practical knowledge of it and therefore is he said not to know it As Christ knew no more of evil than he did practise which was none at all so you know no more of good than you do practise Knowledge and Profession without Power and Practice will make you indeed as Rachel beautiful but barren and as Ephraim a Cake not turned Hos 7. 8. baked on the one side only but plain dough only on the other side these are cast-away Cakes that are raw on the one side and burnt or scorched on the other as unpleasant to the palate in both the sides amongst men accordingly dough-baked Duties will not down with God Irreligious Honesty and dishonest Religion are both alike check-aside Groats and Cakes not turned to the Lord the former is for a Second-Table man and nothing for the first Table the latter is for a first-Table-man and nothing for the second Table Whereas the two Tables are clasp'd together and should not being all but one Copulative be disjoyned or disjoynted by any dispensatory Conscience 8. Now having discovered the false Grounds of Self-deceit which are the true Causes of your Spiritual Distemper in order to the compleating of your Cure and to an effectual Application of the right Remedy 't will be expedient to inform you how you may distinguish betwixt false grounds and true that you may be undeceived And that this may be done the more distinctly and particularly the second Question to be answered shall be How you may put a difference 'twixt Nature and Grace that you mistake not the former for the latter To this I answer You may have a good Nature yea a Nature better than others yet this is but a beautiful Abomination and a smoother way to Hell and Damnation to mistake Nature for Grace speaketh out as much blindness and bewrayeth as much gross and sublime Ignorance as to mistake the burnt Temple for the built one Ezra comes to Jerusalem findes the Temple burnt but leaves it built Could any Jew be so sottish as to put no difference 'twixt the Temple as it lay in its own ashes a ruinous heap and as raised out of those Ruines a glorious Fabrick much admired by Christ's own Disciples Matth. 24. 1. Alas Nature is the burnt Temble burnt down in the Fall Christ our Ezra or Helper Hebr. comes and findes the Temple and Image of God demolished in you he lays a new foundation rejoyce in this as they did Ezra 3. 11. but mistake not the one for the other as if no need of Christ 9. Grace is Christ's rebuilding the burnt Temple and his restoring the lost Image of God in you when he changes the old Nature and makes you to partake of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. Thus when Christ comes to repair his Temple he is said to be then as the Refiners fire and as Fullers soap Mal. 3. 2 3. to shew how the dross and dirt of sin is even so incorporated in the best yet depraved Nature of fallen Mankinde that Christ must be both fire and soap to the soiled Soul of man in a Similitudinary way before man can be a new-man a new creature created even out of Nothing or out of that which is worse than Nothing in Christ Jesus unto good Works Ephes 2. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Gal. 6. 15. This corrupt nature is called the wild Olive Rom. 11. 24. which must be broâ—en from the old stock and not only so but it must be engrafted into the noble Vine John 15. 1. Christ Jesus or into that good Olive-tree Rom. 11. 24. This same spiritual engrafting of the branch which is wild by Nature is there said to be done contrary to Nature which Phrase plainly sheweth that Nature cannot contribute any thing unless it be Contrariety and Contradiction or Contrafaction in this mighty work of Grace Plutarch wonders at the Fig-tree that it should be so bitter in its root branches leaves stock and stem and yet the fruit of it so exceeding sweet and luscious But 't is more to be wondered at that such sweet fruits as those of the Spirit should ever grow upon the bitter stock of Nature for Gratia non tollit sed attollit Naturam Grace doth not destroy but refine Nature Man being by Nature in the very gall of bitterness Acts 8. 23. Alas none of his actings can be of a sweet savour unto God until he be engrafted into Christ and so partake of his sap and sweetness and thence become a tree of Righteousness Isai 61. 3. 10. After this first Answer which is general the second Answer is more particular to shew that Nature in her highest exaltation can never become Grace for these following Reasons drawn from corrupt Nature's defectiveness since the Fall As 1. mere Nature can never teach a Man to feel the weight and curse of a sin that was committed above five thousand years ago to wit Adam's eating the forbidden fruit which brought in all Misery on mankinde 2. Nor can it make a man sensible of original Corruption and that he not only carries about with him a very body of sin but also that the very spirits of sin runs in his blood the feeling of which makes him cry out Oh wretched man Rom. 7. 24. 3. Nor can it make a man see the sinfulness of sin especially of that great Gospel-sin the sin of Unbelief nor to see sin as the chiefest evil and accordingly to hate it and to love Jesus Christ as the chiefest good Joh. 16. 8. 'T is the work of Gods Spirit and not of mans to convince hereof 4. Neither can Nature instruct a man in the Doctrine of Self-denial which is a Lesson that could never be learnt in Nature's School For corrupt Nature can never teach a man to mortifie and destroy its own sinful self 5. Nor can mere Nature enable a man to prefer God before himself upon this bottome of being perswaded that his Well-being dependeth more upon God than upon himself Natures Lesson is Quisque suae fortunae faber as if man were a God to himself Gen. 3. 