must serve the spirits designes in Law as wel as Gospel What would men have us do Shall we speak peace to those to whom the Spirit denounceth open war How shall we keep to our Commission if in stead of binding on earth those who are bound in heaven we let them loose and help them to escape preach doctrines of universall Redemption and Salvation and teach them how to apply generall Gospell truths to harden their souls in sin Mee thinks I hear the Lord when he gives a Minister his charge speak in the language of Jehu when he had shut up Baals worshippers in a guard If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape he that letteth him go his life shal be for the life of him 2 Kings 10. 24. Or rather in his own words to the Prophet Ezekiel 3. 18. When I say c. Yet I must tell you I would have the Law preached as it is in the hands of Christ i. e. not as casting men under an irrecoverable condemnation for every offence not as exacting rigorously every punctilio of a duty under pain of being rejected by God not as requiring obedience as a condition of a covenant of works to salvation Although it be necessary too that as a Covenant of works it should be declared to those that are under the Law that by the sight of it they may be made to fly to the Gospel as a Map discovers rocks and quicksands that men may avoid them and Physick books poisons to warn men of them By preaching it as in the hands of Christ I mean wee must withall open a door of hope shew them Christ as the end of the Law to whom all the preaching of the Law aymes For my part I meet with a dictinction often of the Law as in the hands of Moses and as in the hands of Christ I think as 't is ordinarily taken it is grounded on a principle of Socinianisme that the Spirit was not a spirit of Adoption under the old Testament But I can allow the expression in this sense Gospell must bee held forth more clearly now then it was then and believing more urged then doing and doing in a way of believing God giving them a yoke of observances which vailed the Spirit and looked much like a Covenant of works the Ministers of the Gospell are to take off that vail and shew Christs open face 3. Let this plead a little for poor troubled spirits to Ministers and friends that take paines to comfort them When we speak comfort to them and their souls refuse it as Heman Ps 77. 2. We are apt to censure them for peevish and perverse c. But friends is this reasonable to charge a prisoner with peevishnesse because he doth not shake off his bolts and come forth without the keepers leave I know sometimes there is much fault in such souls but the spirit works with their weaknesse to withhold comfort and though they be blameable for refusing it yet the spirit orders their weakenesses therein to his blessed ends Wherfore if you chide them for shutting the doors upon themselves do it so as withall to pray the Spirit to open them else they cannot open them if they would never so fain And those of us who were once in their condition were as untoward as they till Gods Spirit opened our eyes to see a well of consolation 4. Let this humble us all who have tasted any of the powers of the World to come and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost this way for our often grievings and vexings of the H. Spirit That we have stouted it out against the Spirits arrests and refused to bee his prisoners If this were wilfully done O how evill a thing was it how high a provocation If a warrant from Westminster in the hands of a Bayliffe will make a man stand and render himself prisoner How dares any man make an escape when the word arrests him by the authority and warrant of the Spirit Nay farther think what a sad case you were in should God resolve to strive no more with you Think on that terrible place Heb. 6. 4 5 6. If involuntarily this is very bad though not so bad as the Former When you look over the former convictions by the light of this Sermon Friends be humbled to think how often was the Lords Spirit in a sermon in the advice of friends in afflictions and we were not aware of it How often did hee lay his hand upon our shoulders and shew the Warrant of Scripture to arrest our souls and we fought with him and delivered our selves out of his hand Oh brethren when the Spirit seizeth on you again submit yeild your selves if his Arrests from time to time bee sleighted beware of a Writ of rebellion next See it Deut. 29. 