and comfortable a life is it to live in the Family of such a Father and with a thankful carelesness to trust his will and take that portion as best which he provideth for us And into what misery do foolish Prodigals run who had rather have their portion in their own hand than in their Fathers 5. Thy heavenly Father knoweth with what kind and measure of Tryals and Temptations it is fit that thou shouldst be exercised It is his work to permit and bound and order them It is thy work to beg his grace to overcome them and watchfully and constantly to make resistance and in Tryal to approve thy faithfulness to God Blessed are they that endure Temptations for when they are tryed they shall receive the Crown of life James 1. If he will try thee by bodily pain and sickness he can make it turn to the health of thy Soul Perhaps thy diseases have prevented some mortal Soul-diseases which thou didst not fear If he will try thee by mens malice Injury or Persecution he knoweth how to turn it to thy good and in season to bring thee out of trouble He will teach thee by other mens wickedness to know what grace hath cured or prevented in thy self and to know the need of trusting in God alone and appealing to his desireable Judgment He that biddeth thee when thou art Reviled and Persecuted and loaded with false reports for righteousness sake to rejoyce and be exceeding glad because of the great reward in heaven can easily give thee what he doth Command and make thy sufferings a help to this exceeding joy If he will try thee by Satans molesting Temptations and suffer him to buffet thee or break thy peace by Melancholy disquietments and vexatious thoughts from which he hath hitherto kept thee free he doth but tell thee from how much greater evil he hath delivered thee and make thy fears of Hell a means to prevent it and call thee to thy Saviour to seek for safety and peace in him If it please him to permit the malicious tempter to urge thy thoughts to blasphemy or other dreadful sin as it ordinarily falleth out with the Melancholy it telleth thee from what malice grace preserveth thee and what Satan would do were he let loose It calleth thee to remember that thy Saviour himself was tempted by Satan to as great sin as ever thou wast even to worship the Devil himself And that he suffered him to carry about his body from place to place which he never did by thee It tells thee therefore that it is not sin to be tempted to sin but to consent And that Satans sin is not laid to our charge And though our corruption is such as that we seldom are tempted but some culpable blot is left behind in us for we cannot say as Christ that Satan hath nothing in us Yet no sin is less dangerous to mans damnation than the Melancholy thoughts which such horrid vexatious Temptations cause both because the person being distempered by a disease is not a volunteer in what he doth and also because he is so far from loving and desiring such kind of sin that it is the very burden of his life They make him weary of himself and he daily groaneth to be delivered from them And it is certain that Love is the damning malignity of sin and that there is no more sin than there is will And that no sin shall damn men which they had rather leave than keep and therefore forgiveness is joyned to Repentance Drunkards Fornicators Worldlings Ambitious men love their sin But a poor Melancholy Soul that is tempted to ill thoughts or to despair or terrour or to excessive griefs is far from loving such a state The case of such is sad at present But O how much sadder is the case of them that are Lovers of pleasure more than of God and prosper and delight in sin 6. God knoweth how long it is best for me to live Leave then the determination of the time to him All men come into the word on the condition of going out again Die we must and is it not fitter that God choose the time than we Were it left to our wills how long we should live on Earth alas how long should many of us be kept out of heaven by our own desires And too many would stay here till misery made them impatient of living But our lives are his gift and in his hand who knoweth the use of them and knoweth how to proportion them to that use which is the justest measure of them He chose the time and place of my birth and he chuseth best Why should I not willingly leave to his choice also the time and place and manner of my departure I am known of him and my concerns are not despised by him He knoweth me as his own and as his own he hath used me and as his own he will receive me Psal 37.18 The Lord knoweth the days of the upright and their inheritance shall be for ever And if he bring me to death through long and painful sickness he knoweth why and all shall end in my Salvation He knoweth the way that is with me and when he hath tryed me I shall come forth as Gold Job 23.10 He forsaketh us not in sickness or in death Like as a Father pityeth his Children the Lord pityeth them that fear him For he knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are dust As for man his days are as grass as a flower of the Field so he flourisheth