5. Which was Satan's first Insinuation into the first Man 's sinning heart 6. Mere Nature can never make a man so resolute for Christ as to endure abundance of evil and to refuse abundance of good that Christ may be retained Hebr. 11. 36 37. 7. Neither could it ever yet reform and rectifie its own Irregularities no not in the two greatest luminaries in her own School Natural Knowledge could never straighten or set to right natural crookedness This is evident in Aristotle the most Rational man and Seneca the most Moral man that ever the Heathen-world saw yet the one kept his Strumpet and the other was a biting Usurer to their dying day Oh bungling Nature that was screwed up ad ultimum potentiae to her highest peg in those her two darlings yet could she not redress those evils nor can she act any thing in a gracious manner or acceptable to God Wo
5. 6-9 unto chance 1 Sam. 6. 9. For Chance is a Scripture-word Eccles 9. 11. Luke 10. 31. And 't is said Ruth 2. 3. that her hap hapned Hebr. to light in Boaz's field this was a mere chance in respect of Ruth who being a stranger knew not whose field it was yet was it ordered by a sweet and secret Providence of God in order to her Marriage to Boaz afterwards That which is to us but casual and contingent is yet by God Almighty both fore-appointed and effected That which is Casualty to man is no other than Counsel to God and what is Chance to the ignorant man is no less than the Lord to religious Job chap. 1. 21. The Lord giveth and taketh All Chances and Changes are as much in God's hand as is Time it self Psal 31. 15. Psal 91. 10. No evil shall chance unto thee So this Chance may be understood in a way of subservieney and subordination to Gods Providence Yet to ascribe evil to Fortune is far worse as if she were a Goddess and ordered all things both good and evil We do not finde that the very Philistims in the place before-quoted while they dreamed of a Chance did worship this Fortune as a Goddess Neither was she ever held to be so Hesiod mentions her not in his Theogonia till Homer made her so giving her a Soveraignty over all humane Affairs and the succeeding Poets that are said to lick up his Spewings say Sed te Nos facimus Fortuna Deam coelóque locamus Juvenal Satyr 10. 5. The third Discovery is Your heart will deceive you in making you to look more at the stroak that is given you than at God who strikes it Not much unlike the Dog that runs at the stone which is thrown at him but mindes not the hand that throwes it Oh! how prone is poor man to snarl at and quarrel with that tryal and trouble that is sent to afflict him saying to it Art thou come to torment me before the time as Matth. 8. 29. and many times may curse it whereas he should chiefly curse his Sin which is the procuring cause of his Misery You may pore too much upon the matter of your Affliction and too little upon both the Procuring and the Efficient Cause thereof your own sin is the former that sends for it and God's Justice against your sin is the latter that sends it Hence it is that we cannot say to our affliction as Laban said to Abraham's servant Come in thou blessed of the Lord thou art welcome Gen. 24. 31. Thou art Gods Angel or Messenger wherefore standest thou without I know that when thou hast delivered thy Message and done thy Errand thou wilt be gone and stay no longer and though thou be like a froward Guest at an Inne that is displeasing enough while he stays there yet pays nobly for all at parting may you be but able to do thus then you Accept of the punishment of your Iniquity as God saith Levit. 26. 41. then do you kiss the Rod yea and the Hand too that lays it on As the Scholar on his Death-bed did his Masters hand crying Istae manus me ad Paradisum portant Those very hands that have given me blest correction helps me to Heaven Your heart will deceive you if you look not beyond your Affliction at Gods faithfulness in your Affliction saying with David I know that out of thy very faithfulness O Lord thou hast afflicted me Psal 119.75 as if he had said Lord thou hadst not been faithful to my Soul without afflicting my Body 6. To ascribe any thing whether good or evil to fortune is the grand overthrow of all true Piety as it is an Atheistical debasing of Divine Providence Cicero himself acknowledges that it was ignorance of the Causes of things that brought in the names of Nature Chance and Fortune as if all things were either from themselves which is called Nature or Chance or only so disposed by Fortune this fictitious goddess and not by the true God that orders all from the highest Angels to the lowest worms Augustine argues excellently How can this goddess Fortune be sometimes good and sometimes evil Is it saith he because when she is evil she is no more a Goddess but is turned suddenly into a malignant Devil De Civitat Dei lib. 4. cap. 18. Sir Walter Rawleigh calleth Fortune the God of Fools a Goddess which is most reverenced when good but most reviled when bad of all other Poetical Gods or Goddesses though Hesiod who told the birth and beginning of all those counterfeit Deities hath not a word of Fortune yet after Homer had made her the Daughter of Oceanus or of the Sea as if she had her Ebbings and Flowings like it she grew so great with the blind world as to be accounted Omnipotent insomuch as all the concerns of Men even from the highest Prince down to the lowest Peasant were but Fortunae ludus ludibria the very sport and pastime of Fortune tossing them like a Tennis-ball up and down hither and thither at her pleasure abasing Wisdome by making the possessors of it miserable and advancing Folly for Fortuna favet fatuis Fortune favours fools by making the owners of it prosperous and successful This made the great but ignorant Demetrius cry out Oh Fortune thou hast exalted me and thou the same now goest about to destroy me Aâ—rel Vict. de Pertinace Yet among all the Philosophers I finde Plato most Divine in this point saying Nothing ever came to pass under the Sun whereof there was not a just preceding Cause 7. But Philip Mâ—lancton saith more plainly Quod Poetae Fortunam id nos Deum appellamus that which the Heathen Poets call Fortune we know 't is no other than God and his Providence as Exod. 21. 