his own word or no constant to his own sayings or no this is Facere Deum ludionem ridiculum I say this is to make God a meer stage-player ridiculous in his most grave transactions What is this but to make him light and unconstant to his most solemn pronunciations 12. They tempt God who live in known sins against the manifest word of God they make a tryal of him whether he will punish them for their sins or no whether he can be angry or will be angry with sin or no this is Interpretativa tentatio a tempting of God by Interpretation Sirs as oft as men sin against their own consciences they do presumptuously tempt God or try whether God will be just or no whether he be holy or no thou lovest such a sin and livest in it now thou temptest God whether he loves it and likes it also and at length thou thinkest that God is such a one as thy self 13. They tempt God who attempt things above their parts and power confiding in the Divine assistance which is not promised them thus many tempt God by entring into the Ministry they undertake a great work and are not underlaid with a stock of abilities but they venture upon confidence of Divine assistance but where has God promised thee his assistance he never promised his assistance to those that are unable he fits for the Ministry but never promised assistance to the unfit 14. They that put off their repentance from the present to the future-time and doubt not but God will give them grace and conversion whensoever they list tempt God exceedingly To repent and turn to God is a work above the sphere of mans ability who can change his own heart Oh! but God will meet me with his assistance hereafter poor man Who told thee so I am sure God never did 15. They tempt God who bring Gods Actions to the test and tryal who subject his dealings to unjust examinations 16. To conclude Some men tempt God to sin were he capable of such a temptation Indeed James saith of God Jam. 1. 13. that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God cannot be tempted with evil or tempted to evil yet many are so audacious as to tempt God to do evil Vse 1. The Vse is this Oh let this point humble us for who of us have not been tempters of the Lord both in our days of unregeneracy and since we gave up our names unto him both in our days of unbelief and since also in our days of faith When we loved and lived in sin how did we continually tempt God and since he manifested and revealed himself unto us how oft how oft have we tempted him most unkindly and unfriendly God may say to every one of us You Numb 14. 22. have tempted me these ten times How have we indulged known sins and favoured secret lusts and prayed free-grace to accept of us in our beloved sins and tryed his mercy to pardon us in our love to sin against his revealed will How coldly have we prayed against an endeared corruption nay have we not secretly prayed oh that God would spare me this sweet sin oh that God were of my mind that I might enjoy this pleasing sin have we not at least tacitly wooed God to a compliance with us and how indifferently have we conflicted with our pleasing sins as if we were loth to over come them How often have we tempted God with our impatience our murmurings our unbelief and discontents How often in our afflictions have we called God to an account brought his Actions to the test and subjected his dealings to our unjust examinations and tryed them by our touchstone Vse 2. The second Vse Oh then let us take heed of this great sin of tempting God Sirs you may trust him you may not tempt him God by all his promises meant to encourage your faith not your presumption 1. To tempt God is a grieving of God The Psalmist brings in God speaking thus to the Jews When your Fathers Psal 95. 9 10. tempted me and proved me and saw my works Forty years long was I grieved with this generation Tempting of God through unbelief and not submitting to his Government is a vexing of his Spirit and a provoking of him to reject the sinner Forty years long was I grieved with this Vers 11. generation unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest They tempted God and this grieved him and vexed him and then he sware they should not enter his rest 2. To tempt God is a destroying sin Neither let us tempt 1 Cor. 10. 9. Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents Vse 3. A last Vse shall be to give you some antidotes and then I have done 1. You must get the clear eye of faith by faith sometimes we understand the promises when we do not the work of faith is to commit the soul to God as unto a faithful creator Faith will tell thee when God frowns upon thee he loves thee Faith will help thee to commit thy soul unto God Jobs afflictions made way for him to heaven 2. Stay his leasure whatever your wants and conditions are stay his leasure go not before God stay his leasure if thou wilt be but content to stay Gods leisure thou wilt never go out of the way set faith and grace at work to help thee to look upon the time as short the mercy when it comes will be infinitely sweeter than if thou shouldst pull it off with thine own hand this will help thee to wait Gods leisure 3. Contentation is a rich antidote against tempting of God The defect of this Contentation leads us into many temptations and sins both against God while we murmur at his will and dealings with us And against our neighbour whose prosperous estate being better than ours we envy at And therefore sirs if we have food and rayment let us be therewith content that we may not trouble the waters nor disquiet God nor our own souls AN ACCOUNT OF Christian Piety 2 Tim. III. 12. Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution PAVL was the Author of this Epistle the person to whom he Writes it was one that had much of Paul's heart 2 Tim. 1. 2. Timothy whom he stiles his dearly beloved Son not by natural but 1. By spiritual generation Paul begot him to God by the Ministry of the Gospel 2. And Timothy was also Pauls Son by imitation he took Pauls stamp upon him and resembled him as a natural Son doth his Father and therefore Paul in his first Epistle calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his right Son his true Son one that followed him to an hair 1 Tim. 1. 2. not spurious nor degenerate 3. And therefore he was Pauls Son in affection Paul loved him as any Father ever did a Son and he Paul as any Son ever did a
and grace for grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. one grace for another The latter for the former for having mentioned the fulness of Christ he saith That not one but many graces are drawn and derived from him not one but many graces the first whereof is the cause of the second the second of the third and the third of the fourth and so along always the latter is given for the former till all the gifts of grace being compleated beatitude it self is at last perfected Not as if more grace were given for the right use of grace for that were to take us off from Christ to our selves whereas 't is the Apostles scope to fix us wholly on Christ but the Condition and Nature of Saving-grace which is such Vt prima Trahat alteram that the first draws the second they are as it were so concatenated as one Ring in a chain draws another and for the former that is given the latter is given that is God because he hath given the one will give the other such is the Order and Method he observes he give grace for grace that is where he finds one grace he gives another and where he finds some he gives more Or Grace for Grace i. e. Gratiam super Gratiam grace upon grace i. e. abundance of grace having scarce received one but presently receive another and after that another which Musculus saith the Hebrews express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle shews it in Rom. 8. 30. From the fulness of Christ we have received the grace of our Calling and upon our calling the grace of Pardon and Justification here 's grace upon grace and upon our Justification the grace of Adoption and Sanctification here 's grace upon grace and upon our Adoption the grace of Glory and Salvation still grace upon grace as the Apostle expresseth it in Ephes 1. 3 4 c. We shall now give you the Reasons of the Point why it is that where there are beginnings of true grace though never so weak God makes rich additions of more grace And Reas 1. Because grace in a Saint is God's own child the infant grace is the Spirits little babe begot in the Womb of the soul by the Spirit the soul is the Mother of it and the Spirit is the Father of it Now you know a Father is very tender of his young babe he takes it up in his Arms and looks upon it he reads his own Image in it and puts it in his bosom he handles it as gently as ever he can and preserves it from the least harm So when the Infant-grace is born in the soul the Spirit is very tender of his young babe he makes wondrous much of it and is as Preservative of its life as ever he can As you may see in Paul he had been in sore pangs of Travel three days and three nights together and the child Grace was newly born and see what care the Spirit had of it said he to Annanias Arise do not stay saith he but Acts 9. 11. arise and go into the street which is called Straight and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he prayeth The child Grace as soon as it was born began to cry and the Spirit presently takes care of it 1. The Spirit when the soul is brought to bed and safely delivered of her Man-child Grace sets the little babe to nurse and provides suck for it and gives it the Breasts of the Ordinances as the Apostle saith And I brethren could not speak 1 Cor. 3. 1 1 Pet. 2. 2. unto you as unto spiritual but as unto babes in Christ I have fed you with milk And in 1 Pet. 2 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby A babe when 't is new-born must have milk which is the most nutritive food in the world so must the little new creature when it is born it must have milk and therefore the Spirit provides it for him The Ordinances are the Breasts and the Ministers are the Nurses which give it suck As the Apostle saith We were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth 1 Thes 2. 7. her children 2. The Spirit dades his little child Grace and teacheth it to go As God saith When Israel was a child I loved him Hos 11. 1. Verse 3. and called my son out of Egypt I taught Ephraim also to go taking them by their arms And therefore are we said to be led by the spirit and to walk Rom. 8. 14. in the spirit 3. The Spirit teacheth his little child Grace to speak as a Father you know takes up his little one upon his knee and teacheth him to Articulate words and to call Dad so doth the Holy Spirit teach the child Grace to cry Abba Gal. 4. 