shall never goe on in quiet before them and they are ready to put us out of our way And thus we see wherein the power of Faith lyeth to help against fear There are two things yet behind for the explication of the point To shew the difference between that boldness of spirit and audaciousness that men have that have no Faith and that Fearelesness that comes by Faith As also to shew how farr we may lawfully avoid danger without feare of men CHAP. 9. How Audatiousness and boldness of spirit differ from Faith 1. Audatiousness make us bold to sin 2 It appeares in Causes that concerns our selves then those which concern God 3. Boldness the curing of one pasion with another Faith the curing of passion by Grace 4. Natural boldness makes men rash and henders consultation 5. The cause of immodisty 6. It is suden and violent 7. It proseeds and lives upon outward encouragements 8. The ishew of ignorance 9. Or despair 10. More Outward then Inward FAITH helps against feare but it must be granted that men may be much helped against feare by a meer audaciousness of spirit Quest But how shall we know the difference Answ Audaciousness of Spirit though when it proves to be in Gods cause it seems to be faith yet there are many differences First Where it is Audaciousness of spirit when occasion serves they wil be bold in Sin against God as well as bold in that which is good for God but now where faith is though it doth make the soul to be bold and fearless for God in the way of God yet there are none so affraid of sin they tremble at the appearance or occasion of sin many that are mightily bold in sin are mightily affraid when they are in danger others that are fearless in the way of God thay have no boldness in the way of sin Wicked men that have had the basest spirits of all have been bold in sin As Manasseh how audacious was he in sin and when he came into danger how feared he It is said he was found among the thorns 2 Cor. 33.11 And so Ahaz what a bold spirit had he in sin when he came into danger what a base spirit had he he was affraid and shook like an aspine leafe And so it is reported of Caligula in Isa 7.2 That was a bold wretch in sin yet when he heard it thunder he would run into a bench hole And some may go so far as not only to be bold in sin but to be bold in some danger too and it may fal out to be in the cause of God but know if there be any boldness in sin and if you do not fear every sin al your boldness and fearlesness in any thing else never comes from faith Secondly Where there is natural audaciousness then men are especially bold in causes that concern themselves more than in causes that concerne God When any business concerns themselves in which they are opposed they care not for any one that have more power then them selves but they are not so in the cause of God but others that are truly gracious that are feareless from their faith they are very yeildable and shamefaced in their own cause in things that concern themselves but in â—hings that concern God there doth appear another spirit they have a new spirit Thirdly Where the boldness is meerly natural there is a curing of one passion with another but the boldness that comes from faith is the curing of passion with the contrary grace As thus where the boldness comes from natural audaciousness there is the curing of the passion of fear with the passion of wrath and anger they are never fearless and bold but when their passion of anger is stirred up where faith cures the passion of fear it cures it not by stirring up another passion but by Sanctifying of this and bringing in the true fear of God into the soul it doth not put out one evil with another but puts out an evil with a stream of the contrary good Fourthly Where men are naturally audacious and bold usually their boldness hinders their consultation they have not command over their spirits they are carried on rashly and headily in their boldness therefore in Isa 35.4 The word that is translated feareful it signifies a rash heart it is the same word you have in Isa 32.4 The heart of the rash shal understand knowledg to shew that fearfulness doth cause rashness where it is immoderate but where feare is moderate and guided right it makes men to have power to consult of things and advise of things and examine of things but your bold impudent people care not nor consider not what they say but where fear is rightly ordered by saith the heart is able to consider and advise best Fifthly Again Audaciousness when it is natural makes men to forget the distance that is between one man and another makes them immodest care not what they say to superiors that are above them but when men are feareless by faith though they wil not be hindred in their way by feare of them yet they know how to give due respect to them that are in Superior place which a natural Audacious spirit doth not Sixthly Again Natural Audaciousness is sudden and violent but a man that is feareless by faith doth not presently get up to this boldness of spirit but it comes by degrees and several steps first more fearful and then less and so by degrees he gets power over that spirit of his which before he found feareful but the other is violently up and doth not come by degrees Seaventhly Natural Boldness it is according to outward encouragements but the fearlesness that is from faith is by the breathings of Gods spirit upon his heart according to the several breathings of Gods spirit upon their hearts so they are more or less feareful the other boldness being natural it works always alike if they have but the same outward encouragements but Gods people though they have the same outward encouragements yet they are more fearless at some times then at other times because they have not the Spirit of God breathing upon them alwaies alike Eightly Natural boldness comes from ignorance and insensibleness because people do not know or are not sensible of the danger they are in but faith discovers the danger and makes men sensible of the danger and then it helps it is nothing to be bold when one is not sensible and doth not understand the danger but a gracious heart conceives aright of the danger and is sensible of it and then faith lifts above sence and above reason Ninthly Men that are naturally bold it is through desperateness because they have nothing to loose and care not what become of themselves but by faith men are not fearless because they are desperate but they see help in God and in Christ and his mercy the more they hope the less they fear but the other are desperate and
instruments should be of another fashion But in Joel 3.10 it is otherwise They shal beat their plow-shares into swords and their pruning hooks into spears So apply it to grace somtime grace is to bring life and nourishment to the soul at other times it is to bring in grace As Faith somtime it is to close with Christ and bring nourishment from him at other times Faith is to be a Shield Many Christians look upon the work of grace to bring life and strength to themselves but have not skil to make use of grace as a shield So Hope somtimes it is to prop the soul at other times it is to be a Helmet So we should labor to understand the use of graces according to the several imployments that God calls for somtime one way somtime another And this is the Third Use CHAP. 18. A fourth Vse To be restless till we get our selves into a good frame USE 4. A Fourth Use is this If it be so that Gods people are in such a different frame of spirit somtime they are afraid and their hearts are down at other times they have a spirit of courage and fitness for any service that God wil have them to do This should teach us when our hearts are down and not in that fitness we desire to be restless till we get our selves in a good frame Somtime the Godly have their hearts in a good frame and therefore it is possible to be had and we should never be in rest til we had got it Quest But how shall we get up our hearts when they are not in a frame fit for service Answ First Be sensible of the evil of an unserviceable heart so as to be humbled before God for the want of it and be more sensible of the evil of that than sensible of the evil of want of peace and comfort Many when they find their hearts down and not in that degree fit for service that they desire they are troubled for it but the reason is because their hearts being down there arise doubts of their condition and their peace is hindred and they cannot have comfort in it but they are not so much troubled because they are unserviceable and want hearts fitted for duty and that is the reason why their hearts are kept down Now this should be our care to be more sensible of the unserviceableness of our hearts than of the unpeaceableness of our hearts Secondly Observe which way the strength of your spirit is let out and labor to recal your hearts from that as thus If the strength of a mans spirit be not for God it is let out to somwhat else it is alwaies working some way or other if it be not let out to some one particular object it is scattered and divided into divers objects Now if your strength be not let out for God call your hearts to an account where is the strength of my heart which way runs it If it can be discerned which way the strength of your heart is let out whether to any creature or any lust that should be your care to get it off Thirdly When you come to present your selves before God in his Ordinances come with hearts panting after strength as when you come to the Word Prayer or Sacraments bethink your selves beforehand I come before the Lord that I may get this dull heart of mine quickned in such and such a particular I find my heart unserviceable in such a particular Now my heart presents it self before God and pants after God to be fitted for service in such a particular it is much may be done when we come to the presence of God panting for help from God in such particulars Fourthly Observe the beginnings of Gods coming into your hearts and acknowledg them and improve them and follow them many times God is coming into the heart and because God comes not in fully as much as they would at first they take no notice of the beginnings of the work of God to imbrace them and improve them There are a great many sparks have fallen upon your hearts if they had been gathered together they might have been a flame by this time but because God did not come in with a flame all together they did not regard that you said what can a spark do upon my heart if you had improved that little you might have had more by this time Fiftly Labor to recall all those soul quickning Truths that ever you have felt working upon your hearts there was a time my heart was more lively I can remember since God did come in with his truth and work mightily upon my heart labor to recal those truths and set them fresh before your hearts with as much power as possibly you can and keep your hearts in view of them continually and by meditation chafe them into your hearts though the flesh be benummed yet if it be rubbed and exercised there will come strength and so those soul quickning Truths that you have found before have quickned your hearts if you present them afresh before the heart and chafe them by meditation they wil get some strength and life into the heart Lastly Look into the present condition you are in and exercise the duties sutable to your present condition CHAP. 19 A Fifth Vse To see the misery of being alwaies unfit for service A Sixt Vse To teach us to long for Heaven USE 5. BUt now in the next place If Gods people find such a difference between themselves that at somtimes it is far otherwise with them than at other times Hence then what a miserable thing is it to be alwaies down and alwaies unfit for service This is a thing that does not usually befal the people of God though somtimes their hearts are down in comparison of other times yet to be alwaies down and unserviceable this do not use to be the condition of the Servants of God this is a sad miserable condition to be so as if you never felt the power of God upon your hearts never felt the Spirit of God breathing upon you never felt the grace of God stirring upon you you come and hear the Word and those Truths that are soul-quickning warming Truths that stir others and their hearts lie lumpish as a Log that lies in a flash of water seven yeers together and is never stirred by them Like unto a vessel in a House that is cast aside and lies moulding and rotting that is never imployed nor fitted for any service are these Vessels of Honor In 2 Tim. 2.21 the Scripture speaks of Vessels that are in a great house that are Vessels of honor and he describes them that they are purged and fitted for the masters use and prepared for every good work Now if a vessel lie alwaies moulding and rotting and never used this is for the fire and not for use So those hearts that are alwaies moulding and rotting and never fit for service they may fear they are
some notes to shew you who those are that are delivered from this Egypt by Faith And who those are that seem to be delivered upon other grounds 1. Those that are delivered by Faith are those that are wel grounded in the Doctrinal and maine points of Religion Faith can never work off the soul from the Government and Ceremonies of Antichrist unless it be well grounded in the doctrine and principles of Religion if I see men crie out of Antichrist and of the Government of Antichrist and it appears that they have not a competent measure of knowledg in the grounds of Religion and Principles of Faith they are to be suspected As many come and examine them about Church Government and they wil tell you a great deale not but that Christians should labor to have knowledg in that but come to examine them the Principles of Religion and there they are silly and ignorant if they be not grounded in them it appears it is not a work of Faith 2. If it be a work of Faith it is a work of much Humiliation and Prayer was there a time you were under the power and bondage of Antichrist how came you from under it did God shew you the evil of it and you sought God in much Humiliation and prayer for the taking off your hearts from it and shewing you his good way and did you find your hearts comming off was by that meanes that is a good argument it was of Faith but many their Consciences tell them it was not a work of Humiliation and Prayer that brought off their hearts they are to be feared 3. If it be a work of Faith it alwaies le ts in light as in the point of the government of Christ many cry out against Antichristian government and come and examine them about it and they have no more light no other arguments nor further understanding then before but only a bitterness of spirit against it If a man grow bitter against those things which before he yeilded too he had need have more light but if they grow exceeding bitter against them and have no further light and understanding then before it is an argument it is a distemper of heart rather then any thing else And therefore casting off all at once is very suspitious where it is of Faith God lets in light by degrees It s said of Luther in his reformation First he saw the evil of one thing and then the evil of another and so by degrees saw the evil of all And so those that forsake the bondage of Antichrist By Faith first God makes them suspect their way surely this is not the right way there is some better way and then they fall a praying and humbling of themselves and they fall examining and so they come to see the evil of one thing and then they examine another and so light comes in by degrees and then their hearts rise against them and if according to the measure of Light that you have your hearts do come off that is a good signe 4. If you break from Antichrist by Faith it will make you a Separate from the world aswel as Separate from them Many are Separates from any thing that hath but the least dependancy upon Antichristian government but they conform themselves to the world that there appears no difference between them and the world in their loose courses that man that is a conformist to the world is not a Non-Conformist to Antichrist by Faith 5. If Faith take you off from the bondage under Antichrist it wil take you off from the bondage