13. God hath delivered him into his hands that is Divine Providence gives up some men to be slain for some secret sin neither repented of nor punished by the Magistrate by some extraordinary casualty the Hebrews therefore use the name of God where others use Fortune because what men think to be done by Fortune is indeed done by the Providence of God though a man be killed at unawares as Deut. 19. 5. or by an errour or mistake Numb 35. 11. yet it is Gods Providence that it should be so for he is the Lord of our lives and we are guilty of death by sin Rom. 6. 23. whereby we make frequent forfeitures of our lives and 't is therefore the Lords great mercy that we are not ever and anon destroyed Lam. 3.22 Homo proponit Deus disponit man purposeth to knock down a tree but God disposeth of his stroke so that he knocks down a man the very slipping of the Axes head from the helve or handle is the work of God disponit Deus membra pulicis culicis God orders the very bitings of gnats and flyes saith Austin even Lottery is guided by Providence Prov. 16.
and all badness Nature of the best Edition is but Nature still 4. The third false ground may be your mistaking Civility for Sanctity or Morality for true Piety There be some in our day that do cry up Morality for Grace but 't is very observable that since those Rationists so called have done so the world hath more and more abounded with all kinde of irrational Immorality which seems as a testimony from Heaven against that lying Doctrine 'T is readily granted that we must render to Nature the things that belong to Nature yet must we be as careful to render unto Grace the things that belong to Grace that we may do wrong to neither of them either to God or Caesar Math. 22. 21. Now Civility or Morality is Nature of the best Edition rarely refined and dressed up yea decked with her choicest and chiefest Ornaments This is verily good and 't were well if there were more of it in the world yet it is not good enough to make you approved of God in Christ you may notwithstanding all this be as that house which was possessed dispossed and repossessed Matth. 12. 43 44 c. an house empty swept and garnished accordingly may your Heart be 1. Swept well of foul Moral Vices 2. Garnished handsomely with fair Moral Vertues Yet 3. be no better than empty of Christ You must have a better Righteousness than that which is only Moral or Pharisaical to make you currant Coin in the Court of Heaven Matth. 5. 20. Alas unless you have the Salt of Grace to season you and the Life of Faith to animate you all your Civility and Morality is but as gay Attire upon a Leprous body and as Jewels and Bracelets upon the rotten and stinking carcase of corrupt Nature which the New-Novelists are embalming yet notwithstanding all their perfumes sends it out an horrible stench of Profaneness into all parts of the Land 5. The fourth false ground of this Self-deceiving may be your mistaking of Restraining for Renewing Grace the former is only Gratia gratis data but the latter is Gratia gratum faciens according to the School-Notion Restraining Grace may indeed be called a Grace as it is freely given from God to some reprobate and even rebellious ones Psal 68. 18. as before Hereby Saul was not only chained up from hurting David as Abimelech had been from hurting Sarah Gen. 20. 6. but was made also to melt over him 1 Sam. 24. 16. and 26. 21. Corruption of the heart is like a Wolf in chains the worst of men even Pharaoh himself that red dragon was not always let loose upon Israel but was wonderfully restrained Exod. 8. 8. 25. 28. and 9. 27 28. and 10. 16 17. Yea and that old Serpent the Devil that great Dragon that set Pharoah on all his wicked work again Israel is himself sometimes chained up with a mighty chain of restraint Revel 20. 1 2. still all this chaining amounts not to changing he is a Lion a Devil still though in chains Take a Wolf beat him black and blew break his bones knock out his teeth cut off his claws and chain him up never so fast yea put a Sheeps-skin on his back notwithstanding all this his wolfish nature remaineth still and if ever he be set or get at liberty he will discover himself by worrying of Lambs as bloody Bonner did by worrying Christ's Lambs when he was set at liberty in the Marian days from his Confinement under King Edward the 6th at which time while he was looking out at his Prison-window that famous Lady saw him which said It was never better with Christ's Lambs than when such Wolves as he was were chained up And verily most sinners yea the worst in the world have some kinde of restraining Grace inasmuch as though they do as much evil as they could yet never so much as they would for there is a Greediness in them Ephes 4. 19. and they would sin with both hands earnestly Micah 7. 