6 Father Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Reas 2. Where there are beginnings of true grace God makes rich Additions of more grace because such is the Lords noble Nature that he loves to be giving To give is an Act Dare honestum quid est Recipere utile Dans exercet Actum Monestum Accipere utilem Agit ille hic patitur potius for a Prince rather for a God poor men receive rich men give Subjects receive Princes give Creatures receive the Creator gives The more noble and eminent natures are the more they give and the less they receive The heavenly bodies glance their light and dart their influences upon the Earth below but receive nothing from the Earth To give is an Act of perfection to receive is a note of imperfection were we not imperfect we need not be receiving He that gives imitates God who gives and receives not again because he wants not any thing And therefore it was a saying of Christ It is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20. 35. It is a part of Gods Beatitude that he is all things and hath all things to give that he can give and not be beholden to receive that he is an overflowing Sea always pouring out his gifts and golden streams upon the Creature When he hath given thee grace he hath more grace still to give And being a God and not man he gives continually to give he makes his continued Act He 'l never cease giving to his Saints not only in this life but in the life to come he will be giving out unto his Saints eternally As the Sun is always giving out its heat and virtue to the World so will God be always giving out his sweetness to his Saints throughout Eternity So that he that hath grace shall have more grace he that hath it in the bud and in the beginning shall have it in the perfection fear not poor creature if thou art always wanting God will be always giving and being a God
of his grace but also his spirit and life in the same manner as we say the members move not themselves nor live but by the life of their head So that to live christianly it is not enough to say that we must be in grace but we must live in the spirit and life of Jesus Forasmuch as we are one with Christ we must live his life and be acted and guided by his Spirit That life of Union which makes us one with him causes us to live in his spirit and life Not I but Christ Jesus Gal. 2. 20. lives in me And therefore the life of a Christian is the life of God himself who lives in us by his Son Whence it follows that as the Father lives in the Son and the Son in the Father so we live in Jesus and Jesus in us and because Jesus lives in us the Father also lives in us as you may find in Job 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him 3. This expression in Christ Jesus speaks causality because all that live godly are in Christ Jesus as the effect in its cause they have all their Being of grace from Jesus Christ I say they are in Christ as the effect in its cause They are in Christ Jesus as 1. In the efficient cause 2. In the exemplary cause 3. In the conserving and supporting cause of all their graces 1. They must be in Christ as in the efficient cause of all their graces For God in giving us Christ in our nature makes him thereby the principle of a new life in us and wills that as himself is the principle of the life of his Son in eternal generation so his Son should be the principle of our life in the new Regeneration of our souls with the washing of Eph. 5. 26. John 5. 21. water by the word As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will whether dead in their graves or dead in their sins And again As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given the Son to Vers 26. have life in himself i. e. to give life to others 2. The godly are in Christ as their exemplary cause They form up themselves to him Men cannot be godly unless they make Christ their Samplar so that to live godly in Christ Jesus is to act and live like unto Jesus Christ to make him the Idaea of our graces and the partern of our life All that wear the name of godly upon them are obliged to imitate Jesus Christ The greatest honour we can give him is to conform our selves to his life and intentions to imitate Jesus Christ maintains our adherence to him I beseech you observe it we adhere no longer to Christ than we are like him and we are not in him if we do not imitate him Our life then must be a lively Image of the life of Jesus Christ The first use a Christian is to make is to look upon the Son of God as the Prototype and Exemplar of his life and actions to express and represent him as it were to the life As the Son of God is the Image and Resemblance of his Father so must the Christian be of the Son We must be by grace what Jesus is by nature the Son of God is the true life and true model of our life Our interior and exterior life then must imitate and regard the exercises of the soul of Jesus Christ and the actions of his sacred life What Paul saith in another case As we have born the 1 Cor. 15. 49. image of the earthly Adam so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly i. e. of Christs glory when we come to glory so as we have born the Image of Adam imitating him by sin and following him by our own inclinations we must also bear the Image of Jesus Christ copying out his life and actions God gave us a Law as a Rule of life but he gives us a living Law a living Rule and form of life in Christ and shews us in him the manner of conversation that we must follow to live christianly that is to live a new life My Beloved we should never have understood the dimensions of life as it lyeth in the law had we not seen it acted in Christ Jesus By looking on and taking some measure of the excellent life of Jesus Christ we come to know what the life of holiness is that is commanded in the law And observe it The Lord Christ came not only to set himself before us to imitate him but to give us a