which he beares the image of the second Adam the Lord from heaven as in the other he did beare the similitude of the first Adam who was of the earth earthy 1 Cor. 15. 47. The promises they have in them a vim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a formative vertue and power to mould and fashion the heart to holinesse and to introduce the Image of Christ into it in regard of that native purity which dwels in them and is above gold that hath been seven times tried in the fire Psal 12. 6. therefore our Saviour tells his Disciples that they were cleane through the Word that he had spoken unto them John 15. 3. and when he prayed unto God to sanctifie them his prayer is Sanctifie them through thy truth thy Word is truth Joh. 17. 17. Secondly beleevers may be said to be partakers of the divine nature by the promises as they are the Objects of Faith and Hope Both which are graces that have in them a wonderful aptitude to cleanse and purifie the Subjects in which they dwell and to introduce true holinesse in which the lively image and resemblance of God doth chiefly consist First Faith it believes the truth of those things which God hath promised and apprehends also the worth and excellency of them to be such as that thereby it is made firme and constant in its adherence vigorous and active in its endeavours to use all means for the obtaining a conformity to God and Christ and the escaping of the corruption that is in the world through lust For till a man come to be a believer he is by the temptations of Satan and the specious promises with which they usually come attended drawn aside to the commission of the worst of sinnes in which though he weary himself to finde what first was seemingly promised yet he meets with nothing but delusions and disappointments of his expectation Balaam hath an edge set upon his spirit to curse the people of God by a promise of preferment made unto him and he tires himself in going from place to place to effect it but God hinders him from doing of the one and Balack denies the giving unto him the other So Judas by a baite that suits his covetousnesse undertakes to sell his Lord but when he hath accomplished his wickednesse and received his wages he throws it away and dares not keep what before he so earnestly thirsted after the blood of his Master makes every piece of the silver look gastly so that now he sees another image upon it then Cesars and cries out that he had sinned in betraying innocent blood Now faith it enables a beleever to discern a snare a defilement under all the gilded aldurements of Satan and the world And therefore he rejects with scorne those temptations with which others are miserably captivated resists with resolution all the courtings and solicitations of the flesh to which others yield beholding onely a stability and preciousnesse in those promises which have the oath of God to make them sure and his love to make them sweet And these only have a prevailing power with him to cause him so to order his conversation in all manner of holinesse that he may walk as it becomes an heire of heaven and an adopted sonne of the most high God to walk Secondly as Faith by beleeving the promises doth purifie the heart so also doth hope which expects the performance of what faith beleeveth work and produce the same effects He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as God is pure 1 Joh. 3. 3. The expectation which beleevers have by the promises is not a supine oscitancy whereby they look to be possessed of life and glory without any care or endeavours of theirs for to obtaine it like to callow and unfeathered birds that lie in the nest and have all their food brought to them gaping onely for to receive it But it is an expectation accompanied with diligence and industry for the fruition of what they do expect The grace of God saith Paul teacheth us to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 11 12. And the ground of this he subjoyneth Vers 13. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ He that truly expects glory earnestly pursues grace Heb. 12. 14. He that hopes to be with God in heaven useth all meanes to be like God on earth An heavenly conversation is the natural fruit of an heavenly expectation Phil. 3. 20. Our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ The Heathen could say that labour was the husband of hope There is hope the harlot and hope the wife Hope the married woman is known from hope the harlot by this that she alwayes accompanieth with her husbands labour True hope looks to enjoy nothing but what is gotten by travel and paines and therefore useth all meanes to obtaine that good which faith apprehendeth in the promise It seekes glory by grace it endeavours after communion with God in heaven by working a conformity to God in a beleever while he is on earth Thirdly beleevers are made partakers of the divine nature by the promises as they are the irreversible obsignations and declarations of God which he hath freely made unto them of his taking them unto himself in an everlasting communion of life and glory Heaven is as Prosper calls it Regio beatitudinis the onely climate where blessednesse dwells in its perfection While we are here below we are but as Kings in the cradle the throne on which we must sit the robes with which we must be clothed the crown which must be set upon our heads are all reserved for heaven In this life there is onely a taste of celestial delights and in the other there is a perpetual feast Here we see through a glasse darkly but then face to face 1 Cor. 13. 12. Grace doth as Cameron expresseth it adsignificare infirmitatem connotate a weaknesse and imperfection and glory that signifies an abolition and doing away whatsoever is weak or imperfect But all this absolute perfection of happinesse which is laid up in heaven for beleevers is ratified and made sure unto them in the promises and therefore they are said to be heires of the promise Heb. 6. 17. Yea by the promises they have the pledges and first-fruits of all that happinesse which they shall enjoy in heaven given unto them in this life We are now the sonnes of God saith the Apostle though it doth not yet appeare what we shall be 1 John 3. 2. That is we now beare his image and likenesse though in a more dark and imperfect character Our knowledge our grace our comforts are all incompleat But when he shall appeare we shall be like him That is when Christ shall come to receive us unto himself we shall beare upon us his