under any lust That man that hath not the power of Faith to take him off from any Lust That man is not by Faith taken off from the bondage of Antichrist If Faith delivere from the bondage under Antichrist it will deliver from the bondage under Sin and Sathan and therefore though men do crie out of the bondage of Antichrist never so much and yet they go on under the bondage of any Lust it is not of Faith 6. That Soul that is taken from under the power of Antichrist by Faith is subject to the power and goverment of Christ and the Word If Faith takes from the one it puts under the other nothing but the Word can be the ground of Faith and if Faith takes a Soul from under the bondage of Antichrist Such a Soul finds the Word comes with divine power and majesty upon the heart and it laies a trembling heart under the power and majesty of the Word and it dares not goe from it no not in no other thing You plead for the Word in such and such things but there are other things you do not yield to the power of the Word in this is very suspitious Those that by Faith are brought from the power of Antichrist their hearts are put mightily under the power of the Word and they ly with trembling spirits before the majesty and Authority of the word 7. If it be Faith that takes off the Heart such a one is not content that he is taken from under the Antichristian government unless he meetes with Christ in the Ordinances he does not content it self with the bare huskes and to make all his Religion to consist meerly in Church discipline and Church constitution and to think therefore he hath Religion enough because he hath the Ordinances and yet never finds any panting of Heart after union and communion with Christ Jesus in this way of Church Government but goes on from year to year mearly in the outward performances of Religion I do not speak against the thing it self but to shew it is not of Faith if men do not pant after union with Christ if they be not sensible of the want of it and do not labor for the enjoyment of it 8. If it be Faith that brings thee from this way certainly thou wilt grow more Spirituall As thy heart will pant after Christ so there wil be a Spiritualness of thy Soul in the waies of Christ because thou comest neerer to the rule And this is the difference between Actions of Religion and civil Actions civil Actions that are done by civil rule have not alwaies success but a Spirituall Action that is done by the rule that hath a Spirituall success though not an outward success it does make the heart ever more Spirituall But for people though they be come from the yoake of Antichrist yet to be as dead as ever no more Spiritualness in their way then before no more savour of Godliness in their society and company then before those that knew them before can say I knew them a great deale more spirituall and savoury in that which is good then they are now This is a dangerous thing 9. Againe If it be out of Faith such a one will give all the glory unto God for his deliverance and he wil walk humbly in his own eyes and think I was disobedient and wretched and should have gone on in that way but God by his grace and power hath come and hath taken off my heart and it does magnifie the grace of God It doth not perke up it self and contemne others to think I have got more wisdom and understanding then others and so attribute it to his wit and understanding but it gives the glory to God and instead of censuring others he prays for them and saies it is not all the arguments under Heaven can convince them for I had arguments enough but they were all as nothing til it pleased God by his Grace to set them upon my heart and so though they may see arguments as wel as I they will not do Therefore he pitties others and prays for them and he hath a reverent respect to the Grace of others though they be not in the same way that he is in he doth not presently cast them off saying surely there is no Grace and Godliness in them this is a signe of a proud spirit there are none that are gracious but know there was a time when they went on in that way and yet they did not goe against their light but were willing to understand Gods mind and yet til God came in their hearts were not taken off and therefore they learn to have good thoughts of those that are godly though in other waies But especially if it were out of Faith that you were brought from this Antichristian Bondage it will not leave in thee the Spirit of Antichrist many are far from being under Antichristian bondage and yet have an Antichristian Spirit a Spirit of pride a domineering Spirit a Crooked Perverse Spirit and this is a great evil that in the way of Christ there should be manifested an Antichristian Spirit this should be lamented with tears of blood Now so much as an Antichristian spirit does rule in any though they be from under his Goverment so much it is to be suspected it was not the work of Faith but somwhat else that took them off We should have the spirit of Christ the spirit of Love and Humillity and gentleness and peace and as we would make it appear we are taken off from the yoak of Antichrist by Faith let us shew the Spirit of Christ as Faith hath taken us off from Antichristian power so we should exercise Faith to go on in the waies of Christ as beseems those that are delivered from Antichristian power FINIS Eorum certitudo A. Mont. Interliâ—
you flee 3. Behave your selves as exiled people as men mortified to the things of the world 4. Get a contented frame of heart 5. When you are delivered keep your selves in the fervency of your spirits 6 Let those from whom you flee have your prayers Page 70 Chap. 13. How the Heart may be taken off from the fear of man First it is against the solemn charge of God Secondly It is an Idolizing of the Creature Thirdly It becomes not the State and Spirit and profession of a Christian Fourthly It dishonors God and the Cause of God Fifthly It mightily heartens the enemies of Gods people Sixthly It is threatened as a great judgment of God upon a people Seventhly The evil effects of the sinful fear of man 1. It distracts our thoughts 2. Weakens the heart 3. Eats out the true fear of God 4. It indisposeth us to any service 5. Insnares a Christian 6. It. causeth other desperate fears 7. Procures the judgment of God in our destruction Page 78 Chap. 14. Another Doctrine Much difference between Gods peoples spirits at several times Illustrated by examples Reasons 1. From the different dispositions their hearts are in to receive truths Which proceeds from Three Causes First the abatement of the strength that is opposite to that truth Secondly The stirrings or activity of those habits which are sutable to truth Thirdly The prevalences of self interest Reas 2. From the different representations of Truth Reas 3. Because the Graces of men do not burn so cleerly and purely at al times Reas 4. From the weakness of Grace the parts and members of it are not consolidated Reas 5. Because our hearts are sometimes filled with more heavenly consolations then at other times Reas 6. From the different breathings of the spirit of God Reas 7. Because men have somtimes a more clear and distinct sight of their call to suffer then at other times 3. Particular directions in this Case Reas 8. The different tempers of mans Body Reas 9. From the difference in the encouraging occurrency of Gods providence Page 97 Chap. 15. Containing the First Use Which teacheh us to entreat God not to take the advantage of us when our hearts are low Page 110. Chap. 16. Another Vse to teach us not to be discouraged at this different temper of our Spirits but to be humbled for it Five Helps against discouraging thoughts Two objections Page 113 Chap. 17. Containing the Third Vse of Direction branched into four particulars 1. If couragious and fit for service give God the praise Four reasons for it 2. Learn to rebuke unbelief 3. Labor to keep your hearts up The manner how that may be done in eight particulars 4. Improve this gracious working of God Page 119 Chap. 18. A fourth Vse To be restless till we get our selves into a good frame Page 128 Chap. 19. A Fifth Vse To see the misery of being alwaies unfit for service A Sixt Vse To teach us to long for Heaven Page 130 Chap. 20. Shewing the power of Faith to carry through the most difficult work Question What is there in Faith which helps the Soul Answered in four Particulars 1. It settles the Heart on the surest ground which is Gods call and Promises 2. It fetches in the greatest strength 3. It assists with the highest encouragements 5. Faith of its own Nature is a mighty strong principle The most illustrious work of Faith Thirteen remarkable things concerning Faith and the difficulties which it breaks through Page 133. Chap. 21. Vses of the Doctrine Use First Let none think God an hard Master when he puts them upon service because he affords them a principle to carry them through Use Secondly To Beleevers that they should expect to be put upon difficult things 1. Four considerations against discouragements It is not to be accounted an affliction to be put upon difficult things for 4. Reasons Use Thirdly Shewing it can be no concluding argument against a work because there are hindrances Use Fourthly When you have been carried through difficult services consider what it was which supported you Page 145 Chap. 22. Quest How to know whether Faith wil carry us through difficult works Answered in several particulars 1. Faith Goes upon spiritual grounds motives and ends 2. Makes men sollicitous and careful for the enjoyment of Gods presence with them 3. Causes men to carry themselves in a Gracious manner 4. To have an high esteem of the name of God 5 Makes them careful that they may not be frustrated of their end 6. It makes men satisfied with God Alone 7. Faith is a continued work That Faith which brought you out will carry you through Page 156 Chap. 23. Containing other uses of the point Use 5. Shews the reason why we faile in any thing we do it is for want of Faith Use 6. Labor to rise in indignation against your unbelief Use 7. Consider what it is to faile in that work which concernes thy eternal estate Page 162 Chap. 24. Helps to put on Faith in any undertaking 1. Set before you the example of our great Captain Jesus Christ 2. Make preparation for the work of Faith by Humiliation 3. Renew your Faith in the Covenant of Grace 4. In difficult times set Faith on work to purifie the heart 5. Take heed of shifting waies and dependances 6. Set loose from your own ends 7. Cast your selves upon the word of God 8. Plead the word with God in Prayer 9. Refuse no meanes that God puts into your hands 10. Do nothing with a slavish spirit 11. Be not discouraged by miscarriages that are past 12. Take heed of the disturbance of passion in your work 13. Observe the dependances one work hath upon another 14. Lisson not to Temptations 15. Take heed of perverse reasonings 16. Take heed of disorderly working in four cases 17. Vse resolution and courage 18. Look on your selves as Gods Instruments 19. Be constant though you find nothing come of it 20. Encrease not the difficulty by your carriage 21. Look most at your Encouragements 22. Vse not the difficulty in the way to reason against the work 23. Labor to harden your selves by Faith against al difficulties Page 165 Chap. 25. Containing a second consideration of the Text to wit and Allegoricall interpretation of Moses forsaking Egypt by Faith Warrant for Allegoricall interpretations Forsaking this world renouncing our naturall estate a difficult work Fourteen reasons of it Page 184 Chap. 26. How Faith carries the Soul through the Difficult work of forsaking Egypt Their Works of Faith 1. The discovering work in two particulars 2. The relying Work 3. The Surrendring work Question Resolved concerning the force of Natural Conscience in three Particulars shewing the great difference between the actings of Faith and Natural Conscience Application 1. Hence see the Ground of Miscarriages 2. A Rule of Direction Incouragements to Faith and Beleeving 3. Let delivered Persons see what delivered them Faith which acts by a power without us Twelve
walk as they may say these people that make conscience of their waies surely they did come for conscience sake Their ways are according to that they profess We have a notable expression of some that came from another country for religion and yet walked so offensively as the name of God suffered much by them that the heathen said These are the people of the Lord and are gone forth out of his land Ezekiel 36.20 we dare not say we are among heathens but when they were among heathens they prophaned my holy name says God and so many Fleeing from their own Country profane the name of God in another Country that give occasion to the people among whom they are Fled to say look here are some that are gone from their own Land that profess themselves to be the people of the Lord and to Flee for religion look what kind of people they are thus Gods name is profaned let us take heed that we give no such occasion to the people with whom we live to say these are the people of the Lord that are Fled for religion 3. We should be careful to behave our selves as those that are Fled for religion as exiled people to be mortified to the things of the world and to be content with any condition that God shal cal us unto shal we repine when we meet with any trouble that were an argument we had too too delicate spirits when we Flee from great danger and yet think we should meet with no trouble at all 4. When we are Fled we should labor to get our spirits into a contented frame and walk in subjection unto God and give God praise as if we were in the greatest prosperity that we could have been in in our own Country we should not have our hearts dulled with any inconveniency but keep up our spirits free in the service of God It is a notable expression we have of David if you compare two Psalms together Psal 57. with the 108. and the 57. Psal was when he Fled from Saul and was in the care but mark how Davids spirit was kept up he was not dulled and stupified as many are that come from delicate houses and are faine to live in Sellars and blind holes their hearts begin to rise Oh! the fresh aire and brave living that once they had David was so and yet his heart was kept up In the shadow of thy wings wil I make my refuge a poor dark hole he was in and he counted that dark hole the shadow of Gods wings againe I wil cry to God most high though I be brought low and meane I have an interest in this high God and wil cry to that high God unto God that performeth al things Had God performed al things for David God promised David the kingdome and David is brought into a poor hole to shift for his life and yet David sayes he wil cry unto God that performeth all things for him He shal send from Heaven and save me though I be in this blind place the God of heaven regards me and shal send from heaven to save me vers 5. Be thou exalted above the heavens let thy glory be above al the earths vers 7. My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise al this was when he was in the Cave if you compare this with Psal 108. which was a Psalm of thanksgiving and rejoycing that he made upon his deliverance and the same expression that David had within the cave the same expressions he had when God had fulfilled his promises and he was Blessing his name for his great deliverance noting thus much look what temper of heart we should have in the enjoyment of the greatest mercies we should labor to have that temper of heart in our submissions unto God when we are Fled from danger 5. Again let it be our care when we are delivered from the danger that we apprehended our selves to be in to keep our selves in the fervency of our hearts and spirits for God and in the fervency of our love unto God and his truth as we had in danger Many when they are in danger of their enemies and afraid of them their hearts are in a great deal of fervency and zeal for God and his truth and if they can get a few together to fast and pray or hear a Sermon repeated how do they rejoyce but when they are in safety their hearts are dead and Flat and if they meet together to pray or to commune about the word their spirits are not so fervent as before the Lord keep this from us 6. Again let us labor to do al the good we can to the place which we are Fled from by our prayers or any other way we can as the people of God when they were from their own country yet they would remember Jerusalem so ought we to do for we are much bound to God for it in regard of the good we have received in it 7. Lastly let us labor to make that hiding place that God provides for us to deliver us from danger to be but a preparing place for greater danger let us not think because we have avoided some danger and are in some safety that al is well but this should be our care that those places that are our hiding places to hide us from some danger should be our preparing places for greater dangers afterwards and thus using these directions we shal honor God in our Fleeing and shal not have cause to repent us And thus we have done with that argument the answering the case of conscience about Fleeing CHAP. 13. How the Heart may be taken off from the fear of man First it is against the solemn charge of God Secondly It is an Idolizing of the Creature Thirdly It becomes not the State and Spirit and profession of a Christian Fourthly It dishonors God and the Cause of God Fifthly It mightily heartens the enemies of Gods people Sixthly It is threatned as a great judgment of God upon a people Seventhly The evil effects of the sinful feare of man 1. It distracts our thoughts 2. Weakens the heart 3. Eates out the true feare of God 4. It indisposeth us to any service 5. Insnares a Christian 6. It causeth other desperate fears 7. Procures the judgment of God in our destruction A VVord of Exhortation How the heart may be taken off from the fear of man There are two things that yet remain in this point namely to labor to take off the heart from the fear of man or any danger by shewing the evil that there is in the sinful fearing of man or of any danger that may befal us Secondly by laying down some means to bring off the heart from creature fear First A Christian must take heed of sinful fear of man and not to fear any creature in an inordinate sinful way for there is much evil in it more than we are aware of 1. In
