Christ. The best things are behind our chief rejoycing is behind our rejoycing now is our hope that we shall rejoyce then The Corinthians were S. Paul's joy now because he knew they should be his main rejoycing then If we rejoyce in any thing now let it be that our names are written in heaven in the testimony of our conscience that we are Gods that our hearts are wrought on that we have something that Christ will acknowledge when he sees his stamp and Image on us when he shall look on us and see his own Image upon our hearts there will be matter of joy in that day There will be joy in our selves and joy in all the blessed instruments that are under Christ the Ministers they shall rejoyce likewise in us and all of us shall joyn in joying in Christ all shall meet there For their joying in S. Paul and he in them it was that Christ was theirs And Christ shall come as it is in 2 Thess. 4. to be glorified in his Saints not onely in himself but in his believing members for his glory shall reflect upon them as the Sun reflects upon light bodies all light bodies are made light by the Sun So the Sun of Righteousnesse shall come and all them that have glory it shall be by reflexion from him they shall be glorious in him so he is both the Ministers joy and the peoples they shall all glory in Christ whose glory is their glory He shall come to be glorious in his Saints therefore frame your courses that way to have glory then to have comfort in the hour of death and at the day of Judgment And to end the point Let us labour to be acquainted with him now before that day we shall never have comfort in the day of the Lord Jesus except we be acquainted with him and acknowledge him in the Ministery now and in the Sacraments for none shall ever be acquainted with him there that have not been acquainted with him and known him in this world How do we come to be acquainted with Christ To be present where he is present and he is present where two or three are met together in his Name He is present now in our meetings he is present when we hear the Word He is present in the Sacrament more especially we have his very body and blood As verily as we take the outward signs so verily Christ is present to our hearts at the same time from heaven he reacheth us himself with all the benefits of his passion when the Minister reacheth the bread he reacheth his body As our outward man is refreshed with the elements so our soules are refreshed with the spiritual presence of Christ. Now he is excellently present in heaven he is present to our senses in the Sacrament and by his Spirit in the Word Would you have him then at his appearing come and own you and say then Come ye blessed be acquainted with him now upon all occasions hear the Word receive the Sacrament and come to the Sacrament as acknowledging him there How is that Why then you acknowledge the bread and wine to be Seales of him and of all the blessings by him when you come prepared when you come to them as his or else you do not acknowledge them you know them to be such and such things but you acknowledge them not to be set apart for such a holy use except you come with prepared hearts Will any body acknowledge him to go to a great person when he goes deformed and in rags do you know whither you go would some say to him He considers not whither he goes that comes to the Sacrament in his old sins Come acquainted therefore with Christ to acknowledge him that shall be your Judge at the latter day therefore come prepared And then because the Sacrament is a means to seal to us all the benefits we have by Christ and to incorporate us more nearly into Christ he that comes to the Sacrament as he should must come with joy Is it not a joyful thing to be united to Christ and to have further assurance of all the good things by him Yes it is a matter of great joy Therefore when you have repented of your sins come with joy And come with holinesse The things are holy as our Liturgy hath it let us give holy things to holy persons here is presented holy bread and wine and here you are to deal with Christ therefore come with holy reverence in the whole carriage of the businesse And come with faith and assurance and then you shall acknowledge Christ in this Ordinance in the Sacrament You shall acknowledge that he deales not complementally with you to feed you with empty signes but you shall have himself with his signs you shall have the Lord himself in the Word and in the Sacraments With the field you shall have the treasure in the field as the wise Merchant had With the Word you shall have Christ wrapped in the Word and in the Sacrament you shall have Christ and all his benefits Trust to it make it your weapon against Satan he will tempt you to doubt of your interest in Christ. Think with your selves Had I grace to receive Christ to be incorporate nearer into him why should I doubt to renew my Covenant And though I have fallen by weaknesse yet I have a gracious Intercessour in heaven that makes my peace continually Come in faith Know that God in good earnest here offers Christ with all his benefits And come with a purpose and resolution to be led by him You come to renew your Covenant here is the Covenant when Christ is given to you and you give your selves to Christ. Therefore as I said if you come with a purpose to live in sin come not at all Christ will not live in a heart where there is a purpose to sin therefore esolve to leave all sin or else you cannot receive him To move you to come and to come thus do but consider that it will be your joy in this world and in the world to come before Christ that you have been thus acquainted with him herc on earth acquainted with him in the Ministery acquainted with him in the Sacrament in private prayer and meditation in all the blessed means that he hath appointed and then he will look on you as upon his old friends But now he that is a Rebel that goes away or else comes not acknowledging with whom he hath to deal him that shall be his Judge ere long the Great God of Heaven and Earth that shall come in glory and majestie with thousands of his Angels Then he shall be Wonderfull indeed as his Name is Isai. 9. 6. and as the Apostle saith 2 Thess. 2. where he useth the word he shall be wonderful in his Saints Then all the world shall wonder at the glory of a poor Christian when he shall put down the Sun and all the
into discomfort no but Blessed be the God of comfort that comforts us in all tribulation It is more to raise good out of evill then not to suffer evill to be at all It shews greater power it manifests greater goodness to triumph over ill when it suffered to be and so not to keep ill from us but to comfort us in it He doth not say for the time past which hath comforted us or which can comfort us if it please him no he doth it it is his use he doth it alway it springs from his love he never at any instant or moment of time forgets his Children and he saith not he doth comfort us in one or two or a few tribulations but he comforteth us in al tribulations of what kind or degree soever It may be Objected to cleare the sence a little he doth not alway comfort for then there could be no time of discomfort I Answer He doth alway comfort in some degree for take a Christian at the lowest yet he hath so much comfort as to keep him from sinking when he is at the depth of miserie there is a depth of mercy lower then he Out of the deep have I cryed unto thee Lord and this is a comfort that he hath in the middest of discomforts that he hath a spirit of prayer and if not a spirit of prayer yet a spirit of sighing and groaning to God and God hears the sighs and groans of his own spirit in his children When they cannot distinctly pray there is a spirit to look up to God Though thou kill me yet will I trust in thee saith Job in the middest of his miseries So though God more notoriously to the view of the world sometime doth comfort before we come to trouble that we may beare it the better and sometime he doth comfort more apparently after we come out yet notwithstanding in the middest of discomforts he doth alway comfort so farre as that we sink not into despaire there is somewhat to uphold the soule For when Solomon saith A wounded spirit who can beare that is none can beare it it is the greatest griefe then I would know what keeps a wounded spirit from sinking that it doth not despaire is it not a spirit stronger then the wounded spirit Is it not God that is greater then the wounded conscience Yes then there is comfort greater then the discomfort of a wounded conscience that keeps it from despaire those that finally despaire they are none of Gods So that take the words in what regard or in what sence you will yet thâ—…re is a sweet and comfortable sense of them and the Apostle might well say he is the God of all comfort that doth comfort us in all tribulation It is here a ground supposed that Gods Children are subject to tribulation We are subject here to tribulation of all kinds for God comforts us in all our tribulations we are here in a state therefore needing comfort because we are in tribulation And the second is that God doth answer our state God doth comfort his Children in all tribulation And the ground is from himself he is the God of comfort he doth but like himselfe when he doth it the God of comfort shews that he is so by comforting us in all tribulations First It is supposed that In this world we are in tribulations Indeed that I need not be long in we must at one time or other be in tribulation some or other For though in regard of outward afflictions we are free from them sometimes we have a few holy-dayes as we say yet notwithstanding there is in the greatest inlargements of Gods Children in this world somewhat that troubles their minds for either there is some desertion God withholds comfort from them in some measure he shews himself a stranger which humbles them much or else they have strong temptations of Sathan to sin by prosperity c. which grieves them as much as the outward cross or else their grievance is that they cannot serve God with that chearefulness of spirit Is there nothing who ever thou art that troubles thee as much as the cross in the day of affliction certainly there is somewhat or other that troubleth the soule of a Christian he is never out of one grievance or other The life of a Christian is as a web that is woven of good and ill he hath good daies and ill dayes he hath tribulations and comforts As St. Austin sayth very well between these two tribulation on our part and comfort on Gods part our life runs between these two our crosses and God comforts they are both mingled together There is no child of God but knowes what these things mean troubles either from friends or enemies or both domesticall or personal in bodie or mind one way or other That is supposed and it were not an unproper argument to the text for when he saith in all tribulations it is laid as a ground that every man suffers tribulation one way or other but I shall have fitter occasion after to enlarge this Again we see here that God comforts his Children in all tribulation And his comforts are answerable to their discomforts and beyond them they are stronger to master all opposites whatsoever and all grievances there could be no comfort else Alas what are all discomforts when God sets himself to comfort when he will be a God of comfort one look one glance of his fatherly countenance in Jesus Christ will banish all terrours whatsoever and make even a very dungeon to be a paradise he comforteth us in all tribulat on And this he doth as you may perceive by the unfolding of the words either by some outward thing applied to the outward want or crosse or by some inward reasons that are opposite to the inward maladie or by an inward presence His comforts are appliable to the tribulation and to the strength and length and variety of it We may know it by his course in this life what miserie are we subject to in this life but we have comfort fit for it so good is God We may reason thus very well if so be that in our pilgrimage here in this life of ours which is but the gallery as it were to heaven if in this short life which is but a way or passage we have both day and night so many comforts In the very night if we look up to heaven we see what glorious things there are towards the earth here on this fide the heaven the stars of the light c. And if so be upon the earth there be such comforts especially in the spring and summer time if the very earth the basest dreggs of the World yield such comfort and delights to all the senses then a man may reason very strongly what comforts shall we have at home If God by the creatures thus comfort us in our outward wants what are the inward comforts of his spirit here
despight of the world that will beare the cross of Christ For the other as their jollity increaseth in the world so their crosses and troubles shall increase As it is said Revel 18. 17. of mysticall Babylon the Church of Rome that hath flourished in the world a great while and sate as a Queen and blessed her self As she gloried herself and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her So it is true of every wicked man that is in an evill course and will be and as the Scripture phrase is blesseth himself in an evil course they shall be sure of the curse of God and not of comfort for in what proportion they have delighted themselves in this world in sin in that proportion they shall have torment of conscience if conscience be awaked in this world and in that proportion they shall have torment in the world to come As sin is growing so rods are growing for them wicked men saith St. Paul they grow worse and worse the more they sin the more they may they sink in rebellion and the more they sink in rebellion the more they sink in the state of damnation they fill up the measure of their sins and treasure up the wrath of God against the day of wrath Whosoever thou art that livest in a sinfull course and wilt do so in spight of Gods Ordinance in spight of the motions of the spirit that hast the good motions of the spirit knocking at thy soule and yet wilt rather refuse comfort then take comfort together with direction go on still in this thy wicked course but remember as thy comforts increase in this world so thy torment is increasing And here is the disproportion between Gods children and others they have their sufferings first and their comfort afterward but others have their pleasure first and their torment after theirs are for a time but others for ever Thus we see what we may comfortably observe from this that comforts increase as crosses increase A Word of the fourth and last point How comes this to pass that as our afflictions abound so our consolations abound They abound by Chrst saith the Apostle God the Father he is the God of comfort the Holy-Ghost is the Comforter but how comes this to pass that we that are not the Objects of comfort but of confusion should have God the Father to be the God of comfort and the Holy-Ghost to be our comforter Oh it is that Jesus Christ the great peace-maker hath satisfied God and procured the Holy-Ghost for the holy-Ghost is procured by the satisfaction and death of Christ and he was sent after the resurrection and ascension of Christ. Therefore Christ is called the consolation of Israel and those that waited for Christ waited for the consolation of Israel All comfort is hid in Christ he is the store-house of comfort we have it through him and by him and in him For that God is the Father of comfort it is because Christ is our Mediatour and Intercessour in Heaven that the Holy-Ghost is the comforter it is because Christ sent him and the comforts of the holy-Ghost are fetched from Christ from the death of Christ or the ascention of Christ from some argument from Christ. Whatsoever comforteth the soule the Holy-Ghost doth it by fetching some argument from Christ from his satisfaction from his worth from his intercession in Heaven something in Christ it is So Christ by his Spirit doth comfort and the reasons fetched by the Spirit are from Christ therefore it is by Christ. What is the reason that a Christian soule doth not feare God as a consuming fire but can look upon him with comfort It is because God hath received satisfaction by Christ. What is the reason that a Christian soule feares not Hell but thinks of it with comfort Christ hath conquered Hell and Satan What is the reason that a Christian feares not death Christ by death hath overcome death and him that had the power of death the Devill Christ is mine saith the Christian soule therefore I do not feare it but think of it with comfort because a Christian is more then a Conquerour over all these What is the reason that a Christian is not afraid of his corruptions and sins He knows that God for Christs sake will pardon them and that the remainder of his corruptions will worke to his humiliation and to his good All shall work for the best to them that love God What is the reason that there is not any thing in the world but it is comfortable to a Christian When he thinks of God he thinks of him as a Father of comfort when he thinks of the Holy-Ghost he thinks of him as a spirit of comfort when he thinks of Angels he thinks of them as his attendants when he thinks of Heaven he thinks of it as of his inheritance he thinks of Saints as a communion whereof he is partaker whence is all this By Christ who hath made God our Father the holy-Ghost our Comforter who hath made Angels ours Saints ours heaven ours earth ours Devils ours death ours all ours in issue For God being turned in love to us all is turned our crosses are no curses now but comforts and the bitterest crosses yield the sweetst comforts All this is by Christ that hath turned the course of things and hid blessings in the greatest crosses that ever were And this he did in himself before he doth it in us for did not his greatest crosses tend to his greatest glory who ever in the world was abased as our head Christ Jesus was that made him crie My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee All the Creatures in the world would have sunk under the sufferings that Christ indured what abasement to the abasement of Christ and what glorie to the glorie of Christ Phil 2. He humbled himself to the death of the cross wherefore God gave him a name above all names that at the name of Jesus euery knee should bow both of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth Now as it was in our head his greatest abasement ushered in his greatest glorie so it shall be in us our greatest crosses are before our greatest comforts he is our President he is the exemplarie cause as well as the efficient working cause it is by Christ all this that consolations abound in us it was performed first in him and shall be by him by his Spirit to the end of the world The use that we are to make of this is that in all our sufferings before we come to Heaven we should look to Christ he hath turned all things let us study Christ and fetch comfort from him our flesh was abased in him our flesh is glorified in him now in Heaven in his person And so it must be in our own persons our flesh must be abased and then as he is glorious in Heaven so shall we be in our selves That very
a one as must relinquish in his purpose all wicked blasphemous scandalous unthrifty courses whatsoever he that purposeth to please God and to have his prayer accepted of God he must leave all For as the Psalmist saith If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayer For a man to come with a petition to God with a purpose to offend him is to come to practise treason in the presence Chamber To come into the presence of God and to have a purpose to stab him with his sins Doest thou purpose to live in thy filthy courses in thy scandalous evill course of life to be a blasphemer a swearer and yet dost thou think that God will hear and regard thy prayer If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayer That is another thing that thou mayest know it by whether thou be in such an estate as that thou mayest pray successefully for thy self and for others In Prov. 28. there is a third discovery He that turnes his eare from hearing the law even his prayer shall be abominable Thou mayest know it by this if thou be in such an estate as that God will regard thy prayers for thy self or for others that they may be prevailing prayers how standest thou affected to Gods Truth and Word how art thou acquainted with the reading of the Scriptures and with hearing the blessed Word of God unfolded and broken open by the blessed Ordinance of God How doest thou attend upon God Wouldest thou have him who is the great God of heaven and earth to hear thee and to regard thee when thou wilt not hear and regard him thou wouldest have him to regard thy prayers and thou regardest not him speaking by the Ministery of his Word thou despisest his ordinance which he hath left with thee he hath left thee the mysteries of his Word and thou regardest them not but spendest thy time altogether either about thy calling or about some trifling studies and neglectest the main the soul-saving truth will he hear thy prayer No saith the Wise man He that turnes his eare from hearing the Law that mans prayer shall be abominable Since prayer is so prevailing a thing so pleasing to God so helpfull to the Church and so helpfull to our selves who would be in such a case that he cannot pray or if he doth pray that his prayer should be abominable that God should turn his prayer into sin It is a miserable case that a man lives in that is in league with sin that allowes himself in any wicked course in rebellion to Gods Ordinance such men are in such a state that God doth not regard their prayers for themselves or for others Some do so exalt and lift up their pride against God that they do not regard the very Ordinance of God no not while they are hearing it but set themselves to be otherwise disposed at that very time How can such expect that God will regard them This shall be sufficient to presse that point saith Saint Paul I shall be delivered by your prayers God will deliver the Ministers by the peoples prayers God will be good to the Ministers for the prayers of the people This concerns us that are Ministers Prayer is prevailing even for us And as it is our duty to give our selves to Preaching and Prayer so it is the peoples duty to pray for us likewise and for these particulars as I named To pray for ability To pray for a willing mind to discharge that ability To pray for successe of that discharge for we must be able to Preach to the people of God and we must be willing and there must be successe It doth much discourage Gods people and those that are Ministers when they find no successe of their labours Isai. 49. saith the Prophet I have laboured in vain Elias was much discouraged in his time and Isaiah and Elias were good men yet they were much discouraged they saw little fruit of their labour Therefore let us help the Ministers with our prayers in this respect that God would enable them that God would enlarge their hearts with willingness For there are many that are of ability but they are so proud and so idle that they think themselves too good to Preach to them whom God and the Church hath called them to bestow their labours on they have ability but they want a large heart And those that have both ability and a large heart they want successe they see little fruit because the people pray not for them and they perhaps are negligent in the duty themselves their labours are not steeped in prayers Again a fourth thing that we ought to pray for for them is strength and ability of the outward man and all that fear God and have felt the benefit of the Ministery they do this and God doth answer it Likewise to pray for protection and deliverance from unreasonable men to pray for strength of spirit and likewise for protection For as St. Paul saith 2 Thess. 3. All men have not faith Pray for us that we may be delivered from unreasonable absurd men All have not Faith Men that believe not Gods truth that believe not Gods Word that are full of Atheisme full of contempt and scorn they are absurd men though they think themselves the witty men of the world yet they are unreasonable and absurd men pray for us that we may be delivered from unreasonable men Likewise from him that is the head of wicked men the Devil He sees that the Ministers they are the Standard-bearers they are the Captains of Gods Army they stand not alone and they fall not alone many others fall with them There is no calling under heaven by which God conveyes so much good as by the dispensation of his Ordinance in the Ministery therefore we should help them by our prayers There are no men better if they be good nor none more hurtfull if they be bad none worse As Christ saith They are the salt of the earth to season the unsavory world and if the salt have lost the savour it is good for nothing but to be cast on the dunghill Therefore pray that God would deliver them from the Devil who malignes them they are the Butt of his malice by his instruments There are many that come to hear the Word to carpe and to cavil and to sit as Judges to examine but how few are there that pray for the Ministers and surely because they pray not they profit not If we could pray more we should profit more I beseech you in the bowels of Christ put up your petitions to God that God would teach us that are inferiour to you in other respects setting aside our calling that we may teach you that we may instruct his people As John Baptist saith The friends of the Bride learn of the Bridegroom what to speake to the Spouse so we learn from prayer and from reading
certain they are made in him and in him they are Amen that is they are accomplished in him in him they are made and in him they are accomplished I might spend a great deal of time to shew the acception of the word Amen but it is not pertinent to my purpose Amen is here certain undoubtedly certain as it is here to make way to that which is to be understood There are three main senses of Amen It signifies that a thing is positively so and not no it is so Yea and Amen signifie that such a thing is as Let your yea be yea such a thing is But now Amen is more not onely that a thing is but it is so truly and so unchangeably it is Yea and Amen The Promises are yea they are made in Christ and then they are true in him undoubtedly eternally unchangeably true So take it in the strictest in the strongest sense you can all the Promises of God in Christ they are so true that they are invariably constantly eternally true in him they are made in him and performed in him they are Yea in him and Amen in him So the whole carriage of the Promises is onely in Christ. The truths we are to deliver out of the words are these First of all we must know That since the fall of man it hath pleased the Divine Nature the three Persons in Trinitie to stablish a Covenant of grace and so of salvation in Jesus Christ and to make him a second principle a second Adam by whom mankind is restored to a better estate then ever we had in the first Adam God now since the fall takes another course to bring us back again to him He doth not leave us as he left the Angels that fell in a state of perdition for ever but as we fell by infidelity and distrust of him so now we are recovered again by Promises and by faith in them There can be no intercourse between God and man but by some promise on his part God deales with man by Promises The reason is this How can man dare to challenge any thing of the great Majestie of God without a warrant from himself How can the conscience be satisfied The conscience looks to God it is a knowledge together with God how can conscience rest but in that it knowes comes from God Therefore for any good that I hope for from God I must have a promise For this is Gods constant dispensation while we live in this world we are alway under hope we are children of hope We are saved by hope we rejoyce in the hope of glory and hope looks to the promises whereof some part is unperformed How doth heaven and earth differ heaven is all performance here is some performance to encourage us and there is alway some promise still unperformed We are alway under some Promise and therefore the manner of our apprehending God in this world differs from heaven here it is by faith and hope there by vision vision is fit for performance faith and hope looks to the Promise alway here Therefore God rules his Church by Promises partly I say to secure the soul of man we cannot have any thing from God but by the manifestation of his own good will How can we look for any thing from God but by promise can we look for any thing from God by our own conceits that is a fooles Paradise Further God will have his Church ruled by Promises in all ages to exercise faith and hope and prayer and dependance upon God God will try of what credit he is among men whether they will depend upon his promise or no so that knowing he is true by promise it may be certain to them they shall have performance in time he gives men Promises to see if they will trust him God will have this manner of dispensation to rule his Church by Promises to arm us in this world against feares and discouragements therefore we have alway some Promise He might have done us good and have given us no promise but now having given us Promises he will try the graces that are in us and arm us against all discouragements and difficulties till the thing promised be performed For we must know that a Promise is a Divine thing better then any earthly performance Let God give a man never so much in the world if he have not a promise of better things all will come to nothing at the last Therefore God supports the soules and spirits of his Children with Promises to arm them against all temptations on the right hand and on the left that would draw them from trusting in his Promise he will have them live by faith and that hath alway relation to the Promise This is a general ground then That God now in Christ Jesus hath appointed this way to govern the Church with Promises Now what is a Promise A Promise is nothing but a manifestation of love an intendment of bestowing some good and removing some ill a manifestation of our mind in that kind is a promise of conferring of a future good or removing of a future ill therefore it comes from love in the party promising There are three degrees of loving steps whereof a promise is the last The first is inward love The second is real performance And the third is a manifestation of performance intended before it be and this I say is a degree of love For love concealed it doth not comfort in the interim in the time that is betwixt Now God who is love doth not onely love us and will not only shew his love in time but because he will have us rest sweetly in his bosome and settle our selves on his gracious Promises in the mean time he gives us rich and precious Promises He is not onely love and shewes it in deed but he expresseth it in word And we may well build on his Word as verily as if he had performed it in deed for whatsoever he saith is Yea and Amen This is the nature of a promise It is not only love and the expression of love in deed but the expression of it in word when he intends to solace and comfort and stablish and stay the mind of man till the good promised be performed Therefore even from this we see how God loves us that not onely he hath an inward love in his breast and doth good to us but he manifests it by word he would have us as I said live by faith and stablish our selves in hope Faith and hope are two graces altogether from Promises if there were no promise there could be no faith nor hope what is hope nothing but the expectation of the things that the Word saith And what is faith but a building on the Word of God Faith looks on the Word that God will give such a thing and hope looks upon the thing that the Word promiseth as the
that he loves Christ with he loves us in his beloved He hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in him he hath made us sons in him that is the naturall Son and as his love is unchangeable to his Son so it is to us in Christ. If a Princes love to any man be founded and grounded upon the love he bears to his son if he loves his son he loves such a man because his son loves him surely he may have great comfort that it it will hold because his affection is naturall and unalterable he will alway love his son therefore he will love him whom his son loves alway Now Christ is the Son of God he loves us in his Son he hath given us rich promises in his Son He hath given him the first promise and all other promises of forgivenesse of sins and life everlasting in and through him As long as he loves Chrst he will love us and as sure as he loves Christ he will love us Nothing in the world can separate his love from his own Son and nothing in the world can separate Gods love from us because it is in his Son Christ loves his mysticall bodie as well as his natural bodie and God loves the mysticall bodie of Christ as he loves his naturall bodie he hath advanced that to glorie at his right hand and will he leave his mysticall bodie the Church will he not advance that Doth he not love whole Christ Yes God loves whole Christ. Our nature that he hath taken to him it is the chief thing the most lovely thing in heaven or earth next to God And he loves all that are in him his mysticall body For indeed he gave us to Christ he hath sealed and anointed him he is anointed by God the Father for us Upon what an unchangeable eternall ground is the love of God built and the faith of a Christian How can the gates of hell prevail against the Faith of a Christian when it carries him to the promises and from the promises to the love of God and from thence to Christ upon whom the love of God is founded Before the faith of a Christian can be shaken the promises must be of no effect they must be yea and nay and not yea and if the promises be shaken the Love of God must be uncertain and Christ uncertain heaven and earth must be overturned to overturne the faith of a Christian. There is nothing in the world that is so firme as a believing Christian that casts himself on the promises that are alway yea and to make them yea they are founded on Christ the Son of Gods love Well these promises comming from such love may be ranked into diverse ranks I will touch some of them to shew how we are to carrie our selves to make comfortable use of this that All the premises are yea and amen in Christ. There are some universall promises for the good of all mankind as that God would never destroy the world again Or promises that concern more particularly his Church And those are promises either of outward things or of spirituall and eternall things of Grace and glory Now for the manner of promising they admit of this distinction All the promises that God hath made to us either they are absolute without any condition so was Christ. God promised Christ let the world be as it will Christ did and would have come And so the promise of his glorious comming he will come let men be as they will there will be a resurrection Some promises be conditional in the manner of propounding but yet absolute in the real performance of them As for example the promises of Grace and Glory to Gods children the promise of forgivnesse of sins God will forgive their sins if they believe if they repent they are propounded conditionally but in the performance they are absolute because God performes the Covenant himself he performes our part and his own too For since Christ though he propounded the promises of the Gospel with conditions yet he performes the condition he stirs us up to attend upon the meanes and by his Spirit in the Word he works faith and repentance which is the condition faith and repentance is his gift He writes his law in our hearts and teacheth us how to love So though they be conditionally propounded for God deales with men as men by way of commerce he propounds it by way of Covenant and condition yet in the Covenant of Grace which is truly a gracious Covenant he not onely gives the good things but he performs the condition by the Spirit working our hearts to believe and to repent Again there are promises not only propounded conditionally of Grace and comfort but of outward things All outward things are promised conditionally as thus God hath promised protection from contagious sicknesses from war and troubles Generall promises there are of protection every where Psal 91. God will be a hiding place and he will deliver his Children there are privative promises and then positive promises that he will do this and that good for them but these are conditional so far forth as in his wise providence he sees it may serve spirituall good things Grace and the inward man for God takes liberty in our outward estate and in our bodies to afflict them or to do them good as may serve the main For do what we will these bodies will turn to dust and vanity and we must leave the world behind us but God looks to the main state in Christ to the new Creature Therefore as far as outward blessings may incourage us and as far as deliverances may help the maine so far he will grant them or else he denies them he takes libertie in outward things Therefore that sort of promises they are conditionall with exception of necessary affliction For we cannot have the blessings of this life positive or privative we cannot be delivered alwaies and have blessings but our corrupt nature is such that except we have some what to season them we shall surfet of them we cannot digest them and therefore they are all with the exception of the crosse As Christ saith he that doth any thing for him he shall have an hundred-fold here but with affliction and persecution he shall be sure of that whatsoever else he hath let him look for that All the crosses we have in the world are to season the good things of this life Many other distinctions and differences we might have to lay open the kinds of promises in Scripture but this shall suffice to give you a taste Now all these are made in Christ and performed in Christ so far forth as is for our good Are all the promises of what kind soever spirituall or outward temporall and eternall are they all made to us in Jesus Christ and are they certain Yea and Amen in him Then make this use of it let us renew
When a man is without grace he goes lumpishly and heavily about the service of God he is drawen and forced to prayer and to hearing and to conference and meditation he is dead and dull and frozen to good works but when a man hath received this sweet anointing of the Spirit his heart is enlarged to all duties whatsoever he is prepared to every good work Again oyl makes chearefull so doth grace it makes chearful in adversity chearfull in death chearful in those things that dismay the spirits of other men so much grace so much joy for even as light and heat follow the fire so the spirit of joy doth follow this spiritual anointing Conscience of the interest he hath in the favour of God in Christ and the evidences of grace stamped upon his heart an assurance of a better estate in the world to come wonderfully enlarge the soul with spiritual joy that which makes a man lumpish and heavy and earthly is not the Spirit of God the Spirit of God is a Spirit of joy and it puts a gracious chearfulnesse in the heart of a Christian if there be mourning it is that it may be more chearful for light is sowen to the righteous sometimes in mourning God loves a chearful giver and a chearful thanksgiver all must be sweetened with chearfulnesse now this comes from the Spirit of God and he that is anointed with the Spirit in some measure partakes of spiritual joy and chearfulnesse Againe ointment you know is of a healing nature as Balme and other sweet ointments have a healing power and vertue the Scripture makes mention of the Balme of Gilead so grace hath a healing power repentance that is of a purging spiritual joy of a healing nature there must you know be first a cleansing and then a healing and strengthening so some graces are purgative and cleansing some againe are strengthening and healing repentance is a good purgation it carries away the malignant and evill matter but the Cordial that strengthens the soul is joy The joy of the Lord is your strength Nehem. 8. and so the grace of faith and love tend to cherrish and corroborate the soul so that I say these graces this Balme of the Spirit hath a special Soveraign power to heale us to heale us both from the guilt of sin and from the dominion and rule and filthy stain of sin it hath both a purging and a Cordial vertue Thus you see that upon good grounds the graces of Gods Spirit that he communicates to the Elect and only to them that are in Christ they are called anointing and they will have the effect of an ointment in us if we receive this anointing Let us therefore try our selves by these whether we be anointed or no what chearfulnesse is there what joy what strength what nimblenesse to that which is good what soveraignty hath grace in our hearts you have a company that professe Religion but make it serve their owne turne that make heaven to come under earth that make the service of God to stoop to other ends Beloved grace it is a superiour thing and Religion makes all subordinate Grace and Religion wheresoever it is in truth is of a ruling nature and so it is sweet and it is strong wheresoever it is it is curing and purging and cleansing wheresoever it is therefore I beseech you let us not deceive our selves I need say no more of the Point you may enlarge it in your own meditations I come to the persons As this anointing hath reference to the ointment so it hath relation to the persons that were anointed Now the persons anointed were first dedicated by anointing they were consecrated to God and separated from the world And as they were dedicated and separated so they were dignified by this anointing it raised them above the common condition And likewise with this anointing God gave them qualifications suitable You have three eminent persons that were anointed and so raised above the common condition of other men Prophets to teach the people Priests to offer sacrifice Kings to govern them Now Christ is principally all these He is the principal Prophet of his Church the Angel of the Covenant He is Logos the Word because as the inward word the mind of a man is known by the outward word so Christ is called the Word because as a Prophet he discovers his Fathers mind and makes known his Fathers will unto us And he is the great high Priest he makes atonement between God and us he stands between his Father and us And he is the great King of his Church that rescues it from all its enemies to protect and defend it But as Christ hath received this anointing primarily and above his fellows yet as I said before he hath received it for his fellows Every Christian hath his anointing from Christs anointing all our graces and all our oyatment is derived from him He saith the Appostle Rev. 1. hath loved us and washed us in his blood he loved us first which is the cause of all and then he washed us in his blood he did not onely shed his blood for us but he washed us in his blood he hath applied his blood to our souls and by applying that and sprinkling it upon our souls he hath made us Kings and Priests to God his Father And indeed the great King of heaven and earth he is and will be attended upon by none but Kings and Priests he hath no servants but such as are anointed he is followed of none but eminent persons such as are separated from the world and dignified above all other people for the glory of his followers tends to his honour therefore those whom God chuseth to be his atendants he qualifies them gives them the hearts of Kings royal qualifications and the hearts of Priests and the hearts of Prophets But this in the general To shew it therefore in particulars A Christian is anointed he is a person severed from the world dedicated to God and dignified above others and that from good reason because God hath given him an inward qualification which is the foundation of all And first he is a true Prophet for he hath received the anointing of the Spirit 1 Joh. 2. whereby he is enabled to discern of things he knowes what is true honour to be the child of God he knowes what is true riches Grace he knowes what is true Nobility to be born of God what is true pleasure Peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost he can discern between seeming and reall things and onely he that hath received this anointing of the Spirit And again as a Prophet he knowes not onely the things but the doing of the things he hath with the anointing of the Spirit ability to do that which he knowes the grace of God teacheth him not onely the duty that he should live justly and soberly and godly but teacheth him to do the things for God writes his Lawes in