19 20. The Lord will not spare that man but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man and all the curses that are written in this Book shall lie upon him Then will you bee outlawes to the Covenant of life and salvation and God will raise all the posse of heaven and earth and hell too for your ruine and destruction Your fear shall come as desolation and destruction shall come upon you as a whirlwind you shall eat of the fruit of your own way and bee filled with your own devices The turning away of such fools shall slay them and their false peace and prosperity shall destroy them Proverb 27 31 32. CHAP. VIII The second Thesis explained First by discovering the nature of this Work of Bondage 2d Thesis or Proposition COme we now to the second Thesis to wit that the blessed Spirit of God in the ordinary way of working becomes a Spirit of bondage before he become a Spirit of Adoption to any soul I say in the ordinary way not because I think there are any extraordinary cases in which it workes otherwise in those of full age and perfect sense but that I may qualifie the expression to some ears who plead such experiences as may be exceptions from this Rule whose spirits I am very tender of and therefore am contended to prosecute this doctrine in such qualified expressions Although I believe ere we have travelled together through this Discourse and when we come to understand one another wee shall comemore neer together and agree upon more generall terms to cloth it in As also because I will not tye up Gods hands from working miracles in this way as well as in any other if he see a cause worth the putting forth of an omnipotent Arme. But before I prove it I must answer some Questions Q. 1. Wherein doth this first work of the Spirit upon the soul consist Q. 2 By what means doth the Spirit usually work it And this done I shall first enquire how it appeares the spirit so doth and secondly why he doth so Q. 1. Wherein doth it consist Ans 1. Generally this
work is called conviction and because the Spirit convinceth in a rational way all its acts of that nature are comprized in this Syllogism Every one that is in a state of sinne is in a state of wrath But thou sinner art in a state of sinne Therefore thou art in a state of wrath In this master-syllogism there are many others included but they are all in effect comments on or proofs of the particular tearms and propositions of this Sometimes it varies thus Every unjustified person every unbeliever every one in a state of nature every unregenerate person and lower every swearer sabboth breaker c. living in and allowing himself in such sins c. is under the curse or is a condemned person or is in a state of damnation c. But thou A. B. art such a person ergo thou art a condemned person c. But to be more plain and particular This work includes these several and distinct convictions 1. Conviction of Law The Charge 2. Conviction of fact or case The Indictment Evidence 3. Conviction of state The Sentence As also 4ly The proper consequents of these 1. Conviction of Law is no more then the illumination of the understanding in the truth of common Principles and Rules of Scripture which determine in general the state and condition of such as fal under them such as these Eph. 2. 3. By Nature all are the children of wrath Rom. 5. 18. By the offence of one death came on all men Gal. 3. 10. As many as are under the Law are under the curse Jo. 3. 18. He that believeth not is condemned already Jo. 3. 3. Except a man be born again c. Gal. 3 10. Cursed be every one that continueth not in every thing c. Rom. 1. 31. Those that do such things are worthy of death Neither fornicators nor idolaters c. 1 Cor. 6. 9. These and the like common truths when we give a fixed and firm consent unto this makes up the first part of the Spirits conviction of bondage because it is the Spirit of God that leads us into all truth Jo. 16. 13. and so into convincing truth This is the major of the former syllogisme and may be planted in nature or believed barely by an historical belief and may not affect or if it doe 't is but in general except it be farther backt by 2. Conviction of Fact This makes up the minor of the former syllogisme And this is a particular application of the Law to the person As if he should say Thou art the man of whom this Law speaks This fact thou hast done Psal 70. 21. and this sin thou art guilty of livest in this omission of duty this or that notorious actual commission thou art clearly chargeable withal This indictment conscience is called in to witnesse and this witnesse because it is sometimes asleep and sometimes blind and sometimes dead and sometimes bribed the Spirit enlightens and quickens and disengageth and makes it speak out to the case in hand This is that prick in the heart that Peter by the home-application of their sin to their consciences gave those Converts Acts 2. 