spirit in those that have true Grace To that I Answer First There may be a difference discerned by that which hath been said there is somthing is constant Whether is that which lay at the root of grace in you still there If you do not find those two things constant viz. An approving of the life and power and strictness of godliness and a savor of that which is spiritual either in Ordinances or in Gods People all your good moods in the world though your hearts be never so up wil not discover the truth of grace Secondly Those that have only some good moods at some time and no bottom of any true grace they in their good moods are not humbled for that which was failing in them before their hearts indeed are somtimes up and they bless themselves in that but now this doth not make them look back how it was heretofore with them and to be ashamed and humbled for the wretchedness and distempers of their hearts formerly but where the heart is up for God in those that have truth of grace when their hearts are most up then they make use of this to be abased and humbled in their own thoughts for the deadness and distemper that was in their hearts before the good moods of others rather puff them up than further any work of humiliation for any evil that was in them before they think these good moods now and being in a good temper shall satisfie God for their evil distempers that were in them before But it is not so with a gracious heart a gracious heart when it does get up it makes use of this work of God upon it to be ashamed and confounded in its self for those evil distempers that were in it before The more the heart is up the more discovery it hath of its own baseness and vileness and wretchedness which others when their hearts are up have not Thirdly Gods People when their hearts are up that doth bring gracious discoveries of God unto them and of those things that do wonderfully spirituallize their hearts others though they have their hearts up they only have some affections but in those good moods of theirs they have not those Heavenly discoveries of God so as to purge their hearts and spirituallize their hearts and make their hearts to be more heavenly as it doth the godly Fourthly Those that have only good moods and no truth of grace when they have their good moods they are not by them carried out of themselves to a principle beyond themselves but they rest in the workings that they feel in their hearts whereas a gracious heart when God raiseth his heart and puts it into a better frame this carries it out of it self to a principle beyond it self and it dare not rest in those stirrings and workings it finds for the present to think now I am safe and well because of them but by these it is carried beyond it self Fiftly Where there are only good moods and not the truth of the work of grace they do not work so seasonably and orderly as the breathings of Gods spirit in his servants do but the breathings of a gracious heart coming from the spirit of God it works seasonably and orderly in their hearts when there is a spiritual use of them in that hour shall it be given to you saies Christ the spirit shal come upon you when you have most use whereas in others their good moods work only according to outward occasions and as means come in but now at those times when they have most use of them they are furthest from them Sixtly Where the heart is right and truly godly and God comes and breaths in it more than formerly such a one wil watch over it self and wil not be secure after this but the other grow less watchful and more secure upon such moods Seventhly Those that are truly gracious though they do not find their hearts up alwaies alike yet when they find their hearts down they count it their sickness and their disease and it is the disquiet and trouble of their spirits whereas others that have only some moods they are not sensible of their hearts being down as their sickness and disease and the burden and trouble of their souls Lastly In those that have grace when their hearts are up at any time it is but a preparation for some further service others having but moods their hearts being up this is the period of all their godliness in which they rest but the godly when their hearts are up at some time more than at others it is but a preparation for further Service 1 Chron. 29.18 The hearts of the people were up and David blest God for it and saies he prepare their hearts unto thee unsound hearts would say now our hearts are up and we have offered thus freely are we but in a preparation Yet David praies to God to prepare their hearts as if all their heart and affection at that time was but a preparation to further duty and this is the difference between the good moods of the greatest Hypocrite that come to the highest pitch and the difference between the breathings of Gods Spirit and by these means only presented to you it may be some help to discern the difference between good moods at some time and the different breathing of Gods Spirit in his people CHAP. 17. Containing the Third Vse of Direction branched into four particulars 1 If couragious and fit for service give God the praise Four Reasons for it 2. Learn to rebuke unbelief 3. Labor to keep your hearts up The manner how that may be done in eight particulars 4. Improve this gracious working of God USE 3. THirdly If there be such difference between the hearts of Gods People at some times and at other times This is an Use of Direction to all the people of God that are acquainted with this difference of Gods breathing upon their hearts in these Four Particulars First When you find your hearts up more at some times than at other times give God the glory Secondly Learn to rebuke your Unbelief Thirdly Labor to keep your hearts up Fourthly Improve this great working of God First If so be you find your hearts more up at one time than at another as Gods People do find much difference and can say somtime let my Beloved come into his Garden give God the glory and praise of it for it is a great mercy For 1. It doth prevent and deliver you from abundance of danger you were in when your hearts were down if a temptation had come what abundance of danger had you been in now God hath prevented that danger 2. If your hearts were right when they were down then you powred out your complaints to God of the deadness of your hearts now if God be come in it is a fruit of your seeking God and of your humiliation before the Lord now that which comes in as a fruit of
humiliation and much seeking of God surely that should be the matter of our praises 3. This is a gracious visitation of God God comes in with this and here is the presence of God and therfore there is much cause of praise 4. It is an argument that God hath some especial service for you to do now those that are godly count this a great mercy for God to have any employment for them now that they have received an evidence to their souls that God intend to imploy them this is a great mercy Secondly Learn to check your Unbelief when your hearts were down you were ready to say it would never be otherwise now check your hearts and bring your hearts to this conclusion I will never think it in vain to seek God though I do not find him come in presently and I will learn though I may judg my self worthy that God should leave me yet I will never determine that God will not come in because I see Gods waies are not as my waies and Gods thoughts are not as my thoughts Oh take heed of judging the waies and thoughts of God according to your waies and thoughts Thirdly Is God come in and do you find that you have a spirit of courage and boldness more than before now you find God sweetly breathing upon you to put life into that dead and to raise that heavy heart of yours do you find God sweetly and comfortably enlivening your souls and putting the spirit of confidence in that unbeleeving heart of yours Labor to keep your hearts thus There is a great deal of difficulty when a thing is fallen down to get it up but when a thing is up if one be careful it is not difficult to keep it up It is a notable expression that David had when he found the hearts of the people got up in their willing Offering 1 Chron. 29.18 O Lord God of Abraham Isaac and of Israel our Fathers keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the hearts of thy people and prepare their hearts unto thee So let it be thy prayer and it is my prayer for thee Is thy heart up more than before Pray O God of Abraham Isaac and Israel keep this in the thoughts of the heart of this man or woman for ever be careful now to keep your hearts up so when you are well or otherwise if you should lose this through this negligence 1 It wil make you cal into question the truth of these gracious breathings yea you wil think it was but a meer flash such as Hypocrites may have yea not cal this into question only but to cal the truth of al into question this is that which makes men take the foundation of al because their hearts somtimes are raised and they through their negligence let them fall and lose that spiritual life and courage once they had and so bring abundance of sadness upon their hearts now as you would have an evidence of the truth of Gods work upon you and the truth of grace labor to keep up your hearts 2 Labor to keep up your hearts otherwise if they fal off again the waies of God wil come to be very tedious to you As a man that walks unevenly in regard of the unevenness of his leggs or the unevenness of the way he is quickly tired and so if a Christians way be up and down and there be not an evenness in his way he is quickly discouraged and a main means to help one to go on with freedom and courage in Gods waies is to go on in an even course 3 If so be you lose this you lose the beauty of your profession the beauty of the waies of Godliness consists much in the constancy and if your way be up and down there is no beauty in your conversation it takes away the convincing power of your way and conversation if others saw your hearts up and saw a constant evenness in your way this would mightily convince them that it is a work of Gods Spirit upon your hearts but somtimes your hearts are up and down again somtime you are patient and meek at other times you are passionate and fretting this doth not convince them that it is the work of Gods Spirit but only the stirring of a natural spirit 4 By this means you wil cause God to walk differently with you if you keep not up your hearts when God hath raised them though God be in a way of mercy you wil cause him to walk in a way of displeasure against you 5 Again When your hearts are up that is the thing that the Devil doth most watch to give you a trip in As when Daniel walked so strictly in al the matters of the Kingdom as they could find no fault in him they accused him in the matter of his God of his Religion so saies the Devil if I should tempt him to such and such sins I cannot prevail but there is such a way I may prevail and the Devil doth labor there most to trip you As he did with Christ in another case when you are on the top of the pinacle then he labors to throw you down It is true it is the work of God that hath brought you up to the pinacle but there the Devil doth labor to throw you down Quest You wil say How shall we come to keep up our hearts whenas our hearts are in a better frame than at some other times Answ First When your hearts are up labor to make use of that grace that raised your hearts improve it so as to make your hearts more holy and more upright A Tree if it sprout upward only and do not run down in the root proportionably it wil wither and die and so if grace do work only upward in abilities and performances of duties and joy and such things and do not proportionably work downward in the root it is like it will come to little and you will soon lose all Secondly Work that grace you find in your inward as wel as outward man Do not think it enough that you have stirrings of Grace to enable you to do duties but improve this grace for the working out of corruption consider the corruptions of your heart and now take the advantage to work them out Thirdly be sure you take nothing that is Gods due at this time that is if God have raised your hearts though the peace and joy of it be yours the Glory of it is Gods do not be fingering of that take heed of lifting up of your hearts in a way of pride it is enough your heart is lifted up in a way of grace and you must be content with that but many when God gives them a lift in a way of Grace they cannot be content with their part the peace and the joy but they lift up themselves in a way of pride and would have some of Gods part of the Glory and that spoils all Fourthly When you