onely so but he sealed him by many miracles by the resurrection from the dead by which he was declared to be the Son of God by the calling of the Gentiles and by many other things Christ being sealed he sealed all that he did for our redemption with his blood and for the strengthening of our faith he hath added outward seales the two Sacraments to seal our faith in this blood and in him who is sealed of the Father But here in this place is meant another manner of sealing for here is not meant the sealing of Christ but the sealing of us that have communion with Christ. The same Spirit that sealed the Redeemer seales the redeemed What is our Sealing Sealing we know hath this use First of all it doth imprint a likenesse of him that doth seal upon the wax that is sealed as when the Kings Picture or Image is stamped or sealed upon the wax every thing in the wax answers to that in the seal face to face eye to eye hand to hand foot to foot body to body So we are said to be sealed when we carry in our soules the Image of Jesus Christ for the Spirit sets the stamp of Jesus Christ upon every Christian so that there is the likenesse of Christ in all things understanding answers understanding in proportion as a child you know answers the father it hath limb for limb foot for foot finger for finger but it is not in quantity but in proportion and likenesse so it is in the soul that is sealed by the Spirit there is a likenesse to Christ something of every grace of Christ there is understanding of the same heavenly supernatural truths there is a judging of things as Christ judgeth and the affections go as Christs do he loves that which Christ loves and he hates that which he hates he joyes in that which Christ delights in Every affection of the soul is carried that way that the affections of our blessed Saviour are carried in proportion Every thing in the soul is answerable to Jesus Christ and there is no grace in Christ but there is the like in every Christian in some small measure the Obedience of Christ to his Father even to the death it is in every Christian the Humility whereby Christ abased himself it is in every Christian. Christ works in the soul that receiveth him a likenesse to himself And this is an undoubted Character of a Christian The soul that believes in Christ doth not onely believe in him for his own sake to be forgiven of his sins but together with believing feeling the forgivenesse of his sins and that Christ hath so loved him and done such things for him he is ambitious to expresse Christ in all things and it stirres him up with desire to be like him for thinks he is there such love in Christ to me and is there such grace and mercy in God to me and was Christ so good as to do and to suffer such things for me Oh how shall I improve things for him Oh that I might be like him lovely in his eyes This I say must needs be so these desires are undoubtedly universally in the soules of all those that partake of Christ it is the nature of the thing to be so we shall desire to be transformed more and more to Christ Every way to bear the Image of the second Adam who is as the Apostle saith from heaven heavenly and so shall we be heavenly-minded as he was heavenly-minded on earth talking and discoursing of the Kingdome of Heaven and sitting people for the Kingdome of heaven and drawing others from this world to meditate of a better estate there is a likenesse to these in the soul of every believer and that 's the reason that Christs Offices are put together in all those that he saves that look whosoever he is a Priest to to dye for their sins to them he is a Prophet to teach them and a King to subdue their corruptions and to change them and alter them and to rule them by his Spirit You have carnal men in presumption which leads them to destruction they sever things in Christ they will take benefit by Christ but they care not for his likenesse they will have him as a Priest but they respect him not as a King Now all that are Christs have the stamp of the Spirit upon them there are desires wrought in them by the Spirit of God to that purpose and a Spirit of Sanctification that makes them every way like Christ in their proportion And that is an evidence of the sealing of such a soul because the soul of it self hath no such impression for the soul of it self is a barren Wildernesse a stone that is cold and uncapable of impression when therefore the soul can command nature being stiffe and hard and dead we see an impression of a higher nature a man may know that undoubtedly the Spirit of God hath been in this soul for we see a loving spirit an humble spirit a gracious a believing a broken spirit an obedient spirit to every commandment of God the soul can yield it self wholly to the will of God in all things certainly I say the Spirit of God hath been here for these things grow not in a natural soul. A stone you know is cold by nature and if a man feel a stone to be hot a man may undeniably gather Certainly the Sun hath shined upon this stone Our hearts are very cold by nature undoubtedly when they are warmed with the love of God that they are made plyable to duties the Sun of righteousnesse Christ hath shined on this cold heart Gods Spirit can work on Marble can work on Brasse as Jeremy saith It was the commendations of one of the Fathers that he could work on Brasse God can work on our soules which are as brasse and make an impression of grace there and therefore when a man sees an impression upon such hard mettal certainly he may know that the finger of Gods Spirit hath been there So that the work of Sanctification is an undoubted feal of the Spirit of God A second use of a Seal is Distinction Seales are given for distinguishing for you know sealing is a stamp set upon some few out of many so this sealing of the Spirit it distinguisheth Christians from others as we shall see more at large afterwards Then again a Seal it serves for Appropriation for men seal those things that are their own Merchants seal those Wares that they either have or mean to have a right unto Men seal their own sheep and not others and stamp their own Wares and not others God here stoops so low as to make use of terms that are used in humane matters and contracts and by sealing he shewes that he hath appropriated his own to himself chosen and singled them out for himself to delight in Again sealing further serves to make things authentical to give authority and excellency to
worthy pieces as a Monument of their graces and zeal for the publick welfare whether it be out of a modest sense of their own endeavours as being loath upon choice or of their own accord to venture abroad into the world or whether it be that being occupied and taken up with other labours or whether it be in a conformity to Christ who would not leave his Spirit till his Departure or whether it be out of an hope that their Works would find a more kindly reception after their death the living being more liable to envy and reproach but when the Authour is in heaven the work is more esteemed upon earth whether for this or that cause usually it is that not only the life but the death of Gods servants hath been profitable to his Church by that means many useful Treatises being freed from that privacy and obscurenesse to which by the modesty of the Authour they were formerly confined Which as it hath commonly falne out so especially in the Works of this Reverend Authour all which some few onely excepted saw the light after the Authours death which also hath been the lot of this usefull Comment onely it hath this advantage above the rest that it was perused by the Authour during life and corrected by his own hand and hath the plain signature and marks of his own spirit which will easily appear to those that have been any way conversant with his former Works this being signified for further commendation it needeth none I commend thee to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build thee up and to give thee an inheritance among the sanctified remaining Thy servant in the Lords work THOMAS MANTON A COMMENTARY upon the first CHAPTER of the second Epistle of S. PAUL to the CORINTHIANS 2 Cor. 1. 1. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the Will of God and Timothy our Brother unto the Church of God which is at Corinth with all the Saints which are in all Achaia Grace be to you and Peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. THe Preface to this Epistle is the same with other Prefaces Our blessed Apostle had written a sharp Epistle to the Corinthians especially reproving their tolerating of the incestuous person that his first Epistle took effect though not so much as he desired yet it prevailed so far with them that they excommunicated the incestuous person and likewise reformed divers abuses Yet notwithstanding it being a proud factious rich City where there was confluence of many Nations being an excellent Port and Mart-Town there were many proud insolent teachers which thought basely of St. Paul and thereupon he writes this second Epistle the scope whereof is partly Apologetical Exhortatorie Apologetical to defend himself Exhortatorie to instruct them in several duties as we shall see in the passages of it The general scope of it is this to shew That the Ministerial labour is not in vain in the Lord. The fruit of the first Epistle to the Corinthians is seen in this second the first Epistle took effect Therefore we should not be discouraged neither we that are Ministers of the Church or those that are Ministers in their own families as every man should be be not discouraged at unlikelihood there is alway some successe to encourage us though not so much as we look for in this world because there is a reprobate Generation that are alway set upon Cavilling and opposing yet some successe there will be as there was here A second thing in general out of the whole scope is this to teach us to vindicate our credit when the truth may be wounded through us as the Apostle stands here upon his reputation and labours to free and to clear himself from all imputations but especially he doth this by his life for that is the best Apology But because that would not serve it would not speak loud enough therefore he makes an excellent apology in this Epistle But to come to the particulars Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our Brother THis Chapter is Apologetical especially after the Preface He stands in defence of himself against the imputations First that he was a man neglected of God he was so persecuted and oppressed with so many afflictions And the second is the imputation of inconstancie that he came not to them when he had made a promise to come This Chapter is especially in defence of these two In an excellent heavenly wisdome he turnes off the imputation of afflictions and inverts the imputation the clean contrary way and he begins with thanksgiving Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies the God of all comfort who hath comforted us in all our tribulations As if God had done him a great favour in them as we shall see when we come to those words For the Preface it is common with all his Epistles therefore we make it not a principal part of the Chapter yet because these Prefaces have the seeds of the Gospel in them the seeds of heavenly comfort and doctrine I will speak something of it Here is An Inscription and A Salutation In the Inscription there are the parties from whom this Epistle was written Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our Brother And the persons to whom To the Church of God at Corinth and all the Saints in Achaia The Salutation Grace and Peace in the form of a blessing Grace and Peace From whom From God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul an Apostle c. In this inscription he sets down his office an Apostle and an Apostle of Jesus Christ. How Apostles differ from other Ministers it is an ordinary point St. Paul was called to be an Apostle by Christ himself in 1 Cor. 9. 1. Am I not an Apostle have I not seen Christ It was the priviledge of the Apostles to see Christ they were taught immediately by Christ and they had a general commission to teach all and they had extraordinary gifts All these were in St. Paul eminently And this was his prerogative that he was chosen by Christ in heaven in glory the other were chosen by Christ when he was in abasement in a state of humiliation Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ. By the will of God By the appointment of God by the designment of Christ For every man in his particular calling is placed in it by the will of God St. Paul saith he was an Apostle by the will of God not by the will of man This is the same word as is in the beginning of the Epistle to the Philippians In a word it teacheth us this first Observation That we should think our selves in our standings and callings to be there by the will of God And therefore should serve him by whose will we are placed in that standing Let every man consider who placed me here God if
favour and grace of great persons alway And as the favourable aspect of the heavens upon inferiour bodies promiseth good things and men promise themselves from that favour and good so the favour and grace of God enlarge the soul with joy and comfort And there is that measure of joy in those that are in the free favour of God that they will honour God freely to cast themselves upon his mercy And it is with a disesteem of all things in the World besides it is such a joy as works in the soul a base esteem of all things else St. Paul esteemed all drosse in comparison of the knowledge of Christ and the favour of God in Christ. So in Psal. 4. David saith of some There be many that will say who will shew us any good any good it is no matter but saith the Holy Spirit in David Lord lift up the light of thy countenance upon me He goes to prayer he saith not who will shew us any good it is no matter what or how we come by it any earthly good worldly men desire No saith he Lord shew us the light of thy countenance he desires that above all things So he saith Psal. 3. The loving kindnesse of the Lord is better then life it self Life is a sweet thing the sweetest thing in the World but the grace and favour of God is better then that For in this when all comforts fail the Children of God have assurance that neither life nor death nor things present nor things to come nor any thing can separate us from the love of God in Christ which shews it self better then life it self When life fails this favour shall never fail Nothing shall be able to separate us from the favour of God in Christ it is an everlasting favour and therefore everlasting because it is free if it were Originally in us it would fail when we fail but it is an everlasting favour because it is free God hath founded the cause of love to us in himself so much for that Grace be unto you And peace All that I will say of peace in this place is this to shew That True peace issues from Grace It is to be had thence Peace we take here for that sweet peace with God and peace of conscience and likewise peace with all things when all things are peaceable to us when there is a sweet successe in all businesse with a security in a good estate It is a blessed thing when we know that all will be well with us This quiet and peaceable estate issues from grace peace of conscience especially I observe it the rather It hath been the errour of the world to seek peace where it is not to seek peace in Sanctification to seek it in the work of Grace within a man Not to speak of worldly men that seek peace in outward contentments in recreations in friends and the like alas it is a poore peace But I speak of Religious persons that are of a higher straine they have sought peace but not high enough True peace must be selected from Grace the free favour in Christ. This will quiet and still the clamours of an accusing conscience God reconciled in Christ will pacifie the conscience nothing else will do it For if our chief peace were fetched from sanctification as many fetch it thence in error of judgment alas the conscience would be dismaid and alwaies doubt whether it had sanctification enough or no. Indeed sanctication and grace within is required as a qualification to shew that we are not Hypocrites but are in the state and covenant of Grace it is not required as a foundation of comfort but as a qualification of the persons to whom comfort belongs Therefore David and St. Paul and the rest that knew the true power and efficacy of the Gospel they sought for peace in the grace and free favour of God Let us lay it up to put it in practise in the time of dissolution in the time of spiritual conflict in the time when our consciences shall be awakened and perhaps upon the rack and Satan will be busie to trouble our peace that we may shut our eyes to all things below and see God shining on in Christ that we may see the favour of God in Christ by whose death and passion he is reconciled to us and in the Grace and free favour of God in Ghrist we shall see peace enough It is true likewise besides peace of conscience of all other peace peace of successe and peace of state that all creatures and all conditions are peacable to us whence is it It is from Grace for God being reconciled he reconciles all when God himself is ours all is ours when he is turned all is turned with him when he becomes our father in Christ and is at peace with us all are at peace besides so that all conditions all estates all creatures they work for our good It is from hence when God is turned all are turned with him He being the God of the creature that sustaines and upholds the creature in whom the creature hath his being and working he must needs therefore turn it for the good of them that are in covenant with him All that are joyned in covenant with him he fills them with peace because they are in Grace with him This should stir up our hearts above all things in the world to pray for Grace to get Grace to empty our selves of self-confidence that we may be vessels for Grace to make Grace our plea to magnifie the Grace of God We must never look in this world for a peace altogether absolute that is reserved for heaven our peace here is a troubled peace God will have a distinction between heaven and earth But when our peace is interrupted when the waters are come into our souls what must be our course when we would have peace go to Grace go to the free promise of Grace in Christ. Grace and Peace From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The spring of Grace and peace are here mentioned After the Preface he comes to the Argument which he intends and begins with blessing One part of the scope of this blessed Apostle is to avoid the scandall of his sufferings for he was a man of sorrows if ever man was next Christ who was a true man of sorrow the blessed Apostle was a man of miseries and sorrow Now weake shallow Christians thought him to be a man diserted of God they thought it was impossible for God to regard a man so forlorn so despicable as this man was What doth he before he comes to other matters he wipes away this imputation and cleers this scandal You lay my crosses and sufferings and disgraces in the world to my shame it is your weakness that which you account my shame is a matter of praise I am so farre from being disheartned or discouraged from what I suffer that Blessed be God the Father of
This being a truth that Gods Children when they have tasted of his mercie break forth into his praise it being the end of his favours and nature being inclined thereto this should stirre us up to this duty and that we may the better perform this holy duty let us take notice of all Gods favours and blessings Knowledge stirs up the affections blessing of God springs immediately from an inlarged heart but enlargement of heart is stirred up from apprehension for as things are reported to the knowledge so the understanding reports them to the heart and affections Therefore it is a duty that we ought to take notice of Gods favours and with taking notice of them To mind them to remember them forget not all his benefits Psal. 103. Praise the Lord O my soule and forget not all his benefits insinuating that the cause why we praise not God is the forgetting of his benefits Let us take notice of them let us register them let us mind them let us keep diaries of his mercies and favours every day he renews his mercies and favours every day and we ought to renew our blessing of him every day we should labour to do here as we shall do when we are in heaven where we shall do nothing else but praise and bless him we ought to be in Heaven while we are on the earth as much as we may let us register his favours and mercies But what favours Especially spirituall nay first spirituall favours without which we cannot heartily give thanks for any outward thing for the soule will cast with it self till it feele it selfe in Covenant with God in Christ that a man is the Child of God Indeed I have many mercies and favours God is good to me but perhaps all these are but favours of the Traytor in the prison that hath the libertie of the Tower and all things that his heart can desire but then he looks for an execution he looks for a writt to draw him forth to make him a spectacle to all and so this trembling for fear of a future ill which the soul lookes for it keepes the soul from thankfulnesse It cannot be heartily thankful for any mercy till it can be thankful for spiritual fauors Therefore first let us see that our state be good that we are in Christ that we are in the covenant of Grace that though we are weak Christians yet we are true there is truth in Grace wrought in us And then when we have tasted the best mercies spirituall mercies when we see we are taken out of the state of nature for then all is in love to us when we have the first mercy pardoning mercy that our sins are forgiven in Christ then the other are mercies indeed to us not as favours to a condemned man And that is the reason that a carnall man he hath his heart shut he cannot praise God he cannot trust in God because he staggers in his estate because he is not assured he thinks it may be God fattens me against the day of slaughter Therefore I know not whether I should praise him for this or no. But he is deceived in that for if he had his heart enlarged to blesse God for that God would shew further favour still but the heart will not yield hearty praise to God till it be perswaded of Gods love For all our love is by reflection We love him because he loved us first and we praise and blesse him because he hath blest us first in heavenly blessings in Christ. Let us take notice of his favours let us mind them let us register them especially favours and mercies in Christ. Let us after think how we were pulled out of the cursed estate of nature by what ministery by what acquaintance by what speech and how God hath followed that mercie with new acquaintance with new comfort to our souls with new refreshings that by his spirit he hath repressed our corruptions that he hath sanctified us made us more humble more careful that he hath made us more jealous more watchful these mercies and favours will make others sweet unto us And then learn to prize and value the mercies of God which will not be unlesse we compare them with our own unworthinesse lay his mercies together with our own unworthinesse and it will make us break forth into blessing of God When we consider what we are our selves as Jacob said lesse than the least of Gods mercies We forget Gods mercies every day he strives with our unthankfulnesse the comparing of his mercies with our unworthiness and our desert on the contrary will make us to blesse God for his goodnesse and patience that he will not onely be good to us in not inflicting that which our sins have deserved Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And to name no more bút this one above all beg of God his holy spirit for this Blessing of God is nothing else but a vent from the spirit For as Organs and wind Instruments do never sound except they be blown they are dead and make no musick till there be breath put into them so we are dead and dull instruments therefore it is said we are filled with the Holy Ghost All Gods children they are filled with the spirit before they can praise God the spirit stirres them up to praise him and as it gives them matter to praise him for so it gives the Sacrifice of praise it self God gives to his children both the benefits to blesse him for and he gives the blessing of a heart to blesse him And we must beg both of God beg a heart able to discern spiritual favours to tast and relish them and to see our own unworthinesse of them and beg of God his holy spirit to awaken and quicken and enlarge our dead and dull hearts to praise his name Let us stir up our hearts to it stirr up the spirit of God in us every one that hath the spirit of God should labour to stir up the spirit as St. Paul writes to Timothy and as David stirs up himself Praise the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy name so we should raise up our selves and stir up our selves to this duty And shame our selves what hath God freed me from so great misery and hath he advanced me to so happie an estate in this world doth he put me in so certain a hope of glorie in the world to come have I a certain promise to be carried to salvation that neither things present nor things to come shall be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus doth he renew his mercies every day upon me and can I be thus dead can I be thus dull-hearted Let us shame our selves And certainly if a man were to teach a Child of God a ground of humiliation if a Child of God that is in the state of grace should ask how
he might grow humble and be abased more and more a man could give no one direction better then this to consider how God hath been good continually how he hath been patient and good and upon what ground we hope that he will be so and to consider the disposition of our own drooping drousie souls if this will not abase a soul that hath tasted the love and mercie of God nothing in the world will do it There never was a Child of God of a dull temper and disposition but he was ashamed that being under such a covenant of favour that he should yet not have a heart more enlarged to blesse God To stir us up to this duty for arguments to perswade us what need we use many It should be our duty in this world to be as much in heaven and heavenly imployment Our conversation is in heaven saith the Apostle How can we be in heaven more then by practising of that which the Saints and Angels and the Cherubins and Seraphins spend all their strength in there How do they spend all that blessed strength with chearfulnesse and joy that are in that place of joy How do they spend it but in setting forth the praise of God the wonderful goodnesse of God that hath brought them to that happinesse Certainly that which we shall do for ever in heaven we ought to do as much as we may do on earth And it is as I said before in all aflictions and troubles the only special way to mitigate them to work our hearts to thankfulnesse for mercies and favours that we enjoy We have cause indeed at the first to be abased and humbled but we have more cause to rejoyce in working our hearts to comfort in blessing of God it will ease the crosse any crosse whatsoever I will not dwell further upon the point I shall have occasion oft to digresse upon this duty The Object of prayse here is God cloathed with a comfortable description not God simply for alas we have no hearts to praise God take God onely armed with justice cloathed with Majesty Consider God thus indeed he deserves glory and praise but the guilty soule will not praise him thus considered and abstracted from mercie and goodness and love therefore saith he Blessed be God God how considered Blessed be God The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. First he is father of Christ and then Father of mercies and God of comfort God so considered be blessed God as he is to be prayed unto so he is to be praised And only God this sacrifice this perfume this incense it must not be mispent upon any creature we have all of his grace and we should returne all to his glory that is a duty But consider him as he is described here first the father of Christ and then the father of mercies and God of all comfort And it is not to be omitted thar first he begins with this Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ only as he is God but the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as he is man for God being the Father of whole Christ being father of the person he is father of the manhood taken into unitie with that person so he is Father both of God and Man they cannot be dividedin Christ he being the Father of whol Christ he is the Father God and Man And he is first the Father of Christ and then the Father of us and the Father of mercies for alas unlesse he had been the Father of Christ God and Man Mediatour he could never have been the Father of such cursed creatures as we are but because he is the Father of Christ of that blessed manhood which Christ hath taken into Unitie of person with the God-head therefore he is the Father of us who by Union are one with Christ. The point then is that God thus considered as the Father of Jesus Christ is to be praysed Here is the reason of blessing and praysing him in this that he is the Father of Jesus Christ for thence he comes to be our Father it is a point that we think not oft enough on but it is the ground of all comfort for we have all at the second hand Christ hath all first and we have all from him He is the first Son and we are sons he is the first beloved of God and we are beloved in him he is filled first with all grace and we are filled from him of his fulnesse we receive Grace for Grace he was first acquitted of our sinnes as our surety and then we are justified because he was iustified from our sins being our surety he is ascended into Heaven we shall ascend he sits at the right hand of God and we sit with him in heavenly places he judgeth we shall iudge him whatsoever we doe Christ doth it first we have it in Christ and through Christ and from Christ he is the Father of Christ and our Father Therefore we ought to blesse God for Christ that he would predestinate Christ to be our head to be our Saviour that he would take the humane nature of Christ and make it one person with his Divine nature and so predestinate us and elect and chuse us to salvation in him blessed be God that he would be the Father of Jesus Christ. And as this should stirre us up to bless God for Jesus Christ so likewise it should direct us to comfortable meditations to see our Nature in Christ first and then in our selves See thy Nature abased in Christ see thy Nature glorified in Christ see thy Nature filled with all grace in Christ and see this that thou art knit to that Nature thou art flesh of Christs flesh and bone of his bone and thou shalt be so as he is In that Christs nature was first abased and then glorified this nature shall first be abased to death and dust and then be glorified Christ died and rose again thou art predestinated to be conformable to Christ for as his flesh was first humbled and then glorious so thine must be first humble and then glorious His flesh was holy humble and glorious and so must ours be whatsoever we look for in our selves that is good we must see it in Christ first Aud when we heare in the Gospel in the Articles of the Creed of Christ crucified of Christ dying of Christ rising ascending and sitting at the right hand of God let us see our selves in him see our selves dying in him and rising in him and sitting at the right hand of God For the same God that raised Christ natural will raise Christ mystical he will raise whole Christ for he is not glorified by pieces as whole Christ natural in his body and members was raised so shall whole Christ mystical be Therefore in every Article of the Creed blesse God blesse God forabasing of Christ blesse God for raising
from us he takes occasion from our sins but he is merciful from his own bowels he is good from himself we provoke him to be severe and just therefore be we never so miserable in regard of sin and the fruits of sin yet he is the Father of mercy of free mercy mercy from himself mercy pleaseth him Micah 7. he is delighted in it Now that which is natural comes easily as water from the fountain comes without violence and heat from the fire comes without any violence because it is natural A Mother pitties her child because it is natural there is a sweet instinct of nature that moves and pricks forward nature to that affection of love that she bears to her child So it is with God it is nature in him to be merciful to his because they are his Mercy is his nature we are his we being his his nature being merciful he will be merciful to all that are his to such as repent of their sins and lay hold of his mercy by a true faith His word shewes likewise his mercy there is not one attribute set down more in Scripture then mercy it is the name whereby he will be known Exod. 34. where he describes it and tells us his name what is the name of God his long suffering and mercy c. there is a long description of of God in that place David in Psal. 3. besides that which is in every Prophet almost hath the fame description of God to comfort Gods people in his time in Psal. 86. 103. 145. there is the same description of God as there is in Moses he is merciful and long suffering c. he describes himself to be so and his promises are promises of mercy At what time soever a sinner repents and without limitation of sins all sins shall be forgiven the blood of Christ purgeth us from all sin If there be no limitation of persons whomsoever of sins whatsoever or of time whensoever here is a ground that we should never despair God is the Father of mercies It is excellent that the Prophet hath in Isai. 55. 7. to prevent the thoughts of a dejected soul Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and return to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon I but I have abused mercy a long time I have lived in sin and committed great sins well notwithstanding that see how he answers it My thoughts are not your thoughts you are vindictive if a man offend you you are ready to aggravate the fault and to take revenge c. But my thoughts are not as your thoughts nor my wayes as your wayes saith the Lord for as far as the heaven is above the earth so are my thoughts above your thoughts and my wayes above your wayes We have narrow poor thoughts of mercy because we our selves are given to revenge and we are ready when we think of our sins to say can God forgive them can God be merciful to such c. My thoughts are not as your thoughts nor my wayes as your wayes It is good to consider this and it is a sweet meditation for the time undoubtedly will come that unlesse Gods mercy and Gods thoughts should be as him self is infinite unlesse his wayes should be infinitly above our wayes and his thoughts infinitly above ours in mercy certainly the soul would receive no comfort The soul of a Christian acquainted with the word of God knows that Gods mercy is as himself is infinite and his thoughts this way are as himself is infinite Therefore the Scripture sets down the mercies of God by all dimensions There is the depth of Wisedom but when he comes to speak of love and mercy as it is in Ephes. 3. Oh the depth and bredth and height of this Indeed for height it is higher then the heavens for depth it fetcheth the soul from the nether most-deep we have deep miserie out of the deep Icryed to thee yet notwithstanding his mercy is deeper then our misery O the depth of his mercy there is a depth of mercy deeper then any misery or rebellion of ours though we have sunk deep in rebellion And for the extent ofthem as I said before his mercy is over all his workes it extends to the utmost parts of the earth The scripture doth wonderfully enlarge his mercie beyond all dimensions whatsoever These things are to good purpose and it is a mercy to us that he sets forth himself in mercy in his word because the soul sometime or other when it is awakned as every one that God delights in is awakened first or last it needs all this it is all little enough God is merciful to those that are heavy laden that feel the burden of their sins upon their souls such as are touched with the sence of their sins God still meets them half way he is more ready to pardon then they are to ask mercy As we see in the prodigall when he had wasted all when he was as low as a man could be when he was come to huskes and when he had despised his fathers admonition yet upon resolution to return when he was stung with the sence of his sins his father meets him and entertains him he upbraids him not with his sin Take sin with all the aggravations we can yet if we repent and resolve uppon new courses there is comfort though we relapse into sin again and again if we must pardon 10. times 7. times as Christ saith certainly there cannot be more mercy in the Cistern then there is in the fountain there cannot be more mercy in us then there is in the Father of mercies as God is Take sin in the aggravations in the greatnesse of it Manasses sin Peters denying of his Master the thief on the crosse and Pauls persecution take sin as great as you will he is the father of mercies If we consider that God is infinite in mercy and that the scripture reveals him as the Father of mercies there is no question but there is abundance a world of comfort to any distressed soul that is ready to cast it self on Gods mercy For those that are converted that are in the state of Grace Is God the father of mercies Let this stir us up to imbrace mercy every day to live by mercy to plead mercy with God in our daily breaches to love and fear God because there is mercy with him that he might be feared It is a harder matter to make a daily sweet use of this then it is taken for Those that are the fittest subjects for mercy they think themselves furthest off from mercy Come to a broken soul who is catched in the snare whose conscience is on the rack he thinks alas there is no mercy for me I have been such a sinner God hath shewed me mercy before and now I have offended him again and again those that are the
to do this daily so when we are to comfort others we ought not onely to comfort them but to search them as much as we can what sin is in them and what miserie is upon them and acquaint them with their own estate that they are in as far as we can discerne we may judge of them partly by our selves For we must not prostitute comforts to persons that are indisposed till we see them fitted God doth comfort but it is the abject Christ heales but is the wounded spirit he came to seek but it is to those that are lost he came to ease but it is those that are heavy laden Therefore that we may comfort them to purpose we ought to shew and discover to them what estate they are in that we may force them to comfort if they be not enemies to comfort and to their own souls He is an unwise Physitian that administers cordials before he gives preparatives to carry away the noysome humours they will do little good we ought therefore to prepare them this way if we intend to do them good And then when we see what need they stand in bring them to Christ and the Covenant of Grace that is the best way to comfort them to bring them to see that God is their father when we discern some signs of grace in them For this is the maine stop in all comfort that there is none but they shall find by experience they are ready to say you teach wondrous comforts that there is an inheritance in heaven that God hath provided and on earth there is an issue of all for good and there is a presence of God in troubles this is true but how shall I know this belongs to me This is the cavil of flesh and blood that turnes the back to the most heavenly comforts that are The main and principal thing therefore in dealing with others and with our own hearts is to let them see that there are some signs and evidencies that they are in the covenant of grace that they belong to God Unlesse we see that all the comfort we can give them is to tell them that they are not yet sunk into hell and that they have space to repent But as long as men live in sinful courses that they are not in the state of Grace we can tell them no comfort except they will devise a new Scripture a new Bible if they do so they may have comfort but this word of God and God herein speaks no comfort to persons that live in sin and will do so we should labour therefore to discern some evidence that they are in the state of Grace And ofttimes those are indeed most intitled to comfort that think it furthest from them therefore we should acquaint them with the conditions of the covenant of grace that God looks to truth therefore if we discern any true broken humble spirit a hungring and a thirsting after righteousnesse and a desire of comfort Blessed are those that hunger and thirst it belongs to them we may comfort them If we see spiritual poverty that they see their wants and would be supplied blessed are the poore in spirit be of good comfort Christ calls such If they see and feel the burden of their sins we may comfort them Christ calls them Come unto me yee that are weary and heavy laden If we descern spiritual and heavenly desires to grow in grace and overcome their corruptions if we discover and descern this in their practise and obedience God will fulfil the desires of them that fear him And he accepts the will for the deed There is a desire of happinesse in nature that comforts not a man it is no sign of grace to desire to be free from hell and to be in heaven it is a naturall desire every creature wishes well to heaven but if there be a desire of the meanes that tend to heaven a desire of Grace these are evidences of grace these are the pulses that we may find grace by when they see their infirmities and groane under them and would be better and complain that they are not better and are out of love with their own hearts there is a combat in their hearts they are not friends with themselves When we see this inward conflict and a desire to better and to get victories against their corruptions though there be many corruptions and weaknesses a man may safely say they are in the state of Grace they are on the mending hand For Christ will not break the brused reed nor quench the smoaking flax And where he hath begun a good work he will perfect it to the day of the Lord. He will cherish these weak beginnings therefore we may comfort them on good ground Then besides that in our dealing with them when we have discovered by some evidence that they belong to the covenant that we see by some love to good things and to Gods Image in his Children and by other evidences then we may comfort them boldly and then to fetch from our own experience what a comfort will it be to such When we can say my estate was as yours is I found those corruptions that you groane under I allowed not my self in them as you do not when a man can say from his own experience that notwithstanding these I have evident signs of Gods spirit that I am his then he can comfort others by his own experience And what a comfort is it to go to the experiments of scripture it is an excellent way As now let a man be deserted of God David will comfort him by his experience Psal. 77. Where he saith he found God as his enemie and as Job saith the terrors of God drank up his spirit be of good comfort David would come and comfort thee if he were alive If the terror of God be against thee for sin that thy conscience is awakned be of good comfort Christ if he were on earth would shew thee by his own example that he indured that desertion on the Cross. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me If thou be molested and vexed with Satan Job will comfort thee by his example his book is most of it combating and comfort and so for all other grievances go to the scriptures whatsoever is written is written for our learning Pray to God and he will heare thee as he did Elias Oh but Elias was an excellent man The scripture prevents the objection Jam. 5. he was a man subject to infirmities if God heard him he will hear thee Believe in Christ as Abraham did the Father of the faithful in the promised Messias and he will forgive thee all thy sins Oh but he had a strong faith What hath the scripture to take away this objection In Rom. 5. This was not written for Abraham onely but for those that believe with the faith of Abraham I but I am a wretched sinner there
flesh is purged and the Spirit strengthened and weaning from the world is wrought and a desire to heaven By the daily crosses we suffer as men not for Religion we are much bettered and those in some sort may be called the sufferings of Christ because by them we are conformed to Christ more in holinesse we grow more out of love with the World and more heavenly minded This distinction is necessary to know which are best the sufferings of Christians as good men It is a point I say of wonderous comfort that we should be conformable in our sufferings with our Head Christ Jesus our Glorified head in heaven is it not a wonderous comfort Nay is it not a glory It is a wondrous glory that God will set us apart to do any thing that God will take any thing of us much more that he will single us out to be Champions in his quarrel and more that he will triumph in us that the comfort shall abound To give an instance if a Monarch should redeem a slave a Traitor from Prison and take him to fight in the Quarrel of his own son to be his Champion were it not an honour so the very sufferings for Christ are an encouragement the disgraces and whatsoever they are that we suffer in a good cause they are ensigns of honour they are badges of honour of Christian knighthood If a Golden Fleece or a Garter or such things be accounted so highly of and glorified in because they are favours c. much more should the sufferings for Christ be glorified in as ensigns of the love God and of our Christian profession when we fight under Christs Banner we are like to Christ we are conformable to him he went before and we follow his steps and if we suffer with him we shall be Glorified with him Therefore be not discouraged that which we think to be matter of discouragement it should be our Crown it is our Crown to suffer reproach in a good cause It is a sign God favours us when he takes our credit our goods or our life to honour himself by Is it not an honour to us doth he take any thing from us but he gives us better he takes our goods but he gives us himself he takes our liberty but he gives us enlargement of conscience he takes our life but he gives us heaven if he take any thing from us for to seal his truth and stand out in his quarrel as Christ saith he gives an hundred fold in this World that is a gracious spirit of contentment and comfort We have God himself hath not he more that hath the spring then he that hath twenty Cisterns Those that have riches and place and friends they have Cisterns but he that suffers for God and for Christ he hath Christ he hath God he hath the spring to go to if all be taken from him he hath God the spring to go to if all particular Beams he hath the Sun It is durable wondrous comfort to suffer for Christs sake Therefore let it encourage us in a good course notwithstanding all the opposition we meet with in the World let us here learn what is our duty let the malicious world judge or say or do what they will if God be on our side who can be against us And if we suffer any thing for Christ he suffers with us and in us and he will triumph in us over all these sufferings at last I will add no more to set an edge upon that I have said then this they are the sufferings of Christ we should be many wayes encouraged to suffer for him For did not he suffer for us that which if all the creatures in heaven and earth had suffered they would have sunk under it the wrath of God And what good have we by his sufferings are we not freed from Hell and Damnation and have we not Title to Heaven hath he suffered in his person so much for us and shall not we be content to suffer for him and his mystical body that in his own body suffered so much for us Again when we suffer in his quarrel we suffer not only for him that suffered for us but we suffer for him that sits at the right hand of God that is glorious in heaven The King of Kings and Lord of Lords Our sufferings are sufferings for him that hath done so much for us and for him that is so able now to over-rule all to crush our enemies for him that is so able now to minister comfort by his Spirit This is a notable encouragement that they are the sufferings of Christ that is so glorious as he is and that will reward every suffering and every disgrace we shall be paid well for every suffering we shall lose nothing And will not this encourage us likewise to suffer for Christs sake because he will be with us in all our sufferings he will not leave us alone it is his cause and he will stand by his own cause he will maintain his own quarrel he will cause comfort to increase Is it not an encouragement to defend a Princes quarrel in his own sight when he stands by to abet us it would encourage a dull mettle When we suffer for Christs cause we have Christ to defend us he is with us in all our sufferings to bear us up he puts his shoulder under by his holy Spirit to support us We cannot live long in this world we owe God a death we owe nature a death the sentence of death is past upon us we cannot enjoy the comfort of this World long and for favour and applause of the World we must leave it and it will leave us we know not how soon and this meditation should inforce us to be willing however it go with us for any thing here for life or goods or friends or credit and reputation or whatsoever to be willing to seal the cause of Christ with that which is dearest to us If we suffer with him we shall be glorified with him The very sufferings of Christ are better then the most glorious day of the greatest Monarch in the world that is not a Christian it is better to suffer with Christ then to joy with the world The very abasement of St. Paul was better then the triumph of Nero. Let Moses be judge he judged it the best end of the ballance the very sufferings and reproach of Christ and of Religion is better then the best thing in the world the worst thing in Christianity is better then the best thing out of Christ. The best thing out of Christ is the honour of a King the honour of a Prince to be a Kings Son c. but the reproach of Christ for a good cause is better then the best thing in the world I say let Moses be judge if we will not believe it our selves till we feel it the worst day of a Christian is better then the best day of