For the wind passeth over it and it is not and the place thereof shall know it no more But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to them that fear him If the Ox should not know his owner nor the Ass his Masters Crib the owner will know his own and seek them That we understand and know the Lord is matter of greater joy and glorying than all other wisdom or riches in the world Jer. 9.24 But that he knoweth us in Life and Death on Earth and in Heaven is the top of our rejoycing The Lord is good and strength in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him Nah. 1.7 Sickness may so change my flesh that even my Neighbours shall not KNOW ME and Death will make the change so great that even my friends will be unwilling to see such an unpleasing loathsome spectacle But while I am carried by them to the place of darkness that I may not be an annoyance to the living I shall be there in the sight of God and my Bones and Dust shall be owned by him and none of them forgotten or lost 7. It may be that under the temptations of Satan or in the languishing weakness or distempers of my flesh I may doubt of the love of God and think that he hath withdrawn his mercy from me or at least may be unmeet to tast the sweetness of his love or to meditate
a wary humble man should offend but few and better keep both his own and the Churches peace than others Can Persecutors for shame Hang and Burn men for meer Ignorance who are willing to learn and will thankfully from any man receive information What if in Queen Marys days the poor Men and Women had told my Lords of Winchester and London We are not persons of so good understandings as to know what a spiritual body is as Paul describeth it 1 Cor. 15. And seeing most say that the Sun it self is a body and not a spirit and late Philosophers say that Light is a substance or body which yet from the Sun in a moment diffuseth it self through all the surface of the Earth and Air we know not how far locality limitations extension impenetrability divisibility c. belong to the body of Christ and consequently how far it may be really present we can say nothing but that we know not Would my good Lord Bishops have burnt them for I know not Perhaps they would have said You must believe the Church But which is the Church my Lord Why it is the Pope and a General Council But alas my Lord I have never seen or heard either Pope or Council Why but we have and you must believe us Must we believe you my Lords to be Infallible or only as we do other men that may deceive and be deceived Is any Infallible besides the Pope and his Council Truly my Lords we are ignorant people and we know not what the Pope and Councils have said and we are uncertain whether you report them truly and uncertain whether they are Fallible or not but we are willing to hear any thing which may make us wiser Would their Lordships have burnt such modest persons Suppose in a Church where men are put to profess or subscribe to or against the Opinions of Free-will or Reprobation or Predetermination or such like a humble man should say These are things above my understanding I cannot reach to know what Free-will is nor whether all Causes natural and free be predetermined by Divine Premotion c. I can say neither It is so nor It is not They are above my reach would they silence and cast out such an humble person and forbid him to preach the Gospel of Christ Perhaps they would But there are not so many hardened to such inhumanity as there are men that would deal sharply with one that is as confident as they are on the other side And those few that were thus silenced would have the more peace that they procured it not by self-conceited singularities and the silencers of them would be the more ashamed before all sober persons that shall hear it Other Instances I pass by Chap. 14. The Aggravations of this sin of Prefidence THough there be so much evil in this sin of Presumption as I have noted yet is it not in all alike culpable or unhappy But differeth in both respects as I shall tell you I. For culpability it is worst in these sorts and cases following 1. It is a great sin in those who have least reason to think highly of their own understandings and greatest reason to distrust themselves As. 1. In those that are young and unexperienced and must be miraculously wise if they are wiser than old experienced persons caeteris paribus 2. In the unlearned or half-learned who have had but little time or helps for study or at least have made but little use of them 3. In duller wits and persons that in other matters are known to be no wiser than others 4. In those that take up their prefidence upon the slightest grounds as bare surmises and reports from others that were uncertain 5. In those that have been oft deceived already and should by their sad experience have been brought to humble self-suspicion 2. And it is an aggravated sin in those whose place and condition obligeth them to learn from others As for the Wife to be self-conâ—eited of all her apprehensions against her Husband unless he be a fool For the Servant to set his wit