of his own unworthinesse and great unrighteousnesse tell him of a pardon alas he is so wrapt up with the thoughts of his own vilenesse that you cannot fasten it upon him What will God ever take such a toad as he is into his bosome discount so many great abominations at once and receive him into his favour that hath been so long in rebellious armes against him he cannot beleeve it no though he heares what Christ hath done and suffered for sin he refuseth to be comforted Little doth the soule think what a bitter root such thoughts spring from thou thinkest thou doest well thus to declaim against thy self and aggravate thy sins indeed thou canst not paint them black enough or entertain too low and base thoughts of thy selfe for them But what wrong hath God and Christ done thee that thou shouldest so unworthily reflect upon the mercy of the one and merit of the other Mayest thou not do this and be tender of the good Name of God also Is there no way to shew thy sense of thy sin except thou asperse thy Saviour Canst thou not charge thy self but thou must condemn God and put Christ and his blood to shame before Satan who triumphs more in this then all thy other sins In a word though thou like a wretch hast undone thy self and damned thy soule by thy sins yet art thou not willing God should have the glory of pardoning them and Christ the honour of procuring the same or art thou like him in the Gospel Luke 16.3 who could not dig and to beg was ashamed Thou canst not earne heaven by thy own righteousnesse and is thy spirit so stout that thou wilt not beg it for Christs sake yea take it at Gods hands who in the Gospel comes a begging to thee and beseecheth thee to be reconciled to him Ah soule who would ever have thought there could have lien such pride under such a modest veile and yet none like it 'T is horrible pride for a beggar to starve rather then take an alms at a rich mans hands a malefactour rather to choose his halter then a pardon from his gracious Princes hand but here is one infinitely surpassing both a soule pining and perishing in sin and yet rejecting the mercy of God and the helpng hand of Christ to save him Though Abigail did not think her self worthy to be Davids wife yet she thought David was worthy of her and therefore she humbly accepted his offer and makes haste to go with the messengers That 's the sweet frame of heart indeed to lie low in the sense of your own vilenesse yet to believe to renounce all conceit of worthinesse in our selves yet not therefore to renounce all hope of mercy but the more speedily to make haste to Christ that wooes us All the pride and unmannerlinesse lies in making Christ stay for us who bids his messengers invite poor sinners to come and tell them all things are ready But may be thou wilt say still it is not pride that keeps thee off but thou canst not believe that ever God will entertain such as thou art Truly thou mendest the matter but little with this either thou keepest some lust in thy heart which thou wilt not part with to obtain the benefit of the promise and then thou art a notorious hypocrite who under such an out-cry for thy sins canst drive a secret trade with hell at the same time or if not so thou doest discover the more pride in that thou darest stand out when thou hast nothing to oppose against the many plain and clear promises of the Gospel but thy peremptory unbelief God bids the wicked forsake his wayes and turne to him and he will abundantly pardon him but thou sayest thou canst not believe this for thy own self Now who speaks the truth One of you two must be the liar either thou must take it with shame to thy self for what thou hast said against God and his promise and that is thy best course or thou must proudly yea blasphemously cast it upon God as every unbeliever doth 1 John 5.10 Nay thou makest him forsworn for God to give poor sinners the greater security in flying for refuge to Christ who is that hope set before them Heb. 6.17 18. hath sworn they should have strong consolation O beatos quorum causâ Deus jurat O miserrimos si nec juranti credamus Tertul. de poenit O happy we for whose sake God puts himself under an oath but O miserable we who will not believe God no not when he sweares Secondly when the soul hath shot the great gulfe and got into a slate of peace and life by closing with Christ yet this mannerly pride Satan makes use of in the Christians daily course of duty and obedience to disturb him and hinder his peace and comfort O how unchearfully yea joylesly do many precious soules passe their dayes If you enquire what is the cause you shall finde all their joy runs out at the crannies of their imperfect duties and weak graces they cannot pray as they would and walk as they desire with evennesse and constancy they see how short they fall of the holy rule in the Word and the patterne which others more eminent in grace do set before them and this though it doth not make them throw the Promises away and quite renounce all hope in Christ yet it begets many sad fears and suspitions yea makes them sit at the feast Christ hath provided and not know whether they may eat or not In a word as it robs them of their joy so Christ of that glory which he should receive from their rejoycing in him I do not say Christian thou oughtest not to mourn for those defects thou findest in thy graces and duties nay thou couldest not approve thy self to be sincere if thou didst not A gracious heart seeing how far short his renewed state forthe present falls of mans primitive holinesse by Creation cannot but weep and mourn as the Jewes to behold the second Temple yet Christian even while the tears are in thy eyes for thy imperfect graces for a soule riseth with his grave-clothes on thou shouldest rejoyce yea triumph over all these thy defects by faith in Christ in whom thou art compleat Col. 1.10 while imperfect in thy selfe Christs presence in the second Temple which the first had not made it though comparatively mean more glorious then the first Hag. 2.9 how much more doth his presence in this spiritual temple of a gracious heart imputing his righteousnesse to cover all its uncomelinesse make the soule glorious above man at first This is a garment for which as Christ saith of the lilie we neither spin nor toile yet Adam in all his created royalty was not so clad as the weakest believer is with this on his soul Now Christian consider well what thou doest while thou sittest languishing under the sense of thy own weaknesses and refusest to rejoyce in Christ and live comfortably
his Heifer He opens the wombe of the soule to conceive by it as the understanding to conceive of it that the barren soul becomes a joyful mother of children David sate for halfe a year under the publick Lectures of the Law and the wombe of his heart shut up till Nathan comes and God with him and now is the time of life he conceives presently yea and brings forth in the same day falls presently into the bitter pangs of sorrow for his sins which went not over till he had cast them forth in that sweet Psalm 51. Why should this one word work more then all the former but that God now struck in with his Word which he did not before He is therefore said to teach his people to profit he sits in heaven that teacheth hearts When Gods Spirit who is the Head-master shall call a soul from his Usher to himselfe and say Soul you have not gone the way to thrive by hearing the Word thus and thus conceive of such a truth improve such a promise presently the eyes of his understanding open and his heart burnes within him while he speaks to him Thus you see the truth of this Point That the Christians strength is in the Lord. Now we shall give some demonstrations SECT I. Reason 1 The first Reason may be taken from the nature of the Saints and their grace both are creatures they and their grace also now Inesse est de esse creaturae 'T is in the very nature of the creature to depend on God its Maker both for being and operation Can you conceive an accident to be out of its subject whitenesse out of the wall or some other subject 't is as impossible that the creature should be or act without strength from God This to be act in and of himself is so incommunicable a property of the Deity that he cannot impart it to his creature God is and there is none besides him when God made the world it is said indeed he ended his work that is of Creation he made no new species and kindes of creatures more but to this day he hath not ended his work of Providence Hitherto my Father worketh saith Christ John 5.17 that is in preserving and empowering what he hath made with strength to be and act and therefore he is said to hold our souls in life Works of Art which man makes when finish't may stand some time without the Workmans help as the house when the Carpenter that made it is dead but Gods works both of nature and grace are never off his hand and therefore as the Father is said to work hitherto for the preservation of the works of nature so the Son to whom is committed the work of Redemption he tells us he worketh also Neither ended he his work when he rose again any otherways then his Father did in the work of Creation God made an end of making so Christ made an end of purchasing mercy grace and glory for believers by once dying and as God rested at the end of the Creation so he when he had wrought eternal Redemption and by himself purged our sins sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on High Heb. 1.3 But he ceaseth not to work by his intercession with God for us and by his Spirit in us for God whereby he upholds his Saints their graces and comforts in life without which they would run to ruine Thus we see as grace is a creature the Christian depends on God for his strength But further Reason 2 Secondly the Christians grace is not only a creature but a weak creature conflicting with enemies stronger then it selfe and therefore cannot keep the field without an auxiliary strength from Heaven The weakest goes to the wall if no succour comes in Grace in this life is but weak like a King in the Cradle which gives advantage to Satan to carry on his plots more strongly to the disturbance of this young Kings reigne in the soule yea he would soon make an end of the war in the ruine of the believers grace did not Heaven take the Christian into protection 'T is true indeed grace whereever it is hath a principle in it selfe that makes it desire and endeavour to preserve it self according to its strength but being over-powered must perish except assisted by God as fire in green wood which deads and damps the part kindled will in time go out except blown up or more fire put to that little so will grace in the heart God brings his grace into the heart by Conquest now as in a conquered City though some yield and become true subjects to the Conquerour yet others plot how they may shake off this yoke and therefore it requires the same power to keep as was to win it at first The Christian hath an unregenerate part that is discontented at this new change in the heart and disdains as much to come under the sweet government of Christs Scepter as the Sodomites that Lot should judge them What this fellow a Stranger controule us And Satan heads this mutinous rout against the Christian so that if God should not continually re-inforce this his new-planted Colony in the heart the very natives I mean corruptions that are left would come out of their dens and holes where they lie lurking and eat up the little grace the holiest on earth hath it would be as bread to these devourers Reason 3 A third demonstration may be taken from the grand designe which God propounds to himself in the Saints salvation yea in the transaction of it from first to last And that is two-fold First God would bring his Saints to heaven in such a way as might be most expressive of his deare love and mercy to them Secondly he would so expresse his mercy and love to them as might rebound back to him in the highest advance of his own glory possible Now how becoming this is to both that Saints should have all their ability for every step they take in the way to heaven will soon appear First this way of communicating strength to Saints gives a double accent to Gods love and mercy First it distills a sweetnesse into all the believer hath or doth when he findes any comfort in his bosome any enlargement of heart in duty any support under temptations To consider whence came all these what friend sends them in they come not from my own cisterne or any creatures O 't is my God that hath been here and left this sweet perfume of comfort behinde him in my bosome my God that hath unawares to me fill'd my sailes with the gales of his Spirit and brought me off the flats of my own deadnesse where I lay a ground O 't is his sweet Spirit that held my head stayed my heart in such an affliction and temptation or else I had gone away in a fainting fit of unbelief How can this choose but endear God to a gracious soul his succours coming so
presently indeed as the loud windes do blow away the raine so these terrours do keep off the soule from this Gospel-sorrow While the creature is making an out-cry 't is damn'd 't is damn'd it is taken up so much with the feare of hell that sin as sin which is the proper object of godly sorrow is little look't on or mourned for A Murderer condemned to die is so possest with the feare of death and thought of the gallowes that there lies the slaine body it may be before him unlamented by him but when his pardon is brought then he can bestow his teares freely on his murdered friend They shall look on him whom they have pierced and mourne Faith is the eye this eye beholding its sin piercing Christ and Christ pardoning its sin affects the heart the heart affected sighes these inward clouds melt and run from the eye of faith in tears and all this is done when there is no tempest of terrour upon the spirit but a sweet serenity of love and peace and therefore Christian see how Satan abuseth thee when he would perswade thee thou art not humbled enough because thy sorrow is not attended with these legal sorrowes CHAP. VI. A brief Application of the second Branch of the Point viz. Of Satans subtilty as a Troubler and Accuser for sin Vse 1 IS Satan so subtile to trouble the Saints peace this proves them to be the children of Satan who shew the same Art and subtilty in vexing the spirits of the Saints as doth their infernal father not to speak of bloody Persecutors who are the devils slaughter-slaves to butcher the Saints but of those who more slily trouble and molest the Saints peace First such as rake up the Saints old sins which God hath forgiven and forgotten meerly to grieve their spirits and bespatter their names these shew their divellish malice indeed who can take such pains to travel many yeares back that they may finde a handful of dirt to throw on the Saints face Thus Shimei twitted David Come out thou bloody man When you that feare God meet with such reproaches answer them as Beza did the Papists who for want of other matter charged him for some wanton Poems penn'd by him in his youth Hi homunciones invident mihi gratiam Dei These men said he grudge me the pardoning mercy of God Secondly such as watch for the Saints halting and catch at every infirmity to make them odious and themselves merry 'T is a dreadful curse such bring upon themselves though they little think of it no lesse then Amaleks the remembrance of whose name God threatened to blot from under heaven why what had Amalek done to deserve this they smote the hindermost those that were feeble and could not march with the rest And was it so great a cruelty to do this much more to smite with the edge of a mocking tongue the feeble in grace Thirdly such who father their sins upon the Saints thus Ahab calls the Prophet the Troubler of Israel when it was himself and his fathers house What a grief was it think you to Moses his spirit for the Israelites to lay the blood of those that died in the wildernesse at his door whereas God knows he was their constant Baile when at any time Gods hand was up to destroy them and this is the charge which the best of Gods servants in this crooked generation of ours lie under We may thank them say the profane for all our late miseries in the Nation we were well enough till they would reforme us O for shame blame not the good Physick that was administred but the corrupt body of the Nation that could not bear it Fourthly such as will themselves sin meerly to trouble the Saints spirit Thus Rabshakeh blasphemed and when desired to speak in another language he goes on the more to grieve them Sometimes you shall have a profane wretch knowing one to be consciencious and cannot brook to hear the Name of God taken in vain or the ways of God flouted will on purpose fall upon such discourse as shall grate his chaste eares and trouble his gracious spirit such a one strikes father and childe at one blow think it not enough to dishonour God except the Saint stands by to see and heare the wrong done to his heavenly Father Vse 2 Secondly This may afford matter of admiration and thankfulnesse to any of you O ye Saints who are not at this day under Satans hatches Is he so subtile to disquiet and hast thou any peace in thy conscience To whom art thou beholden for that serenity that is on thy spirit to none but thy God under whose wing thou sittest to warme and safe Is there not combustible matter enough in thy conscience for his sparks to kindle Perhaps thou hast not committed such bloody sins as others that 's not the reason of thy peace for the least is big enough to damne much more to trouble thee Thou hast not grossely fallen may be since Conversion that 's rare if thou beest of long standing yet the ghosts of thy unregenerate sins might walk in thy conscience thou hast had many testimonies of Gods favour hast thou not who more then David yet he at a losse sometimes learning to spell his evidences as if he could never have read them The sense of Gods love comes and goes with the present tast He that is in the dark while there sees not the more for former light O bless God for that light which shines in at thy window Satan is plotting to undermine thy comfort every day This Thief sees thy pleasant fruits as they hang and his teeth water at them but the wall is too high for him to climbe thy God keeps this Serpent out of thy Paradise 'T is not the grace of God in thee but the favour of God as a shield about thee defends thee from the wicked one Vse 3 Thirdly let Satans subtilty to molest your peace make thee O Christian more wise and wary thou hast not a fool to deale with but one that hath wit enough to spill thy comfort and spoil thy joy if not narrowly watch't this is the dainty bit he gapes for 't is not harder to keep the flies out of your Cup-boards in Summer from tainting your provision then Satan out of your consciences many a sweet meal hath he robbed the Saints of and sent them supperlesse to bed take heed therefore that he roams not thine away also CHAP. VII Containing some Directions tending to entrench and fortifie the Christian against the assaults and wiles of the devil as a Troubler of the soules Peace Quest HOw shall I stand in a defensive posture may the Christian say against these wiles of Satan as a Troubler SECT I. First if thou wouldest be guarded from him as a Troubler take heed of him as a seducer The hast of Satans hatchet with which he lies chopping at the root of the Christians comfort is
heart or thine own Or meanest thou to apply thy self to thy old Lord in whose service thou hast undone thy soule and cry to him as she to Ahab Help O King Alas thine eye shall see him in the same condemnation with thy self Hadst thou not better now renounce the devils rule while thou mayest be received into Christs Government poure out thy tears and cries now for mercy and grace when they are to be had then to save them for another world to no purpose Quest But possibly thou wilt say How may I that am a home-borne slave to sin yea who have lived so many yeares under his cursed rule get out of his dominion and power and be translated into the Kingdom of Christ Answ The difficulty of this great work lies not in prevailing with Christ to receive thee for his subject who refuseth none that in truth of heart desire to come under his shadow It doth not stand with his designe to reject any such Do Physicians use to chide their Patients away Lawyers their Clients or Generals discourage those who fall off from the enemy and come to their side surely no. When David was in the field 't is said 1 Sam. 22.2 Every one that was in distresse in debt or in discontent gathered themselves to him and he became a Captain over them And so will Christ be to every one that is truly discontented with Satans Government and upon an inward dislike thereof repairs to him But the maine businesse will be to take thee off from thy engagements to thy lusts and Satan till which be done Christ will not own thee as a subject but look on thee as a Spy It fares with sinners as with servants There may be fallings out between them and their Masters and high words passe between them that you would think they would take up their pack and be gone in all haste but the fray is soon over and by next morning all is forgot and the servants are as hard at their work as ever O how oft are sinners taking their leave of their lusts and giving warning to their old Masters they will repent and reform and what not but in a few dayes they have repented of their repentance and deformed their reformings which shewes they were drunk with some passion when they thought or spake this and no wonder they reverse all when they come to their true temper Now because Satan has many policies by which he useth to keep his hold of sinners I shall discover some of them which if thou canst withstand it will be no hard matter to bring thee out of his power and rule First Satan doth his utmost that sinners may not have any serious thoughts of the miserable state they are in while under his rule or heare any thing from others which might the least unsettle their mindes from his service Consideration he knowes is the first step to repentance He that doth not consider his wayes what they are and whither they lead him is not like to change them in haste Israel stirr'd not while Moses came and had some discourse with them about their woful slavery and the gracious thoughts of God towards them and then they begin to desire to be gone Pharaoh soon bethought him what consequence might follow upon this and cunningly labours to prevent by doubling their task Ye are idle ye are idle therefore ye say Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord. Go thorefore and work Exod. 5.17 18. As if he had said Have you so much spare time to think of gadding into the wildernesse and have you your seditious Conventicles Moses and you to lay your plots together I 'le break the knot give them more work scatter them all over the land to gather straw that they may not meet to entice one anothers hearts from my service Thus Satan is very jealous of the sinner afraid every Christian that speaks to him or Ordinance he hears should inveigle him By his good-will he should come at neither no nor have a thought of heaven or hell from one end of the week to the other and that he may have as few as may be he keeps him full-handed with work The sinner grindes and he is filling the hopper that the Mill may not stand still He is with the sinner as soone as he wakes and fills his wretched heart with some wicked thoughts which as a morning draught may keep him from the infection of any favour of good that may be breathed on him by others in the day-time All the day long he watcheth him as the Master would do his man that he feares will run away And at night he like a careful Jayler locks him up again in his chamber with more bolts and fetters upon him not suffering him to sleep as he lies on his bed till he hath done some mischief Ah poor wretch was ever slave so look't to as long as the devil can keep thee thus thou art his own sure enough The Prodigal came to himselfe before he came to his Father He considered with himself what a starving condition he was in his huskes were poor meat and yet he had not enough of them neither and how easily he might mend his commons if he had but grace to go home and humble himself to his Father Now and not till now he goes Resolve thus poor sinner to sit down and consider what thy state is and what it might be if thou wouldest but change the bondage of Satan for the sweet Government of Jesus Christ First ask thy soule whether the devil can after thou hast worne out thy miserable life herein his drudg'ry prefer thee to a happy state in the other world or so much as secure thee from a state of torment and wo If he cannot whether there be not one Iesus Christ who is able and willing to do it and if so whether it be not bloody cruelty to thy precious soul to stay any longer under the shadow of this bramble when thou mayest make so blessed a change A few of these thoughts abidingly laid home to thy soule may God striking in with them shake the foundations of the devils prison and make thee haste as fast from him as one out of a house on fire about his eares 2ly Satan hath his instruments to oppose the messengers and overtures which God sends by them to bring the sinner out of Satans rule When Moses comes to deliver Israel out of the Egyptian bondage up start Iannes and Iambres to resist him When Paul preacheth to the Deputy the devil hath his Chaplain at Court to hinder him Elymas one that was full of all subtilty and mischief Some or other to be sure he will finde when God is parlying with a sinner and perswading him to come over to Christ that shall labour to clog the work Either carnal friends these he sends to plead his cause or old companions in wickednesse these bestir them one while labouring to jeer
Christians that are not instructed in the grounds of Christianity The want of this is the cause why many are so unstedfast First of this way and then of that blown like glasses into any shape as false Teachers please to breath Alas they have no center to draw their lines from think it no disgrace you who have runne into error and lost your selves in the labyrinths of deep points which now are the great discourse of the weakest professors to be set back to learn the first principles of the Oracles of God better too many are as Tertullian saith in another case pudoris magìs memores quà m salutis more tender of their reputation then their salvation who are more ashamed to be thought ignorant then careful to have it cured Fifthly If thou wouldst attain to divine knowledge wait on the Ministery of the Word As for those who neglect this and come not where the Word is Preacht they do like one that should turn his back on the Sunne that he may see it if thou wouldst know God come where he hath appointed thee to learn Indeed where the meanes is not God hath extraordinary wayes as a Father if no School in Town will teach his childe at home but if there be a publick School thither he sends him God maketh manifest saith Paul the savour of his knowledge by us in every place 2 Cor. 2.14 Let men talk of the Spirit what they please He will at last be found a quencher of the Spirit that is a despiser of Prophecy they both stand close together 1 Thes 5.19 20. Quench not the Spirit Despise not Prophesying But it is not enough to sit under the meanes Wofull experience teacheth us this there are some no Sun will tan they keep their old complexion under the most shining and burning light of the Word preached as ignorant and prophane as those that never saw Gospel-day and therefore if thou wilt receive any spirituall advantage by the Word take heed how thou hearest First Look thou beest a wakefull hearer Is it any wonder he should go away from the Sermon no wiser then he came that sleeps the greatest part of it away or heares betwixt sleeping and waking It must be in a dreame sure if God reveales any thing of his mind to him So indeed God did to the Fathers of old but it was not as they prophanely slept under an Ordinance O take heed of such irreverence He that composeth himselfe to sleep as some do at such a time or he that is not humbled for it and that deeply both of them betray a base and low esteeme they have of the Ordinance Surely thou thinkest but meanly of what is delivered if it will not keep thee awake yea of God himselfe whose message it is See how thou art reproved by the awfull carriage of a Heathen and that a King Ehud did but say to Eglon I have a message from God unto thee And he arose out of his seate Judge 3.20 And thou clapest downe on thy seat to sleep O how darest thou put such an affront upon the great God How oft did you fall asleep at dinner or telling your money And is not the Word of God worth more then these I should wonder if such Sermon-sleepers do dreame of any thing but hell-fire 'T is dangerous you know to fall asleep with a candle burning by our side some have been so burnt in their beds but more dangerous to sleep while the candle of the Word is shining so neare us What if you should sinke downe dead like Eatychus here is no Paul to raise you as he had and that you shall not where is your security Secondly Thou must be an attentive hearer He that is awake but wanders with his eye or heart what doth he but sleep with his eyes open It were as good the servants should be asleep in his bed as when up not to minde his Masters businesse When God intends a soul good by the Word he drawes such a one to listen and hearken heedfully to what is delivered as we see in Lydia who 't is said attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul And those Luke 1948. The people were attentive to heare him They did hang on him as you shall see Bees on some sweet flower or as young birds on the bills of their dammes as they feed them that is the soul which shall get light and life by the Word Heare ye children and attend to know understanding Prov. 4.1 Labour therefore in hearing the Word to fixe thy quicksilver-minde and set thy selfe to heare as 't is said Jehosaphat did to pray and that thou maiest before thou goest get thy heart into some deep sense of thy spirituall wants especially of thy ignorance of the things of God and thy deplored condition by reason of it till the heart be toucht the minde will not be fixt Therefore you may observe 't is said God open'd the heart of Lydia that she attended Acts 16.14 The Minde goes of the Wils errand we spend our thoughts upon what our hearts propose If the heart hath no sense of its ignorance or no desires after God no wonder such a one listens not what the Preacher saith his heart sends his mind another way They sit before thee as my people saith God but their heart goeth after their covetousnesse They do not come out of such an intent or desire to heare for any good to their soules then they would apply themselves wholly to the work no it is their covetousnesse hath their hearts and therefore as some idle servant when he hath waited on his Master brought him to his pew then he goes out to his good fellowes at the Alehouse and comes no more till Sermon be almost done so do the thoughts of most when they go to the Ordinance they slip out in the street market or shop you may finde them any where but about the duty before them and all because these have their hearts more then God and his Word Thirdly Thou must be a retentive hearer without this the worke will ever be to begin againe Truths to a forgetfull hearer are as a seale set on water the impression lasts no longer then the seale is on the Sermon once done and all is undone be therefore very carefull to fasten what thou hearest on thy memory which that thou maiest do First receive the truth in the love of it An affectionate hearer will not be a forgetfull hearer Love helpes the memory Can a woman forget her childe or a maide her ornaments or a bride her attire No they love them too well Were the truths of God thus precious to thee thou wouldest with David think of them day and night Even when the Christian through weaknesse of memory cannot remember the very words he heares to repeate them yee then he keeps the power and savour of them in his spirit as when sugar is dissolved in wine you cannot see it but you may taste it
motions of them not only passing by the door of a Christian but looking in also as holy motions may be found stirring in the bosome of wicked men but I ask thee whether thou canst finde in thy heart to lodge these guests and bid them welcome 'T is like thou wouldst not be seen to walk in the street with such company not lead a whore by the hand through the Town not violently break open thy neighbours house to murder or rob him but canst thou not under thy own roofe in the withdrawing room of thy soul let thy thoughts hold up an unclean lust while thy heart commits speculative folly with it canst thou not draw thy neighbour into thy den and there rend him limb from limb by thy malice and thy heart not so much as cry murder murder In a word canst thou hide any one sinne in the vance roofe of thy heart there to save the life of it when enquired after by the Word and Spirit as Rahab hid the spies and sent the King of Jerichoes messengers to pursue them as if they had been gone Perhaps thou canst say the adulterer the murderer is not here thou hast sent these sinnes away long ago and all this while thou hidest them in the love of thy soul know it or thou shalt another day know it to thy cost thou art stark naught If there were a spark of the life of God or the love of Christ in thy bosome though thou couldst not hinder such motions in thy soul yet thou wouldst not conceale them much lesse nourish them in thy bosome when over-powered by them thou wouldst call in help from heaven against these destroyers of thy soul Vse 3 Secondly shew your loyalty O ye Saints to God by a vigorous resistance of and wrestling against these spirituals of wickednesse First consider Christian heart-sinnes are sinnes as well as any The thought of foolishnesse is sinne Prov. 24.9 Mercury is poison in the water distill'd as well as in the grosse body Uncleannesse covetousnesse murder are such in the heart as well as in the outward act every point of hell is hell Secondly consider thy spirit is the seat of the holy Spirit He takes up the whole heart for his lodging and 't is time for him to be gone when he sees his house let over his head Defile not thy spirit till thou art weary of his company Thirdly consider there may be more wickednesse in a sinne of the heart then of the hand and outward man for the aggravation of these is taken from the behaviour of the heart in the act The more of the heart and spirit is let out the more malignity is let in to any sinfull act To back-slide in heart is more then to back-slide 't is the comfort of a poor soul when tempted and troubled for his relapses that though his foot slides back yet his heart turnes not back but faceth Heaven and Christ at the same time so to erre in the heart is worse then to have an errour in the head therefore God aggravates Israels sinne with this They do alwayes erre in their heart Their hearts runne them upon the errour they liked idolatry and so were soon made to believe what pleased them best As on the contrary the more of the heart and spirit is in any holy service the more real goodnesse there is in it though it fâ—ll short of others in the outward expression The widowes two mites surpassed all the rest Christ himselfe being judge so in sinne though the internal acts of sinne in thoughts and affections seem light upon mans balance if compared with outward acts yet these may be so circumstanciated that they may exceed the other in Gods account Peter layes the accent of Magus his sinne on the wicked thought which his words betrayed to be in his heart Pray God if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven Act. 8.22 Sauls sinne in sparing Agag and saving the best of the sheep and oxen which he was commanded to destroy was materially a farre lesse sinne then Davids adultery and murder yet it is made equal with a greater then both even witchcraft it selfe 1 Sam. 15.23 and whence receiv'd his sinne such a dye but from the wickednesse of his heart that was worse then Davids when deepest in the temptation Fourthly if Satan get into thy spirit and defile it O how hard wilt thou finde it to stay there thou hast already sipt of his broth and now art more likely to be overcome at last to sit down and make thy full meale of that which by tasting hath vitiated thy palate already It were strange if while thou art musing and thy heart hot with the thoughts of lust the fire should not break forth at thy lips or worse Quest But what help have we against this sort of Satans temptations Answ I suppose thee a Christian that makest this question and if thou dost it in the plainnesse of thy heart it proves thee one Who besides will or can desire in earnest to be eased of these guests even when a carnal heart prayes for deliverance from them he would be loath his prayer should be heard Not yet Lord the heart of such a one cries as Austin confessed of himself Sin is as truly the off-spring of the soule as children are of our bodies and it findes as much favour in our eyes yea more for the sinner can slay a son to save a sin alive Micah 6.7 and of all sinnes none are more made on then these heart sins First because they are the first-born of the sinful heart and the chiefest strength of the soule is laid out upon them Secondly because the heart hath more scope in them then in outward acts The proud man is staked down oft to a short state and cannot ruffle it in the world and appear to others in that pomp he would but within his own bosome he can set up a stage and in his own foolish heart present himself as great a Prince as he pleaseth The malicious can kill in his desires as many in a few minutes as the Angel smote in a night of Senacheribs host Nero thus could slay all Rome on the block at once Thirdly these sins stay with the soule when the other leave it when the sinner hath cripled his body with drunkennesse and filthinesse and proves miles emeritus cannot follow the devils campany longer in those wayes then these cursed lusts will entertain the sinner with stories of his old pranks and pleasures In a word these inward lusts of the heart have nothing but the conscience of a Deity to quell them Other sins put the sinner to shame before men and as some that believed on Christ durst not confesse him openly because they loved the praise of men so there are sinners who are kept from vouching their lusts openly for the same tendernesse to their reputation but here is no feare of that if they can but forget that heaven sees
on the sweet priviledges thou art interessed in by thy marriage to him Doest thou not bewray some of this spiritual pride working in thee O if thou couldest pray without wandering walk without limping believe without wavering then thou couldest rejoyce and walk chearfully It seems soule thou stayest to bring the ground of thy comfort with thee and not to receive it purely from Christ O how much better were it if thou wouldest say with David Though my house my heart be not so with God yet he hath made with me a Covenant ordered in all things and sure and this is all my desire all my confidence Christ I oppose to all my sins Christ to all wants he is my all in all and all above all Indeed all those complaints of our wants and weaknesses so far as they withdraw our hearts from relying chearfully on Christ they are but the language of pride hankering after the Covenant of works O 't is hard to forget our mother-tongue which is so natural to us labour therefore to be sensible of it how grievous it is to the Spirit of Christ What would a husband say if his wife in stead of expressing her love to him and delight in him should day and night do nothing but weep and cry to think of her former husband that is dead The Law as a Covenant and Christ are compared to two husbands Rom. 7.4 Ye are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead Now thy sorrow for the defect of thy own righteousnesse when it hinders thy rejoycing in Christ is but a whining after thy other husband and this Christ cannot but take unkindely that thou art not as well pleased to lie in the bosome of Christ and have thy happinesse from him as with your old husband the Law Secondly a self applauding pride when the heart is secretly lift up so as to promise it self acceptation at Gods hands for any duty or act of obedience it performes and doth not when most assisted go out of his own actings to lay the weight of his expectation entirely upon Christ every such glance of the soules eye is adulterous yea idolatrous If thy heart Christian at any time he secretly enticed as Job saâ—th of another kinde of idolatry or thy mouth doth kisse thy hand that is dote so farre on thy own duties or righteousnesse as to give them this inward worship of thy confidence and trust this is a great iniquity indeed for in this thou deniest the God that is above who hath determined thy faith to another object Thou comest to open heaven-gate with the old key when God hath set on a new lock Doest thou not acknowledge tnat thy first entrance into thy justified state was of pure mercy thou wert justified freely by hit grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 7.24 And whom are thou beholden to now thou art reconciled for thy further acceptance in every duty or holy action to thy duty thy obedience thy self or Christ The same Apostle will tell you Rom. 5.2 By whom we have accesse by faith into this grace wherein we stand If Christ should not lead thee in and all thou doest thou art sure to finde the door shut upon thee there is no more place for desert now thou art gracious then when thou wert gracelesse Rom. 1.17 The righteousnesse of God is revealed from faith to faith for the just shall live by faith We are not only made alive by Christ but we live by Christ faith sucks in continual pardoning assisting comforting mercy from him as the lungs suck in the aire Heaven way is paved with grace and mercy to the end Be exhorted above all to watch against this play of Satan beware thou restest not in thy own righteousnesse thou standest under a tottering wall the very cracks thou seest in thy graces and duties when best bid thee stand off except thou wouldest have them fall on thy head the greatest step to heaven is out of our own doors over our own threshold It hath cost many a man his life when his house on fire a gripplenesse to save some of the stufte which venturing among the flames to preserve they have perished themselves more have lost their soules by thinking to carry some of their own stuffe with them to heaven Such a good work or duty while they like lingring Lot have been loath to leave in point of confidence have themselves perish't O Sirs come out come out leave what is your own in the fire flie to Christ naked he hath cloathing for you better then your own poor to Christ and he hath gold not like thine which will consume and be found drossy in the fire but such as hath in the fiery trial past in Gods righteous judgment for pure and full weight you cannot be found in two places at once choose whether you will be found in your own righteousnesse or in Christs Those who have had more to shew then thy selfe have thrown away all and gone a begging to Christ Reade Pauls Inventory Phil. 3. what he had what he did yet all drosse and losse give him Christ and take the rest who will So Job as holy a man as trod on earth God himself being witnesse yet saith Though I were perfect yet would I not know my own soule I would despise my life He had acknowledged his imperfection before now he makes a supposition indeed quod non est supponendum If I were perfect yet would I not know my own soule I would not entertain any such thoughts as should puffe me up into such a confidence of my holinesse as to make it my plea with God like to our common phrase We say Such a one hath excellent parts but he knows it that is he is proud of it Take heed of knowing thy own grace in this sense thou canst not give a greater wound both to thy grace and comfort then by thus priding thy self in it SECT III. First thy grace cannot thrive so long as thou thus restest on it A legal spirit is no friend to grace nay a bitter enemy against it as appeared by the Pharisees in Christs time Grace comes not by the Law but by Christ thou mayest stand long enough by it before thou gettest any life of grace into thy soule or further life into thy grace If thou wouldest have this thou must set thy self under Christs wings by faith from his Spirit in the Gospel alone comes this kindly natural heat to hatch thy soul to the life of holinesse and increase what thou hast and thou canst not come under Christs wings till thou comest from under the shadow of the other by renouncing all expectation from thy own works and services You know Reubens curse that he should not excel because he went up into his fathers bed when other tribes encreased he stood at a little number By trusting in