is no proportion the choyse is much better to have comfort with grievance then to want the comfort together with the grievance St. Paul would not have chosen immunity from suffering he would not have been exempted from the crosse to have wanted his comfort For the disproportion is wide and great the comforts are inward and sweet the crosses for the most part are outward What are all the croses and sufferings in this world set aside an afflicted conscience it is but brushing of the garment as it were some outward thing in the outward man but the comforts are inward and deep But what if there be inward grievances too Then we have deeper comforts then they the crosse is never so deep but the comfort is deeper Oh the depth of the wisedom and love of God! there is the part and dimension of Gods love the depth of it There is a depth in crosses Out of the deep have I cryed to thee But there is a deeper depth of comfort there is a hand under to fetch us up at the lowest Thy right hand is upon me and thy left hand is under me saith the Church to God there is comfort lower and deeper then the greivance though it be inward spirituall greivance Nay of all grievances I know what I speak a little of mine own experience and it is true in the experience of all Ministers and Christians that there is none that have more help then they that are exercised with spirituall temptations of conscience they are forced to search for deep comforts shallow comforts will not serve their turn and when they have them they keep them and make much of them they have more retired and deep thoughts of Christ and of comforts then other people who as they are strangers to their crosses so they are strangers to their comfort There is no degree of proportion between the crosses and the comforts the crosses are momentary the comforts are growing the crosses make us not awâ—…it the worse and the comforts make us better Feare nothing therefore but go on in the wayes of religion and never be discouraged to suffer in a good cause for feare of men to think oh this will come and that will come No no if the sufferings grow the comforts shall grow with it be of good comfort Again Another use may be that we judge aright of those that are disgraced in the world if their cause be good that we should not have distastfull conceits of them as indeed suffering breeds distast naturally in men they love men in a flourishing estate and distast them suffering but that is corruption of men but God is the nearest to them then nearer then ever he was and their comforts increase with their crosses In the conunction between the Sun and the Moon as by expaerience we see in the space between the old and new Moon there is a time of conjunction we think the Moon to be lost in that time because we see her not but the Moon is more inlightened then then ever she was in her self but here is the reason the light part of the Moon is turned to the Sun-ward to heaven-ward and the darke part is turned toward the earth So a Christian in crosses and abasement seems to be a darke creature but he is more inlightned then then ever before why his light part is to God-ward it is not seen of the world the world sees his crosses but they doe not see his comforts and as the Moon is nearer the Sun at that time then at other times so the soul hath to deale with God in afflictions it is nearer to God and his dark side is toward the world As the World sees the Moons Eclipse so the world sees our darknesse but not our inward comforts therefore we should judge aright of others in this case Another use shal be of thankfulness to God that besides the comforts of heaven which are not to be spoken of and which we shal not know till we come to feel them besides the great comfort we have to be free from Hell that we have a measure of comfort here in this world in our pilgrimage and absence from Heaven such a measure of comfort as may carry us with comfort along We ought to be thankfull to God not onely for redemption and glorification but that God comforts us in our pilgrimage that he mingles crosses with comforts nay that in this world our comforts are more then our crosses Some may object I but my crosses are more then my comforts Are they so dost thou suffer in a good cause or no if thou dost thy comforts are more then thy crosses if there be not a fault in thee What shall I doe therefore First Take this direction in suffering pull out the sting of sin though we suffer in never so good a cause for in one suffering God aims at divers things God in thy suffering aims at thy correction as well as at the exercise of thy grace and at thy comfort therefore let affliction have the correcting and amending part first and then the comforting part will ollow Though the cause be good yet Gods Children oft times want comfort till afterward Why They have not renewed their repentance and cleansed their souls they have not pulled out the sting when they have repented of their personall sins that lye upon them and gone back to the sins of their youth and then renewed their Covenant with God and their purposes for the time to come then comes comfort and not before Therefore it is no disparagement to a good cause that sometimes Christians find not present comfort they have personall sins that hang on them that are not repented of which God intends to amend them of as well as to honour them by suffering in his cause Againe if Gods Children complain that their sufferings are above their strength and above measure and desire God to weigh their afflictions they are so great as Job saith It is the speech of sense and not of faith it is the speech of the fit and not of the state there is a fit and a state it is no matter what they say in their fit then the flesh and sense speak and not grace and faith at that time If they judge by sense then they judge so but we know that reason corrects the errours of sense and faith corrects the errours of reason but what do they say in their constant state their comforts are answerable to their crosses either in suffering or afterwards though not alway at the same time So much for that But this will be abused by carnall persons we speak of abundance of comfort but it is to those that have interest in it the book of God speaks no comfort to persons that live in sin and will do so we speak comfort to those that are broken-hearted for their sins that are content to indure the reproach of religion in
did Again Afflictions doe good to others by ministring occasion to them to search deeper into the cause when they they see the people of God are so used they take occasion hereby to enquire what is the cause and so take occasion to be instructed deeply in matters of Religion for mans nature is inquisitive and grace takes the hint of any thing What is the matter that such and such indure such things Hereupon I say they come to be better grounded in the cause little occasions oft times are the beginnings of great matters by reason that the spirit as well as wit is of a working nature and will draw one thing from another We see what a great Tree riseth of a little seed how a little thing upon report worketh conversion Naaman the Assyrian had a Servant and she told him that there was a Prophet in Jurie that was a famous man that did great matters and if he would go to him he should be cured of his leprosie that little occasion being ministred Naaman comes to the Prophet and he was cured of a double leprosie both of soule and body and went home a good man so by way of ministring occasion of inquisition the sufferings of others doe good And then seeing the constant and resolute spirits of those that suffer it doth them good and comforts them for first it makes them conceive we of the cause certainly these men that suffer constantly and chearefully it is a good cause that they suffer for when they see the cause is such a resolution and courage in the sufferers And it makes them in love with and begin to think well of the persons when they can deny themselves surely these men care not for the pleasures and vanities of the world that can indure to suffer these So Justin Martyr saith when he saw Christians suffer he thought they were men that cared not for pleasures for if they had they would not suffer these things Besides They can gather from the presence of Gods spirit imboldening the sufferers what they may hope for themselves if they should suffer They may reason thus Is God by his spirit so full and so strong in these that are flesh and blood as we are is he so strong in women in young men in aged men that neither their yeares nor their sex nor their tenderness can any kind of way hinder them from these kind of abasements and sharp sufferings surely the same spirit of God will be as strong in me if I stand out in the same cause and carrie my self as they do and there is good reason for God is the same God the spirit is the same spirit the cause is the same cause therefore it is no false reasoning I may upon a good presumption hope for the presence and assistance of the Spirit of God to inable and strengthen me as he did them for the same Spirit of Godwill be strong in all And this is partly likewise in the intent of them that suffer There is a double intent it is the intent of God to single them out to suffer for the good of others and it is their intent to suffer that others may have good This is one reason why they are willing rather to suffer shame or bodily punishment then they will hinder others of the good they may take by their suffering So it is Gods end and their end It is for your consolation in Gods intent and in my intent and purpose and in the event it self Thus you see how afflictions suffered in good cause help for the consolation and salvation even of others the example of those that suffer flow into the mind and insinuate into the judgment and affection of the beholders many wayes And this the Factors of Antichrist know very well for if ever there be any persecution again we shall hardly have fire and fagor that they may not give example they will come to Gun-powder plots and Massacres and such violent courses to sweep away all They know if it come to matter of example once the grace of God in his children and the presence of his Spirit that shall appeare to others it is of a wondrous working force they are wise enough to know that the Devill teacheth them that wit when he hath been put by all his other shifts If it be so that the sufferings of Gods Children are for the good of others then to make some use of it Let us not take any offence at the cause of religion for suffering we ought not to have an ill conceit of a cause for suffering but rather think the better of it I speak it is in this regard we have many that will honour the Martyrs that are dead that are recorded in the book but if any suffer in the present view before their eyes they are disgracefull to them This should not be For first of all if the cause be good the end of good men by the help of the spirit of God is for thy good Was it not a cruell thing in Saul to strike at David when he played on his Harpe when he sought his good and easement To kill a Nightingale in singing it is a barbarous thing Gods Children by all that they suffer intend the good of others now to hurt and and maligne them in doing good to persecute them that indure ill for our good or that labour and do any thing for our good it is a barbarous savage thing All is for the Elect I suffer not for the Elects sake saith St. Paul in 2. Tim. so my sufferings are for you We may know we are elected of God if we take good by the sufferings of others if we take no scandall and offence and doe not add affliction to the afflicted for all is in Gods intent and in their intent for our good For instance a little to enlighten the point because it is not usually stood on and it is a notion that may help our conceits of the excellent estate of Gods Children Reprobation to go as high as we may it is for their good to shew mercy to them to set by and neglect so many and to single them out The creation of the World is for their sakes Gods providence directs all for their Good for why doth he suffer wicked men it is that they may be instruments to exercise them that are good it is by reflexion or some way for the cause of the good that the wicked are suffered to be upon the earth The administration of the world it is not for the Rebels that are in it it is for those that are Gods Children and he tosseth and tumbleth Empires and Monarchies the great men of the world they think they doe great matters but alas all this is for the exercise of the Church this is reductive to the Church by Gods providence All their attempts are for the little flock for a few that are a despised company that he meanes to save
if we had eyes to see it So likewise his Ordinances are to gather this Church which he hath chosen from all the world to himselfe the Ordinances of the Ministrie and of the Sacraments the suffering of Ministers the doing and suffering of Christians all is for their good as we see in this place I suffer for your consolation and comfort Heaven and earth stands for them the Pillars of Heaven and earth would be taken asunder and all would come to a Chaos an end would be of all if the number of them were gathered that are the blessed people of God for whom al things are The doings and sufferings of Gods people we doe not know indeed that are Ministers who belong to God and who do not but our intent is to do good to those that are Gods and the issue proves so the rest God hath his end in it to harden them and bring them to confusion to take excuse from them but the reall good of all our pains and suffering is the Elects Let us examine what good we take by Ordinances of God and by the sufferings of the present Church and the sufferings of the former Church doe their examples animate and quicken and encourage us to the like courses It is a signe we are elected of God there is no greater signe of a good estate in grace then a gratious heart to draw good out of the examples of others and to draw good out of every thing that befals us because Gods end in election and his manner of providence is to guide all to their good Again we learn another thing likewise how God over-rules in his providence the projects of carnall men of the Devil and his instruments and Agents and Factors God over-rules all things that which in it self is ill and in the intendment of the inflicter is ill yet God turnes it to the good of others and the good of them that suffer too Satan intends no such matter as it is said Isa. 10. Nebuchadnezzar thinks no such thing Ashur the rod of my wrath he intends no such matter they intend not the consolation of Gods when they wrong the Saints of God and so exercise their patience and Grace No they intend their hurt and confusions It is no matter what they intend but God at the first created light out of darkness and in his providence doth great matters by small meanes in his providence over his Church he doth raise contraries out of contraries he turns the wicked proiects of men to contrary ends and makes all serviceable to his own end In state-policie he is accounted the wisest man that can make his enemies instrumentall to his owne purpose that can make others serve his own turne to work his own ends by others that are his opposites and he had need of a great reaching head that can doe so The great providence of Heaven doth thus God is the wisest Polititian in the world All other policie is but a beam from that Sun he can make instrumentall and serviceable to him his very enemies And this is the torment of Satan that God over shoots him in his own bow he over-reacheth him in his own policie where he thinks to doe most harme he doth most good in those afflictions whereby he thinks to quell the courage of the Church God doth exceeding good to them and enlargeth the bounds of the Church this way It is an ordinary speech The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church The Word of God is the seed of the Church how then is the blood of the Martyrs and Sufferers the seed of the Church Thus the Word of God is the seed of the Church how As it is in the Bible in the book No as it is published in preaching much more as it is published in confession and much more as it is published and sealed in Martyrdome by suffering the Word of God so laid open as not onely spoken but confessed and practised in life and not onely so but sealed by induring any thing thus it is the seed and works strongly God over-rules all inferiours though they have contrary motions in their own intent to his yet he brings them about to his end As we see the Heavens have a contrary motion to the first Heaven that carries the rest the primum mobile yet they are turned about by another motion contrary to the bent of themselves they goe one way and are carryed another As we see in the wheels of the Clock one runs one way another another all make the Clock strike all serve the intent of Clock-maker so one runns one way and another another Carnall men offer disgrace and disparagement to Gods people their intent is to overthrow all to disgrace and to trample on the cause of Religion but God useth contrary wheels to make the Clock strike all turnes in the issue to his end Therefore though we say in our common speech that the Devill is the God of this world it is the Scripture phrase and it is so in regard of the wicked that are under him yet he is a God under a God there is but one Monarch of the World he is a God that hath not power over Swine further then he is suffered It is a point of wondrous comfort that though we be thus used yet there is an active providence there is one Monarch one great King that rules all It is a ground of patience and contentment in whatsoever we suffer not to look to the next instrument but look to the over-ruling cause that will turn all in the issue to our good This Joseph comforted his Brethren with you sent me and of an ill mind too but God turned it to good It was no thank to them yet it was no matter he comforted them in this that God turned their malice to his good and to their good too for he was sent as a Steward to provide for them And it is one ground why to think more moderately in regard of anger fiercenesse against wicked men it is a ground of pittying of them for alas poore soules what do they though they intend it of malice they are but instruments and shall be over-ruled to do good contrary to their meaning as St Paul saith here Whether I be afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation The worst intents and designes of the enemies of Religion was for the consolation and salvation of the Corinthians It is good to think of this before hand it is a ground of patience and not onely so but of comfort and joy which is a degree above patience God over-rules all thus Therefore we should quietly cast our selves wholly upon him willing to doe and suffer whatsoever he will have us knowing that he will direct all to the good of the Church to our comfort and his own glory Again a further use may be this to teach us to communicate our estate to others because it is for their
even as it is in the natural body so likewise in the mystical body there is a sympathy between the members Likewise they partake of the sufferings of others by way of proportion they suffered in their kind and proportion as he suffered though perhaps not in the same very individual kind There is a portion of suffering in the Church some suffer one way and others another but all partake of sufferings in some degree or other Then again they did partake of St Pauls sufferings in preparation and disposition of mind howsoever now they did not suffer as much as he yet saith he I know as farre as the spirit of God is in you you are prepared to suffer and what we are prepared to doc that we do Christ saith we sell all for the Gospel when upon serious examination of our hearts we find we can part with it when we set our selves to examination what cannot I part with for Christ can I part with my goods Can I part with my life if we can once come to resolution it is done as Abraham is said to sacrifiee his Son because he resolved to do it and David is said to build the Temple because he intended to do it God looks upon us in our resolutions and preparations what we resolve to do that is done So saith he you are partakers of my sufferings not onely by sympathy and in proportion of sufferings but you are prepared he speaks charitably and lovingly to suffer whatsoever I suffer if God call you to it And the ground of Christians partaking of the sufferings one of another it is the communion that is between Christians they are all Members of one body if the hand suffer the head suffers the head thinks it self wronged when the hand or the foot is wronged by reason of the sympathy between the Members as I said and so it is in the mysticall body of Christ. There are these three unions which depend one upon another The union of Christ with our nature which is inseparable it is an eternali union he never laies that blessed mass of our flesh aside which he took which is the ground of all our comfort for God is now at one with us because God hath taken our nature on him and satisfied the wrath of God his Father Next the union of Christ with our nature is the union of Christ mysticall Christ and his Members when they suffer Christ suffers their sufferings are the sufferings of Christ. The third is the union of one Member with another that what one Member suffers another doth suffer therefore the Corinthians were partakers of Christ because their sufferings were the sufferings of Christ and they were partakers of St. Pauls sufferings because his sufferings were their sufferings They were partakers of Christs sufferings because of the communion between the head and the Members and they were partakers of St Pauls sufferings because of the communion of one Member with another And surely there is not a heart that was ever touched with the Spirit of God but when he heares of any calamity of the Church whether it be in the Palatinate in France in the low Countries or in any Country in the world if he heare that the Church hath a blow it strikes to the heart of any man that hath the spirit of God in them by a sympatheticall suffering It is one good signe to know whether a man be of the mysticall body or no to take to heart the grievance of the Church As good Nehemiah did he would not take comfort in the pleasures of a Court in the King of Babylons Court when it went not well with his Country when the Church was in distress he took their grievance to heart So Moses the very joyes of Pharaoh's Court could not please him when he considered the abasement of his Country-men he joyned with them and it is called the rebuke of Christ. So it is with all the people of God there is a communication of suffeings As you are partakers of the sufferings so you shall be also of the consolation Wherein two things are observable First That a necessary precedent condition of comfort is sufferings And then the consequent of this that those that suffer as they should are sure of comfort These two things unfold the meaning of the spirit of God here Before there be comfort there must be suffering for God hath established this order even as in nature there must be a night before the day and a Winter before a Summer so in the Kingdom of Christ in his ruling of the Church there is this divine policie there must be suffering before comfort God will sooner break the league and the Covenant between day and night then this league of suffering and comfort the one must be before the other it was so in our head Christ he suffered and then entred into his glory so all his Members must be comfortable to him in suffering and then enter into their glory The reasons of this are diverse First of all this method and order is first suffering and then comfort because God finds us in a corrupt estate and something must be wrought out of us before we can be vessels to receive comfort therefore there must be a purgation one way or other either by repentance or if not by repentance by affliction to help repentance there must be suffering before comfort The soule is unfit for comfort Secondly This order commends and sweetens comfort to us for fire is sweet after cold and meate is sweet after hunger so comfort is sweet after suffering God fits us to comfort by this by purging out what is contrarie to comfort And he indeares comfort by this those that have felt the cross comfort is comfort indeed to them heaven is heaven indeed to him that hath had a hell in his conscience upon earth that hath been afflicted in conscience or outwardly persecuted it set a price and value upon comfort Partly likewise to sharpen our desire of comfort for suffering breeds sence and sence that stirs up desire and desire is eager now suffering it makes comforts pretious and sets us in a wondrous strong desire after them And by this meanes likewise God comes to his own end which is that our comforts may be eternall therefore we have that which is ill in the first place Woe to us if it should be said to us as to Dives in the Gospel Son son thou hadst thy good here and now thou must have thy ill God intends not to deale so with his Children but they tast the worst wine first and better afterward because he intends eternall happiness to them he observes this method first ill and then good the best at last If this be so then why should we be offended at Gods order why should we not take it not onely gently and meekly but joyfully the afflictions that God sends to prepare and fit
us for happiness to sharpen our desire to happiness to make it pretious to us Certainly it is a ground not onely of patience and meekness but of joy and comfort in all the things we suffer Will a Patient be angrie with his Chyrurgion for searching of his wound he knows that that is the way to cure him Will any man take offence at the Gold-Smith for purging his mass they know that is the way to purifie it and fetch out the dross This is the method in nature the ground muft be plowed and prepared and then comes the harvest let us be content with this method and rejoyce in any suffering knowing it will have a blessed issue and not to think much at suffering any thing for a good cause in our selves or by way of sympathy or support with others because this is the high way to a better estate if we suffer with the Church or for the Church any kinde of way we shall be comforted with the Church It is that which sweetens the cross that we are under hope of better still Who would not indure a little grievance in the way to have honour in the end to have ill usage in an Inne and to go to a Kingdom All our discomforts and afflictions are but by the way here and crosses are necessary for Travellers and here we are but in a travelling estate It should I say incourage us not to take offence at any thing that God exerciseth us with in this world nor to take scandal at the afflictions of the Church And then it should strike terrour to those that will not indure so much as a scratch a scoff a word a chip of the cross that will indure nothing doe they know that this is Gods order do they avoid crosses in any degree and do they think to have comfort No God will not change his order for them he hath established this order and heaven and earth shall faile rather then Gods order shall not be sure If we will have comfort we must suffer if we will avoid suffering and think to go to heaven another way then God hath ordained we may take our own way but we must give him leave to take his way in comforting advancing whom hewil and that will not be us because we wil not frame our selvs to his order we must not look for hisdignitie if we wil not suffer with him we shal not reign with him The next thing observable in the order is this that Those that suffer as they should are sure of comfort There is a threefold conformity with Christ in suffering grace glory Those that are not conformable to him in suffering they cannot be conformable to him in grace and if they be not in grace they shall not in glory He took upon him our nature abased first and our nature purified and our nature glorious he hath now in heaven so our nature in us must keep this order First it must be abased as our flesh was in him and then filled with grace by little and little and then glorious as our nature is in him If we will not suffer our flesh to be abased and exercised with afflictions and let God worke his own good work as he pleaseth this way we are not conformable to Christ who was first abased and then advanced what was wrought in his blessed flesh must be wrought in his mysticall body in all his Members by little and little Therefore those that are tender and way-ward to indure any thing when God cals them to it they are enemies to their own comfort God hath set down this order if they do not partake of the sufferings of the Church they shall not partake of the comfort Oh it is a cursed estate to be out of the condition of Gods people and it is a comfortable thing to have part with those that are good yea even if it be in suffering with them It is better to have communion with Gods people in suffering then to have communion with the wicked in the world in reigning and triumphing And that is the reason that the spirit of God in the Prophet made him desire Deale with me Lord as thou usest to deale with those that feare thy name he knew he deals well enough with them visit me with the salvation of thy children he knew that was a speciall salvation so to have God deal with us as he deals with his and to visit us in mercy and love as he visits his own it is a speciall favour It is better to beare the crosse with them that we may partake with them in the comfort then to have all the comforts that the wicked have and to share with them in the misery afterward Therefore let us be content to share with Gods people in their suffering when we heare of any that suffer for a just cause though we have no sufferings of our own let us beare a part with them and with the bond of the communion of Saints help what we may And it is as true on the contrary if we partake with the wicked in their sins we shall partake with them in their punishment Therefore the Scripture saith Come out of Babylon my people lest if you partake of her sins so you partake of her punishments Now Atheisticall people think it nothing to enter into league and amity and society with prophane people that are professedly so not onely by weakness but those that are stigmatized but what saith the Scripture and the Holy Ghost doth not trifle with us Come out of Babylon my people lest you partake of her plagues which is not meant so much locally to come out of the place as in disposition to come out in respect of liking and converse and secret intimate communion Lots sons in law they thought it was but trifling they gibed as Atheists do now when they hear the Ministers incourage people to make much of religion and to set against those that are opposite they think they are inforced to it and it is upon mistake c. though it be as palpable as the light of the sun they deal as Lots sons in law when he warned them to come out of Sodome and he was pulled out they would believe nothing till fire came down from Heaven and destroyed them all it was too late then Therefore let us hearken to the counsell of the Angell let us not make this a matter of scorne a light matter but as we desire to have no part in their confusion so avoid their courses The Scripture is terrible to those that after the breaking out of the light will be such there is not more direct Scriptures against any kind of men then those that willfully cleave to Antichrist therefore we should not esteem it a light matter but think of it seriously indeed And not onely in respect of them but all wicked society were it not pitie that men should be severed from them hereafter
whose company they will not be severed from now If thou see an Adulterer a Blasphemer a wicked licentious Atheisticall person and thou runnest into the same excesse of riot with him thou wilt not be drawn by any perswasions ministeriall or friendly or by thine own light which knows his course to be naught to retire from his society dost thou not think to share with him afterwaâ—…d in his judgment As you are all Tares so you shall be bound in a bundle and cast into Hell together As the wheat shall be gathered into Heaven so the tares a cursed company that will cleave together though they be damned for it as they clave together as burrs and tares here so they shall be cast into Hell together that is the end of dissolute unruly creatures that nothing will sever them from those who in their own consciences they know rheir courses to be naught Our hope of you is steadfast There is a double certainty a certainty of the truth of the thing and a certainty of the estate of the person The certainty of the truth is this Those that suffer with Christ his Church shall be glorified with Christ and his Church the certainty of the truth is more certain then Heaven and Earth Now besides the certainty of the truth or thing there is interposed a certainty of the persons that as they were interessed in the sufferings so they should be in the comforts And this is true as well as the former for Gods promises are not meer Idea's wanting truths that have no performance in the persons but if the thing be true it is true in the person to whom the truth belongs Suffering goes before Glorie therefore if we suffer we shall be glorified But this is the condition if they suffer with Christ then St. Paul takes it for certain that they shall be glorified with Christ. There is not the same certainty of the persons as of the truth it self the truth is certain by a certainty of faith but the certainty of the persons is the certainty of a charitable perswasion I am perswaded that you will suffer with me in sympathie and therefore I am perswaded in the certainty of charity that you shall of a certain have the comfort Our hope of you is steadfast St. Paul you see hath a good conceit of them that he might incourage them to sympathize and take to heart his crosses and to take good by them A good hope of others hath a double efficacy It hath one efficacy in the partie that hath the good hope of another It stirs him up to be diligent to take all courses that may be for the good of another As the speech is Hope stirs up to work it stirs up endeavour so it doth in the husband-man and in every kind of trade hope quickens endeavour A man will never sowe upon the sands he loseth his cost a man will never bestow his pains upon those that he thinks are desperate And what is it that dulls and deads endeavour I despair of ever doing such a man good when those despairing thoughts enter into the soul there is a stop of all endeavour And surely Christians are much to blame that way when they might have ground if charity were in them at least of hope of others upon some hard despairing conceits they cast off hope and so neglect all endeavour of doing good to others The Spirit of God is wittie in the hearts of his Children to observe all advantages of doing good therefore it is willing to entertain all offers of good in others if they be but willing to hear reproof if they be willing to hear comfort and to hear good discourse it will make a good construction of their errours if it may be except it be those that are maliciously obstinate it will impute it to passion or to ill company to one thing or other as far as possible it will admit of a good construction love in Gods Children will admit of it and love stirs up to hope and hope stirs up to deal with them for their good I know that charity is not sottish but yet it is willing to think the best where there is probability of good for the present or where there is a tractablenesse where there is a willingnesse to entertain communion where there is any propension we must be of our blessed Saviours disposition who will not quench the smoaking flax nor break the bruised Reed we must draw all and drive none away This is one speciall fruit and effect that hope hath in the partie that doth hope toward another Now as it is good for the Speaker to be well conceited so it is a good preparative in the Hearer it hath a winning power in the partie hoped of it is a great attractive for we willingly heare those that conceit good of us St. Paul here works upon the naturall disposition in all which is that they love to be well thought of and natural dispositions are strong It is the natural disposition for every man to love where he is well thought of and it is not sinful unless it be in vain-glory to desire to have good place in the esteem of others And there a man will labour to carrie himself answerable to the good conceit had of him There is a conflict in the worst man where he is well conceitd of he labours to maintain it except it be those that are mightily inthralled as some wretches are to blasphemie and to a cursed life that they care not but else if they be well thought of it will stirre them up to maintain it he is a dissolute man he is not a man so farre as he is careless of this he is brutish and sensless St. Paul in saying Our hope is stedfast concerning you He wins himself into their good opinion and so by that meanes he hoped to prevail with them for greater matters So hope it stirs up men to do good and it makes the other willing to receive good for it makes them willing to content them that hope well of them St. Paul was led with this heavenly wisdome and that which made him so industrious was hope of prevailing and that which made him prevaile with others was the good conceit he had of them He would gather upon every one when he saw Agrippa come on a little Agrippa believest thou the Scriptures I know thou believest Almost thou perswadest me to be a Christian saith he and so he comes in a little It is good as much as may be to have hope of others But what is his degree of hope Our hope of you Is stedfast He had a stedfast hope that if they were sufferers they should be partakers of the comfort The Observation may be this that Divine truthes are such as we may build a stedfast hope on the performance of them Divine truthes divine comforts they are of that nature that though we doe not yet injoy them
yet we may build certainly upon them I hope stedfastly that if you be partakers of the sufferings you shall be partakers of the comforts A man cannot say so of any thing else but divine truths a man cannot say of any other or of himself I hope stedfastly to be rich I hope stedfastly to be great or I hope stedfastly to live long the nature of the thing is uncertaine the state of the world is vanitie and life it self and all things here will not admit of a certain apprehension For the certaintie in a mans understanding it follows the certaintie of the thing or else there is no adequation when there is an evenness in the apprehension to the thing then it is true but if we apprehend any thing that is here that either riches or life or favour will be thus or thus long it is no true apprehension we cannot build a certain hope upon an uncertain ground But of divine truthes we can say if we see the one undoubtedly the other will follow if we see the signs of grace in any man that he is strong to indure any disgrace for religion any discomfort then we may say Certainly as you partake of the afflictions of Christ and of the afflictions and sufferings of his people his body mysticall so undoubtedly you shall be partakers of the comfort of Gods people heaven and earth shall faile but this shall never faile Is not this a comfort to a Christian that when he is in the state of grace he hath something that he may build on when all things else faile In all the changes and alterations of this life he hath somewhat unalterable the certainty of divine comforts the certainty of his estate in grace though he be in an afflicted estate as verily as he is afflicted so verily he shall be comforted If we suffer with Christ we shall be glorified with him Upon what ground is this certainty built that if we suffer we shall be glorified It is built upon our union with Christ it is built upon the communion we have with the Church of God we are all of one body and it is built upon his own experience as verily as I have been afflicted and have comfort so shall you that suffer be comforted what I feele you shall feele Because in things necessary there is the like reason from one to all if one be justified by faith all are justified by faith if one suffer and receive comfort all that suffer shall receive comfort Divine comforts are from one to all from the head to the bodie from the body to every member If Christ suffered I shall suffer if I be of his body if Christ was comforted I shall be comforted Divine truths they agree in the head and the Members if it be true in one it is true in all St. Paul felt it in his own person and saith he as I have felt afflictions increase and comforts increase so shall it be with you you shall be partakers of the comfort now or hereafter And it is built likewise upon Gods promise which is surer then heaven and earth If we suffer with him we shall be glorified with him as the Apostle saith Rom. 8. All these are grounds to found this stedfast hope on And then the nature of God he is a just God a holy God and when we have taken the ill we shall finde the sweet as in 2 Thess. 1. It is just with God to render to them that afflict you trouble and to you comfort God hath pawned his justice upon it and he will observe this order where he begins in trouble he will end in comfort it is just with God and therefore I may be perswaded It should be a special comfort to all that are in any sanctified cross whether it be for a good cause or no. If a man find that he stands out for a good cause then there is more matter of joy it is matter of triumph then but if they be crosses common to nature if a man find them sanctified as they are onely to Gods Children they learn humility by them they learn heavenly-mindednesse they learn patience they learn more carefulnesse by their afflictions if it be thus sanctified then a man may say to such a one As you partake of the sufferings so you shall partake of the comfort though you feel it not for the present Is it not a comfort for a Patient to have his Physician come to him whom he knowes to be wise and speaks by his book to say to him Be of good comfort you shall never die of this disease this that I give you will do you good there was never any that took this potion but they recovered would not this revive the patient Now when the Physicians of our soules shall come and tell a man by discerning his state to be good by discerning signes of grace in his abasement Be of good comfort there is good intended to you your sufferings shall end in comfort undoubtedly we may well be perswaded of this God will never vary his order Therefore when we are in any trouble find God blessing it to us to abate our pride to sharpen our desire to exercise our graces when we find it sanctified let it comfort us it shall turn to our further comfort We find a present good that is a pledge of a further good It will make a bitter potion to go down when the Physitian saith it will do you good how many distastfull things do poore Creatures endure and take down to cure this carcase it were offensive to name what distastfull things they will take to do them good Let us take this cup from Gods hand let us endure the Crosse patiently whatsoever it be It is a bitter cup but it is out of a Fathers hand it is out of a sweet hand There may be a miscarrying in other Physick but Gods Physick shall certainly do us good God hath said it All things shall work for the best to those that love him he hath said it before-hand we may presume and build our perswasion upon this issue that all things shall worke for our good What a comfort is this in all the entercourses and changes of this life when we know before that whatsoever we meet with it hath a command from God to do us good it is medicinable though it seem never so ill to do us good to work ill out of us by the blessing of God But to proceed VERS 8 9. For we would not Brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia that we were pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that we despaired even of life But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead HEre Saint Paul comes to the particular explication of what he had generally spoken before he had generally said before that he had both comfort and