37. He tells them ye have taken and slain and crucified that Jesus who is Lord and Christ and their hearts by a confessing guilty application say we are the men This is a cord that will hold it will bring the soul under some acknowledgments which it would not grant before but it is not yet a Spirit of bondage till the third conviction of state And this is the conclusion of the former syllogisme and the sentence in the Spirits legal processes against any soul And this results from the two former This is the work of the Judge the enlightened conscience in its judicial capacity This is attended with a large formality of circumstances As in every sentence the matter and manner of the suffering is expressed as to return to jayl and be carryed thence to the place of execution and there to be hanged or pressed or burnt or drawn and quartered c. So here the Spirit doth not barely say to the soul thou art a condemned creature but he enlightens the mind to understand in the most frightful appearances the nature of its misery He represents a curse hunting and power seizing and wrath rending a poor soul shews hell open and heaven shut the Devil tormenting and God deriding eternal life in eternal death without light tormenting heat yet gnashing of the teeth for cold a lake of fire and brimstone nay a running stream which the breath of the Lord for ever kindles Isay 30. 33. And assures the soul all this and inexpressibly more will be his portion to eternity if he continue on this side Christ the City of refuge 4. The consequents of all these must needs be 1. Soul-confounding horror This was the Jaylors case Acts 16. 29. He came in trembling to Paul and Silas This sentence works like the hand-writing upon Belshazar looseth the joynts of the loines and makes the knees smite against each other Dan. 5. 6. Or Habbakuks voice c. 3. 16. it makes the belly tremble and the lips to quiver and rottennesse enter into the bones c. And no wonder for it is the justice and wrath of an infinite eternal and Almighty God that he hath to encounter and can thy heart endure or thine hands be strong in the days that God shall deal with thee Ezek. 22. 14. This was it that made Christ himself sweat like drops of bloud Luke 22. 44. 2. Soul-distressing anguish By which the mind vexeth and feeds upon its own sad condition thus bound fast by horrour It is perpetually vexed with the representations of its misery it can take no comfort in the World that is not hereby imbittered As a condemned man eats and drinks and sleeps not for thinking upon the execution or if he do he finds no relish in those contents if he sleepe he can nothing but dream of the Gallowes and the hangman if he talk and converse with friends he is scarce present where he is scarce thinks what he saith Thus a soul under this binding sentence with David eats ashes like bread or rather bread like ashes mingles his drink with weeping Ps 102. 9. his life abhors bread and his soul dainty meat tasts no sweetnesse in any comforts they are all as Job saith like the white of an egge Job 6. 6. His words are swallowed up Job 6. 2. He sleeps it may be but he is scared with visions and terrified with dreams Job 7. 14. Speak to the man in this case of any diversions and you do but labour to dig a channel to let out the sea present him any of his formerly welcomest refreshments Prov. 26. 1. you are but like snow in summer and rain in harvest speak the most encouraging words to him that may be if you cannot speak a pardon he is in the case of the Israelites in
the new birth The longer we are before we get the debt discharged and the book cancelled the heavier will the account appear when we come to reckon all the arrearages of so many years actual sinnes to the grand debt of original guilt when we shall see the Accompt multiplyed into millions by interest upon interest from custome and obstinacy and delight in sinne Friends we are utterly mistaken and doe miserably beguile our selves when because we are loath to damp the joys and comforts of youth by so unwelcome a trouble as that of conviction and humiliation for sinne we resist the Spirit and think it more for our advantage to put off such thoughts to old age It is as if a debtour that owes divers thousands should think it more for his ease to look over his Accompts and reckon with his Creditor when the debt is encreased by the interest of thirty ar forty years and the addition of new summes Ah! poor man if thy conscience book be so overcharged that thou darest not look into it at fifteen or twenty years old how black and dismal will it look at fifty or sixty years When moreover it will be the greatest trouble of thy Spirit over and above all thy other sinns that thou hast not returned sooner when thou shalt question whether God will receive one returning so late under the weight of so many aggravated sinns 'T is an hard matter for those that have rejected the Spirits motions in youth and given their lusts a full swinge against the checks of their consciences to take any comfort or build to themselves any groundâ—d assurance of Gods love thougâ— they be really converted in age when there are such actual sins lie at the bottome of the heart as they are aâ—raid to