grace and power to imitate him and put on his likeness As Paul saith I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Consider it seriously Many because they lean upon Christ for pardon and upon his righteousness alone for salvation believe lustily that they are in Christ Jesus But ye are not in Christ till ye live his life your vital imitation of Christ speaks your Vnion to Christ if you are not like him you do not live in him To imitate Christ 1. We must shun all manner of sin for he knew no sin 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 22. And again 't is said of him Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth And 't is said there That he left us an Vers 21. example that ye should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth So then here lies our imitation of Christ that as he had no sin so we must strive to have no sin in us And my Beloved to what end are we religious and pray and put on a devout form upon our selves if we favour our sins in us To pray against sin and yet indulge sin us is to play the greatest hypocrites to pray like Christ and not live like Christ is the rankest dissimulation And that you may put your selves into a perfect resemblance of Jesus Christ you must mortifie nature in you for Christ was pure in his nature he was not only free from acts of sin but had an unstained nature and therefore to be like Christ you must get all stains of sin out of your nature you most mortifie the Spirit and Inclinations of Adam in you you must root out of the foundation of your soul I say you must put out of the very foundation of your Being all hidden principles all oppositions inclinations and customs contrary to holiness And therefore Mortification which is in a manner lost among Christians must be both inward and outward nay chiefly of the inward man The keen edg of Mortification must fall directly upon the root the nature of man the heart and spirit of Adam in us And therefore though to abstain from gross sins makes a fair and goodly shew in the flesh yet 't is insignificant and
his voice to the great World and the Rocks rend Thunder is the voice of God to the great World and in what Majesty doth he express himself to all Creatures below in that voice As there be Thundrings without so there be Thundrings within In great Majesty doth Christ speak to the soul sometimes Ask your Consciences else ask Faelix the Jaylour and Cain else yea ask your Father Adam else what a case were all these in when Christ did but reason with them Yea I ask you Hypocrites if any here is not the way of Christ full of Majesty What means those loads that gather about your hearts and that fearfulness which surpriseth you Thou dost but touch the mountains and they smoke saith the Psalmist so God doth but touch your Consciences and they smoke he doth but whisper within and your spirits fly about every where into the fingers into the face and up into the head and the heart within beats for want of them ready to swoon away Ask wounded spirits whether Gods Word be not full of Majesty Twenty years time not enough to heal the wound of a word of Gods mouth Oh the Majesty of that word Look upon the whole Creation upon the Earth upon the Sea upon the Heavens do they not all-speak the Majesty of Christ God is mightier than the noise of many waters yea than the Mighty waves of the Sea The tossings rollings and roarings of the Sea Do they not speak loudly the Majesty of Christ But ah sinner The tossings rollings and roarings of a troubled soul speak the Majesty of Christs word much more Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men 2. Kingdoms have Supremacy This is Basis Majestatis Christ is a great King over all as the Psalmist titles him Psal 29. God hath set Christ over all so should we as God hath set him so do you over all in all things Now self-denyal is an excellent means that Christ may Reign Thou must deny thy Kingdom that Christ may have his you must lay down your Crowns at his feet that he may wear his Crown upon his Head And this is a sweet Testimony of Grace in the heart if the heart can endure Tribulation that Christ may Reign If it can suffer all things that Christ may do all things if it can lye low that Christ may be exalted when we are most annihilated our Lord and his Mysteries are most admired Sixthly They know thankfully The beams of Knowledg that shine into them melt them into pangs of Thankfulness that they should have the Honour and Happiness to know those things that they know They would not be without Christ whom they know not for a thousand Worlds They would not be without the miracles of love and peace and pardon in Christ which they have and know for all the Worth of India They count themselves to have been no better than brutes and beasts all the time they were without the Knowledg of those Divine Rarities which now they lay up so close in their hearts They adore God that they should know and see those saving secrets which are hid from the eyes of so many round about them Seventhly The true Knowledg of spiritual things doth spiritualize True Knowledg of Religion makes a man Religious Religion in Scripture is called Godliness Without controversie great is the Mystcry of godliness that is The principles of 1 Tim. 3. 