others but most of all themselves such may be the worlds Saints but devils in Christs account Have not I chosen twelve one of you is a devil And truly of all devils none so bad as the professing devil the preaching praying devil O Sirs be plain-hearted Religion is as tender as your eye it will not be jested with Remember the vengeance which fell on Belshazzar while he carowsed in the bowles of the Sanctuary Religion and the duties of it are consecrated things not made for thee to drink thy lusts out of God hath remarkably appeared in discovering and confounding such as have prostituted sacred things to worldly ends Jezabel fasts and prayes the better to devoure Naboths vineyard but was devoured by it Absalom was as sick till he had ravish't his fathers Crown as his brother Amnon till he had done the like to his sister and to hide his treason he puts on a religious cloak and therefore begs leave to go and pay his vow in Hebron when he had another game in chase and did he not fall by the hand of his hypocrisie of all men their judgement is endorst with most speed who silver over worldly or wicked enterprises with heavenly semblances of this gang were those 2 Pet. 2.3 concerning whom the Apostle saith Their damnation slumbers not and those Ezek. 14.7 8. to whom God saith I the Lord will answer him by my selfe and I will set my face against that man and will make him a signe and a Proverb and I will cut him off from the midst of my people and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Vse 2 Secondly try whether they be heavenly things or earthly thou chiefly pursuest certainly friends we need not be so ignorant of our soules state and affairs did we oftner converse with our thoughts and observe the haunts of our hearts we soon can tell what dish pleaseth our palate best and may you not tell whether heaven or earth be the most savoury meat to your souls and if you should ask how you might know whether heaven be the prize you chiefly desire I would put you only upon this double trial First art thou uniforme in thy pursuit Doest thou contend for heaven and that which leads to heaven also Earthly things God is pleased to retaile all have some none have all but in heavenly treasure he will not break the whole piece and cut it into remnants If thou wilt have heaven thou must have Christ if Christ thou must like his service as well as his sacrifice no holinesse no happinesse If God would cut off so much as would serve mens turnes he might have customers enough Balaam himself likes one end of the piece he would die like a righteous man though live like a wizzard as he was no God will not deal with such pedling Merchants that man alone is for God and God for him who will come roundly up to Gods offer and take all off his hands One fitly compares holinesse and happinesse to those two sisters Leah and Rachel Happinesse like Rachel seems the fairer even a carnal heart may fall in love with that but holinesse like Leah is the elder and beautiful also though in this life it appears with some disadvantage her eyes being blear'd with teares of repentance and her face furrowed with the works of mortification but this is the Law of that heavenly countrey that the younger Sister must not be bestowed before the elder We cannot enjoy faire Rachel Heaven and Happinesse except first we embrace tender-eyed Leah Holinesse with all her severe duties of repentance and mortification Now Sirs how like you this method Art thou content to marry Christ and his grace and then serving a hard Apprenticeship in temptations both of prosperity and adversity enduring the heat of the one and the cold of the other to wait till at last the other be given into thy bosome Secondly if indeed heaven and heavenly things be the prize thou wrestlest for thou wilt discover a heavenly deportment of heart even in earthly things whereever you meet a Christian he is going to Heaven Heaven is at the bottome of his lowest actions Now observe thy heart in three particulars In getting in using and in keeping earthly things whether it be after a heavenly manner First In getting earthly things If Heaven be thy chief prize then thou wilt be ruled by a heavenly Law in the gathering of these Take a carnal wretch and what his heart is set on he will have though it be by hook or crook A lie fits Gehazi's mouth well enough so he may fill his pockets by it Jezabel dares mock God and murder an innocent man for an acre or two of ground Absalom regnandi causâ what will he not do Gods fence is too low to keep a gracelesse heart in bounds when the game is before him but a soule that hath heaven in its eye is ruled by heavens law he dares not step out of heavens road to take up a crown as we see in Davids carriage towards Saul Indeed in so doing he should crosse himself in his own grand design which is the glory of God and the happinesse of his own soul in enjoying of him upon these very termes the servants of God have refused to be rich and great in the world when either of these lay at stake Moses threw his Court-preferment at his heels refusing to be call'd the son of Pharaohs daughter Abraham scorned to be made rich by the King of Sodom Gen. 14.22 that he might avoid the suspicion of covetousnesse and self-seeking it shall not be said another day that he came to enrich himself with the spoil more then to rescue his kinsmen Nehemiah would not take the taxe and tribute to maintain his state when he knew they were a poor peeled people because of the fear of the Lord. Doest thou walk by this rule wouldest thou gather no more estate or honour then thou mayest have with Gods leave and will stand with thy hopes of heaven Secondly doest thou discover a heavenly Spirit in using these things First the Saint improves his earthly things for an heavenly end where layest thou up thy treasure doest thou bestow it on thy voluptuous paunch thy hawks and thy hounds or lockest thou it up in the bosome of Christs poor members what use makest thou of thy honour and greatnesse to strengthen the hands of the godly or the wicked and so of all thy other temporal enjoyments A gracious heart improves them for God when a Saint prayes for these things he hath an eye to some heavenly end If David prayes for life it is not that he may live but live and praise God Psal 119 175. When he was driven from his regal throne by the rebellious armes of Absalom see what his desire was and hope 2 Sam. 15.25 The King said to Zadock Carry back the Ark of God into the City if I shall-finde favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring
God be more frequently conversant with it David tells us where he renewed his spiritual life and got his soul so oft into a heavenly heate when grace in him began to chill The Word he tells us quickened him This was the Sunny bank he fate under The Word draws forth the Christians grace by presenting every one with an object suitable to act upon this is of great power to rouse them up as the coming in of a friend makes us though sleepy before shake off all drowsinesse to enjoy his company Affections they are actuated when their object is before them if we love a person this is excited by sight of him or anything that mindes us of him if we hate one our blood riseth much more against him when before us Now the Word bring the Christian graces and their object together Here love may delight her self with the beholding Christ who is set out to life there in all his love and lovelinesse here the Christian may see his sins in a glasse that will not flatter him and can there any godly sorrow be in the heart any hatred of sin and not come forth while the man is reading what they cost Christ for him Secondly from the Word go to meditation this is as bellowes to the fire that grace which lies chosk't and eaten up for want of exercise will by this be cleared and break forth while thou art musing this fire will burne and thy heart grow hot within thee according to the nature of the subject thy thoughts dwell upon resolve therefore Christian to enclose some time from all worldly Suitours wherein thou mayest every day if possible at least take a view of the most remarkable occurrences that have past between God and thee First ask thy soul what takings it hath had that day what mercies heaven hath sent into thee and do not when thou hast askt the question like Pilate go out but stay till thy soul has made report of Gods gracious dealings to thee and if thou beest wise to observe and faithful to relate them thy conscience must tell thee that the cock was never turn'd the breast of mercy never put up all the day yea while thou art viewing these fresh mercies telling over this new coine hot out of the mint of Gods bounty ancient mercies they will come crowding in upon thee and call for a place in thy thoughts and tell thee what God hath done for thee moneths and years ago and indeed old debts should not be paid last give them Christian all a hearing one time or another and thou shalt see how they will work upon thy ingenious spirit It is with the Christian in this case as with some Merchants servant that keeps his Masters cash he tells his Master he hath a great summe of his by him and desires he would discharge him of it and see how his accounts stand but he can never finde him at leisure There is a great treasure of mercy alwayes in the Christians hands and conscience is oft calling the Christian to take the account and see what God has done for him but seldom it is he can finde time to tell his mercies over and is it any wonder that such should go behinde-hand in their spiritual estate who take no more notice what the gracious dealings of God are with them how can he be thankful that seldome thinks what he receives or patient when God afflicts that wants one of the most powerful arguments to pacifie a mutinous spirit in trouble and that is taken from the abundant good we receive at the hands of the Lord as well as a little evil how can such a soules love flame to God that is kept at such a distance from the mercies of God which are fuel to it and the like might be said of all the other graces Secondly reflect upon thy self and bestow a few serious thoughts upon thy own behaviour what it hath been towards God and man all along the day Ask thy soul as Elisha his servant Whence comest thou O my soul where hast thou been what hast thou done for God this day and how and when thou goest about this look that thou neither beest taken off from a through search as Jacob was by Rachels specious excuse nor be found to cocker thy self as Eli his sons when thou shalt upon enquiry take thy heart tardy in any part of thy duty take heed what thou doest for thou judgest for God who receives the wrong by thy sin and therefore will do himself justice if thou wilt not Thirdly from meditation go to prayer indeed a soul in meditation is on his way to prayer that duty leads the Christian has to this and this brings help to that when the Christian has done his utmost by meditation to excite his graces and chase his spirit into some divine heat he knows all this is but to lay the wood in order The fire must come from above to kindle and this must be fetch 't by prayer They say stars have greatest influences when they are in conjunction with the Sunne then sure the graces of a Saint should never work more powerfully then in prayer for then he is in the nearest conjunction and communion with God That Ordinance which hath such power with God must needs have a mighty influence on our selves It will not let God rest but raiseth him up to his peoples succour and is it any wonder if it be a means to rouse up and excite the Christians grace how oft do we see a dark cloud upon Davids spirit at the beginning of his prayer which by that time he is a little warme in his work begins to clear up and before he ends breaks forth into high actings of faith and acclamations of praise Only here Christian take heed of formal praying this is as baneful to grace as not praying A plaister though proper and of soveraign vertue yet if it be laid on cold may do more hurt then good Fourthly to all the former joyne fellowship and communion with the Saints thou lived amongst No wonder to hear a house is robb'd that stands far from neighbours he that walks in communion of Saints he travels in company he dwells in a City where one house keeps up another to which Jerusalem is compared 'T is observable concerning the house in whose ruines Jobs children were entombed that a winde came from the wildernesse and smote the foure corners of it it seems it stood alone the devil knowes what he does in hindering this great Ordinance of communion of Saints in doing this he hinders the progresse of grace yea brings that which Christians have into a declining wasting state The Apostle couples those two duties close together to hold fast our Profession and to consider one another and provoke unto love and to good works Heb. 10.23 24. Indeed it is a dangerous step to Apostasy to forsake the communion of Saints hence 't is said of Demas he hath left us and
the most Saint-like conversation that ever any lived on earth yet if this be thy shelter against the evil day thou wilt perish No salvation when that flood comes but Christ yea being in Christ hanging on the out-side of the Ark by a specious Profession will not save Me thinks I see how those of the old world ran for their lives some to this hill and others to that high tree and how the waves pursued them till at last they were swept into the devouring flood Such will your end be that turn any other way for help then to Christ yet the Ark waits on you yea comes up close to your gate to take you in Noah did not put forth his hand more willingly to take in the dove then Christ doth to receive those who flie to him for refuge O reject not your own mercies for lying vanity Vse 3 Let it put thee upon the enquiry whoever thou art whether thou beest in a posture of defence for this evil day Ask thy soul soberly and solemnly Art thou provided for this day this evil day how couldest thou part with what that will take away and welcome what it will certainly bring Death comes with a voider to carry away all thy carnal enjoyments and to bring thee up a reckoning for them O canst thou take thy leave of the one and with peace and confidence reade the other will it not affright thee to have thy health and strength turn'd into faintnesse and feeblenesse thy sweet nights of rest into waking eyes and restlesse tossings up and down thy voice that has so often chanted to the viol to be now acquainted with no other tune but sighs and groans O how canst thou look upon thy sweet and dear relations with thoughts of removing from them yea behold the instrument as it were whetting that shall give the fatal stroke to sever soul and body think that thou wert now half dead in thy members that are most remote from the fountain of life and death to have but a few moments journey before it arrive to thy heart and so beat thy last breath out of thy body Possibly the inevitable necessity of these do make thee to harden thy self against them this might indeed in some Heathen that is not resolv'd whether there be another world or no help a little to blunt the edge of that terrour which otherwise would cut deeper in his amazed heart But if thou believest another world and that judgement which stands at deaths back ready to allot thee thy unchangeable state in blisse or misery surely thou canst not relieve thy awakened conscience with such a poor cordial O therefore think what answer thou meanest to give unto the great God at thy appearing before him when he shall ask thee what thou canst say why the sentence of eternal damnation should not then be pronounced against thee Truly we deale unfaithfully with our owne soules if we bring not our thoughts to this issue If now you should ask how you should provide against the evill day so that you may stand before that dreadful bar and live so in the mean time that you might not be under a slavish bondage through the fearful expectation of it Take it in a few directions First if ever you would have a blessed issue of this evil day so as to stand in judgement before the great God rest not till thou hast got into a Covenant-relation with Christ Dying Davids living comfort was drawn from the Covenant God had made with him this was all his desire and all his salvation how canst thou put thy head into the other world without horrour if thou hast not solid ground that Christ will own thee for his Heaven hath its proper heires and so hath hell The heires of heaven are such as are in Covenant with God The foundation of it was laid in a Covenant and all the mansions there are prepared for a people in Covenant with him Gather my Saints together that have made a Covenant with me But how mayest thou get into this Covenant-relation First break thy covenant with sin Thou art by nature a covenant-servant to sin and Satan may be thou hast not expresly in words and formally as witches seal'd this covenant yet virtually as thou hast done the work of Satan and been at the command of thy lusts accepting the reward of unrighteousnesse the pleasure and carnal advantages they have paid thee in for the same therein thou hast declared thy self to be so Now if ever thou wilt be taken into Covenant with God break this a Covenant with hell and heaven cannot stand together Secondly betroth thy self to Christ The Covenant of grace is the joynture which God settles only upon Christs Spouse Rebeccah had not the Jewels and costly raiment till she was promised to become Isaaks wife Gen. 24.53 All the Promises are Yea and Amen in Christ If once thou receivest Christ with him thou receivest them He that owes the tree hath right to all the fruit that is on it Now that thou mayest not huddle up a marriage between Christ and thee so as to be disown'd of Christ and it prove a nullity at last it behooves thee to look to it that there be found in thee what Christ expects in every soul that he espouseth First therefore consider whether thou canst heartily love the person of Christ Look wishly on him again and again as he is set forth in all his spiritual excellencies are they such as thy heart can close with doth his holy nature and all those heavenly graces with which he is beautified render him desirable to thee or couldest thou like him better if he were not so precise and exactly holy yea is thy heart so inflamed with a desire of him that thou canst love him with a conjugal love A woman may love one as a friend whom she cannot love so as to make him her husband A friendly love may stand with a love of some other equal to it yea Superiour But a conjugal love is such as will bear neither canst thou finde in thy heart to forsake all other and cleave to Christ does thy heart speak thee ready and present thee willing to go with thy sweet Jesus though he carry thee from father and fathers house Is thy confidence such of his power to protect thee from all thy enemies sin wrath and hell that thou canst resolvedly put the life of thy soul into his hands to be saved by the sole vertue of his blood and strength of his omnipotent arme and of his care to provide for thee for this life and the other that rhou canst acquiesce in what he promiseth to do for thee In a word if thou hast Christ thou must not only love him but for his sake all thy new Kindred which by thy marriage to him thou shalt be allied unto How canst thou fadge to call the Saints thy brethren canst thou love them heartily and forget all the old grudges thou
winde himself out of his trouble by sordid flattery of or sinful compliance with the great ones of the times Some would have used any pick-lock to have opened a passage to their liberty and not scrupled so escape they might whether they got out at the door or window But this holy man was not so fond of liberty or life as to purchase them with the least hazard to the Gospel He knew too much of another world to bid so high for the enjoying of this and therefore he is at a point what his enemies can do with him well knowing he could go to heaven whether they would or no No the great care which lay upon him was for the Churches of Christ as a faithful Steward he labours to set this House of God in order before his departure We reade of no dispatches sent to Court to procure his liberty but many to the Churches to help them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free There is no such way to be even with the devil and his instruments for all their spite against us as by doing what good we can wherever we become The devil had as good have let Paul alone for he no sooner comes into prison but he falls a preaching at which the gates of Satans prison flie open and poor sinners come forth Happy for Onesimus that Paul was sent to Jaile God had an errand for Paul to do to him and others which the devil never dream't of Nay he doth not only preach in prison but that he may do the devil all the mischief he can he sends his Epistles to the Churches that tasting his Spirit in his afflictions and reading his faith now ready to be offered up they might much more be confirmed amongst which Ephesus was not least in his thoughts as you may perceive by his abode with them two yeares together Acts 19.10 as also by his sending for the Elders of this Church as far as Miletus in his last journey to Jerusalem Acts 20.17 to take his farewel of them as never to see their face in this world more And surely the sad impression which that heart-breaking departure left upon the spirits of these Elders yea the whole Church by them acquainted with this mournful newes might stir up Paul now in prison to write unto this Church that having so much of his Spirit yea of the Spirit of the Gospel left in their hands to converse with they might more patiently take the newes of his death In the former part of this Epistle he soares high in the mysteries of faith In the latter according to his usual method he descends to Application where we finde him contracting all those truths as beams together in a powerful exhortation the more to enkindle their hearts and powerfully perswade them to walk worthy of their vocation chap. 4.1 which then is done when the Christians life is transparent that the grace of the Gospel shines forth in the power of holinesse on every side and from all his relations as a candle in a Crystal glasse not in a dark Lanthorn lightsome one way and dark another and therefore he runs over the several relations of Husband Wife Parents Children Master and Servants and presseth the same in all these Now having set every one in his proper place about his particular duty as a wise General after he hath ranged his Army and drawn them forth into rank and file he makes this following speech at the head of this Ephesian Camp all in martial phrase as best suiting the Christians calling which is a continued warfare with the world and the Prince of the world The speech it self contains two parts First a short but sweet and powerful encouragement ver 10. Secondly the other part is spent in several directions for their managing this war the more succesfully with some motives here and there sprinkled among them To begin with the first 1. The word of encouragement to battel With this he begins his speech Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord the best way indeed to prepare them for the following directions A soul deeply possest with fear and disspirited with strong impressions of danger is in no posture for counsel As we see in an Army when put to the run with some sudden alarm and apprehensions of danger 't is hard rallying them into order while the scare and feare is over therefore the Apostle first raiseth up their spirits Be strong in the Lord as if he should say perhaps some drooping soules finde their hearts faile them while they see their enemies so strong and they so weak so numerous and they so few so well appointed and they so naked and unarmed so skilful and expert at armes but they green and raw souldiers Let not these or any other thoughts dismay you but with undaunted courage march on and be strong in the Lord on whose performance lies the stresse of the battel and not on your skill or strength It is not the least of a Ministers care and skill in dividing the Word so to presse the Christians duty as not to oppresse his Spirit with the weight of it by laying it on the creatures own shoulders and not on the Lords strength as here our Apostle teacheth us In this verse First here is a familiar Compellation My brethren Secondly here is the exhortation Be strong Thirdly here is a cautionary direction annexed to the exhortation In the Lord. Fourthly here is an encouraging amplification of the direction And in the power of his might or in his mighty power CHAP. I. Of Christian Courage and Resolution wherefore necessary and how obtained WE shall wave the Compellation and begin with the Exhortation Be strong that is be of good courage so commonly used in Scripture-phrase 2 Chron. 32.7 Be strong and couragious So Isa 35.4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart Be strong or unite all the powers of your souls and muster up your whole force you will have use of all you can make or get From whence the Point is this The Christian of all men needs courage and resolution Indeed there is nothing he doth as a Christian or can do but is an act of valour A cowardly spirit is beneath the lowest duty of a Christian Josh 1.7 Be thou strong and very couragious that thou mayest what stand in battel against those warlike Nations No But that thou mayest observe to do according to all the Law which Moses my servant commanded thee It requires more prowesse and greatnesse of spirit to obey God faithfully then to command an Army of men to be a Christian then to be a Captain What seems lesse then for a Christian to pray yet this cannot be performed aright without a Princely Spirit As Jacob is said to behave himself like a Prince when he did but pray for which he came out of the field Gods Bannarite Indeed if you call that prayer which a carnal person performes
nothing more poor and dastard-like Such a one is as great a stranger to this enterprise as the craven souldier is to the exploits of a valiant Chieftain The Christian in prayer comes up close to God with an humble boldnesse of faith and takes hold of him wrestles with him yea will not let him go without a blessing and all this in the face of his own sins and divine justice which let flie upon him from the fiery mouth of the Law while the others boldness in prayer is but the childe either of ignorance in his minde or hardnesse in his heart whereby not feeling his sins and not knowing his danger he rushes upon duty with a blinde confidence which soon quails when conscience awakes and gives him the alarâ—m that his sins are upon him as the Philistines on Samson alas then in a fright the poor-spirited wretch throwes down his weapon flies the presence of God with guilty Adam and dares not look him on the face Indeed there is no duty in a Christians whole course of walking with God or acting for God but is lined with many difficulties which shoot like enemies through the hedges at the Christian whilest he is marching toward Heaven so that he is put to dispute every inch of ground as he goes They are only a few noble-spirited soules who dare take Heaven by force that are fit for this calling For the further proof of this Point see some few pieces of service that every Christian engageth in First the Christian is to proclaim and prosecute an irreconcileable war against his bosome-sins those sins which have layen nearest his heart must now be trampled under his feet So David I have kept my self from my iniquity Now what courage and resolution doth this require you think Abraham was tried to purpose when called to take his son his son Isaac his only son whom he loved and offer him up with his own hands and no other yet what was that to this Soul take thy lust thy only lust which is the childe of thy dearest love thy Isaac the sin which hath caused most joy and laughter from which thou hast promised thy self the greatest return of pleasure or profit as ever thou lookest to see my face with comfort lay hands on it and offer it up poure out the blood of it before me run the sacrificing knife of mortification into the very heart of it and this freely joyfully for it is no pleasing sacrifice that is offered with a countenance cast down and all this now before thou hast one embrace more from it Truly this is a hard chapter flesh and blood cannot bear this saying our lust will not lie so patiently on the Altar as Isaac or as a Lambe that is brought to the slaughter which is dumb but will roar and shreek yea even shake and rend the heart with their hideous out-cries Who is able to expresse the conflicts the wrestlings the convulsions of Spirit the Christian feels before he can bring his heart to this work or who can fully set forth the Art the Rhetorical insinuations which such a lust will plead with for its life one while Satan will extenuate and mince the matter It is but a little one O spare it and thy soule shall live for all that Another while he flatters the soul with the secrecy of it Thou mayest keep me and thy credit also I will not be seen abroad in thy company to shame thee among thy neighbours shut me up in the most retired room thou hast in thy heart from the hearing of others if thou wilt only let me now and then have the wanton embraces of thy thoughts and affections in secret if that cannot be granted then Satan will seem only to desire execution may be stayed a while as Jephtha's daughter of her father Let me alone a monthor two and then do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth well knowing few such reprieved lusts but at last obtain their full pardon yea recover their favour with the soule Now what resolution doth it require to break through such violence and importunity and notwithstanding all this to do present execution Here the valiant Sword-men of the world have shewed themselves meer cowards who have come out of the field with victorious banners and then lived yea died slaves to a base lust at home As one could say of a great Romane Captain who as he rode in his triumphant Chariot through Rome had his eye never off a Courtizan that walk't along the street Behold how this goodly Captain that conquered such potent Armies is himself conquered by one silly woman Secondly the Christian is to walk singularly not after the worlds guise Rom. 12.2 we are commanded not to be conformed to this world that is not to accommodate our selves to the corrupt customes of the world The Christian must not be of such a complying nature to cut the coat of his Profession according to the fashion of the times or the humour of the company he falls into like that Courtier who being ask't how he could keep his preferment in such changing times which one while had a Prince for Popery another while against Popery answered he was Esalice non ex quercu ortus he was not a stubborn oake but bending osier that could yield to the winde No the Christian must stand fixt to his principles and not change his habit but freely shew what Country-man he is by his holy constancy in the truth Now what an odium what snares what dangers doth this singularity expose the Christian to Some will hoot and mock him as one in a Spanish fashion would be laugh't at in your streets Thus Michal flouted David Indeed the world counts the Christian for his singularity of life the only foole which I have thought gave the first occasion to that nick-name whereby men commonly expresse a silly man or a fool Such a one say they is a meer Abraham that is in the worlds account a foole But why an Abraham because Abraham did that which carnal reason the worlds idol laughs at as meere folly he left a present estate in his fathers house to go he know not whither to receive an inheritance he knew not when And truly luch fooles all the Saints are branded for by the wise world You know the man and his communication said Jehu to his companions asking what that mad fellow came for who was no other then a Prophet 2 Kings 9.11 Now this requires courage to despise the shame which the Christian must expect to meete withal for his singularity Shame is that which proud nature most disdaines to avoid which many durst not confesse Christ openly many lose heaven because they are ashamed to go in a fooles coat thither Again as some will mock so others will persecute to death meerly for this non-conformity in the Christians principles and practices to them This was the trap laid for the three children they
booty at the sacking of some town are spoil'd for fighting ever after CHAP. II. Of the Saints strength where it lies and wherefore laid up in God THe second Branch of the words followeth which contains a cautionary direction Having exhorted the Saints at Ephesus and in them all believers to a holy resolution and courage in their warfare lest this should be mistaken and beget in them an opinion of their own strength for the battel the Apostle leads them out of themselves for this strength even to the Lord Be strong in the Lord. From whence observe That the Christians strength lies in the Lord not in himself The strength of the General in other hostes lies in his troops he flâ—es as a great Commander once said to his souldiers upon their wings if their feathers be clipt their power broken he is lost but in the Army of Saints the strength of every Saint yea of the whole hoste of Saints lies in the Lord of hostes God can overcome his enemies without their hands but they cannot so much as defend themselves without his arme It is one of Gods names The strength of Israel 1 Sam. 15.19 He was the strength of Davids heart without him this valiant Worthy that could when held up in his armes defie him that defied an whole Army behaves himself strangely for feare at a word or two that drop't from the Philistines mouth He was the strength of his hands He taught his fingers to fight and so he is the strength of all his Saints in their war against sin and Satan Some propound a question whether there be a sin committed in the world in which Satan hath not a part but if the question were whether there be any holy action performed without the special assistance of God concurring that is resolved John 15.5 Without me you can do nothing Thinking strength of God 2 Cor. 3.5 Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God We Apostles we Saints that have habitual grace yet this lies like water at the bottome of a Well which will not ascend with all our pumping till God poure in his exciting grace and then it comes To will is more then to think to exert our will into action more then both these are of God Phil. 2.13 It is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure He makes the heart new and having made it fit for heavenly motion setting every wheele as it were in its right place then he windes it up by his actuating grace and sets it on going the thoughts to stir the will to move and make towards the holy object presented yet here the chariot is set and cannot ascend the hill of action till God puts his shoulder to the wheele Rom. 7. To will is present with me but how to performe that which is good I finde not God is at the bottome of the ladder and at the top also the Author and Finisher yea helping and lifting the soule at every round in his ascent to any holy action Well now the Christian is set on work how long will he keep close to it Alas poor soul no longer then he is held up by the same hand that impowered him at first He hath soon wrought out the strength received and therefore to maintain the tenure of a holy course there must be renewing strength from heaven every moment which David knew and therefore when his heart was in as holy a frame as ever he felt it and his people by their free-will-offering declared the same yet even then he prayes that God would keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of his people and establish their hearts to him 1 Chron. 29.18 He adored the mercy that made them willing and then he implores his further grace to strengthen them and tie a knot that these precious pearles newly strung on their hearts might not slip off The Christian when fullest of divine communications is buâ— a glasse without a foot he cannot stand or hold what he hath received any longer then God holds him in his strong hand Therefore Christ when bound for heaven and ready to take his leave of his children bespeaks his Fathers care of them in his absence Father keep them as if he had said they must not be left alone they are poor shiftlesse children that can neither stand nor go without help they will lose the grace I have given them and fall into those temptations which I kept them from while I was with them if they be out of thy eye or armes but one moment and therefore Father keep them Again Consider the Christian as addressing himself to any duty of Gods worship still his strength is in the Lord Would he pray where will he finde materials for his prayer alas he knows not what to pray for as he ought Let him alone and he will soon pray himself into some temptation or other and cry for that which were cruelty in God to give and therefore God puts words in our mouthes Take words with you and say Hos 14.2 Well now he hath words put into his mouth alas they will freeze in his very lips if he hath not some heart-heating affections to thaw the tap and where shall this fire be had not a spark to be found on his own hearth except it be some strange fire of natural desires which will not serve whence then must the fire come to thaw the icenesse of the heart but from heaven The Spirit he must stretch himself upon the soul as the Prophet on the childe and then the soule will come to some kindly warmth and heavenly heat in his affections the Spirit must groane and then the soul will groane he helps us to these sighs and groans which turne the sailes of prayer He dissolves the heart and then it bursts out of the heart by groans of the lips by heavenly Rhethorick out of the eyes as from a flood-gate with teares yet further now the creature is enabled to wrestle with God in prayer what will he get by all this suppose he be weak in grace is he able to pray himself strong or corruption weak no this is not to be found in prayer as an act of the creature this drops from heaven also In the day that I cried thou answeredst me and gavest me strength in my soul David received it in duty but had it not from his duty but from his God He did not pray himself strong but God strengthened him in his prayer Well cast your eye once more upon the Christian as engaging in another Ordinance of hearing the Word preach't The soules strength to heare the Word is from God he opens the heart to attend yea he opens the understanding of the Saint to receive the Word so as to conceive what it meant It is like Samsons riddle which we cannot unfold without
immediately from heaven which would be lost if the Christian had any strength to help himselfe though this stock of strength came at first from God Which think you speaks more love and condescent for a Prince to give a pension to a Favourite on which he may live by his owne care or for this Prince to take the chief care upon himself and come from day to day to this mans house and look into his Cupboard and see what provision he hath what expence he is at and so constantly to provide for the man from time to time Possibly some proud spirit that likes to be his own man or loves his meanes better then his Prince would prefer the former but one that is ambitious to have the heart and love of his Prince would be ravish't with the latter Thus God doth with his Saints the great God comes and looks into their Cupboard and sees how they are laid in and sends in accordingly as he findes them Your heavenly Father knowes you have need of these things and you shall have them He knows you need strength to pray hear suffer for him and in ipsâ horâ dabitur Secondly this way of Gods dealing with his Saints addes to the fulnesse and stability of their strength Were the stock in our own hands we should soon prove broken Merchants God knows we are but leaking vessels when fullest we could not hold it long and therefore to make all sure he sets us under the streamings forth of his strength and a leaking vessel under a cock gets what it loseth Thus we have our leakage supplied continually This was the provision God made for Israel in the wildernesse He clave the rock and the rock followed them They had not only a draught at present but it ran in a streame after them so that you hear no more of their complaints for water This rock was Christ Every believer hath Christ at his back following him with strength as he goes for every condition and trial One flower with the root is worth many in a posie which though sweet yet do not grow but wither as we wear them in our bosomes Gods strength as the root keeps our grace lively without which though as orient as Adams was it would die The second design God hath in his Saints happinesse is that he may so expresse his mercy and love to them as may rebound back to him in the highest advance of his own glory therein Eph. 1.4 12. which is fully attained in this way of empowering Saints by a strength not of their own but of their God his sending as they are put to expence Had God given his Saints a stock of grace to have set up with and left them to the improvement of it he had been magnified indeed because it was more then God did owe the creature but he had not been omnified as now when not only the Christians first strength to close with Christ is from God but he is beholden still to God for the exercise of that strength in every action of his Christian course As a childe that travels in his fathers company all is paid for but his father carries the purse not himself so the Christians shot is discharged in every condition but he cannot say this I did or that I suffered but God wrought all in me and for me The very combe of pride is cut here no room for any self exalting thoughts The Christian cannot say that I am a Saint is mercy but being a Saint that my faith is strong this is the childe of my own care and watchfulnesse Alas poor Christian who kept thine eye waking and stirr'd up thy care was not this the off-spring of God as well as thy faith at first No Saint shall say of Heaven when he comes there This is Heaven which I have built by the power of my might No Jerusalem above is a City whose builder and maker is God Every grace yea degree of grace is a stone in that building the topstone whereof is laid in glory where Saints shall more plainly see how God was not only Founder to begin but Benefactour also to finish the same The glory of the work shall not be crumbled and piece-meal'd out some to God and some to the creature but all entirely paid in to God and he acknowledged all in all SECTION 2. Vse 1 Is the Christians strength in the Lord not in himself Surely then the Christlesse person must needs be a poor impotent creature void of all strength and ability of doing any thing of it self towards its own salvation If the ship launch't rigg'd and with her sails spread cannot stir till the winde come faire and fills them much lesse can the timber that lies in the Carpenters yard hew and frame it self into a ship If the living tree cannot grow except the root communicate its sap much lesse can a dead rotten stake in the hedge which hath no root live of its own accord In a word if a Christian that hath this spiritual life of grace cannot exercise this life without strength from above then surely one void of this new life dead in sins and trespasses can never be able to beget this in himselfe or concur to the production of it The state of unregeneracy is a state of impotency When we were without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly Rom. 5.6 And as Christ found the lump of mankinde covered with the ruines of their lapsed estate no more able to raise themselves from under the weight of Gods wrath which lay upon them then one buried under the rubbish of a fallen house is to free himselfe of that weight without help so the Spirit findes sinners in as helpless a condition as unable to repent or believe on Christ for salvation as they were of themselves to purchase it Confounded therefore for ever be the language of those sons of pride who cry up the power of nature as if man with his own brick and slime of natural abilities were able to reare up such a building whose top may reach heaven it selfe It is not of him that willeth or runneth but God that sheweth mercy God himself hath scattered such Babel-builders in the imaginations of their hearts who raiseth this spiritual Temple in the soules of men not by might nor by a power of their own but by his Spirit that so grace grace might be proclaimed before it for ever And therefore if any yet in their natural estate would become wise to salvation let them first become fooles in their own eyes and renounce their carnal wisdom which perceives not the things of God and beg wisdom of God who giveth and upbraideth not If any man would have strength to believe let them become weak and die to their own for by strength shall no man prevaile 1 Sam. 2.9 Vse 2 Secondly doth the Christians strength lie in God not in himselfe this may for ever keep the Christian humble when most