against his Masters where he should obey him For Children to think that their wits are righter than their Parents or Masters and Apprentices and Learners to think that they know more than their teachers And for the ignorant people to censure over-hastily the Doctrine and Practice of their Pastors as if they were wiser than they Perhaps they are But it must be some rare person who is fit to be a Teacher himself or the Teacher some sot that hath intruded into the Office or else it must be a wonder For God usually giveth men Knowledge according to the Time and Means and Pains that they have had to get it and not by miraculous infusions without means Doth not the Apostle expresly tell you this Heb. 5.11 12. When for the Time you ought to have been Teachers c. Men should be wise according to Time and Means of Wisdom which they have had 3. It is the greater crime when men will seem wisest in other mens matters and concernments When the Subject will know best what belongeth to a King or Governor and the people will know best how the Pastor should teach them and when he faileth and whom he should receive into the Church or exclude When the Servant will know best his Masters duty and every man his Neighbours and least his own 4. It is the greater crime when men will be the Judges of their own understandings and think highly of them in cases where they should be tryed by others As if an Empyrick or Woman do think that they know better how to cure a disease than the ablest Physicians why do they not offer themselves to the Tryal and before them make good their Skill by reason If an unexperienced young student think himself able to be a Physician he is not to be Judge but must be Tryed and Judged by Physicians If a self-conceited Professor or a young Student think himself fit for the Ministry he must not presently contrive how to get in and how to shift off Examination but freely offer himself to be tried by able Godly Ministers and then by the ordainers who are to judge But when such Persons can think themselves sufficient if no body else do or if but a few ignorant persons do that are unfit to judge this proves their Pride and Presumption to be a great and heinous sin 5. And it is yet more heinously aggravated when to keep up the reputation of their own understandings they use to depress and vilify the wiser even those whom they never knew As he that affecteth to be a Preacher and dare not pass the Examination hath no way to hide his shame but 1. By crying down the Learning which he wanteth as a humane carnal thing And 2. By reproaching those that should judge of him and ordain him as poor carnal persons who understand not the things of the Spirit as he doth
But let that holy knowledge and love be mine which God most loveth and the World most hateth and costeth us dearest upon Earth but hath the blessed end of a Heavenly Reward Chap. XII The eighth Inference What is the work of a faithful Preacher and how it is to be done IF that Knowledge which kindleth in us the Love of God be the only saving Knowledge then this is it that Ministers must principally preach up and promote Could we make all our hearers never so learned that will not save their Souls But if we could make them holy and kindle in them the love of God and goodness they should certainly be saved The holy practical Preacher therefore is the best Preacher because the holy practical Christian is the best and only true Christian We work under Christ and therefore must carry on the same work on Souls which Christ came into the World to carry on All our Sermons must be fitted to change mens Hearts from Carnal into Spiritual and to kindle in them the love of God. When this is well done they have learnt what we were sent to teach them and when this is perfect they are in Heaven Those Preachers that are Enemies to the godliest of the people and would make their Hearers take them all for Hypocrites that go any further than obedience to their Pastors in Church-forms and Orders Observances and Ceremonies and a civil Life are the great Enemies of Christ his Spirit his Gospel and the Peoples Souls and the Eminent Servants of the Devil in his malignant War against them all All that Knowledge and all those Formalities which are set up instead of divine Love and holy Living are but so many cheats to deceive poor Souls till time be past and their convictions come to late I confess that ignorance is the calamity of our times and people perish for lack of Knowledge And that the Heart be without Knowledge it is not good And lamentable ignorance is too visible in a great degree among the religious sort themselves as their manifold differences and errours too openly proclaim And therefore to Build up men in Knowledge is much of the Ministerial work But what Knowledge must it be Not dead Opinions or uneffectual Notions or such Knowledge as tendeth but to teach men to talk and make them pass for men of parts But it is the Knowledge of God and our Redeemer the Knowledge of Christ Crucified by which we Crucifie the Flesh with all its Affections and Lusts And by which the World is Crucified