when he had done that did God secondly take off thy heart from all creature props creature confidences and dependances After that did God cast in a word and promise into thee and by his spirit mightily draw thy heart to close with it and fasten upon it did God draw out a work of Faith to close with this wisdom Faithfulness and power for the carrying of thee through when thou sawest no strength in thy self nor didst not know what should become of thee wert willing wholly to venture upon God to give up thy self unto him to be at his dispose were thy ends good and right in this work didst not thou find that there was a principle in thee carrying thee beyond thine own thoughts beyond any strength that thou couldest possibly conceive to be in thy self and that hath brought the work to an issue beyond they expectation surely there was faith in this and if there were faith in this consider what I have to say to thee First Know that this work is wonderfully acceptable to God God looks upon such works of nature as lovely as the young man that came to Christ Christ loved him in Mark 10.21 But if it be a work of faith God looks upon it and accepts it indeed says the scripture These obtained a good report by faith Heb. 11.39 They obtained a good report indeed not only before men but before God Secondly being a work of Faith thou mayest have abundance of peace and joy in it we never have gone through difficulty but it is pleasant to us if we have gone some voyage and have passed through difficulties through many storms and tempests we prize it the water that David longed for when it was got with so much difficulty he thought it too good to drink but powred it before the Lord. In 2 Sam. 23.16.17 As Jacob saies of the portion he gave to Joseph Gen. 48.22 This I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow So any thing that we get hardly it is the more prized so that when we get through difficulties by our faith that we should prize much and rejoyce in Thirdly If so be that Faith hath carried thee through difficulty Let this encourage thee for ever for time to come certainly there is no difficulty wil stand before thee if difficulties have begun to fal they wil fal and wil not be able to stand before thee You may reason as Hamans friends If thou beginnest to fall before Mordecai thou wilt fall Est 6.13 and therefore thou maist cal this work by the name that David called that place where his enemies began to fal before him Baal-perizem because God had made a breach upon his enemies 2 Sam. 5.20 he took that but as a pledg that God would make al his enemies fal before him And so hath God made some difficulties fal before thee then al difficulties wil fal Fourthly Let God have al the glory neither thy self nor the means those things that we do by Faith God is in them little of our selves or nothing at al Boasting is excluded saies the Apostle Rom. 3.27 By the Law of Faith or by the Law of Works By the Law of Faith and therefore that which is done by faith excludes al boasting from our selves and gives God the glory 1. Because Faith of al Graces hath least rooting in our selves as for Justice and Temperance and Patience and Love they have some assistance in Nature but faith hath nothing at al and therefore God must have the glory of that chiefly 2. Faith of al Graces hath the least influence into that which it doth though it be under the rank of efficient causes it is but an instrumental cause and though an instrument be an efficient it is the least efficiency of al and therefore the glory belongs to God 3. Of al Graces Faith is the most emptying Grace it carries a Creature out of it self unto another and therefore whatsoever we do by Faith we must give God the glory 4. Attribute nothing to means for though thou usest means ye whatsoever was done by Faith was done above means beyond means and might have been done without means 5. Hath God carryed you through any difficult work and was this a principle Labor to prize the word of God upon which thy faith was built to nourish and increase this Joy 6. If you have found your faith hath carried you through great things take heed thy Faith do not fayl thee in less things that will be a shame As a marriner that hath been in great stormes and tempests and hath wrought through them if afterward he should come and perish in the haven or in some ordinary tempest for want of Skill that would grieve him more so for a Souldier that hath been in desperate battels afterwards to be overcome with a little strength he looseth his honor this is possible that a Christian by his faith may be carried through wonderful great things and yet his faith may fail him afterwards in lesser things as many a man may escape great dangers and recover great success and yet afterwards die of a cold and those that God hath carried through great things may faile in lesser but it is an infinite shame take heed to your selves in that As David speaks concerning Saul 2. Sam. 1.21 The shield of the mighty is vilely cast away as though he had not been anointed with Oyl God hath given thee fayth as a shield and it was the shield of the mighty and now it is vilely cast away an ordinary temptation comes and thou failest as if thou hadst not been anointed with oyl when God carried thee through difficult works thou wert anointed with oyl and now you fal as if you had not been anointed with oyl you have been carried through many difficulties in that work of leaving of your country now when you come here your faith will not serve you to order your ordinary business and affaires but it fails fowly in every ordinary dealing with man and in your private dealings in your family what a shameful thing is it that such a one as hath had such power as to look upon the face of his enemies and to testify for the truth before them when he hath to deal with a servant or child or Wife he fails shamefully and when he comes to deal with brethren he knows not how to behave himself as if he were not anointed with oyl as if he never had faith nothing but nature as ful of frowardness and pettishness of spirit and all outward distempers as those that never were acquainted with Faith And so faith hath carried you through great difficulties enabled you to deny your self to get to the ordinances and when you are under them it fails you in assistance to make use of them and to give God the Glory of them but you rather defile them and spoile them what a shameful thing is this Be ashamed and confounded in
other works and his name suffer some dishonour by it yet he will have a care they shall not faile in the maine work and were we not sure of this that God will have a care that our unbeleeving hearts shall not spoile us in that maine work we have to do about our Eternal estate we could never have comfort know the covenant wil not bear this the covenant will beare that God should let our faith faile in some works but it will not beare this that God should suffer the least degree of faith to faile in that work which concerns the eternal good of the soul Christ is called the mighty counseller and the maine work of Christ is to counsel the soul in those things that concern its eternal estate and notwithstanding all its unworthiness he will counsel it so far as it shall not miscarry in that great business yet Christ doth not alwaies afford his counsel in every particular action As God deales in the way of his counsel so of his power though he may withdraw his strength so as not to assist our faith in some particular actions yet in the maine and great business that concerns our eternal estate we shall not want necessary strength As a Father that is going along with his child may be he goes in such waies as the child is in danger of many a fall to get many a knock and sore bruise the father will say to him have a care take heed but if he come to a way that if the child fall he lose his life the father wil not content himself with saying take heed but he takes hold on him till he be past that place so God in all our ordinary business saies look to your Faith exercise your faith but for all that we get many a fall and many a knock but then may be there comes another work that concerns our eternal estate which if we faile in we are undone for ever god takes hold of the soul there and will not let them miscarry in that which is the infinite mercy of God to us and were we not sure of Gods mercy in that respect being conscious to our selves of our unbeleeving hearts we might fear yea conclude we should faile CHAP. 24. Helps to put on Faith in any undertaking 1. Set before you the example of your great Captain Jesus Christ 2. Make preparation for the work of Faith by Humiliation 3. Renew your Faith in the Covenant of Grace 4. In difficult times set Faith on work to purifie the heart 5. Take heed of shifting waies and dependances 6. Set loose from your own ends 7. Cast your selves upon the word of God 8. Plead the word with God in prayer 9. Refuse no meanes that God puts into your hands 10. Do nothing with a slavish spirit 11. Be not discouraged by miscarriages that are past 12. Take heed of the disturbance of passion in your work 13. Observe the dependances one work hath upon another 14. Lisson not to Temptations 15. Take heed of perverse reasonings 16. Take heed of disorderly working in four cases 17. Vse resolution and Courage 18. Look on your selves as Gods Instruments 19. Be constant though you find nothing come of it 20. Encrease not the difficulty by your Carriage 21. Look most at your Encouragements 22. Vse not the difficulty in the way to reason against the work 23. Labor to harden your selves by faith against all difficulties NOw doth God call you to any service or work that hath any difficulty in it you see what it is that will help David by Faith in Psal 18.29 Says he could break through a troop and leap over a wall and break a bow of Steel and Paul could do all things through Christ that strengthened him As Christ said of Miraculous faith so it may be said of Justifying Faith If you had faith but as a graine of mustard seed you should say unto this mountaine be removed hence to yonder place and unto this Sycamine tree be thou plucked up by the roots and be thou planted in the Sea and they shall obey you in Math. 17.20 And in Luke 17.6 And so Faith if it come to a sin that is rooted it will be able to pluck it up by the roots and to remove mountains There is nothing more weake and unuseful then on ordinary conceited faith that is but a bare opinion and groundless hope but nothing more strong and usefull then true Faith it hath the quintessence of all graces as the root of the herb hath the vertue and quintessence of all the fruite and branches in it so faith hath the quintessence of all grace and therfore it will do great things As it was said of Luther that had much faith he could do whatsoever he would So it may be said of Faith and the Scripture saith so of it Faith can do what it will it was the speech of Christ to the woman O Woman great is thy Faith be it unto thee as thou wilt In Math. 15.28 Those whose faith is great it shall be to them as they will but know it must be exercised it is not enough to have it in the habit but the activity and exercise of it wherefore for the putting on of your Faith 1. Let us set before us the example of our great Captaine the Lord Jesus Christ you know what difficult works Christ undertooke for the salvation of man such difficult works as all the Angells in heaven and creatures in the world would have sunke under But Christ went through them and there was a work of Faith in Christ that carried him through though it was not such a work of faith as ours Justifying Faith yet he had a Faith his trust in his father that did help to carry him through great and difficult works In 2 Heb. 12.13 Christ is propounded as an example unto us Saying I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee Christ in his own person did praise God and he sung praises in the hearts of his people so that by the way take this as a comfortable note to encourage us to publique duties while we are praysing of God Christ is praysing of God while we are singing of psalms to God in a gracious manner Christ is praysing of God the father And again I will put my trust in him it is a speech of Christ unto the Father Christ put his trust in the Father and the example of the work of Faith in Christ to carry him through all the works he had to do is brought as an incouragement unto Christians to cast their relyance on God the Father to carry them through all the hard works they have to do And as Christ did not only praise God in his own person but in the Church so Christ did not only in his own person trust in the Father and so was carried through the difficult works he had to do but he trusted
wickednesses that were in Sodom and Egypt and that are in that place First Antichrist is like Egypt in regard of the most gross Idolatries Of all places Egypt was counted the most gross Idolatrous place They did not only worship the Sun Moon Stars as other nations did but Cats and Onions and any base creatures So the Papists worship stocks and stones and all kind of holy Reliques even the haire that came from the taile of that beast that Christ rode on and most base vile things that are too base to abuse an Auditory to rehearse Secondly It is compared to Egypt in respect of the cruelty of the Church of Rome None were so cruel and vild as Egypt And so of all men those that are under Antichrist are more cruel as if they were Messengers came from hell to shew the power of Malignant spirits and therefore they are said to be drunken with blood and so have their clothes died in scarlet with the blood of the Saints Rev. 17.4.5.6 But the chiefe thing I aime at is to shew the bondage Christians are in under antichrist the work of faith in delivering from it The bondage under Antichrist is 1. Outward in Estates and Lives 2. Inward a soul bondage 1. An outward bondage doth not he challenge power over Kings and Princes and to free people from Loyalty to their Princes that except there were a delusion upon the hearts of the great ones upon Earth It were unpossible for them to submit unto that base bondage Many crie out of the Godly that they are no good subjects they do not love to be under government but what do you think of Papists that do teach for to free subjects from their loyalty A Papist hath this expression concerning Antichrist The Pope their head He is the Sheppard and the Kings and Princes are Dogs and if Dogs will do their duty they must be at their Masters command but if they will be lazey and bite and not do as they ought the sheppard must remove them And for their Estates It s a woful estate that Countries are in in regard of their estates I read a speech of Bonner in a preface to the Treatise of Gardener that the Pope had neere as much out of England yeerly as the Revenues of the Crown came to And it was the speech of Innocent the fourth Pope of that name England was his pleasant Garden and a wel that never was drawn dry and in England many things grew abounded and many things were to be had from it So that the estates of men are in great bondage where Antichrist prevails as also the lives and liberties of men 2. But especially the thing which I will a little stick in is the soul bondage thus we have it in Rve. 18.13 The Merchandise was slaves and souls of men So that men that are under Antichrist are slaves and if there were but a true Heroicall spirit in men they would not suffer themselves to be under that slavery though they seem to be the bravest spirits yet being under Antichrist they are slaves And the souls of men are his Merchandise the souls of men are under bondage First This is a base subjection and slavery of the souls of men under Antichrist in that he takes upon him to make Articles of Faith that they are bound in conscience upon paine of Damnation to beleive whatsoever he shal say in his Chaire is infallible what a base bondage is this When as we know what most Abominable Sodomitical Horrible Monsters have been in that Chaire and yet they shall be bound upon paine of damnation to beleeve whatsoever they say is infallible Secondly Whatsoever his decrees are though having no footing in the word they are bound in conscience to obey upon paine of damnation So that if it were possible to obey all Gods Commandements they may be damned for want of obedience to some one of Antichrists comands which must needs be a miserable bondage for any man to make a new command that is not under the command of God and to make damnation to be the punishment of disobedience to it then men are in danger of Damnation a hundred of waies more then for sinning against Gods Law Thirdly Those that are under Antichrist are under great bondage in being kept from the rule of life from the Scriptures Wherein the counsels of Gods will concerning their Eternal Estate are revealed Those that are slaves are kept in dangers and cannot have the priviledges of subjects or of Children So Antichrist keeps all under him in the most base slavery in depriving of them from this priviledg of Children that they cannot know the mind of their Fathers and the great things of God that concerns their Eternal Estate what man that knows any thing of those great things concerning his Eternal Estate would be under that slavery And yet if so be we had continued under the bondage of Antichrist we must have been deprived of this Fourthly If they hear any thing of the word they are bound to take no other interpretation but the Churches the Preists give them though it be never so gross now to bind mens Consciencs to this is a most abinable Bondage And yet what vile Interpretations If it is Blasphemy for the Devil to say he will ascend and be like the highest no less to make God descend to be like the Prince of darkness to set the Kings stamp upon false coyne Now to bind mens consciences to their wicked interpretations of Scripture this is a most abominable bondage 5. This is a great bondage that no Ordinance can be administred but by the power of Antichrist and those he shall give power unto and this is a great bondage to the Church to be stinted in Gods Ordinances They are the Churches priviledges especially that of Prayer the spirit of Prayer and Supplication is one of the especial Priviledges of the Church Gal. 4.6 Because you are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father There he speakes of the liberty of Gods people as they are sons they have the fruit of their son-ship Now when as God doth give his spirit to his Church as part of their liberty for them to be restrained in their liberty to pray just no more then the Pope shal appoint and so to have no Ordinances but according to his power what abominable bondage is this and what heart that knows any true Christian liberty would be in such a bondage 6. He takes upon him power of absolving and binding keeping men under the guilt of sin and loosing of them from it when he pleases from this power over mens consciences is commited all manner of villanie 7. Another Bondage which is greater then all is that he keeps men under the rigor and curse of the Law by keeping men off from Christ and teaching the doctrin of justification to be by the works of the Law he keeps