God with a notwithstanding Moses himself a starre of the first magnitude for grace yet see how his faith blinks and twinkles till he wades out of the temptation Numb 11.21 The people among whom I am are six hundred thousand and thou hast said I will give them flesh that they may eat a whole moneth shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them to suffice them This holy man had lost the sight for a time of the Almighty Power of God and now he is projecting how this should be done as if he had said in plain termes How can this be accomplished for so God interprets his reasoning v. 23 And the Lord said unto Moses Is the Lords hand waxed short So Mary John 11.32 Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died And her Sister Martha v. 39. Lord by this time he stinketh Both gracious women yet both betrayed the weaknesse of their faith on the Almighty Power of Christ one limiting him to place If thou hadst been here he had not died as if Christ could not have saved his life absent as well as present sent his health to him as well as brought it with him The other to time Now he stinketh As if Christ had brought his Physick too late and the grave would not deliver up its prisoner at Christs command and hast thou such an high opinion of thy self Christian that thy faith needs not thy utmost care and endeavour for further establishment on the Almighty Power of God when thou seest such as these dash their foot against this kinde of temptation The second Reason may be taken from the absolute necessity of this act of faith above others to support the Christian in the houre of temptation All the Christians strength and comfort is fetched without doors and he hath none to send of his errand but faith This goes to heaven and knocks God up as he in the parable his neighbour at midnight for bread Therefore when faith failes and the soul hath none to go to market for supplies there must needs be a poor house kept in the meane time Now faith is never quite laid up till the soul denies or at least questions the Power of God Indeed when the Christian disputes the Will of God whispering within its own bosome will he pardon will he save this may make faith go haltingly to the throne of grace but not knock the soule off from seeking the face of God even then faith on the Power of God will bear it company thither If thou wilt thou canst make me clean if thou wilt thou canst pardon thou canst purge But when the soul concludes he cannot pardon cannot save this shoots faith to the heart so that the soule falls at the foot of Satan not able more to resist Now it growes listlesse to duty indifferent whether it pray or not as one that sees the Well dry breaks or throwes away his Pitcher Reas 3 Thirdly because God is very tender of this flower of his Crown this part of his Name Indeed we cannot spell it right and leave out this letter for that is Gods Name whereby he is known from all his creatures Now man may be called wise merciful mighty God only all-wise all-merciful Almighty so that when we leave out this syllable All we nick-name God and call him by his creatures name which he will not answer to Now the tendernesse that God shews to this Prerogative of his appears in three particulars First in the strict command he layes on his people to give him the glory of his power Isa 8. 12 13. Feare ye not their feare but sanctifie the Lord of hostes himself that is in this sad posture of your affaires when your enemies associate and you seem a lost people to the eye of Reason not able to contest with such united Powers which beset you on every side Now I charge you sanctifie me in giving me the glory of my Almighty Power believe that your God is able of himself without any other to defend you and destroy them Secondly in his severity to his dearest children when they stagger in their faith and come not off roundly without reasoning and disputing the case to relie on his Almighty Power Zacharias did but ask the Angel How shall I know this because I am an old man and my wife stricken in yeares yet for bewraying therein his unbelief had a signe indeed given him but such a one as did not only strengthen his faith but severely punish his unbelief for he was struck dumb upon the place God loves his children should believe his Word not dispute his power so true is that of Luther Deus amat curristas nonquaeristas That which gave accent to Abrahams faith Rom. 4.21 was that he was fully perswaded that what God had promised he was able to performe Thirdly in the way God takes of giving his choicest mercies and greatest salvations to his people wherein he layes the scene of his Providence so that when he hath done it may be said Almighty Power was here And therefore God commonly puts down those means and second causes which if they stood about his work would blinde and hinder the full prospect thereof in effecting the same 2 Cor. 1.9 We received the sentence of death in our selves that we might not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead Christ stayed while Lazarus was dead that he might draw the eyes of their faith more singly to look on his power by raising his dead friend rather then curing him being sick which would not have carried so full a conviction of Almightinesse with it Yea he suffers a contrary power many times to arise in that very juncture of time when he intends the mercy to his people that he may reare up the more magnificent pillar of remembrance to his own power in the ruine of that which contests with him Had God brought Israel out of Egypt in the time of those Kings which knew Joseph most likely they might have had a friendly departure and an easie deliverance but God reserves this for the reigne of that proud Pharaoh who shall cruelly oppresse them and venture his Kingdom but he will satisfie his lust upon them And why must this be the time but that God would bring them forth with a stretched-out arme The magnifying of his power was Gods great designe Exod. 9.16 In very deed for this cause have I raised thee up to shew in thee my power and that my Name may be declared throughout the earth Fourthly in the prevalency which an argument that is pressed from his Almighty Power hath with God It was the last string Moses had to his bowe when he begg'd the life of Israel Numb 14.16 The Nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak saying Because the Lord was not able c. And v. 17. Let the Power of my Lord be great And with this he hath their pardon thrown him The Application of
us flee for the Lord fighteth for them Whereas there be many now a dayes will rather give the honour of their discomfitures to Satan himself then acknowledge God in the businesse more ready to say the devil fought against them then God O you that have not yet worne off the impressions which the Almighty power of God hath at any time made upon your spirits beware of having any thing to do with that generation of men whoever they are Come not near their Tabernacle cast not thy lot in amongst them who are enemies to the Saints of the most High for they are men devoted to destruction God so loves his Saints that he makes nothing to give whole Nations for their ransome He rip 't open the very wombe of Egypt to save the life of Israel his childe Isa 43.3 Vse 2 Secondly this shews the dismal deplorable condition of all you who are yet in a Christ lesse state you have seen a rich mine open'd but not a penny of this treasure comes to your share a truth laden with incomparable comfort but it is bound for another coast it belongs to the Saints into whose bosome this truth unlades all her comfort see God shutting the door upon you when he sets his children to feast themselves with such dainties Esay 65.13 My servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty God hath his set number which he provides for He knows how many he hath in his family these and no more shall sit down One chief dish at the Saints board is the Almighty power of God This was set before Abraham and stands before all his Saints that they may eate to fulnesse of comfort on it But thou shalt be hungry He is Almighty to pardon but he will not use it for thee an impenitent sinner thou hast not a friend on the bench not an attribute in all Gods Name will speak for thee Mercy it self will sit and vote with the rest of its fellow-attributes for thy damnation God is able to save and help in a time of need but upon what acquaintance is it that thou art so bold with God as to expect his saving arme to be stretcht forth for thee Though a man will rise at midnight to let in a childe that cryes and knocks at his doore yet he will not take so much paines for a dog that lies howling there This presents thy condition sinner sad enough yet this is to tell thy story fairest for that Almighty power of God which is engaged for the beleevers salvation is as deeply obliged to bring thee to thy execution and damnation What greater tie then an oath God himself is under an oath to be the destruction of every impenitent soul That oath which God sware in his wrath against the unbeleeving Israelites that they should not enter into his rest concernes every unbeleever to the end of the world In the Name of God consider were it but the oath of a man or a company of men that like those in the Acts should sweare to be the death of such a one and thou wert the man would it not fill thee with feare and trembling night and day and take away the quiet of thy life till they were made friends What then are their pillows stuft with who can sleep so soundly without any horrour or amazement though they be told that the Almighty God is under an oath of damning them body and soul without timely repentance O bethink your selves sinners is it wisdome or valour to refuse termes of mercy from Gods hands whose Almighty power if rejected will soone bring you into the hands of justice and how fearful a thing that is to fall into the hands of Almighty God no tongue can expresse no not they who feel the weight of it Vse 3 Thirdly this speaks to you that are Saints indeed Be strong in the faith of this truth make it an Article of your Creed with the same faith that you beleeve there is a God beleeve also this Gods Almighty power is thy sure friend and then improve it to thy best advantage As First in agonies of conscience that arise from the greatnesse of thy sinnes flie for refuge into the Almighty power of God Truly Sirs when a mans sinnes are displayed in all their bloody colours and spread forth in their kâ—lling aggravations and the eye of conscience awakened to behold them through the multiplying or magnifying glasse of a temptation they must needs surprize the creature with horror and amazement till the soul can say with the Prophet for all this huge hoast There is yet more with me then against me One Almighty is more then many Mighties All these mighty sinnes and devils make not one Almighty sinne or an Almighty devil Oppose to all the hideous charges brought against thee by them this onely attribute As the French Ambassadour once silenced the Spaniards pride in repeating his Masters many titles with one that drowned them all God himself Hosea 11.9 when he had aggravated his peoples sinnes to the height then to shew what a God can do breaks out into a sweet promise I will not execute the fiercenesse of mine anger and why not I am God and not man I will shew the Almightinesse of my mercy Something like our usual phrase when a childe or a woman strikes us I am a man and not a childe or woman therefore I will not strike again The very considering God to be God supposeth him Almighty to pardon as well as to avenge and this is some relief But then to consider it is Almighty power in bond and Covenant to pardon this is more As none can binde God but himself so none can break the bond himself makes and are they not his own words that he will abundantly pardon Isa 55. he will multiply to pardon as if he had said I 'le drop mercy with your sinne and spend all I have rather then let it be said my good is overcome of your evil It fares with the gracious soul in this case as with a Captaine that yields his Castle upon gracious termes of having his life spared and he safely convey'd to his house there to be setled peaceably in his estate and possessions for all which he hath the Generals hand and Seal on which he marcheth forth but the rude souldiers assault him and put him in feare of his life he appeals to the General whose honour now is engaged for him and is presently releeved and his enemies punisht Thou mayest poore soule when accused by Satan mollested by his terrours say It is God that justifies I have his hand to it that I should have my life given me assoon as I laid down my armes and submitted to him which I desire to do behold the gates of my heart are open to let the Prince of peace in and is not the Almighty able to performe his promise I commit my selfe to him as unto a
hands of all mine enemies I have prayed for strength for such a duty and finde it come off as weakly and dead-heartedly as before If God be with me by his mighty power to help me why then is all this befailen me Answ 1 First look once again poor heart into thy own bosom and see whether thou findest not some strength sent into thee which thou didst over-look before this may be yea is very ordinary in this case when God answers our prayer not in the letter or when the thing itselfe is sent but it comes in at the back door while we are expecting it at the fore and truly thus the friend thou art looking for may be in thine house and thou not know it Is not this thy case poor soul thou hast been praying for strength against such a lust and now thou wouldest have God presently put forth his power to knock it on the head and lay it for dead that it should never stir more in thy bosome is not this the doore thou hast stood looking for God to come in at and no sight or newes of thy God his coming that way thy corruption yet stirs it may be is more troublesom then before now thou askest where is the strength promised to thy relief let me intreat thee before thou layest down this sad Conclusion against thy God or self see whether he hath not conveyed in some strength by another door Perhaps thou hast not strength to conquer it so soon as thou desirest but hath he not given further praying strength against it Thou prayedst before but now more earnestly all the powers of thy soul are up to plead with God Before thou wast more favourable and moderate in thy request now thou hast a zeal thou canst take no denial yea welcome any thing in the room of thy corruption Would God but take thy sin and send a crosse thou wouldest blesse him Now poor soule is this nothing no strength Had not thy God re-inforced thee thy sin would have weakened thy spirit of prayer and not increased it David began to recover himself when he began to recover his Spirit of prayer The stronger the cry the stronger the childe I warrant you Jacob wrestled and this is called his strength Hos 12. It appeared there was much of God in him that he could take such hold of the Almighty as to keep it though God seemed to shake him off If thus thou art enabled soule to deal with the God of heaven no feare but thou shalt be much more able to deal with sin and Satan If God hath given thee so much strength to wrestle with him above and against denials thou hast prevailed with the stronger of the two overcome God and he 'll overcome the other for thee Again perhaps thou hast been praying for further strength to be communicated to thee in duty that thou mightest be more spiritual vigorous united sincere and the like therein and yet thou findest thy old distempers hanging about thee as if thou hadst never acquainted God with thy aile Well soule look once again into thy bosome with an unprejudiced eye though thou doest not find the assisting strength thou prayedst for yet hast thou no more self-abasing strength perhaps the annoyance thou hast from these remaining distempers in duty occasion thee to have a meaner opinion of all thy duties then ever yea they make thee abhor thy selfe in the sense of these as if thou hadst so many loathsom vermein about thee Jobs condition on the dunghil with all his botches and running sores on his body appears desirable to thee in comparison of thine whose soul thou complainest is worse then his body O this afflicts thy soul deeply doth it not that thou shouldest appear before the Lord with such a dead divided heart and do his work worst that deserves best at thy hands and is all this nothing Surely Christian thine eyes are held as much as Hagars or else thou wouldest see the streamings forth of divine grace in this frame of thy heart surely others will think God hath done a mighty work in thy soule What harder and more against the haire then to bring our proud hearts to take shame for that whereof they naturally boast and glory And is it nothing for thee to tread on the very neck of thy duties and count them matter of thy humiliation and abasing which others make the matter of their confidence and self-rejoycing Good store of vertue hath gone from Christ to dry this issue of pride in thy heart which sometimes in gracious ones runs through and through their duties that it is seen or may be by those that have lesse grace then themselves Answ 2 Secondly Christian candidly interpret Gods dealings with thee Suppose it be as thou sayest thou hast pleaded the promise and waited on the means and yet findest no strength from all these receits either in thy grace or comfort now take heed of charging God foolishly as if God were not what he promiseth this were to give that to Satan which he is all this while gaping for It is more becoming the dutiful disposition of a childe when he hath not presently what he writes for to his father to say my father is wiser then I his wisdom will prompt him what and when to send to me and his fatherly affections to me his childe will neither suffer him to deny any thing that is good or slip the time that is seasonable Christian thy heavenly Father hath gracious ends that hold his hand at present or else thou hadst ere this heard from him First God may deny further degrees of strength to put thee on the exercise of that thou hast more carefully As a mother doth by her childe that is learning to go she sets it down and stands some distance from it and bids it come to her the childe feels its legs weak and cries for the mothers help but the mother steps back on purpose that the childe should put forth all its little strength in making after her When a poor soul comes and prayes against such a sin God seems to step back and stand at a distance the temptation increaseth and no visible succour appears on purpose that the Christian though weak should exercise that strength he hath Indeed we shall finde the sense of a soules weaknesse is an especial meanes to excite it into a further care and diligence One that knowes his weaknesse how prone he is in company to forget himself in passion how apt he is to flie out if there be a principle of true grace this will excite him to be more fearful and watchful then another that hath obtained greater strength against such great temptations As a childe that writes for money to his father none comes presently this makes him husband that little he hath the better not a penny now shall be laid out idly Thus when a Christian hath prayed against such a sin again and again and yet finds himself
weak prone to be worsted O how careful will this should this make such a one of every company of every occasion Such a one had not need give his enemie any advantage Secondly God may deny the Christian such assisting strength in duty or mortifying strength of corruption as he desires purely on a gracious design that he may thereby have an advantage of expressing his love in such a way as shall most kindly work upon the ingenuity of the soule to love God again Perhaps Christian thou prayest for a mercy thou wantest or for deliverance out of some great affliction and in the duty thou findest not more assistance then ordinary yea many distractions of spirit in it and mis-giving thoughts with unbelieving feares after it Well notwithstanding those defects in thy duty yet God heares thy prayer and sends in the mercy on purpose that he may greaten his love in thine eye and make it more luscious and sweet to thy taste from his accepting thy weak services and passing by the distempers of thy spirit Here is lesse strength for the duty that thou mayest have more love in the mercy nothing will affect a gracious heart more then such a consideration See it in David Psal 116.11 12. I said in my haste All men are liars What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me As if David had said notwithstanding all the comfortable messages I had from God by his Prophets concerning this matter my own prayers and those remarkable providences which carried in them a partial answer to them and performance of what was promised yet I betray'd much unbelief questioning the truth of the one and the return of the other and hath God notwithstanding all my infirmities fulfill'd my desire and performed his promise O what shall I render unto the Lord Thus David reades Gods mercy through the spectacles of his own weaknesse and infirmity and it appears great whereas if a mercy should come in as an answer to a duty managed with such strength of faith and height of other graces as might free him and his duty from usual infirmities this might prove a snare and occasion some self-applauding rather then mercy-admiring thoughts in the creature Thirdly God may communicate the lesse of his assisting strength that he may shew the more of his supporting strength in upholding weak grace We do not wonder to see a man of strong constitution that eats his bread heartily and sleeps soundly live But for a crazie body full of ailes and infirmities to be so patcht and shored up by the Physicians Art that he stands to old age this begets some wonder in the beholders It may be thou art a poor trembling soule thy faith is weak and thy assaults from Satan strong thy corruptions stirring and active and thy mortifying strength little so that in thy opinion they rather gain ground on thy grace then give ground to it ever and anon thou art ready to think thou shalt be cast as a wrack upon the devils shoare and yet to this day thy grace lives though full of leaks now is it not worth the stepping aside to see this strange sight A broken ship with masts and hull rent and torne thus towed along by Almighty power through an angry sea and Armadoes of sins and devils safely into its harbour To see a poore dilling or rush candle in the face of the boisterous winde and not blown out In a word to see a weak stripling in grace held up in Gods armes till he beats the devil craven This God is doing in upholding thee thou art one of those babes out of whose mouth God is perfecting his praise by ordaining such strength for thee that thou a babe in grace shalt yet foile a giant in wrath and power Thirdly if after long waiting for strength from God it be as thou complainest enquire whether the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which hinders be not found in thy self The head is the seat of animal spirits yet there may be such obstructions in the body as the other members may for a time be deprived of them till the passage be free between Christ thy head and thee thy strength will not come and therefore be willing to enquire First hast thou come indeed to God for strength to performe duty to mortifie corruption and the like perhaps thou wilt say Yes I have waited on those Ordinances which are the way in which he hath promised to give out strength But is this all thou mayest come to them and not wait on God in them Hast thou not carnally expected strength from them and so put the Ordinance as she her husband in Gods stead Hath not the frame of thy spirit some affinity with theirs in James 4.13 We will go into such a city and buy and sell and get gaine Hath not thy heart said I will go and hear such a man and get comfort get strength and doest thou wonder thou art weak barren and unfruitful Are Ordinances God that they should make you strong or comfortable Thou mayest heare them answer thee poor soul as the King to the woman in the siege of Samaria Help O prayer sayest thou or O Minister How can they help except the Lord help These are but Christs servants Christ keeps the Key of his wine-cellar they cannot so much as make you drink when you come to their Masters house and therefore poor soul stay not short of Christ but presse through all the croud of Ordinances and ask to speak with Jesus to see Jesus and touch him and vertue will come forth Secondly ask thy soule whether thou hast been thankful for that little strength thou hast though thou art not of that strength in grace to run with the foremost and hold pace with the tallest of thy brethren yet art thou thankful that thou hast any strength at all though it be but to cry after them whom thou seest out-strip thee in grace this is worth thy thanks All in Davids army attained not to be equal with his few Worthies in prowesse and honour and yet did not cashiere themselves thou hast reason to be thankful for the meanest place in the army of Saints the least communications of Gospel mercy and grace must not be over-look't Assoon as ever Moses with his army was through the sea they strike up before they stir from the bank-side and acknowledge the wonderful appearance of Gods power and mercy for them though this was but one step in their way a howling wildernesse presented it self to them and they not able to subsist a few dayes with all their provision for all their great victory yet Moses he will praise God for this handsel of mercy This holy man knew the only way to keep credit with God so as to have more was to keep touch and pay down his praise for what was received If thou wouldest have fuller communications of divine strength owne God in what he hath done Art thou weak
blesse God thou hast life Doest thou through feeblenesse often faile in duty and fall into temptation Mourne in the sense of these yet blesse God that thou doest not live in a total neglect of duty out of a prophane contempt thereof and that in stead of falling through weakness thou doest not lie in the mire of sin through the wickednesse of thy heart The unthankful soul may thank it self it thrives not better Thirdly art thou humble under the assistance and strength God hath given thee pride stops the conduit if the heart begin to swell it is time for God to hold his hand and turne the cock for all that is poured on such a soule runs over into self-applauding and so is as water spilt in regard of any good it doth the creature or any glory it brings to God A proud heart and a lofty mountain are never fruitful Now beside the common wayes that pride discovers it self as by under-valuing others and over-valuing it selfe and such like you shall observe two other symptomes of it First it appears in bold adventures when a person runs into the mouth of temptation bearing himself up on the confidence of his grace receiv'd This was Peters sin by which he was drawn to engage further then became an humble faith running into the devils-quarters and so became his prisoner for a while The good man when in his right temper had thoughts low enough of himself as when he ask't his Master Is it I but he that feared at one time lest he might be the traitour at another cannot think so ill of himself as to suspect he should be the denyer of his Master What he No though all the rest should forsake him yet he would stand to his colours Is this thy case Christian Possibly God hath given thee much of his minde thou art skilful in the Word of life and therefore thou darest venture to breath in corrupt aire as if only the weak spirits of lesse knowing Christians exposed them to be infected with the contagion of errour and heresie Thou hast a large portion of grace or at least thou thinkest so and venturest to go where an humble-minded Christian would fear his heels should slip under him Truly now thou temptest God to suffer thy lock to be cut when thou art so bold to lay thy head in the lap of a temptation Secondly pride appears in the neglect of those means whereby the Saints graces and comforts are to be fed when strongest May be Christian when thou art under feares and doubts then God hath thy company thou art oft with thy pitcher at his door but when thou hast got any measure of peace there growes presently some strangenesse between God and thee thy pitcher walks not as it was wont to these Wells of salvation No wonder if thou though rich in grace and comfort goest behinde-hand seeing thou spendest on the old stock and drivest no trade at present to bring in more Or if thou doest not thus neglect duty yet may be thou doest not perform it with that humility which formerly beautified the same then thou prayedst in the sense of thy weaknesse to get strength now thou prayest to shew thy strength that others may admire thee And if once like Hezekiah we call in Spectators to see our treasure and applaud us for our gifts and comfort then it is high time for God if he indeed love us to send some messengers to carry these away from us which carry our hearts from him Fourthly if thy heart doth not smite thee from what hath been said but thou hast sincerely waited on God and yet hast not received the strength thou desirest yet let it be thy resolution to live and die waiting on him God doth not tell us his time of coming and it were boldnesse to set on of our own heads Go saith Christ to his disciples Luke 24.49 Stay ye in Jerusalem until ye be endued with Power from on High Thus he saith to thee stay at Jerusalem wait on him in the means he hath appointed till thou beest endued with further power to mortifie thy corruptions c. And for thy comfort know First thy thus persevering to wait on God will be an evidence of strong grace in thee the lesse encouragement thou hast to duty the more thy faith and obedience to bear thee up in duty He that can trade when times are so dead that all his ware lies upon his hand and yet drawes not in his hand but rather trades more and more sure his stock is great What no comfort in hearing no ease to thy spirit in praying and yet more greedy to heare and more-frequent in prayer O soul great is thy faith and patience Secondly assure thy self when thou art at the greatest pinch strength shall come They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength when the last handful of meale was dressing then is the Prophet sent to keep the Widows house When temptation is strong thy little strength even spent and thou ready to yield into the hands of thine enemies then expect succours from heaven to enable thee to hold out under the temptation Thus to Paul My grace is sufficient or power from heaven to raise the siege and drive away the tempter thus to Job when Satan had him at an advantage then God takes him off Like a wise Moderatour when the Respondent is hard put to it by a subtile Opponent takes him off when he would else run him down James 5.11 Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy EPHESIANS 6.11 Put on the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil THis verse is a Key to the former wherein the Apostle had exhorted believers to encourage and bear up their fainting spirits on the Lord and the power of his might Now in these words he explains himself and shewes how he would have them do this not presumptuously come into the field without that armour which God hath appointed to be worne by all his souldiers and yet with a bravado to trust in the power of God to save them That soule is sure to fall short of home heaven I mean who hath nothing but a carnal confidence on the Name of God blowen up by the ignorance of God and himself No he that would have his confidence duly placed on the Power of God must conscienciously use the means appointed for his defence and not rush naked into the battel like that fanatick spirit at Munster who would needs go forth and chase away the whole army then besieging that city with no other cannon then a few words charged with the Name of The Lord of hostes which he blasphemously made bold to use saying In the Name of the Lord of hostes depart But himself soon perished to learne others wisdom by what he paid for his folly What foolish
concerning some truth or promise but then hath a spiritual eye which the Christlesse person wants and so is darknesse And this darknesse cannot be enlightened but by its union with Christ which is exprest in the following phrase But now are ye light in the Lord. As the eye of the body once put out can never be restored by the creatures Art so neither can the spiritual eye lost by Adams sin be restored by the teaching of men or Angels It is one of the diseases which Christ came to cure Luke 4.18 'T is true there is a light of reason which is imparted to every man by nature but this light is darknesse compared with the Saints As the night is dark to the day even when the moon is in its full glory This night-light of Reason may save a person from some ditch or pond great and broad sins but it will never help him to escape the more secret corruptions which the Saint sees like atomes in the beams of spiritual knowledge There is such curious work the creature is to do which cannot be wrought by candle-light of natural knowledge Nay more where the common illumination of the Spirit is superadded to this light of nature yet that is darknesse compar'd with the sanctifying knowledge of a renewed soule which doth both discover spiritual truths and warme the heart at the same time with the love of truth having like the Sun a prolifical and quickening vertue which the other wants so that the heart lies under such common illuminations cold and dead He hath no more strength to resist Satan then if he knew not the command whereas the Christians knowledge even when taken Prisoner by a temptation pursues and brings back the soul as Abraham his Nephew out of the enemies hands which hints the third Thirdly the Christlesse state is a state of impotency Rom. 5. When we were without strength Christ came to die for the ungodly What can a disarm'd people that have not sword or gun do to shake off the yoke of a conquering enemie Such a power hath Satan over the soule Luke 11.21 he is call'd the strong man that keeps the soule as his Palace If he hath no disturbance from heaven he need feare no mutiny within he keeps all in peace there What the Spirit of God doth in a Saint that in a manner doth Satan in a sinner The Spirit fills the heart of his with love joy holy desires feares so Satan fills the sinners heart with pride lust lying Why hath Satan filled thy heart saith Peter And thus fill'd with Satan as the drunkard with wine he is not his own man but Satans slave Fourthly the state of unregeneracy is a state of friendship with sin and Satan If it be enmity against God as it is then friendship with Satan Now it will be hard to make that soule fight in earnest against his friend Is Satan divided will the devil within fight against the devil without Satan in the heart shut out Satan at the door sometimes indeed there appears a scuffle between Satan and a carnal heart but it is a meer cheat like the fighting of two fencers on a stage you would think at first they were in earnest but observing how wary they are where they hit one another you may soon know they do not mean to kill and that which puts all out of doubt when the prize is done you shall see them making merry together with what they have got of their Spectatours which was all they fought for when a carnal heart makes the greatest bussle against sin by complaining of it or praying against it follow him but off the stage of duty where he hath gained the reputation of a Saint the prize he fights for and you shall see them sit as friendly together in a corner as ever Vse 1 First this takes away the wonder of Satans great Conquests in the world when you look abroad and see his vast Empire and what a little spot of ground contains Christs subjects what heaps of precious souls lie prostrate under this foot of pride and what a little regiment of Saints march under Christs banner perhaps the strangenesse of the thing may make you ask Is hell stronger then heaven the armes of Satan more victorious then the Crosse of Christ No such matter Consider but this one thing and you will wonder that Christ hath any to follow him rather then that he hath so few Satan findes the world unarm'd when the Prince of the world comes he findes nothing to oppose the whole soule is in a disposition to yield at first summons and if Conscience Governour for God in the creature stands out a while all the other powers as will and affections are in a discontent like mutinous souldiers in a garrison who never rest till they have brought over conscience to yield or against its command set open the City gate to the enemie and so deliver traiterously their conscience prisoner to their lusts But when Christ comes to demand the soul he meets a scornful answer Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of the most High We will not have this man to reign over us With one consent they vote against him and rise up as the Philistines against Samson whom they call'd the Destroyer of the countrey Ye will not come unto me saith Christ O how true are poor sinners to the devils trust They will not deliver the Castle they hold for Satan till fired over their heads Pharaoh opposeth Moses on one hand and Israel cry out upon him on the other Such measure hath Christ both at Satans hand and the sinners That which lessened Alexanders Conquests was he overcame a people buried in barbarisme without armes or discipline of war and that which heightened Cesars though not so many he overcame a people more warlike and furnish't Satans victories are of poor ignorant gracelesse souls who have neither armes nor hands nor hearts to oppose but when he assaults a Saint then he sits down before a city with gates and bars and ever riseth with shame unable to take the weakest hold to pluck the weakest Saint out of Christs hands but Christ brings souls out of his dominion with a high hand in spite of all the force and fury of hell which like Pharaoh and his hoste pursue them Vse 2 Secondly this gives us a reason why the devil hath so great a spite against the Gospel Why because this opens a magazine of armes and furniture for the soule the Word is that Tower of David Cant. 4.4 built for an Armourie wherein there hang a thousand bucklers all the shields of mighty men Hence the Saints have ever had their armour and the preaching of the Gospel unlocks it As Gospel-light ascends so Satans shady Kingdom of darknesse vanisheth Rev. 14.6 there one Angel comes forth to preach the everlasting Gospel and another Angel followes at his back verse 8. crying Victoria Babylon is fallen is fallen The very first
sinners such shall finde least mercy false friends shall speed worse then open enemies Secondly they use not the Armour of God as God hath appointed who put a carnal confidence therein We must not confide in the Armour of God but in the God of this Armour because all our weapons are only mighty through God 2 Cor. 10. The Ark was the meanes of the Jewes safety but carnally applauded and gloried in hastened their overthrow so duties and Ordinances gifts and graces in their place are means for the souls defence Satan trembles as much as the Philistines at the Ark to see a soule diligent in the use of duty and exercise of grace but when the creature confides in them this is dangerous As some when they have prayed think they please God for all day though they take little heed to their steps Others have so good an opinion of their faith sincerity knowledge thut you may assoon make them believe they are dogs as that they may ever be taken in such an errour or sinful practice Others when assisted in duty are prone to stroak their own head with a Bene fecisti Bernarde and so promise themselves to speed because they have done their errand so well What speak such passages in the hearts of men but a carnal confidence in their armour to their ruine Many soules we may safely say do not only perish praying repenting and believing after a sort but they perish by their praying and repenting c. while they carnally trust in these As it falls out sometimes that the souldier in battel loseth his life by means of his own Armour it is so heavy he cannot flie with it and so close buckled to him that he cannot get it off to flie for his life without it If we be saved we must come naked to Christ for all our duties we will not flie to Christ while confiding in them and some are so lock't into them that they cannot come without them and so in a day of temptation are trampled under the feet of Gods wrath and Satans fury The poor Publican throwes down his armes that is all confidence in himself cries for quarter at the hands of mercy God be merciful unto me a sinner and he comes off with his life he went away justified but the Pharisee loaden with his righteousnesse and conceited of it stands to it and is lost Thirdly they do not use the Armour of God as such who in the performing of divine duties eye not God through them and this makes them all weak and uneffectual Then the Word is mighty when read as the Word of God then the Gospel preach't powerful to convince the conscience and revive the drooping spirit when heard as the appointment of the great God and not the exercise of a mean creature Now it will appear in three things whether we eye divine appointment in the meanes First when we engage in a duty and look not up to God for his blessing Didst thou eye Gods appointment in the means thou wouldest say Soul if there come any good of thy present service it must drop from heaven for it is Gods appointment not mans And can I profit whether God will or no or think to finde and bring away any soul-enriching treasure from his Ordinance without his leave had I not best look up to him by whose blessing I live more then by my bread Again Secondly it appears we look not at Gods appointment when we have low thoughts of the means What is Jordan that I should wash in it what is this preaching that I should attend on it where I heare nothing but I knew before what these beggarly elements of water and bread and wine Are not these the reasonings of a soul that forgets who appoints these Didst thou remember who commands thou wouldest not question what the command is what though it be clay let Christ use it and it shall open the eyes though in it self more like to put them out Hadst thou thy eye on God thou wouldest silence thy carnal reason with this 'T is God sends me to such a duty whatsoever he saith unto me I will do it though he should send me as Christ them to draw wine out of pots fill'd with water Thirdly when a soule leaves off a duty because he hath not in it what he expected from it O saith the soul I see it is in vain to follow the means as I have done still Satan foiles me I will even give over Doest thou remember soule 't is Gods appointment surely then thou wouldest persevere in the midst of discouragements He that bids thee pray bids thee pray without ceasing He that bids thee hear bids thee wait at the posts of wisdom thou wouldest reason thus God hath set me on duty and here I 'le stand till God takes me off and bids me leave praying CHAP. III. Sheweth that the Armour we use for our defence against Satan must not only be divine by Institution but constitution also SEcondly the Christians Armour must be Armour of God in regard of its make and constitution My meaning is 't is not only God that must appoint the weapons and armes the Christian useth for his defence but he must also be the efficient of them he must work all their work in them and for them Prayer is an appointment of God yet this is not armour of proof except it be a Prayer of God flowing from his Spirit Hope that is the helmet the Saint by command is to wear but this hope must be Gods creature who hath begotten us to a lively hope Faith that 's another principal piece in the Christians furniture but it must be the faith of Gods Elect. He is to take righteousnesse and holinesse for his breast-plate but it must be true holinesse Eph. 4.24 Put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Thus you see it is not armour as armour but as armour of God that makes the soul impregnable That which is borne of God overcometh the world A faith borne of God a hope borne of God but the spurious adulterous brood of duties and graces being begot of mortal seed cannot be immortal Must the soules armour be of Gods make be exhorted then to look narrowly whether the armour ye weare be the workmanship of God or no. There is abundance of false ware put off now adayes little good armour worne by the multitude of Professours 't is Satans after-game he playes if he cannot please the sinner with his naked state of prophanenesse then to put him off with something like grace some slighty stuffe that shall neither do him good nor Satan hurt thus many like children that cry for a knife or dagger and are pleas'd as well with a bone knife and wooden dagger as with the best of all so they have some armour it matters not what Pray they must but little care how it be performed Beleeve in