15. Christian Religion Godliness is great gain i. e. Christianity The Christian Religion is great gain Thus the Truths themselves are called Godliness Why so Because the true Knowledg of them begets an inward godliness As Religion it self is called Faith and the grace in the soul is also called Faith Why so To shew that Faith begets Faith that is the Truth revealed begets Faith and must be received by Faith Therefore one word includes both the Object the thing believed and likewise the Disposition of the soul to that Object So Religion is called Godliness because the true Knowledg of it begets Godliness Oh! See then what makes a true Christian What when a man nakedly believes Divine Truths When he knows the Principles of Faith doth that make him a true Christian No But when Religion makes him Religious when these Tit. 1. 1. Truths work Godliness for Religion is a truth according to godliness Where the Truths of Religion are embraced there is Godliness with them A man cannot embrace Religion in Truth but he must be godly because Religion is Godliness so it is called for that it tends to beget all Piety and Virtue and Godliness in the heart And therefore if the Mysteries of Heaven work not Godliness a man hath but an Humane Knowledg of Divine things When Lucius a bloody Persecutor offered to confess his Faith hoping thereby to gain an opinion that he was Orthodox Russin Hist Eccles l. 2. c. 6. Moses a Religious Monk refused to hear him saying The eye might sometimes judg of one's Faith as well as the Ear and that whosoever lived as Lucius did could not believe as a Christian ought A man knows no more of Christ than he is sanctified he knows no more of Divine things than he esteems and affects he knows no more of the Mysteries of Heaven than he brings the whole inward frame to be like the things He that saith 1 John 2. 4. I know God and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him No doubt but Hophni and Phineas being Priests had a literal Knowledg of God yet being prophane they are said expresly not to have known him They were sons of Belial they knew 1 Sam. 2. 12. not the Lord. Eighthly If we know God aright we know God in us for we come to know God savingly by Regeneration and so by little and little we come to know God in us knowing in our selves those Divine perfections which the Holy Ghost attributes to God We know the Holiness of God by the Beam of Holiness which he hath irradicated into our hearts We know the love of God by the working of love in us towards him and towards his Saints We know hatred of sin in God by knowing in our selves an hatred of sin we know the Mercy of God by finding in our selves an Image of his Mercy towards our Enemies As Christ saith Be ye merciful as your heavenly Fathers is merciful Luk 6. 36. And it is a clear case We could never know in God Truth Justice Goodness were we not in some measure true just and good it being natural for Man to judg of others according to that which he knows in himself The spirit makes me to know Omnipotency in God through the great Power which he shews in me mortifying me and making me alive The spirit makes me know Wisdom in God by the Wisdom which I get through his Holy Spirit he makes me know Justice in God because he justifieth me in Christ he makes me know Truth
he is not weary or remiss in any of his Acts. He takes more pleasure in giving than thou canst in receiving such is his Noble and Princely spirit To give is as it were an Act connatural to him an eternal Act he gave his Essence to his Son from all eternity and John 5. 26. John 3. 16. Rom. 8. 32. in time gave his Son to lost Sinners see he loves to give and with his Son will give us all things Reas 3. To him that hath grace God gives more because he knows there he shall not bestow his grace in vain he shall have fruit from his Plantation the grace he sows there will return him a crop Oh how happy a thing is it to have a soul seasoned with true grace The person gains and God himself is a gainer by such an one the poor soul gains by it for he that hath true grace shall have more and God gains by it for the more grace God gives such an one the more fruit shall God have from such an one and that 's the Lords delight it is the vine-dressers delight to see his Vines which he plants and prunes deckt with grapes It is the Husbandmans delight to walk and see his Field which he tilled cloathed with stately Corn Now God is an Husbandman as Christ saith I am John 15. 1. 1 Cor. 3. 9. the true vine and my Father is the husbandman And ye are Gods husbandry Saints it doth delight God to see his Vines full of grapes and to see his Field clad with fruit ye are his Field ye are his Vines ye must be always bearing because he is always watering The gardener delights to Water those herbs that will grow and yield him profit he bestows no drops upon the Flowers that are dead and wither'd 'T is so with God Every branch that beareth fruit saith John 15. 2. Christ he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit here 's the reason of it he that hath grace and bears some fruit God will give him more grace that so God may have more fruit Reas 4. Because it is his design to perfect his Saints and the work of grace in his Saints he means to make every one of them as Holy as Adam was in Paradise God doth not mean that we should come short in Christ of what we were in Adam Christ Jesus came in place to repair us up all that we lost in Adam and more than that all only Adam was made perfect at once and we are perfected by degrees but this is no disadvantage to us for Adam was made perfect at once but he lost it as soon he lost it at once and we are not made perfect at once but by degrees but we shall never lose it As a Limner that intends a curious picture at first makes but a rude Draught and lays his dark Colours but then