part of man and by its creation fitted for communion with an infinite good When saith Plutarch did Epicurus cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have fed with so much joy and delight as Archimedes in his Mathematical contemplations did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found And when did both they or the whole sect of Epicures and Philosophers in the enjoyment of their sensual and intellectual pleasures crie out with such strong ravishments of soul they had either fed or found as a beleever doth when he hath tasted and found the goodnesse of God in one promise Listen but a little and you shall heare in how loud and patheticall a tone David expresseth himself when he had but tasted these divine consolations Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psal 73. 25 26. And Bellarmine tels of a pious old man that was wont to rise from prayer with these words alwayes in his mouth Claudimini oculi mei claudimini nihil enim pulchrius jam videbitis Be shut be shut O mine eyes for now ye shall never see any thing more desirable 3. Sure Thirdly the comforts of the promises are abiding and sure mercies Act. 13. 34. such which are the crystal streames of a living fountaine and not the impure overflowings of an unruly torrent which sometimes with its swellings puts the traveller in feare of his life and at other times shames his expectations of being refreshed by it Job 6. 15. Geographers in their description of America report that in Peru there is a river called the Diurnal or day-river because it runs with a great current in the day but is wholly drie at night which is occasioned as they say by the heat of the sun that in the day-time melts the snow that lies on the mountaines thereabouts but when the Sunne goes down and the cold night approacheth the snow congealeth which only fed it and the channel is quite dried up Not much unlike this river are all wordly contentments which are onely day-comforts but not night-comforts In the sun-shine of peace and prosperity they flow with some pleasing streames but in the night season of affliction they vanish and come to nothing Then the rich man as Cyprian saith vigilat in plumâ suspirat licèt bibat gemmas lyes restlesse upon a bed of downe and fetcheth deep groans though he drink pearles and Saphires But it is farre otherwise with the promises whose streames of comfort in the time of trouble do usually run most plentifully and refresh most powerfully the weary and afflicted soul so as to preserve it from dying and fainting away under the pressure of any evil This was it which made Hezekiah under a sentence of death to revive and to cry out O Lord by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit Isa 38. 16. But if at any time these divine consolations do runne in a more shallow and spare channel and vary from their wonted fulnesse yet do they never prove like waters that faile or streames that are quite dried up A beleever may at sometime be drawn low but he can never be drawn drie while Christ is a full fountaine faith will never be an empty conduit-pipe His comforts may be like the Widows oyle in the cruse where onely a little remaines 1 King 17. 12. but never like the water in Hagars bottle that was quite spent Gen. 21. 15. The widow thought her store of meale and oyle to be brought to so low an ebbe as that it would serve but for one cake which two sticks would be fuel enough to bake and then both she and her son must expect to die but then the Lord did put forth his power though not in making the oile and meale to overflow to the feeding of others therewith but in keeping it from wasting so as to be a constant supply unto her and the Prophets necessities in the extremity of the famine The like apprehensions have the dear and beloved ones of God frequently in their afflictions and temptations which befall them they think they have scarce faith enough to last one day more scarce strength enough for one prayer more scarce courage enough for one conflict more and then they and their hopes must die and give up the ghost for ever But in the midst of all these feares and misgivings which arise from their hearts there issueth out such a measure of comfort from the promises which if it gives not deliverance from their temptations doth effect their preservation in them if it overflow not to make them glad it failes not to make them patient and to wait till God send forth judgement unto victory Mat. 12. 20. 4. Universal Fourthly the comforts of the promises are universal such as agree with every estate and suite every malady they are the strong mans meate and the sick mans cordial the condemned sinners pardon and the justified persons evidence but the best of the worlds comforts are only applicable to some particular conditions and serve as salves for some few sores Riches are a remedy against the pressing evils of want and poverty but they cannot purchase ease to the pained Armour of proof is a defence against the sword and bullet but can no way serve to keep off the stings of piercing cares oiles and balsames are useful for bruises and broken bones but they are needlesse to an hungry man that seeks not after medicines but food As the hurting power in creatures is stinted and bounded fire can burne but not drown water can drown but not wound serpents and vipers can put forth a poisonful sting but cannot like beasts of prey teare and rend in pieces so the faculty of doing good which is in any creature is confined to a narrow scantling and reacheth no further then the supply of some particular defect but the comforts and vertue of the promises are in their operations and efficacy of an unlimited extent they flow immediately from the Father of mercies and God of all comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3. and are therefore meet to revive and establish how disconsolate in any kinde whatsoever the condition of a beleever be In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul saith holy David Psal 94. 19. When disquieting thoughts did swarme within his breast as thick as motes in the Sun-beames and did continually ascend like sparkes from a flaming furnace which the Crown upon his head could not charme which the Scepter in his hand could not allay which the delights and pleasures of his Court could not sweeten then did the comforts of God in his promises as so many fresh springs in the midst of all his estuations both glad and calme his unquiet and perplexed spirit One sunne when overcast with thick clouds which threaten to blot it out of
that is taken up in the lips of talkers and is the infamy of the people Ezek. 36. 3. When others are in their name as beautiful as Absalom who from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head had no blemish in him he is as Job on the dunghill overspread with defamations that are as so many putrid ulcers When others are cried up as the glory of their times he is decried as the filth and off-scouring of the world 1 Cor. 4. 13. When the actions of others are blazoned as their vertues his that are in themselves commendable are censured as full of pride hypocrisy affectation and singularity Where is then the blessednesse of his condition that you spake of How can his estate that is overcast with a more pitchy darknesse then that of the night be better then the best of theirs that hath not the least shadow of any such evil stretching out it self upon it True it is that none are more evil spoken of and blasted in their names then beleevers but the ground of it springs not from their just deservings but from the worlds malice and enmity to God which is derived to them for his sake Let Nehemiah and the Jews set upon the rebuilding of the Temple and the repairing of the waste place of Jerusalem and Sanbullat upbraids them with intentions of rebellion Neh. 6. 6. Let Paul make known the Gospel of Christ and the Jews that beleeve not cry out that he is one of them that turn the world upside-down Act. 17. 