indeed shew one sin thou hast slain by all thy praying Joseph was alive though his coat was brought bloody to Jacob and so may thy sin be for all thy mortified look in duty and out cry thou makest against them If thou wouldest thus try every piece thy credulous heart would not so easily be cheated with Satans false ware Obj. But is all armour that is of God thus mighty we reade of weak grace little faith how can this then be a trial of our armour whether of God or not Answ I answer the weaknesse of grace is in respect of stronger grace but that weak grace is strong and mighty in comparison of counterfeit grace Now I do not bid thee try the truth of thy grace by such a power as is peculiar to stronger grace but by that power which will distinguish it from false true grace when weakest is stronger then false when strongest There is a principle of divine life in it which the other hath not Now life as it gives excellency a flea or fly by reason of its life is more excellent then the Sun in all its glory so it gives strength The slow motion of a living man though so feeble that he cannot go a furlong in a day yet coming from life imports more strength then is in a ship which though it sailes swiftly hath its motion from without Thus possibly an hypocrite may exceed the true Christian in the bulk and out-side of a duty yet because his strength is not from life but from some winde and tide abroad that carries him and the Christians is from an inward principle therefore the Christians weaknesse is stronger then the hypocrite in his greatest enlargements I shall name but two acts of grace when weakest whereby the Christian exceeds the hypocrite in all his best array You will say then grace is at a weak stay indeed when the Christian is perswaded to commit a sin a great sin such a one as possibly a carnal person would not have it said of him for a great matter so low may the tide of grace fall yet true grace at such an ebbe will appear of greater strength and force then the other First this principle of grace will never leave till the soule weeps bitterly with Peter that it hath offended so good a God Speak O ye hypocrites can ye shew one tear that ever you shed in earnest for a wrong done to God Possibly ye may weep to see the bed of sorrow which your sins are making for you in hell but ye never loved God so well as to mourne for the injury ye have done the Name of God It is a good glosse Augustine hath upon Esau's teares Heb. 12. Flevit quòd perdidit non quòd vendidit He wept that he lost the blessing not that he sold it Thus we see an excellency of the Saints sorrow above the hypocrites The Christian by his sorrow shews himself a Conquerour of that sin which even now overcame him while the hypocrite by his pride shews himself a slave to a worse lust then that he resists While the Christian commits a sin he hates it whereas the other loves it while he forbears it Secondly when true grace is under the foot of a temptation yet then it will stir up in the heart a vehement desire of revenge like a prisoner in his enemies hand who is thinking and plotting how to get out and what he will do when out waiting and longing every moment for his delivery that he may again take up armes O God remember me saith Samson this once I pray thee and strengthen me that I may be at once avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes Judg. 16.27 Thus prays the gracious soul that God would but spare him a little and strengthen him but once before he dies that he may be avenged on his pride unbelief and those sins whereby he hath most dishonoured his God but a false heart is so far from studying revenge that he rather swells like the sea against the Law which banks his lust in and is angry with God who hath made sin such a leap that he must hazard his soule if he will have it CHAP. IV. Of the entirenesse of our furniture It must be the whole Armour of God THe third Branch in the Saints furniture is the entirenesse thereof The whole Armour of God The Christians Armour must be compleat and that in a threefold respect SECT 1. First he must be armed in every part cap-a-pe soule and body the powers of the one and senses of the other not any part left naked A dart may flie in at a little hole like that which brought a message of death to Ahab through the joynts of his harnesse and Satan is such an Archer who can shoot at a penny breadth If all the man be armed and only the eye lest without Satan can soon shoot his fire-balls of lust in at that loop-hole which shall set the whole house on flame Eve look't but on the tree and a poisonous dare struck her to the heart If the eye be shut and the ear be open to corrupt communication Satan will soon wriggle in at this hole If all the outward senses be guarded and the heart not kept with all diligence he will soon by his own thoughts be betrayed into Satans hands Our enemies are on every side and so must our armour be on the right hand and on the left 2 Cor. 6.7 The Apostle calls sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an enemy that surrounds us If there be any part of the line unguarded or weakly provided there Satan falls on we see the enemy often enter the city at one side while he is beat back on the other for want of care to keep the whole line Satan divides his temptations into several squadrons one he employes to assault here another to storme there We reade of fleshly wickednesse and spiritual wickednesse while thou repellest Satan tempting thee to fleshly wickednesse he may be entring thy city at the other gate of spiritual wickednesse Perhaps thou hast kept thy integrity in the practical part of thy life but what armour hast thou to defend thy head thy judgement If he surprise thee here corrupting that with some errour then thou wilt not long hold out in thy practice He that could not get thee to profane the Sabbath among Sensualists and Atheists will under the disguise of such a corrupt principle as Christian liberty prevail Thus we see what need we have of universal armour in regard of every part SECT II. Secondly the Christian must be in compleat armour in regard of the several pieces and weapons that make up the whole Armour of God Indeed there is a concatenation of graces they hang together like links in a chain stones in an arch members in the body prick one vein and the blood of the whole body may run out at that sluce neglect one duty and no other will do us good The
and worne daily by us whereas the same weight on our shoulder would trouble us thus the grievousnesse of religious duties to carnal ones is taken away in the Saints partly by the fitnesse of them to the Saints principles as also by their daily exercise in them The disciples when newly entered into the wayes of Christ could not pray much or fast long the bottles were new and that wine too strong but by that time they had walk't a few yeares they grew mighty in both doest thou complain that heaven-way is rugged be the oftner walking in it and that will make it smooth But secondly were this constant exercise of grace more troublesome to the flesh which is the only complainer the sweet advantage that accrues by this to the Christian will abundantly recompence all his labour and pains First the exercise of thy grace will encrease thy grace The diligent hand makes rich A provident man counts that lost which might have been got not only when his money is stole out of his chest but when it lies there unimproved Such a commodity saith the Tradesman if I had bought with that money in my bags would have brought me in so much gaine which is now lost so the Christian may say My dawning knowledge had I followed on to know the Lord might have spread to broad day I have more understanding saith David then all my teachers How came he by it he 'll tell you in the next words for thy testimonies are my meditation He was more in the exercise of duty and grace The best wits are not alwayes the greatest Scholars because their study is not suitable to their parts neither alwayes proves he the richest man that sets up with the greatest stock A little grace well-husbanded by daily exercise will encrease when greater neglected shall decay Secondly as exercise encreaseth so it evidenceth grace Would a man know whether he be lame or no let him rise he 'll be sooner satisfied by one turn in a room then by a long dispute and he sit still Wouldest thou know whether thou lovest God be frequent in exerting acts of love the more the fire is blown up the sooner 'tis seen and so of all other graces Sometimes the soule is questioning whether it hath any patience any faith till God comes and puts him into an afflicted estate where he must either exercise this grace or perish and then it appeares like one that thinks he cannot swim yet being thrown into the river then uniting all his strength he makes a shift to swim to land and sees what he can do How oft have we heard Christians say I thought I could never have endured such a pain trusted God in such a strait but now God hath taught me what he can do for me what he hath wrought in me and this thou mightest have known before if thou wouldest have oftner stirred up and exercised thy grace Thirdly exercise of grace doth invite God to communicate himself to such a soul God sets the Christian at work and then meets him in it Vp and be doing and the Lord be with you He sets a soul a reading as the Eunuch and then joynes to his chariot a praying and then comes the messenger from heaven O Daniel greatly beloved The Spouse who lost her Beloved on her bed findes him as she comes from the Sermon Cant. 3.4 It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soule loved SECT 3. Vse 1 This falls heavy on their heads who are so far from exercising grace that they walk in the exercise of their lusts their hearts are like a glasse-house the fire is never out the shop-windows never shut they are alwayes at work hammering some wicked project or other upon the anvil of their hearts there are some who give full scope to their lusts what their wretched hearts will they shall have they cocker their lusts as some their children deny them nothing who as it is recorded of David to Adonijah do not so much as say to their souls Why doest thou so why art thou so proud so covetous so prophane They spend their dayes in making provision for these guests as at some Innes the house never cooles but as one guest goes out another comes in as one lust is served another is calling for attendance as some exercise grace more then others so there are greater traders in sin that set more a work then others and return more wrath in a day then others in a moneth Happy are such in comparison of these who are chain'd up by Gods restraint upon their outward man or inward that they cannot drive on so furiously as these who by health of body power and greatnesse in place riches and treasures in their coffers numbnesse and dedolency in their consciences are hurried on to fill up the measure of their sins We reade of the Assyrian that he enlarged his heart as hell stretching out his desires as men do their bags that are thrack't full with money to hold more Hab. 2.5 Thus the adulterer as if his body were not quick enough to execute the commands of his lust stirs it up by sending forth his amorous glances which come home laden with adultery blows up this fire with unchaste sonnets and belly-chear proper fuel for the devils kitchin and the malicious man who that he may lose no time from his lust is a tearing his neighbour in pieces as he lies on his bed cannot sleep unlesse some such bloody sacrifice be offered to his ravening lust O how may this shame the Saints how oft is your zeal so hot that you cannot sleep till your hearts have been in heaven as you are on your beds and there pacified with the sight of your dear Saviour and some embraces of love from him Vse 2 It reproves those who flout and mock at the Saints while exercising their graces None jeer'd as the Saint in his calling Men may work in their shops and every one follow his calling as diligently as they please and no wonder made of this by those that passe by in the streets but let the Christian be seen at work for God in the exercise of any duty or grace and he is hooted at despised yea hated Few so bad indeed but seem to like Religion in the notion they can commend a Sermon of holiness like a discourse of God or Christ in the Pulpit but when these are really set before their eyes as they sparkle in a Saints conversation they are very contemptible and hateful to them this living and walking holinesse bites and though they liked the Preachers Art in painting forth the same in his discourse yet now they run from them and spit at them this exercise of grace offends the prophane heart and stirs up the enmity that lies within As Michal she could not but flout David to see him dancing before the Ark. He that commended the Preacher for making a learned discourse of
if he cannot trip up so as to hinder his arrival in heaven yet at least to bruise it that he may go with more pain thither CHAP. II. Satans subtilty in managing his temptations where several stratagems used by him to deceive the Christian are laid down THe second way wherein Satan shews his tempting subtilty is in those stratagems he useth to deceive the Christian in the act of temptation First he hangs out false colours and comes up to the Christian in the disguise of a friend so that the gates are opened to him and his motions received with applause before either be discovered therfore he is said to transform himself into an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11.14 Of all plots 't is most dangerous when he appears in Samuels mantle and silvers his foul tongue with faire language Thus in point of errour he corrupts some in their judgements by commending his notions for precious Gospel-truths and like a cunning Chapman puts off his old ware errours I mean that have layen long upon his hand only turkening them a little after the mode of the times and they go for new light under the skirt of Christian liberty he conveys in Libertinisme by crying up the Spirit he decries and vilifies the Scripture by magnifying faith he labours to undermine repentance and blow up good works by bewailing the corruption of the Church in its administrations he drawes unstable souls from it and amuseth them till at last they fall into a vertigo and can see no Church at all in being And he prevails no lesse on the hearts and lives of men by this wile then on their judgements Under the notion of zeal he kindles sometimes a dangerous flame of passion and wrath in the heart which like a rash fire makes the Christians spirit boile over into unchristian desires of and prayers for revenge where he should forgive of which we have an instance in the disciples Luke 9.55 where two holy men are desiring that fire may come down from heaven Little did they think from whence they had their coal that did so heat them till Christ told them Ye know not what Spirit you are of Sometimes he pretends pity and natural affection which in some cases may be good counsel and all the while he desires to promote cowardise and sinful self-love whereby the Christian may be brought to flie from his colours shrink from the truth or decline some necessary duty of his calling this his wile Christ soon spied when he got Peter to be his spokesman saying Master pity thy self who stop't his mouth with that sharp rebuke Get thee behinde me Satan O what need have we to study the Scriptures our hearts and Satans wiles that we may not bid this enemy welcome and all the while think it's Christ that is our guest A second policie he useth is to get intelligence of the Saints affairs This is one great wheele in the Politicians clock to have Spies in all places by whom they are acquainted with the counsels and motions of their enemies and this gives them advantage as to disappoint their designes so more safely to compasse their own 'T is no hard matter for him to play his game well that sees his enemies hand David knew how the squares went at Court Jonathans arrowes carried him the newes and accordingly he removed his quarters and was too hard for his great enemy Saul Satan is the greatest Intelligencer in the world he makes it his businesse to enquire into the inclinations thoughts affections purposes of the creature that finding which humour abounds he may apply himself accordingly which way the stream goes that he may open the passage of temptation and cut the channel to the fall of the creatures affections and not force it against the torrent of nature Now if we consider but the piercing apprehension of the Angelical nature how quick he is to take the sent which way the game goes by a word drop't the cast of an eye or such a small matter signal enough to give him the alarm his experience in heart-anatomy having inspected and as it were dissected so many in his long practice whereby his knowledge is much perfected as also his great diligence to adde to both these being as close a Student as ever considering the Saints and studying how he may do them a mischief as we see in Jobs case whom he had so observed that he was able to give an answer ex tempore to God what Jobs state and present posture was and what might be the most probable means of obtaining his will of him and besides all this the correspondence that he hath with those in and about the Christian from whom he learnes much of his state as David by Hushai in Absaloms counsel all these considered 't is almost impossible for the creature to stir out of the closet of his heart but it will be known whither he enclines some corrupt passion or other will bewray the soule to him as they did David to Saul who told him where he might finde him in the wildernesse of Engedi Thus will these give intelligence to Satan and say If thou wouldest surprize such a one he is gone that way you shall have him in the wood of worldly employments over head and eares in the desires and cares of this life see where another sits under such a bower delighting himself in this childe or that gift endowment of mind or the like lay but the lime-twig there and you shall soon have him in it Now Satan having this intelligence lets him alone to act his part he sure cannot be at a losse himself when his scholars the Jesuites I mean have such agility of minde to wreath and cast themselves into any forme becoming the persons they would seduce Is ambition the lust the heart favours O the pleasing projects that he will put such upon how easily having first blown them up with vain hopes doth he draw them into horrid sins Thus Human that he may have a monopoly of his Princes favour is hurried into that bloody plot fatal at last to himself against the Jewes Is uncleannesse the lust after which the creatures eye wanders Now he 'll be the Pander to bring him and his Minion together Thus he finding Amnon sick of this disease sends Jonadah a deep-pated fellow to put this fine device into his head of feigning himself sick whereby his Sister fell into his snare Thirdly in his gradual approaches to the soul When he comes to tempt he is modest asks but a little he knows he may get that at many times which he should be denied if lie ask't all at once A few are let into a city when an army coming in a body would be shut out and therefore that he may beget no suspition he presents may be a few general propositions which do not discover the depth of his plot these like Scouts goe before while his whole body lies hid as it were in
will he say thou playedst the hypocrite zealous but serving thy self here wandring there nodding a little further puft up with pride and what wages canst thou hope for at Gods hands now thou hast spoil'd his work and cut it all out into chips Thus he makes many poor soules lead a weary life nothing they do but he hath a fling at that they know not whether best pray or not heare or not and when they have prayed and heard whether it be to any purpose or not Thus their souls hang in doubt and their dayes passe in sorrow while their enemy stands in a corner and laughs at the cheat he hath put upon them as one who by putting a counterfeit spider into the dish makes those that sit at table either out of conceit with the meat that they dare not eat or afraid of themselves if they have eaten lest they should be poisoned with their meat Quest But you will say What will you have us do in this case to withstand the cavils of Satan in reference to our duties First let this make thee more accurate in all thou doest 't is the very end God aimes at in suffering Satan thus to watch you that you his children might be the more circumspect because you have one over-looks you that will be sure to tell tales of you to God and accuse thee to thy own self Doth it not behove thee to write thy Copy faire when such a Critick reades and scans it over Doth it not concern thee to know thy heart well to turn over the Scriptures diligently that thou mayest know the state of thy soule-controversie in all the cases of conscience thereof when thou hast such a subtile Opponent to reply upon thee Secondly let it make thee more humble If Satan can charge thee with so much in thy best duties O what then can thy God do God suffers sometimes the infirmities of his people to be known by the wicked who are ready to check and frump them for them for this end to humble his people how much more low should these accusations of Satan which are in a great part too true lay us before God Thirdly observe the fallacy of Satans argument which discovered will help thee to answer his cavil the fallacy is double First he will perswade thee that thy duty and thy self are hypocritical proud formal c because something of these sins are to be found in thy duty Now Christian learn to distinguish between pride in a duty and a proud duty hypocrisie in a person and an hypocrite wine in a man and a man in wine The best of Saints have the stirrings of such corruptions in them and in their services these birds will light on an Abrahams sacrifice but comfort thy self with this that if thou findest a party within thy bosome pleading for God and entering its protest against these thou and thy services are Evangelically perfect God beholds these as the weaknesses of thy sickly state here below and pities thee as thou wouldest do thy lame childe how odious is he to us that mocks one for natural defects a blear eye or a stammering tongue such are these in thy new nature Observable is that in Christs prayer against Satan Zech. 3.3 The Lord said unto Satan The Lord rebuke thee is not this a brand pluck't out of the fire As if Christ had said Lord wilt thou suffer this envious spirit to twit thy poor childe with and charge him for those infirmities that cleave to his imperfect state he is but new pluck't out of the fire No wonder there are some sparks unquencht some corruption unmortified some disorders unreformed in his place and calling and what Christ did for Joshuah he doth uncessantly for all his Saints apologizing for their infirmities with his Father Secondly his other fallacy is in arguing from the sin that is in our duties to the non-acceptance of them Will God saith he think'st thou take such broken groates at thy hand Is he not a holy God Now here Christian learn to distinguish and answer Satan There is a double acceptance There is an acceptance of a thing by way of payment of a debt and there is an acceptance of a thing offered as a token of love and testimony of gratitude He that will not accept of broken money or half the summe for payment of a debt the same man if his friend sends him though but a bent six pence in token of his love will take it kindly 'T is true Christian the debt thou owest to God must be paid in good and lawful money but for thy comfort here Christ is thy Pay-master send Satan to him bid him bring his charge against Christ who is ready at Gods right hand to clear his accounts and shew his discharge for the whole debt but now thy performances and obedience come under another notion as tokens of thy love and thankfulnesse to God and such is the gracious disposition of thy heavenly Father that he accepts thy mite Love refuseth nothing that love sends 'T is not the weight or worth of the gift but the desire of a man is his kindnesse SECT IV. A fourth wile of Satan as a troubler is to draw the Saint into the depths of despair under a specious pretence of not being humbled enough for sin This we finde singled out by the Apostle for one of the devils fetches We are not ignorant saith he of his devices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Sophistical reasonings Satan sets much by this slight no weapon oftener in his hand where is the Christian that hath not met him at this door here Satan findes the Christian easie to be wrought on the humours being stirr'd to his hand while the Christian of his own accord complains of the hardnesse of his heart and is very prone to believe any who comply with his musing thoughts yea thinks every one flatters him that would perswade him otherwise 'T is easier to die that soul into black which is of a sad colour already then to make such a one take the lightsome tincture of joy and comfort Quest But how shall I answer this subtile enemy when he thus perplexeth my spirit with not being humbled enough for sin c Answ I answer as to the former labour to spie the fallacy of his argument and his mouth is soon stop't First Satan argues thus There ought to be a proportion between sin and sorrow But there is no proportion between thy sins and thy sorrow Therefore thou art not humbled enough What a plausible argument is here at first blush For the major that there ought to be a proportion between sin and sorrow this Satan will shew you Scripture for Manasseh was a great sinner and an ordinary sorrow will not serve his turne He humbled himself greatly before the Lord. Now saith Satan weigh thy sin in the balance with thy sorrow art thou as great a Mourner as thou hast been a sinner so many
yeares thou hast waged war against the Almighty making havock of his lawes loading his patience till it groaned again raking in the sides of Christ with thy bloody dagger while thou didst grieve his Spirit and reject his grace and doest think a little remorse like a rolling cloud letting fall a few drops of sorrow will now be accepted no thou must steep in sorrow as thou hast soak't in sin Now to shew you the fallacy we must distinguish of a twofold proportion of sorrow First an exact proportion of sorrow to the inherent nature and demerit of sin Secondly there is a proportion to the Law and Rule of the Gospel Now the first is not a thing feasible because the injury done in the least sin is infinite because done to an infinite God and if it could be feasible yet according to the tenour of the first Covenant it would not be acceptable because it had no clause to give any hope for an after-game by repentance but the other which is a Gospel-sorrow this is indeed repentance unto life both given by the Spirit of the Gospel and to be tried by the Rule of the Gospel This is given for thy relief As you see sometimes in the high-way where the waters are too deep for travellers you have a foot-bridge or Causey by which they may scape the flood and safely passe on so that none but such as have not eyes or are drunk will venture to go through the waters when they may avoid the danger Thou art a dead man if thou think to answer thy sin with proportionable sorrow thou wilt soon be above thy depth and quackle thy self with thy own teares but never get over the least sin thou committedst go not on therefore as thou lovest thy life but turn aside to this Gospel-path and thou escapest the danger O you tempted soules when Satan saith you are not humbled enough see where you may be relieved I am a Romane saith Paul I appeal to Cesar I am a Christian say I appeal to Christs law and what is the Law of the Gospel concerning this Heart-sorrow is Gospel-sorrow They were pricked in their heart and Peter like an honest Chirurgion will not keep these bleeding Patients longer in pain with their wounds open but presently claps on the healing plaister of the Gospel Believe in the Lord Jesus Now a prick to the heart is more then a wound to the conscience The heart is the seat of life Sin wounded there lies a dying To do any thing from the heart makes it acceptable Eph. 6.6 Now poor soul hadst thou sate thus long in the devils stocks if thou hadst understood this aright doth thy heart clear or condemn thee when in secret thou art bemoaning thy sin before God if thy heart be false I cannot help you no not the Gospel it self but if sincere thou hast boldnesse with God A second argument Satan useth is this He whose sorrow falls short of theirs that never truly repented he is not humbled enough But soul thy sorrow falls short of some that never truly repented Ergo. Well the first Proposition is true but how will Satan prove his minor Thus Ahab he took on for his sin and went in sack-cloth Judas he made bitter complaint O saith Satan didst thou not know such a one that lay under terrour of conscience walking in a sad mournful condition so many moneths and every one took him for the greatest Convert in the countrey and yet he at last fell foully and proved an Apostate but thou never didst feel such smart passe so many weary nights and days in mourning and bitter lamentation as he hath done therefore thou fallest short of one that fell short of repentance And truly this is a sad stumbling block to a soul in an houre of temptation Like a ship sunk in the mouth of the harbour which is more dangerous to others then if it had perisht in the open sea There is lesse scandal by the sins of the wicked who sink as it were in the broad sea of profanenesse then in those who are convinced of sin troubled in conscience and miscarry so near the harbour within sight as it were of saving grace Tempted soules can hardly get over these without dashing Am I better then such a one that proved naught at last Now to help thee a little to finde out the fallacy of this argument we must distinguish between the terrours that accompany sorrow and the intrinsecal nature of this grace The first which are necessary may be separated from the other as the raging of the sea which is caused by the winde from the sea when the winde is down From this distinction take two Conclusions First one may fall short of an hypocrite in the terrours that sometimes accompany sorrow and yet have the truth of this grace which the other with all his terrours wants Christians run into many mistakes by judging rather according to that which is accessary then that which is essential to the nature of duties and graces Sometimes thou hearest one pray with a moving expression while thou canst hardly get out a few broken words in duty and thou art ready to accuse thy self and to admire him as if the gilt of the Key made it open the door the better thou seest another abound with joy which thou wantest and are ready to conclude his grace more and thine lesse whereas thou mayest have more real grace only thou wantest a light to shew thee where it lies Take heed of judging by accessaries perhaps thou hast not heard so much of the ratling of the chains of hell nor in thy conscience the out-cries of the damned to make thy flesh tremble but hast thou not seen that in a bleeding Christ which hath made thy heart melt and mourne yea loath and hate thy lusts more then the devil himself Truly Christian 't is strange to hear a Patient complain of his Physician when he findes his Physick work effectually to the evacuating of his distempered humours and the restoring his health meerly because he was not so sick as some others with the working of it soule thou hast more reason to be blessing God that the convictions of his Spirit wrought so kindly on thee to effect that in thee without those terrours which have cost others so dear Secondly this is so weak an argument that contrariwise the more the terrours are the lesse the sorrow is for sin while they remain These are indeed preparatory sometimes to sorrow they go before this grace as austere John before meek Jesus But as John went down when Christ went up his increase was Johns decrease so as true godly sorrow goes up these terrours go down As the winde gathers the clouds but those clouds seldom melt into a set rain until the winde falls that gathered them so these terrours raise the clouds of our sins in our consciences but when these sins melt into godly sorrow this layes the storme
them that gives them plums But 't is strange that a Saint should be at a losse for his afflicted state when he hath a Key to decipher Gods character Christian hath not God secretly instructed thee by his Spirit from the Word how to reade the short-hand of his Providence doest not thou know that the Saints afflictions stand for blessings Every son whom he loves he corrects and prosperity in a wicked state must it not be read a curse doth not God damne such to be rich honourable victorious in this world as well as to be tormented in another world God gives them more of these then they seem to desire sometimes and all to binde them faster up in a deep sleep of security as Jael served Sisera he shall have milk though he asked but water that she might naile him the surer to the ground Milk having a property as some write to encline to sleep SECT IV. Fourthly be careful to keep thy old receits which thou hast had from God for the pardon of thy sins There are some gaudy dayes and Jubilee-like Festivals when God comes forth clothed with the robes of his mercy and holds forth the Scepter of his grace more familiarly to his children then ordinary bearing witnesse to their faith sincerity c. and then the firmament is clear not a cloud to be seen to darken the Christians comfort Love and joy are the soules repast and pastime while this feast lasts Now when God withdrawes and this chear is taken off Satans work is how he may deface and weare off the remembrance of this testimony which the soule so triumphs in for its spiritual standing that he may not have it as an evidence when he shall bring about the suite again and put the soule to produce his writings for his spiritual state or renounce his claim It behoves thee therefore to lay them up safely such a testimony may serve to non-suit thy accuser many yeares hence one affirmative from Gods mouth for thy pardoned state carries more weight though of old date then a thousand negatives from Satans Davids Songs of old spring in with a light to his soule in his midnight-sorrowes Quest But what counsel would you give me saith the distressed soul who cannot fasten on my former comforts nor dare to vouch those evidences which once I thought true I finde indeed there have been some treaties of old between God and my soule some hopes I have had but these are now so defaced and interlined with back-slidings repentances and falls again that now I question all my evidences whether true or counterfeit what should one in this case do Answ First renew thy repentance as if thou hadst never repented Put forth fresh acts of faith as if thou hadst never believed This seriously done will stop Satans mouth with an unexpected answer Let him object against thy former actings as hypocritical what can he say against thy present repenting and beleeving which if true sets thee beyond his shot It will be harder for Satan to disprove the present workings of Gods gracious Spirit whilest the impressions thereof are fresh then to pick an hole in thy old deeds and evidences Acts are transient and as wicked men look at sins committed many yeares since as little or none by reason of that breadth of time which interposeth so the Christian upon the same account stands at great disadvantage to take the true aspect of those acts of grace which so long ago passed between God and him though sometimes even these are of great use As God can make a sinner possesse the sins of his youth as if they were newly acted to his terrour in his old age so God can present the comforts and evidences which of old the Saint received with those very thoughts he had then of them as if they were fresh and new And therefore secondly If yet he haunts thee with the feares of thy spiritual estate ply thee to the throne of grace and beg a new copy of thy old evidence which thou hast lost The Original is in the Pardon-Office in Heaven whereof Christ is Master if thou beest a Saint thy name is upon record in that Court make thy moane to God heare what newes from Heaven rather then listen to the tales which are brought by thine enemie from hell Did such reason lesse with Satan and pray over their feares more to God they might sooner be resolved Can you expect truth from a liar and comfort from an enemy Did he ever prophesie well of believers Was not Job the Devils hypocrite whom God vouch't for a non-such in holinesse and prov'd him so at last If he knew thou wert a Saint would he tell thee so if an hypocrite he would be as loath thou shouldest know it turn thy back therefore on him and go to thy God feare not but sooner or later he will give his hand again to thy Certificate But look thou doest not rashly passe a censure on thy self because a satisfactory answer is not presently sent at thy desire the Messenger may stay long and bring good newes at last Thirdly shun battel with thine enemy while thou art in a fitter posture and that thou mayest draw into thy trenches and make an honourable retreat into those fastnesses and strengths which Christ hath provided for his sick and wounded souldiers Now there are two places of advantage into which deserted souls may retire the Name of God and the absolute Promises of the Gospel these I may call the faire Havens which are then chiefly of use when the storme is so great that the ship cannot live at sea O saith Satan doest thou hope to see God none but the pure in heart shall be blest with that vision Think'st thou to have comfort that is the portion of the Mourners in spirit Now soule though thou canst not say in the hurry of temptation thou art the pure and the Mourner in spirit yet then say thou believest God is able to work these in thee yea hath promised such a mercy to poor sinners 't is his Covenant He will give a new heart a clean heart a soft heart and here I wait knowing as there was nothing in the creature to move the great God to make such Promises so there can be nothing in the creature to hinder the Almighty his performance of them where and when he pleaseth This act of faith accompanied with a longing desire after that grace thou canst not yet finde and an attendance on the meanes though it will not fully satisfie all thy doubts may be yet will keep thy head above water that thou despairest not and such a shore thou need'st in this case or the house falls Fourthly If yet Satan dogs thee call in help and keep not the devils counsel The very strength of some temptations lies in the concealing of them and the very revealing of them to some faithful friend like the opening and pricking of an imposthume gives the soule present ease
in their holy course by the scandal he hath given but God here befooles him First making the miscarriages of such a seasonable caveat to others to look to their standing Doest thou see a meek Moses provok't to anger what watch and ward hast thou need keep over thy unruly heart though loud winds do some hurt by blowing down here a loose tyle and there a turret which was falling before yet the common good surmounts the private damage of some few these being as a broom in Gods hand to sweep and cleanse the aire so though some that are wicked are by Gods righteous judgement for the same hardened into further abominations by the Saints falls yet the good which sincere soules receive by having their formality and security in a further degree purged doth abundantly countervaile the other who are but sent a little faster whither they were going before Secondly God makes his Saints falls an argument for comfort to distressed consciences This hath been and is as a feather when the passage seems so stop't that no comfort can be got down otherwise to drop a little hope into the soule to keep the creature alive from falling into utter despair some have been revived with this when next door to hell in their own feares Davids sin was great yet found mercy Peter fell foully yet now in heaven Why sittest thou here O my soul under the hatches of despair up and call upon thy God for mercy who hath pardoned the same to others Thirdly God hath a design in suffering Satan to trounce some of his Saints by temptation to train them up into a fitnesse to succour their fellow-brethren in the like condition he sends them hither to school where they are under Satans ferular and lash that his cruel hand over them may make them study the Word and their own hearts by which they get experience of Satans policies till at last they commence Masters in this Art of comforting tempted soules It is an Art by it self to speak a word in season to the weary soule 't is not serving out an Apprenticeship to humane Arts will furnish a man for this great Doctors have proved very dunces here knowing no more how to handle a wounded conscience then a Rustick the Chirurgions instrument in dissecting the body when an Anatomy-Lecture is to be read 'T is not the knowledge of the Scripture though a man were as well acquainted with it as the Apothecary with his pots and glasses in his shop able to go directly to any promise on a sudden will suffice No not grace it selfe except exercised with these buffetings and soul-conflicts Christ himself we finde trained up in this school Isa 50.4 He wakeneth mine eare to heare as the learned Even as the Tutor calls up his Pupil to reade to him and what is the Lecture which is read to Christ that he may have the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season to the weary soule see vers 5. The Lord hath opened mine eare and I was not rebellious neither turned I away my back I gave my back to the smiters c. His sufferings which were all along mingled with temptations were the Lecture from which Christ came out so learned to resolve and comfort distressed soules So that the devil had better have let Christ alone yea and his Saints also who do him but the greater disservice in comforting others none will handle poor soules so gently as those who remember the smart of their owne heart-sorrowes none so skilful in applying the comforts of the Word to wounded consciences as those who have layen bleeding themselves such know the symptomes of soul-troubles and feel others pains in their own bosomes which some that know the Scriptures for sack of experience do not and therefore are like a novice Physician who perhaps can tell you every plant in the Herbal yet wanting the practick part when a Patient comes knowes not well how to make use of his skill The Saints experiences help them to a soveraign treacle made of the Scorpions own flesh which they through Christ have slain and that hath a vertue above all other to expel the venome of Satans temptations from the heart SECT III. Thirdly Satan in tempting the Saint to sin labours to make a breach between God and the soule He hates both and therefore labours to divide these dear friends If I can thinks he get such a one to sin God will be angry and when angry he 'll whip his childe foundly this will be some sport and when God is correcting the Saint he 'll be questioning the love of God to him and cooles in his love to God so though I should not keep him from heaven at last yet he shall have little joy thither in the way In this case God and the soul will be like man and wife fallen out who neither of them look kindly one upon another Now see how God befooles Satan in both these First God useth his Saints temptations as his method by which he advanceth the communications of his love unto them The devil thought he had got the goale when he got Adam to eate the forbidden fruit he thought now he had man in the same predicament with himself as unlikely ever to see the face of God as those Apostate spirits but alas this was by God intended to usher in that great Gospel-plot of saving man by Christ who assoon as this Prologue of mans fall is done is brought upon the stage in that grand Promise of the Gospel made to Adam and at Gods command undertakes the charge of recovering lost man out of Satans clutches and re-instating him in his primitive glory with an accesse of more then ever man had at first so that the meanest lilly in Christs field exceeds Adam in all his native Royalty And as Satan sped in his first temptation so he is still on the losing hand what got he by all his paines upon Job but to let that holy man know at last how dearly God loved him When he foiled Peter so shamefully do we not finde Christ owning Peter with as much love as ever Peter must be the only disciple to whom by name the joyful newes of his resurrection is sent Go tell my disciples and Peter As if Christ had said Be sure let his sad heart be comforted with this newes that he may know I am friends with him for all his late cowardise Quest But doth not this seem to countenance sin and make Christians heedlesse whether they fall into temptation or no If God do thus shew his love to his Saints after their falls and foiles why should we be so shy of sin which ends so well at last Answ Two things will prevent the danger of such an inference First we must distinguish between a soules being foiled through his own infirmity and his enemies subtilty and power over-matching him and another who through a false heart doth voluntarily prostrate himself to the lust of
