to God He hath respect to the humble contrite soul. Isa. 57.15 and 66.2 Psal. 51.17 The hungry he filleth with good but the rich he sendeth empty away Luk. 1.53 He giveth more grace to the humble when the proud are abhorred by him 1 Pet. 5.5 The Church of Laodicea that said I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing was miserable and poor and blinde and naked Rev. 3.17 As many that are proud of their honour and birth run out of all by living above their estates when meaner persons grow rich because they are still gathering and make much of every little So proud Professors of Religion are in a Consumption of the Grace they have while the humble increase by making much of every little help which is sleighted and neglected by the proud and by shunning all those spending courses which the proud are plunged in Be sure to keep mean thoughts of your selves of your knowledg and parts and grace and duties and be content to be mean in the esteem of others if you would not be worse than mean in the esteem of God DIRECT V. Exercise your selves daily in a life of Faith upon Jesus Christ as your Saviour your Teacher your Mediator and your King as your Example your Wisdom your Righteousness and your Hope ALL other studies and knowledg must be meerly subservient to the study and knowledg of Christ 1 Cor. 2.2 That vain kind of Philosophy which St. Paul so much cautioneth Christians against is so far yet from being accounted vain that by many called Christians it is preferred before Christianity it self and to shew that it is Vain while they overvalue it they can shew no solid worth or vertue which they have got by it but only a tumified mind and an idle tongue like a tinkling Cymbal 1 Cor. 13.1 and 12.31 and 2.4.14 15 16. and 1.18 19 20 21 23 24 27. Col. 2.8 9. We are compleat in Christ in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ver 10. No study in the World will so much lead you up to God and acquaint you with him especially in his Love and Goodness as the study of Christ his Person his Office his Doctrine his Example his Kingdom and his benefits As the Deity is your ultimate end to which all things else are but helps and means so Christ is that great and principal means by whom all other means are animated Remember that you are in continual need of him for direction intercession pardon sanctification for support and comfort and for peace with God Let no thoughts therefore be so sweet and frequent in your hearts nor any discourse so ready in your mouths next to the excellencies of the eternal Godhead as this of the design of mans Redemption Let Christ be to your Souls as the Air the Earth the Sun and your Food are to your bodies without which your life would presently fail As you had never come home to the Father but by him so without him you cannot a moment continue in the Fathers love nor be accepted in one duty nor be protected from one danger nor be supplyed in any want For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell Col. 1.18 19. And by him it is that being justified by Faith we have peace with God and have access by Faith unto this Grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God Rom. â— 1 2. And it is in him the Head that we must grow up in all things from whom the whole body doth receive it's increase Ephes. 4.15 16. You grow no more in Grace than you grow in the true knowledg and daily use of Jesus Christ. But of this I will say no more because I have said so much in my Directions for a sound Conversion DIRECT VI. Let the Knowledg and Love of God and your obedience to him be the Works of your Religion and the everlasting fruition of him in Heaven be the continual end and ruling Motive of your Hearts and Lives that your very Conversation may be with God in Heaven YOu are so far HOLY as you are DIVINE and HEAVENLY A Christian indeed in casting up his accounts being certain that this World doth make no man happy hath been led up by Christ to seek a Happiness with God above If you live not for this everlasting happiness if you trade not for this if this be not your treasure your hope and home the chief matter of your desires love and joy and if all things be not prest to serve it and despised when they stand against it you live not indeed a Christian life GOD and HEAVEN or GOD in HEAVEN is the Life and Soul the beginning and the end the Sum the All of true Religion And therefore it is that we are directed to lift up our Heads and Hearts and begin our Prayers with Our Father which art in Heaven and end them with ascribing to Him the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever It is not the Creatures but God the Creator that is the Father the Guide and the felicity of Souls and therefore the ultimate end and object of all Religious actions and affections Dwell still upon God and dwell in Heaven if you would understand the nature and design of Christianity Take God for all that is for God Study after the knowledg of him in all his Works Study him in his Word Study him in Christ And never study him barely to know him but to know him that you may love him Take your selves as dead when you live not in the Love of God Keep still upon your hearts a lively sense of the infinite difference between him and the Creature Look on all the World as a shadow and on God as the substance Take the very worst that man can do to be in comparison of the punishments of God but as a Flea-biting to the sorest death And take all the dreaming pleasures of the World to be less in comparison with the joyes of Heaven than one lick of honey is to a thousand years possession of all the felicities on earth Think not all the pleasures honours or riches of the world to be worthy to be named in comparison of Heaven nor the Greatest of Men to be worthy to be once thought on in comparison of God As one straw or feather won or lost would neither much rejoyce or trouble you if all the City or land were yours So live as men whose eyes are open and who discern a greater disproportion between the portion of a worldling and a Saint Let God be your King your Father your master your friend your wealth your joy your All. Let not a day go over your heads in which your hearts have no converse with God in Heaven when any trouble overtaketh you on Earth look up to Heaven and remember that it is there that Rest and Joy are prepared for believers When you are under any want or cross or
that day But yet he thinketh not of it with so strong a faith and great consolation nor with such boldness and desire as the confirmed Christian doth but either with much more dull security or more perplexity and fear His thoughts of God and of the world to come are much more dark and doubtfull and his fears of that day are usually so great as make his desires and joys scarce felt Only he thinketh not of it with that contempt or stupidity as the Infidel or hardened sinner nor with the terrours of those that have no God no Christ no hope except when temptation bringeth him near to the borders of despair His death indeed is unspeakably safer than the death of the ungodly and the joys which he is entring into will quickly end the terrour but yet he hath no great comfort of the present but only so much trust in Christ as keepeth his heart from sinking into despair 3. But to the Hypocrite or seeming Christian Death and Judgement are the most unwelcome daies and the thoughts of them the most unwelcome thoughts He would take any tolerable life on earth at any time for all his hopes of Heaven and that not only through the doubts of his own sincerity which may sometime be the case of a tempted Christian but through the unsoundness of his belief of the life to come or the utter unsuitableness of his soul to such a blessedness which maketh him look at it as less desirable to him than a life of fleshly pleasures here All that he doth for Heaven is upon meer necessity because he knoweth that Die he must and he had rather be in Heaven than in Hell though he had rather be in prosperity on earth than either And as he taketh Heaven but as a reserve or second good so he seeketh it with reserves and in the second place And having no better preparations for Death and Judgement no marvel if they be his greatest terrour He may possibly by his self-deceit have some abatement of his fears and he may by Pride and Wit seem very valiant and comfortable at his death to hide his fear and pusillanimity from the world But the 〈◊〉 of all his misery is that he sought not first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and laid not up a treasure in Heaven but upon earth and loved this world above God above the world to come and so his heart is not set on Heaven nor his affections on the things above and therefore he hath not that Love to God to Christ to Saints to perfect Holiness which should make that world most desirable in his eyes and make him think unfeignedly that it is best for him to depart and live with Christ for ever Having not the Divine Nature nor having lived the Divine Life in walking with God his complacency and desires are carnal according to the nature which he hath And this is the true cause and not only his doubts of his own sincerity of his unwillingness to die or to see the day of Christs appearance Matth. 