death yet I shall sleep in the Lord as when I goe to sleep I hope to rise again so I trust when the resurrection shall come that my body shall waken and arise I trust in God that raiseth the dead because he raiseth the dead he can recover me if he will if not he will make this body a glorious body afterward so every way it was a strong argument with Saint Paul I trust in God that raiseth the dead The Apostle draws an argument of comfort from Gods power in raising the dead And it is a true reason a good argument he that will raise the dead body out of the grave he can raise out of miserie out of captivity the argument is strong Thus God comforts his people in Ezek. 37. in that parable of the drie bones that he put life in So the blessed Apostle St. Paul he speaks of Abraham Rom. 4. 17. He looked to God who quickneth the dead who calleth things that are not as though they were What made Abraham to trust in God that he would give him Isaac again he considered if God can raise Isaac from the dead if he please he can give me Isaac back again and though Isaac were the sonne of promise yet he trusted Gods Word more then Isaac the sonne of his love Why he knew that God could raise him from the dead though he had sacrificed him he trusted in God who quickneth the dead The resurrection then is an argument to stengthen our faith in all miseries whatsoever It strengthens our faith before death and in death I will not enter into the common place of that point concerning the resurrection it would be tedious and unjust beause it is not intended here but onely it is used as a special argument Therefore I will but touch that point God will raise us from the dead Nature is more offended at this then any other thing But St. Paul makes it cleare that it is not against nature that God should raise the dead 1 Cor. 15. To speake a little of it and then to speake of the use the Apostle made of it and of the use that we may make of it Saith the Apostle in that place speaking to witty Atheists that thought to have cavilled out the resurrection from the dead Thou fool thou speakest against nature if thou think it altogether impossible Look to the seed do we not see that God every spring raiseth things that were dead We see in the silk-worm what an alteration there is from a flie to a worm c We see what men can doe by Art they make glasses of what of Ashes We see what nature can doe which is the ordinary providence of God we see what it can do in the bowels of the earth What is gold and silver and pearle is it not water and earth excellently digested exquisitely concocted and digested That there should be such excellent things of so base a creature We see what Art and nature can do If Art and nature can do so great things why do we call in question the power of God if God have revealed his Will to do so why do we doubt of this great point of Gods raising the dead The Ancients had much adoe with the Pagans about this point they handled it excellently as they were excellent in those points which they were forced to by the adversaries and indeed they were especially sound in those points I say they were excellent and large in the handling of this but I will not stand upon that it is an Article of our Creed I believe the resurrection of the body Indeed he that believeth the first Article of the Creed he will easily believe the last he that believes in God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth he will easily believe the resurrection of the body But I will rather come to shew the Use of it God will raise the dead Therefore Gods manner of working is when there is no hope in extremity as I touched before he raiseth us but it is when we are dead he doth his greatest works when there is least hope So it is in the resurrection out of troubles as in the resurrection of the body when there is no hope at all no ground in nature but it must be his power altogether that must do it then he falls to work to raise the dead Therefore our faith must follow his working he raiseth the dead he justifies a sinner but it is when he is furthest from grace a sinner despairing of all mercie then he hath the most need of justification He raiseth the dead but it is then when they are nothing but dust then it is time for him to work to raise the dead He restores but it is that which is lost God never forgets his old work this was his old manner of working at the first still every day he useth it he made all of nothing order out of confusion light out of darkness This was in the creation and the like he doth still he never forgets his old work This St. Paul being acquainted with he fastneth his hope and trust upon such a God as will raise the dead Therefore make that use of it that the Apostle doth when the Church is in any calamity which is as it were a death when it is as in that 37. of Ezekiel drie bones Comfort your selves God comforted the Church there that he would raise the Church out of Babylon as he raised those dead bones the one is as easie as the other So in the government of the Church continually he brings order out of confusion light out of darkness and life out of death that is out of extream troubles when men think themselves dead when they think the Church dead past all hope then he will quicken and raise it so that he will never forget this course till he have raised our dead bodies and then he will finish that manner of dispensation This is Gods manner of working We must answer it with our faith that is in the greatest dejection that can be to trust in God that raiseth the dead Faith if it be true it will answer the ground of it but when it is carried to God it is carried to him that raiseth the dead therefore though it be desperate every way yet notwithstanding I hope above hope I hope in him whose course is to raise the dead who at the last will raise the dead and still delights in a proportion to raise men from death out of all troubles and miseries Well this God doth and therefore carrie it along in all miseries whatsoever in soul in body or estate or in the Church c. God raiseth from the dead therefore we must feel our selves dead before we can be raised by his grace What is the reason that a Papist cannot be a good Christian he opposeth his own conversion what is conversion It is the first resurrection the resurrection of
truth and though with much weaknesse yet we call upon thee in truth therefore we cannot but be perswaded of thy goodnesse that thou wilt be near us so it is a prevailing course because it is obedience to Gods order And it is a prevailing course because likewise it sets God on work Faith that is in the heart and that sets prayer on work for prayer is nothing but the voyce of faith the flame of faith the fire is in the heart and spirit but the voyce the flame the expression of faith is prayer faith in the heart sets prayer on work what doth prayer that goes into heaven it pierceth heaven and that sets God on work because it brings him his promise it brings him his nature Thy nature is to be Jehovah good and gracious and merciful to thine thy promise is answerable to thy nature and thou hast made rich and precious promises As faith sets prayer on work so prayer sets God on work and when God is set on work by prayer as prayer must needs bind him bringing himself to himself bringing his word to him every man is as his work and his word is as himself God being set on work he sets all on work he sets heaven and earth on work when he is set on work by prayer therefore it is a prevailing course he sets all his attributes on work for the deliverance and rescue of his Church from danger and for the doing of any good he sets his mercy and goodnesse on work and his Love and whatsoever is in him You see then why it is a prevailing course because it is obedience to God and because it sets God on work it overcomes him which overcomes all it overcomes him that is omnipotent We see the woman of Canaan she overcame Christ by the strength that she had from Christ. And Moses he overcame God Let me alone why dost thou presse me Let me alone It offers violence to God it prevails with him and that which prevails with God prevails with all things else the prayer of faith hath the promise The prayer of a righteous man in faith it prevails much saith St. James Consider now if the prayer of one righteous man prevail much what shall the prayer of many righteous men do as St. Paul saith here my prayers and your prayers being joyned together must needs prevail For instances the Scripture is full of them how God hath vouchsafed deliverance by the help of prayer I will give but a few instances of former time and some considerations of later time For former times in Exod. 17. you see when Amaleck set upon the people Moses did more good by prayer then all the army by fighting as long as Moses hands were held up by Aaron and Hur the people of God prevailed a notable instance to shew the power of prayer In 2. Chron. 14. Asa prayed to God and presseth God with arguments and the people of God prevail In 2. Chron. 20. there you have good King Jehosaphat he prayes to God and he brings to God his former experience he presseth God with his covenant with his nature and the like arguments spoken of before and then he complaines of their necessity Lord we know not what to do our eyes are towards thee And Gods opportunity is when we are at the worst and at the lowest then he is near to help We know not what to do but our eyes are towards thee saith that blessed King and then he prevailed So the Prophet Isay and Hezechias they both joyn together in prayer to God and God heard the Prophet and the prayer of the King they spread the letter before the Lord and prayed to God when Rabshakeh rayled against God and they prevailed mightily Hester was but a woman and a good woman she was the Church was in extremity in her time she takes this course she fasted and prayed she and her people and we see what an excellent issue came of it the confusion of proud Haman and the deliverance of the Church In Act. 12. Herod having good successe in the beheading of James being flushed with the blood of James he would needs set upon Peter too the Church fearing the losse of so worthy a pillar falls to praying see the issue of it God struck him presently Wo be to the birds of prey when Gods Turtle mourns when Gods Turtle the Church mourns and prayes to God wo be to those birds that violently prey on the poor Church Wo be to Herod and all bloody persecuting Tyrants wo be to all malignant despisers of the Church when the Church begins to pray For though she direct not her prayers against them in particular yet it is enough that she prayes for her self and her self cannot be delivered without the confusion of her enemies you see these instances of old I will name but some of later times what hath not prayer done Let us not be discouraged prayer can scatter the enemies move God to command the winds and the waters and all against his enemies What cannot prayer do when the people of God have their hearts quickned and raised to pray Prayer can open heaven prayer can open the womb prayer can open the Prison and strike off the fetters it is a pick-lock We see in Act. 16. when St. Paul was cast in Prison he prayed to God at midnight and God shakes the foundations of the Prison and all flies open So St. Peter was in Prison he prayes and the Angel delivers him What cannot prayer do it is of an omnipotent power because it prevails with an omnipotent and almighty God Oh that we were perswaded of this but our hearts are so full of Atheisme naturally that we think not of it we think not that there is such efficacy in prayer but we cherish base conceits God may if he will c. and put all upon him and never serve his providence and command who commands us to call upon him and who will do things in his providence but he will do them in this order we must pray first to acknowledge our dependance upon him If we were throughly convinced of the prevailing power of prayer what good might be done by it as there hath been in former times certainly we would beg of God above all things the spirit of supplication And if we have the spirit of prayer we can never be miserable if a man have the spirit of prayer whatsoever he want he causeth it from heaven he can beg it by prayer and if he want the thing he can beg contentation he can beg patience he can beg grace and beg acquaintance with God and acquaintance with God it will put a glory upon him It is such a thing as all the world cannot take from us they cannot take God from us they cannot take prayer from us if we were convinced of this we would be much in prayer in private prayer in publick prayer for our selves for the Church of
publick meetings Severed thanksgiving is not so acceptable a thanksgiving God doth bestow all good upon us in the body as we knit our selves not onely in thanksgiving to him but in love to the Church as all things are derived from God to us in the body so let our praise return to God in the body as much as we may It shews what a hatefull thing Schisme and division is in the Church besides many other inconveniences God wants glory by it God loves to be praised by many joyning together As the Apostle saith here Thanks shall be given by many c. Many not as they are many persons but as they are many godly persons that are led by the Spirit of God Therefore if the praise of many be so acceptable it should first be an incouragement to union In John 17. saith our Saviour Christ there I pray that they may be one as we are one It was the sum of that heavenly prayer the unity of the Church to the end of the world That they may be one as we are one the Trinity should be the patern of our unity Because I say all good is in union and all that comes from us that is accepted of God it must be in peace and union God so loves peace and a quiet disposition inclinable to peace that he neglects his own service till we have made peace one with another Mat. 5. If thou have any offence with thy brother if thou have done him any wrong or he thee go and be reconciled to him and then come and bring thy offering God will stay for his own offering he is content to stay for his own service till we be at peace one with another whether it be prayer or praise if we be not at peace it is not acceptable Again this should teach us to stir up others when we praise God and others have cause as well as we that thanks may be given by many When we are in trouble call upon others and as it is the common and commendable fashion desire others to pray for us that prayer may be made by many and when we receive any favour any deliverance from any great danger acquaint others with it that thanks may be given by many It was the practice of David in Psalme 66. Come I will tell you what the Lord hath done for my soul. And in Psal. 34. and in Psal. 142. ult Bring my soul out of trouble that I may praise thy Name and what shall others do Then the righteous shall compasse me about for thou hast dealt bountifully with me Shewing that it is the fashion of righteous men when God hath dealt graciously with any of his Children they compasse him about to be acquainted with the passages of divine providence and Gods goodnesse towards them The righteous shall compasse me about for thou hast dealt bountifully with me Holy David in Psalme 103. he stirs up every creature to praise God even the creatures of haile of stormes and windes and every thing even the Blessed Angels as we see in the latter end of that Psalme as if thanksgiving were an imployment fit for Angells and indeed so it is and as if all his own praise were not enough except all the creatures in heaven and earth should joyn with him in that blessed Melody to praise God the Angells and all creatures praise God Let us stir up one another to this exercise How do the creatures praise God They do praise God by thy tongue although they have a kind of secret praise which God heares well enough for they do their duty in their place willinglly and chearfuly but they praise God in our tongues every creature gives us occasion of praising God That thanks may be given by many c. Many give thanks here for one Saint Paul for the Minister We see here Gods end that many should praise God not onely for themselves but for others especially for those by whom God conveys and derives good unto them whether outward or spirituall good The Apostle exhorts us to pray for all men 1 Tim. 2. For Kings yea though they were persecuting Kings at that time And surely if we ought to pray to God for all mankind we ought to praise God for all sorts of men especially for Governours and Ministers c. because God by them bestowes his greatest blessings Obey the Magistrate Let every soule be subject to the higher Powers for the powers that are are ordained of God and he is the Minister of God for thy good so the Governours and Ministers of God are for our good We ought therefore as to pray for them that they may execute their office for our good so to praise God for the good we have by them You know David stirred up the people to mourn for Saul though a Tyrant He cloathed you and your Daughters saith he with skarlet If they should praise God for a persecuting King and mourn for him when he was gone much more should we for those that are good And so likewise for Pastors we ought to praise God for them and all that have good by them will pray to God and praise God for them And undoubtedly it is a sign of a man that hath no good by them that prayes not for them and that praiseth not God by them we ought to praise God in that proportion as well as to pray to God one for another And this should stir us up to be good to many that many may praise God not onely for themselves but for us If it be our duty to pray for those that we derive good by and to praise God for them then let us labour to be such as may communicate to others Good is diffusive and good men are like the box in the Gospell that when it was opened all the house smelled of it The heathen Philosopher said that a just man a good man is a common good like a publick stream like a publick Conduit that every man hath a share in Therefore as the Wise man saith When good men are exalted the City rejoyceth many rejoyce Who would not therefore labour in this respect to be good to have a publick disposition to have a large heart to doe all the good we can That so we may not onely have more prayers to God for us but we may have more praise to God for us that God may gaine by it That thanks may be given by many on our behalf Let us take notice of our negligence in this kind and be stirred up to this blessed duty And therefore consider wherein it consists It consists in our taking notice of the favours of God to our selves and others and in valuing the good things that we praise God for to esteem them The Children of Israel they did not blesse God for the mannah they did not value it This Mannah this Mannah in scorn So in Psalme 106. They neglected Gods pleasant
things they set light by them Hosea 8. 12. He gave them the great things of his law and they accounted them as slight as strange things not worthy to be regarded Praise consists in taking notice and not onely in taking notice but in remembring and minding them as in Psal. 103. My soul praise the Lord and forget not all his benefits And likewise in an estimation of them and likewise in expressing this thankfulnesse in words Awake my glory our tongues are our glory especially as they are instruments to praise and glorifie God we cannot use our language better then to speak the language of Canaan in praising of God Likewise praise consists in doing good which is reall praise though we say nothing Moses cryed to God though he spake not a word Evill works have a crie although they say nothing Abels blood cried against Cain and as evill works so good works have a crie though a man praise not God with his tongue his works praise God Job saith The sides of the poore blessed him What could their sides speak No but there was a reall thanksgiving to God their sides blessed God so our good works may praise God as well as our tongues and hearts The heavens and the earth they praise God though they say nothing because they stir us up to say something Let men see your good workes that they may take occasion from thence to blesse God saith Christ. Or else your praising of God is but a meer complementing with God to give him thanks with the tongue and after to dishonour him with your lives Psal. 50. What hast thou to do to take my Name into thy mouth sith thou hatest to be reformed what hast thou to do to take my Name into thy mouth either in prayer or in praise when thou hatest to be reformed High words are unseemly for a foole saith the Wise man and what higher words then praise Therefore praise for a man that lives in a blasphemous course of life in a filthy course of life praise is too high a word for a fool we must praise God in our lives or else not at all God will not accept of it It consists in these things Now some directions how to perform it for our selves and others If we would praise God for our selves or for any then let us look about us let us looke above us and beneath us let us look backward look to the present look forward every thing puts songs of praise into our mouth Have we not matter enough of our own to praise God for let us look about us to the prosperity of others let us praise God for the Ministery praise God for the Magistracy praise God for the government wherein we live There are many grievances in the best government but a Christian heart considereth what good he hath by that government what good he hath by that ordinance and doth not onely delight to feed on the blemishes as flies do upon sores it is a sign of a naughty heart to do so Although a man should not be insensible of the ills of the times for else how should we pray against them yet he is not so sensible as to forget the good he hath by them If we would praise God let us look to the good and not so much upon the ill Look up to heaven look to the earth to the sea David occasions praise from every creature every creature ministers matter of praise from the stars to the dust from heaven to earth from the Cedar to the Hisop that growes by the wall Is there not a beam of Gods goodnesse in every creature have we not use of every creature we must praise God not only for the Majesty and order that shines in them but for the use of them in respect of us And so let us look to the works of Providence as well as to the works of Creation Look to Gods work in his Church his confounding of his enemies his deliverance of his Church the Churches abroad our owne Church our owne persons our friends thus we should feed our selves that we may have matter of praising God God gives us matter every day he renewes his favours upon the place wherein we live and upon us as itis Lam. 3. It is his mercy that we are not all consumed Let us look back to the favours that we have injoyed let us look for the present what doth he do for us The Apostle saith here God doth deliver us doth he not give deliverance and favour and grace inward grace for the time to come hath he not reserved an inheritance immortall and undefiled in the heavens for us Wherefore doth he bestow things present and wherefore doth he reveal things laid up for us for the time to come but that we should praise him but that we should praise him for that which he means to do afterwards Blessed be God the Father who hath begotten us to an inheritance immortall and undefiled c. saith St. Peter God reveals good things that are to come that we are heires apparent to the Crown of glory this is revealed that we might praise him now that we might begin the imployment of heaven upon earth Let us look upward and downward let us look about us look inward look backward look to the present look forward every thing ministreth matter of praise to God Yea our very crosses happie is he whom God vouchsafeth to be angry with that he doth not give him over to a Reprobate sense to fill up his sins but that he will correct him to pull him from ill courses happie is he that God vouchsafeth to be angry with in evill courses There is a blessing hid in ill in the Crosse. In all things give thanks saith the Apostle what in afflictions I not for the affliction it self but for the issue of it There is an effect in afflictions to draw us from the world to draw us to God to make us more heavenly-minded to make us see better into these earthly things to make us in love with heavenly things In all things give thanks When we want matter in our selves let us look abroad and give thanks to God for the prosperity of others And with all in the second place when we look about us let us dwell in the meditation of the usefulnesse of these things of the goodnesse of God in them till our Hearts be warmed It is not a slight God be thanked that will serve but we must dwell upon it let our hearts dwell so long on the favours and blessings of God till there be a blessed fire kindled in us The best bone-fire of all is to have our hearts kindled with love to God in the consideration of his mercy Let us dwell so long upon it till a flame be kindled in us A slight praise is neither acceptable to God nor man And then let us consider our own unworthinesse let us dwell upon
that I am lesse then the least of all thy favours saith good Jacob Gen. 32. If we be lesse then the least then we must be thankful for the least Humility is alway thankful a humble man thinks himself unworthy of any thing and therefore he is thankful for any thing A proud man praiseth himself above the common rate he over-values and over-prizeth himself and therefore he thinks he never hath enough when he hath a great deal he thinks he hath lesse then he deserves and therefore he is an unthankful person And that makes a proud man so intolerable to God he is alway an unthankful person a murmuring person A humble man because he undervalues himself he thinks he hath more then he deserves and he is thankfull for every thing he knowes he deserves nothing of himself it is the meere goodness of God whatsoever he hath The best direction to thansgiving is to have a humble and low heart rherefore David 1. Chron. 29. 14. when he would exercise his heart to thankfuluesse when the people had given liberally saith he Who am I or what is this people that we should be able to offer willingly after this sort all comes of thee and all is thine own that we give What am I or what is this people that we should have hearts to give liberally to the Temple see how he abaseth himself And Abraham I am dust and ashes shall I speak to my Lord And Job I abhor my self in dust and ashes when he considered Gods excellencie and his own basenesse A humble heart is alway thankful and the way to thankfulnesse is to consider our humilitie What am I saith David he had a heart to be thankfull of thine own I give thee not onely the matter to be thankfull for but of thine owne I give thee when I give thee thanks thou givest me a thankfull heart As the Sacrifice that Abraham offered was found by God so God must find the sacrifice that we offer even a thankfull heart of thine own Lord I give thee even when I give thee thanks Therefore you may make that a meanes to have a thankfull heart to pray for a thankfull heart And when we have it blesse God for it that we may be more thankfull God must vouchsafe the portion of a thankful heart with other blessings he that gives matter to be thankful must give a heart to be thankful Again to make us more thankfull do but consider the misery of our selves if we wanted the blessings we are thankfull for and the misery of others that have them not Thou that hast health if thou wouldest be thankfull for it look abroad look into hospitalls look on thy sick friends that cannot come abroad Thou that wouldest be thankfull for the libertie of the Gospell look beyond the seas look into the Palatinate and other Countries and certainly this will make thee thankfull if any thing will If we would be thankfull for spirituall blessings consider the miserie of those that are under the bondage of Satan how there is but a little step between them and hell that they are ready to sink into it there is but the short thread of this life to be cut and they are for ever miserable If we would be thankful for any blessing let us consider the misery to be without it If we would be thankful for our wits let us consider distracted persons What an excellent Engine to all things in this life and the life to come is this spark of reason If we want reason what can we do in civill things What can we do in matters of grace Grace presupposeth nature if we would be thankfull for health for strength and for reason if we would be thankful for common favours consider the miserie of those that want these things Would we be thankful for the blessed ordinance consider but the miserie of those that sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death how they are led by Satan and want the means of salvation Those that would be thankfull for the government we have let them consider those that live in Anarchie where every man lives as he lists where a man cannot enjoy his own The consideration of these things it should quicken us to thankfulnesse the consideration of our own misery if we should want them and the misery of those that do want them And let us keep a Catalogue of Gods blessings it will serve us as in regard of God to blesse him the more so in regard of our selves to establish our faith the more for God is Jehovah alway like himself whom he hath done good unto he will do good to he is constant in his love Whom he loves he loves to the end God shall have more thanks and we shall have more comfort Again to add some encouragements and motives to thankfulnesse which may be a forcible meanes to make us thankful do but consider it is Gods tribute it is Gods custom do but deny the King his custom and what will come of it deny him tribute and you forfeit all so you forfeit all for want of thankfulnesse What is the reason that God hath taken away the Gospel from countries abroad and may do from us if we be not more thankfull because they were not thankfull it is all the tribute all the impost he sets upon his blessings I will give you this but you shall glorifie me with thanksgiving It is all the honour he looks for He that praiseth me honoureth me And now O Israel what doth the Lord require of thee for all his favours but to serve him with a chearful and good heart to be thankful What is the reason that the earth denies her own to us that sometimes we have unseasonable years We deny God his own he stops the due of the creature because we stop his due When we are not thankful he is forced to make the heavens as Iron and the Earth as Brasse we force him to make the creature otherwise then it is because we deny him thankfulnesse The running of favours from heaven ceaseth when there is not a recourse back again of thankfulnesse to him For unthankfulnesse is a drying wind it dryes up the fountain of Gods favours it binds God it will not suffer him to be as good as his word If ever God give us up to publick judgments it will be because we are not thankfull to God for favours and deliverances as that in 88. by Sea and from the Gunpowder treason by land Was it not a sick State after Queen Mary when Queen Elisabeth received the Crown The Church and Common-wealth were sick Now if we be to praise God for our particular persons when we have recovered our health much more should we praise God when the State when the Church is delivered as it was at the comming in of Queen Elizabeth and afterward in 88. and of late time and continually he doth deliver us And if we
look that he should deliver us not onely our persons but the State wherein we live let us pray to God that he would do so and praise God for his former deliverance Again this is another motive the praising of God for formet deliverances it invites him to bestow new blessings Upon what ground doth the Husband-man bestow more seed upon that which hath yielded most in time past Will any man sowe in the barren wildernesse where it is lost No but where he looks to reap most and hath done formerly Where he sees a soil that is fruitfull he will sowe it the more and where the heart is a barren wildernesse that it yields nothing back again he takes that away that he gave before You know there is a debt in giving there must be a returning of thanksgiving alway and kindnesse requires kindnesse there is an obligation And where benefits are taken and men are thankfull that is the way to get more to be thankfull for that we have For God minds his own glory above all things and he will especially be bountifull to those from whom he sees he hath most glory therefore alway those that have been richest in grace and in comfort they were most in thankfulnesse as we see in David a man after Gods own heart and in diverse others Let this incourage us First if we be not thankfull it stops the current of benefits Secondly if we be thankfull God will give us more mercies and deliverances when we praise him in our hearts in our lives in our bounty to others in reall thankfulnesse when we are ready to good works then he is ready to bestow new still Again to stir us up to this duty of praising God for our selves and others Consider it is the beginning of heaven upon earth what a happinesse is it that when our persons cannot go to heaven till we die till our bodies be raised yet we can send our Ambassadors we can send our prayers and thanksgivings to heaven and God accepts them as if we came in our own persons Let your conversation be in heaven saith the Apostle How is that by praising God much I pray what is the imployment of heaven of the Angells and blessed Spirits They praise God continually for the work of Creation and for the work of Redemption that is their especiall task in heaven Our duty is to be much this way in praising God Self-love forceth prayer oft-times but to praise God comes from a more heavenly affection Again do but consider that no creature in the world is unthankful but divells onely and divellish men and good men onely so far as they are corrupt and hold correspondencie with their corruptions for every creature praiseth God in his kind set the divell aside who is full of envy and pride and malice against God therefore except we will be like the Divells let us be thankfull God hath made all creatures to praise him and to serve us that we may praise him and when they praise him shall we blaspheme him May not the swearer think with himself every creature blesseth God even the senselesse creatures and shall I dishonour God by my tongue which should be my glory to glorifie him shall I blaspheme him and be like to the divel shall I be more base then the senselesse creatures What glory hath God by many men that live in the Church that blaspheme God and their whole life is a witnesse against God as the whole life of a Christian after he is in the state of Grace is a witnesse for God and a praising of him his whole life is a thanksgiving so the whole life of wicked and carelesse creatures is a dishonour of God it is a witness against God There are none but divells divellish-minded men but they praise God even the very dumbe creatures Let us labour to have a part in that blessed musick and harmonie to praise God if we do not praise God here we shall never do it in heaven But we must remember by the way that this thankfulnesse it must be a fruitful thanksgiving As for us to pray to God to blesse us and then to do nothing it is a barren prayer so to thank God and then to do nothing it is a barren thanksgiving Our deeds have words our deeds have a voyce to God they speak they pray there is a kind of prayer a kind of thanks in our works Works pray to God they have a kind of crie to God both ill works and good works and if good works have a crie to God in prayer they will have a voice in thanksgiving this fruitful this real thanks is that which God stands upon And therefore it is alway joyned with a study how to improve the things that we thank God for to the best advantage If we thank God for health and recovery and deliverance we will labour to improve it to Gods glorie if we be thankful to God for riches for peace we will improve that to grow in grace to do good to others There is never a thankful heart but it studies to improve that which it is thankful for really that God may have the Glory and it the comfort and benefit by it or else it is but a lip-labour but a lost labour Let us shame our selves and condemne our selves for our unthankfulnesse and that will be done by comparing our carriage to men with our carriage to God If so be that a man do us a little courtesie how are we confounded if we have not returned some thanks and yet notwithstanding from God we have all that we have all that we are all that we hope to have and yet how many benefits do we devoure and do not re turn God thanks This disproportion will shame the best Christian that he is not so quick in his devotion to God to be thankful there as he is sensible of small kindnesses done by men this is a good way to make us more thankful And now when we come to the Sacrament let us blesse God The Eucharist is a thanksgiving where there are many there should be thanksgiving where there is a communion there is many and thanksgiving should be especially of many met together to thank God for Christ and for the good we have by him for if many joyned together in praise for St. Paul that was but a Minister that was but an instrument to set out the praise and the Doctrine of Christ much more should we be thankfull to God for Christ himself which is the gift of all gifts and for which he gives us all other gifts if he give us him can he deny us any thing If we be thankful for the health of our bodies as indeed we should if we be thankful for the peace of our humours much more should we be thankful for the peace of our consciences when our soules are set in tune when God and we are friends when the soul by
will tell them that it is another manner of sin and that it is the fountain of all sin And so for Justification by works conscience it self if there were no Book of God would say it is a false point And then they plead for Ignorance they have blind consciences their Clergy being a subtile generation that have abused the world a long time because they would sit in the conscience where God should sit they sit in the Temple of God and would be respected above that which is due to them they would be accounted as petty gods in the world therefore they keep the people from the knowledge of the true rule and make what they speak equal with Gods word Now if the people did discern this they would not be Papists long for no man would willingly be cozened Let us labour therefore for a true rule And when we have gotten rules apply them for what are rules without application Rules are instrumental things and instruments without use are nothing If a Carpenter have a rule and hang it up by him and work by conceit what is it good for So to get a company of rules by the word of God to refine natural knowledge as much as we can and then to make no use of it in our lives it is to no purpose therefore when we have rules let us apply them In this those that have the true rule and apply it not are better then they that refuse to have the rule because as hath been said an Ignorant man that hath not the rule he cannot be good But a man that hath the rule and yet squares not his life by it yet he can bring the rule to his life there is a near converse between the heart and the brain such a man he hath the rule in his memory he hath it in his understanding and therefore there is a thousand times more hope of him that cares to know that cares to hear the word of God and cares for the meanes then of sottish persons that care not to hear because they would not do that they know and because they would not have their sleepy dull and drowsie conscience awaked there is no hope of such a one It should be our care to have right rules and in the application of them to make much of conscience that it may apply aright in directing and then in comfort If we obey it in directing it will witnesse and excuse and upon witnesse and excuse there will come a sweet Paradise to the soul of joy and peace unspeakable and glorious The last thing I observe from these words is this that The testimonie and witnesse of conscience is a ground of comfort and joy The reason of the joyning these two the witnesse of a good conscience and joy it is that which I said before in the description of conscience for conscience first admonisheth and then witnesseth and then it excuseth or accuseth and then it judgeth and executeth Now the inward execution of conscience is joy if it be good for God hath so planted it in the heart and soul that where conscience doth accuse or excuse there is alway execution there is alway joy or fear the affections of joy or fear alway follow If a mans conscience excuse him that he hath done well then conscience comes to be enlarged to be a Paradise to the soul to be a Jubile a refreshing to speak peace and comfort to a man For rewards are not kept altogether for the life to come hell is begun in an ill conscience and heaven is begun in a good conscience an ill conscience is a hell upon earth a good conscience is a heaven upon earth therefore the testimony of a good conscience breeds glorying and rejoycing Again conscience when it witnesseth it comforts because when it witnesseth it witnesseth with God and where God is there is his Spirit and where the holy Spirit is there is joy for even as heat followes the fire so joy and glorying accompany the Spirit of God The Spirit of glory Now when conscience witnesseth aright it witnesseth with God and God is alway cloathed with joy he brings joy and glory into the heart Conscience witnesseth with God that I am his And it witnesseth with my self that I have led my life thus Our rejoycing is the witnesse of our conscience It is not the witnesse of another mans conscience but my own other men may witnesse and say I am thus and thus but all is to no purpose if my own conscience tell me I am another man then they take me to be But when a man 's own conscience witnesseth for him there followes rejoycing A man cannot rejoyce with the testimony of another mans conscience because another man saith I am a good man c. unlesse there be the testimony of my own conscience Now it is a sweet benefit an excusing conscience when it witnesseth well Let us see it in all the passages of life that a good conscience in excusing breeds glorying and joy It doth breed joy in Life in Death at the day of judgement In life in all the passages of life in all estates both good and ill In good the testimonie of conscience breeds joy for it enjoyes the pleasures of this life and the comforts of it with the favour of God conscience tells the man that he hath gotten the things well that he enjoyes that he hath gotten the place and advancement that he hath well that he enjoyes the comforts of this life with a good conscience and all things are pure to the pure If he have gotten them ill conscience upbraids him alway and therefore he cannot joy in the good estate he hath If a man had all the contentments in the world if he had not the testimonie of a good conscience what were all What contentment had Adam in Paradise after once by sin he had fallen from the peace of conscience none at all A little that the righteous hath is better then great riches of the ungodly because they have not peace of conscience And so for ill estate when conscience witnesseth well it breeds rejoycing In false imputations and slanders and disgraces as here it was insinuated into the Corinthians by false teachers and those that followed them that St. Paul was so and so saith St. Paul You may say what you will of me My rejoycing is this the testimony of my conscience that I am not the man which they make me to be in your hearts by their false reports The witnesse of conscience is a good and sufficient ground of rejoycing in this case Therefore holy men have retired to their conscience in all times as Saint Paul you see doth here So Job his conscience bare him out in all the false imputations of his comfortlesse friends that were miserable comforters they laboured to take away his sincerity from him the chief cause of his joy Yeu shall not