6. Let the primitive Christians that cannot safely meet in the day take the opportunity of the night to worship God and the Heathens asperse their Assemblies to be full of uncleannesse and cruelty and that they have suppers not much unlike that of Thiestes as Tertullian shews in his Apology Now in these sufferings for God there are such promises from God made and fulfilled to them as that there is more sweetness to be found in the reproaches that they undergo for him from the world then there can be contentment in its smiles or favour And therefore Moses chose rather to suffer reproaches with Israel then to enjoy treasures in Egypt Heb. 11. 26. The contumelies slanders which they undergo on Christs behalf serve both to make the present comforts more sweet and their reward hereafter more glorious Blessed are ye saith our Saviour when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall speak all manner of evil against you falsely for my Names sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven Mat. 10. 11. And now speak O ye worldlings that judge happinesse by as false a rule as they do that measure their height by their shadow Who is in a true estimate the better man Elijah that runs before the chariot or Ahab that sits in it John the Baptist that is cloathed with camels haire or Herod his Courtiers that are arrayed with robes and costly garments the poor whom God hath chosen to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdome James 2. 5. or the man that hath the gold ring and hath the chief place in Assemblies given unto him Which condition is now more desirable to be a stranger to the world and to be the Lords freeman or to be an Alien to God and the Covenant of promise and to be a Denizon onely of the world To be rich to God and poor to men or to be rich to men and poore to God To be the favorite of heaven and to be contemned on earth or to be the darling of earth and the enemy of heaven O therefore learn to judge of happinesse not by the light of sense but by the lamp of the Sanctuary and in time bethink your selves that nothing can be a foundation of happinesse unto you that hath not its stability from the promise of God CHAP. XX. Grounds of thankfulnesse for precious promises A Fourth application is to exhort beleevers that are made partakers of such great and precious promises to abound in all thankfulnesse to God and Christ who are the sole fountain from whence these streams of living waters do flow When old Isaac had eaten of his sonnes venison he blessed him that had prepared it for him how much more should they that have tasted how good God is have their mouthes filled with the blessing and praising of his Name that hath poured forth his love and mercy in such rich promises as are to the soul more sweet then marrow and fatnesse To this duty holy David doth quicken and stirre up himself Psal 103. when he summons all the faculties of his soul to praise the Lord Let all that is within me blesse his holy Name Vers 1. And that he may make the deeper impressions of Gods goodnesse upon his own heart he frames a short but yet a pithy compendium of his love towards him in his pardoning and healing grace Vers 3. He forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases In his redeeming and saving grace Vers 4. He redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with loving kindnesse and tender mercies In his supporting and renuing mercies Vers 5. He satisfieth thy mouth with good things thy youth is renued as the eagles And of all these blessings are beleevers made partakers in the promises it therefore becomes them to pay unto God a tribute of thankfulnesse and that upon these grounds First the end of Gods goodnesse to his creatures is his glory and that which he chiefly delights in Trumpeters love to sound where there is an echo and God loves to bestow his mercies where he may hear of them again For man to make the end of his actions in any kinde to be his own praise doth not onely taint and flie-blow his services with hypocrisie and pride so as to marre the beauty of them but also transformes them into vices that are hateful unto God and man For it is not meet that he who derives his being from another should have his actions to terminate in himself He that gives the being gives also the rule and end of its working by both which the goodnesse of its actions are denominated The rule of its working is the law and will of him who gave it a being and the end of all its actions is his glory But God who is the fountain of his own being can have in all his works no other end then his own praise and glory This is his end in all his works of creation Prov. 16. 4. The Lord made all things for himself And this is the great end of all his works of grace in Christ Ephes 1. 6. That we should be to the praise of the glory of his grace All the eternal purposes of God concerning mans salvation from the first to the last do ultimately resolve themselves into his glory Secondly to give unto God praise and thankful acknowledgements for his great and precious promises is all the return that
the gates of hell be yet by faith looked upon as difficulties which cannot check the power of God but onely magnifie it For else if once we come to have jealous thoughts of the divine arme in which we trust or to fear that it might be incountred by some insuperable opposition the hopes and expectations that we have of any good from the promise must needs be weak and uncertaine When God had promised to make Abraham the father of a seed as numerous as the Stars of heaven or the dust of the earth though reason could not but suggest unto him how unlikely he was to be a father and Sarah to be a mother when age had dried up his body and deaded the womb of Sarah yet saith the Apostle Against hope he beleeved in hope that he might become the father of many Nations Rom. 4. 18. That is when nature afforded no ground of hope or encouragement to confirme his expectation in the fulfilling of the promise but suggested many posing arguments to impleade and gainsay the truth of it and to make his faith as feeble as his body yet then he exercised the fulnesse of assurance in believing and of hope in expecting the accomplishment of all that God had spoken He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to performe verse 21 22. So when afterwards God called him to that signal triall of his faith and obedience in the offering up of his only sonne and appointed himself to be the Priest as well as Isaac to be the sacrifice and though the stroake which Abrahams hand was stretched forth to give would not onely have ended the life of his sonne but have cut off also the promise at the very root because in Isaac his seed was to be called yet by the same eye of faith by which before he looked through a dead womb he now looks through a bleeding sword unto the power of God accounting that he was able to raise him up even from the dead Heb. 11. 