6.33.19.20 21. 1 Joh. 2.15 Col. 3.1 2 3 4. Rom. 8.5 6 7 8. 1 Cor. 2.13 14. 2 Pet. 1.4 And thus I have shewed you from the Word of God and the Nature of Christianity the true Characters of the confirmed Christian and of the weak Christian and of the seeming Christian. The Vses for which I have drawn up these Characters and which the Reader is to make of them are these I. Here the weak Christian and the Hypocrite may see what manner of persons they ought to be Not only how unsafe it is to remain in a state of Hypocrisie but also how uncomfortable and unserviceable and troublesome it is to remain in a state of weakness and diseasedness what a folly and indeed a sign of Hypocrisie is it to think If I had but grace enough to save me I would desire no more or I would be well content Are you content if you have but Life here to difference you from the dead If you were continually Infants that must be fed and carried and made clean by others or if you had a continual Gout or Stone or Leprosie and lived in continual want and misery you would think that Life alone is not enough and that non vivere tantum sed valere vita est that Life is uncomfortable when we have nothing but Life and all the delights of life are gone He that lyeth in continual pain and want is weary of his life if he cannot separate it from those calamities He that knoweth how necessary strength is as well as life to do any considerable service for God and how many pains attend the diseases and infirmities of the weak and what great dishonour cometh to Christ and Religion by the faults and childishness of many that shall be pardoned and saved would certainly bestir him with all possible care to get out of this sick or infant state II. By this you may see who are the strong Christians and who are the weak It is not alwaies the man of Learning and free expressions that can speak longest and wiseliest of holy things that is the strong confirmed Christian But he that most excelleth in the Love of God and man and in a heavenly mind and holy life Nor is it he that is unlearned or of a weak memory or slow expression that is the weakest Christian But he that hath least Love to God and man and the most Love to his carnal self and to the world and the strongest corruptions and the weakest grace Many a poor day-labourer or woman that can scarce speak sense is a stronger Christian as being stronger in Faith and Love and Patience and Humility and Mortification and Self-denial than many great Preachers and Doctors of the Church III. You see here what kind of men they be that we call the Godly and what that Godliness is which we plead for against the malicious Serpentine Generation The lyars would make men believe that by Godliness we mean a few affected strains or hypocritical shews or heartless lip-service or singular opinions or needless scrupulosity or ignorant zeal yea a schism or faction or sedition or rebellion or what the Devil please to say If these sixty Characters describe any such thing then I will not deny that in the way that such men call heresie faction schism singularity so worship we the God of our Fathers But if not the Lord rebuke thee Satan and hasten the day when the lying lips shall be put to silence Psal. 131.18 120.2 109.2 Prov. 12.19 22. 10.18 IV. By this also you may see how unexcusible the enemies of Christianity and Godliness are and for what it is that they hate and injure it Is there any thing in all this Character of a Christian that deserveth the suspicion or hatred of the world what harm is there in it or what will it do against them I may say to them of his servants
to the possession of Holy Delight and Love And when those Affections which are rather Profound than very sensible immediately towards God himself are sensible towards his Word his Servants his Graces and his wayes and against all sin Theâ— are the Affections and so the man in a confirmed State 4. When our selves our time and all that we have are taken to be Gods and not our own and are entirely and unreservedly resigned to him and used for him When we study our duty and trust him for our reward When we live as those that have much more to do for Heaven than for earth and with God than with Man or any Creature When our Consciences are absolutely subjected to the Authority and Laws of God and bow not to Competitors When we are habitually disposed as his Servants to be constantly imployed in his Works and make it our Calling and business in the world as judging that we have nothing to do on earth but with God or for God When we keep not up any secret desires and hopes of a Worldly felicity nor purvey for the pleasure of the Flesh under the cloak of Faith and Piety but subdue the Flesh as our most dangerous enemy and can easily deny its appetite and concupiscence When we guard all our senses and keep our passions thoughts and tongues in obedience to the holy Law When we do not inordinately set up our selves in our esteem or desire above or against our Neighbour and his welfare but love him as our selves and seek his good and resist his hurt as heartily as our own and love the godly with a love of Complacence and the ungodly with a love of Benevolence though they be our enemies When we are faithful in all our Relations and have judgment to discern our duty that we run not into extreams and skill and readiness and pleasure in performing it and patience under all our sufferings this is the Life of a confirmed Christian in various degrees as their strength is various And now I shall proceed to perswade such to value and seek this confirmation lest with dull unprepared minds my following Directions should be lost and then I shall give you the Directions themselves which are the part that is principally intended And first for the Motives 1. Consider that your first entrance into Christianity is an engagement to proceed your Receiving Christ obligeth you to walk and grow up in him A fourfold obligation you very Christianity layeth upon you to grow stronger and to persevere 1. The first is from the very nature of it even from the Office of Christ and the use and ends to which we do receive him You receive Christ as a Physician of your diseased Souls and doth not this engage you to go on to use his Medicines till you are cured What do men choose a Physician for but to heal them It were but a foolish patient that would say Though my disease be deadly yet now I have chosen the best Physician I have no more to do I doubt not of recovery You took Christ for a Saviour which engageth you to use his saving means and submit to his saving works You took him for your Teacher and Master and gave up your selves to be his Disciples and what sense was in all this if you did not mean to proceed in learning of him It s a silly conceit for any man to think that he is a good Schollar meerly because he hath chosen a good Master or Tutor without any further learning of him When Christ sent out his Apostles it was for these two works first to Disciple Nations and Baptise them and then to go on in Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever he commandeth them Matth. 28 19 20. Christ is the way to the Father but to what purpose did you come into this way if you meant not to travel on in it 2. Moreover when you became Christians you entered a solemn Covenant with Christ and bound your selves by a vow to be faithful to him to the death And this Vow is upon you It is better not to Vow than to Vow and not perform Eccles. 5.5 In taking him to be the Captain of your Salvation and listing your selves under him and taking this Oath of fidelity to him you did engage your selves to fight as faithful Souldiers under his conduct and command to your lives end And as its a foolish Souldier that thinks that he hath no more to do but list himself and take Colours and need not fight so it is a foolish and ungodly Covenanter that thinks he hath nothing to do but to Promise and may be excused from performance because that Promising was enough when the Promise was purposely to bind him to perform 3. Moreover when you became Christians you put your selves under the Laws of Christ and these Laws require you to go further till you are confirmed so that you must go on or renounce your obedience to Christ. 