conâ—esse to God and ashamed to make known to a Minister of the Gospel or Christian friends but rather choose to let the wounds fester and heat and rage within then to open them O how many black consciences in convinced elder sinners which for shame of confession they covered with a vaile of formality and hypocrisie go without noise to hell and are never reall till the day of Judgement and how many are by such sinners themselves out of anguish of spirit read over with roaring and horror upon their death-beds which might have been free from those oppressing burthens had they endeavoured earlier to relieve them If the fetters of the Spirit of Bondage be so terrible that thou shunnest them now how sad a thing will it be to bear them in that age when the grassehopper is a burthen Eccles 12. 5. CHAP. XVI Converts examined whether soundly or unsoundly wrought upon THis also informs us how necessary a work of the Ministers of the Gospel it is to awaken the conscience of men O the madnesse of most hearers in England Let a faithful preacher rip open their bosomes and discover their sinnes and lay the Law to their consciences and the axe to the roote of their deceitfull consciences how many gall'd hearers will fling and kick against his doctrin how many that cannot endure to be handled so sinfully tender are their consciences will fly from his ministery They cannot endure to hear him he preacheth so much damnation c. Alas poor souls had you rather be damned indeed then hear of damnation that you may be warned to fly from it whiles it is time Do you love to sleepe your selves into hell that ye are angry at them that pinch you for awakening your consciences discovering your danger The gnat in Virgil was requited but ill by the shepherd when he killed him for stinging him out of his sleep at that very instant when a serpent was about to sting him to death But just such usage have Gods Ministers from this generation Obj. Yea but they be Saints and such doctrine doth not belong to them it is unproper for them to hear Answ 1. Oh that the persons that call themselves so would give Gods Ministers sufficient cause to think them such Certainly I am not to believe every mans estate to be so good as he pretend or it may be himselfe thinks it to be The Physician will not believe every patient that tells him he is well and nothing ayles him He knowes it is a signe the disease is most dangerous when the patient feels it not I am sure this is no signe of Saintship not to be able to bear a reproof nay not to hear a convincing sermon Nay it gives suspicion that they are not sound but rotten that cannot endure to have their consciences handled If such persons be Saints I know not who be sinners if they be sound and sincere I know not who are hypocrites Sure it was a note of Davids sincerity to yield up himselfe to the Lord to search and try him Ps 139. 23. to invite the righteous to smite him not stroke him and account it a precious balme that should not break his head Psal 141. 5. Believe it there is no more certain signe of an hypocrite in the World then to pick and choose truths this he must have preached and that he must not You know who say preach to us pleasing things Is 30. 16. 2. There is no truth but one way or other belongs to every Saint either in relation to his past present or future condition Law truths concern him either in way of direction as the duties thereof or by way of inducement to thankfulnesse consolation humiliation dutifulnesse as its curse and terrours Many Gospel-truths are not suitable to a mans present condition as the doctrine of afflictions temptations c. sometimes but shall they be therefore thrown away may there not come a time of use and should not Saints lay up such things in their heart ought not the heart of a Saint to be a treasury of things old as well as new And may it not be of use if you are past these throwes to remember you of the days of old to shew you your former debts when you can shew the discharge will not this occasion a thankfull acknowledgment of Gods goodnesse and Christs love c. when the heart shall say This was my case I once felt those sorrows lay under those chains of the Spirit but the Lord hath delivered me I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living 3. Suppose it no way belongs to thee as thy condition is now yet it may belong to others that are now in the condition wherein thou once wast If the Minister were bound to confine his discourse to those of thy condition and growth onely what would become of the work of conversion upon others A Minister is not only a nurse or a waterer but a father and a planter also He must preach for conversion that Christs body may be compleat in members as well as for edification that those members may be compleat in graces and comforts Obj. But this kind of preaching may occasion the