much evil and very fearfull things come from wrath when it is distempered and let out First Because it doth wonderfully blind the Judgment of men Anger hinders the mind that it cannot see that which is true And therefore in Job 5.13 it is said The counsell of the froward is carried headlong It is a notable passage that I read of a poor Woman that had her Cause pleaded before Phillip King of Macedon who passed sentence in his passion and shee apprehending her self wronged saith shee I appeal he smiled at that being Soveraign and said To whom wilt thou appeal saies shee I appeal from thee when thou art angry to thee when thou art not angry noting that Anger blinds the judgment Secondly Passion and Wrath is compared to Fire and fire is active and quickly goes beyond its bounds and then there is no hold of it but much evill may come of it and so it is with Wrath. Thirdly Much evill comes of Passion being inordinate because being as distempered Fire that comes from a Disease it eats out the natural heat as in the Body the heat of the Feaver that is distempered it consumes the true natural heat And so though there be some natural heat or some kind of goodness and kindness naturally in a man that heat and goodness is taken away if he be in any passion And therefore one brings in this comparison Kindness is as one that is very hot naturally when passion comes it doth consume and take away the good natural heat and he is altogether carried on in a distempered heat Fourthly Wrathful passion doth warm all the Lusts that lodg in the heart and put an activeness into them whereas before they were cold and like Snakes being cold do not stir but if they come to be warm then they craule about and sting And so many corruptions lie in the hearts of Men and Women that are congealed with cold and like Snakes lie and do not stir but when the heat of passion comes it puts a heat into all those corruptions and then they craul forth and make wofull work Now in all men there is a distempered Wrath and fearful fruits come from it if it be not mortified but when there is power joyned with passion then it is outragious indeed As we see here How violent in wrath was Pharaoh against Moses and therefore the Holy Ghost commends Moses that he was not afraid of the passion that was joyned with power So Saul How violent was his passion when once he had power He seemed to be a man of a very quiet spirit whilest he was in a private condition and withall at his first coming to the Kingdom as you may read in 1 Sam. Chap. 10. but when he was warm in the Throne and had power more settled in his hand then you may read how outragious his passion was as in 1 Sam. 22 18.19 he caused Doeg to slay at one time fourscore and five Priests of the Lord and Nob to be smitten with the edge of the sword and all this because David his supposed enemy had been there and as Doeg informed him Abimelech the Priest had enquired of the Lord for him You may observe here how outragious men will be in their wrath when it is for themselves when in the mean time in the cause of God they can be quiet enough As when God commanded Saul to slay Agag and the Amalekites and all their Cattel then he was loth to be so outragious but out of compassion he spared some for Sacrifice but then the Cause was Gods now when it was his own Cause then slay all Priests and Men and Women and Sucklings and Oxen and Sheep and all Thus many in the Cause of God are content to forbear and pass by many things Many that have but power in Families Parents or Masters if their Children or Servants sin against God they can put up that but let their Children or Servants offend them and then they are outragious in a fearful manner Thus violent and fierce is wrath where it hath power And so Rehoboam when he had power he answered the People rigidly in 1 Kings 12.14 My little Finger shall be thicker than my Fathers Loyns my Father hath chastized you with Whips but I will chastize you with Scorpions And you know likewise the example of Jeroboam having power in his hand when the Prophet came from God and prophesied against the Altar Lay hold of him saies he as it is in 1 Kings 13.4 And so Jehojakim when the Will was read he bad them cut it with a Penknife and throw it into the Fire As you may read in Jer. 36.23 Even gracious men having power in their hands in their passion wil do many evil things As Asa the King a gracious man when the Preacher angred him he strook him See it in 2 Chron. 16.10 But where there is no grace there it is outragious beyond measure As Zerxes a great Captain being angry he shewed it aginst the water for he cut a great River and made it run another way The Reasons why wrath and anger are so outragious where there is power withal are these First Because power doth puff up the heart with pride and pride is the ground of passion So much as men are passionate so much pride is not mortified in them But as one man through the disposition of his body may be more subject to passion than another So some by the disposition of the body may be more subject to pride also Power and strength do much puff up the hearts of men and therefore in Psalm 90.10 It is said Their strength is Labor and Sorrow The word translated strength signifies pride for they are ready to think the strength and power they have is given them for some excellency and worth that is in them above others whereas it may be far otherwise It may bee God raiseth them above others not out of esteem to them but out of indignation to others that he means to scourge by them Anastatius Arenus tells us of a Monk who was raised to be a Bishop over a place which was a very ill place and he began to bee puffed up in pride that he was raised to honour above others there was a voyce heard Not because you are worthy but because they have deserved such an ill man So God raiseth some to honor not for any excellency in them but out of indignation unto others Secondly Men that have power are mighty fierce in their wrath because when any thing cross them it comes mighty unexpectedly they cannot think any dare cross them And therefore when the three Children would not submit to that which Nebuchadnezzar commanded hee was full of fury and his countenance was Changed what dare you resist me do you know who I am It is reported of one Canutus that was a King being puffed up with flatterers thought that all creatures must submit to him and therefore he caused his
He is Earth Where the Psalmist sayth what is a man that I should be affraid of him the word signifies Earth Secondly It signifies poor sickly sorry men will any be affraid of earth or a sick man Thirdly The Scripture calls him a Worm Job 25.6 Wil any be affraid of a Worme Fourthly Man is called Clay Job 10.9 Fifthly Man in scripture is called grass and the flower of the feild Isa 40.6 Secondly Consider what the Scripture saith concerning the vanity of man 1. A man is like to vanity Psalm 44.4 2. He walks in a vain shadow Psalm 39 6. 3. Man is vaine himself Job 11.11.12 4. Man is vanity it self 5. Altogether vanity 6. Every man is vanity 7. In his best estate vanity And al that you have in Psalm 39. 8. He is lighter than vanity Psalm 62.9 And if we could look at man as God looks at him we should not be affraid Thirdly For the dwelling of man In al his bravery and strong rich pallaces it is but as the dwelling of a moth and as a booth in Job 27.18 and as a house of Clay Job 4.19 Fourthly The pomp of a man Put man into the greatest gallantness that can be that causeth some feare in the hearts of men that are carnal Now in Acts 25.23 when Bernice and Agrippa came to sit in judgment they came with great pompe as Judges use to do to strike feare into their prisoners now the word signifies they come with much phansy Faith makes men to judg of things as the Holy Ghost doth and so keeps them from fearing of them Fifthly The foundation of Man It is in the dust Job 4.19 and that which hath no foundation but the dust it hath no great strength Sixthly The life of man Some times compared to a buble and a vapor a weavers shuttle and the wind in Job 7.6 7 he is compared to the Eagle flying in the aire and to the Ship in the midst of the Sea and as the dayes of an Hireling Job 7.1 And as a shadow Job 8.9 He is such a poore creature that the moth crusheth him Job 4 19. Now that which can crush a man must have a great deal of power over him And his days are but as a hand breadth Psal 39.5 And his breath is in his Nostrils Isa 2.22 This is to shew what little cause there is to feare man Now put all these together surely he is not a creature much to be feared and here we see what wonderful dishonor God hath when man is feared above God But now let us consider him as a wicked man and then he is less to be feared and there we wil consider of him in three respects Consider 1. His baseness 2. What he is in the greatness of his power opposing the Godly 3. How neare those that are wicked and enemies of Gods people are unto destruction First Consider the baseness of wicked men we do not feare things that are base 1. Wicked men let them be never so glorious in regard of outward things they are but as dross and dust Psal 119.118.119 2. And then their Root that which should uphold them and be their power is rotten Isa 5 24. 3. They are as Straw trodden down for the dunghil Isa 25.10 4. They are compared to the Froth and Fome of the Sea Hos 10.7 5. His baseness is expressed by being compared to Briars and Thornes Ezek. 2.6 Why should wicked men be feared that are compared to such base things Thus God judgeth of them and those that have Faith should judge so of them But they have a great deale of power and much strength Secondly Let us therefore consider what God speaks concerning the power of wicked men 1. It is all but a Noise Jer. 46.17 Egypt was a great Kingdom and the King of Egypt with all his power is but a noise 2. All their power is but a litle small dust Isa 29.5 3. In all their power they are but as a company of beasts or little children that have reeds in their hands Psal 68.30 Rebuke the company of Spearmen the multitude of the beasts The word translated Spear-men is rather to be translated Children that carry Reeds instead of Speares 4. Their power is Cursed Psal 119.21 Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed When they are in the top of their pride and rage and they look upon the Servants of God with scorne and contempt then they are cursed in their pride and strength and that which hath the curse of God upon it must needs come to nothing 5. All their power is as nothing Isa 41.11 And if their power be as nothing there is no cause to feare their power 6. They are Less than nothing Isa 40.17 Now what can be said more for the power of all Nations to be less than nothing If we have the same Judgment that the Holy Ghost hath cocerning Man there is no cause of feare of man Thirdly and lastly Consider what the Scripture saies of wicked men in regard of their nearness to destruction They are ready to perish 1. They are compared to Tow. Isa 1.31 A litle spark of fire doth presently blaze up tow 2. They are like the Crackling of thornes under the Pott Eccles 7.6 3. They are like to Smoake as Psal 68.2 Smoake the sooner it ascends the sooner it vanisheth so the greater men are in their power the sooner they perish 4. They are compared To wax that melteth before the fire and as the chaffe before the wind and as stubble as Job 21.18 5. And al Their light is but as a Candle Solomon saith The candle of the wicked shall be put out Prov. 24.20 6. And they are likewise compared to The tops of the eares of Corne that one can nip off with his finger Job 24.24 7. The Psalmist saith God cutteth off the spirit of Princes Psal 76.12 The word signifies such a cutting off as one with a knife would cut off a bunch of Grapes 8. Againe they are like The blasted Corne and not only as grasse but As Grasse on the House top Isa 37.27 Wicked men are going to destruction as a thing rouling before the wind It is said they are set in Slippery places and the Angell of the Lord persecutes them Psal 35.6 If one be set upon the Ice and another come to persecute him he cannot stand long 9. And they are as a Garment that the moth hath eaten Job 13.28 10. And they are compared To the fat of Lambs before the fire Psal 37.20 And as Snow melting before the Sun First consider what man is in himself and wicked man in his baseness and power and how neer they are to destruction and this is a mighty meanes to help against feare Oh! Let us be ashamed that profess our selves to have Faith and yet when we see how the Scripture doth judg of men that we should be so conscious to our selves of so much fear of wicked men how they will Crush us and we