4. Lastly when you became Christians you received such exceeding Mercies as do oblige you to go much higher in your affections and much further in your obedience to God A man that is newly snatcht as from the jaws of Hell and hath received the free forgiveness of his sins and is put into such a state of blessedness as we are must needs feel abundance of obligations upon him to proceed to stronger resolutions and affections and not to stop in those low beginnings So that if you lay these four things together you will perceive that the very purpose of your Receiving Christ was that you might walk in him and be confirmed and built up 2. Consider also that your Conversion is not sound if you are not heartily desirous to encrease Grace is not true if there be not a desire after more yea if you desire not perfection it self An Infant is not born to continue an Infant for that were to be a Monster but to grow up unto Manhood As the Kingdom of Christ in the Word is likened by him to a little Leaven and to a grain of Mustard-seed in the beginning which afterward makes a wonderful increase so his Kingdom in the Soul is of the same nature too If you are contented with that measure of holiness that you have you have none at all but a shadow and conceit of it Let those men think of this that stint themselves in Holiness and plead for a Moderation in it as if it were intemperance or fury to love God or fear him or seek him or obey him any more than they do or as if we were in danger of excess in these If ever these men had feelingly and by experience known what Holiness is they would never have been possessed with such conceits as these 3. Consider What abundance of labour hath been lost and what hopes have been frustrate for want of proceeding to a Rooted Confirmation I say not that such were truly sanctified but I say they were in a very hopeful
especially that differ from them in lesser things and how unapt to judg themselves O how few are the Christians that are eminent in humility meekness and self-denyal that are content to be accounted nothing so that Christ may be all and his honour may be secured that live as men devoted to God and honour him with their substance and freely expend yea study for advantages to improve all their riches and interest to his service How few are they that live as in heaven upon earth with the World under their feet and their hearts above with God their happiness that feel themselves to live in the workings and warmth of love to God and make him their delight and are content with his approbation whoever disapproveth them that are still groaning or reaching and seeking after him and long to be with him to be rid of sin and see his blessed face and live in his perfect love and praises that love and long for the appearance of Jesus Christ and can heartily say Come Lord Jesus come quickly How few are they that stand in a day of tryal If they are tryed but with a foul word if tryed but with any thing that toucheth their commodity if tryed but with the emptyest reasonings of deceivers much more if they beâ—â—yed with the honours and greatness of the World how few of them stand in tryal and do not fall and forget themselves as if they were not the men that they seemed to be before What then would they prove if they were tryed by the flames Mistake me not in all this sad complaint as I intend not the dishonour of Godliness by this but of ungodliness for it is not because men are godly that they have these faults but because they are not godly more So here is no encouragement to the unsanctifyed to think themselves as good as the more Religious because they are charged with so many faults Nor do I affirm all these things to be consistent with true Grace that I have here expressed But only this that Professors that seem godly to others are thus too many of them guilty and those that have true grace may have any of these faults in a mortified degree though not in a reigning predominant measure But methinks Sirs you should by this time be convinced and sensible how much we dishonour God by our infirmities and what a lamentable case it is that the Church should consist of so many infants and so many should be so little serviceable to God or the common good but rather be troublers of all about them Alas that we should reach no higher that yet no greater things should be attained O what an honour would you be to your Profession and what a blessing to the Church if you did but answer the cost and pains of God and man and answer the high things that you have been acquainted with and profess That we could but boast of you as God did of Job and could say to Satan or any of his instruments Here be Christians rooted and stablished in the Faith try whether you can shake them or make them stagger and do your worst Here is a man eminent in meekness and humility and patience and self-denial discompose and disturb his mind if you can draw him to pride or immoderate passion or censoriousness or uncharitableness if you can Here are a people that are in unity and knit together in Faith and Love of one heart and one soul and one lip do your worst to divide them or break them into parties or draw them into several minds and wayes or exasperate them against each other Here are a people established in Mortification and that have Crucified the Flesh with its affections and lusts Do your worst to draw them to intemperance in eating or drinking or recreations or any of the delights of the Flesh or to puff them up by greatness and prosperity and make them forget themselves or God Try them with Riches or beauty or vain-glory or other sensual delights and see whether they will turn aside and be ever the less in communion with God and enticed to forget the joy that is set before them or will not rather despise your baits and run away from assuring objects as their greatest dangers Daunt them if you can by threatnings Try them by Persecution by Fire and Sword and see whether they are not past your shaking even Rooted Confirmed and built up in Christ. O what a glory would you be to your Profession if you could attain to this degree Could we but truly thus boast of you we might say our people are Christians of the right strain But when we must come about you like men in a swoon and can hardly perceive whether you are alive or dead and can scarce discern whether you have any Grace or none what a grief is this to our hearts what a perplexity to us in our administrations not knowing whether comfort or terror be your due and what a languishing uncomfortable life is this to your selves in comparison of what you might attain to Rouze up your selves Christians and look after higher and greater things and think it not enough that you are barely alive It is an exceeding Righteousness that you must have if you will be saved even exceeding all that the unsanctifyed do attain For Except your Righteousness exceed even the Righteousness of Scribes and Pharises you shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5.20 But it is yet a more exceeding Righteousness that you must have if you will be Confirmed built up and abound and would honour your Profession and cheerfully successfully and constantly go on in the Journey the race the warfare that you have begun You must then exceed your selves and exceed all the feeble unstable wavering infant-Christians that are about you And to perswade you yet further to look after this I shall here annex a few Motives more 1. Consider Christian That it is a God of exceeding infinite greatness and goodness that thou hast to do with and therefore it is not small and low matters that are suitable to his service O if thou hadst but a glimpse of his Glory thou wouldst say that it is not common things that are meet for such a dreadful Majesty Hadst thou but a fuller taste of his Goodness thy heart would say This pittance of Love and Service is unworthy of him You will not offer the basest things to a King much less to the highest King of Kings If ye offer the blind for Sacrifice is it not evil and if ye offer the lame and sick is it not evil offer it now to thy Governour Will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of Hosts Mal. 1.8 And verse 12 13 14. But ye have profaned it his great name in that ye say The Table of the Lord is polluted and the fruit thereof his meat is contemptible Ye have said also What a weariness is it