closure with him He that can thus distinguish seasons of applying the Law and Gospel let me say of him as Luther of him that knowes the difference between them Sciat se esse bonum Theologum Let him know he is a good Divine indeed CHAP. XXI Four main Duties pressed upon them THis Truth also affords seasonable and sutable Exhortation to four sorts of persons 1. To those that have been in this condition and have had a good issue of it 2. To those that have been under it and have lost both the sense and fruit of it 3. To those that are yet under it 4. To those that yet are altogether strangers to it The first of whom we shall speak to in this Chapter viz. 1 To those whom the Spirit hath led through the wildernesse so as after all their difficulties to cause them to rest on the other side Jordan I commend these Duties to them 1 The practice of Humility Pride is in no person so odious as in him that as Solomon speaks comes out of prison to reigne Eccles 4. 14. Thence God alwayes minds his people of the Wildernesse and of Egypt to keep their hearts low in Canaan Deut. 8. 2. 3 14 15 16 17. I have read of a King who being advanced to the Throne from a Agathocles Potter would alwayes be served in earthen ware to mind him of his original And heard of a Doctor who attained to great dignities in our memory who preserved as a monument the very skin breeches in which he came first into the University And truly let the choicest of Gods Saints consider the fears and terrors the tears and sighs and groans of the state of bondage let him think how often he hath layen at Gods doors and begged for a crum of Grace a grain of Comfort how often he hath with the returning Prodigal been willing to take it for a great engagement if he might but be admitted among Gods hired Servants or with the poor woman in the Gospel if she might but have the gnawing of the scraps that fell from his table and think whether a proud lifting up the head to a self-boasting and self-pleasing frame be a sutable issue of such a condition a proper conclusion from such premises Pone hostes vulnúsque tuum solitúmque timorem Post clypeúmque late mecum contende sub illo Saith Ajax in the Poet to Vlysses who from being his submissive petitioner for protection in the field was now become his confident Antagonist and Competitor for Achilles his arms in the camp And think how God may then mind you of those former passages and that with just indignation if now you any way lift up the heele against him 2 Watchfulnesse considering 1. That although the Holy Spirit be not the Author of it yet fresh sins may occasion the reducing you into the same troubles True thy condition being once in Christ can never be so unsafe as formerly but it may be altogether as uncomfortable nay perhaps more uncomfortable then it was before I say more uncomfortable because your sins will have aggravations then that they were not capable of before and the hopes which you have been raised unto by conversion and it may be comfort will increase the misery of your falling from them That which I have said before concerning the ends of the Spirit in bringing us into such an house of bondage would afford us a new meditation here it being our duty to accomplish the ends of the Spirit in all his works And therefore I shall for the farther prosecution of this head refer you to the fourth of those ends before mentioned only remember what I say Sins after conversion may make us doubt whether ever we were converted and so make us act over all our former Tragical parts again which ever wee passed through before conversion even sins of omission and I cannot but think that the Apostle may intend some such intimation 2 Pet. 1. 9 He that lacketh these things i. e. that neglects to grow in grace as is pressed in the preceding verses is blind c. and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sinnes i. e. may question whether ever he were or no and the following words more encline me to this interpretation It follows Wherefore the rather brethren labour to make your calling and election sure c. v. 10. 2. That Sathan watcheth all advantages to reduce you back again if not to a state of condemnation yet to an apprehension of it Keep your evidences and your assurances ever in your eye Watch against temptations that tend to enslave you again So will a captive to the Turk when once escaped take heed of staying within the reach of his cruel task-master But I shall take up this again hereafter on the fifth Doctrine and thither refer you 3. Thankfulnesse which will also be heightened by these considerations 1. How important a work it is that God hath wrought in you It is a work that accompanies salvation for whom he calls he justifies and by consequence glorifies Rom. 8. 