 714 H What is the cause of Hypocrites well-doing 341 Disswasives from hypocrisie 361 365 Meanes against hypocrisie 373 Grounds of false hope discovered and removed 444 I Meanes to strengthen the Inner man 133 Rules to direct Inferiours 62 Causes of error in Iudging of a mans state 754 Of Iudging and condemning of a mans selfe 126 L ATable of Duties commanded and of Vices forbidden in the Morall Law 90 c. No man must abuse Christs lenity 620 Signes to know when God giveth good things in love 265 Directions for sanctisying the Lords day 147 M What Meditation is 195 The distinct acts and parts of Meditation 198 Rules for meditation 202 Cautions about the matter of meditation 203 Motives perswading to meditation 211 Meanes of Mortification 131 O When it is that a man obeyeth out of conscience and love to Christ 340 Weakest performance of duties is lesse dangerous than whole omissions 551 P A description of Christian Patience 286 Inducements to patience 286 287 Meanes of Christian patience 288 Vpon what grounds arguments may be taken to worke the heart to patience 291 292 What peace is in generall 414 The peace of GOD explained and magnified by the opening of Philip. 4. 6. 7. 415 The different sorts of peace of God 421 Reasons proving the excellency of the peace of God 432 The impediments of peace 437 Whence presumption and false peace doth arise 441 Signes of false hope and false peace 476 An excellent helpe to peace of conscience 765 Meanes to get and keep true peace ibid How to know in time of peace to hold out in time of persecution 725 How to be kept from dastardly feare in time of persecution 723 Reasons of due preparation of the heart to prayer 32 How to bee disposeà in the act of prayer 35 God heareth prayer many wayes 578 Cautions to be observed in preparation and in prayer 37 Signes of distempered thoughts thorough worldly businesse to prayer 42 Remedies against distempered thoughts in preparation and in prayer 43 How to know when thoughts of worldly businesse are distractfull in preparation in prayer 45 Remedies against the said distractions in preparation and in prayer 47 Pride is a manifest hinderance of Christiâ—â— Comfort 764 765 Grounds of presumption discovered and removed 437. unto 481 Rules of holy carriage in prosperity and when men have good successe 245 246 Good effects of prosperity 247 Doubts of Gods love because men prosper removed 559 Presumption of Gods love because they prosper removed 448 Presumption ariseth either from false grounds of hope or from true grounds misapplyed 442 Presumption that God will save a man because he made him removed 444 Presumption of escaping Hell because men thinke they have it in this life removed 445 Presumption they shall ever be wel because hither to they have escaped evill removed 446 Presumption they shall be saved because as great sinners as they have bin saved removed 450 Presumption of Salvation by Popes Pardons pennance and merit of workes removed 452 Presumption of salvation because God is mercifull removed 454 Presumption from universall Redemption removed 456 Presumption of Salvation because as men thinke their faith and repentance is good when it is not removed 462 Presumption of repenting hereafter removed 475 R How to read the Word profitably 187 Who must