above others When Christ himself had spoken the fore-cited words it s said in the next Verses 28 29. that All they in the Synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath and rose up and thrust him out of the City and led him to the brow of the hill whereon their City was built that they might cast him down headlong This was the entertainment of Christ himself when he did but declare how few it is that God will save and for whole sakes he specially sends his Messengers And must we incur all this for magnifying you and will you dishonour your selves Is all our study and labour for you and our lives for you and all things for you and will not you be wholly and to the utmost of your strength for God Are you cull'd out of all the World for Salvation and will you not answer this admirable differencing Grace by an admirable difference from those that must perish and by an admirable excellency in meekness humility self-denial and heavenliness above other men 6. Moreover you know more and have a greater experience to assist you than others have and therefore you should excel them accordingly Others have but heard of the odiousness of sin but you have seen and felt it Others have heard of Gods displeasure but you have tasted it to the breaking or bruising of your hearts You have been warned at the very quick as if Christ had spoken to your very flesh and Bones Go thy way sin no more left a worse thing come unto thee And as Ezra said Chap. 9.13 After all that is come upon us should we again break thy Commandements wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us So if after all your spiritual experiences after so many tasts of the bitterness of sin and groans and prayers and cryes against it you shall yet live as like to the wicked as you dare and be familiar with that which hath cost you so dear how do you think that God must take this at your hands You have tasted of the sweetness of the Love of Christ and wondered at the unspeakable Riches of his Grace You have tasted the sweetness of the hopes of Glory and of the powers of the World to come You have perceived the necessity and excellency of holiness by inward experience And if after all this you will draggle on the earth and live below your own experiences contenting your selves with an Infancy of Love and Life and fruitfulness how much do you then transgress against the Rules of Reason and of Equity 7. Moreover All the World expecteth much more from you than from any others God expecteth more from you for he hath given you more and meaneth to do more for you Must you be in the eternal Joyes of Heaven when all your unsanctified Neighbours are in torments and yet will you not more endeavour to excel them Is it not unreasonable to expect to be set eternally at so vast a distance from the ungodly world even as far as Heaven is from Hell and yet to be content to differ here but a little from them in Holiness The Lord knows that poor forsaken impenitent sinners will do no better but rage and be confident till they are past remedy He looks for no better from them than to neglect him and slight his Son and Word and Wayes and to go on in Worldliness and fleshly living to be filthy still and careless and presumptuous and self-conceited still But it 's higher matters that he expects from you and good reason he hath done more for you and prepared you for better things The Ministers of Christ do look for little better from many of their poor ignorant ungodly Neighbours but even to rub out their dayes in security and self-deceit and to be barren after all their labours if not to hate us for seeking to have saved them But it 's you that their eyes are most upon and you that their hearts are most upon Their comfort and the fruit of their lives lyes much in your hands saith Paul 1 Thess. 3.7 8 9. Brethren we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your Faith For now we live if you stand fast in the Lord For what thanks can we render to God again for you for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God Night and day Praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your Faith You see here that your Pastors lives are in your hands If you stand fast they live For the end of life is more then life and your Salvation is the end of our lives If the impenitent world reproach us and abuse and persecute us we suffer it joyfully as long as our work goeth on with you But when you are at a stand When you are barren and scandalous and passionate and dishonour your Profession and put us in fears left we have bestowed all our labour on you in vain this breaks our hearts above any worldly cross whatsoever O when the people that we should rejoyce and glory in shall prove unruly self-conceited peevish proud every one running his own way falling into divisions contentions or scandals this is the killing of the comforts of your Ministers When the ungodly shall hit us in the teeth with your scandals or divisions and say These are the godly people that you boasted of see now what is become of them this is the smoak to our eyes and the gall and Vinegar that 's given us by the Adversary and though still we know that our reward is with the Lord yet can we not choose but be wounded for your sakes and for the sake of the Cause and Name of God Yea the World it self expecteth more from you than others When men talk of great matters and profess as every Christian doth to look for the greatest matters of eternity and to live for no lower things than everlasting fellowship with God and Angels no wonder then if the World do look for extraordinary matters from you If you tell them of reaching Heaven they will look to see you wing'd like Angels and not to creep on earth like worms If you say that you are more than men they look you should shew it by doing more than men can do even by denying your selves and forgiving injuries and loving your enemies and blessing those that curse you and contemning this World and having your conversation in Heaven O Sirs believe it it is not small or common things that will satisfy the expectations of God or men of Ministers or of the World themselves concerning you 8. Yea moreover God himself doth make his boast of you and call out the World to observe your excellency he sets you up as the light of the World to be beheld by others He calls you in his Word his peculiar treasure above all people Exod. 19.5 Deut. 14.3 Psal. 135. â— a peculiar People
fetcht from Heaven The interest of God and his soul as to eternity is the ruling interest in him As a traveller goeth all the way and beareth all the difficulties of it for the sake of the End or Place that he is going to how ever he may talk of many other matters by the way so is it with a Christian he knoweth nothing worthy of his life and labours but that which he hopeth for hereafter This world is too sinful and too vile and short to be his felicity His very trade and work in the world is to lay up a treasure in heaven Mat. 6.20 and to lay up a good foundation against the time to come and to lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6.19 And therefore his very heart is there Mat. 6.21 and he is emploied in seeking and setting his affections on the things above Col. 3.1.2 3. And his conversation and trafick is in Heaven Phil. 3.20 21. He looketh not at the things which are seen which are temporal but at the things which are not seen which are eternal 2 Cor. 4.18 He is a stranger upon earth and Heaven is to him as his home 2. The weak Christian also hath the same End and Hope and Motive and preferreth his hopes of the life to come before all the wealth and pleasures of this life But yet his thoughts of Heaven are much more strange and dull He hath so much doubting and fear yet mixed with his faith and hope that he looketh before him to his everlasting state with backwardness and trouble and with small desire and delight He hath so much hope of Heaven as to abate his fears of hell and make him think of eternity with more quietness than he could do if he found himself unregenerate But not so much as to make his thoughts of Heaven so free and sweet and frequent nor his desires after it so strong as the confirmed Christians are And therefore his duties and his speech of Heaven and his endeavours to obtain it are all more languid and unconstant And he is much proner to fall in love with earth and to entertain the motions of reconciliation to the world and to have his heart too much set upon some place or person or thing below and to be either delighted too much in the possession of it or afflicted and troubled too much with the loss of it Earthly things are too much the Motives of his life and the reasons of his joyes and griefs Though he hath the true belief of a life to come and it prevaileth in the main against the world yet it is but little that he useth it to the commanding and raising and comforting his soul in comparison of what a strong believer doth Mat. 16.22 23. 