3. Indeed were not wicked men restrained from evil by natural Conscience outward considerations and the like and constrained to be civil there could be no humane Society amongst men But oh the blindness of those that take this poor Counter and set it up for a thousand pound as to God! 6. The fifth false Ground whereby your Heart may deceive you is a mere external Profession without the power and practice of Piety As 1. you may think well of your Spiritual state because you are born in the Church Alas you may be born in the Church and yet not be of the Church Thus profane Esau and scoffing Ishmael were both of them born in the Church yet were they not of the Church And so were those murmuring Israelites born in the Church in the Wilderness so called Act. 7. 38. yet God was highly displeased with them so as to destroy them there for being Murmurers 1 Cor. 10. 5. 10. 2. Because you enjoy Church-Priviledges whereas those very Israelites forementioned had Sacraments for their dayly diet and received them every meal yet were destroyed of the destroyer 1 Cor. 10. 1 2 3 4 5 10. Alas 't is not the opus operatum or bare enjoyment of Sacraments and Church-Priviledges that can save the Soul but 't is a blest improvement of Ordinances and a true enjoyment of Christ in them that must shew the truth and soundness of your spiritual state The barren Fig-tree is nearer cursing than the wild Brambles the one being in the Garden where and whence better the other in the Wilderness where and whence no better is expected So that your being in the Church and your enjoying Church-Priviledges may aggravate your Condemnation not evidence your Salvation 7. The sixth false Ground of this Self-deceiving as to your Spiritual state may be your resting in a Notional Knowledge without any Practical and Experimental Knowledge There is a form of knowledge Rom. 2. 20. as well as a form of Godliness without the power of it 2 Tim. 3. 5. Knowledg is indeed the key of the kingdome Luke 11. 52. But you may have the wrong key that will not open the door into the Kingdome if you have not saving and sanctifying knowledge Your tree of knowledge if the tree of Life be not with it will want the sap of Grace and then 't will bring forth leaves only You may have light without heat the Glow-worm and rotten wood do seem to have much light in them but either of them being cold by Nature can have little heat 'T is a certain great Truth that one single Dram of Saving Grace is worth a whole Pound of Notional Knowledge Moreover a Man is said to know no more than he doth practise 't is said of Christ That he knew no sin 2 Cor. 5. 21. because he did not practise sin No doubt but Christ had an intellectual knowledge of sin for he had a perfect knowledge of good and evil otherwise he could not have reproved it yet had he no
of the heart of man extensively were onely evil intensively and continually evil protensively there was a general Ataxy in Church and State in Families and Persons the whole frame was out of frame so this new World may be worst a little before its dissolution by Fire when the Son of Man comes to burn it 2 Thes 1. 8. 2 Pet. 3. 10. Iniquity shall abound Matth. 24. 12. a full Sea of Sin and a low-ebbe of Faith Luk. 18. 8. he will then find no Faith in most true Faith in few a living Faith in fewer and a lively and strong Faith in fewest of all in former Ages there was much heart-filthiness and heart-falshood and in our following Ages there is more oh how are the very banks of Blasphemy broken down in our time and wickedness now more brazen-faced with a witness then ever 't was formerly night-work as ashamed to show it self in the light of the Sun and in the sight of Men 1 Thes 5. 7. Act. 2. 15. but now 't is become more impudent and plainly a Noon-day Devil Men declaring their Sin as Sodome Isa 3. 9. and hanging them out in the very sight of the Sun not unlike that unpardonable and unparalleld Villany of incestuous Absalom 2 Sam. 12. 12. 18. 22. upon the top of the Palace from whence David had looked liked and lusted after Bathshebah Thereby God wrote his very sin upon his punishment 2. As it was in the Prophet Jeremies time so it is in our time Men are apt to speak the best of the worst and of the goodness of the heart under the badness of the life making the heart still as a City of refuge to retire to as if it were good when all else be evil The Prophet therefore opens a casement to make a discovery of the falshood and filthiness of the treason and treachery of the heart saying Jer. 17. 9. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Which words are a Doctrinal Position or Proposition which consists of a Subject of a Predicate and of a Copula according to the Rules of Logick 1. The Subject is the heart of Man taken comprehensively in Scripture for the Mind Soul Conscience Will and affections of Man yea for the whole Man called the hidden Man of the heart 1 Pet. 3. 4. for if the heart be engaged all the whole Man is engaged Thus Hunters adventures their necks yea their all in leaping over hedge and ditch while they pursue their game why their hearts are engaged in their pleasures and thus it is with all in their pursuit of either good or evil The Heart was the best piece as Created but is the worst piece as corrupted 't is like Jeremy's figs as Created of God nothing better but as corrupted by the Devil nothing worse when Man came first out of Gods Mint he was a curious Silver-piece and shone most gloriously he had then an honest upright and an innocent heart Eccles 7. 29. he had then no dross no tin mingled with his Silver no Metal better than it but Gold no Creature better than him but Angels the image of God was stamp'd upon his his heart and he was crowned with glory and Majesty Psal 8. 5. he had knowledge in his Understanding obedience in his Will and order in his Affections c. 3. But now alas in the faln Estate how is this burnt Temple to be bewailed by us as the Jews did for theirs Ezr. 3. 