by degrees he comes over with his beauteous and bright Colours and draws out the perfect proportion of a curious piece So God that glorious Artist in repairing man intends some stately piece he hath in his thoughts the Idaea of some glorious piece Indeed 't is Jesus Christ that stands by him after whom he means to draw man's picture As a Limner that seeth a beauteus person draws his picture whilst he is in the room with him and takes it wondrous lively because he hath him before him So God the Father hath Jesus Christ the beauty of Heaven and Earth before him and looking upon Christ draws every Saints picture and will make his Saints exactly like to Christ every Saint shall be Christs perfect picture And therefoe he that hath grace be it never so small shall have more nay shall have all because God intends to make his Saints perfect in Christ Jesus We shall now make some Improvement of this Point And in the first place Vse 1. This shines with excellent comfort upon the weak Saints upon you that complain you are but weak Christians and you cannot match others in performances you cannot do as others can and if we do believe we believe but little and if we do love Jesus Christ we love him but little To you to you I say if you have the least drop of true grace God will give you more and you shall have abundance Do you believe but a little Be of good comfort you shall believe a great deal Do you repent but a little you shall have given you a greater store of repentance Canst thou pray but a little canst thou but scarce pray It shall be given thee to pray mightily to pray down mountains and strong sins I pray you consider these things 1. Though thou hast but little grace yet thy little may be true grace Thou art suspicious of thy self and art wont to say Surely if my grace were true it would be more than it is it is so little that I cannot think it is true grace But I say unto thee though thou hast but little yet thy little may be true grace as a little piece of gold is true gold Object 1. Oh! But I enjoy rich means of grace I lye down in the fatting pastures of the Gospel which would in a short time plump up the weakest grace if it were true I sit daily under the nourishing showres of the Word and yet my grace is but little and therefore I fear me is not true Answ The Disciples sate under the most powerful Ministry that ever was under the droppings and the honey-dews that fell from Christs lips Never man spake as the spake He was the Prince of Preachers that had the tongue of the learned To be with him was to be in Heaven upon Earth They saw his wondrous miracles every day and conversed with Christ himself his lips did drop the choicest fatness and yet under all these golden shrowres they had but a little Faith For the Lord Christ upon an occasion saith unto them Why are Matth. 8. 26. ye fearful oh ye of little faith Object 2. But I cannot trust God for the smallest matters Food and Raiment are the smallest matters and he that cannot trust God in the least matters I fear me hath a faith less than nothing Answ The Disciples of Jesus Christ had many experiences of God Providence and Provision for them they went about with Christ from place to place and though they had no victuals yet they found victuals every where they saw so many thousands sed with so few loaves and yet they were Mat. 6. 30 31. troubled What shall we eat what shall we drink and wherewith shall we be cloathed Thus thou seest thy little grace may be true grace 2. God will own thy little grace thy grace though it be never so little yet he will own it As you may see in Rev. 3. 8 where writing to the Church of Philadelphia saith Christ Thou hast a little strength and hast ept my word She had but a little strength and Christ takes
of life or spirit of lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 7. and man became a living soul So when thou lyest dead before the Lord without any life or breath of Prayer in thee thou canst not so much as breathe before him he 'l breathe a Soul of Prayer into thee he 'l put breath into thee as he did into Acts 9. 11. Saul Behold he prayeth saith God 2. Sometimes a man sends a gift to one that never asked him for it so doth God sometimes send his gifts of grace to them that never ask for it he gives them before they ask it Opposers and Persecutors are said to be the greatest Sinners yet saith Christ upon the Cross Father forgive them they know not what they do he spake it of those that put him to Death Some might have said Lord they are opposers of thee even to the Death be it so saith Christ I have mercy for opposers too and for persecutors too Father forgive them they know not what they do But Lord they do not beg for pardon wilt thou give such a kindness to them that ask not for it They do not acknowledg their fault if thou wilt shew mercy to them stay till they acknowledg their fault and be humbled and ask pardon nay saith Christ I will prevent poor sinners with my love Though they do not ask forgiveness yet I beg forgiveness Father forgive them But Lord these are great sinners and less mercy would serve the turn forgiveness is a great mercy no saith Christ no mercy less than forgiveness will serve the turn they 'l be never the better for any mercy without forgiveness therefore they shall have it Father forgive them but forgiveness is a great mercy be it so saith Christ I know what I do I have great mercy the greatest mercy for the greatest sinners and because they cannot ask it I will ask it for them Father forgive them Vse 6. Wo to you Professors that have not true grace from Matth 13. 