frame it hinders all the rest If we will hold out because the errour is in want of deepe apprehension of the miseries wee are in by nature let us labour therefore to have our hearts broken more and more Vpon this fault it was that the stony ground spoken of in the Gospell wants rooting therefore it is Christian pollicie to suffer our soules to be humbled as deepe as possible may be that there may be mould enough otherwise there may be a great joy in divine Truths and they may be comfortable but all will be sucked up like dew when persecution comes if it be not rooted What is the reason that Gods children sinke not to hell when troubles are upon them because they have an inward presence strengthening them for the holy Ghost helpes our infirmities not onely to pray but to beare crosses sweetening them with some glympes of his gracious countenance for what supports our faith in prayer but inward strength from God In prosperitie or after some deliverance its the fittest time for praise because then our spirits are raised up and cheared in the evidence of Gods favour for the greater the crosse is from which wee have beene delivered the more will the spirit be enlarged to praise God When ever we receive any good to our soules or to our bodies who ever is the instrument let us looke to the principall as in the gifts wee receive wee looke not to the Bringer but to the Sender Take heede of Satans policie that God hath forgotten mee because I am in extremitie nay rather God will then shew mercie for now is the speciall time of mercy therefore beat backe Satan with his owne weapons Whatsoever God takes away from his children he either supplies it with a great earthly favour or else with strength to beare it God gives charge to others to take a care of the fatherlesse and widdow and will he neglect them himselfe That is spirituall knowledge which alters the taste and relish of the soule for wee must know there is a bitter Antithesis in our nature against all saving Truthes there is a contrarietie betweene our nature and that Doctrine which teacheth us that wee must deny our selves and be saved by another Therefore the soule must first be brought to relish before it can digest there must be first an holy Harmony betweene our nature and truth If we will walke aright in Gods wayes let us have heaven daily in our Eye and the day of judgement and times to come and this will sterne the course of our lives and breed love in the use of the meanes and patience to undergoe all conditions let us have our eye with Moses upon him that is invisible A man may know that hee loves the world if he be more carefull to get than to use for we are but Stewards and wee should consider I must be as carefull in distributing as in getting for when wee are all in getting and nothing in distributing this man is a worldling though hee be moderate in getting without wronging any man yet the world hath gotten his heart because hee makes not that use of it he should It is a sottish conceit to thinke that wee can fit our selves for Grace as if a child in the wombe could forward its naturall birth If God hath made us men let us not make our selves Gods As naturall life preserves it selfe by repelling that which is contrary to it So where the life of Grace is there is a principle of skill of power and strength to repell that which is contrary It is the nature of the soule that when it sees a succession of better things it makes the world seeme cheape when it sees another condition not liable to change then it hath a sanctified judgement to esteeme of things as they are and so it overcomes the world In the Covenant of Grace God intends the glory of his Grace above all Now faith is fit for it because it hath an uniting Vertue to knit us to the Mediator and to lay hold of a thing out of it selfe it empties the soule of all conceit of worth or strength or excellencie in the creature and so it gives all the glory to God and Christ. What wee are afraid to speake before men and to doe for feare of danger let us be afraid to thinke before God therefore wee should stifle all ill conceits in the very conception in their very rising let them be used as Rebells and Traytors smoothered at the first The heart of man till he be a Beleever is in a wavering condition its never at quiet and therefore it s the happinesse of the creature to be satisfied and to have rest for perplexitie makes a man miserable if a man have but a little scruple in his conscience hee is like a shippe in the sea tossed with contrary windes and cannot come to the Haven The righteousnesse of Workes leaves the soule in perplexitie that righteousnesse which comes by any other meanes than by Christ leaves the soule unsetled because the Law of God promiseth life onely upon absolute and personall performance Now the heart of man tells him that this he hath not done and such duties he hath omitted and this breeds perplexitie because the heart hath not whereon to stay it selfe Glory followes afflictions not as the day followes the night but as the Spring followes Winter for the Winter prepares the earth for the Spring so doth afflictions sanctified prepare the soule for glory This life is not a life for the body but for the soule and therefore the soule should speake to the body and say stay body for if thou movest mee to fulfill thy desires now thou wilt lose mee and thy selfe hereafter But if the body be given up to Christ then the soule will speake a good word for it in heaven as if it should say Lord there is a body of mine in the earth that did fast for me and pray with me it will speake for it as Pharaohs Butler to the King for Ioseph Afflictions makes a divorce and separation betweene the soule and sinne it is not a small thing that will worke sinne out of the soule it must be the Spirit of burning the fire of afflictions sanctified heaven is for holinesse and all that 's contrary to holinesse afflictions workes out and so frames the soule to a further communion with God When the soule admires spirituall things it s then a holy frame and so long it will not stoope to any base comfort Wee should therefore labour to keepe our soules in an estate of holy admiration All those whom Christ saves by vertue of his merit and paiment to those hee discovers their wretched condition and instead thereof a better to be attained hee shewes by whom wee are redeemed and from what and unto what condition the Spirit informing us throughly that God enters into covenant with us Spirituall duties are as opposite tâ—â— flesh and blood as Fire to Water