12. Man that curious Silver-piece formerly is now become the lost groat Luk. 15. 8. that hath lost its sound its weight its lustre and its superscription and Image yea instead of Gods Image Satan hath drawn out his limbs upon it so that Mans heart is now altogether of another make 't is Inversus Decalogus a Diametrical opposition to the holy Law of God the heart of the wicked in the state of degeneration is now of little worth like an old crack'd over-worn groat though the Tongue of the just acted by a new heart in the state of Regeneration be as choice Silver Prov. 10. 20. Thus the Subject to wit the Heart of Man the first particular neither is what it was at first nor what it ought to be according to Gods Law 't is not as it was created of God very good as all other things were that God Created but 't is now very evil as corrupted by Satan yea evil it self And this corruption is remarked in Scripture for three things first the Matter secondly the Manner thirdly the Measure of it first the Matter or Subject that is corrupted is the Heart the principal thing that both God and the Devil strangely striveth for they both cry My Son my Daughter give me thy heart Prov. 23.26 The Devil once strove with Michael about Moses dead body Jude the ninth verse but doubtless it was his purpose to set up an Idol for himself in the hearts of the living Israelites If Satan can but get the heart a strong hold of it and his strong holds in it as before he thinks himself well enough and so Satans eldest Son or Vicar 't was the Watchword of Gregory the Thirteenth in Queen Elizabeths time My Son give me thy heart be in heart a Papist and go where you will do what you will and 't is the heart that God mostly wisheth for Deut. 5. 29. Oh that there were such an heart c. and that God mostly delighteth in Psal 51. 17. as in his bed of Spices Cant. 6. 2. Thus there is a wonderful kind of continual contention not so much of Earthly as of Spiritual powers about the conquest and possession of Mans Heart but alas through Mans transgression Satan mostly carries it till Christ come to divide the spoil with the strong Isa 53. 12. Satan is the strong-man armed that through Mans sin entreth into the heart as into his Palace thus he entred into Judas his heart when he had concluded that cursed Contract of betraying his innocent Master Luk. 22.3 then entred Satan who till then had but stood at the door and when Satan hath entred and taken possession then he filleth it even from corner to corner as he did the heart of Ananias Act. 5. 3. Why hath Satan filled thine heart Alas he fills it top-full of all unrighteousness Rom. 1. 29. as above he fills it with Hells Houshold-stuff and quarters his Legions of unclean Spirits in this Isle of Man and he keeps peaceable possession of his Palace and Kingdom until the stronger man Jesus Christ come in the power of his Word and Spirit with a Writ of Ejectione firmae to dispossess that usurping possessor to conquer plunder and spoil the evil one Luk. 11. 21 22. This is Christs reward for his ignominious death Col. 2. 15. he shall divide with the Devil in his demeans It shall not be all Terra-Diaboli or the Devils-land but there shall be Immanuels land too Isa 8. 8. whose Land is planted with
33. as in the finding out of Achan Jonathan Jonah and Matthias and in dividing the land of Canaan to the Tribes of Israel Gen. 49. 13. c. So that you may not attribute to Chance as if things were of themselves or to Fortune as if she ordered your good or evil if it were so then there could be no order in things but all confusion whereas you behold a blessed harmony in all things save onely in the corrupt actions of men which yet the wisdom of God orders to his own glory How can that exact and regular motion of the Sun giving heat and light to and making Summer and Winter so orderly in all parts of the world be ascribed by any sottish heart to blind Fortune the Axel-tree whereof is infinitely too weak for the least motion of the world to be turned upon it As bad as those Assyrians were yet did they ascribe their afflictions not to Fortune but to the god of the Land 2 Kin. 17. 26. 8. The fourth discovery of the Hearts deceitfulness in adversity is your impatiency and weariness under Gods afflicting hand oh how weak are our hearts to endure tribulation Ezekiel 16. 30. Solomon saith If we faint in the day of adversity our strength is small Prov. 24. 10. Man hath no tryal of his strength till he come into trouble faintness then discovers weakness and weakness then causeth weariness and impatiency As is the man so is his strength said they to Gideon rotten or weak boughs do break when weight is layd upon them and so do earthen vessels when set empty to the fire unsound lungs cannot abide the frost-air but a Josephs bow will abide in strength though many Archers shoot at him and both hate and hit him yea and sorely grieve him Gen. 49. 23 24. being strengthened by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob but alas how soon are we crying out of weariness because of our weakness in running a while with the footmen of lesser troubles Jerem. 12.5 although God calls us not for he calls none but his champions to run with the Horsemen of greater Tryals hence affliction is called our infirmity Prov. 18. 14. because of our natural imbecility to bear it as well as to free our selves from it we cannot so much as bear words much less wounds for Christ and if we so startle at a reproach for the Truth surely we should never as one saith fry with a fagot 9. The fifth discovery of the hearts deceitfulness in Adversity is you will be very apt to restrain prayer in it as Job 15. 