30. So that although it were troublesome in working yet you may blesse God however seeing it is thus wrought to all eternity O how little was the trouble to the benefit of it 2. How many difficulties and improbabilities such as quite damped your hopes and sunk your spirits you met withall in that dangerous passage It may be there be those that can say At such a time I was quite beaten off from all my hopes I said from day to night he will make an end of me Is 38. 13. And I shall surely one day perish by the hand 1 Sam. 2◠1. of Saul I am cast out of thy sight Jonah 2. 4. I have fought many a single combate hand to fist as we say with the red dragon the old Serpent the roaring Lion and I have even been ready to crosse the cudgels and give out in the perplexity and agony of my spirit nay I have even fallen out with my self and been out of love with my very life and thought my present condition so bad that hell it self would amend it and have been within an hairs bredth many a time of sending my self thither with my own hands and the Lord hath stepped in and taken hold upon me even on the pits brinke and now here I am through his goodnesse a monument of his mercy in the land of the living The living the living they shall praise thee c. Isa 38. 17 18 19. 3. The many provocations peculiar to that condition which you were guilty of in your darknesse Here follow me again with your experiences ye redeemed of the Lord let you and I read over Psalm 78. and 106. and let us look back upon our wildernesse-sins how oft did we speak against God saying Can God furnish a table in the wildernesse How often have we murmured because of the length and tediousnesse of our troubles and wished that we had
unto me he hath pulled me in pieces and set me as a mark for the arrow he hath caused the arrow of his quiver to enter into my reins he hath â—illed me with bitternâ—…s and made me drunken with wormwood he hath bâ—oken my teeth with gravel stones he hath covered me with ashes and this hath been of so long continuance upon mee that I have forgotten prosperity I can 17. scarce remember that ever I had a better day And therefore it is no wonder if I conclude that my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Oh saith the Church this was 18. my very case when I remembred my affliction 19. the wormwood and the gall I even said as thou dost But I withall considered that though my case were bad yet it might have been worse sure God hath shewn me some mercy in that I live It is of the mercies 〈◊〉 the Lord 22. c. Therefore have I hope and therefore I 23. c. to 32. conclude that though the Lord cause grief yet he will have compassion c. Read that Chapter ter all over I have given but a draught of it and therein see thy case and thy cure As to thy own experiences urge his preservation of thee and support thus long and plead for its continuance Obj. But how can I hope Hope proceeds from faith and I cannot believe for I am yet you tell me in a state of Nature till by these troubles God converts me Answ 'T is true of the grace of hope that it proceeds from faith in order of nature and is a fruit of conversion 1 Pet. 1. 3. and till conversion we cannot rejoyce in hope of the glory of God But there is another hope that is not always gracious though possibly sometimes grace may be seminally in it and may first appear by it as the first act of faith may appear in such an act of hope as this True I am a condemned creature but there are such and such free offers of Christ and promises of mercy to sinners indefinitely and why not to me yet I say this hope is not always gracious because it is common to presumptuous as well as repenting sinners and is the very ground on which they presume This hope I shall for distinctions sake call a moral or rational hope because it is gathered from the general promises of Scripture in a rational way as also because it is but a general probable hope that is accompanied only with opinion and not faith though it may ground faith as to its act of reliance upon Christ and the promise of mercy in him where the Spirit of God pleaseth to infuse faith in such a rational way as divers times he doth Whereas the hope that flows from faith is a spiritual and infused hope and is not so much the apprehending a possibility as expecting a certainty of fulfilling the promise to me in particular arising I mean in the acts of it not in the habit or seed of it for that is infused in the first vital act of reliance upon Christ which unites to Christ and so justifies arising I say from the particular evidence of my justification by faith and so from an act of assurance and is higher or lower like it Distinguish thus The one is a kind of negative hope the other a positive The one saith I am not excluded the other saith I am included It s language is Why not I Now 't is the former hope that rational moral hope I advise thee to keep alive in thy soul Let no power of corruption