to us and we to it If the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this World hath blinded their Eyes when there is no truth and mercy and knowledge of God in the Land no wonder if such a Land be clad in mourning When men have not so much Knowledge of the evil of sin and their own sin and misery and of the need and worth of Christ of the truth of Gods Word of the vanity of the World of the greatness wisdom and goodness of God and of certain most desirable Glory of Heaven as shall humble their Souls and turn them from the World to God and absolutely deliver them up to Christ and mortifie fleshly Lusts and overcome temptations and renew them unto the Love of God and goodness and set their Hearts and Hopes on Heaven This is the ignorance that is mens damnation And the contrary effectual Knowledge is it which saveth Souls Chap. XIII The ninth Inference Those that Know God so far as to Love him above all may have comfort notwithstanding their remaining ignorance A Great number of upright hearted Christians who Love God sincerely and obey him faithfully are yet under so great want of further knowledge as is indeed a great dishonour to them and a hinderance of them in their duty and comfort and to many a great discouragement And O that we knew how to cure this imperfection that Ignorance might not feed so many Errours and cause so many fractions and disturbances in the Church and so many sinful miscarriages in its members But yet we must conclude that the person that hath knowledge enough to renew his Soul to the Love of God shall be loved by him and shall never perish and therefore may have just comfort under all the imperfections of his knowledge More wisdom might make him a better and more useful Christian But while he is a Christian indeed he may rejoyce in God. I blame not such for complaining of the dulness of their Understandings the badness of their Memories their little profiting by the means of Grace I should blame them if they did not complain of these And I think their case far more dangerous to the Church and to themselves who have as much ignorance and know it not but proudly glory in the wisdom which they have not But many a thousand Christians that have little of the Notional and Organical part of Knowledge have powerful apprehensions of the Power Wisdom and Love of God and of the great Mercy of Redemption and of the Evil of Sin the Worth of Holiness and the Certainty and Weight of the Heavenly Glory And by how much these men love God and Holiness more than the more Learned that have less Grace by so much they are more beloved of God and accounted wiser by the God of wisdom and therefore may rejoice in the greatness of their felicity I would have none so weak as to under-value any real useful Learning But if Pharisees will cry out against unlearned godly Christians These people know not the Law and are accursed Remember the Thanksgiving of your Lord I thank thee Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to Babes And as the reputed foolishness of God that is of Gods Evangelical Mysteries will shortly prove wiser than all the reputed wisdom of men so he that hath wisdom enough to love God and be saved shall quickly be in that World of light where he shall know more than all the Doctors and subtile disputers upon Earth and more in a moment than all the Books of men can teach him or all their Authors did ever here know Jer. 9.23 24. Thus saith the Lord Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches But let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness and righteousness in the Earth For in these things do I delight saith the Lord. Chap. XIV Questions and Objections answered Quest 1. IF so much knowledge will save a man as helpeth him to love God as God may not Heathens or Infidels at least be saved For they know that there is one God who is Infinitely Good and Perfect and more amiable than all the World and the
on his truth and mercies But God will not lose his knowledge of me nor turn away his mercy from me The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are his and let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 He can call me his Child when I doubt whether I may call him Father He doubteth not of his right to me nor of his graces in me when I doubt of my sincerity and part in him Known unto God are all his works Act. 15.18 What meaneth Paul thus to describe a state of grace Gal. 4.9 Now after ye have known God or rather are known of of God but to notify to us that though our knowledge of God be his grace in us and our evidence of his love and the beginning of life eternal Joh. 17.3 yet that we are loved and known of him is the first and last the foundation and the perfection of our security and felicity He knoweth his Sheep and none shall take them out of his hand When I cannot through pain or distemper remember him or not with renewed Joy or Pleasure he will remember me and delight to do me good and to be my Salvation 8. And though the belief of the unseen World be the principle by which I conquer this yet are my conceptions of it lamentably dark A