4. Alas when the body is out of frame by distempers or by external distresses the spirit also sympathizes and will often be out of frame with the body and the weakness of the flesh many times according to that in Matth. 26. 41. over-â—ometh the willingness of the spirit A man at â—uch a time hath work enough to bear the burâ—en of his own affliction therefore death-bed Repentance is said to be very seldome true Repentance sera poenitentia rarò est vera late Repentance is rarely true saith Augustin yet nun-quam serò si seriò 't is never too late so there be but a real and a serious frame of Spirit but alas there is all the danger for penitent words may at such a time be onely squeezed from us by pressing and oppressing pain when such words flow not naturally from a living principle within you may howl upon your bed you may brawl and murmure which is as the howling of a dog and no better unto your God Hos 7. 14. and not pray one prayer in the Holy Ghost Jude v. 20. all that time your Spirit which is the lending part will have then work enough to sustain the infirmities oâ— the flesh which is the borrowing part Prov 18. 14. Hereupon Job is charged by hiâ— friends for casting off fear and for restraininâ— prayer before God Job 15. 4. 't is true Joâ— might possibly omit his stated times of prayer which he observed day by day continually Joâ— 1.5 through the bitterness of his grief anâ— the unreasonableness of his foe-friends whicâ— discomposed his spirit for Prayer but that hâ— should altogether refrain and restrain prayer iâ— his misery was but a meer cavil against thâ— good man who could not be so bad as to foâ—â—ear all prayer himself and discourage otheâ— from it too this would have been a foul faâ—â— indeed for while prayer stands still the whole trade of godliness stands still and to cast off prayer is to cast off God Jer. 10. 25. yet as domestick discords may hinder prayer 1 Pet. 3.7 so may bodily distempers 10. The sixth discovery of the Hearts deceitfulness in afflicton is that the Soul of man many times will choose Iniquity rather than affliction as Elihu layeth to Jobs charge Job 36. 21. take heed be very wary for time to come because of thy natural proneness to it 't is with the hair of corrupt nature and the strong byass thereof may carry you down the hill before you be aware regard not iniquity turn not your face as the Hebrew word signifies towards iniquity by way of approbation as men do usually turn their faces towards that which they like and love or give not so much as a leering look towards sin Psal 66. 18. for this thou host chosen rather than to bear thine affliction or thy poverty patiently that is thou wouldst rather be a sinner than a sufferer and wouldst better be a wicked than a poor man this is a bad choice for there is more evil in the least sinning than in the greatest suffering inasmuch as the latter is a physical or natural evil and comes from an Holy God but the former is a moral evil and ever comes from the cursed devil Therefore should you not do the least evil though it would procure the greatest good Hence the antient Martyrs would not accept of deliveranc upon sinful terms Hebr. 11. 35. and they would not do so much as to cast in one single grain of Frankincense to an Idol although thereby they might have saved their own precious Lives well knowing that God stood in no need of their lye for his glory Rom. 3. 7 8. Sin is the greatest evil as God is the greatest good so it can never be in it self a matter or object of free choice Quas non oportet Mortes praeeligere saith Zuinglius What Deaths ought not a man rather to make choice of what torments not rather undergo yea into what deepest gulf of Hell it self must he not rather enter than wittingly and willingly to sin against God Daniel chus'd rather to be thrown to the Lions than to violate his Conscience and so to have that lion through guilt roaring against him in his own bosome The Armenian Mouse some say will chuse rather to dye than to be defiled with any filth insomuch that if her hole be besmeared with dirt her choice is rather to be taken
or that particular sin but for the trial of his Grace and to evidence unto Satan that he was no Hypocrite yet did he acknowledge to God I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver nf men Job 7. 20. He puts himself into the hands of his Justice in hope of his Mercy he confesses his Malady to wit his sinning to be the just occasion of his suffering and ardently enquires after a due Remedy yet this good man desired further to know not so much to satisfie his Curiosity as his Conscience why he was so afflicted whether for sin or for trial and if for sin he begg'd of God to Make him know his transgression and his sin Job 13. 23. to wit that particular sin which thou chiefly strikes at 15. Afflictions have a voice as above and say to the afflicted as the Lord said to Joshuah Vp and search Israel hath sinned Josh 7. 10 11. And as the Mariners said to Jonah What evil hast thou committed what good hast thou omitted Jon. 1.8 Something surely is amiss that God would have amended It is therefore meet to be said unto God and that with a Surely I have born chastisement I will not offend any more and though yet I be in the dark and know not the right and particular cause wherefore I am afflicted That which I know not teach thou me Job 34.31 32. Alas men are very apt to mistake themselves herein and like the Child Samuel when God calls one way to run another way 1 Sam. 3. 4 5 6 8 9. Yea the Devil also deals with the afflicted just as the wretched Jews did with Christ when they did blind-fold him and bid him prophecy who smote him Luke 22. 