therefore they do not feare Tenthly Where audaciousness is but natural it appears more outward then it is inward but by faith men are less feareful inwardly then it appears outwardly faith doth more cure fear within then it is able to express courage and boldness without but your natural audacious people know though they speak great words and make proud braggs yet within their hearts do tremble but it is not so where there is true faith There is an aspersion cast upon Gods people because they are forward in Gods cause They are bold impudent fellows and those that are bold and impudent they go away as the men that have the only courage now the scope of that I say is to shew that Gods people are not impudently bold but hold by the grace of God that comes from his spirit and is maintained by faith and others though they be bold in many things yet they are far from this excellent spirit that Gods people have CHAP. 10. Sheweth How far we may lawfully avoid danger without fear of men 1. Religion doth not teach men to be foolish or desperate 2 The care of a Christian ought to be to do his duty rather then to avoid danger which may fal out in his duty 3 When God brings his people into danger he intends more to exercise their graces then to try their discretion 4 Though danger may be avoided yet it is more honorable for a Christian to be called to exercise Faith Courage Patience and in a way of suffering then his prudence in avoiding it 5. Take Care of mistaking discretion which is not wont to abate the vigor of Gods Graces but to improve and increase them 6. A Christians greatest endeavor should be to get his will to submit to God THe last thing that is to be opened in the explication of the point is this Faith helps against the feare of danger and the feare of man Object But some may say that which you have said hitherto may seem to embolden men to rush into dangers this is the plea of many that bring themselves into dangers and rush upon their ruine we must not be affraid of men Answer To that I answer Religion doth not teach men to be foolish or to be desperate it is too much boldness for any man to think God should give him assistance in foolish desperate rash ways It is a speech of Cyprian God would rather have us stay to manifest our faith til we are called by him and see him go before us then that we should go upon our own heads Faith as it hath the word evermore for its ground and bottom in that great act of it interesting the soul in the Covevenant of Grace so it hath the word for the ground of it in every action it puts the soul upon We have a notable text for this in Prov. 10.8 The wise in heart wil receive Commandements but a prating fool shal fal the wise in heart those that are truly gracious receive commandements before they rush into danger they wil stay for the commandement for the word but a prating fool shal fall one that will boldly venture himself in danger in speaking before he is called unto it he shal fal in it he must not expect the assistance of God in it Quest But if we must not feare man may we not flee from danger may we not labor to deliver our selves from it when it comes we must not rush into danger but suppose we see danger before us may we not flee from it and avoid it before it comes if we must not feare the creature must we deliver our selves from it Answ First I shall give some general answers unto it and then I will come more closely to answer to that case of conscience concerning fleeing from danger For a general answer unto this consider these five things Your question is whether a Christian may not flee danger I answer First That the greatest care of a Christian ought to be to do his duty rather then to avoid danger that may fal out in his duty we should be more affraid of our own base earthly cowardly unbeleeving hearts then we should be affraid of any evil that the malice and power of al the men in the world and Devills in hell can being upon us No Christian is in so much danger of evil from the malice and power of al the men in the world and Devils in hell as he is in danger of mischeif from his own heart and that man that doth not feare himself and his own vile heart more then he doth al the power and malice of the men of the world and the Devils in Hell he doth not yet know his heart It is a greater judgment to be delivered up to a mans own heart then to be delivered up to the malice of al the enemies we have in the world yea it is a greater judgment to be delivered up to ones own heart then to be delivered up to the Devil himself Those that are so sollicitous to deliver themselves from the danger and evil of the power of men let them first labor that the strength of their Sollicitousness be to deliver themselves from the danger and evil of their own hearts Secondly You ask this question whether you may not flee danger I answer when God doth so dispose of things as to bring his people into danger usually God intends more to exercise faith and courage and patience then to exercise discretion though it call for both and that which is Gods usual cheif intent should be our chief care when as the care of most Christians in the time of Danger is more to exercise their discretion for their safety Then to exercise faith courage and patience that God calls most for Thirdly Grant that the danger may be avoided yet a Christian should count it a more honorable thing to be called to exercise faith courage and patience in a way of suffering then to be called forth to exercise his discretion in avoiding of suffering Indeed God doth not cal at all times to that which is the most honorable service yet a Christian should account that more honorable and not bless himself that his condition is better then others because God calls others to suffer and there gives them an opportunity to exercise faith and courage and patience and that he gives him liberty to avoid suffering wherein he gives me an opportunity to exercise my discretion and wisdom I am to count them the most honorable Christians that do suffer Fourthly When God doth call for the exercise of discretion in avoiding suffering there must be a great care in Christians not to mistake their discretion to think that the work of Christian wisdom and discretion is to abate the vigor and activity and strength of any grace of Gods spirit But the work of it doth consist in the managing improving and increasing of al the graces of Gods spirit There is a great mistake
when he saw others sought to make him affraid because it would have been a dishonor to God and his cause Fifthly Besides sinful fear is that which doth mightily hearten the enemies of Gods people and dishear tens Gods people it makes the enemies of Gods people so much the more bold the fear of anenemy heartens an Enemy as Gideon when he came to the Host of his enemies and heard their communication that they were affraid of Gideon then he was so much the more heartned and so the spies that went to the land of Canaan when they heard that the fear of them was amongst the people this heartened them and so when one knows his adversary is affraid of him he will be heartned a dog will follow another that runs from him And this discourages the people of God when they see others afraid in the cause of God Sixthly It is a great evil because it is that which is threatned as a great judgment of God upon a people it is not only a sin but a punishment for some former sin in Deut. 28.65.66 This is Gods judgment against wickedness and therefore a sore and great evil that Christians should count to be upon them if the spirit of fear be upon them Seventhly The evil of it appears in the evil effects that proceed of it upon ourselves as 1. The distraction of our thoughts and therefore the word that is translated Rash in Isa 32.4 It signifies Fear because it doth distract the thoughts of people and makes them do they know not what It is reported as an excellency that was in Alexander and Caesar and other valorous spirits that they were in the time of danger able to command their thoughts and to consult and mannage any business for usually fear distracts ones thoughts 2. Again it weakens the heart exceedingly though a sudden fear may cause some strength and the putting forth of the spirit yet usually it doth weaken the spirit In 1 Cor. 2.3 Weaknes and Fear go together in Deut. 20.3 Fainting of spirit and Fear go together 3. Fear of man is that which doth exceedingly eate out the true fear of God as love of the creature eats out the love of God and joy in sinful things eates out the true joy in God So fear of the creature eates out the fear of God In Isa 57.11 Of whom hast thou been affraid or feared that thou hast lyed and hast not remembred me as if God should say my fear and the fear of the creature cannot stand together 4. Sinful fear makes one altogether unfit for any service to be used in any employment for God in Judg 7.3 God gives a command to the people by whom he would do great things that all that were of a fearful heart should return back again as If God should say they are not fit for me 5. The fear of man is a great snare 29. Prov. 25. It brings a man to many sinful courses and shifting ways and to commit sin against God in Isa 57.11 Of whom hast thou been afraid or feared that thou hast lyed many servants when they have done any thing that they are affraid of the displeasure of their Masters or Mistresses they are afraid and lie and so in other cases when as people are possessed with the fear of man they wil take any sinful courses and lie to avoid danger you know what the Psalmist says in Psalm 19. The fear of the Lord is clean but the fear of man is very impure the fear of God purgeth the heart but the fear of man defileth the heart and exceedingly polluteth it I was affraid says Saul of the people and I obeyed their voice In 1. Sam. 15.24 And so many in Scripture were convinced that it was Christ but they were affraid and did not confess him in John 12.42 6. The fear of the creature hath abundance of evil in it in that it brings most desperate fears if you give way to the fear of any creature to fear any danger and so to avoid it in a sinful way you bring your selves by this means to most desperate fears As it was the desperate condition of Francis Spira when he was affraid of those that had power over him and so denyed Christ against his conscience Oh the dreadful horrors of conscience that he was sunke into and so it is usual for men that wil balke the waies of God against conscience when their consciences are enlightned their hearts are Burdened with such fears as they cannot stand under them other manner of fears then the fear of man in Jer 1.17 God says unto Jeremiah be not dismayed at their faces least I confound thee before them it is the same word that is translated before dismayed do not fear least I fear thee be not dismayed least I dismay thee and to reconcile both translations the meaning may be do not fear least I so fear thee as to confound thee with fear so that you see this note is clear By fearing the creature fearing danger we come to plunge our selves into the most desperate fears of al And let this be a warning from God to us all be not dismayed and affraid in any way of God least God fear you in another manner take heed you be not terrifyed least God terrifie you many dreadful examples we have how many upon their sick beds and death beds have had dreadful fears that they have done things against conscience out of fear 7. And the last evil that wil come upon us in sinful fear is the judgment of God in our destruction in Revela 21.8 Amongst those that shal be cast out into the lake of fire and brimstone are the feareful and therefore we had need take heed of sinful fear and make God to be our only fear But now that we may conclude this argument in a word of Exhortation as sinful fear is a most dreadful evil so the trrue fear of God is a most precious Jewel in Isa 33.6 The fear of the Lord is called the treasure of Gods people sinful feare hath a treasure of evil and therefore to be avoided Oh then let us take heed of sinful fear of the creature as the Lord by the prophet Isa 55.4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart be not affraid do not plead and say I am of a fearful nature says God say to them that are of a fearful heart be not affraid so say I to you that are the people of God in the way of God though you be by nature fearful you that are of a fearful nature be not affraid whatsoever your natures have been yet if your hearts have been brought under the power of the Gospel now there is a spirit of magnanimity put into you Give me says Lactantius speaking of the power of Christian religion upon the hearts of men a man fearful of pain of death if once Christian Religion prevails in his heart he shal presently contemn crucifying fyre yea that cruel
it prevailes mightily because the heart is ingaged in God and his truth and indeed if so be we did understand aright we should see more of our own good to consist in God then in our selves and this is the ground and principle of self denial when as the soule shall come to see my good is more in God then in my selfe and therefore I will deny my good and comfort so far as it is in my selfe and I will seeke my good and comfort in God and indeed no men in the world seek themselves more then the Godly only the one seeks himself in himself and the other seeks himself in God the one is engaged to his self-ends and self-praise and the other makes himself only ingaged in God and when a man comes to be thus engaged in God then any truth prevails with a mighty strength more then before And this is the first reason which is a principal one that causeth the heart to be at a different condition at one time from that it is at another Reason 2. The second Reason is in regard of the differences of their presentations of a truth though when we are indisposed let the truths come never so powerfully it is all one but if the heart be fit in any reasonable manner to receive a truth there may be a great deal of difference in the manner of the representation of a truth somtimes the truth comes more cleerly and with more evidences more particularly more powerfully Somtimes it comes with greater evidence of the spirit of God then at other times there is not only a little gloss of a truth of God but the shine of it that a man cannot shut his eyes against it somtime the truth comes more particularly to the heart God doth not only present a truth in the general to him that this is a duty Christians must do but it shal come to the particular frame of the heart and shal meet with every objection and he shall find the secrets of his thoughts to be discovered and answered so that the truth shal come like a key that is fitted to a lock if you bring a key to the lock though it may be like the right key and as strong a key as the right is yet if it be not indeed the right if it miss but in one ward of the lock never so little you may spoil both the lock and the key but you cannot open the lock though you have never so much strength but come with a key suted to that lock and do but turn it and it opens presently So when it pleaseth God to come with his truth to our souls we were backward and we heard many truths but they did not meet with all our objections and therefore it was stopped with some one or other but afterward it pleased God so to dispose of things and to bring the truth so fully to the heart as it meets with every objection and then the heart quietly yeilds and therefore it is said God opened Lydias heart Paul preached to others and had much wringing with them and could not prevail but Saint Paul came to Lydia and he prevailed presently because God did so dispose of Lydias heart as it was fitted to the truth Saint Paul spoke of as many when they come to hear the word cannot but say the truth of God hath met with me in every particular and I have no secret object on in my heart but it is answered somtimes the truth comes more powerfully then at other times as in Isaiah 8.11 For the Lord spake thus to me with a Strong hand instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people God did not only tell the prophet his duty but he spake with a strong hand so when God comes sometimes he tels you what you ought to do but he doth not alwaies come with a strong hand as sometimes he doth Job 36.10 He openeth also their Eares to discipline and commandeth that they returne from iniquity does not God command men at al times to returne from their iniquities doth not god command men in prosperity to return from their Iniquities yes but in the time of affliction ordinarily the truth comes with more commanding power then he sealeth instruction as in Job 33.16 when people came to hear the word they heard instructions to do such and such duties but those instructions did not come with command they were not sealed but in affliction God seals them if a man see a writing and see the hands of others to it it is somthing to perswade him to see others are of that opinion but when he sees the broad Seal to it then it comes with authority and so when men come and hear the word of God they think it is but our opinion and cast it off but in affliction those truths come with authority and have the seal of Heaven upon them and then they prevail you have other manner of thoughts of them then before that which Saint Paul spoke it was in power to the hearts of the people and they could not resist the spirit wherewith Stephen spake because he was ful of faith and power So sometimes God speaks with so much power as they cannot stand out we may see the different spirits of men by the different representation of a truth in our selves or in others somtime when God pleaseth to convince us and work upon us we admire it our selves did we not hear these things before what was it that kept me from being convinced I never was stirred before and now methinks there is such mighty power in them as I cannot stand against them what was the matter and so in others let there be two men that shal go upon the same principles and their ends shal be the same and both their hearts shal be upright and yet they cannot yeild to the same thing because the same thing is presented to the one one way and he sees it cleerly and the same thing is presented to another another way and he cannot see it And therefore it should teach us to have patience when we have to deal with such as do not see a thing clear As when we come to a lock that we have not the right key and we try and it wil not open we do not presently throw it away but we think it may be there is some dust in it we pick that out and try again if it do not open then we think may be we did not put in the key right too far or not far enough and if it do not open then we think may be we did not turn the right way we try again if it do not open then we think we did not turn strong enough we try again if it do not open then we think may be we have not the right key if I choose another key that would open it Then we try again if it do not open it we are loath to loose