God in all things whereas a carnall man sees reason onely in all that hee doth but a Christian sees God in crosses to humble him and every thing hee makes spirituall yet because there is a double principle in him there will be some stirring of the flesh in his actions and sometimes the worser part will appeare most but here is the excellencie of a Christians estate that the Spirit will worke it out at the last it will never let his heart and conscience alone till it be wrought out by little and little The Spirit of God may be knowne to be in weake Christians as the soule is knowne to be in the body by the pulses even so the Spirit discovers it selfe in them by pulses by groaning sighing complaining that it is so with them and that they are no better so that they are out of love with themselves this is a good signe that the Spirit is there in some measure Where the Spirit dwells largely in any man there is boldnesse in Gods cause a contempt of the world Hee can doe all things through Christ that strengthens him his minde is content and setled he can beare with the infirmities of others and not be offended for it is the weake in the Spirit that are offended he is ready in his desires to say Come Lord Iesus come quickly but where corruption beares sway there is O stay a little that I may recover my strength that is stay awhile that I may repent For the soule is not fit to appeare before God but where the Spirit dwells in Grace and comfort When wee are young carnall delights lead us and when wee are old covetousnesse drownes us so that if our knowledge be not spirituall wee shall never hold out the reason why at the houre of death so many despaire is because they had knowledge without the Spirit God gives comforts in the exercise and practise of Grace wee must not therefore snatch comforts before we be fit for them when wee performe precepts then God performes comforts If wee will make it good indeed that wee love God wee must keepe his Commandements wee must not keepe one but all it must be universall obedience fetched from the heart roote and that out of love It is a true rule in Divinitie that God never takes away any blessing from his people but he gives them a better when Eliah was taken from Elisha into heaven God doubled his Spirit upon Elisha if God take away wife or children hee gives better things for them the Disciples parted with Christ bodily presence but hee sent them the Holy Ghost God will be knowne of us in those things wherein it is our comfort to know him In all our devotions the whole counsells of heaven comforts us joyntly the second Person prayes to the Father and he sends the third and as they have severall titles so they all agree in their love and care to comfort In trouble we are prone to forget all that we have heard and read that makes for our comfort Now what is the reason that a man comes to thinke of that which otherwise hee should never have called to minde the holy Ghost brings it to his remembrance he is a Comforter bringing to minde usefull things at such times when we have most need of the. Those that care not for the Word of God reject their comfort all comfort must be drawne out of the Scriptures which are the breasts of consolation many are bred up by education that they know the truth and are able to discourse of it but they want the Spirit of Truth that is the reason why all their knowledge vanisheth away in time of triall and temptation No man is a true Divine but the child of God hee onely knowes holy things by a holy light and life other men though they speake of these things yet they know them not Take the mysticallest points in religion as Iustification Adoption peace of Conscience Ioy in the holy Ghost the sweet benefit of Communion of Saints the excellent estate of a Christian in extremity to know what is to be done upon all occasions inward sight and sorrow for sinne they know not what those things meane for howsoever they may discourse of them yet the things themselves are Mysteries Repentance is a Mystery Ioy in the holy Ghost is a Mystery no naturall man though hee be never so great a Scholler knowes these things experimentally but he knowes them as Physitians know Physicke by their Bookes but not as a sicke man by experience It is a great scandall to Religion that men of great learning and parts are wicked men hereupon the world comes to thinke that Religion is nothing but an emptie name so that without this inward anointing they never see spirituall things experimentally but though they know these things in the braine yet secretly intheir hearts they make a scorn e of conversion mortification and though for his calling hee may speake of these things excellently and with admiration yet in particular he hath no power of thē in his heart It is good and comfortable to compare our condition with the condition of the men of the world for howsoever they may excell in riches and learning yet we have cause to blesse God as Christ saith in the 11. of Saint Matthew 25. I thanke thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes It is good in all outward discouragements when things goe not well with us thus to reason with our selves wilt thou change thy estate with the men of the world God hath advanced thee to a higher Order Let them have their greatnesse alas they are miserable creatures notwithstanding all that they doe enjoy If wee desire to have the Spirit wee must waite in doing good as the Apostles waited many dayes before the Comforter came we must also emptie our soules of selfe-love and the love of the things of the world and willingly entertaine those crosses that bring our soules out of love with them The children of Israel in the Wildernesse had no Manna till they had spent their Onyons and Garlicke so this world must be out of request with us before we can be spirituall let us therefore labour to see the excellency of spirituall things and how cheape and poore all the glory of the world is to those these things thought and considered on will make us more and more spirituall The holy Ghost would not come till Christ by his Death had reconciled his Father and after that as an argument of full satisfaction had risen againe because the holy Ghost is the best gift of God and whatsoever grace or comfort was received before was by vertue of this so that the sending of the holy Ghost is the best fruit of Gods reconciliation Let a particular judgement come upon any man presently his conscience recalls backe what sinnes have beene