19. That is he believed that rather then the promise of God should not be certaine the resurrection of Isaac should be more miraculous then his birth and that God would magnifie his power in raising him out of the ashes of a consumed sacrifice to be the heire of the promise rather then let one tittle of his Word fall to the ground unfulfilled And thus should every beleever as a true childe of Abraham endeavour to do in looking from themselves unto the power of God for the making good of any promise which they in prayer do earnestly seek in faith do really beleeve in hope do patiently wait for and expect And though difficulties and temptations should arise which their reason cannot answer their strength cannot repell yet not to cast away their confidence but to cast themselves upon him who is both the strength and wisdom of his people with whom things that are utterly impossible with men are not only possible but easie for him to bring to passe and to effect Oh the happy peace and serenity that a beleever enjoyes in every estate and condition which befalls him that can thus rest and stay himselfe upon the promise and power of God! No valley of trouble will be to him without a doore of hope no barren wildernesse without Manna no drie rock without water no dungeon without light no fiery trial without comfort because be hath the same Word and the same God to trust unto whose power open'd the sea as a doore to be a passage from Egypt to Canaan who fed Israel in the desart with bread from heaven and water from the rock who filled Peters prison with a shining light who made the three children to walk to and fro amidst the fiery furnace with joy and safety SECT 4. The unchangeablenesse of the promiser confirmes Faith Thirdly to sweeten the application of every promise exercise your thoughts and faith on the unchangeablenesse of the purpose and counsel of God to fulfill whatever his promises do declare The promises of men though they be the expressions of an intended and resolved good unto that person to whom they are made yet they are subject to a deficiency from a double principle sometimes through a want of power to give a being and existency unto what they have spoken they prove rather the fruitlesse wishes of a friend that meanes well then the performances of one that hath ability to turne his words into deeds But that which most frequently makes the promises of men to be as abortive conceptions and not as full births is the mutability and inconstancy of their wills whereby they are not only apt to recall and suspend the fulfilling of what they promised but also to change their love into hatred and their promises into menaces The tree that in the summer is much esteemed and set by for the grateful shade which it affordeth in the cold winter is oft cut down for fuel and so the same person which in the heat of affection is made the object of many favours in the keene blasts of jealousie becomes the subject of revenge and ruine But it is far otherwise with the promises of God whose power no lets or impediments can arise to hinder whose will no contingencies or emergencies can fall out to alter All his promises are in Christ not yea and nay but in him Yea and in him Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. He is not a man that he should repent 1 Sam. 15. 29. He is the Lord that changeth not Mal. 3. 6. The Father of lights with whom there is no variablenesse or shadow of change Jam. 1. 17. And that the heires of promise might yet be more abundantly confirmed in the immutability of Gods counsel he hath added to his Word his oath wherein he pawnes his being life righteousnesse truth mercy power to performe all that he hath spoken that so by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have strong consolation Heb. 6. 17. This consideration therefore of looking unto the unchangeablenesse of God in the constant use and application of his promises as it serves to point out the wide difference between the promises of God and the promises of men the one being as fraile and uncertaine as bubbles no sooner made then broken like breath on steel as soon off as on the other like firme rocks of adamant which can neither be broken or moved So also is it exceeding useful to preserve and keep beleevers from being injurious to their own comforts or Gods honour who from the frequent changes which they finde in themselves are apt to apprehend the like to be in God they recedefrom God and then complaine that God departs and withdrawes his presence from them not unlike to those who in a constant motion upon the waters move from the land and then phancy the land
upon the religion of the Israelites that it made them idle Exod. 5. 8. And it is a wrong done to the promises of the Gospel by carnal Libertines who make use onely of them to countenance their sloth not to quicken their obedience None that ever I have heard of have held marriage vain or unnecessary for the propagation of mankinde who have yet been of opinion that the soul is not generated but immediately created and infused by God no more can any man rationally conclude that because the promises of God are the declarations of his unchangeable purpose and will therefore duties and endeavours are superfluous to the effecting of any good which he hath promised to conferre upon us SECT 2. Rule 3. There is a dependency of one Promise on another which must not be broken nor inverted The third Rule or Direction is that there is a sacred concatenation and dependency of one promise to another which may not be violated and a fixed order which may not be inverted First the mutual tye that is between the promises in the application of them must not be broken As the duties of the law are copulative and may not in the obedience that is yielded unto it be disjoyned James 2. 20. So are the blessings of the promises which may not be made use of as severed from each other like loose and unstringed pearles but as collected and made into one intire chaine God hath linked the promises of pardon and repentance together and no man may presume that God will ever hearken unto him who begges the one and neglects to seek the other When he pacifies the conscience he melts the heart and works repentance as well as seales forgivenesse So likewise hath God inseparably knit grace and glory together as that none can lay a just claime to the one who is not first made partaker of the other no man can expect to be an heire of heaven that is not first a Saint on earth Holiness leads to happinesse as the rivulet to the sea as the way to the end the one is as the foot of the ladder and the other as the top Summitas scalae attingitur non volando sed ascendendo saith Bernard Glory which is the highest round is not attained by flying but by an orderly ascending unto it the intermediate steps must not be skipt but trodden Oh! how vaine then are those mens hopes and how sinful are their practices who stand upon the battlements of hell and sport themselves with all the sensual delights of the flesh trampling under their impure feet with scorne the precious promises of holiness by which they should be moulded unto all obedience and yet at the same time stretch forth an hand of presumption to lay hold on the promises of life and eternal glory as if they were the true heirs and proprietaries thereof But their forlorne condition which they would not see by the light of the Word they shall reade by the flames of hell being infinitely more pressed down under the weight of Gods displeasure and endlesse despaire then ever they were lifted up with the transient hopes of happinesse by a carnal and ungrounded presumption Secondly in the applying of the promises the order and method of them is not to be inverted but to be observed The promises which God hath made are a full store-house of all kinde of blessings they include in them both the upper and the nether springs the mercies of this life and of that which is to come there is no good that can present it self as an object to our desires or thoughts of which the promises are not a ground for faith to believe and hope to expect the enjoyment of But yet our use and application of them must be regular and such as suites both the pattern and precept which Christ hath given us The patterne we have in that most absolute prayer of his Mat. 6. 