3. But the seeming Christian would serve God and Mammon and placeth his chief and certainest happiness practically upon earth Though speculatively he know and say that Heaven is better yet doth he not practically judge it to be so to him And therefore he loveth the world above it and he doth most carefully lay up a treasure on earth Mat. 6.19 and is resolved first to seek and secure his portion here below and yet he taketh Heaven for a reserve as knowing that he world will cast him off at last and dye he must there is no remedy and therefore he taketh heaven as next unto the best as his second hope as better than hell and will go in Religion as far as he can without the loss of his prosperity here so that earth and flesh do govern and command the design and tenor of his life But heaven and his soul shall have all that they can spare which may be enough to make him pass with men for eminently religious 1 Joh. 2.15 Mat. 13.22 Luke 18.22 23. Luk. 14 24 33. Ps. 17.14 Phil. 3.18 19 20. XIV 1. A Christian indeed is one that having taken heaven for his felicity doth account no labour or cost too great for the obtaining of it he hath nothing so dear to him in this world which he cannot spare and part with for God and the world to come He doth not only notionally know that nothing should seem too dear or hard for the securing of our salvation but he knoweth this practically and is resolved accordingly Though difficulties may hinder him in particular acts and his executions come not up to the height of his desires Rom. 7.16 17. c. yet he is resolved that he will never break on terms with Christ There is no duty so hard which he is not willing and resolved to perform and no sin so sweet or gainful which he is not willing to forsake He knoweth how unprofitable a bargain he makes who winneth the world and loseth his own soul and that no gain can ransome his soul or recompence him for the loss of his salvation Mar. 8.36 He knoweth that it is impossible to be a loser by God or to purchase heaven at too dear a rate he knoweth that whatsoever it cost him heaven will fully pay for all and that it is the worldlings labour and not the saints that is repented of at last He marvelleth more at distracted sinners for making such a stir for wealth and honours and command than they marvail at him for making so much a-doe for heaven He knoweth that this world may be too dear bought but so cannot his salvation yea he knoweth that even our duty it self is not our smallest priviledge and mercy And that the more we do for God the more we receive and the greater is our gain and honour and that the sufferings of believers for righteousness sake do not only prognosticate their joyes in heaven but occasion here the greatest joyes that any short of heaven partake of Mat. 5.11 12. Rom. 5.12 3 c. He is not one that desireth the end without the means and would be saved so it may be on cheap and easie terms But he absolutely yieldeth to the terms of Christ and saith with Austin Da quod jubes jube quod vis Cause me to do what thou commandest and command what thou wilt Though Pelagius contradicted the first sentence and the flesh the second yet Augustine owned both and so doth every true believer He greatly complaineth of his backwardness to obey but never complaineth of the strictness of the command He loveth the holiness justness and goodness of the Laws when he bewaileth the unholiness and badness of his heart He desireth not God to command him less but desireth grace and ability to do more He is so far from the mind of the ungodly world who cry out against too much holiness and making so much ado for heaven that he desireth even to reach to the degree of Angels and would fain have Gods will to be done on earth as it is done in heaven and therefore the more desireth to be in heaven that he may do it better Psal. 119.5 Rom. 7.24 2. The weak Christian hath the
the wisest Physician that can do most to save mens lives and not he that can best read a Lecture of Anatomy or is readiest in the terms of his Art Knowledg is to be esteemed according to the use of it and the Dignity of its Object and not according to the number and subtilty of notions And therefore I beseech you all that are young and weak in the Faith take much more pains to grow in the fuller acquaintance with that same Faith which you have received than to be acquainted with smaller controversal Truths which you never knew Men use to call these Higher points because they are more difficult but certainly the Articles of your Faith are much higher in point of excellency though they are lower in the due order of learning them as the Foundation is the lowest part of the building and is first laid but is that which must bear up all the rest And here you must observe how gracelesly and unlike to Christians those men speak that say They care not for reading such a Book or hearing such or such a Minister because he tells them no more than they know already And on that account some of them stay from Church because they hear nothing but what they know already It s a certain sign that they do not know already the blessed nature of God and the riches of Christ which they say they know For if they did they could not hear or think too much of them They would long to know more and therefore to hear more of the same things It 's a sign the Minister takes the course that tends to your edification and enriching in knowledg when he is most upon the great and most necessary truths All Saints do make it their study to comprehend the heighth and breadth and length and depth and know the Love of God in Christ but when they have done they confess that it passeth knowledg Eph. 3.17 18 19. It s a graceless wicked Soul in a state of damnation that conceits he knows so much of God and Jesus Christ and the essentials of Christianity that he cares not for hearing these things any more but had rather have novelties and let these alone and feeleth not need of knowing much more and more of the same truths and of using and living upon these vital Principles which he knows You have eaten Bread and drank Beer an hundred times but perhaps you never did eat of Sturgeon or Whale of a Bear or a Leopard of Chesnuts or Pig-nuts or many strange and dangerous fruits in all your life And yet I hope you will not seek after these because they are novelties and give over eating Bread because you have eaten of it already Nor will you churlishly refuse to go to a Feast because there is no meat but what you have eaten of before We have not a new God to Preach to you nor a new Christ nor a new Spirit nor a new Gospel nor a new Church nor a new Faith nor a new Baptismal Covenant nor a new Heaven or Hope or Happiness to propound Gal. 1.9 10. Eph. 4.3 4 5. Your growth in methods and definitions and distinctions and in additional points of knowledg is principally to be valued as it cleareth your understandings in the foresaid great essential points and brings you up to God himself Some wretches think they have quickly learned past the essential Articles of the Faith and ere long they are past the higher points and shortly they are past the Scripture it self and throw it by as a Schollar that hath learnt one Book and must be entred into another They understand not that the Ministry and spirit are but to teach them the word of the Gospel but they think they must outgrow the Word and Ministry and the Spirit must teach them some other Doctrine or Gospel which the written Word doth not contain I pray mark the Apostles warning Heb. 13.9 Be not carryed about with divers and strange Doctrines for it is a good thing that the heart be stablished with Grace And Eph. 4.14 That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every mind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness II. Having shewed you wherein your growth consisteth in the understanding I shall be short in the rest and next I must tell you wherein it consisteth in the Will And that is 1. When upon good understanding and deep consideration you are more fixedly habitually absolutely and practically resolved for God and Glory than before So that you are grown more beyond all shaking doubtfulness or wavering of mind and beyond all unevenness mutability and unconstancy When a man is thus satisfied that none but God hath title to him or can make him happy and that none but Christ can reconcile him to God and that it were a madness to make any other choice and thereupon is setled and firm as Mount Zion and say Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee Psal. 73.25 When you are firmly resolved that let God do with you what he will and come of it what will you will never choose another Master or Saviour or Rule or Happiness or Way or Body than you are in and will never forsake the path of holiness this is the fixed stability of the Will and the more of this the more you grow 2. And when you have the lowest esteem of the Creatures and greatest and most resolved aversness to all that would draw you from God and can meet the greatest worldly or fleshly allurements with a holy contempt this shews a setled confirmed Will 3. And also when you are speedy in holy Resolutions and see nothing in a Temptation how great soever that can make you demur upon it or make a stop in a Christian course but go on to duty as if the Tempter had said nothing to you and the Flesh and the World had no interest in you and you do not so much as stand to think on it whether you should yield to sin or not as abhorring to call such a matter into question This shews a confirmed fixed Will And the more of this the more of Holiness III. The strength and growth of holy Affections consisteth principally in these particulars 1. When the Affections are Lively and not dull so that we make out after God and Heaven with vigor and alacrity 2. When they are ready at hand and not to seek and need not a great deal ado to quicken them or call them in 3. When they are most pure and unmixed having least of the Creature and most of God in them 4. But principally and the surest point to try them by when they contain in them or accompany the foresaid Confirmation and Resolvedness of the Will For it is more the Willingness that is in or with our Affections than the heat of them that we must judg them by 5. And lastly when