see this and be sensible of it and yet in this condition to raise up its self to lay hold upon the perfect righteousness of a Mediator God and Man and to venture its eternal estate upon that righteousness and to tender up to God by Faith that righteousness as a ful satisfaction to his Justice and as sufficient to bear off the the wrath of God from it and notwithstanding al the pollution of its nature yet to unite it self to the Deity in the neerest union that ever creature was united to the Deity except the personal Union of Christ to the Divine Nature this is a glorious work and no marvel though such glorious power of God be in Faith and a Faith that can do this may do any thing as Christ said If you can beleeve all things are possible so say I to every one that hath low thoughts of Faith and think it a mean work If you can beleeve al things are possible it is a greater thing to beleeve truly than for to work miracles a man may work miracles and yet be damned but justifying Faith doth so unite the soul to God that it is impossible the soul should be damned and therefore it is a greater miracle than ever any was enabled to do though God enables Angels to do great things yet he never enables them to do such a glorious work as this Besides though people think Faith is an easie matter yet it is the most difficult work in the world First Difficult in regard of the impediments no work hath such great impediments as this The soul seeing an enmity between God and it and seeing it self a polluted Creature and seeing the Law of God in its strictness and the Justice of God must be satisfied and sees the wrath of God burning against it and having nothing in its self to satisfie God yet Faith doth break through al these and if it can break through these then certainly it wil break through any thing for there can be no greater impediment to any service that God calls to than there was to this one work of beleeving Let us not therefore be feared by any difficulty and mountain that lies in our way to any work because there can never be any mountain laid in our way to hinder us in any work as did lie in our way to hinder us from beleeving and if Faith did burst through those impediments it shal be able to break through al other impediments Secondly It is difficult not only because of the impediments but because it is the highest duty of all to reach high is painful to the Body so the high actions of the soul are difficult to the soul now Faith is high the object is high the act is high and the end is high the object is the highest object it is the perfect righteousness of a Mediator God-man and the act is of the highest nature it is an act of uniting the soul with the Deity as by sin the soul departed from God so by faith the soul comes to be made one and for the end that is high it is for the satisfaction of infinite Justice and for appeasing of infinite wrath and for acceptation from infinite holiness let God be never so holy infinitely more than we can conceive of him yet faith does procure acceptance for such a polluted filthy creature as man is from the infinite holiness of God Thirdly It is difficult because it hath the least furtherance from any principle of Nature some other Graces as Patience and Justice and Sobriety they have some help from the principles in Reason and Nature but Faith hath no help from any principles in Reason or Nature and therefore surely it is difficult and if it be the most glorious and difficult thing surely it wil enable the soul to do most glorious and difficult works Fifthly Faith appears to be a most strong thing to carry the Soul through any service because it enables a soul to go on in any way of service that God calls to in a gracious manner and this doth facillitate a work a main thing that makes our services difficult is our blundering about them and going about them in a confused untoward manner we do not carry things graciously and sweetly In an outward work to carry it on in a right manner doth mightily further the work so in any work that Godsets us about if we went on in the right way that God set us about it would help us against difficulty we may thank our selves because we go about our work unto wardly As an apprentice that handles his tool untowardly he works with as much strength as another but not going in the right manner to work he does but hack spoil his work wheras a Mason or Carpenter that workes by rule and goes to it in the right manner he goes through his work with ease and if there be a knotty peice in the timber he knows how to order it because he hath skil when as others would throw away the work and could not tell what to do So many not having the grace of faith to guide them by the right rule when they set upon any work in religion they cry out of the difficultness and how it tires them no marvel if you be tired when you do not know the right rule but the principle of Faith being begotten by the word and being fed and nourished by the word it will keep the heart close to the word and give skill to the soul to apply it selfe to the rule and therefore though the work be hard yet to such a one in comparison it is Easy and so carries through abundance of difficulties which otherwise would hinder him Sixthly Faith carries through difficult works things that are hard to be done because by faith it is that the soul of a beleever hath much to do with God with the supream Cause with the highest cause of all and by reason of Faith the great things that he undertakes are transacted between God and him the cheif difficulty of business lies most in second causes in under causes now if so be the thing be cleare between the supreame cause and the agent that undertakes the work it may go on and that with ease As many times in the business and affaires of a country if a man have to do with many under Officers he may have a great deal of difficulty in his work in passing through them but if the business be transacted between him and the King and all be cleare there he may carry his business with ease so all the business of a beleever is transacted between God and him and faith keeps the soul to the supreame cause and works it that way and this must needs procure much ease to a service because the supream cause depends on no inferior but all inferior depends upon it and the supream cause is enough to work without any inferior causes and no inferior can any way
to miscarry for his own part was the disturbance of his passion when he came to strike the rock to get water for the people for not sanctifying the name of God but did it in a passion that was the thing that made him miscarry as in Psalm 106.32.33 They angred him also at the waters of strife so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes So you may be have done some works so as you have found God strengthning of you at length you come to a work where may be there is more difficulty then before and there being more difficulty your hearts are disquieted take heed you miscarry not now it is a special thing to carry on a hard work well to go on with quietness disquiet and passion do much hinder as it was the case of the people of Israel in the beginning of Exodus When Moses came they could not harken to him because of the anguish of heart and the greatness of their bondage So to apply it spiritually you are sensible of some griâ—vous bondage under some corruptions and you have much anguish of spirit that you cannot overcome such and such corruptions but take heed you be not so disturbed in your hearts as your being in anguish under that bondage hinder you from hearkning to the Lord in his word and conceiving the mind and will of God a right and knowing how to order your selves in a right way it was so with them and truly this is just the case of many people because they are sensible of the bondage they are in under their corruptions they are so troubled and their hearts are in such a toile and tumult that they cannot hearken to any thing that should guide themselves in this work 13. Another rule for the ordering of your Faith to help you through difficult works is to observe the dependances that one work hath upon another many see a work God would have them to do and they presently set upon that and do not observe what dependance this hath upon somwhat else and so miscarry Suppose a Mariner or some other should have a work to go and pull such a cable such a rope he goes to the place that is in view to pull that rope but may be there is some other line that holdes it in some other place and they may pull their hearts out and never pull the thing they would So many are striving and laboring and tugging in many duties but there is some secret holdfast that they observe not that those duties have dependance upon and they can never bring their work to pass As one complaines of the difficulty of getting a heart to go to God in prayer God knows I have been in prayer have striven with my soul with al my might as in the presence of God for to get up my heart you strive and tug at this and may be you think of some promise and exercise faith too but there is some corruption that seems to be a great way off from this that this hath dependance upon which makes this difficult and you should set your faith on work to deliver your selves from that and then it will come off better as now may be you have been striving to get your hearts up to God in prayer and if you look well to it it may be the frowardness and petrishness and passion of your hearts in your families with servants or wife or husband is that which keeps down your heart when you come into Gods presence you should first have set your faith on work to have cured that and if you had cured that you might have got up your hearts many slip over many corruptions and look at duties a great way off and they strive and take pains but if they had true Christian wisdome they should look what difficulty and hinderance lay between them and that dutie and they should labor to take away that And so for faith we cannot beleeve in God and in the promises may be there lay a sluggish heart in your particular calling it may be so far off though you think there be but little dependance of Faith in that And so in affliction you would faine have your hearts be patient may be there laie a dead lumpishness of heart and drowsiness of spirit and therefore look narrowly to corruption though never so far off and set thy heart in general against all one as well as another 14 Againe take need of listening to temptation when as you are about any hard work there will come abundance of temptation what you go through this work those that have been stronger then you have miscarried it is a mighty hard work and you are a poor creature If it be the work of the Lord go to it with a naked upright heart If I miscarry so it is and do not mind temptations A very observable place it is of Nehemiah in Nehemi 6.3 When he was about the great work of God the adversaries sent as if they would parly with them and it was for nothing but to hinder his work but mark what he saies I am doing a great work so that I cannot come why should the work cease whilst I leave it and come down to you so do you say to temptation temptation would faine have you come reason the case but say I am about the worke of the Lord why should the work cease and I spend my time and strength about reasoning with you 15. Another rule for the putting on of your faith may be this when you are doing any great work God calls you to do Take heed of perverse reasonings as thus When God calls me to do any service I should reason if I were able to do thus and thus I could beleeve but who can beleeve when they have such a heart so unable to do any thing and so unable to overcome any corruption What a perverse reasoning is this If I could do this I could beleeve you should reason I must beleeve that I may do this as If one should say if I could do any work I hope I should have strength you must have strength to do your work or if I were at my journies end I could go you must go to be at your journies end If I were over Sea I could venture into a Ship you must venture into a Ship that you may come over Sea And so if I could do such a thing I could beleeve how should strength come in but by beleeving Wilt stay beleeving till thou canst get strength it is as much as if one should say I wil stay going into a Ship til I get over Sea his going into the Ship is a means to get over Sea and so beleeving is the way to get strength and therefore do not reason from thy want of strength to hinder faith but rather reason from thy want of strength to further faith 16. Again when you go about any work that is difficult take heed of any disorderly
them to chew them no marvel then though they spit them out and do not swallow them they should swallow them down and not chew them And so when God gives us any bitter pills we must not alwaies be chewing of them in our thoughts but free the command of God and so go on in our work and labor to swallow difficulties as much as we can we have a notable place for this purpose in Psal 86.4 5. Rejoyce the soul of thy servant for unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul for thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto al them that cal upon thee Thus we apply it the cause why many go so drooping in their way and have no joy and comfort in any of their waies is because they look downward in the dark if a man were in the bottom of a deep pit and alwaies looks downward he could never see light if he would see light he must look upward to the Sun so mark the way of David Rejoyce the soul of thy servant for unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul If David had let his heart alwaies fall downward he would never had joy in his way but when he would have joy he lift up his heart so if there be any work that is difficult and your hearts are troubled would you have that which should rejoyce you lift up your soules to God in those incouraging waies that he presents to you For thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy Here is a way to get mercy he lifts up his soul and looked upon God as good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy I appeale to you when did you lift up your soules and look up to God as plenteous in mercy you alwaies looked downward in the bottome of the pit and see the blackness of Gods justice ready to seize upon you but you should lift up your soul to God and look to the sun we should not alwaies be poring upon those things that are difficult but see those things that are incouraging 22. Do not make use of difficulties in your way to reason against your work or to make you out of love with your work but to reason against your hearts indeed it is an hard work but it is through my wretched sluggish heart and because I do not make use of the means and abilities that God affords me many that have less means and helps then I can go through harder works then I and so labor to reason against your own hearts and not the work many when they feel the work hard reason against the work the Lord knows I strive and do what I can but I have so many letts and hinderances God does not come in with his Grace to help me and I can do nothing without God How comes it to pass nothing is done because the work is hard or because you do not use what power God gives to do it withall