Satan though a General will shew little pity to a souldier that should traiterously throw down his armes and run to the enemy yet if another in fighting receives a wound and be worsted it will be no dishonour for him to expresse his pity and love no though he should send him out of the field in his own coach lay him in his own bed and appoint him his own Chirurgion God doth not encourage wickednesse in his Saints but pities weaknesse Even when the Saints fall into a sin in its nature presumptuous they do not commit it so presumptuously as others there is a part true to God in their bosomes though over-voted Moses spake unadvisedly but the devil had his instruments to provoke him quite against the good mans temper David numbers the people but see how the devil dogg'd and hunted him till at last he got the better 1 Chron. 21.1 Satan stood up and provoked David to number Israel How bravely did Job repel Satans darts no wonder if in such a shower some one should get between the joynts of his armour And for Peter we know good man with what a loyal heart yea zealous he went into the field though when the enemy appear'd his heart fail'd him Secondly consider but the way how God communicates his love after his Saints falls not in sinning or for sinning but in mourning and humbling their souls for their sins Indeed did God smile on them while acting sinfully this might strengthen their sin as wine in a feaver would the disease but when the fit is off the venome of the disease spent and breathed out in a kindly humiliation now the creature lies low Gods wine of comfort is a cordial to the drooping spirit not fuel for sin When David was led into temptation first he must be clad in sack-cloth and mourning and then God takes it off and puts on the garment of joy and praise 1 Chron. 21.10 15. Job though he exprest so much courage and patience yet bewraying some infirmities after he was baited long by so many fresh dogs men and devils he must cry peccavi and abhor himself in dust and ashes before God will take him into his armes Job 42.6 and the same way God takes with all his children Now to his Saints in such a posture God may with safety to his honour and their good give a larger draught of his love then ordinary their feares and sorrow which their sin hath cost them will serve instead of water to dash this strong wine of joy and take away its headinesse that it neither fume up into pride nor occasion them to reele backward into Apostasie Quest But why doth God now communicate his love Answ 1 First from his own pitiful nature You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lordis very pitiful and of tender mercy God loves not to rake in bleeding wounds he knowes a mourning soul is subject to be discouraged A frown or an angry look from God whom the Saint so dearly loves must needs go near the heart therefore God declares himself at hand to revive such Isa 57 15. and he gives the reason verse 16. For I will not contend for ever neither will I be alwayes wreth for the spirit should faile before me Whose spirit is there meant not of the presumptuous sinner he goes on and never blunks but of the contrite and humble ones As the father observes the disposition of his children one commits a fault and goes on rebelliously despising his fathers anger another when offending him layes it to heart refuseth to eat gets into some corner to lament the displeasure of his father the father sees it and his bowels yerne towards him Indeed should he not put his childe out of feare by discovering his love the spirit of such a one would faile 't is not possible there should be a long breach between such a father and such a son the one relenting over his sin the other over his mourning son Secondly God doth thus to poure the greater shame upon Satan who is the great make-bate between God and the soule How is the man ashamed that hath stirr'd up variance between husband and wife father and son to see the breach made up and all set themselves against him It went ill on Christs side when Herod and Pilate were made friends and can it go well with Satan to see all well between God and his children If Esther be in favour Haman her enemy shall have his face covered Indeed this covers Satans face with shame to see a poor Saint even now his prisoner whom he had leave to rob and plunder tempt and disquiet now sitting in the Sun-shine of Gods love while he like a ravening Lion takes on for the losse of his prey Secondly Satans aime is to weaken the Saints faith on God and cool his love to God but befool'd in both for first God turnes their temptations yea their falls to the further establishment of their faith which like the tree stands stronger for its shaking or like the Gyant Anteus who in his wrestling with Hercules is feigned to get strength by every fall to the ground False faith indeed once foiled seldom comes on again but true faith riseth and fights more valiantly as we see in Peter and other Scripture-examples Temptation to faith is as fire to gold 1 Pet. 1.7 The fire doth not only discover which is true gold but makes the true gold more pure it comes out may be lesse in bulk and weight because severed from that soile and drosse which embased it but more in value and worth when Satan is bound up and the Christian walks under the shines of divine favour and encouragement of divine assistance his faith may appear great if compared with another under the withdrawings of God and buffetings of Satan but this is not equall judging as if to try who is biggest of two men we should measure one naked and the other over his clothes or in comparing two pieces of gold weigh one with the drosse and dirt it contracts in the purse with the other purged from these in the fire faith before temptation hath much heterogeneal stuffe that cleaves to it and goes for faith but when temptation comes these are discovered Now the Christian feels corruption stir which lay as dead before now a cloud comes between the soule and the sweet face of God the sense of which latter and the little sense of the other bore up his faith before but these bladders prick't he comes now to learne the true stroke in this heavenly Art of swimming on the promise having nothing else to beat him up but that and a little of this carries more of the precious nature of faith in it then all the other yea is like Gideons handful of men stronger when all these accessaries to faith are sent away then when they were present and here is all the devil gets in stead
of destroying his faith which he aimes at he is the occasion of the refining of it and thereby adding to its strength Secondly the love of tempted Saints is enkindled to Christ by their temptations and foiles in their temptations Possibly in the fit there may seem a damp upon their love as when water is first sprinkled upon the fire but when the Conflict is a little over and the Christian comes to himself his love to Christ will break out like a vehement flame First the shame and sorrow which a gracious soule must needs feele in his bosome for his sinful miscarriage while under the temptation will provoke him to expresse his love to Christ above others as is sweetly set forth in the Spouse who when the cold fit of her distemper was off and the temptation over bestirs her to purpose her lazy sicknesse is turned to love-sicknesse she findes it as hard now to sit as she did before to rise she can rest in no place out of her Beloveds sight but runs and asks every one she meets for him and whence came all this vehemency of her zeale all occasioned by her undutiful carriage to her husband she parted so unkindly with him that bethinking what she had done away she goes to make her peace If sins committed in unregeneracy have such a force upon a gracious soule that the thought of them though pardoned will still break and melt the heart into sorrow as we see in Magdalen and prick on to shew zeal for God above others as in Paul how much more will the sins of a Saint who after sweet acquaintance with Jesus Christ lifts up the heel against that bosome where he hath layen affect yea dissolve the heart as into so many drops of water and that sorrow provoke him to serve God at a higher rate then others No childe so dutiful in all the family as he who is return'd from his rebellion Again secondly as his own shame so the experience which such a one hath of Christs love above others will encrease his love Christs love is fuel to ours Ex iisdem nutrimur quibus constamus as it gives its being so it affords growth It is both Mother and Nurse to our love The more Christ puts forth his love the more heat our love gets and next to Christs dying love none greater then his succouring love in temptation The Mother never hath such advantage to shew her affection to her childe as when in distresse sick poor or imprisoned so neither hath Christ to his children as when tempted yea worsted by temptation When his children lie in Satans prison bleeding under the wounds of their consciences this is the season he takes to give an experiment of his tender heart in pitying his faithfulnesse in praying for them his mindfulnesse in sending succour to them yea his dear love in visiting them by his comforting Spirit Now when the soul hath got off some great temptation and reades the whole history thereof together wherein he findes what his own weaknesse was to resist Satan nay his unfaithfulnesse in complying with Satan which might have provok't Christ to leave him to the fury of Satan now to see both his folly pardoned and ruine graciously prevented and that by no other hand but Christs coming in to his rescue as Abishai to David when that gyant thought to have flaine him This must needs exceedingly endear Christ to the soul At the reading of such records the Christian cannot but enquire as Ahashuerus concerning Mordecai who by discovering a treason had saved the Kings life what honour hath been done to his sweet Saviour for all this And thus Jesus Christ whom Satan thought to bring out of the soules favour and liking comes in the end to sit higher and surer in the Saints affections then ever CHAP. X. A brief Application of the Point in two Branches Vse 1 THis affords a reason why God suffers his dear children to fall into temptation because he is able to out-shoot Satan in his own bowe and in the thing wherein he thinks to out-wit the Christian to be above him God will not only be admired by his Saints in glory for his love in their salvation but for his wisdom in the way to it The love of God in saving them will be the sweet draught at the marriage-feast and the rare wisdom of God in effecting this as the curious workmanship with which the cup shall be enamel'd Now wisdom appears most in untying knots and wading through difficulties The more crosse wards there are in a businesse the more wisdome to fit a key to the lock to make choice of such means as shall meet with the several turnings in the same On purpose therefore doth God suffer such temptations to intervene that his wisdom may be the more admired in opening all these and leading his Saints that way to glory by which Satan thought to have brought them to hell The Israelites are bid remember all the way that God led them in the wildernesse for fourty yeares Deut. 8.2 The History of these warres Christian will be pleasant to reade in heaven though bloody to fight on earth Moses and Elias talk't with Christ on Tabor an Embleme of the sweet communion which shall passe between Christ and his Saints in glory and what was their talk Luke 9.30 but of his death and sufferings It seems a discourse of our sufferings and temptations are not too low a subject for that blisseful state Indeed this left out would make a blemish in the faire face of Heavens glory Could the damned forget the way they went into hell how oft the Spirit of God was wooing and how far they were overcome by the conviction of it in a word how many turnes and returnes there were in their journey forward and backward what possibilities yea probabilities they had for heaven when on earth were but some hand so kinde as to blot these tormenting passages out of their memories it would ease them wonderfully So were it possible glorified Saints could forget the way wherein they went to glory and the several dangers that interven'd from Satan and their own back-sliding hearts they and their God too would be losers by it I mean in regard of his manifestative glory What is the glory wherein God appears at Zions deliverance those royal garments of salvation that make him so admired of men and Angels but the celebration of all his Attributes according to what every one hath done towards their salvation Now wisdom being that which the creature chiefly glories in and chosen by Satan for his first bait who made Eve believe she should be like God in knowledge and wisdome therefore God to give Satan the more shameful fall gives him leave to use his wits and wiles in tempting and troubling his children in which lies his great advantage over the Saints that so the way to his own Throne where his Wisdome shall at last as well as his mercy sit in
is most personal that corruption which David calls his own iniquity Psal 18.23 This is the skirt which Satan layes hold of observe what it is and mortifie it daily then Satan will retreat with shame when he sees the head of that enemy upon the wall which should have betrayed thee into his hands Secondly the Romane wrestlers used to anoint their bodies so do thou bathe thy soul with the frequent meditation of Christs love Satan will finde little welcome where Christs love dwells love will kindle love and that will be as a wall of fire to keep off Satan it will make thee disdain the offer of a sinne and as oile supple thy joynts and make agile to offend thy enemy Think how Christ wrestled in thy quarrel sin hell and wrath had all come full mouth upon thee had not he coped with them in the way And canst thou finde in thy heart to requite his love by betraying his glory into the hands of sin by cowardise or treachery say not thou lovest him so long as thou canst lay those sins in thy bosome which pluck't his heart out of his bosome It were strange if a childe should keep and delight to use no other knife but that wherewith his father was stabb'd Thirdly improve the advantage thou gettest at any time wisely Sometimes the Christian hath his enemy on the hip yea on the ground can set his foot on the very neck of his pride and throw away his unbelief as a thing absurd and unreasonable now as a wise wrestler fall with all thy weight upon thine enemy though man think it foule play to strike when his adversary is down yet do not thou so complement with sin as to let it breath or rise Take heed thou beest not charged of God as once Ahab for letting go this enemy now in thy hands whom God hath appointed to destruction Learne a little wisdome of the Serpents brood who when they had Christ under their foot never thought they had him sure enough no not when dead and therefore both seale and watch his grave Thus do thou to hinder the resurrection of thy sin seal it down with stronger purposes solemn covenants and watch it by a wakeful circumspect walking Vse 3 This is ground of consolation to the weak Christian who disputes against the truth of his grace from the inward conflicts and fightings he hath with his lusts and is ready to say like Gideon in regard of outward enemies If God be with me why is all this befallen me why do I finde such struglings in me provoking me to sin pulling me back from that which is good Why doest ask The Answer is soon given because thou art a Wrestler not a Conquerour Thou mistakest the state of a Châ—istian in this life when one is made a Christian he is not presently call'd to triumph over his slaine enemies but carried into the field to meet and fight them The state of grace is rhe commencing of a war against sin not the ending of it rather then thou shalt not have an enemy to wrestle with God himself will come in a disguise into the field and appear to be thine enemy Thus when Jacob was alone a man wrestled with him until breaking of the day and therefore set thy heart at rest if this be thy scruple Thy soule may rather take comfort in this that thou art a wrestler This strugling within thee if upon the right ground and to the right end doth evidence there are two Nations within thee two contrary natures the one from earth earthly and the other from heaven heavenly yea for thy further comfort know though thy corrupt nature be the elder yet it shall serve the younger Vse 4 O how should this make thee Christian long to be gone home where there is none of this stir and scuffle 'T is strange that every houre seems not a day and everyday a year till death sounds thy joyful retreat and calls thee off the field where the bullets flie so thick and thou art fighting for thy life with thy deadly enemies to come to Court where not swords but palmes are seen in the Saints hands not drums but harps not groanes of bleeding souldiers and wounded consciences but sweet and ravishing musick is heard of triumphing Victors caroling the praises of God and the Lambe through whom they have overcome Well Christians while you are below comfort your selves with these things There is a place of Rest remains for the people of God You do not beat the aire but wrestle for a Heaven that is yonder above these clouds you have your worst first the best will follow You wrestle but to win a Crown and win to wear it yea wear never to lose it which once on none shall take off or put you to the hazard of battel more Here we overcome to fight again the battel of one temptation may be over but the war remaines What peace can we have as long as devils can come abroad out of their holes or anything of sinful nature remains in our selves unmortified which will even fight upon its knees and strike with one arme while the other is cut off but when death comes the last stroak is struck this good Physician will perfectly cure thee of thy spiritual blindnesse and lamenesse as the Martyr told his fellow at the stake bloody Bonner would do their bodily What is it Christian which takes away the joy of thy life but the wrestlings and combates which this bosome-enemy puts thee to Is not this the Peninnah that vexing and disturbing thy Spirit hath kept thee off many a sweet meale thou mightest have had in communion with God and his Saints or if thou hast come hath made thee cover the Altar of God with thy teares and groans and will it not be a happy hand that cuts the knot and sets thee loose from thy deadnesse hypocrisie pride and what not wherewith thou wert yoak't 'T is life which is thy losse and death which is thy gaine Be but willing to endure the rending of this vaile of thy flesh and thou art where thou wouldest be out of the reach of sin at rest in the bosome of thy God And why should a short evil of paine affright thee more then the deliverance from a continual torment of sins evil ravish thee Some you know have chose to be cut rather then to be ground daily with the stone and yet may be their pain comes again and canst thou not quietly think of dying to be delivered from the torment of these sins never to return more And yet that is not the half that death doth for thee Peace is sweet after war ease after pain but what tongue can expresse what joy what glory must fill the creature at the first sight of God and that blessed company none but one that dwells there can tell Did we know more of that blisseful state we Ministers should finde it as hard a work to perswade Christians to be
willing to live here so long as now it is to perswade them to be willing to die so soon CHAP II. Wherein is shewed what is meant by flesh and blood how the Christian doth not and how he doth wrestle against the same SECT I. NOw followes the description of the Saints enemies with whom he is to wrestle First described Negatively Not with flesh and blood Secondly Positively But against Principalities and Powers c. First for the Negative part of the Description we are not to take it for a pure negation as if we had no conflict with flesh and blood but wholly and solely to engage against Satan but by way of comparison not only with flesh and blood and in some sense not chiefly It is usual in Scripture such manner of phrase Luke 14.12 Call not thy friends to dinner but the poore that is not only those so as to neglect the poor Now what is meant here by flesh and blood there is a double interpretation of the words First by flesh and blood may be meant our own bosome-corruptions that sin which is in our corrupt nature so oft called flesh in the Scripture The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and sometimes flesh and blood as Matth. â—6 17 Flesh and blood hath not revealed this that is this Confession thou hast made comes from above thy fleshly corrupt minde could never have found out this supernatural truth thy sinful Will would never have embraced it So 1 Cor 15.20 Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God that is sinful mortal flesh as it 's expounded in the words following So Gal. 1.21 I consulted not with flesh and blood that is carnal reason Now this bosome-enemy may be called flesh partly from its derivation and partly from its operation from its derivation because it 's derived and propagated to us by natural generation thus Adam is said to beget a son in his own likenesse sinful as he was as well as mortal and miserable yea the holiest Saint on earth having flesh in him derives this corrupt and sinful nature to his childe as the circumcised Jew begat an uncircumcised childe and the wheat cleans'd and fann'd being sowen comes up with a husk John 3.6 That which is borne of the flesh is flesh Secondly it s call'd flesh from the operations of this corrupt nature which are fleshly and carnal The reasonings of the corrupt minde fleshly therefore called the carnal minde uncapable indeed of the things of God which it neither doth nor can perceive As the Sunne doth obsignare superiora dum revelat inferiora hide the Heavens which are above it from us while it reveales things beneath so carnal reason leaves the creature in the dark concerning spiritual truths when it is most able to conceive and discourse of creature-excellencies and carnal interests here below What a childish question for so wise a man did Nicodemus put to Christ though Christ to help him did wrap his speech in a carnal phrase If fleshly reason cannot understand spiritual truths when thus accommodated and the notions of the Gospel translated into its own language what skill is it like to have of them if put to reade them in their original tongue I mean if this garment of carnal expression were taken off and spiritual truths in their naked hue presented to its view The motions of the natural will are carnal and therefore Rom. 8.5 They that are after the flesh are said to minde the things of the flesh All its desires delights cares feares are in and of carnal things it savours spiritual food no more then an Angel fleshly Omnis vita gustu ducitur What we cannot relish we will hardly make our daily food Every creature hath its proper diet the Lion eats not grasse nor the horse flesh what is food to the carnal heart is poison to the gracious and that which is pleasing to the gracious is distastful to the carnal Now according to this Interpretation the sense of the Apostle is not as if the Christian had no combate with his corrupt nature for in another place it 's said the Spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh against the Spirit and this enemy is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sin that besets the Christian round but to aggravate his conflict with this enemy by the accesse of a forreign power Satan who strikes in with this domestick enemy As if while a King is fighting with his own mutinous subjects some out-landish troops should joyne with them now he may be said not to fight with his subjects but with a forrein power The Christian wrestles not with his naked corruption but with Satan in them were there no devil yet we should have our hands full in resisting the corruptions of our own hearts but the accesse of this enemy makes the battel more terrible because he heads them who is a Captain so skilful and experienced Our sin is the engine Satan is the Engineer lust the bait Satan the Angler when a soule is enticed by his own lust he is said to be tempted James 1.14 because both Satan and our own lust concur to the compleating the sinne First let this make thee Christian ply the work of mortification close it is no policy to let thy lusts have armes who are sure to rise and declare against thee when thine enemy comes Achish his Nobles did but wisely in that they would not trust David in their army when to fight against Israel lest in the battel he should be an adversary to them And darest thou go to duty or engage in any action where Satan will appear against thee and not endeavour to make sure of thy pride unbelief c. that they joyne not with thine enemy Secondly are Satan and thy own flesh against thee not single corruption but edged with his policy and backed by his power see then what need thou hast of more help then thy owne grace take heed of grapling with him in the strength of thy naked grace here thou hast two to one against thee Satan was too hard for Adam though he went so well appointed into the field because left to himself much more easily will he foile thee cling therfore about thy God for strength get him with thee and then though a worme thou shalt be able to deal with this Serpent SECT II. Secondly flesh and blood is interpreted as a periphrasis of man We wrestle not with flesh and blood that is not with man who is here described by that part which chiefly distinguisheth him from the Angelical nature Touch me saith Christ and handle me a Spirit hath not flesh Now according to this Interpretation observe First how meanly the Spirit of God speaks of man Secondly where he layes the stresse of the Saints battel not in resisting flesh and blood but Principalities and Powers where the Apostle excludes not our combate with man for the war is against the Serpent and his seed As wide as
other works of God empty themselves as rivers into this sea losing their names or rather swelling into one of Redemption Had not Satan taken Gods Elect prisoners they would not have gone to heaven with such acclamations of triumph There are three expressions of a great joy in Scripture the joy of a woman after her travel the joy of harvest and the joy of him that divideth the spoil the exultaton of all these is wrought upon a sad ground many a paine and teare it costs the travelling woman many a feare the husbandman perils and wounds the souldier before they come at their joy but at last are paid for all the remembrance of their past sorrows feeding their present joyes Had Christ come and entered into affinity with our nature and return'd peaceably to heaven with his Spouse finding no resistance though this would have been admirable love and that would have afforded the joy of marriage yet this way of carrying his Saints to heaven will greaten the joy as it addes to the nuptial Song the triumph of a Conquerour who hath rescued his Bride out of the hands of Satan as he was leading her to the chambers of hell SECT III. Vse 1 Is Satan such a great Prince try whose subject thou art His Empire is large only a few priviledg'd who are translated into the Kingdome of Gods dear Son even in Christs own territories visible Church I mean where his Name is profest and the Scepter of his Gospel held forth there Satan hath his subjects As Christ had his Saints in Nero's Court so the devil his servants in the outward Court of his visible Church Thou must therefore have something more to exempt thee from his Government then living within the pale and giving an outward conformity to the Ordinances of Christ Satan will yield to this and be no loser As a King lets his Merchants trade to yea live in a forreign Kingdome and while they are there learn the language and observe the customes of the place this breaks not their allegiance nor all that thy loyalty to Satan When a Statute was made in Queen Elizabeths reign that all should come to Church the Papists sent to Rome to know the Popes pleasure he return'd them this answer as 't is said Bid the Catholicks in England give me their heart and let the Queen take the rest His subject thou art whom thou crownest in thy heart and not whom thou flatterest with thy lips But to bring the trial to an issue know thou belongest to one of these and but to one Christ and Satan divide the whole world Christ will bear no equal and Satan no Superiour and therefore hold in with both thou canst not Now if thou sayest Christ be thy Prince answer to these Interrogatories First how came he into the throne Satan had once the quiet possession of thy heart thou wast by birth as the rest of thy neighbours Satans vassal yea hast oft vouch't him in the course of thy life to be thy Liege Lord how then comes this great change Satan surely would not of his own accord resigne his Crown and Scepter to Christ and for thy self thou wert neither willing to renounce nor able to resist his power this then must only be the fruit of Christs victorious armes whom God hath exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour Asts 5.31 Speak therefore hath Christ come to thee as once Abraham to Lot when prisoner to Kederlaomer rescuing thee out of Satans hands as he was leading thee in chains of lust to hell Didst thou ever hear a voice from heaven in the Ministery of the Word calling out to thee as once to Saul so as to lay thee at Gods foot and make thee face about for heaven to strike thee blinde in thine own apprehension who before hadst a good opinion of thy state to tame and meeken thee so as how thou art willing to be led by the hand of a childe after Christ Did ever Christ come to thee as the Angel to Peter in prison rowsing thee up and not only causing the chaines of darknesse and stupidity to fall off thy minde and conscience but make thee obedient also that the iron gate of thy Will hath opened to Christ before he left thee then thou hast something to say for thy freedome But if in all this I be a Barbarian and the language I speak be strange thou knowest no such work to have passed upon thy spirit then thou art yet in thy old prison can there be a change of Government in a Nation by a Conquerour that invades it and the subjects not heare of this one King unthroned and another crowned in thy soule and thou hear no scuffle all this while The regenerating Spirit is compared to the winde John 3.8 His first attempts on the soule may be so secret that the creature knows not whence they come or whither they tend but before he hath done the sound will be heard throughout the soule so as it cannot but see a great change in it self and say I that was blinde now I see I that was as hard as ice now relenting for sin now my heart gives I can melt and mourne for it I that was well enough without a Christ yea did wonder what others saw in him to make such a do for him now have changed my note with the Daughters of Jerusalem and for what is your Beloved as I scornfully have ask't I have learn't to ask where he is that I might seek him with you O soul canst thou say 't is thus with thee thou mayest know who has been here no lesse then Christ who by his victorious Spirit hath translated thee from Satans power into his own sweet Kingdom Secondly whose law doest thou freely subject thy self unto the lawes of these Princes are as contrary as their natures the one a law of sin Rom. 8.2 the other a law of holinesse Rom. 7.12 and therefore if sin hath not so far bereav'd thee of thy wits as not to know sin from holinesse thou mayest except resolve to cheat thy own soul soon be resolved confesse therefore and give glory to God to which of these laws doth thy soule set its seal When Satan sendes out his Proclamation and bids sinner goe set thy foot upon such a command of God observe what is thy behaviour doest thou yield thy self as Paul phraseth it Rom. 6.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a metaphor from Princes servants or others who are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to present themselves before their Lord as ready and at hand to do their pleasure by which the Apostle elegantly describes the forwardnesse of the sinners heart to come to Satans foot when knock or call Now doth thy soule go out thus to meet thy lust as Aaron his brother glad to see its face in an occasion thou art not brought over to sin with much ado but thou likest the command Transgresse at Gilgal saith God this liketh you well Hos 4.5 As
a Courtier who doth not only obey but thank his Prince that he 'll employ him Need'st thou be long in resolving whose thou art did ever any question whether those were Jeroboams subjects who willingly followed his command Hos 5.11 Alas for thee thou art under the power of Satan tied by a chaine stronger then brasse or iron thou lovest thy lust A Saint may be for a time under a force sold under sin as the Apostle bemoans and therefore glad when deliverance comes but thou sellest thy self to work iniquity If Christ should come to take thee from thy lusts thou wouldest whine after them as Micah after his gods Thirdly to whom goest thou for protection as it belongs to the Prince to protect his subjects so Princes expect their subjects should trust them with their safety the very bramble bids Iudg. 9.15 If in truth ye anoint me King then put your trust under my shadow Now who hath thy confidence Darest thou trust God with thy soule and the affaires of it in well-doing Good subjects follow their calling commit State-matters to the wisdom of their Prince and his Councel when wrong'd they appeal to their Prince in his Laws for right and when they do offend their Prince they submit to the penalty of the Law and beare his displeasure patiently till humbling themselves they recover his favour and do not in a discontent fall to open rebellion Thus a gracious soule follows his Christian calling committing himself to God as a faithful Creatour to be ordered by his wise Providence If he meets with violence from any he scornes to beg aid of the devil to help him or be his own Judge to right himself No he acquiesceth in the counsel and comfort the Word of God gives him If himself offends and so comes under the lash of Gods correcting hand he doth not then take up rebellious armes against God and refuse to receive correction but saith Why should a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sin whereas a naughty heart dares not venture his estate life credit or any thing he hath with God in well-doing he thinks he shall be undone presently if he sits still under the shadow of Gods promise for protection and therefore he runs from God as from under an old house that would fall on his head and layes the weight of his confidence in wicked policy making lies his refuge like Israel he trusts in perversenesse when God tells him In returning and rest he shall be saved in quietnesse and confidence shall be his strength he hath not faith to take Gods Word for his security in wayes of obedience And when God comes to afflict him for any disloyal carriage in stead of accepting the punishment for his sin and so to own him for his Soveraign Lord that may righteously punish the faults of his disobedient subjects his heart is fill'd with rage against God and in stead of waiting quietly and humbly like a good subject till God upon his repentance receives him into his favour his wretched heart presenting God as an enemy to him will not suffer any such gracious and amiable thought of God to dwell in his bosome but bids him look for no good at his hand This evil is of the Lord why should I wait on the Lord any longer whereas a gracious heart is most encouraged to wait from this very consideration that drives the other away Because 't is the Lord afflicts Micah 7.6 Fourthly whom doest thou sympathize with he is thy Prince whose victories and losses thou layest to heart whether in thy own bosome or abroad in the world What saith thy soul when God hedgeth up thy way and keeps thee from that sin which Satan hath been soliciting for If on Christs side thou wilt rejoyce when thou art delivered out of a temptation though it be by falling into an affliction as David said of Abigail so wilt thou here Blessed be the Ordinance blessed be the Providence which kept me from sinning against my God but if otherwise thou wilt harbour a secret grudge against the Word which stood in thy way and be discontented thy designe took not A naughty heart like Amnon pines while his lust hath vent Again what musick do the atchievements of Christ in the world make in thy eare when thou hearest the Gospel thrives the blinde see the lame walk the poor gospellized doth thy spirit rejoyce in that houre If a Saint thou wilt as God is thy Father rejoyce thou hast more brethren borne as he is thy Prince that the multitude of his subjects increase so when thou seest the plots of Christs enemies discovered powers defeated canst thou go forth with the Saints to meet King Jesus and ring him out of the field with praises or do thy bells ring backward and such newes make thee haste like Haman mourning to thine house there to empty thy spirit swolne with rancour against his Saints and truth or if thy policy can master thy passion so far as to make faire weather in thy countenance and suffer thee to joyne with the people of God in their acclamations of joy yet then art thou a close mourner within and likest the work no better then Haman his office in holding Mordecai's stirrup who had rather have held the ladder this speaks thee a certain enemy to Christ how handsomely soever thou mayest carry it before men Vse 2 Secondly blesse God O ye Saints who upon the former trial can say you are translated into the Kingdome of Christ and so delivered from the tyranny of this usurper There are few but have some one gaudy day in a year which they solemnize some keep their birth-day others their marriage some their manumission from a cruel service others their deliverance from some imminent danger here is a mercy where all these meet You may call it as Adam did his wife Chavah the mother of all the living every mercy riseth up and calls this blessed this is thy birth-day thou wert before but beganst to live when Christ began to live in thee the father of the Prodigal dated his sons life from his returne This my son was dead and is alive It is It is thy marriage-day I have married you to one husband even Christ Jesus said Paul to the Corinthians Perhaps thou hast enjoyed this thy husbands sweet company many a day and had a numerous off-spring of Joyes and comforts by thy fellowship with him the thought of which cannot but endeare him to thee and make the day of thy espousals delightful to thy memory 'T is thy manumission then were the Indentures cancell'd wherein thou wert bound to sin and Satan when the Sonne made thee free thou becamest free indeed Thou canst not say thou wast borne free for thy father was a slave nor that thou boughtest thy freedome with a summe By grace ye are saved Heaven is setled on thee in the promise and thou not at charge so much as for the writings drawing
lesse then a God like fear and dread of them by that power he puts forth through divine permission in smiting their goods beasts and bodies as among the Indians at this day Yea there are many among our selves plainly shew what a throne Satan hath in their hearts upon this account such who as if there were not a God in Israel go for help and cure to his Doctours wizzards I mean And truly had Satan no other way to work his will on the soules of men but by this vantage he takes from the body yet considering the degeneracy of mans state how low his soule is sunk beneath its primitive extraction how the body which was a lightsome house is now become a prisoner to it that which was its servant is now become its Master it is no wonder he is able to do so much But besides this he hath as a spirit a neerer way of accesse to the soule and as a superiour spirit yet more over man a lower creature And above all having got within the soule by mans fall he hath now far more power then before so that where he meets not resistance from God he carrries all before him As in the wicked whom he hath so at his devotion that he is in a sense said to do that in them which God doth in the Saints God works effectually in them Gal. 2.8 1 Thes 2.13 Satan worketh effectually in the children of disobedience Eph. 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same word with the former places he is in a manner as efficacious with them as the holy Spirit with the other His delusions strong 2 Thes 2.11 They return not re infectâ The Spirit enlightens he blindes the mindes of those that believe not 2 Cor. 4.4 The Spirit fills the Saints Ephes 5.18 Why hath Satan filled thy heart saith Peter to Ananias Acts. 5.3 The Spirit fills with knowledge and the fruits of righteousnesse Satan fills with envy and all unrighteousnesse The holy Spirit fills with comfort Satan the wicked with terrours As in Saul vexed by an evil spirit and Iudas into whom 't is said he entered and when he had satisfied his lust upon him as Amnon on Tamar shuts the door of mercy upon him and makes him that was even now Traitour to his Master Hangman to himselfe And though Saints be not the proper subjects of his power yet they are the chief objects of his wrath his foot stands on the wickeds back but he wrestles with these and when God steps aside he is far above their match He hath sent the strongest among them home trembling and crying to their God with the blood running about their consciences He is mighty both as a tempter to and for sin knowing the state of the Christians affairs so wel able to throw his fire-bals so far into the inward senses whether they be of lust or horrour and to blow up these with such unwearied solicitations that if they at first meet not with some suitable dispositions in the Christian at which as from loose cornes of powder they may take fire which is most ordinary yet in time he may bring over the creature by the length of the siege and continued volleys of such motions to listen to a parley with them if not a yielding to them Thus many times he even wearies out the soule with importunity SECT II. Vse 1 First let this O man make the plumes of thy pride fall whoever thou art that gloriest in thy power hadst thou more then thou or any of the sons of Adam ever had yet what were all that to the power of these Angels Is it the strength of thy body thou gloriest in Alas what is the strength of frail flesh to the force of their spiritual nature thou art no more to these then a childe to a giant a worme to a man who could tear up the mountaines and hurle the world into a confusion if God would but suffer them Is it the strength of thy parts above others doest thou not see what fooles he makes of the wisest among men winding them about as a Sophister would do an Idiot making them believe light is dark bitter is sweet and sweet bitter were not the strength of his parts admirable could he make a rational creature as man is so absurdly throw away his scarlet and embrace dung I mean part with God and the glorious happinesse he hath in him in hope to mend himself by embracing sin Yet this he did when man had his best wits about him in innocency Is it the power of place and dignity got by warlike atchievement Grant thou wert able to subdue Nations and give lawes to the whole world yet even then without grace from above thou wouldest be his slave And he himselfe for all this his power is a cursed spirit the most miserable of all Gods creatures and the more because he hath so much power to do mischief had the devil lost all his Angelical abilities when he fell he had gained by his losse Therefore tremble O man at any power thou hast except thou usest it for God Art strong in body who hath thy strength God or thy lusts some are strong to drink strong to sin Thy bands shall therefore be stronger Isa 28.22 Hast thou power by thy place to do God and his Church service but no heart to lay it out for them but rather against them thou and the devil shall be tried at the same bar it seems thou meanest to go to hell for something thou wilt carry thy full lading thither No greater plague can befall a man then power without grace Such great ones in the world while here make a brave shew like chief Commanders and field-Officers at the head of their Regiments the common souldiers are poor creatures to them but when the Army is beaten and all taken prisoners then they fling off their scarfe and feather and would be glad to passe for the meanest in the army Happy would devils be Princes and great ones in the world be if then they could appear in the habit of some poor sneaks to receiv their sentence as such but then their titles and dignity and riches shall be read not for their honour but further shame and damnation Vs e 2 Secondly it shewes the folly of those that think it is such an easie matter to get heaven If the devil be so mighty and heavens way so full of them then sure it will cost hot water before we display our banners upon the walls of that new Ierusalem Yet it is plain many think otherwise by the provision they make for their march If you should see a man walking forth without a cloak or with a very thin one you will say Surely he fears no foule weather or one riding a long journey alone and without armes you will conclude he expects no thieves on the road All if you ask them will tell you they are on their way to heaven but how few care for