estate is not good because it is not such an estate So foolish and as a beast was I before thee saith David because I regarded such things No marvell if men be uncomfortable that are led away by scandals Look to faith goe to the Word to the Sanctuarie I went to the Sanctuary saith he and there I saw the end of these men So conscience must be suffered to have its work to be led by a true rule Again conscience sometimes concludes not comfort when there is ground of comfort from the remainders of corruptions and infirmities whereas we should be driven by our infirmities to Christ. And conscisence sometimes in good men doth not exercise its work in good men it is drawn away with vain delights even in the best men And conscience of its owne unworthinesse and of the greatnesse of the things it lookes for being joyned together it makes a man that he joyes not when he hath cause As for instance when the soule sees that God in Christ hath pardoned all my sins and hath vouchsafed his Spirit to me and will give me heaven in the world to come to such a wretch as I am here being a conflict between the conscience and sense of its own unworthinesse and the greatnesse of 〈◊〉 good promised the heart begins to stagger and to doubt for want of sound faith Indeed if we look on our own unworthinesse and the greatnesse of the good things promised we may wonder but alas God is infinite in goodnesse he transcends our unworthinesse and in the Gospell the glorie of Gods mercy it triumphs over our unworthinesse and over our sins whatsoever our sin and unworthinesse is his goodnesse in the Gospel triumphs over all In Innocency God should have advanced an innocent man but the Gospel is more glorious for he comes to sinners to condemned persons by nature and yet God triumphs over their sins and unworthinesse he regards not what we deserve but what may stand with the glory of his mercy therefore we should banish those thoughts and enjoy our own priviledge the promises of heaven and happinesse and all comforts whatsoever so much for the answer of that objection Now if we would joy in the witnesse of a good conscience we must especially in the time of temptation live by faith and not by feeling not by what we feele for the present but as we see Christ in his greatest horrour My God my God why hast thou forsaken me he goes to my God still We must live by faith and not by sense And then if we would rejoyce in extremities remember that God works by contraries God will bring us to heaven but it must be by hell God will bring us to comfort but it must be by sense of our own unworthinesse He will forgive our sins but it must be by sight and sense of our sins he will bring us to life but it must be by death he will bring us to glorie but it must be by shame God works by contraries therefore in contraries believe contraries When we are in a state that hath no comfort yet we may joy in it if we believe in Christ he works by contraries As in the Creation he made all out of nothing order out of confusion So in the work of the new creation in the new creature he doth so likewise therefore be not dismayed Remember this rule likewise that in the covenant of Grace God requires truth and not measure thou art not under the law but under the covenant of Grace A little fire is true fire as well as the whole element of fire A drop of water is water as well as the whole Ocean so if it be true faith true grief for sins true hatred of them true desire of the favour of God and to grow better truth is respected in the covenant of Grace and not any set measure What saith the Covenant of Grace He that believes and repents shall be saved not he that hath a strong faith or he that hath perfect repentance So Saint Paul saith as we shall see after This is our rejoycing that in simplicity and sincerity we have had our conversation among you he doth not say that our conversation hath been perfect So if we would have joy in the testimony of conscience we must not abridge our selves of joy because we have not a perfect measure of Grace but rejoyce that God hath wrought any measure of Grace in such unclean and polluted hearts as ours are for he least measure of Grace is a pledge of perfection in the world to come This is our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience c. Hence we may gather clearly that A man may know his own estate in Grace I gather it from the place thus Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity c. Where there is joy and the ground of joy there is a knowledge of the estate but a Christian hath glorying and a ground of glorying in himself and he knowes it he hath that in him that witnesseth that estate he hath the witnesse of conscience therefore he may know and be assured of it If this testimony were not a true testimony it were something but all men naturally have a conscience and a Christian hath a sanctified conscience and where that is there is a true testimony and true joy from that testimony therefore he may be assured of his salvation and have true joy and comfort a Heaven upon Earth before he come to Heaven it self If conscience testifie of it self and from witnessing give cause of joy much more the Spirit of God comming into the conscience The Spirit beares witnesse with our spirits If our spirit and conscience bear witnesse to us of our conversation in simplicity and sincerity and from thence of our estate in grace much more by the witnesse of two By the witnesse of two or three every thing shall be confirmed but our spirits and conscience and the Spirit of God which every Child of God hath witnesseth that we are the Children of God Rom. 8. The Spirit witnesseth with our spirits that we are the sons of God Therefore a Christian may know his estate in Grace The spirit of a man knowes himself and the Spirit of God knowes him likewise and it knowes what is in the heart of God and when these two meet the Spirit of God that knowes the secrets of God and that knowes our secrets and our spirit that knowes our heart likewise what should hinder but that we may know our own estate It is the nature of conscience as I told you to reflect upon it self and upon the person in whom it is to know what is known by it and to judge and condemne and execute it self by inward fear and terrour in ill and in good by comfort and joy in a mans self It is the property that the soul hath above all creatures to return and recoyle upon it self If this be
comforted then it is most terrible at the hour of death we should have most comfort if we had any wisdom when earthly comforts shall be taken from us and at the day of judgment then an ill conscience look where it will it hath matter of terrour If it look up there is the Judge armed with vengeance if it look beneath there is hell ready to swallow it if it look on the one side there is the divell accusing and helping conscience if it look round about there is heaven and earth and all on a fire and within there is a hell where shall the sinner and ungodly appear If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the sinner and ungodly appear at that time O let us labour to have a good conscience and to exercise the reflect power of conscience in this world that is let us examine our selves admonish our selves judge our selves condemn our selves do all in our selves Let us keep court at home first let us keep the assizes there and then we shall have comfort at the great assizes Therefore God out of his love hath put conscience into the soule that we might keep a court at home Let conscience therefore do its worst now let it accuse let it judge and when it hath judged let it smite us and do execution upon us that having judged our selves we may not be condemned with the world If we suffer not conscience to have its full work now it will have it one day a sleepy conscience will not alway sleep if we do not suffer conscience to awake here it will awaken in hell where there is no remedy Therefore give conscience leave to speak what it will perhaps it will tell thee a tale in thine ear which thou wouldest be loath to hear it will pursue thee with terrours like a blood-hound and will not suffer thee to rest therefore as a bankrupt thou art loath to look in thy books because there is nothing but matter of terrour This is but a folly for at the last conscience will do its duty it will awaken either here or in hell Therefore we are to hope the best of them that have their consciences opened here there is hope that they will make their peace with God that they will agree with their adversary while they are in the way If thou suffer conscience to be sleepy and drowsie till it be awaked in hell wo unto thee for then thy estate is determined of it will be a barren repentance Now thy repentance may be fruitful it may force theeto make thy peace with God dost thou think it will alway be thus with thee Thou besottest thy conscience with sensualitie and sayest Go thy way and come another time as he said to St. Paul I will tell thee this peace will prove a tempest in the end Conscience of all things in the world deserves the greatest reverence more then any Monarch in the world for it is above all men it is next unto God and yet what do many men regard the honour 〈◊〉 their friends more then conscience that inward friend that shall accompany them to heaven that will go with them to death and to judgement and make them lift up their heads with joy when other friends cannot help them but must needs leave them in death Now for a man to follow the humours of men to follow the multitude and to stain conscience what a foolish wretch is he though such men think themselves never so wise it is the greatest folly in the world to stain conscience to please any man because conscience is above all men Again those that follow their own humours their own dispositions and are carried away with their own lusts it is a folly and madnesse for the time will come that that which their covetous base lust hath carried them to that shall be taken away as honours riches pleasures which is the fuel of that lust which makes them now neglect conscience all shall be taken away in sicknesse or in the time of despair when conscience shall be awaked Now what folly is it to please thy own lust which thou should'st mortifie and subdue and to displease conscience thy best friend and then when thy lust is fully satisfied all that hath been fuel to it that hath fed it shall be taken away at the hour of death or some special judgement and conscience shall be awaked and shall torment thee for giving liberty to thy base lusts and to thy self And those eyes of thy soul that thy offence delighted to shut up there shall some punishment come either in this life or in that to come that shall open those eyes As Adams eyes were opened after his sin why were they not open before he had such a strong desire to the apple he did not regard them but his punishment afterward opened those eyes which his inordinate desire shut So it shall be with every sinner therefore regard no man in the world more then thy conscience Regard nothing no pleasure no profit more then conscience reverence it more then any thing in the world Happie is that man that carries with him a good conscience that can witnesse that he hath said nor done nothing that may vex or grieve conscience if it be otherwise whatsoever a man gains he loseth in conscience and there is no comparison between those two One crack one flaw in conscience will prove more disadvantagious then the rest will be profitable Thou must cast up the rest again they are sweet bits downward but they shall be gravel in the belly We think when we have gained any thing when we have done any thing we shall hear no more of it as David said to Joab when he set him to make away Uriah Let not this trouble thee So let not this ill gain let not this ill speech or this ill carriage trouble thee thou shalt hear no more of this We take order to stop and silence conscience thinking never to hear more of it oh but remember conscience will have its work and the longer we defer the witnesse and work of conscience the more it will terrifie and accuse us afterward Therefore of all men be they never so great they are most miserable that follow their wills and their lusts most that never have any outward check or inward check of conscience but drown it with sensual pleasures As Charles the 9 th who at night when conscience hath the fittest time to work a man being retired then he would have his singing boyes after he had betreyed them in that horrible Massacre after which he never had peace and quiet And as Saul sent for Davids Harpe when the evil spirit was upon him So wicked men they look for forreign helps but it will not be for the greatest men with their forreign helps are most miserable The reason is because the more they sink in rebellion and sin against conscience the more they sink in terrours it shall be the
which we say hath no figure of its own but it is figured by the vessels that it is in if the vessel be round the water is round if the vessel be four-corner'd the water is so it being a thin airy moist body it hath no compasse of its own but is confined by the body it is kept in So some men they have no Religion they have no consistence no standing no strength or goodnesse of their own but such as their company is such they are and they think this will serve for all I must do as others do it is the fashion of the world If they be among Swearers they will swear if they be among those that ate unclean they will pollute themselves they frame themselves to all companies they will be all but that which they should be This will not serve the turn A Christian may pray for the assistance of God to keep him in the world and he may know that God will What ground hath he Our Saviour Christ Joh. 17. saith he Father I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but that thou keep them in the world He prayes for his Apostles and Disciples that God would keep them in the world from the contagion of sin and from the destruction of the world S. Paul you see lived and conversed in the world wheresoever he was in sincerity and simplicity he was not carried away with the stream and errours of the times wherein he lived Nay to adde more it doth unite the power of grace together and make a man the better the worse the company or the place is where he lives We know in nature the environing of contraries increaseth the contrary and holy men have been better oft times in the middest of temptation and have gathered their forces and strength of grace together more then when they have been more secure The envy and malice of the world is quick-sighted and the more they live amongst those that are observers of them the more cautelous they are of their carriage You know it is the Apostles reason Redeem the time because the daies are evil be you the better because the daies are evill witnesse for God in an evil Generation in evil times he doth not say Do you sin because the daies are evil Gods people do alwaies witnesse for him Let me adde this likewise to give farther light that we must not take occasion hence to conform and fashion our selves to any company to cast our selves into evil company when we need not We must not tempt God for then it is just with God to suffer us to be soyled with the company And by our carelesnesse in this kind we offend the godly that easily hereupon take us to be worse then we are and as we grieve the Spirit of God in them so in our selves and we build up and strengthen wicked persons And therefore this living in the world in simplicity and sincerity it must be when our calling is such that we live in the world that we need not any local separation to sever our selves but when in the world we are cast on men without grace by our callings and occasions we may presume that God will keep us by his Spirit Let us not be weary of hearing of this point For ere long we must all appear before God and then what an honour will it be for us that we have witnessed for God in this world that we have stood for God and good causes in the middest of the world and shined as lights in the middest of a crooked Generation That we have managed the cause of God and stood for Religion and held our own in the middest of Papists and Atheists and prophane persons and witnessed for the best things in spight of all when we have been called to it We are not to thrust our selves into unnecessary troubles no not for the best things unlesse we be called to it but when we are called and can witnesse for the best things what an honour will it be for us And on the contrary saith Christ He that denies me and is ashamed of me before men of him will I be ashamed before my heavenly Father What a fearfull thing is this Let us look to God in simplicity and sincerity and God will keep us that the world shall not hurt us What will become of us will some say this trouble we shall come into and that persecution will befall us It is not so Christ was opposed when he was here upon earth but till his hour was come they could not do any thing Every man hath his hour every man hath his time allotted to serve God in here God hath measured out his life and till his hour be come that God will take him out of the world God will bind up the endeavours of men their plots shall be to no purpose God will keep them and watch over them that are down-right Because thou hast kept my Word I will keep thee saith God Let us keep the Word of God in evil times and God will keep us let us stand for God and he will stand for us It is no plea to say I shall run into this danger and that danger God will be thy buckler and thy shield if thou stand for him And that which brings danger is too much correspondence with the world when men forsake their sincerity in the world when men will be on both sides they carry things unhappily and unsuccessefully A down-right atheist will carry things with better successe then a halting Christian. For his policy and subtilty will carry him to actions inconvenient but then comes his conscience after when he is in the middest of them and damps him that he cannot go forward nor backward Therefore the only way is to resolve to live in the world in simplicity and sincerity If we do so we may carry holy businesses strongly God will assist us therein he will increase our light and make our way plain and clear to us But if a man be not sincere but double and carnal and pretend love of Religion and yet take courses and do actions that are not suitable to Religion it will not succeed well God will curse it he will strike him with amazement he will strike his brain with errours in judgment c. There is no pretence therefore to make us live falsly and doubly in the world but we ought to live as S. Paul did let the world be as bad as it will or as it can be in simplicity and sincerity God will shew himself strong for those that walk uprightly he will be wisdome to such but if we walk doubly and falsly and make Religion our pretence God will shew himself our enemy Where be your newters then where be your Politicians in Religion that will keep their Religion to themselves S. Paul conversed in the world wheresoever he was in sincerity he made shew what he
the greatest judgement that God can shew in this world to give us up to our own wits to our own devices for we shall wind and turn and work our own ruine And that is the hell of Hell in hell when the soul there shall think with it self I brought my self hither God will be exceedingly justified when men by their own wit shall damne themselves When God hath revealed to man taught them this is the way O man I have shewed thee what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee he hath revealed it in his Word doe this and doe that and he hath given conscience to help and yet out of policie to contrive thy own pleasures and profits and advantages in the world thou hast done the contrary When a mans soul shall reason thus My owne wit brought me hither I am damned by wit I am damned by policie a poore policy it is that brings a man to damnation Therefore we should beg of God above all things that he would not deliver us up to our selves As Saint Austin hath a good speech Lord free me from my self from my own devices and policy The divell himself is not such an enemie as I said as our own carnal wit for it is that that betrayes us to Satan Satan could do us no harm unlesse he had a friend within us Therefore beg of God above all things Lord give me not up to my own brain to my own devices for man is a beast by his own knowledge but let thy wisdome and thy will be my rule Again if so be that we ought not to make this carnal fleshly wisdome the rule of our life then let us have a negative voyce ready presently for it whensoever we find any carnal suggestion in our hearts say nay to it presently deny it presently have a jealousie presently when any plot ariseth that is not warrantable by the Word of God and that is contrary to conscience and to simplicity and sincerity presently deny it consult not with flesh and blood as Saint Paul saith of himself Gal. 1. I consulted not with flesh and blood And when you have any thing to do Considering that this is not the rule you are to live by or when you have any thing to resist when you have any thing to suffer Consider what God requires consider what is for the peace of conscience consider what is for the good of your selves and for the good of the Church consult with these advisers with these intelligencers and not with flesh and blood Consider not what is for your profit for your pleasure for your ease but resolve against them Get the truth of God so planted in your hearts that it may carry you through all these impediments and all these suggestions whatsoever And because we cannot do this without a change we cannot have a disposition contrary to carnal wisdome without a change for except a man be born anew except he be a new creature he cannot have holy aimes you must labour therefore more and more to have the spirit of your mind renewed and to grow in assurance of a better estate for what makes men carnally to project for this world they are not sure of a better They reason thus with themselves It may be I may have heaven it may be not I am sure of the pleasures present of the profits present although alas it be but for a short time whereas if thy soul were enlightned with heavenly light and thou wert convinced of the excellent estate of Gods Children in this world in the state of grace That a Christian is incomparably above all men in the first-fruits of heaven in the peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost which is above all prosperity and all profit whatsoever And that in heaven which is above our capacity and reach every way they shall be happy if men were convinced of this certainly they would not prostitute their pates to work so worldly If they were sure of heaven they would not so plod for the earth Let us therefore labour to grow daily in the assurance of salvation beg of God his Spirit to have your minds enlightned And withal to joyn both together to see the vanity of all earthly things which set carnal wisdome on work For first outward things they work upon the sense upon the outward man profits and pleasures are outward things and therefore they work upon sense they work upon opinion in opinion they be so as indeed worldly things are more in opinion then in truth A carnal worldly man he thinks poverty a hell he thinks it is such a misery it is not so Labour to have a right judgmenr of the things of the earth that set carnal wisdome on work to avoid poverty to avoid suffering for a good cause The Devil inflames fancy fancy thinks it is a great hurt to be in poverty fancy thinks it is a great good to be in honour to be in credit to have great place that other men may be beholding to us Alas get a sanctified judgment to see what these things be that set our wits on work What are all these things Vanity and vexation of spirit Let our meditations walk between these two often think of the excellent estate of a Christian in this world and in the world to come and that will set heavenly wisdome on work it will make you plot and be politick for heaven And then withall see the vanity of all other things of pleasures and honours and profits and whatsoever that we may not prostitute our soules to them which are worse then our selves that our soules may not set themselves on work to project and proule for these things that are worse then themselves Let this be your daily practice the meditation of these two things is worthy to take up your cogitations every day To consider the vanity the vexation and uncertainty that accompanies all these things when you have got them as we see in Ahab when he had gotten the Vineyard Besides the vanity of thâ—… consider how you have gotten them and how miserable will you judge your selves presently How doth God meet with the carnal wits of men in the attaining of things The wicked man shall not roast that which he took in hunting He hunted after preferment he hunted after riches to scrape a great deal for his posterity how doth God deal with such he overthrowes them utterly and his posterity perhaps they spoyl all Himself roasted not that which he took in hunting Ahab got much by yielding to the carnal wisdome of Jezabel Hast thou gotten and also taken possession What became of Ahab with all his plots and devices Achitophel and others God may give them successe for a while but afterward he gives them the overthrow Herod he had successe a while in killing of James and therefore he thought to work wisely and get Peter too God struck him with Worms
so great a people as was committed to his charge God was so well pleased with his petition that he gave him wisdome and wealth and honour too Make this Use of it Let us consider what relation we stand in in what ranck God hath set us let us consider what good we are advantaged to do by the place we are in what helps we have to do it and what mischiefs and inconveniences may come and let every man in his place and standing consider what good he may do and what evil he may avoid and let us go to God for wisdome He that is a Magistrate let him do as Solomon did desire God above all things to give him wisdome to rule as he should that God would give him a publick heart for a publick place and he will do it And those that in their families would have wisdome to go in and out before them let them go to God for wisdome that they may avoid the snares that are incident to family-government distrustfulnesse worldlinesse unfaithfulnesse in their particular calling And so for personal wisdome to guide and manage our own persons let us desire wisdome of God to know the hidden abominations of our own hearts the deceits and subtilties of our own hearts which is out of measure deceitful To know our particular sins to know what hurts us and to know how to avoid it and how to carry our selves in our particular wayes to order our conversation aright every way We see here S. Paul led his life and conversation by that wisdome as it was needfull for him so he had it and we must go all to the same spring for it we must go to God And we must know that God will not onely make us wise to salvation that he will not onely give us wisdome in things that meerly concern heaven but the same love the same care that gives us wisdome that way will give us wisdome in our particular callings to take every step to heaven the same Spirit of God doth all He gives us grace necessary to salvation and he gives us grace likewise for the leading of a Christian life Therefore it is an abominable conceit to distinguish Religion from Policy and Government as if the reasons of Religion were one and the reasons of State were another and as if these were distinguished one against another it is an abominable Atheistical conceit for the same heavenly Spirit of God that reveales the mysteries of salvation reaveales likewise to men the mysteries of State Christ hath the keyes of heaven of the mysteries of God and he hath the keyes of all earthly policy whatsoever He hath the greater hath he not the lesse Doth he guide us by his Spirit in heavenly mysteries and then for matters of Policy and Government of States and Common-Wealths are we to be guided by the Devil by devillish carnal wisdome No he gives all wisdome in its due place even wisdome for common things Therefore consider when men will not be ruled by God by wisdome from above in the regiment and government of their lives how fearfully and shamefully they miscarry Partly by reason of the accidents of this life and the variety of businesse You know wisdome as it governs our life about the things of this world it deales with things unstable uncertain and vain as Solomon saith they continue not long in the same state therefore if a man have not a better wisdome then his own he shall be mightily to seek Partly because of the imperfection of his wisdome the things are imperfect and the wisdome without it be guided from heaven is much to seek oft-times Take the wisest man when he leaves heavenly wisdome once as we see in Solomon he thinks to strengthen himself by combination with Idolaters that were near to him did he not miscarry fouly And hath not God made the wisest man that ever were in the world exemplary for grosse miscarriages because they had too much confidence in their parts and neglected the guidance of God in the course of their lives Who was more fool then Achitophel who was a greater fool then Saul and then Heâ—…od The Emperours had great conceits Constantine the Great a good Christian Emperour he had a conceit if he could stablish a new Seat at Bizantium Constantinople it was called afterwards He would seat the Empire there he would rule Rome by a Vice Roy by another and he would be there himself and rule all the Eastern parts of the world A goodly conceit he had of it but this proved the ruine both of East and West For hereupon when he was absent from Rome the Pope of Rome he came up and grew by little and little The Emperours they thought they did a great matter to advance the Pope who was Christs Vicar a spiritual man they consulted with Carnal wisdome and he came and over-topped them and eat them out and out-grew them as the Ivie doth the tree that nourisheth it The Pope never left growing till he had over-topped them So men when they go to carnal wisdome and neglect prayer and neglect the counsel of God and the wisdome of God to guide them in the matters of this life as well as for the life to come they come to miscarry grosly Therefore let us take S. James his counsel We all lack wisdome let us every day beg it of God desire God every day that he would Make our way plain before u in our particular goings in and out that he would discover to us what is best And here I might take occasion to reprove sharply the Atheisme of many that would be accounted great States men that bring all Religion to reasons of State They bring Heaven under earth and clean subvert and overthrow the order of things and therefore no wonder if they miscarry They care not what Religion it be so it may stand with Peace whether it be false or true if it may stand with the peace of the State all is well Give me leave to touch it but in a word It is a most abominable conceit Religion is not a thing so alterable Religion is a commanding thing it is to command all other things and all other things serve that And it is not a matter of fancy and opinion as they think out of their atheisme to keep men in awe It is stablished upon the same ground as that there is a God that upon the same ground that we say God is upon the same ground we may say Religion is It teacheth us that that God is to be observed and that Christ is equal to him as God and inferiour to him in regard of his humanity c. So that there is the same ground that there is a God and that there is a Religion And so again by the same reason that there is one God by the same reason there is but one Religion And it is not any Religion that will serve the turn For
to the truth of the cause and not to his own honour or profit or pleasure he was content to be no wiser then the Book of God would have him to be to be no richer or greater in the world then God would have him but committed himself to God in simplicity and sincerity how did God maintain him wondrously to admiration I instance in him to shew how base distrust causeth things to be no better carried then they are Now to incourage you to go to the grace of God to go to the Fountain and not to be held under carnal wisdome under these pretexts Oh if I do not hearken to carnal wisdome I shall be a beggar I shall never rise I shall never do this or that in the world I shall never escape this and that danger Fie upon those base conceits S. Paul here renounceth the regiment of carnal wisdome what became of him did he want a guide Grace took him up Not by carnal wisdome but by the Grace of God When we come under the government of God we come under the government of grace And we shall want nothing either for heaven or earth that is for our good Whatsoever we had that was good before we were gracious that we keep still and it is under a better guide Were we learned before were we wise before had we authority before were we noble before we lose none of these when we come under Christ but he advanceth and elevates these he makes them better If we were wise he makes us graciously wise if we were learned if we were noble he makes us doubly noble we lose nothing but we are under a sweeter government the government of grace which is a mild government a government that tends to the advancing of us above our selves that advanceth us to be the Spouse of Christ and the heires of heaven Those that are in Christ Jesus and are led by his Spirit they are his In Rom. 8. there is excellently set down the prerogatives that they have those that lead their conversation in simplicity and sincerity those that are in Christ and in the Spirit and in Grace there is no Damnation to them And then again if they suffer any thing saith he The afflictions of this world are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed If they have any infirmities saith he The Spirit helps our infirmities The Spirit teacheth us how to pray when we know not how to pray If we suffer any evil God turns all to good All things shall work together for the best to them that fear God For infirmities in other things we have Christ and he makes intercession in heaven Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods people that are in Christ that are in Grace that are in the Spirit such as S. Paul was here it is Christ that is dead or rather that is risen again and makes intercession for us And if he have given us Christ shall he not with him give us all things else If he have given us Christ he will give us grace to bring us to heaven See the excellent estate of a Christian that is under the regiment of Christ that is led by the Spirit That Chapter may serve instead of all And see the sweet combination here how he knits these things together My rejoycing is this that I have not had my Conversation in fleshly wisdome but by the Grace of God Here is a knitting together of divers things that seem to differ as here is wisdome and simplicity I have had my conversation by the grace of God by wisdome and yet in simplicity For it is wisdome to be simple when a man hath strength of parts it is wisdome to bring them parts to simplicity It is wisdome to be simple concerning that which is evil for a man to be simple there is his best way there is wisdome joyned with his simplicity Then again besides Wisdome and Simplicity here is Our Conversation and Gods Grace both joyned together S. Paul by grace guided his conversation So God stirres us to do all that we do we see but he opens our eyes to see we hear but he opens our ears we believe but he opens our hearts to believe This I speak to reconcile some seeming difference Doth Gods Spirit do all and we do nothing We do all subordinately we move as we are moved we see as we are enlightned we hear as we are made to hear We are wise as far as he makes us wise we do but it is he that makes us do Saint Paul here led his conversation but it was grace that moved him to lead it graciously Well then he that joynes simplicity and wisdome together the wisdome of the Serpent and the simplicity of the Dove he that trusts in God and grace and yet in trusting to grace doth all that he can and goes on in a Christian course he shall rejoyce Our rejoycing is this that we have had our Conversation in simplicity and according to the rule of Grace not by fleshly wisdome Consider seriously of it what a joy will this be that we have led our lives by a rule different from the world that we have led our lives and courses according to the motion of Gods blessed Spirit this must needs bring joy and rejoycing with it in what estate soever The world joyn these together simplicity and sincerity of life where they see them that they may slander them that they may lay imputations upon them they see they are courses opposite to theirs and they lay load on them But what doth God where there is simplicity and wisdome and a holy Conversation he addes his Spirit he joyns the Spirit of grace which is a Spirit of joy alwaies As light and comfort go with the Sun so the Spirit of joy and comfort go alway with the Spirit of grace Saint Paul here in regard of the world was afflicted he received the sentence of death he was slandered and misused yet to God-ward saith he Our rejoycing is this that we have led our Conversation according to Grace according to the motion of Gods blessed Spirit and not with fleshly wisdome If this be so that the joy of Gods Spirit goes with the grace of Gods Spirit and that those that lead their conversation by grace have a rejoycing above all imputations and slanders whatsoever Let this be an incouragement to us to lead a godly life we all seek for joy every creature seeks for joy if we would have joy within us if we would have a spring of joy let us labour to lead a conversation by this rule by grace by the motion of Gods Spirit which is ready to guide us if we commit our selves to his guidance But by the Grace of God To come then to make an Use of trial whether we lead our lives by this gracious wisdome or no and not by carnal wisdome And then to come to direct us how to lead our lives
by the grace of God which is the ground of all joy and comfort as S. Paul saith here How shall a man know whether he lead his life by this spiritual gracious wisdome or no I answer mark the opposition here Not with fleshly wisdome but by the Grace of God He then doth lead his life by the Grace of God that doth renounce carnal and fleshly wisdome Carnal wisdome is a false rule and it cannot stand together with grace they one expell another A double-minded man saith S. James is unconstant in all his waies that is he that hath two strings to his bowe he that will be content to be led by the grace of God and by the Word of God which is the Word of his Grace and yet notwithstanding he will have carnal policies he will have shifts too he is a double minded man he is not now under the government of grace he halteth as the Prophet tells the Israelites Why do you halt so he halteth between carnal and heavenly wisdome He is loath to renounce carnal wisdome no he thinks if he do he shall be a fool he shall lose this way of getting and that way of rising But he that is under the Spirit of God that is under Grace and is guided by it he will renounce the motions and stirrings of carnal wisdome When Carnall Wisdome like to Eve or like Job's Wife or like Peter shall suggest Oh spare your self why will you do this why will you go on in these courses yet notwithstanding he is able to renounce it The most of Gods Judgments in this world on his Children it is for this halting they have much carnal wisdome in them and God to work it out of them is forced to crosse them sharply in their projects and courses and all to bring them to rely on Grace to rely on his Government in the use of good meanes For we must serve Gods providence in the use of good means A man may know by Gods afflicting of his Children that they deal too much in carnal wisdome for if it were not for carnal wisdome if we would submit our selves to his sweet and easie guidance and use the lawful means that he hath discovered in a lawful calling if we would observe lawfull courses alas we should see a clear light and an easie passage we need not to use these shifts but because we cannot do so we are loath to trust him but we are double-minded we will be ruled by him a little but we will be politick and subtile therefore he sends crosses upon crosses upon our carnal ends and projects especially those that are his Children he will not suffer them to prosper in ill courses That is one sign those that are led by the grace of God they will not be led by Gods enemy and the enemy of their own soules now God and our own soules have not a worse enemy then carnal fleshly wisdome that is evident from the opposition Those that deny carnal wisdome that deny themselves and put themselves upon God it is a good Evidence And as it is a sign so it is a cause You see in holy Abraham when he had put himself on God and left his Countrey and his fathers house God guided him God took him into his government I am God Al-sufficient walk before me and be perfect God meanes this That by leaving all other things and cleaving to me thou shalt lose nothing thou shalt have all in me I will be al-sufficient therefore walk before me and be perfect be sincere A man shall never know what God will do for him till he put himself upon him and cease to try him and begin to trust him trust him once honour him of his Word have not a double eye partly to carnal means and partly to him but have a single eye to his wisdom and know that he will reward thee and keep promise It is an excellent thing to deny carnal wisdome How many Cavils might blessed Noah have had before he built the Ark The world would scorn him as an old doting man that would go about to be wiser then all the world besides But he denies all carnal reason and rejects the scornes of sinful persons and obeyes God and we see how God protected him and went on with him And so in David and S. Paul And to adde a little to that I touched before God usually strangely crosses carnal wisdome because men will not deny their carnall will and their carnal wit There was never any Politician in the world that ever was but complained of it if he lived any time in the world that God went beyond him Saith the Heathen man Tully I thought my self wise but I never was so and so they may all take up the same complaint God dashes the Imaginations of the proud They build a Babel a confusion to themselves and others that are led by carnal wisdome that will not trust to the grace of God Let no man flatter himself but trust in God and not rely upon carnal wisdome and such courses Those that will bring Religion to reasons of State and policy and subject the highest thing in the world to the basest thing which is carnal wit as I said before we see what they do The nature of man infinitely desireth the accomplishment of their will We see that where corruption may have the greatest advantage in greatnesse let them have their will they will overthrow a world to have it their wit is bent to serve their will All witty men that account it a heaven upon earth to have their will instead of law and conscience and all they set their wits on the strain to serve their will and so set themselves against God Is it not Gods honour to set himself against them Was there ever any fierce against God and prospered saith Job Denial of fleshly wit and will and wisdome it is both a sign and evidence of grace and it is a meanes likewise why Gods grace will lead us when we deny that which is strong in us God will make a supply by his Grace we are no losers by it Again you see here in the Text where the life is led by the Grace of God by the Spirit of God stirring us acting us leading moving and strengthening of us there a mans courses are in simplicity and sincerity the soul that is under grace will put it self simply upon God that soul will be no wiser then the Word of God makes it to be it will be no happier no richer then God makes it it will use no other meanes then what God allowes this is plainnesse and singlenesse and simplicity of heart Again it will be in sincerity where a man leads his life graciously his actions are sincere this grace as it comes from God so it tends to God sincerity looks to God it doth things as to God So that where Grace is it carries a man above himself to
me so you will judge of me to the end Why hath S. Paul such a trust of them as of himself Among many reasons this is one He knew that where God had begun a good work he would finish it he saw that he had begun a good work in them and therefore he knew that he would go on with it And then again God planted in him a good hope and trust of them because hope and trust stirre up indeavour to the thing hoped for Desperation doth quell all courage and cool all endeavour Now God because he would have us constant in our carriage and in the expressions of our love to other men he stirres up in us a trust that all shall be well with them Likewise S. Paul sets down his hope that God had put into his heart of them for his own comfort for it is a great comfort to a Minister or to a Christian when he is to deal with such as he trusts are good and will be good it is a heaven upon earth and therefore God doth plant good conceits of other men in us for this end partly to stirre up our endeavour to do all good to them and partly to comfort us For if the finall estate of any man were discovered to us that God had no delight in them concerning their salvation who would do any service of love for them or who would have comfort in conversing with them But when God stirs up in our hearts a good opinion of them partly it is good for them to stirre up our endeavour to do all good for them and it is good for us it is a great comfort And again it was an encouragement to them when they heard of Saint Paul's trust of them to the end that they should continue as they were For to have a good conceit and opinion of another man especially the good conceit of a Pastor it is a great encouragement And the best Christians in the world have need of it oft-times Besides the judgement of themselves which is sometimes shaken by Satan that they give a false witnesse of their own estate Oh it is comfortable that a man have the judgment of a man that looks without passion and temptation on him you have been thus and my trust and confidence is in God and the promise of God looking to your former course that you will be so to the end he gives not a false witnesse Saint Paul speaks thus to stirre up his own endeavour to do good to them and to comfort them that so great an Apostle should have so good an opinion of them Therefore let us labour I say to entertain as good a conceit of them among whom we live as their carriage will bear Two things usually are the object of our hope and trust while men are here before their estate be determined of in hell God may have mercy on them and deliver them out of the snares of Satan that hope should stirre up some endeavour to pray for them seeing their estates are not desperate they are not yet sunk into Hell Or else if we see them in the state of grace we should expresse our love in the services and offices of love because God hath already set his stamp on them There is no man living but we may trust and hope of him one way or other Those that we see no grace in as the Apostle saith 2 Tim. 2. we may have patience towards them seeing if at any time God will have mercy on them to deliver them out of the snare of the Devil It is not good to cast off all conceit and all hope of any man living the worst sign is when we see men malicious and oppose known truths because it comes near the sin against the Holy Ghost but because we may erre in that it is good to take the safest way But where we see evidences of grace though in never so little a measure let us entertain and cherish a good hope because it will cherish that which we are all bound to to love one another We are bound to love one another and to shew all the offices of love now that which stirres up love and all the offices of love is Hope Faith works by Hope as well as by Love Faith works by Love in all duties and it works by Hope in this duty if we hope that God will have mercy on them that will stirre up our endeavour but we are not much in this errour we are rather ready to conceit over-well then too ill of men I trust you shall acknowledge to the end Saint Paul here besides his good conceit of them to the end doth imply his own resolution and purpose to hold on in good courses to the end My trust in Gods grace is that you shall acknowledge to the end what I have written to you of mine own courses As if he had said I am Paul now and you shall find me Paul hereafter you shall find me alwaies an honest man like my self for as he whom I have trusted is yesterday to day to morrow and the same for ever so likewise by Gods grace I hope to be the same that I have been I hope I shall be like my self The grounds of S. Paul's trust that he should be so is partly the act it self together with the endeavour I trust I shall be so to the end because I trust in God to the end and God is good to them that trust in him how often is it repeated in the Psalmes He is the God of them that trust in him he is a Sun and a shield he is all that is good and he keeps away all evil All the promises are entailed to trusting in God Now because I have confidence in it that God will do so I stirre up my endeavour to shew that it is not a presumptuous trust I trust in him that will perform the conditions of the Covenant which is made to them that honour him by trusting in him Saint Paul knew what God had done he knew that he that had bestowed the first fruits he would make up the harvest he knew that he that had laid the first stone he would set up the roof he knew that God had begun a good work in him by experience and that he would finish his own work that he knew by former experience And then he knew the promises of God the promises of the Covenant Many such grounds Saint Paul had to bear him up that he should continue to the end in a course of simplicity and sincerity and in the grace of God But withall Saint Paul did adde a holy and heavenly course to come to this end together with his trust What course did Saint Paul take Saint Paul that he might hold out constantly in holy resolutions to the end First he did judiciously consider what might hinder him between that and the end of his race and course he balanced all things