12. Luk. 8. 18. them shall be taken away even that which they have Luke saith From them shall be taken that which they seem to have For if we speak of true grace they have not grace only seem to have it They seem to be holy and their seeming holiness shall be taken from them They seem to believe and their seeming Faith shall be taken from them They seem to repent and their seeming Repentance shall be taken from them They Matth. 13. 20. seem to joy in Christ and in Mercy and the Promises but their seeming joy shall be taken from them The spirit doth but assume them he doth not inform them nor enliven them As the dead bodies which Angels assume for a time they seem to live and talk and eat and drink but when the Angel leaves them because they were not the Angels proper bodies they vanish away and lose that life they did seem to have So the Spirit of God doth assume and act the souls of many men in the Church for a time to do service for God by them and all that while they pray and preach and hear and walk up and down in Duty out of one Duty into another and the Spirit leaves them because he did but assume them and then they drop down dead as indeed they are and always were Thus the Spirit did assume Judas for a time Judas was but a dead man in soul all the time he was with Christ only the Spirit of God assumed him and acted him and he followed Christ and went about Preaching the Gospel with the other Disciples but when the Spirit left him he betrayed Christ for thirty pieces of silver that was his proper work and despaired and dyed Vse 7. This should put the Saints upon a serious Tryal of their graces The Point tells you that where there are beginnings of true grace God will make rich Additions of more grace Oh then try what grace yours is if it be true grace God will give more grace As the Apostle saith He that hath begun a good work in you will perfect it If it be a good work God will perfect it he will cherish his own work Sirs God will not nurse up a spurious seed Bastard grace whereof he is not the Father Oh! then all you that would taste comfort from this Point try your graces The Evangelical Hypocrite is he I aim at There is Gospel-Hypocrisie so I call it for where the Gospel comes there are two sorts of Persons that walk beside it 1. Some directly oppose the Doctrine of it and those are Justitiaries that set up their own Righteousness as the Jews Rom. 9. 31 32. did And therefore it is said That Christ came to his own and his John 1. 11. own received him not And such are the Papists at this day who are justly by our Divines said to answer to the Jewish Pharisees These are Christian Pharisees they receive Christ in Name but set up their own Righteousness and will be justified by their own Works and saved by their own Merits 2. Others there are that receive the Gospel and so decry all their own Righteousness and cry up Christ they see nothing in themselves and look for all from Christ renouncing their own Righteousness and resting upon Christ alone for salvation These are of divers sorts 1. Some receive Christ with an Historical lifeless Faith they believe in Christ but will not part with their sins they gladly embrace Christ as a Saviour but oppose Holiness and will not change their lives and because Christ came into the World to save sinners they take liberty to sin and hope to be saved as well as any These are those we call our large Protestants who are as great Enemies to Christ as Papists are The Papists persecute the true Christians in the Point of Doctrine and these Enemies within us persecute the true Christians in Point of Holiness The Papists they will be saved by works without Faith these will be saved by Faith without works These are spots in our feasts The Epistles of James and John were written as Antidotes against this kind of poyson And Jude writes against these men ungodly men turning the Vers 4. grace of God into lasciviousness Arguing from mercy to liberty which is the Divils Logick Continuing in sin that grace may abound And my Beloved in this lyeth the very form of an Evangelical Hypocrite in denying his own Righteousness to establish his sin he will advance Christ to advance his lust Dub. But how can open sinners keep their lusts live in visible prophaneness and yet believe in Christ Sol. Because the Gospel brings the sweetest and highest Consolations along with it And therefore every man under sense of sin will fly thither for Sanctuary and hide himself under the Canopy of the Gospels mercy A man that travels under the fiery Beams of the Sun in an hot day the cool shadow of a Tree is very
stands for nothing before God and Christ without the other Spiritual sins are the souls poyson the souls death and there is no carnal sin could reign in us were it not held up by some spiritual sin spiritual sin is the root upon which all carnal sins grow Spiritual sins are the Devils sins he cannot act bodily and fleshly sins he can be no drunkard nor adulterer he is a spirit and sins as a spirit so are those sins we speak of proper to the souls nature that is a spirit as self-love hatred of God Idolatry error in the mind and understanding admiring of our selves seeking our own glory pride unbelief fears cares desires These are spiritual wickednesses by these are we set farthest from God nay by these we become Anti-Gods and are the very pictures of the Devil he cannot be a drunkard or adulterer but he can be proud and envious and malicious and contentious and self-seeking and vain-glorious and