9 10. wherein he shews what is chiefly to be desired by us the Sanctification of his Name in our hearts the coming of his kingdome into our soules the doing of his will in our lives are to be sought for before and above our daily bread We may not be more anxious for food then for grace The precept we have in his most heavenly Sermon Mat. 6. 33. Seek ye first the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse and all these things shall be added unto you Promises are to be improved in prayer and other duties primarily for holinesse and secondarily for other outward comforts The soul is more worth then body as the body is more worth then the raiment and therefore the principal care of every one ought to be to secure the well-fare of his soul by interesting himself in the promises of life and eternal happinesse but yet even here also a Method must be observed and the Law of the Scripture must be exactly followed which tells us that God first gives grace and then glory Psal 84. 11. As it is a sin to divide grace from glory and to seek the one without the other so is it also a sinne to be preposterous in our seeking to look first after happinesse and then after holinesse no man can rightly be solicitous about the crown but he must first be careful about the race nor can any be truly thoughtful about his interest in the promises of glory that doth not first make good his title to the promises of grace Salvation endlesse life fellowship with Angels and the first-borne of heaven they are as Austin calls them promissum finale the last things in order that God hath to give or that we have to ask and therefore we may not anticipate the order of them but wait upon God in his own way What the Apostle saith concerning the resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 22 23. That in Christ all shall be made alive but every man in his own order may be truly spoken concerning the promises of the Gospel that in Christ all shall be fulfilled but every promise in its own order SECT 3. Rule 4. Meditate seriously frequently on the Promises The fourth Direction is to meditate throughly and frequently upon the promises and to deale with them as the Virgin Mary did with the things that were spoken concerning Christ she kept and pondered them in her heart Luk. 2. 19. The limbeck doth not put any vertue into the herbs but it distills and extracts whatever is efficacious and useful from them The Bee doth not derive any sweetnesse to the flower but by its industry it sucks the latent honey from it so meditation conveyeth nothing of worth unto the promise but it draws forth the sweetnesse and discovers the beauty of it which else without it would be little tasted or discerned I have sometimes thought that a beleevers looking upon a promise is not unlike a mans beholding of the heavens in a still and serene evening who when he first casts up his eye sees haply a starre or two only
the visions of God and of the raptures of the Spirit How often doth Satan by transforming himself into an Angel of light endeavor the seducement and ruine of many Christians against whom as an Angel of darknesse he could not prevaile being in every thing Gods Ape to imitate those extraordinary wayes by which God hath sometimes made known himself unto his people Gerson in his book de probatione spirituum of the triall of spirits tells a remarkable story of Satans appearing to an holy man in a most glorious and beautifull manner professing himself to be Christ and because he for his exemplary holinesse was worthy to be honoured above others therefore he appeared unto him but the old man readily answered him that he desired not to see his Saviour in this wildernesse it should suffice him to see him hereafter in heaven and with all added this pithy prayer Sit in alio seculo non in hoc visio tua merces mea O let thy sight be my reward Lord in another life and not in this life This direction therefore is of no little importance unto beleevers that would not loose and wilder themselves in uncertainties both in regard of duty and comfort to take heed how they leave the precept of the Word and betake themselves unto revelations for rhe guidance of their wayes or how they neglect the application of the promises by faith for the establishing of their hearts in the peace and love of God and expect their assurance to flow from an immediate voice or dictate of the Spirit as if the Word and promises had no activity and light in them to evidence and declare the certainty and truth of these things unto their souls Such wayes though the novelty of them may render them pleasing to many yet it cannot as we see make them safe to any that tread or walk in them And therefore let that of Austin be every Christians practice and prayer Sint sacrae Scripturae tu◠deliciae meae in quibus nec possim fallere nec falli Lord let thy holy Scriptures be my pure delights in which I can neither deceive or ever be deceived SECT 2. Cau. 7. Let not thy heart out on earthly Objects The seventh and last Cautionary direction is To take beed of having the heart let out to earthly objects either in earnest desires after them or in long and frequent musings of the minde upon them The application of the promises is then most powerful and operative when they lie nearest and closest unto the soul and the comforts that distill from them are then most sweet when they are received into the most inward parts of the hidden man The softest garments men usually weare next their skin and the best Jewels they lay up in the most inward cells of their Cabinets And of such a nature are the promises and invitations of mercy in the Gospel they are things of the greatest delicacy and therefore should be applied next unto the heart which is of all parts the most tender they are of the highest worth and value and therefore should highest be lodged in the most retired and inward receptacles of the minde as their most due and proper seate All interposition of earthly things doth not onely hinder the conveyance both of grace and comfort from the promises but doth also according to the measure predominancy of it make the heart as an unmeet vessel to receive such heavenly treasure in diverse respects First earthly things do fill the heart thereby put it into an incapacity of receiving either divine counsel or comfort from the Word or promises They fill the heart with crouds of businesses so that Christ and his Word finde no more place in it then he and his mother did roome in the Inne where the manger was fain to be his cradle Luk. 2. 7. They fill the heart with diversity of cares and solicitudes so that it cānot have any freedom to attend heavenly duties Martha who was troubled about many things did not with Mary her sister sit at Christs feet to hear the Word her cumber about much serving made her to neglect the one thing that was needfull Luke 10. 41. They many times fill the heart with pride and scorne so as that the choicest things of the Gospel are no better then foolishnesse The Pharisees heard Christ preach against earthly affections but they derided him Luke 16. 