hath all to do again Another man sees an end of his work but in this the Devil and corruption hath undone all again We enforce good things on people on the Lords day but within one day ill company and imployment in worldly businesse overthrowes all the Sea banks are down they must be new repaired Therefore there is a necessity laid on us of the Ordinances to our lives end till our soules be in heaven there is a necessity of repairing them We cannot be too diligent in our places And those that have the oversight of others let them make conscience of it it is needful And mark here in the next Point the language of Canaan the language of the Spirit of God that he puts the name of Grace upon every benefit especially those that concern a better life Grace usually we take to be nothing but a gracious frame of heart the new creature as we call it but indeed in the language of the Holy Ghost every free gift of God that concerns our soules any way is a grace The very Ministery is a grace It is the grace and free love of God to give us the Ministery The very heart to imbrace it and to hear it is a grace The very heart to give almes is a grace saith S. Paul 2 Cor. 9. Thanks be to God for this unspeakable gift for this unspeakable grace that you had a heart to give so that every thing that is good it is a Grace a gift of God Saint Paul conceived of his coming to them as a grace Indeed the Grace of God moved and directed S. Paul to come to them It is Grace that God directs the Preacher to speak to the people It is a grace that the Minister speaks gracious things It is a greater grace when you close with and entertain that which is spoken all is of Grace Your ready minds to do good it comes of God it is a grace your acceptance of God as well as eternal life all is of free grace The ground of it is this as Austin as I said defines Predestination well It is a destinating and ordaining to a supernatural end to everlasting salvation in the world to come and a preparing of all means to that end Why now as it is a grace that God pulls oft some men to an eternal estate of salvation in heaven to a supernatural estate that they could never attain without his especial Grace so the preparing of all means to that end it falls within the compasse of Predestination within the grace So when we have any means prepared to bring us to that end the offer of the Word and the Spirit of God disposing us to imbrace the Word this preparing of the means to that end it falls within the compasse of Predestination we may gather our Election by it when we see the Word sent in favour and have gracious hearts to receive it this is a preparation wrought to bring us to heaven a man may know his Election by it all is of grace that falls within the decree of grace When God decrees to bring a man to heaven all that helps to the main must needs be grace The Minister is a grace the Word a grace opportunities to do good a grace the communion of Saints a grace all that helps a man forward is a grace A gracious heart sees God in every thing it sees Gods love in every thing it considers of every thing that befalls it as a Grace Why From this disposition especially because with the grace there is grace to make a blessed use of and to improve every thing If this be so let us look upon every benefit that concerns salvation though it be remote even the very direction of good speeches to us account it a grace It is the grace of God that I have this opportunity especially the publick Ministery Saint Paul calls it a grace let us think of it as a grace And as we do in Clocks we go from the hammer that strikes to the wheeles and from one wheel to another and so to the weights that make it strike we go to the first weight the first wheel that moves all and leads all So when we see good done look not to the good done onely but go to the wheeles to the weights what moves it and makes it strike what sets all a going The grace and free love of God when good things are spoken when any good is done go higher to the first wheel that sets all a going to the grace and free love of God This is the language of the Scripture and of the Spirit of God thus we must speak and think to the end that God may have the glory of his grace in whatsoever good is done or offered When Abigail met David and diverted him from his bloody intention to kill Nabal and gave him counsel another way O blessed be God and blessed be thou and blessed be thy counsell So when opportunities are offered to do good and to hinder us from evil intentions O blessed be thou and blessed be thy counsel When a benefit is done if it be a benefit of this life take it as a grace coming freely from God So a poor man his almes is a grace Thanks be unto God for this unspeakable gift saith S. Paul It is grace in him that hath it that God should respect him so much as to relieve him It is grace in the party that gives it that he hath a heart enlarged to do it So when any thing outward or spiritual is done that is good look on it as a grace put that respect on it and that will make you holy-minded to give God his own Our life should be a praising and blessing of God we should begin the employment of heaven while we are on earth How should we do that In all things give thanks Every good thing from God take it as a grace as a largesse not as due not as coming by chance but as a grace and this will make us improve it as a grace for the best it will make us to give God the glory and improve it to our own good when we are thankful for grace that we may have cause to account it a grace Our hearts would not be so full of Atheisme and our tongues so full of blasphemies if we had learned this lesson our lives would be a praising of God And that we may not want matter to feed a thankful spirit alway consider what good things we have are of grace we deserve not so much as a crumb of bread therefore we pray Give us this doy our daily bread Every thing is a Grace especially the things of a better life How shall I know that the Minister is a grace or a good speech from a Minister to be a grace as S. Paul saith here I intended you a second grace that is to speak gracious thing to you I shall know it if by that
purpose not according to the flesh The rule from hence is this That A Christian man ought by all meanes to avoid the imputation of carnall policy Every Christian much more a Christian man in Authority and place a Minister or Magistrate ought by all meanes to avoid it Saint Paul here declines it Did I purpose things according to the flesh was I politick I had just occasion to speak largely of it in the former Verse concerning fleshly wisdome therefore I will speak the lesse of it now We ought by all means to decline the imputation of it and much more the conscience of it then the report of it to be holily wise and to be accounted so too The reason is It is Gods enemy and our enemy should a Christian consult and deliberate with his enemy to take his enemy to be his Judge and his friend and counsellour A man that hath his enemy to guide him to a place that hath a Pirate to guide him in a Ship how can he come to good He that is led by the flesh he consults with his enemy when he looks what is for his profit or his pleasure c. These things we should renounce as we promised in Baptisme when we gave our names to Christ. If we live and deliberate according to the flesh we shall dye saith the Apostle peremptorily It is a dangerous enemy death is the issue of all the counsell of the flesh Rom. 8. Again it is a secret enemy a domestick enemy it is in all the powers of the soul we cannot be too jealous against it It is a perpetual enemy that accompanies us continually in all our consultations in all places in prosperity in adversity it hinders us from all good it keeps us from the reformation of any thing that is ill If a Magistrate be suggested by any other or by a good motion of his own Do this reform this Oh I shall run my self into danger I shall incur censure so ill is done and is unreformed onely by consulting with the flesh and good is neglected I shall be accounted an hypocrite if I do this So there is flesh and blood to hinder in every good thing the flesh will be foysting bad ends or bad moving causes and the flesh will be ready to keep us from reforming ill from fear of danger And if we do ill and be in ill it will be ready to keep us in ill Oh it is time enough to repent c. a thousand such policies the flesh hath to keep us in ill till we be in hell it self Who would be advised and take counsel by such an enemy Therefore let us take heed we have it in us but let it live in us onely and not rule in us although it will be in us as long as we live yet let us not be ruled by it let us not admit it to counsel but suppresse it and keep it under Especially those that are Magistrates that are called to publick businesse let them not bring private respects to publick businesse but bring publick hearts to intend the good of Religion and of their Countrey before any private interest whatsoever And not consult according to the flesh If I do this I shall displease such and such that is no matter If it were not for Religion if a man have a publick mind such as the very Heathens had he would lay aside base respects in publick businesse Therefore I humbly desire such to examine deeply their intentions and purposes what they aym at whether to serve God and the Church and their Countrey or to serve themselves that if so be they may be safe they care not what befall their Countrey or Religion or whatsoever That is it that moves God to indignation to crosse their intentions for when God sees they set earth above heaven the world present before the world to come and the dirt of the world base respects before those that are greater that they invert the order of things he crosseth them in that they aime at because they crosse him in neglecting their duty Therefore as we would have things succeed well let us labour to consult not according to the flesh for our private advantage but for what may make most first for Religion and then for the publick good Again we may learn from hence That A ground of lightnesse is to purpose things according to the flesh To purpose according to carnal reason and affection it is a ground of lightnesse For mark the reason of it when a man is carried in his deliberations by carnal respects this will be for my profit this will incline such a man to me by this I shall get such a place c. when he is led by low and base respects it makes him light with God though he be never so good otherwise Because carnal respects build on outward things that are uncertain therefore all resolutions built on outward things and carnal respects are uncertain He that takes fleshly wisdome for his counsellour and adviser and intelligencer what doth he he is led with by-respects with one of the three Idols of the world some honour or pleasure or base profit now when the rule of deliberation is the flesh and the flesh carries to outward things that are variable a man is alway light and inconstant that propounds the deliberation of things according to the flesh What is the reason that a wicked man though he be not notoriously outwardly wicked but a shrewd man that is for himself that makes himself the end of all his projects what is the reason that such a man can never be a sound friend he is never a sound friend he is onely a friend so long as it makes for himself so long as he gets to his own in all things As the Jesuites use to say so it is true of every natural man they do all they do and consult in an order to spiritual things they do this and that and over-rule Kings and States and this is for the good of society and in an order of spiritual things A man that hath not grace in him above nature and above respects of nature he can never be a sound friend for when fleshly advantages come of pleasures and profits and honours when these rise one way or other there he leaves the bonds of friendship because there is a nearer bond between him and the things of this life he is led with the flesh and deliberates according to the flesh And that is the reason likewise why such a man can never be a good Christian he can never go through the variety of times why because he consults of things according to the flesh and as long as Religion stands with his aimes that he may enjoy his riches and his greatnesse and the contentments of this life with Religion so long he is content to be Religious if Religion crosse him in these he hath not learned to deny himself and
the soul under God A man may keep his wisdome and understanding safe still so he keep it under and let Divine truth sway and bring all in us into captivity to it self But alas the scope of the world is contrary instead of bringing the soul into captivity to Gods truth to be led by him to have no thoughts no aimes contrary to Gods will they make Gods truth a captive and prisoner to their own base affections as S. Paul saith Rom. 1. They hold the truth they withhold it as a prisoner under base affections And whereas all should serve the main end and intend better things they make a counterfeit loving of good things to serve their carnal ends they make heaven serve earth they make God serve man the Spirit serve the flesh they invert the order of things clean which is as contrary to nature if they had wisdome to consider it as that the heaven should be under the earth and the water above the air it overturnes all in Religion when we suffer carnal wisdome to rule all to imprison that light that God hath put into the heart and conscience and the light of his Word to base affections and not to bring all into captivity to the Spirit and the Word When we come to hear Gods Word we should consider that we come not for recreation but we come to a Counsellour to that that should sway and direct all our wayes and words to that that is not onely our comfort in the time of affliction but our counsellour as David saith it was the man of his counsel So we come here to be counselled to hear that which must direct us in the way to heaven we must come with a purpose to be guided by that to be taught As Cornelius faith We are here in the presence of God to hear what shall be said to us from God Saint Paul gives this direction 1 Cor. 3. If a man will be wise in heavenly things let him be a fool first It is a strange thing Let him be a fool that is let him be content to be esteemed so let him be content to lose his reputation of wisdome that he may be wise When he knowes others to be fooles let him take a substantial course that the vain world may think him wise It is hard counsel for of all imputations in the world many and the most had rather be accounted wicked then be accounted fooles account them the veriest fools which are unfit to speak think of them in the highest degree of ill you can oh they have wit enough for that they have learning and parts for that take not away their learning and parts account them not fooles account them what you will Religion masters this base opinion Saint Paul saith Let a man be a fool if he will be wise Let no man deceive himself and think Let poor men be so and so Religion is the private mans good and let them make conscience of such things but for us that are in place and authority we must rule by policy and he knowes not how to rule that is not a Politician Let no man deceive himself there is no man great or small but if he will be wise for heaven let him be a fool let him take courses that are conscionable though he be accounted a fool for his pains Let us be jealous of our own hearts in private and publick let us take heed to our own hearts that the flesh come not in Let us labour to be acquainted with Christ that he may be our counsellour and our guide in all things Specially now when we come to the Communion we now renew out Covenant with God and our acquaintance with Christ Jesus we come to feast with him Do we think to have any good by him any benefit by his death except we make him our King and Prophet to rule and guide us except we make him our Counsellour Therefore let us think before-hand we cannot come as we ought to receive the Communion unlesse we intend before-hand to renounce the flesh Christs enemy can you be welcome guests and resolve after to be led and ruled by his enemy If you will have good by Christs death as a Priest to reconcile you to God as this Sacrament seales the benefits of his death the breaking of the bread and the pouring out of the wine come with a purpose to be ruled and guided by this Counsellour in all things he is the great Counsellour Isai. 9. 7. that is willing to advise us by his Word and Spirit in all the particular passages of our lives and the more we enter into acquaintance with him by the Sacrament and maintain it by private prayer and by all sacred means the more ready he will be to do the office of a friend and counsellour in all the passages of our lives to advise us what is best I had occasion in verse 12. to speak at large of fleshly wisdome therefore I passe it That with me there should be yea yea and nay nay This sets down the manner of inconstancy the form of it yea yea to be on the affirmative part once and then nay nay the negative to be of one mind and peremptory in it and then to be of another mind and peremptory in that this is the issue of carnal wisdome and followes on it The things that I purpose do I purpose according to the flesh that with me there should be yea yea and nay nay insinuating that those that purpose things according to the flesh they are yea yea and nay nay Whence first we may observe which I touched before a little but it issues more properly hence from the dependance That Carnal men are alway inconstant men For a fleshly man led with the flesh being led with the things of the world and they being inconstant he must needs be as that which he is ruled by A man cannot stand safe upon the Ice because it self is not safe a man cannot stand in a thing that stands not that hath no consistence Now a Carnal man he hath no prop to hold him but the things below he cleaves to them and they are inconstant and variable and uncertain He that purposeth according to the flesh is yea yea nay nay Therefore his love is yea yea nay nay If he may have good by you he is yea yea he is for you but can you do him no good he is nay nay he will not own you then Therefore one way to be constant is not to be ruled according to the flesh which I spake of before for they that are are yea yea nay nay Therefore take heed how you trust carnal men in near intimate society as in marriage Or in near friendship never take a man that hath his own aimes and ends for he will respect you no more then he can advance his own ends by you Trust not the Wife of thy bosome saith the Prophet if she
or else why did Christ ordain the Sacrament to strengthen and stablish our faith and to confirm us but that he knew our propensenesse to unbelief In the time of ease and prosperity it is easie to think God is merciful and Christ died but in the time of temptation all is little enough to shore and prop up the faith of a drooping Christian. Therefore God out of heavenly wisdome and love to us hath appointed these Ordinances for the strengthening of our faith And all is to no purpose unlesse our faith be strong in the Promises as Saint Paul takes an oath to build them on the Promises he taught them And so all is little enough oath and promises and seal c. Therefore we should with all reverence attend upon Gods Ordinances for the strengthening of our faith But to come to the words themselves As God is true our word to you was not yea and nay Take the words out of the form of an oath and the Proposition is That God is true and faithfull In this link of the sentence God is true First it is true that God is he is truly God his nature is true his properties true Likewise God is true and faithfull not onely in his nature and properties but in his free decrees in the things that freely come from him It was free for him to make promises of salvation or no as it was free for him to make a world or no and whether he would redeem mankind or no but when he had promised except he should deny himself and his truth he must send Christ. So in all the free promises of forgivenesse of sins and life everlasting by Christ if we believe in him we say they are certainly true because God that is true hath promised God is true in his Nature and true in his free Promises and threatnings he is true in his works true in his Word every way true He is true in his nature all is true within him and without him if any thing could change him from within he were not himself he were not God And from without there is nothing can change him for there is nothing stronger then God God is true in all his purposes true in his free and voluntary decrees It was free for him to decree but having decreed there is a necessity of performing it is of the necessity of his nature as he is God He is true in his free decrees they are not free in regard of the event but in regard of the Original as I said he might have made a world at the first or no and have redeemed mankind or no but having made these decrees of necessity as he is God he must be true in his free decrees There is a subordination of truths whereof one is the cause of all the rest Now all depends upon this grand truth God is it is the first truth that ever was of all truths in the world in heaven and earth that there is a God that there is such a thing such an excellency as God the Authour of all things in nature the Authour of all things in grace and glory I shall not need to prove this fundamental truth this Truth of truths that God is It infers all other truths For grant this that God is and a man must needs grant that that followes upon it that God is as a God should be that is unchangeable eternal immutable almighty al-sufficient and all the blessed attributes that he is the authour of all good in the creature that must needs follow God is the first truth and then God is so and so as becomes a God And then this must follow in the next place that he is a God immutable and unchangeable he must be so in all the manifestations that come from him in his free decrees and in the outward manifestations by promises and threatnings and whatsoever and therefore God is true immutably and unchangeably true or else he were not God he cannot be otherwise and be God A man may say of a man he is a liar and yet he may be a man a man may be a man and a good man and yet be unconstant and changeable because he is a creature but to say a God and not to be true is to say a God and not a God of the necessity of his nature he must be true It is not of the necessity of the nature of man to be true he may be a man and be a liar Every man is a liar because it is not of the essence of man to be true but God is true out of the necessity of nature he cannot be God if he be not true because God cannot deny himself Man is changeable because he is a creature as Damascen's speech is All things created are mutable and man as a creature is changeable a man therefore may be alterable and false and be a man but God cannot be so and be God It will be objected that God hath threatned oft and hath not performed as we see in the Ninivetes and Hezekias in his sicknesse and so in many others But the answer is easie God is true in all these for Gods Promises that come from his truth they are either absolute or conditional The absolute are those that have nothing annexed to them but shall certainly be As God would have sent Christ without all conditions Christ should have come without all peradventure as we say But now some promises have conditions annexed to them if a Nation repent of their sins God will repent of the evill he hath threatned as it is in Jeremy Now those threatenings that are on condition of repentance if the condition be performed the sentence is reversed All the Promises are made with exception of the Crosse all must suffer before they come to heaven and be glorified Now all the Promises with the exception of the Crosse are conditional So God is true both in his absolute Promises that are made without condition and he is true in his conditional Promises because where he performs the condition he will perform likewise that that is tied to the condition he changeth his sentence sometimes and his threatening but not his decree for his purpose and decree is to forgive and reverse the sentence if we repent I say it is a clear truth that God is true unchangeably and immutably true And it is the prime truth of all truths that God is and God is true As we say of the heavens unlesse the heavens were moved there would be no motion in the earth For if the Sun had not a motion in the Zodiack up and down where were Summer and Winter If he had not his course where were night and day The vicissitude and entercourse of all earthly things If the heavenly motion were not nisi moverentur c. if those did not move we could not move because we depend upon that So unlesse it were true that God were
there is a God and God is unchangeably true there would be nothing true in the world for all truth is therefore true because it is answerable to that exemplar truth that is true in God answerable to Gods conceit and decree of things This I observe the rather because it is a fundamental thing it doth wondrously stablish our faith in Divine truths when we know it comes from God that is true If we would seek for evidences of our faith then we must go within us and see what love and what hope what combat between the flesh and spirit there is but if we look for any thing to stablish our faith go out of us consider the unchangeable truth of God whose truth it is God as God creating a reasonable creature he must give him some revealed truth he could not be worshipped else How must we know this revealed truth whereby he will be worshipped by the reasonable creature for no man will be served by his servant as he pleaseth how shll we know these certain truths because they come from his nature God is true and as God is true so our word to you was not you and way that is it was true There is the same ground of the certainty of Evangelicall truth as there is of God himself to be true To add a little further in the Point consider the truth of God every way the faithfulnesse of God as it signifies in the originall as God is faithful Consider what relations God hath put upon him in his divine truth how he will be thought on And then bring those relations to his nature for there we must pitch at last What is he to us and how hath he revealed himself to us Thus and thus What is he in his nature So and so and there we must rest For instance The Lord hath made many promises who is it that hath made them he that is true and unchangably true there the soul rests in the nature of God But what relations hath he put upon him he is a God and a Lord and a Judge and a Father c. Now as he is God he is true therefore he will do all things that a true God should doe he will uphold his creature while he will have his creature continue he will give it life and being and motion And as a Lord he will do with his own what he list and it is not for us to contend with him why he will do this or that why he makes one rich and another poore He is Lord of all and a true Lord therefore we must give authority to this true Lord. And then as he is a Judge he corrects men for sin and rewards them for the good they do As a Judge sometime he punisheth them inwardly in conscience sometimes outwardly All the good we have is from this that he is a faithful and true God therefore there we must rest He is a true Judge he rewards every man according to his works whether they be good or evill And so in the relation of a Father he is a true Father he corrects when time serves he rewards and encourageth when time serves he gives an inheritance to his Children and hath pity and compassion on his Children when time serves He is a true Father Other fathers do this and that out of passion not out of truth and goodnesse but he doth So when we consider God in his relations consider of the attribute of his truth All truth in his Word comes from this God is true This truth is sealed by this that our truth to you our word to you was not yea and nay uncertain Gods truth is not uncertain and variable There is no shadow of change in him and his Word is like himself We say usually in the word of an honest man and that is something In verbum Sâ—…rdotis in the word of a Priest it was accounted in former times a great matter it should be so indeed In the word of a King is a great matter But when God saith in the Word of a God The Word of the Lord hath spoken so It is not yea and nay it was not flexible and doubtful because it is the Word of him that hath the command of all that he saith it is his VVord that is Lord of Heaven and Earth Now when he that saith a thing is the Lord of Heaven and Earth he is Lord of his own Word therefore what he saith is not yea and nay uncertain for he can make good what he saith There is the same ground of Evangelicall truth as there is of God himself to be true I will speak no more in the unfolding of the Point it is plain that God is true Is this true that God is true that he is truth it self then many things issue from hence It is a ground of many other truths It was the ground of all the Uses that S. Paul makes of the Word of God it is profitable every way I will name some principall to avoid multiplicity in a plain Point God is true and his Word is true hereupon the threatenings of God must needs be true even as true as God himself If this be so then unlesse we will make another Scripture another Word this Word is yea That Word that threatens sin that Idolaters and covetous and wantons shall never enter into the Kingdome of heaven Be not deceived saith the Apostle that Word is yea it is true God is true this must follow therefore that whatsoever he saith is true therefore his threatenings are true It is a truth that hath influence into all other truths whatsoever that which is prefixed here by S. Paul not onely as an oath As Gad is true so his Word is not yea and nay but certain but I say it hath influence into all other truths whatsoever threatnings promises directions all are therefore true because God is true Therefore those that shuffle off the threatnings and think they shall do well and blesse themselves Gods wrath shall smoak against them for God must alter his nature and his Word must be altered or else his judgments must stick on them to death and damnation without repentance If God should not be avenged on ordinary swearers and blasphemers if adulterers should live in such sins and ever come to heaven they must have another God and another Word of God this hath said they shall not enter into heaven that live in these sins If it be true as God is true what horrible Atheisme is in the hearts of men to think that God will change his nature though they do not change their course and that the Word of God shall alter though they will not alter what hope can prophane blasphemous persons have that make but a trifle of swearing when God hath said they shall not go unpunished and those that live in a filthy course when God hath said Whor emongers and adulterers God will judge without horrible
what he preached among them and we have in them these particulars briefly to be unfolded First That Christ Jesus in his nature and his offices is the chief and main object and subject matter of preaching Secondly That to make him profitable to us he must be preached Thirdly That consent of Divines and Preachers helps faith Fourthly That Jesus Christ being preached by the Apostles is an undoubted yea that is an undoubted ground and foundation to build on in all the uncertainties of this life in all the uncertainty of Religion Jesus Christ pteached by S. Paul and other holy men of those times was not yea and nay but yea First Christ Jesus is the main object of Preaching It were impertinent here to stand on particulars to shew you how Christ is the Son of God for he is brought in here as the object of preaching Onely in a word we must of necessity believe that Christ Jesus is the Son of God For how wondrously doth this stablish our faith when we believe in a Saviour that is God the Son of God Jesus Christ by eternal Generation In a word here are these prerogatives of Christs Generation from all other sons whatsoever Other fathers are before their sons this Son of God was eternal with his Father Other fathers have a distinct essence from their sons the father is one and the son another they have distinct existences but here there is one common essence to the Father and the Son Other fathers beget a son without them but this Father begets his Son within him it was an inward work So it is a mystical Divine Generation which indeed is a subject of admiration rather then of explication that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Son of man This was typified in the Ark the Ark was a type of Christâ—… the Aâ—… had wood and gold that covered that wood Christs humane nature was the wood and his Divine nature that contained it that is the gold But I should be too large besides the scope of the Text if I should unfold this Point I only touch it by the way Christ Jesus in his natures as he is God Man and in his offices as Jesus Christ that is anointed as King Priest and Prophet and in his estates of abasement and advancement is the main subject matter of preaching For what can we say but it must be reductive and brought to Christ If we open mens consciences by the Law and tell them what a terrible estate they are in what do we but drive them to the Physician what is the law but as John Baptist was to Christ to prepare the way to level the soul to pull down the high thoughts and imaginations to make way and passage for Christ And then in Christ when we preach Christ we preach his natures God and man and his Offices as King Priest and Prophet as he is predestinate and sealed and anointed by God the Father for that purpose that we may have a strong Saviour strong in himself and authorized by his Father And we preach his estates of abasement as he was crucified and suffered for our sins and his estate of exaltation as he arose and ascended into glory These things belong to the preaching of Christ. And then the benefits we have by him reconciliation to his Father by his death and peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost and such like wondrous benefits we have by him And then our duty to him again which is faith and a conversation worthy To imbrace all that is offered by Christ that it be not lost for want of apprehending Christ Jesus is the subject matter of our preaching in his natures in his offices in the benefits we have by him in the duties we owe to him in the instrument of receiving all faith For in preaching that faith which we require to lay hold on Christ is wrought For preaching doth not onely manifest the benefits we have by Christ but is a potent instrument of the Spirit of God to work this qualification to make Christ profitable to us Now all that we preach of holy duties is either to humble us if we have them not to make us flye to Christ by faith or when we believe to make us walk answerable to our faith So whatsoever we preach is reductive to Christ either to prepare us or to furnish us to walk worthy of Christ. Indeed Jesus Christ is all in all in our preaching and he should be so in your hearing of all things you should desire to hear most of Christ. The apprehension of your sinfulnesse should drive you to Christ. The hearing of duties should be to make you adorn your Christian Religion you have taken on you Naturally men love to hear flashes witty conceits and moral points wittily unfolded but all these in the largest extent do but civilize men it must be Christ unfolded and Gods love and mercy and wisdome in him reconciling mercy and justice together The wondrous love of God in Christ and his justice and mercy and the love of Christ in undertaking to work our redemption and the benefits by Christ his offices estates and conditions these things work faith and love these things do us good All other things take them at the best they do but fashion our carriage a little but that which enlivens and quickens the soul is Jesus Christ. Therefore we should of all other things be desirous to hear of Jesus Christ. It is a point that the very Angels are students in For the Ark which I named before it had the Law and the Mercy-seat in it the mercy-seat to cover the Law Now Christ hath satisfied the Law and reconciled his Father he hath freed us from the curse of the Law and hath given full satisfaction to the Law he is the Mercy-seat by whom we have accesse to God the Father Now the Angels were upon the Mercy-seat interviewing one another and prying down upon the Mercy-seat insinuating that the reconciling of Gods Justice and Mercy by that infinite wisdome of God in Christ that our sins should be punished in him and yet he be merciful to us that he should punish our surety for us that he should joyn these attributes together that all the creatures in heaven and earth could not devise it is a matter for Angels to pry into the very frame of the Ark signified this and shall not we be students in those mysteries that the Angels themselves desire every day to behold If Christ be the main thing we are to stand on Let us labour more and more to understand Christ and him crucified let us see our nature in him advanced now in heaven to make us heavenly-minded let us see our nature in him punished let us see our sinful nature in him cleansed and purged by his death and abasement let us see our nature in him enriched Let us consider him as a publick person and
see our interest in his humiliation and exaltation in glory because he is the second Adam These things should raise up our thoughts wondrously to think of his humiliation and his exaltation and of the love and mercy of God in him And then think of what you will nothing is discouraging think of death of hell of the day of Judgment think of Satan of the curse of the Law they are terrible things I but think of the Son of God of Christ anointed of God the Father to satisfie the Law to satisfie his Justice to overcome Satan to crush his head to be our Saviour as well as our Judge at the day of Judgment these things will make all vanish Things that are most tetrible to the nature of man without the consideration of Jesus Christ the Son of God all are most comfortable when we think of him Now when we think of Satan we think of one crushed and trod under foot as he shall be ere long When we think of Judgment we think of a Saviour that shall be our Judge when we think of God we think of God reconciled in Christ. We have accesse by Christ to the Throne of grace he is now in heaven and makes intercession for us When we think of death we think of a passage to life where we shall be with him I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. So the things that are most uncomfortable yet bring the consideration of them to Christ exalted in heaven having triumphed over all these in our nature and sits at Gods right hand The thoughts of these things are comfortable meditations Nay think of that which is the most terrible of all the Justice of God his anger for sin it is a matter of comfort above all other God is just to punish and revenge sin what then because he is just he will not punish â—…hing twice but his justice is fully satisfied aad contented in his Son Christ Jesus whom he hath anointed and predestinate and sent himself and he must needs acknowledge that satisfaction that is done by him that he hath sent himself hereupon we come to think comfortably of Gods Justice God out of Christ is a consuming fire there is nothing more terrible then God without Christ but now in Christ we can think of the most terrible thing in God with comfort Therefore S. Paul makes it the main scope of his preaching and so should we of ours and you should make it your main desire in hearing and the main subject matter of your meditating something concerning Christ. Let us often think of our nature in him now exalted in heaven and that we shall follow him ere long our head is gone before and he will not suffer his body alwayes to rot in the earth let us think of his natures and his offices and all the blessed prerogatives that we have by him and all the enemies that are conquered by him that in him we have God reconciled and the Devil vanquished we have heaven opened and hell shut we have our sins pardoned and our imperfections by little and little cured in him we have all in all There are four things that the Apostle speaks of which includes all 1 Cor. 1. 30. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made to us wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption Christ Jesus is all in all if we be ignorant he is our wisdome if we want righteousnesse and holinesse to stand before God he is ouâ—… righteousnesse we stand righteous being cloathed with his righteousnesse If we want Grace Of his fulnesse we receive Grace for Grace he is sanctification to us If we be miserable as we shall be to our sense our bodies shall be turned to rottennesse he is our redemption not onely of the soul but of the body he shall make our bodies like his glorious body as he makes our soules glorious by his Spirit conforming them to his own Image here he means here redemption of our bodies from corruption as well as of our soules from sin He is all in all in sin he is sanctification in death he is life in ignorance he is wisdome there is nothing ill in us but there is abundant satisfaction and remedy in Christ. I speak this the rather to shew what reason S. Paul had to stand on this That all his preaching was to bring Christ Jesus among them I go on The Son of God Jesus Christ preached among you All the good we have by Christ is conveyed by the Ministery Despise that and despise Christ himself Therefore whatsoever benefits we have by Christ they are attributed to preaching they are attributed to the Gospel as it is preached and unfolded therefore it is called the Gospel of the Kingdome The Word of reconciliation The Word of life The Word of faith all these are by Christ but it is no matter whatsoever we have by Christ we must have it by Jesus Christ unfolded in the Ministery of the Word despise the Ministery that is contemptible to flesh and blood and despise Christ himself despise the Kingdome and life and all for Christ preached is that we must relie on Christ unfolded the bread of life must be broken the sacrifice must be anatomized and laid open Christ Jesus the Son of God must be preached he profits not but as he is preached his riches must be unfolded The unsearchable riches of Christ. Therefore God that hath appointed us to be saved by Christ hath appointed and ordained preaching to lay open Jesus Christ among us But to come to the third Point why doth he bring in consent to help By me and Silvanus and Timotheus would not his own authority serve the turn I answer no it would not sometimes In it self it will but in regard of the weaknesse of men it is necessary to joyn the consent of others S. Paul was an Apostle of Christ but he knew that they were so weak that they would regard his testimony the more for the joynt testimony of Timotheus and Silvanus and the rest God considers not so much what is true in it self as how to stablish our faith in it As in the Sacrament would not God give Christ and his benefits is he not true of his Word Yes but he gives the Sacrament for us his promises are sure enough yet he condescends to our weaknesse to adde Sacrament and oath and all the props that may be So the men of God that are led by the Spirit of God though their own authority were sufficient yet they condescend to the weaknesse of others Therefore S. Paul alledgeth with himself Silvanus and Timotheus to strengthen them the better Then again consent is a lovely thing and proceeds from love how sweet a thing is it for brethren to dwell together in unity therefore we ought to stand much upon consent if it may perswade us But as Cyprian saith well it must be consent in the truth Consent that is not