64. Thus Satan holds his black hand before the eyes of mens Understanding and then bids them prophecy who smote them and for what Hence it is that in our Afflictions we many times grope like blinde men only guessing at this cause and at that but seldome hitting upon the right and therefore God must be sought unto for direction herein and besought also graciously to point out the sin he strikes at This Job had done once Job 10. 2. and again Job 13. 23 but Elihu would have him to do it yet better as he tutor'd him Job 34. 31 32. Lastly Consider these few following Directions 1. When you have thus sought and besought the Lord for Instruction herein Observe at what door doth your Conscience awakened by the Word lay your Affliction for God keeps his Petty-Sessions in the Court of Conscience and therein you may hear his Voice 2. Labour to have as deep a sense of Spiritual Evil as of Temporal A blind eye may bring you to Christ for Cure and Comfort when a blind Soul will not do so 3. In your Adversity forget not Divine Promises as in your Prosperity you may not be mindful of Divine Threatnings 4. Let your minde be above your means in Adversity as it ought to be below them in Prosperity 5. Let not your custome of being delivered from this or that particular Danger encourage you more than Gods promise of Deliverance from all evil 6. Be not more prone to speak of your Miseries than of your Mercies of your Losses than of your Gains as most men commonly do for if so it plainly shews you would rather have your self pitied for the former than your God praised for the latter 7. 'T will qualifie your Sufferings to take notice how many do suffer more pains for eternal Pains and for Damnation than you have yet done for everlasting Life and for Salvation 8. It may likewise comfort you to know that Christ by his Cross hath taken away the Curse of your Cross though not the cross it self which if he had done then as the Cross indeed would have done you no hurt so neither could it have done you any good whereas how many Saints have blest the Lord for their sanctified Afflictions and they would not have been without them for a world Psal 119.71.75 9. Know that Misery 't is true may be your Condition yet if you be truely godly it shall never be your portion 't is Mercy not Misery that is the portion of all the Vessels of Mercy 10. Know also that your God who chastens you will soon say It is enough c. 2 Sam. 24. 15 16. 'T is an excellent Note that Vatablus makes upon this place understanding by the appointed time the evening of the first day which if so understood doth mightily commend the Mercy and Gentleness of God who for three days of Pestilence threatned sends it but one day onely and then his bowels yern Hos 11. 8. and he cryes even then 't is enough he cannot finde in his heart to go thorough with destroying-work for he is a God and not man yea such a God as None is like him for pitty and pardons He may indeed afflict yea he must do so but he will not do so for ever 1 Kin. 11. 39. No he quickly repents him of the evil and leaves a blessing behinde him Joel 2. 14. Lastly Let God vindicate his own Holiness who though he pardon sin yet will not patronize it no not in his own Children 2 Sam. 7. 14. Psal 89. 30. 32 33. yet Paul may be happier in his chains of Iron than King Agrippa was in his chains of Gold Oh that a bitter life may make you look for a better life CHAP. IX Of the Hearts Treachery as to your Spiritual state 1. HAving made some Discoveries of the Deceitfulness of your Heart in respect of your Temporal state whether Prosperity or Adversity we come now to your Spiritual state which is of mighty importance and upon which your everlasting weal or wo in the other world dependeth Therefore must you keep your heart with all keepings and with your utmost Care and Caution that you put not an everlasting Cheat upon your own Immortal Soul in this matter of such weighty and eternal consequence 1. The Malady 2. The Remedy First The Malady And this cheat may befal you two ways 1. Your own Heart may deceive you in falsly conceiving What you are in Gods thoughts And 2. in falsly conceiving what you are in your own thoughts First of the first You may be deceived in conceiving what you are in God's thoughts to wit that you are predestinated to Life and Salvation whatever you be and however you live in the world Even all people have a natural proneness to bless themselves with a false hope of their Predestination to life Deut. 29. 19. and that they shall have peace Now the thoughts of God are in those two unchangeable Decrees of Election and Non-election which the great Apostle exemplifies by Jacob and Esau Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated before they were yet born or had done either good or evil Rom. 9. 11 12 13. There is no doubt but Esau blest himself in his own heart and came presumptuosly to his