14. The full soul loatheth the honey-combe Pro. 27. 7. and so doth an earthly minde reject the Word which is more sweet then the dropping honey Secondly earthly things defile the heart with many vile and corrupt affections which do unqualifie it for the reception of holy and precious promises They stain the heart with an adulterous and impure love which is enmity unto God James 4. 4. and make it apt to prefer carnall satisfactions before communion with Christ They defile the heart with a false and unsound confidence turning it from God who is the sole object of trust unto the mutable and unstable creature and therefore Paul enjoynes Timothy to charge them that are rich in this world that they trust not in uncertain riches but in the living God 1 Tim. 6. 17. They pollute the heart with sensuall joyes with unhallowed pleasures and delights so that the joy of the corne wine and oile increasing doth extinguish that complacency and tranquillity of mind that flowes from the presence and fruition of spirituall objects as in luxurious persons strange love doth eate out and obliterate that which is conjugall How then can any man expect that the holy Spirit of promise should be both a Counsellor and Comforter unto such an one whose love confidence joys are adulterate and sinfull Surely he who hath the purity of a dove will never take up the lodging of a crow he who dwells in the soule when it is a temple of holinesse will never afforde his presence when it is turned into a cage of uncleane birds Thirdly earthly objects divide the heart Hosea 2. 10. and make it uncertain in its motions towards God As the balance hath no stedfastnesse in it self but doth by every breath and touch fluctuate sometimes to the one hand sometimes to the other so the earthly mind is various and inconstant in its desires to heavenly things sometimes for a short and sudden fit it seemes to affect them and by and by growes cold and heartless again Like to the grasse-hoppers which as Gregory observes give a flirt up and make a faint essay of flying towards heaven and then presently fall on the earth againe Thus the young man Marke 10. 17. comes running to Christ to shew his fervour and zeal kneels to him to testifie his observance prayes to him to direct him in the way to eternall life to evidence his care and solicitude about it but when Christ bids him to sell whatsoever he had and give to the poor that so he might have treasure in heaven how soon doth he who
have little experience in themselves how sad the condition of that soul is from whom God hides his face or turnes his smiles into frownes and how happy he is in the overflowings of all joy peace and comfort who hath the shine of Gods face to be the health of his countenance Psal 42. 11. Secondly believers are not to charge the guilt of criminall sinnes into which they fall upon themselves so as thereby to apprehend or conclude that the pardon of former sinnes is made void and of none effect The forgivenesse of sinnes past may aggravate and accent the iniquities that are afterwards committed being done against the riches of mercy received but the commission of new sinnes doth not revoke the pardon that was before given or make the guilt of such sinnes to returne again in their full strength and power no more then subsequent debts do make bonds formerly cancelled and vacated to stand in force For God when he pardons doth not insert any conditional clauses that carry a respect to our future conversation and make the efficacy of his pardon to depend upon our well or ill doing His gifts and graces are the fruits of his immutable counsel and will and therefore without all repentance It may not be denied but that this truth hath diverse Adversaries the Lutherans are vehement in their opposition of it as also the Papists and the Arminians And yet I say they who have skill and leasure to consult the Schoolmen who much agitate this Question An peccata redeant Whether sinnes pardoned do ever returne and live again in their guilt so as to accuse and to condemne Will finde there are more who are for the Negative then for the Affirmative But it is not my purpose to enter into the lists and to take up the wasters in this Controversie It is enough that the Scripture-expressions concerning Gods pardoning of sinne do clearly hold forth his forgiving of them to be full and absolute I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sinnes Isay 44. 22. The cloud that is scattered or dissolved by the sunne though others may succeed it never returnes to make a second appearance but is wholly extinguished and therefore mans going downe into the grave who never returnes unto the land of the living again is compared unto it Job 7. 9. So Jer. 50. 20. The sinnes of Judah shall not be found for I will pardon them saith the Lord. So againe Micah 7. 19. Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea Things that are cast into the bottome of the sea never come to sight again but are more surely buried then things that are hid in the grave and in the bowels of the earth which may possibly be digged out again What more significant words can be used to declare the absolutenesse of Gods pardoning sin then these of the Prophets Thirdly beleivers falling into grosse and conscience wasting sinnes are not to charge the guilt of them upon themselves so as to conclude thereby that they have utterly lost all sanctifying and inherent grace Such sins may make a believer to be as a man in a woone who is without all motion but not as a carcase which is without all life They may be in his heart as spiders in an hive which spoile the honey but do not kill the bees they blast and wither the precious fruites of grace and profession but they do not wholly destroy the root and principle from whence they flow Still the seed of God abideth in him 1 Joh. 3. 9. The Apostasie of Peter in denying out Saviour was great It was a complicated deniall there was in it Negatio notitiae a deniall of so much as knowing him and Negatio consortii a deniall of all communion and converse with him And yet in this reiterated defection the faith of Peter did not expire and give up the ghost For Christ prayed that his faith might not faile Luke 22. 32. Now the ground of this indeficiency in grace is not from its own strength as it is a quality in us but from the covenant and promise of God who hath said that he will put his feare into our hearts that we shall not depart from him Jer. 32. 40. Qui custodit nos per fidem costodit in nobis ipsam fidem He that keeps us by faith doth keep faith it self in us This particular is very necessary for such Christians to think upon who after a falling into some foule sinne do not onely mourne over their folly as they justly ought but are apt also to complaine that heretofore indeed they had some good in them a little faith they could by some effects discerne in themselves a spark of love to God was once kindled in their breasts But now alas all is utterly extinct and lost Now they are in no better condition then in the gall of bitternesse and the bonds of iniquity a rude and deformed chaos of sinne and folly without any principle of grace or appearance of beauty And in thus doing they do not onely heighten their present darknesse and trouble but also are injurious unto the promise and faithfulnesse of God who hath fixed grace in the heart of a believer more firmely then the soul is feated in the body which is subject to death and dissolution Fourthly believers are not so to charge the guilt of their great sinnes upon themselves as from thence to infer any such sad conclusions as these That they never shall enjoy any day or houre of comfort again but walk in continuall darknesse or that they shall never be used any more as instruments of service or be a vessel unto honour meet for the masters use but be as the broken shards that are not fit to take fire from the hearth or to take water out of the pit Isay 30. 