man is an unserviceable creature he can do his God no service acceptably spoiles everything he takes in hand like one running up and down in a shop when windows shut doth nothing right It maybe writ on the grave of every sinner who lives and dies in that state Here lies the man that never did God an hours work in all his life Secondly Darknesse is uncomfortable in point of enjoyment be there never such rare pictures in the roome if dark who the better A soul in a state of sinne may possesse much but enjoyes nothing this is a sore evil and little thought of One thought of its state of enmity to God would drop bitternesse into every cup all he hath smells of hell fire and a man at a rich feast would enjoy it sure but little if he smelt fire ready to burn his house and himself in it Thirdly Darknesse fills with terrours fears in the night are most dreadfull a state of sin is a state of fear Men that owe much have no quiet but when they are asleep and not then neither the cares and fears of the day sink so deep as makes their rest troublesome and unquiet in the night The wicked hath no peace but when his conscience sleeps and that sleeps but brokenly awaking often with sick fits of terrour when he hath most prosperity he is scared like a flock of birds in a corn-field at every piece going off He eats in fear and drinks in fear when afflicted he expects worse behinde and knows not what this cloud may spread to and where it may lay him whether in hell or not he knows not and therefore trembles as one in the dark not knowing but his next step may be into the pit Fifthly sin leads to utter darknesse utter darknesse is darknesse to the utmost Sin in its full height and wrath in its full heat together both universal both eternal Here 's some mixture peace and trouble paine and ease sin and thoughts of repenting sin and hopes of pardon there the fire of wrath shall burn without slacking and sin run parallel with torment hell-birds are no changelings their torment makes them sin and their sin feeds their torment both unquenchable one being fuel to another Secondly let us see how it appears that such as are under a state of sin are under the rule of Satan Sinners are call'd the children of the devil 1 John 3.10 and who rules the childe but the Father they are slaves who rules the slave but the Master they are the very mansion-house of the devil where hath a man command but in his own house I will go to my house Mat. 12.44 As if the devil had said I have walk't among the Saints of God to and fro knocking at this door and that and none will bid me welcome I can finde no rest well I know where I may be bold I 'le even go to my own house and there I am sure to rule the roste without controul and when he comes he findes it empty swept and garnished that is all ready for his entertainment Servants make the house trim and handsom against their Master come home especially when he brings guests with him as here the devil brings seven more Look to the sinner there is nothing he is or hath but the devil hath dominion over it He rules the whole man their mindes blinding them All the sinners apprehension of things are shaped by Satan he looks on sin with the devils spectacles he reads the Word with the devils comment he sees nothing in its native colours but is under a continual delusion The very wisdome of a wicked man is said to be devillish James 3.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or devil-like because taught by the devil and also such as the devils is wise only to do evil He commands their Wills though not to force them yet effectually to draw them His work saith Christ ye will do You are resolved on your way the devil hath got your hearts and him you will obey and therefore when Christ comes to recover his throne he findes the soule in an uproare as Ephesus at Pauls Sermon crying him down and Diana up We will not have this man reigne over us what is the Almighty that we should serve him He rules over all their members they are call'd weapons of unrighteousness all at the devils service as all the armes of a Kingdome to defend the Prince against any that shall invade The head to plot the hand to act the feet swift to carry the body up and down about his service He rules over all he hath Let God come in a poor member and beseech him to lend him a penny or bestow a morsel to refresh his craving bowels and the covetous wretch his hand of charity is withered that he cannot stretch it forth but let Satan call and his purse flies open and heart also Nabal that could not spare a few fragments for David and his followers this churle could make a feast like a Prince to satiate his own lust of gluttony and drunkennesse He commands their time when God calls to duty to pray to hear no time all the week to be spared for that but if the sinner hears there is a merry meeting a knot of good fellows at the Ale-house all is thrown aside to wait on his Lord and Master calling left at six and sevens yea wife and children crying may be starving while the wretch is pouring out their very blood in wasting their livelihood at the foot of his lust The sinner is in the bond of iniquity and being bound he must obey He is said to go after his lust as the fool to the stocks Prov. 7.22 The pinion'd malefactour can assoon untie his own armes and legs and so run from his Keeper as he from his lusts They are servants and their members instruments of sin even as the Workman takes up his axe and it resists not so doth Satan dispose of them except God saith nay See here the deplored condition of every one in a state of sin He is under the rule of Satan and government of hell What tongue can utter what heart can conceive the misery of this state It was a dismal day which Christ foretold Matth. 24. When the abomination of desolation should be seen standing in the Holy place then saith Christ let him that is in Judea flee into the mountains But what was that to this they were but men though abominable these devils They did but stand in the material Temple defile and deface that but these display their banners in the soules of men pollute that throne which is more glorious then the material heaven it self made for God alone to sit in They exercised their cruelties at furthest on the bodies of men killing and torturing them here the precious soules of men are destroyed When David would curse to purpose the enemies of God he prayes that Satan may be at their right hand 'T
him out of his new way or if that take not by turning their old love into bitter wrath against him for playing the Apostate and leaving him so Or if yet he will not be stopt in his way then he hath his daubing Preachers still like Iobs messengers the last the worst who with their soul-flattering or rather murdering doctrine shall go about to heal his wound slightly Now as ever you desire to get out of Satans bondage have a care of all these harden thy self against the entreaties of carnal friends and relations Resolve that if thy children should hang about thy knees to keep thee from Christ thou wilt throw them away If thy father and mother should lie prostrate at thy foot rather then not go to Christ to go over their very backs to him Never can we part with their love upon such advantageous termes as these And for thy brethren in iniquity I hope thou doest not mean to stay while thou hast their good will then even ask the devils also Heaven is but little worth if thou hast not a heart to despise a little shame and beare a few frumps from prophane Ishmaels for thy hopes of it Let them spit on thy face Christ will wipe it off let them laugh so thou winnest If they follow not thy example before they die the shame will be their own God himself shall spit it on their face before men and Angels and then kick them into hell And lastly scape but the snare of those flatterers who use their tongues only to lick sinners consciences whole with their placentia's soothing doctrine and thou art faire for a Christ ask not counsel of them they may go about to give you ease but all those stitches with which they sowe up thy wounds must be ripp't open or thou diest for it Thirdly Satan labours to while off the sinner with delayes Floating flitting thoughts of repenting he feares not he can give sinners leave to talk what they will do so he can beg time and by his Art keep such thoughts from coming to a head and ripening into a present resolution few are in hell but thought of repenting but Satan so handled the matter that they could never pitch upon the time in earnest when to do it If ever thou meanest to get out of his clutches flie out of his doors and run for thy life whereever this warning findes thee stay not though in the midst of thy joyes with which thy lusts entertain thee As the paper which came to Brentius from that Senatour his dear friend took him at supper with his wife and children and bade him flee citò citiùs citissimè which he did leaving his dear company and sweet cheere so do thou or else thou mayest repent thy stay when 't is too late A vision charged the wise men to go back another way and not so much as see Herod though he had charged them otherwise O go not back drunkard to thy good fellows adulterer to thy Queanes covetous wretch to thy usury and unlawful gaine turne another way and gratifie not the devil a moment The command saith now repent the Imperative hath no future tense God saith To day while it is to day The devil saith To morrow which wilt thou obey God or him Thou sayest thou meanest at last to do it then why not now Wilt thou stand with God for a day or two huckle with him for a penny Heaven is not such a hard pennyworth but thou mayest come up to his termes And which is the morrow thou meanest thou hast but a day in thy life for ought thou knowest where then canst thou find a morrow for repentance but shouldest thou have as many dayes to come is Methuselah lived yet know sin is hereditary and such sort of diseases grow more upon us with our years 'T is with long accustomed sinners as with those who have sate long under a Government they rather like to be as they are though but ill on it then think of a change or like those who in a journey have gone out of their way all the day will rather take any new way overhedge and ditch then think of going so far back to be set right Fourthly Satan labours to comprimise the businesse and bring it to a composition between him and Christ when conscience will not be pacified then Satan for quiets sake will yield to something as Pharaoh with Moses after much ado he is willing they should go Exod. 8.28 And Pharaoh said I will let you go that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wildernesse But then comes in his caution only you shall not go very farre away Thus Satan will yield the sinner may pray and heare the Word and make a goodly Profession so he doth not go very far but that he may have him again at night If God hath the mattins he looks for the vigils and thus he is content the day should be divided Doth conscience presse a reformation and change of the sinners course rather then faile he 'll grant that also yet as Pharaoh when he yielded they should go he meant their little ones should stay behinde as a pledge for those that went Exod. 10.11 So Satan must have some one sin that must be spared and no matter though it be a little one Now if ever you would get out of the devils rule make no composition with him Christ will be King or no King Not a hoofe must be left behinde or any thing which may make an errand for thee afterwards to return Take therefore thy everlasting farewel of every sin as to the sincere and fixt purpose of thy heart or thou doest nothing Paul joynes his faith and his purpose togethes 2 Tim. 3.10 not the one without the other At the promulgation of the Law in Sinai God did as it were give Israel the oath of Allegiance to him then he told them what law he would rule them by and they gave their consent this was the espousal which God puts them in minde of Jerem. 2. in which they were solemnly married together as King and subjects Now mark before God would do this he will have them out of Egypt They could not obey his lawes and Pharaoh's idolatrous customes also and therefore he will have them out before he solemnly espouseth them to be a Nation peculiarly his Thou must be a widow before Christ marry thee he will not lie by the side of anothers wife O that it were come to this then the match would soon be made between Christ and thee Let me ask thee poor soul hast thou seriously considered who Christ is and what his sweet Government is and couldest thou finde in thy heart out of an inward abhorrency of sin and Satan and a liking to Christ to renounce sin and Satan and choose Christ for thy Lord Doth thy soule say as Rebecca I will go if I could tell how to get to him But alas I am here a poore
light in all Non dantur purae tenebrae I think is good Divinity as well as Philosophy and this night-light may discover many sins produce inward prickings of conscience for them yea stir up the creature to step aside rather then drown in such broad waters There are some sins so cruel and costly that the most prostrate soul may in time be weary of their service for low ends but what will all this come to if the creature be not acquainted with Christ the true way to God faith and repentance the only way to Christ such a one after all this busle in stead of making an escape from Satan will run full into his mouth another way There are some wayes which at first seem right to the traveller yet winde about so insensibly that when a man hath gone far and thinks himself near home he is carried back to the place from whence he set forth This will befall every soule ignorant of Christ and the way of life through him after many yeares travel as they think towards heaven by their good meanings blinde devotions and reformation when they shall expect to be within sight of heaven they shall finde themselves even where they were at first as very slaves to Satan as ever Vse 1 This speaks to you that are Parents see what need you have of instructing your children and training them up betimes in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Till these chaines of darknesse be knockt off their mindes there is no possibility of getting them out of the devils prison he hath no such tame slave as the ignorant soul such a one goes before Satan as the silly sheep before the butcher and knows not who he is nor whither he carries him and can you see the devil driving your children to the shambles and not labour to rescue them out of his hands Bloody parents you are that can thus harden your bowells against your own flesh Now the more to provoke you to your duty take these considerations 1. Your relation obligeth you to take care of their precious soules 'T is the soul is the child rather then the body and therefore in Scripture put for the whole man Abraham and Lot went forth with all the souls they had gotton in Haran Gen. 12. so All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt that is all the persons The body is but the sheath and if one should leave his sword with you to be kept safely for him would you throw away the blade and onely preserve the scabbard And yet parents do commonly judge of their care and love to their children by their providing for the outward man by their breeding that teaching them how to live like men as they say when they are dead and gone and comport themselves to their civil place and rank in the world These things indeed are commendable but is not the most weighty businesse of all forgotten in the meane time while no endeavour is used that they may live as Christians and know how to carry themselves in duty to God and man as such and can they do this without the knowledge of the holy rule they are to walk by I am sure David knew no means effectual without this and therefore propounds the question Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way and he resolves it in the next words By taking heed thereto according to thy word Psal 119.9 And how shall they compare their way and the Word together if not instructed our children are not borne with Bibles in their heads or hearts And who ought to be the instructer if not the parent yea who will do it with such natural affection As I have heard sometimes a mother say in other respects Who can take such pains with my childe and be so careful as my self that am its Mother Bloody parents then they are who acquaint not their children with God or his Word what do they but put them under a necessity of perishing if God stirre not up some to shew more mercy then themselves to them Is it any wonder to hear that ship to be sunk or dasht upon the rock which was put to sea without card or compasse no more is it they should ingulph themselves in sin and perdition that are thrust forth into the world which is a sea of temptation without the knowledge of God or their duty to him In the fear of God think of it parents your children have souls and these God set you to watch over It will be a poor account at the last day if you can only say Lord here are my children I bred them compleat Gentlemen left them rich and wealthy The rust of that silver you left them will witnesse your folly and sinne that you would do so much for that which rusts and nothing for the enriching their mindes with the knowledge of God which would have endured for ever happy if you had left them lesse money and more knowledge 2. Consider it hath ever been the Saints practice to instruct and teach their children the way of God David we finde dropping instruction into his sonne Solomon 1 Chron. 28.9 Know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing minde Though a King he did not put it off to his Chaplins but whetted it on him with his own lips Neither was his Queen Bathsheba forgetful of her duty her gracious counsel is upon record Prov. 31. and that she may do it with the more seriousnesse and solemnity we finde her stirring up her motherly bowels to let her sonne see that she fetcht her words deep even from her heart What my son and what the sonne of my womb and what the sonne of my vows Ver. 2. Indeed that counsel is most like to go to the heart which comes from thence Parents know not what impression such melting expressions of their love mingled with their instructions leave on their children God bids draw forth our souls to the hungry that is more then draw our purse which may be done and the heart hard and churlish Thus we should draw forth our souls with our instructions What need I tell of Timothy's Mother and Grandmother who acquainted him with the Scripture from his youth And truly I think that man calls in question his own Saintship that takes no care to acquaint his childe with God and the way that leads to him I have known some that though prophane themselves have been very solicitous their children should have good education but never knew I a Saint that was regardlesse whether his childe knew God or not 3. It is an act of great unrighteousnesse not to instruct our children We read of some that hold the truth in unrighteousnesse among others those Parents do it that lock up the knowledge of these saving truths from their children which God hath imparted to themselves There is a double unrighteousnesse in it First they are unrighteous to their children
them to win them home to God Vse 2 To the Ministers of the Gospel Let this stir up your bowels of compassion towards those many ignorant soules in your respective Congregations who know not the right hand from the left This this is the great destroyer of the countrey which Ministers should come forth against with all their care and strength More are swept to hell with this plague of spiritual darknesse then any other Where the light of knowledge and conviction is there commonly is a sense and pain that accompanies the sinner when he doth evil which forceth some now and then to enquire for a Physician and come in the distresse of their spirits to their Minister or others for counsel but the ignorant soul feels no such smart if the Minister stay till he sends for him to instruct him he may sooner hear the bell go for him then any messenger come for him you must seek them out and not expect that they will come to you These are a sort of people that are afraid more of their remedy then their disease and study more to hide their ignorance then how they may have it cured which should make us pity them the more because they can pity themselves so little I confesse it is no small unhappinesse to some of us who have to do with a multitude that we have neither time nor strength to make our addresses to every particular person in our Congregations and attend on them as their needs require and yet cannot well satisfie our consciences otherwise But let us look to it that though we cannot do to the height of what we would we be not found wanting in what we may Let not the difficulty of our Province make us like some who when they see they have more work upon their hands then they can well dispatch grow sick of it and sit down out of a lazy despondency and do just nothing He that hath a great house running to ruine and but a small purse 't is better for him to repair now a little and then a little then let all fall down because he cannot do it all at once Many Ministers may complain of their Predecessours that they left them their people more out of repair then their houses and this makes the work great indeed As the Jewes who were to revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish before they could build the wall yet it went up because the people had a minde to work Nehem. 4. O if once our hearts were but fill'd with zeal for God and compassion to our peoples souls we would up and be doing though we could but lay a brick a day and God would be with us May be you who finde a people rude and sottishly ignorant like stones in the quarry and trees unfell'd shall not bring the work to such perfection in your dayes as you desire yet as David did for Solomon thou mayest by thy paines in teaching and instructing them prepare materials for another who shall rear the Temple It s very ordinary for one Minister to enter into the labours of another to reap those by a work of Conversion in whom a former Minister hath cast the seed of knowledge and conviction And when God comes to reckon with his Workmen the Plough-man and Sower shall have his penny as well as the Harvest-man and Reaper O it s a blessed thing to be as Job saith he was eyes to the blinde much more to blinde soules such are the Ministers God himself calls Pastours after his own heart that feed his people with knowledge and understanding Jer. 3.15 But wo to those that are accessary to their peoples ignorance Now a Minister may be accessary to the ignorance of his people First by his own ignorance Knowledge is so fundamental to the work and calling of a Minister that he cannot be one without it Because thou hast rejected knowledge I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no Priest to me seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God I will also forget thy children Hos 4.6 The want of knowledge in a Minister is such a defect as cannot be supplied by any thing else be he never so meek patient bountiful unblameable if he hath not skill to divide the Word aright he is not cut out for a Minister Every thing is good as its good for the end it is appointed to a knife though it had a haft of diamonds yet if it will not cut 't is no knife A bell if not sound is no bell The great work of a Minister is to teach others his lips are to preserve knowledge he should be as conversant in the things of God as others in their particular trades Ministers are called Lights if the light then be darknesse how great is the darknesse of that people like to be I know these stars in Christs hands are not all of the same magnitude there is a greater glory of gifts and graces shines in some then others yet so much light is necessary to every Minister as was in the star the wise men saw at Christs birth to be able out of the Word to direct sinners the safe and true way to Christ and salvation O Sirs it is a sad way of getting a living by killing of men as some unskilful Physicians do but much more to get a temporal livelihood by ruining souls through our ignorance He is a cruel man to the poor Passengers who will undertake to be Pilot when he never so much as learn't his Compasse Secondly by his negligence It s all one if the Nurse hath no milk in her breasts or having drawes it not forth to her childe There is a wo to the Idol-shepherd Zech. 11. such as have mouthes but speak not lips but not to feed the people with knowledge It shall be the peoples sin if they feed not when bread is before them but wo to us if we give them not meat in due season O Sirs what shall we say to our Lord that trusts us if those abilities which he hath given us as market-money to buy bread for our people be found wrapt up in a napkin of sloth if that time wherein we should have been teaching and instructing them shall appear to be wasted in our pleasures or employed about our carnal profits That servant shall have but a sad welcome of his Master when he comes home that shall be found out of the way with the Key and the family starving in the mean time for want of provision Thirdly by his unedifying preaching when he preacheth unsound doctrine which doth not perfect the understanding but corrupt it Better he did leave them in simple ignorance then colour their mindes with a false die or when that he preacheth is frothy and flashy no more fit to feed their soules then husks the Prodigals belly which when they know they are little the wiser for their soules good Or when his discourses are so high flown that the poor
the wickednesse of his heart in this glasse of the devils nature and he will see himself as a great debtor to the mercy of God as Manasses or the worst of sinners as in pardoning so in preventing the same cursed nature with theirs before it gave fire on God with those bloody sinnes which they committed That thou didst not act such outragious sinnes thou art beholden to Gods gracious surprize and not the goodnesse of thy nature which hath the devils stamp on it for which God might have crusht thee as we do the brood of Serpents before they sting knowing what they will do in time Who will say that Faux suffered unjustly because the Parliament was not blown up it was enough that the materials for that Massacre were provided and he taken there with match and fire about him ready to lay the traine and canst thou say when God first took hold on thee that thou had'st not those weapons of rebellion about thee a nature fully charged with enmity against God which in time would have made its own report of what for present lay like unfired ponder silent in thy bosome O Christian think of this and be humbled for thy villainous nature and say Blessed be God that sent his Spirit and grace so timely to stay thy hand as Abigail to David while thy nature meditated nothing but warre against God and his laws Vse 3 Again Thirdly are the devils so wickedly malicious against God himself O Sirs take the right notion of sinne and you will hate it The reason why we are so easily perswaded to sinne is because we understand not the bottome of his designe in drawing a creature to sinne It is with men in sinning as it is with Armies in fighting Captains beat their drummes for Voluntiers and promise all that list pay and plunder and this makes them come trowling in but few consider what the ground of the Warre is against whom or for what Satan enticeth to sinne and give golden promises what they shall have in his service with which silly souls are won but how few ask their souls Whom do I sinne against what is the devils designe in drawing me to sinne Shall I tell thee dost thou think 't is thy pleasure or profit he desires in thy sinning alas he means nothing lesse he hath greater plots in his head then so He hath by his Apostasie proclaim'd warre against God and he brings thee by sinning to espouse his quarrel and to jeopard the life of thy soul in defence of his pride and lust which that he may do he cares no more for the damnation of thy soul then the great Turk doth to see a company of his slaves cut off for the carrying on of his designe in a siege And darest thou venture to go into the field upon his quarrel against God O Earth tremble thou at the presence of the Lord. This bloody Joab sets thee where never any came off alive O stand not where Gods bullets fly throw down thy armes or thou art a dead man Whatever others do O ye Saints abhorre the thoughts of sinning willingly which when you do you help the devil against God and what more unnatural then for a childe to be seen in armes against his father CHAP. VII Of Satans plot to defile the Christians spirit with heart-sinnes The second Point followes THat these wicked Spirits do chiefly annoy the Saints with and provoke them to spiritual sinnes Sinnes may be called spiritual upon a double account either from the subject wherein they are acted or from the object about which they are conversant First in regard of the subject when the spirit or heart is the stage whereon sinne is acted this is a spiritual sinne such are all impure thoughts vile affections and desires though the object be fleshly lust yet are spiritual sinnes because they are purely acts of the soul and spirit and break not forth unto the outward man Secondly in regard of the object when that is spiritual and not carnal such as are idolatry errour spiritual pride unbelief c. both which Paul calls the filthinesse of the spirit and distinguisheth them from filthinesse of the flesh 2 Cor. 7.1 SECT I. First of the first Satan labours what he can to provoke the Christian to heart-sinnes to stirre up and foment these inward motions of sinne in the Christians bosome hence it is he can go about no duty but these his Impes I may call them haunt him one motion or other darts in to interrupt him as Paul tells us of himselfe When he would do good evil was present with him if a Christian should turne back when ever these crosse the way of him he should never go on his journey to heaven It is the chief game the devil hath left to play against the children of God now his field-army is broken and his commanding power taken away which he had over them to come out of these his holds where he lies sculking and fall upon their rear with these suggestions He knows his credit now is not so great with the soul as when it was his slave then no drudgery work was so base that it would not do at his command but now the soul is out of his bondage and he must not think to command anothers servant as his own No all he can do is to watch the fittest season when the Christian least suspects and then to present some sinful motion handsomely drest up to the eye of the soul that the Christian may before he is aware take this brat up and dandle it in his thoughts till at last he makes it his own by embracing it and this he knowes will defile the soul and may be this boy sent in at the window may open the door to let in a greater thief or if he should not so prevaile yet the guilt of these heart-sinnes yea their very neighbour-hood will be a sad vexation to a gracious heart whose nature is so pure that it abhorres all filthinesse so that to be haunted with such motions is as if a living man should be chain'd to a stinking carcase that where ever he goes he must draw that after him and whose love is so dear to Christ that it cannot bear the company of those thoughts without amazement and horrour which are so contrary and abusive to his beloved This makes Satan so desirous to be ever raking in the unregenerate part that as a dunghil stirr'd it may offend them both with the noisome streames which arise from it SECT II. Vse 1 First let this be for trial of thy spiritual state What entertainment findes Satan when he comes with these spirituals of wickednesse and solicites thee to dwell on them canst thou dispense with the filthinesse of thy spirit so thy hands be clean or dost thou wrestle against these heart-sinnes as well as others I do not ask whether such guests come within thy door for the worst of sinnes may be found in the
them or perswade themselves there is no danger from thence the coast then is clear they may be as wicked as they please These make inward sins so hugg'd and embraced If thou therefore canst find thy heart set against these I may venture to call thee a Christian and for thy help against them First be earnest with God in prayer to move and order thy heart in its thoughts and desires If the tongue be such an unruly thing that few can tame O what is the heart where such a multitude of thoughts are flying forth as thick as bees from the hive and sparks from the furnace It is not in man not in the holiest on earth to do this without divine assistance Therefore we finde David so often crying out in this respect to order his steps in his Word to unite his heart to his feare to enâ—â—ine his heart to his testimonies As a servant when the childe he tends is troublesome and will not be ruled by him calls out to the father to come to him who no sooner speaks but all is whist with him No doubt holy David found his heart beyond his skill or power that makes him so oft do its errand to God Indeed God hath promised thus much to his children to order their steps for them Psal 37.22 only he looks they should bring their hearts to him for that end Commit thy work to the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established Prov. 16.3 or ordered Art thou setting thy face towards an Ordinance where thou art sure to meet Satan who will be disturbing thee with worldly thoughts and may be worse Let God know from thy mouth whither thou art going and what thy feares are never doth the soule march in so goodly order as when it puts it self under the conduct of God Secondly set a strong guard about thy outward senses these are Satans landing places especially the eye and the eare Take heed what thou importest at these vaine discourse seldome passeth without leaving some tincture upon the heart as unwholesome aire inclines to putrefaction things sweet in themselves so unsavoury discourse to corrupt the minde that is pure look thou breathest therefore in a clear aire And for thy eye let it not wander wanton objects cause wanton thoughts Job knew his eye and his thoughts were like to go together and therefore to secure one he covenants with the other Job 31 1. Thirdly often reflect upon thy self in a day and observe what company is with thy heart A careful Master will ever and anon be looking into his work-house and see what his servants are doing and a wise Christian should do the same We may know by the noise in the school the Master is not there much of the mis-rule in our bosomes ariseth from the neglect of visiting our hearts Now when thou art parlying with thy soule make this threefold enquiry First whether that which thy heart is thinking on be good or evil If evil and wicked such as are proud unclean distrustful thoughts shew thy abhorrency of them and chide thy soul sharply for so much as holding conference with them of which nought can come but dishonour to God and mischief to thy own soul and stirre up thy heart to mourn for the evil neighbour-hood of them and by this thou shalt give a testimony of thy faithfulnesse to God When David mourn'd for Abner all Israel 't is said understood that day that it was not of the King to stay Abner Thy mourning for them will shew these thoughts are not so much of thee as of Satan Secondly if they be not broadly wicked enquire whether they be not empty frothy vaine imaginations that have no subserviency to the glory of God thy own good or others and if so leave not till thou hast made thy selfe apprehensive of Satans designe on thee in them though such are not for thy purpose yet they are for his they serve his turne to keep thee from better All the water is lost that runnes beside the mill and all thy thoughts are waste which help thee not to do Gods work withal in thy general or particular calling The Bee will not sit on a flower where no honey can be suckt neither should the Christian Why sittest thou here idle thou shouldest say to thy soul when thou hast so much to do for God and thy soul and so little time to dispatch it in Thirdly if thou findest they are good for matter thy heart is busied about then enquire whether they be good for time and manner which being wanting they degenerate First for the season that is good fruit which is brought forth in its season Christ liked the work his mother would have put him upon as well as her self John 2. but his time was not come Good thoughts and meditations misplaced are like some interpretations of Scripture good truths but bad expositions they fit not the place they are drawn from nor these the time To pray when we should hear or be musing on the Sermon when we should pray this is to rob God one way to pay him another Secondly tarefully observe the manner Thy heart may meditate a good matter and spoile it in the doing Thou art may be musing of thy sinnes and affecting thy heart into a sense of them but so that while thou art stirring up thy sorrow thou weakenest thy faith on the promise that is thy sinne He is a bad Chirurgion that in opening a veine goes so deep that he cuts an artery and lames the arme if not kills the man Or thou art thinking of thy family and providing for that this thou oughtest to do and wert worse then an infidel if thou neglectest but may be these thoughts are so distracting and distrustfull as if there were no promise no providence to relieve thee God takes this ill because it reflects upon his care of thee O how near doth our duty here stand to our sinne so much care is necessary ballast to the soul a little more sinks it under the waves of unbeliefe like some things very wholesome but one degree more of hot or cold would make them poison CHAP. VIII How Satan labours to corrupt the Christians minde with errour THe second sort of spiritual sinnes are such as are not only acted in the spirit but are conversant about spiritual objects proper to the soules nature that is a spirit and not laid out in carnal passions of fleshly lusts in which the soul acts but as a Pander for the body and partakes of their delights only by way of sympathy for as the soul feels the bodies pains no other way then by sympathy so neither doth it share in the pleasures of the flesh by any proper taste it hath of them but only from its neer neighbourhood with the body doth sympathize with its joy but in spiritual wickednesses that corrupt the minde here the soul moves in its own sphere with a delight proper to it selfe and there are no lesse
own example that he hardly made a Sermon for several yeares but this was part of it to warn every one night and day with teares We need not prophesie what Impostors may come upon the stage when we go off There are too many at present above board of this gang drawing disciples after them And if it be our duty to warn you of them surely 't is yours to watch lest you by any of them be led into temptation in this houre thereof wherein Satan is let loose in so great a measure to deceive the Nation May you not as easily be sowered with this leaven as the disciples whom Christ bids beware Are you priviledged above those famous Churches of Galatia and Corinth many of which were bewitched with false teachers and in a manner turned to another Gospel Is Satan grown Orthodox or have his instruments lost their cunning who hunt for souls In a word is there not a sympathy between thy corrupt heart and errour Hast thou not a disposition which like the fomes of the earth makes it natural for these weeds to grow in thy soile Seest thou not many prostrated by this enemy who sate upon the mountain of their faith and thought it should never have been removed surely they would have tooke it ill to have been told you are the men and women that will decry Sabbaths which now ye count holy you will turn Pelagians who now defie the name you will despise Prophecie it self who now seem so much to honour the Prophets you will throw family-duties out of doors who dare not now go out of doors till you have prayed there Yet these and more then these are come to passe and doth it hot behove thee Christian to take heed lest thou fallest also and that thou mayest not First make it thy chief care to get a through change of thy heart If once the root of the matter be in thee and thou beest bottom'd by a lively faith on Christ thou art then safe I do not say wholly free from all errour but this I am sure free from ingulphing thy soule in damning errour They went out from us saith Saint John but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us 1 John 2.19 As if he had said they had some outward Profession and common work of the Spirit with us which they have either lost or carried over to the devils quarters but they never had the unction of the sanctifying Spirit By this verse 20. he distinguisheth them and comforts the sincere ones who possibly might feare their own fall by their departure But ye have an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things 'T is one thing to know a truth and another thing to know it by unction An hypocrite may do the former the Saint only the latrer It is this unction which gives the soule the savour of the knowledge of Christ those are the fit prey for Impostors who are enlightened but not enlivened O it 's good to have the heart establish't with grace this as an anchor will keep us from being set a drift and carried about with divers and strange doctrines as the Apostle teacheth us Heb. 13.9 Secondly ply the work of mortification Crucifie the flesh daily Heresie though a spiritual sinne yet by the Apostle reckon'd among the deeds of the flesh Gal. 5.20 because it is occasioned by fleshly motives and nourisht by carnal food and fuel Never any turn'd Heretick but flesh was at the bottome either they serv'd their belly or a lust of pride 't was the way to Court or secur'd their estates and saved their lives as sometimes the reward of truth is fire and fagot some pad or other is in the straw when least seen and therefore it 's no wonder that heresies should end in the flesh which in a manner sprang from it The rheume in the head ascends in fumes from the stomack and returnes thither or unto the lungs which at last fret and ulcerate Carnal affections first send up their fumes to the understanding clouding that yea bribing it to receive such and such principles for truths which imbraced fall down into the life corrupting that with the ulcer of profanenesse So that Christian if once thou canst take off thy engagements to the flesh and become a free-man so as not to give thy vote to gratifie thy carnal fears or hopes thou wilt then be a sure friend to truth Thirdly waite conscionably on the Ministery of the Word Satan commonly stops the eare from hearing sound Doctrine before he opens it to embrace corrupt This is the method of soules apostatizing from truth 2 Tim. 4.3 4. They shall turn their eares from the truth and shall be turned unto fables Satan like a cunning thief drawes the soul out of the road into some lane or corner and there robs him of the truth By rejecting of one Ordinance we deprive our selves of the blessing of all other say not that thou prayest to be led into truth he will not hear thy prayer if thou turnest thine eare from hearing the law He that loves his child when he sees him play the truant will whip him to school If God loves a soul he will bring him back to the Word with shame and sorrow Fourthly When thou hearest any unusual Doctrine though never so pleasing make not up the match hastily with it have some better testimony of it before you open your heart to it The Apostle indeed bids us entertain strangers for some have entertain'd Angels unawares Heb. 13.3 but he would not have us carried about with strange Doctrine vers 9. by this I am sure some have entertained devils I confesse 't is not enough to reject a doctrine because strange to us but ground we have to wait and enquire Paul marvelled that the Galatians were so soon removed from him who had called them unto the grace of Christ unto another Gospel they might sure have stayed till they had acquainted Paul with it and asked his judgement what no sooner an Impostour come into the countrey and open his pack but buy all his ware at first sight O friends were it not more wisdom to pray such new notions over and over again to search the Word and our hearts by it yea not to trust our own hearts but call in counsel from others If your Minister have not such credit with you yet the most holy humble and establish't Christians you can finde Errour is like fish which must be eaten new or it will stink When those dangerous errours sprung up first in New England O how unsettled were many of the Churches what an outis was made as if some mine of gold had been discovered but in a while when those errours came to their complexion and it was perceived whither they were bound to destroy Churches Ordinances and Power of Godlinesse then such as feared God who had stept aside returned back with shame and