sorrow fetch not your comfort from any hopes of deliverance here on Earth but from the place of your final full deliverance If you feel any strangeness and backwardness on your minds to Heavenly contemplations do not make light of them but presently by Faith get up to Christ who must make your thoughts of Heaven familiar and seek remedy before your estrangedness increase The soul is in a sad condition when it cannot fetch comfort and encouragement from Heaven for then it must have none or worse than none When the thoughts of Heaven will not sweeten all your crosses and relieve your minds against all the encombrances of earth your souls are not in a healthful state It 's time then to search out the cause and seek a cure before it come to worse There are three great causes of this dark and dangerous state of soul which make the thoughts of Heaven uneffectual and uncomfortable to us which therefore must be overcome with the daily care and diligence of your whole lives 1. Unbelief which maketh you look towards the life to come with doubting and uncertainty And this is the most common radical powerful and pernicious impediment to a heavenly life The second is the Love of present things which being the vanity of a poor low fleshly mind the reviving of Reason may do much to overcome it but it 's the sound Belief of the life to come that must indeed prevail The third is the inordinate Fear of Death which hath so great advantage in the constitution of our nature that it is commonly the last enemy which we overcome as Death it self is the last enemy which Christ overcometh for us Bend all your strength and spend your daies in striving against these three great impediments of a heavenly conversation And remember that so far as you suffer your heart to retire from Heaven so far they retire from a life of Christianity and peace DIRECT VII In the work of Mortification let SELF-DENYAL be the First and Last of all your study care and diligence UNderstand how much of the fallen depraved state of man consisteth in the sin of SELFISHNESS How he is sunk into Himself in his fall from the Love of God and of his Neighbour of the publick or private good of others And how this inordinate Self-love is now the grand enemy of all true Love to God or Man and the root and heart of Covetousness Pride Voluptuousness and all iniquity Let it be your work therefore all your dayes to mortifie it and watch against it When you feel your selves partial in your own cause and apt to be drawing from others to your selves in point of reputation precedency or gain and apt to make too great a matter of every word that is spoken against you or every little wrong that is done you observe then the pernicious root of Selfishness from whence all this mischief doth proceed Read more of this in my Treatise of Self-denyal DIRECT VIII Take your corrupted fleshly Desires for the greatest enemy of your Souls and let it be every day your constant work to mortify the Flesh and to keep a watch upon your lusts and appetite and every sense REmember that our senses were not made to govern themselves but to be governed by right Reason And that God made them at the first to be the ordinary passage of his Love and mercy to our hearts by the means of the Creatures which represent or manifest him unto us But now in the depraved state of man the Senses have cast off the Government of Reason and are become the Ruling power and so man is become like the Beasts that perish Remember then that to be sensual is to be bruitish And though Grace doth not destroy the appetite and sense yet it subjecteth it to God and Reason Therefore let your appetite be pleased in nothing but by the allowance of right Reason And think not that you have reason to take any meats or drink or sport meerly because your flesh desireth it but consider whether it will do you good or hurt and how it conduceth to your ultimate end It is a base and sinful state to be in servitude to your appetite and sense When by using to please it you have so increased its desires that now you know not how to deny it and displease it When you have taught it to be like a hungry dog or swine that will never be quiet till his hunger be satisfied Whereas a well-governed appetite and sense is easily quieted with a rational denyal Rom. 8.1 6 7 8 13. and 13.13 14. 1 Pet. 2.11 1 Johnâ— 16 DIRECT IX Take heed lest you fall in love with the World or any thing therein and lest your thoughts of any place or condition which you either possess or hope for do grow too sweet and pleasing to you FOr there is no one perisheth but for loving some Creature more than God And complacency is the formal act of Love Love not the World nor the things that are in the World for if any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2.15 Value all earthly things as they conduce to your Masters Service or to your Salvation and not as they tend to the pleasing of your Flesh It is the commonest and most dangerous folly in the World to be eager to have our houses and lands and provisions and every thing about us in the most pleasing and amiable state when as this is the acknowledged way to Hell and the only poyson of the Soul Are you not in more danger of overloving a pleasing and prosperous condition than a bitter and vexatious state and of overloving Riches honour and sensual fulness and delights rather than Poverty reproach and mortification And do you not know that if ever you be damned it will be for loving the World too much and God too little Is it for nothing that Christ describeth a Saint to you as a Lazarus in poverty and sores and a damned wretch as one that was clothed in Purple and Silk and fared sumptuously every day Luke 16. Did not Christ know what he did when he put the rich man upon this tryal to part with all his worldly riches and follow Christ for a treasure in heaven Luke 18.22 13. All things must be esteemed as loss and dung for the knowledg of Christ and the hopes of heaven if ever you will be saved Phil. 3.6 7 8. You must so live by Faith and not by sight as not to look at the temporal things that are seen but at the things eternal which are unseen 2 Cor. 4.17 18. and 5.7 8. And one that is running in a race for his life would not so much as turn his head to look back on any one that called to him to stay or to look aside to any one that would speak with him in his way Thus must we forget the things that are behind as counting them not worthy a thought
to his praises Psal. 116.1 c. Psal. 106. 103. 145. 146. c. Rom. 8.37 2. The weak Christian is taken up but very little with the lively exercises of Love and Praise nor with any Studies higher than his own distempered heart The care of his poor soul and the complaining of his manifold infirmities and corruptions is the most of his Religion And if he set himself to the Praising of God or to Thanksgiving he is as dull and short in it as if it were not his proper work Psal. 77. Mar. 9.24 16.14 3. The seeming Christian liveth to the flesh and carnal self-love is the active principle of his life and he is neither exercised in Humiliation or in Praise sincerely being unacquainted both with holy Joy and Sorrow But knowing that he is in the hands of God to prosper or destroy him he will humble himself to him to escape his judgements and praise him with some gladness for the sunshine of prosperity and he will seem to be piously thanking God when he is but rejoycing in the accommodations of his flesh or strengthning his presumption and false hopes of heaven Luke 18.11 12.19 Isa. 58.2 VIII 1. A Christian indeed is one that is so apprehensive of his lost condition unworthyness and utter insufficiency for himself and of the office perfection and sufficiency of Christ that he hath absolutely put his soul and all his hopes into the hands of Christ and now liveth in him and upon him as having no Life but what he hath