now the safest way is rather to reason against your selves that you have not done what you can but you rather put off al the guilt from your selves and justify your selves and that is all the reason why nothing is done it is because the work is hard and you have so many hinderances and that God hath not given you his power but if you look into your own hearts you will find another reason it is not so much the hardness of the work as the ill disposition of your hearts and that should be your care not to reason against the work because it is difficult but against your hearts And to conclude all this is all I say we should labor to harden our selves by our Faith against all difficulties As unbeleefe is a hardning sin one way So faith is a hardning grace another way unbelief hardens in that which is evil and faith hardens in that which is good Acts 19.9 But when divers were hardned and beleeved not They were hardned because they did not beleeve and faith hath the contrary effect and wil do as much in that which is good as unbelief can do in that which is evil As unbelief wil make a man or woman so hard as to be as Iron to that which is good so Faith wil make a man as Iron to that which is evil and therefore the Prophet Jeremiah is compared to Iron and Steel Jer. 15.12 Shall Iron break the northern Iron and the Steel God hath revealed himself to him gratiously and he was hardned by it now of all graces especially Faith doth make the heart as Iron for God as unbelief doth make the heart as Iron to stand out against God And therefore is the exhortation of the Apostle 2 Peter 1.5 Ad to your Faith vertue the word Virtus comes from strength because every vertue puts forth strength so it is as much as if he should say ad to your faith strength put it forth strongly that it may help you against strong difficulties with a war-like power vertue hath a power to oppose enemies and so ad to your faith vertue And if we do so know it will be a very honorable thing it is an honor to God honor to us for us to go through difficult things it is honor to God as Davids men that endured so much that broke through an host for to get him water it was an honor to him and so for us to do difficult things for God it is an honor to God and it is honorable to us non so honorable as those that have gone through difficult works it will make them honorable to others as some observe from that place in 8. Cant. 3. If shee be a wal we will build upon her a palace of Silver If shee be a wal to stand out against opposition and temptation we wil build upon her a palace of Silver she shal be made honorable and glorious and so every Christian if your heart be as a wall to stand out against opposition and difficulty and hinderances in the way of God you shall have a pallace of Silver built upon you you shal be honorable in the eyes of God and all his Saints And going through difficulty is a mighty strengthening to grace and the more difficulty any go through the more Grace is strengthened As it is a rule of any thing that opposeth another if it do not overcome it it strengthens it as fire and water if you cast so much water into fire as the fire can overcome it the fire gathernig strength to overcome the water that opposes it burns the better So in all oppositions So in sin If that a man comes to be opposed in his sinful way by the word if the word do not overcome his lust his lust grows stronger And so in grace if any lust or sin or temptation or any thing do come and oppose grace or any gracious act and if they do not overcome grace but grace overcome them
thing that Gods heart is upon as the highest thing that he wil do is upon those that are sensible of their spiritual bondage of this spiritual Egypt to deliver them And though thou art not sure he wil do it for thee yet this is a great incouragement Object But though he may do it for others yet I am so vile that though I have seen my sin I have stil gone on therefore he wil not do it for me Answ 2. Wherefore know in the second place that the great designe that God hath in this work is not only to manifest his power but to set out before men and Angels to all eternity the Riches and Glory of his free Grace And therefore those objections of thy unworthinss may be taken away for thou maiest see God doth not intend to goe on with thee in a way of retribution or distributive Justice if thou dost so and so and so he wil do so and so for thee but he goes this way to work that his great designe is to magnify his free Grace And whosoever he does deliver it is for this end to shew to men and Angels what the power of his infinite free Grace is able to do and this is a great Incouragement 3. Further Jesus Christ hath already removed all differences that are between God the Father and thy soul the difficulties which make such a mighty vast dismal distance between God and thy soul is the wrath of God and the justice of God and the curse of the Law Now it hath been the work of Christ to take away all these difficulties So that when thou lookest up and seest thy sin against an infinite God that is infinitely holy and infinitely just and seest the curse of the Law against thee thou thinkest these are great difficulties how is it possible for me to get over these know it is the work of Christ that great Savior of the world to remove those difficulties and if he had not undertook it it had been impossible for any soul to come to God But he hath done it and therefore thou hast liberty to come to God if thou hast but an heart to venture upon his free Grace if thou saiest how can I know that Christ hath removed these difficulties for me It s the work of Faith that gives thee an interest And therefore do not stay for any thing else If thou doest but venture upon Faith thou needest not take care as those Women did who shall roule away the stone Who shall remove the difficulties of the curse of the Law who shall pacifie the wrath of God that is burning against me for my sin If thou doest beleeve Christ hath done it Fourthly Christ hath not only removed the difficulties between God the Father and thy soul but there are many gracious promises in the Gospel for the removing of all difficulties in thy soul that thou hast as much right to lay claime to as any one in the world that ever was delivered by Christ Whatsoever ground any had to claime these promises before the applying of them thou hast the same ground the great hinderance that is in thee is an hard heart a stout stubborne spirit marke what is said that there shall be a way prepared for the Lord Make his way strait every high Mountain shal be brought low every valley shal be filled up every crooked way shall be made strait every rough way shall be made plaine Luke 3.4.5.6 Now who hath right to laie hold on these promises this applying of them doth give interest doest thou find thy heart proud and canst not pul it down saies the Lord every high mountaine shal be cast down dost thou say I have an unbeleeving heart I know not how to beleeve Gods word but my heart sinks down in unbeliefe that is as a valley dejected Every vally shal be filled up I have a perverse crooked heart every croked way shall be made strait I have a rough knotty heart every rough heart Every rough way shall be made plaine So that Christ hath not only made things cleer between God and thee but in thy own Soul Object But he doth not make it clear for all Answ Thou hast as much ground to beleeve as any had before they did beleeve I will take away thy strong Heart saith God This is revealed to all and therefore thou art to make use of them And whosoever did get good by them they could not see any interest they had to them more then thou canst see USE 3. A Third use is this If Faith be that which does deliver from this spiritual Egypt Then those that are delivered let them see what hath brought them out and magnifie the work of God let them stand and admire the Grace of God in delivering them from al difficulties and in carrying them through that were so poor and weak as they were know it was not thy endeavor but the work of Faith and the work of God in thee Faith workes by a power out of us and not by our own power And God delivers the Soul from this spiritual Egypt by Faith Because he would have the Glory of it Therefore now if it have been a work of Faith let this Exhortation prevail with you Labor to exercise your Faith in going through the Wilderness to Canaan There was a time you were in bondage under sin and Satan and the Law And now thou art delivered from the Law and brought to Grace Is it Faith hath done it Let this Faith be imployed to carry thee on through the wilderness unto Canaan And all the Rules that I will give unto you shall be from the People of Israels going through the wilderness unto Canaan when they were delivered from Egypt Direction 1. First They were not to stir but upon Gods Direction when the cloud and the pillar of fire went before them So in thy way keep close to the Direction of God Let thy Faith stick close to the word and not to the Direction of thine own Heart Direction 2. Secondly When they were delivered this was a great Evil their Murmuring because of the hardships they met withal take heed thou beest not guilty of this Let not thy heart run out too far to murmur against the waies of God when you meet with any hardships being God with his outstretched Arm and his mighty hand hath delivered thee God forbid thou shouldest be murmuring upon every difficulty Direction 3. Thirdly Take heed you do not limit the Holy One of Israel God was Angry with them because they limited the Holy One of Israel Psalm 78.19 Can God prepare a table in the Wilderness say they So many when they are in the way to Heaven and they find any difficulty can God help such a one as I say they Take heed of limiting God do not propound Limits to to what God can do No nor to what God wil do Direction 4. Fourthly Take heed of slighting any thing that God
more precious in the exercise you should prize one exercise of Grace more excellent then the whol world People prize grace in the habits Oh that God would bestow Grace upon them but they do not set a price upon every gratious act but come to this to set a high price upon every act of Grace as wel as the habit and you will not complain of difficult works 3. The more difficult services you are called to the more opportunitie you have to honor God you have don but a litle all this while and the most part of your time hath been to little purpose if God will give you an opportunitie to doe a great deale in a little time will you murmure at it and count it your affliction 4. Difficult works are for the improvement of your graces If a man have a stock and he have had some improvement for it but not full he hath some mony ly dead by him or is not improved for that advantage it might if he shal find a way to improve every penny of his stock to the utmost advantage will he count this an affliction he counts it an advantage who grow rich but those that have the full improvement of their stock Men count it a misery to have their stockly by them and not improved why do not you count it a misery to have gracely by you and not exercised Would you count it a happiness that God should shew you a way to improve your outward stock to the full and would you not count it a happiness that God should shew you a way to improve your grace to the full USE 3. The third use is this If Faith enables to carry through difficult works then it can be no concluding argument against a work because there fall out many hinderances in the worke for faith carries through nothing but that which is the work of God and if it be to carry through hinderances then hinderances and blocks in the way can be no concluding argument that this is not the work of God this is our weakness we set upon many works and before we begin we consider whether it be the work of God and we have considered and consulted with God and his people and we find it is Gods work and we begin to set upon it and we would go on and alwaies think it Gods work if things went on wel but as soone as we find any let that stops us we begin to cal in question whether it were Gods work or no. It is true when we find any hinderances in our work it should make us reflect our thoughts upon our cal to it and see that be right and further it should make us humble our selves before God to take away whatsoever hinderance God should lay in our way out of any displeasure for though God somtimes do lay hinderances as an honor to improve our graces yet somtimes hinderances may be as chastizements to us and therefore it is useful for to humble our soules before God that we may have more assurance nothing is between God and us and that our hinderances do not come as a fruit of his displeasure and the hinderances we meet withall should make us keep more close to the rule because Faith will beare us out in nothing but according as we goe to the rule and so we should improve hinderances to stir up our Faith But to make hinderances and hard things that fall out to be an argument to think it is not the work of God that is a great evil And for that I only speak this one thing that is the way of God towards Jacob in that work of his when God called him to goe from Laban into his own country You may read the story at your leisure God from Heaven calls Jacob to goe to that Journey It was the work of God Jacob might think it being Gods work I shall meet with no hardship but if you read the story you shall find it was one of the most hard Journeys that ever he undertook in his life as it appeares by these six things First After he went Laban followed him with an intent to mischeife him but that God stopt him and there was some danger that Jacob was in God freed him from that Secondly His wise's nurse dyed that was a great help to his wife God took away even a right hand to his wife Thirdly His wife dyed in that Journey this was a mighty cross he might think God comes mightily to crosse me Fourthly After this His Daughter Dinah goes out and shee is defloured Fiftly After this His two Sons Symeon and Levi goe and commit that wofull outrage and murdered so many innocent people Sixtly His Brother Esaw came with rage and fury against him intending to destroy him and he was mightily affraid of his Brother Esaw Now this may quiet many that are to goe any Journy first let them see the call of God and then go on in it whatsoever fals out take it rather as a tryall of your Faith then any stop of God in your way And so you that are weake that have friends that undertake hard works and hard voyages you think they may doe it before danger come but if danger come you are ready to think that it is not the right way if you have no other argument but that know it comes from weakness and you are to lay downe that weakness and not to disturbe your selves and your friends by your weakness to think it is not the way of God because of those hinderances and that is the third use USE 4. Fourthly if Faith be the principle that carries through such difficult works Hence who ever have been carried through difficult works look back to what God hath carried you through reflect upon it and see what it was that did it such and such works God called you to may be as he did Moses to forsake your owne country which you have done not out of any outward necessity but in bare obedience to God now may be you may meet with many hinderances and inconveniences you might have stayed and lived comfortable and full handed enough if you could have dispensed with those things that others did some hardship you had in leaving of those things and then the example of others might come and make the work difficult But through Gods mercy the work was undertaken and gone through now what is it that carried you through was it your own naturall resolutions the strength of your own purposes was it any assistance you hade from any friends or any help that we can imagine from any creature upon the reviewing of it cannot you say as in the presence of God I know not what in the world carried me through but Gods giving me an heart to depend upon him in it After what manner did God work upon thy heart did he first prepare thy heart by a work of humiliation to seek him and make up thy peace with him