he had said I knew the time if Paul had been come to town and newes spread abroad in the City that Paul was to preach you would have flock't to hear him and blessed God for the season but then you were poor and empty now ye are full you have got to a higher attainment Paul is a plain fellow now he may carry his cheere to a hungry people if he will we are well apaid And when once the heart is come to this 't is easie to judge what will follow Secondly this trusting to the strength of grace will make the soule bold and venturous The humble Christian is the wary Christian he knows his weaknesse and this makes him afraid I have a weak head saith he I may be soon disputed into an errour and heresie and therefore I dare not come where such stuffe is broach't lest my weak head should be intoxicated the confident man he 'll sip of every cup he fears none no he is stablish't in the truth a whole team of hereticks shall not draw him aside I have a vain light heart saith the humble soule I dare not come among wicked debautch't company left I should at last bring the naughty man home with me but one trusting to the strength of his grace dares venture into the devils quarters Thus Peter into the rout of Christs enemies and how he came off you know there his faith had been slain on the place had not Christ founded a retreat by the seasonable look of love he gave him Indeed I have read of some bragging Philosophers who did not think it enough to be temperate except they had the object for intemperance present and therefore they would go into Taverns and Whore-houses as if they meant to beat the devil on his own ground but the Christian knows an enemy nearer then so which they were ignorant of and that he need not go over his own threshold to challenge the devils He hath lust in his bosome that will be hard enough for him all his dayes without giving it the vantage ground Christian I know no sin but thou mayest be left to commit it except one It was a bold speech of him and yet a good man as I have heard If Clapham die of the plague say Clapham had no faith and this made him boldly go among the infected If a Christian thou shalt not die of spiritual plagues yet such may have the plague-sores of grosse sins running on them for a time and is not this sad enough therefore walk humbly with thy God Thirdly this high conceit of the strength of thy grace will make thee cruel and churlish to thy weak brethren in their infirmities a sin that least becomes a Saint Gal. 6.1 If any one be overtaken you that be spiritual restore such a one with meeknesse but how shall a soul get such a meek spirit It follows considering thy self lest thou also be tempted What makes men hard to the poor they think they shall never be so themselves Why are many so sharp in their censures but because they trust too much to their grace as if they could never fall O you are in the body and the body of sin in you therefore feare Bernard used to say when he heard any scandalous sin of a Professour Hodie illi cras mihi He fell to day I may stumble tomorrow SECT II. The second way a soule may be proud of his grace is by resting on it for his acceptance with God The Scripture calls inherent grace our own righteousnesse though God indeed be the efficient of it and opposeth it to the righteousnesse of Christ which alone is called the Righteousnesse of God Rom. 10.1 Now to rest on any grace inherent is to exalt our own righteousnesse above the righteousnesse of God and what pride will this amount to If this ware so then a Saint when he comes to heaven might say This is Heaven which I have built my grace hath purchased and thus the God of Heaven should become tenant to his creature in Heaven No God hath cast the order of our salvation into another method of grace but not of grace in us but grace to us Inherent grace hath its place and office to accompany salvation Heb. 6.9 but not procure it This is Christs work not graces When Israel waited on the Lord at Mount Sinai they had their bounds not a man must come up besides Moses to treat with God no not touch the Mount lest they die thus all the graces of the Spirit wait on God but none come up to challenge any acceptance of God besides faith which is a grace that presents the soul not in its own garments But you will say what needs all this where is the man that trusts in his grace Alas where is the Christian that doth fully stand clear and freely come his off his own righteousnesse he is a rare Pilot indeed that can steere his faith in so direct a course as not now and then to knock upon this duty and run on ground upon that grace Abraham went in to Hagar and the children of Abrahams faith are not perfectly dead to the Law and may be found sometimes in Hagars armes witnesse the fluxe and refluxe of our faith according to the various aspect of our obedience when this seems full then our faith is at a spring-tide and covers all the mountains of our fears but let it seem to wain in any service or duty then the Jordan of our faith flies back and leaves the soule naked The devils spight is at Christ and therefore since he could not hinder his landing which he endeavoured all he could nor work his will on his person when he was come he goes now in a more refined way to darken the glory of his sufferings and the sufficiency of his righteousnesse by blending ours with his this doctrine of Justification by faith hath had more works and batteries made against it then any other in the Scripture Indeed many other errours were but his slie approaches to get nearer to undermine this and lastly when he connot hide this truth which now shines in the Church like the Sun in its strength then he labours to hinder the practical improvement of it that we if he can help it shall not live up to our own principles making us at the same time that in our judgement we professe acceptance only through Christ in our practice confute our selves Now there is a double pride in the soule he makes use of for this end the one I may call a mannerly pride the other a self-applauding pride First a mannerly pride which comes forth in the habit and guise of humility and that discovers it self either at the soules first coming to Christ and keeps him from closing with the promise or afterward in the daily course of a Christians walking with God which keeps him from comfortable living on Christ First when a poor soul is staved off the promise by the sense
that ye are of mine elect ones which will stand you more in stead at the great day then all this SECT II. A second Priviledge is when God honours a person to suffer for his truth this is a great Priviledge Vnto you it is given not only to beleeve but to suffer for his sake God doth not use to give worthless gifts to his Saints there is some preciousnesse in it which a carnal eye cannot see Faith you will say is a great gift but perseverance greater without which faith would be little worth and perseverance in suffering this above both honourable This made John Carelesse our English Martyr who though he died not at the stake yet in prison for Christ say Such an honour 't is as Angels are not permitted to have therefore God forgive me mine unthankfulnesse Now when Satan cannot scare a soul from prison yet then he will labour to puffe him up in prison when he cannot make him pity himself then he will flatter him till he prides in himself Affliction from God exposeth to impatience for God to pride and therefore Christians labour to fortifie your selves against this temptation of Satan how soon you may be called to suffering work you know not such clouds oft are not long arising Now to keep thy heart humble when thou art honoured to suffer for the truth Consider First though thou doest not deserve those sufferings at mans hand thou canst and mayest in that regard glory in thy innocency thou sufferest not as an evil doer yet thou canst not but confesse it is a just affliction from God in regard of sin in thee and this methinks should keep thee humble the same suffering may be Martyrdome in regard of man and yet a fatherly chastising for sin in regard of God none suffered without sin but Christ and therefore none may glory in them but he Christ in his own we in his God forbid that I should glory save in the Crosse of Christ Gal. 6. This kept Mr. Bradford humble in his sufferings for the truth none more rejoyced in them and blessed God for them yet none more humble under them then he and what kept him in this humble frame reade his godly letters and you shall finde almost in all how he bemoans his sins and the sins of the Protestants under the reign of King Edward It was time saith he for God to put his rod into the Papists hands we were grown so proud formal unfruitful yea to loath and despise the means of grace when we enjoyed the liberty therof and therfore God hath brought the wheele of persecution on us As he look't at the honour to make him thankful so to sinne to keep him humble Secondly consider who bears thee up and carries thee through thy sufferings for Christ Is it thy grace or his that is sufficient for such a work thy spirit or Christs by which thou speakest when call'd to bear witnesse to his truth how comes it to passe thou art a sufterer and not a persecutour a confessour and not a denier yea betrayer of Christ and his Gospel This thou owest for to God he is not beholden to thee that thou wilt part with estate credit or life it self for his sake If thou hadst a thousand lives thou wouldest owe them all to him but thou art beholden to God exceedingly that he will call for these in this way which has such an honour and reward attending it He might have suffered thee to live in thy lusts and at last to suffer the losse of all these for them O how many die at the Gallowes as Martyrs in the devils cause for felonies rapes and murders Or he might withdraw his grace and leave thee to thy own cowardise and unbelief and then thou wouldest soon shew thy self in thy colours The stoutest Champions for Christ have been taught how weak they are if Christ steps aside Some that have given great testimony of their faith and resolution in Christs cause even to come so near dying for his Name as to give themselves to be bound to the stake and fire to be kindled upon them yet then their hearts have failed as that holy man Mr. Benbridge in our English Martyrol who thrust the faggots from him and cried out I recant I recant Yet this man when re-inforc't in his faith and indued with power from above was able within the space of a week after that sad foile to die at the stake cheerfully Qui pro nobis mortem semel vicit semper in nobis vincit He that once overcame death for us 't is he that alwayes overcame death in us And who should be thy Song but he that is thy strength applaud not thy selfe but blesse him 'T is one of Gods Names he is call'd the glory of his peoples strength Psal 89.17 The more thou gloriest in God that gives thee strength to suffer for him the lesse thou wilt boast of thy self A thankful heart and a proud cannot dwell together in one bosome Thirdly consider what a foule blot pride gives to all thy sufferings where it is not bewailed and resisted it alters the case The old saying is that 't is not the punishment but the cause makes the Martyr we may safely say further it is not barely the cause but the sincere frame of the heart in suffering for a good cause that makes a man a Martyr in Gods sight Though thou shouldest give thy body to be burnt if thou hast not an humble heart of a sufferer for Christ thou turnest Merchant for thy self Thou deniest but one self to set up another runnest the hazard of thy estate and life to gain some applause may be and reare up a monument to thy honour in the opinions of men thou doest no more in this case then a souldier who for a name of valour will venture into the mouth of death and danger only thou shewest thy pride under a religious disguise but that helps it not but makes it the worse If thou wilt in thy sufferings be a sacrifice acceptable to God thou must not only be ready to offer up thy life for his truth but sacrifice thy pride also or else thou mayest tumble out of one fire into another suffer here from man as a seeming champion for the Gospel and in another world from God for robbing him of his glory in thy sufferings SECT III. A third priviledge is when God flowes in with more then ordinary manifestations of his love then the Christian is in danger of having his heart secretly lift up in pride Indeed the genuine and natural effect which such discoveries of divine love have on a gracious soule is to humble it The sight of mercy encreaseth the sense of sin and that sense dissolves the soule kindely into sorrow as we see in Magdalen The heart which possibly was hard and frozen in the shade will give and thaw in the Sun-shine of love and so long all pride is hid from the creatures eye Then saith God
me again and shew me both it and his habitation Mark not shew me my Crown my Palace but the Ark the House of God Secondly a gracious heart pursues earthly things with a holy indifferency saving the violence and zeal of his spirit for the things of heaven he useth the former as if he used them not with a kinde of non-attendency his head and heart is taken up with higher matters how he may please God thrive in his grace enjoy more intimate communion with Christ in his Ordinances in these he spreads all his sailes plyes all his oares strains every part and power thus we finde David upon his full speed My soul presseth hard after thee Psal 63. And before the Ark we finde him dancing with all his might Now a carnal heart is clean contrary his zeal is for the world and his indifferency in the things of God he prays as if he did not pray c. he sweats in his shop but chills and growes cold in his closet O how hard to pully him up to a duty of Gods worship or to get him out to an Ordinance No weather shall keep him from the market raine blow or snow he goes thither but if the Church-path be a little wet or the aire somewhat cold 't is apology enough for him if his pue be empty when he is about any worldly businesse he is as earnest at it as the idolatrous Smith in hammering of his image who the Prophet saith worketh it with the strength of his armes yea he is hungry and his strength faileth he drinketh not and is faint Isa 44.12 so zealous is the muck-worme in his worldly employments that he will pinch his carcase and deny himself his repast in due season to pursue that The Kitchin there shall wait on the shop But in the worship of God 't is enough to make him sick of the Sermon and angry with the Preacher if he be kept beyond his houre here the Sermon must give place to the Kitchin so the man for his pleasures and carnal pastime he tells no clock at his sports and knows not how the day goes when night comes he is angry that it takes him off but at any heavenly work O how is the man punish't time now hath got leaden heels he thinks all he does at a Sermon is to tell the clock and see how the glasse runs if men were not willing to deceive themselves surely they might know which way their heart goes by the swift motion or the hard tugging and slow pace it stirs as well as they know in a boat whether they row against the tyde or with it Thirdly the Christian useth these things with a holy feare lest earth should rob heaven and his outward enjoyments prejudice his heavenly interest he eats in feare works in feare rejoyceth in his abundance with feare as Iob sanctified his children by offering a sacrifice out of a feare lest they had sinned so the Christian is continually sanctifying his earthly enjoyments by prayer that so he may be delivered from the snare of them Thirdly the Christian is heavenly in his keeping of earthly things The same heavenly Law which he went by in getting he observes in holding them As he dares not say he will be rich and honourable in the world but if God will so neither that he will hold what he hath he only keeps them while his heavenly Father calls for them that at first gave them If God will continue them to him and entaile them on his posterity too he blesseth God and so he desires to do also when he takes them away Indeed Gods meaning in the great things of this world which sometimes he throwes in upon the Saints is chiefly to give them the greater advantage of expressing their love to him in denying them for his sake God never intended by that strange Providence in bringing Moses to Pharaho's Court to settle him there in worldly pomp and grandure a carnal heart indeed would have expounded Providence and imported it as a faire occasion put into his hands by God to have advanced himself into the throne which some say he might in time have done but as an opportunity to make his faith and self-denial more eminently conspicuous in throwing all these at his heels for which he hath so honourable a remembrance among the Lords Worthies Heb. 11.24 25. And truly a gracious soule reckons he cannot make so much of his worldly interests any other way as by offering them up for Christs sake however that Traitour thought Maries ointment might have been carried to a better market yet no doubt that good woman her self was only troubled that she had not one more precious to poure on her dear Saviours head This makes the Christian ever to hold the sacrificing knife at the throat of his worldly enjoyments ready to offer them up when God calls over-board they shall go rather then hazard a wrack to faith or a good conscience he sought them in the last place and therefore he will part with them in the first Naboth will hazard the Kings anger which at last cost him his life rather then sell an acre or two of land which was his birth-right The Christian will expose all he hath in this wotld to preserve his hopes for another Iacob in his march towards Esau sent his servants with his flocks before and came himself with his wives behinde if he can save any thing from his brothers rage it shall be what he loves best If the Christian can save any thing it shall be his soule his interest in Christ and Heaven and then no matter if the rest go even then he can say not as Esau to Iacob I have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great deal but as Iacob to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have all all I want all I desire as David expresseth it This is all my salvation all and my desire 2 Sam. 23.5 Now try whether thy heart be tuned to this note does heaven give law to thy earthly enjoyments wouldest thou not keep thy honour estate no not life it selfe to prejudice thy heavenly nature and hopes which wouldest thou choose if thou couldest not keep both a whole skin or a sound conscience It was a strange answer if true which the Historian saith Henry the fifth gave to his Father who had usurped the crown and now dying sent for this his son to whom he said Fair Son take the crown which stood on his pillow by his head but God knowes how I came by it to whom he answered I care not how you came by it now I have it I will keep it as long as my sword can defend it He that keeps earth by wrong cannot expect heaven by right CHAP. XIII An Exhortation to the pursuit of heaven and heavenly things Vse 3 THirdly Is it heaven and all that is heavenly that Satan seeks to hinder us of let this provoke us the more earnestly to contend for them
ch 4. v. 2 3 4. who had a minde to his Kinsman Elimelechs land and would have paid for the purchase but he liked not to have it by marrying Ruth and so missed of it Some seem very forward to have heaven and salvation if their own righteousnesse could procure the same all the good they do and duties they performe they lay up for this purchase but at last perish because they close not with Christ and take not heaven in his right A third sort are content to have it by Christ but their desires are so impotent and listlesse that they put them upon no vigourous use of means to obtain him and so like the sluggard they starve because they will not pull their hands out of their bosome of sloth to reach their food that is before them for the world they have mettal enough and too much they trudge far and near for that and when they have run themselves out of breath can stand and pant after the dust of the earth as the Prophet phraseth it Amos 2.7 But for Christ and obtaining interest in him O how key-cold are they there is a kinde of cramp invades all the powers of their soules when they should pray hear examine their hearts draw out their affections in hungrings and thirstings after his grace and Spirit 'T is strange to see how they even now went full soop to the world are suddenly becalm'd not a breath of winde stirring to any purpose in their soules after these things and is it any wonder that Christ and Heaven should be denied to them that have no more mind to them Lastly some have zeal enough to have Christ Heaven but it is when the Master of the house is risen and hath shut to the door and truly then they may stand long enough rapping before any come to let them in There is no Gospel preached in another world but as for thee poor soul who art perswaded to renounce thy lusts throw away the conceit of thy own righteousnesse that thou mayest run with more speed to Christ and art so possest with the excellency of Christ thy own present need of him and salvation by him that thou pantest after him more then life it self In Gods Name go on and speed be of good comfort he calls thee by name to come unto him that thou mayest have rest for thy soul There is an office in the Word where thou mayest have thy soule and its eternal happinesse ensured to thee Those that come to him as he will himself in no wise cast away so not suffer any other to pluck them away This day saith Christ to Zaccheus salvation is come to thy house Luke 19.9 Salvation comes to thee poore soul that openest thy heart to receive Christ thou hast eternal life already as sure as if thou wert a glorified Saint now walking in that heavenly City O Sirs if there were a free trade proclaimed to the Indies enough gold for all that went and a certainty of making a safe voyage who would stay at home But alas this can never be had all this and infinitely more may be said for heaven and yet how few leave their uncertain hopes of the world to trade for it what account can be gi-given for this but the desperate atheisme of mens hearts they are not yet fully perswaded whether the Scripture speaks true or not whether they may relie upon the discovery that God makes in his Word of this new-found land and those mines of spiritual treasure there to be had as certain God open the eyes of the unbelieving world as he did the Prophets servants that they may see these things to be realities and not fictions 't is faith only that gives a being to these things in our hearts By faith Moses saw him that was invisible Thirdly earthly things when we have them we are not sure of them like birds they hop up and down now on this hedge and anon upon that none can call them his own rich to day and poor to morrow In health when we lie down and arrested with pangs of death before midnight Joyful Parents one while solacing our selves with the hopes of our budding posterity and may be ere long knocks one of Jobs messengers at our door to tell us they are all dead now in honour but who knows whether we shall not live to see that butied in scorn and reproach The Scripture compares the multitude of people to waters the great ones of the world sit upon these waters as the ship floates upon the waves so do their honours upon the breath and favour of the multitude and bow long is he like to sit that is carried upon a wave one while they are mounted up to heaven as David speaks of the ship and then down again they fall into the deep We have ten parts in the King say the men of Israel 2 Sam. 19.45 and in the very next verse Sheba doth but sound a trumpet of sedition saying We have no part in David no inheritance in the son of Jesse and the winde is in another corner presently for it 's said Every man of Israel went up from after David and followed Sheba Thus was David cried up and down and that almost in the same breath Unhappy man he that hath no surer portion then what this variable world will afford him The time of mourning for the departure of all earthly enjoyments is at hand we shall see them as Eglons servants did their Lord fallen down dead before us and weep because they are not What folly then is it to dandle this vaine world in our affections whose joy like the childes laughter on the mothers knee is sure to end in a cry at last and neglect heaven and heavenly things which endure for ever O remember Dives stirring up his pillow and composing himself to rest how he was call'd up with the tydings of death before he was warme in this his bed of ease and laid with sorrow on another which God had made for him in flames from whence we hear him roaring in the anguish of his conscience O soule couldest thou get but an interest in the heavenly things we are speaking of these would not thus slip from under thee heaven is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Christ an abiding portion his graces and comforts sure waters that faile not but spring up unto eternal life The quailes that were food for the Israelites lust soon ceased but the rock that was drink to their faith followed them this rock is Christ make sure of him and he will make sure of thee he 'll follow thee to thy sick-bed and lie in thy bosome chearing thy heart with his sweet comforts when worldly joyes lie cold upon thee as Davids cloathes on him and no warmth of comfort to be got from them When thy outward senses are lock't up that thou canst neither see the face of thy dear friends nor hear the counsel and comfort they would give
up is a riddle to any that know what they both are Thirdly the Christian wrongs himself in not endeavouring to repaire his broken armour and recover his declining grace By this he loses the evidence of his inheritance at least so blots it that it cannot be so clearly perceived by him A declining Christian must needs be a doubting Christian because the common symptome of an hypocrite is to wear and waste like a stake set in the ground which rots while true grace like the tree grows Is not this the knot which the devil poseth many poor soules withal and findes them work for many yeares to untie If thou wert a Christian thou wouldest grow Right Saints go from strength to streugth and thou goest from strength to weaknesse They go up the hill to Zion every Ordinance and Providence is a step that bears them nearer Heaven but thou goest down the hill and art further from thy salvation then when thou didst first believe as thou thoughtest and doth it stand wirh thy wisdom Christian to put a staffe into the devâ—ls hand an argument into his mouth to dispute against thy salvation with If you held an estate by the life of a childe which upon the death of it should all go away from you that childe I warrant you should be well look't unto his head should not ake but you would post to the Physician for counsel I pray what is your evidence for that glorious estate you hope for Is it not Christ within you Is not this new creature whâ—ch may well be call'd Christ for its likenesse to him the young heire of Heavens glory and when that is sick or weak is it not time to use all meanes for its recovery while thus thou canst neither live nor die comfortably Not live a man in a consumption has little joy of his life he neither findes sweetnesse in his meat nor delight in his work as a healthfuâ— man doth O how sweet is the promise to faith when active and vigourous how easie the yoke of the Command to the Christian when his conscience is not gall'd with guilt nor hi strength enfeebled by temptation but the Christian in a declining condition he tastes not the promise every command is grievous and every duty burdensome to him he goes in pain like one whose foot is out of joynt though the way be never so pleasant And he is as unfit to die as he is to live such a one can like no more to hear the newes of death then a tenant that wants his rent doth to hear of the quarter-day This made David beg time of God Spare me a little that I may recover my strength Having shewen you why the Christian should endeavour to recover his declining graces it will be very requisite to give a word of counsel to the Christian First to direct him how to judge of the declining state of grace that he may not passe a false judgement upon himself therein Secondly to direct him when he findes grace to be in a declination how he may recover it CHAP. III. A cautionary direction from what we may not as also from what we may judge our graces to be in a declination Quest FIrst of the first How may a Christian judge whether grace be declining in him or no Answ First I shall resolve this negatively and shew by what he is not to judge his grace to decline Secondly positively by what he may certainly conclude a decay of grace First negatively and that in several particulars Frist Christian do not judge grace to be fallen weaker because thy sense of corruption is grown stronger This oft lies at the bottome of poor souls complaints in this case O they never felt pride hypocrisie and other corruptions so haunt them as now none knows how they are vexed with these and the like besides themselves Now let me ask thee who makest this sad moane whether thou doest not think these corruptions were in thee before thou didst thus feel them how oft hast thou prayed as formally and not been troubled how oft hast thou stood chatting with the same lusts and thy soule hath not been laid low before the Lord with such abasement of thy self as now deal faithfully between God and thy soule and tell not a lie for God by bearing false witnesse against thy self If it be thus thou hast rather a comfortable signe of grace growing then decaying Sin cannot be on the getting hand if the sense of sin grow quick this is the concomitant of a thriving soul none so full of complaints of their own hearts as such the least sin goes now to their very soules which makes them think viler of themselves then ever but it is not the increase of sin in them but the advance of their love to Christ makes them judge so when the Sun shines with some power and the year gets up we observe though we may have frosts and snow yet they do not lie long but are soon dissolved by the Sun O 't is a sweet signe that the love of Christ shines with a force upon thy soule that no corruptions can lie long in thy bosome but they melt into sorrow and bitter complaints That is the decaying soul where sinne lies bound up and frozen little sense of or sorrow for it appears Secondly Take heed thou thinkest not grace decayes because thy comfort withdrawes The influence of the Sun comes where the light of it is not to be found yea is mighty as appears in those mines of gold and silver which are concocted by the same And so may the actings of grace be vigourous in thee when least under the shines of his countenance Did ever faith triumph more then in our Saviour crying My God my God here faith was at its meridian when it was midnight in respect of joy Possibly thou comest from an Ordinance and bringest not home with thee those sheaves of comfort thou usest to do and therefore conclude grace acted not in thee as formerly Truly if thou hast nothing else to go by thou mayest wrong the grace of God in thee exceedingly Because thy comfort is extrinsecal to thy duty a boon which God may give or not yea doth give to the weak and deny to the strong The traveller may go as fast and rid as much ground when the Sun doth not shine as when it doth though indeed he goes not so merrily on his journey nay somtimes he makes the more hast the warm Sun makes him sometime to lie down and loyter but when dark and cold he puts on with more speed Some graces thrive best like some flowers in the shade such as humility dependance on God c Thirdly take heed thou doest not mistake and think thy grace decayes when may be it is only thy temptations increase and not thy grace decrease If you should hear a man say because he cannot to day run so fast when a hundred weight is on his back as he could yesterday
that thou canst not as thou usest lift up thy heart from earthly to spiritual duties They were intended as helps against temptation and therefore when they prove snares to us there is a distemper on us If we waxe worse after sleep the body is not right because the nature of sleep is to refresh if exercise indisposeth for work the reason is in our bodies So here Secondly when thy diligence in thy particular calling is more selfish possibly thou hast wrought in thy shop and set close at thy study in obedience to the command chiefly thy carnal interests have swayed but little with thee but now thou tradest more for thy self and lesse for God O have a care of this Thirdly when thou canst not bear the disappointment of thy carnal ends in thy particular calling as thou hast done thou workest and gettest little of the world thou preachest and art not much esteemed and thou knowest not well how to brook these The time was thou couldest retire thy self into God and make up all thou didst want elsewhere in him but now thou art not so well satisfied with thy estate rank and condition thy heart is fingering for more of these then God allowes thee this shews declining children are harder to be pleased and old men whose decay of nature makes them more froward and in a manner children the second time then others labour therefore to recover thy decaying grace and as this lock grows so thy strength with it will to acquiesce in the disposure of Gods Providence CHAP. IV. A word of counsel for the recovery of declining grace WE come now to give a few directions to the Christian how to recover decaying grace Enquire faithfully into the cause of thy declining The Christians armour decays two wayes either by violent bartery when the Christian is overcome by temptations to sin or else by neglecting to forbish and scoure it with the use of those means which are as oile to keep it clean and bright Now enquire which of these have been the cause of thy decay It is like both concurre First if thy grace be weakened by any blow given it by any sin committed by thee there then lies a threefold duty upon thee towards the recovery of it First thou art to renew thy repentance It is Christs counsel Rev. 2.5 to Ephesus Repent and do thy first works where it is not only commanded as a duty but prescribed as a means for her recovery as if he had said Repent that thou mayest do thy first works So Hosea 14.2 The Lord sets back-sliding Israel about this work bidding her take words and turn to the Lord and v. 4. he then tells her he 'll take her in hand to recover her of her sins I will heale their back-slidings a repenting soule is under promise of healing and therefore Christian go and search thy heart as thou wouldest do thy house if some thief or murderer lay hid in it to cut thy throat in the night and when thou hast found the sin that has done thee the mischief then labour to fill thy heart with shame for it and indignation against it and so go big with sorrow and cast it forth before the Lord in a heart-breaking confession better thou do this then Satan do thy errand to God for thee Secondly when thou hast renewed thy repentance forget not delay not then to renew thy faith on the promise for pardon Repentance that is like purging physick to evacuate the peccant humour but if faith come not presently with its restorative the poor creature will never get heart or recover his strength A soule may die of a fluxe of sorrow as well as of sin faith hath an incarnating vertue as they say of some strengthening meats it feeds upon the promise and that is perfect converting or rather restoring the soule Psal 19.7 Though thou wert pined to skin and bones all thy strength wasted yet faith would soon recruit thee and enable every grace to perform its office chearfully Faith sucks peace from the promise call'd peace in beleeving from peace flowes joyes Being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 5.1 and v. 2. We rejoyce in the hope of glory and joy affords strength The joy of the Lord is our strength Thirdly back both these with a daily endeavour to mortifie those lusts which most pevail over thy grace Weeds cannot thrive and the flowers also when grace doth not act vigorously and freely conclude it is opprest with some contrary lust which weighs down its spirits and makes them lumpish even as superfluous humours do load the natural spirits in our bodies that we have little joy to stir or go about any businesse till they be evacuated and therefore ply this work close it is not a dayes work or two in the yeare like Physick at spring and fall nothing more vain then to make a busle as the Papists do at their Lent or as some unsound Professours among our selves who seem to bestir themselves before a Sacrament or day of Fasting with a great noise of zeal and then let those very lusts live peaceably in them all the yeare after No this is child-play to do and undo thou must mortifie daily thy lusts by the Spirit Rom. 8.13 Follow but this work conscionably in thy Christian course making it thy endeavour as constantly as the labouring man goes out every day to work in the field where his calling lies to watch thy heart and use all means for the discovery of sin and as it breaks forth to be humbled for it and be chopping at the root of it with this axe of mortification and thou shalt see by the blessing of God what a change for the better there will be in the constitution of thy grace thou who art now so poor so pale that thou art afraid to see thy own face long in the glasse of thy own conscience shall then reflect with joy upon thy owne conscience and dare to converse with thy self without those surprizals of horrour and feare which before did appale thee thy grace though it shall not be thy rejoycing yet it will be thy evidence for Christ in whom it is and lead thee in with boldnesse to lay claim to him while the loose Christian whose grace is over-grown with lusts for want of this weeding hook shall stand trembling at the door questioning whether his grace be true or no and from that doubt of his welcome Secondly if upon enquiry thou findest that thy Armour decays rather for want of scouring then by any blow from sin presumptuously committed as that is most common and ordinary rust will soon spoil the best armour and negligence give grace its bane as well as grosse sins then apply thy self to the use of those means which God hath appointed for the strengthening grace if the fire goes out by taking off the wood what way to preserve it but by laying it on again First I shall send thee to the Word of
you may withstand in the evil day He shuts out all hope of escaping as if he had said you have no way but to withstand please not your selves with thoughts of shunning battel the evil day must come be you arm'd or notarm'd Thirdly the necessity of this armour to withstand As we cannot run from it so not bear up before it and oppose the force which will be made against us except clad with Armour These would afford several points but for brevity we shall lay them together in one Conclusion CHAP. VI. Sheweth that the day of affliction is evil and in what respects as also unavoidable and why to be prepared for IT behoves everyone to arme and prepare himself for the evil day of affliction and death which unavoidably he must conflict with The point hath three branches First the day of affliction and death is an evil day Secondly this evil day is unavoidable Thirdly it behoves every one to provide for this evil day First of the first branch the day of affliction especially death is an evil day Here we must shew how affliction is evil and how not First it is not morally or intrinsecally evil if it were evil in this sense First God could not be the author of it his nature is so pure that no such evil can come from him any more then the Sunnes light can make night But this evil of affliction he voucheth for his own act Against this family do I devise an evil Mic. 3.2 yea more he impropriates it so to himself as that he will not have us think any can do us evil beside himself 'T is the Prerogative he glories in that there is no evil in the City but it is of his doing Amos 3.6 And well it is for the Saints that their crosses are all made in heaven they would not else be so fitted to their backs as they are But for the evil of sin he disownes it with a strict charge that we lay not this brat which is begotten by Satan upon our impure hearts at his door Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man James 1.13 Secondly if affliction were thus intrinsecally evil it could in no respect be the object of our desire which sometimes it is and may be We are to choose affliction rather then sin yea the greatest affliction before the least sin Moses chose affliction with the people of God rather then the pleasures of sin for a season We are bid rejoyce when we fall into divers temptations that is afflictions But in what respects then may the day of affliction be called evil First as it is grievous to sense in Scriprure evil is oft put as contradistinct to joy and comfort We looked for peace and behold no good A merry heart is called a good heart a sad spirit an evil spirit because nature hath an abhorrency to all that opposeth its joy and this every affliction doth more or lesse No affliction while present is joyous but grievous it hath like Physick an unpleasing farewel to the sense Therefore Salomon speaking of the evil dayes of sicknesse expresseth them to be so distasteful to nature that we shall say We have no pleasure in them They take away the joy of our life Natural joy is a true flower of the Sun of prosperity it opens and shuts with it 'T is true indeed the Saints never have more joy then in their affliction but this comes in upon another score they have a good God that sends it in or else they would be as sadly on it as others 'T is no more natural for comfort to spring from afflictions then for grapes to grow on thornes or Manna in the wildernesse The Israelites might have look't long enough for such bread if heaven had not miraculously rained it down God chooseth this season to make the Omnipotency of his love the more conspicuous As Elijah to adde to the miracle first causeth water in abundance to be poured upon the wood and sacrifice so much as to fill the trench and then brings fire from heaven by his prayer to lick it up Thus God poures out the flood of affliction upon his children and then kindles that inward joy in their bosomes which licks up all their sorrow yea he makes the very waters of affliction they float on adde a further sweetnesse to the musick of their spiritual joy but still it is God that is good and affliction that is evil Secondly the day of affliction is an evil day as it is an unwelcome remembrancer of what sinful evils have passed in our lives It revives the memory of old sins which it may be were buried many years ago in the grave of forgetfulnesse The night of affliction is the time when such ghosts use to walk in mens consciences and as the darknesse of the night addes to the horrour of any scareful object so doth the state of affliction which is it self uncomfortable adde to the terrour of our sinnes then remembred Never did the Patriarchs sin look so ghastly on them as when it recoil'd upon them in their distresse Gen. 42.21 The sinner then hath more real apprehensions of wrath then at another time affliction approximates judgement yea it is interpreted by him as a Pursevant sent to call him presently before God and therefore must needs beget a woful confusion and consternation in his spirit O that men would think of this how they could bear the sight of their sins and a Rehearsal Sermon of all their wayes in that day That is the blessed man indeed who can with the Prophet then look on them and triumph over them This indeed is a dark parable as he calls it few can skill of it as Ps 94.3 4. I will open my dark saying upon the harp wherefore should I feare in the day of evil when the iniquity of my heels compasseth me about Thirdly the day of affliction makes discovery of much evil to be in the heart which was not seen before Affliction shakes and royles the creature if any sediment be at the bottome it will appear then Sometimes it discovers the heart to be quite naught that before had some seeming good these suds wash off the hypocrites paint Natura vexata prodit seipsam When corrupt nature is vext it shews it self and some afflictions do that to purpose We reade of such as are offended when persecution comes they fall quite out with their Profession because it puts them to such cost and trouble others in their distresse that curse their God Isa 8.21 It is impossible for a naughty heart to think well of an afflicting God The hireling if his Master takes up a staffe to beat him throws down his work and runs away and so doth a false heart serve God Yea even where the person is gracious corruption is oft found to be stronger and grace weaker then they were thought to be