then in us he is first loved and then we he is predestinate and then we he is the Son of Gods love by nature therefore we are sons of Gods love by adoption and grace what we are by adoption he is by nature first of all therefore we are said to be elected in him and sanctâ—…fied in him he first of all removes all ill and then we have it removed because he hath removed it He is first justified from our sins he is first quitted and freed from our sins when he took them upon himself and on the tree satisfied the wrath of God He bore our iniquities and by his stripes we are healed if he had not been freed from our sins we had for ever layen under them therefore saith S. Paul If Christ be not risen you are yet in your sins we are free from our sins because Christ our surety is out of the prison of the grave he is in heaven He must first rise from the dead he is the first fruits of them that sleep the first begotten from the dead Rev. 1. 1 Cor. 15. for though some rose before yet it was in the vertue of Christ who rose altogether by his own strength therefore he hath made a living way to heaven We are born again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead we have a lively hope a hope that makes us lively in good works because our surety is in heaven Now we hope for an inheritance immortal and undefiled because he is risen we shall rise he is ascended therefore we shall ascend we do ascend in the certainty of faith now and shall ascend indeed hereafter Whatsoever we do he doth it first and whatsoever we have from God it is at the second hand he hath it first and conveyes it to us the Natural Son to the adopted sons therefore all the Promises come to be made in him and not directly to us alone abstracted from Christ. It is a point we should often think of and seriously consider of for it doth wondrously stablish our hearts Doth God love me and doth he do good to me abstracted from Christ my self alone no for then alas I should flye from his presence but he looks upon me and considers me as I am in his Son therefore in Joh. 17. in that blessed prayer of Christ saith he That thou mayest love them with the same love wherewith thou lovest me God loves us with the same love that he loves his Son with That the love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them He loves him first and then he loves us with that love that he loves him Here is the reason that God looks on us with a forbearing eye notwithstanding all the matter of anger and wrath in us he looks on us in his Son as members of his Son his love to us is founded on his love to his Son Hereupon back again is our boldnesse to God the Father that we go to him in his beloved Son and present his Son to him Lord look on thy Son that thou hast given for us in whom we are members we are not as in our selves but in thy beloved For as all things descend from God to us so our soules should ascend to him All descends from God to us in his Son why all our comfortable considerations of God must be in his Son Christ thereupon we have boldnesse to God through him not in our selves but in and through Christ. Let us bring Benjamin with us bring Christ and then we shall be welcome If we come in the garments of our elder Brother then we shall get the blessing But of our selves God cannot endure to look on us therefore this is a Heathenish conceit in our prayers to presume to go to God otherwise then he hath cloathed himself with the comfortable relation of a Father in Christ. If we consider him as a just God as a God of vengeance as a holy God the more it makes to our terrour if we be not besotted But go to him as he is now in his Son Christ and go boldly The Heathens otherwise conceived wavering and doubtingly of a God alas conceiving him out of Christ he was nothing but a consuming fire to them How dares that man that knowes himself and that knowes God how dares he think of God he thinks basely of God that can think of him and not think of him as he is to him in Christ. Darest thou think of God who is a consuming fire and not think of him as he is pleased and pacified in thy nature in Christ that hath taken thy nature to be a foundation of comfort to be a second Adam a publike person for all that are in him and members of him to see God fully appeased in him who is God-man thou mayest think of him with comfort then Never think of the Promises of grace or comfort or any thing without Christ. Therefore S. Paul saith Gal. 3. 16. Now to Abraham and his seed was the Promise made He saith not to seeds as to many but to thy seed As speaking of one even Christ. All the Promises of good to us are made to Christ and conveyed from Christ to us the Promises and likewise the things promised He hath promised to us eternal life and this life is in his Son 1 Joh. 5. and so grace and whatsoever it is in him the Promises and the things promised they are conveyed from God to Christ and so to us They are a deed of gift we have them from and by Christ. Why are the Angels attendants upon us The Angels attend upon Jacob's ladder that is Christ. It is he that knits heaven and earth together so the Angels because they attend upon Christ first they become our attendants whatsoever we are whatsoever priviledges we have it is in Christ first it belongs to us no further then we by faith are made one with Christ. Thus we see whatsoever we have from God it is by promises And these promises are not abstracted from love for they are the fruits of love and this love is seated in Christ who hath satisfied Gods justice we have promises and promises in Christ. In the third place the Apostle saith that all the promises of God in him are yea they are constant and sure in him they shall be performed All promises are either Christ himself or by Christ or from Christ or for Christ. All promises that ever were made to Gods People they were either of Christ himself when he was promised or such as were promised for Christ. The promise of Christ himself is the first grand promise that he should be made man the promise in his own person But whatsoever promise was made by the Prophets and Apostles they were made by his Spirit they were made for him for his sake and in him and they were made to those that are in him too For as Gods love is founded in him to those that are in
was the creditor for the payment of that 4000 years after let them go so Christ was yea to them they had benefit by Christs death Hereupon the Prophets spake of him as a thing present To us a son is born to us a Child is given Faith mounts over many years 600 years before Christ in the Prophet it mounted and made the time of Christs coming and his death to be present because they had benefit by him as if he had been present Onely with this difference in the time present when Christ came in the flesh they had some comfortable inlargement of Grace When he came in the flesh I say there was a new world as it were there was grace poured out in abundance So you see that all the promises concerning Christ they were performed They were Yea and Amen and the good things by Christ. Saint Paul saith excellently Heb. 13. Christ yesterday to day and the same for ever Yesterday to the Patriachs to day for the present time he is Yea and for the time to come he is Yea the same alway He is yea to all ages he is yea to us as well as to those that were in Christs time Christ is then crucified to thee when thou believest in Christ crucified If we now by faith look to Christ crucified and sent from his Father to take our nature on him we have as much benefit by Christ as those that beheld him crucified As they before looked forwards by the eye of Faith so we look backward we have benefits by Christ he is yesterday to day and the same for ever All the promises are yea in him that is they are constantly yea for all ages The promises of Christ as the spirits in the body they run through all ages of the Church Without him there is no love nor mercie nor comfort from God as I said before God cannot look on our cursed nature out of Christ therefore whosoever will apprehend any thing mercifull in God must apprehend it in Christ the promised seed All the promises in him are yea He is called Logos the Word why is he so both actively and passively Actively the Word because how should we ever have known the mind in the breast of God hidden and sealed there unlesse Christ had been the Logos the Word For a word is exprest from reason and there is a word that is essentiall that is reason Logos and so the word coming from it speech the issue of reason So Christ is the essentiall Word by nature and by office the Word to discover the inward will and purpose of God to us All the promises of God are discovered by Christ as the Angel of the Covenant And passively he is the Word Logos of whom all the Prophets spake as Peter saith Act 3. who was fore-signified by all the types as I shewed Christ he is truly all in all It is a comfortable way to study Christ this way to see him foretold in the Old Testament and to see the accomplishment in the New to parallel the Old and New Testament it is an excellent way of studying the Gosspel For we know men are delighted to know divers things at once when a mans knowledge is inriched diverse waies at once it delights him as when a man knowes the history of a thing and the truth with it when he knowes a promise and the truth a type and the ttuth how doth it delight When a man sees the type in the Old and the truth in the New the history there the promise and the accomplishment here it is a wondrous delightfull thing For why doth proportion delight the eye but because it is an agreement of different things a sweet harmony of different things Why doth musick so please the ear because it is a harmonie of different things When we see a type different from the truth performed and a promise different from the performance and yet a sweet agreement from agreement a man is delighted A man is not delighted with colours at colours but as they hold proportion with the rest of the body he is not delighted with a limb as a limb but as it holds proportion with the man if there be no proportion and comelinesse it delights not So in this case it is good to consider both together God therefore for this end and purpose would have truths conveyed in the Old Testament by way of types and prophecies and promises that it might delight us now to hear them and to study them the more for as I said when we know many things at once it is delightful That is the reason why comparisons and allusions are so delightful because we know the comparison and the thing to which it is compared And that is the reason why our Saviour Christ besides types and figures and promises and prophecies is set out by whatsoever is excellent in nature in the Scriptures There is nothing in nature that is excellent but there is something taken from it to set forth the excellencie of Christ. He is the Sun of righteousnesse he is the water he is the way he is the bread he is the vine he is the tree of Life Whatsoever is excellent in nature either in heaven or earth it serves to set forth the excellencie of Christ why to delight us that we may be willing and chearful to think of Christ that together with the consideration of the excellencie of the creature some sweet meditation of Christ in whom all those excellencies are knit together might be presented to the soul. When we see the sun oft to think of that blessed Sun that quickens and enlivens all things and scatters the mists of Ignorance When we look on a tree to think of the tree of righteousness on the way to think of him the way of life of him that is the true life When we think of any thing that is excellent think of Gods love in Scripture to set out Christ that he would shadow him in all for he is the true Sun all creatures must vanish ere long and whatsoever is excellent in the creature and what will stand then only he in whom all these excellencies are comprised in one All the promises in him are Yea and Amen If this be true then that the promise of Christ himself who is the chief good promised is in the New Testament Amen all of him is Yea and Amen then comes this as a deducted truth all other promises must needs be Yea and Amen for God he that performed the grand promise in giving Christ in the fulness of time will for Christs sake perform all other promises Therefore the incarnation the life the death and resurrection of Christ our blessed Saviour it is a pawn and pledge to us of the performance of all things to come God promised to the Jewes that they should come out of Babylon he promised that he would deliver them from the enemy and he usually prefixeth
bonds and when he pleaseth he can sue his bonds and God is well pleased with it Therefore indeed there is little difference between a Christian in poverty and a rich Christian onely the one hath more for the present but God is the riches of the other As for a worldling he hath but a Cistern when he hath most the other hath the spring he hath God in Covenant and Gods promises Let us therefore consider every day the exigents we are in whether in want of grace or want of assistance and necessaries or want of comfort and according to that let us consider what we are to do are we at our wits end now is there no hope for this in Israel Yes God hath left us rich and precious promises let us look to them In the next place then from our wants look to the Promises and proportion the promises to our wants ranck the promises it were a good work Oh that we should have so many promises and yet have them to seek when the Devil besiegeth us he layeth siege to shake our consciences and we are to seek in the time of temptation Let us remember the promises answerable to our necessities If we be troubled with sin call to mind the promise of forgivenesse If we be troubled with want call to mind the promise of supply If we be troubled with fear for the time to come call to mind the Covenant of grace the marriage for everlasting God whom he loves he loves to the end God loves us in Christ he loves Christ for ever therefore he will love us for ever So as I said before suit the promises to our present estate And from the promises have a higher rise yet go to him in whom they are made they are rich promises indeed good promises but how shall I know they shall be performed in whom are they made In whom God loves thee in Christ. What is he God and man he is God and therefore able to perform them he is man and therefore he loves thee as his own flesh and therefore he will perform them He is the Son of Gods love God for his sake as Mediatour will perform them heaven and earth shall conspire for thy good rather then thou shalt misse of the performance of the least promise Therefore from thy wants go to the promises and from the promises go to Christ and consider him he is anointed of God for thee he is anointed that he might be thy Christ and thy Jesus that he might be thy Saviour Immanuel God with us that he might reconcile God and us that in office he might be so that he might bring God and us together Consider him And then go to God and consider what relation in Jesus Christ God hath put upon him In Christ God is a Father and what can a Father deny to his adopted son in Christ whom he looks on in his natural Son Christ Yea and to settle our minds the more let us consider the relations that God and Christ have put upon them and the relations we stand in and the many promises we have in Christ who is anointed and sealed by God the Father to be our Saviour and to bestow good upon us God is become our Father what a world of promises is in that word Father what will a father deny to his son What if God had not left particular promises in Scripture if he had left but the relation of a Father it had been promise enough what can a father deny his child And then Christ what relation hath he taken on him he is our Husband what a world of promises is there in that what can a loving husband deny his spouse that he hath given himself for He hath taken upon him to be our head what want of influence can there be from such a head that hath taken all upon him for the body the head sees and hears and doth all for the body so Christ heares and sees and doth all for us What a world of promises is in this relation of a head if there were no particular promise Again Christ stiles himself sweetly our brother what a world of promises are in these relations God the Father is ours Christ is ours here is the grand Promise I will be your God and will give you my Son And then in the third place he hath promised his Spirit he will give his Spirit to them that beg him what a world of Promises is in that promise of the Spirit It is a comforting Spirit a sanctifying Spirit a quickening Spirit a strengthening Spirit all is in the Spirit As our soul doth all that the body doth so it is by vertue of the Spirit all the grace and all the comfort we have God hath promised himself and Christ and the Spirit the whole Trinity There is the grand Promise I will be your God Christ shall be your Christ and I will give you my Spirit If we had not other promises what a world of comfort have we in these Now in what relation stand we to these We are children we are heires we are Temples of the Holy Ghost c. put case our memories do not serve to call to mind particular promises in the time of trouble Consider in Christ how God loves thee he is thy God in Christ how Christ loves thee he hath taken thy nature on him to be thy husband he makes love to thee and desires thee to be reconciled And the Spirit is given thee by Christ he hath promised to give him if thou ask him the holy Spirit is the Spirit of Promise Think therefore of the general of the Covenant of grace and these relations that have the force of promises for sometimes particular promises may not come to our mind perhaps and these will stablish a man against the gates of hell and against all particular temptations This course we ought to take then to feed our thoughts with the promises the promises are the food of faith let not our faith languish and famish for want for want of meditations of God and Christ what relations they have put upon them and for want of meditating on particular promises in all kinds How well thriving might our faith be if we would oft think of these things And to make us the more to think of these things consider that all other things alas what are they when we have not a promise of them in Christ They are all vain fading things they will all come to nothing That which we have by promise grace and comfort and glory they are ours for ever God is ours for ever Christ is ours for ever the Spirit is ours for ever the relations we are in are for ever all other things are nothing they will come to nothing ere long This course we ought to take then that we may have comfort by the Promises Again in the next place if we look to the
God out of Christ. There is faith he God absolute in himself so he is a consuming fire but there is God incarnate go to God incarnate to God making good his promises in Christ incarnate go to Christ sucking his mothers breast lying in the manger living humbly talking with a sinful woman inviting sinners to come to him conversing with sinful creatures altering and changing their natures that never refused any that came to him Go not to God absolute he is a consuming fire go to Christ incarnate God-man go to him abased and there is sweet converse for thy faith for All the promises are made in him Yea and Amen I beseech you therefore be acquainted with the mystery of Christ more and more we have the promises in him And you must know besides that the Father and the Holy Ghost they have a part a hand in Christs abasement for Christ did all by his Fathers appointment and therefore it is as much as if the Father had been abased for Christ was anointed to be so Therefore think that God the Father allures and invites you when Christ doth it because he is anointed to invite you Think that the Father is as peaceable as Christ was because Christ was so by his Fathers appointment by his anointing See all the three Persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost in Christ. See God incarnate making all the Promises before and as the ground of all that is made good to us See the wondrous love of God incarnate And then go and see Christ raising that flesh that he was abased in see him ascended into heaven and sitting in it at the right hand of God then think of God in Christ glorious think of Christ a publick person and we all in him So as Leo saith Onely Christ was he that dyed in whom all dyed he was crucified in whom all were crucified and he rose again in whom all rise he being a publick person other particular men dyed and themselves dyed onely Let us look upon God incarnate and see our selves in him see God in Christ see Christ a publick person for therefore the second Person took the man-hood that he might be a publick person Christ took not our persons but our nature that our nature being knit to the second Person he might be a publick Person as Adam was a publick man for all mankind Therefore think of all the Promises in Christ as God-man that he was the man Christ made man for us This is wondrous comfortable let us solace our selves with it Take away Christ and the promises in Christ and what is there in the world nothing but Idolatry and Superstition staggering and wavering and darknesse and blindnesse and Popery and divellishnesse Who reigns in the world but the Devil and Antichrist Heathenism and Paganisme and all filthinesse Take away Christ the sound knowledge of Christ incarnate and the sound knowledge of the Promises the clear settled promises in Christ and what is the life of man but a horrible confusion even a hell upon earth Where Christ is not known what are the lives of men the utmost quintessence of them but onely projecting for an estate here in this world and then to slip into hell To live a Civil life as morality perhaps may fit a man for that and then to be cast into hell Out of Christ there is no salvation no certain comfort no life no light nothing to be reckoned on out of Christ and the promises in Christ. Therefore let us love them and build on them and make much of the truth we have and get into Christ for All the Promises in him are Yea and Amen God hath no commerce with us immediately but by Christ the Mediatour through whom he looks on us and in whom he conveyes all good to us The Scripture is termed a Paradise it is like a Paradise wherein we have the streams of the water of life and the tree of life Jesus Christ and wherein we have the Promises of life And there is no Angel to keep the door or gate or entrance of this Paradise but rather we are allured to come to it to refresh our selves There is God himself walking there is Christ himself the tree of life Therefore we should make the Scriptures wondrous familiar to us especially single out the Promises make use of them learn what it is to live by faith in the Promises for All the Promises in Jesus Christ in him are Yea and in him Amen To the Glory of God by us The end of all this that God will engage himself by promises that he will stablish these promises so sure in Christ Jesus the Mediatour God and man that he will make them Yea and Amen in him it is for his own glory And to the glory of God by us Ministers for we preach these promises to the people and people believe them and they believing give glory to God Gods glory is manifested in the Gospel especially when it is believed in the Promises What wondrous glory hath God in the promises in Christ More a great deal then in the Creation In the Creation man was made according to Gods Image Now in the Gospel we are created according to Jesus Christ God man There God added light to light comfort to comfort he made man good and would have continued him good but here is the glory of his mercy and goodnesse in Christ here he doth good to sinners he raiseth a sinner to mercy he doth not adde light to light but he brings light out of darknesse In the Gospel mercy strives with misery and strives with sin and overcomes all our ills it is Gods will in the Gospel to do good to sinners mercy is added to sinful men contrary against contrary Gods goodnesse triumphing over the misery of man The righteousnesse that Adam had it was the righteousnesse of a creature of a man but the obedience we have in Christ it is the obedience of God-man therefore that being imputed to us it is a more exquisite righteousnesse it brings us to God and intitles us to heaven it is infinitely more then Adam's was God manifests greater glory then in the Creation there is greater love and greater mercy and greater goodnesse manifested in the Gospel then to Adam in innocency Our estate in Christ is more perfect his estate was not Yea and Amen for it was yea to day and nay to morrow he stood but a while but in Christ the Promises are Yea and Amen He had no promise we have our estate by promises in Christ is better then ever Adam's was as we are in a better root then he For he was not in Christ the Mediatour we by faith are united to Christ Mediatour and by vertue of the promise God where he begins he will make an end where he is Alpha he will be Omega What a glory is this to God that he can repair man to a better estate then ever he
the Israelites fell to Idolatry Paul did but leave the Galatians a little and they were removed presently from Christ to false Teachers The nature of man is wonderful unstable very loose and unsettled Divine truths are supernatural we have need of stablishing therefore Again stablishing grace is necessary in regard of those oppositions that are made against us after once we be in Christ For with what malice doth Satan pursue a Christian when he is once taken out of his Kingdom And the world runs a clean contrary Byas in the several examples thereof How many scandals do there arise daily even in the very Church it self How many things are in our natural disposition joyning with them all which will make a man fly off and unsettle him if he be not stablished in grace And indeed what is the difference between one Christian and another that lives in the bosome of the Church between a temporizer and another The difference is but in their radication in their stablishing for all have the general knowledge of the truth but here is the difference the true Christian is radicated and rooted in the truth a false Christian is not and thereupon when temptations come either from within from conscience or from without from Satan and the world he falls away because he is not rooted but the other holds on because he is established And the best of us all have need of stablishing for there be degrees of truths degrees of faith in all the parts of faith there is conjecture a certain suspicious knowledge and there is opinion which is with fear of the contrary and there is knowledge and there is faith which is founded upon the Authority of the speaker And yet this faith though it be founded upon the Word of God it may receive further and further strength in all the parts of it In assent there may be a higher degree in affiance there may be a higher degree c. And therefore the best of us all have need of strengthening But where shall we have it Christ is the Basis the foundation of all our stability Now in the Covenant of grace we are stablished in him not in our selves The Point is this That Christ is the ground of our firmnesse As all the Promises are made to us in Christ in regard of the execution so God he brings us to Christ all is conferred to us in Christ as the Promises are made so they are executed God stablisheth us in Christ he drawes us to Christ. None come to me but God the Father drawes Therefore God doth reveal Christ to us in our conversion and our stablishing is in him Therefore our salvation is so certain because it is laid upon one that is so certain in himself Christ Jesus And happy it is that we are stablished in him that loves us so well that is both a low high Priest that will pity us and a great high Priest equall with God able to do all things to God for us and between God and us Adam we know had his strength in his own keeping and being left to himself we see what became of him The Angels had their strength in their own keeping and we know how soon they fell But since the fall we are founded and bottomed upon a surer foundation now we stand not by our own strength but we are established in Jesus Christ we are surer then the Angels were before they fell surer then Adam was in Paradise for now we arestablished in Christ the Mediatour God and man and because we could not keep our stability in our selves we are stablished in him that wrought it for us and that possesseth it for us in heaven and that keeps it for us and as it is laid up and kept for us so we are kept for it You are kept by the power of God to salvation 1 Pet. 1. And therefore as there be many differences which advance the state of grace above the state of nature so this is one that our state in grace is more stable and firm as being stablished upon a better ground even upon Jesus Christ the second Adam God never mends but he mends for the better and he never restores but he restores for the better the new heaven and the new earth shall be better then the first so the new creature the new Adam is more glorious then the first and as that which we recover in Christ is more and better then that we lost in Adam so the certainty and security of our estate in grace is far beyond the other this being stablished in Christ. But what in us is stablished in Christ and in Christ how considered First of all our Judgment that is stablished in Evangelical truths concerning the Natures and the Offices of Christ concerning the priviledges that we have by him and this is the ground of all other stablishment we cannot firmly cleave to that with our Will and affections which we do not clearly apprehend with our understandings When we have a clear and judicious apprehension of things then followes a firm affection to them the adhering and cleaving of the will and affections it comes from the discerning of the understanding and therefore as we say of the first concoction if that be naught all is naught and if that be good and sound it makes way for all concoctions after so if things be well digested in the Judgment if there be a sound illumination and apprehension of Divine truths it makes way for a constant and firm adhesion therefore the first stablishing is of our Judgments Secondly as our Judgments so our Wills are stablished in cleaving unto Christ making choyce of him above all things in the world that as he became man to sue unto us for our love and to become our Husband so we then marry him when upon judging what an excellent person he is and how fit for us we choose him and cleave unto him constantly without all separation for better for worse in our joy in our love and delight for indeed he is the only excellent object and most fittest for our affections to be placed on whatsoever other things besides we place our affections on too much they make us worse then our selves onely he can advance us to a better estate then we are in that can raise us higher In a word the whole soul judgment will and affections and all the inward man for so the Apostle takes it in that latitude Ephes. 3. 16. is stablished in Christ and this carries the outward man with it We are stablished in Jesus Christ not in our selves Now when we are stablished in Christ whatsoever Christ hath or is is ours It is a most excellent condition to be in Christ and to be stablished in him for to be established in Christ is to be in a firm estate in an everlasting estate once Christs and for ever his it is a glorious state for he hath
conquered over all enemies whatsoever and his conquest is ours Well then we see the foundation of the Church and of every particular Christian Christ Jesus whence comes the stability and firmnesse of the Church that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it It is built upon the rock upon Christ. So all the stablishing that a Christian hath it is from this rock his being built upon Jesus Christ If we were built upon man we could not stand if we were built upon Angels we could not stand if we were built upon any thing in the world we could not stand but being built upon Jesus Christ who is all in all to a soul that is stablished in him there must needs be an everlasting stablishing It is a fond Objection of some and unlearned against the principles of Divine truth that we may fall as well as Adam in Paradise as well as the Angels in heaven As if there were not a wide and broad difference between the state of grace and the state of nature A Christian hath more strength then the Angels in heaven or then Adam in Paradise ever had he hath a more firm consistence because he stands by grace By grace we stand as the Apostle saith A Christian hath promises of perseverance Adam and the Angels had none and therefore to fetch a reason of falling away from grace from the proportion we have to that condition is a meer Sophisme not rightly discerning the disparity It is not alike with the Angels and Adam and us for we stand by grace out of our selves being stablished in another We have not onely a promise of happinesse as the Angels and Adam had happinesse and a blessed estate but they had no promise to stand and be confirmed A poor weak Christian hath a promise to be stablished and confirmed Therefore those proud Sectaries that are between us and the Papists and joyn rather with them then us that trouble the Church so much they make an idle objection concerning falling away from grace to say Did not Adam fall away What is that to the purpose was Adam under the same Covenant as we are now in Christ Is there not a new promise made to us in Christ better then ever Adam could attain to Besides we are founded upon a better Adam upon the second Adam God-man we have not onely a better foundation but better promises that Adam and the Angels themselves wanted And therefore the Covenant of grace is said to be an everlasting Covenant I will marry thee to my self for ever Hos. 2. A Christian is not to be considered abstractively or alone for then indeed he is a weak creature as weak as other men are but consider him in his Rock on whom he is built consider him in his Husband to whom he is united and knit consider him in his head Christ look upon him as he is thus founded and stablished oh he is an excellent person See him in the difference betwixt him and others Those that are not stablished by a firm judgment and will and affection and so by faith in Jesus Christ what consistence what stability have they Those who have the firmnesse they have in the favour of men it is but vanity those that have the firmnesse they have in riches what are they how soon do they leave it all those that have the firmnesse they have in dependance upon any creature be it never so great alas they are nothing they are all vanity Both we our selves in depending and the things we depend upon are vanity therefore we are vanity because we fasten upon that which is vanity things have no more firmnesse then that hath upon which they lean those that have but a weak prop to support them when that falls they fall together with it Now those that are not founded upon Christ by knowledge and love and united to him by faith alas what standing have they when all things else besides God are vain For nothing hath a being but God and a Christian so far as he leans upon God Were not all things taken out of nothing and shall not they all turn to nothing must not this whole world be consumed with fire There must be a new world a new heaven and a new earth but this and all the excellencies in it as they were raised out of nothing so they shall come to nothing God he is I am that I am saith he and Christ he is yesterday to day to morrow and the same for ever A man cannot say of any creature in the world that it was yesterday and shall be to morrow and for ever We may say it of Christ he is Alpha and Omega the first and the last he was and is and is to come and therefore those that are founded upon him that have their happinesse in him they are firm as he is firm and those that build upon any other thing they vanish as the thing vanisheth There is nothing in the world hath such a Being but it is subject in time not to be it is onely a Christian that is in Christ who is as firm as Christ is and Christ can never be but that which he is for of necessity God must be alwayes like himself he is Jehovah I am I am at all times and Christ he is Jehovah A Christian therefore and none but a Christian hath a firm stablishing in Christ. Without this stablishing in Christ what are we what are wicked men Chaffe that the wind blowes away they are grasse c. things of nothing carried away with every blast but a Christian is a stone a rock built upon Christ Jesus But to come to the Person who it is that stablisheth He that stablisheth us in Christ is God Wherein we may consider these two Branches God must stablish God will stablish Can none stablish the soul upon Christ but God No For God is the onely maker of the Marriage between Christ and the Church The same God that brought Adam and Eve together in Paradise brings the Church and Christ together And as he gives Christ to the Church and hath sealed and appointed him to be wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption being made of God unto us for that purpose as the Apostle saith so he works the consent of the Church a consent in heart and spirit to take and embrace Christ. Now it is God onely that can work the heart to Christ None can come unto me except God the Father draw him It is God that gives Christ to be the husband of the Church and that brings the Spouse the Church to Christ. For first it is God by his Spirit that discovers to the soul its hideous desperate and woful estate without Christ and by the Spirit in the Ministery of the Word layes open the riches and excellency that is in Christ and the firmnesse and stability that is to be had in him and so drawes us with the Cords of a man
he is a Conquerour he hath a Kingdom in himself others have Kingdoms out of themselves and in themselves they are slaves he is such a King as hath a Kingdom in himselfe he hath peace and joy and rest from base affections and terrour of conscience Is not he a King that is a Lord and Master of all things A Christian is Master of prosperity he conquers it he can make it serve his turn to be thankfull to God to be ready to distribute he is Master of adversity I can want and I can be abased I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me saith blessed Paul He is an omnipotent King in some sense he can do all through him that strengthens him He hath conquered the King of fears death that that makes the greatest Monarch in the world to shake and tremble a Christian can think of with comfort He can think of Gods wrath with comfort appeased in Christ stenched with his blood he can think of the day of Judgment with comfort that then his Saviour shall be his Judge and that he shall stand at the right hand of God He can think of afflictions with comfort he is sanctified to all things and all things are sanctified to him and all things shall work for his good nothing shall be able to separate him from Gods love to him in Christ neither things present nor things to come That which amazeth the Belshazzars of the world and makes their knees smite one against another as that hand-writing did him that which makes others quake to think of a revenging God before whom they must appear and answer for all their miscarriages and their neglect of precious time and abuse of their places they can think of with joy and comfort He hath conquered himself and his own heart he can subdue the carnal part of him and bring it under the Spirit all others though Kings if they be not Christians are slaves to some reigning lust or other He is a King likewise in regard of possession which is a second thing which makes a Christian an excellent person as he is a great Conquerour so he is a great possessour for All is yours saith the Apostle things present and things to come life and death afflictions and crosses and all is yours How to help him to heaven things present are his comforts are his if they be present afflictions are his to purge him and to fit him for heaven things to come are his heaven is his and terrours to come all serve him Even evil things are his in advantage and successe though in disposition they be not his but have an hostile disposition in them they are all over-power'd by the love of God And Christ the King of heaven and earth over-rules all to the good of his And so all good things are his though not in civil possession but as far as the great Governour of all things sees fit what a King is this and therefore the word is not too great to say a Christian is a King he is indeed the most excellent person in the world And he hath likewise a Kingly spirit that is he doth things with love and freedome of spirit that others do upon compulsion for he hath the royal Law of love as the Apostle saith written in his heart what is that the royal Law of love is this when a man doth that which he doth from love and from a Princely spirit when he is not compelled that which others do not at all or by force is wrung from them he doth out of a Princely spirit that is in him because his spirit is enlarged and anointed by the Spirit of God to every good work These things might be enlarged but a taste of them is sufficient and they are very useful to raise our hearts to consider that there is another manner of State then the world thinks of there are spiritual and excellent Kings and Priests and this will stand by us when all other excellencies will fail All flesh is grasse and as the flower of the grasse but this dignity this anointing which we have by the Spirit and by the Word of God it endures for ever and abides to all eternity Now not to go on in more particulars but to make some Use of this Surely this is true in some degree of every Christian that he is a Prophet to discern of things that differ and he hath a supernatural heavenly light answerable to the things a spiritual light to judge of spiritual things And he is a Priest to stand before God continually And he is a King by conquest by possession by qualification I say this undoubtedly is true of all spiritual persons that are anointed As it is said of Saul that when he was anointed he had another Spirit so God never makes a Christian but he gives him the Spirit of a Christian Gods calling is with qualification it is not a meer titular anointing but there is another Spirit goes along with this anointing then there was before calling though men be trained up from their infancy in the truth yet when they are anointed by the Spirit of God there will another manner of Spirit appear in them then ever was in them before or then that which is in the world I beseech you therefore for dignity prepares and stirres up to duty a man never so carries himself in his place and condition as when he thinks of his condition oft think of the excellent estate we are advanced to in Christ it will put us in mind of a qualification and disposition answerable that as the Apostle oft presseth it we may walk worthy our calling that we may walk worthy of this dignity When we are tempted therefore to sin and to base courses let us say as good Nehemiah when he was moved to flie What shall such a man as I flie so should we say to any temptation to base courses of life what shall such a man as I do this Why if I be a Christian if I be not onely a titular Christian which is onely sufficient to damne me and not to do me good but if I be a real Christian I must be a Priest I must keep my self unspotted of the world and undefiled and not touch any unclean thing I must be in a state and condition to pray to God Shall I regard iniquity that God should not hear my prayer If I be a Christian I am a King shall I debase my self shall I cast my crown in the dirt God hath raised me and made me an heir of heaven shall I abase my self to sins and to base lusts so that I cannot rule my own members and yet professe my self to be a King For a Christian that is a King that hath a guard of Angels about him that is the most excellent creature in the world for him to abase himself to the world he that is bred from heaven for him to have no higher thoughts then the things
witnesse to the soul that we are the sonnes of God Secondly a voyce or speech in us again to God causing us to have accesse to the Throne of grace with boldnesse Thirdly a work of Sanctification Fourthly Peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost By these four wayes we may know the sealing of the Spirit after we believe and that our faith is a sound belief and that we are in the state of grace indeed First I say the Spirit speaks to us by a secret kind of whispering and intimation that the soul feeles better then I can expresse Be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee saith he to the soul I am thy salvation there is I say a sweet joyning a sweet kisse given to the soul I am thine and thou art mine God by his Spirit speaks so much there is a voyce of Gods Spirit speaking peace to his people upon their believing And then secondly the Spirit of adoption stirres up the speech of the soul to God that as he sayes to the soul Because thou believest now thou art honoured to be my child so the Spirit stirres up in the soul a Spirit of prayer to cry Abba Father it can go boldly to God as to a Father for that Abba Father it is a bold and familiar speech There are two things in a prayer of a Christian that are incompatible to any carnal man there is an inward kind of familiar boldnesse in the soul whereby a Christian goes to God as a child when he wants any thing goes to his father a child considers not his own worthinesse or meannesse but goeth to his father familiarly and boldly so I say when the Spirit of God speaks to us from God and tells the soul I am thine I am thy salvation thy sins are forgiven thee be of good comfort and when the soul again speaks to God when it can pour forth it self with a kind of familiar boldnesse and earnestnesse especially in extremity and in time of trouble and can wait in prayer and depend upon God this spiritual speech of God to the soul and of the soul to God it is a seal of the Spirit that indeed we are true believers because we can doe that that none can do but Christians God speaks to our souls he raiseth our souls and by his Spirit he puts a spirit of supplication into us and helps our infirmities for we know not what to ask but he helps our weaknesse and enables us to lay out the wants of our soules to God these are evidences of the presence and of the seal of the Spirit In the third place this sealing of the Spirit after we beleeve is known by the sanctifying work of the Spirit for as I told you before in the unfolding of the Point the Spirit seals our spirits by stamping the likenesse of the Spirit of Christ on us so that when a man finds in his soul some lineaments of that heavenly Image of Christ Jesus when he finds some love he may know by that love that he is translated from death to life when he finds his spirit subdued to be humble to be obedient when he finds his spirit to be heavenly and holy as Christ was when he finds this stamp upon the soul surely he may reason I have not this by nature naturally I am proud now I can abase my self natureally I am full of malice now I can love I can pray heartily for mine enemies as Christ did naturally I am lumpish and heavy now in afflictions I can joy in the Holy Ghost I have somewhat in me contrary to nature surely God hath vouchsafed his Spirit upon my believing in Christ to mark me to seal 〈◊〉 to stamp me for his I carry now the Image of the second Adam I know the Holy Ghost hath been in my heart I see the stamp of Christ there Know you not that Christ is in you except you be cast awayes saith the Apostle so upon search the Christian soul finds somewhat of Christ alwayes in the soul to give a sweet evidence that he is sealed to the day of redemtpion The fourth evidence that the Spirit of God hath been in a mans heart is the joy of the Holy Ghost and peace of conscience sanctification is the ordinary seal that is alwaies in the soul this is an extraordinary seal peace and joy when the soul needs incouragement then God is graciously pleased to superadd this to give such spiritual ravishings which are as the very beginnings of heaven so that a man may say of a Christian at such times that he is in heaven before his time he is in heaven upon earth but especially God doth this when he will have his children to suffer or after suffering after some special conflict after we have combated with some special corruption with some sinfull disposition with some strong temptation and have got the victory To him that overcometh will I give of the hidden Manna and a white stone and a new name that none can read it but he that hath it that is he shall have assurance that he is in the state of grace and the sweet sense of the love of God and that sweet heavenly Manna that none else can have thus God dealt with Job after he had exercised that Champion a long time at the last he discovered himself in a glorious manner to him so it is usually after some great crosse or in the middest of some great crosse when God sees that we must be supported with some spiritual comfort we sink else then there is place and time for spiritual comfort when earth cannot comfort thus St. Paul in the middest of the dungeon when he was in the stocks being sealed with the Spirit he sang at midnight Alas what would have become of blessed Paul his spirit would have sunk if God had not stamped it with Joy in the Holy Ghost and so David and the three young men in the fiery furnace and Daniel in the den God doth then even as parents smile upon their children when they are sick and need comfort so above all other times God reserves this hidden sealing of his children with a spirit of joy when they need it most sometimes in the middest of afflictions sometimes as a reward when they come out of their afflictions sometimes before so our Saviour Christ had James and John with him upon the mountain to strengthen them against the scandal of suffering after so God when he hath a great work for his children to do some suffering for them to go through as an encouragement before-hand he enlargeth their spirits with the joy of the Holy Ghost and some times also after a holy and gracious disposition in the Ordinances of God God doth adde an excellent portion of his Spirit a seal extraordinary for indeed God thinks nothing enough for his children till he have brought them to heaven seal upon seal and comfort upon comfort and the more we depend upon him