14. That they who defile themselves with voluntary and grosse sinnes if we look unto the just merit of them deserve to be so dealt with it cannot be denied But that God doth retaliate the sinnes of his children with such dealings though they be deeply humbled for their Apostasie and with strong cries do begge both pardon and acceptance from himself is contrary not onely to the promises of mercy which he hath made to penitent sinners Jer. 3. 12. but also to many pregnant instances of such whom he hath both comforted with his love and highly honoured with his service With what expressions and demonstrations of affection is the dejected Prodigal received by his father who peccanti filio dat oscula non flagella gives to his straying sonne kisses and not blowes saith Chrysologus No food is too good to satisfy his hunger no raiment too costly to cloath him with no ornament too precious to adorne him The fatted calfe the best robe the ring of gold are the sure pledges of his fathers love Luke 15. What a choice vessel of honour and service was Peter after his fall who
to him by the grand Sophies of the Epicureans and Stoicks then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sower of words a babler Act. 17. 18. Would it not seem a strange opinion if one should assert that he who lackies it before the chariot is a better man then he that rides in it that he who lives in a Wildernesse meanly clad and faring hardly is more happy then they that are in Kings houses and weare soft raiment that he who is poore and is bid to sit at the footstoole is more worthy then he that hath the chiefest place given unto him in the Assembly And can it sound lesse strange in the eares of the world that the most despicable condition of a believer is far above the happiness of him that hath all the honors and delights that the earth can yield flowing in upon him and meeting in him as so many lines in one point I shall therfore endeavour to clear the truth of this inference so fully as that it may serve to support and comfort afflicted Christians under all their pressures so as not to complain because they are in their extremities more happy then the best worlding in his delights And that it may likewise provoke those who have made it their designe to be rather great then good to bethink themselves of their folly and to acknowledge that there is no tenure like an interest in the Covenant and promises and that there is no happinesse like to the happinesse of a beleever which hath its foundation laid in grace and not in greatnesse To this end let us in a few particulars compare or weigh as in a balance the worst of a beleevers estate with the best of a worldly but yet a wicked mans estate and we shall quickly see that the advantage will lie on that part of the skale in which the beleever stands and not on the other SECT 1. First a believer haply is in the world in no better condition then a stranger that hath little or no interest in its enfranchisements priviledges and immunities which others daily finde the sweet of in the many benefits that they enjoy He is frowned upon when others are courted and smiled upon by those that have honour s and preferments in their power to bestow He lives like Israel in Egypt under hard pressures when others rule and reigne as Lords He is friendlesse and findes none either to pity his wrongs or to do him the least right To his words to his sighs he finds a deaf and regardlesse ear continually turned when others have the Law open where they may implead their adversaries and have friends that are willing to countenance them and ready to help them Can he then that wants all these things be more happy then he who enjoyes them Yes for though a believer be a stranger here below yet he is a Citizen of the new Jerusalem which is above to which every worldly man is a forreigner Ephes 2. 12. And from thence he that bends his brow upon the wicked beholds him with love Ps 11. 7. Though he be the worlds bond-man yet he is the Lords free-man 1 Cor. 7. 22. Though here he be friendlesse yet what near and familiar relations have the whole blessed Trinity been pleased to take upon them and to make known themselves by unto him God as a Father Christ as a Brother and the holy Spirit as a Comforter All whom the men of the world can call by no such titles Though here his supplications and his tears avail not yet in heaven his prayers are registred and his teares are botled SECT 2. Secondly a Believer as he is a stranger so also may he be afflicted with want having little or nothing in possession to relieve his necessities He may want cloathing for his back and food for his belly He may have onely torum itr amineum cibos graminoes straw for his bed grasse and herbs for his meat when others sleep upon soft down and â—are doliciously every day He haply hath scarce water to quench his thirst when others have variety of choice wines to please and delight their palates All this and much more is acknowledged to be the lot and portion of many Christians such of whom the world is not worthy But yet let us view their condition so as to compare it with the men of the world whose bellies are filled with hid treasure and we shall quickly see that a true judgement and estimate being made of both that the thornes of the one will smell sweeter then the roses of the other his necessities will be more desirable then their fulnesse because wants sanctified are better then unsanctified enjoyments All their morsels are rolled up in the filth of their sin and in the bitternesse of Gods malediction and all his wants are both sweetened and supplied with the comforts of Gods promises Though he hath nothing for the present yet he is rich in hopes Though he have nothing in possession yet he hath an inheritance a Kingdome a Crown in reversion They have all their good things in this life and he hath his reserved for the other Though he have no food for his body yet he hath Manna for his soul He hath an hungry body and they a starved soul Though he have here scarce a place to lay his head on yet is there roome reserved for him in Abraham's bosome where he shall for ever dwell in joy when others lie down in sorrow Isa 50. 10. Though his body be as a parched wildernesse for thirst yet his soul is as a watred garden Out of his belly flow rivers of living water John 7. 38. We may truly say of a beleever what Paul speaks of himself though he was poor yet he had enough to make many rich though he had nothing yet he possessed all things Fideli homini totus mundus divitiarum est infideli autem nec obolus To a Christian all the world is his riches to an unbeliever not a doit of it saith Prosper There is no creature which doth not owe an homage unto him and shall certainly pay it if his necessities do require it The heavens shall heare the earth and the earth shall hear the corne and the wine and the oyle in answer to Jezreel ' s prayers Hos 2. 21 22. What is at further distance then the heavens and so more unlikely to hear then heavens What creature more dull then earth and so more unmeet to be affected and moved with a cry And yet both the heavens and the earth shall not be deaf to Jezreel's prayers but shall fulfill their desires and supply their wants SECT 3. Thirdly a beleever is not onely exercised with the pressing evils of want poverty but he oftentimes lies under the sore burthen of reproach and obloquie which to an ingenuous spirit is more bitter then death itself He is the common mark to which all the sharp arrows of mens tongues are directed He is the onely person