Peter who set out so valiantly at first to walk on the sea the winde doth but rise and he begins to sink now he sees there was more unbelief in his heart then he before suspected Sharp afflictions are to the soule as a driving raine to the house we know not that there are such crannies and holes in the house till we see it drop down here and there Thus we perceive not how unmortified this corruption nor how weak that grace is till we are thus search't and made more fully to know what is in our hearts by such trials This is the reason why none have such humble thoughts of themselves and such pitiful and forbearing thoughts towards others in their infirmities as those who are most acquainted with afflictions they meet with so many foiles in their conflicts as make them carry a low saile in respect of their own grace and a tender respect to their brethren more ready to pity then censure them in their weaknesses Fourthly this is the season when the evil one Satan comes to tempt What we finde call'd the time of tribulation Mat. 13.22 we finde in the same parable Luke 8.13 call'd the time of temptation Indeed they both meet seldome doth God afflict us but Satan addeth temptation to our wildernesse This is your houre saith Christ and the power of darknesse Luke 22.53 Christs sufferings from man and temptation from the devil came together Esau who hated his brother for the blessing said in his heart The dayes of mourning for my father are at hand then will I kill my brother Gen. 27.41 Times of affliction are the dayes of mourning those Satan waits for to do us amischief in Fifthly and lastly the day of affliction hath oft an evil event and issue and in this respect proves an evil day indeed All is well we say that ends well the product of afflictions on the Christian is good the rod with which they are corrected yields the peaceable fruits of righteousnesse and therefore they can call their afflictions good that is a good instrument that lets out only the bad blood It is good for me that I was afflicted saith David I have read of a holy woman who used to compare her afflictions to her children they both put her to great pain in the bearing but as she knew not which of her children to have been without for all the trouble in the bringing forth so neither which of her afflictions she could have missed notwithstanding the sorrow they put her to in the enduring But to the wicked the issue is sad first in regard of sin they leave them worse more impenitent hardened in sin and outragious in their wicked practices Every plague on Egypt added to the plague of hardnesse on Pharaohs heart he that for some while could beg prayers of Moses for himself at last comes to that passe that he threatens to kill him if he come at him any more O what a prodigious height do we see many come to in sin after some great sicknesse or other judgement Children do not more shoot up in their bodily stature after an ague then they in their lusts after afflictions O how greedy and ravenous are they after their prey when they once get off their clog and chain from their heeles when Physick works not kindly it doth not only leave the disease uncured but the poison of the Physick stays in the body also Many appear thus poisoned by their afflictions by the breaking out of their lusts afterward Secondly in regard of sorrow every affliction on a wicked person produceth another and that a greater then it self The last wedge comes the last which shall rive him fit for the fire the sinner is whip't from affliction to affliction as the vagrant from Constable to Constable till at last he comes to hell his proper place and setled abode where all sorrrows will meet in one that is endlesse The second branch of the point follows This evil day is unavoidable We may as well stop the chariot of the Sun when posting to night and chase away the shades of the evening as escape this houre of darknesse that is coming upon us all None hath power over the Spirit to retain it neither hath he power in the day of death and there is no discharge in that war Eccl. 8.8 Among men 't is possible to get off when prest for the wars by pleading priviledge of yeares estate weaknesse of body protection from the Prince and the like or if all these fail possibly the sending another in our room or a bribe given in the hand may serve the turn But in this war the presse is so strict that there is no dispensation David could willingly have gone for his son we hear him crying Would God I had died for thee O Absalom my son my son but he will not be taken that young Gallant must go himself We must in our own person come into the field and look death in the face Some indeed we finde so fond as to promise themselves immunity from this day as if they had an ensuring office in their breast They say they have made a Covenant with death and with hell they are at an agreement when the overflowing scourge shall passe through it shall not come unto them And now like debtors that have feed the Serjeant they walk abroad boldly and feare no arrest But God tells them as fast as they binde he will loose Your Covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand and how should it if God will not set his seal to it There is a divine Law for this evil day which came in force upon Adams first sin that laid the fatal knife to the throat of mankinde which hath opened a sluce to let out his heart-blood ever since God to prevent all escape hath sowen the seeds of death in our very constitution and nature so that we can assoon run from our selves as run from death We need no feller to come with a hand of violence and hew us down there is in the tree a worme which grows out of its own substance that will destroy it so in us those infirmities of nature that will bring us down to the dust Our death was bred when our life was first conceived and as a breeding woman cannot hinder the houre of her travel that follows in nature upon the other so neither can man hinder the bringing forth of death with which his life is big All the pains and aches man feels in his life are but so many singultus morientis naturae groans of dying nature they tell him his dissolution is at hand Beest thou a Prince sitting in all thy state and pomp death dare enter thy Palace and come through all thy guards to deliver the fatal message it hath from God to thee yea runs its dagger to thy heart wert thou compassed with a Colledge of Doctors consulting thy health Art and Nature both
hast had against them some of them thou wilt finde poor and persecuted yet Christ is not ashamed to call them brethren neither must thou If thou findest thy heart now in such a disposition as suits these Interrogatories I dare not deny the banes yea I dare not but pronounce Christ and thee Husband and Wife Go poor soul if I may call so glorious a Bride poor Go and comfort thy self with the expectation of thy Bridegrooms coming for thee and when the evil day approaches and death it self draws nigh look not now with terrour upon it but rather revive with old Jacob to see the chariot which shall carry thee over unto the embraces of thy husband whom thou hearest to be in so great Honour and Majesty in Heaven as may assure thee he is able to make thee welcome when thou comest there Amongst the all things which are ours by being Christs the Apostle forgets not to name this to be one Death is ours And well he did so or else we should never have look't upon it as a gift but rather as a judgement Now soul thou art out of any danger of hurt that the evil day can do thee Yet there remains something for thee to do that thou mayest walk in the comfortable expectation of the evil day We see that gracious persons may for want of a holy care fall into such distempers as may put a sting into their thoughts of the evil day David that at one time would not feare to walk in the valley of the shadow of death is so affrighted at another time when he is led towards it that he cries Spare me O Lord that I may recover my strength before I go hence Psal 39. The childe though he loves his father may do that which may make him afraid to go home Now Christian if thou wouldest live in a comfortable expectation of the evil day First labour to die to this life and the enjoyments of it every day more and more Death is not so strong to him whose natural strength has been wasted by long pining sicknesse as it is to him that lies but a few dayes and has strength of nature to make great resistance Truly thus it is here that Christian whose love to this life and the contents of it hath been for many years consuming and dying will with more facility part with them then he whose love is stronger to them All Christians are not mortified in the same degree to the world Paul tells us he died daily He was ever sending more and more of his heart out of the world so that by that time he came to die all his affections were pack't up and gone which made him the more ready to follow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am ready to be offered up 2 Tim. 4.6 If it be but a tooth to pull out the faster it stands the more pain we have to draw it O loosen the roots of thy affections from the world and the tree will fall more easily Secondly be careful to approve thy self with diligence and faithfulnesse to God in thy place and calling The clearer thou standest in thy own thoughts concerning the uprightnesse of thy heart in the tenure of thy Christian course the more composure thou wilt have when the evil day comes I beseech thee O Lord saith good Hezekiah at the point of death as he thought remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight This cannot be our confidence but it will be a better companion then a scoulding conscience if the blood be bad the spirits will be tainted also the more our life has been corrupted with hypocrisie and unfaithfulnesse the weaker our faith will be in a dying houre There is great difference between two children that come home at night one from the field where he hath been diligent and faithful about his fathers work and another that hath played the Truant a great part of the day the former comes inconfidently to stand before his father the other sneaks to bed is afraid his father should see him or ask where he hath been O Sirs look to your walking These have been trying times as ever came to England It has required more care and courage to keep sincerity then formerly And that is the reason why it is so rare to finde Christians especially those whose place and calling hath been more in the winde of temptation go off the stage at death with such a Plaudite of inward peace in their bosomes Thirdly familiarize the thoughts of the evil day to thy soul Handle this serpent often walk daily in the serious meditations of if do not run from them because they are unpleasing to flesh that is the way to increase the terrour of it Do with your souls when shy of and scared with the thoughts of affliction or death as you use to do with your beast that is given to bogle and start as you ride on him When he flies back and starts at a thing you do not yield to his fear and go back that will make him worse another time but you ride him up close to that which he is afraid of and in time you break him of that quality The evil day is not such a scareful thing to thee that art a Christian as thou shouldest start for it Bring up thy heart close to it Shew thy soul what Christ hath done to take the sting out of it what the sweet promises are that are given on purpose to overcome the feare of it and what thy hopes are thou shalt get by it These will satisfie and compose thy Spirit whereas the shunning the thoughts of it will but increase thy feare and bring thee more into bondage to it CHAP. VIII The second Argument with which the Exhortation is pressed drawn from the assured victory which shall crown the soules conflict if in this Armour where several Points couched in the Argument are briefly handled WE come now to the second Argument the Apostle useth further to presse the exhortation and that is taken from the glorious victory which hovers over the heads of believers while in the fight and shall surely crown them in the end this is held forth in these words And having done all to stand The phrase is short but full SECT I. First observe Heaven is not won with good words and a fair Profession Having done all The doing Christian is the man that shall stand when the empty boaster of his faith shall fall The great talkers of Religion are oft the least doers His Religion is in vaine whose Profession brings not letters testimonial from a holy life Sacrifice without obedience is Sacriledge Such rob God of that which he makes most account of A great Captain once smote one of his souldiers for railing at his enemy saying that he called him not to raile on him but to fight against him and kill him 'T is
not crying out upon the devil and declaiming against sin in prayer or discourse but fighting and mortifying it that God looks chiefly upon such a one else doth but beat the aire there are no marks to be seen on his flesh and unmortified lusts that he hath fought Paul was in earnest he left a witnesse upon his body made black and blew with stroaks of mortification It was not a little vapouring in sight of the Philistines that got David his wife but shedding their blood And is it so small a matter to be son to the King of Heaven that thou thinkest to obtain it without giving a real proof of thy zeal for God and hatred to sin Not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man saith the Apostle shall be blessed in his deed James 1.25 Mark not by his deed but in his deed he shall meet blessednesse in that way of obedience he walks in The empty Professour disappoints others who seeing his leaves expect fruit but finde none and at last he disappoints himself he thinks to reach heaven but shall misse of it Tertullian speaks of some that think Satìs Deum habere si corde animo suspiciatur licèt actu minus fiat God hath enough they think if he be feared and reverenced in their hearts though in their actions they shew it not so much and therefore they can sin and believe in God and feare him never the worse This saith he is to play the Adulteresse and yet be chaste to prepare poison for ones father and yet be dutiful but let such know saith the same father that if they can sin and believe God will pardon them with a contradiction also he 'll forgive them but they shall be turn'd into hell for all that As ever you would stand at last look you be found doing the work your Lord hath left you to make up and trust not to lying words as the Prophet speaks Jer. 7. SECT II. Secondly Observe that such is the mercy of God in Christ to his children that he accepts their weak endeavours joyn'd with sincerity and perseverance in his service as if they were full obedience and therefore they are here said to have done all O who would not serve such a Lord you hear servants sometimes complain of their Masters to be so rigid and strict that they can never please them no not when they do their utmost But this cannot be charged upon God Be but so faithful as to do thy best and God is so gracious that he will pardon thy worst David knew this Gospel-indulgence when he said Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy Commandments Psal 119.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when my eye is to all thy Commandments The Traveller hath his eye on or towards the place he is going though he be yet short of it there he would be and is putting on all he can to reach it So stands the Saints heart to all the Commands of God he presseth on to come nearer and nearer to full obedience such a soul shall never be put to shame But wo to those that cover their sloth with the name of infirmity yea that spend their zeal and strength in the pursuit of the world or their lusts and then think to make all up when charg'd therwith That it is their infirmity and they can serve God no better These do by God as those two did by their Prince Francis the first of France who cut off their right hand one for another and then made it an excuse they were lame and so could not serve in his Galleys for which they were sent to the Gallowes Thus many will be found at last to have disabled themselves by refusing that help the Spirit hath offered to them yea wasted what they had given them and so shall be rewarded for hypocrites as they are God knows how to distinguish between the sincerity of a Saint in the midst of his infirmities and the shifts of a false heart But we will wave these and briefly speak to foure points which lie clear in the words First here is the necessity of perseverance Having done all 2ly here is the necessity of divine Armour to persevere til we have done al. Wherfore else bids he them take this armour for this end if they could do it without Thirdly here is the certainty of persevering and overcoming at last if clad with this Armour else it were small encouragement to bid them take that Armour which would not surely defend them Fourthly here is the blessed result of the Saints perseverance propounded as that which will abundantly recompence all their pain and patience in the war having done all to stand From these follow foure distinct Points First he that will be Christs souldier must persevere Secondly there can be no perseverance without true grace in the heart Thirdly where true grace is that soul shall persevere Fourthly to stand at the end of this war will abundantly recompence all our hazard and hardship endured in the warre SECT III. He that will be Christs souldier must persevere to the end of his life in this war against Satan This Having done all comes in after our conflict with death That ye may be able to withst and in the evil day then follows And having done all We have not done all till that pitch't battel be fought The last enemy is death The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports as much as to finish a businesse and bring a matter to a full issue so Phil. 2.12 where we translate it well Work out your salvation that is perfect it be not Christians by halves but go through with it the through Christian is the true Christian Not he that takes the field but he that keeps the field not he that sets out but he that holds out in this holy war deserves the name of a Saint There is not such a thing in this sense belonging to Christianity as an honourable retreat not such a word of command in all Christs military Discipline as fall back and lay down your armes No you must fall on and stand to your armes till call'd off by death First we are under a Covenant and Oath to do this Formerly souldiers used to take an oath not to flinch from their colours but faithfully to cleave to their Leaders this they called Sacramentum militare a military oath Such an oath lies upon every Christian It is so essential to the being of a Saint that they are described by this Psal 50.5 Gather my Saints together those that have made a Covenant with me We are nor Christians till we have subscribed this Covenant and that without any reservation When we take upon us the Profession of Christs Name we list our selves in his muster-roll and by it do promise that we will live and die with him in opposition to all his enemies Every Nation will walk in the name of his God and we will
beautiful colours that were drawn on them but not laid in oyle and therefore soon wash't off again The foolish Virgins made as great a blaze with their lamps and did expect as good a day when Christ should come as the wise Virgins but alas their lamps are out before he appeared and as good never a whit as never the better The stony ground more forward then the best soile the seed comes up immediately as if a crop should soon have been reap't but a few nipping frosts turns its hue and the day of harvest proves a day of desperate sorrow All these instances and many more in Scripture do evince that nothing short of solid grace and a principle of divine life in the soul will persevere How forward soever Formalists and slighty Professours are to promise themselves hopes of reaching heaven they will finde it too long a step for their short-breathed souls to attain The reasons are First such want a principle of divine life to draw strength from Christ to persevere them in their course That by which the gracious soule it self perseveres is the continual supply it receives from Christ as the arme and foot is kept alive in the body by those vital spirits which they receive from the heart I live saith Paul yet not I but Christ in me that is I live but at Christs cost he holds as my soul so my grace in life Now the carnal person wanting this union must needs waste and consume in time He hath no root to stand on A carcase when once it begins to rot never recovers but every day grows worse till it runs all into putrefaction no salve or plaister will do it good but where there is a principle of life there when a member is wounded nature sends supplies of spirits and helps to work with the salve for a cure There is the same difference between a gracious person and an ungracious see them opposed in this respect Prov. 14.17 The righteous man falls seven times a day and riseth but the wicked falleth into mischief that is in falling he falls further and hath no power to recover himself When Cain sinned see how he falls further and further like a stone down a hill never stayes till he comes to the bottome of despair from envying his brother to malice from malice to murder from murder to impudent lying and brazen-fac't boldnesse to God himself and from that to despair so true is that 2 Tim. 3 13. Evill men shall waxe worse and worse But now when a Saint falls he riseth because when he falls he hath a principle of life to cry out to Christ and such an interest in Christ as stirs him up to help Lord save me said Peter when he began to sink and presently Christs hand is put forth he chides him for his unbelief but he helps him Secondly an unregenerate soul hath no assurance for the continuance of those common gifts of the Spirit he hath at present they come on the same termes that temporal enjoyments do to such a one A carnal person when he hath his table most sumptuously spread cannot shew any word of promise under Gods hand that he shall be provided for the next meal God gives these things to the wicked as we a crust or a nights lodging to a beggar in our barne 't is our bounty such a one could not sue us for denying the same so in the common gifts of the Spirit God was not bound to give them nor is he to continue them Thou hast some knowledge of the things of God thou mayest for all this die without knowledge at last thou art a sinner in chaines restraining grace keeps thee in this may be taken off and thou let loose to thy lusts as freely as ever And how can he persevere that in one day may from praying fall to cursing from a whining complaining conscience come to have a seared conscience Thirdly every unregenerate man when most busie with Profession hath those engagements lie upon him that will necessarily when put to it take him off one time or other One is engaged to the world and when he can come to a good market for that then he goes away he cannot have both and now he 'll make it appear which he loved best Demas hath forsaken us and embraced this present world Another is a slave to his lust and when this calls him he must go in spight of Profession conscience God and all Herod feared John and did many things but love is stronger then feare his love to Herodias overcomes his fear of John and makes him cut off at once the head of John and the hopeful buddings which appeared in the tendernesse of his conscience and begun Reformation One root of bitternesse or other will spring up in such a one If the complexion of the soul be profane it will at last come to it however for a while there may some religious colour appear in the mans face from some other external cause This shews us what is the root of all final apostasy and that is the want of a through change of the heart The Apostate doth not lose the grace he had but discovers he never had any and 't is no wonder to hear that he proves bankrupt that was worse then nought when he first set up Many take up their Saintship upon trust and trade in the duties of Religion with the credit they have gain'd from others opinion of them They believe themselves to be Christians because others hope them to be such and so their great businesse is by a zeal in those exercises of Religion that lie outmost to keep up the credit which they have abroad but do not look to get a stock of solid grace within which should maintain them in their Profession and this proves their undoing at last Let it therefore make us in the feare of God to consider upon what score we take up our Profession Is there that within which bears proportion to our outward zeal Have we laid a good bottome Is not the superstructive top heavy jetting too far beyond the weak foundation They say trees shoot as much in the root under ground as in the branches above and so doth true grace O remember what was the perishing of the seed in the stony ground it lacked root and why so but because it was stony Be willing the plough should go deep enough to humble thee for sin and rend thy heart from sinne The soul effectually brought out of the love of sin as sin will never be through friends with it again In a word be serious to finde out the great spring that sets all thy wheels on motion in thy religious trade Do as men that would know how much they are worth who set what they owe on one side and what stock they have on the other and then when they have laid out enough to discharge all debts and engagements what remaines to themselves they may call their
of Saints falling from grace gives a sad dash to the sweet wine of the Promises the soul-reviving comfort that sparkles in them ariseth from the sure conveyance with which they are in Christ made over to believers to have and to hold for ever Hence called the sure mercies of David Acts 13.34 mercies that shall never faile This this indeed is wine that makes glad the heart of a Saint though he may be whipt in the house when he sins yet he shall not be turned out of doores As God promised in the type to Davids seed Psal 89.33 Neverthelesse my loving kindnesse will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulnesse to faile and v. 36. His seed shall endure for ever Could any thing separate the believer from the love of God in Christ this would be as a hole at the bottome of his cup to leak out all his joy he might then feare every temptation or affliction he meets would slay him and so the wickeds curse would be the Saints portion His life would ever hang in doubt before him and the fearful expectation of his final miscarriage which he sees may befall him would eat up the joy of his present hope Now how contrary such a frame of heart is to the spirit of adoption and full assurance of hope which the grace of the new Covenant gives he that runs may reade in the Word Vse 2 This truth prepares a sovereign cordial to restore the fainting spirits of weak believers who are surprised with many feares concerning their persevering and holding out to the end of their warfare Be of good cheer poor soule God hath given Christ the life of every soule within the Ark of his Covenant Your eternal safety is provided for Whom he loves he loves to the end Jâ—h 13.1 Hath he made thee willing in the day of his power to march under his banner and espouse his quarrel against sin and hell the same power that overcame thy rebellious heart to himself will overcome all thy enemies within and without for thee say not thou art a bruised reed with this he will break Satans head and not cease till he hath brought forth judgement into compleat victory in thy soule He that can make a few wounded men rise up and take a strong city can make a wounded spirit triumph over sin and devils The Ark stood in the midst of Jordan till the whole Camp of Israel was safely got over into Canaan Josh 3. And so doth the Covenant which the Ark did but typifie yea Christ Covenant and all stand to secure the Saints a safe passage to Heaven If but one believer drownes the Covenant must drown with him Christ and the Saint are put together as co-heires of the same inheritance Rom. 8.17 If children then heires heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ. We cannot dispute against one but we question the firmnesse of the others title When you heare Christ is turn'd out of heaven or himself to be willing to sell his inheritance there then poore Christian feare thy coming thither and not till then Co-heires cannot sell the inheritance except both give up their right which Christ will never do nor suffer thee Vse 3 Thirdly this truth calls for a word or two of caution Though there is no feare of a Saints salling from grace yet there is great danger of others falling from the top of this comfortable doctrine into a carelesse security and presumptuous boldnesse and therefore a battlement is very necessary that from it we may with safety to our soules stand and view the pleasant prospect this truth presents to our eye That flower from which the Bee sucks honey the spider draws poison That which is a restorative to the Saints grace proves an incentive to the lust of a wicked man What Paul said of the Law we may truly of the Gospel Sin taking occasion from the grace of the Gospel and the sweet promises thereof deceives the carnal heart and works in him all manner of wickednesse Indeed sin seldome grows so rank any where as in those who water its roots with the grace of the Gospel Two wayes this doctrine may be abused First into a neglect of duty Secondly into a liberty to sin Take heed of both First beware of falling into a neglect of duty upon this score if a Christian thou canst not fall away from grace Take for an antidote against this three particulars First there are other arguments to invite yea that will constrain thee to a constant vigourous performing of duty though the feare of falling away should not come in or else thou art not a Christian what nothing make the childe diligent about his fathers businesse but feare of being disinherited and turned out of doors There is sure some better motive to duty in a Saints heart or else Religion is a melancholy work Speak for your selves O ye Saints is self-preservation all you pray for and heare for should a messenger come from Heaven and tell you Heaven were yours would this make you give over your spiritual trade and not care whether you had any more acquaintance with God till you came thither O how harsh doth this sound in your eares There are such principles engraven in the Christians bosome that will not suffer a strangenesse long to grow betwixt God and him He is under the Law of a new life which carries him naturally to desire communion with God as the childe doth to see the face of his deare father and every duty is a Mount wherein God presents himself to be seen and enjoyed by the Christian Secondly to neglect duty upon such a perswasion is contrary to Christs practice and counsel First his practice Though Christ never doubted of his Fathers love nor questioned the happy issue of all his temptations agonies and sufferings yet he prayes and prayes again more earnestly Luke 22.44 Secondly his counsel and command He told Peter that Satan had begg'd leave to have them to sift them But withal he comforts him who was to be hardest put to it with this But I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not Sure our Saviour by this provision made for him and the rest means to save them a labour that they need not watch or pray No such matter after this as you may see v. 40. He calls them up to duty Pray that ye enter not into temptation Christs praying for them was to strengthen their faith when they should themselves pray for the same mercy not to nourish their sloth that they needed not to pray Christs prayers in Heaven for his Saints are all heard already but the returne of them is reserved to be enclosed in the answer God sends to their own prayers The Christian cannot in faith expect to receive the mercies Christ prayes for in Heaven so long as he lives in the neglect of his duty on earth They stand ready against he shall call for them by the prayer of faith and
if they be not worth sending this messenger to Heaven truly they are worth little Thirdly consider that although the Christian be secured from a total and final apostasy yet he may fall sadly to the bruising of his conscience enfeebling his grace and reproach of the Gospel which sure are enough to keep the Christian upon his watch and the more because ordinarily the Saints back-slidings begin in their duties As it is with tradesmen in the world they first grow carelesse of their businesse often out of their shop and then they go behinde-hand in their estates So here first remisse in a duty and then fall into a decay of their graces and comforts yea sometimes into wayes that are scandalous A stuffe loseth its glosse before it weares The Christian the lustre of his grace in the lively exercise of duty and then the strength of it Secondly take heed of abusing this doctrine unto a liberty to sin shall we sin because grace abounds grow loose because we have God fast bound in his promise God forbid none but a Devil would teach us this Logick It was a great height of sin those wretched Jewes came to who could quaffe and carouse it while death look't in upon them at the windows Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die They discovered their Atheisme therein But what a prodigious stature in sin must that man be grown to that can sin under the protection of the promise and draw his encouragement to sin from the everlasting love of God Let us eat and drink for we are sure to live and be saved Grace cannot dwell in that heart which drawes such a cursed conclusion from the premisses of Gods grace The Saints have not so learn't Christ The inference the Apostle makes from the sweet priviledges we enjoy in the Covenant of grace is not to wallow in sin but having these promises to cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 'T is the nature of faith the grace that trades with Promises to purifie the heart Now the more certain report faith brings of Gods love from the promise to the soule the mote it purifies the heart because love by which faith works is thereby more inflamed to God and if once this affection takes fire the room becomes too hot for sin to stay there SECT VI. The fourth note and last is That it will abundantly recompence all the hardship and trouble the Christian endures in this war against sin and Satan that he shall be able when the war is ended to stand In mans wars all do not get by them that fight in them the gaines of these are commonly put into a few pockets The common souldiers endure most of the hardship but go away with little of the profit they fight to make a few that are great yet greater and are many times themselves turn'd off at last with what will hardly pay for the cure of their wounds or keep them from starving in a poor Hospital But in this war there is none loseth but he that runs away A glorious reward there is for every faithful souldier in Christs Camp and that is wrapt up in this phrase Having done all to stand Now in this place to stand imports three things which laid together will clear the point First to stand in this place is to stand Conquerours An Army when conquered is said to fall before their enemy and the Conquerour to stand Every Christian shall at the end of the war stand a Conquerour over his vanquish't lusts and Satan that headed them Many a sweet victory the Christian hath here over Satan But alas the joy of these Conquests is again interrupted with fresh alarms from his rallied enemy One day he hath the better and may be the next he is put to the hazard of another battel much ado he hath to keep what he hath got yea his very victories are such as send him bleeding out of the field Though he repulses the temptation at last yet the wounds his conscience gets in the fight do overcast the glory of the victory 'T is seldome the Christian comes off without some sad complaint of the treachery of his own heart which had like to have lost the day and betrayed him into his enemies hand But for thy eternal comfort Know poor Christian there is a blessed day coming which shall make a full and final decision of the quarrel betwixt thee and Satan Thou shalt see this enemies Camp quite broke up not a weapon left in his hand to lift up against thee Thou shalt tread upon his high places from which he hath made so many shots at thee Thou shalt see them all dismantled and demolished till there be not left standing any one corruption in thy bosome for a devil to hide and harbour himself in Satan at whose approach thou hast so trembled shall then be subdued under thy feet he that hath so oft bid thee bow down that he might go over thy soule and trample upon all thy glory shall now have his neck laid to be trodden on by thee Were there nothing else to be expected as the fruits of our watching and praying weeping mourning severe duties of mortification and self-denial with whatever else our Christian warfare puts us upon but this our labour sure would not be in vain in the Lord. Yea blessed watching and praying happy tears and wounds we meet with in this war may they out at last end in a full and eternal victory over sin and Satan Bondage is one of the worst of evils The baser an enemy is the more abhorred by noble spirits Saul feared to fail into the hands of the uncircumcised Philistines and to be abused by their scornes and reproaches more then a bloody death Who baser then Satan what viler tyrant then sin Glorious then will the day be wherein we shall praise God for delivering us out of the hands of all our sins and from the hand of Satan But dismal to you sinners who at the same time wherein you shall see the Saints stand with crowns of victory on their heads must like fettered captives be dragg'd to hells dungeon there to have your eare bored unto an eternal bondage under your lusts And what more miserable sentence can God himself passe upon you Here sin is pleasure there it will be your torment Here a sweet bit and goes down glib but there it will stick in your throats Here you have suitable provision to entertain your lusts withal Palaces for pride to dwell and strut her self in Delicious fare for your wanton palates houses and lands with coffers of silver and gold for your covetous hearts by their self-pleasing thoughts to sit brooding upon but you will finde none of these there hell is a barren place nothing grows in that land of darknesse to solace and recreate the sinners minds You shal have your lusts but want the food they long for O what a torment must
their infernal Father in the world this shews sin is mighty in them indeed Many a man though so cruel to his own soul as to be drunk or sweare yet will not like this in a childe or servant what are they then but devils incarnate who teach their children the devils Catechisme to sweare and lie drink and drab If you meet such be not afraid to call them as Paul did Elymas when he would have perverted the Deputy children of the devil full of all subtilty and mischief and enemies of all righteousnesse O do you not know what you do when you tempt I 'le tell you you do that which you cannot undo by your own repentance thou poisonest one with errour initiatest another in the devils School Alehouse I mean but afterwards may be thou seest thy mistake and recantest thy errour thy folly and givest over thy drunken trade art thou sure now to rectifie and convert them with thy selfe alas poor creatures this is out of thy power they may be will say as he though he did it upon a better account that was solicited to turne back to popery by him who had before perswaded him to renounce the same You have given me one turn but shall not give me another And what a grief to thy spirit will it be to see these going to hell on thy errand and thou not able to call them back thou mayest cry out as Lamâ—ch I have slaine a man to my wounding and a young man to my hurt Nay when thou art asleep in thy grave he whom thou seducedst may have drawn in others and thy name may be quoted to commend the opinion and practice to others by which as it is said though in another sense Abel being dead yet speaks thou mayest though dead sinne in those that are alive generation after generation A little spark kindled by the errour of one hath cost the pains of many ages to quench it and when thought to be out hath broke forth again Thirdly They are not barely wicked but maliciously wicked The Devill hath his name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to denote his spightfull nature his desire to vex and mischief others When he drawes souls to sinne it is not because he tastes any sweetnesse or findes any profit therein he hath too much light to have any joy or peace in sin he knows his doome and trembles at the thought of it and yet his spightful nature makes him vehemently desire and uncessantly endeavour the damnation of souls As you shall see a mad dogge run after a flock of sheep kill one then another and when dead not able to eate of their flesh but kills to kill so Satan is carried out with a boundlesse rage against man especially the Saints he would not if he could leave one of Christs flock alive such is the height of his malice against God whom he hates with a perfect hatred and because he cannot reach him with a direct blow therefore he strikes him at second hand through his Saints that wicked arme which reacheth not to God is extended against these excellent on the earth well knowing the life of God is in a manner bound up in theirs God cannot outlive his honour and his honour speeds as his mercy is exalted or depressed this being the attribute God meanes to honour in their salvation so highly and therefore maligned above the rest by Satan And this is the worst that can be said of these wicked spirits that they maliciously spite God and in God the glory of his mercy Vse 1 First this may help us to conceive more fully what the desperate wickednesse of mans nature is which is so hard to be known because it can never be seen at once it being a fountain whose immensity consists not in the streame of actual sinne that is visible and may seem little but in the spring that uncessantly feeds this but here is a glasse that will give us the shape of our hearts truly like themselves Seest thou the monstrous pitch and height of wickednesse that is in the devil all this there is in the heart of every man there is no lesse wickednesse potentially in the tamest sinner on earth then in the devils themselves and that one day thou whoever thou art wilt shew to purpose if God prevent thee not by his renewing grace thou art not yet fledg'd thy wings are not grown to make thee a flying Dragon but thou art of the same brood the seed of this serpent is in thee and the devil begets a child like himselfe thou yet standest in a soile not so proper for the ripening of sinne which will not come to its fulnesse till transplanted unto hell Thou who art here so maidenly and modest as to blush at some sinnes out of shame and forbear the acting of others out of fear when there thou shalt see thy case as desperate as the devil doth his then thou wilt spit out thy blasphemies with which thy nature is stuft with the same malice that he doth The Indians have a conceit that when they die they shall be transform'd into the deformed likenesse of the devil therefore in their language they have the same word for a dead man and the devil sinne makes the wicked like him before they come there but indeed they will come to their countenance more fully there when those flames shall wash off that paint which here hides their complexion The Saints in heaven shall be like the Angels in their alacrity love and constancy to serve God and the damned like the devils in sinne as well as punishment This one consideration might be of excellent use to unbottome a sinner and abase him so as never to have high thought of himself It is easie to runne down a person whose life is wicked and convince him of the evil of his actions and make him confesse what he doth is evil but here is the thicket we lose him in he will say 't is true I am overseen I do what I should not God forgive me but my heart is good Thy heart good sinner and so is the devils his nature is wicked and thine as bad as his These pimples in thy face shew the heat of thy corrupt nature within and without Gospel-physick the blood of Christ applied to thee thou wilt die a Leper none but Christ can give thee a new heart till which thou wilt every day grow worse and worse Sin is an hereditary disease that encreaseth with age A young sinner will be an old devil Vse 2 Again it would be of use to the Saints especially those in whom God by his timely call forestall'd the devils market as sometimes the Spirit of God takes sin in its quarters before it comes into the field in the sinnes of youth now such a one finding not those daring sinnes committed by him that others have been left unto may possibly not be so affected with his own sinne or Gods mercy O let such a one behold here