in the meanes of salvation and the more we conflict with our corruptions the more he increaseth the sweet comforts and the hidden Manna of the Spirit Thus we see how the Spirit seals I beseech you therefore let us examine our selves by that which hath been spoken after we believe God seales those that do believe we honour him by believeing he honours us by sealing us with his Spirit Hath God spoken to thy soul by the witnesse of the Spirit and said I am thy salvation thy sins are forgiven thee doth God stirre up thy spirit to call upon him especially in extremity and to go with boldnesse and earnestnesse to him surely this boldnesse and earnestnesse is an evidence of the seal of the Spirit for a man that hath no seal of the Spirit he cannot go to God in extremity Saul in extremity he goes to the Witch and Achitophel and Judas in extremity go to desperate conclusions a man that hath not the Spirit of God speaking peace to his conscience to whom God hath not given the Spirit of Adoption to cry Abba Father in all manner of exigents he sinâ—…ks as lead to the bottom of the sea so heavy is the soul that is not raised by the Spirit of God he hath no consistence till he come to the Centre to hell Did you ever feel the sweet joy of the Spirit after conflict with corruptions and getting ground of them and in holy duties c. it is a sign that God hath sealed you But you will say How can that be a seal that is not alwaies a seal cotinues with the thing Gods children find not peace alwaies the joy of the Spirit comes after the work of the Spirit how then can this be a seal I Answer Yes for howsoever it be or not alway sensible yet it is alway a seal though we have not alwaies the joy of the Spirit yet we have the Spirit of joy a Christian hath not the joy of the Spirit at all times for that is moveable but he hath alwaies the Spirit of joy which Spirit though it be not known by joy yet it is known by operation and working there is the work of the Spirit where there is not alwayes the joy of the Spirit and therefore when that fails go to the work of sanctification and see what stamp and resemblance of Christ there is see if thy heart be humble and broken if thou have a loving disposition in thee like to Christ that thou hatest that which Christ hateth that thou seest a division in thy self I say when the joy of the Spirit ceaseth go to the work of the Spirit and to this work of the Spirit viz. the voice of the Spirit canst thou cry to God with prayer and supplication and if thou canst not pray with distinct words canst thou mourne and groan to God this sighing and groaning is the voice of Gods Spirit and God knowes the voice of his own Spirit But for the question propounded the soul of a Christian knowes that when it findes not extraordinary comfort from Gods Spirit that Gods love is constant It can reason thus Though I find not the comfort of the Spirit yet I have the Spirit of Comfort because I had the Spirit in former times and Gods Spirit is unchangeable and therefore though it be not with me now as in those ravishings of the Spirit yet the love of God is the same though my feeling be not the same because though I be off and on and my feeling ebb and flow yet his love is not so and here upon the extraordinary feeling of the Spirit which is superadded as an extraordinary seal it may be a sound seal of Comfort from the constancy of God who gave it and he gave it for this end that we might have recourse and retire back in our thoughts and argue it was thus and thus with me then we remember the times of old as David saith Psal. 77. and help our selves with our former feelings he that alway hath life is not alwaies alike stirred Christ may be begotten and live in us but he stirs not alwaies alike so though the Spirit of sanctification be in us and stir in us yet his stirring is not alike so sweet and the stirring of the Spirit though it be not alway yet the Spirit is alway there so the soul may have recourse to that which is unchangeable and constant even God himself and his love is as himself But to take a Christian in his worst time in the worst and greatest afflictions how shall he know then that he is sealed of the Spirit when corruption temptation and affliction meet together in the soul when temptation is joyned with our corruption and afflictions yield ground to temptations for Satan useth the afflictions we are in as temptations to shake our faith Canst thou be a child of God and be so exercised is this grace so affliction is a weapon to temptation for Satan to help his fiery darts with Now how shall a man know that God hath any part here He may know that he is sealed by the Spirit of God if he have a spirit to thwart these if he row against the stream if he go contrary to all these if he find a spirit resisting Satans temptations and raising himself above afflictions and standing against and combating with his corruptions and checking his carnal soul when it is drawing him down Why art thou discomforted O my soul saith David Psal. 42. 43. He found corruptions and afflictions and Satans temptations working with them depressing his soul downwards hereupon having the Spirit in him saith he Why art thou disquieted within me trust in God He first chides his soul Why art thou so and then he layes a charge upon it trust in God So I say when this is in the soul in the greatest extremity when I can check my soul Why art thou thus yet trust in God whatsoever is in the world yet there is hope in heaven though there be little comfort upon earth this is a sign that I am sealed with the Spirit of God and thus in the worst temptations that can come and so in the worst times a man may know that he is in the state of grace One use of a seal I told you before was to distinguish if a man therefore find in himself a distinguishing from the errours of the times Many walk saith the Apostle of whom I have told you oft their end is damnation their belly is their god they mind earthly things but what did S. Paul in the mean time what did the Spirit work in him But our conversation is in heaven saith he The whole world was overspread with a deluge of sin but what was Noah and his family God by his Spirit distinguished them they went a contrary course to the world and Lot in Sodom so a man may know that he is sealed when the Spirit leads him another way that he is not led with the
and troubled and we hear many comfortable truths let us lift up our prayers to God let there be ejaculations of spirit to God Now Lord by thy holy Spirit set and seal this truth to my soul that as it is true in it self so it may be true to me likewise This is a necessary Observation for us all Oh we desire all of us in the hour of death to find such comforts as may be standing comforts that may uphold us against the gates of Hell and against the temptations of Satan and terrours of Conscience why nothing will do this but spiritual truths spiritually known nothing but holy truths set on by the hoy Spirit of God But what course shall we take when we want comfort when we want joy and peace In the third of John there are three witnesses in heaven and three in earth to secure us of our state in grace and the certainty of our salvation The three witnesses upon earth are the Spirit the water and the blood and these three agree in one and the three that bear witnesse in heaven are the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and the three on earth and these three in heaven agree in one Now the Spirit is the feelings and the sweet motions of the Spirit The water may well be that washing of the Spirit sanctification The blood is the shedding of the blood of Christ and justification by it When therefore we find that part of the seal that extraordinary seal that I spake of before the joy of the Spirit of God that it is not in us what shall we do shall we despair No go to the water when we find not spiritual joy and comfort when the witnesse of the Spirit is silent go to the work of the Spirit in sanctification I but what shall we do if the waters be troubled in the soul as sometimes there is such a confusion in the soul that we cannot see the Image of God upon it in sanctification we cannot see the stamp of Gods Spirit there there is such a Chaos in the soul God can see somewhat of his own Spirit in that confusion but the Spirit it self cannot Then go to the blood of Christ there is alwayes comfort the fountain that is opened for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in is never dry go therefore to the blood of Christ that is if we find sin upon our consciences if we find not peace in our consciences nor sanctification in our hearts go to the blood of Christ which is shed for all those that confesse their sinnes and rely on him for pardon though we find no grace For howsoever as an evidence that we are in Christ we must find the work of the Spirit yet before we go to Christ it is sufficient that we see nothing in our selves no qualification for the graces of the Spirit they are not the condition of coming to Christ but the promise of those that receive Christ after Therefore go to Christ when thou feelest neither joy of the Spirit nor sanctification of the Spirit go to the blood of Christ and that will purge thee and wash thee from all thy sins This I onely touch for a direction what to do when our soules want comfort when perhaps we cannot see the seal of the Spirit in sanctification so clearly To go on now to the next And given us the Earnest of the Spirit Here is the third word borrowed from humane affaires to set out the work of the Spirit in our soules Anointing we had before and Sealing now here is Earnest The variety of the words shewes that there is a great remainder of unbelief in the soul of man that the Spirit of God is fain to use so many words to expresse Gods dealing to the soul to bring it to believe to be assured of salvation And indeed so it is howsoever we in the time of prosperity when all things go well with us we are prone wondrously to presume yet in the hour of death when conscience is awakened we are prone to nothing so much as to call all in question and to believe the doubts and fears of our own hearts more then the undoubted truth and promise of God therefore God takes all courses to stablish us he gives us rich and precious promises he gives us the holy Spirit to stablish us on the Promises he seales us with his Spirit and gives us the earnest of the Spirit and all to settle this wretched and unbelieving heart of ours So desirous is God that we should be well conceited of him he loves us better then we love our selves He so much prizeth our love that he labours by all means to secure us of his love to us because except we know his love to us we cannot love him again and we cannot joy in him c. But that onely in the general Here is earnest and the Earnest of the Spirit that is in plain termes he gives us the Spirit with the graces and comforts of it which doth in our hearts that which an earnest doth amongst men But what is this Spirit an earnest of It is an Earnest of our inheritance in heaven of our blessed estate there We are sons now but we are not heires invested into the blessed estate we have title to God leaves us not off in the mean time while we are in our Pilgrimage he keeps not all for heaven but he gives us somewhat to comfort us in our absence from our Husband from our Lord and King Christ he gives us the Earnest of the Spirit that is he gives the holy Ghost into our hearts which is the Earnest of that blessed everlasting glorious condition which we shall have in heaven hereafter that is the meaning of the words In what regard is the Spirit called an Earnest First of all an Earnest is for security of bargains and contracts so the Holy Ghost assures the soul of salvation being present with his graces and comforts the Holy Ghost is given for security Secondly an Earnest is part of the whole bargain though it be a very little part yet it is a part and so the Spirit of God here and the work of the Spirit and the graces and joy of the Spirit it is a part of that full joy and happinesse that shall be revealed The Spirit dwells not fully in any one he dwelleth no further then he sanctifieth and reviveth but that is an Earnest for the time to come that the Spirit shall be all in all wherein we shall have no reluctancy nor nothing to exalt it self against the sure regiment of the Spirit Thirdly an Earnest is little in comparison of the whole bargain so the work of the Spirit the comforts the joy the peace of the Spirit it is little in comparison of that which shall be in heaven in regard of the fulnesse of the Spirit which we shall have there An Earnest though it be little in quantity yet it
this hope saith the Apostle purgeth himself he that finds some little beginnings of grace and comfort the beginings of heaven upon Earth he frames himself to the perfect state in heaven for it is the nature of faith and hope wheresoever they are to frame the disposition of the person in whom those graces are planted by the Spirit to the condition of that that soul believes and hopes for it is in the nature of the thing it should be so For doth not hope in any man that hopes to appear before some great person make him alter his attire and fashion his carriage and deportment as may be plausible before the person whom he goes to and doth not faith and hope of better things where they are in truth fashion and dispose every man to be such as may be fit for heaven The title to heaven we have indeed by Christ but the soul knowes there must be a qualification No unclean thing shall enter into heaven and therefore where the Earnest is there is a continual desire to be better a continual relinquishing of corruptions more and more a perfecting of the work of mortification and the work of grace more and more for the same Spirit that is an Earnest and gives us any beginning of a better life it likewise stirres us up it fits and prepares us for that state that is kept for us it is impossible it should be otherwise In what strength the Earnest is in that strength sanctification and mortification are and therefore persons that live in sins against Conscience that defile their tongues and defile their bodies let them talk what they will it is but a presumptuous conceit it is not the voyce of Gods Spirit but of carnal presumption for wheresoever the Spirit is an Earnest of heaven it is alwayes preparing and fitting the soul for that glorious happy estate And wheresoever likewise this Earnest of the Spirit is wheresoever this grace is begun in truth there is a desire of accomplishment an earnest desire of the coming of Christ to finish all to finish the bargain Rev. 22. The Spirit and the Spouse say Come that is the Spouse by direction of the Spirit where the Spouse is guided by the Spirit and so far as the Spouse is guided by the Spirit she saith Come Come Lord Jesus come quickly Except in two Cases Except the Christian hath grieved and wounded his conscience grieved the Spirit and then it is loath to go hence Unlesse likewise the spirit of a Christian be careless and would settle things in better order before he go to Christ for this is the fruit of presumption and carelesnesse that it grieves the Spirit of God and the Spirit being grieved grieves them he makes that which should be their comfort their going to Christ by death he makes it terrible for as we see a weak eye cannot endure the light so a gauled guilty conscience trembles to think of Christs coming though the Earnest be there yet if the soul tremble that the soul be wounded stay a while Oh stay saith the Psalmist before I go hence and be no more seen When the wife hath been negligent she would have her husband stay but when she hath been diligent then the wife is willing her husband should come but perhaps things are not settled as they should and therefore she doth not desire his coming as at other times But take a Christian in his right temper he is willing to dye nay he is willing and glad and joyful to go to Christ then he knowes the Earnest shall be accomplished with the bargain then he knowes what God hath begun he will perfect then he knowes all the Promises shall be performed when all imperfection shall be removed and all enemies shall be conquered c. A carnal man doth not say as the Spirit in the Spouse speaks Come Lord come but stay Lord stay and as the Devil that possessed that person What have we to do with thee Art thou come to torment us before our time they think of it with quaking For otherwise they that have the Earnest of the Spirit have joyful thoughts of it and wishes answerable to those thoughts Again wheresoever this Earnest is in truth the Earnest of the Spirit there is growth for it is the nature of things imperfect to come to their perfection that they may encounter with whatsoever is contrary to them and that they may do their functions that they are fitted by for God Now God having fitted the new creature to serve him and to go through all the impediments in this world and all the crosses where he hath begun this work it will labour to come to perfection As in the natural body we are not content to live but when we have life we desire health and when we have health we are not content with that but we desire strength not onely health but strength to perform that we should do So where the spiritual life is begun the living soul is not content to live to find an Earnest a little beginnings but if he have that he would have health he would not have any spiritual disease to lye on the soul that might hinder it in the functions of it and together with health it desires fuller and fully strength because it hath many temptations to encounter with many corruptions to resist many actions to do many afflictions perhaps to bear all which require a great deal of strength wheresoever grace is in truth it is alwayes with a desire of growth and answerable to that desire will be the use of all the means of growth Again to name one or two more and so end Wheresoever the Spirit is as an Earnest it doth as the seal doth spoken of before that as it hath a quieting power an assuring power it quiets the soul wheresoever it si it is given to stay the soul to comfort it that the whole shall be performed in time and therefore the soul that hath the Earnest of the Spirit so far forth as he hath this Earnest it quiets and stayes the soul. A man may know true faith from false and true Earnest from presumption by this as we know other things I say it stills and quiets the soul and it will endure the tryal We say of Alcumy gold it is counterfeit it will not strengthen the heart true gold hath a corroborating power to strengthen the heart whether it be so or no let the Alcumists look to it but it is true that true Eanest the beginnings of faith though it be but in a little measure it hath a quieting a stilling a strengthening power to strengthen and corroborate the soul for it is given for that purpose And a man that hath the least grace will endure the search as true gold will endure the touchstone the false will not and it is a sign that a man hath true grace in him although it be with much
have the Spirit And likewise the Spirit makes us mourn and wait for the adoption of the sons of God those that mourn and wait have the Evidence of the Spirit for a worldling doth not mourn for his imperfections for his corruptions he doth not mourn that he is absent from his Saviour neither doth he wait for the accomplishment of that that shall be bestowed on Saints because he hath his portion here therefore those that can mourn for their corruptions for those things which the world is not able to tax them for because they cannot serve God with enlargement of the Spirit as they would and they wait also without despair or without discouragement till God have finished their course they are led with a better Spirit then the world Though I should name no more what a many sweet evidences are here to manifest a soul truly acted and guided and led by the Spirit but these shall be sufficient for this time Well then if the Spirit doth all if the Spirit anoint and seal and give Earnest of grace and comfort and all till he bring us to heaven being Christs Vicar for Christ hath no other Vicar on earth but his Spirit if the Spirit doth all as indeed he doth all for God to us and from us to God whatsoever God doth to us it is by the Spirit he anoints and seals and sanctifieth by the Spirit and whatsoever we do to God it is by the Spirit or else it is not acceptable we sigh and groan in the Spirit we pray in the holy Ghost saith Jude and that God doth to us immediately from the Spirit and all that we do to God is in the Spirit Is this so then as it an undoubted truth oh then we should labour by all meanes for this Spirit of God To give some directions in a word and so to end Labour I say to have the Spirit and to groan in the Spirit and to this end because the Word is the Chariot of the Spirit in which the Spirit is carried attend upon the Ordinances of God and use all kind of spiritual meanes wherein the Spirit is usually effectual for the Spirit will onely work with his own means all those bastard inventions and devices fetched from the Church of Rome humane devices in Gods service they are naught Gods Spirit will not be effectual with Popish devices and therefore Rome is the habitation of Devils Gods Spirit hath nothing to do there because they have set up a worship contrary to Gods worship they have set up a Covenant contrary to Christs Covenant they have set up the Covenant of Works and deny in a manner a Covenant of Grace Christ is not taught as he should be there Now wheresoever the Spirit is it is with the clear teaching of the Gospel Received you the Spirit by hearing of the Law or of faith preached Therefore let us attend upon the unfolding of Christ Jesus in the Gospel for the Spirit is given with a clear and true unfolding of Christ and omit no spiritual means wherein the Spirit is effectual as meditation reading c. For as a man working in a garden though he think not of it perhaps he drawes a sweet sent of the flowers there is a tincture from the ayr that is round about him So the Word of God being indited by the Spirit of God we being in holy company being led by the same Spirit a man shall either by reading of the Word or in holy company or conversing in good books he shall draw a spiritual sweetnesse from the Word or from those that he hath to deal with The spirit of a man is like water that runs from Minerals as we see bathes have their warmth from Minerals that they run through they have a tincture from them to be hot in this or that degree in this or that quality So it is with the soul when it runs through holy things when it hath to deal with good books and good company c. it draweth a spirituall tincture and therefore if we would have the Spirit of God to guide us let us be much in those things that the Holy Ghost hath sanctified us for that end at all times when we have liberty from our callings And withall take heed that we greive not the Holy Ghost any way if we will have the Spirit to seal us to increase our Earnest How do we grieve the Holy Ghost By cherishing contrary affections and lusts and desires And resist not the holy Ghost as now when you hear the Word of God if you shut your resolutions if you shut your hearts and resolve not to give way to any instruction that shall be delivered This is a resisting of the Holy Ghost God now knocks at the hearts of those that are here by his Word and Spirit and therefore we should open the everlasting doors and let the King of glory come in We should lay open all to the Spirit Oh when the Spirit when Christ is so willing to give the Spirit it cannot be any but our fault if we be no more spiritual then we are for indeed there is nothing in a manner required to be spiritual but not to resist the Spirit The Holy Ghost presseth upon us in the Word such reasons of heavenly-mindednesse of despising of earthly things of purging our selves from the corruptions in the world such reasons to be good that indeed none are damned in the bosome of the Church but such as set a bar against the Spirit of God in their hearts with a cursed resolution that they will not be better that they will not part with their cursed lusts therefore they are damned because they will be damned that say the Preachers by the Word and Spirit what they will they think it better to be as they are then to entertain such a guest as will marre and alter all that was there before take heed therefore of resisting of the Spirit and of grieving of the Spirit by any thing in our selves or by conversing with company that will grieve him He that hath the Spirit of God in him cannot endure carnal company for what shall he hear what shall he draw in at his senses but that which will be vexation of spirit to him therefore it is said of Lot His righteous soul was vexed with the unclean conversation of the Sodomites it is an undoubted sign of a man that hath no grace not to care for his company that hath grace Likewise yield all obedience and subjection to the Spirit and to all the motions of the Word and Spirit bring our hearts into subjection lay our selves as it were before the Spirit suffer our selves to be moved and fashioned and framed by it for God gives his holy Spirit to them that obey him And beg the Spirit also as the principal thing God gives the Spirit saith Christ to them that ask him and by Christs manner of speaking there he
sakes Now to speak of an oath a little An oath as we know is either in judgment before a Magistrate or in particular cases between private persons And it is either assertory of a thing past or promissory of a thing to come Now this oath of S. Paul's is an assertory oath of a thing that was past to secure them that he did not come to them upon this ground that he had a mind to spare them it was no promise of any thing to come but an assertion of a thing that was past An oath is either an assertion or a promise with a calling of God to be a witnesse and a Judge to be a witnesse of the truth or a Judge if he say false You have the description of an oath in this text I say it is either an assertion of a thing past or a promise of a thing to come a sealing of this by calling God to witnesse of the thing we say and to avenge the falshood if we say false As S. Paul here I call God to record that what I say is true and upon my soul if I say false Many Conclusions concerning an oath might be raised out of the text First of all concerning the person that makes an oath he should indeed be a gracious a holy and a good man As S. Paul saith Rom 1. 9. I call God to witnesse whom I serve in my spirit A man is scarce fit to swear which is a part of Gods worship that is not good otherwise Will he care for the Religion of an oath that hath no Religion in him He whose oath should be taken should be such a man as S. Paul in some degree whose oath should be taken The Turks are careful of this to the shame of Christians they will not take an oath of an ordinary swearer It must be a man that hath somewhat in him that shall have his oath regarded Again we see by whom an oath should be taken by the Name of God we ought not to swear by creatures but by God himself nor to swear by any Idol as the Masse and by Mary and such like It is a taking God to witnesse An oath is a part of Gods service a part of divine worship as it is Deut. 6. and other places now we ought to serve God only therefore we ought not to use the name of any creature in an oath He that we swear by must know the heart whether we speak true or no now who knowes the heart but God therefore we must sweare only by the Name of God These things are easie therefore I do but name them We see here again the two grand parts of an oath besides assertion or promise of the truth there must be a calling God to witnesse and imprecation Though these be not alwaies set down they are implied Sometimes the Scripture sets down the one part but alwaies the other is implied There is imprecation in every oath Sometimes imprecation implies both as God do so and so sometimes there is a calling God to witnesse without imprecation yet it is alwaies implied For whosoever swears calls God to witnesse of the truth and if it be not true that God would punish him These three go together in an oath God that can discover it he knowes my heart whether I say true or no. And he is Judge and thereupon a revenger In an oath God is considered not only as Index but as Judex and Vindex not only as a discoverer but as a Judge and revengeri f it be false Therefore it is a part of divine worship because it is with prayer and imprecation is alway implied if it be not expressed So we see in this text what an oath is and by whom it is to be taken and the parts of it Again we see here in the text that an oath ought to be taken in serious matters The rule of an oath is excellently set down by Jeremy Jerem. 4. I know no one place of Scripture more pregnant and therefore I name it Thou shalt swear How The Lord liveth in truth in judgment and in righteousnesse We must swear in truth that is that not onely the thing be true that we swear we must look to that but we must think it so too the thing must be true and we must apprehend it so We must swear in truth And then in Judgment that is with discretion we must understand throughly the matter whereof we swear and what an oath is Therefore persons under years ought not to take an oath because they cannot swear in Judgment to know what the weight and validity of an oath is and when it is a fit time to take it it must be taken in serious businesse As S. Paul here to clear himself to the soules of the Corinthians whom he laboured to edifie when he saw their ill conceit of him hindred their edification therefore he clears himself by an oath Thirdly it must be in Justice that is we must not bind our selves by an oath to any thing that is ill it is a rule a long time past Herod bound himself by an oath in that kind But an oath must never be a bond of injustice but it must be taken in righteousnesse Therefore here is condemned the equivocation and reservation of the Papists They will swear before a Magistrate but with equivocation this is not in righteousnesse For it is a rule that an oath must be taken in that sense as he to whom we swear takes it that is a constant rule among all Divines because it is to perswade him of the truth that we swear it is for his and others sakes and as he and others take it so it must be took Therefore equivocation with absurd reservations are wicked because they are absurd if they be exprest he will swear that he is not a Priest he means after the order of Melchizedeck it is a mocking and prophaning of an oath it is not to swear in Justice and righteousnesse But it is so foul and abominable a course that it is not fit to be spoken of almost and they are ashamed of it themselves S. Paul's oath was all this he sware in truth he was truly perswaded of the truth of his own affections toward them And then in Judgment it was done in discretion for being not able otherwise to clear himself having no witnesse in earth he goes to heaven for a purger he goes to God himself for a witnesse he fetcheth strength from heaven There was none on earth that knew S. Paul's affection but the Spirit of God and his own spirit and he thought his own spirit was not sufficient my own spirit tells me that I came not to spare you but if you would know my mind better 〈◊〉 all God to witnesse and to be a revenger if I speak false that I came not for this end that I might spare you to prevent the rigour and
after there is inward intrinsical grounds in the Word that make us to know the Word without the Church Now they would have the authority of the Word depend upon the Church and so over-rule mens consciences in that case Whereas all that the Church hath is a leading inducing perswading to hear the Word under which Word and Ordinance we shall see such light and majestie in the Scriptures that from inward grounds we shall be perswaded that the Word of God is the Word of God Therefore the Church is the first inducer to believe the Word of God not the last object to which all is resolved For they themselves crosse it in their tenents when they speak discreetly Is this opinion so and so The Church holds it but what authority hath the Church to maintain it where is the authority of your Church then they bring some place of Scripture I will be with you to the end of the world And He that heareth you heareth me c. I do but a little discover to you the danger of this errour They make the Word of God to be believed because the Church saith so they make truth to be believed because their man of sin whom they depend upon saith so Do we believe the Trinity or that Christ is our Redeemer because the Church saith so should we not believe it except the Church say so what if the Church teach the Doctrine of Devils as they do they cannot shake it off we must believe because the Church saith so so upon equal grounds they shall teach the Doctrine of Devils and the Doctrine of Christ because the Church saith so As it was said anciently he that believes two things the one for the other he believes not two but one in effect because he believes the one for the other So in effect they believe nothing but the Church that is themselves believe the truth to be divine because they say so so they may believe any devillish errour because they say so so any treason or rebellion must go current because they say so because they cannot erre Yyou see how they domineer over the faith of others shall not Christ be Christ nor God be God nor the Devil be the Devill except the Church say so Again in the very matters themselves in the points that themselves do not urge the Church of Rome domineers and tyrannizeth over the souls of people For example they hold that the intention of a Minister in the Sacrament makes it effectual What a fear doth this breed in the souls of men that they know not whether they be baptized or no because it must be in the intention of the Minister And then in confession they must confesse all what a tyranny is this to the souls of people when perhaps there is somewhat that they have not confessed and so their confession is of no worth And in satisfaction perhaps I have not made satisfaction enough by their injunction laid on me and therefore I must satisfie in hell what a rack is this to conscience So what a rack to conscience is that opinion that the Pope cannot erre when I cannot tell perhaps whether he be the right Pope or no if he came in by Simony or is not in Cathedra and many conditions they have to salve that Point If any of those conditions be not observed he is not the man he should be what tyranny do they force upon people over their faith Therefore they are called in the Revelations scorpions indeed they are spiritual Scorpions that sting the souls of Gods people The Devil is the King of darknesse and is not he the Prince of darknesse that maintains ignorance of the Word of God that all his old tenents and opinions may have the better sway that he may sit in the blind and dark consciences of people It is said 2. Thess. 2. that he sits in the Temple of God that is in the Church nay he labours to have another Temple to sit in mans soul which is the Temple of the Holy Ghost It is not sufficient for him that is the man of sin to have any other place he must sit in the very souls and consciences of men Satan hath a special malice to sit in the place of God since he was turned out of heaven and cannot come thither he will come to that place if he can upon earth where God should be and where will God be God will especially be in the hearts of his people in the souls and consciences of his people Conscience is Gods throne Satan being thrust out of heaven labours to stablish his throne there Now they that are Satans vicars led with his spirit they are of the same mind let them be what kind of great ones they will they desire to sit in Gods throne in the conscience and if a man will not tie his conscience to them he is no body to them This is the property of Antichrist in the highest degree as far as any are addicted to this that they will not be satisfied but the consciences of men must be tied to them they must deny all honesty and justice and law and all to please them and to gratifie them with particular kindnesse so farre they are led with the spirit of Antichrist and of the Devil himself who labours to sit in Gods throne that is in the hearts and consciences of people And therefore as I said they labour to keep people in darknesse for this very purpose that people may let them into their consciences and rule them as they please As Sampson when they had put out his eyes they led him to base services so do they with Gods people they put out their eyes and then they lead them to grind in the mill to all the base services they can It is not to be spoken of the brutish slavery and ignorance that is in Spain and other Countreys where that Devillish Inquisition reigns which is a great help to Popish Tyranny What should I speak of the state of the Romish Church indeed the main scope of it is to subdue all to them to subdue all Kings and Kingdomes to them that is the grand scope of the greatest of them others have their particular scope for their bellies and base ends but those among them that have brains that are Governours their scope is to bring all under their girdle and how shall they do this They cannot bring their persons but they must bring their consciences for where the conscience is the person will follow presently therefore they labour to lay a tie upon the conscience of Prince and people upon all that so they may domineer and rule over their consciences And for that end they labour to nourish them up in blindnesse for by blindnesse they rule in the conscience and ruling their conscience they may rule their persons and Kingdomes This is their main scope this hath been their plot for many hundred years So
creatures in glory Consider with whom you have to deale him that ere long shall be wonderfull in his Saints Therefore come prepared come joyfully come faithfully come reverently and holy and you shall find a blessing answerable This I thought good to touch concerning the occasion of the Sacrament Ye are our rejoying At the day of the Lord Jesus Saint Paul esteemed of nothing but that which would comfort him at that day Therefore let us oft think of the day of the Lord Jesus Why what will make us digest labour and pains in dealing with the soules of others in doing good and being fruitful in our places The consideration of that Day there is a Day will come that will make amends for all and that is the day of the Lord Jesus And considering that there is such a day let us make much of the day of the Lord that is now left us what is that This day The Lords Day Revel 1. it is called The Lords Day And as I said labour to be acquainted with that Lord that must be Judge of quick and dead then The Lord hath a day now wherein we may be acquainted with him by hearing his Word by yielding obedience of his truth unfolded to us therefore let us make much of this day if we would have comfort at that Day Ye are our rejoycing in the Day of the Lord. VERSE XV. And in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before that you might have a second benefit or Grace IN this confidence In this assurance in this perswasion I was minded to come to you That you might have a second benefit saith the last translation it doth diminish the strength of the word therefore go from the Text to the margin you have oft-times a fitter word in the margin Charis The word is pregnant in the Original it signifieth Grace if it signifie a benefit at all it signifies a benefit that issues from grace and favour benefit is a weaker word Grace though it be not so common is a fit word and reaches to the strength of the word in the Original to the meaning of the Apostle so it is better to read it so That you might have a second Grace Saint Paul in this Verse sets down what intention he had to come to them And likewise the end of his intention In the next Verse he sets down the manner how he would come to them Fourthly he shewes why he came not to them it was to spare them as he faith afterward Here in this Verse he shewes what his intention was My intention was to come to you In this confidence I was minded to come to you To what end That you might have a second benefit His intention is set down by the inward moving cause his confidence In this confidence I was minded to come to you I will speak of his intention and purpose of coming And of the end of it And in his purpose of coming of the moving cause his confidence In this confidence What is that In this confidence because I am assured that you are my rejoycing and I yours in the day of the Lord Jesus in this confidence that you will be so to me and I to you In this confidence Saint Paul had a good opinion of them The inward moving cause of S. Paul to come it was a good conceit of them It is good as far as possibly we can to cherish a good judgment and conceit of others Let others have as good place in our affections as possibly may be Why If they be good we wrong them else even in our conceit We do not onely wrong men in our speeches and actions but in our sinister judgments in the censures of our minds therefore we should have as good conceit of men as possibly we can in that regard And likewise because confidence and assurance that they have something in them that is good and it will be better with them after in the day of the Lord this will be a means to stir us up to deserve well of them Hope stirs up Will we have no mind to a thing that we have not hope of And likewise Hope stirs up endeavour And Hope keeps in endeavour What makes a man so long in endeavouring the good of others he hath some hope they are good and will be better So it stirres up our will the bent of it it stirres it stirres up endeavour upon will and it keeps us in endeavour when we hope for good at mens hands And therefore we ought not to cast off men especially those that are young for imperfections The Corinthians were weak and carnal as you may see in the former Epistle yet in this confidence that they had repented of their ill usage of S. Paul he was minded to come to them Persons that are the subjects of hope are not free from infirmities Novices cannot have that perfection that grown Christians have at the first Consider further what is of passion and what is of the poyson of nature consider what is of infirmity and what is of malice Consider what sins they have been longer accustomed to and how hardly such sins are suddenly broken off These considerations would mitigate something where we see any degree of goodnesse Oh this pleaseth now some vicious-disposed persons they think this makes for them Not at all what I speak is where there is any ground to hope well of S. Paul had some ground for he wrote a sharp Epistle to them and he saw they were amended on it he saw they yielded they acknowledged that is they reformed by his Ministery and by his Epistle So where we discern reformation that there is a willingnesse of amendment we must hope of such though they be sometimes overtaken And if they be overtaken we must construe it to the best the temptation perhaps was great and they were not watchful at that time the subtilty of the opposition and the malice of men was great and their caution was not so great thus we may construe to bear with them if upon the discovery of their fault they become pliable but otherwise if they arm themselves with malice and bitter poyson and resolve to be so still there is no hope no confidence of such Saint Paul's confidence here was with evidence from their carriage they gave him some cause to be so confident Therefore it is in vain to think that we are too censorious when we tell you of your faults that very conceit that you think bitterly and arm your selves with resolutions rather to vex those that inform you then to amend that which is amisse that is as ill a disposition as ill a state as can be We can hope for no good of such yet notwithstanding we ought so far to hope of them as nor to give them over as S. Paul saith 2 Tim. 2. To prove if at any time God will shew mercy to them to deliver them out of the