in these we play the Devils And therefore I say our Mortification must be inward it must fall upon our inward and spiritual man of sin within us And therefore by Mortification we understand not only corporal austerities such as affect the sense as macerations fastings and other external exercises which rob the sense of what is most agreeable to it which though they be good and sometimes necessary yet are not the principal but we intend I say inward Mortification whereby a man purifies his heart annihilates the sources within drys up the fountains and pulls up the inward roots of vice he dyes to himself kills the seeds of self-love though hid in every thing gets victory over himself and his inclinations his principal care is to annihilate his reason and understanding his will his intentions his desires his propensities as far as they are corrupted chusing in all things that which is most pure And now he becomes most conformable to the spirit and purity of Jesus Christ And therefore to this he wholly addicts himself herein he is very vigilant he knows it generally as a maxim that the more the heart of man is filled with the creatures and the love and regard of himself the more he is separated from God void of his spirit and true virtue 2. To imitate Jesus Christ is not only to do what is good but to do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Men will be doing good actions they cannot help it they have so much light and are so inwardly convinced but we must remember that our actions must be so done as to be Christian and worthy the Son of God They must be holy and to be holy they must be accomplish'd in the spirit and by the principle of grace i. e. the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Jesus Our actions to be Christian must be done in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ that is Christ must do them in us the spirit of Christ must act them in us we must do all with the very heart of Jesus Christ you know all our good actions are nothing without the heart My son give me thy heart Now the heart from which we do them must be the very heart of Christ in us Thus Paul gives witness of himself God is my Record how greatly I long after you all in Phil. 1. 8. the bowels of Jesus Christ So if you reprove sinners if you tell others their faults if you do works of mercy you must do all in the bowels of Jesus Christ So then it is not enough barely to do what the Son of God hath done we may deceive our selves herein believing we do much when we do nothing of value because Jesus Christ being man as we are and conversing among them no doubt but we may find some conformity and resemblance to him even among the wicked in the common states of men Many suffer and are oppressed many poor and humbled many sequester themselves from the pomp of the Court and live in the obscurity of a retired life many fast and pray and do almost all the outward actions that the Son of God did upon the earth He was man as we are we are men as he was he did good we do some good this is no imitation of him The reason is because it is not enough to do what he did but we must do it with the spirit in the disposition and by the sacred principle that he operates This few persons mind it is not enough to do but we must do it by a principle of grace not of general grace comprised under the common name we give to all the gifts of God but of grace which gives us Christ communicates to us his spirit and puts us into the holy disposition of his soul and doing all things by this principle we imitate the Son of God so far that our natural and common actions are withdrawn from their meanness and are of great account with God as being operated by the same principle and with the same dispositions of the Son of God Herein appears the great difference between Christian virtues and moral or humane A man that hath refined principles and perfections and acts according to them may be called good but a man that is in Christ is a new creature and hath another goodness a new goodness and his actions are conformable to this new Being and life To difference Christian virtues from Moral we must be one with Christ and consequently must not operate but with him for this cause he gives us his spirit whereby we act or he acts in us It follows they are not so much our virtues our graces as these of Jesus in us The spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ in all his services looked upon the Will of God the glory of his Father I seek John 5. 30. John 6. 38. John 8. 49 50. John 7. 18. not mine own will but the will of him that sent me I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me And again I honour my father I seek not mine own glory He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh his glory that sent him as Christ did the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him You see what Christ aimed at and which way his spirit and disposition looked out in all his actions the will of his Father the glory of his Father and in pursuit of that doth what is most contrary to his own interests conceals nothing though it cost him never so dear to declare it his Fathers honour only sate upon his spirit Now if you would truly and rightly imitate Jesus Christ you must not only be found doing good but you must do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ Thou must not honour thy self nor seek it from others you must not attend your own advantages somewhat of glory or profit to your selves but labour only the bringing honour to God If we imitate