good in Books and to heare good of men that are dead but they cannot indure good in the lives of others to be in their eyes especially when they come to compare themselves with them they love not to be out-sh ined As the Sunne goes his course though we cannot see it goe and as plants and herbes grow though we cannot perceive them even so it followes not that a Christian growes not because hee cannot see himselfe grow but if they decay in their first love or in some other grace it is that some other grace may grow and increase as their humilitie their broken heartednesse sometimes they grow not in extention that they may grow at the roote upon a checke grace breakes out more as wee say after a hard Winter usually there followes a glorious Spring Gods children never hate corruption more than when they have bin overcome by corruption the best men living have some corruptions which they see not till they breake out by temptations Now when corruptioÌ„s are made knowne to us it stirres up our hatred and hatred stirs up endeavour and endeavour revenge so that Gods children should not be discouraged for their falls When the truth of grace is wrought in a Christian his desires goe beyond his strength and his prayers are answerable to his desires Whereupon it is that young Christians often times call their estate in question because they cannot bring heaven upon earth because they cannot be perfect but God will have us depend upon him for increase of Grace in a daily expectation Christ is our Patterne whom wee must strive to imitate its necessary that our Patterne should be exact that so wee might see our imperfections and be humbled for them and live by faith in our sanctification Consider Christ upon the Crosse as a publique person that when he was crucified and when hee died hee died for my sins and this knowledge of Christ will be a crucifying knowledge this will stirre up my heart â—o use my corruptions as my sinnes used Christ as hee hated my sinne so it will worke the same disposition in mee to hate this body of death and to use it as it used Christ answerably as we see this clearely it will transforme us With our Contemplation let us joyne this kind of reasoning God so hated pride that hee became humble to the death of the Crosse to redeeme mee from it and shall I be proud and when wee are stirred up to revenge consider that Christ prayed for his enemies when we are tempted to disobedience thinke God in my nature was obedient to the death and shall I stand upon termes and when wee grow hard hearted consider Christ became man that he might shew bowels of his mercy let us reason thus when we are tempted to any sinne and it will be a meanes to transforme us from our owne cursed likenesse into the likenesse of Christ. When wee see God blasphemed or the like let us thinke how would Christ stand affected if he were here when hee was here upon earth how zealous was hee against prophanenesse and shall I be so cold when hee saw the multitude wander as sheepe without a Shepheard his bowells yearned and shall wee see so many poore soules live in darkenesse and our bowells not yearne Wee must looke upon Christ not onely for healing but as a perfect patterne to imitate for wherefore else did hee live so long upon the earth but to shew us an example And let us know that wee shall be countable for those good examples which we have from others there is not an example of an humble holy and industrious life but shall be laid to our charge for God doth purposely let them shine in our eyes that we might take example by them As the spirits in the arteries quickens the blood in the veines so the Spirit of God goes along with the Word and makes it worke Saint Paul speakes to Lydia but the Spirit speakes to her heart As it was with Christ himselfe so it is with his members Hee was conceived by the Spirit anointed by the Spirit sealed by the Spirit hee was led into the Wildernesse by the Spirit he offered up himselfe by the Spirit and by the Spirit hee was raised from the dead even so the members of Christ doe answer unto Christ himselfe all is by the Spirit we are conceived by the Spirit the same Spirit that sanctified him sanctifies us but first wee receive the Spirit by way of Vnion and then Vnction followes after when we are knit to Christ by the Spirit then it workes the same in us as it did in him When a proud wit and supernaturall truths meete together such a man will have some thing of his owne therefore in reading and studying of heavenly Truths especially the Gospell wee must come to God for his Spirit and not venture upon conceits of our owne parts for God will curse such proud attempts Many men thinke that the knowledge of divine Truths will make them divine whereas it is the holy Ghost onely that gives a taste and rellish for without the Spirit their hearts will rise when the Word comes to them in particular and tells them you must denie your selfe and venture your life for his truth When men understand the Scriptures and yet are proud and malicious wee must not take scandall at it for their hearts were never subdued they understand supernaturall things by humane reason and not by divine light Those that measure lands are very exact in every thing but the poore man whose it is knowes the use of the ground better and delights in it more because it is his owne so it is with those Ministers that can exactly speake of heavenly truths yet have no share in them but the poore soule that heares them rejoyceth and saith these things are mine This life is a life of Faith for God will trie the truth of our faith that the world may see that God hath such servants as will depend upon his bare Word it were nothing to be a Christian if wee should see all here but God will have his children to live by Faith and take the promises upon his Word The nature of Hope is to expect that which Faith beleeves what could the joyes of heaven availe us if it were not for our Hope it is the Anchor of the soule which being cast in heaven it stills the soule in all troubles combustions and confusions that we daily meete withall It is too much curiositie to search into particulars as what shall be the glory of the soule and what shall be the glory of the body rather study to make a gracious use of them and in humility say Lord what is sinfull man that thou should'st so advance him The consideration of this should make us abase our selves and in humilitie give thankes afore hand as Peter did 1 Pet. 1. 1. when hee thought of an inheritance immortall and undefiled and that fadeth not hee gives