Soul in flesh which acteth as the form of a body is not furnished with such images helps or light by which it can have clear conceptions of the state and operations of separated Souls But I am known of God when my knowledge of him is dark and small And he knoweth whither it is that he will take me what my state and work shall be He that is preparing a place for me with himself is well acquainted with it and me All Souls are his and therefore all are known to him He that is now the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob as being living with him while they are dead to us will receive my departing Soul to them and to himself to be with Christ which he hath instructed me to commend into his hands and to desire him to receive He that is now making us living Stones for the new Jerusalem and his heavenly temple doth know where every one of us shall be placed And his knowledge must now be my satisfaction and my peace Let unbelievers say How doth God know Psal 73.11 But shall I doubt whether he that made the Sun be Father of lights and whether he know his dwelling and his continued works Be still O my Soul and know that he is God Psal 40.10 and when he hath guided thee by his counsel he will take thee to Glory and in his Light thou shalt have Light And though now it appear not to sight but to Faith only what we shall be yet we known that we shall see him as he is and we shall appear with him in glory And to be KNOWN of God undoubtedly includeth his PRACTICAL LOVE which secureth our Salvation and all that tendeth thereunto It is not meant of such a knowledge only as he hath of all things or of such as he hath of the ungodly And why should it be hard to thee O my Soul to be perswaded of the love of God Is it strange that he should love thee who is Essential Infinite love Any more than that the Sun should shine upon thee which shineth upon all capable recipient objects though not upon the uncapable which through interposing things cannot receive it To believe that Satan or wicked men or deadly Enemies should love me is hard But to believe that the God of love doth love me should in reason be much easier than to believe that my Father or Mother or dearest friend in the World doth love me If I do not make and continue my self uncapable of his complacence by my wilful continued refusing of his grace it is not possible that I should be deprived of it Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me Psal 146.8 The Lord loveth the righteous John 16.27 2. Why should it be hard to thee to believe that he loveth thee who doth good so universally to the World and by his love doth preserve the whole Creation and give all Creatures all the good which they possess When his mercy is over all his works and his Goodness is equal to his wisdom and his power and all the World is beautified by it shall I not easily believe that it will extend to me The Lord is good to all Psal 145.9 Luk. 18.19 None is good essentially absolutely and transcendently but he alone Psal 33.5 The Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord Psal 52.1 The goodness of God endureth continually He is good and doth good Psal 119.68 And shall I not expect good from so good a God the cause of all the good that is in the World 3. Why should I not believe that he will love me who so far loved the World yea his Enemies as to give his only begotten Son that whoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 Having given me so precious a gift as his Son will he think any thing too good to give me Rom. 8.32 yea still he followeth his Enemies with his mercies not leaving himself without witness to them but filling their hearts with food and gladness and causing his Sun to shine on them and his Rain to fall on them and by his goodness leading them to repentance 4. Why should I not easily believe his love which he hath sealed by that certain gift of love the Spirit of Christ which he hath given The giving of the Holy Ghost is the shedding abroad of his love upon the heart Rom. 5. I had never known desired loved or served him sincerely but by that Spirit And will he deny his name his mark his seal his Pledge and Earnest of Eternal life Could I ever have truly loved Him his Word his Ways and Servants but by the reflection of his love shall I question whether he love those whom he hath caused to love him When our love is the surest gift and token of his love shall I think that I can love him more than he loveth me or be more willing to serve him than he is willing and ready to reward his Servants Heb. 11.6 1 Joh. 3.24 and 4.13 5. Shall I not easily hope for good from him who hath made such a covenant of Grace with me in Christ Who giveth me what his Son hath purchased who accepteth me in his most beloved as a member of his Son Who hath bid me ask and I shall have And hath made to Godliness the promise of this life and that to come and will with-hold no good thing from them that walk uprightly Will not such a Gospel such a Covenant such promises of love secure me that he loveth me while I consent unto his covenant terms 6. Shall I not easily believe