we can make David as a man truly sensible of his many and deep obligations unto God hath a great consultation with himself which way he should expresse his thankfulnesse unto him What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me Psalm 116. 12. But after all musings and studyings with himself he can finde no other way but this I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord Vers 13. An Eucharistical sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving is all that David though a King can finde to give unto God And this kinde of payment the poor may make as well as the rich the young as well as the old The children in the Gospel can cry Hosanna and say Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord Mat. 21. 15. as well as others It is a good observation of Nazianzen that God hath equalized all men in that ability which most recommends or discommends them unto him and that is the ability of the will to love him and to give him praise This is that which all may do who have tasted how good God is and this is all that the best can do who have been most filled with the riches of his mercy Seeing therefore that a thankful recognition of Gods love and bounty in his promises is the onely recompence that we can make it is most meet that we should abound in it and make it not only the duty of our lips but of our hearts breathing forth our very souls in the continual praises of him who hath manifested the gracious purposes of his heart unto us in many rich promises of life and salvation More then this God in his mercy doth not desire and lesse then this in all reason we cannot give Thirdly the giving of God praise and glory in endlesse songs of thanksgiving is the onely work of the Saints in heaven when fully made partakers of all the blessings that the promises do hold forth It is now the continual blessed exercise of all the inhabitants of those everlasting Mansions in the highest heavens and it shall be ours when we shall be translated thither and have our faith turned into vision and our hope into enjoyment Requisite therefore it is that what we know must be our eternal exercise in heaven to make that our frequent practice on earth Those persons that intend to travel into remote and forreign countreys with an advantage unto themselves do before-hand acquaint themselves with the customes manners and fashions of the place to which they go and from others whose experience may give the best light do inquire what is the ingenie and disposition of the natives that so they may the better comply with their formes and civilities yea they endeavour to get some smattering of the language that they may not be altogether strangers to what is done and spoken there So should Christians who expect to dwell with the Lord for ever with all diligence inure themselves to the work and services of that innumerable company of Angels and spirits of just men made perfect and to get some rudiments of their heavenly language while they are below that so they may the better bear a part in that celestial quire singing with a loud voice Blessing and glory and wisdome and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever Rev. 7. 12. Now that this duty of thankfulnesse may run in a right channel I shall in some few particulars shew how it may and ought to be expressed First let thankfulnesse appear in the fulfilling of that exhortation of the Apostle 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse in the fear of God The promises as they are causes working holinesse so also are they Arguments inciting to it being for the most part propounded as rewards unto the obedience of faith which is a purifying and cleansing grace Acts 15. 9. In what more genuine fruits therefore can thankfulnesse manifest it self then in holinesse Or how can a beleever better evidence his high esteeme of the promises then by his continual pressing forward to the perfection of sanctity Now as Aristotle tells us in the first book of his Rhetoricks that there are two wayes by which men grow rich either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by adding to their present store or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by substracting and taking away from their expenses So also holinesse is perfected by a double meanes either by the addition of one grace unto another which is the duty that Saint Peter calls for 2 Pet. 1. 5. Adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godlinesse c. Or else by not making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof which is the counsel that Saint Paul gives to beleevers Rom. 13. 14. And he that doth not both these wayes endeavour the increase of holinesse starving the boundlesse desires of the flesh and strengthening the graces of the Spirit by renuing acts of godlinesse can never be rich either in grace or comfort Secondly let thankfulnesse for the promises be expressed in proclaiming that mercy salvation and assured peace which you have received from them If so be you have tasted that God is good do as the birds which when they come to a full heap chirp and invite their fellows Tell the hungry soul what satisfying and blessed food the promises are the dejected what reviving cordials the poor what enduring riches the broken and wounded what healing balsoms they are that so they may be encouraged to take hold of these promises by an hand of faith Criples that returne with health from the Bathe hang up their crutches on the trees and their rags on the hedges that are near that thereby they may win credit and esteeme to the waters And so to honour the Wells of salvation should Christians make known the great things that God hath done for them and leave in every place where they come some testimony of their thankfulnesse and Gods goodnesse Come saith David all ye that feare the Lord and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul Psal 66. 16. He doth not call them as Austin observes to acquaint them with speculations how wide the earth is how farre the heavens are stretched out what the number of the starres is or what is the course of the Sunne but come and I will tell you the wonders of his grace the faithfulnesse of his promises the riches of his mercy to my soul Oh! that Believers would be perswaded to declare thus the experiences that they have any time had of Gods truth and power in his Word and in a way of gratitude to communicate them unto others How instrumental might they thereby become in the comforting and establishing of others Experiences are