from Christ nor any other way of access to God or acceptance of his person or his service but by him In him he beholdeth and delightfully admireth the Love and goodness of the Father In him he hath access with boldness unto God Through him the most terrible avenging Judge is become a Reconciled God and he that we could not remember but with trembling is become the most desirable object of our thoughts He is delightfully employed in prying into the unsearchable mysterie And Christ doth even dwell in his heart by faith and being rooted and grounded in love he apprehendeth with all saints what is the bredth and length and depth and height and knoweth the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Eph. 3.17 18 19. He perceiveth that he is daily beholden to Christ that he is not in hell that sin doth not make him like to Devills and that he is not utterly forsaken of God He feeleth that he is beholden to Christ for every hours time and every mercy to his soul or body and for all his hope of mercy in this life or in the life to come He perceiveth that he is dead in himself and that his life is hid with Christ in God And therefore he is as buryed and risen again with Christ even dead to sin but alive to God through Jesus Christ. Rom. 6.3 4 11. Col. 4.4 He saith with Paul Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Thus doth he live as truly and constantly by the second Adam who is a quickning spirit as he doth by the first Adam who was a living soul. 1 Cor. 15.45 This is a confirmed Christians life 2. But the weak Christian though he be also united unto Christ and live by faith yet how languid are the operations of that faith How dark and dull are his thoughts of Christ How little is his sense of the wonders of Gods love revealed to the world in the mysterie of Redemption How little use doth he make of Christ And how little life receives he from him And how little comfort findeth he in believing in comparison of that which the confirmed find He is to Christ as a sick person to his food He only picketh here and there a little of the crums of the bread of life to keep him from dying but is wofully unacquainted with the powerfullest works of faith He is such a Believer as is next to an unbeliever and such a member of Christ as is next to a meer stranger 3. And for the seeming Christian he may understand the letter of the Gospel and number himself with Christs disciples and be baptized with water and have such a faith as is a dead opinion But he hath not an effectual living faith nor is baptized with the Holy Ghost nor is his soul engaged absolutely and entirely in the covenant of Christianity to his Redeemer He may have a handsome well-made image of Christianity but it is the flesh and sense and not Christ and faith by which his life is actuated and ordered Joh. 3.6 Rom. 2.28 IX 1. A Christian indeed doth firmly believe that Christ is a Teacher sent from God Joh. 3.2 and that he came from Heaven to reveal his Fathers will and to bring life and immortality more fully to light by his Gospel and that if an Angel had been sent to tell us of the life to come and the way thereto he had not been so credible and venerable a messenger as the Son of God And therefore he taketh him alone for his chief Teacher and knoweth no Master on Earth but him and such as he appointeth under him His study in the world is to know a crucified and glorified Christ and God by him and he regardeth no other knowledge nor useth any other studies but this and such as are subservient to this Even when he studieth the works of nature it is as by the conduct of the restorer of nature and as one help appointed him by Christ to lead him up to the knowledge of God And therefore he perceiveth that Christ is made of God unto us wisdom as well as Righteousness And that Christianity is the true Philosophy and that the wisdom of the world which is only about worldly things from worldly principles to a worldly end is foolishness with God He taketh nothing for wisdom which tendeth not to acquaint him more with God or lead him up to everlasting happiness Christ is his Teacher either by natural or supernatural revelation and God is his ultimate end in all his studies and all that he desireth to know in the world He valueth knowledge according to its usefulness And he knoweth that its chief use is to lead us to the love of God Math. 23.8 1 Cor. 1.30 2.2 c. Joh. 1.18 Col. 2.3 Eph. 4.13 2. Though the weak Christian hath the same Master yet alas how little doth he learn and how oft is he hearkning to the teaching of the flesh and how carnal and common is much of his knowledge How little doth he depend on Christ in his enquiries after the things of nature And how apt is he to think almost as highly of the teaching of Aristotle Plato Seneca or at least of some excellent preacher as of Christs and
to forget that these are but his messengers and instruments to convey unto us several parcells of that Truth which is his and not theirs and which naturally or supernaturally they received from him and all these Candles were lighted by him who is the Sun And how little doth this weak Christian refer his common knowledge to God or use it for him or to the furtherance of his own and others happiness 1 Tim. 2.4 3. And the seeming Christian though materially he may be eminent for knowledge yet is so far from resigning himself to the teachings of Christ that he maketh even his knowledge of Christian Verities to be to him but a common carnal thing while he knoweth it but in a common manner and useth it to the service of the flesh and never yet learned so much as to be a new creature nor to love God as God above the world 1 Cor. 13.2 X. 1. A Christian indeed is one whose Repentance hath been deep and serious and universal and unchangeable It hath gone to the very roots of sin and to the bottom of the sore and hath not left behind it any reigning unmortified sin nor any prevalent love to fleshly pleasures His Repentance did not only disgrace his sin and cast some reproachful words against it and use confessions to excuse him from mortification and to save its life and hide it from the mortal blow Nor doth he only repent of his open sins and those that are most censured by the beholders of his life But he specially perceives the dangerous poyson of Pride and unbelief and worldliness and the want of the Love of God and all his outward and smaller sins do serve to shew him the greater malignity of these and these are the matter of his greatest lamentations He taketh not up a profession of Religion with strong corruptions secretly covered in his heart But his Religion consisteth in the death of his corruptions and the purifying of his heart He doth not secretly cherish any sin as too sweet or too profitable to be utterly forsaken nor overlook it as a small inconsiderable matter But he feeleth sin to be his enemy and his disease and as he desireth not one enemy one sickness one wound one broken bone one serpent in his bed so he desireth not any one sin to be spared in his soul But faith with David Psal. 139.23 Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting He liveth in no gross or scandalous sin And his infirmities are comparatively few and small so that if he were not a sharper accuser of himself than the most observant spectators are that are just there would little be known by him that is culpâ—ble and matter of reproof He walketh in all the commandments and ordinances of God blameless as to any notable miscarriage Luk. 1.6 He is blameless and harmless as the son of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom he shineth as a light in the world Phil 2 15. The fear and love and obedience of God is the work and tenour of his life 2. But the weak Christian though he hath no sin but what he is a hater of and fain would be delivered from yet alas how imperfect is his deliverance and how weak is the hatred of his sin and mixed with so much proneness to it thaâ— his life is much blemished with the spots of his offences Though his unbelief and pride and worldleness are not predominant in him yet are they or some of them still so strong and fight so much against his faith humility and heavenliness that he can scarcely tell which hath the upper hand nor can others that see the failings of his life discern whether the good or the evil be most prevalent Though it be Heaven which he most seeketh yet Earth is so much regarded by him that his Heavenly mindedness is greatly damped and suppressed by it And though it be the way of Godliness and obedience which he walketh in yet is it with so many stumblings and falls if not deviations also that maketh him oft a burthen to himself a shame to his profession and a snare or trouble to those about him His heart is like an ill swept house that hath many a sluttish corner in it And his life is like a moth-eaten garment which hath many a hole which you may see if you bring it into the light 1 Cor. 3.1 2 3. 