no strength of temptation no length or grievousnesse of thy soul troubles no false conclusions from Gods decree of reprobation c. drive thee out of a firm assent to this proposition that though thy case be sad yet it is not desperate God hath invited such as thou art hath offered Christ and grace freely to thee among others and therefore thou art by no positive declared act of Gods excluded more then any other It is a great support that a soul in this case gets by such an argument as this is For although grace do not always attend or accompany this hope yet the Spirit of God doth use it as it doth all other preparatory works to dispose the soul for grace Nay I know not but that if the soul follow this moral hope with a constant use of all means and ordinances and in them resolve to cast himselfe upon Christ to be saved by him in his own way and upon his own terms why this hope may not be the immediate ground if not the vehicle or chariot of the very first act of justifying faith Wherefore 3ly Let this hope produce waiting Think not that thou art presently cast off by God because he doth not presently as to thy sense answer thy desires There is a great deal of impatience usually in troubled spirits And there is reason why such souls should be subject to that failing For the wound of the spirit is an intolerable wound Prov. 18. 14. And nothing is more grievous to a man in intolerable pain and anguish then delays Hear me speedily saith David else shall I be like unto them that goe down into the pit Psalm 143. 7. and when God hides long he apprehends it will be for ever Psalm 13. 1. But we must labour against this corruption and endeavour to bring our souls to a contentednesse to wait for Gods salvation as long as he thinks fit to exercise and discipline us in that condition The Scripture abounds in exhortations promises and examples pressing home this duty upon us The place Lam. 3. 26. requires not only hope but waiting the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 siluit a quiet silent waiting free from clamorous complaints against God murmuring at his delays and desperate expressions of despondency of Spirit And we have a great encouragement hereunto if we consider 1. That this time of delay is Gods waiting time as well as ours Is 30. 18. The Lord therefore waits that he may be gracious and indeed he hath waited upon us many years before he could prevail with us to give him the hearing of any his gracious invitations and do we now think it much to wait on him till he hear us Besides 2. Saving grace is a thing worth the waiting for Thou hast heard often and prayed often thou saist and yet seest no fruit of it thou hast obtained neither grace nor peace conversion nor comfort remember what the Apostle saith Jam. 5. 7. though with relation to another fruit i. e. the fruit of external sufferings yet the force of his argument is no lesse herein also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lengthen out the patience into long suffering Behold your husbandman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lengthens out his hope though the seed come not up after the first rain yet he expects another shower it is not ripe as soon as it growes up it may bee a
would seem to deny them See in David abundant proof of this Psalm 119. 25 Quicken me ver 28 Strengthen me ver 58. Be merciful to me ver 65. Let it be well with me ver 76 Let thy kindnesse be for my comfort ver 116. Vphold me ver 169 Give me understanding and all according to thy Word 2 In their challenges of Gods Justice Truth and faithfulnesse and all his Attributes to make them good So David Psal 31. 1. Deliver me in thy righteousnesse And Psalm 35. 24. Judge me according to thy righteousness Psalm 119. 40 Quicken me according to thy righteousnesse Ps 143. 1. In thy faithfulnesse answer me and in thy righteousnesse So Abraham appeales to Gods justice Shall not the Judge of all the World do right Gen. 18. 25. And they presse sometimes upon the very glory of God and challenge their petitions upon the forfeiture of his glory Josh 5. 7. What wilt thou do for thy great name 2. Fear 2 A Saints fear of God in prayer consists 1. In that conscience of Duty that brings him into the presence of God if there were nothing else to move him thereunto though he had no need though there were no threatnings to the neglect of it no promises to the performance of it yet because God requires it he dares not neglect it This is that fear that God requires as a master of all his people as servants Now we must know that all fear of God as a master that is all obedience out of conscience of duty is not servile fear but then 't is servile when it is not so much out of conscience of duty as out of conscience of wrath or punishment upon neglect A child is a Fathers servant and obeyes him as such yet obeys not servilely Therefore God calls for this fear upon this account If I be a master where is my fear that is dutifull obedience to my commands Mal. 1. 