therefore eye your self less and your High-Priest more in all your Duties especially considering that 't is he who carries the names of all the Tribes of Israel upon his Breast-plate into the Holy of Holies Exod. 28. 29. 'T is he who must present your person with acceptance to his Father saying Lo here am I and the children which thou hast given me Hebr. 2. 13. Yea and 't is He that must present your actions too or they will never come with acceptance upon Gods Altar Isa 60. 7. 'T is Christs work to pick out the Weeds from the Flowers in all our Duties he takes away the Iniquity of our holy things and what Flowers and Fragrancies of his own Spirit he finds in our Duties Cant. 4. 16. those he binds up in Nosegays and so presents them to the Father for us He Eekes out all our defects with his own fulness of sweet odours Revel 5. 8. and 8. 3 presenting nothing to God but what is pleasing to him as perfumed by his Merit 12. The eighth Deceit is You may be puffed up with Pride after enlargement of Duty When Spiritual Fire is at any time vouchsafed to be sent down from Heaven upon your Heart in Duty then is Satan's time in tempting you unto Self-admiration whereby you may forfeiâ— the heart-warming presence of God at anotheâ— time This is Satan's Chymistry to bring evil out of good to wit Spiritual Pride ouâ— of a divine enlarging presence which iâ— quite contrary to God's Chymistry in bringing good out of evil to wit a sanctified Use of temporal trouble Indeed God would never suffeâ— any sort of evil Natural or Moral to be in thâ— world if he knew not how to extract somâ— good out of all evil The spirit of or spiritual Pride is the worst sort of Pride as thâ— spirit of poison is the worst sort of poyson Corruptio optimi est pessima As this sort oâ— pride is the corruption of the best thing to wiâ—â— divine Duty so it becomes to be of the worâ—â— nature Morbus Satanicus the Devils Disease 'T is the worst kinde of Theft as it is a stealing from God his declarative Glory 't was Bernard's Descant Vxor gloria viri gloria uxor Dei as the Wife is the glory of man 1 Cor. 11.7 so Glory is the wife of God and therefore God is as jealous of his Glory as a man is of his wife His Glory he will not give to annother Isa 42. 8. 12. Will a man rob God Mal. 3.8 't is as sublime an Impudence as to rob the King of his Queen and yet this you may do in robbing God of his Glory the chiefest Flower and Jewel of his Crown when you exalt your self after enlargement more than your God which is a grosser and greater Crime than that which proud Haman was charged withal Will he force the Queen before my face Esth 7. 8. Hence arose that harsh-sounding Sentence of Austin Duty damus more than Sin and Duty damus more than it saves the sound sense whereof must be this When men are found priding for duty and resting in duty the Devil deceives them and so far their duties have accidentally a damning nature especially when they are deceived with seeming for saving Duty As the Witches in Lorain which Dr. Preston speaks of were deceived by some seeming broad pieces of Gold which proved at last no better than an heap of yellow dryed leaves of the Aspin-tree thus when we write up service and God writes it up sin Satan cheats us with seeming Service and in this sence Duty accidentally madamn Duty indeed saves none that â—â— Christs work to save and not the work oâ— Duty Duties be good Evidences as Grace be but both be bad Saviours 13. Thus far of the first thing to wit the Malady The second particular is the Remedâ— briefly Would you have relief against those deceits aforesaid then take these following Rules Rule the 1. Minde the Principle youâ— act from in Duty God looks more at the principle of Duty than at the performance or Duty it self he looks not so much at what you do as with what spirit you do your duty Alas a Cain may offer sacrifice as well as an Abel Gen. 4. 3 4. and a Doeg may step as far into the Sanctuary as a David I Sam. 21. 7. yea a proud Pharisee may step far further into the Temple than a penitent Publican Luke 11. 10 11. 13. yet with differing spirits and principles All your Deeds and Duties should be made manifest that they are wrought in God Joh. 3. 21. that is from a good principle as well as from a good End Jehu did excellent things for God 2 King 10. 16. yet that which spoiled all was that all his high and noble exploits did spring from a low and ignoble spirit and principle in not pursuing Gods praise so much as his own promotion The 2. Rule is Go forth in the strength of the Lord into every Duty Psal 71. 16 Take heed of fetching Materials of Duty from your self making Duty a matter of Wit of Memory and of natural Abilities Alas this is but a lifting up your own tool upon Gods Altar which will not polish but pollute it Exo. 20. 25. Duties that are made up of parts words and wit as Abanah and Parphar rivers of Damascus may indeed scour but 't is Duty done in Gods strength as Israel's Jordan can cure the Leprosie 2 Kin. 5.12 14. As Elisha's staff in the hand of Gehazi cannot cure 2 Kin. 4. 29 31. so Duties performed never so gloriously by our own abilities cannot help what cares Satan for all their Adjurations Act. 19. 13 14 15. where he sees not feels not the evidence and demonstration of God 14. The third Rule is Never sit down satisfied in Duty without the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Phil. 1. 19. who must help your infirmities Rom. 8. 26. Gre. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lift with you as at a log and bearing up the heavier end of Duty for you God said betimes 'T is not good for man to be alone Gen. 2. 18. 'T is not good that man should be alone at any time but especially in Duty he stands in as much need of an helper for his Soul as he doth for his Body Martha would not serve Christ alone but she would have Christ to bid her Sister Mary help her Luke 10. 40. So do not you serve Christ alone in Duty but desire him to bid his Spirit help you therein Christ tells you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seorsim a me without me and my Spirit you can do nothing Joh. 15. 5. you cannot pray as you ought Rom. 8. 26. As you must do Duty from a principle of Life habitual Grace or a renewed frame of heart in Faith and Love so you must call in the help of the Spirit to excite that spring and principle crying Awake O North-wind come thou South blow upon my Garden c. Cant. 4.