6.6 7 8. 11.18 21 22 c. 3. And for the seeming Christian his Repentance doth but cropp the branches it goeth not to the root and heart of his sin It leaveth his fleshly mind and interest in the dominion It pollisheth his life but maketh him not a new creature It casteth away those sins which the flesh can spare and which bring more shame or loss or trouble with them than worldly honour gain or pleasure But still he is a very worldling at the heart and the sins which his fleshly pleasures and felicity consisteth in he will hide by confessions and seeming oppositions but never mortifie and forsake As Judas that while he followed Christ was yet a thief and a coveteous hypocrite Joh. 12.6 1 Tim. 6.10 11. XI 1. Hence it followeth that a Christian indeed doth heartily love the searching light that it may fully acquaint him with his sins He is truly desirous to know the worst of himself And therefore useth the word of God as a candle to shew him what is in his heart and bringeth himself willingly into the light He loveth the most searching Books and Preachers not only because they disclose the faults of other men but his own he is not one that so loveth his pleasant and profitable sins as to fly the light lest he should be forced to know them and so to forsake them But because he hateth them and is resolved to forsake them therefore he would know them Joh. 3.19 20 21. Therefore he is not only patient under Reproofs but loveth them and is thankful to a charitable reprover and maketh a good use even of malicious and passionate reproofs Psal. 141.5 2 Sam. 16.11 He saith as in Job 34.32 That which I see not teach thou me If I have done iniquity I will do no more His hatred of the sin and desire to be reformed suffer not his heart by pride to rise up against the remedy and reject reproof Though he will not falsely confess his duty to be his sin nor take the judgement of every selfish passionate or ignorant reprover to be infallible nor to be his rule yet if a judicious impartial person do but suspect him of a fault he is ready to suspect himself of it unless he be certain that he is clear He loveth him better that would save him from his sin than him that would entice him to it and taketh him for his best
friend who dealeth freely with him and is the greatest enemy to his faults And a flatterer he taketh but for the most dangerous insinuating kind of foe 2. But the weak Christian though he hate his sin and love reformation and loveth the most searching Books and Preachers and loveth a gentle kind of reproof yet hath so much pride and selfishness remaining that any reproof that seemeth disgracefull to him goeth very hardly down with him like a bitter medicine to a queasie stomack If you reprove him before others or if your reproof be not very carefully sugured and minced so that it rather extenuate than aggravate his fault he will be ready to cast it up into your face and with retortions to tell you of some faults of your own or some way shew you how little he loveth it and how little thanks he giveth you for it If you will not let him alone with his infirmities he will distaste you if not fall out with you and let you know by his smart and impatience that you have touched him in the sore and galled place He must be a man of very great skill in managing a Reproof that shall not somewhat provoke him to distaste 3. And for the seeming Christian this is his condemnation that Light is come into the world and he loveth darkness rather than light because his deeds are evil He cometh not to the light lest his deeds should be discovered and reproved Joh. 3.19 20 21. He liketh a searching Preacher for others and loveth to hear their sins laid open if it no way reflect upon himself But for himself he liketh best a General or a smoothing Preacher and he flyeth from a quick and searching ministry lest he should be proved and convinced to be in a state of sin and misery Guilt maketh him fear or hate a lively searching Preacher even as the guilty prisoner hateth the Judge He loveth no company so well as that which thinketh highly of him and applaudeth and commendeth him and neither by their reproofes nor stricter lives will trouble his conscience with the remembrance of his sin or the knowledge of his misery He will take you for his enemy for telling him the truth if you go about to convince him of his undone condition and tell him of his beloved sin Sin is taken to be as himself It is He that doth evil and not only sin that dwelleth in him And therefore all that you say against his sin he taketh it as spoken against himself and he will defend his sin as he would defend himself He will hear you till you come to touch himself as the Jews did by Stephen Act. 7.51 54. when they heard him call them stiffnecked resisters of God and persecutors then they were cut to the heart and grind their teeth at him And as they did by Paul Act. 22.22 They gave audience to this word and then lift up their voices and said away with such a fellow from the earth for it is not fit that he should live Gal. 4.16 Joh 9.40 Mat. 21.45 The priests and pharisees would have laid hands on Christ when they perceived that he spake of them And Ahab hated Michaiah because he did not prophesie good of him but evil 1 King 22.8 Deservedly do they perish in their sin and misery that hate him that would deliver them and refuse the remedy Prov. 12.1 Whose loveth instruction loveth knowledge but he that hateth reproof is bruitish Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved hardneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy XII 1. A Christian indeed is one that unfeignedly desireth to attain to the highest degree of holiness and to be perfectly freed from every thing that is sin He desireth perfection though not with a perfect desire He sitteth not down contentedly in any low degree of grace He looketh on the holiest how poor soever with much more reverence and esteem than on the most rich and honourable in the world And he had far rather be one of the most holy than one of the most prosperous and great He had rather be a Paul or Timothy than a Caesar or an Alexander He complaineth of nothing with so much sorrow as that he can Know and Love his God no more How happy an exchange would he count it if he had more of the Knowledge and Love of God though he lost all his wealth and honour in the world His smallest sins are a greater burden to him than his greatest corporal wants and sufferings As Paul who because he could not perfectly fulfill Gods Law and be as good as he would be crieth out as in bondage O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7.27 2. And for the weak Christian though he is habitually and resolvedly of the same mind yet alas his desires after perfection are much more languid in him And he hath too much patience and reconciledness to some of his sins and sometimes taketh them to be sweet So that his enmity to his Pride or Coveteousness or passion is much abated and suffereth his sin to wast his grace and wound his conscience and hinder much of his communion with God He seeth not the odiousness of sin nor the beauty of Holiness with so clear a fight as the confirmed Christian doth He hateth sin more for the ill effects of it than for its malignant hateful nature He seeth not clearly the intrinsick evil that is in sin which maketh it deserve the pains of hell Nor doth he discern the difference between a holy and an unholy soul so clearly as the stronger Christian doth 1 Cor. 3.2 3. Heb. 12.1 3. And as for the seeming Christian though he may approve of perfect holiness in another and may wish for it himself when he thinketh of it but in the general and not as it is exclusive and destructive of his beloved sin yet when it cometh to particulars he cannot away with it He is so far from desiring it that he will not endure it The name of holiness he liketh and that preservation from Hell which is the consequent of it But when he understandeth what it is he hath no mind of it That holiness which should cure his ambition and pride and make him contented with a low condition he doth not like He loveth not that holiness which would deprive him of his coveteousness his intemperance in pleasant meats and drinks his fleshly lusts and inordinate pleasures Nor doth he desire that holiness should employ his soul in the Love of God and in daily prayer and meditating on his word and raise him to a heavenly life on earth XIII 1. A Christian indeed is one that maketh God and Heaven the End Reward and Motive of his Life And liveth not in the world for any thing in the world but for that endless happiness which the next world only can afford The Reasons which actuate his thoughts and choice and all his life are