6. 2. In the matter of our performances it is a diligent care of what we offer to God keeping the soul from offering stange fire bounding a mans desires with the will of God A fear lest any thing should slip from a mans mouth or heart that is displeasing to God As a child though he may make bold with his Father yet is carefull not to aske any thing of his Father that he knows will displease him so in this a Saint takes care that all his petitions be warranted by a rule and encouraged by a promise and beyond these he dares not wish much lesse come into the presence of God to aske any thing He dares not tempt God by depending on him for or desiring at his hands what his word doth not warrant But it is not such a fear as discourageth the soul in asking such things as a man hath warrant to desire So farre as the promise goes a soul dares ask else 't is not a child-like but a childish fear not the fear of a Courtier but the fear of a clown 3. In the manner of performing such duties it is a deportment of the soul with that reverence as becomes the greatnesse and glory of God compared with our own basenesse and unworthinesse and jealousie of our own hearts lest we should do any thing unbeseeming such a God or such a duty 1. No soul hath more reverend and high thoughts of God then such a soul as hath most right to holy confidence in his presence The more acquaintance with God the more of this fear None waits upon a Prince with more reverence and observance then the greatest favourites the ordinary and standing Courtiers A man that comes out of the Country and is not acquainted with Majesty and State is not so observant of every punctilio of ceremony as those that are perpetually about the Prince This it is that David speaks of Ps 89. 7. God is greatly to be feared in the Assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all that are round about him Gods greatest Courtiers are most observant of him The more we converse with God the more wee know what becomes his glory and majesty and all irreverence proceeds from ignorance and ignorance from want of converse with God A country man reverences a Prince no otherwise then he doth his landlord because he is not conversant in the Court and observes not the state and ceremony kept and used there The Seraphims that are the constant Courtiers of heaven they cover their faces with a fear of awe and reverence Isai 6. 2. 2. None is more watchfull over his own heart in the manner of a performance then a Saint that hath most grounds of boldnesse and confidence in the presence of God He dares not run rashly into Gods presence and if but a low mean thought of God arise how doth his heart rise against it If but a stragling thought carry him off from his businesse how doth he send out post after it and call it in again This is a fear of jealousie This is called watching to prayer of which above Carnis enim ingenium est ut exultando dissolvatur Musc in Ps 2. and watchfulnesse proceeds from a fear of warinesse though not from fear of dastardlinesse Thus you see what fear a Saint is bound to bring to God in every performance A dutifull fear A carefull fear A reverend fear A jealous fear 3. Mixed That and how both these will stand together we shall shew in the next place in a word For I have in a sort prevented my selfe herein already Only 1. That it is so see one or two places for it Psal 2. 11. Even in those services that require highest expressions of joy rejoyce before him saith the Psalmist with trembling A more remarkable place is that Psal 147. 11. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in them that hope in his mercy Hope which in the old Testament is often taken for and always implies faith is here joyned with feare one would think doubting and fear might have been better matched but see God joyns hope or faith the mother of boldnesse and fear together So Psalm 5. 7. 2. Concerning the manner how these are conjoyned it is 1. By a joynt premeditation and collation of 1. Gods greatnesse and goodnesse majesty and mercy 2. Our own meannesse with our great relations 3. Our own unworthinesse and Christs worthinesse 4. Our own inabilty and the Spirits supplies These as they joyntly affect our hearts in meditation so they leave sutable joynt-impressions in prayer 2. By a diligent observance of our spirits in the extravagancies of them both wayes in duty and checking them with contrary meditations as when we find a petulant wantonnesse of spirit apt to break out whereby we are endangered to make too bold with God a Saint may correct that with apprehensions of Gods majesty Isai 6. 6. If carelessenesse and slightnesse of spirit a Saint quickens it with thoughts of Gods holinesse and glory such